Deafening Silence ( prince of tennis) (#wattys2016)

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Update - Ok so I tried to make fan art of Roko for my cover image, but it kind of failed horribly, so if there's any artist/drawer people out there, I would love you forever if you made art of Roko. PM me if you will :D

Ok so I've noticed that a lot of people have been saying that my story doesn't fit the plot of PoT. Well, yes it does, considering Rikkaidai get no screen time at all until the late Regionals, so I can basically do as I please until then, as long as there's the occasional piece of info that correlates to the story line.

Also there is a seriously worrying lack of tennis, as I have noticed, so I will try to make tennis a thing again.

Rikkaidai Fuzoku School Library

Roko sat alone in the library eating his slice of cake slowly and without enthusiasm. Normally he would be here tutoring Sanada, but he had to leave for student council matters, so Roko had nothing to do, but at this time he was glad for the peace.

The concert will be tomorrow and his nerves were getting worse.

Roko didn't even realise how nervous he was about it until he was walking home after meeting up with Ann. Sure, Kirihara had followed him, but Roko was too mentally conflicted at that moment to care, despite how Kirihara begged for mercy on his knees. Roko just shrugged and walked away, leaving Kirihara to wallow on the ground. Under most circumstances he probably would have killed him for spying on Roko, but it wasn't a date so he didn't really care if he was spying, and he was too worried about the concert to kill him.

He had been practicing his piece all morning, and despite how he got it perfect every time he still felt like it was awful. Yamura-sensei praised him constantly for it, but Roko felt the praise was false and unnecessary, so he just nodded his head at her praise now.

Roko had never been nervous before, so this was different for him. He had never really experienced nerves before because he always had the reassuring presence of his brother next to him, but now he was gone, and the school hated him. He didn't like being nervous, it felt like his gut was folding in on itself like a crumpled piece of paper, and he couldn't even muster the appetite to finish his cake. He mentally sighed loudly and pushed the half-eaten cake away.

You never leave a slice of cake, his consciousness noted, and Roko scowled.

This is different, he replied.

Is it?

Yes it is. I'm performing alone in front of the entire school, who all hate me.

And?

Roko stopped, practically spluttering at the question.

What do you mean 'and?'

You've never cared about people's opinions, what makes this different?

I have to stand up in front of all of them

Ah, I see, you're afraid of being alone

Roko frowned at his consciousness' statement.

You've always had Ryoma next to you, his consciousness explained, and now he's gone, so you've lost that person to back you up and protect you. But now you have Sanada, don't you? He acts just like Ryoma would, protecting and defending you from harm, like an older brother. You've always had someone looking after you, you've never been alone, and for the first time ever you're going to be on your own. You're not afraid of going on that stage at all, you're just afraid of doing it by yourself.

Roko did not respond for a long time.

You know I'm right, so you might as well just accept it

Fine then. I am afraid of doing this myself, so what?

Didn't Jackal say something important?

Why do you treat Jackal's words like they're law?

Because he gives good advice

So you want me to talk about it with them?

Exactly

No, I won't burden them with my problems

His consciousness sighed loudly.

You're not burdening them, they care about you, you know

I'll deal with my problems myself

And yet you're afraid of being alone. How contradicting

Roko didn't have a response to that.

Talk to them. Get your problems off your chest, his consciousness ordered, and Roko mentally sighed. He stood up from his chair and left the library with his bag, leaving the cake behind. Since it was a free period he could go practice his piece again.

Rikkaidai Fuzoku School Grounds

Sanada ate his food with little interest with the team. It was nearing the end of the school term, and in two days the school would officially break up for the winter holidays, which meant they had two more days to train and eat together.

He didn't really care much for the winter holidays; his family were strict Japanese so they never celebrated Christmas like the other regulars, so the winter holidays were a waste of time in Sanada's opinion, since he never had anything to do during that time. He would practice tennis relentlessly but snow would soon start falling, and when it did it would be stupid to practice tennis outdoors. But he had other problems.

For whatever reason Echizen wasn't with the regulars today and Sanada was concerned, because the last time this happened Echizen had been attacked by the school. The rest of the regulars didn't seem to notice this, chatting animatedly amongst themselves, whilst Sanada stared at nothing in the hopes Echizen would appear soon and wasn't being attacked by Yukimura's fan club.

Sanada heard Yanagi clear his throat, and all the regulars turned to him.

"What is it, Yanagi?" he asked bluntly.

"Well" Yanagi began, "Since Echizen isn't here I thought I we could discuss something important". The team blinked and looked around, noticing for the first time that Echizen wasn't here.

"Where is he?" Jackal asked tightly, worry visible on his face.

"Don't worry" Yanagi stated, "No one will harm him; he's probably doing something important". No one looked convinced but Yanagi continued.

"Marui asked me yesterday when Echizen's birthday was" he stated, and the team blinked in unison.

"And?" Sanada asked, annoyed.

"I have confirmed that his birthday is during the winter holidays, on December 31st"

There was a rather shocked period of silence before Kirihara spoke up.

"S-seriously?" he asked, "That's only two weeks away!". Yanagi nodded once.

"Exactly"

"We need to do something for him" Marui stated, and Yanagi nodded again.

"But there's a problem" he added, and the team frowned.

"We know that Echizen lives in Tokyo, but we have no idea where his house is, or what his address is. The trains don't run on New Year's Eve, and if I'm right snow will start falling before that, so it's fair to say that trains will be cancelled days before" Yanagi stated, and the team frowned further, understanding the problem.

"So what can we do?" Marui asked hesitantly, and Yanagi sighed.

"I'm not sure" he admitted, "But firstly we need to buy him gifts". Kirihara frowned.

"But we don't know that much about him" he said carefully, and Yanagi shook his head.

"Not everyone" he stated, and he turned his head to Sanada, and the team followed suit. Sanada kept his stoic expression in place, mentally sighing underneath. He had somehow guessed it would come to this, and while he probably knew more about Echizen that anyone else on the team, that didn't mean he wasn't an enigma to him either.

"I know Echizen well" he stated, "But that doesn't mean he isn't a mystery". The team collectively frowned, and Yanagi spoke up again.

"We know he likes cake, music and drinking tea, but beyond that we know quite little" he stated.

"So we need to find out more about him in the space of two days" Yagyuu stated from his spot in the tree's shadow. Yanagi nodded his head.

"Precisely". Marui stood abruptly, and the team looked to him.

"Well in that case we need to find him first, don't we?" he asked no one in particular, and before anyone could respond Marui was gone in search of Echizen. Sanada sighed loudly, not moving from his spot. He had already decided what he'd get Echizen.

Rikkaidai Fuzoku Indoor Tennis Courts

Jackal watched Echizen with a curious intensity, whilst trying to appear subtle, which he quickly realised, was impossible. In truth he had no clue what to get him, as did the rest of the team. He imagined Yanagi and Sanada had an idea, but the others were hopeless.

He'd hoped if he watched him for long enough he might pick up something that would be helpful, maybe give him an idea, but he saw nothing. He sighed loudly and stood up from the bench, proceeding to the courts to play some practice matches against Marui, who was bouncing on the other side in apparent excitement.

"Ne, Jackal" Marui called to him, and Jackal looked up at Marui confusedly. He only smiled mischievously and pointed at something, and Jackal turned to where Marui was pointing to see Echizen tying his laces on the bench. He frowned, and turned back to his doubles partner. Marui rolled his eyes and pointed to his own shoes, and Jackal's eyes widened, and he turned back to Echizen.

His tennis shoes did look pretty worn down, and Jackal turned back to Marui, mouthing 'thank you', before moving to serve.

Rikkaidai Fuzoku Indoor Tennis Courts

Marui had noticed Echizen's worn tennis shoes a while ago, but he scrapped the idea, since he already knew what he was going to get Echizen. Cake obviously, a huge cake. Marui knew what kind of cake Echizen preferred the most, he liked fruit fillings and white, vanilla icing, preferably a sponge cake, so that was exactly what Marui would get him. He had a lot of skill with baking cakes since he spent just as much time making cakes as eating them, so he was pretty sure he could pull it off.

He pointed out Echizen's shoes to Jackal, who seemed thrilled at the idea, and he mouthed a 'thank you' to him, causing Marui to smirk. He wondered what the rest of the team would get their little kouhai. Yanagi definitely had an idea. Marui didn't have any evidence to back that up, but he was the data master. He knew everything about a person, as creepy as that sounded. Sanada probably had an idea, since he knew Echizen the best, but then again, who knew what they talked about when they were alone? They could be no different in private, or Echizen might openly talk with Sanada.

Others like Niou and Kirihara, who spent less time around Echizen probably didn't have a clue. Yagyuu, he wasn't too sure, since Yagyuu didn't spend that much more time with Echizen than Niou and Kirihara, but then again who knew what went on in his mind?

Rikkaidai Fuzoku Indoor Tennis Courts

Niou had no clue. Plain and simple. The only time he'd really spent with Echizen was when he was beating him to near-death, and that had happened twice now, so Niou's first idea was to get him murder weapons. As useful as he'd probably find them, Niou quickly decided that giving a freshman - who had a grudge against him - knives would probably be a bad idea. Niou didn't really consider it a grudge, but more like an on-and-off dislike. A love-hate relationship.

So now he was back to square one with nothing. He tried to think about any sort of time he'd seen Echizen do something other than tennis or try to kill him, but sadly there was nothing, and Niou realised how little he knew about him. It wasn't a surprise really, being mute, but it was still inexcusable in his opinion.

"Niou"

Niou turned to the voice, finding Yagyuu standing next to him and looking at him in a blunt fashion.

"If you want to get Echizen a good gift, might I suggest new earphones?" he offered, and Niou frowned, not bothering to ask how he knew that Niou was wondering what to get him.

"No, that's boring. I want something different, but the music thing is a good idea" he stated, and Yagyuu frowned.

"What bands does he like?" Yagyuu asked, and Niou frowned, trying to recall the music store when they spied on Echizen's date. He remembered that Echizen picked up several CDs, all of them in English, and he looked ecstatic about listening to them. One of them had a weird man-bird thing on the front in black and white, and he remembered seeing the same album cover when he stole Echizen's iPod.

B... Niou frowned, trying to recall the name.

Break...

Break...er?

Niou sighed loudly, unable to recall the name. It was an English name too, which only made the task harder. He looked back to Yagyuu.

"I know what it looks like, so I can look it up tonight" he said to Yagyuu, and Yagyuu frowned.

"What?" he asked curiously.

"The album cover for the CD that Echizen bought on his date" Niou explained, and Yagyuu's face turned into a harsh stare.

"You followed him on his date?" he asked testily, and Niou immediately realised he'd said too much, and quickly walked away before Yagyuu could say more.

Rikkaidai Fuzoku Indoor Tennis Courts

Yagyuu watched his doubles partner hastily walk away, and he sighed loudly. He supposed it was a good thing that Niou spied on him, or he'd have no idea what to get Echizen, since that seemed to have sparked an idea. Yagyuu himself had various ideas, but nothing particularly extravagant or exciting, rather just plain boring. He was a gentleman, and good gentlemen do not walk up to people and harass them about what they like, but that was sadly what Yagyuu was considering.

The only time he could say he had really had contact with Echizen was during his match against him during the ranking tournament. Other than that they had had conversations with a paper and pen from time to time, but about general things, nothing personal or important. He mentally sighed loudly, following his doubles partner to the court to play against him. Sanada was overseeing the matches with that harsh stare of his, Marui was playing Jackal and Echizen was playing Yanagi, with Kirihara running laps around the courts.

Yagyuu decided that he would think about it later; maybe have a conversation with Echizen. After all, he was bound to think of something eventually.

Rikkaidai Fuzoku Indoor Tennis Courts

Yanagi was the data master. He was the one with all the statistics and all the answers to your problems.

When it came to tennis, of course.

However, when it came to his kouhai's interests and aspirations, he had as much of an idea as the next person. It was honestly shameful to admit to himself that he didn't know what to do. He reassured himself by saying that it wasn't needed for two weeks, but if he didn't find a good present for Echizen in the next two days he would never see him again and get the opportunity.

Yanagi was more concerned with how they would pull off Echizen's birthday celebration. He had ideas, plenty of ideas, but with the massive hurdle of Echizen living over fifty miles away, and the oncoming snow to stop the trains, there seemed to be almost no alternative. Unless Echizen magically appeared in Kanagawa for whatever reason, he didn't have a single valid idea. It was frustrating to realise that no matter how hard he tried he couldn't think of a way around it. He was the data master, and yet when it came to anything outside of tennis he couldn't say he was certain at all.

He sighed loudly, rallying against Echizen, trying to see something in him that would be useful. But he saw nothing, and it frustrated him.

Rikkaidai Fuzoku Indoor Tennis Courts

Kirihara liked Echizen, he had decided. He didn't know why Echizen had spared him a horrific death after they spied on his date, but he did, and so Kirihara had decided that Echizen was a nice person. That didn't mean though that he had a decent idea. He knew that Echizen liked cake, but Marui definitely had that covered, so that was useless. He knew he liked music, but what could he buy that Echizen didn't already have? He knew he liked tennis, but what could he really buy that would have thought behind it?

So he was basically stumped, and tried his best to process ideas whilst running laps at the same time. It wasn't an easy task, but Sanada was too busy overseeing the practice matches to yell at him for being too slow.

Kanagawa General Hospital

Echizen's birthday is December 31st. I hope you have a good idea.

From: Yanagi Renji

Yukimura smiled softly at the message. Renji didn't need to add anymore, because Yukimura already knew what he meant. Echizen was indeed a strange one, and it was difficult to understand what he truly liked, so most of the team were likely stumped on what to buy him. Sanada probably had an idea, and Yukimura could tell from the message that Renji did not. It made him smile to know that the data master didn't know something; it was a change at least.

But on the topic of Echizen's gift, Yukimura didn't really know. He, of all the team (if he was still technically part of the team) had spent the least time with Echizen out of anyone. He knew he liked music, and he knew he liked peace and quiet where he could find it, but that was pretty much it. Tennis was also a rather obvious one, and Yukimura instantly crossed that off his mental list.

What to do, what to do... Echizen was definitely an odd one, and Yukimura had no clue what to get him.

As if summoned by his thoughts, his phone chimed again, and Yukimura read the message.

They're all staring at me weirdly; did you order them to watch over me again, Buchou?

From: Echizen Roko

Yukimura chuckled softly at Echizen's message, and he decided to send a message to Renji.

Renji, Echizen's on to you, try to be more subtle

From: Yukimura Seiichi

Yukimura put his phone down and stared at the ceiling for a while, he wasn't sure for how long, but his phone chimed again, and he picked it up.

Thank you, Buchou

From: Echizen Roko

Yukimura chuckled again. Echizen was definitely an interesting character.