Bring him back

chapter 3

"But, wait-" All heads turned to Shindou "-how are we gonna find his spirit?"

"We have two methods." Said Katra "The first one consists of us putting a spell on you that will allow you to see and touch your friend's spirit, the second method is a device that Ozrock created-" Said the princess as the other alien took out an iPad like device "-which will basically track down your friend's location, similar to what you guys have here called a GPS, I believe."

The humans were awed by their well thought out plan, but at least they've got the planning part sorted out

"Also one more thing that you need to know. The spirits only start roaming after midnight, so you'll have to search for him during the darkest hours of the day." After Lalaya mentioned that last fact, some of the teammates were starting to shiver just from imagining them 'ghost hunting' in the middle of the night - mainly Hayami and Kariya, I feel like those two are the main chickens of the team - but despite all of that, they were still determined to get their friend back. The aliens went back to their planet, promising that they would come back once this place reaches midnight, they also agreed that they would all meet here at the soccer field once the time comes

~'0'~

Midnight

The team, managers and the two coaches were all reunited in their meeting spot, the three aliens still didn't show up but they decided to be patient, after all they were traveling from planet to planet. While they were waiting, they felt their nerves going up more so than before, they were about to go on a mission that's probably gonna end horribly in their honest opinion, if Tenma was there he would most likely say 'Everything will work out somehow', but this time he wasn't there, he wasn't there for them anymore, just like they had been to him ever since they believed in Shiro or better said, Okita.

As they were delving deeper and deeper into their thoughts, and felt a sickening feeling in their stomachs, the same beam of light from the morning shot right in front of their eyes, revealing the same aliens once again. Katra and Lalaya performed the spell on the humans and they were all ready to go.

Ozrock turned on the device and it seemed to be scanning the terrain, after a few seconds a red dot popped onto the screen, Ozrock pressed his finger on the dot and in less than a second, it teleported all of them to a different place. With the help of the street lights the humans managed to recognise their new location

'Aki/Aki-san's manor'

That was the very first thing that caught their eye, but very quickly they switched it to something else, in front of the manor door, a few steps away stood a white, semitransparent figure

"Tenma!" They all screeched, the ghost boy who was initially staring at the door, turned his head and his upper body towards the three aliens and group of humans, needless to say they were petrified by the sight of him, even the aliens - despite the fact that they had already expected nothing less than bad -. The boy wore his soccer uniform but it was ripped at the ends, or better said, burned, even though he was white there were black marks all over him, his arms, his legs, his throat... And they all knew they were not just marks, they were cuts, and that wasn't even the worst part yet, the worst part were his eyes, his eyes just stared at them blankly, without the usual shine that they carry, they were just... Empty, penetrating right through their souls, yet somehow they still held emotions that words can't even express.

They stared at eachother for what seemed like a lifetime, the mortals wanted to look away but somehow they couldn't even blink. After the staring 'contest', the ghost boy turned away and disappeared into thin air. Ozrock acted as quick as possible, scanning for him, Katra and Lalaya told the Raimon members that next time they see Tenma, they have to grab his arm, shirt... Whatever they can to hold him, the Raimon members understood their explanation and nodded their heads, and without even realizing they were in another place already. This time they were at a soccer field by the riverbank, Shindou is pretty much the only one who recognised this place

'This is where me and Tenma played against eachother.' He almost smiled, remembering how much fun they had with just playing around freely. Suddenly they all spotted the same figure right on the edge of the riverbank, the first one to run to him was Tsurugi, but as he kept on running the ghost figure of Tenma slowly turned to one side and disappeared, catching the ace striker off guard and almost falling into the water. Seeing that the once brunet had escaped again, Ozrock immediately started scanning and teleporting them again, this time they were in the hospital, in front of a room that only one person in the team recognised based off of the number

'Nii-san's old room...' Tsurugi was baffled that Tenma would choose such a place, he didn't get why. Shinsuke tried to make a slow and quiet approach, but his attempt failed even more miserably than the ace striker's attempt, with just a few steps and Tenma had already disappeared

"Why were you so slow?" Asked Lalaya while Ozrock was trying to locate their wanted ghost

"Because... I thought maybe I could sneak up on him."

"You can't sneak up on a spirit, they detect human presence without them even moving." Answered Lalaya "What you have to do is act fast before he even gets the chance to turn."

With that being said Ozrock teleported them again, but this time they didn't really change locations, they were still in the hospital but in front of a different room

'My old hospital room!' Thought Shindou. He saw the ghostly figure that they were looking for and ran up to grab him, but he barely brushed his finger tips against him before the ghost disappeared. At this point Ozrock was getting a little frustrated having to locate the once earthling over and over again, but he had to somehow pay the debt of his brother so he kept his mouth shut and proceeded with his job. He teleported them to a whole different place this time, a place that everyone, including the aliens recognised

'The Raimon soccer field!' That's what went through all of their minds at the same time. They saw Tenma standing in the middle of the field, looking out into the oblivion, this time with the eyes of the dead - even though he is already dead -, before anyone could move forward, coach Endou went charging towards the little boy figure. Thanks to his longer legs and wider steps, he managed to grab the boy's right arm before he could turn away, Tenma looked at his arm with blank eyes, but the adult somehow felt his shock and he could also feel him shaking a little, not that he can blame him.

~'0'~

Didn't think I'd publish it this early.

But don't expect new chapters every single day, alright?