Broken Strings (Prince of Tennis/ slow burn love story)

Part 13

It was easy, very easy. Seigaku didn't lose a point and the next match is against Akiyama.

It's odd. This school is not particularly renowned, but they seemed to play in a way that looks like they have worked hard to find the right way to play against their opponent. Like Inui usually does. Mmh...

"Mh? Who's that?" Ryumi wonders, seeing a guy with dark hair and blue eyes observing the matches. He looks to be from a different school, the uniform is familiar.

"St. Rudolph's new manager, Mizuki." Inui states, shifting his glasses.

"St. Rudolph?" Ryumi muses. "Shouldn't he be with his team?" she wonders, but receives no answer as Inui's focus in on the boy on the opposite side of the court. She feels a tension growing between the two. Just what is it with that boy?

After the match, which was won of course by Seigaku, Inui disappeared for a moment before returning with a frown on his face.

"What's wrong, Inui?" Tezuka asks him, wondering what is bothering him so.

"Tezuka..." he starts. "We have to be careful of St Rudolph. They will do anything to win."

'You have to use people you can use, right?' are the words that still ring in Inui's mind from the conversation he just had with Mizuki.

.........

"Excuse me..." Ryumi mutters as she pushes past people. It's rather busy at the courts and she has her hands full of drinks for the guys. She thought I'd be nice to treat them since they are working so hard.

"Wha!" she shouts in shock when a body suddenly lands in front of her in the form of a boy with bright orange hair and blue eyes.

"Ah, hello there, pretty girl!" he beams, making her look at him annoyed.

"What do you mean; 'Hello there'? You scared the living daylights out of me. Who jumps down in front of people like that?!" she scolds as her heart is still pounding, making him stammer.

"B-but, I was only going to offer carrying those for you." he tries as she walks around him.

"Never mind that! Weirdo..." she mutters to herself the last part.

The boy sighs in dismay. "Bummer~. My horoscope lied to me it seems. Not so lucky with girls today..."

.........

"I'm so excited!" Tomoka calls as the match against St Rudolph is about to start.

Sakuno smiles excitedly. "First up, it's Momo-senpai and Kaidoh-senpai in doubles."

"Mh. It would be nice if they stopped glaring at each other." Ryumi muses behind them, making the girls look up at her curiously, just only noticing her there. "Please let me watch with you girls." she winks.

"Of course!" the duo calls happily.

"Oh oh." Ryumi mutters, as the two boys are about to get into a fight.

Ryoma looks up at others. "Were they always like that?"

Fuji nods. "They have been rivals before you even joined the team."

Eiji turns to Inui, "Inui, show them that..." he tells the bespectacled boy who whips out a booklet, flipping it open to show last year's club pictures of Momo and Kaidoh.

Sakuno and Tomoka gush over how cute they are.

"Those two have been going at it since they joined the team." Inui explains.

Ryumi sighs. "Can they overcome their differences long enough to finish a game?" she wonders, looking over to see them facing the Kisarazu Atsushi and

Yanagisawa Shinya pair.

Surprisingly they work better together than expected and they somehow get ahead. That is until that Mizuki guy seems to give them a few silent orders. That is when things are starting to turn bad.

They start making long rallies as the opponent tries to lure out Kaidoh's Snake for some reason, but he won't give it to them. The time ticks by and the sun beats down on the players, slowly exhausting them.

After a short break and a quick argument, they are ready to start fresh, but it their fighting spirit gets interrupted by Mizuki calling a time out to sweep a line that got covered with dust.

"Tch. He should have done it before. I bet he waited on purpose to disrupt Momo and Kaidoh's unity." Ryumi scoffs.

The first years look up at her in surprise. "Would he do that?" Kachiro wonders.

Ryumi sees Mizuki glance their way with a smug smile. "He would. Right Inui?" she asks. "It's what you meant before wasn't it?"

Inui nods, a frown etched on his face.

They watch as Mizuki saunters by them, pausing in front of Inui, "How unfortunate, Inui-kun... The Bench coach is the only one who can give players advice during the match.

"A Bench coach is a player who has registered. You're only able to supervise the players." Inui counters.

Mizuki smiles uncaringly. "If you made it as a regular, you could have given them advice in the court." he just about chuckles, insulting Inui.

"Advice? About what?" Inui asks. "There is nothing to advice on." he says sharply, making a few of them hide a smirk.

Before Mizuki can go further, the umpire calls him to return to his seat.

"To think the match just started... We can surely expect more manipulating from him." Ryumi says bitterly. "I don't like him already." she muses, pulling at a lock of her hair irritably, earning a chorus of hums.

.........

It's five against two in St Rudolph's advantage when the game starts to turn around. Momo and Kaidoh are fired up and Kaidoh looks ready to show his opponents the real Snake.

When it's his chance to return, he returns it, to everyone's surprise, not with the Snake they are used to, but what he calls the Boomerang snake. The ball curves right around the pole and even under the umpire's chair before homing in on the opponent's side of the court.

"Mada mada dane." Ryoma muses, silencing the cheering. "That's incomplete right?" he asks, earning a silent nod from Kaidoh. "If it's singles it'd be out." Ryoma points out. And he's right.

"I see." Fuji muses. "That's why Kaidoh was put in doubles this time."

"Yeah." Inui answers. "And one more reason; There's a guy who gets heated up seeing a move like that." he explains, watching Momo start to simmer inside as he doesn't like being outdone by his rival.

Now with Kaidoh alternating between his Boomerang snake and his Snake shots, Atsushi and Shinya's uncertainty starts to grow and they are starting to make mistakes, giving Momo the opportunity to shine with his smashes. The points are rolling in.... Even though they still bicker like children.

The game ends when Momo takes a difficult lob into a Dunk smash and it bounces so hard up into Shinya's face that it knocks him out cold.

"Did not see that coming..." Ryumi breathes. "Anyway, that means you're up next Eiji, Oishi."

Oishi nods. "That's right. Let's do it Eiji." he says, receiving a grin and a thumbs up in reply.