Yuuta puts some work into repairing Mizuki’s reputation among the St. Rudolph tennis club.
“I didn’t do that with any special skill or talent,” he said, flatly. “I could do it because I’ve been working my ass off, according to a training schedule Mizuki-san made.” He paused to let that sink in, and to catch his breath. “Now. Do you want to be able to do that?”
After watching the National semifinals, Mizuki wrestles with his ambitions and fears–at least until Yuuta gives him a push.
Hajime’s mouth quirked. What a spot to put himself in, a sensible, logical person agreeing to go forward alongside this firebrand and push both of them to the edge and beyond.
After watching Regional finals, Yuuta and Mizuki both have a new range on their goals.
Hajime smiled; observing the tournaments seemed to be doing good things for Yuuta’s awareness of the mental game. That would be useful.
Yuuta tries to decide how it’s going to be between he and Mizuki from now on.
This was the feeling he remembered, the feeling of driving right up to the edge of his strength and endurance and staring the limit down. The feeling of advancing.
Mizuki comes across Yuuta practicing and they have words; and a match; and maybe another epiphany.
Using a shot that wore so hard on his body, Yuuta would never last three more years at this rate! What was the boy thinking? How was Hajime supposed to draw Yuuta back, year after next, if he went on like this?
Mizuki studies the opposition, looking for the things he missed last time.
He was starting to think that it wasn’t his facts that had been wrong, exactly. They just hadn’t been enough, and he’d been missing some pieces.
Especially some of those strange pieces that changed every time he looked at them.
Mizuki reflects on their defeat and has an epiphany.
Hajime leaned back in his seat on the bus, staring into the vanishing point of space, deaf to the murmurs of the St. Rudolph team around him.
They had lost.
Hisoka gets help from an unexpected source.
Hajime had figured out some time ago that Kurosaki could feel what other people felt, especially if they felt it strongly. It was equally obvious, to anyone who watched carefully, that Kurosaki didn’t have perfect control of this ‘gift’. Accordingly, Hajime had dropped a few hints about Nationals, how many people showed up, how excited everyone got about the matches. A few neighborly cautions.
He was starting to think both his team’s self-appointed guardians had completely missed them.
Mizuki has to deal with Tsuzuki’s unexpected perception.
"Okay, so let me get this straight," Tsuzuki said, nibbling one fingernail in concentration.
Hajime tried not to laugh at the rather cute picture the man made.
Rikkai encounters shinigami at Nationals.
The day was clear and hot, good weather for their first match at Nationals. Renji supposed it was cosmic parity for something else to go wrong. He sighed when he saw Hatter’s eyes brighten, as the team made their way toward their assigned court. What had caught her attention this time? He looked in the direction she was starting to edge in and suppressed the urge to put a hand to his forehead. Of all the people for Hatter to decide to tease, of course it would have to be Fuji Yuuta, and, by extension, Fuji Shuusuke.
A memo is mis-directed to Tsuzuki’s desk.
"To all demons rank of Brigadier or Duke," Tsuzuki read aloud, "from the domain of Beelzebub. Angelic response to recent demonic acquisitions among mortals are reaching undesirable levels. Any demons who are free are encouraged to go, forthwith, to Assiah (e.g. Earth, the mortal realm) and rectify this. Sec’y, Choronzon."
Hisoka was staring. "There is nothing more blind than bureaucracy," he declared with conviction. "They can’t possibly really think you’ll participate."
The aftermath of Fuji’s encounter with Mizuki, and explanations for Tachibana.
Kippei smiled down at him when Shuusuke raised his head to give him an inquiring look. “All the people you’re most drawn to are ones you can’t control.”
This transformative work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. Make attributions by name (Branch) and a link or url to http://www.branchandroot.net/archive.