When tomorrow break has come to greet them with a nice sunny day, the Shitenhouji tennis club members were ready to execute their grand plan of getting Chinami to join them and become their manager.
"Kurarin~♥, I have done some data collecting on our dear Apple-chan and I have found out about her~!" Being the genius with over 200 IQ, he easily collected information regarding Sakurahime Chinami, "Apple-chan's name is Sakurahime Chinami, her family name literally means 'cherry blossom princess' while her given name is written hiragana. She has yet to become a member of any clubs and she has a powerful weapon in her bag."
"Her paper fan..." Shiraishi shivered just remembering the pain of the fan!
"Shiraishi..." Kenya can feel the same pain too so he understood the reason behind Shiraishi's shivering.
"Ah. Since she is so dangerous, we can't approach her all at once." The last thing Shiraishi needed was that girl destroying every one of them in one go. "Which is why we should individually approach her, slowly increasing our chances with our own plan."
"Hm." Gin nodded in agreement like everyone else. "Where is Zaizen-han?"
"Zaizen-kun has library duty. He said he will join us on the 2nd half of lunch break when everyone fails." Koishikawa answered them.
"Eh?! Zaizen said that?! We won't fail! I will make Nee-chan come with us before he comes to us!" Pumped up with excitement, Kintarou was ready to show his senpais he was ready to face such a dangerous girl.
"Okay, we should start off with Kin-chan." Shiraishi decided he will have nothing to fear if Kintarou came back; he doesn't have to come back with Chinami but if he came back without getting hit then it will be safe to approach.
"All right! I will go!" Kintarou ran off, not knowing the danger he will face.
"Shiraishi, you are quite cruel." Kenya looked at Shiraishi with an uncertain look; he never thought their own captain would use their new freshman as a human sacrifice.
"Let's all pray for Kin-chan..." Shiraishi doesn't need Chitose's Saiki Kanpatsu no Kiwami to know what the outcome will be.
"He is not dead yet!" Kenya and everyone shouted.
Kintarou looked high and low, looking out for the red haired girl with emerald green eyes.
"Ah! I found you! Nee-chan!"
Chinami was eating melon bread while reading a book she borrowed from the library just moments ago. She looked up from the page she was reading to see a red headed freshman wearing a leopard-print tank top and dark shorts. She looked at Kintarou with narrow eyes because he was blocking her light.
"Get lost, kid."
"Nee-chan, Nee-chan, please become the manager!"
"I refuse."
"Eh?! Don't say that Nee-chan! Osamu-chan said we can't play tennis unless you come with us!" He was tugging on her sleeve, like a kid wanting candy from a parent. "Nee-chan, Nee-chan!"
"Kid, you better get out of my sight before I finish you off." Chinami warned, getting angrier by the minute.
"No! I refuse to move!"
"Get out of my sight this instant!"
From the rooftop, Shiraishi and the others can see Kintarou being hit on the head once with the paper fan.
"She took it out!" Shiraishi and Kenya were horrified by the sheer strength of her hit; it took down Kintarou!
"Owie! Nee-chan, it hurts!"
"It's supposed to hurt!"
"I think someone should go and pick him up..." Shiraishi suggested...
The next to try out was Chitose and Gin, who decided to take a simple approach.
"What did Chitose mean when he said it will be decided after he asked her once?" Kintarou asked Shiraishi.
"It means the decision will be decided after he asked if she will join." Shiraishi put a cold, wet towel on Kintarou's head to sooth the bump on his head.
"Will you become the tennis club's manager?" Chitose requested with a smile on his face.
"No." Chinami was irritated by the fact she's being pestered again by people whose names she doesn't even know.
"Okay."
"So fast! Chitose gave up so fast!" The others were hiding in the bush and they saw their exchange, not believe how fast it went!
"Tennis is good for the soul." Gin said with his hands in a praying stance.
"Obviously it's not good for you if you are aging so fast, baldy!"
"Ba-baldy?!" Her words delivered a powerful blow to his spirit, rendering him useless for the day. "B-baldy...aging so fast...?"
"Gin!!!" Shiraishi couldn't believe she destroyed two members in one go! And she didn't even whip out her paper fan!
"What a bunch of morons..." Chinami started to walk away, going away to read the book elsewhere.
"Ah! Wait! Sakurahime! We need you!" Kenya ran out of the hiding spot but he tripped on his own foot due to his bad balance. "Woah!!!" He reached a hand out to grab anything to stop himself from falling but he fell anyway, dragging whatever he clutched down with him. "My face..." Kenya looked back at the others to see everyone but Shiraishi covered their eyes in time.
"P-p-purple!!!" Shiraishi shouted out the color of it!
"Purple?" Kenya looked at what his hand clutched onto and his jaws dropped when Chinami's skirt was in his clutch. He did the mistake of looking up and he saw it! Chinami's panties!
Chinami pulled her skirt back up again. She took out her paper fan and looked down at Kenya a demonic look.
He was not even given a chance to scream as he was struck in the head once again.
The last thing Kenya heard before darkness took over was Shiraishi screaming...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Kenya...Kenya!" Kenya slowly woke up to Shiraishi's voice calling him. "Kenya! Thank god..."
"W-where am I?"
"The infirmary. Sakurahime hit you with the paper fan and you passed out." Shiraishi's eyes were red again and the cause of it was none other than Chinami herself.
"She got you too, huh?"
"I ran away but she still got me."
"Heh, you're not Naniwa's Speed Star after all." Kenya laughed lightly before it died down and his fce was blushing a little. "Shiraishi, they were purple."
"Like plums."
"I like plums but I think I like strawberries better..."
"Ah."
They were boys after all...
"Anyway! We shouldn't waste lunch break!" Shiraishi was determined not to lose! Hope hasn't died just yet!
"Eh?! I was out for that long?!"
Shiraishi and Kenya found both Yuuji and Koharu executing their plan. The baka pair spied on Chinami, who was eating onigiri under a cherry blossom tree. From the looks of it, Chinami has the hiccups and she can't seem to get rid of it.
"Ah...it's not going away." Chinami wondered why the hiccup was not going away.
"Arara~! Then if I give you my kiss of love, your pounding heart might stop it~♥." Koharu's face was being pushed away by Chinami, who really doesn't want his kiss of love.
"Hey! Get away from me, geezer! You ain't kissing me that easily!"
"Then...how about me? Chinami..." Yuuji tilted her chin up and his lips were a breath away from hers. Yuuji's sudden streak of a dark horse rendered Chinami in shock.
"Oh! Hitouji rendered her down!" Shiraishi and Kenya shouted at the same time, amazed by the power of the imitator!
"We did it, Yuu-kun! Girls are more likely to help you with anything if you did them a favor-" Koharu was whacked in the face by the paper fan.
"Ko-" Yuuji couldn't finish his sentence because Chinami kicked him in the face.
"Pur-!" Before Shiraishi can shout out the color of the plum colored panties she's wearing, Kenya sealed his lips with his hand, dragging Shiraishi away from the dangerous scene...
Koishikawa and Shiraishi were the only ones who have yet to do thing. Koishikawa decided to dish out the last resort technique he can think of.
"Sakurahime-san, please join us! The tennis club can't do a thing without you!" Koishikawa didn't want to do this but he had to for the sake of others! "I won't get up from this position unless you become a member of our team!" He was in a dogeza position, not willing to move.
"Stay there then, I don't care." Chinami started to walk away again, wanting to find peace elsewhere.
"What the?! This is his last resort and you won't go along with it?! You're heartless!" Shiraishi has completely forgotten about the paper fan now that he's talking to her properly. "Sakurahime, don't be so heartless!"
"Does it look like I am bothered?" Chinami rudely asked him, "And the one who is heartless is you! That is some nerve you have since you've been shouting out the color of my panties!"
"T-those were accidents! The club really needs you!" Shiraishi then got an idea! Holding Chinami's hands, Shiraishi pulled off the sexiest smile he can make, "We can arrange something like a date if you agree to being the manager..." Being one of the most popular boys in school, it would be sarcasm if he were to deny he was good looking; he's not interested in girls fangirling over him and dislike the attention but that doesn't mean he can't use it as an advantage for once in his life!
Chinami looked up at him with a bored look. "Why would I agree to something like that?"
"Eh?" It's not working?! She doesn't belong to the 'fangirl over Shiraishi' fanbase?!
"Can you leave me alone now?" Chinami made Shiraishi let go of her hands.
"Sakurahime, is there really no way to make you join?"
"I don't want to join a dysfunctional team of morons. I am not interested." With that, Chinami left the rather stunned Shiraishi Kuranosuke behind...
...
It was finally 30 more minutes before lunch was over, Zaizen Hikaru made his way to the club's locker room to see the boys all looking troubled.
"Seriously? You all failed?" Zaizen put his phone on silent mode and took a picture of them all, "What a bunch of morons..."
Hearing the cockiness in the 2nd year's voice, Kenya and the baka pair demanded that the 2nd year better back up his cockiness with actions.
"Fine."
The team followed the boy who was nicknamed 'Tensai' to the club.
"There she is..." Kenya didn't dare to approach the paper fan wielding Chinami in fear that he will be struck again. "Go for it then!" Kenya slapped Zaizen's back, "Do not come back unless you succeed!"
"Tch." Zaizen approached Chinami without any fear, something Shiraishi and Kenya admired about him.
"Shiraishi, do we need to pray for him?" Kenya asked.
"We should." Shiraishi started to pray for the Tensai of the team...
From their point of view, Zaizen walked up to the annoyed Chinami. Koharu and Yuuji suggested they should go around and hide in the bush behind them to get the gist of what's going on. Once they got behind the bush, they can hear the conversation between them.
"Hey, Chinami." Zaizen sat down on the bench next to her, not even bothered to ask if she wanted him there.
"Oh, Hikaru."
'Why are they calling each other by given names?!' Everyone but Kintarou can see that they obviously get along! How and when did they get along?!
"Did you get a chance to finish the first chapter of that book then?"
"Don't even get me started! Some tennis club members have been popping up and stopping me from reading it!"
"You look so annoyed..."
"You think?!"
"Truth is, they are serious."
"They need a manager?"
"Yeah."
"And it has to be me?"
"Yeah."
"I don't want to."
"But you can hit them with a paper fan all you like and you won't get in trouble."
"I can? I didn't think about it that way before..." Chinami was thinking about the proposition being placed in front of her. Should she do it? It would be great to hit others without getting into trouble.
"So will you do it?"
"Eh, I-"
"I'll just walk you home so you don't have to worry about being late to get back."
"If you put it that way, fine. I'll try out for a week and then I'll decide."
Zaizen smiled at her reply and then took his smartphone out before pulling her close with one arm, "I need this for my blog."
"Oh? O-okay..."
He turned for the front camera and he took a nice picture of them together.
"#success." Zaizen said with a small smile.
"Why do you guys have to recruit me again?"
"Because Coach told us to."
"I need hit that Coach of yours..."
"Let me take a picture of you doing so."
"Yay~! Yay~! Zaizen did it!" Kintarou jumped up and down from the hiding spot behind them.
Now the hiding spot has been found, it was question time from the senpais!
"Why are you and this girl on such a friendly term?!" Kenya demanded an answer from the spot, "I can't imagine you being nice to a girl at all when you're such a dick to us most of the time!"
"She is my classmate..." Zaizen then proceeded to tell them how he met Sakurahime Chinami...
"Class, this is Sakurahime Chinami, a new student who will join us in class 2-7 today. Let's all bow down and treat her like royalty- What the hell am I talking about?!" The homeroom teacher made a successful joke to make the class laugh.
As always, Zaizen's not laughing and he looked up from his phone to look at the annoyed look on Chinami's face. Her face caught his attention because it felt like such a long time since Zaizen has seen a person he deemed as 'normal' in this comedian-wannabe infested school.
"How dare you make a joke out of me!" Chinami whipped out her paper fan and slapped the homeroom teacher with it, "You make another joke out of me and I will kill you!"
The laughter got frozen by pure silence, the only thing that made a noise was Zaizen's phone that was on camera mode; how can he not take a picture of the homeroom teacher being beaten to the floor? It's pure blogging material delivered to him on a platter!
"Hey! Don't pretend to faint, you piece of crap! Huh? You've really fainted?" Chinami looked at her new classmates and she sighed; might as well try to continue her introduction. "My name is Sakurahime Chinami, I moved here from Kobe. Uh...my hobby is none of your business; I don't feel like telling you what I like and dislike, and I don't know what I want to be in the future because I just want to graduate and then see what happens afterward."
"That doesn't explain why you are on friendly terms with her at all!" Kenya shouted at Zaizen, "This is just Sakurahime assaulting the teacher!"
"That happened yesterday, right? You got friendly with each other pretty quick..." Yuuji wondered if the young Tensai have a crush on Chinami...
"Actually, we spoke properly in art class. Just before lunch break..." Chinami was about to tell them how they got on friendly terms...
Art class has started and the students were told to draw something funny. Chinami drew the first thing that came to mind and she drew chibi version of herself hitting Shiraishi and Kenya with a paper fan while Chitose, Gin, Koishikawa, Kintarou, and the baka pair running away from her.
Zaizen looked over at her drawing and he found it quite amusing. "Sakurahime, those are my teammates."
"Oh?" Chinami did a very quick drawing of a new chibi. The new chibi was a chibi version of Zaizen taking a picture with his phone. "How is it? Does it look like you or what?"
"You're good." He took a picture of her work, another goof material for blogging.
"Are you a photographer?"
"Blogger."
"What do you blog about? Badmouthing the things in this weird school?"
"Have you seen my blog before?" Zaizen asked with a little surprise in his voice.
"Hm? I just guessed. I am just glad this school has someone who is not an idiot."
"You are okay, Chinami."
"You're telling me that is how you two got along?!" Kenya still cannot believe it! All Zaizen had to do was the one to do the asking and she would willingly come?!
"Well, Hikaru is the one who asked so..." Chinami decided to reintroduce herself to the team's captain, "Oi, which one is the captain?"
"I-I am." Shiraishi walked forward to her, "I'm Shiraishi Kuranosuke." He held his hand out for her to shake, unsure if the Coach's decision was a good one or a bad one. Before he even had time to think about that, Chinami shook his hand.
"Sakurahime Chinami. Nice to meet you, Shiraishi-buchou."