DISCLAIMER: Konomi Takeshi owns Prince of Tennis and its characters. I don't.
NOTES: Works with the time when the Rikkai team visited Yukimura at the Kanagawa hospital, close to the start of the Kantou regional finals.
Like everybody else, I still have to know more about the Rikkai players. I'm uploading this just to keep a record of my presumptions. And preparing myself for the time when they become obsolete. So basically I'm just getting all this off my chest.
Some spoilers for the Kantou finals (manga). Please be warned.
Last edit, I promise!
Listen to "Kurenai" by X Japan. Fits the uniform ;)
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Disguising the Fallen
by MorphailEffect
Yanagi was half-expecting that Sanada wouldn't want to go. In the past, the other team members visited Yukimura at the hospital without their vice-captain.
He never needed an excuse. It was always just "I can't see him."
But shortly before the Kantou finals, the situation changed. He was no longer invited, because he always turned down their invitations anyway...so he simply asked Yanagi, "Are you going to visit Yukimura? I'd like to go with you. If it's all right."
Yanagi didn't bother showing his surprise. He smiled and replied "That would be good. He's been asking after you."
Sanada visibly relaxed. He nodded.
It amused Yanagi not to tell the rest of the team that Sanada was tagging along. They were walking as a group a good distance from campus when Marui Bunta suddenly exclaimed "Eh?! What's Fukubuchou doing with us?"
Niou Masaharu pressed down hard on Marui's shaggy pate with his palm. "Isn't it obvious, idiot? He's going with us to see Yukimura."
"Hm?" Yagyuu Hiroshi remarked. "That's new, Sanada. Why the sudden change of heart?"
"Nothing better to do at home," Sanada replied with a half-smile. Meaning to sound like he was joking, maybe...
"It's too bad Jackal and Akaya aren't here," Yanagi followed up. "We could've visited Yukimura as a complete team."
"Ah, those two always go their own way," Marui sniffed. "They're always at the hospital anyway. If it's Sanada coming over to visit, I bet Buchou would be floored!"
Yanagi glanced over at Sanada for a reaction. But Sanada was watching his own feet hit the pavement, thinking...
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It seemed Yukimura Seiichi never ran out of visitors. If it wasn't the Rikkai team members or his fangirls (and boys), his family flooded the single ward he was staying in.
And it was no surprise. People liked being with him. Even while infirmed, Yukimura's very presence had an invigorating effect. It was nothing that could be explained.
On the surface, it was easy enough to see what made him so special. His benevolent smile lit up the room. You would turn your head at his entrance, stare at him as he passed by. He would speak with you briefly and leave you feeling oddly content. He spoke rarely, but every time he did, his voice was like soothing music.
On the opposite pole, there was Sanada Genichirou...who smiled rarely, spoke roughly, and quietly generated tension. When he came into a room, you fell silent. Wary and admiring, you watched his every move out of the corner of your eye.
Yukimura Seiichi was a passive agent of the law of the Rikkai Dai Fuzoku tennis club. If you were defeated in a match, official or not, you were unceremoniously ostracized. One instance of blatant disrespect, and your name was stricken from the list of regulars. You had to observe him to see what to do right, because he would never insist that you learn. You were inspired by him, you emulated him.
Sanada Genichirou, on the other hand, you feared. You followed. Once you made it as a regular, his iron hand dictated what you could and could not do. If you did not live by his rules, you were beaten into submission. And you knew his ruthlessness had a purpose. You knew this was the only way to increase in skill.
Yukimura and Sanada. Captain and vice-captain of the famous Rikkai Dai Fuzoku tennis team. Seen together, they were like light and shadow, bright and dark, angel and demon, supporting and complementing each other.
No one suspected it would ever have to change.
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"Hey," Yukimura said over his shoulder at his approaching teammates. "So you all made it, huh?"
Sanada hung back while the rest of the team stepped forward to greet their captain. Marui, however, concentrated his enthusiasm on the untouched box of cakes that lay on the bench beside Yukimura.
"Hey, what's in that box over there? Can I have some?"
Sanada slapped Marui upside the head for this. But not seriously. Only hard enough to make the smaller youth fume and complain. And to make Yukimura laugh in genuine amusement.
"Really, Marui can take it if he wants," Yukimura was saying.
"He'll grow fat if he eats too much sugar, and then we'll have a fat genius volleyer," Niou retorted.
As Niou and Marui bickered, Yukimura smiled over at Sanada briefly. There was no obvious response.
In fact Sanada wasn't looking at Yukimura at all.
Sanada hated seeing Yukimura ill. It was the only reason why he never visited before.
Yanagi knew this without needing to be told.
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One of the many privileges that came with being in the Rikkai team was knowing the true nature of Yukimura's curious affliction.
Yukimura had undergone surgery a few times, as a child. For a malignant tumor.
Consistent medication seemed to slow the tumor's progress. In fact the last time Yukimura had had to be operated on was when he was eleven years old. The cyst was never completely removed, and it had not stopped growing. Before anyone, even Yukimura himself, knew it, it was time for another surgery.
Yukimura admitted to Yanagi once, during a hospital visit, that he was afraid that if people knew he was ill in any way, they would insist on handicapping him... if not barring him from playing tennis altogether.
When asked if it hurt, Yukimura only ever said no.
As far as everyone else knew, this was the truth...
But the Rikkai regulars knew that there were times when Yukimura would sit in a corner with his head bowed, and stay in that position for a long time. Looking very much like a marionette whose strings were suddenly cut.
Yanagi himself saw this happen only twice. The first time was in his second year, one early evening when he thought everyone in the club had left. He had been training for the ranking matches alone in the indoor court, and had returned to the club room for a shower... when he found Yukimura slumped in a corner, on the floor.
"Yukimura," he greeted. The young man raised his head, looked up at him with tortured eyes, that same distant smile. Yes, sorry, Renji, was the soft reply. What time is it? I fell asleep.
The second time occurred not long after. On a rainy day.
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There was not much to talk about. It was simply their last visit to their captain before the Kantou finals. All the Rikkai regulars, except for Sanada, had visited him often enough in the past to exhaust all their stories.
Then Sanada, who had not talked all throughout the visit, asked for time alone with Yukimura.
Yanagi nodded and herded the rest of the team off to the hospital lobby. Where they could at least stave off Marui's craving for sweets by getting him more bubble gum.
Marui and Niou immediately gravitated towards the nearest vending machine. Walking behind them at a leisurely pace were Yagyuu and Yanagi. They stopped to wait for their two teammates, stood side by side.
"What made him come along this time?" Yagyuu asked out of the blue, arms folded across his chest.
Yanagi shrugged. "Who knows."
Yagyuu raised an eyebrow at him. "You're the one who's usually with him. Can't you even hazard a guess?" A smirk. "Maybe he ate something different for breakfast today?"
It wasn't that Yagyuu was spiteful towards their vice-captain. He was perfectly polite, deferential to Sanada, in fact -- if he was present.
"Or maybe," light catching his spectacles, hiding the glint in his eyes, "he's nervous about the finals?"
"We're all nervous about the finals, Hiroshi. Especially with Fudomine and Seigaku's performance." Yanagi took care not to sound like he was losing patience. "Are you going to hold it against him if he was nervous?"
"Of course not." An arrogant toss of the head. "But it'll be something, won't it? Him, nervous. Our fearless vice-captain." Slight chuckle. Harmless enough. "I almost call him 'captain' sometimes."
Yanagi knew the feeling.
"And it would be something if he actually came here for good luck," Yagyuu emphasized the last two words. "One would think Sanada didn't believe in things like that..."
"When it comes to Genichirou, I think it's safest not to assume anything."
Yagyuu took a moment, then snorted vaguely. Niou and Marui were on their way to rejoin them.
"...Well, you know him best, Renji. I was just wondering."
Marui was just starting to ask what the two of them were being "all serious" about, when Yagyuu's cell phone rang.
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A year ago, the second-year Sanada was running a high fever during one of the Rikkai middle school ranking matches. Still, he remained completely self-possessed. He won game after game with his usual ease and confidence.
Not even Yanagi, who watched him closely between his own games, suspected he was ill.
Then as Sanada was making his way to another match, the back of his hand brushed across Yanagi's arm by accident. Yanagi had to flinch and stare after Sanada in surprise.
His skin felt like it was on fire.
The skies had been dark all morning. Rain finally fell during Sanada's last match. As could be expected, Sanada did not let the foul weather hinder him from winning.
Yanagi might have been the only one who saw it, but Sanada had begun to shiver. Yet his shoulders were squared and his steps even as he made his way back to the club room.
Yanagi ran after him, threw the door to the club room open. On the floor, close to his feet, was Sanada's racket, lying awkwardly as if it had simply fallen. From the racket was a trail of muddy footprints and water drops, leading up to the closest bench.
The trail led to Yukimura, who sat at the far end of the bench, leaning back so his pale face was exposed to the light. He turned to Yanagi, his sunken eyes clouded over with worry. His face haloed, looking for all the world like a wounded angel.
And the trail led to Sanada, unconscious and half-lying on the floor beside Yukimura. His baseball cap had fallen to the floor and his bare, drenched head lay on Yukimura's lap.
"He just collapsed," Yukimura said softly, lifting his hand from Sanada's hair. "We need to take him to the infirmary."
Yanagi nodded. He raced out to call Jackal to help him carry Sanada to the school clinic.
Sanada woke up a few hours later -- still fevered, though his temperature had considerably dropped. Yanagi was seated beside him, keeping watch.
Yanagi started speaking. Someone had to. He recounted everything about the last match, down to the smallest detail. Even cleverly sneaked in that he noticed Sanada was not doing too well by the end of the match.
He waited for Sanada to notice this. There seemed to be no sign that he did.
"Renji. About Yukimura..."
Yanagi looked at Sanada knowingly. "He said you just collapsed."
"Is he...does he..."
"Angry? Don't worry. I don't think so."
At this, Sanada fell back against his pillow with an almost inaudible sigh.
Was it relief in that sigh? Concern? Regret?
"Everything went dark before I could reach him," he muttered, talking to the ceiling. "He was just sitting there. Like a doll. What's wrong with him, Renji?"
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"GENICHIROU!"
Sanada turned. The door to the outside corridor burst open.
Yukimura didn't even look over his shoulder. It was like he didn't have the strength to do so.
"We've got trouble..."
Yanagi took a quick glance at Yukimura. Yukimura sat extremely still, head bowed. Listening.
"The tennis club Akaya goes to...!"
There was no need for leave-taking: Kirihara Akaya was on the loose. Sanada strode towards the exit, easily turning his back on his captain and one other teammate, who happened to be engrossed in a particular cake box...
"Let's go, Marui!!"
Marui and Yukimura exchanged whispers. Then Marui darted to the exit, carrying the entire cake box. No one had time to slap him upside the head for it.
"...Sanada," Yukimura called.
The tall vice-captain stopped abruptly.
"Sorry for the trouble."
Yanagi heard this as well. He stopped in his tracks and looked back. Waited.
Sanada looked like he was about to say something in reply to the apology. But he only turned and followed his teammates out of the hospital grounds.
The tennis club that Kirihara frequented was only a stone's throw away from the hospital, luckily. The Rikkai regulars could run all the way there.
As they did, Yanagi glanced over at Sanada and his perfectly calm features.
Yanagi had to smile, despite himself.
"You look better," he commented.
Sanada looked over at him. They were running side by side. "What?"
There was a long silence as a rush of things occurred to Yanagi to say. Then, at last, he answered "Nothing."
Nothing.
Of course he would look better. It always made Sanada feel better to talk to Yukimura.
Yanagi had known Sanada for far too long. He knew Sanada looked up to Yukimura in a way that was strangely quiet, private. It wasn't simply because Yukimura could beat him like no one else could at the courts.
It wasn't just because Yukimura could simply smile at you and all your troubles would melt away.
Not just because he could ask you to be with him, and you would only say yes, committing yourself blindly.
Not just because his gentle eyes were always hiding unspeakable pain.
Though outwardly Sanada regarded Yukimura as an equal, if not a rival to beat, Yanagi recognized the signs of adulation. He knew that restrained glow of pride whenever they were together. He knew those stolen glances that said "I want to understand."
He knew. Yanagi looked up to Sanada in this same way.
Yanagi supposed this was how ordinary humans looked up to angels. Which struck Yanagi as a funny thought, because Sanada was by no means an angel...
Not to anyone else.
He saw Sanada reflected in the eyes of his teammates -- Jackal, Kirihara, Niou...and even Yukimura. He saw nothing human. He saw a soul of ice. Someone who had his eye on the goal and would sacrifice everything, even friendship, even love, to get there.
Yanagi wondered what they would think if they knew.
If they had been there to see the helplessness in his eyes when he woke up recovering from a fever, with the image of a deathly still teammate ingrained in his mind.
If they had been there when he tore his racket's gut while practicing, right after finding out about Yukimura's surgery.
If they had been there when he sprained his ankle while running the extra laps he'd set for himself, as the new acting captain.
So many things...
So many things, that only he knew.
They were getting close to the tennis club. Yanagi decided firmly that he wasn't going to overthink.
It made Sanada feel better to talk to Yukimura.
Therefore it made Yanagi feel better as well.
"It appears...Kirihara's eyes have become bloodshot."
But the moment was past
-- and it was time to play the devil again.
Sanada scowled as he opened the door to the tennis club's court. He dipped his head slowly, stood rigidly in an attacker's stance.
Yanagi peered through the wire fence at the distant scoreboard. He knew what Kirihara's failure would force Sanada to do.
Even angels had roles to perform.
(THE END)