Ghost Hunt 
by No. 13

Monday morning came and passed with barely anything extraordinary happening. Thanks to his inner clockwork, Tezuka woke up at quarter to six in the morning, before noticing, that there was no alarm clock ringing, and that, anyways, the glaring red letters were on the other side of the room.

Squinting slightly, it didn’t take him very long to recollect his position and with one last glance towards the oppressing darkness outside of the window, he turned over with a grim smile on his face. Seeing that dreary, cold (and most probably rather wet) darkness out there, he didn’t mind sleeping in while the others had to go to school.

He couldn’t quite sleep too long, either, because the first doctor came by to see him at quarter past eight, and after that nurses came and left, took blood samples, brought test results, changed the bandages wrapped securely around his stomach, until finally, around midday, the head physician showed up personally to bring him the “good news”.

“You can go home tonight.” the man was saying, very aware of Tezuka Ayana hopefully hanging onto his every word, “If you promise me to go straight to bed and avoid any kind of strenuous activity within the next few days.”

Tezuka nodded obediently, though he couldn’t quite bring himself to smile. While he most certainly would be glad to go home and leave the hospital – and all other reminders of that nightmare – behind, he couldn’t quite keep from wondering how Fuji was faring.

“Strenuous activities include…” the doctor was explaining – more for Ayana’s sake then Tezuka’s “Lifting heavy things, and, of course, sports, but even simple actions like climbing stairs could be too much currently.”

Was Fuji’s condition improving? Or had their late night conversation actually made things worse? Tezuka had been so relieved to be finally able to talk to his friend, to straighten the story out and cast of the horrible images still haunting his mind that he’d only remembered too late that Fuji’s status was rather delicate.

It had only occurred to him when he’d stood up to leave. Fuji had muttered a weak, sleepy good-night, closed his eyes and instantly fallen asleep. Tezuka had lingered for a moment, studied that beautiful, pale face and the slightly strained expression, now, that Fuji wasn’t awake to hide everything behind a gentle smile.

He’d unconsciously reached out and brushed away a few silky strands – the affectionate gesture he hadn’t dared to do when Fuji had been awake, to afraid of those feelings he still was afraid to name even within the borders of his own mind.

Even thought Fuji hadn’t seemed disinclined…

But then, Fuji was an affectionate person; seeing how he interacted with his brother or Eiji. And Fuji did not even remember that confession, so there was no telling whether he believed them to be any more than friends.

Anyways, Tezuka concluded, it would be best to wait until Fuji had recovered from the worst. Maybe time would bring an answer.

“… consequently I think it would be best to wait until the middle of the week before going to school. Depending on whether the stitches cause any discomfort or the healing process is disturbed, that date can be altered, of course.”

The doctor had obviously noted Tezuka’s mental excursion and proceeded to explain his condition in detail to his attentively listening mother.

“Concerning sports however, he should at least wait until the stitches are removed…”

This meant no tennis within the next two weeks.

Tezuka swallowed. He couldn’t quite remember a time when he hadn’t hit a ball for such a long time. And that was not even considering what this forced break was going to do to his skills.

Or the team. With both him and Fuji out of action, though luckily, the next competitive match was still three weeks away. Still, he could only pray at least one of them recovered in time.

When Tezuka mentally returned to the conversation at hand, his mother and the doctors had already progressed to exchanging some final pleasantries, which wasn’t quite an unwelcome development. Even though the doctor had brought mainly good news, the verdict concerning his tennis activities … stung.

“One last thing, if it’s not too much of a bother…” Ayana way saying and the voice of her tone made Tezuka look over in surprise. The doctor nodded, indicating for her to go ahead.

“I wonder if you do know anything about the condition of the other two brought in together with my son…”

The doctor sighed, and Ayana – taking the sigh for one of annoyance – immediately tried to wave the question of.

“I was only wondering, so if you aren’t allowed to tell me for legal reasons, please don’t bother.”

“Well, I’ll hazard a guess that you already know what condition both of them were in yesterday.” the doctor replied with a gentle smile, and seeing both Tezuka and his mother nod, he continued, “The girl’s condition is unchanged; but the boy is improving a little.”

At those words, Tezuka released a breath he hadn’t know he’d been holding. But somehow, subconsciously, he kept remembering that night and the horror floated back together with the memories and he couldn’t quite keep the worry from his mind.

Even know, after hearing the doctor’s words, he still felt a bit of tension remaining in the pit of his stomach. The only moment his mind had really calmed down had been last night, when he’d been sitting at Fuji’s bedside – when he’d been holding onto that small form, when he’d been able to hear that heartbeat with his own ears.

Maybe he’d be able to visit after he’d been discharged…

Staring out to the torrents of rain streaming down the windowpane, blurring the foggy grey outside out of any real shape, he only vaguely heard his mother and the doctor leave, even though his mother promised to be back soon.

There were still so many, many questions haunting his mind.

And, so strangely fitting to admit this on a rainy November afternoon when brown, skeletal trees were bending like macabre dancers in the wind, his heart.

What was he feeling for Fuji?

A deep kind of friendship?

Affection? Infatuation? Love?

And what was he going to do about? And the consequences, and his parents, and his friends, and the school, the neighbours, the world – and most of all, Fuji. What was the ever-smiling boy actually feeling?

The same? Or had nothing changed over those last five days? Or…

A gentle knock pulled Tezuka out of his contemplations that were getting darker by minute, as was the sky outside. It wasn’t even quite 5 o’clock yet, but outside night had almost completely fallen.

“Come in, please.” Tezuka loudly declared, wondering who’d be knocking that tentatively.

The door opened slowly and a familiar head poked around the corner, looking rather stressed and nervous.

“Tezuka?” Oishi carefully asked, paling spectacularly at the scene in front of him, “Is… is it okay to bother?”

Seeing firm, unshakeable Tezuka Kunimitsu seated onto a hospital bed made the until-now unbelievable story real. He hadn’t quite wanted to believe it when he’d first heard – nobody had wanted to, actually. Even Ryuuzaki-sensei had looked disturbed, when she’d broken the news to the team during morning practice, and the ride here had felt surreal. Oishi had kept getting visions of the front desk personnel telling him, that he must have gotten something wrong, there was nobody called either Tezuka Kunimitsu or Fuji Syusuke currently in this hospital.

“Nya, Oishi, how is he?” a second, well-known voice drawled behind Seigaku’s vice-captain’s back.

Tezuka nodded at Oishi and gestured for him to come in, and stop hovering in the doorframe.

”We – I, I mean, we, that is, Ryuuzaki-sensei told us, to… I mean, that, you… you and Fuji…”

“Oishi-senpai, calm down!” another background voice helpfully advised and Tezuka schooled his features into his usual, inscrutable expression – though on the inside, he was smiling. It felt like it had been an eternity since he’d heard those familiar voices.

“Fshuu, leave Oishi-senpai alone!”

“Oh, who asked you?”

“… minna, this is a hospital, please don’t quarrel…”

Oishi was growing paler by minute. He’d known making a sick visit with the entire team was a bad idea, but nobody had listened, everybody had wanted to go and they’d convinced him and now they were making noise in a hospital and bringing germs and...

“Oishi? Nya? What’s wrong?”

Banishing the smile that was creeping onto his lips from his face, Tezuka decided to take over – even though watching the chaos that was his tennis team grow was heart-warming. It brought back a piece of that normal, day-to-day life he’d learned to appreciate within the last few days.

“Please come in everybody!”

In his best ’20 laps!’ voice, too.

Of course, everybody couldn’t help but obey. Yet only, until they’d dutifully filled into the room and closed the door.

“Buchou…”

“How are you?”

“How did that happen? Actually, what happened?”

“Is this related to your elbow? Because otherwise the probability for you to obtain any injury that would need hospital care is almost zero, though I’ll have to alter my calculations…”

“How long will you have to stay here? Is the food they’re serving any good?”

“Will that influence the training?”

“… my, that green is one ugly colour.”

“And who asked you?”

“…what happened to Fuji?”

“Everybody CALM DOWN!”

Ah, Tezuka thought, this is how things ought to be. Even though it’s cold and rainy outside, as long as this remains unchanged, it’s alright.

He’d never expected to become so fond of his team’s antics, but now, after that night of ghosts and spells and biting, bitter cold, there was nothing more soothing for his poor soul than a good dose of everyday chaos.

The team was a welcome spot of colour against the hospital whites and sky greys, Eiji’s vibrant hair, Kaidou’s bandana, Echizen’s cap and even Inui’s trusty notebook. All of them had no clue what had transpired over the weekend, had no idea of how close everything had been – and, best of all, at least in Tezuka’s current mindset,

Those seven people populating his small hospital room would only blink in disbelief if somebody told them that a ghost was the reason.

For them, reality was still clear-cut and well-defined, holding no ambiguous spaces for the possible existence of ghosts and suchlike. They held none of that cursed knowledge…

“Say, buchou, what did you and Fuji-senpai actually do?” Momoshirou’s loud, inquiring voice drew Tezuka out of his contemplations; back to the reality of Oishi’s worried glances, Inui’s interested scribbling and Eiji curiously examining the hospital room’s inventory.

“They also might have had their accidents individually…” Inui commented from behind his notebook, “The only reason indicating that there might be a connection would be the fact that they are currently at the same hospital, yet when considering that Fuji has already been ill before, one could also conclude that only Tezuka has encountered an accident, while Fuji’s condition worsened.”

“Eh…” Momoshirou mumbled, stunned, “Well, yes. … So, buchou, …eh, well, what happened to you?”

“But you don’t need to tell us if you don’t want to, Tezuka!” Oishi hurriedly added, “Really, we’re curious, but if you don’t want to tell us, we’ll understand, so don’t worry!”

“That’s okay.” Tezuka interrupted, before anyone else could cut in. “And Momoshirou, you were right, Fuji and me were in the same accident.”

“Ii data.” A voice from the background muttered, but Tezuka continued unfazed, “Even though, as Inui previously said, Fuji had already been ill before, so the accident was harder on him than on me.”

It wasn’t the entire truth, but close enough.

Dimly Tezuka wondered if it wouldn’t be nicer if he could tell his team the entire truth, instead of keeping everything a secret. Locked away in his mind, so that it could always return to haunt him…

But no, things were fine as they were. As long as the team remained removed from everything ‘abnormal’, they could be his personal charm. Because as long as they distracted him, surrounded him, the images from that one horror-filled night seemed far, far away. Like a movie he’d seen ages ago…

“Nya, so that’s why they wouldn’t let us see Fuji…” Eiji muttered, thoughtfully staring at the ceiling.

“Have you seen him yet, Tezuka?” Inui asked, over the frantic scribbling of his pencil.

Tezuka only nodded and Eiji immediately rounded up on him. “Really? How is he? Is he okay, nya? I hope it’s not too bad – I really wanted to go and see him…”

“He’s as well as can be, considering the circumstances.” Tezuka bluntly replied and everybody fell silent. The rain knocking against the window was the only sound, until Kaidou tentatively raised his voice.

“But he is … Fuji-senpai isn’t… isn’t in critical condition, is he?”

For those few heartbeats, the tension filling the room was thick enough to be cut with a knife. Some of the dreary, chilling atmosphere from the outside seemed to creep into the room; it was as if the temperature had dropped several degrees within those few words.

Even Inui’s pen had stopped moving and now was hovering over another blank line, waiting for the verdict.

“He isn’t.” Tezuka replied, wondering if he was giving out foolish reassurances. Because when he recalled that night, when he’d been holding that cold, small, unmoving body in his arms, saying that Fuji was okay was not even an euphemism. It was an outright lie.

Eiji audibly released a breath and Kawamura muttered something that sounded like “I’m glad”, but was lost beneath the general shuffling. Oishi’s shoulders slumped and he turned to Tezuka with a forced half-smile.

“That must have been quite an accident you two had. I’m glad you got out of it alright.”

“Yeah, me too.” Momoshirou said.

“Yes. But what exactly happened?” Echizen asked.

With an inward sigh, Tezuka recounted the story, as he’d told them the doctor. “My family recently inherited an old house and we went to have a look at it. The house is in rather poor condition however and one of the older staircases gave in under our weight…”

“That could have ended far worse.” Kawamura offered, eyeing the patch on Tezuka’s forehead worriedly and everybody nodded. Even though Tezuka registered a suspicious glance directed at him from Inui, since the data player obviously was more than aware of the fact that ‘fallen down a staircase’ was one of the most popular excuses.

And had Inui been able to see underneath the bandages, then he would have known, that Tezuka’s injuries hardly could have stemmed from a collapsed staircase.

But the rest of the team believed the explanation. And Tezuka was rather thankful for it.

“How long will you have to stay in the hospital?” Oishi asked, changing the topic and drawing everybody’s thoughts away from the gruesome images of what-also-could-have-happened.

“This morning the doctor said that I might get discharged tonight.”

“Really? That’s great, nya!” Eiji spontaneously exclaimed, joined by Momoshirou and Kaidou nodded vigorously.

“It’s strange, practice without buchou.” Kawamura added, laughing lightly.

“We’re all looking forward to have you back, Tezuka.” Oishi carried on, a warm, honest smile on his face, “We were pretty frightened when Ryuuzaki-sensei told us something happened to you and Fuji earlier today.”

“You should have seen Oishi, nya!” Eiji threw in, “He would have walked to class without getting changed if I hadn’t reminded him!”

“Not that Eiji-senpai was any better.” Momoshirou commented, “Class must have been difficult without Fuji-senpai, or so I heard.”

“… you aren’t being a nice and obedient kouhai, Momo. Really not.”

“I only learned from the best, isn’t that true, Echizen?”

“Mada mada.”

“Nya, you’re not nice. From now on, Kaidou will be my favourite kouhai, won’t you, Kaoru-chan?”

“…”

Kaidou spontaneously blushed a lovely, tomato red, stuttered something incomprehensible and had they been on the court, he’d have turned and run laps.

“So when will you be back?” Kawamura asked, ignoring the building conflict between Kaidou and Momoshirou, since latter had just called former a ‘suck-up’.

“Towards the end of the week perhaps.” Tezuka replied, “But I’ll only overlook practice then. I can’t participate until the stitches get pulled.”

To any outsider, Tezuka’s facial expression didn’t change the least. To somebody familiar with Seigaku’s buchou however, the tone plainly spelled sulking. And that would have surprised Oishi very much, had his attention not been directed somewhere else.

“Stitches?” Oishi called out, looking shocked, “What did you need stitches for?”

“When we were walking up the stairs, I was carrying some knick-knacks, and I ended up landing on some…”

“Ouch.” Momoshirou commented, temporarily forgetting about Kaidou.

“Did the same happen to Fuji?” Eiji worriedly inquired.

Tezuka shook his head. “No, it’s only that he had been sick previously that made his situation worse.”

“Can’t we go and see him?”

“Eiji!” Oishi admonished sternly, but Kikumaru Eiji employed his best puppy-eye look. While that itself had as little effect on Tezuka as Kawamura’s hopeful glance, he couldn’t quite deny his own desire to go and see his team mate.

“We can go there and ask.” Tezuka declared resolutely, throwing back the bed cover and reaching for a bathrobe.

It felt rather awkward to be wearing a hospital gown, bathrobe and using crutches, while his team mates where all clad in their school uniforms as they walked down the white-washed corridors. And the nurse on the entrance to Fuji’s station looked rather displeased at the number of people Tezuka arrived together with.

Pressing her lips, she looked gravely at Tezuka.

“Can’t we see him?” Eiji asked, interrupting the silence; and everybody could hear his voice tremble. It reflected far too well what Tezuka felt. Had it only been the number of people, the nurse would already have told him.

That expression in her eyes however spoke of something else.

“I’m very sorry.” She eventually begun, “The patient you’re here to see... He’s currently in a medially induced sleep, so you won’t be able to talk to him. If you still want to visit, though, I can take you along.”

“Of course.” Eiji replied from behind Oishi’s left shoulder, while Tezuka only nodded firmly. Seeing the concerned faces of the young boys in front of her, the nurse couldn’t help but smile.

“Come along, please.” Opening the door, she let them in and led them along another maze of white corridors. There were far fewer people around here and, Tezuka noticed, they weren’t going to the same room where Fuji had been last night.

What did that mean?

Had Fuji’s condition worsened overnight? But the doctor this morning had said nothing had changed, so why…?

Eventually the nurse stopped in front of a door with a broad window, which she strategically blocked from view.

“If you want to enter, you can do so, of course, but you’d need to change your clothes and disinfect your hands first; and I’d actually recommend for you to stay outside and look in.”

“Why?” Momoshirou asked from the back, pale-faced, wondering how serious Fuji’s condition really was.

“It’s nothing too bad, honestly.” The nurse smiled warmly, seeing the almost-frightened faced of the teenagers in front of her, “The boy has only been quite sick and as his immune system is already weakened, we don’t want to risk a secondary infection. And he’s been put to sleep to give his body a chance to recover faster, so please don’t worry, your friend will be getting healthy again.”

With those words, she stepped away from the window and Eiji was the first to step forward and look into the room. There was no loud exclamation, and Eiji didn’t look anymore shaken than before, when he stepped back for the next person and Tezuka wondered what that meant.

Seigaku’s captain strategically waited until everybody had looked until he himself stepped forward. The reactions had differed; especially Echizen appeared paler than before, while Inui was almost unfazed. Oishi had only swallowed, nodded and acknowledged, that the situation could be worse.

He was holding his breath, when he stepped forward.

The room was as white as any other hospital room, a bit smaller perhaps, lacking the table and chair for visitors. And there was far more machinery surrounding the hospital bed, dwarfing Fuji even more.

There wasn’t much visible of Seigaku’s singles two player, anyways.

Most of his face was hidden beneath an oxygen mask that spontaneously sent shivers down Tezuka’s back. The sight of Fuji still, pale and lifeless brought back the memories and it was with a shudder that he tore his eyes away.

If he couldn’t grasp Fuji’s hand and feel a pulse for himself, couldn’t reassure him; then he couldn’t watch. Teasingly the images resurfaced; how black the lake’s surface had been behind Fuji’s translucent form; the soft rustle of falling leaves, the biting cold, Fuji’s far-too-pale face, blood-stained kimono sleeves…

“Can I go in?” Tezuka impulsively asked the nurse.

Momoshiro turned in surprise, but the nurse nodded. Before she could turn and get a disinfected overcoat for Tezuka, Oishi interrupted.

“We’ll get going then.” He said for the team, even if Eiji looked as if he wanted to protest. Somehow, Oishi seemed to have understood Tezuka’s need to go in there. And to go in there alone.

“Get better soon, Tezuka!”

Albeit a little confused as to the abrupt parting of ways, most of the team agreed without a protest.

“Get well, buchou!”

“Hope we’ll see you soon!”

And then, they were gone. Tezuka was left together with a benignly smiling nurse who handed him the green, plastic overcoat and guided him to a washbasin.

“You’ve got nice friends.” She commented, “And don’t worry, your other friend here will be getting better, soon too. Anyways, I guess, you’ll want to spend some time in there… so just come to the nurse office when you’re ready to go.”

It was only about three hours later, when Tezuka’s parents had arrived to pick their son up from the hospital and the doctor had already signed his discharge, that everybody started wondering where the boy in question actually was.

They discovered him only a little while later, deep asleep beside Fuji. And Tezuka Ayana couldn’t help but smile when she saw their entwined hands.

Maybe that entire affair, horrid as it had been, had also brought something good.

Thank you for reading. I hope you enjoyed it and if you have suggestions or comments, please share them with me.

On to Chapter 22~