Walking over to the water fountains, Inui replied, "You are here early as well, Fuji. You normally do not come to the courts before school to fit in extra training."
Following, Fuji smiled. "Oh, I sometimes come to watch."
Inui frowned, draped a towel around his neck, and turned on the water faucet. "Not when I have been here."
"If that's what you want to think, go right ahead."
"How surprising. I didn't think you had a predilection for spying." Inui took off his glasses and ducked his head under the running water before Fuji could get a good look at his face.
"I'm a surprising person," Fuji answered as Inui wet his hair and face. His glasses sat on top of the water fountain and Fuji contemplated trying them on. He reached out his hand but a larger one grasped the frames before he could. Fuji looked at Inui, to see him already looking back, water dripping down his face, his eyes open and staring him down.
"Sometimes," Inui said evenly, straightening, his glasses clutched safely in his palm.
Fuji laughed. "Is that a challenge?"
With his glasses off, Inui was much easier to read. There was curiosity, caution, and calculation in his dark eyes. "I wouldn't dream of challenging you without being prepared." He toweled his face and put his glasses back on. "Give me some time to fully determine the full ramifications of what you consider surprising."
"That's what I like about you, Inui," Fuji said, clasping his hands behind his back. "You don't just dismiss something out of hand. You always think about the possibilities first."
"I would not be much of a data collector if I didn't consider the possibilities."
"Maybe." Fuji started walking away, paused, and then looked over his shoulder. "Keep an eye on your glasses, hm? I have a feeling today will be interesting."
"A feeling?" Inui called to Fuji as he headed to the clubhouse slowly. "This feeling wouldn't happen to be based on any fact, would it?"
But Fuji didn't answer. What fun was it if he answered all of Inui's questions?
"Inui!"
Kikumaru leaped enthusiastically onto Inui's back before homeroom, causing him to stagger under the sudden weight. The books Inui had been carrying dropped with a loud thump. Amidst the noise, there was also an unfamiliar thin clatter.
Kikumaru craned his head over Inui's shoulder. "Your glasses! They fell off. They never fall off."
"It does happen occasionally," Inui said, wryly. "I would appreciate it if you could get off me so I can retrieve them, Kikumaru."
But Kikumaru had already jumped off and picked up the fallen glasses. "They aren't broken! Maybe you should wear a strap so that they're always attached to your head?" Kikumaru whirled around, glasses held triumphantly in his hand.
Inui blinked slowly, his dark eyes focused on Kikumaru. They held a mixture of exasperation and fondness. Inui's eyes look a little like Oishi's, Kikumaru thought absently as he stared.
Clearing his throat, Inui held out a hand. "My glasses, please."
"Hey, Inui," Kikumaru said slowly. "You really should get contacts."
"I will consider it," Inui replied, hand still outstretched.
"You really, really should. You look good!" Kikumaru twirled the glasses thoughtfully by one of the earpieces. "These are so heavy, it'd probably be nice to get rid of them."
"Kikumaru," Inui said warningly.
"Okay, okay." Kikumaru handed the frames back a little reluctantly. "But really think about it. Don't just say so to get me to stop bugging you. Or else I may be forced to make you think about it!"
"Such a strong threat," Inui said, putting his glasses back on. "Could you help me gather my books?"
They both squatted and Kikumaru stared at the pile on the floor. "You have too many notebooks. Do you really need to carry all of these?" Kikumaru tried to stuff one of them down his school jacket without notice, but Inui snatched it out of his hands. "Aw, no fun, Inui!"
Inui sighed. "I think I'm fine here. You will be late if you do not leave right now for your homeroom."
"We-ell, I did want to talk to Oishi before class started. But don't forget what I said about your glasses! Or else, drastic measures!" Kikumaru said before bouncing back up and skipping down the hall.
Kawamura sat outside of the tennis clubhouse, by the wall facing away from the courts. His bento was laid out neatly before him, made up of a colorful array of sushi. As he picked up his chopsticks, a shadow fell over him and he looked up.
"Would you mind if I joined you, Kawamura?" Inui said, holding his lunch.
After a moment of hesitation, Kawamura nodded. "Sure, Inui. There's plenty of room."
Inui sat down and methodically began unpacking out his bento, putting a small thermos to the side. Kawamura looked at the lunch curiously but it seemed completely normal: rice, vegetables, chicken, and an orange. The thermos had a little Inui face marked on it and Kawamura looked hurriedly away.
"Interesting location for lunch," Inui commented as they began eating.
Kawamura shrugged, taking a bite of his eel. "It's quiet." There was a loud shout from the nearby courts. "Mostly."
Inui looked at Kawamura sideways, his eyebrows lifted. "I didn't know you sought out silence for lunch."
Smiling, Kawamura said, "There's a lot you don't know, Inui."
"That just means I need to work harder, Kawamura," Inui said, poking through his vegetables.
Kawamura laughed at that. "You work hard enough! And I don't know what you do with everything you know. It's not like knowing if I like my lunchtime quiet would help in tennis...?"
"I can't give away all my reasons for my data," Inui remarked, smiling a little.
Kawamura grinned back and then focused on his food. They sat eating in companionable silence until Inui broke it, asking, "They keep taking your lunch, correct?"
Kawamura stopped, the last piece of his eel raised to his mouth. "What?"
"Your lunch." Inui gestured with his chopsticks. "The others keep taking it. Momoshiro, Kikumaru, and Echizen."
Kawamura sighed and stuffed the food into his mouth. "They really like sushi. And Momo's always hungry," he explained around his mouthful.
"If you brought experimental sushi to school, there is a 63 chance that Momoshiro would leave your lunch alone." Inui put down his chopsticks and picked up the orange, peeling it quickly.
Kawamura shot a look at Inui to see him straight-faced. Was it a joke or not? "I'll think about it," he said, a little cautiously. "Maybe I'll ask you for ideas."
"I'm certain I could-" Inui began to say and stopped as the orange section he had been pulling off tore and squirted juice right onto his glasses.
"Ah! It didn't get in your eyes, did it?" Kawamura grabbed his napkin out of his bento and held it out to Inui to see that Inui had grabbed his own napkin. In fact, he already had his glasses off and was studiously cleaning the lenses. Surprised at seeing Inui without his glasses on, Kawamura stared.
"Considering the size of my lenses, that would be difficult." Inui looked up from his task and blinked at Kawamura. "Is something the matter?" His eyes were dark and calm.
"No!" Kawamura hastily said and put his napkin away. "Ah, you look really different with your glasses off."
"Hm. I suppose so, since you're not used to seeing me without them." Inui returned to cleaning his glasses and slid them back on when he finished. "Is that better?"
"I didn't mean-" Kawamura looked at the small smile on Inui's face and laughed again.
Inui picked up his chopsticks again. "I may have some interesting ideas with regards to the inclusion of some rather untraditional ingredients into sushi."
"Really? That's..." Kawamura finally just shook his head. "Come to the restaurant sometime after practice tomorrow, Inui. You can show me what you mean."
Momo crouched around the corner from his quarry, watching him closely. Momo-chin, this is your mission, should you choose to accept it, Kikumaru-senpai had said very seriously and he was determined to do his senpai proud. Softly, Momo sang the theme to Mission Impossible under his breath ("Don don don-DON, don don don-DON...") and waited for his chance.
Inui-senpai pulled what seemed like a thousandth book from his locker. His hands full, he closed the locker door with his elbow. Go, go, go, go, go! Momo thought frantically and he darted forward. Dodging various Seigaku students in his way, Momo ran in a zig-zag pattern up behind Inui. As he passed the third year, Momo snatched the glasses neatly off his senpai's face.
VICTORY! Momo started to run off and he got a step away before there was a crash behind him. A hand fastened around Momo's forearm, the one that held the glasses, and escape was suddenly impossible.
Inui-senpai jerked him back and around and Momo ended up a few inches from Inui's face, staring him in the eyes. They were exasperated and stern, a little like Buchou's eyes just before he assigned so many laps that Momo thought he would be eighty before he finished running them.
Inui-senpai looked away to the books that were scattered on the floor. "That is the second time today that I've been made to drop my books." His eyes snapped back. "The probability that both instances are related is high."
Momo swallowed, took a deep breath, and very bravely said, "It was Kikumaru-senpai's fault! He told me to take them! He made me!"
"Of course he did," Inui-senpai said dryly. "I'm sure it was very difficult to convince you."
"But your glasses are right here!" Momo wiggled the trapped hand that held them. "No harm, none at all. And I'll help you pick up your books!"
Inui-senpai smiled and his eyes narrowed. Now, he looked a little like Fuji-senpai. "How kind of you to offer, Momoshiro. In fact, it is also kind of you to offer to carry my books to my class."
Momo eyed the number of notebooks and textbooks scattered on the floor. "All of them?"
"I'm sorry, did you just offer to sweep all the tennis courts after school instead? And check for dead tennis balls?"
Could Inui enforce that without Buchou's permission? Looking at Inui's intent expression, Momo decided that he could. "I'll carry them, I'll carry them!"
Inui reached with his free hand and plucked his glasses out of Momo's grasp. Only after they were securely on his face did he let Momo go.
Rubbing his wrist, Momo looked at the books on the floor. "Kikumaru-senpai is crazy. Inui-senpai's glasses hide scary eyes. Contacts are a bad idea," he mumbled to himself.
"There are approximately three-point-five minutes until lunch ends, Momoshiro. If you are to make it to my and your homerooms on time, I would suggest you hurry up." As Momo bent to start picking up books, Inui-senpai added, "And as a favor to me, be sure to tell Kikumaru your opinion."
It didn't happen often, that was for certain. Inui was an exceptional student and spent the majority of the school day studying; if he wasn't studying, he was working on his data for tennis. But on a certain rare instances, Inui could be found with his arms folded on his desk, his head pillowed on them, like he was right now.
Oishi stood to the side, smiling. Inui, such an important part of the team, their chief strategist, worked himself hard. It was good to see him resting occasionally. Unfortunately, as much as Oishi would've like to let Inui sleep, class had ended.
Leaning over, Oishi started to say Inui's name but stopped out of surprise. Inui's head was facing the opposite side that Oishi was standing so he hadn't seen. But from the new angle, Oishi could see that while sleeping, Inui's glasses had slid down his nose. His eyelids were perfectly visible and Oishi was strangely discomforted by that. It felt a little like he was spying on something he shouldn't.
He took a breath and shook the other boy's shoulder. "Inui? Class is over," Oishi said softly.
Inui started and then sat up quickly, turning to look at Oishi. The glasses slid down Inui's face even more and his dark eyes were perfectly visible. As Inui blinked a few times, Oishi couldn't help staring at something he never got to see. Inui had a slightly confused yet soft look in his eyes, almost vulnerable in a way that Inui never was.
His eyes look a little like Eiji's, Oishi thought distantly, as he watched Inui gather his mental bearings.
"Ah. Thank you, Oishi." Inui pushed his glasses back up. "I had only intended to rest for six minutes. I must have been more tired than I thought."
Oishi laughed uncomfortably. "You should take better care of yourself. Although, you almost never fall asleep during class so I guess you usually do."
"I'm surprised no one bothered me before you did," Inui remarked, running a hand through his hair. "I didn't have my sign on."
"Isn't there an American saying, let sleeping dogs lie? What about sleeping Inuis?"
"People surely don't think that waking me up would make me angry," Inui said as he stood.
Oishi looked up at Inui's height, one-hundred and eighty-four centimeters and counting, and smiled. "You have too much information on people to have them risk making you angry and everyone knows it."
"And what about you? You 'risked' it. Does Oishi have a reckless streak?" Inui picked up his books, looking amused.
"I know you wouldn't do anything wrong with your data. You have too much respect for it," Oishi said as they started walking out the room. "But maybe I have a little reckless streak."
"Should I warn the rest of the team?"
"Only if you think they'd believe you."
"Five games to two, Tezuka!"
Tezuka straightened and took a deep breath. Inui, on the opposite half of the court, pushed his glasses up. "You changed the height of your racket for your drop shot," the other boy remarked mildly.
"I couldn't let it remain easy for you to predict," Tezuka said back, pulling a ball out of his pocket and retreating to the service line.
"The day that a practice game is easy against you, Tezuka, is the day I give up tennis." Inui's glasses flashed as he got ready to receive Tezuka's serve.
Tezuka ignored Inui's comment and threw the ball upwards, whipping his racket down and hitting the ball hard to the very corner of the court. Inui, predictably, got to it and carefully returned it.
They rallied, with Inui playing precisely, methodically, and with Tezuka playing to shake Inui's careful control. The easiest way to take points from Inui was to surprise or surpass what he thought you capable of. Unfortunately, as time went on, that was becoming more difficult for Tezuka to do.
Tezuka hit a cross-court ball and Inui got there in time again, but just barely. He hit it oddly and it arced upwards into a perfect chance ball.
As Tezuka jumped to smash, Inui scrambled backwards to the area on the court where Tezuka's smashes tended to go. Changing his mind mid-swing, Tezuka pulled the power in his shot and merely tapped the ball to bounce on Inui's court, close the net. It was unlikely Inui would reach it in time.
Inui seemed to think differently, however. Tezuka quickly backed up as Inui ran and dove for the ball.
The edge of Inui's racket got to it but not with enough force. The ball went into the net and Inui's glasses went skittering on the court as he landed heavily.
"Fifteen, love!"
Tezuka watched as Inui slowly got to his feet. The data player went to where his glasses had landed, looking at them carefully to make sure there was no damage.
"I would have thought the percentage that you would reach that last ball not high enough for you to actually try for it," he said to Inui's bent head.
Inui looked up, his dark eyes focusing on Tezuka without any trouble despite the distance and lack of glasses. They glittered with excitement. "I've found that I have to adjust my percentages lower when playing you, Tezuka. I need the extra edge of uncertainty to improve my score."
Tezuka stared and shook his head. "You should get a sports strap for your glasses if you're going to make it a habit to dive for balls when playing me."
Inui grinned and replaced his glasses. "Perhaps I will the day that I can make you dive for a ball. I'd be willing to concede to anything on such an occasion." With that strange statement, Inui returned back to the receiving line.
Anything? Tezuka thought and then, dismissing the conversation from his mind, went to serve.
"Inui-senpai."
Inui paused and half-turned, looking back at Ryoma with an inquiring look. Kaidoh, who was walking with him, stopped as well.
"A moment, Inui-senpai," Ryoma said, looking at him steadily.
Nodding slightly, Inui said something to Kaidoh and the second year continued on his way. Inui turned to fully face Ryoma. "Is there something you need, Echizen?"
Walking a few steps forward, Ryoma said, "Yeah, senpai. What have you been doing?"
"Doing?" Inui continued to look mildly curious. "You will have to be more specific. I have been doing many things. For example, right now I am talking to you. Before, I was walking with Kaidoh."
Ryoma tilted his head, smirking. "You know what I'm talking about, Inui-senpai. Kikumaru-senpai kept 'accidentally' hitting balls at your face during practice."
The corner of Inui's mouth quirked upwards. "Perhaps Kikumaru was having persistent trouble with his ball control today."
"I heard Momo-senpai carried your books to class after lunch."
"He offered. I didn't see any reason to turn the offer down."
"He said he saw you without your glasses."
"Is that so?"
"Everyone was acting weird towards you at practice. Even Buchou, after your practice game with him." Ryoma walked forward until he was within arm's length of Inui. "I want to know why."
"I do not know why you are so curious," Inui said amusedly, staring down at Ryoma. "You typically don't exhibit a great deal of interest in the other members of the tennis team."
"Maybe I feel left out, Inui-senpai," Ryoma said, pulling his hat down over his eyes, his smile curving under the brim. "Everyone else got to see your eyes except me."
"Maybe I don't have actual eyes. Surely, you've heard the first year rumors that I have lasers instead. Maybe that is why the regulars were acting oddly towards me."
"Why else do you think I want to see?" With one quick motion, Ryoma pulled his water bottle out of his bag and squirted a clear stream of liquid right into Inui-senpai's face.
Only Inui had whipped his tennis bag around and used it as a shield, getting it soaked instead. "Is this where I tell you mada mada dane, Echizen?" He lowered the bag slowly, a small smile on his face.
Ryoma scowled in response.
Kaidoh continued slowly along until he heard a deep voice call his name. Stopping, he turned to see Inui-senpai walking briskly. "What did Echizen want?" Kaidoh asked when Inui had caught up. Then he noticed his senpai's tennis bag. "Why is your bag wet?"
"Ah. That was an accident of sorts. No harm was done. As for Echizen, he wanted to know whether I had done to disturb the other regulars today," Inui-senpai answered.
"Hn." Kaidoh began walking again with Inui at his side. Inui-senpai said nothing further and, as they walked, he pulled out one of his notebooks and began writing in it.
Kaidoh clenched his jaw, growing irritable. Inui-senpai knew that Kaidoh wanted to know the answer to the brat's question, but wouldn't answer unless Kaidoh asked. Kaidoh didn't want to ask and he half-suspected that Inui-senpai made predictions on how long it took Kaidoh to finally speak up. "Were you?" he finally ground out after they had walked a few blocks.
Inui looked up from his notebook. "Was I what, Kaidoh?"
Was Inui-senpai doing this on purpose? "Were you messing with the team today?"
"Ah, no. No, I wasn't."
"Okay." That answer was good enough for Kaidoh.
"I would say," Inui continued, "that I was merely taking advantage of several coincidental events."
Kaidoh frowned at the odd phrasing. "Does this have anything to do with the idiot carrying your books?"
Inui smirked. "Did everyone hear about that?"
"Some girls were talking about it," Kaidoh replied, shrugging.
"Eavesdropping? Perhaps my personality is rubbing off on you," Inui said, putting a hand on Kaidoh's shoulder.
Kaidoh pushed it off. "Why was he carrying your books?"
"Momoshiro was goaded into stealing my glasses by Kikumaru. He nearly succeeded. I thought it only fair that he carry my books since I was forced to drop them to stop him from running off."
Kaidoh rolled his eyes. "Such an idiot."
"I would say that he was overconfident in his projected success," Inui said, smiling at Kaidoh.
"As I said, an idiot," Kaidoh hissed. "Did he really get your glasses off?"
"He wouldn't have if I had had my hands free at the time."
"Oh."
Inui looked at him sideways, still smiling. "Curious, Kaidoh?"
"No." Inui raised an eyebrow and Kaidoh looked away, embarrassed. "Maybe."
"You're not the first to be curious and you won't be the last. And I can hardly be annoyed as I don't do anything to dispel the curiosity." Inui chuckled and stopped walking. "Although, I do get annoyed when people try to steal my glasses or intentionally throw water at my face. Perhaps I should make that better known."
Frowning again, Kaidoh also stopped walking and looked at Inui. "I wouldn't do that senpai. It would be rude."
"I know you wouldn't." And then Kaidoh stared as he watched Inui-senpai lifted a hand and nudged his glasses lower on his face. His eyes...looked like normal eyes. They were nice eyes, though.
Inui winked. "So whenever you want to see, Kaidoh, just ask."