The Kunoichi of Tennis (by DaPsionicFox)

Chapter 27- Aozu

The boys gathered around the machine watched in amazement as Ayame dominated the game. Finally, she decided to stop playing, and the crowd cleared out. As she turned around, she noticed Ryoma.

"Oh! Hey there, Ryoma!" Ayame greeted happily.

"Chiisu," Ryoma greeted, grinning. "You never told me that you were coming back today."

"Oh, which reminds me, let's go back to the hotel. I swung by there, but you weren't there, so I went out to play some games. I left a little souvenir inside of the room before I came here."

The two freshmen went back to the hotel room and Ryoma noticed a big bag on the table.

"It's in that bag over there," Ayame pointed at the bag.

Ryoma went over to the table and opened the bag.

"Ah, it's Ponta! Sankyuu!" Ryoma said enthusiastically as he took out a can and started drinking from it.

"I figured," Ayame said. "America doesn't sell Ponta, and I know how much you love to drink it. So I bought some before I took a flight back. Though carrying a big bag full of that plus my tennis bag wasn't very easy. Oh yeah, also my dad gave me some more money to use here."

"So what have you been doing back in Japan?"

"I played some of the senpai-tachi. I even beat Tezuka-senpai."

At Ayame's words, Ryoma was surprised... causing the Ponta he was drinking to go down the wrong pipe in his throat, and he started coughing. Ayame snickered at the sight.

"I guess that means there still isn't a counter to Tenimuhou no Kiwami," she said. "But damn, the match I had against the Golden Pair was intense."

"Who was your partner?" Ryoma asked.

"Nobody, I played alone against them."

This time Ryoma spat out his Ponta.

"But I still won because apparently Tenimuhou no Kiwami is better than Synchro," Ayame went on.

Ryoma wasn't sure if he was dreaming or if he actually heard Ayame correctly.

'She beat the Golden Pair by herself?' he thought in disbelief.

"Oh yeah, I got a GREAT idea that would be fun to do!" Ayame said.

"Huh...?" Ryoma snapped back to reality and it took him a second to register what Ayame said. "Oh, what is it?"

Ayame held up a pitcher of blue liquid.

'Oh no, she didn't...'  Ryoma thought in horror as he recognized the liquid as a type of Inui Juice.

"While I was in Tokyo, I asked Fuji-senpai about what kind of Inui Juice he wasn't immune to," Ayame explained. "He said that it was Aozu. So then I went to Inui-senpai and asked him for the recipe plus a pitcher. I told him that I'll even take data for those who didn't pass out from the Aozu, so he agreed and gave it to me."

"Wh-what are you going to do with it?" Ryoma asked nervously, clearly terrified of the drink.

"How about we both go to a tennis court and play other people? We still have a reputation here in America, so it'd be natural for better tennis players to want to play us, right? And if any of them loses to any of us, they'll have to drink this Aozu!"

Ryoma sighed in relief, as he initially thought that Ayame was going to force him to drink the Aozu. He remembered feeling the same intense fear when he witnessed Fuji's blackout at the hands of the blue vinegar.

Nobody knows how terrifying the Aozu really is... his thoughts went. That means we'd be claiming a lot of victims...

Ryoma smirked at the thought of watching a bunch of other tennis players pass out from the Aozu. "Let's do it!"