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klixxy · 3 years

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Weekly Fic Recs

(ft. my bookmark comments)

HAIKYUU!!:

the pretty (pining) setters squad - bloodyhalefire

(haikyuu!!; multiple relationships; chatfic; setter-centric; 36k words; ongoing)

oikawa: I HAVE NO FEAR

suga: straight iwaizumi

oikawa: I HAVE ONE FEAR

said you’re coming back home, boy, don't feel so alone - jublis

(haikyuu!!; kagehina; kageyama-centric; 9k words) MANGA SPOILERS

The ball rolls gently on the ground, all the way to Tobio’s feet. He bends down to pick it up, and something in his blood sizzles like lightning. He looks at the leathery surface, then at his sister’s wild smile and neat hair; looks back at the court and the net, where the boys are running a spiking practice. Everyone else seems focused on the attackers, but Tobio’s eyes are zeroed on the one tossing. Set, connect, spike. Bang-bang-bang.

No one wins without the setter.

Tobio tosses the ball to Miwa and says, “Again.”

Or, Kageyama Tobio grows up, older, and not that much wiser at all. Featuring brothers and sisters, anger, connection, and that moment when someone finally catches up with you.

My Best Friend is a 9 Year-Old - CO32minus

(haikyuu!!; kagehina; gen; kagehina-centric; 48k words) MANGA SPOILERS

Kageyama didn't expect to become friends with Hinata nearly as fast as he did. He expected becoming best friends with Hinata's sister even less. But over the course of his high school career, the two of them grow closer than any friend Kageyama has had in a long time. A long time.

[my bookmarks: beautiful. a masterpiece. i have been rendered... speechless. it's poignant and painful and heartbreaking.

explores the relationships between tobio and a variety of people in a unique way. an emotional, tearful rollercoaster all the way through.]

you who appeared before my eyes like a miracle - vivahate

(haikyuu!!; kagehina; kageyama-centric; hurt/comfort; 2k words) MANGA SPOILERS

Everything I told you last night,” Kageyama says at last and he sounds so awful, so defensive: he keeps trying to pull away, and Hinata can tell he’s come to all the wrong conclusions. “I told you because I wanted to. There’s nothing more to it. I don’t need your -”

“It’s not pity!” Hinata hisses, tightening his hold on Kageyama’s hands. “Or whatever else you’re thinking.” Hinata releases another quivering breath against Tobio’s neck, the setter going completely still in his arms. It’s important that Tobio understands. “It breaks my heart knowing that the boy I love was hurting and I didn’t even –” he breaks off with a sound of frustration, “I could’ve done something to make it at least a little better for you.”

(or; Kageyama tells Hinata about Kazuyo san after the Black Jackals/Adlers game, and Hinata processes.)

cats and other challenges - vivahate (they have such good fics!)

(haikyuu!!; kagehina; hurt/comfort; 6k words) MANGA SPOILERS

“Was that Hime?” Miwa asks over the phone, having apparently heard that pathetic yowl.

“No.” Tobio grunts, “It’s a different cat I picked up from the garbage on my way home.” On the other end of the line Miwa laughs gleefully, probably thinking he’s joking.

He’s not.

(Or; Sometime in the year following the Olympics, Tobio finds himself adopting a cat. And then three more. Hinata doesn't mind.)

etymology - tothemoon

(haikyuu!!; kagehina; coming of age; 3k words) MANGA SPOILERS

Kageyama Tobio has a language all his own.

[my bookmarks: holy shit this is pure poetry. beauty. breathtaking. <3]

and if you asked me if i love him (i'd lie) - fakecharliebrown

(haikyuu!!; kagehina; kagehina-centric; humor; falling in love; au; 13k words)

“Okay, what the fuck,” Tobio said, upon seeing the source of the commotion in his kitchen. There, standing in front of his open window—when had he opened that?—was a guy probably several years younger than Tobio, a high schooler most likely, with bright, orange hair. He was soaked to the bone, dripping rainwater all over Tobio’s kitchen floor like he was trying to fill a new lake.

The boy looked up, wide-eyed, and blurted, “This isn’t my apartment.”

or; Hinata accidentally breaks into Kageyama’s apartment, starts a fire, and is deeply offended that Kageyama eats lettuce. It all seems to unravel from there.

burn - orphan_account

(haikyuu!!; kagehina; kagehina-centric; au; 3k words)

Kageyama Tobio had always had the odd ability to see the numbers signalling how dangerous a person was. He'd gone through his childhood surrounded by Twos and Threes, maybe even Fours. And then he meets his Ten.

~~~~~~~~~~

The flame seemed to burn ever so bright, as Kageyama felt the air around the other basically crackle. He felt as if he was Icarus and Hinata was the Sun. Two wings to hold him up, a fiery heat to burn him down.

Don't get too close, or you'll melt.

6/10 - CheekyBrunette

(haikyuu!!; kagehina; kageyama-centric; social anxiety; 19k words)

Hinata babbled on. “Natsu’s just so annoying sometimes. Everyone comes over and is like, ‘But oh, she’s so cute!’ and, well... yeah, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t like pushing all my buttons, you know? I mean, this is the third time she stole my blue furoshiki, so I had to wrap my bento with her stupid cat one!”

Kageyama’s hands knotted up in the bottom hem of his shorts. “Little sisters are the worst,” he tried.

Hinata’s nose scrunched up, and Kageyama’s stomach threatened to tie itself in knots. That had been the wrong thing to say. “Well, she’s not the worst,” Hinata corrected. Kageyama felt stupid for speaking up.

Fixation - @radio-silents

(haikyuu!!; kagehina; kagehina-centric; 7k words)

Hinata can’t stand Kageyama.

He can’t stand Kageyama’s stupid grumpy face, he can’t stand his stupid hair, and most of all he can’t stand how stupidly good Kageyama is at volleyball.

Alternatively, where Hinata spends a lot of time being frustrated and confused about his conflicting emotions toward Kageyama.

Summer Days, Flying By - @anawriteshorror

(haikyuu!!; kagehina; kageyama-centric; abuse au; angst; 11k words)

“Ne, Tobio.” Shouyou asked him one afternoon, smile relaxed on his face as he spread his fingers, splaying shadows on the walls. “Have you ever wondered what it’s like to fly?”

He shook his head. Flying meant going outside, and even imagining it made him tense up. He was already breaking enough rules as it was; no need to stir up his mind more than he already had.

Shouyou looked a little sad at that. “Well, I have.” His eyes went to the sky, like he could see himself soaring at that very moment. “You should imagine it, just once.”

The facts that make up his world are this: his name is Kageyama Tobio, he's ten years old, and he's never been outside his house.

Until he met Shouyou.

well, maybe i'm a crook - aruariandance

(haikyuu!!; kagehina; kageyama-centric; angst; 6k words)

The thing is-- Hinata is in love with Kageyama and everyone knows it, including Kageyama.

[my bookmarks: i'm cryignd i can't-]

discovering the smile of one kageyama tobio - Emlee_J (also a great fic writer - check out her other fics they’re all equally as good)

(haikyuu!!; kagehina; falling in love; 3rd year au; 8k words)

Kageyama blinks once before a grin of his own spreads over his face. Shouyou’s breath halts in his lungs at the sight, and he wills for time to stop, just so he can drink it in. He sees it sometimes, when they’re playing - Kageyama’s fierce smile when they pull a combo off just right, when they show their opponents how possible the impossible can really be. But then there’s another serve, another rally, and the moment is gone.

'Shame', Shouyou thinks to himself, as he lets his eyes roam over Kageyama’s stupidly happy face, taking in the creases that are from joy rather than frowning, for a change. 'It’s a really nice smile.'

In which it's their third, and final, year in high school and Hinata has only one goal: to make Kageyama smile outside of volleyball.

Wedding Tosses - its_tabby_cat

(haikyuu!!; kagehina; wedding; fluff/humor; 4k words) MILD MANGA SPOILERS

Based on the post I can't find anymore about Hinata and Kageyama spiking their wedding bouquet during the bouquet toss in their wedding.

Hinata and Kageyama's wedding is unique in their friends and guests' memories for one very specific reason. Natsu and Miwa wish they could say they saw this coming when they organised a bouquet toss as part of their brothers' wedding, but they didn't. They should have, though.

Hinata and Kageyama have no regrets. Neither do any of their guests (Except maybe Tsukishima).

gonna stand by you - meregalaxiesandgods

(haikyuu!!; gen; 3rd year au; kageyama-centric; 5k words)

Five times Kageyama defended his teammates, and one time they defended him.

baby, i can give you wings - Metis_Ink

(haikyuu!!; kagehina/daisuga; superpower au; humor/romance; 8k words)

In which there are superpowers, cats, rainstorms, realizations, split-second jealousy, embarrassing volleyparents, killer whales, electric Kuroos, unstable emotions, bad romance movie mentions, some angst, some fluff, but mostly a lot of awkward high schoolers.

The minute Kageyama walks into the gym and sees Hinata hovering eight feet over the nets he knows he’s screwed.

if it wasn't for you - diphylleias

(haikyuu!!; kagehina; gen; getting together; 13k words) MANGA SPOILERS

A long moment passes between them, and Hinata watches, starstruck, as Heitor’s eyes linger on Nice’s silhouette from across the venue. His voice is deep, rich, all encompassing. “Some people change your life just by being in it, and you don’t want to let that go.”

Huh, Hinata thinks grandly.

[my bookmarks: This is majestic. Im now gonna proceed to scream internally about my kagehina feels for the next few hours.]

kintsugi - horchata

(haikyuu!!; gen; magical realism; kageyama-centric; 4k words)

Tobio notices when people get hurt. Something inside him hums to fix it.

The first time’s for Iwaizumi-san.

i bear little resemblance to the king i could become - silpium

(haikyuu!!; kagehina; gen; kageyama-centric; found family; 1k words)

Something else that’s infuriating about Hinata: he doesn’t question much. He never questions how Kageyama never smiles. He never questions why Kageyama doesn’t seem to have any friends. He never questions why Kageyama doesn’t talk much about himself, or talk much at all. He’ll make fun of these things sometimes, sure, but there’s never a probing question lingering beneath it. He seems to know there are just some things about Kageyama that are the way they are and that won’t change.

Or: sometimes people find their homes later in life.

Saffron and Cayenne Pepper - dontsaycrazy

(haikyuu!!; kagehina; gen; falling in love; cooking au; 30k words)

Cooking is hard. Even if you have your very attractive, very grumpy neighbor there to help you.

In which Hinata's lack of cooking skills are a danger to him and others. Luckily (or not), Kageyama is willing to teach him, if only for the sake of avoiding any burned down apartments.

halcyon - @queenanimetrash

(haikyuu!!; kagehina; gen; depression; falling in love; hurt/comfort; 11k words)

"...And Kageyama cried. There was no rhyme or reason to it. There was no reason for all of the things he was feeling. Depression was weird like that, the lady in the pantsuit told him. There was no reason for it. It just comes and stays sticky on your skin, lumpy in your throat, heavy in your heart, suffocating and cold all at once."

again - bigspoonnoya

(haikyuu!!; kagehina; gen; falling in love; reincarnation au; fantastical; 15k words)

Both your deaths in this universe have failed. “Failed…” Kageyama echoes. The word seems to hurt him. “How can you fail at dying?” Hinata asks, incredulous. Luckily you have an infinite selection of universes, with an extensive number of lifetimes, still remaining. Until you can save one another, you will never grow old.

[my bookmarks: magical. absolutely breathtaking. amazingly poetic. <33333]

Blowing Up - sarahenany

(haikyuu!!; kagehina; gen; bombing au; angst; hurt/comfort; 10k words)

Minor spoilers for early S4 of the anime. Hinata and Kageyama go to different training camps, but news reaches Hinata's camp that there's been a bombing at the Ajinomoto Center, where Kageyama's camp is being held. Kageyama has minor injuries. Hinata is worried and protective. Tsukishima, Ukai, Takeda, Kenma and Kuroo are awesome.

like a sudden flight of birds - starstrikes

(haikyuu!!; atsukage; soulmate au; 17k words) MANGA SPOILERS

There are these chances—the ones that come flying overhead, streaking through the sky, waiting for a jump and a catch.

It takes Tobio a couple wrong chances before the right one comes swooping by like a shooting star. This time, Tobio jumps for the catch and doesn't let go.

stray bird - diarahans

(haikyuu!!; tsukkikage; falling in love; fluff; 7k words)

Tsukishima brings home a rain-drenched Kageyama.

All That's Left - tsunderei

(haikyuu!!; kagehina; falling in love; pacific rim au; 38k words)

Almost immediately after his last mission, where his mistakes nearly claimed the life of his partner, Kageyama Tobio resigns as a Jaeger pilot. Since then he has kept to himself, his life stuck in a rut and his reputation left in tatters. When the Kaiju suddenly threaten to rise again, he doesn’t want anything to do with them.

But along with the new threat comes new recruits, and a certain redheaded pilot isn’t willing to give up on Kageyama so easily. Hinata Shouyou is all about fighting spirit and second chances, despite his lack of experience. Slowly but insistently, he pulls Kageyama along – back to life, back into the Jaeger, back into the drift.

everything/anything by @superish

[all of my bookmarks for superish’s stuff: ]

like literally. this was my bookmark for one of their fics:

OH. MY. GOD. OHMYGOD. THIS IS PHENOMAL. BEAUTIFUL. BREATHTAKING. THE DESCRIPTIONS OF TOBIO WERE JUST- A+++++++++++++. INFINITE +S. INCREDIBLE. RIDICULOUSLY GOOD. HEART-STOPPING. THERE ARE NOT ENOUGH ADJECTIVES TO PRAISE THIS FIC.

OH MY GOD. OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD I'M SCREAMING. I'M GONNA SCREAM. I'M DYING. HOW- WHY- THE EQUIVALENT OF PERFECTION EXISTS IN THIS WORLD, AND IT IS THIS FIC. JESUS CHRIST I'M IN LOVE. THIS IS MY NEW FUCKING RELIGION AND NO ONE CAN TELL ME OTHERWISE.

BNHA:

Knead a Hand? - staqua

(boku no hero academia; bakutodo; bakutodo-centric; 5k words)

Ah. For all of the appliances Shouto had been, a blowtorch was new. Still, just to prompt and bother: "So...?"

"So..."

It was a plea for help but Shouto wanted to hear the words. Another eyebrow twitch. The other one this time, because Bakugou clearly liked to workout both muscles for ultimate impact.

"Argh! Just light your finger on fire and caramelize these shitheads!"

OR: Shouto discovers his quirk is useful for more than hero work through his time spent cooking with a grudging Bakugou.

journey to the past - @aloneintherain

(boku no hero academia; gen; midoriya-centric; time-travel au; 44k words)

Izuku is five years old the first time he's saved by heroes. He's an instant fan of the woman in pink with her cheerful smile and the man with his ice powers and fine-boned features, even if they both refuse to tell him their names.

For most of his life, Izuku has been the centre of villain attacks, but he has never been injured. Every time, he's saved by bright, unknown heroes—heroes who smile at Izuku, and ruffle his hair or ply him with hugs, and seem mesmerised by how small he is.

Heroes that the rest of the world doesn't believe exists.

(Time-travelling Class 1-A AU)

Candy Canes And Christmas Crackers - bigdorkenergy

(boku no hero academia; bakutodo; fake dating au; slow burn; 104k words)

“So….your huge family somehow all think that you have a long term boyfriend and are insisting that you bring him to your week long Christmas family reunion?” Despite his efforts the end of his question raised in pitch as Kirishma swallowed down a giggle.

“How does that even happen?” Kaminari added popping some of the hashbrowns Bakugou made into his mouth.

OR your classic holiday romcom where Bakugou needs a fake boyfriend to bring home for Christmas and Todoroki is willing to take that bullet.

some days - @chibistarlyte

(boku no hero academia; pre-bakutodo; gen; angst; 6k words)

Most days, Shouto is fine.

But some days...

Some days, Shouto falls apart.

hear me howling - @lunal0u

(i absolutely love, love, love this author check her out PLEASE you don’t even have to ship tododeku just PLEASE)

(boku no hero academia; tododeku; gen; angst; suicide; emotional rollercoaster; 14k words)

Instead of squinting away like Izuku would, Shouto’s eyes seem to grow warmer as they stare into the sun, seem to grow softer.

In the glow of the early morning, the sky painted in hues of red and pink, it almost looks as if the sun itself is reflecting from Shouto’s eyes, his dark pupils dyed gold by the light.

(or, four times izuku watches the sunrise with shouto and the one time he doesn't)

[my bookmarks: this is everything i aspire to be, shoved into one, brilliant fic.]

the stars are floating and we are flying - @lunal0u

(boku no hero academia; tododeku; gen; angst; mental illness; 39k words)

Aizawa starts walking towards the exit, obviously expecting Shouto to follow him, but Shouto's feet are frozen in place. His eyes flicker from the distorted reflection of himself in the ice to where All Might is giving him a long look, eyes kinder than anything Todoroki has ever been deserving of, and he feels sick.

“Todoroki-kun,” Midoriya says gently, squeezing his arm in what Shouto presumes is meant to be a reassuring gesture. “It’s going to be okay.”

He doesn’t think Midoriya is in any place to tell him what okay is, all things considered, but he chooses to keep quiet on the matter.

[my bookmarks: this made me burst into tears. my heart just exploded. I'm crying like a baby. just fricking- it's just fricking beautiful. astounding. incredible. wonderful. poignant. heartbreaking. so, so very sad. i can't even put it into words frick.]

rock'n'roll, buckaroo! - Origamidragons

(boku no hero academia; gen; humor; youtube au; 6k words)

Kaminari walks up to Todoroki in the hallway after class and says, “Dude, I need your help.”

Todoroki checks over his shoulder, twice, to verify that Kaminari is indeed talking to him. “Why?”

“Yesterday you asked Shinsou-kun if he was Aizawa-sensei’s son,” Kaminari says, as though that explains anything at all.

“...yes?”

“Make a hero conspiracy YouTube channel with me.”

FMAB:

snipers solve 99% of all problems - silentwalrus

(fullmetal alchemist: brotherhood x harry potter; gen; humor; 226k words; ongoing)

Ed had thought, after the whole Promised Day, homunculus, entire country harvested for alchemical batteries thing, the batshit quotient of his life would have settled down some. He really ought to have topped out the meter with that one. But no. The bullshit is just getting started.

“Are you fucking kidding me,” Ed demands. “The wizards?”

Podfic & Chinese translation available! See notes

[my bookmarks: holy shit this is amazing... {SPOILERS}]

everything/anything by tierfal

you don’t even have to have read fmab for some of their fics- you can hate royed for all i care- just PLEASE read their fics. all of their fics are just so wonderful and are such an emotional rollercoaster that has you absolutely hooked from start to end. the author has an amazing quality that their writing just makes you feel so much.

please check them out.

ATLA:

respite - @blue---pluto

(avatar: the last airbender; gen; gaang finds out abt zuko’s scar fic; 3k words)

“It’s healing really well.” Katara tells him with a smile, before her lips quirk down into a frown. “Though it’ll still scar pretty bad.”

Zuko shrugs. “It’s ok. I doubt people will really focus on it anyway… the one on my face is a bit more prominent.”

Katara makes a face, like she’s not quite sure if she should laugh or frown, when Toph speaks up.

“You have a scar on your face?” Toph asks, sitting up so she’s sitting by his legs rather than lying on them.

Zuko blinks. He never quite forgets that Toph is blind, but the fact that she can’t see his scar never really occurred to him.

“Oh, yeah.” Zuko looks down at his lap. “My father burned like, half my face off before I was banished.” He says it a little too casually, probably not bitterly enough.

The Competition - @littlelovelyspiderling

(avatar: the last airbender; gen; tickle fic; zuko-centric; 8k words)

The avatar gang competes to see who can get Zuko to laugh first. Adorableness ensues.

where the stars do not take sides - WitchofEndor

(avatar: the last airbender; gen; zukka; azula and zuko-centric; 60k words)

When Azula is nine, she becomes an only child. She hears the Fire Lord call for Zuko's life, and in the morning, her mother and brother are gone. Azula may be young, but she isn't naive. She knows what happened to them.

Which makes it all the more surprising when Azula tracks the Avatar down and fights his group of peasant friends, only to find herself staring into an eerily familiar face.

asmr: Actively Seeking Machiavellism's Redemption - cereal_whore

(avatar: the last airbender; gen; azula redemption; zuko-centric; time travel au; humor; 13k words; ongoing)

When Zuko's midlife crisis is just his life replayed for a second time, it tests not just his patience, but also whether it's truly Azula that's the murderous sibling out of the two. Because Zuko might be a mentally matured sixteen-year-old with his own handful of daddy issues, but he is this close to throwing hands at his eleven-year-old baby sister out in their courtyard.

Or: upon being hit by Azula's lightning in the last battle, Zuko finds himself back in time to when his father just branded half of his face. He also finds himself facing his younger sister, eleven and not a murderer, and through his own mixture of overwhelming pity and resentment for her, realizes he could possibly save not just all the people she killed- but herself as well.

In other words: Zuko wants to make things right for Azula (who was never given a chance by anyone), so he essentially drags her along with him on his life-changing field trip as a tired nanny.

heirloom - jublis

(avatar: the last airbender; gen; azula redemption; angst; series; 56k words; ongoing)

The weight of the world rests on the shoulders of children. In spite of it all, they still find enough place to grow.

[my bookmarks: fuck i’m gonna cry again]

Leaves and Shells - ChimaeraKitten

(avatar: the last airbender; gen; angst; zuko-centric; 2k)

Zuko thought he knew how to deal with grief. But loss is different every time, and losing the one person who anchored him through all the other turmoil is its own special kind of pain. Luckily Zuko is not quite as alone as he once was.

Names - TGP

(avatar: the last airbender; jetko; angst; amnesia au; 89k words)

His name is Li. At least, that’s what the villagers call him and when they die in a Fire Nation attack, he carries that name with him to the Freedom Fighters and a war that will test every fiber of his being.

Where Zuko ends and Li begins is a muddled thing indeed.

[my bookmarks: i don’t ship jetko but... but this... i did NOT see this fic coming and it hit me with the feels train... hard.]

CROSSOVERS:

In His Element(s) - WriterGreenReads

(boku no hero academia x avatar: the last airbender; gen; aang-centric; 111k words; ongoing)

“So… one more time.” Shouta pinched the bridge of his nose, regretting both waking up this morning and possibly existence in general. “You’re the spiritual avatar of an entirely different world, and in the process of keeping the peace with said spirits, originating from your… dimension, you’ve come to our world to stop the actively malicious versions of your spirits, because our world told your world that something was wrong.” The child shrugged and grinned, looking much too cheery for someone currently in handcuffs. “Pretty much!” he chirped. “Your world spirit is really polite, too. Ours was super grumpy about all the spirits escaping, but then yours said it was ok, so long as I teach her more about them on the way back!”"

Aang chases some renegade spirits across worldly borders and possibly makes some new friends along the way.

but it's a little too late - @irleggsywrites

(haikyuu!! x bleach; kageyama x ichigo; gen; humor; 11k words; ongoing)

Kageyama's elusive "girlfriend" turns out to be a bizarre ginger-haired boy who isn't Hinata. Subsequently, he may or may not lose it at some point.

Karasuno's getting kind of suspicious of Kageyama's relationship. It seems like he always runs into trouble around this guy, and some things aren't adding up. When push comes to shove, they aren't afraid to show their protective streak, especially when it comes to their youngest.

Ichigo likes his new volleyball-playing boyfriend a lot. He just wishes ghosts would stop crashing their dates, because it's a real mood-killer.

(This is 110% crack. HQ!! focused.)

Ignis Aurum Probat - writing_addict

(fullmetal alchemist: brotherhood x how to train your dragon; gen; angst; humor; 37k words; ongoing)

Edward Elric is born early into the dead of winter, on an island twelve days North of Hopeless and a few degrees south of Freezing-To-Death. He comes into the world sickly and small--and endlessly defiant, burning with the kind of rage that can shake the foundations of the universe. The gods themselves hear that scream, that roar of fury and thunder promising to remake the world as they know it, and wonder.

Fifteen years later, Ed brings down the Night Fury that's been plaguing his people for generations, stands over it with the perfect opportunity to make the kill...and spares it. And just like that, the Norns begin weaving the fate of a hero.

61 notes · View notes

jolgan · 3 years

Text

Something Wicked Comes to Stay

Intro/Summary

Prologue

Chapter 1

Rating: T

Warnings: teenagers making out, demons, knives, identity crises (plural), existentialism, strong language at times, violence (teenagers attacking each other in a controlled environment, mentions of gang violence, oh yeah, demons), Teen Angst and other dumb teenage bs

Word Count: 5.8k

Chapter: 3/?

A/N: I’m still experimenting with narration so if there’s inconsistencies or things seem awkward that’s why and I’m sorry. Also character descriptions... Sorry about those too.

Chapter 2

Waves lapped at CeCe’s ankles, feet sinking further into the sand as she stared across the water. She could tell it was the ocean because of the salty brine in the air, even though the passage of water itself was narrow. On the opposite beach, a dark figure stared back at her from across the waves. She couldn’t tell anything about them, other than they were looking at her. This may have made her uncomfortable if it wasn’t something she’d seen before. Instead, it just left her frustrated.

A high-pitched beeping snapped CeCe from the beach. She opened her eyes and sighed. After a moment or two of staring at the ceiling she rolled over to turn off her alarm. She groaned, wishing she could go back to sleep, but it was the first day of school and she needed to get ready. She glanced toward the window as she got out of bed. It was pitch black out, not even four a.m. yet. CeCe yawned as she headed for the bathroom, thinking back to her dream.

She had been dreaming of the same beach since she was little. Before that, actually. Her mother dreamed of it when she was pregnant with her. The dreams started out as just the ocean, CeCe standing in the sand looking out across the vast expanse of the sea. Progressively, the ocean got smaller and another beach appeared. A while after that, the figure became visible, standing across from her. Although she had the same dream for her entire existence, she had no idea what it meant. No one else had any explanation for her either, other than it was probably linked with her powers. But she could have worse dreams she supposed. Some people might have even found them soothing, but they left her slightly unsettled at the lack of answers and made her feel like she kind of had to pee.

After getting ready for school, CeCe went downstairs to find something quick for breakfast. She was surprised to find both her parents in the kitchen waiting for her, but it made her smile that even though she was seventeen now, and perfectly capable of getting herself out the door, they still wanted to see her off on the first day of the new year. Wyatt sat at the table, scrolling through his news app and sipping coffee. Her mother, Melanie, poured her own cup and walked to the table to sit across from her husband.

“You didn’t have to get up this early,” CeCe told them as she entered the kitchen, but they both ignored her statement.

“Good morning sweetie. Did you have good dreams?” Her mother asked

“Wet ones,” CeCe answered. She closed her eyes, immediately regretting what she just said. Luckily her parents ignored the double entendre. She was glad she didn’t say that in front of Chloe.

“The ocean again?” Wyatt asked. CeCe nodded in response. “Any new developments?”

CeCe shook her head this time. “No, it’s still just a dark figure standing across from me.”

“You’ll figure out what it all means soon,” Melanie assured her with an eerie tone in her voice. She always responded that way when it came to subjects like this one. It must come from experience; they did have the same power after all.

CeCe pondered what her mother meant as she put a pop tart in the toaster.

“It’s just frustrating. I’ve been having these dreams for as long as I can remember, but I still know nothing about them. It doesn’t make any sense. I wish I had more control.” She complained as she joined her parents at the table. She took a bite of her breakfast while Melanie spoke.

“I know, honey. Someday you’ll be in full control of your powers and it will be easier. But even then, you’ll only know what you’re supposed to in the moment.”

CeCe knew her mother was right, but it didn’t make it any easier to accept. She echoed this thought in her words, “I know, Mom. But it would still be nice to have all the answers.”

Melanie chuckled and reached for CeCe’s hand. She squeezed it as she said, “But then there would be no adventure in life.”

CeCe finished her breakfast, hugged both her parents, and exchanged “I love you’s.”

“Be safe,” Wyatt called as CeCe was surrounded by white light and disappeared from the kitchen.

Magic School was on its own plane of existence. The specifics of this plane were unknown to most people, but it didn’t really matter. Everyone who needed to know how to get there did, and only those with pure intentions were allowed through the barrier. At least that’s how the Elder’s explained it. The school itself existed for thousands of years at this point and not much about it changed in all that time. Aesthetically, at least. The sun was shining when CeCe passed through the barrier. She landed on the cobblestone path and looked up fondly at the timeless school. The architecture was both ancient and modern and it was huge, no one alive today knew exactly how big it was. CeCe was grateful she got to go to school in such a beautiful place. She smiled to herself as she walked along the path to the tree that she and her friends had made their designated meeting place.

The three boys were already there when she arrived. Adam was sitting on the grass with a portable game console in his hands, fluffy, bleach blonde waves obscured his forehead and much of his eyes. Leaning against his back, was another bleach blonde boy, but his hair was straight and had longer, darker roots than Adam, giving it more of a two-toned look. The two boys had a similar build, both of about average height, or maybe even considered on the shorter side, and more wiry than anything else. The second boy was staring intently at the console he held in his hands. Laying in the grass front of them, was a smaller boy with wild red hair.

CeCe yawned a good morning and sat down next to the red head. “Why does school have to start so early? It’s not even five a.m. my time,” she said to no one in particular.

“How do you think Shoyo feels?” Adam questioned, barely looking up from his game. “It’s nine p.m. his time.”

CeCe looked at the red head next to her. “Are you gonna be okay today, Sho?” she asked.

The smaller boy, Shoyo, opened his eyes and squinted against the light. He stifled a yawn and smiled. “I’ll be okay. I started switching my sleep schedule around last week.”

CeCe smiled back and turned her head to address the other blonde boy. “What about you, Kenma? Ready for a new year?” she teased.

“I guess,” he answered, still fully invested in whatever game he and Adam were playing.

CeCe met Kenma Kozume four years ago when they were in the same class and got paired together for a project. Kenma is quiet and reserved and CeCe enjoyed being around him. His presence introduced a much calmer energy to the chaotic atmosphere that surrounded her and her cousins at the time. It was a classic mischievous, extrovert adopts unassuming, introvert situation. They got along well despite the differences in their personalities and eventually became very close. When CeCe introduced Kenma to her cousins, unsurprisingly, he and Adam hit it off rather quickly. They had a few commonalities and bonded over them. One of them being their interest in video games, another being that Adam was perceived as the least erratic of the Halliwell trio. Chloe, however, was a different story. They got along well enough, but their personalities clashed at times. Although Kenma was much quieter than the Halliwells, and based on the reputation that surrounded them, it didn’t seem to outsiders like he’d fit in, but he did. And much to his own chagrin, he enjoyed their energy.

Shoyo Hinata, however, visibly fit right in with the group. He was friendly and energetic. Shoyo was the newest addition and the youngest. He had only been a student at Magic School for two years, but when they met, Kenma and Shoyo took to each other right away. Soon after, Kenma introduced him to the cousins. They all loved his happy-go-lucky personality and welcomed him with open arms.

“Why aren’t you playing, Shoyo?” CeCe asked, gesturing to the console in Kenma’s hands.

“My mom won’t let me have one. She says they rot your brain,” he answered earnestly.

“How old fashioned,” Adam commented before swearing. “Damn it, Kenma! Again?”

Kenma shrugged. “No need to get sweaty about it, Adam. It’s just a game.”

“This is the fourth one I’ve lost this morning!” Adam complained.

“Guess I’m just built different,” Kenma deadpanned.

CeCe leaned closer to Shoyo. “I see what she means,” she said in a mock whisper. Her comment caused the younger boy to erupt into a fit of giggles and her cousin to whip his head around and glare at her with icy blue eyes. She smirked and cleared her throat. “Anyone seen Chloe yet?” she asked the group.

“She and Celine got here a little while before you did. They went inside already.” Adam told her, still glaring slightly.

“They seemed tense,” Kenma commented.

“They never argue verbally,” CeCe explained, knowing exactly what he sensed.

“I can understand where Celine is coming from. Chloe is a bit overprotective of her,” Adam empathized for his younger cousin.

Celine was Chloe’s younger sister and it was her first day back at Magic School since integration. Understandably, Chloe was worried for Celine’s safety and wellbeing and she let everyone know.

“Wait, how do they argue if it’s not out loud?” Shoyo wondered.

“They’re both empaths,” Kenma answered.

“No need for words when you know exactly what the other is feeling,” CeCe added.

Shoyo looked intrigued and then shuddered slightly, like he came to a realization.

The bell rang, cutting off any further discussion. The group collected their belongings and headed toward the entrance of the school. CeCe’s mind wandered as they walked, passing other groups of students. In the two years that passed since demons started coming to Magic School, tensions had settled. The transition was understandably rocky in the beginning, both sides butting heads frequently, but eventually they adjusted, and settled into their new reality. Some students had even made friends with their new classmates. Every now and then there was still a scuffle, but disciplinary actions were taken, and things were seemingly resolved.

At the front entrance of the school, glimmering marble steps lead up to a pair of giant wooden doors that were visibly ancient. Other students rushed around them, trying to make it to class on time. Once inside the school, the group of friends said their goodbyes and went their separate ways. Adam and Kenma joined hands and orbed to their first period class which they had together. “See you in fourth period?” CeCe asked Shoyo. He nodded with a grin and they too headed to first period.

The first half of the day flew by. CeCe had magical literature, potions, and lunch by herself, which she was used to. The administration learned early on in their education to not put any of the Halliwells in the same classes. This was a bit irritating now that they were maturing beyond their mischievous childhoods, but they understood that they created a reputation for themselves, and now they had to live with that.

Fourth period finally came along. CeCe was currently sitting in “Theory of Practical Healing” a class for half-whitelighters who haven’t awakened their healing abilities yet. She listened to the teacher drone on about how “You need to have enough compassion in your heart to be able to heal others.” CeCe rolled her eyes internally. She knew what it took to gain the ability to heal, if you were going to anyway. She shook the thought away and looked over her shoulder at Shoyo, who to her surprise, was listening intently and taking notes on what the teacher had to say. The more she thought about it, it made sense that this class would be able to hold his attention better than another subject. Shoyo was a born-whitelighter. This meant that one of his parents, in this case his father, was a whitelighter who fell in love with a mortal and had a child. There were a couple of them around, but it was a rare thing. Most of the other students in the class were half-whitelighter (or quarter in CeCe’s case), half-witch. After sitting for what seemed like way longer than an hour and twenty minutes, the class ended.

“Do you have a free period now, Sho?” she asked the red head as they packed up their materials. Before he could answer, they were interrupted by another student that was still in the classroom.

“Hey Hey, Hinata!” a big guy, both tall and muscular, with spiky gray hair exclaimed as he bounded up behind Shoyo and threw an arm over his shoulder. “Halliwell,” he added with a smile and nod in her direction. CeCe smiled back.

“Hey, Bokuto,” Shoyo greeted.

“Did you guys have a good summer?” Bokuto asked. Both CeCe and Shoyo told him they did. “That’s great to hear! Let me know if you need anything! I gotta go meet up with Akaashi,” he said, unwinding himself from the much smaller boy.

“How are you guys doing?” CeCe asked before he left.

With a dreamy look in his eyes, a dopey smile slowly spread across his face. “We’re great, thanks for asking,” he said before sobering up. “Alright, I’ll catch you guys later,” he said as he orbed off to find his boyfriend.

“They’re so cute,” CeCe commented, mostly to herself. “Anyway, you wanna come to the library with me?” she asked Shoyo.

The library was close enough to the classroom they were in, so they decided to walk and chat. CeCe asked Shoyo what he did over vacation since she hadn’t seen him since his birthday at the end of June. He explained that the school year was a bit different in Japan, and summer break was a lot shorter than what they had at Magic School, so he was pretty much home alone during the day for the first part of their summer. He told her about how he took care of his little sister, Natsu and kept her entertained while their mother was at work. He also told her all about his friend Kageyama and how they practiced volleyball together for the rest of the break. Curiosity struck CeCe about how Shoyo managed to keep friends outside of Magic School and magic in general.

“Where does your friend think you go to school?” she asked, seemingly out of nowhere.

“Oh, uh, he thinks I go to an international school that my dad managed to get me into,” he told her. “It’s not exactly a lie, but it still sucks that I can’t tell him the real truth,” he said, sadly.

CeCe looked down, nodding sympathetically. She didn’t realize her question would make him sad and she kind of wished she kept her mouth shut.

“But hey!” he said quickly, rubbing the back of his neck. “I don’t think Kageyama would believe me even if I could tell him. And honestly, I don’t think he thinks I’m smart or creative enough to come up with any of this on my own. He’d probably think I just got it from a movie or something,” he chuckled awkwardly.

“I’m sorry, Shoyo,” she said sincerely.

He brushed off her apology with a wave. “It’s not a big deal, really,” he smiled, though it wasn’t as bright as usual.

They walked silently for a while. CeCe thought about how Shoyo didn’t find out he was magical until he was thirteen and how he used to lead a completely different life. Since she was raised magical, she couldn’t imagine how it would feel to have her life totally uprooted like that. From stories that Grams would tell, she knew that it was really difficult to maintain relationships with people who didn’t and couldn’t know about magic. She felt terrible that Shoyo had to keep so much of himself hidden from his friend, especially when they seemed like they were pretty close. Under the sympathy she felt for her friend, she was also a bit irritated with him. If she had known that he was alone for most of the summer, she would have asked him to hang out more. It’s not like she couldn’t orb to Japan and be back in time for dinner. But she felt like she had already done enough damage, so she kept that irritation to herself. A few more moments of silence passed between the two before Shoyo broke it, saying he was going to use the rest room and he’d meet up with her at the library.

CeCe continued down the hall, hoping that she didn’t upset Shoyo as badly as she was afraid she had. She pulled out her phone to distract herself. She had a text from her dad. “Hey, sweetheart,” It read, “We’re going to be having family dinner tonight at the house. Your Aunt Melinda is back in town.” As her eyes scanned over Melinda’s name, she felt her body being pulled forward. She blinked and when she opened her eyes again, instead of being in the hallway at school, she was standing in her attic in front of the Book of Shadows. It was open to a page with “Akuma” written across the top with Chinese characters underneath it, but she couldn’t see any other details on the page.

“I don’t know, kid. I’d ask Grams about that. She would know better than me,” Melinda told her.

CeCe felt herself walk into something large and hard. The “object” grunted. The noise dragged her back to the present. “I am so sorry,” she apologized, “I-,” she was going to explain, but the words died on her lips as she looked up and was met with a cold, hard glare. It was a demon boy. He was at least a foot taller than her. Based on how it felt when she walked into him, she inferred that he was in excellent shape. He had wavy, black hair and cold, black eyes. The rest of his features were hidden beneath a cloth mask, except for two moles stacked on top of each other over his right eyebrow. Under other circumstances, she might find them unique and maybe even attractive. But right now, she was intimidated. She felt herself shrink under his gaze.

“Watch it, witch” a masculine voice said from her right. She didn’t look to see who it had come from.

Neither CeCe, nor the boy she walked into said anything. He continued to glare at her and she stared back, not wanting to let her guard down, but she also felt frozen, like she couldn’t look away.

“Come on, Omi,” a feminine voice whined. She tugged on the demon’s right hand. He pulled it from her grasp, his glare shifting from CeCe to the other girl. Finally, he stepped around CeCe and continued down the hall with his group.

“Witches, man,” The other boy said.

The dark-haired demon ignored him though and chose to address the other girl instead.

“I have repeatedly asked you not to touch me,” he told her, bitterly.

CeCe remained in the spot he left her. Her mind swam as she tried to process everything that happened in the last two minutes. On top of the confusion she felt about the premonition, she was mortified. She felt betrayed by her powers and body. How could she keep moving if she wasn’t mentally present?

“Are you okay, CeCe?” Shoyo asked as he jogged up behind her. His voice helped shake her out of her internal struggle.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” she responded. “Demons are rude as hell.” Shoyo snorts at her joke, that being enough to convince him she was alright. She offered a small smile and they continued to the library.

Kenma and Chloe were already there by the time they arrived. They sat together at a round table in the far corner of the room. Chloe seemed anxious, nerves rolling off her in waves CeCe could feel from across the room, even without being an empath herself. Kenma did his best to ignore her, opting to focus on a game instead.

“Have you had any premonitions today?” Chloe asked CeCe before she could even sit down and say hello.

CeCe was taken aback by her cousin’s question. How’d she know? she thought to herself.

“Uh… about what?” she asked out loud. She felt Kenma’s gaze shift to her curiously.

“Celine!” Chloe shouted impatiently, the outburst earning her dirty looks from students at surrounding tables. She lowered her voice when she continued, “It’s her first day and I’m so worried about her. I haven’t had any either.”

“Well, if you haven’t had a premonition about her I’m sure that means she’s fine right?” CeCe reasoned.

“No, that doesn’t mean she’s fine at all!” Chloe raised her voice again.

The boys stayed quiet and let CeCe try to calm her cousin.

“Chloe,” CeCe said in her most soothing tone. “I’m sure Celine is fine. It’s not like she’s never been here before and she knows how to get to us if she needs help.”

Her words were not enough to douse Chloe’s anxieties.

“She’s never been here with demons before! I’m gonna go find her,” Chloe vanished in pinkish-red light, not even bothering to get up before beaming to find her sister.

With that discussion over, Kenma piped up.

“So, what was it about?” he asked CeCe nonchalantly.

“What was what about?” she asked, confused about what he meant.

“Your premonition. You only asked, ‘about what.’ You never said you didn’t have one.”

In their four years of friendship, CeCe still couldn’t get over how perceptive Kenma was. It was kind of unnerving at times, how he knew so much more than other people did just by paying more attention to small details.

She sighed. “Uh, I was in the attic at home, talking to my aunt. Nothing special,” she shrugged.

Kenma seemed satisfied with that answer until Shoyo asked, “Is that why you walked into that guy, CeCe?”

She groaned. She hadn’t realized Shoyo saw that much of the unfortunate interaction.

Kenma snorted “You walked into someone? Who?” he asked.

Shoyo answered for her, “Those really tall Japanese guys. The demonic ones. I was afraid they were gonna kill her.”

“Oh yeah, those guys are jerks,” Kenma agreed. “You okay?” he asked CeCe.

“Just a bit humiliated,” she huffed. She was jealous of Chloe’s premonitions. They were more like flashes of the future instead of actually going there. Chloe also had way more control of them than CeCe did. She didn’t walk into people in the middle of them, for instance. CeCe searched for a way to change the subject and remembered the text from her dad. “Do you want to come to family dinner tonight?” she asked both boys.

“No thanks, I can only take so much of your family,” Kenma declined.

“That’s fair. What about you, Sho?”

“Oh, I would, but I have plans with Kageyama later,” the red head answered. “Thank you, though,” he said with a smile.

“Sure,” she smiled back.

The three students settled into a comfortable silence, only breaking it to ask each other a question about assignments they were working on. CeCe tried desperately to not think about the debacle in the hallway. She couldn’t help but think about her premonition though. How random was that? CeCe hated the visions that gave her no context. She wondered if it would have been longer if she hadn’t walked into that guy.

Shoyo’s voice interrupted her thoughts when he asked Kenma what a certain kanji meant. Cece knew the book would be written in perfect English when she looked at it, but she glanced at the page anyway. That was another cool thing about Magic School, and what made it so easy for them to educate magical students from all over the world. Students heard and read their native language no matter where they were within the plane. Sometimes it tripped CeCe out to think that when she spoke to Kenma, for example, he heard Japanese even though she was speaking English and vice versa.

A nagging feeling ate at CeCe as she thought about her premonition and the characters on the page in the Book of Shadows. “Hey Kenma? Do you know anything about who or what Akuma is?” she asked when he was done answering Shoyo’s question.

Kenma’s face fell slightly and he was quiet for a moment. He cleared his throat before he answered, “Uh yeah, he’s a demon, based in Japan. He mostly works above ground now. He seems to be heavily involved with organized crime these days.”

Cece felt like there was something he was leaving out, but she didn’t pry. She knew he would tell her when he was comfortable enough, he always did. “That was part of my vision,” she explained. “I was looking at his page in the book.”

Kenma nodded his understanding and the group fell back into silence, working on their various assignments. Around ten minutes before the end of the period, Chloe returned. She walked back to their table and sat down. She looked both flustered and slightly more relaxed.

“I embarrassed her.” She said sheepishly.

“What did you do?” CeCe asked accusingly.

“I may or may not have beamed directly into her classroom.” Chloe admitted after a moment of hesitation. “I got chewed out for interrupting her professor’s lecture on exposure. Then he used me as an example.”

“Is Celine okay?” CeCe asked, more for Chloe’s sake than Celine’s.

“Oh yeah, she’s fine. She probably just won’t talk to me for the rest of the day,” Chloe told her. “What classes do you guys have next?”

Shoyo answered first and told her he had Wiccan History. Chloe smiled brightly.

“So does Celine!” Of course she memorized her sister’s schedule as well as her own. “Would you keep an eye on her for me?” she asked him very seriously as she ran a hand through her thick, dark hair, her smile turning saccharine.

Shoyo cleared his throat and agreed, a hint of pink tinged his cheeks.

“You are the best, Shoyo,” Chloe praised, while she made direct eye contact with the younger boy. Her soft, brown eyes bored into his. Shoyo’s blush deepened and he looked like his brain might short circuit.

“Chloe,” CeCe said her name like a warning.

Chloe tore her eyes from the bright red, red head and turned her focus back to CeCe and Kenma.

“What about you guys?” she asked, tone shifting slightly. Kenma rolled his eyes at her.

“Kenma and I have something called “Tactical Magic,”’ CeCe said. “Whatever that is.”

Chloe scrunched up her face. “What the hell? Are they gonna use you guys to raise an army or something?”

“I guess we’ll find out,” CeCe shrugged.

Kenma and CeCe walked to class together silently. He always found it easier to keep his mouth shut around Chloe, only speaking to her when she asked him something directly, but this seemed different. CeCe wondered if there was some lingering tension from the Akuma conversation.

They walked into a large, airy classroom. It was located in one of the towers, so the far wall of the room was curved, making it a semi-circle. All the desks were pushed to either side of the room leaving a large open space in the middle. They were instructed to remain standing as they entered. Murmurs from other students filled the room. They mostly asked each other if anyone knew what this class was about.

The bell rang and two men came to stand in front of the class. CeCe recognized one as Takeda, a whitelighter and the school’s counselor of sorts. He had curly, black hair and brown eyes. He wore thick framed glasses and a soft, approachable expression. The other man was almost the total opposite of Takeda. He was taller and broader than the counselor and had blonde hair that was held out of his face by a headband. He had multiple piercings in his ears. Overall, he looked like someone you might cross the street to avoid. This guy was clearly a demon.

The demon spoke first. “Hello, welcome to Tactical Magic. My name is Ukai and I’m going to be your instructor for this class.” Takeda cleared his throat from beside his counterpart. Ukai rolled his eyes and added, “Takeda is here in case you wanna drop the class or if you end up with emotional trauma, I guess.”

“I’m here to make students more comfortable,” Takeda corrected.

“Right,” Ukai snorted. He inhaled to continue speaking but acknowledged a student who had their hand raised instead. “Yes?”

“What is this class about?” the student asked.

“I was getting to that before I was interrupted,” Ukai told the student. “This course is to evaluate and develop how you fight against the opposite side.”

A beat of silence filled the classroom before a wave of voices crashed over them, all varying degrees of confusion and outrage in their tone.

“So, you’re teaching them to kill us?” a voice asked from behind CeCe. She couldn’t tell whether its owner was a witch or a demon. It didn’t matter at this point.

CeCe looked at Kenma, his amber eyes slightly wider than usual. She took his hand and squeezed gently. He looked at her, his features relaxing slightly.

“What do the Elders have to say about this?” another student asked.

Concerned chatter from other students continued to fill the room until Takeda finally regained control.

“Alright, enough,” he said sternly, surprising some students with his tone. “The Elders developed this course to provide a controlled environment to teach you all to defend yourselves outside of this plane. This is meant to keep you safe. All of you,” he said pointedly.

The students processed the whitelighter’s words and the meaning behind them. They eventually settled down and silence fell over the room. Ukai glanced gratefully at Takeda before he spoke once again.

“Today we are going to do an exercise to get a feel for your individual strengths and weaknesses,” he said, getting right into it. “I’ve already paired you off, one demon or warlock, one witch. You’ll have two minutes to do your best to subdue your partner. Powers and hand to hand combat are both allowed, but no weapons.” Then his tone changed, “It really is a shame they don’t allow them anymore. They used to have a bitchin’ selection.”

Takeda shot him a weird look.

Ukai cleared his throat and called the first pair of names. The two students walked to the center of the room and faced each other from opposite ends of the open space. The instructor set a timer for two minutes and told them to begin. When their two minutes were up, the round ended with the demonic student as the winner. The next two names were called. This went on for a couple of rounds, sometimes the witch won, sometimes the demon. As CeCe watched the other students spar, she tried to come up with a plan of her own. She decided that simply freezing her opponent and anything they threw at her would be sufficient. Another pair of names were called. When their round began, CeCe looked over at Kenma again. He seemed like he had relaxed, his hands in the pockets of his hoodie, watching the other students spar. Kenma shouldn’t have any trouble with this exercise. He may have seemed unassuming, but he was one of the most powerful students at Magic School. He had the power of thought projection, meaning he could create images and show whatever he wanted to whomever he wanted. It made him formidable, but also put him in danger.

“Kozume, Kuro, you’re up,” Ukai called.

Kenma walked to the center of the room with his hands still in his pockets. His opponent, Kuro looked familiar to CeCe. She had seen him around a lot in the last year, hanging out with Bokuto. She was pretty sure he was a warlock. He was tall and had jet black hair that he wore in an interesting style. He looked like one of those “scene” kids Aunt Melinda used to talk about.

“Begin,” Ukai told them as he started their timer.

“Let’s see what you can do,” Kuro said in a rather cocky tone.

Before he could take even a half a step forward, or blink, Kuro’s eyes glazed over. He was already trapped in Kenma’s illusion. Kenma stood the same way he had been before the match started, hands in his pockets, looking at Kuro. Neither of the boys moved for the full two minutes. Kuro couldn’t have fought his way out of the projection if he wanted to. Finally, the timer went off and Kenma let Kuro free.

“Uh, okay… Kozume, good job I guess,” Ukai said, not really sure about what just happened.

Kenma walked back to CeCe and reclaimed his place beside her. Kuro stared after him with glassy eyes for a moment before he too walked back to where he had been standing in the group.

Cece leaned closer to Kenma. “What did you show him?” she whispered.

“The meadow,” he answered simply.

Ah, the meadow. She thought back to the first time Kenma had shown her the meadow when they were fourteen. It was gorgeous. Bright sunshine and pretty wildflowers surrounded her. There was a crystal-clear brook that babbled in the distance. The main attraction, however, was the guy that joined her. It was that one guy from that one band. The cute one with the swoopy hair. She smiled to herself as she thought about it now. That was the point of the meadow, to show you your greatest love or biggest crush and distract you with them. Kenma couldn’t see who they were though. To him it was just a white figure.

CeCe was jolted out of her happy memory by Ukai’s voice calling her name.

“Halliwell, Sakusa, your turn.”

A nervous pit that wasn’t there before settled in CeCe’s stomach. She walked to the center of the room and saw her opponent. Dread washed over her as she looked into the same cold stare from earlier. It was the boy from the hallway. The one she walked into. Well, this should be interesting, she thought to herself.

“Halliwell, huh? This should be interesting,” his deep voice rumbled through her, mirroring her sentiments.

#Charmed 1998 #haikyuu!!#fanfiction #charmed hq crossover #future magic school AU #SWCtS #all photos from google dot com

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365daysofsasuhina · 4 years

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[ 365 Days of SasuHina || Day Three Hundred Fifty-Six: Don’t Go There ] [ Uchiha Sasuke, Hyūga Hinata, Hyūga Hiashi, Uchiha Itachi, Tsunade, Hyūga Hanabi ] [ SasuHina ] [ Verse: Best Years of Your Life ] [ AO3 Link ]

Well, this...isn’t at all how she thought this would go.

This morning, Hinata was driven to the hospital by her father for a rather rudimentary procedure. Once a person turns sixteen, they’re of the legal age to have a piece of technology implanted into their wrist. Said to be a strange mix of science, astrology, and other...interesting methods, it’s proclaimed to be able to count down to the moment a person will meet the one they’re the most compatible with.

In other words...a soulmate.

Hinata, personally, has never put much stock in it. While records do show that divorce rates have fallen in the past few decades the devices have been around, it’s not shown to be perfect, either. Though she’s a romantic at heart (and part of her really does want it to be real), the skeptic in her just can’t quite accept that something based on such questionable evidence could ever be accurate.

But her father insisted she have the surgery done. And so, the morning of her sixteenth birthday, she had it implanted.

She’s now on her way home, the tech wrapped and hidden under gauze. And much to her chagrin, she’s being escorted out via wheelchair. Something about the anesthetic making it possible she could fall. Which is silly. She feels fine!

But it’s when she, her father, and the nurse pushing her chair make to step up to the elevator that the unexpected happens.

Barely in a handful of hours...her timer begins to beep.

And beyond the lift doors, so does someone else’s.

Everyone involved has frozen, save for one. A man in a wheelchair much like herself just seems lightly amused, smiling as the teen boy behind him and pushing his ride gawks at his blaring timer.

Beyond him, it’s Hiashi that reacts first. Though she really has no idea what she expected him to do, given how absolutely unexpected this is...getting angry isn’t what she’d have guessed.

Bristling, the man steps out in front of his daughter, the nurse wheeling her back in surprise. “What is the meaning of this?!”

The chair-bound man blinks. “...I believe this is the function of timers, is it not? To count down to a person’s supposed fated meeting of a soulmate?”

“My daughter just had hers implanted -!”

“Then I suppose that makes her a bit of a statistical miracle. From what I understand, that’s a very rare occurrence.”

As though mulling that over, Hiashi then rounds on the nurse. “Explain this!”

“Sir, I...I have no idea. In all my years working here, we’ve never had something like this happen! It’s...certainly possible. But very unlikely. It seems the young lady and young man are -”

“Don’t...go there,” he cuts in, tone icy. “My daughter is sixteen. That’s far too young to be entertaining the idea of a soulmate.”

Behind him, the seated man perks a brow. “...and yet you knew it was a possibility, given that she’s had it implanted at said age. Sasuke too is only sixteen. Has been only for a few months. But there’s no written rule saying they must now immediately wed. It’s just a knowing.”

“That is...not my point!” Hiashi stutters, clearly unsure how to make his argument, given his conflicting ideals.

“Dad, I -”

“Don’t interrupt me.”

“Sir, I think maybe we should all go sit, and -”

“No! I am taking my daughter home. And you -” he then spits, pointing at the one previously called Sasuke, “are to stay far away from her!”

“Dad!” Hinata cuts in, unable to take his attitude any longer, timid or not. “Don’t t-talk to him that way, you don’t even know him!”

“Don’t you talk back to me, young lady -!”

“What on earth is going on?!”

Storming down the hall, a blond woman of short and stout stature glares amber daggers at Hiashi. “I won’t have this nonsense in my hospital!”

The nurse tries to explain. “Doctor Senju, I’m so sorry - we had a bit of an incident, and -?”

“My daughter hasn’t had her timer for three hours, and she’s already been declared a match!” Hiashi cuts in, clearly trying to intimidate said doctor with his taller height.

Hinata just does her best to shrink in her chair, utterly ashamed at his behavior.

Hands on her hips, Senju doesn’t bat an eye at his posturing. “That’s not my problem, my nurse’s problem, or my hospital’s problem. If you want to make a ruckus, take it outside! I’ll throw you out myself before I let your conduct ruin the calm in this place of healing, am I understood?!”

Looking ready to explode, Hiashi demands, “Then let us go. Your nurse can entrust the chair to me. We are leaving.”

“But Dad -!”

“No buts!”

Meanwhile, the pair in the elevator have nowhere to go. Sasuke just stares, dumbfounded. His brother now looks wholly unamused.

“Excuse us,” Hiashi growls, pushing Hinata in as Sasuke scrambles to get out.

Heart racing and feeling desperate, Hinata calls, “I’m Hinata Hyūga! What’s your name?”

“Hinata, don’t -!”

“...Sasuke Uchiha!” he manages to reply, a bit too shocked for a moment.

The doors then close, and Hiashi rails on his daughter. “What are you doing?!”

“I w-wanted to know his name!” she retorts. “I should at l-least get that much, since you’re being so, so...obstinate!”

“Obstinate?!”

“The nurse was right! It’s always a possibility, and s-some people meet their soulmate even younger, before they can get the timer! Getting mad at me because y-you don’t like it, despite forcing me into it, is ridiculous!”

Hiashi goes deathly quiet. Neither of his daughters have ever dared spoken back to him like this...let alone in a way that proves he’s in the wrong.

His pride won’t stand for it.

“...I forbid you from seeing that boy,” he then demands. “Not until you’re eighteen.”

“Fine! The o-only reason I know is because you m-made me do this!”

“One more word with that tone out of your mouth, and the consequences will be dire, Hinata. Not another sound.”

Though hardly the sort to get mad, Hinata seethes, completely at a loss of how unfair this all is. Sasuke getting yelled at when he had no idea what was going on...her father being a raging hypocrite...and she never even wanted this in the first place! Now she’s in trouble because Hiashi refused to consider the very real possibilities?!

...still, she reins in her temper. As upset as she is, she doesn’t want to risk having anything taken away...especially her phone or her computer.

She knows his name. Knows what he looks like. Her father is just dated enough he doesn’t yet realize that she has ways to work around his ‘no meeting Sasuke’ rule. She doesn’t have to see him face to face to text him, or facetime him.

So long as she plays it cool...she can still make this work.

The car ride home is spent in bitter silence, Hinata staring out the window and doing her best to still act sore to hide her intentions. If he puzzles out that she has a plan, he’ll stop her.

“Go to your room, and remain there until dinner is ready. I want you to think about how you disrespected me, and ensure you never do so again. Am I understood?”

“...yes, Dad.”

Hanabi is lounging on a couch when they come in, watching awkwardly as she immediately notices the tension. As Hiashi starts banging things around in the kitchen, she sneaks around to the upstairs where her and her sister’s rooms are located.

“...‘nata…?”

“Come in, Hanabi.”

Peering through a crack, the younger sister then bounds in, confusion written all over her face. “What the hell happened?”

“Language, Hanabi…”

“I haven’t seen Dad that mad in...in...forever!”

Sighing, Hinata explains as briefly as she can, shushing her sister as she gasps.

“That fast?!”

“Yeah. And Dad was furious.”

“What? Why?”

“Because I’m too young.”

Brow furrowed and eyes flickering between Hinata’s, Hanabi considers that for a long moment. “...but you’re of age to get it.”

“That’s what I said, and he got mad. I guess he never expected it, but...it can happen. And now he’s mad at m-me for his own miscalculation. I didn’t even w-want the stupid thing…”

“Wow...man, Hinata I’m sorry.”

“...it’s fine. He’ll get over it.”

“Do you know who he is?”

“Mhm.”

“...sooo…?”

Hinata glances to her door, wary of being overheard and her plan ousted. “...don’t mention anything to him, okay?”

“I won’t, I won’t!”

“Thank you.”

Hanabi then sighs, glancing aside and clearly thinking. “...I’m sorry, Hinata.”

“Don’t be. It’s n-not your fault.”

“I know, but...jeez!”

“It’ll be fine. I’ll just keep pretending, and...he doesn’t have to be the wiser. Just remember, don’t say anything.”

“Dude, I’m the best at keeping secrets, don’t worry!”

“All right...well, you better leave before he gets any angrier.”

“Are you gonna try to message him today?”

“After dinner.”

“Man, I hope he’s cool…”

Hinata can’t help a short snort. “Yeah...m-me too.”

Half an hour later, Hiashi calls them both down for a rather tense and awkward dinner, no one really talking. Even Hanabi chews quietly, eyes flickering between her father and sister.

“...do you have any homework to do tonight?” Hiashi eventually asks.

“No...I got it all done early.”

“Good. Back to school for you tomorrow.”

“...yes, Dad.”

Once dishes are done and everyone retreated to their corners, Hinata begins her digging. Social media is her first stop. He doesn’t have a Facebook, or at least not one she can find. But she finds him on Twitter.

“...all right, Sasuke...time to say a proper hello,” she murmurs, clicking to follow him.

To her surprise, it takes all of five minutes for him to do so back. And less than a minute after that to DM her.

“Hey...are you really the girl from the hospital this morning?”

“Yeah...that’s me. Look, um...I’m so sorry about my dad. He was so rude to you…”

“I mean...yeah. But hey, it was a really weird situation. You okay?”

“I’m fine. Got yelled at but otherwise fine.”

“Does he know you’re talking to me…?”

“Oh gosh, no. He’d ground me into the next century. I just...wanted to say a proper hello. This is...weird, isn’t it?”

“...kinda, yeah. To be honest, I haven’t really been thinking about my timer. I knew I only had a few months when I got it, but...I lost track of time helping take care of my brother.”

“Oh, that was your brother?”

“Yeah...he has an autoimmune condition.”

“...I’m so sorry.”

“It’s all right. He’s doing pretty well with medication and stuff. We were on our way for an infusion when we uh...ran into you guys.”

“And then my dad ruined it...I’m so sorry. I hope you weren’t late?”

“A little. Man, that doctor was PISSED.”

“I bet…”

“She got it all ironed out though, and my bro got his meds. We’re home now and just kinda chilling. It’s always a rough few days after an infusion.”

“Oh...well, tell him I hope he feels better soon. What’s his name?”

“I will. And it’s Itachi.”

For another hour, Hinata just...talks to him. It’s funny. They’re strangers, and she’s usually so shy, but...for some reason, she feels totally comfortable. Part of her blames the timers, but...well, maybe there is something to it.

“Well, I better head off and get my homework done. But hey, I’ll talk to you later, okay?”

“Okay! Good luck with your work.”

“Thanks. Maybe after a while we could like...meet up or something? Since uh...our first run-in wasn’t very...great.”

At that, she bites her lip. “...maybe. Not that I’m against it! I mean I’d like to talk a lot more first, but...my dad said I couldn’t see you.”

“Oh...well, shit.”

“...let’s just...give it a while. Let him cool off, and get to know each other more. Then maybe I can have my friends help sneak me out. You know, just so happen to run into you while we’re like...at the mall or something.”

“Ooh, sneaky...I like it. Sounds good. But yeah, I don’t mean to come off as an eager freak. My bad.”

“Oh, no no! I know what you mean, I’m really curious too. And I feel bad about today...but best to just like...take things slow and easy, right?”

“Yeah, cool. Guess I’ll chat with you tomorrow, then.”

“Mhm! Goodnight, Sasuke.”

“Night.”

Glancing to her clock, Hinata finds it rather late...and after almost no sleep last night, she decides to call it a day. Readying for bed and bidding the others goodnight, she slips into bed, mind once again full...but in a good way this time. She doesn’t want to rely too much on the notion of a soulmate. After all, she still has no idea who this Sasuke is, what he’s like...best to be careful. Just in case.

...but for now, she’ll let herself dream about when they’ll meet. Properly this time.

.oOo.

Okay, more of the soulmate AU! This one kinda blew up compared to normal, so I wanted to get another part out as soon as I could! I might also be able to do ANOTHER part tomorrow, looking at my prompt list...I guess if you guys want that, let me know? xD I am very quickly liking this AU, lol - as I said, never done a soulmate AU before. It's neat! While I don't like this one QUITE as much as yesterday's (mostly, I will admit, because of Itachi's line at the end xD), it makes for a good segue, and has Hiashi's jerk reaction. Some verses I like to redeem his behavior. This is not one of those times, haha! Anyway, I gotta head to bed now, so that's all for now. Thanks so much for reading!

#sasuhina #uchiha sasuke #hyūga hinata #hyūga hiashi #uchiha itachi #tsunade #hyūga hanabi #best years of your life [ au ]#365daysofsasuhina

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nsfwsportsanimebabes · 6 years

Text

A Ray of Sunshine...really?

description: reader is a third year manager at Shiratorizawa and gets along well with her team because of her bubbly and friendly personality. And of all the players of the rival Karasuno team she could befriend, it just so happens to be Ushijima’s least favorite first year, Hinata Shouyou.

requested: well...yes and no. I had an initial idea of posting something to do with our Shiratorizawa boys and a fem. friend/crush....but the idea of said friend befriending our ray of sunshine was not my idea. So to the person who brought up the befriending Hinata idea, kudos to you, it worked well with this idea. Hope you guys enjoy some more Ushi and Shiratorizawa third years. \(^-^)/ ~Admin Crow

Being the manager of the Shiratorizawa boys Volleyball Club had many perks. And considering this was your third and final year at Shiratorizawa, you would have to say this was the best year yet. Over the years you had come to love each and every member of the team. Particularly your fellow third years on the team. When you had joined the team your 1st year you were intimidated by the sheer power the team held. Now here you were, years later and you yourself were one of the few able to keep all of these rowdy powerhouse volleyball dorks in check.

Most of it was due to the quick friendships you made with your fellow classmates, particularly, and surprising to many, with the current Captain, Ushijima Wakatoshi. Despite him being a man of few words, and even fewer that were not about volleyball, you found yourself developing a small crush on the brunette. Unsure of what his own feelings were, you didn’t let your little crush on him change anything about the relationship the two of you already had. Your bubbly and friendly personality in contrast with the quiet and stoic boy was something the team always seemed to tease, wondering how it worked together so well. They blamed it mostly on the ability of keeping the team in check being something the two of you excelled at, and bonded over.

Of course, your ability to keep them in check isn’t the part of your personality that stands out beyond the team. What does stand out amongst the team, the school, and any competing team, is your bubbly, excitable and overly warm to everyone personality that you share with every person you come in contact with. Shiratorizawa is a powerhouse school, but for them to have captured such a wonderful human being as a manager such as you, well they must have luck on their side as well.

But luck wasn’t something the team really relied on. Considering you all were currently on the way to the match that determines who qualifies to represent Miyagi for the national tournament. You flipped through a magazine mindlessly, while the third years around you were discussing your opponent. The Fallen crows; a high school quickly climbing their way through the ranks to return as a powerhouse school, Karasuno High School.

“Is it true that you know some of the players on the Karasuno team Wakatoshi?” You looked up at the question Tendou Satori had asked the brunette sitting in the seat next to you. Satori leaned across the aisle, an eyebrow raised in question.

You noticed Semi Eita, who had sat behind you, leaning forward over the back of your seat to hear Ushijima’s response. Along with Reon peeking his head around UshiWaka’s seat as well. His own curiosity getting the best of him. Looking around Ushijima noticed the others listening in and shook his head “No. I wouldn’t say I know them. I met them once. They ran into me during my run. Kageyama Tobio and Hinata Shouyou. Two first years.” he responded simply.

“Did they say anything about what positions they play? Are they first year starters or something?” Satori shot more questions.

“It says in this program that they are first year starters. Kageyama Tobio is a setter. I think I’ve heard of him before. He came from Kitagawa Daiichi. He’s supposed to be some genius setter. The other is Hinata Shouyou, a middle blocker.” Semi interrupted, pointing it out in a volleyball program from earlier in the year.

Frowning, Ushijima shrugged “I care not whether they are starters or not. Confidence that cannot be backed up with talent is unacceptable and annoying.”

The three boys let out whistles and comments at the obvious dislike in Ushijima’s tone. You grinned to yourself, waiting for them to calm down. “Well it sounds to me like you don’t like one, or both of these two first years UshiWaka?” you lightly questioned the boy.

“Not particularly, no.” was all he said, ending that conversation as abruptly as it started.

The five of you spent the rest of the trip talking lightly with each other, and occasionally other team members chiding in comments, about what you thought the other team would be like, and how the game would go. Although the confidence in their teams ability never wavered from any minds, including your own. You had many, many games under your belt and the overwhelming amount of wins vs losses gave you confidence that you would be returning to nationals one more time with your team.

Once the bus arrived and everyone had unloaded, you began your manager duties, grabbing the bag of empty water bottles, and set off to fill them off as the team began their individual stretches and warm ups before heading out to the main court. As you filled your fourth water bottle, you overheard a yell, followed by a few voices you vaguely recognized. Peeking your head around the corner, you recognized two players from a well known rival team, Aoba Johsai; third year Captain and Vice Captain, Oikawa Tooru and Iwaizumi Hajime. From the looks of it, it looked like they were heckling what looked like a lost middle school kid. The poor orange haired boy looked terrified, and the culprit of the screams coming from him as he ran into Ushijima who had walked up to the trio unnoticed until then.

The orange haired boy quickly excused himself, and came flying around the corner, leaning against the wall to catch his breath. You smiled, resuming your current task before looking over at the boy. “Did you get lost or something trying to find the gym? Those third years can seem intimidating, but I promise they aren’t anything more than giant dorks.”

The boy looked up at your voice and came over shaking his head “No. I didn’t get lost. the bathroom is a scary place where you run into scary giant volleyball players. N-not that I would know that from a lot of experience!” the boy stuttered, blushing as he spoke. You found it very cute. The kid obviously blushing at talking to a girl.

“So who are you here to see? Your older brother or something?-” you paused, looking closer at the boys uniform. He was wearing a black and orange volleyball uniform, with a black jacket over the uniform. It read Karasuno High School.

“No. I’m Hinata Shouyou. And I’m going to defeat UshiWaka and go on to win at Nationals.”

You almost started laughing, but seeing the serious look on this boys face had you tilting your head to side curiously. “Okay Hinata Shouyou, well I look forward to seeing you play then, if you’re that determined anyway.” you smiled. And the boy relaxed smiling back.

Hinata stood there talking with you, obviously not realizing what school you were with. But you found him absolutely adorable and couldn’t bring yourself to stop him from talking. After filling up your final water bottle and placing it in your bag, you picked it up and slung it over your shoulder with an experienced ease that could only remind the younger boy of his third year manager. “Well Hinata, it’s been fun talking to you. But I’ve gotta go deliver these water bottles. See you out there on the court.” you said in a friendly manner. If Hinata had noticed the Shiratorizawa logo on your manager’s uniform, he didn’t get the chance to call after you for it. Seeing as two other Karasuno members suddenly appeared, yelling at the boy that they were going out on the court soon.

Returning to the main gym, a few of the boys came over to the bench as you sat the bag down. “F/N what took you so long to return?” Semi asked, beginning to stretch again.

“Right, it never takes F/N-chan that long to fill up water bottles. What happened? Get caught up talking to a boy or something hmm?” Tendou teased.

You blushed, eyes flickering quickly over at Ushijima. He was the one you had a crush on, not some random guy you just met. “Wha? No! Not in the way you’re thinking anyway Satori.” you responded lightly.

“So did you talk to someone then? Who was it?” Ushijima surprised everyone by asking.

Smiling, you pointed at the tiny orange haired boy, who had just done an impressing quick attack with a taller dark haired boy, your smile growing wider as you responded “Him. Number 10. That’s Hinata Shouyou.”

You ignored the spew of random comments coming from the boys, but took notice at the uncharacteristic groan that seemed to come from your Captain. “Really Of all the people you could talk to. You’re time was wasted on Hinata Shouyou?” he questioned. You sensed no ill intentions from him. Just utter annoyance.

Turning with a hand on your hips and a teasing grin placed on your face, you nodded “yup. I don’t see what it is about him that you don’t like UshiWaka. But whatever it is I choose to ignore it. That boy is a ball of sunshine and I intend to befriend the little first year. No matter what you say.”

If anyone had asked Ushijima Wakatoshi at that moment what his most current concern was, he would never admit that it had nothing to do with the important volleyball match about to begin. But rather, how he could keep his overly friendly, bubbly, and undeniably cute, manager from befriending the rival teams first year middle blocker.

#Haikyuu Scenario #somewhat of a request #not really #Reader Insert #Shiratorizawa #Shiratorizawa Third years #Ushijima Wakatoshi #Tendou Satori #Semi Eita #Ohira Reon #Hinata Shouyou #Karasuno #Haikyuu!!#Admin Crow

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komaedanagitotrash1 · 7 years

Text

This is a Danganronpa Hogwarts AU!

Notes: around 66% of the sortings and quite a few headcanons are based off of two posts by @thekomahinafucker. The two posts can be found here:

DR2 Hogwarts AU Headcanons

NDRV3 Hogwarts AU Headcanons

Word Count: 1,793

Warnings: Language

Toko Fukawa could remember very few times in her life that she was completely and totally happy. She had been through what many people considered way too much for anyone to handle in the span of eleven years. Attending Hogwarts was inevitable, as her father was a wizard, so she was standing at platform nine and three quarters, mentally preparing herself for her a year of hell- it didn’t matter if this was a special school were the students might be thought of as freaks by certain people.

There was one thing her mothers had made abundantly clear when a woman in blue robes who called herself Professor Sinistra came to the door with the letter: Toko had split personalities, one of which was the infamous Genocider Syo.

“You can’t seriously want a serial killer at this place!”

“She may look innocent, but the second she faints, or if she sneezes, out comes the crazy one!”

“Ma’ams, the Headmaster is well aware of Toko’s other personality, and, if she chooses to attend, special circumstances can be made for her. We’ve dealt with things far more serious than a serial killer.”

“Oh, really?” one of the women grabbed her on hand feather she always kept on her, waving it in front of Toko’s nose. The young girl’s eyes widened in shock and betrayal right before she sneezed. She stayed still for a moment before looking up at the Professor with bright red eyes.

The ‘various accommodations’ that were made for Toko included her never sitting alone on the train ride to Hogwarts. So, while the Prefects, Head Boy, and Head Girl were discussing duties, she was stuck in the corner of the compartment, writing in her journal to distract herself.

She was sorted into Ravenclaw after about a minute. Much to her dismay, no one really talked to her that night.

Or the night after that.

Since the guessing game of who she would wake up as might as well have been Russian Roulette, the girls in her dormitory were automatically warned about Genocider Syo. However, they were forbidden from speaking about it to anyone outside of themselves and the Prefects. Most days they were lucky, and she woke up as Toko. On the days they weren’t, they were greeted with a large amount of cussing, especially for a eleven year old, and enough scissors for all.

They were very thankful for the fact that Syo never attacked women. Even then, Syo wasn’t stupid enough to try and go wizards with scissors. And when she did, she was always apprehended. But then there had been that one time-

Toko shook the thought out of her head. Since she had gotten Syo mildly under control in the past year, she had been upgraded to a compartment without Prefects. She was quite happy about it, even though a Prefect still came and checked on her every half hour. Toko understood where they were coming from- she hardly trusted herself.

Just two nights ago, Syo had tried to make a legendary escape out the window in an attempt to make it to Durmstrang. Syo had heard about it back at the end of term feast last year. When she heard of it’s reputation, she was quick to figure out the location and set course, trying to leave. If she hadn’t sneezed, the girl may have actually made it out of the country.

“Not this time,” Toko muttered.

“Are you talking to yourself?” she heard a recognizable voice. Looking up very slowly, she saw exactly what she had been dreading.

The bright blue eyes with the white-framed glasses. The golden colored hair. The skinny and tall frame.

Byakuya Togami.

“Not this time.”

Byakuya stopped in the hallway, leaving the other boys to stop themselves just in time. His posse consisted of a fellow second year Slytherin named Mukuro Ikusaba, a third year Slytherin, Hajime Hinata, and a few newcomers who were destined to be sorted into the snake house

Once he pushed his way past the group, they understood what he was doing. Sliding open the compartment door, he stood in the door frame, looking down at one of his fellow second years.

Toko Fukawa, a Ravenclaw. She always seemed to be a bit nuts, but talking to herself? Really?

“Are you talking to yourself?” he sneered. She slowly looked up at him, cringing.

“T-Togami...”

“Guess I should have known someone as insane as you would talk to herself. Geez, it reeks in here. Do you even bathe?”

“O-Of course I do! I-It’s just t-that...”

“I’m going to leave while I can still breathe,” Byakuya spat, once again turning around. He closed the door forcefully behind him. “Come on,” he took to the front of the group, leading them the short distance from the compartment they were just outside of to the compartment reserved for them along with several other fellow Slytherins. The compartments towards the front were much larger, which was why they chose this one.

The door was already open, so the group piled in. The all of the girls were already there, the exception being Mukuro- it was typical that the group would try and find new potential Slytherins. Excluding the two Byakuya and his group had found, there were two new ones.

Sayaka Maizono, Celestia Ludenberg, and Hiyoko Saionji were sat next to and across from the two girls. One had dark red eyes, partially obscured by her brown hair, which was all over the place. The other-

"Kirumi?" he asked, recognizing the Togami family maid. Despite being only eleven, the young girl had taken up the job of serving the Togami family when she was much younger.

"Do you two know each other?" Celeste asked, tilting her head to the side.

"Yes, we do," Kirumi said, "I have been the Togami family maid for over five years now. Master Togami, if you would like, I can leave immediately. I had no idea that you-" she began to get up.

"Sit down, Kirumi," he said sharply, and she obeyed, placing her hands in her lap and looking down at the floor. "It's fine. This is school, not the Togami mansion. You're allowed to live a normal Hogwarts life," he then looked over at the other girl, who still gave him and the other boys a questionable look. "And you are...?"

"Maki Harukawa. I've recently moved here from France. I'm a first year-"

"Obviously. You look too young to be any older than eleven," Byakuya rolled his eyes. Now that she mentioned it, her voice did have a slight French accent to it that seemed to be starting to fade. "Well, do you come from money? Are you pureblood? Is your family very influential?"

"My family is dead. I've been an orphan for the past ten years. However, mother dearest happened to be quite the figurehead- previous Headmaster of Beauxbatons. Naturally, that was where I was destined to go, even after she died. But... I didn't want to be like her. I wanted to go to Hogwarts, like my father. Next thing I know, the caretakers are apparating me to a sister orphanage in Britain. My father was a high-ranking ministry member before he inevitably got killed because he knew too much."

"Who was your father?"

"I believe his name was Hector Fawley. I was given my mother's last name at her request."

"Due to your mother being Headmaster of Beauxbatons, and your father belonging to the Sacred twenty-eight, I'm guessing it's safe to assume you boast a tremendous amount of wealth, along with pureblood status?"

"Yes, that's right."

"Excellent. Now, ladies, may I introduce Kokichi Oma and Korekiyo Shinguji, both excellent candidates for Slytherin."

"You are saying those words as if you get to choose what house we are put into. Rather foolish, isn't it?" Korekiyo looked over at Byakuya.

"Oh, shut up. That's a real nice one you've picked there, Togami," Hiyoko said, sneering at the boy. "He looks totally insane. What about you, shortie?" she turned to Ouma, "Are you a freak too?"

"Nishinishi... well..."

“Where’s Hajime?” was the first thing out of Nagito’s mouth when he stepped into the compartment. Chiaki, along with a few fellow Hufflepuffs, looked up from whatever they were doing.

“Ibuki doesn’t know!”

“I think I saw him headed off to another compartment with Byakuya Togami and a few others,” Mahiru said.

“Yeah, he said he was going to come over here later,” Chiaki added on. “Come on, sit down. You know Asahina, right?”

“Hi~!”

“Hello. Who’s she?” Nagito glanced over at the girl sat across from him. She had on some rather interesting accessories, and seemed to be staring off into space.

“Angie Yonaga, she’s a first year. She doesn’t really know anyone, so we invited her to sit with us.”

“Oh, okay. Nice to meet you Angie.”

“Atua led me here, I can sense it,” she said suddenly.

“Er... great...”

“This year is going to be amazing! All you have to do is sleep well, eat well, and shit well!” Nekomaru Nidai bellowed.

“Hell yeah!” Akane Owari threw her fist in the air.

“Whatever...” Fuyuhiko Kuzuryuu turned his head away from the rest of the group of Gryffindors, looking out the window.

“And, with you the Quidditch team we’ve got this year, there’s no way we can lose!” Leon Kuwata said, smirking. “We’ve got me, Owari, and Tanaka!”

“Speaking of which, where is Tanaka?” Peko Pekoyama asked.

“Probably off somewhere with some of the Ravenclaws,” Mondo Oowada shrugged. “He said he wanted to talk to Nevermind last year, so maybe he’s doing that.”

“Eh, why do you even care Kuwata?” Fuyuhiko glanced over at the second year.

“Strategies for this year’s matches!”

“You aren’t even on the team yet! We still have to hold tryouts!”

“Whatever...” Leon scoffed.

“Aw, they’re adorable!” Sonia Nevermind gushed.

“Lady Nevermind, the Four Dark Devas are far from adorable,” Gundham Tanaka corrected, keeping a careful watch as all four of the hamsters climbed up on her shoulders, with one somehow getting to the top of her head.

“Careful miss Sonia, those things could bite you!” Souda said warningly, glaring at Gundham. In Souda’s mind, Gundham was an obstacle when it came to getting Sonia’s affection.

“Do not worry, Kazuichi. The Four Dark Devas would not dare harm a lady,” Gundham said. “With the exception of Enoshima. I am still quite sorry for what happened at the beginning of the train ride.”

“It still hurts like a bitch,” Junko said, rubbing her cheek. “I’ve got to go and find Mukuro, I’ll see you guys back at the Ravenclaw dorm,” she stood up, walking out of the compartment as Chihiro Fujisaki, Kiyotaka Ishimaru, and Kyouko Kirigiri walked in.

“Why was Junko cursing Tanaka’s name under her breath?” Chihiro asked.

“Gundham’s Four Dark Devas accidentally cut her on the cheek earlier,” Sonia explained.

“Let the record show she was adequately warned and still chose to pick up Steel Red Elephant Maga-G. It was the curr’s own fault.”

“Yes, it was! Now, Kirigiri, how was your summer?”

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engekihaikyuu · 7 years

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My thoughts on the new Engeki Haikyuu, Winners and Losers!!! Details under the Read More to avoid spoiling anyone who would rather wait until the DVD release.

With a 3+ hour play, it’s hard to do a detailed summary that goes scene by scene because I know I’ll forget about something or mix up order of events, so I mostly want to go over the major themes and particular scenes and characters that stuck out to me. If you have questions for any other character or how a specific scene played out, please feel free to ask! One of the main bits of thematic imagery used this time around was wind as well as the obvious one of music, which we’ve seen in dress rehearsal footage. They went with something of a wind theme for Aoba Johsai, with projections that show gusts of wind flowing across the stage with leaves flying on it, sometimes the breeze animation will shift into twisting, curling vines. Hinata has a couple of dream sequences in the play where he’s buffeted by those winds, and he repeats: “There’s a wind blowing. Sometimes it’s with you, sometimes it’s against you.” Kenma is in the dreams as well (sometimes with a cat head), warning Hinata to not get caught up in that wind, but also implicitly reminding him that he needs that wind to fly. No seriously, the dream sequences were meant to be surreal and weird. This results in a line that Hinata says to Kageyama that is unique to the stage play. “Kageyama, let’s ride the wind!” And to go along with that theme and those images, there are several moments throughout the play where Kenta is strapped into a bungee that hangs down from the ceiling (once, Kageyama is strapped into a bungee of his own) and them he will literally go flying around the stage, taking massive leaps as they run around. Sometimes he’s hooked into a lifting harness and it’ll pull him just straight up into the air where he’ll even just flip around on them like an aerial acrobat to show how high he can “fly.” I personally really enjoyed this added thematic element to this match. I always enjoy when a new version of an existing work interprets the source material in creative ways to work specifically with the new medium, and Engeki Haikyuu is always excellent about fully utilizing THEATER-SPECIFIC effects and humor. It does things with the story you’ll never see in the anime, things that don’t read right in illustrations, and I’ve always held a deep appreciation for the creative collaboration this show has been. When it comes to the music theme, it’s there for both teams, but much less so for Karasuno, since Aoba Johsai is meant to be the image of a smooth orchestra, and Karasuno is still a little haphazard as a team. Every single piece of Seijoh’s choreography and music reflects the orchestra theme. Their movements are always elegant and smooth, and now they feature a lot of ballet movements. Aoba Johsai is meant to be classical music, Karasuno is a rock band trying to figure itself out lol. And of course that ties into the setters because Oikawa is that model orchestra conductor. When Suga is on the court, it’s like he’s directing a jazz band. Fun and upbeat, mostly in sync, but not Seijoh’s elegance. For Kageyama, it’s difficult to get the hang of the conducting, he doesn’t quite know how to lead the team in a distinct choreography line Suga can, but that also highlights how hard the team is working around Kageyama to try to follow the pace he’s setting. So following that I want to talk about Kageyama because I must have cried for about three of his scenes at least. They feature a lot of flashbacks for him, including the middle school mid-match rejection we’ve seen before, as well as the scene from middle school where he asks Oikawa to teach him and nearly got punched instead. These flashback scenes are done a few times each, with the narration and POV switching between characters, and when it’s Kageyama’s POV, he is unbelievably hurt when Oikawa rejects him the way he did. He gets so caught up in that memory, remembering that he then decided he would simply have to become better than Oikawa, and this is when his conducting gets super erratic and his plays start getting sloppy. Sometimes the King of the Court will appear on stage (a secondary actor wearing the crown and the cloak) and Kageyama will see him and turn away in fear. Just before he’s benched and Suga takes the court, he grabs the King by the shoulders screaming at him, “NOT YOU! NO! GO AWAY!” They show him physically rejecting this haunting memory of the setter he used to be, and honestly, it’s super heartbreakinggggg. Heart-wrenching moments also go to Suga of course, but I always found them most GUHHH when his own insecurities are directly tied to still being a good senpai to Kageyama. And I feel like the stage play acknowledges this much more than the manga and the anime, because they give Suga and Kageyama so many moments together. The stage play better shows Kageyama’s admiration of Suga and also his appreciation of him, as the setter senpai who doesn’t reject him the way Oikawa did. Over and over the two of them share this one line of dialogue where Suga gently reminds Kageyama that their team is strong and he’s not alone. He can depend on them. Suga: What do we say about our team? Kageyama: Everyone is very strong. Whenever Suga is on the court they give a LOT of attention to third years and how overjoyed the three of them are to play together. Daichi and Asahi are extra animated and take center stage with Suga as they play, and it’s sooooo sweeeet!!! They do also include flashbacks to the third years when they first joined Karasuno, and this is done by the three seconds years wearing face masks of the older three. Kazuma/Ennoshita plays younger Suga, Kouhei/Tanaka plays younger Asahi, and Shouhei/Noya plays younger Daichi. Hilariously, Shouhei has like a cushion or something stuffed up his shirt to give him Daichi’s broad chest and then he also just sticks that chest out constantly and I could not stop laughing. THE TOBIUO. A scene where I laughed WAY longer than I should have was when Tsukishima and Tanaka make the flying fish joke with Kageyama’s name. What you don’t see is everyone else covering Kageyama from view as he puts on AN ACTUAL RIDICULOUS BLUE FISH OUTFIT and then he awkwardly hops forward screaming that he’s not a fish. And just when I thought to myself, wow, I can’t believe they made him a fish outfit for this 2 second joke, HE THEN KEPT IT ON FOR THE ENTIRE NEXT BIT OF CONDUCTING CHOREOGRAPHY, FLAPPING HIS FINS TO LEAD THE TEAM IN A ROUTINE FOR A SOLID 3 MINUTES??? BEFORE HE WADDLED OFF-STAGE TO CHANGE. I cried at that. Another sequence of scenes that I found super emotional was everything leading up to Yamaguchi’s failed serve. They show him asking Shimada, training with him, etc… but they also tied in Tsukishima more closely. They show Yamaguchi telling Tsukki he has something else to do and running off, and Tsukishima acting very rejected. During the Seijoh match, during a timeout, he and Tsukki share this dialogue. Yamaguchi: It looks rough out there. Tsukishima: Well obviously. Standing on the court for a while is tiring. Yamaguchi: But… I’m still envious. Of everyone. I want to stand on the court too! And as Yamaguchi stands there, his back to Tsukki as he admires the team, Tsukishima reaches out and says Yamaguchi’s name to tell him something BUT THEN THE WHISTLE BLOWS and they have to resume play. I have never been more frustrated omg because that extra “Yamaguchi!” is not in the manga or anime and my heart was just screaming WHAT WERE YOU GOING TO SAY?!?!?? As for adorable cute, time to talk about Kuroo and Kenma. Because oh my god. I know a lot of you know by now that Takato and Shouri cross dress to play Oikawa fangirls during the match, but they have about FIVE MILLION costume changes???? They’re CONSTANTLY running off the stage to change into Kuroo and Kenma and coming out on stage for flashbacks or Hinata dream sequences or to serve as visual reminders for Kageyama and Hinata as they remember playing with them. They’re constantly implying that the setters always have that one spiker that they trust and always toss to. For Kenma, that’s Kuroo. For Kageyama, it’s Hinata. For Oikawa, it’s Iwaizumi. For Suga, it’s Asahi. Kuroo frequently circles Hinata as Kenma circles Kageyama to play up that parallel. And then they run off stage to put the skirts and the extra hair pieces back on… I mean, I lost count of the costume changes after ten. As girls, they did a personality switch so Takato is the friendly, outgoing girl who is always pulling Shouri along and engages in conversation with Shimada about the game and the plays they make. Shouri is the shy one who trails behind or is scared of talking to Shimada and the one who gets super flustered and squealy. These two are the source of the humor most of the time because the players have a lot of drama going on obviously. When they first get on stage as girls, Takato asks, “Did you get taller again?” Shouri, super chipper, and with his voice pitched up, goes, “Now I’m 187cm tall!” They also show up at the end of the first intermission to open the second Act as Kuroo and Kenma. Kuroo STRUTS onto the stage and dramatically gestures for everyone to clap, and then he SNAPS to make everyone stop and just goes, “That’s goood~” Then he tries to do the Nekoma chant but gets to the brain line and goes, “Wait! The brain isn’t here! Kenma!!!” Then Kenma walks onto the stage playing a game and Kuroo tells him to switch it off, so Kenma turns to the audience. “Since I have to turn off my game, if everyone else in the audience could also please turn off your cell phones and refrain from—“ Kuroo: “Who are you talking to?” And Kenma keeps giving general viewing instructions and Kuroo keeps being weirded out because obviously “There’s nobody there.” But then Kenma keeps trying to break the fourth wall and keeps asking Kuroo taboo questions. Kenma: Say, Kuroo… why are we the only Nekoma members— Kuroo: That’s taboo!!! Kenma: What about those girls— Kuroo: ALSO TABOO; DON’T SAY IT!!!! Obviously these are supposed to be the girls that originally came to cheer on Oikawa but as they continued to watch the match, they started rooting for Karasuno too. Towards the end of the third set, Takato shouts, “Aoba Johsai, Karasuno… Both of you do your best!!!” And then Shouri starts PULLING UP HIS SKIRT to show his Nekoma uniform underneath and shrieks, “NEKOMA, DO YOUR BEST TOO!” and Takato has to pull his skirt back down while screaming that that was especially taboo!!! Shouri spends the rest of their scene there with his pink skirt pulled up awkwardly around his chest because of the way he pulled on it, and it was SUPER DISTRACTING. And um… uhhh…. I’m leaving out so much, there was so much going on, but this is so long and… I woke up at 4am because of jetlag and instead of going back to sleep I started writing this so... I’ll make other posts as I remember more and feel free to ask!!!

#engeki haikyuu #hq stage #winners and losers #review #i don't know if you guys can tell #but I love this production #they just continue to impress me every time #and I just love engeki haikyuu so much #omg you guys

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nyxysabyss · 7 years

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LEVEL HORIZON; YEAR THREE 6/9; Celestial Limit

Chapter 23!

I’m not afraid of death. It’s the stake one puts up in order to play the game of life. ~Jean Giraudoux

When I saw you, I fell in love, and you smiled because you knew. ~Arrigo Boito

Daichi Sawamura’s calf muscles are cramping from crouching in the brush for so long.

It’s been a solid fifteen minutes of nothing but waiting and he can feel the tension in his leveler beside him, his hair silver under the moonlight. Tanaka is surprisingly calm and focused, but Daichi can only see black in his eyes in the filtering torchlight. He can’t tell if it’s just the poor lighting or if they are actually blown wide with nerves, but he’s guessing the latter. He himself has had the urge to fidget and shift so badly for the last five minutes that he can’t imagine how Kageyama is holding out.

“Snakes have a five to ten meter buffer zone where they can sense all warm life, so it is impossible to sneak up on them. They sense body heat, and your wings will give you away. Which means, I’ll need to borrow your leveler for the first part where we shut down the alarms, Feathers. He’s the only other non-winged person here.” Kuroo had said.

“What about Kenma?” Kageyama had said with a dark look.

“Kenma isn’t much of a combatant; he will be standing by with our means of escape at our rendezvous point. I’d rather have someone with me who I know can handle themselves in a confrontation and will have my back, anyway. I trust your shrimp.” The avian prince had been ready to argue, his cobalt eyes snapping with more homicidal emotion than Daichi had seen from him in a long while.

“I’ll go.” Hinata had said before he could speak. “I want this to work. If this is what I have to do, then I’ll go.”

“Rest assured, Feathers, I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t think he could handle it. And if I don’t bring him back to you, you can bank that I’m not returning either.”

Kageyama hadn’t fought him, but Daichi could tell that he’d hated it all the same— hated it with a level of disquiet worse than their big fight that had left his wings bald. And Daichi had known it had to have taken a soul fracturing effort for Kageyama to control his instincts and let the redhead follow the cat into the darkness a short while ago without a word of protest.

As he watches the crow setter’s gaze flit between the few buildings that mark the holding point’s location, he can see the tension in his body. Everything is taught, from the leaping muscle that betrays his jaw’s rigid set, to his hand that grips a low branch for balance in a vice hold, to his wings that are pulled into an agitated display, to his knee dropped beside a foot as he slowly leans ever more forward.

He knows the younger crow didn’t sleep last night… he doubts any of them had found much. Koushi had lain down, but Daichi hadn’t felt him relax enough to convince him he’d actually slept. The cats had stayed outside to avoid disturbing them with restless pacing. He’d glanced up more than once when Tanaka had risen to go stare out the window for long minutes with a hard look. Hinata had crawled into Kageyama’s lap where the avian princeling had wrapped him in an uncompromising embrace and buried his face into the crook of the redhead’s neck.

Daichi feels a pang for the former young king. They were just starting to bring their relationship the next step forward— there’s so much they have yet to experience and share… and now Kageyama is stuck waiting for an uncertain answer to the question of their future. Daichi doesn’t know if he could have done the same if it were Suga instead.

The softest rustle has the large crow reaching possessively for his leveler. The black cat’s training in stealth and awareness has definitely paid off as he and the three other avians turn as one toward the sound, tensing defensively and ready for a fight. But it is only Kuroo followed closely by Hinata, slipping through the underbrush.

The redhead immediately finds Kageyama, readily allowing the crow to snatch him forward into a relieved chokehold. As the redhead’s gaze flickers toward himself and Suga, he catches a look in them he recognizes in the dim light from the building torches. He knows it, because he’s also experienced it. Most everyone had missed his mental tailspin in the chaos surrounding the younger level pair’s flight from the rookery, but Suga and Tanaka had been there, and he knows they remember. The hollow resolved look in Hinata’s eyes speaks to the death of innocence.

Hinata... bright, effervescent little Hinata... has taken a life.

Daichi’s heart breaks just a little, knowing that it is something that will irrevocably change the brilliant ball of sunshine.

“My prick of a canine connection has sent these to help us.” Kuroo had said only this morning, producing seven tanto knives and a couple keikan daggers. “Do any of you know how to use them?”

“We’ve been trained on most weaponry.” Tanaka had said frankly, picking one up and eyeing it critically. Daichi had reached for one as well, checking its balance and craftsmanship. They weren’t top end, but neither were they bottom, and for what they needed, they would definitely work.

“Then I hope you remember it. Have you guys ever killed people before?” He’d asked and Daichi had remembered freezing at the question. Suga had stilled beside him, and Tanaka had found his gaze in the abrupt tension.

“I have.” Kageyama had quietly answered first, surprising them all. Hinata had spun on him with shock, the tanto he’d grabbed loosely forgotten in his hands.

“What?”

Kageyama had looked away from his leveler, unwilling to meet any of their gazes. He’d looked like he’d been kicked somehow, as if he were appalled to even be in his own skin.

“It was at the end of the big Gamut Run exercise right before we were upgraded to a full-fledged sentry unit, due for missions. My father pulled me aside and had me kill a bound and condemned man as my final initiant act before he would allow me to move forward with you guys. He said it was so that I wouldn’t freeze when I finally had to do it in a fight… in case there was more than one adversary.” He’d murmured, his eyes completely vacant and voice dead as the memory had overtaken him. Hinata had dropped the knife back on a table and grabbed his arm, his face slack.

“Is that why you barely said two words the whole next week?” He’d asked softly, his other hand rising to trace an index finger over his leveler’s cheekbone as his cerulean gaze had focused back on him. Kageyama hadn’t responded, but he hadn’t pulled away either.

“So have I.” Daichi had murmured, drawing their attention. After Kageyama’s admission, it had suddenly been easy to voice his own.

“You, too, Daichi?” Hinata had asked weakly.

“Mine was the day right before you guys came back after you were grounded. We were scouting one of the outlying areas and got into a scrap with some hawks. I’d snapped the guy’s neck before I realized it.” He says, his eyes finding the floor, and he feels his leveler drift closer to him, a silent vote of support.

“He took after Suga. He had it coming.” Tanaka had said sullenly, his arms coming up across his chest and his face pulling into a scowl.

Daichi knew the bald crow had been attempting to stem the bout of depression that inevitably accompanied the memory of feeling the man’s neck just… ‘click’... in his grasp, and the quickly following realization that he’d just ended a life. On purpose.

The guy hadn’t died immediately. It had taken a minute or two during which the only part of him that still moved— his eyes— had wildly flickered around at him, at Suga, at everyone, completely fractured with fear as he slowly suffocated due to paralysis of his lungs. When they’d finally turned glassy, the large crow had been shaking so badly that he’d had to sit down. The had been lucky that the confrontation was over as quick as it had started, and he hadn’t been stuck dealing with his gut-wrenching reaction while trying to defend himself from another attacker.

But it had allowed the full weight of the truth to crash down in its entirety: he’d killed someone. He was the reason that someone else’s life was cut short. He’d been plagued by staggering guilt and questions since then.

Had he really had to kill the hawk? What if he was just following someone else’s instructions? What had he thought in those last couple minutes? Or was there only fear? Did he have a family, someone waiting for him? Children? Did they know that their wait would be forever now? Had he had a leveler and he’d actually killed two people?

More than once Koushi had come and just sat with him in a quiet secluded place, saying nothing and instead, providing silent support just by staying beside him. If they survive, he hopes Kageyama will have the presence of mind to do the same for Hinata now.

“Tobio.” The little redhead’s quiet voice breaks the dark silence. “I’m going to get my sister back. Are you ready?” He asks, and the black resolve in his face is something Daichi will never forget.

He understands the leaded determination swirling inside Hinata; the kid needs a reason to justify having killed someone. Daichi has no doubt that the redhead will stop at nothing to rescue the little girl, and mentally urges him to cling to that. Gods knew, the larger crow is positive the only reason he didn’t lose his mind after he’d killed the hawk was the knowledge that Koushi might have been injured or killed instead if he hadn’t. The crow setter holds onto Hinata a moment longer, then nods.

“There were only three guards at the south alarm tower. They won’t be an issue anymore and we took out another four between here and there. There are plenty left, but I think I can handle the other alarm post alone.” Kuroo murmurs and turns to Daichi even though he still addresses them all.

“The entrance to the vault is just this side of the first building, but there might be more. The shrimp can show you. You will have to clear the guards posted there and then keep a watch while a couple people sweep the inside for Natsu. Your wings will still be a flag, so you will want to lead with Feathers’ leveler to help throw anyone you meet head on. Be quick and don’t hesitate, because they won’t pause in killing you. Be mindful of their reflexes; they’re freaky fast. And um…” Kuroo frowns, his gaze skimming across each of them.

“Try not to sustain injury. Most of their weapons — bolts included— are usually coated with venom; one good strike can kill even if the blow itself might be minor. All the more if one tries biting you. Not every snake will be venomous, but you can bet that if one of them is trying to sink their fangs into you, you will die in agony if they succeed. Most snake venoms are faster acting than your leveler connections can heal, so don’t count on them. I have a couple remedies, but they aren’t guaranteed to save you. Eh, do you…” Kuroo draws a deep breath.

“Do you guys have any questions?” Daichi thinks he hears a note of unease in his voice, and he has to remind himself that this is Kuroo.

The feline didn’t do this kind of thing with others; he worked alone. He’d even suggested that he be the only one to enter the compound and retrieve Natsu at first, but had met opposition from every side. Daichi can tell that he hates splitting them like this, hates that they are in any danger at all. But there is no scenario where retrieving Natsu will not be dangerous.

“I think we’re ready.” Suga says beside him, the black cat swallows hard and nods.

“Okay… I’d rather take your job, but we need that other alarm post out before someone notices anything’s amiss. The full force of a massive snake nest is the last thing we need bearing down on us. So just like we planned, then. I guess… be safe guys. It would be fan-fucking-tastic if we could all go home after this.” The cat says with the slightest hue of nerves.

“That includes your fuzzy ass. Don’t get yourself iced either.” Tanaka murmurs, before turning to pick his way carefully down into the holding point. Kuroo nods and Daichi exchanges a grasping of arms with the cat as the younger level pair follow the bald crow.

“Good luck.” The large crow murmurs before slipping after the other three, Suga right behind him.

Hinata soon slips into the lead, and takes them swiftly in a wide arc around the cleared forestation, sticking to the shadows until they are right up behind the first building. The redhead pulls his tanto out and leads out first, casually walking up to the building and then skirting its side. For a moment, Daichi wants to ask what he’s doing, but he blinks as he notices his posture.

His steps and demeanor look like Kuroo… relaxed and evenly measured. If a snake senses body heat, someone acting completely normal would be less suspicious than someone acting uneasy. He feels the hair on his neck rise just a bit. For a moment, Daichi can completely believe that he is an elite assassin with his poise and easy silent movements. The kid disappears around the side of the building, there’s a quiet grunt and then nothing.

The next few seconds are nerve wracking. The only reason they know that sound probably didn’t come from Hinata is that Kageyama is still crouched tensely beside them, his eyes fixed on the point where his leveler disappeared.

And then the shrimp’s head pokes back around the side, his small form straining to move something heavy. Kageyama and Tanaka react before Daichi can say anything. Both crows zip over to him, their wings releasing echoes into the silence around them with every beat.

Hinata’s head snaps their way and he automatically drops his burden and catches Kageyama’s shirt, jerking him out of the air. Tanaka lands as well and the shrimp glares at them and puts a finger to his lips. By this point, he and Suga are moving, catching up with the other two as they help the redhead pull the body of a snake out of sight around the side of the building, it’s minimal facial features unnerving.

Daichi can feel his mind shutting down slightly as he numbly stares at the man in horrified wonder. He can see the way Hinata had first buried the long knife in his ribs and then slid it across the man’s exposed neck after he’d collapsed. For the second time, he thinks that Hinata could secretly be an assassin. Kageyama apparently wasn’t the only one who could turn off emotions in a pinch.

Hinata holds up a hand to pause them around the corner before stepping back into the direct light of a torch and Daichi catches a smear of red on his arm.

“Snakes have a harder time feeling body heat through walls and earth so if you are clearing a building or something room by room, approach each with caution. A snake that’s particularly vigilant might still know you are on the other side of the door.” Kuroo had said.

There’s the quiet opening and closing of a door… and then three nearly inaudible knocks on it.

Like a damn breaking behind a lake, energy snaps across his muscles and they all move. Hinata’s warning still sharp in their minds, they all dart around the corner on feather light feet, Kageyama the first to the door.

Three knocks. Three or more adversaries.

There’s a quiet thump as Kageyama bursts in, his tanto already drawn as Daichi, Tanaka, and Suga follow. The room freezes, four glittering pairs of slitted eyes turning their way and a flash of almond.

And then it breaks.

The shrimp pulls his tanto and shoves it into the snake holding him against the wall with a hand around his neck. Kageyama heads straight for the next one beside Hinata, Tanaka for the one sitting at a desk, and Daichi and Suga both round on the last. This one is quick and blocks Suga’s strike, but Daichi uses his tanto sheath to knock him back.

Raising the knife, he sees a flash of circular golden hawk eyes before the two-tone slitted ones of the snake before him take their place, and he brings it down with a sharp intake. The snake jerks away and his aim becomes non-lethal, but Suga’s isn’t so benign. The thrush buries his knife in the snake’s neck, throttling the sound that had been on the verge of escaping it.

Knowing he won’t survive Koushi’s hit, Diachi spins to assist the others, only to find them all straightening already. It had been only moments, but all four snakes lie either dead or dying. Daichi pulls in a breath and tries to flatten out his heart rate as Hinata heads for the door at the back of the room. His hand is closing on the handle when it bursts open and two more snakes push in. Hinata stumbles and Kageyama quickly finds himself the target of one, Tanaka the other.

Daichi’s reflexes vault him forward, the sight of his unit mates under siege enough to blank all thought except what matters.

“Don’t grapple with snakes. Stick with melee. The moment you close a hand on them, they will have a target to aim for.” Kuroo’s voice echoes in his head and at the last moment, Daichi changes action and closes a hand on the snake’s shirt. He hauls on it with all the force he can bring.

If the snake is too busy trying to recover, how is he going to aim for anything?

The snake crashes to the floor and Tanaka quickly takes advantage of his confusion to gain the upper hand and finish him off with one fluid stab to the ribs. When the large crow looks up, he sees that Hinata has failed to remember Kuroo’s advice… but it doesn’t matter much.

The redhead has leaped onto the back of the other snake attacking Kageyama, plunging his tanto into the soft space on top of his shoulder. The snake has no chance to react before Kageyama’s finds his lung from the other side. Daichi sucks in a breath, his adrenaline still spurring his heartbeat and glances at his leveler.

Except Koushi isn’t there.

Daichi feels panic for an instant, his gaze quickly scouring the room. He’s on the verge of tearing the place apart when a sound from the second room draws their attention. They enter to find Suga standing over another snake and wiping his tanto against his shirt with a mildly satisfied expression.

Daichi stares, because homicide isn’t something he’d have ever imagined the thrush being even remotely capable of let alone appearing so unaffected by. The grey-haired setter turns back toward them with a small smile.

“I found the canary.” He says with a wry smirk and Daichi blinks at his poor joke.

Seriously. Who was this guy and what had he done with Sugawara?

“Koushi?” He asks uncertainly and his leveler glances at him with eyes bright.

“I also found the entrance.” He says with a grin and points to a door in the corner. It’s open and Daichi can see stairs leading down below them. He looks to the three younger avians, hating that he’s going to split their unit up even more.

“You guys go ahead, Suga and I will keep watch.” He says.

They nod and disappear down the stairs, the redhead taking the lead once more. Once Daichi can no longer hear them, he turns to where Suga is crouched, studying the snake he’s just killed. The crow frowns.

“What are you doing?”

“Trying to imagine what he must have been like.” He says with a small smile. It’s frankly unnerving.

“Koushi… are you alright?” He asks carefully and Suga’s grey eyes find his own with surprise before he breaks out into one of his pure sweet smiles that crinkles his eyes.

“Of course. I can always weep later, Daichi. Right now, I will laugh, because it means I’m still alive.”

Daichi’s eyes widen. Somehow, the thrush’s words put him both at ease and on edge.

“Don’t do anything reckless, Koushi.” He murmurs and Suga chuckles.

“This whole plan is reckless. But I think it’s worth the risk.” He says lightly before looking back at the snake thoughtfully.

“Ne, Daichi. Do you suppose this guy had a family who knew what his day job was?”

The large crow doesn’t know if he should be mortified or awed at the thrush’s calmly morbid thought line. On one hand, he’s happy because it means that the thrush is thinking probably clearer than the rest of them combined… on the other, his demeanor is straight up wrong for Koushi.

Daichi and Suga have barely been standing guard for five minutes before the three are back up, their faces creased with determination. Suga glances their way with surprise.

“That’s not the way down?”

“Oh, it was.” Tanaka grouses darkly.

“Then where’s Natsu?” Daichi asks. Hinata barely falters as he heads for the door.

“She wasn’t there. One of the people said she doesn’t stay down there with them, and they haven’t seen her since yesterday.” He says evenly, his almond eyes fixed coldly ahead of him. “I’ll go through every building here if I have to.”

“Did you run into any snakes down there?” Suga asks.

“We went all the way to where the tunnels let out at the gorge cliffs and only ran into four.” Kageyama says flatly, following his leveler.

Daichi knows what Suga is doing, because he’s doing it, too. Three snakes at the south alarm post, four along the way, one outside the holding cell entry point, seven inside, four down below… that’s almost twenty, and who knows how many more Kuroo’s taken out by now.

The fox had said to expect somewhere around fifty to sixty total. Daichi tries to rack his brain and remember the fox’s sketch as Hinata slips back outside… which one of these buildings had been the barracks again? He’s quite sure there’s probably a good twenty snakes in there alone and they should avoid that one— at least until Kuroo gets back from taking out that other alarm bell and pyre.

Hinata slinks across the way to the building facing the holding point entry. As they trail after him, he pushes open the door and steps inside. No knocks echo back and he’s slipping back out momentarily.

“Supplies.” He mouths and heads for the next building, keeping as much to the shadows as possible, his eyes constantly scanning the vicinity.

Daichi can’t help but feel like they are playing roulette; he really doesn’t want to end up in the barracks. He eyes the other three buildings they haven’t tried yet with misgiving, but Hinata doesn’t waver. They trail after him, making sure to keep a ten-meter radius so he can act as both an advance draw and a distraction for any snake who notices him.

Daichi really has to give Kageyama props; he wouldn’t have near as much faith in the universe if it were Koushi being used as a proverbial lantern.

Hinata reaches the next building, one with light that spills from the windows, and a burst of muffled drunken laughter escapes. Daichi can guess this isn’t the barracks just by the sound; probably their on-site dive. They edge up behind him as the redhead glances into the window. His hand fists and he drops back down out of sight.

“She’s here.” he says in a furious brittle whisper. His next words are nothing but fury. “Kageyama, they hacked her feathers.” Daichi blinks, unsure exactly what that means.

“How many, Shouyou.” His leveler asks.

“Six that I could see. One more at the counter. I’d say at least a couple more to be safe.”

“Well what do we have here? Runaways?”

Daichi spins in place at the sudden leering voice behind him. He can barely glimpse the unexpected outline and his spine goes rigid.

Shit.

“Forget that birds don’t see at night?” The shape asks stepping closer.

Shit, shit, shit.

This is how everything goes to hell, Daichi thinks and throws an arm in front of Koushi.

“How were you planning to leave in the dark? Torches make you an easy target and—”

He stumbles backward with a gasp and Tanaka bursts forth, grabbing Daichi’s tanto. He lands on the snake, driving the blade home and the Daichi blinks as the bald crow silences him. He pulls the knife and hands it back to the former sentry leader and then reaches for another.

His own, Daichi realizes. He threw his own and attacked with mine.

“I vote we not play in the dark. We are at a disadvantage when we can’t see them but they can feel us.” He mutters darkly.

“I vote we move… someone might’ve heard that.” Suga murmurs.

They skirt the back side of the little taproom only to find a back door. Hinata slips inside and there’s a slight rustle and then a single knock. They follow him in to find one snake sprawled in a widening pool of blood, and Hinata steps over him headed for the other door. The redhead peaks through and silently closes it again to another round of raucous laughter.

“There’s a hallway and then the bar. How do you want to do this?” He asks looking up at Daichi. The crow glances around at them in the low lamplight.

“We could try luring a few back first before tackling the rest so we aren’t facing so many at once.” Tanaka suggests. It’s the safer option, but Daichi frowns.

If they dawdle too long, someone will eventually take notice of someone’s absence… or one of the bodies they’ve left lying around. If the cat— skies forbid— bought it, they are flying this mission in some seriously hazardous territory. Daichi wants them out as soon as possible.

“The more time we spend the more likely someone discovers us, and we haven’t seen the cat again, so we can’t be certain the other alarm is down yet. They haven’t been all that skilled from what we’ve seen so far. I think we can take them.” He says.

“So, a brawl it is.” Tanaka says with a leering grin.

“I have an idea… give me two seconds to get out the front door and then bust in.” Hinata says. He’s automatically acting as decoy again, banking that they won’t kill him if they think he’s an escapee, and Daichi can see the dark glower that paints Kageyama’s face. To be honest, he dislikes using the redhead in such a way, too.

“Sounds good. Lead off Hinata.” Suga says with an encouraging smile.

The small spiker nods, reaches out once to Kageyama and turns to the door. He takes a deep breath and wrenches it open. His footsteps pound down the hallway and then echo back from the taproom, the amiable buzz of drunken chatter stalling as he heads for the door.

“Oi, what the fuck?” And then there’s movement as the door opens.

“Hey, get back here, kid!” The door opens again and Daichi moves, everyone on his heels.

“Freakin’ scaleburn. It’s probably Jarda; he’s been told about screwing with the assets. We’re gonna catch it for—”

The snake doesn’t get another word out before Daichi sinks the tanto in his neck, his leveler, Kageyama and Tanaka all pouring out of the hallway just behind him. He pulls it free, leaving the snake to grasp at his bleeding throat, and turns on another as he rises from his seat at a low table. As he sets on him aggressively, he catches sight of at least four others in the room, three fending off his unit mates and one heading for the door.

Kageyama dispatches his opponent and quickly follows the other outside. A flash of orange catches his vision, and he sees one more slit pupiled man grab Natsu’s arm from where she cowers by a wall. Daichi dodges a knife and slips inside the strike to slash the snake’s throat. He turns in time to see the last snake dragging Natsu through the door after the avian prince and scowls.

“Oi, time to go you guys. Our quarry is leaving without us.” He barks at where Tanaka is helping Suga finish off his target. When he’s sure they have it under control, Daichi buzzes for the door as well. As he steps outside, he can see three snakes strewn about in the dim light that filters out around him, Kageyama and Hinata facing two more standing back to back.

A bizarre ‘pkkt’ sound erupts near his feet and he looks down to see an arrow embedded in the dirt.

Fuck. They aren’t invisible anymore.

The other two step out behind them as Hinata drops under a jab and brings his own knife up into his assailant’s gut. Another arrow piffs into the ground by the younger level pair, but a whimper draws their attention. Even if the young avian prince is focused on his opponent, Daichi knows he’s very attuned to the snake who has a hold of Natsu.

Daichi, Suga and Tanaka take off after the little girl and the man jerks her forward and races between the last two buildings and to the edge of the river gorge, before turning back to them. A grim smile creases his face.

“I wondered if that was the kid from Ivoya. She’s why you’re here isn’t she?” He asks and Daichi deduces that he must be the snake that retrieved Hinata’s sister.

Daichi advances, ignoring how another arrow strikes the ground just ahead of himself, the feathering barely having brushed his shoulder. The snake sneers and grabs Natsu by the neck. Her little hands come up to grasp his arm, her large almond eyes welling with frantic tears as he holds her out over the edge.

“Natsu!” He hears the redhead say behind him.

Daichi freezes. He finally gets a good look at her wings as they flap haphazardly— what’s left of them.

Hinata was right. All of her feathers have been cut just past the downy point where they embed in the wing; it’s all but just short of having pulled them altogether and she looks oddly close to what Kageyama had when his wings had gone bald. She won’t even be able to attempt a guided landing; she’ll fall like a stone. Was this her punishment for talking to strangers?

Another arrow strikes the ground.

Their archer must be a novice, Daichi offhandedly thinks with annoyance and takes another step forward.

“I’ll let her go.” The snake threatens.

“Do it and you’re dead.” Tanaka growls.

“Tanpri...” She whimpers.

“We’ll let you go if you put her back down.” Daichi says, attempting to reason with him. The snake stares at him, slitted pupils hard and unyielding.

When a piercing clang breaks across the sky, Daichi isn’t alone when he jars.

Warning bell. Shit. Does that mean Kuroo failed?

He can see Suga glance sharply toward the alert tower as it rings again. More and more echoing chimes fill the air, but Daichi keeps his eyes on the snake holding Natsu’s life in his hand. A slow sadistic smile spreads across his face as the door of the building next to them bursts open and snakes start flooding out.

Ah, hell.

As the first of them hit Hinata and Kageyama, the man lets go of the little girl.

Her screech reminds him of Hinata’s voice as she disappears and he reflexively reaches for her.

“Natsu!” Hinata yells, and Daichi moves to leap before he flinches as another pair of wings nearly bowls him over.

Tanaka launches past him, his wings pushing flat out toward the gorge, and then, as another assailant faces Daichi, the bald crow, too, disappears over the ledge.

The bell rings one last time and then stops, but they are surrounded now. If they don’t figure a way out in the next very short few minutes, they will have a whole bunch more to deal with. If they can get to Hinata and Kageyama and grab the redhead and get off the ground, the only thing they will need to worry about will be the arrows— although he doubts that archer could hit anything.

But there are enough snakes that getting off the ground might prove difficult in the first place. If they can thin them out and avoid injury, they might have a shot.

He throws himself into the melee, hoping to hell that the others remember not to take injury. He focuses on one enemy at a time while still attempting to defend on all sides, but it’s difficult, because they shift between attackers constantly. For the first time, he thanks the Grand King for his brutal sparring sessions. The rookery leader had often encouraged foul play or dirty moves in their bouts, because if they were to ever come up against real enemies, there was little chance they would observe battle chivalry.

The Grand King had been right. And Daichi sees that training manifesting in all of their moves. When on the ground, a bird’s greatest weakness was its wings, something that many years of sparring against the rookery leader’s ‘war dog’ unit had taught them through an unimaginable number of lost feathers. As a result, they all guard them with infinite care, keeping them close against their backs and out of reach.

He manages to take one serpent down and another quickly takes its place. He hears a whoop over his shoulder and knows the freak duo is working as a team and they’ve just brought down another. One, two more go down, but Daichi knows they will tire eventually and their enemy still outnumbers them over two to one.

Oi. Not looking good.

But then another flash of wings as Tanaka crashes to the ground between the younger level pair and Suga and himself, his grey eyes flashing sharply and his scowl murderous.

And there, on his back, clinging to his shirt with a white knuckled grip and feet wrapped around his gut, is a small wiry body with orange hair. Daichi almost wants to tell him to ’at least go put the kid somewhere safer’, but his attention is commanded by the snake in front of him.

The fray around them seems to slack just a moment as soft ringing echoes across the land, the same note as the alarm bell from earlier, long and insistently reverberating. It doesn’t stop and he realizes that it must be the main nest.

What the…were they under attack as well?

He can see snakes pause around them with confusion and he takes a moment to assess his companions. All the avians breathe hard, sweat shining against their skin in the torchlight.

They are tiring.

Just as Daichi is wondering how the hell they are going to survive this, nearly a third of the snakes around them break off, heeding an unspoken order. They melt into the shadows and disappear, leaving the numbers far more even. And as if a switch were flipped, the serpents all resume their attack.

Daichi feels as if they’ve been given a gift, been thrown a lifeline and he can feel his energy levels surge with hope. They all dodge, parry, and attack in fluid tandem, and one by one, the numbers start to slide. Two more go down under Tanaka’s and Kageyama’s blades and then Kuroo bursts from the shadows, his eyes narrowed and lean body flipping into the mess.

“You guys suck at stealth.” He grouses darkly and plunges his tanto into the juncture of Daichi’s most recent attacker’s neck.

“I distinctly remember someone saying they were going to take out the damn bell before they got a chance to use it. We were fine till you woke everyone up.” He growls back.

And then it happens.

Tanaka stumbles. He recovers in a flash and instantly reaches for a wing… where an arrow has pierced it. With a fierce snarl, he snaps the shaft and yanks it out. The younger level pair look over toward him… and it’s a distraction— an opening that the snakes have been waiting for.

One lunges for the avian prince, who sees the strike at the last moment and sidesteps. Daichi would be privately awed at his reflexes if the younger crow hadn’t misjudged his surroundings. Kageyama avoids the strike but trips on the outstretched arm of a former adversary. He’s already overbalanced too far and his wings can’t keep him on his feet and he ends up on his butt.

“Tobio!” Hinata shouts, frantically trying to make his way toward the crow setter where he parries a heavy strike from the snake with his tanto. Daichi is half a step into moving in his direction as well when the snake pulls a second weapon— a dagger, and his mind goes numb.

There’s no way he can get there to stop this. Hinata is already pushing full force toward him, Tanaka, too, but no one is close enough.

Daichi can kill for the people he cares about; he’d learned that three years ago. Daichi won’t stand by and watch one of them die… but what can he possibly do here?

The snake raises the dagger and Daichi sucks in a breath.

And a gleaming flash zips by his head making him flinch. The snake topples backward, a tanto wedged deep between his ribs, and Kageyama regains his feet in an instant. Daichi’s head snaps back to look at Koushi, dread curling in his gut.

The thrush lithely dodges the strikes aimed at him, but Daichi can barely breathe as he ducks one aimed for himself. Sugawara pulls out one of the two keikan daggers Kuroo had given them, but he’s discarded his primary weapon. He’d thrown his tanto— his main offensive capability, to save Kageyama’s life. Daichi’s nerves fray rapidly as he attempts to reach him, to back him up.

And then Suga staggers as well, and when he straightens in surprise, Daichi sees the shaft of another arrow and his heart skips a beat.

Two minutes ago he couldn’t hit a damn thing. Now he’s gotten both Suga and Tanaka?

When he eliminates the next snake in front of him and gets a better look through the chaos, the world slows.

Daichi could fight for his friends, and Daichi could Kill for his friends. Daichi could give up his own blood for his friends, and Daichi could give everything else— his very life— for his friends; what he couldn’t give, was Suga’s.

The archer’s hit his mark this time.

It’s not just a mild wing shot or clipping graze that can be easily dealt with. The arrow has sunk deep into Koushi’s chest, the feathering mere inches from his ribs and Daichi is almost positive that it’s probably gone all the way through and out his back. And where it’s at… it has to have hit a lung.

His leveler’s grey eyes widen just a moment before he jerks, and dodges the snake’s next strike all the same. And as Koushi returns his focus to his opponent, Daichi’s world starts once more, his panic rising and his awareness heightening.

“Suga!” He barks, neatly dodging another snake attempting to take advantage of his distraction. He drives his tanto into the back of his neck as he stumbles by him.

The snake numbers are rapidly dwindling with the appearance of Kuroo to help even the odds, but Daichi honestly couldn’t say how many were actually left. He swiftly strikes another down, his gaze fixed firmly on only one. The thrush seems unfazed by the arrow for the most part and dances out of range of the relentless assailant. Daichi is two steps from the snake, ready to decapitate him, when the serpent finally connects. His blade drags across Koushi’s collarbone and shoulder, slicing through his shirt with ease.

And then Daichi’s strike removes his head cleanly, the snake having no chance.

When he looks back up at his leveler, Koushi’s gone still, a small smile on his face as he watches Daichi scramble toward him.

“Suga!” He says urgently, his hands coming up to the thrush’s arms, terror creeping into his veins. But Suga laughs and brushes him off.

“You really are amazing when you’re fired up, you know that?” He asks as if he doesn’t have an arrow through a lung. The black cat materializes beside him with a scowl, a finger drifting out to trace the cut near his neck.

“I told you not to get hit.” He growls with something of a pained whine. “Not only did you catch an arrow, you caught a knife. We need to get out of here.” There’s an urgency to the cat’s voice when he grabs Suga’s arm and starts drawing him forward.

But Kuroo’s ear twitches and Daichi sees him jerk Koushi backward as another arrow skims by his cheek. The large crow spins, his eyes taking in Tanaka as he helps the younger level pair take care of the last two snakes, Natsu still with her death grip clinging to his back. Daichi is scanning the buildings around them for movement that would betray the archer when Kuroo’s hand closes on his shirt and he jars.

“We need to get out of range. I can’t treat him here. Tanaka’s got the kid, let’s go.” Kuroo says darkly before barking at the other three. “Oi. We’re clear! Come on.”

Kuroo leads them a fair distance into the forest and the dark, their eyes failing them, but they follow with complete faith in the cat. When he stops, Daichi hears the other three right on their tail. Suga sags into his side and he instantly turns toward him.

“Koushi?” He feels Kuroo materialize beside him.

“Sugawara.” He says and Daichi feels his leveler look toward the cat. “How do you feel.”

“Eh… weak?” He murmurs and Daichi’s pulse elevates with fear as he feels the thrush press into him even more.

“No, I mean— never mind. We need to get him to Kenma. I can’t do anything for him here.” Kuroo turns.

“Tanaka, I need you to help Daichi get him back.” He directs.

There’s a soft rustle and a small whimper.

“Eto… she’s kinda bein’ clingy.” He says uncomfortably and Daichi realizes he’s talking about Natsu. He hears Kuroo huff in frustration.

“Can you trust your shrimp to me one more time, Feathers? I’ll be right below you guys.”

The avian prince moves to Koushi’s other side without a word.

“There’s an opening in the tree line right above us. Head east when you’re up. You get up high enough, you should be able to see Kenma’s lantern. It’s about a league out. I hope you know how to hang on Shrimp, let’s go.” He says briskly.

He and Kageyama lift off, each with a hand under one of Koush’s arms. Daichi can barely think above his racing heartbeat, his dread almost suffocating. Koushi has to be alright.

Has to.

They get above the trees, Tanaka right beside them, and the bald crow spots the lantern— a tiny light against one of the far hills. He and Kageyama take off toward it, Sugawara listless between them, and Daichi only grows more anxious as he listens to the thrush’s breathing pick up. He pushes harder and he has to give his former unit mate credit; Kageyama matches him stroke for stroke, hurtling them across the sky.

Tanaka drops back, and for a moment Daichi has to remind himself that the crow took an arrow through a wing; he’s probably hurting as well.

As Kenma’s lantern grows brighter, then clear, then a target they are dropping down on, Daichi sees the golden cat standing by a cart with two horses.

A means to transport non-flying individuals.

When Kuroo had said that, he hadn’t thought it would mean Koushi being so injured. He chances a glance at his leveler and blanches. The front of his shirt is stained black with blood from the knife wound, his skin is pale, and a sheen of sweat shines on his forehead. Daichi nods to Kageyama as they carefully set the thrush down, his leveler offering zero resistance.

Kuroo pushes through the underbrush just behind them, Hinata wrapped around him much like Natsu had been with Tanaka in the fight minutes before. The redhead slips off and Kuroo quickly drops beside the thrush where his legs have folded up beneath him and he leans against Daichi. Kuroo swiftly tears Suga’s shirt away from the knife wound that still readily bleeds as Tanaka drops beside them. The black cat swears and pulls out a packet and when he opens it, the scent of a weed hit’s Daichi’s nose.

“Yarrow?”

“I grabbed some because Yachi used it on Bokuto when he was impaled to stop the bleeding.” He says, pressing it into the leaking cut.

“Sugawara.” He says sharply and the thrush’s eyes focus on Kuroo sluggishly.

“Are you seeing double?” He asks. His leveler frowns faintly and shakes his head.

“Do you feel like you are going to throw up?” Another negative.

“Dizzy.” He murmurs instead, his breathing shallow. Kuroo’s brow creases.

“It’s all wrong. I don’t even know which hit is the one poisoning him— maybe both.”

“Not the arrow.” Tanaka says and Kuroo looks up at him.

“I got one in a wing and I don’t feel nothin’. Just hurts like hell.” He says.

“The cut then. Daichi, what color were the snake’s eyes?” The large crow blinks.

“Huh?”

“The one who hit him. I give him the wrong serum, it’ll just make it worse.” The cat says impatiently. Daichi has no idea. He never got a good look at the snake’s face before he’d swept his head from his shoulders.

“I don’t know.”

“Fuck. Okay… he’s not bruising under the cut and his fingers aren’t turning blue, but he isn’t vomiting and he doesn’t have double vision…” The cat mumbles before frowning and placing two fingers over the thrush’s wrist.

“But a racing pulse. Mamushi?” He says with a scowl and pulls out the two vials the fox had given them and hands one to Daichi.

“Get him to drink this.” He says and turns his attention to the arrow. Daichi takes it and pulls the little cork uncertainly as the cat eyes the shaft.

“At least it went all the way through. We won’t have to deal with the barb being stuck inside him. Thank you whoever invented crossbows.” The cat murmurs as Daichi brings the vile to Koushi’s mouth.

And almost drops it when Kuroo’s hand latches onto his arm in an iron grip. Daichi turns to him with confusion.

“Hold on.” He says with narrowed eyes and Daichi follows his gaze.

A thin trickle of blood escapes from the corner of Koushi’s mouth.

“Suga?” He asks worriedly, and Kuroo is quickly snatching the vile back from him.

“Feathers, did Sugawara cough at all on the way here?”

“No.” Kageyama says and Daichi blinks; he honestly can’t remember the flight much.

“Fuck.” He murmurs more sincerely and Daichi glances at him with alarm.

“What?”

“He didn’t cough so the blood in his mouth isn’t coming from the arrow in his lung. I’m pretty sure I know what was on that knife.” He says with a heavy breath and reaches back into his shirt and pulls out another small vial.

“Yamakagashi. I picked it up on a whim yesterday. I seriously hope there was nothing else on those bolts, Baldy.” He says holding it out to Daichi.

“What happens if there is?” He asks, not moving to take it.

“This serum fails and makes everything worse.”

“You expect me to give that to him?” Daichi asks, his face darkening with fury. The black cat focuses his uneven gaze on him with flat sincerity.

“Yes. You do nothing, he’s dead either way. Yamakagashi venom messes with the blood. It makes you bleed and bleed and bleed. That’s why he’s bleeding from his mouth. You let it go, it causes major organ failure and he will die in agony. It also means I can’t take that bolt out or he’ll bleed out faster.

“I thought it might be mamushi, but his heart rate is up because he’s already lost a lot. You give him this, he might still die, but at least he has a chance. And this is the only option where that chance exists right now. Once we get the venom under control, we can try to take the bolt out. If we can get that far, your leveler bond might just be able to save him.” Kuroo says.

Daichi stares at him for a long moment and looks back at Koushi and the way his grey eyes focus blankly straight ahead. The large crow mechanically reaches for the vial, feeling more than ever as if he’s playing roulette, but in a violent and bizarrely inverted way— like instead of trying not to land on the chance that kills them, he’s trying to land on the one that saves them. Those odds are far worse.

His jaw clenches as he uncorks it and taps Koushi’s cheek, trying to get his attention.

“Koushi.” He says quietly. “Koushi, look at me.” Hazy grey eyes lift up to his face.

“Koushi, my brilliant silver star, I need you to do something for me.”

“Daichi?” He asks with a slight frown. “Dai, it’s fuzzy.”

“I know. I need you to swallow this.” His brow creases and then his mouth quirks.

“I’ll always swallow for you, Daichi.”

For a moment, he can’t believe the words that leave the thrush’s mouth. Of the two of them, Suga is by far the more conscious of their activities around others. Daichi snorts with mild embarrassment on his behalf… and did he just hear a snrrk from Kuroo? If there was any doubt left in the younger three former sentries’ minds about the nature of their relationship, he knows there won’t be now. If they survive this, his leveler will probably be mortified to learn what he’d said in front of them.

All the same, his chest tightens, because he knows by that response that his leveler isn’t all there anymore.

“No, Koushi. I need you to drink this.” He says with muted urgency, feeling his entire face heating as he holds the vial up in front of the thrush.

Koushi’s brow creases and he reaches for it without hesitation, trusting in him one-hundred percent, but Daichi keeps it out of his reach.

“I got it.” He says and brings it up to the thrush’s bloody mouth. One swallow in and his face wrinkles.

“Tase like blood.” He mumbles and Daichi brushes his lips against his hair in apology.

“I know. But you have to finish it.” He says, feeling sick that it tastes like blood, because Koushi’s mouth is full of it, the thrush’s own life bearing liquid. Suga dutifully swallows the last couple gulps and leans his head against Daichi’s shoulder.

“Okay. Everyone into the wagon. Feathers, can you help Sawamura?” Kuroo asks.

Kageyama is already kneeling to help the larger crow lift his leveler before the black cat finishes asking. They situate the thrush carefully against Daichi in a corner, mindful of the arrow, and when everyone is in, Kuroo looks to Kenma.

“He said they should be able to go for several hours. Head for the coast. I have one more thing I have to take care of.”

“Kuroo.” Kenma says plaintively.

“Relax. It will be fine. Just like old times. I’ll catch you on the flip side.”

“I never liked old times, Kuroo.” He says flatly.

“What’s such a big deal that you have to leave? What if Suga needs you?” Tanaka asks with a scowl. Kuroo glances at him.

“I just have to touch base with someone. They’re the reason we’re all still alive tonight, and they are someone who will come looking if I don’t. They aren’t who you want after you, so I just need to check in. It’ll be fine. I’ll catch up with you in an hour and you’ll never know I was gone. And Daichi,” He says, specifically commanding his attention, “Don’t leave his side. And don’t you dare take that arrow out before I get back.”

“Kuroo.”

“I’ll come back, Kenma. I promise. Now get going.” He says tapping the side of the cart and after a long moment, the golden cat shakes the reigns. As they start off into the night, Kuroo disappears. It sets Daichi on edge.

Tanaka had a valid point. What if something goes wrong with Koushi? None of them knows anything about snake venom. And this ‘blood’ one seems horrible. What if the serum doesn’t work? What if there were other venoms in his system? That meant Koushi would most certainly die, didn’t it?

Diachi knows that he’ll knock off, too, if the thrush goes, and he’s honestly fine with that— he wouldn’t want to remain if his leveler was gone, but he hates the thought of the world without Koushi in it. If Hinata was blazing sunshine with all his burning intensity, Koushi was soft starlight in his pure kindness.

He’d always been beautiful, an ethereal presence to him. He remembers as a small child, seeing Koushi’s hair beneath the moon and thinking even back then how it almost seemed like he was a star given physical form. They’d used to stay up till unholy hours all the time as kids, sneaking out to fall asleep watching the stars on a clear night in the topmost branches of the rookery.

Suga had even asked him at one point why he acted more like an owl than a crow since he liked to stay up so late. It had taken Daichi years to find the balls to answer him honestly and tell him that it was because the stars reminded him of the thrush himself. Brilliant, beautiful, purely divine, and unattainable.

And when he and this perfect avian ended up being levelers, it had felt as if the gods had seen fit to allow that star to fall to earth that he might catch and adore it as a celestial light was meant to be. He, Daichi Sawamura, had been granted the life of a star with all the radiance of the entire night sky to hold in his hands, to nurture and protect.

And right now, Suga is fighting for his life. He’s failed… and Daichi doesn’t think he’s ever felt more helpless.

Distantly, he registers the bells from the main nest still clanging in the distance.

Level Pair ; Chapter 1; Chapter 22; Chapter 24

A/N: Well. There you are. Actiony/suspenseful enough? Boring? I've honestly never tackled a full scale fight scene like this. I don't know how it came out. Also, I couldn't pick the quote I wanted to use so this one gets two XD

This chapter is over 9200 words, so probably longest chapter of Horizon (or Pair), and with this post, I've eclipsed the total word count of Level Pair, too. Nobody panic, though, I have several chapters left before we are done ^.^ We are looking at 30+

Ha, I'm ALMOST willing to bet that no one will guess next chapter's POV. Almost. B/c if I'm wrong, I'll feel like an idiot and far more predictable than I think I am. But I invite you all to guess!

Oh, right. So, my brother is coming to visit, and I will not be posting either tomorrow (Tuesday) or Thursday evening. Have a crazy night, guys!

#Level Pair #level horizon #sawamura daichi #sugawara koushi #Daisuga #kagehina #kuroo tetsurou #fanfiction #LONG POST #HOLY CRAP LONG POST

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nenxchains · 7 years

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Haikyuu Noragami AU

I love these two fandoms dearly, and I absolutely needed to combine them excuse the many holes

Disclaimer, I actually had two versions of this AU - one that was from an Iwaoi POV (which was my initial plan) and one that was a Kagehina POV. Once I played around with it a little more, I decided the Kagehina one worked better with the Norgami plot. If you want to see what my original plans for the Iwaoi AU was, just send an ask and I’d be happy to post it even if it has exponentially more holes than this one I cry.

Without further ado, the HQ Noragami AU!

- Kageyama is a unknown god of calamity, who is struggling to make it in Takamagahara. Currently, he’s charging five yen for menial tasks and his shinki, Kunimi, quit because of Kageyama’s demanding personality

- while wandering around the city on his own because Kunimi left looking for a missing cat, he’s pushed out of the way of an incoming truck by an energetic, ginger high school student named Hinata

- as a result of the accident, Hinata is half ayakashi who is able to toggle between the Far Shore and the Near Shore. Hinata demands Kageyama help him return to being fully human, and Kageyama promises he’ll help him. But first he’s going to need a new shinki

- and lo behold, in the snow is a smol glowing bean that Kageyama names his new shinki. The new shinki is Tsukki, who is initially cold toward Kageyama and refuses to do as he says. (Eventually they warm up to each other)

- Suga is the god of poverty and is always causing bad luck for everyone around him. He’s very fond of Kageyama, Tsukki, and especially Hinata. Suga’s shinki is Daichi. Daichi is not as warm as Suga is in opening their doors to Kageyama and Tsukki but does so anyway to placate Suga. Daichi warms up to Tsukki and comes to think of him as a younger brother

- Suga knew Daichi wanted a baby shinki so he went out and literally found a baby shinki and named him Asahi. Asahi, however, was a curious child who didn’t know he was dead, and Daichi couldn’t bring himself to tell Asahi the truth, which ended up blighting Suga to the point where Suga was forced to release Asahi and make Daichi promise to let Suga die if he is ever on the verge of death. This way, when Suga is reincarnated as a child, Daichi will be able to raise a child like he always wanted.

- Kageyama is the one to sever the bond between Daichi and Asahi

- Oikawa is the deadliest war god and is known for taking any lost soul under his wing and making them his shinki. He holds a grudge against Kageyama for slaughtering all of his shinki in the past and will stop at nothing to make sure Kageyama pays

- Iwaizumi is Oikawa’s most loyal shinki as well as the one who has been with Oikawa the longest. They have an extremely close relationship and it is heavily implied that Iwaizumi loves Oikawa more than a master; however because he is his shinki their relationship can be nothing more than master and servant. It does not stop Iwaizumi from doing just about anything for Oikawa

- Iwaizumi is the main shinki and guidepost, but Oikawa’s other shinki include Mattsun, Makki, Yahaba, Watari, Kindaichi, Kyoutani, Kaneo, Motomu, and Heisuke (basically the rest of Seijoh except Kunimi)

- Bokuto is one of the wealthiest gods and frequently teases Kageyama for being a poor, unrecognized god. Kunimi is Bokuto’s newest shinki, something that mildly offends Kageyama. Bokuto, though knowledgable in many fields, is extremely erratic and falls into slumps. No shinki is safe if they get on his nerves/blight him

- Bokuto also has a spirit that has stayed by his side for thousands of years, Akaashi. Akaashi is extremely loyal to Bokuto, as he’s been there for him even through the erratic mood swings and slumps. Akaashi keeps Bokuto in line as his guidepost, even though he’s not a shinki

- I can’t think of anyone who is devious enough to actually want to kill Tsukki and Hinata while caring deeply for Kageyama though. None of the characters in Haikyuu are manipulative, and Noragami has a few too many of those types of characters. I genuinely haven’t been able to think of who could possibly fill the roles of Nora or Trash Dad, even though they’re a huge part of the plot :\ I originally thought of Tendou for Nora, but idk it just didn’t seem right. I’d love to know if anyone else had any ideas!

- tentative: Ennoshita - Ebisu, Tanaka, Noya, and Yamaguchi - Ennoshita’s shinki. I’m fairly positive Ebisu had six or so, in addition to Nora and three of them were killed ;-; (this is honestly the problem with Noragami. Haikyuu is such a pick me up and Noragami... isn’t...)

the other conflict I had with this, similar to my KnB Psycho Pass AU, is that there are far too many Haikyuu characters in comparison to Noragami characters. I really wanted to include Date Tech and Johzenji, but there’s just no way I can fit them in without altering some of the characters entirely just to do that. I’d rather not make a character like Terushima be Trash Dad for the sake of filling in the holes in my AU

This turned out way longer than I thought it would be, even in comparison to the KnB one I wrote and mentioned earlier. I’ll probably add more to this as I go along and properly fill in the holes, but, please, don’t be afraid to add to this or send asks to clarify something that didn’t make sense!

#haikyuu #noragami #kageyama tobio #hinata shouyou #sugawara koushi #sawamura daichi #oikawa tooru #iwaizumi hajime #bokuto koutarou #akaashi keiji #karasuno #seijoh #mine

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365daysofsasuhina · 5 years

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[ 365 Days of SasuHina || Day Two Hundred Sixty-Four: Within the Lines ] [ Uchiha Sasuke, Hyūga Hinata, Hyūga Hiashi, Uchiha Mikoto, Uchiha Itachi ] [ SasuHina, death ] [ Verse: Best Years of Your Life ] [ AO3 Link ]

“Are you sure it’s no trouble?”

“Not at all! Itachi watches Sasuke on his own quite often. They’ll be just fine.”

“Well, Hanabi is so young…”

“Itachi helped me all the time when Sasuke was little! It’s been a while since then, but he’s been brushing up in preparation. Don’t worry, Hiashi - it’s only for a few hours. And Itachi has both our cell phone numbers if something goes awry. Not that there’s anything to worry about. Both Sasuke and Hinata are so well-behaved. I’m sure they’ll all be just fine.” Expression full of sympathy, Mikoto murmurs, “...I know this hasn’t been easy. But we’re here to help however we can. I’m sorry we can’t be home today, but...I trust Itachi implicitly. He’s a mature young man, and he’ll be just as attentive and prepared as we would be.”

The Hyūga sighs. “And I...appreciate that. Arranging all of this by myself is...difficult. And I want to try to keep Hinata out of the details until it’s all...said and done. I don’t even know if she’ll comprehend what’s happened. But the less I expose her to the gruesome side of things, the better.”

“Any time you need her watched, just let us know. She’s always welcome at our house. You all are, Hiashi. Hanako, she was...one of my closest friends. No one will miss her more than you and your family, but...you aren’t alone in this. Please know that.”

“I do. Well...I better get to the funeral parlor. There’s...a lot to discuss. Thank you again.”

“Of course. Just come get the girls whenever you’re ready. Itachi will handle things from there.”

Nodding gravely, Hiashi watches as Mikoto calls her sons downstairs. His own two children are waiting in the car, fetched once she begins instructing Itachi on what he’ll be doing for the day. “Come, Hinata. You’ll be staying with the Uchiha today, all right?”

“O-okay…” Released from her car seat, Hinata stands attentively in the driveway as her father retrieves her sister, asleep in her own safety seat. “Are you...busy?”

“Yes. I have errands to run in town, and...well, it’s best I do them alone, understand?”

“Yes, Papa.”

“Now, you behave while you’re here. Itachi is going to be keeping an eye on you, so...be on your best behavior for him.”

“Itachi…?”

“Mikoto and Fugaku also have someplace to be, but Itachi is old enough to watch you for a few hours, until I get back.”

Large eyes blinking, Hinata just nods. She knows both Uchiha boys rather well - spending an afternoon with them will be fun!

Taking the girls back inside, Hiashi entrusts Hanabi in her carrier to the elder brother. “She’ll probably just sleep most of the time, but I have all her things in her bag - formula, bottles, diapers, all that.”

“Yes sir,” Itachi replies dutifully. “I know how to do all that.”

“Good. And...well, Hinata should be no trouble. Um…” He pauses, trying to sort through his scrambled thoughts. “...I think that’s everything. You have my number if you have any questions.”

“Yes sir. Don’t worry. They’re in good hands.” He gives Hiashi a soft smile. “I’ll call you if anything comes up.”

“Thank you. Well...I’d better get going.”

“Us too,” Mikoto agrees. “Itachi dear, we’ll be back pretty late, so be sure to get Sasuke into bed at a decent hour.”

“Yes, Mom.”

With that, the three adults take their leave, the three able children waving from a window as Itachi holds a snoozing Hanabi. “So,” he asks, looking to the two five year olds. “What do you guys want to do while the adults are gone? We can...watch a movie, or do some coloring...maybe play with some of Sasuke’s toys, if he wants to share.”

“I...I don’t mind what we do,” Hinata replies, always conscious of treading on others’ toes. “What do you w-want to do?”

“Mom just got us a new movie,” Sasuke offers, looking to his fellow kindergartener. “Wanna watch that first?”

“O-okay!”

Itachi sets up the movie, fetching a few snacks for the younger pair from the kitchen. It’s clear he’s rather used to this, adeptly putting together some fruit, crackers, cheese, and drinks in spill-proof sippy cups. Positioning them in front of the TV, he distributes their goodies and gets the movie playing. With them on the couch, he takes a rocking chair, carefully keeping the baby asleep as a children’s movie plays.

Hinata and Sasuke both watch attentively, slowly munching their snacks. Even Itachi watches, occasionally checking the clock and the phone his mother left for any messages. But once the credits roll and the snack boxes are empty, it’s time for another activity.

“Sasuke, why don’t you go get some of your crayons and coloring books? We’ll sit at the table and color for a while.” By then, Hanabi is beginning to fuss a bit, gurgling as her sleep threatens to break.

“Okay!” Scampering up to his room, Sasuke soon returns with the supplies, hefting himself into a chair in the dining room.

Shyly, Hinata takes the seat beside him, accepting a coloring book.

“Hey, wanna see some Itachi did?”

“Sure.”

Flipping open the pages, Sasuke points. “See? He’s so good at staying within the lines!”

Hinata can’t help but perk up in surprise. True to his word, the lines are all cleanly kept, and there’s even some shading on the picture! “Wow...that looks r-really good!”

“Yeah! My big brother is good at everything,” Sasuke boasts with a grin.

From in the kitchen where he’s heating formula, Itachi retorts, “Not everything, Sasuke.”

“Yeah huh!”

The elder brother just chuckles, gently bouncing Hanabi in his arms.

“Well...here, take these,” Sasuke instructs, pushing a pile of crayons to Hinata. “Let’s see if we can do it too!”

“O...okay!” A little intimidated by Itachi’s pretty coloring, Hinata nonetheless takes up her crayons, and starts filling in a little farm scene. She makes the barn a bright red, the grass green, and a tractor grey.

“Hm...what color should this be?” Holding up his book, Sasuke points to a funny shape in his scene. It looks like underwater, but Hinata has no idea what the shape is supposed to be.

“...uh…” She looks over his options. “How about...p-purple?” It’s her favorite color.

“Okay!” With that matter oh so easily settled, Sasuke gets back to work, carefully coloring. His concentration is so strong, he doesn’t notice the tip of his tongue sticking out from the corner of his mouth, brow furrowed as he stares at the page.

Hinata stifles a giggle at the sight, going back to her own scene. Looking at a cow, she decides to color it brown, humming softly as she idly kicks her legs under the table.

With Hanabi’s bottle ready, Itachi takes a seat opposite the pair. The little infant takes to it eagerly, hardly giving him any fuss. “How’s it going guys?”

“Itachi, look at my fish!” Eager for appreciation, Sasuke holds up his booklet. “See?”

“I do!”

“The red one is you! Dad is brown, and Mom is blue...and I’m blue, too!”

“Is there a Hinata or Hanabi fish?” Itachi asks, smiling.

“...uh…” Looking at his page again, he replies, “There’s no more fish…”

“Well, maybe in the next picture. What about you, Hinata?”

“O-oh, um…” Shyly, shy turns her book, holding it up and almost hiding behind it. “It...it’s a f-farm.”

“The cow looks very nice.”

“It’s a chocolate milk cow!” Sasuke declares, laughing.

“Are there chocolate milk cows…?” Hinata asks, looking at her page.

Itachi smiles. “I don’t think so, Hinata. But there are brown cows who make regular milk.”

“Itachi, you know everything!”

“Not everything, Sasuke. There’s lots I don’t know. But it’s good to learn.”

Absorbed in their activity, the younger pair color several more pages, Itachi even doing a few as Hanabi sits in her carrier and watches.

“There, all done.”

“That looks awesome!”

“Thank you, Sasuke. You guys did a good job, too. Look how tidy your colors are!” Itachi praises.

The pair beam, a little pink at the compliment.

Itachi then makes them some supper: nothing fancy, just some sandwiches and more fruit, refilling their cups. “Sorry, I can’t use the stove yet,” he admits.

“Sandwiches are g-good!” Hinata offers, more than happy with her peanut butter and jelly. “Thank you, Itachi.”

“You’re welcome.”

It’s then the cell phone vibrates, and Itachi checks it. “Ah, Hinata, your dad is on his way back. He’ll be here soon. Finish up your supper, and then we’ll get ready to go.”

They’re just finishing when headlights flash across the front windows. All packed up, Itachi greets Hiashi at the door, assuring him everything went swimmingly.

Behind him, Sasuke and Hinata turn to give their goodbyes. “Guess I’ll see you later,” the boy offers.

“Yeah...bye, Sasuke. Thanks for letting me come over.”

“It was fun! We’ll color more with big brother when you come back.”

“O-okay!” Following her father out to the car, she nods when he asks if she had a fun time. “Yeah, it was n-nice. Sasuke and I practiced coloring, and we stayed inside the lines real good!”

“Good…” Tone tired and somber, Hiashi buckles her into her seat. “You might have to be there a lot for a little while, all right?”

“That’s okay. Itachi and Sasuke are my best friends!”

“...that’s good. Now, let’s go home, Hinata.”

“Okay, Papa.”

.oOo.

Well, this is a little angsty, but otherwise just some childhood friend style fluff. No matter the verse, I love the idea of Sasuke and Hinata getting to be friends as kids. They'd get along so well ;w; But anyway, it's super late, so I'ma go. Thanks for reading!

#sasuhina #uchiha sasuke #hyūga hinata #hyūga hiashi #uchiha mikoto #uchiha itachi #death //#best years of your life [ au ]#365daysofsasuhina

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365daysofsasuhina · 5 years

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[ 365 Days of SasuHina || Day Eighty-Five: An Artist ] [ Uchiha Sasuke, Hyūga Hinata, Uchiha Itachi ] [ SasuHina ] [ Verse: Best Years of Your Life ] [ AO3 Link ]

He’s never been one much for the arts. That’s always been more his brother’s calling, despite their father’s begrudging acceptance. While Itachi pursued music, Sasuke took to filling Fugaku’s expectations and going to school to major in business.

Granted, Itachi’s doing quite well - arguably better than his younger brother. Lessons from age four, of course, give him a little edge. Add in natural dexterity and talent, and he’s already playing in recital halls packed to the brim to hear him play his melancholy notes.

But Sasuke can’t bring himself to be jealous. Sure, he’s still hanging from a rather low rung of the corporate ladder, but it’s stuff he finds fairly mindless and easy. While many hate their jobs, Sasuke simply...does his, neither actively enjoying or disliking it. It’s just something he does for about eight hours a day, five days a week. So far he’s managing a rather frugal lifestyle just fine.

Granted, it’s also a rather lonesome lifestyle. Sasuke’s not much of a socializer to begin with, but occasionally a friend will drag him out for something. But mostly, he enjoys doing things either with his family, or on his own.

Today is one of the latter days.

Just down the street from his apartment is a niche little coffee shop he frequents. Itachi teases him about how hipster it seems, but Sasuke just brushes the comments aside. He doesn’t much care what it’s like besides being quiet, quaint, and hosting (in his opinion) perfectly brewed black coffee.

Which is why he’s currently seated at his favorite corner table, sipping a cup and going over a presentation he needs to deliver next week. It’s already finished, but it’s an excuse to get out of his living quarters and get some liquid energy. While he can’t practice the auditory part here, he can tinker a few details and...mostly spend the afternoon browsing his favorite sites.

...that is...until he feels eyes on him.

His own flicker up, the only part of him moving as they search for the intruder. But every other face is turned away - either browsing their own laptops or phones, reading, talking to a table mate, or...scribbling on a rather large pad of paper.

Dark eyes squint just a hair, watching.

It’s a young woman - about his age, maybe a little younger...her face is rather soft, so it’s hard to tell. Seated in a booth along the opposite wall, she has her knees brought up to rest against the lip of her table, and a sizeable sketchbook is propped atop them. He can tell she’s not writing - her hand flies across the paper far too much to be anything but drawing.

Huh...he has to wonder what she’s sketching. Not that he knows much about it, but surely the setting is quite nice. A still life, maybe - seems like something rather eye-catching to draw. Or so he’ll guess. Itachi would have far more idea about than he. His talents might lie in music, but he knows the artistic side of things in general better than Sasuke ever will.

After a minute or so, he goes back to his laptop screen, sipping his coffee and absorbing back into the work.

When he starts packing up to head home, she’s already gone.

The work week passes, and it’s not until the following Saturday he can make it back. Unlike his last visit, it’s pouring rain this time. A wet umbrella rests against his chair. The same project - to be presented Monday - is back on his laptop screen...but mostly just as an excuse. He told Naruto he couldn’t go to some local league basketball game he’s playing in due to work.

It’s...half true. He hasn’t given the presentation yet. It’s still a work in progress. But he also hasn’t touched it in three days because the powerpoint part is done. While he could be home rehearsing it...Naruto has a nasty habit of dropping in even when told no. Hence hiding out here.

Besides, he’s got it memorized already. He’s not missing much by loligagging here.

The shop’s a bit more crowded today - probably because warm drinks are the perfect staple for a cool, rainy Spring day. And who wants to be out in the weather? Better to just...cozy up here until the rain stops.

The numbers don’t bother him - he got here early enough to claim his table, and no one’s dared ask to steal a chair or join him. Whether he intends it or not (though usually he does), Sasuke has a rather distance-inducing aura. Or at least, that’s how his brother oh so politely puts it.

Sasuke, on the other hand, knows he just has a major case of resting bitch face. And he’s more than glad for the annoyances it spares him...at least, with anyone intelligent enough to read it. Hence why Naruto still hangs around...he just doesn’t quite get it.

Today he’s indulging in a bitter cup of sugarless hot cocoa when that same feeling returns: like someone’s watching him. Looking up, he still doesn’t catch anyone staring.

...but he does notice she’s back. Sketchbook lady. Returned to the same spot, shying a bit from her neighbors but still scribbling away. This time it’s not just a pencil - some colored...somethings sit in a neat tray atop her table. Not pencils, and...he doesn’t think they’re crayons? Oh, who cares what they are. Either way, she must be coloring her previous shot, given her same vantage point and what looks to be the same sketchbook.

Huh.

A bit more curious this time, Sasuke takes to watching her. Every so often, she looks up and studies the wall behind him: the one directly across from her. Shrewd, pale eyes squint as she examines it before going back to her coloring.

...he sort of wants to see it.

Sasuke also can’t help but wonder how she’s accounting for the change of people. There’s more of them, and they’re surely different than last weekend. Did she just...go over what she had? Or is she improvising? He’s never really given such things a thought before, but...watching someone in the act of creating, admittedly, piques his interest.

But after a little while, it gets a bit repetitive...and he can’t exactly see what she’s doing. A little disappointed, Sasuke goes back to his procrastinating, eventually noting that the rain has stopped. Should he risk going back home…?

Maybe not yet.

He stays a few hours more, ordering another cup and an everything bagel to pass the time. Not the best lunch he could have, but...meh. He can have something better for him for dinner. Only once he gets a text from the knucklehead proclaiming victory (and whining he didn’t show up) does Sasuke deem it safe to head home.

The next morning, he wakes to his phone vibrating against his nightstand. Groggily he grabs it, swiping to answer and mumbling, “Hullo?”

“Sasuke, good morning.”

He blinks slowly. “...’tachi?”

“Forgive me for calling so early, but I wanted you to be the first to know: I’m going to be back in town for the week. I’ll be flying in this afternoon.”

Dark eyes quickly brighten, sitting up. “Really?”

“Yes. I was going to tell Mother and Father tomorrow morning - I thought, for today, it could just be the two of us.”

A kind of childish glee at both the falsehood (his brother never lies) and his indulging of Sasuke’s constant pining to see him beget a smile. “Yeah, sure - got anything in mind?”

“Oh, I thought we’d just wander around downtown and see what jumps out at us. I haven’t been back in almost a year, I want to see what’s changed.”

“Okay, yeah - sure.”

“I’ll meet you at your building - I’ve got a rental car arranged. I should be there about three?”

“I’ll be waiting!”

Hanging up, Sasuke can’t help but grin at his brother’s number before it fades back to the homescreen. Well...talk about a great start to a week!

By the time Itachi makes it, he’s been bored for hours, having little else to do on a Sunday but wait around. They immediately leave again, going on foot to simply explore.

“I’ve missed this city,” Itachi admits wistfully, hands in his coat’s pockets and simply looking around.

“And we’ve missed you - how’re all your gigs going?”

“Wonderfully. I’ve been planning a little tour with another artist: a vocalist who’s been practicing with me the past few weeks.”

“Any stops near here?”

“In here, as a matter of fact - but not for a few months. We’ve got quite a bit of practice and arranging to do. But I will let you know.” Slowing to a stop, Itachi cocks his head curiously at an open door. “...Sasuke, care to go in?”

“Huh? What is it?”

“Apparently an art exhibition - locals, seems like.”

It might not be his scene, but...well, Itachi’s the guest, and it’ll make him happy. “Yeah, sure.”

The pair enter, quickly seeing a variety of works and mediums by a vast array of artists. While Itachi speaks to the host, Sasuke starts wandering, not as invested as he’s sure Itachi will be. Thumbs hooked in his belt loops, he glances over several pieces before coming to a standstill.

Wait...but that’s…?

Still staring as Itachi joins him, Sasuke barely hears his question. “...huh?”

“I asked if you found something you like…? Oh...well that looks an awful lot like -”

“It’s me.”

“...are you sure?”

“Yeah, I…” A bit flabbergasted, Sasuke shifts his weight, gesturing. “I go there all the time. That’s my table, and my laptop -” His umbrella even made it in the shot. There’s no doubt about it: even the angle matches. This has to be that woman, from before! She was drawing...him…?

“Can I help -? Oh!”

Both brothers turn to an approaching figure, and Sasuke locks surprised eyes with none other than the artist. Her own are wide, and color lightly tints her cheeks.

“It...it’s you!”

“Yeah...me,” Sasuke replies. Now it makes sense: why he kept feeling watched.

“I...I-I hope you don’t mind me using you as a model, I...I mostly do street drawing. I just...draw what I see. I was lucky to catch you twice, and so quickly! I just finished this piece this morning, I almost couldn’t bring it…” A hand tucks stray hair behind her ear. “...I’m Hinata.”

“Sasuke. Nice to actually meet you, I guess.”

“L-likewise!”

Behind him, Itachi gives a knowing smile. “May I ask, are your works for sale?”

“Oh, well...no, technically not.”

“Ah...forgive me.”

“No no, that’s okay! Would you...like to buy it…?”

“It’s rare to see my brother captured in such a way,” Itachi muses, earning an embarrassed glower from Sasuke. “You truly did a fantastic job. Of course, if you’d like to keep it -”

“No, I understand! I’m just delighted you f-found it! This city’s rather big, after all…”

“As am I. And I’m always a fan of supporting local creators. So, may we negotiate…?”

As the talk turns to money, Sasuke scowls and sulks off to one side, eyeing her other works. True to her word, most are just...captures of various local places and people. Though stylized to a point, he can still recognize quite a few places just at a glance, and further looking shows a great amount of detail.

Signing a check, Itachi hands it over with a smile. “A pleasure, miss Hyūga. I do hope you keep creating - your works are lovely.”

She ducks her head shyly, and then glances to the slip, eyes going wide. “...but you said -?”

“Please, consider it a well-deserved tip. I know enough artists to know they often undersell themselves. And yours is a talent worth supporting.”

Looking awed, Hinata breaks into a soft smile. “I’ll...go see about packaging this for you. Thank you s-so much.”

Itachi nods, turning as his brother steps back up. “Are you truly so opposed to the piece?”

“No...I’m not. It’s just kinda weird.”

“Why?”

“I dunno. Just is.”

“Well, it’s clear your territories overlap - perhaps she’ll be able to draw you again, hm?”

He doesn’t have an answer for that.

Returning with the framed artwork carefully wrapped and bagged, Hinata hands it over with another thank you. “Um...s-sorry again for stealing your visage.”

“Don’t worry about it. I guess now I get to see what you were working so hard on.”

Another light blush pinkens her cheeks. “I’ve wanted to do a portrait in there for ages...you just had the right...look, I guess.”

That earns a small snort. “Suppose I’ll take that as a compliment.”

“Miss Hyūga, might I have your cell number in case I find any other potential investors in you and your work?”

“Oh! Um...sure!”

“Sasuke, you should do the same.”

“What?”

His brother gives him a look that clearly says not to question him. “It’s never a bad idea to stay connected. Besides, given I’ve taken her only copy, Hinata might want to arrange another portrait.”

Squinting suspiciously, Sasuke nonetheless agrees, exchanging digits.

“Thank you so much, miss Hyūga.”

“Oh, please just call me Hinata.”

“Very well - I hope you enjoy your evening.”

Once the brothers take their leave, Sasuke rounds on Itachi. “What was that all about?”

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“All of that!”

“What, I can’t buy art of you?”

“No, that’s - you were - and the number -”

“It’s clear she finds you intriguing,” Itachi replies briskly. “And not just in a superficial way. She could have captured anyone in that shop, but she chose you. Hinata saw something that caught her eye about you that no one else had managed. I just thought keeping a person with that impression of you close might be...wise.”

“...you’re setting me up.”

“Connections, Sasuke - they’re important.” Itachi gives him a smile, eyes twinkling. “Don’t they teach you that in your line of work?”

Having no retort, Sasuke just stuffs his hands in his pockets. “...c’mon, we’ve still got daylight to burn.”

“If you insist.”

Oof, this is...very very long compared to most entries, and now it's super late, I gotta get hopping to bed xD I got the idea not long after reading the prompt, and honestly thought it wouldn't be long enough...and then it ended up twice as long as most drabbles I've done for this challenge! But it was a cute concept, even when I realized it was gonna sop up the rest of my evening, haha! Anyway, I'm wiped, so I better call it. Hope you enjoyed, and thanks for reading!

#sasuhina #uchiha sasuke #hyūga hinata #uchiha itachi #best years of your life [ au ]#365daysofsasuhina

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