what tennis

◎So it was you◎

Mari Nishijima is 12 years old.

The white villa buildings form a row of horizontal lines, and the sun shines on the stained glass.

Mari Nishijima got out of the car and opened the camera cover to take a picture of the colored glass.Her parents got out of the car before her, and they were already chatting with the owners of the villas, while more young tennis players got off the bus behind them—they were whispering to each other and looking around excitedly.

"Truth," Mrs. Xidao smiled and waved to her, "come here."

Mari Nishijima ran behind her mother, and poked half of her head out from behind her, looking curiously at the young foreigner who was talking to her parents.

Mrs. West Island: "This is Mr. Hubbard, and we have been bothering them in their dormitory for two months—"

She switched to English again and introduced to Hubbard: "This is my daughter, Mari Nishijima."

Hubbard glanced at her, with a formulaic smile on his face: "It just so happens that we also have two Asian staff members in the tennis court, both of whom are Japanese, who can take care of her and play with her. Mr. Nishijima has Concentrate on the exchange match."

After exchanging pleasantries, the tennis team members checked into the villas with their luggage.

Hubbard brought the two Japanese staff members of the tennis court to Mari Nishijima and asked them to accompany Mari Nishijima to stroll around.

The two staff members are both girls, one is 19 years old and the other is 13 years old. They are docile and well-behaved. They can speak Japanese and local dialect very well. There is no problem in communicating with Mari Nishijima.

They are both work-study female students from a nearby women's college. The 19-year-old girl is a sophomore this year, and her name is Mayo Hirakawa.The younger girl is still in middle school this year, and her name is Kako Sakai.

Hirakawa Mayo came to work part-time every winter and summer vacation because she likes tennis and the tennis team here has a good salary.Kako Sakai was introduced as a temporary summer job because her relatives worked in the tennis court.

They took Makoto Nishijima around the villas, and then took her to the tennis court.

There are a total of six tennis courts here. In order to ensure that tennis players can use the tennis courts whenever they want to practice, staff are required to maintain the tennis courts every day.This is also the main work of Hirakawa Mayo and Sakai Kako.

They wandered to the penultimate tennis court when they saw a young man practicing tennis on the court.

The opponent has no partner and is practicing on the tennis court alone.On the other side of the net facing him, there is only a mineral water bottle filled with stones. There is no lid on the mouth of the water bottle, but a tennis ball stuck in it.

Every time he hits a tennis ball, he hits the tennis ball stuck on the bottle just right.

But because there is no partner to help, every time he finishes playing a tennis ball, the man has to go around to the other half of the court to pick up the tennis ball he hit.

Although Mari Nishijima doesn't play tennis herself, she knows a lot about tennis because of her family.She was a little strange: that guy's time-consuming and labor-intensive training method, which affects the training time...isn't he corrected by the coach?

Mayo Hirakawa hurried over to help the man pick up the ball: "Mr. Fujishima, why are you practicing here alone? The person in charge of this court..."

When the young man named 'Fujishima' saw Mayo Hirakawa, his expression became flustered and shy.

He quickly explained: "I told Elder to rest first, I, I don't feel very good recently, so I want to practice alone. It's okay, just leave it alone, and I'll clean it up."

Sakai Kako pouted.She couldn't wait to share the gossip with Nishijima Mari: "That Mr. Fujishima is the youngest candidate for our tennis team. It is said that he has participated in two international competitions, and it is the time when he is in full swing—hmph, As a result, I lost to an unknown kid a few days ago, and now even holding the racket has become difficult."

"Mr. Hubbard reprimanded him several times for this in front of everyone. If he can't recover before the next official game, Mr. Hubbard will definitely let him go."

Mari Nishijima pressed the shutter just at this moment.

The young men and women circled on the camera screen picked up the ball together, and there was a faint ambiguous atmosphere in the warm sunlight.If it weren't for the background that Sakai Kako added to the background, this photo would look quite beautiful.

She deleted the photo casually, and said: "It's normal to lose a few times when playing tennis. Even Echizen Minamijiro hasn't lost since the moment he held the tennis racket."

Sakai Kako grinned, with a gloating expression on his face: "It would be great if it was just like this—you haven't seen him play with that little brother. The opponent is so much younger than him, and he easily copied his trick. , and defeated him with his unique move."

"That guy Fujishima got his head shaved, he's so embarrassing."

Although she said it was embarrassing, Sakai Kako had a malicious look on her face, as if wishing that Mr. Fujishima would be even more unfortunate.

And she was drawing joy out of other people's misfortunes.

Mari Nishijima couldn't understand her state of mind, but subconsciously pointed the camera at Kako Sakai's face.

On that young and childish face, there is undisguised straightforward malice and cunning, and he doesn't feel guilty at all for his evil speculations and words.

The sound of the shutter of the camera startled Sakai Kako, she stared at Mari Nishijima with rounded eyes - Mari Nishijima put down the camera, and explained lightly: "I thought you looked pretty just now, so I took a picture unconsciously. If you mind, I can delete it."

"Oh, that's it." Sakai Kako quickly reacted and asked, "Will my photo be printed in the newspaper?"

Mari Nishijima was silent for a moment, and explained again: "I just took photos casually, and I may develop them and hang them in my own photo album later, and I will not contribute to magazines."

Sakai Kako showed disappointment: "I see..."

At this moment, Mayo Hirakawa ran over and looked at Mari Nishijima apologetically: "Miss Nishijima, I'm sorry, I may not be able to accompany you in the future."

"If Mr. Fujishima has no one to help pick up the ball, he will have a hard time training, so I want to stay and help him. So I can only let Kako walk around with you."

Kako Sakai was dissatisfied: "What? I'll go to the indoor tennis court to help check the machines later. Where can I take care of the kids? Don't push all the work to me!"

Mayo Hirakawa was in a dilemma: "But, but Mr. Fujishima..."

Sakai Kako said disdainfully: "Anyway, that guy might be kicked out of the house next month. Don't you care if it's inconvenient for him to practice? He won't pay you!"

The embarrassed expression on Hirakawa Maki's face became more intense, and she bit her lower lip tightly.

Mari Nishijima stopped fiddling with the camera, and said, "It's okay, I can just stroll around by myself. I remember the way back to my room in the dormitory area, and I will go back by myself when I am tired from shopping."

Sakai Kako said vigilantly, "Are you sure you remember everything? Why don't you get lost and complain to Mr. Hubbard that we left you alone?"

Mayo Hirakawa coughed dryly: "Kako! Don't say that."

Sakai Kako sneered: "I'm not like you—Mr. Hubbard likes you, and you won't be kicked out if you make a mistake. If I make a mistake and lose an important guest of Mr., maybe even my relative's job will be rejected." Save."

Mayo Hirakawa showed an embarrassed expression on his face, and opened his mouth to refute her.

Mari Nishijima always felt that if he let them continue to talk about each other, he would have to listen to all the gossip about this tennis training base sooner or later.

She rubbed her ears and said, "I remember, I won't get lost. Is there any place here that is suitable for taking pictures? I want to see it."

Dangerous topics were diverted.

Hirakawa Mayo gently pointed to the needle-like spire towering out behind the tennis court: "That's a watchtower. If you stand on it, you can overlook the entire villa complex and the tennis court, and you can also see the oranges in the distance. The forest and the sea should be a good place to take pictures."

"That watchtower is now abandoned, and it's not locked. If Miss Nishijima wants to take pictures, you can go up directly. However, its upper floor is quite high, and the guardrails are in disrepair. You'd better not Lean on it."

Mari Nishijima nodded to show that he remembered.After saying goodbye to the two of them, she turned to other tennis courts by herself, and also went to the watchtower Mayo Hirakawa told her about.

After climbing to the top of the watchtower, you can really see a good view. Mari Nishijima took a few photos casually, and then went down the tower and went back to his room to rest.

When the Nishijima couple came back at night, Nishijima Mari made excuses and wanted to go out by herself; she didn't want to spend the whole summer vacation on the tennis court, and she felt that she couldn't play with the two girls on the tennis court .

Under Nishijima's offensive of being coquettish and shameless, Mr. Nishijima finally contacted his local friends and sent her to play in the orchard of his friend's house.

Coincidentally, the orchard of Mr. Nishijima's friend is just near the Hubbard tennis court, and it is also close to the sea.In this way, it is very convenient for Xidaozhen to go back and forth, which makes the Xidao couple very satisfied.

The only thing Mr. Nishijima is dissatisfied with is the unknown boy his daughter met in the orchard.In the eyes of Mr. Nishijima, this young man who has not met seems to have become the chief culprit who spoiled his obedient daughter.

Time passed day by day.Mari Nishijima, who met new friends in the orchard, had a pleasant summer vacation; at the end of the summer vacation, she decided to exchange contact information with her new friend 'Echizen Ryuya', so that she can continue to communicate after returning home!

Because it took a lot of energy to play outside with Echizen Ryuya during the day, after returning to the dormitory area of ​​the training base to sleep, Nishijima Mari fell asleep very early.

If you go to bed too early, you won't be able to fall asleep in the middle of the night.

After being awakened by the sound of bugs outside, Mari Nishijima rolled around on the bed, then turned over, ran to the window and pushed it open.The slightly cool evening wind blows in from the window, and the most eye-catching thing in the night is the super tall watchtower.

The slender and straight spire is bathed in the moonlight, the dark blue night sky, and the crooked moon separated by the spire.

Mari Nishijima lay on the window frame and looked at it for a while, then suddenly thought: I can’t sleep anyway, why not go to the top of the tower to take pictures of the moon?

After the filming is finished, I can show it to Long Ya tomorrow.

She didn't know that she was thinking about a romantic thing, but she suddenly thought that she could do this, and immediately happily took her camera out of her schoolbag, put it on her neck carefully, changed her shoes and walked out the door go.

To walk from the accommodation to the lookout tower, one has to cross two tennis courts.

Mari Nishijima took a look at the time before going out, and it was almost 01:30 in the morning.

The schedule of professional athletes is strictly planned, and it is impossible for players to be awake at this point in time.But when Mari Nishijima slipped out of the villa complex, she found that the No. [-] tennis court she had to pass was still lit.

Before the light, a young man was tirelessly practicing his serve repeatedly—Nishijima Mari looked at the protective net and found that she also knew the person who practiced hard, Mr. Fujishima.

However, Mr. Fujishima's condition does not look very good now, his face is blue, the dark circles under his eyes are very serious, and the sweat from excessive exercise is all over his body.What's even sadder is that, despite all the hard work he's been practicing, his aim looks worse than it did a month ago.

Nishijima Mari whispered to herself: "It seems that Mr. Fujishima's condition has not recovered at all... and it is getting worse. Overtraining seems to be counterproductive, right? Does the rest of the tennis team care about him?"

Although he was a little bit guilty in his heart, Mari Nishijima himself was still a child, so he couldn't give advice to his teammates in other professional teams.

She carefully crossed the tennis court against the protective net, without attracting Mr. Fujishima's attention.

The watchtower has long been abandoned, and the lock on the gate is also broken, there is no way to lock it.

Mari Nishijima pushed open the door from the outside, and then turned on the flashlight she was carrying—she was quite courageous, not afraid of the dark environment, and walked directly up the spiral upward stairs with the light of the flashlight.

After entering the tower, the sound of wind and insects was blocked by the thick walls.Only the soft footsteps of Nishijima Mari and the extremely subtle 'tick' sound could be heard from the entire staircase.

Probably the sound of water dripping from a height.

Mari Nishijima didn't pay much attention to it at first, and after she reached the upper level, the faint 'tick' sound disappeared.

Looking at the moon from a high place is completely different from seeing the moon in your own room.Obviously the moons are all the same size, but it always makes people feel that standing on the top of the tower and looking at the moon, the moon becomes closer to them.

Mari Nishijima adjusted the parameters and took a lot of photos, and managed to pick out a few that she was satisfied with—she decided to develop these photos tomorrow morning, and then send them to Echizen Ryuya tomorrow.

At that time, you can also take him to play on the watchtower.

Since standing on the tower will feel very close to the moon, maybe it will also feel very close to the sun?

While looking at the photos, Mari Nishijima ran through a lot of messy and far-fetched thoughts.

But children at this age are already very out of their minds.

The night wind at high places was getting colder, and it made Mari Nishijima sneezed.She rubbed her nose, fearing she would catch a cold, so she put away the camera and prepared to leave the watchtower and go back to her room to rest.

When she went down the stairs, the closer she got to the lower floor, the regular 'tick-tick-tick' sound was heard again in her ears.

In the middle of the night, all sounds are amplified.The tiny 'tick' sound was also amplified, beating the eardrum rhythmically.

Mari Nishijima couldn't help but rubbed his ears, thinking suspiciously: Did you hear this dripping sound when you came here last time?

Is there a leak somewhere inside the watchtower?

However, she remembered that Mayo Hirakawa had told her that this watchtower had been abandoned for many years, and the water and electricity had been cut off a long time ago. It should be impossible for there to be any leaks, right?

She had reached the corner of the stairs very close to the first floor, when the door was pushed open from the outside, and a dazzling flashlight shone in.

Mari Nishijima was taken aback, quickly turned off the flashlight in his hand, squatted and hid behind the stairs, and poked his head out of curiosity to see—a young foreigner standing at the door, holding a high-wattage flashlight expressionlessly. man.

It's Hubbard.

It's about time, what is Uncle Hubbard doing here?

Mari Nishijima was puzzled. Feeling conflicted, she still didn't dare to go out to say hello to Hubbard after hesitating for a few seconds.

Hubbard didn't shine his flashlight on the corner of the stairs above. He probably thought that at this point, no one would come to such a remote place as the watchtower.

He strode around to the back of the spiral staircase, which happened to be the blind spot of Nishijima Mari's sight.

Mari Nishijima, who couldn't see anything, was nervous, scared, and curious.She carefully walked around the corner, grabbed the railing of the stairs, and stood on tiptoe to look down.

On the back of the spiral staircase is a suspended female corpse.

The uncoagulated blood continued to fall to the ground along the toes of the corpse, 'tick', 'tick'.

Hubbard bit the flashlight in his mouth, opened the backpack he brought, and took out the boning knife and rope from it—he placed the tools neatly on the ground, then hugged the waist of the corpse and took her out of the sling down.

While the body was being removed, Mari Nishijima saw the face of the body.

That pale and blue face is Mayo Hirakawa!

Her body was already stiff, even if she was carried down by Hubbard, she still maintained a suspended posture.Hubbard put her on the ground and picked up the boning knife to dismember her body.

Nishijima Mari was so frightened that she covered her mouth tightly, her heartbeat and breathing became inexplicably faster.

At this time, the railings that had been in disrepair made a cracking sound.The voice was particularly crisp in the night, which attracted Hubbard's attention.

Hubbard raised his head, with a cold face, sharp and fierce eyes, he was looking at the terrified Nishijima Mari.

-Complete-