Psidai - Hypothesis
Mar. 3rd, 2005 11:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tanithryudoTitle: Hypothesis
Series: Psidai AU, part 1 of the InuKai sequence.
Fandom: Prince of Tennis
Rating: G
Word Count: 1154
Pairings: Inui/Kaidoh
Summary: Inui is a dork; and he’s a little lost. But that’s okay. He’s only having a slight paradigm shift, which always makes for good beginnings, right?
Timeline: Takes place in Inui's 3rd year and Kaidoh's 2nd year in junior high (ie. current continuity), sometime after episode 163 of the anime (the Kaidoh getting amnesia episode).
Disclaimer: Prince of Tennis and all associated characters belong to Konomi-sensei, not me. Also, no fish were harmed in the making of this fanfic.
Hypothesis
It wasn’t often that Inui resented his powers, useful as they were in his data-gathering hobby. However, he was nowhere in full control of them as he appeared to be, and there were certain things that he never wished to be reminded of.
“Kaidoh, place your faith in me.”
“I refuse!”
That was how he found himself up to his calves in the middle of a familiar river, staring off blankly into the evening air at something that only he could see. It was even more eerie to observe himself in the third person.
“He turned pale again.”
“That’s the second time today.”
It wasn’t like him to react so badly after being rejected for help. After all, with his history of foul-tasting drinks and tortuous training suggestions, he wasn’t surprised when any of the Regulars were leery of his aid. Well, it was slightly different with Kaidoh, but the boy didn’t have his memory at the time, so it really shouldn’t have surprised him either…
“Kaidoh, place your faith in me.”
After the events of that day had rushed by, like a dream, he’d purposefully forgotten about it, as if it couldn’t be borne thinking about. That wasn’t like him either.
What was it that affected him so much about the events of that incident?
“I refuse!”
Kaidoh, the analytical part of his mind answered. It was because the one who had been hurt, the one who had rejected him, was Kaidoh. Somehow, what started as a desire to improve the team’s chances at the nationals and help mold the future of a promising kouhai had turned into much more of an emotional investment than he had anticipated, or even noticed until now.
“He turned pale again.”
Hadn’t he proved to Renji that even for they who immerse themselves in the coldly logical realm of data could still be effectively ambushed by emotion? Oh that the sentiment would now return to haunt him…
“Inui-senpai?”
The familiar voice, firmly anchored in the present, finally pulled him from the depths of his vision. Inui looked up to see the object of his thoughts standing on the riverbank, dressed for his evening run with a towel hanging around his neck.
“Senpai?” Kaidoh asked again when Inui didn’t answer. “What are you doing here this late?”
“Ah… I…” What was he doing there? Inui struggled to remember through the haze left by his vision.
Kaidoh was looking at him strangely now, his head tilted just slightly to the side. A corner of Inui’s mind noted those millimeters of movement and how curiously feline the effect was. A mental image of the amnesiac boy crouching and pouncing like an overgrown cat suddenly popped into his head. He quickly filed the thoughts away and concentrated on the conversation at hand.
“I lost the keys to one of the file cabinets at my house. I was looking for it by retracing my steps…” Retracing and using his postcognition to find the moment when he’d dropped them. Perhaps he couldn’t blame his vision on a loss of control over his powers after all.
“What does it look like?” Kaidoh asked as he took a few steps up to the edge of the river.
“The keychain has two keys and a small calculator attached to it, though the calculator is probably ruined by now.”
Kaidoh hissed absently and crouched to peer intently into the water. Inui watched his kouhai watch the water, again noting how Kaidoh’s typical hissing no longer sounded so snake-like as it did before, despite being the same sound as that which made his reputation in the tennis club. Was it only the memory of Kaidoh making that same sound while acting like a cat that caused the sound now to sound cat-like instead of snake-like? That was an interesting thought to ponder.
Suddenly, Kaidoh kicked off his shoes and jumped into the water with a surprisingly feline pounce. Inui blinked behind his glasses and wondered if he had suddenly turned precognitive, if his thoughts were starting to play out before his eyes right after they crossed his mind. Or maybe he just had too much of cats and Kaidoh on his mind.
Meanwhile, Kaidoh had reached into the river and pulled out a large wriggling fish with one hand, his other hand deftly plucking something small and metallic from the creature’s mouth. Throwing the fish back into the river, Kaidoh sloshed toward his senpai.
“Is this what you were looking for?” he asked, holding up a small keychain which indeed had two keys and a small calculator attached to it.
“Aa,” Inui affirmed, accepting the keys. He looked curiously at the other boy. “How did you do that?”
Kaidoh shifted uneasily, looking somewhat embarrassed. “The stupid fish tried to eat it and the ring edge got caught in its mouth. I… told it to let me remove it.”
That was right, Inui recalled. Kaidoh’s psi-ability was an attunement to animals. Though he, just like the rest of their team, usually ignored or took for granted the entire issue of psi-abilities since it rarely had anything to do with tennis. However, with his father working for the government’s psi-department and his own perfectionism in data gathering, Inui thought he knew fairly well just to what extent each of teammates could use their powers. Kaidoh had just exceeded his expectations, again.
Curious, Inui turned to question his kouhai further as they made their way back to the riverbank. “That was a very effective use of your powers, Kaidoh. How long have you been able to do that?”
“I think… it’s been getting easier since that time I got hit on the head,” Kaidoh muttered reluctantly, looking even more uncomfortable.
Well, the day was just full of coincidences, wasn’t it? Though, it brought up an interesting question: just how much does an attunement to animals translate to becoming influenced by animals? Perhaps there were more to Kaidoh’s little quirks than just a speech habit. This bore more observation.
Kaidoh wiped his feet and put on his shoes, unaware of the thoughts whirling through his senpai’s head. “I should go home now,” he said finally, when it looked like Inui was too preoccupied to say anything.
“Aa,” Inui muttered absently, still thinking of how best to stalk--err--covertly observe his kouhai outside of tennis-related activities.
Kaidoh gave him a strange look again, and Inui could have sworn that had the other boy ears on top of his head, they would have twitched. But then Kaidoh turned and began jogging away in the direction of his home without another word.
Watching the disappearing form of his kouhai, Inui had a sudden itch to discover just what made Kaidoh tick. And this time it had nothing to do with tennis or ranking matches or even his own (sometimes twisted) amusement.
And maybe… then he’ll also find out just why Kaidoh affected him so much.
~* Owari *~
Notes: This is first in the sequence of fics featuring how Inui and Kaidoh got together in the Psidai-verse, starting from the "current" year in anime continuity and going all the way to Psidai. I have a rough timeline of major events/fics outlined, though they may not be written in sequence depending how/when/which scenes complete themselves in my head.
Series: Psidai AU, part 1 of the InuKai sequence.
Fandom: Prince of Tennis
Rating: G
Word Count: 1154
Pairings: Inui/Kaidoh
Summary: Inui is a dork; and he’s a little lost. But that’s okay. He’s only having a slight paradigm shift, which always makes for good beginnings, right?
Timeline: Takes place in Inui's 3rd year and Kaidoh's 2nd year in junior high (ie. current continuity), sometime after episode 163 of the anime (the Kaidoh getting amnesia episode).
Disclaimer: Prince of Tennis and all associated characters belong to Konomi-sensei, not me. Also, no fish were harmed in the making of this fanfic.
It wasn’t often that Inui resented his powers, useful as they were in his data-gathering hobby. However, he was nowhere in full control of them as he appeared to be, and there were certain things that he never wished to be reminded of.
“Kaidoh, place your faith in me.”
“I refuse!”
That was how he found himself up to his calves in the middle of a familiar river, staring off blankly into the evening air at something that only he could see. It was even more eerie to observe himself in the third person.
“He turned pale again.”
“That’s the second time today.”
It wasn’t like him to react so badly after being rejected for help. After all, with his history of foul-tasting drinks and tortuous training suggestions, he wasn’t surprised when any of the Regulars were leery of his aid. Well, it was slightly different with Kaidoh, but the boy didn’t have his memory at the time, so it really shouldn’t have surprised him either…
“Kaidoh, place your faith in me.”
After the events of that day had rushed by, like a dream, he’d purposefully forgotten about it, as if it couldn’t be borne thinking about. That wasn’t like him either.
What was it that affected him so much about the events of that incident?
“I refuse!”
Kaidoh, the analytical part of his mind answered. It was because the one who had been hurt, the one who had rejected him, was Kaidoh. Somehow, what started as a desire to improve the team’s chances at the nationals and help mold the future of a promising kouhai had turned into much more of an emotional investment than he had anticipated, or even noticed until now.
“He turned pale again.”
Hadn’t he proved to Renji that even for they who immerse themselves in the coldly logical realm of data could still be effectively ambushed by emotion? Oh that the sentiment would now return to haunt him…
“Inui-senpai?”
The familiar voice, firmly anchored in the present, finally pulled him from the depths of his vision. Inui looked up to see the object of his thoughts standing on the riverbank, dressed for his evening run with a towel hanging around his neck.
“Senpai?” Kaidoh asked again when Inui didn’t answer. “What are you doing here this late?”
“Ah… I…” What was he doing there? Inui struggled to remember through the haze left by his vision.
Kaidoh was looking at him strangely now, his head tilted just slightly to the side. A corner of Inui’s mind noted those millimeters of movement and how curiously feline the effect was. A mental image of the amnesiac boy crouching and pouncing like an overgrown cat suddenly popped into his head. He quickly filed the thoughts away and concentrated on the conversation at hand.
“I lost the keys to one of the file cabinets at my house. I was looking for it by retracing my steps…” Retracing and using his postcognition to find the moment when he’d dropped them. Perhaps he couldn’t blame his vision on a loss of control over his powers after all.
“What does it look like?” Kaidoh asked as he took a few steps up to the edge of the river.
“The keychain has two keys and a small calculator attached to it, though the calculator is probably ruined by now.”
Kaidoh hissed absently and crouched to peer intently into the water. Inui watched his kouhai watch the water, again noting how Kaidoh’s typical hissing no longer sounded so snake-like as it did before, despite being the same sound as that which made his reputation in the tennis club. Was it only the memory of Kaidoh making that same sound while acting like a cat that caused the sound now to sound cat-like instead of snake-like? That was an interesting thought to ponder.
Suddenly, Kaidoh kicked off his shoes and jumped into the water with a surprisingly feline pounce. Inui blinked behind his glasses and wondered if he had suddenly turned precognitive, if his thoughts were starting to play out before his eyes right after they crossed his mind. Or maybe he just had too much of cats and Kaidoh on his mind.
Meanwhile, Kaidoh had reached into the river and pulled out a large wriggling fish with one hand, his other hand deftly plucking something small and metallic from the creature’s mouth. Throwing the fish back into the river, Kaidoh sloshed toward his senpai.
“Is this what you were looking for?” he asked, holding up a small keychain which indeed had two keys and a small calculator attached to it.
“Aa,” Inui affirmed, accepting the keys. He looked curiously at the other boy. “How did you do that?”
Kaidoh shifted uneasily, looking somewhat embarrassed. “The stupid fish tried to eat it and the ring edge got caught in its mouth. I… told it to let me remove it.”
That was right, Inui recalled. Kaidoh’s psi-ability was an attunement to animals. Though he, just like the rest of their team, usually ignored or took for granted the entire issue of psi-abilities since it rarely had anything to do with tennis. However, with his father working for the government’s psi-department and his own perfectionism in data gathering, Inui thought he knew fairly well just to what extent each of teammates could use their powers. Kaidoh had just exceeded his expectations, again.
Curious, Inui turned to question his kouhai further as they made their way back to the riverbank. “That was a very effective use of your powers, Kaidoh. How long have you been able to do that?”
“I think… it’s been getting easier since that time I got hit on the head,” Kaidoh muttered reluctantly, looking even more uncomfortable.
Well, the day was just full of coincidences, wasn’t it? Though, it brought up an interesting question: just how much does an attunement to animals translate to becoming influenced by animals? Perhaps there were more to Kaidoh’s little quirks than just a speech habit. This bore more observation.
Kaidoh wiped his feet and put on his shoes, unaware of the thoughts whirling through his senpai’s head. “I should go home now,” he said finally, when it looked like Inui was too preoccupied to say anything.
“Aa,” Inui muttered absently, still thinking of how best to stalk--err--covertly observe his kouhai outside of tennis-related activities.
Kaidoh gave him a strange look again, and Inui could have sworn that had the other boy ears on top of his head, they would have twitched. But then Kaidoh turned and began jogging away in the direction of his home without another word.
Watching the disappearing form of his kouhai, Inui had a sudden itch to discover just what made Kaidoh tick. And this time it had nothing to do with tennis or ranking matches or even his own (sometimes twisted) amusement.
And maybe… then he’ll also find out just why Kaidoh affected him so much.
Notes: This is first in the sequence of fics featuring how Inui and Kaidoh got together in the Psidai-verse, starting from the "current" year in anime continuity and going all the way to Psidai. I have a rough timeline of major events/fics outlined, though they may not be written in sequence depending how/when/which scenes complete themselves in my head.
