Chapter Text
The night was dark, the darkest he’d ever seen it, but he didn’t seem to care, he just kept on running. He only had one thing on his mind. He had to catch up with the lonely figure that insisted on getting further and further away from him. No matter how many times Kageyama Tobio kept on calling at his back, the other one kept on making distance. It would seem impossible to know where he was going if it weren’t for its only light source, the almost too bright stars in the sky. He looked up at them, thankful for their constant light which seemed to just point him in the direction he should be going. Like a beacon, as if it were a sign. Kageyama felt their determination in helping him to make it on time.
He could hear his beating heart crashing against his ribs, as his surroundings became muddled and unfamiliar. In his mind, he recognized where he was going, but he couldn’t be sure of having ever been here before. He stopped his chase when the giant red Inari gate came into view and dread crept onto his spine. Something was about to happen and he knew it was going to be bad. Very, very bad.
He touched the red gate and before him the path opened up; a sea of the endless stairs surrounded by thousands and thousands of equally crimson and big wooden torii. He glanced up, finding at the very top, the small figure that had eluded him, standing in all his glory. There was a circle of light hovering on his back reflecting the light of the vibrant stars from above. His orange hair casting a subtle dancing light, which in the dark of the night, it almost seemed as roaring flames reaching to the heavens. Kageyama swallowed in awe, mesmerized by the figure, before the uneasiness of the imagery made him run his way up the stairs like a madman.
Suddenly, the lights from the sky went out and a complete darkness engulfed the night. There was no moon to cast guidance, no stars to follow in their path. He was now chasing after the sparks that came from the boy atop of the stairs, who danced, moved and fought against the shadowy tendrils lashing against him in the middle of the temple’s stone plaza.
Kageyama managed to get to the top of the stairs as the darkness became almost blinding. Panting in desperation, he looked for any signs of the well being of the boy, only to find the circle of light that had been perched at his back, laying now discarded at the sidelines. The cracked mirror, dulled, spilling its shards all around its metallic frame; no longer able to reflect anything. No means to protect the figure from the impending shadows creeping closer and closer to the boy.
Kageyama yelled the boy’s name in agony as he ran towards him. He outstretched his hand in a desperate attempt to reach him, to warn him of the shadows; but the smaller boy kept his figure still and stared back at him with the saddest eyes Kageyama had seen in his life. The boy mouthed the words with a defeated smile directed towards Tobio, just as the shadows took hold of everything around him.
Kageyama gasped for air, jolting up and straightened himself from his bed. He was drenched in sweat, but he was sure that the droplets running down his cheeks weren’t from it. He’d been crying, he knew it.
He looked outside the window of his small room, receiving a silent reply from the full moon and stars on display. It always managed to calm his beating heart and shaking hands whenever he woke up after dreaming about the mysterious orange haired boy. After a couple of nights of waking up covered in sweat and tears, Kageyama reasoned that he had to know him. Maybe he had forgotten about the boy at some point in his life, but it was clear that his body, his mind, his soul , still had some kind of connection to the boy with the fiery hair. He knew he yelled the boy’s name in his dreams, but as soon as he woke up, the name had already been forgotten.
After the first few vivid dreams, he had started to make a more avid effort to find more about the boy of his dreams. He started by searching in his school’s yearbooks. If he saw him in his dreams, according to the Internet at least, it meant that he had at least seen him before, proving Tobio’s theory that he, in fact, knew the boy already. After his search had proven fruitless, he started to look at his surroundings more carefully; he stole glances at bystanders on the street. He started watching movies, following the news about famous people to see if, maybe, the boy had been in an action scene that just kept looping on in his head. Or maybe, just maybe, the boy was a famous character from a videogame that he forgot he had even played.
But after months of searching and looking for him , he hadn’t found anything close to an answer while the dreams had only become more vivid and more frequent. At this point, he just wanted to know . Why was he calling for the other’s name? Why was he so desperate to find him? What were the words the other boy kept on mouthing at him that made him wake up so desperate and in so much pain every time?
Kageyama exhaled heavily before taking a look at his alarm clock. 5:45 am. He wouldn’t get much by trying to go back to bed at this point. He most definitely wasn’t going to get any rest before the alarm rang and by how soaked he was, he just wanted a shower. He sighed defeated, today’s classes were going to be long as hell.
-----
“You woke up early.” The girl teased Kageyama as she took her seat on the table. She saw the deep dark circles under her brother’s eyes and furrowed her eyebrows in worry. “Another bad dream?” She asked in worry.
“Yeah.” He replied, taking another mouthful of rice for breakfast.
At the very monosyllabic reply from her brother, Kageyama Miwa huffed in annoyance.
“You know you can talk to me about them, right?” She pointed at him with her chopsticks, pouting angrily. “That’s what big sisters are for. Confide in me a little, will you?” She smiled fondly as she stared in worry at her brother before daring to throw a follow up to her question. She laid down her chopstick on the table, holding her brother’s gaze with warm eyes and a soft smile before delicately placing one hand over the boy’s. “Is it about mom and dad?”
Kageyama stared back at Miwa a little longer than he needed, wondering, remembering when nightmares of his parent's deaths would wake him up screaming, only to be lulled back to sleep with the soft caresses and words from his sister. Though in all honesty, nowadays the distant memories of his parents seemed more like a soft echo, barely a whisper. A reconstruction of ideas that someone else once told him about them. They felt so distant, to the point that sometimes, Kageyama was even unsure if the time they shared together had even been real.
He sighed to himself. Maybe just saying that his lack of sleep was because of the return of those nightmares and fears would be easier than trying to explain the dreams that had been haunting him recently. Even he was having trouble figuring them out and it was his dream. Imagine trying to explain to his sister why he woke up crying and with the desperate need to look for a boy he had never seen in his life before. Nah. Not happening.
"Yeah." He replied as tired as he felt. "The dreams have come back."
Miwa stared back at him with pitiful yet soft eyes. She drew her hand to pet Tobio's hair softly as the boy leaned into the touch, more out of habit, but still grateful for the comforting gesture. The girl had practically raised him; displays of affection between them were second nature by now, even though most of the time they weren't initiated by the younger brother.
"I made your lunch for today. Don't forget to take it." Miwa ruffled the boy's head sweetly. "Cheer up Tobio, I'll make curry tonight to scare those bad dreams away, ok?" She smiled tenderly as she rose up from the table and made her way to the front door. "Don't be late for school! I will know!" She called from the foyer as the sound of the door closing announced her leaving the house.
He played a little more with the rice in his bowl before deciding that he wasn’t hungry anymore. He stood up to take care of the dishes, glancing at the calendar stuck on the fridge’s door as he did so. A little magnet of a broom and his name on today’s date signaled his turn to take care of the cleaning of the small shinto shrine that their family looked over. It had been the role of his parents as priest and priestess of the shrine, but with them gone and the little attraction that the shrine brought, it hadn’t been entrusted to a new priest yet, relaying the responsibilities of looking after it to both him and Miwa.
Kageyama groaned softly.
He was looking forward to finishing his last year of high school and starting his life far away from the boring and uninteresting duties of a shrine keeper wanna be.
The walk to school was uneventful. The same view, the same pathways, the same people. Today hadn’t been his lucky day either. Maybe if he started going through a different route, the scenery would change. Maybe the mysterious boy could be just around the corner, waiting for Kageyama to venture outside of his comfort zone. On the other hand, if he changed his usual route and the boy were to be waiting for him at the end of it, he would end up missing him completely too.
He chuckled at the thought.
Since when had he become so paranoid and obsessed? He just needed some rest. Maybe sleeping through the first few classes would make him recover his senses.
He stopped at a red light. He adjusted the straps of his bag when a reflected light got him directly on his eye. He blinked away from its source, moving his head out of the way of the annoying spark, trying to see where it was coming from.
A flash of orange crossed his line of vision and his heart skipped a beat.
He tossed and turned trying to follow what he thought he had seen, but the light kept on making him unable to. There was a loud honking and the uncomfortable reflected light disappeared as the cars started to move. He felt a bump to his side that threatened to topple him over as the rest of the pedestrians made their way to the other side of the street. He managed to recover quickly, turning his head in every direction to look for the orange blur, but as fast as it had come, it had already disappeared in the busy morning street.
He blinked away his daze, running across the busy street after realizing he still had to cross before the lights changed if he wanted to make it on time. By the time he got to the school gates, his tiredness, his daze and his paranoia had only doubled.
-----
School had been… weird. After his brief encounter with whatever the orange thing had been in the morning, he hadn’t been able to shake the feeling of being watched. He had become jumpy and alert to everyone and everything. It was as if all his senses were on high alert, making him feel uneasy, as if there was the threat of immediate danger looming in every corner, well, not physical danger per se, but for a learning environment, it certainly felt almost as if it was.
At his morning lecture his usual teacher had been absent, so he had been replaced for the only other teacher that held a personal grudge against Kageyama, making him the sole object of his snarky remarks and belittling observations about his grades. At lunch, not only he had forgotten his bento due to his tiredness, but the only milk left in the vending machine had ended squished and spilt mercilessly on the floor after a kid had hit him with a soccer ball by mistake. And No. Even though the student had asked for forgiveness, the shittiest day of Kageyama had not been fixed by an endless bowing motion and a rosary of apologies. To make matters worse, the end of the day had him in the same classroom with the same horrible teacher from the morning lecture.
When the bell rang, announcing their dismissal, he groaned in relief at the ending of this seemingly eternal torture. He stood up and made his way back home, just ignoring how twitchy he felt. He really was looking forward to the promised curry from Miwa. He was so distracted, that in the middle of his way back home, he remembered about his Shrine duties. Groaning loudly, he toyed with the idea of just skipping it, really, really not wanting to add the waste of his afternoon sweeping the leaves and dusting off the altar of the rarely visited shrine to the list of a very shitty day as it was.
“It’s not for the visitors, Tobio, it’s for the Kami that keeps watch over us.” He mimicked in a higher pitch and mocking tone the voice of his sister as he remembered why Miwa was so devoted to her own duties. “Well, if you still believed in that crap then you should be the one keeping it clean.” He groaned and kicked a rock on the road as he made his way begrudgingly to the shrine.
As soon as the shrine came into view, the uneasiness he had been feeling during the day evaporated. He could deny it all he wanted, but there was something relaxing about taking care of their little shrine. He may have hated the idea of just this being his responsibility or his whole future; but everytime he would change into his red and white robes and step into the small area marked by that familiar wooden fence, something would connect with his inner self. He would feel time flowing slower, the foliage would look greener and he would feel grounded, as if a missing piece of himself would finally set into his soul, completing him.
He loved it.
He hated it.
The idea that this basic purpose in his life was maybe everything he was ever meant to be was his biggest fear. The idea of being stuck forever in this little shrine, in this mediocre city, it made him feel trapped. Suffocated. He wanted to experience more. He wanted to feel that his life had some meaning besides cleaning the cobblestone path of his family’s temple. There had to be a reason for him living right now. This couldn’t be everything there was for him to have survived that horrible and tragic night all those years ago. No matter how calm and fulfilled and complete he felt right now.
The sound of soft music came to his ears, snapping him from going down the spiraling thoughts he was not ready to reminiscence about. He turned his head to the source of the noise. Furrowed eyebrows echoed his thoughts. There were visitors in the temple? Wait. Was there someone playing music here? It appeared to be a string instrument, it wasn’t quite a guitar, more like a higher pitch sound being played in an off-key kind of way.
Filled with the similar uneasiness feelings from before, he held onto the broom in his hands tightly. Was it a student wanting to practice in a remote location? He surely hoped so, the tune definitely needed practice and honestly, what was the worst it could be? He was almost an adult, there was nothing to be afraid of. If it seemed like a dangerous or crazy person, maybe he could ask him nicely to leave? He could use the broom as a weapon, if whoever the person was became rowdy. There was nothing to fear, really, he repeated trying to convince himself.
The string instrument gave one last loud grating note before stopping its noise completely, the silence that came after made Kageyama even more anxious. He stepped towards where he thought the music had come from, only for a crashing sound coming from the honden at his right to make him jump out of his skin. He fell to the ground as he tripped with his wooden sandals, cursing out loud as a second banging sound made its way to his ears. Someone was not only invading the place, but actually trying to destroy it. He got up quickly, almost tripping on his long pants. He managed to grab the broom before dashing towards the wooden structure.
He stopped himself a couple of meters from the now evident shadow inside the house-like building. The honden wasn’t big, but it wasn’t the smallest he had seen either. It could fit up to four people standing before the Kami’s altar and its shintai; the glass bead laying cozily on top of a small purple velvety cushion. The wooden construction built around it was meant to protect and house the jewel from the weather, but the hole now created by whoever was staring at the bead in front of them was making sure that the structure was rendered pointless.
“Hey!” Kageyama meant to say with much more threat and conviction than the trembling weak shout that escaped his lips. “What do you think you are doing!?”
The shadow in front of him turned to look at Kageyama.
Kageyama froze at the sight.
He wasn’t able to recognize the features, much less to understand the other person’s features. It seemed humanoid in shape, but his skin was a rather unhealthy greenish tone of flesh, it was bald, with long claws and hair all over his limbs. Kageyama noticed this because the creature was barely wearing anything to cover himself up. Furthermore, the only piece of clothing besides what seemed like a long sleeved green and red bolero, was a square parchment of paper with a simple katakana marking.
The creature shrieked at the sight of Kageyama, making the other step back in fear and horror at the sound of the beast’s howl. The being crouched itself to gain momentum, ready to pounce at the frozen spectator. It jumped forwards as it screeched savagely at Kageyama, but right in that second, a blurred mass crashed against the back of the green creature, squashing it to the ground as whatever had hit the beast with a dissonant musical sound, bounced and skidded on the cobblestone, ending its momentum against the trembling feet of Kageyama. Tobio managed to notice between two gasped heartbeats what had crashed against the green beast’s back and made its way to his wooden sandals, was now a broken shamisen covered in what he feared was the beast’s dark blood.
Kageyama fell on his ass, fear bending his knees and making him unable to hold his posture at the scenery before him. He managed to get a hold of himself just in time for the sound of footsteps to echo in the wooden almost destroyed structure. With his heart in his throat, barely able to grasp the newcomer’s features, he recognized with wide horrified eyes the face. The figure. The fiery hair that had been haunting him every night.
Just a couple of meters in front of him, covered in crimson bloodied markings, dressed in white robes stained in equally red and contrasting stripes, dragging what he could only assume was a second, equally beaten up creature, was the boy of his dreams. Though, if Kageyama were being completely honest right now, the imagery was nothing far from a nightmare.
The boy stopped in his tracks, finally noticing Kageyama. His brown eyes locked on the frightened, widely open blue ones. Time came to a standstill between them two. Both paralyzed at the mere sight of the other, waiting in agonizing silence for the other to acknowledge the other’s presence.
The boy stretched out his hand and opened his mouth as to speak, but Kageyama was not having any of it. As if the gesture had brought back his sanity and self preservation skills, Kageyama scrambled up to his feet and dashed towards the exit. No blessing from any Kami was worth that interaction. No scolding from Miwa was as scary as what Kageyama had just witnessed.
Kageyama just ran as fast as his feet let him, sandals flying off his feet as he made it out of the boy’s sight, out of the shrine’s wooden fence and out of the nightmare he had just witnessed. He didn’t stop until he made it back home, slammed the door shut and hid under the covers of his bed, waiting for the night to come and sleep to soothe his ravaging heart.
If this was how he was going to meet the boy with the fiery hair, Kageyama really hoped that any further interactions with him would just remain in the realm of his dreams.