So it seems that several of you are enjoying this story. I'm glad you are. I know it's not probably going to be my best work, but at least I can say I tried.

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Prince of Tennis: Forgotten Memories

Chapter Two – Awakening

I could smell it. It mingled with my own sweat. I could taste it in my mouth. It was hard to avoid. My hands… they were covered… My ears echoed the sound of my heart pounding. My breathing was harsh. Everything hurt… The… the pain…

"Eiji!" someone cried out, as if they were in as much pain as me. Why… they couldn't…

I jolted awake. I tried to move but I was… tangled in sheets? How was that possible? I was in the living room just and then…

I looked out the window across from my bed. It was later, much later it seemed. How long had I been out? Who had brought me to my bed?

"Ah, Eiji, you're awake."

I moved my gaze to where the voice had come from. They widened from shock when I saw who it was. It was someone I hadn't seen in… Well I hadn't seen him since my last high school tournament that I had been able to play in.

"Oishi," my voice whispered as he reached over to remove something from my forehead – a cloth it seemed. I hadn't even noticed it in my dazed and groggy state.

"You still can't handle it can you?" he asked me.

"Can't… handle…" I was having trouble trying to focus.

"You're still not like you used to be."

A twinge in my heart caused a strange pain to reverberate through my body. I heard a soft cry leave my lips, and my former doubles partner was right at my side. I knew I looked pathetic… I felt pathetic.

"Eiji-san, relax… please… You don't want to strain yourself."

"Oishi… Why… Why did I hear so many of them today?" I asked him.

"What do you mean?"

"I… I didn't see them… but I heard them… Our… Our…"

"Our team?"

I nodded. Of course I meant that. Well, minus Ochibi anyway. Ochibi was still in high school. Sure he was a senior, but it was still high school. We all tried for and got into the same school for our higher education. We considered ourselves lucky. We were able to get onto the tennis team – even Ochibi had been able to make it onto the regular team. Oishi… He'd stayed back for me to keep the "Golden Pair" alive, even though we only made it as regulars a third of the time.

I had held him back. I had told him not to hold back for me. I had told him to go all the way. However he reminded me of our promise – if we didn't play doubles with each, then we didn't play doubles at all.

"Eiji, we all go to the same university. You didn't figure that out?" my friend asked me after putting the cloth into the bowl of water, "When we heard you weren't on the tennis team, we were worried."

I looked away. "I… I can't play."

Oishi looked at me. And I don't me that he just looked at me. I mean he looked at me. He looked confused and concerned and some other form of being upset that I couldn't tell what it was.

"What do you mean you can't play? You could play in high school. Why not here?"

"I… I feel like I can't… I… I can't explain it… I place my hand on a racket…" I looked up at Oishi, trying to convey my message.

"Eiji, what happens?"

"I… I…"

I knew I was scared… I always was scared. I would pick up a racket and I would panic. I don't know why I would be so afraid. Why… Why was I scared to pick up what I used most in middle school? What happened that I feel like that?

"Do you need me to get Inui? Or Tezuka? I'm sure that Fuji wouldn't mi-"

"No!" I cried. I didn't want them to see me like this. I didn't want them to see me so pathetic and weak.

"Eiji, what's wrong that you can't play tennis? Or that you can't lean on your former teammates – the ones who support you through thick and thin?"

"That's just it," I told him, "They're former teammates. I can't always rely on them, on you. You guys stuck with tennis. Whatever happened to me… I had to let go. I can't play singles let alone doubles. I he-"

"Don't you dare say that you held me back!"

I jumped at Oishi's tone. When he had played before he never used that tone with me... This was different now, I guessed. We weren't playing tennis, we weren't the Golden Pair and we weren't in middle school.

Trying to sit up, I looked at my former doubles partner. "Oishi I-"

"Eiji, you're going to have to face them sometime. We all go to the same college. You don't think we've seen you?"

I froze. What? They'd… They'd all seen me?

"Eiji, we've seen you pass by the courts when we're practicing. We've seen you watch us, seen the looks that you've had. You want to play again, we know you do."

"I can't play, though," I told him again, holding back my tears, "I can't play because…"

"Because of what?"

"I… I don't remember…Whatever happened, I don't remember… But… I start to panic…"

Oishi took my hands carefully. I watched him stare at them for a while. He looked worried, concerned. It was like I was hurt –

No… Not again… The second time today my world started to spin as I heard the weak cries from the past. I could smell it again… Taste it again. I could hear my heart racing in my ears before in began to slow.

I started to panic. "O-Oishi… I can't…" I distantly felt myself fall backward. There was a small pressure to my back from a pair of arms.

"Eiji!! Eiji, stay with us!"

Us? Who…?

My breathing was ragged. It felt as though something was pressing inside my lungs. I was having trouble breathing. It was like I was drowning, but there was no water. I weakly groped for something, anything to hang onto. Please let there be something…

"Kikumaru, calm yourself."

Something inside me heard this voice and caused me to relax. I don't know what it was but I felt like I could relax. I was safe with these arms holding me and the voices soothing me. I felt I could come back.

My grayed vision slowly returned to color. My sight went from blurred to clear. Air was entering my oxygen deprived lungs more. Coughs left my lips as the arms that were supporting me placed me down on a mattress – I'm pretty sure it was my bed.

"How long has it been since this has happened last?" I heard a familiar voice. It was solid but quiet, and yet I knew who it was with little problem. He had always been like that.

There was some shifting before the answer came. "Other than or including today, bucho?"

"Including."

"His most recent was four hours ago. I called you guys three hours ago."

"And the last one before that?"

"Two months ago," another voice came, "I saw it. I was the one who had to call his apartment mate to get him back here safely. What's wrong with him, senpai-taichi?"

Ochibi was here? But they only called him if the situation was serious. Especially while even though he was in high school, he was in the international tournaments. He shouldn't have been there when he should have been getting ready for the next one.

My eyes finally cleared completely and I could see who was in my room. Oishi, Ochibi, Tezuka-bucho and Fujiko were all there. Kaidou, Inui, Taka-san, Momo-san weren't there, but I couldn't ask why. I was too tired; my episode had worn me out. I was fighting sleep again, but my stomach was empty. It growled and the four in the room looked down at me.

"Kikumaru-san, you need to rest. We've already our instructors and Echizen's teachers that we won't be present tomorrow," Tezuka-bucho told me.

"Why… why are you here?" I asked, fighting the sleep that tugged my eyes closed.

"Sleep for now, Kikumaru-senpai," Ochibi told me. He gave me one of those rare smiles that he used to hide back at Seigaku. "We'll wake you when dinner is ready."

"Arigatou, Ochibi… minna…"

I felt myself fall back into sleep, but this one was at least somewhat more peaceful than my nightmares.