Slam Dunk does not belong to me. End of story.

Chapter 1: Our School Is Haunted!

            Shinji Tanaka shivered. The cold air of the night crept into his clothes, freezing his skin. He felt his teeth chatter with cold and tiny bumps on his skin tingled on his arm.

            "Now where did I put that stupid jacket?" he muttered to himself. Then he remembered. He had left it in the school gym after basketball practice. School was not too far away…if he walked fast, he could reach there and walk back home just before his mother came home at night.

            He turned towards Shohoku High. As he entered the eerie quiet of the school grounds, his eyes fell on the huge shadow of the gym looming ahead. He shuddered remembering the accident that had happened there several months ago killing all the basketball team.  The ruined gym had then been rebuilt in no time at all, but not many people bothered to use it now.

Then he noticed something else. Bright yellow light shone out of the windows of the gym, and he could hear the unmistakable rhythmic thudding of a basketball being dribbled. There was someone in the gym! Who could be practicing basketball so late at night?

            Curiously, he pushed open the gym doors cautiously. What he saw next made his knees quail and his heart nearly stop beating. He grasped at the handle of the door for support and a gasp escaped from his lips. There were several silvery, translucent figures dribbling a basketball. There was one more ghostly figure floating lifelessly on top of the basket, silvery bangs covering its opaque face, evidently asleep. Several more spectral shapes were mischievously hurling more basketballs at the sleeping figure, which, of course, did not wake it up, but instead went through it.

            And there, suspended in midair in the middle of the gym was his Tanaka's jacket, with two more ghosts, each pulling at a sleeve, ripping the jacket apart. He could hear them talking too.

            "Baka Ryochin! I found this jacket first! Its mine!" shouted one ghost.

            "Let go, baka! You'll only tear the jacket apart! I got it first and I'm going to give it to Aya-chan!" shouted the other.

            It would have been funny, except that Tanaka had never seen a ghost before and had not known what to expect. Panic filled him and he let out a yell that would have awakened the dead. "AAAAHH!!! GHOST!"

            Then, he took flight. His shoes pounded noisily on the ground. Panic surged through his veins giving him an extra boost of energy as he sprinted down the dark, empty streets yelling all the way. Lights snapped on in the neighbourhood and windows were thrown open as angry heads popped out. People started swearing and showing their middle fingers.

            "OI! Got nothing better to do than waking the whole neighbourhood up?" yelled somebody.

            "Go to hell, baka!"

            "What's your problem? Can't anyone get some sleep here?"

            Foul swear words erupted into the silence of the night and disturbing the peace of the now awakened neighbourhood. The air was steaming with curses thrown at each other and windows were slammed open and shut. Tanaka just ran on without stopping. He only stopped when he reached the safety of his home. He pushed the door open and entered. His mother had come home early after all.

            "You're unusually early today, son," said Mrs. Tanaka.

*          *          *         

            "I tell you I did see ghosts in the gym!" Tanaka shouted loudly at his disbelieving teammates.

            "Oh?" said Tatsumi, who was the current captain of the Shohoku basketball team. "And whose ghosts were they?"

            Tanaka leaned forward and his voice dropped dramatically into a mysterious whisper. "From what I heard, it sounded exactly like the former Shohoku basketball team. You know, the people that perished in the accident?"

            Everyone snorted with laughter. "Good story, Tanaka," said Yanuki another team member.

            "But I did!" Tanaka protested.

            "Yeah, yeah sure you did," snorted Tatsumi. "Now lets get down to practice. We've got a practice game coming up." Everyone started towards the gym except Tanaka who remained frozen to the spot.

            "Well, what is it now?" demanded Tatsumi exasperated.

            "I'm not going in there. Its haunted," he said.

            "Enough with your ghost stories, ok? We're already ten minutes late for practice."

            "I'm not going in there," Tanaka repeated stubbornly.

            Tatsumi thought for a while. Then he replied, "Suit yourself, but Iriko won't be too pleased when she comes back after she hears that you haven't been practicing.

            Tanaka's ears pricked up at the sound of the current team manageress' name. A faint rosy blush crept up his cheeks and he quickly muttered something through gritted teeth. "All right, I'll do it for Iri-chan."

            "Hey, Tanaka!" yelled Yanuki from inside the gym. "Did you leave your jacket in the gym yesterday? How come it's hanging on the basketball net?"

*          *          *

            It was night time. A muttering group of boys were slowly creeping into the deserted school grounds. Tanaka shushed all their grumbling whispers as he moved silently forward.

            "What's the big deal with dragging us all the way here at this time of the night?" Hisume grumbled. The long shadows stealing stealthily across the ground was making him become more and more nervous. Tatsumi, Yanuki, and Saoki, three other members of the basketball team nodded vigorously in agreement.

            "To show you that there are ghosts in the gym," Tanaka retorted. "You didn't believe me this morning, so I've decided to prove it to you."

            Tatsumi rolled his eyes. "Right, and I still don't."

            "This had better be good," Yanuki warned.

            "Shhhh," Tanaka snapped back. They approached the school gym. It was all dark and silent and there was something strangely forbidding about it. Probably because several people had died on that spot before. Tanaka shivered. Cautiously, he pushed open the doors and all of them stepped into the gymnasium. Hisume groped blindly for the light switch. All of a sudden, the doors slammed shut. Darkness enveloped them. The sound of the door slam was so sudden and loud that it echoed thunderously again and again through the empty gym.

            "Aaah! Ghost!" Tanaka yelped. His voice magnified by the silence of the gym caused another thunderous echo.

            "Baka," Saoki sniggered. "It was probably just the wind."

            Or was it? Tatsumi reached for the door and pulled at it. "This is no wind," he said grimly. "It's locked."

            "NANI?" cried Tanaka. Even Saoki, Hisume and Yanuki were beginning to feel a little nervous at the silence of the gym pounding at their ears. And then, they heard it. It was not very loud, but audible enough. A little chuckle of delight sounded somewhere in the darkness. Tanaka felt a rush of cold wind at the back of his neck causing his hairs to prickle with fear.

            And then, a long shrill laugh was heard and the lights came on. Everyone gasped. Right before their eyes were several pearly and translucent figures floating before them.

            "G-G-GHOST!" they all yelled in unison.

            One of the sprites swooped forward in a rush of icy air. "Not just any ghost. I am the tensai ghost! The scariest and most violent ghost of all ghosts!" it said.

            Another ghost rolled its silvery eyes and did a cartwheel in the air muttering, "You won't scare them that way Sakuragi."

            Suddenly, a snore was heard in the corner of the gym. There, suspended in midair near the high ceiling of the Shohoku High Gym was another ghost, fast asleep. It was the same one sleeping as Tanaka had seen the night before.

            "Wait a minute!" Tatsumi cried. "You are Sakuragi? Hanamichi Sakuragi who died in an accident four months ago?"

            The ghost who happened to be cartwheeling in stopped short, leaving him in a very awkward position. Then he began to proclaim loudly, "Did you hear that, Ryochin? Micchy? Gori? Kitsune? They all recognized the tensai and not any one of you! Nyahahaha!"

            "They recognized you because Mitsui said your name before, baka," muttered one ghost rolling its eyes again.

            "Hi – Hisashi Mitsui?" gaped Tanaka in disbelief.

            "Me all right," answered the ghost named Hisashi Mitsui.

            "So – so you guys, um, I mean ghosts were guys who died in the accident?" asked Yanuki nervously.

            "Nyahahaha! I saw how the kitsune died! It was so funny!" laughed Sakuragi. "The beam on the ceiling fell on top of him and knocked the life out of him! That baka could not even dodge quickly enough!"

            "Do'aho, you died too," came a new voice right behind them. They spun round. It seemed that the sleeping ghost had finally awakened.

            "Um," muttered Hisume nervously shoving his hands in his pocket, not knowing what to say. Yanuki, Tatsumi, Saoki and Tanaka remained just as tongue-tied. It was not everyday that one got to have a conversation with a ghost. The ghost Sakuragi and Rukawa were arguing furiously, not paying attention to them, and the other ghosts were too busy rolling their eyes to notice.

            Then, "Cool!" Tanaka burst out. Everyone stopped short. The other four boys turned to stare at him as if he was out of his mind. Even the ghosts snapped their attention to him.

            "Cool!" he repeated.

            "What's so cool about it?" squeaked Saoki fearfully.

            "Isn't it cool to have ghosts in the school?"

            "Really cool," Hisume agreed quickly.

            "Super," put in Tatsumi.

            "Nyahahaha! They all appreciate the tensai's presence in the school!" said Sakuragi.

            "So, um, can you open the doors and let us go now?" suggested Tatsumi hopefully. The gym doors swung open and the night breeze floated lazily in. The boys positively fled out into the night. They did not stop running until they were safely away from the school grounds.

            "It – it was kinda cool, actually," Tanaka panted.

            "I'll never forgive you for that, Tanaka!" gasped Saoki.

            "At least they weren't scary looking ghosts like vampires or anything like that, though," Tatsumi said.

            Then, they all stopped short and stared at each other at the same time. "Did you just realize something?" Hisume said suddenly.

            "Our school is haunted!" they all chorused.

Tbc.

It just doesn't get interesting yet…but pls review anyway!!!