Deafening Silence ( prince of tennis) (#wattys2016)

47

Ok so I've decided that the half term just makes me incredibly lazy. Also I physically cannot write before 9pm, which is pretty worrying.

And yes, Oishi Akitaka is a real character.

Echizen Household

Roko moved like a blur as he gathered his things for his trip to see Yukimura.

Under most circumstances he would have just texted Yukimura from his own home and learnt more about him that way, but it wasn't snowing outside today, for the first time in two weeks. If it had stopped snowing it meant that the train tracks may have been cleared up, and so Roko had checked the train timetables online on his phone.

The train to Kanagawa would be delayed, but not cancelled.

This was perfect. He'd wanted to see Yukimura for a while now, and they had only ever had one conversation, which was just Yukimura praising Roko for his cello performance which Marui had apparently recorded. Roko didn't care too much for that, but now he saw it as a good opportunity to cheer Yukimura up.

So Roko had gathered his cello, some warm clothing, his iPod and earphones, and his school backpack, filled with two blankets for Jackal, since he hoped he could visit Jackal whilst he was in Kanagawa.

He was in the middle of putting on his jacket when Ryoma walked into their room, and he raised an eyebrow curiously.

"Where are you going?" he asked bluntly, and Roko half-turned to him excitedly.

"The trains are working today" his hands replied simply, and he turned back to what he was doing.

"Heh?" he heard Ryoma ask, "So you're visiting your teammates?" Roko just acted like he hadn't said anything and zipped up his jacket, and quickly took his cello case and slung it onto his shoulders and picked up the stuffed backpack. He quickly made sure that he had everything he needed before moving to the door, but Ryoma had not moved from the door frame. Roko frowned at him annoyed, but Ryoma didn't move.

"What's the cello case for?" he asked, and Roko mentally sighed in annoyance, since Ryoma clearly wasn't going to let him go easily.

"Buchou said he'd like to hear me play" Roko replied, and Ryoma rolled his eyes, still not moving from the door. Roko scowled at Ryoma, sending the silent message to move from the doorway right now. Ryoma scoffed, understanding the message and moved from the door to allow Roko through, and in an instant he was out of the front door.

Kanagawa General Hospital

Yukimura sighed softly as he scanned his completely white and sterile room. He was bored, insanely bored, because everyone was too busy with their families, including his own, to visit him. Sanada had visited yesterday, but it had been rather brief, since his family wanted him back, and no one had visited since.

It seemed everyone was too busy with their families right now, and because of the snow it was too much of a hassle for them to travel to the hospital anyway, which only made Yukimura feel lonelier. His own family were also busy visiting relatives, since they were staying with them for New Year's Day.

It felt like everyone had forgotten about him.

At least he had his Christmas gifts, though that felt like a small consolation. He had received a small cactus with a blooming pink flower from his little sister and some novels from his parents, since Yukimura enjoyed reading and gardening more than a lot of things. They were nice gifts, and they relieved his boredom somewhat, but they were of no long-term help, since he was back to doing nothing when he finished them. The cactus was nice to look at but did not help him at all. Yukimura knew he sounded selfish, but when you are trapped in a hospital with a condition that impairs you from walking there isn't much you can do outside of sit in a bed all day and do nothing.

Even the nurses had been visiting less and less often. Most of the time they came to check on Yukimura and ask if there was anything he needed, since they genuinely cared about him, but recently they had all vanished, only occasionally appearing to take blood samples.

Yukimura hated it here. He wanted to leave, he wanted to go home so badly, and he wanted to play tennis again.

The door to his room opened, and Yukimura mentally sighed as he turned to the door, expecting to see a false-faced nurse standing in the doorway, so his stomach practically did a backflip in excitement when he saw Echizen standing there instead.

"Echizen" he called with a huge smile and Echizen smiled widely in response.

"How are you?" Yukimura asked, and Echizen nodded as a response, as a sort of sign for 'good'. Yukimura could ask how he got here and why he was here, but the hows and whys did not matter at this point, since he was excited just to have a visitor. Echizen moved towards the chair next to Yukimura's bed, and placed down his bag and his cello case.

His cello case.

Yukimura smiled even wider, since he had wanted to hear Echizen play forever since he was showed his performance a few weeks ago.

"You brought your cello" Yukimura breathed excitedly, and Echizen smiled at him in response.

"Can you play something?" Yukimura asked giddily, and Echizen raised an eyebrow, as if to say: 'what?' Yukimura then remembered the sign language book he had on the table next to him, and he turned and grabbed it quickly, turning back to Echizen with a wide smile, and he noted how Echizen looked at the book curiously.

"I never told you, I've been teaching myself sign language for a while now" he explained, and Echizen's eyes widened slightly in mild surprise as his looked at the book for a moment longer, before looking up to Yukimura.

"It'll be nice to talk to someone else" his hands responded, and Yukimura smiled as he realised that Echizen was referring to Sanada. It must be annoying being only able to talk to one person in the entire school, and Yukimura understood his point of view.

"So can you play something?" he asked, containing his desperation and excitement. Echizen smiled widely and nodded, opening his cello case and extracting the large wooden instrument within, which Yukimura noticed was shining with polish, and not a speck of dirt on it. Echizen sat down on the chair next to Yukimura's bed, and drew his bow from the cello case, placing his cello against him and hovering the bow above the strings, and he turned to Yukimura with a raised questioning eyebrow. Yukimura understood the look and thought for a moment.

"I'd like to hear one of your composed pieces Echizen" he stated excitedly, and Echizen nodded and placed the bow on the strings without a moment hesitation, and he slowly glided the bow across them, creating a slow, low note that Yukimura smiled widely at.

Kanagawa General Hospital

Okada stopped as she was about to open the door to Yukimura's room when she heard the soft sounds of music drifting out, and she frowned. Music? Was Yukimura playing classical music? Okada very carefully slid the door open by a crack and peered in, and immediately noticed the smaller boy she recognized from his occasional visits playing a cello on the bed next to Yukimura. Neither of them noticed, and so Okada quickly slid the door shut and walked away, she could come back for the blood sample later.

Okada passed through the corridors quickly, the other nurses greeting her with a simple nod of acknowledgement before moving onto their own patients, since this entire floor was for patients with serious conditions, and the work of the nurses here could not be impaired. That said, Yukimura's blood sample could wait if he had a friend.

Okada recognized that boy; he was the mute one, since she saw him using sign language once when he was here with Yukimura's other friends. Okada knew that speech disorder was a very psychologically damaging condition, and she felt nothing but sympathy for the boy, and it must be terrible to not be able to speak. What was his name? Echizen.

"Okada-san" a voice called, and Okada turned to see Doctor Oishi standing there carrying a leather suitcase and wearing his usual lab coat. Doctor Oishi was an expert physiologist and psychologist from Tokyo hospital who had come here for a business meeting with the hospital's head about a possible job offer. He was a tall man with short black hair, soft features and deep blue eyes.

"Ah, Oishi-san" she greeted, "How did the interview go?"

"It went quite well actually" Oishi replied, "The head said he'd make a decision next week". Okada nodded politely in response.

"Well it will be nice to have you here" she replied genuinely, since Oishi seemed like a wonderful person to have around.

"Thank you, but if I may ask, don't you have a patient to attend to?" he asked politely, and Okada nodded.

"I do, but Echizen-san is visiting at the moment, so I'll attend my patient later". Oishi frowned suddenly, much to Okada's confusion.

"Echizen? You mean Echizen Ryoma?" he asked curiously, and Okada frowned.

"You know him?" she asked, and Oishi shook his head.

"No, but I do know he plays on my nephew's tennis team" he responded, and Okada pursed her lips but nodded in acceptance.

"I suppose that's fine" she said submissively, "Are you leaving then?". Oishi nodded his head once.

"I will, goodbye, Okada-san" he said, before turning away and walking towards the stairs, and Okada just smiled softly and moved towards the staff lounge. Maybe she could get some coffee whilst she waited for her patient's visitor to leave.

Kanagawa General Hospital

Roko stared intently at the chess board in front of him, carefully deciding his next course of action. He had hoped to stay for around an hour or so, but he was now into an hour and a half and they still had plenty to do. When he had frankly ran out of pieces to play Yukimura had started digging out board games that the hospital provided to relieve boredom, though Roko had to wonder if the hospital even considered whether the patients here would be able to play a game designed for two people by themselves.

He carefully picked up his bishop and moved it across the board, placing it down after a moment's pause, and he looked up to Yukimura to make eye-contact. Yukimura smiled radiantly and just picked up his queen casually and moved it across the board, putting it only two squares from Roko's king, and he mentally groaned loudly.

"Check" Yukimura stated, and Roko's brow furrowed. What to do, what to do...

Move your rook to A3, his consciousness suddenly stated helpfully, and Roko mentally nodded and did what his consciousness ordered, and he could see Yukimura frown in thought. Sometimes it was very helpful having two separate minds working together, but most of the time it was a pain.

"Oh, interesting" Yukimura stated with a half-smile, moving his queen one square to the right and out of the way of the rook.

Move the knight to C5

Roko took his small piece and moved it onto the white square, eliciting another frown from Yukimura.

"You're good at this, Echizen" he stated.

Thank you, his consciousness replied, as if the question was directed at him. Yukimura didn't even know about him, but then again not many people did.

Yukimura moved his queen back, in order to save it from being taken.

Move the bishop to G4

Roko did exactly that, and then held up his hands for two simple signs.

"Check-mate" his hands stated, and Yukimura frowned in annoyance, but then smiled amusedly.

"I had no idea you were so good at chess, Echizen" he stated, and Roko just rolled his eyes.

You know this is practically cheating?

I wouldn't call it 'cheating'

Except this is kind of cheating

"Echizen" Yukimura said once, and Roko looked up to him, "Do you plan on going home anytime soon?"

Roko frowned at his statement. Did he want him to leave? Roko noticed that he was half-gazing out of the window, and Roko turned in the direction and noted with shock how thickly the snow was falling outside.

Well, that was bad.

Roko frowned at the window, and immediately pulled out his phone and opened the internet.

"What are you going to do, Echizen?" Yukimura asked, but Roko just continued looking at his phone as he searched the timetables for the train, what he found was a long list of 'Cancelled', repeated over and over again. Roko twitched in annoyance, since it seemed his transport home wasn't working right now. Great. Roko just looked up and shook his head as an answer, and Yukimura frowned.

"Well I suppose you could stay at Sanada's, but you would have to call your parents first" he stated, and Roko frowned. Since he didn't have much of a choice at this point he complied and stood up, moving out of the room so he could text his dad.

Kanagawa General Hospital

Yukimura waited until Echizen had left the room, and in an instant his phone was in his hand and he was calling Renji. The phone picked up after two rings.

"Seiichi?" Renji asked curiously.

"Renji, I have wonderful news" Yukimura stated gleefully, and there was a pause.

"What is it?" Renji asked curiously.

"Echizen is here in Kanagawa" Yukimura stated. There was quite a long pause.

"Excuse me?" Renji asked unbelieving, only making Yukimura's smile grow.

"He came to visit me on the trains, but now the trains are all cancelled and Echizen cannot get back home, so he will likely be staying at Sanada's today and tomorrow as well, since the forecast predicts more snow tomorrow" Yukimura said all in one breath.

There was no answer on the other end, and Yukimura imagined Renji gaping in surprise.

"Renji" Yukimura stated carefully, "This is the best opportunity to celebrate Echizen's birthday. I am counting on you to organise this, and to make sure it all goes down well".

"I will make sure of it" Renji replied immediately, and Yukimura smiled widely.

"And one more thing Renji, Echizen enjoys playing chess" he said, before hanging up the phone and placing it back down on the table.

Kanagawa General Hospital

Oishi Akitaka sighed loudly as he re-entered the building when he had just left. The snow had come back and so his train had been cancelled, and so he couldn't go back home. He'd already called his wife to say he couldn't come home today, and he could just pay for a hotel room until the snow cleared up, but it was still morning and so he had nothing to do, so he was back here in the hopes of finding some sort of entertainment.

Maybe Okada-san was around, since she was good conversation at least, or maybe he could find some other nurses or doctors to talk to. He took the elevator up to the fifth floor where Okada-san worked, and the doors opened, and Akitaka was dimly surprised to see a short boy, around the age of twelve, standing by the window tapping the screen of his phone in the corridor. Akitaka remembered Okada talking about an Echizen visiting in the hospital, so this must be Echizen Ryoma, his nephew's teammate. Akitaka took a curious step forward, moving out of the elevator and towards the boy.

"Excuse me" he said politely, and the boy looked up to him, his brows furrowing in confusion, but he made no move to speak, and so Akitaka cleared his throat.

"Are you by chance Echizen Ryoma?" he asked politely, and he didn't fail to notice the irritation present on the boy's face for half a second before it disappeared. The boy shook his head in response, and Akitaka's face dropped.

"Oh, I'm sorry" he said hesitantly, "I'll just go then". He quickly walked away, avoiding the now awkward conversation and moved down the hall and hopefully towards the staff lounge on this floor.