Disclaimer: I do not own Haikyuu
Hinata and Yamaguchi rarely spoke in the entire time they searched for the others; except for the brief conversation at the start and occasional muttered curses as something made them jump or they tripped.
They mainly kept to the back of the boat, as if hesitant to explore the front, where they feared the worst. However, both first-years knew that it was inevitable- they had to check the front of the yacht, where it was a fact that it took the brunt of the crash. Survival rates were pretty low; they just hoped that the team was lucky enough to escape this whole mess with no fatalities.
Suddenly, Yamaguchi winced at began to try and sit down on a piece of wall that had collapsed in on itself, forming a dusty, uncomfortable seat of sorts.
Hinata noticed the sudden movement and frowned. "What's the matter? Are you tired?"
"N-not just that…" Yamaguchi replied as his right hand found his bandaged eye, and he winced again.
The shorter teen gasped in realisation. "Your eye! Why does it suddenly hurt- well, more than before?"
The pinch server shrugged slightly, and brought his hand anyway to reveal red.
The middle blocker instantly leapt into action with both speed and care as he grabbed the lower part of the shirt that he wore underneath his jumped, quickly ripping it off and using the surprisingly clean fabric (he presumed that it remained clean because it was sheltered by his jumper), before speaking in soft, encouraging tones. "Okay, I have to take your bandage off. If it's bleeding, then it'll only soak into the bandage and then possibly clot or make it worse."
"But-"
"I know you don't want me to say, but I-I don't have a choice." The waver in Hinata's voice was noticed by Yamaguchi, who understood that he was mostly acting on adrenaline rather than expertise. He's probably just as scared as I am right now, the freckled teen thought as he sighed, closed his left eye and allowed Hinata to begin undressing his wound.
The sudden squeak from the middle blocker caused Yamaguchi to wince, not only in pain but for being reminded of how disgusting his injury looked.
Unfortunately, the bleeding first-year made the mistake of opening his eye, and automatically his right eye opened, before the pain flared and he quickly closed it again. He inwardly cringed at the gag that came from Hinata, followed by him clapping a hand over his mouth.
Is it that disgusting? Yamaguchi thought, suddenly wishing for a mirror so he could see how horrible his face looked.
"S-sorry!" Hinata blurted out, although his jaw was clenched as if he felt extremely nauseous. I can understand why. The taller teen's left hand curled into a fist at the thought.
The middle blocker reached over and dabbed at Yamaguchi's tightly shut eye with the ripped part of his shirt.
"I knew it…" The pinch server's voice was barely above a whisper.
"Knew what?" Hinata frowned, both from Yamaguchi's statement and the blood that poured form his eye.
"It's disgusting. My eye, I mean."
"Wha- n-no. Not at all! I was just…surprised is all-"
"The fact that you're obviously lying just to try and make me feel better only makes it worse." Yamaguchi refused to meet Hinata's gaze.
"I-I…it's not that bad." Hinata tried to reassure him; to no avail, though, as Yamaguchi sighed and covered his eye with his hand. "No, really! It's fine; I doubt anyone would tease you or anything for it! And…and I still need to clean it-"
"I can do it." He interrupted, taking the fabric from the shorter teen to cover his eye with it, forming a better screen than his hand. "Oh, and it's not the teasing that bothers me."
"Then…what is it?"
Yamaguchi swallowed, delaying his reply for a minute or so. "I-it's the fact that my eye will disgust and horrify everyone who sees it. Y-you should have seen Asahi. He may not have voiced it, but I could tell that he felt sick at the sight of it."
"It's mostly the initial shock of seeing something like it for the first time!" Hinata cried in a desperate attempt to reassure his friend. "Like I said, I was just surprised at first!"
"Can…" he hesitated, before continuing, "can you describe to me what it looks like? I'll try and keep my eye open for as long as I can, but I…I just really need to know."
Hinata bit his lip, not wanting to tell him. If he feels this negatively about his eye when he hasn't even properly seen it yet, then who knows what he'll do if I describe it to him in detail? No, I can't risk it. Not now, anyway. "Uh…maybe later. We need to keep moving; but first, your eye needs bandaging again. I think the bleeding's stopped."
"Oh." Yamaguchi's expression was so disheartened that it made Hinata want to cry. Someone so young shouldn't go through so much suffering. "Okay then…"
"Do you have a spare bandage?"
The freckled teen nodded and reached into his pocket. "There was originally only one in the first aid kit we found, but then Asahi scavenged some more and found a couple extras. He gave them to me to keep hold of."
Hinata nodded and took the fabric away, tossing it to the floor a few metres from them before preparing to use the bandage that Yamaguchi gave him.
Apart from a few hisses of pain, the pinch server was otherwise silent during the whole process, until the middle blocker stepped back and admired his handiwork.
"It's done!" Hinata beamed, proud that he was able to help his friend.
"Yes, I can see that." His reply was a little harsher than he intended. "Sorry, I'm just really stressed and…you know…" He trailed off, but the shorter teen got the message.
"Well, let's go find everyone! I'm sure they're alright. We've just gotta have faith, y'know?"
With a faint smile, Yamaguchi stood and followed Hinata as he marched to the front of the yacht. However, they didn't get all the way there.
"Oof!" Hinata cried as he crashed headfirst into something as he rounded the corner. "What- Yachi?!"
Yamaguchi, who hadn't yet gone round the corner, gasped and stuck the left part of his face round, suddenly feeling nervous. Sure enough, there was Yachi, who looked as shocked as Hinata and then squeaked in surprise as he looked round the corner.
"What's going on, Yachi?" The familiar voice of Ukai was heard as the coach came into view. "Hinata? Yamaguchi? Are you guys okay?!"
"Yeah, we're fine, coach!" Hinata nodded. "What about you?"
"Oh, thank God! I was so worried!" Ukai sighed with relief. "And…we're fine…"
Yamaguchi frowned. Even from where he stood, he could tell that Ukai was favouring one leg to the other, and he was obviously hiding something. "Is there anyone else with you?"
As if on cue, slow, heavy footsteps echoed as Ennoshita came out of a room along the wall, carrying Kinoshita on his back. Hinata's grin widened, but Yamaguchi's frown deepened. Ennoshita's eyes looked hollow and distant, as if he wasn't sure where he was; not to mention the fact that he looked quite pale, as if he'd seen a ghost.
"Ennoshita! You're okay!" Hinata cried as he bounded over. "Hm? What's wrong? Wait- is that Kinoshita? Is he okay?" The short teen tried to get a better look at the seemingly unconscious second-year, but Ennoshita snarled and bared his teeth like a cornered animal, and Hinata immediately backed off.
"What happened? Why's Ennoshita like that?" Yamaguchi asked, turning to Ukai for answers. The latter sighed and his gaze dropped to the floor.
"E-Ennoshita? Do you want me to…to tell them?" The usually strong, confident coach was suddenly reduced to a scared, nervous one, which only made Yamaguchi more worried. The second-year didn't seem to have heard him, so Ukai repeated the question.
"F-fine." Ennoshita spat, unusually defensive. He shuffled himself so Kinoshita was completely blocked from view, as if protecting him from something.
Ukai took a deep breath. "Guys…Kinoshita, he…he d-didn't make it." His voice wavered and cracked halfway through. A heavy silence fell on them.
"N-no…you're kidding me, right?" Yamaguchi spoke up, voice little above a whisper. "He's not…he's not dead. He isn't, okay?! He's fine!" His voice was becoming more frantic, and his breathing began increasing, and he shook with distress and fear.
"Yamaguchi…" Yachi murmured, unsure of how to handle it. He was refusing to believe it, so what could she do? Ennoshita wasn't going to let anyone see his friend's body.
"Listen to me." Ukai commanded. "I-it's true. Kinoshita...is dead. He-he sacrificed himself to…to save me, and-and…" He furiously rubbed his eyes, overcome with emotion.
"N-no…you're lying!" Yamaguchi yelled, before disappearing. The sound of running footsteps told the others that he was running away.
"Damn…don't make this harder for us all!" Ukai shouted after him, although he couldn't blame the first-year. Not only was this situation overwhelming, but hearing the news that someone who you spoke to on the bench as a reserve had tragically died must be really hard for Yamaguchi to accept.
Yachi knew she had to go after him, so followed as fast as she could, desperate to catch up to him.
"Are…are you serious? He's really…?" Hinata stared at Ukai unblinkingly, hoping that he was just messing around, and Kinoshita would wake up and scold him for joking about that sort of thing.
"I'm sorry." The coach sighed again. "He pushed me out of the way and got…got impaled-through the chest-fatal wound-" He cut himself off from choking the words out, clapping a hand over his mouth and feeling sick by merely talking about what happened.
"O-oh." Was all Hinata said – was all he could say – as he suddenly felt weak at the knees and shakily sat down on the floor.
"I wish it was a murder instead." Ennoshita suddenly stated in a strangely calm yet strangled voice.
"Huh?!" The middle blocker stared at him in horror.
"If he was murdered, then we could simply avenge him because we can take our revenge on the murderer. But the murderer here was a storm and/or a yacht. We can't take revenge on them."
"But we can still avenge him." Ukai mumbled, catching their attention, and urging him to explain further. "Well, I'm sure he'd want us to stay alive and stay together in order to get through this without losing anyone else. We won't ever forget him."
Hinata looked teary-eyed, and Ukai knelt down to hug him, hoping that it would help.
Meanwhile, Yachi still hadn't caught up to Yamaguchi. How could he have put so much distance between us already?! She thought as she narrowly avoided tripping over. I'll never catch up to him!
As if she'd jinxed it in a good way, the freckled teen came into sight once she arrived in a small room with a massive hole in the side, where she presumed a window had once been if the jagged glass was any indication. She opened her mouth to call to him, tell him to stop, but he wasn't slowing down. He was heading straight for the hole, with the intention of leaping out of it.
"Yamaguchi! Don't! Just wait!" He quickly turned, although with the speed he'd been running at, it made him unable to stop at once, and he ended up tripping backwards on something. Yachi could only watch helplessly as, with a terrified shriek, Yamaguchi was sent flying backwards, almost horizontally, through the window, and crashed into the sand, all of his weight on his back as his limbs flailed about, trying to slow himself down from the speed he was skidding across the sand at.
With a shocked gasp, Yachi ran to the hole, and she felt her blood go cold as she saw the bandage covering his right eye. In the heat of the moment when he'd turned round, she hadn't noticed it, but now she could, and she dreaded about what was underneath it – if there was anything beneath it. She mentally chided herself for this thought. It's probably just a cut or something! Don't presume the worst!
"Yamaguchi! Can you hear me?!" She called out to him, cupping her hands around her mouth and ignoring the slight sting from the cut on her arm.
The lack of response only worried her more, and she felt her heart skip a beat as she saw the jagged spike of glass that had a bit of ripped clothing on it. Don't tell me… she didn't finish the thought, already crawling out of the hole and nimbly dodging the pieces of glass that still remained in the misshapen window frame.
"Yamaguchi!" She shouted again, dashing over to him and dropping to her knees. Movement to her right caused her to peer into the distance, where she could see someone jogging towards her, coughing into their hand.
"Oi!" The person yelled as they approached. "What happe-" They were cut off by a sneeze.
Is that…Kageyama? Is he ill or something? She thought, and both questions were answered as the first-year setter reached her, coughing into his hand. She could see the red-rimmed nose and pale face and immediately knew he was indeed sick. I just hope it's a simple cold and not something worse, she bit her lip at the thought.
"He was running, and I shouted to him so he turned round, but he tripped and went flying out the window." Yamaguchi groaned, but didn't move or open his eyes- eye. "I think he's hurt himself." Yachi added.
"Where about?" Kageyama asked with a serious tone.
"My best bet would be his back. I just hope it isn't too serious." The manager knew that she had to roll him over to get a good look, but she knew that Yamaguchi would put up some sort of resistance to being moved. "Could you help me turn him onto his stomach?"
The setter nodded and automatically moved into a position to help without being told where to go. Yachi was grateful for this, but couldn't express her gratitude as she was so worried and scared about everything that was going on that she felt nauseous.
Carefully, she slid her hands under Yamaguchi's back, frowning as he hissed and jerked. She quickly withdrew her hands, and were shocked to find them red. "Oh God…" She muttered, trembling.
"Is that…blood?" Kageyama asked, feeling slightly lightheaded.
"Y-yeah, but…we have to roll him over." Yachi felt faint, but she knew that she had to do this. She had to help him; after all, this was her fault - that's what she believed, anyway.
"Okay, on thr-" He broke off to cough into his hand before placing it back on Yamaguchi's right side and shoulder. He was in the position where the pinch server would roll towards him, but had to reach over. "On three." He finished, as if he never coughed. "One…two…three!"
In unison, Yachi pushed Yamaguchi away from her and Kageyama pulled him towards him, effectively flipping him onto his stomach, earning a pained cry from the first-year.
"S-sorry." The manager apologized, before sucking in a sharp breath as she saw his back.
The jacket that he'd been wearing now had a large rip through it which almost split it in half, and the shirt underneath had been shredded, as it was a thinner material than the jacket. Blood stained his clothes, and he whimpered, digging his nails into the sand.
"It's worse than I thought…" She murmured, grimacing at the sight.
The injury itself was a long, jagged gash in his back, and was quite deep. It looked incredibly painful.
"Yamaguchi, can you hear me?" Kageyama's brows creased in worry as he spoke in a gentle tone. "Hey, c'mon. Can you at least look at me?"
Gritting his teeth, Yamaguchi slowly cracked his left eye open, glancing up at Kageyama before squeezing it shut again as a fresh wave of pain washed over him.
"This is pretty serious. We need to get him back to the others." Kageyama declared, coughing into the crook of his arm.
"Others?" Yachi frowned. "Who?"
"I'll tell you on the way. Can you help me get him on my back?"
"I don't think you're in any condition to give him a piggyback ride."
Kageyama blushed at her wording. "Don't call it that!" He cleared his throat with a few more coughs than what's usually needed. "Just…help, will you? Time is precious."
She sighed but smiled. "Fine. Your funeral." She supposed she could've worded that better as Yamaguchi flinched, and she did the same as she caught onto what he thought.
"What?" The setter asked as he crouched down, arms behind him and ready to support the injured pinch server.
"Uh…I'll tell you later." The manager lifted the freckled teen onto Kageyama's back, wincing in sympathy as he hissed in pain.
Once he was safely on the raven-haired teen's back, they began walking back to the figures that Yachi could spot a short distance away.
"So, it was first just me and Kiyoko-"
"Kiyoko's there?! Is she okay?" She interrupted.
"Yeah; well, except for her knee, but other than that, she's fine." Kageyama sent a warning glare that told Yachi not to interrupt again. "Anyway, then Hinata and Sugawara…helped us get to where Tsukishima and Narita were."
"Hinata's nose looked a bit weird, but I think he was okay." One look at Kageyama and Yachi immediately apologized.
"Then Asahi and Yamaguchi arrived. What about you? Were you with anyone? And where's that dumbass Hinata anyway?"
"I'm fine; just a little cut on my arm. And I was with Ukai, Ennoshita and," she swallowed nervously, "Kinoshita. Hinata was with them, but Yamaguchi ran off and I followed him."
"Why'd he run off?"
"Uh…I'll tell you later."
Kageyama's eyes narrowed in suspicion, but he chose not to press further. "Well, as long as Hinata doesn't get himself killed."
Both Yamaguchi and Yachi flinched at his choice of words, which did not go unnoticed by the setter.
"Okay, seriously, what?"
"Uh…I'll tell you later." She repeated for the third time, earning an irritated sigh from the taller first-year.
"You better." He spat, but couldn't say anymore as Sugawara ran over.
"Kageyama! Don't run off when you're sick!" He scolded, but paused as he spotted Yamaguchi. "What's wrong with him? Is he hurt? We saw something fly into the sand – was that him?"
"Yeah, he's hurt really bad." Kageyama mumbled, but loud enough for Tsukishima to hear.
"What?!" The tall blonde tried to get up, eyes wide.
Suga swiftly checked Yamaguchi's injury, and took a shaky breath. "Okay, I need a few cloths stat. And some fresh water. Narita and I found a small waterfall and a river in the jungle – the water's clean there."
"I'll go." Yachi declared, determination blazing in her eyes.
"I'll accompany her to show her where it is." Narita spoke up.
"Absolutely not!" Suga exclaimed. "You're not going anywhere-"
"Well, you'll stay here and help take care of Yamaguchi, won't you?" Narita snapped.
"Yeah, but-"
"Then I'll go and help Yachi, since you and I are the only people who know where it is."
"…What if you overexert yourself or fall?"
"I won't. Promise."
"I-if you're sure you're up for it, then I suppose so…"
"Thanks, Suga!" Narita smiled, before turning to Yachi. " Now, it's dark, so we'll have to be quick, alright?"
"Yeah." Yachi nodded, helping him up. "Wait- what are we gonna carry the water in?"
"Use this." Kageyama handed a bucket to the second-year.
"Where did you even get this from?!" Narita stared at him.
"I just saw it over there now. While you and Sugawara were arguing, I put Yamaguchi down and picked it up."
"Well, I never saw it before. Maybe it's a sign that luck is on our side?" Narita shrugged as if he'd asked himself, before ushering Yachi toward the jungle.
Tsukishima decided that he wasn't going to leave Yamaguchi's side ever again if he could help it.
