Chapter 7
"Tsukki?" Yamaguchi whispered, head laying against Tsukishima's shoulder. "Tsukki are you awake?" he asked again body rising and falling with great difficulty in his slouched up position against Tsukishima's right shoulder. Yamaguchi twitched, trying to reposition himself yet every position he tried just seemed to aggravate his body more and more as some of the cuts and gashes on his side reopened. He cringed and breathed very loudly, weakly shuffling his body back up before he fell over completely. He had already lost a lot of blood from earlier, and the cuts in his right side seemed to heal enough to at least cause them to close and coagulate, but with all the shifting and moving around he'd been doing lately he seemed to have opened some of them back up. One major one right above his hip was causing the most damage to the already battered boy as the wound opened back up and started oozing out again. Yamaguchi never did find anything to cover himself with so he just had to force himself to stay awake long enough for help to arrive, which was proving very difficult right now. Still, he forced himself to stay awake the whole time and talk to Tsukishima. He was glad that he at least had someone to talk to, better for him that it was actually his childhood best friend. Though Tsukishima would never admit it out loud, he did appreciate the company that Yamaguchi provided. His voice alone, kept him up and awake, which if he was going to survive this, he needed to stay awake.
Earlier, when the three of them first made it back up to the road, Ennoshita told the other two that he was going to rest them against the part of the guardrail that wasn't broken and twisted so that they could lean their backs against it and wait for help. Together, they walked about a dozen meters away from the site of the crash so that they still had the light from the truck's tail lights to illuminate them somewhat but also so that the two first years were far enough away from the dead drunken man that provoked Ennoshita's rage previously. Carefully the second year, with Tsukishima's help, had lowered Yamaguchi down, though the first year was not much help considering the state of his leg. One of Yamaguchi's gashes on his right side brushed up against the cold wet metal of the guardrail, feeling the steel burn his wounds like a searing hot iron. Though he was physically no more injured than prior to sitting down, the pain from touching the rail at that moment made his eyes go mostly white as if he were to pass out, but he managed to hold on to his consciousness securely.
Tsukishima was not able to lower Yamaguchi down completely and relied mostly on Ennoshita to help his friend, as he could not kneel down with his broken leg. Despite this, he did everything he could to help and then, once Yamaguchi yelped out in pain and Ennoshita ensured that the black-haired boy was still conscious, Ennoshita helped Tsukishima as well. The tall first year slightly winced in pain from his leg but bit his lower lip to try and keep a straight face. Ennoshita tried to help him in a way that did not aggravate his leg as he set him down next to Yamaguchi's side that wasn't hurt. After this, the second year said a few words, and was off to track the rest of the team down the mountainside. That was about a half hour ago.
Upon hearing his name weakly coming from Yamaguchi, Tsukishima turned his head somewhat and answered, "Yeah? What is it Yamaguchi?" with a gruffly pained expression as he lifted his left arm up to his forehead and massaged the ache that lingered there.
"I was just thinking…" Yamaguchi pondered, taking a deep breath and letting it out, "How do you think the others are doing? I mean… Do you think they will all be okay?" Yamaguchi innocently asked, trying his best to stay optimistic even after everything he has been through already. Tsukishima's eyes closed momentarily as his hand that was gently rubbing his temple, lowered to cover his eyes.
There were not many times in which Tsukishima was tasked with answering a hard question, he was very smart and the top of his class so answers came easy to him. However, today was different. Not only did Tsukishima not know the answer but he didn't know how to answer it either. This question was one with many possibilities, all of which he did not know for certain which was correct or even the most likely, and the amount of unknowns was overwhelming. There was no simple formula, no way of actually knowing how they were doing without being there to witness it, nothing. He thought long and hard, yet still did not know how to answer such an ordinarily simple question.
"I…" he began but closed his mouth and lifted his hand back down off his eyes as they gradually opened glancing over at where Yamaguchi was, as he continued his thought, "I don't know honestly. Given that we seemed to be the closest to the top and we look the way we do…" He paused, glancing at himself and then looking as best he could at Yamaguchi who rested on his right shoulder, forgetting that no matter how hard he looked, he still wouldn't see anything except blurs. Eventually, after stopping for a quick breath, he began again cautiously, "I would bet that we probably came out lucky, honestly." As he said this he could feel Yamaguchi next to him tense up and make a noise that sounded like a small squeak, but he wanted to be as truthful as possible with his friend so nevertheless he continued, "I have a bad feeling about the others." He concluded, heaving out a sigh.
Yamaguchi's face fell upon hearing said news, making him feel sick to his stomach as he thought about his friends hurting worse than he. A slight gasp escaped through his lips as he turned his head towards his friend, his voice very stern and grave, "Y-you don't think they're dead do you?!" Yamaguchi croaked upon completing his own thought, shuddering at the thought of losing his friends.
Tsukishima gazed out at the road, listening to the rainfall hit the concrete below. As he looked off into the distance, he turned towards the little amount of light he could see coming from the one working taillight of the semi and groaned, partially in response to his friend and partially because of the bright light that he had yet to adjust to still. After a few seconds of listening to the raindrops he finally answered solemnly, "Possibly. We are human after all…"
This caused Yamaguchi to sniffle and his thoughts to spiral chaotically into a sea of depression before bursting out into a loud wail accompanied by more tears. "Oh God...Oh God...Oh God!" he wept, rhythmically chanting over and over again as his body heaved, "Tsukki! What are we going to do if they died?!" Yamaguchi shrieked, heart beating too fast for him to keep up. The sudden increase of noise next to Tsukishima's ear made the annoying ringing from earlier, that had finally ceased, return to it's fullest extent as the tall first year quickly darted both hands up to his ears yelling, forgetting that his friend lay leaning against one of them. Abruptly, Yamaguchi fell behind Tsukishima as the tall first year leaned forward clasping both palms around his ears as an intense headache formed. Tsukishima screamed into the night as the pain was so loud that he thought for sure he would go deaf. Yamaguchi tried to right himself back up propping himself on his left elbow, then lifting himself all the way to his previous position. "Oh God! I'm so sorry Tsukki! I didn't mean-" Yamaguchi yelled as his friend turned around and glared daggers at him.
"Yamaguchi…" he growled turning his head to face his friend, and Yamaguchi quickly stopped talking, scared as he gazed upon the look of anger in Tsukishima's face, "Shut... UP!" Yamaguchi's face fell once more as he sorrowfully leaned his back against the guardrail trying his best to hold in his tears.
"S-sorry Tsukki…I...just...sorry. I didn't mean to yell that l-l-loud..." he replied defeated bringing his left forearm up to his his eyes and wiping his tears away barely getting to finish his own apology.
"God, Yamaguchi you need to stop doing that. I already have enough problems as it is and then you just come and scream-" Tsukishima snarled upon hearing Yamaguchi softly cry and uncharacteristically thought better of the situation and tried to calm the fuse inside his mind as he changed his tone of voice from one of anger to regret. "Look," he tried, leaning back down against the rail where he was before, hands still trying to massage his ears as the ringing was still present, but was at least dimmed down enough so that he could continue, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to snap at you like that." Yamaguchi looked up at him, tears in his eyes as he simply nodded in acknowledgement and lowered his head back down. Tsukishima groaned as the noise in his head seemed to bang together like a miniature band in his brain. Eventually it subsided enough, leaving him now with just a bad headache as he moved his hands from his ears to his forehead. His left hand though brushed over his gash in his head and he unconsciously shuttered removing his hand and placing it back down at his side. After this little incident he moved his right hand back towards his right ear and continued the motion from earlier. Then after a moment or two of rubbing his ear he laid his hand back down at his side and let go a loud drawn out sigh as Yamaguchi who had been watching him carefully, finally relaxed a little bit and rested his head back upon Tsukishima's shoulder.
The two sat together silently for a few minutes, the only noise breaking the quietness being Yamaguchi's periodic sniffles as the rain had died down and dissipated during this time. Tsukishima tilted his head back almost parallel to the ground and stared up at the parting clouds and the moon masked behind them. Eventually, Yamaguchi turned and looked at his friend staring up at the sky and smiled sweetly at the simple thought of him apologizing earlier. "I'm sorry" yamaguchi heaved out, voice a lot weaker than he remembered it to be.
"For what?" Tsukishima questioned still gazing up at the sky as a slight breeze sent a small chill through himself. Yamaguchi was actually surprised and happy that Tsukishima's answer was one that was so simple yet sincere, as he replied, "I'm sorry I'm such a wimp Tsukki…but..." he began causing the blonde to tilt his head towards his friend, waiting, knowing that there was more to come. "But...I'm just so scared...I don't want…" Yamaguchi sniffled, tears forming in his eyes, as he wiped the running snot from his nose with his already wet and snot filled left sleeve and continued. "I don't want to feel pain anymore. It...It hurts Tsukki... a lot, and I don't want to feel this way. I feel helpless and... and weak…and I just don't want to be like this anymore..." Yamaguchi paused, taking a moment to catch his breath as Tsukishima interjected, saying in a very stern tone,
"You're not weak Yamaguchi" pausing briefly as he continuously stared at the clouds above. "Weakness has nothing to do with it. You are strong and just because you are a little banged up right now doesn't mean you're not strong Yamaguchi." Tsukishima said, Yamaguchi now staring at him with admiration, but his respect for Tsukishima quickly left as he turned away and looked back at himself.
"I just…" Yamaguchi stammered as he felt the tears course its way through his body. Nevertheless he continued before completely breaking down. "I just want to go h-home…" Yamaguchi silently cried, as he innocently sniffled and unconsciously curled more into Tsukishima's arm, tears leaking out now all over his friend's arm. This action caused the normally stoic Tsukishima to actually accumulate tears into his eyes as they started to well up, causing a few silent tears to escape and run down his face.
"I know Yamaguchi" he replied blinking trying his best to turn and hide his face from his friend. Yamaguchi shifted his head up so that he was looking more towards Tsukishima's face and noticed the tears in his friend's eyes before the tall first year continued, "I do too…"
Yamaguchi was shocked, he had never seen this vulnerable side of Tsukishima before in all the years of knowing him. The weak first year lifted his head temporarily to reposition it and closed his eyes and curved his lips to form a slight smile before softly plopping his head back onto Tsukishima's shoulder. Tsukishima did not react to this, nor did he even attempt to wipe the tear away from his cheek, allowing the drop to travel down his cheek and drop from his jaw onto his chest.
Once again, the two boys sat in silence, this time for much longer than before; about ten or fifteen minutes. Tsukishima was on the verse of falling asleep but strove to keep himself awake so to meet with the help that he hoped would arrive soon. Although the weights on his eyes grew with every passing moment, he knew he had to persevere through the exhaustion, as Yamaguchi had already passed out on his shoulder. His friend's mouth was slightly open but his teeth were tightly closed together, causing an incredibly light hiss to escape with every exhale. This gave Tsukishima the security of knowing that Yamaguchi was still alive, although he would still occasionally hold his own breath to ensure that he could still feel and hear Yamaguchi breathing next to him.
Tsukishima continued to dance on the line between sleep and consciousness when out of the corner of his eye, he saw light emanating from around the bend of the road. It was faint at first, and with his fuzzy vision he initially believed it to simply be the glow of the moon reflecting off the horizon or the road. However, the light gradually increased, growing to the point of being brighter than the lights from the truck in front of them, and Tsukishima also heard the crescendo of a whirring siren accompanying it, leading him to believe that finally, after so much time, help had arrived. Even so, Tsukishima was still skeptical as to if he was actually hearing and seeing the siren and the light and so nudged his shoulder moderately, attempting to wake up Yamaguchi.
"Hey... Yamaguchi... What is that?" Tsukishima asked, voice hoarse as he continued to look down at his friend who did not give any reply. Tsukishima could remember when the two of them had stopped talking but simply assumed, perhaps foolishly, that Yamaguchi would wake back up just as easily. With Yamaguchi's lack of a response, Tsukishima became increasingly worried as he turned his head away to confirm that the light was still coming towards them. He tried again, louder this time, as he turned his body slightly and gripped Yamaguchi's shoulders with his hands, "Hey, Yamaguchi!" he tried, lightly shaking the boy while yelling, "Hey! Come on, get up! Someone's coming! Help's finally here!" His suspicions were confirmed as he turned again and saw the bright lights mixing with red and yellow lights. "YAMAGUCHI!" He shouted voice incredibly hoarse once more, getting frustrated and scared that his friend would not wake up. He tried to listen for the light hissing that Yamaguchi was making before but now, with the drone of that constant alarm moving closer to them and his head filled with unwanted thoughts he just couldn't seem to concentrate to hear it.
Yamaguchi lay, as still as could be, head lolling from side to side with each shake of his body. The sirens became more prominent now and Tsukishima was terrified that his friend may have already lost too much blood for anyone to save him, even though they were coming right then. He was desperate for the paramedics to find him quickly so he gently laid Yamaguchi back in his spot against the rail and readied himself to stand. He lifted his left arm onto the rail behind him and pushed down as hard as he could while trying to get enough leverage with his other working limbs to stand. This failed initially, as the ground was still wet and his foot slipped, sending more pain to his broken leg and causing him to clench his teeth tightly in response. As he slipped, his left hand collided with the large branch he had used to reach the top of the hill with Ennoshita, completely forgetting its existence until this point. The ambulances turned the corner and Tsukishima could see moving balls of white and red light approaching him, inspiring him to try again to stand as quickly as he could. Now with his left arm on the rail and his other grasping the branch, he was able to lift himself to his feet just before the vehicles reached them.
Unfortunately, as they got closer, the sirens had increased almost exponentially in volume, bringing the painful ringing back to Tsukishima, who would have collapsed if he had not been grasping the branch so tightly. It was able to accept and support his weight, but Tsukishima could do nothing to move his feet, frozen in place next to Yamaguchi. The sound reverberating through his skull almost caused the teen to pass out there, however he managed to stay responsive and scream out, "HELP!" Although he had attempted to yell as loud as he could, with the ringing in his head and the loud siren approaching, he was not entirely sure if he made any sound at all. Eventually, the pain became so blinding that his vision started to fade and he screamed for help at the top of his lungs once more tears in his eyes. He was sure this time that he had made some noise, but the sheer force this bellow put on his body was simply too much to bear considering his already frail physical state. Tsukishima lost grip of the branch and fell forward to his knees, the branch clattering to the side away from him. His knees slammed sharply into the pavement, further damaging his broken leg and causing his eyes to roll back and his vision to go from foggy and hazy to completely white.
Tsukishima collapsed forward onto his stomach, his head tilted toward the side looking at Yamaguchi, who still lay propped up against the guardrail. His brain attempted to send his body messages to react to his further mangled and disfigured leg, but his body refused to move at all. He heard the tires of the ambulances screech and come to a rapid stop behind him and a voice in the distance yell, "Over here!"
They must have found us, Tsukishima thought, darkness nudging at the corners of his mind as his blinding white vision likewise began to fade to pure blackness. He opened his mouth to yell but his vocal chords would not cooperate and he just sat there as a company of footsteps rapidly approached him. I have to make sure they see Yamaguchi first... He thought, his mouth still open and drooling onto the pavement, as he stared at his friend slumped over against the rail. Logically, he thought the paramedics may prioritize the boy laying face down on the ground before the one sitting against the rail, which he wanted to reverse.
The footsteps increased and then suddenly stopped as a group of five people kneeled down next to Tsukishima and started to place a long stretcher next to him "S...wh... yo... name?" A man shouted over the sirens, which continued to blare making it even more difficult for Tsukishima to hear him," H...lo! Ca... yo...me? ...Kid! Ho... on!" A man shouted as Tsukishima could feel someone's hands lightly touch against his neck to check for a pulse.
At the man's instructions, four pairs of hands started to grab Tsukishima to move him onto the stretcher after verifying he was still alive and breathing. No... he thought, determined to help his friend still, Yamaguchi... help him... With the last bit of fleeting strength his diminished body could muster, Tsukishima roughly spoke "Save... him first..." The hands grasping his sides seemed to hesitate and pause, indicating to Tsukishima that the people had indeed heard him.
"We ne...h...! ... lost...lo… of blood!" A lady shouted urgently in front of Tsukishima. He could not completely understand her, but he did sense as a lot of rustling from around him over toward Yamaguchi. Another set of screeching tires behind him stopped and an additional group of people poured out of an ambulance and made their way over to Tsukishima, laying a new stretcher next to him after the other had been relocated to carry Yamaguchi. Tsukishima felt another set of hands lifting him, and his body shifted on his back onto the platform, head lolling side to side.
The man that spoke to him before walked with the stretcher as it was carried over to the ambulance, leaning down to say something to the boy. "Don't...ry, we..'l...s..v...ur fri..." The man gave Tsukishima a slightly hesitant smile, which Tsukishima could not see despite his eyes still being slightly open.
After staving it off for such an extended amount of time, his body couldn't take anymore and his subconscious finally gave way and darkness overtook his body. The last thing he heard as he was being loaded into the ambulance was a woman yelling from across the street, "We...loosing...m!" then nothing as his body completely shut down, pain overflowing into his mind causing him to blackout.
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This could not be happening, this could not be happening, this could not be happening...Suga repeated over and over again in his mind as he stared in horror at the body below him, unresponsive to anything. How did it come to this? There's just no way, just no way...he can't be...Suga's thoughts scattered as he shakily shook his friend again practically begging for any sort of movement. No matter how hard he looked, nothing seemed to change; Daichi still lay motionless in the dirt in the same position he'd been in since they got there but now his chest wasn't moving at all. Now, more than ever, Suga felt the dam break behind his eyes, tears overflowing like a waterfall, seemingly endless as he hesitantly talked to his nonresponsive friend, only this time much slower. "Daichi?" he sniffled, nose making his voice come across a tad nasally as he paused wiping his snot on his sleeve, "Daichi... Please you gotta get up… We have to go home," he sobbed wiping the excess snot, blood, and tears off his face with his good elbow. Ukai, Kinoshita, and Yachi all stared in shock as Suga suddenly turned angry at the third year beside him. "Y-YOU CAN'T!" he yelled through his tears at the captain as his body shook with tremors and his arm lightly hit against his side making a shocking jolt reverberate through his arm aggravating it. Suga clenched his teeth tight trying his hardest to endure the pain before continuing his pleading rant, "Get up! Get up, now! Y-you're not allowed to sleep! I told you before that we have to go home… So..." he sniffled breathing in fast and harsh, "So get up!" Suga violently shook Daichi, his face an absolute mess; tears pouring down it and mixing with the blood that continued to slowly leak out from his nose. His soreness and intense sobbing sapping all of his strength, he was unable to keep his head up any longer to look at his fallen friend. Defeated, he crossed his arms in front of him on Daichi's chest and slumped his head forward, also allowing it to lay on Daichi's soaked shirt. He continued to sob with his forehead above Daichi's still heart, wishing desperately it would beat again.
Meanwhile, both Ukai and Yachi had since frozen in their respective places as they listened to Suga's pleas; Ukai still kneeling next to Daichi's body and staring at the wound he so desperately tried to deal with and Yachi standing behind him with the PSP, lip quivering as she instead observed Suga and Daichi's lifeless expression. Kinoshita turned away from the scene in front of him and began to crawl on all fours toward the darkness, softly sobbing as he slowly inched his way through the mud and grime. With every other movement, he let out a soft audible whimper, not even having the constitution to formulate the word "No". As he moved he would occasionally cough aggressively, stopping very briefly to try to catch his breath, blood splattering on the ground in front of him. However, this did not seem to faze Kinoshita much as he continued to crawl and mutter so softly that Ukai and Yachi were very quickly out of earshot of his murmurs.
Ukai's face seemed completely drained of all emotion as he sat in the mud near Daichi's wound, bottom lip hanging open, exhausted. Yachi took one step forward and fell to her knees next to Ukai sobbing in desperation, as her arms rose up towards her face and she cried loudly. The young girl felt broken and useless, as if everything she had done for Daichi prior to this situation was all in vain. In the processes of falling she dropped the PSP into the mud next to her, though the light managed to stay on, illuminating their area in a small glow of light. The rain that had been going on and off the whole night, seemed to finally slow to a stop as thick clouds started separating bit by bit causing the moon to shine through the canopy just barely. The moonlight, mixing with the faint light of the hand held device, caused an eerie glow to illuminate the surrounding area.
Ukai blinked and swallowed the dryness accumulating in his mouth before shakily lifting his bad right arm toward Daichi's mud-covered wrist laying on the ground next to him. Yachi vigorously gripping at his good arm with both of hers twisted and wrapped around like a constrictor snake, squeezing tightly to the point that her nails were digging into his flesh. Her fingers twitched and shook and her upper body was likewise wrapped around his arm, her hands tightly clamped between her cheek and her shoulder. It was obvious to Ukai that she was using all of her remaining and fleeting strength to hold on to his arm like it was her final lifeline in this mess of a night. He turned his head and looked down at the girl clinging to him, her head facing downward at his knee. Although her eyes were tightly shut, tears still forced their way through the gates and rolled down her cheeks, falling onto Ukai's leg.
Ukai opened his mouth as if to speak to the girl digging her fingers into his skin but shut it quickly and simply closed his eyes for a few seconds. When he opened his eyes, he used his free hand to wipe away the rainwater and some tears from his face before returning to his previous objective. Although he already knew the answer he was likely to find, some part of him, and he was sure some part of Yachi as well, hoped that Daichi's stillness did not mean the dire and grim circumstances they assumed. Shaking again, he moved his hand over to Daichi's, stopping for a moment with hand hovering above its target as he hesitated. He wanted to confirm Daichi's status but at the same time he also did not want to face the terrible truth and have to accept that he had failed at saving yet another member of the team.
Biting his lower lip and breathing in heavily, he grabbed Daichi's wrist and turned it so the palm was facing up toward the sky, wiping mud away using his thumb. "Please…" Ukai quietly whispered as he maneuvered his hand around so that his first two fingers were flush up against the veins in Daichi's wrist. The boy's skin was cold as ice, yet still retained some of its residual body heat beneath the surface. Yachi had opened her eyes once he heard him whisper and watched as he started to check for a pulse, holding her breath wishing for a favorable response. With Kinoshita away from them, Yachi holding her breath and Suga still sobbing to himself on Daichi's chest, the entire scene was silent as if nature herself around them was also awaiting the verdict from Ukai. After a few seconds, he carefully placed Daichi's wrist back down in the mud where he lifted it. His eyes were closed once more and he hung his head in front of him, tears raining down from his eyes even more than Yachi and teeth tightly clenched together as his breathing became increasingly heavy and quick. "G-God… Da-Dammit…" he said, voice trembling as he could hardly utter the words through the tears.
Yachi was still watching Ukai as he placed Daichi's arm back down and cursed at the air, her head now looking up directly at his face. Yachi's grip tightened, almost cutting the circulation off to Ukai's fingers, her nails digging deeper into his sleeve and flesh and even drawing blood in two instances. Her quivering lip progressed to her entire jaw as the muscles in her cheeks tightened and her mouth became more wide. She made a noise that was somewhere between a gasp and a cry, as she began to openly bawl much louder than before. "Daichi's..." she said in a very high pitched and uneasy tone, trying to formulate the words herself, "Daichi's dead...? B-But..." She was unable to say any more as everything that came from her vocal chords devolved into sobs. In her mind, she blamed herself for her upperclassman's death, despite knowing that she could not have done anything to prevent the crash itself. He's dead… And I could have saved him... , she thought, thinking about the events that led to his demise, He told me to get help… In the middle of her thoughts, her vocal chords began to function once more and she unconsciously continued in speech, albeit broken and still riddled with sobs, "No, I-I told him i'd get h-help… I-I-I could have s-saved him… Too l-long... I took too long!" She screamed out loud, digging her face in between Ukai's arm and torso. Ukai did not respond as he was entirely broken on the inside dealing with the loss of yet another person he had responsibility over, but Suga slightly turned his head on Daichi's chest and looked at the two sobbing together. With her face buried in Ukai's shirt, it was difficult to understand for those around her, but she said one final thing before breaking back down into unintelligible crying, "It's m-my... fault… I'M SORRY!"
Ukai looked down, eyes now wide though still watery, at the young girl taking all of the blame upon herself for Daichi's demise. The two were kindred spirits, both taking it upon themselves and suspecting that, had they done something different in the minutes leading up to this grim event, the senior would still be breathing and perhaps even talking to them. He knew Yachi's pain, thus he knew that no matter what anyone were to tell her, she would remain in her state of disparagement. Sorrowfully, he used his opposite hand to pat her lightly on the shoulder, trying his best not to falter and break down even more than she. Suga wordlessly observed these two with one eye laying on Daichi's chest, dead eyed and listless, not showing a single reaction other than acknowledging that a loud noise came from their direction. He didn't even hear Yachi's words, as his mind was continually beleaguered with thoughts of his friend, particularly the sound of Daichi's voice speaking to him before he drifted off to sleep. Suga had fallen asleep on the bus leaning with his head against Daichi and now Daichi lay before him in eternal sleep, Suga still laying his head on his body. In a cruel and twisted way, the situation had come full circle.
Kinoshita continued to crawl away from the group while Yachi wailed out loud, understanding that the ruckus indicated the horrid conclusion he had already assumed. He was still on all fours, slowly trudging his hands and knees while hanging his head down, not even looking at where he was going. He had no particular direction in mind and instead was simply focusing on escaping the scene as quickly as he could. Kinoshita's coughing had become worse, now hacking once or twice with every few motions. He tried his best to silence himself by holding his breath when he felt a cough approaching, causing him to quickly exhaust himself. He could taste blood covering the inside of his mouth but made no attempt to swallow it down and instead allowed it to drip slowly from his lower lip into the mud as he moved, some even running down to his chin before descending to the earth. Thoughts of his friends circled around in his head and their ghastly circumstances; Takeda pierced multiple times and staring at him, Narita crushed and dying in his arms, and lastly Daichi, terribly punctured by the long metal rod that he even had a hold of at one point, trying to save his upperclassman. In every instance, there was nothing Kinoshita could do and it sickened him to the extent that had he not literally emptied his stomach on multiple occasions already, he would do so once more. "Why… is this happening…?" he stopped and said to himself, staring down at the mud with eyes wide and satiated with tears, his throat tightening as he began to cry. His weeping seemed to merely escalate the repeated, almost routine, bloody coughs but at the same time making them more painful.
Kinoshita remained still for a moment, his back to the group he had crawled away from, now a good six or so meters away. In his mind, he felt like he somewhat turned his back on his coach and his teammates and thus languidly rotated his head enough to see them out the corner of his eye. The light from the moon and the PSP Yachi dropped made it easy for him to perceive the scene around Daichi, now seeing Yachi leaning against Ukai, both of whom's backs are also toward Kinoshita. They had not noticed or reacted to his absence yet, as far as he could tell, and Kinoshita was initially somewhat pleased about but this fact, but then his thoughts muddled and he was unsure how exactly he felt about it. Rotating slightly to get a better look, he continued to turn his head gradually over towards Hinata who was resting by a tree near him. It was weird to him how quiet Hinata's been this whole time and he even wondered if the poor kid was even still breathing. In all honestly, he was so quiet and still that Kinoshita forgot that he was even here. He gazed at him for a moment, eyes focusing as he saw Hinata's chest rise and fall dangerously slow. At least he's still breathing, Kinoshita thought as he tried to think if there was anything he could do for him at all. He then came to the conclusion that there was nothing he could possibly do right now for Hinata, being that he could barely handle himself. So instead, Kinoshita dragged his body weakly over to a tree not too far away from his position and hacked into his hand, feeling the blood and the phlegm in his hand mixing together and slowly leaking out onto the ground. With the amount of light that filled the surrounding area it was easy to tell that Kinoshita was not doing very well. After a brief second of catching his breath, Kinoshita felt more faint than usual, this lightheaded feeling making him close his eyes temporarily. Abruptly, he opened them back up wide as his coughing intensified taking yet another turn for the worse leaving the second year completely defenseless against the violent hacks and the burning sensation in his lungs.
This time though, something else felt wrong. His stomach felt like it was physically twisting and contorting, culminating in an overall queasy and unstable sensation as he scanned the bloody mess below him with watery eyes. He was unsure if it was the sight of the red vomit below him or something else inside that triggered his gag reflex, but as he was hunched over, he felt liquid rising up through his esophagus to be expelled in the same location. This occurrence felt much worse as Kinoshita bent over, feeling like his insides were on fire, and retched forward, crying from the pain that erupted in his throat with shortness in his breath. With the rain gone now and the moon shining some sort of light, he could plainly see that this was not normal vomit but instead consisted almost entirely of blood. His hand, and the ground beneath him, lay covered in it, and his eyes started focusing in and out. The weak second year didn't know what to do anymore as he sat with his back against the tree and he wept, curling in on himself as tight as he could and quietly whimpering. He began to whisper over and over to himself, "This can't be real, this can't be real, this can't be real..." until finally his voice was so choked up and choppy that all that came out were sobs. Despite the presence of Ukai, Yachi, Suga and even the unconscious Hinata, Kinoshita felt lost and alone, although this feeling was partially due to his own design as he had purposefully segregated himself from the others. He began to think of what he considered to be more pleasant thoughts, hoping they would also help hide away this unpleasant situation, as he had done for the other members in his group, from even his own mind. He thought about his family waiting for him at his house and his little sister who was probably arguing with his parents right now about staying up late to greet him home. She had always supported him in the club, despite knowing he had not had the chance to play often, and always welcomed him home, awaiting stories of their most recent match. His parents being very supportive of his actions as well, and even made him packed lunches almost everyday for fear that he wouldn't get home on some nights to eat a proper dinner. He wanted to see them again. He wanted to make it home and tell her all about how they beat Aoba Josai and dismiss this twisted scenario he found himself in as a dream; a nightmare. As he imagined these thoughts, his head began to droop forward and he had to fight himself to stay awake as sleep attempted to overtake him.
Ukai had been too preoccupied with Yachi's constant mutterings, Suga's sobs, and his own personal shock that it never even phased him that Kinoshita left. Though in all honesty, Suga was the one that Ukai was most worried about right now, as the third year simply lifted his upper body off Daichi and sat back, staring wide eyed and expressionless at his friend. His right arm crossed over his chest, weakly gripping his weaker arm after Ukai had confirmed Daichi's death. His expression was unreadable. It was as if all the screaming and crying he done previously felt like it was in the distant past as he blankly stared at Daichi and was void of any expression at all. No crying, no noise, no sniffles, nothing, just complete and utter shock, as if the third year just snapped and broke, mouth slightly ajar.
Ukai tried to talk to him in a hesitant manner but the third year didn't even seem to register that Ukai was calling his name and acted as if time around him was frozen in place. Ukai tried to reach over and tap Suga's shoulder with his bad hand, since Yachi still was attached to his good arm, but even then he still got no reaction out of the third year. Ukai fretted, calling out hesitantly, "Sugawara…" trying to get the third years attention but abruptly, as if the trance broke around the boy, he snapped. Suga's head rose up quickly as he wordlessly shot daggers at his coach with his eyes as if he were a predator protecting his territory. Suga, changing trajectory, then moved his gaze back towards Daichi, eyebrows furrowing, and screamed at the boy furiously.
"God Damn it!" Suga cried slamming his forearms into the mud next to Daichi's head abruptly, causing an insane amount of pain to ricochet up his left arm making the third year swear even more. "Ah, God, Fucking why! Why did you do this to me Daichi?!" Suga shrieked, scaring even Ukai himself as the man retracted his arm and scooted away shocked, and Yachi hid her head further into Ukai's shoulder as he watched in horror over what they was witnessing. "Damn it Daichi! I told you to wake up and you didn't listen...You-" he growled taking his good arm and grabbing the cuff of Daichi's jersey, tightening his knuckles around the collar causing his knuckles to turn slightly whiter. Suga clenched his teeth, eyes in a ferocious gaze as he spat leaning in closer to Daichi, "You didn't wake up and now because of that you never will!", the third year wailed, eyes overflowing with tears, as they fell upon his friends face. "I…" he began, choking on the words in his mouth, "I was only trying to help you Daichi...Y-you were supposed to come back to us...why did you leave us out here by ourselves?" Suga questioned, knowing full well that his friend was not going to answer back but the feeling of getting this off his chest seemed to please Suga so he continued nevertheless. "Why didn't you listen to me?!" The third year fumed, releasing his grip on Daichi's shirt and letting his hand fall back to his side defeatedly and he sat back. He then grasped his bad arm that now felt like fire had seeped into his bones and bawled, shoulders rising and falling as his breathing hitched at harsh intervals. Ukai taking notice to this realized that Suga was having some form or panic attack or hyperventilation, just like Yachi did prior when they were with Narita. He had to calm him somehow as he spoke in a soft tone to the boy,
"Suga, please just try to calm down-" Ukai started but was quickly regretting the choice of words as he saw Suga's demor violently change in front of him from depressed to one of rage. Shit why did I have to say it like that… Ukai realized as Suga turned and sharply snapped at him, tension releasing to maximum.
"CALM DOWN?! How the fuck am I supposed calm down exactly! My best friend just died on me and you'll telling me to calm down, coach?! Seriously?!" Suga accentuated, in a motion of anger as he slightly swung his arms around causing him to finch in pain when his shoulder grinded together. He couldn't believe his own ears as he huffed in front of his coach, rage seemingly evaporating off his body. The tenseness in the air mixed with the constant snaps and yells from Suga, caused Yachi to cry even louder as her firm grip around Ukai's arm somehow constricted tighter. Yachi practically screamed as she cried into the side of Ukai even harder and wished desperately for the yelling to stop. She didn't even phase Suga as the third year sat up on his knees straighter staring down at Daichi with a tint of sadness then looking back over towards Ukai.
"How I'm supposed to keep it all together Coach?!" Suga desperately pleaded as his eyes despondently slid down to now look upon Daichi once more before continuing, "You keep acting like we should be okay and keep moving forward but Daichi…" Suga's anger now turning into excessive sadness as memories seemed to roll by in his head like as if he was watching an old film turning over and over in his brain, flashbacks presenting themselves as pictures in his mind. Over and over he replayed all the times they shared together, whether it be with the team, just hanging out together, sleepovers, parties, all of it. The memories brought back smiles to his face and for a mere moment he wanted to laugh, as he remembered a particularly fond time they had with Asahi. Abruptly, as if the film turned off, he noticed where he was and spoke dejectedly, "Daichi will never get older...Daichi's gone…". At first when Suga spoke he hadn't realized he even spoke out loud, his voice detached from the situation at hand but then his mind caught up with him as he realized he was talking to his coach. "He's gone Ukai and I can't fix it! I'm the oldest of us three, and I couldn't protect him. He always was the leader, but I was supposed to look out for him...and the others...I was supposed to be there for them! Why is this happening to us!?" The last part of his rant crescendoed into a nasty, hostile tone, causing Ukai to try and defuse the rant.
"Suga I... I can't tell you how sorry I am that this is all happening…I understand what you're feeling," Ukai tried to reason with the fuming boy before him. Normally dominant, Ukai was trying his best to defuse the situation as calmly and quietly as he could so to not enter a shouting match with Suga, not because he thought he would not be able to control him that way, but because of Yachi clinging tighter and tighter with every moment this argument progressed. Firmly, he looked directly into Suga's eyes in hopes that this would allow Suga to see that he was serious and was struggling with this loss as well, "We all do."
"No you don't Ukai! You don't know what this feels like so stop pretending that you do!" Suga furiously spat wincing in pain from the amount of agony his arm was going through. "Now not only will I never graduate with him but I will never get to see him get married or have kids or any of that because he-he's gone! His life is over Ukai...OVER! He will never grow old like you!" Suga cried trying to formulate words, "And I know it's not your fault, it's not anyone's fault but I can't accept that this just happens!" Suga rambled, on the verge of trying to pick a fight with Ukai yet at the same time breaking down completely. It was never his intention to yell at Ukai but right here and right now, he needed this. He needed to rant, to scream, to yell, to cry, he needed someone to listen to him.
"Suga…" Ukai began but once again was cut off by the third year who was a total mess.
"No! Stop telling me to calm down and just… Just stop!" He screamed that last part, hand coming up to cover his ears as he buried his head back into Daichi's still chest, his words echoing with a finality that shook the others to their core.
Yachi tried her best to cover her ears and push as close to the coach as possible, but the tone in Suga's voice terrified her as she wept, trying to voice out for them to stop. "Please… Stop fighting…" she attempted to say although she didn't think either person heard it since it was incredibly hard to hear through all the shouting and crying. However, Ukai seemed to catch her small outburst amongst the yelling as he glanced down at her and just listened for her to speak more, not saying anything. Suga sat, tears raining down his face as Yachi openly wept at Ukai's side, body heaving tremendously as she clamped her eyes shut and buried her head into his good arm. Knowing that the poor girl was scared out of her mind he turned his body so that he was now facing her and put his bad arm around Yachi as if he were her protector or guardian.
"I'm not saying that we shouldn't grieve him, Suga…" Ukai began after a few moments of silence just listening to the grieving senior. "And I'm sorry this is happening… You have no idea how sorry I am that this is happening to us. But please we all need to just try to calm down and wait for help. I'm sure it will come soon," Ukai reasoned, trying his best to calm down the situation but stopped when he heard Suga mumbling under his breath.
"Daichi..." Suga sadly muttered as he lifted his head once more off his friend's chest, and glanced over at the coach, who's reasoning now started taking effect on the worn third year as he took his right palm and wiped it across his face, smearing the dirt, blood, and tears.
After a moment of uncomfortable silence between the two men deep in thought, Ukai heard over Yachi's sobbing small coughs coming from somewhere farther away from them. It wasn't until then did Ukai remember that he hasn't seen or heard Kinoshita in a while and looked around the area for the boy. Trying to find anything in the dark with one eye was a hard enough task in itself but eventually he did spot him. Thanks to the light the moon was giving off he located him over by a tree, and Ukai took his right arm and weakly tapped Yachi before whispering.
"I'm going to get up and check on Kinoshita, you stay here okay?" The young girl nodded slowly releasing her grip on Ukai and took her knees bringing them up to her body shaikly, arms draping over them resting her head in between. Ukai rose, legs almost giving out for a second as he stood his ground and walked as best he could over to the second year. Upon getting closer he saw Kinoshita doubled over heaving as something, bile maybe, ran down his mouth into the pile of throw up underneath him. The scared second year wheezed putting his left hand up to his mouth to try and catch the remnants that forced their way out, trying to catch his breathe, but failing miserably at doing so. Ukai attempted voicing out the the teen while stepping forward, "Kino-" he announced but it seemed as though Kinoshita didn't hear him over the coughing fit as Ukai stopped mid-name an he noticed what seemed to be his worse nightmare right now. What he thought to be bile coming out his mouth was actually not puke at all but a large amount of blood. Ukai stood for a moment shaken, just watching as Kinoshita heaved on all fours, causing more and more blood to ooze out along with tears. Kinoshita's stomach felt as though it was being ripped apart from the inside out, causing cuts and lashes to decorate his internal organs, every breath he tried taking seeming to get cut in half before reaching him. It was too much for his weak body to handle as his forearms gave way and he slipped, falling toward the pool of his own vomited blood. "Woah!" Ukai yelled reacting quicker than he thought possible right now as he reached his arms out around the boy and pulled him back so that Kinoshita now rested with his knees now in the mud.
"Kinoshita?" Ukai hesitated nearly out of breath, his voice shaking as the second year lifted his head, trying to register the voice and to whom it belonged to. He weakly glanced up at where the voice was coming from, only for his gaze to meet a slightly blurry Ukai as his eyes tried to focus better.
Ukai was terrified as he glanced at Kinoshita and the blood that layered his left hand, his mouth, and the ground below him. The coach was at a loss for words as he worriedly reached his hand out and grabbed hold of Kinoshita's bloody hand before he lowered it completely trying to find his voice and question the second year. "Kinoshita?" Ukai said in a slightly harsh tone this time, "How-how long have you been throwing up blood?" Kinoshita fretted telling Ukai about his condition that he had hidden from them for so long. Even when he had discovered that he had begun throwing up more blood than anything else, he did not wish to worry the others by informing them, as they had just lost two teammates and their teacher in so short a time. Yet still, the second year knew he couldn't hide it anymore as he guilty tried to look away, knowing that he was not going to be able to resist and escape Ukai's hold and questioning because of his extremely weak muscles so he opted to just tell Ukai the truth now.
"...A little after I got up…I think..." he said regretfully, causing Ukai's eyes to widen in shock and he dropped his grip on Kinoshita's hand.
Ukai stared in disbelief at his student, Shit...he's been doing this for that long?! This is bad…I should have known something was wrong with him when he didn't say anything to me about it all night. Damn it! How stupid can I be?! He's been coughing and puking all night and here I thought he was just sad over the loss of his friends...I never...I never thought he could have something like this! What are we going to do now? I have no idea if help is even on the way, and if it isn't then, he's probably going to die-NO! I-I can't...I can't think like that. Ukai started, trying to formulate some sort of words in his mouth but after everything he'd gone through he just couldn't think of anything to say.
Instead, he just seemed to glance at the sick second year for what seemed like forever until finally Kinoshita spoke in an apologizing way, "I-I'm sorry coach...I know I should have told you sooner...But you...you just had more important things to worry about and I thought that at first I was fine…but..." Kinoshita spoke very slowly and quietly as his eyes started going in and out again, causing the second year to shake his head trying to ignore it.
"Kinoshita…" Ukai finally muttered, catching the attention of the second year as he now sat down on his knees next to his student. Ukai had to tell Kinoshita how dangerous this was but he didn't want to frighten the teen more than he already was, so he tried to put it in the simplest way possible. "This is really bad. If you say you've been coughing and puking up blood since we woke up, we need to get you to a hospital right away and fast! Dammit boy...why didn't you tell me sooner?" He cautioned as Kinoshita just silently wept at his side.
"I-I don't know why...I just didn't want you to worry about me...and...the others were hurt worse so-" he choked but was angrily cut off by Ukai as he took his left arm and reached over to put it on kinoshita's shoulder.
"You" Ukai accentuated before continuing, "Are hurt dammit! You are hurt just as bad as anyone else, there was no reason to hide this. We need to help each other and we can't do that if you keep secrets like this from us. This is some serious shit! You could die from this Kinoshita! Do you understand?! And I will NOT allow that to happen." Ukai clarified with a bit of finality in his voice as he observed Kinoshita who looked taken aback by the last parts.
"Die? I…" Kinoshita whimpered, voice hitching in his chest, "coach…" Kinoshita cried, taking a moment to try and calm down, his heart feeling like it was beating in overtime before continuing, "Is...is it really that bad?…" Kinoshita bawled bringing his hands up to his mouth as he felt another attack forcing it's way up his throat. The attack lasted only a few moments and all the while Ukai sat rubbing circles into his back with an expression of intense worry spreading across his face. After a few moments more, Kinoshita tried to speak again, only this time it was much harder to understand him since the weeping boy was trying to speak while wiping snot and tears off his face with his own two hands. "I don't want to die Ukai! I... I'm so scared...this blood just won't coming out and my insides feel like their being shredded to pieces. What will happen to my family if I die?! My parents would be devastated and my younger sister...oh god what would she do without me?! I...I'm so afraid coach…please, help me..." Kinoshita pleaded once the thought of actually dying in this place entered his thoughts. The young second year couldn't stop his mind from overflowing with memories of his life and things he would never do. Once that thought hit, more tears came as well, the sadness overflowing him as he snivelled, body heaving so heavily that Ukai himself didn't know what to do. He tried calming him down by telling him that everything would be fine but the over-reactive teen bent forward feeling the puking sensation rise again but this time it was different. This time no puke came, just an intense amount of dry heaving, as he sat in the mud, pressing his palms to the ground. His tears took over, cascading down his face mixing with the mud below him.
"H-Hey Kinoshita!...That...that was more of the worse case scenario, please just try to calm down!" Ukai's voice rose alerting Yachi and Suga that something was amiss as both nonchalantly glanced over in his direction briefly before returning to their previous positions. Kinoshita looked over at Ukai with tears spilling out as he tried to find his voice. "I…" he started but felt an intense dizzy spell hit him and started sumping over warning Ukai that Kinoshita had reached his limit. Ukai quickly grabbed the boy and pulled him about a meter or two away from the bloody area and leaned him down in the mud on his back with his head resting against his knee.
"Kinoshita," Ukai started, waiting for the boy to gradually look up at his coach before continuing. "I'm going to pick you up and take you to the others now, okay?" Ukai suggested. In his mind, Ukai believed that the group should try staying as close to one another as possible, particularly since he thought it would be best to get Yachi and particularly Suga away from Daichi or else lose them entirely. Ukai then thought twice about his suggestion, thinking it would be preferable to regroup at Hinata's location instead so to not bring Kinoshita back over to his deceased friend, but as he thought this, Kinoshita shut him down with a sudden outburst.
"NO!" Kinoshita yelped out, slightly startling the coach. This rush of energy he pumped into his vocal chords to deny his coach from executing the proposed plan was more than Kinoshita ought to have exerted, as he immediately began coughing once more. He hacked upward, splattering Ukai's shoulder with the blood that had lined his throat and mouth. He was still too weak to move much of his body regretfully was not able to cover his mouth with his hand but was able to turn his head slightly in time to avoid hitting Ukai square in the face. His entire body shook from this action, the muscles in his back receiving most of the punishment as it violently jerked with every cough. Ukai winced upon being hit by the blood and stood up to avoid being struck with more, waiting for KInoshita to finish. Once the second year stopped shuddering and coughing, Ukai kneeled back down and found that instead of breathing very quickly as would have been expected after coughing so terribly, Kinoshita's stomach was barely rising at all and the intervals between breaths was far too long. The coach reached his hand over to Kinoshita, lightly grabbing the boy's chin and rotating his slumped head upward to look at his face.
In such a short amount of time, Kinoshita's expression had changed immensely, as if that last bout had impacted his physical and mental state more than the previous. His mouth hung open with two lines of blood streaking down from the left side and down his neck. These viscous red streaks accompanied a new one that now poured out from his left nostril, staining much of his upper lip crimson. The worst part to behold however were the boy's eyes, which were hardly open as his eyelids were almost entirely closed. Unfortunately, Ukai could see them; hollow and dull and staring directly back at him, although they seemed to be more staring through the man into an infinite void of nothingness. Not moving his lips at all, Kinoshita repeated quietly, "No…"
Ukai was confused at Kinoshita's unceasing objection, but was also surprised and at the same time relieved that the boy could still talk and had not lost consciousness. "What?" Ukai softly questioned, trying to figure out why Kinoshita was so opposed to gathering everyone together, "Why not?"
At first Ukai thought that either Kinoshita could not hear him or something else more dire was wrong and was about to repeat his question before Kinoshita began speaking, slurring all of his words together as he barely moved his lips to form consonants. "-lease, coach…" Kinoshita started whispering as Ukai leaned in closer to hear him. The second year closed his mouth and swallowed, preparing himself for what he was about to say next while at the same time trying to deal with his rapidly drying mouth. He parted his lips once more and let his vocal chords do the rest of the work, "Don't... Let… The others… See -e...like this." He spoke very slowly, taking breaths in between every pair of words, but tried his best to enunciate as clearly as possible.
Ukai was still holding Kinoshita's chin at this point with his unhurt hand, unsure if the boy had enough strength yet to even hold his head up. To hear better, he had his head turned to the side with his ear near Kinoshita's mouth and, although much more difficult than before, could understand the second year's soft speech. Ukai pulled his head away and looked back at Kinoshita's face, which was still as lifeless as it had been before, perhaps even more so as his eyes seemed to become more milky and cloudy as if they were now masked by small puffs of fog.
Ukai furrowed his brows and curled his lower lip inward, biting slightly on it in worry before responding, "Alright, fine. I won't. But-" Ukai began to explain that they needed to stay together in case help actually arrives for the team but stopped when the clouds that had momentarily covered the moon parted, allowing Ukai to see even more clearly how pale and disheveled Kinoshita seemed. Shit...we need help now! Ukai pressed on thinking about how he and the others would get out of this situation. He carefully set Kinoshita's head down, allowing the boy's chin to slump forward onto his chest, his eyes now looking down at his lap and his flaccid hands laying in the mud with the palms facing up. The coach stood up and brought his hand up to his head to wring his fingers through his own hair, unsure of what to do. Although he wished to respect Kinoshita's wishes, he knew it would be best if they were all together and away from the dead Daichi. While wiping the boy's blood off of his neck, he spoke to the boy, "Alright, i'll be right back! Just… Stay there…"
Ukai started to move toward Suga and Yachi, determined to gather everyone in one place, knowing that it would be a hard enough task to move Suga away considering their previous argument. Kinoshita coughed once quietly in response as his elder stepped away and closed his eyes, returning to the thoughts he had before concerning his family. For some reason, it was more difficult for him to picture his parents, but he could still hear their voices in his head. There was nothing profound or incredibly special about what he heard them say in his mind as the only things that played over and over were the standard conversations they would have at home while eating dinner. However, this simplicity pleased him, as he knew he probably would not be able to experience these situations again. He opened his eyes slowly once more, his vision blurring as he stared at his palms covered in blood.
As his vision waned even further, he heard another voice in his mind, this one belonging to his sister, "Hasashi! You're back!" He tried to form a smile with his lips as he thought of her voice and how much he wanted to see her, but the muscles in his face would not respond and he sat there almost paralyzed as her voice continued. "I missed you!" Kinoshita knew what she was going to say next, even though she was not really there with him, as she always had the same greeting for him every day that he had a match, "How'd the crows fly today?"
She would always ask him how they did in this way, it was kind of a tradition for them. Kinoshita closed his eyes as his senses dulled almost completely. He wished he could see her again and tell her that they soared higher than they ever had before. I'm sorry, Kiyomi...
Ukai approached the scene surrounding Daichi, finding Suga sitting quietly where he had left him and Yachi, who had since stood up, holding the PSP that she had dropped earlier, frantically trying to wipe the mud off of the screen. He was unsure as to why exactly she was doing this but assumed that it was her mind trying to focus on something else to shelter herself from facing Daichi's death more. Based on the fact that she was still sniffing and crying and that she was aggressively pressing her thumb into the screen to wipe away mud that she had already long-since cleaned off, he doubted how well this was really helping her. He sighed, accepting the fact that she was already standing and seemingly ready to move as a boon itself, and proceeded to step toward Suga, somewhat dreading facing him once more after their dispute.
He took one more step forward and froze in place. Above them, far off in the distance, Ukai heard something that sounded like a rhythmic whirring and whooping noise muffled above the trees. Ukai circled around, frantically looking around and above him for the source of the noise, hoping that his prayers had been answered and help had finally arrived for them. Suga lifted his head up unenthusiastically, looking around for the source of the sound as well and Yachi had followed suit with Ukai, darting around trying to find a large gap in the trees to clearly see the sky above them. As the droning sound increased in intensity, he finally saw off to the side a bright light shining down through the treetops moving quickly in their general direction. The loud 'whoop whoop whoop' sounds gradually got closer as Ukai tried to run in that direction through the mud until, eventually, the machine that made the noise was suddenly visible. Ukai could see that it was a helicopter, flying low enough that it was clearly visible above the trees but high enough so to not collide with any of the tall trees that surrounded the team. Ukai heard, over the loud whirring, a man on a megaphone call out, "Hello!? Is anyone out there!"
While searching up and down the mountain with the flood lights, Ukai ran back over towards Suga and Yachi, who happened to be in a more open clearing and proceeded to scream with every drop of adrenaline that surged through him now, "HELP! OVER HERE!" He waved his arms frantically in the air like a madman on a deserted island, hoping that they would be able to hear or see him. Upon seeing Ukai do this and hearing him continually call out, the other two joined in as well. With both Yachi and Suga standing with their coach, screaming as loud as possible, the trio made a loud ruckus, treating this event as their last hope on earth of being saved.
The helicopter followed the path that the bus took down the mountain, surveying the area immediately around the bus with its bright lights before eventually spotting Ukai's group a dozen meters away. Seeing them, the pilot radioed in his location and another helicopter that was approaching the mountain turned to make a beeline right for Ukai's group as well. Within seconds, another droning 'whoosh' noise could be heard as a second helicopter flew in next to the first. Overjoyed, the two students witnessed the doors of the helicopters open and the man on the megaphone yell out to them to stay where they are. The paramedics readied their equipment to make the descent and a stretcher connected to the helicopter started lowering down to them.
Yachi and Suga breathed out a relieved sigh, looking at each other in relief that their nightmare had finally come to a close. Yachi, who was now crying joyful tears, looked around to locate Ukai, who had been standing with them and had since rushed over to Kinoshita. He wanted to give him the good news that help had finally arrived and that they could go home.
He wanted to tell him that they were saved.
Yachi found Ukai kneeling in the mud in front of Kinoshita, who was still where Ukai had left him. Both of Ukai's hands were pressed against his face, covering his eyes, nose, and mouth as he cried heavily into them. "No…" Ukai whispered through his sobbing, "Dammit, NO!"
With his eyes closed and blood still dripping from his open mouth, Kinoshita sat completely motionless before Ukai. After suffering for so long, he had finally joined Daichi and Narita in death.
