Summary: Because of a dark and shady accident in her past that led to the loss of two family members, who once was known as Ryoko Echizen began cross-dressing at the age of four and became known as Ryoma Echizen. Slowly, Ryoko Echizen began to replace herself as Ryoma Echizen. Nobody knew her secret therefore… until one Kunimitsu Tezuka found out. As the two get to know each other better, Ryoma Echizen begins to pull Tezuka out of his shell, and Tezuka manages to let Ryoma realize just exactly who she would have been as Ryoko.

Most scenes feature Ryoma as a boy. Minor Ryoko.

The Prince of Tennis

Kunimitsu Tezuka had never been more mystified. Well, yes he has, but that was a long time ago.

In front of him crouched a small boy with a slender frame, black hair, and emerald green eyes. One hand was clutched on his cheek, while the other was squeezing his cap tightly.

What really threw Tezuka off was the fact that the boy's eyes were shining with tears. Okay, so he admitted he shouldn't have slapped him. Even if he deserved it. But the fact that he almost made somebody cry was extremely unnerving. Boys didn't cry, especially Ryoma Echizen.

Why then, was the person in front of him shaking in tears?

Wait, not in tears.

In… laughter…?

"Is that how people deal with situations back in Japan?" asked Ryoma, laughing humourlessly, pulling his cap low over his eyes. "Do you use violence against you inferiors?"

Kunimitsu Tezuka was, to say in the least, shocked. One moment ago, Ryoma Echizen had been close to crying, and the next he was mocking him. However, he settled with playing the usual cool and collected captain of the Seishun Gakuen's tennis team.

"It will teach you to know you place." A short, yet harshly phrased answer.

Ryoma smirked one of his trademark smirks.

"Very well, buchou," he bowed deeply to show respect for his senpai. "I just hope next time you might resort to less of a hands-on approach."

With that, he shouldered his equipment pack and stalked past his captain.

The Prince of Tennis

It was the day after they defeated Hyoutei in the competition for the spot in the Kantou tournament. Momo and Viper were busy debating whose fault it was that cost them the doubles game, while Eiji was entertaining Oishi with his acrobatic stunts. Sadaharu was chatting happily away with Fuji and telling him about the recent developments with the Inui juice, with Fuji smiling his trademark smile. You would only notice it was a grimace if you looked close enough. Kawamura, feeling sorry for him, decided to go bail him out.

In short, the regulars were being their usual goofy selves. Nobody seemed to notice the sudden chill of air spanning through the distance between the midget and the poker face, and nobody seemed to show any sign they knew of their encounter the previous evening. And, of course, they were rather clueless, but that's beside the point.

The two athletes in question, however, were feeling rather awkward being in the same room as each other. Mr. Poker face was feeling awkward because of his shame of his actions the previous night. Ryoma, however, was feeling rather awkward because of something entirely different. I'm also pretty sure you would feel pretty awkward too if I told you why he was feeling awkward.

You see, as you begin to study the joy that is puberty, you being to study some… female functions. You will also learn that werewolves aren't the only ones that have their time of month. Well, I'll just leave it at that, as you'll probably realize what I'm talking about sooner or later.

Yes. Believe it or not, though we have been referring to him so far in this story as such, Ryoma Echizen was, in fact, not a he.

(The rest of his team didn't know that, of course. As a matter of fact, the only people who knew besides himself – excuse me – herself was his – drats! – her father, and her cousin.

Of course, after those confusing two sentences, we now know nobody else knows of Ryoma's little secret, so let's refer to her as, once again, a boy now, shall we?)

Therefore, it came to his immense displeasure when Ryuzaki Sensei walked in several minutes later to announce the beginning of practice. He didn't think he could put up with the cramps much longer, and he wanted to do nothing else except sit on a warm sofa with Karupin wrapped around his legs.

This, of course, was just plain wishful thinking.

"Gather round!" Tezuka called out. Being the hugely intimidating person that he was, the whole team did just that.

"First years, you're all on Court C practicing your racket strokes," the captain ordered. With that, the freshmen quickly scattered. "Others, let's start with a light rally."

Ryoma blew a sigh of relief. Looks like today wasn't going to be so bad. Perhaps he could make it through the day.

Yeah right.

"Regulars, give me fifty laps around the field. The Kantou tournaments are going to be no easier than the regionals, if not harder. Many of our losses were greatly because of low stamina, so we need to train ourselves to last longer on the court. And," here Tezuka's lips twitched slightly. Slightly. "The last one to make it through the finishing line gets a batch of Inui's freshly developed Inui juice."

Normally, this would've been a very inspiring and threatening speech. However, Ryoma was currently not in the mood.

On days like these, Ryoma had a simple tactic. Just follow the others and make sure you're not last. Usually Ryoma liked to go for the win, but he knew there was no way he could outrun Eiji senpai today.

Ryoma actually kept up with the others pretty well for the first ten laps or so. He also managed to fare pretty well for the twentieth lap. He got to the thirtieth lap in decent time too. By the thirty-fifth though, he began experiencing the pain in his sides. Deciding to shake it off in the last fifteen laps, he ignored it.

Apparently this was the type of cramp that got worse and worse, because by the thirty-eighth lap, he was ready to pass out.

And pass out he almost did, if it wasn't for a pair of strong arms that caught him before he fell.

"Are you okay, Echizen?" his Captain asked, looking quite concerned.

All previous pain forgotten, Echizen felt anger boil up inside him again, just like it did when Tezuka had slapped him. Pushing roughly away, he managed a few staggering steps.

"I'm fine," he muttered.

Not long after he uttered those words had he tripped over his shoelaces. His teammates had the decency to cover up their sniggers.

"Perhaps you should go home…" coach Ryuzaki suggested.

Ryoma nodded without complaint. With that, he gathered his stuff and stuffed them into his bag. After a quick bid of goodbye to the others around him, he quickly left.

The regulars all exchanged startled looks. Ryom Echizen, agree to miss practice? The only time that happened was when Karupin went missing.

"Do you think he couldn't take that many laps?" Momo asked, puzzled.

"No," Syusuke replied, looking equally as shocked. "Remember that time when he ran eighty straight laps without stopping or even taking a sip of water? He managed it before you and Kaido finished your match too. And you guys started playing before he started running. This should be nothing for him."

After several seconds of the team just staring, Tezuka sent them off to do whatever they were doing before Ryoma's accident. Nobody noticed how he himself slung his bag over his shoulder and quietly slipped away to see what Ryoma was up to.

A/N: Well, that's the first chapter. Feel free to tell me what you'd like to see in this story, as I want to make it fairly long. No OOC, no badly written grammar, or anything that makes people think I'm a squealy ditzy drunk teenager. Which I'm not.

I plan on making this compliant to the original series but with as little of the original series as possible. If that makes sense.