Chapter 1

All he hears before the impact is the squeal of tires and familiar voice shouting his name. He braces himself, but the collision is nothing like he expected. He tumbles along the asphalt road for a bit before landing hard on his side, which knocks the wind out of him. Feeling the pain tear into his body, he squeezes his eyes shut and bites down hard on his lip.

Numbly, he notes that the world is spinning and twisting; also, his arm is rather scraped up, bleeding onto the street. There's a stabbing pain in his head, too, that causes him to wince as he tries to prop himself up on his elbow. He's extremely disoriented but still sane enough to realize that he wasn't hit by the car that had careened out of control just moments before. All the warning he had been given was the squeal of the tires, the roar of the engine, and the blinding headlights behind him; it surely hadn't been enough notice for him to move out of the way of the incoming vehicle. Then what had hit him?

The world becomes dizzying as Izumi pulls himself to his feet and squints at the blurry figures. After a few seconds, it registers that those figures are his teammates gathered in a noisy mass near the front of a crooked car. The noise nauseates him and makes his head throb; in addition, there's something nagging, pulling at the back of his mind, but he can't quite place it.

"Izumi!"

Then it crashes on him all at once as he remembers the voice that called to him before the collision. He gapes openly as a feeling of pure dread like he's never felt inundates Izumi while his blurred vision starts to focus. 'Oh God, no.'

"Izumi!" Oh, that's Tajima calling him now, isn't it?

"Are you hurt?" Izumi ignores him as he slowly walks over on unsteady feet to the small crowd and shoulders his way to the front. 'No, no, please, no.'

He sees the blood first, pooled on the pavement like a small, crimson lake. It shines bright from the streetlight, and there seems to be so much more of it with each passing second, just pouring onto the road and drenching everything in scarlet. Slowly, Izumi shifts his attention to the body. 'Please, no, n-'

As his world crumbles to pieces, Izumi falls to his knees and reaches out a shaky hand, placing it blindly on the blood-soaked shirt of his friend. The shallow rise and fall of the chest tells Izumi that he's still alive. There are voices, probably telling him to stop before he makes it worse, but they sound like a garbled mess to him, just background noise; the only sound he hears is the sound of his own frantically beating heart. Izumi brings his other hand to gently stroke Mizutani's blood-matted hair, almost like a mother comforting her ill child.

His focus trails down to where his other hand lies resting on Mizutani's chest. "You idiot," Izumi finds himself saying to the broken body of his friend although it comes out more like a whimper.

It surprises him when he hears a faint whisper of his name. Izumi jerks his attention to his friend's face, eyes wide and hopeful. Mizutani's eyes are closed though, and he doesn't say anything more.

Desperately, his hands fumble against the bloody mess. 'I'll stop the bleeding,' Izumi thinks frantically. 'It'll be okay. It'll be fine.'

Around him, the voices rise, but it's not until strong hands grip his shoulders and pull him away that Izumi realizes that his teammates are calling his name, telling him to stop. He struggles against the hands, but the other person easily overpowers him and pulls him back out of the throng of his teammates and chaos, away from Mizutani.

Once he's in the open, Izumi whirls around to glare furiously at Hanai. The captain can only give him a sad look and place his strong hands on Izumi's shoulders so he can't turn back.

Hanai stares straight into Izumi's burning eyes and promises, "Mizutani will be fine. The ambulance is on its way."

His voice doesn't shake and his stare doesn't waver, so Izumi almost feels reassured. But did Hanai see Mizutani's shattered body? And the blood? Oh, the blood. Izumi tells himself that this is just Hanai's job: holding the team together no matter what. He wants to tell Hanai that he doesn't need his comfort or his lies, but the sharp sound of a car door paralyzes the freckled boy.

The two boys look over to watch the driver of the car stagger out and gape dazedly at the night sky. Izumi tastes bile rise in his throat as he notes that the man is definitely drunk. He's pretty handsome and young (probably in his early twenties), but what really stands out are his disheveled clothes, uncoordinated eyes, and the strong smell of alcohol that seems to roll off of him in waves.

Only one thought consumes Izumi's mind as he stares down the drunken man: this bastard is the reason why Mizutani is dying on the cold road.

Shaking off Hanai's slackened grip, Izumi charges the drunk driver, grabbing the startled man's collar and yanking him forward before Hanai can even protest. Dazed and frightened by the small boy's sudden movement, the man flinches under Izumi's bestial glare. Furious, Izumi attempts to burn his message into the man's flesh with his glower, 'You're the reason for Mizutani's pain.'

When Hanai starts tugging at Izumi's shoulder, the latter draws closer to the stranger and snarls, "I should kill you. You're the one who should be bleeding to death."

Hanai strengthens his grip and barks "Izumi!" But it isn't the captain's voice that Izumi hears. Instead, Mizutani's worried voice fills his mind with the warning that came a little too late.

For the first time, Izumi seems to notice the blood on his hands that's now soaking into the white collar of the driver. Numb and disgusted, he releases the man and stumbles backwards; a man who's that drunk and miserable isn't even worth the breath used to curse him. Hanai puts an arm around his shoulders as Izumi turns around and starts walking back to the team.

A slurred voice stops the duo in their tracks. From behind them, the drunken man rasps out, "There's no harm in a couple o' drinks…it was just a couple o' drinks, hmm."

'How could he possibly say that?! Does he really think that justifies what he's done?!' screams Izumi in his mind, and he tenses up and moves to grab the guy again; however, Hanai's arm is already gone from his shoulders. Before Izumi can get his body to react, Hanai whirls around and punches the stranger in the face with a tremedous force Izumi had only seen in Hanai's batting before.

The two friends looked on, indifferent, as the man crumpled to the ground, unconscious. Already, Izumi can see a black eye already blooming, and his lips twitch into a small, bitter smile that's more of a grimace. That guy was not going to be happy when he woke up.

Hello, everyone and anyone who's reading this! First time submitting a story...

Reviews are very welcome! Anything is much appreciated^^

This was actually something I wrote a while ago and posted on theOtaku, but I reread it and decided to change it up before submitting it here. That's all. Hope you like it!

By the way, this is set in the original Nishiura Nine's (plus Nishihiro) second year of high school.