Whatever Sempai Says
A Prince of Tennis fan fiction
You could say that Kaidoh liked tennis, in the same sense you could say Kaidoh liked a lot of shichimi with his udon, or the way he liked running around town to perform training bordering to the hellish, and in the same way that he secretly adored cute animals like cats. Kaidoh was good in tennis, enjoyed it, went overboard with it when it came to his training, and could be stopped by only the words of a sempai.
"If you keep on doing that you'll be gone in a year."
His Inui-sempai may be the freakiest, most unpredictable sempai he had (even how Fuji-sempai will act next was easier to guess), but he knew what he was saying when it came to his data. So Kaidoh followed his instructions, succeeding by sheer will not to exceed his regimen by much. There were even times that he felt he could trust Inui, just as long as he didn't hold a glass of his latest concoction in hand.
When his sempai spoke his words were clear, precise, devoid of any hidden meanings. What he said was often reasonable though he'd been known to say some pretty unreasonable things. Spoken in a voice like that everything was all right. But last weekend...what did he mean by that?
"It's a date - I'll be waiting."
That freaked him out. In all the times he's been with his sempai he hadn't noticed any sign Inui-sempai had been attracted to him that way. So Inui-sempai had been the one to ask him to play doubles tennis, but that wasn't because of attraction, was it? That was only to perfect the Boomerang Snake. He spent the whole weekend running, trying to think up of reasons why, until he gave up out of sheer frustration and exhaustion. He inadvertently did thrice his standard training load, meaning he did nine times what the others do.
And not one iota closer to figuring out what Inui-sempai had meant.
It was only during Monday's morning practice that he learned what that had meant.
"Hoi, Kaidoh, you should've been there! Momo lost a match and a date!" was how Kikumaru greeted him, in the middle of a somersault.
So it was Momoshiro Inui-sempai was talking about. For the first time since Saturday Kaidoh could feel relax.
"It wasn't a date! How many times do I need to say that, sempai!"
"There's nothing wrong with it, Momoshiro," Fuji teased, joining the fun. Momoshiro was the color of chalk, and the angelic smile on Fuji's lips hid his evil intent. "You're a growing young man...we all know that."
"But Ochibi was sneaky to use Momo's and Kamio's feelings that way." How did Echizen use the other two's feelings? He was getting more and more confused.
"Why didn't you go there, Kaidoh? Did you get lost?" was Oishi's inquiry. He couldn't look at anyone, and just muttered, "Fsssh."
"I'm sure Inui's words scared him off! Date! Date! Nyaa! It wasn't a love square, it was a love hexagon, because Momo and Kaidoh love each other, right?"
"Fsssh," he hissed, not finding it funny.
"Pentagon, Eiji - because there's only five of them. Unless you count - " And Fuji mouthed something that suspiciously looked like 'Inui', except by this time Kaidoh had resorted to heaping all the blame in Momo's plate and was grabbing the other's shirt.
"You dunk idiot and your dates!"
"Stupid Mamushi! Not my fault if you missed your 'date' with Inui-sempai!"
"OMAE - "
"Twenty laps for disturbing the peace." Tezuka-buchou loomed ominously beside them. Beside him Inui was regretfully tucking away his green notebook, missing yet another chance to collect some good data. Kaidoh stiffened when he saw Inui, and dashed off to complete the twenty laps with Momo trailing behind.
He'd suffered ribbing along with Momoshiro, and it took a while before he could look at his sempai to his face. And when he did the older boy was looking at him with an expression that Kaidoh found very scary. It was the same look Inui gave to a potential victim of his infamous penal teas, and it made Kaidoh scamper off for a match with the idiot, giving more fuel to Kikumaru's and Fuji's teasing. That tided him over until practice was over, and he was all of a sudden face to face with his sempai.
"Kaidoh," Inui-sempai said, his voice unexpectedly soft. "I have to speak to you about your training."
Training. That was his best excuse to have Kaidoh all by himself. Sometimes Inui thought he was taking advantage of the sempai-kohai relationship too much, but with Kaidoh he had to resort to these things. Kaidoh was not an easy one to casually invite to talk. The probability of his refusing a talk concerning training was 7.3 percent, and came infinestimally close to zero when Inui was talking.
Too bad he had not caught the whole exchange when Kikumaru and Fuji were teasing their kohai - Kaidoh's reaction had been nothing but interesting, and Inui wanted to know if it meant anything.
He got changed, perhaps lingering a little longer than he often did on his appearance. There was a 99.3 probability of Kaidoh staying, even if it had meant being late for his first period class. He pushed up his glasses, wondering.
"I have thought of some new ways to improve your accuracy with the Boomerang Snake. I would have told you this last weekend, but you didn't come to our 'date.' " he watched as color rose on his kohai's cheeks.
"I was wrong about that, sempai."
"Did the word 'date' make you hesitate?"
Kaidoh did not look at him. "Whatever sempai says is law."
"Ah." How much one syllable could reveal and not reveal. He probed further. "So if Fuji or Oishi said the same thing, it's all right?"
Just about the time Inui thought he wasn't going to reply he heard a low voice say, "No, sempai." Relief. It was also euphoria, a feeling he got when something he did was successful, but this time more intense, more invigorating.
"That would be for your own good. I don't want to know what Eiji or Tezuka would do to you." Inui sounded like he recovered his assurance from Kaidoh's reply.
"Sempai, that is, whatever Inui-sempai says...but if it was Fuji-sempai or the vice-captain, I wouldn't have to think over why they'd say it that way, I'll just go. Because Fuji-sempai and the vice-captain, they're both--"
"Hm?" Inui was surprised when his notebook was pulled away and looked down at Kaidoh. The other boy's intense stare chased away all coherent thought in his analytical brain. "They're both what?"
Everything was still in the empty clubroom for a moment, and Inui dropped his pen and notebook in surprise. Kaidoh was out of the door faster than Inui can say, "what?"
Inui ran a fingertip over his lips, wondering if it had just been his imagination or if Kaidoh had really kissed him and whispered those words --
"They're not you, sempai."
Inui liked Kaidoh, in the same way he liked to concoct juices to improve the regulars' health, or the way he liked spying - no, collecting - the minutiae of detail of everyone's data, or the way he enjoyed physics, but there was more to his interest of Kaidoh than any of these. And no matter how he analyzed or wondered about it, he never could get a satisfactory answer.
"Whatever I say, hm?"
-end Whatever sempai says-
Ooooh, the joys of InuKai is so overwhelming.