The Rumour

Chapter Five: Heart to Heart… Talk!

After Tezuka's announcement, the entire tennis club erupted into a frenzy of training and practice. With everyone scrambling for any free court space, tensions were mounting high. In the end, Momoshiro and Kaido both decided to train off court, with Kaido knee-deep in the small stream behind the school and Momoshiro in the small clearing just beyond the stream, trying to strengthen his power serve even more. For a while, there was no conversation other than an occasional grunt of effort, or the whoosh of expelled breath.

Then Kaido decided to switch to practicing his forearm serve. Since his unique form of practice set by Inui-senpai consisted of swinging a long, heavy wet cloth that was meant to force Kaido to use every part of his upper-body strength, it meant that Momoshiro got a face full of water at Kaido's first swing.

"Oi!" Momoshiro snapped! "You splashed me, you mamushi!"

Kaido turned and glanced briefly at Momoshiro. Then, he moved exactly three steps to the left before continuing his forearm practice. A silvery stream of water flew through the air and landed on Momoshiro's shoes.

Why you stupid… Momoshiro growled. He had been in a bad mood ever since Fuji-senpai tricked him into agreeing to that stupid match with buchou as the ultimate prize. He hadn't been able to look his buchou in the eye at practice ever since. Yet at night… the image of his buchou haunted his dreams. And fantasies. He'd never thought about buchou like that before! Arrgghh! And now this stupid mamushi is looking for a fight… Hormones churning, Momoshiro snapped. "Mamushi! Let's settle this once and for all!"

Kaido slowly turned his heard and looked at his rival with his trademark glare. "Hss… Fine. But I don't have my racket with me."

"Who said anything about settling anything with tennis," grinned Momoshiro fiercely before springing onto Kaido with his fists bunched up.

His first punch missed Kaido, and before long, the two players were grappling on the ground, twisting and bucking.

"Ah~! Ah~!"

"Hsss….!"

"Oow!"

Splash! A sudden deluge of water cascaded down onto the two boys. Drenched to the skin, Kaido and Momoshiro looked up in shock at the immense figure standing before them.

"I thought you two might need a little cooling off," said Inui calmly, an empty bucket in his hands.

"He started it," Kaido and Momoshiro pointed at each other in unison. Then the two boys moved away from each other in a huff.

Inui frowned. "Kaido has the worst temper on the team, so I'm not surprised at his part in this… But Momoshiro, I expect better from you. What's wrong with you?"

"What's wrong with me?!" Momoshiro laughed half hysterically. "The stupid mamushi is always hissing at me, I'm hot and I'm wet. I'm spending all my days training to beat a person I'll never be able to beat in my lifetime and my nights dreaming and jerking off with buchou constantly in my head! And you ask me what's wrong?!"

"Hss.. too much… hss… information," muttered Kaido, turning pale.

"Shut up! Oh, like you're not training harder than ever to win buchou for yourself!"

"Hss…"

"I think I'm going crazy. I think we are all going crazy. I never use to think about guys this way, much less the buchou. And yet, here we are, all training like mad to win a match and date with bucho, who doesn't even know he's the prize," Momoshiro laughed bitterly. "What are we doing?" he demanded, looking at Inui pleadingly. "No one will be able to beat him, and even if by some miracle, someone does, buchou will probably kill him and the rest of us when he finds out about this stupid match and it's prize. Why are we doing this, Inui-senpai?"

Inui looked down at the younger player sympathetically, then sighed and seated himself on the grass in front of Kaido and Momoshiro. "You're right," he started. "The chances of either you or Kaido being able to beat Tezuka at your current forms are minute. Probably no more than 4 or 5% at the most. But so what? Knowing that you are up against a stronger player never stopped either of you from playing before, whether it was Hyotel, or Fudomine, or any of the other schools. In fact, you guys thrive on it. The stronger, the better. And Tezuka is the strongest. Not just in terms of skills, or technical ability, but in his total commitment to the game, to the team. Wanting to beat the strongest player around is a normal urge for any good player."

Inui paused and looked up at the blue sky overhead. "I want to beat him too," he said softly. "If I can just understand how he plays, if I can get his indomitable spirit… Maybe then I will be as good a player as he is. That's why I want to beat him."

"As for the other part of it – the date, I mean," Inui took a moment to adjust his glasses, "I can't speak for anyone else, but after beating Tezuka in tennis, I want to try to put another type of expression on his face. And that's all you need to know," he concluded with the slightest smile lurking at the corner of his mouth.

Momoshiro let out a light cough, and started examining his hands with a wry smile playing at his lips. "A'hem. Yeah. That I can understand. To beat buchou and, er, the other thing. It'll be good to surprise the buchou and see his face change for once." He stopped and let out a huge breath, looking much calmer than before. "Thanks, Inui-senpai. I think I'm all right now." The innately fair-minded player then turned to Kaido and sighed. "Oi, Kaido. I'm sorry about just now. I'm been pretty stressed and confused, and I kinda took it out on you just now."

Kaido didn't bother to respond, but the usual glare on his face lessened, and the 'Viper' looked less murderous than usual. Momoshiro took this as for an acceptance of his apology and was about to get up and leave when a huge hand blocked his move.

"Inui-senpai…?" But the senpai was not looking at him.

"Don't you have something to say to Momo-kun too, Kaido?"

Kaido hissed and shot a look of exasperation and mild disgust at his bespectacled senpai, who simply shrugged it off. "Kaido-kun," Inui said in a sing-song fashion. "If you don't talk, I'll test my new special Inui Power Juice on you tomorrow…"

"Hss…" Kaido stared at Inui-senpai, but finally gave up in the face of Inui's mad-scientist smile. Not quite looking at Momoshiro, the boy muttered, "Hss… I have asthma."

"Huh?" Momoshiro looked bewildered. This was the last thing Momoshiro expected to hear.

"Hsss… I had asthma when I was young. The doctors did something to fix it, but I ended up with making this noise every time I have to breathe deeply or quickly."

"You mean that stupid hissing noise — I mean, breathing – wasn't on purpose?" asked Momoshiro, the bewilderment on his face rapidly clearing. "Geesh, you silly mamushi! Why didn't you say so from the start instead of letting me think you were doing it on purpose?!"

Kaido looked slightly embarrassed. "Hss… People get scared when I breathe like this. It pisses me off. Everyone – except Tezuka buchou, he treats me exactly the same as he does anyone else."

"You mean when you told him you could play tennis, he just nodded, took your name down, put a racket in your hand and told you to report at the courts after school," Momoshiro pointed out dryly.

"Yessssh. Exactly like everyone else," Kaido agreed. "He treats me like any other promising tennis player in the club, and not like a freak. I want to try to live up to his expectations and play the best I can… And if the day comes when I can finally beat him, I know Tezuka buchou will be the first person to come over to congratulate me and tell me it's a good match," finished Kaido.

"Yeah, I guess you're right. Buchou is cool that way," admitted Momoshiro. "Hey, but what about the date? What've you got planned if you do win the match with buchou?"

Kaido got up abruptly and muttered, "None of your business." He turned to walk away, but Momoshiro was already jumping up to his feet. "Matte, Kaido! Come on, we're team mates, we can share these things!"

"Hss…!"

"Wait for me, Oi! Kaido~!" The sounds of their bickering and occasional hissing slowly faded as the two boys disappeared in the direction of the courts. Inui looked back up to the deep blue sky and smiled. "The things we senpais have to do for our kohais," he sighed before taking out his notebook and started to take notes.

"Let's see, Momoshiro obviously has very healthy sexual drives… Also, bounces back very quickly from stress… Kaido probably is the same in terms of sexual drive… but at what probability? Hmm…"

Leaving Inui behind, the two second year players were about to head back to the practice courts when Kaido suddenly stopped. Momoshiro, who was more intent on teasing Kaido, and less intent on where he was going, bumped into the boy from behind. "Hey, why did you stop so suddenly?"

"Hsss… Hyotei players are here."

"What? Where?" He followed Kaido's gaze towards the school gate, where the three Hyotei students stood out in their different uniforms.

"What the hell are they doing here?" asked Momoshiro angrily. "They've got some nerve, showing their faces around here after injuring Tezuka-senpai and Kawamura-senpai!" The boy marched up to the Hyotei visitors, with Kaido following close behind him.

"What do you want, Atobe?" He demanded furiously, while Kaido simply glared at Kabaji and Oshitari who stood behind their captain.

"Ah, good, it's Momoshiro," said the Hyotei captain arrogantly. "You can show me to your tennis courts. I heard that Tezuka is back and fully recovered from his injury."

"So what? You're not satisfied with injuring buchou the last time and have come to finish the job off, is that it?" Momoshiro growled.

The Hyotei buchou looked stung. "I just came to see how he's doing," Atobe snapped back haughtily, but then an unfamiliar look of hesitation stole across his face for a split second. "Also… we've been hearing about this strange rumour that's going around about this tennis match with a date with Tezuka as its prize…"

Oh shit! Momoshiro and Kaido thought simultaneously. The original righteous anger that fuelled both boys so far suddenly turned into cold grey ashes lodged in their throats. The Seigaku players exchanged looks of barely restrained terror, then Kaido mouthed one word, "Stall!" and dashed off towards the tennis courts.

"Hey, where's he going?" asked Atobe, slightly miffed at the lack of respect shown so far. "How rude."
"Er," Momoshiro hesitated, mind racing for a way to stall the Hyotei players. "What rumour are you talking about?"

A pale flush came and went over Atobe's flawless face. "The rumour…. Well, it's probably nothing. Insane to even believe that Tezuka would lower himself and agree to this kind of foolishness."

Oh shit! Momoshiro thought. It's gotten out to the other schools! Which idiot spread it around…?! Momoshiro tried to slow down his heart rate by breathing deeply, but Atobe, who's still talking, didn't even seem to notice.

"But it would be good to play Tezuka again… and maybe be able to spend some time together after…"

Momoshiro tried not to choke at that. Not Atobe too?!

~~~

Hello! waves happily I've just decided to complicate matters by opening things up to the other schools… It's called the rumour after all, and rumours do travel. Heh heh.