Disclaimer: I don't own the characters. Konomi Takeshi does. I'm merely playing with them for the moment.
A/N: Time for the first proper glimpses.
Shattered Reality
Chapter 3
In Which Nothing has Changed
Jirou's dream was... dark.
There was no other way to describe it. There was only himself, floating around in what seemed to be complete darkness, like a sea of ink except breathing caused him no trouble. He was walking in the dream, he could tell that much at least: nobody was carrying him, nor was he just lying there, not doing anything. Instead, he travelled within the dark emptiness, searching for something though he wasn't quite sure what.
He noticed the change as soon as it happened. He wasn't quite sure how, but he did. First he was just walking on; the next moment, he stepped… into something. It was the same darkness, the same emptiness, yet it wasn't, like he'd stepped into a new room, one equally dark but different in feel and dimension. Everything still looked exactly the same - or, rather, didn't look like anything at all - but he could somehow tell the difference. It was like… taste, or smell, except not quite.
This was when the first window opened.
It was somewhere off to the distance, a sudden rectangle of light within the empty darkness, like a window had indeed been opened through a previously impenetrable wall. Although there was obviously light coming in everything still seemed just as dark as ever, nothing being visible in the surroundings though the window certainly should have illuminated whatever was there, but right now, Jirou wasn't exactly about to wonder about this logic. Jirou started moving towards it, wanting to see where that light came from, wanting to see anything but this darkness, wondering if that was the thing he kept looking for even though he didn't even know why…
He stepped out. There was no visible door, no entrance, nothing, yet he knew he'd stepped out of whatever it was he'd been in. Suddenly he was back in the first darkness, and the window was away; yet when he turned around, there was still no doorway, no hole, nothing he could have gone through. He tried stepping forward in hopes of going back through the invisible entrance, but nothing happened. It was like the strange hidden place he had just visited had just... gone away. It certainly wasn't there anymore.
Although he had been alone in his dream ever since it had begun, it wasn't until now that Jirou suddenly felt very lonely.
*
"Is he any better?"
Kabaji looked up from where he was sitting in the hospital corridor as Tachibana spoke. He nodded slowly, muttering a deep, quiet, "Usu" in response.
"Good." Tezuka sighed, pushing his glasses up on his nose. "That was most careless of him."
"…Usu." Kabaji looked back down at his hands, clasped together in his lap. He looked exhausted, like he hadn't slept at all the night before. And chances were, Tachibana mused, that he hadn't, sitting in the corridor and just waiting.
"You should probably sleep," Minami said somewhat hesitantly, echoing Tachibana's thoughts. All five captains had agreed to come visit Atobe the following morning - well, almost. Sanada was Rikkai's representative, claiming that Yukimura had been too shaken after the incident and still needed rest. Tachibana quite doubted that, to be honest; if Yukimura could play on his former level again, as they'd all certainly witnessed him doing, he had certainly recovered enough from his illness to handle one shock just as well as the rest of them. However, he wasn't about to call Sanada on the lie; that would have been rather shameful for them all.
"…No." Tachibana would have been lying if he had said he wasn't surprised. Of course he'd known - or at least believed - that Kabaji was capable of speech; however, this was the first time he got any actual evidence of it beyond the usual brief agreements. "I want to see him first…"
Tachibana was about to protest, pointing out that Atobe would most likely rather have him go to sleep than come visit him looking half dead, just as a nurse walked to them. After confirming who they were waiting for, she told them Atobe was considerably better and could now have visitors.
"He can't speak much yet, so be patient," she said as she herded them all in through the door into the private room. Of course it was private. It wasn't as though Atobe would stand for the company of commoners even as he was struggling for his life. "Try not to pressure him into saying too much at once." With these words, they were ushered in.
Atobe seemed even paler than usually, lying in a hospital bed, his arms lying by his sides and his eyes fixed out of the window. As they walked in, though, he turned his head, acknowledging them with a small nod but not saying anything. Tachibana was rather relieved to see him without any external breathing aid. Then again, he probably should have known Atobe wouldn't allow himself to be dependant on such things for any longer than was strictly necessary.
Kabaji didn't say anything, simply hurrying to his friend's bedside, reaching for Atobe's hand. Atobe took his hand in response, as though to wordlessly let Kabaji know he was still there, in one piece, before turning his attention to the other guests as they more or less simultaneously greeted him.
"Everyone... is how?" Atobe asked, his voice sounding oddly rough and quiet, his eyes fixed on Tezuka who happened to be the closest. It was, however, Tachibana who answered, his arms crossed over his chest.
"Safe and sound, for the most part," he said. "A couple had suspected inhalation injury, but nothing as bad as you. They've all been examined and cleared by now. The mansion staff arranged a lift home for everyone."
"Good…" Sighing, Atobe closed his eyes momentarily. He seemed quite worse for the wear, Tachibana noted, but then that was only to be expected. He had had a close call just the night before, after all. "The mansion?"
"The fire was apparently hard to control," Tezuka replied. "They did manage to put it off in the end, but a good part of the east wing was damaged from the fire and smoke."
"Ah." Another sigh followed before Atobe opened his eyes again. "You should… school…" It was almost painful, hearing the usually so very eloquent boy uttering single words as though it hurt. And for all they knew, it most likely did.
"We couldn't exactly just go to school as though nothing happened," Akazawa said, raising his eyebrows. "I mean, it was quite a scare to everyone. We thought it better to get some news and head to school for the afternoon than let everyone speculate all damn day."
"That was a brave thing you did," Sanada said somewhat slowly, as though he was pained to utter anything that might be interpreted as praise to Atobe. "Incredibly idiotic, but brave."
Atobe chuckled a bit. "The only choice," he then muttered. "My party… my responsibility…"
"Oh, shut up!" Tachibana couldn't help but snap, finding all eyes on him and not really caring. "I'm sorry to burst your bubble, but not everything is about you and your pride. The last thing anyone was thinking of while rushing out was whether you'd gone out already or not."
"The main thing you accomplished was making everyone worry," Minami murmured. "And in the end, the only one who got hurt was you."
"Hmph." Atobe huffed, but Tachibana spied a hint of a smile on his face. "Of course it's… about me."
…Well. He probably shouldn't have been worried at all. There was no way something as small as a fire could have brought the great Atobe Keigo down.
*
"So Atobe's going to be all right?" Oishi sighed happily. "That's a relief." The regulars had all agreed to meet during lunch hour to hear Tezuka's news from the hospital; thankfully, the news had been positive.
"Indeed," Tezuka agreed, his face as serious as always, though Oishi with his accumulated experience on reading the captain detected a tiny hint of relief there, too. "Apparently everyone from the other teams is doing well, too."
"That's good." Fuji smiled, but then Fuji always smiled. "Yuuta, too?"
"Ah… Akazawa did say everyone in his team was unharmed." Tezuka shrugged. "So it seems the only one to acquire any lasting damage was the building itself."
"And houses can be rebuilt," Oishi added. He was truly relieved to hear these news. Before Tezuka had got to the school with this new information, he'd been really worried. Atobe had seemed rather bad to say the least as he was carried to the ambulance, and it would have been just terrible if he'd been hurt badly.
"So you say he is going to be all right," Inui said slowly, adjusting his glasses. "That refers to his future state. But how is he right now?"
"…Not so good yet, I'm afraid." Tezuka's expression turned from serious-happy to serious-serious again. "He was rather pale and couldn't say many words at a time… But I'm sure he'll pull through eventually." With a surprisingly sincere tone, he added, "He always does."
"Indeed." Fuji's smile turned into something of a smirk. "For all his other flaws, at least Atobe was never one to give up too easily."
"True, true!" Eiji reached his arms around Oishi's shoulders from behind, nuzzling him like a content kitten. It told quite a lot about the Seigaku regular team that nobody seemed to find this particularly noteworthy. "Atobe's maybe a stubborn bastard, but at least he's a stubborn bastard you've got to admire, nyah!"
"Really, now, Eiji," Oishi sighed, though a smile still tugged at his lips as the others laughed at his doubles partner's choice of words. "You really shouldn't call him that…"
"Oh? Well, give me a name that fits him better and I'll use that!" Eiji and Momo exchanged satisfied grins as though they'd planned this entire conversation beforehand.
"…A determined person?" Oishi offered somewhat feebly.
"Oh, I don't know. I don't quite think it catches the true tone of his personality," Fuji said airily. "I think I'll have to agree with Eiji here. What about you, Echizen?"
"I don't care," murmured their youngest member, tugging his cap down to shield his face. "Just don't write that down on a get well card."
"Oh, right!" Oishi's eyes flew wide. How could he have just forgotten something so important? "I'll immediately -"
"Calm down, I hope," Tezuka said levelly, briefly touching Oishi's arm, his expression just as unreadable as always. "I should think my visiting him with the other captains is quite enough of a get-well wish."
"…If you're sure," Oishi said, somewhat concerned. It still didn't feel quite right…
"Nyah, Oishi's always so serious!" Eiji grinned. "I mean, sure it's a serious thing, but you shouldn't be thinking too much about it! Let's just all be happy nobody was hurt any more badly, ne?"
…For once, even Oishi could do little but agree.
*
Dan yawned, rubbing the last bits of sleep from his eyes as he stumbled into the bathroom. He wasn't feeling quite awake just yet, but school wouldn't wait for him to wake up properly, convenient though that might have been.
Usually, Dan was always energetic in the morning, so excited to get to morning practice he almost didn't remember to stop to eat breakfast at all. Now, though, he felt unusually sleepy. His sleep had been rather restless the last couple of nights, full of strange dreams he couldn't possibly interpret. He remembered it had been dark in the dream, dark but there had been some sources of light, too, like windows in the middle of the darkness, all different in size and shape… He remembered looking out of the windows and seeing different places. Every place had been different, but there had been something in common between them, too, he just couldn't really put his finger on it, not yet. They hadn't been nightmares, he could tell; despite the strange darkness and the fact he'd been all alone he'd felt strangely… safe, almost. Like he'd been home. But despite the feeling of familiarity, the dreams hadn't given him much rest, and thus it was a very sleepy Dan that now splashed water on his face in hopes of chasing away some of the tiredness.
It was probably because of the incident with the fire, he supposed. It had caused him to sleep restlessly; such a scare was certainly enough to cause some disturbance for a couple of nights. The dreams didn't necessarily have anything to do with it, now did they? One could have dreams and not sleep well even without any connection between the two facts.
Starting to brush his teeth, he looked at his reflection in the mirror. He only saw his face at the very bottom of the mirror, not tall enough to reach any further. Slightly pointed face, big eyes, shaggy mess of hair - he certainly wasn't the most impressive of sights, now was he. Frowning as he spat some of the pink foam from his mouth - he quite liked his strawberry-flavoured toothpaste - he then glared at his reflection. It was just so… unsatisfactory.
Rinsing his mouth, Dan sighed, shaking his head slowly. It did little good to try to see a different face in the mirror; however he might try to change or disguise himself, the truth still wouldn't change. He was small and weak and useless, and though he might sometimes fool someone else for a while, he couldn't deceive his own eyes - not when the mirror showed him the truth.
Too bad he couldn't change his reflection, he mused silently as he tried in vain to force a brush through his hair, unable to clear the numerous tangles in the dark mess. If only he could… if only…
But it was impossible, wasn't it. The data was quite undeniable in this particular matter. The reflection could not change unless reality itself did.
Impossible…
*
"Good morning, Mizuki-san." Yuuta looked up from his breakfast as his senpai approached with his own breakfast tray, unusually late. Mizuki was usually one of the first ones to come to breakfast, or just about any meal; it allowed him to observe other people without being in a hurry to finish his own eating.
"Good morning, Yuuta-kun." Mizuki took a seat next to him, hiding an elegant little yawn behind his hand before grimacing, again so very elegantly. "Ugh. Last night was simply dreadful."
"You sure look like that." Akazawa raised his eyebrows as he looked at Mizuki. Now that Yuuta thought about it, their manager did look quite worn out. "What, did you have nightmares or what?"
"If you'd call them that." Mizuki frowned, rubbing his temples as though to ward off a headache. "Just… restless dreams. Nothing frightful, though." Then, casting a glare about the table with most of the tennis club gathered about it, he added, "And don't you even think of suggesting an easier practice today because of that. I'm perfectly capable of normal practice, and so are you all."
"Oh, geez, Mizuki." Yanagisawa sighed, rolling his eyes. "Do you ever take a rest?"
"I look after my body's needs most diligently," Mizuki snapped, turning to his breakfast as though to prove his claim. "It's you who should do more. Obviously you don't exercise enough." Yuuta managed to catch a look of dawning horror in Yanagisawa's eyes just before Mizuki added, "Fifty laps for you."
"All nice and friendly right from the morning as always, I see." Akazawa grinned a bit before glancing around to find the rest of the team in the cafeteria. "Huh? Where's Kisarazu?"
"Beats me," Yuuta said, shrugging. "I haven't seen him all morning."
"He'll be late to practice," Mizuki said calmly. "Fifty laps for him, too."
"How do you know that?" asked Nomura, sounding slightly puzzled. "I mean, he's been late to breakfast before and still made it to practice."
Mizuki seemed almost startled for a split second before he recovered, snapping, "Of course I know! Do you dare question my data? How many laps would you like, huh?"
However, even as he listened to Nomura's apologies, Yuuta couldn't help but think that for a moment it had seemed like not even Mizuki had known just how he had predicted that.
*
The average member of the Hyoutei tennis club had certainly noted the captain's absence for a couple of days. It also wasn't that hard to notice that the King was absent from school altogether. However, following as they did Oshitari's orders instead of Atobe's, most of the club members were still not quite aware of the tension among the regular members.
If it was easy to notice the lack of Atobe in general practice, in the regulars' club room it was certainly even more obvious. It was noticeably quiet, for one thing, and somehow… empty. Atobe's ego perhaps seemed too big at times, but one couldn't really know just how much of an impact his mere presence had before he was away.
Gakuto sighed as he shouldered his bag, impatiently tapping his foot against the floor. "Come on, Yuushi," he snapped. "I want to go already!"
"Calm down, Gakkun," Oshitari sighed. "I still need to write in the club diary before I can leave." Glancing around in the clubroom, he added, "Someone, get Jirou awake."
"…Usu." Walking to the blonde nodding off in front of his locker, Kabaji shook his shoulder. Blinking, Jirou yawned, then continued changing his clothes with his usual sleep-dazed slow pace.
"Atobe-senpai really does a lot, doesn't he?" Ohtori commented with a faint smile. "It's just hard to notice it when he's actually here."
"Yeah, 'cause he's always drawing all the attention to his so-called prowess," Shishido snorted, adjusting his cap. "When's he coming back, anyway?"
"Well, I don't know if he's comin' to school tomorrow," Oshitari said, "but he told me he's handlin' practice on Thursday, so I guess we'll be seein' him then at latest."
"Good," muttered Gakuto, folding his arms across his chest. "Then I won't have to wait for you all the time!"
"Some patience, Gakkun." Oshitari rolled his eyes as he started making notes in the club diary - or a substitute thereof. Atobe quite preferred to keep the diary on the computer, but of course he wouldn't give his password to Oshitari, secretive bastard that he was, so the notes for these two days had to be made in a separate notebook. Gakuto fumed. Stupid Atobe, first getting hurt like that and then putting all his duties on Oshitari's shoulders! Wasn't that what he had Kabaji for, or something?
"I hope Atobe'll be all right," Jirou muttered, yawning a bit as he finished buttoning up his school shirt, running a hand through his messy curls. "It's got to be pretty bad if he misses practice entirely."
"Of course he will," Shishido muttered. "There wouldn't be much prowess to be awed at if he was anything but perfect. I bet when he comes back, we won't even notice that anything happened in the first place. That or he'll somehow manage to be even more damn glorious than before."
"Well, I really hope so," Ohtori sighed. "I'd really hate it if he got badly hurt because of the whole mess."
"It'd be his own fault anyway, for staying behind like that," Gakuto announced. "Now hurry up, Yuushi!" He would be happy when the incident was all forgotten and over with. After all, it wasn't like it was going to affect them beyond these few days without Atobe.
Surely everything would be forgotten soon.
*
"That was a good game," Kamio said, grinning a bit as he wiped sweat from his forehead. "Right, Shinji?"
"I suppose it was good enough," Shinji mumbled, taking a drink from his water bottle. "It's nice to play against good opponents."
"Damn right!" Kamio's grin was still wide as he could only barely keep himself from skipping around. He was still high on adrenaline, enough so that he didn't even need any music to feel the rhythm flowing high in his veins. There were few things that were as good as a proper match.
"You seem pretty excited," a voice spoke up, drawing both their gazes. Kamio's eyes widened as he saw Tachibana-san walking closer to them. It wasn't every day their captain happened to come to the street courts. "Any particular reason?"
"We just ran into some of Hyoutei's players earlier," Shinji explained in his usual rather monotone manner, apparently not overly excited at the sight of their captain. The infidel. Then, when was Shinji overly excited about anything? "We played against them. It was a nice match. They also said Atobe's still not back to school. I kind of wonder why because you said he'd be all right, but then maybe it's just taking him a while, it must have been pretty bad after all, but they said he's supposed to be back on Thursday so I suppose Tachibana-san really was telling the truth but then it's not like Tachibana-san would lie to us anyway so maybe it's just --"
"Atobe's coming back to school already? That's great." Tachibana-san smiled, not paying much mind even as Shinji went on muttering about something apparently unrelated. It wasn't like Shinji was really talking to them anymore, anyway. "I just hope he won't exhaust himself too much. He was still pretty badly off on Monday; it's rather hard to believe he'd just suddenly be fine so soon."
"Who cares about that idiot, anyway?" Kamio huffed. He thought everyone was really talking too much about Atobe after the incident. Even Shinji muttered about him time to time. "It's his own fault for not getting out faster. Nobody asked him to stay behind."
"Now, that's just rude, Kamio." Tachibana-san frowned at him, which almost made Kamio flinch. Tachibana-san wasn't supposed to be frowning at him, it just wasn't right at all… "Atobe was our host at the time, and though he was rather ridiculously stubborn to stay behind like that, it was also very brave of him. It's the least I could do to visit him, given the circumstances."
"What circumstances? That he was stupid enough to get himself hurt?" Kamio murmured, crossing his arms over his chest. "If he hadn't been so stubborn he wouldn't be in the hospital right now."
"I already told you, Kamio." Tachibana-san -- glared at him. Tachibana-san was not supposed to be glaring at him either, it just wasn't fair, not over something as ridiculous as Atobe's stubbornness anyway… "And I claim you can be even more hard-headed occasionally, so I wouldn't say it's just his stubbornness that got Atobe hurt."
"I'm not," Kamio mumbled, looking away. He wasn't stubborn, he was just… determined. Yeah, that was it. He was determined and didn't give up easily. Those were good things, weren't they?
"Heh. If only denial would actually make things go away." Tachibana-san chuckled. "Stubbornness can be a good thing, you know, especially for a tennis player. ...Though I suspect Atobe would still rather call himself tenacious or something."
"Well, he does play long games well," Kamio admitted grudgingly. Then, expression brightening, he added, "But he's still nowhere as great as Tachibana-san!"
"Ehh... I wonder." Tachibana-san scratched the back of his head. Then, before Kamio could even properly protest at such a ridiculous notion, he added, "It's good to see you training hard outside practice, though. You need to do your best to be a proper team next year when I'm not there anymore!"
The thought of Tachibana-san leaving them chased all other things right out of Kamio's head. "Don't talk about it!" he snapped, perhaps almost too viciously. "It won't be in ages yet!"
"Sooner than you'd like to think, I suspect." Tachibana-san sighed, but then smiled. "I'm sure you'll do well even without me, though. You'll make me proud." He grinned, and Kamio found himself grinning back.
At least for now, Tachibana-san was still all theirs.
