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Chapter Text

Survivor

The eyes are the window of the soul, and Ryoma Echizen's eyes told those who looked close enough that he was a survivor. One that had been through the depths of hell and came out of it over and over again. Not unscathed, not whole, not sane, but surviving all the same. He had been broken, bleeding, cursing, but still living.

His eyes are found in those who have seen the worst of the world and all the creatures that lived in it, but also the best of it. Those who have seen and learned and accepted all the pain and horror that come with living, knowing that it would break others because it's what he needed to do to keep on walking on the path he chose for himself.

Ryoma Echizen was a survivor. The problem was that he was only eight years old.

Sharp

It started with a challenge from Nanjiroh. Ever since Ryoga came, the former tennis star has seemed to delegate much of the "play tennis with Ryoma" to the older son. Ryoma doesn't really mind, since he found Ryoga to be much more pleasant than Nanjiroh as a playing partner.

(Ryoga's always relaxed posture, his "I do whatever I want" attitude, and many things about him ooze a strange sense of familiarity. As if he had met someone that he could've considered a friend if it's not for circumstances. A sense of familiarity that also brings a strange unease to his chest, begging him to check that there's nothing missing there)

Then Nanjiroh declared that he wouldn't play with Ryoma until he could beat Ryoga. At first, it goes like how Nanjiroh thought it would. Ryoma might have come to like Ryoga, but he also disliked losing and thus began to work harder to improve his tennis.

At first Ryoma had started simple. He tried to copy his older brother and father's techniques, he tried to exercise more like his brother and father did. He did what one would expect from someone his age trying to be as good as his older brother and father in playing tennis: He tries to copy them.

Then one day it changed.

It's as if a switch had been flipped. His movements become much more fluid and sophisticated. He began to absorb complicated techniques faster than either Ryoga or Nanjiroh could subtly show him. There's a sense of clarity where there wasn't before in every step and move that Ryoma takes. He had stopped copying Ryoga and Nanjiroh and created something for himself.

It only took him one more month to beat Ryoga since then, something that Nanjiroh never expected to happen so soon but Ryoga was immensely proud of his younger brother for it.

Nanjiroh began playing with Ryoma again after that and of course, his age made "playing seriously" a chore. But in the end, he's playing against his son, far younger, and far more inexperienced than him. But Ryoma didn't act like that at all. It's almost like someone whose body had yet to catch up with his mind and experience. When facing Ryoma, Nanjiroh felt like they were in a strangely similar boat. Sharp and experienced minds with bodies that are failing them, Ryoma for being too young, himself for his old injury, and having grown old. Ryoma beats him for the first time not long before he turns nine years old.

(Of course, Nanjiroh hadn't given his all or had truly played "seriously". After all, there's only so much seriousness that he can pour when he's playing someone who hadn't even hit puberty yet, but it's enough to know that by the time Ryoma becomes old enough to make him give his all it's very likely he would be the one on the losing side)

Servant

The Echizen household used to hire servants to take care of their daily needs. Nanjiroh could barely function as a human being outside of the tennis court, Rinko was barely there due to her extremely busy work, and Ryoga and Ryoma were just kids. That changed, however, just some time before Ryoma turned nine. He had asked his father if he could try to cook dinner for them and Nanjiroh allowed him.

Rinko figured that since she was there, she could supervise the whole thing so their house wouldn't burn to the ground. Nanjiroh figured that it's gonna be a nice teasing material for him to use against Ryoma in the future (He might still be a little bitter for getting beaten by his almost nine-year-old son in the one thing he prided himself greatly in). Ryoga was just curious if his beloved Chibisuke could actually do it or not.

As it turned out, Rinko's worries were unfounded, Nanjiroh's plan was ruined (again), and Ryoga was delighted because the food they ate that night was probably the best they had ever eaten. Since then Ryoma has taken charge of the household's kitchen.

Then Ryoma asked if he could help one of the servants in cleaning the house. The same pattern was repeated, with Rinko's worry turning out to be unfounded and Nanjiroh's plan to get teasing material folded by an unexpectedly competent Ryoma. Since then Ryoma has taken charge of the task of cleaning the house.

Nanjiroh had teased him, saying that Ryoma would become a perfect housewife in the future. Ryoma just shrugged in response. (He had heard the same thing from Rin enough times that he stopped caring, really)

Stranger

It wasn't his family that Ryoma told of his past life first, it was a stranger. Well, not exactly a stranger, it was Fuji's older sister, so not exactly a stranger. But they never really met before, so Ryoma decided to count her as a stranger.

"You're an old soul." Yumiko Fuji said in a tone that clearly says that she's making a statement and not a question.

Ryoma shrugged. "Maybe I am."

"Maybe you want to talk about it over a coffee?" Yumiko offered, walking toward the kitchen.

Ryoma expected many things when he accepted Syusuke's offer to come to his house after practice ended, but being offered coffee by Syusuke's older sister so they could talk about his previous life wasn't one of those.

"I prefer tea."

Scouted

It was definitely Ryoga's fault that he ended up joining Seishun Gakuen's tennis club.

Ryoma had specifically told his older brother that by no means was he interested in playing tennis outside of the court behind their house and Nanjiroh seemed to be content with letting Ryoma do whatever he wanted ever since he beat Nanjiroh all those years ago. Not to mention Ryoga has already fulfilled Nanjiroh's dream of seeing his old alma mater become the champion of Japan just one year previously.

He's already part of a nearby Kendo dojo and has signed up for the Kyuudo club after all. (Ryoma's not above admitting to himself that there were things from his past life that he's not willing to let go. Archery and swordsmanship are two of those)

So, by all means, there's no reason for Ryoma to have to join the Tennis Club, which clearly was doing more than fine without him, and no reason for Ryoga to tell the club that he can play tennis. Yet Ryoga did anyway.

And there he was, standing inside a court, wishing that he could be literally anywhere else in the world, just not on a tennis court across from an overly excitable tennis player whose name he couldn't remember. (He later learned that his name was Momoshiro)

When the bespectacled captain of the club told him that he was going to join a Ranking Tournament to determine whether he'll become a regular or not, Ryoma was reminded that he was a sucker for people who tell him that they need his help.

(Genicihiro and Seiichi called him a traitor, and honestly, Ryoma couldn't really say anything to defend himself)

Chapter Text

Birth

Ryoma Echizen had been born with numerous birthmarks, none of which one typically considers to be pretty. One encircled his neck, many others littering his back. Bright red when he had been born, it had eventually faded to color just a touch lighter than his skin tone, making it difficult to see even for those who looked closely.

Neither Nanjiroh nor Rinko had known what to make of those strange birthmarks on their otherwise perfectly healthy son. The doctor assured them that it didn't cause Ryoma any pain or discomfort, so the pair pushed the matter to the back of their mind.

(A legend says that your birthmarks show the way you died in your previous life)

"You have pretty strange birthmarks if I must say," Syusuke commented lightly, flipping through the pages of the baby album.

Ryoma had shrugged, his back facing away from Syusuke as he did so. "I guess I did. It's barely visible now. Had been for almost ten years now."

"Hmm, even up close it's hard to see," Fuji said as he looked very closely at Ryoma's neck, hoping to detect the one he saw in the photo to encircle it.

(It wasn't the dozens of blades that they never bothered to pull out before they hanged him or the rope itself that hurt him the most. It was the betrayal, the way that the world spat on and stomped on his ideals. And what was he but a lonely and helpless sword without his ideals)

"I think there's a legend." Syusuke began carefully. "That said your birthmark shows the way you died in your previous life."

Ryoma turned to face his senior, his eyes cold and desolate, a ghost of a smile on his lips. Parting his lips, he would say four words that would forever be burned into Syusuke's mind. "Sometimes, legends were right."

Personal

"So, how old were you when you died?"

Ryoma looked up from the book he was reading to face Syusuke, shooting the latter a withering glare as if to say "Really?"

The so-called genius shrugged. "Well, I'm curious."

Ryoma sighed, putting his book down. "Thirty-two. I know, I know that's way too young but I didn't exactly lead a healthy lifestyle in my previous life."

(Involving himself in many battlefields and other horrific conditions couldn't have been good for his health. The smokes alone were probably enough to ruin his lungs if it's not for Avalon)

"And your birthmarks?" Syusuke continued carefully, knowing that he was treading dangerous waters. Even with Yumiko, Ryoma has always given vague answers regarding his past life.

Ryoma's lips twitched. "Getting up close and personal aren't we?"

(Shirou Emiya has never been one to use sarcasm and snark as a defense mechanism. But Ryoma Echizen? He learned from the best and he's not gonna let it to waste)

"You have no problem telling me that it shows the way you died." Syusuke pressed on, wondering exactly how far he could go before Ryoma started pushing back. "Now I just need confirmation."

"It wasn't self-inflicted," Ryoma said curtly before standing up and walking away, leaving Syusuke to ponder the implications behind his words.

Logic

For the first time in many many decades, Ryoma wanted to cry. Not because anything bad or horrific happened to him, he's used to tragedies after all (Mostly because his previous life was one), but because of the sheer stupidity of the entire situation.

He knew for one that despite the absolute lack of Mana in the air, most of the humans in the new world he was reincarnated into still had something resembling Od and Magic Circuits inside them. He also knew that Magecraft as he knew it was pretty much impossible. But he knew he could still use Reinforcement to enhance his body, though nowhere near as effective as in his previous life. All those leads him to believe that as a whole, what existed in the world wasn't "magic" so to speak but something more akin to "internal energy" that many martial arts seemed to put emphasis on.

While everyone else was either surprised by or admiring Ryoga's achievement of Pinnacle of Perfection, Ryoma buried his face into his palm. He pointedly ignored his father strutting in to say something about enjoying tennis or whatever. He's way too distressed by the fact that apparently, the logic of this particular world seemed to dictate that out of all things, tennis was the key to awaken one's Magical Circuits from dormancy.

"Oh Root, why."

(Ryoma knew that he could never achieve the Pinnacle of Perfection himself. His soul was too distorted, too broken, to truly enjoy tennis as it is. Maybe if he hadn't been Shirou Emiya in his previous life, he could have. But he was Shirou Emiya and he couldn't do anything about it)

Awake

Remembering was a lot like waking up. Like a fog being cleared from his mind.

There was no sudden rush of memories that overloaded his brain. There was no sudden realization. There was no shock in realizing that he had been reincarnated because deep down he had always known. The memories were always there, just inaccessible to him.

It was that way because Ryoma had simply never forgotten.

In the end, it was as natural as breathing. No thoughts or feelings are involved.

One moment he was Ryoma Echizen, the eight-year-old son of the Samurai Nanjiroh, exceptionally good at tennis for his age, a boy who sometimes looked far too world-weary for his age, and who sometimes woke up in the middle of the night, cold sweats from a nightmare he couldn't remember. The next moment, he was still Ryoma Echizen, just one who remembered he was Shirou Emiya in his previous life. He remembered how once upon a time he was a sword, one who left everything behind to pursue his ideals and was betrayed by it.

That moment, Ryoma had shrugged and carried on. He has an older brother to beat in tennis and maybe Shirou Emiya has some solutions for that.

Ghost

Sometimes Ryoma couldn't help but wonder if the fact he had gained the attention of one eternally energetic and loud Tooyama Kintarou was karma from his past life for leaving Taiga behind without a word.

It wasn't hard at all for him to see the similarities. Perpetually upbeat? Check. Perpetually hungry and asking him for food? Check. Incredibly confident in themselves? Check. Freakishly strong despite their stature? Check. Never listening to people unless threatened? Check. The only thing missing was Taiga's temper but Ryoma thanked the gods for making Kintarou as oblivious as a parakeet and pretty much incapable of being angry.

"Koshimae! Koshimae! Look at my new technique!"

Ryoma groaned. Maybe the temper had been replaced by the inability to read people's names correctly.

Unfortunately, he was so deep in his thought that he completely missed the shouts coming from his teammates warning him of a ball heading toward him. If he had noticed, he could have dodged or used his Reinforcement to lessen the damage. But he didn't, so twenty minutes later Ryoma woke up in the infirmary, the red-haired Shitenhoji regular by the bedside.

"Koshimae, I'm so sorry! I was so excited that I didn't notice where I was hitting the ball to and well…" In an extremely rare show of sobriety, Kintarou was honest to god looking guilty.

Ryoma sighed. Even the way they fretted after making a mistake was so similar. Shaking his head, Ryoma reminded himself to stop seeing ghosts where there aren't. No matter how much Shirou Emiya wished he could go back and make it up to Taiga, there's now only Ryoma Echizen and Tooyama Kintarou.

"It's fine, it's my fault for zoning out." He waved off. "Also, just call me Ryoma. Koshimae is wrong and also a mouthful to hear."

When he saw the grin blossom on the fellow Super Rookie's face, Ryoma couldn't help but wonder if he had just made a mistake.

Chapter Text

Figure

The fact that Nanjiroh could never replace Kiritsugu as the person that he saw as his father was something that Ryoma had come to accept the moment he recognized that he used to be Shirou Emiya

For him, Nanjiroh was more like an older "friend" who helped him to recognize that tennis was something he could enjoy on top of the other interests he might have. Never did Ryoma ever recognize Nanjiroh's ideals or dreams as possibly his own, and neither did he feel like he owed Nanjiroh his entire existence.

(In many ways, it was Kiritsugu that gave him his life as Shirou Emiya. It was he who pulled him out of the burning wreckage that erased everything he might have before the fire. Kiritsugu was the man he could never come to resent despite his ideals being the one who brought him his demise.)

He never expected Nanjiroh to be one, after all. One was a retired pro tennis player, the other was a magus killer whose life might rival his previous life in terms of tragedies and pain.

(Emiyas was born to suffer, Rin joked once when they unraveled the mysteries of Kiritsugu's life. The despair in Shirou's eyes caused her to shut herself up.)

It's such a shame that Rinko was barely around most of the time. Having a mother figure around would have been nice for once, though Ryoma never found himself wanting something he never had and would probably barely have for the rest of his life.

(Once upon a time, Illya told him of a mother that she had. The mother who loved her, the mother who was there with Kiritsugu for her. Shirou, so tired from the Holy Grail War at the time, told her that she was an idiot for being jealous of him for having Kiritsugu for a bit of time when she had both Kiritsugu and Iris for longer. Illya agreed)

Connection

Ryuuzaki Sakuno was one anomaly that he found in his new life. Ryoma knew better than to look for ghosts, to look for connection where there wasn't and would never be.

But looking at the admiration that Sakuno seemed to give to him almost unconditionally, Ryoma couldn't help but push her away as the image of a purple-haired girl who called him 'Senpai' always seemed to overlap with hers and he couldn't find it in himself to do that to them, to both Sakuno and Sakura.

(It was his failure that caused Sakura's death. It was his own two hands that took her life. Yet she still found it in herself, in the middle of all the pain and insanity, to thank him for that.)

It was for the better, anyway. Ryoma knew that it would never last, no matter how many times Nanjiroh and Ryoga told him that they deserved each other, or how many times Sakuno's grandmother wanted him to be the one for her. He would always say no, because he would never stop seeing Sakura within her and he knew that subconsciously, Sakuno knew that as well.

So when Ryoma heard that Sakuno had found someone, he couldn't help but feel relieved.

(In many ways, he's still very much afraid that being involved with him will endanger someone. It's silly, as Ryoma knew that unlike Shirou Emiya he was not gonna be prancing around the globe hunting down terrorists or picking fights with warlords, but the paranoia remained nonetheless)

Parallel

Ryoma met Rin Tohsaka of his world completely by accident. Except she's not a Tohsaka or even a Rin. In fact, Ryoma had no idea what her name was. The only reason he didn't think that she's his (or more exactly Shirou Emiya's) was because he remembered that Kaleidoscope could only access parallel worlds and not parallel universes. This was to say that since the way that "magic" works in his new world was very different from the one of his last one, they didn't share the same universe.

Strangely enough, it was in a McDonalds that he met her. In all honesty, Ryoma hated fast food. Even as Shirou Emiya pranced around the globe hopping from one warzone to another, he always made it a priority to make his own food and only go for fast food when absolutely necessary. Not to mention he could easily make a much healthier and tastier version of things like burgers, fried chicken, and fries himself. But neither Ryoga nor Momoshiro nor Eiji listened to him when he said that.

He remembered that Rin hated fast food, claiming that it was not befitting for a lady like him. So he was surprised when he saw the girl who looked exactly like the Rin Tohsaka he knew come into the joint. She ordered some burgers and fries to takeout before leaving as fast as she came.

His older brother and seniors teased him later for staring at a pretty girl for so long, but Ryoma simply shrugged and said that she reminded him of someone he knew.

When he returned home, Ryoma couldn't help but wonder if there was also a Shirou Emiya doppelganger in his world.

(His answer would come when he was already 25 years old, staring at a ten years old, red-haired boy that looked exactly like he was in his previous life before the young boy was pulled away by his mother)

Trace

Ryoma realized that while he was no longer able to figure out everything about a sword simply by looking at it, he could still do the same by touching it. He realized it when Genichiro allowed him to touch his family's heritage sword during his visit to the older boy's house when he was ten years old. He immersed himself in the sword for some time, long enough to make his fellow kendoka worried about him and shake him awake.

(It was then that Ryoma duly noted that within him still lies Unlimited Blade Works, just out of his reach due to the fact that his world rejected the idea of projecting such world or anything within it into the "real" world)

Since then, Ryoma found himself looking around museums and dojos for swords for him to touch and immerse himself in. It was something that he missed as if his very own soul was calling out to him to look for swords, to connect with one. Nanjiroh joked that one day he might end up being an actual samurai instead of just having a nickname as one like him. Ryoma told him that he was an idiot.

(Ryoma knew for one that samurais aren't all that noble, if the history he traced from their swords were any indication.)

At the age of 12, Ryoma found himself named as one of the youngest sword appraisers in Japan, much to his own ire.

(He knew that blabbing out about swords to Genichiro's family was a terrible idea. After all it was them who became his guarantor of sort for his appraisals, the ones that make other only blink once and take it in stride when a pre-pubescent teen comes in and was the one doing those appraisals)

Understanding

It was not long after Ryoma defeated him that Nanjiroh came to him and asked straight to his face if he was really his son.

"By all means, I am Ryoma Echizen and have always been." He replied back then and Nanjiroh never asked again, letting him do whatever he wanted while vaguely acting like a father to him at times. For the most part, however, out of sight from anyone else, Nanjiroh treated him as his equal, never really treating him like a child since then.

Yumiko Fuji might be the first person that Ryoma ever told about his past life, but deep down, he knew that Nanjiroh didn't treat him that way just because he defeated him in tennis. Ryoma knew that in some ways, Nanjiroh understood that while he is Ryoma Echizen, he was no longer his son. At least, not the one he knew before something within him suddenly changed.

Ryoma never saw Nanjiroh as his father, and Nanjiroh understood to some extent that Ryoma wasn't his son. And for that, Ryoma was glad. Until he met Yumiko and Syusuke, there was nowhere else where he could loosen up on being a child that he knew he wasn't, he never was.

(The fire was the end of his childhood. Whatever he have after that was only an illusion kept up by Kiritsugu and Taiga's misguided perception of the Emiya family)

Nanjiroh never was and will never be his father, but Ryoma might find it in himself to someday consider him a friend.

Chapter Text

Leader

Shirou Emiya was never a leader, and Ryoma Echizen inherited that part of him. While he’s much less inclined to just take orders from others this time around, he still finds solace in having a leader to look up to. He spent most of his previous life fighting alone, avoiding making companions and driving away those close to him with his blind adherence to his ideals, so excuse him for finding comfort in some sort of clarity in a destination. With the Seishun Gakuen tennis team, that destination was obviously another national championship.

Personally, Ryoma wasn’t too excited about the whole thing. He liked tennis, obviously, but once he beat Nanjiroh, he knew that he’d be hard-pressed to find someone who could play at the same level as him. He could just have himself some handicap, but he found doing something like that to be disrespectful to his opponents.

Looking at Tezuka, however, he couldn’t help but feel like he wanted to help him achieve his dreams. There’s a pull, a gravity, that made Ryoma can’t help but admire him. A strong leader, a “pillar” he was called, and Ryoma wholeheartedly agrees with that assessment. His conviction was unwavering as if nothing could truly shake him no matter what. And unlike with Shirou Emiya, that unwavering conviction didn’t come from being a distorted human, but as a sign of strength.

Yes, Ryoma decided, that if he was going to help someone, to look up to someone as a “leader”, that someone would be Kunimitsu Tezuka, the pillar of Seigaku.

(Sometimes, Ryoma wondered how things could have been different in his past life if he had a strong pillar to lean on. Arthuria and Rin could have been that, but it wasn’t meant to be, while Sakura was more likely to look at him to be her pillar, which he could never be)

Question

Frankly enough, Ryoma doesn’t really like Inui. In fact, he was quite annoyed by most Data Tennis players in general and would happily mess with them and their data at any chance he had. While he understands the importance of information, his past life's experience told him as much, but for the love of god, he hates their eternally prying eyes and insatiable thirst for more data. For one, they reminded him a lot of pretty much most magus he knew in his previous life. Obsession for more and more knowledge, all for the sake of a single goal. The difference is that Magus did it all for the sake of reaching “Root” and has no qualms about stepping on morality and humanity for the sake of that goal. Inui and other Data Tennis players mostly did all of those to win tennis games though of course, with none of the disregard for human lives.

Then again, this is the same world where one’s equivalent of the magic circuit was utilized through tennis so maybe they’re onto something. Ryoma gave up trying to understand how magic worked in his new world by the time he realized that somehow it all led back to tennis. Which, while he liked tennis, was incredibly ridiculous.

Despite all that, though, he maintained a façade of cold indifference toward his senior, pretty much the same one that he gave to everyone else who isn’t Ryoga. Which could lead to situations such as the one he’s in.

“If you have a question, just say it,” Ryoma stated wearily, finally giving in to Inui’s inquisitive stare.

Inui pushed up his glasses, “Hmm, the probability of you welcoming my inquiries is less than 10%.”

“Well, then I suppose you’d rather waste that less than 10% chance,” Ryoma stated dryly. “Make it quick or I’ll leave.”

“Just one question,” Inui stated quickly, then a gleam entered his eyes just hidden by his glasses. “What are you, exactly?”

Well, if there’s one thing that Ryoma took great comfort in, it’s the fact that none of them have managed to actually “figure” him out.

“I wonder…” Ryoma stated, tugging on his cap before turning away.

“That didn’t answer my question.” Inui frowned.

Ryoma smirked. “I only say that you can make your question, not that I’d answer it. Mada mada dane, Inui-senpai.”

Motherly

Ryoma saw himself as many things, but Motherly was definitely never one of them. The same applied to Shirou Emiya, no matter how much teasing about him being a housewife he received. Sure, he can cook, he’s good at cleaning, and all in all, he likes to do household chores. But he’s definitely not motherly.

For one, he doesn’t even really know how someone who was motherly acts since whatever Shirou Emiya knew about his mother was burned away in the fire, none of the female figures in his life after that was one, and Ryoma’s own mother barely showed up if ever. He never resented her for it, really. It’s hard to miss something that was never really there to begin with.

So, when he noticed people talking about how Oishi was like the mother hen of the Seigaku Tennis Club, he paid attention both to whoever talked and to the Third Year himself. Mostly out of curiosity, really, but having next to no contact with any motherly figure, he might as well try to figure out what makes someone ‘motherly’.

He knew that Oishi seemed to have made a habit out of checking after the regulars, something he had known for some time as he had seen Ryoga getting entire lectures about personal hygiene through the phone back when he still hadn’t joined Seigaku.

Ryoma, for one, never really got one since he can look after himself perfectly thank you. If anything, Oishi seems to love to use him as an example of excellent personal care, and when Ryoga tells him that he practically cooks for the entire family and does most of the chores at home, the third year becomes even more proud (?) of him and exasperated at everyone else since their first year is a much more capable person than pretty much everyone else.

When it comes to the point that he and Oishi start trading recipes, his status seems to evolve from Oishi’s “golden child” to a “teen mom” as Momoshiro puts it. Ryoma obliterated the other teen in the court for five sets straight after he made that comment.

Friend

Ryoma liked to think that, unlike his previous self, he was doing a pretty good job making friends this time around. For one, none of the person that he considered his good friend this time around was practically a sociopath though he have a niggling suspicion that one of these days Fuji was gonna be caught as a serial killer or something. Or for that matter, Yukimura. But as far as he’s concerned, none of them have raped their sister, so that’s a huge plus for all of them, creepy behavior or not.

However, Momoshiro and Kikumaru have always been somewhat of an anomaly for him.

Sure, he’s no stranger to loud and boisterous characters. From his previous life, there’s Taiga, which honestly needs no further explanation. Ryoga was also someone who seemed to make it his personal life mission to annoy Ryoma in every way possible, at least when not doting after him. But Momorshiro and Kikumaru were different in that, they really have no reason to continuously approach Ryoma despite the latter constantly rejecting them and calling them annoying.

Sometimes, he was tempted to ask why but he knew that such questions would definitely be met with incredulous stares as if the answer was obvious all along.

It’s not that Ryoma didn’t get the concept of “friendship”, since even Emiya Shirou, before the Holy Grail War erased any modicum of normalcy in his life, had people he considered friends. But for the most part, the friends he made were ones that resulted from mutual “approaching”, even Shinji.

Momoshiro and Kikumaru, however, seemed to make it a point to continue to approach him even when Ryoma himself made no effort to reciprocate their efforts beyond the most basic courtesies.

But well. He supposed he didn’t dislike anomalies.

(It’s a bit like having dogs following you around, really.)

Quiet

Ryoma liked Kaidoh. Mostly because the other is quite simply the closest thing that Ryoma has to a “safe” spot for peace and quiet in the Seigaku Tennis Club. Sure, there’s Tezuka, but even Ryoma needs to make small takes from time to time, and he sure as hell wasn’t gonna get one from Tezuka. To put it simply, Tezuka’s quietness was a bit too awkward for even him to endure for long.

Kaidoh was nice in his quiet, though. The second year would sometimes make small talk that Ryoma responds with one or two syllables answers, and the other seemed to like it that way. Sure, Kaidoh could be a bit silly at times, but if Ryoma could bear with the silliness of the rest of the damn club, he could do it with Kaidoh.

In a way, Ryoma felt that Kaidoh was probably what Issei was in his previous life. A nice company that for the most part was content with comfortable quiet and could be goofy at times.

He just really hoped that he would never have to strip Kaidoh to look for some magical markings. Ryoma was pretty sure that Issei never really quite forgave Shirou for that.

Chapter Text

Reunion

As Shirou Emiya, he tended to try to be as meticulous as possible when facing an upcoming enemy. After all, every piece of information he could get his hands on about them could be the difference between life and death. In fact, he prided himself in being pretty good at information gathering and had somewhat of a network going before things completely fell apart for him then.

As Ryoma Echizen though, at least when it comes to tennis, he likes to kick back and simply listen to the information given to him by his seniors. It’s not that he doesn’t care enough, but juggling three different clubs where he’s very much on demand in all three is tough and he only has so much time. In fact, the upcoming match against Hyotei clashed with a Kendo competition he was supposed to take part in but had to withdraw from.

Now, usually, he would have skipped out on the tennis. After all, the kendo club needed him more than the tennis club did since he knew that the tennis club would be perfectly fine without him. But for some reason, Ryoga was being extra annoying about it, and between a sulking Ryoga (thus, incredibly whiny Ryoga) and missing out on what in the end was relatively unimportant competition, he relented.

(Considering how much he had to be the one placating Ryoga instead of the other way around, sometimes he feels like the older teen is his younger brother instead of his older brother. Then again…)

Apparently, it had something to do with Hyotei’s Captain, someone called Keigo Atobe. According to Ryoga, he’s the only one that managed to defeat Ryoga in a match the previous year though Seigaku ended up being the overall winner.

Of course, that means Ryoga’s insistence for Ryoma to come was mostly because the older teen wanted to show off by getting his revenge on the one opponent he failed to beat the previous year. Ryoma could only quietly sigh in exasperation upon the realization. Ryoga can get rather ridiculous and clingy in ways that Ryoma isn’t really sure how to handle.

(Not that Shirou doesn’t understand Ryoga’s clinginess. Even after Ryoma regained the memories of his previous life, they’re close in ways only brothers could be. Considering the circumstances, the separation they experienced had probably been much harder on Ryoga. In a weird way, Ryoga reminded him of Illya and that's not a thought he wanted to dwell on at all)

In the end, he could only sigh and follow along. He’s not even put in the line-up for the match, only as a reserve. He’s fine with that, of course. Seigaku seemed to have taken the mind of making him their secret weapon of sorts for some degree of surprise factor against opponents which otherwise would have known quite a lot of them. While Hyotei was one of those teams that would have known a lot about them, Ryoma assumed that they were confident enough that they would be able to deal with Hyotei without bringing him out.

That’s all fine and Ryoma would have been content to just watch the matches, but then his eyes met Atobe Keigo’s, and he just knew.

It wasn’t like the times he saw the ghost of those who knew in his previous life in those he knew in this one. No, with Atobe Keigo Ryoma can feel it deep in his soul that the person currently looking at him, the person he had never met previously, was someone that he knew. Not from this life but from the previous one where he’s not Ryoma Echizen but Shirou Emiya.

“Oho~, what do we have here?” Atobe said out loud as he began walking toward Ryoma.

It’s not quite the same, in the same way that Ryoma Echizen was not quite Shirou Emiya, but there’s enough. There’s enough traces of the person that he knew back then in the way that Atobe Keigo moves, in the tone that he spoke just those few words that he just knew.

Ryoma could see that despite the projected confidence and surety that Atobe Keigo had as he walked toward him, there’s doubt and insecurity. A hidden fear and a question in the other teen’s eyes. He wondered what he looked like in Atobe’s eyes at the moment.

“You must be Atobe Keigo.” Ryoma stated. He’s not sure how he should do this. The more he looked, the more he paid attention, the more he felt validated in his feeling that Atobe Keigo is her and he didn’t know how to deal with that.

“And you must be the Echizen Ryoma that Ryoga had been talking about so much,” Atobe said, his mouth curving into a smirk.

Ryoma suppressed a snort. See, while Seigaku seemed to have it in mind that he’s their secret weapon, Ryoga on the other hand incessantly brag about how ‘Ryoma is much stronger than you all and will kick your asses’.

“Tell me, what’s your Zodiac sign?” Atobe asked.

“…Libra,” Ryoma replied, and the next thing he knew Atobe grabbed his arm and pulled him toward the direction of the nearest bathroom which he immediately shut the door of and locked it using a pin that he pulled out of his pocket in record time.

“Rin, couldn’t you have done this in a way that wouldn’t make me, and for that matter, you as well, get interrogated by our team once we get out?” Ryoma asked exasperatedly.

Atobe looked at him weirdly, “You, asking someone to not do something questionable? Really?”

“Hey, I haven’t done anything that got me in trouble ever since I figured out I was Shirou Emiya.” Ryoma said defensively.

“…I find that hard to believe but sure,” Atobe replied haughtily.

Ryoma could only sigh in response. “Really, what would you have done if I had answered anything but Libra? It’s been so long I could have forgotten.”

Honestly, it was just a little code between them. A sort of secret message to confirm if the other is not an impostor. Shirou doesn't even know his actual birthday, and he's content just having his birthday celebrated at the same time as Kiritsugu's and that's also the birthday listed in his documents back then. Then after Kiritsugu died, he just kinda forgot about it and it was Rin who ended up coming up with a new birthday for him: October 20th, which kinda made him a Libra. Nobody else knew this of course, and those who only knew him from documents and such would say Scorpio. It still works too, as Ryoma Echizen's birthday is December 24th.

“Oh please, it’s just a test. I knew it was you the moment our eyes met and I saw the kind of brokenness that’s uniquely yours. Don’t worry, you’re doing a good job hiding it from everyone else, but I think we both know that you couldn’t hide anything from me.”

Ryoma doesn’t know whether that’s a good thing or not. Or what Rin being here meant. But for now, he’s content to be happy about the fact that she’s here and they can figure out the rest later.

Cover

As it turns out, completely refusing to answer any of his teammates’ questions once they got out because they couldn’t stay much longer in the bathroom due to the incessant banging on the door was a decent enough way to not have to deal with it. Sure, Ryoga looked like he was going to have an aneurysm when Atobe said that they were going to talk more after the match, but Ryoma figured that it was a problem to be dealt with later after all there was a tennis match to play.

He feels a little guilty for his refusal to give any answer, especially to Ryoga who had been glaring daggers toward Atobe ever since they came out. In fact, he’s got a feeling that they all had the completely wrong idea about what happened inside the bathroom and he’s not sure where to even begin with that.

(Well, once upon a time Shirou Emiya and Rin Tohsaka had been intimate and done things that lovers do before Shirou Emiya chose to go down the path that ultimately led to his demise. But Ryoma Echizen and Atobe Keigo had just met for the very first time, and for the moment Ryoma didn’t think that either of them intended to go anywhere that way)

In the end, Ryoma figured out that he might as well try to answer. He’s pretty sure that Atobe would have some choice words later but unlike Atobe who he could see had none of his teammates even daring to question him about it out loud, Ryoma doesn’t quite have the same privilege and the questioning looks are kinda killing him.

“We knew each other, by accident,” Ryoma said, immediately gaining all his teammates' attention. He tried recalling whatever tidbit about Atobe that he had been told by his teammates before. Something about him being super rich? Huh, good for Rin he supposed. Anyway, he needed a believable cover story on how they knew each other and he had never been a particularly good liar.

“How did you two even meet?” Ryoga questioned.

“You know how Genichiro’s family got me caught up with swords thing?”

Ryoga nodded. Ryoma knew that his older brother had always been somewhat annoyed by how much of a “sword nerd” he is, which in his defense isn’t something he can help with considering it’s just the way that it works for him. Touch the sword, get history. But anyway, back to his cover story.

“It’s from one of those,” Ryoma stated and gave nothing else.

Ryoga frowned but didn’t ask anything more while their teammates just looked confused but no longer questioning. Ryoma sighed in his heart. He remembered the lessons he got on how to create working lies from Rin: Don’t offer too much information and let the other person come up with their own conclusions and it seemed to have worked on his brother.

Now, he just had to tell Atobe about it and make sure that if things came to it, their stories would match.

Technology

“…you don’t have a mobile phone?”

A faint blush appeared on Atobe’s face which honestly told Ryoma everything he needed to know. Looks like the complete ineptitude with technology in his previous life carried over to this one too.

They're in a secluded corner which Atobe took them to, away from the prying eyes and ears of their teammates. In the end Hyotei lost and was eliminated in the Regional, though Ryoma doesn't think that Atobe look too upset about it or about losing to Ryoga. If he had to guess, Ryoga was probably sulking at that moment since the whole point of dragging Ryoma to the match was to show off and not only did Ryoma not praise him for it, he also went off and disappeared with the guy he had just beaten. He internally sighed, thinking that he'd have to placate Ryoga once he's done talking with Atobe,

“How about your home phone?” Ryoma tried again.

Atobe’s face scrunched at the suggestion, “That won’t do. There’s a chance that my parents or one of the maids picked it up instead.”

There’s a story there, but Ryoma decided to keep quiet. It’s Atobe’s business to deal with, and he knew from experience that the other doesn’t like people meddling in his business unless asked. Then again, Ryoma is going by his memories as Shirou, and he knew for one that he’s definitely not the same person as Shirou Emiya, and Atobe probably isn’t the same person as Rin Tohsaka. But he’ll go with what he knows until Atobe chooses to correct him.

“Is there anyone that you can trust to get your messages for you on their phone? We don’t have magecraft and I would rather not use letters.”

Atobe thought about it for some time before conceding, “I suppose Kabaji will do.”

“The quiet one?” Ryoma asked. If he remembered correctly, this Kabaji was the one who played against Kawamura to a draw.

Atobe nodded in confirmation, and Ryoma began rummaging through his bag to look for a piece of paper and pen to write his number and email on.

“There.”

As Ryoma gave the paper to Atobe, he could feel his phone buzzing briefly in his pocket. He could hazard a guess that it’s probably Ryoga messaging him to hurry to get back. Honestly, he still had some things he wanted to talk with Atobe about beyond just exchanging contact and syncing up their cover story. Like how long had he known about their past life and things related to it, but he supposed that one could wait.

“Well, anyway looks like I have to go back to my team,” Ryoma said.

"See you, then."

Ryoma gave a small smile as he tipped his head and turned away.

(There’s no need for too many words between them. Even after parting ways, Shirou Emiya and Rin Tohsaka understand each other all too well. It’s really a matter of Ryoma Echizen and Keigo Atobe getting to know each other, and there’s still an entire lifetime ahead of them to do that)

Chapter Text

Interest

As far as the Seigaku regulars know, Ryoga is their very strong teammate who came storming into the club the previous year as a returnee from America. Very laid-back and easy to get along with but also a bit of a menace due to his utter dislike of following orders and tendency to provoke people whenever he felt like it.

He made a huge impression by claiming that he didn't need to go through the whole Ranking Tournament and directly challenged Tezuka instead. What began as an eagerness to see this cocky newcomer get his ass handed to him transformed into awe as Ryoga not only go toe to toe with Tezuka but ultimately handily beat him. Of course, Tezuka wasn't taking the match too seriously then, but they all could tell neither did Ryoga.

Ryoga had been their reliable teammate ever since, someone they could rely on to win his matches and help them advance forward. Not just that, his easy-going attitude made him easy to befriend though he rarely was the one initiating conversations, and looking back to it, they didn't think that he had volunteered much information about himself in the one year they had known him.

They didn't even know that Ryoga had a younger brother until the new school year started and Ryoga began bragging that his "genius little brother, Ryoma" had enrolled in Seigaku yet he had the nerve to look confused when Momoshiro exclaimed "You have a brother?!" then.

"Of course I do, did I never tell you guys?" Ryoga asked confusedly.

At least he had the decency to look embarrassed about it, and the Seigaku regulars felt a little bit relieved that Ryoga wasn't actively trying to hide information about himself from them. Either way, they're immediately interested in Ryoga's little brother, especially after Ryoga began gushing to them about how good at tennis his brother is.

"He's even better than me, and hell, even my old man!" Ryoga bragged, and they all had to pause for a bit because it was genuinely something that they found hard to believe. It's not an exaggeration to say that Ryoga is probably one of the best if not the best tennis player of their peer in Japan, and according to Tezuka, he's yet to reveal everything that he's capable of tennis-wise.

They're intrigued either way though, and having another strong player in the club is never a bad thing. After all, if Ryoga's little brother is anywhere near as good as Ryoga claimed him to be, he's surely going to join the tennis club, right?

Apparently not, because a few weeks had passed since the beginning of the new school year and Ryoga's brother is nowhere to be seen around the tennis court. Not even a glimpse of the supposed tennis genius. They all held their question because Ryoga had not said anything about it either, but the Ranking Tournament to decide the Regulars is coming up soon, and if Ryoga's brother doesn't come soon then…

Now, Ryoga had seemingly anticipated it by having his brother's name registered to the club despite not even having shown his face in the slightest. By that point, the other Regulars had simply accepted Ryoga's more brazen actions, not to mention being the oldest even among the third years made him the utmost senior among them. The thing is, the whole thing had begun to spread outside of the Regulars and even to the first years that had just joined, and one of them seemed particularly invested.

One week later, Ryoga came to after-school practice to the huge surprise of Ryoma being there while looking like he wanted to be anywhere else.

"Why did you tell them about me? You know I'm busy with kendo and kyudo right?" Ryoma hissed quietly as Ryoga approached him.

"I did tell them, but who did…?" Ryoga asked, feeling a bit lost that someone had managed to get Ryoma there when he himself couldn't.

"One of the first years," Ryoma replied, "He bothered me about it, saying that all the other non-regulars were talking about me. I don't care, but he's too persistent for me to just ignore and we're in the same class."

Ryoga frowned, feeling a little conflicted that apparently him being the one doing the pestering isn't working but a classmate's does. He shook off the annoyance and instead chose to thank whoever it was for getting Ryoma there. After all, that's most of the battle and that day is the day of the Ranking Tournament. If he could just convince Ryoma to participate…

"Ah, Ryoga-senpai!"

Ryoga turned to see one of the first years coming up toward them. He didn't remember the person's name, but he does remember catching glimpses and overheard him bragging to his fellow first years at times.

"Oh wow, now that you two are standing close to each other there's no doubt you two are brothers!" The first year exclaimed. If Ryoga had to guess, this is probably the classmate in question that pestered Ryoma into coming. The first year's exclamation also caught the attention of everyone already present and before long, Eiji, Oishi, Momoshiro, and Kaidoh came up to them.

"So this is your brother!" Momoshiro grinned, "Finally showing your face around here, huh?"

Ryoma sent Ryoga a look that made the older know that once they were home he was going to get an earful from Ryoma. It's weird like that, how Ryoma would oftentimes be the one scolding and giving him an earful, but that's just how it is.

Determination

Once they all gathered, the Seigaku Regulars were all quickly caught up to the fact that Ryoma, Ryoga's brother, was there and they were finally going to see him in action. There's just one problem though, Ryoga is still in the process of convincing him to actually stay and participate in the Ranking Tournament instead of leaving.

"Ryoga, I have archery practice in one and a half hours."

"Then finish here in that time! We both know you can do it!"

"...are you sure you should be saying that in front of all of them?"

Ryoga simply snorted, "Yet you didn't deny it, just like how you aren't trying to leave either."

"Do you want me to try?"

"Wait, no that's not what I meant-"

It's a rather strange sight, really. The usually cool and collected Ryoga practically flailing around while arguing with his younger brother, increasingly resorting to what could only really be described as "throwing a tantrum".

"I will hide your bows!"

"We both know that I will find it in five minutes, and we have extra bows in the club anyway."

"Karupin-"

"Likes me better than you."

"I won't be eating dinner then!"

"...alright, fine."

Ryoga felt guilty for pulling the "self-harm" card especially because he knew that Ryoma put such an emphasis and care on making sure that he was eating well, but he was desperate okay?

Tezuka watched the exchange with some mixed feelings. He could see just how desperate Ryoga was to keep Ryoma from leaving, and while he still had some doubts about the veracity of Ryoga's claims about his younger brother's skills as a tennis player, he trusted Ryoga's judgment and truly believed that Ryoma would be a great asset if they could get him to join the team. And if Ryoga's claims were truly true…

But there's the fact that it's pretty clear that Ryoma only stayed around to humor Ryoga, and Tezuka isn't really sure about having someone on the team who doesn't really want to be there no matter how skilled they might be. In the end, as the Captain of the team, he made the decision to take the matter into his own hands.

"Ryoma, right?" Tezuka began as he walked toward the two.

Ryoma nodded curtly, and Tezuka continued.

"Your brother had given high praises to you and your skill as a tennis player. Thus, we believe that if he's truthful you will make a great addition to our team, Yet, I have no intention of keeping you here if it's against your will."

"So I propose that we have a match. As the Captain of Seigaku, I would like to judge the veracity of your brother's claims. If you win, then you might do as you please, whether to stay and join our club or to leave, and the same still applies if I win." Tezuka stated.

Ryoma blinked for a moment before nodding, "I see. Well then, I accept the challenge. I'll change the term though. If I win, I'll choose as I please but if I lose, well, I guess I'll join after all."

Tezuka was surprised that Ryoma would willingly alter the term to his own disadvantage, but he figured out that everyone had their quirks and reasoning and accepted without any more words.

("If beating him in tennis to make him stay is that easy, do you think I wouldn't have done it earlier?" Ryoga muttered, only loud enough for himself to hear)

Determination, Part 2

Naturally, the match attracted the audience of everyone in the club, be they Regulars or not. Coach Ryuzaki had decided to pause practice until the match ended since she figured that none of them would be able to concentrate while something as interesting as this was still going on. Besides, she herself was also very curious about it. Ryoga was a known factor for her, as he had been making rounds in a few youth tournaments in The US before he settled in Japan and joined Seigaku.

Ryoma though, is a mystery. She wasn't even aware that Nanjiroh had another son until Ryoga told the club about it. So obviously she also wants to see whether the youngest Echizen was as skilled as his father and older brother.

She took the position of the referee for the match and looked at both Tezuka and Ryoma to confirm their readiness to begin the match. They both gave her the go and so she did.

"Match begin!"

It was Ryoma who served first, and they all watched with bated breath as he tossed the ball up, wondering what kind of serve Ryoma would make.

To their surprise, it's nothing flashy or even particularly unique. A simply well-executed serve that Tezuka returned seemingly fairly easily. The first game went on like that, with both sides executing simple but sharp and well-done moves against each other, causing fairly long rallies before the ball finally bounced on the court twice.

"Hee, your brother is pretty good." Eiji praised while watching the so far very evenly matched game, but when he turned to look at Ryoga, he could see that he was frowning somewhat.

"Game set! 1-0 for Tezuka!"

"They're both still warming up," Inui observed. "Neither of them made any big or risky moves and just stuck to the basics."

"Who would you say have the advantage?" Oishi asked.

Inui adjusted his glasses, "Too early to tell."

The set continued on, with the second, third, and fourth games going very similarly to the first one. But instead of getting bored, the spectators only felt their anticipation building up as they could feel that both sides were simply sizing each other up, and with the latest game going to Ryoma to make the score 2-2, that anticipation only became further heightened.

While neither had shown any flashy techniques or made big moves, it's very obvious to those watching that they're both highly precise and trained in their moves. A high-level match between two peers.

Or at least, that's how it seemed to everyone but Ryoga and the two players themselves.

"If Tezuka doesn't start taking this seriously, Ryoma will win without breaking a sweat," Ryoga stated, earning curious looks from the others. "The match might look perfectly even, but pay closer attention to Tezuka."

"He's tiring faster," Fuji commented, "Yet your brother had not shown the slightest hint of fatigue."

"Ryoma's stamina is monstrous. He could probably go hours without losing the slightest bit of concentration. But he's also nasty with his angles." Ryoga explained.

After Ryoga said that, they paid closer attention, and just as he said, it's not much but Ryoma made his serves and returns in a way that made Tezuka move more than he himself did, further adding to Tezuka's fatigue while further minimizing his own.

"That's why I said he has to take this more seriously."

Of course, Tezuka himself knew that. In fact, he noticed it from the very beginning which quickly made his evaluation of Ryoma go up significantly. He himself came into the match with the intent to test Ryoga's brother, and in some way, it must have made him underestimate his opponent. He quickly revised his thoughts, however. It becomes clear that Ryoga's claims of his brother being stronger than him might just be true, even just from the little that he had seen.

He wanted to have Ryoma become part of the tennis club, and if beating him in this match is what it takes then Tezuka simply had to give it his all.

Determination, Part 3

"Game set! 5-0!"

"Told ya'," Ryoga cheekily stated as everyone else watched in shock and some degree of bewilderment.

The scoreboard they're using for the match shows that Ryoma had won the first set 6-3 and led the second one by a score of 5-0.

On one side, Tezuka was panting and sweating quite heavily. While he's far from done, it's very clear to see that the match had been a difficult one for him. Standing across the net, however, is Ryoma who looks like he's simply doing some light exercise instead of an intense tennis match against one of the most skilled tennis players from the Japanese high school level.

The most bewildering thing, however, is the fact that after Tezuka began to take the match seriously beginning from the fifth game of the first set, bringing out the Tezuka Zone to take the game from Ryoma, it had been all downhill for him from there. Ryoma had quickly beaten Tezuka Zone after only half a game worth of observation, even replicating it to a degree almost like rubbing salt in the wound. Even the Zero-Shiki shots worked exactly twice before that too was countered.

Since then, Ryoma had practically dominated Tezuka without giving the slightest bit of opening. Even worse, he looked like the whole thing barely took any effort for him to do.

(It's not that effortless. Ryoma is just really good at hiding any sign of fatigue, and he knew that it was a good way to mess with his opponents' psyche. It works in combat in his past life as Shirou Emiya, it works in kendo, and it works in tennis too)

The next game went just the way the ones before it did.

"0-40, game point!"

By all means, it looked like Tezuka was about to lose but he was far from done, still. After all, the match had taken an entirely new meaning for him. Now he knew that Ryoga was completely truthful when he said Ryoma was not just stronger than him but by a wide margin and his desire to get Ryoma to join the club only became stronger.

In fact, now he had long discarded the idea of winning. It's quite obvious that Ryoma had yet to take the match truly seriously, and perhaps the thing that got Tezuka the most is that he could feel that he had yet to truly register in Ryoma's eyes. Of course, Ryoma was paying attention to the match, Tezuka could tell despite looking like he was taking it easily, his opponent was fully concentrated on the match, following every slightest bit of his move to read it almost perfectly.

No, over the match a desire bloomed within him for Ryoma to acknowledge him. It's a strange feeling, especially as this is the first time that Tezuka has met the younger teen. But in the end, Tezuka loves tennis and wants to pour his whole being into it, and to see such a powerful opponent and the fact that there's a chance that he might become his comrade…

"15-40! Game point!"

It won't be an understatement to say that in that unofficial, decided-on-the-fly match, on the court that they practiced on every day, Tezuka fought harder than he had ever been before in his life.

"Game set! 5-1!"

With every difficult serve and return that Ryoma brought toward him, Tezuka chases them all with his entire being, taking points after points from Ryoma and losing some. But slowly, he could feel that he was getting close, that it was no longer quite as "hopeless" as it was previously. He knew that what he was doing was stupid, and very soon he'd reach the absolute limit that he could go before doing irreparable damage to his arm.

As he prepared himself for the next game, however, Ryoma suddenly approached him in the center of the court and asked him a question from across the net.

"Why are you fighting so hard? I know that by now you've figured out the difference in our strength and you're risking your own future… all because you want me to join the club?" Ryoma asked, quiet enough that only the two of them could hear it.

From anyone else, it might have sounded arrogant or mocking, but Tezuka could clearly see that Ryoma wanted to know his answer as if the younger teen was making a decision and his answer was crucial to that decision.

"Because you could be the future that Seigaku needs. Just like those before me entrusted Seigaku to me, I wanted to leave Seigaku in capable hands, and from this match, I can see clearly your capability." Tezuka replied honestly, barely above a whisper, "Even if I lose and you choose to leave… I don't think I would regret it at all, as I wouldn't be able to rest easy if I had passed up this chance to grab that future."

"I see," Ryoma stated, pulling his hat down slightly, obscuring his expression from Tezuka. "Very well then."

They parted as they got into position for the next game in the set. As Ryoma got into position to make a serve, Tezuka felt the hairs on his body standing up as he felt Ryoma's eyes pierce into him. For a moment, he felt like a prey being watched by a hunter, and as Ryoma made his serve-

"15-0!"

"30-0!"

"40-0! Game point!"

It was Tezuka's serve, and he knew that he stood no chance. The moment he made his serve, the game would end. That much he's certain, but just as he said, he had no regrets.

A serve and-

Ryoma hit it with his racket, but not toward the opposite side of the court but upward to right above him. When the ball fell, Ryoma snatched it out of the air with his hand, and Tezuka thought that he would like to etch what happened afterward into his mind to keep it there for the rest of his life.

"I suppose I should begin calling you Tezuka-buchou, huh?" Ryoma said, giving a small smile toward the older teen, "I wouldn't mind having you as my captain. I forfeit."

That was how Ryoma ended up joining the Seigaku Tennis Club.

Chapter Text

Lunch

While Ryoma's existence was something quite "new" for the Seigaku Regulars despite their relative closeness to Ryoga, there had actually been many hints of it if they had just paid closer attention.

For example, Eiji who was in the same class as Ryoga during both their second and third year, had known that Ryoga brought a very exquisite-looking lunchbox every day. If he had just asked about it once, Ryoga would have happily started gushing about his younger brother who made the whole thing for him, but it never came up once for some reason.

It was only after Ryoma dramatically joined the club that the topic somehow came up.

“You know, I’ve kinda noticed it for a while but your lunch box always looks really good,” Eiji commented, looking over from his own lunch.

Ryoga grinned, “Of course, Ryoma is the one who made it! You can take a bit if you want.”

“Really? Thanks!” Eiji said as he used his chopstick and eagerly took a piece of fried chicken. Just from looking, he could tell it was really well-made with near-damn golden skin and an appetizing smell. After he took a bite, he immediately regretted taking one that basically took out half the whole piece at once because holy shit .

Then Ryoga’s earlier words struck him.

“Ryoma made this?” Eiji asked, disbelieving there was no way that the younger teen was not only better at tennis than all of them but also a really good cook at the same time. Also, the image of the aloof Ryoma cooking and arranging a lunch box for Ryoga felt somewhat unreal to him.

“It’s really good, right? He can cook all kinds of things and it always turned out amazing once he got it down and still good even when he’s still figuring a dish out.” Ryoga practically gushed, obviously taking pride in his younger brother’s cooking prowess the same way he did with Ryoma’s tennis skills.

Eiji simply nodded in agreement, eyeing Ryoga’s lunch for the rest of the lunchtime though Ryoga had no intention of sharing any more once he got his time to brag about Ryoma much to Eiji’s disappointment.

The word quickly spread among the tennis club members though, and Ryoga certainly helped that spread by bragging about Ryoma’s cooking when the others asked him about it. Ryoma, whose attendance at the practices was quite spotty due to his many commitments, only found out about it when during lunch Horio asked him if he was the one who made his own lunch, which he of course did.

To his chagrin, that somehow became widely known among all the other first years even outside the tennis club, which further added to his largely unwanted popularity.

“I’m not that good.” Ryoma contested when Momoshiro exclaimed something along the line of “ holy shit this is the best thing I’ve ever eaten” .

All the other Regulars, who all had at one point taken at least a bite or two of Ryoma’s cooking through various methods at first out of curiosity and later out of a genuine desire for more, firmly disagreed.

Idol

Despite his tendency to show off and gas himself up, Horio thinks that he’s someone who is mostly aware of where he stands compared to others. As friend groups, reputations, and other such social things began to crystallize with time’s passing among the first years of Seishun High, Horio knew several things: One, he was firmly middle of the pack. Not particularly popular but nowhere near the bottom of the hierarchy. Two, his two years of tennis experience doesn’t mean shit especially compared to the Regulars in the Tennis Club. Three, his classmate Ryoma Echizen is very popular among their peer.

Hell, he thinks he heard some of the girls calling him “prince” and it’s spreading.

He gets it, really. For one, Ryoma is certainly good-looking, and while he seemed very aloof, in the past few weeks it become very apparent that he’s not as unfriendly as he might first look. He diligently cleaned the class when it was his turn to do so and offered his help even when it was not his turn, quite amicable when others tried to strike up a conversation with him, and when the class projector broke, Ryoma was the one who fixed it.

Then a personal one for Horio, who up to the point when it happened had talked with Ryoma maybe five times, Ryoma gave him some of his side dishes when he overheard that Horio only brought rice for lunch by mistake. If the kind gesture alone wasn’t enough, the fact that it was incredibly delicious and that Ryoma himself was the one who made it only added to the insanely good impression that Horio had of Ryoma. Hell, he thinks he might just be a little bit in love after that.

( Not that he ever said that out loud. He still wanted the girls to like him, and he didn’t think being competition would endear him particularly well with them )

If that’s not enough, apparently Ryoma was also insanely good at archery. One of the girls who had become Ryoma’s self-proclaimed fans told him how apparently he had been competing in high school level competitions since he was in middle school and won many of them.

Then Horio had the realization that he might just be more stupid than he himself thought because how did he never make the connection that Ryoma is the little brother that Ryoga-senpai often talked about?! They have the same surname and looked very similar to each other, for fuck’s sake!

But if that’s the case, then Horio is even more confused because if Ryoga-senpai was to be believed, Ryoma must have been a tennis genius. Yet not once did the other teen ever show any interest when Horio talked about tennis, nor did he ever appear in the tennis club, and after the food-sharing thing Horio was pretty sure that he’s probably the person in their class that talks to Ryoma the most.

“Echizen, Ryoga-senpai said that you’re even better than him in tennis. Is that true?” Horio asked when he couldn’t hold his curiosity back anymore.

Ryoma frowned at the question and Horio wondered if he had misspoken, then he heard Ryoma mutter something that sounds like “dammit Ryoga”.

Did Ryoma not want people to know he’s good at tennis? But that would be such a waste especially if Ryoga-senpai was telling the truth!

He told Ryoma as much, and Ryoma just sighed.

“I’m busy with other things. I won’t mind occasionally playing a game or two, but I’m not joining the club.”

“Then how about helping me practice?” Horio asked. “A friend from the tennis club invited me to play in a nearby club where his father works and we don’t really have anyone guiding us there…”

He could clearly see that Ryoma was hesitant about it and Horio decided that at that point he might as well try his luck.

“Pleaseee?” Horio wasn’t particularly aware of it, but as he pleaded, he was also giving Ryoma his best puppy eyes.

(Ryoma really wished that he’s better at saying no to people who said they needed his help)

Much to Horio’s surprise, Ryoma said yes. Reluctantly, but still a yes. Both Kachiro and Katsuo didn’t believe that he was telling the truth until the next day after school when he came to the meeting spot with the two along with Ryoma.

Not only that, once they got inside the club and got a court to play on, Ryoma began giving them pointers that when they implemented truly did improve their game. While Ryoma had yet to participate, content to just stand on the sideline giving advice to them, Horio already believed deeply in his heart that Ryoma was truly just as strong and skilled as Ryoga-senpai claimed. Such a shame that he probably won’t get to see him in action though…

Then they heard a commotion from a few courts over and saw one of the customers in an altercation with Kachiro’s father. He remembered that customer to be the one complaining earlier about his court placement, the one Kachiro’s father told them to be called Sasabe. Much to his surprise, it was Ryoma who on his own approached the heated adults.

Horio watched as Ryoma seemingly said something that pissed Sasabe off, and before he knew it, a match are beginning between Ryoma and Sasabe. When they approached, Kachiro asked his father what happened.

Apparently, Ryoma had tried to mediate between Sasabe and Kachiro’s father, but Sasabe only got even more pissed because of a teenager meddling. Things escalate from there.

“Is your friend gonna be fine? He might be a jerk, but that Sasabe is pretty well known around here.” Kachiro’s father wondered, worrying that he might have just got a high schooler into a terrible situation.

Horio could only shrug helplessly. He himself had never watched Ryoma play, and while he believed Ryoga-senpai’s words, there was no telling whether his faith is misguided or not.

That worry didn’t last long though, because less than ten minutes later Ryoma had already very obviously swept the floor with the older man. His opponent had not scored a single point in the entire game, nor had he managed to start a single rally because Ryoma had perfectly returned all of his serves while Ryoma’s own serves all had resulted in aces.

To further add insult to injury, Sasabe then had a cramp from not properly warming up, something that Kachiro’s father had told him earlier to do but was not only dismissed for but also the beginning of the earlier altercation.

All in all, the whole matter had shot Horio’s respect for Ryoma through the roof, and with one glance at Katsuo and Kachiro, he knew that they were just as impressed as he was by Ryoma. He imagined that all the other first-years in the club would probably have the same reaction to Ryoma.

Once they were all done for the day and Ryoma had left, Horio, Katsuo, and Kachiro had a small huddle together and the three of them agreed on one thing: They needed to have Ryoma in the Seigaku tennis club. If nothing else they need someone among the first years who can actually guide them.

(Horio had no idea that their effort would culminate in Ryoma joining the club after playing a match against Tezuka-buchou that Horio thinks he will remember for the rest of his life)

Couple

Ever since the match against Hyotei in the first round of the Regional tournament, a rumor had begun swirling among members of both Seigaku and Hyotei tennis clubs; Ryoma and Atobe were dating.

Apparently, they had met each other prior to the match though nobody knows the details. They speculated that the two had known each other for a long time, enough for inside jokes like the way that Atobe had greeted Ryoma during the match by asking his zodiac sign to form between the two. Then there’s the fact that just a few days after the match, Oshitari Yushi from Hyotei had spotted the two of them together in a cafe.

For one, the sight of the Atobe Keigo being inside an otherwise unremarkable cafe would already be something of interest to those who knew him. The fact that he was there with Ryoma, someone totally unknown among the circle of tennis players outside of Seigaku, just added to that interest. The fact that Ryoma is Ryoga’s younger brother certainly helped too, especially when Ryoga used every opportunity to talk about how much of a genius his younger brother is.

In fact, members of the Seigaku tennis club had grown more and more used to the sight of Ryoga’s face souring significantly whenever any mention of Atobe and Ryoma together came up within his (surprisingly wide) hearing range.

Just as well known within their circle as the fact that Atobe was filthy rich was the fact he was completely inept with any kind of digital technology to the point he relied on others for it. An example was how apparently Kabaji had been the one receiving and sending messages from Ryoma for Atobe.

They tried to grill Kabaji about it, but he’s loyal to a fault to Atobe and gave almost nothing up. Apparently, the two don’t actually message each other much and when they do it’s mostly for the purpose of meeting up.

“Ryoma had not been going home together with me for some time now and often came back pretty late,” Ryoga informed them with very apparent disdain while obviously sulking due to Ryoma not going home together with him.

The rumors would spread like wildfire way beyond the two schools. By the end of the Regional tournament, all the major high school tennis clubs in Kanto had caught wind of the rumors. The only ones seemingly unaware of those rumors are the two people in question.

Many would voice their skepticism about the two actually dating, with some being in outright denial for… reasons. Sanada had been one of those skeptical about the claims of the two dating.

He had interacted with Atobe in the past and didn’t have any particular impression about the Hyotei Captain other than that the other was a strong tennis player who might rival him. Ryoma, on the other hand, was someone he had known for years. A fellow kendo and iaido practitioner whom he had crossed swords with quite often (and had yet to ever beat in either art), Sanada liked to think that he was someone who knew Ryoma well and he never had the impression that Ryoma was someone who cared much for romance or intimacy.

Caring and thoughtful? Very much so, but romantic isn’t really a trait that he would associate with Ryoma.

Yukimura, who had also known Ryoma for years, shared his sentiment when he caught wind of the rumor during his recovery.

“I was under the impression that he might live his entire life without ever becoming romantically entangled with anyone,” Yukimura stated, and Sanada agreed.

Then, the “evidence” became more and more concrete. Ryoga complained about how Atobe suddenly showed up at their house at night and that not only did Ryoma immediately welcome him, but he also took Atobe to his bedroom. Even worse, Ryoga had found them cuddling on Ryoma’s bed when he went to wake Ryoma up the next morning and Ryoma simply refused to answer any question.

There are also multiple people who had said that they saw Ryoma and Atobe together out in cafes or restaurants, with Oishi and Eiji from Seigaku swearing up and down they saw Ryoma sitting on Atobe’s lap while the two looked at something in Ryoma’s phone.

Perhaps the biggest red flag for Sanada about the whole situation appeared when he heard that Ryoma told his team that he and Atobe first met during one of Ryoma’s sword appraisals. This shouldn’t be possible because Sanada’s family was always there for those since they’re the ones acting as Ryoma’s backers in that field and the Atobes had never had any business with them. Which meant that Ryoma was lying.

He chose not to point it out, however, as he decided that Ryoma most likely had his reasons, but it does make him wonder. Ryoma wasn’t the type to lie, and the fact that he lied in relation to Atobe about something quite mundane told Sanada that the Hyotei Captain might be truly quite significant to Ryoma.

In the end, it was Yukimura who asked Ryoma about it during one of the younger teen’s visits to Yukimura during his recovery.

“Are you dating Atobe Keigo?” Yukimura had asked.

The confusion that appeared on Ryoma’s face had been genuine, and both Sanada and Yukimura were 100% sure about it.

“No? Why are you guys asking?” Ryoma asked.

“Did you two not go out to cafes and restaurants together quite often?”

“Yeah, Atobe is awful with technology so we figured it’s better to meet in person when we want to talk.”

“I heard you’ve sat on his lap in public?”

“I was trying to explain to him how to send emails and I figured it’s more comfortable that way, I think?”

Yukimura was beginning to wonder if maybe he had underestimated just how dense Ryoma really was and was beginning to pity Atobe a little.

“I’ve heard that your brother said that Atobe once stayed over at your house and you two were cuddling on your bed?”

“Atobe had a rough day,” Ryoma stated before frowning. “I really need to tell Ryoga to stop telling people about what we do at home.”

“Ryoma, you do realize that things like going out together, sitting on laps, and cuddling each other on the bed are things that couples do right?” Yukimura asked.

“Of course I do,” Ryoma replied almost defensively. “But me doing them with Atobe doesn’t automatically make him my boyfriend.”

Then what does that make him? Sanada wondered, and he knew that Yukimura probably also really wanted to ask that same question.

“He’s… a special case I guess,” Ryoma said with a small, fond smile as if sensing the questions in Sanada and Yukimura’s hearts, and suddenly Sanada felt a strange sense that the Ryoma sitting across from him wasn’t a fifteen-year-old teen.

When Ryoma said Atobe was “special”, Sanada felt that image overlapped with when his father was fondly complaining about his mother twenty years into their marriage, with when his grandfather talked about a childhood friend and rival kendoka who had passed away years ago.

When Ryoma said that Atobe was “special”, it felt like he was talking about someone he had known for an entire lifetime.

“I see,” Yukimura said. “I’m glad that you met him, then.”

(His grandfather said that to cross swords with someone is to understand that person, and when Sanada crossed swords with Ryoma during the very rare instances where they were not doing so as friends, as simply sparring partners, but as rivals, as two people who wanted to beat the other…

“That friend of yours… something within him has been broken for a long time and he’s just beginning to learn what it’s like to be whole again.” His grandfather once said, “At least that’s what I understood from having crossed swords with him.”

“What does that mean?”

His grandfather sighed, “It means that if you see him as an important friend… try not to let him go and be on his own.”

The old man then frowned, “What the hell am I saying to a thirteen-year-old kid? You know what, just try to be good to him. Think of him like an old cat looking for somewhere to rest.”

“...okay?”

“You’ll get it, one day.”

Sanada thinks that he’s beginning to get it, after all those years.)

Chapter Text

Possession

Growing up, before Nanjiroh took him in Ryoga had never really got to call many things "his". It's really a combination of the rather squalid condition he grew up in and the fact that his "family" didn't really care much for him beyond his value to Echizen Nanjiroh, thus what they can get by making him a bargaining chip against his biological father. In some ways, even though he had come to truly love it, tennis was just yet another thing pushed upon him to make him more "valuable".

Then he met Ryoma, "his" younger brother.

At first, he was rather apprehensive about the idea of playing with Ryoma, wondering what was it Nanjiroh trying to do but that apprehension melted away with each clumsy step and swing that Ryoma made in his attempt to play tennis until eventually those clumsy steps became just a little surer, those swings become just a little stronger.

He would be utterly stupid to not notice how his brother changed practically overnight. Sure, Ryoma had always been quieter, less prone to tantrums, and overall more mature than kids their age, and Ryoga felt like there were times that Ryoma wasn't quite there, like his mind was wandering off somewhere far away. But one day, the Ryoma who greeted him at the dining table for breakfast didn't feel like the same Ryoma that he knew just before they went to sleep.

He had no doubt both in his young mind and heart, that it was Ryoma nonetheless, and the fact that in just one month the gap between them had been practically closed and now he was the one chasing after Ryoma in tennis took him some time to adjust to. But ultimately, he didn't feel like he had lost something but perhaps even gained something.

After he grew up a little more, he would look back and notice just how firm Ryoma was even then. How by the age of eight, Ryoma felt like he had lived a whole lifetime and all that came with it. But Ryoga then had simply cooed about how cool and mature his younger brother is (Older Ryoga still agreed with that sentiment, of course).

When his "family" came and wanted him back not long after Ryoma turned ten, Ryoga had made a vow to himself that he would find his way back to Ryoma no matter what. After all, the few things that he had hoarded for himself were still his even when he was not there.

(And he remembered how they made him leave in the middle of the night because they didn't want Ryoma to know. But he had seen then, in his last look at the place he had called home for nearly 3 years, gazing at the window of Ryoma's room to find it opened, his brother's eyes piercing toward him through the darkness, an unspoken promise)

When he returned, three years later, the first thing that Nanjiroh told him was to not thank him but to thank Ryoma who had been the one demanding them to get him back. Because of course, Ryoma knew that he never wanted to leave, and would never have if he had been in charge of his own destiny.

But three years had passed, and his "family" was still the same as it was before Nanjiroh picked him up and they had no qualms about making him go around and do all kinds of other people's dirty work for money, He could only grit his teeth and bear it as in the end, he needed to survive so that he could find his way back.

For survival, for the sake of living another day, he had to dirty his hands and even his tennis. In back alleys, in abandoned courts, watched by people who made their lives by destroying others, playing with desperate people for entertainment. It was his "aunt" who introduced him to those bastards, telling them that he would bring them good money. He knew they liked the show he was putting on. A vicious kid who destroys his opponents with an unaffected smile, a perfect little piece of entertainment.

He couldn't care less what they think of him as long as they give him enough money for him to go another day and enough to eventually escape and make his way back to Ryoma.

But then things spread. More and more of those bastards began approaching him and he couldn't say no. Because he knew the moment he stopped playing along was the moment he would lose it all and the fear grew within him that he had become in too deep to escape, to make his way back.

And then-

"Don't thank me. Ryoma was the one who threatened that he would personally take you back himself if I didn't." Nanjiroh said when it's just the two of them.

Ryoga didn't doubt that for a second. in the same way that Ryoga had come to consider Ryoma as his, it would seem that Ryoma had come to feel the same way about him.

Serious

Ryoma very rarely played tennis seriously to the point that he's truly giving close to his all. He approached tennis very methodically ever since the fog that clouded his mind from the memories of his past life had lifted. While Shirou Emiya was much more driven by passion than logic, the kind of Magecraft that he specialized in took way more studying about things like human biology and physics than his past life self ever expected. Thankfully for Ryoma, while Shirou Emiya mostly used them for combat purposes which he also inherited, that innate understanding helped him greatly with tennis as well.

In a way, he treated playing tennis a bit like combat. He observed his opponents very closely to read their movements and adapt on the fly while he tried to make sure he had all his basics covered so that he could do what he needed to do to counter whatever his opponent threw at him. Ryoga told him that he could get really intense when he got serious while playing tennis, and Ryoma figured it was most likely because of that combat mindset. Nanjiroh was more blunt in saying that he was scary when he gets intense, as embarrassing as it was for a man as old as him to say that to a kid.

He had to more or less get himself to actively relax and not take tennis too seriously so that the combat mindset didn't become his default one, and he didn't think that he had ever gotten to that point when playing against Yukimura and Sanada. Mostly because neither of them had reached a level that would require him to play seriously.

Ryoga, on the other hand, had a lot in his bag of tricks by virtue of his ability to "steal" others' tennis. He knew that Nanjiroh had prohibited Ryoga from playing with that style against him until Ryoma had soundly beaten Ryoga, not that it really mattered since Ryoma figured out how to counter that pretty quickly anyway, but it still required him to take things seriously which Ryoga seemed to take pride in.

On Ryoga's side, he definitely did take pride in that fact. There's a strange thrill in playing against a serious Ryoma. The way that Ryoma's intensity pushed down on him like an unseen force. The way that Ryoma's sharp eyes bore into him like a hunter watching its prey. The way that Ryoma made him feel like he was in the middle of a fight to the death that he would lose. All of those things that Ryoga loved, despite the weirded-out look that Nanjiroh gave him when he made his enjoyment clear.

Maybe he enjoyed the way that Ryoma's attention became entirely focused on him when he did. The way that for the time, the only ones that existed were Ryoma, Ryoga, and the court they both stood on. Maybe it's the adrenaline and he's more of an adrenaline junkie than he first thought.

Either way, there's a sense of possessiveness within Ryoga about that. About being an opponent that Ryoma took seriously. To be special to Ryoma.

This was why, when Ryoga felt the change in Ryoma's demeanor, felt the pressure even from the sideline as he watched Ryoma play the last set of the match against Tezuka, there was a strange feeling in his heart. Fear, jealousy, the realization of what's happening when after three unreturnable return Aces from Ryoma, he saw Ryoma hit the ball toward the sky instead of toward his opponent.

Whatever joy he felt from having Ryoma join the tennis club was heavily dampened by the realization that Ryoma might meet others. Play against others that were either good enough to make him play seriously or earned his respect enough to give them that honor. The realization that he might no longer be special to Ryoma.

Protection

Sometimes Ryoga wished that Ryoma wasn't so… capable. Being the older brother, of course, Ryoga felt a sense of protectiveness over Ryoma. That protectiveness was far from needed though. Ryoma had always been far more mature than his age indicated and very capable of fending for himself. By the time he turned ten, Ryoma had already pretty much taken over the role of being the one who cooked for them, cleaned the house, and even handled most of the shopping. The only thing he's not in charge of is household finance, but he might as well be considering Rinko isn't around much if at all and Nanako listen to Ryoma's suggestion all the time. Hell, by the time Ryoga returned after their three-year-long separation, Ryoma had taken that over too.

Then the one time they went camping out in the wild, Ryoma pretty much took charge as well. Be it starting a fire, setting up tents, looking for safe ingredients by foraging, and a little bit of hunting, it's almost like he's experienced in wild survival settings, which couldn't be since that was the first time they ever did something like it. There isn't a single doubt in Ryoga's mind that if it came to it, Ryoma wouldn't have much trouble surviving out in the wilderness with just whatever he had in his backpack.

Despite his aloof attitude, Ryoma is also good at socializing. When Ryoga go with Ryoma during one of his shopping trip for ingredients, it's very clear that he is familiar with all the sellers who are also quite fond of Ryoma. He also learned that he was quite popular among the adults in the neighborhood and beyond. The aunties in the neighborhood had even gotten him into the group where they swap recipes and talk about their children on.

Momoshiro and Kaido found out that Ryoma was the "very capable young man" that their respective mothers often talked about in comparison to them after they invited Ryoma to their respective homes. Kawamura discovered that his father had known Ryoma for years and even swapped recipes at times. Even Yamabuki's Akutsu's mom knew Ryoma, much to the delinquent's chagrin. Even more so when she told him that it was Ryoma who gave her the recipe for the mont blanc that Akutsu loved so much.

All in all, there was simply no opening for Ryoga to be the one taking care of Ryoma and not the other way around. Hell, Ryoga living comfortably and safely in Japan was thanks to Ryoma as well. This just further adds to the problem for Ryoga because he wants to be able to give back to Ryoma in some way, as he feels like he has just been taking things without giving anything back.

"You don't owe me anything, though," Ryoma had said nonchalantly when Ryoga tried to bring it up with him, and that's the biggest problem.

Ryoma had never expected anything in return when helping others, and Ryoga didn't want to just be another person who received Ryoma's help without being given the chance to give something back in return. But then he's back to the problem of Ryoma not needing much if any help from others to begin with, let alone protection.

"He's not invincible, you know."

Ryoga had no idea why the hell Ryoma was so fond of this rich jackass to the point of letting him come to their house anytime he wants. It's particularly annoying because Atobe is the only one. Neither Sanada nor Yukimura, despite having known Ryoma for longer, had that privilege or the level of closeness that Atobe had with Ryoma.

"In fact, I think he's quite hopeless in some ways," Atobe stated while stirring the tea in the cup he was holding.

Another reason why Ryoga hates him is that he talks about Ryoma like he knows about him more than anyone else. It weirdly reminds him of the way that Fuji often says extremely cryptic things about Ryoma, like it was a personal inside joke. Except Ryoma understands, which means that there's something that only the two know. Atobe took that up to eleven though.

Atobe smirked. "I know you don't like me. You're quite the possessive one. I assure you that I have no intention of keeping him for myself or anything like that."

"In fact, it would be great if there are people more like you in Ryoma's life. After all, the biggest threat to him is himself."

Ryoga blinked. What?

"He's not very good at asking for help, you know?" Atobe sighed. "But he also doesn't tend to let other people know when he's in trouble. What a troublesome guy."

"Does he… does he need help, now?" Ryoga asked, suddenly feeling worried that he might overlooked something significant.

"Now? No, not really. At least I don't think so." Atobe frowned. "See? Hard to tell. But the more people keeping an eye out the better."

Neither of them talked more after that. Atobe was content to just sip his tea as Ryoga stewed on his words. Atobe sounds like he was talking mostly in hypothetical terms, but at the same time, it weirdly feels like Atobe had experienced times when Ryoma needed help but failed to ask for it. That's the paradox of Ryoma and Atobe. By all means, they had only known each other for a fairly short time yet talked about and acted with each other like they had lived a whole lifetime with each other.

"I don't like you." Ryoga suddenly said, to which Atobe simply smiled. "But you're important to Ryoma for whatever reason and probably the only one that can figure him out. So I'll let you be, but if you ever hurt him…"

Atobe snorted but nodded anyway.

(Atobe could never dream of trying to keep Ryoma for himself. Rin Tohsaka had tried and found out the hard way that she by herself wasn't quite enough to keep Shirou Emiya from leaving when the call became too strong, when the restless desire to protect, to end injustice, overwhelmed whatever feeling of comfort that had kept him with her.

Ryoma Echizen is not Shirou Emiya. Keigo Atobe is not Rin Tohsaka. But he knew there was enough Shirou Emiya within Ryoma Echizen for that to remain a possibility until death claimed them once again, and Atobe truly hoped for his own sake and those others who had grown to treasure Ryoma that Ryoma would never walk the same path into hell that Shirou Emiya once walked.)

Chapter Text

Traitor

"So, you know how I told you I would be cheering for Rikkai this year?"

Yukimura froze for a moment before asking back, "Yes. What about it?"

The two of them were in Yukimura's hospital room, Ryoma having come when he heard that Yukimura was in a stable condition. In fact, according to Yukimura, he was in a good enough condition that the doctors were considering bringing his operation forward. While full recovery would still take some time, even if the surgery is successful, they were cautiously optimistic.

This was why Ryoma figured out that it was a good time to bring his little bad news to Yukimura.

"I don't think that would be possible anymore," Ryoma stated.

The older teen looked at him with puzzlement before a frown came and settled in.

"...Ryoma please tell me that you didn't join the Seigaku Tennis Club."

"I'm a terrible liar, so…:

Ryoma could hear Yukimura's groan as the latter put his head in his hands. Well, he understood really. After all, Ryoma had just basically signed the death warrant to Rikkai's dream of reclaiming their Champion title that Seigaku had taken the previous year.

"Why?"

Why? Isn't that the question?

"Tezuka challenged me to a match and I lost."

"Did Tezuka suddenly become a superhuman?" Yukimura asked, even more confused than he was previously because he knew what Tezuka was capable of and what Ryoma was capable of, and comparing the two, even his most optimistic estimate for Tezuka would still put him to be the one to lose to Ryoma without it being even remotely close.

Ryoma sighed. "So you know how I'm a sucker against people who need my help and showed their determination for it?"

Of course, Yukimura knew. Part of the reason why he and Sanada were close friends with Ryoma in the first place was because Sanada asked for Ryoma's help and showed his determination through his kendo.

Wait.

"Ah, of course." Yukimura sighed as he figured out what must have happened. He remembered the match in the Nationals Final, the one where he lost against Ryoma's older brother. Sanada had faced off against Tezuka then, and Tezuka had played to the point of risking his own future for the sake of the team, then. While Yukimura had yet to confirm it, he had a feeling that Ryoma had a fondness for people willing to push through their limits to an almost idiotic level. Which was a little puzzling for Yukimura since Ryoma doesn't seem to be the type but everyone has their quirks, he supposed.

"Have you told Gen yet?" Yukimura asked.

"Nope."

"Ah. He's in for a real surprise then."

"You're not as upset as I thought you would be," Ryoma stated.

Yukimura sighed. "Am I somewhat annoyed that you ended up not only choosing to not be rooting for Rikkai anymore but also actively gonna be the one burying our dream of reclaiming the championship? Yes, but in the end it's you."

"If there's anybody that I wouldn't mind losing to, that would be you. I think Gen would think the same too."

There's a complicated expression on Ryoma's face and Yukimura couldn't help but smile a little. It's quite rare to see Ryoma be genuinely troubled, and Yukimura knew that it's usually the result of people putting him on a pedestal of sorts. He's kind of an anomaly like that, Ryoma Echizen. Incredible in so many ways yet with an extreme aversion to positive recognition. The idea of being idolized was something very uncomfortable for him. Well, at least that's what Yukimura had managed to glean from the time he had known Ryoma.

Truly, Ryoma Echizen was an enigma, but one that Yukimura was very fond of and very happy to know that the sentiment was mutual.

Now, to figure out how to make sure that in a scenario where Rikkai met against Seigaku they would already win without Ryoma ever getting the chance to play…

Phantom

The first time that Ryoga truly noticed it, Ryoma was holding Ryoga down on a sofa to enact his revenge against his older brother who just moments earlier was trying to tickle his side. For one, Ryoma's side is way more sensitive than he liked, and he disliked getting surprised. He could tell that Ryoga did not expect that Ryoma would turn the situation around so easily, nor did he expect that Ryoma would be strong enough to subdue him.

"Looks like you underestimated me," Ryoma stated before a devilish smirk appeared on his face. "Mada mada dane, onii-chan."

The 'oh shit!' that must have appeared in Ryoga's mind at that moment was almost audible to Ryoma, as evidenced by the panic on the older's face. That didn't stop Ryoma from tickling his older brother mercilessly though.

"Wai- wait," Ryoga wheezed out in between breathless giggles as Ryoma viciously attacked his sides. "Stop, oh god-"

Ryoga finally freed up one of his hands and tried to grab onto one of Ryoma's arms and begged for mercy, "Please-"

"Okay, okay." Ryoma immediately stopped and got off Ryoga. "Try not to attack me from behind next time."

Ryoga wanted to protest that Ryoma was way too good at dodging him whenever he tried it from the front, but though Ryoma's tone was light and chiding, there was something about it that made Ryoga pause.

"Okay, okay." Ryoga sighed, pouting a little.

As he left, he noticed from the corner of his eye Ryoma looking at his arm, where Ryoga had tried to grab him, with an inscrutable expression on his face.

It's something that happened weirdly often with Ryoma, once Ryoga began paying attention. Strange moments where his mood suddenly becomes strange, even when he was having a good time just moments earlier. At the time Ryoga had simply shrugged it off, putting it as yet another Ryoma thing that he didn't really understand. Once he grew up a little and understood people just a little better, he still didn't really understand but could tell that it was not a good thing.

Because there are things, certain actions, certain touches, that triggered something in Ryoma. Like a memory, like a reflex. Something that both the body and mind remembered. It's not limited to things that Ryoma himself experienced or did, but Ryoga could see the way that sometimes when he himself acted a certain way, the person reflected in Ryoma's eyes wasn't quite him.

Ryoga had long realized that in some ways Ryoma wasn't quite "Ryoma". That there's something else there, one that made Ryoma see phantoms everywhere, including in Ryoga. But at the same time, Ryoga didn't think that whatever it was, it was something that could be separated from Ryoma. That Ryoma wouldn't be Ryoma, the one that he knew and loved if it wasn't for it.

He just wished that regardless of all else, Ryoma would stop seeing anyone other than Ryoga when he saw him. He wasn't any of the phantoms that Ryoma would see but Ryoga and only Ryoga.

Soul

Despite Yuta's skepticism and absolute refusal to partake in any of it, the Fujis had always been a family of magic and mysticism. Shusuke himself didn't really quite know the roots behind it, but his grandmother once told him a story of how a long time ago, one of their ancestors was gifted with the ability to "know" and to "see" by a mysterious man. To be able to perceive the things that others wouldn't be able to.

It's a hit or miss, from generation to generation and even within a generation. Shusuke and Yumiko had it, but Yuta didn't. Even they didn't quite have it the same way that their grandmother did, and Shusuke thinks that it's probably for the better.

The only thing that he and his sister could see was when something didn't quite belong. He knew if something was there when it was not supposed to be. He knew if he saw something that others wouldn't be able to. Spirits and the likes were beyond him, really. He could probably feel it if they were there, but anything beyond that was no good.

However, he knew that Ryoma Echizen was special the moment he laid his eyes on him. A soul far too old, an inscrutable shadow hanging over him, and above all, a stench of death stronger than in anyone else Shusuke had ever encountered. He had to excuse himself for some time to compose himself. There's no doubt that Ryoma, or whatever it is that inhabited him, had witnessed countless deaths and caused who knew how many.

Once he got back home, he told his sister about it as soon as he could because he needed a second opinion about Ryoma. He didn't think he would be able to come to the club with a peaceful mind as long as he still couldn't get the way that the younger teen's soul reeked of blood and rust out of his mind.

"An old soul, huh?" Yumiko wondered out loud. "Who knew? People don't usually remember their past life, but exceptions always exist."

"...should I be worried that my new teammate is potentially a mass murderer in his past life and perhaps even remembered it?"

Yumiko simply smiled. "Remember what grandma said?"

"'Believe not your senses but your experience and your heart.'" Shusuke quoted. "So basically you're saying for me to wait and see?"

"Well, at the very least if you were found murdered I would know where to go for the potential culprit."

So Shusuke waited. He observed the way that Ryoma interacted with others and with him. He could tell that Ryoma was quite wary of him beyond the way that others usually are, most likely because Shusuke wasn't quite able to hide his wariness of Ryoma either.

Then one day, his sister came home happier than usual and told him that she met and had some tea with Ryoma.

"Quite a lovely gentleman, he is." Yumiko sighed, "Shame about him being a broken soul, though."

"What?"

"Your new teammate. He's not… quite whole." Yumiko stated before frowning, "No. That's not quite right. He's whole, I think. But being broken is his default state of being. Yes, I think that's the better way to put it."

"Huh?"

"In some ways, he's like an old man, I feel like." Yumiko mused out loud. "He's just looking for a place to rest if my gut feeling was right."

It then clicked for Shusuke.

A soul that had witnessed great horrors, and probably committed countless crimes, in his past life. A soul that above all was tired. Who knew for what reason he remembered his past life, but in this one, most likely all he wanted was peace.

There was a long, most likely sordid story there. He noticed the way that faint, barely noticeable patches of skin seemed to encircle Ryoma's neck like a noose. He remembered a story from his grandmother about the way that one's birthmarks could tell how one died in their previous life.

"I see."

"I don't think he's a bad person," Yumiko said. "Well, the one in this life at least. The him of his previous life was much more questionable. He reeked of death, blood, and rust just like you said."

"Well, for my safety let's hope that he would never have a reason to live like his previous self did," Shusuke stated jokingly.

He still had several questions, and he still needed to confirm it himself by talking with Ryoma, but Yumiko had always been a great judge of character and he was not going to start doubting her now.

Delinquency

Akutsu very rarely lost fights he got himself into. When he did, it was usually against those much older, more experienced than him. People who he really shouldn't have messed with to begin with.

As much of a troublemaker as he was, he usually knew when he had fucked up and also knew better than to pick a fight that he knew he couldn't win. Well, usually.

By all means, Echizen Ryoma shouldn't have belonged to that category of people he couldn't beat and thus shouldn't mess with. By all means, when he picked a fight with Echizen Ryoma, the smaller teen should be the one coming out of it crying and bruised. He didn't expect that he would be the one getting beaten faster and more decisively than he had ever before in his life. First in tennis, then right after, in a fistfight.

Well, it's not really a fight. After losing miserably without getting a single point, Akutsu had jumped at the first year intending to beat the crap out of him but got knocked out with a single counter straight to his face instead.

"Are you awake?"

Akutsu groggily opened his eyes and saw Ryoma sitting next to him. After some more time, Akutsu recognized that he had been placed next to a tree which was lying on to remain upright.

"Sorry for knocking you out, I wasn't really expecting you to just pounce on me like that and end up punching you on reflex."

The fact that he could tell that the apology was genuine only further annoyed Akutsu. Because that meant that he got knocked out by someone who wasn't even trying to. With one hit. What the fuck?

"But then again you beat up Arai and Kachirou. So maybe I should have hit you harder without knocking you out instead."

"Then there's also yesterday. So you've definitely been doing this for a while." Ryoma mused out loud.

"And what about it?" Akutsu growled in annoyance, finally turning to glare at Ryoma. He froze when his eyes met Ryoma's though, because he suddenly felt a kind of fear that he had only felt once. A kind of fear that made him feel like he was a mere critter in the face of a predator much more powerful than he was.

Before that, the only time he had ever felt that was when after messing with the wrong guy, said guy brought his friends who beat him half to death and took him to their boss. The first person that Akutsu knew he shouldn't have ever crossed paths with, let alone mess with. He was lucky, then, that the man had let him go.

He had learned his lesson, then. To avoid messing with adults. To keep his targets to people who wouldn't drag him to someone who could have killed him easily if they wanted to.

Why, then, did Ryoma Echizen make him feel the same fear he felt then?

"Your tennis." Ryoma suddenly said. "It's not bad, really. Ryoga probably would like you. He seemed to have a fondness for violent puppies."

Akutsu could only grit his teeth at the utter humiliation he felt from being referred to as a "puppy". If it had been anyone else, he would have lashed out, but at that moment, his whole body was stiff from fear.

Then suddenly, that oppressive pressure, the paralyzing fear disappeared, and he felt a pat on his shoulder as Ryoma stood up.

"Well, that's all I have to say. You're from Yamabuki, right? I hope we get to see each other when our teams meet."

Akutsu had no intention of following anyone's order ever. So, when he came for the match between Seigaku and Yamabuki, he came of his own volition and not because he felt a full-body shudder when he remembered Ryoma's words as he considered not coming.

(And of course, he played against Echizen Ryoga, who not only had an incredibly aggravating personality but also treated him like a particularly interesting dog he found off the street. Fuck his life.)

Chapter Text

Gifted

When the nickname “Child of God” was bestowed upon him, Yukimura couldn’t help but think that those people who gave it to him just simply had no idea what they were talking about. It’s a feeling that Sanada shared with him when others began calling him “The Emperor”.

He’s being unfair of course, because the one person that Yukimura felt to be more fitting to carry such a grand title made it a point to not be well known in the tennis circle despite his heritage.

After all, to say that Ryoma Echizen is “gifted” would feel like an understatement. There isn’t any kendoka worth their salt who didn’t know his name, nor any kyuudo practitioner who wouldn’t sing him endless praises for his skill. It had become somewhat of a habit for Sanada to share with him what tournament Ryoma had won, what new achievement he had added to his ever-growing list.

There’s a part of him that wished that he could be like Sanada, who outside of tennis has a connection to Ryoma through kendo. It’s very clear that despite his skill in it and being surrounded by people who undoubtedly love it, Ryoma doesn’t particularly love tennis, and that’s a fact that frightened Yukimura to his core.

If Ryoma ever chose to, Yukimura didn’t think that the other teen would have much problem leaving tennis behind. Ryoma didn’t have a love or passion for it the way that Sanada was convinced Ryoma did for kendo and archery, nor did tennis seem to bring him satisfaction the way that cooking for others seemed to.

In fact, Yukimura isn’t quite sure what it is exactly that keeps Ryoma tethered to tennis until he meets Echizen Ryoga. That is a man who loves tennis, a fact that Yukimura became painfully aware of after losing to him twice. Yukimura resents Ryoma a little for not telling him about Ryoga, but then again it was probably his own fault for seeing someone called Echizen Ryoga who looks a lot like Ryoma, and never asked Ryoma about that person.

He’s a little jealous of Ryoga, in some ways, not just for his tennis, but also for the way that Ryoma clearly cares for him. It didn’t take him long to make the connection that Ryoga is a big part of why Ryoma still even bothered with tennis despite his disinterest in it, and Yukimura wishes that he could be that too for Ryoma. Because he’s selfish, because he would never be able to forget that day all those years ago when he saw Ryoma’s tennis for the first time. He would spend the proceeding years since then doing everything he could to keep seeing it and realize that he wouldn’t mind devoting his life to that cause.

This is something that Sanada wouldn’t understand when it comes to Ryoma. Sanada loves tennis as much as Yukimura does, and he too admires Ryoma’s tennis, but Yukimura knows his friend enough to be able to tell that it wasn’t tennis that made Sanada “fell” for Ryoma. He would be sad if Ryoma chose to lay down his racket and not play tennis anymore, but at the end of the day, Sanada still has kendo tethering Ryoma to him.

Yukimura doesn’t have something like that. He didn’t doubt that even if Ryoma did leave tennis behind, they would still be friends. He knows his friendship with Ryoma isn’t flimsy, but Yukimura wants more . He wanted a way to communicate and bare his soul to Ryoma beyond words, and for him, tennis was the only way he could do it with Ryoma, so he wished he could at least be part of what kept Ryoma playing tennis.

A selfish desire, one that ignores the fact that Ryoma himself had no such interest, but that’s what Yukimura felt and the one sin, the one selfishness he allowed himself to have.

So, he could only think to himself to apologize to Sanada later for the ugly feelings of jealousy welling within him because Sanada had gone and got Ryoma to play seriously against him before Yukimura got the chance to.

Pride, Part 1

“Singles 1 is about to start, players from both teams please enter the court.”

“Seigaku’s Single 1 should be Echizen Ryoga, right? No other player in Seigaku’s roster would stand a chance against Sanada in Singles.” Yagyuu wondered out loud.

Yanagi nodded, “Indeed. According to my data that should be the case, but…”

There’s still a huge question mark in not just his but in every other team’s data about Seigaku. The ninth man in Seigaku’s tournament roster, Ryoga Echizen’s younger brother. He had only been fielded exactly three times throughout the entire tournament, none of them against any notable opponent nor did he show any particularly notable feat in those matches. Some even thought that he was Seigaku’s manager instead of a player.

But it shouldn’t matter for now, as the last match is all that’s left and there’s zero chance of Seigaku putting anyone else that isn’t Ryoga Echizen in the Single 1 spot.

Much to his surprise, however, it wasn’t Ryoga Echizen who moved forward to the court.

“Eeehhh, what is Seigaku thinking? Isn’t that their first-year rookie who hadn’t played much in the tournament?” Marui wondered out loud. “Could it be that they gave up and chose to keep whatever Ryoga Echizen had in his sleeve for Nationals instead?

“What do you think, Sanada?” Yanagi asked, turning toward their vice-captain.

Instead of the firm declaration that he would win no matter what he had expected, what Yanagi and the other members of Rikkai found was a stunned Sanada. He could visibly see the way that Sanada’s hands trembled, both out of fear and… excitement?

Did Sanada know something they didn’t?

“Yanagi,” Sanada suddenly called. “Call Yukimura and tell him that I apologize that we won’t be winning the Regionals this year either and start livestreaming this match to him.”

“What?!” Kirihara exclaimed in disbelief. “What do you mean we won’t be winning this?!”

Sanada didn’t give any answer and instead simply began walking toward the court, his mind already set. Over the years they had known each other, not once he had ever managed to defeat Echizen Ryoma or even get the younger teen to play seriously against him, and neither did Yukimura. Ryoma knew this, too.

Seigaku had no reason to unleash Ryoma now. He knew from Ryoma himself that they had intended to use him as a secret weapon of sorts, especially in the Nationals where anything could happen. Ryoma isn’t the type to show off either, so he had no reason to want to appear now.

Maybe he’s overthinking Ryoma’s reason for playing now. Maybe Seigaku just wanted to send a strong message to every one of their future opponents that they have Echizen Ryoma.

“Sorry. I promised that I would be cheering for you guys this year but that’s not possible anymore,” Ryoma suddenly said as the two met in the center of the court to decide who serves first. “So the least that I can do is to be the one to personally bury Rikkai’s dream myself.”

Sanada chuckled. “That’s a weird way to apologize.”

But Sanada understood. It’s Ryoma’s way of preserving his and Rikkai’s pride, even if others won’t understand. Because that means that they had lost because Ryoma had played. That means that the only one he lost to is Ryoma, someone that no one else could have beaten. But that doesn’t mean that Sanada would simply flop over and let Ryoma walk all over him. No, he will make him fight for it and hopefully, by the end of their match, Ryoma will be able to genuinely say “That was a good game”.

Sanada would be serving first, and after they got to their respective positions, the two looked at each other before giving a deep bow to each other like they always do before their kendo matches.

On the sidelines, Yanagi had sent Sanada’s message to Yukimura before pulling out his laptop, connected it to the internet, and began a video chat with Yukimura.

“Hmmm, good for Genichirou,” Yukimura commented. “He had always wanted to play tennis against Ryoma-kun in an official match.”

“Seiichi. You knew about Echizen Ryoma?” Yanagi asked.

“Of course. We’ve been good friends for about… five, almost six years now?” Yukimura replied. “He’s Genichirou’s kendo buddy of sorts and his family liked Ryoma a lot because he’s very knowledgeable about swords despite his young age.”

“How about his tennis?” Yanagi asked as Ryoma returned Sanada’s shot with ease. He personally has trouble believing his eyes. Sanada had already begun using Fu Rin Ka Zan and Ryoma was completely unperturbed by it.

“His tennis, huh?” Yukimura wondered out loud. “Do you remember when we told you that there’s someone that we had never been able to beat?”

“That can’t be…” Yanagi stated disbelievingly.

“Game set! 1-0 for Echizen Ryoma!”

“Indeed. In the whole time that I and Genichirou had known Echizen Ryoma, neither of us had managed to defeat him in tennis even once or even managed to get him to play seriously against us.”

“You’re joking…” Kirihara said. “ Buchou , please tell us you’re joking.”

“It is what it is,” Yukimura shrugged. “Do you know that he wasn’t planning to join Seigaku’s tennis club and promised to be cheering for us instead this year since his brother already won last year? Fufufu, so much for that.”

“You expected it,” Yanagi stated.

“Knowing him, there were only two ways for it to go. Either he decided to ask not to play when Seigaku is facing us or he chose to be the one to bury us. He knew that doing the first one would be disrespectful against me and Genichirou though, and he’s not the type.”

“I wished you had at least told me beforehand.”

Yukimura chuckled. “Sorry about that. When I found out that Ryoma had not made any splash at all through the tournament, I knew this would happen. I would rather not stress you and Genichirou with needless worry.”

“So that’s it? We’re gonna lose here?” Yagyuu asked.

“Most likely. But look,” Yukimura gestured behind the screen toward Sanada’s side of the court.

Even though he’s clearly outmatched and losing, they can see that Sanada is not overwhelmed or despairing in the slightest. In fact, if anything, he seemed to be having more fun than they had ever seen him.

“He’s having fun, at the very least.”

Pride, Part 2

“Game set! 5-0 for Echizen Ryoma!”

The first set had ended in a score of 6-2 for Ryoma, Sanada having managed to take two games from Ryoma by revealing two secret techniques he had been developing, originally to defeat Tezuka, but he knew that against Ryoma he could hold nothing back.

The first one, In, which made him give off multiple behavioral patterns to counter Ryoma’s extremely sharp observation allowed him to take a game until Ryoma countered that by simply shifting his observation to the ball instead of Sanada.

The second one, Rai , was supposed to be an unreturnable ball that would break his racket. Ryoma didn’t even try to return it after the first one, allowing Sanada to take another game. The game after that, however, Ryoma was finished with his observation and returned Rai easily by nullifying the ball’s spin and energy.

Once the two techniques were completely countered, Sanada hadn’t been able to find a way to fight back against Ryoma and lost game after game. Not to mention, using Rai puts a significant burden on his legs, causing him to slow down as time goes on.

“You’re still as stubborn and determined as ever, Genichirou,” Ryoma stated as Sanada got up after catching his breath, a slight smile on his face.

Sanada adjusted his breathing. He had been giving his all, chasing after every ball that Ryoma sent his way. He had used In and Rai , tried combining his techniques, to try to counter the things that made Ryoma such a fearsome opponent like his insanely sharp observation and senses, but Ryoma’s adaptational ability and capability to come up with counters on the fly had been simply too much for him.

It’s Ryoma’s turn to serve.

“You might think that you’ve failed,” Ryoma began as he got to the position to serve. “But rest assured Gen, this had been a fun match for me.”

Suddenly, Sanada felt a heavy pressure on him. A hair-raising feeling that got his instincts screaming at him to run .

It’s something that he had felt before, to a much lesser degree. He had been there when his grandfather challenged Ryoma to a swordfight, four years ago. Not a kendo match or an iaido match, but a genuine fight between two sword wielders, using actual swords.

He had known for a long time that Ryoma was dangerous . Usually, when one was handed over a real sword, with blades that could truly cut, injure, and even kill , one would hesitate and even become nervous. But he knew that Ryoma didn’t lose his composure in the slightest, and didn't hesitate as he tried out the sword given to him by effortlessly cutting a training dummy in half.

Then came his fight against Sanada’s grandfather. He knew that his grandfather was a highly skilled sword wielder, one of the very few like him that was still left. Yet Ryoma had not only kept up with him despite the obvious difference in their size, showing a level of skill that shouldn’t have been possible for someone his age, but won .

Sanada wondered if this pressure was something that his grandfather felt too, then.

Despite the feeling of an almost primal fear though, a feeling of excitement thrums under his skin. This is it. This is Ryoma giving something close to his all. This is Ryoma playing seriously.

And it's over as soon as it begins.

"Game set! Match end, 6-0 for Echizen Ryoma!"

( If anybody noticed the way that Ryoga balled his fist so tightly that his nails almost drew blood, nobody said anything about it)

Chapter Text

Headlines

It didn’t take long at all for anyone remotely interested in high school tennis in Japan to immediately scramble around to look for anything they could find about the mysterious Seigaku First Year who had beaten Sanada. It also didn’t take long at all for them to quickly figure out the fact that Echizen Ryoma is Echizen Ryoga’s younger brother and thus also the son of the famous Samurai Nanjiroh.

Reporters from various sports magazines swarmed the team immediately after the match to try to get some words out of them, but much to their disappointment, the person of the hour, the one they wanted to get a word or two the most from, Echizen Ryoma, wasn’t there and neither was Echizen Ryoga. In the end they settled for a typical post-match interview with the team, with them not giving anything up about Echizen Ryoma despite all the unsubtle questions trying to dig it out of them.

Much to their surprise though, there’s nothing actually all that mysterious about Echizen Ryoma. His name could be found in various articles about a young prodigy in kendo and archery, and even among high school tennis players, there’s been a rumor circulating around about Seigaku recruiting someone even better than Echizen Ryoga, with Ryoga himself boasting about that new member’s prowess. That rumor has died down with round after round in the Kanto tournament with that supposed new member nowhere in sight, but Ryoma’s match against Sanada had more or less confirmed the truth of the rumor.

It’s just that most people who knew wouldn’t have expected his name to come up in the context of tennis. After all, why would the person widely acknowledged as one of the best kendoka in Japan despite his age and also rumored to be considered for a spot in Japan’s Olympics team for archery, again despite his age, would also be a tennis player?

After all, there should be a limit on how many things someone could be really good at right?

However, as people, both curious onlookers, potential competitors, and professional reporters alike, began looking more into him, a similar thought was echoed in their minds:

“There’s no way this guy is real,” Kirihara stated disbelievingly.

Yukimura could only smile. The whole team went to the hospital after the match to visit him. He was supposed to have his surgery that day, but the doctors had granted him his request to have it delayed a day so he could follow his team’s match against Seigaku, at first through messages, then later through livestream. He had half-expected half-hoped that Ryoma would take the field in the match, and he was correct in his presumption.

“He is very extraordinary,” Sanada said matter-of-factly. “Not only in tennis, I also had never beaten him in kendo, and there are countless practitioners of both kyudo and more general archery that won’t hesitate to heap his praises for his skill in the field.”

“And with all that, he still has enough time to be so good at tennis that neither of you ever actually win against him.” Marui remarked as he scrolled through pages of both local and national news about Echizen Ryoma’s exploits in both kendo and archery. “I guess some people really are just way more gifted.”

Neither Sanada nor Yukimura said anything about that remark. Ryoma hates being called “gifted” or anything of similar nature, and is deeply uncomfortable with being under the spotlight. Not that they would have known if Ryoma hadn’t told them himself. Echizen Ryoma is a paradox in that he’s very honest with his feelings but at the same time utterly unreadable. Even after years of being his friends, neither Yukimura nor Sanada could confidently say that they “understand” Echizen Ryoma. In fact, Yukimura suspects that the only person who “understands” Ryoma is Echizen Ryoga, and if his hunch is correct, perhaps Keigo Atobe, though he himself couldn’t really wrap his head around the how .

“I feel slightly hurt that neither of you ever told me about him.” Yanagi stated. “You know I would have liked to know that such an interesting person is within my vicinity.”

Sanada cleared his throat awkwardly before explaining, “We have actually talked a little bit about you with him, and at first he didn’t seem to mind the idea of us bringing you over to meet him.”

“But well, when we mentioned that you’re a Data Tennis player, his expression soured slightly.” Yukimura recalled. “Which, I need you to understand, is very expressive by his standards as far as negative reactions go.”

“Understood.” Yanagi nodded. While he didn’t know why Echizen Ryoma would dislike his kind, he’s not gonna push when he knows he’s not particularly welcome. He idly wondered how Inui fares being his teammate.

Perception

To say that the Seigaku Tennis Club’s perception of Ryoga had changed significantly ever since Ryoma joined them would be an understatement.

For the whole year they had known him, their perception of Ryoga had always been that he’s a cool, carefree, and somewhat cocky teammate slash senior, one that has more than enough skill to back up all his cockiness. Despite some flakiness when it comes to training and overall discipline, everyone in the club always considered him to be a reliable teammate that they can count on where it matters.

Outside of tennis, he’s also well known for being the “school idol” for the lack of a better word. Rumor has it that in the first month ever since he transferred into Seigaku, at least 7 girls and 4 boys had confessed to him and asked him out, and that’s just the ones from their school. Once the rumor of a handsome American returnee who also is a Regular in Seigaku Tennis Club spreads, people from out of school also began peeking around to catch a glimpse.

As jealous as the whole situation made some of the members feel, Momoshiro, in particular, grumbled about it a lot, Ryoga himself didn’t seem to care much about all the attention and made it clear very quickly that he had no interest whatsoever in going out with anyone. Of course, that doesn’t stop people from flirting with him and asking him out, some even finding his aloofness attractive.

At the end of the year, the school’s Journalism Club surveyed the students of Seigaku on ‘Who do you think is the best looking person in Seigaku?’ and both the male and female students agreed that it’s Echizen Ryoga.

Similarly, when a magazine polled high school tennis players all over Japan on who they think is the best among their peers, Ryoga ranked first ahead of Yukimura.

All that is to say that Ryoga has a very “dark, tall, and handsome” image among the students of Seigaku, and an almost domineering presence in the high school tennis circuit.

All of that changed, however, when his younger brother Echizen Ryoma came into the picture.

Even before Ryoma joined, the Seigaku Tennis Club members were treated to a side of Ryoga that they had never known before: One of a very doting older brother whose words when describing his younger brother feel so exaggerated none of them really knows what to expect.

Thus, they really have no idea what to do with the fact that Ryoma, Ryoga’s little brother, genuinely lives up to his older brother’s words. Nor do they know what to do with the fact that Ryoga is very clearly and unabashedly utterly whipped for his younger brother.

Ryoga is very eager to heap praises about his brother’s skill in not just tennis but as a cook, as a kendoka, as an archer, and also for being ‘the best little brother anyone could ever have’. Additionally, it’s becoming very clear that he’s really clingy to Ryoma, and that despite being the older brother, Ryoga is the less “mature” one of the two.

As time goes by, they feel more and more that they’ve been scammed by the image of Ryoga they’ve formed in their mind.

Case in point, Oishi and Eiji were greeted by the sight of Ryoga kneeling in front of a very irate Ryoma, the latter with a shinai in hand, as they walked

“Ryoma… please let me explain…” Ryoga practically whimpered.

“What is there to explain?” Ryoma questioned chillingly. “You barged into the kendo club’s practice, made a fuss asking to be allowed to try to join the club, and after practically harassing the Captain into saying yes, not only did you completely fail, you also ended up damaging club equipment and breaking the window.”

“Well… we’re brothers, I thought that maybe I have some talent with kendo too…” Ryoga meekly explained.

Ryoma frowned. “Is this because I’ve been spending more time with the Kendo Club? You know that a big competition is coming up right?”

“Just because I know doesn’t mean I have to like it,” Ryoga whined.

Oishi and Eiji chose to step back out then, figuring out that the least they could do for Ryoga is to spare him the shame of having the rest of the team witness him being disciplined by his own younger brother, despite having lost a great deal of respect for him from it. On the other hand, they both developed a healthy fear of disappointing Ryoma, because that look is deadly. They resolved themselves to be good, reliable senpais so that they wouldn’t be on the receiving end of Ryoma’s disappointed glare.

Protector

A loud “Bang!” and suddenly, two tennis balls bounce off each other in mid-air.

It took everyone a few moments to digest what just happened.

The elderly coach of Rokkaku had been explaining the technique that the Higa players used to make it seem like they “teleported” from one part of the court to the other in a single step, a tennis ball then suddenly whizzed toward his face, but then just as suddenly, a plastic bottle came spinning and collided with the ball, knocking it out of its original trajectory just enough that it ended up not hitting anyone before colliding with the fence separating the court and the outside, while the plastic bottle fell to the ground near Rokkaku’s bench.

The Rokkaku players immediately swarmed their coach to make sure he’s alright while also trying to make sense of what just happened.

Looking at the direction the first ball came from, it’s very clear that it was sent that way by the Higa player, Kai Yuujirou, who at that moment was openly gaping from the fact that the ball had been knocked off course.

Just outside the fence, the Seigaku players looked at Ryoma, who was dusting off his hands against each other, with palpable amazement.

“Good thing I noticed just in time,” Ryoma remarked.

Just moments ago, his teammates witnessed their youngest member suddenly throwing the plastic bottle he’d been drinking out of over the fence, and it took them a bit to realize that he had done it to protect Rokkaku’s coach from being hit by the ball coming his way.

“That ball…” Fuji trailed off.

“It’s definitely deliberately done by the Higa player,” Ryoga commented. “Too strong and controlled for it to be anything but.”

“How did you know that’s going to happen?” Oishi asked, turning to Ryoma.

“I was observing the Higa player,” Ryoma replied simply. “And earlier I overheard some people nearby talking about them having a bad reputation for playing dirty.”

Which is true, but he doesn’t need to tell them that the people he’s overhearing from are further away than what normal people should be able to hear from. He began paying close attention to the Higa players, both the ones on the court and the ones on the bench, just in case. When he spotted the Higa Captain making a gesture that he suspected to be some kind of signal, he paid closer attention to the one on the court and realized what direction he’s going to hit the ball toward.

Luckily he had a water bottle in hand with some water still in it, a good projectile to throw to knock the ball off course when taking into account the tall fence separating him and the inside.

After answering Oishi, Ryoma glanced toward the Higa players on the bench and made eye contact with the team’s captain. Feeling somewhat vindictive, Ryoma gave a small wave toward him with a knowing smile, and he took some pleasure in the clearly unnerved reaction he got out of the bespectacled teen.

Ryoga silently pitied Higa. It’s very clear they’re gonna be Seigaku’s opponent next, and they’ve done the one thing that brings out Ryoma’s most vindictive side: Deliberately attempting to injure either kids, women, or the elderly.

Ryoma wouldn’t particularly mind people playing dirty against him, but if the person playing dirty tried to involve a third party in, he would mind, and if that third party happens to be at least one of the three aforementioned groups of people, well…

“Tezuka-buchou.” Ryoma called out.

“Yes, Ryoma?” Despite the lack of overt change in his expression, Tezuka's curiosity about what Ryoma called him out for was palpable on his face.

“Put me in Singles 1.”

Tezuka nodded, making no opposition to Ryoma’s request.

Ryoga stifled a grin. Ah, what a wonderful day that day turns out to be. He thought that the first few rounds of Nationals would be boring just like the previous year, but it turns out he would get to see Ryoma in action because of some fools who think that they can cover up their inferiority by playing dirty, in such a sloppy manner nonetheless!

Regardless of Ryoga’s own annoyance about the sloppy way that their soon-to-be opponent does their dirty play (they couldn’t even be bothered to set up better plausible deniability! Those kids would be eaten alive if they'd been in his place a few years ago), he idly wondered how he should thank them for giving Ryoma a reason to want to obliterate them on the court. Maybe flowers will suffice?

If anyone found Ryoga’s cheerful mood to be unsettling, none of them said it.

Lesson

Kite is not stupid. He knew that he had been had, by a First Year nonetheless. He wonders if anyone else truly understands the insanity of what had happened, when the Seigaku First Year intercepted the ball heading toward Rokkaku’s coach with a water bottle thrown from outside the court, over a fairly tall railing.

There’s no luck or chance involved in that action. Maybe he overestimates Echizen Ryoma, but he’s about 99% sure that the other teen had thrown that water bottle with the full understanding that it will do exactly what it needs to do. Which means that A: He can control the throw to such a point that its trajectory and timing is entirely under his control, and B: He’s capable of knowing where the ball is going to go just from looking at Kai’s movement.

Both of those combine to create an image of someone that, if Kite was to be completely honest with himself, he really doesn’t want to face. The fact that he felt like he was being watched very closely by a highly unnerving pair of eyes, ones that made him feel like he was prey waiting to be devoured, doesn’t help at all.

And Echizen Ryoma had made it very clear that he won’t tolerate any kind of shenanigans that Higa had been used to doing when as the match starts, the younger teen took out a fucking shinai from his bag and stood next to their coach, daring them to try .

Kite didn’t doubt for a second that he was serious, though some of his teammates didn’t share that sentiment.

“Putting aside why would he be bringing something like that to a tennis match, he’s gotta be bluffing right?” One of his teammates said, turning to Kite.

He wishes he could confidently say “Of course” and give some words of encouragement to his team, but Kite didn’t get his reputation and nickname as the Hitman by being unobservant. Despite what some doubters are saying, just from watching the recordings, he could tell that Echizen Ryoma is a monster . How else could he describe someone who is capable of beating Sanada of Rikkai with such ease?

“No,” Kite stated, surprising his teammates. “Use your brain. While his match with Sanada might have been some kind of fluke, the fact that he’s a master kendoka is most certainly not. Let’s not do anything rash.”

While his pride certainly hurts from backing down from such an obvious challenge, Kite thinks of himself as someone who knows when to retreat so he can advance later. At the end of the day, Ryoma Echizen is one person. While he might be strong enough to beat Sanada easily, if Higa can win enough matches that losing one won’t matter, they would be the one to advance.

Unfortunately for him and Higa, Seigaku isn’t the reigning Champion for nothing. Echizen Ryoga countered Tanishi’s serve without much problem, while Seigaku’s Eiji beat Kai. Their luck isn’t any better in the Doubles matches either, losing both, thus confirming that Seigaku would be the one to advance to the next round.

All that’s left is the last Singles match.

Their coach wasn’t happy, of course, but the man had never really held any real authority in the team as Kite was ultimately the one calling the shots. Thus, he didn’t particularly feel bad about knocking the man over with a ball. He’s gonna live, and while he’s not going to take his chances with harming Seigaku’s coach while Echizen Ryoma is standing watch, he still has a reputation to uphold.

To his surprise, it wasn’t Kunimitsu Tezuka that he’s gonna be facing. No, Echizen Ryoma had chosen to take up that spot instead, and Kite understood why.

He wants to make an example out of him, so to say. Kite is no stranger to the feeling of being cast as the villain for his and his team’s more unsportsmanlike conduct, and this time shouldn’t be any different. And yet.

“You know, I don’t particularly care about underhanded methods and such.” Ryoma starts suddenly as the two of them meet in the middle of the court to decide who serves first. “Everyone plays their best with the hand they’re given, and I won’t fault anyone for trying to cheat a little.”

Ryoma then looked at Kite straight in his eyes. “Shame that you didn’t have enough honor to at least keep the elderly out of your list of acceptable targets, Mister Hitman.”

Ah. Kite lamented his luck internally. He feels that his opponent was being genuine when he said that he doesn’t particularly care about what they do. So if Rokkaku’s coach had been a more sprightly young man, he wouldn’t have really bat an eye, and Kite wouldn’t be standing on the court feeling like he was awaiting his execution.

But still. He’s a tennis player. Everything he and Higa had done were for the sake of their ambition to win, to fulfill the hunger in their hearts. Despite the data, despite his own logic telling him that no, he won’t really stand a chance against his current opponent, his pride wouldn’t let him simply lay flat and be trampled.

If he’s gonna go down, he’s gonna go down fighting, do better than Sanada, and show them the pride of Okinawa.

So it’s with a particular feeling of humiliation that Kite left the court, after having spent the entire match utterly dominated and made to feel like he’s a monkey dancing on the palm of his opponent’s hand. It’s almost cruel in its utter disrespect. Ryoma had dismantled his tennis in a way that made him question what he’s even there for.

For a moment, he felt like he had been swallowed by darkness, his senses lost to it, and it was only the referee’s whistle indicating the end of the match that took him out of that darkness. He had no doubt that if the match hadn’t ended there, he would have fallen even deeper, perhaps to the point of despair.

But the match had ended, and Kite knew he had barely escaped from the open jaws of a predator.

Seigaku advances to the next round.

( “You stopped short of actually giving him the Yips.” Ryoga remarked after the match ended.

He didn’t question how Ryoma could replicate Yukimura’s “technique”. In his mind, there’s nothing that Ryoma couldn’t do.

Ryoma shrugged. “Didn’t feel like it, in the end. It’s not like anyone actually got harmed, since I foiled his plan.”

Ryoga didn’t comment any further. He wonders what it says about him that he’s disappointed that Ryoma didn't deliver the proverbial killing blow to Higa’s Captain. He would have, without a doubt. He had done it, multiple times, robbing others not only of their technique but also their tennis without any good reason.

Maybe he had hoped that Ryoma was just as twisted as he was deep down. Maybe he had hoped that Ryoma too wouldn’t bat an eye at the idea of robbing someone of something they had poured their body and soul into.

Maybe.)

Bad Taste

When Atobe saw what kind of costume Ryoma was wearing when he came to the Halloween party that he hosted, he near damn choked on his tea and for a moment lost the strength in his legs that Kabaji had to catch him from falling, it was then followed by a powerful urge to go and beat the shit out of Ryoma.

“Oh, I was wondering how you would react.”

Atobe shot Syusuke a glare. The other teen had made it no secret that he knew and made it a point to tease him about it whenever they met. The amount of time that the other teen had called him an “old woman” was enough to make Atobe consider murder.

“I was surprised too, you know. He came in wearing that and described his costume as a “white-haired ghost who died by hanging” and I thought I had succumbed to my family’s curse for a moment.” Syusuke said.

He then paused in silent contemplation for a moment before continuing. “It does make me wonder though why he would.”

That’s the question, isn’t it? It’s made even worse by the fact that it’s a good costume. The rope is made to look like it's still attached to something over him instead of just sagging, and he had makeup on that made him much paler and red marks painted around his neck for detail. There’s a lot of effort put into it.

“The idea came to me randomly a week ago and I said out loud during lunch, and Ryoga got so excited that I’m thinking about my Halloween costume when usually I didn’t bother at all that he got it all arranged and I can’t say no to him,” Ryoma explained after Atobe asked and kicked him in the shins.

Ryoma tugged at the ropes around his neck to adjust it to be more comfortable, and Atobe had to suppress a wince. Ryoma looked at him with concern, but Atobe brushed him off, telling him to move along so he could hunt Ryoga down.

He wished he could just tell Ryoma point blank the fact that he, Rin, was there on the day of Shirou Emiya’s hanging. That Rin Tohsaka had spent the rest of her life regretting so much, regretting that she hadn’t been enough to keep Shirou Emiya from leaving. That she hadn’t followed.

But Keigo Atobe is not Rin Tohsaka, and Ryoma Echizen is not Shirou Emiya. Their souls might be made from the same material, and the memories might have been passed to them, but Rin Tohsaka’s regrets are not Keigo Atobe’s, despite the feelings that come upon him from the memories. He’s fine, really.

Maybe one day he would. When he felt like the memories of Rin Tohsaka were too strong for him to ignore and keep out of his mind and there’s enough Shirou Emiya surfacing within Ryoma for it to matter. But for now, Atobe wants to beat the shit out of Ryoga for making him and Ryoma even have to think about it.