Psidai: Seigaku vs. Jousei Shounen
Mar. 24th, 2005 05:41 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tanithryudoTitle: Fools These Mortals Be (Seigaku vs. Jousei Shounen)
Series: Psidai AU
Fandom: Prince of Tennis
Rating: G
Word Count: 7280
Pairings: InuKai (with a bit of MomoKai?), GP, TezuFuji
Warnings: OOC-ness, Crack
Summary/Notes: Instead of facing Jousei Shounen in junior high (anime continuity), Seigaku faced Midoriyama in the Kantou tournament (manga continuity). Now in high school, the same Seigaku lineup (with the addition of Tezuka) faces the same Jousei Shounen of anime in the match for the Kantou top four. This is the story from the anime, appropriately rewritten.
Disclaimer: Prince of Tennis and all associated characters belong to Konomi-sensei, not me.
Fools These Mortals Be
A Seigaku at Kanto Story
Hiko-sensei, coach of Seigaku high school’s tennis club, clenched his fist around the magazine that Inui given him. Tossing the abused booklet on the table, he stalked around the room, railing as he did so.
“Jousei Shounen’s Wakato Hiroshi, huh? I’d like to ask him just which part of our team is incompetent! Tezuka! No matter what, we have to crush them in this match!”
“Hai,” Tezuka replied evenly, not appearing the slightest bit ruffled by the contents of the interview.
But Hiko-sensei seemed not to have heard, and continued to rant as he trampled around the room. “We’re not going to back down when someone picks a fight! We’re going to put Kaidoh on Singles 3! We have to show them what we’re made of! Got it?”
“Hai.” Inui and Tezuka replied in unison, though only one of them sounded the tiniest bit smug.
As Hiko-sensei continued to rant to himself in a low muttering voice, totally ignoring the two students in the room, Tezuka finally turned to Inui.
“You showed him that on purpose to provoke him, didn’t you?” he asked Inui.
Inui adjusted his glasses again. “Competitive spirit is important, after all,” he replied, which was just as good as confessing the deed. For a moment, he was sure that Tezuka was going to assign him laps for what he’d done. But Tezuka merely gave him a stern look of dismissal before going back to sit down before the registration sheet.
‘There is a 65% chance,’ Inui mused to himself as he left the room, taking the article as he did so, ‘that perhaps Tezuka really didn’t appreciate being called incompetent either.’
Back on the courts, his next target was the player whose position had just been decided. He waited patiently for Kaidoh to finish up his practice match with Echizen, before motioning for his kouhai to join him at the courtsides.
Kaidoh remained silent as he read through the magazine article that Inui had just shown to their coach. His only reactions were the intermittent twitching of his eyebrows and a slight narrowing of his eyes when he finished and looked back up at his senpai.
“Well?” Inui finally asked when it seemed as if Kaidoh wasn’t going to say anything.
“What?” Kaidoh asked evenly, seemingly calm.
Now it was Inui’s turn to feel a twitch in his eyebrows. It seemed that, every once in a while, his kouhai took great secret delight in completely turning his predictions on the latter’s reactions completely on its head. Or at least, that’s what it felt like to him.
“Aren’t you the slightest bit insulted by that interview?” Inui asked, peering closely at his junior.
“Aa.” But Kaidoh’s expression still only held the normal levels of apparent anger.
“You’re… not mad? No sudden impulse to show that player and the rest of his school just what you’re capable of?”
Kaidoh blinked at him. “That’s a given, isn’t it? We’re playing them tomorrow.”
Inui wondered what happened to Kaidoh today to turn him so… so mellow. Especially since this would be his first singles game in quite a while now. He didn’t get another semi-amnesiac head injury, did he? Before he could reach over and start examining his kouhai’s head (which would no doubt earn him a smack on his own head if he was wrong), Kaidoh hissed and turned away.
“Senpai,” he said as he walked away. “Since when did you start taking insults on my behalf? We’ll beat them tomorrow. You worry too much.”
Inui stared after his departing kouhai with a small rueful smile. “I think you know exactly when… and why, Kaoru,” he murmured softly, low enough that Kaidoh wouldn’t hear and berate him again for taking such liberties in public.
~*~*~
The next day found Echizen Ryoma walking toward the stadium where the second day of the Kantou tournament was being held. He wasn’t in any hurry, even though he would probably be the last person on the team to arrive, again. But then, he was still thoroughly disgruntled at being alternate, having refused to play Doubles 2 with Momoshiro since Hiko-sensei had insisted on taking him out of Singles 3.
Reaching the entrance to the stadium, he barely spared a glance at the gaggle of fangirls that seemed to be swarming some tennis player from some team that had just arrived. However, he was brought to a stop at the bottom of the stairs by a voice calling out his name. Turning, he was faced with some lady that seemed to be with the tennis team by the fangirls.
“I’m Hanamura,” the woman introduced herself, “the coach of Jousei Shounen’s tennis club. I’m pleased to meet you again.”
“Thanks,” Echizen replied out of barest courtesy, though he honestly couldn’t recall having seen this woman before. Then again, there wasn’t much he ever noticed outside of tennis.
“I’ve been watching you all along,” Hanamura continued. “You’re great material. You know, you could be even better if you come to us. I could complete you as the greatest masterpiece ever. It wouldn’t matter if you come after the Regionals…”
“Iya.” Echizen didn’t even need to consider the offer before he responded. “To complete would mean that’s the end, right?” If anyone thought he’d be content to merely reach some high plateau, even if it was above everyone else, they must be out of their minds. With that, Echizen turned to leave.
“Wait,” Hanamura called out just as he began climbing the stairs. “Would you consider it if you lost to one of my players today?”
Echizen just shrugged and continued to walk, not even turning around as he replied. “Iya. I’m not even playing today.”
He ignored the surprised “Nani?!” from behind him and resolutely walked on. He disliked dealing with stalkers, no matter how old they were.
~*~*~
Hiko-sensei was standing with the Seigaku team as Tezuka gave them the usual pre-game pep-talk (“Yudan seizu ni ikou!”) when Hanamura arrived with the Jousei Shounen team and immediately headed their way.
“Excuse me,” she said as she walked up to Hiko and introduced herself. “You’re Seigaku’s coach, right? I’d like to know why you put someone as talented and full of potential as Echizen Ryoma on alternate for today’s match.”
Hiko spared the coach of his recently avowed rival school a cool glance. “Well we had planned to put him in singles, but we had to take your Wakato-kun’s challenge for Singles 3 and Fuji-kun won the draw for Singles 2. Since we certainly weren’t going to move Tezuka from Singles 1 and Echizen refused to play doubles, there wasn’t much choice but to put him on alternate.”
Hanamura stared at him. “Wakato-kun’s challenge?” she asked in confusion.
“It was in that interview he gave to Tennis Teen Monthly last month,” Inui told her helpfully.
“I see,” Hanamura frowned as she vaguely remembered the interview in question. “Excuse me.”
The rest of the Seigaku team followed her with their eyes as she walked up to one of her players. Shooing away the many fangirls surrounding him, she appeared to be engaged in a heated conversation with the young man, who began to look increasingly sheepish.
“Hey, their coach is pretty hot,” Momo spoke up with a grin.
Echizen rolled his eyes at him and put in his two cents. “She’s kind of weird though.”
“Oh? You know her?” Momo asked.
“She was one of the sponsors at the Senbatsu three years ago,” Inui supplied.
Echizen shook his head. “No, I mean she was hitting on me earlier.”
“EEEHHH?!?!” Several of his teammates gaped at him in shock.
Just then, the announcer called for the beginning of the match between Seigaku and Jousei Shounen, asking for the Doubles 2 of both teams to enter the court. Just as Inui and Momo walked onto the court and the two coaches sat down after greeting each other, Eiji suddenly jumped up and pressed his face to the wired fence.
“Look! Look!” he called out, waving his arm toward Hanamura, who was just putting away a key-ring cell phone in one of her hands. “She’s got Tezuka on her key-chain!”
“Saa, I guess she wasn’t stalking after Echizen after all,” murmured Fuji, “but after Tezuka.”
Echizen grinned up saucily at his buchou, who was giving Fuji a stern glare. “Eh, buchou, you’re such a stud,” he teased.
Tezuka didn’t even bother to glare at him. “Echizen, Fuji, 20 laps around the court.”
Without a protest, the two Seigaku Regulars began to run around the outside of the court where the competition was taking place, drawing some odd looks from the Jousei Shounen Regulars.
Inside the courts, Hiko-sensei was quietly muttering to himself. “I’m a genius! By putting Echizen on alternate, Tezuka can make him run laps without interfering with the match!”
Both Hanamura and the referee gave him strange looks, but then the match began.
~*~*~
The fact that Inui and Momoshiro was a newly put-together pair became immediately apparent after their match started when their opponents, Youhei and Kouhei, immediately seized control of the game. It didn’t help either that they seemed to know exactly what buttons to push to rile up Momo to the point that he was playing a singles game against the both of them.
“Nya, nya, what is Momo doing?!” demanded Eiji as he clutched at the wire fence surrounding the court. “He wasn’t this bad when he played doubles with Kaidoh!”
“Aa,” agreed Oishi from beside him. “If he doesn’t calm down, his temper is going to make them drop the game.”
Kaidoh hissed from where he stood leaning against a tree further back behind the other Regulars. In his opinion, it was just like that baka Momoshiro to embarrass them all from the start.
Finally, at 3-0 in Jousei Shounen’s favor, Inui took the court-change break to seriously speak to Momoshiro.
“Momo,” the Seigaku data-man said evenly, “according to my calculations, our opponents have less than 50% accuracy in hitting the buttons to make you angry than Kaidoh does in your typical practice matches. Don’t you think you’re giving our current opponents far too much credit in letting them control your reactions so far?”
“Huh?” Momoshiro stared at Inui blankly, not understanding a word his senior was saying.
Inui signed and motioned toward the sidelines with his head. Momo automatically followed his gesture, turning around to see Kaidoh standing under a nearby tree.
Kaidoh just glared back at him. “Baka,” he said, knowing that even though Momo was too far away to hear him, he could read the word from his lip movement. Then he deliberately looked away in a clear gesture of dismissal and inclined his head slightly toward Inui with an expression that almost spoke of sympathy.
By the close understanding that came from their heated rivalry, Momo instinctively understood the meaning behind the gesture. Kaidoh was saying that he was sorry for Inui-senpai for having to play doubles with an idiot who’s obviously not nearly as good as himself. Of course, there was no way that Momoshiro was going to let that insult pass by unchallenged.
“Yarou,” Momoshiro muttered at Kaidoh’s tacit insult to him. But he smiled slightly after he turned back around to Inui. He stood and bowed, saying “Gomen, Inui-senpai. I let my temper get the better of me. It won’t happen again. We will win this!”
“Aa. Their data is in my grasp.” Inui adjusted his glasses, letting the light glint off them eerily. “No matter how sensitive and quick their sight and hearing are, they still have to run to get into position. Momo, your Jacknife should be faster than that. Also, even if their senses tell them what kind of hit we’ll make, there are ways to make it so that they can’t predict where and how our shots will land. That is the weakness in their game.”
Momoshiro blinked and gaped at Inui’s detailed analysis of the situation. “H-hai!”
“Well then,” Inui grinned with an expression that usually meant someone was going to be playing guinea pig for his latest juice. “Let’s go.”
They took the next five games straight.
However, at the rest break after the eighth game, disaster struck when Momoshiro accidentally drank from Inui’s water bottle, and then promptly hit the ground in a dead faint. Apparently Inui had been experimenting with his Inui Juices again, and Momo had just become the next unwilling tester. However, with one of their doubles pair being carted off on a stretcher to be treated for food poisoning, Seigaku was forced to default their Doubles 2 on the verge of winning.
“Sorry, everyone,” Inui said as he exited the court. “I seemed to have miscalculated.”
No one else seemed to know what to say to him in light of the completely mind boggling way they’d lost the Doubles 2 match.
No one except for Tezuka. “Inui, 20 laps around the court.”
“Hai.”
“And after you finish you can run Momoshiro’s 20 laps too.”
“Hai.”
~*~*~
Meanwhile, the Doubles 1 match had begun on the court between Seigaku’s Golden Pair and Jousei Shounen’s Kiriyama-Oota pair.
Jousei Shounen had the first serve, and the Golden Pair quickly discovered the iron wall that was Kiriyama at net, moving quickly despite his bulk with just two or three steps each time to cover the entire range of the net. And then, in quick succession, they were also introduced to the two ace techniques of the Jousei Shounen pair – the Canon Volley and the Thunderbolt.
“Che, you’ve got to be kidding me,” Eiji gaped from the baseline as Oota landed after his running leap off his partner’s shoulder. Then he paused as his gaze was drawn to the silent form of Oishi, who had reached behind with his left hand, index finger extended up, in a silent signal.
“Hm…” Eiji let out a small grin as he picked up the intention behind his partner’s sign. And the next time he volleyed the ball, he braced himself and gave it as high of a lob as he could reasonably manage.
“Shimatta!” Oota yelled as the ball sailed over him by whole centimeters. “It’s going to go out!”
“Out! Game, Jousei Shounen, 1-0.”
“They look like they’ve already won” Kaidoh noted with some disgust at the cheers and posing come from the Jousei Shounen players and fans.
“Mada mada dane,” Echizen snarked. “I’ve seen that look in Oishi-senpai and Eiji-senpai’s eyes before.”
“When was that?”
“When they played that practice match against Momoshiro and Echizen with the ropes tied to them,” Inui replied as he ran by.
The next game went to Seigaku, with Oishi showing that physical prowess isn’t everything to tennis, and taking a love game of his own with psychological ploys. Eager to wipe away the stigma of being outsmarted like that, the Kiriyama quickly moved to end the first volley of the third game with his Cannon Volley. However…
“Hoi!” *SMASH*
“W-what was that?!” Kiriyama stammered as Eiji made one last twirl in the air and landed lightly on his feet.
Fuji chuckled from the sidelines. “That’s the aerial counter that Hyotei’s Mukahi used against Momoshiro’s Dunk Smash, isn’t it?”
“Not quite,” Inui replied from where he was scribbling in his notebook, having finished his laps. “Eiji doesn’t have quite the gymnastic ability that Mukahi does. His jump isn’t nearly as high. However, Kiriyama’s Cannon Volley is also nowhere near the strength of Momo’s Dunk Smash. Therefore, Eiji’s modified counter is sufficient enough to counter it.”
“Saa, I see.” Fuji smiled and turned back to the game, where two more Cannon Volleys were return smashed by Eiji’s midair counter. “It must gall Eiji quite a bit to have to use his rival’s moves like that. However, it does effectively seal the Cannon Volley.”
“Yes, now all that’s left is the Thund--ah.”
Inui trailed off when he heard the familiar scraping of a racquet along the ground. Sure enough, Oishi was spinning around to catch the ball low along the ground.
“There it is!” called out the various Seigaku non-Regulars. “Moon Volley!”
“This one’s ours!” called out Oota as he dashed up his partner’s shoulders and leapt for the Thunderbolt. The ball cleared his racquet by mere millimeters. “It’s going to go out!”
*THUD*
“Game, Seigaku, 2-1. Change court.”
Oishi and Eiji high-fived, their palms lingering far longer than necessary.
“It landed on the baseline, and went just above their reach too,” Kaidoh murmured unnecessarily. “Che. That’s just like Oishi-senpai.”
“Aa,” Fuji agreed. “He must have used Eiji’s final lob in the first match as a measuring standard to see just how high the Thunderbolt’s reach extended.”
“No wonder they were smiling like that,” Echizen grumbled.
The Jousei Shounen pair put up a good fight, but it was apparent that the Golden Pair held the advantage. An Oishi Territory, an I-Formation, and several Kikumaru Multiple Splits later, they cleared the match 6-2. After the game point, the two pairs went to the net to shake hands.
“Doubles has never been so interesting,” Kiriyama said with a smile.
“Yeah, it’s no wonder you guys are a nationally ranked pair,” Oota agreed. “We learned a lot from you.”
“Aa, but you guys played well too,” Oishi demurred. “You’re second years, right? And this is your school’s first time in participating in the Kantou tournament? I’m sure you’ll have plenty of time in the future to improve.”
“That’s right!” Eiji agreed. “You guys got the moves, and you’re a good combination too. All you need is more experience.”
“Oh, I don’t know,” said Kiriyama sheepishly as he scratched the back of his head. “I don’t think we’ll ever be able to pull of the kind of formations you guys can.”
Eiji immediately waved his concerns away. “Maa, maa, Kiri-chan, all you need is the right formation and you’ll have no problems. I know! I know the perfect formation for you guys! Oishi, you stand here and pretend you’re Kiriyama.” He pushed his surprised partner into position. “—And pretend I’m Oota. Then, all you got to do is this, and then this, and then…” As he spoke, he broke out his Multiple Split move, setting out several afterimages of himself running about the court.
The Jousei Shounen pair stared at him in wide-eyed astonishment. Oishi sweatdropped at his partner’s antics. “Oi, Eiji! I don’t think this is the time or place for this!”
“Hey, you!” called out the referee. “Doubles 1 is over! Clear the courts!”
“Eiji!” Oishi called out to his partner in vain, as Eiji seemed to still be too high on adrenaline to calm down enough to listen.
“Kikumaru!” Finally, the absolute voice of authority caused Eiji to freeze mid-step in some complicated move, his racquet dropping to the ground.
“Ah? Tezuka-buchou?” Eiji blinked obliviously, and Oishi placed a hand on his forehead, already mentally gearing up for the laps they would no doubt have to run.
“20 laps around the courts.” Tezuka was evidently not amused with Eiji's antics either.
“Hai!” Undaunted by the fact that he was supposedly being punished, Eiji skipped off.
“Oishi, run it with him.” The implicit responsibility to keep Eiji from getting into trouble while running his laps, which was always a possibility where the hyperactive acrobat was involved, was as usual handed to Oishi.
“Hai.” Oishi sighed, resigned to his role. Bowing quickly to his opponents, he picked up Eiji’s abandoned racquet and hurried out of the court.
~*~*~
Next came Singles 3 and Wakato’s tennis pros impressions.
“Oi, oi, why does that guy keep changing forms?!” Eiji complained as he finished his laps at the 3-2 court change.
Fuji turned to him with a smile. “Heh, but Kaidoh isn’t doing too badly either. He’s not backing down at all before these specialist impressions.”
“That’s our Kaidoh,” commented Oishi as he also joined the group. “He’s the amazing one to be able to keep up his score in the face of all that pressure.”
Inui chuckled and adjusted his glasses. “Kaidoh’s playing at his best,” he told the others. “It’s a result of his special training regimen, which not only concentrated on his physical abilities, but also his mental focus, which has always been one of his weak points.” There was a definite note of pride in his words.
“Don’t you mean, your special training regimen?” Fuji teased him.
Inui smiled. “Whatever you prefer.”
Meanwhile, Wakato turned from catering to his fans at the rest break to address Kaidoh on the opposite bench.
“I should tell you something,” he said arrogantly. “Your ‘Snake’ is just a variation of the Buggy Whip Shot. It’s not something you invented, which means you have nothing original too. That just means your development is slower than those who can copy and incorporate various forms into their play style.”
Kaidoh remained silent in the face of that taunt. Putting down his towel, he headed back to the court, glancing only once toward where his teammates stood by the sidelines, and into the reflective glasses of one person in particular. Inui’s face was absolutely expressionless, which told Kaidoh that his senpai had again taken more insult from the stupid diva than he had. Really, there ought to be some limits to possessiveness, even if Inui was sort of a trainer to him as well as… well, something more.
Wakato also headed back to his service position to the cheers of his fans.
“Go, go, Wakato-kun!”
“Victory! Hiroshi-kun!”
“Show that school of weirdos what you can do!”
“Crush that scary-looking guy you’re playing!”
Kaidoh’s eyebrows twitched and he gritted his teeth as the calls from the cheerleaders became more and more personal. If anything, that was one of the main reasons he couldn’t stand associating with girls.
*WHACK* *SMACK* “AAIIIIIEEE!”
Wakato’s serve was returned with a high-flying Snake-shot that sailed right over the wire fence surrounding the courts and landed right in front of the gaggle of fangirls. Almost everyone from both teams gaped at the deliberate fault.
“Urusai!” Kaidoh yelled at the stunned girls.
“Oi, Kaidoh, what do you think you’re doing?!” Oishi admonished loudly, recovering from his shock.
“Well, I guess his mental focus isn’t perfect yet,” Inui sighed. Taking out his notebook, he began to scribble in it, muttering about training regimen adjustments as he wrote.
“Kaidoh!” Tezuka barked out, “20 laps around the court after your match.”
Kaidoh hissed in acknowledgement and turned back to the game.
“Eh… Kaidoh-senpai seems to have relaxed some of his tension,” Echizen commented. He personally didn’t see what was so bad about shutting up annoying fangirl stalkers. He had the urge to do that all the time.
“Go get him, Kaidoh!” cheered Eiji. “Show him just who’s slow and unoriginal!” Then he paused and looked slightly puzzled. “But, you know, why isn’t Kaidoh using his Boomerang shots? That would definitely prove that he’s not unoriginal at all.”
No one had the answer to that question, so they all turned to Inui for an explanation. The data-man adjusted his glasses as he stared at his kouhai on the courts.
“He’s being surprisingly stubborn today,” Inui finally sighed, “but it is his first singles game in a long time now. There’s a 98% probability that he actually wants the match to last longer. 72% chance that he’s also working off the frustration of being on doubles all the time.”
“So that’s it,” Fuji grinned. “Well, I guess he’s entitled to the break. Besides, it’s not as if Kaidoh is doing badly with his current ‘slow and unoriginal’ style.”
“Game, Seigaku, 5-4. Change court!”
As Kaidoh settled into position across the court from Wakato, he paused to initiate a conversation with his opponent for the first time. “I admit your skills are great,” he said. However, I know people who can use those moves better than you.” For that matter, Echizen alone could do enough impressions of top-notch players like Tezuka and Sanada that would put Wakato’s best efforts to shame.
Now it was Wakato’s turn to angrily grit his teeth. Then, forcing himself to relax, he gave an exaggerated shrug. “Well, I’m honestly in awe,” Wakato said with a slight undertone of sarcasm. “I guess there are some good points in your club of performers. However… I have just determined the ultimate opponent to crush you.”
The members of Seigaku on the sidelines gasped as Wakato’s next changeover took the form of a mirror image of Kaidoh, right down to the Snake-shots. However, after a few false starts and the taunt of being beaten by his own move, Kaidoh turned the third round into an all-out Snake-war.
“Oi, Ochibi!” Eiji glomped onto Echizen for a moment before jumping back over to the wire fence. “Kaidoh’s using your move from your first match together!” Indeed, Kaidoh was driving deep shots toward Wakato’s feet with his Snake-shots, forcing the other to expend his stamina catching them.
“Change over, huh?” Echizen muttered, doffing his hat. “I guess I’m honored.”
“Not just that,” Inui put in, finally finding the glimmer of intense concentration in his kouhai’s eyes. “But given that expression, there is a 90% chance that Kaidoh will finally use—“
“There it is! Boomerang—”
“No! It’s not the Boomerang Snake! It’s—What was THAT?!”
“—his Spiral Boomerang Snake,” Inui finished. He adjusted his glasses and grinned. “There is less than 2% possibility that Wakato has the necessary physique and training to be able to copy that.”
“Spiral Boomerang Snake?!”
Inui smiled nostalgically. “It was something we worked on last year, since we both had spare time from not being on the Regulars.” His glasses glinted. “It requires much of the required power of the Hadoukyuu to give the ball its consistent force, and the refined finesse of the Boomerang Snake to give it the precise angle of spiral. Someone who hasn’t gone through Kaidoh’s precise training regimen simply doesn’t have the physical capability of copying that move.”
Back on the court, Kaidoh regarded his opponent evenly. “You can’t mimic me anymore,” he told Wakato calmly. Turnabout was fair play, after all.
This time, however, it was Wakato’s turn to become stubborn. After two more Spiral Boomerang Snakes, he attempted to mimic that shot as well.
“Out! Advantage, Kaidoh.”
“Just as I calculated,” Inui grinned and pushed up his glasses, which were glinting brightly under the sun. “This game is over.”
The next ball flew around the pole like a small comet and slammed it self on the opposite court, leaving a scorch mark where it landed.
“Hadoukyuu Boomerang!”
“Game and match to Seigaku, 6-4!”
To the cheers of his teammates and the lament of Wakato’s fan following, Kaidoh shook hands with his opponent and exited the court. He was putting his racquet away before running his laps when Wakato approached him.
“All right, I admit that was amazing. It was a complete defeat,” said the Jousei Shounen idol. “Those Boomerang shots of yours must have taken some very special training to pull off…”
“A specialized daily training regimen constantly adapted to his incremental improvements, actually,” Inui broke in, appearing out of nowhere. “The results are impressive, are they not?”
Kaidoh hissed at his grinning senpai, who was standing far too close for comfort. Besides, it was rather embarrassing to see Inui gloating over his win like that, even if most others wouldn’t be able apart the subtle differences in his flashing glasses and eerie grins.
Wakato gave Inui a blank look. “Eh? What’s it to you?”
“Doesn’t your coach refer to your team as her masterpieces?” Inui asked rhetorically. He laid a possessive hand on Kaidoh’s shoulder. “Well, Kaoru is my masterpiece.”
Kaidoh jerked his shoulder out of Inui’s grasp. “Baka senpai!” he snapped, flushing out of anger and embarrassment both, “don’t call me that in public!” Wakato looked between them with wide eyes and started backing away.
“Inui! Kaidoh!” Tezuka’s commanding voice suddenly broke through the tableau. “Both of you, 20 more laps!”
“Fsssshhh.” Kaidoh threw his towel at his senpai, spun around and started running. Inui stared after his departing form, still smiling smugly as he clutched the light green towel, before following. Wakato decided he didn’t want to know.
~*~*~
Soon afterwards came the Singles 2 match between Seigaku’s tensai, Fuji, and Hanamura’s best masterpiece, Shinjyou Reiji. The match began with the illusion of normality as Fuji quickly won the first two rounds. But in the third round, the Seigaku team found out that those early rounds had been dropped on purpose in preparation of Shinjyou’s ‘Mirage’.
“Game, Jousei Shounen, 1-2. Change court!”
“Aahh, this is bad!” cried Eiji, his face pressed against the wire fence. “That ball just changed from a top-spin to an under-spin again!”
“You worry too much, Eiji-senpai,” Echizen muttered with a bored look at the frazzled redhead.
Indeed, Fuji was smiling with his eyes half open as he prepared for the next serve. He quickly moved backwards just before Shinjyou returned it.
“Tsubame Gaeshi!”
*SWISH* *ROLLROLLROLL*
“That’s right!” cheered Eiji, “ Fuji’s Tsubame Gaeshi is a counter that works the best when you have a good spin on the ball!”
“Aa,” agreed Oishi enthusiastically. “And since the Mirage must have some kind of spin to work, it’s guaranteed to be countered!”
“Not to mention that by standing back further from the baseline, he can pick up the spin of ball after it has changed and stabilized,” Inui added.
“Game, Seigaku, 3-1.”
When the next round started, Shinjyou adapted to the Tsubame Gaeshi by returning it at the net before it could touch ground. But undeterred, Fuji proved that his counter had improved over the years. The next Tsubame Gaeshi that Shinjyou caught zoomed along his racquet and up his arm instead of bouncing back over the net.
“I see,” Inui murmured into his notebook, having long finished his run. “To return the new Tsubame Gaeshi, one must be able to know exactly what spin the return ball has and how to return it. However, due to the nature of the Mirage, it’s almost impossible to determine that spin. So once again, the very nature of his opponent’s shots serve to make Fuji’s counter almost unreturnable.”
“Game, Seigaku, 5-3.”
“All right, Fuji!” Eiji yelled happily. “One more game and we’ll be taking this match! Go for—huh?”
Suddenly, one of Fuji’s returns shot outwards from the court, nearly skimming Hanamura’s face as it struck the side of the court.
“Ah, gomen, gomen,” Fuji smiled sweetly at his opponent and opposing team’s coach. “That was an accident.”
The Seigaku members looked at each other uneasily.
“Was that really an accident?” Eiji muttered quietly.
“It would seem so,” Inui replied, though there was some hesitation in his voice as well. “I believe Shinjyou tried to do a heavy Mirage ball with no spin on his last shot. That could account for the erratic path of the ball.”
“Or maybe Fuji-senpai’s just still mad that their coach is stalking Tezuka-buchou,” muttered Echizen, voicing the doubt that was on his other teammates’ minds as well. They all looked toward Tezuka, who merely gave them all a stern glare before turning back toward the courts.
“Ah, Reiji, no! Don’t use that move!”
The loud call from Hanamura quickly diverted their attention to what was happening back on the courts. Shinjyou, however, didn’t heed the warning as he introduced his still-smiling opponent to his Deep Impulse. The first shot sent Fuji crashing to the ground with a scratch along the side of his face.
“Fuji!” Eiji called out to his friend as the latter climbed back to his feet.
The rest of the Seigaku team watched in silent awe as Fuji was able to dodge the barrage of Deep Impulse shots, which all seemed to be aimed directly at injuring him.
“This is bad, this is bad!” Eiji was jumping around in agitation. “That guy’s like Rikkai’s Doubles 1 and how Kirihara used to be!”
“But it’s good that Fuji has been able to avoid getting hurt so far,” Oishi sighed. “It seems his dodging speed at least has improved because of his game against Atobe last year at the Nationals. However…”
“However, if he’s only dodging the balls, he isn’t returning them,” supplied Inui, “thus giving Shinjyou the point.”
“Game, Jousei Shounen, 5-4!”
“Mou, come on, Fuji! Get yourself together!” Eiji cupped his hands to his mouth and yelled at his teammate. From long association, he knew exactly which buttons to push. “If you lose this game, then it’d be up to Tezuka-buchou to play the last game with their buchou!”
“Eiji!” Oishi clapped his hand over his partner’s mouth. But it was too late.
Fuji’s eyes snapped open the rest of the way. He stood his ground against the next Deep Impulse, and somehow managed to barely return it with a two-handed shot. However, that made him off balance for the next Deep Impulse. Instead of scraping by his face, the shot slammed right into the side of his face, sending Fuji crashing to the ground again.
“Ah, Fuji!” When the tensai didn’t get up, several of his teammates and their coach rushed onto the courts to his fallen form. Unfortunately, it seemed that the shot had knocked Fuji right out, and continuing the match was no longer an option. Thus, the Singles 2 game was defaulted to Jousei Shounen.
~*~*~
Soon after Fuji was carted away, the Singles 1 match began between the buchou-tachi of the two schools. As was usual when Tezuka actually played, many of the spectators had their faces practically glued to the wire fence.
Kajimoto had the first serve, and the Seigaku Regulars watched in fascination as he bent backwards until his head almost touched the ground in preparation of his serve.
*TWACK* The ball flashed out, fast and strong.
However, Tezuka was already there, catching and returning it.
“It’s fast,” commented Oishi, “but…”
“…not as fast as Yagyuu’s Laser Beam,” finished Eiji, his eyes wide open and his hands circled around his eyes like binoculars, as if that would help him see better.
“And compared to Sanada’s Invisible Swing,” Echizen added, pulling down his hat, “mada mada dane.”
Inui had pulled out a radar measure from somewhere before the serve and was taking down notes from the readout. “The speed of that serve clocks at 195 km/hr. That is only about one third the current speed of Ohtori’s Scud Serve.”
“It looks slower than your speed serve too, senpai,” Kaidoh put in helpfully.
The gathered Jousei Shounen Regulars shot irritated looks at the running commentary denouncing their buchou’s serve. Even Hanamura looked rather piqued at the comparison of her masterpiece to the other high level serves, even if there wasn’t any room for her to argue the facts.
By this time, Tezuka had finished the first round of volleys courtesy of his Tezuka Zone. Seeing the disgruntled looks on his opponent, the opposing team, and their coach, he turned to face his own far too noisy team.
“All of you, 20 laps around the court.”
“Hai!”
Ignoring the small horde of teens trampling around the court, Tezuka turned back to his game.
“My apologies, Kajimoto-san. Shall we continue?”
Meanwhile, back on the sidelines, Wakato sweatdropped as the Seigaku Regulars made yet another round past where he stood with his teammates. Many of them were still quietly gossiping and commenting on the match as they ran, and the tall one with the glasses had his face buried in a notebook, somehow still managing to run while scribbling in it.
“Geez. They really are a school full of weirdos.”
~* OMAKE *~
Several days after the last match of the Kantou tournament and before the opening of the Nationals, Hiko-sensei announced that Seigaku was going to have a practice session at Jousei Shounen as a part of their training to ready for the Nationals. Although most of the Seigaku team wasn’t all that thrilled about it (or any of their coach’s usual proposals, for that matter), there was nothing for it but for them to go along.
“Woah! Check out all these machines!” Momo gawked as the team was led past the training rooms to the indoor courts at Jousei Shounen.
“Welcome, all of you,” declared Hanamura as she greeted the new arrivals along with her team. “We’re going to have free practice today between our two teams.” She then turned a smile on the bored-looking Echizen. “And I was also hoping to see Echizen-kun in action against Shinj—Shinjyou?”
“Hoi, hoi! You’re the guy with the Mirage, right? Come and play a game with me! I want to see that Mirage of yours in action!” Eiji had already skipped up to the stoic Jousei Shounen boy and was dancing around him excitedly, moving so fast that there seemed to be three of him circling Shinjyou.
“E-Eiji! Calm down!” Oishi moved forward toward his hyperactive partner, trying to get him to stop in vain. “Oi, he wasn’t this hyper this morning,” he shot an irritated look back toward his own team. “Who gave him sugar?”
Everyone looked toward Fuji, who paused in his stare at the Jousei Shounen buchou to return their looks with a confused expression.
“Eh? Why is everyone assuming it’s me?” Unfortunately, no one seemed to be buying Fuji’s protests of innocence.
“Fuji, 20 laps around the room.” Tezuka solved the problem with his typical solution, though it might have also been a tactic to prevent the tensai from trying to challenge Kajimoto to a deathmatch.
Meanwhile, Oishi was still trying to pry his partner off from where Eiji had leeched onto a helpless Shinjyou’s arm like a barnacle, pulling him toward the courts. “Oi, Eiji! What are you doing?!”
“Nya! I just want to try out his Mirage! Come on, Shin-chan, play a game with me!”
“B-but what about the Deep Impulse! You’ll get hurt!”
“Nya, nya, you worry too much, Oishi. I did fine against Hyotei’s Kaba-chan, didn’t I?”
“Eiji!”
The rest of both teams watched in fear and awe as the hyperactive Eiji finally managed to drag both Shinjyou (who was too freaked out to resist) and the still protesting Oishi off to one of the courts.
“That’s just Eiji-senpai for you,” Momoshiro grinned. Then he whirled on the twins whom he had to default to in their game. “Oi, if we’re free to play who we want, then I want to challenge you two for a rematch.”
“That’s fine with us,” replied Youhei.
“Just don’t faint on us again,” continued Kouhei.
“Hmph, we’ll see who the real winner is this time,” Momo announced. “Let’s go, Inui-senpai.”
“Iya.” Inui quickly nixed his plans. “Sorry, but I have no interest in playing doubles with you, Momo.” He grinned as light glinted off his glasses. “I would rather prefer to play a doubles game with Kaidoh against the Kiriyama-Oota pair.”
“Eh?” Wakato perked up from where he was about to approach Kaidoh. “But I want to have a rematch against Kaidoh!”
The Seigaku second-year in question looked between his senpai and the Jousei Shounen idol. Much as he wanted to play more singles, it was his senpai’s stubbornly possessive look and his own dislike of clingy defeated foes who kept yammering for rematches (like that Fudomine speed idiot) which decided him.
“Hai, senpai,” Kaidoh hissed as he went to join Inui, completely ignoring the sputtering Wakato, who was entirely unused to being rejected for anything.
“Damn it,” Momo cursed as he was deprived of both his original doubles partner and the only other doubles partner he had practice with, even if he could never get along with the mamushi. With Fuji-senpai still running laps and Tezuka being utterly unapproachable, that just left him with one choice. “Oi, Echizen, you’re playing doubles with me!”
“No way!” Echizen tried to escape. But he wasn’t fast enough as Momo snagged him by the collar and physically dragged him over to the court where Youhei and Kouhei were waiting. “I don’t want to play doubles!”
“Come on, Echizen!” Momo complained, his mind already on the match ahead. “Listen to your senpai. Stop whining and let’s play!”
Hanamura and Kajimoto blinked as the first round of matches suddenly sorted themselves out.
On Court A, Eiji had managed to return all of Shinjyou’s Mirage balls courtesy of his sensitive sight and excellent reflexes. Oishi, meanwhile, had begun to hyperventilate between making referee calls as he watched Eiji’s reckless attempts at returning the Deep Impulse, often dodging away from being hit at the very last second.
On Court B, Inui was freaking out both of the Jousei Shounen second years with his vocal predictions and data recitations, while Kaidoh was trying to avoid all association of himself with his senpai.
On Court C, it immediately became obvious, much to Hanamura-sensei’s great dismay, that while Echizen was a great singles player, he obviously lacked any skill at all in doubles. Which was to say, the Momo-Echizen pair sucked and was losing quite badly. Neither Youhei nor Kouhei were amused at things were going, especially after being subjected to their split-court two-singles play and their Ah-Un strategy.
Kajimoto wondered just what his team had gotten themselves into.
“Yatta!” Eiji crowed in triumph as he returned Shinjyou’s last Deep Impulse with a running-start full-body Kikumaru Rocket.
“Game and match to Eiji,” Oishi muttered as he collapsed to the ground, panting as if he had been the one to play the game.
“Nya? Oishi?” Eiji skipped over to his partner and poked him in the side. “Oishi! Get up! I still want to play some doubles games too!”
Back on the court, the immobile form of Shinjyou stared at Eiji with not a little bit of trepidation in his eyes. He didn’t regret it at all to end the game as soon as possible, no matter who won, if only to get away from the bundle of energy that was giving him static shock from just looking at him.
“Saa, Oishi looks like he just had a heart attack,” Fuji commented as he finished his laps. He then turned to Kajimoto, obviously about to ask for a match.
“Fuji,” Tezuka interrupted him before he could speak. “Go see Shinjyou-kun for a rematch for your last game.”
The tensai pouted at his buchou to no effect. “Na, Tezuka, if you say so.”
Kajimoto looked between the departing tensai and the Seigaku buchou, and then decided that he really didn’t want to know.
Meanwhile, the other two doubles matches had also finished. Inui had summarily challenged Wakato to a match, and was showing him just how much of a liability being a pretender of well-known (and well statistized) tennis stars was when playing against data tennis. Momoshiro, after having lost humiliatingly with Echizen, was trying to talk Kaidoh into a doubles game against the twins, with the latter repeatedly refusing just out of the sheer principle of never playing with Momoshiro unless forced to. And so it went…
Finally, the practice session was over and the Seigaku Regulars piled on to their bus. Kajimoto had the strangest sense of relief as he waved them off, of having somehow survived Fuji’s several attempts at trying to challenge him to a match.
On the Seigaku bus, in the meantime, all was well except for Fuji’s sulking and Eiji’s continued hyperactivity.
“He can’t still be on a sugar high, can he?” Momo commented loudly in disbelief as he watched Oishi trying his best to keep his partner from bouncing off the walls.
“It’s not a sugar high,” Inui murmured from beside Kaidoh near the back of the bus.
Kaidoh gave his senpai a wary look. His instincts told him that now was a good time to move away from Inui. “Then what is it?”
“Hi-mi-tsu.” Inui’s glasses glinted. Kaidoh dashed for the seat on the other side of the aisle.
“Inui.” Tezuka’s voice reached from the front of the bus to where Inui was sitting in the back easily. “20 laps around the courts as soon as we get back.”
“Hai.”
~* OWARI *~
Japanese Terms:
Iya = No.
Nani = What?
Yudan seizu ni ikou = Let's play without regrets./Let's play with our best. (Tezuka's catchphrase)
Senbatsu = Junior Invitational.
Yarou = Bastard.
Gomen = Sorry.
Shimatta = mild curse word
Urusai = Shut up.
Ochibi = Kiddo. Little one.
Tsubame Gaeshi = Swallow Return (one of Fuji's moves)
Tensai = Prodigy.
Mada mada dane = You're not good enough yet. (Echizen's catchphrase)
Himitsu = Secret.
Continuity Notes:
Well, we already have it so that Seigaku played Midoriyama (manga continuity) instead of Jousei Shounen (anime continuity) in junior high, just so that we don’t have the GP being able to do the I-Formation before “Revenge Best Served Cold”. However, after re-viewing the Jousei Shounen match recently, a plot bunny came and bit me (mostly to do with all the lap-running going on) and I had to re-write the Jousei Shounen match into Psidai continuity. So the simplest thing would be just to set it in the high school Kantou tournament.
Of course, in addition to this, we’ll also have to pretend that Kajimoto wasn’t at the junior high Senbatsu of anime continuity, and therefore has never played Tezuka at this point. However, I am inclined to keep Shinjyou’s doubles match with Shinji and the manzai pair, so I guess Hanamura was at that Senbatsu because she was a sponsor, and she brought one of her masterpieces-in-progress, Shinjyou, with her to use as a benchmark for the progress of the other players.
Notes: Ugh. Up all night writing this. Gonna go unconscious now. Don't call me until dinner tomorrow.
Addendum: Edits all around. Changed a few sections and cleared up most of the spelling/grammar errors.
Series: Psidai AU
Fandom: Prince of Tennis
Rating: G
Word Count: 7280
Pairings: InuKai (with a bit of MomoKai?), GP, TezuFuji
Warnings: OOC-ness, Crack
Summary/Notes: Instead of facing Jousei Shounen in junior high (anime continuity), Seigaku faced Midoriyama in the Kantou tournament (manga continuity). Now in high school, the same Seigaku lineup (with the addition of Tezuka) faces the same Jousei Shounen of anime in the match for the Kantou top four. This is the story from the anime, appropriately rewritten.
Disclaimer: Prince of Tennis and all associated characters belong to Konomi-sensei, not me.
A Seigaku at Kanto Story
Hiko-sensei, coach of Seigaku high school’s tennis club, clenched his fist around the magazine that Inui given him. Tossing the abused booklet on the table, he stalked around the room, railing as he did so.
“Jousei Shounen’s Wakato Hiroshi, huh? I’d like to ask him just which part of our team is incompetent! Tezuka! No matter what, we have to crush them in this match!”
“Hai,” Tezuka replied evenly, not appearing the slightest bit ruffled by the contents of the interview.
But Hiko-sensei seemed not to have heard, and continued to rant as he trampled around the room. “We’re not going to back down when someone picks a fight! We’re going to put Kaidoh on Singles 3! We have to show them what we’re made of! Got it?”
“Hai.” Inui and Tezuka replied in unison, though only one of them sounded the tiniest bit smug.
As Hiko-sensei continued to rant to himself in a low muttering voice, totally ignoring the two students in the room, Tezuka finally turned to Inui.
“You showed him that on purpose to provoke him, didn’t you?” he asked Inui.
Inui adjusted his glasses again. “Competitive spirit is important, after all,” he replied, which was just as good as confessing the deed. For a moment, he was sure that Tezuka was going to assign him laps for what he’d done. But Tezuka merely gave him a stern look of dismissal before going back to sit down before the registration sheet.
‘There is a 65% chance,’ Inui mused to himself as he left the room, taking the article as he did so, ‘that perhaps Tezuka really didn’t appreciate being called incompetent either.’
Back on the courts, his next target was the player whose position had just been decided. He waited patiently for Kaidoh to finish up his practice match with Echizen, before motioning for his kouhai to join him at the courtsides.
Kaidoh remained silent as he read through the magazine article that Inui had just shown to their coach. His only reactions were the intermittent twitching of his eyebrows and a slight narrowing of his eyes when he finished and looked back up at his senpai.
“Well?” Inui finally asked when it seemed as if Kaidoh wasn’t going to say anything.
“What?” Kaidoh asked evenly, seemingly calm.
Now it was Inui’s turn to feel a twitch in his eyebrows. It seemed that, every once in a while, his kouhai took great secret delight in completely turning his predictions on the latter’s reactions completely on its head. Or at least, that’s what it felt like to him.
“Aren’t you the slightest bit insulted by that interview?” Inui asked, peering closely at his junior.
“Aa.” But Kaidoh’s expression still only held the normal levels of apparent anger.
“You’re… not mad? No sudden impulse to show that player and the rest of his school just what you’re capable of?”
Kaidoh blinked at him. “That’s a given, isn’t it? We’re playing them tomorrow.”
Inui wondered what happened to Kaidoh today to turn him so… so mellow. Especially since this would be his first singles game in quite a while now. He didn’t get another semi-amnesiac head injury, did he? Before he could reach over and start examining his kouhai’s head (which would no doubt earn him a smack on his own head if he was wrong), Kaidoh hissed and turned away.
“Senpai,” he said as he walked away. “Since when did you start taking insults on my behalf? We’ll beat them tomorrow. You worry too much.”
Inui stared after his departing kouhai with a small rueful smile. “I think you know exactly when… and why, Kaoru,” he murmured softly, low enough that Kaidoh wouldn’t hear and berate him again for taking such liberties in public.
The next day found Echizen Ryoma walking toward the stadium where the second day of the Kantou tournament was being held. He wasn’t in any hurry, even though he would probably be the last person on the team to arrive, again. But then, he was still thoroughly disgruntled at being alternate, having refused to play Doubles 2 with Momoshiro since Hiko-sensei had insisted on taking him out of Singles 3.
Reaching the entrance to the stadium, he barely spared a glance at the gaggle of fangirls that seemed to be swarming some tennis player from some team that had just arrived. However, he was brought to a stop at the bottom of the stairs by a voice calling out his name. Turning, he was faced with some lady that seemed to be with the tennis team by the fangirls.
“I’m Hanamura,” the woman introduced herself, “the coach of Jousei Shounen’s tennis club. I’m pleased to meet you again.”
“Thanks,” Echizen replied out of barest courtesy, though he honestly couldn’t recall having seen this woman before. Then again, there wasn’t much he ever noticed outside of tennis.
“I’ve been watching you all along,” Hanamura continued. “You’re great material. You know, you could be even better if you come to us. I could complete you as the greatest masterpiece ever. It wouldn’t matter if you come after the Regionals…”
“Iya.” Echizen didn’t even need to consider the offer before he responded. “To complete would mean that’s the end, right?” If anyone thought he’d be content to merely reach some high plateau, even if it was above everyone else, they must be out of their minds. With that, Echizen turned to leave.
“Wait,” Hanamura called out just as he began climbing the stairs. “Would you consider it if you lost to one of my players today?”
Echizen just shrugged and continued to walk, not even turning around as he replied. “Iya. I’m not even playing today.”
He ignored the surprised “Nani?!” from behind him and resolutely walked on. He disliked dealing with stalkers, no matter how old they were.
Hiko-sensei was standing with the Seigaku team as Tezuka gave them the usual pre-game pep-talk (“Yudan seizu ni ikou!”) when Hanamura arrived with the Jousei Shounen team and immediately headed their way.
“Excuse me,” she said as she walked up to Hiko and introduced herself. “You’re Seigaku’s coach, right? I’d like to know why you put someone as talented and full of potential as Echizen Ryoma on alternate for today’s match.”
Hiko spared the coach of his recently avowed rival school a cool glance. “Well we had planned to put him in singles, but we had to take your Wakato-kun’s challenge for Singles 3 and Fuji-kun won the draw for Singles 2. Since we certainly weren’t going to move Tezuka from Singles 1 and Echizen refused to play doubles, there wasn’t much choice but to put him on alternate.”
Hanamura stared at him. “Wakato-kun’s challenge?” she asked in confusion.
“It was in that interview he gave to Tennis Teen Monthly last month,” Inui told her helpfully.
“I see,” Hanamura frowned as she vaguely remembered the interview in question. “Excuse me.”
The rest of the Seigaku team followed her with their eyes as she walked up to one of her players. Shooing away the many fangirls surrounding him, she appeared to be engaged in a heated conversation with the young man, who began to look increasingly sheepish.
“Hey, their coach is pretty hot,” Momo spoke up with a grin.
Echizen rolled his eyes at him and put in his two cents. “She’s kind of weird though.”
“Oh? You know her?” Momo asked.
“She was one of the sponsors at the Senbatsu three years ago,” Inui supplied.
Echizen shook his head. “No, I mean she was hitting on me earlier.”
“EEEHHH?!?!” Several of his teammates gaped at him in shock.
Just then, the announcer called for the beginning of the match between Seigaku and Jousei Shounen, asking for the Doubles 2 of both teams to enter the court. Just as Inui and Momo walked onto the court and the two coaches sat down after greeting each other, Eiji suddenly jumped up and pressed his face to the wired fence.
“Look! Look!” he called out, waving his arm toward Hanamura, who was just putting away a key-ring cell phone in one of her hands. “She’s got Tezuka on her key-chain!”
“Saa, I guess she wasn’t stalking after Echizen after all,” murmured Fuji, “but after Tezuka.”
Echizen grinned up saucily at his buchou, who was giving Fuji a stern glare. “Eh, buchou, you’re such a stud,” he teased.
Tezuka didn’t even bother to glare at him. “Echizen, Fuji, 20 laps around the court.”
Without a protest, the two Seigaku Regulars began to run around the outside of the court where the competition was taking place, drawing some odd looks from the Jousei Shounen Regulars.
Inside the courts, Hiko-sensei was quietly muttering to himself. “I’m a genius! By putting Echizen on alternate, Tezuka can make him run laps without interfering with the match!”
Both Hanamura and the referee gave him strange looks, but then the match began.
The fact that Inui and Momoshiro was a newly put-together pair became immediately apparent after their match started when their opponents, Youhei and Kouhei, immediately seized control of the game. It didn’t help either that they seemed to know exactly what buttons to push to rile up Momo to the point that he was playing a singles game against the both of them.
“Nya, nya, what is Momo doing?!” demanded Eiji as he clutched at the wire fence surrounding the court. “He wasn’t this bad when he played doubles with Kaidoh!”
“Aa,” agreed Oishi from beside him. “If he doesn’t calm down, his temper is going to make them drop the game.”
Kaidoh hissed from where he stood leaning against a tree further back behind the other Regulars. In his opinion, it was just like that baka Momoshiro to embarrass them all from the start.
Finally, at 3-0 in Jousei Shounen’s favor, Inui took the court-change break to seriously speak to Momoshiro.
“Momo,” the Seigaku data-man said evenly, “according to my calculations, our opponents have less than 50% accuracy in hitting the buttons to make you angry than Kaidoh does in your typical practice matches. Don’t you think you’re giving our current opponents far too much credit in letting them control your reactions so far?”
“Huh?” Momoshiro stared at Inui blankly, not understanding a word his senior was saying.
Inui signed and motioned toward the sidelines with his head. Momo automatically followed his gesture, turning around to see Kaidoh standing under a nearby tree.
Kaidoh just glared back at him. “Baka,” he said, knowing that even though Momo was too far away to hear him, he could read the word from his lip movement. Then he deliberately looked away in a clear gesture of dismissal and inclined his head slightly toward Inui with an expression that almost spoke of sympathy.
By the close understanding that came from their heated rivalry, Momo instinctively understood the meaning behind the gesture. Kaidoh was saying that he was sorry for Inui-senpai for having to play doubles with an idiot who’s obviously not nearly as good as himself. Of course, there was no way that Momoshiro was going to let that insult pass by unchallenged.
“Yarou,” Momoshiro muttered at Kaidoh’s tacit insult to him. But he smiled slightly after he turned back around to Inui. He stood and bowed, saying “Gomen, Inui-senpai. I let my temper get the better of me. It won’t happen again. We will win this!”
“Aa. Their data is in my grasp.” Inui adjusted his glasses, letting the light glint off them eerily. “No matter how sensitive and quick their sight and hearing are, they still have to run to get into position. Momo, your Jacknife should be faster than that. Also, even if their senses tell them what kind of hit we’ll make, there are ways to make it so that they can’t predict where and how our shots will land. That is the weakness in their game.”
Momoshiro blinked and gaped at Inui’s detailed analysis of the situation. “H-hai!”
“Well then,” Inui grinned with an expression that usually meant someone was going to be playing guinea pig for his latest juice. “Let’s go.”
They took the next five games straight.
However, at the rest break after the eighth game, disaster struck when Momoshiro accidentally drank from Inui’s water bottle, and then promptly hit the ground in a dead faint. Apparently Inui had been experimenting with his Inui Juices again, and Momo had just become the next unwilling tester. However, with one of their doubles pair being carted off on a stretcher to be treated for food poisoning, Seigaku was forced to default their Doubles 2 on the verge of winning.
“Sorry, everyone,” Inui said as he exited the court. “I seemed to have miscalculated.”
No one else seemed to know what to say to him in light of the completely mind boggling way they’d lost the Doubles 2 match.
No one except for Tezuka. “Inui, 20 laps around the court.”
“Hai.”
“And after you finish you can run Momoshiro’s 20 laps too.”
“Hai.”
Meanwhile, the Doubles 1 match had begun on the court between Seigaku’s Golden Pair and Jousei Shounen’s Kiriyama-Oota pair.
Jousei Shounen had the first serve, and the Golden Pair quickly discovered the iron wall that was Kiriyama at net, moving quickly despite his bulk with just two or three steps each time to cover the entire range of the net. And then, in quick succession, they were also introduced to the two ace techniques of the Jousei Shounen pair – the Canon Volley and the Thunderbolt.
“Che, you’ve got to be kidding me,” Eiji gaped from the baseline as Oota landed after his running leap off his partner’s shoulder. Then he paused as his gaze was drawn to the silent form of Oishi, who had reached behind with his left hand, index finger extended up, in a silent signal.
“Hm…” Eiji let out a small grin as he picked up the intention behind his partner’s sign. And the next time he volleyed the ball, he braced himself and gave it as high of a lob as he could reasonably manage.
“Shimatta!” Oota yelled as the ball sailed over him by whole centimeters. “It’s going to go out!”
“Out! Game, Jousei Shounen, 1-0.”
“They look like they’ve already won” Kaidoh noted with some disgust at the cheers and posing come from the Jousei Shounen players and fans.
“Mada mada dane,” Echizen snarked. “I’ve seen that look in Oishi-senpai and Eiji-senpai’s eyes before.”
“When was that?”
“When they played that practice match against Momoshiro and Echizen with the ropes tied to them,” Inui replied as he ran by.
The next game went to Seigaku, with Oishi showing that physical prowess isn’t everything to tennis, and taking a love game of his own with psychological ploys. Eager to wipe away the stigma of being outsmarted like that, the Kiriyama quickly moved to end the first volley of the third game with his Cannon Volley. However…
“Hoi!” *SMASH*
“W-what was that?!” Kiriyama stammered as Eiji made one last twirl in the air and landed lightly on his feet.
Fuji chuckled from the sidelines. “That’s the aerial counter that Hyotei’s Mukahi used against Momoshiro’s Dunk Smash, isn’t it?”
“Not quite,” Inui replied from where he was scribbling in his notebook, having finished his laps. “Eiji doesn’t have quite the gymnastic ability that Mukahi does. His jump isn’t nearly as high. However, Kiriyama’s Cannon Volley is also nowhere near the strength of Momo’s Dunk Smash. Therefore, Eiji’s modified counter is sufficient enough to counter it.”
“Saa, I see.” Fuji smiled and turned back to the game, where two more Cannon Volleys were return smashed by Eiji’s midair counter. “It must gall Eiji quite a bit to have to use his rival’s moves like that. However, it does effectively seal the Cannon Volley.”
“Yes, now all that’s left is the Thund--ah.”
Inui trailed off when he heard the familiar scraping of a racquet along the ground. Sure enough, Oishi was spinning around to catch the ball low along the ground.
“There it is!” called out the various Seigaku non-Regulars. “Moon Volley!”
“This one’s ours!” called out Oota as he dashed up his partner’s shoulders and leapt for the Thunderbolt. The ball cleared his racquet by mere millimeters. “It’s going to go out!”
*THUD*
“Game, Seigaku, 2-1. Change court.”
Oishi and Eiji high-fived, their palms lingering far longer than necessary.
“It landed on the baseline, and went just above their reach too,” Kaidoh murmured unnecessarily. “Che. That’s just like Oishi-senpai.”
“Aa,” Fuji agreed. “He must have used Eiji’s final lob in the first match as a measuring standard to see just how high the Thunderbolt’s reach extended.”
“No wonder they were smiling like that,” Echizen grumbled.
The Jousei Shounen pair put up a good fight, but it was apparent that the Golden Pair held the advantage. An Oishi Territory, an I-Formation, and several Kikumaru Multiple Splits later, they cleared the match 6-2. After the game point, the two pairs went to the net to shake hands.
“Doubles has never been so interesting,” Kiriyama said with a smile.
“Yeah, it’s no wonder you guys are a nationally ranked pair,” Oota agreed. “We learned a lot from you.”
“Aa, but you guys played well too,” Oishi demurred. “You’re second years, right? And this is your school’s first time in participating in the Kantou tournament? I’m sure you’ll have plenty of time in the future to improve.”
“That’s right!” Eiji agreed. “You guys got the moves, and you’re a good combination too. All you need is more experience.”
“Oh, I don’t know,” said Kiriyama sheepishly as he scratched the back of his head. “I don’t think we’ll ever be able to pull of the kind of formations you guys can.”
Eiji immediately waved his concerns away. “Maa, maa, Kiri-chan, all you need is the right formation and you’ll have no problems. I know! I know the perfect formation for you guys! Oishi, you stand here and pretend you’re Kiriyama.” He pushed his surprised partner into position. “—And pretend I’m Oota. Then, all you got to do is this, and then this, and then…” As he spoke, he broke out his Multiple Split move, setting out several afterimages of himself running about the court.
The Jousei Shounen pair stared at him in wide-eyed astonishment. Oishi sweatdropped at his partner’s antics. “Oi, Eiji! I don’t think this is the time or place for this!”
“Hey, you!” called out the referee. “Doubles 1 is over! Clear the courts!”
“Eiji!” Oishi called out to his partner in vain, as Eiji seemed to still be too high on adrenaline to calm down enough to listen.
“Kikumaru!” Finally, the absolute voice of authority caused Eiji to freeze mid-step in some complicated move, his racquet dropping to the ground.
“Ah? Tezuka-buchou?” Eiji blinked obliviously, and Oishi placed a hand on his forehead, already mentally gearing up for the laps they would no doubt have to run.
“20 laps around the courts.” Tezuka was evidently not amused with Eiji's antics either.
“Hai!” Undaunted by the fact that he was supposedly being punished, Eiji skipped off.
“Oishi, run it with him.” The implicit responsibility to keep Eiji from getting into trouble while running his laps, which was always a possibility where the hyperactive acrobat was involved, was as usual handed to Oishi.
“Hai.” Oishi sighed, resigned to his role. Bowing quickly to his opponents, he picked up Eiji’s abandoned racquet and hurried out of the court.
Next came Singles 3 and Wakato’s tennis pros impressions.
“Oi, oi, why does that guy keep changing forms?!” Eiji complained as he finished his laps at the 3-2 court change.
Fuji turned to him with a smile. “Heh, but Kaidoh isn’t doing too badly either. He’s not backing down at all before these specialist impressions.”
“That’s our Kaidoh,” commented Oishi as he also joined the group. “He’s the amazing one to be able to keep up his score in the face of all that pressure.”
Inui chuckled and adjusted his glasses. “Kaidoh’s playing at his best,” he told the others. “It’s a result of his special training regimen, which not only concentrated on his physical abilities, but also his mental focus, which has always been one of his weak points.” There was a definite note of pride in his words.
“Don’t you mean, your special training regimen?” Fuji teased him.
Inui smiled. “Whatever you prefer.”
Meanwhile, Wakato turned from catering to his fans at the rest break to address Kaidoh on the opposite bench.
“I should tell you something,” he said arrogantly. “Your ‘Snake’ is just a variation of the Buggy Whip Shot. It’s not something you invented, which means you have nothing original too. That just means your development is slower than those who can copy and incorporate various forms into their play style.”
Kaidoh remained silent in the face of that taunt. Putting down his towel, he headed back to the court, glancing only once toward where his teammates stood by the sidelines, and into the reflective glasses of one person in particular. Inui’s face was absolutely expressionless, which told Kaidoh that his senpai had again taken more insult from the stupid diva than he had. Really, there ought to be some limits to possessiveness, even if Inui was sort of a trainer to him as well as… well, something more.
Wakato also headed back to his service position to the cheers of his fans.
“Go, go, Wakato-kun!”
“Victory! Hiroshi-kun!”
“Show that school of weirdos what you can do!”
“Crush that scary-looking guy you’re playing!”
Kaidoh’s eyebrows twitched and he gritted his teeth as the calls from the cheerleaders became more and more personal. If anything, that was one of the main reasons he couldn’t stand associating with girls.
*WHACK* *SMACK* “AAIIIIIEEE!”
Wakato’s serve was returned with a high-flying Snake-shot that sailed right over the wire fence surrounding the courts and landed right in front of the gaggle of fangirls. Almost everyone from both teams gaped at the deliberate fault.
“Urusai!” Kaidoh yelled at the stunned girls.
“Oi, Kaidoh, what do you think you’re doing?!” Oishi admonished loudly, recovering from his shock.
“Well, I guess his mental focus isn’t perfect yet,” Inui sighed. Taking out his notebook, he began to scribble in it, muttering about training regimen adjustments as he wrote.
“Kaidoh!” Tezuka barked out, “20 laps around the court after your match.”
Kaidoh hissed in acknowledgement and turned back to the game.
“Eh… Kaidoh-senpai seems to have relaxed some of his tension,” Echizen commented. He personally didn’t see what was so bad about shutting up annoying fangirl stalkers. He had the urge to do that all the time.
“Go get him, Kaidoh!” cheered Eiji. “Show him just who’s slow and unoriginal!” Then he paused and looked slightly puzzled. “But, you know, why isn’t Kaidoh using his Boomerang shots? That would definitely prove that he’s not unoriginal at all.”
No one had the answer to that question, so they all turned to Inui for an explanation. The data-man adjusted his glasses as he stared at his kouhai on the courts.
“He’s being surprisingly stubborn today,” Inui finally sighed, “but it is his first singles game in a long time now. There’s a 98% probability that he actually wants the match to last longer. 72% chance that he’s also working off the frustration of being on doubles all the time.”
“So that’s it,” Fuji grinned. “Well, I guess he’s entitled to the break. Besides, it’s not as if Kaidoh is doing badly with his current ‘slow and unoriginal’ style.”
“Game, Seigaku, 5-4. Change court!”
As Kaidoh settled into position across the court from Wakato, he paused to initiate a conversation with his opponent for the first time. “I admit your skills are great,” he said. However, I know people who can use those moves better than you.” For that matter, Echizen alone could do enough impressions of top-notch players like Tezuka and Sanada that would put Wakato’s best efforts to shame.
Now it was Wakato’s turn to angrily grit his teeth. Then, forcing himself to relax, he gave an exaggerated shrug. “Well, I’m honestly in awe,” Wakato said with a slight undertone of sarcasm. “I guess there are some good points in your club of performers. However… I have just determined the ultimate opponent to crush you.”
The members of Seigaku on the sidelines gasped as Wakato’s next changeover took the form of a mirror image of Kaidoh, right down to the Snake-shots. However, after a few false starts and the taunt of being beaten by his own move, Kaidoh turned the third round into an all-out Snake-war.
“Oi, Ochibi!” Eiji glomped onto Echizen for a moment before jumping back over to the wire fence. “Kaidoh’s using your move from your first match together!” Indeed, Kaidoh was driving deep shots toward Wakato’s feet with his Snake-shots, forcing the other to expend his stamina catching them.
“Change over, huh?” Echizen muttered, doffing his hat. “I guess I’m honored.”
“Not just that,” Inui put in, finally finding the glimmer of intense concentration in his kouhai’s eyes. “But given that expression, there is a 90% chance that Kaidoh will finally use—“
“There it is! Boomerang—”
“No! It’s not the Boomerang Snake! It’s—What was THAT?!”
“—his Spiral Boomerang Snake,” Inui finished. He adjusted his glasses and grinned. “There is less than 2% possibility that Wakato has the necessary physique and training to be able to copy that.”
“Spiral Boomerang Snake?!”
Inui smiled nostalgically. “It was something we worked on last year, since we both had spare time from not being on the Regulars.” His glasses glinted. “It requires much of the required power of the Hadoukyuu to give the ball its consistent force, and the refined finesse of the Boomerang Snake to give it the precise angle of spiral. Someone who hasn’t gone through Kaidoh’s precise training regimen simply doesn’t have the physical capability of copying that move.”
Back on the court, Kaidoh regarded his opponent evenly. “You can’t mimic me anymore,” he told Wakato calmly. Turnabout was fair play, after all.
This time, however, it was Wakato’s turn to become stubborn. After two more Spiral Boomerang Snakes, he attempted to mimic that shot as well.
“Out! Advantage, Kaidoh.”
“Just as I calculated,” Inui grinned and pushed up his glasses, which were glinting brightly under the sun. “This game is over.”
The next ball flew around the pole like a small comet and slammed it self on the opposite court, leaving a scorch mark where it landed.
“Hadoukyuu Boomerang!”
“Game and match to Seigaku, 6-4!”
To the cheers of his teammates and the lament of Wakato’s fan following, Kaidoh shook hands with his opponent and exited the court. He was putting his racquet away before running his laps when Wakato approached him.
“All right, I admit that was amazing. It was a complete defeat,” said the Jousei Shounen idol. “Those Boomerang shots of yours must have taken some very special training to pull off…”
“A specialized daily training regimen constantly adapted to his incremental improvements, actually,” Inui broke in, appearing out of nowhere. “The results are impressive, are they not?”
Kaidoh hissed at his grinning senpai, who was standing far too close for comfort. Besides, it was rather embarrassing to see Inui gloating over his win like that, even if most others wouldn’t be able apart the subtle differences in his flashing glasses and eerie grins.
Wakato gave Inui a blank look. “Eh? What’s it to you?”
“Doesn’t your coach refer to your team as her masterpieces?” Inui asked rhetorically. He laid a possessive hand on Kaidoh’s shoulder. “Well, Kaoru is my masterpiece.”
Kaidoh jerked his shoulder out of Inui’s grasp. “Baka senpai!” he snapped, flushing out of anger and embarrassment both, “don’t call me that in public!” Wakato looked between them with wide eyes and started backing away.
“Inui! Kaidoh!” Tezuka’s commanding voice suddenly broke through the tableau. “Both of you, 20 more laps!”
“Fsssshhh.” Kaidoh threw his towel at his senpai, spun around and started running. Inui stared after his departing form, still smiling smugly as he clutched the light green towel, before following. Wakato decided he didn’t want to know.
Soon afterwards came the Singles 2 match between Seigaku’s tensai, Fuji, and Hanamura’s best masterpiece, Shinjyou Reiji. The match began with the illusion of normality as Fuji quickly won the first two rounds. But in the third round, the Seigaku team found out that those early rounds had been dropped on purpose in preparation of Shinjyou’s ‘Mirage’.
“Game, Jousei Shounen, 1-2. Change court!”
“Aahh, this is bad!” cried Eiji, his face pressed against the wire fence. “That ball just changed from a top-spin to an under-spin again!”
“You worry too much, Eiji-senpai,” Echizen muttered with a bored look at the frazzled redhead.
Indeed, Fuji was smiling with his eyes half open as he prepared for the next serve. He quickly moved backwards just before Shinjyou returned it.
“Tsubame Gaeshi!”
*SWISH* *ROLLROLLROLL*
“That’s right!” cheered Eiji, “ Fuji’s Tsubame Gaeshi is a counter that works the best when you have a good spin on the ball!”
“Aa,” agreed Oishi enthusiastically. “And since the Mirage must have some kind of spin to work, it’s guaranteed to be countered!”
“Not to mention that by standing back further from the baseline, he can pick up the spin of ball after it has changed and stabilized,” Inui added.
“Game, Seigaku, 3-1.”
When the next round started, Shinjyou adapted to the Tsubame Gaeshi by returning it at the net before it could touch ground. But undeterred, Fuji proved that his counter had improved over the years. The next Tsubame Gaeshi that Shinjyou caught zoomed along his racquet and up his arm instead of bouncing back over the net.
“I see,” Inui murmured into his notebook, having long finished his run. “To return the new Tsubame Gaeshi, one must be able to know exactly what spin the return ball has and how to return it. However, due to the nature of the Mirage, it’s almost impossible to determine that spin. So once again, the very nature of his opponent’s shots serve to make Fuji’s counter almost unreturnable.”
“Game, Seigaku, 5-3.”
“All right, Fuji!” Eiji yelled happily. “One more game and we’ll be taking this match! Go for—huh?”
Suddenly, one of Fuji’s returns shot outwards from the court, nearly skimming Hanamura’s face as it struck the side of the court.
“Ah, gomen, gomen,” Fuji smiled sweetly at his opponent and opposing team’s coach. “That was an accident.”
The Seigaku members looked at each other uneasily.
“Was that really an accident?” Eiji muttered quietly.
“It would seem so,” Inui replied, though there was some hesitation in his voice as well. “I believe Shinjyou tried to do a heavy Mirage ball with no spin on his last shot. That could account for the erratic path of the ball.”
“Or maybe Fuji-senpai’s just still mad that their coach is stalking Tezuka-buchou,” muttered Echizen, voicing the doubt that was on his other teammates’ minds as well. They all looked toward Tezuka, who merely gave them all a stern glare before turning back toward the courts.
“Ah, Reiji, no! Don’t use that move!”
The loud call from Hanamura quickly diverted their attention to what was happening back on the courts. Shinjyou, however, didn’t heed the warning as he introduced his still-smiling opponent to his Deep Impulse. The first shot sent Fuji crashing to the ground with a scratch along the side of his face.
“Fuji!” Eiji called out to his friend as the latter climbed back to his feet.
The rest of the Seigaku team watched in silent awe as Fuji was able to dodge the barrage of Deep Impulse shots, which all seemed to be aimed directly at injuring him.
“This is bad, this is bad!” Eiji was jumping around in agitation. “That guy’s like Rikkai’s Doubles 1 and how Kirihara used to be!”
“But it’s good that Fuji has been able to avoid getting hurt so far,” Oishi sighed. “It seems his dodging speed at least has improved because of his game against Atobe last year at the Nationals. However…”
“However, if he’s only dodging the balls, he isn’t returning them,” supplied Inui, “thus giving Shinjyou the point.”
“Game, Jousei Shounen, 5-4!”
“Mou, come on, Fuji! Get yourself together!” Eiji cupped his hands to his mouth and yelled at his teammate. From long association, he knew exactly which buttons to push. “If you lose this game, then it’d be up to Tezuka-buchou to play the last game with their buchou!”
“Eiji!” Oishi clapped his hand over his partner’s mouth. But it was too late.
Fuji’s eyes snapped open the rest of the way. He stood his ground against the next Deep Impulse, and somehow managed to barely return it with a two-handed shot. However, that made him off balance for the next Deep Impulse. Instead of scraping by his face, the shot slammed right into the side of his face, sending Fuji crashing to the ground again.
“Ah, Fuji!” When the tensai didn’t get up, several of his teammates and their coach rushed onto the courts to his fallen form. Unfortunately, it seemed that the shot had knocked Fuji right out, and continuing the match was no longer an option. Thus, the Singles 2 game was defaulted to Jousei Shounen.
Soon after Fuji was carted away, the Singles 1 match began between the buchou-tachi of the two schools. As was usual when Tezuka actually played, many of the spectators had their faces practically glued to the wire fence.
Kajimoto had the first serve, and the Seigaku Regulars watched in fascination as he bent backwards until his head almost touched the ground in preparation of his serve.
*TWACK* The ball flashed out, fast and strong.
However, Tezuka was already there, catching and returning it.
“It’s fast,” commented Oishi, “but…”
“…not as fast as Yagyuu’s Laser Beam,” finished Eiji, his eyes wide open and his hands circled around his eyes like binoculars, as if that would help him see better.
“And compared to Sanada’s Invisible Swing,” Echizen added, pulling down his hat, “mada mada dane.”
Inui had pulled out a radar measure from somewhere before the serve and was taking down notes from the readout. “The speed of that serve clocks at 195 km/hr. That is only about one third the current speed of Ohtori’s Scud Serve.”
“It looks slower than your speed serve too, senpai,” Kaidoh put in helpfully.
The gathered Jousei Shounen Regulars shot irritated looks at the running commentary denouncing their buchou’s serve. Even Hanamura looked rather piqued at the comparison of her masterpiece to the other high level serves, even if there wasn’t any room for her to argue the facts.
By this time, Tezuka had finished the first round of volleys courtesy of his Tezuka Zone. Seeing the disgruntled looks on his opponent, the opposing team, and their coach, he turned to face his own far too noisy team.
“All of you, 20 laps around the court.”
“Hai!”
Ignoring the small horde of teens trampling around the court, Tezuka turned back to his game.
“My apologies, Kajimoto-san. Shall we continue?”
Meanwhile, back on the sidelines, Wakato sweatdropped as the Seigaku Regulars made yet another round past where he stood with his teammates. Many of them were still quietly gossiping and commenting on the match as they ran, and the tall one with the glasses had his face buried in a notebook, somehow still managing to run while scribbling in it.
“Geez. They really are a school full of weirdos.”
Several days after the last match of the Kantou tournament and before the opening of the Nationals, Hiko-sensei announced that Seigaku was going to have a practice session at Jousei Shounen as a part of their training to ready for the Nationals. Although most of the Seigaku team wasn’t all that thrilled about it (or any of their coach’s usual proposals, for that matter), there was nothing for it but for them to go along.
“Woah! Check out all these machines!” Momo gawked as the team was led past the training rooms to the indoor courts at Jousei Shounen.
“Welcome, all of you,” declared Hanamura as she greeted the new arrivals along with her team. “We’re going to have free practice today between our two teams.” She then turned a smile on the bored-looking Echizen. “And I was also hoping to see Echizen-kun in action against Shinj—Shinjyou?”
“Hoi, hoi! You’re the guy with the Mirage, right? Come and play a game with me! I want to see that Mirage of yours in action!” Eiji had already skipped up to the stoic Jousei Shounen boy and was dancing around him excitedly, moving so fast that there seemed to be three of him circling Shinjyou.
“E-Eiji! Calm down!” Oishi moved forward toward his hyperactive partner, trying to get him to stop in vain. “Oi, he wasn’t this hyper this morning,” he shot an irritated look back toward his own team. “Who gave him sugar?”
Everyone looked toward Fuji, who paused in his stare at the Jousei Shounen buchou to return their looks with a confused expression.
“Eh? Why is everyone assuming it’s me?” Unfortunately, no one seemed to be buying Fuji’s protests of innocence.
“Fuji, 20 laps around the room.” Tezuka solved the problem with his typical solution, though it might have also been a tactic to prevent the tensai from trying to challenge Kajimoto to a deathmatch.
Meanwhile, Oishi was still trying to pry his partner off from where Eiji had leeched onto a helpless Shinjyou’s arm like a barnacle, pulling him toward the courts. “Oi, Eiji! What are you doing?!”
“Nya! I just want to try out his Mirage! Come on, Shin-chan, play a game with me!”
“B-but what about the Deep Impulse! You’ll get hurt!”
“Nya, nya, you worry too much, Oishi. I did fine against Hyotei’s Kaba-chan, didn’t I?”
“Eiji!”
The rest of both teams watched in fear and awe as the hyperactive Eiji finally managed to drag both Shinjyou (who was too freaked out to resist) and the still protesting Oishi off to one of the courts.
“That’s just Eiji-senpai for you,” Momoshiro grinned. Then he whirled on the twins whom he had to default to in their game. “Oi, if we’re free to play who we want, then I want to challenge you two for a rematch.”
“That’s fine with us,” replied Youhei.
“Just don’t faint on us again,” continued Kouhei.
“Hmph, we’ll see who the real winner is this time,” Momo announced. “Let’s go, Inui-senpai.”
“Iya.” Inui quickly nixed his plans. “Sorry, but I have no interest in playing doubles with you, Momo.” He grinned as light glinted off his glasses. “I would rather prefer to play a doubles game with Kaidoh against the Kiriyama-Oota pair.”
“Eh?” Wakato perked up from where he was about to approach Kaidoh. “But I want to have a rematch against Kaidoh!”
The Seigaku second-year in question looked between his senpai and the Jousei Shounen idol. Much as he wanted to play more singles, it was his senpai’s stubbornly possessive look and his own dislike of clingy defeated foes who kept yammering for rematches (like that Fudomine speed idiot) which decided him.
“Hai, senpai,” Kaidoh hissed as he went to join Inui, completely ignoring the sputtering Wakato, who was entirely unused to being rejected for anything.
“Damn it,” Momo cursed as he was deprived of both his original doubles partner and the only other doubles partner he had practice with, even if he could never get along with the mamushi. With Fuji-senpai still running laps and Tezuka being utterly unapproachable, that just left him with one choice. “Oi, Echizen, you’re playing doubles with me!”
“No way!” Echizen tried to escape. But he wasn’t fast enough as Momo snagged him by the collar and physically dragged him over to the court where Youhei and Kouhei were waiting. “I don’t want to play doubles!”
“Come on, Echizen!” Momo complained, his mind already on the match ahead. “Listen to your senpai. Stop whining and let’s play!”
Hanamura and Kajimoto blinked as the first round of matches suddenly sorted themselves out.
On Court A, Eiji had managed to return all of Shinjyou’s Mirage balls courtesy of his sensitive sight and excellent reflexes. Oishi, meanwhile, had begun to hyperventilate between making referee calls as he watched Eiji’s reckless attempts at returning the Deep Impulse, often dodging away from being hit at the very last second.
On Court B, Inui was freaking out both of the Jousei Shounen second years with his vocal predictions and data recitations, while Kaidoh was trying to avoid all association of himself with his senpai.
On Court C, it immediately became obvious, much to Hanamura-sensei’s great dismay, that while Echizen was a great singles player, he obviously lacked any skill at all in doubles. Which was to say, the Momo-Echizen pair sucked and was losing quite badly. Neither Youhei nor Kouhei were amused at things were going, especially after being subjected to their split-court two-singles play and their Ah-Un strategy.
Kajimoto wondered just what his team had gotten themselves into.
“Yatta!” Eiji crowed in triumph as he returned Shinjyou’s last Deep Impulse with a running-start full-body Kikumaru Rocket.
“Game and match to Eiji,” Oishi muttered as he collapsed to the ground, panting as if he had been the one to play the game.
“Nya? Oishi?” Eiji skipped over to his partner and poked him in the side. “Oishi! Get up! I still want to play some doubles games too!”
Back on the court, the immobile form of Shinjyou stared at Eiji with not a little bit of trepidation in his eyes. He didn’t regret it at all to end the game as soon as possible, no matter who won, if only to get away from the bundle of energy that was giving him static shock from just looking at him.
“Saa, Oishi looks like he just had a heart attack,” Fuji commented as he finished his laps. He then turned to Kajimoto, obviously about to ask for a match.
“Fuji,” Tezuka interrupted him before he could speak. “Go see Shinjyou-kun for a rematch for your last game.”
The tensai pouted at his buchou to no effect. “Na, Tezuka, if you say so.”
Kajimoto looked between the departing tensai and the Seigaku buchou, and then decided that he really didn’t want to know.
Meanwhile, the other two doubles matches had also finished. Inui had summarily challenged Wakato to a match, and was showing him just how much of a liability being a pretender of well-known (and well statistized) tennis stars was when playing against data tennis. Momoshiro, after having lost humiliatingly with Echizen, was trying to talk Kaidoh into a doubles game against the twins, with the latter repeatedly refusing just out of the sheer principle of never playing with Momoshiro unless forced to. And so it went…
Finally, the practice session was over and the Seigaku Regulars piled on to their bus. Kajimoto had the strangest sense of relief as he waved them off, of having somehow survived Fuji’s several attempts at trying to challenge him to a match.
On the Seigaku bus, in the meantime, all was well except for Fuji’s sulking and Eiji’s continued hyperactivity.
“He can’t still be on a sugar high, can he?” Momo commented loudly in disbelief as he watched Oishi trying his best to keep his partner from bouncing off the walls.
“It’s not a sugar high,” Inui murmured from beside Kaidoh near the back of the bus.
Kaidoh gave his senpai a wary look. His instincts told him that now was a good time to move away from Inui. “Then what is it?”
“Hi-mi-tsu.” Inui’s glasses glinted. Kaidoh dashed for the seat on the other side of the aisle.
“Inui.” Tezuka’s voice reached from the front of the bus to where Inui was sitting in the back easily. “20 laps around the courts as soon as we get back.”
“Hai.”
Japanese Terms:
Iya = No.
Nani = What?
Yudan seizu ni ikou = Let's play without regrets./Let's play with our best. (Tezuka's catchphrase)
Senbatsu = Junior Invitational.
Yarou = Bastard.
Gomen = Sorry.
Shimatta = mild curse word
Urusai = Shut up.
Ochibi = Kiddo. Little one.
Tsubame Gaeshi = Swallow Return (one of Fuji's moves)
Tensai = Prodigy.
Mada mada dane = You're not good enough yet. (Echizen's catchphrase)
Himitsu = Secret.
Continuity Notes:
Well, we already have it so that Seigaku played Midoriyama (manga continuity) instead of Jousei Shounen (anime continuity) in junior high, just so that we don’t have the GP being able to do the I-Formation before “Revenge Best Served Cold”. However, after re-viewing the Jousei Shounen match recently, a plot bunny came and bit me (mostly to do with all the lap-running going on) and I had to re-write the Jousei Shounen match into Psidai continuity. So the simplest thing would be just to set it in the high school Kantou tournament.
Of course, in addition to this, we’ll also have to pretend that Kajimoto wasn’t at the junior high Senbatsu of anime continuity, and therefore has never played Tezuka at this point. However, I am inclined to keep Shinjyou’s doubles match with Shinji and the manzai pair, so I guess Hanamura was at that Senbatsu because she was a sponsor, and she brought one of her masterpieces-in-progress, Shinjyou, with her to use as a benchmark for the progress of the other players.
Notes: Ugh. Up all night writing this. Gonna go unconscious now. Don't call me until dinner tomorrow.
Addendum: Edits all around. Changed a few sections and cleared up most of the spelling/grammar errors.
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Date: 2010-09-16 04:38 am (UTC)