I really can't say how sorry I am I didn't update last week. You see, I had a lot of assignments last week and barely had enough time for myself. It's tough working in this place, so please forgive me if I don't update for one week! Thank you for all the support all of you have given me, I hope you will have wonderful times!

Phantom

Chapter 7

Their Next Choice

The storm caught them by surprise. It had been bright and sunny—five minutes later everything around them was thunder, lightning and rain pelting their faces. Everyone had no choice but to take shelter in the clubroom, their morning practice automatically cancelled. The absence of both Coach Endou and Kidou—who usually acted as temporary replacement if Endou had other important matters to take care of—started murmurs and questions among the players. An absent Tenma started to make them worry too. Tsurugi had seen from a distance Shindou asking Haruna if she knew anything but the woman shook her head—he took that as a no.

Tsurugi was changing back into his usual clothes—it was pouring outside and it didn't look like it'll stop until afternoon. He closed his locker, a look of irritation on his face. The meeting with Tenma yesterday went downhill from the start. Tenma couldn't even trust Aoi anymore. What chances are there that the brunet still believed in him? The thought sent an aching feeling down his chest. He absentmindedly clutched his fists and shoved them down his pockets.

"There, there, you don't have to be so mad about not being able to practice!" Hamano cheered from beside him with jazz hands and a goofy grin. Tsurugi raised his eyebrows at him before realizing the senior had thought he was mad because of the rain. He shook his head. "Sorry, it's not that," he found himself sighing. "Then it must be about Tenma, right?" the grin widened, an action Tsurugi was inept with. His eyes met the floor, unable to face the senior. The taste of copper filled his mouth and he lost himself in his thoughts again. The scene from yesterday replayed in his mind. Aoi's deters echoed in his ears and it felt like forever before he felt a tap on his shoulder. He looked up to Hamano's face and jerked back from surprise—the senior's face was far too close for personal comfort. "I think you need to loosen up. You're worrying way too much," the carefree teenager advised.

Tsurugi gritted his teeth. He scurried away and didn't bother to apologize for knocking into Hamano's shoulder. He was directly in front of the doors when it opened and Endou stood behind it. The teenager froze in his tracks immediately at the sight of the team's coach. He didn't expect to see the adult at all today. Endou walked in and Tsurugi stepped aside to let him enter. "Coach Endou!" the rest of the players greeted from behind him. Most had a tone of surprise in their voices—others were glad to see him. "Good morning everyone, sorry I'm late." Endou forced a smile. Tsurugi noted his brown hair was damp and so were most of his clothes. He wouldn't believe it if Endou said he had not been running in the rain. Then again his clothes weren't exactly that soaked to qualify for the assumption. "I actually had to rush to Tenma's place earlier morning with Kidou," he continued. Tsurugi immediately gave the coach undivided attention. He didn't have to ask the coach why he and Kidou had to be there—Aoi beat him to it.

"What happened?" she was on her feet by now and her voice was chocked a little. Tsurugi saw the fear in her eyes—she was afraid the Phantom had done something bad to Tenma again, he concluded. He wished that wasn't the case though. Endou crossed his arms. His eyebrows furrowed and everybody instantly knew it wasn't something good.

"Tenma ran away from home."

Thunder accompanied the hushed silence that befell the team. Endou's words seemed to make everybody freeze in shock and horror. There was an air of disbelief surrounding them. Endou didn't bother to wait for any of them to ask before he filled them in. "He ran away last night, around nine. Kidou and I went to the manor this morning to see if he left any possible clues to where he's headed. Kidou's out there looking for him as we speak," he scrutinized everyone's faces with a pause, "and I'm only here right now to tell all of you there won't be any practice today—not that it matters with the sudden storm. But there won't be any practice for the next few days either. You're all free to do whatever you want. I'll take my leave now," Endou hurriedly turned on his heels and started for the door. Tsurugi stood in his way. He was scowling. "The Phantom made him run away, am I right?" he hissed.

The adult quickly nodded. "More or less, Tenma ran away out of fear and the inability to trust anyone anymore. He probably doesn't trust Aki all that much too because of my close relation with her. That's why he chose to run away. A lot of people ten years ago did the same thing, that's why we're not surprised," he walked past Tsurugi. The door opened and he stood in the middle of it with his head turned to the rest of them. "But that doesn't mean we won't search for him seriously," nobody missed the determination in his voice. "He could be anywhere and probably hurt too—especially in his fragile state." And he left, silently promising to his players that he would bring Tenma home safe and sound.

"Find anything new?" Endou asked once he was back in Tenma's room with Kidou. The other adult shook his head. "The only things missing from his room according to Aki are his bag, some clothes and the soccer ball he treasured. Seems like he emptied his piggy bank too," he picked up a hollow piggy bank and shook it. No sound. "Has Toramaru called back?" Endou asked again, scanning Tenma's study table. Not much was on it. Some pens, a few books and a calendar. "He's narrowing down the places Tenma could be heading to. Okinawa is on the top of the list since his parents live there," Kidou replied. "Right, I'll get Tsunami on the phone. What about Gouenji? Does he know about this yet?" Endou questioned.

"He's with Toramaru," Kidou replied simply. "I'm going to get Haruna from Raimon. Then we'll both go to Megane's and see if he can hack into the security cameras across town—Tenma's bound to show up in one of the recordings one way or another," he started down the hallway with Endou tagging behind him. "Prioritize the convenience store cameras. He would have gone into one and bought some food with the money he had," he stopped walking as Kidou opened the front door. "Of course," he nodded. "What are you going to do?" their eyes locked and they stayed like that for a sheer moment before Endou spoke, the thudding of rain outside seemed so distant in the background.

"I'm going to find a way to destroy the Phantom."

It was easier said than done. Nobody knew the Phantom's weaknesses. There was a possibility it didn't even have any weakness. To say he was clueless was an understatement—Endou was at a dead end before he even started. His only course of action left was to study the old data of the Phantom from all those years ago. But he figured it would be pointless either way. Aki had told him about Aoi and Tsurugi's visit yesterday. The new information took him by surprise. Endou had a bad feeling that ten years of absence gave the Phantom new strength—or at least, a new motive for its return.

When it disappeared ten years ago, everyone in the soccer community could finally sleep without another worry in mind. It was a relief, especially for Endou and the rest of Raimon Junior High's soccer club. Everyone believed it was gone for good and most of them concluded that the Phantom left because it got what it wanted. Endou had been among the people who placed his faith in that. With the return of the Phantom, came his broken faith and beliefs. Now he needed to do everything he could to save his players. If they were to be taken away by the Phantom into an unknown realm—like so many others—or succumb to the test they would be going through, Endou could never bring himself to play soccer ever again.

He closed the scrapbook Kariya had given him. It was a miracle the boy had been able to find all of those newspaper clippings and associated them with their current crisis. Kariya had been much wiser than he thought. Or perhaps it was the spur of the moment determination to know what was wrong with his friend. Either way, Kariya had done a lot of help for him with this scrapbook. Endou reread every single thing in the scrapbook and surprisingly he remembered each of them as if they were bedtime stories. He flipped through the pages again, the lightning outside his office in Raimon occasionally lighting his surroundings with a blinding light. The hot chocolate stain was still visible on the floor from yesterday's fiasco. He didn't exactly clean it and the stain didn't have much importance anyway. The matter at hand needed a lot more of his attention than a silly stain.

To be honest, Endou half expected to find an article about Raimon's soccer club ten years ago. But their case never made it to the papers, mostly because they had been the first to go through it and also the first to survive. The brunet wiped his face with his hands and groaned. Never in his adult life would he expect to be facing it again—the Phantom, the nightmare to all.

His phone rang, startling him from his daydream. It was Kidou. "Hello?" he answered the call. Silently he hoped it was good news. There was already enough bad news, adding more to the flame would burn the house down. "Endou, come to Megane's quickly," Kidou said. Endou quirked his eyebrow and stood up from his chair, shrugging on his jacket as he asked why.

"We found Tenma."

That one sentence had been music to his ears. Of course, when they said they found Tenma, they didn't mean physically. Megane found a video of a security camera in a convenience store with Tenma in it, just as Endou had predicted. But the newfound information also bothered them because said convenience store was way out of town. That meant Tenma had been travelling the whole night without rest.

"I can't believe he walked all the way there in one night," Endou uttered. Megane shook his head. "Not quite walked, per say. Look at this," he clicked on another video. It was from the security camera outside the convenience store—and it showed Tenma parking a bicycle. Everybody else gasped. As far as they could remember, Aki never said anything about a missing bicycle. In fact, she didn't have one in the first place. So where did the soccer player get one?

"It's not really clear in the footage but the bike looks old and worn out. It's missing its brakes too. Someone must have left it in the dump and he took it," Megane concluded. Kidou nodded his head in approval. "That makes sense,"

"Do you know where he's headed though?" Haruna asked from behind him. Megane typed into his computer and a few maps popped onto the screen. "Unfortunately we have to cross Okinawa from the list. He's not going home to his parents—he's heading in the opposite direction," the computer geek said, pointing to a point in the map of Japan. "This is the last place we saw him—the convenience store—and this is Okinawa," he dragged his finger across the screen, "and this is where we are at. There's no way he took the wrong road if he did plan on going home in the first place,"

Endou furrowed his eyebrows. This was confusing. Where else would Tenma go to other than Okinawa? He was going to ask Aki if the brunet had any other relatives living in the area later. Chances are he did but probably didn't know them well enough to actually spend the night with them.

"Tenma… where is it that you're going?"

"I can't believe Tenma could do this," Shinsuke had his head on the cafeteria table. Kariya chewed on his bun next to him, looking just as irritated. "And last night too! What if someone robbed him? Killed him? Kidnapped him and sent him off to another country?!" the small defender voiced out his worries. He shook a startled Kariya, almost as if he was demanding answers to his questions from the taller defender. "Sh-Shinsuke-kun, stop that!" Honestly, Kariya felt annoyed by Shinsuke's emotional breakdown. Sure, he was worried too but cut him some slack—he wasn't a great person to express one's worries to in the first place.

Aoi played with her food, not having an ounce of interest in eating it. Did Tenma run away because of their visit yesterday? Was it because of that he no longer felt secure even in the comfort of his own room? She felt the guilt on her heart growing. It hurt too, knowing that Tenma no longer had trust in her. They had been childhood friends, knowing each other ever since they were small and trusting one another to help when things turn to the worst. But when the Phantom came and took away his memories—his real memories—replacing them with fakes that she didn't even want to know about, all of the trust they gained over the years seemed to vanish with it. Moreover, he feared her—like how one would fear death. Her eyes stung with tears. She wanted the old Tenma back, she wanted to see him grin again—she wanted to see him play soccer happily again.

She didn't want to see him like this ever again.

Somewhere far from the cafeteria, where the thunder roared louder, Tsurugi leaned against the wall with his arms crossed and eyes closed. The window beside him tapped to the rhythm of falling rain. It would make anybody feel serene—shame it didn't have an effect on him. Those who didn't know Tsurugi or didn't know what was happening to the soccer club at the current moment would think he was agitated by the drastic weather change. It wasn't the case and he wasn't lying when he denied it. His train of thought would always stop at only one thing, or rather, a person. The same person who was possessed by an invincible entity named the Phantom.

His fists curled into balls. Forehead creased, he let out a 'Tch,' before sighing. Worrying would do nothing to save Tenma. He wanted to help—needed to help—but what could he do to be of assistance to the adults? Was there really something he could do in the first place to help his best friend? Was he going to be useless or a burden to the case?

Tsurugi didn't know which possibility he feared more.

Kirino was headed to the laboratory with his books in hand. Shindou had went earlier than he did—the defender left the class later because one of his pigtails went loose and he lost his hair tie. He had a hard time finding it—Shindou offered to help but Kirino dismissed him, saying it was no big deal. Now that he found it again—he made a mental note to bring spare hair ties for the rest of the school year—he quickly shuffled to his next class. Good thing the teacher was the type who wouldn't mind if he came in late for a good reason.

Just as he was about to round a corner, he saw the figure of Endou standing in the middle of the hallway talking to the phone. The startled Kirino hid behind a set of lockers—he didn't even know why he hid, it was a sudden intuition and he felt obliged to follow it. The adult was walking in circles, still talking into his cell phone.

"So you're the only relative he has? There's really no other place Tenma can go to for safety or comfort or anything like that?"

The soccer player's eyebrows rose. He wondered who Endou was talking to. His wild guess said it was Aki, Tenma's relative who the brunet was living with until now. He also assumed Endou was talking about Tenma's run away stunt. Now he was curious if Endou and the other adults already found out Tenma's current exact location. He thought maybe not—especially in this weather.

"Okinawa is the only place left for him to go and he's travelling the opposite way. What place does he have in mind that he would believe it to be safe?"

Endou's frustrated voice frightened Kirino slightly. But all of that went away when he thought about the man's words. His eyebrows furrowed. Tenma's not going to Okinawa as most of them had expected him to do—he wasn't going to ask how Endou found that out—and there was no other place Tenma could stay in. That was definitely mind boggling. What could be a place that was out of town, not in Okinawa but Tenma was familiar with and felt safe there? Did such a place exist in the first place?

The teenager's eyes widened and he gasped in realization. He tripped on his own feet and dropped his books, evidently attracting Endou's attention—who had long since stopped talking to Aki on the phone. The brunet sweat dropped at the sight of pink hair—who else in the whole school had pink hair other than Kirino Ranmaru, Raimon's ace defender? "Kirino? What are you doing here eavesdropping on me? Shouldn't you be in class?"

Ah—crap. He was caught. Kirino slowly turned his head and gave a small wave to the coach. A forced chuckle came out of him. "I should be but then I lost one of my hair ties and had to look for it,"

Endou had to suppress a laugh. Of course, why else would Kirino be late for class? "That doesn't answer my question on why you were eavesdropping though,"

"First of all, I apologize for that. I should have just walked away when I saw you but I couldn't help it after realizing you were talking about Tenma. Secondly," the defender narrowed his eyes; his dropped books already snug in the comfort of his arms. He locked eyes with Endou. "I have an idea to where Tenma might be going to,"

The adult looked quite startled. His expression turned into a serious one. "Tell me," he said, crossing his arms as he did.

Kirino gripped his books, almost for support. "A place that's not in this town, not in Okinawa but Tenma is familiar with and would feel safe there," he swallowed some saliva to clear his dry throat. "God Eden," he said in just above a whisper. "God Eden fits the description more than any other place," he repeated himself, louder this time. To be honest, he didn't want to admit that a place like God Eden would bring Tenma the feeling of safety and comfort. It seemed too farfetched and foreign. But what else could be the answer?

Endou was caught off guard by Kirino's answer. But when he thought about it, Kirino had a point. Tenma didn't get around much and the furthest place he had ever gone to since he moved here was God Eden, the place where he was apparently 'kidnapped' to. And when Endou remembered the map Megane showed them earlier, suddenly it all made sense. He managed a smile, ruffled Kirino's hair—the defender looked quite annoyed by the action—and thanked him.

"Also, Kirino?"

"Yes?"

"Call the others to the meeting room after school. I want to have a word with all of you."

"Why?"

"We're all going to God Eden."

Looks like this time Kirino had a really good reason to be late for class.