The Empress [Prince of Tennis + Kuroko No Basket Crossover]

Chapter 22

"As a girl, how do you even compete with her?!"
—Osakada Tomoka

The Empress | Chapter 22

Tachibana An was beyond ecstatic when she received an invitation to the infamous U-17 camp; She knew her brother and the rest of Fudomine currently resided there, along with numerous other middle schools' tennis club members. An had looked forward to seeing them again and wondered if they were doing well in such a competitive camp because she heard there would be strong high-schoolers there as well. Although, when she got inside the intimidating camp, An didn't expect this many middle-schooler players to gather. Still, she was happy to see her team with a table that was shared with Hyotei. In fact, most of the tables were shared by two teams.

An felt less intimidated knowing the rest of the invited freshmen were going to their own associated table so she didn't hesitate to approach the table.

"Nii-san!" 

"An...!"

"A-An-chan?"

She could tell that both her brother and Kamio were surprised to see her. The freshman smiled at the pair before looking to the rest of the team, who were just as surprised to see her and the other freshmen—who were already seated.

An noticed not everyone in Fudomine was there; Tetsu Ishida, Masaya Sakurai, Tatsunori Mori, Kyosuke Uchimura were all missing but Kamio Akira, Ibu Shinji, and her brother were here. Ibu was mumbling to himself as usual and An was relieved to see nothing has changed.

In Hyotei's team, everyone was present: Atobe Keigo, Jiro Akutagawa, Oshitari Yushi, Shishido Ryo, Mukahi Gakuto, Kabaji Munehiro, Otori Chotaro, and Hiyoshi Wakashi.

When her eyes landed on Atobe, she was mildly surprised to see him—and a few others—show more interest towards Seigaku's freshman Echizen Ryoma than her. An knew the captain was interested in her and pursued her quite aggressively in the past so it was a bit surprising to see his lack of focus.

There were no high-schoolers, which was a bit strange as An heard the high-schoolers in the camp are crazy strong. But then again, there were only five large tables to fit everyone in.

"An, what are you doing here?" It was her brother that asked.

"I was invited, Nii-san."

"Invited?"

With a nod of her head, she pulled out the letter she received a couple of days ago. "As a visitor, I can stay here for a few days." She smiled with clear excitement in her eyes.

An was excited about many things in the camp but above all, she was excited to see if Frei Fuyuki was actually in the camp. She had heard rumors online that the young beauty was last seen here but she wanted to verify it for herself. She could barely contain herself when she received the invitation. Initially, she had no hope of meeting the prodigy as it was practically impossible to get into the camp without being invited in. And even less possible is seeing the beauty. Every fan of Frei Fuyuki knows how rare it was that she appears in public—perhaps it was more often than that but the prodigy was really good at avoiding the media. But then, An was invited here and now she is more hopeful than ever to see the girl.

With contained excitement, she looked to her brother. "Nii-san, is it true that Frei Fuyuki-chan is here?"

"Frei-chan?" Otori asked in surprise. The name finally snapped Atobe out of his thoughts and the self-proclaimed king was shocked to see his previous interest couple seats from him.