Inui's Loveless Life
Disclaimer: I do not own Prince of Tennis.
Love. A strong affection for another (taken from the Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary). Something he didn't feel. Afterall, love was illogical, unpredictable, and Inui Sadaharu did not like illogical and unpredictable things. He liked to be in control of himself and was always rational. Love was not rational. Inui did not like irrationality.
Love in tennis meant zero. That meant how much love meant; it was nothing. Inui did not understand why all his fellow Regulars, except for Oishi and Taka. Even Tezuka, the Ice King, had fallen in love with a girl.
To Inui, love was worthless. He cared only about gathering data and rational things. Love was not something that was needed in life.
Love did not exist in Inui's life. It was a weakness, something that made people lose their common sense. For example, Echizen. After he had gotten together with Ryuzaki in high school, every time a boy would come near his girlfriend, he would become more vicious and deadly with his tennis, losing control of his feelings. Then, Oishi. While he wasn't married nor involved in any female relationships at the moment (a wise choice in Inui's opinion), in high school, after Yukina rejected him, he had shut himself from the world and his tennis had slipped. All because of love.
Inui would not be like that. He would not let something like love make him weak. Afterall, it had, once in middle school. The only thing was that no one had known about it. His first love and weakness.
Her name was Hikari. Todema Hikari. She had been his Chemistry partner and an incredibly talented violin player. Inui remembered vividly that she had been a kind and quiet person, speaking rarely. Like him, she had worn glasses as well, though hers had been oval and did not hide the color of her eyes; they had been brown.
Not only had Hikari been smart, she also had been quite the athlete. In tennis, she was an even match for Inui and was one of the star players on the girl's tennis, basketball, and soccer team, despite being only a first year. She had always believed in fair play, something Inui had learned to always have after she died.
Inui, after getting to know her better and better, had started to have feelings for Hikari. However, one night, one rainy, lonely night, Hikari died in a car accident. Gone. Like that.
After her death, Inui had been devastated, however much he had not shown it. The next day, he had been planning to confess to Hikari, but instead, she had died.
It was at that point when Inui stopped believing in love. Love would only lead to tragedy and death. It was a weakness, one that impeded people. Love was worthless.
Even now, Inui still thought like that. He did not think based on emotions. He thought based on facts and his precious data. To him, love was just a word in the dictionary and a term in tennis meaning zero. Nothing. Exactly what love was worth.
Yet sometimes, just sometimes, Inui wondered what it would be like to fall in love again. To feel the yearning to have that special person to be next to you, smiling warmly at you. But always, he would chase that wistful, weak-as-a-wisp-of-a-cloud thought away with Hikari's memory and reality. Love did not exist in the real world.