28Chapter 1 – Bomb Drop
Disclaimer : I do not own Prince of Tennis, though I really wish I did. *anime tears*
"Freshmen, 100 swings! Sophomores, play a game with your partner in either court C, D or E! Regulars, come with me!" a loud and commanding voice orders.
All the players rush to follow the orders, happy to please their buchou, not willing to displease her. Seigaku Middle School girl's tennis team, the best in Japan, ever since Rika Echizen had taken the position of buchou. Rika Echizen had a certain aura that just screamed, "Power!"
All the tennis teams' girls respected their buchou the most, some even more than their coach or their teachers. After all, she was the one who had taken her time and patience, teaching all of them how to play tennis, not for the sake of winning, but for the love of the game, and had brought most of the players in the team to National level, and the regulars all had reached the Pro level. She herself was undefeated so far and would follow her own training schedule that was set for the regulars, if not more intense.
After all the regulars assembled, Rika told them, "It may be the new start of the year, but we cannot slack off! Sakuno, Tomoka, you two are going to play doubles against me! The rest of you, follow the schedule that I made for you!"
When Rika had first met Sakuno, she was shy and uncertain, but after Rika's month of torture… erm… intense training, she had become a confident girl with a kind aura and had reached the Pro level after training daily with Rika at the temple tennis grounds.
Tomoka, on the other hand, had been loud and rash. After going through the same training as Sakuno, if not even worse (for she had been hard to break out of her habits), had become calm and collected, and had also reached the same level as Sakuno, however, she still couldn't get over her love of bishounens.
These two were Rika's best friends and they had given each other makeovers all the time, and after Rika's makeover for the two, they had loved it so much that they kept it that way. Sakuno now had brown hair with streaks of gold and let down her hair. When they played tennis, her hair was tied into a cute, low pony tail. She now had a fanclub that made up 1/3 of the boys population and 1/3 of the girls population as well.
Tomoka now had her hair cut short and she no longer had her hair in that horrible looking style. She had dyed her hair blue with streaks of green in it, courtesy of Rika, and did not have to tie her hair as her hair was short (duh). She also had a fanclub that made up 1/3 of the boys population with ¼ of the girls population.
Rika herself did not dye her hair, except for a few streaks of blue in it, as it already looked good in its natural color, which was a deep dark green. She had long hair and tied it up during her intense training in a high pony tail, which looked extremely cute. Wait, scratch that. Rika looks good in any hairstyle. She could make a horrible looking hairstyle like what Tomoka had before look either cute, cool or just plain awesome. The most amazing thing was that Rika had practically the entire school in her fanclub, including all the teachers and even the vice-principal and the principal himself! Basically, you could say the school revolved around her.
Sakuno and Tomoka grabbed their rackets after finishing their warm up and joined Rika on the court. They started the game, with Sakuno serving, which followed with Rika returning the serve beautifully. Suddenly, there was an earthquake, which resulted in all the tennis matches that were going on stopping and heads frantically turning, trying to see what happened. One of the regulars shrieked and pointed to the sky. Everyone looked to where she was pointing, and panicked, with the exception of Sakuno, Tomoka and Rika, who also stood with their mouths open, gaping.
In the sky was a black cloud in the shape of a mushroom, which meant only one thing : a bomb had been dropped and had exploded, which resulted the black mushroom cloud. Suddenly, Rika collapsed, and the darkness claimed her, as well as some other youths near and far.