"And three the year before that," Yanagi said, though certainly Marui didn't need that elucidated for him. "You've noticed the same thing I did. And you understand people better than I do, so your confirmation of my hypothesis is encouraging."

Encouraging, but how encouraged should he really be? Under no circumstances did he expect any of the regulars to be replaced, and under even fewer did he want them to be. They knew the stakes, the terrain, the opponents. If he was as good as any of them, he would have to wait at the end of the line, and Yanagi was eager to see his peers who'd been competing for regular positions with his seniors finally reach the head of the line and get their due.

But having been that talent (or part of that talent) that changed the game in his own past...

On the other hand, there seemed to be only one of him. Akaya had earned his place with his hard work and harder head, but three stars in close proximity like he, Seiichi, and Genichirou had been... their gravitational pull reordered the local cosmos. They didn't reach the head of the line so much as they created their own. Akaya hadn't had the backup or (frankly) the tactical skill to pull off a similar upset.

"Have you formed any other specific opinions of him yet?"