This was supposed to have gone somewhere, back in the day. Since I no longer remember its purpose, here it is.
Convictions
The last ball he hit sailed across the wet court and struck the ground on the other side with a splash that echoed almost too loudly in his ears; the sound of it bouncing twice and finally rolling to a stop was instantly drowned out by the pouring rain.
It was funny, Tezuka Kunimitsu caught himself thinking, how he could continue staring at one particular fuzzy green tennis ball when there were about fifty fuzzy green tennis balls exactly like it littering the court. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that he could barely stand on his own two feet, much less see straight because of the weather. He had always been a logical person; none of this made sense. Of course, practicing on his lonesome all day and night in the pouring rain hadn't been a very smart idea either. He had been doing a lot of strange things lately.
First you place your faith in a 10-minute bout against Fudomine's tensai, and now you're asking me to allow you to play rounds against Echizen? Oya, Tezuka-kun… you really are changing.
Knowing Ryuuzaki-sensei, that was exactly what she would say. The old woman, however, was simply too kind to utter a single word.
His arm was hurting again; red-blistered pain shot up through his muscles the moment he tried to pick his racket up. Tezuka pushed the feeling to the back of his mind and flexed his nerveless fingers around the handle. Pain meant little when he could barely breathe as it was, but none of that was important.
Lightning knifed through the dark clouds above, and the downpour only grew worse as the sound of solitary practice filled Seigaku's deserted court.