Stand

Found

Hello everyone, sorry for the wait!

~'0'~

Tenma's laughter suddenly stops as he chokes on air. A moment, he is frozen in place, before the brunet starts to shake. ''Tenma?!'' asks Shuu alarmed, and looks on in horror as blood starts to drip from Tenma's left eye.

''AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!''

And then the brunet is screaming. Collapsing on the ground, he twists and claws at his eye, as screams filled with unbearable pain escape from his throat.

Immediately, Shuu and Hakuryuu hold Tenma down to keep him from hurting himself. They share a look filled with horror, but Tenma's struggles bring their attention back to holding down the screaming brunet.

A shiver goes down Shuu's spine as he listens to those screams. Because if he listens closely enough, he doesn't here one, but two voices scream.

~'0'~  

It's lunch time at Raimon Jr High, and the members of the soccer club are, as usual, sharing a table. However, instead of the usual loud chattering that surrounds the table, the only conversations are almost non-existent and muttered softly. And all because one of their members isn't there.

Shinsuke sighs from where he is sitting next to Hikaru and Sangoku. The small goalkeeper stares at the table in front of him, shoving his food around, but not eating anything.

Sangoku looks at him in worry. ''Shinsuke, is something wrong?'' the younger keeper tenses, but doesn't answer. His teammates look worriedly when he stays quiet, and the frown on Sangoku's face deepens. ''...Shinsuke?''

The other sighs again, slumping forward. ''I'm worried about Tenma,'' he mutters, not meeting anyone's eyes. Everyone freezes at his words. There is some kind of unvoiced agreement between the Raimon players that they do not talk about their captain, but apparently Shinsuke has decided they can't act like nothing is wrong any longer. He suddenly looks up, eyes worried and hesitant but also burning with a determined fire. ''It's been five days! Who knows where he is and what is happening to him while we're just sitting here, doing nothing!''

''Shinsuke...'' Sangoku's voice is shocked, but takes on a soothing tone when he continues. ''There is nothing we can do, we're just teens. The only thing we can do is wait for-''

''No!'' Shinsuke's loud voice cuts him off, and the older keeper's eyes widen in surprise. The first-year actually glares at him. ''If the roles were reversed, if one of us was missing and Tenma was here, he would do everything he could to help! He would try to find us, I'm sure! So why! Why can't we do the same for him?'' Shinsuke's brown eyes fill with tears in frustration and fear. He shadows his eyes with his bangs, and his voice is not louder than a whisper, but everyone hears him anyway. ''What kind of friends are we if we can't even help Tenma?''

Everyone is silent, as Shinsuke seems to be done with ranting. His words hit close to home, shaking everyone out of their denial – because they know that the keeper is right, even if they didn't want to admit it at first.

Suddenly, the silence surrounding them is broken by a fist slamming on the table. The Raimon players look up at Nishiki, whose eyes are hidden in the shadows. ''So what do you say we do, Shinsuke?'' he asks, voice cold.

The small keeper gapes at him, too shocked to answer.

The older boy looks up, eyes frustrated and angry. ''What can we do?! Don't you get it, Shinsuke?! We're all worried about Tenma, but he's gone! And do you know why?'' his eyes are blazing with shame, anger and pain. ''Because we betrayed him!'' everyone flinches at this, but Nishiki continues anyway. ''Tenma's gone because he thought he couldn't trust us! Of course I'm worried about him, but what could we possibly do tohelp him when he made it clear that he doesn't want our help?!''