Of Tennis and Ice Prince

Chapter 8: Tokugawa is... is...

"Haaa… I feel really tired for some reason…" Sora mumbled as she walked along the corridor with Tokugawa. Ever since she found out that she somehow obtained a "new play style," her body's been feeling extra tired.

"Are you okay?" Tokugawa noticed that Sora was less cheery than usual; when she was quiet, there was something wrong.

"I don't know… I feel really tired for some reason… I didn't even do that much yesterday either…"

"I guess it's you're just having a bad day then. Playing tennis will get you better." He simply said and Sora nodded.

"I hope so."

"Oi, Shiroki, someone challenged your court. You're name was drawn." The coach said. Sora nodded and moved over to the court they were going to play a game at.

Sora began playing in the same manner as the day before; she was able to figure out what kind of effects she had on the other player.

"I-I can't do this…!" The boy slumped down and shivered in fear. His eyes were moving fast a bit too abnormally. The faculties had to come and escort him to the infirmary.

Sora—who had won the match by default—walked over to the bench where Tokugawa was waiting for her.

"That was a nice game. Your play style changed a lot more powerful." He commented.

"Yeah. I think I'm getting the hang of it."


"Uh-oh." Kurobe mumbled as he scrolled through his laptop.

"What's wrong?" Saitou came over and asked.

"Your niece… her body might break at this point."

"WHAT?!"

"Her skill requires four out of five areas, all in which need to be off-chart." Kurobe presented a page of information to Saitou. "If it's a normal boy, the body might hold, but… she's a girl. Her body's not yet strong enough to use this kind of skill for more than thirty minutes."

"…Oh no."


That evening—

"Haa… haa…" Sora ran out of breath only as she was walking up the stairs with Tokugawa. They had eaten dinner and was going back to the room to relax, but Sora didn't eat that much; she didn't feel like it.

'Wh-What's this… sweat?' She wiped her forehead and found her hand wet. Tokugawa continued going up the stairs and realized that his roommate had stopped mid-way, slouching in an awkward position.

"Shiroki, you all right?" He came down a few steps and asked.

Then Sora's head spun and she felt like the whole world was being distorted.

"Shiroki!" Tokugawa yelled as Sora slouched forward onto his body. "Shiroki, wake up!" He lifted her head up to see her face, and noticed that she was only sleeping.

'Jeesh, scaring me like this…' He scoffed but nonetheless piggy-backed Sora. 'She's really light…'

He piggy-backed her and tried to head upstairs, until—

"Tokugawa-kun!" Saitou urgently called him and ran upstairs. "S-S-Sora!" He panicked as he spotted his niece on this guy's back, totally knocked out.

"He's just sleeping." Tokugawa assured and Saitou sighed in relief. "He's been complaining that he was tired since this morning."

"Yes… Sora's body's not as strong as other boys'. If he uses this skill this much, his body's bound to break." He explained. "His skill isn't something ordinary people can pull off. He might use it little bits at a time, but utilizing this as his own play style is going to destroy his body."

"I see."

"Then return to your room, and please keep a good eye on Sora." Saitou smiled and Tokugawa nodded.

He returned to his room and put her down on the bed; she was sweating heavily, and when he checked her forehead, her head was burning. Then suddenly a naughty thought crossed Tokugawa's mind.

'She's sweating… should I wipe it off? If she has a fever then she's supposed to take her clothes off and let her body cool. If not I should at least get her changed into comfortable clothes.' He glanced at her face—and blushed madly.

'No, no, no, what are you thinking?! She's a girl, for god's sake! And plus she's sick!' Tokugawa shook his head. 'But she really is sweating a lot…!'

Tokugawa finally made up his mind—

'I'll at least wipe off the sweat on her body and put some cold towel.'

He went to the bathroom. He grabbed a bucket and some ice from the fridge, put some water, and wet the towel. He went over to her bed and started wiping off the sweat on her arm and neck.

'She has really long eyelashes…' He thought as he examined her face. 'Her nose is cute and tiny, and her lips look really… kissable.' He stopped—then blushed madly. He never, ever thought of a girl in this kind of fashion; they were always considered invisible to him.

'Calm down, Tokugawa… she's a guy for now. She's a guy for now. It's a he, not she, so don't go on thinking about naughty stuff.'

"…" He then again stared at her, his heart beating faster and faster every minute.

"W-Water…" Sora, who was unconscious from fever, mumbled. Tokugawa hurriedly got a water bottle and put it to her lips, but the water just poured off to the side.

'I guess I have no choice.' He sighed. He took the water bottle, took a big gulp—and brought his lips to hers and emptied his mouth. Sora drank, and Tokugawa took another big gulp and fed it mouth-to-mouth. Finally satisfied, Sora sighed and continued sleeping.

Tokugawa, after putting the bottle down, blushed madly, so red that he looked like he was the one running on a high fever.

'Th-that was my first kiss… I wonder if that's… Shiroki's first kiss too.' He then began sweating. This was his big secret that he was going to take to his grave. If it really was Shiroki's first kiss, then he would be killed in no time.

But then he thought that she was like no ordinary girls whose interests were only about boys, clothes, and celebrities and whatnot. She tried really hard to improve in tennis and she was good at it too.

"Get well, Shiroki."


"Ugh…" Sora groaned and woke up, clutching her head.

"Are you awake?" Tokugawa's voice came from the side; when she turned her head to her right, he was sitting on a chair next to the bed.

"Tokugawa…!" She looked around. "Wh-Where…"

"You sort of fainted on the staircase. You were running on fever last night."

"I fainted?!" Sora exclaimed. "Why!?"

"Your uncle told me that your play style right now just wears out your body. He said to stop using it." He explained.

"What do you mean, wears it out? I'm completely fine!"

"Shiroki, you fainted. On top of that you ran on a high fever all last night." Tokugawa tried to convince her.

"That's just because I was working too much! I'm not going to stop using my play style, it's powerful!" Her voice raised higher.

"Shiroki, your body's going to break at this rate." Tokugawa frowned and said. "Just listen to your uncle. You can find a new play style."

"No!" She shouted. "I'm going to use this, and this is the play style that I found on my own after ten years!"

"I told you, something worse is going to happen to your body!" Tokugawa shouted back. "Besides, what's so good about a play style that just ends up hurting the opponent!?"

Sora gasped and paused. A 'uh-oh' and 'oh shit' crossed Tokugawa's mind, making him regret saying that. He gulped—and tears brimmed around Sora's eyes.

"But… But…!" She started sniffling. Tokugawa freaked out and started fidgeting. He was not good with girls, especially when they were crying.

"At this rate I'm just going to be a guy who's not even good at tennis…!" She sniffled. "Waaaah!"

She finally broke out sobbing. Tokugawa flinched and moved his hand busily to somehow figure out a way to use them in comforting her.

"I-It's okay, don't worry." Tokugawa managed to say but Sora kept on crying. He gulped and took a brave action by hugging her.

Sora hugged back, clenching onto his shoulders a bit hard while crying her head off, but Tokugawa pat her back and head and whatnot, trying to calm her down.

"There, there. W-We could find an alternative, so stop crying." He said. It actually hurt him too hearing that Sora wouldn't be able to play with a play style that she was so excited about. And he knew how much she's been trying; seeing her like this made him weak.

Sora finally calmed down, hiccupping a little. Tokugawa brought themselves apart and rubbed away the tears on her cheeks and smiled.

"Did you calm down a bit?" He asked, smiling. Sora just stared into his face, dumbfounded by a smile that she's never, ever seen before. Heck, she didn't see him smile at all for the past few weeks.

Then she realized how close they were—and blushed. And seeing her reaction, Tokugawa realized it as well, so they hurriedly brought themselves apart and started coughing awkwardly.

"Th-Thank you for last night." Sora thanked.

"N-No problem."

Then silence filled between the two. Sora was thinking; do guys usually show this much care to other guys? Do they stay up all night and console each other by an intimate hug?

'Wait… but hugging… Then!' She gasped inside. 'H-H-H-H-He's a h-h-h-ho-ho-HOMO!?'

"What." He found her staring at him intently and said.

"N-Nothing! Wait! Aren't we late to practice?!" She hurried out of bed but Tokugawa just pushed her shoulders back down.

"It's Saturday." He said, and Sora just ooh'd. "So get some sleep, you still have some fever. I'm going to the infirmary to get you some medicine." He said and stood up.

"W-Wait." Sora grabbed his sleeve. "…I don't need medicine." She mumbled quietly.

"What?"

"I said, I don't any need medicine. So stay here, I don't want to be alone." She pouted and said. Tokugawa gulped; he couldn't help but think she was absolutely cute that moment.

"I guess I have no choice." Tokugawa sighed and sat back down on the chair. Sora made sure he was there, snuggled up to her blankets, and once again fell into a deep sleep.