Evidentual
Stage Three: Premise
Disclaimer: Tennis no Ohjisama no anime and manga © 2001 Konomi Takeshi. Evidentual © Kitori Chiharu.
Rating: PG
Summery: 19 year old collage sophomore Kevin Smith re-encounters Ryoma Echizen; this time, the latter in a form of the rising tennis star of the world.

Echizen paused, scanning the girl over. Her arm warmers and fishnets immediately gave her away as another Otaku. "Yes. Who are you?"

"Can I have your autograph!" She squealed, nearly deafening Kevin.

The Japanese tennis player nodded, patting the back pockets of his jeans. "Do you have paper and something to write with?"

"Yes!" The girl cheered, digging through her purse before pulling out a pen as some loose-leaf paper fell out. She shoved towards Ryoma's general direction, eyeing the scrap paper that fell on the ground.

"I'll get it." Kevin offered; the girl was wearing a skirt anyway. He didn't want random girls to be flashing at Ryoma. The blonde paused when he read the writing on the paper, handing it back to the girl. They were tennis strategies and some notes. "Do you play tennis?"

"I love tennis!" She grinned. "I used to be on the school tennis team too!"

"For your high school team?"

"What?" She blinked. "No! I'm in college!"

Kevin and Ryoma turned around, exchanging looks. The girl wasn't as convincing as she sounded, seeing that she was at least two heads shorter than both of them. The oldest she could probably be was a freshman in high school.

"No." The blonde grinned. "Where do you go to school."

"UCA!" She declared, holding onto the signature Echizen had just returned to her. "I'm 23! I'm a junior!"

Kevin choked.

Ryoma grinned slightly, giving the other boy a hard pat on the back. "You're older than us, then."

"You're one of my upperclassmen?" The American boy eyed her suspiciously. "How come I've never seen you on campus before?"

"Well." She shrugged. "I'm not exactly tall, you know." She paused. "Oh, I'm late for my bus!"

Before either boy could speak up, she ran towards the other direction of the bus stop.

Ryoma paused. "You didn't even ask for her name."

Kevin blinked. "I didn't think it was important. Besides, I'll see her again." He paused. "If she wasn't lying, that is."

The Japanese boy shrugged. "We should be heading back; the tour bus is leaving anytime soon. Considering the fact that I have no clue where we are, we might not want to miss it."

Kevin shrugged, following the other boy as they went back to the tourist group. They sat silently on the ride back, slightly contemplative. For the first time, Kevin realized that Ryoma probably had many fans; he was a celebrity. Was the gap between the two of them so much greater now?

"Hey."

Kevin looked up.

"This should be our stop. I think the tennis court is close by." Echizen declared, peering out the window as he stood up. "They still have our tennis stuff."

The blonde nodded, following him off the bus as they head back towards the tennis courts. The court owner greeted them cheerfully, offering compliments to Ryoma while Kevin watched idly. After seemingly forever, he finally offered them their tennis bags back.

The sun was setting by the time they left the courts. Kevin swung his bag over his back, ready to head home before Ryoma finally spoke up. "Hey!"

Kevin turned around, blinking as he caught something thrown his way.

Standing in front the bronze sky of setting sun, Ryoma gave him a shrug. "Come to my game tomorrow." Then he was gone.

The blonde paused, looking down into his hands. It was two tickets tied together with a rubber band for added weight.


"So, how was your date with Ryoma Echizen last night?" Samantha declared, taking a seat on the kitten counter.

Kevin nearly hit his head on the top of the cabinet door as he searched for something to eat. Turning around, he stared at his cousin. "Wait. What?"

"Why did you crash here last night?" The girl grinned cheekily.

"The tennis court and stadium is at least an hour closer if I stay here." Kevin shrugged, opening the refrigerator. "I got back pretty late last night." He paused. "He gave me two tickets to his game today."

"Too bad we already have reserved seats for the entire season." Samantha randomly pulled off a piece of lint from her nightgown.

"I guess he didn't know that." The boy sighed, taking out a loaf of bread and a bar of cream cheese.

"You like him." Samantha pointed out plainly.

"I probably do." Kevin shrugged, pulling out a plastic knife as he spread the cream cheese over a piece of the bread. His attraction towards the Japanese boy had always been something related to rivalry. Now that he was no longer playing tennis, Kevin was still obsessed with him. He just didn't understand.

"Does he know that you like guys?"

Kevin paused, throwing the rest of the bread back into the refrigerator. In reality, he didn't actually like guys. He prefers girls over guys, but he didn't see anything wrong to being attracted to men either. "He probably doesn't. Why are you asking me this stuff?"

"Oh, I don't know." Samantha shrugged, kicking her feet around. "I'm worried about your love life. It's so… Well, non-existent."

"I like it that way." Kevin replied gingerly, taking a bite out of his bread as he poured himself a cup of milk. "I don't need him to know that much about me."

"Don't be so bitter." The girl frowned. "He probably likes you more than you think. Guys are just ignorant like that. How do you that he's not interested in men?"

"Well, it's assumed upon first meeting that someone is straight."

"That's stupid." She wrinkled her nose. "You weren't always bisexual either. There's nothing wrong with it."

"But it'd be so awkward." Kevin frowned.

"Wow, you really like him." Samantha paused. "Or else you wouldn't be so concerned about what you think. I mean, heck, why wouldn't you just sleep with him and decide whether he likes you or not afterwards?"

"I'm not you, Sammy."

"Okay, you're starting to annoy me now." The girl declared, pushing herself off the counter. "Just go and watch him play. I'll give your ticket to someone else, Kay?"

"Right." Kevin looked up from his milk.

"Oh, also." Samantha turned around as she headed out. "Don't be so shy around him! It's silly!"


"Hey, you!" Chelsea waved towards Kevin. "Sit over here!"

The blonde paused, looking around to make sure that the girl was talking to him before he walked towards her. "This is the VIP booth."

"I know it is." Echizen's manager blinked at him. "He gave you a VIP ticket, didn't he?"

Kevin paused, scanning the ticket over as he sat down next to the redhead. "I guess."

"How do you think this game will come out?" Chelsea grinned, leaning on her elbows.

"He'll win, of course."

"I know that." The girl laughed. "I wouldn't manage someone without talent. But the other player is pretty good as well. How many points do you think he'll mange to take from Ryoma?"

"About one or two games." Kevin shrugged. "But those will be loose points, so he'll still be beat easily."

"I think he'd probably perform better today." Chelsea declared. "After all, he usually doesn't slack off when he has someone to impress."

The blonde blinked, rubbing his head. "Does he have a girlfriend?"

"What?"

Well, that came out wrong. It was the first thing that had come to Kevin's mind at the mention of impressing someone. He didn't mean to quote it as a nosy comment. "I mean-"

"No." The girl smiled. "Well, don't quote me on this, but I don't think he has a girlfriend. Or at least, none that I know of. Although he doesn't strike me as the dating type, you know?"

"Right." Kevin muttered silently.

"Do people ever tell you that you're negative?" Chelsea raised an eyebrow.

"Yes."

"Right." The manager laughed, turning to the court. "The game is about to start."


"That was some great performance!" Chelsea declared happily, handing Echizen a towel as he sipped onto his water bottle. "You didn't let him get away with a single point. That was even better than my data predicted!"

For a second, Kevin thought he saw Ryoma turn his glaze towards him. It soon faded away, though, and the blonde shrugged it off.

"I mean, man, his manager looked so pissed off!" The girl went on. "They have to give you some more credit at the next meeting! Me too, for managing a newbie. No offense, though."

Echizen shrugged. "It wasn't anything serious."

"You played him with your right hand." Kevin smirked.

"I haven't needed to play anyone with my left hand up to now." The Japanese boy shrugged, digging into his towel. "I'm bound to face some good players at one point or another in this tournament."

"You better not let anyone else hear that." Chelsea frowned. "Or they'll start another flame war. The last one was bad enough; we don't need to relive something like that again."

"Flame war?" Kevin blinked.

Chelsea and Ryoma exchanged looks before the boy finally spoke up. "It's nothing. You don't need to know about it." The girl gave him an odd look, but kept silent.

"Well, I'm off." The girl declared. "I have another meeting with the publisher of a magazine that wants you to be featured in. We still need to work out the deal, so I'll see you boys later."

Kevin nodded as they watched her head out of the dressing room. Pausing, he turned around. "You did well today."

Echizen shrugged. "It's nothing."

"What are you going to do after this?" The blonde questioned. "If you win this tournament?"

The Japanese boy raised an eyebrow. "I'll enter in another tournament, and win that one. I'll continue entering in tournaments until I become number one."

"I see." Kevin paused. "So you're not planning to go back to Japan anytime soon?"

"No." Ryoma looked down at his feet. "Not yet. I won't go back until I've become number one. Then there'd be no point of me coming here."

"Ryoma."

"What?"

Kevin narrowed his eyes. "What are you hiding?"

"There's nothing for me to hide." The dark-hair boy sighed, reaching for his tennis bag. "Also, if I felt the need to tell you about something, you would've known about it already."

"There's obviously something on your mind." The blonde eyed him suspiciously. "I'm not stupid, you know. You're never stressed out about tennis, so I'm bound to think that you're having relationship problems or some secret you're hiding from the world."

"How about both?"

"What?" Kevin blinked.

"What I'm trying to say is this." Ryoma sent him a sharp look. "What would you know about me? You don't know me well enough to randomly come to these types of conclusions. Even so, it obviously has nothing to do with you."

"Right." The blonde whispered. "Right."

Echizen bit his lip. "That's not what I meant."

"Of course it isn't." Kevin replied, grabbing his coat.


"Kevin, what's wrong?"

Samantha remained quite, focusing on her food. "Why are you back so soon? I wanted some alone time with Stephanie to hang out."

"That's not nice." Stephanie frowned. "Kevin, do you want to talk? You don't look very happy."

"Well, that's a nice observation, isn't it!" The boy snapped, throwing his jacket onto the floor as he headed upstairs.

"What was that all about?" Stephanie sighed, turning back towards the other girl.

"He doesn't need us to comfort him." Samantha shrugged. "It'd just be pointless anyway. Kevin's not the type of person who comes to people for his problems. He likes to deal with them himself."

"Wel-"

Both girls paused as Kevin came dashing down the stairs once more. He grabbed the coat on the floor and headed straight out the door. "I won't be coming back tonight!"

"See?" Stephanie grinned. "He solves his problems by himself."


Echizen sighed, opening his door to face the glaring blonde.

Kevin held up his phone. "Why did you text me your address?"

"You came, didn't you?"

"Well, yeah. But that doesn't change the fact that I'm still mad at you." The blonde declared. "Aren't you going to invite me in? It's cold out here."

Ryoma stepped aside from the doorway. "You said you wanted to know what's going on with me. Here it is, so don't be too shocked. Come in."

Kevin paused, taking off his coat as he stared at the little girl playing in the living room of the apartment. "Who's that?"

"Her name is Raine." Echizen closed the door, leaning against the wall. "She's my daughter."

Kevin paused. "What?"

"I told you." Ryoma shrugged, pulling a random chair to sit on. "Take a seat and I'll tell you the entire story."

The blonde paused, not exactly sure of what to say as he sat down on the couch.

"Do you remember Ryuzaki? She was one of my coaches for the junior American tournament."

"I think so."

"Her granddaughter, Sakuno, is Raine's mother."

Kevin paused. "That makes no sense. She's looks around four. You couldn't have been sixteen when she was born."

"Why not?" Echizen eyed him dully. "You don't have to be put a particular age to have sex with someone. Can I continue with this before you ask me any more questions?"

"Right, right."

"Sakuno was my girlfriend throughout junior high school, so when I found out that she was pregnant, I told her to abort the baby." Ryoma began, running a hand through his hair. "She wasn't the kind of girl to hurt anyone, so she refused and dropped out of school. She didn't want the news of her pregnancy to disrupt her family name, so she began getting tutored at home while I was under the impression that she had already taken drugs to get ride of the baby.

"It's just that. I don't know. Getting her pregnant would just ruin her entire future. She doesn't deserve it, yet she went along with it. When the time came, she didn't want to go to a major hospital to give birth, so she got a family friend to help her." Ryoma sighed, digging his face into his hands. "I think it was raining that day when she gave birth to Raine, so she asked me to name her. By the time she had the second twin; it was no longer storming, so she named him 'Sky'." He sighed. "It was my entire fault."

". . . She had twins?"

"Yes."

"Where's the boy, then?"

"He's in Japan, with his mother."

"What the fuck!" Kevin threw a coach cushion at Ryoma. "You made it sound like she died at childbirth or something with your depressing mood!"

"Was I suppose to be all cherry and happy about it!" Ryoma stared.

"Well, no, but…." Kevin paused. "Why in the world is Raine here with you, then?"

"I don't plan on doing back to Japan until I become number one, Kevin." Ryoma stood up, looking out the window. "That may take years. When I first left Japan, my father, that old bastard, told me that I had to take responsibility and take one of the twins with me." He paused. "I wanted the boy, but wasn't it bad enough that I got her pregnant? I destroyed her future and her childhood. A boy would be a better tennis player, but she needed him a lot more than me. I owed it to her."

"So, your wife is waiting for you back in Japan?" Kevin stared at his hands.

"She's not my wife." Echizen spoke up. "We never got married."

"You really are a bastard." Kevin sighed. "When you get a girl pregnant, the right thing to do is to marry her and start a family, you know."

"She told me not to." Ryoma sighed, facing the window. "She told me not to marry her out of sympathy."

"But didn't you love her?" The blonde frowned.

"At the time, I did." The Japanese boy replied dully. "Not anymore, though. She's with someone else now; he's helping her support Sky. He makes a much better father than I do."

"What about Raine?" Kevin stared. "She's just going to stay in America with you when you don't even want her to begin with?"

The girl, who had been long forgotten, looked up almost as if she understood their conversation.

"I do want her." Echizen paused. "But I don't know how to take care of her. She's already four. In a few years she'll grow up and decide that she hates me and leave."

"Why would she hate you?" Kevin looked up, giving Raine a soft pat on the head. "Does her mother hate you?"

"No, but I wished she did." The dark-hair tennis player replied. "It would've been a lot better. If she had hated me, I would've felt less responsible for all this."

The room fell silent as Raine giggled.

"What do you want me to do?" The blonde questioned.

"Nothing." Echizen shrugged. "You wanted to know about the cause of my annoyance and I told you. I don't expect anything out of you."

"Do you really think you can hide something as big as this from the press? They'll go crazy when they learn about your lovechild. Love children, even."

"As long as you don't blab about it, I don't see the danger of the situation." Ryoma replied. "She's still got a few years before she has to attend school."

"Who's taking care of her?" Kevin sighed. "Have you been leaving her alone here while you're away?"

"No. Chelsea comes over sometimes."

"She's your manager, not your babysitter." The American boy leaned back on the couch. "One of these days you'll both be busy. Then you'll hire some untrustworthy person to baby-sit, and they'll probably leak it to the press."

"Don't you have any relatives that can take care of her?"

"They're all in Japan." Ryoma gestured for Raine to come over. "The only person, besides Chelsea, that I even really know here is…. You."

"Then what does that make me?" Kevin blinked.

"Stupid." Echizen declared. "For getting involved with me." He turned to the girl standing in front of him, straightening out her shirt.

"That doesn't make me stupid. It just makes me a good friend." It also made Ryoma off-limits.

"Does it really?"

Kevin looked up at the ceiling. "Theoretically, this has nothing to do with me. But since I like you, I'll help you out."

"What are you proposing? The most you can do is to tell the press that she's your daughter."

"You're really not funny, Ryoma."

"I wasn't trying to be funny."

"That's some nice asinine rationalization there." Kevin smirked. "Now that's said, what now? Do I have to help you change dippers or something?"

"She's four years old. She doesn't wear dippers."

"Well, I don't know anything about taking care of kids!"

TBC