Deafening Silence ( prince of tennis) (#wattys2016)

52

I know some of you may be like 'woah what is this', but frankly I think Roko needs some background going on. Even if it is depressing.

Headmaster's Office

Akaya was nervous. First of all, he was in the Headmaster's Office, which is never a good sign of anything. Secondly, his English teacher was also present, glaring at him rather evilly since he was his least favourite student. English had never been a good subject for him, in fact Akaya wondered how he even managed to get this far in English, since he was so bad at it.

Akaya sat in his seat nervously, trying not to squirm under his English teacher's gaze whilst the Headmaster pulled up his chair and made himself comfortable.

"Kirihara-kun" he greeted calmly and Akaya immediately knew that the Headmaster was serious. He'd been here a lot of times, and not once had the Headmaster ever used '-kun' after his name.

"Hello" he returned rather lamely in an attempt to sound normal. If the Headmaster even noticed his casualness he didn't show it.

"Do you know why you're here?" he asked, and Akaya squirmed.

"No..." he said rather uncertainly, though he was sure he had a good idea. Before the Headmaster could give a verbal response Akaya's English teacher, Satoshi-sensei slammed his hand on the desk loudly, causing Akaya to jump an inch into the air, and the man glared at him coldly.

"Your English grades are awful" he stated bluntly, and Akaya tried not to frown. He'd heard that so often before from him it wasn't even worth a reaction.

"Thank you, Satoshi-san" the headmaster stated calmly, and Satoshi-sensei grunted in response and stood up, stepping back, and Akaya mentally exhaled in relief. The Headmaster just continued to look at him calmly, and that calm, misleading look reminded Akaya of Yukimura.

"Yes" he began, "Your grades are not up to standard, Kirihara-kun" he stated, and Akaya could only nod in response.

"You got 12% on your recent test!" Satoshi-sensei cut in, and Akaya flinched. It wasn't his fault he was so bad at English.

"Enough" the Headmaster stated once, and Satoshi-sensei frowned but stopped, not speaking any further, and the Headmaster sighed.

"Kirihara-kun. If your English grades continue like this any longer you will be removed from the tennis team" he stated bluntly, and Akaya froze. Oh no. It had gotten to this point at last. Akaya had always known that one day he would be kicked off the regulars for his English grades, and so he tried to delay that and study the best he could, but he just couldn't understand English, and nothing the teachers explained made sense. Kicked off the regulars? Never. Akaya loved tennis more than anything in the whole world, and the idea of it being taken away from him scared him, and on top of the fact that Sanada-fukubuchou would kill him for it.

"So..." he began uncertainly, "Why is Echizen here?" he asked, glancing at the other person in the room.

From what he could tell Echizen hadn't moved a millimetre in his seat, his back perfectly straight and his head facing forward, his hands falling lazily at the sides of the chair, which was positioned slightly behind Akaya's. He looked at Akaya from the corner of his eye but didn't turn his head in acknowledgement, though Akaya didn't really expect much from him anyway.

"Ah" the Headmaster began, as if he was only just noticing Echizen, "I asked Echizen to come because I want him to be your English tutor"

Akaya gaped at him, turning back to Echizen, whose face had not changed at all. Echizen be his English tutor? While that did sound like a good idea, Akaya wasn't really sure if that would work, Echizen couldn't talk after all, and he could teach Sanada-fukubuchou because he was the only person in Rikkaidai who could understand him.