Prolonged Madness
When his body fails him and he's kneeling on the ground, staring at the back of his eyelids as the red and silver fireworks explode and his fingers explore the joint of his shoulder with a hesitance born of an old pain, Echizen is always there.
He should have come to have expected it by now, he's not only tennis, but it always surprises him into opening his eyes when that voice hovers in the air. He knows that one of the symptoms of madness is the inability to recognize patterns, and wonders what that means while at the same time blacking off the most logical reasoning.
But then again, it may just be that he wants to see that face, shadowed by a white ball cap, hovering in front of his shaky gaze as he rises and forces his hand away from his shoulder.
This is the face that says: You will not loose to anything less than me.
Another symptum of madness is seeing things that aren't there. That is why he starts to truely question his sanity when he sees a photo of himself tucked away in Ryoma's locker. The fact that this only enforces the logical thought of before is discarded as coincidence.
However, he may have seen it only because Echizen wanted him to see it, and in that case it may not have been so wise to make sure all his photos and clippings of Echizen Ryoma at home in a box under his desk.
A sudden attachment to something so insignificant as this rookie is only further proof of his madness. As does the movement he finally makes, catching Ryoma under the chin and kissing him on the lips, swift like all his movements.
And he realizes, far too late, that the logical path had been the right one all along and the real madness had been not noticing it untill now.
Because Echizen Ryoma kissed back.