Deafening Silence ( prince of tennis) (#wattys2016)

18

Niou sat on top of the teacher's desk in the empty classroom, hunched forward as he scrolled through excitedly. Who knew a freshman had so much potential blackmail on his iPod? It wasn't particularly embarrassing music, but Niou knew how much Echizen treasured his iPod more than anything, so the amount of things he could force Echizen to do to get his iPod back made Niou grin smugly.

He had chosen the perfect place to listen to the kid's music. The classroom was located at the very corner of the school, which was rarely used and was used for the worst subject imaginable. No one like Economics, not even Yanagi, the school nerd.

It also helped that the sounds of the music that would potentially go through the door were drowned out by the sounds of the cooking club next door, all of them chatting and baking and the occasional ping of an oven or microwave.

He knew this would be one of those scenarios where it's the last place anyone would think to look, so it's immediately obvious, but Niou could tell by the fact that there had been no raging pink-haired tensai at the door in the last ten minutes that Marui wasn't nearly as smart as he thought he was. He internally cackled at the thought of Marui finally realising that maybe he isn't a genius after all, but he doubted it would happen, Marui was too stubborn when it came to his self-image.

Niou was honestly shocked at what his kouhai listened to. Being a freshman and all, he expected some lame Japanese pop music, not English rock and techno music. But he supposed he knew very little about the freshman, so he couldn't really be that surprised. He recognized some of the words - mostly curses, which were pretty abundant in some of the songs - so he could piece together the lyrics in his mind, and was infinitely amused by how the artists would literally scream over the guitars and electronic keyboards in the background.

He had been wondering how exactly he could use this to his advantage. He could make Echizen slave labour, but Niou was sure that at some point he would steal it back, so that idea was quickly dismissed.

How could I use this? He wondered.

And suddenly as if a light bulb went off in his head, Niou smiled widely and dashed out the door.

Rikkaidai Fuzoku Rooftop Garden

Marui practically crashed into the door as he slammed it open while still in a sprint, and had crossed the garden in an instant and looked all around. Niou wasn't here either.

He gritted his teeth in anger, mentally scolding himself for the hundredth time at the thought that he had let down Yanagi and doomed Echizen. He could only imagine the horrors that Niou would cause with the kid's iPod, and Marui dreaded to think of how pissed Echizen was right now.

He sat down on the ground, realising suddenly how tired he was, and allowed himself to catch a breath. It felt like since he went after Niou, all he had done is run and run and run.

It occurred to Marui in that moment that he should have collapsed from exhaustion long ago. He'd been searching for near half an hour, sprinting continually the entire time, and with a small pang of satisfaction that he'd destroyed his record time before catching a breath. He realised he'd been running so much because he was scared of Yanagi if he came back empty-handed, and scared for Echizen at the idea of what Niou would do.

The door swung open and Jackal and Yanagi appeared in the doorway, their eyes quickly scanning the room before landing on Marui.

"Bunta!" Jackal exclaimed, "How long have you been here?" He had already crossed the distance between them and was looking down at Marui with a scolding parent-kind of look. Marui felt kind of awkward at how Jackal looked like his parents in that moment.