[Prince of Tennis, Another Story] EP4 - The Trials of Rikkai

[emothy]

[ Prince of Tennis, Another Story ]
EP4 - The Trials of Rikkai




Kirihara: Starting today, I'm a Rikkai Middle School freshman, huh?
Kirihara: At this school I'll join the tennis club that's number one in the nation!
Kirihara: Then I'll become number one!
Teacher: Hey! what do you think you're doing up there? Get yourself down this instant!
Kirihara: S-Sorry!





Teacher: Look sharp, Kirihara! ...You realise you slept through the entire lesson.
Kirihara: Oh no! [grabs his bag and turns to leave]
Teacher: Wait now, I'm not through talking to you!
Kirihara: I'm sorry, but I got something real important to do!
Teacher: I have something real important for you to do, too.
Kirihara: Eeeep

---

Marui: Freshman, get in line!
Jackal: Hmm...
Marui: How is it? How's new member registration going?
Jackal: We've got three time the people as last year.
Marui: Yeah but... Doesn't look like any of them are that tough.
Jackal: Most of them came to register because they want to watch. We'll have a lot of drop-outs half a month from now.
Marui: Oh yeah! That kid isn't here.
Jackal: Kid?
Marui: Y'know! The one on top of the main gate. The one howling, "I'll be number one!"
Jackal: ...Right, there was that idiot.

---


Kirihara: Damn it! Now I'm super late!
Kirihara: Okay... Now where was the tennis club room?
Kirihara: Hey, you! Hey, are you maybe from the tennis club? Where's the club room? Can you tell me?
Niou: Heh.

---

Kirihara: Sorry I'm late!
Yagyuu: Do you have business in the Student Council Room?
Kirihara: Student Council Room? This is the Student Council Room?
Yagyuu: It is indeed.
Kirihara: That's weird...
Yagyuu: Someone's played a trick on you then. What a troublesome fellow he must be.





Kirihara: That bastard... He sure got me good!
Kirihara: I'll knock him one for sure!
Kirihara: Dang it, where is that guy? [gets a poke on the cheek] What're you doing?!
Marui: This is what you're lookin' for, isn't it?
Kirihara: Club Entry Registration? That's right! This is it! I'm the freshman, Kirihara Akaya! Rikkai Middle School Tennis Club's Super Rookie! The Kirihara of whom you have heard so much... is me!
Marui: [snorts] ...HEHEHEHE.
Kirihara: Is it possible you haven't heard of me? That's weird. I'm a pretty well known guy in the Junior League.
Jackal: We can go through that after you hand in your registration. Go get changed quick, then you can join the others in swing practice.
Kirihara: Huh, swing practice? You're kidding! Don't you think I can get right to having a match with the strongest guys? See, I want to make it to number one A.S.A.P.
(Third Year): Who are you?
Kirihara: I know you! You're from this, you're these guys, right? [pulls out magazine with Nationals article in it] See! Right?
(Third Year): That's from when we won the National Tournament.
Kirihara: Oh man, what an honor! I have always admired you guys.
Kirihara: 'If I can defeat these guys, I'll be number one in the nation!'

---


Jackal: Is this for real?
Marui: He won every single match.
Kirihara: What's this? Getting to number one was easier'n I thought.
Yukimura: What on earth is all this fuss?
(Third Year): Yukimura! Sanada! Yanagi!
Yukimura: It would seem you've been taken, sempai.
Sanada: You, new boy. What are you trying to pull?
Kirihara: What'm I trying to pull? Can't you tell by lookin'? Just now I made myself number one in this club!
Sanada: What's that?
Kirihara: But I guess the Nation's best ain't so much after all! I kinda thought you'd be a little stronger.
Sanada: You brat!
Yukimura: I think we might need to teach this one a little lesson.
Kirihara: What's all this? Why do I have to play a bunch of second years like you?
Sanada: Silence. Save your bullshit for when you win the match.





Yukimura: You'd best leave for the day. Even if you should continue, you have no chance of winning.
Marui: ...Hey, are you okay?
Kirihara: Shut up!
Marui: Hey!
Marui: ...Oh well, there he went.
Sanada: What a joke.




Yukimura: That boy didn't come today, either.
Sanada: When someone disturbs the observance of order, he is not qualified to join the Rikkai Tennis Club.
Yukimura: I see.
Sanada: However, talent... Isn't something I can let alone.
Yukimura: [chuckles]

---


Kirihara: Damn it! I lost the video game too? Who is this fem-freak anyway?!
Marui: That'd be me!
Kirihara: ...I might be first class, but there's no way I'm joining the tennis club!
Marui: What's that? Still can't deal with the fact that you lost?
Kirihara: Even though those guys are just second-years, what the heck are they?
Jackal: The people you faced...
Marui: -Who wants to stand around talking in a place like this? How 'bout we go eat some ramen? What? It's a treat of course! From Jackal here.
Jackal: From me?!

---


Jackal: You see? The ones who got Rikkai the National Cup last year... Were these three. Yanagi is called, 'The Master', Yukimura is called, 'The Demigod', and Sanada is called, 'The Emperor', as their second names. All together the three of them are called the Rikkai Tennis Club's "Big Three".
Kirihara: Big Three?
Marui: Basically, it's not just within Rikkai. Even out of the whole country, they're extraordinarily strong. You were facing guys that awesome. You should be happy!
Kirihara: I should be happy? I'm not going to be satisfied with that!
Jackal: You can play those guys until you're sick; it's probably just a matter of pure ability.
Marui: But that's fine! They're people you can be proud of.
Kirihara: I don't know anything about some "Big Three", but they're just middle schoolers like me! I'll take all three of 'em together and bring them down!
Jackal: Is he serious?




Yukimura: That boy... He reminds me of how you were back then. At the Junior Tournament two years ago, when you were in elementary school, struggling with that match, and Tezuka had come from nowhere to defeat you completely.
( Sanada: Someday... Someday, I... I'll become number one!)
Yukimura: After that you took up practice upon practice, and finally reached the highest peak.
Yukimura: People become stronger in measure equal to their knowledge of defeat.
Yukimura: Just as you did back then.

---


Kirihara: Today at three in the afternoon, come to the tennis court. An' don't you run off.
Yukimura: He's really quite a handful, isn't he?
Sanada: These kanji are full of errors. He's too careless!
( Missrs, Yukimura Seiichi, Sanada Genichirou, and Yanagi Renji:
Today, 3:00PN* At the school tennis chord*, I'm going to crash* you all fare* and square.
-- Kirihara Akaya.)


Sanada: Leave this one to me.
Yanagi: Well, Genichirou certainly is being personable.
Yukimura: He's unexpectedly fond of that reckless child.
Kirihara: Here I go.
Sanada: Oh? I'd say your power and speed have improved since last time.
Kirihara: If all you do is move your mouth, you'll suffer; just watch!
Sanada: Too weak! Be swift, just as the wind.
Jackal: There it is, Sanada's Fuurin Kazan.
Marui: Oh wow. I couldn't see the swing at all.
Yanagi: A Split-Step?
Kirihara: I'm not fallin' for the same trick!
Jackal: But that was Fuurin Kazan's Wind!
Marui: He returned it?!
Yukimura: Eh? So this opponent can keep Sanada in a rally...
Yanagi: But even still, Kirihara is outmatched. At this rate, he has no hope of winning.






Kirihara: I'm going to defeat the "Big Three", and become number one!
Marui: A rising shot?
Sanada: Pursue silence, just as the forest.
Kirihara: He took away all the ball's power.
Jackal: Fuurin Kazan's Forest.
Kirihara: I'm not gonna lose!
Sanada: I'm finishing this!

---


Sanada: I'd say that does it.
Kirihara: Hold it right there. Don't you run off.
Marui: What's with his eyes?
Kirihara: I'm gonna waste you.
Jackal: Are you serious? Sanada's getting pushed around?
Marui: He should use the impenetrable guard, Fuurin Kazan's Mountain! Why hasn't he invoked it?
Yukimura: He did invoke it... Quite some time ago.
Sanada: That's fine-
Sanada: I'll just stop holding back!




Sanada: Invade and lay waste, just as the fire!
Kirihara: What was that... just now?
Jackal: That's Fire. Sanada invoked Fire at last.
Sanada: What's wrong? Are you finished now?
Kirihara: Nowhere close!
Yukimura: That's enough! This is your loss, Kirihara-kun.
Kirihara: My...
Yukimura: That's right. This is your loss. With the strength you have now, no matter how often you try the result will be the same.
Yanagi: But you can become stronger.
Sanada: Join the tennis club. Set your eye on even greater heights. We will play you at any time.

---


Kirihara: I'm going to join the tennis club! But it's not 'cause I lost, got it? It's so someday I can beat you and become number one!
Sanada: Is that so? Alright. In that case, start with the basics. One hundred laps around the grounds, right now.
Kirihara: One hundred laps? Right now?!
Niou: [removes wig]
Jackal: Guess that kid got tricked by Niou again.
Marui: He really is a neat kid!
Yukimura: I'd say things are starting to get fun.
Sanada: Honestly, he's too careless!



(Images can be used, but I'd appreciate credit because it took ages to put them all together!)

Comments

[fairytales]

This begs the question of where did he learn defeat, like you said. There are a number of other possibilities that can come up - illness in childhood, bad grades, loss of friends or something (or maybe he encountered a loss in tennis at a young age, in a private game, that made him strive to be the best).

This and the quote above make me wonder about Yukimura. He implies that Sanada is at the peak there. Does he think about the future at all? Think about the tennis after this moment? Or does he expect Sanada - and himself, in extension - to always be at the top?

It makes it interesting to consider this in terms of his surgery and subsequent defeat at the hands of Echizen.

[thelittleone]

I was actually talking a bit of this out with Em last ni-- err, earlier this morning (the ungodly hours, my time) and I was speculation on the idea that maybe it's something he witnessed that in turn had such a profound effect on him. I realize that Yukimura isn't the type to say stuff unless he's experienced it himself (hence being an authority on the matter), but I can't help but wonder -- is this him talking about himself or is it him talking about things that he has seen and sees? I've known players who do this, not tennis, clearly. They see how a mentor or a sempai goes through something that beats them down and have front row seats to seeing them improve. It's very awe-inspiring -- but I say this mostly because of my own experience.

Good questions, Cyn. It makes me wonder how far they think they can take their tennis. Are they aiming for going pro? Because I think the only one it was ever mentioned for was Tezuka.

Seconded.

P.S. A redundant question but-- why is it that the characters in Rikkai are so multifaceted with layers upon layers of things to explore?

[fairytales]

I was actually thinking along the same lines. There is honestly nothing broken about Yukimura until his collapse, so I'm going to venture to say that his comment came from watching and seeing players go through that, maybe even people (perhaps his family - his father commenting about success and failure before that? What does his family do, anyway?). But I don't think he's known loss, not in any great sense.

So that also makes me wonder: how did his loss to Echizen affect him? Yukimura came bck from a surgery and expected to be unstoppable and lost to this little freshman boy. If he holds his words true - what is he going to be like in high school?

I told Em we need to discuss who would be going pro! :D

[thelittleone]

SHIT YES. WE NEED TO DISCUSS WHO IS GOING PRO. Because I might need to recalibrate my timeline! But before that, can all three of us discuss who is still in the senior!high circuit? This is relevant to me writing more TGT fic.

Also, Cyn, according to the profile his father's in an Ad Agency. Nothing stated about his mother, so I think we can just do a free-for-all in this one.

Okay, will come out and admit that while I think the whole thing about Echizen losing his memory and everyone helping him gain it back in time for his match with Yukimura is A TRUCKLOAD OF STUPID MY MIND CANNOT EVEN-- *coughs* But I actually do think it makes perfect sense that Yukimura lost. He was still recovering so while he still might have been brilliant, it would be too much to assume that he would win (makes a body wonder then, how much of people losing to Yukimura before Echizen beat him was psychological self-sabotage on their part, because the alternative is just... NO. I can't picture anyone losing to him just to make him feel better -- this would be an interesting thing to explore though, I must write. Shit. I have to write.)

He is going to be an even bigger tyrant. This is just me.

[fairytales]

We do, both things! I think Em should put up a post for it :D (hinthinthint).

Echizen losing his memory was such a truckload of stupid. :| I hate that.

But I do think that it makes sense that Yukimura lost (has much as I hate to admit it). He needed to realize something too, that life goes on after defeat. I think this ties into that quote a lot. His illness and defeat were the two major things that happened to him, that nearly broke him and redefined him. With the illness, he had to come to terms with the fact that he was *mortal* (which not a lot of teenagers truly think about or consider, in general). With the loss in tennis, he had to realize that it was... okay to lose, that he can still continue on playing.

I don't think any of the other players lost to him on purpose; but none of them were *great* players; they weren't of his or Tezuka's or Atobe's caliber. (And how many games did he play between his surgery and Echizen's game. It might have only been a few people so he didn't really have a challenge with them then).

If he takes that quote to heart, he'd come back with guns blazing in high school, ready to go and driving everyone on his team to do great things - and driving himself even harder. He might be a tyrant to everyone else, but he's even worse on himself!

[thelittleone]

EM SHOULD. Before she leaves us to fend for ourselves. XD

IT WAS. OMG. There are no words-- =|

Shit Cyn. Why is it that I SERIOUSLY WANT TO WRITE HIS COMEBACK. And then juxtapose it with Akaya and Akaya struggling as new captain.

[emothy]

Put a post WHERE? This journal is for my liveblogging/recapping and I am not messing it up for you two :P The comments are supposed to be for these kind of dicussions! Start a new thread or something!

[fairytales]

Fine, I'll start a new thread :-p