Entertaining a Small Thought

2nd Arc Part 7: Survivor's Perk, Detective's Hunch, and the Fist of Aikido

"What a pain..." I muttered as I left my room.

I had gotten a dry set of clothes on, and I had finished drying my gloves, as they were my only pair. It didn't take too long, but it still took up some of my time. But now that I'm finally ready to go, I should make the most of my time.

So time to look for our resident avocado again. I doubt he'll be in the library this time. Let's see...if I were a lime-green-haired adventurer, where would I spend my time? I took out my Monopad and looked at the map to find him. Hmm... He's in...Ryoma's lab? Really? What, is he a tennis player? Well, he did mention how he traveled the world, so maybe he learned how to play during his travels.

I started heading over to the third floor where Ryoma's lab was. When I got there and opened the door, I saw Rantaro doing exactly what you would expect: playing tennis. He was using the large machine that was holding rackets and spinning around to play by himself. He was actually doing better than I thought he was. There was a scoreboard near the court, and so far it was Rantaro's lead with 40-love in the match's 3rd set.

Rantaro threw the ball up into the air and hit it to the other side of the court with his racket, sending it flying to the machine. The machine then smacked the ball back with one of its own rackets, sending it hurdling back to Rantaro. Rantaro rushed up to the ball as it flew over the net and hit it back toward his 'opponent'.

This process repeated itself for another minute or two before Rantaro struck the ball over the net, causing it to bounce off the ground and fly past the machine at incredible speeds. The scoreboard then updated itself, with Rantaro winning another set. He took a deep breath as he wiped his arm against his forehead. This was the 3rd set, so he must have been at it for a while. I started clapping as I walked towards him.

"That was well done. I didn't know you were also skilled in tennis."

"Oh, Rin. Were you watching?" Rantaro smiled when he saw me. "I used to play tennis back home, so I'm familiar with it. I'm not as good as Ryoma though."

"From just that one round, I'd say you could give him a good match."

"I don't know about that..." Rantaro gave a nervous chuckle as he rubbed the back of his head.

"So how come you're playing tennis here? And by yourself too."

"Well, after the commotion of this morning, I thought it would be a good idea to get my mind off things with a fun game of tennis. I asked Ryoma if I could use his lab, and he said I could. I couldn't find anyone who might be interested in playing a game with me, so I started playing by myself."

"You could have asked me. It sounds like fun." I told him as I picked up a racket that was on the ground. "What do you say? Think you take me on?" I asked him with a confident smile.

Rantaro returned the smile as he picked up a tennis ball.

"Sounds like fun. Let's get started." Rantaro told me as we set up our own tennis game.

I will say this...I am definitely not the Ultimate Tennis Pro like Ryoma is. Our game lasted for a few minutes, but after those few minutes, for our 3 sets of games, Rantaro had won each, practically dominating each set. As our last game ended, I found myself hunched over gasping for air after running around my side of the court for those 3 sets.

"T-Th-This...seemed easier in my head." I gasped.

"Despite what the scoring says, you were pretty good." Rantaro told me with a chuckle. "You seemed to have a good grasp of the game's rules and tactics you could use in the game, but...your stamina wasn't at the same level."

"I couldn't...keep up with what I wanted to do." I groaned as I panted. "I don't think...I've played an active sport like this in a while."

"Well, I think that's enough for now." Rantaro said as he put away the rackets and the tennis ball. "I imagine that you came here for a different reason than playing a friendly game of tennis."