5

A swift zipping sound.

He pushed his bag in the locker with a fierce movement of his hand, then took a look at his watch.

His classes had ended earlier that usual. He still had to wait before the others's arrival.

He sat down on the bench, his shoulders down, his glasses reflecting the immaculate floor.

Even after having spent the whole night thinking, he still couldn't find a way to do what he had to do. He had thought about severals possibilities, but they all sounded a little rash, somehow. He wasn't the kind of person that would do something without giving it a second thought. Especially if the "something" felt important to him. Still, it was something that had to be done. And quick.

The door clicked open.

He instantly stood up, as if he had been waiting for the newcomer.

"Kaidoh."

The Year two slowly turned to him, his face carrying both anger and bitterness. No doubt he still had the memory of his match against Momoshiro in mind.

Somehow, he understood how he felt, afterall, he had always losed his matchs against Tezuka. And even though he had never shown it to anyone, he had felt that feeling, that feeling of extreme disappointment. The feeling someone would get after working hard on something and yet fail at it.

But there was something else in the other boy's eyes. Something like pain. And it suddenly seemed to him that Kaidoh was on the verge of crying.

No, he could never understand how the year-two was feeling at the moment. There had never been any kind of rivalry between him and Tezuka, simply because Tezuka had always been on a higher level. Rivalry could only exist between people who consider eachother as equal. He had never had the privilege to be acknowledged by Tezuka as a worthy rival. Unlike Kaidoh, he couldn't say he had lost against the very person he must never lose to.

He watched as the younger boy turned away to reach his locker.

"Kaidoh." he called again.

"What do you want, Inui-sempai?" was the Year-two answer.

"Would you like me to help you with your training?"

"You are already helping enough, Inui-sempai."

He adjusted his glasses, as his teammate kept rumaging in his sportbag.

"I meant, would you allow me to personally train you?" he corrected.

"No." came Kaidoh's instant reply.

He almost smiled.

It was just as he imagined it would be. Kaidoh hated to receive someone's help, mostly because he didn't want to owe anything to anyone, but also because he had a certain opinion of himself that he couldn't bear to see shattered. The guy was all about solo work, and it was already a miracle itself that he had accepted Inui's frequent advices for his training.

For the second time, Inui adjusted his glasses on his nose.

Well, he just had to force a miracle once again.

"That move you did yesterday..."

Kaidoh facevaulted, his brows furrowed in both curiousity and annoyance.

"...I can help you master it." Inui finished.

He watched as a flicker of surprise passed across the other boy's eyes.

What was coming next? He had no idea. He just waited there, as expectant as Kaidoh was frozen.

"Hello, you two." a distant voice greeted.

Either Fuji had purposedly made a soundless entrance, either he hadn't paid attention to the surrounding, for he didn't hear him push the door open. And judging from his caught-off-guard look, neither did Kaidoh.

His eyes met the Junior's.

The latter hissed in his typical snake-way.

5

He sat at the table, in the half deserted wide room. Most of the Year-ones were missing, for it was Wednesday and except those who had club activities in the afternoon, none of them ate at the School Canteen.

He took a glance at his far away tray. The food it carried didn't look bad, but he wouldn't eat it. He wasn't hungry, or rather, he was already busy with another activity.

He calmly flipped the pages of his green book, skipping many notes as he did so, as if looking for something in particular. He stopped as the name finally caught his eyes and rested his notebook on the table, getting himself ready to read the page's contents.

"Oi! Inui!" someone called from a far.

He raised his head just to see Eiji and Fuji walking to him.

He closed his book and waited for them to sat in front of him.

"We have been looking for you for a while." The red haired boy said. " 'Didn't know you eat there on Wednesday...why not bring a Bento and eat with us outta there?" He paused seeing the ever full tray. "Ehh, Onigiri! Can I have one?" he asked, pleading.

Inui motioned him to take as much as he wanted.

Fuji watched all this, amused and even when he turned to Inui never did his expression change.

"I hope we are not disturbing you." he said, taking a swift look at the green book.

"Not really." He answered, putting his notebook back in his bag. "So, what is it?"

"Well, we are going to the Game center this Sunday and we wondered if you would like to hang around."

"Myeah! I want to try Motor GP Tournament and it isn't fun when there are few people to play." Eiji put in while eating, making some rice grains escape from his mouth.

Inui shook his head.

The acrobatic player dropped his onigiri ball.

"Myaa? you can't...?!"

"I have some things to do." he said flatly, his translucent gaze unwavered.

"But, I thought you like those games. Besides, everyone is coming..."

He raised an eyebrow.

"Everyone?"

"Myeah. Even Tezuka is!" Eiji exclaimed.

"Hmm, not everyone. Kaidoh declined, remember?" Fuji pointed out.

The other player frowned, chewing.

"Oh yeah...I forgot." He answered, pouting a little.

"Well, I can't come either." Inui stated.

Fuji's eyes sharpened.

"Inui." he called, serious.

"Yes?"

"Do you have a date or something?"

His face remained impassive.

"Ehh?!" Kikumaru exclaimed. "That could explain it..." he thought out loud, giving Inui a curious glance.

The data specialist shook his head.

Fuji's smile reappeared on his face.

"Hn. It can't be helped then." he stood up "Later."

"Hmm, that was good. Thanks a lot and see you!"

He nodded to them as they both left his table.

He liked to hang in the Game Center from time to time, after school, sometimes during week-end or holidays. But this very Sunday, he simply couldn't. Because this Sunday he was to meet Kaidoh, and train with him. Or rather, train him.

He sighed as his glasses reflected his notebook.

He still had the training menu to do. It was the most troublesome part of a training, but it also was the most important one.

He opened his book again, searching for Kaidoh's data.

Three pages of scribblings regarding the Year two's physical form, techniques and matchs. It was little, compared to the twenty pages he had written on Tezuka or the thirteen he had written on Fuji. But he would certainly get to increase this poor number during the upcoming weeks.

This time for sure, he would make the best out of them.

5

00:20:57

He lowered his arm to rest it on his knee. Then he stood up and proceed to walk around, so his muscles wouldn't cool down.

The place was very much secluded. There weren't even five people, and each of them seemed ready to leave. Just an old man dressed in a business way carrying a small wallet, a young boy around eleven years old and a young woman packing back the rest of their pique-nique.

He kept walking, here and there on his toes, to work on his heels at the same time.

00:25:33

He stopped under the tree where his sportsbag remained. He picked up a white fabric and started to clean his glasses.

The old man was gone. The young woman and the boy were already far away, on the road. He was very alone at that moment, until sound of footsteps started to echoe in the liveless place.

He picked up a towel and handed it to the newcomer.

"Huh, thank you." the person simply said.

"Twenty-six minutes and seventeen seconds." he spoke out loud "You have improved a lot since last time."

The other boy remained silent, still wiping the sweat away from his face.

He took out a notebook: it's cover was orange-yellow and had "K.K. Program" written on it in handwritten characters. On the side, a black pencil was hanging, securely attached with an orange strap.

"So, where did we stop last time..." he mumbled, opening the book.

His companion had already started his stretching exercices. He bent down, his hands reaching for the ground, while his legs remained perfectly still. After remaining like this for some good five minutes, he sat down, pushing his upper body forward until his hands caught his feet.

Inui watched this closely as he went through the filled pages of the book, and it seemed that he was reading with his fingers.

"Next are push-ups." he announced finally, after a silent while.

The other boy didn't bother answering.

Both kneeled on the ground and started to count in their head.

The first one to stop was Inui. He zipped his bag closed and quietly left the place. A minute later, the Junior was following him. Quite quickly, they stepped in the local Tennis court. It wasn't the best court of the region at all: the wire fences were brownish-grey, which clearly indicated that it hadn't been renovated for years. The ground surely once shining green was all yellow, burn through the months of heavy heat. The white lines had disappeared and the net was all over covered with variously shaped holes.

"Let's get started." he said, laying his bag on the desiccated ground.

"Inui-sempai, I didn't bring a racket."

He paused and turned to face his companion.

"Who said you needed one?"

Kaidoh's features hardened with incomprehension.

"What is this about?" he asked, trying to contain his annoyance.

Inui barely reacted at the tone of his voice. Even after two weeks of common practice the boy wasn't entirely happy about the choice he had made. From time to time, he would get angry, on the verge of exploding. Inui was perfectly aware of his uncertaincies and inner struggle. Afterall, Kaidoh wasn't keen on pairing up with someone, even if it was for his own benefits...which Inui still had to prove.

"I'm going to serve and you will have to catch the balls with bare hands. I'll gradually increase the speed and the power of the ball, so it would be better if you watch closely." Inui said, moving away.

"Ssss..." was the reply he got.

By the time he reached the other side of the court Kaidoh was already waiting for him to serve.

The ball was sent quite vigourously to the Year two's part of the court, it hit the ground and bounced towards the wire-fence which it embraced without much trouble.

Inui lowered his racket, watching Kaidoh's stretched arm. His hands had came a quarter of a second later and totally missed the yellow projectile. But his missing wasn't only because of bad timing, it was also because of the imprecision of his movements. There seemed to be few coordination between his elbow and his hand, which was quite understandable: with a racket in he didn't really have to bother about catching the ball, but barehanded, he had to make sure his hand would be on the right trajectory at the right Time.

His mouth curved a little.

This sure was the best way for Kaidoh to work on his speed and on his reflexes at the same time, not to mention his capacity of anticipation.

He caught the ball that was thrown to him and readied himself to serve.

Somehow, this was going to be fun.