Splintered Mirror
Chapter 37
Based on new information from Ryuuzaki Sumire, Sanada followed new leads. He spent several days in Tokyo, cashing in all his accumulated time off.
He tracked down the small closet-sized apartment that Tezuka lived in. The building manager had left and his files were gone. None of his neighbours remembered him. Some of the small restaurants remembered the young man who sold them freshly caught fish every Tuesday before disappearing suddenly. A café manager remembered the diligent and reliable young waiter who worked for three months and quietly studied between tables. No one knew where he went or what happened to him. Nine years was a long time ago. The trail had gone cold.
Next, he turned his attention to the civil service. Without an official investigation and a warrant, it was much more difficult to pull out files from the Welfare Department. While most people became quite cooperative with a flash of his badge, the clerks at the Children's Welfare were strict and vigilant. He supposed, given that their charges were vulnerable minors, they had to be more conscientious and protective. There was no way he could ask for Tezuka's files without an official police investigation.
Stymied, he found himself moping around the streets of Tokyo. He walked around, finding himself gravitated towards tennis courts. He sat through a game or two, picking holes and finding faults with each player. None of them excited him in any way. He felt restless and listless. Moving from one court to another, trying to dispel his lethargy and find new inspiration.
He found himself at Tennis' Forest Garden, watching yet another mediocre match. The players in front of him blurred as his mind replaced them with old familiar faces. It was in that court that Sanada had witnessed Tezuka and Atobe's fateful match. The never ending tie-break that Tezuka fought to the bitter end. It was, to this day, a legendary match that was told and retold in the Kantou circuit.
It was the same place he met Tezuka for the first time. Technically, it was not the first time he met Tezuka, but it was the first time that mattered. He did not remember Tezuka then, at that time, as the boy who accompanied Tezuka-ojiisan's visits and played with him. While Tezuka-ojiisan still visited Sanada's grandfather every year, Tezuka Kunimitsu had stopped following Tezuka-ojiisan to Kanagawa. The seven-year-old playmate did not have glasses then, unlike the Tezuka that he came to know. If he were completely honest with himself, Sanada did not even remember his playmate's name.
Sanada looked up at the cloudless sky. It was on a similar day like this, when Tezuka left an indelible mark in his life. Sanada was Singles One for his elementary school team in the Finals of Elementary School National Tournament. Across the net, Yukimura smiled a challenge. On the bleachers, Tezuka sat exactly where Sanada sat. A life time ago, Sanada still felt the intense stare from one unknown nondescript boy.
He lost Singles One to Yukimura, shook hands and accepted his defeat as gracefully as he could. After the award ceremony, he saw the same boy again. This time, the boy was talking to Yukimura, a tennis racquet in hand. It looked like the champion was being challenged to a match.
Sanada rushed headlong into the court. He may have to settle for second best in this tournament. Yukimura did win fair and square. But it galled him that this nameless boy would challenge Yukimura, as if Sanada was nothing in his eyes. So he brashly intruded their conversation and challenged Tezuka. Tezuka would have to go through him first before he could play against Yukimura.
Tezuka did not answer him. Rather, he looked at Yukimura, silently questioning who Sanada think he was to interrupt them. Yukimura, being his eccentric best, simply smiled and nodded at Sanada. He would be pleased to graciously wait his turn after Sanada.
So, Tezuka turned to him and said, "Three sets match." The first words he uttered to Sanada.
Sanada thought it would be an easy match against this nameless boy. Surely, if the boy was arrogant enough to think that he could play evenly against a National-ranked player, he should have been well-known in the tennis circuit. As it was, Tezuka Kunimitsu was not even a blip in any elementary school tennis club. He would crush this boy and show him what it meant to stand at the top.
Only, he did not. He lost the second time in a whole year. Twice in a day! Worse than his previous match against Yukimura when he had lost the one-set match at 5-7. He lost disgracefully to Tezuka at a humiliating 6-3, 6-2. Lost 4 consecutive games after his stamina ran out, consumed by Muga no Kyouchi. Tezuka's tennis was beautifully flawless.
"So, you are capable of reaching Muga no Kyouchi too. Interesting," said Yukimura.
"Impossible!" Sanada had protested. Tezuka looked cool and relaxed. He did not look like he had entered the state that would have consumed all of his energy. Sanada, still panting heavily, could barely remember the match, the moments when his mind blanked out and his body moved on pure instinct.
Tezuka merely shrugged and went into service position. Even then, Tezuka was a taciturn child. Yukimura and Tezuka played evenly. One-all. Two-all. Five-all. Then, the park security found them and chased them off the court.
"What was it?" Yukimura asked as Tezuka's father drove them to catch the last train back to Kanagawa.
Tezuka was silent for many minutes. Finally, he said, "Hyakuren Jitoku no Kiwami, the Pinnacle of Hard Work. The first door of Muga no Kyouchi."
Two weeks later, Sanada received a letter from Yukimura. Never mind that he never gave Yukimura his address. It was the latest Tennis Pro Monthly magazine with Sanada and Yukimura's match on front cover. But that wasn't what Yukimura wanted to show him. There was a bookmark on the centre-fold. 'Tezuka Kunimitsu (age 11) broke Tokyo record as youngest player to win U-16 in Mizuwabake Tokyo Junior Tennis Open Tournament.'
It was unimaginable to Sanada at that time. Tezuka had skipped U-12 and U-14 age-group levels to win as champion in U-16. An elementary school kid played against Middle and High School players. Finding that Muga no Kyouchi was not an end, but the beginning of something greater. That Tezuka had reached the first door and was probably aiming for higher levels.
Sanada had been satisfied when he reached Muga. It was Tezuka that showed him that he had been slacking and careless. It changed him. It changed his tennis. It changed his life.
Perhaps that was why he was there; at that particular spot, looking down into that particular court. Subconsciously, he had been looking for Tezuka. The Tezuka that was. Except that Tezuka no longer existed. Lost in the passage of time. That Yukimura and Atobe too no longer existed. Lost in adulthood. What about that Sanada Genichirou? Does he still exist? Or he too had grown up and left that young boy behind?
Somehow, he felt like mourning. But there was no dead to mourn, only the living. He should be grateful, he knew that. But somehow, he felt something died inside him.
"Genichirou!"
Sanada looked up to see Yanagi standing behind him. "Renji? Why are you here?"
"Tennis." He moved aside to reveal Inui, Kaidou and Yagyuu behind him. "Inui and I are playing doubles against Rikkai Daigaku next week. We asked Yagyuu and Kaidou-kun to help us refine our new formation."
"Oh," said Sanada stupidly. Why else would anyone be here, except to play tennis. Except Sanada, that was, who was here to remember old tennis games.
"Renji, why don't you get the court ready?" said Inui, gesturing to the players who had overstayed their booking.
Kaidou took one look at Inui and Sanada. "Yagyuu-san, let's start warming up." They dropped their tennis bags and started running down the path.
"Inui."
"Sanada." Inui took a seat beside Sanada. "How is Tezuka?"
"He is going through a rough patch. But Oshitari-sensei said he is getting better. Making progress."
"Atobe? Fuji and I would …"
"Atobe is still not back yet."
Inui sighed. "This is frustrating. We should never have agreed to Atobe's- Never mind. What was done was done. Can you persuade Atobe to let us see him, even when he wasn't around?"
Sanada did not reply. He wasn't sure what Atobe was thinking when he specifically forbid any of Tezuka's old friends from visiting while he was away in Europe. But Tezuka was in a critical period of his therapy. Kunimitsu and Shiroi were now frequently out in the compounds. Tezuka would not see them. Shiroi would be disturbed or ignore them. But Kunimitsu … Kunimitsu would see them. What then? He did not know enough to anticipate if it would be a good thing or a bad thing. Atobe seemed to think that it would be bad for Kunimitsu or Shiroi to see them.
"Sanada?"
"Inui. I can't do anything about Atobe."
Inui's face dropped with disappointment.
Sanada could not leave him like that. So, he added, "Your Ryuuzaki-sensei had seen Tezuka this week. Perhaps, you should speak to her. Not today. Perhaps tomorrow."
Inui stared at him in surprise. Apparently, Sanada and Atobe were not the only ones to forget about contacting her in their search for Tezuka. Oh, the irony that it was Kunimitsu himself, who did not remember anything before the accident, that gave them their biggest clue. Poor confused and bewildered Kunimitsu, who even now, was standing before his family's grave with Ryuuzaki-sensei watching over him. He did not envy her position.
Being there for Tezuka, who knew, was hard enough. Sanada did not know how he could bear Kunimitsu's grief. Kunimitsu … Kunimitsu was living in a time when his family were alive and well. The news of their death was a huge shock to him. And he was taking it really hard.
When he emerged again, he frantically wanted to go home. Nothing Yuriko or anyone said could have persuaded him otherwise. Not even a tatty note written in his own hand. So, Ryuuzaki-sensei stepped in and volunteered to take him. Retracing the steps that Tezuka Kunimitsu took nine years ago when he woke up from his coma. Kunimitsu was a large part of Tezuka after all, so it was not surprising that he would do as Tezuka did back then.
After an hour long practice, Yagyuu dropped out. He left Kaidou to play one against two. A practice for Kaidou's next tournament.
"My stamina isn't what it used to be," he said, towelling himself off as he sat beside Sanada.
"Hmph!" snorted Sanada. "You've been slacking behind a desk job."
"You haven't changed a bit, Sanada. So, what brought you here? I thought you were busy. If I knew you were coming to Tokyo, I would have Renji invited you. You can give those two a better work out."
"I'm not here to play tennis."
"Are you working on a case?"
"Not exactly. I've been trying to find new leads into Tezuka's case."
"But?"
"The trail is now cold. Too long ago. If only I can get my hands on the official reports. But you know how it is with Social Welfare." Sanada gritted his teeth in frustration. "Something just doesn't add up. Seigaku's Ryuuzaki-sensei said there was a missing person police report on Tezuka. But I can't that report in Tokyo. She wouldn't lie about something like that. What happened to that report?"
"Hmm … was it missing, or never filed? It could have been misplaced when they reorganise the filing system a few years back. My team still have problems trying to locate what we need in that mess."
"I … I don't think Ryuuzaki-sensei would misremember something as important as that. I'll look again."
"What do you want from the Social Welfare? There are more than one way to get what you want from them."
"Tezuka's files."
"You can't subpoena Tezuka's files, since he is not in a court case. But what about the person who wrote those reports? Does his social-worker have a police record?"
Sanada looked stunned at Yagyuu. "I never thought of that." Then he frowned. "Thank you. I will look into it. If I can dig up some dirt on his social-worker, I can request for all his files, including Tezuka's."
"It might not be a bad idea to make use of Yanagi and Inui. They have sources outside of official reports. Give them a name or two. They might yet surprise you."
"Aa."
Note:
23/6/2012 – Edited and updated this chapter. Forgot to mention why Sanada did not connect 7-year-old Tezuka who fought/played with him to 11-year-old Tezuka who challenged Yukimura.
Tezuka played against Sanada and Yukimura before they entered Junior High. Tezuka won in 2 sets against Sanada. Against Yukimura, the result was either inconclusive or unknown.
Tezuka was mentioned as 'junior tennis champion' in Atobe vs Tezuka flashback.
Ryuuzaki, Inoue and other characters had commented that Tezuka was beyond 'Junior High' level.
Rikkai Daigaku = Rikkai University.
Rikkai Dai Fuzoku Chuu Gakkou = Rikkai University Affiliated Middle School
Rikkaidai is linked to a university. That's why Kantou and Nationals team drawing placements that were conducted in Rikkaidai was shown in lecture theater, rather than normal school classroom.
Kantou Tournament was played in Tennis' Forest Garden.
Nationals Tournament was played in Tokyo Prefecture Arena Tennis Court.
Yukimura Seiichi's elementary school: Minami Shounan
Sanada Genichirou's elementary school: Kanagawa Daiichi
Muga no Kyouchi (無我の境地) – State of No-Self.