Title: Terror…

A/N: Well… you people really DID make my day!!! I use to think that I liked Science, but now I'm not sure…. Maybe I might still like pysics *goes on blabbing about herself*. But… Oh my goodness!!! What am I doing? *slaps herself* NOOOO! Don't run away!! Look, here's chapter 10 for you, and I promise I would never ever bore you with my life story ever again!!! Just go on and read it!!! PLEASE! *Her bro comes by* 'I've always doubted her sanity' *Frozenfemale glares at her bro, frowning* So, do pls read and review this chapter… *frown disappears*  I really hope you guys enjoy yourself!!

Here're my answers to reviewers… my wonderful reviewers!!!

sLL: *Grins* It's a good thing that you reminded me about Sakuragi!!! Personally, the Tensai mode gets on my nerve at times, but then, it makes the show much more fin!!

Eliar Swiftfire: Really, I think most of my fics might have that. Shallow huh?

Kathleen: You're soooo NICE!!! I love you! Yes, I will continue whenever I can!!! Thanks a lot for the support! And also for putting me on the fav. list *winks* THANKS!

Anduril: *runs around chasing Anduril with a knife* I'll kill you for that!!! However, thanks for reviewing…. But if you really only liked my fic b'coz of the Rukawa part *frowns* then you might be finding my fic very boring from now on… BTW, if my memory serves rightly, Anduril is Aragorn's sword isn't it? Are you a LOTR fan?? I really admire that guy… Tolkien (if that is the right spelling)….His book is cool!

Alexia: To tell you the truth, I myself don't understand lots of parts in this fic. *Pulls her hair out in frustration* Still can't find the answers!!! I'll try my best to improve, as long as you people help me on the way! Arigatou!

Lazuli: Will ya step on the cockroach for me too? Golden rookie… that was a last effort to cover my mistake of forgetting them all! *grins*

Isami-chan: Wow! Thanks a LOT for the compliment! You're so kind *sob* Are you a Malaysian too? BTW, not that it matters, but I'm not Malay. Like I said, not that it matters… but I'm a Chinese Christian. Well, anyway, Hari Raya to you too!

Zirc: Err… I'm a Malaysian, so I don't really understand what omedetou is. *grins* Care to enlighten me? Did my fic really scare you? That's cool! Thanks a lot!!!!!

Ayce Shade: Yup! Wait a minute…. NOPE! I don't actually have a war against them. That's because I'll be screaming my head off when I see a cockroach, then either my bro or dad will kill it…. and if I see other insects that I'm not scared of, I'll just leave them.

Chapter 9- Another?

            'What are you talking about?' Sakuragi asked.

            'In other words, how are we going to use its weakness against it?' Sendo rephrased his question. There was a moment of silence where some of the players still looked a little confused.

            'We know that it … they are proud, but that doesn't mean that it will automatically lose focus and be careless. We need to make their pride get the better of them. But how?' Koshino explained to those who didn't really understand.

            'Tensai will…' But Sakuragi never got to finish his sentence. With the little knowledge he had, he still had some brains to shut up, which was something he very rarely did, at the dark look of anger on Akagi's face.

            'Well, there could be two possibilities,' Kogure said, ignoring his two teammates who were shooting angry glances at each other.

            'We can either provoke it, or we can lick its shoes. You know, like praising it, and pretending to think that it is great, and all that,' Kogure continued.

            'Provoke? How exactly do we do that…' Miyamasu asked.

            'Well, we could like…' Kogure scratched his head nervously, 'praise someone else… or even boast about ourselves, making it angry and lose focus,' Kogure explained.

            The wind swirled through the trees, rustling the leaves.

            Rukawa cast a glance outside.

            The wind… that was new.

             It didn't exactly feel peaceful either.

            Feeling troubled, he took his eyes away from the window, and tried his best to ignore it.

            Hanagata raked his hair back, feeling relieved at this rare teamwork…and togetherness that he felt.

            We're working together at last. Yatta!

            The air is much lighter… at least in here… outside…

            The air was very different outside. It was still raining heavily, but now, joined with a totally new element… wind.

            Besides Hanagata, a few others were also a little disconcerted by the wind. It came so suddenly…and it didn't seem to belong. It didn't seem to come from the thing that was causing the rain. It felt odd.

            Sendo shivered a little, wondering.

            'Are we going to its lair, or are we going to wait for it to um…attack us?' Uekusa asked quite suddenly, breaking all their thoughts on the forces of nature that seemed to be toying with their feelings.

            'You know, that's a fair question. We can't just continue waiting for it to attack us,' Ishii spoke up, his voice determined.

            'Yeah, yeah. We can't wait. What if it…kills one of us in the next attack?' Uekusa backed him up. Clearly the attack on him has not been erased from his mind just yet.

            'We can't leave this gym.' Ishii turned to the person who said it.

            Maki, typical.

            'Why not? I totally agree with them. We can't wait!' Ikegami said, his eyes burning.

            'Yare, yare. The way you people are talking…do you have any idea how to beat it yet? Now all we know is how to prevent it from entering this gym. Why don't we try to figure out how to kill it first before talking about going to attack it?' Jin asked casually, smiling a little at their attitude. At least they were past the stage of fear.

            'Then we should just wait? Is that what you are asking us to do?' Ishii demanded.

            'That's stupidi…' a Shoyo second-year was saying, until Rukawa cut in.

            'Stupidity? Was that what you were about to say? Stupidity? Let me tell you one thing, talking about beating it when you don't even know anything about it is a hundred times more stupid compared to waiting here and figuring out what to do. We can't leave this gym. It is the thing that is binding us together, preventing us from being attacked. If we step outside, be it the thing's lair, or just out there, in the field, we won't be protected anymore. We'll be vulnerable.' Rukawa said, looking at the Shoyo second-year… at least with his eyes he was. His mind, on the other hand was focused on the Shohoku freshman who had spoken up. There was something strange about him. Rukawa could sense something… evil… no, more like reproach and anger when Maki answered his first question… at Maki's answer.

            'How long? How long can we last here? How long will we last in here?' Ishii asked again.

            Rukawa's eyes narrowed. That was something distinctly odd about the way Ishii was so… courageously out-spoken. Usually the first-years, with the obvious exception of Sakuragi, Hikoichi, Kiyota and himself, were timid in front of the seniors. He chanced a look at Ishii.

            Lightning snapped down from the dark skies. The wind howled softly. Softly… and yet it left a lot of the basketball players feeling absolutely terrified.          

            Rukawa felt increasingly nervous.

            He looks different… confident, and… totally scary.

            Suddenly Rukawa felt another presence… there was something else… and it was inside the gym.

It's not the insects, but I can feel the malice and murderous intent ever so clearly.

Stronger, definitely stronger, and… more evil.

Rukawa's fear became a wave of roaring panic, screaming in his brain. He turned to Sendo, wanting to know if Sendo felt it too. Was Sendo worried by it? Could Sendo even feel it? Or… was it only his imagination?

Rukawa knew very well that it wasn't his imagination… but still, he wished it to be. He wished it like mad.

This basketball court is becoming a nightmare…

Unfortunately, Sendo had his back to Rukawa, and could not see the panic that had overcame him.

'… happened… then?'

Rukawa shifted his eyes to Fujima, all the words that the others were blabbering becoming unintelligible to him.

Fujima was talking to another guy, too busy to notice what was happening to Rukawa. A bolt of panic shot up Rukawa's nerves.

'…kawa? ... ee-chan… …?'

He couldn't make out what the person was saying. He didn't even want to. His eyes scanned the gym frantically for Jin.

* * * * * * * *

There's something else in that gym.

Something maliciously evil…

            My breathing got heavier. The hatred and evil I felt radiating from the… whatever in the gym was so overwhelming. I shuddered.

            More insects popped out of me. I was shrinking, fast. I couldn't take the weight of terror that was being thrown on me all of a sudden.

            I vanished.

            We ran around, millions of us, running around, thinking the same thoughts, bearing the same fear.

There was something else in the gym!

* * * * * * * *

            'Rukawa, Rukawa! What's wrong? 'Mitsui asked, shaking a very perplexed Rukawa who had ignored several calls from his teammate. Rukawa had been scanning the gym, totally oblivious the questions directed to him.

            He broke out of his trance, suddenly aware that he was receiving a lot of unwanted attention.

            'What is it?' he asked, a little too quickly and hostilely. Under normal circumstances, Mitsui would have snapped back an irritating reply, but today, he was taken aback.

            'We've been calling you for the past five minutes!' Fukuda replied, on behalf of Mitsui and the rest of them.

            'Oh… yeah?'

            What the hell is wrong with this guy?

            Sendo stared straight at Rukawa, who met his eyes. The fear in Rukawa's eyes shocked Sendo. There was urgency in that fear. The cold blue eyes that stared back into his were totally different from anyone else's in the gym at that moment.

            'What?' he mouthed at Rukawa. He had no idea what the rookie was so scared of… why was he so secretive and urgent? There was nothing to hide… was there?

            'We were asking… um… what happened to… err… your uh… sister in the end,' Hanagata said uncomfortably.

            'We thought we might be able to find out a little more about It that way, and maybe find a weakness, but you just ignored us and started looking around the gym for… whatever you were looking for in such a panicked manner. What's wrong?' It was Koshino this time.

Rukawa just shook his head, his eyes flicking to Ishii and back to Koshino.

'All that was left of her after an hour was a… her skeleton,' Rukawa muttered quietly, his mind not really focused on what he was saying.

The silence in the gym was so thick that Ryota found it hard to breath. He was quickly reminded of Mutoh's death.

All the bones were removed, and yet, the organs remained undamaged…

Ryota shuddered, breaking into cold sweat.

It can feed in many different ways… and the stupid thing is fooling around with us!

For some reason or another, that thought scared Ryota more than anything else had, even more than what happened to Shiozaki had. He cast a quick glance at Ayako.

At the same time, Rukawa sent a one-word message to Sendo.

Ishii.

Lightning illuminated the whole gym, and Sendo looked over to the Shohoku first-year. He gave a small gasp… but it went unheard.

Ishii's face was contorted with… pain and terror…

And yet, with it, was an evil sense of… confidence.

     A/N: So?? How was it? Well, you could all do me a great favor by reviewing… and I really want to thank my reviewers. I mean it!! You guys are so nice to me!!!!! Oh BTW, *grins sheepishly* I do have a new fic called Malice In Darkness… personally, I don't think that the title has anything to do with the story… and it's supposed to be a horror story too, though I would say that it ain't as good as this one. Actually, like this fic, I have no idea where that fic is heading… typical me!! Well…. I really want to say thanks!!!!!!!!!! I love you people. (Don't want to use guys too much, sounds a little sexist!)