Thanks for all the comments everyone. ^^ I really appreciate it. As for the
use of Japanese, I just saw that most other people use it so I wanted to
try it out. But I can easily take it out and use all English, it's no big
deal. As for Asahina, I don't really know what you mean by a "Mary Sue"
type of character. I try to keep my characters real, though maybe a little
unpredictable at times, so hopefully she won't be a disappointment. No.
Something is going to happen between Kaidoh and Saya. Lolz, just teasing.
^^ It's not finished yet, but I'm slowly working on it since I have other
writing commitments that I have to upkeep as well. Anyways, I hope you like
this chapter too!
**********
A Disturbed Day
The rest of the day went by rather slowly for Kaidoh as he sat in class. Nothing the teachers said made it into his head as he stared at his open notebook. There were no notes taken and he had even gotten in trouble in his best class: third period English.
"Kaidoh."
"Kaidoh!" his teacher repeated.
"Hm?" He looked up in surprise.
"I asked you to read from the last paragraph on page seventy-two. You could at least pull out your textbook."
"Oh. Sorry," he mumbled, flushing red at being singled out like that.
Everyone laughed as he pulled out his textbook. Finding the right page, he stood up to read it out loud. While he was reading, his mind was wandering off to think about other things. As a result, he kept stumbling on words that he usually had no problem reading.
*********
After school, he headed to the tennis club change room to get prepared for practice. Standing by the front of the building was Horio, bragging loudly to Katsuo and Kachiro. Seeing Kaidoh turn around the corner, they quickly clammed up in fear that he would yell and glare at them.
Not even noticing them, Kaidoh went into the change room, closing the door behind him. This caused looks of confusion to mar their faces. Even still, they released loud sighs of relief that they didn't get in trouble. It scared them when he looked at them.
"What was that?" Katsuo asked.
"I don't know, but we're saved. We better go get ready."
Coming out of the change room, Kaidoh went to join all the other tennis club members. Entering the courts, he stood off to the side in his usual spot, waiting for Tezuka and Oishi to start practice. No one noticed, but the usual intense stare in his gaze was replaced by a blank look.
"Captain!" everyone greeted when Tezuka joined them with Oishi behind him.
Giving them his customary nod, Tezuka outlined the plans for today's practice.
"First years will be picking up balls. Regulars will go to court B with me. The rest of you will be having a singles tournament. Inui will be watching this to help out with your needed areas of improvements. Your goal is to win as many consecutive rounds as you can. The loser will be replaced by another team member. Dismissed!"
"Hai!"
"Whoever loses will have to drink my Ultra Remix Special Inui Juice!"
Everyone paled and sweat dropped before the regulars, excluding Fuji, released a sigh of relief, knowing that it wasn't their punishment. As the regulars walked to court B, no one noticed anything out of place with Kaidoh. They happily talked amongst themselves. Single file, they entered the court: Tezuka at the front and Kaidoh bringing up the rear.
"What are we doing?" asked Kikumaru.
"First, we will all have warm-up rallies. The pairings are as follows: Kawamura with Echizen, Oishi with Momo, Kikumaru with Kaidoh and Fuji with me. After that, we will practice accuracy shots. Inui has already set-up the practice at the last court.
Following Kikumaru to one of the empty courts, Kaidoh stood ready with his racket in hand.
"I'll start!" yelled Eiji at which he nodded.
The ball served to his left, Kaidoh slowly moved to hit back a weak return. Seeing him act so oddly, Kikumaru forgot to hit the ball back and they had to start from the beginning. Throughout the entire rally, Kaidoh returned the ball with weak shots that mostly landed near the front.
"Gather up!"
"What's wrong?" Kikumaru asked with a frown on his face.
"Nothing."
It was like that for the accuracy shots as well. He was able to hit them where they were supposed to go, but the strength of his shots were sadly lacking. Everyone watched in confusion. Usually, he was so uptight and serious that now he seemed like an entirely different person.
"What kind of wimp shots are those, Mamushi?!" yelled Momo, trying to taunt him.
Kaidoh didn't even lash back at him and remained silent. Finishing the drill, he stood off to the side, watching everything with passive eyes. No one had any idea about what was wrong, but it was obvious that something had happened. Usually, Momo and Kaidoh were at each other's throats, bickering and fighting.
When Tezuka dismissed them, Kaidoh silently walked off by himself. Fuji and Oishi looked at each other with concern. If he was still like this tomorrow, they might have to talk to him and see what was wrong. There was no way they could win the tournament with half-hearted attempts.
**********
At home, Kaidoh changed out of his uniform into his jogging clothes. He hadn't been himself the entire day, trying to think of a reason why he would agree to play with Saya again. And to think that his condition was that she comes with Urumi.
"Ahh!! What am I thinking?!"
Shaking his head with frustration, he left the room and went downstairs to put his runners on. Hoping that his jog would clear his mind, he set off at a brisk pace. By playing with Saya that morning, he had screwed up his schedule and so he needed to make up for his lost time.
As he passed by the playground this time, there were children playing with their mothers watching. He turned away from the scene and continued running. Even still, the memories of the morning flooded his mind. Saya had been laughing and smiling, enjoying their time together.
He thought about his options. He could go like he said he would or he could forget about it and not show up. With the latter, she would think that she wasn't wanted and he remembered her pained reaction when she had told him why she ran away. Though he wouldn't actually admit it to someone else, he did like her.
"I guess the only thing I can do is go," he thought to himself.
His only problem with the whole situation was Urumi. Not wanting to look like an idiot, he hated the fact that he couldn't speak without stuttering. But he couldn't possibly ask Saya to come by herself. It was too dangerous for a young girl to be running around alone.
Arriving back home, he went up to his room and flopped onto his bed with a sigh. Not even bothering to change out of his sweaty clothes, he continued to lie there, trying to figure something out. He could deal with Saya, but it was her sister who was the problem.
If she tried to talk to him, it would be rude for him to ignore her. But he would sound stupid if he tried to talk. Also, she would be able to see his more vulnerable side which he liked to hide from everyone. No one knew about the fact that he liked to play with cats or children.
His mother called him down for supper and he quickly changed out of his dirty clothes. He laughed along with his family as they talked during dinner. Feeling more at ease for coming to decision, he relaxed. After supper, he went back to his room to do his homework.
As he pulled out his notebooks and flipped through them, they were empty. Because he had been distracted the whole time, he hadn't even taken any notes and didn't know what the homework was. Finding the course outline for each subject, he checked the given timeline and based his work on the topics listed there.
Finishing his work, he changed again as he needed to do the rest of his daily training. Taking his racket outside with him, he practiced his racket swings, and then did his set amount of shuttle runs. Resting for a short period of time, he brought his racket back inside.
The only thing left on his list was the third and last daily ten kilometer jog. After, he came home to take a shower before getting ready for bed. Before he climbed into bed, he set his alarm clock for half an hour earlier than usual. That way, he could finish his jog and still make time for Saya.
"I'll see what happens," he thought before he finally fell asleep.
**********
A Disturbed Day
The rest of the day went by rather slowly for Kaidoh as he sat in class. Nothing the teachers said made it into his head as he stared at his open notebook. There were no notes taken and he had even gotten in trouble in his best class: third period English.
"Kaidoh."
"Kaidoh!" his teacher repeated.
"Hm?" He looked up in surprise.
"I asked you to read from the last paragraph on page seventy-two. You could at least pull out your textbook."
"Oh. Sorry," he mumbled, flushing red at being singled out like that.
Everyone laughed as he pulled out his textbook. Finding the right page, he stood up to read it out loud. While he was reading, his mind was wandering off to think about other things. As a result, he kept stumbling on words that he usually had no problem reading.
*********
After school, he headed to the tennis club change room to get prepared for practice. Standing by the front of the building was Horio, bragging loudly to Katsuo and Kachiro. Seeing Kaidoh turn around the corner, they quickly clammed up in fear that he would yell and glare at them.
Not even noticing them, Kaidoh went into the change room, closing the door behind him. This caused looks of confusion to mar their faces. Even still, they released loud sighs of relief that they didn't get in trouble. It scared them when he looked at them.
"What was that?" Katsuo asked.
"I don't know, but we're saved. We better go get ready."
Coming out of the change room, Kaidoh went to join all the other tennis club members. Entering the courts, he stood off to the side in his usual spot, waiting for Tezuka and Oishi to start practice. No one noticed, but the usual intense stare in his gaze was replaced by a blank look.
"Captain!" everyone greeted when Tezuka joined them with Oishi behind him.
Giving them his customary nod, Tezuka outlined the plans for today's practice.
"First years will be picking up balls. Regulars will go to court B with me. The rest of you will be having a singles tournament. Inui will be watching this to help out with your needed areas of improvements. Your goal is to win as many consecutive rounds as you can. The loser will be replaced by another team member. Dismissed!"
"Hai!"
"Whoever loses will have to drink my Ultra Remix Special Inui Juice!"
Everyone paled and sweat dropped before the regulars, excluding Fuji, released a sigh of relief, knowing that it wasn't their punishment. As the regulars walked to court B, no one noticed anything out of place with Kaidoh. They happily talked amongst themselves. Single file, they entered the court: Tezuka at the front and Kaidoh bringing up the rear.
"What are we doing?" asked Kikumaru.
"First, we will all have warm-up rallies. The pairings are as follows: Kawamura with Echizen, Oishi with Momo, Kikumaru with Kaidoh and Fuji with me. After that, we will practice accuracy shots. Inui has already set-up the practice at the last court.
Following Kikumaru to one of the empty courts, Kaidoh stood ready with his racket in hand.
"I'll start!" yelled Eiji at which he nodded.
The ball served to his left, Kaidoh slowly moved to hit back a weak return. Seeing him act so oddly, Kikumaru forgot to hit the ball back and they had to start from the beginning. Throughout the entire rally, Kaidoh returned the ball with weak shots that mostly landed near the front.
"Gather up!"
"What's wrong?" Kikumaru asked with a frown on his face.
"Nothing."
It was like that for the accuracy shots as well. He was able to hit them where they were supposed to go, but the strength of his shots were sadly lacking. Everyone watched in confusion. Usually, he was so uptight and serious that now he seemed like an entirely different person.
"What kind of wimp shots are those, Mamushi?!" yelled Momo, trying to taunt him.
Kaidoh didn't even lash back at him and remained silent. Finishing the drill, he stood off to the side, watching everything with passive eyes. No one had any idea about what was wrong, but it was obvious that something had happened. Usually, Momo and Kaidoh were at each other's throats, bickering and fighting.
When Tezuka dismissed them, Kaidoh silently walked off by himself. Fuji and Oishi looked at each other with concern. If he was still like this tomorrow, they might have to talk to him and see what was wrong. There was no way they could win the tournament with half-hearted attempts.
**********
At home, Kaidoh changed out of his uniform into his jogging clothes. He hadn't been himself the entire day, trying to think of a reason why he would agree to play with Saya again. And to think that his condition was that she comes with Urumi.
"Ahh!! What am I thinking?!"
Shaking his head with frustration, he left the room and went downstairs to put his runners on. Hoping that his jog would clear his mind, he set off at a brisk pace. By playing with Saya that morning, he had screwed up his schedule and so he needed to make up for his lost time.
As he passed by the playground this time, there were children playing with their mothers watching. He turned away from the scene and continued running. Even still, the memories of the morning flooded his mind. Saya had been laughing and smiling, enjoying their time together.
He thought about his options. He could go like he said he would or he could forget about it and not show up. With the latter, she would think that she wasn't wanted and he remembered her pained reaction when she had told him why she ran away. Though he wouldn't actually admit it to someone else, he did like her.
"I guess the only thing I can do is go," he thought to himself.
His only problem with the whole situation was Urumi. Not wanting to look like an idiot, he hated the fact that he couldn't speak without stuttering. But he couldn't possibly ask Saya to come by herself. It was too dangerous for a young girl to be running around alone.
Arriving back home, he went up to his room and flopped onto his bed with a sigh. Not even bothering to change out of his sweaty clothes, he continued to lie there, trying to figure something out. He could deal with Saya, but it was her sister who was the problem.
If she tried to talk to him, it would be rude for him to ignore her. But he would sound stupid if he tried to talk. Also, she would be able to see his more vulnerable side which he liked to hide from everyone. No one knew about the fact that he liked to play with cats or children.
His mother called him down for supper and he quickly changed out of his dirty clothes. He laughed along with his family as they talked during dinner. Feeling more at ease for coming to decision, he relaxed. After supper, he went back to his room to do his homework.
As he pulled out his notebooks and flipped through them, they were empty. Because he had been distracted the whole time, he hadn't even taken any notes and didn't know what the homework was. Finding the course outline for each subject, he checked the given timeline and based his work on the topics listed there.
Finishing his work, he changed again as he needed to do the rest of his daily training. Taking his racket outside with him, he practiced his racket swings, and then did his set amount of shuttle runs. Resting for a short period of time, he brought his racket back inside.
The only thing left on his list was the third and last daily ten kilometer jog. After, he came home to take a shower before getting ready for bed. Before he climbed into bed, he set his alarm clock for half an hour earlier than usual. That way, he could finish his jog and still make time for Saya.
"I'll see what happens," he thought before he finally fell asleep.