As Echizen was knocking on Atobe's door, on the floor below in one of the many guests room Marui took a seat on the bed beside a napping Jiroh. He popped his bubble gum as loudly and obnoxiously as he could.

Jiroh opened one eye. The sight of his idol didn't seem to faze him, which clearly indicated to Marui that something was wrong.

"Hey, cheer up. It's not true, you know. The thing I said to Kirihara about Tezuka and Atobe that made you go yell at Atobe a couple hours ago? I kind of, um, twisted the words around."

Jiroh blinked at him. "You lied?"

"Well, everything I said was technically true. For example, Tezuka and Atobe were half-naked and sweating from exertion but I just neglected to add that they were playing tennis outside."

"You said they shared saliva."

Marui held up his hands. "They shared a water bottle."

"Why did you do all this? All I ever did was worship you." Jiroh looked bewildered and crestfallen.

"You'd do anything for Atobe, even now. Because he's your captain, right? And you love him?"

Jiroh answered yes without any hesitation.

"Well, I did this for Yukimura. I made sure you overheard what I was saying and I made sure you and Atobe broke up because I feel that way for my captain. I still don't know how this helps Yukimura but Yanagi asked me to do this, so I did. I'm sorry you got hurt."

Jiroh hopped off the bed. "I'm going to find Keigo and fix this."

Marui waited until Jiroh was almost at the door before calling out. "Hey, just a second."

Jiroh stopped but didn't turn around. "Yeah?"

"I watched your last match and I noticed that you've been working on flicking your wrist faster. That's good, but if you really want to be a genius you need to instead focus on building your core and then working on your flexibility. It's all connected, you know. Everything."

"Thanks but I'm done with professional tennis."

Meanwhile, still in the ballroom, a dozing Oshitari felt his phone buzz in his pants pocket. With a yawn Oshitari flipped open his phone and read a text from Yanagi, asking him if he'd talked to Atobe. Oshitari texted back yes, he'd done exactly what Yanagi had instructed. He waited a minute and when he didn't get a response he figured that was that.

Oshitari didn't get a response because Yanagi was busy watching in idle amusement as Atobe, Tezuka and Echizen walked by him without even a moment's acknowledgement. He supposed they were off to Atobe's tennis court. Yanagi sighed, tempted to follow them. But not yet, that was not part of this stage of the plan. Oh, the plan. Yanagi allowed a wolfish grin to spread across his features.

It was quite simple, and that was what it made it so beautiful. He used the knowledge that Mizuki wanted to challenge Fuji on the court. Mizuki would bring Yuuta, who would draw Fuji to him. Fuji would be with Echizen, and anything involving Echizen would eventually gain Tezuka's attention. He'd put Niou in charge of distracting Yukimura, knowing the trickster wanted to do one final masterful job before they all dispersed.

And, after all, it was for their beloved Captain.