This is my first canon fic… meaning this is my first fic that doesn't have any OC (for those who don't know). I'm glad that you are taking time to read a Kabaji Munehiro fic. He really needs some love. Though it's not just him, I figured I'd make a fic for him first.
Okay, enough with my rants. To the disclaimer!
Gakuto: If this author even owned Prince of Tennis, the manga will turn as a mess.
Shishido and me: Well, that's true. Gekidaze.
Summary: Behind that blank face, what would he be thinking of? Does he really want to stay that way? Or does he have some desires inside of him?
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"Good morning, Kabaji-san." Ootori Choutarou greeted his teammate, as they just entered the school grounds.
"Usu." He answered, still wearing his usual façade, as he looked straight to the tennis courts.
The silver-haired looked at him in confusion. "Are you okay? You're not really acting like yourself." He asked worriedly.
His expression didn't change. But behind that, he was left bewildered. He was obvious acting like himself. He was a huge, stiff, emotionless junior of Hyoutei who also followed the Great Atobe wherever he was, for he was his most trusted person in the team. So how come Ootori said that he wasn't acting like the usual?
Receiving no answer at all, the silver-haired junior decided not to mind the strange action of his teammate.
And so, they continued walking 'til they reach the tennis courts for morning practice.
Kabaji noticed that the atmosphere wasn't the same as usual. He looked around and found everyone smiling at him; others were on moving towards and greet him. What was going on? They would usually ignore him.
A pat on his shoulder was felt, and he turned to see the person who did it. It was Shishido Ryou. "Yo." The brunette greeted him nonchalantly.
Kabaji stared at him for a while and nodded before he looked away from him as he began walking to the clubroom. Being greeted by Shishido wasn't really unusual. Shishido often greeted his teammates might it be him, Kabaji, the world renowned 'usu' guy. Well actually he just made that up.
Noticing that there was something strange about his teammate's reaction, Shishido raised a brow while moved beside his doubles partner. "What's up with him?" he asked his partner, pointing at the clubroom, where Kabaji was currently in. The younger of the two, only shrugged.
"HEY! WHAT THE HELL'S WITH KABAJI?!" the duo heard a familiar voice. They turned to see… Mukahi. Seriously, why did he have to make things big? So what if Kabaji wasn't acting like himself? It was pretty obvious that there was something bothering him.
"Ask him yourself, idiot." Shishido snapped.
"I'M NOT AN IDIOT!" the acrobatic player retorted. He looked away with a 'hmph' as he crossed his arms across his chest. "But seriously, he's rather stiff today. Where's the sociable guy that we know?"
The others didn't even listen to him. Well except for Ootori who smiled unsurely.
"ARE YOU GUYS EVEN LISTENING?!" Mukahi blurted out. Geez, what was with these people?
"WOAAAAHHHH!!!" they heard a scream in a deep voice.
"I think that was Kabaji." Gakuto and Shishido said in chorus. They then looked at each other and glared. It only took them a while to remember that something must had happen to Kabaji that they started running towards the clubroom.
As soon as he got close to the clubroom, Shishido slammed the door open. "WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED?!" he asked in panic. Now, that you couldn't encounter everyday.
"Did someone get raped?" Gakuto asked randomly, wearing a clueless look.
"Say what?" the dash specialist of Hyoutei, faced the red-head while wearing a 'what-the-fuck-are-you-saying' expression.
"What?" he shrugged his shoulders. "I just thought of a possibility."
Shishido shook his head and turned his attention to the reason why they were there in the first place.
"Kabaji-san, what happened?" Shishido's doubles partner asked the other junior who was sitting on the floor and clutching his hair as he was staring on the floor in disbelief.
Kabaji moved his right hand that was trembling, and pointed at the mirror in front of him.
The trio looked at the mirror looking for an unusual phenomenon. Once they found nothing strange, they looked at Kabaji confusingly. Before one of them could say something the door open majestically. Their attentions were caught by a light form the opened door. And saw a figure blocking some of the light.
"Ore-sama just heard a scream. You had better not be doing irresponsible things." The figure announced.
Shishido and Gakuto groaned. "Oh it's just Atobe." Shishido stated.
"And to think we turned our eyes towards him." He stated disgustingly. Now that was pretty insulting for Atobe.
"What is going on in here?" Atobe asked firmly to Ootori who was the only sane, for him, person with them.
"Uhmmm… we don't really know. We just found Kabaji-san like that." Ootori replied, pointing at the other sophomore.
Atobe followed to where Ootori's finger pointed which was a kneeling, well it looked like a scared, Kabaji. Now what would Kabaji be scared about? The monkey king looked around and saw the mirror in front of the problematic regular. He smirked. You can't even figure what's going on. Hmph. Be awed by my insight.
"Kabaji meant he had a problem with his face." Atobe spoke.
"Say what?" Gakuto uttered.
"There's nothing wrong with your face." Shishido told Kabaji who shook his face in response.
Now, Kabaji was puzzled. He was so sure that he was right. There was something wrong with his face. Where was his old looking face? The one that made him look like he had a mental disorder. The one that made him seem like he came from an asylum. Something was definitely wrong around here. First of all, the atmosphere wasn't like that usual. And now, his face? Maybe he would end in an asylum after all.
"For crying out loud! Just tell us what the fuck is wrong!"
"Shishido, watch your mouth." The Great Atobe-sama commanded the blue-capped teen.
"Yeah! There are people who have innocent ears you know!" Mukahi butted in, covering his ears with his hands. He would have also covered Ootori's ears but, hello, he only had two hands. He couldn't possibly do that unless God would spare him two more arms and hands. Bah, enough with the hands. Their pure ears were now corrupt. Thanks to the bastard that was sooo into swearing.
"Oh. Sorry about that Choutarou." He apologized to his credulous teammate, whose mind was already in another dimension due to the word. Was he that innocent, that he couldn't even tolerate such a common word?
If Echizen would have been there, he would obviously say to Ootori: 'Mada mada dane.' That was for sure.
"Ootori isn't the only one that had innocent ears here!" Gakuto exclaimed. Man, this guy really got into his nerves.
Shishido snorted humorlessly. "Whatever." he said as he looked away from the red-haired idiot and turned his attention to Kabaji—the reason why they were there in the first place. "Just here to let you know that there's nothing wrong with your face."
Kabaji didn't flinch.
"This is going nowhere. Just talk so that we would know! We can't just keep guessing all day long!" the silent treatment wasn't giving him anything good. Absolutely not.
"M-my face ch-changed." The renowned copycat and 'usu' guy of Hyoutei spoke.
The other tennis players looked at him in question.
"What do you mean it changed? It's still the same." Choutarou spoke before anyone did.
"He must be sick." Gakuto said as he was about to touch Kabaji forehead but Kabaji stood up and faced them.
"Ooookay…" Shishido uttered. Then an idea came into mind. He took his wallet and took something from it. "Here. Isn't this you?" he said facing a picture of the team towards Kabaji and pointed the 'Kabaji' that was in the photo.
The trio, consisted of Gakuto, Choutarou, and Kabaji, looked at the image that was presented by the dash specialist. Atobe didn't even bother joining the foursome as he stood by the door.
"That's you alright." Mukahi confirmed further.
Kabaji didn't think that it was real. He never thought that he would turn out… pretty(?). Seriously. He looked like his fellow teammates that really deserved a huge circle of fangirls (and fanboys if there are any). His hair was, somehow, the same but now a bit shorter which made him look cleaner. He didn't look like a humungous, old man anymore. He could really say that he fitted in the boys' tennis regulars… having good looks, great tennis senses but he didn't know about fangirls though.
He smiled inwardly. He couldn't believe that the day for him to be good looking would come. About that change… did that mean that he has a different personality too?
"Are you okay? You're not really acting like yourself." Ootori asked him.
Now that he mentioned it. Ootori did tell him that he was acting strange.
"Oi, oi…" Shishido called out, wanting to catch his attention. Really. What was with people today?
Kabaji already snapped into reality. Now what would he do to get out of this little mess that he started? He couldn't just let them hear them say 'no', they would obviously look at him strangely and might ask him: 'Who the hell are you? And what have you done to Kabaji?'
"Don't tell me he'd gone nuts. We still have the nationals you know." Shishido asked the other coolly, looking at them.
"Sorry, I guess the dust on my face affected me a lot." Kabaji, actually, spoke, scratching the back of his head, before he laughed nervously.
The others looked at him. Atobe wore a very awed look towards him. Gakuto snickered. Shishido smacked his face in disbelief. While Ootori was still in question.
"That's a good one, Kabaji!" Gakuto laughed boisterously in the end. "I can't believe you surpassed Atobe."
Atobe's left eyebrow twitched. What did he mean by that?
Gakuto continue blabbing anyway. "I mean, I know that you're vain-"
Vain? So he was vain in this dimension? Kabaji thought.
"- and Atobe being a narcissist. But seriously though, dust? DUST?!" and Mukahi laughed as he fell on the floor, rolling on it aggressively.
Shishido grimaced. It really sucked to be with idiots. "You mean to tell me," Shishido started to talk to the junior. "You made a really loud yell that could possibly make an earthquake, just because of dust on your face?!" he exclaimed the last word. He waited for an answer but only received a very irritating silence.
"DAMN YOU ALL!!!" The brunette of a senior slammed the door behind him. His teammates were idiots. Just idiots. How the heck did they even continue education up until now…? Money is still there, so that might be it. Stupid corrupt grown-ups.
"So…" Gakuto was the one to talk first, staring at the now closed door that Shishido just slammed a moment ago. "Does that mean there's no practice this morning?"
A vein popped on the side of Atobe's forehead. "Gakuto," he called the redhead.
"Yeah?" he asked innocently.
"200 LAPS AROUND THE COURT! NOW!" the monkey king, errr… diva… uhhh… captain, commanded the acrobat.
"YOU CAN'T DO THAT TO ME! I DIDN'T EVEN DO ANYTHING WRONG!" Mukahi retorted rudely.
"Just run. It is an order."
They all turned to the owner of the voice who butted in.
"Kabaji! Not you too!" Mukahi couldn't believe that Kabaji even second the motion. He thought he was his friend but nooo… he just had to make him do it.
As if he had a choice, Mukahi was about to head out to do his unreasonable LAPS. Once he was out, the school bell rang. And he jumped for joy. Saved by the bell. But Atobe had to tell him that he had to do the laps in the afternoon. So much for being saved.
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Kabaji couldn't believe what had happen during classes. Almost everyone greeted him with glee. He never experienced something like that since he attended Hyoutei. During recess, he hanged out with guys that happened to be his classmates, no one really give him much heed when he still looked old. This was all he wanted. Having a normal middle school life. Having friends to hang out with. And have a not scary looking face.
Lunch time came and he was about to head to the cafeteria to have, of course, lunch with the other regulars. Once he was out of the room, he found a crowd of girls just before him. 'What was going on?' Was his thought at that very moment. One of the girls stepped forward.
"Please accept this." She bowed and extended her arms which her hands were holding a bento. "I made this with all my heart." She added.
He was shocked at first, but his expression changed from a surprised to a pleased one. He bowed back, which made the girls gasp in astonishment. THE Kabaji Munehiro actually bowed respectfully. And so he took the bento. The other girls held out their homemade bentos for him too. He smiled embarrassedly as he took them.
Kabaji's crush was actually in his fan club? Yes, he did have a crush. It was normal for teenagers to have crushes right?
So Kabaji went to the cafeteria to have lunch with the regulars. He sat down beside Atobe. Everyone noticed his happy expression.
"My, Kabaji. You look quite happy. Did something happen?" the known tensai of Hyoutei stated to the former 'usu' guy.
"Nothing." He answered with a smile.
"I guess everything's back to normal." Ootori said in relief.
"Gekokujou."
"Whatever." the older half of the silver pair muttered. "Hey, can we really finish them?" Looking at the tower of lunchboxes on the table.
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"Good work, Kabaji." Atobe praised the second year since he had done well in practice. "Practice is now over! Freshmen clean the courts!" the gray-haired captain announced before he turned his heels to walk to the clubroom.
And so they went to the clubroom to change to their school uniform. While doing so, they were having conversations.
"Nationals will start next week, ne?" Ootori stated while rubbing his now wet hair with a towel.
"Yeah. Hate to say it but… we really lucked out." Shishido muttered.
"Ah." The only megane among them uttered, while putting his glasses on. "But this time, we won't lose." He declared as his glasses gleamed.
Gakuto snickered. "And I'll show that Kikumaru that there's always someone better. Of course I'm going to be the better one."
"We're in this together!" Choutarou announced.
Now that Ootori mentioned it, Kabaji kinda thought that even if he was his old self, their relationship never changed. The only things that changed were his appearance, the atmosphere and him carrying Jirou… even though he did do that earlier, and turned out that everyone was looking at him in confusion… again. This day seriously had the theme 'Confusion'. Sigh.
Everyone looked at him.
"…"
"Did I say something wrong?"
"No." Atobe started. "That's what we need to win the nationals. It's obvious that we will crush those who will be in out way." He tilted his head as if praising himself.
Kabaji couldn't be grateful enough for him to be in Hyoutei. He really had such awesome people around him.
And so everyone, started going out of the room. When Kabaji got out, he felt something soft on his lips. He blinked and found a girl who seemed to be hugging him AND kissing him. What the f-?!
The girl pulled away. "Kabaji-san, I really like you." Looking at the ground in embarrassment since all the regulars saw what she did. She waited for the kissed lad's respond. Seconds later she heard a thud and right after that heard the regulars exclaimed his name.
"Kabaji!" the regulars exclaimed, running towards the now unconscious tennis player.
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"Munehiro, Munehiro, Munehiro!" he heard someone calling him. He could only see pitch black. He slowly opened his eyes and found a lady standing beside his lying body. "Don't you have any plans to go to school?" the lady asked him.
"Yeah. I'll be going." He sat up. "Thanks, mom." He said as he stood up and walked over to his closet.
His mom turned out to be glued on the floor that she was standing. Having a shock expression on her face, it was obvious that she was surprised. Her son, Kabaji Munehiro… THE Kabaji Munehiro actually talked 3 sentences. Normally, it would be at most 2 sentences… containing one word each.
Anyway, she smiled while looking at her old looking son. "No problem." She said as she walked out of the teen's room.
Once his mother was out, Kabaji finally got his uniform and changed. He went into the bathroom to wash his face and brush his teeth, but when he faced the mirror. He touched it. He was back to his old self again. His face had his old looking face… his blank old looking face. So it was only a dream.
He would've wanted the pretty façade. He would've wanted that what happened in his dream come true. He never really experienced having fangirls. True, there were some kind girls that had given him chocolates but it was not just him anyway. But at least, right? He was able to talk freely with the others… but he wondered why he never bothered talking to them in his current appearance. What did he really want to be?
Who really was Kabaji Munehiro?
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Hello to those who even bothered reading this one-shot about our dear Kabaji. I started planning to make a fic about Kabaji when I read 'Have you ever wondered?' by ..- now known as Wisteria-Child. Kabaji does need more love, right?! And yes, we left him in the bathroom. Hihihih…
Sorry if it's not that really good. I'm still not good in canon stuffs. But I'm getting the hang of it.
Just a favor if you guys don't mind. Please write your criticisms and comments in your reviews. So it's like I'm asking for reviews but it's not really like that. I just want to improve my writing, so I need opinions from other people.
Thanks again for reading.
That is all!