Escape
by omi
Sanada puts a bright face on losing. He goes over to the Seigaku acting captain, shakes his hand. Tells his opponent that it had been a good game, and that they would meet again at the Nationals, except that next time, they would be facing Yukimura as well. He even manages a smile, in the name of good sportsmanship, when they tell him Tezuka would be back too, and then he walks away before he can break.
He walks home in a kind of numb daze, instead of going to the hospital as he had promised. He rationalises it to himself, he is too tired, that first day, and besides, Seiichi is still in recovery after his operation, and what is one more broken promise when he had already broken the most important vow of all.
On the second day, he figures, Seiichi wouldn't want to see him, the person who lost their first Kantou Tournament for him.
The third day, he spends at the family dojo, practicing his sword technique, and the imaginary opponent he is hacking down is himself.
His teammates come to see him. Serious Renji, through closed eyes, tries to tell him to get over the defeat, to go see their still-recovering buchou. Jackal and Bunta arrives on his doorstep, intent, awkard, and slightly ill-at-ease, to say the same thing.
Yagyuu. Niou. Kirihara comes one after another.
"Buchou wants to see you." Calm, polite, implacable.
"I can walk you to the hospital if you're afraid of going alone." Bright, mocking, and only slightly evil.
"Fuku-buchou," Kirihara tugs at his sleeve, looking up at him with wide, bewildered eyes. "Fuku-buchou, what are you doing?"
What indeed. Sanada wants to shout. Wants to break something. Wants to run away to some isolated mountain hermitage where tennis is an alien concept and he can, maybe, maybe, forget that he single-handedly broke Rikkai's reputation of invincibility, and broke his promise to Seiichi.
He looks down, at Kirihara's waiting, hopeful face, and the words dies on his lips. Instead, he just shakes off Kirihara's grasp on his sleeve and walks back into his room, into despair.