Chapter V
Oishi was walking around the school, now he was in the first floor, luckily he wasn't alone. He had found Eiji, just after he arrived.
"Eiji, you have been here alone? You weren't with the others?" Oishi asked his friend next to him. "Eh... I haven't seen anyone, Oishi."
At this, Oishi became suspicious, according to the ichinen story, they had been all together. "Really?" Then he heard a lot of noises, coming from the upper floor. Eiji became frightened and hide himself behind his friends arm... "W-w-w-w-w-what was that nya~...?" He asked his doubles partner, but he was only looking forward with a skeptic expression on his face.
'If... he isn't the real Eiji... he imitates him very well...' The boy though while walking carefully forward.
Suddenly a plenty of rackets fall downstairs in front of the golden pair. They were knocking them both on the ground. "Ahh! That hurts! Where did the rackets come from?!" Eiji yammered... When Oishi turned his head to the direction of his beloved friend.
"That really hurt! nya!" Oishi saw in horror. But how was that even possible? 'Eiji' had one of those rackets in his head. From side to side just above the ears. Blood was dripping quickly to the floor.
"E-eiji.." The seigaku's vice captain said in shock, he didn't know what to say. "What?" 'Eiji' asked with an innocent face, but then Oishi began to scream... his scream echoed through the whole school... Even his friends on the other floor heard him. "OISHI-SENPAI!" Kaidou startled up. "Oishiiii!" Hearing his doubles partner shouting like that, Kikumaru's instincts awoken. He began running without thinking, what he will do when he would find his friend.
He didn't know what was waiting for him...
"Kikumaru-senpai!" "Eiji!" Momo and his senpai Kawamura were shouting at him, but it was already too late - the catboy left the floor already.
Eiji ran as fast as he could, his friend must be in danger: "Oishi!" he said once he saw his doubles partner at the end of the stairs.
Going down Eiji saw with wide opened eyes... a copy of himself.
"Eiji!" Oishi stood in front of his friend, he knew from the beginning that the other wasn't the real one. At that moment the others regulars arrived to that spot too: "W…what the... nyaaa! He has a racket in his head... a..and looks like me! What is going on here?!" The real Eiji trembled, Oishi stand in front of him to guard him against that doppelganger. With non-stop: "Blood is coming out of his head" Inui noticed and his legs began to shake. "P-p-probabiltiy t-that 'THIS' is not a human being: 25" Before Inui could finished his sentence, he got giddy.
To be covered by unknown blood was one terrible thing... but to see another person bleeding in front of him was too much for the data-freak. When he kneeled down, the Eiji-copy began to stand up very slowly.
All of them were scared, that thing was not a human "Zanen Munen Mata Raishuu!" The copy grinned, but not in Eijis voice. This one was a way deeper and not human-like, very scary one. The regulars were taking very slowly steps back, back to the stairs.
"Where are you goin'ya~?" The thing spoke again, but this time with a mix of Eiji's and the deeper voice to the others: "Let's play a while nyaa~!" The regulars hurried to the stairs, always walking backward and the copy was chasing them.
"AHHHHH!" All of the boys were running for their life.
"I don't want to die! I don't want to! I never tried the triple burger with extra cheese and the secret special sauce until now!" Momo cried screaming while he followed the others.
"Get a grip, you wimp! We're all do not want to die you Idiot!" His old known rival spited at him.
"Minna! - Yudan seizu ni ikou!" Tezuka only said, to give his team mates a bit more power.
When they almost reached the exit of the building, the 'kiku-copy' how Inui described it in his data book while running, shouted "YOU CAN'T ESCAPE FROM ME NYAAAA~~~~~!" All of sudden an unbearable sound echoed through the floor.
"AHHH MY EARS!"
The sound caused painful vibrations for the ears of the boys, so they were forced to stop moving... They put their hands over their ears - the sound was just killing - and suddenly it stopped. The 'kiku-copy' had reached to get them in the distraction, so they were trapped now. It wasn't anymore an exact copy of Eiji, now it looked more like something with melting and gray skin and terrifying smile.
"We shouldn't go out" Inui advised, remembering the monster cat outside school building. But those words didn't reach the group; they were already running outside the door...
"They should have listened to you..." The odd-looking figure said to Inui and left him alone in the building.
While getting outside, the boys heard the sound of hitting tennis balls from the court. "Should we go there?" Fuji asked his childhood friend with a serious expression on his face...
His eyes were opened.
Inui followed his friends quickly, because he didn't want to be alone in that crazy world. Luckily he found them heading towards the tennis courts. The sound of tennis balls attracted them there - when they saw what was doing the noise, their eyes widen in shock...
"Look Minna! It's Ochibi!" Kikumaru recognized his kohai.
"But what is he doing here? That lucky one... He didn't suffer like we did before, like of that unbearable sound... - Huh? But who is the person he has a match with?"
At this moment, Momo turned his head to the other side of the court. His legs began to shake again. It was... It was like a shadow. A pure black 'human' with bright red eyes and IT was playing... tennis?!
"Look that!" Momo said to his friends. When they saw it, they had the same reaction like the gelled haired boy. "W-what is that thing?!" Taka asked to no one in specific. They all got closer to the courts "Ochibiii!" Eiji yelled to Ryoma, but he was already fired up by the match.
When the others came closer, the world around them turned completely black: There were only the court, the fences around it and the boys with that strange shadow figure.
First Ryoma thought he was lost, when his team mates vanished, and this 'thing' appeared.
"W…what ar-"
"Are you?" The Shadow with the red eyes completed his sentence.
"It is unimportant, what I am... "The 'thing' continued and it's aura turned into something evil. It was such a frightening feeling, that the little ichinen began to tremble inside.
"The only important thing is: that you all disrupted my sleep... and I don't like when people do that... when they make fun of me!"
The figure shouted.
"Of you? W…what do you mean with that?" Echizen asked stammering.
"You and your friends! You made fun of me and now you all will pay for that!" The 'Evil' thing roared. Ryoma didn't know what to do or say: He was more scared than ever in his life.
Then the thing grinned in a terrifying way again. "We will play tennis!"
It said "But... Do not forget.." It grinned even more "... It is not a normal tennis" and then everything went black... Ryoma lost for some minutes his consciousness... He doesn't know, how long it was, but when he woke up, his head hurt.
"Where... where am I?" He asked himself, and when he moves is chin up, he saw a tennis court, which was fenced.
"One-point-match" The shadow said after appearing all of sudden from nowhere...
"Uisu" The rookie only answered to his interesting opponent...
The rackets appeared out of thin air in their hands. The first serve was the evil shadows one. After that, they started playing. At first it looked like a normal game. But soon Ryoma noticed that something was different.
"This... is bad…" he thought out loud when he lost another point.
"1-0 I'm winning" The thing grinning evilly mentioned.
When his friends arrived the score was 5-3 for the shadow... Ryoma didn't notice the presence of his friends until Kaidou shouted "His arm! Echizen's arm turned into a shadow!"
"Interesting... so every time Echizen lost a point, his body turns more and more into a shadow." Inui muttered while writing Data in his notebook.
Not only his arm, also one leg was already turned into a shadow.
"Kuso!" he swore while serving. The game wasn't easy at all. The shots had so much power, so Ryoma lost most of the points, because he couldn't return them.
"Muhahahahahaha! You can't win!" The shadow answered while returning the ichinen's serves. When the boy tried to return the shadow ones, he was forced to use both hands but still – "BAM!" it knocked the racket out of his hands.
"40-15... One more and you will lost!" 'It' said grinning madly.
Ryomas whole body, except his eyes and his hair were covered by the shadow. What will happen when he turned into one shadow too? Is he supposed then to hurt other peoples too? To scare them to death... As shadow, he couldn't return to his world, he would never be able to win the championships around the world... he would never become the number one... and never get the chance again, to play against his father to beat him...
"If Ochibi lose now, he will -" Oishi interrupted Eiji's last sentence and shook his head. "Don't worry... I know it looks bad for him now... but it is Echizen... he have to - no! He will win, I know it!" That was how the golden pair cheered up each other. "Tezuka what do you think? Will he make it?" Fuji asked his friend caring. "I... I don't know..." He only said and the other Teammates looked upset to their Buchou... "Even Tezuka doesn't know..." Kawamura sighed.
He absolutely didn't wanted to lose ... no.. He couldn't lose now! "Ahhhhhh!" He returned the following shots, and gained some points. Each one came heavier than the previous one, but he managed
"5-4... You still think you will win against me?" The shadow interrupted.
"How funny!" It said while serving "15-0!" That last ball was even harder.
He looked at his friends... He might lost now… and never can see them again...POK POCK THUD.. He was going to lose "40-30.. It is my victory!" and then...
"Ochibiii!"
Hello! We hope you like this chapter, like always there are pictures of it in our profile. Please, leave us a review, we would really appreciate it.
See ya next chapter!