Title: Twilight

Chapter Title: Spectral Encounters

Word Count: 2,129

Status: Continuous - Incomplete

Pairing: RyoxSaku , FujixOC

Summary: "Behind the facade of bravery and strength lies hidden a delicate, wounded heart that hasn't forgotten how to care." What do you mean by that? "The most beautiful, elegantly carved glass, no matter how heavy, is still glass. It needs to be handled with care, or it will shatter."

Note: For the purposes of this story, all characters are about 3-4 years older than they are in the manga/anime. This makes the twelve-year olds anywhere between 13 to 15 (depending on who it is); Momo and Kaidoh 15-16; seniors like Inui and Fuji, 17-18 years old. And for this story, they are in high school, assuming that high school spans 4 years before graduation to college.

The next morning found the regulars incomplete once again during morning practice. Even Ryuuzaki sensei was absent, leaving the training menu in the hands of Inui and Oishi. Tezuka was nowhere to be seen. Ryoma found this highly irritating despite the fact that this was not the first time their buchoo or their sensei had been absent from practice. It seemed that what he and Fuji had sensed the previous day had finally gotten to the others. It was not Tezuka's absence that got to them. It was his attitude. He was cold and overbearing as always, but there was a feeling of uneasiness about him now; almost nervousness or uncertainty. It was not same nervousness related to a tennis match. No. The regulars knew that kind quite well. No. This nervousness was personal and distant. But what could be bothering Tezuka so much that he would miss an hour of practice one day and skip it altogether the next?

"Thinking, Ochibi?"

Ryoma glanced somewhere above him. It was not Kikumaru Eiji, but Fuji Syuuske who had spoken.
"Hmm. I worry about him too. It's not like him to distance himself this way. Well, seeing as it's Tezuka, not this much."

"Ano, Fuji-senpai?"

"Hai?"

"Do you know what's bothering him? Tezuka-buchoo, I mean? I saw him, Oichi-senpai and Ryuuzaki sensei, buchoo and you on the courts after hours yesterday."

"Ah, so that was you lounging about was it?" sad Fuji, smiling down at him. "Yes, I do know what it is, but I – I mean, we – have promised not to speak of it until such a time as he decides to reveal it himself."

Ryoma frowned at his senpai. Fuji was being vague on purpose. "And do you think that time will ever come, senpai?"

"Hm? Ochibi really wants to know?" Why on earth was Fuji using Eiji's nickname for him? It was getting annoying.

"No, not really, it at all. I just hope he clears it up whatever it is soon. It's messing up his play."

"His play, you say?"

"Yea, his play. How can he tell me I have holes in mine if he can't even play you well enough to get at least one love game?"

"Hn. You're right. Bit talkative today, aren't you, Echizen?" Thank Kami he had stopped using Eiji's nickname!

"Hn? No, just irritated."

"Oi! Fuji, Echizen!" came the call from Inui. "Hurry up! Time for twenty laps around the courts before we dismiss!"

"HAI!"

xXxXxXxXxXxXx

Ryoma was on his way to the teacher's offices yet again. Just handing over a stack of papers for another teacher this time. Horio, as usual, was tagging along beside him. All Ryoma could think about was getting away from the loud mouth who had – allegedly – two years tennis experience and was not ashamed to brag about it to all who would listen. Still, Horio was Horio and there was naught to be done about that fact. And so Ryoma endured it, telling himself that this would count as training on controlling one's temper when playing a very noisy, loud-mouthed opponent. Thank Kami the teacher's room was right around the corner.

-----

"And so, Echizen, as I was saying: I, with my awesome two years tennis experience – huh?" Horio loked around him. He had once again found himself speaking to the walls. "Damn that Echizen! I hate it when he does that!"

Shrugging, Horio went along on his own. Where was he supposed to be going again? Ah, yes. ChemLAB3. For submission of a late assignment. If he didn't submit it today, he was sure to receive no marks. So he walked past the plaque that pointed to the laboratories, walked past the locked glass cases holding awards won by Seigaku students in science competitions and inter-school championships (of course there were students other than tennis players in Seigaku!), past the doors marked ChemLAB1 and ChemLAB2, all the way to the end of the hall to the double doors beside which a shiny white plaque read: ChemLAB3. And as he made to push open the door, it once again opened by itself.

Horio blinked twice. And then another three times. Surely he was imagining things. Seigaku's Chem Labs did not have automatic doors and surely the lab could not be haunted? Right?

"Ah, Horio!"

"AAAHHHH!" Horio screamed. "It knows my name! The ghost knows my name!" And he threw his hands over his face to protect his fearful visage from the deadly phantom.

"Huh?" said the ghost. But wait – that was a man's voice. A very familiar man's voice. Horio dared – yes! He was indeed so very brave! – to open his eyes and check. He sighed. Phew! It was just his Chemistry teacher.

"Eto, sorry about that, hehe," he mumbled, embarrassed. "I was just er, um, uh, … practicing!"

"Practicing?"

Horio nodded vigorously. "Yep! Practicing for the – the – the … uh … a play! Yea a play so here's my homework!" And with that, he stuffed his homework into the baffled man's hands, turned around and ran back down the corridor. He skidded round the corner, his sneakers making a loud screeching sound on the clean tiled floor. Wait a minute. What was he running from anyway? And he skid to a halt, fingers on his chin, thinking. He didn't realize he had stopped right at the staff room doors and was leaning on them. Next thing he knew, a huge brown mass of wood was moving quickly to his side, squashing him momentarily against the wall before forcing him to tumble painfully to the floor.

"Ouch!"

"Eh? What were you doing there, Horio?" asked the surprised voice of Echizen Ryoma.

"Nothing!" Horio replied defiantly straightening up and rubbing his side. "I was just thinking of why I was running! Oops!" he realized too late. "I mean, no, no. I was just standing there waiting for you! Yea! I was waiting for you!"

"Uh, waiting for me after running. Right," said Ryoma, walking away.

"Oi! Echizen! Wait up!" cried Horio, running to keep up.

Echizen kept himself from sighing with frustration. Horio was Horio and Horio being Horio was always like this. Even up to the point where he was running too fast after the steadily disappearing Echizen down the hall that he ran straight into someone.

"Oops, sorry," he said, backing off a bit and rubbing his nose.

"You should at least watch where you're going when you're running like that in the hallways," said a stern, and obviously irritated voice.

Horio froze and let out a strangled cry of dismay. That voice. That voice. Was. The. Ghost's. Voice. There was no mistaking it this time. Horrified, Horio slowly lifted his head to look up. And there it was. That pale, yet olive toned face. Those dark stern eyes behind rectangular glasses. The Ghost.

"Aaaahhh! Gomen-nasai! Gomen! Gomen! Gomen! Aaaahhh!" cried Horio, bowing repeatedly to the offended spectre before running for dear life. He ran the whole length of the corridor in a few seconds, not bothering to dodge Echizen or give him any form of warning, and slamming right into the freshman regular. With many muttered words that sounded somewhat like 'gomen gomen, get-out-of-the-way-run-ghost-comin-very-angry-inui's-girlfriend-ghost!' Horio hurriedly picked himself up and disappeared.

"What the hell?" thought Echizen. Horio had looked genuinely scared. He got up and looked back down the hall. There was nobody there. Shrugging, Echizen, made his own way to the tennis courts. He was almost late for afternoon practice – again.

xXxXxXxXxXxXx

"INUISENPAI'SSCARYGHOSTGIRLFRIEND! AAAHHH!"

"Nandatte?" All the Seigaku tennis club players turned to watch Horio dash right into the courts, scattering tennis balls everywhere.

"Oi, Horio, calm down," said Momoshiro, grabbing hold of the frantic freshman, lifting him off his feet momentarily to stop him from getting away. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"Yeah, what's going on?" asked Eiji, halting his practice match with Oishi.

"Inui senpai's scary girlfriend's ghost! I swear she's haunting me! Since yesterday every time I go to the Chemistry labs she's there!"

"Eh?" said Fuji. "Inui's girlfriend?"

"Ne, Inui-senpai has a girlfriend?" said Kaidoh, surprised.

"No, no, Kaidoh," said Momo. "Horio-kun here said Inui-senpai's girlfriend's ghost."

"Ah, yes. So he did," Fuji agreed.

"S-so Inui-senpai does have a ghost girlfriend?" said Horio, obviously astounded. His question was answered with two hard knocks to his head.

"Horio-kun! Don't be so silly!" said Katsuo.

"Yeah, how could Inui sepia have a ghost girlfriend?" said Kachiro. Horio blibked at the two of them as the truth of what they were saying registered in his still cloudy brain.

"Ah, oh. Yea," he muttered, embarrassed. "Of course."

"Ne, ne," said Eiji, coming over with Oishi now. "It's obvious he can't have a ghost for a girlfriend, but that doesn't rule out the possibility of a girlfriend, does it?" Oishi nodded in a greement. Kikumaru went on, a finger on his cheek as he thought it out carefully, "So, doesn't that mean that Inui might actually have a girlfriend? What?" he added as he saw everyone staring at him.

"Eiji," Fuji answered, "You just said that Inui might actually have a romantic relationship with a girl in this school."

"Ah? So I did. Hmmm."

"Maybe we'll have to investigate this," said Momoshiro. "It doesn't seem likely to me, but it's not impossible at all, is it?" The others nodded their agreement.

"Demo, Momo-chan-senpai?"

"Nani, Echizen?"

"That is the logical explanation. But this is Inui-senpai we're talking about."

"Ne, Ochiba has a point, minna."

"Hmm, you're right," said Fuji.

"No, I don't have a girlfriend, let alone a relationship with a ghost."

"AAAHHHH!!!"

Everyone jumped – quite literally too. Horio stumbled in his instinctive haste to as much distance as possible from the calculating voice of Inui Sadaharu.

"Inui-senpai!" Momo complained. "You nearly gave us heart attacks! Don't come up behind is like that!"

"Huh? Is that so? Well, anyway, according to my data, the chances of any regular beginning a romantic relationship at this time of year at Seigaku is less than twenty per-cent."

"Eh? How do you know that, Inui?" asked Eiji.

"It's all in here," said Inui, holding up his dark moss green notebook to Eiji's face as if it were another one of his special concoctions.

"Hmmm, than if it's not Inui-senpai's girlfriend," Eiji wondered aloud, "and it – no, she – is not a ghost, then who could she be? Maybe it's just a senior you accidentally keep running into, Horio-kun?"

Horio thought for a moment. "Perhaps, it is a possibility."

"Well, tell us what she looked like, then," suggested Kaidoh. "She might be in one of our classes."

"Yea, that's a good idea," said Momo. "Go on then. Describe your ghost."

Horio described the female spectre to the regulars, giving them every detail he could remember; from her voice to her hair, her skin, her rectangular glasses and her stern gaze. "And that mood about her; that – that – what's the word? Oh yes, that aura about her. It was so familiar. And that look in her eyes. I've seen it somewhere before, I just can't remember where."

"What look?" Inui asked? "Doesn't sound familiar to me."

"Nor me," said Momo.

"Hmm, well it's kind of a stern look, you know?" said Horio. "Like if she told you to do something, you'd feel it in your bones, that you had to obey, no questions asked. She was scary."

"It does sound familiar," said Ryoma.

"You're right, Ochibi. It's very familiar. But where have we seen it before?"

The group fell silent, each thinking his own thoughts. Horio racked his brains. He knew that look. He recognized that aura. It was a feeling he was around almost everyday. Come on, think! He shouted in his head. But he drew a blank. But at the same time, as he pictured the spectre's face, he saw more familiar features. The slight slant of the eyes, their depth, their piercing stare. He could hear the regulars behind him suggest to each other than they resume practice before Ryuuzaki-sensei returned and scolded them all. Or worse yet their captain giving them up to fifty laps around the courts as punishment for slacking off. As he heard this, something in Horio's brain nagged at him. His mind told him he was very close to the answer, but he just couldn't see it. Those eyes. That commanding aura of authority. He knew he was very familiar with them. But he couldn't make the connection.

"Horio-kun, let's get back to the courts," said Kachiro, grabbing his elbow.

"Yea, Ryuuzaki-sensei's coming. You don't want to get punished, do you?"

Horio nodded and followed his classmates back to the courts. As he turned, he glanced at the building from where Ryuuzaki-sensei was emerging. And with Ryuuzaki-sensei was –

"AAAHHH!!! IT'S INUI-SENPAI'S GHOST GIRLFRIEND!!!"

Author's Note:

I'm back!!! I'm out of college for a while so I've finally had time to write something down. =D Hope you liked this chapter. Thanks to those who actually took the time to read the first two chapters despite the fact that they had not much plot event in them. thanks anyway!

Please review after reading!

Arigatou-gozaimasu!
Puri!
=D

sorry, I'm just so happy to be able to write fanfics again.

-CherriesandRoses