autumnleaf16

I went to the Shiraishi forum that I usually went to and I saw that some people put the following up. Official family information- or it seems to be official character information but there is quite some problem…

Birthday: April 14th. (this is a contradiction because in previous official merchandise, Shiraishi’s birthday is said to be at December. While I admit that I like his birthday in April more, because this means he is the oldest in the school- heck, this make him the oldest third year. He will be even more older then Marui, who is born on April 20th. Note- I saw the following info on the internet- school year starts in April in Japan so if your birthday is in April then you’ll be the oldest in your year. Eg. Say it is August and you already turned 15 in April and your are born in 1999, you will be a third year student in junior high school. But if you already turned 15 and is born in March 1999, then you will be in senior high school. Cause their school year goes from April to March. So if you are going to be 15 in the March of the following year, ie born in March 2000, you will be a third year too. But on the other hand this is too irresponsible! Changing his date of birth completely!!!)
Interest: I didn’t really get that one…so no explanation yet.
Family member: Parents, younger and elder sister- one each. (I really don’t know why but I always imagine that he will be an only child. Must admit, I am a bit disappointed that he is not. But once more- I seriously don’t know why I have this firm believe that he is an only chid)
Father’s profession: Pharmacist. (does this have anything to do with his bandages?)
Favourite’s subject: Chemistry (this seems his dad’s influence. Lol. Once again, I don’t know why but I always thought that he’ll be more of a literature sort of person.)

But seeing the rest should be very interesting! I can’t wait to see 40.5- well, I really can’t wait to see all the Shitenhouji related bit.!!! My guess is that he sentence accompanying Shiraishi’s page will be his famous “the one who wins is the winner”. (for Kenya: “Naniwa’s speed star is at a higher level”. For Zaizen: “It is alright if you get in my way.”)

This is totally random and is fan fic related but I really want to write a story where Kenya and Shiraishi started their first year as doubles partner, and then become the buchou and fuku-buchou in their second year. (as I said before, I really believe that Kenya is one of their top three players once you exclude Kintarou, just like Seigaku ignores Echizen in this hierarchy.) but somehow this then seem to be a setting for a BL story even though my original intention is just a friendship fic…

Title: A thousand paper cranes
Written at: September 16, 2007
Summary: Shiraishi discovers the paper cranes he folded with Ashita more then a year ago, when she was sick in the hospital. This then made him realise how much she cares for him.
Word count: 1438
Warning: most of the other stories in chapters are actually more focused on Shiraishi and his own conflict in regard to tennis and being the buchou- however, this one is quite romance based so yeah…(well, I usually write that kind of stuff and considering this is the ninth story in this series it shouldn’t be that surprising. That I would eventually write one. It’s more on the sweet side.
So this story is inspired by the whole a thousand cranes thing, which is that if you fold a thousand cranes then you get a wish, and it is usually given to people who are sick, a wish of getting well.

Once again, Shiraishi leant forward to place his hand over his girl friend’s forehead to cheek her temperature.
“You, neechan and niichan are all so bad.” She protested. “It’s not as if a slight fever will kill me. You don’t have to be here, you can go and play tennis with your friends.”
“But I want to look after you.” He told her firmly, and he was sure that the redness of her cheek was not caused by her illness at all. “I much prefer being with you instead of playing tennis.”
“Do you want to eat or drink anything?” he asked.
She shook her head. “I think I just need to lie down.”
“Then I’ll get you another blanket.” He decided.” There is some in the closet, right?”
“Kuranosuke, don’t use that door!” Ashita yelled out but her warning was much too late. Her boy friend had already opened the door they were not meant to use, causing him to be buried underneath the context of the rather full closet.
“I’m fine.” Shiraishi quickly assured her, although he was quite surprised at the amount of pain you could receive just from being hit by masses of clothes.
He was searching for blankets when he suddenly noticed the box that had fell down with the other clothes. As he prepared to place the lid back he naturally glanced at the context: it was filled with paper cranes and some unfolded papers that were placed at the very bottom of the box.
These papers…they seemed very familiar…

“I am so sorry for not visiting you more often, Ashita.” Shiraishi apologised as he sat down beside the hospital bed. “But because of…”
“I know, because I got injured during the Kansai regional of tennis. I understand that you have to use all this time to practice.” Ashita told him understandingly. “Did you do well?”
“We are the winners of the Kansai regional.” He told her proudly. “I’m so happy because we will be able to go to the nationals this year. But you will recover soon, wouldn’t you? I never realise how dangerous karata is…”
“It’s not a serious injury, Kuranosuke. Will you…will you stay long?” she did not want to beg, as he would probably agree if she do so, even if he was meant to be doing other things.
“I will stay with you until today’s visiting time is over, but I probably can’t come to see you every day.” his voice trailed off as he could see that she was rather bit sad at this. “By the way, I brought you a present .”
He took out the object he had carefully inserted between his textbooks in order to prevent it from being damaged in any way, and placed it into her now stretched hands.
It was a stack of origami paper, each sheet in a bright and colourful traditional Japanese pattern, much like the yukata that she would wear.
“It is so pretty.” She whispered in wonder as she spread the papers out to see each one, occasionally saying “I want a yukata just like this one.”
“I thought that we can try and fold a thousand paper cranes together.” Shiraishi suggested rather shyly.
Ashita immediately nodded. “Do you think we can get a wish each?”
“Maybe, I certainly hope so.” He said as he took the first paper.
“If we don’t…” Ashita said very softly, her voice barely audible. “I will have the same wish as you so what you want will come true.”

“Kuranosuke, are you alright?” Ashita asked him rather worriedly as he was still staring at that box.
“You kept them.” Shiraishi finally said. “You actually kept these paper cranes.”
“Paper cranes? So that’s where I put them.” she smiled as she took some of the cranes out. “I must have folded this one because I am not as patient as you, I can’t be bothered to do everything to perfection.”
“Why did you keep them?” he asked her.
“Because you gave them to me,” Ashita answered simply. “I kept these cranes and papers because they are like the ribbon that you gave me for my birthday. It is a present from you.”
“Even after I…”
“They are your gifts to me so I treasure them because I always feel the same way about you. Although I did think that I should stop throw them away after you showed me that tennis is more important, I think that is why I shoved them in my closet.”
“I…” he wanted to apologise to her once more for the mistake that I made but she quickly stopped him by leaning forward.
“You’ve apologised enough,” she said firmly. “Just show me that this will never happen again.”
“I am here, right?” he pointed out. “Ashita…did you not fold more paper cranes with these papers because I wasn’t there?”
He did try to visit her every two days but it was rather difficult as the nationals were approaching, as the buchou he had to train the rest of his team as well. The hospital’s visiting hours tended be finished when he was finally free. Now that he thought about it, he probably only visited her on a weekly basis.
Nor did he remember their promise of folding a thousand paper cranes, as he was so occupied.
They always used to spend Sunday together at the very least, but when the regional and national began to approach he would sometimes use these Sundays to practise. But they would walk to the train station together since his extra practices did not use to be very long.
Then he was possessed by the obsession of doing anything he could in order to win after Shitenhouji returned as being third in the whole national. After that day he began to practise so much that he ended up almost only seeing her in class.
He had been really single minded so he didn’t really realise that it was quite miraculous that she didn’t end their relationship when he barely saw her in the holidays.
“Don’t you remember what happened at that festival?” she asked him instead of answering him.
“I remember.” He told her firmly. After all, that was their first date, as well as where they confessed to each other.
“I told you that I like you the best, didn’t I? When you like someone the best you want to always be with them, right?”
He quickly nodded at this, although he did not understand her. “The only reason that I broke up with you is because I know that I would want to be with you instead of practising tennis more if you are there.”
“This is why.” Ashita stated simply. “I wanted you to spend more time with me, but the opposite would happen if I broke up with you. We still go out together even though it was not very often, but if we break up then I wouldn’t be able to be with you anymore.“
“But you never once told me that…”
“It was very easy to see that you really want to reach the finals next year, and I was afraid that you might actually dump me if I was too…”
Her words were interrupted as Shiraishi pulled her in his arms, whispering his apologies to her once again.
“I don’t deserve you.” He said simply. “Do my other achievements matter if I am such a lousy boy friend?”
Like most other schools, there were many girls who were fan of the regulars- especially the buchou. Shitenhouji differs as their buchou was regarded as having a girl friend before he even assumed this poistion, although they technically only went out in their second year. As a result, many girls would tell Ashita how lucky she was, and the two of them would always laugh about this together.
“But Kuranosuke, you are a really good boyfriend apart from that period. It is just as if you were sick because you are the way you used to be again. So attentive and caring.”
“I will try and always be like that for you.” He promised her before he released her and covered her with her fallen blankets.
“Let us fold our one thousand cranes.” He said as he took out the unfolded papers, placing them on her lap. “I have a wish that I really want to be granted.”
“And what is it?” she asked him rather hopefully.
“To be with you forever.” He told her simply, and he was finally rewarded by a kiss on the lips from his girlfriend.
“We have the same wish then.”

Title: Additional duties
Written at: September 12, 2007
Summary: On his way back to Osaka from the Kansai finals, Zaizen ends up having a conversation with Shiraishi that made him understand his buchou so much more, as well as some of the responsibility that comes from being the buchou.
Theme: What it means to be a captain, that it involve more then being one of the best players in the team.
Word count: 2364
Note: Zaizen kind of become the person to tell this story, although this is from his point of view completely. I think I do like Zaizen, even though I might have liked him the least in the very beginning as he was really rude to Kawamura (Kawamura is probably my second favourite character so…) But I think Zaizen is a very interesting character and somehow I believe that he’s actually not that a bad kid, just a bit sharp tongued. And I also believe that he has a big respect for Shiraishi.
Warning: I’ve included my own interpretation about Koharu and Hitouji’s relationship and since I don’t believe that they have that kind of relationship, you might not want to read about that bit if you strongly support these two as a couple/pair.

Zaizen gave another yawn as he stared at the scenery. For a boy his age, this was one long trip.
“How are you going to survive travelling to Tokyo for the national?” his buchou asked as he returned to his seat with two boxes of bento.
“I think I’m actually really enjoying distinguishing how each tree can look so different.” Was Zaizen’s dry reply.
“If you really want entertainment then I will arrange for Kin-chan to go to Tokyo with you.” Shiraishi suggested innocently.
Zaizen had to fight down the urge of openly cringing as Kenya described the time he had to travel with Shiraishi and Kintarou as ‘the greatest ordeal’, since he had to keep his eyes on Kintarou during almost the entire trip.
“And that was with Shiraishi, so I had some sort of a break when it got too much.” His senpai had added in horror. “I seriously don’t want to think about what would have happened if Shiraishi was not there.”
“Come on, it’s not that dreadful. It’s always great to talk to Kin-chan.” But his smile was suddenly replaced by a frown. “I wonder if he really is alright being on a different train.”
Shiraishi always take Kintaoru to whatever match that they needed to go, but the nationals require him to leave earlier then everyone else. He would much prefer to have Kintarou travelling with one of the team, but as Chitose pointed out bluntly and truthfully: “We are all really fond of that kid but only you can spend that long a time supervising him without ending up going mad.”
As a result, they decided to let Kintarou return to Osaka by himself as a trial.
“Despite labelling Osaka beside Mt Fuji I think he’ll manage.” Zaizen reassured Shiraishi, referring to the time they first saw Kintarou’s geography test. “At least he knows that Osaka is in Japan.”
“Are you seriously trying to make me feel better?”
The regulars all realise that Shiraishi treated the youngest member of their team in a different way, none of them minded since it was not really favouritism. The only difference was that Kintarou was more like a little brother instead of a following friend.
A question about Kintarou has been on Zaizen’s mind for sometimes but he never asked it as he believed that most people, even the regulars, would misunderstand. But since he was alone with his buchou- as they both missed the train they were meant to take- this was a good opportunity.
“Are you going to let him participate in the end of the year match?”
“No,” at his kohai’s stunned face Shiraishi quickly explained his reasons, and Zaizen was sure that he did not imagine the sudden sadness in his voice. “Being buchou and even fuku-buchou is not easy. I do not wish to make the same mistakes my own buchou made.”
“A mistake? But he made you buchou and you are a really good one.”
“Coming from our tensai that is a great compliment. Should I record it?” Shiraishi laughed before he turned serious once more. “Zaizen, what do you think being the buchou means? You might as well learn this now because you will probably be the next buchou.”
“Arrange everything and support everyone. Be the best in the club in order to help the coach to train everyone else.”
“I thought that too but that isn’t all. You listed what is expected but to be a good buchou you must perform additional duties. For example, you have to make sure that your team behaves…”
“Alright, alright, I was a bit rude to my last opponent.” The younger boy admitted due to the emphasise at the phrase. “But it was 6-0 in such a short amount of time, and considering that he said he was going to ‘trash this second year’...”
“But regardless of the circumstance, saying such a thing will make Shitenhouji look bad. So please restrain your self in the future. If you really want to trash talk, then do it inside your head.” Shiraishi scolded before he continued. “But as I said, you are obliged to make sure your team is behaving, but a good buchou should not achieve this through force. His team should obey what he asks as they believe that he is doing the best for them.”
Zaizen suddenly recollected the first time he met his buchou. Despite appearing rather cocky, he was quite worried about the person who would determine his experience his time in the tennis club. He actually expected Shiraishi to be extremely strict and even slightly Spartan like due to hearing about the amount of extra practises that he would do.
Instead, the buchou that greeted them seemed very good tempered and spoke to them in a rather gentle and soft voice. He had smiled kindly at the first years as he promised to help them in any way that he could.
It was not hard for them to believe him, especially when he was always so patient with everyone when they approached him, even if he was busily doing something else.
But there was a time when Shiraishi showed everyone that he was capable of being angry too. It happened in Zaizen’s first year, when a second year filled a can with stones and promised to give money to anyone that could hit the can and make it fall.
“You are charging them two hundred yens to do this.” Shiraishi had stated flatly when he found out. He did not raise his voice at all, but it was suddenly very cold, different from the way he usually speaks.
“But we don’t mind, buchou.” Someone had protested. “He says that he will give us eight hundred yens if we succeed.”
“Zaizen, come here.” Shiraishi ordered, indicating that things were a bit serious since he was not as authoritative in his first year of being the buchou. It was rather hard to discover where the line between disrespect to a senpai and the duty of the buchou rested. This then forbid him to order the first years that much in case this was seen in the wrong way.
“Hit that can for me, I think you can do it.” Shiraishi commanded, his voice still rather chilling.
Zaizen was naturally flattered at the faith his buchou put in him, but he was also scared because Shiraishi seemed to be in possession of the deep calmness that people only had when they were extremely angry.
“Use a lot of force.” Shiraishi added, his eyes narrowing slightly as he stared at the can.
Because Zaizen was a skilled player even in his first year, he was able to succeed in the first try.
“Well done.” His buchou told him briskly, before he turned to that second year. Many first years would have protested about the trick that was played on them if it wasn’t for Shiraishi’s expression. Even though he didn’t say anything for a long time, it was clear that he was going to do something.
Nonetheless everyone was still quite surprised when he suddenly raised his hand and slapped the offender on the face, the slap was clearly very hard as the noise immediately silenced the whole club.
“If I catch you doing anything like this again, then I will make sure that you are out of the tennis club.” He promised rather chillingly.

“You also have to help your team but not let them worry about you that much.” Shiraishi continued. “This is why I will not let anyone be the buchou before their third year, as your responsibility is not limited to the court, although that certainly is very important.
“You will still enjoy tennis,” unless it is perfect tennis, Shiraishi thought sadly, “But you have to be occupied by thoughts of the whole team. Even if you think that your team will lose, you still have to tell them the opposite.”
“Why did you agree to be one in your second year then?”
“Because I didn’t know what it means. I though I just have to continue playing tennis really well and tell my team ‘well done’ when they win, and ‘don’t worry’ if they lose.”
“No offence buchou, but I think you make it worse then it needs to be. No one will blame you if you want some sympathy from them, or if you are in a bad mood.” Zaizen stated rather bluntly, realising that this was probably the real reason why Shiraishi always seemed so cheerful and even hopeful. His real nature was probably not so optimistic, but for the sake of the team...
“Hitouji once said a similar thing: ‘You are the one who digs these holes.’” Shiraishi said with a sigh. “The reason why I missed the train is because I went to a shrine and spent too long in deciding which one of my two wishes I should ask for. In the end I just left, although I now realise that I should have asked for both, because it is not as if I could only have one.”
Just as no one forced him to break up with Ashita, he was the one who made himself choose between tennis and her.
As he stood in the shrine with these two plates in his hands, he realised that he could not choose this time. He wanted to win the nationals so much, but at the same time he couldn’t give up the hope of being with Ashita again.
“If I seemed depressed then it is because I am a bit stressed due to the nationals as I really want us to reach the finals this year.” He quickly said, which was true enough.
Like all people who made sacrifices, he was naturally nervous when the day of reckoning was approaching.
“I know what will help, playing a match against Koharu and Yuuji as soon as we get back.” Shiraishi suddenly decided, since these two always cheer him up with their joking tennis, although he was no longer so affected by it.
“Buchou…” Zaizen immediately protested.
“It benefits us and them.” Shiraishi explained. “They get to improve their playing style, while we are actually gaining a better concentration. This is why I always make everyone have a game with them regularly.”
“But they…Buchou, I don’t really have objections to that kind of thing but they can get a bit disgusting.”
Shiraishi probably spent a good five minutes starting at his kohai before he started to laugh very loudly. Zaizen didn’t know whether to be embarrassed at the fact that everyone else was staring at them due to his buchou, or for being the one that caused Shiraishi to be like this.
He was a smart enough kid, so this confirmed what he just discovered: his buchou really did bottle most things up to prevent them from suspecting. He was laughing so much as this was a rare opportunity for him to be able to release his emotions.
“Do you honestly think that Koharu and Hitouji are like that?” Shiraishi asked when he finally stopped laughing. “I thought that you would have worked out that they just like to behave in such an extreme way.”
Upon seeing that Zaizen was clearly unconvinced, he decided to reveal one of the great mysteries in Shitenhouji’s tennis club, another was the real reason of the bandages on his left hand. “These two always liked to joke around and most of the time they were allowed as they never did anything really extreme, but I think they wanted to. Their joking tennis then became a way for them to do so.
“They are also best friends, which is another motivation. Koharu told me this: ‘One day this bond of friendship will have to lessen as we will grow up and face situations that we can not do together. So we might as well spend time joking and mucking around together while we still can.’”
“So they really aren’t…”
“No. Does that make you feel easier around them?”
“I was quite scared when Koharu-senpai first called me ‘cute’.” Zaizen admitted, recollecting the way he had been welcomed into the team.

Zaizen was actually quite disappointed when they arrived in Osaka as it was not easy to get another opportunity to speak to his buchou alone. Even though Shiraishi was always willing to talk to anyone from the tennis team, it was much harder for the first and second years as he was often busy.
Since he was standing right beside Shiraishi, he noticed his buchou suddenly frowning when they got off the train, but the train station was so crowded that he didn’t know what had been responsible.
“I should have asked for my wishes.” Shiraishi finally said softly.
He saw Ashita walking past with a few of her friends. She seemed quite happy as she was laughing. It was not as if he was sadistic by wanting her to suffer, but it hurts to see her smiling so happily, especially when he knew that she would not do that for him anymore.
“Um…buchou…” Zaizen suddenly began. “I am kind of glad that I missed the train as I get to talk to you. You know how you said that a good buchou should be respected by his team member? Well, I do respect you as you are a really good tennis player and you do seem to care about us. I don’t think I would have enjoyed tennis so much if you haven’t been my buchou for the past two years.
“I don’t know whether I want to be try and be buchou but if I do, then I want to be one as good as you.”
Shiraishi let out a happy smile and due to the way Zaizen spoke he almost wanted to pat the boy on the head as he would to Kintarou, although he was barely taller then this kohai. “You will be able to be a good buchou if you can speak like this most of the time.”
“But it’s not easy for me to be so polite,” he admitted with an embarrassed laughter, “I guess that’s my additional duties.”

Final note: Another reason that Shiraishi is having this talk with Zaizen as I really believe that Zaizen will be the buchou next year, and initially the one shot was meant to be like this: Zaizen doesn’t want to be the buchou and upon being asked why by Shiraishi, he explains- after he realizes what Shiraishi did he doesn’t know whether he can do the same. So this led to them talking about what are the duties you should do and what are the additional duties.

As for that bit about Shiraishi slapping someone, I don’t know why but I can just see him doing that. (the whole stone and can thing is what a bunch of second years did to the first years in Seigaku in the very first volume. Since that is in the manga I just gave a dehydrated version here). While I do see Shiraishi as being very patient and good tempered, I believe that when he is angry it will be that kind of cold anger, which I think is much more scary. When I read the front of volume 38, when he told his team they’ll try to win by doubles, I actually felt that he is doing this for the team. I think he was a bit worried but for his team he act as if their doubles one would win with no problems at all in order to raise moral.

Lastly, about the reference to the temple, I am not really sure but I read somewhere that you write your wish on a wooden plate then hang it up at this place and pray for the gods to grant your wish. I couldn’t find that much information so sorry about that.

The eleven boys sat in the table in a circle, leaving one space for Atobe. Since they were eliminated at various different stages in the nationals, there were familiar and alien faces for almost every one. The best way to solve this was to have an introduction- which was quite successful.
“I kept on hearing this weird noise.” Shiraishi pointed out once the last person finished introducing himself. “It sounds like a stampede or something.”
The captains from the Tokyo district schools immediately nodded in understanding.
“Ah, Atobe.” Tezuka said simply with another nod of his head.
“How long is this going to continue?” Shiraishi asked when the chanting was becoming louder.
“Until Atobe enters.” Tachibana told him sympathetically. “Meeting Hyotei for the first time is quite an ordeal.”
“It is going to get louder?” Shiraishi said with a groan.
Whoever said that people from Osaka was loud should come here to be proven wrong. First he had to hear Sanada’s roars, now there was this. Perhaps he should stop complaining whenever Kintarou or Watanabe shouts, because it was no where near this level.
But the noise suddenly stopped, although many of them would probably prefer to continue hearing the loud chants of “Hyotei and Atobe” instead of “Ah, be awed by the sight of ore-sama’s dazzling prowess.”
Even as this was declared out, a jacket flew in the room, landing at the very centre of the table.
“Atobe…” Sanada began, his voice very low, but the buchou of Hyotei seemed completely oblivious to the danger that was approaching.
“Ah, everyone else is here. Well, now that ore-same is here, let us start the meeting.”
“YOU ARE HALF AN HOUR LATE!”
Everyone, with the exception of Yukimura, all started to push their chair back. They could all sense the deadly aura that was radiating from Sanada.
If Sanada was holding a katana then he would probably pull it out due to Atobe’s words.
“But ore-same is the most important person in this meeting, so it is alright for ore-same to be late.”
Shiraishi wasn’t sure whether he should describe this as being thick-skinned, pure shamelessness or true ignorance. What made it surprising was that Atobe could say that when Sanada was probably contemplating on the best way of murdering him.
Beside Sanada, Yukimura actually frowned. Perhaps he thought that his fuku-buchou was being too extreme, since every one was continue edging their chairs away. Or maybe he just wanted to do this for reasons of his own.
“Now, Sanada, the main thing is that Atobe-kun is here.” The address by the last name, as well as the slightly raised tone, made Sanada sat back down without saying another word.
The other effect it had was to cause the person sitting beside Yukimura to move his chair even further away.
This fear was proven to be very rational by Yukimura’s next words.
“Ah, Atobe-kun, I am glad to see you. I must say,” the buchou of Rikkai said very sweetly. “It is a pity that your hair grows so fast as your new hair cut really suited you.”
“You seem to have recovered completely, Yukimura-kun.” Atobe gritted out between his teeth, “Ore-same is glad to see that.”
Yukimura bowed in acknowledgement to this, as if Atobe was paying him homage.
“But know that even though Hyotei lost this year, it will be different next year.” Atobe continued, “Hyotei’s next buchou will lead the next generation to beat Rikkai.”
“We have a very good successor too.” Yukimura said, his smile growing wider.
“Echizen Ryoma will continue being the pillar of Seigaku.” Tezuka butted in with a firm nod from Ooishi, although most other people were looking at them a bit blankly.
“Seigaku winning the kantou regional this year is only this year!” Sanada added heatedly, “Rikkai will continue being the champions. This year means nothing!”
Shiraishi gave a sigh as the others began to argue about how their school would do in the Kantou regional next year, since they were all from that region. Well, Shitenhouji was the unchallenged Kansai champion.
Feeling a bit bored, he took out his phone to cheek if there was any messages, upon seeing the pleading from Kenya that asked him to ring back as soon as possible, he turned to the others to see if they would mind.
“The entire Fudomine team will continue playing next year…” even Tachibana was drawn into the conversation.
They wouldn’t mind, Shiraishi decided as he pressed the dial button.
“Shiraishi you have to save me!” his fuku-buchou yelled out. “We were almost thrown out as our coach was snoring.”
“He did that last year too.” Shiraishi said rather calmly. “Just poke him every five minutes, that will also prevent you from sleeping. But make that sure that he doesn’t start yelling.”
A long silence followed before Kenya said in disbelieve: “Please don’t tell me that was what you did last year.”
“Sort of,” he said with an automatic shrug, although it was not as if Kenya could see that. “But it is not that bad because the food was really good, and they did give quite high quality equipments.“
“But it is so boring!”
“Boring stuff can be good, Kenya.” At this he smiled rather sourly, his perfect tennis was just like that.
“Well, thanks for the advice. By the way, how is it at your end?”
“It is certainly…entertaining.” he said truthfully.
He was going to continue chatting until he noticed that everyone was looking at him strangely, which caused him to quickly end the conversation.
“What?” he asked a bit defensively, “It was an emergency call from my fuku-buchou and since you guys were so busy talking about the Kantou regional while I’m from Kansai…”
“No, that is not the point.” Saeki spoke on behalf of everyone, “It’s what you were saying…it sounds so strange.”
“That’s Kansai-ben.” Shiraishi said, failing to understand their extreme reaction. “It’s not that different.”
“It seems like a completely different language!” Sengoku said. “So, Shiraishi-kun, do people speak like that in where you live?”
“I live in Osaka! It’s not as if I live in some really isolated place.” He pointed out dryly, “I still don’t know why you guys are acting as if I am speaking in a foreign language.”
“Can you teach me some phrases then?” Sengoku pressed on eagerly.
“What do you want to learn? Stuff like ‘the weather is fine,’ ‘where is the train station?’” he mentioned these sentences as they were what he tended to find in text books.
“No, no, no, that’s not interesting.” Sengoku said with a rather sage shake of his head. “I was thinking more along the lines of ‘You are very pretty’, ‘why don’t we spend sometime together?’”
Shiraishi was considering whether he should let Sengoku memorise “I am not a pervert”, if he really would teach him some Kansai-ben.
The sound of Atobe snapping his finger would not have been loud if it wasn’t for the fact that Atobe did it in front of the microphone.
“Ore-same believes that we should begin the main purpose of our meeting.” Atobe declared out. “And that is the recording of the song.”
Why this song in particular? Shiraishi thought dryly as everyone began to flip their ‘script’. His mother would always play that song on these three days without fail: the anniversary of her wedding, the day she and his father had their first date, and of course, on Valentine Day. Being a boy, he thought that the song was very cheesy, and always implored his mother to turn the volume down.
However, he could no longer complain about it as Ashita seemed to like it as well. At the first Valentine day that they spent together, she had clapped her hand in delight when she heard the song and made him dance with her.

“Ah, ore-same will naturally begin.” Atobe said, snapping his fingers once again. “Be dazzled by the prowess of ore-same’s voice.”
It was clear that Atobe was certainly enjoying himself, and everyone doubts that he could get any more into it. In fact, he was all but hogging the microphone now.
Upon finishing his verse, Atobe turned to Tezuka: “Now, Tezuka, see if you can even compare to Ore-sama.!”
There was no doubt that Tezuka was among the very top when it came to tennis, but his singing skills were not in the same rank. Sanada naturally used the world slack, although Tachibana was the one who made a more accurate judgement: Tezuka was not really trying, his voice was almost monotonic, and no one was convinced that tomorrow was a special day.
“Ooishi, yudan sezu ni ikou.” Tezuka said sternly as he handed the microphone to his fuku-buchou, who has been taking very deep breaths ever since the first person began to sing.
Ooishi’s version was much better then Tezuka, although it almost had a maternal touch to it.
When Tachibana took the microphone it was as if he was undergoing a personality change. The rather calm and composed buchou of Fudomine began to sing very passionately, almost roaring into the microphone when he was not waving it.
So that is what Tachibana used to be like, Shiraishi thought as he observed this, I really didn’t’ think he is the type of person who would play in such a wild and aggressive way.
This would probably be quite an interesting piece of information for Chitose- provided that the other will stop laughing at the mere thought of Shiraishi being a participant in this.
Meanwhile, the microphone has passed from Tachibana to Minami, whose version was rather bland, not very distinguished. But it seemed that Yamabuki’s fuku-buchou has always stood out much more then their buchou.
Sengoku has been waiting for his turn very eagerly, as this was surely a very good way to be noticed by girls. He was quite disappointed that Minami did not manage to make him more distinguished, but he consoled himself with the fact that since he was directly after Minami, girls will be more likely to notice him.
“Alright!” he yelled out as soon as he grabbed the microphone from Minami, after being scolded for grinning to himself. “This is for all the cute girls in Japan…no, this is for all the cute girls in the world!”
Needless to say, he gained himself a follower: Aoi Kentarou was starting to regard him as an idol.
“Well done, Sengoku-kun,” Yukimura said with a smile, “However, it is Rikkai’s turn. Genichiro,” he stated, even though his voice has not raised, there was a very strong authority in it, “We will show everyone how well Rikkai performs.”
Sanada certainly tried very hard, but the words seemed a bit strange to be sung by him. As he listened to the verse that Sanada was singing, Shiraishi suddenly felt that he was at the morning assembly, just about to sing the school song.
Yukimura was certainly different, he definitely sang the song with much more convection then Sanada, although many were wandering whether it was done too well. All of a sudden, the song no longer seemed to be about a happy date on Valentine day, but a last meeting between two doomed lovers.
Even though this whole thing was really bizarre and rather pointless, Shiraishi realised that he was actually really enjoying himself. It was certainly much more fun then the Osaka meeting that his coach and fuku-buchou were currently attending. That was why he was quite cheerful when he accepted the microphone from Yukimura, although he was slightly worried that Sanada would suddenly yell out “This is too slack a performance! Put the microphone down right now!”
He needn’t have worry as even though his singing was not particular unusual, it was very good. He might not have moved the audience to tears, but he was never out of tune. The fact that he was thinking of his girl friend made his version rather pleasant to listen to, as they could detect the affection in his voice.
The song was finished by Saeki and Kentarou, the latter doing a very good performance due to the fear of not being able to go on a date for three years if he did not sing as well as his senpai.

When the meeting finally concluded, Shiraishi has to consider the problem of the rest of the night. Kenya told him that he could stay with his cousin Yuushi if things get too late, and this was probably his best opinion as he was sure that the last train has left.
“Atobe-kun, do you know where Oshitari Yuushi lives? I think I will probably have to spend the night in his house since the next train to Osaka only comes at next morning.”
“Ah, stay in Oshitari Yuushi’s house? Shiraishi-kun, are you deserted in Tokyo with no one to turn to?”
“It is true that I don’t really know anyone in Tokyo but…”
“Then ore-sama generously invites you to stay in his house as ore-sama has many guest rooms, so ore-sama is convinced that one of the rooms will be able to suit your requirement.”
“Well…”
“Of course, this will not trouble ore-sama at all.” Atobe continued grandly, “No, not at all.”
Do I sound like a beggar begging? Shiraishi thought dryly.
“Since Shiraishi-kun just agreed,” Atobe said on behalf of Shiraishi, as he was certain his offer would not be rejected. “Ore-sama extends the invitation to all of you.”
“Well…we don’t want to impose on you Atobe.” Ooishi began timidly.
“Nonsense, Ore-sama’s house is big enough for all of you. What do you say to this, Tezuka, ah?”
Sengoku naturally agreed as he has heard of Atobe’s reputation of being super rich.
“Us too! This is awesome! Lucky!” he cried out happily.
Saeki agreed as well, because like Shiraishi, their train has probably left. His original plan was to stay in Fuji’s house, but Atobe’s offer was much better as Kentarou would probably be a bit frightened by Fuji. Despite being very close friends with Fuji, Saeki knew that his friends could be rather unusual.
“Yukimura, we are…” Sanada began, but he was interrupted by his buchou, who seemed on the verge of clapping his hands.
“This sounds fun! Don’t you think so, Genichiro?” without waiting for him to speak, he turned to Atobe, “We are coming as well!”
“Well, Tezuka, it might be good if we go as…”
Tezuka gave a nod as soon as Ooishi finished his explanation, since he knew his fuku-buchou very well.
“Ah, then follow ore-sama!”

When Shiraishi finally returned to Osaka, he naturally had a lot of stuff to tell everyone, as well as distributing a large amount of gift. Upon hearing that he intended to buy some souvenirs, Atobe gave him an enormous pile. Shiraishi didn’t mind accepting them at all, because he knew that this has nothing to do with Atobe being very rich, it was just because Atobe wanted to give him some gifts as thanks for attending the meeting, and being Atobe, he has to do it in such an extreme way.
“How was the meeting, Shiraishi?” Watanabe asked when he picked the young boy up at the train station, rather surprised at his extra luggage.
“It was very interesting,” Shiraishi said after a slight pause, “I learnt a lot of stuff. I think the most important thing is that I realise the images we see of our rivals on court can be quite different from what they are like in daily life.”
Although some people seemed to be quite similar, he thought warily as he recollected the lectures he had received from Rikkai’s fuku-buchou due to being late.
“I am glad that I went.” He finally said. “I really am.”

Final note: The whole thing with the drinking machine is actually one of the first inspiration for this story. Basically in that meeting in 20.5, Aoi said something which caused Sanada to yell at him, saying he is much too slack, Tachibana then told Sanada that he should be a bit tolerant, since Aoi is only a first year. Sanada then said that when he was a first year, he was actually noticing that the water supply in the stadium is really bad, and that he went to suggest them to install some vending machine. That just kind of gave me the idea. And I naturally thought that it will be really fun if Shiraishi is there since he is quite a famous figure in their world. Initially I was going to put Higa’s buchou in but that didn’t fit.

Title: The singing gathering
Written at: September 8, 2007
Summary: Inspired by the kantou buchou’s meeting in the end of 20.5. Basically a humorous story, the crazy idea of various buchou and fuku-buchou (including Shiraishi) gathering for a meeting due to Atobe’s sudden whim of wanting to record the song ‘valentine kiss’.
Word count: 6528
Note: I got this idea when I was reading Prince of tennis 20.5, which includes this end bit of almost all the buchou of the Kantou schools having a meeting and some how I just had the idea of ‘What if Shiraishi was there as well?” And somehow I just ended up writing conversations of what I think will be happening in this meeting. Then I realized that I want to transfer it into a story, so here it is. This is totally random, and some character are portrayed a bit over the top and the others will probably be a bit out of character since I don’t really have that a very good understanding of their character. Also, I am not really sure how everyone addresses everyone so I might have made some mistakes, then please forgive me. I tried…

Both the coach and fuku-buchou of Shitenhouji were waving at theiri buchou, who was glaring at them from the moving train that was heading to Tokyo. But Watanabe’s smile was genuine, unlike the strained smile of Kenya.
About a week ago, Shitenhouji’s tennis club received a very formal and elaborate letter from Atobe Keigo, announcing that he was going to host a gathering to help the reporters of Monthly tennis to compete their special edition that will cover the whole national. Somehow this involved making the buchou and fuku-buchou of all the participating school to record the song ‘Valentine kiss’, which would be released along with the magazine.
“…and as letting the entire population of Japan be awed by our voices is such a noble goal, ore-same expects all of you who receive this to attend…” Kenya finally gave up in frustration and disgust, “Gosh, he is the number one narcissist. Can I please put this in the shredder?”
“We have to go to another meeting any way.” Shiraishi said with a careless shrug, although the ticket to Tokyo by the Shinkasen was pretty tempting, since he went on ordinary trains before.
Every year, the largest sport equipment manufacturer in Osaka would gather all the sport teams of the city in order to make their annual speech and distribute prices to those who performed exceptionally well.
“But we have a fuku-buchou and a buchou!” Watanabe announced as he charged in the office, brandishing his copy of the letter. “One of you can go to this meeting in Tokyo, while the other can attend the Osaka meeting with me.”
“Kenya should go to the Tokyo one.” Shiraishi put in quickly. “We will probably be given some prices as we came third in the nationals. Since I am the buchou I should be there to accept it. Kenya can also visit his cousin at the same time.”
“So I have to go to that…that ridiculous recording of that stupid song just because I have relatives in Tokyo?” Kenya protested.
Watanabe spent some time pondering, which involved him scratching his chin before he suddenly pressed his hat down even more, the indication of him having made up his mind. “Well, Shiraishi, you are the buchou, so you know best. Kenya, this will be a good opportunity for you to learn how to please girls.”
“What has that got to do with anything…” Kenya’s protest trailed off as Shiraishi immediately began to arrange for the Tokyo trip, deeply relieved that he was not the one who had to go.
But when the train to Tokyo finally arrived, Watanabe suddenly said: “Shiraishi, I think it is much better to send you instead.” As he said this, he actually pushed Shiraishi onto the train, then quickly closed the door.
“Don’t forget that you are representing Shitenhouji!” Watanabe shouted out, waving very cheerfully until the train was well out of their sight. Then he turned to Kenya and picked up the boy’s luggage. “Well, it’s time for us to go back, we have to attend the Osaka meeting tonight.”
“Is this really alright?”
“Shiraishi will be fine, I know that he have his wallet and cell phone in his school bag.” Watanabe said easily. “I also put some extra money in his bag- just in case.”
“So you intended for him to go all along? Not that I am complaining at all.” Kenya quickly added.
Watanabe admits this with his typical grin, “Of course. Shiraishi will probably give more complaints then you if I told him that he is going no matter what, so I let him think that you are going in order to spare myself a worse headache.”
“But why do you want him to go? It is not as if that meeting really requires the buchou to go.”
“Because Shiraishi needs to have some happy memories that happened due to him being the buchou. I know that this singing gathering is a bit idiotic, but I am sure that it will be enjoyable once you get there.”
The answered shocked Kenya because he never expected their coach to be so perceptive, although it could also be interpreted the opposite way: none of the regulars ever noticed how difficult being the buchou was.
“Beside,” Watanabe added, “It can’t be worse then the meeting tonight. Shiraishi’s main job at the meeting last year was to keep me awake. With the exception of dinner and the time when we were presented with free stuff, the meeting was one of the most boring things I have ever participated in.”
At this Kenya suddenly wonder whether he should have insisted on going to Tokyo.
However, they both failed to remember that Shiraishi might face problems from another source.

“WHAT!” Ashita’s loud scream immediately forced him to quickly hold his cell phone some distance away from him.
He couldn’t exactly blame his girl friend for yelling at him as he was meant to be eating dinner with her before he goes to the Osaka meeting, and she told him that she would cook all the dinner since he was the guest.
“I am so sorry!” he whispered very softly as many of the passengers were now looking at him. “But Watanabe-sensei just shoved me on the train. I didn’t even have time to protest!”
“I can’t believe this.” He could hear her mutter something and it probably was not what he might wish to hear, as she seemed to have deliberately pressed her hand over the speaker.
“Ashita?”
“I know it is not your fault, Kuranosuke, but I am just still mad.” She finally said . “I was cooking as soon as I got home and I was really hoping…”
The two of them has reconciled, but what he had done was still a slight barrier- she was afraid that the same thing might happen again.
“Young love.” The matronly woman in front of him declared out dreamily to her husband when he finally hung up the phone after much assurance. “We were like that once.”
This was enough to make him consider whether he should go to one of the quiet carriages. But he should really be figuring out a way to make this up to Ashita, maybe a gift from Tokyo could pacify her?

If it was the train arriving in Tokyo fifteen minutes after schedule was not bad enough, he had great difficulty in navigating his way first out of the train station, then through the city. Unfortunately, Atobe presumed that they would easily find their way to the studio where the meeting was held, so he did not have much time.
Bad luck seemed to favour him- he decided, rather logically, that it would be quicker to ask someone instead of trying to work out the map himself. This made him end up going to the opposite direction.
In the end, he still had to decipher the map himself. Due to all this delay, he was forced to arrive ten minutes late. It was really bad for the representation of a school to be late, but surely the others might forgive him since he was a stranger to Tokyo.
Shiraishi was immediately greeted by Tachibana. The two boys from Kyushu have resumed correspondence after the national as they finally worked out every thing. It was natural that they would talk about their new team mates. From what he heard, Tachibana could respect Shiraishi without much difficulty- he regards the buchou of Shitenhouji’s decision of doing something he did not like in order for his team to benefit as very noble.
“Tachibana-kun.” Shiraishi said with a smile, he truly admires the buchou of Fudomine due to his sense of honour in the singles 2 match with Chitose. “I am sorry for being late but I was lost.”
“Well, you are not from Tokyo so I think that is pardonable.” Tachibana said understandingly. “I’ve been here for about a year now and I still have difficulty in finding my way sometimes.”
The other person, unfortunately, was not to be pacified so easily. Upon seeing the fuku-buchou of Rikkai, Shiraishi’s first reaction was wondering whether he should run for it, as Sanada was glaring at him.
“Well, Shiraishi-kun is here.” Tachibana began in what he hoped to be a rather tactful manner. “I am sure that he is eager to meet the others who are inside so…”
“Ten…minutes…late.” Sanada spelt out slowly, before he suddenly started to yell very loudly. “You should not be so slack, especially when you are the captain of Shitenhouji, who actually came third in the nationals for the past two years!”
“How has that got to do with anything?” Shiraishi immediately retorted back. He knew that he was in the wrong for being late, but this was surely way too extreme. Judging from Sanada’s tone, it sounded as if he turned up to the meeting a whole day late. Beside, it was not really as if being a good tennis player meant that he was good at directions too.
“That’s true.” Tachibana affirmed him when he pointed this out. “Sanada-kun, Shiraishi-kun lives in Osaka so we should pardon him for being a bit late.”
“As a buchou it is his duty to find out all the information about the city he needs to go a few days ahead and read the map over on the train in order to commit it to memory…” Sanada began.
“Well, I would have done that but my fuku-buchou was the one who was going, not me, I was meant to be attending another meeting.” Shiraishi quickly defended himself. “Kenya…Oshitari Kenya hase the map that I brought…”
“As the buchou you should have read the map with him and keep a copy with you in case he gets lost and requires your help.” Sanada interrupted him very sternly. “It is your duty…”
“I am sure that everyone is waiting for us.” Tachibana said as he quickly ushered Shiraishi inside.
“What is it with that guy? I mean, I’ve only seen him at the national and…” Shiraishi began, breathing a sigh of relief. “Actually, he wouldn’t be the guy who was talking about the drinking machine would he? Because there was this guy who was ranting about how slack the organizer was by not having enough water supplies.”
“Rikkai’s Sanada is always like that. Now that you mention it, I think I remember that incident too.” Tachibana agreed, “But Shiraishi-kun, their buchou is much worse then their fuku-buchou.”
“I can’t really imagine that.” Shiraishi said truthfully.
“It’s a different type of scariness, Shiraishi-kun. Yukimura wouldn’t give you a lecture about being late or anything but…” Tachibana didn’t need to finish his sentence as by this time they had walked into the meeting room, where they were immediately greeted by Yukimura, who was smiling at them with what could only be described as a dazzling smile.
The smile put Shiraishi on guard because Watanabe tended to smile like that whenever he had one of his strange plans.
“You must be Shiraishi Kuranosuke,” Yukimura said, offering his hand, “I remember you from the nationals last year, as well as this year.”
“Rikkai’s buchou, I’ve already met your fuku-buchou.” Shiraishi replied as he accepted the hand.
“Oh Genichirou can be so serious about the littlest thing, I should really stop him but he looks so funny whenever he gets so angry!” Rikkai’s buchou replied with an angelic smile, then asked “Did I say something strange?” in a tone of pure innocence when everyone began to edge away, particularly Shiraishi and Tachibana, who was standing the closest to him.
“Saeki-kun! This is Shiraishi Kuranosuke from Shitenhouji!” Tachibana quickly declared out at the sight of a person with a less deceptive expression.
The three boys began to chat rather amiably about who was participating.
“No one is coming from Higa Chuu, a very good thing.” Saeki stated.
“I’ve heard about their behaviour during their match and it is sickening.” Shiraishi said with a nod. “But it seems that I am the only one who is representing a school outside of Kantou.”
“Many others refuse to come, and I suppose I can’t exactly blame them.” Tachibana said understandingly, “This whole idea is quite bizarre.”
“But I think this is really good!” Sengoku announced loudly as he joined them, “It’s a great chance for us to be noticed by all the cute girls in the world!”
“Sengoku-kun.” Tachibana acknowledged with a nod.
“Sengoku Kyysumi, the buchou of Yamabuki?” Shiraishi asked.
“I am Sengoku but I am not the buchou.” Sengoku replied easily. “Wow, one of Kansai’s most famous player actually recognise me, lucky!“
“Wait a second, I always thought that you are the buchou of Yamabuki.” Saeki butted in. “If you are not… then who is it?”
“Minami.”
“Who is Minami then?” Tachibana asked rather softly, just in case.
“Tacbibana-kun, you are the one who lives in Tokyo. How would we know if you don’t?” Saeki pointed out.
“Yamabuki’s uniform is quite distinguished so it shouldn’t be that hard…” Shiraishi began logically.
“I am Minami Kentarou!” the boy beside them protested. At his appearance the three other boys could only laugh rather embarrassedly, as he was basically standing right next to them.
“I am so sorry for not seeing you there.” Shiraishi began, extending his hand. “Anyway, I am Shiraishi Kuranosuke, the buchou of Osaka’s Shitenhouji.”
“I know who you are, I’ve heard of you.” Minami muttered rather bitterly as he accepted the offered hand, it was bad enough to not be recognised, but it was much worse when you actually knew the identity of that person.
Beside Minami, Sengoku gave a slight shake of his head, “I told you, Minami, you need to be more distinguished. See, not only does Kansai’s Shiraishi not recognise you, even people from Tokyo like Tachibana have no idea who you are. Of course, there’s the more important fact that girls will never notice you.”
“Well, people playing doubles tend to be less noticed then people who play singles, even though they are equally important.” Tachibana said, wanting to make up for his early words.
“But my own buchou played doubles with me when he was the buchou and everyone in Kansai knew who he was and there are people outside Kansai who recognised him too!” Shiraishi immediately protested, but he quickly stopped when he noticed that Minami seemed to be on the verge of slouching down in despair.
“Why don’t we go and stand beside the window?” Saeki suggested tactfully. “I want to see if Kentarou is coming. I hope that he will be here soon.”
“Sanada really scared that poor boy at the last meeting.” Tachibana said in sympathy.
“What did actually happen, Tachibana-kun? The only thing Kentarou seemed to remember about the meeting was how frightening Sanada was.”
As Tachibana explained what had happened, the two other boys nodded in empathy. Shiraishi could understand that perfectly as his first meeting with Sanada was rather similar. It was at the national before this year, and as the two teams faced each other, he kept on feeling that the guy with the cap was staring at him.
As he told this story to his companions, they both began to laugh softly, not out aloud due to the fear of being noticed by everyone else, especially Rikkai’s buchou.
“But I think he probably just look like that in general,” Saeki whispered, “I don’t think he was deliberately staring at you.
“He reminds me of that guy in Seigaku, the one that always wear a bandana.” Tachibana added.

Unlike Shiraishi, Rokkaku’s buchou was unable to dispel Sanada’s yelling as mere annoyance. Most of the buchou and fuku-buchou were very sympathetic towards him, especially when he starts to repetitively bow in apology with the promise of never being late in his entire life.
Although some were watching this with a bit of amusement.
“Are you alright, Kentarou?” Saeki immediately asked in great concern as his kohai entered, clearly very shaken.
“I…I am still alive.” Was Kentarou’s answer as he slouched down on one of the chairs. “I really didn’t mean to be so late…”
“Hey, the same thing happened to me!” Shiraishi said kindly. “So you are Aoi Kentarou. I am Shiraishi Kuranosuke from…”
“You are the one with the really pretty girl friend!” Aoi suddenly yelled out. “I heard from Saeki-senpai, who heard from Fuji-senpai, who heard from Momoshiro-senpai , who…”
“What is this? What is this? You have a girl friend?” Sengoku immediately butted in. “Is she really pretty?”
Shiraishi didn’t know whether he should be relieved that he was being remembered due to this instead of his perfect tennis. Maybe he should tell this to Ashita, as it might cheer her up. His father once told him that a female was vain no matter what she might say.
With the arrival of Aoi, almost everyone- with the exception of one has come. So Tezuka, who has been standing beside the window and observe all this finally spoke.
“Maybe we should start.”
“Yes, it is fifteen minutes pass the starting time.” The ever nervous mother of Seigaku began worriedly. ”Perhaps one of us should ask Sanada-san to enter.”
This would be a good idea if it wasn’t greeted with a long silence.
“Oh don’t bother about Genichirou,” Yukimura said easily, “He’ll enter whenever he wants to.”
“But we should really be starting the meeting!” Ooishi said, his voice even more worried. “According to the agenda we are meant to have some discussions before we…”
“Just how old is Sanada-kun anyway?” Sengoku’s louder voice drowned over Ooishi, “The way he stand outside like that make him look like one of those guards at department stores.”
“He looked like that at last year’s nationals too.” Shiraishi pointed out. “In fact, when I first saw him with my coach he was examining the vending machine, and we thought that he was…actually, never mind.” He managed to stop himself on time as Yukimura’s smile was a bit too dangerous.
“I wonder how old he is,” Watanabe had whispered to him. “Shiraishi, do you think it is possible that he might be younger then me?”
“I doubt it.” Shiraishi had murmured back in equal softness. “Sensei is only twenty six, right? He looks as if he is at least ten years older then you.”
“Shiraishi-kun, are you sure you don’t want to finish what you are saying?” Yukimura asked, his smile making Shiraishi glance behind him to see if there was room for him to back away, “Don’t worry, I wouldn’t tell anyone, especially Genichirou.”
Yeah right was Shiraishi’s initial reaction, somehow he could easily visualise the picture of Sanada chasing him with a katana due to Yukimura retelling him this most ‘accidentally and innocently’ .
“We should really start the meeting!” Ooishi began again, his voice almost on the edge of panicking.
“Ooishi-kun, don’t worry, Atobe is still not here, and since he is the one who arranged this we need to wait for him.” Tachibana said kindly.
Due to Kenya’s cousin, the whole Shitenhouji team has heard a lot of bizarre stories, although none of it has been confirmed as being true yet. This was surely the perfect time to find out.
“Are all these rumours about Hyotei true? About their hundreds of cheerleader and some one who always start the game by throwing his jacket into the air. And I also heard that if you lose a game you have to shave or cut your hair.”
Tachibana and Saeki were going to explain some of these stories when they were suddenly interrupted by the sound of Yukimura tapping on the window.
“Genichirou can be so stubborn.” He said with a slight smile. “I apologise for causing you guys any inconvenience.”
“Thank you, Yukimura-kun but I don’t think that would work.” Ooishi said gratefully, “I don’t think he can…”
With the exception of Yukimura, everyone was stunned when Sanada walked into the room. Even Tezuka was shocked, but being Tezuka, he easily masked his expression and only let out an “Ah” at this.
“Yukimura, I am sorry for troubling you.” Sanada said with a formal bow, but as he saw the rest of the buchou and fuku-buchou, he began another one of his infamous screams.
Yukimura was naturally doing the right thing, sitting by the table; Tezuka and Ooishi were still standing beside the window; Saeki, Kentarou, Tachibana and Shiraishi had formed their own circle in one of the corners, although they were at least sitting on chairs, not on the table as Sengoku was. Sengoku has remembered what Shiraishi said about his girl friend and was pestering Shiraishi to show him some sort of a photo by repeatedly knocking on the back of Shiraishi’s chair.
Of course, there was also poor Minami, who was practically ignored by everyone else even though he was actually standing right next to Sengoku.
“Why haven’t you guys started the meeting?” Sanada bellowed out, “That is too slack.”
Looking at the glass in Kentarou’s hand, Shiraishi could almost swear that the water in it was vibrating. This was absolutely amazing, not even Kintarou’s loudest “Poisoned hands” could achieve this.
“But Sanada-kun, you were standing outside.” Saeki pointed out calmly.
“I was making sure that those who are late will know! The meeting would have begun on time if Shiraishi-kun didn’t arrive ten minutes late.”
“For goodness sake, it was only ten minutes!” Shiraishi protested again, he was more then a bit annoyed at the fact that Sanada was referring to this as if everyone else has been waiting for him for a whole day. “And as I said before, I haven’t been to Tokyo many times and…oh, forget it!” he said in utter defeat when Sanada began another lecture on the importance of arriving on time.
“And Aoi-kun is even worse!” upon finally finishing with the first victim, he quickly moved on to the second one.
“I am so sorry, Sanada-san! I’ll never be late again in my entire life! I swear it!” the first year buchou of Rokkaku said as he stood up and began to bow repetitively at Sanada.
“Kentarou, don’t let this get to you this much.” Saeki whispered, pulling him to sit down again.
Despite being capable of having a deafening scream, Sanada was also in possession of a very good hearing.
“What do you mean by that? You shouldn’t encourage him to be late! He is the buchou and he…”
“Sanada-kun, we are not from Tokyo. I am not even from Kantou. The ticket Atobe–kun gave us did not give us much time to find our way.” Shiraishi said steadily, receiving a grateful look from Kentarou.
“I am not from Tokyo either! That is no excuse for being so slack.”
“Yes, that is true, but Kanagawa is quite close to Tokyo.” Shiraishi reminded him, “While both Chiba and Osaka are some distances away. Most of all, you are over reacting.”
“Genichiro, Shiraishi-kun is right. Why don’t we just all sit back and let the meeting start?” Yukimura said. Although his voice still seemed a bit soft, Shiraishi could tell that the tone was much firm. After all, this was how he spoke with Kintarou whenever he needed to get the younger boy to do, or not do, something.
But the difference between these two was a bit too vast…

I don’t know when or how exactly this happened, but all of a sudden my day and sleeping time is disrupted, this is really bad because it then works in a cycle. I would sleep late because there are things that I want to do, and because I am sleeping late I am then waking up late, and by waking up late I don’t seem to have enough time, so I will then stay up. Well, I planned to sleep early last night but I got quite distracted as I was reading (I want to know who the killer is). But I think I must be born not liking detective stories, because I would forget about who is who by the middle of the book. Yet when I read romance novels, I seem to be usually able to remember most of the characters. But I also dislike reading too much mystery novels for another reason: for me, they show the ugly side of humanity. Because mystery novels usually involve solving crime that are murders, and the reason of murder just really make you feel sad and at times deeply disgusted with humanity. Perhaps it is also due to the fact that I am not born as an intellectual, so when others go: “Oh my gosh, did you hear that, that is very symbolic”, or “Oh my goodness, that theory makes perfect sense!!!” I’ll be going: “Huh? I don’t get this at all”. So I only occasionally read these kind of stuff.

My main project in the world of fandom is the fan fiction that deals with Watanabe (prince of tennis). That story is unusual. I admit that it is quite a stretch, the plot, as in the fact that I am really stretching it. That assumption and what if in that story is probably a bit too far. (it is highly unlikely/impossible). To tell the truth I am not even sure whether I fully believe it myself but I don’t really care, I just want to finish this story (I think my theory is pretty unlikely, but I am not saying it is impossible yet.) My main problem is that I usually almost always write the draft of these story on paper first, and sometimes typing it up can be really tedious, and it tend to take quite some time (although I am a relatively fast typist).

I am also in the process of doing two more ‘one shot’ in chapters. I’ve got the draft written and I just now need to typed it up. I think these story might interest some people who will be reading this entry. The first one is actually sort of from Yukimura’s point of view. We start with Yukimura thinking about all this the reason they all want to win so much, and then he meets Shiraishi and the two talks a bit. Although I do not think it is a friendship fan fiction, which is what I initially wanted, I still like the result. The other fan fiction involves the singles 2 match in the finals of the nationals, where Shiraishi ponders about what it means, and it ends with him thinking about Niou’s decision. Not very long because this one shot is focusing on Shiraishi , but I think the portrayal of Niou, might interest some people.

Lastly… I don’t know why but I started to read ‘Bleach’. Well… it was sort of because I’ve heard about the story from you know who, and then I went on the internet and had a read about summary and characters, and because I really like the two bleach song I heard. Then the other day, I was doing stuff on the family computer (which contains copies of the manga), and I just thought I’ll have a read. Once I did I just decided to read it, and I then just read it sort of because it happens to be there, and it is quite interesting. Another reason is because I was quite interested in the story of Gin and Rangiku so I actually went to fan fiction.net after I went to Wikipedia, and then I read a lot of really nice fan fictions. (even though I haven’t even read the original story myself). So I guess that’s another reason, after reading stories about them for quite a while I decided to see what they are like in the original story. (although I do know that nothing that much happened). But I am already too much influenced by fan’s version because I might not really think that there has been something like that going on if I have not read fan fictions first. Also… I’ve read too many fan fictions saying that the reason of Gin’s betrayal is due to Rangiku… I think I am starting to believe this myself, although I know that I would never have reached this judgement if it wasn’t for fan fictions. But oh well, so what? My interpretations has always been weird anyway.

Oh, and another reason I have been curious about bleach. Because Watanabe Osamu (prince of tennis) is based on the character of Urahara Kisuke (bleach). Now that I have almost read all of the released volumes, I have to say: they are quite alike (although I think Watanabe is drawn much better then Urahara). But basically Watanabe truly have that sense of only stepping in only when things get really serious. And I am so so so glad that Konomi-sensei based Watanabe-sensei on Urahara, instead of some one really perverted (eg. The captain of the 12th division, and Szayel Aporro Granz- the number eight espada.) By the way I am really worried…the seiyuu for Aporro (what most people call him) is actually the seiyuu for Sengoku (pot again) and the scary thing is that in one scene, Aporro actually says something like: “So the fact that I get to meet the two of you is very lucky!” Yeah… “Toriumi-san, please don’t use your Sengoku voice and tone at that time!!!”

Title: The way I want to be remembered
Written at: August 29, 2007
Summary: What if Shitenhouji was offered the chance of letting some of their regulars attend the Junior Selection Camp as well? Due to Shiraishi’s refusal at going, Watanabe plays a match with him in order to let him understand his own skills more.
Theme: The idea of a bind on Shiraishi due to him playing perfect tennis, and showing that he could still be very good without perfect tennis.
Word count: 1869

“Do you boys want to make a bet with me?” Watanabe Osamu said as he took out a form from his seemingly neglected filing cabinet and placed it face down on the desk. “Shiraishi is going to enter and charge to the filing cabinet, ignoring us completely, to search for this.”
“What will happen if you lose?” Kenya asked.
“The loser must treat the winner to lunch.”
“There is no way that I am going to accept your bet.” Chitose said. “Face it, Sensei, you are not exactly trustworthy. Beside, I think I can guess what you did.”
“Young people these days…” Watanabe said in seemingly despair. “I can’t believe the next generation is like this.”
“Hey, Shiraishi is…” Koharu began but quickly stopped talking at the mere sight of Shiraishi’s face- the last time he saw his friend with that expression was when he mentioned Tanako Ashita on the day Shiraishi decided to break up with her.
Without any word of greeting to any of them, Shiraishi marched to the filing cabin and yanked it open, then start flipping the files with an uncharacteristic force.
“Looking for this?” Watanabe asked merrily, waving the document at Shiraishi, it was the form saying who the two players Shitenhouji would send to participate in the Junior Selection Camp were.
If this was anyone other then Shiraishi, then the document would be immediately snatched out of Watanabe’s hand. But by now, Shiraishi realised that his actions were not suitable for the buchou of Shitenhouji, so he opted to cross his arms instead.
“Why is my name there?” he asked with a smile that was clearly forced. “I am sure that I wrote Chitose Senri in that square.”
“Well, a coach’s job involves correcting mistakes made by the buchou.” Watanabe declared out in a rather self-sacrificing tone.
“A mistake?”
“We should naturally be sending our best players to the Junior Selection Camp, but this is not what you plan to do.”
“Sensei is right.” Chitose admitted. “You are still better then me even without your perfect tennis.”
“And it’ll be more fun if you come!” Kintarou agreed, earning a dark look from his buchou, who was contemplating whether he should begin to unwrap his bandages.
But Kintarou was distracted by Chitose, who cried out in mock outrage: “I am not good company?”
“Well, you always say ‘Everyone, leave me alone, I’m trying to sleep,’ regardless of being on the train or the car.” The joking pair quoted sagely.
As he watched his own team mates begin another long discussion that was caused by the most trivial thing, Shiraishi could only sit down in resignation.
“And here is the consent form.” His coach said cheerfully. “Don’t forget to write your own name this time. You parents will be so proud of you.”
“I haven’t told them yet,” Shiraishi said with a sigh. “They didn’t see the letter. If they knew, then there is no way that I can not go.”
“Going to this training camp will be very good for you.” Watanabe said, as his voice suddenly turned very serious, the young boy immediately looked up. “I know why you don’t want to go, Shiraishi. You are afraid that people will think less of you if you don’t use your perfect tennis any more.”
“I have been playing perfect tennis for more then a year now.” Shiraishi pointed out. “It has always been better then my old playing style, and as I only recently start to play my old way again, I am worried that I might not do that well. I don’t want people to misjudge me by thinking that I am only good with my perfect tennis- because it is not something that I like.”
“By now you should have realised that the difference is not that wide. Do you not remember how you end up being the buchou in only your second year?”
“I do, but I am still worried…”
“Are you concern about losing without your perfect tennis, or are you actually frighten at the fact that you might end up using perfect tennis in order to prevent your self from losing?”
Shiraishi thought that it was ironic how people, including some of his previous team mates, tended to see their coach as being incapable when the truth was the very opposite. His coach managed to sum up his ongoing conflict by only using two sentences.
While his tennis skills were acknowledged and recognized ever since his first year in junior high school, his reputation was really built up due to his perfect tennis- people were wary of him due to that playing style, not the way he manipulated tennis.
His original plan was to spend the rest of the year practicing in order to make up for the past neglects, but this training camp was held too early.
What would people think of him if they see him losing without his perfect tennis? They would surely criticize his decision, and he was afraid that his pride would end up making him use perfect tennis once more to prevent that from coming true.
That would tie him to his perfect tennis even more, he was actually almost frightened that he might end up being too reliant with it, and therefore not being able to get rid of it.
Feeling someone tapping his head, he was forced to look up again, his coach had grabbed a spare racquet and was using that to tap his head in order to get his attention.
“We are going to have a match, you and I.” Watanabe declared out, his tone was very light, but it was clear that he expect Shiraishi to do what he just said. “If you still don’t want to go to the Junior Selection Camp after this then you don’t have to. I will tell everyone that it is my fault by writing the wrong name.”

The match between the captain and the coach of Shitenhouji’s tennis club naturally attracted a very large crowd- even people who did not know much about tennis was curious.
Shiraishi found himself recollecting what had happened in both his and his coach’s first year in this school. Upon being insulted by the two rudest member of the team that year, Watanabe had ended up beating them, and then announced that he would demonstrate his skills by playing the rest of the team as well.
“I really apologise for this, sensei.” His buchou had said politely as he stepped onto the court with his new doubles partner, being the last pair.
Beside him, Shiraishi bowed to the coach very respectfully, and the warm smile he received from the man made him felt more at ease. After witnessing all six of his senpai’s defeat, he did not think that he had any chance of winning, even if the buchou was his partner.
He then decided that this game would be for the purpose of testing his skills.
Was this what he was doing now? Shiraishi asked himself after he just managed to return the serve, his coach still seemed to be so skilled!
But he was actually not really worried about the result of the match. He didn’t think that it was because he didn’t believe he could win- he refused to rule out that possibility as there was always some sort of hope.
It was because he didn’t need to worry about the consequences of losing as much. This was something that has become too important for him. Wasn’t that what Ashita accused him of? That he was obsessed to the level that he felt he was committing a crime by losing.
It was such a great relief for him to be able to concentrate on a match without forcing himself to do so, because it was no longer so dull.
“Your skills have become much better, Shiraishi.” Watanabe commented. “You are scoring more easily this time.”
Wait…that meant he has improved even without his perfect tennis. So this was the purpose of the game! His coach wanted to let him understand that he should stop doubting himself.
In the end, he still lost. But he was actually feeling quite cheerful, as he had great fun, and he felt that he did all he could, with the exception of using his perfect tennis. Although, he admits, he would be in an even better mood if he won.
It was not as if he stopped caring about winning, it was just that he could stop feeling guilty for losing, since his lose would only affect himself. He would not mind as long as he had a good game with the knowledge that he tried his best.
“Thank you, Sensei.” He said softly as he went to shake his coach’s hand. “I am really looking forward to the Junior Selection Camp now, as I will be able to test my skills with others.”
“It is time for you to do what you want, Shiraishi, do what ever that will make you happy. By the way, Shiraishi,” Watanabe added in a more light hearted tone just as the boy was prepared to leave as he spotted his girl friend. “I should be rewarded for playing with you. Some of Tanako-chan’s puddings will be a good idea.”
“Isn’t it your duty to help me?” Shiraishi asked back in mock despair, although he was smiling even more now.
This was what his coach was like, he would only be serious when the occasion demanded it urgently, as he was someone who liked to have fun. Part of the fun was joking with them as this let him be free of the responsibility an adult was burdened with.
“Shiraishi, it’s pudding-senpai!” Kintarou yelled out, waving at him.
Beside him, Ashita was considering running away or covering her face somehow, as everyone was starting to stare at her, and some were actually laughing.
“Kin-chan, don’t call her that.” Shiraishi said with a sigh as he prepared to unwind his bandages.
“But she has brought pudding, and she is a senpai.” Was the innocent reply.
“Is this the only time you remember what that word mean?” Zaizen said dryly.
After forcing an apology out of Kintarou, he turned to greet his girlfriend by pulling her into his arms. Since the day he first met her, pudding was her favourite food and she loved making puddings. Since they didn’t taste bad he never needed to complain.
“I want one too, pudding-senpai, I mean, Tanako-senpai.” Kintaoru said, pulling at Ashita’s sleeves.
“I should get one as compensation,” Chitose stated.
“Kuranosuke will naturally have one since I made them for him. Watanabe-sensei will have one too,” Ashita began, since there was no way that she could find a way to refuse him when he was yelling out “I want whatever food you are giving to your boy friend as a compensation for practicing with him.” from the other end.
“As for the third one…you can have it, Kintarou, as long as you stop calling me pudding-senpai.”
“Thank you.” Shiraishi whispered to her, knowing that she would understand what he really meant.
“By the way, Ashita,” he added, “I am going to attend that Junior Selection Camp…”

Title: Imperfection
Written at: August 7, 2007
Summary: Upon a chance meeting with some of the members from Seigaku, Shiraishi ends up playing a match with them, using the way he used to, making him recollect what he initially felt at playing tennis.
Theme: Examining why Shiraishi chooses to play his perfect tennis when it is only a bit better then his old playing style.
Word count: 2282

“No way!” the captain of Shitenhouji announced as he threw his pen down in despair. “There is no way that I am going to write ‘And hand in hand, we walked toward the sunset with new vows of regaining our honour’ into my report.”
“But you did ask me to read out some lines from my book in order for you to gain inspiration!” his girl friend laughed out as she turned the page. “What about this line then, Kuranosuke? ‘They silenced their enemy’s bitter taunts by vowing to make amends by carving a new path of blood’.”
“That was before I realized what you are actually reading.” Shiraishi said with a slight roll of his eyes before he complained once more. “Why do I have to write two pages and talk about the whole team, while Kenya only needs to write half a page with just a brief description of what I did?”
“Because you are the buchou while he is only the fuku-buchou.”
At the blunt truth, he could only sigh and pick up his pen once more, staring at the papers in front of him. As the buchou of the tennis club, he was obliged, with some help from his fuku-buchou, to write reports for every important tournament that they participated.
In Shiraishi’s opinion, writing these reports was the most tedious part of his duties next to playing his perfect tennis. It usually take him about a week to write it, as he would only write a small proportion each day, unlike now- he was actually trying to finish it in one day.
He was fairly successful, as he has produced three-fourth of it already, especially impressive when he only started to write it this morning- although he did spend his whole morning doing it.
But he was suddenly faced with a new distraction: he was actually so hungry that he wanted to abandon his writing even though he was so close to finishing it.
“I haven’t eaten anything since last night.” He admitted, as it was not even noon.
“Kuranosuke, you can be so…single-minded sometimes.” Ashita said with a shake of her head. “But why are you so eager to finish your report?”
“Because sensei wants to get it published in the school news paper as soon as we get back to Osaka.”
This was true, but his main motivation was Watanabe’s bribe- that he’d consider treating the whole team, including Ashita, to yakiniku instead of nagashi somen, if he gets the report completed before they returns to Osaka.
“I’ll go and buy you something to eat, so you can continue writing.” She decided.
Knowing about her attitude in regard to money pretty well, he quickly put his wallet into her bag to prevent her from even being in a dilemma. She must have understood his actions as she leant forward to kiss him on the cheeks rather shyly, finding herself still unable to do what he did the night after the semi-final’s.
As she walked out of the park, she would turn at certain points in order to wave at him. Likewise, he waved back and only returned to the work he was meant to do when he could no longer see her.
“Alright,” he said out aloud. “I will get this finish before Ashita comes back so we can have lunch together.”

His initial reaction at the footsteps was thinking that Ashita has returned, so he naturally prepared to greet her with a smile.
“Seigaku’s team?” he said softly as he managed to recognize the three in front of him, although they were not wearing their uniforms. He remembered the one with the bandana as one of the two who played against Shitenhouji’s infamous doubles, while the one with the glasses was the one who was meant to be playing doubles with Tezuka…
He smiled sourly at this, as it was one of the bits he was having great difficulty in writing, he asked Zaizen for some suggestions, but all he got was another lot of complaint. Not that he could blame his kouhai at all. Like the rest of them, Zaizen was eager to play in the nationals, especially when he was the reserve for the quarter finals. But not only did the double match turned into a single one, he was almost embarrassed for trying to participate.
Hence he wasn’t really surprised that Zaizen was in a foul mood after the semi-final’s, snapping at the non-regulars and addressing the seniors on the team with cutting remarks. But he naturally still had to do something about that since he was the buchou, and he would have if his coach didn’t tell him that he would handle it, as well as insisting that he go to see Ashita.
Something was obviously done as Zaizen’s attitude was very different the next day. It was not as if the boy was really rude in the first place, but he could be rather sharp tongued at times and he was not one who easily said what he wanted. That was why Shiraishi was quite shocked at the emotions behind Zaizen’s words that day- when said that he would win this for Shiraishi’s sake.
It was not just sincerity…it almost appeared as if Zaizen was seeing the win as a way to thank him.
“Shiraishi-kun?” some one called out, interrupting his thoughts.
“You must be Oishi, the fuku-buchou of Seigaku.” He said, extending his hand.
“We…were wandering whether you might be…whether you will…” Oishi took a slight cough as he began again, this time much calmer, “Kaidou and Inui are going to play doubles at the finals, while Eiji and I will be playing doubles too. We thought that it is best to practice but Eiji is not here, and it seems that he will be quite late…”
“To help you practice?” Shiraishi asked, as the vice-captain of Seigaku was beginning a list of how worried he was, and the consequences his team mate was causing by not turning up.
I am no where like that in regard to Kintarou, he said to himself.
He took a quick glance at the report he was meant to be finishing, then at the time on his cell phone. It was not even noon, and technically his part of the bargain would be fulfilled as long as he gave the completed report to his coach on the day before the finals, which was more then a day away.
He really wanted to play with them as he was actually quite curious about how good he would do against skilled people like them with his old method of playing.
Beside, no matter what the result was, the process would be fun, as it was not his perfect tennis.
“I don’t mind but my racquet is in my lodging.” He pointed out.
“There’s an 86% chance that Oishi will have a racquet that Shiraishi-kun would be able to use.” Inui said steadily. “On the other hand the likehood of him agreeing to play doubles with us is…”
“I’ll do it!” Shiraishi said, a bit louder then necessary in order to drown out Inui’s calculations, no wonder there were rumours about data tennis being one of most annoying things they’ve ever heard. “I can play doubles, I used to do throughout my first year.”
If he was honest with himself, then he would admit that playing doubles had been more fun for him as he was never affected by so many pressures and duties, and the most important bit was that he never once used perfect tennis in a doubles match.
And this is something that will never happen, he decided.
“Were you in the school team since your first year?” Oishi asked, rather surprised, while Inui was busily recording this new piece of data.
“Senpai-tachi, can we please start?” Kaidou asked, his tone was worried, as he was rather nervous about the soon to be match, since Shiraishi was from the same school as the infamous joking tennis pair.
“By the way, I don’t play doubles like Koharu and Hitouji at all,” Shiraishi announced as he went to stand beside Oishi with the borrowed racquet in his hand, it was not what he was used to but it shouldn’t disadvantage him that much.
As Oishi and Shiraishi began to discuss techniques, Inui was half instructing, half assuring Kaidou.
“We’ve seen him play two days before so I have collected fresh data, this is also a good way to test whether I can apply data tennis really quickly.” he said.
“But Inui-senpai, sometimes you can know something and still find it difficult, like Fuji-senpai’s counters.” Kaidou pointed out.
“True, but if we can return whatever he hits then we have a huge advantage, because you can drag him to exhaustion. Every one will start to make mistakes when they get tired…”

As he served the first ball, Shiraishi suddenly remembered the very first time he did such a thing. It was when he was still in kindergarten, the day his teacher glued some cardboard together and brought a small bag of small rubber balls for them to use. It wasn’t the proper equipment, but she was using that for the purpose of letting them understand tennis.
What did he felt? All of a sudden he seemed oblivious to everything else, all he knew was that he had to hit it the way she taught him to, and there was a strange excitement as he watched the ball flying.
Not only did he want to do it again, he also wanted to be good at it.
He made his busy parents take him to the sport store when they picked him up that day, as he desired to hold a true racquet. That wish of wanting to hit a ball returned the moment he closed his hands over the then rather large equipment.
This feeling never went away, although it almost did when he begun to play perfect tennis fully. Dread was often in the place of that joy, because both practice and playing became so boring. As he told Ashtia, sometimes he would ask himself why he was doing this.
That was why he would always make sure that there were times when he could play his old way. His practice partner was almost always Kintarou, because he gets so absorbed in his own game that he rarely notices Shiraishi changing his style of playing.
One reason that perfect tennis was boring was because it focused on details too much, it sometimes made him feel that he was not playing a whole game, but only analyzing and returning individual serves, it forced him to focus on each of his opponents and his own moves in such a precise way.
Another thing he had to give up was his desire of experimenting with the ball, to create new moves. Even though it was really fun, they were not really useful, since they often result in him doing something that could be done in a much simpler way.
Now he was playing more with his instinct, no longer seeing everything so carefully, and that was why Inui was having difficulty in carrying out his plans. There were times when he failed to return Shiraishi’s balls as he was not always hitting it in the best possible way, the way Inui believed he would.
“This doesn’t make sense!” Inui called out when his racquet was knocked out of his hand. He had been unprepared as the situation did not require the ball to be hit with a lot of force, and he was sure that Shiraishi would be able to see that. “Data cannot lie but…”
“Don’t worry, Inui-kun, your data is not wrong!”
Standing in the spot where Shiraishi was previously sitting, was his coach with two of his team members: those from Seigaku could recognize one of them being Oshitari’s cousin while Inui identified the other one as being his ‘counter part’ in the ‘doubles’ match.
“But Shiraishi is not using his perfect tennis right now.” Watanabe said with a slight smile, “Kenya, do you recognize his playing style?”
“That is the way he used to play,” Kenya commented. “But I think he only played like that against me in our first year. He used his perfect tennis when I challenged him in our second year, although he said that it was not fully developed.”
“That was you?” Zaizen butted in, generally curious. “I always thought that it was someone else as that person seemed to dislike buchou quite a bit…”
“That was quite a long time ago.” Kenya said hastily. “But sensei, isn’t that the playing style he used in his first end of the year match when he participated as a first year?”
“But this means that he is still really skilled even if he doesn’t use his perfect tennis!” Zaizen said in surprise upon their coach’s nod, “So why does Shiraishi-buchou play perfect tennis when he doesn’t really need to, especially if he doesn’t like it?”
“Because,” Watanabe began, placing two fingers on the brim of his nose as if a pair of glasses was there,” the chance of winning a game with his old playing style is 90%, while the likehood of perfect tennis giving him victory is 99.99%.
“His team became more important then anything else.” Watanabe commented, now very serious. “He was not choosing tennis over his girlfriend, it was really his team’s interest over both his girlfriend and his love for tennis.
“For a boy his age, that is not an easy thing to do. The truth is, Zaizen and Kenya, your buchou is no less admirable then Seigaku’s Tezuka.”

Final Note: This started off with the intention of being a conversation about Shiraishi talking to Fuji, I read a friend’s story where Fuji and Yuuta was having a talk, and that kind of made me want to do a similar thing. Obviously this didn’t work as neither of these two even came out, but I think the main focus of this drabble/one shot ultimately is about Shiraishi thinking about what he feel about tennis.

I know that you can argue giving up his own pleasure is not that big a deal but I feel it really is, like most of the characters in this story, he loves tennis but then he end up playing it in a way that he doesn’t like. I think for a boy his age that is a really admirable feat, and it must be painful to do something that you find really boring over and over again when you can actually do it in another way that is fun. And it seems that he only began to use perfect tennis after being the captain so I feel that his old way must be really good as well, if it can let him be the captain. (hence there’s that bit when Watanabe imitate Inui), but I think that is his main reason, it is more likely, even if it might just be a very small increase.

My last sentence- Tezuka is quite admirable, I do believe that, but I just think captains like Shiraishi, Tachibana and even Yukimura (I say even because we don’t know that much about him) will do a similar thing if they are in Tezuka’s situation. But they are lucky enough to not be in such a situation. They aren’t mentioned because it’ll be weird if Watanabe start to list all these guys.

Title: The real winner
Written at: August 3, 2007
Summary: Inspired by genius 352, Shiraishi is trying to understand why he is actually feeling more sorry for Sanada then Tezuka as he watches the game. The answer is because they are not so much like one another.
Theme: The idea of how the loser might be regarded as the real winner and why people might think that way.
Word count: 1506
Note: I wrote this story one or two days after I read Genius 352, and I think that Shiraishi might understand Sanada’s action because he sort of did a similar thing (in my opinion). So this is the result.

Shiraishi never liked Rikkai, what sympathy he had towards Yukimura was nothing more then common humanity- what anyone would feel. But now, for the first time, he was actually experiencing great sympathy for the vice-captain, who appeared as if he was going to collapse soon.
He was confused. Didn’t he come with the intention of supporting Seigaku with the hope that they would stop Rikkai from being the winners of the nationals once again?
“The trouble is that not everyone can realize Sanada is injured that bad, while they can all see Tezuka’s wound.” Watanabe said, almost making him scream by his sudden appearance: some things simply never alter. “The sad truth is that we are all more likely to pity the one who is hurt more.”
“Or the one who climbed back up instead of the one who is good enough to never fall.” Ashita commented, the strong anger and vehement in her voice caused both the coach and captain of Shitenhouji to turn and look at her instead.
“Why do so many people think that that Fuji guy should win just because he suddenly started to do better?” she began indignantly. “What about Kuranosuke, who tried so hard the whole time? Should he actually fake a fall in order to let people see he is equally determined by showing that he would continue even if he had problems as well?”
“Humans find it easier to pity those who have faults.” Watanabe explained once more. “Tanako-chan, it seems more admirable for a person to succeed after they lose control, as that implies they are not perfect.”
“But this is not the same, and beside- I won, didn’t I?” Shiraishi told his girlfriend gently, before he turned back to his coach. “Although he is reminding me of Fuji-kun. He is not really playing with his full potential, he can be much better. I don’t understand why he is not doing that when he is so obsessed with winning.”
“We don’t all want to do whatever we can in order to win, do we, Captain Shiraishi?” Watanabe reminded him by the attachment of his title. “Your boredom is not that different a thing from his honour.”
But a choice was soon made by Sanada, and it was to do what Yukimura asked, to stop his head on challenge. This shouldn’t really be a surprise, as it was what one should do, but judging by the loud cry of the Seigaku tennis club, Sanada’s action was not seen favourably.
“Is it not fair for Sanada-kun.” Shiraishi suddenly said, as his voice was very low and sad, causing all of his team mates to listen to him very carefully, as they did not want to miss his words. “What would anyone do in this situation? It is not his fault that this is happening to his opponent, he did not purposely drive Tezuka-kun into doing this. Besides, how can he not play? He can not just let Tezuka-kun win because he will not be able to answer to his team mates and captain. He is also the vice captain, whose duty is to bring the team to victory along with the captain.”
When people began to say that Sanada was unworthy of the title ‘emperor’, Shiraishi felt that he had to go outside, to get away from all this noise.

Once he was outside of the stadium, he immediately sat down on the bench and buried his face into his head.
“I think I am going crazy.” He mumbled out after a long pause. “Just…just what is all this for? “
“Isn’t it to win? Not that I am rubbing it in, but shouldn’t you out of all people know this really well?” Ashita reminded him, patting him on the back, although she wasn’t sure whether that was helping him at all.
“To win for the team,” he automatically corrected, “I would rather spend time with you then making sure that I can win every single match if it wasn’t for the fact that…”
“I know, I know, and as I said- I’m not rubbing it in. I really forgive you,” Ashita interrupted him.
Raising his head he turned to grasp her stretched hands, “Ashita…I don’t understand anything right now. The reason I had to get out from there is because I can’t stand hearing them criticising someone that I actually dislike quite a bit.”
Shiraishi was recollecting his first meeting with Sanada at last year’s nationals, like Echizen, Sanada was not good at creating a good first impression. What made matters even worse was that Shiraishi was already feeling quite angry at some of the comments that the other members of Rikkai made about his team, especially in regard to him being the captain.
“You feel sorry for him because you were in a similar situation.” Ashtia replied easily. “It is what Sensei just said. Kuranosuke…we are normal people, so what happens in there is a rarity. But I think your decision of playing tennis is equally admirable because to submit yourself to such a long period of boredom is not easy, especially if it is not for yourself. Most people would just give up, but you didn’t, even though it is quite painful, because you told me that it actually sometimes make you question why you play tennis. So you are equally noble.”
“But isn’t Tezuka-kun doing the same thing?” Shiraishi pointed out. “Why don’t I…”
“People can see that he’s making a sacrifice for the team. I don’t think you will admit this, but you wouldn’t mind playing perfect tennis that much if everyone in the club tells you how great you are in doing this sacrifice for them, likewise Rikkai’s vice-captain would not feel so bad if people tell him that it is alright.”
“You are right…again.” He said with a smile, “Why do you stay with me when you are so much smarter?”
Ashita immediately shook her head. “I’m not, Kuranosuke, it is just that I am not involved in any of this, so I can make a clear judgement. Don’t forget,” she added, “You are the one who helped me to move up a class.”
He smiled at the recollection of the factors that helped to bright them together, before he spoke again: “Even worse is the fact that people are seeing his actions in the opposite direction. I really don’t think Sanada-kun is doing anything wrong, in fact I think he was wrong before by not doing all he can in order to win. You are meant to do everything that is honourable to achieve this, which means playing with your full potential as soon as the game starts.”
“He reminds me of the samurai in this story I was reading. Because his opponent was a bandit who uses a sabre, he insisted on using that instead of his katana. As a result he was doing really badly in the fight.”
“Did he use the katana in the end?”
“I’m not sure if I should say this as it might bring bad luck…but I think he got killed in the end, so I guess the answer is no.” she gave a slight shrug. “Isn’t it a bit like what happened to you when you used perfect tennis at one of the competitions? You told me that there was this captain who was really angry and accused you of being sneaky by suddenly changing your way of playing.”
“He thought I was toying with him since my perfect tennis is a bit better then my other way of playing, but I really didn’t mean that.” He said softly. “I just really didn’t want to use it unless I had to. I think that is why Fuji Shuusuke annoys me so much, it is not as if playing his full potential is something that is really boring, or something that will make him thinks he is losing honour.”
“But I am really sorry for this Sanada now. Everyone is probably going to say Tezuka is the real winner because he is playing despite his wounds. I was thinking of that,” she admitted, “until you and sensei pointed out that his opponent is actually doing that too.”
Shiraishi smiled a bit sourly as he considered her words. In a way, the same thing happened to him. He has heard people describing Fuji as the real winner and that never failed to anger him. He tried as hard as Fuji.
The only difference was that his input of effort did not alter one bit, and ironically, that was why it was not seen as being remarkable, as his determination did not suddenly increase.
In a similar way, people were failing to see that Sanada was pushing himself equally hard, as they couldn’t really tell that he was actually barely able to move.
“If people are going to say that,” he said slowly, surprising himself with this realization, “Then I hope that Sanada-kun wins, as he might as well have the official title of being the winner.”

Final note: I first come to this team of the real winner after reading some people’s comment about the Tezuka/Atobe match, then the Fuji/Shiraishi match. I really don’t like this term as it seem to imply that those who win it does not deserve to win it. When I wrote this fan fiction I was rather certain that the same thing would be happening with Tezuka and Sanada.
I really think that to an extent, Shiraishi would be angry at Fuji due to the fact that Fuji playing with all his full potential is not like his perfect tennis, or like the case with Sanada. There really is no catch to it.

Title: Snatching goldfishes
Written at: July 29 2007
Summary: A short drabble where Shiraishi and Ashita are at one of the local feastivals in Tokyo. Involves brief appearances of many from both Shitenhouji’s and Seigaku’s tennis team.
Word count: 1226

The finals of the nationals were finally finished, with Seigaku being the winners of this year. Because of this Shitenhouji’s whole tennis club would depart for Osaka the very next morning, so they were attending the local festival as a way to celebrate their last night in Tokyo.
The regulars would not stay for the whole night, as they were going to a yakiniku restaurant: their coach generously changed his mind about his treat, even extending an invitation to Ashita.
Shiraishi was dressed in his school uniform as his purpose for being in Tokyo was to represent Shitenhouji, unlike Ashita, who was in the capital for her own purpose. Therefore, she was wearing one of her yukata, a light green one with prints of white and pink flowers.
“What is it?” he asked her curiously, immediately noticing that she has stopped moving, since they were holding hands.
“I always want to play this at least once.” Ashita said rather wistfully, pointing to the snatching goldfish stall. “But because I am never sure whether I can succeed, I don’t really dare to do it.”
“Then let’s do it now!” Shiraishi told his girlfriend, understanding her hesitation. The period where her sister was the only income maker for her family of three had left a very deep impact on the way she spend money. “I think I should be able to get one for you so we won’t be wasting money. And you will definitely keep the goldfish right?”
“Of course, I’m only doing this because I want to have a goldfish, and I’ll treasure it even more if it is a present from you.” Upon saying this, she quickly bent her head down, as she was blushing.

After one or two broken nets, Shiraishi finally managed to succeed his promise. He and Ashita was about to tie the plastic bag that contained her new pet when they heard the sound of clapping.
“Yuuji, let’s have a go as well!” Koharu said loudly as he handed some money to the stall owner.
However, their way of snatching goldfish was quite different from Shiraishi: Hitouji begins to talk rather animatedly to the owner, distracting him comepltely. Using this time, Koharu sneakily grabbed a fish to place it on the paper net.
“That’s cheating!” Ashita whispered, although both she and Shiraishi were laughing.
“Not really,” one of the two who plays the infamous joking tennis said easily. He scooped the paper net into the large tank without even removing the other fish and manages to obtain a second one with relative ease.
“If I really want to, then I can get it myself,” he informed them as he returned the second goldfish to its original home, “but by doing it this way, the fish is a present from both Yuuji and I, not just from me.”
Kenya and Zaizen both happened to come to this area at this time, and seeing that three of their team members were there, they naturally joined them.
“It’s been sometimes since I did this.” Kenya commented rather reminiscently as he picked up one of the broken tools. “Yuushi and I used to compete who can fish the most when he still lived in Osaka. I often win as I am faster then him.”
“What do you do with all these extra fishes then?” Ashita asked.
“We usually gave them to people who happened to be there, do you want some more?” Kenya asked rather hopefully.
“Thank you, but I don’t really think I can manage looking after ten goldfishes, and I don’t really want to sit on the train with a large tank in front of me.” Ashita laughed out, “Having to carry a bowl is probably enough.”
“Shouldn’t you be a gentleman and carry it for her?” Hitouji teased their captain good naturedly.
“Not if it is this big!” Shiraishi protested, gesturing to the large fish tank in front of them.
“It Chitose-senpai is here then he can probably tell us how many goldfishes everyone can get.” Zaizen commented rather sarcastically, “A shame that his pinnacle of wisdom…”
He was saved from another scolding for being too disrespectful due to the arrival of the Seigaku team, who quickly made their incorrect assumption.
“Hey it’s Shitenhouji’s whole tennis team!” Kikumaru immediately announced. “I think they are having a snatching goldfish competition.”
“And they’ve only got two? They still have a long way to go.” Echizen commented in his typical ‘mada mada dane’ tone.
“We were having a snatching goldfish competition?” Koharu and Hitouji said innocently at the same time.
“I don’t think so.” Zaizen said. “At least I’m certainly not doing it.”
“Come one Hikaru-chan, it will be fun!” the two double partners said as they dragged him away, followed by Kenya.
Not that the Seigaku tennis team noticed, as they were too busy in arranging their own snatching goldfish competition.
“Kuranosuke, let’s go to the ice stand.” Ashita suggested to Shiraishi. “I really want to eat that pudding ice cream. Don’t forget that we have to leave earlier then everyone else in order to go to the house of Watanabe-sensei’s aunt as I am not going to take this to the restaurant.”
“You might have a stomach ache, Ashita, from eating grilled meat after ice cream.” Shiraishi pointed out with a smile.
“Oh, you know how we eat in our house, we just have one meal of everything and anything.” She reminded him, tugging his hand.
As they walked away, they were sure that they heard a voice saying: “But don’t you think that the competition should have some sort of punishment?”

A few minutes later, the two of them were sitting by the ice stand, with Ashita eating a bowl of the pudding ice cream that had struck her fancy, while Shiraishi was examining her goldfishes.
“I think we should buy a cheap pot and put them there temporarily until we get back to Osaka, then buy a proper fish bowl.” Shiraishi was saying.
Ashite gave a nod of agreement, but then she suddenly blinked. “Kuranosuke, isn’t that guy running toward the stall one of the guys from Seigaku?”
“Yes, Momoshiro Takeshi. He played against Koharu and…wow, he might actually be running faster then Kenya right now.”
The rather distracted member of Seigaku’s tennis team seemed to be oblivious to everything else and he almost crashed against the stand due to the speed he was running in.
“A glass of water!” he screamed out.
“Are you alright?” Ashita asked kindly, moving slightly to allow him to sit down.
“Eh, aren’t you that girl in the snatching fish stall?” Momoshiro asked, having recovered quite a bit after drinking the whole glass at one go. At least enough to notice the girl talking to him was not bad looking. “You should have stayed and watch us! We are getting a heck lot more fishes then…”
“That’s my girl friend you are talking to.” Shiraishi interrupted dryly.
If it wasn’t for the fact that laughing at Momoshiro’s expression was too childish, he really wanted to do so. He also felt rather proud and happy to be able to say this once again.
“The perfect man?” Momoshiro wander out aloud as the couple left hand in hand. “Perhaps he is. Being so good at tennis and having such a cute girl for his girl friend.”

Final note: Momoshiro’s comment of Shiraishi being a perfect man is a reference to the title of Genius 315- one version of the title is translated to this. I thought that I’ll make Momoshiro be the first one to lose since I don’t want to make Kaidou do it, because Kaidou always seem to be the first person to drink it.

Title: Who is it for?
Written at: July 17 2007
Summary: what happens if Hanamura- sensei from Jyosei Shounan tries to get Shiraishi join her school. This story will be focusing on Shiraishi, but it will be from the point of view from Watanabe Osamu.
Theme: The importance of Shiraishi’s team mates in his decision of playing perfect tennis.
Word count: 1107
Note: My initial idea was actually using Mizuki trying to recruit Shiraishi, but I then decided to use Hanamaura as I think she is more likely to go to Osaka. This fan fiction actually relates to my Watanabe/OC fan fiction that I am currently doing on fan fiction net. That story is kind of the sequel to “Sacrifice” as it begin when the third years are in senior high school.

Watanabe’s initial reaction at hearing about the visitor was hoping that a miracle has happened, even though he has been advised to give up too many times during the long years that passed since that day.
His lips almost curled into a sneer when he saw his visitor- who was sitting comfortably in his office and reading his files.
“Even you have a limit.” He told her as he deliberately lit a cigarette. He didn’t particularly want one, but she hated that smell above all things, it even surpasses her loathing for him.
“I am paying a professional visit as one coach to another.”
“From all accounts, your visits are more like thievery, if not robbery. However, I am very surprised that you actually come all the way to Osaka to do your latest theft.”
“What make you think that you can lecture me, Osamu? You hardly do your job.”
“One who interferes too often is actually a poor coach, because the team he combined together is not a good one.” He said as he snapped his files shut, but not before taking a quick glance at the name. “Zaizen-kun is quite a smart choice for you, Aoi, since he might easily feel overshadowed by the rest of the team.”
“You haven’t really changed either, one bad judgement after another.” She said with a smirk. “You will find out who I have my eyes on when he enters.”
His next guess was Chitose, since he was the one with the least amount of loyalty to Shitenhouji, as he only became a student here from the start of this school year. More importantly, he was one of the two wings of Kyuushu.
He certainly didn’t expect the captain of the tennis team to walk in. He quickly turned to Hanamura as he greatly desired to see her lose her composure.
She was actually smiling, indicating that the right person has arrived.
“Sensei, are you alright?” Shiraishi asked rather worriedly, as Wabanabe began to laugh so hard that he was actually bending down, with his hand clutching his stomach. Even though merriment seemed something that still came to him easily, he was behaving in an extreme way that his students has never seen before, not even when he first saw Konjiki and Hitouji’s fully developed ‘joking tennis’.
“When is the last time I had such a good laugh?” Watanabe finally said. “Aoi…this is the dumbest thing I have ever heard!”
“You wouldn’t be laughing when I succeed.” She snapped back angrily.
Smiling confidently, he told Shiraishi that he would leave them alone. He was perfectly confident that she would not gain a new toy to mould into a master piece, but he still decided that stand outside the door, instead of going to the tennis court immediately.
“Jyosei Shounan? I have not heard of that school before, but the only schools outside Kansai that I am familiar with are those who are top four in the regional, and the ones I met in last year’s nationals.”
Though Shiraishi’s words were polite, they could be an insult as Watanabe was sure that Shiraishi worked out half of her purpose. Although only Shiraishi knew whether the meanings behind his words were intentional or not.
Watanabe actually realized that he was quite nervous when he learnt of Hanamura’s bait: the presence of a coach who would constantly guide him, something that he had lacked. This was unexpected, although it shouldn’t be.
“That would be very nice,” Shiraishi admitted, “But Watanabe sensei is a good coach. His main job is to teach us tennis, and he certainly does this very well. As a regular in the team when he first arrived, I was one of the eight that played against him due to some of the seniors challenging him. He played against two of us at a time and won all four rounds. So I personally know how great a tennis player he is.”
But that wasn’t enough, Watanabe realized. When he first came he thought that he should only focus on doing what he was paid for, since he never liked being ordered about by his own coach. He never appreciated any counsels as he didn’t require any until he was twenty years old- when the disaster happened.
Although he was sure that Shiraishi would not give up his position of being the captain of Shitenhouji- a school that was regarded as performing very well in tennis- in exchange for the possibility of being a regular member in Jyosei Shounan. Who would give up what they have for something that they might not even have? Especially if the formal was much more appealing then the latter.
“It is not for myself.” The boy suddenly said, causing both adults to frown due to the strangeness of his words. One’s persuasions were halted, while the other’s thoughts were interrupted.
“Sensei, you want me to go to your school due to the way you saw me play, but I only play like that because it helps my team. I do that because of my bond with the school and team. If I go to your school then enjoyment, instead of winning, will be my main goal. I wouldn’t be playing in the style that made you want to recruit me into your tennis team in the first place.”

Watanabe made sure that he was out onto the court when Shiraishi reappeared, by then he has heard the latest rumour about the captain and his girlfriend.
“Sensei, your friend left.” Was all Shiraishi said, his voice was polite but not warm, as he has given up on asking him for advices other then tennis after his response to letting the first years participate.
Watanabe knew that it was his own fault for not understanding until it was too late. Maybe it was because Shiraishi was the opposite of him- he succeeded in doing what Watanabe did not. Shiraishi could continue playing tennis even though the one he most wanted to see him play was no longer there.
Hanamura’s visits were always painful because she reminded him why his revelation happened. Teaching others and helping them to find success became more enjoyable, as he stopped finding pleasure in his own games when he realized that she would never be watching him again.
Perhaps he wasn’t really playing tennis for himself either.
Meanwhile, Shiraishi was explaining something very patiently to a group of first years, even though he must be in a really foul mood as he broke up with his beloved girl friend only a few days ago.
Watanabe vowed that he would make things up somehow.

This story is the first fan fiction I wrote for Prince of Tennis, and this was actually before I even properly read the manga. I wrote this story: “In order to win” and I really thought that would be it. But then since I got 2 immediate reviews I was really motivated and I then decided to actually expand the idea I had in my mind. Which led to “Sacrifice”, which I already put on my blog. At that time I decided that “Sacrifice” was kind of like a prequel of this story but then after I finished “sacrifice” I still have more ideas so I ended up writing them in random one shots and putting them all in chapters. So “Chapters” sort of become a collection of one shots. They are not always related to sacrifice as some are really just random what if scenarios… I think I ended up trying to explore a particular theme in each short story in “Chapters” although some are just random drabbles, or random one shot that I just wanted to write

Title: In order to win
Written at: June 23 2007
Summary: After his match with Fuji, Shiraishi begins to examine his attitude on the importance of winning as well as thinking about all he did for the sake of achieving this goal. He then starts to question himself…
Theme: Whether the result of winning is more important then the process of winning, as well as examining when you have gone too far in order to be the winner.
Word count: 1370

He won the game.
He played against the legendary Fuji from Seigaku and emerged as the victor. This was the first time that anyone has achieved this in an official game.
His team mates were cheering wildly, and even his coach was laughing instead of simply smiling.
But Shiraishi Kuranosuke did not appear as if he was the one who caused all this. Though he was the winner, he displayed no obvious emotions, he simply gave a brief nod to the rest before he sat down to observe the game with what seemed to be a dispassionate gaze.
“The process doesn’t matter, the important thing is the result- the win.” His coach reminded the captain with what he often lectured to his teams.
“I won by pure chance. Yes, I won the match but…”
“I got it.” His coach interrupted. “You are not happy because you are angry and even a bit jealous.”
“Jealous? I am not…” he began indignantly but had to sigh and admit the truth. “You are right, I am jealous. I worked so hard and sacrificed so much in order to win. But he,” he gestured to the direction of the Seigaku team. “Is able to win against everyone else without even really trying. What angers me the most is that I would have lost despite all my efforts if he had concentrated since the very beginning.”
His perfect tennis…nothing could bore him more then that now! Yet he still did it because he wanted to win every single match in order to let his school advance even higher.
But he was beginning to wonder about his own decision.
“How hard I try does not matter,” he continued, his voice unusually bitter, his head was even bent down, “Geniuses are always geniuses and therefore better.”
“But you beat the genius because you wanted to win so much.” His coach reminded him once more. “And all these people witness the result of this. You won, Shiraishi, and perhaps this well deserved victory is actually a reward. You tried so hard in order to win, while he didn’t, so the result is you beating him.
“Or are you simply disappointed because you think that the person who you most want to see your victory is not here?” the coach’s voice turned rather sly at this point. “If I have to criticize you for anything then it is for this, that your desire for our school to win interfered in your private life too much. I think Tanako Ashita will certainly agree with me.”
The name made Shiraishi look up and he automatically stretched his hands out to the girl that had appeared beside his coach.
“Ashita…”
She was wearing the sakura patterned yukata that she had wore on their first date with her hair tied by that lace-like ribbon which had been his first present to her. Unfortunately, she also dressed like that when he told her that he had to break up with her for the sake of tennis.
“Did you see the match?” he asked, quickly dropping his hands. Seeing that they ended up resting on the racquet, he quickly crossed them instead. The tennis racquet served as a reminder of how she had hit him with it as she was so angry.
“I think I saw it.” She said softly. “I thought that you won and both the reaction of Seigaku and our school supported this. But then I saw you and I begin to wonder.”
“I did win.”
“Then why aren’t you happy…Shiraishi? Isn’t all your actions this year, including breaking up with me, done for the sake of winning? So you can concentrate on tennis one hundred percent?” she asked cuttingly.
“I am starting to realize that winning shouldn’t be everything.” He finally said, trying hard to recover from his initial sadness at hearing her address him by his last name. “When I am on court I often get bored with my ‘perfect tennis’, and sometimes I even need to ask myself why I do this.
“And most of all…I feel empty after every match regardless of the result because you aren’t there.”
She would watch him play tennis whenever she could, just as he would always try to attend her karate competitions. They would always be filled with a sense of achievement if they did well, because they felt that the other were proud of them.
He twitched slightly when he suddenly felt her sitting down right beside him, the dry fabric of her sleeves almost brushing his slightly drenched bandages.
“I mean, I am glad that I won, I really am, but it is just that…” he continued, rather nervous due to how close she suddenly was.
“You feel a sense of ‘so what if I won?” she supplied for him. “Also, tennis is no longer fun so you don’t really want to do it sometimes. Then to make matter worse for today is that your opponent…”
“I really want to hit him with my racquet as you did that day. Oh, I don’t blame you, I did deserve it.” He added this very quickly to prevent her from speaking, he did not think that he should have an apology but to have none would probably make him feel even worse. “But I guess I own him some thanks for teaching me a valuable lesson: to make me wonder whether the result is the most important thing. Maybe is the process but I still don’t really know.”
“I think I can help you to understand. When I enter any karate match,” she began after a long pause, putting her hands on her knees instead of crossing them. “I get a sense of achievement if I had a good contest, not just because I won. What is there to be proud of if you won for the mere reason that your opponent absolutely sucked? I might as well just go and randomly pick fights with people on the street if I feel happy just due to winning.”
He allowed his hands to rest on his knees as well, almost touching hers, before he spoke. “You always were better then me in almost everything. Do you still remember our first proper meeting? There I was, wanting to be Prince Charming by defending you against these delinquents by wading them off with my tennis racquet? I ended up being saved by you as you used karate to beat them all up.”
“But, Kuranosuke, I liked you ever since that moment because you tried!” she said, because she finally turned to look at him, he saw that she was actually smiling.
“Ashita,” he began slowly, his hand reaching to take hers, encouraged by her use of his first name again, “I have been such an idiot and I really am so sorry for hurting you. But can we…”
“I still feel the same way about you.” She told him shyly as their hands clasped together. “I’m still angry about the reason of our break up but I think we can work though that somehow.”
“I will never do something so stupid like that again.” He promised her. “Now I truly realized that I was wrong in wanting to win so obsessively.”
Depending on the result of this match against Seigaku, he might still need to play his ‘perfect tennis’ again but it would be bearable as Ashita would be watching him. Mostly, he would only need to play it for a few more times. He had already decided that he would never be in a position where the result of his actions would affect a whole team again, instead of just himself.
His future seemed very optimistic now, he would continue playing tennis next year but he would not be in a team, he would play solo instead. Ashita would be beside him. He would naturally hope to win, but it would no longer be an obsession that drives him to do something that he did not really enjoy.
That way, he would be able to enjoy tennis as he once did. He would be able to have fun in each match again.
That was, he realized, the main point of any sport or art.

I wrote this fan fiction and even though it is using the idea I have from my fan fiction ‘sacrifice’ I don’t think I will put it on fan fiction net as I feel that this is kind of like a fan fiction of a fan fiction. I am using the ideas from sacrifice but this isn’t my actual story. THIS IS A ONE SHOT INDEPENDENT FROM MY OTHER FAN FICTIONS. But it just uses some of the ideas and scenarios in my other fan fiction.

But I got the idea for this story when I was reading my friend’s blog, and somehow it involved a whole thing about Tezuka and his sacrifice- what he did with his arm. This then made me want to explore the idea of what it really meant, and how his opponent must feel. Since Shiraishi is the only character I feel I can try and write, as I think I simply don’t have a grasp of any other characters, (because I can’t be bother to unwind their wools- don’t worry if you don’t get this. This is a reference to one of my previous entries on the blog) I decided to do a what if idea- what if Tezuka had the problem with his arm when he is playing with Shiraishi (in this story the two of them are playing singles 1 and both schools have two win each, so this is the deciding match.)

I know that it would be much better to try and explore the singles 3 match of Tezuka and Sanada in the nationals but since I am really unable to portray these two characters, I decided to use Shiraishi.

Because Shiraishi is such a calm and composed character I don’t think he will be having an emotional outburst, but I want to show him being affected so I extend this what if- this fan fiction is a bit of a ‘what if’ to my fan fiction- which as all fan fictions are, are what if scenes. But basically in this scene I’m taking his relationship with Ashita as a bit more far then what it was like in the original story (in the original story they just liked each other when they are in junior high school, but for this fan fiction presume that they were realizing that they love each other). The reason for this is to explain why Shiraishi might not be as composed as he really is. But this fan fiction’s main purpose it to explore the whole idea of Tezuka’s sacrifice and what his opponent might feel using this fan fiction scenario to show it.

I got a bit tired and fed up with links during my experience with them in putting up my fushigi yugi link, so my stories for a while will not be having links.

Final note: This is using the ideas in ‘sacrifice’ but it is not connected with my other fan fictions, this is a stand off story with the idea of ‘what if this happened instead of what happened in ‘sacrifice’’.

Word of warning: this story puts Tezuka’s actions in a rather negative light.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Photos could be mended but what about her heart? Shiraishi had carefully taped the ripped apart pieces together with the unchanged one as a guide, but the tear was still there.
Just as what he did would always be present even if they managed to reconcile. But he still rather have a ripped photo instead of only seeing this scene in his memory.
“Shiraishi, are you really alright?” Yuuji finally asked.
His friend has put the two photos in his bag and took out his tennis racquet, about to go and play the final deciding match.
They did not know what exactly had happened, but it was not hard to guess. Shiraishi had returned to their lodging after their meeting and grabbed his tennis racquet without saying one word of greeting to anyone before he went to practice madly in the nearby court. Their coach had to stop him by snatching the racquet away.
“Winning the nationals is the only thing I have left so I have to win!” had been Shiraishi’s protest.
“I will be.” Shiraishi said with a rather bitter smile. “I always manage when I play tennis.”
Ashita was right, he thought, he was already beginning to be more occupied with the game instead of thinking about yesterday. Maybe he really wasn’t meant to be her boy friend.
But it still hurt, and he now knew that it would continue to hurt even if Shitenhouji became the champion.

She stood out very easily as she was in one of her many yukata, but there was a difference from now and the numerous times that she watched his game: she was not smiling at him.
“Tanako?” Koharu and Yuuji echoed out in some surprise as their friend would have told them about her presence in Tokyo.
“Ashita…what are you doing here?” Shiraishi asked, as puzzled as the rest.
“I need to talk to you.” Was her simple reply. “Alone. Now.”
Watanabe quickly arranged this with what seemed to be light hearted teasing about youth, but some of the regulars could tell that he was rather worried.
“I came to Tokyo because I believed that we can work all this out,” Ashita began, her voice very cold as this was the only way she could keep her dignity. “But now I realized that I was wrong as I finally understand your choice: it wasn’t even about tennis. It was a decision between your team and me
“You choose your team…that is the most important thing to you.”
He couldn’t defend himself in any way as that was what he did, he broke up with her because if she was there, then he might choose to focus on her instead of devoting himself to tennis for the sake of his team.
Yet he clung onto the hope that he might be able to redeem himself once he achieved his dream of taking his team to the finals. The fact she still seemed to care for him encouraged him to continue this wistful thinking. (1)
A foolish belief as who would willingly be second best?
“So what is the point of holding onto what he once had?” upon saying this, she raised her hand to untie the ribbon that he had tied onto her hair on her birthday, the one where they spent together.
“Ashita, can you not give me another chance?” he pleaded, refusing to accept the dangling ribbon.
“Your first priority is your team, to win the nationals with them.” She said coldly as she let the ribbon fall to the ground. “I never demanded to be the very first thing in your life but being only a second thought is simply too much.”
“That is not true.” He protested, grabbing her by the wrist as she was turning away. “You are equally important too! This year has been so empty because you are not there…I feel these pain even when we won the Kansai regional.”
“I don’t think I believe you anymore.” she said bitterly, wrenching her hand out of his grasp. “How can I believe someone who dumped me just because my presence might distract him when I stopped demanding anything from him?”
Saying so, she took out her copy of the precious photo that he took almost every where with him since it lived in the same place with his tennis racquet.
“This is my proof.”
She tore the photo in two before she placed the now separated parts together inorder to rip it again.
“What we once had is like this photo.” She stated as she shoved the many pieces into his hand. “But do you know…I was beginning to think that I didn’t just like you when you broke up with me.”
“Ashita…”
“Tanako, my name is Tanako. Please remember that…Shiraishi-kun.” (2)

Like the regulars of the team and the members of the tennis club, Watanabe was watching the current match with a deep frown, but unlike the others, it was not caused so much by the actual result, but due to his worrying about the effect this would have on Shiraishi.
“I have a very bad feeling that this game is very dangerous for Shiraishi.” He commented. “I don’t really know why but I believe that something will be happening very soon.”
He was feeling very guilty because his interference of letting Tanako Ashita come to Tokyo seemed to have backfired.
What Shiraishi didn’t understand was that emotion was a living thing- his attempt of burying it could only be a temporary evasion. A burst would eventuate and the eruption would be much severe if there had been many other emotions.
In Shiraishi’s case, he did have many other hidden grievances that he hid.
Soon enough, the catalyst to unburying all this appeared: it was Tezuka’s injury.
Shiraishi managed to let the game be dragged on as he would return every single serve even if he was at the losing end of 0-40 or 40-0. He did this because he refused to just give a game away, especially when he was capable of holding on. (3)
“Forty all!” the umpire cried out even as Tezuka dropped his racquet due to his pain.
“TEZUKA-BUCHOU!” a loud scream appeared from Seigaku, while most other schools made some comment about the injury.
Shiraishi had a much more closer view then almost every one else since he was directly facing Tezuka. He could tell that the wrist was actually swollen, indicating that it had the potential of being much worse.
“You should get off court, Tezuka-kun.” Shiraishi stated with sincere concern. “That is a very serious injury.”
“Is that all you have to say?” Tezuka asked emotionlessly as he picked up his racquet again.
“Are you crazy? Do you not know what will happen if you continue?” Shiraishi almost felt like screaming, if this was happening to him then his coach would now be in the process of dragging him off, saying “Don’t be an idiot, Shiraishi. Beside, I’ve already forfeit the match for you so there is nothing you can do about it.”
“You are mistaken, Shiraishi-san, to think that our buchou will just give up before the very last point has been decided.” Momoshiro commented. (4)
“Tezuka-kun, I beg you to forfeit one last time.” Shiraishi pleaded. “I don’t want to play against someone with the knowledge that I might do great harm to them, but if you don’t forfeit then I will have to continue playing for my team.”
“Is that all your have to say?” Tezuka stated once again.
“If that is your resolution then don’t blame me for what I have to do.” Shiraishi whispered softly as he served.
He knew that Tezuka was naturally unable to return this serve because he was still in the process of recovering from his injury.
The mummer of disbelieve was to turn into hostility when some of Shiraishi’s serves forced Tezuka to drop his racquet partly due to the force he used, and partly because Tezuka’s injury weakened him greatly.
“But that is not his fault.” Kenya began indignantly due to the accusations from the Seigaku cheerleaders . “Shiraishi’s can’t just play with less strength…sensei?”
Watanabe got up from his seat without saying anything and walked to stand in front of the Seigaku regulars and club members. His expression did not seem particularly harsh in anyway, but his students could tell that he must be more then a bit angry in order to do this.
“How can you blame Shiriashi for what is happening to your buchou’s arm?” Watanabe asked very coldly. “Isn’t it natural that Shiraishi will not want to lose by preventing the game to be given to Tezkua and therefore tries to return each serve in the hope of scoring himself? It is not his fault that Shiraishi has a much better stamina then your buchou.
“You especially,” Watanabe said as he pointed to Kaidou, “Can not blame Shiraishi since what you do to your opponent is a similar thing, and unlike you- Shiraishi did not do this on purpose.
“Last of all, how is it our fault if Tezuka did not want to stop playing even though he knows the risk? His arm is getting worse because you guys are not stopping him. Why should my student have to suffer for his opponent’s problems?
“Beside, Tezuka is doing what he does in order to continue playing, do you think he will actually be happy if Shiraishi defaulted or deliberately let him win because of this?” (5)
Watanabe saw Shiriashi giving him a nod of gratitude before he resumed playing. The reason of his actions was partly due to the knowledge that the boy would be screaming himself if someone did not yell for him.
But he was actually truly angry at what was happening, and he would still be angry even if he was not personally involved in this match. What kind of example was this buchou setting up for his regulars? His actions were all but encouraging his team mates to play recklessly.
He supposed some allowances must be made since they were, at the most, only boys of fifteen years old. A very young age, although it was quite easy to forget this. An age where they usually all desired to excel in the thing that they chose, and in this case it was tennis.
Their coach, on the other hand, was different. No coach who truly cares for their students should allow this- to let their students risk injuring themselves permanently.
This was also part of their job! To prevent such dangers from happening!

In the end, Shiraishi was the one who lost, and the clapping for the winner was probably the loudest anyone had heard throughout the whole tournament, as well as being earned at Shiraishi’s expense.
Tezuka was lying on his side of the court with his right hand pressing his now rather swollen and limp left wrist while Shiraishi was half kneeling on the ground even though he was not physically injured.
Apart from these who knew him quite well, it was not easy to see that he was undergoing an emotionally crisis.
He never expected them to automatically win just because of his actions, but it was still very difficult for him to come to term with the knowledge that his dream would never come true.
Even worse was the fact that he felt he was to be blamed as he was the one who lose this deciding game.
The cheering were beginning to hurt in more then one way, especially the praises of how Tezuka deserved to win due to this sacrifice.
He should leave as soon as he could, but he seemed unable to even more, so he continued to hear these words being repeated over and over again.
Was his own sacrifices worth it? He couldn’t help but to question himself since what he wanted would not be his.
He might have had more fun…Ashita might be watching him now. At the very least she would not say that he never cared for her at all, to be accused of such a thing by someone so precious to him hurt greatly.
The worst part was that this was all his own fault- he was the one that forced himself to make this decision, he made a mistake by choosing in the first place as he finally realized that he could not be satisfied with having just one.
An understanding that came much too late as he now had neither.
He did not deny that this was all the result of his own folly, but nonetheless they were the sacrifices he did as he was the buchou.
So why were they all acting as if he never did such a thing? As if Tezuka was the only who did sacrifices for his team?
He was very tired…he tried to do what he believed to be the best for his team and the result simply hurts too much. He did not expect people to praise him for it at all, but seeing it being dismissed completely was too much.

Shiraishi’s words were spoken out very softly, but the tone immediately hushed the crowd. Anger was present, but so was sadness- showing that this was not just caused by his current lose.
“So I should lose just because of this?” he whispered brokenly. “If he should win just because of his sacrifices, then what about all that I did? Doesn’t playing this perfect tennis, which is the most boring thing in the world, for so long not mean anything?
“I never once complained about my actions because this is my duty by being the buchou. My team has to be the most important thing. Likewise my coach made this decision of letting me be the buchou since my second year even though he knew that this would not be a good thing for me.
“I don’t blame him anymore as I understand that he too, must put our team first.
“So why do you all think only he did sacrifices?” Shiraishi continued, “And why should I lose just because Tezuka wishes for Seigaku to be the champion? What make you think that I have a different goal? Why else would I want to win so obsessively? I did not do all that I did for fun, it was all because I have a dream of wanting Shitenhouji to win.
“Seigaku won because it is better then Shitenhouji in skills, but not because of your wish to win, as I wish for that so much too! So does my coach and all my team mates!”
Shiraishi was a skilled enough player and his school have performed very well in the last nationals so most of the audience has seen him before. They usually judged him to be someone quite good tempered and one who acted in a mature way.
An image that contrasted greatly with the boy who seemed to be on the verge of screaming and even crying.
His team mates’ shock clearly indicated that this was the first time their buchou behaved like this. Even the one who prophesised about the out burst was still surprised at the actual result- which was why he didn’t do anything.
Some one from Seigaku must have retorted something and the immediate reproach and apology from his own team mates indicated that it was not as wise thing to say. (6)
“Would you sacrifice almost all your enjoyment in tennis for your team for more then a whole year? Would you? And would you sacrifice the person you care for the most?” Shiraishi snapped back angrily, his voice finally raised to be qualified as a yell. “Sacrifices are not just limited to a physical injury! Don’t tell me that all I did was nothing! Especially making her go away…I care for her so much…I might even love her…but because of what I did she now think that I never cared for her…
“I know that I am the only one to be blamed for this,” he admitted, his voice now much calmer and he even prepared to stand up and walk to the net. “But no matter what, I did what I did for my team, so stop saying that he is the only one who made sacrifices. However wrong…however foolish I have been, my actions were still guided by what made him do this very same thing.”
When Shiraishi stood up, he was awarded with clapping as well, although there many who still did not understands. But those who did all clapped with great enthusiasm as they could realise how much it would hurt to do what Shiraishi did.
It was a particular loud clap that caused Watanabe to discover her- a much more difficult task then usual as she blended in with the rest quite easily due since she was wearing her school uniform.
“I think he does not need to lose in both cases.” Watanabe commented as he took something out from Shiraishi’s bag. “Children need guidance, and perhaps I can actually do what I intended.”

Ashita was deeply startled when he tapped her on the shoulder, since she was completely focused on watching Shiraishi. Her clenched hands were a further indication.
“It is not my fault that he lost.” Was the first thing she said to the coach of Shitenhouji.
Although she almost wished that this was not true, as it would show her that she was much more important. But she was not that selfish as she wanted him to win due to knowing how much this meant to him.
“Of course not. But this is.” Watanabe said, pointing to the court.
“It was that school adding insult to his injury!” Ashita immediately retorted angrily. “I’ll be angry too if I am him! First blaming him for blaming their buchou’s own problems and then suggesting that Kura…Shiraishi did not deserve to win! As if they are the only ones who want to win and…”
”Yes, he might not be doing this if he won but I doubt that he would be smiling as your are really precious to him, losing you really affected him greatly.” Saying so he placed the taped up photograph and the ribbon carefully wrapped in tissues into her hand. “Some times there are things of equal importance, but you don’t always know it when you should. Tanako-chan, is this not a good enough proof of how much he cares for you?”
At the sight of these treasures he had preserved so carefully she could only nod because she found herself unable to speak right now.
“Then go and tell him.” Watanabe said gently. “I think he will be able to accept losing if you are there beside him.”


(1) Another difference from my original fan fiction, as in the original story he actually doesn’t know that she still like him, which I think make more sense since he is only fourteen, if not fifteen.
(2) Basically in Japanese culture you rarely call some one by their first name unless you know them really really well and you usually have known them for a very long time (a bit like Inui and Yanagi). But I think you can call your boy and girl friend by their first name. So Shiraishi used to call Ashita by her first name as she was his girl friend, but now she is telling him that he doesn’t have the right to call her that and he should call her ‘Tanako’ as a normal friend or class mate would have to do.
(3) Just for those who doesn’t understand tennis, which I didn’t understand for ages. Say that they are at a situation of 40-0, where the 40 is scored by Tezuka. Basically all Tezuka have to do is to score one more time and the game will go to him, and then you start the whole thing again. But in Shiraishi’s case he have to score four times (I think, I am not very sure) so in some cases some people in his position will just give up the next ball as they might think it is not worth it, having to spend that much stamina in trying to score a game, which you might not even get, as your opponent just have to score one more time. This actually has been done- by one of the regulars in midoriyama when they played against Kaidou and Inui.
(4) This is a reference to what Momoshiro and Ryuzaki-sensei had said in the kantou regional, during Echizen’s match with Sanada. Sengoku was saying that Echizen should give up as otherwise he might be harmed- Momoshiro then told him that he is wrong, while Ryuzaki-sensei added that no one in Seigaku will give up before the game finishes.
(5) A totally random side note but this is my favorite part in the whole story: Watanabe’s speech.
(6) In regard to who said the really rude thing I leave it up to you to decide.

Final Author’s Note: I really wanted to show the following ideas in this fan fiction.

1) it is not the fault of Tezuka’s opponent that this is happening to him. (I must admit I made that mistake myself too.) But the fact that Tezuka can not last a very long match is his own fault because it is not wrong to drag a match out- whether on purpose (as Atobe tend to do) or as an accident (as what Shiraishi do in this story). Many players does this in order to study their opponent’s technique.

2) Seigaku is probably the last lot who can yell accusations at their opponents because it is Seigaku who didn’t stop Tezuka. Why should his opponent have to forfeit when there is nothing wrong with them? Why should the opponent have to forfeit because Tezuka can not play anymore? If there is something wrong with someone then that person must suffer for it himself, it is not fair for his opponent to suffer this.

3) Tezuka is doing what he did so he can continue playing anymore, would he actually want his opponent to forfeit and deliberately lose to him? I don’t think so, I believe he want his opponent to continue playing.

4) lastly, Tezuka is not the only buchou who performed sacrifices, a lot of the other buchou did too. I do not like how Tezuka is seen as the only one to perform sacrifices just because his sacrifices is more easy to see. I am not saying what Tezuka does is not admirable, but I am just saying, it is not the only thing, and it is not fair that he should win just because of that action.

5) my disappointment in Ryuzaki sensei as a coach, I really think she should not let them continue. I also really believe that unlike her, Watanabe would stop his students if they are in a similar position.

Additionally, this story also kind of show him realizing tennis is not enough, he can’t just be happy just because of tennis. I think he thought that he could manage and he believe that he should do this, but then he realize that you can not just make tennis into the only thing, that you need other things too, but this is more specific to this fan fiction.

Rikkai
Inui: “Renji, you are my good friend so you must save me!”
Yanagi: “Don’t worry, Sadaharu, I’ve already calculated all this. Niou will get ride of every one.”
Everyone else: “INUI SADAHARU! We know that you are in there!”
Niou: “What are you guys being so noisy for? We are trying to practice!”
Everyone else: “We just want to get Inui Sadaharu…”
Niou: “Then why are you guys here? Gosh, that sign, in case you didn’t see it, says ‘Rikkai’, not ‘Seigaku’.”
Everyone else: “But we saw him running in here…”
Niou: “You think we will just let him stay in. Wait a second…are you guys all trying to spy on us? I knew it! Well, this is actually a breach of privacy!”

(Niou manages to send everyone off)

Inui: “I am forever in your debt, Renji.”
Yanagi: “No need to thank me, Sadaharu. You see, Rikkai have a policy of avenging our own grievances our self, we do not want anyone else to intervene.” (5)
Marui: “Can we please start?”
Yanagi: “Wait, first of all, are both Genichirou and Yagyuu with Seiichi?”
Kirihara: “Yukimura-buchou assured me that he will keep them occupied.” (6)
Yanagi: “Good. Ah, Sadaharu, you want to say: ‘What can a seaweed head like you do to me’, don’t you?” (7)
Inui: “I DON’T!!!”
Kirihara: “I am so going to kill you!”

Yanagi: “This is strange, we always had to refill the juice jug our self. The possibility that the staff did is x%, the likehood of this being done by one of us is y%. That then means…”
Marui: “JUICE!!!” (drinks it in one go.)

(Marui starts to roll on the ground in pain.)

Yukimura: “What is wrong, Bunta? Is this because you found out that Akaya ate your secret stash of cakes a day ago?”
Marui: “I knew it! Akaya, you are the one that did it!”
Kirihara: “It wasn’t me, I swear! It was a…a ladybug!” (8)
Marui: “KI-RI-HA-RA A-KA-YA! I-AM-GOING-TO…”

(Marui suddenly breaks off due to the a new set of pain)
[This is a further proof of how powerful Inui juice really is]

Yanagi: (opens his eyes) “Seiichi, don’t drink…”

(a glass drops onto the ground)

Yukimura: “My head suddenly hurt so much…I feel so sick…”

(1) I decided to be nice to Minami and not let him having to drink Inui juice.
(2) I think Kai actually calls Hirakoba just by his first name, and least that is what he did the OVA commentary.
(3) I think Ashita have quite a right to be angry. First of all, she is really tired and she is obviously not in a mood for jokes. She is asking some sympathy from Shiraishi and instead of giving her any, he gave this really foul drink to her (note- she wouldn’t have drank it if he didn’t tell her that it is really nice). So I think her being quite angry is not that unreasonable.
(4) If I stick to the story completely then I probably wouldn’t have included Shitenhouji. Cause all I can see is Shiraishi saying: “Ew, this stuff is really disgusting’ and then just forget about it. So that is why I included the character of Tanako Ashita from my fan fictions.
(5) I just can’t get this bit right, basically Yanagi is saying if someone injured any one of them, they will deal with this themselves. They will bash that person up themselves and so prevents any one else hitting them.
(6) These two are not here because I think they might disapprove the idea of getting revenge this way.
(7) This bit is curtsey of my sister, who came up with it and really believed that Yanagi would have used this in order to re-charge Kirihara in the doubles 2 match in the finals.
(8) Kirihara said a caterpillar ate Marui’s bento in the ova commentary, I decided to change the type of insect…

Sorry to all those in St Rudolph and Rokkaku, you guys are so normal that I didn’t know how to fit any one you in…But I quite like this what if scene, I’ll even say it is one of the best ones I have ever written.

I wanted to put this up in one entry, but since I can’t, I thought I’ll just add an bonus scenario. This extra what if scenario will be different because it actually wouldn’t feature any of Shitenhouji’s players. But Watanabe will come out, as it plays on the following ideas…

If Watanabe is Seigaku’s coach…
(Seigaku’s tennis team is about to go in a restaurant or something.)

The owner: “So that is nine students and one adult.”

(Everyone prepare to pay)

The owner: (to Tezuka) “Sensei, I still need so and so more dollars.”
Tezuka: “I am the buchou, that is the coach.”
The owner: “Hahaha, don’t joke about such things, sensei! That kid look much younger then you.”
Tezuka: “…”
Watanabe: (after he first spends quite some time laughing) “He is right, I am their coach. See?” (takes out identification)
The owner: “Eh? I thought you are one of the students.”
Watanabe: “So I still look quite young!” (laughs) “Wait…it could just mean that Tezuka looks old. See, Tezuka, that is why I tell you that you have to smile more.”

my proper blog is at: http://autumn-leaf16.livejournal.com/


Full title: You reap what you sow…(ie. The consequences of distributing out Inui juice to the other schools…)

I suddenly got this idea the other day. The presumption is that almost all the school has been gathered together for some sort of training and then Inui had the idea of letting other schools drink his Inui juice.

Note: For Shitenhouji I actually included ideas from my own fan fiction, because otherwise I don’t see how I can include Shitenhouj in it, since I think their reaction will be pretty normal. So I included Tanako Ashita in it, the original character in my fan fiction “Sacrifice” and “Chapters”, and I guess she is here as a volunteer, a bit like what Sakuno and An did in the American team arc. (So just presume that Shiraishi have a girl friend as that is her role in the story.)

This what if scenario differs because of the narrative. There isn’t any specific distinction between thoughts and actual speeches because the italic bits are flash backs…

“words”= speech
(action)= action in the present
“words”= speech in the past
(action)= action in the past.

The start of everything
Inui: “Oh hohoho, it is finally completed! My latest invention- deluxe Inui juice. Not only does have the same favouring as the previous one, it also looks exactly like real juice. No one should be able to suspect anything!
Inui: “Hohoho, I should be able to get a lot of data tomorrow! Hohohoho…”

(Inui spends the rest of the night planting Inui juice in every school’s dormitory)

Seigaku
Inui: (Notebook in hand) “Why is no one affected by my juice at all? There should be some people complaining while others would be drinking water madly. At the very least Fuji would make some comment.”
Inui: “Unless everyone is immune to Inui juice already? I must go to other schools and investigate.”

Ooishi: “What a lovely day! A shame that no one else is up yet. Oh? Someone actually filled up our juice jug this early? I really must thank whoever that did this.

(pours himself a glass- immediately rushes to find water after he drinks it…)

Ooishi: “Inui must be the one responsible for this! What should I do then? If I just leave it here then someone is bound to drink it, but it will be a great waste of food if I just throws it away…”
Ooishi: “What should I do? What should I do?”

(footsteps)

Ooishi: “As the fuku-buchou I must do what is good for the team! Yes, I must!!!”

(pours all the juice down the sink)

Momoshiro: “Echizen, don’t you think that Inui-senpai is up to something?”
Echizen: “He probably made more of these drinks…”

(After a long discussion the two of them decide to warn everyone about the mysteriously filled up juice jug on each table by writing the truth out on a note. However, due to tragic reasons each note is delivered too late as no one was saved due to it. Nor did the two of them realise that they should prevent their senapi from being in great danger by stopping him going around to collect the data of his work…)

Hyoutei
Inui: “I can’t believe that they are eating such fancy food! The meal itself must have cost quite a fortune, not to mention the delivery fee.
Inui: “Why are they all looking at me in such a strange way? As if they are deciding whether to curse or thank me?”

Atobe: “Finally, some decent service! Ore-sama can not believe that they expect ore-sama to refill the juice jug by going to the kitchen myself!”
Shishido: “Che…I bet he paid them just because he can’t be bothered to do it himself.”
Ootori: “Now, now, Shishido-san.”

(everyone pours out a glass…)

Atobe: “What is this? This is disgusting! Kabaji, fetch Ore-sama’s cell phone! Ore-sama is going to get some decent food so we can all wash this foul taste away!”
Kabaji: “Usu.”

Hyoutei regulars excluding Atobe: “Should we strangle him for making that juice or thank him for letting us have this meal?”

Yamabuki
Sengoku: “Why, it’s Inui-kun! Lucky! I am so glad so see you!”
Inui: “Is it possible that my juice did not have any effect on Yamabuki at all as they want to thank me!”
Dan: “Sengoku-senpai, are you sure that this is a good idea? Don’t you think that it will be too dangerous?”
Sengoku: “Oh, I am sure Inui-kun can manage! Akutsu! Inui Sadaharu, the maker of that juice is here!”
Akutsu: “Where? I am going to beat him up so that he’ll regret ever putting that thing onto the table.”

(Inui starts to run)

Sengoku: “Hmm…today is meant to be a very lucky day for me.” (Continues reading)
Dan: (Splutters and gags)
Sengoku: “What is wrong?”
Dan: “That juice!” (continues chocking)
Minami: “Everyone, I just got a note from Seigaku warning us to not drink the filled up juice in case it is ‘the poison made by our Inui-senpai.’” (1)
Sengoku: “Phew, I was just going to drink it. LUCKY!”
Minami: “Sengoku! Dan, are you alright?”
Dan: “I think so…”
Sengoku: “Don’t worry, we’ll avenge you. Just don’t say anything until I do.”

(Akutsu enters and grab the jug of juice…)

Higa
Inui: “Crap! He is still chasing me!”
Kai: (In Okinawa dialect) “Rin, that guy running toward us is Inui Sadaharu. The one who made that juice.” (2)
Hirakoba: (In Okinawa dialect) “Really? I am going to get him!!!”
Kite: (In Okinawa dialect) “Just don’t give him any permanent injury.”
Inui: “What did they say…why is Hirakoba chasing me as well now?”
Akutsu: “Get out of my way!”
Hirakoba: “Who the heck are you? You get out of my way!”
Akutsu: “I am Akutsu Jin and don’t command me!”

(a fight between Hirakoba and Akutsu begins…)

Kite: “We must remember all that we went through and why: it is to make a name for Okinawa…”
Hirakoba: “Why does this juice taste like goya?”
Kite: “Interrupting me when I am talking? Do you really want to eat goya?”
Hirakoba: “I don’t! But this really tastes like goya!!!”
Kai: “Let me have a taste! Wow…it really does taste like goya!”
Chinen: “Is it possible that our coach…”
Hirakoba: “Yuck! I feel sick now!”
Kite: “Hm…I don’t think it is likely but…”
Hirakoba: “Ew…why does this have to happen to me!!!”

Fodoumine
Inui: “Phew, that was close. Luckily only one from each school was chasing after me…”
Tetsu: “There he is! The one who did this to Tachibana-san!”
Sakurai: “We will get him!!!”
Ibu: “Is it really my fault that I didn’t read the note earlier? But how was I supposed to know that it would contain such an important message?”
Kamio: “Shinji, don’t worry about such a thing now! Just get him!!! Everyone, I’m going with the rhythm!”

Tachibana: “As always we will give our best shot and show everyone that Fudoumine is not to be taken lightly.”
Fudoumine (excluding Tachibana): “Yes, Tachibana-san!”

(Tachibana drinks the juice and rushes to throw up)
[Note- this juice affects everyone in a different way…]

Fudoumine (excluding Tachibana): “TACHIBANA-SAN!!!”

Shitenhouji
Inui: “I am in great trouble now as a whole team is chasing me! The possibility of being captured by them is x%, while the like hood of being harmed is 100%!
Zaizen: “Kenya-senpai, isn’t that the guy who made that juice?”
Kenya: “Really? Maybe we can be saved for this torture! Shiraishi…”
Shiraishi: “Do you want to clean the whole camp instead of just our dormitory?”
Kenya: “But I have something very important to tell you! Inui from Seigaku is running past us.”
Shiraishi: “The one who made that juice?”
Yuuji: “Where is he?”
Koharu: “I am going to make him pay for making Yuu-kun and I get punished as well when we didn’t do even anything.”
Zaizen: “Senpai-tachi, you two technically…”
Shiraishi: “Alright, I’ll cancel all the extra trainings if one of you can grab hold of him.”
Shitenhouji (excluding Shiraishi and Kintarou): “We will!!!”
Tetsu: “Why is niisan’s team mates running with us?”
Gin: “He made all of us get punished by Shiraishi due to his juice.”
Kamio: “I am not going to let you outrun me this time!!!”
Kenya: “I am sorry but the Speed star of Naniwa is much faster, especially in matters of life and death!!!”

Kenya: “This drink is disgusting!”
Zaizen: “If only Chitose-senpai told us about the note earlier!”
Chitose: “Why don’t we hide this from Shiraishi until he drinks it?”
Zaizen: “I do want to see buchou’s reaction.”
Shiraishi: “Someone filled up the juice jug? Is the juice nice?”

(Zaizen, Kenya and Chitose all nods madly)

Ashita: “Kuranosuke, I am so tired. One of the coaches just made me run across the whole camp in order to deliver this bunch of paper, then made me carry boxes of equipment…”
Shiraishi: (gives the glass in his hand to her) “Have a drink then.”
Ashita: “I don’t really like these kind of juice.”
Shiraishi: “But this one is really nice.”
Ashita: “If you say so then I’ll drink it.”
Kenya: “Tanako-chan, wait…”

(Ashita begins to throw up.)

Shiraishi: “Ashita are you really alright?”
Ashita: “How can you tell me that this is nice? There should be a limit to joking around! Lying in order to make me drink this is going a bit too far!” (Ashita exits with a loud slam of the door) (3)

(Shiraishi then dips his finger into the juice and licks it.)

(a long silence…)

(Shiraishi went to the board that consists their practise schedule and write times two beside every item)

(Gin wisely starts to run)

Chitose: “Hmm…” (activates his pinnacle of wisdom) “Crap!” (starts to run too)
Kenya: “Shiraishi, I know that you are mad but don’t you think that this punishment is a bit too harsh?”
Shiraishi: “That was not any punishment as I would be doing it too, it really just is extra training. But since you and Zaizen specifically reminded me, you two can clean up the whole dormitory tonight.”

(Koharu and Yuuji wisely tries to sneak off)

Shiraishi: “Koharu and Yuuji, since you two threw some water bomb into one of the teacher’s office a few weeks ago you two can join Kenya and Zaizen in cleaning up as well.”
Koharu: “How did he even know…”
Yuuji: “Just start running before he mentions any other stuff that we did!” (4)