Well, as you can probably tell from the mass responding to reviews I've just done, it's update time again. I will apologise for the wait and I will be honest with you, the next one won't be anytime soon as I have my first set of finals coming up and so, I need to relearn the entirity of medicine. It will be hard. Like getting blood from a stone.
Start of a new arc with this chapter. All ANs are at the end again.
Disclaimer: I do not own Prince of Tennis or an of its affiliations.
Onwards!
It was dark and cold. He looked all around himself and saw that his breath was wispily leaving his mouth, an incorporeal whisper of his being. His small frame stepped gracefully down the avenue, glancing left and right.
It was too quiet. The branches of the trees had stopped dancing, the leaves had stopped crunching and all around him, the world smelt of death. Decay. Destruction. Moving slowly, he walked past the sign proclaiming the street as "Yaesu itchōme go-ban". (1)
He walked like Saturn, untouched by the end of sound, towards a house on the street, his footsteps echoing around like a ripple of sound in the silent lake of the night. He drifted past an empty newsstand and glanced at the headline. "Naoto Kan (2) makes more cuts to funding" really wasn't interesting, but the top corner that had 21st October printed in it was. He glanced at his watch, 20.12.
He reached for the brass door handle on one of the housed and gently pushed it open. It creaked ominously, forbidding entry from all but the stoutest of people. He glanced around, knowing they were nearby. Close. He stepped over the brink, carelessly leaving his shoes on in his slowed haste. Nothing was stirring.
With trepidation, he looked up the stairs at the faint light emitting from one of the rooms. And like a moth, he was drawn towards this precious light, eager yet reluctant at the same time. Slowly, he ascended, fearing every step would creak a stair and alert the other.
Tortuously, he reached the landing with little fanfare and approached the closed door on his left. The faint flicker of artificial light coming from the crack at the bottom was promising to him.
But also foreboding.
With hesitant fingers, he grasped the round handle, turning it ever so slowly, dreading what he would see. As soon as he opened the door, he knew what had happened.
He saw what was scrawled on the wall. A grotesque design in crimson, a parody of man, morbidly painted with someone's fingers, the medium sluggishly dripping onto the floor, vermillion trailing off of stick arms and legs.
Against his instincts, he pushed the door open further and saw red.
Red. Red. Red. Red.
Echizen Ryoma opened his eyes to the hazy red numbers on his alarm clock, cheerily proclaiming it to be some ungodly hour in the morning. It wasn't often that he awoke before the evil machine tried to get him up, but that dream was enough to raise the dead.
Out of all his psi abilities, dream walking was the one that he had no control over and it scared him. No-one else in his family was a dream walker. He had thought it was a random fluke during his mother's pregnancy that led to his third power. He didn't dream walk much but his accuracy in it was phenomenal. Not once had one of his walks had not come true.
He cursed that now. He wished that this one wouldn't. That woman, that blood.
That monstrous painting.
But, deep down, he knew it would. Like all the others.
The sun as shining and the birds were singing that morning as Kaidoh Kaoru did his usual jog to the facility. On his back was his book bag filled with the previous day's completed assignments and his lunch, still lovingly prepared by his caring mother. Having such a gruff exterior, it was hard for people to imagine his family, but his mother was lovely by anyone's standards and was proud of her son. He was a random psi in a family of psi talentless people, but he never let that stop him. He was dedicated and put in so much effort that it was impossible for her not to be pleased with his career choice, even if she didn't fully understand it.
He was slowly running up the steep slope at a pace many would consider a sprint, when he saw it. It wasn't often he saw the newest member of the team without Kikumaru-sempai or that baka Momoshiri but today he was on his own. In fact, he didn't seem to be paying much attention to anything.
Kaidoh frowned. Even though Echizen had only been at the facility for a short few weeks, he felt some modicum of affection towards his kouhai. He wasn't scared of him, like many of his peers and he actually seemed to enjoy his company when the baka and Kikumaru-sempai grated on his nerves. Kaidoh felt a tiny bit warm inside at the thought of being –dare he say it- liked by someone.
So, even though his outward demeanour didn't change one iota, he was somewhat concerned inside. He jogged towards Echizen and frowned even more when his kouhai didn't acknowledge him. Placing one hand on the (rather short) teen's shoulder, he hissed out a breath when the blackish-green haired boy jumped.
That wasn't right. Echizen was a telepath but even if he wasn't, Kaidoh had witnessed how good his hearing was. All his senses were excellent, so for him to be able to sneak up on him, Echizen must be out of the loop.
"Echizen," he grumbled, watching as the younger one got his breath back and turned to face him.
"Kaidoh-sempai," he said. Kaidoh looked him over. He didn't think it was cruel of him to think this but Echizen looked awful. His hair was even more unkempt than usual and his eyes had suitcases under them.
Echizen grumbled something to the tune of "I'll give you suitcases" but didn't storm off. Instead he waited for Kaidoh to get his bearings back and, with a hiss, they set off together in silence. Echizen knew his sempai wanted to ask questions, but could seem to find the right words to say. He took ruthless advantage of this and didn't start the conversation. He didn't want to talk to anyone at the moment.
They got some curious looks when they entered the facility together and some even went so far as to point. Kaidoh hissed in annoyance.
"Echizen?" came a curious voice behind them. They turned and saw Momoshiro climbing up the stairs, openly confused at the scene before him. "Why didn't you wait for me? I called by your house."
"I left early," Echizen's curt, apathetic response was. Both juniors frowned at that. Echizen and early were two words that didn't belong in the same sentence. They were mutual enemies. They hated one another as much as Kaidoh hated Momoshiro, to the extent that Echizen and early often had to be kept far away from one another. Resulting in Echizen's perpetual lateness.
In Echizen's opinion, lateness was a much better entity than early. It let him sleep more and didn't employ the evil alarm clock to do its bidding.
"But Echizen," Momo said at the same time Kaidoh hissed an "Oi, Echizen." The teen in question looked up to see his sempai growling and hissing at one another, in preparation for a verbal spar. He glanced at the large clock above the reception desk. 'Starting early today then,' he thought.
Seeing as he wasn't going to get a response from the two juniors for a while, Echizen stalked off to his classroom, idly noticing Kawamura-sempai conversing hurriedly with Ryuuzaki-sensei. He did contemplate a quick scan, after all, he was Rinko's son and Rinko was an incurable gossip in her younger years, but decided it would be too much trouble.
After all, it was probably nothing. Nothing that would affect him anyway.
Ryuuzaki Sumire was a difficult woman to shock. In her days as a psi trainer, she'd seen suicides, homicides, the odd bombing, but this was a new level. And it was disgusting. She looked over the photographs laid out in front of her on her desk with an expression that didn't show itself often, even with Inui and his drinks near by.
Revulsion.
The vermillion tapestry on her desk displayed itself merrily, in a grotesque parody of vibrant colours. She sighed and looked at the report that had accompanied the photos. She wasn't sure what they could do. Granted Kawamura was a valued member of her team, but asking her to look into this was odd. The police had caught a suspect and all the evidence seemed to be there, but her gentle fire starter was sure they were wrong.
Just because he knew the man. She glanced at the suspect photograph and sighed again.
She would show her team and get their input on the case. And would take some aspirin before she even began.
After all, she would be talking to teens. Over-reacting was an option with them, it was a biological necessity.
Calling her boys to the conference room in the middle of afternoon classes was unusual and many of the instructors blinked owlishly at the summons. Echizen's teacher glanced at the messenger and then to her snoozing student and sighed.
"Just wake him and take him," she said, knowing her wasn't going to pay attention to her lesson even if she kept him here. A cynical part of her mind thought 'he probably knows it anyway' as she watched the messenger futilely attempt to wake her narcoleptic student.
Eventually, it was delegated to Horio to have the dubious honour of waking Echizen and he did so with one breath through his high pitched vocal chords. Echizen shot up like he'd been hit and managed to hit Horio in the nose before he'd even opened his eyes.
When he did, he blinked and took in the scene before him. His teacher and class were staring at him as the loud boy –'what was his name again?'- was crouched over, holding his nose. There was someone he didn't recognise stood next to his chair, who jumped when he turned inquiring eyes on him.
"I've to take you to the conference room. Ryuuzaki-sensei requested it," the poor minion said, nervously staring Echizen in his wide, golden eyes.
Echizen nodded and sloppily gathered his things, leaving with neither a backwards glance nor an apology to the increasingly apoplectic instructor.
Just a normal afternoon in Echizen's class.
By the time he reached the corridor where the conference room was found, he could already hear the noise of the other occupants. He could hear Oishi fretting over something –or nothing, this was Oishi after all-, Kaidoh and Momoshiro were arguing again and he could faintly hear sounds of "Ii data" coming from the room.
Tezuka sighed and place two fingers on his forehead in an attempt to alleviate the impending headache. Looking down at the floor, he was somewhat surprised when a hand holding a bottle appeared in his field of vision. Seeing the label "Aspirin 600mg" emblazoned on the side of the bottle, he stretched his hand out to take it. Swallowing one of the white pills dry, he thanked the person stood next to him.
"Don't worry about it Buchou," Echizen said and slouched inside the room. After a brief pause and a breath, Tezuka followed him into the anarchy that was sure to be inside.
Thankfully, he only had to endure a few seconds of the din as his team respectfully quietened when he entered.
The perks of being Captain.
Stoically, he made his way to his seat, noticing that Ryuuzaki-sensei had been in the room the whole time. Unusual that she let them get so rowdy. When he was seated, Ryuuzaki-sensei began.
"Thank you all for coming. I'm sure you're all curious about why we're here," she addressed the room, noting the confused faces. Clicking her pointer, she activated the projector, showing the first in her slide show. To their credit, none of the boys fainted or threw up, but there was a distinctly green tinge on Oishi's face that she didn't feel comfortable with.
"Recently, there have been a string of murders in the Bunkyo (3) municipality," images flashed on screen of butchered women, laid out on their beds. The projector flicked to the next image of a man drawn on the wall, taken from the doorway to the room. It appeared to have been finger-painted in blood.
What surprised Tezuka at this point was not the sheer horror painted on the faces of many of his team, but the frightening look of recognition on Echizen's face. Like he'd seen this before.
Ryuuzaki-sensei ploughed onwards. "As you can see, the killer paints a man on the wall, using three fingers and does so on the wall immediately visible from the door, so whoever finds the body knows what is happening."
She pressed the button again and a picture of a teen, not much older than them flashed up. His grey hair and golden eyes stared out from the wall. "This is Akustu Jin, an ex-member of the Yamabuki Psi Squad. The police have apprehended him as the suspect, despite there being no evidence implicating him. The bumbling fools decided he must be the culprit because of his name (4)."
"Akustu is a good person inside," Kawamura spoke up. "We used to go to karate class together when we were little. He always had such problems controlling his anger."
"What, like the Incredible Hulk?" Momoshiro said.
"Ahh, more like the only thing he really feels is anger. He's an empath like Oishi, but he only picks up anger. And then he gets angry. He used to have real trouble with it when we were younger and may still now, but I know he didn't do this."
"Was there more evidence?" Inui said. "It seems unlikely that the police would arrest with nothing pointing towards the criminal."
"The official statement was that the prior behavioural issues and painting on the wall were confession enough for him," Ryuuzaki said, sarcasm dripping off every word.
The room erupted with exclamations of unfairness and illegality. Ryuuzaki-sensei had prepared for the inevitable outburst, but even she was surprised by the ferocity of the outcry. She turned to her youngest member, expecting him to be as stoic and apathetic as always, but was shocked when he looked like he was going to throw up.
"Are you ok Echizen?" she asked as quietly as she could but somehow she was heard by all, even over the racket they were making. Perhaps her youngest wasn't as unmoveable as he liked people to believe. He was only sixteen after all.
He turned solemn eyes on her and shook his head.
"He didn't do it," he said with such finality they all wanted to believe him.
"Why not Echizen? There is no evidence to the contrary," Inui spoke.
"He didn't do it because there is going to be another one. Tonight."
Silence followed his statement. Eventually, Fuji spoke up. "What makes you think that?"
"I had a dream walk last night," Echizen said, "and I saw the location of the next attack. It was tonight in the Bunkyo area, in the Yaesu district."
"How reliable are your walks?" Tezuka said, not willing to commit to something unless there was confirmation. Echizen stared Tezuka straight in the eye, his golden gaze unflinching and said:
"I've never been wrong."
They all leapt into action. Ryuuzaki-sensei had picked up her phone to ring for transport to the area whilst passing Echizen a pen and paper to jot down the block number. Tezuka immediately began barking orders to the other members as they filed out to the locker rooms to change out of their uniforms.
In the flurry of activity it was hard to forget that they were racing against time. Every pause in the motion made the seconds tick that much louder. Waiting for transport was torture. Everyone kept glancing at the clock and when the train finally arrived, it seemed to go slower than ever.
Even with all their preparations, the sun had set when they reached the Bunkyo area and Yaesu district and it took them a further hour to find the right chome. They were perilously nearing the end of the clock. When they got to go-ban, they were out of breath but determined.
"Everyone split up. Find the house. Find the victim. Find the killer. Stop them at all costs," Tezuka ordered. They all burst in different directions in their race against time. Despite them all being on the same block, when they split up, it fell deathly silent and still.
It was dark and cold. He looked all around himself and saw that his breath was wispily leaving his mouth, an incorporeal whisper of his being. His small frame stepped gracefully down the avenue, glancing left and right.
It was too quiet. The branches of the trees had stopped dancing, the leaves had stopped crunching and all around him, the world smelt of death. Decay. Destruction. Moving slowly, he walked past the sign proclaiming the street as "Yaesu itchōme go-ban". (1)
He walked like Saturn, untouched by the end of sound, towards a house on the street, his footsteps echoing around like a ripple of sound in the silent lake of the night. He drifted past an empty newsstand and glanced at the headline. "Naoto Kan (2) makes more cuts to funding" really wasn't interesting, but the top corner that had 21st October printed in it was. He glanced at his watch, 19.12. He still had time.
He reached for the brass door handle on one of the housed and gently pushed it open. It creaked ominously, forbidding entry from all but the stoutest of people. He glanced around, knowing they were nearby. Close. He stepped over the brink, carelessly leaving his shoes on in his slowed haste. Nothing was stirring.
'This isn't right,' he thought, looking around the darkened hallway. 'This isn't supposed to happen. We had more time.'
With trepidation, he looked up the stairs at the faint light emitting from one of the rooms. And like a moth, he was drawn towards this precious light, eager yet reluctant at the same time. Slowly, he ascended, fearing every step would creak a stair and alert the other.
Tortuously, he reached the landing with little fanfare and approached the closed door on his left. The faint flicker of artificial light coming from the crack at the bottom was promising to him.
But also foreboding.
With hesitant fingers, he grasped the round handle, turning it ever so slowly, dreading what he would see. As soon as he opened the door, he knew it had happened early.
He knew from what was scrawled on the wall. A grotesque design in crimson, a parody of man, morbidly painted with someone's fingers, the medium sluggishly dripping onto the floor, vermillion trailing off of stick arms and legs.
Against his instincts, he pushed the door open further and saw red.
Red. Red. Red. Red.
He hated red.
(1) This was really hard for me to get my head around. Basically, they don't have "street" names in Japan (to my knowledge). Addresses are done through firstly the prefecture (Tokyo), followed by the municipality (like Shinjiku-ku), then the district, the chome (Yaesu), the block (banchi) and the building number. For example:
100-8994
Tōkyō-to Chūō-ku Yaesu itchōme go-ban san-go
Tōkyō Chūō Yūbin-kyoku
Is:
Tokyo Post Office
Building 3, Block 5
Yaesu district 1
Chuo town
Tokyo
100-8994
That really confused me.
(2) Naoto Kan has been the Prime Minister for Japan since June 2010.
(3) Again, no reason for choosing this area, but if someone does some research into it and knows what comes next in the PoT timeline, they may be able to find an extremely tenuous link.
(4) Jin = Man in the Japanese language. Personally, if my name was man, I wouldn't go scrawling it across walls letting people know it was me.
As always R&R
Bumble x