Chapter II: Exploring Tokyo – Day 1

"So… how did the media take it?" Sakuno asked out of nowhere.

"They didn't. We were probably already here when they found out we were gone." Reina, who seemed to have developed a certain sense that alarmed her when to start listening to the brunette, lazily replied. That and, although she didn't know, her parents used their influence to get out of the country without anyone knowing. Their house in the US, after all, was paparazzi-proof. And well, uninvited media people in general. It wasn't particularly hard to disappear undetected.

Sakuno 'Oohhed' at her answer and then, out of curiosity, asked, "How do you think they would've reacted?"

"They'll make a fuss, I'm sure. But me being a 'rising star' or a 'child prodigy' would be a small part of it. The headlines would probably be 'The third prodigy of the samurai clan retires!' or something like that."

"You underestimate yourself." Sakuno pronounced.

"No, I don't. " Reina replied with certainty.

"If you say so…" The brunette shrugged, aware of how stubborn she could get. "...so where do you want to go?"

"The tennis courts."

Sakuno giggled at the immediate answer.

"I shouldn't have asked."

...

They hopped on the commuter train and sat side-by-side. There were relatively few passengers that day so they could have ample space between them. But just when Sakuno was about to open a topic, 3 high school students entered the train and positioned themselves standing on the train's isle. Sakuno thought it was awkward to have a conversation right in front of the very intimidating looking boys, so they stayed quiet the whole trip.

Well, almost.

It started out as a peaceful trip for Reina, since she could easily tune out all the noise from the older boys. But then a member of the trio, who had long brown fly-away hairstyle accompanied by a below average face, started bragging about tennis. Reina ignored them at first since she did want to avoid unnecessary conflicts, she loved tennis and she liked sending guys like these who blemish the fine, fine image of her love to the deepest parts of hell; but she wasn't a war freak.

Since then, she perpetually tried to coax herself, and she was almost successful, too… then the monkey-faced guy started touching more of her nerves.

It was when the annoying guy suddenly demonstrated his false 'knowledge' of tennis grips, with the racket getting much too close to her best friend's face. And Sakuno, being a timid (most of the time) girl, couldn't say anything.

"Oi. Monkey-face." She called looking straight at the demonstrating teen. "Tennis rackets are used to hit tennis balls, not faces." She stated, looking indifferent as always.

The monkey's eye twitched in annoyance and was about to say something lame when one of his friends unknowingly saved him (from humiliation for the time being, anyway) by telling him to calm down.

"Oh. What's that crawling in your right arm?" She asked feigning innocence. The monkey immediately dropped the racket and searched frantically for whatever was crawling in his arm.

Nothing. The monkey looked at her with an annoyed expression and she just smirked arrogantly. One of the monkey's friends snickered. The monkey immediately blushed in humiliation and anger. Sakuno was a bit worried now… she knew her friend could be very arrogant when it came to things she loved, but this was just a potential hazard.

The humiliated monkey quickly grabbed his racket on the floor and was gesturing to threaten Reina with his racket when she suddenly smirked, noticeably mocking the guy.

"That's right." She leered and pointed at his racket. 'The joy of annoying annoying people…'

"That's the western grip. The grip that is held as if you're picking it up. The eastern grip is held as if you're shaking hands."

Silence

"T-THAT DOES IT. " her victim was now visually half-crazy with anger. He was about to hit Reina with a racket when both of his friends got in time to stop him. "S-Sasabe! What the hell! Do you want to get us in trouble?" The two other boys were dumbstruck at what their friend almost did to a kid, and a girl at that.

Sasabe breathed heavily and then exhaled. "Gomen. Gomen. Did I scare you?" He laughed half-heartedly, still visually mad. "I was just scaring the kid off, you know." He lied. But his friends just let go of him anyway and led him to the door as soon as the train stopped.

...

"Sheesh, Reina. You almost got sent to the hospital for those little impulses of yours!" Sakuno vehemently declared as they headed to the courts..

"You're 13 years old Sakuno, but you sound just like my mother." She replied lazily. And just continued walking while Sakuno was stopped in her tracks.

"REINA!" She called for the friend who's pretty much ignoring her. The brunette shouted inwardly in irritation. 'She's going to get herself killed someday because of her love of tennis.'

But in the end, one could never imagine a world without Echizen Reina.

*Moments Later*

"Here." Sakuno said as she handed the ice-cold grape Ponta to the anticipating Reina.

She thanked Sakuno and asked her what she was drinking. "Broccoli juice " Sakuno answered, she added something like the juice being new and she wanted to try it out.

"Oh?" Reina expressed in curiosity. Being a food-lover, she wondered how it'd taste. She promised herself she will try it the next time she encountered a vending machine. Lucky her, the park had tons.

After finishing her drink, she thought that the rest of the day would be relatively peaceful and bug-free. Well, she was easily proven wrong a few minutes afterwards.

"Ara. Ara." arrogantly said by an annoyingly familiar voice. She looked behind her and Sakuno, and there they were.

"Ei. Monkey face. " She greeted coolly.

"Tsk." Sasabe, angry yet again clenched his fist towards Reina in a vain attempt to intimidate the girl.

"Sasabe…" Called one of his friends. 'not again…'

Sasabe, as stupid as he was, wasn't going to let a kid get to his nerves (she already did, baka) especially when he's in front of his friends. He looked haughtily at Reina.

"Hai, hai. Let's get going to my match now. A kid wouldn't understand how important a real tennis match is."

Reina's eye twitched. 'He, the oh so untalented one, belittled ME in tennis ?.'

Sakuno cringed. She actually felt sorry, all-of-a-sudden, for the poor monkey.

"Ne." Reina called as the trio was walking away.

"Want me to teach you how to play tennis?"

A RANDOM TENNIS COURT, several minutes later

Sasabe didn't stand a chance, his friends incredulously admitted. Sasabe was still in denial though. To be beaten that bad by a 12-year-old girl…

One of Sasabe's cronies pointed at their friend who was now crouched on the courts breathing heavily, wide-eyed. "I think we should get him professional help as soon as we can." The other one nodded and they each took Sasabe's arms to their shoulders.

But before they left the courts they looked at the tiny figure of the girl who defeated Sasabe. She was talking with her friend from the train and an older woman in a pink jersey who arrived in the middle of their game.

She wasn't even sweating.

'WHAT A MONSTER.' They thought syn-chronically.

...

"What's with the hideous glasses?" the old woman frowned. "It hides your pretty face."

"That's the point." She declared, ignoring the later comment. The woman just stared at her for a while, before muttering "No surprise there." She laughed boisterously at her own comment, embarrassing Sakuno very much.

That was the first time the old woman saw the girl in this err… appearance . But she could immediately conclude that Reina was comfortable with herself right now, so she let it go.

Reina was thankful the woman didn't push it. It truly was the most comfortable get-up Reina could come up with. But sad to say the glasses, even without any grade, still hindered the light entering the eyes to a certain degree. There was a small chance her vision will be affected if she used it too often.

Hell she would risk it.

So, in the end, cross-dressing was her best bet. She watched the Ryuzakis chat for a while, occasionally asking for her comments- even turning the topic and make it center on her, much to her dismay. When the two suddenly made bets on when she would get a monstrosity called a 'boyfriend', she felt a few veins popping in her head.

Riiing!

The old woman's phone rang, saving her from one of Reina's snide comments. The woman's expression changed and after a somewhat… emotional exchange, the old woman finally put down her phone and grinned at her granddaughter. "We have to go to your aunt right now."

Sakuno winced. "Eh, now? Why?"

"Your Aunt Cecil is going to labor."

"EH!" Sakuno clasped her hands together happily.

"Congratulations" Reina shrugged. The old woman flinched at the recollection that she was there, "Want to come with us…? I don't recommend it, though. You'll be waiting for hours."

"No thanks, Sensei. I'd like to stay here."

"Okay then. Take care kiddo." The old woman waved hurriedly. Sakuno nodded and gave Reina a quick hug. "Sorry about this, Reina … See you at school in 2 days."

Reina watched them go maintaining that stoic face of hers as she drank her Ponta. She could not help but smirk the old woman was making.

"I'm going to be a great grandmother!" The woman shouted, much to her granddaughter's embarrassment...

Again.