Tennis no Ouji-sama © Konomi Takeshi, Shuheisha, Inc.
- Act XVIII -
[ Body Double]
The Hyotei Tennis Club had been known as one of the best teams in the nation, especially due to their reputation as the ikemen tennis club. Keigo didn't want to apologise for it. It wasn't his fault for making the club known for something that was completely unrelated to tennis.
It was like a tradition that every time they practiced, the non-tennis members, be it boys or girls, would swarm the court. Of all the regulars that were being called, his name dominated the crowds.
It wasn't his fault.
He was the King of Hyotei, after all.
Stepping onto the court and being magnificently eclipsed by the sun, Keigo Atobe made his grand entrance to the court. With the jacket hung on both of his shoulders, he smirked whilst raising an arm and snapped his fingers. Oh, how he loved it when they displayed their obedience by immediately stopping any sounds.
"The winner will be…" he opened his eyes, flashing his infamous smirk when they eagerly anticipated his words despite repeating it numerous times.
"Hyotei."
Ah, yes… That feeling when he muttered the name of his 'kingdom' or school was glorious and he never grew tired of repeating the same scene every time. They erupted into cheers louder than before, followed by the infamous Hyotei chant that became his trademark. The regulars would tediously roll their eyes during the events.
The Intraschool Ranking Tournament was being held immediately because the District Preliminaries would take place as soon as the third week of the month. Of course, he could win the entire match even with his eyes closed.
The rest of the regulars chosen was as he expected: Munehiro, Yuushi, Mukahi, Ryou, Chōtaro, Jirou, and Haginosuke Taki, while Wakashi unexpectedly had to quit due to ankle injury.
To celebrate this, he treated them to Yakiniku.
While waiting for their orders, Keigo's mind strayed to his recent occurrence with had met her a few times as the janitor and she seemed to be more open and happy when talking to him in his disguise.
That he couldn't help but be honest to her himself…
Putting his disguise on and off in a short amount of time required a lot of energy that sometimes he was intrigued to ask Rikkai's Niō Masaharu for help—if not thinking what the trickster would do if he knew the real reason Keigo would ask for his help.
"Uwaah! They look so good! I can't wait!" Jirō's eyes were barely awake, but they were sparkling with hunger as he gazed at the roasting meat as if doing so would make them grill faster.
"Oi, Jirō! Get your drool away from the grill!"
"It'll be done in a minute, Akutagawa-san. Please wait for a moment," Chōtaro kindly said while turning the meats around.
"One minute, start!" Taki turned on a stopwatch in his hand. He never needed one because he was always precise when it came to time and measurement.
While they were busy with the meat, Keigo was smirking to himself while playing an online go game with Hikari. It all began when Hikari saw a go board in the living room and asked if she could play it with didn't stop researching the rules and strategy ever since because she showed no mercy at all. She should be a go player instead of a ballerina because no matter how many times he played with her, she'd win effortlessly.
"Be awed at my prowess," she texted with a smirk emoji. It dejected him whenever someone else was using the quote against him. After a few words with her, he shoved his phone into his pocket and saw his teammates were staring at him with interest.
"What are you looking at, rabble?"
"Just wondering what makes you so happy with your phone lately. Especially since all your social media accounts mysteriously disappeared." Yūshi asked while pushing his glasses with his ring finger. "You used to be pretty active in them."
"I'm bored. That's all," he replied while flipping his hair. There was no way he would let those open so she could dig in information about him. He even had to pay extra to annihilate any traces of his photos in the internet, including hacking the Seigaku regulars' phones to delete his photos.
"Is that why you disappeared a lot during practice?" Gakuto tediously asked him with his face resting on his knuckle.
"Unlike you rabble, I have a lot of things I have to do. Right, Kabaji?"
"Usu." Keigo rolled his eyes at Munehiro when he answered way too fast to his liking. Though Munehiro's face remained stoic, Keigo sensed something different.
"Yes yes… Whatever." But after a moment, the bespectacled man continued, "You had an awesome backhand shot anyway, Keigo. I never knew you could do that with a broom."
"Ahn? Backhand? With a broom?" Keigo chuckled, "I wouldn't be amazed if I could do such a simple thing, Oshitari. But ore-sama doesn't remember showing my beautiful prowess to you."
"But it was clearly you, Atobe. Even with all that stupid mask and cap," Gakuto added with eyes flattened.
"I wouldn't be surprised if you mistook a person with such amazing ability with me. But shame—it wasn't me." Indeed, it was his fault to show his prowess in disguise. Should he never save her from the ball, Yūshi would never realise that he was there with her.
Yūshi smirked at him. "I thought you did that to impress that girl. Who is she anyway? She has a nice pair of legs."
Keigo tried his best to remain indifferent to Yūshi's perverted comment about her. Clearly, Yūshi was doing that to provoke him to an honest response and reveal his scrim but he'd never do that kind of mistake.
"As I said, I don't know what you're talking about," Keigo replied while flinging his back on his chair.
Yūshi finally sighed in defeat. "Stubborn as always, aren't you?"
"Please save the matter later and enjoy the meal, everyone!" Chōtaro served them the meat he had cooked and evenly shared them onto their plates.
The last thing he wanted was his teammates finding out about her existence, especially her relationship with Kunimitsu. Without him realising, his rivalry with Kunimitsu directly affected his team's spirit of rivalry against Seigaku as did Seigaku to them. He didn't want to hear any comments regarding how he could be close to the sister of his rival. With all the suspecting eyes on him, Keigo really couldn't leave it alone.
"What's in for me?"
"Anything you want," Keigo simply replied.
"Then tell me yer reason doing this."
"Except that."
"Then I'm out."
Keigo glared at him. "Just name your number."
"Not interested. I'm more interested in yer real reason for doing this." He shoved his hands into his jersey. "Depending on yer reasoning, I might be helping ye voluntarily. For old friend's sake." The man smirked.
"Oi…"
"Ye never asked for my help outside tennis. For me, there's nothing more interesting than learning more about yerself."
He was asking for a big payment…
But it should be worth it.
"Oh! This is the first time I'm playing! I can't wait!" Hikari jumped on the spot upon seeing the tennis court. Keigo couldn't stop seeing her as she looked too good in her peach tennis outfit. Her asymmetrical pleated skirt swayed like a piece of art every time she moved that she almost looked like dancing in it. She tied her hair in a high ponytail that swayed and bounced every time she moved.
"Didn't you say your brother is a professional tennis player?" He opened the net door to the court for her to go in.
"Yeah. But I don't want to bother him, especially since he's not in his prime condition. With the upcoming tournament and all, he's very busy." She glanced to the side when saying this, referring to his injury. "He had taught me how to play but that was a long time ago, so… you can say that this is my first time learning." She sheepishly smiled.
"That's okay. I'll teach you the basics."
Even in that condition, Kunimitsu still managed to defeat the Seigaku members in their Intraschool Ranking Tournament 6-0 in all his matches, including the regulars he was facing.
"Oh, aren't they Hyotei's tennis members?" Hikari beamed when the Hyotei tennis members he was leading were heading into the courts in a different location.
"Yeah. They need to practice in the clay court, I heard. So they're renting this place."
"I see… It's not going to be as easy as this concrete court, right?" Hikari tapped her toes on the court.
"Depends on your playing style. For players who favour serve and volley games, a clay court is going to be a problem. But for those who favour baseline and those who often generate heavy spins on their shots, the clay court is a playground.The concrete court is considered easy because it fits all types of players."
"Then this court is the best for a beginner like me."
"Yes. That's why we'll train here." Keigo placed her bag along with his on the bench. While she was stretching, he saw something familiar in the corner of his eyes.
"Hm, have we met before?"
Keigo glanced past his shoulder to see Yūshi confronting Hikari. She had her mouth gaped for a moment before she smiled and said, "Ah! Yes, we've met!"
"My, I'm flattered to know that you remembered me. I've only met you that one day. Aren't you a Hyotei student?" Yūshi set his eyes on him but Keigo showed no significant reaction and touched the bill of his cap as a silent 'hello'.
"No. I'm a St. Anne's first-year student. Must be nice if I went to Hyotei but… I've made up my mind." Hikari giggled. "How are you doing, uh…"
"Oshitari Yūshi. Nice to meet you, Ojō-san…"
"Nice to meet you too. My name is—"
Keigo widened his eyes.
"Oi, rabble! What are you doing back there! Don't waste my precious time and move on!"
Yūshi simultaneously glanced at him, then back to 'Atobe Keigo', who walked past the crowds followed by Munehiro. Behind his mask, Keigo was smirking to see Yūshi's confused expression. Yūshi bowed at Hikari muttering an apology before following suit.
"Oh my gosh… 'Rabble'?" Hikari moved to the net to get a closer look at the group. "Who is that conceited man?!"
Conceited?!
"That's… Atobe Keigo. Hyotei's tennis captain." It was weird to tell himself in third person.
"Oh, wow! I want to see! I want to see him! Everyone is talking about how handsome he is so I must see!"While he was thrilled to see how excited she was to see how handsome he was, he didn't want her to see 'his' face.
"Let's leave that… conceited man alone and practise."
"So you don't like him?"
Keigo took his racket, fixing the net all the while he gazed down to his feet. "Yes… Very much."
Hikari glanced at him for a moment before approaching and tapped his shoulder. "You know, even though many people said things about him, I believe that he isn't that bad."
"Why is that?" He perked up at this.
"The staff in Hyotei told me a secret, I don't know if you've heard this or not but… That Atobe guy actually donated a lot of money under one condition. That was to accept any kind of students, disregarding their monetary problems and disability as long as they have the will to pursue their study." She smiled contently at the end of her story. "Isn't he a great person?"
His heart fluttered by her sincere compliment. "So, do you like him?"
"Well, I don't know. I've never met him in person."
You already did and he's standing before you.
"But who knows that maybe… he's not a bad person at all, despite what everyone thinks about him," she said with a smile before turning her heels to see the umpire chair.
Would you be looking at me the same way despite what your brother thinks about me?
How he wanted to ask her that directly.
When Hikari started swinging her racket, Keigo stood behind her and fixed the position of her hand. "The best way to check if you're gripping it correctly is to put a ball on the racket and see if you're able to keep it on the surface. Remember that there's no superior tennis grip. Just grip it the way you're most comfortable with. Then—" he helped her swinging from her back, "swing your body. The power will depend on the way you swing your body."
When she asked him to teach tennis, he couldn't refuse the invitation. It had been a while since he wished for this day to come. He didn't mind if he had to sacrifice his precious practice time; he didn't even mind having to pay big for a body double just for this moment…
Just so he was able to do the things he loved with her…
Gazing at them from a distance was the mighty Atobe Keigo who was smirking at the sight. He flicked his bangs before turning around to finish the rest of his duty that day.
"Puri."
AN: I didn't initially plan to make Niō appear this fast but I think he's having a good relationship with Atobe in the New Prince of Tennis since they're playing double then exchange place in the later chapter in manga just to fool their opponent. This kinda gives me the impression that they're learning each other's lives and personalities to perfectly impersonate each other.
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