Author's Note: Written for the 30characters challenge on LJ. This is where I subtly push you in that direction to join in the fun.


Nobody says "It was a good match" or "We did the best we could" because even if it's true, none of that is any consolation for losing. To have come so far only to fail...nothing will make them feel better after that. They lost; they shouldn't feel good about it.

Yukimura looks not so much miserable as blank, a strange look for someone who is many things, but rarely dull and emotionless. Kirihara is talking to fill the space (he didn't even get to play, but he still feels guilty), but the captain doesn't seem to be paying attention, only nodding from time to time. "Buchou?" Kirihara asks after a while, sounding childish in his worry. Yanagi puts a hand on his shoulder to hold him back, and Yukimura keeps walking as though he didn't even hear.

Sanada won, and Yanagi, and even if both doubles pairs lost, Yukimura carries this defeat on his shoulders. He is the captain and he's supposed to be the strongest player on the team, but he failed and he's not about to forgive himself for it. He worked hard to be prepared for Nationals, harder than he'd ever worked before, but he lost all the same, so he must not have worked hard enough. He has no one to blame for that but himself.

Nobody says "You played amazingly well after missing so much practice time" or "Any of us would have struggled against Tezuka" or even "Against anyone else, you would have won" because it won't change the fact that the invincible Rikkai team has fallen just when a victory would have meant more than anything. It's not the end of the world, and they're all smart enough to know that, but that doesn't mean it doesn't feel like it.