サンセットゴースト

Sunset Ghost

第10章

差し迫った危険

Kageyama had grabbed his jacket and was about to head out to look for Hinata when Yachi finally returned.

The very second she stepped past the threshold of the shop, he was upon her. "Yachi-san, please help!" he begged, gripping her shoulders with utter desperation. He hadn't felt this panicked... well, ever. It was almost similar to the feeling he got when his team was in a tough spot during a game, but magnified by 1000: this was raw, unbridled fear.

"Wh-what's wrong?" Yachi stammered, utterly perplexed as he clung to her. "P-please try to calm down!"

"You— Earlier t-there was— Hinata is—" He covered his face and took a shaky breath, feeling waves of anxiety washing over him that made it hard to breathe, let alone speak. It was like he was drowning and couldn't kick his way to the surface, doubling over and gripping his head. "I can't— There's no air—"

"Take a deep breath." Madoka suddenly appeared, nudging Yachi aside and taking Kageyama's hands. He jolted as a wave of warmth seemed to wash through him, like the sudden calm that time in the forest shrine. His locked-away air came rushing out in short gasps as he felt his tensed muscles relax, knees nearly giving way from the feeling of immense relief. Madoka's presence was like a shot of morphine: everything slowed down around him and Kageyama was able to think clearly once again.

Madoka held his gaze, eyes calm like the still surface of a lake. "Better? Good. Now tell us what happened."

"Hinata... he's—" Kageyama had to take another deep, steadying breath before he could meet her eyes again. "I don't know what happened, but—" He ran a shaking hand through his hair, feeling his nerves begin to unravel; a sensation he recognized as pure panic. "He's... gone."

The woman was immediately in motion, not wasting another second talking. She pushed past both Kageyama and her daughter to reach for an odd device sitting on the shop's counter and lifted it, fiddling with a dial on the side, resulting in a popping sound as a bluish-green crystal sprung out from the top.

Kageyama was too focused on trying to breathe to watch what she was doing. His vision was beginning to cloud around the edges, but he couldn't understand why he was panicking so much. It was just Hinata. Just Hinata...

"Kageyama." Yachi placed a hand on his shoulder, startling him so much, he jumped, finding himself staring into her intense brown eyes. "I've been calling your name for a full minute." She frowned worriedly. "We're going out to look for him. Are you... well enough to help?"

"I'm— I'm fine!" he snapped, brushing her arm away quickly and turning his back on them both. "I just... need some fresh air. I'll go check the forest." He could feel Yachi and Madoka's worried gazes on his back, but he ignored them and pushed out of the shop and into the cold night air.

He ran towards the forest as he had promised, but he wasn't actively aware of where his feet were going. Everything felt numb.

Where could he have disappeared to? And why? Kageyama ran faster, frowning as his thoughts ran around in his head. He didn't even say anything to me: just... vanished. He gritted his teeth as a spike of irrational anger struck him like a bus. That dumbass! I swear, if anything happened to him, I'll—

"Oi; tall, dark, and annoying. Over here."

"Hah?" Kageyama paused and turned in the direction of the sound with an agitated growl, caught mid-internal-rant and ready to slap someone. "Who're you calling anno— Oh, it's you." He paused to stare up at the familiar tall, blond form of the rain spirit, Tsukishima, with trepidation. "What do you want?"

The lanky boy hopped down from the nearby tree he was perched in and wandered over to lean against the railroad-crossing sign with his arms folded. "I see you're pleasant, as always." His smirk lowered into a serious expression. "Your friend: I saw him going towards the graveyard earlier." He pointed across the tracks, past the end of the forest to a tall iron gate. "I would hurry if I were you."

Kageyama paused, surprised by the helpful information. "Oh, th-thanks... I'll go now, then." He started jogging in the appointed direction, casting one last wondering glance back at Tsukishima out of the corner of his eye, but he had disappeared entirely, leaving behind the distant scent of heavy oncoming rain and a lone bolt of lightning in the distance.

The graveyard was a large segment of land cut off by a wrought-iron gate that surrounded the entire perimeter of the grounds. Gripping two of the rusty bars, Kageyama could see rows upon rows of gravestones beyond, trailing off into the distance like gray thumbs poking out of the earth, varying in size and shape as they continued on.

It took Kageyama maybe twenty seconds to scale the fence, landing in an easy crouch on the other side and casting his eyes about the place warily, brushing rust from his fingers. It wasn't that it was creepy; more like abandoned. Yachi had taught him during the earlier stages of his training to sense spiritual energy, but the place was almost completely devoid of it—which was undoubtedly odd for a graveyard.

However, the faintest amount was present. Kageyama could feel it, tingling along his spine and whispering its familiarity: Hinata.

He broke into a run before he could stop himself, shouting out his name frantically as he went. "Hinata! Hinata! Dumbass, where are you?!"

Passing between two huge stone monoliths with angels perched on top, he paused to let out a frustrated breath, tearing cold hands through black hair anxiously. "Dammit." Kageyama could feel his lungs burning as they struggled for air. He had forgotten to breathe as he was running. "Dammit..." More swears escaped his lips as he continued moving, scraping his arms against gravestones and nearly tripping several times as he made his way through the cemetery clumsily.

In the last vestiges of his already-flimsy patience, he gave up and finally called out his name—his real name. "Dammit, Shōyō!"

For a moment, nothing: then, from his left, there came a slight shuffling noise and a quiet, unsteady voice was heard, barely carried along with the whispers of the wind. "...K-Kageyama?"

Kageyama stumbled in his haste to get to him, nearly tripping again as he rounded a tall mausoleum and came upon a small, plain headstone made of moss-encrusted, worn white marble, upon which a redheaded boy leaned with his arms tightly around himself, staring up at him with tear-stained cheeks.

His face broke when their eyes locked. "K-Kageyama~a!" He raised his arms like a small child and Kageyama fell to his knees beside him, hugging the boy without even thinking.

"Hinata, what the hell were you thinking?!" he scolded, trying not to let his relief show. "I— Everyone was worried sick about you! Why did you just disappear like that?" He pulled back to look down at the smaller boy, suddenly feeling something loosen in his chest as he witnessed the broken expression on his face. "Hinata... what happened?" he asked more gently, reminding himself that he needed to be delicate in this situation, even if he was steaming mad.

"I— He was— s-said— and, I f-felt— He scared-d—" Hinata couldn't seem to get the words out and started to cry even harder, sending off little panic signals in Kageyama's brain.

He had never been good at comforting people, but... all he knew was that seeing Hinata breaking down like this made him feel incredibly bad, so he had to do something. "Please, don't cry. Just... take a deep breath and tell me what happened."

A memory sparked behind his eyelids faintly: Kageyama when he was little and had just fallen. He was crying so hard he could barely breathe, and his mom knelt next to him and held him tightly in her arms. "There's a trick I know that gets rid of fear, Tobio. All you have to do to feel safe is to listen to someone's heartbeat." She pressed his ear to her chest. "See? It's calming, right? Now, can you tell Mommy what happened?"

"H-Hinata..." Kageyama sat back with a blush.

He covered his mouth with his hand. I can't believe I'm about to do this...

Grabbing the ginger's sweatshirt before he could chicken out, he yanked him against his chest and held on tight, cementing the fact somewhere in the back of his mind that Hinata couldn't run away again while they were like this. "L-listen to my heartbeat." He looked away, cheeks flaming, feeling like he wanted to die. Nevertheless, he repeated the words his mom had said to him."It's c-calming, right?"

Slowly, cold arms wrapped around him, forcing Kageyama to let out a tiny gasp as the icy feeling spread through his chest. So cold... It gets like this when he's upset, but it's never been so bad. He forced himself to tighten his hold, shivering as Hinata's tears dried against his jacket. "I-it's okay," he mumbled, trying to keep the tremor of cold from his voice. "You can t-tell me w-what happened."

The small boy's sobs slowly decreased into little hiccups as he clung to Kageyama's shirt like it was a lifeline. "When h-he walked into the s-shop, I f-felt like the room got all i-i-icy all of a sudden..." He pulled back to look Kageyama in the eye, startling him with the level of fear there. "Something about h-him was just... wrong. I could f-feel it." Hinata wiped his eyes and sniffled weakly. "When he l-looked at me, I f-felt like he was g-going to d-do something... I got so s-scared, I couldn't h-h-help but run away..."

His expression crumpled again as fresh tears stained his face. "I d-didn't mean to w-w-worry everyone! I'm r-really sorry, Kageyama." He buried his face in his hands and Kageyama clutched him tightly, glancing away with a sigh.

"Tobio," he muttered under his breath gruffly, though he was sure Hinata would hear it. "I guess you can... call me Tobio, if you really want to."

Hinata didn't say anything, but Kageyama felt his body grow less cold as the redhead hugged him again, almost disappearing entirely into the depths of his jacket. Kageyama realized then what an uncomfortable position they were in—Hinata sitting on his legs with him half-fallen-over—and shifted so he could look his shorter companion in the eye, forcing himself to smile reassuringly, even though he felt anything but reassured. "Are you... ready to go back now?"

There was the slightest of pauses before Hinata nodded, giving his face one final wipe with his sleeves, though his eyes seemed to be leaking like broken faucets. "Y-yes..." He paused before whispering his name hesitantly, "...Tobio."

As it had the first time, the utterance sent a shiver down Kageyama's spine that made him want to blush, though he forced it down with some difficulty and moved into a kneeling position, still holding Hinata's hands securely. He was sitting with his legs sprawled on either side of him, only adding to his usual childish image.

"Can you stand?" Kageyama asked gently, then felt stupid for asking. He wasn't injured: of course he could stand up. But no; Hinata shook his head, releasing one of Kageyama's hand to sniffle into, looking like he was about to start seriously bawling again.

Kageyama panicked. They had to get back ASAP so more sensitive people—*cough cough* Yachi—could comfort him.

Not knowing what else to do, he turned and offered his back.

"Climb on," he ordered roughly, unable to keep the blush from his face this time. If someone had told him last week that he'd be sitting in a graveyard offering to piggyback an annoying redheaded ghost who made his life miserable and his heart feel like it would explode, Kageyama would've called them crazy. And probably punched them a few times, too.

But as Hinata's arms wrapped around him, and he hefted him onto his back and started walking, it didn't feel weird at all. It didn't even feel weird when slender arms wrapped around his shoulders and a head of orange curls rested against his shoulder, or when the sky opened up and it started pouring rain.

As they walked, Hinata's presence grew even warmer against his back.

After a while of walking in silence through the storm, Hinata turned his head slightly, staring at the side of Kageyama's head with tired chocolate eyes. "Hey, Tobio..." He sounded half-awake, even though it was impossible for spirits to be sleepy. "...there's something else I wanted to tell you. About that man."

He seemed a lot calmer, which was a huge relief. Kageyama felt much more at ease when he wasn't crying.

He let out a small breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. "Yes? What is it?"

Hinata's head burrowed into his shoulder again, and his grip tightened around him, though not painfully. More... as if he were seeking comfort, or rather, the reassurance that Kageyama was still there. His brain got lost for a second in that thought before the ginger spoke, drawing his attention back to the present.

"His aura... it was super weird."

"Weird?" Kageyama prompted, turning to stare out at the edge of the forest to hide his discomposure. This dumbass would definitely be the end of him...

"Yeah..." He felt the boy on his back shiver with discomposure. "I've never felt anything like it before. It was somehow the aura of both a ghost... and a human."