DISCLAIMER:
Konomi Takeshi owns Prince of Tennis and its characters. I don't.
Motoni Modoru owns Shiikugakari Rika, a darkly beautiful manga which has an excellent English translation entitled Rika the Breeder, available for download to members of Aestheticism.net.
I have the utmost respect for these two very talented manga artists. Their works are so deeply ingrained in my being that they generated a plotbunny that wouldn't let me sleep. Or work. Or eat. I sound pathetic.
NOTES:
This is what you get after four straight hours of Kirihara Akaya's "Unfair" on repeat on Winamp.
And yes, I'm out of my mind. I may have seen a little too much Japanese fanwork showing Yukimura as the Rikkai team's "Mama," who's married to "Papa" Sanada. In this fic, we're pretending "Mama" is fully recovered from his recent trip to the hospital.
Constructive criticism is still very welcome but please...be kind to the basket case.
I've tried to make it so the events would make sense even if the reader is not familiar with Shiikugakari Rika. Still, I'm warning people against possible SPOILERS, in case they plan to read the manga soon. Also, I didn't go exactly by the Shiikugakari Rika storyline. My main purpose for publishing this fic is to share the character parallels in my head. I'm sorry it had to drag on so long.
In case I wasn't able to show them clearly, said parallels are listed at the end.
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Rikkai no Shiikugakari
by MorphailEffect
Captain Yukimura Seiichi left the bench and walked slowly over to where a few other Rikkai regulars were doing their daily swing exercises. His sole purpose was to approach one particular member and calmly ask:
"Yagyuu, will you tell me why you're looking at me like that?"
Yagyuu Hiroshi assumed the expression of a man slapped awake. All of a sudden he couldn't meet his captain's gaze. He looked straight ahead, taking care not to lose his rhythm. "...Ah...I'm sorry, I didn't think you noticed..."
"You've been making eyes at Yukimura since this morning, dimwit," said Niou Masaharu, swinging his own racket beside Yagyuu. "Everybody noticed."
"Yagyuu. 100 laps around the campus oval." This came from the bench that Yukimura had just left. His vice captain was still sitting there, having been abandoned by Yukimura mid-conversation.
Yagyuu stopped swinging. He stood up straight and faced Sanada Genichirou at the bench. "Excuse me? What for?"
"I think it's for staring at me," Yukimura helpfully confided, arms folded across his chest, a smile playing on his lips.
"For staring at Yukimura?!" Like Niou, Marui kept on swinging even as he spat out those words in disbelief. It was disastrous to break the rhythm and everyone knew it.
"For being obviously distracted! Do you think our opponents won't take advantage of that? Start now or I'll make that 200 laps!"
Yagyuu stood rooted to the spot, holding his racket. He looked like he wanted to protest, or at least explain himself. But before Sanada could give him 100 additional laps for even trying, Yagyuu laid his racket on the ground and jogged past his teammates, on his way out of Rikkai university's practice courts.
"If you run at top speed, you should be done at exactly 9:23 PM," Yanagi Renji said as he passed. Yanagi may have a scary reputation for hardcore mental maths, but he was a friendly person, and a note of sympathy was in his voice as he spoke.
"Don't mind, Yagyuu!" Kuwahara Jackal at the end of the line said cheerfully. "Sanada's just overprotective of our top guy."
Our top guy...
Yagyuu didn't bother acknowledging anyone. He had to make headway with those laps before dark. And at any rate, he was almost grateful to be out of his teammates' sight.
That merciless Sanada only reminded him of the Sanada in his dream, the memory of whom still sent shivers down his spine.
Yanagi's calculations were a little off. Yagyuu came back from the campus oval at 9:30.
The courts were empty. It seemed his teammates had already put away Yagyuu's racket and the rest of his school things.
Yagyuu sighed. Well, this wasn't the first time it happened. And this wasn't the first time he'd had to convince himself that he deserved it, either. He simply bit down on his pride and made his way to the club room.
Inside, he found Yukimura sitting on the floor scribbling on a notebook, flanked by books and photocopied papers, wearing his regular school uniform. Yagyuu's bag and racket case sat on the floor close to him, as if he were keeping watch over them while studying.
Yagyuu stood dumbstruck at the doorway. His hand was still on the knob and he found he couldn't muster a greeting.
"Oh, you're done," Yukimura said first, thank goodness. "Don't mind this mess. I just started on homework while waiting for you. Go ahead and change."
Waiting for him? Yukimura was waiting for him? "...Right." Yagyuu walked stiffly over to his locker.
Yagyuu finished drying off and changing into his school uniform while Yukimura unhurriedly put away his school things. He sneaked a glance over at Yukimura while he was buttoning up his shirt.
Yukimura was looking somewhere else, and seemed like he was thinking deeply about something. He had on that sad look, which even in Yagyuu's dream drew him like a seductive mystery.
"Yagyuu," Yukimura said just then, out of his thoughts, "I'd like to walk home with you tonight. Let's talk. Is that all right?"
There was no reason (or way) to beg off, so Yagyuu said "Of course it's all right." No more and no less. Yukimura nodded and stood, shouldered his school bag and handed Yagyuu's things over to him.
As could be expected from "the gentleman" of the team, Yagyuu opened the door for his captain and let him leave the club room first.
"I hope you won't think I'm prying...but as your team captain, I'd like to know if there's anything bothering you."
"Nothing's bothering me. Really, Yukimura." Yagyuu kept his gaze to the ground. He was embarrassed that this talk even had to take place.
Yukimura was hands-on when dealing with emotional tension within the team. In that way, he complemented Sanada perfectly. Rikkai's captain took on the task of talking one-on-one with team members whose on-court performance showed a marked deterioration, but Yagyuu didn't think his performance suffered at all. So it shouldn't be this big a deal.
"...All right. If you don't need to let anything out of your chest, that's fine. But I also have selfish reasons for wanting to understand some things. Especially how I suddenly became so interesting to one of my teammates."
The way he phrased all this made staring sound like such a crime. Yagyuu had to bare some facts to defend himself.
"It's nothing, Yukimura, I -- last night I just had this weird dream I couldn't shake off. It kept coming back to me and I spaced out sometimes. Most of the time I just happened to be looking at you."
"Oh," Yukimura commented. "What kind of dream?"
Yagyuu grimaced.
"Do you really have to know that?"
"Well...I'm not a dream expert. But I do know that talking about a disturbing dream helps make it go away. That way, you don't have to wait too long for it to leave on its own."
Yagyuu protested, "I'm afraid I can't. It's embarrassing."
"More embarrassing than being caught staring and made to run laps in the campus oval?"
Well, Yagyuu had to admit there was logic in that. If they were talking about unseemly acts, staring definitely took the cake.
And maybe Yukimura was right, maybe talking will help make the weird feelings go away. At the very least, Yagyuu owed the other boy any sort of explanation for staring. There was no excuse for his rudeness earlier in the day.
"It wasn't some kind of erotic dream, was it...?"
"God no," Yagyuu sputtered, scandalized. "Or...well...that is..."
Yukimura chuckled. He really did have a nice laugh. It was brief and it flowed over one's worries like cool water.
"So it was an erotic dream."
"-- Well, if you want to look at it that way. But it was nothing explicit." The advantage of wearing glasses so thick is, people can't tell by your eyes that you're lying. "Everyone on the team was there. We were all still students in Rikkai, except it was...weird. There were fewer students, and it wasn't a university anymore. It was a boarding school for high school boys."
Yukimura chose a bench by the sidewalk and sat down. Yagyuu gratefully sat down beside him. His legs were still numb from the afternoon's laps.
"I'd just transferred into Rikkai. I don't remember why I transferred, but I remember that I had a score to settle of some sort. A vendetta." Yagyuu sat back, determined to relax so he could continue to talk smoothly. "I was exactly the way I am now. Except I couldn't stand...not helping people."
He seemed to have trouble expressing that last statement.
"You already can't stand not helping people," Yukimura pointed out with a kind smile.
Yagyuu shook his head. "It wasn't that simple. I didn't always want to help." He trailed off and paused. "...Every time someone said 'Help me,' I had to run to that person's aid. Or I dissolved in coughing fits."
Yukimura blinked.
"That's an interesting complex..."
"It hurt like hell, too."
"Any idea why it happened?"
"Not in the least."
"I see..."
"Rikkai had this sort of elite student council, where members were either invited in or they had to earn their way in. Most hopefuls had to go through a rigorous...er, application process. I guess I was a special case, because I was invited. By you."
Yukimura's eyebrows rose.
"Me?"
"Yes. You were the highest-ranking member."
At this, Yukimura had to smile. "Hmm...sounds like our tennis club."
"That's right. Sanada was, of course, the scary second officer. Only the other officers could talk back to him, and even then they weren't allowed to disrespect him. There was also Yanagi, who wore glasses..."
"That's something. He doesn't even open his eyes in real life."
"...and Jackal-kun, who was always smiling and friendly. But the scariest member was Niou-kun, who looked down his nose at everyone and who -- " Yagyuu cleared his throat softly " -- wore the scantiest things after school hours..."
Yagyuu's sensitivity was sorely being tested. It was hard to describe outloud his dream-Niou's wardrobe, not to mention his shocking behavior. How Niou seemed to ogle Sanada and then flash a look of naked lust everyone else's way. If Yagyuu were only familiar with the term, he would have said Niou radiated "angry sex" vibes.
But such words would never occur to him even if he wanted them to.
"Where were Bunta and Akaya?"
"I'll get to them later."
"Okay. Go on."
"Everyone seemed to be afraid of the council. Not just in awe afraid, but really...really afraid. Like the council officers had so much say-so and power, even if they were just high school students."
"Like the say-so and power we have right now, as middle school students?" Yukimura asked. "You notice even teachers stand off to the side to make way for us when we walk down corridors as a team?"
"Yes, in my dream the teachers still did that. The feel of it was different, though. You were all like gangsters who ran the underground affairs of the whole school." A look of surprise came upon Yagyuu's face. "I remember what the council was called. It was a 'Salon.' And the officers were all called 'Aces.' Like in a card game."
It might have sounded weird, but Yukimura made no comment. His face betrayed nothing of his thoughts, either.
"You were my dormitory roommate. You seemed interested to know my purpose for having transferred into the school. And it seemed you knew everything about me, except why I transferred. Whenever we spoke, it was like you'd read about my life in a book and were just throwing it all back at me."
Yagyuu vaguely wondered what time it was. He knew at the back of his head that they should both have gotten home by that time. But he couldn't stop talking, now that he'd started.
"You called me by my first name. And so did Marui-kun, who was in the same class as myself. Marui-kun seemed friendly and harmless enough, he took me around the school and taught me everything I needed to know about the Salon.
"It was while he was showing me around, that I saw Kirihara-kun -- "
His pause here took a little longer. Yukimura gently prompted, "What about Akaya?"
Yagyuu put on a distant smile and answered "Kirihara-kun...was undergoing that 'application process' I mentioned. I don't think I should say any more."
Yukimura nodded, didn't ask for details. "And then...?"
"Kirihara-kun said 'help me.' I stood outside myself then. I was looking at myself beating up the other boys who were...initiating him. And coughing like mad in-between punches.
"In the end, I won the fight. Marui-kun was telling me I shouldn't have interfered. But suddenly you appeared. Kirihara-kun was crying in my arms...
"I asked you if you had anything to do with what happened to Kirihara-kun. You said that was impossible, because you were looking out for him. But like everyone else, Kirihara-kun had to go through certain hardships to get what he wanted. It was the Salon way."
Yukimura continued to listen, face impassive. This was his brand of courtesy.
"After that incident, I wanted to protect Kirihara-kun, but it seemed I had to look after myself as well. There were traps and such laid out for me by the other Aces, who didn't want me to be accepted into the Salon, apparently, and were resentful of the attention that you" -- a respectful nod Yukimura's way -- "were overtly paying me. I suspected that my prime antagonist was Niou-kun, who was, in even in my dream, a manipulative trickster...
"Marui-kun had warned me that some members of the Salon were fighting among themselves for the highest seat of power, that of the 'Shiikugakari'. I asked what that meant, and he said I should ask you."
"What did I say?"
"You said it meant 'Mama.'"
Yukimura frowned. " 'Mama'?! That doesn't make sense..."
Yagyuu shrugged. "My dream-self didn't think so either."
Rikkai's captain folded his arms across his chest. "Things are only getting more interesting, though. Go on."
"The dream lasted months, you see, and it felt more real as I stayed longer in it. In that time, so many things happened. I endured more harrassment from the Salon and found out that the Shiikugakari was not an official title, but a designation for someone who had a mystical...power over everyone else. If you were the Shiikugakari, you could generate feelings of despair and enlightenment within another person. You could tell a person to feel better, and that person would. You could tell a person that he was worth nothing, and that person would believe it. That was what the Shiikugakari was, it was this power...
"But at the same time, the members of the Salon were treating it as an official title. The one whom the most frightening official, who was Sanada, preferred --" He stumbled a little over his words here. It was poor form, but he really couldn't help himself. "-- over everyone else was considered the Shiikugakari. And it took me some time to consider that it meant you -- and that was what made you the highest ranking Ace."
"What?!" Yukimura interrupted, eyes wide.
"Your being the highest-ranked Ace had less to do with your being an actual Shiikugakari, than with Sanada preferring you as his...partner. As it were."
Yukimura's hand flew up to his mouth and he suffered a rather violent coughing fit. Yagyuu quickly sat up to see what was wrong. But it turned out Yukimura had only choked halfway between laughter and an exclamation.
The Rikkaidai middle school tennis team's captain's face was turning a soft, delicate shade of red.
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry," he stammered as he regained control of his breathing. And normal face coloring. "I just didn't expect that."
If Yagyuu were a manga character, he would have sweatdropped. "I could stop talking now...I feel better, I swear..."
"No, no. Let's finish this." Yukimura bent forward and interlaced his fingers, rested them on his knees, like a delighted child. "I want to know what happens."
...All right. Yagyuu guessed he owed his only listener the end of the tale.
"The fact was, you were the only real Shiikugakari. The other ambitious Salon members didn't care about that. And they knew you planned to install me into the Salon so I could break down the internal workings; it turned out that my mysterious vendetta was with the entire Salon, I was out to destroy it.
"The Salon schemers plotted to take us both out -- though I found out later that Niou-kun wasn't actually the mastermind behind the plan to destroy you. It was Yanagi."
"Renji?!"
"And Marui-kun."
"What the -- "
"They both wanted power. Marui-kun simply wanted a position of prestige within the Salon, so he coordinated with Yanagi as a spy. He knew everything that was going on with me, and I confided in him some things about you too. He had completely fooled me into thinking he was an ally.
"Kirihara-kun had wanted to be in the Salon because he worshipped you. But he gave up when you told him he would never make it. When he announced to me that he was no longer applying for Salon membership, he told me 'Beware of Marui.' I didn't know what that meant until toward the end.
"On his part, Yanagi considered you the biggest obstacle in his quest to attain absolute power. In the process, Niou-kun, who was actually only jealous of you and Sanada, but innocent of most of the backbiting, somehow became implicated. And Yanagi took him out first."
"Damn," Yukimura remarked, breathless, as the psychodrama unfolded behind his open eyes.
Yagyuu brushed back the strands of hair that had fallen on his forehead, over his glasses. "I confess...I didn't know exactly what happened to Niou-kun. After a series of high-tension events, he simply -- disappeared. In my dream-world, it was as if he never existed. His name wasn't even mentioned anywhere.
"Then I got a note. It was in an envelope. A key came with the note. I was told to go to such-and-such a place within school grounds if I still wanted to see Niou-kun alive.
"I went to you and asked if you knew who could have sent me the note. You said you did, and you advised me not to go. I insisted, and you held on to my arm. You told me..."
Yagyuu stopped. He realized suddenly they might have problems going home if there weren't any taxis making the rounds in their area that night. No more buses were passing. The streets had become quiet. It had become much too late.
"Naa, Yukimura. We should be on our way home now..."
"I told you what?" Yukimura was looking steadily at Yagyuu, in that stolid "I'm the captain, you do as I say" manner that all the other Rikkai regulars knew to mean trouble.
Yagyuu had no choice but to answer.
"You told me that if I left, I would never see you again." He gave his sheepish, most charming smile. "That was what you said...but you could have forced me to stay if you'd said 'Hiroshi, tasukete' instead."
After hearing this, Yukimura was silent. He looked away from Yagyuu and seemed to drift into his thoughts again. Then he asked softly:
"And did you ever see me again?"
"No. I went to the address in the note. I heard someone approaching from behind me. That was when I woke up."
After he said this, Yagyuu waited for a response. For a long time, there was none.
Then Yukimura gathered up his things and stood. Yagyuu followed suit, worried that his captain was upset over something.
"Well, Yagyuu. Thank you for this amusing story." Yukimura said with a stiff formality that Yagyuu found unsettling. "I understand if it occupied you all day, because it was probably the most disturbing thing I've ever heard in my life."
Yagyuu's breath caught in his throat. He delivered a heartfelt "I'm sorry..."
But to his surprise, Yukimura chuckled.
"Don't be. It's good you got it all off your chest. But if you should still feel the need to stare at me again, and Sanada should catch you at it, don't worry. I'll handle him."
The pardoned one braved a small smile. "Thanks...Mama."
Yagyuu hadn't said this seriously, and appreciated it that Yukimura accepted it as a joke. Yukimura laughed again, more loudly this time.
"Yeah, you're all my overgrown babies." He started to walk off. Yagyuu walked beside him -- feeling much, much lighter.
"Yagyuu...I do have one bit of advice for you."
"What is it?"
"Start steering clear of your little sister's yaoi manga. They're probably corrupting your brain."
Yagyuu blinked. "How did you know I read my little sister's yaoi manga??"
"Hmm. I have mystical powers."
"Naa...it's just...I have to make sure she doesn't read the really sick stuff!"
"Right."
(THE END)
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MORE NOTES
As promised, here are the parallels I drew between the Rikkai brood and Rika the Breeder's boys:
Yukimura Seiichi = Osukawa Rika
=> Even if Yukimura strikes me as completely different from Rika, character-wise, he still has the whole "Mama" affair down pat. For the record, I really like this Yukimura in my head. He may seem physically weak, but is not whiny or wishy-washy in any respect. Plus, he rocks at tennis and owns Sanada's ass, how about that.
Yagyuu Hiroshi = Natsume Hiro
=> I was in a real dillemma over where to place him at the start, because he looks more like Miyamae than Renji does, and isn't quite as badass as the canon Natsume Hiro. But I spotted the name closeness -- Hiro vs Hiroshi. ...Superficial excuse, but it works.
Sanada Genichirou = Gil/Tokitome Akira
=> Alpha males. With a secret domination fetish. That's all I need to say.
Yanagi Renji = Miyamae Tomohiko
=> Yanagi strikes me as MUCH more loyal and compassionate then the cruel Miyamae. But we needed a no-eyes, coldly calculating character, and dear Renji fit the bill.
Niou Masaharu = Fujimaru Anji
=> I angsted for a full second about there not being anyone in the Rikkai team as flamboyantly gay as Fujimaru Anji. Then I remembered Niou and went holy hell, the boy looks scrumptious sassing it all over everybody else!
Marui Bunta = Tajima Maki
=> They look similar. I found it easy to give them the same role.
Kuwahara Jackal = Takahashi Yuuichi
=> The understated Ace. Jackal strikes me as easygoing but obedient, with a strong sense of fairness, much like Takahashi.
Kirihara Akaya = Hotaru
=> The baby. The passionate aspirant. The victim. Except for the "victim" part, the connecting lines should be clear. If Hotaru had Akaya's guts and destructive bent, he would probably not only have gotten into the Salon without hassle -- he might have wreaked more havoc in it than Miyamae/Renji ever could.