Thank you for the wait. After more that 2 months, finally I managed to finish and upload the second chapter. I'm really sorry it took forever and made you wait.

Disclaimer: I do not own tenipuri nor Yukimura Seiichi. I only own my OCs and plot.

I'm sorry for bad grammar and typos.

I hope you'll like this.


Is Tennis Fun?

Chapter 2

"I'm sorry, Yukimura-kun. I should've told you about Akagi earlier." Said Yamada-sensei. He had come to the gym right when the ruckus had started. He and Yukimura then had escorted Akagi Mei to infirmary. Both of them now were waiting outside while her friend was trying to calm her down.

Yukimura shook his head. "It's my fault too. I shouldn't have forced her to play."

"Akagi's parents had personally requested to let her not play tennis." Yamada-sensei said again. "I was too reckless. I hadn't thought that things would have gone this way."

Yukimura could only look down hearing more explanation from the teacher. He hadn't had any idea that she had suffered a kind of phobia toward tennis either.

The infirmary door opened and a girl with low twin-tails walked out. "She's okay now, don't worry," She said, referring to Mei. "I think it's better to call her parents and let her take a rest at home."

Yamada-sensei sighed in relief. "I'll do that. Thank you, Takamiya. You may go back to your class." He said and turned to Yukimura. "You too, Yukimura-kun. Thank you for the help today." Then he excused and left.

Yukimura watched his teacher walked away and eventually disappeared behind walls. Then he looked into the infirmary room from the door. He saw the reddish brown haired girl lied in one of the beds. Her face was still slightly pale. He felt really bad for making a little girl he barely knew into that condition. He realized he had been to full of himself earlier; he hadn't taken her words seriously back then.

"Mei-chan'll be alright."

"I hope so."

"She only needs to take a rest. She'll be alright soon, "The twin-tailed girl ensured him. "Now, why don't you go inside?"

He looked at her doubtfully then into the room then to her again, soundlessly asking whether it was okay if he did so. Knowing what he meant, she nodded and moved away, giving him a way to enter.

"Thank you." He gave a smile of gratitude to her then walked into the room.

"Yukimura-senpai!" Mei gasped as she saw the senior and quickly got up.

"How're you?" He asked.

"I'm okay now, thank you." She bowed while still in sitting position on her bed. "I'm really sorry about today."

"You don't have to apologize. You didn't do anything wrong at all." He said as he sat down on a chair next to her bed.

"But I've made you worried…"

"If I hadn't forced you to play from the beginning, nothing wrong would have happened. I'm sorry." He smiled sadly. "I'm glad you're okay now."

"It's not your fault. You only did what sensei told you to. I didn't properly tell you either that I couldn't play tennis."

"Say, Mei-chan…"

"Yes?"

"This might sound inappropriate because we barely know about each other… However… Would you mind to tell me why you hate tennis so much?"

She looked at him in surprised. She kept quiet for a while and thought, and then finally answered him. "I don't mind. I've troubled you anyway… And it's not something that should be kept hidden like secret either…"


The optic yellow balls scattered on one side of a court where a little girl stood. Her reddish brown hair was damp by sweat and her whole body was trembling because of fatigue.

"Please give me a break for a while, coach." Little Mei begged as she panted heavily.

"No! You won't rest until you perfectly return another 50 balls!" The man who stood on the other side of the court said mercilessly. He took some more balls then served them hard one by one in fixed interval to different random points on her side.

She forced herself to run catching the ball, hit the ball from different positions and try her best to return them right to a basket beside her coach. However, no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't catch all of them; they were too fast, especially for her exhausted and short kid's legs. Her control wasn't good either; she could only return 2 or 3 balls perfectly to the basket out of 10 balls she caught.

"Try harder, shrimp! You're still too far behind your brothers!" He yelled.

She tried hard to resist her tears. Indeed she wanted to play as good as her brothers, but she couldn't stand this Spartan training. It was still too much for an 8 years old little girl to follow the same training menu with her 12 and 14 years old elder brothers.

Even so, she still tried to obey him because she was afraid of him. She had to finish this training if she wanted to take a rest.

She ran left and right catching the balls. Her eyes tried to see the upcoming next balls and she didn't pay any attention anymore to where she went; she didn't pay attention to the scattered balls around her.

She suddenly felt her body flied and soon after that she hit the ground.

It was really hurt.

"Get up!" Her coach ordered.

With tears of pain overflowing, she forced herself to get up. But then, right in front of her eyes, a ball bounced hard and went directly onto her face.

She couldn't think anymore… nor did she know what was going on.

Everything was black for her.

All she could hear were sounds of balls that bounced around her and the coach's shouting.

Her body ached because of both her fall back then and balls he kept hit directly to her repeatedly even though she couldn't even move anymore.

Stop it! Please, stop it!

She couldn't stand it anymore.

She didn't want to play anymore.

She hated tennis.

She suffered a temporary blindness for a month because of the direct hit to her face. Her parents quickly substituted the tennis coach for her and her brothers in fear that something worse would happened in the future. The previous coach was also jailed for abusing children.

But she couldn't play tennis anymore. No matter how hard her parents, brothers and new coach tried to persuade her. She couldn't even touch racket nor watch her brothers playing, hearing sounds of ball always reminded her of that incident.

As the time went by, little by little she overcame her fear towards the sport. She could swing her racket, hit some balls and watch tennis play. Even so, she couldn't completely recover from her phobia. Her family eventually gave up and chose another activity for her. After all, their only daughter and sister was more important than anything.


"Akagi, I've contacted your parents. They'll come to fetch you right away." Yamada-sensei informed as he walked into the infirmary. Then he noticed Yukimura's presence there. "Yukimura-kun, why are you still here? You should come back to your class."

"Oh, yeah… I'll go now." Yukimura smiled to Mei then he got up and politely bowed to Yamada-sensei. "Excuse me."

He left the infirmary and walked along the corridor.

A little girl curled on the court, crying, begging her opponent to stop.

It wasn't hard for him to imagine it. He had seen that kind of scene many times before. It was just like his opponents in the past. He, Yukimura Seiichi, had caused his opponents gave up on the court, forced them to forfeit and eventually made them quit tennis.

He had never thought of his opponents' feelings. He had never cared about their suffering. He had never wondered whether they would have ended up hating tennis like Mei or not. He was just like her coach back then, treating people who stood on the other side of the court mercilessly.

How ironic.

He was trying to enjoy his tennis while he had made many people lost their affection toward the sport with his very own tennis.

Yukimura shut his eyes tightly, trying to find resolution in the middle of darkness he made.

Was there a way for him to expiate the sins he had committed until now?


Uh, I hope you don't find the background story too exaggerating. The temporary blindness she suffered was just like Fuji's one during the Kantou final.

I want to make this story not only about Mei, but also about Yukimura and his tennis.

Oh, the other girl's name is Takamiya Mayumi (just wanna tell you in case I'll refer her by the first name in the next chapter so you'll know who she is)

Please review and tell me what you think. Concrits are always welcome. Thank you :)