Three Plus One

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Ink Burns

This is a work of fiction. All characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.

This is a work of fanfiction, produced according to the principles of transformative fair use as put forward in US copyright law, and abiding by the custom and practice of fan-produced work in Japan, where the source texts were created. No author is in any way affiliated with any of the creators of the source texts, nor with the companies who distribute their products, nor any other rights holder, and these stories were not authorized by either the creators or the producers. Ink Burns is a fan site and the material here is freely provided for the enjoyment of fellow fan-community members; there is no commercial infringement.

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 US license at the Ink Burns fanfiction archive (http://alltrees.org/archive/).

Published on 2007-03-30 16:11:49.

Attributions can be made by author's name and a link to the archive.

This ebook edition was published on May 16, 2012 by the Ink Burns fanfiction archive.

Three Plus One

A scene that might come just after issue 339. Kirihara angsts a bit until his team makes him see reason. Drama, I-3, manga continuity

Akaya looked down at his knuckles turning white where he held the rail behind the coach's bench. Out on the court, Sanada-fukubuchou was cutting down his opponent, but Akaya knew how that looked, he didn't really need to watch.

And he wasn't sure he wanted to meet anyone's eyes right now.

He wanted to ask "why", except that that was obvious. He had been really struggling with his opponent. His teammates hadn't. He knew why, it was just...

Wasn't it ever going to change? No matter how much his game evolved, no matter what tactics he found to make himself stronger? Where they always going to be ahead of him like this?

"Yukimura-buchou." He'd spoken before he realized he was going to, and bit his lip. What did he think he was going to say, anyway?

Yukimura-buchou didn't look away from the game. "Did you hear what they were calling you?"

Akaya blinked. "What?"

"While you were defeating the other player. Did you hear what the crowd was calling?"

Akaya thought, but he couldn't really recall much besides the beat of his pulse in his ears. "No."

Now Yukimura-buchou looked over his shoulder, smiling though his eyes were chill with the edge of being on the court. "Demon."

The thought fluttered around Akaya's mind, that that was kind of neat, after all it was what they called Yukimura and Sanada and Yanagi, wasn't it? The three demons.

His eyes widened.

"I won't be waiting," Yukimura-buchou said, voice soft. "But I will be ready." He turned back to watch the game and added, more briskly, "You know you can do it, now, so stop lazing around."

"Yes, Yukimura-buchou," Akaya managed. He stepped back and sat down on a bench with a thump, where Niou-senpai promptly messed up his hair and asked, "Dense much?"

"Ah, don't mind," Marui-senpai put in with a lazy bubble. "It was kind of fun. Good practice for precision and all that."

"And you justified our trust admirably," Yagyuu-senpai added with a faint smile.

Akaya scrunched down a little and said "Okay" in a small voice. His senpai took care of him; he was used to that.

"And you're still conscious and standing," Yanagi-senpai noted a bit wryly, from where he, too, was watching Sanada-fukubuchou. "So obviously you were also well up to the endurance training menu Seiichi had Genichirou construct for you."

"I was?" Akaya thought about that. "Oh. Good."

Marui-senpai groaned. "He didn't even notice! Is he really human?"

Niou-senpai smirked, thin and sharp. "Definitely a demon."

Akaya straightened at that, determination gripping him, fierce and familiar. "Yes." He would be. He would find his way and catch them all and be number one. He grinned up at his senpai. "Thanks."

They smiled back at him, bright and sharp, as the match was called. Rikkai's victory.

Just the way it should be.

End