Prince Of Tennis Fan Fiction ❯ Black Rain ❯ Chapter One ( Chapter 1 )

Black Rain

Rated: PG-13

Pairings: Fujicest, hints of Mizuki x Yuuta and Inui x Fuji.

Summary: Inui reflects on his data collection…

Disclaimer: Konomi Sensei's, not mine.

Twelve years after Seigaku's all-star team had finally gotten to the nationals, Inui Sadaharu still had a notebook. Like Eiji, Oishi, Kawamura, Kaidoh, Momoshiro and even at last Tezuka who had slowly and painfully succumbed to the myriad of injuries that had only seemed to have mounted since he'd started on the professional circuit, Inui had hung up his racquet. He'd gone to University, gotten a PhD. He was an unabashedly brilliant doctor and pharmacist with a veritable wall of credentials and a loyal clientele. He'd even swapped his harsh, light reflecting glasses for a clear, round pair that he truly despised. Perfect for presenting a calm and benevolent face to younger patients anxious over inoculations, but it seemed as though no vestiges of the "Inui-senpai" who mixed up Penal Tea and called up teammates with cryptic messages about dates were even left.

Some would say that was a good thing.

He didn't.

Actually, he would honestly have liked to say that he didn't miss it. That he hadn't ever dumped over half his own paperwork on the secretary and drove down the street like a madman in the hopes of getting home in time to catch the tail end of whatever tournament Echizen Ryoma was playing in that week...and then ended up turning in the next morning on a half-hearted attempt at breakfast and even less sleep.

Nevertheless, during those times Inui Sadaharu was no longer a frazzled doctor pushing thirty seated in his recliner and staring intently into the depths of the idiot box in an attempt to chase a dream that had never been realized, but rather Inui Sadaharu, fifteen year old Mr. Data, collecting information so that he might one day beat that snotty freshman brat, Echizen Ryoma and be on his way to becoming the number one player on the Seigaku tennis team.

Well. At least Ryoma was still a snotty brat if the interviews he'd taped said anything about him.

It wasn't Ryoma that kept that notebook around though. The book wouldn't, couldn't be laid to rest until it was complete. But the source of it's missing pages had...well...gone missing.

Inui would never again lay aside his notebook until he'd finally gotten concrete data on Fuji Shuuske. But Fuji just wasn't around. He'd tried getting some information out of Mizuki Hajime once - the ex St. Rudolph's manager had sold him his house. He'd tried to pry for information by beginning with a casual query about Fuji Yuuta, but the second the name had left his lips, the other man had uncharacteristically stammered profusely and abruptly changed the subject. Then, Mizuki had promptly launched into a speech about the location of the dwelling that - Inui laughed despite himself, had made the sale.

To say that Inui had no data on Fuji wasn't totally the truth. The tall ex-tennis player had the ultimate weapon, and he'd had it since their third year of junior High School. The merest mention of his brother Yuuta had always struck a chord in their tensai. That, Inui had eventually deduced -had been it. The weakness that Fuji had always guarded against anyone discovering and very likely the key to knocking Fuji out of the number two spot on the team. The question was, however…how to use it. It had been that much more difficult when Yuuta, apparently fed up with being compared to his older brother - had finally transferred to St. Rudolph's.

Mizuki Hajime had apparently had the same thought, and been perhaps closest to unraveling the mystery, but like Arthur Dent, he had only an answer and not the question. Forty-two. Fuji Yuuta. The answer to life, the universe and Fuji Syuuske. But Mizuki had played with fire and gotten himself badly burned.

On a whim, Inui turned his black Ferrari into the parking lot of the street tennis court and took the notebook up to the bleachers.

He found he didn't have to wait long.

"Inui. What a surprise. It's good to see you here." Fuji dropped into the seat behind him and pillowed his head on his arms, watching the rain intently from behind his drooped eyelids. "I was taking a walk and ended up here. How nice we both get to see each other again after so long."

Inui shook his head, if slightly. Only Fuji could have decided to "take a walk in the rain" and "end up at the tennis courts" at the precise moment when he wanted to see him.

"I was just thinking about you." He said, honestly. Best not to hide anything.

Fuji's eyes opened. "Were you?" he asked serenely, fixing Inui with piercing blue eyes.

"I never knew what happened to you after…High school."

"…do you want to know?" Fuji asked, smile disappearing now.

"I do." Inui pushed his misgivings down, and stared just as intently back at Fuji, feeling somehow very vunerable.

---

Fuji had rushed to the hospital the second he'd heard the doctor's message on the machine and walked into the hospital room that night to find his younger brother sitting up in the bed, staring blankly into the depths of the scratchy blue bed-covering.

"You were right Aniki." Yuuta said, eyes unwavering. Fuji's gaze on the other hand traveled to Yuuta's tightly bound left arm. As if on cue, a muscle in it spasmed, and Yuuta's blank stare convalesced into a grimace of pain.

Schooling his expression into his usual grouchy scowl, Yuuta finally looked up at his older brother. "I don't want you saying I told you so though. It was my choice to continue to use the twist spin…"

Fuji had climbed onto the hospital bed, crouched low over his brother, his lips milimetres from Yuuta's mouth.

"…Aniki?" Yuuta gasped, scrabbling uselessly back against the headboard of the bed as his brother's hands reached for him, his brother's lips pressed against his - again and again…

"You don't have to worry Yuuta…I'll take care of you from now on…hurt Mizuki…for teaching yo-"

"What's going on in here?" a nasally voice rang behind him. "Young man, what DO you think you're doing?"

Fuji leapt away from his brother, heart pounding. The reedy-voiced nurse who had apparently come to bring Yuuta some dinner was staring at them both in horrified stupor.

"Young man, do you know…"

Fuji looked at Yuuta pleadingly, but Yuuta seemed to be beyond all reason.

"Brother. He's my brother." The words spilled from Yuuta, hysterically, angrily. He was crying.

Fuji had knocked the tray of spaghetti and jello to the floor as he ran for it.

---

Inui frowned. He had the information he craved, he'd had it all along. This just confirmed that. But did that really even matter any more? Instead, he smiled as though just seeing Fuji clearly for the first time since they'd met at the tennis courts.

"You want to come back to my place? We could order some dinner."

Fuji's eyes snapped shut again and the smile returned. "Yeah. I'd like that."

Inui held open the tennis court gate, and followed Fuji through it.

On the bleachers surrounding the courts, blue ink smeared and then siphoned off the open pages of a discarded green notebook.