All the Difference - Chapter Eight
Chapter Summary: Tournament season is fast approaching. Fuji gets his first taste of tennis as an official member of the Rikkai team.
Chapter Eight: Law
Chapter Eight's Author's Notes:
~Chapter Name - It wasn't until I was about to post the chapter that I realized I didn't have a name for it. Whoops! Law refers to the "law" of Rikkai, of course, which Fuji accidentally found himself honoring a couple different times during the chapter.
~Uniforms - I was originally not going to have the team practicing in their uniforms to acknowledge the discrepancy between the color of the Rikkai uniforms (red vs. yellow), but I've already had Rikkai appear in yellow in previous chapters and had multiple characters reference the yellow uniforms, so that got cut as irrelevant and potentially contradictory.
~Rival geography - I was originally going to have the match held in Ninomiya. It's only about 15 miles away from where I think Rikkai is located. In the middle of working on the last chapter, I lost track of where Ninomiya/Naka district is in comparison to Enoshima/Fujisawa and got worried that it was actually a couple hours away. So, I made the decision to make things really simple and have the matches at the Rikkai campus. When I was able to confirm that it wasn't nearly that far away, I decided to keep things simple and keep it at Rikkai.
~Mistake in previous chapter - Along the same lines, I knew having a team from the Ibaraki prefecture wasn't what I intended, but the notes from my geography research was scattered and I included a reference to that it in the letter Fuji received from Yanagi when the last chapter was originally posted. With all of the unfortunate news out of Japan over the past few weeks, I've seen quite a few references to the Ibaraki prefecture on the news as a hot spot of problems due to the combined earthquake/tsunami/nuclear disasters. Since I managed to track down my original notes, I corrected it.
~Fast paced volley drill - I had in mind Kamio and Ibu's first appearance in the anime, only with one ball.
~"Special" instructions - Seigaku's training methods seem crazy at times, but not terribly grueling. I wanted to come up with something original for Rikkai to have for training. I hope it was believable.
~Cameos in general - One of the biggest challenges I worried about overcoming when I was originally planning this story was coming up with enough character names and personalities to keep the matches interesting until I got into matches with established characters. I decided to fill in the gaps by borrowing names and elements of characters from projects that some of the Tenimyu boys have also been a part of. If you're a fan of live-action television shows, there will probably be a lot of names and personality quirks you recognize in upcoming characters. They're not the actual characters from those shows and by no means is it necessary for you to have watched those shows to keep reading the story, but hopefully it's something that will make you laugh or smile if you do recognize them. And speaking of cameos, there's already been one in a previous chapter. Did anyone spot it?
~This chapter's cameos:
- Ninomiya's Coach is Nanbara Takashi. That's a character from "Tadashii Ouji no Tsukurikata" played by TeniMyu First Stage's Kikumaru. He was a teacher at the school where the show was set, hence him being the coach.
- Araki Rio is a combination of Araki Hirofumi (TeniMyu Second Stage's Inui) and Rio, the character Araki played in Jyuken Sentai Gekiranger. Similarly, Suzuki Jyan is a combination of Suzuki Hiroki (TeniMyu Second Stage's Oishi) and Kandou Jan, the character Suzuki played in Jyuken Sentai Gekiranger. Rio was the lead villain in that series, while Jan was the lead hero. The comments about their playing style being wild or vicious is a vague reference to the beast spirits they would fight each other with. Jan also had a habit of speaking in gibberish to describe how he was feeling because he was raised by tigers. (If you're not familiar with the story, it's easier not to question it.) Also, Fuji being taller than both of the Ninomiya pair is another TeniMyu reference. Araki, despite Inui being the tallest character from Seigaku, was the second-shortest of the Seigaku cast. Aiba, despite Fuji being the second-shortest character from Seigaku, was one of the tallest of the Seigaku cast.
- Hata Shurinosuke is another character from "Tadashii Ouji no Tsukurikata" played by TeniMyu Second/Third Stage's Fuji. I don't remember much about the series, but the character was very flamboyant. Yoshiyuki Kirin was also from that series, and played by Original Rikkai's Marui. (Hence Marui sticking up for Kirin.) He was supposed to be the class clown in that series, so that explains his personality.
- Ono Kyosuke is a combination of Ono Kento (Original Rikkai's Yanagi) and Hamao Kyosuke (Fourth Stage's Kikumaru). Both were also cast members in Tensou Sentai Goseiger, where Ono's Hyde was an intellectual warrior and Hamao's Agri was all about training and physical strength.
- Inada Gen is a character from "Happy Boys" that was played by TeniMyu Rokkaku's Kurobane.
- He was barely mentioned, but Kirihara's opponent was Fukami Tatsuya. That was supposed to be a combination of Fukami Retsu (a character from Jyuken Sentai Gekiranger that was predominantly played by the identical twin of Third Stage's Momoshiro) and Shinozaki Tatsuya (a quiet character from "Tadashii Ouji no Tsukurikata" that was played by the first Echizen actor.)
~Suzuki's excitement - For whatever reason, Suzuki ended up reminding me of Jiroh. That might be important, since I'm not sure there will be a Fuji-Jiroh match in this alternate universe.
~Foreign-born student - I need to do more research on Jackal. I know he's half-Japanese/half-Brazilian and he spent at least part of his life living in Brazil. Until I learn otherwise, I'm going to assume he was born in Brazil and then moved to Japan as a younger child.
~Match lengths - I have a feeling that Rikkai matches are going to be kind of boring. Other than against Seigaku (and when they throw the national semifinal matches), they always win 6-0. There are only so many ways that you can steamroll your opponents before it gets boring.
~Marui Jokes - Marui literally means "round, circular, spherical". So Irony is that another meaning is harmonious, calm. Not as rowdy as, say, Eiji or Gakuto, but I wouldn't call him calm either.
~Aka-chan - Another Japanese pun. Aka-chan is an abbreviated way of saying Akaya-chan, but it also is the term for "baby".
~"Evolve by exposing ourselves to adversity" - A lyric borrowed from "Must Be Strong" in TeniMyu's Absolute King Rikkai First Service.
~Future chapters - I was toying with the idea of cutting out the next chapter, which is going to focus on Fuji's first day(s) as a Rikkai student, but I think I need to lay a little more groundwork before I jump into tournaments. But yes, the competition season is finally about to start!
~Birthday - As I mentioned, I accidentally managed to have this finished in time for my one year anniversary of posting the story on ff.net. I knew it was coming up, but I didn't realize it was today until I went to update my profile this morning. I wish it hasn't taken me this long to get to this point in the story, but thank you to everyone for having faith that I'll stick with this.
Next Chapter: With classes starting, Fuji has no time for unease. But is he really suited for playing tennis at Rikkai?
Chapter Eight: Law
Chapter Eight's Author's Notes:
~Chapter Name - It wasn't until I was about to post the chapter that I realized I didn't have a name for it. Whoops! Law refers to the "law" of Rikkai, of course, which Fuji accidentally found himself honoring a couple different times during the chapter.
~Uniforms - I was originally not going to have the team practicing in their uniforms to acknowledge the discrepancy between the color of the Rikkai uniforms (red vs. yellow), but I've already had Rikkai appear in yellow in previous chapters and had multiple characters reference the yellow uniforms, so that got cut as irrelevant and potentially contradictory.
~Rival geography - I was originally going to have the match held in Ninomiya. It's only about 15 miles away from where I think Rikkai is located. In the middle of working on the last chapter, I lost track of where Ninomiya/Naka district is in comparison to Enoshima/Fujisawa and got worried that it was actually a couple hours away. So, I made the decision to make things really simple and have the matches at the Rikkai campus. When I was able to confirm that it wasn't nearly that far away, I decided to keep things simple and keep it at Rikkai.
~Mistake in previous chapter - Along the same lines, I knew having a team from the Ibaraki prefecture wasn't what I intended, but the notes from my geography research was scattered and I included a reference to that it in the letter Fuji received from Yanagi when the last chapter was originally posted. With all of the unfortunate news out of Japan over the past few weeks, I've seen quite a few references to the Ibaraki prefecture on the news as a hot spot of problems due to the combined earthquake/tsunami/nuclear disasters. Since I managed to track down my original notes, I corrected it.
~Fast paced volley drill - I had in mind Kamio and Ibu's first appearance in the anime, only with one ball.
~"Special" instructions - Seigaku's training methods seem crazy at times, but not terribly grueling. I wanted to come up with something original for Rikkai to have for training. I hope it was believable.
~Cameos in general - One of the biggest challenges I worried about overcoming when I was originally planning this story was coming up with enough character names and personalities to keep the matches interesting until I got into matches with established characters. I decided to fill in the gaps by borrowing names and elements of characters from projects that some of the Tenimyu boys have also been a part of. If you're a fan of live-action television shows, there will probably be a lot of names and personality quirks you recognize in upcoming characters. They're not the actual characters from those shows and by no means is it necessary for you to have watched those shows to keep reading the story, but hopefully it's something that will make you laugh or smile if you do recognize them. And speaking of cameos, there's already been one in a previous chapter. Did anyone spot it?
~This chapter's cameos:
- Ninomiya's Coach is Nanbara Takashi. That's a character from "Tadashii Ouji no Tsukurikata" played by TeniMyu First Stage's Kikumaru. He was a teacher at the school where the show was set, hence him being the coach.
- Araki Rio is a combination of Araki Hirofumi (TeniMyu Second Stage's Inui) and Rio, the character Araki played in Jyuken Sentai Gekiranger. Similarly, Suzuki Jyan is a combination of Suzuki Hiroki (TeniMyu Second Stage's Oishi) and Kandou Jan, the character Suzuki played in Jyuken Sentai Gekiranger. Rio was the lead villain in that series, while Jan was the lead hero. The comments about their playing style being wild or vicious is a vague reference to the beast spirits they would fight each other with. Jan also had a habit of speaking in gibberish to describe how he was feeling because he was raised by tigers. (If you're not familiar with the story, it's easier not to question it.) Also, Fuji being taller than both of the Ninomiya pair is another TeniMyu reference. Araki, despite Inui being the tallest character from Seigaku, was the second-shortest of the Seigaku cast. Aiba, despite Fuji being the second-shortest character from Seigaku, was one of the tallest of the Seigaku cast.
- Hata Shurinosuke is another character from "Tadashii Ouji no Tsukurikata" played by TeniMyu Second/Third Stage's Fuji. I don't remember much about the series, but the character was very flamboyant. Yoshiyuki Kirin was also from that series, and played by Original Rikkai's Marui. (Hence Marui sticking up for Kirin.) He was supposed to be the class clown in that series, so that explains his personality.
- Ono Kyosuke is a combination of Ono Kento (Original Rikkai's Yanagi) and Hamao Kyosuke (Fourth Stage's Kikumaru). Both were also cast members in Tensou Sentai Goseiger, where Ono's Hyde was an intellectual warrior and Hamao's Agri was all about training and physical strength.
- Inada Gen is a character from "Happy Boys" that was played by TeniMyu Rokkaku's Kurobane.
- He was barely mentioned, but Kirihara's opponent was Fukami Tatsuya. That was supposed to be a combination of Fukami Retsu (a character from Jyuken Sentai Gekiranger that was predominantly played by the identical twin of Third Stage's Momoshiro) and Shinozaki Tatsuya (a quiet character from "Tadashii Ouji no Tsukurikata" that was played by the first Echizen actor.)
~Suzuki's excitement - For whatever reason, Suzuki ended up reminding me of Jiroh. That might be important, since I'm not sure there will be a Fuji-Jiroh match in this alternate universe.
~Foreign-born student - I need to do more research on Jackal. I know he's half-Japanese/half-Brazilian and he spent at least part of his life living in Brazil. Until I learn otherwise, I'm going to assume he was born in Brazil and then moved to Japan as a younger child.
~Match lengths - I have a feeling that Rikkai matches are going to be kind of boring. Other than against Seigaku (and when they throw the national semifinal matches), they always win 6-0. There are only so many ways that you can steamroll your opponents before it gets boring.
~Marui Jokes - Marui literally means "round, circular, spherical". So Irony is that another meaning is harmonious, calm. Not as rowdy as, say, Eiji or Gakuto, but I wouldn't call him calm either.
~Aka-chan - Another Japanese pun. Aka-chan is an abbreviated way of saying Akaya-chan, but it also is the term for "baby".
~"Evolve by exposing ourselves to adversity" - A lyric borrowed from "Must Be Strong" in TeniMyu's Absolute King Rikkai First Service.
~Future chapters - I was toying with the idea of cutting out the next chapter, which is going to focus on Fuji's first day(s) as a Rikkai student, but I think I need to lay a little more groundwork before I jump into tournaments. But yes, the competition season is finally about to start!
~Birthday - As I mentioned, I accidentally managed to have this finished in time for my one year anniversary of posting the story on ff.net. I knew it was coming up, but I didn't realize it was today until I went to update my profile this morning. I wish it hasn't taken me this long to get to this point in the story, but thank you to everyone for having faith that I'll stick with this.
Next Chapter: With classes starting, Fuji has no time for unease. But is he really suited for playing tennis at Rikkai?