One Nil to You (A Prince of Tennis Fanfiction)

Chapter 2

June 27, 2012

Seishun Academy — Tennis Club Courts

Morning

"Man, the English test turned out worse than I expected it to be." Momoshiro grumbled on his way to the club house. "It was like every question needed ten minutes to answer."

"That's about the time limit of someone who has peanuts for brains." Kaido scoffed.

"What did you say, viper?" Momoshiro yelled furiously, as he grabbed Kaido by the collar.

"Let go of me, butthead!" Kaido demanded, seizing Momoshiro by the collar as well.

"You wanna fight?!"

"Bring it on!"

Ryoma could only sigh at the childish bickering of the two and mutter, "Mada mada dane."—You still have a ways to go—

Just as Ryoma was about to enter the club house when he heard Coach Ryuzaki's surprised voice from the door ajar: "Oh, so Romanovros Juri is actually in Japan. A lot of surprises have been going on one after another."

Juri? Ryoma thought, confused.

"Echizen, what's wrong?" Momoshiro asked while still clutching to the collar of Kaido's collar.

Slapping Momoshiro's hand off, Kaido asked, "What's going on, Echizen?"

When the freshman regular didn't answer, they joined him in peeking from the door ajar where they saw Coach Ryuzaki and the senior regulars gathering.

"Another surprise equivalent to this one to come: eighty-eight point seventy-one percent." Inui asserted.

"Surprise?" Momoshiro was puzzled. "What are they talking about?"

"Hey, Tezuka, can she come over to the school, or can we like go over to her house?" Kikumaru asked eagerly. "I wanna know if she can teach me more of those trapeze maneuvers and stunts!"

"She lives in Den-en-Chofu in the Schönsommer Mansion." Tezuka informed. "You'll have to give her a call if you want to ask for trapeze pointers, she's very busy as usual."

"But I take it that she's gotten more beautiful than the last time we saw her, right, Tezuka?" Fuji assumed.

Tezuka turned his head to the side to avert his gaze at the question, but a sudden red leaked out from his cheeks.

Momoshiro's jaw fell open, flabbergasted as he stuttered, "N-N-No way...!"

Kaido blinked with disbelief. "C-Captain Tezuka was..."

Ryoma stared for a moment with incredulity. "Blushing...?!"

"Anyways, we should all start our high-intensity practice menu for the Kanto Regional Tournament." Tezuka said, the red tint on his cheeks had faded and returned to its dour mien.

When Tezuka and Coach Ryuzaki were on their way out, Ryoma, Momoshiro and Kaido quickly hid behind the alley and only entered when the two were inside one of the courts, but the senior regulars were still excessively lively of the story of Juri's arrival.

"The assurance of bringing up Juri to cause Tezuka to blush remains ninety-eight percent and the assurance that she's gotten more beautiful over two years is a flawless one hundred percent." Inui said with a huge, mischievous grin upon writing his words down on his green notebook.

"Hey..." Ryoma's voice crowded in amongst the seniors. "Who is Juri?"

"Oh, Echizen, how long have you been there?" Oishi asked.