For starters, I want to apologize for not updating in weeks! I had been admitted into the hospital and only recently got out. I'm not supposed to be moving a lot but I don't think typing on a computer counts! Thank you for waiting this long and I hope you enjoy this chapter!

Phantom

Chapter 8

Battle Ready

"God Eden? Endou, are you sure?" Kidou furrowed his eyebrows after listening to the brunet's suggestion. It sounded absurd, really. Why the island, of all places for Tenma to go?

"Think about it. God Eden is the only other place he knows outside of town. Look at the map. The way he's headed—it leads to God Eden," Endou's voice sounded a little stiff. His hands are on the table in front of him—they were in Resistance's base. The place was dusty and when they first entered they found it hard to breathe in. The place hadn't been used since the Holy Road finals.

Silence covered the room like a blanket. "But there must be another reason why he's going there, when he had the obvious choice of Okinawa," Kidou broke it, his eyebrows furrowed—how they always did when he thought too much. "And that's what I want to find out—why God Eden? Is there something there that we don't know of? Or maybe—just maybe—the Phantom has something to do with the island," Endou's eyebrows were furrowed too, only this time he was frowning.

Kidou nodded. He saw the logic in Endou's questions. "It's been a week, Endou. I have a feeling you need to gather the players," he said. Endou's eyes dropped to his hands. "I know. I already did," there was guilt in his voice.

Tsurugi was silently sitting on his chair in the classroom, without once looking up to pay attention to the lesson at hand. He wasn't in the mood at all to learn. All he could think of right now was the peculiar situation he woke up to that morning.

When his eyes opened, he found himself on the floor of his bedroom, sweating, gasping and apparently crying as well. He didn't understand how he ended up like that. Did he have a really horrible nightmare last night? If only he could remember. But considering his body's reaction to the nightmare, he didn't think he'd wanted to remember if it was that horrible.

The bell rang but he only realized everyone else was leaving for lunch when Hikaru called out to him. "Tsurugi-kun! Kirino-senpai wants to talk to us!" he was at the door and Tsurugi could see from his place someone with pink hair waiting not far from Hikaru. His eyebrows perked up. When he reached them Kirino immediately went to the point by telling them Coach Endou wanted the soccer club members to assemble in the meeting room after school—and it was important they were there. Hikaru asked why but Kirino shook his head. Tsurugi wasn't sure if that meant he didn't know or he didn't want to tell them so soon.

"You'll find out later. Now go, get some lunch," the senior ushered them out before he too left. Tsurugi couldn't help but have a bad feeling over this meeting.

It was silent. Far too silent in the meeting room, where all the soccer players were now assembled. The doors opened and Shindou walked in with Kirino. Only then did somebody dared to speak. "Kirino, why did you call all of us here?" Kurumada asked the other defender. "Like I said, Coach Endou wanted to meet us," Kirino placed his schoolbag on the empty chair next to him. "I know that, but why?" Kurumada sounded exasperated. Kirino looked at him from the corner of his eye. He didn't need to say anything more—the door opened and Endou walked in with heavy steps. "Everyone's here?" he stopped not a long distance away from the doors. "Good," there was hesitation before he continued, "To be honest, I'm surprised."

He would have laughed at their confused expressions. But now was not the right time to laugh. "I'm sure all of you are aware it's been a week since Tenma started showing signs of the Phantom invading his mind," there were nods and a few groaned at the reminder, "So it's a surprise to me the Phantom made Tenma runaway instead of trying to take over the team,"

"Are you saying that it usually takes one week for the Phantom to complete what it started?" Shindou asked.

Endou said, "Exactly—which is why I want to take all of you with me to God Eden,"

There were gasps among them at the mention of the island's name. Not many good memories were made there—but definitely ones that were worthwhile. Before anyone could ask, Endou spoke up again. "Tenma's going to be there,"

The murmurs died down immediately. He knew they would want to come. There were no other people in this world that would do anything to save Tenma. "But if we go see him… won't he freak out again?" Kariya asked, a hand scratching his head.

"Remember when I said that the test can be won by the possessed fighting against the Phantom?" the players nodded, Endou continued, "That's not the only way to defeat it," everyone held their tongue as they waited for the coach to tell them the second way to get rid of the curse. "The Phantom loves challenging people—testing their abilities. If we can get the Phantom to challenge at least one of us and win, we'll have Tenma again. But I expect since the Phantom doesn't have a solid form he will use Tenma's body as a temporary host. Which means whoever is challenged will be going against a possessed Tenma,"

"It's like when a restless soul or demon possesses someone, am I right? The possessed doesn't even realize there's something inside them and they can't remember a single thing they did in between two points of time," Shindou held his chin, deep in thought. It happened in movies a lot. He hadn't thought of the possibilities of him or someone he knew going through a similar situation.

"Exactly," Endou replied.

"That's why you said he wouldn't freak out. It's because he wouldn't even realize he's with us," Shindou continued and the rest nodded in either agreement or understanding. "We'll do it. To save Tenma," as captain, he spoke for everyone. "Whatever challenge we get, we'll do it and win."

Endou looked relieved to hear that—Shindou sounded so confident it was hard not to believe Raimon could do it.

Tsurugi was visiting his brother again. But the older Tsurugi knew something was wrong. His little brother wasn't talking like he used to and answered to his questions with one word replies. "Kyousuke." His voice was firm, to attract the other's attention. It worked as the younger one looked up from whatever trance he was in. "There's something on your mind, isn't there?" Yuuichi asked with a creased forehead.

Kyousuke looked down again from the question. He wanted to answer his brother but his mouth was heavy. He wanted to tell him about Tenma and the trip to God Eden tomorrow but words could not be formed by his tongue. He wanted to tell him about this morning and the condition he was in upon waking up. He could feel Yuuichi's stare on him as he kept his silence and before long he sighed.

"I don't… feel good," he started off. Yuuichi's eyebrows perked up. Kyousuke continued before his brother said anything more. "I had a nightmare last night," he mumbled. He wasn't sure why he brought up that one first. "But I can't remember it. I know it was a nightmare… because when I woke up I was shaking and… crying…" his hands that were on his knees gripped the fabric of his pants. How many times had he told himself to forget it? That the nightmare wasn't important? But it was impossible. It always came back to him—begging him to inquire himself about it.

"I really want to say it's not important but since you're worrying yourself about it, it must be." Yuuichi said and Kyousuke looked up into his eyes. He could see the worry in his brother's eyes. Kyousuke felt guilty. His brother had already done so much for him. He didn't want his brother to share his worries now too. Kyousuke let a small smile on his lips. "That's impossible. A dream is just a dream—a movie for when you're sleeping. It's only natural people forget what they dreamed of—of course it wouldn't be important,"

"But you're worried about it because of the effect it had on you, right?" Yuuichi continued, not backing down. Kyousuke faltered and he found himself silent. "You had nightmares before but none of them made you flinch in your sleep," Yuuichi recalled the morning when they younger where Kyousuke casually walked up to breakfast and started talking about a monster that had been chasing him in his dream. Kyousuke looked away from Yuuichi's stare. His brother knew him too well. Frustrated, he stood up slowly and headed for the door. "I'll… come back again tomorrow," he closed the door behind him and left the hospital.

He had been walking aimlessly all evening. And now it was far past sunset and Tsurugi found himself under the Steel Plaza, where a battered tyre lay on the ground and a broken rope tied to it. The other half of the rope dangled in the wind from a tree. Someone must have used that for something. Tsurugi wasn't sure for what. There was one lamp post and it was thankfully bright enough to light the whole scene. Tsurugi sat on the bench. The night view was wonderful.

However he felt a pain in his chest when he remembered the nights where he and Tenma practiced Fire Tornado Double Drive together. The non-stop trials and the fails—the last night before the match and they still couldn't perfect it. When Tenma told him they should do it in the game, he was surprised. But there was something in Tenma's eyes that told him it would work out—their hissatsu technique would work in the game. And it did.

Tsurugi shivered when a chilled wind blew past. It was cold tonight. He lay on his back on the bench. He wished he had a soccer ball with him. If he did at least he could practice a little bit by himself before tomorrow morning. A drop of water landed on his cheek and Tsurugi gasped. He wiped it away when another came and hit his forehead this time. "Don't tell me it's another storm," he grumbled and quickly stood up, unfastening the clasp around his neck. He could probably use his purple 'cape' to protect him from the upcoming rain on the way home.

There was a thud and Tsurugi felt something nudge his ankle. Looking down he was surprised to see a soccer ball. "Where did this come from…?" he muttered. From behind him, he felt a presence like no other and shivered.

"My, my, if it isn't Tsurugi…"

He froze and felt a strong breeze blow from behind him. The unfastened 'cape' blew away and Tsurugi couldn't care to chase it. What was more important was the fact that there was someone behind him. And that voice… he knew it well.

"Spiral Draw!"

His eyes widened. The wind blew stronger—this time around him. Tsurugi didn't hear the laughter amongst the deafening wind when he dropped to the ground, unconscious from a blow to the head.

Was it all another nightmare? That was the first question Tsurugi asked himself when he woke up to the alarm clock next morning. But he didn't remember coming home. He didn't remember unlocking the door and coming into his room. He couldn't remember anything from last night. Was this a slow process of amnesia? He didn't know.

Tsurugi frowned before he crawled out of bed. He better went to school now or else he'd be late.

It was then he realized his purple 'cape' was nowhere in his room.

Having to come to school directly in his tracksuit, he felt sort of embarrassed. Hamano had teased him, saying he was really enthusiastic about saving Tenma. He brushed him away—to be honest he was relieved Hamano teased him because he felt less pressured. Endou gathered them in front of a bus—Furukaba-san was driving—when everyone was there. All the soccer club members were going—most of them for the second time but for Kurama, Hamano and Hayami it was their first.

He took a seat by the window—Shindou sat next to him. Kirino and Kariya sat behind them. Shinsuke and Hikaru were next to them on the other side of the caravan. The managers were all huddled up on the very back seats. Just before the caravan started, Tsurugi felt a pain shot through his head and he let a whimper escape his mouth. Shindou looked at him with furrowed eyebrows. "Are you okay?" there was worry in his tone. Tsurugi nodded and dismissed the senior—telling him there was no need to worry.

He bit his lip every time the pain came back throughout the entire bus trip just to avoid any more questions from Shindou—because he didn't know the answer to his sudden headaches.