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Facing Your Demons - Prologue Akaya tugged irritably at the collar of his new uniform jacket, scowling at the feel of the cheap starched cotton beneath his fingers. He already missed his comfortable, well-tailored Rikkaidai uniform, and he hadn't been wearing this one for an hour yet. He was trying very hard not to make any other mental comparisons between this school and Rikkai. He already knew that Rikkai would come up superior in every case. How could it not? Rikkaidai was an expensive, top-rate private school, a feeder school for one of the better universities in Tokyo. This... was a cheap public school, not known for much of anything. The halls were dingy, the students in the classrooms he'd passed looked dull and unintelligent. Even the teacher he was following was wearing a cheap dress, obviously straight off the rack and not doing a thing to flatter her figure. "Public schools," he muttered in disgust. How exactly had he sunk this low again? Oh, that was right... his father had shocked them all by admitting he had a gambling problem and oh, by the way, he'd lost his job and all their savings, too. Akaya's tuition had been paid at Rikkai until the end of the fall term, but once the winter break was done he'd been forced to change schools. At least it hadn't happened six months earlier. His chances of going to the Nationals again with this school were slim to none, but at least he'd been able to go with the rest of Rikkaidai this year. "Did you say something, Kirihara-kun?" the teacher showing him around the school looked over her shoulder. Hastily Akaya smoothed his expression into a bland smile. No sense making enemies of the teachers by telling them what he really thought of their school. "Just muttering to myself, sensei," he replied easily. "I see the office up there, are we done the tour?" "Yes," she nodded and smiled back at him, pleased. "You'll probably need to spend the rest of the day filling out the paperwork. It's a shame you were ill this morning, on your first day of class." Akaya's smile became a bit sickly. His 'illness' this morning had mostly been sheer, willful disbelief that he was actually going to have to go through with this. As if, if he could only put off getting out of bed long enough, it would all turn out to be just a horrible dream. It hadn't worked, though, and he'd eventually been forced to admit defeat when his mother bodily hauled him out of bed. It was late enough in the day that he didn't have time to go to class, though. One more day before he had to face the inevitable. "Did you have any more questions, Kirihara-kun?" The teacher asked him, still smiling. Akaya nodded, bracing himself. "Yeah, just one. Where do I find the tennis club?" "Tennis?" Her smile became a little uncertain. "I'm not sure we have a tennis club, to tell the truth. I don't think they have a staff advisor assigned..." Akaya gave her a disbelieving stare. "Your team went to the Nationals this year, and you're not even sure they exist?" This was even worse than he'd thought. In a school like this, they probably only had a sports team go that far maybe once in a generation. How the hell was it that the whole school didn't know all about it? She pursed her lips, obviously thinking hard. "Hmm. Come to think of it, I think I do remember something about that being announced at a staff meeting. Well, I'll ask around while you fill out the paperwork." Her smile became brilliant again. "Welcome to Fudoumine."
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|Prologue| |Part 1| |Part 2| |Part 3| |Part 4| |Part 5| |Part 6| |Part 7| |Part 8| |Part 9| |Part 10| |Part 11| |Part 12| |