Pinnacle
Kuramagal

Genre: Drama

Rating: T

Summary : Like all good things, our world, the one we had together built around ourselves, had to end. We were at the top, the pinnacle, and from there we had nowhere to go but down.

(A/N): Here is the second chapter (on time!), just as I promised. :) Okay, so first I must say thank you to Tressa and syusuke01 for their nice reviews. Thank you very much you two, I appreciate each and everyone of your kind words. A new note, you will now notice that rather than a large slew of quotes at the beginning of each chapter, a single quote will appear. This is a quote from the previous narrator. So, since Inui was the narrator last chapter, this chapter's quote is from him. Hopefully that made sense. Again, I would like also to thank my Prince of Tennis beta, Vierblith, for going over this for me and correcting my grammar. I am fortunate to have such a wondeful beta. As with the last chapter, I am still undecided on pairings for this story, or even if I'll attempt pairing. If you have a suggestion please review and let me know. I can't guarantee that I'll do all of your suggestions, but I will the ones with the most votes. So ... vote now and on with the show!

Disclaimer: I claim no rights to this anime, though I am thinking about asking for them for my birthday.

Chapter Two: Things Best Left Alone

"It's not that I don't want to handle this, it's that I don't think I can."

As with every morning Tezuka awoke to the sounds of his own breathing, alone in his darkened bedroom. As he rubbed his sleep-covered eyes, he realized perhaps the reason he awoke to silence was that he was content with things being that way. When he reached for his glasses, perched exactly where he had left them the night before, he remembered he liked the order his life held now. And, after correcting his vision with the spectacles, Tezuka decided that he liked the certainty he woke up to every morning. Tezuka was a creature of habit, something he knew all too well. It was just the way he wanted things.

The once captain pulled the sheets off his lean body as he glanced at the clock on his bedside table. The red letters glared five-thirty back at him, but Tezuka was unaffected by the early morning hour.

Since high school, Tezuka had always risen at five-thirty. He found that now, after so many years of practice, it was impossible for him to rise at any other time, and it was not for lack of trying. He had attempted this thing his colleagues called 'sleeping in' several times. But, for the life of him, he could not enjoy it. Instead, he found himself thinking of all the things he could be doing rather than lazing in bed. His best 'sleeping in' had been few years ago, but that had been for other reasons. Reasons Tezuka did not want to think about now.

Tezuka stretched lightly, allowing the knots that had accumulated in his spine during the night to straighten out. Once he heard the final pop, he dangled his feet over the edge of his bed and stood up from the warmth. His feet touched cool floorboards, but Tezuka didn't hurry his pace. Instead, he moved slowly and easily towards his closet, where he reached for a well worn t-shirt and a pair of loose shorts.

After dressing himself with the attire that would permit him freedom of motion, Tezuka snatched up his running shoes and headed out of his bedroom. A few doors down, he entered another room where a treadmill awaited him. Quickly stepping into his shoes and slipping the band on his wrist, he set the machine for his custom program and began his daily routine.

About an hour or so later, a sweaty and limping Tezuka exited the room and headed for his kitchen. There, he snatched a bottle of water from the fridge and an ice pack from the freezer and shuffled back down the hall to another room, this time a contemporary office. The ex-captain of Seigaku sat heavily in the desk chair and put his right leg up on a foot stool that was placed so perfectly that it could not be a coincidence. Tezuka gingerly put the ice pack on his knee, attempting to ease the already obvious signs of inflammation. Tezuka sighed wearily, knowing that he had overdone it today and would probably regret it for the rest of the week.

Trying to evict that thought from his mind, Tezuka turned his attention to his laptop. After awakening the computer with a casual flick of the mouse, he logged in and proceeded to check his email. Like always, the vast majority of it was work related, and Tezuka dutifully answered it in his customary dull, monotone fashion. It was all the same to him. Ideas to be reviewed, interviews and meetings to attend, people to meet, places to be – it was a never ending drawl of the same old same. That was why he was very surprised when he found an email in his inbox that was not work related. At first, Tezuka considered deleting it. No one emailed him unless it was to talk about work, and, even then, they only did it when they had to.

Tezuka's reputation for being collected, intimidating and over all a hard-ass had preceded him even in the corporate world. There he found that his hard working do-or-die attitude, along with his ability to intimidate people with a mere glance, was very useful. It was simple; Tezuka was just used to commanding people. He had not been captain of Seigaku's team for no reason. Therefore, it took him relatively no time at all to rise through his company's ranks. It was that and the fact he somehow ended up working for Atobe's company.

Ever the opportunist, Atobe had realized early on that Tezuka would be better alongside him at the top, rather than waiting out for another company to snatch up with the mere prospect of a pay raise. Tezuka knew this because Atobe himself had told him so when he had promoted Tezuka from a lowly junior executive to one of the presidents of the company, a jump many had whispered about for weeks. But Tezuka had, as Atobe expected, held up to the Hyotei captain's expectations and had silenced the opposition. In just three weeks' time, the members of the company learned to regard Tezuka as being nearly equal to Atobe.

As such, people from the company did not email him without a good reason. Tezuka had, in the beginning, his fair share of young, attractive secretaries who would send him an email inviting him out for a drink. However, unlike Atobe, Tezuka refused to capitalize on this and thus the emails went unanswered and soon ceased altogether.

That was why this email surprised him. There, just above an email Atobe had sent him about some sort of conference, was the familiar name Sadaharu Inui. Tezuka stared at the name for a few seconds, all the while thinking that this had been some mistake or well-planned joke. Tezuka adjusted his silver framed glasses as he looked back over the name to see if he had been mistaken. It had been five years since he had heard anything from any one of his old teammates. To receive something now not only surprised him, but it downright unnerved him.

Tezuka had long since tried to put that part of his past behind him. Ever since that night … Tezuka shuddered. Thinking about the team brought back a slew of memories. Some good, some bad and others so horrible he would rather not remember them. For Tezuka, remembering his old team made him feel like he fell short of his team's expectations. He had been the captain of that team. The person who was supposed to hold everything together and he had failed at that. In fact, save the occasional correspondences he held with Oishi via email or, on a few rare occasions, the phone, he had not kept in touch with anyone. To receive this email now was like a strange trip back to the past, a trip he could do without.

Tezuka was very, very tempted to delete the email, to not even bother looking at it. He was so close to doing so that he actually had already hit the delete message button. However, now the annoying computer was asking him if he was really sure. Of course he had been sure, Tezuka reasoned as he grew steadily more and more irritated with the piece of machinery. He had already asked for it to be deleted, why would he be questioning his actions now?

That was not true. Tezuka was questioning his actions. He was wondering if maybe, just maybe, he should read the email from Inui. (Tezuka was sure now it was from his old teammate. He had run a mental tally through his mind and, as far as he knew, none of the people at work had the name Inui as a surname.)

The message still glared back at the captain, demanding him to make a choice. Making up his mind, Tezuka decided not to the delete the message. Instead, he opened the email and began reading it. It was brief but it caught the once-captain's attention.

From: iJuice

To: KTezuka

Greetings Tezuka,

I hope this message finds you well and in good health. While I'm uncertain if I have your correct and current email, I do hope that you receive this. (I got your email from Oishi, very generous of him.) Perhaps, now I should get to the reason why I am contacting you, as I don't think Oishi or I are in good enough shape to do laps, should you order them.

I personally feel it has been too long since we have seen each other. Therefore, I was wondering if you would be interested in spending a weekend with me at my vacation home in Aruba? I am also contacting Oishi to see if he is interested. I thought it would be a nice time for us to catch up. I also believe that it would be beneficial to collect some newer data. Oh, I would also like to see you.

At any rate, I am planning on having this gathering in approximately a month, which would be June 12 or so. As far a travel is concerned, if you agree I will send one of my corporate jets to collect you. It would be nice to see you and would save Oishi from being the only one under my scrutiny if you came. (I assume you two remained friends despite your separation as my data says you would and because he had your current email and appeared to be in contact with you.) I expect your reply within a few days (1.6 to be exact) and hope that you can come. (Oh, my data says there is a 78 percent chance of you coming if you are married, 94 percent if you are not). If not, I'm sure I can find a suitable punishment. (I still have a few of my old Inui concoctions.)

Hope to hear from you soon,

Inui

Sadaharu Inui
CEO of Inui Health Products

Tezuka stared at the message. It was so very … Inui. Everything about the message reeked of what the data player had been before everything had happened, before life had become confusing. For Tezuka it was refreshingly frightening. For if there was one thing the former captain knew, it was that he was not the same optimistically-idealistic boy had been during junior high or high school. No, a series of occurrences had changed Tezuka both in good and, at the same time, bad ways. The ever mature captain had found that even he had to grow up and face facts.

The first of those had been that he would never be the tennis superstar he had always dreamt of. His junior high shoulder injury combined with a slew of other things had seen to that. At the age of twenty-one, Tezuka realized his tennis dreams were over. Ever thankful that he had not shirked his studies, Tezuka gave up athletics completely and pursued his studies fastidiously. Graduating at the top of his class from college, Tezuka was granted what was considered a 'prestigious job,' working for Atobe's company.

Tezuka stuck to his work and eventually Hyotei's ex-captain noticed. The rest, they said, was history. Tezuka sighed. Despite everything that happened to him, despite everything that had gone wrong, Tezuka had still managed to come out on top. All he knew was that was more than he could say for some people.

Tezuka looked at the clock, it was nearing eight, and he still had to shower before work at nine. Making his mind up in almost a split second, Tezuka sent back a reply:

From: KTezuka

To: iJuice

I will come. Please send more information. Not married.

Tezuka

It was short and perfectly like his previous self, while still being true to his present. Tezuka nodded and sent the message, after all what would it hurt to meet up with Inui and Oishi? It was not as if the whole team would be there.

With that thought in mind, Tezuka removed his leg from its rest on the stool and pulled the melting icepack off his knee. The joint was now comfortably numb, but Tezuka was still careful when he eased himself out of the chair. After getting to his feet without too much trouble, save some stiffness, Tezuka moved to leave the room.

However, something, a dusting of black at the bottom of his computer screen caught his attention. He scrolled the message down a little farther and saw a p.s. almost missed by his eyes. Tezuka looked at the little addition which read "Bring your racket" with trepidation.

The thought of bringing his racket startled the captain. It had been years since he had last played. He tried to remember when he had last seen his racket. Flashes of the back of his closet, where his racket sat hidden and unused, came to mind. He wondered vaguely if he could even get the thick layer of dust off the strings of his racket. That led him to thoughts of whether those same strings would even hold the weight of a ball. Tezuka shook his head. Perhaps he should just buy a new racket.

But that would be futile, Tezuka thought as he subconsciously shifted his weight from his weaker knee. He would not be able to play. Tezuka sighed as the ultimate truth descended on him. All of a sudden, the captain's mind was dragged from the illusion he had been living. Once more, he found himself in the present, real life. The place where he had given up on his tennis dreams years ago.

Perhaps to say that he had given up was a little false. Tezuka had not given up anything. He had fought with every ounce of endurance and blood he possessed. He had undergone endless and ongoing nights of agonizing pain. Tezuka had not given up. Rather, his body has just given out. After all the years, Tezuka's body had finally been pushed to its limits, and it refused to go any further, despite Tezuka's determination and pleas. Tezuka still had dreams that he had wanted to carry through. Among them were to find his kohai who had unknowingly pushed his, Tezuka's, game to new levels. He wanted to teach the boy a few more things and maybe learn something from Ryoma once more. Unfortunately, he was unable to continue his pursuit. Ever since that night, Tezuka was quite sure he would never be able to play at that level again.

It had been jarring at first, but gradually realization meddled with everyday life. Suddenly, Tezuka had accepted it as a fact unquestioned. Now, nearly five years later, he was successful, though not in tennis, and living a life he was proud to have.

But is it enough?

The thought plagued Tezuka's mind constantly. What ifs and maybes, these were his constant thoughts despite numerous attempts to shove them back. They surrounded his mind and, late at night, they kept him awake with alternate possibilities. Tezuka found them irksome, but despite his attempts to rid himself of them, they unrelentingly beleaguered him.

Tezuka knew better than anyone else that he was not the person he had been. He had changed, some said for the better, others for the worst. Atobe's most frequent comment to him was that he was not himself. But when Tezuka inquired as to what was so different, the diva would change the subject to something he was more comfortable talking about, namely himself.

Regardless, it had happened just like he should have known it would. No one was the same person they were in high school after college. Everyone had to grow up and change. Tezuka would have liked to amend that fact by exhibiting Kikumaru into evidence. But as he had not seen the other in five years, he really could not be quite sure of that fact. He had tried to ask Oishi about Kikumaru as well as various other members, but the once vice-captain had only kept up with him, and Inui apparently.

It had been Oishi then, who had inquired about Echizen. Tezuka had to respond that he had no idea. The boy could have been dead for the past five years, Tezuka would not have known, and that scared him. If Tezuka was one to wager, which he was not, then he would have said the boy would have stayed as close as possible to the tennis circuit. But, whether he was player, coach, trainer, or just some schmuck in the stands, Tezuka did not know.

Seigaku's once captain had scanned the singles open matches for several years, but he had never seen a player who exhibited Echizen's talent or prowess. He had looked at all the projected upstart singles players, analyzing them till he was blue in the face, but none of them had that same spark his old kohai had. After that, Tezuka had looked at the coaches, but none of them were young enough to be Echizen. After that point in time, Tezuka had stopped bothering. As far as he knew, Echizen had fallen off the face of the earth, never to return again.

Tezuka always told himself this as one thought opened after another ended, and said he would never bother with it again. Yet, time and time again, he found himself glancing at the singles matches and wondering and waiting for when Ryoma would show his face once more. He was always disappointed.

Tezuka sighed. This vacation and get together would do him good. It had been ages since he had seen Oishi and even longer since he had seen Inui. Making up his mind, Tezuka decided to go into this positively. After all, he had managed to fool the data collector for all these years. What harm could come from visiting Inui now?

So how was that? Is everyone even more confused than they were before? I promise things will start making sense very soon. You'll find out why Tezuka doesn't/can't play tennis anymore and we'll see what happened Seigaku's prodigy, Ryoma. Thanks for reading and see you all very soon!

Kuramagal