Taming of the Devil
Chapter 4: Anticipated Match
Miki walked out to the courts; as soon as she entered, players all said, "cheers, buchou!" and stopped whatever they were doing. Miki was impressed with it.
"Everyone, gather!" Miki hollered and everyone rushed over to her. "As you can see, the ranking match ended yesterday; since I need more time to look at everyone and decide the position for the regulars, you could have a free time today. You can't leave, however; as long as you're playing, it's fine with me." She said. "Alright, let's waste no time, everyone get back to practice!"
They scurried back to their courts and began practicing.
She saw Yukimura walk towards the club shed nearby; Yukimura noticed her and smiled. Miki bowed a little and smiled back.
"Hi Asano." He said, walking towards her.
"Hello." She smiled and greeted. "I was wondering…" She trailed off.
"Hm?" Yukimura smiled nicely as ever and asked.
"I was wondering if you'd like to play a match with me." She said and clenched her fists a little. Yukimura just blinked and stared at her—
"Sure, why not? I'd like to see your true potential as well… Does tomorrow after practice sound fine?"
"Yes!" She replied in happiness. "Thank you!"
"No problem. Then, good luck with the practices." He said nicely and left, his jacket on his shoulder moving left and right to his footsteps.
Miki was inwardly shouting and screaming in ineffable joy; she's always wanted to play one of the Big Three, especially the Child of God Yukimura.
"Miki, what's up with you and Yukimura~?" Hanae nudged her a little, making Miki laugh.
"It's not like that, senpai." She said. "I just asked him if I could play a match with him."
"Oh." She blinked. "Well, I guess the juicy gossip's gone."
"Sorry." Miki laughed it off. She resumed hardcore practice; after choosing eight regulars, including herself, Hanae, and Takamoto, she gathered them. Since she was the only second year among the regulars, she was just glad that no one was so stubborn or stuck-up.
"Anyhow, our tournament starts two weeks later. We'll train as hard as possible, and aim for the nationals. Let's do our best, senpai-tachi."
"Yeah!"
"From tomorrow and until the Nationals, we'll make the training regime extra-hard. I hope you're all prepared." They all nodded.
"Good. The training will take place Monday through Friday, after school to 6 o'clock. There will be a morning practice every Wednesday, and every other week we'll have practices on Saturday mornings 9 am through 12 pm. On Fridays we'll have mandatory shuffle matches and Hanae senpai and I will be recording your score, time, and etc. Any questions?"
"When does the morning practice start?"
"Ah, yes. Since school starts at 8:20, the practice will start at 6:30 and end at 7:50, so you'll have 30 minutes to get ready for first period."
"Cool."
"One more thing—we have our first preliminaries match about two weeks from now. It will be next next week Saturday, so be aware of the date, and I'll keep you updated when it comes close. It's 6 o'clock; I'll call it a day today, and I'll see you all tomorrow."
The team dispersed and left. Miki went to the locker room, took a quick shower, and headed to the school gate to find Akaya.
"Kirihara!" She called him.
"Hey." He casually greeted her. "Let's get going."
"Alright."
They started walking towards home.
"Did you choose your regulars?"
"Huh? Oh yeah. We made our final decision today."
"Are they good?"
"Yup. I'll definitely make it to the nationals this year." She stated confidently.
"Hou…"
"How are the regulars in your team?"
"We're just awesome as always." Akaya boasted and Miki laughed.
"I'm sure."
"Heeey…"
"No, I'm sure!" She laughed again.
So the two arrived at Akaya's house in no time.
"Mom, I'm home! I brought the tutor with me!" He yelled as he took off his shoes. "You can take them off here."
The two heard some gliding footsteps on the wooden floor; then they were greeted by a nice-looking woman of late-30s.
"Hi! You must be Asano Miki-chan!" She greeted gleefully.
"Hello, Kirihara-obasan." She politely introduced herself. "I'm Asano Miki."
"I heard that you'll be tutoring Aka-chan from today on!"
"Mom, not that name!" Akaya whispered to her mom as Miki stifled a laugh at the cute nickname.
"Oh, come on. Well what are you waiting for? Come in. I'm fix you guys some snacks to eat while you study."
"Thank you."
"Follow me." He said and walked upstairs and down a small corridor. He opened the door to his room; much to her surprise, his room was pretty clean. For a guy.
"Huh, I guess my mom tidied up a little. Here, sit." He pulled a chair next to the desk. He sat down, and started taking out textbooks.
"Haaa… I wish English didn't exist."
"Hahaha. I wish history didn't exist." She laughed too, taking out her notes. And they soon began the tutoring session—thankfully, Akaya wasn't that dumb of a boy. In fact, she thought he was really decent in all other subjects, it's just that his foreign language-processing part of the brain wasn't… the most exquisite one.
"Aaaaah, I get it now. What the hell, the teacher could've explained it liked this and I would've understood!" He complained.
"He is sorta bad at teaching, I guess."
"Not, "sorta," but "really" bad!"
As Miki was packing up to leave, there was a knock on the door.
"How's tutoring going~?" Mrs. Kirihara asked as she put down a tray of snacks and goods on the desk.
"We just finished. It was good." Akaya replied.
"Ah, then don't leave just yet! I baked some cookies for you guys."
"Thanks mom."
"Thank you." Miki said too.
"You're very welcome!" She sweetly said and left the room.
"Your mom's so sweet." Miki said as she munched on a cookie.
"She's a devil in disguise." Akaya said and shuddered, which made Miki laugh.
"These cookies are good…" Miki admired, grabbing another one.
After some chit-chat Miki left Akaya's house; because of her mom, Akaya ended up seeing Miki up until her gate, which wasn't too far.
"Thanks, although it's only a foot away." Miki laughed.
"No problem. See you tomorrow." He said and waved; Miki waved and entered her house.
-The Next Day-
Miki was having practice held at the courts as usual; she was thinking about her match with Yukimura that was to be held after practice. She was excited.
After the practice was done, she was the first one to head over to the boys' courts. They were done with theirs too and members started leaving, one by one.
"Ah, so you didn't forget." Yukimura smiled as he saw her.
"How could I? I've been dying for this." Miki said.
"Hey, what are you doing here?" Akaya asked as he left the gate.
"I'll be playing a match with Asano-chan, that's why." Yukimura answered and all the members in the proximity opened their eyes wide.
"Well I guess I'm up to watch this one." Marui said, sitting down on one of the benches—and one by one all the regulars decided to stay, as well as some members from the girls' team.
"A~ah! There she goes again, challenging so recklessly~" Hanae said.
"I guess that's who she is." Takamoto answered and chuckled.
"Good luck Miki~!" Riko cheered her on.
The two players went up to the net to decide the serve. They spun a racquet and it was Yukimura's serve first.
"Let's have a good game." The two shook hands.
"Don't go easy on me, Yukimura-senpai." She said, gripping firmly.
"That—" he smiled, "depends on how well you show me your skills."
Miki nodded with a determined look and walked over to her court.
Yukimura started bouncing the ball; he lifted up high into the air, and hit it with his racquet. Miki received it, sending it to Yukimura's blind spot, getting the first point.
"Heh, Child of God just gave away a point." Takamoto commented a bit sarcastically.
"Whoa, that was the fasted one I've seen out of her returns so far!" Riko exclaimed.
"Not bad…" Yukimura mumbled, switching to the ad side. "I guess I'll step it up a little then.
In about an hour, their scores were not very different: 3-2, with Yukimura in lead. Each point took at least five minutes to end and neither of them thought of giving up a point.
'She's still not showing me something although her play style's extremely similar to mine.' He thought as Miki got ready to serve.
Then suddenly, some sort of bluish aura seemed to surround her;
"That's…!"
"Muga no kyouchi…!" Yanagi was in awe; only Sanada and Yukimura were able to reach that level.
Miki tossed the ball up into the air and served; as soon as the ball came in contact with the ground, it bounced in a random direction.
"That's Akaya's knuckle serve!" Marui exclaimed.
"DA FUQ?"
"AKAYA! LANGUAGE!"
"Oh. S-Sorry."
From then on, Miki played haphazardly, switching play style every now and then.
"It might be good that she can activate muga no kyouchi but…" Sanada trailed off. "We still haven't seen her true play style."
When the score was 4-4, Miki stopped emitting aura and started huffing and puffing badly.
"You still can't control it fully, huh?" Yukimura asked.
"I still have more…!" Miki grunted and unleashed another set of aura, going back into muga no kyouchi.
"Damn, I've never seen her play so harsh before…" Hanae said.
"Miki, don't push yourself too much!" Riko shouted.
From then on, Miki lost all two games, all in ten minutes.
The two came to the net to shake hands; Miki smiled and wobbled over to the net.
"Good game." Yukimura said and smiled, satisfied with the match.
"Good game." She grabbed his hand and shook—and fell forward.