Escaping The Hands Of Death

After the late practice at Seigaku...

The incessant heavy rain that poured down that day had immediately become a storm. It was the worst. There was no way anyone could go home with this kind of weather condition. The rain fell harder than it ever was just minutes ago. The road now became more slippery to go on a drive at a fast speed, maybe even at a normal speed. Even to run on it would surely be dangerous.

The night fell silent from any other sound except for the hard rainfall and harsh blows of wind. It was even darker than the usual nighttime during summer. And since it was summer, it was unusual to have a heavy rainfall due to a storm for the past three days already.

But it was not the only unusual scene that night. That fateful night, unbeknownst to the others, the fate of a certain middle school freshman would turn in a way that he would never expect.

That certain freshman was none other than Echizen Ryoma, a tennis prodigy and a regular of the Seigaku Tennis Club who happened to be Nanjiroh's son.

It was already four days had passed since he noticed somebody was following him anywhere he goes. It was like they were just waiting for a chance to do something.

And it seemed that the chance they have been waiting for has already come.

Five tall men (a), dressed in black hats and long coats, were chasing Ryoma just right after his canceled practice. They were chasing him in the middle of the storm, even though the road was slippery during that time. But it seemed that it didn't matter to him, as long as he could get away from those men who were chasing him even though he has been shot twice the minute he got out of the school.

One bullet grazed his right arm and the other to his thigh.

While running away from his perpetrators, Ryoma couldn't help but think about the reason why these men were chasing after him. This was something new to him and he kept on thinking of possibilities as to why some goons would go after him like this.

'Damn! I couldn't go home with this kind of situation now. Okaa-san and Oyaji would be in danger if I go there.'

He was already running for minutes now but it seemed that he didn't even feel so tired at all even though he had already run more than fifty laps during the practice. He just hoped that the laps Tezuka kept on giving them would pay off this time.

'I need to get away from them. But how? How will I get away from these hoodlums when they can even reach me at my current speed now?' He took a glance at his back and there, he saw the five men still chasing after him but the gap was approximately fifty meters. 'I guess they never ran as much as I did,' he commented to himself as he kept on running.

He had no idea where he was now... not even the slightest idea at all. But it didn't even matter to Ryoma as long as he managed to escape from them. He could get some help afterward.

As he arrived at a bridge, he stopped running and caught his breath. It didn't matter if he was wet because of the heavy rain. But he only rested for a minute when those men already managed to catch up with him.

'Damn it! They're persistent!' He continued to run towards the wooden bridge. He was hoping he could hide somewhere until he could be able to continue running and get help.

But because of the storm and the unknown state of the bridge, it would appear that everything wouldn't work the way Ryoma had planned it and how he wanted it to happen.

As the combination of thunder and lightning struck the dark sky, the bridge suddenly broke and fell into the river. Ryoma, as he was surprised because of the lightning, fell into the river along with the broken pieces of the wooden bridge. His scream, as he fell, was useless because of the heavy rainfall and the fast speed of the river's water flow.

As he fell into the river, he tried to swim despite the strong current of the water. He tried to swim to the nearest pole standing just below the broken bridge. But a big trunk of a tree that happened to be a piece of the fallen bridge suddenly struck Ryoma's body.

And because of the river's strong current and Ryoma's wounded, stressed, and tired state of his body, he slowly lost consciousness while holding tight to the tree trunk that had struck him. Before his mind went completely shut, he tried to look up to the dark sky, ignoring the falling rain on his face that was injured.

'I can only hope I can survive this... Okaa-san... Oyaji... Karupin... Nanako-san... Everyone... I'm sorry...' And with that, he closed his eyes... leaving everything about his life to his fate...

XXXXXX

The lightning struck again and the five men looked below the fallen bridge. With the looks on their faces, they weren't satisfied.

"Great! Just great! What the hell are we going to do now?" the man with long black hair frustratingly asked as he walked away from the bridge.

"Why are you such an idiot? Of course, we'll tell the boss that he's dead!" the man with a big scar in an X-shape on his face said while grinning. He also walked away from the bridge, fearing that he might fall down the river because of the slippery road.

"Do you think the boss would be satisfied with this?" said the man with an eye patch on his left eye emotionlessly. "He wanted proof that we did it. If not, he wanted proof that he's dead."

"So, Mr. Know-It-All Guy, do you have any idea how do we get a proof that he's dead? Do you want to run and follow the river just to find him and prove that he's dead because of the storm? I'm already tired of running because of that damn kid!" the man with a mustache and a long scar on the left side of his face exclaimed and glared at the eye-patched man.

They only stared at the fallen bridge as the rain continued to fall harder the wind blew harder than it ever was. At the same time, the lightning struck again, coinciding with a loud burst of thunder.

"Anyway, we need to get back to the headquarters. Whether we like it or not, we need to tell the boss what happened to our target," the last man wearing a black face mask who happened to be the tallest among them said as he slowly walked away from the fallen bridge, then followed by his colleagues.

XXXXXX

At the Echizen residence...

It was already eleven o'clock in the evening and supposed to be, the people in this house were already asleep and the lights were switched off.

But Echizen Rinko, Ryoma's mother, was sitting on the floor, facing the front door. Accompanied by Echizen Nanjiroh, both of them waited for Ryoma's return. Even though Nanjiroh was already sleepy, he patiently waited along with her wife.

Mieno Nanako, on the other hand, was looking for Ryoma's cat, Karupin. Karupin was a Himalayan cat that Ryoma took care of.

"Karupin, where are you?" She looked around but there was no sign of the cat inside Ryoma's room.

Like the others in the house, Nanako was also worried about Ryoma since it was unusual for him to be late like this. And to think he didn't even give them a call as to where he could be. She was trying to dispel the thought in her mind that something might have happened to him.

She looked outside the window of that room. Harsh blows of winds, heavy downpour of the rain, and loud thrashing sound of thunder and lightning could be seen. With this kind of weather, no matter how hard she tried not to think about it, she couldn't help but to think that something bad was going on for him not to go home in time.

She just heaved a heavy sigh and went out of the room.

'Ryoma-san, where are you? Why can't you at least give your parents a call just to assure them that you're alright?'

Nanako went down and she found Ryoma's parents still waiting at the front door.

"Oba-sama, Oji-sama, you should go to sleep now. You'll be sick if you stayed up this late. The storm will affect you if you continued to wait there," she said with a weak smile.

"But, Nanako-" Rinko said quietly.

"If you're still worried about Ryoma-san, I'll be the one to wait for him. I'll wake you up as soon as he comes home." She gave a faint smile to the couple as if trying to dispel their worries.

But the couple still hesitated, especially Rinko. "Will you be okay if you stay up late? You're still doing your research. You might not be able to do it if-"

"The deadline of that research will be two months from now. Besides, we can finish it because I have my partner (b). I could ask her to do it alone for a while if ever Ryoma-san might not... return tonight. Until we can assure that he is alright, I know that she'll understand."

Rinko just heave a sigh and looked intently at Nanako. The same goes for Nanjiroh.

"Just wake us up in case Ryoma arrives. I might be scolding that kid and punish him big time for not returning home in time," he said. "By the way..." he paused for a while and looked around. "Where is that cat of his?"

"Umm... about that... I also found it weird because there's no sign of him anywhere in the house. Karupin can't go out with this kind of weather condition."

"Is that so?" Nanjiroh sighed. "Anyway, we'll be sleeping now. Are you sure you'll be alright?"

Nanako nodded and smiled. "I'll be fine."

The couple went to their room upstairs. While looking at the couple went up, Nanako wistfully thought about Ryoma.

'I wonder what happened to that kid. It's unusual for him to be late like this. Ryoma-san... I hope you're alright...'

As she was about to go to the living room and prepare her bed, Nanako heard Rinko upstairs screaming Ryoma's name. Just as quickly as she heard it, she went upstairs to check out on Rinko.

She saw her sitting on the bed, shivering while Nanjiroh tried to calm his wife.

"What's wrong?" she worriedly asked as soon as she arrived in the room. She immediately approached the couple.

"Ryoma..." Rinko could only say, despite the shivering. "Something... h-happened to our son." And then Rinko looked intently at Nanjiroh.

"What?" Nanjiroh and Nanako stared at each other, then at Rinko.

"We need to look for him first thing in the morning if ever he doesn't come back tonight. Ryoma..." And with that, she began to cry.

'Oba-sama... Did something happen to Ryoma-san?' Nanako looked worried at Rinko then focused on looking outside. 'But a mother is still a mother. Ryoma-san is Oba-sama's son, after all. There are times... that you couldn't force yourself to believe a mother's instinct... They can tell that something happened to their child.'

As Rinko continued to shiver and cry, the storm got worst outside... making the atmosphere that night even more intense...