Chapter Four

Fuji

"Fuji, it's time for your match. Be careful, ok?" Oishi was worrying as usual.

"I will," I assured him, taking up my racket and entering the court. This time my opponent was a sleepy looking individual called Jiroh. He looked harmless enough, but since this guy had managed to beat Yuuta—which was why I specifically asked to play against him—within fifteen minutes, I knew I couldn't underestimate his skills.

"Fuji! Good luck!" a girl screamed. I glanced her way to see a brown-haired, blue eyed ninth year that I vaguely knew from class. She was just one of the dozens of fans crowding the stands. I knew her by sight, having seen her at every single game. Today, though, something was missing. Didn't she usually show appear with a friend? A friend with long black hair by the name of Tezumi or something similar. The girl who had come to tell me that I'd done my Math homework all wring some time ago. I had forgotten to thank her for saving me from getting an F.

But I couldn't think about that now. I had to focus on the game.

Jiroh was still yawning opposite me. Time to wake up, I told him silently. I've prepared a real eye opener just for you.

Taking up the ball, I spun it with a twist of my wrist. Slicing it with an underhand hit, I completed my serve.

At first, it didn't seem like anything out of the ordinary. But I knew otherwise. "This ball...is going to vanish," I said quietly.

Apparently Jiroh didn't believe me, because he raised his racket and prepared to return it. But just as he swung it forward, the ball suddenly sped up, though of course only I knew this. His racket hit air as the ball literally disappeared, reappearing a few feet behind him.

"Good luck," the girl had said. But I didn't believe in luck. If I couldn't win with my own skill, neither luck nor anything else could help me. They called me a tensai, but that was only because they didn't know how much time I spent practicing. If they had known how many all-nighters I had pulled, designing and trying out my new moves, they would never have called me that.

I took out another tennis ball and repeated the serve.

This is for you, Yuuta...

"Fuji! You did it!" my teammates exclaimed joyfully as I exited the court with another victory under my belt. It hadn't been an easy game. Jiroh was basically invincible near the net and it had taken quite a while for me to figure out how to keep him at the baseline.

"Thank you all for your support," I told the rest of the Seigaku regulars.

"Fuji! You were amazing!" The crowd screamed its approval.

"There's still some time before Tezuka's match and I'm a little hungry. I'll be right back, ok?" I said to Oishi and headed towards a burger joint I had remembered seeing across the street.

Almost immediately I was surrounded by a band of loud, giggling girls.

"Fuji!" They were all talking at once, trying to cover the others' voices, so that I couldn't understand a word besides my own name.

"I'm sorry, but I have to go somewhere," I explained apologetically. Still, they wouldn't let me go until I had given each and every one of them an autograph. Eventually they dispersed, allowing me to go my way. I picked up my pace, sighing. How did these girls find the time to come to all our matches anyway? Didn't they have anything better to do? What they did with their time wasn't my concern, but they did hold me up a lot, especially when I was in a hurry.

Sighing again, I shook my head. If there was just one girl whose life didn't revolve around her crush of the week...

Across the street there was a small park which I knew as a shortcut to the burger joint. All was quiet, save for the solitary thump thumping of a tennis ball against a wall. But when I passed the courts, no one was there. The noise seemed to be coming from a neglected and very secluded part of the park. My curiosity got the better of me and I stopped to have a look.

A girl was there alone, practicing tennis. She was a beginner, judging from her posture and how she couldn't hit the ball on the sweet spot. I recognized her as the girl who had told me about my Math.

"Hey, Tezumi," I said, standing beside her.

Green eyes flickered towards me and returned to the ball. "Hi, Fuji,"

"I didn't know you played tennis."

"There are a lot of people playing tennis whom you don't know about," she replied coolly.

Is she normally like this, or did I do something to upset her? She had seemed nice enough when I'd shared her calculator or something in class, but I couldn't think of anything I'd done to her, however I wracked my brains. "Try bending your knees more," I advised her.

She got better almost instantly. "Thanks. I wondered why I never improved much."

"You just need someone to teach you," I told her. "Are you in the tennis club?"

"No, I don't want to join yet. I want to see how far I can get on my own."

This slightly intrigued me, seeing as it sounded a little like myself.

"Good thinking. I hope it works out for you. But you do need to go against other people sometimes. How long do you think you'll be practicing?"

"For as long as I can still see the ball, I guess."

"Would you like it if I came after our match and practiced with you?" It was the first time I had offered to spend time with a girl outside school, and thus...

"Thanks, but I don't think that'll be necessary." Thus, it was the first time I had been refused by one.

It felt strange, hearing her say no when girls from the tennis club regularly asked me to help them with their game. Seeing as there wasn't much time, I forgot about my burger and started back towards the courts.

I stepped out onto the street, lost in thought.

Then, out of the blue, a horn blared and I heard the screeching of tires. I looked up, just in time to see the van speeding towards me, just in time for my reflexes to kick in and make my dive out of the way—

Before everything went black.