Disclaimer: I don't own the characters. Konomi Takeshi does. I'm merely playing with them for the moment.
A/N: Ever since the 1st of December, I have been posting one fic/update a day over at my LJ, lumelle. These updates have been in series of five fics sharing a theme.
The first series of five was fics of the first five TeniPuri pairings I ever wrote.
My experience on writing Rikkai is very minimal, so forgive me any mistakes.
Twisted Rivalries
After the finals, Rikkai was a quiet place. This was partly because everyone was rather... unenthusiastic... after their defeat, partly because the one who had usually been the loudest in practice was not there anymore. However stubborn he might have been about playing until the end, there were some limits of Sanada's self-control that Yukimura saw it his task to reinforce, and coming to practice when his badly abused legs could only barely bear his weight was certainly beyond any such limits. This didn't mean they were without a leader, of course; Yukimura only let Sanada handle the instructions most of the time because it was easier, not because he was not capable of it, himself.
It was a soft voice that now called over the courts, yet everyone heard it loud and clear; when Yukimura said something, everyone listened. It just worked out that way. Not that anyone was exactly willing to make too much noise, anyway; they were rather defeated, all of them, even if it only had been a few of them who had actually faced Seigaku in a match and even fewer of them who had come out less than victorious the defeat was still all of theirs, they were all equally responsible for bringing shame to their school and their captain.
Even Niou, impossible though it may have seemed, was being quiet. The usual witty quips were far gone as the trickster for once simply concentrated on doing exactly as he was told, following the practice from the beginning to the end without a single lapse in his great effort to hone his skills. Yagyuu wasn't even sure if this was due to his defeat or something else entirely, something else in that match that had made Niou like this, but it was a fact he couldn't deny, much though he might have liked to.
It was... uncomfortable. When Niou wasn't being himself, Yagyuu suddenly found himself quite unable to behave as usual, as well. It wasn't like he was exactly as tied to Niou mentally as some seemed to suspect, but there was a certain effect he couldn't entirely ignore. He wished he'd been able to solve whatever was making Niou like this, but to do that he'd have had to know the problem in the first place, and that was currently giving him some trouble indeed.
Then Sanada finally returned to the practice, and suddenly it was all too clear for Yagyuu.
Not a word was said, yet the tension was simply too great to ignore. He should have expected it, really; for such a great rivalry to disappear in one match was pretty nigh impossible, even more so when said match was... less than satisfactory, for all involved. It was still there, every bit of it, only now the other party wasn't there yet he was, and while in Sanada that fire seemed to be burning just as brightly as ever Yagyuu knew all too well it wasn't that way for Niou.
However, Niou couldn't exactly do anything about it could he, he couldn't deny Sanada anything because Sanada was the vice captain, you obeyed the vice captain or you paid a hefty price, and besides with some strange traces clinging on to Niou even after this long there might have been also some innate form of this strange, strange pride preventing him from leaving, preventing him from doing anything about the situation that was simply waiting for something to explode.
It still took a couple of days, yet, a couple of days of glances and tension and words that were begging to be said only to get cruelly crushed under strong, merciless feet, a couple of days of guessing and second-guessing and more than anything waiting. Everyone was waiting, now, the regulars for what they knew was soon to come, the other players for the tension to dissipate somehow even though they had no idea about its actual mechanisms. It wouldn't be long now, they knew, and even though they all subconsciously knew it would not be nice or pretty on any scale when it finally happened it sometimes seemed like it would be preferable to this endless game of silent cat and mouse.
Finally Sanada said it, those three little words that could turn a world upside down in less than a second, let's play tennis, and Yagyuu might have blinked or something but the next thing he knew the two stood on a court, preparing themselves for a match, and everyone else just stood by and watched them.
Finally Yagyuu managed to shake himself out of his shocked stupor, managed to make his way to Yukimura's side, to catch his captain's arm and attention. "You can't let them do this," he said quietly, his eyes as locked on the court as the captain's, even though he was talking to the other he still couldn't tear his eyes away any more than any of them could.
"What am I to do, then?" asked Yukimura quietly. "How am I supposed to end this?"
"You are the captain," Yagyuu hissed through his teeth. "You have stopped matches before. The moment you say a word, a single word, Sanada will stop this idiocy. You're the only one who can stop this match."
"They might need it," Yukimura murmured. "Niou as much as Sanada."
"You know as well as I do that this can only end in a catastrophe," Yagyuu said sharply. "Niou may do a great illusion, but he is not Tezuka. Not yet. Even Fuji pointed that out, and he should know. And why is Sanada doing this anyway? He defeated Tezuka once already. He has no need to continue this rivalry with a less than perfect substitute."
"...I see you have never truly had a rival," Yukimura said quietly. "Genichirou must defeat him in all ways, in all the forms he may appear in... or else, he'll always be doubting, always be thinking if it might have gone otherwise."
"He practically tore Tezuka into pieces," Yagyuu pointed out. "The real Tezuka, Yukimura, not an imitation. I don't care what Sanada needs to do, you can't let him break a teammate over something that doesn't really have anything to do with Niou."
"As I said... they both need it," Yukimura said, then shook his head. "Niou," he said, raising his voice, and suddenly all the eyes were on him, everyone always listened whenever Yukimura said something after all. "It's your decision whether you play this match or not," he continued, in his usual soft, civilized tones, every word considered as dearly as for some an entire school essay. "You can either play or not play. Genichirou's orders have nothing to do with this. If you wish to back down at any moment, I will stop this match."
Niou looked at Yukimura, looked at him as though he had been crazy, and Yagyuu knew he wasn't entirely Niou at the moment. "I'm playing," he said, and then he certainly wasn't Niou, Niou would have never actually worn the Seigaku uniform, Yagyuu was the only one who had and though that was the closest one could get to Niou without being the real thing it still wasn't actually Niou, not really.
The match started and everyone was watching, just everyone, Yukimura wasn't telling anyone to go back to practice because some things just went beyond the matters of practice and training even in Rikkaidai, everyone was watching as Tezuka and Sanada faced each other once again and the battle was on like it had never been interrupted at all.
Yet this wasn't the same, Yagyuu could tell this wasn't the same, he knew everyone else could tell it too and really this was too much and too cruel and Yukimura should have put a stop on it yet he didn't, Yukimura merely watched quietly, Yukimura the only one who could have put an end to it yet he had put the decision in Niou's hands, the cruellest kind of power. It wasn't Niou making those decisions anymore, after all, it was someone else entirely, someone who was merely using his form as a disguise and then warping it, and Niou no more had any say in what happened to him now did he.
It became clear all too soon that no matter what, Niou still couldn't compare to the real Tezuka. It was more an execution than a match, Sanada controlling the pace entirely. Yet something kept Niou crawling up time after time, something kept him trying even when he was struck by the lightning again and again and again. He couldn't do the Tezuka Phantom, of course he couldn't, but that didn't stop him from trying; Yagyuu could just hear his muscles crying out as he stood up once again, setting himself ready to receive the serve.
"Yukimura," he murmured, again going to the captain's side. "This is madness. Niou can't take this for too long."
"I don't see a Niou on the courts." Yukimura's expression was grave as he looked on to where Sanada and the illusion of Tezuka played on.
"You know it's him, though," Yagyuu argued. "You can't let Sanada break one of our players just because he can't tell Niou's illusion apart from the real Tezuka!"
"It's out of my hands by now, Yagyuu," Yukimura said softly, more softly than usual, a peculiar look in his eyes. "I cannot stop them at this point. The moment where I could have done that has long since gone by. If this goes on is entirely Niou's own decision." With one last glance on the courts, he shook his head, turning around and walking away. "...I cannot possibly continue to watch such travesty any longer."
After Yukimura left, the others soon dispersed; obviously the match was not worth their attention. The ones on the court didn't seem to even notice, continuing their endless battle, the battle had ended already why couldn't either of them just realize that? Yagyuu was the only one who lingered, he just couldn't look away, couldn't tear his eyes off the sight of Niou being thrown to the ground again and again, being hurt over and over again, only for some strange stubborn spirit to keep him standing up time and time again. Yukimura was looking at him, he could tell, at him but not at the match, and then that sensation too disappeared as little by little everyone left, practice was ending and there was nothing left to see. Soon they were the only ones on the silent courts, the growls and shouts of the match that wasn't a real match and Yagyuu's own quiet breaths.
Niou was thrown down again and Sanada yelled at him, yelled at him to stand up, yet he wasn't yelling at Niou at all but at Tezuka instead, they both saw Tezuka there after all and Yagyuu wasn't sure Sanada could even remember otherwise anymore. Niou was trembling, he saw, trembling and obviously too hurt to continue, yet he was trying to stand up again, to answer the challenge. He was really going to end up broken if this went on.
Yagyuu sighed, fetching his own racquet. He had to put a stop to this… even if it was by stealing Niou's illusion, twisting it, warping it.
It wasn't pleasant, by any means, not pleasant at all to take on such a form, such a personality. Yet he knew it had been the same for Niou, the exact same game of opposites, to go from the trickster into that stoic calmness, from playing around just for the hell of it into a seriousness that could only be rivalled by the likes of Sanada. For him it was the opposite, really. Though he backed away from very little when on the courts, even less when he was in Niou's guise, he was still, by his very core and nature, very much the gentleman he had been nicknamed. To take on the form of this... creature... was rather painful to him, in ways that had nothing to do with personal likes or dislikes. He was, in general, controlled and quiet, proper in ways some might have thought even obsolete, always making sure his behaviour and attitude were just as expected. Yet now he was slipping into the form of someone very different, someone loud and arrogant, with crude words and boasts and gloating, someone who didn't think twice about insulting someone simply because he considered it perfectly within his rights to treat others as they pleased. This was someone who never seemed to sit properly if he only could help it, who apparently revelled in every chance to discard any uniforms and other such guises that were not somehow tied to tennis, who obviously thought any rules only applied to anyone who wasn't him.
Momentarily closing his eyes, he drew a deep breath, then set the racquet on his shoulder and walked towards the court, eyeing the two opponents. Somehow, Sanada suddenly didn't seem quite as intimidating; rather, he appeared to be... pitiful, almost, in his current rage and misplaced vengeance.
"Well, well. If this isn't pitiful," he chuckled, tossing his hair out of his eyes with an arrogant smirk. "Did you not say you weren't going to play against the likes of him again, Sanada?"
Finally, Sanada managed to tear his eyes away from his intended victim, glaring towards him instead. "Go away," he said curtly. "You are not my opponent."
"What's the matter, Sanada?" he asked, still smirking. Oh, no, he wasn't about to give up on his task quite that easily... Not when this had to work. It had to work, no matter what it took. "Afraid to face me, ahn? That must be it... that's the only reason why you would this." He lightly kicked his foot towards the lying Niou, not quite hitting him but still making his intention clear. "Going against an opponent you already beat... breaking him just to satisfy your own pitiful pride. Are you truly that afraid, Sanada? Afraid that your victory was just a chance? That if you were to try again with the real man on the other side of the net, you would stand no chance?"
"Shut up," Sanada spat. "Get out of the court. This match is not about you."
"To think the great Emperor would be a coward." Shaking his head, Yagyuu pointed his racquet against Sanada. "Face me, Sanada. Play against me. Let's decide that match that never seems to come to an end." Smirk, smirk, he could do this, he had to do this, he could patch Niou back together later but for now he had to get him out of the court alive. "Let me have my victory... unless you're just going to forfeit in your fear, you stupid bastard."
"You bastard..." Sanada growled, glaring at him as though he were the vilest creature on Earth. "My match is -"
"Over," Yagyuu finished. "Your match with this Tezuka - this pretend Tezuka, even - is over. Now, play with me." He leant his head back, looking at Sanada with all the challenge and arrogance he could muster. No way would this wreck of an avenger ever be able to defeat someone as magnificent as him, right? "It's about the time... about the time the Emperor finally faces the King."
For a moment, Sanada was quiet, not looking at him, not looking at Niou either, not looking at anyone at all. Finally, though, he raised his eyes, a deep, fiery fire blazing in his eyes. "Get out of the court... Niou," he growled through gritted teeth.
Somehow, Yagyuu wasn't sure how, Niou managed to gather himself enough to push himself up from the ground, half crawling out of the court. He collapsed just beyond the lines, but that was okay. That was far enough. He was out of the way of Sanada's wrath now.
Now, it was Yagyuu's turn to face it.
He set himself on the baseline, preparing himself for one of the most powerful serves there was to be received, and as he heard Sanada yelling his name instead of Tezuka's this time he knew he had managed, he had managed to buy time for Niou, perhaps managed to get him away from this storm entirely, and whatever price that might have come at did not matter at this point in time.
"Atobe!"