A.N.: Phew! Contrary to popular belief, I'm not dead. And don't worry, unless I die, and I'm planning to have someone in charge of my account by then, I won't leave a fic unfinished.
So, here's the last chapter of this threeshot!
This one's in Mizuno Katsuo's POV, thetaller boy of the first-year male trio (quartet if you count Ryouma-sama, of course).
To T.k.: Well, there won't be a sequel, unless I do write other oneshots that may come after this one, but that would take a while. Mostly I'm planning those oneshots, if they ever get typed at all, to be the couples type, so it won't go well with this fic. I hope this ending satisfies you enough, though!
WATCH OVER OCHIBI-CHAN!
2nd SERVICE – ACE POINT: CURRENT LIFELINE
Horio-kun and I immediately followed Kachirou-kun once we saw he had followed Ryouma-kun.
Surprisingly, we wound up in a rather isolated part of the school… what was Ryouma-kun doing in such a place?
We saw him enter a bathroom, the one no one really uses, after all, why and how would anyone use a bathroom that is always out of use?
Ryouma-kun seemed to have found a reason…
Except it had nothing to do with what we thought it could be…
When we entered it, the three of us came face-to-face with the ex-regular, a bloody metal object in his hand…
And blood was dropping from both his arms…
We stood there speechless, both parties staring at one another, scratch that, Ryouma-kun was looking at us through indifferent eyes, and we were staring at him as one through startled gazes.
And so we remained until, suddenly, he turned around and walked towards the sink, where he cleaned both the pocketknife with one swift motion and his bleeding arm with a bit of more water, drying them with the paper from the metal box the sink.
For an abandoned toilet, this one was sure was pretty equipped.
Dropping the wet papers into the trashcan, Ryouma-kun headed out, the now clean pocketknife slipping into one of the pockets of his pants. By then, the look in his eyes was once again one that indicated his mind was somewhere else.
And it took us a good few minutes to realize that so was his body.
The school bell rang, indicating it was time for us to return to our classes…
And we dashed out of the place in one big human mess.
We would have gone after the regulars at the locker room, but by this time, they were probably already in their classes, and we had no right, nor time, to go after them… and Ryouma-kun didn't seem that bad, so we guessed it would be OK to wait until the end of the classes.
Except we never expected that it would take so long!
To the three of us, those three hours seemed to take forever until they finally ended; the bell hadn't even stopped ringing when Kachirou-kun, Horio-kun and I were already halfway to get the senpais; we wanted to be there before any club activity started.
At least that didn't go wrong.
When we got there, there was no one at the place. The three of us stumbled on the ground to catch our breaths, much like what we had done six months ago, when we came to alert the regulars that the Towamirai tennis team was assaulting Ryouma-kun.
That's how we waited for them at the locker room.
And that's how the regulars found us when they arrived about seven minutes later, except our heavy breathing had subsided, but we were still nervously sitting on the floor.
"What happened?" Oishi-senpai asked us, slight amusement obvious.
"Echizen… he…" Horio-kun started, "Katou followed him to the toilet, and Mizuno and I followed both of them."
"Senpais," Kachirou-kun interrupted, standing up and heading towards the older students. "It was horrible! When I entered the toilet, there was blood on the ground and Ryouma-kun… I was so scared!"
"WHAT!" Some of the regulars asked at once, surprised.
"What happened to ochibi-chan?" Kikumaru-senpai asked, whining.
"He, well, he stopped when we came in, which was almost at the end of lunchtime by then, it took us so long to find him!" I explained. "But, there was a pocketknife in his hand, the blade was so red… and his arm was soaked with blood."
"That's not everything!" Horio-kun added, "There's something going on, we saw his wrists heavily bandaged last week, and the gauge goes all the way up to his forearm! We saw it today when we walked in on him in the toilet; his uniform shirt was off. Even though it was that much bandaged, there was still so much blood…" he trailed off, the three of us visibly shuddering at the memory.
"And today, his face had a large red mark on it. I think he was hit or something," I concluded.
The senpais looked thoughtful for a moment, but our buchou quickly decided what action to take. "Leave the other third-years in charge today, we're going to follow Echizen and get some answers. Oishi, go tell them that and hurry! We'll wait for you at the school entrance, but be sure not to be seen by Echizen if you guys cross paths!"
"Understood! Excuse me," Osihi-senpai said, and in seconds he was gone.
The rest of us headed, as quietly as possible, to the school entrance, so as to keep watch and not let Ryouma-kun go home unnoticed.
Not today.
And Oishi-senpai showed up quickly enough, panting a bit as he had been running to not miss anything.
We followed him for a good fifteen minutes, all observing his unusual behavior, though the regulars were more surprised, since they hadn't seen Echizen lately… and we had.
The first thing we noticed wrong was the red spot on his face when he passed by the school gates in order to go home.
The second thing we noticed was the fact that he was limping all the way.
When he turned around at one point, and we immediately snuck into the corner we were about to pass by, we noticed the dazed look in his eyes.
The he turned around facing us, trying to reach towards something that wasn't there. We froze, somewhat afraid Ryouma-kun had caught us, since he was looking straight in our direction right after the whole group left the safety of the corner. Perhaps he was in the middle of a daydream, because even though he was facing us, Ryouma-kun's eyes seemed to indicate that he was looking right through us, not acknowledging our presence; we saw how his hands trembled with the mere effort of raising it… more so than it normally should have.
Coincidentally or not, it started raining exactly at that point; a light rain, but it was getting us all wet none-the-less.
Perhaps we could have seen more, but Ryouma-kun let the hand drop at his side and turned around, resuming his path. He'd walked a few more blocks and was suddenly surrounded… by none other than the members of the Towamirai team themselves.
"Well, well, what have we here?" The tallest of them asked mockingly.
"If it isn't the little impertinent fool that cost us the championship?" Said another player who had piercings all over his body.
Ryouma-kun didn't seem to notice them though; he just continued walking and didn't even lift his head to glance at them.
It was like he hadn't acknowledged their presence, and though we knew that was exactly it, I'm sure the other team thought he was just purposely ignoring them… and that certainly made them even angrier.
"Hey, you," another of the members shouted, gripping Ryouma-kun by the back of the collar of his uniform. This guy seemed to be the captain of the group. "Listen when people are talking to you, you little brat!"
"Calm down," reasoned a fourth member with long hair, "the poor boy must be surprised to find us here, that's all," he said sarcastically.
"Indeed," replied the one who still held Ryouma-kun in his hold, "do you think he might want to know how we showed up here?"
A fifth member with a crinkled uniform stepped forward. "I'll gladly explain it to him; it was because we were going after you, kid; we were just on our way to your school to have the pleasure to meet you again."
"Yeah," said a sixth member with a very toned body. "Our first encounters really left us missing being with you."
The last member came closer, completing the circle formed around Ryouma-kun and his captor, "Aren't you happy, kid?"
"That doesn't matter, we should be happy that he came to us this easily, it spares us the trouble."
The tallest member came closer, adrenaline clearly pulsing in his veins. "That's enough of a pep talk, now let's start the real fun!" He said, crackling his knuckles, intentions clear.
"Indeed," completed the guy with piercing, also cracking his. "Let's finish the job," he said, advancing a fist towards Ryouma-kun's face.
It never hit, though.
I don't know how fast our regulars moved, but the guy was on the floor not a second after the words had escaped his mouth, hugging his stomach dearly.
And the Seigaku Tennis Team Regulars were standing there as one, like a firm and unbreakable wall; all of their eyes, including Fuji-senpai's, deadly serious, glares straight towards the opposite team.
Kaidou-senpai was the first to speak. "Stay away from our school's lower-grade students or you'll regret it!" He said menacingly, his glare so intense, that the Towamirai members were unconsciously forced to give a step back.
After a few seconds, the longhaired guy recovered enough to speak again, a smirk making its way on his face. "You're referring to this kid?" He asked, feigning innocence, as he gave Ryouma-kun a violent shake.
And that was it.
Momo-chan-senpai was the first to advance; being the closest to Ryouma-kun, I wouldn't have expected any less.
His fist connected to the captain's face and sent the guy flying back towards a pole with such strength, the concrete object curved a bit; Ryouma-kun was hurled against the wooden plates of the fence beside the post.
Pretty soon, the others were brought down by Kaidou-senpai, Kikumaru-senpai, Momo-chan-senpai and Kawamura-senpai, even if the latter still apologized after hitting them.
He was a polite person, but there were things he obviously wouldn't allow, like just remain still watching a fellow team member being abused right before his eyes.
The other senpais stood there watching, clearly not going to take such measures, but very satisfied that someone was giving the assailants a taste of their own medicine.
Yes, violence is not the answer, I'm sure that was on their minds right now, but sometimes, when people cross all limits, one can only stand so much.
While they faced the others, Horio-kun, Kachirou-kun and I hurried over to where Echizen was propped up. He was still awake, but the look in his eyes instantly told us he wasn't even aware of what was going on, or what had happened to him just seconds ago.
Sad, but true.
When the senpais were finished, they quickly came over.
"Is he alright?" Fuji-senpai asked worried.
"He's awake, if that's what you're asking, but he hasn't been alright for a long time now," I answered him.
The others nodded and knelt down in front of him. "This is what we wanted to show you," I started a bit hesitantly, after all, I didn't have the right to make this public, but I just wanted to help a friend. My mind made up, I grabbed one of Ryouma-kun's arms and leveled it up, pushing back the sleeve and eliciting a gasp from the regulars as we all looked at the red bandages. "Both his arms are like this. It's serious, senpais, something's happening," I said, nearly mutely.
"They're worse than this morning," Katsuo-kun whispered almost to himself.
We redirected our eyes to the injured player's face, and were surprised to see, only now, that it was very pale. Most of its usual color was gone from it, probably due to the loss of blood he had surely been suffering.
Right then, his eyes faltered a little… and closed.
He had lost consciousness.
I was about to shout something, but Inui-senpai beat me to it, "First of all, let's get him out of this rain. He's sick already and surely this isn't doing him any good."
Tezuka-buchou scooped the sleeping first-year in his arms and ran towards the Echizen residence, all ten of us following right behind him.
All I can say is that his family was looking very distressed, standing on the porch as they waited for him, when we came into view.
Their eyes jumped like leaping frogs and turned as big as our tennis balls when their visions landed on the boy in our captain's arms.
We entered the house carefully so as not to soak it and were grateful when Ryouma-kun's mother brought towels, handing them one at a time to each of us. Before the captain got his, he placed our first-year player in his father's arms carefully, only then turning to take the last towel from the awaiting hands.
When we were finally considerably dry, they guided us inside the house, leading us to Ryouma-kun's room, where his father carefully placed him on the bed. We looked a bit around, some of us not very discretely…
Tennis pros posters, tennis balls, tennis rackets, tennis this, tennis that… was tennis all Ryouma-kun cared about! His room sure didn't seem to deny that. I wouldn't really find it weird if his cat suddenly started standing on its two hind legs and played the sport too…
But, when we got a hold of ourselves once more, most of our gazes went back to the sleeping boy's face, and we were all surprised to only then realize that his sleeping face was so… different. Of course, when you're not awake, your body relaxes and obviously that includes your face muscles, but it just never occurred to us that our young player could look so… innocent.
Again, weird.
We filed out of his room quietly, so as not to awaken him. Arriving at the living room for a second time, we didn't give his family an opportunity to kick us out… that was our chance to find out what was going on with Ryouma-kun and we certainly wouldn't let it slip through our hands that easily.
Neither would the senpais…
Tezuka-buchou took the lead, immediately taking a step forward and, using that business voice and stand of his, he asked Nanjirou Echizen the question that had been plaguing our minds lately…
"Excuse me, but we've noticed these last few months that Echizen hasn't been himself as of late and his friends here are worried about him; that's why we followed him and were able to help him back. Unfortunately, we can't seem to figure out what could be wrong, and as captain of this team, I seriously think it is my duty to ask you: what is the problem with Echizen?"
And after his words, the whole room fell silent, Nanjirou's eyes studying each and every one of us as if we were spies from another country threatening to take a hold of Japan… or destroy it. He seemed to be analyzing us, as if trying to make some kind of judgment…
After a few long and uncomfortable minutes, he finally replied. "All right, I believe you. You do seem to be, in fact, worried about my son, so I'll give you some answers, but I want you to promise that you'll keep an eye on him, as neither of us can do that all the time."
The captain nodded, and so did we.
And the ex-tennis pro explained to us how Ryouma-kun had been born with many physical faults and serious psychological tendencies, though the latter had only turned into a problem when, back in the United States, he had suffered an accident and become even more physically limited, leading to a serious case of inferiority and, consequently, depression.
His mother complimented on other facts, like how Ryouma-kun had tried suicide back then and was almost successful… how they had been so scared when they found him fainting on the floor of his room, surrounded by his own blood, which had been flowing from both wrists then. She said it was only then they discovered that he had been mutilating himself for weeks before finally attempting at something more drastic. They had been forced to lock him at home for even more weeks after that before the psychological assistance finally told them that Ryouma-kun could be given a bit more freedom.
And at that time, he had found his father playing tennis at the backyard, something he had never seen before, as the ex-pro had always done it hidden from his son, afraid that it would upset his child because he wouldn't be able to play it due to his natural limits.
However, that had been the miracle, tennis had become his lifeline. With his father's constant taunting, Ryouma-kun had become determined to play it, and he insisted so much, he ignored the doctors' orders and practiced it daily so much, that his body seemed to have understood the message and decided to give him a hand. Of course, scientifically speaking, what happened was not like this at all, but in blunt way, that had been the story. With his constant playing, Ryouma-kun was able to surpass his natural physical and psychological barriers with the help of tennis; it helped him build a strong body and give him enough confidence to trust himself to do other things, eventually evolving to create a large ego.
As the doctors had explained to them, this ego of his, which had grown ridiculously big, although not lacking any backup proof, had burst in order to protect him from going through the same situation again, blocking out his depressive psychological tendencies.
Ryouma-kun had, since then, practically lived for tennis, which explained his room, but it had all been ruined by the Towamirai team when they broke his wrists, thus making him unable to play any longer, reviving past nightmares for his family and him.
At that point, I'm sure the senpais suddenly wished they had pounded those bullies into ashes; the looks on their faces were really scary, as in a new way to think "killer look".
Then, Ryouma-kun's family made us a request after finishing our first-year ex-regular's story, telling us how they had caught him cutting himself again the night before, and how his father had ended up slapping him in his frustration, clearing up thoughts about the red mark on his face.
I seriously thought he might have caught some skin cancer or something, not wanting to believe my own words back at the locker room that Ryouma-kun had been hit. Stupid, I know, but those had been my thoughts when no one knew what it was yet.
Ryouma-kun's mother's words brought me out of my reverie, "Please, keep an eye on him, don't let him do anything foolish. If he tries it again, stop him at all costs, give him support, but most of all, don't let his will for tennis die… it's the only thing that keeps him alive… please, encourage him to it," she asked us, tears falling as she spoke.
We nodded, all of us, accepting the task given to us, but we were plainly aware that it wasn't easy, as Ryouma-kun was already in a serious condition; the dazed look his eyes showed now more often than not, they were just a small hint to the fact that we were losing him… and fast.
Of course we couldn't all stay at the Echizen residence, and if anyone stayed, it would seem suspicious to him, so the senpais decided to take turns picking him up and walking him to school, in a random order, as well as following him back home as soundlessly as possible, just in case.
And of course, we had a lot of trouble to keep up with him: he kept disappearing at the strangest times, showing up in the strangest places, always with a look on his face that seemed like he was more and more farther away from us… perhaps out of our reach, but we somehow always managed to bring him back.
At times, we almost did give up, Ryouma-kun was not himself; it seemed weird to us to be around someone we had known for some time already, though that person seemed completely like a stranger. It felt weird, it felt wrong, but most of all, it felt frustratingly torturous.
The fact that he was healing so slowly was already getting to us too, after all, all he needed was for those wrists to at least be able to move again without the risk of cracking the bones once more, but they seemed to be taunting us as they took forever to progress.
All through it, he did continue the mutilation on his own body, even though we tried so much to avoid it, as did his family at home, but he always found some way to dribble our watchful eyes, despite the fact that he was barely aware of our presence anymore. It was as if the hiding had become mechanical, just like the routine to and back from school had become…
Several times we stopped him from ending his own life, from cutting, from being beaten… the Towamirai team seemed to really have taken a liking to pursuit him, but once they realized that the regulars were keeping an eye on the first-year player, they gave up and let him in peace, not that the Momo-chan-senpai and the others stopped protecting Ryouma-kun anyway…
But, somewhere along that path, Ryouma-kun's distant mind seemed to hear our silent pleas, to unconsciously acknowledge our silent efforts, until two agonizing months and a half later, he finally recovered his senses somewhat, which brought great relief to all of us, friends and family. After that, his recovery seemed to suddenly decide to happen, I guess because he willed those wrists to heal or something like that, and about three weeks later, he was ready to start practicing again.
Right now, Kachirou-kun, Horio-kun and I are watching him practice, slowly, so as to get his body used to all the movement once more, but it seems this time it won't take as long as it took when something similar happened back in the United States. He seems to be doing pretty well, we can see that in the senpais' faces, especially Inui-senpai's: when Ryouma-kun didn't do as good as the regulars' data expert expected him to, the younger player had to drink a whole glass of one of those weird mixes.
But there was an obvious thankful gleam in Ryouma-kun's eyes every time he looked at the senpais, but because his attitude was back too, he would never really say anything other than an arrogant comment, when he did say something, and quite frankly, I think we all prefer him that way… at least I do.
Needless to say, Ryouma-kun was able to recover pretty fast.
He just won his first match after his recovery, and though he still had more problems than he would have had before, the match ended quite well in our favor.
His family watched the games this time, ready to be there for him should anything have happened, but cheering him on all the while.
And from our respective benches, we all watched amazed as the player confirmed in court that he was back; he was able to get over that entire situation… again. It didn't matter that he had help, the true achievement came from him, after all, he wouldn't have come back if he didn't have such will power, no matter how much help we gave him.
It's admirable… at least I think so.
Typically, we watch him walk back to the players' benches, the senpais ready to congratulate him, when a confident smirk and a few familiar words we all hadn't heard him say in a while made most of us laugh before any other word could be said first.
"Mada mada da ne."
Yes, Ryouma Echizen was back in action, and this time, he had friends who would make sure to keep it that way.
END of 2nd SERVICE – ACE POINT: CURRENT LIFELINE END
A.N.: OK, I purposely didn't describe the members of the Towamirai team much as it would be a waste of time and words, so you can think them up however you want, save the smaller details I used here.
Now, this fic is done!
And, boy, it took me months to write it! I know it's not exactly big and all, but I had a hard time putting together all the ideas I wanted for it, not to mention that it seems slightly familiar to another fic I had been working on simultaneously (CLAMP Gakuen Tanteidan/CLAMP School Detectives – "The Way You Are Is Fine Enough"). I didn't really want to make them that much alike, so I had to limit a few things between each of the two fics. I really enjoyed writing both, though; so I hope their respective readers will like reading them!
Well, if I ever write any PoT fic again, it'll probably be yaoi or shounen-ai Golden Pair, but that'll take another eternity to write and post, since I'll be working on different anime oneshots for now!
Thanks for keeping up with me and reading this, I really appreciate your efforts!
Comments? Criticisms? Incoherencies? Doubts? Anything else? Please review and help me become a better writer… or just help pump up my ego a bit!
Syaoran-Lover aka KaiLi signing out!