Chapter Two – Tensai Mentality

You'd think that a match between two tensais would at least be slightly interesting, but I can tell you that a game between two such people, who spent more time training together side by side than they did sleeping, is exceedingly boring.

I knew all his weaknesses, and he was all too familiar with mine. This made his method of attack very obvious to me, and my counter attack very plain to him, taking away the element of surprise from the game. Surprise, which took all the excitement of the sport along with it.

And yet I found it a refreshing relief, knowing that I had nothing to hide, or nothing I could hide, whichever way you put it. Truth be told, I loathed the scheming way I'd had to think, calculating with pained caution what I could show and what I could not reveal.

"You've mastered your Angular Snake, I see." Fuji turned his smile towards me after I had returned a ball that had looked quite normal--until it took a sharp 90 degree turn to the left. I watched the ball go only to see it flying back. Fuji had known before I'd even raised my racket.

"You know how long it took. In fact, you probably know even better than me." Keeping my grin on him, I moved into position to return the expected topspin ball. This sort of thing no longer required thought. Not after all the mock matches I'd had with him in my head.

Obviously he hadn't had as many of such matches, since he couldn't predict my use of Tsubame Gaeshi in my return. My favorite part of tennis resurfaced for a moment. No matter how well you knew someone; there were always some things you couldn't see ahead of time.

You've forgotten that I too am a tensai of Seigaku. And that I need some way to pass the time during school practices.

His eyes had snapped open with shock.

"I won't use it during an official match, of course." It was one of the many unspoken pacts between us. Infringement of copyright was strictly banned when the results really counted.

His turn to serve. Which serve, where it would go, how fast it would be...is there any more to know about a serve?

Incidentally, knowing whether it would work was important too.

In an ideal situation, the ball would have sped up right in front of me, so that it seemed to disappear. This, even I would have trouble dealing with. But it wasn't an ideal situation, and the resultant serve contained so little spin that I could consider it as a fast but normal start to the game.

He will, of course, neglect the left corner near the net, like he does every time this happens.But instead of going for the point, I caught he ball in my hand and tossed it back to him. "Try that again." Our match, while relaxing, was rather pointless, given that we knew what would happen anyway.

Once more he dropped the ball over his racket and sliced it so that it rolled over the length of the net. I stuck out a hand and the ball flew right into it. The spinning stopped a short while after I had caught hold of it. "Hmm...not enough spin..."

Rolling the ball didn't seem to do enough. The racket was simply too short to create any sort of significant impact. "Fuji, what if you did this?" I took out another ball and spun it with my hand before dropping and slicing.

For a moment, I thought it hadn't worked, but the instant before his racket made contact, my eyes were suddenly staring into thin air. We both jumped when a crash told us that the ball had somehow hit the wire netting around the court.

Out, but it had definitely worked.

Fuji looked round in wonder.

"You've forgotten what they call me at school. Now try that again."

Twisting his wrist, he spun the ball just as I had, repeating the whole process. I only just managed to return his serve by running forwards to meet it.

"More spin. Try to spin it faster."

Again.

"Faster."

And again.

So the training session lasted through the night, until the moon itself retired behind the horizon. "What will you call it?" I asked during one of our breaks.

He downed the water of my bottle. "Spin Serve?"

"Ne, practical, but much too plain."

"What do you suggest?"

"Disappearing serve?"

Running his fingers through his sweat matted hair he gazed up at the stars. "Disappearing serve..." Taking up his racket, he spun, dropped and sliced.

I trained my eyes on the ball, watched it until it disappeared in mid-court, only to reappear embedded in a bush.

I smiled. There had been a split second when the ball could be seen, the second it hit the court. It was not an impossible move to counter.

"You are ready," I said to him.

Yuushi and I stood in the outskirts of the court, observing the game from a distance. It would be rather awkward for two students of Seigaku and Hyotei to be standing together, since the match was between those two schools. And besides, there was no one else we wanted to stand with.

"Why Rikkadai? Why not Hyotei?" My one and only confidant frowned when I made my choice known to him. Loneliness was something I had long since figured to be an occupational hazard of tensais.

I shrugged. "They have all the Tezuka level players after all."

"And of course you will want to train to beat them."

Yuushi shared my love of victory, one of the main reasons why I chose him to be my closest friend instead of Fuji.

"You will want to start your attack in your third year of high school, second year if you can manage."

And his knowledge of me extended beyond my tennis skills.

I scrutinized Fuji's last serve, smiling at the look on Jiroh's face when he saw that he, well, that he couldn't see the ball. Perfect, as expected of the prodigy, though I knew what he'd had to go through to get to this point. The rest of the population, being ignorant of this, was screaming its wonder at his genius.

"Well, it's your choice. But tell me when you've completed your training," Yuushi told me before he left for the Hyotei stands. "We shall then have a match."

I watched Fuji execute one last Disappearing Serve before walking off in search of a place to train. There was no mistake as to who would win.

Tezuka, Akaya, Atobe...with power had come endless responsibility, with strength had come the obligation to prove myself in a male dominated sport. The burden had been laid on my shoulders because only I could bear it.

Tezuka, Akaya, Atobe...to reach my goal, I had to beat them all.

Tezuka, Akaya, Atobe, and perhaps...Fuji?