Of Tennis and Ice Prince
Chapter 10: Success
"Coach, I'd like to challenge court 2." Sora said.
"Me too." Tokugawa said also.
"Very well. Court 2! You have challengers!" The Coach yelled and court number 2 soon set up for a challenge match.
"Hey." Tokugawa called Sora who was a bit nervous. "You'll do fine. You trained hard right?"
"Yeah. Thanks!" She smiled brightly and skipped over to the court.
Tokugawa was just glad that he got to see her smile. He headed onto the court also.
There was a bit of a problem; Tokugawa ended up with a ridiculously weak opponent while Sora ended up with a ridiculously strong opponent.
Tokugawa finished his match quickly enough to be able to watch Sora's matches;
The score was 3-all.
'…Shiroki's still figuring out how to pull out her skills.' Tokugawa observed.
"What do you think, Saito?" Kurobe asked, sipping on his coffee.
"Hm… Indeed, Sora's still observing the opponent for now." He said, rubbing his chin. "But I'm pretty sure she's hiding something big."
"I look forward to it." Kurobe said.
"The thing to call attention to is that rather than brute-force, Sora uses wits and speed to get around the court; for example, fooling the opponent's eyes."
"Ah-hah…"
Sora finally hit a shot the way she practiced;
The opponent completely missed the swing and the ball dropped.
"Wh-What?!"
And he started missing a shot after another.
"What's he doing?" People murmured.
"This is rather intriguing." Kurobe said.
"This… from a mental standpoint, as soon as the opponent falls into the trap then the trauma stacks up higher and higher—as if he's being buried in a sandpit."
"That's certainly one aspect—but what's the logic behind this shot?" Kurobe played the tape. "Hm…" he observed Sora and her shots for a while.
"…Interesting."
"What is it?"
"6-3, game set and match, Shiroki Sora! She will move onto court number 2!"
Sora walked back to the bench and drank some water.
"Good job." Tokugawa handed her a towel.
"Thanks." She said.
"How'd you do that? I've always been wondering; I didn't think it was a skill. I always believed that it was my own mistake because you only used it time to time." Tokugawa asked.
"Well… basically I'm fooling the opponent's eyes." She said. "In a fast rally, when I want to hit this shot, I swing just as fast as I was doing before but actually put less power and more spin on the ball; that way, the opponent will think I'm hitting a fast ball—but I'm actually not. Plus, I put a southpaw, kick spin on it so it's harder to predict the trajectory."
"Wow…" Tokugawa let out. "I-I mean. That's pretty impressive." He cleared his throat in embarrassment at "wowing" at Sora.
"Hehe. Thanks. But it's a problem when the opponent is instinctively going for the ball only; usually players unknowingly react to the opponent's swings, not the ball. But if there's someone who doesn't care about what I do, just what I hit—then there's a problem."
"But that's not the only thing you can do right? You used to be able to make opponents freeze up and all."
"Haha, yup. But I think I'll refrain from using that too much. It's too much of a mental trauma."
"Quite impressive." Kurobe said, giving a approving nod. "Actually, very impressive."
"I knew she'd do it." Saito said.
"She's understanding the science and basics behind tennis; I would like to credit her for that."
"Hey Shiroki, wanna go to the bath?" Tokugawa asked after a good workout at the gym.
"Huh? Sure." She said and walked over to the bath area—Tokugawa first took off his clothes and went ahead in the bath.
"W-Wait a minute." Tokugawa paused. 'She's a girl!'
Tokugawa turned back abruptly, trying to prevent her from coming in—
"WAAAAGGH!" He yelped as he saw Shiroki—in a perfectly healthy boy's body.
"AAAAAAAAAHHHHH!" He yelped.
"JESUS CHRIST! Tokugawa, are you okay?!" Sora, who was scared to death by waking up to him screaming, asked Tokugawa. And oops, she slept on the same bed again.
Tokugawa panted, looked at Sora, and suddenly rushed into the bathroom.
"This… this is…!" Tokugawa shivered in horror. 'She's a girl! She's a girl! That was all just a bad dream!' He thought to himself. 'Or… is she… really…?!' He turned towards the main room.
'Then… that means…! Gah! I am sexually confused now! I-I'm not interested in men! Wait, I'm not interested in her!' He shook his head violently and thought. 'I-I mean, I am interested in her, but not to that poin—WHAT AM I THINKING!?'
Tokugawa just stopped everything. He closed his eyes, let out a long breath, and walked back into the main bedroom.
"You okay?" Sora asked, a bit worried.
"I just had a really bad dream."
"Oh man, that must suck. Bad dreams are a real bitch." Sora frowned and pat him on the shoulder.
"Shiroki." Tokugawa said.
"Hm?"
"Wanna go take a bath at the sauna hall?" He asked. Sora paused and her face immediately heated up bright red.
"N-N-N-N-NO!" She said. "I-I'M FINE! I-I TAKE FREQUENT SHOWERS, S-SO I DON'T NEED ANY BATHS!" She yelled and ran out of the room.
"…" Tokugawa just stared at the door in which she slammed shut. "That was definitely a dream." He sighed in relief by her reaction.
The players were on their breaks in a weekend's afternoon;
'Where's Shiroki? She should usually be around here. Now that I think of it, she started to not visit this place as much.' Tokugawa wondered as he browsed through the dining halls. Normally, he'd find her snacking on something while reading or watching something.
He went around the facility, hoping he'd run into Sora (just because, not for a reason; or at least that what he wants to think).
"Eat up, Mr. Duck!"
Tokugawa heard a familiar voice behind the bushes.
"Hm?" He peeped over the bush and found Sora cradling a duck.
"Ah, Tokugawa!" She noticed him. "This is Mr. Duck! I found him injured so I cured his leg!" She showed the duck cradled in her arms.
She held out the duck to his face;
"Quack."
"Th-That's nice of you." He said. "So… uh… what exactly are you doing?"
"I'm just looking after him! He comes to this place every time I have breaks, so I feed him something and put ointment on his leg." She said, pointing at a white bandaged tied into a ribbon. "He likes me a lot."
"…I see."
"It's been about 2 weeks since I took care of him, he should be perfectly healthy now." She smiled.
'She had this kind of a side too. Huh.' Tokugawa thought, slightly surprised since he found her (sometimes, very sometimes) insensitive to a lot of things.
Couple days later—
Tokugawa was strolling through the gardens in the facility—then he noticed a flock of ducks flying away to the South. Then he noticed one duck with a white bandage around its leg.
'That's Mr. Duck.' Tokugawa said. 'Huh, maybe it's a different one. Whatever.'
It was about 3 days after Tokugawa spotted the flock of ducks.
When Tokugawa was getting ready to sleep at 11 PM, Sora was still not in the room.
'Where is she?' Tokugawa was slightly worried. Then speak of the devil, the door opened and Sora came in.
"…Welcome back." Tokugawa said.
"Yeah…" Sora, being unusually gloomy, walked into the bathroom to change and wash. She came back and lied down on her bed.
"Where were you?"
"…"
"Oi, Shiroki?"
Tokugawa shot up, wondering why Sora wasn't answering his question.
"Oi, Shiroki."
Tokugawa got out of bed to take a closer look at Sora. Something was definitely weird. Was she bullied or something?
"Shiroki?" Tokugawa tapped her a little. She sat up—and was crying.
"Wh-Why are you crying?!" Tokugawa panicked. "Are you hurt? Do you not feel well?"
"M-Mr… Mr. Duck… He hasn't shown up for 3 days in a row…!" She sobbed. "Wh-What if he was eaten! Waaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!"
She broke out sobbing.
Tokugawa was somewhat relieved but at the same time, surprised by how soft her heart is.
"Shhh, it's okay." Tokugawa gently hugged her. "Listen." Tokugawa lied down in Sora's bed while Sora was clutching onto his shirt, bawling her eyes out.
"I saw Mr. Duck."
"R-Really?"
"Yeah. He was flying away with his duck family 3 days ago. He's heading South because it's about to get cold here."
"…So…"
"He wasn't eaten."
"But I can't see him…!" She said, and started sobbing again.
"It's okay, you can see him next spring when it gets warm over here." Tokugawa consoled her. "So stop crying; Mr. Duck surely wouldn't want to see you cry like this either."
"Waaah…!" She sniffled more; Tokugawa just hugged her tight and let sleep take away her pain.
"It's okay." Tokugawa said and placed a kiss on her forehead. And snapped out—
'SHIT.' He looked down and gladly, found her already asleep. 'Phew.' He sighed.
That night he realized a new side to his feelings.