The sound of raised voices and laughter was followed by the muffled thump of a pillow smacking against the adjoining wall. Hiruma glance up, a small amused grin pulling at the edges of his mouth. The idiots were as lively as ever.

It had been two days since the Youth World Cup finals and their last game against the American team. Tomorrow they'd be returning to Japan. As their flight wasn't until the afternoon however, many on the team were making the most of their last night in the US.

Hiruma would rather shoot himself in the leg (and the legs of anyone close enough to witness the act) than admit it aloud but, personally, he was too tired to join in on the partying. So he'd retreated early, opting for the (semi) peace and quiet of his own room.

He'd long since finished packing and had spent the last hour or so methodically taking apart and cleaning his favoured rifle. At the moment he was polishing the outside of the reassembled firearm. The repetitive movements and chemical smell of the treated cloth were familiar and vaguely comforting.

A quiet buzz from his collection of mobiles made him glance at the bags assembled at the foot of his bed. The tone in particular had him standing to check the device. It was the ringtone of one of his personal mobiles which he used specifically to keep in touch with his teammates. For one of them to be calling him when they were all staying at the same hotel, and especially at this time of night, was odd and bore investigating. Flipping it in his hand he confirmed the caller, Suzuna, and snapped it open.

"What?" was his customary greeting.

There was a shaky inhale over the line, followed by an equally shaky and urgent, "Yo-nii."

Hiruma frowned, straightening slightly in sudden attentiveness.

"Sena's been stabbed", Suzuna gasped out.

There was a pause as for a moment Hiruma's mind went astoundingly blank. Of all the things that could have come out of her mouth, that was one thing that he had not seen coming.

"What", he repeated, voice soft with incredulousness.

Cold shock radiated through him, and riding behind it was a rising wave of urgency. Adrenaline, he recognised distantly, which could quickly lead into panic. Hiruma however, had absolutely no time for that shit. He grabbed hold of it ruthlessly, shoving it down as his mind leaped back into action. By the time he'd pulled himself together barely a fraction of a moment had passed.

"Where? How many times?" he snapped quickly, before Suzuna had a chance to say anything else.

She sniffled. "J-Just the once. His abdomen. We dunno if it hit anything or n-not", she relayed with the sound of shifting about.

"You've called 911 already?" Hiruma asked as he grabbed his laptop from on top of the bed and brought it back to the table, quickly sweeping cleaning equipment out of the way to make room.

"Yes", she said as he sat down, the blue light of the computer screen washing over him.

"Are you applying pressure to the wound?"

"Yes."

"Who?"

"Sena."

"Okay, you need to help him do it. Press hard. Even if it hurts him you've got to keep the pressure on. You're not gonna do any more damage than the knife did."

"Okay", she said, again accompanied by the sound of shifting. There was a more distant, "sorry, Sena", and then the faint sound of a pained gasp.

Hiruma's complete attention was instantly stolen as his mind stopped for an unprecedented second time that night and he honed in on the small sound. He felt pulled in two for a second. Half of him strained, as though with the thought that if he concentrated on the running back's distant voice hard enough he could somehow teleport and just /be there right then/-The other half of him frustratedly, almost angrily tried to root itself back in reality in the hotel room.

"It's just the two of you? How far from the hotel are you?" Hiruma got himself to continue asking, almost on autopilot for a moment as he pulled up a map of the surrounding areas and yanked back his focus.

"Yeah, we're alone. I-", Suzuna voice hesitated. "I think about two or three blocks, maybe."

"Can you tell me more specifically where you are?" he enquired, eyes flickering over street names.

"A small side-street behind some shops, called Smith."

"Landmarks?"

"There was a park, on the next street over I think", she said distractedly. The wails of a steadily approaching ambulance siren echoed down the phone line.

There was a pause as both of them simply listened to the sound.

"Call me back later and tell me which hospital you've been taken to", he said, recapturing her attention.

"Yeah, will do", she answered with a poor imitation of her usually chipper tone.

Hiruma hesitated, uncharacteristically, before hanging up wordlessly in his usual manner.

His eyes flickered back to the laptop screen as he took note of the pair's placement and the scene of the crime.

There was a chance that there wouldn't be any security cameras in the street itself, being more of an alleyway really, but with shops nearby there was bound to be footage of the immediate area. With a description of the perpetrator, which he'd be sure to get a hold of later, there was no way this asshole was going to walk away from this unscathed. Hiruma would be making sure of that.

For now though, he had a manager to track down.

Hiruma made his way down the carpeted hallways with brisk silent steps. He wanted to get to where he was going as unnoticed as possible.

Usually people were too intimidated to try calling out to him but everyone had been in fairly high moods of late, which might have made them brave (stupid) enough to try. Not to mention the presence of more than one or two oddballs on their motley team who would have done so any day regardless.

Thankfully he didn't have any encounters, besides a silent nod from a passing Habashira, and was able to make it to the elevator without any delays.

The girls, managers and cheerleaders alike, all had rooms on the floor above theirs. That was his best bet for finding Anezaki. He really wasn't looking forwards to telling her face to face that her beloved little brother figure/childhood friend had been stabbed of all things, but it had to be done.

Naturally he knew the room numbers of every individual that had come with their group but there was no guarantee that Anezaki would be in her room, especially since her roommate Suzuna was out. If the girls were going about things anything like the football players down a level then they were broken up into groups of various sizes in different people's rooms. There was a chance he'd have to go knocking on several doors before he found her.

As he rounded the corner however he made eye-contact with the Ojo White Night's manager, Wakana, carrying an armful of snacks and drinks from one of the adjacent halls' vending machines.

She blinked in surprise at the sight of him, eyes widening and eyebrows shooting up.

Hiruma knew that she and Anzaki had talked before and were on fairly good terms, so he took the opportunity.

"Do you know where Anzaki is right now?" he asked as they got closer, head tilted slightly.

The girl gaped at him, eyes widening further, clearly taken aback for a moment before she stuttered out, "y-yes, I'm just heading back to the room."

Hiruma nodded back, and when she simply stood there for a moment gawking at him he raised an eyebrow and gave her a pointed look.

The girl flushed pink and ducked her head with a quick, "right! This way..."

She led him about halfway down the corridor and struggled to juggle her armful of food before managing to get a hand free to open the door she stopped at. The muffled sound of voices grew to a loud chatter that spilled out into the hall where Hiruma stayed as she ducked inside.

A few moments later Anezaki poked her head out, also blinking in surprise at the sight of him.

There was a wave of giggling from the room behind her and she blushed slightly, sending an exasperated look over her shoulder before stepping out and closing the door behind her.

"Hiruma", she greeted, glancing down the hallway. "What is it?" she asked.

Hiruma was confident that he'd been making a fairly neutral expression but somehow she seemed to sense something anyway because her expression slowly fell as she looked up at him.

She frowned slightly, lips parting as though to ask something else, so Hiruma beat her to it.

"Stay calm and listen to me till the end, okay?" he said.

Mamori blinked in confusion but nodded, frown deepening in apprehension.

Hiruma met her gaze steadily.

"Right now Sena and Suzuna are on their way to hospital. I don't know which one yet. Suzuna is fine but… Sena has been stabbed."

Mamori stared up at him blankly, silent, face gone ashen.

"…Excuse me?" she asked quietly.

"I don't need to repeat it, fucking manager, you heard", he said, voice not unkind.

Mamori sucked in a sharp breath, arms coming up to wrap around her midsection.

"I don't…understand…How? What was- What happened?" she stumbled out, voice rising in distress.

Hiruma placed a hand to his hip, shifting his weight.

"Keep your voice down fucking manager. I don't know the full details yet, there wasn't time. We'll just have to ask one of the shorties later. For now, I need you to get yourself ready to leave within a few minutes. We're gonna go downstairs while we wait for Suzuna to call back. I'm also gonna tell the fucking old man and have him go with you to the hospital while I stay here and let some others know what's happened. Until then put on a brave face and keep this to yourself, we don't need mass panic before we even know where to go." Hiruma finished explaining with a glance at the closed door behind her.

Mamori nodded in understanding, rubbing her sides and blinking her too bright eyes to clear them.

"Okay." She took a deep breathe. "Okay", she repeated and turned about face.

She quickly stepped back inside the room, the door swinging part way shut behind her.

Hiruma cocked his head, listening to her making her indistinct excuse for leaving suddenly amidst playful ribbing and disappointed 'aww's.

She re-emerged as quickly as she'd left, looking slightly flustered and with a mobile in hand.

"We'll meet in the lobby", he said in parting, getting a silent nod back as she made for her room down the hallway and he headed back towards the elevator.

Musashi was not hard to find. Hiruma already knew where he would be because he'd been with Kurita when he'd last see him and Kurita had told him that they'd be playing cards together in his room if Hiruma felt like joining in later. His room; as in the one that happened to be right next to Hiruma's.

He swung the door open without bothering to knock and was met with the sight of Kuroki and Komusubi rolling into the side of a bed mid wrestling match.

Kurita alone seemed to be trying to persuade them to stop while the others either watched in amusement or cheered them on. Most of the core Devil Bats seemed to be present. Including Musashi, who had met Hiruma's gaze the second he'd finished opening the door. His uncharacteristically normal entrance had conversely caught his teammate's attention.

Keeping eye contact and giving a slight gesture with his head back towards the hallway was all he needed to do to get Musashi standing to go with him.

The movement finally caught the attention of the others however and they were alerted to Hiruma's presence at the door.

"Oh! Hiruma!" Kurita called out happily at the sight of him. "Do you want to join in?" he smiled, holding up a handful of cards from whatever they had been playing before the impromptu wrestling match had interrupted things.

Hiruma arranged his features into one of his usual grins.

"No, fucking fatty. I just need to borrow the old man for a little while", he said, chuckling ominously and cocking a hip, refusing to let even the slightest hint of his underlying worry show through.

Obviously his acting was as excellent as ever because the others seemed to accept that straight away and more or less went back to what they'd been doing.

He stepped back as Musashi joined him, closing the door on the rambunctious group behind them and pinning him with a searching look.

Hiruma allowed his grin to slip away as he began walking back towards the elevator for the third time that night, Musashi keeping pace with him.

"So, are you going to tell me what we're doing?" Musashi asked, glancing at Hiruma's profile.

"Once we're in the elevator", Hiruma said, gaze flicking down an adjacent hallway.

Musashi gave a low hum, seeming to get the message.

Not here.

It was as they were waiting for the elevator to arrive that Hiruma's mobile rang, sounding startling loud in the quiet hallway, and especially so since he'd turned the sound up to max earlier. He had the phone out and flipped open in one smooth, lightning fast movement before the first ring had even ended, not bothering to check the caller id this time.

"Which is it?" he asked straight away.

The elevator to their left opened its doors with a cheerful 'ding' and he stepped into it alongside Musashi, who leaned back against one of the walls, arms crossed as he watched Hiruma.

"Got it", he replied to Suzana, who had just finished stumbling over the hospital's name. "The fucking manager and the old man will be there soon", he told her as he selected the ground floor and glanced at Musashi, getting a raised eyebrow in response.

Hiruma snapped the phone shut and jumped straight in. "Sena got stabbed", he stated bluntly.

Musash's eyes widened in shock, the grip on his right bicep tightening reflexively to the point it looked painful. "What?" he snapped. "How long ago? How badly?" he asked urgently, leaning forwards with a tense posture.

"Less than half an hour ago, as far as I know, and just the once. Abdomen." Hiruma said, fingers ticking absentmindedly against his own abdomen as he frowned minutely at the numbers slowly counting down above the door.

"What happened? Do you know?" Musashi probed, running an agitated hand through is hair.

"No", Hiruma said, the corners of his mouth dipping slightly in distaste at the admission. He met Musashi's gaze again. "I need you to go with Anezaki down to the hospital. Find out the shortie's condition and get the full story if you can. Once we know all the facts we can tell everyone else but until then its need to know. Unless we can explain things properly-"

"We'll have the entire team panicking and trying to rush to the hospital en masse." Musashi finished for him.

Hiruma nodded.

Musashi drew a deep breath, shoulders sagging with his exhale as he leaned back into the wall and scrubbed a hand over his face. "Shit", he breathed out emphatically.

Hiruma gave a humourless snort. "No kidding."

Author's Notes: I've been contemplating what to do with this story, uh, shipping wise. I want to either keep it strictly gen, or, add kind of a subtle background allSena feel. What do you guys think? ((do you want people to want to stab sena in other ways?))

Thank you for reading~