Disclaimer: I own very little.

A/N: ...It's been close to two years. Truth be told, I'm amazed to find myself actually updating this. I had nearly given up since I lost my old files.

Nothing in Tennis

"Love means nothing in tennis, but in life, it is everything."

- Anonymous

Chapter 15

The Triumph of Losing

Dan chewed at the end of his pencil, only barely managing to keep himself from cracking it. This was not good, not good at all. Nothing was going like his data had predicted – nothing, not even their being here in the first place.

Of course, it was hardly impossible. They were a strong team, considerably stronger than they had been in middle school, even. Nevertheless, not even in his most optimistic calculations had he ever hoped to find their team in the National Tournament finals.

The finals which, it seemed, they were going to lose.

Though he had expected Seigaku to be stronger than the last time they'd faced them, he hadn't expected quite this level of strength. They'd won Singles Three, but even that had been a close thing; it had most likely been simply Sengoku's luck. Dan himself had already given up two games before the match was even over; if he hadn't wanted to gather the complete data of the match he would have just thrown his notebook down and marched away so as not to see the humiliating loss. As it turned out, though, Sengoku had somehow managed to turn the tide of the match, gaining a splendid come-back victory.

While the rest of the team had been joyously congratulating their dear captain, Dan had stood aside, going over his data again and again. It didn't match, none of it. Based on the data he had gathered he had concluded Sengoku's match to be an easy victory; instead, it had turned out into… this. The exhausted Sengoku had flopped down on the bench, only barely having enough energy to lift his water bottle. Dan was almost surprised to see him even making it off the court on his own. Tachibana certainly hadn't held back in this match.

If the supposedly easiest match had been so difficult, what hope did the rest of them have?

Watching their Doubles Two walk to the court, Dan tried to keep himself from sighing aloud, as it wouldn't have done to worry his team mates. Even in the beginning he had never expected them to win this particular match; the Kaidou-Momoshiro combination was simply too strong. Now, after Sengoku's only-almost victory, he was even more assured of their eventual loss.

Seven games to five… no, six games to four. If even that. This was no good, no good at all.

"Why such a serious face?" Muromachi suddenly appeared before him, looking down at his face. "Is something wrong?"

"Everything," Dan muttered, glancing down at his notebook one last time. Without even fully realising it, he'd already marked down the end result of the Doubles Two game. Impressive, wasn't it, considering the first game had only barely started.

"Hm, what's this?" Muromachi raised his eyebrows as he looked down at the notebook. "Predicting match results, now? Have you turned into St. Rudolph's Mizuki or something?"

"Maybe it'd be better if I had," Dan muttered, closing his notebook with a sigh. "I certainly cannot win against Inui-san by simply mimicking him desu. Not with my level of data."

"Then don't." Muromachi shrugged, as though it had truly been that simple. Easy for him to say, wasn't it, when he'd had his own playing style figured out ever since he first picked up a racquet. "You have your own moves and techniques, Dan-kun. There's no reason for you to mimic others."

"…I wonder desu." Dan walked to his bag, putting the pencil and notebook inside and taking out his racquet. "I should probably get warmed up desu."

"You don't expect the match to last long?" Muromachi's eyebrows flew high again. "How very… optimistic."

"I'm not being pessimistic, I'm afraid." Dan's lips twitched. "I merely know my data desu." Putting on his best smile, he then turned to look at the gathered team. "Oi. Those of you not playing today – anyone want to help me warm up?"

He found a volunteer easily enough. Flashing his captain a soothing smile – or the closest approximate he could manage at the moment – he then walked off, his mind mulling over the data even as he tried to focus on the warm-up. The doubles match wouldn't be of much interest to him; unless Momoshiro and Kaidou had even more up their sleeve than Tachibana had, there was no doubt the match would go just as he'd predicted. And if they did have some new tricks… well. Sadly enough, he had to admit that they most likely wouldn't need any.

It seemed like he'd only barely picked up his racquet as he already heard the announcement echoing from the courts. "Game, set and match, won by Seigaku's Momoshiro – Kaidou pair! Game count six games to four!"

"…Well desu," Dan muttered, adjusting his ponytail by perhaps 0.62 inches to the left. "Guess I should get going."

His own match… ironically enough, he didn't have enough data to make any predictions accurate enough.

He'd just have to play and see.

*

"And remember what I told you." Sengoku did his best to look stern. It wasn't exactly easy.

"I know, I know." Dan rolled his eyes. "If I play until I faint again, I'll be picking balls until you leave the club. Understood, buchou desu~"

"Good." Sengoku nodded. "Just keep that in mind… and kick his ass for last time."

"You got it desu~"

Sengoku frowned as Dan winked at him, then turned to walk out to the court. Something was… off. Though Dan was smiling, the smile was obviously forced; over the time he'd come to recognize such smiles, he'd had to in order to stay up to date about his boyfriend's everyday life. But why would he be wearing such a smile to a match? Surely their situation couldn't be that bad… could it?

Thankfully, the smile at least brightened a bit as Dan finally made it to the net, shaking hands with his opponent. "I see we meet again, Inui-san," he said, smiling, his voice only barely loud enough to reach Sengoku's ears from the court even as he strained his hearing best as he could.

"Indeed we do." The taller data player smirked just a bit. "I do look forward to seeing how this match plays out."

"Hopefully not like our last one desu." At Inui's prompting, Dan said, "Rough."

As the racquet spun, Sengoku found himself quietly hoping for rough. Not that it mattered, he knew what Dan would pick in any case, now it was falling and he couldn't see from here…

Dan smiled a bit. "You can take the serve desu~" Ah, great. Just as he had predicted, not that he was exactly a dataist. Dan wouldn't want the first serve after all; if Inui's first serve dragged on long enough, Dan might even get enough of a touch with the situation that he could start using Puppy Dog Serves right off the bat when it was finally his turn.

Maybe this match, at least, would go as it was supposed to.

Maybe, if his luck was enough to overcome the obstacle of Seigaku's reign.

*

This was going to be, as Dan well knew, perhaps the most difficult match he had ever played, going against Seigaku's best current player right after Fuji-san. He wasn't even going to count his unfortunate match against Echizen-kun back when he had only barely started; that match had not been difficult, it had been just plain impossible right from the get-go. In this match, he actually was confident enough to think that he stood a chance. Obviously, he couldn't make the same mistake as the last time around and let Inui-san drag the match on too long or he'd certainly lose. However, with a different approach to this particular opponent… maybe he just might have a chance of turning the situation around. And as it just happened, he did indeed have a new approach prepared.

Inui-san walked to the other end of the court, preparing for his first serve. Dan planted his feet on the court, ready to spring towards the ball.

For some time, he didn't even think about what he did. Allowing himself to slip into his best focus, he almost literally didn't see or hear anything but the ball and Inui-san. He was vaguely aware there were points being scored, some by himself, some by his opponent; however, aside from that, he let himself fall into his most natural patterns, following his instincts as he would. For a moment it actually seemed to be working, he was actually holding up his own against Inui-san, perhaps it might –

Inui was catching up with his data, calling his shots time and time again, returning them perfectly. Obviously, his data had been seen through.

Perfect.

Oblivious to the cheers and shouts from the edges of the court, he bounced over to return what would have been a backhand had he not switched his racquet to his right hand. Even after returning the shot, he didn't switch it back. Slowly, slowly, he started to change his tactics. It wouldn't do to follow his instincts, now. He had to follow his data instead… but not his data on Inui-san.

Following his opponent's expressions closely, he caught the flicker of recognition as Inui realized what he was doing. Perfect. Just perfect. It was supposed to be like that, Inui was supposed to recognize it, maybe if Inui recognized he would…

Fall into the appropriate counter strategy for the person whose data he was currently appropriating. Most excellent indeed.

Dan forced himself not to smile as he played on, continuing the pattern faithfully. Running to meet another shot, he let his racquet drag the ground just a bit.

"Chance of a Moon Volley, 78 percent," Inui said, smirking in satisfaction as he backtracked to the baseline to meet the shot.

The ball landed just barely on the other side of the net.

Inui's expression might have deserved a chuckle, but Dan couldn't afford to do that. He had to keep to the pattern, had to follow data even as he started varying it again. Bit by bit, he moved on from this particular pattern, settling into another, one that would certainly be just as familiar to Inui-san. Now, to see just how soon Inui-san would detect his new influence…

*

"So that's why he's been reviewing his Seigaku videos lately," Sengoku chuckled, looking over to the court. "Figures. He couldn't just do it the easy way, could he?"

"What exactly is he doing?" asked Nitobe, frowning even as he was still wiping sweat off his forehead, having just finished stretching after his own, less fortunate match. "Inui's not usually that badly off with his data, is he? And why is he spot on most of the time and then misses one or two shots completely?"

"It's not that he's exactly off his data," Minami corrected, his eyes locked at the ongoing match. "Rather, his data is perfect. It's Dan-kun that's off in the equation."

"Inui's way of using data is analyzing his opponent's movements," Sengoku said. "The better he knows an opponent, the easier it is for him, as a general rule. Taichiichi, though, mainly uses his data to copy his opponents."

"Dan-kun told me once that copy players are the most irritating opponents for a data player, since they usually have a broader range of data," Muromachi said. "So… he's Inui's worst annoyance?"

"Better than that." Sengoku's lips twitched. "Even copy players have their own patterns that they follow. They copy the techniques and moves, that's all. But Taichiichi… since he bases his copying on data, well… right at the moment? He's not only copying the moves. He's copying the data."

"And he's using Seigaku players," Minami added. "He started with Oishi, I certainly recognized that… Inui probably knows their data like the palm of his hand. Therefore, when Dan-kun starts mirroring their data, it's easy for him to fall into the according pattern. However, not only is Dan-kun's data slightly less perfect than Inui-san's, but he also makes mistakes. Deliberate mistakes."

"So… Inui can't predict when he's going to break the data, so all he can do is play like he would against the player Dan-kun's copying? And he can't gather data since Dan-kun's snatching that from others, too?" Nitobe whistled. "I can see how that would cause a headache."

"Exactly." Sengoku grinned rather triumphantly now. "It wouldn't work against a regular player, who would just react to what he does… but against someone like Inui, it's the perfect weapon." He reached a hand to poke Minami. "Oi, Kenta. Make sure you and Higashikata get warmed up in time. I don't think Taichiichi will want to drag this on too long."

"I should think not, especially after what happened last time." Minami shook his head. "I'd hate to see that happen again."

"Worry not. I already made sure he knows not to let that happen again." Sengoku's lips twitched. "…You've got a bad match coming up, Kenta. I can hear Kikumaru screaming about Taichiichi 'stealing' his techniques all the way from the Seigaku stands."

"Yeah, well, the Golden Pair is never an easy opponent." Minami's lips twitched just a bit. "I do believe we owe them something from the trashing they gave us last time."

"That's my Kenta." Sengoku laughed. "…If everything goes well, you can kick their asses and bring us victory."

"We'll do our best… buchou."

*

"Well, that was impressive." Muromachi shook his head even as Dan half-stumbled towards the stands. "I don't think I've ever seen him play quite that well before."

"I know, right?" Sengoku smiled brightly as he gave Dan his water bottle, standing ready to receive his boyfriend from the court. "That was great, Taichiichi. You actually won!"

"I do know that much, my dear captain," Dan murmured, sending him a mild glare that was not exactly helped by the slightly dazed look in his eyes. He perhaps hadn't fainted on the court, but it didn't look like that had been too far away. Silly kid. "…What was the score?"

Sengoku decided not to comment on how someone who knew he had won should have known that much, too, instead just smiling proudly as he led Dan to the stands so the rest of the team could congratulate him. "Seven games to five. We were afraid for a moment Inui would manage to drag it on to tiebreak, but you managed to cut it off before that."

"That's good to hear desu…" Dan blinked, managing a weak smile at his teammates. "Doubles One now, right?"

"That's right." Sengoku glanced over to where the Jimmies were again preparing to face the pair who were forming to be their nemeses. "Care to give us a prediction for that?"

"'M too tired to think," Dan sighed, sitting down next to Sengoku. Only, it hardly took him a moment to slide along the bench until his head fell into Sengoku's lap. "Oishi-san reinjured his wrist a while ago, though not too badly," he murmured. "There's about a 45 percent chance it starts acting up. If that happens, wake me up."

"Oh?" Sengoku raised his eyebrows, looking down at Dan even as the younger boy closed his eyes. "You want to see that, then? Isn't that kind of cruel?"

"Oh, no," murmured Dan. "That's just about our only chance of winning."

Sengoku's spirits fell as quickly as Dan fell asleep.

*

"I'm sorry, everyone," Muromachi sighed, wiping sweat off his brow. "It's my fault we lost…"

"Yeah, sure, we're going to kill you because we're only the second best in Japan." Sengoku chuckled. "Come on, Panda-kun, the doubles lost too, remember? So, it's the majority of us that are to blame. Besides," he added with a wink, "we now have officially the best data player in all of Japan, right?"

"Wrong." Dan flushed in embarrassment. "I didn't win him with data at all, rather to the opposite. Sure, I used data, but it was mainly to sabotage his. I could never hope to come even close to matching his calculations. But then, does it matter exactly what my playing style is as long as it's good enough for a win?"

"You've certainly got a point there, Dan-kun." Nitobe chuckled. "Anyway, I'm not sure about the rest of you, but I think we should celebrate this somehow."

"Definitely." Sengoku laughed. "Though it seems a bit strange to celebrate a loss…"

"As you said… we're only the second best team in all of Japan." Dan poked his side. "Celebration will have to wait, though. The awards ceremony comes first."

"You'd know about that, wouldn't you? Dan-buchou~" Laughing at the mild glare he received, Sengoku ruffled his boyfriend's hair before reaching down for a quick kiss on his cheek. It wasn't like anyone but the team was seeing, anyway.

…That reminded him… he'd better talk with the coach at some point.