Long time no read :3

There might take longer than usual for the next update, school started and it gives me no time to write anything special.

Are you alive or…? I haven't heard from you.

Chapter 8: MOUNTAIN TRIP PART 1

"Buchou, where are Marui senpai and Niou senpai?" Akaya asked innocently as he looked around the court. For some reason, he couldn't find the two tennis players anywhere.

Sanada said nothing. He looked at Yukimura who smiled serenely, thinking of his math notes and how the two had stolen it. Oh, how they had paid...

"That's not important, let's just get you properly dressed and prepared," Yukimura said and led the rather confused Akaya into the clubhouse.

"What do you mean? Are you sending me away?" Suddenly a horrible thought smacked him in the head, sending the boy reeling in shock.

Was buchou going to send him away because he wasn't useful for the team? Just because he had shrunk (damn that Inui)? Was he going to send him to the Alps, wherever that was and burn him on a stick?

"Are you sending me away, buchou?" Akaya asked, scared beyond belief.

"Yes." Yukimura answered and smiled as closed the door behind them. The door closed with a resounding click, and Akaya began to fear for his life.

"Buchou, I don't wanna die!" Akaya shouted and clung to Yukimura's jacket, looking up at him with pleading, desperate eyes.

"What...?" Yukimura looked surprised at the sudden outburst.

"I don't wanna burn on a stick in the Alps! Please, I'm not a marshmallow though I like marshmallows on a stick they're called s'mores aren't they but I REALLY DON'T WANT TO DIE!"

Yukimura chuckled and ruffled the younger's hair. "I'm expelling you to the Alps; you're just going to go on a camping trip with Seigaku. We don't have enough people who can look after you, but Seigaku does."

Akaya sighed in relief but still clung to the jacket. "Seigaku?... no...WAIT! I don't wanna go with Seigaku! They have poisonous milkshakes, snakes, and three-eared cats!" Akaya shouted.

Yukimura ignored him and walked to his locker, taking out a bag of clothes and a dog-eared manual. He took Akaya by the hand and led him out the door, with Akaya desperately struggling, nightmares of milkshakes floating above his head.

"Take good care of him, and here's a handbook if you have any, ah, concerns," Sanada said as he gave the manual to Tezuka, who nodded thank you and looked at Akaya.

"Please refrain from killing him, and keep in mind that Akaya is often very hungry after he wakes up from a nap. Also, never ever wake Akaya up when he's sleeping. Ever." Yukimura said as he gave the snoring Akaya to Tezuka, who held him by the collar.

(Like Akaya was a pet dog who needed to be whipped into shape.)

"No need to worry, we'll take good care of him, Yukimura-san." Ryuzaki said from the car and nodded that they had to leave.

"Oi, Mamushi, let's play a game," Momo said from behind Kaidoh who was looking out the window. Momo grinned, pumped up at the idea of a chance to finally show his rival how powerful he was.

"Go play with someone else, peach head," Kaidoh grunted in response and otherwise ignored the tall second-year.

"Okay, let's play I Spy!" Momo cheered and also ignored Kaidoh's response. "I spy with my little eye something green!" He chanted, his eyes dancing in excitement (seriously?).

"I said that I didn't want to play, idiot! Fssshhhh," Kaidoh said angrily and turned around in his seat to face Momo.

"Who are you calling idiot, bandana freak?"

"Do you wanna fight, bastard?"

"Bring it on!"

"Kaidoh, Momoshiro! No fighting in the bus!" Tezuka shouted as his voice thundered across the bus. "You'll only wake up Kirihara, and that will cause a lot of trouble!" He said while pointing at a certain line on page 55, chapter 3 of the manual.

Akaya turned a little in his seat as he slept and mumbled something.

The bus became quiet, with only Eiji's light snores, Oishi and Kawamura's voices as they discussed sushi, and Ryuzaki's loud cursing at the cars in front of them.

After an hour or so, the old coach parked the bus at the side of the road, beside a little rest area with benches and a toilet that would soon become useful for Eiji, who ran up to the small house as fast as he could.

"Where am I?" Akaya asked as he sat up in his seat and tried to rub the sleepiness out if his eyes. "The last thing that happened... didn't Yukimura-buchou send me off to the Alps?"

"Kirihara, it's time to eat." Ryuzaki said as she smiled at him (secretly wondering what Yukimura had did- the Alps? seriously?).

Akaya blinked. That old lady- wasn't she from Seigaku? What was she doing here? Where were his senpai-tachi? And why were they in the middle of the woods? Did she abduct him? ...Did that creepy glasses guy-

"No, I didn't, Kirihara," Inui said calmly, not looking up from his "Bible" (actually his notebook).

Akaya jumped in surprise and turned to Inui, who was, as usualy, writing something in his green notebook.

"How did you-?"

"Read my mind?" Inui finished and chuckled as Akaya jumped seven feet in the air. "You see, it's not hard reading your mind. I simply have a lot of data on you." Inui pushed up his glasses and the glass, or whatever was behind the glass, glinted.

"S-stalker! Hey, and what happened to the antidote you said you were going to make?" Akaya changed his eyes into a glare, although it wasn't very powerful.

"Antidote? I see, I forgot about that," Inui mumbled to himself.

"How could you have forgotten something that important?!"

"It's not a big problem. I'm missing only a few... ingredients, and I'll find them on this trip."

"We have to hurry, or we won't make the campsite by nighttime," Ryuzaki said and prepared to start the car, staring at the bathroom impatiently.

"Fujiko? What are you eating?" Eiji asked as he returned, looking at Fuji with I-want-some-of-that eyes.

"Eiji, let Fuji have his own lunch," Oishi scolded.

"But... he has a lot and it looks good," Eiji said and looked at the sandwich in Fuji's hands. Oishi was about to object but Fuji interrupted. "It's okay, Eiji. You can have some of mind, but let me give you a warning. It has a lot of wasa-."

Eiji ignored his close friend and savagely ripped off a piece of the sandwich, stuffing it into his mouth. Moments later, a loud choking noise came from up front as the doubles specialist made a mad dash towards his waterbottle.

Akaya looked wonderingly at Eiji's green face. He wondered if such a color was humanly possible to achieve.

"What was that, nya?!" Eiji shouted in between gulping down the water in great big gallonfuls.

"Wasabi, I tried to warn you," Fuji said and chuckled, taking the remaining piece of the sandwich. He took a bite out of it and smiled happily. (The freak...)

"Wasabi!?" Eiji seemed to sit closer to Oishi after that. Meanwhile, another curious little monkey was asking questions.

"Who made this, your mom?" Momo asked as he grabbed Kaidoh's lunch box, holding it up laughingly . It had everything Momo loved to eat in it, but no way was he going to say that.

"No..." Kaidoh said and snatched his lunch box back.

"Your aunt? Your grandmother? Don't tell me you made this?" Momo started laughing, pointing his finger at Kaidoh.

"What's so funny about that?" Kaidoh shouted as his cheeks flushed in embarrassment.

"Well... you're such a housewife! Bwahahaha! You clean, you cook, what's the next thing? Having kids?" Momo laughed so much that he couldn't breathe and tears poured out of his eyes.

"Shut up, you wanna fight?"

"I'm sitting here," Akaya said pointedly as he sat up straighter, annoyed that all the attention was focused on that brat Momo and Kaidoh.

"Ah, Kirihara, do you want some sushi?" Kawamura asked nicely, producing a large grin on Akaya's face.

"You have sushi?" Akaya looked suspiciously at the piece of sushi in his hands, but dropped it in his mouth anyway.

"Do you like it?"

"Yes! I want some more!" Akaya stretched out his hand, but Tezuka's voice stopped from him from grabbing another piece of the delicious sushi.

"Don't eat too much fish. You will get a stomachache if you eat too much," Tezuka read from the book and looked sternly over at Akaya, who wilted under the captains glare.

"You are such a joykiller..." He mumbled.

"Did you say something?" Tezuka asked as his eyebrow twitched in annoyance.

"Ahaha, no." Akaya waved his hands. "Stupid four-eyes," He mumbled to himself when the tall third year looked away.

"Here we are," Ryuzaki said as she stooped outside a little brown cottage that looked like it could fall apart any second. They had been driving for hours, into the woods, and this was their camping site.

A hut.

"It's freezing out here…" Akaya said as he hugged himself. "How can you wear so little clothes?" He turned to Kaidoh who was wearing his usual tank top.

"Fshhuuuu."

Akaya gave up on forcing an intelligent response from him, and instead turned his attention the cottage.

"Ryuzaki sensei, I can't seem to open the door." Kawamura said as he tried open the door.

"Did you try the key?" She stood beside him, her forehead furrowed. "I tried everything." Kawamura looked at the others, a guilty look on his face. (What was he guilty about?)

"You can't open the door? Does that mean that we have to sleep in the car?" Eiji asked and clung to Oishi, his eyes wide.

"Not necessarily," Fuji said smiling and picked up a racket (it was Kawamura's).

"Are you thinking of busting through?" Momo looked at Fuji, his voice unsure. "Wouldn't we have to pay the damage fines, then?"

"We don't have to do that, the owner of this cottage lives half a mile from here. I can drive there and get a new key," Ryuzaki said as she took the racket away from Fuji.

"We can wait here," Tezuka determined for everyone.

"But it's cold outside," Akaya whined. He only had a skimpy t-shirt on.

"Yukimura-kun packed a sweater for you." Fuji took out a navy blue sweater and sat down to help Akaya, who scowled in indignation. Yeah, he was five years old, but still...

"Strange," Ryuzaki muttered. The car wasn't starting, and no matter how many times she stomped on the pedal the van wouldn't budge.

"There is an 89% chance that it is out of gas and the nearest station is outside of a five-mile radius," Inui said, pushing up his glasses, data spewing out of his mouth.

"That means-" Ryuzaki began. "That means we'll have to stay here until someone finds us, or walk back. There is currently no signal within the entire woods," Inui finished.

"That means…" Oishi began. "We are…" Eiji continued.

"Stuck." Momo finished glumly.

"I don't wanna die…" Akaya whimpered and hugged himself tightly, feeling the warm knitted sweater in his hands (birthday present from Jackal).

"Taka-san," Fuji smiled and gave Kawamura his racket.

MOUNTAIN TRIP PART 1 END