Once he was released from the hospital, fully recovered and less mentally scarred than when he'd been brought in. He wouldn't be in a room alone with any adult. No one. They were all under suspicion, Ukai, Takeda, his mother, his father, his teachers, all of them. Someone had to be with him at all times of interaction least he bolt and disappear for the rest of the day and well into the next to pull himself together.
He was a shadow of himself. A clone is his own body. Where he was once comfortable and relaxed in the company of his teammates he was now tense and cagey, wanting to get out as soon as he could. Small spaces were to be avoided at all costs and someone new was regarded as a threat before they'd even approached.
The scars weren't fading as the doctors said they would. They'd been burnt into his very being. Branded onto his soul, silvery and black. Hearing about it had been the greatest shock of many a young lives that day as they realized what they'd taken for granted. Even if they hadn't liked him all that much, hated him in some cases, his absence left a hole in their hearts they'd never known was filled.
"Late last night as the police were just arriving, the thief made off with the heir of the Kageyama Corporation, Kageyama Tobio. If anyone has seen the teen or the vehicle in which they escaped, please call the number at the bottom of the screen immediately."
They'd all dropped what they'd been doing as the early morning news played on. Spoons dropped messily into breakfast cereals, the spills ignored. Glasses shattered as they dropped to the tiles of the kitchen floors. Clothing half put on rushing bodies left forgotten hanging off one arm. Kageyama Tobio.
"Mum, what was that about?" Tooru asked pointing to the TV switched on to channel 9. His gaze zeroed in on the number flashing on the screen under a picture of Tobio and a dark blue Honda civic. His mother looked at him, his fixation on the TV he more often ignored and she remembered him mentioning a Tobio in multiple complaints. Could it possibly be the same person?
"The Kageyama housed hold was robbed last night. Well, the only thing the robbers took was their child. The Kageyama's are a very influential family Tooru and it's not uncommon for heirs of massive corporations to go missing. Is this the boy you're always complaining about dear?"
Tooru didn't answer; he ripped his gaze from the TV and jumped from his chair. He had practice in twenty minutes and he still had to do his hair and pack his bag for the day… His hair wasn't done when he left the house.
Hinata crawled out of bed and stared blearily at his clock, 6:25 it glowed at him, 6:25, 6:25, 6:26… 6:26! He was late! Well, he was going to be late for morning practice if he didn't move his ass and book it in the next… five minutes! Daichi was going to kill him, he briefly hoped Kageyama would be late as well, that way he wouldn't be the only one getting in trouble… God knew Kageyama was probably already there though. Tossing balls at an imaginary spiker or slamming the ball down just inside the court with his monster serve.
He stumbled down his stairs, flinging pieces of his uniform over his body. He switched on the TV, stuck on channel 7 news, as he ran past hoping to at least catch the weather.
"-Kageyama Tobio has been reported missing in the early hours of the morning. Reportedly a robber had broken into the house only to come across the teen asleep in his lounge room. The robber escaped the house with the boy slung over his shoulder and preceded to leave the area in a blue Honda civic. If anyone has seen the vehicle or the boy we implore you to contact the police or the hotline at the bottom of the screen."
Kageyama was? He's not… He's been stolen? Kageyama Tobio. The most intimidating person he'd ever met. Had been kidnapped? Why? How? He needed to get to school, coach Ukai would know. It couldn't true. Daichi would be able to tell him, but there would be no need, right? Kageyama would be there to call him a dumbass for being late, maybe serve a volleyball or two into his back, iron claw his head in an attempt to give him premature baldness. He'd be there tossing the ball to thin air until he got there to practice their quick, or practicing his serve or maybe Tsukishima is there with him and they're practicing blocking and receiving. Kageyama was good at that. Teaching the other first years things they didn't know. Daichi always put Kageyama in charge of teaching them volleyball, Tsukishima was chosen when they were in danger of failing but Kageyama had begun to need Tsukishima's help less and less.
He'd be there. All Shouyou had to do was get there and see for himself.
He switched the TV off, threw the remote onto the coffee table and letting it fall and clatter noisily as he bolted for the door, his school shirt flying behind him like a cape and his pants hanging loosely on his hips as his belt hung uselessly from his belt loops half looped through. He grabbed his bike, took a running start and jumped on to start pedalling madly in the direction of school. The direction of Kageyama. Because he was going to be there when he opened that gymnasium door. Only he wasn't.
The only person in the gym was the team and Hinata himself, no Kageyama in sight. No scowl, no dumbass, no smack, ball or iron claw. No Kageyama Tobio. Just his team, just his team staring at him as he heaved for breath.
"Where's Kageyama?"
Regret. That's what this feeling was. This heavy, oppressive feeling, he'd held it since middle school but it had always been a mystery, until now. Regret, regret that he'd never tried to stop Tobio's downfall, never tried to match his tosses when he heard Kageyama mutter that he knew he could if only he'd tried, never tried to be his friend instead of pushing him away and rejecting him. Never let the stupid king apologise to finally put it behind them.
He regrets.
"-Made off with adolescent, Kageyama Tobio."
His breakfast may have sloshed onto his uniform but he had places to be. Kunimi, he had to find Kunimi, he'd say whether this was real or not. Surely, surely, if it were, they'd get him back.
Not in one piece we didn't. He was broken by then, he tried his best to get back to normal. But after that. Nothing could go back. We just had to accept it.
The news was the bane of his morning existence. The reporters annoying voices screeching in his sensitive ears, the sound amplified by lack of stimuli during the night.
"In other news a local boy from Karasuno high has been kidnapped, 16 years of age and said to be a volleyball genius, Kageyama Tobio has been reported missing in the early hours of the morning."
He sighed, yet another reason to hate the news, it was never anything good, Kageyama Tobio missing child of the week. Kageyama Tobio, he took a sip from his orange juice and stared at the TV some more, tuning out the annoying voice of the reporter as a phone number flashed on screen under a picture of the missing teen. Kageyama Tobio! The glass dropped from his hand, Kageyama Tobio from Karasuno! Kageyama Tobio number 9 on his team! The king of the court!
Yes. Tsukishima thought snagging his bag strap as he rushed past and out his front door slamming it shut behind him. I really do hate the news.
He'd never turned on the news in the mornings again after Tobio got home; he was in fact, one of Tobio's most protective friends when he returned.
Hinata had burst into the gym as everyone gathered at the other end in front of coach Ukai and Takeda sensei, he had startled them, rushing in so noisily, half-dressed and almost suffocating in his own haste to get answers.
"Where's Kageyama?" he'd asked.
Where's Kageyama? Where's Kageyama? Where is Kageyama? Where is Kageyama Tobio? They didn't know. They couldn't answer him. Nobody could. How could they possibly know if he wasn't here with them?
Where was Kageyama Tobio?
It was a good question, one they all wanted an answer to.
When we found out, we wished we hadn't asked.
"Kunimi!"
"Iwa-chan!"
They'd called, approaching their best friends as they found them on the walk to school, or in Oikawa's case, right in front of his house.
"What's happening?"
"What's going on Iwa-chan?"
Iwaizumi had shaken his head and replied, "I don't know Oikawa, something crazy is going down and Kageyama got caught up in it. You've seen what's been going on, on the news. The big corporations are going crazy."
Kunimi had shrugged noncommittally and said he didn't know. He seemed disinterested, Kindaichi settled his pace beside him and frowned, Kunimi was never really disinterested in Kageyama. Kindaichi could wager that he'd have Kunimi talking by the end of their first period.
"Hey Kenma did you hear?"
Kenma glanced up from his phone to Kuroo walking beside him. "Hear what?"
"Apparently you haven't. Karasuno's setter Kageyama Tobio has been kidnapped."
Kenma's phone flipped shut.
"Mm. Last night some robber broke into his house, he must have run into him or something. That or this was a planned kidnapping. Kageyama-kun's family apparently runs a worldwide company on something or other and we've all seen the shit that's being pulled lately by the big shot CEO's. Sabotage, buy outs, fake merges that leave the smaller companies bankrupt and out of business. Heir-napping is supposedly their new ploy."
Kenma hummed in response and flipped open his phone, he clicked through his contacts to Hinata's number, opened a new text page and fired away, tapping at his key board a mile a minute. Kuroo smirked down at him as if he found this action funny.
"You know Kenma, if you keep typing so fast your key pad will have to get replaced before your phone's even past its warranty."
"That's good, it means the repair is free." Kenma replied half-heartedly, Kuroo snorted, actually finding his reply amusing.
"No Ken. What that means, is that your phone won't even be a year old before you break it."
"What do you expect Kuroo, it's not a Nokia, it's not indestructible."
Kuroo shook his head, his phone may be an Iphone but it'd served him well even after he'd dropped it a few times.
"It's a little hard to believe."
"Hmm."
"It's hard to believe that Karasuno's setter was kidnapped. I don't like to think about what kind of person could take him on." Kenma replied.
"It just goes to show that it could happen to anyone."
