As Inui Sadaharu pulled into the Seishun Gakuen entrance, memories from three years of his life began flooding into his mind. His first time meeting Tezuka and the gang, the first data notebook he had ever completed, Seigaku going to nationals, and hundreds of other good memories bought a smile to the bespectacled 18-year-old as he approached the parking lot.
When he attended the middle school, Inui had never noticed how small the parking lot. However, now that he drove, he had a new appreciation for just how hard it must've been to find a parking spot. Even now, when most of the staff and students had gone home, Inui had to park at the very end of the lot; meaning an even longer walk to the tennis courts. Maybe he'd jog, actually. Between exams and college applications, he rarely had time for working out. He missed playing tennis and found himself wondering how the other former Seigaku regulars were doing. He would have to call them or something later.
Getting out of his old (but very well taken care of) car, Inui looked at his phone and proceeded to jog towards the courts. He was already pretty late and there was no doubt that Ryuzaki would have a blast mocking him about it. Inui decided that this was what he deserved for letting Yanagi talk him into going to high school in Kanagawa instead of staying at Seigaku for high school. He grabbed his book-bag out of the car and proceeded to jog.
Although it only seemed a few seconds, it was actually about five minutes before Inui arrived at the courts and to his chagrin found that the regulars had already been chosen. Ryuzaki was saying something, but stopped when she noticed Inui and waved him over. She had changed little over the last three years, although she had slightly more grey in her hair than before.
"Ah, Inui-kun, I'm glad you could make it!" She said with a smile. And so the teasing began. With a sheepish grin, Inui stepped in to give her a hug. She looked at him appraisingly before fully releasing him, the way a parent would look at their child after a few months away.
"Guys listen up!" She said loudly, causing all of the tennis players to look towards Inui and the regulars to turn around to face him. "This is one of our former regulars, Inui Sadaharu. He's going to be helping out this season for his high school and I want you to treat him with the upmost respect, is that understood?" A thunderous 'yes' almost rocked Inui, who held back a cheesy smile.
"Are you the Inui-san? The one who helped take Seigaku to nationals a few years ago?" One of the kids in the back asked. Out of the corner of his eye, Inui saw Ryuzaki nod and could almost see the proud smile on her face. With that said, Inui bowed towards the tennis club.
"It'll be an honor working with you all," he said respectfully before turning his eyes again towards the regulars. Two in particular caught his attention; one was Kaidoh Kauro's younger brother Hazue and the other appeared to be a girl.
"Well that's all for today you guys, I need to talk to Inui-kun about some things. You guys be ready to work-out tomorrow. Good night, stay safe." Inui watched as the students began to disperse. He noticed one of the regulars, a redhead with silver cross earrings, looking at him with a challenging smirk. Another regular, this one blond, wrapped an arm over the redhead's shoulders, smiled at Inui, and dragged the redhead off.
"Inui-san!" A voice called out to him. Inui turned his head and saw Hazue walking towards him. The boy, who was a 3rd-year by Inui's calculations, bowed respectfully.
"Inui-san, I just wanted to say it's good to see you again. Kaoru is gonna be glad to hear that you're back." Inui smiled at this. It had been quite some time since he'd seen his former protege.
"It's nice to see you again too Hazue-kun. Tell Kaoru-kun I said hi." With a final nod, Hazue ran off to follow the two regulars Inui had noticed earlier. Inui also noticed the regular who looked like a girl walking with a group of the other regulars.
"So Inui-kun," Ryuzaki began, forcing Inui's attention back to herself. "How have you been? It's been a while since I heard from you." Inui laughed in spite of himself at Ryuzaki's tone. It was almost motherly.
"I've been good Ryuzaki-sensei, just busy with all of this college stuff and what-not. It's a miracle I managed to clear my schedule for this." He said with a smile. It was nice to be talking to Ryuzaki in the Seigaku tennis grounds again. Just like old times.
"That's good to hear. You actually just missed Sakuno. She was video-taping the intraschool rankings, but had to leave for cram. Poor girl gets no sleep between tennis, studying, and every boy in the high school and the middle school wanting to date her." Ryuzaki said with a chuckle. Inui gave a sympathetic laugh.
"Yes, I know how that rough studying can be. Anyway, you said you had videos of the tournament?" Inui asked, eager to get to the point of his visit (and more importantly, his drive all the way to Seigaku). Sensing this, Ryuzaki nodded, a gleam of responsibility entering her eyes. She led Inui into the coach's room, where a relatively new desktop sat, already turned on with the video-camera plugged in and the video on the screen. Apparently, Sakuno had the foresight to set everything up in advance for Ryuzaki.
"And I'm sure you noticed some of the regulars earlier, yes?" Ryuzaki said as she played the video. The first match involved the feminine-looking individual and another student who wasn't on the regulars line-up.
"Yes. Who is he?" Inui asked, pointing towards the regular. Ryuzaki squinted as she followed his finger and then burst into laughter. Inui blinked and looked between his former coach and the computer screen.
"If you mean the regular," Ryuzaki said, still laughing, "her name is Akaji Hikari." Inui leaned back and adjusted his glasses before looking at the screen again. He grabbed a notebook out of his bag and began writing notes.
"Her? She's a girl?" Inui asked. Ryuzaki nodded.
"Yup. I was surprised when she asked to compete in the boy's ranking tournament, but I guess she made a deal with Rei-sensei. And of course, we can't tell her no. She's really talented though." Inui responded with appropriate "ah"s and "I see"s.
"I can tell. She has practically zero excess movements and her focus is incredible at least. This tennis, is it-"
"Perfect tennis." Ryuzaki finished, also watching the video.
"Interesting." Inui mumbled, as he finished up his notes on Hikari. The match was still going when the camera began to move. It settled on a match between the red-haired and blond regulars from before. Inui's mouth nearly dropped at how good the two were. Ryuzaki let out a triumphant "hmph" when she noticed.
"The redhead is this year's captain, Chimei Kenmaru. I wasn't sure if he would be able to stay on the team this year, seeing as how he's a bit of a troublemaker. Had to threaten him to calm down. His opponent is the vice-captain: Toshiro Densuke." Inui barely heard Ryuzaki as his pencil slowly eroded due to the speed of his note-taking. These two boys were easily national-level players.
Inui looked up at a pause in the game.
"Chimei is aiming pretty close to the body, although I can't tell if he's missing or the blond -Toshiro-kun wasn't it?- is avoiding the ball." Inui said sternly.
"No, me and Chimei-kun had a very serious talk about that. If he intentionally harms another player, he's off the team and he knows it. He likes to play it close though." Inui looked at Ryuzaki, whose eyes were fixated on the screen. Inui turned his attention back to the computer screen. The two watched the match in silence for a few minutes before Ryuzaki let out a small laugh.
"I have to admit though, I'd rather play Chimei than Toshiro," she said. Inui laughed.
"I can see why. That Toshiro-kun, he's a pretty cruel player himself." Inui said, as he scribbled in his notebook while Ryuzaki agreed.
"You should watch them play doubles together. I've only done it once and I felt horrible for it." Ryuzaki half-joked, causing Inui to laugh.
"Ryuzaki-sensei feeling bad? I'm not sure I want to see something that brutal." Ryuzaki burst into laughter again, which made Inui smile. As the two watched the videos, Inui felt a rush inside of him, the kind he had not felt in quite some time. By the end of the night, his notebook was almost completely full of nothing but hypothetical questions and possibilities based off the video.
"So what do you think, Inui-kun?" Ryuzaki asked, her eyes an odd mixture of honest curiosity in Inui's thoughts and pride in her current regulars. Inui chuckled as he stood up.
"I think, this is going to be an interesting year, Ryuzaki-sensei."