"Hajime." The voice felt distant and unreachable, and Iwaizumi tried to get a grip of it to get out of the dream that held him in its embrace. "Hajime, wake up!"
Finally the brunet could open his eyes and move his limbs. He turned his head and his slightly squinted eyes met Oikawa's, giving an accusative and tired look to the other soldier
"I thought I told you to not wake me up", the vice-captain mumbled and sat up on the coach. "But I guess I'm thankful."
"I know, but Kenma is here", the sniper said. "The new soldiers are here. You should welcome them."
"The ones who will take Kuguri, Semi and Kindaichi's places?" Iwaizumi assured and stood up. "Where are they?"
"In the hallway", Oikawa told. "Wait, you should at least do something to your hair before going, you look like a bum."
"I do?" Iwaizumi huffed and ran his fingers through his hair. "Whatever. You coming with me?"
"Yup, Kenma said that they will train a few days with us two before they move to their real teams", Oikawa explained while they were walking to the hallway. "They looked like nice guys. You will like them, I'm sure of that."
"I really hope that they are more tolerable than Tsukishima", Iwaizumi noted.
"Trust me, they are", Oikawa chuckled. They saw Kenma standing in the hallway next to three soldiers and walked to them.
"Finally", Kenma sighed, looking extremely bored. "Iwaizumi, these are the new soldiers. You will have to teach them to move and act here, so I'll leave you now. Oh, and Kuroo told that both the hunt and the patrol got changed a bit, these three will attend those too. That's all."
"Okay, guess there's no complaining about that", Iwaizumi hummed. "Thanks, Kenma. See ya."
The strategist just hummed a sound and walked away after giving a bunch of papers for Iwaizumi. The vice-captain leafed them through quickly and raised his head to look at the three new soldiers.
"It's nice to meet you. My name is Iwaizumi, and I'm the vice-captain of this unit. I'm basically in charge of giving orders here, since Kuroo rarely visits. You are…" He turned his look to the first soldier, tall brunet whose eyebrows were remarkably thick and face was decorated with a smug grin.
"Matsukawa Issei, joining Team Owl", he said and tilted his head, lifting his chin a little. "In your service, vice-cap."
"Just Iwaizumi is fine", the brunet assured and turned his eyes to the next man.
"Hanamaki Takahiro, nice to meet you", he instantly said and then slapped Matsukawa's back slightly too forcefully. "Joining Owls with this dork." He was only a little bit shorter than Matsukawa, still being way taller than Iwaizumi was. Iwaizumi would have preferred to not to be the shortest one of them, but turning to look at the last soldier didn't help that feeling at all. The brunet could have sworn that this guy was taller than any of the others, even taller than Kuroo and Tsukishima.
"Haiba Lev in your service, vice-captain Iwaizumi!" the man declared with an over-excited voice. "I'm joining team Eagles!"
Iwaizumi observed the green eyes a while. That excitement bothered him, but he pushed that feeling away and just nodded slightly. "Good. I will introduce you all to your team captains later, but now we should probably just check the headquarters. Right, what kind of guns do you use?"
"Rifle", Matsukawa and Lev answered at the same time.
"Handguns", Hanamaki told and grinned. "Rifle is also fine."
"So no handgun users for Eagles, huh?" Iwaizumi mumbled partly to himself and signed the others to follow him. "Kindaichi used handguns. I hope that doesn't affect them."
"I will make sure that won't happen!" Lev promised. "I will do my best in the battlefield, too, it doesn't matter if I use handguns or a rifle, right?"
Oikawa flinched slightly when Iwaizumi turned around and stared at the tall soldier with squinted eyes, a deep frown making him look incredibly angry. "Where do you think you are?" the vice-captain asked with a low voice. The lack of energy and caffeine had made his temper short, and he stared at the soldier with burning eyes. "On a playground? Of course it matters if you use a rifle or handguns. We aren't an unorganized unit. I'm not asking you to do anything in the battlefield yet. You clearly don't have a clue what it's like."
"Um, I'm sorry if I seemed reckless", Lev mumbled. "But I'm not a newbie, I have been in a war before, you don't need to worry about that."
"The war between humans is completely different from this", Iwaizumi snarled and felt Oikawa's hand on his shoulder.
"Hajime, don't pick fight with him", the taller brunet whispered, carefully making it so quiet that Lev wouldn't hear. "You are letting the tiredness kick in." The vice-captain took a deep breath and turned his look back to Lev.
"Anyhow, I want you to realize that we will find a fitting place for you. You don't need to do anything different from your usual", he said, letting his voice lower from angry snarl to his usual, neutral one. "Every mistake can lead to injuries even easier than in a 'normal' war, so don't do anything reckless, okay?"
Lev was clearly confused of the sudden change of tone in the vice-captain's voice. "Yep. Right. Sorry if I seemed cocky."
"No need to apologize", Iwaizumi sighed and turned around. "Let's keep going."
"Are you always so stiff?" Hanamaki wondered, not getting any response from Iwaizumi. "We are probably about the same age, and so is Oikawa. Why are you the vice-captain? I bet Mattsun has been in the military longer."
"I doubt that", Oikawa hummed and gazed the two soldiers. "And you just arrived. There's no way you could steal that position from Hajime."
"Oh? How about he does that anyway?" Hanamaki chuckled. The two were only half serious, so Iwaizumi didn't say anything, neither did Matsukawa. At least they had some kind of sense of humor.
"I bet Hajime is way more respected here than Mattsun has ever been", Oikawa stated with a chuckle. "Not everything is about how scary you look. Although Hajime looks scary even when he doesn't have the height and majestic eyebrows like you, Mattsun."
"No way!" Hanamaki laughed. " But I agree that he is scary."
"You are talking like I wasn't here", Iwaizumi noted and shortly gazed them.
"Well, let's solve this at once: Mattsun has been in the military for five years. He joined right after his 18th birthday, try and beat that", Hanamaki challenged. "And he hasn't had much vacation from there, he's joined every possible battle there has been in these five years. He was even the team one's captain for two years."
"Hajime, let me tell them!" Oikawa squealed and jogged to walk next to the vice-captain. "Or you tell, that's more effective, they won't believe me."
"You are making this sound like a game", Iwaizumi sighed but quickly gave up, tilting his head to the side to make his voice clearer to the soldiers behind him. "Ten years. I joined when I was thirteen, and became the vice-captain four years later."
"What?" both Matsukawa and Hanamaki aspirated. "No way!"
"Yup, and I've basically lived in the military since then", Iwaizumi assured. "Right now I don't even have a right to take vacations."
"Beat that", Oikawa chuckled and winked to the other soldiers. "There's a proper reason for respecting him."
"But shouldn't that be illegal or something?" Matsukawa stated. "Joining the military and even being the vice-captain under-aged?"
"Here it is fine, since we need all the power we can get", Iwaizumi explained. "As I told, the Dolls are something else. We are lucky that we have lost only three men this year."
"But why?" Hanamaki asked. "You don't seem like some kind of aggressive teen who wants to get his hands on a gun as soon as possible, am I right?" A shadow appeared in Iwaizumi's eyes, and Matsukawa nudged Hanamaki's side to make him shut up, clearly realizing that this was a sensitive topic.
"I didn't have other place to go." Before either one of the talkative soldiers had time to ask any more, Oikawa rushed next to them and clicked his tongue.
"Now now, are you being bad losers? Enough of this topic", he chuckled, and Iwaizumi was sure he was the only one who could hear the stiffness in the sniper's voice. "So you haven't seen Dolls before, right? Hajime, is it really a good idea to take them to the hunt?"
"It's Kuroo's order, so there's no use questioning it", Iwaizumi reminded. "We will tell the main things on our way there."
"So we are fighting against something other than humans?" Matsukawa's voice was confused. "We weren't informed about that."
"Not surprising", Iwaizumi sighed heavily. "Who would want to fight against something abnormal anyway? They wouldn't get any new soldiers here if they'd go out just like 'Hey, would you mind fighting against unknown creatures that can easily gouge your eyes out?'" He shook his head lightly. "That's why you can still leave. After this day it's not possible."
"What do you mean?" Lev asked, a hesitating look on his face. "Why can't we leave after this day?"
"Because then you are a part of this unit and will leave after we have eliminated all the Dolls at the earliest", Iwaizumi said and sighed again. "It's one of the rules I slightly disagree with. You are free to meet with the civilians, but you're not allowed to leave this city or unit. There are many reasons for that. You will understand better when you have made contact with Dolls." The new soldiers gazed each other, and Iwaizumi could feel their confuse and slight nervousness in the air.
"Iwaizumi!" Stiffness melted from the vice-captain's face when he heard Elysia's bright voice and saw Sugawara's sister running towards him, and the brunet crouched down to pick the girl on his arms.
"Hi, Elysia", he greeted with a warm voice, giving the girl a soft smile. "How's your day been?"
"Awesome!" she announced and giggled heartwarmingly. "Yachi is so fun!"
"I'm glad that you like her", Iwaizumi chuckled.
"Wow", he heard Hanamaki's voice and turned his head to meet the soldier's eyes. "And I thought you are the definition of stiff. You actually know how to smile?"
"Don't talk like you've known me for a long time", the vice-captain huffed. "Elysia, this is Hanamaki. The man next to him is Matsukawa, and the third one is Lev. They are our new comrades."
"It's nice to meet you!" Elysia greeted and bowed, almost falling off from Iwaizumi's embrace. Her laugh clearly made the three soldiers' mood rise, and they smiled to the girl and greeted her.
"Elysia!" Ennoshita's relieved voice made Iwaizumi turn his head again, and he saw the captain of Eagles run to them. "Thank god you are here. Didn't I tell you to wait for me?" he aspirated.
"But Iwaizumi was here", Elysia defended herself. "I wanted to talk to him!"
"I know, I know, but Suga- Koshi would be worried if I wouldn't know where you were", Ennoshita sighed and then turned his attention to Hanamaki, Matsukawa and Lev. "Oh, you must be the new ones. I'm Ennoshita, captain of team five."
The three introduced themselves, and Iwaizumi gazed his watch. "We should probably start the hunt soon", he said, turning his look back to Ennoshita. "But if you're in charge of watching after Elysia, should we wait for Sugawara to come back?"
"I don't know if he's going to come back soon", the team captain said and strengthened his words with a shrug. "We should leave her for Kiyoko or Yachi. Bokuto, Akaashi and Shirabu are here already."
"Right. We'll leave in ten minutes, then. Can you get the others?" Iwaizumi asked. "These three-", he continued, nodding towards Hanamaki, Lev and Matsukawa, "-are coming, too. Can you get radiophones for them? Lev will be in your team, and the other two are Owls."
"All right", Ennoshita hummed and turned around. "I'll be right back."
"Hajimeee, don't forget your coffee", Oikawa whined and leaned his right arm on vice-captain's shoulder. "It should still be hot. I swear you're gonna drop dead if you don't drink it."
"Oh, right", Iwaizumi mumbled. "Well, we can check the kitchen, you three. Elysia, you should probably go to Yachi now." He was going to put the girl back down, but she just wrapped her arms around Iwaizumi's neck.
"Don't wanna!" she complained. "I can come to the kitchen, too."
"I guess you can, then", Iwaizumi sighed. "But when we go outside, you have to go to Yachi, okay?"
"Yup, I promise!"
"So you're actually just a teddy bear", Hanamaki chuckled and got a poisonous look from Iwaizumi. "I like that. A vice-captain that's good with kids. At least I know you're not the same as our previous leader."
"What was he like, then?" Iwaizumi asked without looking at him, opening the door to kitchen and walking to the coffee maker after finding a clean cup. "Not a 'teddy bear'?"
"A black bear would be more matching for him", Matsukawa sighed, joining the conversation. "He was merciless. He even made us kill a bunch of children, just because they were on our enemy's side – if they had side at all." Iwaizumi's shoulders tensed and he put the coffee cup back on the table.
"Elysia, you really should go now", he said to the girl and put her down.
"Eeeh?" Elysia whined. "But it hasn't been ten minutes yet!"
"We are almost going. You should find Yachi now, so you can come back and ask if you can't find her after all", Iwaizumi reasoned, and after the girl had stared at him with a pout on her face for a while, she finally nodded.
"Okay. But just until you come back from outside!" she said and toddled away after Iwaizumi had thanked her. The vice-captain looked after the girl for a slight while, then turning his look to the three newbies.
"I'll make one thing clear right from the start", he started with a low voice. "I am against hurting children, yes, but that's exactly what you will have to do. Kill innocent people and kids."
"What the fuck?" Hanamaki aspirated but was silenced by Oikawa's hand sign.
"You see, the Dolls aren't aliens or anything like that. It's a disease. When you get bit by a Doll, you become one of them in few minutes. After that you aren't conscious of your actions, you are just an emotionless killing machine. Most of the Dolls haven't done anything wrong before they got bitten. They are just victims of an illness that spreads in this part of the country", Iwaizumi told.
"Shouldn't we search for a medicine then, rather than killing them?" Matsukawa stated, clearly not satisfied with the situation, while the other two just looked like they didn't understand a thing.
"We have searched for more than ten years, Matsukawa. It's useless. All we have is a simple antibiotic that can save the victims if the bite happened lass than fifteen minutes ago. There's no other way than killing", Iwaizumi explained carefully and nodded towards Oikawa. "Tooru got the antibiotic roughly a minute too late. His arm had to be amputated. That's why this is different from 'normal' war. We are fighting against humans who act like animals. A single bite can kill you, and you never know who will be your opponent tomorrow."
"So you're trying to say that we may have to kill children, elders, innocent people – and even out comrades or friends?" Hanamaki looked like he didn't want to believe what he heard. "You must be kidding me."
"I surely hope that I was", Iwaizumi sighed and took a sip from his coffee. "That's why you are still free to leave. The hunt will show you the real side of this world, and you can make your decision then." He signed the others to follow him when he had finished his coffee, walking back to the hall. "The first thing you learn here is how to ignore who your opponent is. For you, the outsiders, that might not be so necessary, though. For us it is the most important thing in our training. We have friends and family here, but we can't acknowledge that if we want to stay sane." He walked to Ennoshita and took the radiophones from him, thanking with a slight nod. "Here", he threw them to the soldiers. "Put them somewhere you can hear them from. Let's go."