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Challenge – Chapter Nine

For Regionals, the team pulls out all the stops. Drama, I-3

Pairing(s): Yagyuu/Niou

As they started into Regionals, the rumor trickled down from Sanada to the rest of the team. Yukimura was considering surgery.

“Surgery?” Yagyuu asked, sharply. “For Guillain-Barre?”

“It is still fairly experimental,” Yanagi admitted, slowly. “But his physical therapist recommended it, as an alternative, she said, to Seiichi hurting himself by pressing his rehabilitation too quickly.”

Masaharu didn’t know about the others, but he’d had to catch Yukimura from falling more than once, while spotting for his “light” practices, and had to carry him back inside twice. He’d watched the frustration his captain could keep out of his voice but couldn’t keep out of his eyes, and shuddered to think what it must be like. For someone who had been in superb control of his body all his life, to suddenly find it unresponsive… well, it made Masaharu a bit more understanding with Sanada’s temper and brooding moods.

That therapist definitely had Yukimura’s number, he thought.

“If it succeeds, this would bypass much of the necessity for rehabilitation therapy, as much as ninety percent” Yanagi concluded.

“Is it dangerous?” Marui wanted to know.

Yanagi was silent for an ominous moment, before he sighed.

“No surgery is one hundred percent safe. In this case, though, the primary danger is not from the procedure itself. The problem is that the fact of the surgery, the new insult to the body, and the spike in immune reaction that follows, can trigger a relapse.”

Double or nothing. Masaharu held that thought against the memory of Yukimura’s eyes.

“He’ll do it,” Yagyuu voiced Masaharu’s thought.

“It’s still undecided,” Yanagi cautioned, but there was little force behind it. He had seen it, too, Masaharu knew; the two who were closest to Yukimura could hardly help but see it.


When Fudoumine took Yamabuki in the second round, Yanagi and Sanada were sure enough of what it would mean to set the final lineups.

“Seigaku is the true threat,” Yanagi told them, “they’ve put together a very strong team this year, and most of our preparation will be geared toward meeting them. I have little doubt we will; Midoriyama won’t stand against them, and, while Rokkaku will likely give them a fight, I judge Seigaku the stronger. That does not mean that Fudoumine is negligible. Tachibana Kippei is a very strong player, and their team discipline appears to be extremely tight.”

“They also,” Sanada put in, “have a habit of front-loading their line-up when they have a strong opponent. Tachibana himself will almost certainly be in Singles Three; that was how they pulled the rug out from under Hyoutei. I will take Singles Three, to meet him for this match.”

“Let me.”

Everyone looked around to see Akaya sprawled on a bench, looking fixedly at Sanada.

“You got the last two fun ones, Sanada-fukubuchou,” he said, with a crooked smile, “let me have this one.”

“Will you listen to the mouth on him,” Masaharu snorted, swatting Akaya lightly. Akaya pouted at him, and Masaharu shook his head. While Akaya still acted a lot like a totally mannerless kitten with the team, his series of effortless wins this season had given him an extremely contemptuous attitude toward any other players.

“Actually,” Yanagi mused, “there could be some benefits to that.”

Sanada cocked an eyebrow at him.

“For one, a real challenge will be good for Akaya,” Yanagi pointed out, adding a quelling look as Akaya grinned. “For another, it would leave you and I free to take one of the doubles slots. I expect them to field Ibu and Kamio as a pair against us, and while I have little doubt any of our doubles combinations could take them, it would be well to be sure.”

“And who, against their other doubles pair?”

“Jackal and Yagyuu, I think.”

Masaharu wasn’t the only one blinking at that suggestion. The other pair must be power players. Sanada nodded.

“Very well. We’ll return to our usual line-up against Seigaku, so don’t get too distracted.”


Masaharu thought Yanagi worried too much. Or, perhaps, worried about the wrong things. Fudoumine was really fairly easy. The only true challenge was Tachibana himself, who had managed to trigger Akaya’s rage, and became the proxy target for all the anger and uncertainty and fear Akaya had to deal with this year. Masaharu was actually quite impressed with the man; he’d managed to keep Akaya from injuring him too critically. Fudoumine would be back around for Nationals.

The one Masaharu was increasingly worried about was Sanada.

This had not been a good year for anyone, and Yukimura’s illness, his long recovery, and his dangerous choice had driven down on their vice-captain harder than anyone else. It had compressed and darkened him, as if coal were being squeezed into iron instead of diamond. Masaharu didn’t think he would snap, that wasn’t in Sanada’s nature; but that didn’t make his stress and pain any the less. When they found out that Yukimura’s surgeon could only schedule him in the same day that his team would play Seigaku in the final round of Regionals, it was really just the icing on the cake. And when their headstrong little Akaya managed to get himself into a match with Seigaku’s Echizen Ryouma and lost, Sanada was finally infuriated enough to strike members of his team.

Masaharu admitted to a certain desire to throttle Akaya, himself. Just a little bit.

They all spent the last few days before Finals regrouping, planning. He and Yagyuu expected to come up against Seigaku’s “Golden Pair”, which might easily turn into a competition of coordination. They needed tactics to set those two off their stride.

The idea that wended its way into Masaharu’s thoughts made him smile, probably not very pleasantly. If they pulled it off, and there was no real reason they shouldn’t, it would do what they needed it to. And even better, from Masaharu’s point of view, it would allow his partner to blow off some of the stress he had been accumulating. He didn’t show it the way Sanada did, but that didn’t make it any less dangerous.

“Yagyuu,” he murmured, as they packed up, “do you remember that trick the two of us pulled last year?”

Yagyuu’s hands paused. “Yes.”

“It could be… useful, here,” Masaharu suggested.

“Mmm,” Yagyuu tipped his head to regard his partner. “The shock, and then the increase in power. Yes, that could be effective.”

They shared a thin smile.


Yanagi had been right, Masaharu decided, adjusting the glasses he wore. Seigaku could be dangerous. Not enough to beat them, in all likelihood, but enough that he wasn’t surprised by Sanada’s order to play without the wrist weights. Yagyuu, of course, disregarded that, the better to hold his profile to Masaharu’s. Just their luck that Sanada noticed.

When ‘Niou’ snarled at him, startled suspicion flared in their vice-captain’s eyes. Masaharu didn’t worry much about that; their team knew enough to keep their mouths shut. He’d been more worried that Yagyuu, released by wearing his partner’s persona, would do more than snarl.

As the set got going, and Masaharu sank himself into his partner’s place, observing, tallying, he spared a moment to be pleased he had always played such an unpredictable game. It meant there was little chance anyone not of their own team would realize that the way ‘Niou’ was manipulating Kikumaru depended on an absolute awareness of his partner’s position and moves that was characteristic of Yagyuu. Not that it all went one way, of course. He heard what his partner was, silently, asking him to do, and shrugged to himself. If that was what Yagyuu’s heart desired, well, it was certainly one way to end the set quickly. He returned hard and fast, watched Yagyuu place Kikumaru in the ball’s path, watched their opponent fall.

The taunting repetition of Kikumaru’s tag line was more vicious than Yagyuu usually let himself be, even when he let himself go. Masaharu was pleased that his partner had gotten this chance to express himself; who knew what might have happened if he’d bottled it up much longer.

Nevertheless, he was also pleased when Kikumaru recovered. Masaharu found it boring when targets just rolled over and died right away. Since he was being ‘Yagyuu’, he allowed himself to speak his complimentary thought aloud. The Seigaku pair got their second wind, and started pressing back, and Masaharu decided it was time to play their trump card.

Time to call his partner back.

The injunction to “play seriously”, to play as himself, was met with a glare, but Yagyuu finally gave over and pulled out his specialty shot at full strength. It was clear to Masaharu that his partner didn’t particularly want to take up his own, more circumscribed, identity again; he was distinctly grumpy about it. Masaharu sighed to himself. Clearly, they needed to have another conversation about the lack of conflict between politeness and grinding opponents to jelly.

The expressions on the faces of the Seigaku pair were everything he might have hoped for, though.

And, as planned, they never did quite recover their rhythm. It wasn’t an effortless match, but it was a good, solid win, and Masaharu was happy with all aspects of it. All the moreso when he and Yagyuu returned to the benches, and he felt, brushing against his partner’s shoulder, that a good deal of his tension had drained off.

Doubles handed off to singles, and Masaharu sat back to enjoy the last game.

Only it wasn’t.

He had to admit to being deeply impressed with Inui Sadaharu. To give the appearance of wildness, always a lesser threat to a player like Yanagi, in order to set such a magnificent psychological trap definitely earned Masaharu’s respect. For all that Inui looked like the perfect straight-man, Masaharu decided that here was another who deserved the title of Trickster.

That did not make the delay any easier to handle.

Nor did it make Yanagi’s gesture of allegiance to Sanada’s brutal focus, offering himself to the violence Sanada had increasingly used to drive his club and his team, any less painful to watch. Masaharu, for one, was relieved when Akaya intervened. Relieved, if not surprised, because anyone with eyes could see the way Akaya softened whenever he watched The Great Three.

Akaya could be very predictable in some ways.

Masaharu watched him driving Fuji to hit Akaya’s trigger, releasing him. Watched, impressed, as Fuji pressed on despite what would normally be a completely incapacitating injury. Watched, with a bright shock of excitement, as Akaya’s eyes cleared.

Watched Sanada’s involvement with the match. Watched him smile, in spite of Akaya’s loss, when he collected Akaya’s unconscious form from Fuji and brought him back to his team. Yep, Sanada definitely had a soft spot for insane drive and ambition.

Masaharu thought they were all just a little on edge, watching Sanada play an unknown quantity. He knew for a fact that they were all stunned, watching Sanada lose, especially considering the come-back Wonder Boy had had to make. Masaharu briefly considered the possibility that the kid wasn’t human.

The team looked at each other, a little bewildered. It was the first time this team of theirs had lost. The first time in sixteen years that Rikkai had failed to be first at Regionals. What now? Even the lax set of his partner’s shoulders, the serenity in Akaya’s eyes and, curiously enough, in Sanada’s as well, didn’t quite manage to distract Masaharu from the question he was positive was echoing through everyone’s heads.

How were they supposed to tell their captain about this?

TBC

A/N: *mildly disgusted* The surgery mentioned in here has no basis in medical reality. While some of the therapies used to treat the critical stages of Guillain-Barre involve big needles, none of them that I have been able to discover involve invasive surgery. Most certainly none of them hold out any promise of repairing the damaged nerve-sheathes, which would be necessary for such a dramatic recovery of strength as Yukimura had. Canon, however, dictates a surgical procedure, so I did the best I could. My apologies for any egregiously bad science.

Last Modified: Feb 10, 12
Posted: Jun 20, 04
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21 Comments

  1. luceage

    You make me so sad, for I have not seen the Rikkai arc but there is so much goodfic to read and wah. *stresses*

    One day, when I get more episodes beyond 115…one…day… 😀

    Reply
    1. branchandroot Post author

      Ah, but this is mostly based on the manga. Much more Rikkai detail in there than in the anime so far. Much more complex Kirihara, for one thing. Really, very cool boys.

      They do have 116-118 up at scarywater.net. Still frustrating, but at least it’s a start.

      Reply
      1. luceage

        Oh. That makes sense. 😀 Wish I had money to buy manga. With I could read Japanese. 😐 Life hard.

        I GUESS YOU’LL JUST HAVE TO WRITE ME NON-RIKKAI ARC FIC THEN.

        Kidding, kidding. Unless, you know, you’re bored or something… :))

        Reply
        1. branchandroot Post author

          *laughing* Oh, I’ll probably head back to the MomoRyo when I’m done with the next few Rikkai stories. And sooner or later I have to get back to the TezuAto branch, because there was other stuff I wanted to do with that. So many bunnies, so little time!

          Reply
  2. naanima

    I have said this over and over again, but darling, the way you handle the Rikkai team dynamic in this piece is damn amazing. You make them real, you make them what I wish Konomi would. Sanada’s reaction to Yukimura, in a lots of ways, is hard to watch, because it is so damn painful. He’s not dealing well, (then again who is) but Yanagi and Kirihara does the best they can.

    The team’s reaction, their acceptance of the ‘No losing’ philosophy makes sense. They do this for their captain, because they can’t do anything else. They love, respect, and is damn proud of Yukimura. To have him gone. Damn, I feel for them.

    Yagyuu’s reaction (anger) is understandable, and in context, his hostility to Sanada makes so much sense. I love this piece. This is so much more than Yagyuu/Niou. So happy.

    Kirihara is damn adorable, and the way you handle him is just right. His respect(love?) for the Power3 is so apparent that it is hard to miss. (and you have no idea how fascinated I am of this whole angle of the relationship, if your muses even feel the need to reproduce towards this, please do ^_^).

    Oh, and the end of Part 8. “we didn’t take off… the wrist weights…!”

    I laughed, and laughed, and laughed.

    I love this piece because it can be canon. Darling, I absolutely adore you and your Mad!Skillz! LOVE! LOVE! LOVE!

    Reply
    1. branchandroot Post author

      Heeee. ^_^ *snuggles*

      A Power3 bunny and a SanaKiri bunny have staked places in line, so far. Intriguing dynamic, really. Particularly the intimacy among the three, which is hospitable to but does not depend on sexuality at all. That’ll be fun to write, I think.

      *lovesback*

      Reply
  3. soloproject

    Oh…no! I haven’t seen the Rikkai arc…-___-….only read the manga. And now I will kill to. I’ve heard many a good thing about it…argh…:(

    My favorite part: Niou’s description of Inui. There’s another character so sadly underestimated. His turn in the manga was pure LOVE and genius. True Nerd LUV.

    And the ending…wah! How will they tell buchou? You are so one of, if not the best PoT fic writers ever. *worships*

    Reply
    1. branchandroot Post author

      Oh, this is almost all based on the manga (though I do tend to hybridize somewhat). I am sadly enough addicted to study the untranslated issues as they come out, and try to add that in too. ^_^; I am assuming that the anime writers asked Konomi who would win, and that Ryouma is, in fact, headed for another victory. I estimate we have a good six or seven issues to go before we find out for sure, though. Mrff.

      *wicked giggle* There will be more than one stage to telling buchou. Poor Sanada…

      Reply
  4. lady-readwolf

    that’s because the story wouldn’t be as *dramatic* if there wasn’t a ‘surjury’ involved somewhere. {shurgs}

    But really what caught my attention was this last paragraph:

    [[The team looked at each other, a little bewildered. It was the first time this team of theirs had lost. The first time in sixteen years that Rikkai had failed to be first at Regionals. What now? Even the lax set of his partner’s shoulders, the serenity in Akaya’s eyes and, curiously enough, in Sanada’s as well, didn’t quite manage to distract Masaharu from the question he was positive was echoing through everyone’s heads.
    How were they supposed to tell their captain about this?]]]

    SIXTEEN YEARS???? Really? {whistles} damn… You know the strange thing is… despite losing, this seems to be the most relaxed everyone’s been since Yukimura’s collapse. Sort of like a very hard knock to the end type of wake up call….

    And it’s true that Sanada and Kirihara *do* seem different from then to now (the episodes showing on tv currently–the two aren’t so, well, *crazy* {laughs uncomfortably}).

    I’m still loving every minute of this story, and while I hope you and mom are having fun, I also hope this story’s plotting itself nicely for the next opportunity you have to sit down at a computer! ^.~v

    Reply
    1. branchandroot Post author

      *nods* Yep. That’s the Ryouma-effect that’s gotten them relaxed. Wake-up Call Boy all the way. I liked that the anime put it back in, that he pulls Kirihara out of his craziness. Actually, they give him all the credit, the way the anime has come at it, rather than sharing it with Fuji as in the manga. But I’m betting he’s definitely the one who will pull Sanada out. Maybe Sei-chan will send him a thank you card. *grins*

      Next part soon-ish! And then, on to other povs.

      Reply
      1. lady-readwolf

        {sighs} Saaa… I’m really looking forward to seeing these particular episodes. Been crawling over the manga scenes now a couple of times, and while I will always adore reading–it’s just not the same as seeing in color.

        Oh, thank goodness! more anon…I was hoping there would be more up *now*….well, one can always hope. {goes to finish checking her email before toddling off to check the lj’s}

        Reply
  5. luminati

    I’m just a random passerby, but I read through all the parts up so far and THIS IS AMAZING. To avoid quoting everything back at you, um, I’ll just say that your characterization is spot-on and I like the way the other Rikkai members are very much there without stealing the spotlight away from Niou and Yagyuu. ( That and the end of Part 8… *is still laughing about that* )

    It fits very well into canon, and I very much want to read the next part. ^ ^

    Reply
  6. aishuu

    I have just fallen in love with you. ^_~

    I read this arc this morning, and just took this evening to re-read it, and it’s even more brilliant this time.

    You paint the most brilliant, and possibly most “realistic” picture of Rikkai I’ve seen. You’ve got all the characters portrayed in a manner which I simply adore them – your Yukimura is freaking BRILLIANT, and you have cemented my adoration of this piece with your complex Kirihara…

    But what I sincerely love is your Yagyuu. You’ve caught exactly what made me fall in love with him (even over Niou). The fact that Yagyuu is a bit of a bastard, hidden under the civilized veneer. I love this – I haven’t seen it portrayed so well before.

    Reply
    1. branchandroot Post author

      *blushing* Thank you!

      Ah, Kirihara; he did his best to take over this whole story. I only bought him off by promising him one of his own later. I was very taken with his manga incarnation; there’s so much hinted at, just begging to be explored!

      Yagyuu… you have to figure, he must have some serious mad hidden under the manners to be able to pull the switch at all. He’s hard to get inside of, but at lot of fun to write–kind of like Fuji, that way. It’s good to hear that people think I brought him though well!

      Reply
  7. written-in-blue

    The idea that wended its way into Masaharu’s thoughts made him smile, probably not very pleasantly.

    I suspect it was a smile only Yagyuu could love.

    The injunction to “play seriously”, to play as himself, was met with a glare, but Yagyuu finally gave over and pulled out his specialty shot at full strength. It was clear to Masaharu that his partner didn’t particularly want to take up his own, more circumscribed, identity again; he was distinctly grumpy about it. Masaharu sighed to himself. Clearly, they needed to have another conversation about the lack of conflict between politeness and grinding opponents to jelly.

    [grins]

    For all that Inui looked like the perfect straight-man, Masaharu decided that here was another who deserved the title of Trickster.

    Damn right. After all, he has eyes!

    Inui: …You’re going to have to get over that eventually.

    Yes, but not yet.

    Masaharu briefly considered the possibility that the kid wasn’t human.

    He’s not. He’s a Pod Person, here to EAT OUR BRAINS.

    How were they supposed to tell their captain about this?

    First, they need to warn him about Pod!Ryouma, and let him come up with a clever plan to defeat the Pod People…

    Bob: I’m doing this for your own good, Em. [smack]

    Reply
  8. love

    I have to point out right now, BIG SPOILERS but you just violated anime canon. 🙁 So if you don’t care and want to get the anime as it goes, then don’t read ahead–but if you do care about following anime canon, here it goes:

    SPOILER > > > > (refers to episode 126)

    The team (with the exception of Sanada) leaves after Kirihara’s loss to root for Yukimura’s surgery, and so Sanada plays on alone, without the team watching. So they couldn’t have watching the WonderBoy match. 🙂

    < < < END SPOILER

    Reply
    1. branchandroot Post author

      Yeah, this is manga continuity. Rikkai got rather shafted in the anime. No switch, no really cool stuff with Kirihara, very disappointing. The manga is oodles more fun, when it comes to these guys. Of course, even there I had to make some guesses, since the Sanada v Ryouma match isn’t over yet…

      Reply
  9. provetheworst

    Clearly, they needed to have another conversation about the lack of conflict between politeness and grinding opponents to jelly.

    Hahahahaha. ♥ Have I mentioned that I love this and that I love your Rikkai? Coz I do.

    Reply