A/N: Okay, so Kiken may seem a bit crazy right now (just a bit), but there's a reason. Most of the time, there's a reason behind what I write.
And I deeply apologise for this being just over a month late, but I've just returned to school (le cri) and school means homework.
Oh, and thanks to Guest and Adrinette4life's comments, but rest assured; this chapter is Hinata's moment of glory. I've been planning this for a while, so I hope you enjoy it~
Disclaimer: I do not own Haikyuu
Ten minutes or so after Ukai left, Hinata contemplated whether or not to check on Nishinoya. He, like everyone else, was concerned. Tsukishima, however, was busy making Yamaguchi as comfortable and calm as possible. Kageyama was wheezing, although he tried to hide it by constantly clearing his throat. Yachi had decided to go with Ukai when he went to check Kiyoko's knee.
Hinata stood up. "I'm just gonna check on Nishinoya. I won't be long." After getting two nods and a blink from Yamaguchi, the middle blocker left the first-years' room, heading not too far away. However, he was surprised to find the door shut right in front of him, and voices from inside that sounded almost panicked.
What's going on in there? Hinata thought as he placed his hand flat on the door. A shriek which sounded suspiciously like Asahi startled him, and he accidentally pushed the door open, revealing four teens and a drill-wielding man.
He saw the shocked expressions his upperclassmen wore as they stared at him in disbelief, which was soon replaced by fear.
"Hina-" Tanaka began, but was cut off as Kiken turned around, a too-wide smile etched onto his face.
"Ah, Hinata. What a pleasant surprise." The man spoke calmly, with an underlying dangerous tone.
"Hinata! Run!" Ennoshita yelled, and then all Hell broke loose.
Kiken lunged for the middle blocker, who, out of pure instinct, side-stepped to dodge the attack. However, the original motive behind the attack seemed to be to reach the door, if Kiken shutting the aforementioned door was anything to go by.
With his back to the door, Kiken had now trapped the five teenagers in the room; and he had a massive advantage – a weapon.
"Kiken…what are you doing? Someone'll get hurt if you wave that thing round." Hinata murmured, struggling to keep his voice calm after narrowly avoiding being impaled by 'that thing'.
"Your friend over there requires surgery, Hinata." Kiken replied, pointing straight at Tanaka, who narrowed his eyes in loathing.
The first-year glanced at Tanaka, and then back at the man before him. At that moment, there was at least a couple of metres between Hinata and the other four teens. And less than a metre between him and Kiken.
"You can't perform surgery on a deserted island – you don't have the right equipment, or painkillers, or anything like that! Besides, Tanaka doesn't need surgery – I'm pretty sure it's only a concussion. Isn't he getting better?" The last question was directed more at Hinata's friends than at the dangerous man.
"I'm fine, Hinata; that's the thing. He doesn't want to 'perform surgery'. He means to kill us! All of us!" Tanaka replied, and Hinata's eyes widened.
"Are you serious?! That's…that's crazy…" He stared at the ground for a moment, trying to comprehend the fact that a stranger who had opened his abode to them now wanted to murder them in cold blood. "But why?" He raised his head, anger suddenly blazing in his eyes. "What have we done to you?!"
"Oh, let me think; I saved two of your friends' lives, and I get rewarded with accusations and suspicion!" The man either didn't notice or didn't care that he was raising his voice.
"Our suspicion isn't misplaced! Nor are our accusations!" Asahi spoke up, before flinching at the glare Kiken shot his way.
"Where's your proof? Huh?" He spat.
"Where did you get that drill from…?" Hinata wondered aloud, before locking eyes with the man and repeating in a louder voice, "Where did you get that drill from? It's not an electric one – and it's small. Surely it would have been washed away when you beached here…unless…you've never been beached here!"
Kiken didn't reply for a moment, but his grip tightened on his weapon, implying that Hinata had hit the nail on the head.
"It would explain how you've lasted this long." Tanaka agreed.
"And why you have so many things that don't just appear out of nowhere." Asahi chimed in.
"And why you took us in." Ennoshita put in, being rewarded with confused stares from everyone except Kiken. "After all, in a stranded situation such as this, surely you'd want to keep everything to yourself – it's not like there's a local supermarket nearby where you can buy your necessities. You took us in not because you're a decent human being – because you wanted to lull us into a false sense of security and then exploit that newfound trust by killing us one by one. If we asked where one of our friends had gone, you'd make up a lie and we would have believed it. That's what happened with the other group who beached here, right?"
All attention returned to Kiken, who was trembling with rage. His eyes were downcast, but he seemed to emit a deadly aura.
"It's the classic hook, line and sinker cliché – I can't believe I didn't see it before now." Ennoshita continued, omitting the fact that before, he was too busy drowning in his grief to pay attention to the strangeness of the situation.
After a moment of tense silence, the most unexpected noise occurred: the sound of applause.
Awkwardly, considering he was holding a drill, Kiken had begun to clap, as if they'd won an award, not worked out his terrible plan.
"Congratulations," he stopped clapping, mustering as much sarcasm as he could, "you worked it out. Now the irritating cliché comes into play: the 'protagonists work out antagonist's plan' cliché. Except, what's this? A new concept? The new 'despite working out his plan, the antagonist traps the protagonists and the latter are now subjugated to a painful death' concept, which will probably never become a cliché as society always wants the hero to save the day." He grinned, feeling proud of himself. "So, what are you going to do now? You know my plan. But there's no police, so don't even think that you've got me, and I'm going to say, 'And I would have got away with it too, if it weren't for you meddling kids'."
"Something's only over when there's nothing left to say and nothing left to do." Hinata spoke up boldly, no trace of fear present as he stood tall. "And no matter the manner in which one is trapped, there is always a way to escape."
"Wh-" Kiken never got any further than that, as Hinata nimbly punched him in the right cheek, before stepping back.
Staggering slightly to the left, the man soon regained his balance, and, with a roar, lunged at Hinata, drill poised to stab.
"You guys go! I'll keep him here!" The first-year called, quickly dodging the initial attack.
"We can't leave you! We're your upperclassmen!" Tanaka protested.
"And I'm your underclassman! Just trust me!" Hinata replied as he took a couple of steps away from the door. Kiken followed with a series of lunges and attempts to maim and/or kill, all of which were avoided by the first-year, who wasn't in the mood to be maimed and/or killed.
"Come on; we don't have time to linger!" Ennoshita snapped into action, shaking Asahi out of it. "Asahi, can you carry Noya? Tanaka, go!"
The third-year nodded and, as gently as he could, picked Nishinoya up. He paled as he realised that the libero was unconscious again. Tanaka, who was on his feet and ready, stayed by Asahi's side in case Noya slipped from his grasp or Asahi's ankle buckled. Ennoshita followed close behind, never once taking his eyes off Hinata as he bravely fought Kiken.
Hinata spared the others as many glances as he could manage (which wasn't a lot) as he ducked and dodged away from Kiken's attempts to brutally impale him with his weapon of possible death. As he saw Asahi and Tanaka, with the precious bundle of Nishinoya, neared the door, he felt relief and hope swell in his chest. He noticed that Ennoshita was staring at him, and hoped that the second-year would also leave.
I can't attack – I'm on pure defence, Hinata thought, so it's only a matter of time before…before he gets me.
The hope drowned in the sea of despair as his thoughts tugged his confidence down to the dark depths of the sea of perils.
So caught up was he in his unspoken musings that he didn't see the drill until the last second. Too late to fully move, he could only merely shift his head to the side, in time to watch, seemingly in slow motion, as the drill missed his head and tore through the right side of his neck.
Yelping at the sharp, burning sting, Hinata stumbled backwards, his left hand immediately clamping down on his neck. He could breathe – it didn't penetrate his windpipe or anything of great importance (if you disregard the importance of blood and skin). He knew it wasn't as deep as Yamaguchi's back wound, or as serious as Nishinoya's abdomen injury, but it still hurt. And despite the fact that there were others in more pain than him, he was still in pain nonetheless.
He'd never been hurt this badly before. Of course, he'd broken his nose in the aftermath of crashing on the island in the yacht (he was pretty sure that Tsukishima hadn't correctly fixed it), and yes, that hurt, but this was deeper than a cat scratch. Deeper than a paper cut, or a splinter. This was the depth caused by a sharp weapon grazing him as it missed its fatal course.
Call him a wimp, call him a coward; but it hurt, even more than a cat scratch, or a paper cut, or a splinter. And he was unaccustomed to pain of this magnitude.
So deep were his thoughts, that when he cleared his mind and focused on the present moment, he found himself on his knees, and Kiken holding the weapon above his head, about to bring it down through his brain and severe his spirit from his body.
And, typically enough, he found his limbs were frozen in place as he tried to evade the weapon of certain death, which was approaching him in slow-motion. He felt as if he were watching a video played much slower than the original – as if this moment was not his, but another's, and that he was watching it through the safety of a screen.
Hinata watched as the drill neared, its blade coated with scarlet. He stared at it in fascination, suddenly asking himself, If one takes away the sins of an object or creature, would it become the most beautiful thing in existence? After all, if you take away the sins that this drill has committed – and is soon to commit – then it would be very beautiful indeed.
He turned his head slightly to look at Kiken. Would he be beautiful, if his sins were removed? On the inside, perhaps, but would it influence his external appearance?
He watched numbly as a figure suddenly leapt at Kiken, tackling him to the ground and sending the drill spinning away from its wielder. Hinata's distant mind registered the fact that it was Ennoshita who had saved him, and was saying something. Something that the first-year couldn't make out, as it seemed that voices were underwater. He vaguely wondered if perhaps something was wrong with him, and that maybe he was about to pass out or something, and-
-and then the world shot back into focus with startling clarity, and his ears caught Ennoshita screaming, "That's for Hinata, that's for trying to kill us, that's for being on the same goddamn island that we crash onto, and that's for Kinoshita!" He punctuated every 'that's' with a solid punch to Kiken's face, and Hinata chose never to anger Ennoshita again.
With the man's face bruised and bloodied, and the man himself in a state of near-consciousness and dazedness, Ennoshita decided that he'd have enough of using him as a punching bag, and got up, flicking drops of blood off his knuckles as if they were merely flecks of dirt.
"Hinata, are you okay?" He asked, kneeling in front of the first-year.
"Y-yeah, I'm fine." He stuttered, clinging to Ennoshita as the latter helped him to his feet.
"You're bleeding!" The second-year exclaimed as Hinata used his left hand to balance himself, revealing his neck injury, where blood was still flowing freely. "C'mon; let's get you to Ukai. He'll know what to do."
Hinata wanted to protest, wanted to insist he's fine, but he wasn't sure if Ennoshita was still in a mood of one-wrong-move-and-I'll-hit-you, so he decided to just go along with it.
Asahi hoped that Ennoshita wouldn't be hurt, and that Hinata wasn't hurt either, as he watched the former stay in the room.
He began to tremble as he realised that his déjà vu seemed to be continuing, and if that was the case, then…
…he only hoped that the certain confrontation which appeared in his dream would stay hidden to fate, karma, and destiny, as he knew that if it did come to pass, then all Hell would break loose.