Prince Of Tennis Fan Fiction ❯ ◄:� S A K U N O Chronicles �:► ❯ Ann & Ibu Shinji of Fudomine ( Chapter 2 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Italicized parts are either diary entries, sound effects or thoughts. Beware: This fic may induce boredom. Any and all flames will be laughed at with no hesitation.

â™¥ D A L A W A â™¥

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Dear Diary,

The Tennis Club had a Ranking Tournament today. A ranking tournament is held at Seigaku to determine who the Regulars will be. There are four blocks, and the top two ranking people on each block becomes a Regular. Normally, freshmen aren't allowed to try out for the Ranking Tournament until after the summer, but Ryoma-kun got to participate under the D Block today.

It seems like I'm not the only one who has been drawn to the charisma that Ryoma-kun has. Even the senpai-tachi seemed very interested in him, and even watched his games against Kaidoh-senpai and Inui-senpai. I had no doubt that he would at all, even against Inui-senpai's scary Data Tennis.

Shiba-san and her Inoue-senpai came to watch the ranking today. It was kind of embarrassing how Tomo-chan was cheering Ryoma-kun on. She has a really loud voice and she puts her lungs to good use when she wants to. I wish I could be like her though. For once, I wish I could cheer for Ryoma-kun as hard as Tomo-chan does sometimes. All my voice does when I want to cheer is squeak at the most.

He gave me some advice today. I was told that I bend my legs too much, I shouldn't flip my wrist the way I usually do it, my shoulders are open too wide… and my hair is too long? I don't know if he was serious about that last advice… I'm not sure if my long hair would really affect the way I play… would it?

Ryoma found himself forgetting to bring the notebook back to school with him on Monday, promising himself to remember tomorrow. He hit the snooze button on his alarm clock one too many times and nobody cared to wake him up. If you were to point any fingers as to why the little notebook wasn't reunited with its owner by then, you could blame his father.

The girl looked frazzled that day, he observed indifferently from beneath his white cap. He could hear the banshee try to comfort her, snippets of their conversation floating over to him.

“Don't worry, I'm sure we'll find it.” Osakada told Ryuzaki.

“It can't have gone that far, maybe someone found it already.” He heard them saying after searching the school grounds for a few minutes.

Osakada was a lot calmer and more in control than Ryuzaki in this situation. “For all you know, it might be in the Lost and Found, ne?” It wasn't her diary, after all.

“Are you sure you didn't just misplace it in your house somewhere?” She sounded a little desperate by then.

When lunchtime rolled around, the loud girl was literally pulling her hair out in frustration. “When was the last time you remember having it? Where else could you have gone? We retraced all your steps! Five times!”

Sakuno would let out an occasional sniffle or two, looking like it was taking all of her energy to keep from bursting into tears. Her reddish-brown eyes were more red than brown, and they were puffy.

Ryoma felt bad, and felt compelled to say something, but he thought it best to just tell her he had it when he finally handed it back to her. He didn't like looking at her distressed face.

Dear Diary,

Ryoma-kun rejected my bento today. I worked so hard to make it for him, and I felt like someone ran a knife through me when he replied “mada mada dane” when I asked him how he liked it. I know I'm not much of a good cook, even though my family assures me otherwise - but they're my family and they're obliged to compliment my cooking, so I don't think they count, but it broke my heart hearing those words from Ryoma-kun himself. He was just being honest, I guess, so I can't really blame him for anything.

Tomo-chan and Horio-kun assured me that Ryoma-kun surely didn't mean to say that about my bento, but I know Ryoma-kun wouldn't want to lie to anyone, even if it is to spare their feelings.

On Tuesday, Ryuzaki was looking a little worse. Ryoma's guilt was eating him up from the inside by then, and he found himself alternating between tuning out their conversations and listening to them intently. So far, no one suspected anybody of anything, least of all him, of taking the little notebook.

As far as he could tell, Ryuzaki was under the impression that she misplaced it, and Ryoma was relieved that she didn't seem to remember leaving it under his tree in her haste last Friday.

They happened to sit on adjacent tables in the cafeteria during lunch that day, and the Freshmen Trio couldn't help but notice the visibly distressed girl. Since no one expected any type of reaction from him, he remained impassive as ever while the trio curiously inquired if there was any problem.

“She lost something very important,” Osakada explained as the boys hovered.

Horio's unibrow quibbled. “We can help you find it, if you allow us.” He volunteered. Katsuo and Kachiro nodded their assent. “Right, Echizen?”

“Ossu.” Echizen said, not meeting anyone's eye while he sipped his milk.

“Arigatou, minna.” Sakuno murmured gratefully, hands red from wringing them together.

“Yosh! With more people looking, I'm sure we'll find it in no time!” Piped Sakuno's loud friend, a determined look on her face, right fist clenched in determination. “It's a diary. It's pink and it's about this big” Osakada gave them an approximate measurement using her fingers, “and this thick. She lost it around this weekend - last Friday to be exact.”

“Where was the last place that you remember seeing it?” Kachiro asked.

“Did you try the Lost and Found?” Horio said at the same time.

“I remember bringing it to school - I always bring it with me,” Sakuno blushed and wrung her hands together more “I can never tell when I feel like writing nor have the time to, so I thought it would be all right.”

Horio nodded knowingly. “Like Inui-senpai and his data book!” He proclaimed, scratching his chin thoughtfully. “Maybe someone picked it up. I'm sure they're going to return it once they find out who owns it.”

“But it's been several days after a weekend now -“ Ryoma slightly stiffened, “if someone found it, they would have returned it by now.” Osakada huffed. They've been looking for it ALL over every place Sakuno frequented. Even Tachibana Ann was recruited for the search, since Sakuno also spent time hanging out with her and might have lost the diary while with the girl.

Tomoka was kind of bothered with Sakuno's friendship with the other girl at first. Because of her brothers, she couldn't spend as much free time with her bestfriend as much as she wanted to. When Sakuno had first told her about her friendship with the girl from Fudomine, Tomoka had been slightly jealous. She felt as if Sakuno was replacing her with someone who probably had more things in common with her, and she wanted to go march right up to Fudomine and tell the girl off. No one was going to steal her bestfriend away right from under her nose while she was busy taking care of her brothers.

Sakuno was her bestfriend, not Ann's. She even adapted to being an avid tennis fan because of Sakuno. She went to the Seigaku Tennis Club's matches whenever she could, and even became the president for Ryoma-sama's fanclub because she knew that her shy bestfriend was too timid to do it on her own. If she didn't do it, someone else was going to come and steal Ryoma-sama right from under her and she didn't want that to happen. Tomoka decided that she was going to protect Sakuno's blooming love.

She knew the circumstances of how the two girls met. Sakuno attracted trouble like honey to bees and had accidentally stepped on some jerk's new sneakers. Ann came to the rescue but both girls ended up getting rescued by Momo-senpai anyway. Their paths met again when Sakuno had been late and lost on her way to a Seigaku match. She ended up colliding violently with a guy who was a bigger jerk than the last time, causing his drink to spill all over himself. Sakuno was being shaken like a rag doll, despite numerous apologies on her part, before Ann came.

After failed attempts to make the guy listen to reason, Ann had resorted to physically extracting a visibly shaken Sakuno from the guy's grip, which caused it to turn into a big scuffle involving the two girls and a group of about six to seven boys who were twice their size and had absolutely no respect for women. The girls ended up sporting cut lips, several bruises and matching black eyes before the Fudomine tennis team came looking for their detained captain's little sister and ended up beating the snot out of the guys for what they did to the girls.

Sakuno even managed to twist her right ankle, causing Coach Ryuzaki Sumire to almost have a relapse when Tachibana Kippei came to the Seigaku match, a bruised and battered Sakuno in his arms.

Inui noted on his data book that day that the people most affected at the sight of a beaten and bruised Sakuno as much as their beloved coach was were Fuji, Tezuka, Oishi (understandably) and if you had great observation skills like him - even Echizen. Although he didn't show it much on the outside, or on his facial expressions since he was probably training to become as good as Tezuka in masking his emotions, Echizen's behavior was equal to that of someone who was about to raze a village. His opponent didn't stand a chance and Echizen's match ended after fifteen minutes.

Inui made out with a boat load of data that day, enough to fill a whole notebook or three.

But still, it didn't mean that just because Ann defended Sakuno and vice versa that Ann was going to be Sakuno's new bestfriend for life, replacing her, Osakada Tomoka, president of Ryoma-sama's fanclub. The title of being Sakuno's bestfriend rightfully belonged to her, and Ann had better watch out because she was very experienced in tussling. She was an expert tussler and has never lost to even her brothers tag-teaming her.

Still, if Ann was as concerned about Sakuno as she was, she probably wasn't THAT bad… just as long as she didn't steal her bestfriend away from her, that is.

“Maybe the person who found it had other things to do… or he forgot.” Kachiro offered.

“Or maybe he read it, found it interesting and - uh, I mean… um… no, I didn't mean to say that, Ryuzaki. I was just kidding!” Horio paled and even Echizen shot him a glare, since he managed to distress the girl even more. “It was a joke!” He said, waving his hands in front of him, sweat gathering at the back of his neck.

“Well it was a very tasteless joke!” Osakada screamed right into his face, looking like she wanted to pummel him to the ground before getting up, turning around and dragging an upset Sakuno behind her, leaving the boys to turn to Horio madly.

“You should apologize to Ryuzaki,” Kachiro demanded, crossing his arms in front of him. He was normally calm and collected, but he had a deep sense of doing what was right. Upsetting a girl was definitely not right. Kachiro nodded aggressively beside him as they rounded in on Horio.

“I will, I will! I didn't mean it, I really didn't! Echizen, you believe me, don't you?”

“Mada mada dane,” Ryoma replied as he tipped his hat and got up.

Tomorrow. Tomorrow he would give the notebook back to her and everything would be fine.

Dear Diary,

Ryoma-kun was injured in a Singles match today. I was really worried about him, scared even, but he didn't even let his injury hinder his game. It makes me admire the strength of his character more. He kind of reminds me of the buchou at times. They both have the same strong will and determination. I think that boy has no fear. No fear at all.

By the time Wednesday rolled by, he was making up excuses as to why he shouldn't just walk up to her and hand her the diary back. It wasn't like he was scared of being discovered or afraid of being found out that he accidentally took it home with him and have read it. It wasn't like that at all.

He just didn't want anyone to misunderstand his intentions, that's all.

One, he had Monday and Tuesday to give it back to her but he didn't. People might think that he deliberately kept it from the girl or something, or worse - that he read it. Yes, he did read it, but it was unintentional at first. The next time it happened, he didn't have anything else to do, and he made sure to read only the entries that somehow involved him, which, in his defense, were most of them. He was entitled to read anything that concerned him, wasn't he?

Two, he really didn't want to explain how he ended up with the thing. He was going to have to explain and reveal his hiding place, and he wasn't about to let that happen. The purpose of having a secret spot would be all for nothing if he was to reveal it. Also, he didn't want to look like he was deliberately spying on her or anything like that. She went to his secret spot, not the other way around. It wasn't his fault that she left the notebook there.

He had to somehow find a way to return it to her without her knowing, and that's why the diary was still in his possession, safely tucked away under his mattress at home.

Dear Diary,

Some people might say that Ryoma-kun has an attitude, and he looks like he doesn't care about anything at all, but I believe, deep down, that Ryoma-kun is just one of those strong, silent-type people. When they speak, you should listen and heed their advice. They're deep thinkers and come up with the best ideas.

On Thursday, he thought of a brilliant idea. If he was going to secretly return the thing, he could stealthily sneak it into her shoe locker. Genius! Who said that Seigaku only had one tensai in their Tennis Club?

Now, all he had to do was find out which locker was hers and he would be able to return it to her.

She was still distressed over the loss of her diary, but she didn't look as visibly upset anymore. The unhealthy redness and puffiness in her eyes were gone as well.

He had to return that diary somehow, before he had that little voice in his head doing little commentaries about snippets of Ryuzaki's diary entries.

He would probably fail as a shinobi. Stealth tactics looked easier on television, actually.

Not that he brought the diary with him to school to put into her locker discreetly, because he didn't want to be caught with the evidence until he could make sure that he would be able to dispose of it quickly, but it felt like everywhere he went, there was always someone on the lookout. Walls have eyes and ears, people were always watching.

“It's been over a week already and no one's returned it yet.” Oishi heard Horio telling the other two freshmen as he walked into the club house to change.

Echizen and Kaidoh were sitting on the benches inside, changing and getting their gear ready as well.

“They still haven't found it?” Kachiro shook his head in disbelief. “I'm starting to think that maybe it's been thrown out by now.” His shoulders drooped sadly.

Katsuo looked glum next to him as well.

Curious and concerned at their low spirits, Oishi turned to the Freshmen Trio. “Found what?” He inquired as he got his own gear ready.

Horio stepped up, “Ryuzaki lost her data book.”

“Ryuzaki-chan has a data book?” Inui asked as he stepped into the club house, beating Oishi from inquiring about it. He quirked a brow, puzzled as to what she needed it for.

Dear Diary,

Someday, I think that I would like to try one of Inui-senpai's vegetable juices. If it really did help improve one's tennis skills, then I would have to drink buckets of them to help mine. If they're not THAT awful-tasting, I just might… Now, if only I had the courage to approach Inui-senpai and ask him for it…

“It's called a `diary', not a `data book', Horio-kun.” Kachiro corrected then turned to his senpai.

The Seigaku Data Man whipped up his own data book and started to take down notes. “Ii data.”

The vice-captain ignored the man scribbling away in the background. “Does she remember where she saw it last?” Oishi asked, unaware that that was probably the first thing everybody asked when they found out about the lost diary.

“Ryuzaki lost her diary last Friday. She doesn't remember where she saw it last, but it could have been between her house and here.” Horio told his fukubuchou.

“I'm sure someone saw it and would probably give it back any day now,” Oishi said as he zipped up his jacket.

“But that was last week. LAST WEEK, senpai!” The normally timid boy's rose a pitch, looking very distressed that it's been a week since the disappearance of Sakuno's diary.

Oishi patted Kachiro's head reassuringly. “Maybe the person who found it had to track down who the owner was, that's why it took him all this time.”

“Or maybe whoever picked it up already knows who the owner is but refuses to give it back because he or she's reading Ryuzaki's diary!” Horio exclaimed, mortified at the thought.

A tingle went up and down Echizen's spine at Horio's words but he remained to look unaffected on the outside.

“That's not a very good thing to do,” Kachiro frowned, not liking the possibility.

Kaidoh hissed in agreement.

On Monday, yes, that was it. He was going to return her diary to her on Monday next week for sure.

“Are you sure none of you guys found it, took it and is now keeping it as some kind of sick, twisted prank?” Tachibana Kippei's little sister, Ann, demanded with a stern look, arms akimbo. “Because this isn't funny. It's distressing Sakuno greatly and you know that if Sakuno is distressed then so am I.” She scowled fiercely, making sure that they knew she wasn't kidding.

They were in the public tennis courts, their usual hangout after class hours. The members of the Fudomine tennis team were obediently standing in a straight line, with Ann pacing in front of them. Sakuno stood at one side, facing the boys, behind Ann, wringing her hands.

Sakuno didn't think that anyone she knew would do that, and even told Ann-chan that, but the girl had been emphatic, seemingly bordering on obsessed when it came to finding her lost journal.

“Anou,” Sakuno interrupted, taking pity on the innocent boys being chastised, “I don't think any of them would do that, Ann-chan.” The team looked at the girl gratefully, they feared their captain's little sister just as much or probably more than they did their buchou. “You shouldn't be too hard on them,” she continued, “It's okay, I'll just get a new journal, no harm done.”

Several tall heads nodded vigorously in agreement, but no one dared to utter a word to the girl giving them a sermon just yet.

“Maybe she's PMS-ing,” Ishida Tetsu boldly dared to whisper quietly to Kamio Akira, earning them both ice cold glares from the fiery Ann.

“What was that?” Ann's eyebrow twitched dangerously, and the Hadoukyuu and rhythym experts took a precautionary step back. Before they could reply, she turned to her friend. “You can't just do that, Sakuno. Yes you can have a new journal, but you can't just give up on searching for that lost one. What if someone uses it to blackmail you?” Her raised voice reminded Sakuno of Tomo-chan.

“Anou, I don't think I wrote anything worth blackmailing for, Ann-chan.” Sakuno was embarrassed. For what it was worth, if anybody ever read her journal, the person would probably be bored to tears.

She was really worried about losing her journal before, she felt like a piece of her had gone missing after she lost it. She even cried countless tears, which, thinking back, she regretted now, because it might have been the cause of Tomo-chan and Ann-chan's apparent obsessing over finding the lost diary. It sort of turned out into a race into which girl could find the diary first.

She didn't want to inconvenience anyone any further, looking for something so insignificant, but by the time she had resigned herself to accepting the loss, Tomo-chan had already instilled the help of the Freshmen Trio, and Ann-chan had already recruited the Fudomine tennis team to their causes.

If she didn't stop this now, who knows what else these two girls were going to do.

At least her obaa-chan remained oblivious though. She didn't want to worry her grandmother needlessly, and it didn't need to involve any adults in finding something that was carelessly lost anyway.

“It's okay, really.” Sakuno tried again. “Just forget about it. I don't want to intrude upon the team's practice or anything.” She bit her lip, hoping her friend would listen to her. This was really embarrassing. Her lost diary wasn't that important.

“Of course it is, Sakuno-chan.” Ibu Shinji said in his usual monotone voice, as he stepped forward and placed a comforting hand on the girl's shoulder. “A person's diary contains their most secret thoughts. Thoughts that no other person should be privy to. It must be very distressing to lose something so precious. I know that I would be worried and very anxious if my diary was lost. Not that I have a diary, mind you, because I don't. I don't think that I could keep a diary, unlike girls seem to prefer to do. I'm not saying that only girls would keep diaries, or that diaries are beneath real men, because good tennis players like Seigaku's Inui keeps that data book of his, which can be considered as a manly diary if you think about it… What I meant to say was that I could imagine your pain in losing something important. I had a hamster once. Its name was Pete. Pete was a very good hamster, he liked to train on his exercise wheel everyday, and I would play with him everyday after I got home from school. One summer, I went to tennis camp, and when I came home, my kaa-san told me that Pete ran away. I was very distressed. I don't know what I did or what happened to make Pete ran away. Up until this day I still couldn't figure out what his reason was, even though I tried to analyze everything that I did. I made sure he had a clean cage. He had good food and fresh water everyday, I even went as far as to put sweet smelling grass-like air fresheners on his cage and a soft little hamster bed, just to make him comfortable. There was no reason why he should have run away at all; At least no reason that could have stemmed from me because as far as I know, I was a very good owner. It makes me wonder if kaa-san or tou-san did anything to make Pete run away from home. But then I stop myself from thinking that because they're my parents and a good son never thinks bad about his parents. I'm grateful to my parents, even if I don't agree with everything they think, say or tell me to do all the time. Maybe Pete went home to see his parents, or at least, that's what I would like to believe. Somewhere out there, Pete reconciled with his parents and probably has his own family by now.” He finished, looking very pleased with himself after taking a deep breath.

“…” was all the rest of the Fudomine Team could think or say, most of them wanting to interrupt Shinji from his endless ranting but held back because Shinji was talking to Ryuzaki-chan, which in turn prevented Ann from lecturing them. Their minds have turned to mush at around the mention of some kind of hamster named Pete-something-or-other whom they suspected didn't actually “run away” while Shinji was at tennis camp.

“Um…” Ann was a total loss for words, her righteous indignation long forgotten. She marveled at how Sakuno could stand there and take in everything that Shinji said without visibly shying away from it or running away as fast as she could in the other direction. As far as she knew, Sakuno was the only person who actually listened to the guy drone on and on and on and on about forever and a day.

Even she dreaded Shinji's inevitable Droning of Doom. Heck, even her onii-chan put a stop to Shinji's droning, since she suspected that it probably gave him headaches, but Sakuno… well, Sakuno stays there and actually listens to Shinji's senseless lectures. Ann thought that Sakuno possessed some kind of special ability to tune out sounds, thus enabling her to endure what most men would normally flee from, screaming like a little girl on the top of their lungs while heading towards the hills, but she was proved wrong when Sakuno would actually start to converse with the Fudomine Regular.

The other Regulars started teasing Shinji about finding his soulmate, but they stopped saying it so much after the hour-long lecturing was turned on them. Call it cowardly, but they thought it best if Shinji continued to devote most of his talking to anyone else but them.

“Arigatou, Shinji-kun.” Sakuno blushed prettily, touched at how Shinji tried to make her feel better. Shinji-kun was far different from all the other boys she was acquainted with. While she liked Tezuka-buchou and Ryoma-kun for their strong, silent attitudes, or Syusuke-nii's easy-going attitude, Shinji-kun's talkativeness was definitely unique. She couldn't help but admire Shinji-kun's speech capabilities, which she horribly lacked.

Seeing a window of opportunity, Ann seized it. “Yes, thank you Shinji. I'm sure that Sakuno will be glad to know that you and the others,” she swiveled commanding eyes at the rest of her brother's team, “will do your best in finding Sakuno's lost diary.” Before Shinji could lapse into another one of his lectures, Ann quickly cut him off. “Now, I shouldn't keep you any longer from your practice or playing street tennis, or whatever you want,” she hastened to add as she saw Shinji open his mouth again. Her brain was going to explode if she had to sit through one of his hour-long droning sessions again. “Sakuno, would you like to volley some balls with me while the boys go play?” She asked as the team retreated to the sanctuary of the courts.

“Sakuno-chan is having a tennis lesson with me,” Shinji said.

Ann blinked and started to back away. She might look tougher than Sakuno on the outside, even though she wasn't even half as good as Sakuno was at cooking, but Sakuno certainly had tougher guts than she had. “Ah, sou ka? Ja, I'll just… be right over there,” she pointed to the courts, where the others fled as fast as they could, “I'll go see what the others are up to, okay?” At Sakuno's nod, she picked up her things and fled as well. “Just go there when you're done, Sakuno.” She shouted over her shoulder, hurrying towards sanctuary.

Shinji looked thoughtful for a moment, as he too picked up his racket and guided Sakuno-chan to the nearest wall. “You know,” he said as he handed her a tennis ball to practice with, “if I didn't know any better, I would say that people start running away whenever I have something to say. Do you know why that would be, Sakuno-chan? You don't think people don't like me, do you? Because I can't think of anything bad I might have done to offend them. I've never cheated anybody out of anything, as far as I could remember, and I could remember a lot of things. I think my first memory was when I was three. My kaa-san took me to a festival and I got to try catching fish with the use of a paper net. I didn't catch any fish though, because the net would break once I tried lifting the fish, the water weakened its consistency. I was upset, so kaa-san tried to pacify me by buying me cotton candy. I love cotton candy, how about you Sakuno-chan?”

“Un, I love cotton candy, too. I love how it melts in my mouth.” Sakuno heartily agreed as she prepared to hit the ball.

“Bend your knees a little and straighten your shoulders,” Shinji-kun instructed. When she didn't get into just the right position that he told her to adapt, he went behind her and bumped his knee against the back of her legs to get her into it, and straightened her shoulders just right to his specifications.

None of them noticed the pair that was coming up the stairs to the public courts, nor the surprise registered in the pair's faces as they happened upon the sight of Ibu Shinji behind their coach's granddaughter in a somewhat intimate position like that - with the way they were standing together, you can bet they can feel each other's body heat.

Not that Shinji was doing anything inappropriate of course, he was just giving her some advice, that's all. What are friends for, right?

Dear Diary,

I wish Ann-chan and I went to the same school. If we did, Tomo-chan, Ann-chan and I would probably be the equivalent of the male freshmen trio, and we would have so much fun together. Those two are a lot a like in some ways, if you look at it closely. Ann-chan might not be as loud as Tomo-chan when it comes to cheering for their favorite tennis players, but you can see the inner strength both of them possess, and they're both really good people and great friends.

I was a little intimidated at first, since she liked to spend a lot of time with her brother's team. It must be really nice to have a sibling. Although I could imagine how it feels to have older brothers, it must be different, having to actually grow up with one, from birth. Tachibana-san is a very caring onii-san, he reminds me greatly of Syusuke-nii.

The Fudomine tennis teams members are very interesting. They have a strong bond with each other, like the one Seigaku's has. It's not really fair to compare one to the other, since they're uniquely their own entities, but I think that's about the closest comparison I could make without sounding like I favor one over the other.

I know that I go to Seigaku and should predictably favor them over everybody else. In a way, I do. Seigaku is not only my Alma mater, it feels like immediate family as well. Each tennis game I go watch and each match played feels like they're being played by one of my family members. I might not have as close a tie to the school Fudomine itself, but just as long as their opponent isn't Seigaku, I'd cheer my heart out for them as well.

Maybe it's because Ann-chan makes me feel so at home around them.

Everybody is even saying that Shinji-kun and I are sure to become “superbestfriends forever for sure”. Everyone is always so good to me. I've never lacked for a tennis coach before, with so many awesome tennis players at my school willing to give me advice on how to improve my form before, but now I even get advice from more people! I feel so lucky. If only I could actually put their advice to good use though…

“Heh, Momo-senpai, I think we should go and grab that burger after all.”

“What? But we're already here! You should have made up your mind earlier, Echizen! Oh hey, is that Ryuzaki?” Momoshiro Takeshi waved eagerly as he made his way toward the pair. “Oh, it's you, Shinji. Are you giving our Ryuzaki a tennis lesson? How nice of you.” Momo smiled at the Fudomine Regular.

“Ah, Momo-senpai! R-Ryoma-kun,” Sakuno shyly greeted, secretly happy that she met up with Ryoma-kun at the park no less. She usually didn't get to see him much on the weekends, except if they had a tournament to play or if her obaa-chan managed to bribe them with manjuus to do her a favor again.

Ryoma nodded in greeting, settling his gaze on the purple-haired boy who was staring impassively right back at him.

Shinji-kun talks a lot, and it's always fascinating to hear what he has to say.

“Momo-senpai, Ann-chan is over there,” Sakuno pointed to where the courts were, “playing with the others.”

Shinji broke his staring contest with the youngest member of Seigaku's tennis team and looked at Momoshiro. “Kamio is there as well,” he warned.

“Eh? What's that supposed to mean? Am I supposed to be afraid that he's there or something? And why should I be? And Ryuzaki, why do you think that I'm here for Tachibana's little sister? I'm here to play street tennis, right Echizen?”

“Whatever,” Echizen replied indifferently.

“Gee, thanks Echizen.” Momo shifted his tennis gear. “I think I'll go check out what Tachibana's little sister is up to, Echizen you can stay here if you want,” he took off towards the courts, leaving the three teens alone together.

“Ah Ryoma-kun! Shinji-kun is giving me advice on how to improve my tennis,” Sakuno chirped happily, daring to show off her new-found tennis skills as she did a backhand serve.

Pok.

“Her form has improved somewhat, but she keeps forgetting to keep it.”

Pok.

“She gets easily distracted,” Ibu Shinji continued to murmur beside him. Ryoma wondered why the guy was telling him stuff he already knew.

Pok.

“Still, she continues to practice though. Her determination compensates for her lack of hand and eye coordination.”

Pok.

Ryoma felt like he should contribute to the conversation somehow. “Aa,” he agreed.

Pok.

“Speaking of which, I was wondering if anybody on Seigaku cared enough to give her some tennis lessons. You know, it wouldn't hurt if anybody did. Not that I'm complaining about my having to give Sakuno-chan tennis lessons whenever I could, but I just thought that Seigaku should take more care of their own.”

Pok.

Pok.

The sound of the tennis ball bouncing against the wall was starting to mirror the headache Ryoma knew was coming.

Pok.

“I don't mind taking care of Sakuno-chan, I enjoy our lessons, and she seems to like spending time with us as well. But it makes me wonder if she really is being taken care of in Seigaku if no one even bothers to give her a few spare hours of their time to help her with her tennis. Maybe she could just transfer to Fudomine if that was the case. We always make sure to take care of our schoolmates, especially the younger ones since we don't want to repeat the cruelty the senpai-tachi showed us in our time.”

Pok.

Ryoma wanted to run as far away as he possibly could, for the survival of his sanity. Only pride and sheer will allowed him to remain on the spot, unflinching from the barrage of comments coming from the other guy.

“Ryuzaki, try to spread your legs just a little bit further apart and try not to bend them too much. No, no wait more, just a little more, yeah that's it. Stay in that position.” He offered some advice in an effort to diverge the boy's attention away from ranting on him.

Pok.

“You do take care of your schoolmates, do you? I believe that you and Sakuno-chan are on the same year, so you should keep an eye out for her well-being.”

Pok.

“Aa,” Ryoma agreed, “Buchou already told us to do that.”

Pok.

“Oops! Aaaah mou!!!” Sakuno missed hitting the ball.

“Lower your grip on the racket a little.”

“Hai!” and she started again, twin braids swinging cutely behind her.

Pok.

“That's very interesting, Echizen. Your buchou reminds me of mine. Tachibana-san is a very good man. Although he never actually gave us instructions to do it, it's just sort of an unspoken agreement, seeing as how she's his little sister and everything. You know how big brothers are. Do you have any siblings, Echizen?”

Pok.

“Siblings should take good care of each other. They should act as a support system to each other, because their parents wouldn't be around forever you know. They may occasionally fight and have arguments, but family is still family.”

Pok.

“Ann-chan is like a sister to us all. So is Sakuno-chan, since I think Ann-chan officially adopted her into their family. Not that it matters because we would gladly take care of any girl as sweet and friendly as Sakuno-chan. Tachibana-san now has two little sisters, and I think that Ann-chan considers Sakuno-chan her imouto as well. Such a headstrong girl, that Ann.”

Pok.

POK.

Pok.

“Girls are so different from us guys, ne Echizen? Don't you think so too? They confuse me most of the time, and they can be quite scary when mad, why just this afternoon, Ann-chan was giving us a lecture about Sakuno-chan's missing diary. Ann-chan thinks that one of us is pulling a prank on Sakuno-chan, but I don't think any of us would be mean enough to do that. I mean -“

Pok.

“Ah, is that so? Excuse me for a minute while I go get a drink.” Ryoma interrupted heading towards the soda machine and fleeing for his sanity after all.

Disclaimer: Hindi akin. If I owned Prince of Tennis, would I really waste my time writing this piece of crap da ne? o.O

Japanese words used in this chapter:

Ossu - yes ala Kabaji

-nii - “hip” form of “onii-san”, meaning “older brother”. Also see “aniki”, “onii-chan”, “onii-sama” and “kuya” (lol)

And I want to spell “senpai” with an M sempai, but I keep checking my dictionary and it's spelled with an N so I'm going with that.

Senpai - senior, elder, superior

Tensai - prodigy, genius, naturally gifted

Manjuu - steamed yeast bun with filling

Imouto - younger sister