"You're asking me to do this without access to two of my best doubles pairs," Yukimura said thoughtfully.
Jackal understood. Everyone was a good doubles player, but the chemistry of a really, spectacularly good partnership was rarer.
But the captain instantly treated Jackal's daunting request seriously, looking back down at his notebook. Jackal couldn't help noticing all the ink dots around the Atobe caricature's face-- he'd thought Yukimura was tapping his pen in thought, but his frustration might have been more... concentrated.
Putting Akaya in Singles 1 was the only thing he was entirely certain about, but as Jackal instantly pointed out, that made the probability of Yukimura facing Atobe -- the only Hyoutei player he'd consider something similar to an equal -- almost nil. It was the one match he would really want for himself, but he was making a bigger point.
Jackal felt... understood, if nothing else.
"I'm also making the executive decision not to consider Akaya," Yukimura said. "Yanagi and Shiraishi are the only partners who really bring out his best, anyway. Marui would be my third choice to pair him with..."
Thought bowed Yukimura's head, while Jackal waited.
"What do you think about Marui in Singles 3?" Yukimura asked suddenly. "If both doubles pairs won, do you think he would secure the win?"
"You'd need him in one of the doubles pairs to even get to that point," Jackal answered, instant and instinctive.
"I agree," Yukimura said, and wrote SINGLES 3 - YAGYUU, followed by SINGLES 2 - YUKIMURA. "Yagyuu and I will be useless at mentoring Tamagawa-kun, I'm sure," he said, waving aside Jackal's obligatory protest. "And I'm not putting him in such a critical position-- if he messes up in doubles, we can recover. So I can pair him with Sanada, Yanagi, or Marui. All of whom will be good teachers. Which did you have in mind?"
Because of course Jackal had someone in mind, and Yukimura's smile let Jackal know he just wanted to hear him say it.
"Yanagi will have to spend too much of the match collecting his data," Jackal said. Their third-in-line had Tamagawa's raw numbers, but the little variables, like performance under pressure or adaptability to strange techniques, he would be collecting those fresh and factoring them in on the fly. Not impossible for one of Yanagi's caliber, but not ideal; Tamagawa was no Kaidoh, and Jackal wasn't sure if he had the mental strength to carry the match's load while Yanagi ran his calculations. "Put Yanagi with Sanada. He has Sanada memorized."
"Until Sanada pushes the envelope again..." Yukimura said, amused.
"Hyoutei isn't going to force him to evolve again just yet," Jackal said, confident. "It's a fool's errand to try and match up to whatever we think Atobe is doing, but we can be reasonably certain Atobe won't play doubles, and Atobe is the only one who could back him into a corner like that."
"Which brings me, finally, to the place you started from," Yukimura said, ruthlessly cutting away any remaining veneer or varnish on Jackal's decision.
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Jackal understood. Everyone was a good doubles player, but the chemistry of a really, spectacularly good partnership was rarer.
But the captain instantly treated Jackal's daunting request seriously, looking back down at his notebook. Jackal couldn't help noticing all the ink dots around the Atobe caricature's face-- he'd thought Yukimura was tapping his pen in thought, but his frustration might have been more... concentrated.
Putting Akaya in Singles 1 was the only thing he was entirely certain about, but as Jackal instantly pointed out, that made the probability of Yukimura facing Atobe -- the only Hyoutei player he'd consider something similar to an equal -- almost nil. It was the one match he would really want for himself, but he was making a bigger point.
Jackal felt... understood, if nothing else.
"I'm also making the executive decision not to consider Akaya," Yukimura said. "Yanagi and Shiraishi are the only partners who really bring out his best, anyway. Marui would be my third choice to pair him with..."
Thought bowed Yukimura's head, while Jackal waited.
"What do you think about Marui in Singles 3?" Yukimura asked suddenly. "If both doubles pairs won, do you think he would secure the win?"
"You'd need him in one of the doubles pairs to even get to that point," Jackal answered, instant and instinctive.
"I agree," Yukimura said, and wrote SINGLES 3 - YAGYUU, followed by SINGLES 2 - YUKIMURA. "Yagyuu and I will be useless at mentoring Tamagawa-kun, I'm sure," he said, waving aside Jackal's obligatory protest. "And I'm not putting him in such a critical position-- if he messes up in doubles, we can recover. So I can pair him with Sanada, Yanagi, or Marui. All of whom will be good teachers. Which did you have in mind?"
Because of course Jackal had someone in mind, and Yukimura's smile let Jackal know he just wanted to hear him say it.
"Yanagi will have to spend too much of the match collecting his data," Jackal said. Their third-in-line had Tamagawa's raw numbers, but the little variables, like performance under pressure or adaptability to strange techniques, he would be collecting those fresh and factoring them in on the fly. Not impossible for one of Yanagi's caliber, but not ideal; Tamagawa was no Kaidoh, and Jackal wasn't sure if he had the mental strength to carry the match's load while Yanagi ran his calculations. "Put Yanagi with Sanada. He has Sanada memorized."
"Until Sanada pushes the envelope again..." Yukimura said, amused.
"Hyoutei isn't going to force him to evolve again just yet," Jackal said, confident. "It's a fool's errand to try and match up to whatever we think Atobe is doing, but we can be reasonably certain Atobe won't play doubles, and Atobe is the only one who could back him into a corner like that."
"Which brings me, finally, to the place you started from," Yukimura said, ruthlessly cutting away any remaining veneer or varnish on Jackal's decision.
He wrote DOUBLES 1 - MARUI & TAMAGAWA.