Fic written for the Pointless but Original Talking Forum Secret Santa Fic Exchange.
Request Number: 05
Pairing/Groups: SanaKiri, NiouKiri, SanaNiou, Platinum, Tango.
Squicks/Turn Offs in Fic: Smut or het.
Interests in Fic: Fantasy or Magical elements.
Gen/Het/Slash/Smut/None/All-of-the-above?: Anything but smut or het.
Request: Being told that you're going to die in seven days is never the best news to tell someone. For Yukimura, buchou of Rikkaidai's tennis team, they were words he never thought he'd hear but, with seven days left, Yukimura learns things about his teammates he never would have guessed.
Notes: All I can say with this one-shot is to have fun with it! I'll enjoy reading this no matter how creative you are.
A/N//Message to receiver: Hey!!! XD This is actually a very interesting challenge, and I had lots of fun writing it~ I hope you enjoy! I wasn't originally supposed to be in Secret Santa but yeah~ XD. I'm sorry if I didn't pay special attention to the pairings, since I wrote this in Yukimura's point of view and it's mostly based on Yukimura's feelings and stuff, so there's minimal pairing stuff.

Day by day, night by night, I hear these words. These words that will change my life, throughout this short time that I have left, and yet I don't know what to do.

"Damn him to hell," the girl whispered, looking at the candle before her with distaste. Her hands were trembling as she took out a little doll with green clothes, the darkness of the room causing shadows to flicker about it. The black, beady eyes stared back at her, covered slightly by the blue, tangled up hair.

"Damn him to hell," she repeated, and dipped the doll head first into the flames of the candle, and watched in delight as the flames ate the plaything ever so slowly, greedily eating at the tissue paper.

The candle wax dripped to the floor. One drop, two drops, three.

Four. Five. Six.

Seven.

--eternites--

Yukimura's cellphone vibrated while he was walking out of the school gates, and he took it out, wondering who would call him at such a time. He opened it up and pressed the phone to his ear, waiting.

"Hey, kid, are you that Yukimura Seichii dude from Rikkai Dai, third year, yada yada yada?" a high-pitched sounding voice on the other line asked.

"Yes?" Yukimura answered. "Is there something wrong?"

"Uh, I don't think it's necessarily wrong, but it's not that pleasant either, but it should be fine. Well, actually, probably not, since you humans live to be like, what? Like, tens of thousands of days old, but seriously, I don't think it's anything to be worried about."

Yukimura didn't understand what this person was talking about. "Excuse me, but if you don't mind, I'd like to ask what you're calling about."

"YOU'RE GOING TO DIE IN SEVEN DAYS, DAMMIT!" the high pitched voice screamed at him. "SEVEN FREAKING DAYS!!! JUST LIKE THE SEVEN WONDERS OF THE FREAKING WORLD!!! THAT'S LIKE, A WEEK IN YOUR STANDARDS, RIGHT?!"

Yukimura didn't know what to say, and the high pitched voice continued to talk to him, but in a much softer voice.

"So yeah, I know this is like, really weird and you're probably like 'This guy is freaking insane and lying and who says I'm going to die in seven days?' and such but yeah. You're going to die in seven days. I even have proof that I'm legit! So basically you have blue hair, and you were hospitalized, but then had surgery and got out and lost in Nationals against Echizen Ryoma. So now you're finishing up your middle school life. Oh, and by the way, you aren't going to actually suddenly drop dead on the seventh day. You'll start disappearing from the world, like, in a really weird way. I'm not sure of how it works, but some people might start forgetting you and you'll become invisible on the seventh day. Isn't that great?! And-"

Yukimura hung up and put his cellphone back in his pocket. It was probably just Niou playing another prank, and decided to go to the bookstore to see if the book he wanted had come out yet.

--eternities--

Yukimura got out of bed the next day wincing, stretching out his arm and hoping his shoulder cramp would go away soon.

"Hey, you!" a small voice cried out, and Yukimura looked around his room. He didn't see anything abnormal about his room, so he probably was hallucinating.

"Yes, you, stupid blue-haired boy!!" the voice continued, and Yukimura looked around in confusion. He glanced at his pillow and realized there was something small, something green and glittery with little wings sticking out.

Yukimura reached out with a finger and touched it, and the green thing flew away, landing on his nightstand. "Don't touch me!" it said, crossing its arms and frowning. "So anyway, feel any pain so far?"

He unconsciously touched his right shoulder, and the fairy-like thing smirked at him. "See? I told you, it's the first day. And how dare you hang up on me like that! I'm totally legit, so don't randomly hang up on me! And anyways, I have a picture of who did this to you, so yeah, don't blame me that you only have seven days left to live." The fairy handed him a picture, and Yukimura took it away from him.

"She's in my homeroom. Why do you have this picture?" Yukimura asked the fairy.

The fairy rolled his eyes as if it were the stupidest question in the world. "Obviously, she's the one who put a curse on you and now you only have seven days left to live. She must hold a grudge on you or something. I'll check up on you on the sixth day, and hopefully you aren't spurting blood out or anything by then. Toodles!" The fairy disappeared out of his window, and Yukimura shook his head.

Things were just getting beyond weird.

Yukimura dressed for school and ate his breakfast. He took his tennis bag from the doorway and waved to his mother, before leaving his home and heading out for school.

The pain in his shoulder still hadn't gone away, but it hadn't increased either. Yukimura was convinced that the fairy he had seen earlier was just his imagination, or maybe it was that he was just dreaming.

On his way to homeroom he bumped into someone, causing him to drop his tennis bag. He winced, his shoulder stinging with pain, and reached out to take his tennis bag and say his apologies to the person whom he had bumped into, but something stopped him from doing so.

The girl who had bumped into him crouched down until she was eye-level with Yukimura. "So, how are things faring? Any pain? I'm betting there is; that curse was one nasty one, if I do say so myself." She looked proud, as if she had just won a gold medal from the Olympics.

Yukimura looked at her questioningly before realizing that she was the girl the odd fairy had shown him a picture of. The girl in his homeroom, now standing before him, smirking. "Are you sure Niou didn't put you up to this prank?" he asked, gathering up his tennis bag from the ground and standing up also.

The girl froze, and then glared at him. "Don't you dare mention his name in front of me again! You have absolutely no right! It's all because of you that I lost the chance to go out with him! You just had to make his doubles partner be Yagyuu!"

"I don't see what's so wrong with having them be doubles partners. They've been a great help to the team," Yukimura answered her, bewildered at this sudden new information that was brought to him. "And I don't see what the problem is. Them being doubles partners doesn't affect your chances of going out with him, if you choose to do so."

"You don't understand!" the girl spat at him, making a face. "Whatever. I'm through talking with you. I hope you enjoy your last seven days in this world." With that, she walked away.

Yukimura looked at her retreating figure, confused and taken aback as to what was going on around him.

--eternities--

On the second day during tennis practice, his shoulder still hadn't stopped hurting. He ran the team through pushups, sit ups, and several other kinds of warm-ups including laps, before allowing them to practice hitting.

"Yagyuu, this ball's stuck in the fence!" Niou shouted out from somewhere around the tennis courts.

Yukimura gave a small sigh. He still wasn't quite so sure if he should believe the fact that he was going to die in seven days. There were many reasons that tempted him to believe it, but he wasn't sure if this was just another sophisticated plan created by Niou.

After tennis practice ended, he went home, and as he opened the door, his mother looked up in bewilderment and her mouth dropped open. Yukimura immediately put a hand to his face, wondering if there was something on there that he hadn't known about.

"Um, I don't usually mind unexpected visitors, but who exactly are you?" the woman before him asked, and his mind blanked. He looked around, but didn't see anyone other than himself. He briefly thought about the fairy and wondered if it was in front of him, but he noticed that his mother was staring directly at him, a confused look on her face. "Who are you? Are you here to deliver something?"

Yukimura opened his mouth but no words would form. He immediately turned and began walking away, not knowing where he was going or where he should go. The pain in his shoulder had stopped, oddly enough, as he was walking, walking away from the mother that didn't remember who he was.

It was the second day.

Five more days to go, and Yukimura was lost on what to believe.

--eternities--

The third day.

Four more days left to go.

Yukimura ended up staying at Sanada's house, answering Sanada's surprised expression by telling him that his mother had gone on an unexpected business trip and told him to sleep over at his friend's house. Sanada had nodded, and motioned for Yukimura to enter. Yukimura gave his thanks and apologized for intruding so abruptly, but Sanada shook his head, saying that it was all right.

He didn't expect to see Kirihara at Sanada's house.

Kirihara probably didn't expect to see him either. The younger boy opened his mouth, surprised that his buchou had come so unexpectedly. Yukimura smiled at him, and asked him what he was doing in Sanada's house.

Kirihara fidgeted and looked at Sanada helplessly, not knowing how to answer his buchou's question. Yukimura, a little taken aback at how Kirihara was hesitating, shook his head. "Never mind, I probably shouldn't have asked."

Kirihara nodded, looking a bit relieved at not having to explain himself.

It was the tennis club's morning practice now, and Yukimura was sitting on a bench, resting, when Niou spoke up.

"Um...?"

Yukimura looked up to see Niou staring at him. Or, rather, his arm. His gaze went down to his arm as well, but he didn't see anything that was wrong.

"Okay, I'm probably hallucinating, or maybe it's karma," Niou muttered, rubbing his eyes. He blinked twice, then frowned, turning his head. "Yagyuu!" he shouted, causing his doubles partner to look up from tying his shoelaces. "Come over here for a sec!"

Yagyuu obeyed and came over. Niou was pointing at Yukimura's arm, and by that time almost half of the regulars had come over to see what the commotion was about.

"Yukimura-buchou, I can't see your arm," Marui said, squinting.

Kirihara stuck his head closer to Yukimura's arm and shook his head. "I can't see it either."

Yukimura looked at Yagyuu, but the latter shook his head.

"I can see it just fine," Yukimura said. "I can see my arm just fine."

The regulars looked at one another and back down to Yukimura's arm.

Somewhere above, the winds shrieked through the trees, bypassing leaves that were falling.

Yukimura could see the days fading by, going too fast, in a whirlwind of chaos and confusion. He didn't know what to do, what he was supposed to do. He decided to not say anything to his friends; it wasn't like they could save him anyway.

--eternities--

Fourth day.

Yukimura was sure that he was disappearing from the world now. His mother had forgotten about him, his arm was now missing from his friends' view, and there was a girl in his homeroom who kept on sending him evil smirks across the classroom.

It'd be all too funny if Niou popped into his homeroom one day and said "Surprise!" but Yukimura was sure Niou wouldn't even be able to come up with such a prank. It was too surreal, too sophisticated, and Yukimura was all too aware of the clocks around the school, the digital clock that Sanada had in his room that kept on glaring at him with numbers in red font.

He'd decide to keep silent on this matter. If he really was going to disappear, it was no use if his friends and teammates knew about it; they'd forget about it anyway.

The girl in his homeroom confronted him a second time this week. She smiled at him and crossed her arms. "How are you enjoying your last three days of life?"

"Will you still remember me, even if I disappear from this world?" Yukimura asked her, looking off into the distance.

The girl shrugged. "How am I supposed to know about that? All I did was put the curse on you, I don't know if the actual giver of the curse will remember. But it doesn't really matter, does it? Once you've disappeared from the world, no one's going to remind me of you anymore. And it'd be kind of nice if I were the only one who remembered you. It's like hiding a big secret from everyone, don't you think?" She smiled again, giving him a piercing stare.

"I still don't understand what Niou has to do with any of this."

"He's going out with that stupid Yagyuu because of you. If you hadn't made them doubles partners, they wouldn't have met in the first place, and I'd still have a chance," she snapped. "Jeez, don't you even know what goes on within your own team anymore?"

"I wasn't aware of that," Yukimura admitted. It surprised him that this girl knew more about his team than he did. "And truth be told, they'd probably still be going out even though they weren't doubles partners."

"What do you mean?" she demanded.

"They met when Yagyuu was playing golf, not when they became doubles partners."

The girl fell silent.

Somewhere in the world a tennis ball dropped.

Somewhere in the world, a tennis racket dropped, and one more person died during that very moment.

--eternities--

Yukimura didn't really feel any despair until the sixth day, when the fairy visited him like he had promised he would.

"You have a really horrid expression on your face right now, you know," the fairy said, chuckling. "Don't worry, once you die, you won't go to hell or anything, even though that's what the girl wished from us. You'll probably become a fairy like me, or go somewhere else. It's not the end once you die, there are tons of possibilities waiting out there for you. Hell, you can even be reborn, if you wanted to, into this world, although you'll probably forget about this life."

"But I'll disappear completely from this world," Yukimura mumbled, staring at his futon covers. "No one will remember who I am."

"Well at least your photos will still be here, so people can stare at those photo albums they have and wonder who the hell you are. And it's not impossible for them to remember, you know. Kid, let me give you some advice. You're better off inviting everyone to a party tomorrow and having loads of fun with them while you still can."

The fairy had a point, even though he was a bit annoying at times.

--eternities--

The seventh day. A Sunday.

Yukimura had managed to convince everyone to come to Sanada's house, saying that he wanted a gathering. With lots of convincing, and maybe a few threats thrown in here and there, everyone came.

He still pondered on the newly obtained information he had gotten from the girl. Niou and Yagyuu were going out, and although Yukimura was surprised, he wasn't too shocked. It probably explained why Niou and Yagyuu hung around each other so much after school. And if Yukimura had to guess, Sanada probably was going out with Kirihara, which explained why Kirihara went to Sanada's house so often.

Sanada had a rather serious look on his face, and Yukimura laughed, putting an arm on his shoulder, saying that Sanada was too stressed out and that nothing would go wrong.

"There is something wrong, or else your body parts wouldn't be disappearing and reappearing sporadically!" Niou argued, and was immediately shushed by Yagyuu, who reprimanded him for being rude.

Yukimura shrugged. "At least you can still feel them."

Kirihara took his arm. "I can't see it anymore. Oh, wait, now I can."

"And what the hell was up with your math teacher anyway? Screaming like that and telling you to get the hell out of her class." Niou made a face. "She's one loud math teacher."

"Hm, it must be an epidemic. Are you sure your eyes haven't suddenly attacked you?"

Niou sighed. "Okay, I'm probably just freaking out like everyone else over here, and you're probably playing a really mean prank, smiling like that. Jeez, you're probably even worse than that Fuji guy from Seigaku."

"Well now, I can't have everyone in Seigaku beating me," Yukimura replied.

Marui groaned. "I knew it, he probably got a new potion from Inui and now our eyes are spazzing on us."

Apparently Inui's juice explained everything, and the tension in the room relaxed a bit. Yanagi was taking notes, muttering under his breath about how Inui's juice seemed to do wonders for everything.

"Did you invite us over here to explain about that?" Niou asked him, slouching on the couch, leaning on Yagyuu's shoulder. Marui rolled his eyes and made a face.

Kirihara was huddled in a little ball in the other corner of the sofa, mumbling something to Sanada. Jackal still was a bit fazed about Yukimura's disappearing arms and legs and kept on giving Yukimura quick glances as if to make sure the boy wasn't going to disappear completely.

Yukimura looked around the scene in Sanada's living room.

He opened his mouth, spoke. No one turned around or looked up, and he tried saying it louder.

No one looked.

He felt a sharp pull, and then everything disappeared from his vision.

Kirihara shivered and looked up. "Did you just hear something?"

Sanada shook his head.

The boy shrugged, figuring it was just his imagination.

No one in the room noticed that they had lost an important friend to them.

They didn't notice the paper Yukimura had left behind either.

Disappearance from the world is a scary thing, but it's all right if no one gets hurt.

--Yukimura Seiichi