AN: REPOST! Thanks so much to awin-chan for all the amazing help!...I don't know what's wrong with me. I get into a new series, and the only thing my mind can spew forth is how to kill the main character, how to break another character's heart so massively that they crumble from the sheer sorrow of the situation...Well, as the title suggests, this is, in fact, a deathfic...which contains the death of a character (in this case, a rather major character). So, if these kinds of stories depress you, keep you up at night, or make your eyes water uncontrollably, please...remember that I warned you before you read it, yea? I love these characters, really I do, and unfortunately, this is how I show my love...I kill them. And I kill them dead.

FORMAL WARNING: MAJOR CHARACTER DEATH

Disclaimer: I do not own the television show/manga Prince of Tennis. I do not own the characters of the television show/manga Prince of Tennis.

The Death of Echizen Ryoma

The body of Echizen Ryoma was found three days after the Nationals, two days after he had been reported missing, and only one day after he had been carelessly disposed of in a downtown dumpster. Bruises littered his pale skin, his left eye still gushing crimson tears and his hair twisted into knots and tangles. Never before had anyone seen him so frail, so vulnerable, so much like...a child.

And the only thing that seemed to be missing was a certain Seigaku tennis jacket that he had never before been seen without.

0 o 0 o 0

Ryuzaki-Sensei walked with a heavy heart towards the tennis courts of Seishun Gakuen, her thoughts wandering to the telephone conversation she'd had only moments before.

"You're certain?"

"We've seen him for ourselves...Our son is dead."

"...Nanjiroh, I'm—"

"I have to go." Click.

His tone of voice had broken her heart. The distance in it had seemed unreal, like he would start laughing at any moment and tell her it was all a sadistic joke. But she had heard past the distance, had heard the man's shattered world in the few curt words he'd offered. He couldn't believe it either, even though he'd seen the body, identified it as his son, his twelve-year-old son.

Echizen Ryoma was dead.

And as Ryuzaki-Sensei entered the court, calling the regulars to her in the grimmest voice she had ever used, she knew that the hard part had yet to come.

0 o 0 o 0

Silence, complete and utter, accompanied by wide-eyed looks of disbelief.

"Body?" Oishi whispered, as if the meaning of the word had escaped him.

"N-No, he's...We just...He was..." Momoshiro struggled for words, his head shaking as memories flooded his mind, flooded everyone's minds.

They had seen him a few days ago. He had smiled, had looked genuinely happy, had celebrated with them. And he was just a kid. Things like this didn't happen to kids. They just didn't.

Surprisingly, the first to give an actual reaction was none other than Fuji Syuusuke. He fell to his knees, then to his hands, his head lowered towards the ground.

A terrifying scream breached his throat.

AN: There will, of course, be more. I can't just leave it like that, especially when I promised a Thrill pairing. Flashbacks mostly, I think, on Syuusuke's part. Hmmm. Thank you very much for reading. :)