Deafening Silence ( prince of tennis) (#wattys2016)

26

Rikkaidai Fuzoku Tennis Courts

The rain had cleared up after lunch, and Niou smiled widely, waiting in anticipation outside the new clubroom door for a certain regular to walk out. He hadn't attempted any sort of prank in a while, still traumatised by the 'wild animal' that had destroyed the principal's office - he never told Sanada about what happened despite his demands to know, the 'wild animal' would only kill him for it - but he had since decided to never aim a prank at him ever again. So the other regulars it was, then.

Niou noticed Yagyuu approaching him with a water bottle in hand, and Niou opened his mouth to greet him.

"What are you doing?" he cut in suspiciously, and Niou put on his best innocent face.

"What do you mean, Yagyuu?" he asked softly. Yagyuu sighed.

"Niou, I know you very well. You're standing there doing nothing, and you never stand around because you can't sit still for a moment, which means you're waiting for something. You're also grinning like you just won the lottery" he stated bluntly, and Niou's grin instantly evaporated.

He knows me too well, Niou mentally noted with a scowl.

"I don't know what you mean, Yagyuu" he said in fake confusion, but Yagyuu saw through it and frowned.

"What did you do?"

"What do you me-"

"What. Did. You. Do?" Yagyuu asked stubbornly, emphasizing every word. Niou sighed and gave in.

"Ok so you know how Marui has to leave early?" he asked, and Yagyuu raised an eyebrow.

"Of course, he has family matters and asked to leave early. He should be leaving any moment" he said. Yagyuu paused and seemed to catch on. Niou smiled widely in response.

"Well I thought it was unfair that he gets to leave us to the wrath of Sanada, and I saw this as an opportunity, so I replaced his weird strawberry shampoo with hair dye" he explained, and Yagyuu sighed loudly.

"And I suppose Marui has already entered the showers?" Yagyuu asked dryly, and Niou nodded with a huge smile.

"In that case there's nothing I can do, so I will play no part in this" he stated, and walked away like nothing happened. Niou grinned like an idiot at how complacent Yagyuu was being. He didn't even try to talk him out of it! This was wonderful.

Almost immediately afterward the new clubroom door opened, and Niou tried to contain his excitement as he heard a footstep, followed by another, and another.

And then Marui appeared, fully clothed and his hair the exact same shade of pink it was before. Niou frowned, but Marui didn't even notice him, taking off immediately, and when the coast was clear Niou went into the clubroom.

What had happened? Why didn't it work? Had he filled someone else's bottle instead? Niou paled at the sudden realisation. What if it was Sanada's bottle? Or Yanagi's? Or Echizen's?

Niou mentally screamed in horror at the thought, memories of the demon child destroying the headmaster's office crashing down on him, and he was immediately searching for every single bottle of shampoo the regulars owned. If it turned out he had filled Echizen's or Sanada's he was dead. There was no question; he would die a horrifyingly painful death.

Yanagi's bottle was clear. So was Yagyuu's, Kirihara's and Sanada's, Jackal obviously didn't own a bottle of shampoo, and after searching Echizen's bag for the third time, Niou sighed in relief at the realisation that Echizen didn't own one either. So Marui had probably been in such a rush he didn't wash his hair after practice and just left. Niou nearly broke out into dance at how relived he was, quickly forcing down his smile and leaving the clubroom.

Practice went by quickly afterward and soon all of the regulars were in the clubroom getting changed to go home. Sanada didn't bother showering since he hadn't broken a sweat as usual, but the rest of the regulars weren't so lucky. It certainly didn't help that Sanada watched them run laps rather than doing them himself, but no one would dare complain.

"Sanada, what are you still doing here?" Yanagi asked, noticing Sanada was sat fully clothed on the bench.

"I'm waiting for Echizen. We're doing an English project at my house" he replied bluntly, and the entire team raised an eyebrow, but Sanada's glare effectively ended the topic of discussion, everyone quickly turning back to what they were doing.

"I hope Echizen doesn't smell of strawberries" Sanada muttered under his breath, and Niou caught it.

"Eh? What's strawberries got to do with it?" he asked confusedly, and Sanada looked up at him.

"I hate the smell of strawberries" he explained matter-of-factly, but Niou was still confused.

"Why would Echizen smell of strawberries?" he asked nosily, and Jackal spoke up.

"Ah, that's because Echizen forgot his shampoo today, so Marui lent him his" he explained.

Rikkaidai Fuzoku Regular Clubhouse

Not once had Roko ever considered killing someone.

Sure, he had had a lot of people over his life whispering 'mute boy' and staring at him like he was an alien, but he would never think of harming them. There were also others who scorned him and underestimated him, but Roko dispatched them quickly and made them learn to never underestimate him. Then there were others like Yakuta Ippei, sure, he was the worst kind of person there was, and he said things to Roko that made his blood boil out of control, but he never considered harming him.

But today was different.

Today was very different.

Because he stared in disbelief into the mirror in the clubhouse bathroom at himself, with bright blue hair.

BRIGHT. BLUE. HAIR.

Don't get him wrong, he liked blue. Blue was a nice colour. To him it symbolized tranquillity and calm and water and general calming things. Roko owned quite a lot of blue things, and loved the colour because it was just more peaceful than other colours, because that's how he liked things - peaceful.

But screw the peace, Niou would die.

He would die in the most painful way imaginable. He would die a thousand deaths, he would regret the day he ever met him, because his hair was blue.

Today, blue certainly did not symbolize peace.

It symbolized death.

When he stormed out of the showers and into the clubroom with a towel around his waist, kicking the door open in unbridled fury, every head in the room snapped to him. There would be laughter, if Roko wasn't glaring a death glare worthy of praise by Sanada.

Niou stood across the room, frozen like a deer in the headlights and as pale as a ghost.

No one moved, no one breathed, not even Sanada, for a good ten seconds. Roko held up his hands and made signs, which Sanada interpreted instantly.

"I'm going to get changed" he translated, "When I am finished, I will hunt you down and kill you". Niou didn't need another moment because he bolted out the door so fast Roko didn't even see him move.

There was utter silence from everyone, and Roko was glad. He got changed without hurry, putting on his school uniform again and handing his bag to Sanada, who took it without a word.

Roko then charged out of the clubroom like a wild animal, leaving the other regulars frozen in his wake.

"Chances that Echizen was the wild animal that attacked Niou last week..." Yanagi began. Everyone turned to him incredulously.

"100%"

Sanada Residence

Sanada didn't say a word. He didn't really know what to say, so he just said nothing. Thankfully because Echizen was mute and Sanada was never the talkative type, they had a lot of silences like this, so it wasn't awkward at all.

He wasn't really sure what to do when Echizen had handed him his bag and pursued Niou like a wolf after its prey, so he just waited outside the clubroom, contemplating what kind of monster Yukimura had recruited to Rikkaidai. Sanada could not deny the fact that even he was shocked by Echizen's fury. He wasn't particularly frightened, because Sanada Genichiro is scared by nothing, but there was something about his glare that promised death to anyone that dared move a muscle, and Sanada quickly decided he valued his life and did not move a millimetre.

He had never seen Echizen so angry before. True, he was angry when he played against Yakuta Ippei, but it was nothing compared to the thunderhead that had appeared in his clubroom in the form of a first-year.

Echizen had returned to the clubroom seven minutes later, his face back in its passive mask, his eye displaying nothing of the atrocities he probably committed, and Sanada wordlessly handed him his bag back before walking ahead, leading their freshman prodigy to his house.

They had reached the gate of his house in complete silence, and Sanada opened it and led him in. His house was a very traditional Japanese style. His grandfather was the type of person who was extremely devout to the traditional style of Japan, and so their house resembled a dojo, entirely made of wood. It boasted large columns and wooden walkways around the house, with traditional sliding doors and Japanese tapestries. There was a large pond near the gate that his grandfather's koi fish swam in, and a traditional Japanese garden next to it.

In short, his house was something similar to what people lived in several centuries ago, if not more.

Sanada led Echizen to the house, sliding the door in front of him open.

"Taidama!" he called out before depositing his shoes by the door, Echizen following suit. In an instant his mother, a tall woman with long black hair and bright green eyes and aging features appeared around the corner.

"Ah, Genichiro! I was wanting to-..." she stopped as she noticed Sanada's blue-haired companion, and she frowned.

"Genichiro, you didn't tell me you were having a friend over" she said softly, examining Echizen carefully. Sanada cleared his throat loudly in order to direct his mother's eyes away from Echizen's hair.

"Echizen is here to complete an English project with me" he explained, and his mother's eyes lit up, and her head snapped back to Echizen.

"Echizen?" she asked, "Echizen Roko?" Echizen raised an eyebrow but nodded once, Sanada mentally groaning at how his mother's eyes lit up even more in excitement.

"I have wanted to meet you for so long" she began, crossing the distance between them in an instant, now leaning down so she was at eye-level with him, much to Sanada's dismay.

"My name is Sanada Mazaki, it's nice to meet you" she introduced with a large smile. Echizen nodded once in response. Sanada's mother then straightened to her full height.

"Come on then" she said, leading them toward the living room, Sanada mentally groaning the whole time. This was going to be a long day. They walked into the simple living room, which was just wood walls with paintings hanging on them, and a half-open sliding door to serve as a window. There was a single table and cushions in the centre, and Sanada knelt down onto a cushion, placing his bag next to him, noticing that Echizen did not hesitate to do the same. Sanada's mother nodded at them.

"Good, you two get started on your project, and I'll make some tea. Your grandfather is still in the dojo, Genichiro" she said before disappearing. The two stared at the spot where she had once been before looking at each other. Echizen shrugged and took his bag, digging out a pen. Sanada drew out the poster, along with his English workbook and a pen.

"Are you staying for long?" he asked when he had placed out the objects, and Echizen raised an eyebrow.

"I'm assuming you don't like my company". Sanada sighed loudly.

"That's not it. My mother will probably make you stay for dinner, so if you have any plans you need to tell her now" he stated, and Echizen shrugged, digging his phone out of his bag. He tapped the screen several times, and then made even more tapping noises with his thumbs on the screen, before setting his phone down on the table.

"Now I'm staying for dinner" his hands stated, and Sanada blinked.

"You mean you want to stay here?" he asked, and Echizen raised an eyebrow again.

"It can't be any worse than my family" his hands said, and Sanada rolled his eyes.

"Fine then, let's get started" he said formally. Echizen nodded and they leaned over the table at their poster. Sanada opened his workbook and crinkled his nose in distaste as he noted the amount of corrected mistakes in his book.

They began, and a few minutes later Sanada's mother returned with two ceramic cups of green tea, which the two took gladly, and Sanada noticed that Echizen's lips were curved into the smallest smile as he drank the tea. The two set their cups down and began working on their poster, with Sanada writing all of the sentences down and Echizen correcting his workbook still.

"I might as well go over the vocabulary of activities and clubs if I'm staying" his hands said, and Sanada blinked.

"Sure" he replied.

I'm painting Roko to be some kind of satanic demon o.O I'm enjoying writing this too much.