lucathia

Title: Go no Oujisama
Chapter: 4/?
Author: lucathia_rykatu
Fandom: Hikaru no Go, Prince of Tennis
Characters: Shindou Hikaru, Touya Akira, Echizen Ryoma, Momoshiro Takeshi, Kikumaru Eiji
Disclaimer: I do not own HNG nor do I own POT.
Archive: livejournal / ffnet

Summary: Touya Akira finds himself standing at the baselines of the tennis courts, wondering what in the world he's doing there. It's all Shindou's fault.

-----chapter 4: beginning of the match-----

He unconsciously tugged his white cap lower.

The incriminating piece of candy in his hand was blue. Not white, but blue.

Echizen Ryoma scowled. He did not want to play doubles. Why couldn't he have gotten the white lollipop instead? Then he could have been the judge. But, his lollipop was blue. No matter how hard he glared at the lollipop, it was still blue. He quickly glanced at the lollipops of the other four, his eyes landing on Kikumaru-sempai's first. So, Kikumaru-sempai got the white one. Lucky him. Echizen's scowl deepened when he saw Kikumaru-sempai happily unwrap his lollipop and pop it into his mouth. His sempai was way too happy and gleeful at his kouhai's expense. This was no time to be enjoying candy! Echizen shot a glare at his sempai, who was oblivious to, or at least chose to ignore, his glare. Unable to affect Kikumaru-sempai, Echizen turned his attention back to who the heck his partner was going to be. With Kikumaru-sempai as the judge, his partner would have to be one of the remaining three.

"What? I have to play doubles with him?" shouted Shindou out of nowhere, bringing Echizen's attention to the older boy's lollipop. Red. Not on his team then. Echizen didn't have to check further as Shindou's soon-to-be doubles partner spoke up.

"What do you mean by that? I'll tell you, I'm the most skilled doubles player out of us four!" exclaimed Momoshiro. He waved his innocent little red lollipop threateningly at Shindou.

Since both Momo-sempai and Shindou had red lollipops, that left that Touya guy as his partner. At least he knew how to hit the ball properly, though he really need to change out of that pair of shiny black shoes and that suffocating, button up shirt.

Shindou pouted. "But all you do is hit power shots. Or disgustingly weak shots at me. Don't you ever think about subtlety?"

Just as Momoshiro was about to protest, Touya cut in calmly, "And you're one to talk about subtlety." He folded his arms across his chest, his hand holding on to a blue lollipop. The lollipop seemed out of place in his hand, just as out of place as the red tennis racket was in his other hand.

"Hey! I can be subtle when I want to be!" protested Shindou.

Shindou and Touya quickly jumped into a heated argument, leaving Momoshiro no time to counter Shindou's words. Echizen just pulled his cap down lower and muttered, "Mada ma-"

"Okay, so the match is going to be Echizen-Touya pair versus Momoshiro-Shindou pair!" announced Kikumaru-sempai with a grin.

Che. Kikumaru-sempai cut him off.

-----0-----

Kikumaru felt Ochibi-chan's glare but pretended that he didn't. He wasn't afraid of Ochibi's glare. He had experienced it a lot before anyway. What was important was that he had succeeded in getting all four of his kouhai onto the same court to play some tennis.

His tongue slipped in and out as he licked his lollipop. He scooted away from the court to stand at the sidelines so that he'd have a good view of the entire court. He had to keep score and be line judge after all.

He saw Ochibi hold out his racket, head down. His hand held the top of the racket's grip, about to spin his racket on the ground.

"Which?" came Ochibi's question.

-----0------

His partner, the quite enthusiastic beginner Shindou Hikaru, blinked as he eyed the racket Echizen was holding head down. "Which what?"

Momoshiro's own eyes widened. How could his partner not even know what a simple "which" was for? "You don't even know how to choose who serves first?" exclaimed Momoshiro.

Shindou shook his head slowly. "I've never played a tennis match before."

Momoshiro frowned. What kind of match were they going to have if Shindou didn't even know how to play a match? Boy, oh boy, thought Momoshiro. He should have trained Shindou in real matches before they got thrown onto a court together as doubles partners. At this rate, they were very likely to lose.

"I'm in the same predicament," said Touya out of the blue.

Well, scratch that last thought. At least he wasn't the only one who was going to get an inexperienced partner for the match. Even the boy knew some basics of tennis turned out to be very oblivious all tennis matters other than plain rallying! Momoshiro launched into a quick explanation.

"Well, before we play, we have to decide who serves first. Player A asks "which" for the spin and then Player B has to choose either smooth or rough. If Player B guesses right, then Player B gets to pick either who serves or which side to take. Player A gets to pick after Player B. So, say Player B picks that he wants to serve first, then Player A gets to pick the side that he wants to receive on."

Shindou blinked. "Um...okay. I think I get it."

Touya had a thoughtful look. "It's sort of like nigiri, except in nigiri we only have to determine who's black, which equates to who goes first. We don't have to think about sides, since where we sit doesn't affect our play. We exchange our stones if we don't have the right color stones on our side anyway."

Shindou brightened. "Hey, that kind of makes sense."

Momoshiro sweatdropped. Touya's explanation made no sense whatsoever to him. What the heck was "nigiri?" And what exactly did this "nigiri" thing have to do with tennis?

Echizen muttered, "Are you two done with explanations? Mind choosing now?"

Shindou turned to Echizen. "Um, rough!" Momoshiro wondered if Shindou even knew what rough was supposed to mean.

Echizen finally spun his racket. The red racket teetered on the cement for a moment before falling to the right with a clatter. He picked it up by the grip, showing it to everyone.

"It's smooth."

He paused for a second.

"We'll take serve."

Touya twitched.

It was just like Echizen to decide on what he wanted without consulting his partner. Momoshiro sighed. "I wanted to serve first too." He glanced up at the sky, shading his eyes with his hands. The orientation of these courts wasn't very good. One side of the court faced the sun directly while the other side didn't. At the moment, the sun was already pretty low, resulting in piercing rays on his side of the court. He wouldn't want to be serving on this side. Too blinding. "Okay then, we'll take that side. That okay with you, Shindou?"

Shindou nodded, and the four went to take their individual positions.

-----0-----

At least that was what they were supposed to do. Instead, Hikaru found himself glancing around, feeling quite lost.

"Um, where should I stand?" he asked. He was standing at the baseline next to Momoshiro. "It's kind of weird having two people on the same side."

"Well, it's doubles, of course we have two people on the same side," exclaimed Momoshiro. "As to where you should stand, do you want the backhand side or the forehand side?"

Hikaru blinked. There was a forehand side and a backhand side? He thought the entire court...was just that, a court. What sides were there? "Uh...I guess I'm more comfortable with my forehand."

Momoshiro grinned. "Okay, that works out well. My backhands are stronger anyway. Go stand over there to receive first then." Momoshiro pointed at the right half of the court. "A good place to receive is to stand behind the baseline with your feet bisecting the inner white line. You can adjust your position however you want depending on the serve."

Hikaru walked to the side. "Here?"

"Yeah, that's good."

As Hikaru took his position, he watched his spiky-haired partner take his position on the left side of the court up at net. He stood slightly in front of the white line running horizontally through the court and between the middle of the court and the left, inner white line running vertically down the court. Hikaru copied Momoshiro's stance, bending his knees slightly and leaning forward. He was ready for whatever his opponents would throw at him. At least that was what he'd like to think.

Ganbatte, Hikaru! Cheered Sai.

Hikaru grinned. I'll try my best, of course. Just don't get in my way, okay?

Sai pouted. Why would I get in your way?

The boy rolled his eyes. If you block my view, I won't be able to see the ball!

Hikaru stopped talking with Sai as he fixed his eyes on his opponents. Echizen Ryoma and Touya Akira...the former the acknowledged Prince of tennis and the latter a likely candidate for the Prince of Go...

Thump. Thump thump.

Hikaru tightened his grip on his racket. He was starting to feel excited. It was going to be a challenge playing these two, but it was going to be such a joy when he finally defeated them.

-----0-----

Meanwhile, there was an awkward silence on the other side of the court. Echizen was already holding the tennis ball in his hand and standing behind the baseline, clearly indicating that he planned on serving. He held his racket in his right hand, his body turned to the side. He didn't really consult with Touya about who should serve first. Touya refrained from saying anything, since it was probably better that Echizen serve anyway. Now that he thought about it, he didn't know whether or not he even knew how to serve. He certainly never tried before. And that wasn't good.

Touya hadn't gotten into position yet. He never played a match before, not to mention a doubles match. All he knew about doubles was that four people were required to play it. And that certainly wasn't all there was to doubles. But whatever else was running through Touya's mind at the moment, the most prominent thought was, why in the world was he here playing tennis?

"Oi, Echizen! You should wait for your partner to get ready before you serve!" yelled Momoshiro loudly across the net.

Echizen paused in his bouncing of the ball and gave a pointed stare at Touya. "Ready?"

Touya glanced at where Momoshiro was standing on the other side of the court and quickly got into a similar position without a word.

This is all Shindou's fault.

-----0-----

Echizen resumed bouncing the furry tennis ball.

He vaguely heard Kikumaru-sempai call out the score.

"Love-all!"

"Echizen to serve."

He continued bouncing the ball until Kikumaru-sempai finished announcing the score.

When the ball bounced upwards again, he caught it firmly in his left hand.

He looked up at Shindou, his eyes challenging.

Beginner or not, a challenge was a challenge.

The ball sailed into the sky in front of him, going up and up into the reddish-orange sky. His back arched as his left hand trailed after the rising ball. His body turned to the side as he brought his right arm up behind him, his racket almost touching his back. He let his wrist relax as his arm came up and he reached upwards to hit the ball at the highest point of its ascent. His feet came slightly off the ground as he tried to reach even farther than his arm could. His racket connected with the ball, and he brought his arm down, his wrist adding an even faster velocity to the ball, his body turning around the face the front of the court. His left hand retracted to rest against his abdomen, out of the dangerous swing of his right arm.

Twist Serve!

-----0-----

The ball flew over the net at a speed that wasn't terribly frightening, but Hikaru's eyes widened when the ball hit the ground in front of him.

The ball seemed to flatten slightly as it spun on the ground for a millisecond. Before he could even blink, the ball came screaming at his face at an alarming speed. Hikaru quickly ducked, thoughts of returning the ball far from his mind in his frenzy to get out of the ball's path.

The ball flew past him with a wild spin, hitting the fence behind the courts.

Clang.

Hikaru glanced behind him warily, not at all surprised to see the ball stuck in the fence's wires.

He shook his head, his eyes wide.

What kind of serve was that?

"Fifteen-love!" called out Kikumaru.

Hikaru looked across the court.

All he got for an answer was a smirk.

-----to be continued-----