And by the first time the team watched him destroy an opponent with blinding, methodical speed, it didn't occur to any of them to suggest that Yukimura might not have approved. Their captain was their cause, their beacon, but they were Sanada's team for this season. And he accepted Akaya's rage and destruction without a blink.


I like the parallels you've set up within the teams - Yagyuu and Niou, Sanada and Kirihara...

Another time he observed, to his vast amusement, Akaya hauling a glaring Sanada down the walk to Yukimura's house, shoving him inside, closing the door firmly and settling down on the front stoop. He saluted the kid lazily and didn't try to stop in. Sanada could not, he knew, have been resisting that much or the slight Akaya would never have budged him.


I'm really starting to look forward to hearing what your Kirihara bunnies are telling you.

His partner froze, and Masaharu smiled against Yagyuu's skin. If he had ever wanted revenge for having been maneuvered into it, that first time, he rather thought he had it now.

[pets Niou] You dear, sweet, crazed psychopath, you.

With, a corner of Masaharu's mind had to add, the possible exception of Yukimura, who was obviously omniscient.

Obviously. He's God. Duh.

"We didn't..." Masaharu gasped, "we didn't take off... the wrist weights...!" He dissolved into cackles again.

Yagyuu's rare, open laugh joined his.


Probably *not* the weight training Sanada and Yanagi had in mind, but probably just as effective... [leer]

I do have to wonder what, exactly, Yukimura is going to make of what his team has become in his absence.