Summary: A little exploration ficlet on Sakuno, and reflecting on Ryoma and Seigaku. Gen fic.
A League Beyond
By RubyD
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Although her grandmother had always been a tennis coach, Ryuzaki Sakuno had never taken to the sport as a child. She regrets it now, just a little, when she watches Seigaku practice and play, the bonds of friendship and camaraderie quickly attaching them to each other. Even after the year ends, she can already tell that theirs is a team that will become legend, even to those who were there as witness. Their hearts will always live on in the game, on the court, laughing and winning and losing as one.
She wonders what it would have been like to have that kind of relationship, if maybe she had been pushed for tennis. Though it would have made no difference in her position as a fan, someone who stood on the fence and watched, just maybe it would have put her on more even footing, made the field more level, so that when she talked and walked and even looked at Echizen Ryoma her stomach wouldn't fall into knots or her feet become as unsteady as they would in an earthquake. Instead of always being on the outside looking in.
Even Horio, Katsuo, and Kachiro look different to her. They are the future of Seigaku - a little young now, and inexperienced but the raw talent is there, especially in Katsuo and Kachiro. One day they'll make it - maybe even Horio - to the Regulars, and be a step and a league beyond Sakuno. Even now, only freshmen, they're closer to the tennis team than she herself could hope for, eating and hanging out together, running endless laps, training and drinking Inui's health drinks. She wonders what it's all like, perhaps with the exception of the health drinks.
When she practices with Tomo-chan - which she does, every week now - she wonders how it feels like to be in a real competition with the crowds watching your every move, waiting for you to trip or fall or fail. The thought scares her, but when she goes one-on-one against Tomo-chan, woman to woman, and after Sakuno forgets for a moment her perpetual meekness does she get a taste of what it feels like to be truly playing. Her heart leaping and aiming not just to win but to do her best, and not caring about onlookers and just playing for the sake of playing - it feels fun. It feels like freedom. She's not great at tennis and almost always loses to Tomo-chan who has more natural abilities, but Sakuno is getting better.
In the end, Sakuno thinks herself as a simple kind of girl - all she really wants is to be happy. And as she watches Echizen Ryoma she dares to daydream that it might be him someday. Maybe he could make her happy in some lucky future.
But as he walks away from the court, surrounded by his teammates, acting not quite aloof as usual and just a bit sociable, all she feels is sad. When he is playing, talking, drinking Inui's smelly juices, passively riling Momoshiro into an indignant rage, or passing judgment with his simple "Mada mada dane," she isn't quite as happy as she is lonely. His eyes glance over to her once in a vague sort of recognition - which is better than before, when he use to only stare blankly - but it is still empty of warmth or fondness, being simply an acknowledgement of her continued presence. Sakuno is afraid to accept that it might be all she'll ever receive from him.
So she stands back and watches from afar, pretending to herself that she is content this way being out of the way. Because he is Echizen Ryoma… the pillar of Seigaku, a rising star, and all too high for her to reach.
End
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