Author's Notes: Friction and competitive spirit between Seigaku and Hyotei is fairly prominent in this chapter. Subtle humour sprinkled here and there; Hopefully, you'll find those scenes funny. Hikari and Hiyoshi's friendship is also shown here. As for interaction between Ootori and Hikari… well… you'll just have to read on.

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Previously:

With the possible fight between Momoshiro and Kaidoh warded off, the practice match finally began. It had started off as a light rally, but fifteen minutes later, it turned into an all-out-war between the two pairs.

At that point of time, the match score was 3-All. Just as it was about to be even more heated up, the five of them heard a loud, arrogant voice that rang throughout the courts. "Be awed by Ore-sama's presence!"

Kikumaru, who had been mid-air in Acrobatic Play when that statement was heard, quickly landed on his feet with a barely muted thump, blinking at the newcomers with mild surprise. Oishi was fiddling with the handle of his racket, his worried gaze constantly shifting between the more-rigid-than-usual buchou Tezuka Kunimitsu in the other court and the people who had just arrived.

Kaidoh absently caught the tennis ball in his hand, not noticing that it was getting red after coming into contact with the friction from the spinning ball. Momoshiro raised an eyebrow, in an effort to look nonchalant in the intruders' presence.

In the meantime, whatever expression Tsutano had on her face completely dropped. Oh dear Kami-sama…

Standing near the entrance were the Hyotei tennis regulars, including a non-regular Taki Haginosuke. The leader of the pack, the only-and-only Atobe Keigo, was standing in front of them with one of his drop-dead-gorgeous smirks gracing his features.

Chapter 4 – School Rivalry

"…what are you doing here?" As expected, Tezuka wasted no time with greetings and got straight to the point, his unwavering gaze pinned onto Atobe.

Atobe raised an eyebrow. "What, not even a hello? How rude of you, Tezuka, especially to a guest like Ore-sama…" He heard the loud cough from Oshitari, and quickly added on, "…and his equally-important teammates."

Shishido and Mukahi snorted, Hiyoshi rolled his eyes while Oshitari smirked with amusement, but none of them commented. Kabaji, Ootori and Taki were merely watching the scene unfold quietly. Akutagawa was thrown over Kabaji's shoulder, sound asleep.

Tezuka merely continued staring at Atobe pointedly, refusing to say anything else, since the latter had not answered his initial question.

Taking the hint, Atobe instantly tossed a haughty look at him. "What else do you think Ore-sama is here for? Ore-sama is here with his team for a practice match with Seigaku, of course!"

"…we never agreed to have a practice match with your team, Atobe." The stoic Seigaku buchou's reply was tinged with barely-detectable annoyance.

The previously-mentioned boy looked downright offended. "You couldn't have possibly expected Ore-sama to have come all the way to Seigaku twice for a simple practice match, could you? You should know by now that Ore-sama is a very busy person!"

Tezuka felt his temples start to pulse steadily as Atobe continued to rant. Aspirin sounds like a pretty good idea right now…

In the midst of the minor case of chaos, Momoshiro and Kaidoh had caused their own form of chaos, having started yet another one of their childish rivalry issues about who was a better tennis player.

Tsutano groaned mentally and quickly hopped off the high chair, digging for the bottle of aspirin she kept in her backpack. The very sight of Atobe made her head spin, and it wasn't because of his prowess. The bickering pair nearby certainly weren't helping her newly-developed headache, either.

Kikumaru bounced over from the court and peered over her shoulder, his sharp eyesight immediately catching sight of the bottle. "Ne, Kari-chan, since when did you have the same bottle of medicine that Tezuka-buchou has in his locker?"

"…with a team like yours, Eiji-nii? I'd say he'd need more than just a bottle…" She muttered, taking a huge gulp of water from her water-bottle to down two pills.

"Nya, what's that supposed to mean?" The red-head pouted at her, before declaring, "We're a perfectly normal, close-knit team of tennis fighters!" He turned back to the court and raised his voice slightly. "Right, Oishi?"

"Hai, hai, Eiji…" His doubles partner murmured distractedly, a perturbed frown worn on his face as he watched Atobe's one-sided argument with Tezuka, whose expression pretty much told everyone that if this was one of his teammates, he would have assigned him a million laps by now.

"See?" Kikumaru turned back to grin widely at his childhood friend, but the grin slipped as he realized she was not standing there with him anymore. "Eh? Where'd she go?"

"…yo, Tezuka-san." Tsutano called out flatly as she approached him. She carelessly tossed him her bottle of aspirin, and the mildly-bewildered boy caught it out of sheer reflex. "You probably need it…" She muttered, pivoting on her foot and stalking off.

He nodded his silent thanks and turned back to Atobe, whose attention was now trained on the girl. "Arn? Isn't that… onna?"

The girl's steps faltered upon hearing that horrid nickname, but she quickly picked up her pace, deciding to ignore him.

Atobe turned back to the Seigaku buchou, his eyebrow raked so high that it practically disappeared into his hairline. "What is such a rude and insulting girl like her doing here at Seigaku?"

"…" Tezuka blinked, not exactly sure what to say. As far as he was concerned, whenever Kikumaru brought his friend to Seigaku, she was almost always silent and barely disturbed anyone.

Of course, that was the moment Kikumaru finally located his dear neighbour, and quickly latched onto her. "There you are, Kari-chan! I was wondering where you escaped to, nya!"

"…Eiji-nii. You're still not made of feathers, you know…" Tsutano sighed tiredly. If my legs don't give way to his damned weight, he'll never stop, will he? She halted her movements, lest her legs really did give way.

"Hah! Even if he were made of feathers, he still won't be able to jump higher than me!" Mukahi sneered, since he had never given up on his Acrobatic Rivalry with Kikumaru.

The other boy merely smiled, since his general sweet temper didn't let him get ruffled up by a simple statement. He gently eased himself off his childhood friend, but like always, his arms stayed around her shoulders.

The said childhood friend, however, silently glared at Mukahi with such intensity that the Hyotei boy took a small, uneasy step back and bumped into his doubles partner, who chuckled in amusement.

"…Tezuka-san… Why not you just have the practice match with them? After all, it's just practice, ne?" Tsutano's innocent question was laced with dark intent. They're far too cocky for their own good. Going so low as to insulting Eiji-nii… your teammate… You should put them back in their place.

The stoic boy read between the lines and noted her intentions. He fought a silent battle with her through eye contact for a few moments, before he slowly exhaled, relenting. "…fine."

After a long, overly-heated battle of five practice matches (two doubles matches and three singles matches) between Seigaku and Hyotei, with the former leaving the latter in the dust with three wins to two, the players from both schools were left extremely drained out.

Inui instantly jumped at the chance to promote his Juices to another school, and offered to let them sample his new Special Supplement Juice 2.0, which supposedly helped them regain some of their strength after long matches. Much to his disappointment, he was met with eight very flat-out "no"s from his own teammates, while Hyotei politely refused.

Tezuka quickly sent Tsutano, the umpire for all the matches, to buy drinks for all of them from the vending machines. Atobe, not wanting to be left out in drinks, of all things, ordered Hiyoshi to go with her, since he had not played any matches as the reserve (much to his dismay).

"Today's been quite an eventful day, ne?" Hiyoshi murmured after a few moments of walking in silence.

"…quite. The tennis players are constantly improving, and today was no exception." Tsutano agreed, before blinking at the surroundings. "Hm… I think the vending machines are over there…?"

Hiyoshi hid a smirk. "You do know where they are located at, right?"

"…of course I do." She replied smoothly, even though both of them knew that her sense of direction wasn't one of the best. Then again, Hiyoshi's sense of direction wasn't any better than hers. "I just have to remember where they are."

The boy snorted. "Uh-huh."

A few wrong turns later, the two seatmates found themselves back where they started.

"…we should've asked your hyper neighbour to come with us… At least he knows where those vending machines are, since he's a student here." Hiyoshi stated dryly, feeling mildly amused despite their current predicament. "Atobe-buchou's going to kill us."

She rolled her eyes. "Oh please. Killing you isn't a possibility; You're his teammate and you're still needed for the Nationals. He won't be able to kill me either, since I'd rather jump off a building than let him kill me."

Hiyoshi didn't bother hiding his smirk this time.

They continued wandering around the area, having had their fair share of minor disputes. They were still stuck in the sticky situation they found themselves in, and were unsure of where to head for next, since all they seemed to be doing was to walk around in circles.

"Hey… How about we go that way?" Hiyoshi asked, gesturing towards a path with a row of tall trees on either side.

Tsutano raised an eyebrow at her friend's suggested route. "…didn't we come from that side?"

"…right..." He agreed nonchalantly, before his gaze swept around once more, trying to locate the suddenly-rather-difficult-to-locate vending machines.

As they shuffled past the washroom, they had quite a mishap. One minute the two were absorbed in another mini-argument, and the next minute, Tsutano found herself sprawled onto the ground with a weight lying on top of her small frame.

"…" The brunette barely managed to suppress the string of curses that sprang up in her mind from escaping her lips. She was certain there was some sort of small bump on her forehead from crashing into… whatever she crashed into.

She blinked the black spots in her line of vision away, and absently noted the silver tint gleaming above her. It looked kinda like hair, and – Hold it right there.

Pause... Rewind.

Silver tint. Hair.

No one would come to this area near the washrooms, unless you were in the tennis team. Besides, there wasn't anyone among the Seigaku regulars who had silver hair. So that meant…

Tsutano instantly froze and slowly glanced up.

Oh. Crap.

She was on the ground… with Ootori Choutarou lying on top of her.

It was then, Tsutano decided, that Kami-sama certainly knew how to make her life far more difficult than it already was.

Author's Notes: Miniature cliff-hanger (again), I suppose? I'm not really good with this sort of thing…

My End-of-Year examinations are around the corner, so I may not be able to update weekly like I used to. Studies are fairly important, after all. Plus, I'm getting stuck in a jam for Chapter 5… Yes, it's the dreaded disease known as Writers' Block. Sigh…

Reviews are welcome. If you don't know any of the Japanese honorifics or phrases I've used, just ask me in a review. Thank you.

.:Iced Hearts:.

Published: 30th August 2011.