Chapter ten. Finally.
First off, I would like to say thanks to FranscoiseLaraLapis for pointing out some mistakes in chapter 8. I went back and fixed them :3 And please everyone, don't feel mean if you correct me. I am very grateful for it.
Yo guy! It is currently 23:37pm Friday night and 72 degrees out… god it's hot. And having writer's block doesn't help either.
Thanks for reviewing! If we didn't, you wouldn't write. Damn straight I wouldn't. and thanks for putting up with all of my crazy shite! Again, if it keeps you writing… ALL THE CRAZINESS!
Well, by the time this is read by you guys, school has probably already started and I will have either shot myself of was content with my classes and procrastinated on my homework to write this for you and seeing that I'm not dead, I think I've put homework on my procrastination list.
FYI, all the 'believing in ghosts' business in this chapter, other than Kaidou and Kirihara and maybe Hiroshi, I'm pretty much basing it on me and my friends on where we believe.
If I did own Prince of Tennis, weird things would happen so be glad that I DO NOT own Prince of Tennis.
Whelp, here's Chapter 10. Enjoy!
Echizen returned her smile with his own and a raised eyebrow. "Oh? How do you intend to do that?" with a bit of sarcasm in his voice.
"Just be prepared tomorrow." She smiled and got off the couch heading for the hall. "Echizen-kun, if you're worried about them, I swear to you, nothing will happen to them."
Echizen rolled his eyes. "Who would be worried about them?" he smiled and yawned. Apparently, the explanation eased his mind enough to go back to sleep.
Aya giggled. "See you tomorrow, Echizen-kun." And like that, she disappeared into the hall and out of sight.
Echizen watched as she rounded the corner and went to the hall. It felt like the weight of the world had been lifted off his shoulders and somehow, he couldn't move. He blew out the candle, made himself comfortable on the couch and drifted to sleep.
He awoke rather early that morning seeing that some of the windows didn't have blinds or curtains and let the sun's light in and lit up the whole room. He caught sight of a clock to see that it was way too early for him to be up. He got comfortable on the couch again, pulled the blanket to keep warm and shut his eyes only for them to snap open again.
'A blanket? Where did this come from?' He thought as he sat up. It couldn't have been from any of the regulars. Why would they be in the living room in the middle of the night anyways? It could possibly have been Ryoga but he would have more or less brought him back to the room or stayed down there with him. He thought that the only logical reason, as logical that it can get, would be that Aya came back and placed a blanket over him and thought nothing more of it.
He fell asleep for another hour or two then woke up again seeing that it was now an hour that he actually knew. No one else seemed to be up yet and despite his uncaring manner, he didn't want to wake them. Not just because he thought they needed sleep, he didn't want them to bug him. He went into the kitchen and made himself some hot chocolate, grabbed the bag of marshmallows and settled back on the couch to watch TV until everyone else was up.
"What are our plans then, Echizen-kun?" Echizen turned his head to see Aya sitting with him with a smile on her face. "What are the plans of attack?"
"Kirihara-sempai and Kaidou-sempai will believe what everyone says even if you don't want them to, Momo-sempai, Jackal-sempai, Fuji-sempai and Hiroshi-sempai seem skeptical but not too much, I think the only ones we really need to worry about will be Buchou, Inui-sempai, Renji-sempai, Yukimura-sempai and Sanada-sempai." He answered stuffing a marshmallow into his mouth.
"What about the others?"
"Kikumaru-sempai and Marui-sempai are firm believers so they won't be a problem. As for the rest, I'm not sure. They could go either way. I think that they would believe with proof and if Buchou or Yukimura-sempai were convinced, that would help."
"So the main focus will be Tezuka-kun and Yukimura-kun." She was making mental notes and counting on her fingers. "What about Ryoga-kun?"
Echizen looked into his mug of hot chocolate. "Ryoga should be alright. When I told him about this, it didn't seem like he believed me. I feel like he's humoring me but his intensions are. I think that with proof he would believe like everyone else." He took a sip of his hot cocoa. "If you could do something in front of everyone that should convince them."
Aya nodded her head indicating that she heard what Echizen said but was lost in thought about what she would do to make everyone believe that what he was saying was true. He watched and smiled. She reminded him of someone who didn't quiet remember how to do their math homework. He took a slip of his hot chocolate when a question popped into his head.
"Ne, am I the only person that can see you?"
She stopped counting on her fingers and looked at him. "Sorry?"
"Can the others see you?"
"If I make it so. Right now, if someone walked in, they would see you talking to thin air and assume you crazy." Echizen gave her a 'don't even think about it' look. "I can make it so everyone can see me if you like."
Echizen smirked. "Some things are better left hidden."
Aya smiled and got off the couch. "I'm off to plan mischief. You'll know when I start." She started happily skipping out of the room.
Echizen smirked and changed the channel of the TV. "Oi, thanks for the blanket!" He shouted to her.
"That wasn't me Echizen-kun~!" she singingly said as she disappeared from sight.
Echizen sat for a second. If she didn't do it… Maybe someone upstairs did. Maybe they had gotten thirsty and come down for water and saw he was on the couch. As quickly as the thought was there, it vanished. Echizen shrugged it off and continued watching TV.
After an hour or so of TV watching, Echizen heard a shout and a thud from upstairs followed by a long, drawn out 'itai' and 'what was that for?'
'That couldn't be her.' He thought with a bit of disappointment as he poked at the marshmallow floating in his hot chocolate. He heard a few doors open and some footsteps. He wasn't really that surprised to see Inui and Renji coming down the stairs with notebooks in their hands, after all, it was the only thing they did.
"Ah. Echizen." Inui caught sight of him.
"Ohayou Inui-sempai, Renji-sempai." He greeted as he changed the channel.
"What are you doing? All my data points to you being the one who wakes up last." Inui said flipping through his book.
"My data points out that he should be the last one to wake and in his room." Renji pointed out. "Not sitting down here with cocoa."
Echizen ignored them and plopped another marshmallow into his mouth. He saw the two head out of the room with their faces in their notebooks going towards the kitchen. "Sempai-tachi, feel free to have a bento Nanako packed." Inui and Renji didn't look up but nodded into their books and went to the kitchen. 'Seeing that they didn't know I was down here…' he glanced at the blanket and crossed Inui and Renji off his mental list.
A few more doors opening and closing, footsteps coming down the stairs and toilet flushing and everyone was down stairs. Well, everyone but Momo and Kirihara. Everyone went to do their own thing; some went to go eat while the rest stayed with Echizen in the living room. Kikumaru had proceeded to latch himself on Echizen and wrap the two of them in the blanket. Echizen didn't protest too much seeing that he was trapped with no way of escape but it was also kind of soothing. Being able to sit with someone like that calmed him down a little, given the situation they were all in but no one knew about.
From the corner of his eye, Echizen saw Aya standing in the doorway with a smirk on her face. Echizen knew exactly what she was thinking and returned the smirk with his own and slightly nodded. With the blink of an eye, she was gone. Echizen wasn't able to contain his smile when screams of terror were heard from upstairs.
Everyone immediately stood up and was about to run upstairs only to see Momo and Kirihara running down it, screaming something incoherent and hiding behind the couch. After Oishi managed to coax the two out from the couch, he was able to get a story out of them.
"Now you two, what happened?" Oishi sat them on the couch next to Echizen and Kikumaru.
"You wouldn't believe us if we told you sempai." Momo said with a sigh.
"Especially since it's coming from your mouth." Kaidou hissed.
"I don't even want to think about it." Kirihara said slowly starting to rock back and forth.
"Nya, it can't be that bad." Kikumaru said with a turn of his head.
Ryoga saw the smile creeping on his brother's face and raised an eyebrow. Echizen saw his brother's stare and motioned with his eyes to the stairs. Ryoga looked to see Aya standing on the stairs with a smile on her face. A small inaudible gasp escaped his mouth. She shook her head, as in saying 'not now' and was gone. When Ryoga looked back at his brother, he was in a headlock, provided by Momo, with Oishi desperately trying to pry him apart.
"You had something to do with this! I know it!" Momo tightened his grip.
"How could he Momo?! That doesn't seem physically possible!" Oishi tried to free him.
"Of course not. Echizen is 11.65inchs too short to do such things." Inui interjected.
"11.37inchs by my calculations." Renji added.
"I'm- no-t t-that sho-rt! O-Oi-shi-sem-pai!" Echizen tried to defend his so called honor but didn't do too well.
"It doesn't matter if it's possible or not! Why would he laugh if he didn't do it?!"
"Saa because it's funny if you think about it." Fuji said with a grin.
"Not all people are sadists like you Fuji-kun." Yukimura said with a grin equal in size.
"I know what you mean Momo but- how could- he have- done that?" Oishi kept struggling to free Echizen. "Taka-san, a little help please?"
Taka tried pulling Momo off Echizen but Momo seemed to be drawing strength from somewhere and wouldn't budge.
"I've got just the thing." Marui ran to his room and came back with a racquet.
"You brought a racquet with you to the mountains?" Jackal asked.
"Why not? We're a tennis team aren't we?" he asked giving it to Taka.
"But we have no need for it in the mountains when there is snow on the ground." Hiroshi said under his breath.
"MOERUZE! BURNING!"
"See? Now look what you've done?" Sanada said in a very calamitous tone as he rubbed his eyes.
Taka began swinging the racquet and pulled Echizen away from Momo and put him into a headlock. While Echizen slowly regained his breath, Momo began losing his.
"T-Taka-san! To t-tight!" Momo stuttered out.
"Now you know how it feels." Echizen said.
A series of snickers was heard from the group. Tezuka sighed and rubbed his eyes as he took the racquet from Taka's hand.
Momo scowled at Echizen while rubbing his neck. "I k-know you had s-something to do with that! W-why else would you have g-gone to bed e-earlier that the rest of us?"
That hit a nerve. Echizen glared at Momo and stood up, escaping Kikumaru's grip. "You want to know why I went to bed before everyone?"
"Chibisuke, maybe now's not-" Ryoga tried to calm him down.
"No, now is a perfect time for this." He turned to Ryoga. "You said you'd believe me but there's still doubt in your voice!"
"Believe you about what Echizen?" Fuji asked.
Echizen sighed. "For the past week, I've been having these dreams and in them, I've been in this house."
"That's probably because you were excited to come here." Oishi said.
"I don't think that me dying in every single one of them counts as being excited."
Everyone stared, shocked at what was just said.
"What are you talking about Echizen?" Tezuka was more so demanding an explanation than asking about it.
Echizen sighed and fell back on the couch. He began telling everyone about the dreams he's been having: how the first was pretty much instant death, the next came with some warnings and so on until the last one before they got to the house. He told them about the one he had just the night before, how everything felt so vivid and realistic; the smells, the sights, the sounds, how everything felt, all of it so real. He told them about the light in the attic in the middle of the night and when he investigated, he met Aya and she explained everything that had happened and everything that is happening right now.
Everyone looked at him like he was crazy and he didn't judge them for it. He didn't even wasn't to believe it and it was he that it was happening to.
"Do you really expect us to believe that?"
"But it's such an elaborate story!"
"All of that just so you wouldn't be blamed for what happened this morning?"
"Yeah Echizen. You could easily just tell the truth. You don't have to lie."
Echizen gave everyone a glare. "If it's a lie, how do you explain what happened to Momo-sempai and Kirihara-sempai?"
"You must have rigged it somehow." Kirihara said.
"There's no way that it could have just happened." Kaidou added given that he and Kirihara were both very nervous at the moment.
Echizen sighed again. "How do you explain that?" he pointed to the window. They all looked to where he pointed and saw Good Morning written on it like when someone just breathed and it had condensation on it.
"How do we know you didn't put that there before we got up?" Ryoga asked.
Echizen looked at him accusingly. 'You saw her.' He thought. "Or that?" he pointed to a book on the floor. It that three words written on the front page, Please Believe Him.
"You obviously rigged a pulley system to respond to your movements-"
"-And slowly pull the book from where it was hidden." Inui and Renji said.
Echizen sighed once more in frustration. "Then how do you explain that?" he didn't have to point to anything as everyone's eyes immediately focused on a log in front of them. It stated vibrating then slightly shaking. After a moment, it seemed to lift itself from the pile and place itself in the fire. They all stared in disbelief. They all saw a log move itself from a pile to the fire but Echizen smirked. He could see that it was really Aya moving the log, trying to help Echizen convince everyone that what he was saying was true. "Please Inui-sempai, explain it to me."
"Ah, well, ummm…" Inui was at a loss for words.
"How about you, Renji-sempai?" Echizen raised an eyebrow.
"It's obviously a…" Renji was stuck too.
"Wires!" Kaidou said.
"Yeah! Most definitely wires!" Kirihara agreed
Another logged moved from the pile but seemed to hover by the fire as if waiting for something. Echizen got up and went towards it. There were a few grunts of some who protested but they went ignored. Echizen went right up to the wood and waved his hand on all sides of it.
"How can you explain this sempai?" Echizen said as he grabbed the log and threw it in the fire.
They all gave him a blank stare, not wanting to believe.
"Are you saying that all of this, everything you told us… it's true?" Taka asked.
"Why don't you ask her?" Echizen pointed to the hall where everyone saw a girl, a little younger than Ryoga, standing and smiling at them.
"Ohayou minna-san." She smiled and waved. "My name is Aya. Yoroshiku onegai shi masu."
Finally done. I really don't like taking longer than four or five days to update for you guys. Sorry if I take longer.
Hope that everyone enjoyed this chapter! I had an idea about what to put as for what happened in Momo and Kirihara's room but then I figured it sounded way to corny and stupid so you can use your imagination for what happened to freak them out so much.
Yay! Next chapter done! School finally started and I'm totally stressed out about tomorrow. I get to see what level I'm on for polo. *fingers crossed* Hope for varsity! Everyone hope with me! I've had the same locker every year I've been at that school and since the first day I got it, it's had carpet in it but this year, noooooo, they decided, 'she doesn't get to have carpet her last year at school. Let's take it out and piss her off.' I hate that school so much now.
Also, I think that after this fic, I'm going to do some about Transformers if anyone cares. I'm sorta in that fandom now.
Started on a Friday and it is now 22:29pm Tuesday night. Not actually sure when I'll update but whatever.
Forgive stupidness! Hopefully school will make my brain work better!
Hope you liked!
TTFN! See ya laterz!