Edited in 30/09/2023


Leader

Shirou Emiya was never a leader, and Ryoma Echizen inherited that part of him. While he's much less inclined to just take orders from others this time around, he still finds solace in having a leader to look up to. He spent most of his previous life fighting alone, avoiding making companions and driving away those close to him with his blind adherence to his ideals, so excuse him for finding comfort in some sort of clarity in a destination. With the Seishun Gakuen tennis team, that destination was obviously another national championship.

Personally, Ryoma wasn't too excited about the whole thing. He liked tennis, obviously, but once he beat Nanjiroh, he knew that he'd be hard-pressed to find someone who could play at the same level as him. He could just have himself some handicap, but he found doing something like that to be disrespectful to his opponents.

Looking at Tezuka, however, he couldn't help but feel like he wanted to help him achieve his dreams. There's a pull, a gravity, that made Ryoma can't help but admire him. A strong leader, a "pillar" he was called, and Ryoma wholeheartedly agrees with that assessment. His conviction was unwavering as if nothing could truly shake him no matter what. And unlike with Shirou Emiya, that unwavering conviction didn't come from being a distorted human, but as a sign of strength.

Yes, Ryoma decided, that if he was going to help someone, to look up to someone as a "leader", that someone would be Kunimitsu Tezuka, the pillar of Seigaku.

(Sometimes, Ryoma wondered how things could have been different in his past life if he had a strong pillar to lean on. Arthuria and Rin could have been that, but it wasn't meant to be, while Sakura was more likely to look at him to be her pillar, which he could never be)

Question

Frankly enough, Ryoma doesn't really like Inui. In fact, he was quite annoyed by most Data Tennis players in general and would happily mess with them and their data at any chance he had. While he understands the importance of information, his past life's experience told him as much, but for the love of god, he hates their eternally prying eyes and insatiable thirst for more data. For one, they reminded him a lot of pretty much most magus he knew in his previous life. Obsession for more and more knowledge, all for the sake of a single goal. The difference is that Magus did it all for the sake of reaching "Root" and has no qualms about stepping on morality and humanity for the sake of that goal. Inui and other Data Tennis players mostly did all of those to win tennis games though of course, with none of the disregard for human lives.

Then again, this is the same world where one's equivalent of the magic circuit was utilized through tennis so maybe they're onto something. Ryoma gave up trying to understand how magic worked in his new world by the time he realized that somehow it all led back to tennis. Which, while he liked tennis, was incredibly ridiculous.

Despite all that, though, he maintained a façade of cold indifference toward his senior, pretty much the same one that he gave to everyone else who isn't Ryoga. Which could lead to situations such as the one he's in.

"If you have a question, just say it," Ryoma stated wearily, finally giving in to Inui's inquisitive stare.

Inui pushed up his glasses, "Hmm, the probability of you welcoming my inquiries is less than 10%."

"Well, then I suppose you'd rather waste that less than 10% chance," Ryoma stated dryly. "Make it quick or I'll leave."

"Just one question," Inui stated quickly, then a gleam entered his eyes just hidden by his glasses. "What are you, exactly?"

Well, if there's one thing that Ryoma took great comfort in, it's the fact that none of them have managed to actually "figure" him out.

"I wonder…" Ryoma stated, tugging on his cap before turning away.

"That didn't answer my question." Inui frowned.

Ryoma smirked. "I only say that you can make your question, not that I'd answer it. Mada mada dane, Inui-senpai."

Motherly

Ryoma saw himself as many things, but Motherly was definitely never one of them. The same applied to Shirou Emiya, no matter how much teasing about him being a housewife he received. Sure, he can cook, he's good at cleaning, and all in all, he likes to do household chores. But he's definitely not motherly.

For one, he doesn't even really know how someone who was motherly acts since whatever Shirou Emiya knew about his mother was burned away in the fire, none of the female figures in his life after that was one, and Ryoma's own mother barely showed up if ever. He never resented her for it, really. It's hard to miss something that was never really there to begin with.

So, when he noticed people talking about how Oishi was like the mother hen of the Seigaku Tennis Club, he paid attention both to whoever talked and to the Third Year himself. Mostly out of curiosity, really, but having next to no contact with any motherly figure, he might as well try to figure out what makes someone 'motherly'.

He knew that Oishi seemed to have made a habit out of checking after the regulars, something he had known for some time as he had seen Ryoga getting entire lectures about personal hygiene through the phone back when he still hadn't joined Seigaku.

Ryoma, for one, never really got one since he can look after himself perfectly thank you. If anything, Oishi seems to love to use him as an example of excellent personal care, and when Ryoga tells him that he practically cooks for the entire family and does most of the chores at home, the third year becomes even more proud (?) of him and exasperated at everyone else since their first year is a much more capable person than pretty much everyone else.

When it comes to the point that he and Oishi start trading recipes, his status seems to evolve from Oishi's "golden child" to a "teen mom" as Momoshiro puts it. Ryoma obliterated the other teen in the court for five sets straight after he made that comment.

Friend

Ryoma liked to think that, unlike his previous self, he was doing a pretty good job making friends this time around. For one, none of the person that he considered his good friend this time around was practically a sociopath though he have a niggling suspicion that one of these days Fuji was gonna be caught as a serial killer or something. Or for that matter, Yukimura. But as far as he's concerned, none of them have raped their sister, so that's a huge plus for all of them, creepy behavior or not.

However, Momoshiro and Kikumaru have always been somewhat of an anomaly for him.

Sure, he's no stranger to loud and boisterous characters. From his previous life, there's Taiga, which honestly needs no further explanation. Ryoga was also someone who seemed to make it his personal life mission to annoy Ryoma in every way possible, at least when not doting after him. But Momorshiro and Kikumaru were different in that, they really have no reason to continuously approach Ryoma despite the latter constantly rejecting them and calling them annoying.

Sometimes, he was tempted to ask why but he knew that such questions would definitely be met with incredulous stares as if the answer was obvious all along.

It's not that Ryoma didn't get the concept of "friendship", since even Emiya Shirou, before the Holy Grail War erased any modicum of normalcy in his life, had people he considered friends. But for the most part, the friends he made were ones that resulted from mutual "approaching", even Shinji.

Momoshiro and Kikumaru, however, seemed to make it a point to continue to approach him even when Ryoma himself made no effort to reciprocate their efforts beyond the most basic courtesies.

But well. He supposed he didn't dislike anomalies.

(It's a bit like having dogs following you around, really.)

Quiet

Ryoma liked Kaidoh. Mostly because the other is quite simply the closest thing that Ryoma has to a "safe" spot for peace and quiet in the Seigaku Tennis Club. Sure, there's Tezuka, but even Ryoma needs to make small takes from time to time, and he sure as hell wasn't gonna get one from Tezuka. To put it simply, Tezuka's quietness was a bit too awkward for even him to endure for long.

Kaidoh was nice in his quiet, though. The second year would sometimes make small talk that Ryoma responds with one or two syllables answers, and the other seemed to like it that way. Sure, Kaidoh could be a bit silly at times, but if Ryoma could bear with the silliness of the rest of the damn club, he could do it with Kaidoh.

In a way, Ryoma felt that Kaidoh was probably what Issei was in his previous life. A nice company that for the most part was content with comfortable quiet and could be goofy at times.

He just really hoped that he would never have to strip Kaidoh to look for some magical markings. Ryoma was pretty sure that Issei never really quite forgave Shirou for that.