Chapter Text
It’s a day like any other, the sun may not be shining, and it may be a bit cold but that’s September for you. Tsukishimas birthday is coming up, that he’s NOT looking forward to since he knows something stupid is planned by the others. But heyy they do not give a shit.
Daichi is looking around the gym to see who is present but to his surprise 2 people are missing. Want to take a guess who? Obviously, it’s Nishinoya and Tanaka.
Sawamura was looking forward to a calm day, but he has a bad feeling about those 2 not being here. Right on que as if God himself told them, they burst through the gym doors and instantly getting a reprimand from Coach for A. being late and B. for causing a ruckus.
"My bad Coach“ Nishinoya said with a bow.
"Yeah sorry" Tanaka followed.
Both went over to the team and didn’t even dare to look Daichi in the eye but to their luck he called over the entire team. Why? probably because he somewhat wanted to embarrass the two.
"Where on god’s green earth were you guys?" Sawamura wasn’t in the mood for nothing today and just wants to resume practice like normal. After sharing looks with each other Nishinoya started to talk.
"You guys are not going to believe what we did!!! "
"Do we even want to know?" Suga spoke up before Daichi could but at the end of the day he was going to ask the same question.
"Of course, you do, when do you not?? "
"Like 99% of the time? " After giving Tsukishima some dirty looks Noya continued.
"We did some research, and we all know about that one haunted castle like 2 hours away right?? Well, me and Ryu did some digging and found out that no one has visited that place in ages. "
"And you guys arrived late to practice because of that? "
"We wanted it to be a dramatic entrance. "
"Hm yes bursting through the door and getting yelled at is very much a dramatic entrance. " After a long pause of silence with Takana and Nishinoya exchanging a glance of embarrassment Asahi spoke up.
"You mentioned the castle, please tell me you’re not suggesting we go there…" Some awkward glances were shared between the team after Asahi mentioned it but before anyone could even try to deny it Noya spoke up.
"Hell, yeah dude I mean why not? No one has been there in ages, it’s not like the place is locked down and even if, it’s in the middle of a forest so no one will see us."
"Ah yes because going to a haunted castle that is far from any civilization is such a good idea. " The duo couldn’t lie about it Tsukki did make a fair point but they‘re about to retaliate to that.
"Dude come on if we all go there we will be a group of 11 boys, all of us will have phones and we’re all in good shape so if something does happen we can just run for it" The point Tanaka made wasn’t entirely untrue it‘s just not pleasant to think about that one might have to resort in running if anything happens.
"Yeah, no I’m out I don’t want to get into any trouble. " Yamaguchi exclaimed and Asahi was quick to agree with that.
"Come on man don’t be a wuss. "
"So not wanting to get into any trouble with the authority is a pussy move now?"
"What if I say it is? " Suga tried to tease Asahi some more, but Ukia was pissed, not only did two of his members arrive late but the entire team is doing everything except what they’re supposed to do.
"People if you don’t move your ass back to practice everyone is going to run laps around the gym I swear to god."
The team couldn’t argue with that, and with barley any retaliation they all went back to what they were doing, not without some small talk about the convo earlier.Today is a pretty chill day since they were allowed to practice on what they thought still needed some improvement.
Suga was practicing with Hinata showing him some easy strats when it comes to digging. Asahi, Daichi and Ennoshita were doing serves. Nishinoya and Tanaka were doing their warmup since they missed it with the rest of the team. Yamaguchi and Tsukki were discussing stuff about improving their blocking and Yams float serve. Narita and Kinoshita were also practicing on receives.
The 1,5 hours of practice went by without a hitch and Ukai did relax after seeing that everyone was working and not slaking off. After practice while they changed in the club room the topic of the conversation from earlier came up.
"Soooo you guys did some research on that castle…What else did you find out? " As much as Suga hates to admit it they did pique his interest with this. The castle has been abandoned for a long time now and he was a big fan of spooky stories as a kid so naturally he wanted to know more.
"HAHA, we knew you‘d like it." The two went into a dramatic pose and tried to make a scary face, like telling a horror story.
"We found a little story to this entire thing, right? There once was a royal family in that castle, the surname was Kageyama, and they were very respected and looked up to in the entire nation."
"One day it came out that the entire Kageyama family were vampires and the common folk felt betrayed since you know they used to burn witches in the past and all so it kinda felt like a stab in the back to find out that the royal family they looked up to were also inhuman. " Nishinoya seemed so caught up in the story that he sounded like he’s out of breath, so Tanaka took over.
" It caused a huge conflict between the Kageyama family and the people and at the end it got out of hand and a huge rebellion started, the family couldn’t take it anymore and they were chased out of the Kingdom. " It was a crazy story; I mean when were there ever records of actual vampires roaming the land? Or on any part of earth for that matter. Nonetheless it was an interesting one and fantasy stories were always welcome.
"Wait so let me get this straight, the Kageyama family ruled over the land, it came out that they’re Vampires and from there on the people started to get mad and stuff which lead to the family itself getting chased away? "
"Not before they killed the King, Kazuyo Kageyama. It’s rumored that he roams the halls of the castle to this day and would get mad whenever a human enters. We also heard that there was a heir to the throne, his name was Tobio Kageyama he had an older sister Miwa Kageyama but the people of the past weren’t to found of female rulers so Tobio got to be the hair” Tanaka tried to be scary, but it only worked on half of the team. The other half was either not believing the story or just found it stupid.
"Aren’t Vampires immortal how were they supposed to kill him? Not to mention don’t vampires die in the sunlight? Also how did it take them this long to find out about this, i mean didn't the notice that the family were pale and what no?" Tsukishima was asking one question after the other not really giving any breathing room for our story tellers.
"Bro we aren’t any vampire experts how the fuck are we supposed to know all that?
"Didn’t you guys say that you did research? "
"SHUT UP. So, like I said the people killed the king and after that the entire family fled the kingdom and no one knows where they went, if they are alive or even dead. "
"And you guys want us to go into a castle that possibly has the past king roaming the halls that was killed by the hands of humans? " Narita wasn’t really impressed by the entire thing but he would be lying if the story didn't sound interesting.
"Fuck yeah I mean when do you ever get to go into a place like that?? "
"Yes, why not go into a haunted castle to piss off some old ass ghost in the place what he once called home, genius idea" Tsukishima spoke up with his usual sarcastic tone. Its not like he believes in ghost but the idea from Tanaka and Noya is just really fucking stupid in his opinion.
"What, are you scared he’s going to get your ass? "
"Mother fucker the only one he’s going to get is you, you were dumb enough to even suggest it. "
"Come on guys its not like you believe in ghosts, right? " Nishinoya is really trying his best to convince the team to agree to this. He heard that the castle is actually really pretty from the inside, and it had a beautiful garden. If it would have been up to him, he would have visited it a while ago, he just doesn’t want to go alone.
"Just because some of us don’t believe in ghosts doesn’t mean they don’t exist, not to mention isn’t it kinda rude to just break in and explore? " This is the first time Kinoshita even spoke up in this entire ordeal, but fact is he is very much right.
"Am I the only one that finds it kinda cool? I mean at least it’s not some boring team hangout where we just meet up at someones place and do random stuff, we actually would do something interesting. Don’t you think it’d be cool to see if we could figure something out that hasn’t been found out already? " Sugawara felt almost proud hearing Hinata come up with a good explanation but nevertheless weighing the pros and cons, the cons far exceed the pros and its in general not a good idea.
"Come on guys this might be our last chance to go there, it’s September and the weather is getting colder everyday and next year the third years are leaving. Don’t you guys want to have cool dad lore and tell your kids what you weren’t a bitch and explored an abandoned castle? " Saying dad lore is actually crazy but it did pull the others into thinking about it. Tanaka is right, this might be the last chance they get to do this because no one wants to go into the woods with rain, snow and what not up their ass. And that argument can also be said in reverse, no one wants to explore a huge castle in 36°C while they all sweat and smell like they haven’t showered since the start of time. (36°C is 96,8°F)
After a lot of back and forth and actually making a plan on what to do, the team agreed at the end, not without a lot of reluctance from Tsukishima, Daichi and Asahi but they were more or less forced into saying yes.
Plan was:
- Not to die.
- Do all this at the weekend and only if no one has homework do to.
- Go with bus and from there on with foot.
- Everyone brings their phone, with volume and vibration on.
- A bit of money.
- Everyone needs to bring their own water/food.
- Don’t fucking break anything.
- No jump scares or in general scaring one another.
- Don’t walk off on your own.
- And if anything goes wrong blame Tanaka and Nishinoya.
Pretty solid plan, right? Well even if not this is the best they could come up with in the span of 30 minutes, thank God they didn’t have any class after practice otherwise they would have gotten an earful from their teachers about being late. Everyone decided to go to Ukais shop and get themselves somewhat of a dinner. Aka pork buns (it was Hinatas idea and Tanaka and Noya just chimed in). As they were eating and drinking away one of them spoke up.
"Are we really doing this? I mean with the entire castle thing and all?" Kinoshita didn’t really say much during the planning purely because he is and was a bit nervous about this. I mean who wouldn’t be they’re going to more or less break in, it feels kinda wrong for him.
"Hell yeah man, I mean we already agreed to this and after the entire thing we can hangout at my place for the night, so you don’t even have to worry about going home possibly in the middle of the night. " They were going to take the bus from Nishinoyas house since he lives at the edge of town and so that no one has to take the bus on their own.
"Why, are you scared? "
"Not scared per se I’m just nervous I mean I never did something like this let alone explore anything as huge as a castle before. "
"Yeah, no I get that but even if, Tanaka made a good point earlier, we’re a group of 11 teens and we won’t be leaving someone alone during this. Not to mention we have good stamina and it's not like any of us is weak and can’t defend themselves. " Daichi tried to lighten the mood and it kinda worked but it still didn’t take the odd feeling away.
"Well except Hinata, I doubt he could beat anyone in a fist fight when it comes to it." Tanaka poked Hinata into his side with his elbow while laughing about what he said.
"HEY, don’t bring my strength into this, I can still hit a volleyball pretty hard. "
"Hinata, I don’t think hitting a ball really counts to your physical strength. " Asahi didn’t try to be rude or anything but it still stung a bit.
"Yeah well…. Then you’d also have to say the same thing about Noya-san he is about the same height as me and has the same build. "
"Ey fucker don’t bring me into this, also to your knowledge I very much can win a fist fight. " Noya, being the man that he is obviously didn’t want to admit that he would indeed NOT win in a fist fight. But he wanted to look cool in front of his kohais.
"Yeah right, you’re built like a twig I think you’d more or less dodge rather than actually fight when it actually comes to it. " Ennoshitas words might have stung even more than Asahis and he did try to argue that but couldn’t come up with anything that could counter it. The conversation quickly shifted, and they were talking about all sorts of things. About school, homework, how they found practice today and what not.
A good hour went by with this, the atmosphere was nice and calm, and everyone had a good time. Sure, some were louder and more talkative than others but sometimes listening was more fun than actually talking. Since it was getting late, and it was only Wednesday, everyone decided to call it a night and go home. Some had homework and others just needed to be home on time. After they said their goodbyes, everyone went on their merry way.