--Chapter 3--
--The next day--
"Woah, that's so amazing! No, you're amazing, Echizen!"
"Yeah, you're the only one to have your name on the list as a first year..."
"What's more, you've just only been in the club for what? Two days, and your name is already on the list!"
"What's with that sour face, Echizen? Shouldn't you be excited? Or at least be happy after hearing such good news?" Horio said when he was greeted by a silent while the other two of his classmates had stars in their eyes. It wasn't a usual thing that they would see the name of a freshman on the intraschool ranking list. There had never been a single freshman who could have such a privilege of wearing a Regular jersey except for Echizen Ryoma, who was once a prodigy.
Not noticing a fist clenching Ryoma, whose expression became unreadable, the boy who having two years of tennis continued to express his enviness and forced to stop himself when Echizen, without a warning, tore up the paper from the notice board and sped off.
"Hey, Echizen! Where are you going?"
"Why? Why did you put my name on the list?" Ryoma said, heavily panting by the time he stopped running. Now facing Ryuzaki-sensei with the crumpled name list in his hand, he eyed the tennis coach angrily.
"What list? I don't get what you're saying, Ryoma." confused at the stare, the coach asked really not understanding at what had she did to be angry at.
"Why is my name on this list? You know I can't play."
"You can't or you won't." it was up until now that did Ryoma realized that someone was inside the same room as he was, whom he chose to ignore at before continuing on.
"You know the reason Ryuzaki-sensei. You know it."
"Yeah, but..."
"Echizen, you've mistaken Ryuzaki-sensei. It's not sensei who's responsible for the list, it's I." Tezuka, who seemed to know what Ryoma wanted to ask, seeing upon the glare, which had never left his face, introduced himself. "Seigaku no Buchou, Tezuka Kunimitsu."
So this was him. The infamous Tezuka, who according to the introduction he heard from one of the senpais the other day "was an expressionless and boring guy."
"I saw his match with Arai yesterday. He has the potential, sensei, and that's what our club needs in order to get into Nationals."
"Ryuzaki-sensei, you know what dad did to me last time and I'm not going to let that happen again, not this time." looking up at Tezuka then back to Ryuzaki-sensei, Ryoma bowed politely before making his way to the exit.
"Ryuzaki-sensei."
"I understand, Tezuka, but that kid had a hard time before and..." Ryuzaki-sensei sighed before trying to make reason with the buchou that Ryoma wouldn't change his mind once it was set.
"And?"
"It's nothing. I'm just curious, Tezuka." knowing it wasn't the time to tell just yet, the coach seeing Tezuka so insisted of having Ryoma into the club, asking attempting to change the subject. "Why do you insist Echizen to play? Any particular reasons?"
"Like I said, he has the potential but he's just needs a little more time to smoothen out his play."
"I see..." not surprised or bothered to ask how he knew Ryoma had played tennis before witnessing a game played against outside the school, Ryuzaki-sensei only nodded in affirmation, thinking of perhaps there was something she missed to see what Tezuka had seen in that stubborn prodigy.
"Sensei, may I know what happened to Echizen?" Tezuka, with determination shown in his eyes, broke the intense silent before asking.
It was half an hour after the final bell rung. After gotten themselves ready for their afternoon practice, the Regulars found themselves looking at the almost deserted courts. Their buchou was nowhere in sight, neither was their coach, even the non Regulars seemed to be vanished. There, however, was a partial group who seemed to whisper among themselves.
"I wonder where Tezuka is..." glancing at his watch, the vice-captain, Oishi, asked.
"It's so unlike him to be late, nya-" agreed his partner in tennis, Kikumaru.
"Do you think he's sick?" asked the shy guy, Kawamura.
"Sick? Buchou? Taka-san, who are you kidding? This is buchou we're talking of..." the spiky headed guy, Momoshiro said laughing a bit afterwards.
"What are you suggesting then, Momo?"
"I was thinking maybe he's sabotaging..."
"You're one to talk." interrupted the guy with bandana, Kaidoh.
"Teme, are you picking for a fight?" Momoshiro retorted back angrily.
"Ii data. Tezuka's sabotaging the practice..." commenting the tallest person of the group, who was madly scribbling down the data, Inui.
"Maybe they can tell us, ne? " Fuji, the only blond of the group, pointed to the mentioned group who seemed to be rushing to the other side.
"Oi, where are you rushing to?"
"Eh? Momo, haven't you heard? " the person who halted by Momoshiro began to explain, which only to be received by a blank look. "There's a game starting at 2..."
"A game?" glances were exchanged from each of the Regulars as they heard of nothing as such. "Do you know whose game is it?" when hearing the answer of 'It's Buchou with that Echizen kid', it only resulted in the 7 people to wear 7 different expressions in shock.
"Arai, hurry up! The game's gonna start in a minute!" with that Arai left with the same expression it had on each of every Regulars' faces.
Ryoma was standing on the court getting comfortable with a racket he lend from someone in hand. Thinking back earlier some time before the afternoon, the stoic buchou came to him and asked for him a game. For what reason he agreed to this, Ryoma didn't know. He only knew that now how he was regretting agreeing on the decision in the first place. He gave a sigh just before hearing someone entering the court. As predicted, the guy wore his usual expression.
'Does this guy ever smile?' the young Echizen wondered.
Saying nothing, both Ryoma and Tezuka were in position, with Ryoma as the first one to serve. Throughout the game, Ryoma had the upper hand, which greatly astonished everyone except for a few - Tezuka, Fuji, Ryoma himself and the not-far-away tennis coach, Ryuzaki-sensei.
However, the tables were turned in the middle of the game with now Tezuka leading 4-2. Both were panting, but Tezuka's wasn't panting as heavy as Ryoma's was. Deciding to turn the score around, Ryoma changed to his left hand to serve in the next game hoping to get a service ace or at least gain a score from the captain. Unfortunately, Tezuka, never letting down his guard as always, saw through the plan and countered it with a smash.
Again, almost everyone was stunned because they never knew Echizen was an ambidexterity, except a few people whose name had been mentioned earlier. Sure, the audience had seen Echizen played alright, but that was when he played with his right hand.
The game resumed with Echizen managing to score a few points, but each time he was near to ending a game, Tezuka would return the ball unexpectedly, either with a lob or a short drop, which left his score hanging before scoring for himself.
"Is this alright?" Tezuka looked up slightly as it was his turn to serve. "To use your full strength, I mean." even if Tezuka was surprised, his face didn't show it but to continue the game. "I see." with Ryoma's last word, the game played on silent.
Ryoma panted heavily on the ground. He had just lost his last serve and still hadn't broken Tezuka's plays like he intended to. Yet that didn't mean he was giving up. As long as the game was resumed, he still had the chance even if it meant a minimum ray of light. Furthermore, he had a reason not to lose. He was given a proposal before the challenge that they would stop bugging him if he was able to win against the captain. Since he had no intention of joining the club (which he wasn't even interested at all) or to be the pillar of Seigaku as Tezuka had offered (which earned the gasping and jaw dropping from the audience), he accepted the dare hoping that they would do what they promised.
"Game! Won by Tezuka! 6-2!"
Tezuka looked at Ryoma, who knelt on the ground. He had been waiting for the reply but what Ryoma did was to remain silent.
"Echizen."
"I don't have a say in this now, do I?" Ryoma sighed before asking when was his time to play, which shocked the others because that match with Tezuka lasted for about 3 hours and didn't he need a rest after that? It was thanks to buchou who told him to get some rest and announced to everyone that the ranking was postponed until tomorrow. The ichinen left the court without saying much words after that.
It was after a brief announcement for tomorrow's event that everyone left the changing room for their own destination, except for one who sat steadily on the bench, pressing his left arm. And that was how Oishi, the fuku-buchou, saw the unbeatable buchou, at which he was alarmed.
"Your arm..." it was the same arm one of the seniors, who Tezuka played with, hit with a racquet after he had played with underarm 2 years ago.
"Don't worry. It's nothing serious." seeing at the vice's worring face, Tezuka replied, unrolling his sleeve down at the same time.
"But..."
"Oishi, what do you think of him?" the protest was only cut by Tezuka's sudden question, succeeding to distract for his past injury.
"You mean Echizen? I would say he's not too bad. But I never know he could play with his both hands just like you..." that was precisely the reason why Tezuka got that injury in the first place.
"Other than that?"
Oishi sighed at the question. As one of the closest friend after Fuji, he knew Tezuka wasn't a person who liked to kid around and if he wanted to know the truth, so be it.
"You did use your full strength like Echizen'd said, didn't you?"
"I have to."
Questions like 'what did he meant by "he had to"? Did he really forget how serious it would get if full strength was used?' flew on the vice's mind first before a thought came occurred to him.
"Yes, Oishi. He knew. Echizen knew about Tezuka's injury. That's why he asked the question." it was Ryuzaki-sensei, who revealed herself at the entrance before walking slowly towards them. And that expression of Tezuka shown on the face also supported what the coach had said was right.
"I'm not quite convinced yet at the reason you told me the other day. It's actually more than that isn't it?" without waiting for a reply, she continued on saying. "Anyways, what you're doing I have no rights to interfere with, but just one question. Why do you insist using Echizen?"
"Because I still can see that Echizen hasn't given up on tennis although he said he's no longer playing." Tezuka spoke knowing it was no longer a use to hide any longer. "He's a passionate player like us, sensei, and it's not an easy thing to give up just like that. I don't want him to regret in his decision, in which he knew himself wasn't true." Tezuka took a short breath before continued on. "That's why, Ryuzaki-sensei, I hope that you would tell us about why Echizen has stopped playing." there was another pause. "I know you're not in the term to speak, but Echizen can't be in the state that that would later be regretted."
'Regret, is it?' thought the coach. Was that what she and Nanjiroh had not seem in Ryoma? A regret for not being able to play in tennis, a stream of his energetic life? Taking several minutes of consideration on either making Ryoma regret or taking the risk of being recognized, she spoke.
"Alright. I'll do what I can. But! There's no guarantee that his dad would approve it."
Relieved it wasn't a firmly rejection to his question in demand, Tezuka gave a deep bow as he thanked the coach for he really appreciated it.
Eyeing Tezuka who left with the vice captain, Ryuzaki-sensei let out a breath thinking at the thought of how the samurai was SO going to be happy about it with 99.99 less enthusiasm.
--End of Chapter 3--
Glossary:
Seigaku no buchou: Seigaku's captain
Teme: you bastard/Why you!!
Ii data: good data
Ichinen: a freshman
Fuku buchou: vice captain
Buchou: captain
Sensei: it's "coach" in this case
Cdgal: I don't know the school timetable in Japan, so I use mine as a reference. The class begins at 8.30am and ends at 1.30pm.
