Oneshot on Yagyuu and Niou, and who they are. Even though it has no plot whatsoever, I liked it.
Disclaimer: I don't own Prince of Tennis.
Warning: Um…Corruption? Corrupted society?
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Yagyuu…did what he was expected.
Yagyuu dreamed. He dreamed of doing things he wondered if he could only do in the dreams of his dreams. Little ordinary things, like disobedience, and larger things, living wildly perhaps, the way Niou did, and major decision, becoming famous, perhaps.
He conformed himself within lines, limited himself with rules, and burned like a carefully watched lantern.
And he would burn carefully, with controlled flames, even when alone, because Yagyuu was the Gentleman, and Gentlemen don't do anything, even behind their own backs.
Niou…was the unexpected. He was expected to be unexpected, to be the unpredictable. Sometimes, he himself wondered if being unpredictable, wild, was really what he wanted.
Then he would smirk, and sneer, and watch with satisfaction as one of the timid kouhai in the tennis team ran off, scurrying away, in fear. And he realized, he couldn't live any other way.
He liked that feeling, that feeling of superiority, of smugness, and satisfaction, when people turned away in fear, and laughed at his pranks.
He liked laughter, reveled in it, shone under the spotlight, and glowed.
Niou was a controlled wildfire. He burned, and shone, flames flickering higher than anyone else's.
Niou, beyond anything else, perhaps, lived. He lived a little too brightly, shone a little too much, and walked the dangerous edge of civilized and animalistic with ease.
He rarely dreamed.
He didn't need to, for he lived his dreams.
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Yagyuu had a vengeful spirit. He would take revenge, striking his victim's weakest spot without hesitation at exactly the right time, causing complete humiliation, and mental pain, all while remaining completely inconspicuous.
No one ever suspected him, no one but Niou, who would look at him and laugh, saying, "And they call you the Gentleman?"
Niou was revenge. He would look at someone, anyone, with eyes a little too pale, eyes a little too sharp, and sneer.
And then he would humiliate whoever it was until he or she wanted to die of shame.
And everyone would know that it was he, the Trickster, that whoever it was must have done something to the Trickster to have the Trickster's fury on him, for the Trickster was, oddly enough, honorable.
But even as everyone knew, without a doubt otherwise, there never would be any proof, and the Trickster was rarely, no, never, caught.
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Yagyuu was …merciless. He played to win, he lived to win.
He would never let himself lose.
Niou hate losing. He would do almost, almost everything, to win.
But he would win, not cheat, because that was losing.
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In the end, Niou was Niou, the Trickster, and Yagyuu was Yagyuu, the Gentleman.
But in the world that we are in, when Gentlemen can deceive, and Tricksters can be honorable, is there really such a difference between the black and white?
Because, when it counted, Niou was Yagyuu, Yagyuu was Niou, and they were all the same thing, from the beginning to the end.
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