Chapter 10
Summary: A childhood friend of Tezuka's comes back for a soccer tournament. They've always been close; now, with a limited amount of time, she has to tell Tezuka how she feels. But trouble gets in the way...not to mention her temper. TezxOC
Chapter 10
Yumi bounced the tennis ball a bit, getting a new feel for its weight. It was definitely different than a soccer ball, after all. "Let's see what I've got left in me..." She muttered, tossing it up high. She served normally.
"That's pretty fast." Shishido commented. "I wasn't expecting that."
Sanada, while not expecting it either, was good at recovering and returning the serve. He added his usual power to it (which had increased considerably due to training) and increased its speed. Everyone almost fully expected it to overwhelm the slim girl before him.
It's as easy to see as a soccer ball. Yumi thought, returning it easily. She knew that some considerable power had gone into the hit, but she had trained the muscles in her body for soccer, and trained all of them so as to get a balanced result. That included arm muscles, mostly meant for throw-ins but it seemed to work for tennis too.
As the rally continued, Sanada realized it would take more to go against Yumi. He started implementing strategy and skill, trying to make her run around the court more for returns and looking for an opportunity. Yumi, as they were quickly finding out, didn't mind running back and forth and side to side at all. Soccer had helped her there too, constantly switching directions on the field and increasing her endurance.
Alright, enough toying around; time for her to see just how much of her tennis skills she still had. As the ball skimmed over the net, she shifted to return it, and at the last moment dropped into a different position to return. The ball flew over the net, landed only a few feet past it, and instead of bouncing, rolled back to the net and stopped. Yumi smirked at the surprised looks she was receiving. "Looks like I've still got some old tricks up my sleeve." She said.
Sanada recovered from his surprise and moved back to the base line to receive her next serve. "Let's see how many more 'tricks' you know other than a Zero-shiki Drop Shot." He said.
"Believe me, I'd love to find that out too." Yumi said with a laugh. "I honestly have no clue how much I remember." She served again. This time during the rally she had to work much harder; the balls were more powerful and faster; and tennis strategy was all still coming back to her.
"He's not going easy on her..." Kirihara said. "He's not fully serious, but still...I'm surprised she's keeping up."
Sanada managed to return and the ball went to Yumi's side, catching her going the other way. She easily transferred her racket to her left hand and twisted in the air enough to make a proper shot. The ball did a funny curve in the air, wrapping around to bounce in the opposite direction than it was hit in a snake curve.
"So you're ambidextrous." Sanada noted, running over to catch the ball in his racket before it bounced out.
"Yup, and you're pretty fast." Yumi smirked. Her normally soft red eyes were shining and burning. "But you're not going all-out, are you? I can tell."
"You will have to show me a reason to 'go all-out'." He replied. "As it is right now, this is more than enough to handle you."
Yumi smirked. "I'll see what I can do; I don't guarantee a thing." She laughed almost darkly and hit a lob. Sanada leapt up to take advantage of a chance for a smash. After the ball left his racket, he realized it was probably a careless move of him. She didn't look worried at all.
In a flash Yumi was crouching on the ground, arms spread out. The ball went soaring high into the air towards the back of the court. Higuma Otoshi?! Sanada ran back immediately. He returned the ball, only to have Yumi hit a drop shot. He ran to get that, and she hit a lob to the back. Leaping up, Sanada smashed it. If she used Higuma Otoshi again, he was already near the baseline so it wouldn't be hard to get.
Shifting her hold on the racket so its face was parallel to the ground, Yumi lunged forward, putting her own weight behind her swing to counter the power in the smash. The rim of her racket hit the ball perfectly, and shot it straight for the back corner like she aimed, hitting the inside corner of the court and then bouncing out.
"That makes it...30-0, right?" She asked, flipping her racket back around to grip it properly.
Sanada straightened from his position and looked over his opponent. Her eyes are burning in spirit. They would easily intimidate someone. She's not weak, either. Her body is in top condition, healthy, fit, and athletic. He took in more during the next rally. Her reaction time is nearly instantaneous, and her body can change directions suddenly with ease. I don't see any strain on her muscles from it. With a well placed return he got a point in, and the next serve came. I'm not hitting easy shots to return, but while she's concentrating on the match and taking this seriously (as she should), it looks like it isn't much of a challenge for her.
Yumi won the first game without much difficulty, but everyone knew Sanada was just testing the waters. The second game was looking like that was still happening. Deciding to spice things up a bit, Yumi sighed and straightened out of her normal serve stance. "Hm...we need to have a bit more fun from tennis than this." She looked at the ball in her hand in disinterest. Squeezing it slightly, she seemed to toss it carelessly. As it spun and tumbled in the air, she hit an underhanded serve.
She's lost interest? Sanada thought in surprise.
"Hey now, that's just letting him get a point." Niou commented. "Looks like she's tired of playing."
Sanada shifted to return the serve, which was still pretty fast for being underhand, but just as he made contact with the ball it suddenly spun off his racket and to the side. He stared at it as it bounced, still on his side of the court. Looking at Yumi, he saw her red eyes gleam and a smirk was on her face. So she even knows how to incorporate psychological attacks into her tennis.
"It was all to catch him off guard, so he wouldn't notice the odd spin she put on the ball before hitting it. Looks like it worked." Yukimura commented, nothing on his face showing what he thought of the match.
"I can't remember the name I came up with for that..." Yumi said, seemingly casual but everyone now knew that she was someone not to take lightly. "I think I called it Slipper." That shot won her the next game.
As Sanada prepared to serve, he decided that he would have to be completely serious in this match. Yumi just seemed too skilled not to. He served, and scored a point before she could move a step towards returning it. Yumi looked at where the ball was bouncing back lightly, having hit the wall behind her, and then to Sanada. "You wanted me to get serious." He said, an aura like lightning crackling around him.
"He's using his disappearing shots already?" Marui whistled. "Your girl's pretty good."
"She isn't 'our girl'." Oshitari said, still watching the match intently, being very impressed with what he was gaining from it. "You were listening when she warned Yukimura about flirting; we probably wouldn't be able to walk after receiving a kick from her. Naturally we wouldn't try anything."
Yukimura chuckled. "She's feisty. Sanada's aura's very intimidating; but it looks like she can match it perfectly." He noted, and everyone else didn't need to look at Yumi to feel the challenging dark waves coming from her to show Sanada that there was no way she'd back down from a simple aura.
In the next game, Sanada served, and this time, Yumi was ready for it. She returned the ball, and it also disappeared. Sanada was shocked, but still moved to return it. To normal people it was like they were moving to hit at thin air, and then the ball would appear there in their racket, before it disappeared again.
Yanagi had at one point taken over the position as referee, and eventually he gave the final call out: "Game and match, Sanada, 7-6!"
The Regulars watching from the sidelines were shocked. Not at the call, that they had expected from the beginning...but looking at the two tennis players approaching the net...Sanada sighed and wiped the sweat from his forehead from under his cap, and held out a hand to shake. Yumi took it, smiling brightly and what scared the boys was that she didn't have more than a few drops of sweat on her forehead, and wasn't breathing even slightly hard like Sanada.
Yumi moved to her bag and put away her racket and the hair tie. Yukimura offered her a bottle of water that he had bought from the school vending machine; in his opinion, seeing that match was worth the little bit of pocket change. She smiled gratefully up at him and downed half the bottle immediately. "That hit the spot. If there's one thing I've learned, it's always making sure you replenish your body's water supply after sports." She declared, before pulling out her cell.
Tezuka picked up almost immediately. Yumi? How did it go?
"It went great!" Yumi replied cheerfully. "I had so much fun! The last time I played was when I visited you in Japan, and I left my stuff here. Really, after not playing for five years, this was wonderful." She was too into her conversation to notice the strange looks she was being given; either that or she didn't care and chose to ignore them.
"She hasn't played for five YEARS?" Gakuto gaped. But Yumi was still talking to the other person on the phone.
"Yeah, I thought I would have forgotten some things too, but they just started coming back to me. I ended up losing at 7-6. Not bad considering how rusty I am!" Yumi declared proudly. "I couldn't hit shots as powerfully or accurately as I used to against you, and it took my body some time to get used to tennis form again."
Sanada, from where he was drinking his water, was surprised at this revelation. Yukimura smiled at the vice captain, and said quietly "Amazing, isn't it? If she had been in top shape, you probably would have lost; she would have easily been able to face me in an equal match." Sanada agreed.
They turned their attention back to the conversation, knowing it was bad to listen in but were overwhelmingly curious. Yumi must have just been asked who she faced, because she repeated the question in surprise. "Who I faced? You should know them, after all you told me about Yukimura." She said, sitting down on the ground by the tennis bag that was now closed, being mindful of her skirt. "I didn't face the captain, no!" She replied to something the person had said. "Be serious. I faced some guy named Sanada."
There was a pause, and then, "What? He's the vice-captain?" Yumi looked up at Sanada and Yukimura with a raised eyebrow, and they nodded confirmation. "Well go figure. Niou actually DID have a plan. From his comments, I had to wonder if he was actually bothering to think." When Niou started speaking loudly in protest to the insult, she waved him off with a stern look that said 'shut up idiot I'm on the phone!'
That started Gakuto and Marui snickering at the wounded silver haired player, which Yumi ignored for Tezuka was speaking again. You're at Rikkaidai? Alone? I'll come pick you up...
"Absolutely not!" Yumi snapped, making the listeners jump slightly. "I said you sounded better, but even if you feel better you can't push yourself. You're staying in bed until I come over there with your school work and tennis bag, and you're going to eat a warm, healthy meal and go to sleep!"
Yumi, I'm feeling much better. Tezuka protested, but Yumi could hear his grandmother enter the room and say in the background that he still had to take some medicine and to stay in bed.
"Ha, I'm not the only one saying stay in bed." Yumi said smugly.
Still-
Giving a cry of frustration, Yumi snapped angrily into the phone "TEZUKA KUNIMITSU, you are going to STAY in bed and REST! If I get there to find out that you weren't, and I WILL know, then you'll regret it!" Hearing his defeated sigh, she said "Good. I'll see you soon." Hanging up, she grabbed his tennis bag and then bent down for her school bag.
"Well, I'm off! Thanks for the match, nice meeting you all, and thanks for the water Yukimura!" Yumi said with a smile. "Later boys!" She ran off, no longer jogging but running, to make up for at least some of the lost time spent on the match. She didn't even notice the slack jawed faces of the boys she left behind.
"That...That was Tezuka she was talking to?!" The louder of the Regulars from both schools exclaimed. The others, even Yukimura, were snapped out of their speechless states.
"Oh my god, she yelled at him! She ordered him to stay in bed because he's sick! Someone our age can actually order Tezuka!" Gakuto just couldn't seem to believe it.
"Recalling her first conversation would make you even more surprised, then." Yagyuu said, pushing up his glasses from where they had fallen slightly from his face. "If you recall, that tennis bag is Tezuka's. And he has kept a girl's tennis racket and even got hair ties for her, in his own bag...for five years."
This was followed by another "Oh my god!" And many shocked faces as they tried to imagine just why Tezuka would do that, and just what exactly it meant.
"She's incredibly skilled at tennis." Yukimura said. He turned to look at the members from Hyoutei. "What do you know about her?" He asked. "Is she on the girl's tennis team at Seigaku?"
"No." Choutarou said, blinking. "She...doesn't play tennis on a team at all. Yumi's a soccer player, she chose that over tennis."
"Aside from that, and her personality, it's really all we know about her." Oshitari said. "She just came to Japan this last week. I know Rikkaidai's entering the National Soccer Tournament; Yumi's soccer team from America was invited to Japan to be a part of it."
"She nearly beat Sanada and she isn't even a serious tennis player?" Yukimura was genuinely surprised. "As glad as I am that we don't have to face her in a tournament, I'm more disappointed that I'll never be able to find out just how far she could've gone in tennis."
"Well, there is ONE more thing I know." Oshitari said thoughtfully. "I overheard Kamio and Shinji from Fudoumine talking. Kamio was at the arcade and that was where he met Yumi. She was with Tezuka at the time."
"As in...on a date?" Marui asked, wide eyed. "Don't do that, you made me swallow my gum!"
"I was being serious. He was there with her holding her sweater and bag while she played DDR." Oshitari deadpanned.
Meanwhile, completely unaware of the conversations going on about her and Tezuka, Yumi made her way up to the sick tennis player's room. She set his tennis bag down at the foot of his bed and drew from her school bag his homework. Tezuka was sitting up in his bed, an extra blanket over his shoulders, and still in his long blue pyjamas.
"Good to see you stayed in bed. Sorry for yelling, but we both know that you'd go to school until you fainted from fever unless someone forced you to stay home and rest." Yumi smiled at him and passed him his homework. "Cari said that none of this is due until Friday, so don't rush to get it done tonight." She said as he looked it over and nodded.
"Thank you for bringing this to me." Tezuka said. "I can get this done now, before dinner."
"Well go for it." Yumi passed him a pencil and a book to write on from his desk, and pulled out her own schoolwork to finish as well.
"How long are you staying?" Tezuka asked. "I don't want you catching my cold."
"Just until our homework's done. This way if you have any questions I can explain better." Yumi replied. "It's easier if I can see the sheets rather than talk over the phone; Cari went over the whole thing with me, because she said that it got confusing at times."
Tezuka had to ask for clarification on what the teacher was asking for on the assignment a few times, interrupting their working silence and the sounds of pencils on paper. Their work quickly got done, both of them being students with high averages despite their devotion to sports.
Yumi grabbed her schoolbag after setting Tezuka's work on his desk. Tezuka was sliding back under the covers of his bed, ready to rest again before dinner. "Yumi...?" He asked questioningly, seeing her move over to the bed and wondering why.
Bending down, Yumi brushed his bangs away lightly and gave him a gentle kiss to the forehead. "Get better, ok?" She smiled down at him and then stood and left the room.
Tezuka suddenly felt warm. He brought a hand to his forehead, blushing a bit. What is this...? He sighed, turning over onto his side. "Probably just from the fever..." He muttered, putting his glasses on the nightstand by his table and closing his eyes to go to sleep.