Bring him back

chapter 6

The next day

Fortunately for the Raimon members that were out searching last night, they got just enough sleep to not make them look like the living dead.

As much as Tenma didn't want to go back to school - despite not having to pay attention to class -, he still had to because of the spell. He tried to go against it last night by not going home with Hikaru, and needless to say the result wasn't fun for him, at a certain point, when Hikaru was almost completely out of sight, he got dragged all the way back to his side by the spell, he remembered the unforgettable force of dragging him back, it almost made him throw up and he wasn't about to experience it again. But being in the school was anything but good for him, every hallway he floated through carried a different memory from when he was tormented, and the worst part was the classroom. The main classroom specifically held distinctive memories, the times he got called to detention because of his 'friends' and 'cousin', the times his notes were ruined by them, the times his homeworks were either burned or wetted because of them, the many times they have insulted him daily, such as calling him offensive names and encouraging him to end himself, well, in the end he definitely did, and he fulfilled them a 'wish'

'No point in thinking about the useless memories now, not as if they ever mattered in the first place...' As he was thinking about that, the teacher came in, signalling that class was starting.

During class, he pretty much just floated around, sneaking at other people's notebooks, sitting on the teacher's table, dancing on it, pretending to be swimming... Tsurugi (yep, he's back to school), Aoi, Kariya, Shinsuke and Hikaru tried their hardest to ignore Tenma fooling around, but some of his actions were truly priceless, such as blowing the teacher's wig off, that prank of his made the entire class burst in laughter, and Kariya was low key kind of jealous of Tenma's freedom to do pranks and not getting caught. While they were having a good laugh, Tenma went up a floor - it's not too far apart - to the second year's classroom, specifically Shindou, Kirino, Kurama and Hamano's class, they were learning about history, well, not really, they were mostly just pretending to be listening since class was hella boring, that was until Tenma 'barged' in, it caught the soccer members off guard but they still had to maintain a straight face for class, as much as they wanted to change their facial expressions.

Tenma didn't really know what to do in the second year's class, wether to annoy the teacher or the students, it almost made him want to do the old coin flipping to decide. But in the end he just ended up looking at his ex-teammates notebooks

'Gosh! I'm so glad that I'm dead!' The context of the notebooks were an absolute nightmare - not as much as the memories, of course - for Tenma, and he has never been happier to be a ghost until now.

Unfortunately, he couldn't go and visit the third year's classroom because it was just a hair too further away from Hikaru's location, but at the same time it wasn't all that bad because now it was lunchtime.

~'0'~

The ghost boy decided to actually stick around the purple haired player this time, still floating in midair

"Has he talked to you?" Asked Aoi to Hikaru. Tsurugi, Kariya and Shinsuke hearing that, also wanted to know the answer

"Yes, but barely." When they first got their hopes up, it immediately deflated "Yesterday I randomly asked if he could ever forgive us and all he said was 'depends'." It was a simple word with a depth of meaning, they had to do their best to prove themselves, it was their only choice, failing wasn't an option, heck, it was thrown out of the window the moment they found the ghost boy.

~'0'~

After classes

Training was hard though, not because of their schedule, but because of Tenma's presence. Having him around reminded them of all the good memories they had together, but also the bad ones, the good and happy memories felt like they just happened yesterday, and the bad ones, felt like they just happened today.

While the humans were having all kinds of flashbacks, Tenma was no different. He didn't know what to think or feel seeing his memories resurfacing again. He wanted to smile, remembering the good times, but he doesn't know how to anymore, he wanted to cry seeing the bad ones, but he couldn't, all of his tears have been cried out before he became part of the dead.

As a result, the team didn't really train all that much and Tenma had a weird, slightly sickening feeling in his non-existent stomach. Aoyama and Ichino approached the ghost boy, since they were the only ones that were 'allowed' to be near Tenma, although it was still kind of awkward between them

"Hey..." It was a little awkward to say anything, but Aoyama decided to break the ice first. And from that little crack, they began to warm up to eachother, of course they all knew that it was hard for Tenma to open up to anyone in the team, but if it has to happen, there's no doubt that the people he'll open up to are Aoyama and Ichino.

After a while of talking, Ichino asked the same exact question that Hikaru had asked yesterday, but this time Tenma didn't have an answer beforehand, he fell silent. He shot some secret, undetected glances to his ex-teammates from the corner of his eye and did a deep sigh

"I don't know... My brain is saying no, but my heart is saying yes... It's so messed up..."

"You've always followed your heart so... Why is it any different now?" Aoyama was half confused and half not sure of his untold hypothesis, but either way he asked Tenma in order to be sure

"I guess... After the betrayal, you question about wether it was your heart that failed you or your brain that failed you, and wether you should trust what you used to believe in or change your point of view..." That has confirmed Aoyama's hypothesis, but it certainly was a lot more emotional and complex the way that the ghost boy explained it. The rest of the team, all heard what Tenma had just said, even though his voice was not that loud, they've changed him almost into a different person, a major mistake that could carry them down to the grave. As much as they're hurt from their own stupidity, they were not about to give up, Tenma hasn't given up on them in the past when they hit rock bottom, and they were not about to give up on him either, Tenma has already hit the bottom of the darkness in the past, deeper than anyone of them, same with right now, he is still at the bottom of the abyss, and his only hope to escape are his ex-teammates.

~'0'~

Okay...?

This chapter felt weird to write, probably because I gave Tenma a personality that I have never given him before...?

But I mean... It works, I guess. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯