July 13, 2007 to July 13, 2007 (REFORMATTED May 1, 2010)
Disclaimers: I do not own any part whatsoever of Prince of Tennis.
Summary: Friday the 13th, here it comes… Enjoy! And don't forget to review please!
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Friday the 13th…
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It was a Friday, the greatest day of the week. Because it meant that school was optional on Saturday and there was none on Sunday, and you had an entire weekend to relax and do whatever you wanted, putting aside completing the homework.
But this was quite the strange Friday, it was rather stormy and rainy outside. The weather was bleak, cold, chilling, and heavy. The vibrating sounds of large hail falling down on the roof woke up Ryoma, and he stirred, thinking that it was the alarm clock.
"Ughh…" stirred Echizen as he rubbed his eyes while lying down on the bed and he sat up, then staring out the window. "It's raining, no, it's hailing," confirmed Ryoma as he threw his blankets onto the bed and thought, Might as well get up, hail is too loud to sleep through.
After taking a quick shower and changing into his school uniform, he stumbled down the stairs and headed towards the kitchen. Widening his eyes in disbelief, he could not believe the sight of the culinary room.
"Karupin, come back here!" Nanako, his cousin, ordered as she ran after the cat.
"Meorw," was the response of the Himalayan feline as it skipped across the kitchen, making wet and bubbly tracks on the floor.
"Nanako-chan!" called Nanjiroh innocently and in a sweet voice, "Have you seen my newspaper?" Then he bent back down to continue searching for it.
Rinko entered the room with a handful of magazines in her hand, "I'm throwing out all these magazines right now if you don't go to the temple, watch over it, ring the bell, mow the grass, trim the bushes, dust the courts, and repaint the walls. NOW GO!"
"Hn, mada mada dana," growled the former tennis pro as he headed out the front door, grabbing an umbrella in the process before slamming it shut.
Rinko-san simply threw aside the perverted magazines into the recycling bin and clapped her hands together in success. Then the mother went back upstairs to do some housework in the rooms.
Of course, no one noticed that Ryoma stood there pointlessly in the kitchen as he stared at the catastrophe. Karupin ran by his owner and headed outside in the hailing weather.
"Karupin!" called Ryoma, but the cat did not heed to his name.
"Karupin, come back here!" ordered Nanako, and it was just then his cousin noticed his presence. "Ah, Ryoma-san! Good morning!" greeted cheerfully as she put on a smile.
"What happened here?" asked Ryoma, expecting an answer.
"Well," explained Nanako, "I was giving Karupin a bath since he went out this morning, and he went hysterical. When Obaa-san came in, she saw the magazines and took them away. Ojii-san was looking for them when Karupin jumped on him, causing him to knock out breakfast."
The kitchen was a big mess. Drawers, cupboards, and chests were wide open, while the sink was overloaded with plates, forks, knives, spoons, chopsticks, bowls, pots, and pans. The walls were stained with grease and oil as well as food stains. Not a pleasant sight.
"Sorry, Ryoma-san," apologized his cousin as she bowed, "But there'll be no breakfast today. And it's time for you to go to school."
His stomach grumbled for a few seconds, and Ryoma sighed, rubbing his stomach before heading off to school, taking the umbrella with him.
"Sorry," apologized Ryoma as he entered the classroom late for the first time. Unfortunately, there was some incident where his cat went crazy and decided to jump into the street and the owner himself had to jump and save him.
"Echizen, you are late. You'll have half an hour's detention after school," ordered Fuwakawa-sensei.
"Hn," was the response he said before taking his seat.
"Today we'll be discussing about Friday the 13th…" rambled on sensei, and soon the entire class fell asleep.
"Ding-dong," signaled the bell for the next class after some years later, and all the students stirred, "Uggh…" they slapped themselves and their heads, shaking themselves awake before dragging themselves to their next class.
And to their surprise, every class had the subject of 'Friday the 13th'. It certainly was a curse, and the usual, everyone fell asleep.
FRIDAY THE 13TH… FRIDAY THE 13TH… FRIDAY THE 13TH… FRIDAY THE 13TH… FRIDAY THE 13TH… FRIDAY THE 13TH… FRIDAY THE 13TH…
The tennis club had taken place in the gym since it was hailing heavily outside. Even though the members were safe from getting wet, they had no ability to play at all. As if this dreary weather that had come upon them taken away their souls or something.
"What do you think you are doing, slacking off like that!" yelled Ryuzaki-sensei angrily.
"Nya, even if you say that, Obaa-san," whined Eiji, "The dark sky from the windows make this room feel so gloomy."
"Yea," agreed Fuji the tensai.
As the regulars and non regulars were practicing, the trio were discussing about today's workload.
"Kami-sama!" called Horio, yelping, "Every homework assignment we have is about Friday the 13th."
"I really don't get today – what's so special about it?" asked Kachiro.
"It's supposed to be a bad day when the date 13 is on a Friday," answered Katsuo.
"Seriously, who gives homework assignments about that? We have to write about Friday the 13th, calculate when the next Friday the 13th is coming, write a history report about Friday the 13th, read 50 pages about Friday the 13th, make a timeline of all the Friday the 13th, draw how Friday the 13th would look like, compose a song on how Friday the 13th would sound, and copy Friday the 13th the number of times that Friday the 13th existed!"
"Oi, freshmen! What are you doing conversing like that?" shouted Ryuzaki-sensei, "Pick up the tennis balls already!"
"HAI!" The three ran quickly, but unluckily for Horio, he slipped on a ball, falling on his two friends. The baskets that were held by their arms and hands spilled everywhere, and were aiming at the faces of everyone.
"Everybody, watch out!" warned Momoshiro, and a tennis ball hit him squarely in the face. "Uhhh…" Then he fell on the floor and fainted.
"Nya! Attack of the tennis balls! Oishi!" cried Eiji as he stumbled over a cart, grabbing his doubles partner in the process.
One of the tennis balls, however, which hit Momo square in the face, flew up towards the window and touched the switch of the screen, latching it open. Hail began pouring in and they broke carelessly when they made contact to the ground.
"Crap, it's gonna flood, fsssh!" yelled Kaidoh, hissing afterwards.
"Everyone! Leave the gym immediately and go home! Regulars will stay behind in classroom 2-B!" ordered the coach, and a whole mob of people threw their possessions everywhere, leaving behind a mess in the gym.
After all the doors leading to the gym were locked, the coach sighed in relief. Someone will have to clean up the mess later. What is going on with this day, I have no idea. She headed up to the classroom for the meeting with the regulars.
"Great! First we get homework on Friday the 13th, then the gym is flooded and practice is canceled, and now we have a meeting!" complained the second year powerhouse, who rubbed his forehead where the ball had made a mark.
"Saa, Momo, but today is Friday the 13th," reminded Fuji as he smiled.
"What exactly…is Friday the 13th?" asked Kawamaru nervously as he twiddled his fingers a little bit.
Inui spoke up to answer, "A Friday occurring on the 13th day of any month is considered to be a day of bad luck in English, German, Polish and Portuguese-speaking cultures around the globe. The fear of Friday the 13th is called paraskavedekatriaphobia or triskaidekaphobia, and is a specialized form of triskaidekaphobia, a phobia (fear) of the number thirteen. Copyright reserved to Wikipedia."
"Inui-senpai, English please?" bluntly requested Ryoma as he was ready to fall asleep.
"Meaning, when it's the 13th on a Friday, it's supposed to be a day of bad luck and it scares everyone," simplified the Data Man.
It was just then that Tezuka came rushing in, breathing heavily.
"Tezuka! Are you all right?" asked the regulars as they rushed to his side. He put out a hand, signaling them to stop. He stood straight, dusting off his shirt and wiping the sweat from his head. Then he seriously spoke to his teammates, "Ryuzaki-sensei injured herself when she stepped on a crack on the floor and fell on her back."
"And you ran all the way just to inform us that?" asked Momo, confused.
"Well, I had to run," pointed out the captain.
"Why Tezuka?" asked Oishi worringly.
"The black cats from the Animal Club were accidentally set loose and followed me everywhere, making scratches on my legs." He pulled up his pants slightly to show the claws and marks of the cats that were a deep red.
"Black…cats?" wondered the regulars. Since when did they find black cats?
"Black cats are a sign of bad luck, so if you cross your path with them, when you die, you will go to hell instead of heaven," stated Inui, madly scribbling their reactions that were bound to come.
"HUH?! I won't go to heaven when I die? NO, KAMI-SAMA! SAVE ME!" pleaded Momo, who fell to his knees and prayed.
"Baka," teased Kaidoh furiously, "You haven't even seen a black cat today yet! Tezuka-buchou is the one who will…"
A cold aura surrounded Tezuka, making Kaidoh wince uncontrollably. "W-what w-was t-that y-you w-were s-saying, K-kaidoh?" said the expressionless captain of Seigaku's Tennis Club.
"Never mind," mumbled Kaidoh as he took a few steps away from him.
"Meorw!" meowed an animal, and everyone's eyes turned towards the cat. A black cat.
"NYAAAAA! It's a black cat! Run!" cried the acrobatic player in despair as he shoved the captain out of the way. Everyone followed suit while Fuji and Inui picked up the stoneless buchou and led him out of the room. Successfully, everyone managed to jump over the feline.
"Meorw!"
The regulars ran as far as their legs could carry them, and soon they decided to rest in another classroom, the art classroom, that is.
"Whew, the cat is gone!" relieved the second year, and the rest could only agree, nodding their sweaty heads vigorously.
"I need to sit," said Oishi, "But there are no chairs?"
"You can sit on the table, Oishi-senpai," indicated Ryoma, who was already sitting on a table, his feet dangling and just hovering about the ground.
"Ah, arigatou, Echizen," thanked Oishi as he sat next to the freshman and took heavy breaths, taking the time to relax.
"Ooh, these pictures are pretty, nya, Fujiko?" asked Eiji as he flipped through countless paintings on the big blank notebook paper. Fuji only smiled and he continued to inspect around the room when he noticed a mirror.
"Saa, what's this? A mirror?" he pulled out the mirror from its case and observed it closely, noticing its reflections, cleanliness, and lust of the glass. Fuji turned towards the rest of the regulars to show them what he had found when he tripped over a paintbrush lying on the floor.
"The mirror!" cried Fuji, and immediately they were alarmed. Moving aside to avoid any injuries, everybody gathered behind the closest largest thing that could protect them. Momo, who was sitting on the floor next to Tezuka, heaved him upwards and used him as a protective shield.
"Don't let your guard down," stoically said the petrified captain as he closed his eyes to prevent any glass from entering his eyes.
The mirror shattered into many pieces, leaving behind crystallized pieces of stone lying on the floor. Inui, recovering from his hiding spot behind a clay statue, could only mutter, "Ii Data, Ii Data…"
"Saa, let's clean the mirror pieces up then and throw them away. We can get a new one next time," reassured the tensai as he grabbed a broom from the corner and began sweeping the mess.
"Breaking a mirror is a sign of bad luck: you will have seven years of bad luck, since the Romans thought life renewed itself every seven years," shared Inui. Once again he scribbled away.
"Seven years, huh?" chuckled the sadist, while the rest formed sweat drops. His mood entirely changed, and he roared, "WHAT'S SO IMPORTANT ABOUT THE NUMBER 7?"
The tensai went extremely crazy and began throwing things around. Everyone ran for their lives around the art room while the freshman only yawned and sat on the table, his arms hugging his knees.
"Sitting on a table without one of your legs touching the floor is bad luck: you will come face an injury soon, most likely around the legs. You probably will lose a leg," confirmed Inui as he dodged a can of paint, which made a splatter of rainbow colors on the wall.
"Lose a leg?!" exclaimed Echizen as he abruptly jumped out of his seat. He immediately ducked his head from the furious throw of some sharpened pencils.
"Gak!" coughed Eiji as he spit out some chewed up crayons that were stuffed in his moment. "I've had enough of this bad luck! Waahh, Oishi!" He ran towards his Doubles Partner and hid behind him.
"It's ok, Eiji," calmed down the motherly hen. "Let's stop Fuji first."
"Fsssh, Kawamaru-senpai is as strong as that, right?" suggested Kaidoh, who was hiding under a table as he lifted his body from getting cut by razor scissors.
"Uhh, I don't think so," doubted Taka-san, but out of the blue Inui handed the power player a racket, and then he went, "BURNING!! NO BAD LUCK IS GOING TO STOP ME!"
He swung the racket furiously around, unable to stop himself. "BURNING!!" Along the way, he knocked down several pictures that hung on the walls, but Eiji, with his quick reflexes, caught them all one by one, balancing on one leg.
"I caught them all, yay! V, V!" cheered the crazy red-head, who accidentally threw his arms into the air as a celebration pose.
"Eiji!" cried his Doubles Partner as he pushed him aside, causing the both of them to fall. The framed pictures went flying everywhere.
Ryoma, who was still dodging all those stupid paintbrush attacks that his senpai was throwing at, did not realize a painting coming his way. It flung itself against one of his legs, causing the freshman to fall. The picture could only shatter.
And "plunk!" The paintbrush hurled into the gaping mouth of the first year. Echizen choked, trying his best to cough it back out while his hands were occupied by holding the flipped table up. Kaidoh was pressed flat against the table, sandwiched between the furniture and the first year.
"Let's see…" calculated the third year as he scribbled furiously and scratched out some things in his notebook. "Tezuka has bad luck because of black cats, Fuji has bad luck because he broke a mirror, Echizen had bad luck because of the table, but when he broke the picture, that doubled the bad luck. Therefore, only I, Kawamaru, Kaidoh, Momo, Oishi, and Eiji are left bad-luck-free."
Silence.
"INUI!" screamed the regulars. "Give us that notebook!"
"Nope, it has a good source of information to determine other things," rejected Inui as he slid out of the art room and ran down the hall. The rest followed suit, except for Tezuka, who laid on the floor, motionless.
"Inui! You have good luck, give it to us!"
Not paying any attention, the Data Man continued to write down some notes when he encountered two ladders propped up in the hallway, practically blocking the entire way.
"Hmm, ladders opened, eh?" The third year climbed the shorter one and jumped off, continuing to run down the hallway.
The regulars weren't too far, and scrambled to catch up. They didn't see the precautions that Inui had taken though.
"Oi, Echizen! Stop following the good luck group! You're gonna give us bad luck!" scolded Momoshiro as he tried speeding up his pace.
"Momo-senpai! You can't just leave us with bad luck! Share some already!" scowled the first year as he tried picking up his feet.
"Ah, ladders!" pointed out Kawamaru, who returned to his original state after realizing that he might have had bad luck, "How are we going to get through if they block the entire way?"
"Just run through them, nya!" instructed Eiji as he ran as fast as he could and scuttled under the taller ladder. But the mob behind Kikumaru was so huge that they practically knocked down the two ladders.
Heh, heh, cackled Inui evilly in his head, "Eiji has bad luck now. Let's see what comes next." He peered around him before crawling down the hall from the janitor's closet.
FRIDAY THE 13TH… FRIDAY THE 13TH… FRIDAY THE 13TH… FRIDAY THE 13TH… FRIDAY THE 13TH… FRIDAY THE 13TH… FRIDAY THE 13TH…
"Eh? Where'd Inui-senpai go? Fssshhh…" asked Kaidoh, hissing afterwards.
It was just then that they heard a loud collision in the room next to them. The regulars immediately rushed in, "INUI!"
But all was there was a broken plate the laid on the floor. "How'd that happen?" asked Oishi, "There's no one here, is there?"
"No…" came the faint response of the second year, Momo.
"Ghost!" screamed the two second years as they collided, hugging each other. When realizing this, the two glared at each other, jumping away. "BAKA!" both yelled and shouted at one another, cursing while Oishi and Eiji held back the two from fighting any further.
The two doubles partner were thrown back by the powerful strength of the two second years, and they collided onto the cabinets, spilling open an abundance of plates that shattered when made contact to the floor. The Golden Pair laid on the floor, stirring from the sudden accident.
"Oishi, Eiji!" cried Fuji, his eyes widening and opening suddenly. "Are you all right?" He helped his best friend up first before the fuka-buchou.
"Nya, Fujiko!" cried Kikumaru as he squeezed his best friend to death, pretending to sob and whine like a child.
Behind the counter on the other side of the culinary room, Inui bobbed upwards and murmured, "Ii Data…Eiji has double the bad luck, and Oishi has bad luck. Only Kawamaru, Momoshiro Kaidoh, and I are safe from bad luck." Then he disappeared out of the room and once again, ran down the hallway.
Everyone watched the Data Man leave the room, and all those who were hovered with bad luck turned their attention towards Kaidoh, Momoshiro and Kawamaru. Kaidoh could only hiss nervously, Momoshiro put on a frightening look, and Kawamaru stuttered, trying to say something to them.
"KAIDOH!"
"TAKA-SAN!"
"MOMO!"
"GIVE US GOOD LUCK, NYA!"
"Uhh, senpai, let's run," quietly said Kaidoh, tugging the sleeve of the blank Kawamaru. He shook awake and agreed, "Umm." They made a quick turn towards the door and wrenched it open, running down the hall.
"Come back!"
"Taka-san, let's hurry before they catch us with their bad luck!" warned one of the second years. The three sped up their pace to only encounter another black cat. "Meorw," went the feline, as its eyes glared at the trio. They gulped and breathed heavily, hoping that it would soon go away.
"We don't have time! Just kick it! yelled Momo as he flung his leg at the cat, causing it to fly upwards and bouncing on the roof. The three continued running until they were blocked by the rest of them.
"Senpai-tachi, do you really believe in this bad luck?" muttered Echizen under his breath, just loud enough for them to hear.
"It's Friday the 13th, Ochibi!" exclaimed the red-head. "It's much worse on this CAT than anything else!"
"Cat, Eiji-senpai?" questioned Ryoma.
"Cat! Neko-chan" shouted Eiji at the top of his lungs.
"Meorw!" screeched the animal as it landed on Ryoma's face. Its claws clutched against the boy's ears and hair as it twitched frighteningly.
"Neko-chan, come here," called Fuji as he motioned a finger.
"MEORW!" the cat screeched, leaping on top of Fuji's head and playing around with his hair, yet shearing off some off it as well.
"Nya, Fujiko! Your hair!" yelped Kikumaru helplessly as he jumped over to save his friend. But that only resulted in a fall to the floor. Everybody else tried to catch the cat from thrashing or killing anyone else.
"Fifty laps!"
"Huh?" the clueless teammates wondered aloud, and they turned to see their stoic captain, Tezuka Kunimitsu!
"Tezuka! I thought you were still petrified from the glass and cat!"
"Um, Tezuka-senpai, can I clarify things a bit?" requested a timid voice that sounded like a girl. He only nodded, and behind him appeared Ryuzaki Sakuno.
"It's Ryuzaki-sensei's granddaughter!" all the regulars exclaimed at the same time.
"Gomenasai, senpai-tachi, Ryoma-kun," apologized the female as she bowed, "I had to help Obaa-chan clean out the entire school today since it was a mess."
"So when Ryuzaki-sensei stepped on a crack and injured herself…" started one.
"…I treated her wounds and asked Tezuka-senpai to tell the rest that the meeting was to be canceled," she finished.
"What about those black cats?" asked another.
"I had to clean out the horrifying mess that the animals made, and I accidentally let loose the cats, but I didn't know that Tezuka-senpai would meet them along the way."
"Oh, that reminds me, how are your injuries, Tezuka?" asked one of the third years.
"Ryuzaki-san bandaged them up for me, so it's fine now," replied Tezuka. Everyone snickered and laughed to themselves silently.
Fuji went up to Sakuno and whispered, "Sakuno-chan, Tezuka wasn't much of a fuss, was he now?" She turned extremely red and frantically waved her arms in front of her, "Not at all, Fuji-senpai! He was a wonderful patient!"
"Is that so?"
"Going back to the subject," reminded Echizen, "Ryuzaki, what exactly was a mirror doing in the art room?"
"The mirror? Oh yes!" remembered the girl, blushing for a moment when she saw a pair of golden-like feline eyes staring at her, "I had to frame it back into the girl's bathroom since someone broke it this morning. But when I went to over the culinary room, I realized that it was a complete mess in there as well! So I decided to clean that room instead before replacing the mirror.
"But a mirror could have been in there for art purposes. Why do you ask, Ryoma-kun? Did something happen to it? Did you break it or something?" asked Sakuno curiously. Big sweat beads formed on each regular's head except for Tezuka.
"Anyhow," said the captain, "I think all of you have caused more than enough ruckus. Everyone, 50 laps around the entire second floor, and then you can clean!"
"But…"
"60 laps."
Everyone groaned and began running. Meanwhile, Sakuno was asking Tezuka to help her lift the mirror that she left in the art room. The door slid open, and a scream could be heard in the entire school.
"KYAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
"Sakuno-chan!" scrambled the regulars as they quickened their pace, only to find a Sakuno with her head hanging down, her arm on the door. Tezuka was only there staring down at her, blinking quite curiously.
"The mirror!" cried Sakuno as she bent down to pick up the fragments, tears ready to spill out.
"Uhh…about that…" started Kawamaru.
"Precisely, Fuji broke it. And the plates in the culinary room are broken. But then everyone had made a mess in the art and culinary room," explained someone. Everyone turned to see the Data Man with the notebook in his hand.
"Inui!" bellowed the seven regulars in his ear, "Where were you?!"
"Observing you all from the distance," answered the third year as he scribbled in his notebook.
"Well," sighed Sakuno, quite exasperated, "Obaa-chan won't be very happy with this. If you say damages in two rooms, would you senpai-tachi who caused this mind paying…" Stopping for a moment to think, she pondered on the price, hoping it wouldn't be too much. "Fifteen thousand yen?"
"EH?!"
As the hail continued to beat down against the school roof and windows, and as the regulars cleaned and scrubbed for their lives desperately, they all had wished that none of this happened.
Who said there were no such things as Friday the 13ths?
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Owari
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A/N: My Friday the 13th special! Hope you like it! Now to catch up on Conquest which will also be put on hold soon, and then working on Ryoma is Married like crazy! Please review and give me any feedback! I am very happy to be criticized because there is always room for improvement. Arigatou!
Ja ne, and I do not own any part of Prince of Tennis!