Author's note: Reuploaded because I realized that I didn't have any line breaks that signified a change in perspective. I apologize for the error on my part
Contrary to popular belief, there has never been a person who's as familiar with failure as Yukimitsu Manabu.
Quoted by peers to be a man of exceptional academic intelligence, brilliant comprehension and easily having a genius level IQ; his life has forever been represented by numbers and grades and awards given in the pursuit of knowledge. He has never gotten an average score on a test nor has he ever been forced to think heavily for an answer to a complex equation. To everyone, this is where his worth lies and he is always acknowledged for it.
Never respected. But at least acknowledged.
Unfortunately, the quantification of a human being's value by the ever imploding academic bureaucracy holds little water when compared to the fleeting adulation one witnesses in an exercise of physical prowess and ability. But while the praise is indeed gratifying, he must remember that it is temporary. Genius and ideas will last forever; the body and a touchdown will be lost to the passing of time and the annals of history. It is only logical that one trains ones mind if one wishes to be useful to society and to those around him.
It is the clinical, unbending truth and Yukimitsu Manabu has long refused to accept it to be so.
The saying has never sounded so cliche but he knows that the truth hurts and he only wishes for the time that he grows immune to it by virtue of evolution. His need to survive has to be strong enough to allow him to reach that, if anything at all.
Another pass failed, another bullet dodged. Repeat ad nauseum.
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Takekura Gen is strong, that is also a fact; A veritable Atlas who carried the weight of the world on his shoulders, both literally and metaphorically, who knows that he must do what he must to salvage both himself and everyone around him. And only he can show him just how much his worth as a person really is; a man who is effectively Manabu's polar opposite on the biological spectrum. How to do this is a completely different question altogether.
In comparison to the other players, he knows that Yukimitsu is adapting slow; the dodo amongst the eagle's as the case may seem. He doesn't know how that particular thing came to be extinct since he didn't stick around long enough to learn it in class, but he knows that it's as good an analogy in his head as any.
It's also a horrible one to make and he regrets thinking about it as often as he does.
Takekura Gen abstains from offering help not out of spite.
It is because he simply does not know how.
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In his entire stay with the Devilbats, there are only three things that Yukimitsu's certain of.
Number one: Hiruma will treat him just as hard as he treats everyone else. It is cruel but it is fair, becoming an almost perfect example of natural selection given tangible form. No one was ever granted an unfair advantage and no one ever should. To this, he agrees and the pain he feels everyday after practice is proof enough. He has not complained once.
Number two: Everyone else will treat him the way Hiruma never would. At times, he wishes to be thankful and grab onto someones hand but he never does. The worried Devilbats think that it's because of Hiruma. Yukimitsu knows that it's not because he shouldn't; it's because he won't. He has never asked for help. Never at all.
Number three: Musashi is the only one who has never offered him assistance. He does not know why and he does not wish to assume so he futilely tries to ignore the third constant among the million variables. He has failed each and every time.
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There's a pain somewhere inside of him whenever he sees Yukimitsu Manabu sitting on the bench, cheering his heart out for a team that barely knows he's there, knowing there is nothing he can do.
Nothing but wait and bear witness to the death or survival of a creature on the brink of a metaphorical extinction.
Stoically, he attempts to let this pain subside only to realize that he's lost the capability to do so.
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He barely passes his tests; battered, bruised and wishing that he were dead sometimes, but he passes it nevertheless. And when he gets his first moment on the field, he not only makes the cut, he shines so bright that it makes the audience ask where they've been keeping a player as good as him all this time. He did this all without the help of anyone or anything but the strength of will of a person kicked to the ground countlessly and refuses to admit defeat.
The very same will that drives all of them together as a team and brings the pieces of the Devilbat machination together in perfectly fitting gears and cogs.
Musashi smiles knowing that he was wrong. Yukimitsu smiles knowing that he was right.
After all, didn't it take the human race a hundred thousand years to get where it is?