A/N: Sorry for the late post when I said I'll be doing a daily update. I had to go on a double shift on my work because I'm saving up for something. Well, for now, here it is.

Not betaed.

Special Chapter 005

They started to do the weights this week.

And a small plastic hag had been strapped on his legs. Momoi-san told him earlier on that each of the bags consisted of a half kilo and they were to never remove them when in school. Well, except also when they are in swimming class.

In the early morning, all of the men's basketball team were running around one of the school oval.

For some, it is quite easy.

Yet for him, it was taxing.

"Hey you still okay?" Aomine asked him worriedly. They were still running and yet he's already lagging.

His breath were getting labored and he's sweating profusely. He wondered if he could even last till the next day. Each step he takes were painful. He's unused to the heavy lifting yet he knew he should not give up.

"Yeah. I'm good." He replied after remembering that he hadn't replied to Aomine's question.

But he hadn't been halfway through the fifty laps around the oval when he fell and when he did, darkness consumed him.

When he woke up, he found himself in the school's clinic with Ojou-sama sitting on the chair near his bed, reading a small book.

"What happened?" He asked her though she's not looking at him, he knew that she knows he's already awake and what he's asking about.

"You fainted." She replied as she continues reading.

The wind blew and with it the curtains on the room danced with it. Silence permeated the air and he doesn't know what to say anymore.

It was embarrassing. He's already part of the first strings yet he can't even do the fifty laps! He feels useless. Would he always just be a shadow? How can he even expect to last in a half time?

Feeling his throat tighten, he tried his best to stop the tears from falling.

He could improve! He will improve.

He was surprised though when she touched his face with her left hand and wiped something with her thumb. When the wind blew again, he found it cold.

"You're not a shadow, Tetsu-tan." She said while wiping his tears. "You are the moon. Others will find it hard to see you in the morning but never doubt yourself, for you are still there. And because when the night comes, it is where you shine the brightest."

And she smiled down at him that his heart felt settled.

"You only completed 20 laps earlier, later on you're going to run another 25 on top of another 20, okay?"

Then he remembered how vicious she could be that he paled at what she said next.

"Tomorrow you have to do at least 25 till you could reach 50 per run or else it'll pile up."

It took him around seven in the evening before he finished and by then he's ready to just come crawling to his home. He just passed the front gates when he felt his arms being lifted up and he found Ojou-sama supporting him, assisting him. He was about to ask her what she's doing when he was dragged to a nearby black car.

He tensed and felt his heart beat so fast he started to sweat against the cold wind of the air conditioned car. Is this one of the infamous kidnapping that the first strings warned him about? Will he be taken to a far-away place just because he failed to meet the 50 laps in the morning, 50 laps in the afternoon quota?

"Take off your shoes."

With shaking hands, he did as she told. Then he was ordered to lean on the door and to place his legs on her lap.

It was only when she started to massage them did he calm down enough that he started to fall asleep.

He never heard it when she whispered to him.

"You have to be strong Tetsuya. If something happens to me, I'll leave everything to you."

-tbc