Tennis no Ouji-sama © Konomi Takeshi, Shuheisha, Inc.
- Act II -
[ The Abandoned Court ]
It was a full moon when she discovered the place a long time ago, long before she ever began her journey abroad. The old abandoned court no one ever spared a glance had been her sacred place, where it became her lake while she was the Odette. It was the place where she could dance only for herself, without caring what was going on in the world.
Though it was unknown to her that a prince had followed her track, captivated by her beauty…
While rabble students wished for new clothes, bags, gaming consoles, or anything ordinary for presents, the same thing didn't apply to someone as extraordinary as Atobe Keigo. The Hyotei's number one student got the chance to name anything he wanted for coming out as the student with the highest mark in sophomore year's final exam. His request was of course, extraordinary…
"Sugee! A new tennis court?" Akutagawa Jirō ecstatically asked and jumped like a boy asking if he could have candy. "Say, can we play in it? Can we? Can we?"
"It's not yet done, Jirō. Ore-sama hasn't even started working on it. Did you hear what I said?" He took his coffee cup to his lip, smelling the aroma before taking a sip.
"Is it really something you can request from your parents?" Despite the question, Mukahi Gakuto didn't look too surprised. He lazily twirled his fork on top of his unfinished strawberry shortcake slice. "The only thing I earn when I scored the highest mark in English is an all-I-can-eat deep fried chicken and that was before I got into the same class with you."
His lips stretched into a smirk. "Hn. Bow to my greatness, Mukahi. You'll never get the best score as long as Ore-sama is around. Especially not when English is ore-sama's native language. Right, Kabaji?"
The giant man beside him nodded. "Usu."
"I appreciate the privilege to try the court out when it's done, but don't you already have at least one in your every house, Atobe?" Oshitari Yūshi fixed his glasses' position as he asked. "Why waste your present on something you already have?"
"A professional tennis player like ore-sama needs to have at least one in eachofmy houses. I recently found out one of them has an old abandoned court."Keigo glanced at his fingernails as he talked. "Since I have too many houses to go to, I didn't pay attention until recently." He shook his head every time he remembered how much of a fool he was to let a potential tennis court be left abandoned and dirty.
"That's a waste of space, Atobe. Can't you just make something other than the court instead? That's really lame," Shishido Ryō commented.
"Ahn? Don't you dare question what I want to do withmy own house, you rabble. My house, my rule."
"Tsk. Whatever," Ryō grumbled.
"Which house is it, Atobe-san?"Ōtori Chōtaro asked.
"The Asakura manor."He shifted his eyes when he heard something cluttered on the table, seeing his fellow tennis members gathered in one corner as if they were seeing ghosts—everyone except for Hiyoshi Wakashi. "What's wrong with you?"
"T-that gothic manor?" It was quite a sight to see the self-proclaimed cool, calm, and composed man like Yūshi turn white.
"A-a-aren't you going to sell that one already?" Gakuto stammered and held onto Yūshi's jersey like his life was depending on it.
"Ahn? What's wrong with it? It's a family's heirloom and used to be Ore-sama's great-great-great-grandfather's residence," he nonchalantly answered.
"W-we didn't dare to tell you at first, Atobe-san… B-but we think that the place is—" Chōtaro gulped. "It's…"
"It's what, Ōtori?" Keigo impatiently asked.
"Haunted…" The way Wakashi ended the sentence with a deep, creepy voice made Gakuto and Jirō scream. Keigo chuckled at his friends' ridiculousness before bursting into laughter.
"Are you rabbles kidding me? My manor? Haunted?" He shook his head. "Ghosts aren't even real. How old are you to believe this kind of rubbish?"
"But we saw it! We saw the ghost when we stayed there four years ago!" they screamed at the same time.
Keigo crossed his arms and rested his back on the chair. "Then tell me how exactlythis ghost appeared?"
"Someone cried in the hall!"
"An armour attacked me in the midnight!"
"The piano played by itself!"
"And poltergeist activities in the kitchen!"
"Also thegirl in white who danced in the abandoned court!"
Keigo glanced at them one by one, then to Kabaji who shook his head in response—telling him that neither he had seen any of the unearthly presences. His insight ability told him that they were genuinely scared by what they saw. No wonder they'd refuse to go there every time he asked them. Keigo shifted his eyes to Wakashi, who remained silent the entire time.
"What about you, Hiyoshi? Did you see anything?"
But the man only shook his head. "I stayed an extra night after you guys left to see the ghosts with my own eyes. But there were none," he replied with a hint of disappointment.
He lifted one of his brows with a convincing smirk. "See? There were none."
"But I swear I saw her, Atobe!" Gakuto slammed the table with his hands and pointed at himself several times. "I saw it with my own eyes! I blinked and she was still dancing in the court!"
"I didn't believe in ghosts myself, Atobe. At least used to until I saw what I saw." Yūshi placed his hand over his temple like he was deep in thought. "I went to the kitchen to get a drink but the next second, the plates fell by themselves and shattered."
"That was years ago, right? I've stayed there several times and didn't see anything like that. They probably left already."
"That's where you got it wrong, Buchō," Wakashi suddenly said.
"Ahn?"
"Ghosts aren't going to leave the places they dwell in." Wakashi crossed his finger and rested his nose on top of his index finger, eyes looking faraway. "They will remain in that place even if it takes hundreds… or even thousands of years."
"Argh! Stop with the whole ghost ordeals!" Gakuto scratched his maroon hair as if he wanted to pulled them apart.
"If you don't call an exorcist, then you'll be cursed if you did anything stupid, Buchō."
Though that was what Wakashi suggested, the magnificent Keigo would never let anything stophim from getting what he wanted. He was an Atobe. He was the rightful owner of the land; everything on top of it belonged to him, he even had the legal documents for them. Thus, Keigo decided to spend his night in the manor to find these 'ghosts' and 'negotiate' with them.
However, four nights had passed and he still saw nothing.
"I shouldn't have listened to those stupid rabbles to begin with," Keigo said through his gritted teeth as he strolled the place at night. He shoved his hands into his pockets when the wind blew and the night got colder.
Glancing up, he saw the full-moon brightly smiling at him, bending the darkness with its pure light. It was true that with that kind of scenery, the Asakura manor looked like a haunted house, especially with its gothic-themed building. Since the beginning of Japan's assimilation with the western culture, his ancestor seemed to have set his eyes on foreign architectures, which was the main reason why most of his houses didn't have anything oriental in them, especially this manor. It wasn't the first time he heard the rumours about the building being haunted, that there was a vampire living in it, and so on.
Sighing, he approached the abandoned court and absent-mindedly rested his fingers on the rusty wired fence. Since the court was located far from the main house, both he and his staff haven't paid attention to it, so the vines have been creeping their way towards the top of the fence over past years. However, just before he decided to return to the manor, he heard something rustle and was certain that he did nothing to create the noises.
"Also the girl in white who danced in the abandoned court!"
His adam's apple bobbed as he pulled some of the vines to peek through the court, standing rooted on his spot the moment he saw something white moving around the court.
His heart jumped upon the sighting Gakuto described to him—a white girl dancing in the abandoned court. But the urge of not freaking out like the rabbles did make him compose himself. Taking a deep breath, Keigo shut his eyes for a moment before shifting it back to the presence in the court.
However, what he was seeing was far away from a frightening scene.
Moreover, it was the most beautiful sight he had ever seen in his life.
Was it a nymph he was seeing?
A girl spreading her hands like her wings leaped towards the air and gracefully landed on the ground. Her dark hair gracefully billowed behind her, white dress softly flowing around her. Basking in the moonlight, her skin was almost glowing like she was made of magic. She didn't dance to any song, just the whistle of the wind and the sound of nature, like she was part of it. But it was what made the dance look even more magical.
She must be a ballerina, probably a little bit younger than him. But one thing he knew for sure, she wasn't a ghost.
Though the moonlight was the only source of lighting he had to see her, he could see her smiling, not because she had to but more because she was embracing what she was doing dearly to her heart. It was what made her glow even more, as if she was the shard of the moon that was emitting her own light.
It made his heart skip a beat…
And lose his senses.
AN: That's for the second chapter, folks! Favorite, follow, and most importantly—review are gold for me! As I mentioned in the previous chapter, the story is also posted on Wattpad. Since the site allows me to post videos and images, I might be able to pamper your eyes there. Check my account in ReikaNanatsuki!
Thank you for reading and have a nice day!
