The Kunoichi of Tennis (by DaPsionicFox)

Chapter 5- Ayame and the Middle schooler

"Ichi... ni... san!" Ayame shouted, and they both took off.

At first, the two were running at the same speed, but they were still very fast. Ayame wasn't running her fastest, but she was just testing to see how fast Kamio could run.

When they were halfway through the town, Ayame saw something ahead. She stuck her foot out to brake.

"Holy crap, look out!" she shouted.

Kamio didn't get her warning until it was too late. Directly up ahead was a car that was off of the road on the sidewalk, right in the way. He crashed right into the car. Ayame had managed to make a complete stop right in front of the car. The instant she had a close look at the car, she remembered the car accident she was involved in eight years ago. The accident that happened here was very similar to back then.

"Ahhh, looks like we couldn't settle it this time..." she said with a sigh.

Kamio recovered from his crash and got up.

"What's your name?" he asked her.

"Kanna Ayame," she answered.

"I can't believe you were able to keep up with me..." Kamio said, staring at the young girl in disbelief.

"But damn..." she swore as she looked at the ruined car in front of them. "One hell of an accident must've happened here. I'm not gonna hang around here any longer. Later."

Ayame ran away as the accident that she saw reminded her of the past, and she didn't want to think about it. Eventually, she ran into a group of middle schoolers.

"That's her!" one of them shouted.

Ayame looked up and saw that it was the same middle schooler that she beat up at the park.

Ohhhh shit... she thought as she eyed the group.

She turned around and bolted.

"Oi, get back here!" one of the middle schoolers shouted.

"Like hell I would!" she shouted as she kept running.

Ayame could easily outrun them, but she had already used up some of her energy while racing with Kamio, so she couldn't run full speed. She fled to her neighborhood with the middle schoolers still in hot pursuit. She hadn't gone too far inside when she saw directly up ahead of her was Ryoma and Momo, walking together. She skidded to a halt in front of the two boys.

"Oi, gimme that!" she said as she snatched Ryoma's tennis bag off his shoulder.

She threw down her tennis bag, opened it and Ryoma's at the same time, and pulled out a racket from each.

"W-what are you doing, Ayame?!" Ryoma cried in shock.

"I'll save the explanations for later!" Ayame answered as she kicked a few tennis balls from her bag into the air.

Ayame used both rackets to hit the balls and attacked the incoming middle schoolers that were chasing her. She knocked them down with a few blows with the tennis balls, and stopped once all of them were lying on the ground.

"Sorry 'bout that," she said as she put Ryoma's tennis racket back into his bag and handed the bag back. "But that was a life or death situation."

"Why were they chasing you?" Ryoma asked.

"Because I accidentally dirtied one of their clothes earlier when I was at the park," she answered.

"What exactly happened?" Momo asked.

"While I was walking at the park, there were these little kids playing with a soccer ball," Ayame began her story. "One of them almost hit me with the ball by accident, but I avoided it. They asked me to pass it back, but I couldn't kick it back in one go, because I was afraid that I might kick it too hard. So I began to dribble the ball back, but then there were these two middle schoolers in the way. I did tell them to get outta my way, but they didn't move, so one of them fell. And then he got pissed at me because I dirtied his clothes, so he threatened me. I tried to walk away, but the guy wasn't letting it go, so I resorted to beating him up. And much later, he brought a couple of friends so they could beat me up, so I ran away, and... here I am."

'Although...I'm the one at fault because I knocked down the guy and didn't say "sorry"...' Ayame thought. 'I tried to pretend that I didn't see it happen to hopefully get away with it, but it just caused a lot of trouble for me.'

Ryoma stared down at Ayame's victims.

'With her running around Tokyo, nobody's ever gonna be safe if they go against her,'  he thought.'At least half of the freshmen at school are scared of her already.'

Momo was speechless as he looked at the beat up middle schoolers. Even though she's a first year middle schooler, Ayame was capable of taking out a whole group of older middle schoolers targeting her just like that. And given how she handled two rackets at once, she must be an experienced tennis player.

'Make sure to never cross her, even if you have your friends with you'Momo made a mental note to himself while wondering if Ayame was actually very good at tennis.

Ayame looked back at the middle schoolers and knew that if she never knew the Echizen family living next door back in America, she wouldn't be the person she is now.

'They taught me tennis...' she thought.'And with that old pervert acting creepy to me all the time, I realized that the best way around it is to kick him. Since I always kicked him every time I went to see Ryoga and Ryoma, I think it helped me with my foot strength. And they were there to help me build my speed and reflexes... that was the main thing that allowed me to get away unharmed... Oh well. I didn't get hurt. That's all that matters.'

With no more thought about the incident, Ayame turned to Ryoma and Momo.

"So... where're you two headed off to?" she asked.

"We're going to get some burgers," Momo replied.

"Can I come along?" she asked.

"Fine," Ryoma answered.

"OK, I'll let my dad know," she said.

Ayame walked with Momo and Ryoma as she pulled out a cell phone and called her father.

"Dad? It's Ayame. Listen, I'm going with Ryoma to get some burgers, so I'll be home late... Uh-huh... yeah... Oh, don't worry about that. We're with a senpai who'll pay the burgers for us."

Momo realized that he has another person to pay for... again.