The forest wasn't really a forest until some ways away from his village, but the slow transition of low scraggly bushes to spindly trees, then the spindly trees to large, thick canopies and wide trunks had always been somewhat calming to Kageyama ever since he learnt how to walk.
He liked exploring. He'd walk until he reached the bits of the forest where the trees seemed to disappear into the sky in strong grasping tendrils before hoisting himself up onto a low branch and start to scrabble towards the top. On the days he succeeded breaking through the thin canopy, he would be greeted to the wash of warm sunlight and a gleaming sea of silvery leaves, stretching towards a mysterious shadow in the distance that Kageyama guessed was a great big city filled with all the modern wonders this world can offer. When he was perched on the crown of a tree, Kageyama liked to look at that large city shadow, in that stead-fast unblinking way that Hinata had called his 'creepy-yama' stare.
What was there, in that city?
While he was staring at what he liked to imagine was filled with the metal skyscrapers and the small corner-shops of home, he would feel a little hope that he wasn't the only one who ended up in this world. Maybe all his friends were waiting in that city, living their own lives and all he had to do was walk there and find them. Maybe they remembered him, despite being born again, despite being a child and growing up again. Despite, this time, being a little thinner, a bit paler. Maybe they'll be there and…
Maybe he had died. Maybe he was in a coma. Maybe all those memories of Earth was just a hallucination, just like all the others.
Kageyama would stop thinking there, usually. Stop himself by climbing carefully downwards, focusing on his small knobby hands as they grappled down solid chunks of grainy grey bark. Dusting himself off, he'd dismiss the small cuts on his hands and wind his slow way home. He'd take deep breaths of the mountain air, and pin his eyes on unfamiliar stars.
Kageyama's village was situated within a mountain range, and the extra height the mountain offered created a more expansive view than most. One side of the range was a great desert filled with salt and dust, the other side a thick, dark forest that Kageyama wandered alone, most days.
Sometimes he pretended he was one of those survivors in those nature documentaries, who sniffed a fresh poop and probably knew what animal it came from, their age, what they ate, and the condition of their teeth. Other times he tried jumping between low branches in the forest, pretending to be ninja.
Once he'd hooked an old fishing net between two trees as a net. Filled a small sack with leaves and mulch and tied it shut for a lumpy ball and tried to serve. The tie holding the sack fell apart when he hit it though, with a sad wet thump that scattered the leaves all over his head, and Kageyama spent the next few hours untangling the nets from the branches until he gave up and made it a hammock instead.
Today, he didn't do any exploring, and nestled himself into the hammock and recited old stories to himself instead.
Kaguya-hime (Yachi's favourite), Momotarou and his exploits (Hinata knew these all by heart), Guibli's Princess Mononoke (Asahi always got teary at the end), other small fairy tales (Noya volunteered at the library sometimes to read to children).
In his mind, Noya laughed a deep, gleeful laugh and teased. 'No kid would want to listen to you if you keep being that monotone, Kageyama!'
He paused his recital, before taking a deep breath to dive into the next story. Maybe this time, he can start reciting the few dinosaur facts he'd absorbed from Tsukishima through sheer proximity...
"Why are you talking to yourself?"
The voice that cut through the forest silence made Kageyama startle so much he nearly toppled out of his hammock. As he gripped the swaying rope desperately, he blinked owlishly down at a small hooded fellow that stood on the small track that Kageyama had worn down from the many months he'd been coming to this tree. The figure waited patiently for his response.
"I was telling stories," Kageyama replied hesitantly.
"To who?" The figure asked.
"Not your business. Who are you?"
"A witch!" The figure replied, bubbly, bouncing a little on her heels. A smile flickered on Kageyama's lips at the exuberant reply. She kind of reminded him of Hinata. "Nice to finally meet you, Kageyama Tobio!"
Strange. How did she know his name? And also,
"What do you mean by 'finally'?" Kageyama asked, sitting up straight to give his full attention.
"I mean, I've been searching for you for years. You're really hard to find, Kageyama Tobio!" The witch chirped.
Years? Kageyama wondered. "But I don't know you," Kageyama pointed out quite flatly. "I've also never been out of the village." You're obviously not a villager either, he wanted to point out.
"I am a witch of the Ki clan from the Great Eastern Continent!" The witch said proudly, patting herself on the chest. "My name is Kiki! Nice to meet you, Kageyama Tobio, of Fisherman's Village! You gotta say, though," Kiki continued, "your village name is really misleading. I was searching for you around the coastline, not in the middle of a mountain range."
If she found him, Kageyama thought, then she'd probably knew about the Demon King who'd risen ten years ago and put two and two together. In his anger, the Demon King had made seas into deserts, collapsed countries, and in Kageyama's case, shifted the tectonic plates that had raised his village from a coastal town to a mountainous one.
He was two when his mother screamed and held him tight as the sea rushed forward, grasping at all the boats and rickety houses by the piers before pulling backwards, chunks of land and trees in its grasp. Somewhere, the earth groaned and cracked, the world tilted, their shelf of crockery fell and shattered as fingers dug into his ribcage. His mother murmured prayers into his hair, hiding beneath their table as the huddled in confusion and fear.
Eight hours later, their village was touching the clouds, and the sea was a pool of drying seaweed and rot from all the fish abandoned by the sea. Soon, where the sea had been had dried into a salty, desert landscape that stretched on, and on, and on.
Someone did this, thought Kageyama, hand cold in his mother's hands. This couldn't have possibly been natural.
When he was three, he'd been allowed to attend the annual funeral rites in his village. Standing in front of a list of names engraved within the pillars of the city hall, he listened to the village elder speak of a Demon King without any sort of irony or cracking laughs at cliché plot devices. He'd grasped his mother's hand when someone started crying at a name that was solemnly being listed, of people who'd died a year back. His mother nearly crushed his hand when his father's name got called. He watched the village elder light a funeral pyre with a wave of his hands and a yell filled with magic and thought
This isn't Earth.
A hand waved in front of his face, and his eyes refocused upon the black-hooded cowl of a smiling girl. "Man, you're not a talker are you?" Kiki stated, smile evident in her voice. "Are you trying to grow up into a dark, broody type of guy? You got the potential for it, mhmm. Yes you do."
Kageyama's face twisted. "Haah?" Was she an idiot?
"Hehe, your face is funny!" Kageyama continued scowling even as Kiki continued grinning under her hood, undeterred. "Well, to get to business, I'm a postgirl! I'm here to deliver a message to you. My clan leader, Queen Kiyo, made a prophecy a long ass time ago and so I have to find three people and give something to them. It wasn't easy to track you three down, I tell you," Kiki shrugged. "Everyone was in so much chaos after that attack ten years ago…"
"Get to the point," Kageyama cut in flatly.
"Oh right! No flinching now!"
Kageyama's face grew wary when Kiki suddenly stuck her arm out and her hand glowed extremely white. It lit up the forest around them, and actually pushed Kageyama a few inches away just by the force of it.
He'd heard of magic, but he'd never actually seen it much. The only village elder who'd been able to do magic died when he was five.
Staring at the ball of magic in curiosity, he was about to reach out to touch it when Kiki leaned forward jabbed his forehead, right between his eyebrows, quick as a snake.
And in the heat, he saw bubbleswaterashlaughtercampfiremasksgrinwarmthcorpse he tasted smokeorangesapcrunchmintsweetsoft he smelt orangemeatbunsmothballshome and he heard
he heard
"I'm waiting for you, baka-yama." A whisper in his ear, a laugh. Feet pattering away.
"Hinata?" He asked, not even daring to hope—
Kageyama's heart sank when there was no answer.
Another hallucination then.
He opened his eyes when he realised he'd closed them, to see that the white light was gone, instead replaced by a clear, dark blue radiance that…
"What did you do to me?" Kageyama barked, falling off his hammock when he overbalanced flailing at the blue light that was shining through his skin. His skin!
"Dark blue huh," Kiki was saying, grasping her chin thoughtfully. "Sraosha? Benzaiten? Saraswati? Ichikishima? Which one are you? Huvarshta. Doesn't matter I guess, all incarnations of flow and wisdom are powerful. Lucky, lucky, Kageyama Tobio, to walk in knowledge's name!"
The blue glow was dying as he watched, settling down under his skin. He didn't feel strange either, when he sat up and brushed himself off gingerly. Huh.
"Now, to check if it worked! Kageyama Tobio, look above my head. Do you see something?"
Floating above Kiki's head in square brackets was a block of text. "Kiki's Delivery Express?" Kageyama read out loud with disbelief. He eyed the witch's cowl again. Could she be hiding a Guibli heroine face underneath that hood? Did she own a black cat?
He still remembered curling into a worn sofa at Nishinoya's, Hinata blabbering on about something that happened in his day at his side, Tanaka roaring for Nausicaa to be played first in their Guibli marathon first dammit! Chronology is important! Tsukishima was done with life in his corner as far away from everyone as he possibly could as he desperately stared at his phone, while Yamaguchi was longingly twisting Spirited Away in his hands. That day had been the first time he'd watched the Guibli movies (part of the reason why they had the marathon was because Suga snitched about his horrible movie repertoire to Noya, who took it up as one of his sempai duties to educate his cute kouhai).
Kiki's Delivery Express was Yachi's favourite.
"Ooh, you got it right!" Kiki clapped. "Good! I've delivered Queen Kiyo's seal revocation, so now I just have to deliver Kiyoko-hime's message… where was it? Oh man, it's been ten years, I don't know if it's still here…"
Kageyama's mind blanked. Did he hear Kiyoko?
"Here it is! Here you go, Kageyama. Kiyoko-hime was only four years old when she recorded this message for you! It's adorable, but I guess seers are mysterious and knowledgeable even when they're teeny tiny things, huh?" Kiki jumped off the branch and handed a small, black rectangular box to him, something sleek that reminded him of his modern phone. The only thing on it though, was a small black button at the top. "Press on the button when you want to see the message, I think Kiyoko-hime explains a few things in there. I've got places to be and things to deliver, so bye bye, Kageyama Tobio! See you maybe!"
And just like how abruptly she arrived in his life, Kiki left, leaving Kageyama bewildered and confused behind her.
When Kageyama woke himself up enough to chase after her down the path, bubbling with questions, she was gone.
He returned to his village at night when everyone was mostly asleep. The forest at night was eerie, but comfortable. He always made sure that he was out of the thick forest before sunset, so that he walked slowly up the mountain back home watching the moonrise. The moon was usually a silver gleam so thick that Kageyama always felt like it was something physical, to part with his hands and wade through. Sometimes, even after all these years, it still amazed him at how much the world had missed with light pollution.
One of Yamaguchi's smaller hobbies was watching the stars, and there'd been nights when they walked down the streets in one of the darker bits of the countryside and they would try their best to squint out constellations. Yamaguchi had an awkward laugh whenever he admitted he didn't know that much, before pointing out a random star he recognised out of the hundreds strands of light that, to be perfectly frank, looked exactly the same to Kageyama, and say "Ah! I recognise that one!"
Yamaguchi's laugh was on the back of his mind when he slipped through the village gates and down the road home.
On the way he tested out his weird text ability with the few people that were still awake. The old aunt who was doing some late night washing was [Diligent Worker]. The hobo guy that always loitered near the former town hall read [Former Town Mayor]. The most shocking one though, was the highly respected lady in town who liked going through the neighbourhood checking orphans like him. Kageyama raised eyebrows at seeing [The Lady Who Ogles Through The Bathing Screen].
Really? Kageyama tried to remember if he'd ever seen her around the men's baths.
("Three times in the past two weeks Kageyama!" Yachi started hyperventilated in his mind. "Three times!")
Kageyama coughed an awkward hello back with the lady when she smiled and asked about his day before scurrying down a small offshoot of the main road back to his empty house. Scuffing off his sandals as he entered his hut, Kageyama sat on the small straw pallet he had for a bed and looked at the smooth tablet the witch had given him. Resting the tablet on his legs so that it didn't get dirty from the floor, Kageyama's hand shook as it neared the button.
Kiyoko-hime, Kiki had said.
Was it really the Kiyoko he knew? Was he not alone in being reincarnated here?
With badly suppressed hope, Kageyama pressed the button on the tablet. His first reaction to the small flickering image that beamed up from the tablet, of a small girl with clear eyes and a mole on her chin was—
("Kiyokoooooo, I haven't seen you in so long!" Nishinoya roared happily. "I love you!")
His first reaction was to—
("Noya, Noya, look, chibi-Kiyoko looks so adorable!" Tanaka chimed in, before faking swooning sounds)
When a child's face that was clearly Kiyoko's beamed up as an image from the tablet, Kageyama felt—
("Ryu! I know how it feels to see Kiyoko after so long," Nishinoya choked, "But you're going to be alright! BELIEVE IN THE POWER OF YOUR LOVE, RYU!")
Kageyama had calmed down by the time Ennoshita had stepped up and forcefully brought the two under control. So instead of feeling like he was going to die like that one time after he'd just run Japan's longest marathon racing against Hinata (they'd tied, it was horrible), he instead only gripped his knees hard enough to bruise.
Kiyoko on the screen, a cherubic faced child around four years old, gave him a slow smile.
"Hello, Kageyama," she said gently.
Kageyama ignored the clamour in his head and bowed his head towards the screen before quickly straightening up.
"Kiyoko-senpai!" Kageyama yelled sincerely. He didn't dare close his eyes. What if she was gone when he blinked? "It's been a long time!"
And although the Kiyoko recording had absolutely no way of even hearing him, Kageyama imagined that she was replying when she continued with "It's been a long time."
Kageyama was forced to scrub at his eyes when they overflowed.
Back in his first life, Kageyama was self-aware enough to know that he was painfully awkward.
Sure, he had the self-assurance to not care about his painfully awkward behaviours, but he'd known when Yamaguchi cringed, or Tsukishima snickered, or when Nishinoya and Tanaka reacted with extreme pride and called him 'their son!' he'd said something wrong. Not that he understood why. Kageyama was always impeccably polite to his upperclassmen and his superiors.
In primary school, he'd made three girls cry and four boys fight him after pointing out some simple observations that he thought they'd be happy to hear. In middle-school, he made a whole team abandon him. After that, he decided to just… adapt to the situation. He'd go to high-school, meet with his team-mates, correct whatever he was doing wrong to the best of his ability, and… perhaps distance himself a bit for self-reflection purposes.
Then came Hinata. Then came Karasuno.
Kiyoko came with that, his first year. They hadn't talked much. The most would be an encouraging smile in the middle of a match with a towel, before moving on for Yachi with her offering of water bottles. For practice, he'd preferred to ask Yachi, because Kiyoko usually set balls for Sugawara, Daichi and Asahi.
After the third years graduated, Kiyoko only tagged along with Sugawara half the times they met up, and even then she stuck next to the third years and Yachi. Yachi would, on their walk home, always blush and gush about how 'Kiyoko-san is so cool! She's beautiful as always!' to no-one in particular while Kageyama silently followed on the side thinking about what type of yogurt would be good for an after dinner snack. Hinata would chatter with anyone near him (usually Kageyama), while Tsukishima usually hooked his headphones up and bobbed slightly to the beat with Yamaguchi by his side, scrolling on his phone.
In his previous life, he had ever only talked to Kiyoko seriously four times.
The first time was around the time when the third-years were graduating. Kiyoko had found him about to enter the gymnasium for some quick practice, and he'd grown super awkward when he noticed her standing behind him and… staring.
"Shimizu-sempai!" He'd greeted, straightening up.
"Kageyama-kun," Kiyoko had replied, before getting straight to the point. "I wanted to say… say thank you."
"For what?" Kageyama immediately questioned back, confused. He kept his peripherals on alert, just in case Noya or Tanaka were going to skid around the corner and see this vaguely confession-like scenario. He wasn't suicidal, thank you very much.
"You and Hinata… and everyone from first year really bolstered the team's spirit," Kiyoko said. "We went to nationals because of the team we made this year. You were part of what gave Daichi, Sugawara, Asahi and me… their dream. Thank you."
Kageyama, half-way through, recognised a fellow awkward-member of society by the half-rehearsed tone of the speech. By that, he deduced that he was probably not the only one Kiyoko was going to approach to thank today. He also realised that as cool and collected Kiyoko was, she wasn't the type to feel comfortable with overt expressions of emotion.
Ah, a comrade.
"It wasn't my effort alone, sempai," Kageyama replied honestly. "I should be thanking all of you instead." It was their guidance and ability to tolerate him, adjust to his character and temper, let him play, support and teach him, and most importantly, accept him that made him the player he was now. There was still growth left. There were still victories left unwon. "Thank you!"
He bowed back, and Kiyoko obviously got flustered, stepped back, bowed quickly, and started quickly walking away.
Kageyama stood there for two seconds thinking how lucky he'd been to get accepted into Karasuno before stiffening. Wait a second! He'd been wanting to practice his spikes!
"Wait, Shimizu-sempai!"
"Hmm, Kageyama-kun?"
"If you have time, can you toss for me please? Only a few tosses!" He insisted, thinking maybe a few cartfuls of volleyballs weren't that many.
"Ah, umm…"
Kageyama held no offence at how quickly Kiyoko declined and ran away. Surely she had lots of things to do, having just graduated. Kageyama just sighed a little in his heart, but resolved himself to practice his serves instead.
Then Hinata barged in halfway through the casket of volleyballs, and demanded tosses. The rest of the team filed through a little after that, just after graduation, to play one last game together. Yachi cried on the sidelines, and everyone got super emotional as the third years gave small speeches, and recounted how they took Nationals.
Then they'd all left to eat dinner. Ukai tearfully footed the bill, half sentimental and half from wondering where teenage boys put it all. Certainly not their brain.
In his memory, Kiyoko smiled on the sides, fending off Noya and Tanaka with professionalism, chatted with Yachi, and at the end with a snap of a photo, stood on the side with them all with a flash of an urchin grin.
And it was the same Kiyoko. Her smile was still just as warm, her eyes still that slate grey-blue and rounded in a heart-shaped face. This little girl would grow up into the classical beauty he remembered, sharp, awkward and kind all at once.
Kageyama's hands trembled as he carefully held the screen right at eye-level. It was nearly too bright, within the dark, the daytime on the screen. In the video, Kiyoko's chubby four-year old cheeks belied how sharp her gaze was. It was strange to see Kiyoko without glasses.
Kiyoko was wearing a modern looking sundress, bright blue from what he could see on the straps of her shoulders. She looked well fed and well rested, and Kageyama breathed an inner sigh of relief.
The video jostled as the tiny Kiyoko on the screen started trekking through a forest.
"It's been a long time, Kageyama," Kiyoko was saying, and Kageyama nodded, leaning closer to the screen to see more. The trees around her were very different to his own forest – her forest was darker and gloomier, with very little underbrush underneath and an extremely thick canopy that only let certain strands of sunlight filter through between rare gaps in the trees. His forest had tall trees too, but also thick branches and sparse leaves that made it bright and cheerful. It made Kiyoko's features darker than they could've been and Kageyama had to squint when Kiyoko walked into spots of shadow.
"I'm sure you have a lot of questions," Kiyoko continued, smiling slightly at him. "This recording doesn't have enough time to answer them all. So first, I will say that... if you had any doubts before, yes, we are in a different world. Second, is that we are not alone. From what I see, many people we know landed here after reincarnation. Whether this was coincidence or something more, I cannot answer yet."
Kiyoko fell into silence when she stepped into a clearing, and in the corner of the screen Kageyama saw a small waterfall where she promptly sat cross-legged.
"You know magic exists here?" Kiyoko asked in that particular way of hers, speaking clear and quick. Decisive, having already prepared what to say. "I was lucky enough to be born with the ability to see the future. In that, I saw you, Kageyama. Suga, Daichi, some of my own friends, Yachi…" She kicked her feet in the water a little, cradling the recorder in her palms. After a short pause, she added "Hinata too. You'd want to know that. They're… a lot of them are here."
Kageyama paused, heart stilling.
"My mother here sent something alongside this recording. It's a... you will have a divine blessing because of it. This recording doesn't have enough memory to really explain what divine blessings are, but know that it's very powerful, Kageyama. Sorry for not warning you about it, but... it's something that, if you choose to go out, a lot of people may want to use you for it." Kiyoko blinked, pausing, and Kageyama's heart clenched at the sheer familiarity of her half-recited tone as she continued. "You have a choice right now. If you accept it, if you follow it… it'll lead you to us. The people who knew you before. But if you do… it's also very dangerous. So I understand if you do nothing with this blessing and stay in your village. You'll be safe."
"But if you do accept," Kiyoko said, accidentally kicking too much water and splashing some on the recorder. She hurriedly wiped it away, and gave an apologetic smile to Kageyama as she continued. "If you accept, then tomorrow morning gather your supplies. Go down the mountain towards the desert, into the town there. You'll know what to do next."
"Whatever you do, Kageyama, know that I wish you the best. Thank you for listening to me." Kiyoko gave one last smile before the projection flickered out of existence. The slate dimmed in a small black tablet again, and Kageyama was left sitting on his tiny straw pallet, in his dirt hut in a settling, quiet darkness. A few stunned moments of silence later, he pressed the button and watched it all again.
Kiyoko. She was... Kageyama's fingers gripped the tablet. She was real.
("So we're out there somewhere?" Tsukishima murmured. "Interesting…")
And she had said everyone from before was also here.
("Oh man, I bet I'm a super cool wizard, Kageyama!" Hinata shouted excitedly, vibrating with excitement).
Hah. A smile started to curl up his lips, the type that Hinata had always, always cringed away from. Unnatural! Hinata would hiss, jumping away to hide behind the nearest succulent or whatever and Kageyama let out a small laugh at the memory. Choice?
What choice?
Kageyama carefully hugged the tablet to his chest as he went to the corner where he kept his pillow.
"Goodnight," he said into the air, allowing himself a little self-indulgence before rolling to sleep on his side.
"Good night, Kageyama!" Tanaka replied, the one to lead the goodnight that night. Kageyama let himself feel a bit of warmth at the reply instead of ignoring it. He felt the corners of the tablet dig into his arms, and let the small persistent smile lead him into sleep.
Early next morning, he took a small potato sack. He put all that he had in there – a few sheets of paper, the rest of his food, Kiyoko's tablet and the one wooden doll his parents had left for him. The sack had weave that was rough enough that he could stick some braided fishing wire through, letting him draw it closed. With the line left, he tied the sack to an old wooden fishing pole that no-one had use for.
Then he crept out of his house, closing the door shut silently. Rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, Kageyama turned left down the main road towards the side of the village that had once faced the sea.
The sun touched the horizon when he reached the path down to the desert, illuminating vast swathes of salt and sand that stretched on to the horizon with no end in sight.
"You ready, Kageyama?" Suga asked kindly. And although he knew better, Kageyama responded.
"I promise I'll find you. Every single one of you."
"I'm sure you can do it," Asahi reassured, kindness ever in his tone. "You can do anything you put your mind to, Kageyama."
Kageyama heaved in a deep breath and tried not to let the words comfort him as he started the trek downwards.
With no trees nor clouds, the sun burnt unrelentingly hot. The sun absorbed through the soles of his sandals straight into his heels. He was dripping sweat before mid-day.
To distract himself, Kageyama reminisced, as that was easier than watching the endless salt-bushes pass by, or the dried husks of delicate fish bone that still crunched underneath his feet as he walked. Autumn was coming soon, but summer clung to the world like it was reluctant to let go.
But that was one of the things in this world has going for it, Kageyama acceded, not letting the sun stop him from looking up and appreciating the sheer azure expanse of the sky, letting himself feel the tug of his heart from the view that yelled free. This world was so clean. The sky was spectacular. It reminded him of milder walks back in Miyagi, a slightly cloudier, smoggier sky that shone clear compared to Tokyo. He could imagine the burnt smell of diesel from a passing motorbike, the creak of a squeaky bicycle wheel walking in tandem with him.
It was a memory before they decided to move out of their town, planning for a larger life. University exams had been hard, but through Yamaguchi, Yachi and an unenthusiastic Tsukishima's collective efforts, Hinata's sheer mind-breaking work and Kageyama's sport scholarships, they'd gotten through by the skin of their teeth.
They'd been eighteen and young. Dreams in their pockets, eyes on the stars.
"Hey. Kageyama."
"Hn?" Kageyama grunted in response, looking away from the mountain that Hinata biked over every day to school. The mountain had always been a slightly distant loom on the near horizon, just something to stare at from the school window. Kageyama wondered if biking the mountain every day would give him extra stamina. Maybe that was the secret to finally breaking their stalemate. Hmmm…
"Kageyama, are you listening to me?"
Kageyama's eyes lit up as he mentally revisited his timetable. School was over, so he could bike if he wanted to! His tosses had gotten a lot of sport magazine coverage, but he still had to work on that serve Yamaguchi had started teaching him. Maybe he could ask for a few of his teammates to train with him? Well, until university, anyway…
"Bakayama!"
Hinata jumped right in front of him way too close, his face right in front of his in a determined glare and forcing him to stumble back.
"What?" He barked in annoyance. "If you're going to say something, just say it, dumbass!" He moved to whap his head, but Hinata had long experience with this and wasn't stupid, okay. He ducked away, which wasn't that hard because he'd grown since they first met, but not enough to catch up to Kageyama's chin because Kageyama had grown too.
Something Kageyama liked rubbing in his face, of course.
"Hey, I called your name like, three times!" Hinata put his hand on his hips and glowered, irritated. It was Kageyama who suddenly went aggressive! It wasn't his fault! "You're the stupid one!"
"No, you are!"
"No, you are!"
"No, you are!"
"Ah," a flat voice came from behind them, "look, Yamaguchi. Children unattended on the street." There was a mumble then, to a companion, which prompted immediate swift laughter. Yamaguchi and Tsukishima passed them on the way to the Ukai's shop, Yamaguchi stifling snickers while Tsukishima smirked.
Hinata immediately puffed up like a cat, his eyes narrowing. "I am not a kid!" He yelled, still obviously offended at their last Karasuno team outing to the amusement park, and getting offered all the child prices. "Come back, Tsukishima! I'm gonna get revenge!"
"Oh, do you want me to slow down for you? I'm not so sure your short legs are… enough to keep up with mine," Tsukishima yawned, a smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth, and that was when Hinata blew up.
Hinata started roaring for "Tsukishima, you bastard, I'LL SHOW YOU SLOW," and raced after the blonde, leaving his bike behind with Kageyama. Again. Kageyama impassively wondered whether Hinata would ever stop reacting to Tsukishima's height jabs.
Never, probably.
Kageyama watched as the three of them ran down the street – Tsukishima loping, as if not wanting to admit he was having any sort of fun, Yamaguchi following for the heck of it, and Hinata in offended fury. Well, Kageyama sighed, that was one train of thought effectively ruined. Hinata in a nutshell really.
So Kageyama resigned himself to thinking about training regimes a little later, picked up Hinata's bike and started walking it down to the shop. The handlebars were a bit low for him, but it was nice and familiar to sling his bag into the basket with Hinata's and move down the familiar street to Coach Ukai's shop. He daydreamed about some sneakers he saw the other day. He wondered about what Hinata had been trying to tell him before Tsukishima had interrupted.
"What was it?" Kageyama asked later, after their team dinner had passed. They'd all escorted Yachi to the bus stop by then, Tsukishima and Yamaguchi having left the other way while Kageyama waited for Hinata to finish fiddling with his bike. Hinata's bright head of hair tilted in confusion, indicating to Kageyama he was listening.
"What's what?" Hinata's voice had deepened only a little, maybe. When it wasn't overly enthusiastic as the tone when he was on court 'Kageyama, toss! Toss! Toss to me! Why aren't you tossing to me?', it was strangely inquisitive and animated. It fascinated Kageyama to no end, sometimes, that he could do that. Kageyama always sounded either monotonous or angry.
Shifting to another foot, Kageyama started fidgeting, as his brain started complaining that it was Hinata that started the conversation… before. "Ugh," he finally burst out, "Before the dinner!" Kageyama exclaimed, waving an arm to emphasise, and Hinata only scrunched up his face in suspicion, finally glancing up.
"What's what? Kageyama, are you getting old already? Is your memory going strange just from graduating high school?"
This boy was ridiculous, Kageyama thought with a down-turned twist of his mouth.
"Which idiot was the one who nearly failed their university admission again?" Kageyama smiled pleasantly (teeth bared, eyes glinting, the works), his hand trying to grab Hinata's head and squashing it into as tight a grip as possible, only for Hinata to duck away in the last minute. He had been getting way too good at that, lately. Kageyama couldn't be getting slow, could he?
"Hey! You only beat me by two points! Anyway, what did you mean? Kageyama?" Hinata's voice calmed down a little to a pitch more serious at the end, and Kageyama acquiesced and reluctantly drew his hand back. As much as they were unchanged from when they first came to Karasuno, even more had changed. They had been the bulwark of the team, the upper-class men, and Coach Ukai had beat them up enough to know how to communicate with each other. Hinata wasn't a bad friend to have, in the end.
"You were trying to get my attention," Kageyama said slowly, "before we started arguing. Before dinner," Kageyama then added, reminding himself they argued at least three times during dinner and so it was admittedly vague.
Hinata put on his thinking face, a face that Kageyama thought looked excessively dumb.
He told that to Hinata. Hinata punched him in the side, before returning to the task of tightening the seat of his bicycle.
"Where I called your name a few times?" Hinata replied, oddly subdued. Then the pause dragged on, and Kageyama worried about how the mountain tracks would be completely dark if Hinata didn't get moving on soon.
"Yeah. Then Tsukishima and Yamaguchi came."
"Ah, that." Hinata's ears turned a little pinkish, as he glanced at the two bags that were still in his bicycle's hand basket. "Well, that was nothing important!"
Aaaand… the thing about being partners for three years, is that you get close even if you don't want to. Not that he didn't want to, nowadays. They were best friends for a reason. In the silence of them both knowing that Hinata's lie was completely and utterly weak, Kageyama waited for Hinata to come clean. He knew, somewhat, that he still intimidated Hinata sometimes because Hinata had never been good at hiding things. Why Hinata always expected the worst of his temper even after years of knowing each other, Kageyama would never know. Was his face really that scary?
He put that thought for later, and pinned his gaze on Hinata now, who was desperately adjusting his bike as fast as possible.
Huh.
"You're lying. Why?" Kageyama asked, genuinely confused.
"Haha, see you, Kageyama!" Hinata used his laugh to distract Kageyama, swinging a leg over his bike as he launched his bag back at him, making him stumble back a step when Hinata started his bicycle with ease, already streaking towards the darker lit roads of the mountainside.
Kageyama never did get what Hinata had wanted to say back then. He regretted it a little afterwards, since if it had been important to Hinata, then it was important to him too.
After leaving Miyagi and all the familiarity it stood for, he and Hinata had been inseparable, all the way through the years until the end – not roommates, because that would have driven them insane even before the first hour, but next door in the dorm blocks. Similar classes sometimes, when there were free electives, and when they shared classes they shared notes and cursed at each other's crappy note-taking. They played volleyball together in their free time, making up new tricks and formations, bickered every half an hour, and went home with snacks on hand. Sharing a crappy apartment for cheaper rent (and going insane before Sugawara stepped in).
No matter how many strong players he faced, no matter where he went to compete, he could never leave behind Hinata's influence on his volleyball, and volleyball had been his life.
Kageyama had been scouted, Hinata had finally found a career he'd wanted to dedicate himself to, and they had started a new chapter of their lives…
Sweat dripped down his forehead, and Kageyama glared upwards.
Now, he slowly trekked down this salt-stained, barren mountain side as the too-big sandals on his feet flapped on and off his soles. Uncaring if he tripped on a random rock or bush, Kageyama kept looking up. Up and up and up, into a sky that didn't smell of wisps of passing petrol, that wasn't filled with annoying, incessant chatter. When he closed his eyes and pretended, his elbow didn't brush anything warm.
("We're here, Kageyama," Daichi spoke out. "You can rely on us.")
("Yeah!" Hinata chimed. "Come on, Bakayama! I'm still here, aren't I?")
Kageyama's breath hiccupped before he took a moment to breathe, pulling out the tablet from his bag and pressing the button.
"Hello Kageyama, "Kiyoko's voice filtered from the screen. "It's been a long time. I'm sure you have a lot of questions…"
Kageyama reached the town at the bottom of the mountain late afternoon, and just like he expected, it was a ghost town. He'd come here before, but only once. It was a small resting post for traders that were insane enough to try crossing the desert their direction, and was literally just one street large. All it had was a small unmanned inn, a few abandoned huts, and a few posts to tie any animals that people might've brought with them.
Kageyama wasn't the one scared of ghosts (Hinata was), but even he felt uncomfortable surrounded by the empty buildings. But after scouring through all five of the abandoned buildings and finding nothing special, Kageyama pulled a face.
This was it right?
Replaying Kiyoko's message just in case: 'Go down the mountain towards the desert, into the town there. You'll know what to do next'.
So here he was in the town, but nothing was really telling him what to do next. Kageyama stared down at the screen, trying to buoy the sinking feeling in his chest.
("You don't know yet," Ennoshita said calmly. "Calm down, wait a little.")
He headed into the inn to wait. Replayed Kiyoko's recording a few times. Tried not to listen to the conversations in his head. He waited there until the sun started setting on the other side of the mountain, painting the sky a vague fiery purple. "A little more, Kageyama!" Yachi encouraged. "It's only been a day!"
"There's no-one coming," Kageyama replied, stepping out and staring at the brilliant sunset. "I should go back up and come back tomorrow."
"As long as you're not giving up," she said happily, before giving a small gasp. "Wait, Kageyama! Look back! What's that?"
Kageyama was turning around before he paused and squinted at the horizon.
There. A small figure.
Kageyama's heart caught in his throat.
As the figure grew closer, they noticed him standing there too, and moved quicker. Slowly, the small blur turned into a person wrapped in a light grey cloak, holding a heavy backpack. They trod through the sand surprisingly quickly, considering the direction they came from.
"Hello," the traveller greeted when they were near enough, slowing down. "Where am I? I'm afraid I got a little lost going over the desert." The traveller thumped his bag onto the ground with a grateful sigh, rolling his shoulders.
"This place doesn't have a name," Kageyama replied, hands clenching into his shirt as he tried not to be too obvious trying to look past the head wrap the traveller had on. His voice was familiar. It was familiar.
"Really?" The traveller replied with a put upon sigh. "Dammit, Nekomata! 'Cross the desert! You won't need a map to get to the Capital! It's destiny,' he says. Should've known everything he says is a load of crap. Destiny my ass."
Kageyama blinked, trying not to believe his ears.
("Nekomata? As in, Nekoma's coach Nekomata?" Narita echoed in disbelief.)
"I'm sorry for bothering you," the traveller addressed him now, and he could hear a smile on his voice. "I'm not being frustrated at you, don't worry! This is an outpost, right? Do you have any water here? I'm nearly out." The traveller took out a large water skin and flapped it around to demonstrate. "Look how sad it is. It's so empty. Like an inedible wrinkly raisin."
Kageyama uncurled his fingers from his shirt and nodded, before turning around to lead the traveller to the inn. He'd left his sack there anyway.
"You don't talk much do you?" The stranger cheerfully asked. "No worries, I can hold my own in conversation. I can talk about riveting stuff for hours, like the weather. It's a tad hot here, isn't it? I should've travelled at night, but I was getting so close to the mountains I just thought, man, stuff it, and I just continued forwards. Well, it was farther than I expected but I'm here right before sunset, which is pretty good, if you ask me," the traveller chattered happily behind him.
("Reply, Kageyama," Suga reminded him, laughing a little.)
"Uh. Yes," Kageyama replied stiffly.
The traveller chuckled over his awkwardness, before making a face and complaining how dry his throat was.
When they entered the dim space of the inn, and Kageyama gestured to the pump that drew water from a cache of groundwater, the traveller groaned in relief. "Is this water? Is this shade? You have no idea how I've been longing for some nice indoor time," the traveller continued companionably as he pumped up water to refill his skin, drinking his fill, before unwrapping his head.
When the traveller shook his head free, Kageyama stopped breathing.
"My name's Sugawara Koushi," the boy in front of him grinned. "Nice to meet you! What's your name?"
Sugawara's grey hair was a bit longer than he'd ever seen it, and his skin was much darker than whatever his memories had told him. When they shook hands, his palm was full of weird callouses too. But, just like Kiyoko… his smile was still the same. Kageyama let his own smile wobble up too, and hoped it didn't look too deranged.
("Well… that's trippy," Suga said, sounding way too amused. "Doesn't seem to recognise you though, other me.")
"Kageyama Tobio," Kageyama choked out, uncurling his shoulders to stand straight. "Nice to meet you too!"
"Kageyama, are you travelling too?" Sugawara continued after a huge gulp of water, nodding at his makeshift sack. "Where to?"
And abruptly, Kageyama knew what he had to do.
"I'm going to the Capital too," Kageyama lied. "I'll lead you there. We can travel together."
Sugawara blinked in surprise. "Well, seems like score one for destiny. Are you sure, Kageyama? I don't want to be a bother."
Kageyama gave an emphatic nod, not trusting his voice. Or his words. He didn't want to say something wrong now.
This new Sugawara glanced out the doorway, before giving Kageyama a self-deprecating chuckle. "Well, it's dark now, and I've been walking all day. Can we set off tomorrow morning? This place seems comfortable enough." Glancing around the small inn, which was really just a one room affair with the water basin and a few rolled pallets put on a small shelf, Kageyama nodded in agreement. It wasn't as if his own hut was any better.
"Its fine," Kageyama said out loud, when Sugawara tilted his head for express confirmation and not just a nod, just like… before.
"Thanks Kageyama. Now please excuse me."
And promptly, Sugawara left his bag next to the water basin and quickly unrolled one of the straw pallets before collapsing on it, leaving Kageyama to stare at how quickly the snores started rolling. He must have been really tired, Kageyama decided, as he pulled out a pallet of his own and rolled it out a few paces away from Sugawara.
He doesn't remember.
("Are you okay, Kageyama?" Yachi asked, always the worry-wart.)
It's fine.
Actually… it was more than fine.
"Good night," he said out into the air. The usual chorus of goodnights echoed in his head, led by Ennoshita today until…
"Yeah, good night," Sugawara sleepily mumbled to his left.
Kageyama smiled.
Kageyama dreamed.
Like all dreams, it begins with volleyball, and Kageyama lets himself be drawn into the clean squeak of polished floorboards, its grain yellow and nostalgic. In its waxed reflection, he sees himself holding a familiar ball; the plastic firm underneath his fingers, surprisingly light. He grips it, and his fingers are long and unfamiliar all at once. They're familiar, in a nostalgic way. Like feeling an old photo. His hands had grown so large. Outside the gym, a car honks.
"Yo, Kageyama!" A voice calls. Kageyama looks up, and sees Hinata with Yamaguchi on the court, ready. They'd obviously been practicing serves – and Hinata couldn't get the jump-float at all, the dumbass. It's obvious when his face falls into a loud 'Awwwwww' when the ball lands outside the lines.
"Idiot," Kageyama just gripes, walking over to them. Their smiles are wide and familiar. "You're holding your shoulders too tensely. Yamaguchi, show it to him again."
"Yes, yes," Yamaguchi smiles good-naturedly, and Kageyama wondered where Tsukishima was. "I can't believe I actually came when you two called me in to get some more holiday practice! Hehe, I don't even officially play anymore."
Hinata grins loose and happy when he slaps Yamaguchi on the back. "Well, Kageyama hasn't played in a long time, and I missed his tosses! It's like baaam and gwooosh," Hinata gestures from right to left, bouncing to invigorate his point. "No matter how many plays we have now, that quick is still my favourite!"
"A long time?" Kageyama frowns, absent-mindedly tossing the ball in his hands into the air, preparing to toss it to Hinata, a few steps away. "Our last game was just—"
And then the whole gym melts, the volleyball slips through his hands, and they're suddenly standing in front of a tiny frost-bitten field on top of a mountain. If they crest the next slope, they'd be nearly touching clouds. Kageyama is eleven years old again, and staring down at the world alone. There's a huge S-shaped river down the slopes, and even so far away it glitters. It's beautiful, in a cold, distant sort of way. He's hungry, but he's lasted until his stomach had gnawed itself numb before, so it was okay. He knows he shouldn't sit here in the cold, should get back inside. But moving takes energy, and right now he has none to spare. Sitting outside always felt better than staring at the walls of his hut anyway, and he tucks his chin into his arms for warmth.
Kageyama remembers this, last year.
Winters were always harsh.
"So this is where you live now?" Yamaguchi asks, curious. His freckles are nearly invisible in the poor lighting – storm clouds were going to roll in heavy that night and drown the winter crops. "Wow, the view is beautiful! And the air is so clean!" He breathes it in, before eyeing him. "Hey, Kageyama, won't you dream Tsukki up? I think he'd like this too!"
"No," Kageyama replies shortly with a grimace. Why would he voluntarily dream up Tsukishima?
Yamaguchi had never laughed loudly in his life, and watching Yamaguchi curl his shoulders for a small snicker made his scowl falter past a growing lump in his throat.
Behind him, Hinata laughs bright and happy. "Man, oh man, Kageyama, hey, did you realise?"
"What?" Kageyama turns, grumping automatically.
"I'm taller than you." Hinata leans his arm on Kageyama's shoulder to whisper in his ear, leaning all his twenty-something weight onto his eleven year old shoulders. "For the first time in my life, I'm taller than you, Kageyama! Wow, this dream is so great you don't understand."
"Get off, you dumbass!"
"Eep! No, Kageyama, get away! Tanaka, where are you?" Hinata races away, down the mountain towards the river, an orange blur down the scrabbly bush and rocks. As he fades into the distance, Kageyama has to choke back a yell.
'Don't go,' he wouldn't say. 'Don't leave me here alone.'
Hinata disappears as he runs away. Kageyama glares downwards, eyes hard and shiny.
Yamaguchi's hand touches his head, fleetingly. They'd become closer friends, later on in the years. Maybe it was just Yamaguchi's years of laughing and dealing with Tsukishima – he'd dealt with Kageyama's own awkwardness first with nervousness, then understanding. "When are you going to find us?" Yamaguchi asks, his voice contemplative and a little lost.
But before he could answer, Kageyama woke up, blinking rapidly in panic when all he touched when he reached out was the dark, the bone of his heels scraping dirt as he twisted, his eyes looking at the straw roof, the gaps that let the chill settle into his lungs with voices that he could never touch. His breath hitched, Kageyama knowing what was coming, but not able to stop the hyperventilation from starting, hitching tighter, softer, shallower because this was his reality he was alone—
("Look to your left," came Tsukishima's curt voice.)
Kageyama's neck wouldn't obey him. Maybe, he didn't want to. In the dark, it was too easy to imagine that they weren't dreams. All of them.
("Stop being stupid and look," Tsukishima ordered this time, stern.)
Kageyama looked. Then, he reached shaking fingers over a small gap and touched Sugawara's sleeve.
Slowly, unblinking, he let his heart rate calm. Unclenched his lungs with sheer force of will. Then, curling to the left, he let the sound of another person lull him back to, if not sleep, then at least peace.
Extras
Kageyama loves milk, and many variations of milk. Once, he heard about this modern milk-tea craze was interested enough to try it out. However, when he mixed his carefully mixed green tea with milk, he felt so guilty about ruining a DISTILLED CUP OF JAPANESE CULTURE that he never tried again, even though he (secretly) kinda liked it.