Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

The team of Karasuno high had always been blessed with uncanny luck and miracles. The issue was that miracles refused to come when they truly wished for it. Miracles and luck were myths painted red with the blood of the innocent.

About a 2 months ago, a tragedy occurred. A huge earthquake racked the islands of Japan with no mercy, mother nature taking out her anger on their poor country compiled of islands. Their enemies found this to be the perfect chance for revenge for past and present decisions made by their government and military.

Martial law had been enacted with the threat of enemies attacking or infiltrating the land badly damaged by the shit storm that preceded the declarations of war. School wasn't the same without the ability to walk to the convenience store run by their coach and pick up meat buns after practice.

It wasn't fun to see soldiers patrolling the streets and the halls of their schools. It was no fun when their dreams of nationals were crushed by a restriction imposed by their crumbling government. They couldn't even visit their friends outside of school or their neighborhoods.

One of the least fun things about it was the bracelet that was on his wrist.

Yū Nishinoya, 2nd-year high school volleyball player, age 17, 10.10

It made him feel sick to look at it every morning. But that was 2 months ago. 1 month ago, everything suddenly seemed to die on the damaged island. It all died more than it had already been dead- if that made the slightest bit of sense- when one of their enemies found satisfaction in killing more Japanese citizens and otherwise with a bomb. Nothing nuclear, but the way the ground shook wasn't fun.

There were millions of things he would never understand about the world. One was math. Two was English. Seriously, English was hard, he would rather stick to Japanese. Above all that would be a simple question with an unclear answer:

Why?

Why when their travel bans had loosened up and some of their friends and rivals from Tokyo and elsewhere were going to visit, did a bomb have to drop on Honshu island? Why, enemies of Japan, did you choose that day?

The soldiers disappeared from the streets and so did the orderly people. Everything familiar disappeared. Yu wasn't sure why he didn't let himself die. It would've been easy to end it quickly with the glass shards that had been stuck into his shoulder. He broke his wrist, but for some reason it brought much less comfort when it wasn't a volleyball injury.

The libero wondered what his friends were up to while he lived off of what had been left of their normal food and their rations. He wondered if they watched him with amusement from the heavens, or if they were still waiting for their last breaths somewhere. Both thoughts made him shiver.

If they were dead then maybe it would be fine if he just-

There was a loud knocking on the front door that startled him out of his morbid thoughts. The front door was still standing which gave him a false sense of security. Most of the walls still stood, albeit whole or in pieces. It wouldn't be hard for someone to get in though with the piles of rubble outside everywhere but the door that kept him trapped here. Or rather he used it to trap himself.

There's a long silence that makes him stand in the middle of the hallway and simply stare at the door as if daring whoever or whatever was on the other side to move. Whatever it was, it's gone. An air of apprehension hangs in his lonely silence.

------

When night falls he takes the chance and opens the door, expecting to find some tall military guy, but instead discovers a box at his doorstep. The slow movement to look down was mentally agonizing as his mind unhelpfully ran through hundreds of items that could be in the box, but when he finally sees it...he swears he forgot to breathe for a second.

It appeared to be a bento wrapped in what was probably the cleanest cloth they could find, with a note pinned to it-

Bring what you need, and anything else useful. We need our guardian angel- Asahi

Was this some military pricks messing with his brain or- he almost laughed at his second thought- had I been the timid ace who came to the door earlier? They either knew he wouldn't answer, or the big idiot had been too nervous to call out his name in fear of getting an undesirable response from someone who..wasn't him.

Yu picked up the box slowly and grinned at the orange cloth that kept it covered. That was Shouyo's- or well- he claimed it belonged to his little sister. There was a pang in his chest as he hoped that the middle blocker's kid sister was alright despite probably being terrified. The reason why he didn't bother to worry about Shouyo himself was because this alone was proof that his friend was okay for now.

There were no directions but he didn't need any. He knew the route to school by heart. If he walked there starting in the early morning around 8, he would make it there around 8:45, no later than maybe 9:15. Or- fuck it, why wait until morning when his team was waiting for him now.

With this thought in mind he packed up two bookbags full of stuff. One was his stuff, clothes, phone, things he would need when he got there for sure. The other was full with whatever rations and other food and water he could fit inside. With the moon as his guide, he edits the home, glancing back at it, as he knew that sadly this would be the last time he would ever leave this place for school. He gives a silent prayer to the dead body lying trapped in the living room before setting off.

Nishinoya wasn't one to cry a lot, usually when he was happy, though. Nothing beat the flow of salty tears that reached his taste buds via the smile on his face. Knowing Karasuno was waiting for him, knowing his team was waiting for him- 45 minutes went by just like that. And he found himself at the familiar gates. He takes a single step forward and a string catches on his foot. He's seen and played enough zombie apocalypse horrors to know where this was going.

There was a loud crash as the tug of the line caused at least two glass bottles to drop from somewhere and shatter, made to alert whoever set it. It wouldn't be a problem because whoever put it there would know exactly where it was and could easily avoid it. Yu freezes in place. At least it wasn't a bomb or something soon a figure appeared. Two of them. Large figures that were the Captain and ace without a doubt. Pulling out his phone as a light source, he gets over a second trap meant as a backup before turning the light to the two other students.

They looked grown as usual, or more so than usual as they jogged towards him. Although his eyes were blurred from tears, he could see the smile that split through Asahi's face as he pulled the libero into a tight hug. He releases the smaller wordlessly before making him turn off his flashlight. Despite being halfway dragged to the gym by his friend's hand in the dark, he hasn't felt this at-ease in a very long time.

The familiar doors of gym two open before him. Nishinoya can feel the tense air that hung around the atmosphere until Daichi flicked back on the light of Noya's phone, pointing it at his friends, while Azumane shined his own flashlight on him. Then suddenly all the tension was quickly gone.

There was Shouyo, and Ryuu, and Ennoshita, and Yamaguchi and for a second he felt his heart leap with happiness, but said heart missed the landing on the other side and sank. "Where's Kiyoko and Yachi?" And he had to take a moment to think of who else was missing "Or Suga?"

There's a brief pause before Daichi chooses to answer his first inquiry with "The girls aren't here. They got picked up by the military or something early on, but they're together." And with that, Yu awaits his second answer before daring to react. This time it's Kageyama who answers "He's trying to get some sense out of someone who was with our friends on the day of the drop."

The small brunette looks between the taller two, then back to the others when finally Shouyo explains "It's Goshiki!" There's another pause where Kageyama butts in again "Tsutomu Goshiki, he was a first year at Shiratorizawa. As far as we know, he was with their setter and some other Shiratorizawa students traveling with our friends to take them to us, since Shiratorizawa is inside the restricted zone and Sejoh and Johzenji plus obviously the schools in tokyo are outside of it. That's not the point though, the point is that he got separated from everyone else somehow and he won't tell us a thing!"

The raven-haired male appears more frustrated than anything. Shouyo tries to shush him with an "Oi, calm down, Bakayama! It's not his fault!" at which point they begin to bicker as per usual and for some reason that makes him feel at home.

--------

When morning comes around, the libero can finally get good looks at everyone without the restrictions of the dark night. He took it all in slowly, so much so that Asahi gave him a weird look when he kneeled beside him with a pair of scissors in hand that he was glad we're not meant to be used on him. "Everything alright, Noya?"

"Yeah, better than the last few months. It's just...I realized how you guys look like you're losing weight while I have been well fed for two months."

Asahi just gave him an awkward smile "we're okay. We've been here for different periods of time. Hinata and Kageyama were here first. Daichi brought Suga, then Tsukki brought Yamaguchi. I got here after all of them and ended up finding Ennoshita in bad shape when out looking for supplies."

Yu instinctively searches for Ennoshita who is nowhere to be found. Once again Asahi is explaining to him "He's trying his hand at diplomacy with the Shiratorizawa boy if you want to see him."

In an instant, Nishinoya has jumped to his feet and hurried off to the storage closet a bit startled to see it transformed into a sort of med bay. As he was told, the wing spiker was sitting in a chair beside a makeshift bed, speaking so low that he couldn't hear. A few feet away, closer to where Noya stood was Suga looking through some books. The Shiratorizawa player in question had blunt-cut bangs, fitting a bowl-cut description however it had grown out.

The boy looked beat up, silent. His skin was pale, probably from fear. He looked haunted. It sent a shiver down his spine. "Um-" he tries to think of something to say, but doesn't even have a chance when Tsutomu lifts his head. Slowly. Those haunted...haunted eyes are fixed on him now. For the first time since he got here, probably, he mumbled softly "Ken...ma…"

Sugawara turns so fast it would be logical to worry about him injuring his neck. He exchanged glances with Yu and then with Ennoshita. All he can manage is "What?"

Goshiki doesn't pull his eyes away from him. "I... can't…." He paused. "Nevermind...he's probably-"

"What happened to all of you?" Chikara interrupted, receiving a slight whimper in response. "There was gunshots and the bus crashed...then turned over...we got out but then we were.." Goshiki paused again, his breath audibly trembling. "Chased…some people chased us with guns, Oikawa blew out his knee, someone else blew out Ushijima's skull, the bullet went clean through-"

The stress is written on his face, making him clench tighter onto his jeans. "I don't know what happened but we lost Ushi and Semi and Yamamoto and Tendou, and Akaashi, and Terushima-"

"Alright slow down," Chikara tries to comfort him by placing a hand on top of his, however he flinches away and says "I don't know who's dead and who isn't. Yaku and Bokuto weren't even with us when we ran, they took another direction entirely because Yaku got really hurt when the bus crashed! We thought we were safe, we almost made it but then everything went dark, Shirabu- was bleeding, Iwaizumi was in half a frenzy, Oikawa wouldn't stop screaming in pain and-"

There's a loud crash from the landing on the other side of the room, causing the boy to freeze up. Haunted...he looked….so haunted. Out of curiosity he looks back at the landing, watching Ryuu, Kageyama and Shouyo clumsily handling some sports equipment, and currently apologising profusely to the team captain.

Ennoshita sighed heavily "Was it just you three?"

Tsutomu shakes his head "Lev...Yamamoto...Kyotani, Kindaichi. They were there but it's super blurry. I can't...I can't think right now-" the wing spiker quickly starts sobbing, and it's silently decided that leaving him alone would be for the best at the moment.

Nishinoya exits first with his senpai and Ennoshita right behind him. "Sorry about that," Yu apologizes awkwardly. Ennoshita shook his head "that's the most we've gotten out of him since he got here and that's been- geez, when did we find him?" He turns to their senpai for answers.

"Um about two days after the drop," the setter answered. Nishinoya looked back to Ennoshita and found his eyes travelling down to his arms. Dozens of ugly scars scattered up and down both arms, topped off with burns on his forearms that travelled up to his arm to his neck on his left side. He had to force himself to tear his eyes away. It was scary in all honesty. He remembered what Asahi had said to him-

"I got here after all of them and ended up finding Ennoshita in bad shape when out looking for supplies."

What happened to him?

"So, any leads?"

A collective squawk emitted from the three boys as Daichi approached them with his hands on his hips and one of those all-business kinds of looks. Ennoshita offers an awkward smile "somewhat. He's traumatized but he gave us something of an idea where to look. We should try to see if his memory is enough to get to where he last was with his friends. If we take him back to where we found him-"

"It might trigger him," Suga butts in. "If that happens we won't be able to-"

"What other choice do we have? If they're still alive, then we'll be able to help them!" The ravenette shoots back. Yu could sense their teammates beginning to approach at the sound of arguing. He takes a few steps back and finds himself against Asahi's chest. This didn't seem good. "Yeah, we can but what about us?" Koushi gently takes him by the shoulders. "Look at us compared to Nishinoya!"

Yu finds himself barely forcing out a whisper "Don't.." and is sure he's never felt this meek and helpless since he was little.

"We're getting smaller and we'll start getting even worse the more people we have!"

"So you're just going to let our friends die?"

"Not everyone we know is our friend, we-" Sugawara gestures at everyone around the room. "Are friends, we're family, but-"

"But what about Kiyoko and Yachi? And our coaches? Hinata was super close to Kenma and Lev, Tsukishima was close with Kuroo and Bokuto, Kageyama was relatively connected with Oikawa, you can't all seriously not want them to live?" The second-year looks to his teammates for reassurance.

Several people back up slowly. Yu stays in place as Asahi's warmth leaves his back. When he looks around he finds that Shouyo, Tsukishima and Kageyama are standing in place as well, heads down or looking off the side. There were sounds of frustration from both players, although Chikara sounded more desperate for help. Suga's grip was probably tight on him.

The usual motherly and soft Koushi finally backed off and the two contrasting boys split off, Suga back to the makeshift medbay and Ennoshita off to the locker rooms. There's a tense silence that hangs in the air.

Daichi clears his throat as if it helped somehow. "Uh well, you should all get back to your chores. Nishinoya, would you mind helping me with drawing a route for us to take? If anything we need to see that they're…" he trailed off and said nothing else.

-------

"Oi, Noya!" Ryuu interrupted them from where he stood at the table situated against the wall. Both he and Daichi lifted their heads at the same time to look at him. His friend swallows nervously "we got some new information from Goshiki, I think we should hurry."

Daichi makes a face at him that silently urges him to explain. Tanaka appears uncharacteristically nervous. "He said there was some type of military group that's picking up people and promising them safety in exchange for doing horrible things to the survivors, the Japanese military is in shambles. That was probably who was going after them." There's another nervous pause that makes Sawamura turn to him fully. "...and?"

"And he narrowly escaped. They're the cars that keep patrolling around the streets. Daichi takes a deep breath. "Alright, tell Suga to get that boy ready to go. We're going back where they found him and he should be able to lead us from there."

-------

Sugawara was pouting the whole way. He wasn't normally a childish person, but he was probably more or less just frustrated that Daichi hadn't taken his side. Goshiki was silent beside him. Daichi held the spiker by his shoulder as they traveled down the road with light backpacks on their backs. There was no conversation among them. It was a quiet trip in which no one dared make a sound for fear of someone among them to snap. It's easy to tell when they're close because Tsutomu becomes very tense.

They pass a wrecked house where he whimpers softly and then relaxes. Then he stops. Stops dead in the middle of the road, forcing everyone else to pause just a few feet ahead. Goshiki's eyes lit up like the sky when the drop happened. He breaks into a sprint and Daichi hurries right behind him with Suga and Nishinoya in tow. They probably hadn't seen him even smile since long before the earthquake.

He sounded excited even without words. Then...he slows to a stop as he comes up to a street corner and crouches. A body. Unmoving. Everyone else slows down a few feet behind him and stares in shock.

Daichi is the first to say it in a breathy sigh "Kindaichi…" and Suga is second with "looks recent. More recent than a month."

Goshiki looks up quickly, eyes glistening with tears, but with a spark of hope. "He came back looking for the rest of us!"

Koushi nods, crossing his arms, staring down at him for a moment before kneeling beside him. Kindaichi wasn't in too bad shape, slumped against a street sign pole. Blood staining his hair and face. To Goshiki's dismay, Suga nervously begins to search the dead boy's pockets. He pulls out a handful of something.

A crumpled paper and a cat charm. Before anyone can ask, he reads out loud "Semi is dead, the others ran, if you found this, I'm probably dead too. I tried to find you, but at least find them.."

Goshiki's voice catches in his throat, preventing words from coming out. Nishinoya gently rubs his back in comforting circles. For once, the student is grinning. "They could be alive." And everyone nods. Daichi frowns though. "What should we do about him?" He gestures to the lifeless Seijoh player. Suga shakes his head "Daichi can take him to somewhere he won't be disturbed, is that okay?" Although he's answering the Captain, he was looking to Goshiki for permission.

The second-year nods silently and stands up. "We'll be going on ahead, okay?" He called to the third-years, pulling the other boy along behind him. After travelling a few feet from them, Yu decided to speak up "You seem to be in a better mood," with a grin.

"Yeah I guess...knowing that they're probably not all dead helped. That image is still burned into the back of my head."

"Image?"

"Ushiwaka got shot right in front of me. Your friends had to pin me down to clean the blood off my face. Flubbing a spike was scary but never that scary!" Goshiki's voice pitched but he seemed to be alright.

"The earthquake was scariest for me. The whole ceiling collapsed. I was saved by sturdy furniture, but I lived in a house with my dead granny for two months until my team finally figured out I wasn't dead," Yu explained in response. The mood was light yet not cheery. He looked up at the sky and the flames that lit up the morning in the distant city.

They both find the following silence rather comfortable. There's nothing better than a comfortable silence. Suddenly, Tsutomu hesitates. Nishinoya stops too. He doesn't turn. He simply stays still, holding his breath. There's a mental count going down in his head. It's only his second day with them and something like this was already happening.

He takes a deep breath.

I'm scared

The words weren't spoken but he knew the words the boy behind him wanted to say based on soft whimpering. He hears a prompt "cut the noise!" Which only cause the whimpering to increase to muffled cries. The boy has been through way too much to be yelled at needlessly by a strange man.

Daichi and Suga would save them. They would save them as soon as they realized something was wrong and that they had gotten into trouble. Suga had mother's intuition, he had to sense his distress, right?

Right?

He makes his breathing slow and conspicuous as if silently trying to encourage the boy to do the same. He crying softened, so he assumed that it worked. There's a click by his head. Way too close to his head. The whimpering starts again but it's not Goshiki this time.

"Let me see your tag," a rough voice demands. Slowly he raised his right hand, showing off the bracelet with his basic information on it. Although he hardly makes it out, there's an instruction to get the fuck on his knees. He compliantly lowers himself to the ground, the asphalt scraping against the skin of his knees.

There's another click, but it's not in his ears it's a few feet away where the sobbing has started. The man behind him doesn't talk, but the one pinning Goshiki is interrogating him like he was a cop and the boy was a criminal on trial. The blood pumping in Nishinoya's ears made it hard to tell what he was saying, but the crying only got worse. There are a few things he can pick out through his racing heartbeat.

"I lost it, I swear! I lost it after the drop or in the drop, I don't know where it is! I just want to get back to where I came from, I don't wanna be here, please!"

Yu hadn't even noticed the tag missing from the spiker's wrists. The guy with a gun hovering far too close to his head finally backs off from him. Footsteps begin to step back from him. They fade into the distance after a minute. He doesn't even know whats happening when arms wrap around him and pull him to his feet. His whole mind is drawing a blank, but he looks behind him to find that Goshiki is being carried by Daichi. He probably fainted.

"Nishinoya... Nishinoya!"

It takes a second for him to snap back into full consciousness, meeting the eyes of his senpai. He looks concerned with his lips pressed firmly together in a line. "They asked us for our tags…" he mumbled, falling into the third-years embrace. "Tags? Why would they want your tags?" The question Koushi poses is a good one, but rhetorical as no one had an answer anyway.

Nishinoya is sure that Daichi just shakes his head, as he has nothing to say.

------

The next day is uneventful aside from Sugawara telling off Ennoshita because of the incident the previous day. Ennoshita didn't argue back. Goshiki went quiet again, too. The occasional bickering of the first years was a surprising comfort, though. It was probably the familiarity it brought from when all they had to argue about was a missed spike or a king set.

It had just become routine for Ryuu to burst in the door and loudly announce his presence when returning from wherever he went off to. "I come bearing gifts!" He exclaims, clearly looking proud of himself. Almost everyone gets up to inquire about what kind of gifts he could possibly have.

Out from behind his back he pulls out a plastic shopping bag. Shouyo is first to look inside, and the way his eyes sparkle is telltale enough. That meant they had some good food.

Kageyama drags his senpai over to the table to inspect how edible the contents actually are. In the meantime Noya finds himself back at the makeshift medbay, practically stalking the wing spiker that remained inside. Tsutomu appeared to be asleep, shockingly peacefully matter-of-fact. They had both scraped their knees pretty bad in their little adventure, but it could've been worse for sure.

"Nishiya!" Yu nearly jumps out of his skin when arms wrapped around his neck. "Ack- Shouyo!" He dramatically choked out, causing the middle blocker to release him. "Ah, sorry! I'm just really glad you're okay, Daichi told us what happened yesterday! Oh and also-" he takes a step back, brown eyes wide and excited "I think we found out what happened!"

"Huh?" Noya perked up. "What do you mean?"

"Right, well we got tagged when we were out!"

Tagged: when someone asks to see your 'tag' aka the bracelet almost everyone had on their wrist or ankle. It was a form of identification.

"Really?" His voice hit a pitch he didn't expect frrom himself, but he forces himself to relax and lower his voice. "Did you tell Suga or Daichi?"

Hinata shakes his head. "No, not yet! I swear I'm going to, but…."

"But….?"

Shouyo looked down at the floor "something...happened and I... couldn't," his pale cheeks puff out with a nervous pout, his hands fiddling with wthe bottom of his T-shirt. Yu puts his hands on his friend's shoulders, forcing him to make eye contact with him. "What happened out there?"

He doesn't get a reply, just a soft whimper. Noya could feel someone's eyes on him. Tanaka, probably, concerned about the way he was interrogating the poor kid. He sighs and hugs him instead. "Tell someone if not me, okay?" He looks up without lifting his head. Indeed Ryuu was watching him. He only saw that much guilt on his face when he was having a bad playing day.

The brunette releases his friend gently and approaches the other. Ryunosuke presses his back against the edge of the table. "Noya-"

"What happened to him out there? He looks shaken!"

"We got threatened, that's all!"

"You got what?!" Daichi interrupted. Now the secrecy was crashing down already. Ryu swallows nervously.

"Relax, Daichi, We just got tagged by some guys, it's fine," Tanaka waves off the captain's worry, but finds his hand getting slapped down. "Hinata!" He calls, the tangerine boy approaching with confusion. No one likes the look in Sawamura's eyes.

"When those guys threatened you, what happened?"

"They put guns to our head!"

"Did they ask you for anything else but your tags?"

Shouyo pauses for a brief second before shaking his head.

"I don't think you're telling me the truth, Hinata."

Hinata frowns, glancing around at the other players before back to Daichi. Tanaka scoffs, stepping up again "look! It's fine, it's just a bruise!" He lifts his sleeve to expose dark bruises on his upper arm. "They didn't do anything us, just grabbed onto us because the little orange tried to run and almost got shot!"

Shou sinks back, his hands clenching into his shorts and tears watering. "What he said-"

"That's not it" Daichi hissed. He was right, there was no way he would be so quiet without a good reason. The soft crying proved it.

"Hinata, we need to know what happened out there!"

The first year sinks back again, grouching down to the floor and beginning to sob, getting louder and louder until he's practically hysterical. Finally Kageyama steps in "We'll find out what happened when the little dumbass wants to talk. Until then there isn't shit we can do. The more you push it, the worse he'll get, the last thing we need is for him to close off!"

Close off: exactly what had happened to and was happening to Tsutomu.

The captain shuts up finally as Tobio literally picks up Hinata and carries him into the locker rooms, probably to get a calmer confession. If Shouyo was scared, then things were worse than they thought. 

The following silence is tense and feels dangerous as if everyone was afraid to do so much as breath. Suga nervously clears his throat "The food Tanaka brought back is perfectly fine, so it would help us relax if we got in a good little meal, right?" He suggests, a nervous attempt to diffuse the tension that had built up in the room.

This was going to be an awkward meal.

-------

He was right about that. The atmosphere was just as tense and awkward as he could of expected. Shouyo was asleep in the makeshift medbay- which used to be the equipment storage room- and refused to come out. He still attempted conversations when approached, but was pretty soft spoken.

"So….about today" Ennoshita mumbles, tensing his shoulders as all eyes are on him. He coughs awkwardly. "We might be in danger, so I think we might not be safe here. They probably have an idea where we're hiding thanks to our tags."

He's right. Karasuno and Shiratorizawa were the only two high schools in the area they could access. They could probably get through the gates without a problem, but if the actual military caught them in an area where they weren't supposed to be, they would still be in serious trouble.

"I'm not sure that I can leave this place," Yamaguchi interrupts. Asahi nods his agreement "it sounds kinda crazy but I feel the same way. I mean- I spent so much of my life in this gym, I wouldn't be able to go in good conscience."

There's soft murmurs of agreements but it's unclear of who they're from. Daichi appears to mumbled something to himself before coming to a conclusion "We'll hold out while we still can. As of now, this place is secure, alright? We're in minimum danger so it would be best to stay out until it's necessary. I was going to ask you all if-"

There's a buzzing sound. Then another. Then a whole round of them. It takes a moment before he realizes that the buzzing is coming from his jacket. His…

"Phone?" Kageyama says what they're all thinking. Slowly, Nishinoya pulls the device from his pocket. If the others still had functioning phones, they were probably dead, otherwise broken. However Noya had no service before so his battery hadn't died since he didn't use it.

The bright screen blinks to life. He isn't sure if he should be relieved or horrified.

Tora 5 missed calls

Tora 9+ unread messages

Tora missed video chat

BREAKING NEWS: Nekoma h….

BREAKING NEWS: One month after day Zero

BREAKING NEWS: Bombs dropped all around J…

NEWS: One month after The Rainy Day

Without thinking, he taps on the Nekoma article first-

Nekoma Highschool, a volleyball powerhouse was struck directly by one of the three bombs that fell upon Japan a month after a devastating earthquake left the country and it's government already vulnerable. No bodies have been discovered.

"Day Zero, Huh?" Nishinoya jumped as Tsukishima spoke from over his shoulder. "And The Rainy Day….must be when the bombs dropped" Noya added. He frowned. What a name to give something so destructive and inflicting so much despair. 

Tanaka yawns "I dunno I totally liked Drop Day better. It's kinda weird for something like that to sound so stupidly poetic." He almost sounded bored with the topic, or maybe he just really wanted to drop it. Noya only stared at him for a moment before finally finding himself in his missed messages.

Something told him that he was going to feel sick in a second. The texts varied, asking for where he was at least five times, just worded differently. Then...a video. He taps it nervously 

"Hey yo, so I guess your internet is out or something cause of the 'quake or something but…" Yamamoto looked a bit nervous, looking around himself. Beside him, Yaku could just barely be made out, apparently asleep on the Ace's shoulder.

"Everything is moving super fucking slow, Kenma looks like he's about to puke his guts out, and Bokuto won't shut up! Oikawa's dumbass can't find the stupid tag-"

"I am not a dumbass, Tora-chan!"

"Shut up, Shittykawa!"

"Ow, Iwa-chan!"

A few of the team members find it in themselves to grin. The background conversations felt so great to hear to break up the tension of their new lives.

"Well whatever, we'll get back with you when stuff speeds up. Don't miss us too much!" The Nekoma player grins bright as the morning sun, the tired Libero on his shoulder even cracking a smile. It seemed like mood flipped in a split second. Gunshots. Joy turned to fear. The screen blacked out for a good three seconds. By the time thise three seconds were up, all you could see was the sky through shattered windows of the bus.

There's a long pause.

Yamamoto is hovering over the camera for a split second before the blackness returns. Color returns but it's blurry, accompanied by gunshots. It sounds like Goshiki screaming too.

It ends there. Noya was right. He did feel like throwing up. But he scrolls to the next video.

No words accompany this one at first. Just heavy breathing and Oikawa screaming. The camera was pointed at Iwaizumi who looked like he was having a panic attack holding Oikawa in his arms. Although his head was out of frame, Lev was pacing. Goshiki must have been behind Taketora at the time. What in the world happened to them?

Next up was just a photo. The area gate. A picture taken from the window of a vehicle.

There was a quiet tension that built up until once again came Kageyama saying what were thinking. "We should go, right?"

No answer is given, so everyone turns to Daichi who suddenly looks like pressure has been placed on him that he doesn't like. "How about we sleep on it? I mean, this is a pretty big decision."

It seemed that this was the agreement.

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*

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The night was dark and wet, the rain pouring down in buckets. No one was enjoying this. There was a small whimper "Iwa-chan, this sucks!" And while no one could disagree with him, Kyoutani shot back "Iwaizumi isn't here right now you idiot, you're probably all weird in the head from the pain."

"Can you not do this right now? I don't think it's the time for this."

"Time for what?" Kentaro shoots back, as well as shooting a sharp glare at Yamamoto. Lev just makes a face at them both.

"We should take a break, Shirabu is doing better than him, but is still in bad shape," Lev suggests. It made sense since he was the one helping the other injured boy along. Kyoutani glances around at their surroundings before nodding, taking a few more steps before gently putting his senpai in a spot where trees provided them with very slight shelter from the rain.

"This is bullshit!" Yamamoto complains. "You'll have to be more specific," Shirabu responds which just earns him another groan. "How are you so calm?" Lev asked as he crouched down between the two pairs. He doesn't get the response he was probably looking for, just "Because I am."

For a second, Kentaro is just grateful he has cropped hair unlike the others whose hair sticks to their face with the exception of Yamamoto who's hair seems to absorb it all like a sponge since their hair has all started to grow out. At this point, Lev and Oikawa could probably put their hair into normal ponytails.

"Senpai," Kyoutani muttered, shooting a glance at the brunette who was slumped against his shoulder the moment he thought about him. "What's up, Maddog-chan?" And she tries not to shiver when he hears that response. It's definitely his voice, but his personality was missing from it. It tugged at his heart but he didn't let it show.

"Nevermind, just go the fuck to sleep," the blonde hissed, only receiving a small giggle. "Mhm.." Toru closed his eyes slowly, seeming to drift off almost immediately. There's a long silence as they all seemed to just watch him. "You lucky bastard…" he mumbled.

Somehow, Shirabu seemed to know who was being spoken to "The hell are you talking about you brat?"

Kyou scoffs "You got shot in the shoulder and it didn't even get infected! All he did was bust his knee and fall! And now he's the one with an infection and if he dies-"

"If he dies, then what?" Kenjiro snaps. "What are you gonna do? Cry about it? When someone dies, they're dead!"

"But we lost so many people already but they're probably alive! They could be okay!" Lev cut in, desperate to avoid this situation.

"And what's the probability of that? What's the probability the Kuroo and Kenma or Yaku and Lev didn't get shot? Or the probability that Tomu and Kindaichi actually made it?" Shirabu posed the question almost as a fact, as if to say 'its pointless' but in more words.

"In volleyball...you have to trust your teammates," everyone was surprised to hear Oikawa speak up, although it wasn't surprising that their arguing had woke him. "The whole team trusts the receiver to get the ball, who trusts the setter to set it. The spiker trusts the ball will come to them and they will score…"

The brunette sits up slowly, wincing. "If...we're the receiver, then Goshiki and Kindaichi are our setters. Karasuno are attackers-"

"Our lives are the ball. If we live,"

"We win," Kenjiro finishes Yamamoto's sentence. Another silence falls for a bit. It's not tense or awkward though, just the silence of teenagers trying to figure out how to stay alive when all they had known was how to keep a ball in play.

The analogy or metaphor -Kentaro wasn't sure, he wasn't the best with literary devices in either Japanese or English- had made them relax as much as they could. Relax enough so that they could all find it in themselves to sleep. It was a bit more comfortable when at peace.

-----

They woke to the sounds of cars driving by and Oikawa retching a few feet away. Thankfully they were out of sight at least. Kentaro blinked awake, his eyes darting around. Two people were missing. Yamamoto and Oikawa. The sound of vomiting told him where Toru was.

"Has anyone seen-"

"Yamamoto? Nope," Lev interrupted. Kentaro groaned, rubbing his eyes. Shirabu still looked to be fast asleep on the ground, facing away from them, comfortably settled in the soft grass.

Lev stood up slowly in all of his six-foot glory. "We should look for him I guess. Make sure he's alright," he pointed over to where Seijoh's setter was crouched by a bush, messy brown hair hiding his face from view. Kyoutani just frowned and shook his head "That can be Shirabu's job. Make him useful for once."

Haiba didn't argue. Instead he just picked a direction towards the road and started walking. Kentaro was right behind him, remaining silent throughout the whole time. The sight of a truck on the street didn't help with their worry. Considering he was the smaller of the two, Kyoutani peeked out.

But this…. wasn't what he was expecting. He heard Lev draw in a sharp inhale.

Nekoma's ace was alive and well, but that wasn't the problem here. The problem was that there were three bodies and a gun in his hand, red staining almost every part of his body.

"Yamamoto!" Lev hopped over the metal railing that separated the woods from the road, running over to him. In a single instant he ripped the gun from him, fumbling to turn the safety on and tossing it.

His teammate looked up and then around, then at him and said "I blacked out, they tried to tag me and I got panicked and I don't remember anything else."

"Um okay...okay, what do I do?" Lev looks to the blonde for help, but he has none to give. Without clear instructions, he simply lifts the ace off the ground and carries him back. Kentaro stays behind, slowly approaching the bodies with bullet holes through them.

Without thinking about why, he picks up the gun and wrestles off the hoodies the men wore. Bile rose in his throat. These guys didn't look much older than he did.

Trying to push the thought to the back of his mind, he returns to their little group with his loot, just...frowning at the sight.

Shirabu was still dead asleep, not disturbed by all the movement. Oikawa had returned to his spot, but was still doubled over, his skin a sickly color. Seeing the look on his face, Yamamoto says "we should be able to find some water after all that rain yesterday."

He knows what he's referring to, which makes him approach the captain and force him to sit up as he lifted his shirt. The large cut on his waist didn't look too good. It was infected, that was for one, but it was extremely dirty from mud and lack of proper hygiene to begin with.

Even the rain couldn't do much for them at this point. He cringed at the sight. "We need to get rid of all this dry blood."

"Absolutely not!"

"Would you rather die?"

"Well- no!"

"We can't do that with our dirty-ass hands," Taketora interrupted. It seemed to shock Lev that he was so calm after whatever the fuck happened back at the road. Kyoutani sighs. "Okay then, fine. I got some hoodies so maybe it'll help with staying out of sight? I don't fucking know, but either way these disgusting wet clothes aren't doing us much good."

There was a mutual agreement on that. They were unfortunately bloody, but that was better than the clothes they've had for at least a month or so now. Oikawa doubled over again.

"Nnh, Mad dog-chan…"

"What?"

"I feel really sick-"

"You always do."

"No, this is different!"

Everyone currently awake looked confused and worried. Different wasn't exactly what they wanted to hear from the guy with three infected wounds, a busted knee and a fever causing delusions.

"We really need to get him help," Lev suggested as if it wasn't already a very clear and obvious fact. The brunette looked like shit and probably felt like it too.

"Iwa...chan…" the way the name fell from the setter's tongue was disturbing, like someone speaking their last words on their deathbed. Oikawa wasn't one to give up that easy. "He's probably hallucinating," Kentarou thought out loud, watching as his senpai fainted. Well that was new.

-----

Fuck.

Fuck this absolutely could not be happening.

Everything was fine just yesterday! They thought they were safe but oh how wrong they were Daichi seemed to be procrastinating on the decision to leave. If they left earlier it would've been better. Two weeks after wasn't fast enough. It was Suga and Asahi this time, returning to their base, shaken.

Koushi collapsed into Daichi and Asahi stood half-frozen. This seemed like it should've been the last straw. "This isn't working anymore, Daichi" it was Tsukishima who said it in a low, calm voice. The captain wasn't impressed and stayed quiet.

"Can't you see? We're not safe anymore, come here-" Ennoshita reached over and grabbed gently onto Sugawara's arm, pulling him from Daichi's grip and walking him to the makeshift infirmary. The setter was hurt. Everyone was coming back worse than the last.

Shouyo was still more quiet than usual. Kageyama assured us that he told him what happened so we chose to trust him on that. Asahi made a sound of discomfort. "This definitely isn't our military. They're in hoodies and trucks, but they have guns and-" he takes a deep breath.

"They didn't...tag us this time. They know who we are, then they'll be coming after us. They're getting closer to us, we can't risk it anymore, we're not-"

Between the time it took for him to be interrupted and to say the word safe something had shattered a window. Everyone instinctively turned their backs to each other, searching for the cause. Tsukishima- the only one who hadn't been with the group the whole time- was coming down from the landing with a wooden bat in his hand.

Someone was kicking at the door- or ramming into it, one of the two. Kei was approaching the door slowly with the intention of hitting whoever came through once he clicked the lock, but-

"Tomu!"

And everything seems to freeze except for whoever was on the other side of the lock. It was just as much of a surprise as it wasn't when Goshiki emerged from the makeshift room. He was quiet which wasn't anything new now, but he pushed right past the tall blonde. He didn't hesitate until he reached the door, clicking the lock. The door almost instantly opened, and in stumbled a boy with strawberry-tinted blonde hair.

"Shira-?" Goshiki was pulled into something of a hug before he even had a chance to express his shock. The raven-haired teen didn't seem to mind, though. He started crying instead. Although he seemed to enjoy the sentiment, Shirabu spoke up.

"Some guys are on our tails-"

"Where did that hoodie come from?" It was Asahi who interrupted him, only getting "it's a long story" in response. "Oikawa and Yamamoto are hiding outside, that stupid Seijoh setter is hardly conscious."

"And what about everyone else?" Noya questioned him this time. Shirabu's grip on Goshiki loosened and he sighed. "No clue" it seemed like everyone took a breath right then.

At some point, Daichi was the focus of attention again. He makes a face, clearly a bit disturbed and holding his breath himself. The brunette scans the faces of the teens around him and realizes he has no choice.

They had to get out of here before one of them was the next victim of...what or whoever this was. "U-Um-" Yamaguchi speaks up suddenly, his freckled face holding an anxious look.

"Does anyone know...where Kageyama and Hinata disappeared to?"

Silence.

Just...silence.

Tanaka clenches his fists with a frown. "No, we don't."

Once again, Daichi is being watched.

"Oh damnit…"