Ship: Echizen Ryouma/Yukimura Seiichi Fandom: Prince of Tennis Major Tags: none Other Tags: mentions of serious illness and amnesia Square: truth Word Count: 420
***
Yukimura's tennis is the source of much debate. Everyone knows the rumors of its power, but few have the chance that experience it. Those that do never wish to talk about it, and so no one knows exactly how it works.
Yukimura knows, but he doesn't share. He's always been strong, but his technique doesn't reach its full potential until after he recovers from his illness. It's a technique that only he can use—one that's born out of a sacrifice that he knows no others have made. He is able to seal his opponent's senses because he has had his own stolen. He knows the fear of being unable to move, of struggling to breathe as muscles won't respond. It's a basic, primal fear, one that appeals to the animal brain and bypasses any higher reasoning. He has faced that fear, looked it in the eye, and conquered it, and so he is able to use it as his own.
He is confident going into the final match of Nationals. He's heard of his opponent, the so-called "Super Rookie" of Seigaku.
He's not afraid. If Yanagi's data is correct, and it usually is, the worst injury Ryouma has ever faced was a cut eyelid back in his first official game. Yukimura smiles at that thought; this match will be child's play. He almost wishes he were facing Tezuka; Seigaku's captain still can't match him, but he's made enough of a sacrifice of his own that the match would likely at least be vaguely entertaining.
What Yanagi's data doesn't account for—can't account for—is certain events that unfold in the last minutes before the match. For Ryouma makes a sacrifice even Yukimura has never imagined; he sacrifices his memories for tennis. And in sacrificing his memory—the very core of his identity—he makes a sacrifice greater than any Yukimura has ever made. And so, when Yukimura unleashes the full power of his tennis, Ryouma doesn't crumble as every opponent before him has. Instead, in the void of Yukimura's technique, he smiles as only another who has fought their way back from the void can smile and says "you still have lots more to work on."
People have always called Yukimura the "Child of God," the nickname growing even stronger after his seemingly miraculous recovery for Nationals, but in giving him that name, everyone has overlooked a fundamental truth: for all of the miracles he may have worked, the Child of God himself was only human.
FILL: Team Imaizumi Shunsuke/Kinjou Shingo, B3, G
Fandom: Prince of Tennis
Major Tags: none
Other Tags: mentions of serious illness and amnesia
Square: truth
Word Count: 420
***
Yukimura's tennis is the source of much debate. Everyone knows the rumors of its power, but few have the chance that experience it. Those that do never wish to talk about it, and so no one knows exactly how it works.
Yukimura knows, but he doesn't share. He's always been strong, but his technique doesn't reach its full potential until after he recovers from his illness. It's a technique that only he can use—one that's born out of a sacrifice that he knows no others have made. He is able to seal his opponent's senses because he has had his own stolen. He knows the fear of being unable to move, of struggling to breathe as muscles won't respond. It's a basic, primal fear, one that appeals to the animal brain and bypasses any higher reasoning. He has faced that fear, looked it in the eye, and conquered it, and so he is able to use it as his own.
He is confident going into the final match of Nationals. He's heard of his opponent, the so-called "Super Rookie" of Seigaku.
He's not afraid. If Yanagi's data is correct, and it usually is, the worst injury Ryouma has ever faced was a cut eyelid back in his first official game. Yukimura smiles at that thought; this match will be child's play. He almost wishes he were facing Tezuka; Seigaku's captain still can't match him, but he's made enough of a sacrifice of his own that the match would likely at least be vaguely entertaining.
What Yanagi's data doesn't account for—can't account for—is certain events that unfold in the last minutes before the match. For Ryouma makes a sacrifice even Yukimura has never imagined; he sacrifices his memories for tennis. And in sacrificing his memory—the very core of his identity—he makes a sacrifice greater than any Yukimura has ever made. And so, when Yukimura unleashes the full power of his tennis, Ryouma doesn't crumble as every opponent before him has. Instead, in the void of Yukimura's technique, he smiles as only another who has fought their way back from the void can smile and says "you still have lots more to work on."
People have always called Yukimura the "Child of God," the nickname growing even stronger after his seemingly miraculous recovery for Nationals, but in giving him that name, everyone has overlooked a fundamental truth: for all of the miracles he may have worked, the Child of God himself was only human.