Chapter 2

No sooner had Fuji stepped into his house-shoes and passed the kitchen doorway, than he was greeted by a warm voice and two blue eyes, half-closed in a delighted smile. "Shusuke! Welcome home!"

"Nee-san," Fuji smiled back. "I'm home. Sorry I'm so late."

"No problem. Mom had a meeting at the bank today, so I'm making Yakisomen for dinner. Oh!" Yumiko gave a conspiratorial nod toward the living-room behind him. "And guess who else turned up this evening."

Fuji turned around, lighting up with an eager smile. "Yuuta!"

Yuuta looked over his shoulder, a mouthful of noodles dangling down past his chin. He scowled and muttered something back. Through the many noodles, it bore a passing similarity to "what are you doing here?" but Fuji decided it was "welcome back".

He walked to the other side of the table, setting his bag on the floor, and sat down cater-cornered to Yuuta. The latter instinctively scooted his plate of somen closer to himself.

"I didn't know you were coming home today," Fuji remarked lightly. "Is everything alright at school?"

Yuuta shrugged, swallowing at last. "School's fine, but the tennis club isn't meeting again until next week, so I was bored."

Fuji blinked twice. "No tennis club? I hope nothing unfortunate has befallen any of the other regulars…"

"Um…" Yuuta raised an eyebrow uncertainly at his brother. Then he shook his head, gathering up another collection of noodles. "Not really. Akazawa-buchou had to go to Saitama for his grandfather's funeral and since Kaneda and Atsushi-senpai are both home with colds, Mizuki-san said we'd just wait until next week."

"I see." Fuji reached across the table, walking two fingers toward the edge of the plate. Yuuta snatched it back, shoveling in his carefully collected mouthful. "Perhaps you and I should have a practice match tomorrow after school."

"Noh ca' do," Yuuta replied, consonants once again mangled by somen. "Goin wuf Ya'agisawa tah wisit As'shi-se'pai."

"That's very thoughtful of you."

Yuuta's ears turned pink and he swallowed with some effort. "Not really, he's just stuck at home and we're all bored, so… Wait," he looked up. "You can't anyway; Seigaku has practice after school on Thursdays, right?"

"Mm. Usually, but Oishi has canceled practice so everyone can relax before the match on Friday." Gazing innocently out the living room window, Fuji made another grab for the plate, forcing Yuuta to lift it off the table and hold it out of reach.

"What match? You guys aren't playing Saeki-san's school 'til the end of the month."

"No, it's a last-minute-entry team. Hachiyama Chuu."

A breeze blew through the window and Fuji closed his eyes, enjoying the feeling of his bangs lifting up off his forehead. It took a moment to realize Yuuta was staring at him.

He asked, "What's the matter?"

Yuuta's mouth was partway open. "Hachiyama… Chuu. You guys are playing them?"

"Yes?" Fuji sat up a little straighter, tilting his head to the side. "Do you know something about them?"

"Uh…" Yuuta set his plate back down, staring hard at its contents. "No… I mean, we were supposed to play them this spring, but the game was canceled."

"That's unfortunate. I had heard that two of their regulars were suspended."

"Yeah…"

Fuji watched his little brother's face as Yuuta picked at the plate absently with his chopsticks. "Did something happen?"

"I don't know. I never met them, but I saw two of them come by St. Rudolph's a few days before the match; the captain and one of the other regulars. They went into the club room during practice and talked to Akazawa-buchou and Mizuki-san for a little while. When they left, one of them was laughing. For the rest of practice, Akazawa-buchou was really tense. I don't know what they said but, a few days later, when we heard the match was cancelled, Akazawa-buchou kinda'… sighed. Even Mizuki-san looked relieved."

"All the same, those two weren't suspended just for that, were they?"

Yuuta shook his head. "No, they weren't the ones who got suspended. I guess two of their second-year regulars got booted for causing trouble at a local hospital, but…"

"But?"

He picked at the noodles a little longer, then set down the chopsticks and looked up seriously. "Mizuki-san says the second-years took the fall for two other regulars; the captain and another one. He says the nurse who called security wasn't sure about their appearances, so the captain picked his two weakest players said it was them, instead."

"That's terrible."

They both stared down at the table between them in silence. Neither of them noticed that Yumiko had entered the room until she set a plate of Yakisomen down in front of Fuji.

Fuji smiled up at her. The brothers said "Thank you" simultaneously, Yuuta's tone laced with sarcasm. He picked up his own chopsticks again.

"You two aren't talking about the trouble at Chuuou General, are you?"

Yuuta looked up. "Nee-chan, you heard about it?"

"Only a little. I volunteer there sometimes and one of the nurses told me about the stir. Apparently those two boys were harassing one of the patients; a middle school student with a sports injury."

Fuji and Yuuta exchanged looks.

"Sports injury," Fuji repeated softly.

Yuuta shifted a little on his cushion. "Yanagisawa told me that three of the regulars on the opposing team were hurt after playing Hachiyama. I don't know, maybe it was bad enough to…" he glanced between his siblings and shook his head quickly. "Well, what does Yanagisawa know, anyway. Half the time, I can't understand a word he says."

Yumiko laughed lightly and turned back toward the kitchen. But in the doorway, she paused.

"Shusuke… you'll be careful playing them, right?"

Fuji smiled and nodded. "Of course."

Once she'd left the doorway, Fuji turned to his plate, resting both elbows on the table. He could still feel Yuuta's eyes on him. He aimed the smile at his brother instead.

"Don't worry. Seigaku won't lose to a team like that."

"Shut up," Yuuta grumbled, stabbing his noodles. "I'm not worried. You just want to brag."

Fuji smiled wider and planted his chin on his palms. "I'm really glad you came home this evening."

"Sh…shut up!"

"It's nice."

"Stop that!"

Kawamurazushi was stuffed with its usual morning crowd, but because that consisted largely of overworked salary-men and underfed students, there wasn't much noise. Taka made his way quickly around the sleepy restaurant, refilling waters and greeting their regulars with as much energy as he thought wouldn't be annoying.

Carrying the water pitcher back to the kitchen, he glanced up at the wall clock for the third time.

"Running late for something?" Taka's father had his morning voice; rough but carefully measured to not be too loud. "School isn't for another forty minutes."

"No, sorry." Taka shook his head to clear it. "I'm just a little distracted today."

"Thinking about your match?"

Taka's shoulders sank apologetically. "Yeah. But I want to focus on work when I'm at work."

His father grinned and smacked his arm. "Good attitude. Just keep it up a little longer, and it'll be tomorrow in no time."

Behind them, the door opened and a group of middle-school aged boys entered, several talking animatedly together. Taka's father called a welcome and hurried to show them to an empty table.

Taka returned to the kitchen to refill the water pitcher. He thought back to the text he'd received the previous night; a reply from Eiji saying that he and Oishi were looking forward to playing a practice game after school.

Taka was beginning to think Oishi wasn't the only one who needed his nerves calmed.

He knew it was silly to get this worked up before the match even started, but it was as Momo had said; they couldn't afford to lose a match with Tezuka gone. After all their captain had sacrificed to get them this far, and now that he was working so hard for the ability to return and support them again…

Letting him down now was simply not an option.

Taka shook his head again. No more distractions. He had to stay focused. Whatever the obstacles and whatever kind of opponents awaited Seigaku, he had to make sure they all made it to the nationals together.

He nodded firmly, even though there was no one to see it, and lifted the now overflowing water pitcher out of the sink.

"Takashi!" His father called, walking back through the kitchen. "Looks like Seigaku isn't the only tennis team that's taken a liking to fine sushi." He grinned proudly. "That group of boys that just came in - do me a favor and fill them up, will you?"

"Right away!" Taka poured off some of the excess water and dried the underside on his apron.

Sure enough, as he came around the corner of the bar, he saw a row of tennis bags lying halfway under the crowded table. Six boys, dressed in their black school uniforms, sat casually around the edges. Their voices managed to stay just a little louder than the murmuring of the whole restaurant put together.

They took no notice of Taka as he approached the table and began filling their water cups. Though, now close enough to hear their conversation easily, it was suddenly all Taka could do not accidently drop the pitcher on the floor.

"Seishun Gakuen?" The wiry boy closest to Taka mumbled. He had wet-looking black hair down to his chin and he poked at his newly filled water cup. "Never heard of it."

A broad-shouldered young man with close-cropped bleached hair fixed him with a glower. "Yes you have, Shun. Stop being so cocky."

"Yeah, well having a reputation doesn't mean they're any good," the black-haired boy returned sulkily. "Just means people have nothing else to talk about."

"Speaking of reputations," A bespectacled young boy at the end of the table spoke up just as Taka reached his cup. "I heard they have a first-year regular."

"Yeah," The student across from him added. "And no one's beat him since he showed up!"

"That's just a rumor," The bleached one said stoically. "It's the captain we need to worry about. Tezuka Kunimitsu. Talk about a reputation…"

"Tezuka's gone."

Taka thought this quiet, sharp voice must belong to the captain of the team, because all the other players looked up when he spoke. Without meaning to, Taka glanced at his face. He sat with his arms crossed, pale face framed by shoulder length hair so black it was almost blue. Just under his low sweeping bangs was a pair of frozen navy eyes, even sharper than his voice.

Taka looked away quickly. He walked around the end of the table to fill the cups on the other side.

"Gone?" Bleach-hair stared at the captain who gave a single half-nod. "Well… that makes things easier, doesn't it?"

"Why do you care, Kinosuke-kun?" This last voice proved to be the loudest in the group, which wasn't surprising; he'd been bouncing up and down on his knees and drumming on the tabletop with all ten fingers ever since they'd sat down. He had choppy red hair, slicked straight back on one side and sticking out wildly on the other. "Tezuka Kunimitsu is always in singles one or two. You're gonna be in three, right?"

Kinosuke rolled his broad shoulders back and crossed his arms. "What makes you say that."

"Intuition! As long as these two rookies can pull it out for doubles two," he jerked his thumb toward the two boys at the end, who nodded vigorously. "And once me and Shun bust up doubles one, we'll be finishing with three consecutive wins. Annihilating the famous Seishun Tennis Club; I know there's no way you're gonna miss out. Only question is who you'll get to destroy!"

The red-haired teenager dissolved into chuckles. Taka finished filling the captain's cup as slowly as possible. But he knew if he hung around any longer, they'd start to wonder about their strangely clingy waiter. He turned back toward the bar counter.

"I know who, too," the loud voice went on gleefully. "Seigaku's as cocky as they come, right? So they'll stick the first-year in singles one. Since our captain here's got the rep as a power player, once he's in singles two, they'll have to put Little Mr. Prodigy in singles three!"

Taka stopped, clutching the pitcher handle tightly.

"Izumi, what are you talking about?"

"Oh, come on. You'd know the name if you heard it." The red-haired boy's drumming fingers wrapped up with a two handed beat. "Kinosuke-kun, how would you like to be the one to crush Genius Fuji Shusuke?"

Taka slowly set the pitcher down on the bar counter as he reached it, putting all his effort into not turning around.

"Fuji Shusuke, huh?" Kinosuke's deep voice mused. There was suddenly a flavor of dark pleasure in it. "That might not be so bad."

"How do you guys know all this random stuff about some random team?" Shun whined. "I think you sound like a couple of stalkers."

"Shun-chan, nobody asked you."

"Don't call me that."

"Shinta-buchou. What do you think?" Kinosuke waited and once again, the whole team fell silent, even Izumi.

"Yes," the captain replied at length. "Fuji Shusuke is probably Seigaku's greatest weapon now. But by nature of sheer size… with a technique like yours, it will likely be a default within three games."

"So you want me in singles three?"

There was another pause and Taka felt his insides freeze.

"I do. No sense holding back this close to the nationals. Break him."

TBC...

Glossary:

Nee-san and Nee-chan - Terms meaning 'Older Sister'

Yakisomen - Fried Japanese somen noodles

Kawamurazushi - Taka's dad's sushi restaurant