Deafening Silence ( prince of tennis) (#wattys2016)

5

I apologize for the suckiness of this chapter, but I felt like actual conversation was needed. Sorry :(

Rikkaidai Fuzoku School Grounds

Yanagi Renji wasn't the type of person to overreact about things. He was the quiet type, the type who evaluates things from the background, taking logical data and evidence and constructing a valid hypothesis.

So when he, like the rest of the regulars, heard of the famous mute regular that Sanada had tortured, Yanagi could not help but want to know this freshman better, despite his habit of indirectly collecting data. He wanted to gather data on him, because the most difficult nuts to crack were always the most satisfying in the end. And this Echizen Roko seemed far tougher to crack than Sanada and Yukimura put together, for the simple reason that he could not verbalize his reactions.

Yanagi knew that his habit for wanting to know about people was worrying; some may call him a stalker for it. But there was something about this freshman that made people want to know more about him - Niou and Marui were prime examples of this strange phenomenon.

When Yukimura and Sanada approached them at lunch, and Yukimura heartily announced that the boy Sanada had been torturing was mute, it was as if a light bulb went off simultaneously in everyone's head. The first reaction was an immediate lecture to Sanada, everyone - especially Jackal, since he was practically the mother of the team - dismayed at how Sanada actually punished a mute boy for not speaking.

Afterward, Kirihara had a sudden realisation, and instead of hating the freshman for disrespecting Yukimura, he suddenly wanted to apologize to him for assuming he was just outright rude. Yanagi himself agreed that the freshman was intolerably rude to his captain, but he could not help but feel sympathy after he had learnt that he was mute.

So, everyone aside from Sanada - who had no say in the debate - agreed that they needed to talk to this freshman, and so Niou and Marui were off before they could even suggest where he might be.

And so, they were now sat quietly under the largest cherry blossom tree in the school grounds, waiting for Niou and Marui to return with the coveted freshman.

"Buchou" Kirihara said after a moment's silence.

"Yes?" Yukimura replied softly.

"You said Echizen was in your class, but isn't he a first year?" he asked innocently. Yanagi paused; he too was interested why the freshman was in a third-year class.

"Ah, that's because he grew up in America, so is fluent in English" Yukimura replied.

"Wait, seriously!?" Kirihara cried. Yanagi had already reached for his notebook and was now scribbling furiously. How had he not seen this? How did he not know that this Echizen Roko was fluent in English? And mute, at that. It seemed Yanagi had nothing on this freshman, and this precious data being revealed in front of him was just frustrating.

"It's no surprise really" Yagyuu replied casually, "In fact I'm rather shocked the school made him take English when he's already fluent"

Yanagi looked up at Yagyuu, who sat in the shadows of the tree, his face perfectly passive.

"How are you not surprised by this, Yagyuu?" Yanagi inquired. Yagyuu half-turned to Yanagi.

"He just seemed like the type of person with a lot of secrets" he replied casually, as if that made perfect sense. After that the conversation died on the spot, with Yanagi unable to formulate a reasonable reply to that. He instead turned his attention back to his notebook and scanned it quickly.

Echizen Roko.

Height -5'2

Weight -

Age - 12