Chapter 20: The Departure
Inner Taro: Who's departing? What? I don't get it... Hm, hopefully, with any luck, it'll be that despicable boyfriend of hers...
Inner Kin: (smacks) With any luck, it better be you.
"You drew Rikkaidai Fuzoku Chuu."
Cricket. Cricket.
"That's correct, fukubuchou."
"Of all schools, you drew Rikk-ai-dai." 'What happened to Fukushi's luck?'
Nervous stares.
"So what if they were last year's winners? This is a great opportunity to show off our growth. We'll crush them-"
"Meet me in the principal's office, Fukushi-buchou."
"-so hard they won't have any idea what hit them. What? The principal's office?"
Inner Kin: You have no idea what you just got yourself into, kid.
---Three Days Later---
"I'm going to die. I hope you get charged with murder, fukubuchou."
"Suzuki-senpai, if you don't get up this nanosecond," she smiled sweetly. "No one's going to find your body. I'm going to weep an ocean before your empty coffin, don't worry."
Suzuki jolted from the ground. This girl was just so unrelenting. Suzuki didn't think that he could make it out of the five-day training camp alive. Why hadn't he feigned a fever or something?
"Hm..." she pouted her lips. "Pretend the ball is my face."
He didn't have any problems after that.
---Meanwhile---
"GACK!"
Fshh!
"Get water, hurry!"
He flicked off the lid and desperately dumped water, appeasing the dancing sparks of fire with a sharp hiss.
"Oh, thank God, I thought I was going to burn down the building."
"Is it still edible?" Yori inquired, grimacing.
Taro gulped.
"Let's hope so, because I spent 2,000 yen on tomatoes. Kin's going to have my head."
"Here, let me." Yori grabbed a spoon and audaciously took a bite while Taro gaped in awe. "A bit burnt, but not beyond redemption." With a flurry of swipes, he sorted the black crumbs from the colorful bits and added three yolks.
"Get some garlic. Smash the side of the knife against it to peel off the skin."
"H-hai!"
"A plate, hurry."
"Coming!"
"Too small. Never mind, I'll use this. Do we have cooking wine?"
"The cupboard to the left, I believe."
"Thanks."
"Are the onions ready?"
"O-onions?"
"Oi, are you guys done yet?" Kin's sudden booming voice made Taro jump.
"A-almost."
"Go set up the table. Wait, the garlic."
---30 Minutes Later---
"This is the most delicious thing I've ever tasted! Kudos to you, Ta-Kin-chan," she raised a fork as a salute. "You look sort of... teary. Need a tissue?"
"Onions."
"Ah."
"Besides, you should thank Yori-kun, not me. He's magnificent."
"Oh please, now's not the time to be modest. I envy your husband already, Kin-chan," she winked.
An uneasy feeling entered his gut.
---That Night---
The tiny tree frogs and crickets outside chirped rhythmically as a soothing lullaby for sleep. If it was any other day, it would have pissed off all of them to death, but they had never been more exhausted in their lives and couldn't care less.
Snore. Snore.
However, there was still something bothering Hiroki, and it wasn't just Fukushi's wheezy snoring.
"What is that smell? Someone please close the window."
"A raccoon, probably. I don't want to know what lurks outside this... decrepit shanty house."
"Has anyone seen my deodorant?" Itsuki's head popped in the door.
"...I think that answered my question."
Crash.
"Chikusho, this floor had a hole in it. My back..."
Tap. Tip-tap.
"It's raining."
"Thanks for pointing out the obvious, stinkbomb."
Sniff. Sniff.
"God, how sensitive can you get?" Tashiro turned over and sighed.
Snore. Snore.
"Does anyone know where fukubuchou's room is?"
"Stop being a pervert, Kiyoshi."
"Can't help it. Some people in the room are actually straight, you know."
Glare.
"What were you insinuating again, Kiyoshi?"
"Nothing. Nothing at all."
The shadows played across the room from the flashes of lightning outside. Hiroki watched the tendrils of water droplets fall from the smoggy windows. The constant tapping and rustling leaves kept reminding him that he should be glad he was inside. Suddenly he worried about leaks. What if when he woke up, half the room drowned to death?
Snore. Snore.
"Doumoto, you're being unusually quiet today."
Cricket. Cricket.
"Doumoto? Psst, Doumoto!"
Fukushi stopped snoring.
"Weren't you his partner today, buchou?"
"Shit."
---Five Hours Later---
Sirens from the ambulance echoed past the hills as torrents of rain poured in sheets. The wind screamed as tree branches snapped and howled. Kin promised herself that the next morning, she would bang her head against Fukushi's forehead until she knocked herself or her captain out.
She shouted something to the paramedic who was busy loading an unconscious Doumoto, but the doctor didn't hear her.
"How long will he have to be hospitalized?" she screamed again.
"A week, maybe," he responded, "A few days if he's lucky." She nodded and sighed. He may be discharged, but he was certainly in no condition to play against Rikkaidai.
'Think positively, Kin. At least now you won't have to decide who goes on reserve. However, someone needs to stay with Doumoto. Not one of the regulars, surely. Not Taro either.'
"I'll go with him," Yori suggested. Wondering if he was telepathic, she nodded slowly. She had often seen Yori as his loyal sidekick, servile and unquestioning. Doumoto would be in good hands.
"Don't worry about him, Kin," Yori put a hand on her shoulder. "He's a big boy."
She nodded again and watched him get on the ambulance. Soaked from head to toe in a raincoat, she watched as the ambulance disappeared into the sheets of rain and the sirens drowned out by the cacophonic storm.
'Matte, he called me Kin?' She yelped. 'How had this guy known I had switched places with Taro?'
Inner Kin: Hem, hem. I know how you love to bask in a thunderstorm, but uh, if you don't get inside, you're going to be out longer than Doumoto.
"Yeah, yeah," she muttered and peeked down at the ditch where Doumoto had fallen into and no one noticed. Was everyone that preoccupied and exhausted that no one noticed he was missing? Poor guy. She shuddered at the thought of spending an entire night in the hole. It would be traumatizing for life, and it had been so incredibly close too.
'I'll never forgive Fukushi or myself for this. Some captains we were.' Trembling uncontrollably, Taro led her back inside.
Inner Kin: I wouldn't want to have you as a mother, all right. Don't worry, you still have a few years to learn.
'How comforting.' In a blur, she slammed the door in the bathroom and stripped off the clothes that stuck to her like a second skin. As she felt the heat of the steaming water over her skin, she sighed as she let herself float. She was paradise.
Creak.
Her ears perked up, alarmed.
"Shut up, Hiroki! I can't see..."
Throwing her towel over her body, she grabbed her shampoo and slammed it on Kiyoshi's head.
"ITAI!" A huge red bump grew larger on his forehead. She kicked the door shut and locked it.
"What perverts..." she muttered under her breath. "I can't let my guard down for a single minute. Seriously, these guys stress me out. After all, it's not like I'm going to let Kiyoshi off the hook that easily."
Smiling radiantly as she dried her hair, she puckered her lips. By the end of the training camp, every one of them would cursing Doumoto for his luck.
---Meanwhile---
Tashirou giggled. Deliriously. He sounded like a little girl who had just received her birthday present. The sound was disturbing enough for everyone to wake up and gape at him.
"Itsuki, stop doing that," he burst into giggles again.
Cricket. Cricket.
"Itsuki-san, can you please stop... erm, tickling him, or whatever you're doing? We're trying to get some sleep here."
"I'm not touching him. I'm on the other side of the room," Itsuki blinked, confused. Tashirou immediately shut up.
"Then who the hell is..." He grabbed the thing that shuffled by him. He felt a tail slither out and something sharp. It took him a while to realize that his hair was being snipped, and that a large family of critters had cozily invited themselves into his sleeping bag.
He screamed. Like a girl, high-pitched and unrelenting. Loud enough to blast everyone's eardrums.
---A Few Hours Later---
"UP! EVERYONE GET UP!" Her screeches rang through the precious dreams of everyone in the room as they groaned and covered their ears. "NOW!"
"Fukubuchou," Hiroki protested, "it's only three o'clock in the morning." First came Doumoto's incident and then Tashiro couldn't stop screaming like a girl for ten minutes. It later turned out that Kiyoshi had crept out in search of Kin's underwear and Itsuki had lightning phobia. Hiroki had turned into the babysitting mother. None of them had gotten more than five minutes of sleep that night, except for Suzuki who had unbelievably slept through everything.
"EXACTLY! I have to beat the laziness out of everyone here!" She kicked Michiru who groaned and fell through the ground with a thud. "The last one out will be our target practice!"
The room froze.
"T-t-target practice?"
"That's right. Here's the point list:
Nose- 20 points
Stomach- 5 points
Groin- 30 points
Knee- 10 points
Do I make myself clear?"
Loud shuffling and groans were scattered throughout the room.
"Insanely clear," someone muttered. "I suppose the thunderstorm's reduced to drizzling."
Flash. For a moment the room was engulfed in blinding lightning. Crack. A series of explosions went off, making everyone in the room jump.
Inner Kin: This training camp is already off to a great start, huh?
'Well, it can't get any worse, right?'
Inner Kin: Oh, how wrong you are, kid.
---The Next Day---
She watched the two corpses that had fainted on the other court.
"Everyone take a water break!" she called as her watch beeped. The morning had turned into a cleaning session as everyone scrubbed every inch of the house and marked the parts that were unstable. At least they had gotten something productive done that morning.
She grudgingly took out a pen and a piece of paper. She would undoubtedly be on singles three, and Hiroki and Kiyoshi would play doubles one, but what about doubles two? She rubbed her eyes as it clouded up. Her head felt like it would explode. Well, what did she expect, dealing with those idiots for three whole days? She couldn't think at all and needed something to clear her head.
Once she had washed her face and gulped down a gallon of water, a new thought struck her. What if... what if she could try playing doubles? It wasn't such a bad idea, really, considering they wouldn't be able to score a single point otherwise.
"Come on, Michiru, Hiroki-senpai and Kiyoshi-senpai, get over here!" she called them.
"What now?" She pluckered her lips and smiled radiantly. For a moment she looked like an angel. The Devil's angel.
"Don't take that tone with me, mister," she said in a sugar-coated voice. "You're going to teach your captains how to play doubles."
Kiyoshi choked on his water. "D-doubles?" Oh boy, Michiru just could not wait.
---Half Hour Later---
He was right.
"WHY DIDN'T YOU GET THAT BALL?!"
"It was too far away," Fukushi shrugged.
"You could have reached it!" She blasted his eardrums. "What are your legs for then?"
For a moment, a flare of fury filled Fukushi. "Why didn't you get it then? The ball was just as close to you!"
"It was on your side. Duh. Do you know how to play doubles or not?"
"Why ask me a question when you already know the answer, brat?"
"Because I want an answer for sure. I don't need to explain these things to you," she stared at him, fury practically radiating from her skin.
"I don't either. You don't understand anything. NOTHING!" Everyone was staring in shock. In their entire experience, they had never heard Fukushi burst in rage before. Their captain never lost his cool, no matter what. It was part of his 'look cool, act cool and you'll eventually get a girlfriend' act.
"Oh, so you think you're so great, huh? Please, go on, enlighten me."
"You don't want me to do this," he scoffed. He was a good head taller than Kin, but she didn't back down. Her piercing blue eyes stared through him, but Fukushi would come out this challenge as the victor.
"Talk, buchou! Tell me everything!" she commanded, shoving him.
"Yeah? Well, for starters, stop treating us like dirt! We're older, stronger and more experienced than you, you little brat. Everyone has limits and you've breached them without a single thought. I'm the captain around here, not you!"
"Then start acting like one!" Kin was ready to explode and no one had no idea what to do.
"Shut up, brat. I'm not done. Yeah, it's nice that you're trying to improve us and all, but this is getting way out of hand. You're just another junior high student like us, just another tennis player, actually, you're our kohai. I've been here for three years, damnit! You just barged in and acted like God incarnated! You cannot be the boss of everything! Has it ever occurred to you that we're happy with our mediocre tennis skills and our rotten club?!"
Everyone just stared with huge eyes. The water from the pitcher overflowed as Tashirou poured. They had never seen the two of them like this before. Ever.
"Seigaku this, Seigaku that. You just won't swallow your pride, will you, you Tezuka trash? You don't know when to stop! You know what? I was right all along." He threw his racket down on the court. "I never wanted to do this, but it's necessary. You're out of the club, bitch. Get lost. I don't want to see you ever again."
Slap. Fukushi's eyes glittered with constrained anger as three red streaks appeared on his cheek.
Kin stood there, speechless, her chest heaving. 'Don't cry. Just don't cry, damn it.' A lump formed in her throat as she blinked back tears. She felt the eyes of all the regulars on her back. She couldn't face them. Not now. She felt tears sting her cheeks as she turned her face away. Kicking his racket on the ground, her legs moved by themselves as she ran into the woods, away from the inquiring eyes.
She kept on running. She didn't stop. The branches clawed at her eyes and hair. Mud covered her sneakers as she ran through the dampened dirt. She tasted salt on her lips, but she didn't care. The clouds parted for a moment as the sun shone on her sweaty back.
She could go on running forever. It didn't matter to her. Suddenly she tripped over a rock and before she knew it, the ground met her face and she rolled down a hill. She felt a sharp pain in her abdomen as something sharp cut her skin, drawing blood, but then her head slammed into something and everything went black.
"That was a great book, sensei!" The room was vivid with bright colors that reflected the innocent faces. Red, blue, yellow, green... Two of her classmates were playing with blocks in the corner. Another helper was reading a pop-up book in the other side. Outside, children giggled as they swished down the slides. She spotted Taro's head as he stuck his toes in the sandbox.
"Come on, everybody! Gather around," the tall teacher called and the children crowded around her in a circle. Kin watched from afar, sticking her head out for a peek.
"So, what do you all want to be when you grow up?" she asked. Everyone called out at once and she gently reminded them to raise their hands.
"Yes, Yui?"
"I want to be a doctor like 'tou-san. I'll get to help a lot of people that way."
"That's great! Maybe one day you could be my doctor," she laughed. Her laughter was sweet and light-hearted, but pained and detached.
"I want to be a leader. I'll be the best leader there ever was!"
"So ambitious at such a young age. You'll definitely succeed," she mused to herself.
A voice piped up, "What about you, Ayana-sensei? What did you want to be when you were our age?"
"Well, I always dreamed of being a wonderful wife and mother," she winked at Kin. "And I wanted to start my own nursery." Kin shifted uncomfortably.
"I want to leave, 'kaa-san," she muttered, tugging on the hem of her dress.
"Why don't you share what you want to be, Kin?" Her mother gave her a gentle push. She felt the curious eyes of everyone in the classroom on her.
"I-I don't know," she glanced away, blushing. "I just want to fit in. I want somebody to love."
"Are you going to be a wife one day, Kin-chan?"
"I-I don't know," she shuffled her feet. "Who does?" She just wanted to get away from there, away from everyone's cheerful eyes.
Everyone seemed to be doing something they loved. They knew what they wanted. Everyone except for Kin.
She groaned as every bone in her body ached. 'I'm not the same girl that I was when I was five.' Still, her heart remained the same. She wanted to fit in. She wanted somebody to love. Most of all, she wanted to prove herself. Prove that she had a dream and she would actually accomplish it instead of just jabbing her mouth.
'So much for that.' She didn't know how long she'd been out. She knew she couldn't stay long because eventually they'd find her. Fumbling over her pockets, she found her cell phone. Grimacing at the gash on her lip and stomach, she dialed her home number. She waited patiently, leaning her head against the tree, closed-eyed. No one answered. She tried her father's workplace. No response. Sighing with helplessness, she dialed her brother's number.
"Tezuka Kunimitsu."
"Kunimitsu, get over here." She knew that he was alarmed, but she didn't care.
"Kin, what happened? Aren't you at tennis training camp?" She hadn't called him by his full first name in years.
"It doesn't matter," she murmured. "You know where I am, don't you?"
"Yes, I'll be over there as soon as I can. I'll try to contact our par-"
"Don't bother. I can't reach them. Just get over here." Then she hung up. The gash was starting to sting even when she wasn't moving. Her tears had dried on her cheeks as a layer of flaky skin.
It was over. It was all over and that was all there was to say.
---A/N---
Ha! Let everyone call Kin a Mary Sue now. I didn't plan her departure to be that extreme, but it just ended up that way. I was considering giving her an emotional breakdown, but that would come later. It started as a light-hearted chapter, but it most certainly didn't end that way. I still prefer the humor, how about it? Tell me if the oscillating is a bit too extreme however, and I'll cut it down.
Yori is going to become a lot more important later on. What can I say, my writings are extremely unpredictable, even for myself.
Anyways, the reason this took so long is because I've been working on other works, such as You're Still Mada Mada Dane and The Apocalypse: Inui's Love Potion. Check 'em out and I'll be forever grateful, please?