Ryoma/Kintarou is, as far as I know, all me. The idea made me giggle madly, but I couldn't pull off a romance, so here they are as friends. Any tennis-related talk is all from my [not too tennis-knowledgeable head, and I haven't read the Ryoma-Kintarou match in forever on top of it, so forgive any errors I might have made. ; My first time writing either of them, too. Enjoy.
Originally when I tried to post this on FFnet, I got mad because it deleted my fake e-mail addresses, and kind of boycotted. I have decided now that I like this piece too much to sacrifice it to the void, so here it is in FFnet-safe format.
Disclaimer: I don't own Prince of Tennis.
Original date: July 7th, 2007
No Big Surprise
He's heard a lot about this Tooyama Kintarou. If Ryoma himself is the "super freshman" of Kantou, then Tooyama is the same for Kansai. He doesn't know much beyond that, admittedly-- though when they first meet, Ryoma can't help but think to himself that the kid is too excitable for his own good. Briefly, he wonders if this seemingly airheaded first year is really good enough to be his greatest rival.
He almost doesn't get a chance to find out, though. He hasn't actually see Tooyama play yet, after all, and while the rumors say he's as good as himself, Ryoma's learned to never trust rumors. So when buchou soundly beats that Chitose guy in doubles one, ensuring Seigaku's victory, Ryoma's resigned himself to not playing today.
And at any other time, he wouldn't have played. But as they're walking away, he hears a familiar voice ask: "What about me?"
And so he resigns himself to playing instead.
It's just a one-point match, not very long in theory, but it's one of the greatest matches he's ever played. Tooyama, he realizes, is all the rumors described him to be and more. His playing style is fast and furious and knows no limits; it's almost... wild. The shots are different, but the style is surprisingly similar to Ryoma's own.
The ball ends up split in half, with each half on opposite sides of the net. Ryoma never gets to find out who's better.
-o0o-
"Koshimae!"
He's just leaving the victory-party-turned-eating-contest that night when he hears the telltale call. Ryoma turns around, cringing internally. There's only one person who ever calls him that. Honestly, can't the kid get his name right for once...?
"What is it?" he says disinterestedly as Tooyama runs-- bounces?-- up to him. He stops walking for the moment, to see what Tooyama wants from him this time.
Tooyama grins. "Today's match was really good, wasn't it?" The moonlight is reflecting off of Tooyama's bright, reddish hair, turning it odd shades.
Ryoma finds himself nodding. "If you can call one point a match."
"It was just one point, but it was still awesome!" the other first year urges. "You felt it too, didn't you??"
Ryoma is silent. He didn't particularly want to admit it, but he had gotten into it as well. "...Yeah," he finally answers. "Yeah. You're right."
"Oi! Kin-chan!!" someone calls from behind them.
Tooyama cringes slightly. "Oops, my team is waiting for me. Gotta go!" With that, he turns and runs-- bounces, Ryoma can't help but think-- off again. Just before he reaches the rest of his group, Tooyama turns around and, cupping his hands around his mouth, shouts: "Talk to you later, Koshimae!!"
Once again, Ryoma finds himself nodding.
-o0o-
About a week after nationals are over, Ryoma finds an e-mail in his inbox.
To: tennisprince(at)yahoo(.)com
From: wild1(at)mac(.)com
Subject: koshimae!!!
hey koshimae! whats up? i heard u guys won nationals! thats great! how was it?
i wanna play u again sometime, looking forward to it
say hi to that girl with the pigtails for me too :)
-kintarou
The message is typed in chatspeak and without proper usage of grammar; he can just see Tooyama sitting there typing as fast as can be. It strikes Ryoma as the type of thing he'd do.
Ryoma sighs. As much as he enjoyed playing against Tooyama, he doesn't need another person fanboying him all the time. He already has Dan Taichi and Aoi Kentarou and that damned annoying girl.
He starts on a reply. Ryoma types relatively slow and with little mistakes, capitalizing and punctuating correctly, making sure to get every letter across properly.
To: wild1(at)mac(.)com
From: tennisprince(at)yahoo(.)com
Subject: Re: koshimae!!!
Tooyama,
The finals were tough, but good.
Why are you e-mailing me? I don't need another stalker. And where did you get my e-mail, anyway?
Echizen
A day later, a reply pops in.
To: tennisprince(at)yahoo(.)com
From: wild1(at)mac(.)com
Subect: Re; koshimae!!!
thats good. the others played rikkai last year, i heard theyre tough
and im not ur stalker koshimae :( i just wanna say hi
and i asked that one guy on ur team. the one who played shiraishi
-kintarou
Ryoma growls slightly as he reads the last line of the message. He's going to get Fuji-senpai for this somehow. Ask Inui-senpai for a sample of Aozu? That was probably a bit too drastic...
Nevertheless, Ryoma wonders about Tooyama's motives for e-mailing him like this. He starts on a reply.
To: wild1(at)mac(.)com
From: tennisprince(at)yahoo(.)com
Subject: Re: koshimae!!!
They were tough. We almost didn't beat them.
And if you're not my stalker, what are you, then?
Echizen
When the short reply comes in the next day, it isn't want Ryoma's expecting.
To: tennisprince(at)yahoo(.)com
From: wild1(at)mac(.)com
Subject: Re: koshimae!!!
were rivals arent we?
Ryoma sits and blinks at his screen for a minute. He hasn't thought of it like that. It's true that he got into the game while playing Tooyama, and that the other is among the few who truly equal him, but... rivals?
Ryoma smirks. It makes an odd sort of sense.
To: wild1(at)mac(.)com
From: tennisprince(at)yahoo(.)com
We are if you want us to be.
-o0o-
He keeps talking to Tooyama once in a while after that. The other first year is almost always the one that starts the e-mail conversations, though after a few months, Ryoma comes to him with something once or twice.
To be honest, Tooyama completely baffles Ryoma. The redhead's strange assumptions (like Shiraishi's poisonous arm) and crazy misunderstandings (like Ryoma's third eye) are sometimes too completely out there for Ryoma to really get. Moreover, Tooyama is just as outgoing online as he is in real life; the boy often speaks in exclamation points. Ryoma's discovered, though, that if you can calm Tooyama down ever so slightly, he actually does have some interesting points to bring up. The two have had several intriguing discussions and debates about tennis. Both are very firm and passionate in their opinions, and Tooyama's energy and eagerness combined with Ryoma's blunt honesty makes for an odd but favorable combination. Time goes on, and the two continue to talk about things like next year's lineup, school subjects, and the like.
One day, a month or two from the end of the school year, Ryoma gets a call on his cell phone.
He answers it automatically. "Hello?"
"Hey, Koshimae!"
Ryoma sighs inaudibly. I'm not even going to ask how he got this number... "You mean Echizen," he corrects.
"Eh?" The voice on the other end sounds slightly confused.
"Echizen," he repeats. "My name. It's pronounced Echizen. Not Koshimae."
"Koshimae is Koshimae," Tooyama says stubbornly.
Ryoma sighs out loud this time. "Fine, Tooyama."
"You can just call me Kintarou, you know," Tooyama interjects.
"If I call you Kintarou, will you call me Echizen?" Ryoma counters.
"...No."
Ryoma smirks; he'd been expecting that. "Which is why I'll keep calling you Tooyama."
-o0o-
The next year they don't get to play Shitenhouji at nationals again. Shitenhouji is facing Rikkai in the semifinals; Seigaku is facing Hyoutei.
Nevertheless, Ryoma and Tooyama find a way to talk to each other in person.
"I remember Fudomine. They're good at doubles, better than last year. And they all know and trust each other," Tooyama protests as they wander around outside the stadium the day before their individual matches.
"So does Rikkaidai," Ryoma points out. "You haven't played them yet, so you wouldn't know, but they can beat anyone with pretty much any combination they can think of."
"But..."
"Rikkaidai is king of doubles," Ryoma says. "End of discussion."
"Fine..." Tooyama pouts. Then his eyes light up as he sees the tennis courts up ahead. "Hey, wanna play?"
Ryoma ponders this for a minute, then smirks. "Mada mada dane."
("Wait, does that mean no or yes??" Tooyama asks him.)
-o0o-
They don't talk as much as before during the following year, but they still keep in contact occasionally.
Ryoma is captain of Seigaku now; his players aren't nearly as spectacular as his senpais, but they'll do. Ryoma finds being a captain difficult work; he's never been very extroverted, and while he may have the others' respect, he's not too good at motivation. This is where keeping in contact comes in handy. Along with complaining to Tooyama, Ryoma gets into the habit of taking advice from Tezuka-buchou.
And so, when he and his team find themselves opposite a team led by a familiar grinning redhead during quarterfinals, it comes as no big surprise to Ryoma.
They meet each other in singles two that round. Tooyama smiles brightly at him as they shake hands across the net. "It's been a while, hasn't it, Koshimae?"
Ryoma keeps his face blank, but inside he's grinning as well. "Yeah."
This time they can really go all out. A 6-all tie turns into a long, long tiebreaker, even longer than when he played the Monkey King (er, Atobe).
"...Game set! Won by..."
-o0o-
They fall out of contact even more after that.
During the start of high school, Tooyama is even more excitable than ever, e-mailing Ryoma on almost a weekly basis, always discussing the differences from junior high or the new tennis teams they're on as first years again.
After a few months, though, the e-mails slowly trickle in less and less; in a little over six months, they've stopped completely.
Ryoma wonders sometimes what happened. The answer, though, is perfectly simple. Tennis happened. High school happened. Life happened. And while he or Tooyama will occasionally make the effort to see how the other is doing, for the most part they've fallen out of contact.
He can't help but regret it a little. Somehow, he'd come to like Tooyama over the years. There was no explaining how or why, but the redhead's enthusiasm was contagious. He'd never admit it to anyone, but he was fond of the other player.
They'd see each other at nationals, and the pattern would repeat. They would start talking again, and then trickle off. Rewind. Stop. Play. Rewind.
During the national tournament of his final year of high school, Ryoma finds himself in for a bit of a disappointment. Kintarou's team drops out of the running relatively early and is nowhere to be found.
-o0o-
He goes into professional tennis after high school. First the relatively small tournaments, then onto the big ones. Always he's subconsciously keeping an eye out for Tooyama's name on the lists of players.
He runs into a lot of people he knows-- Monkey King, Yukimura, Kaidoh-senpai, Tezuka-buchou. But never Tooyama. Whenever Ryoma is in one place, Tooyama is always someplace else. It's just their luck; they keep missing each other.
He doesn't want to keep getting his hopes up for nothing. If it weren't for the fact that he'd have no idea who his opponents are, he would've stopped checking the player lists altogether.
-o0o-
"So who am I up against this time?" Ryoma asks absently. He's been in the pro circuit for several years now, and while he's relatively well-known, he's not world-famous just yet, as many might have suspected.
"Hmm," his manager answers. "Well, from Japan, there's Sanada Genichiroh, Tooyama Kintarou, Hiyoshi Wakashi--"
Ryoma cuts her off, suddenly attentive. "Wait. What was that?"
She looks up at him. "Hiyoshi Wakashi?"
"No, no. Before that."
"...Tooyama Kintarou?"
Ryoma stares at her in disbelief.
-o0o-
There's an odd feeling of excitement in his bones as he walks out onto the court this time. And when he finally reaches the net and shakes the hand of the opponent across from him, it's no big surprise to Ryoma to see a bright smile and red hair.
"It's been a while, hasn't it... Koshimae?"
-OWARI-