Deafening Silence ( prince of tennis) (#wattys2016)

Chapter22

in one day. It's worrying how bored I am.

Tokyo Tennis Gardens Courts

Ryoma was excited. Not because of the actual tennis match, but now his brother was going to watch. Ever since his awful match with Momo-senpai in doubles, he'd wanted to redeem himself in Roko's eyes, and this was his chance. He was not going to lose this opportunity.

"Kyaaa! Ryoma-sama!" came a squeal, and Ryoma groaned as an annoying brunette approached with her quiet friend, Ryuuzaki in tow. Tomaka wore a huge grin as she charged, but then stopped when she noticed Roko behind him.

"Eh? Who's this, Ryoma-sama?" she asked, looking at Roko curiously. Ryuuzaki stopped behind her and shared Tomaka's inquisitive look.

"This is my brother, Roko" he introduced, and Tomaka's eyes suddenly went huge.

"EEEHHH!?" she cried, "There are TWO Ryoma-sama's?" Ryoma mentally groaned as he felt his eardrums practically explode.

"T-Tomaka-chan" Ryuuzaki said quietly, "You're being too loud"

Yes, thank you, Ryuuzaki, Ryoma thought. Tomaka turned to her immediately.

"Sakuno! Don't you realise how much of a big deal this is? There's two Ryoma-sama's! TWO!" she cried, totally freaking out. Ryoma noticed that Roko frowned, suddenly becoming the second Ryoma. Ryuuzaki put her hands up in defense.

"Tomaka-chan, his name is Roko, not Ryoma" she said timidly, and Ryoma practically cheered that Ryuuzaki was defending his brother. Roko seemed to be lightly smiling too. Tomaka turned back to Roko.

"Nice to meet you, Roko-sama" she said, and Ryoma couldn't help but smirk at how Roko's eyebrow disappeared into his hair.

"I'm Tomaka Osakada, President of the Echizen Ryoma Fan Club, nice to meet you" she introduced with a huge smile. Ryoma mentally groaned again as Roko turned to him and gave him a grin that reached his ears, his eye sparkling with amusement. This was bad. If he knew, then Nanjiroh would know, and if he knew...

Ryuuzaki then took a step forward, looking at the ground as she did.

"Uh... Ryuuzaki Sakuno, nice to meet you" she said with a polite bow. Roko nodded once in acknowledgement.

"Roko", Ryoma cut in, "the match is about to start, we should go get a seat". Roko nodded again and followed after him.

The freshman trio, Horio, Katsuo and Kachiro were already at the bleachers talking amongst themselves when they noticed Ryoma arriving followed by Ryuuzaki and Tomaka.

"Echizen!" Horio cried, "You're here! We were just dis-" he stopped as he noticed the other boy with them, wearing a different uniform. The three shared similar looks of confusion.

"Eh? Who are you?" Horio asked, and immediately Tomaka was between them.

"Horio! Have some manners! This is Ryoma-sama's brother, Echizen Roko!" she scolded, and suddenly the trio were all looking at Roko with stupefied expressions.

"EEEHHHH!?" Horio cried, and Ryoma groaned as he felt his ears practically screaming in pain, while Roko just winced.

"No way! You're really Ryoma-kun's brother?" Katsuo asked, and Roko just nodded.

"You look so similar" Kachiro added from the background, which Roko didn't react to and looked to Ryoma for guidance.

"Calm down" Ryoma said, "it's not that big of a deal"

"Not that big!?" Horio shouted, "It's huge! There are two tennis prodigies in Seigaku! We'll definitely win now!" Ryoma just sighed.

"Horio" Katsuo said irritably, "He's not from Seigaku - he's wearing a different uniform". Horio then seemed to take notice of the fact that Roko was indeed not wearing the Seigaku uniform.

"Eh? Why don't you go to Seigaku?" he asked. Ryoma would have cut in, telling the trio to leave him alone, but he too wanted to know the answer. Unfortunately Tomaka intervened again.

"Roko-sama doesn't need to answer to you!" she proclaimed, Roko visibly frowned at his new title, and Ryoma smiled at the thought that he finally understood his pain.

"But he can answer to you, Tomaka?" he demanded, and suddenly they were glaring at each other, gritting their teeth in anger.

"Quiet down" Ryoma muttered, "you're being too noisy". He walked toward the seats and sat down, Roko sitting down next to him without glancing at him. Several people were filling up the bleachers now, and Ryoma could see the black and purple jerseys of Fudomine on the other side of the courts. He recognized a girl with them.

"Roko" Ryoma said, remembering something. Roko turned to him with an inquisitive expression.

"Why were you with that girl at our first game?" he asked, pointing across the courts to the girl. Roko followed his gaze and frowned at the sight of the girl, and made signs with his hands.

"I wasn't with her, she just stood next to me" his hands said, and Ryoma frowned as his thoughts of Roko having a girlfriend shattered like glass.

"Eh? What were those signs?" came a voice, and Ryoma noticed that Horio had stopped arguing with Tomaka and had watched the two of them, with the rest of them behind him.

"Sign language. Roko is mute" Ryoma stated bluntly. Roko seemed unfazed by that, and just gazed passively at Horio. For once the annoying ginger didn't say anything, along with the rest of the trio and the two cheerleaders, and they just looked shocked for a moment before Horio spoke.

"Eh? Is that like a disease or something?" he asked curiously. Ryoma's gaze snapped to Horio in an instant, his eyes blazing with murder, and Horio shrank back, everyone else gaping at him in shock, while Roko just continued his passive gaze like nothing had happened.

"Horio!" Katsuo cried, "That was awful!" Horio turned to him.

"What? Isn't it a disease? I thought it-"

"No!" Katsuo exclaimed, and everyone blinked at how infuriated Katsuo suddenly was.

Roko suddenly stood up, and everyone stopped and looked at him curiously. Roko turned to Ryoma and made signs, before walking off.

"I'm going to get a drink"

Ryoma glared at Horio, and he shuddered and looked like a deer caught in the headlights.

"Che, thanks a lot Horio" he spat, before getting up and walking after his brother.

Tokyo Tennis Gardens Courts

Sakuno just watched with a twisting feeling of guilt in her gut as Echizen Roko walked away, with Ryoma jogging after him. She couldn't help but feel awful over the fact that Ryoma's brother was mute. It must be awful, dealing with a brother who can't speak, and Sakuno felt nothing but sympathy for them. She didn't wonder why Ryoma had never mentioned him before, or why Roko didn't go to Seigaku, because it was none of her business, and it would be rude to ask.

Beneath that guilt she had a burning anger at Horio's comment. Did he even realise was being mute was? Was he so insensitive to imply that he had a fatal disease? Sakuno involuntarily clenched her fists as she continued to watch the two brothers walk away.

"I cannot believe you did that!" Katsuo was yelling at Horio in fury, and Sakuno could relate to him.

"That was horrible, Horio!" Kachiro joined in.

Tomaka was still standing there with varying degrees of shock and anger on her face, and Sakuno was suddenly worried, and reached out to her.

"T-Tomaka-chan..." she muttered worriedly, and Tomaka seemed to snap out of it. Her face suddenly melted into pure anger, and she stormed up to Horio, shoving the other two freshmen to the ground in her wake.

"Tomaka-chan!" Sakuno cried, instantly moving to help the two up.

Tomaka grabbed the collar of his shirt and shoved him against the mesh fence, Horio yelping and sweating at Tomaka's death glare.

"You" she spat, "don't you dare insult Roko-sama ever again!" and with that she let go of Horio, who fell to the ground like jelly and she stormed away. Sakuno quickly helped the two up and ran after her best friend.

"Tomaka-chan! Where are you going?" she asked when she caught up.

"To apologize to Roko-sama for that idiot's behaviour" she said bluntly, with anger still in her voice. The anger silenced Sakuno from making any further comments, and so she just walked alongside her timidly.

They found the two of them standing by the vending machine nearby, Roko making signs to Ryoma and Ryoma smiling in response.

"Roko-sama" Tomaka called when she was a few steps away. Both of them noticed the two girls standing and turned to them with inquisitive expressions.

"I just wanted to apologize to you about Horio's behaviour. That was completely rude and awful" Tomaka stated with burning eyes. Roko nodded once and made signs with his hands, and the two girls shared confused looks before Ryoma intervened.

"He says 'I'm used to it'". Sakuno felt that writhing feeling in her gut again as she turned to Roko with sympathy written on her face. He's used to it? Did that mean other people thought the same? That must be terrible for him. Sakuno suddenly wanted to comfort him and tell him that everything people said was wrong and he didn't have some awful disease, but she knew that would be rude to hug him outright, not to mention embarrassing.

Tomaka took a step forward.

"Don't listen to them, Roko-sama!" she began, "People just find you different because you can't talk, but that doesn't make you a freak. That just makes you quiet; you can still be the best at anything you choose. Being mute doesn't make you any less than them!" she proclaimed, and Sakuno felt her heart lift at her speech.

Tomaka-chan, she thought, as she looked at her best friend who had a passionate grin on her face, and Sakuno couldn't help but smile warmly as she said everything she wanted to say herself.

Sakuno noticed how Roko's expression softened and he smiled warmly too, and Ryoma just looked at Tomaka with an approving smile.

"Thank you, Tomaka" Ryoma said softly, and Tomaka smiled radiantly.

"Anything for the Echizen Twins!" she cried, her happiness suddenly renewed. Sakuno felt her smile widen.

"The game between Seishun Gakuen and Fudomine Chugakko will now begin. Please can all players proceed to Court C" came the intercom, and the Echizen Twins shared a smirk.

"Let's go, Roko" Ryoma said, leading his brother back to the courts. Sakuno and Tomaka smiled and followed after them.

Tokyo Tennis Gardens Courts

Seigaku were crazy. Crazier than Rikkaidai, which was saying a lot.

First of all, to Roko's infinite amusement, Ryoma apparently had a fan club, which was led by a hyper active brunette girl who addressed him as 'Ryoma-sama'. Roko wasn't exactly pleased when she suddenly turned around and addressed him as 'Roko-sama', but at least it was a nice change from 'mute boy'.

Secondly, these regulars were strange, and not just because they had a girl on their team, but because they had the spitting images of every Rikkaidai regular in their team. The red-head was Akaya, the tall spiky-haired guy was Marui, the guy with glasses was Yanagi, the captain was Sanada, the girl was Yukimura, the guy with bangs was Jackal, the snake guy was Niou and the tall ginger was Yagyuu.

And finally, they apparently had a group of freshmen who followed them around and cheered for them.

Yep, Seigaku were definitely crazier than Rikkaidai. Roko couldn't help but pity Ryoma.

But at least they had nice people, like the leader of Ryoma's fan club who gave him that pep talk. It had cheered him up from his depression, but his depression was mostly due to the fact that he had been accused of having a disease twice in the last half an hour.

He had felt better when he returned to the courts with Ryoma, and thankfully the ginger - identified as Horio - did not say a word to him. The first game was the girl and the tall ginger against a brown-haired guy with bangs and a guy with a bandana like the snake guy of Seigaku.

"The game between Seishun Gakuen's Fuji Syuusuke and Kawamura Takashi, versus Fudomine Chugakko's Ishida Tetsu and Masaya Sakurai will now begin! Please shake hands!" The two teams shook hands, and Roko turned to Ryoma and made signs.

"Is the girl a doubles player?" his hands asked, and Ryoma looked suddenly very confused.

"What girl?" he asked, and the other regulars seemed to notice.

"Eh? Ochibi, what girl are you talking about? Nya~" Kikumaru asked. Roko made more signs.

"The girl with the brown hair". Ryoma arched an eyebrow as he looked to the courts, and then it clicked in his brain, and he frowned.

"Fuji-senpai is not a girl" he said flatly, much to Roko's shock. There was a long silence, and suddenly Kikumaru and the spiky-haired guy both burst into laughter.

"You- you thought-" the spiky-haired guy tried to say between laughs, "that Fuji-senpai was- was a girl?" The two continued laughing in hysterics, drawing the attention of everyone on the court, and Roko just rolled his eyes and looked back at the court.

I suppose Yukimura looks like a girl too, he reasoned. The game started, and the two teams got into positions.

Whatever, he thought.