Hidden Plays

5: But My Identity

Satomi hated the Hyotei uniforms. The brown and white just didn't go together.

After Mituzu Academy, she got transferred to Hyotei, seeing as her father thought of it as a better idea.

Her father knew the strict Hyotei tennis coach personally. During Satomi's first year he agreed to keep Satomi's identity a secret from the tennis team under the circumstance that Satomi becomes the manager of the team.

The tennis team thought of her as nothing more then the best friend of one child professionals, Nori. Nori didn't go to Hyotei, she went a school near her house, but she would always go to Hyotei practices and games.

The only thing was, during her first year she had the excuse that she was 'studying abroad' to go to her international matches.

So that same afternoon when Satomi greeted the 200 boys on the tennis team in crutches all of them were surprised.

"What had happened to you, Chibi-chan?" Atobe asked.

"Had an accident and fell down the steps of the place I was studying abroad in." Satomi lied smoothly.

She sat down on the bench and put her crutches down taking off her Hyotei manager jacket and clapped her hands getting everyone's attention.

"Regionals are coming up. We want our best athletes in top conditions. Now that our regulars have been decided I will announce the line up. Shishido-san will play 2nd singles, Kabaji-san 3rd singles, and then there is one more person from the regulars. Atobe-san, Akutagawa-san, and regulars who I haven't announced or will talk to later, you guys are definitely not playing in Regionals. You probably won't be playing until Kanto Tournament as usual. I expect only perfection." Satomi said into a mic she put on her uniform. She was had a regular voice, but if she wanted to reach all 215 boys then she needed a mic.

"Now 20 laps around ALL the courts, regulars are expected to finish each lap in less than 2 minutes, non-regulars have 2 and a half, if you don't finish within the time you'll face the consequences." Tomi mumbled into the mic before glaring at everyone, with her blue eye, to go. She turned her mic off for a moment before she turned to her clipboard.

She wore contacts to make her other eye less suspicious.

"Only three regulars?" The coach asked.

"If they do lose they will prove to us that they are not worthy of the title as a regular." Satomi said. She hated the way Hyotei's team worked, but if she didn't follow the rules she would face consequences too, including her identity. The coach nodded.

"Smart, and you had those who definitely won't disappoint sit off, so you could see the power of those that might disappoint." The coach said.

"Gakuto-san and Oshitari-san have been playing doubles for quite a while. Them to play each other, which will come victorious reading and judging movement or acrobatic instinct? I will keep them both as regulars in the Doubles position. They are too valuable to drop." Satomi siad writing things down on her clipboard, before stopping her timer.

"All regulars should have finished one lap. Non-regulars...You have thirty seconds". Satomi said. Some didn't make it in time and Satomi had them sit out to a side.

"Now the consequences, eat up. I had someone buy these at the supermarket just for this. I learned this when I saw someone trying this at another school." She said. She had edible crickets in her hand. She handed two to everyone.

"Eat up." She said.

"Regulars, you have to eat three of these and still continue running if you don't finish in time." Satomi said turning her mic on for a second. That got everyone running, even Jirou who was half asleep woke up and started running.

"The fundamental strokes are key in a match, especially timing them correctly to use the basics against your opponents." Satomi said. She had two buckets at the baseline and two are the service line. This was a regulars only exercise.

"Not to mention concentration is key. I will shout out left or right and then shout out base or service. You must return to that basket I'm talking about, and it must land in the basket, it if bounces in and then bounces out you're fine, but if it doesn't even land in it for a millisecond you must eat the crickets. First person to 10 will be allowed to be exempted from all further punishments today." Satomi said.

"10? Do you really think that low of us, Chibi-chan?" Atobe asked.

"Frankly if you were able to get 10 in, that's already really good, all I can say it good-luck at number five." Satomi said setting her crutches off to a side and grabbing her 'raquet', it wasn't her official one, but it was still one she was comfortable with.

She started feeding the ball to Oshitari Yuushi, the first four were fairly easy. When she fed the fifth one Oshitari headed to the right where he expected it to land, in mid air Kaminari hit the ball to the right before yelling 'Left Base' But when the ball bounced Oshitari got in a swinging position, but the ball curved after the bounce, stunning Oshitari, and he wasn't able to get it.

"Cricket for you." Satomi said handing him a edible fried cricket. He ate it down and tried his best to keep a straight face and not barf.

The regulars started getting scared.

"Whose next?" Satomi asked. Atobe stepped up. He hit the first four with ease again. The fifth ball Satomi examined the situation carefully. She then hit the ball yelling Right Service. Atobe stood where he was, but all the sudden the ball slowed down and bounced in front of the service line. His eyes widened and he rushed towards the net to get the ball, he hit the ball to the right service basket, but it rolled on the rim before falling in.

"That was close." Satomi said hitting another shot and calling Right Base, Atobe stood at the net ready to play offensively, by volleying, but the ball curved around his racquet at the last moment, using his long arms he reached a little more and hit the ball, it bounced into the Right Baseline basket.

"Fine, I'll accept that." Satomi said. She continued giving Atobe hard to return balls. On the ninth one she was determined to finish Atobe off. She used her underhand feed and gave a lob. Atobe jumped up to overhead it, but it came down way too slowly since it was an underhand feed and he landed before the ball could come all the way down, and when he was about to hit it it came shooting down, he caught it before it could hit his face.

"Nice catch, but that was only the ninth, you had to complete that shot and another in order to avoid the punishment." Satomi said giving him a fried cricket. Atobe scrunched his face up but ate it none the less before he started walking off the court. The others were really scared by this point.

The rest of practice was matches.