I believe that Kirihara is 170cm tall, while Hiyoshi is 172cm. If I'm wrong, I'm sorry. :P
Oshitari smirked. "It's a match between the two captains-to-be, am I right?" he asked.
Yagyuu smiled. "Indeed you are."
Hiyoshi and Kirihara both took their seats. "I'll crush you," said Kirihara, while licking his lips.
Hiyoshi fiddled with his spoon. "Gekoku-" He paused, and thought. "Never mind, I can't gekokujou you because you aren't higher than me."
Kirihara frowned. "Only by two centimeters!" he said.
Hiyoshi rolled his eyes. "That's not what I meant." Then he paused once more. "Wait, how do you know that?"
"Yanagi-senpai."
"Oh."
Yanagi's non-existent glasses glinted.
"Kabaji, be the referee for this match," ordered Atobe. He snapped.
"Usu."
There was an awkward silence.
"Kabaji? Say the pre-game announcement."
"Usu."
Another awkward silence.
Oshitari sighed. "This obviously isn't going to work, so let Shishido be the referee."
Shishido flinched. "Why me!"
"Just because."
"But I don't want to!"
"I believe you can, Shishido-san!" said Ootori (hey, that rhymes!).
"O-Oh." Shishido blinked. "T-Thanks, Choutarou." He cleared his throat. "One bowl match, both teams ready to start!"
Gakuto snickered. Shishido hit him in the head. "Shut up!"
oOoOoOoOo
Hiyoshi stood up and got into his Enbu tennis pose (yes, he had to move the table forward). "He looks lame with the spoon," commented Shishido.
"We did tell him to play in a way that was comfortable with him," said Oshitari.
"Yes, but... he even EATS like that?"
"You two!" yelled Atobe (even though they were all sitting near each other). "Pay attention to the match!"
Oshitari and Shishido did as Atobe said, although Oshitari whispered, "He's quite tense, isn't he?"
Shishido nodded. "He'll definitely want to at least win against the kings Rikkai in something."
Oshitari raised an eyebrow.
That's when Hiyoshi started to eat faster and faster with his Enbu... ice cream eating. "Akaya, speed up!" barked Sanada.
Sure enough, Kirihara did. 'I can't believe that guy already started his fourth ice cream scoop...' Then a little voice in his head said, 'You're just behind two scoops because you've already eaten five ice cream scoops today!' Kirihara frowned. 'You're right. I shouldn't have done that. Stupid Marui-senpai-' Then he cut off the rest of his thoughts because he realized that he was talking/thinking to himself, which made him think that he was crazy. "Stupid!" was all he yelled.
Niou elbowed Marui. "Is he okay?"
Marui blew a bubble. "He never is."
"True."
Yagyuu pushed his glasses up. "Akaya-kun is avoiding the wasabi ice cream scoops, isn't he?" he asked.
Niou smirked. "Well, that Hiyoshi guy is, too."
oOoOoOoOo
"They can't avoid the wasabi ice cream for too long," commented the first ice cream man, from not too far away. He smiled at this.
The second ice cream man frowned. "You didn't have to give those two wasabi ice cream as well. The amount of wasabi ice cream in their singles 1 match was already enough."
"Saa, I just wanted to give Kirihara a little more punishment," replied the first ice cream man.
"The Kantou tournament was months ago. I think you punished him enough."
The first ice cream man smiled. "Well, this ice cream match will satisfy me for sure."
"Well there was no need to make Hiyoshi suffer."
"Yes, but it wouldn't be good if I gave Hiyoshi the advantage. I'm only being fair."
The second ice cream man sighed.
oOoOoOoOo
"Akaya has eaten five ice cream scoops, while Hiyoshi has eaten seven," mumbled Yanagi.
'Please don't let Akaya go into devil mode, please don't let Akaya go into devil mode,' thought Jackal desperately.
"Genichirou, it'll be fine," said Yukimura, as he noticed how Sanada grew tense. "This is a good opportunity to see if Akaya is ready to lead Rikkai next year."
"In ice cream?" asked Sanada.
Yukimura's look darkened. "We Rikkai must triumph in everything we do. It is the law of the kings. We cannot lose in something like this."
Sanada nodded. "So we must put our trust in Akaya to win."
"Exactly."
Yanagi continued to mumble to himself. "Akaya is now starting to eat his eighth ice cream scoop, while Hiyoshi is starting his tenth."
Niou smirked. "You can see that Hiyoshi guy's already sweating because of the wasabi ice cream."
Marui popped a bubble. "Soon he won't be the only one."
Jackal's eyes started twitching. "Is it just me, or... are Akaya's eyes getting redder by the scoop?"
Sure enough, Kirihara's eyes had looked pinker than before. "He's not even in that much of a pinch..." said Marui.
"Nah," replied Niou. "Think of the situation. He's started to eat a WASABI ice cream scoop, not to mention that the other nine scoops are also wasabi-flavoured. He's slightly doomed."
Marui rolled his eyes. "Well, it's not like that Hiyoshi guy isn't going through the same pain."
Jackal nodded. "It'll be a battle of will soon. Let's just pray that-"
Jackal was interrupted by a loud, evil laugh coming from a certain Rikkai junior ace. "D-Devil Akaya," he whispered, shaking.
Kirihara continued to laugh. "I'll dye you red!" he said, cackling.
Gakuto blinked. "Don't you mean green?"
Kirihara glared at Gakuto. "Whatever!" Then he proceeded to do his Knuckle serve in ice cream, which looked a lot like Ootori's Neo Scud serve, except for the fact that there were four ice cream scoops sent in the air instead of three, and that they were all spinning quite erratically.
"He's gonna fit all of those in his mouth!" yelled Shishido (a bit too loudly).
Kirihara licked his lips before the four ice cream scoops fell into his mouth. Surprisingly, he didn't choke, nor did he get a brainfreeze. 'That guy's already starting his twelfth ice cream scoop,' thought Hiyoshi in annoyance. 'Even if he's currently tied with me, that's still pretty impressive.' Then he proceeded to scoop his ice cream Enbu-style faster. 'I feel a slight brainfreeze coming on,' he thought as he started to teeter a little.
"You can do it, Hiyoshi-kun!" cheered Ootori.
"Hurry up and finish all of that ice cream," said Shishido, slightly annoyed.
That brought Hiyoshi back to the real world, as he had zoned out temporarily. He started to eat much faster. Soon, he was on his fourteenth scoop of ice cream. However, Kirihara was, too. "Devil mode certainly makes Kirihara much faster," commented Oshitari. He sighed. 'It's going to end soon, and yet I can't figure out who the winner will be.'
"Faster, Hiyoshi!" yelled Atobe (even though he wasn't THAT far away from Hiyoshi). "Take Hyoutei to victory with your own hands!"
"Akaya!" yelled Yukimura (even though, like Atobe, he wasn't THAT far away from Kirihara). "Win for Rikkai!"
'This is becoming torture,' thought Hiyoshi. Then his eyes widened as he saw what Kirihara was doing. "Another Knuckle serve!" exclaimed Gakuto.
"That guy's gonna have a huge brainfreeze after this..." muttered Shishido.
Both the first and second ice cream men walked up closer to the match. "Quite intense, isn't it?" asked the first ice cream man.
The second ice cream man nodded. "Ah."
'Akaya's pushing himself this far...' thought Sanada. 'He's even standing up this time to ensure his Knuckle serve will be successful.'
"Hiyoshi, faster!" yelled Atobe.
Kirihara licked his lips. "I'll crush you!" And with that, he performed his last Knuckle serve and ate his last ice cream scoops of the day.
'No...' thought Hiyoshi. "NOOOOOOO!" he screamed very uncharacteristically. The Rikkai regulars looked at him and wondered if he was the same person.
"You're very out of character, Hiyoshi," stated Oshitari.
'Too much fanfiction indeed,' thought Yanagi.
Oshitari sighed. "Game and match, Kirihara. 0 scoops to 14. With the overall score 3 - 2, along with a no game, Rikkai wins this ice cream-eating tournament."
Jirou woke up at this. "Yay Marui-kun~! Your team won!"
The rest of Hyoutei sweatdropped. "Jirou, shouldn't you be sad that our team lost?" asked Oshitari in exasperation.
Jirou tilted his head. "But Marui-kun's team won, and I'm happy for him!"
"T-Thanks, Akutagawa," said Marui uneasily.
Jirou frowned slightly. "Call me Jirou!"
Marui tried again. "T-Thanks, Jirou-kun."
Jirou beamed. "Honestly," said Oshitari. "That guy can never be sad."
Niou smirked. "Nice job, br-" He stopped as he noticed Kirihara collapse. Luckily, the first ice cream man was there to catch him.
"It's alright," he said, smiling. "He's just unconscious from a brainfreeze."
Marui twitched. "I feel like I've seen this scene somewhere before..."
"Saa, do you remember me, Marui-kun?"
Marui thought for a bit before a lightbulb appeared on the top of his head. "Y-You... YOU were the one serving us all along!"
Yukimura raised an eyebrow. "You mean you didn't notice it, Marui?" he asked. Then he turned to the first ice cream man. "You can forget about that price deal since our team won, Fuji."
Many of the regulars of both teams gasped at this. "YOU MEAN YOU WERE THE ICE CREAM MAN!" they yelled.
"Yup," replied Fuji.
"What on earth are you doing here in Kanagawa, Fuji-kun?" asked Yagyuu.
"We decided that we needed to get jobs to free up all of the extra time we have, now that the Nationals are done and exams are finished," replied Fuji. "We also decided that being in Kanagawa would be a nice change instead of always being in Tokyo."
"What about tennis?" asked Sanada. "Wait, 'we'?"
Fuji nodded. "Tezuka and I."
The second ice cream man coughed. Niou and Shishido tried to keep themselves from laughing. "It is a good paying job," said Tezuka, trying to keep his cool.
"Wait," said Ootori. "I heard that all of the ice cream here is made from scratch. Does that mean that you made it?"
Everyone looked fearful.
Fuji chuckled. "I certainly didn't. For some reason, they didn't trust me in the kitchen, although I don't know why."
Everyone else kept silent. They knew/had heard about Fuji's... different taste buds. "But don't worry," said Fuji. "Tezuka was the one that made your ice cream; and I'm sure it was good, too."
"Tezuka, you can cook?" asked Atobe, with an eyebrow raised in amusement.
Tezuka frowned. "Of course I can."
"Well, Atobe," said Yukimura. "You said you'd pay, right?"
"Of course, it's barely anything," replied Atobe.
'Filthy rich Hyoutei students...' thought all of Rikkai minus Yukimura.
Atobe handed two handfuls of bills to Fuji, who opened his eyes in shock. "This is... a bit much," said Fuji.
"Keep the change, ore-sama is feeling generous," said Atobe.
"So what was the prize of all of this?" asked Kirihara, who had now recovered from fainting.
"Just the pride of winning, Akaya-kun," replied Yagyuu.
Kirihara pouted. "That's it?"
"Now, now, Akaya," said Yukimura. "There's no need to be greedy. And plus," he smiled. "You'll make a great captain for Rikkai next year."
Kirihara beamed. "Really?"
Yukimura nodded. "Even Sanada agrees."
Sanada grunted in response.
Atobe noticed Hiyoshi's more angry look. "Don't worry, Hiyoshi," he said. "You were pretty impressive during that. Ore-sama knows that you'll lead Hyoutei to be the National champions next year."
Hiyoshi's expression calmed slightly. "Thank you, Atobe-san."
Fuji chuckled. "Well I know for sure that Kaidoh will be the one to lead Seigaku to victory once again."
Hiyoshi and Kirihara glared at Fuji. "We'll crush/gekokujou him," they both said in unison.
oOoOoOoOo
And somewhere in Tokyo, a certain Kaidoh Kaoru sneezed.
oOoOoOoOo
"Just remember, Kirihara," said Hiyoshi. "Hyoutei'll still win next year."
"No way," scoffed Kirihara. "Rikkai will."
The rest of the regulars sat there with tears in their eyes as they watched the two captains-to-be already plotting their victories.
Oh, middle schoolers have become so terribly emotional these days.
Bad ending? I dunno. It was really rushed. Well, that's the end of this fic! Thanks for sticking with me all this time! :)