Prince Of Tennis Fan Fiction ❯ Hyoutei Rabbits ❯ 03 ( Chapter 3 )

Tachibana An wrinkled her nose as the smell of rubber and dried netting assailed her. She moved across the empty courts to sit on her usual bench. With a smile, she bent over and looked between her calves. Nope, no rabbits today.

 

 

The rain had stopped not long before. All the old courts were flooded, while the new ones sported puddles. There were bundles of rags and used mops under a bench. She could not fathom why anybody would dump their garbage at the street tennis courts. A very experienced mop twitched. She frowned and squatted, taking care to tuck her skirt into the fold of her legs. She hugged her knees and waited. The very experienced mop twitched again. And a piece of gaudy velvet seemed to be trembling. Curiouser and curiouser. She extended an index finger and poked a bundle of washed out rag. It jumped and so did she. Loud bickering distracted her and she ran towards the noise.

 

“Kamio-kun, Momoshiro-kun, there's something under that bench!” she exclaimed, latching a hand on each boy and dragging them. The rest followed.

 

The bunch of teenagers squatted on one side of the bench.

 

“Momo-senpai.”

 

“Huh.”

 

“Why are we squatting here?” Echizen Ryouma grouched, as he was held down by a heavy arm draped across his shoulders.

 

“Huh?” Momoshiro Takeshi responded, intelligently.

 

Echizen surmised, correctly, that his second-year senior was distracted by An, whose hand was resting on his forearm. The girl was, however, staring at something under the bench. His view was blocked by Kikumaru Eiji, a third-year senior, who was bobbing on his toes despite squatting.

 

Kamio poked the black rag, which turned its head. “Yaa!”

 

Kikumaru blinked his large eyes and yelled, “Aaa!”

 

“Nani?” There was general bewilderment, a few wet pant seats and many thrumming eardrums.

 

“Usagi,” Kikumaru exclaimed, “kawaiiii(1).”

 

“Eiji-senpai,” Momoshiro whined, nursing both ears.

 

Kikumaru picked up the reddish Cashmere Lop by its neck scruff. “They don't look too good nya.” A tattered brown rag, which turned out to be a rabbit with large floppy ears, sneezed.

 

“When can we start playing? Echizen still owes me a game. And a roll of grip tape too. That is so long ago, I'm sure he's forgotten. Brat. But I don't mind, if he plays a set with me now. Why are we looking at usagi? You don't go to a tennis court to look at usagi. You should go to a pet shop. Why are there-”

 

“Pet shop, pet shop!” exclaimed Kikumaru. “Let's bring them to the pet shop.”

 

Since no one had a better idea, the rabbits were carried to the pet shop that Kikumaru frequents. It was a long walk; by the end of which, everyone was ready to strangle Ibu Shinji. He had kept up his chant like an over zealous monk. The rest of the Fudoumine Chuugakkou students tried to look less embarrassed.

 

Business at the pet shop was slow because of the downpour. The shop attendant gamely demonstrated how to bathe the rabbits at the washing area behind the shop. Rags and used mops were, thus, magically transformed into eight young rabbits.

 

“This one will be called `Milk',” said Kikumaru, combing the fur of a white Lionhead.

 

“Eiji,” reproached Ooishi Shuuichirou, his doubles partner, also a third-year Seigaku student. Really, whoever names pets after breakfast items.

 

“And that one is `Tomato'.” Kikumaru waved his brush at the red Cashmere Lop that Ooishi was blow-drying.

 

“Eiji!”

 

“Then this must be Chocolate,” An joined in. She was sorry for thinking of the brown Angora as an experienced mop, and was giving it a thorough brush as an apology. It was a lot work.

 

“And that one is-” Kikumaru's face scrunched up with his efforts. “Ne, Ooishi, what is black?”

 

“A black marker,” quipped Echizen in a deadpan tone.

 

“Ochibi! Food, I mean food. Black food. Ooishi!”

 

“I don't know, Eiji. Err, soy sauce.”

 

“Soy sauce is not a food!”

 

“Caviar.”

 

“Hoi, Kaidou, that's a good one.” Kikumaru beamed at his second-year junior. “Cavy-chan,” he cooed at the largest rabbit, a Flemish Giant. It looked blankly at him. “Unya, Cavy-chan is ignoring me!”

 

Kaidou Kaoru gave his senior a disbelieving glance, and continued to gently brush the two-toned Netherland Dwarf. It had white limbs and flanks, and a orange-yellow saddle. Kikumaru, after failing to get a response out of the Flemish Giant, skipped over to Kaidou.

 

“This is definitely a Sunny-side Up.”

 

“Eiji, I'm sure these usagi belong to someone. They probably have names already,” cautioned Ooishi, Kikumaru's voice of reason.

 

“But we have to call them something. I wonder who they belong to?”

 

“What're we going to do with them?” asked Katou Kachirou, a first-year student at Seigaku. He was enjoying the feel of the brown Havana's dense and glossy coat, which he was brushing.

 

“Well, I suppose-” Ooishi looked down at the English Lop, which has fallen asleep before he could finish toweling it. He smiled at the floppy rabbit. “-we could keep them until we find their owner.”

 

“That's a great idea, Ooishi!” Kikumaru glomped his friend.

 

“But I think we need to separate them; unless someone wants to keep all eight of them.”

 

“Anyone except the Mamushi(2). He might eat them for dinner. They'd all be gone after a week. Ha ha ha…”

 

“Fshuu… You want a fight, Momoshiro?”

 

“Ano, Kaidou-senpai, you're dropping Sunny-side Up on the floor.”

 

 

An grimaced at the memory of the chaos, which followed.

 

“-my fault that you don't know Ishida is coming later. You're still scowling. You've been scowling since after practice. Ah, there's An-chan.”

 

A smile lit up her face.

 

 

Ishida Tetsu had brought Sunny to the courts in a cage. Since everyone else was playing matches, he was watched over by Ibu. And Ibu, being Ibu, was sore about warming the bench, and therefore chanting like a monk-wannabe. Nobody would have paid any mind- it was akin to tuning out background noise. And everyone else was concentrating on their tennis. An did not know rabbits scream. It was the shrillest sound she had ever heard. Ishida made a beeline for Sunny, hurdling over nets and benches. The latter had head-butted the cage onto the ground. And said cage was inching away from Ibu in a combination of skips and sways. And Ibu was, responsibly, following the rabbit. Sunny bolted from his cage, when Ishida lifted the hatch. But the man was faster than the animal. `It was absolutely sweet,' thought An - the tall boy cradling the Netherland Dwarf, stroking its back and making soothing sounds. Wished I had a camera.

 

 

“An-chan, gomen, gomen. We were waiting for Ishida, but apparently,” Kamio gave Ibu a one-eyed glare before continuing, “he's left to run errands for his family so he'd be late.”

 

“No problem. Shall we begin?”

 

 

“Itadakimasu(3).”

 

“Tetsu,” said the carpenter, after swallowing a mouthful.

 

“Hai(4), Otousan(5),” responded the tall boy, who was rinsing a tablecloth at the sink.

 

“Tidy up the backroom before you leave. Clear all the usagi stuff.”

 

“Hai.”

 

“What happened to the little one? Hmm, Tetsu?”

 

“I don't know, Yoshi-`jisan(6). He disappeared with all his friends at the rabbit show. I think their owner found them or something.”

 

“Really?” said another of his uncles. “Kinda miss it.”

 

 

The backroom was where all the odds and ends, and leftover planks were stored. The carpentry shop was family owned. Ishida's father worked there, together with a few uncles and cousins. Ishida pulled apart the platforms, slides and ladders, which he had built for the rabbit; and which the rabbit had leapt, slid and ran on, with a dour expression. Sunny-side Up was not what Ishida had expected of a rabbit. He wasn't docile, shy or gentle, and he certainly didn't sit around doing nothing. Sunny was awkward, for want of a better word. He was quiet. Ishida even suspected him of brooding. He was easily startled by noises and was jumpy, when he was first placed in the backroom. The whirring of machines and staccatos of hammering playing on his nerves like a saw. Strangely, that issue was resolved after Ishida brought him into the workroom. He was politely curious; observing what everyone was doing, hopping up to examine unfinished pieces of furniture on the floor, but never getting in the way. He seemed to enjoy the workroom. Ishida's father and relatives liked the Netherland Dwarf too; sometimes picking him up to show him items on the workbenches.

 

Sunny also tended to glare, and could sustain a sour look longer than anyone Ishida knew, excluding Ibu, of course. Then, there was the screaming incident. Ishida sighed. He missed the little fur ball. He was not the sort of kid who would bring animals home. In fact, if An had not pleaded with him to take the rabbit in, he probably would not. He swept the dust off the roof of the house he had built for the rabbit. It resembled a kennel. He did not paint it because Sunny hated the smell of paint. With one hand on the house, he sat and mused about his temporary pet. After a while, he got up, cleaned the house, put the water bottle in, moved the house to a corner and covered it with an old curtain.

 

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

1)Kawaii = cute

2)A type of pit viper.

3)'I'm eating.' Something a person says before eating at a meal.

4)Yes

5)Polite term for addressing one's father.

6)Ojisan = Uncle