Title: Yamato-buchou
Fandom: The Prince of Tennis
Pairing(s): None
Rating: G
Warning: Spoilers for manga volume 17 (Hyotei arc)
Disclaimer: I do not own The Prince of Tennis or any of its characters. The Prince of Tennis belongs to Konomi-sensei. This is a non-profit fanfiction written by a fan, for the enjoyment of other fans.
Note: Inspired by a remark made by Shiy about Tezuka worshipping The Yamato. XD Some of the conversations were translated from chapter 147, volume 17 of the manga.
"I hope you can become the pillar of the Seigaku Tennis Club."
For a twelve-year-old Tezuka, tennis was his life. There was no hesitation about which club to join when he entered Seigaku. Unlike the other students who waited for the fair held a week or two into the term, where the various clubs and societies set up booths to promote their activities, to decide which club they would eventually join, after class was over on the first day of school, Tezuka walked to the staff room and handed in his registration form to join the tennis club. In fact, Tezuka had joined Seigaku because of the reputation of its tennis club.
The captain of the tennis club at the time was a tall and lanky lad called Yamato Yuudai. As a member of the club and having been brought up to be a well-mannered child, Tezuka naturally treated Yamato with the polite respect he considered due to his captain.
However, seniority wasn't something that would stop Tezuka from forming judgements of others in his head. And what he observed of Yamato's tennis play hardly impressed him. Tezuka was of the opinion that Yamato was far too laidback. It was the way he didn't seem to care too much about the results of the game, the way he dismissed wrongdoings merely by making the wrongdoers run ten or twenty laps around the courts - which was almost as easy as drinking water for the Seigaku tennis club members who were used to running laps - that made Tezuka feel dissatisfied. For someone like Tezuka who not only had high expectations of himself, but also of the club he joined and its captain, Yamato fell well under his expectations.
In one of the practice matches a few weeks after the start of school, Tezuka played against Yamato. On that spring day where sakura petals gathered at the bottom of their mother trees, a first year member defeated the captain of the tennis club.
Yamato had walked over to the net after pausing on the spot for a while to catch his breath. Holding his hand above the net to his opponent standing on the other side, Yamato said lightly as Tezuka took his hand, "Good game".
"Doumo." It was more or less the kind of reaction he had expected, Tezuka thought as he nodded a small bow. There was no agitation, no sign of upset... no sign of passion for winning.
Tezuka lifted his head from the bow, raising his gaze to Yamato's face, looking at it closely for the first time since their match began. And it was at that moment that a realisation struck him. He saw on Yamato's face, a small smile that was reflected in his eyes. It was a silent display of happiness. But there was no frivolity in that smile; there was only seriousness.
Tezuka was a person who admired people who were passionate about winning and would give it their all to do so. He had realised while playing with Yamato that it wasn't that he didn't try to win, he just didn't seem too concerned when he lost, which Tezuka didn't like all the same. But now, Tezuka realised, perhaps it wasn't that Yamato wasn't concerned about his loss, but something else that Tezuka couldn't quite comprehend.
"Tennis is a game," Yamato had spoken again suddenly as they stood connected by their handshake. "You try to win. But if you can't, it was another enjoying experience. The game continues and you try again."
Tezuka realised that he couldn't remember the last time he had lost. Perhaps his mind simply didn't want to remember.
The next day was the day Tezuka almost gave up on the tennis club. The presence of jealousy was something that couldn't be helped, but he had never expected that anyone would resort to violence to deal with it. Just the evening before, he had mentally decided to take up the challenge to bring this club that had never made it past the Kantou tournaments into the Nationals. But the behaviour of his seniors deeply disappointed him. He did not feel the hurt in his arm as much as he felt repulsed and disappointed by the incident. If that was how it worked in the club, if such thoughtless actions could be so easily executed, he didn't want to have anything to do with such a club. Tezuka, with his high expectations of himself and his club, would not tolerate staying, not to mention, leading a club like this.
The declaration of his decision to leave the club had barely settled into the heads of the rest of the onlookers when Yamato's voice resounded across the courts, ordering everyone to run a hundred laps. It was the largest number of laps ordered to date. Tezuka was included, much to his frustration - all he wanted to do was to get away from this revolting club and its members. Although his impression of Yamato had improved from the day before, Tezuka was too furious to think twice about cursing him mentally as he ran, trying to rid the agitation through the energy expensed in the run.
It was Oishi who broke this mindless activity by abruptly standing in Tezuka's way, telling him that he shouldn't quit, that he would quit with Tezuka if he really did.
"Your friend says he wants to quit the tennis club for you." Yamato had sauntered up at that point, stepping into Oishi's monologue.
"As the captain, I haven't accomplished anything great, and even lost to you yesterday." Yamato gave a light, somewhat sheepish laugh.
It was totally Yamato's style. The relaxed tone and the light laugh got on Tezuka's nerves, even though he had became aware the day before that there was more behind the apparent nonchalance.
"But..." Yamato's tone took on a seriousness that Tezuka had never heard from him. "I have not for a moment given up on the dream of playing into the Nationals."
It was a similar seriousness as that in Yamato's smile the day before. It was the kind of seriousness Tezuka expected from a captain.
"Tezuka, I hope you can become the pillar of the Seigaku Tennis Club."
He had questioned how suitable Yamato was for the position of captain when he first joined. But Tezuka now knew that though they didn't display it the same way, they were both after the same dream; they were both fighting with the same fervour. It was upon contemplation after he had calmed down that the harshness of the hundred laps seeped into his head, and he realised that the number of laps that Yamato usually ordered were not as much due to leniency as to fit the seriousness of the "offence".
Because of his new realisations about the captain, as well as Oishi's vow to quit with him, Tezuka decided to reconsider his decision to quit the club.
The senior who had injured him later apologised for his actions. And though it didn't change how Tezuka felt about the incident, it gave Tezuka a little more confidence about how the club was run.
But above all, it was that sentence of Yamato's that remained in Tezuka's head - that sentence reflecting expectations as high as his own. They were expectations of Tezuka himself, and expectations of the tennis club... expectations that Tezuka decided that he did not intend to fail.
Date started: 6 March 2005, 5:59pm
Date completed: 6 March 2005, 8:19pm
Last edited: 9 March 2005, 7:11pm