Goal for today, do not stay up until 2am writing the story and get it done waaaaay sooner. I don't like not updating at midnight. It throws me off.
Enough of my complaining. What's up guys? I missed you… that sounded creeper status… I think I might be able to get at least one more chapter after this one or just make this chapter uber long. Who knows. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it.
Okay, again I DO NOT own Prince of Tennis or a million dollars. I do own four cats though.
Coming to a close. Chapter 7. Enjoy!
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.
"Ryoga-san." Gakuto and Oshitari were fully dressed.
"What happened?" Ryoga was more demanding an explanation than asking for it.
"Uno… we don't know…" Gakuto was hesitant.
"What do you mean you don't know?"
"It's true Ryoga-san." Oshitari could tell Ryoga was getting angry. "We were in the bath then he got out to change. We followed him after about a minute and we came in to find him on the ground."
"We found this on his bag." Gakuto handed him the plastic bag.
"Ryoga-san!" everyone else rushed into the room.
"Echizen!" Oishi ran to his side.
"You found this on his bag?" Ryoga asked Oshitari.
"Ah. He did." He gestured to Gakuto.
"Oi, what happened?" Momo pushed his way to the front and sat down next to Echizen.
Gakuto, Oshitari and Kikumaru began telling everyone what had happened since they came to the bath. Ryoga left his brother's side with the small bag and went towards the door. He looked at the residue left inside of it.
"Ryoga-san." Fuji and Tezuka were with him.
Ryoga held the bag to his nose and sniffed it.
"What is it Ryoga-san?"
Ryoga stuck his finger into the bag and collected some of the residue then put it in his mouth. His mouth immediately felt like it was on fire. His throat became enflamed and his mouth dry. He felt weak. He leaned into the doorway and slumped to the floor and started coughing.
"Ryoga-san!" Fuji knelt beside him. "What's wrong?"
"We need to get him somewhere warm." Ryoga said as he caught his breath. "And we need to find out how much of this his he inhaled." He handed Tezuka the bag.
"What is this?" Tezuka looked at it questionably.
"I'm not sure but if a little bit from did this to me, imagine what a bagful would do to him."
The three boys looked at Echizen lying on the floor. He looked so lifeless yet so peaceful. Whoever did this wasn't going to leave Atobe's camp uninjured.
"Inui." Tezuka called him over.
"Hm?" he walked over, notebook in hand. "Nani?" he turned to the slumped Ryoga. "Ryoga-san, what's wrong?"
"Inui, we need you at analyze this." Tezuka handed him the bag. "Apparently, it was left by the culprit and a small bit can do that." He gestured to Ryoga. "There's no telling how much of this Echizen inhaled or what it is for that matter."
"Wakatta." He placed the bag behind the front cover of his note book. "Ryoga-san, please tell me all of your symptoms when we get back to the cabins."
"Hai."
"Tezuka, Echizen has a fever and it's not going to get any better if we stay out here." Oishi shouted to him.
"We'll go back to the cabin. The gaki's is the closest." Atobe said joining Tezuka. "Kabaji."
"Usu." Kabaji carefully lifted Echizen and held him bridle style.
"Let's go." Atobe started out the door.
"Matte." Everyone turned around.
"What?" Atobe crossed his arms.
At that moment, Kaidou and Shishido took off their regular jackets and draped them over Echizen.
"Awe, Mamoshi is so caring!" Momo teased as he placed his arm around Kaidou.
"Nya, Shishido-san too." Kikumaru added.
"Urasi." Kaidou and Shishido both blushed.
"Can we go now?" Atobe asked impatiently.
"Ah." Everyone said in unison.
"Ryoga-san, can you stand?" Fuji offered his hand.
"Ah." Ryoga grabbed it and hoisted himself up. He stumbled a bit but Fuji was there to catch him.
"Are you alright?"
"Ah. Arigatou Fuji-kun." Ryoga looked at him and rubbed his eyes.
"What's wrong?"
"That stuff is making me see multiple." He rubbed his eyes again.
"Saa, let's just get to the cabin."
Fuji pulled Ryoga's arm around his shoulder and they went alone with the others to Echizen's cabin.
The storm seemed to have gotten worse. It was completely pouring, no one could see seven feet in front of them, the ground was slick from the mud and there was a flash of lightning and boom of thunder every few seconds. Echizen wasn't doing to good either.
They all got to his cabin and laid him down on the bottom bunk of his bed and wrapped him in what seemed to be like a couple dozen blankets. His temperature kept getting worse. It wasn't going down and his breathing sped up. Oishi was scared to think about what would happen if he stayed like that.
"Ryoga-san, can you tell me about the substance and what you're experiencing right now?" Inui asked as he sat next to Ryoga on a bed with his notebook open to a fresh page.
"Ah, well, as you could tell, it didn't smell like anything. It didn't have any taste either." He said as he placed his hand on his head. "It just started burning. The inside of my mouth became extremely dry, my throat became enflamed, it hurts a little bit to breathe and talk, I've had on and off double vision and I feel a bit dizzy."
"Is there anything else?" Inui asked as he jotted down everything he said.
"I feel really tired." He placed both hands on his head. "My eyelids feel really heavy and I feel like I could pass out."
"Arigatou Ryoga-san." Inui finished scribbling in his notebook then got up and went to Oshitari. He told him something then Oshitari announced that they would be in his cabin if they were needed.
"I hope that they can find out what that stuff was." Taka said.
"I just hope that Echizen-kun will wake up." Choutaro said as Oishi dabbed Echizen's head with a cloth.
"Mou, Ochibi's a fighter. He'd never let anything stop him!" Kikumaru said with a pout.
"But we don't even know what that stuff is."` Hiyoshi said.
"It could be a poison for all we know." Gakuto said.
"Oi, don't say things like that." Kaidou hissed.
"You could jinx him." Momo added.
"There's no such things as jinxes." Jirou said.
While everyone was bickering about things that were real and fake, Tezuka and Atobe went and sat on either side of Ryoga.
"How do you feel?" Tezuka asked.
"I've been better Tezuka-kun." Ryoga answered as he took his hands from his face.
"You look pale." Atobe put his hand on Ryoga's forehead. "You have a slight fever."
Ryoga pushed his hand away and fell back. "I don't matter. We need to find a way to help Chibisuke."
"You're just as important as he is." Tezuka said.
"But no one is as important as Ore-sama." Tezuka shot Atobe a glare. Atobe cleared his throat. "Anyway, what are we going to do about that person?"
"We should go after him!" Momo said as he heard what Atobe said.
"Fsshhh, agreed." Kaidou hissed.
"I don't like the idea of some weirdo wondering around the camp. We need to get rid of him." Shishido said.
"Yosh! Let's go get him!" Kikumaru shouted.
"I don't see what we can do about it. It seems that he knows the woods well. We wouldn't know where to start." Hiyoshi pointed out.
"Maa, don't say that. We can-" Taka was interrupted.
"Kore, Taka-san." Fuji pulled a racquet out of nowhere.
"DORIA! LET'S GO GET THAT GUY RIGHT NOW BABY!" Taka was in full burning mode.
"Ah!" everyone except Tezuka, Atobe, Fuji and Ryoga raised their fists in agreement. Taka was leading the precession toward the door when Tezuka grabbed the racquet from Taka's hands.
"Where do you think you're going?" he asked with a stoic stare.
"Uno, we were heading out to go find the culprit…" Taka said.
"You can't do anything in this storm." Atobe said as he got up from the bed and opened the door. Everyone sweat dropped when they saw how much it was raining and how hard the wind was blowing.
"Nya, but that person is out there somewhere and he probably planning something!" Kikumaru protested.
"I know how you feel Kikumaru-kun" Ryoga said as he sat up on the bed. "but it would be useless to go out right now. The best thing to do would be to wait until morning and see if the storm has died down a little then go out and look for any signs of him."
"Demo…" he looked over to Echizen.
"No one wants retribution more than I do but it's not safe. He knows these woods fairly well, even in the rain. We need to wait." Everyone gave a low submissive grown. "It's already late. We should all get back to our cabins and get some rest."
"Hai." Everyone said in an disappointed tone. They gathered the things that they brought and headed towards the door. Tezuka noticed a smile on Kikumaru's face.
"Kikumaru, if you venture out tonight, you will become Inui's personal taste tester."
Kikumaru deadpanned. Momo and Gakuto let out snickers. "H-Hai." Everyone ran out the door and towards their cabins with their roommates.
Soon, the only ones left in the cabin were Choutaro, Jirou, Ryoga, Tezuka, Fuji, Echizen, Kabaji and Atobe.
"Ore-sama will see you all in the morning. Kabaji."
"Usu." Atobe walked out the door with Kabaji holding his jacket over Atobe's head as trying to stop the rain from hitting him.
"Saa, shall we go?" Fuji asked.
"Ah. Are you coming with us Ryoga-san?" Tezuka asked.
"I'd like to stay with Chibisuke for a little while longer." Ryoga gave them a frail smile as he made his way from his bed to his brother's.
"Saa, don't hesitate to come by if you need anything." Fuji said as he and Tezuka went to the door and ran outside in the direction of their cabins.
"Chibisuke." Ryoga went and hovered over his brother. Choutaro replaced Oishi and was dabbing his head with a wet cloth. Ryoga watched Echizen. He looked so peaceful. It was like he didn't care about anything and just slept his worries away. He was worried. He wanted him to wake up and tell everyone that he was alright and it was nothing to be concerned about. He watched his brother in his peaceful sleep. He sort of envied him.
"Ryoga-san." Choutaro was concerned.
Ryoga gave Choutaro a small smile. "Gomen. I'll take my leave," he walked over to the door but before he had a chance to do anything, he felt weak. He swayed for a moment then began to fall back. He could hear his name being called by Choutaro but didn't have the strength to do anything. He thought that he was going to hit the cold, hard ground but instead felt hands catch him.
"You can trouble us with your company for the night." He looked above to see Jirou looking back at him and gave him a smile.
"Gomen."
Shortest chapter. Oh well. Next chapter will be super long since it is the last. I know! Sad day! Last chapter AND it won't be out at the normal time! We hate you. Naw, you love me, I know it.
Well, I guess I accomplished my goal of not staying up until 2am writing. Yay for me! Did you guys enjoy it? I wrote this chapter then reread it and thought that the stuff in the bag was sort of like a drug… I totally didn't intend for it to be like that. Eh, it works for the story.
A story's just not the same if Taka-san doesn't go burning at least once.
Forgive stupid mistakes!
One more chapter left. Have fun waiting! Bye!