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Prologue part 01

Midday of June.

The blazing sun was like a strong LED in a room with walls painted clear blue on all sides.

The temperature was very easy to imagine.

In some places on the busy road, the air near the ground was so hot that the scenery around it appeared distorted.

The visuals were strong enough to affect even those who were seeing the scene, separated from it by the cold air of the air conditioner.

They would quickly avert their eyes as if looking a minute longer would cost them their life span.

But even in this hot weather there were certain individuals who were very... enthusiastic. They couldn't wait to sweat out all the water in their body.

This specific indoor stadium was exclusively occupied by them today.

The stadium was usually desolated, enough to almost give one the impression of it being haunted.

Today, it at least had enough vitality to appear like a 'stadium' that was in business.

At the entrance, there was a small banner in bland colors.

Was it not for the fact that it was hung at a level out of people's reach, the colour of it could almost mislead someone to use it as a rag in a moment of frenzy.

The words on it were the standard information,

'Badminton tournament, organised with the collaboration of East city and West city's registered badminton clubs'

The time and categories were also included.

The stadium itself was of decent size. And consisted of three courts. And currently, there was only one match, unfolding in the third court.

Naturally all the spectators gathered around that court.

The game was at the last set. One set was won by each player, making the point 1:1.

The third set was at 8:11

Arshiya stood in the middle of the court. Her breathing was a bit quick as her eyes scanned the gallery around her in a very fast motion. She then lowered her gaze and lightly pursed her lips.

She closed her eyes for a brief moment and tried to calm her heart beat which was accelerated by a sudden wave of anxiety .

Within a few seconds her focus was redirected back to the ongoing match.

She could swear in all the other matches she had played up until now, none of them made her sweat as much as she did now.

She took some more time to catch her breath before getting in position to welcome yet another, annoyingly tricky serve.

Technically speaking she should not be too stressed at this point, she still had the lead in this set. But seeing the previous two rally, her worries were reasonable.

Her opponent was a young boy of about eleven or twelve years, yet he already looked way taller than his age.

After smoothening out the shuttle he got ready to serve.

During service, the person who is receiving usually responds with a defensive shot, especially so if it's a short serve.

But the problem with this guy's serve was that he always took position for a backhand serve but it was almost impossible to predict whether the serve was going to land in the frontcourt or in the backcourt.

The latter was problematic as hell.

Arshiya was even starting to believe, her opponent might have a line sensor installed in his head because of how his serves always seemed like they were out of the boundary line but every time Arshia decided to skip it, the sight that would greet her afterwards would be the end of the shuttle precisely touching the baseline.

Then if she decides to just return every serve without discrimination, due to how low the long serves were, her counter shots always end up being wobbly and it isn't long before she gets completely shut down by a powerful smash.

The short serves didn't seem as hard in comparison ...well initially that is.

The short serves were just as skillfully controlled. Arshiya had hardly seen drop shots as precise to the net as this guy's short serves. And in the last rally, Arshiya misjudged the short serve which led to a slight delay in her response. But as if already expecting this, his racket had already shut down the shuttle that barely made its way past the net.

It was a scene that the spectators had already seen countless times in the other matches before this. So even though it was entertaining, it didn't leave any special impression in their minds.

But Arshiya who was facing this directly, felt a subtle shift in her opponent, from this shot.

It was very minute, almost unnoticeable, but Arshiya had a bad feeling.

She wished to have held on until she was at least 3 more points ahead of him before giving up her turn to serve.

However, it was no time to repent as the serve came and another rally began.

After making the same mistake of not reacting quickly enough or reacting too quickly for more than just a few times, Arshiya had somewhat gotten used to his pace by now.

She smoothly moved back with a clean footwork, tilted her body towards the right then with a slight jump and a swift motion of her racket, tossed the shuttle from her end of the court to his. Soon after she came back to the middle court again.

The shuttle went to the opposite court, exactly at the left side of the opponent, in an arc that was neither too high nor too low.

The other party, who was already in a ready state after service, didn't counter this shot in the forehand. Instead he turned around and with quick steps, hit a cross shot across the court.

The rally went on for a while with neither of them giving the other any time to breath. After about ten more shots Arshiya accidentally set the shuttle slightly too high in the middle court, in counter to a terrifyingly precise drop shot.

The moment she hit that shot, Arshiya already knew the outcome but she didn't close her eyes, instead in that small moment she intensified her focus on the shuttle while moving to get back to her position.

Her opponent didn't disappoint her, in fact it seemed like he couldn't wait to get the shot so he jumped extra high.

Before Arshiya even had the time to get back to mid-court the shuttle was already slammed down on the wooden floor of the court making a dull but loud noise, as if reflecting the mood of the person who hit it.

Everything was quiet for a while before cheers and praises of the rally sounded from all directions.

The umpire announced the points and the game proceeded to the next rally.

- - - -

Arshiya sat alone on the bench inside the changing room. Head slumped forward, her temples being supported by the thumbs of her interlocked fingers.

Before the match started she had already known the outcome. The difference in their skill was something very obvious, something Arshiya could tell from watching his previous matches, she really did. But even so, at the very least she wanted to put on a solid fight. Only to be met with the terrible reality in the end.

Her score in the third set which was initially ahead of her opponent by 3 points, was overturned in the blink of an eye. She was shown with a finger pointed at her face that the other party wasn't at all putting in his full effort up until then. It was almost as if he didn't even want to bother doing so. The proof was the later half of the third set

In the locker room everyone has already left. No coach or family member came to get her as she wasn't from this city and came to play the match here from the West City.

Her shoulders that were partially covered by the towel started shaking gently but no sound could be heard even in the ghostly silent room.

_

Ishan got in the car and closed the door. The award ceremony took longer than expected because, apparently, the runner up was missing!

It seemed no one came with her and she also didn't have any friend here who knew about her. Calling at the registered number which was in the application form, it was found that the number wasn't correct. Her home address was there but this was just an under fourteen badminton match. Who had the time to go out of their way to look for a person who didn't even live in this city, not to mention the addresses could also be wrong just like the phone number.

Ishan sat quietly in the back seat. After a while the front door opened and a tall man got in the driver's seat.

The car started and soon they got on the highway.

The man driving the car was the head coach of the badminton club that Ishan trained in, as well as the owner.

The Mercy Club.

He had accompanied Ishan to the stadium today.

They sat in the car, neither of them being the first to speak.

It was not before they were almost home that Ishan heard the coach, Nilanjan, say in his usual lazy voice,

"Let this be a lesson for you. Underestimate your opponent again and next time, the one getting the shuttle in their face would be you."

Ishan still didn't say anything as he was aware that he was wrong.

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