The days flew past with Ryouko's time mostly taken up by the girls tennis club and school work. She almost always monitored the Seigaku members too. All of them, although she had more notes for the regular players had records with her. Before she knew it, the data accumulated enough to fill three of her notebooks.
It was a fairly hot day for the onset of autumn, probably the hottest one they encountered that week. Summer really was still lingering around.
Ryouko was sitting on her seat, staring up at the sky outside the window. Break time came and she snapped out of her reverie.
She was about to tap Ryoma on the shoulder to invite him to join her on the rooftop when a delivery guy stood at the doorway of their classroom.
"Is there a Fujioka Ryouko-san in here?" He asked.
She raised her hand, getting the delivery guys' attention. Ryouko approached him.
He handed her a box covered with a blue striped wrapper. "Please sign here." He told her.
She took the clipboard and signed it with her left hand.
"Ryouko-chan..." Miyako told her after the delivery guy went away.
She looked at her.
"Aren't you right-handed?" She asked.
"A." She said suddenly, realizing that she used her left hand.
"I'm originally left-handed. But I can use my right hand to write too. The handwriting looks different though. My original signature is written with my left hand." She explained.
"Waa... Are you ambidextrous? It's the first time I've seen one..." Mami commented.
"I'm not ambidextrous. I just learned." She replied.
"Then Ryouko-san, that means that you're a southpaw like Echizen..." Horio said.
Ryouko nodded.
"Then how come you fought with Minami-senpai right-handed?" Mami asked.
"This is why I hate people who doesn't know a thing about tennis... To hit a twist serve wherein you want the ball to fly towards your opponent, you have to use the hand that your opponent uses. Minami-senpai is right-handed, that's why Ryouko-san used her right hand." Horio said knowingly.
"Even so..." Miyako mumbled. She knew nothing about tennis, but still, she felt as though Ryouko-chan using her right hand when she's left-handed somehow made it seem like Ryouko-chan underestimated Minami-senpai.
"Which one is stronger, your right or your left?" Mami asked.
"Left." Ryouko answered. Right now, she's more concerned of what the heck the package she just received contained.
Ryouko took the box and opened it. Inside was a drone. Yes, definitely a drone.
It suddenly lit up and flew out of the box.
Ryouko frowned. There's only one person who will do this.
"What's that?" Her classmates asked excitedly to each other, pointing at the slowly levitating drone.
"A drone." She said.
"A what?" Horio asked.
"A camera." She simply answered.
She was pretty sure that that guy is somewhere near here. She watched as the drone hovered above, the camera pointing straight at her. Ryouko took her racket from the duffel bag she had under her chair, threw a tennis ball in the air and served a ball towards the machine.
The drone got hit and it fell down the classroom floor with a metallic thundering noise.
"Isn't that thing expensive?" Ryoma told her.
She narrowed her eyes at it. "It is, but who cares. I have more than enough money to reimburse it with." She said. That saying if he can summon the courage to make me pay for it." She added with a smirk.
She took the damaged drone and placed it back inside the box. She carried it outside the school building to place it inside the trash when Fujioka Ichidou yelled from a distance, red-headed with green eyes and wearing the expression of horror as he looked at one of his beloved drones turned to scrap by his beloved cousin.
"Ryouko! Stop that! Give it to me." He said.
Ryouko held the box at the mouth of the large trash bin.
This made Ichidou run as fast as he can towards Ryouko. "Okay, okay! I'm sorry. I didn't send a camera to you to monitor your movements or anything like that. T'was a joke. Please give it back..."
She threw the box at Ichidou. He made a wild chase at it, throwing his body as a football player would and caught the box in his arms, hugging it to his chest.
"Ryouko, that was mean..." Ichidou complained.
"How the heck did you get inside here?" Ryouko asked remembering the gates.
"Anyone can. The gates weren't locked." Ichidou answered, getting up. "That was really mean, Ryouko. I came this far just to see you and you greet me this way."
"It was a nice way to greet me too, sending a drone after me. I thought I informed the clan leaders that there will be no more surveillance or I'll run away from home." Ryouko said, crossing her arms over her chest area.
"It was my idea. The clan leaders had nothing to do with it. I just wanted to have fun. It's been a while since I've teased you. How come you left Australia as soon as your part in the competition ended. You should at least inform me that you were leaving..." Ichidou told her.
"You said that you had something to do there, and from my perspective, you didn't exactly do anything worthwhile while I was watching you. I figured you still have to do whatever it is that you need to do so I left wihout you." She said.
"Ryouko... Don't talk as if you don't know me..." Ichidou said, his lips puckered up in a pout. "I just said that to get a free vacation. I went to see kangaroos." He said, grinning.
Ryouko sighed. "I'm the idiot to think that you at least matured a bit..."
Then, Ichidou took off his bagpack and rummaged through it. He unearthed a bentou box covered with a light blue cloth.
"Licht said that you forgot your lunch." He told her, handing it towards her.
Ryouko took it. "Thank you." She said in English, waving it around.
"By the way, where the heck are you staying?" She asked.
"The Fujioka manor, of course. From this day on, I'm gonna live with you. Don't get ideas though. I'm not a spy that the clan elders sent." He said.
"Your parents are just worried about you. You don't exactly call them to inform how you're doing, and Licht only calls occasionally and just says 'Ojou-sama is doing fine'." Ichidou said, imitating the monotonous voice of Ryouko's serious albeit extremely good-looking butler. "Not exactly detailed, is it?" He added and winked. "And so the detailing became my mission."
"Kattenishiro. (Do whatever you like.)" Ryouko said and left.
As soon as she entered the classroom, the girls of her class pressed on her and asked excitedly. "Nee, nee, Ryouko-chan... Who was that guy you were with?" They all asked.
"My cousin." She answered and went through them to go to her chair. She sat down. The girls followed her and crowded around her.
"Really? He's so good-looking." One of them said.
"You think so?" She said nonchalantly as she unwrapped the bentou box. Lunchtime was almost over and she didn't got a bite to eat.
"Introduce us to him the next time she comes, Ryouko-chan..." The other girls said.
"Oy, oy... Can't you girls see that she's trying to eat. I'm sure she'll introduce you if the guy comes again so will you please stop crowding over her..." Mami told all of them, making shooing motions with her hands.
The girls dissipated with lots of murmurings and Mami turned to Ryouko, brandishing a thumbs up sign and winked. Ryouko merely smiled.
~~~
Meanwhile, Minami Yayoi was looking at the notebook where she takes down notes of the details of the training of her club members. All of a sudden, her friends came over to her.
"Nee, Minami. Have you heard?" Sakura said.
"What?" She asked, not really listening and still having her eyes fixed on the notebook.
"We told you that that freshman girl doesn't deserve your trust... Do you know that she's left-handed?" Shizuka told her.
"What?" Minami said, this time her head snapping up to look at them with wide eyes.
"Soudayo... (That's right) We heard from the freshmen whispering about in the hallways." Shizuka said.
"They said she said it with her own lips that she's left-handed." Sakura further explained.
"I'm sure they heard wrong. Ryouko always used her right hand during practice and she writes with her right hand too." Minami said.
"Fine, then. If you don't believe us, then ask her yourself." Sakura said before they all went away.
Minami brooded over the matter for the rest of the class.
~~~
Classes ended and people began to go to their after-school clubs for practice and recreation.
Ryouko was first to arrive to the girls' tennis court. She started on setting up the nets.
After a while, the other girls came and helped her.
"Ryouko..." Minami-buchou called her from behind. "Which one is your dominant hand, your right or left?" She asked.
"Hidari-desu. (Left.)" She answered simply.
Minami's eyes widened. She stared at Ryouko, shocked. It took her a minute to get over it, then anger and frustration boiled up inside her.
"Even so, you used your right hand to face me in your initiation match." She said angrily. The fact that Ryouko beat her helpless without even letting her earn a point became clearer than ever.
That's right. Fujioka Ryouko humiliated her in front of many people. And by using her non-dominant hand to face her is just pure underestimation.
Ryouko looked back at her. "What about it though, Buchou?"
"What else?" Shizuka said as she and Sakura went inside the courts.
"You think you're so good that you look down on people and doesn't use your true strength in fighting your opponents." Sakura said.
"Hmmm..." Ryouko said and approached them. "The fact that the senpais know me enough to be able to analye my thoughts and actions, that's news to me." She said.
"Don't be sarcastic, you rude freshman. What else does it mean for you to fight someone with your non-dominant hand? It means that you think it's enough to bring them down." Shiuka said angrily.
"That saying, the senpais shouldn't be the one acting like this. Minami-buchou should be the one talking and expressing her sentiments." Ryouko said. She turned to Minami.
"Buchou. Do you really think that I underestimated you?" She asked.
Minami was conflicted. Ryouko being a lot stronger than her wasn't Ryouko's fault. But then... Minami's pride was torn to shreds the moment that Ryouko said that she was indeed left-handed. She felt betrayed. She hanged onto the fact that Ryouko fired her best at that match. Whatever was left of her honor drifted away.
"Yes." Minami said.
Ryouko remained quiet for a while. The people around her awaited her answer.
"Ah, soudesuka? (Oh, is that right?)" She said. "Wakarimashita. (I understand.)" She added before going out of the court.