Chapter Text
“Mom says we’re not allowed to go into the tall grass.” Natsu, standing at the edge of the field, tugs at Shouyou’s sleeve, biting her lip anxiously.
“That’s only for little girls not old enough to go on their Pokemon Journey yet,” Shouyou tells her, ruffling her hair reassuringly. “You wait here, I’ll be right back.”
“You haven’t gone on yours either,” she replies doubtfully, but lets him go all the same.
Shouyou pretends he hasn’t heard that last comment and carefully walks towards the soft, pained chirping sounds that distracted him and his sister from their game. The long strands of grass brush against his thighs, ridiculously tall, ideal to hide the Zigzagoons and Sevipers that thrive around the little village of Karasuno. Shouyou would know, he’s accompanied professor Takeda often enough as they released pokemon nearby.
Karasuno is home to a small Pokemon Rehabilitation Center. It specializes in healing injured wild pokemon, which, unable to stay in a pokeball, cannot benefit from the healing technology of Pokemon Centers, as well as reacclimating to the wilderness pokemon that have been abandoned by their trainers, before releasing them.
That’s something Shouyou has never understood. How can anyone be so cruel? He would never abandon a pokemon that had put its trust in him, let itself be caught to become his partner. So what if they are supposedly weak pokemon? A good trainer can work with any team, as long as their bond is strong.
At least, that’s what Shouyou thinks. He doesn’t actually have any sort of experience as a pokemon trainer; all his knowledge is theoretical. Even though children are allowed to go on their Pokemon Journey as soon as they reach age ten, when the time came he couldn’t leave his mother, freshly widowed, alone with his two-year-old baby sister. So he stayed. Took care of Natsu. Helped out professor Takeda and his assistant Ukai at the Rehabilitation Center when he could.
But Natsu is eight now, and their mother assures him they’ll be fine, that he’s put his dreams on hold for them long enough. Professor Takeda has even offered to reach out to his contacts to see if anyone had a starter pokemon for Shouyou. Soon, Shouyou will go on his Pokemon Journey, with his very own pokemon. He’ll visit all of the Haikyuu region, win all the badges, challenge the Elite Four and become Champion. Then he’ll come home with his team of trusted pokemon and plenty of friends met along the way.
The pained chirps have stopped as he’s gotten closer, and Shouyou now carefully swats aside the tall grass, looking for their source. Through the green strands, he spots dark feathers and a hint of yellow. There, found it. One of the Murkrow’s feet is twisted, and its left wing hangs limply by its side. It looks young, its feathers ridiculously fluffy where they’re not messed up and broken.
“It’s alright,” he says, slowly crouching down. “We’ll get you all patched up, I promise.”
As he reaches for the injured bird, the grass next to him suddenly rustles wildly, and it’s only Shouyou’s fast reflexes that save the Murkrow from the angry Seviper’s bite.
It does not, however, save Shouyou’s leg from the same fate.
Biting down on a shout of pain, Shouyou carefully holds the panicking Murkrow against his chest and starts running to where Natsu is still waiting. His calf is burning from the bite, his thundering heartbeat probably accelerating the propagation of the venom, but Shouyou can’t slow down. Behind him the grass rustles furiously, and there’s more than one Seviper after him now, that’s for sure.
He shouts at Natsu to run and get Takeda, and thankfully she listens, turning around and taking off towards the Rehabilitation Center.
He finally reaches the edge of the tall grass but he keeps running, even if the chances of the wild pokemon moving more than a few feet outside of their territory are rather low. He only stops running when he reaches Ukai, who has run out to meet him.
“Hinata?” the professor’s assistant asks, looking half-worried and half-confused. His eyes fall on the Murkrow in Shouyou’s arms, which has stopped struggling, and his face becomes serious. “Follow me.”
They head back quickly to the Rehabilitation Center, Ukai asking a few questions about the Murkrow’s condition and Shouyou replying to the best of his knowledge. Natsu and professor Takeda are waiting for them by the door, but when Takeda tries to take the Murkrow, the pokemon squawks and attempts to bite him, so Shouyou is the one to bring it to the operation table.
“It’ll be okay, I promise,” he says, gently petting the pokemon’s head. “We’ll take good care of you.” He speaks softly, smiling, until Takeda manages to put the bird to sleep so he can fix its leg and wing.
“You did great, Hinata,” Ukai tells him, patting his shoulder. “Now gives us some room to work with, okay?”
“Yeah, sure,” Shouyou replies. He takes a step back. Pain shoots through his leg.
Oh, right, he’d forgotten about the pain.
It’s really bad.
In fact, it’s a miracle he doesn’t pass out. Or at least, that’s what Ukai tells him, a bit later, when he’s done cleaning up the Seviper bite. The antivenom is doing its work and the pain is slowly receding, but Shouyou is glad for Natsu’s small fingers holding his hand.
“I know you have all-purpose antidote on you,” Ukai scolds him. “Why didn’t you take it right away?”
“I kind of forgot?” Shouyou admits, making a face at Ukai’s glare. “At first I just needed to put some distance between us and the Sevipers, and then I was just worried for the Murkrow.”
Professor Takeda chooses this moment to walk back into the employees’ office where Ukai had taken the Hinata siblings.
“How is it?”
“He’ll be fine,” Takeda says gently. “I’ve reset the wing, but the leg will take a couple of weeks to heal fully, so we’ll keep him here in the meantime. He’s lucky you found him, he wouldn’t have been able to flee from predators in his state.”
“Can I come and visit while he gets better?”
“You’re always welcome here, Hinata-kun.”
*
Shouyou pushes the door of the Rehabilitation Center open with a spring in his step. It‘s the last day of the school year, which never fails to put him in a good mood in the first place — Shouyou is not fond of school. It’s also the day they’re going to release Feathers the Murkrow into the wild, where he’ll be able to fly through the wide open skies where he belongs.
That is, if he’s passed his last medical exam alright. Which he should have. Professor Takeda said he looked almost all healed up three days ago.
Waving hello to assistant Ukai, Shouyou rushes to the domed woodsy area at the back of the center. Immediately, he can hear the low-pitched cry he’s come to associate with Feathers over the last few weeks. But today, it’s accompanied by another one, louder and almost metallic.
He looks up, frowning as he spots a big, dark bird pokemon flying straight towards Feathers. Shouyou is worried for a moment, but the two start circling each other in patterns he recognizes as playful. The tension in his shoulders lessens, and he watches them fly for a bit, almost jealous of the freedom of movement granted by their wings.
Eventually, Feathers spots him and dives towards Shouyou, followed closely by his new friend. While Shouyou has become accustomed to having a Murkrow land atop his head, the other bird is much bigger, so Shouyou raises his arm, half to offer a different perch if the pokemon wants it, half just to protect his face.
He barely feels Feathers’ tiny claws tangle in his hair, distracted as he is with the talons grabbing his forearm.
“Well you must be part Steel-type,” he grunts, struggling to keep his arm up. “You’re heavy.” Not even twice as tall as a Murkrow, the unidentified pokemon easily weighs six or seven times as much, at least. It caws at Shouyou, eyeing him carefully. “What are you, beautiful?”
“You must be really ignorant not to recognize a Corvisquire,” a haughty voice calls from behind him. “Now give her back!”
“I haven’t taken her,” Shouyou responds, irritated by the tone of the stranger. He turns and glares right back at a boy around his age he’s never seen around before. “She can leave whenever she wants.”
As if in agreement, the Corvisquire caws again and bumps her head playfully against Shouyou’s forehead. Feathers flaps his wings a couple of times to keep his balance. Shouyou grins at the stranger, and maybe it’s a little mean, a little arrogant, but the boy’s accusing voice and angry eyes are getting on his nerves.
Some emotion flashes through the boy’s eyes, too fast for Shouyou to decipher before he carefully blanks his expression and pulls out a pokeball.
“Corvisquire, come back,” he says, his voice trembling slightly.
The Corvisquire caws again, tugs playfully on a lock of Shouyou’s unruly hair, and lets herself be recalled to her pokeball. By her trainer. Right.
Feathers makes a sad little sound when his new friend disappears.
“Ah, Hinata-kun, Kageyama-kun, I see you’ve met.” Professor Takeda gives them a kind smile. “Ready to say goodbye to your little friend?”
Shouyou forces himself to take a deep, calming breath, before returning professor Takeda’s smile.
“Let’s get him some real sky to fly through!”
Kageyama follows them out, frowning but silent.
As soon as they come out of the Rehabilitation Center and the breeze ruffles Shouyou’s hair, Feathers takes flight. Shouyou furiously pushes down his sadness as he watches the Murkrow pirouette above them. This is where Feathers belongs, free and wild, not stuck in a domed enclosure.
“Hinata-kun.” Professor Takeda’s voice is gentle as he asks for his attention. “Kageyama-kun just arrived here and would like to start a new Pokemon Journey. See the sights, take on the local gyms, meet our beautiful region’s unique pokemon. I thought, since you’re about to take your own Journey, that you could accompany him, at least for a little while.”
“You haven’t taken your Journey yet?” Kageyama questions, still frowning. “What have you been doing the last few years?”
Shouyou grits his teeth and ignores the other boy, even though a part of him is dying to ask where he’s from and what the pokemon there are like. There are definitely no Corvisquire in Haikyuu, after all. Instead, he turns to professor Takeda.
“I still don’t have a starter though.”
“Fear not, my colleague professor Nekomata said—” He stops abruptly when Feathers lands back on Shouyou’s head and settles there like he’s ready to take a nap. “Huh.”
“Feathers?” Shouyou asks, poking the pokemon, which nips his finger in response. “Buddy, you’re free. You can go back to the wild.”
Feathers caws and playfully nips Shouyou’s hair, not moving.
“Why are you not leaving?” Shouyou asks. “Are you still hurt?”
“He wants to stay with you, dumbass,” Kageyama growls, throwing him an empty pokeball, which Shouyou barely manages to catch.
“There’s no need to look so angry about it!” Shouyou snaps.
Gingerly, he raises the pokeball up above him and softly pokes Feathers with it. The weight on his head instantly disappears, and the pokeball grows faintly warm. Shouyou looks at it, disbelieving, then slowly aims the pokeball away from him.
“Feathers, I choose you,” he whispers. In a flash of light, the Murkrow reappears. It flies three times around Shouyou before landing back on his head.
“I’ll tell professor Nekomata we won’t need those starter pokemon anymore,” professor Takeda smiles. Shouyou pretends not to see the happy, proud tears in his mentor’s eyes.
*
Natsu doesn’t let him give her a goodbye hug. She says she’s too old for those, so just to make a point, Shouyou doesn’t struggle to get out of their mom’s goodbye hug, even if he feels like he's way too old for it. She smells faintly like the ink from her job’s ridiculous amount of paperwork and more strongly like the roses from their garden, which they’ve tended to together for years now. Shouyou breathes her in one last time before disentangling himself.
He’s rubbing his eyes when he joins Kageyama, who’s been silently waiting for him by the main road.
“Are you crying?”
“No,” Shouyou snaps back defensively. Kageyama’s brow is furrowed and he sounds accusatory, but then that seems to be his default expression. After a brief silence, Shouyou sighs. “I’ve just never really left home before.”
Kageyama hums, an acknowledgment he’s heard him at least, but doesn’t say anything else as they set off. Feathers and Corvisquire (as apparently Kageyama hasn’t given her a nickname) fly around them, and their presence seems enough to deter any of the nearby pokemon from attacking them as they walk through the tall grass. Which is strange, because there should be a lot of little critters around, and they should still be having some encounters.
This might be a problem if Shouyou wants Feathers to gain some combat experience.
“How high-level is your Corvisquire?” he asks eventually, when they’ve reached the entrance of the woods without meeting a single pokemon.
“She’s a stage two evolution.”
“Well I know that.” Shouyou looked up the Rookidee line after their first meeting. “But it’s unusual that she’s scaring away literally all the low-level pokemon that hang around here.”
Kageyama rolls his eyes.
“I used a repel, dumbass.”
“You what?” Shouyou stops in his tracks, glaring at his companion. “Why would you do that?”
“I want to get to the first gym as fast as possible, and I’m strong enough to win the first badge with just Corvisquire as she is.”
“Well Feathers and I need the experience!” Shouyou grits out.
“I didn’t ask to be babysitting a newbie,” Kageyama snaps back.
“And I didn’t ask to be your guide either! Feel free to make your own way to Seijoh!”
“Fine, I will then!”
Kageyama angrily stomps away deeper into the forest. Shouyou gnaws on his thumbnail for a moment, wondering if he should go after him. Cutting through the Seijoh Woods is the fastest way to Aoba Johsai and its gym, and is famously a hangout for local trainers and bug catchers, but it’s known to be hard to navigate if you aren’t used to it, and Kageyama doesn’t even have a map.
Shouyou’s annoyance with the foreign trainer is still running high, however. And it’s not like he’s the one who ditched Kageyama, so it’ll be his own fault if he gets lost. Resolutely, Shouyou takes off in the opposite direction, and is delighted when he encounters his first Caterpie.
He’s a little less delighted when, three hours later, he finally emerges from the woods only to find himself in the familiar fields that surround Karasuno. Feathers caws as Shouyou stares at his map, and it almost sounds like a laugh. Groaning, Shouyou heads back into the forest.
He’s definitely going to need to buy more potions when he makes it to Seijoh, what with all the battles Feathers has gone through. At least he’s making money off of the bug catchers who keep challenging him.
Shouyou’s really impressed by the enthusiasm they show even when it’s clear the type match-up isn’t in their favor. But his stomach is growling, and he could swear he’s passed this huge mossy rock at least twice already, and there’s still no sign of the damn town anywhere. Just trees and bushes and grass and more trees.
And Kageyama, sitting at the foot of the mossy rock, his head pressed against his knees.
Shouyou snorts. “Are you lost?” he snickers, even though he’s hardly in a position to judge.
“No,” Kageyama says without raising his head.
“Yeah, right,” Shouyou replies, dropping down on the soft soil and digging through his backpack for the food his mom packed for him. “Well I’m hungry.”
With a disgruntled sigh, Kageyama stops sulking and pulls out his own food. They eat in silence while Corvisquire fusses over Feathers, straightening out a few ruffled feathers. Shouyou smiles. Kageyama’s pokemon is a real mother hen.
It takes them another hour and a half to find their way out of the woods, bickering over the map and battling pokemon (Kageyama ran out of repels) and eventually asking one of the bug catchers for directions. And then asking another bug catcher when they take a wrong turn anyway.
But eventually, they stumble out of the woods at the edge of a small town. The sun is much lower in the sky than Shouyou anticipated, but they definitely have the time to head to the Aoba Johsai gym before having to worry about where they’ll spend the night.
The gym turns out to be focusing on Grass types, which isn’t all that challenging for their Flying-type pokemon. Still, Iwaizumi, the gym leader, has a Hisuian Voltorb which nearly knocks Feather out. The poor bird can barely stand when the battle is finally over, and happily returns to his pokeball.
Shouyou gratefully accepts the Grass badge Iwaizumi hands him. It has a beautiful design of a teal tree on a white background, which makes it really stand out on the black velvet of his otherwise empty badge collection box.
“Your little guy is tougher than I thought he’d be,” Iwaizumi says as he passes him a Technical Machine. He looks so serious, even though he’s only a couple of years older than Shouyou. “Here, I don’t think you can teach Bullet Seed to your Murkrow, but I’m sure you’ll catch something that can make good use of it eventually. Grass pokemon are very versatile; you should try and catch one at some point.”
“Thanks,” Shouyou replies with a smile. In truth, he hasn’t really given that much thought to what his team is going to be, but he does love plants, so a Grass pokemon wouldn’t be bad.
He walks out of the gym still smiling at his first badge, and only looks up when he hears Kageyama’s voice. Except, it sounds a bit more uncertain than the gruff, annoyed tone he’s becoming used to.
“Oikawa-san? What… What are you doing here?”
Kageyama is staring at a tall, handsome boy, probably around Iwaizumi’s age. The boy is leaning against the wall that encircles the gym building, projecting casualness like he’s turned it into an art, which is only belied by the subtle tension in his shoulders. A strange pokemon, resembling a lizard in an apple-like shell, is flapping its wings an inch or so above his shoulder. Shouyou really needs to brush up on his knowledge of foreign pokemon.
“I could ask you the same, Tobio-chan.” The boy’s voice is airy and playful, flowing like a river, grabbing Shouyou’s attention fully. “You’re very far away from home. But who could blame you for fleeing, even I have heard about what happened all the way from here! I’m surprised you haven’t given up on pokemon training altogether.”
To Shouyou’s surprise, Kageyama doesn’t say anything. Instead, he looks away from the older boy, this Oikawa-san, almost in shame. Shouyou, who just watched Kageyama breeze through the Aoba Johsai gym like it was nothing, with an assuredness he wishes he could have, cannot believe anyone would doubt this boy’s talent. Even if he is kind of a dick.
“Kageyama is an excellent trainer!” Shouyou steps in front of Kageyama and stares up at Oikawa. “I don’t know what you’ve heard, or what you think you know, But it’s clear he has a very tight bond with his Corvisquire, and I have no doubt he’ll eventually be training a super strong team.”
“Oh my, Chibi-chan, you’re a feisty one!” Oikawa says, grinning. His eyes are sparkling with mirth, and Shouyou almost forgets to feel affronted by the nickname. “I’m looking forward to fighting you one day.”
“He’s right, you know,” Kageyama says, finally stepping up beside Shouyou and meeting Oikawa’s gaze. “I’m a good pokemon trainer. I’ll show you.”
Oikawa’s smile, which was almost charming when aimed at Shouyou, turns into a smirk when he addresses Kageyama again.
“Sure thing, Tobio-chan. I’ll fight you once you have all your badges. That is, if you manage to get all the way there this time.”
Kageyama’s flinch is mostly contained, and he doesn’t look away from Oikawa’s gaze this time, but it’s clear that the words hurt. Shouyou wonders what happened in Kitagawa Daiichi that caused Kageyama to choose to restart his Pokemon Journey in a whole different region.
“Hey, Shittykawa! Stop harassing people and get your butt over here already!”
Iwaizumi is standing at the doors of the gym, arms crossed over his chest and glare fixed on Oikawa. His left foot is impatiently tapping on the floor, and he looks even more impressive than when Shouyou was staring him down the battle floor. Which is saying a lot, because Iwaizumi sure has an imposing presence.
“Ah, why are you so mean to me, Iwa-chan?” Oikawa whines, and then saunters towards the gym leader with a pout on his lips, all but ignoring Shouyou and Kageyama. “I was just having a little chat with a former kouhai of mine.”
“Yeah, right, just a nice little chat I’m sure,” Iwaizumi replies sarcastically.
When Oikawa reaches him, Iwaizumi turns around and starts walking back inside. Shouyou has the time to see Oikawa drape an arm around the gym leader’s shoulder and lean against him before the door closes behind them.
“So, um, who was that?”
For a moment, it seems like Kageyama’s not going to answer.
“That’s Oikawa Tooru,” he grits out eventually. “He holds the record of the longest held title of champion in Kitagawa Daiichi, as well as the record of youngest champion. He was my neighbor growing up. I looked up to him a lot when I was a kid.”
That was probably the most words Shouyou’s heard Kageyama say in one go since they met.
“I think he’s never really liked me,” he adds softly. Shouyou’s not sure he was meant to hear that part.
“Well, we’ll show him he isn’t all that,” Shouyou says. “You’ll beat him, I know you will. Me too.”
Kageyama gives him a look, like he’s surprised and grateful but also confused by Shouyou’s support. Which, fair.
“Come on, dumbass,” he says eventually, grabbing Shouyou’s shoulder and steering him away from the gym. “Let’s get to the Pokemon Center. Feathers really needs it.”
Shouyou can’t honestly argue with that, but tries to anyway, and they bicker all the way to the Pokemon Center. It’s getting pretty late by then, so they decide to spend the night there.
“Where to tomorrow?” Kageyama asks as they settle down in the dorm room available to traveling trainers.
Shouyou spreads out the map on his futon and points at the long road heading west.
“Shiratorizawa.”