Life's Lullaby
The First Blow
Disclamer: If I owned Tennis no Ohjisama, all the guys would be gay…
Kirihara is picking up another tennis ball to hit against the wall. As he bends down, he sees out of the corner of his eye, a figure walking towards him holding a racket. He faces the figure for a split second and turns back to picking up a ball. "What is it Echizen? Do you have some business with me?" He asks, annoyed that someone is bothering him during his practice.
"Hey... play a match with me." Ryoma suggests, causing Kirihara's eyes to widen in surprise as he stands.
Kachirou, Katsuo, and Horio are standing together, each holding a piece of paper and a ball basket.
"Let's see... Where was Ryuzaki's group?" Horio asks, scratching his head, seemingly confused about where to bring the balls. He looks at the piece of paper, most likely about the group schedules."Um..." Katsuo is confused also, furrowing his eyebrows.
"Ah..." Kachirou gasps in surprise. He is looking intently at something. Horio turns towards him, his hand still scratching at his head."What is it, Kachirou?"
"Look! Ryoma-kun and Kirihara-san are playing a match." He points out to the other boys.
"Wha-!" Horio screams as he sees that Kachirou is telling the truth.
The two tennis players face each other on opposite ends of the tennis court. Kirihara breaks the silence, "I don't know what you're planning, but if you play a match with me, you too might be sent to the hospita-"
Ryoma, being his rude and arrogant self, cuts him off, "Whatever, hurry up and play." He is smirking at his opponent, in a ready stance, knees bended slightly, waiting for Kirihara to serve.
Kirihara seems shocked at what Ryoma says, covering it up quickly with his own remark, "Heh... Since you put it that way, I won't hold back." His eyes open and he stares Ryoma down, getting ready to serve. He throws the ball high up in the air, jumping up and reaching his arm back. SMACK! The racket connects with the ball as it hurtles over the net. Ryoma runs over to the ball and backhands it. The two hit the ball back and forth and Kirihara comments, "Well... it might be more meaningful that playing against a wall."
Ryoma, being the smart ass he is, responds back, "Your vice-captain said that line to me too." He reaches his left arm back, hitting the ball back to Kirihara, who looks away for a second before hitting the ball, "Is that so..." He rushes up to the net, hitting the ball as hard as he could towards his opponent.
Meanwhile, Ann is telling Kamio the story of what had happened the day Kirihara fell down the stairs. She is sitting in the hallway, "I can't believe it turned into such a big problem." She looks down, guilty. Kamio, who is sitting next to her on the cold floor, looks down and responds, "I understand your feelings, Ann-chan. I still haven't even begun to forgive him either." The four team mates; Eiji, Oishi, Momo, and Kajimoto looked on as the scene unfolded, all shocked that something this emotional could have happened at tennis camp.
Everyone was pulled out of their thoughts as a voice yelled out, "Hey, you guys!" Ohtori and Shishido run up to the group, alerting them. Shishido speaks up as they stop before Ann and Kamio, "Kirihara and Echizen are playing a match." The others snap their heads up as their eyes widen.
Ryoma smashes the tennis ball to the other half of the court and Kirihara runs to the net, jumping up to return the smash with another smash.
Kachirou is surprised at this, exclaiming it to Katsuo and Horio. Horio is also surprised, "Whoa..."
And yet again, Ryoma jumps up to return Kirihara's smash with a smash of his own.
"Smash!" Kirihara thinks, "No..." Ryoma suddenly changes his stance, hitting a drop shot. "A drop shot?" Kirihara runs up to the net, as fast as he can, trying to return the ball. As soon as the ball hurtles over Ryoma's head, "Out..." It lands outside of the court.
"Sempai-tachi," Kachirou exclaims, seeing his sempai rushing towards the trio.
"How's the match going?" They ask, panting.
"Ryoma's leading," Kachirou responds, getting back into the game.
Momo, standing next to Oishi, wonders out loud, "That Kirihara... has he really changed?"
Everyone tenses at this and Oishi responds, "We'll know that if we watch this match." The group continues to watch the match as Ryoma fools Kirihara again, seeming to go for another drop shot, but instead hitting a lob. Kirihara stumbles back to hit the ball, failing to do so, and tripping over his feet to fall on his face. Everyone gasps in surprise.
"Okay, break time." Meanwhile, one of the other groups is given a break from practice. Sanada looks through the fences and spots something that catches his interest.
"Sanada?" Fuji is wiping the sweat off his face and sees Sanada staring. Sanada looks down and responds, "Excuse me, I'll be right back." He walks away, off the courts, heading towards the Ryuzaki group. Fuji is left standing there, wondering what had happened.
Kirihara is still laying face down on the court. "Are you alright, Kirihara-san?" Ryoma asks, concerned, though putting on an indifferent facade.
Kirihara responds, "Yeah, I'm fine. Don't worry about it." He gets up slowly, and the others see that his eyes are turning red and he licks his lips. Ryoma cannot see this, as Kirihara is standing with his back facing his opponent.
"Ah... That is... the same as that time." Kamio says as he remembers Kirihara's past matches.
Oishi worries, saying, "That guy... just as we suspected..." The match between Ryoma and Kirihara wears on until Kirihara hits a drop shot. Ryoma runs up to the net to hit it back and the others yell at him, "Don't do it, Echizen! Don't go up front!" Ryoma successfully hits the ball back and Kamio recaps, "It'll be a repeat of what happened with Tachibana-san!" Kirihara jumps up quickly and Ryoma falters in his step, as he had to slip into and awkward position to be able to hit the ball. The others yell at him, "Kirihara! Stop!" Kirihara pays no attention to him as he chuckles maniacally and smashes the ball... right into Ryoma's knee. Kirihara lands from his jump, smirking at Ryoma. Blood is slowly seeping out of the wound in Ryoma's knee and the group rushes to the court to be by his side. "Echizen, are you okay?" They attempt to help him up when he pushes them away, standing up slowly on his own, "Sempai-tachi, Tachibana-san, don't get on the court during a match."
Ann retaliates, "But! -" She is cut off by a glare from Ryoma, "We're not finished yet." He stubbornly leans on his other leg. The group hesitantly walks off the court, instead settling for watching the match in case anything else happens.
The match continues and Ryoma's wound seems to be opening more and blood gushes out of it. He hits a volley back to Kirihara as he stumbles back, falling on his back, racket falling away from him. Kirihara takes the chance to smash the ball, this time, right into Ryoma's stomach. Ryoma grunts in pain as a crack is heard by all the tennis players. Kirihara chuckles even more from his side of the court and the viewers of the math rush out to Ryoma, who is gasping in pain, sweat dripping down his forehead. He winces as Oishi tries to feel his stomach to see what is wrong. Eiji whips out his cell phone, from his pocket, frantically dialing the campus hospital service. A doctor rushes out onto the court with bandages and she kneels down next to Ryoma. The others move away slowly to give the woman space to work.
Kirihara's smirk starts to fade, along with his red eyes, as he sees how much damage he has done to Ryoma; even after he said he had changed. The doctor quickly finishes up bandaging Ryoma's leg and faces the others, "I think he might have broken a rib, so we're going to have to send him to the hospital for an X-ray." At this, Kirihara turns around and dashes out of the court, not bothering to pick up his tennis racket that had fallen on the ground. He brushes past Sanada, who finally has gotten to the courts. "Kirihara!-" Sanada yells, but disregards him, and continues his walk to the courts. As soon as he sees the blood, he breaks into a mad run.
'You know, I told you a demon couldn't change.' An evil voice jeered at Kirihara.
'That voice! It's back!' Kirihara thought wildly.
'Of course I'm back. I am you, after all.' The voice cackled inside his head as Kirihara runs faster, clutching his head, screaming.
Back on the courts, by now, everyone is gathered around Ryoma. Fuji had come back for Sanada and when he had seen what had happened, ran back to the other coaches, yelling at them to follow him. Out of curiosity, the other players followed Fuji also. Two men helped Ryoma onto a stretcher and into the back of an ambulance. Ryoma is still sweating, now reassuring his teammates that he's okay, "Keh, I still haven't finished my match with Kirihara." Even though he says this with an arrogant smirk, several others note that he winces in pain. The stretcher is lifted into the ambulance and one of the doctors turns to the crowd. "One person may follow him to the hospital." He then quickly turns and walks to sit in the ambulance. When no one steps forward, he turns back, "Hurry!"
With a silent unanimous vote, the tennis players decide that Coach Ryuzaki should be the one to follow, and she climbs into the vehicle. "We'll see you at the hospital." With that, the doors shut and the ambulance speeds through the streets, its sirens wailing the whole way. The crowd stood there for a while, watching the ambulance drive out of their sights until the two remaining coaches; Sakaki and Hanamura told them to leave the scene.
"You still have a month of camp left, get back to your groups and we'll assign a group to each member of Ryuzaki's cluster." Sakaki ordered and turned around to walk away.
"Iie." A voice sounded out and everyone turned to see who it was. They were met with the open eyes of Fuji. "Teammates of Echizen-kun should at least be able to visit the hospital."
"You will be able to visit him during your recreational time or when he comes back. For now, you have to work hard." Hanamura spoke up. She had a tone in her voice that made everyone take their rackets and continue practice. Fuji stood still for a while before deciding to finish his workout quickly so he could see how Echizen was doing later. And soon, the crowd dispersed.
A/N: The first part of this chapter is from one of the episodes, I just wrote it out. :-D Please review this story, constructive critiscm allowed. I pretty have the next chapter finished... just need to tweak it a little. And to readers of my other story, "Visions in Darkness," chapter four will be up soon, just need to get it through to my editor, C-Entury, who, if you didn't know, changed her penname to Spr1te Zer0, so check that account out!
A little warning to all, the next chapter will be a little slow, but hopefully chapter three will pick up the pace. Finally, thanks to my editor - Spr1te Zer0, and please review! Constructive criticism allowed.