Tennis no Ouji-sama © Konomi Takeshi, Shuheisha, Inc.
- Act LIII -
[The Night Before GSO]
Seeing how the Seigaku brats were getting in their way of conquering Keigo's queen, Oshitari Yūshi decided to stick his nose where it didn't belong. After the practice, he began to watch Tezuka Hikari's daily activity, disguised as an old man reading a newspaper across the street. Of course, he had made two tiny holes in the paper to make his job easier.
Despite having Keigo's security guarding her, the Seigaku brats still occasionally fetched Hikawi when her brother couldn't. She seemed to be especially close with Momoshiro Takeshi and Echizen Ryoma, spending more time with them than the others. Using them to get closer to her was out of the question.
Which was why his eyes fell on a petite girl who seemed to be her best friend.
"Kanamori Kotoha…" He charmed her name out of a girl; thanks to the glasses that made Oshitari Yūshi the man he was.
However, it came with another problem.
The black-haired girl didn't seem like someone who would easily fall for his charm.
Yūshi observed her interactions with both the Seigaku brats and Tezuka Kunimitsu—seeing how she treated them normally, unlike the other girls at school. To begin his investigation, he asked his teammates for their opinions on her.
"Uhm, she looks hard to talk to?" said Chōtaro.
"Gloomy," said Ryō.
"Scary," said Haginosuke.
"Uhm… I don't know?" said Jirō.
"I feel like she could murder me," said Gakuto.
They literally represent what was in his mind. But the last comment got his guard down.
"She's interesting."
Yūshi couldn't help but whip his head towards Wakashi, as did the rest of his teammates. "What's this? Hiyoshi, is she your type?"
"I'm just sensing the wave that swirls around her resonance with mine," Wakashi said with a smirk enough to make children cry in fear.
"Then can you help me and talk to her?"
"Isn't that supposed to be your area of expertise, Oshitari-senpai?"
"It is, but terms and conditions applied." Yūshi adjusted his glasses with his middle finger. "There are types I couldn't approach and this girl seemed to be one of them. There has to be the chemistry, you know?"
"But why do we need her for our operation, Yūshi? Can't we just proceed on our own?" Gakuto asked.
"Dummy. We need an insider to ensure the operation's success, and that person has to be close to Hikari-chan."
"Are you that close already to call her by her given name?" Ryō remarked.
"It's hard not to think of her brother when using her surname. I don't want to make it look like we want to get Tezuka and Atobe together." They all made disgusted faces while Chōtaro sheepishly laughed.
"Does Hikari-san have another friend who can cooperate with us?" Chōtaro asked.
"It seems her closeness with her brother and Seigaku brats has made her picky about who's in her social circle," Yūshi said. "Anyway, Kanamori Kotoha is our only option now. Let's tail her first to study her."
After Hikari was fetched by her brother, Kotoha bid her farewell to her and sauntered off in the opposite direction. Her first stop was a bookstore, where she browsed the recipe books aisle, particularly the ones on cupcakes. She then went to an ice cream shop and bought a cone of creamy vanilla ice cream.
"Well, doesn't she look ordinary enough?" Gakuto said as they followed her.
"Yeah. She's just like any other girl. Maybe we're just overthinking about it. How lame!" Ryō shrugged. She made a turn towards the stairs leading to a temple.
"It's too early to say anything." They cautiously followed her into the temple. However, when they reached the top of the stairs, they couldn't find her anywhere. "W-where did she go?"
"We were just twenty steps away from her! How could we lose her?!"
"Finally, you show yourselves…"
At the same time Gakuto and Jirō shrieked, Yūshi turned around to see the girl perched in a tree, pointing an arrow at them. If the moment allowed him to, he wanted to ask how she managed to change into a white kimono from her school uniform in mere seconds.
"Don't even think about doing anything foolish. I never miss my target. One clumsy move, kiss this world goodbye…"
"W-wait! We mean no harm!" He raised both hands in surrender.
"Huh." Kotoha smirked. "I've heard that very same reasoning from countless boys like you. Stalking is a sin and I'm going to send you all to my master." She pulled the arrow tighter.
"We need your help!" Yūshi quickly said ("What did she mean by 'master', by the way?" asked Gakuto). "This is about your friend, Tezuka Hikari-chan."
"Hm? Hikari-chan?" No matter how much Yūshi wanted to scream at that moment, his mouth could only gape dumbly when the arrow swished past him and through Gakuto's hair. His poor red-haired friend trembled as several strands of his hair fell due to the impact. The rest were speechless.
"Ah, sorry." Kotoha scratched the back of her head.
"Sorry!? Are you crazy?! You almost killed me!" Gakuto shouted, pointing an accusing finger at her.
"I told you, I never miss. If it hit there, it was my aim," Kotoha calmly replied, resting her bow on her shoulder.
"Lie!"
"What do you want with Hikari-chan? If one of you is her ex—" she suddenly pulled another arrow and aimed it in their direction, "—then you might want to say your final words now."
"No, no! We're her ex's friends, trying to fix things between them! This is just a huge misunderstanding!" Chōtaro animatedly waved his hands.
"I'll give you three minutes to summarise what happened."
"Three minutes starts now!" Haginosuke said, clicking an invisible stopwatch.
Yūshi had to rack his brain for any information about the feud between Keigo and the Tezuka siblings, while the others only provided simple remarks and sound effects to support his story. They were very useful, indeed…
"Hmm… what a drama," was her simple remark after he finished talking.
"S-so you know now…" Yūshi adjusted his glasses. "Can you lower your bow?" Kotoha raised an eyebrow before finally lowering her bow. They all sighed in relief and fell to the ground.
"Why go this far to fix their relationship? This really has nothing to do with you." She put the bow on her shoulder as she crossed her leg over her ankle.
"W-why? Atobe-san truly loves her! She must know his feelings are sincere!" Chōtaro said.
"I've heard her side, and he deserved it. You don't know how much Tezuka-san means to her. No matter how sincere, you can't hurt someone important to the person you love!"
"It's for our sake, Kanamori-san. He's our captain and must do everything it takes for our team's sake!" Haginosuke said.
"And Atobe is trying to make things right! He wants Tezuka to get the best treatment for his injury, but to convince him, we need Hikari's help!" Ryō added. She glanced at the tip of her nails as if she didn't care. Yūshi sighed in desperation. Not only was this girl dangerous, but she was also hard to convince.
"We need your help so I can gekokujo my captain."
"H-Hiyoshi! What are you talking about?!" Chōtaro said.
"Isn't it obvious? The main reason I want to be involved in this operation is so I can gekokujo Atobe-buchō while he's busy with his girlfriend. He'll miss a lot of practice, and that's my chance to catch up with his skills."
"Hee? Finally, an honest man who only cares about his personal interest," Kotoha said with a smirk. "You're interesting. Unlike your boring bunch."
Why did he feel like someone had made that comment before?
Wakashi smirked knowingly. "If you understand, then come down here and cooperate with us. I want to finish this thing quickly."
"Don't use that tone to me or I'll curse you, bowl-head!"
Now that she mentioned it, he could never see Wakashi's hair the same way anymore. But rather than complaining about him being called 'bowl-head', it surprised him that Wakashi was actually…
"C-curse? You can curse?" he asked with such enthusiasm.
"Hm? Yeah, of course. I came here to do that." No one except Wakashi didn't step back when she showed the straw doll.
"C-can I see you doing it?! I always want to know how it's done!" Yūshi swore he had never seen Wakashi's eyes sparkle as much as they did at that moment; not even when he played tennis. "Please! I need to know how it's done!"
"Nope. What's in for me? I won't show you or cooperate with you." She turned away.
"T-then…" Wakashi opened his bag, holding something as if it took all his willpower to take it out before brandishing it towards the girl. Yūshi couldn't utter a word upon seeing the most eccentric doll he had ever seen. The doll was literally a silky fabric tied with a ribbon into a cross shape. Its eyes and mouth were etched with two small buttons and a bigger one with a colourful feather as its hair.
This time she saw sparkles in the girl's eyes. She reached towards the doll Wakashi was holding. "T-that's…"
"A Louisiana voodoo doll… I'll give it to you on two conditions. First, you allow me to observe any of your rituals and second, you cooperate with us for the gekokujo operation."
That wasn't even the name of the operation…
"I'm sold!" She jumped down from the tree and approached Wakashi without hesitation. "I accept your conditions! As long as you tell me more about the Louisiana voodoo."
"Hm. You're interesting indeed." When Wakashi handed the doll to her, despite the unsettling nature of the exchange, Yūshi couldn't help but notice the sparks and a dreamy bokeh effect in the background.
"There it is, the chemistry…" he muttered.
"Yeah. Strangely, I can see that too…" Gakuto said from his side.
"Hn. Whatever it is… good job, Wakashi!" Ryō said with a smirk.
The whole operation began when Haginosuke, whose father owned a carpentry company, was hired to help build stalls for the upcoming festival in St. Anne. They planned to sneak in as hired carpenters to create an opportunity for Keigo to meet his Cinderella.
"Your whole idea is making me wear this filthy costume?" Keigo held the uniform with his thumbs and forefingers, looking disgusted.
"What's this? Quit being snobbish and just wear it, Keigo. It's not like you never worn commoner's clothes before," Yūshi said as he put on the waist bag. "Don't say anything and act naturally."
"Uhm… what exactly are we doing at that school?" Chōtaro asked.
"We're just there for measurement," Yūshi said.
"Yep! Leave that to me." Haginosuke winked and gave a thumbs-up.
Though he had been to the school before, Yūshi had to admit that St. Anne was one of the most beautiful buildings in their area. The building adopted the 1800s European style and some parts were decorated by stunning glass works.
As they walked to their destination, they kept Keigo in the middle to prevent him from being recognized. Despite most of his face being covered, Keigo's aura was too striking to conceal, drawing attention even when he did nothing, a quality Yūshi envied.
"Hiyoshi. Any words from Kanamori?"
"Hm… She said that Tezuka Hikari is crying and locked herself in the restroom. She's still persuade her to come out."
"Why is she—"
"Must be because of you. What else." Keigo looked down to the floor. "But that's why you're here, right?"
Keigo didn't answer, gripping the strap of the bag he carried with him. There wasn't even a second when Yūshi looked away when a girl suddenly stood right behind Keigo, glancing at him with expectant eyes.
"Are you Atobe Keigo-sama?"
Beads of sweat were formed at the back of his neck. "N-no. We're carpenters, Ojō-san…" Yūshi walked in between them to block Keigo from her.
"Ah, really? How disappointing… You're looking like him from behind." Though she had walked away, she kept glancing over her shoulder, which was bad news.
"This is bad. They're really sharp. We should be more discreet," Yūshi whispered to them. "We really don't want to execute plan B, right?" They touched the bill of their caps in unison.
However, Yūshi didn't expect that one of the girls to grab Keigo's mask, letting it fall in a slow motion, churning the content of his stomach. "It's Atobe-sama!" Everything went so slow at that moment, so slow that the girl's voice turning eerie like in a horror movie.
"Plan B!" Yūshi shouted. "I'm sorry, Shishido!" Ryō's face was full of determination and acceptance as he opened his mask, revealing himself.
"It's Shishido-sama! He's here too!"
"This is lame… but come to me, hungry girls!" Ryō shouted before he was swarmed by the 'female zombies'.
"S-Shishido-san! We will never forget your sacrifice!" Chōtaro dramatically said with tears in his eyes as they pulled Keigo away to prevent him from being mobbed. They headed to the building where Gakuto had prepared to lower the emergency stairs for Keigo's escape.
"Damn! How did they find out?!" Gakuto said, keeping the stairs steady as Keigo climbed.
"My irresistible charm, of course," Keigo said as he flicked his bangs.
"This isn't the right time for that, is it?" Yūshi said as he followed behind Keigo. "Ōtori, Jirō! You know what to do from here on!"
"Roger!" They departed to block the swarming girls searching for Keigo. Gakuto led them to the shortcut he discovered before the operation began.
"There, you climb these stairs down and turn right. It's the popular Mother Mary statue garden," Gakuto instructed Keigo.
"Kanamori said that Tezuka Hikari has gone to the spot," Wakashi informed them.
"Good. Go and claim your queen, Atobe. We will take care of the rest."
Keigo climbed down the stairs and glanced up at all of them. "Thank you for going this far for me. I appreciate this."
"What's this? It's unlike you to thank us like this." They were both smirking at one another.
"Because you chose to make this matter your own when you didn't have to. Anyway, whatever the outcome, I'll treat you for your hard work." He waved once before running towards the lady of his dreams.
"Dummy. We're only doing what you'd do if you were in our shoes," Yūshi muttered with a smirk. Because after all the things Keigo had done for the team, even for each member personally, both Yūshi and his teammates agreed on one thing…
Their king had suffered enough already.
If finding the glass slipper owner was the only thing he wanted in his life…
Then they had to be the ones to help their king find the queen who owned it.
AN: I can't believe we're only two chapters away from the ending. So much has happened since I first came up with the idea to write this story. This fanfic is my second one, and it's been one of the driving forces behind my dream of becoming a real author. Though I still mada mada da ne, writing these stories has helped me grow both as an author and as a person.
I want to thank everyone who patiently waited for this fic to be updated and stick with me until the end! You guys rock!
Favorite, follow, and most importantly—review are gold for me! As I mentioned in the previous chapter, the story is also posted on Wattpad. Since the site allows me to post videos and images, I might be able to pamper your eyes there. Check my account in ReikaNanatsuki!
Thank you for reading and have a nice day!