Title

Akira and Rinko played a one-set match which took around 20 minutes and the score was no guess to anyone.

Akira was completely destroyed, only being able to score a few times and those were only during Rinko's service games. Because he was inexperienced, he had to serve underhanded, which made them easy to smash and return. Plus, some of the balls he served did not land within the service box. And those times where he did score, they were only possible when Rinko was caught off guard due to her not playing for a long time.

Rinko: "And that's game and set, won by Rinko."

She smiled and said as she stuck up a peace sign.

Akira, who was a bit annoyed, was huffing and puffing out of exhaustion. He was using his racket as a crutch to support himself.

Akira: "You look overly happy for beating a 5 year-old."

Rinko: "Haha! A win's a win, no matter who you are against."

He clicked his tongue in response.

At the beginning, she had missed the ball a few times and her movements looked sluggish, but this was not surprising since she hadn't played for a couple of years. After a couple of minutes, she started remembering how to play and got into a rhythm. From there she easily dominated the match, winning the set with a 6-0 score.

Even though he was much more physically fit and stronger than those among his age, it was nearly impossible for a 5 year-old child to beat a grown adult. Only a select few were capable of such a feat.

Akira: 'Well, I expected this kind of result.'

[A/N: In case you are a bit confused, when I put phrases in quotation marks - (" "), the character is speaking that phrase. If the phrase is in apostrophes - (' '), the character is thinking of that phrase.]

Looking down at his racket, he started mulling over the game.

Akira: 'I mean, even though it didn't feel that heavy in the beginning, you start to feel the weight after a while. My form also isn't right either, and just swinging it feels weird and uncomfortable and my serves are downright terrible. Furthermore, the size of the racket it huge, greater than half of my height.'

His eyes shifted towards his body.

Akira: 'My arms are still too short, I'm still lacking in stamina, I can't properly twist my wrist, meaning that I don't have any control over the ball, I don't have enough strength,...'

One-by-one, Akira kept listing off the things he did wrong and the things he was lacking in his mind.

Akira: 'I knew that I would lose and was lacking, but still...'

He gripped the handle hard and clenched his teeth.

Akira: "Losing is still frustrating."

Rinko was a bit surprised by the way Akira was acting. Since she found out that he was regularly strengthening himself, she knew that he had some sort of motivation, but she didn't know what it was. However, she didn't ask what it was when she remembered his parents and the fact that she couldn't watch him 24/7.

Besides that he usually always maintained a stoic expression. She just wanted to see him break that expression and look happy for once, but now she was worried that the opposite was happening.

She carefully approached him, bent down a put a hand on his shoulder.

Rinko: "Hey Akira, are you okay?"

After taking a second to catch his breath, he stood up straight, no longer leaning on his racket.

Akira: "I'm fine. Are we done here? Let's go home."

Seeing the way he responded, Rinko feared that the worst had actually came.

Sadden by this thought, she just nodded in helplessness and they walked back home in silence. Rinko didn't say anything because she didn't want to make the situation anymore worse and who knows what was going through Akira's head.

The atmosphere between them didn't change much as when primary school started. In fact, it might've gotten worse. When Akira was about to leave for the first day, he told Rinko that he would be coming back home late from now on and left before she could say anything.

This dropped her mood way down, thinking that she may have heavily scarred Akira mentally. She was afraid that he might isolate himself from everyone and shut himself within his own bubble.

When Akira did come back, the sun had already set and it was already well into the night. He would also come back in really poor condition with hands and feet wrapped in bandages. This worried her even more as she thought that he was associating himself with the wrong kinds of people. She was literally stressing herself out from all her worrying.

However, that was until the next weekend came and Akira walked into the living room where Rinko was sitting on the couch doing paper work.

Akira: "Rinko-nee. Let's go to the park."

He startled her.

Rinko: "Hmm? Why?"

Akira: "Why else? To play tennis."

He pointed towards the bag Rinko got him with the tennis racket.

Akira: "This time I'll win."

Rinko: "...Sure."

She was so surprised by how different he was acting that she didn't really notice herself change into her sportswear, leave their home, walk to the nearby park, and step onto the tennis court. She was in a trance.

Akira: "Are you ready? I'll serve first okay?"

He tossed the tennis ball in the air and did a overhead serve. Only when the ball passed straight next by her did Rinko completely snap out of her trance.

Akira: "15-Love"

She looked behind her where the ball ended up and looked back at Akira.

Rinko: "How?" (Nande?)

Akira: "If you were going to think that this'll go the same as last week's game, then I'm afraid you'll be disappointed."

Rinko got into a stance, preparing to return his serve as he tossed a ball he had in his pocket into the air and swung his racket downwards.

Akira: "This time I'll win!"

This time Rinko was able to return it, but she didn't hit it with the racket's sweet spot and she lobbed it.

Akira didn't miss this chance and sprinted towards the net. Once he was in position, he jumped as high as he could, swung it racket overhead backwards, and swung down with all his strength. Rinko could not reach the ball in time.

He pumped his fist.

Akira: "YES!"

It was at this point that Rinko finally realized that what she planned last week actually had a positive outcome. She has never seen Akira this expressive before and it looked like the way he is right now is much better compared to how he was before.

She didn't know that Akira already had a sort of desire welling within himself. He was constantly bored by how consistent his life and wanted something different and exciting to happen. He knew this himself, but he also knew how important it was to prepare himself for the unknown. Only those who are cautious can calmly plan out how to accomplish a task at hand when given it unexpectedly.

Since he training began, his desires kept piling up and growing bigger and bigger. It was like a mountain of firewood, doused in gasoline, waiting for even the smallest of sparks to send it all ablaze. Rinko created that spark.

She grinned and felt her competitive spirit rise up.

Rinko: "You're ten years too early to be able to beat me."

Akira smiled back in response as he served again.

--------------------

The set went on longer than it was last week and now took around 35 minutes to finish, but Rinko still won with the score being 6 games to 1. Although it might not seem like it, Akira has improved by an incredibly large margin. One of the reasons why he still lost is because Rinko was also improving, regaining the feel from playing tennis during her high school days.

When they went home, Rinko questioned him why he was coming back late all of last week. To which he replied that he was practicing.

For one whole week, Akira would go to the park after school or when he had free time and practice his tennis skills. He bought tennis guides, watch how others play, and would constantly rally with a tennis court practice wall until his feet and hands were filled with blisters and his racket's grip tape was worn out. That was why he started coming home with bandaged hands and feet.

[A/N: "Blistered feet due to sprinting from one side of the court to the other to chase the ball."]

Of course Rinko was worried about the damage he was causing to himself, but he told her not to worry. He took off the bandage around one finger to show how fast his scars were healing due to the effects of Healthy Body and told her that his body would become more resilient after some time. This seemed to calm her down somewhat, but that didn't stop her from immediately taking him to the hospital to get him checked.

From then on, Akira would challenge Rinko every week to a one-set tennis match, saying that he will not stop until he can get a perfect 6 games to 0 score in a three-set match (winning 12 games straight).

Rinko started to get a bit annoyed by Akira's newly found hype when she heard him say that, but still agreed to have matches with him. Her new goal now was to make him suffer endlessly before he accomplishes that task.