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For starters, here's a basic background check on Hiyoshi. He's the "next" in line to be captain of Hyoutei, and has a constant ambition to gekokujou his senpai. Gekokujou is a term meaning to "overthrow"; and we all know eventually he's going to end up a senpai someday too, so.. that's basically the gist of Hiyoshi. The number one thing Hiyoshi desires is the singles 1 slot which is currently taken by Atobe; the fact that it's the only thing he desires emphasizes sense of purpose when he plays his tennis. He's unrelenting, serious, and hopefully it's right to say, he's opposite of Kirihara. He and Kirihara have a weird polarity yet something makes them so similiar.. they seem to 'tick' in the same fashion. By the way, if you need a more indepth (i'm serious) examination of Hiyoshi's character, Hiyoshi is networked here at Higachuu.org courtesy of Lorelei; so all your indepth needs for Hiyoshi are already at your fingertips.
THE GEKOKUJOU FACTOR Kirihara doesn't use the term "gekokujou" but he initially has the same ambition and purpose that Hiyoshi has, and I don't doubt that Kirihara will probably be the next in line to lead Rikkai; as the famous "junior ace", it's quite inevitable. He wants to 'defeat' the three monsters of Rikkai: Yanagi, Sanada and Yukimura, to prove his strength. Does that sound familiar? Hiyoshi feels the same about Atobe (and most of his senpai, really). Despite being opposite in terms of geniuine character and personality, one thing that both can agree on is that their senpai need to be crushed flat. And this is also where polarity begins. Kirihara allows himself 'devil mode' because of his goal to crush his senpai, and all fans should know that in 'devil mode', there are no rules. Devil mode = beat your opponent into the ground even if it means taking their career away. And so, polarity begins. I think it's an obvious trait that Hiyoshi respects his senpai, and is also disciplined (come on, his family runs an enbu dojo) into playing as fair as possible. They're similar in goal, different in approach.
WISHFUL THINKING Oh, how i've longed for the day that these two would actually be playing a match with eachother that we could SEE. They've already played eachother in the Newcomers' Tournament (representing their schools) in their first year and Kirihara took the win as far as that went. In the chapter when Echizen goes against Hiyoshi (Hyoutei vs Seigaku, Singles 3) - we see a brief panel of Kirihara not remembering who Hiyoshi was, rather, Sanada telling Kirihara to "stop playing dumb" about it. It would've been interesting, I think, to see these two in a match against one another. Both are second years conditioned to do their very best at tennis, and not only that, it would be a Hyoutei (the Elite kids) vs Rikkai (the champions). I could go on and on about how the match would go and how I can envision it, but I can leave you, the visitor, with this one thought: THE DISCIPLINED VS THE UNTAMED.
AN INTERESTING RELATIONSHIP To say the least, the series would never get down right serious about shounen-ai unless you're talking about that gay pair from Shitenhouji. But then again, this entire page is based off way too much speculation, so i'll just commence with the shounen-ai, yada yada. Not gonna lie here, sometimes I think that if this was a friendship, I think it could really escalate into something else. The term "opposites attract" applies to this pair really, really well. I don't think getting along would be a huge difficulty for Kirihara and Hiyoshi, even if their persona is so different, because I just have a gut feeling that Kirihara will effect Hiyoshi in such a positive manner that if Hiyoshi were to try and resist, he'd start to give in anyway. And as for Kirihara, it would be a matter if Hiyoshi were any interesting to look out for. Really. I think it would be in Kirihara's best interests to keep an eye on Hiyoshi, anyway. He'll be Hyoutei's next captain and Kirihara will more than likely inhert Yukimura's spot; so they'll end up being rival captains, and you know how much the captains have rivalries with eachother, right (See: Atobe and Tezuka)? If this were to happen, I think the way I interpreted would hit the spot.
THE CONCLUSION Since this is embarrassingly long, I'm going to close this gracefully (I hope?). For me, I just really enjoy the thought of the two 2nd years from the two most talked about schools to go at it in a match, and beyond a match, being rival captains. There's just so much that their relationship could bring (if they'd had one) to the series, and it would definitely build a foundation on a connection between Rikkai and Hyoutei, that's for sure. I feel a bit embarrassed speculating so long on something that doesn't actually exist but it's hard to keep all these thoughts to yourself. :) Kirihara/Hiyoshi isn't well-known in Japan for nothing, you know.
