Deafening Silence ( prince of tennis) (#wattys2016)

Chapter 2

Great. Just great. Now everyone is staring.

It was true, the moment Yukimura spoke to him, every head turned to him and looked like he had just committed sacrilege. So what? Shouldn't we be doing more useful things than picking up balls? How could you respect someone who orders you to slave around all day?

But it was immediately clear that in fact, all of the tennis club members did respect him. Why? They'd never even met him.

Roko turned back to Yukimura, who was still looking at him expectantly. He could see in his eyes that he wasn't offended by his reaction. In fact, he seemed amused by it. There was a strange glint in his eyes, and Roko wondered if he was trying to bore through his head with his stare.

He shook his head as an answer.

Several freshmen gasped.

He turned back to them with a raised eyebrow. What were they gasping for? Is this guy really so important that they'd gasp if I didn't give a verbal answer? He was just the tennis club captain. It seemed like the freshmen practically worshipped him.

Yukimura's smile didn't falter.

"No, please, share with us your thoughts" he said softly. There was a long period of silence.

Wonderful, now the situation was even worse. Roko understood immediately that it was now impossible to get out of this unscathed.

Every single head was now looking at him, half expectant and the other half terrified, maybe even pitiful.

Knowing that whatever he did would result in punishment, Roko gave in and simply shook his head again.

There was an even louder gasp, from everyone this time.

Yukimura still angelically smiled, though Roko could see he was now becoming dangerously amused rather than just plain amused. The barest change in his expression made Roko feel cold.

In an instant, the tall capped guy appeared between Roko and Yukimura, and powerfully backhanded Roko. He fell to the ground in an instant.

What the hell? Did he just slap me?

"Tarundarou!" he roared, suddenly furious, "how dare you refuse to speak to Yukimura!"

Roko's cheek stung from the force of the slap.

Is this happening? Am I being slapped for not speaking? Who slaps their club members!?

Roko looked up from my sprawled position on the ground. The capped guy loomed over him, now looking like a building. It was clear he was in a position of power in the tennis club. From his brief research, he learnt that there was the captain position - belonging to the angelic demon over there - and the vice-captain position. If he had to guess, it belonged to this hot-headed capped guy. Why are the captain and vice-captain such wierdos?

He mentally sighed and stood up again, matching the capped guy's glare with his own hollow expression.

This time, everyone started muttering to each other quietly, but Roko heard things along the line of 'he just defied the Child of God!' and 'Sanada-fukubuchou will kill him!'

'Sanada-fukubuchou' looked absolutely furious at Roko's defiance - even though he hadn't really done anything wrong.

"100 laps around the court!" he barked. People began snickering around him, but Roko couldn't help but mentally smirk while keeping his mask in place.

100 laps? At least give me a challenge, he thought

Roko didn't hesitate to take off, the tennis club members clearing the way for him, snickering as he passed them.

He didn't care. It may be his first day but this light punishment didn't bother him. He was more interested in how the rest of the day would go. He had just begun first period after all.

And who's this 'Child of God'? he wondered.

Rikkaidai Fuzkou Regular Clubhouse

After the freshmen had been welcomed, as tradition goes, the regulars assembled in the club house to discuss the District Tournament they would play in, and the new freshmen with possible potential. The main point of the freshmen welcoming speech was to scout any who looked like they could be of use to this tennis club, and Yanagi would put those freshmen under watch to see if they could be potential regulars.

However, no one was in the mood to discuss that. After the defiance of Yukimura from an unknown freshman, it seemed no one could talk about a tournament they would win, or other freshmen.

"I can't believe he refused to talk to you, Buchou!" Kirihara Akaya exclaimed, his rage barely held in check. When he had seen how he had defied Yukimura, he wanted to kill him for that. No one insults Yukimura-buchou and gets away with it!

"Calm down Akaya" Yanagi said softly, "you're overreacting"

"Yanagi's right" Jackal added, "you're getting way too angry over this, the kid just didn't speak. I probably wouldn't speak if Yukimura glared at me like that" That seemed to calm Akaya down, but he still had a small scowl.

"I thought he was interesting" Marui chirped, blowing on his apple bubblegum. Yanagi nodded once.

"He certainly was, I've never seen anyone stare at Yukimura like that. He probably has never heard of him" Yanagi said.

"That does not excuse his attitude!" Sanada proclaimed.

Sanada had nearly killed that freshman for such an insult to his captain. Yukimura had been the captain of the tennis club since his first year, and brought his team to the nationals and won every year. He deserved far more respect than this arrogant freshman had given him. It made Sanada want to scream in rage how infuriating his lack of respect for the prestigious captain was.

"Sanada" Yukimura said once. Sanada immediately silenced, and instead pulled his cap down and muttered inaudible things to himself.

"You need to relax, ~ puri", Niou remarked with a smug grin, "he's the only freshman here with guts"

"That's true" Yagyuu agreed, sat next to Niou, "he's definitely unique compared to the other freshmen. Half of them nearly broke down in tears when Sanada screamed like that" No one disagreed, it was true, every freshman except for him looked terrified when Sanada attacked him.

"Hmmm" Yukimura wondered, "he will certainly make things interesting". Yukimura noticed how Sanada's scowl deepened at that, but he said nothing.

Yep, he decided, things will definitely be interesting from now on

Rikkaidai Fuzoku Tennis Courts

By his fifth lap the freshmen had already begun practicing their swings. It was painful to watch how some of them failed to even hold the racket correctly, let alone swing the racket right. How was it humanly possible to swing a racket wrong anyway?

Roko took his time doing his laps, lightly jogging and keeping a slow pace. He figured if he ran the laps and ended it quickly, he'd just have to practice swings and pick up balls for the rest of practice, so laps sounded far more preferable. Roko had decided on his third lap that the captain's orders had to be followed to stay in the tennis club. It was difficult to swallow, especially since he was demoted to such menial tasks, but he enjoyed tennis more than most things in his life, so he decided he would bear it for now.

Roko fell into the pattern of his steps, rhythm and breathing.

One, two, breathe. One, two, breathe. One, two, breathe.

With this, time passed before he even realised it, and he suddenly realised he was on his 93rd lap. He wasn't even tired, thanks to his large amount of stamina and steady pace.

"Oy, freshman! Enjoying your laps?" a voice called from the courts. Roko turned his head to see a second year smirking at him with a group of other second years similarly smirking behind him. They obviously thought he got the shorter straw.

But, he was actually enjoying his laps. It helped him think, keeping this slow pace and compared to picking up balls, Roko would rather run laps any day.

So he nodded in response.

The second year spluttered, not expecting that answer before recovering quickly.

"We'll assign you more if you like" he called boastfully.

Do whatever, Roko thought as he continued on, leaving the second years behind in their metal mesh cage.