I started rereading Prince of Tennis/New Prince of Tennis recently, and after seeing some really good PoT fanfics I got the urge to write this.
Niou was interesting when he was first introduced, but after his match with Atobe against the high schoolers he became one of my favorite characters in PoT. Anyways, hope I did him justice!
The identity of the OC is meant to be ambiguous, I've never written in this style before and I wanted to experiment a bit.
4 Things She Learned About Him and 1 He Told Her
There are some perks to being Kirihara Akaya's cousin, she thinks. One of them is becoming friends with the other Rikkaidai tennis club regulars. And boy, are they a bunch of interesting guys.
Particularly one Niou Masaharu.
They call him "Trickster", "Con Artist of the Courts", "Most Troublesome Guy", "Genius Swindler"…in other words, bad news all around.
Her first encounter with the guy had been him playing a prank on Akaya, and she'd been caught up in it. Not the most fun way to start off her school year…She can't help but be intrigued by him, though.
1.
He's not at all afraid of Sanada, and this baffles her. She's terrified of him, and Akaya in Bloodshot Mode doesn't scare her HALF as much as an angry Sanada does.
"What'd you do this time?" she asks in amusement, watching Sanada storm out of the club room, covered from head to toe in blue paint.
"Why are you blaming me?"
"Niou, we all know you did it..."
"Can he prove it?" He raises an eyebrow and gives her a challenging smirk.
She rolls her eyes but can't help smiling a bit. They watch Sanada yell at a few unfortunate freshmen who'd been caught balking at his appearance, setting them to running more laps.
"Of course not. You wouldn't be living up to your name of Trickster, now, would you?"
"Puri ~ "
She sweatdrops at this
"Shouldn't you be at least a little bit worried…"
2.
His teachers think he's an average student. She thinks he's brilliant.
It's not just a coincidence that he's never been caught pulling a prank. He always has a perfect alibi, and there is never any evidence to incriminate him.
Niou is also Rikkaidai's most troublesome person for a reason – he's a genius at manipulation, at predicting his opponent's move, at getting into and screwing with their head.
It takes far more skill than most people assume to play his style of tennis. Niou Masaharu notices every little detail about someone he chooses to imitate – and he's skilled enough to fool even his own teammates.
He himself seems to think lightly of it. "A trick is just a trick after all," he tells her. She disagrees.
"Don't give me that crap. Frankly, after Yukimura you're the person on this team that I'd be the most afraid of playing."
Truly, he's a troublesome guy…but that's just who he is.
3.
People call him unfeeling, cold. She knows that's not true.
She sees the gleam in his eyes when he gets an idea for his latest prank, the excitement at the prospect of a new challenge.
She sees how the look in his eyes softens when he teases Akaya, even though he'll insist that his kouhai is just a troublesome brat.
She's seen the fire in his eyes when he plays seriously, when he's pushed past his limits and refuses to give in.
"Why?" she asks him one time, after he returns from the U-17 camp.
"Why what?"
"Why would you go that far? You could have ended your career in tennis with one match…was it really worth it?" He meets her eyes, and she's startled by the resolution in his eyes.
"Because it wasn't just for me, it was for the team…No matter how painful it was, I wouldn't have given up until the last point."
That's when she is sure.
Niou Masaharu is ANYTHING but unfeeling. Anyone who says he had better be ready for an ass-kicking from yours truly.
4.
Niou won't admit it, but he's insecure.
She sees him bristle when Fuji points out that he couldn't copy Tezuka Kunimitsu perfectly, how he flinches when he's told he doesn't hold a candle to the original.
"I'm dragging him down at this point," he tells her after a particularly long match. In the end, Yagyuu had ended up covering for Niou quite a bit.
"He surpassed me a long time ago. And everyone else has some crazy ass skill. All I can do is copy them."
"What do you mean 'all I can do'? That takes a lot of skill already!" she argues.
He gives her a faint smile, and she can tell it is fake.
"Sweetheart, remember what I said? A trick is just a trick." She bites her lip as he walks away.
But that's what makes you…you.
1...
It had started out as a fairly normal conversation…and somehow they had drifted onto THIS topic.
"My type? ...Well, I'm not sure yet. It's not like I have any experience with dating or this kind of stuff," she admits, shrugging sheepishly. "What's YOUR type, Niou?"
"Hmm…I guess they'd have to be smart, and they'd be able to see past my tricks." She chuckles at this.
"In that case, you've just broken the hearts of just about all of your fangirls."
"You're my type, you know?" She looks up from her homework and stares at him in bewilderment.
"Wait, what?"
"You didn't hear me the first time?"
"…you're not messing with me, are you?"
"You tell me." He smiles at her. It's faint, but something about it is more real than she's ever seen from him. She smiles back.
"No, you're not."
~ fin ~