The Silence In The Dark (Prince of Tennis) ||REWRITE||

Chapter 8

After Reichi had downed his water bottle, leaning heavily on his captain's arm and side as he blinked slowly before exhaling once and closing his eyes for some much-needed rest. Yukimura sighed softly, looking around as the other regulars came to his aide, Bunta trailing off to help Kirihara up and give him water. "Does anybody know where Echizen lives?" Renji took a moment to look through his endless notebook of information. "Toyko, a bit of a train ride away." Several people stood shocked,  Seiichi looking down at their mysterious teammate. "That's an hour train ride away... Let's get him home, shall we? What kind of upperclassmen would we be if we didn't." He added half-heartedly, making sure everyone else changed and got cleaned up a little while wiping Reichi's forehead with a towel idly.

Gathering up the newest regular and his bag before they all started walking, handing the bag off to Sanada- who grumbled but took it anyway- before they all continued on with pleasant conversation between the group. A few times getting a bit too loud and Seichi felt the youngest boy shift in his arms slightly before he hushed his teammates.

------At the Echizen household-------

The group arrived at Echizen's place a bit over an hour later, ringing the doorbell and stepping back slightly in wait. Nanjiro answered the door, monk robe on and in place before looking at them and spotting his son. "The hell.....?" Seiichi heard roughly, Nanjiro reached out and took his son carefully. "Come in... Come in... Let me put him to bed, living room is through that door-" he gestured vaguely before going upstairs and laying his youngest son down on the bed.  Nanjiro came back down after a few minutes, walking beside a petite lady, who smiled at the boys. "Hello, I'm Echizen Nanako, Reichi-kun's cousin. Can I get you boys anything to drink? Tea? Water?" Seiichi spoke for everyone, with a gentle smile on his lips. "Tea's fine, Echizen-san."

Nanjiro sat in an armchair across from the group, staring at them intently before speaking. "Why does my son have a knee injury, and why is he passed out?" Seiichi, again, spoke for the group, straightening his posture a small bit. "Echizen-kun was in the ranking matches today, he played against Kirihara, who- when provoked or injured during a match- becomes rather violent. He has a drop-shot technique that when returned back to the other player he smashes it down directly onto their knee. I had planned on stopping the match if it got to be too much for Echizen, but I also didn't want him to think I was disrespecting him and looking down on him by stopping it. During the match, he ended up getting hit in the head and momentarily losing sight, forcing his other senses to heighten and he unlocked the Pinnacle of Self Actualization." Nanjiro sat still for a moment before his shoulders sagged a slight bit in relief.

"I see. I take it he passed out from exhaustion then?" Seiichi nodded with a light smile. "Yes, he did. I cleaned his knee a bit before we brought him here, we were going to just bring him to one of our places at first thought but we didn't want to worry his family with his absence." Seiichi supplied, leaning back in his seat a bit to relax somewhat.

"How is he... Doing..?  He had a bad day yesterday and was still... iffy this morning at best." Seiichi, once again, sat up straight and answered. "He talked to me, before his match. Told me a bit about what happened yesterday and why it happened. And further explained some boundaries regarding his right eye. He seemed to be a bit better after our talk, it helped clear his head I'm guessing." Nanjiro looked at the captain fully this time, eyeing him up and down before relaxing a tad. "You boys' look after him... He can be troublesome, and a handful, but he's a good kid. Just got some issues." They all nodded along, hearing some faint shuffling near the door. Reichi came stumbling in, rubbing his head and face lightly- in comfy casual clothes now- slowly regaining his baring of living and walking.

"Ahhhh, Reichi~ Come gimme a hug!" His father cooed, arms spread open wide for his youngest son. Reichi stopped, staring at Nanjiro in disinterest before walking toward his teammates without another thought. Plopping down beside his captain with ease and making his father grumble and huff. "So un-cute now... You used to be such a cute little kid- I miss my cute Rei who listened to me!" Nanjiro huffed out, borderline pouting at his son, who, to be fair, rolled his eyes at his father. "I can't imagine Echizen listening to many people in general." Yukimura joked, light-heartedly, then ruffled Reichi's hair in a gesture of affection. After that conversation ran smoothly between the group, Nanjiro acting as just another person to help translate Reichi's signing- Reichi was having a very in-depth conversation with Jackal about running routes and stamina. Only going quiet when Ryoma came in, hands in his pockets and shoulders slumped a bit over as he walked in, hat- for once- nowhere in sight.

"Hey- old man, where's Rei?" He mumbled, eyes still closed as he walked, A few of the Rikkaidai members glanced between Reichi and the boy who had just walked in. Though, Reichi was already on his feet, bounding toward his brother and tossing his arms around his torso with ease. Ryoma's eyes flew open, hands fumbling to hold Reichi's side and back lightly, heads bumping together before Reichi's dropped to his shoulder. "Tough day..?" He mumbled softly, a nod following his words. His hand gently pushed through, still knotted, hair as he held his little brother. "Welcome home, Rei... Who all accompanied you?" Reichi peeled away from his brother, turning toward his upperclassmen and mentally sighing and berating himself for not bringing his notebook. Hands lifting to start signing just to be cut off by his captain, who offered a gentle smile. "We can introduce ourselves, Echizen, It's no issue." And so they all did. Seiichi going last and just as he opened his mouth Reichi's hands started moving.

'He's my captain. S-E-I-I-C-H-I Y-U-K-I-M-U-R-A.' His fingers went through the motions with practiced ease and carefulness. Ryoma nodded as he watched, ruffling Reichi's hair lightly. "It's nice to meet you all, I'm Echizen Ryoma, Reichi's twin brother." He bowed toward the group before straightening and looking at Reichi, nudging him slightly. Ryoma went to settle beside his father, deciding to take with the group for a bit, and they did. It came as a shock to the group, who had been told Ryoma didn't play tennis, that the older twin was in fact on the regulars team of Seigaku. Reichi averted his eyes with a sly little smile on his lips as Ryoma glared at him. Their father laughed off to the side.

For almost an hour the group conversed and chatted, and when they all had to leave- to catch a train back to Kanagawa- Seiichi and Sanada left with an added number to their contacts. 

Just in case, of course.

Just in case.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

CHAPTER REVAMP!!!

Fully redone (more or less) I kept a few small things in there.

But yeah. Here's a (late) chapter 8!! Just two more before I'm caught up.

Enjoy.

-Ender

(8/8/22 12:17 AM)

Idk why I didn't post the old word count for this chapter?? I'm guessing it slipped my mind at the time. Anyway, added a few small details here and there, got rid of some minor things that weren't needed, and fixed random grammar mistakes.

Word Count: 1271

(02/03/23 2:51 AM)