Kikumaru Eiji stared intensely at his phone in his hands. The redhead is relaxing alone at the lounging area, his eyes fixed on the screen. What's shown on the phone is a photo of Coach Ryuzaki's granddaughter, Sakuno when she still had beautiful long rosette locks. Eiji consider himself lucky to have such a rare photo of Sakuno since her hair was cut short. Even with short hair, Sakuno looked cute, but he won't be able to see what she originally look like anymore. The photo will suffice for now.

Ever since 'Echizen' was dropped from the program, Eiji found himself looking at Sakuno's picture when he's alone to help coax the reality that he won't see her for a while. Eiji had always considered Sakuno his live teddy bear he can hug whenever he liked at school because she fits perfectly in his arms. Warm, cozy, soft, sweet scented - just like Kumajirou!

"Hm? Kikumaru? Is that your girlfriend? Wow, she's so cute! Lucky!" The third year Regular of Yamabuki snatched the phone out of Kikumaru's hands.

"Hoi give that back-!"

"Hey Kamio-kun! Over here!" Sengoku waved another redhead over. The Fudomine second year looked at the Yamabuki player questionably but came over nevertheless. "Sengoku-san? Kikumaru-san?"

Eiji growled in annoyance. He didn't want to share his photo with more people! As the angry redhead lunged at the ginger, Sengoku swiftly moved over to the side in the brick of time, causing Eiji to collide into a soft couch instead. "Lookie here Kamio-kun! Isn't Kikumaru's girlfriend adorable?" Kamio peeked at the phone with a somewhat bored expression. "Hey…she is pretty cute. Not as much as my Ann-chan!" Kamio pulled out his phone to show the older male the picture of his crush, looking to impress.

"Hmm, she's alright if you like sporty chicks. I like graceful, elegant, beautiful girls with long hair and perhaps am able to occasionally make me a bento, look amazing in a yukata, and be easily pleased, maybe a bit on the shy and reserved side too…"

"…How the hell can you tell all that from a picture?!"

While Kamio and Sengoku were sharing 'pleasantries', Eiji sneaked up behind the person who stole his phone and leaped on his back! "NYAH!"

"GAH-! KIKUMARU?!"

The phone flew out of Sengoku's clutches, skidding on the polished flooring, and catching the eye of a person nearby. "Hm…?" The captain of Shitenhoji scooped the device up in his hands. He blinked at the picture, recognizing the face. She's the pretty young lady Kintarou had his eyes on. Shiraishi have only seen her once, but now having another view on her, he could really admire her childlike charm. If he weren't loyal to his friend, he'd ask Seigaku for her number. His eyes scanned the area for whoever lost their phone only to see Kikumaru climbing on Sengoku's back while Kamio is trying to pull the other redhead off him.

"…" Being quick, Shiraishi sent the picture to his phone while all three of the U-17 redheads were preoccupied. Once finished, he slipped his phone back into his pocket. "Did anyone lose this?" The light-haired male waved the phone around.

"Ah! That's mine!" Eiji jumped off a disoriented Yamabuki player.

Shiraishi smiled, so this is Kin-chan's love rival. "Here you go Kikumaru."

Eiji swiped the phone out of Shiraishi's hand. "Thanks Shiraishi-san, nyah!" He grinned brightly showing his thanks then skipped away before Sengoku wouldn't steal his phone again.

Shiraishi chuckled and left as well, bidding farewell to the redhead and the ginger.

While walking through the corridors, Shiraishi fished out the phone from his pocket then stare at the photo of the girl. He felt guilty for stealing the picture but he couldn't help himself! He's sure such deed won't be harmful in any way. "Hey Shiraishi, what are you looking at?" His friend Chitose hooked an arm around his shoulder, taking a peek into his phone. "Whoa! A girl you're interested in? Isn't that school uniform Seigaku…? Hey doesn't Kin-chan have a crush on a girl from Seigaku?" The tanned male questioned, eyeing his friend suspiciously.

Shiraishi's cheeks turned pink. "Y-Yeah, this is the girl Kin-chan likes. …Don't look at me like that! I'm not going to steal her, our kouhai saw her first."

"Seeing her first doesn't have anything to do with it. When our team goes out to sushi and whoever sees the fatty tuna first, gets to have it, but this is a girl. There is a difference."

"…Chitose I don't even know her." Shiraishi sighed, running his fingers through his light colored hair. "It's fine, I'm just attracted to her. Girls come and go but friendship is everlasting. Kin-chan likes her and that's enough." Chitose's eyes linger on his friend for a moment, and pinched his cheek with a grin. "Heh! I never knew you could be so sappy Shiraishi!"

"C-Chitose-!"

Atobe Keigo walked, gracing floors he's walking on with his presence. He continued on through the corridors connecting to the lounge, seeing two Shitenhoji regulars messing around. Hmph how disgraceful to be behaving so shamefully in ore-sama's presence, Atobe thought. As the Shitenhoji captain flailed his arms, Atobe's sharp stunning blue eyes locked and zoomed in on the picture the light haired male had in his phone.

The blond Hyotei captain stopped in his tracks. "Th-That…" His face is white, and eyes wide in fascination.

"THIS IS MY PRINCESS!" Atobe's exceedingly perfect hand shoved Shiraishi's face as he grasped the phone. Still clutching onto the phone, Shiraishi stared at the lunatic questionably. "Huh?"

"My princess! My spouse! The mother of my children! Ore-sama has finally found you at long last!"

Did Atobe just kiss Shiraishi's phone?

"…You know that isn't a real person, right Atobe? It. Is. A. Phone." Chitose spelt it out for the psychopath; a bit agitated by the way he's treating Shiraishi.

Atobe growled. "Of course ore-sama knows that, you buffoon! Ore-sama has dozens of phones at his disposal and they are much more expensive and better than this cheap commoner's model." He stroked the screen lovingly. "…Ore-sama will be keeping this. Shitenhoji-tachi can bill him for the expenses later."

The Shitenhoji Regulars watched as the Hyotei captain laughed manically as he walked the opposite way from them. As much as they wanted to get the phone back, they didn't want to deal with the high maintenance male more than they already have. Grimacing, they pondered what Atobe meant by what he said about Kin-chan's crush.

"Bwahahaha!"

…Perhaps the reason to why Atobe isn't in an asylum is that his riches persuaded his diagnosis that he is sane.

"I hope he won't do what I think he'd do with that picture…"

"…Oh gross Chitose. Don't make me think of that! That's my phone for God's sake!"

—

—

Winners Aftermath, Losers Hell

—

—

On the summit what awaiting them were an unexpected sight. The High schoolers that were dropped out on the first day of the U-17 camp were all here… Sakuno's surprised, she thought they all went home, but then again, the winners at camp probably have the same thought about them. Those High shcoolers looked absolutely brunt out…sweaty and exhausted, Sakuno thought with a grimace. What kind of training have they been doing? She glanced at the elderly man with an ugly mug who seemed to be in charge around here. He looked very intimidating at first glance, still intimidating at the second, and third. And forth. And fifth. …It isn't getting any better no matter how much she tried to find something nice about him!

"Welcome to Hell, losers."

What a greeting…

The man had a transfixed scowl on his face while his leer screamed intimidation. "Listen up trash because I won't be repeating myself! I'm Mifune! I'll be coaching all you losers here!" His dark eyes scanned the group of middle schoolers then fell on the shortest and smallest of the bunch, Sakuno. She flinched when she met with his intense gaze. From high-class training to roughing it in the mountains, they have really fallen low.

"Make sure to do everything I tell you, or else I'll throw you off the cliff!"

Yikes. Sakuno kept that noted. She won't be crossing him…he's scarier than Fuji-sempai. Maybe she's tiny enough to shrink into the background, that way she wouldn't have to deal with the wrath of the scary coach's attitude. Anything to not draw attention to herself. Yes, that is the best plan in mind. But…the way he's able to keep these boys in line is incredible. Sakuno immediately held respect for the drunken man. He sort of reminded her of her obaa-chan! Her mood quickly skyrocketed after the thoughts of her grandmother cross her mind. Oh, how she missed her obaa-chan greatly.

Zaizen stared as 'Echizen's' face lightened up and he radiated happiness. The nasty old coach then yelled something that made Echizen recoil from fright but then the boy began to glow vibrantly with happiness again. The heck…? Since when was Seigaku's chibi have such…cute qualities? The Shitenhoji second year continued to stare at the cute first year, unsure of how or why he even bothered. Niou's eyes focus on the second year eyeing Sakuno up until a flamboyant Shitenhoji third year commented on something about it, which freaked the boy out. As much as he would like to stay closer the Echizen wannabe, he made note to stay clear of Ryuzaki Sakuno only when Momoshiro is nearby. By his protectiveness over the girl, one would assume Momoshiro is interested in Sakuno but that isn't the case from what the Trickster could tell. The Seigaku second year looked at the first year with a dotting affection a brother would have toward his baby sister.

Niou's gaze went to his fellow schoolmate Yanagi. The Data specialist of Rikkai must know Ryuzaki Sakuno isn't Echizen by now. Just by Sakuno's movements alone Yanagi must have figured it out, Niou mused. He wouldn't be surprised if Yanagi's impressive data gathering pinpointed who exactly this 'Echizen Ryoma' is – if she is associated with Tennis in any way. By her tennis not-so-impressive-but-still-okay tennis abilities, Niou could presume she was training on the Girl's Tennis Club at Seishun.

The RikkaiDai Trickster eliminated all the idiotic reasons to why Yanagi have yet to spill the beans about Sakuno. Highest possibility is because of the Seigaku's data specialist. They're friends. It's safe to assume Yanagi would later confine in Inui that he knew sooner or later. That just left Jackal and Sanada in their group. Sanada is an idiot when it comes to girls. He doesn't know. Niou is sure. Jackal is smart, he'd find out eventually if he paid attention to Sakuno for a few minutes.

After the introduction, Coach Mifune led them somewhere to change into plain T-shirts and shorts without any explanation as to why they had to change.

Sakuno blushed when the boys surrounding her began to strip. She couldn't help but notice they were very well built… UWAH! She needed to snap out of it! This wasn't the first time she's seen half-naked tennis boys! She had accidentally walked into the boy's dressing room while her sempai-tachi was changing many times before! She didn't need to be embarrassed! Lady luck was on her side, she wore a shirt underneath her tennis uniform so she didn't have to worry about being found out. The mounds on her chest are pretty nonexistent anyway… All the milk she have been drinking had not helped her chest area the slightest bit…

Sulking, Sakuno took off her shirt while recalling the incident last month.

—

—

She has gotten lost… in her own school for Pete's sake! She knew she was outside… yes, she's sure she's outside. It was obvious since she could see the clear blue sky above her. But what she couldn't tell is which way was the direction to the Girl's tennis club…

Sakuno trained at the tennis club almost daily so why is it now she can't figure out which way she needed to go? Ugh, she blamed her horrendous sense in direction and her occasional mood to space out while she walked.

Familiar tennis courts soon came to her vision. Her face immediately brightened up. No one was on the courts yet so she's not late! Maybe her luck was changing for once. With a smile fixated on her face, she went to the locker room area. As she took each step closer to the locker room, she could feel that something was strangely off… She couldn't put her finger on what was however.

Her hand turned the doorknob to the locker room and she opened it. "Konbanwa, sempai-tachi…." Blood quickly rushed to her face when she looked up and saw half naked tennis boys in nothing but their boxer-briefs. "Eh…"

"Eh…" A handful of the boys replied back, staring at the coach's granddaughter with wide eyes.

"Ryuzaki, your nose is bleeding," Seigaku's pillar of support, Echizen Ryoma broke the ice, speaking nonchalantly as he put his tennis shirt back on.

"IT'S TRUE NYAH! RYUZAKI-CHAN ARE YOU OKAY?"

"Oh my- Ryuzaki-san tilt your head back!"

"Haha, were you that excited to see us Sakuno-chan? Saa…"

"BURNING! RYUZAKI-CHAN IS BATHING IN WOMANLY YOUTHFULNESS BABY!"

"Iie data…"

She was surrounded by many shirtless tennis regulars in a flash of a second; crowding her as they asked if she was well.

"…Stop crowding her," The captain spoke stoically although feeling agitated about his teammates' immaturity over a girl walking in on them.

Ryoma smirked, "You're kind of a pervert Ryuzaki."

Sakuno felt the world crumbling around her.

Why couldn't she just die now to save herself of this embarrassment!

—

—

"Puri."

Sakuno breath caught in her throat at the sight of the white-haired Rikkai male without his shirt. He stood beside her while nonchalantly removing his clothing. Her heart thumped rapidly in her chest from anticipation. Where on earth did he come from! She didn't remember him coming closer. She held her jersey and shirt against her chest even though there really isn't anything to hide.

"Do you like what you see perchance?"

Oh, fudge. Did he think she was ogling him?

"N-No…" Sakuno stammered pathetically and quickly turned away from the male. He grinned, amused. The Seigaku Regulars were worried about Sakuno changing her clothes but they didn't want to be caught staring. The other Regulars were preoccupied with changing into the clothes Coach Mifune provided them. "Embarrassed again girlie?"

Sakuno frowned. "Of course not! Put on your shirt already! You have nothing to show off Niou-san." This made Niou raise a curious eyebrow. "Hm?"

She quickly got dressed in the plain clothing. "W-Well it's not that impressive…!"

Before he could control it, laughter quickly shot up his throat. WOW. This chick is hilarious! She deliberately admitted she was checking him out without the knowledge of the meaning behind her words! "Pffft…kehahaha-!" Sakuno whirled around when laughter ringed in her ears. Her eyes widen at the sight of Niou snickering in front of her. Her cheeks burned. Have she said or done something embarrassing again? G-Geez this guy! She bit the inside of her mouth, denying the fact that she actually liked his teasing and that his laughter made her stomach feel silly. She is not a masochist! Nope, not her.

Niou's hand draped over the upper half of his face, showing the lazy grin as his laughing gradually stopped.

"Are you done now?" Sakuno's attempt at a glare turned into an angry pout.

Niou peeked at Sakuno between the fingers draping over his eyes. "Just about."

"Then hurry up and put on a shirt!" She shoved her jersey in his chest, no longer wishing to see him flaunt his gorgeous body. …Hold up – Gorgeous? Her mind quickly backtracked. Niou's boyish grin doubled in size as he watched the girl's mind get stuck in a reverie.

While Sakuno's brain is experiencing a meltdown, Niou put on the plain shirt as the girl wanted him to.

The Losers have all changed clothes. They left their jerseys on the railing of the cottage cabin before them. "Anyone got changed? Plain T-shirts are enough for you trash," The man called Mifune spoke. Sakuno's eyes brightened once more from the coach's attitude. He's just like her obaa-chan~! Most of the teenagers didn't take the liking to being called trash.

"Hey who are you to call us trash…!" A boy exclaimed. Ah, that Fuji-sempai's little brother. Fuji Yuuta, she believed.

The youngest Fuji was thoroughly ignored.

They were ordered to dig holes immediately after they changed. Shovels were dumped beneath their feet which the losers glowered at because Coach Mifune didn't have the respect towards them to hand them out instead.

The losers didn't understand why they had to dig holes but reluctantly went along with it; after all if they wanted to fill the gap between them and the winners, they would have to listen to the crazy old coot of a coach.

The coach disappeared somewhere with the High schoolers seconds later. Sakuno shuddered at the thought of what the High schoolers had to do for training. She heard Coach Mifune call out that to High schoolers that they had to climb a waterfall…? Is that even humanly possible? Not even her grandmother made the Seigaku regulars do such extremes! She's dreading the kind of training coach Mifune had in store for them after they finished the tedious hole digging exercise.

"Hey, hey Koshimae!" Kintarou waved the shovel in the air frantically trying to get Sakuno's attention.

"Kintarou-kun? What is it?" She couldn't help but smile from her friend's hyper antics. They may be in for some ruthless training but the redheaded boy can still manage beam vibrantly.

He grinned. "Do you want to compete with me? Whoever digs the deepest hole before ossan comes back wins!" Sakuno laughed nervously, reluctant to agree. Kintarou-kun just wants to have fun. She doesn't want to ruin his fun… so she had to agree.

"Alright Kintarou-kun."

"Yatta!" The readhead threw his arms in the air. Before they could even put their shovels to the ground, Sanada-san spoke up beside them. "We're not playing around, Echizen, Tooyama. Now help us with this hole," He barked out the demand.

Sakuno's shoulders sunk from being lectured, but Sanada-san was right. They should help each other with the hole instead of messing around with shovels. "I'm sorry Sanada-san, it won't happen again," She bowed respectfully then scampered off to her senpai-tachi to help them. Kintarou seemed to have gone back to his group of regulars to help them instead. Although it probably wasn't intentional, it was best that way. Echizen and Tooyama aren't that buddy-buddy so there would be suspicions if the boy stuck with Sakuno the whole time.

"Oh, Ryuzaki-san did you um… get dressed okay?" Oishi whispered to her with awkward concern as he dug his shovel into the ground. Sakuno snickered at the pink tints warming her senpai's cheeks. "Yup, no problem at all." She did the same with her own shovel.

"With all this man power, we should be able to have a 5 meter deep hole within an hour or so," Inui estimated. "9 meters wide in length," Yanagi added in speculation.

She never understood how the data specialists got those numbers and to be honest when the result is accurate, her mind is completely blown.

The digging actually proved to be a great team building exercise. Most of the regulars got out of their school's group and helped each other throughout the digging. Perhaps this was the reason behind that old man's crazy orders. Either way, Sakuno is thoroughly impressed by everyone's cooperating behavior with one another. There wasn't any petty fights or arguments - just a task to fulfill in mind. She felt proud and accomplished in herself as well as her team of losers.

Later Mifune came back to tell them to take their shovels back to the shed.

When they came back, Sakuno witnessed a horrendous sight that could never be washed away from her brain. The old man was taking a leak in the hole they dug.

…It wasn't about teamwork at all. He just needed them to make a piss hole for him!

BASTARD.

—

—

Sakuno sighed dejectedly. Her precious jersey her sempai-tachi gave her was 5 meters underground… She's starting to dislike this training now that her personal belongings were being tarnished. She was never a materialistic type of person but that jersey was given to her by her friends! She wanted to keep it safe at the very least.

And now they're having a match with the High schoolers. There was an obvious disadvantage in numbers but it seems the middle school regulars weren't concerned with that. If a player misses a ball, they automatically have to leave the court. The team which has the least amount of players on their side of the court loses. Simple enough. However, there was a catch. The team that loses would have to sleep outside in a cave while the winners get to be comfortable staying within the cabin for the nights to come.

Everyone was determined to win. Obviously no one wanted to rough it in the cave.

When the first ball was served by a high schooler, Sakuno put her eyes to work, watching his movements. It wasn't going her way that was for sure so she didn't go after it. Her head turn to where the ball darted and much to her surprise, most of everyone to the side of her went after the ball, resulting in rackets clashing and no one returning the ball! What…What was wrong with these boys? Why is everything a completion with them!

The boys leered at each other but returned to their spots, waiting for another serve.

Thankfully not everyone rushed in like before, however the ball was going in odd angles whenever the ball bounced off the makeshift court. The court wasn't a standard official court but no one expected for something like this to occur. They looked on at the smug high schoolers… they've been playing in this court so it's likely that they're used to it.

Shit.

Eventually a serve went straight to Sakuno. Instead of panicking, she could somehow now grasp her ability to be able to return the ball. It was thanks to Tezuka-sempai's match with her. Her confidence in her tennis grew somewhat. The ball touched her racket but as she motioned to return it, her foot got caught in a small pit on the court. Before she took a tumble, Sakuno quickly volleyed the ball past the net.

She fell flat on her face but it was worth it. None of the high schoolers returned her ball. Her face brightened up when she noticed this. Her, Ryuzaki Sakuno, the klutziest girl to have ever stood in a court had scored a point against High school tennis players.

The Seigaku regulars looked proudly to Sakuno.

"I have enough data to go by now. How about you Renji?"

"Aa, same with me Sadaharu."

Sakuno picked herself up. Apparently just the data specialists are now going to play against the high schoolers or so they insisted. Have they picked up enough data to win though? Once the others step out of the court, they would technically be eliminated from the competition. Although unsure, Sakuno followed as the data specialists say and stepped out of the court to watch. She should have more faith in them. They wouldn't be doing something so risky if they weren't certain of themselves.

Soon, Sakuno's mind was once again blown. How did-… Wow, she gave grown a new respect for data tennis! Although Sakuno speculate from body movements alone as well, they aren't always accurate, not like Inui-senpai and Yanagi-san's tennis! They are amazing! A grin tugged on her lips as the duo eliminated each High schooler on the opposite end of the court one by one.

"You seem awfully surprised, puri." Her head spun to the white-haired regular standing beside her. How long has he been there? "Maybe… I just didn't think data tennis was that amazing until now…" She looked on at the two childhood friends knocking each high schooler out of the court.

Niou chuckled. "I understand where you're coming from. Data tennis doesn't sound fun at first but predicting where your opponent would serve and saying it aloud to get a rise out of them is pretty amusing." Sakuno's eyes widen slightly. She's never thought of it that way… - Not that picking on people would be fun mind you! The way Niou-san described that style makes her feel like the winner would add salt to their opponent's wounds by tripping them up with predictions. It…just wasn't very nice.

So she pinched the older teen's arm.

"Ow! What was that for?" He rubbed his arm, slightly amused by that little sting of surprise.

She looked up at him with a bit of an annoyed look. "Well… if you're already winning then at least be mature enough to be humble about it or else you'd just look like a cocky…sore winner…" Her cheeks turned slightly rosy for being brave enough to say such a thing to the Trickster.

Surprise was shown on his features. His expression slowly warmed into a smile-like-smirk. "Right you are. No one likes a sore winner huh?" His hand made it's way to her head on it's own.

Why is he smiling at her like that? "U-Um…" She quickly yanked his hand away, understanding full well that it was rude but she didn't like this feeling in her chest. It was dreadful! Like her heart was about to explode out of her chest. Ugh. Is this what a heart attack feel like?

She ignored everything and focused back on the match. The lump in her throat prevented her from apologizing but screw politeness! She's dying! He's trying to kill her with those smiles, warm eyes, innocent touches, and moreover his gorgeous body.

The match is coming close. There were only three high schoolers left on the opposite end of the court. She wished Niou-san didn't distract her from the match so she could've seen Inui-sempai and Yanagi-san's spectacular doubles team verses a dozen or more high schoolers. Sakuno seemingly forgotten about her little incident with Niou and cheered a little for those two. It's been a while since she's done any cheering for matches. Because of course she's the one who had been in the courts.

As Yanagi was about to serve a ball coach Mifune stopped him, declaring the high schoolers as the winners. Sakuno's face fell. What? That wasn't fair! They were so close…

When she turned her head to see the other Regulars, her honey doe eyes met with icy blue. Niou-san was watching her the whole time.

Heat made it's way back to her face.

She is sure of it now. He's trying to kill her.

—

—

"Sadaharu… I should tell you something." The Rikkai Regular set up his sleeping bag beside the Seigaku regular. Inui looked at him with interest. "You can tell me anything Renji."

"I know that girl isn't Echizen," He said bluntly. Inui froze. Well. Darn. He should have realized there was no way they could have fooled his childhood friend. "…Yes. She is Ryuzaki Sakuno, our coach's granddaughter."

Yanagi nodded. "Alright. I won't tell anyone since you're being honest with me."

Inui sighed in relief. "Thank you Renji, I really appreciate that."

—

—

Fuji Yuuta sighed as he sat on his sleeping bag, watching the rest of the Regulars try to get comfortable in the stone cold cave. He disliked this, being treated like garbage and being called trash. Tch. Was the training truly worth the verbal abuse? His eyes darkened at the reminder of losing to his big brother. Can't he ever win against him for once? Why is there such a huge gap between them? Frustrated, he scratched his head.

"Um, Fuji-san?" A familiar voice called out to him. He turned his attention to the side where Echizen stayed. He made a noise and turn his eyes away from the prodigy. "Erm… About earlier before we dug holes…" 'Echizen' gave him a side glance. "Are you okay?"

…Echizen bothered to remember something like that? He could feel a bit touched if this wasn't Echizen Ryoma who was discussing this with him. "I guess… I just don't like to be treated that way," He muttered, expecting the younger boy to use his catchphrase then smirk smugly at him.

"Oh… Um, I don't like it either but let's do our best and bear with it okay?" 'He' smiled sheepishly to the younger Fuji. "We need everyone; including you to pull us through this… so please don't let it bother you… Fuji-san can talk to me if he ever wants to vent something out," The boy reassured. Yuuta stared at him, shocked that Ryoma would show that much kindness.

A smile slowly tugged up the corner of his lips. "Yeah, thanks Echizen."

He returned the smile that was equally as warm.

Yuuta swore his heart just skipped a beat and shoot up his throat.

Cursing, he quickly grabbed his sleeping bag to find a different spot. This isn't happening. THIS ISN'T HAPPENING. He repeated the mentra in his head until he calmed down.

Sakuno blinked. What just happened? Her brows furrow then she decided to shrug it off, get cozy in her sleeping bag and rest early for the day.

In the middle of the night while she was tossing and turning, unable to sleep restfully in such conditions, she woke up. The first thing that came to her vision when it cleared was messy white-silver hair which fell perfectly against a sleeping face that glowed naturally and beautifully from the moonlight. Her half lidded eyes drooped closed afterwards.

Somehow, she's able to sleep well that night.

Until they were rudely awoken to train at 1am in the morning in the rain.

Hell hath no fury.

—

note: I apologize for the awfully late update. This chapter is a month overdue :c. I didn't know how to adapt Sakuno in it gahhh... I'm going to write a lot of bullshit in evolving Sakuno's tennis skills since I'm not athletic nor have I ever been committed to a sport. Also, my pal Themy have made wonderful fanart based off this fanfic! They are on her tumblr so if you'd like to see them her tumblr is themyminamino.

I may start on a new MultiSaku fanfiction with a slight supernatural spin soon so please look out for that! It's an adaptation of an anime I'm obsessed with :) And if you like this story, please read and review to 'Repeat What You Said' & 'Paparazzi'. The first one is a fic centered around Niou and Sakuno hijinks filled with unresolved tension (rating to that fic may change to M in later chapters fyi), the second one is a TokuSaku fic for those who are craving wishy-washy cutely shy Sakuno.

I have also revised the previous chapters by the way!

thank you to those who reviewed for the previous chapter! johanna (anonymous), ThemyMinamino, anon (anonymous), kuriko-chan, guest (anonymous), miyu (anonymous), BigBangTOPisVIP, aryaputra, guest no.2 (anonymous), kikumarucat, sweet-lia

replies;

johanna: Possibly ;) I'm not going to spoil.

ThemyMinamino: Thank you for the sweet comment :) And for all those fanarts you've done! They're amazing ; o ; I feel so freakin' honored you have no idea. Oh and sorry I haven't been replying to your PMs hon. It's lack of motivation to get on this site :c And I know I promised to get this chapter out on the 20th but... I'M SORRY I HAVE NO EXCUSE T_T

kuriko-chan: Here's another chapter Kuri-chan. You updating your fic motivated me a bit to continue :)

miyu: haha maybe. or maybe it's just the water she drank.

BigBangTOPisVIP: Yosh! Our weak darling Sakuno-chan will be fighting against all odds! Thanks for the review!

aryaputra: Oh, hi! Boo :( the internet can be frusturating at times *pats*. Fufufu the thought of Ryoma coming back surrounded by admirers is a tempting idea but I think they will feel a difference between Ryoma and Sakuno XD Still tempting though! Consider the idea noted! Wow your review is really motivating :) Thank you so much aryaputra. Speaking of New PoT, I've been waiting for Sakuno to appear since the very beginning when the new manga came out ;_; Full of disappointment! The manga is a sausage fest! It needs a feminine touch. (and the most feminine female in PoT is Sakuno)

kikumarucat: Haha thank you c: awkward teenage boys with pads ftw.