A/N: Wanted to make this longer, but I'm getting impatient too.
I'll edited this later: THE FOOTBALL IS ON!
1-1 finish, I'm not happy England :/ (Edited)
Disclaimer: I was at work when Takeshi Konomi wondered in and asked if he could get the limited edition of Prince of Tennis. (randomness)
Chapter Fifty Six
"You have got to be kidding me." Arai's arm slumped to her side.
The umpire called the game, making the win 7-6 to St. Rudolph. As Arai stood on the court dumbfounded, Jinhana came up and shoved her.
"Thanks for nothing, Arai-chan." She then walked off the court without shaking anyone's hand, leaving Arai to stand and stare.
Arai merely glanced at Jinhana's back. It's not as if you did any better, she thought. Arai turned to a cheering Yasuyo Chitose and couldn't understand what just happened. It wasn't as if she or Jinhana did anything wrong. They played great. Hibiki Shiozu baffled them right from the start, to the last shot. She was a nervous wreck, and that wasn't an exaggeration of the truth.
When Jinhana served, Shiozu flinched away from the ball. When Arai returned the shots, Shiozu would drop her already damaged racket, cover her head and cower on her side of the court. When Jinhana and Arai exchange surprised glances, they realised what an easy win it was going to be and carried on with a confident attitude. They managed to ignore the insane levels of encouragement from St Rudolph's team for Shiozu and won the first four games, but then something switched in Shiozu. She no longer dodged Arai's heavy shots or missed Jinhana's many moves.
Both the Seishun girls weren't surprised that she returned one or two balls. She was playing tennis after all. But what let Seishun down was their over-confidence. It didn't help their focus that Shiozu first showed them now scared she was. Once they realised Shiozu was playing some serious tennis – all specific shots, calculated to the point of rendering Jinhana powerless, to the point or pushing Arai to her limit and going beyond what Arai could manage - they couldn't win.
Chitose, Shiozu's partner, walked to the net to shake Arai's hand. Arai blinked away the disbelief. It didn't quite leave her. She pushed herself forward to shake hands with Chitose but her focus was more on Shiozu. Even now she was standing with her racket huddled tightly to her chest, shivering like it was cold. She looked to Arai from the corner of her eye, saw that Arai was staring at her and she shuffled back.
"Shiozu-chan, come here and shake her hand." Chitose ordered.
The request nearly brought tears to her eyes. She walked up to Arai, without making eye contact and tried to hold her hand out.
"Come on." Her partner pushed her forward.
How did I lose against this girl? Deliberately, Arai grabbed Shiozu's hand and shook it vigorously. "Good game."
"T-t… thank you, A-a… Arai-san."
Seriously, we lost against that… As soon as Arai let her hand go Shiozu held onto her racket and went back to her team. There was nothing more to do. Arai gripped her racket and headed back.
"So, what happened?" Ryuzaki-sensei wanted an explanation.
"I'm not sure… guess I let her-"
"Wrong!" Sensei interrupted her. "The both of you failed to act like a team. It should never matter what the opponent does, if you relied on each other you could have won. You were too busy teasing Shiozu-san because of her personality, while Jinhana-san was doing the same thing. I was expecting the both of you to play with a little strategy, instead I saw bullying tactics. For the sake that Shiozu-san was the underdog, I'm glad they won. I would have been more disappointed if you won with that pathetic display. Use your head next time, that's, if I put you in the line up."
There wasn't any room for Arai to argue. Ryuzaki-sensei was right. By the looks of things Jinhana got the same grilling. She wasn't in the stands and probably off sulking somewhere. Jinhana barely won her last match, plus she had lost a few too many times for her liking in the whole tournament. For now, all Arai could do was call out in acknowledgement and sit back in the stands.
"Arai-chan, you suck!" Umeko teased her. "All that big talk and you lose to a shrimp. I'm ashamed to call you my friend." She then laughed as she took to her feet.
"Shut-up." Arai murmured.
"I'm gunna make this real good." She looked into the crowd and noticed all the other schools.
"You didn't do too bad a job, Arai-chan." Fuji told her.
"Maybe it's me, but Ryuzaki-sensei seems to be really temperamental as of late."
"Could be because you're the vice captain?"
"You better not lose then, she'll come down on you like a tone of bricks."
She made Fuji smirk for a moment. She would certainly have to stay on sensei's good side if that was the case.
They turned down to the courts and Umeko was shaking hands with her opponent, but it didn't seem that her focus was on the game and she kept looking into the crowds, to the top were Miura and the other schools were standing. They seemed to distract her. With that said, once the game started, like Jinhana and Arai, she played to the best of her game but she wasn't doing anything special. To those watching it looked as if she threw her game because the finally score was 0-6.
Fuji tapped Yokoishi on the shoulder and asked if St. Rudolph was interfering with the game. Yokoishi answered with a firm no. They were playing fair and the surrounding schools weren't influencing the games, even if they were, she could have easily dispelled them. But as for now it appeared that Umeko didn't try to win. She got her opponent into long and tactful rallies but didn't chase after the winning shots.
"She was suppose to win." Kikumaru pouted. "She won all her matches at school-"
"Look! She's smiling!" Nishi pointed out.
"She's so stupid." Arai mumbled, still reeling from Ryuzaki's words.
They all watched Umeko bounce over to sensei, being so daring as to lean close to her sensei's face. They tried to listen but sensei was whispering and Umeko whispered back. Whatever they said to each other left Ryuzaki-sensei red in the face and Umeko smiling comically.
"You disappoint me, Umeko-senpai." Shikawara said to Umeko as she walked thorough the gate back to her seat.
Umeko, still smiling, walked behind Shikawara and shook her. "You're ten years too young to understand our strategy, right, Yokoishi-chan?" Yokoishi rose an eyebrow. "You know what I'm talking about?" Umeko locked hands with Yokoishi and they came to an understanding. Nobody ready knew what they were talking about.
"You're stupid, Umeko-chan-" Arai started.
"Oi, you're in no position to say anything to me, girlie. You lost before me. Remember, a team is only as good as its leaders. Loser!" She jeered, pulling the skin of her eye down and stuck her tongue out.
Arai wanted to say something, she really did.
"But, you could have won right, Umeko-senpai?" Nariko asked, now feeling fine after her jog around the park.
"You're twenty years too young to grasp anything. Of course I could have! I just didn't want to."
"What?" Kikumaru complained. "We've got two losses now."
"But I have so much confidence in oujo-sama." Umeko tried to rock Shikawara's shoulders, but Shikawara immediately pushed her off.
She stood up and took her bags with her. "Guess that means I can't have fun, huh, Fuji-senpai?"
Fuji smiled a little. "Please clean up the mess your senpais' left before you."
Shikawara carried her bag onto the court where sensei was sitting and placed it under the bench. She sat down for a moment waiting to see if sensei had any advice for her. Whatever she did murmur it was drowned out by animated cheers from Umeko.
"Seigaku, fight-o! Oujo-sama for the win!"
Shikawara gritted her teeth.
"Don't forget you have to use 'it' Tachi!" Yokoishi calls followed.
"I'm not using it." She mumbled to herself and took her racket out of her bag.
"Shikaw-" Ryuzaki-sensei decided what she would say.
Shikawara cut her off. "I know." She pushed her glasses up and went to stood in front of her opponent. Someone called Fuyumi Ootsuka but her name wasn't important at all. Shikawara gave a firm handshake. "It's a shame, you've lost this match." Her manner was so intimidating that Ootsuka didn't have the desire to say anything. Shikawara threw Ootsuka hand out of their grip and took to the baseline.
"St. Rudolph to serve. First set match, begin."
"Why is she so mad?" Suzu wondered as she watched a different Shikawara.
"It's something you'll have to ask Yokoishi-chan. The two have been training." Umeko said.
"Yeah… I've upset, Taichi, but it was a risk worth taking." Yokoishi answered.
Shikawara watched the serve coming towards her and was annoyed that it was so slow. She belted it across. No one really knew if it was a mistake or not but the ball hit Ootsuka on her inner arm.
"God, I really hate her. So arrogant." Ito was heard from her seat.
"Skilled players are." Hattori said in turn.
Shikawara didn't seem bothered that she hurt Ootsuka. It wasn't deliberate. She barely lifted her hand as an apology and carried on. Ootsuka calm her teammates down and assured the assistant that she really was fine. Despite her strong demeanour, Shikawara's return was powerful and she couldn't take anymore hits like that. She had no way of hiding the bruise on her arm but she couldn't show that level of discomfort, not at the start of her match. If she could win it they could advance. She couldn't show any weaknesses.
But already in the game she was out matched, Ootsuka that is. She couldn't get a returning hit after serving, giving Seishun the first game. Shikawara didn't want the game to drag on. Her serves were the same as her returning shots. They were all one shot, with one bounce out of Ootsuka reach. The score now reading 2-0.
With the serve back to Ootsuka, she had to play to her style much sooner than she wanted. She bounced the ball on the floor once, allowing the flow to enter her. She bounced it a second time, wanting to search out Shikawara's potential (it was non-existent), with the third bounce she pulled her into an illusion.
"Cut it out." Shikawara threatened.
Ootsuka was about to activate her technique. By some means she couldn't start it. She was in mid flow with her serve, and had to catch the ball and reset. She bounced the ball three times again and tossed it up to serve.
"I said, don't." Shikawara said once more. "Pull me into it and you're regret it."
"You're going too far Shikawara-san." Ootsuka told her and called the umpire in to calm her down for threatening her. And he did so.
"Come one Taichi, like 'Kurosaki Ichigo'. Bankai! Wake it up!"
Shikawara twisted the racket in her hand. However much she wanted to dislike her senpai for allowing such a thing to happen, Yokoishi's sense of humour and also her vast among of knowledge meant that if Shikawara didn't listen, she'd be the stupid one.
"Allow me to be stupid for a little bit longer senpai." She said to herself and rocked back and fore waiting for Ootsuka.
Ootsuka decided to play a normal serve to her mistake. Shikawara got the point. Looks as if she had to pull out her technique.
"She's gunna do it." Yokoishi said to her team.
"Well Shikawara-chan be okay?" Nariko asked.
"Yeah, but I don't know a lot of people who can stand the cold."
Once Ootsuka put the ball into play she pulled Shikawara into her illusion. Shikawara let the ball pass behind her. It wasn't that she was distracted, she wanted to have a look at where she was pulled in to. She breathed out and her warm breath lingered in front of her.
"Interesting."
"I'm surprised you're so calm Shikawara-san. Not a lot of people will last long in this kind of surrounding." Ootsuka told her.
"What's happening?" Arai asked.
Yokoishi turned to her. "I did tell you were at the bottom. Don't be too surprised that you can't see anything special."
She would have asked why she was being picked on, but Fuji was sitting beside her. She slumped down in her seat and watched a normal match while the others could see the snow covered court.
"You couldn't have picked a warmer climate?" Shikawara said as she cleaned her glasses. That's how bothered she was.
"Tennis is always played in the sun, where would my advantage be?"
Shikawara rolled her shoulders and readied herself. Snow… who would have thought snow. Why was she the only one getting all these wacky players? First Ito, then her own teammate and now this nutter. Though, was Shikawara the crazier one for being drawn into them? Ootsuka served and the ball didn't bounce into play but hovered over the snow. Of course it would. It can't bounce on this kind of surface, however fake it is. That fact that she was in it meant she had to play by its rules. Like Nariko, Yokoishi taught her a hell of a lot of strategies to survive in one of these illusions. She was about to step her foot forward but ended up tripped up in the snow. Her hands landed right in it. Her bare legs touch it and it was definitely real to her senses.
"30-15"
It's an illusion, play by its rules. She forget she couldn't just walk normally, she had to step up on the snow. Her team cheered her on, some of them could see what was happening but that didn't make it any easier. She couldn't forget her match against Ito. Her memories were pulled into the light. She was dragged into the past. Everything there was real, but she couldn't move. It was just played out before her, but she could feel everything. Then with Umeko, when that woman in white touched her, the touch was warm, so of course, now the snow would be cold. But what could she do? She didn't hang around long enough to defeat Umeko. But Umeko did tell her all she had to do was manipulate the illusion around her. Yokoishi said the same thing… easy for them to say. Shikawara wasn't a spiritual person. Not that she didn't believe. She always prayed for her mother. Girl's tennis wasn't solely about strength, and that's what she used. Her strength. What good was strength when a ball couldn't bounce on fake snow?
She rubbed her forehead. She was staring to feel the cold. Ootsuka served. She stepped up and caught the hovering ball. To her surprise the ball shattered when it hit her racket. "No way." Pieces of yellow fell in the snow.
"40-15"
How can that be allowed? Shikawara brushed it off. There had to be a way. She bounced the strings of her racket against her hand. They were warm enough to not break. So what could she do?
"Taichi?"
She looked to the stands and saw members of her school with their hands in the air. "Ban~kai!" They dropped their hands and pointed at her. They then laughed having got the massage across. Shikawara nearly laughed too. Why were they tormenting her?
If she summon her mother to influence her match, it wouldn't be her effort. But with that said, every other person who had called upon a spirit happily called on this level of skill. She sneezed. This is ridiculous. "Serve." She ordered Ootsuka.
How could she turn this around without calling on that spirit? Ootsuka served, again the ball hovered, but this time it didn't shatter when it hit the racket. She put it into play, but to her dismay Ootsuka had approached the net for a serve and volley shot. The ball fell in her court and didn't bounce.
"2-1, Seishun to serve."
Shikawara nearly laughed. She understood a little. The illusion was only a distraction, an extreme distraction so they could a normal game of tennis in-between the deception. And it would seem that Ootsuka understood that as well. So did that mean she was also trapped in her own illusion? Shikawara watched Ootsuka movements. She didn't seem to shiver and her breath didn't linger in front of her. So she didn't drag herself into this wintry box. But the snow still covered her court. Ootsuka still had to climb on top of it to move and even knew not to let the ball hit the floor.
"Okay." Shikawara admitted to herself, her physical strength wasn't enough to win once she was in this predicament. She wouldn't summon her mother's spirit (that was a little scary) so she'd have to try what Yokoishi taught her, manipulate the illusion… how was she to do that again?
Bother. Nothing more she could do but serve. With all four shots called as double fault, she gave the fourth game to Ootsuka making it 2-2.
Shikawara staggered to the bench and out of the snow for the moment. She was going to sit with sensei and warm up when Yokoishi called her over.
"Taichi, don't forget what I told you. People know you're hopeless when it comes to this stuff, that's why your opponents are willing to use it against you. You have to call her."
"Senpai, can you remind me how to manipulate an illusion?"
She's being stubborn. "Like I told you, if you can control your dreams then it's the same force. Now hurry up and win."
Yokoishi grabbed Shikawara's hand to ease the cold out of her and pushed her back onto the courts back onto the uneven snow and back into the cold.
Shikawara was amazed by Ootsuka's control on the illusion. As soon as she stepped off the court it was warm again. But that didn't mean she could step out of the court to win. Ootsuka knew to finish the move with a drop shot.
"You're really annoying Ootsuka-san."
"What was it you said when we started? I've lost?" Ootsuka taunted and served.
The ball hovered down and then up towards Shikawara. She lobbed it high, giving herself a moment to think.
Dream, huh. I don't remember my dreams. Whether I've been able to control them is a little hard to judge. There must be another way. She moved closer in court, waiting for Ootsuka to smash it down. She did, and Shikawara lobbed it high again. Hmm… wouldn't it be more like that fearful stare mother used to have? The one daddy and Takahashi use from time to time? Hm…
Before Ootsuka hit the ball, she felt Shikawara glaring at her. She ignored it once, but caught it again when she glanced up to see where the lob was. "Get rid of the snow."
"As if." Ootsuka muttered to herself. When she stepped her foot forward she realised it had all gone.
"She did it!" Yokoishi clapped.
"How?" Ootsuka missed the lob and let it bounce out of reach.
When Shikawara peered down the cold and the snow really was gone. She smirked. "No sense asking me. I'm not smart enough to grasp such things. But I am very glad that it melted."
"It's the same thing you did before I activated it."
"Really? Dumb luck, maybe. Now, let's play some tennis."
From there on, Shikawara was barely able to win her match with a finishing score of 6-4. Ootsuka only won back two games because Shikawara couldn't control her new energy. Like she said, she wasn't that smart when it came to such things. Ootsuka could feel the power in Shikawara's glare but she also felt something else hovering over Shikawara with an extra set of menacing eyes. With that trance over her, Ootsuka couldn't focus enough to keep the cold over Shikawara.
The two shook hands.
"I know you won, but if you don't master it you'll lose for sure against everyone else to come." Ootsuka tipped her.
"You might be right." Shikawara walked back to the bench.
"How do you think that went?" Ryuzaki-sensei asked her.
"I'll win quicker next time."
"As long as you're aware of it. You got a win, which I'm happy with. Let's leave it to Fuji-san. She'll bring the win for us."
"Hai, sensei."
Shikawara gathered her belongings and took her place with her team. She barely won her match. Maybe she would have to consider using 'her' influence next time.
"What happened? No bankai?" Umeko moaned.
"You don't seem to be aware of your limits, senpai." She sat with Nariko and they spoke about their experience.
While they spoke, Kikumaru lean on Fuji's shoulders. She made her way behind her and insisted on asking her how she was feeling. Chise glanced up too. She could see that Kikumaru was being a nuisance to her but didn't say anything just yet.
"It's all on you Fuji-chan. I know you'll win, but try to focus, then when you come off, you can tell me everything that's running through you mind."
"I'm fine."
"Can't lie to me. I know you."
Chise held onto Kikumaru's arm. "Onee-chan doesn't want to tell you anything, right onee-chan?"
Kikumaru remembered she wasn't able to discipline Chise the last time because Atobe showed up. She was about to pinch Chise ear with Fuji stood up.
"Will the both of you stop." She took up her bag and walked on. She didn't want to say too much, incase the others figured out she wasn't with it. Throughout the matches, she wasn't watching. She wanted to, but the thought of him leaving really bothered her. She thought about who could of spoken to him. With Chise on her arm, Fuji even wondered if Chise said something to him. It was all she could think about.
Once she walked onto the courts she placed her bag down beside Ryuzaki-sensei trying to smile. He did ask her to keep smiling after all. She could feel it was a little weak and a bit shaky but it meant that the others couldn't see that anything was amiss.
"So, what's the strategy for this one Fuji-san?"
"I'm going to have fun. I didn't get to play last time."
"Fuji-san, try not to be too casual."
She took her racket out of her bag and a few balls and took to the courts. There seemed to be a bit of commotion coming from St Rudolph. Had Fuji not looked up she wouldn't have known the reason why. She couldn't hear what they were saying, but she wanted to know why Yumi was standing in front of her with a racket in hand.
…tbc…
A/N2: Okay, slightly back on track. It's hard making stuff up… yikes (x_x)
Chapter 57: Will Yumi get to play Fuji or will the umpire have something to say about it? Dunno...
