Ryoko: The Princess of Tennis

リョーコ
テニスの王女様

Episode 7: The Big Day

...

Keiko was lying on her bed in the bedroom she shared with her sister, wearing her floral pajamas. She was throwing a tennis ball at the wall so that it hit and bounced back to her. She'd been doing it for over a minute already and the recurring noise probably would have already annoyed the heck out of anyone else, but Ayame didn't seem to mind.

Her sister was sitting at the desk on the other side of the room, beside her own bed, quietly reading a book Keiko didn't recognize. Keiko knew that when Ayame started reading a book she really liked it was like her mind was off in another dimension.

But that didn't really say much about the other people in the house. Not long after, a woman's voice sounded from the other side of their room's door: "Please stop that, Keiko."

Keiko sat up and looked at the door, pointing at Ayame with the hand that still held the tennis ball. "It's not me, it's Aya!"

The door opened then, and their mother's head poked in, frowning at Keiko.

Ayame looked at her mom and shrugged, then looked at Keiko. "Chibi, if you want to try to put the blame on me, don't do it with the tennis ball in your hand."

The woman repeated: "Please stop, okay, honey?" She left and closed the door behind her.

Ayame returned to reading her book. Keiko stopped throwing the ball at the wall and instead began throwing it up in the air and catching it over and over. Eventually, she threw it a little too far to the side, and it bounced heavily on top of the television. Ayame looked back at her disapprovingly.

"Settle down."

"I caaan't!" Keiko whined, standing up and fetching the tennis ball. "I was hitting shots outside but mom told me to come in!"

"Well, it is nine o'clock at night."

"But stiiill..."

"What about videogames?" Ayame suggested.

Keiko perked up. "You wanna play with me?"

Ayame shook her head, showing Keiko the book she was reading. "Not now, sorry."

Keiko sighed, sprawling out on her bed. "Reading is boring."

Ayame shrugged. "Just play a single-player game. You do it almost every day, anyway."

"I don't feel like it."

"Don't you have homework to do?"

"I don't feel like doing homework today. Homework is boring."

"Well, what do you feel like doing?"

"Tennis."

"Well, only one thing you can do, then." Ayame turned back to her book. "Wait for tomorrow."

"Waiting is boring."

"Don't worry. We'll have our match before you know it."

Keiko lifted her head off the bed to look at Ayame, but she had her back towards her. Still, she had hit the nail right on the head. The next day was Wednesday, the third day of the Seigaku girls' tennis club's ranking matches, and the day that Keiko would face her sister in their first official match. Ayame sounded calm about it. Actually, she hadn't once shown anxiousness concerning their match. Keiko, on the other hand, had been anxious since finding out about it two days earlier.

Keiko felt a strong urge to start throwing the ball at the wall again, but resisted it because she didn't want to get scolded. She couldn't resist staying still, though, so she started throwing it up in the air again.

Sure, her sister was a regular member, not to mention the vice-captain of the team, but she could beat her! Tomorrow would be different, Keiko was sure of it! She would win, even if she had to saw her sister's legs off!

Keiko stuck her tongue out. Well, okay, maybe I wouldn't go that far. Suddenly, the image of her sister with two peg legs, wearing a pirate's attire and an eyepatch, and running around a tennis court using a purple parrot as a tennis racket popped into her mind. Keiko immediately burst out laughing.

When the laughing did not stop after several seconds, Ayame turned and raised an eyebrow, seeing her sister rolling around on the bed. "What's so funny?"

As Keiko's laughter finally came to an end, she sat up on her bed and looked at her sister. She said: "Arrr matey!" and the hilarious image invaded her mind again, throwing her back into a fit of laughter.

Ayame shook her head, shrugged, and resumed her reading once more, "Sometimes I think you're crazy, chibi."

...

Classes seemed to take forever the next day. When the bell finally rang, signifying the start of recess, the students of Junior Class 3 got up almost in unison and began to shuffle out of the classroom in groups of friends.

Ryoko walked out into the hall with Noriko, but stopped when she noticed her friend standing on her tiptoes, looking the other way.

"Noriko-chan? What's wrong?"

"I think I saw Keiko."

"Keiko-chan? She's not coming this way?"

"That's the thing, it looks like she went the other way. It's weird for her not to come running up to us."

"Oh." Ryoko tilted her head to the side. "Maybe it's because of the match with her sister today..."

"Hm. That must be it." Noriko nodded. "All right. I'm going to go look for her."

"I'll go with you."

...

Keiko was nervous. She didn't know why it had taken her this long to get nervous, though, considering she had known about the match since Monday. Maybe it had only really dawned on her that morning when she had taken her racket in hand while she was getting ready in her room, and she saw, on the other side of the room, her sister holding her own.

Keiko had left the classroom at recess and gone directly to the roof of the school. It was usually where you went when you wanted to be alone, and though that common knowledge didn't make it a dependable 'hiding place', Keiko doubted any of her friends would suspect that she wanted to be alone. Even Keiko found it strange.

Why be nervous? There's nothing to be nervous about. I'm gonna win! She'll see!

Still, she sighed and gripped the railing, looking out over the Seishun Gakuen grounds. The red-headed girl drew in a deep breath and sighed again. She stayed there for several minutes in silence before she heard footsteps approaching her.

"Keiko," she heard Noriko's voice say.

Keiko looked behind her to see Noriko and Ryoko approaching. So much for hiding place. Keiko smiled, though it wasn't the bright smile she usually wore. "Hi, Noriko. Hi, Ryoko."

"'Hi, Noriko'?" Noriko asked, incredulous. "No 'Greetings, Noriko-dono' or 'Salutations, Ryoko-chan-sama'?"

Keiko just stared at her. She was right, that was what she usually said, but it hadn't even passed through her mind just then.

"Are you nervous, Keiko?"

Keiko's reaction was instinctive: she turned towards Noriko, making a V with each hand and winking. "Of course not! Me, nervous? Ha!"

Noriko and Ryoko glanced at each other, clearly not convinced. Noriko smiled and placed a hand on Keiko's shoulder.

"Hey, have you stopped to think that maybe your sister's anxious about the match, too?"

Keiko didn't reply at first. She put her hands behind her head, stretching her arms and looking up at the cloudless sky.

"No she's not," Keiko responded finally. "She's super calm, like always."

"Sometimes appearances can be deceiving, you know."

"Doubt it. I think even if the sky was falling Aya would be calm about it." Keiko said, still looking at the sky. She shrugged and looked back down at Noriko. "But whatever. If she's anxious or not, it doesn't matter. I'm gonna win! Win win win!" She fist pumped and began hopping circles around Noriko.

"Now that's the Keiko I know." Noriko laughed. "Well, are you going to come down? I want to eat before recess ends, you know!"

"Yeah!"

The three began making their way back to the door leading down. Keiko broke into a jog. When she was about to reach the door she accidentally stepped on a loose shoelace and tumbled forward. Normally, she would have put her hands on the ground and performed some wildly unnecessary acrobatic maneuver to avoid injury, but she fumbled and awkwardly tried to stop her fall with her hands, only succeeding in banging her elbow and knee on the ground.

"Owie," Keiko murmured. She stood up, quickly making a V with her hand to the other two girls, who looked at her with a worried expressions.

"Are you okay, Keiko-chan?" Ryoko asked.

"Don't worry, I'm fine! No biggie!"

Keiko turned around and continued making her way towards the door, slower this time.

"You should really tie your shoe, Keiko-chan," Ryoko said behind her. Keiko exclaimed an agreement, but kept going, saying something about tying it later.

One thing Keiko isn't is clumsy, Noriko thought, frowning. She's more nervous than she's letting on if she just tripped like that.

...

"Ayame-senpai."

Ayame peeled her eyes away from the book in her hands and looked up from beneath her cap to see Noriko, and beside her Ryoko and Chisato, all smiling at her. Ryoko still donned her school uniform, but by the looks of Noriko and Chisato, who had their respective club outfits and looked slightly sweaty, they had finished their matches for the day.

"Ayame-senpai," Noriko said again, now that Ayame had finally taken notice of them, "6-0 please!"

"And 6-0 for me as well, Ayame," Chisato said.

Ayame nodded and put her book down on the table, next to where her purple racket rested. She stood up and wrote the results on the board, then sat back down.

"So," Chisato started, "Maeki versus Maeki now, right?"

Ayame smirked a little and nodded. "Yeah, just waiting on Mitsune to finish her match."

Noriko looked thoughtful for a moment, then turned to Ryoko. "Hey Ryoko, do you mind if I watch their match?"

Ryoko shook her head. "Nope."

"It's nothing out of the ordinary." Ayame shrugged. "We play all the time at the club."

"Yep, but not here in the ranking matches!" Noriko pointed out.

"I'm going to go change and get ready," Ryoko bowed slightly to the three. "I'll see you all later."

"Go get 'em!" Noriko said, tapping her on the back, and Chisato and Ayame wished her good luck as she left.

"Have you two seen Keiko?" Ayame asked. She sighed when Noriko and Chisato shook their heads. "She's beyond hope if she arrives late to this match."

Chisato chuckled. "I think if there's one match she won't be late to, it's this one."

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Ayame went to pick up her book again, but the tall form of Mitsune turned the corner of the closest cage, with a disgruntled Maiko in tow. While Maiko headed for the girls' locker room, Mitsune approached the table, not looking at either Chisato or Noriko.

"6-0," the tall girl said simply, and began to turn around when Ayame's voice stopped her.

"Mitsune," Ayame called, standing up to write the result on the board. "You're a regular, too. Why don't you take the table so I can play my match?"

Mitsune looked at Chisato for a moment, making Noriko think that she would suggest that Chisato could take the table instead, but finally nodded, despite not looking too pleased. Ayame took her racket and walked out from behind the table, allowing Mitsune to move over and sit down.

"Keep an eye on my book for me, too?" Ayame asked, and when Mitsune nodded again she said "Thanks" and turned around, walking off towards her court.

Noriko almost smiled at the way Ayame could talk so easily to Mitsune. Noriko, on the other hand, didn't want to spend any more time around the tall senpai than she had to, so she quickly went to follow Ayame. After a few steps, though, she noticed that Chisato wasn't beside her.

"Chisato...senpai?" Noriko turned around to see Chisato and Mitsune staring at each other. The looks in their eyes weren't exactly hostile, but not friendly either. Even if Noriko had thought to ask something, Chisato suddenly turned and walked in her direction.

"Let's go, Noriko-chan."

Although Noriko felt that there was something deeper behind those stares than she had knowledge of, she felt it best not to ask, at least not at that moment.

Together, the two caught up with Ayame as she was reaching the entrance to the girls' courts. Standing at the entrance, ready with her red racket and tennis club uniform was Keiko, who pointed at Ayame as soon as she saw her coming.

"You're late, Aya!"

Ayame looked genuinely surprised. "No, I'm not, but you're early!"

Chisato grinned. "See, I told you!"

Ayame adjusted her white cap bearing the letter 'A' on it and sighed. "Come on, let's get it over with."

Keiko walked in after her sister, snickering. "Maybe I really should have sawed them off, tee-hee."

"Huh?"

"Nothing!"

As the two sisters decided who would serve first and walked to their respective positions, Noriko looked around.

"Hey, Chisato-senpai," Noriko started, "where's Yuka-senpai?"

"Yuka?" Chisato looked left and right as well, "Oh yeah, that's right. She said she was going to watch Ryoko-chan's match."

"Eh?" Noriko tilted her head to side, raising an eyebrow, "Ryoko's match?"

"Yep," Chisato replied, "She said she sees this match all the time at the club, so she wanted to see a different one."

"Sees this match all the time...? That makes it sound like she knows who's going to win or something." Noriko looked back to the court where Ayame was ready to serve the first point of the game, but was waiting for Keiko to tie her shoes properly.

"Noriko-chan, don't you go to the club with them sometimes?" Chisato asked, looking at Noriko.

"Well, yeah, but when I go we usually play doubles with you or Yuka-senpai."

"Hmm," Chisato nodded, turning her eyes back to the court just in time to see Ayame throw the yellow ball in the air. "Well, with the exception of the first two times they faced each other, several years ago—"

Ayame's racket sent the ball flying with great accuracy to Keiko's side of the court.

"—Keiko-chan has never beaten Ayame."

"Eh?!"

Keiko returned the serve, and the two sisters began rallying.