Of Tennis and Ice Prince
Chapter 2: This Douchebag
Sora got ready to serve at the baseline.
"What kind of player is she? The data is rather… intriguing." Kurobe looked at her pentagon analysis and found that there was no statistic about any of the five areas.
"I don't know." Saitou smiled a bit too happily.
"Huh?" He cocked his eyebrows.
"Even I can't seem to really grasp her play style. In a way she's an all rounder—but her style changes so drastically. Sometimes she gets very analytic, yet sometimes she's all out just by her instincts. Sometimes she's defensive but sometimes she's very aggressive. Sometimes her shots are sporadic but sometimes they're strictly consistent." He said as he watched the screen and saw her toss the ball in the air and hit it.
"That sounds very…"
"Irregular, I know." He said. "But I can't seem to find egregious flaws in any of the characteristics that I listed. Or more. It feels like they're all her play styles."
"Isn't that a backfire for her?"
"Not exactly." He looked back at the screen; she was at the net. She hit and pushed hard for a couple of shots—and surprised Byoudouin with a very unexpected, random drop shot. "It's quite effective to some point. And that's why I let her come here."
"Hehe, didn't think of that, did'ya?" Sora grinned and said, pointing her racquet at the opponent who was slightly taken aback by such an expected shot.
"Hahaha, you don't say!" He laughed loudly. "This is quite interesting. And here I thought you look like a wussy who'd get knocked out just running around the court!"
She took the first game like that; they switched courts and Byoudouin got ready to serve.
"But she needs to find her real play style—for her sake. She has no "perfection" of her own style. It may place her as the top in an intermediate level… but to advance further she needs to find her style. Maybe it'd be the best for her to visit Coach Nyuudou…"
After an hour, she was knocked out on the ground, huffing and puffing crazily. She lost with a score of 6-2; it was better than the former dude, at least. Well, by one game. But that still counts.
"Holy shit he's good." She let out and chuckled to herself.
"In total, there are 20 winners and 8 losers. I would request the eight losers to leave this camp immediately." The speaker announced as everyone finished reporting their scores.
Sora shot up. "WHAT!"
The Tokugawa dude looked troubled and shocked also.
"What kind of bullshit's this?" One of the other losers shouted towards the surveillance camera.
"That guy we played was no joke!" Sora yelled and Tokugawa nodded.
"Please leave immediately. These players were chosen so that you could beat your opponent; these players are from the last court—you should not have a problem beating them." The speaker said again. "A bus will be waiting for you at the gate."
"But—"
"If you won't leave then we'll always force you out." The speaker said. "Before we call the security, please head out to the main gate."
At this no one said anything; the eight losers packed up, including Sora and Tokugawa, and headed out to the main gate. They got in the bus; no one spoke or talked while riding.
"Are you seriously okay with this!" One of the guys stood up and yelled.
"Well, what are we going to do? Go back? I doubt they'd let us in." Sora said, looking out the window.
"We lost. No choice." Tokugawa stated also; then the bus abruptly stopped.
"Get off here; someone should be waiting for you." The bus driver said; without knowing the players stepped out and walked into the forest with a rough path already made.
"Where is this…?" The eight players walked in—until they saw Saitou Coach in view.
"You're… one of the coaches." One of the players confirmed.
"That's right." He smiled.
'What's he thinking?' Sora pondered.
"You clearly lost to your opponents that you could have beaten." He said. "Although… there were some exceptions." He smiled at Tokugawa and Sora.
"I thought we were going back home."
"You were. But… if you'd like to try climbing the mountain behind me and reach the top, you may." He stated with an innocent smile. "So, what do you say? Would you like to improve more?"
"What's at the top?"
"I cannot answer that." He answered, still smiling.
"We're not going to climb it without knowing what's up there!" One of the guys shouted and said.
Sora and Tokugawa already made their way towards the mountain and started climbing it. They didn't care if the others weren't going to climb. It's not like they were forced to conform.
"They're already one step ahead of you." Saitou said, pointing at the two behind his back. One by one, grumbling, the players followed Sora and Tokugawa up the mountain.
"Good luck." He mumbled. "Especially you, Sora."
Sora huffed and puffed as she grabbed onto the rocks; damn, the bandage around her chest was getting really uncomfortable. She then felt her head spin—and lost the grip on the rock.
"Uwaahh!" She yelped as she braced herself for an impact; but someone caught her by the waist. She opened her eyes and found none other than Tokugawa.
"Are you okay." He asked more like an order.
"Y-Yeah. Thanks." She said, grabbing onto the rocks once more. He let go and without another word continued to climb. 'Che, at least say 'you're welcome,' or 'no problem,' or stuff like that… douchebag.' Sora scowled inwardly.
They climbed and climbed; as they reached the top, they were greeted with a flat surface, and, surprisingly, a rigid and poorly made tennis court.
"W-What is this…" Sora mumbled and looked around. There were used up tennis balls in a basket and a cabin by the cliff.
"Are you the scumbag losers?" Someone walked towards them; he had a very filthy traditional apparel on with a gourd attached to his belt around the waist. He was not fat, but not skinny—more like large because of all the muscle. He had a bushy beard and slanted eyes that made him seem mean. Or was he really?
"I'm Coach Nyuudo." He introduced, scratching his belly. "You'll be under my coaching from now on, filthy scumbags."
"This is a training…?" The others mumbled between themselves.
"So get to work if you want to beat those U-17 winners! Run to the cliff and back, now!" He barked; Sora and Tokugawa immediately put their bags down and started running towards the cliff they could see far away. The others followed staggeringly; one by one, they jogged towards the cliff.
"What do you think he is?" Tokugawa asked as he jogged along with Sora at a same pace.
"Are you asking me? Like hell I'd know." She scoffed. "But if he can help me get better then I'm staying."
It took an hour to go and come back from the cliff. When they came back, Coach Nyuudou was drinking alcohol out of his gourd, doing nothing.
They noticed another group of players wearing black shirt and black pants.
"You slow scumbags. It should take you only half an hour!" He yelled. "Get changed. Wear the t-shirts over there hanging on the rails." He said. They went to change; Sora was not appreciating this.
'Shit, shit, shit. What do I do…?' She freaked out and thought. When she looked around, the guys were getting their clothes off. 'Okay, I'm going to change, safe-style.' She just pulled her arms inside and put the shirt over—then put the shirt on top underneath, and took off the old one.
'Shit what am I going to do with the pants? Oh, crap…' She gulped.
"Why aren't you changing? You changed your shirt in such a hard way." One of the players asked.
"U-Um, well… I have a huge burn scar on my thigh and my back so yeah… I'll just go change in…" A little shack caught her eyes. "I'll go in there! Ahaha." She laughed nervously and ran towards the little shack.
They really didn't mind her and continued changing. Sora safely changed in the shack; she was glad that there was something with at least four walls and a roof.
She came out quickly and rushed over to the other players now dressed in simple white shirts and pants.
"Alright, scumbags." Nyuudou let out a burp and said. "Let's get started with the real training. Welcome to hell." He smirked, no, more like grinned evilly and looked down at them from the boulder he was sitting on.
They trained—swung racquets, jogged, climbed, swung racquets again, and jogged. The sun started to set; Nyuudou assembled all the players. There were about 20 players in black and 8 in white.
"You're going to play on that court. White versus black, if you miss you drop out. Play until no one's left on the other side. Whoever loses gets to sleep in the cave. Now, get to it!" He hollered. Players all moved into the court one by one, groaning a little. Sora was just glad that she could hit a ball.
They began the game; the older players in black put on an almost mocking look and smirked. The ball tossed in the air and it flew towards the player at the very front; as soon as the ball touched the ground, it bounced in a random direction and flew past the player who was already in a ready position.
"You! You're out." Nyuudou pointed at him and said. That player walked out in disbelief.
The black jerseys served again in between two players. They both tried to hit it—and ended up getting in each other's way.
"You two are out!"
"We're not going to win like this…" Sora bit her lips and mumbled. She carefully observed the ground; observing only wasn't going to help, however. Then, a ball was flying towards her.
"That's why you use split steps," Sora said, and hopped up. As the ball landed she observed, and as the ball bounced towards a her right, she jumped and landed—chasing the ball, and hitting it right back. Tokugawa was doing the same; it seemed that he was well-trained with techniques on the court.
"You guys can volley; that's way easier." Sora said also. The others nodded and moved up to the net. They began taking out the black jerseys one by one—
"TIME'S UP!" Nyuudou yelled. There were four white jerseys left, including Sora and Tokugawa; and there were six black jerseys left.
"Damn, we were so close…"
With a disappointment behind, the eight white jerseys got their sleeping bags and placed it inside a cave. Sora somehow ended up placing her sleeping bag next to Tokugawa's.
"Hey, can you pass me the pillow?" She asked. Tokugawa grabbed and tossed it to her speechlessly. "Thanks."
"Hn."
'Che! What a rude jerk!' Sora growled inside. Although she was discontented about the fact that she was sleeping next to the jerk, she fell asleep due to the hard training.
When they were fast asleep and moon was up—
"WAKE UP, WAKE UP!" Nyuudou banged on the steel frying pan, making the most annoying and loud sound ever. "Get up and give me 300 racquet swings!" He hollered.
"This late at night…?" The players woke up rubbing their eyes.
"Ya losers think ya can beat those U-17 players without working day and night? Get to it!"
They all grumbled and got outside.
"You and you." Nyuudou called Sora and Tokugawa. "I have a special mission for you."
Chi-su! Cheers to you!
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