Prologue: An Invitation to America!
SEIGAKU: Seigaku Junior High, Tokyo.
Monday, 4:50 PM.
"A-Another American tournament?" Oishi sputtered, nearly choking on his water.
It was another day after practice and the Seigaku Tennis Club was doing their cool-down stretching when their captain decided to break some exciting news to everyone.
"Yes, and I would advise you all not to be carele-"
"But Tezuka-Buchou, this is such late notice! It's in a week? H-How could we possibly train enough to prepare for something with so little time? Momoshiro and Kaidou's doubles is too uncoordinated, Kawamura's still recovering from an overexertion of power, we need to work on Eiji's stamina and..."
"Oishi-" Tezuka attempted,
"...And I think I still have regular bouts of nausea from Inui's last serving of Penal Tea. Plus, Ryuzaki is sick again and she won't be able to be our chaperone and there are just so many things that could go wro-"
"OISHI!"
"Yes, buchou?"
"Thank you. Now, if you'll let me finish, the Seigaku Tennis Club has been asked by the Official Tennis Association of America to play a few exposé games against local middle schools with underfunded tennis programs in New York. These are not meant to be strictly competitive matches," He then paused to give everyone a sharp glare, as if to say but I expect you to win at all costs, "...Rather, they are meant to provide a learning experience for students who may be struggling with tennis, in the hopes that by playing more advanced opponents they will be inspired to push harder themselves. Understand?"
"Yes, captain." The team responded in unison.
Momoshiro's hand suddenly raised, "So... No homework during the whole trip?" Kaidou rolled his eyes at the question.
Tezuka nodded, "That's right. Instead, we will be finishing the school year much later, to make up for the three weeks we will be out of the country."
Momoshiro and Eiji groaned in unison.
Then Inui's hand shot up.
"Yes, Inui?"
"It is likely to assume that, considering the vast amount of tennis talent in the Tokyo area, Seigaku wasn't the only junior high tennis team invited to take part in these exposé games, correct? Will we be seeing other teams?" Inui asked, glasses glinting. Another chance to compare notes and abilities with Yanagi seemed like a good offer.
"Good assumption, you are indeed right. Seigaku, along with Rikkaidai Fuzoku Chuu, Hyotei Gakuen, Rokkaku Chuu and Higa Chuu were also sent invitations." Their captain's response was met with excitement.
Tezuka continued: "Our flight leaves sharply at 7:00 AM next Friday morning. A shuttle is going to drive us from school to the Tokyo Narita Airport at 5:30 AM, to assure that we have enough time to have our bags checked and go through security before the plane begins boarding. I expect to see you there, bright and early."
RIKKAIDAI: Narita Airport, Tokyo.
Friday, 5:46 AM.
"Yanagi, what did you fill this bag with? Rocks?" Jackal groaned, painfully trying to help his teammate shove his carry-on bag onto the airport security conveyor belt. After straining his arms and nearly throwing out his back, the two finally managed to muster enough combined strength to lift the large duffel-bag onto the belt so it could be screened.
Jackal wiped the sweat from his brow, "But seriously, can I ask what you put in there?" he exhaustedly inquired. Yanagi looked at him rather blandly, "A twelve part series about the agglomerative methods of cluster analysis. For some light reading on the plane ride." Jackal sighed and nodded. "'Light reading'... Right."
Further down in the airport security line, Jackal's doubles partner appeared to be having a few issues.
"Wait, wait, wait. So you're saying I can't bring this on the plane? But how could it possibly be dangerous? I-" Marui rattled off to one of the airport security officers.
"Sir, rules are rules. While it is highly unlikely that bringing this as a carry-on item would cause any harm to your fellow passengers, all liquids must be kept in bottles that are less than 8 ounces."
Marui groaned, rolling his eyes. Kirihara, hopelessly devoted to his senpais, took this chance to stand up for his teammate.
"But he payed a lot for this! And he needs it for his athletic abilities! Rikkaidai is taking part in an American tennis tournament next week and Marui-senpai's tennis works best with this kind of nutrition! You don't want Japan to lose, do you?" Kirihara pleaded, desperate to both help and impress Marui.
The airport security officer just sighed. He hated dealing with people like this. He knew he should have taken that other job offer in Osaka. "While I appreciate your opinion as a customer, this airline has very strict guidelines. If you want to board the plane, you'll have to leave it behind. Understand?"
"Fiiiine." Marui huffed, throwing his hands up as he discarded his contraband item. "But just so you know, that 64 ounce bottle of chocolate syrup wasn't exactly cheap."
"I tried to help, Marui-senpai! That guy was so lame... I could destroy him in tennis!" Kirihara vented, a crazy glint in his eye. Marui just nodded and patted him on the head with a sympathetic grin. "I know, I know."
ROKKAKU: Narita Airport, Tokyo.
Friday, 6:02 AM.
Rokkaku's young and enthusiastic captain was happily heading towards their plane's gate, walking fast from excitement. "I've never been on a plane before! Have you guys? What's it like?"
"Well, it's plane to see that someone's looking forward to this!" Amane Hikaru, commonly known as Davide, responded. Ryo shuddered at the pathetic pun as Davide received a swift kick to the head from his doubles partner, Kurobane.
"Whoa, whoa, guys, no fighting here! It might seem suspicious since we're in an airport and security's really strict about any violent conduct," Saeki worriedly interjected.
"You heard him. No fighting, just... flighting... Pffft!" Davide couldn't resist.
A vein pulsed in Kurobane's temple. "And here I was, thinking that I'd only need these earplugs during the flight," Kurobane said as he opened a packet of the small orange buds and popped one in each ear.
"I guess I was making too much of a... Racquet," Davide grinned, pointing to his tennis racquet bag.
As the group headed towards gate A-11 to wait for their flight to begin boarding, Kurobane smiled to himself at the muffled, incomprehensible noise.
SEIGAKU, HYOTEI: Narita Airport, Tokyo.
Friday, 6:10 AM.
Already in gate A-11, the Hyotei and Seigaku regulars were passing the time by engaging in a fierce competition.
Using Atobe's fancy, gold-plated board and sterling silver letter pieces, their intra-school scrabble game was becoming quite heated and stressful.
"I agree with Kaidou. That is definitely not an actual word," Shishido said stubbornly, arms crossed.
"What? Yes it is, I say it all the time! It's practically my catchphrase, and a catchphrase counts as a word!" Momoshiro defiantly retorted, pointing at the letters he had just placed on the scrabble board.
"You dumbass, 'don', is definitely not in a dictionary! What would it mean anyway? Aside from, 'Check out my oafish power-tennis that actually managed to work for once!'" Kaidou growled, fisting Momoshiro's shirt.
"Stupid Mamushi, during our last scrabble game you played 'hiss' and that's your idiotic catchphrase, so it's only fair that mine should count!" Momoshiro growled back.
Inui interjected, "Momoshiro, as you know, 'hiss' is a real word, found in the official Oxford English dictionary," Inui stated, but then nodded at Kaidou, "However, Kaidou is mistaken for assuming that 'don' is not a real word. Its technical definition is 'a Spanish title prefixed to a male forename.' " Momoshiro blinked.
"Such as the character Don John, from Shakespeare's play Much Ado About Nothing. I saw that piece performed in the London Theatre by a professional acting troupe from New York's prestigious Julliard school of performing arts. It was part of my tenth birthday present." Atobe added, effortlessly flicking a strand of hair from his face.
Shishido groaned. "I still say it shouldn't count."
He was probably more upset about this because Momoshiro's 'don' (placed on a triple-word-score tile) won him 24 extra points, just putting him past Shishido's score.
RIKKAIDAI: Narita Airport, Tokyo.
Friday, 6:15 AM.
Once Jackal and Yanagi finished getting all their items checked by security, they eventually caught up with Kirihara and Marui.
"Hello again. I trust everything went well?" Yanagi asked.
Marui rolled his eyes, "Security guard losers wouldn't let me take my health drink."
"You brought a health drink with you?" Jackal asked, curious.
"Yeah, don't you remember? That time when I convinced you to get me that awesome, huge bottle of chocolate syrup?"
Oh. That. Jackal face palmed.
Kirihara took that moment to cut in, "Where are buchou and fukubuchou?!"
"One-hundred percent chance Sanada's line progress is being delayed by Niou's antics. Thirty-four percent chance Niou sabotaged his suitcase. Fifty-five percent chance Sanada will be able to deduce that Niou is the culprit." Yanagi replied. The three others nodded. Yanagi's statistics never lied.
And, as if on queue, suddenly a loud "TARUNDORU!" was heard throughout Tokyo's Narita Airport complex.
Sanada had just been taken to one of the security tables to get his suitcase examined by an airport officer, only to find that the contents of his bag-which he'd previously thought were a novel, sweatshirt, deck of cards, travel-sized mahjong board and an extra cap-Had now been replaced by an enormous stack of incredibly inappropriate magazines.
The moment Sanada realized something had gone awry happened when the security officer's facial expression showed utter shock and disgust upon opening his bag. Sanada peeked over, because, well, nothing he had packed that morning would trigger such a reaction. And much to his unpleasant surprise, what he had packed that morning was not what was inside his bag. Instead, his suitcase was spilling over with a multitude raunchy magazines, titles ranging from "Cumming into a sticky situation" to "Busty 'n Lusty: Shower Edition."
Rikkaidai's fukubuchou was not pleased.
"NIOU MASAHARU! If you think that this is okay, and that you are not an abomination to the honorable title of being a member of the Rikkai tennis club, THEN YOU COULDN'T BE ANY MORE WRONG!" Sanada growled, red-faced with a mixture of extreme rage and extreme embarrassment.
Niou just looked at him rather innocently. "What? You can't prove it was me. Maybe it was Yagyuu?"
Yagyuu smirked from behind Niou in line. "Actually, it was Yagyuu. But I'm not Yagyuu right now.
Sanada just glowered. "Tarundoru! You two... both of you, are going to be in a world of pain and exhaustion when we return to school. You will be running laps until you faint."
It was then that the security officer who was checking Sanada's bag decided to cut in. "U-Uhm, sir? Your bag check is done, you may now proceed through the airport gates."
Angrily sighing, Rikkai's long-suffering fukubuchou uttered, "Keep it." and walked in the direction of their flight.
Yukimura simply watched the scene play out with a rather serene smile on his face.
"Wonderful, now that we've all passed through security, let us head to our gate. What's our gate number again, Yanagi?" asked their pretty buchou.
"It says here gate A-11. We're still early though. Our plane to doesn't leave for another hour, so we'll have a lot of time to kill," Yanagi remarked.
"Too bad Sanada left all that reading material back at security!" Niou couldn't help but snicker.
"What reading material? Fukubuchou, did you bring books for all of us?" Kirihara perked up.
Sanada just glared at everyone. This was going to be a long flight.
To be continued...
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