When Yuuta woke again, it was early morning. His alarm hadn't gone off yet, but sunlight was coming in the window, refusing to let him sleep in peace. He saw that Syuusuke was already up and half dressed, pulling on his shirt.
"What time is it?" he mumbled, stifling a yawn.
"6:15," Syuusuke said, rather too loudly for such an ungodly hour. "Sorry if I woke you up."
"Why are you awake?" Yuuta groaned, rubbing his eyes.
"I have morning practice," Syuusuke explained. He was wearing his usual slight smile, as though there was nothing unusual about him being in his little brother's dorm room.
"And you're going?" Yuuta asked, surprised. It was early, and he didn't have it in him to understand his brother's denial, or whatever this behavior was. He didn't think he would understand it even in a more coherent state.
"Yeah," Syuusuke said, still cheerful. His left hand lingered on the opposite wrist for a moment as he buttoned the cuff, but Yuuta pretended not to notice. Syuusuke pulled on his jacket and buttoned it quickly, then sat down to tie his shoes.
"Aniki," Yuuta started. He wasn't sure what he was going to say, but it seemed like he should say something.
"It's all right, Yuuta," Syuusuke said reassuringly. "Don't worry so much."
You'd do the same if it was me, Yuuta thought. More, even. By now you'd probably have found whoever was responsible and made them sorry. The idea sounded good, but he wasn't as sure about it as he would have once been. Now he couldn't help thinking that maybe, off the tennis courts, his brother wasn't as strong as he had always believed.
"Thanks for letting me stay," Syuusuke added, standing and picking up his bag. "See you."
"Bye," Yuuta said. When the door closed, he let his head fall back onto the pillow. Why couldn't this have all just been a dream?
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All through the day, Yuuta was distracted. He did miserably on a math quiz he'd completely forgotten about, and got reprimanded in English class when he didn't even hear the teacher ask him a question, let alone understand what she said. His mind was running through theories, each less likely than the last, of what could have happened to his brother.
If Syuusuke had been mugged or otherwise randomly attacked, he would have just said so. He also probably would have been more obviously and badly injured, and he would have gone to a friend instead of burdening his little brother. If he'd made a classmate or someone else he knew angry somehow (a joke gone too far, perhaps, or maybe even a tennis game), he would most likely have still confided in a friend. Besides, Yuuta couldn't imagine why a little fight over something stupid would have left him looking so shaken.
That left the most plausible and also the most disturbing option: the person who had hurt Syuusuke was a friend of his. It would have to be someone who had a lot of friends in common with him so there would be no friend he could tell who didn't have a conflict of interest, which probably meant someone on the tennis team. Yuuta knew Eiji wouldn't have done it (and not just because he couldn't beat Syuusuke up if he tried), but he didn't know any of the others well enough to judge whether they were capable of something like this. He just found it hard to believe that a friend could have hurt Syuusuke. He'd had his share of moments when he'd hated his brother, but it was beyond him what Syuusuke could have done to make a good friend angry enough to attack him.
When classes finished for the day, Yuuta decided he couldn't stand any more of this uncertainty. He asked Mizuki to give his excuse (something vague about a family emergency) to the coach and skipped out on tennis practice, running to catch the next bus toward Seigaku.
By the time he reached the other school, their practice was already underway. He located Syuusuke on one of the courts, playing a match against the vice captain. He wasn't sure if he wanted to talk to his brother, and he didn't want to interrupt practice anyway, so he stood outside the fence to watch. After a few minutes, someone came to stand beside him. Yuuta took in the glasses and spiky hair and recognized Seigaku's manager, although he couldn't recall his name.
"You're Fuji's little brother." It wasn't a question, and Yuuta was too worried to bother being angry, so he said nothing. "Inui," the other boy introduced himself. Yuuta nodded in acknowledgement, not taking his eyes off the court. He flinched at the gruff shout of "Out!"; it wasn't like Syuusuke to make unforced errors.
They stood in silence for a few minutes before Inui asked with no preamble, "What's wrong with your brother?"
"W-what?" Yuuta stammered. Was it really so obvious? He didn't think so, but Inui was definitely the type to notice even the slightest sign.
Inui turned to look at him, his expression unreadable behind the thick glasses. "Fuji ran laps 20 more slowly than usual today," he said, as though reading from a book. "I estimate that two-thirds of this is due to a lack of sleep and the other third is the result of some injury, which must have occurred between the end of yesterday's practice and the start of this morning's practice.
"In addition, he is currently losing his match to Oishi. The chances of him losing to Oishi when in good condition are approximately 1 in 7300. Even injured, if he is still well enough to play, he should be winning. Therefore, I assume he is suffering mentally as well as physically and is thus unable to concentrate properly." He paused to let the information sink in, and Yuuta had to admit that he was impressed. Inui was at least as good at collecting data as Mizuki, and he definitely had a better handle on Syuusuke than St. Rudolph's data player.
"In the three years I've been in the tennis club," Inui continued, "I have never once seen you at practice, so the chances of your appearance being a coincidence are infinitesimal, and I must conclude that you know what's wrong and are here because you're worried. So I ask again, what's wrong?"
There was no point in saying nothing was the matter when Inui so clearly had the situation figured out. "I don't know," Yuuta admitted.
"Fuji-kun..." Inui chided.
"He wouldn't tell me," Yuuta clarified. "He came by to see me last night and he was upset, but he wouldn't say why."
"I see," Inui said thoughtfully. "Tell me what happened."
Yuuta wasn't sure his brother would appreciate him telling, but maybe Inui would be able to help him figure out what had happened. "He got to my dorm at about eight o'clock. He was still in his uniform, so I assume he didn't go home after practice. He..." He didn't want to say 'He looked scared'. He didn't really want to say anything, but he needed the help of someone who knew Syuusuke's teammates, and who knew them better than Inui? "He was holding his wrist like it hurt," he continued, demonstrating with his own hands. "I think he was hurt more than that, but I couldn't tell."
"And he wouldn't say how he'd been injured?" Inui asked.
Yuuta shook his head. "I think maybe..." He hesitated. He doubted after all this that Inui was the one responsible, but he didn't want to place the blame on anyone Inui knew. Still, if it would help, he had to say everything. "I think maybe the person who hurt him was someone he knew. A friend, I mean. He wouldn't have come to me otherwise."
Inui looked at him with the same calculating expression he'd been wearing throughout the conversation. He seemed to be considering what to say next when someone walked up next to him. Yuuta recognized Tezuka, Seigaku's captain. The solemn boy nodded by way of greeting to both of them, not showing any surprise at Yuuta's presence. He stood silently and watched the match with them for a minute.
"Fuji isn't playing his best today," he commented obliquely as Syuusuke ran for and missed one of Oishi's Moon Volleys. Inui nodded. "Do you know why?" Tezuka asked.
"Not yet," Inui said.
"Find out," Tezuka said. His voice was soft, but it still sounded like a command. Inui gave another nod, and Tezuka returned to the courts, leaving Yuuta wondering at Seigaku's strange captain. He was comforted at least by the confirmation that Tezuka wasn't the one responsible; something would have had to be very wrong with the world for him to hurt any of his teammates.
"It couldn't be Kikumaru," Inui mused aloud. "Echizen couldn't hurt him either. I know it wasn't me or Tezuka. Oishi wouldn't hurt a fly unless it tried to harm his friends, and Fuji wouldn't do that. That leaves Kawamura, Momoshiro and Kaidoh, all of who are strong enough to hurt Fuji and might do so with enough provocation. That is, assuming it's someone on the tennis team, which seems reasonable given your assessment."
Yuuta nodded, trying to process everything Inui had said. If he remembered correctly, Kawamura was the one whose parents owned a sushi shop. He was mild-mannered without a tennis racket in his hands, and he seemed to get along well with Syuusuke. Yuuta found it hard to imagine him hurting anyone, even in one of his crazy moods. The two second years he didn't know anything about beyond their special shots, so he would have to trust Inui's judgment. There was, as much as it irked him to admit it, not much more he could do.
"Thank you for your help, Fuji-kun," Inui said. "I'll let you know what I find out." He seemed confident that he would find something, which was a comfort. "Now," he continued, "If you don't want to talk to your brother, I suggest you leave now. I estimate he will win his match in approximately three minutes."
Startled, Yuuta looked back at the court. He heard the call, "Five games to three. Fuji leads." It seemed that while they were talking, Syuusuke had gotten hold of himself and started playing closer to his usual level, which must mean that he was doing all right. Yuuta had meant to talk to his brother originally, but now he didn't know what to say, so he turned and left. From the edge of the tennis courts, he heard "Thirty-love!" and he smiled and felt a little better.