Hidden Plays

25: Competitions came first

Tomi was on the plane. Amélie Mauresmo was right next to her. Their plane had just landed. Tomi pulled her visor down. They exited without much trouble. Mizuno had sponsored them to stay at a 4 star hotel.

The US open would be starting in a few days. Because of the uneven number one person would continue to the next round immediately. That would be the previous year's winner, and if the winner wasn't there, the runner up would proceed to the next round, but since the champion was present the runner up would still have to compete in the first round.

Tomi was the previous year's winner, but she got bored easily since this was the junior tournament we're talking about.

She went to watch the male qualifying round, and saw Echizen. She greeted him as soon as he won easily.

"Hard to leave your team to fight nationals alone, eh?" She asked in Japanese. He turned towards her.

"I take you aren't participating in the qualifying round?" He asked. Satomi shrugged.

"How's training in France?" He asked.

"Harsher, but macaroons after practice everyday is quite rewarding." Satomi said with a smile. Ryoma just stared.

"Why do you insist on putting up cold facade?" Ryoma asked.

"It's complicated. There are things that I just don't expect you to understand." Satomi said.

"Try me." He said.

"Oh? Being three people at once in order for those to not find out who you are an act is all you need. When my parents were at the divorce stage they still had to make public appearances together. When they came home my mother told me as she was crying 'I see no difference in being famous and being an actor or actress.' At the time I didn't quite understand what she meant. Only as I grew up I realized. My family hid our pains behind a stupid fake smile, convincing. I didn't want to hide behind fake smiles, so there was one other option, to not show them anything to begin with. It's the path I follow." Satomi said as they walked around.

"I don't understand." Ryoma said.

"Let me tell you this way...When you become famous paparazzis follow you everywhere you go, They want to know even the littlest details about you. If they pick up good cheesy news you'll be on the headline and that's the good part, the bad part is too many personal questions and pressure comes with that, so celebs hide behind fake smiles always saying their fine or okay. That's what my mother did. I refuse to be that person. I refuse to hide behind a fake smile, so I decided if they know nothing about me they cannot gather any personal information about me." Tomi said.

"Ah, I have to go. I'll see you around." Tomi said walking away. The next day was her the second round of the qualifiers, so she sat out again. The day after that she would be having her first match. Amélie Mauresmot was helping her warm up. They sat down for a moment.

"Are you going to use that tennis play of yours?" Amélie Mauresmo asked.

"I don't believe so. The only time that I'll probably need to use it is during finals, against her." Tomi said.

"You're too arrogant. It's like you never experienced the true taste of defeat. In the game of tennis who have you ever lost to besides me, and cannot be lost be default?" Amélie Mauresmo asked.

"My coach back in Japan, Katashi Yoshida." I said.

"That's it?" He asked.

"I lost a few games by default due to an injury, but..." Tomi stopped.

"You never got defeat by anyone that was around your age or high school have you?" Amélie Mauresmo asked.

"No, I haven't. At age 9 I played high schoolers and college students, but defeated them all. Even the ones that get accepted into the U17 camps. I found tennis boring after that...But I didn't want to quit it, so I came up with a solution to make tennis interesting. That was how the Assassin's Tennis came to be." Tomi said looking down with shame.

"It's okay to do that, but you got slightly carried away. It's too late to reverse your tennis style, but maybe we can make it more useful by making it less hurtful." Amélie Mauresmo said.

"How?" She asked.

"For one, you use their weakness, but not to push them down, but to simply boost yourself higher. Right now you're staying in the same place as you always were, but pushing other people down. You want to move up yourself too." Amélie Mauresmo said.

"I...I can't. I've become too attached to this style." Satomi said.

"It's not easy to change overnight with the Junior U.S. Opens right in front of you. Continue using this playing style of yours if you insist in doing so for now. But once we get back to France we'll continue this." Amélie Mauresmo said.

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She entered the court. It wasn't fancy, no bleachers, no scoreboard, just a fence, and a referee stand besides the court. It was one of the qualifying round courts. Only in the quarter finals they start using the three central courts.

But there were quite a few people that gathered around the court. They said this would be deemed an interesting match. Tomi's, the previous year's champion, versus a new girl who defeated last year's third place with ease.

Tomi pulled her mask up, she made sure she put her mask in the fridge the night before so it was cold. She then adjusted her eye-patch and visor before grabbing her racquet. She practiced her strokes for a moment before heading up to net. She shook hands with the other player.

"Please spin your racquet." The ref said.

"Up or Down?" Tomi asked.

"Up." The girl said. Tomi spun the racquet.

"It's up, serve or receive?" Tomi asked.

"Serve." The girl said.

"I'll take this side." She said referring to the side with the sun in her eyes.

"This is a best of 3 set game. Netherland's Kuiper against France's Beauchène."

Tomi flinched when her surname was announced. She had registered as her true self, but getting support from the Tennis Committee she convinced them to use Beauchène for identity purposes, they had agreed since Beauchène was a legal name on her birth certificate.

The game started. The Netherland girl won the first two sets with ease. Amélie Mauresmo was standing to a side.

"Tomi, are you going to?" He asked.

"To be honest I wasn't planning on, but competition this year just got a lot fiercer." Tomi said. Amélie Mauresmo's jaws clenched. She was going to do it, that deadly play style of hers. It was going to be put into action.

The Netherland girls seemed so confident.

'Your right hand dominate, but you rely on your forehand more than your backhands. All those inside-outs and fast movements. I'll just have to restrict your movements to your back hand. If I aim my invisible shot right on the left hand side of the court, right on the singles line your inside-out will be too slow, and when the ball reappears if will hit your right in the stomach at full sleep. That's just a bonus.' Tomi thought to herself.

Right after the serve she put her plan into action. She hit an invisible shot straight on the singles line, sure enough the Dutch girl tried to do an inside out, but she lost sight of the ball and all the sudden something made an impact and she stumbling backwards and fell down on the court holding her stomach.

"Oh my god...Are you okay? I'm so sorry. Are you okay?" Tomi asked heading over towards her. The referee paused the game. Tomi helped the Dutch girl off to the bench as her coach rushed onto the court.

"Wow, you have quite a shot. I've never seen something like that before." The girl said wheezing.

"Usually my shot doesn't work like that. It had never injured anyone before. Only shocked people, this is a first." Tomi said. The ball created a nasty bruise. Before the referee continued the game. Tomi did not use her invisible shot anymore and instead she just used regular shots to make the Dutch girl stop using her inside outs and forcing her to use her weak backhands.

With that Tomi won the match easily 6-2 the first game and 6-0 the second.