In the United States, inside a spacious hospital room, a girl was on the phone, while at the same time twirling the phone cord around her finger.
"So how was your tennis training, Ryoma?"
"…"
"Right, that does sound like fun. I'm so envious you must be making friends."
"…"
"Now, now, I'm sure your senpai-tachi don't appreciate being called idiots."
"…"
"Really? I must see that!"
"…"
"Soon, I hope."
"…"
"Yeah, it is pretty boring here. Thankfully I still have Ryoga-nii-san to annoy, otherwise I'd seriously drop from boredom first."
"…"
"I miss you too! Say 'hi' to Karupin for me!"
"…"
"Of course! Alright talk to you soon."
Sighing, the girl put down the phone, and as she looked up out of the window, a very, very tiny drop of tear could be seen making its way stealthily from her silver eyes.
"Nii-chan, my twin, how I miss you."
All the way across the world, the Rikkaidai tennis club members were hard at work. At first, everybody thought that Kevin would be a pushover compared with Yanagi, whose training menus were pretty harsh and often left players panting on courts, unable to move. They were wrong. Kevin was no pushover, oh no, in fact he made Yanagi seem like an angel in comparison. His training menus didn't just leave tennis players, regulars (who got almost twice as much training as the non-regulars) and non-regulars alike, panting on the courts unable to get up. His training menu almost killed the non-regulars and made the regulars half-wish they were dead when he first presented them. Since then, he had learned to cut down the training for the Rikkai boys, but just very slightly. Currently he was watching with a critical eye as the club members ran around the courts on what was their 56th lap. Well, only the regulars were running, the rest had by that time collapsed from sheer exhaustion.
"Is that squirt trying to kill us?" Marui complained as he ran. He had already chewed two pieces of gum and this was just warm-up!
"According to my data, there is a 17.5% chance that Kevin will let us rest after this." Yanagi said. Marui groaned. Out of the regulars, his stamina was the worst, and these laps around the tennis courts really were quite the torture for him. Things were made even difficult as the regulars currently all were wearing wrist and ankle weights.
"Mada mada dane, senpai." Ryoma smirked as he jogged past. He was quite used to Kevin's strenuous training menus back in America, so he was one of the few people, along with Jackal, Yukimura, Sanada, and Yanagi who didn't look like he was on the verge of death (or just severe mental breakdown).
"Alright! Last lap!" Kevin yelled from the sidelines. "The one who comes in last will have to do an extra 50 pushups!"
"What?!" Marui nearly screamed. However, he quickly refocused when he saw his teammate start running at a sprint, all determined not to be last.
"Wait up!" Marui yelled.
From Kevin's perspective, all he saw was a cloud of dust rushing in his direction. Then the regulars thundered around the corner. Of course, he secretly knew that the regulars, being regulars, would probably not be bothered by the pushups (well, that was what he thought), but that if he made it into a competition, all the regulars would not risk losing face in front of the rest of the club and would go all out rather than face the indignities of being publicly punished. As he predicted, everyone crossed the finish line at precisely the same time. Marui promptly collapsed from his lack of stamina, while Kirihara, Niou, Yagyuu were panting pretty hard. The rest simply looked only slightly ruffled.
"Well, nobody finished last…that's quite a shame." Kevin smirked.
"He's the spawn of the devil." Marui, Niou, and Kirihara thought. Yagyuu of course was too gentlemanly to have such vengeful thoughts against his blond kouhai.
"So, today the practice is very simple. We're going to play doubles!"
"Nani, doubles?" Marui yelped. "But we've already got two good doubles teams!" He pointed to himself and Jackal.
"Right, but by practicing doubles you could improve not only your partnership with your partner, but also improve your skills in observing the game that is going on, and analyzing strategies. Besides, I never said that this was going to be an ordinary doubles practice," Kevin smirked evilly. Everyone shuddered. By now they knew Kevin well enough to associate Kevin's smirk with something particularly unpleasant or just plain evil. Even Ryoma quailed slightly when he looked at his brother's expression.
"Regulars to Courts A and B, second and third year non-regulars to Courts C, D, and E. You can practice having matches. First years, be ready to pick up balls," Yukimura commanded.
"Okay so the thing we're going to do today is this." Kevin gleefully reached inside his bag and pulled out a long rope (yes, I sort of adapted this from the training Seigaku used in the anime). "I'm going to pair each of you up, and you will be tied to your partner by your ankles. Plus, hehe you guys are also going to put these on!" He held up a handful of eye patches. All the regulars groaned. They still had vivid memories of the nightmarish training last week.
Flashback
"So, everyone!" Kevin bounced into the courts excitedly. "Let's do something fun today!"
All the regulars looked at Kevin warily, wondering just what the blond first year manager is up to. Kevin beamed and took out a handful of fabric.
"What are they?" Marui eyed the things in Kevin's hand suspiciously.
"They're eye patches!" Kevin exclaimed as though eye patches were the most normal things to bring to tennis practice. "Today, we're going to focus on improving your ability to adapt to a narrower range of vision."
"Ah, I see, so we have to play with the eye patches, and that presumably this is to help us overcome any sudden accidents or circumstances that might happen during matches?" Yanagi asked.
"Yes," Kevin said. "But it also serves another purpose, which is that it will also help you get a feel for the ball and its position relative to you, rather than depending too much on your eyesight. So, shall we begin?"
For the next hour, utter chaos ruled. With the exception of Ryoma, Yukimura, Sanada and Yanagi, the rest of the regulars did not fare well with their range of vision altered. Marui kept missing balls, while Kirihara kept getting hit on the head by the balls, which finally activated his Devil Mode, and he ran around screaming that he would crush all the balls, scaring the first years and several second and third years witless. Yagyuu tripped, Jackal stumbled, and even Niou received a ball straight to the face when he misjudged the path of the ball.
End Flashback
"Soooooo," Kevin drawled, "Here are the pairings: Kirihara/Sanada, Jackal/Yanagi, Marui/Niou, and Yagyuu/Yukimura. Who's going first?"
"WAIT!" Kirihara yelled. He pointed at Ryoma, "Why doesn't he have to play."
"Well," Kevin said. "Nine isn't divisible by two."
"I could give up my place!" Marui exclaimed helpfully (and somewhat hopefully).
"Yadda, I won't play doubles." Ryoma muttered.
"But this is a practice exercise! Even buchou has to do it!" Niou complained.
Kevin sighed. He knew that this would happen. He had even tried to persuade his brother to play yesterday.
Flashback
"Neh, Ryoma," Kevin popped his head in the door of Ryoma's bedroom. "You got a minute?"
"What do you want?"
"Well, I'm just going through tomorrow's training, and erm, doubles practice is scheduled tomorrow."
"So?"
"Can you play?"
"No."
"Ryoma…"
"I made a promise Kevin, or have you forgot?" Ryoma hissed, making Karupin leap off his lap in alarm. Kevin quickly held up his hands as a sign of peace.
"No, I haven't of course I haven't. It's just that it'll be hard to explain tomorrow to senpai-tachi."
"I don't care."
"I might have to tell them the truth."
"Betsuni."
Kevin sighed again. "Okay, then. Oyasumi, Ryoma."
"Oyasumi."
As he turned to leave the room, Kevin caught sight of Ryoma staring at the framed picture that always sits on his bedside table. Without looking closely, he knew immediately what the picture contained. It was Ryoma's favorite picture, where a girl with wavy midnight blue hair and intense silver eyes was laughing happily at the camera, her arms slung around a blond boy wearing sunglasses and grinning and a boy with a smirk and molten gold eyes.
End Flashback
"Kevin-kun, this is a team, and exercises are meant for everyone." Yukimura said. Although his voice was gentle, Kevin instinctively knew that the blue-haired captain was not pleased. He sent a look at his brother that very clearly said, "I told you so". Ryoma shrugged and nodded slightly at him.
"Yukimura-buchou, I could explain this to you later in private, and Sanada-fukubuchou, too. But please believe me when I say that Ryoma has very good reason not to participate." Kevin quietly requested. Yukimura gave the team manager a very long and hard look, before he finally nodded.
"Stay in the clubhouse after practice." Yukimura murmured.
"Hai, Buchou."
"Echizen, since your brother said that you have something urgent and personal that you need to do this afternoon, you are dismissed early from practice. However, I expect you to run extra laps tomorrow to make up for it."
"Usu." Echizen said, pulling down his cap and jogging off the courts. Kevin was very impressed with Yukimura's leadership skills. He knew that if Yukimura had mentioned no reason about Ryoma's refusal to participate in the doubles training, they would be flooded with even more questions and complaints. Yukimura's actions by making an excuse for Ryoma and then punishing him simply shut everyone up, and at the same time without telling everyone the reason why. Grinning widely, Kevin turned back to the regulars, rubbing his hands together.
"Let's start!"
Over the next hour, chaos reigned. The only pair that didn't manage to make fools out of themselves was the Yukimura and Yagyuu pair. This was because Yukimura was especially observant, and Yagyuu was extraordinarily calm, seeming to follow Yukimura's subtle hints well. Therefore, in spite of the limited mobility and vision, they only missed a few balls. However, the same couldn't be said for everyone else. Kirihara was running all over the place, tripping up Sanada or slamming straight into Sanada. Once, he even misjudged the distance of the ball, and swung his racquet so close to the stoic fukubuchou's head that he almost knocked Sanada out. Needless to say, by the end Sanada was furious. Having already yelled "Tarundoru" and "50 laps" multiple times, Sanada had to be restrained from dealing more physical punishment on the cowering seaweed hair boy. Marui and Niou were by far the most disastrous pair. With a bouncing Marui that wanted to rush to the net to play, the pair tripped multiple times, got into arguments, and almost took each other out with their wild racquet swings. Jackal and Yanagi didn't do anything stupid. That was because they didn't do anything at all. Yanagi had calculated that the best way to leave the practice intact would be to stand and not hit any balls. Of course, this resulted in a certain vice captain who is a stickler for the rules to get mad, and the half-Brazilian and Data Master were made to run 100 laps for unduly disrupting training.
"As if training hadn't been disrupted already." The pair thought grouchily as they ran their laps.
Kevin waited in the clubhouse patiently after practice, when all the other regulars had left, grumbling about their bruises and rope burns and uncooperative and evil partners. The blond sighed. Today was a long day, and it's about to get even longer.
"Saa, Kevin-kun, I think you owe us an explanation." Yukimura said, standing up after packing away his stuff. Sanada folded his arms and Yanagi simply looked at the younger boy through his closed eyes.
"Well, this might take a long time." Kevin muttered.
"We have all the time in the world. After all, this is a Friday evening."
"In that case, senpai-tachi, why don't you come over to my house?"
"To your house, Kevin-kun? What for?"
"Well," Kevin shifted uneasily. "I think it might be easier for you to understand if you come over."
The Three Demons looked at each other.
"Of course, if that's what you want." Yukimura smiled, subtly glaring at Sanada to stop him from scolding Kevin for making them wait for the explanation that was owed.
"Okay," Kevin said. "So, shall we go? Erm, my house is in Tokyo, by the way."
Yukimura raised his eyebrows. "Why is your home so far away?"
"Later, I promise. It's part of the explanations."
Kevin slung his bag over his shoulders and looked back at his senpai-tachi.
"Shall we go?"
The whole way to Tokyo Kevin was uncharacteristically quiet. Yukimura knew that telling the Demons the reason to Ryoma's adamant refusal to play doubles must be a difficult decision for Kevin. Being the kind person that he was, Yukimura would prefer not to see his kouhai go through so many struggles, but he could infer that Ryoma, and Kevin, to some extent had some issues, and that if he didn't know what was troubling the two promising first years, he wouldn't be able to help. Plus, he admitted to himself, he was rather curious about the anti-social Ryoma. Even the seemingly more open Kevin was quite guarded when it came to private matters, and he had never heard Kevin talk about his family. In an attempt to soothe the younger boy, he slid into the seat next to him.
"Kevin-kun, you know that I only want to help right?" Yukimura murmured quietly to Kevin, who was looking out of the window at the passing scenery.
"We, me and the rest of the regulars I mean, really do care about you and Echizen. I hope that you consider us your friends, because we really have nothing but the best intention towards you."
By now Kevin had fully turned to look at Yukimura, but he still hadn't said anything. Yukimura decided to take it as a sign of encouragement (not that he needed one anyways), and continued.
"So, you have nothing to fear from us."
The corners of Kevin's mouth turned up slightly.
"Thank you senpai. Thank you for being a friend." His eyes rested shifted to Sanada and Yanagi. "Friends." He amended.
The train rolled to a stop.
"Ah, we're here!" Kevin leapt up and the other three regulars followed. Kevin led the Three Demons through a couple of blocks, before stopping at a large, two-story house.
"Tadaima! Kaa-san I brought some friends." Kevin yelled. From the warmly lit hallway the teens could here a soft voice call back.
"Okaeri, Kevin! It's fine, invite them in!"
Kevin turned to his senpais, who were standing stiffly by the door.
"Well, what are you waiting for senpai-tachi? I thought you want to here the reason?"