Rating: PG
Disclaimer: not mine, cool? cool.
One day, Atobe showed up at the Rikkai courts and challenged Sanada to a match. Niou grabbed Yagyuu's serve instead of returning it, looking over to where Atobe and Sanada stood on opposite sides of the court next to his. "This looks interesting."
Yagyuu joined him at the net, watching as Sanada sent a service ace right past Atobe's head. "Sanada's just going to destroy him. It's not worth watching." Indeed, when Niou and Yagyuu had finished their game, Sanada was winning three games to zero using only his zan shot. It was just like the last time Sanada destroyed Atobe. Niou moved to set up the ball machines so that he and Yagyuu could practice their formations just as Sanada won another game without letting Atobe score a single point.
Right when Niou got into position in front of Yagyuu, a murmur rose from the crowd of non-Regulars watching the Sanada-Atobe match. "It seems like something interesting is happening." Yagyuu turned off the machine and walked over to the fence separating their courts.
"Sounds like Atobe got a point." Niou joined him, resting an elbow on Yagyuu's shoulder and leaning against him, and looked carefully at Sanada and Atobe's individual stances. As Atobe prepared to serve again, Yukimura stepped in and lowered the net. In what was doubtlessly most polite terms and threatening voice he could muster, Yukimura indicated that Atobe ought to leave and let Rikkai return to their regular practices. Sanada followed Yukimura, most likely protesting the unconventional ending of the match. Niou looked at Yagyuu, raising an eyebrow. "I wonder what happened."
"Why are you all standing around? Twenty laps, all of you!" Sanada's voice bellowed out over the courts, and Niou groaned. He did get a chance to talk to Jackal during their laps though, who told him that Atobe had played some "Ice World" shot, and that Yukimura stopped them because he would supposedly have lost.
"That's interesting." Niou realized that the loss at Kantou had been devastating for Hyoutei - Atobe in particular - and that all the other teams would come back twice as strong to challenge them at Nationals. His eyes glinted and he ran on ahead of Jackal to finish his laps and return to practice. If they wanted to challenge Rikkai, he would give them something to challenge.
They went to watch the first rounds at Nationals, even though they had a bye and would go straight through to the second round. They wandered around, checking out various matches that seemed interesting at the time. It was only in part to check out the competition, since the real competition were the other schools with byes first round. Yanagi disappeared briefly, and Niou saw him talking with the tall kid with glasses from Seigaku - Inui Sadaharu, the person who'd beaten Yanagi at Kantou. He didn't ask any questions when Yanagi returned, though.
Their real motive to walk around the tournament was to make a statement about their presence at the tournament. Heads turned when they saw a flash of beige, knowing that that was the color of the returning champions looking for a three-peat victory. They heard murmuring around them wherever they walked and knew it was other teams pointing them out to their first-years and whispering to each other about how "there's Rikkai, two-time National champions," "wow they look strong," "I hope I don't have to face that one there." Niou grinned at a group of scared-looking first years, and one of the shrimps with shaking knees whimpered and fell down.
"Masaharu, be nice." Yagyuu didn't look at him as he spoke, opting to keep holding his head high and walking straight forward. Yanagi didn't say a word.
They stopped for a bit at the Hyoutei match, and Sanada frowned. Atobe wasn't using his "ice globe" shot or whatever it was that Yukimura thought would decimate Sanada. Niou wanted to see it - he wanted to see what a shot that Sanada couldn't return looked like - but Hyoutei's opponents were too weak and Atobe's insight was enough to destroy them.
The next week, they won round two easily, without losing a single game. Quickly, they went to watch the Hyoutei-Shishigaku game. Shishigaku was strong enough to have gotten to semifinals the previous years and just might force Atobe to use his "Ice World" - Jackal corrected Niou for an entire week until he remembered what it was called. Atobe still didn't use it though. "Does this move even exist?" he grumbled on the bus ride home.
"Hyoutei's playing Seigaku next week. Now that Tezuka's back, and I hear he's able to use Muga no Kyouchi again, Atobe will probably have to use his move." The amount of information Yanagi stored in his head was simply amazing. Niou had noticed that Inui used notebooks, but he'd never seen Yanagi write down a single bit of data.
The next day, when Niou ran into the clubroom just barely on time, the first thing he noticed was that Yukimura was holding a tennis racket. "Yukimura, do you plan on playing today?"
"I've been doing racket swings everyday since the stitches were removed. I'm ready for some light rallying today." Yukimura was scary. Niou had read up on Guillain-Barre syndrome after Yukimura had been diagnosed and knew that it normally took at least a few months to recover. Yukimura was ready to rally again in under a month?
"Seiichi's recovery rate has been phenomenal. He cannot play a full game yet, or play with full strength, but a rally isn't out of the question anymore." Yanagi held his racket and a basket of balls. "Shall we go warm up, Seiichi?" Niou watched two of the three demons leave the room. Rikkai was an interesting team to be on. Yukimura wasn't human, Niou was certain of it. Maybe the mothership would come and retreive him after he won Nationals three times in a row. That would be cool. Niou chuckled at his overactive imagination.
"What's so funny, Masaharu?"
"Nothing. Can you check the schedule for me? I think I'm playing the demon spawn today." Niou quickly tied his shoes and pulled his racket out of his bag as Yagyuu looked at the schedule pinned next to the door.
"Yes, you are, and I'm playing Marui."
"OK. We should get Jackal and Marui to do a practice doubles match after that."
Kirihara rushed into the room, already changed into his tennis uniform.
"Decide to save time this morning, Kirihara?" Yagyuu joked lightly, ruffling the shorter boy's hair as he pulled out his racket and stuffed his bag in his locker in record speed.
"Shut up, Yagyuu-senpai. Niou-senpai, I'll be waiting for you on the courts." Kirihara turned and left the room, ready in five seconds flat.
"What's eating him?"
Yagyuu shrugged. "You're the one that has to play him, not me. Good luck, by the way." Niou groaned. He was not looking forward to playing an angry Kirihara.
"Niou! Are you OK?" Jackal's voice cut across the courts, and all the other games stopped as everyone ran to stop Kirihara.
"Akaya! Cool it, this instant!" Yukimura's movements were slow, but his voice had clearly not suffered from his illness. Sanada was the first to reach the court and physically restrained Kirihara from continuing to serve.
"Niou, what happened?" Sanada struggled with the red-eyed demon in his arms, though it was clear that Kirihara would never be able to overpower and break free from the prison that was Sanada.
"I have no idea; we were playing a match and he just suddenly went crazy!" Niou stood, wiping at a cut on his lip and scowling at the blood he found on his hand. Yagyuu was by his side momentarily, helping him to the bench and handing him a bottle of water. "Thanks, Hiro." Yanagi silently handed the first-aid kit he'd grabbed to Yagyuu, who started tending to Niou's injuries. Normally, injuries were attended to by Yanagi, but Niou appreciated Yagyuu's gentle touch over Yanagi's methodical ministrations.
"Did you say anything to upset him?" Jackal, who usually watched over Kirihara's matches to intervene immediately if Kirihara went into bloodshot mode, was tending to Kirihara, calming him back into a normal state.
"I think I know what this is about." Yanagi walked over to Kirihara, who by now had returned to normal and shaken himself free from Sanada's grip. "Am I right, Akaya?" Kirihara nodded. "I'll talk to him. Seiichi, do you mind leaving this to me?"
"Only if you tell me about it later." Yukimura was shining a light into Niou's eyes, checking to make sure that he didn't get a concussion from the hit to his head. Yanagi nodded and led Kirihara away from the courts towards some shady trees. "Niou, you should probably go home and rest for the day."
"No, I'm OK. It was just two hits." Niou swatted away Yagyuu's hands, which were checking if the bandages were tight enough. The bleeding had stopped, and his heart rate was starting to slow back down. "I just need to sit a minute and I can do some weight training."
"Niou. Go home. Just for today; you can make it up tomorrow. Don't aggravate those fresh cuts - we need you this weekend." Yukimura's voice allowed for no arguing. Niou grumbled, picking up his stuff and heading back to the clubroom.
Oh look, another unplanned plot twist. Sorry for the break; finished my thesis & celebrated by sleeping like a log. I liked this part though. Come on Konomi, Nationals lineup, please? puppy dog eyes.
By the way? I'm never going to finish FF100. I thought I'd gone through a lot, but no.
