*NOTE* Alternate Universe wherein I shamelessly borrowed/altered ideas from various media sources and even threw in some of my own. If anything is canon here, it's probably an accident. Later chapters may include corporal punishment.
Changechildren (Prince of Tennis)
Part 8
By Haruka (email: haruka at ymail dot com)
In Sumire's office at Seigaku, the teacher nodded as she listened to Tezuka speak. When he finished, she looked at him seriously. "Believe me, Tezuka, we're as concerned over the potential use of powers on the court as you and Tachibana-kun are, and we're taking steps to do something about it."
The Senior looked relieved. "Neither of us wants to have to give up tennis because of this, Sensei, and I'm sure the other players would feel the same way."
Sumire gave him a wry glance. "Some of them wouldn't even consider giving it up, even if they did have an unfair advantage." She shook her head. "But don't worry, at least not yet. We'll hold a meeting tonight at home to discuss it, and hopefully by then we'll know more."
Over at Jyousei Shounen, Youhei and Kouhei had discovered that at least one of their powers was going to make the passing of surreptitious notes unnecessary.
("We have tennis practice scheduled after school,") Youhei reminded his brother telepathically as they sat in the middle of History class. ("Do you think we're still holding it?")
("Hanamura-sensei didn't say any differently, so I guess we are,") Kouhei replied. ("I wonder if we and Takahisa-buchou are going to be telling the others about our powers or not?")
("I guess we should all wait and see what Hanamura-sensei wants us to do.")
"Youhei-kun!"
The magenta-haired boy recognized his name and felt embarrassed. Here he was with super-hearing, and it sounded like his teacher had been calling on him for quite a while. "Sorry, Sensei, what was the question?"
Akira gritted his teeth and forced himself to slow down yet again. He was doing much better with controlling his speed-talking, which was good, considering he'd had to answer questions in class already that morning at Fudomine. However, because his thought processes were also faster, he was finding it next to impossible NOT to write his class notes at a speed that made his pencil smoke. Glancing toward Shinji in the next seat, he knew he wasn't the only one having problems. He'd already overheard his boyfriend telling his desk to please stop reciting the history of everyone who had ever sat there because it was distracting. Thank goodness no one else seemed to have heard him.
Darn it, he was writing too fast again! He needed a way to regulate it, slow down the tempo ….
Hey, he thought brightly. Maybe THAT was it! Akira dug into his bag and found his MP3 player. He knew he couldn't wear it during class, but if he could just hear a few notes ….
He held the ear bud between his fingers and bent over the desk to hide as much of the wire as possible. He turned on the player and held the bud to his ear.
Almost immediately, he felt a sense of peace wash over him. He should have known – even with superpowers, he was still Kamio Akira, and he was all about the rhythm. The music flowed through him, pacing him. He no longer felt the urge to race through everything he was doing. With the music, he could regulate.
He put the MP3 player away, but kept the song's beat by softly tapping his fingers against his leg. With his other hand, he resumed taking notes, but this time, they flowed evenly and didn't fly across the page. He was back in the rhythm.
Atobe was edgy.
He still didn't have his power back, and the guy who took it from him was over at Seigaku so he couldn't even yell at him. He could, however, complain to one of the people who had insisted on this experiment.
"Sensei, we need to talk," Atobe said firmly as he strode into Tarou's Hyotei office.
"It had better be good, Atobe-kun, for you to barge in here unannounced."
"My power hasn't returned yet!" the teenager exploded. "How much longer is this supposed to go on?!"
Tarou gave him a stern look. "You might wish to refrain from announcing your situation to the entire school. Close the door."
Atobe was unaccustomed to blushing, but he did so at that moment. The teacher was right. Even if the mention of Changechildren had been circulating in the news already, it probably wasn't a good idea to be shouting about powers like that. He shut the door.
"Now then," Tarou said calmly, "try to be a bit more patient. I realize it's not easy –"
"How?" Atobe demanded. "How can you understand? These powers aren't just something frivolous, they're like a living, breathing part of ourselves. I could have dealt with being without it for a few hours, but it's been almost an entire DAY. Frankly, Sensei, I feel like a heavy smoker being forced to go cold turkey!" He paused. "No pun intended."
"It's true I can't completely understand how you're feeling, but I'm trying to," Tarou told him. "You need a distraction and there's still some time left in your lunch hour. Go hit some balls around on the court until classes resume."
Atobe wanted to say more, but couldn't think of anything that would help his situation rather than make it worse. "Fine," he replied, and stalked out of the office. Tarou pitied whoever was going to be the boy's opponent.
While seated on a bench outside school, Inui busied himself with reading his textbook, writing in his notebook, and doing leg lifts at the same time. There were weights attached to his ankles with Velcro, and even while he was occupied with his other activities, he never lost track of how many times he lifted each leg or how long either was held aloft.
In between, he would occasionally glance toward Kaidoh. The Sophomore had come outside shortly after himself, and was doing easy stretches under a nearby tree. Every so often, he would pause and look up into the branches. Inui wondered what messages he was hearing from the birds and squirrels that might be there.
At one point when he looked over, he noticed that Ryoma was there with him now. The Freshman was saying something that Inui couldn't hear. Whatever it was, it made Kaidoh look at the twelve-year-old sharply and say something that might have been either, "Not so loud!" or "Not allowed!" Inui privately wished for the Tanaka twins' super-hearing – the gossipmonger in him found the appeal irresistible, especially when it came to his teammates.
Scratch that. Especially when it came to _Kaidoh_.
Ryoma didn't seem to react to Kaidoh's admonition, but that wasn't surprising, since the boy didn't show much reaction to anything outright. He said something else, and Kaidoh frowned, then gave Ryoma a short nod and walked around the other side of the tree where Inui couldn't see him anymore. He didn't come back into view, but when a small bird took flight from the base of the tree, Ryoma watched it go until it was out of sight. He headed back toward the school, and noticing Inui for the first time, gave him a tip of his cap as he passed.
Inui wasn't sure whether to worry more about what Ryoma was up to or whether Kaidoh would survive his first solo flight.
Oishi walked down the hall feeling depressed. He had just tried to hold a brief meeting of the student council during the last half of lunch, but had to cut it short because he just couldn't concentrate. With Atobe over at Hyotei, he at least wasn't getting direct harassment, but it was making him more than a little nervous that he just didn't know whether the other boy's powers had returned. He figured that Ryuzaki-sensei would know, but she wasn't in her office when he went there.
"Oishi!"
"Yahhh!" He jumped. "Eiji!" he gasped, then lowered his voice. "You didn't ... you know ... just pop in here, did you?"
Eiji looked affronted. "No, of course I didn't! There are people all over the place - I'd never just hoi out in the open!"
It took Oishi a moment to realize what his partner meant, but then he let it go. "I'm sorry," he said. "I'm just nervous."
Eiji put a hand on his shoulder. "Are you still worried about Atobe?"
"What if his power doesn't come back?" Oishi fretted. "I should never have agreed to shut it off!"
"Well," Eiji leaned back against the lockers, "someone had to test it, and we're all sort of in this together, aren't we?"
Oishi sighed. "Tell that to Atobe if they haven't returned by the time we get back to the mansion."
"WOW, Buchou, that was an amazing serve!" Atobe's teammate, Akutagawa Jiroh, had actually awakened to watch the Captain's practice match against Kabaji. Atobe was showing no mercy; it was just fortunate that even if Kabaji couldn't return every shot, he at least was strong enough not to get hurt by them.
Atobe didn't reply. Working off his stress on the court wasn't a bad idea, but it wasn't really solving his problem. He fired another serve at the Sophomore across the net.
"Atobe's on fire today," remarked Wakashi Hiyoshi, another teammate.
Gakuto, who had stopped by to watch, gave a snort. "Yeah, and right now he doesn't have the means to cool it off!"
Jiroh rubbed his eyes and leaned toward Gakuto. "What are you talking about?"
The acrobat hesitated, then thought better of it. These were their teammates, after all, and besides, hadn't Inui said at their first meeting that while the powers weren't widely known yet, they weren't really a secret, either?
"Well," he said with a mischievous smile, "here's the thing ..."
Kaidoh had been afraid at first – he'd never tried flying before. However, once he took to the air in bird form, it all came naturally.
What took a while was finding the Echizen house from above. He wasn't used to seeing the city from a bird's-eye view.
By the time he found it, he feared he was going to be late getting back to class. He swooped down onto the gate at the end of the driveway, then fluttered to the pavement, where he assumed his human form and hissed with relief. He'd made it in one piece, amazing.
"Mrrowr?"
He saw Karupin on the doorstep and crouched down to his level. "Come here," he urged gently.
Without hesitation, the Himalayan cat padded down the step and walked over to Kaidoh, rubbing against his leg as he allowed the boy to stroke his fur.
"I don't have much time," Kaidoh told him. "But I have to talk to you …"
Atobe had about given up hope. It was the last class of the day, and there was still no sign of his power returning. He tried to tell himself that he hadn't possessed the ice capabilities long enough to really get attached to them, but he couldn't lie to himself for long. Besides, he thought, pouting, it had been he who suggested all these kids move into his family's property during this time of adjustment – what was he supposed to do now? Stay there even though he had no power? Kick all the rest of them out? He wouldn't mind doing so if Tezuka wouldn't be affected, however –
"Has it turned cold in here, or is it just me?" remarked the teacher.
Atobe's head snapped up. Had someone mentioned 'cold'?
His teammates were trying not to make it too obvious that they suspected the cause of the temperature drop, but they still glanced his way hopefully. Atobe touched a fingertip to his desktop and focused. He watched a fine sheet of ice begin to radiate outwards from it.
"Yes!" he murmured with satisfaction. It was back!
Shishido shivered. "Atobe!" he hissed. "Now that it's on again, can you turn it off? We're freezing here!"
"Of course," he replied smoothly, and concentrated on drawing back the power. He felt it respond as easily as if they had never been separated.
"I think it's a little better now, Sensei," Yuushi said. "Perhaps there was a glitch in the furnace."
The teacher glanced toward the window, frowning. "But it's not really cold out at all, so …." He shrugged. "Oh well, let's get back to our lesson, shall we? Atobe-kun, would you please read the next passage out loud?"
"Certainly, Sensei," Atobe replied with a smug smile as he stood up to read. The Ice Emperor was back, and he was never letting anyone mess with his power again.
"What HAPPENED to you, Mamushi?" Momoshiro prodded Kaidoh as he followed him out of school. "Since when do you show up so late for class that you may as well have not even bothered?"
"It wasn't that late," Kaidoh muttered. "I only missed twenty minutes."
Momo snorted. "It was enough to get you sent to the Principal! If that happens again, it might affect your standing on the Regulars, you know!"
"I had something to do."
"Like what?"
Kaidoh turned on him and snapped, "None of your business! Now shut up and leave me alone before I turn into a REAL viper and give you a bite of venom!"
Momoshiro stared dumbfounded as he watched Kaidoh go on ahead to stop Ryoma. After they talked for a few moments, Ryoma smiled, which only piqued Momo's curiosity more. The moment Kaidoh was gone, he hurried over to the twelve-year-old.
"Echizen, what did Kaidoh want?" he asked eagerly.
"That's what I'd like to know, too," Inui interrupted as he joined them. "Am I right that Kaidoh was late returning to class this afternoon, Momoshiro?"
"Yeah, something like twenty minutes late!" He turned back to Ryoma. "So what's going on?"
"He was helping me with something," Ryoma admitted. "I'll show you tonight."
"Hoi, guys!" Eiji ran out and practically leapt onto Inui's back. "Great news from Oishi! He just got a call from Atobe, and his power has come back! Right in the middle of his last class it happened, but it's back! Oishi practically fainted, he was so relieved!"
"He's not the only one who is relieved," Sumire remarked as she came up behind them. "Since we don't have practice scheduled you can all do whatever until seven o'clock tonight but then everyone is required to be home and ready to attend an all-school meeting. We have some things to discuss."
End of Part 8
(2006)
Prince of Tennis belongs to Konomi Takeshi.
This fic is not to be re-posted.
