Slayers - Anyone for Tennis?

Anyone for Tennis?

Filia's lip curled disdainfully from the stands as Xellos sauntered out onto the court. She gripped her racket tightly, holding it more like a weapon than a piece of sporting equipment. She'd already surrendered her mace. After all, it wouldn't have fit under her much shorter tennis skirt. So she'd have to make do with what she had.

The fact that he was out there, competing in the same prestigious competition as her was bad enough. But somehow the white shorts he was wearing were the greatest insult. They were rolled up slightly too, and Filia would've given nearly anything for them to at least have been at their full length. As it was, she was sure that the image of the back of Xellos's legs would be imprinted on her twitching retinas until the end of time.

Xellos should never, ever wear shorts.

"And to begin our series of men's singles tennis, we have former Brass Rackets Champion and Claire Bibble Award winner—Xellos!" the announcer shouted out into the crowd.

"He better not cheat," Filia commented, crossing her arms.

"Don't even bother with him. Just stay focused on winning our event," Lina said, pulling her hair back into a ponytail. "We gotta win that gold."

…That's what everyone kept saying to her, at least. "Go for the gold!" Lina always asked exactly how much gold they were talking about, but never seemed to get an answer. But she assumed that, judging by the amount of enthusiasm and competition in the air, it had to be a large and saleable amount of gold.

"You're right, Miss Lina," Filia agreed, renewed determination in her eyes. "By the way, thanks for choosing me as your doubles partner. I thought for sure you'd go with Miss Amelia or join the mixed doubles with Mister Gourry."

"Yeah…" Lina trailed off. "Well, Gourry's on the fencing team, so he's too busy. And as for Amelia… well…" She shifted uncomfortably in her seat. "I think it's just better that we don't play racket sports together anymore after what happened in the Brass Rackets tournament."

"So you were in that too?" Filia asked, eyes magnetically following Xellos as he ran across the court, lobbing the ball back toward his opponent. She wasn't sure who'd bother to actually root for a loathsome monster such as him, but someone a few rows behind them seemed to be a fan. She didn't know who it was, but she was certainly smoking a lot. Was that even allowed in the stadium?

Lina nodded. "Yeah… a few years ago."

"Wait…" Filia went on. "So, if you guys were so good at Brass Rackets, then why aren't you playing in that event?"

"We-ell," Lina said, tapping her racket on the edge of her chair, "see, the last time we played Brass Rackets, the stadium we were in kind of got destroyed."

Filia raised an eyebrow at this passively constructed sentence. "By?"

"Look, there's no point in playing the blame game with this," Lina responded, raising her voice slightly. "Let's just say that the officials thought we'd be better off playing without magic-amplifying rackets."

"I suppose that makes sense," Filia said, looking around the place. "It is a nice stadium. It would be a shame if something happened to it."

There was a loud thwock as Xellos's opponent put everything he had into a return shot. Filia watched it sail across the net and bounce. "He'll never get that," she muttered. "He's way on the other side of the court."

It was then that Xellos's form fizzled out of view for a moment, reappearing right in front of the ball and sliced into the air with his racket to return the shot.

Filia stood up, incensed. "Okay, that is definitely cheating!"