Hey guys, this is my first chapter aka the Prologue. I don't own Prince of Tennis, it belongs to Takeshi Konomi-sensei. My OC's belong to me, I hope you enjoy the story!
HOKKAI ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
"I can't see where the ball went," a young girl, age of 7 with light pink hair in two pig-tails pouts as she tries to see through the next-door neighbours garden using a stool. Regardless of the efforts – she could not see for she was too short.
"What's the matter?" another young voice asks. The pink haired girl turns around to see a boy with light blonde hair and brilliant golden orbs standing there, his head cocked to the side in confusion.
"Oh well I was trying to see…where my ball went," the little girl replies back, embarrassed as she steps down from her stool.
"It's my back garden, I can get it for you if you like," the boy replies and the girl beams, she nods enthusiastically. The boy goes around the wall, the girl stays but then he pops his head around, gesturing for her to follow so she does. He leads her inside, apologising for the mess as they are new to the area.
"Oh, Izumi, who is this?" A much older women, in her late 30's asks – her light blonde hair like the boys asks.
"Ah, I'm sorry for intruding I lost my ball at your garden and your uhm, son here is trying to help…me!" The girl stutters, blushing furiously as she fiddles with her sundress, "Oh I forgot to introduce myself I'm uhm, M-Matsumoto Inori!" Inori bows, the older women giggles.
"No need to be so scared my dear, it's okay – Izumi are you not going to offer her a drink?" the women speaks and the boy, Izumi looks to the girl and nods, leading her to the kitchen he gives the girl a glass of water.
"I'll get your ball, wait here," Izumi says as he runs to the back garden, Inori is left standing there awkwardly.
"We're new here, I hope you can help my daughter settle in her new school," the women says and Inori tilts her head.
"Eh? Really, what's her name?" Inori asks, not realising that the women who she was on about was Izumi.
"Izumi, we're the Kanagawa's, I'm Shizuka and my daughter over there is Izumi," Shizuka smiles, brightly and Inori coughs on her drink.
"Eh?! Izumi-kun is a…GIRL?" Shizuka laughs as she sees her daughters face with confusion.
"Yes, I'm a girl," Izumi says, holding the ball in her hands and Inori falls to her knees, she was astonished that she assumed gender. She apologized furiously at her assumptions and Izumi smiles.
"It's ok, I get it a lot. I look like a boy, it's OK," Izumi hands the ball over, smiling. Inori blushes at the smile, unknown to the both of them – a friendship will begin to blossom as the years come by.
As the new year starts at Hokkai Elementary School, Inori and Izumi both have the same homeroom and classes – their friendship blossoming as the day goes by. People throughout the class assumed Izumi was a boy, the two friends never corrected anyone because it got too tiresome when even they corrected them, they'd forget about it the next day. During lunch times, they'd eat at the canteen but not without a bit of bullying on the boys side.
"Why is someone like you with foreign blood in our school? Are you like, a cross-dresser?" One boy laughs, pointing at Izumi.
"Yeah, my dad told me that cross-dressers are boys dressing up as girls!" Another boy agrees, laughing more and Inori frowns, scowling at them she stands up but Izumi beats her to it.
"I'd appreciate it if you lower your tone, people are eating and it's rude to be shouting in the canteen to begin with," Izumi speaks, her voice level and equal to that of an adult – scaring the other boys as they cower away. She was much taller than all of them, and that scared them more as they ran away. Izumi sighs as she sits back down, Inori pats her shoulders.
"One day, when we enter Junior high and High school – they wont even think that you're a boy, trust me," Inori tries to encourage Izumi, and she just smiles weakly. Izumi knows that she's different to most girls, she was much taller, her build was a little bit different, but she knew she had girly traits – it was just not as prominent. As the school day finishes, they both head home together as they live on the same street. Upon bidding good-bye, Izumi walks in her house – the very house she used to love, now she hates. Unknown to Inori – the Kanagawa household isn't the best of places as Izumi's parents always fight.
"Darling, you're never home! You don't even help around the house anymore, what is wrong with you?" Shizuka retorts, pleading for answers as her husband, Masa stands in the kitchen, undoing his tie from the hard days at work.
"Don't call me darling, you know I hate it when you use that, I told you several times. There is nothing wrong with me, I'm busy with work and it's been a pain in the ass lately because we had to move – being a manager at a big company isn't easy," Masa replies, his voice slightly cracking from the annoyance.
"It doesn't answer to the fact you are NEVER home, on time. It started not long after we moved here – you can't fool me – why did we move here?" Shizuka questions more, something in her eyes is saying that Masa wasn't being honest.
"Mama… papa I'm home," Izumi speaks, coming through the door – unknown to the two she heard everything but they both smile.
"Oh welcome home sweetie, food is ready for you at the table, come let's eat," Shizuka instantly changes her voice to something sweet, Izumi hated when her parents fought but she keeps playing that she doesn't know anything.
"How was school, kid?" Masa asks, smiling as he sits down, patting the seat next to him. Izumi sits down, nodding.
"I got straight As on my mock test again," Izumi says, bringing out her papers and reports and Shizuka's eyes lit up in genuine, smiling at her daughter. Masa ruffles his daughter's hair, proud of the child they brought up.
"I'm proud of you kid, go on eat – you deserve it," Masa says, and Izumi could only nod, no words had been exchanged about the argument – it was only about Izumi.
The following day, after school, Izumi walked home with Inori as usual, club activities were cancelled so they got home early but this time, Izumi felt something was wrong. Another car is parked outside, it wasn't Shizuka's, but Masa's car was there.
"Are you okay, Izumi?" Inori asks, her face confused, and Izumi could only nod. She didn't want Inori to know, but she has a bad feeling about that car. Izumi tells Inori to go home, before Inori could protest and question more – Izumi heads towards her house, the door was unlocked. It was unusual for it to be unlocked, her mama would always lock it. She opens the door to see green pairs of high heeled shoes, not her mama's for sure as she hates the colour green. Izumi feels her palms sweat, if she was correct – another woman is in the house whilst her mama is at work – she won't be back until later.
"Papa?" Izumi calls, it was silence, but she heard a creak coming from the bedroom and a few muffled sounds. She begins to walk in, but she felt someone follow her, she turns around and she sees Inori.
"Sorry, I was worried… I hope you don't mind," Inori says sheepishly, grinning and Izumi sighs, then shrugs. With a gentle knock at her parent's room, the muffled sounds and creaking got a bit louder than silence.
"Papa?" Izumi asks, she turns the door handle apologizing for intruding, Izumi thought her papa was in pain but in reality, it wasn't that – her papa was cheating on mama.
"Izumi!" Masa shouts, shocked to see his daughter early and a shocked Inori behind her. The women gets of Masa in a hurry, covering herself and flushed at the embarrassment.
"You didn't tell me you had a daughter…" the women whispers, glaring at the two kids at the door.
"Papa…what, are you doing?" Izumi asks, shocked – her voice trembling and Inori cowers behind the taller girl. The woman scrambles for her clothes in a hurry and as she dresses, Masa does the same as he ushers the two kids outside. On all the commotion, Shizuka comes home and drops all her groceries – it seems her work finished early – as a nurse she was always busy, but she got sent home for being distracted at work. Shizuka sees the women, and her face went red from anger.
"Masa, what is this? Don't tell me you were with this woman, our daughter and her friend seeing this? Do you know how embarrassing this is for me… for US?" Shizuka shouts, her eyes tearing up as she hugs the two kids, shielding them from the horror in front of them.
"You had a wife? You didn't tell me this either…oh my," the woman speaks, not at all sorry but rather maliciously as if she enjoys seeing the torment on Shizuka's face.
"Get out of my house!" Shizuka shouts, trembling and the woman leaves without another word, the car engine outside is heard.
"Inori, you can head on home. Izumi, please go upstairs to your room and put on music, I need a word with your father," Shizuka instructs the children to leave the room. Izumi sees Inori out the door.
"I'm sorry…you had to see that," Izumi speaks quietly, and Inori hugs the other girl, tightly.
"I'm here for you, Izumi-chan," Inori says as she kisses the girl's cheek, then walks home. Izumi heads upstairs, feeling the intense aura and as soon as she shuts her room door, the fighting begins. She puts her headphones on, listening to the volleyball podcast. She was very much in love with volleyball, practice got cancelled and she wonders if this is the world punishing her for loving a sport so much.