Chapter Text
August 5th, 2023
Minato District, Bubble Central (Tokyo, Japan)
2:45 pm JST.
5 years and 3 months after the Bubble Fall Phenomenon
“And the winner is, the Blue Blazes!” The crowd goes wild as Hibiki holds the flag casually, up and away from its sitting positions in the rocks. The expression of the teenage boy is that of a neutral stare, seemingly unimpressed by the victory.
“Oh shit! Now they’re gonna get our rice.” Bemoans Roan, the leader of the opposing Battlekour team, the Denki Ninjas, as he stands crouching over to catch his breath beside two out of four of his teammates.
“Looks like you guys need more training.” Taunts Kai with a joyous smile as he walks past, receiving heated glares from the yellow and white wearing boys. “We’ll be taking home our gasoline.”
Usagi hops onto the finishing roof next to his older teammates with a scowl.
“Hey, Hibiki!” Usagi rolls under the railing separating him from his subject of frustration.
“Why’d you leave me there like that? You left me on that car and bubble-hopped away! You knew I couldn’t make it to the next building. What gives?!” After Usagi’s quick rescue, Hibiki had deemed it necessary to strand his junior on a floating car that was at a distance from any other solid surface, meaning that attempting to jump would have been a significant risk.
“That jump you did back there. It was reckless.” The reply was soft, easy to overlook had he not been the centre of attention. It was the voice of reprimand, but not overtly caring.
“But I did it the other day!”
“If I recall correctly, you managed a successful bubble hop exactly once. That’s not what I would call a practiced maneuver."
Usagi’s bright yellow hair blows in the light breeze as his face contorts into a grimace, remembering all of the times he had fallen on his face attempting to bubble hop. Kai stands behind him, frowning.
Satisfied with the conversation, Hibiki faces away from the group of players and game masters, which had been growing over the course of a few minutes. The raven haired teen pulls up his white headphones with his free hand, then drops the flag unceremoniously onto the roof ground. He makes his way to the edge, and lets himself fall away.
“He’s right, you know.” Usagi whips his head around towards his red headed teammates, eyes wide with shock. “As a rookie, trying to bubble hop was straight up stupid. You know that the odds of that working in your favor are slim.” Kai points fisted thum towards himself. “I would know, I’ve been at it for years.”
“I hate to admit it, but Hibiki’s a prodigy. Trying to meet his level with minimal training will get you killed.”
It was a well known fact within the Blue Blazes that the two de facto leaders did not get along. It was always insults from Kai, and cold shoulders from Hibiki. Usagi, Kai, Isozaki, and Osawa glanced at one another as tension took up the silence. Battlekour is a dangerous sport, yes, but to let someone else play beside you takes a lot of trust that they won’t get themselves killed.
“No juice for you tonight.”
Kai grabs the flag from where it was laying and replaces it into the rock hold.
“Come on. Let’s do the usual,” he waves to the gathered team, an olive branch which is swiftly accepted by a thoroughly chastised Usagi.
“Can’t remember the last time Hibiki joined in on one of these, tsh.” Four hands stack on each other for the team cheer. “With our blue blazes…” Kai starts, “We’re gonna burn it all down! Yeah!” joins in the other three, holding their fisted hands up into the air.
____________
“You could stand to be a bit more warm towards him, you know.”
The Reiyo coast guard ship sits in its own blaring head lights, and the soft glow of the evening moon. Hibiki turns his rarely headphoneless head around from his spot against the ship’s top floor railing to spot Osawa at the door. The larger man steps out from the shadow and into the light of the deck. Osawa’s dark skin reflected the glow of the night, complementing his dread locks and kind eyes.
“So he’s young, he’ll learn from his mistakes.” Osawa’s voice was light and cheerful, but soft and careful, as though trying not to spook an animal. He had a light smile on his face that tells of long camaraderie and hardship together.
“We almost lost him today.”
“...”
The silence stretched for a moment before Hibiki spoke again.
“I let him join the team because you guys wanted him and we were desperate for a fifth member. I’ll admit that he’s got spirit, but he severely lacks in the intelligence department. Ant lion pits are no joke.” The raven haired boy turns his eyes back to the flooded and overgrown city landscape.
Battlekour is a five on five game, no exception. After Shin's unexpected retirement, the Blue Blazes had been without a willing fifth member for nearly three weeks before finding Usagi huddled next to a barely working space heater on a scavenging mission. Thanks to the mostly steady provisions and equipment gifted to the team through battlekour victories, looting trips are a rare occurrence born from hunger and desperation. Today was his first game after nearly three months of training.
Osawa hums in agreement.
“He probably thought he was making you proud.”
“By failing miserably?” Hibiki’s brow shoots up in questioning skepticism.
“By imitating you.” He corrects gently. “Since joining us he’s been looking up to you as the example of success. He wants your attention, the positive kind.”
Hibiki huffs out a disbelieving chuckle.
“It’s true. He just has trouble approaching you. And frankly I can’t blame him, you don’t exactly scream ‘I like talking to people and not wallowing with my lonely protagonist energy.’” Osawa makes an exaggerated expression of ‘angsty Hibiki,’ causing them both to burst out laughing.
It was an unfortunate truth that Hibiki had made peace with. He hates loud noises with a passion, can’t stand small repetitive noises like the tapping of a keyboard, and feels awkward in social settings. He knows that he can be standoff-ish and blunt, but it wasn't for the sake of being insulting. He was simply stating the obvious truth.
He hadn't had anyone to call ‘friend’ until meeting Osawa three years ago, the only one with enough patience to understand that Hibiki simply hadn’t taught the social rules and conventions of conversation and its many complexities.
“You never know, maybe Usagi could be your friend too.” Ever the peace keeper, Osawa leaves Hibiki on a hopeful note.