9. Those colors are made, they're changing the game.

"Tell me. What was that again?"

Sanada searched the guy's face, looking for some sign of mocking, of irony, but finding none.

"It's called 'Lighting'", he explained.

"Well", Asou replied, "it's surely up to its name". He smiled.

Sanada had just found a place to watch the match from, in the front row, when the older player had reached him, a Rikkai-printed towel still on his shoulders, offering him a energy drink. Sanada reluctantly accepted it - he preferred totally different kinds of vitamin beverages, but some extra energy wouldn't be bad after that match.

It hadn't been a long match, even for the standards of a single-setter, but it had been a drain of energy since the beginning. It probably lasted no more than thirty minutes, but it had been like playing for three full hours. It took 120% of Sanada's strength to counter Asou's powerful shots, and it took him even more strength to be able to close out points with his serve.

He triplicated all his efforts after losing that early break, but in the end, it hadn't been nearly enough to set up some kind of threat while Asou was on serve. He could do nothing against the overwhelming power of the vice-captain, no matter what he tried.

His "Mountain" helped him to close out points on rallies - though sometimes he struggled just to keep the ball in play, and his arm burned from the strain of hitting such powerful shots- but, while Asou was on serve, there was little he could do against him. Sanada knew how brute force could defy every technique, every strategy, if it wasn't perfect enough. Knowing that, it was why he added power to his own technique, creating shots like "Fire" and "Lighting", who carried at the same time skill, precision, and force. As for that day, he realized he still needed something more; a lot more.

He glanced at Asou from under his hat's peak. From what he had been able to see during their match, the guy showed very little technique aside from power. His shots were strong and precise, and his physical condition made easy for him to control the racket, but for the rest- his shots were flat. He barely used spin. His footwork was also poor; and that was all Sanada had been able to observe while the guy was throwing him grenades from the other side of the net. If he could be able to observe him from the bleachers, he could've had a better idea of his actual skills.

He needed to discuss it with Yanagi anyway. He had never been eager to discuss his own defeats, but he knew by experience that hearing Yanagi's point of view and advice never came out to be useless; quite the contrary, instead.

"He was your teammate, right?", Asou asked, crumpling the empty bottle he still had in hand. "Niou Masaharu".

Sanada nodded. Niou and Morimura approached the net to decide service turns. He wondered how much Morimura and the other regulars knew about them, and more than that, if they ever felt they needed to know. If he was in their shoes, would he care? Looking from the results they managed to obtain in their ranking matches so far, probably not so much. Niou could become the one who changed that, but Sanada doubted it. There was something so unnatural in watching Niou succeed where Yukimura had failed, but somehow Sanada couldn't exclude that either. If there was someone who could do such thing, it was the Trickster.

The game began, and a religious silence fell upon the crowd. Sanada wondered how many of them were there to watch Morimura crushing another cheeky first year, and how many were actually cheering for Niou. Sanada knew that people loved when underdogs came up from nowhere to dethrone the rightful king; safe that it seldom happened in real life, outside children's tales. He and Yukimura made it happen, though; maybe it had been a children's tale, back then.

Morimura won the toss, and chose to serve.

He reached the baseline, checking the court before starting. His first serve ended in the net. He took a deep breath, and hit a second serve right on the centre line. Niou didn't read it properly, and came at the ball a little bit late, unable to hit but a defense lob, which was a clear gift to Morimura's forehand. The Captain's winner raised a howl from the crowd when it crashed into Niou's racket; an equal strong forehand from the trickster painted the tramline, too far from Morimura to reach, and gave Niou the first point of the match. 0-15.

Morimura served again, and this time his first serve landed in. It would've easily been an ace, in front of any average player, which Niou clearly wasn't. This time the Trickster seemed to read the path more clearly, and reached the ball in a perfect timing to send it on the other side of the net with a backhand. The rally proceeded as none of them seemed to find enough room to try a winner. Morimura tried to change the pace, hitting a powerful cross-court that sent Niou out and forced him to defend, but once more, the Trickster found a surprisingly accurate forehand down the line that left the Captain unable to move. 0-30.

Asou frowned, but said nothing, as Morimura moved to the other side of the court. One more point, and Niou would've had three chances to break.

An ace avoided it for one turn, but then Morimura was forced to count on his second serve again, after his first landed almost two metres beyond the baseline.

Niou rushed on the ball like a vulture, trying a return winner, but Morimura read his intentions. He took an early control of the rally, trying to push the trickster into a forced error, but he was everywhere, making the crowd hold their breath at all the impossible shots not only he managed to save, but he really controlled.

Morimura tried to close the rally with a winner down the line, but he couldn't keep the ball in. 15-40, two break points.

Niou's footwork wasn't nearly the same of the one from months ago, when Sanada last saw him competing in a official match. That wasn't even Niou's footwork; he could clearly recognize who that all-court defense and line-to-line coverage belonged to. He kept observing, as Morimura failed another first serve. The captain took his risk, serving a powerful second serve, who left Niou unable to counter. 30-40, another break point to save.

This time, Morimura's serve wasn't powerful enough. With an impressive cross-court return winner, the Trickster quickly closed the opening game in his favour. With an 1-0 lead and the chance to serve to consolidate it, Niou went to change the court under the excited murmurs of the crowd. He definitely caught everyone's attention.

Out of the corner of his eye, Sanada saw that Asou was smiling.

"Well", the vice-captain said, "maybe you'll need to tell me something more".


As he watched Niou and the Captain on the court, Yukimura felt his stomach sting, and all of a sudden the sun was just too hot, unbearable, ad god, how he wanted to just get up and go away-

But he stayed, and forced himself to watch as the players ended their quick warming up, and started to play. He couldn't see Sanada anywhere; he probably had stayed to watch the match as well, somewhere in the middle of the crowd. He doubted the Emperor would miss the most awaited challenge of the day.

"You're pinching your wrist again", Yanagi pointed out from his side. Yukimura lowered his gaze to realize that yes, the Master was right. A bite of pain reached his nerves as he became aware of what he was doing, his skin even redder than before. He rubbed it, only worsening the pain, wishing it had a bottle of fresh water or something to give it some relief.

Niou had taken the first break; but was correct to say that?

Yukimura took his eyes away from the court only to watch Yanagi's reactions; the Master, though, wore his usual poker face, with no sign that on the court was happening something he didn't expect to. Marui, on the other hand, was a totally different story; his lips pressed, his hands grabbed on the fabric of his shorts, Yukimura couldn't tell what exactly he was thinking, but he didn't look like he was having fun at all.

What was clear from the action on the court was that Niou had been cornering Morimura so far. The Captain has suffered so much pressure from Niou's defense and eventually dropped that one break point to his opponent. Morimura' serve was good, Yukimura could observe it far better from the bleachers than he had been able to do that day, from the court- it was good, but nothing special. When he tried to hit an ace, or a service winner, adding more power, he often hit it on the net or meters out, and his second serve (when he didn't force it), was nowhere good enough to represent a threat. Yukimura looked at the action on the court, which was about to reprise. He could've been easily figuring himself closing out points with return winners or aggressive return shots. Quite like Niou, he didn't have much power by himself, but he was sure few - no one he knows - were better than him at dictating the flow of the rally, even from a defensive position.

If he hadn't wasted his chances, looking for rallies, holding back to set up a rhythm, he would've left the court with something less shameful than a 6-1; how easy and stupid did it look like, thinking back at it? Yukimura couldn't hold back a bitter smile.

On the court, Niou was preparing to serve.

"What do you think?", Yanagi asked, mild-voice, and Yukimura had already opened his mouth to reply when he realized the question wasn't addressed to him. The Master was looking past him, towards Marui, who was so focused on the match that Yukimura needed to poke at him to catch his attention, and Yanagi needed to repeat his question right after.

Marui glanced swiftly at the Master, but then pointed his gaze towards the court again, but without looking like he was really watching the players as they took their positions at the baseline. "He's doing good", he answered, flatly.

Yanagi looked like he was going to ask something else, but the action reprised on the court below, and all his attention was caught by the match again. It was Niou's turn to serve, and it would've been a deciding moment of the match.

The trickster, as Yukimura himself and unlike players like Sanada or Jackal, wasn't able to take complete advantage of his service games, being far better skilled on the return side of the court.

When Niou served, however, he didn't hit his own serve, nor Sanada's, not even Jackal's.

"Where did he learn that-", Yanagi muttered.

Yukimura had seen that kind of serve only once, when Atobe used it at the Nationals during his match against Echizen. He had absolutely no idea of how Niou could have developed it in such a little time; but, on the other hand, he had no idea of what Niou had been doing during all the months that followed their defeat at the Nationals.

Yukimura had never been worried about any of his teammates to be able to surpass him, but now he wondered if he had just been blind the whole time.


Sanada recognized Atobe's serve without needing to think it twice. He winced, while a very bad sensation made him feel a cold shiver running down his spine.

He would've never expected Niou Masaharu to hit a shot like that. He would've never expected him to master a shot like that. It wasn't a mere matter of hitting it; it was a perfect shot, no matter which way you looked at it.

The way he hit the ball; where the ball landed, the low bounce that made it almost roll on the concrete. Everything was perfectly performed, as Niou had been hitting serves like that his whole life. A few months ago, the Trickster's serve was even below average. Sanada has even faced him about that once, telling him that he needed to work on improving his serve if he still wanted to play at a competitive level in the inter-school tournaments. Niou had smiled - his usual, sly smile - and told him he served just in the way he needed to win his matches. Since Niou usually truly won his matches, Sanada had dropped the argument and let him leave. He didn't know what Niou had been thinking when he learned to master Atobe's serve; as well, he didn't know if it was the only improvement he had put in his service games, or if he had something else hidden up his sleeve.

Morimura had no idea of how to counter that kind of serve, and Sanada was very aware of that.

"Did he always serve like that?", Asou asked from his side.

"Not at all", Sanada replied, slightly irritated by how the tables were turning. He liked to think that he knew his teammates, and their potential; he didn't like being surprised, and Niou Masaharu had the incredible talent to annoy him even when he should be positively surprised.

This Niou playing was flawless. It took him no more that a couple of minutes to hold his serve, hitting four straight, powerful first serves, without dropping a single point to his opponent.

Asou started to look really concerned. He scratched his chin, frowning, as Morimura prepared to serve again.

Sanada could understand his concern; seeing the Captain defeated by a first year during the ranking matches could be good since it potentially added a very good element in the team (it had been like that, when Sanada and Yukimura defeated all the regulars during their first weeks in Junior High), but it could also be a disaster for both the Captain's authority and the stability of the team, and the entire club.

Despite the young age, Yukimura had been able to assume an unofficial guidance of the entire club since his first year; if Niou would have ended up defeating Morimura for real, Sanada doubted from the bottom of his heart he would be able - no, that he would want to do the same.

The following game started, with Niou pulling out Jackal's all-court defense once again. There wasn't a ball he couldn't reach, no shot he couldn't counter, no angle he wasn't covering.

Morimura dealt with that better than in the first game; once again 15-40 down, he saved two break points to drag the game to deuce, but hit a double-fault right after a perfect forehand down the line granted Niou of a third one. The Trickster was 3-0 up and serving against Rikkai's Captain, and none in the crowd was believing it.


Marui was feeling more and more nauseous every minute he passed sat on those bleachers, with the obnoxious chatting of the crowd filling his ears, incapable to watch one minute more of that match, but at the same time unable to leave.

It was like being put in front of the great show of his own inadequacy and being forced to watch, no matter that you kept feeling worse and worse by every minute. You needed to stay. And watch.

It wasn't Niou's fault, even if he couldn't tell if the Trickster had foreseen what Marui would have thought about it, or if he cared at all. It was just the reality put in front of his eyes, crystal clear, to him to stop ignoring it or behave like he didn't care.

He wondered if Jackal was watching too that perfect representation of how he would've been an exceptional singles player if only he wanted to.

Marui shouldn't be so affected by something he already knew, but it couldn't help it. The phantom of his morning match came back to haunt him, even stronger than before as he saw Niou perfectly replying Jackal's playing style in front of his eyes, and outlasting Morimura with his perfect defense that didn't miss a single ball.

It had been Jackal that taught him tennis. They were still in grade school; Jackal was a ten years old with shaved hair and a weird accent, and one day he offered one of his homemade sweets to the chubby also ten-year-old Marui and their friendship started.

Marui helped him with Japanese and with all the school rules and habits the other kid, who had lived in Brazil his all life, still struggled to understand. Jackal had played tennis back in Brazil, before his father decided to come back to Japan to stay near his elderly parents, and brought his family with him. Jackal told Marui his dad had quit his job as an engineer in a Company to start run their family's restaurant, and he had promised his son that in two years he would have signed him up for a middle school with a good tennis club, where he would get the chance to play in a real team.

Marui went to Rikkai because of Jackal. He liked to play tennis with him, in a very old street court halfway from their houses, with a net full of holes and the lines that needed to be repainted with the chalk everyday before they could play. His mother was happy too, to see him play outside every day, even if she was far less happy when his grades started to drop.

When Jackal told Marui he wanted to go to Rikkai, a sports-specialized school of their ward, Marui's parents weren't happy as their son announced he wanted to apply for the same school. The new goal forced him to put his effort in studying - his homeroom teacher had already warned him that the entry test would've been far than easy - but it wasn't the only problem. Rikkai Junior High School was expensive, far more than his parents, who had two more children at school, could afford without making huge sacrifices.

It had been Marui's grandparents that made his luck, offering to pay the school fees of not only for him, but for his brothers too, and even if his father had always refused the economical help of his more wealthy parents-in-law, that time, with Marui's huge relief, didn't say a word against it, even if it was clear that the situation didn't make him happy at all.

The life at Rikkai had never been a cakewalk for Marui; he managed to get in, but he needed to watch his grades month by month - both his grandparents and parents, who still needed to afford a lot of fees to both his school and club equipment, would have accepted bad results from him - and then there was tennis.

Playing with Jackal on that worn-out court had been fun; being in a tennis club, not at all. The first week had been a walking hell; if Jackal hadn't been there, Marui would've quit after few days, and run away.

Playing together had been fun because Jackal had made it fun. Marui loved to play at the net, loved to catch Jackal's shots with his volleys, and losing a point, or sending the ball in the garden of the old lady that lived near the court, was never a bad thing (when they rang her bell to ask to get in and search the ball, they often offer them cookies and orange juice before letting them come back to their game). Being in an actual club was a completely different thing, and Marui was nowhere near ready for that.

The first weeks had been only about run, run, run. Jackal had always been among the few ones that completed all the exercises assigned during their first week of practice. Marui was one of the first to collapse to the ground. His arm hurt so much after the swing practice he couldn't even hold the racket. He spent his Sundays in bed, too tired after an entire week of school to do anything else. And when he finally managed to play tennis, he understood he had never really played at all.

When Yukimura took control of the tennis club, after few weeks into their first year, Marui was allowed to have his first practice match. He took on a fellow first year, he didn't even recall his name at this point. He was not so much taller than Marui, and, looking in perspective, no more than an average first-year player. And he destroyed him.

Marui couldn't even run at the net, because he couldn't save points from the baseline. His serve was shit; aside from some practice after joining the club, he had never really served in his entire life. It was usually Jackal who served, and when it was Marui's turn, the guy didn't complain if he served short or out of the service box. They were kids who were having fun, that was all.

At Rikkai, you weren't allowed to have fun.

Marui's match ended before he wasn't able to score a single point. Jackal won his in less than half an hour. Jackal was allowed to play again; Marui, who didn't even know the basics, was sent back to run and do swings and serve against the wall. The majority of the ones among his group decided to just quit the club and choose something less stressful - and without a cheeky first year like Yukimura at the head of it.

The doubles, had been Jackal's idea.

Marui got better, as the weeks passed. After the initial discouragement, it came the determination. He managed to run the entire course without collapsing. His serve eventually landed in more often than out. He could resist an entire swing practice without wishing that his arm would drop off his shoulder. And he started to practice with Jackal at the street court again, this time with the request to do it seriously. Jackal did so, and it took Marui weeks before taking a game away from him, but he eventually managed to.

He wasn't tall, he wasn't strong, he hadn't a powerful serve, so he started to work on what he could improve, also following Jackal's advice. His ball control became beyond average; he added spin, where he couldn't add power. He used drop-shots, and defensive lobs, even moonballs to change the flow of the rally when he became too powerful for him to handle. But still, it wasn't enough.

They were few days into their final trimester when Jackal came out with the idea of playing doubles. Marui had never thought about that, and Jackal was doing well in his matches - still not good enough to become a regular, but with good chances to have a shot the following year. Marui's volleys and play at the net started to improve, but his defense and footwork still have lots and lots to work on. Jackal said that playing together they could add Marui's net skills to his court defense, and form a quite worrisome team.

Years later, Marui still couldn't tell if Jackal really enjoyed the idea of playing doubles or if he came out with this idea to give a still struggling Marui a chance to play in matches too; at the time he didn't dare to ask, and he didn't really want to know the answer. With Jackal's support behind his back, Marui could focus on his net skills and in a time-span of few months they became a very dangerous team to play against, enough to be allowed to play during the Kantou tournament and, later, during the Nationals. Marui didn't forget that he had always been the weak link of their duo, but as soon as he could score points and became a threat in matches too, it wasn't something that made him feel bad.

That day, everything seemed to crumble on him, and Marui felt again as the twelve year old who couldn't score a single point in his very first match of middle school. And this time there wouldn't be a offer to play doubles that would give him a chance to redeem himself, or to find his place on the court.

He was already playing doubles, and he sucked at that too. He couldn't see a way out. The court started to look as a cage again. And again, he only wanted to run away.


If Sanada had the better serving skills in the entire Rikkai team, Jackal had surely the better defense. Yukimura had often thought that it was somehow a waste that he chose to play only doubles, but the half-Brazilian player always refused to play singles, or even to play with another player that wasn't Marui. Not that Yukimura hadn't asked him; especially when they started playing together, when Jackal was a very promising player and his partner a burden who could barely hit a serve in. But Jackal had been firm to his decision, and times proved him right, as only the Seigaku's pair at the National finals had been able to defeat them in an official match.

That Niou's Jackal, however, was so similar to the original one to his play style, but also quite different regarding how he built the game. If he needed to find a weakness in the Brazilian's wall of defense, it was the lack of tactical game he put in it. Having Marui under the net, able to step in and look for volley winners or counter-shots, he only needed to send the ball back on the other side of the net, without worrying too much of where it landed or about searching deep angles.

This Niou's version on a single match added Jackal's total coverage of the court with a fine tactic of building points, which fully belonged to the Trickster. It was both taking Morimura by exhaustion, neutralizing every attempt from the captain to score a point, but also looking to put him off-balance and then hit the ball out of his reach. Morimura was physically more powerful than both Yukimura and Niou, but not as players as Asou, and not nearly enough to make the difference with his serve when he had to face such a defense like the one Niou was putting on.

Up 3-0, the Trickster was now serving with two breaks under his belt, and a huge chance to go back home with a win if only he could hold his service games. Yukimura glanced at Yanagi, and caught the Master looking in his direction, observing something just behind Yukimura's shoulders. He turned to see Marui almost on the verge of tears, with his face white as a sheet and his teeth biting his upper lip like he wanted to tear it away.

Yukimura opened his mouth to ask him something, but he felt a grip on his shoulder, and turned again to see Yanagi gesturing him to drop it. "Later", he mouthed. Yukimura glanced again at Marui, who seemed completely lost in some thoughts, barely seeing the court at all, but said nothing. Yanagi put his gaze back on the court and Yukimura imitated him, just as Niou was preparing to serve again.


The Trickster started to serve aggressively again, with the result that he started with a double-fault, the very first of his match. He fixed it with an ace right away, leaving Morimura blocked on his feet, unable to react.

The crowd was on his side, and if Sanada knew than Niou wasn't a player that was affected by the mood of the crowd, he couldn't say the same for Morimura. Even top players could be affected when all the crowd support went on the other side of the net.

"I guess I got what he's trying to do", Asou said, as Morimura took a time-out between points to get some water.

Sanada turned to look at him.

"But it's useless", he added. "If you could count on someone to keep his focus no matter what, it's Morimura".

So, Sanada didn't need to tell anything to Asou to having him figuring out what the main goal of Niou Masaharu's play was. He had almost been fooled himself, during the first points, but then he realized that the Trickster hadn't changed his strategy, only his modus operandi. With Fuji at the Nationals he targeted his weak points; with Morimura, he was aiming at the ones he showed as his strong points during the match against Yukimura: his first serve, his forehand, and, overall, his return games.

He was basically giving the 200 per cent of his abilities to prevent him to score the more points he could until the Captain would feel discouraged enough to drop his level and start making more and more errors. If it worked, he would win the match. If it didn't, there was only one outcome possible.

And the effects were already showing. The next serve was fast, but bounced too high and Morimura reached it. He had enough time to hit a well-placed cross-court forehand and this time it had been Niou's turn to be caught off-balance after all the power he needed to put on the serve, and couldn't even move to reach the ball. 15-30.

All the serves that Niou hit from then on were still powerful, but he couldn't add the right amount of spin to make them perform the low bounce they were meant to. Morimura understood that, and took all the chances he could. Another forehand down the line that caught Niou off-guard and the Captain took one of the breaks back.

It could be a turning point, but it was too early to say that. Sanada highly doubted that that was the best Niou could show for the day.


"He's starting to go out of stamina", Yanagi considered, breaking the silence.

Yukimura was still side-eyeing towards Marui, without the shorter player ever realizing he had caught his attention, still lost in thoughts that seemed far than pleasant.

He turned to look at the Master. "And of course you've predicted it".

"I supposed it", Yanagi corrected him, with half a smile. "But he's unable to hit Atobe's serve again, and only into his second service game. I can only guess that he either overestimated his capacity to keep his level of serving, or underestimated the amount of energy he needed to spend during his receiving turns. Either way, I don't think losing this service game was in his plans".

"Why losing anything should be in his plans?", Yukimura asked flatly.

"Because it's Niou", Yanagi replied. "Losing a game to win the match could be something he may do. Nevertheless, I don't think it's the case".

"Why that?"

"Because he failed with the same service technique he succeeded with in his previous game", Yanagi explained. "If I have to guess, I could say it could be a tactic to gave his opponent a false perception of self-confidence to attack him again during his next chance", he shrugged. "But I doubt that".

"And you doubt that because..."

Yanagi smiled. "Because he could've developed a serve like that in few months, and also he could have observed Jackal long enough to copy his footwork and imitating his full-court defense using a perfect reading of the opponent in front of him. But I think it's quite impossible he could've developed enough stamina to support this kind of play for the entire length of the match".

"So you think he knew he would have lost in the end, and he just wanted to show off?" For Yukimura, those words were ridiculous already when they were leaving his mouth. Niou had never been the kind of player who would sacrifice a match just to show off. No-one in Rikkai had ever been, but some of them - and Yukimura could now count himself in the number - had always been weak to people's attention. Kirihara was the king of that.

"I think it was a bet", Yanagi answered. "A bet he hadn't already lost, don't misunderstand me. He still had chances to win it".

"Depending on what?", Yukimura asked.

"I'm afraid, mostly on what Morimura will do".


If they thought Niou was already finished, they needed to think it again. The Trickster wasn't the same of the first game, at least to Sanada's eyes, who believed he had observed him far more closely than the very majority of the people on the bleachers, but he still showed an high-level play.

Morimura knew that it was crucial for him to hold his next service game, being still one break down, but Niou wasn't there to make it easy for him. The Captain could take him by surprise with two very powerful forehands, both from the net, but it still remained difficult to both overcome Niou's defense and counter his attacks when he managed to open up the court. Niou broke again, not without effort, and now he was leading 4-1, on his serve.

Sanada took a deep breath, and keep observing, perfectly aware of how the following game could define the flow for the rest of the match.

The Trickster's first serve was more similar to his old, usual standards, than to the ones he showed hitting Atobe's one. As Sanada already guessed, he couldn't perform that shot anymore without it becoming an open invitation to Morimura to surprise him with powerful return shots.

He put himself on defense again, but quite different from Jackal's. He took him quite a lot to recognize who that kind of style belonged to, but then he recognized Seigaku's Fuji in the end. The opponent that defeated Niou in the Nationals finals. Sanada frowned, without really understanding his choice. He quite wished he could ask Yanagi about it.


"It's quite an interesting choice, I must say", Yanagi said. "Even if, turning it around, you can even say it's desperate".

"Desperate?", Yukimura asked.

"Not in the meaning that he's improvising", the Master explained. "I think it was in his plans indeed. But it's indubitably a move of preservation. Now that he got the advantage, he's trying to defend his service games to keep it. If Morimura understands it and focus on attack, it wouldn't be easy at all".

"So, why Fuji?" Yukimura had never had so much esteem of that so-called genius of Seigaku. He had won against Niou at the Nationals, of course, but it was his loss against Shiraishi during the semifinals that, in Yukimura's opinion, truly showed his limits. Even if, if he was completely honest with himself, maybe he didn't like him because he recalled him of his own limits.

"He's not really imitating Fuji", Yanagi said. "He's just adopting the same approach to the game. Which is similar to yours, in some sense".

Yeah. Yukimura didn't comment that.

"Pulling Jackal's defense requires a lot of energy, and at this point of the match Niou couldn't afford to waste a single drop of it. Fuji's approach, on the other hand, take advantage of the opponent's power. He's letting Morimura controlling the rally, trying to take advantage of his shots to try a counterattack".

Yukimura nodded. It was the kind of defense that players like him, who couldn't count on the physical strength as much as players like Jackal or Sanada, needed to use to cover their side of the court.

"And why didn't he use this from the very beginning, instead of wasting so much energy in using Jackal's wall?", he asked Yanagi.

The Master smiled. "I think you can guess by yourself". When Yukimura didn't reply, he continued. "For instance, Morimura is the very same kind of player. A counter puncher, with a quite good serve, but I don't think in official matches it will work as effectively as it did against you. No offense meant".

"Yeah", Yukimura replied, bitter. "None taken". Maybe a little bit.

"Secondly, as I said, it was a bet. If I can guess, a bet against the Captain's focus. He had resisted your Yips; maybe he would want to try how much he could've stayed focused if he basically prevented him to play for all the first part of the match. To see if he would be able to perform a comeback from there, or if he was out of focus enough to ease Niou's path to win the match".

Yes, Yukimura thought. That was definitely something that Niou could think.


It wasn't working that well, Sanada considered, as Niou lost a point without any demerit from him, but with an extremely well-built backhand from his opponent. As Sanada had been able to see, the backhand wasn't exactly the Captain's favourite shot, but as much as he had the time to prepare and hit it, it could be as lethal as he was with his forehand. Niou was truly still in the game, but his level dropped visibly since the first games and Morimura became more aware of that. It was the Captain's turn to play aggressive, looking for angles, and sometimes the trickster looked like he wasn't even trying to reach the ball; more probably, he didn't have so much energy left, and he was trying to resist until the end of the match.

From then on, Morimura took full control of the game, in both his service and return games. Niou dropped Jackal's wall too, playing a more careful, energy-saving kind of defense in his service games too. He didn't look that he had surrendered; more than that, he looked like he still wanted to fight, but his set of weapons had clearly diminished since the battle was started. The Captain, on the other hand, wasn't facing the same problems.

It was a physical question too, Sanada considered. Niou was always the same one, thin, with little muscle, and probably, Sanada had always suspected, with a totally unbalanced diet that didn't give him nearly enough the right amount of nutrients he needed as a tennis player. Morimura, on the other hand, even if he wasn't as tall and wide-shouldered as Asou, had a solid figure, with a larger torso and more muscle on both his arms and legs than Niou, meaning that, unlike the Trickster, he had a real physical preparation behind his performances on court.

Sanada kept watching the match, but he already knew how it would end. Asou, on his side, seemed very aware of that too.

"As I told you", he said to Sanada, "he chose the wrong one to try his tricks".

"You trust his game so much", Sanada said. He had been the same, as a vice-captain, with Yukimura. This wouldn't be a bad thing for the team, whatever it would happen next.

"I do", Asou replied. "It's part of my job". He got up, even if the match hadn't ended yet. Sanada couldn't even blame him for that. "I need to go now, there's something I want to discuss with our manager", he sighed. "Wherever she is now", his eyes wandered around the bleachers. "See you, Sanada-kun. Whatever happens, it's good news to have people like you and your friends in our club".

Sanada nodded, as the guy started to climb the bleachers. A lot of people had already started to lose interest in what had quickly become a one-sided match. The young challenger had lost; the reigning King was winning. It wasn't that interesting anymore, just usual routine.

He glanced at the court again just to see Morimura hitting a winner behind Niou shoulders. Maybe he should leave too, and look for Yanagi instead.


Marui observed Niou and Morimura meeting at the net. By how Niou was walking, he was clearly worn-out, but he managed to play until the very end nonetheless. Whatever he had tried during the first games, however, clearly hadn't work. After the last break he won, he couldn't win any more games, barely able to defend his side of the court and scoring a few more points, against a Morimura who still looked ad fully in-form. The Captain won 6-4, and it was still a better result than the one Yukimura obtained, as he hadn't been able to steal more than one game from the Rikkai's Captain. But Marui doubted Niou was interested in that at all.

"That had been an interesting match, no matter what", he heard Yanagi say from his side.

He and Yukimura had been commenting during all the match, but Marui had barely heard them, completely focused on his own misery and on what to do next.

He had also barely followed the game until the very end, but he had noticed what Niou had done in the late part of the match, and what strategy he was using to at least keep playing until the very end. He overheard Yanagi saying he was using Seigaku's Fuji's approach to cover the court. He didn't even care, in the end.

He got up, and started to move towards the stairs.

"Bunta!", he heard Yanagi call him. "Where are you going?"

"I'm going", Marui replied, with little will to stay for conversation.

"Wait", Yanagi grabbed his shoulders. He turned to see both him and Yukimura glancing at him, slightly concerned. What the hell-

"Are you okay?", Yanagi asked, too much serious for Marui's liking at the moment.

"I am", he cut it short. He just wanted to leave.

"Are you sure?" Yanagi had a different idea.

"Please let me go", he just said, and Yanagi didn't insist.

He saw Yukimura asking him something more than hearing him, as he was already running down the stairs, trying to hurt no-one as the crowd was slowly leaving the bleachers. Morimura's was the last match of the day, apparently. The sun was setting, it was basically time to leave. Good; at least he knew where he would find Jackal.

"About time!", his friend said, as Marui reached his locker.

Jackal was already changed into his school uniform. Marui's bag was at his feet. Of course he brought it there.

"Were you watching the match?", Marui asked.

"What match?", Jackal fixed his tie. "I was practicing. I always want to practice after a defeat. I would have practiced with you, if you didn't disappear".

"I didn't want to practice", Marui replied. "I want-", he bit his tongue.

Jackal tilted his head, looked at him. "Are you okay, Bunta? If it's for today's match, we can-"

"I know what we can do", Marui replied, before he could rethink it. "Jackal, I-", he took a deep breath. "I think we shouldn't play doubles together anymore".


...


I don't want to write tennis anymore in my life.

First, I'm not a real fan of copycat Niou, but I really believe it is a phase that started with the match against Fuji at the Nationals, which was itself an evolution of what Niou did with Yagyuu during their doubles match at Kantou tournament. I still see Niou as a player with lots of potential (as every other member of this team, in one way or another), and I really want to see how his game will evolve from them on (yes, I'm the one who's supposed to write about it).

On the other hand, I'm glad this match is over. The next step is going towards the first official matches at the, let me check my own notes, Kanagawa preliminaries for the InterHigh tournament!

Thanks to everyone who had read this chapter, I hope you enjoyed it! See you soon, and happy (belated) first days of Autumn!

Fanny

The Prince of Tennis belongs to Konomi Takeshi.

Those colors are made, they're changing the game [The Whole World Is Watching - Within Temptation]