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

Part 21

"If you glare any harder, the boy might catch on fire." Nanjiro muses, watching his daughter shoot bullets from her eyes towards Akutsu. He is blissfully unaware of what happened the week before.

"Heh." she scoffs in reply. "Might do him some good." she mutters in reply, making her old man cock his head curiously.

"Mh? What's up with you? You're all fired up." he drawls.

Ryumi looks up at him over her shoulder, her eyes sharp as knives. "I just don't like his attitude." she explains dryly before turning away.

Nanjiro rubs his stubble covered chin in thought before glancing over at Akutsu Jin who is facing his son. He must admit he rarely ever saw anyone carry such a bad attitude into a match. He wonders what his old rival was thinking when recruiting a boy like that into his team.

The match starts off heated and Ryoma quickly rushes up to the net returning the ball Akutsu returned after his lob, with a Drive Volley right into his face. The crowd gasps as Akutsu lies sprawled across his side of the court, his face set is shock. No doubt Ryoma intended to pay him back for what he pulled.

While mostly everyone is left in shock, Ryoma and Ryumi's dad can't help but laugh. He really liked to see Ryoma put forward some attitude of his own.

"Oops. I'm sorry." Ryoma states with a smirk as Akutsu gets to his feet. "But you shouldn't take tennis so lightly. Even though that's not something big... That's for Kachiro." he says calmly. "Now what are you still on the ground? I still have to get you back for Kawamura-senpai and for the heck of it Arai-senpai... and most of all my sis." he finishes.

Akutsu jumps to his feet calmly after gathering his racket, facing the boy several heads shorter than him. "You... can't escape anymore, brat."

"Same to you." Ryoma replies simply.

Akutsu crouches real low as Ryoma sets himself up to serve, as both are looking very serious about this match. Ryoma serves him a Twist serve, but Akutsu returns it by moving fast and is soon able to gain his first point.

Akutsu's speed seems to dominate the game. Ryoma only has to blink and he's gone from sight. His speed, combined with his strength, really leaves Ryoma in trouble. Not even Ryoma's split step makes a difference.

Kawamura looks on worriedly from the sidelines. He and Akutsu, they used to be friends.

"To pay me back in tennis. Don't make me laugh... brat." Akutsu sneers unimpressed.

Ryumi sighs lightly as she leans up against the chain fence. If she didn't despise the guy so much, she would consider complimenting him on his skills. She glances towards her dad who looks on in interest. He always enjoys it when someone is giving Ryoma a hard time. He believes it's the best way for him to grow.

Ryoma tries a lob to draw Akutsu to the net and follows after, trying to limit his area to return a proper strong return. Akutsu at first wants to ignore it and goes to lob the ball over Ryoma, but with one taunt from Ryoma, decides against it at the last split second. The result... Ryoma having the ball returned in his face at full power.

"Ryoma!" his sister calls worriedly as her little brother is thrown back by the force.

"30-15." the umpire calls as the ball hits the court on Akutsu's side.

Ryumi blinks in surprise. As far as she knows, Ryoma's face isn't flexible enough to return balls. It appears he made himself the target on purpose, so he knew where he could expect the ball to go and so was able to return it.

Ryoma gets to his feet, looking completely fine with a smirk plastered on his face. "Jeez. He nearly gave me heart attack." Ryumi complains, making her dad snicker behind her.