Satomi walked into a tennis club as just herself. She introduced herself as 'Tomi'. She was with her aunt.

She was wearing a nice little outfit her auntie picked out. Along with an eyepatch to cover up with silver eye. Due to her heterochromia iridus she was born with a blue eye and a silver eye. She always kept her silver one covered.

They told the front desk that 'Tomi' wanted to find a good place to practice tennis. To be honest Satomi wanted to see if there was any good competition. She sat on the side as she watched a session go on. Suddenly a girl was taken out of another sessions and put into the session Satomi was watching. The girl must have been Satomi's age. As the session proceeded with the added member a few older kids were annoyed. They bullied the young girl during break and Satomi was about to step in, but the girl got up from being pushed down and grabbed her racquet. She challenged the older girl to a match. As they played the young girl confidently won all the points and matches. When the practice was over Satomi approached the girl with her aunt.

"Hello, I'm Tomi. I was watching you guys. I just wanted to tell you that you were really good down there." Satomi said. The young girl smiled as she held her mom's hand.

"Thanks! I'm Noriko Akimoto. This is my mom Hikari Akimoto!" The girl said.

"Do you play tennis too?"
Noriko asked. Satomi nodded.

"Do you want to meet up here on Saturday and we'll play each other?" Noriko asked. Satomi looked up at her aunt and her aunt just nodded.

"Sure!" Satomi said.

"Okay I'll see you on Saturday at 9:00 in the morning!" Noriko said leaving. Satomi headed back home too.

This was the first important encounter.

On Saturday the two girls met up. This time Katashi was the one watching Satomi. Noriko's mother was there too. The girls were playing each other.

"I'm glad Noriko finally found a friend her age." Her mother said.

"Same..." Katashi mumbled.

"Noriko's never lost a game." Her mother bragged.

"Neither has Satomi." Katashi said.

"Her name is Satomi? She introduced herself as Tomi?" Her mother asked. Katashi freaked out for a moment.

"Her name is Satomi, but she likes being called Tomi by everyone." Katashi said.

"You look familiar." Noriko's mother said. Katashi was very nervous now.

"Look! This is match point for Tomi!" Katashi said. Noriko's mother's head snapped to the court. The Satomi was serving and with a jump and snap of her wrist she served the ball, but Noriko returned it, and they kept playing the point.

Satomi found an opening and rushed to the front and did an overhead slamming the ball fast to the point Noriko did not see it coming. Noriko couldn't react fast enough. Satomi won the match.

"You were a good opponent, best I played yet, but you still don't have your own style of tennis." Satomi said to Noriko.

"Style of tennis? What is that?" Noriko asked.

"Everyone has their own style. When I was playing you, you must have noticed how inconsistent I was when moving around receiving and returning the balls. My style right now is 'Speed Play Tenni' I work on playing with speed." Satomi mumbled to Noriko.

"Do you think I will find my style of tennis?" Noriko asked. Satomi nodded. Noriko's mother was looking at Katashi wondering why he had to hide his face. Then she saw a few features.

"Oh my god! Your Yoshida Katashi!" She screamed. Fortunately the courts were indoors and the glass separating the courts from the lobby was sound-proof, and no one else were on the courts.

"Keep your voice down!" Katashi whisper-yelled. Noriko's mother apologized immediately.

"Can you also train my daughter?" Noriko's mother asked.

"I only do it for Tomi because her name is Satomi Yoshida, making her my child." Katashi glared at her. Noriko's mother's eyes widened at Tomi, who was wiping her forehead with a towel, but there was no sweat.

"Noriko come over here." Noriko's mother said. Noriko came over to them immediately.

"You know tennis professionals right?" Noriko's mother asked. Noriko nodded.

"This is one of Japan's best players, Yoshida Katashi-san, and you just played his daughter, Yoshida Satomi-san, just don't tell anyone I told you this. Say hi." Noriko's mother said.

"Hello Yoshida-san." Noriko said with a bow.

Satomi went up to them.

"Come on...I want to practice something I just discovered..." Satomi said to her father. He nodded and stood up.

"Wait, can Noriko possibly train with you guys? I'll pay for her training sessions if you want the money." Noriko's mother said. Katashi looked at Satomi who, for a nine-year old, who had a blank face before she spoke up no more than a soft mumble.

"How about this? Tousan's been wanting to sign me up for some doubles practice matches, but just hasn't found the right partner for me. The next matches are next week. In this week Noriko will train with us, no payment needed. If she proves to be a good partner in the matches, no matter win or lose, she can continue training with us, still no payment, since next year once I'm ten I'll be playing on a national scale, if possible that is, but if we don't work out well together, she cannot train with us." Satomi said. Noriko's eyes widened, but they were glittering.

"Noriko? What do you think? In the end it's your choice." Noriko's mother said.

"I'd love to take you up on that offer!" Noriko said with a bring smile.

"First practice will start tomorrow at 8:00 in the morning until 3:00 in the afternoon, food will be provided, just bring your tennis racquet and whatever you need. Here's the address. Don't give this to anyone." Katashi said handing them a piece of paper.

The next morning Satomi was out of bed bright and early, as soon as she finished breakfast she headed to an equipment room. Half of the room was dedicated to acting and singing while the other half of the room was dedicated to tennis. It was actually just a shed in their backyard, but being a daughter of a worldwide known tennis player and business man, you tend to have a lot backyard space.

There was a tennis court in their backyard along with a shed for the tennis equipment. As soon as she tied her shoes Satomi got the tennis ball machine out (it looks like a garbage can without the lid) and had it feed her continuous balls as she just practiced basic forehand training. She then picked up all the balls and headed back in the house to wait for her father, it was a normal Sunday when it came to practicing tennis.

Soon enough a bell rang which meant someone was outside of their gate.

"Who is it?" Satomi asked through the microphone thingy.

"It's Akimoto Hikari and Noriko." A woman's voice said through the speaker, Satomi checked the footage just incase, but her nine-year old legs barely could see. She then went to greet them.

She had them settle in for a second.

"Tousan needs to finish up setting up for next week's doubles matches. He is the owner of the Yoshida Tennis Club chain. But he's in charge of only the one here in the Tokyo and the one in Yokohama." Kaminari said.

"Where is your mother, Tomi?" Hikari, Noriko's mother, asked.

"Kaasan? She doesn't live with us. My parents are divorced, and my father got custody of me." Satomi said. Noriko felt pity for the young girl. She grow up without having her mother supporting her every step along the way, no home cooked breakfast, nobody mom to say goodbye and stay safe every time she left the house, and it was probably different for her growing up with only one parent always there.

"You guys are here already. Sorry to keep you waiting. Let's go." Katashi said heading into the backyard. All of them followed, once they passed the pool there was a warehouse like area. There was a glass rooftop.

"Why have an indoors court if you aren't going to block the sun?" Hikari asked looking up.

"It is important that a tennis player gets used to sun, but there isn't any wind, and actual air conditioning so no one should pass out." Katashi said. He got out a basket of tennis balls.

"First run six laps around the court, no cutting the edges, then dynamic stretches." Katashi said. They nodded and did as they were told.

Practice kept on going like that for the rest of the day. They worked on double formation and rules since both usually played singles. The two of them got into arguments quite often.

This continued for the rest of the week. Noriko kept her mouth shut up being trained by a famous person and training with his daughter, while she was at school. At Mituzu Academy Satomi wasn't that popular anyways, so she didn't have to worry about talking since she barely talked at all. They would do their homework together and help each other out right after school before they started tennis practice and then Noriko had to go home.

Soon the matches were slowly approaching.