© 2016 Gold
Title: Beyond: A Tribute – Part Twenty-One: Not In Kansas (Anymore)
Disclaimer: Prince of Tennis and New Prince of Tennis are created by Konomi Takeshi-san. This work is a piece of fanfiction and no part of it is attributed to Konomi-san or any other entity holding any rights associated with and arising out of Prince of Tennis or New Prince of Tennis. This was written purely out of fanservice and it is not to be used for profit or any false association with Konomi-san or aforesaid entities.
Author's Notes:
1. A nod to Tuxedo Kamen, whose lofty disregard for dizzying heights and graceful, billowing black velvet cloak fired my imagination, propelling me far beyond the mundane realities of this plane of existence to discover the magical shores of Alternate Reality/Alternate Universe.
2. A shout-out here to some really amazing people, who've stayed the course, read this and reviewed this for ever so long: Tressa, who has been patiently pursuing, reading and reviewing this story and its chapters for nearly a decade now; Star of Dawn and suchrandomness, for hanging in there, coming back to this even through the years when I fell off the face of the earth, and for leaving reviews even now.
Beyond: A Tribute – Part Twenty-One: Not In Kansas (Anymore)
The door to the rooftop banged open and Atobe Keigo appeared in the doorway, pausing for just the right amount of time as he struck a dramatic pose. Only the top hat, dark cloak and rose clamped between his lips were wanting. Over his shoulders, almost obscured in the shadows, loomed the twin dark shapes of Sanada Genichirou and Kabaji Munehiro.
Yukimura Seiichi and Tezuka Kunimitsu, who had by then repaired to the welcome shade of the gazebo, broke off from their pleasant tête-à- tête and glanced up.
"At last," Yukimura called out, unable to resist a dig. "I was beginning to think that you had lost your way."
Atobe strode over, his expression disdainful. "A rooftop is not ore-sama's idea of a meeting venue. Most unsuitable and inappropriate. Is that not so, Kabaji?"
"Usu!" replied Kabaji.
"Yet here you are," Yukimura pointed out mildly.
"Be overawed by ore-sama's excessive kindness," Atobe drawled as he leaned back into his choice seat, smack in the middle of them all.
Yukimura smiled. "I am, Atobe," he said sincerely. "I honestly cannot imagine anyone who could have done more for us."
The genuine gratitude in Yukimura's voice and face clearly surprised Atobe, but he recovered quickly and accepted the compliment graciously. "Naturally." He waved one arm in an expansive, lordly fashion. "Now –"
The door to the rooftop banged open again.
Kirihara Akaya charged into sight, with Echizen Ryoma shouldering past him, both stumbling through the doorway gracelessly, with Ibu Shinji and Kaidoh Kaoru close on their heels.
"Is it over?" demanded Kirihara, skidding to a halt at the entrance of the gazebo. "What did we miss?!"
Atobe barely restrained his eyebrows from shooting into his hairline.
"Nothing. You're just in time," Yukimura replied, muchly amused.
"Good." Kirihara was visibly relieved. " 'Cause we did all this." He flung out his arms as Shinji and Kaidoh ducked, and Echizen neatly sidestepped him.
Yukimura arched an eyebrow in the direction of an eye-watering display of mustard yellow, crimson and black bolts of crepe fabric. "That explains that."
"I'm a bit of an artist," Kirihara observed with pride. "That's Rikkai, see? We all put up as many of our school colours as possible. Shinji put up the Fudomine colours there—" He beamed in the general direction of navy blue crepe interspersed with white and fuchsia. "We couldn't find any blue-gray in the right shade for Hyoutei, so we just used silver wrapping paper. Hope you don't mind, Atobe. We saved money for you 'cause it was left over from last Christmas! We even managed to sneak in SeiRuu, Yamabuki, Higachuu, Shitenhouji and Rokkaku colours! They're all behind us, so it's the least we could do."
Atobe, who was likely smarting from the sheer audacity of Hyotei being represented by leftover silver wrapping paper, could not hold back a growl. "Hn. This rooftop is not ore-sama's idea of a meeting venue. Most unworthy."
Kirihara displayed a magnificent lack of concern. "Well, isn't that why you bankrolled the gazebo?"
Tezuka cast a glance at Kaidoh and Echizen.
Echizen correctly interpreted Tezuka's perfectly expressionless face as a sign of inquiry. He shrugged. "We picked this rooftop for the meeting place."
Tezuka waited. Why are you really here?
Echizen sighed. Inui Sadaharu had once made the observation that Echizen rivalled Fuji and Oishi in the art of interpreting the carved marble that was Tezuka's face. Au contraire to popular supposition, it was not something Echizen was pleased to be "skilled" in. "Fuji-sempai texted me this morning," Echizen grumbled. "He said to be prepared for the worst. But of course, he wouldn't tell me what he was talking about. He meant that I should find out for myself." That was Fuji all over and even though Echizen knew that he ought to be accustomed to his senior's infuriating habits after all these years, he was still exceedingly annoyed.
Ibu piped up. "Tachibana-san told me that things would be very hard in the time to come and to be prepared for the worst. He said that he wasn't trying to frighten us, but that we needed to think for ourselves given the facts and that he couldn't say anymore, but we all know it must be something to do with Tezuka-sempai and Yukimura-sempai—"
Sanada and Yukimura rounded on Kirihara at the same time in an unplanned chorus: "What did Renji tell you?"
Kirihara stood with folded arms, legs planted wide apart in a fighting stance, his back ramrod straight with shoulders back and chin proudly tilted up, and met Yukimura's and Sanada's eyes squarely. "To remember that I, too, have been captain of Rikkaidai's tennis teams." He looked mortally insulted. "As if I would ever forget."
The message hadn't been meant for Kirihara, but it was uncertain if he had understood Yanagi's sneakiness.
There was a short silence.
"We're not just your kouhai," Echizen said, looking exasperated. He'd just about had it up to there with Fuji, and to have to face another bunch of well-meaning seniors who treated him as equals on the tennis courts but were otherwise still overprotective and secretive, was a little bit ridiculous. "Don't shut us out. This thing we're in, whatever it is –" He glared round. "We're all in it, whether we like it or not. This isn't junior high or high school any more and we aren't on different teams." He added emphatically, in English, "We're not in Kansas anymore."
"We're in Cincinnati," agreed Kirihara, also in English (and thus completely missing the point).
Echizen ignored him.
Kaidoh cleared his throat, feeling that it was high time he stepped in. "We thought that this might have something to do with Tezuka-sempai's tests," he said gruffly. "With JTX."
Kirihara's eyes darted from Yukimura's face to Atobe's face to Sanada's face to Tezuka's face and then back again. Not for the first time he wondered whether that generation of captains and vice-captains had been chosen purely for their sheer ability to keep their faces utterly implacable no matter what came their way. "Echizen thinks that maybe, something was done to us, too, same as Tezuka-sempai."
Echizen rolled his eyes. "It's obvious." His eyes stabbed the others in turn – Atobe, Tezuka, Sanada, Yukimura. "You might as well tell us, because this is not a movie and we're running out of time. The faster we know this, the faster we'll know what we're up against. You don't want us to ruin whatever carefully prepared plans you've laid." The last was said not without sarcasm.
Atobe sort of snorted a laugh and Sanada shot him daggers before speaking.
"Yukimura and I – our test results indicate that we tested positive. That is, when we went into the match – we also had JTX in our blood."
"But you did not play anyway," Echizen told him sharply. "Neither of you played that match. Neither of you were even aware of it. If either of you had served, this would be another story altogether."
Kirihara's head was spinning, completely off on a different tack. "Is that – Yanagi-sempai knew –"
"He found out," said Yukimura shortly. He really did not want to dwell on this.
Kirihara caught on in a flash. "That's why you were sick?" Kirihara demanded, furious. "It made the Guillain-Barré Syndrome return?"
"No," replied Yukimura patiently. "JTX apparently does not trigger it, so it was probably not why I – why I fainted." He would always have Gullain-Barré, always live with the possibility of a sudden attack. As long as there was a chance at a relapse, he was living on borrowed time, as he had told Tezuka.
"Okay." Kirihara was relieved. When the others looked at him as if he had grown another head, he tried to explain further. "Well, not okay, but okay enough… I guess. That it isn't Guillain-Barré. But it isn't okay that it's JTX. Okay, well, nothing's okay."
"Are you acting cute again?" Echizen demanded dangerously.
"No." Kirihara was nettled. "Just you try pronouncing Guillain-Barré. It drives everything sensible out of my head 'cause I have to concentrate on getting it right!"
"Guillain-Barré," Echizen said easily and, possibly, a little flippantly.
Kirihara rolled his eyes.
Ignoring the dissatisfied huff of "Show-off" in his vicinity, Echizen turned his attention back to his recalcitrant seniors. "What's going on?"
Sanada glanced at Yukimura, who gave him a very slight nod. In response, Sanada's broad shoulders relaxed and he cleared his throat. "We plan to tell the press... at the upcoming press conference."
Yukimura leaned forward a little, hands elegantly folded. "There is very little difference between this and what has happened to Tezuka. The root cause, however it happened, must have been the same. There is really no other explanation for it. I would say," and here he looked meaningfully at Tezuka, "that this road we are taking is one and the same. Were we guilty, we would do our best to cover up. But we do not hide. We have nothing to hide."
Kirihara looked doubtful. "Sempai, this is not a good idea. You don't need to tell the world. People are going to misunderstand and it's not gonna help Tezuka-sempai at all."
"People who knew us, would not think that way of us," countered Kaidoh gruffly. "They are the only ones who matter, those who care about us."
"Most people don't know us," scoffed Kirihara without any intention of being offensive. "What's the point being a hero if nobody cares and everyone thinks you're the villain in the story? It's like playing to lose. That's just stupid."
Echizen was equally unconvinced. "I don't see what can be achieved by this," he said crossly. "This thing we're in, the people whom we protect are those who care about us, and the rest are the people we don't just invite in. Invitation's for friends. Not for whatever you're planning. The whole world's watching this press conference, not just people who know us. And whoever's responsible for this mess is probably going to be someone who seems to know us pretty well, if you ask me. Enough to make it Tezuka-sempai, or Yukimura-sempai or Sanada-sempai. Why?"
Kaidoh said, slowly, "They were the only ones who had matches...?"
Echizen shook his head. "No, there were maybe four or five days in between their matches. I played, too, against Emmelmann..." His voice trailed off suddenly and he looked very pale.
"People believe what they wish to believe," Ibu said suddenly. "If they think you're guilty, they'll keep thinking that unless you keep showing otherwise and still they may not believe you because they don't want to, and it's irrational, but that's human nature, so the same thing could happen to us and they might even think Echizen and I and all of us are involved even though there is no such evidence, and what's worse is we can't prove we aren't involved, so we might really be drowned by the online and real-life –"
"Well said, Ibu," Atobe cut in. "People believe what they wish to believe."
Before Ibu could continue, Atobe lifted a hand to stop him. "A moment, Ibu Shinji, if you please. The worst that you have imagined could come true. You may be crushed under the scorn and rumours, vile abuse and death threats, directed not only at you, but also your families, loved ones, friends and supporters, demanding that you quit forever and perhaps much more.
"And even if you do quit and you give in, in the hopes of silencing the rancour, they will not rest once they have tasted this power, though they have already brought you to your knees. They know your name and your face and where you live, but you will not know them as they hide, cloaked in the anonymity of false names and the Internet.
"And all that they have done and all that they may yet do will haunt you to the end of days. You will be a pariah not only in the world, but in your own country, your hometown – shunned by your fans, friends and family. People you thought cared about you could prove different. Even I could prove different. Are you willing to pay that price?"
"I do not consider that a price, Atobe." Sanada stood up, straight and proud. His voice was quiet and sure and strong, and as his words dropped from his lips, the very air seemed to ripple around him. "That is only part of what I must do. I do not live a lie and I never will. That is a burden I refuse to carry. I am stronger if I defend with truth, than if I take up the shield of silence or of a lie. I will know that I have spoken the truth, and I will not doubt myself. From that, I will draw strength and courage, and I have no fear. I do not parley with liars and cowards who fear to stand forth with their true names and faces. And if all I have left is that I know who my true friends are, Atobe, then I have gained much from my time here in this world."
"Hear, hear!" cheered Kirihara, getting carried away despite himself.
Atobe sighed. "Marcus Antonius himself probably could not have orated finer." He ignored Kirihara hissing to Echizen: Who's Mark? and Echizen's disinterested shrug.
Yukimura, who knew very well who Marcus Antonius was, remarked very dryly, "As long as we do not end in the same way that he did."
"I still think we're jumping the gun," Echizen said flatly. "Atobe. You surely don't think there's any necessity to do all this confessing, let alone now."
"It will be known sooner or later," said Atobe coolly. "Better that we control the mode, package and timing of the release. You surely don't think that we are the few who know this?"
Echizen fell silent.
Kirihara leapt into the breach and turned his best glare on Atobe. "There's still no need to turn the few into the whole world!"
Atobe arched an eyebrow. "Were you not wholly in favour of Sanada's excellent oratory?"
Kirihara nodded virtuously. "Sanada-san's right," he agreed meekly. "But I think Echizen's more right!"
"I actually think Echizen's right, too," chimed in Ibu Shinji. "If Yukimura-sempai and Sanada-sempai just announce something like this at a press conference, no matter how it's going to be packaged, they'll never wipe the stain off their names. It doesn't matter even if you didn't take it knowingly as long as it's shown that you did take it because intention is really difficult to prove so strict liability is probably the only way out although it's incredibly unfair, but the rules have no place for subjective individual perspective since doping has been shown to be sustained at national levels and even with national systemic doping happening as in the cases of East Germany and Soviet Russia. It doesn't hurt anybody if nobody ever knows about the JTX because anyway Yukimura-sempai and Sanada-sempai were playing against each other so nobody else was involved and as Echizen says, they didn't even get to serve a single tennis ball so the match never started and there's no need to say anything. Besides, it would be stupid for them to have intentionally taken drugs for a match against each other, but knowing the way the world works, nobody is even going to think of that because emotion and righteousness tend to overcome people in such situations, even though we all know innocent until proven guilty –" Shinji had to break off as he ran out of breath.
Kirihara stared, open-mouthed with admiration. He had always known that Shinji was clever, but this was pretty impressive. Then Echizen's voice broke into his thoughts.
"Drugs give unfair advantage in competitions. That's why it's strict liability and motive has no place. But it's an assumption that if a person takes drugs, that person will win. You don't have to win just because you took drugs." Echizen's voice was choppy. "It's not like it's a rule or – or scientifically proven or something. You can still take drugs and – and lose. Where drugs are concerned, we are always guilty, until proven innocent."
Sanada's demeanour was grimmer than ever.
Yukimura just sighed.
Kirihara's eyes glazed over.
Kaidoh's brow creased.
Atobe said nothing.
In the corner, Tezuka Kunimitsu sat in the gravest, coldest silence of his life, watching the weary but resolute faces around him. These were the faces of his friends, beloved to him in so many ways, for so long. It seemed to him that there had once been a time, when they had not looked like this, in a time well before the cares of the world had visited itself upon them. Was it so long ago, when they had chased tennis balls and blistered their hands together for their greatest love, when the skies overhead had been a brilliant blue and their faces had been brighter even than the sun above? Was it so long ago, when they had raced together along that same shining path, each striving to be first before all others?
– But the faces before him were no longer as bright as those in his memories.
And Tezuka's heart could not help but curdle grievously as he wondered, painfully, how it could possibly have come to this.
