Ehh? Who's the crazy girl that just called The Fuji Shūsuke a moron? Oh, it's just Eiji's cousin, Hanabi. Never mind then.
Welcome to the third installment of "Some Genius", cue the uproarious cheers. ^_^ Thank you, thank you, you're fabulous, really. Okiedokie, first off, I'd like to thank all those who favorited/alerted and I hope this chapter satisfies. Um, this one's a bit…cluttered, I guess, later on I can try to rewrite it if you guys want me to, up to y'all.
So anyways, read and review please. ^_^
Some Genius
Chapter 3: Stress Reliever Momo!
====Story Start====
Several people winced at the harsh sound of a racket hitting the ground. Again.
The match was coming along just as they, they being most of the tennis club members with very few exceptions, expected it would; the strange girl was losing, badly. That was not to say she was a bad player, quite the opposite in fact, she had great technique and even gained several points when it was her serve, but the problem was that she just couldn't return anything Momo hit. She was doing better than most of them had thought she would to be honest, she could still hold her racket after multiple direct hits, her wrists were obviously stronger than they looked. It was a shame, they thought, if she were playing someone else the match would probably be much less one-sided, after all, she had not actually let a single ball get past her, she just couldn't hold onto her racket upon contact, it made them wonder why Eiji had suggested she play Momo, if it weren't for the fact that it was Eiji they might have thought it was a cruel prank or something.
When asked he just shook his head without a word and kept his eyes on the match, it made them wonder who the girl was, she had to be special to cause two of the tennis regulars to act abnormally, even if Tezuka had almost immediately returned to normal and had not had any more lapses in behavior since.
As the match wore on, and really, could this pathetic mess even be called a true match, the girl's face was slowly turning blank, as though with each failure she lost a little more emotion. The observers, of course, thought this was merely an outward sign that she was coming to terms with her impending loss, and that's what they would have continued to think if Eiji hadn't suddenly heaved a heavy sigh and said, in that really weird, completely un-Eiji-like voice, "Oh man, she's starting to get pissed off."
"What? Why? Momo's going easy on her, she should be grateful."
Eiji snorted. "That's why she's getting so pissed off, she knows I wouldn't have suggested she play him if he was this weak, so she knows he's holding back."
"Saa, why did you suggest she play him?" Eiji could tell that Fuji wasn't all that interested but he was at least curious enough to ask, that made him smile his normal smile again and his voice returned to its happy, up-beat sound.
This time he answered the question. "It's because she likes playing heavy-hitters, nya. That's who she's good at playing." There were sounds of disbelief all around, someone even muttered something about Eiji being blind, Eiji just kept smiling. "Nabi-chan hasn't once used her normal playing technique for the entirety of this game, it requires a lot of energy and if her opponent doesn't put forth a certain amount of energy into the game first it becomes too wasteful to use. This is the reason she's getting so frustrated right now, nya."
"How do you know that? Who is she?"
Fuji smirked slightly, his curiosity now truly piqued. "Saa, that's his cousin, Oshima Hanabi."
There were sounds of surprise and certain club members, the ones who had said less than flattering things about her, shifted their weight, indicating their discomfort. Eiji nodded, oblivious to the sudden tenseness, and smiled proudly. "Yep, she is, nya." His smile broadened as he watched her walk extra slowly to retrieve her racket. "Momo's in for it now, looks like she's done playing around waiting, that face means she's thinking about how to make him do what she wants."
'That face' being the unnervingly emotionless expression that appeared every now and again, paired with the fierce light in her eyes from before, which thus far seemed to only have to do with tennis. She stopped at her dropped racket, flexing her covered hands unconsciously, she had not changed from her uniform though she was wearing shorts under her skirt and that included her gloves which were a violation of the dress code that not a single teacher had said a thing about, and glanced over her shoulder at Momo, she spoke. "Is this really all you can do? How disappointing. I mean, I tried not to hold my expectations too high, you being a first year and all, but clearly I was too hopeful. My old doubles partner was much stronger than this, and she's anemic." There were several wide eyes and open mouths at this point, shock being the prevailing emotion. She continued, her voice almost harsh. "Clearly this match is a waste of time; we might as well stop now. I'll get someone stronger to play me, let's see, hmmm… You." She pointed at Kaidoh then crooked her finger in a 'come hither' gesture, Fuji's eyebrows rose and he seemed just that much more genuinely amused. "You look like a good opponent, won't you play me?"
As she asked her last question she finally bent to gather her racket, just as her gloved fingers brushed the handle a brightly colored ball hit the ground next to it with an exceptional amount of force. She glanced up at her 'dismissed' opponent, for all the world looking as though she had just remembered his presence. "Oh, did you need something?" Though her expression hadn't changed they could still hear the smirk present in her voice.
"I'll play you."
She tilted her head as though confused, a small smile playing at the corners of her lips. "Why, Momo-kōhai, I thought that's what we were doing."
Momo scowled, "I'll play you for real."
Hanabi grinned, broad and clear, eyes vicious with delight and unnervingly focused, the muted green hidden within the brown seemed to glow. "Will you now?" Her voice made them feel as though someone had dumped a cup of ice water down the backs of their shirts, they found themselves standing straighter, many with a shudder for good measure. "Will you be able to maintain that power level for the duration of this game or was that just a burst caused by your anger?"
"I can keep up."
She firmly gripped her racket in hand and stood in an odd stance, heels close together, weight up on the balls of her feet. "Good, 'cause it's your serve."
Eiji's grin widened and Fuji seemed more entertained than usual. "Saa, she's tricky, forcing him into playing like that."
"What do you mean?"
"In just a few sentences she attacked his ability to play; she brought up the fact that he's younger, mentioned the supposedly superior strength of her ill female partner, and, as the final nail in the coffin, she suggested that his rival is stronger than him."
"But how did she know they were rivals?"
Eiji bounced happily, "Oh, that's easy. They were arguing when she got here." Cue the collective sweatdrop.
"Of course they were."
They would have continued their line of questions, likely for quite some time, but Eiji was suddenly and quite obviously focused on the match and they turned to see that Momo was about to serve. He did and Hanabi reacted and they were once again filled with surprise and confusion as she gained her first return point. Momo stared at her and Eiji was beaming with pride, many of the regulars that had lost interest much earlier were suddenly looking at the match and Fuji found himself intrigued enough to open his eyes. Someone finally managed to find their voice and asked what was on many a mind. "What the heck was that?"
"Nya, I believe that particular move is what she calls her Orbit or Swing Shot." They thought about the move she had just performed and decided that the name was suitable. Her body had turned to the side and it appeared that she would try to backhand the ball back over the net but that her timing was a touch too slow and her racket ended up between the two instead.
Only she didn't stop moving nor did she change direction, she continued to spin, the strings of her racket lightly coming into contact with the ball but instead of straight-on, her wrist had a slight twist to it, so that the contact was on the side of the ball farthest from her. This allowed her to change the ball's flight path till it was headed back to Momo's side once again, just before she came full circle she gave a quick twist of her wrist and swung her arm forcefully, giving the ball a sudden burst of speed. Perhaps most astounding was the fact that the ball clearly hit the ground with a strength they recognized, it had lost none of the power Momo had put in, it had more in fact.
So they stared.
"Nya, she's not called the Master of Redirection for no reason, in Singles anyways."
They were slowly coming out of their shock, some faster than others, it helped that they found themselves with questions. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"Well, she's normally a Doubles player, nya, and in the Doubles world she's known as the Dancing Dragon, her partner is the Leaping Tiger, they're… quite a powerful team. Collectively they're known as the Balanced Pair, most of you won't have heard of them, since they've never played outside of America before." It was shocking how quickly the match could go from being so clearly one-sided in Momo's favor to being so equally one-sided in Hanabi's, she played mostly using small variations of that one move, sometimes adding curve to the ball's flight or spin that caused it to go in unexpected directions when it hit something. The true strength of the move was the fact that the differences in what she did to cause those changes were so minute that it would be near impossible to tell which she was about to do, certainly none of them could read the differences. Before they knew it, it was down to the match point…
With Hanabi leading.
And then she was standing there with a triumphant smile on her face, eyes glowing with joy as she basked in the moment of her victory, somewhere at the back of her mind she could hear Eiji cheering for her. Praising her for her success. She sucked in five deep breaths to ease the lightheaded feeling she was experiencing before she even attempted to walk to the net, her legs were trembling; Eiji had not lied when he said that her play style required a lot of energy, she was exhausted and parts of her were in pain, the latter was something she was forcefully concealing though.
She could not dampen her smile even when she was face to face with Momo, although, in her defense, she did try. She met his eyes and he smiled somewhat sheepishly at her in return as he took her hand in a brusque shake, her reaction, quick though it was, did not escape him.
Fuji was staring, he knew he was but his surprise was such that he simply couldn't help it. It was not her victory that had him so surprised, part of him had expected it, Eiji's confidence was not just due to fondness for a close family member, though her style had certainly caught him off guard, it was her expression which he could not tear his gaze from. Her face was more vibrantly expressive than he had thus far seen and he suddenly realized that every emotion she'd shown yet had been false or veiled, never completely honest. The photographer in him cursed the fact that he was without even his phone camera to capture the look on her face at that moment.
It was because he was staring so intently that he caught the flash of pain on her face as she pulled her hand from Momo's and moved to tuck it to her chest protectively before she caught herself and dropped it to her side instead. She looked determinedly away from the confused boy's face and met Fuji's eyes, she looked first surprised, then contemplative and completely missed Eiji sneaking up on her. She shrieked when he clamped his arms around her waist and even once she realized who held her she looked decidedly uncomfortable, shifting as far from him as his hold would allow. Fuji could feel his brows rise at that.
He watched as her face quickly slipped into the muted expressiveness that he was accustomed to seeing and her eyes regained their slightly absent look. She was now completely focused on Eiji at this point and Fuji joined the small crowd surrounding her just in time to hear her speaking. "Ne, Eij-chi, I need to leave now, I have a previous engagement to attend to."
"Aww, where are you going Nabi-chan? I wanted to celebrate your victory, nya." She looked at him blankly before rolling her eyes.
"Maybe some other time Eij-chi. No, you can't come with me, I'm meeting up with Alex and you and I both know how much you hate him." Eiji actually scowled at the name and hugged her tighter, causing her to squirm.
"No! You're not allowed to see him, nya."
"Who's Alex?"
Eiji, Fuji, and Hanabi spoke at the same time, causing general amusement all around. "The Devil./Her cat./None of your business." Hanabi turned to Fuji with an entertained expression on her face that quickly turned into her trademark mischievous smile and she tilted her head. "My cat? Really Fu~ji~ko~? Some genius you are, why would I be meeting my cat anywhere? Hell, how would I meet my cat somewhere? Yes my cat's name is Alex, but did it never occur to you that he might not be the only one? Alex is also the name of the guy who gave me my cat." She turned to Eiji, "And he's not the Devil Eij-chi, no matter how much you don't like him."
