Work Text:
"Bro! Hey Bro! Did you hear the rumor?"
Eiichiro was focused solely on the view in front of him. It was nothing new, nothing spectacular to him, but worth all the attention in the world. It was summer break. Ball after ball, return after return. He was determined to return every single one of Takuma’s serves but had been missing more than usual on this particular day. Eiichiro thought to himself What’s wrong with me today? I can’t seem to connect properly. Why?
Yukichi stepped a little closer to Eiichiro, waiting for him to take a set in order to jot down a few notes. Sure enough, after Takuma hit his 50th ball, Eiichiro returned it and then rushed to his tennis bag, removing a notebook and scribbling as quick as possible. Yukichi leaned over Eiichiro, “Yo, Earth to big bro! Did you hear?”
Eiichiro first noticed the shadow cast over his notebook, making it difficult for him to see exactly where and what he was writing. He looked up from his notebook, and panicked upon seeing how close Yukichi was to his face, “Ah!”, he scooted backward and almost onto Court B. He took a deep breath and held his chest, “Don’t scare me like that!”
Yukichi couldn’t help but laugh, “You really do have some kind of hyper-focusing ability, don’t you?” He stopped laughing and then continued, “My guesses are you really haven’t heard the rumors then?”
Takuma sighed and lowered his racket, “Are you done with me for today, Maruo?” he slowly tapped his racket against the side of his leg, looking at the multitude of tennis balls scattering the floor.
“U-Ummm,” Eiichiro shook his head up and down, “Yes, yes I think that will do for today. Thank you so much, Takuma. Practicing with you is a great honor.” Takuma started to gather the tennis balls and return them to the bin. Eiichiro shifted his attention back to Yukichi and answered him, “No, I haven’t heard any rumors. Did something happened to Takasaki?”
“Oooooh, your mind has been going to her a lot here recently,” he laughed, “but no. It’s about Court C. I heard a few newcomers talking about it. Apparently, there’s a ghost that haunts Court C.”
Eiichiro cheeks blushed a light tint of pink for a moment, but that quickly changed to panic after hearing the mention of a ghost. “What, wait? A ghost? Here? Inside at Court C?” He closed his notebook and slowly turned his head to look at Court C. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. People were practicing while a coach looked on and corrected their form when necessary. He breathed a sigh of relief, “Oh, there’s no ghost.”
“Not yet,” Yukichi corrected him, “You didn’t let me finish the entire rumor. The story goes the ghost is a former player from years ago. She was taken from the club by her parents and forced to join a swim team to keep a family tradition. They say she never advanced past Court C, and now her ghost haunts it, not allowing anyone else to pass if they’re caught practicing here at midnight during the summer.” He held his hands out toward Eiichiro and wiggled his fingers, speaking is a ghostly voice, “You’ll never make it to Court B big brooooooo.”
Eiichiro stood up after putting his notebook back into his bag and said, “I… I don’t think a ghost is going to stop me from reaching Court B. I mean, ghosts aren’t real? …….. Right?” He kept his eyes fixed on Court C, watching intensely as the players practiced. Nothing out of the ordinary, nothing at all. He looked from end to end and didn’t see anything different from the other courts. His was focused to hard, he couldn’t hear that Yukichi had a bottle of water and squeezed it, making the water pour over top of Eiichiro head. He screamed and started running, “Oh no no no no she’s going to get me!”
Takuma, who was watching the ordeal happen while cleaning up tennis balls, couldn’t help but smile and laugh a little under his breath. Yukichi heard him and said, “Oh? So you are capable of being happy!”
“Shut up, Yukichi.”
Eiichiro, meanwhile, had passed out from fear, laying on the very court he believed to be haunted. The coach stood over top of him, patting his head try with a towel.