Disclaimer – 'Prince of Tennis' is not mine.
The title of this story is 'Kimi ga iru', I think it suits the story and the plot. There are more to come about what the title had meant.
This is the first time I had posted my fanfic in fanfiction dot net, but actually this is not my first fanfic. Sorry, I have to warn you that many grammars in this fanfic are incorrect. English is not my first language. Anyway, please read and review. I'm addicted to reviews!
Kimi ga iru
The freshmen trio watched the regular's practice from the fence outside the court again. They did this many time as they dreamed to be the first year regular. Even though they knew that it was impossible. This year, the regular's slots were full. Eight regular members were the greatest player in Seigaku middle school.
Fuji Syusuke, the well-known tensai, was famous since his second year in Middle school for his marvelous triple counters. He was the number two of the club. He was always wearing a smiling face with closed eyes. People always wonder how he could see things through closed eyes. There were some rumors that he liked to see people suffer.
Inui Sadaharu, the data tennis player, was the vice-captain along with Oishi. He was doing every research and collecting data on his friends and his enemies. It would be better to not mess up with this person.
Kawamura Takashi was usuallya very shy boy, but when he grabbed the racket he would turn into the 'Burning Mode' which could scare the hell out of the opponent.
Kaidoh Kaoru was a hard work player with bad temper. It was still a surprise that he could pair up with Inui in playing double and had enough stamina to finish the long games. Perhaps the secret special training was the answer.
Momoshiro Takeshi, happy-go-lucky boy, was great with his smash called 'Dunk Smash. The power of it could hardly find the person to compare with. The entiremembers knew that he and Kaidoh could not get along more than 5 minutes. They tended to pick up a fight at every subject.
Kikumaru Eiji, the best acrobatic player, was pair with Oishi in playing double. They were the great golden-pair. Last year, they had made it to the national level competition. He was very good with his net play. Since he had Oishi as his partner, he could do a lot of acrobatic tricks against his opponent without hesitate.
Oishi Syuichirou was just like a mother ofthe club because he always worried of everything and he concerned the other's feeling. He was the vice captain along with Inui. It was very smart that Echizen decided to have two vice captain since the weight of responsibility for the club was too much, it would be better if he could share it with more than only one vice captain.
Echizen Ryoma was the buchou of Seigaku tennis club this year. He was one of the best all-rounder players Seigaku ever had. His 'Twist Serve' was a legend to all kouhai. Even Inui couldn't collect all the information on his potential. But still Ryoma had yet to surpass his father, Echizen Nanjirou.
"Seigaku's tennis club is the best!" Horio Satoshi said out loud. The morning practice had impressed him again. After he saw the new shots of the regulars, he even more determined to become the number one in the club within one year.
"Horio-kun, you should lower your voice. Senpai-tachi will get mad, if you keep shouting." Mizuno Katsuo warned his friend.
"I'm not shouting!" He protested.
"You are. Kaidoh-senpai will cut your head if you continue to shout like that."
Seeing his friend started to argue, Mizuno Kachirou decided to change the topic.
"I heard from our classmate that today there will be new kid in our class."
Katsuo and Horio stopped their argument and started to get along with the new topic which Kachirou brought.
"New kid is coming? I hope that new kid would be nice person, last time when our teacher announced that we would have new friend, that person turn out to be totally a bully."
"But I hope the new kid is a girl." Horio said. "Boys are boring. I'm already one."
His two friends decided to keep quiet. The unofficial leader of the trio often had daydream about beautiful girls all the time.
"For me, either boy or girl is ok. I just hope that he or she would play tennis."
When the class began, the sensei announced the news that there was new kid joining their class. Half of the students in the class were not surprised because they had expected this since one of the classmate saw new kid in the teacher's office.
As the new boy walked into the classroom, many girls had bite lightly on their lower lip to keep their voices low because now they had a new target for valentine.
The chocolate hair, wearing glass and good manner were all in the new kid. "Hello, my name is Tezuka Kunimitsu. I'd just moved to Tokyo and transferred to Seigaku. It's nice to meet you all." He introduced himself shortly.
"Tezuka-kun, you can sit at the available seat over there." The sensei pointed her finger at the seat. He approached his seat and got a greeting by the girl with two long braids.
"Hi, Tezuka-kun."
"Hi." He simply replied.
"My name is Ryusaki Sakuno. It's nice to meet you."
"It's nice to meet you, too."
"Sakuno, I never thought you would introduce yourself to him before me. This is love at first sight, right?" The other girl who was sitting in front of Sakuno said with a mock voice.
Both Sakuno and Kunimitsu blushed.
"Tomo-chan! It's not like that. He is sitting next to me." She exclaimed.
"Yeah, Sakuno likes the older boy. I can see very clear that she likes Echizen-buchou." Horio who was sitting not far from Tezuka's seat said. Both Tomoka and Horio liked to tease the braid girl.
Sakuno's cheeks turned into a deep red shade.
"Tezuka-kun, please don't listen to them."
"I think I should follow your advice." He replied with slight smile. Right now, he had a feeling that his first day in Seigaku would be nice, unlike the memories which he had when he was in his old school.
When the morning class finished, many students wanted to talk to Tezuka for asking questions and trying to get to know him better, but the trio had pulled their prey out of the room before anyone could approach.
"Do you play tennis?" Kachirou asked as they were starting their lunch. He looked inside his bento and smile in satisfied. His mother made him a big size California Maki. Although he didn't like it as much as his favorite food, but his mother cooking still the best.
"Yes," Tezuka answered shortly as he opened his bento.
"Hey, would you like to join our tennis club? Seigaku's tennis club is the best!" Horio said mouth full; some rice almost fell out of his mouth.
"Have you ever tired of saying that?" Katsuo interrupted, he was bored every time his friend said that.
"Don't you think like me? Seigaku's tennis club is the best club ever!"
"You always said that I'm tired of hearing it." He said as he used his chopsticks pick up a small piece of fried chicken from the bento to his mouth.
"Tezuka-kun, don't listen to these two boring. You must see how good our senpai are."
"I didn't bring my own rackets to school today because I didn't know that there is a tennis club in this school." He simply said.
The trio smiled. "You can use our rackets, if you'd like. Just don't break it, OK?" Kachirou offered.
"Thanks." The glass boy nodded with thankful manner.
Four kids continued their lunch quietly as they saw the big clock of their school almost alarm for end of lunch break.
Today the first year's class ended at 2.30 p.m. Their class ended faster then the second year and the third year's class about one hour. Many freshmen were heading for their home, but for the four freshmen had the other plan. As soon as the class finish, four kids approached the tennis club immediately. At the tennis club's room, they met the certain person.
"Ryusaki-sensei, we have a new member for you." Horio said cheerfully. He wanted the coach to like him and remember him, so when he become a regular she would let him play often.
"Again?" Ryusaki Sumire was not surprised at all. The trio always brought new members and new troubles.
"Sensei! This is a new member to our club. Please make him feel impress."
"You said that every time you brought a new member to me." She knew that she shouldn't make fun of her student in front of the new comer, not yet anyway.
"His name is Tezuka Kunimitsu" This time it was Katsuo who said.
"I think he can introduce himself."
Three young tennis members kept silent and look at their new friend as he nodded in acknowledge.
"My name is Tezuka Kunimitsu. I have two year experience in playing tennis. Maybe I am still not good enough, but I will do my best for Seigaku's tennis club."
The old woman looked in the eyes of the young boy and she saw the spirit of the real player inside those eyes. Tezuka was special. He was not like the others that the trio had convinced to join the club. And she also knew that this boy was holding the greatest potential for tennis. Maybe this year Seigaku might make it to national competition, just like what all the members had always determined to do so.
"Echizen, I heard from Oishi that the freshmen trio had a new prey again." Fuji Syusuke said with amused sound. "Our fukubuchou's class ended before us, so he'd already go to the club."
The Seigaku-buchou looked up from his book. "Have they ever tried of convince the new member to our tennis club?"
"You like to have more members, anyway."
"The quality is better than quantity." He stated.
Even though Fuji had known Echizen for more than two years, it stilled hard to predict what the buchou might think. But he knew that they shared the same pain of defeat from last year national tennis middle school competition. Seigaku needed more skill members.
"Do you want to see the new kid? He might be good. Ryusaki-sensei seems to like him."
"I don't care." There already were many members he had to take responsibilities. Being a buchou was not fun. Why would he want to go just to see the new kid's face? Their club already had more than 40 members. He had to admit that he still couldn't remember all the name of his kouhai.
Thinking of more responsibility made Echizen swallow hard.
Fuji checked his watch. He still had one more subject to go. He should get back to his class soon.
"See you at the club then. I should get back to my class now. By the way, I have to return the book that I had borrowed since last week to the library first, so I might be late for the evening practice. Please don't make me run laps." The tensai said. "Don't forget that I had justification."
"Fine, you can have spare time for 20 minutes." The left hand player ordered. One of the reasons why everyone respected him was because he listened. He was not too stretch captain, but when it come to punish, he could be everyone worst nightmare.
Echizen continued to read his book, but something in his mind kept distracts him from the book he read. Maybe deep down he might want to know about the new kouhai…. But why would he want to know?
End of Chapter I
Note – If you asked me why Tezuka and Echizen haven't met yet, it's because their meeting is in Chapter II.
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