Deafening Silence ( prince of tennis) (#wattys2016)

17

Update - I'm having major writer's block at the moment. I can't seem to come up with a reasonable conversation/plot so I write these lukewarm paragraphs that I immediately delete. So it kind of sucks...

I know you were expecting plot, but here's a filler chapter instead. Because we love those.

And 10 points to whoever can guess what PoT fanfic this chapter was inspired by.

Double points if you can identify both songs :)

Rikkaidai Fuzoku Regular Clubhouse

Marui sat on a bench in the clubhouse, shamelessly eating a vanilla-iced muffin with a raspberry filling. He loved these muffins, and knew the owner of the café that made them, entitling him to buy as many cakes as he wants and not get weird looks.

Marui loved sweets more than anything, and in his opinion it was perfectly ok to consume his body mass in sweets daily. It helped that all the tennis training prevented him from getting fat. Sanada would go nuts if he spotted the slightest bit of fat and order Marui to run until it was worked off.

Things had become much more mechanical at Rikkaidai ever since Yukimura left. It was the same routine - running 50 laps with 5kg on each leg, followed by practice matches with the weights still on, sound and hearing training, and then more laps with the weights before the practice finishes. Sanada had engineered the entire thing within a few days of Yukimura being sent to the hospital, and things didn't operate as smoothly as they did before, because with Sanada it seemed rather like a chore. But Yukimura inspired the players to work their hardest and keep them going. That's what the team lacked - inspiration, though they were currently ploughing through the District Tournament, a place full of newbie players, so it was kind of hard to find inspiration, even with Yukimura. But there was even less of that than usual, and Marui especially wondered how much the team had changed.

Echizen joining the team was at least a nice change. It was different to have someone who willingly stood up to Sanada and told him what was on his mind, but Marui had noticed how Sanada's attitude was softening towards him. He'd heard about how Echizen was tutoring him in English, and Marui was rather surprised that a freshman was tutoring him, even if the kid was fluent.

Marui kind of liked Echizen, even though he knew nothing about the kid. It was honestly frustrating that without Sanada around he couldn't express his thoughts unless he had a pen and paper, which he usually didn't, and Marui could kind of understand how annoying it must be to try to talk to someone who couldn't understand what you were saying.

As much as Marui wanted to know Echizen, he couldn't, but he told himself he would try. After all, the kid would nearly always buy a cake from the cafeteria during lunch or bring one to school. It seemed that he really loved cake, and Marui felt happy as he realised there might be someone in the universe who understands his sweets obsession.

His thoughts were interrupted as Echizen himself walked in, with his usual black hair across his left eye, passive mask and earphones in place.

"Hey, Echizen" Marui greeted with a wave, Echizen nodded in response and put down his tennis bag, earphones and iPod, putting the two in his school bag before quickly getting changed and leaving with his racket in hand.

Marui ate his muffin during this, and looked up to notice that Echizen was gone, and he sighed loudly, noticing something shiny out of the corner of his eye.

There was Echizen's blue iPod and earphones in his open school bag, shining with an almost tempting glare.

Marui quickly stepped across the room and snatched the iPod, already scrolling through the freshman's music before he could think.

This is the perfect way to get to know him better, Marui thought. But then stopped, realising that all of the music titles were in English.

Damn, I don't understand any of these titles, he thought irritably as he scrolled through them. There had to be some way to figure out what these songs meant. It didn't mean anything if he didn't understand the lyrics.

A sudden thought came to him.

"Yanagi!" he called, bolting out of the room. But then he stopped.

He returned to the room quickly, taking the last piece of his beloved vanilla muffin and stuffing it into his mouth before taking off again in search of the data master.

Rikkaidai Fuzoku Tennis Courts

Yanagi instantly snapped his head towards the distance when he heard his name being called, and a few moments later a red blur shot out of the clubroom towards him. The red blur stopped right in front of Yanagi, and Marui was already shoving a device in his face.

"Yanagi-san, can you translate these?" he said quickly, and Yanagi raised an eyebrow, before taking the device and tapping the screen.

"This is Echizen's iPod" he realised, turning back to Marui with a disapproving glare. Marui held up his hands in surrender.

"Yeah, it is, I just wanted to understand what kinda music Echizen listens to, but it's all in English" he explained quickly, and Yanagi sighed again.

"That's not surprising, considering he grew up in America"

"So will you do it?" Marui asked.

"This is wrong, Marui, stealing Echizen's iPod to get to know him" he said in a scolding tone, and Marui frowned.

"So you won't help?" he asked innocently.

Yanagi opened his mouth to speak, but quickly closed it as a thought came to him. Echizen was indeed an anomaly, an anomaly that Yanagi had almost no data on, and he held in his hands on object that the freshman never parted with, and it contained not only Echizen's style of music, but the kind of rhythm and lyrics that appealed to Echizen. While that may not be so important to some, to Yanagi this was very important.

Don't do it, half of his mind said, this is wrong. You'll only get in trouble over this

Do it, the other half of his mind said, this is the best chance for data you're ever going to get

Don't do it!

Do it!

Don't do it!

Do it!

Don't do it!

Do-

"Yanagi-san?"

Yanagi was knocked out of his thoughts by a troubled-looking Marui, and Yanagi realised he'd been spacing out the entire time.

"Alright" he said, and Marui gave a small cheer in response.

"On one condition" Yanagi said quickly.

"What?" Marui asked curiously.

"You must make sure that Niou does not get anywhere near this" he said, emphasising the word 'near', and Marui nodded his head in understanding.

"I won't" he stated confidently.

"Alright" Yanagi said, scrolling through the iPod. Marui sat down next to him, and pointed at one song on the screen.

"What's that one?" he asked, sounding like a curious child. Yanagi narrowed his already-narrowed eyes as he translated the words in his mind.

"Burn It Down" he translated.

"Ohh" Marui chirped, "that sounds good, play that one". Yanagi nodded once and tapped the screen.

Immediately there was a slow intro of what sounded like an electronic keyboard, and Yanagi and Marui were both slightly surprised, followed by a tune that layered on top of the intro, which sounded like a second, more techno-based electronic keyboard. That was then quickly followed by a slow beat of a drum that sounded like a heartbeat. The intro became louder and louder until there was a burst of sound that made Yanagi and Marui jump. The intro was suddenly louder, faster and catchier, and Yanagi was appropriately shocked.

The cycle repeated ~

As explosions broke in the sky

All that I needed ~

Was the one thing I couldn't find

And you were there at the turn

Waiting to let me knooow ~

Techno music? Yanagi thought. The music suddenly became louder, and the singer was now practically shouting over the techno rhythm.

We're building it uupp ~

To break it back doowwnn ~

We're building it uuuupp ~

To burn it down

We can't wait, to burn it to the ground ~

The lyrics were followed by the same beat of electronic keyboards as the intro, and Yanagi decided to pause it.

Marui seemed to be even more shocked than he was, and Yanagi was reflexively reaching for his data book.

"The kid listens to techno music?" He asked shocked, and Yanagi didn't even reply, already scribbling in his data book.

No, he thought, it wasn't techno music; it was a more vocal style. Electronic music, possibly?

"Interesting" Yanagi said when he finished scribbling, "shall we play more?" he asked. Marui nodded his head quickly, and pointed to another song when Yanagi was scrolling through the list.

"That one!" he said excitedly.

"Had Enough" Yanagi translated, and pressed the play button.

There was an immediate chorus of rock guitars that made the two jump again, contrasting greatly from the previous electronic music. The chorus of heavy guitars went on for a while.

Rock music? Yanagi thought. He started scribbling in his data book as the lyrics began.

Milk it for all its worth

Make sure you get there first

The apple of your eye

The rotten core inside ~

You are a precipice

Things couldn't get much worse

I've had it all to here

You know your end is near

There was a short guitar solo, in which Yanagi and Marui exchanged confused looks.

You had to have it all

Well have you had enough?

You greedy little bastard you,

You'll get what you deserve ~

When all is said and done

I will be the one ~

To leave you in your misery

And hate what you've become ~

Yanagi decided to pause it, and Marui seemed to get over the shock and turned to him.

"What did those lyrics mean?" he asked. Yanagi hesitated for a while, who knew a freshman listened to rock and electronic music?

"The first song was about destroying something the artist had built up, presumably a relationship, judging by the lyrics" Marui's face registered appropriate shock.

"The second song was about the artist getting revenge on someone and leaving them in despair"

The two shared a rather awkward and thoughtful silence, both very shocked by their kouhai's music tastes.

"You should put this back" Yanagi said, handing the iPod back to Marui. Marui nodded and took it, taking off without a word.

Yanagi smiled to himself as he looked through his data book, happy with this new information he had collected.

Rikkaidai Fuzoku Regular Clubhouse

Marui was actually very shocked by the kid's music. He knew that his music was loud, but rock and electronic music? He wasn't expecting that at all.

Marui stepped into the clubroom, still staring at the iPod like it was an alien.

"What'cha got there?" a voice asked, and Marui jumped at the voice of the one Yanagi didn't want near the iPod. Marui quickly put it behind his back as Niou stared at him curiously.

"Nothing" he said a bit too quickly. Niou shrugged once, ignoring the comment and passed Marui and went out the door, and Marui didn't move an inch until he had left, and gave a loud sigh of relief.

He approached Echizen's still-open bag with relief and put the iPod back in.

Or he would have, if it was still in his hand.

Marui gaped, staring at his hand like he expected the iPod to suddenly appear in it.

How?... he wondered, and wondered and wondered.

And then it hit him, and Marui paled.

"NIOU!" he cried, dashing out of the clubroom as if his life depended on it, which it probably did.

Rikkaidai Fuzoku Tennis Courts

Niou knew immediately that whatever Marui had in his hands was important enough to him to keep away from Niou, and he had immediately decided that whatever it was, it was his.

So when he swiped the device and quickly ran for his life, getting as much distance between him and the clubroom, he caught his breath and looked at the device in his hand.

It was an iPod, he realised, and frowned.

This wasn't Marui's. Marui's was red and was a different version. This one was the newer model, and it was blue.

"NIOU!" he heard, and Niou chuckled at the thought of Marui's infuriated face.

But whose iPod was this? Had Marui stolen it? Should he turn it into Sanada and say that Marui was playing with someone else's iPod?

No, he decided, that's not my style.

But then whose was it? Was it Jackal's? Did Jackal own an iPod?

Why have I seen this before? He thought.

...

...

...

...

...

Niou's eyes widened and he stared at the iPod for a moment longer, confirming his suspicions.

It's Echizen's iPod! No wonder Marui was hiding it!

Without a moment's hesitation Niou unlocked it, frowning as he realised the songs were in English. He supposed it didn't matter, as long as he got the gist.

He pressed play with an excited smile.

Rikkaidai Fuzoku Regular Clubhouse

Roko mentally sighed in exasperation as he returned from Sanada's brutal training regime. It seemed that Sanada himself was bothering the freshmen, which was fine with him; it meant he could do the regime without Sanada screaming down his ear.

He reached his bag and searched through it, finding the towel and bottle he kept in there, wiping the sweat off his face and chugging down the water. He smiled as he realised he was in complete silence for once, and decided he should listen to his music. He reached into the pocket where he kept it, but only pulled out his earphones.

He blinked.

And again.

And again.

And then it dawned on him.

Someone has stolen my iPod!

He was on his feet in an instant, shooting out of the room like a rocket.

They. Are going. To die.