AwwwwYeeeeaaah! What's up peoples? Totally going to pull an all-nighter switching out between typing this and making origami cranes. Hahaha I have lots of energy right now so sorry if things in this chapter are a little weird and stupid and I repeat things :p
How's it been? Hope everyone enjoyed the boringness of this story so far. Don't worry. Things will happen in this chapter. Just had a light bulb go off in my head and got some good ideas of what to do. Quick heads up, I'm going to use references from the episode where they went to a training camp in the mountains and the old coach shows up. Keep that episode in mind when you read this chapter :3
I DO NOT own Prince of Tennis… that was a really boring way of saying it.
Chapter 6. Have fun!
"Ore-sama would hardly call this peace." Atobe said.
Tezuka smirked. "Minna, yudan sezu ni ikou."
The four older boys joined everyone in the happiness. Who knew when it would be over and things would possibly get dangerous?
Little did everyone know, as they were enjoying the moment of joy and cheerfulness, there was a figure watching all of them from a tree.
"Echizen Ryoma, you're mine."
Everyone sort of forgot about the note that was left for Echizen. They all still kept a look out for anyone or anything suspicious but for the most part, everything was peaceful. They would notice that once or twice a day, a fish that they had caught would go missing. Everyone blamed Momo but kept the thought in the back of their heads that it could have been the uninvited guest that they had wondering around.
The days went smoothly. The week was nearly over. Every day, everyone met at the base of the camp and went on a hike then came back and had something to eat. They then relaxed for a bit then went to the river and went swimming and fished for their dinner. Seeing that they didn't have fishing poles, they were constructed out of a stick, some string and wire. The job of fishing was switched off each day and this time, Echizen, Shishido and Oshitari had to fish while everyone else messing around in the river.
"Shishido-sempai, Oshitari-sempai, wouldn't it be easier to use the fishing poles?" Echizen asked.
"Trust me Echizen. This way is simpler." Oshitari replied.
"Then why don't you do it by yourself?" Shishido complained.
"It works better if more people do it."
Echizen and Shishido were at one part of the river while Oshitari was at another.
"Yosh, ready?" Oshitari asked. Shishido and Echizen gave annoyed grunts. "Go!"
Shishido and Echizen started slashing and scaring the fish upstream while Oshitari tried to catch them. After many failed attempts, Echizen finally called it quits and went to get a fishing pole.
"Where are you going Echizen?" Shishido asked.
"You're scaring away the fish. I'm going further upstream." Echizen took one of the poles and walked up the stream.
"Echizen matte!" Oshitari shouted. Echizen ignored him and walked upstream until he was out of sight.
"Is it alright to let him wonder off by himself?" Shishido asked. "With the things that have been going on, shouldn't we go after him?"
"Ah." Oshitari looked at the sky. "It also looks like it is going to rain soon. You go after Echizen and I'll go tell everyone what happened."
"Hai." Shishido got out of the water and went in the direction Echizen headed while Oshitari went in search for the other regulars downstream.
Echizen walked upstream until he found a flat enough spot to go to sleep. He placed his pole in a small divot and surrounded it with rocks. If anyone came looking for him, they wouldn't be able to accuse him of slacking off. He cast the so called 'line' into the water then lay on a tree and looked up at the sky. It was growing dark despite it being the middle of the day and the wind was growing colder. Everywhere around him was silent. The only noise was an occasional rustle of leaves and pine needles in the trees and sound of the river rushing by. He could get use to this.
Just as he was about to fall asleep, there was a cold wind that knocked his hat from his face. He reached for it and when he did, he saw a figure across the river. He grabbed his hat and placed it on his head and stared at the figure. Echizen couldn't see his whole face. He could barely make out the color of his eyes which where an astounding shade of Byzantium. (Would have just said purple but this sounded cooler) He had a hood over his head which mostly covered his dark red hair and completely covered his mouth. Even though Echizen couldn't see it, he knew that the figure across from him was smiling.
"Who are you?" Echizen was both annoyed and frightened.
The figure was silent. A cold breeze blew causing Echizen to give a tiny shiver. He unconsciously knew that it was the person from before but couldn't put two and two together. He fixed his hat and placed his hands behind his head and leaned back up against the tree.
"Do you mind?" Echizen was starting to feel annoyed. He didn't like the fact of someone watching him while he was trying to sleep. He could tell that the nonvisible grin from the figure grew. He watched as the figure bowed and then walked back into the woods.
Echizen sighed. He could have been asleep. Just before he pulled his hat over his eyes, he noticed that the fishing pole was bent. He went to it and pulled. It seemed that doing nothing actually caused him some good. He had caught a rather large fish. He looked at it with an approving smirk and just as he was going to cast the line out again, he felt a water droplet. Many more seemed to follow. He looked at the sky to see that it had turned practically black and it had finally started to rain.
"Echizen!" Echizen turned his head to see Shishido running at him. "Echizen, please don't leave by yourself."
"Shishido-sempai, are we finished?"
"You actually fished? I expected to find you sleeping." Echizen gave a disapproving grunt. "Anyway, with this rain, I doubt that we will be able to do much more. Let's get back to everyone and see what they have to say about it."
"Ah." Echizen picked up the fish and the pole and started back with Shishido. He stopped to look behind him at where the figure was standing. He was more than a little worried.
"Hayaku Echizen. It looks like a storm is about to start." Shishido called to him.
"Hai." Echizen gave one final glance at the spot where the figure was standing then hurried along to catch up with Shishido.
Echizen and Shishido returned to the others to see Oshitari being scolded by Atobe about not catching any fish for dinner.
"…Ore-sama. What do you expect to feed Ore-sama? And you made Ore-sama wait even longer and now he is soaking wet." Atobe was complaining about him being soaked from the rain even though the was in the water with everyone else.
"Ooo-i!" Shishido and Echizen came running at them.
"Shishido-san, Echizen!"
"Did you get anything?" Atobe asked. Echizen held up the fish he had caught. "Excellent. At least Ore-sama will be able to eat."
"That's not fair Atobe-san." Oishi said. "Echizen was the one to catch the fish so I think that it's only fair that he gets to eat it."
"This is Ore-sama's camp so Ore-sama gets first pick for everything."
Oishi and Atobe started bickering about what should happen with the fish.
"Ne." Echizen interrupted them. "I don't care what you do. Can we just get out of the rain?"
Everyone looked at him then themselves. They hadn't noticed how soaked they'd actually become. There was a flash of lightning followed by a boom of thunder that made everyone jump. They all agreed that getting back to the camp was a good idea.
The journey back to the camp was very different than the journey to the river. The ground that was dry and firm was now wet and muddy. Everyone had to stop a few times to help their comrades who had fallen in the mud. Such people included: Oshitari, Kikumaru, Echizen and Gakuto. Everyone thought that it was ironic that the two acrobatic players were the ones to fall. The four boys were covered in mud. Upon arriving at the camp, against Atobe's wishes, everyone decided that that they should bathe first. They went to their cabins, grabbed their bags with a change of clothes and went to the bath.
"Yaa, this feels nice." Kikumaru was soaking in a tub.
"I don't remember the last time I bathed like this." Gakuto said as he scrubbed his back.
"Didn't you do it yesterday?" Oshitari pointed out.
"It's not the same. We were in here first this time and we can take extra-long since we were all muddy."
"You just don't want to go outside because it's cold and raining, nya."
"Heh. That too."
"Ochibi, are you done already?" Kikumaru noticed that Echizen had gotten out of the bath and headed towards the door and into the changing room.
"I would prefer to bathe myself in peace." He tied a towel around his waist and went through the door.
"Che, what's his problem?" Gakuto asked immaturely.
"He's probably riled up about what's been happening." Oshitari said. "I'd be annoyed too if I had someone constantly having to look after me."
"Not to mention he's probably scared too." Kikumaru said. "He tries to act like an adult about everything but he's still just a baby." The three sat in silence for a few seconds. "Yosh! We need to find a way to cheer Ochibi up!" Kikumaru raised his fist in the air with much enthusiasm.
"A-Ah." Oshitari and Gakuto did the same but didn't seem too passionate about it. They all arose out of the bath and tied towels around their waists. Just as they were about to enter the changing room, they heard a loud thud. They looked at each other with misperception. Gakuto opened the door and the three were horror struck. Echizen was lying on the floor with a small stream of blood coming out of his mouth and down from his forehead.
"Ochibi!" Kikumaru quickly rushed to his side and pulled him into his lap, flinching at the small puddle of blood that had started to form under his head. "Ochibi, open your eyes!"
"Oi, what the hell happened?" Gakuto was flustered.
"Kikumaru, please hand him to me." Oshitari knelt down beside him. Reluctantly, Kikumaru handed Echizen to Oshitari. He traced the flow of blood to a small knick just above his eye. "It looks like he hit it when he fell."
"Nya, but is he alright? Why would he fall unconscious?"
"Ne, take a look at this." Gakuto walked over to Echizen's bag and picked up a smaller plastic bag on top of it. He handed it to Oshitari. He looked at it with displeasure.
"Kikumaru, go get the others." Oshitari placed the bag down. "They should all be in Atobe's cabin seeing that it's the biggest."
Kikumaru nodded, changed into his spare clothes and ran out the door.
"I wish this rain would stop. It's making me totally depressed." Momo was staring out the window. "What happened to the sun?"
"I didn't hear anything about rain this week before we left." Choutaro said.
"The weather reports are usually 67% wrong." Inui said.
"Why bother listening to it if it will just lie to you?" Kaidou said.
"Saa, it's not wrong all the time." Fuji said in the weather man's defense.
"Ore-sama does not want to be kept waiting. How long will they take?" Atobe was annoyed that everyone was crammed into his cabin and that he wasn't the first one to take a bath.
"Maa maa, they fell in the mud. Give them some time." Oishi said.
"Saa, why don't we play a game to pass the time?"
"What kind of game Fuji-sempai?" Hiyoshi asked.
"It's called the Seigaku Game. It goes like this." Fuji proceeded to tell everyone how to play the game and gave them an example.
"That seems confusing." Shishido said.
"You'll get used to it." Momo said.
Inui's glasses gleamed. "The losers will have to drink my new juice." Everyone deadpanned. Inui pulled out a bottle form his bag. "Special Addition Ultra Deluxe Golden Remix Inui juice."
Everyone looked at the so called 'drink' in front of them. Even Jirou was awake from hearing about it and subconsciously feared that he would have to drink if he slept through the game.
"Yadda! I don't want to play it in fear!" Taka said.
"If you don't play, you have to drink the bottle. If you lose, you drink a cap full."
Everyone except Ryoga and Tezuka quickly formed a circle out of fear.
"Ara? You're not playing?" Momo asked Tezuka and Ryoga. Tezuka merely gave a stoic look that seemed to say 'if you make me play, you'll run laps 'til your feet fall off.' Ryoga, on the other hand, just kept staring out the window. It seemed that he didn't even here Momo ask. "Ryoga-san?"
"Hm? Ah, gomen. I'm not in the mood right now." he said with an sorry smile.
"Ryoga-san…"
"Saa, everybody ready? Go!" Fuji quickly changed the subject.
While everyone was playing, Tezuka went over to Ryoga.
"What is it Ryoga-san?" Tezuka joined him.
"Something's wrong." He stared out the window. "Chibisuke wouldn't have tripped like that even if the ground was muddy."
"What do you mean?"
"He was acting different. He kept looking behind him as if someone was about to grab him." Ryoga's eyes had worry reflected in them.
Tezuka put a hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry. We-"
"Minna!" Kikumaru burst through the door, sopping wet from the storm.
"Eiji! What's the matter?" Oishi rose from his seated position.
Kikumaru slumped to the ground trying to catch his breath. "Minna… hayaku… Ochibi…"
Everyone's eyes widened. Ryoga got up from his seat and ran out the door towards the bath.
"Ryoga-san!" he could here he shouts of the younger boys not too far behind him yelling for him to wait and slow down.
'Chibisuke, please be alright!' he thought at he ran down the muddy trail to the bath house. He slid the door open to see Oshitari and Gakuto on either side of Echizen, bandaging his wound and trying to get him to wake up. He walked in and slumped to the ground beside them.
Annnnnd let's stop it right there. I know, cliff hanger again. I would have kept going with this chapter but it's already 2am and I'm trying to keep a steady update cycle for you guys. You also get one plus chapter added to the story :3
Did you like it? Don't worry. Ryoma isn't dead…yet… naw, just kidding. I hate death fics. I won't do that to you guys. I hope that you enjoyed it.
Okay so, the part about the Seigaku Game is actually a part of something else but I borrowed the idea from Namikaze Naruto Tenma no ouji and their story. Everyone should go and read it so they understand what I'm talking about. Search for Seigaku Game and read. It's really funny. Sorry about not going into detail about it :/
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See ya later!