Chapter Text
Changechildren (Prince of Tennis)
Part 2
By Haruka (haruka@ymail.com)
--
Echizen Nanjiroh looked up as his only son came into the house. "Hey, Boy, how'd it go today?"
Ryoma took off his jacket. "Kawamura-senpai caught on fire."
"Doesn't he always?"
"I mean he burst into flames." Ryoma headed upstairs. "Momo-senpai can crush doorknobs, Fuji-senpai is irresistible, Tezuka-buchou is a living lightning rod, and Kaidoh-senpai is missing." Just before he turned the corner at the top of the stairs, he called back, "And Ryuzaki-sensei wants you to phone her."
Nanjiroh shook his head. "She probably wants to tell me that my kid needs a shrink."
--
Inui had tried everything for his headache, but it seemed to be getting worse instead of better. Part of that was probably concern over Kaidoh's disappearance and the strange incidents surrounding his teammates, but knowing that didn't help much. What was worse, he couldn't relax enough to take a nap in hopes that it would disappear while he slept. His mind was too busy. He tried counting sheep, but found himself running down a list of unique properties of sheep instead. When he switched to counting backwards from one hundred, the numbers began forming equations and formulas, each one drawing his consciousness down various paths until he no longer remembered his original intent.
Inui realized at that moment that the more he allowed himself to explore these calculations and analogies, the less his head hurt.
Suddenly, the pain disappeared entirely and was replaced with an overload of information. Anytime he tried to grab onto a single thought, it evolved into a series of other thoughts that came at him so fast it might have made a normal fourteen-year-old go insane.
However, Inui knew now that he was no longer normal. He took a deep breath and deliberately, forcefully, began to give order to his racing mind.
--
The woman in charge of the local animal shelter had been having a very typical day until her assistant came back from the area where the animals were housed. Her skin was chalk-white.
"Hari-san, what is it?"
"B-Back there!" the pale woman said shakily, pointing. "You have to see it to believe it!"
The director frowned, but headed down the hall. She didn't even know what she was looking for!
Slowly, she passed by the cages, peering into each one. When she reached the last one, where she had earlier placed a stray tabby, she gave a small shriek.
The cat was gone, but the cage was still occupied. By a teenage boy.
He was hunched over, his arms wrapped around his knees with his face buried in them. He was shaking all over, and when he raised his head, his green eyes were moist.
"Please," he whispered in a low, hoarse voice. "Make them stop."
--
Oishi hung up his phone, feeling chilled. What was going on with everyone?
"Oishi!" Eiji called out, then peeked into his bedroom. "You left me alone in your kitchen. If you don't come soon, I may start eating and will make no apologies for what disappears from the pantry."
"I have to go," his doubles partner told him. "That was Tezuka, talking to me on Ryuzaki-san's speaker-phone because he can't touch a regular phone. Not only is his problem with electricity not getting any better, but Kaidoh's been found –"
"But that's GOOD news!" Eiji enthused. "I was really worried about him, nya!"
Oishi looked at the redhead with worry in his expression. "He was found in a cage at the animal shelter, Eiji. The director called Tezuka for him because he couldn't speak for himself – he keeps breaking down in tears."
Eiji's blue eyes widened. "Hoi?" he said in a small voice. "Kaidoh?"
Oishi pulled on his jacket. "We need to get there as soon as possible, before the director decides to call the police or something."
"You think she WOULD?!" Eiji exclaimed. He bolted for the door. "Hurry up, Oishi, come on, we've got to get there fast!"
"I just said that, didn't I?" Oishi retorted with uncharacteristic annoyance. "The whole world is going crazy and right now all I wish is that I was old enough to drive – the bus will take us forever to get there!"
"But Kaidoh needs our help NOW!" Eiji grabbed Oishi's arm and abruptly, the scenery changed.
The two boys stayed frozen in place, only their eyes moved to confirm that not only were they no longer in Oishi's bedroom, they were outside, standing in front of the animal shelter.
Eiji's lip began to tremble. "Oishiiiii ….," he whimpered. "what just happened?"
"I – I don't know," Oishi answered, hoping he wouldn't throw up from the tumult his nerves were going through. He drew a steadying breath and patted Eiji reassuringly on the back. "We can only worry about one thing at a time, Eiji. Right now, let's help Kaidoh."
The acrobat nodded wordlessly and followed him inside on shaking legs.
--
"Let us out!"
"We don't want to be here!"
"Where's my master?"
"I'm scared!"
Kaidoh Kaoru pressed his clenched fists tightly against his ears, but it didn't help – he could still hear them. All of them, all at once, incessantly crying. He could feel their fear and anguish penetrating his soul and couldn't help crying himself. He knew he had to get out of there, but couldn't bring himself to leave while so many were left behind.
"Kaidoh? Hoi, Kaidoh!"
"It's us! Eiji and Oishi!"
Familiar HUMAN voices. He struggled to focus on them. "Senpais?" he murmured.
"He's been like that since we got him out," he heard a woman say. "Does he have mental problems?"
"No, it's nothing like that!"
Oishi-senpai! Kaidoh looked up and saw both his teammates standing over where he was huddled on the waiting area couch. They looked afraid.
Oishi touched his shoulder. "It's us, Kaidoh, we're going to take you out of here, okay?"
Kaidoh tried to move, then dozens of voices swam through his head once again. Fear, hunger, thirst, fear, tired, playful, anger, FEAR!
Kaidoh made a loud keening noise and wrapped his arms over his head. "I can hear them, senpai!" he cried. "The animals, they're talking to me! I swear, I can HEAR them!"
Terrified, Oishi gripped his shoulder hard and yelled forcefully, "No, you CAN'T!"
Kaidoh blinked. Slowly, he looked up at Oishi.
"I – it's gone," he said, his tone one of wonder and relief. "I can't hear them anymore."
Eiji flopped onto the couch. "I think I just had a heart attack, nya!"
"Don't get comfortable, we're getting out of here." Oishi pulled Kaidoh up and Eiji bounced to his feet.
"I wish we could get home the same way we got here," the redhead said lightly. "It sure was quicker!"
"Don't even joke about that," Oishi told him grimly. "I'll be happy taking the bus for the rest of my life if it means nothing else weird happens to any of us."
--
Inui couldn't find his phone.
He was in the library, and his phone was ringing, but he had placed it on the table in front of him and it was buried under a dozen newspapers, at least twenty textbooks, and two sets of encyclopedia. He felt for it and found the mouse for the computer he'd been using, but no phone.
"Young man," the Librarian scolded, "please take your phone outside!"
"I will when I can find it, Ma'am," Inui said, missing the look of horror the woman's face had taken on when she saw the enormous mess on the table. Finally, his hand brushed against the phone and he spoke into it softly, "Inui here."
"Why are you whispering?" Sumire demanded. "Oh, it doesn't matter! Things have gotten worse, Inui – I just heard from Oishi and Eiji. They picked up Kaidoh, but he claims that not only could he hear the animals talking to him in the shelter, but that he was brought in as a CAT himself!"
"Transformation is a possibility," Inui told her. "Just as my enhanced capacity for retaining knowledge has increased beyond the charts of any genius level –"
"What?" Sumire interrupted. "Are you saying in that convoluted way that you know what's going on?"
"Yes and no. It's obvious that many of us have gained superhuman abilities, the limits of which we've yet to determine, but I have not yet ascertained an exact cause nor can determine whether the changes are permanent."
He heard the teacher sigh. "In any case, I've called a team meeting at the Kawamura sushi restaurant. Kawamura's father is closing the place early so that only those I've notified will be able to get in."
"I'm on my way." Inui noticed the Librarian tapping her foot impatiently and eyeing the table. "Right after I clean up some data."
--
Fuji Syuusuke went down the stairs. "I'm going out!" he called. "I'll be at the Kawamura sushi restaurant if anyone needs me!"
His younger brother, Yuuta, came to the top of the stairs. "Is Kawamura-san okay to have visitors?"
"He's fine," Syuusuke replied. "There's no explanation for it, but the flames didn't burn him at all, thankfully." He paused and glanced back up to the landing. "What about you? You were coming down with a sore throat earlier and sounded terrible – it doesn't sound hoarse anymore."
Yuuta shrugged. "I don't know, it cleared up, I guess. Good thing, since St. Rudolph has a game tomorrow." He scratched his head, avoiding his brother's gaze. "Probably just as well you're going out, too. Mizuki-senpai is on his way over to talk strategy with me."
Syuusuke frowned slightly. "Yes, then perhaps you're right." He opened the front door, then paused.
"Something wrong, Aniki?"
Syuusuke sighed. "I guess I'm a little nervous about going out," he confessed. "People have been behaving strangely around me today."
"Not me. I'm the same."
Syuusuke looked back and met Yuuta's eyes, smiling. "Yes, you are," he said gratefully. "I'll see you later."
Syuusuke closed the door behind him, leaving Yuuta staring after him. If he had seen the change in his little brother's expression, he would have rescinded his gratitude.
"Aniki," Yuuta said breathlessly.
Fingers snapped in front of his face and he jumped to find Mizuki Hajime beside him. "Senpai!" he gasped. "When did you get up here? I didn't see you."
"Your brother let me in just now," Mizuki replied, scowling at him suspiciously.
"But I would have seen if he –"
"Maybe you were too busy mooning over him," the St. Rudolph tennis team manager snapped. "You were all dreamy-eyed just now, watching him leave. Why was that, Yuuta-kun?"
The younger Fuji brother couldn't explain that any more easily than he could his having missed Mizuki's entrance. But whatever the reasons were, he decided he didn't like them.
--
End of Part 2
(2006)
Prince of Tennis belongs to Konomi Takeshi.
This fic is not to be re-posted.