Yo! :D Here's chapter 4, after one week and 3 days. I was planning for this to be updated in two weeks, but whatever.
DISCLAIMER: I don't own prince of tennis. La di da.
Btw, it isn't Akaya in the first part. Just saying that beforehand. When I read it over I thought "Hey, it sounds like it could be Akaya"
And so, here's chapter 4, the (not so) Secret Mission II.
Chapter 4: The (not so) Secret Mission II
"….."
A trembling second year gingerly pulled himself out of the shadows of a tree. He shuddered, teeth chattering uncontrollably. "K-k-k-kuso, this is horrible…I got lost, need to find my way back…if I get caught, then…" he winced, unable to stand the thought of the punishment he would receive…not to mention the teasing. He tightened his green bandana.
"I-it's ok, it's ok…" he stammered, trying to ease his fried nerves. "Fsssuuuhhhu..."
Don't underestimate Kaido Kaoru! He thought to himself, a weak attempt to pep himself up. Kaido looked around desperately, trying to remember where he had come from. You see, when Kaido ran off screaming into the sunset, he never actually came back. He had just kept on running and running until he finally fell into the same river as Ryoma and the others and ended up at U-17. By now, he was feeling pretty sorry for himself. All he wanted to do right now was to curl up into a bed full of cuddly kitties, puppies and fluffballs. Unlike what he was doing right now, standing outside in the rain at 3AM in a place where he was kicked out from with no one to help him.
He paced back and forth on the muddy grass, wanting someone, anyone to come out and talk to him. Even that baka Momoshiro would be good company right now, Kaido thought worriedly. A sudden thump of footsteps jolted him into action and back into the cover of the shadows. Never mind, he thought, frightened. I don't want to get caught!
Fortunately for him, it was just Atobe Keigo, who was on his way to the courts for some late night/early morning practice. Kaido shrank back even further. Being teased by the losers was bad enough – having the annoying Ice King laughing and looking down on him would be too much for his already damaged pride. Tensing up suddenly, Atobe froze where he stood, eyes narrowing. He held a hand to his head, initiating his well-known Insight, and turned towards the suspect.
"Ahn? What are you doing here?" No answer. Kaido huddled closer to his tree, holding his breath. Atobe shook his head, annoyed that he had been ignored. "Ore-sama asked you a question…why are you ignoring Ore-sama's presence? What manners you have." Still no answer. By now, Atobe had gotten quite irritated. He stormed over to the nearest tree, tearing aside some branches in his wake.
"Chotaro!"
Kaido nearly fell over in relief – it had simply been one of the Hyotei starters that Keigo had seen, not him. Chotaro drew out into the clearing, smiling ruefully. "Hey buchou. What are you doing out here?"
Atobe sighed, taking off his jersey and wringing it out. "Isn't it obvious? Ore-sama's here to train. Ore-sama's marvelous skills mustn't get rusty."
"Come on, buchou, we'll catch cold standing out here. We should go back inside and sleep. Or if you want, we could go train some more." He looked up at the gray sky, smiling. "It looks like the rain's finally letting up."
Kaido hardly dared to breathe as the pair walked away from his hiding place. That was a close one, he thought, wiping the sweat off his forehead. The Hyotei members had been chatting near his tree way too long for his liking. A movement from the inside the window of a nearby building caught his eye. He creeped up to the window and peered into a corner, not wanting the people inside to see him. His eyes widened.
"E-Echizen? And there's Oshitari, and that meat loaf Tanishi too!"
Inside, the trio were running down a hallway, trying to make their way through the heavily guarded camp to the bar lounge, with Coach Saito watching their every move. Kaido stared even more closely, bewildered. What are they doing? Stealing something? I know, maybe that drunk coach put them up to it. That bastard… He decided that it would probably be best to follow them, after all, they probably would probably know the way back to the mountains.
Meanwhile, Ryoma and the others were…having a little trouble. They had so far gotten through two 'obstacles' to get to the bar lounge – one being a hallway full of cameras that only had a few blind spots (those being the squares on the floor that Ryoma had found with Tanishi's unknown hinting.) and another being a code that was found (again, by Ryoma) in a nearby painting. They had also climbed on top of a roof to get to the bar lounge building (this was Kenya's favorite part) and avoided the sharp-toothed Dobermans. The rain had helped conceal their scent a bit, which had helped them sneak past the guard dogs. It would have been perfectly fun if it weren't for the fact that they really couldn't be captured under any circumstances.
But now they had a problem. They were only about 100 meters away from the bar lounge that was easily in view, but there seemed to be something blocking them. That something was a flurry of bright red lasers, all arranged to catch anyone who tried to sneak past them. They were also set up to set off an alarm when passed through, which would never pass unnoticed.
Kenya took a deep breath, trying to count to ten in his mind. Don't snap…he thought, gritting his teeth. Don't snap…Don't snap…
Behind him, Tanishi gulped. "T-that doesn't look too good." he muttered.
Kenya snapped, spinning around to kick a stunned Tanishi. "Of course it's not good! It's HORRIBLE! How are we supposed to get through those? A kid could barely fit through those lasers, let alone a fatty like you!" he roared.
Tanishi instantly seized up with anger. "Well then, let's see how Mr. Stringbean gets through it! If you're confident enough, that is!" he retorted, sneering angrily.
Getting increasingly pissed off with every passing second, Kenya stomped away from Tanishi and went towards the lasers. "Very well then, watch how it's supposed to be done!" he yelled.
Echizen sighed, cocking his head. "Hey, wouldn't it be better if I tried? I'm the smallest, and your balance sucks."
Kenya snapped for yet a second time in the last 30 seconds. "WILL YOU SHUSH? How can such a small kid be so blunt and rude? If I say I can do it, I WILL!"
Ryoma sweat dropped. Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed. "…Just…be careful. Don't fall or anything."
At this, Kenya slightly softened, and relaxed his tense features a bit. He smiled. "Tha-"
"If you trip the alarm, we're blaming it all on you."
Akaya entered the bar lounge building, flexing his sore arm. "Itai, that Coach Tsuge guy's so tough on us…..Marui-senpai's not any better either, I'm so going to get my revenge for this…..I know! I'm gonna buy all the green apple gum in stores so he can never have any again!" He noticed a telltale red glow emitting from around the corner. He blinked, and rubbed his eyes. Has that always been there? he wondered. He pondered on this thought for a bit, then cautiously approached the light.
"WAAAAGGH!"
He leaped back, heart stabbing with a jolt of sharp fear. W-w-w-what the hell is that? There was a huge, ever moving shadow creeping up along the ground in the red light, getting bigger then smaller, and constantly changing shapes. For someone with strong imagination, like Akaya…..it wasn't a great sight. In the darkness of the night, and the silence of it too, it was pretty spooky. Akaya's mind wandered back to where he didn't want it to go – the conversation of the two high schoolers.
Previously:
-"You see, I've been hearing things about….that…"
-"Yeah, I know. Around this time of year, someone always sees the ghost of the deserter, that wanders around looking for it's missing body parts. He tried to escape from a war he was in, but a hunter cut him down. It's head is the only thing that appears though, according to the rumors. Now he haunts this camp.
N-n-n-no w-way, Akaya thought to himself, sweating. There's no way ghosts could exist! But… Suddenly, his mind wandered to another forbidden place – the horror movies he had watched for the whole night. Scenes flashed through his mind, varying from bloodstained wooden doors and headless bodies to shiny teeth dripping with blood and dismembered limbs with bones sticking out of the torn skin. Then he saw the ghost of the deserter in his mind, the head of the ghost, looking for it's hands with it's glowing eyes. He paled, feeling sick to his stomach.
Oh god, oh god, oh god god god! He whimpered, plastering himself against the wall. I'm too young to die!
~o0o~
"Damn it, WHERE'S MY RIGHT HAND?" Kenya yelled, struggling to keep himself still. Ryoma flinched, biting his lip. "It's right in front of you! Keep it there!" He replied, hoping that Kenya's balance wouldn't choose to betray him at that very moment. Kenya swayed, legs trembling. "B-but where's my left hand!" Tanishi buried his head into his arms, distressed. "It's behind you! Move it- hey! Watch out, there's one coming from your left!"
"WAAGH!" Kenya managed to do some kind of sideways flip (which he later called The Super Ultimate Speed Sonic Flip of the Speed Star of Naniwa – with Kintaro's help and Ryoma's exasperation.) and avoided tripping the laser. It came at the cost of ramming into Ryoma, and the pair crashed into a messy heap on the ground, with the unlucky first year taking the brunt of the fall. Kenya quickly leaped up, then crouched down again beside the still boy worriedly. "E-Echizen, daijouga?"
Ryoma groaned and sat up, rubbing his temple. "Geez Kenya-san, you're heavy. Well, at least it wasn't Tanishi-san, he's at least double the weight of you."
A tick appeared on Higa's giant as he sniffed indigently. "Che, even when you bang your head against something, you're still cocky. I'm not fat!"
Kenya rolled his eyes. "You are!" he muttered. He got up, brushing himself off. "Ok, I'll do this again, I'm sure I'll get it this time. Echizen, you sure you're ok?"
Ryoma nodded, ignoring the persistent throb in his head. "Yeah, I'm good."
"Ok, but ask the Coach to check it out later, just to be safe."
"Uh, I don't think he would care. In fact, I think he'll be the cause one day."
And so Kenya tackled his enemy again – the lasers. 'This time', however, Kenya only got through three lasers before his side cramped up. A ripple of pain shot through his side, and so he did his special Naniwa flip and crashed into the ground once more, except that this time both Ryoma and Tanishi leapt out of the way, leaving the speed star to embrace all his pain alone.
"MY SIDE! MY SIDE'S CRAMPING UP!" Kenya rolled on the ground, twitching, and clutched his side in agony.
Tanishi began to grumble. "Oi, that's no good, try again!"
Kenya approached him, growling. "Are you kidding me? What's with this stupid special mission! Like seriously, there's no way to get through those lasers. We'll die trying!"
Tanishi's eyes turned into slits. "I didn't know the residents of Shitenhoji were so weak, giving up so easily! I should have known it the moment I laid eyes on that weird gay guy!"
"W-weird gay guy?" Kenya sputtered, "He's not- wait no, he is weird. I can't believe Yuuji threw away his chances of getting a beautiful girl for that. But anyways, that's not the point! Don't complain about things that you're hopeless at! Even without the lasers you'd barely fit down that hallway!"
Tanishi frowned, and try as he might, couldn't find a comeback. Ryoma sighed, scratching his head. And he can't argue because it's oh-so-true, he thought wearily.
"Hey, can't you guys save this for later? You're going to become the new Momo-senpai and Kaido-senpai at this rate, and you know that's a horrible, horrible thing."
Both Tanishi and Kenya turned on him, cursing. "SHUT UP! This has nothing to do with you!" they yelled.
Kenya added to it with a sharp, "I don't give a rat's crap about this special mission! That coach can go and get his precious sake himself! I'm sorry, but I really don't see how this is going to help us in the long run!"
Ryoma sighed, pulling his cap further down his head. Sounds from down the hallway made him quickly silence the fighting pair. "You two, be quiet!" he hissed urgently.
They stared at him in surprise, halting their argument. "What is it?" Kenya asked.
Ryoma struggled to make out the sounds. "I think someone's there." All three of them edged closer to the noise, trying to hear. It turned out it was Kirihara, who was saying something along the lines of,
"Step, step, one two, one two, turn and Ina Bauer!" By now, the unfortunate second year had lost all of his wits and was rubbing his hands and chanting the 'spell' to try and make the 'ghost' go away.
Kenya arched an eyebrow, a look of bewilderment spreading across his face. "What the hell, is that Kirihara Akaya? What is he even saying? Maybe the training's been so hard, he's gone crazy." he guessed, chuckling in amusement.
Ryoma hesitated, looking back at the lasers. He ran the chant through his mind. It couldn't be… "Step…step…one two, one two…turn and Ina Bauer." he murmured.
Kenya stared at him, blinking. "Echizen, you're spouting that crap too?"
Tanishi stepped away from him nervously. "M-maybe…it's a hypnotic spell that makes everyone who hears it say it!" He was going to plug his ears but then Kenya kicked him in the face.
"That's stupid!" he snapped, "Echizen's head must have disconnected with his senses or something when he hit it!"
Ryoma rolled his eyes, annoyed. "What's that supposed to mean?" he grumbled. Then his eyes lit up, and he smiled confidently. "We can make it through the lasers!" Seeing the others look of astonishment, he specified what he meant. "If we follow Kirihara-san's instructions, we can make it through!"
The Great Akaya Instructions pretty much went like this: "Step, step, one two, one two, turn and Ina Bauer! Kick, Punch, Ina Bauer! Axe kick, Ina Bauer! Ina Bauer, Ina Bauer, INA BAUER!"*
Kenya mistimed the landing of the last Ina Bauer and ended up falling over. "Che," he muttered, rubbing his sore knee, "there are way too many Ina Bauers! Is Kirihara trying to become a dance teacher or something?"
Ryoma nodded in agreement. "But we made it through," he said triumphantly, high fiving Kenya. "We made it through the trap." Behind a corner, Akaya was slumped down across a wall in relief, after the shadows had vanished. T-thank god…I'm still alive!
Kenya and Ryoma crept into the bar lounge, leaving an impatient Tanishi behind – Kenya had been more than right, and there was no way that he would ever Ina Bauer through the lasers. Kenya peered around the lounge, eyes wide.
"Whoa," he started, walking around, "There's a lot of sake here! Remind me why an under seventeen camp needs this much sake? What are they trying to encourage?"
Ryoma shrugged, not caring much. "I guess (hope) this is more geared towards the coaches. C'mon, let's hurry up and fill the gourd, I really want to get some more sleep…or train, I guess. Any idea which one of these sakes is the finest?"
Kenya froze in his tracks, and turned towards Ryoma, laughing nervously. "Uh….I just hope that the Coach isn't too picky about his sakes…"
Ryoma shook his head, slightly exasperated. "I guess we can just pick a random-" he stopped mid-sentence, eyes fixed onto a certain drink.
Kenya turned to him. "Koshimae, what are you doing? Hurry up with the sake, I wanna get out of here! I feel like a criminal doing this!"
Ryoma pointed to a malicious, familiar poison in liquid form. "This is my senpai's juice…" Kenya instantly turned green at the sight of the deadly Inui Juice, leaping away from it in fear.
"What are you doing?" Ryoma asked with a sigh. "It won't hurt you if you don't drink it…most likely."
Kenya held a hand up against his nose, trying to protect himself as much as possible. "You know what they say – half the taste is in the smell…You know that Inui Juice probably claimed a lot of lives…it's a horrible, horrible thing…"
Ryoma smirked. "You think?" he started. He then held up the gourd and gave it a meaningful shake. "I think it can be pretty good at times like this."
Catching on to his idea, Kenya grinned mischievously. "Die, Coach Nyudo!" they chorused, filling up the gourd. Kenya had actually been right about the smell, and they tried to lean away from the juice as its dangerous fumes caused their eyes to burn and water. They closed the lid as quickly as possible and tightened the cap on the gourd, smiling in satisfaction.
"Perfect!" Kenya said happily. "Now let's go back and Ina Bauer through those lasers again!" His stomach growled, and he blushed, embarrassed. "I…I'm a little hungry…" he muttered sheepishly.
Ryoma's stomach growled in reply. "Yeah, me too…" He stopped, and looked at the fridge behind Kenya. "O-oi, Kenya-san, that's-"
"FOOD!" Kenya yelped, and sprung towards the fridge, drooling. He thrust open the door and immediately tore into its' contents. He had honestly been starving because it was always the high schoolers who cooked, and so they had dibs on the meals. The majority of them were still jerks, so they hogged all of it. As a result, the middle schoolers only got about 35% of the food, and it was taking a toll on them (especially for people like Tanishi, Momo, and Kintaro).
Right behind him, Ryoma grabbed a hunk of meat off a shelf. He bit into it, savoring its' juices.
Kenya's eyes lit up as he found a basket of fruits on a nearby table. "Echizen look! There's even fruit here!" he crowed, digging into a banana. "ESCASTY!"
Ryoma saw a pack of sausages wrapped appealingly in the fridge. "There's sausage over here too!" He took a piece, and ate it with bread and an orange. "There's even Ponta…" he said longingly.
As they dug into their late night feast, they didn't even notice that their long forgotten friend was at that very moment charging into the lasers. He had been yelling at the top of his lungs for them to hurry up and bring some treats to him, but they hadn't heard him in their delight. What they did hear, however, was the unmistakable sound of a shrill alarm.
Kenya jumped up at the sound of the alarm, swearing. "T-Tanishi! What the hell!" The culprit took no notice of them as he chowed down on multiple assortments of meat and cheese.
Ryoma plugged his ears in shock as a combination of screams reached his ears. "W-what the hell was that?" he asked, wincing. "K-Kirihara-san?"
Kenya dove behind the counter, worried that someone would come in at that very moment. "There were two screams! Who was the other? Crap, was there a murder or something? Or was it because of the alarm?" He ducked in the earthquake pose before Ryoma dragged up him back up in exasperation.
Tanishi, who had eaten half of his fill in the mere minute that he had started, finally seemed to take note of the situation. "No way, the alarm went off?"
Ryoma whacked him in annoyance. "Yes it did you idiot! Let's get out of here! Bring food if you want to, and we'll take off!"
"Great," Kenya muttered, pulling Tanishi to his feet. "You got enough food? Then RUN!"
"WAAAAAAAAHH!" Akaya screamed for a second time as an array of horribly shaped shadows dove into his field of sight. The sounds of the alarm and approaching footsteps were too much for him, and he tore off shrieking down the hallway. "STEP STEP ONE TWO ONE TWO! TURN AND INA BAUER!" he wailed, running outside to the courts.
Atobe and Chotaro were there, eyes widening as they saw a screaming Akaya rip down the path in fear.
Chotaro tried to grab the freaked-out Akaya. "O-oi, K-Kirihara? What in the world happened? Do you know what set off the alarm?" But the petrified ace tore away from him and continued down the path, still screaming.
Atobe blinked, confused by the behavior of the normally confident second year. "What in the world happened…" he wondered, looking at the bar lounge in which Akaya had come from. "Did something happen there? And why's Kirihara yelling a dance routine? I didn't know he was into that stuff."
Meanwhile, Ryoma, Tanishi and Kenya had managed to run all the way to the river in which they had come from, with the speed of an Olympic runner (then again, Kenya was the one who had run on water, so it wasn't a surprise) without being noticed. They collapsed onto the ground, panting.
Tanishi coughed, taking a quick drink from a juice he had brought with him. "G-god, Oshitari, you run too quickly. I could barely keep up!"
"Kuh," Kenya started, "Maybe that's because you brought 5 pounds of meat with you! You tripped the alarm, you idiot! We could have eaten more if it weren't for you!"
Before an angered Tanishi could yell that he had been forgotten, Ryoma stepped in between them. "If you two have time to fight, we have time to get back…" he stopped, staring into the river. He pointed to a flailing object. "Hey…"
Kenya groaned, wanting to lie down and sleep and ignore the object….person….that had fallen into the river. It's too mean to just leave him he thought ruefully, and ran over to the edge of the river, with Ryoma and Tanishi in front of him. Together, they managed to somehow pull the person out, who happened to be Kaido. When he had entered the bar lounge building, he had seen the shadows, which had risen his scare meter up by 50%. Then he had seen the biggest shadow (Tanishi), which had risen the meter up by another 40%. Then Akaya's scream had pushed the meter to 180%, and so he had bolted, screaming, running until he had fallen into the same river yet again. He was in fact the second scream they had heard.
"Kaido-senpai…" Ryoma muttered, "Don't tell me you never came back after running off screaming into the sunset?"
Kaido froze, paling. "U-uh…um…." he stammered, looking around nervously. "I just thought I'd uh... make sure you guys were ok! Fhsuu..."
Kenya shook his head wearily. "Forget it, I'm too tired to ask you questions, or to even laugh at you like I normally would."
Kaido looked at them gratefully, while trying to ignore the last remark, hoping that they wouldn't tell anyone about the experience. "Great, then let's go back to the mountain. I fell into the river, so I don't know the way back. I thought I could just follow the river back, but it splits up so many times and there are so many different mountains that I don't even know which way leads to the right one. You guys do, right?"
"…"
"Crap."
"I hate life."
Two hours later:
"We're back after our long, grueling journey!" Kenya announced, acting like a soldier who had just come back from a battle at sea. "REPORTING IN! We've got the-"
Coach Nyudo ignored Kenya and snatched the gourd from Ryoma's arms. "Forget that crap, I've been waiting for this! I was worried that you wouldn't make it back before daybreak!" He took a few swings out of the gourd.
Kenya smirked, eyes twinkling in anticipation. Let that coach suffer!
Tanishi surpressed an evil chuckle. Wait till we see that look on his face! An image of the three laughing filled his mind, and he giggled, imagining the stories he would tell to the other middle schoolers about Coach Nyudo's poisoning.
A grin stretched slowly onto Ryoma's face, as he watched the coach fall into the trap. I'm going to thank Inui-senpai for this…
"HA HA HA!" The coach chortled with laughter and satisfaction, licking his lips. "That's some good stuff!" The three gaped in the shock that the coach actually liked – no, could actually stand Inui Juice. They looked at each other, frozen.
"Uh…" Kenya started, getting over his surprise, "We'll be going now!" They saluted, and made their way quickly to the cave, when Coach Nyudo's growl stopped them.
"Come back here."
Ngh! They thought, horrified. He knows we tried to poison him!
"Leave the food."
Crap! They thought, horrified. Even worse!
They reluctantly left the food, being chocolate and a half drunken can of Ponta from Ryoma, two pieces of bread and cheese from Kenya, and 5 sausages, 2 salamis, and 3 pieces of ham from Tanishi. There had actually been more, but they had eaten about half of it on the way back, knowing that it would probably be confiscated. Before they could make their escape, Coach Nyudo stopped them again.
"Wait."
Gah! They thought, horrified. This time he really does know we tried to poison him!
He reached a hand out slowly towards Ryoma. Kenya and Tanishi blanched. He's going to hit Echizen first? No way! He's heartless! They winced and closed their eyes, waiting for the blow to strike him. They waited some more. And waited. They finally opened their eyes, curious, and were stunned to see that Coach Nyudo – Coach Nyudo – had put a hand on Ryoma's head and was examining it, having noticing the bump. Ryoma looked just as shocked as they did, his eyebrow twitching slightly.
"Uh….umm…" he muttered uncomfortably.
Coach Nyudo took out an ice pack from a drawer behind him. He tossed it to him. "Use that." Then he turned back to Kenya and Tanishi.
"Hmmm….you guys are all wet." He burst out laughing, "I can't believe you had this much trouble! I didn't think anyone was lame enough to get lost! You all suck!" He went back into his cabin, still laughing at them. "You know what, as a reward, go and do 60000 swings right now!"
Kenya and Tanishi were fuming, cheeks flaming. "I can't believe I thought he was nice for a moment!" they roared.
Ryoma sighed, holding the ice pack to his head. For one shining moment…he thought…I almost felt bad for trying to poison him.
"Mada mada syne.*"
That's it for this chapter! What did you think about this chapter? I hope you liked it! Please review! Btw, I feel so bad about Kaido XD I'm going to stop bullying him.
Now Atobe's been mentioned XD I don't know why, but I like having other characters appear. That's why this isn't much of a Ryoma fanfic at the moment. I'm definitely having Liliadent Krauser in it at some point (does anyone else think he's awesome XD)
1* - This scene's in the anime, for anyone who hasn't watched it. It's in episode 8.
2* - This is Ryoma's way of saying "We still have lot's more to work on" formally...I think, instead of mada mada dane, being "You still have lot's more to work on" casually.
Omake:
Akaya shivered, nervous. He was sitting in an interrogation room of U-17. The guards who had seen him running out from the bar lounge had thought that he had tripped that alarm instead of the ghost! Stupid! He leaned back in his chair, peering cautiously at the guard that was going to question him. The guard was checking a file, Akaya's file, probably to see if Akaya had a record. Akaya groaned, feeling extremely depressed. That guard looks so stern…seriously, why are most guards so stern and scary looking? Is it just me who thinks that? Another guard came in and sat down across the wooden table next to the other guard, joined by a hungry looking Doberman. They started questioning him.
"Ahem. Why did you go into the bar lounge at 3AM when you were supposed to be in bed, in your dorm, or on authorized grounds?"
Akaya frowned. "I went to go grab a half-eaten pack of green apple gum for my senpai…" he trailed off, sweat dropping. Even he could hear the insanity in that alibi.
The two guards stared at him. Is his crazy? they thought. "Wait…so you went into the bar lounge at 3AM just to get a half-eaten pack of green apple gum."
"Uh…y-yes…" Akaya suddenly remembered something. "I know! You can ask Marui-senpai! He's the one who asked me to get the gum!"
"And you decided to go and get it rather than wait until a reasonable time."
Akaya froze. "U-um…he…um…I couldn't do anything about it!" he protested.
The guard looked at him in exasperation. "You could have said no. Face it, you were the only one there at 3AM and the alarm was set off. A large assortment of food and drinks went missing from the bar lounge. Kirihara Akaya, I'm afraid to say that you will be dropped and banned from this camp as a result of you breaking the rules and stealing items from the property of U-17."
"No!" Akaya cried. "You've got to believe me, I just went there to grab the gum! I wasn't an intruder!"
The guard looked like he wanted to say more, but a laughing voice interrupted him.
"He's right, he did nothing wrong." It was Coach Saito, who had been standing behind the door for the last 10 minutes. He was just waiting for the best moment to intrude and seem cool. He winked at Akaya and gave him a thumbs up.
"You're good to go!"
Later:
Akaya walked slowly back to his dorm, ready to fall over and go to sleep. I can't believe I was almost dropped from the camp! he thought angrily. All because of that- he stopped, not wanting to think about the ghost again. All because….of an intruder that probably wasn't me! It was only then that he realized that he had forgotten two things. One, he had gone into the bar lounge when he wasn't supposed to, so he had actually in reality intruded. Second,
"Oh god damn it, I forgot to get the gum!"
Owari
