Camping Trip

Chapter 9

"Chibisuke!... Chibisuke!" Ryoga kept running through the woods, calling for Echizen every few steps. He got to the edge of the woods and reached the river. He stood for a few seconds and watched as it whooshed by, thinking about what could have happened if Echizen had tried to cross and failed.

"Chibisuke..." he dropped to his hands and knees, breathless and panting, and looked up at the sky. The rain was pouring down and landed atop his head. The sky was dark, the darkest it had been the whole time it had stormed. The clouds boomed and the sky lit up from lightning. Images flashed before Ryoga's eyes, images and things he would never want to see or wish anyone else had to see. Tears formed in his eyes and started running down his face. He hadn't noticed that he started crying since the rain was also running down his face.

"Ryoga-san!" he heard his name being called by several people. He turned his head to his right and saw all the Hyoutei regulars and Seigaku regulars running towards him.

"Minna." He cleared away the rain and tears from his face only for more to fall in their place.

"Ryoga-san, what happened?" Fuji asked.

"What did Gakuto mean when he said that you said that Echizen ran off?" Shishido added.

"And why did we come to the river?" questions were coming out of everyone's mouths.

Ryoga sat and looked at them, unable to comprehend what to do or say. His mind was full of what could happen to his brother if his attacker found him or if he found the attacker.

"Shizukani." Atobe snapped his fingers and everyone fell silent.

"Ryoga-san, where is Echizen?" Tezuka asked in a worried yet stern tone.

Ryoga looked at Tezuka with sorrowful eyes.

"Ryoga-san." Oishi came up and placed his hand on his shoulder.

Ryoga shifted his gaze to Oishi for a second then back to Tezuka. "He just woke up."

"What do you mean?" the rain had stopped Inui from taking out his notebook. "Can you explain?"

"There's nothing to explain Inui-kun. He just woke up. There's no simpler way to put it." Ryoga looked at the ground. "I was sitting at the side of the bed telling him to wake up and then he sat up and shouted 'I am wake damn it'."

Everyone looked at each other with troubled expressions.

"He hopped out of bed and ran for the door but I grabbed him and tried to make him get back in bed. He still had a really high fever but he managed to escape my hold and ran out the door."

"What makes you think he would come to the river Ryoga-san?" Choutaro asked.

"After we met up with everyone right after the rain started and we were heading back to camp, Chibisuke kept looking over his shoulder back towards the bank. He also addressed someone as 'that bastard' when he woke up."

Everyone's looks became more puzzled. Tezuka, Atobe and Fuji were scratching their heads.

"Where was the exact place that Echizen was before we met up with him?" Fuji asked.

Everyone in the group looked to Shishido. "I found him a bit farther up the river." Shishido said as he pointed further upstream.

"We should look there before we come to any conclusions." Tezuka said.

Everyone agreed with him and followed Shishido further up the river to the spot where he found Echizen a few days before. He led them to a small clearing just from the tree line. It had a tree overlooking the ground and a small pile of rocks where Echizen had placed his pole to make it look like he was fishing when he was sleeping.