The Kunoichi of Tennis (by DaPsionicFox)

Chapter 3- Ayame's Past

"I'm going," Ayame said as she picked up her tennis bag.

She left her house and started running down the streets at her lightning speed. Ayame felt glad that she could run very fast. She would never be late if she could find her way. Also she would have time to stop to do things that a normal person wouldn't.

However, being able to run super fast has its own costs. Ayame stuck her foot out to brake, but she had been running so fast that she braked too late and crashed face-first into the front gate of the Echizen household.

'Darn it...' she thought glumly as she recovered from the crash.

She glanced at her watch and thought she might be running out of time. So she took a couple of steps back and started running. She leaped over the front gate to get inside of the yard. Normally she wouldn't do this, but meter's running, so she'll do whatever it takes to get inside.

Ayame charged through the doorway of the open front door as she burst into the house. Before anybody in the house could respond or react, she darted up the stairs and kicked Ryoma's bedroom door open, and as she expected, he was still asleep.

"Ryomaaaaaaaaaa!" she shouted. "You're gonna be late if you don't get up now!"

Ryoma groaned but didn't wake up. Ayame sighed, and she started digging inside her tennis bag. In one quick motion, she took out a flute case, removed the flute pieces inside, assembled them, and blew a very high note. The high-pitched sound startled Ryoma as he fell off his bed.

"A... Ayame?!" Ryoma was knocked wide awake at the sight of his friend in his room.

"I came here to get you up," Ayame said as she hastily disassembled her flute. "I don't want you to be late for school."

Ayame put away the flute pieces in the case and threw the case back into her tennis bag. Ryoma glanced at his clock.

'Oh crap!' he thought as the time registered in him.

"I'm going off now," Ayame said. "See you at school."

Before Ryoma could thank her, Ayame ran out of his room and back outside. She had to jump over the front gate again before running down the streets to school... but not before turning around, jumping back in, delivering a hard kick on Nanjiroh, and running back out. She made it to her first-period class way before it started, and kept her mind occupied by sticking her nose into a book.

The classes dragged on for hours, until finally Ayame was able to go down to the tennis courts. Ryoma had told her about the Seigaku team, and she was fascinated and wanted to see how his teammates were like. She heard that sometimes the team could be a little crazy, and she wanted to know what he meant by that.

Ayame arrived at the tennis courts and noticed that she wasn't the only girl there who would be watching the boys. There were two other girls there as well. Ayame said nothing and instead just stood there and watched while supporting the weight of her tennis bag on her right shoulder.

Ayame's tennis bag was, in fact, heavy. Not only is her racket in there, but also a flute case, a couple of tennis balls, and some books. If anybody were to know that her tennis bag had all those items in there, they'd wonder how she would still be able to run so fast with the tennis bag weighing her down... if they didn't know her well.

As the practice dragged on, Ayame learned about each and every single regular member. As of so far, she hadn't seen what Ryoma meant by his team being crazy, but right when she thought that, her suspicions were answered when the third-year manager Inui Sadaharu brought out his "Inui Juice".

"What is this Inui Juice?" Ayame asked another freshman who was standing at the sidelines.

"You don't want to know," was the freshman's response.