Chapter 11: Vanished

Time passed quickly and soon it was the week before the new training camp. Yona was nervous – not only would she meet all of the other teams her boyfriend and his friends had told her about, but she had an important appointment on Monday before, too. Daichi recognized her nervousness during the training on Saturday and invited her to go to the movies on Sunday. They spent a nice afternoon together, and the captain succeeded in his plans to distract her. But when she came back home, her brother was waiting for her with news.

No good news, which she recognized the second she set eyes on him.

"I'm back.", she said, entering the kitchen. Her brother sat at the kitchen table, slouching his shoulders.

"Hey, little Sis.", he greeted her and looked up. "I… I've got a call when you were away. From work."

Yona's face fell. She could see where this was going, but she waited for her brother to speak it out loud.

"They need me tomorrow. Something went wrong with a huge deal, now they need me to come in and help. Smooth waters, so to speak." Yona knew that her brother was hard working and that his hard work paid off, because he was part of huge business deals and had lots of calls with business partners around the world. But…

"I can't accompany you to your appointment tomorrow. I'm so sorry, Sis.", Tomoya bowed his head.

She was quiet for a few seconds.

"Gosh, I know how important this appointment is, and I tried to negotiate the time of the call, but there was now Chance.", he stuttered a bit.

Then, she squared her shoulders. "Oi, it's okay. I moved countries without you, so I'll find the hospital on my own."

He looked up, surprised by her easy response.

"Why are you watching me like that? I'm old enough to go to the doctor on my own. I'm not five anymore, Tom.", she grinned her own insecurities away. Of course she would have liked the support. Not to speak of the comfort of driving to the hospital by car, not with the train. But his work was important, and he was only her brother, not her father.

"Are you sure?", he asked.

She rolled her eyes. "Of course!"

"Promise me to call right after the appointment. Or, as soon as you're on your way back. And if I don't answer, send me a message. Yona, I want to know what's going on, right?"

She raised her right hand, still in the Velcro splint and said with a grin: "I, Yona Sadai, swear to call you as soon as I have seated myself on the train. It's supposed to rain tomorrow, and I don't want to miss the whole afternoon-training, so I'll hurry to the train station."

Tomoya knew that this was all he would get. "Okay. I've already checked the departure times online and printed them for you. Here they are. You can still attend the first three subjects in school before you have to go." He handed her an envelope. "There's also a ticket inside. Yes, I know, you want to pay for all of your expenses on your own, but please, take it this time. After all, it would have been my car and my gas tomorrow."

The girl took the envelope. "Kay. Thanks."

"If you need me, please call earlier. Then I'll just tell them that there is an emergency. I'll come.", he told her.

"And lose your job?" She raised an eyebrow. "There is no need for such things. You go to work. I'll attend school and go to the doctor. After that, I'll call you with the news and drive back to school. Simple. Now, if you excuse me? I still have some homework left to do."

Tomoya watched her retreat in her room. His head knew that there was no way to ditch work. She was almost an adult and mature enough to not need a babysitter. But his gut told him to take care of her. Especially on a day like tomorrow. With a sigh he stood and headed to the living room. He would watch some TV to get his mind off things. And he would watch his mobile during work on the next day – all the time.


Oikawa Toru was known for his straightforward attitude when it came to volleyball. He was known for his loose tongue on court. For his focus during games… But he was also known for one other thing: His loyalty to his family. And when his younger cousin called the day before that she fell from her bike and landed herself in bed with a sprained ankle and a concussion, he promised to come and cheer her up. It didn't matter to him that it was raining cats and dogs on this Monday and that he would miss part of – if not the whole – training: When the school bell rang, he made his way to the home of his cousin to visit.

The city seemed completely empty, but that was no surprise. Even the little marketplace in front of him was almost empty. Whistling a happy tune – after all, if the weather was gloomy, you needed to put some effort in staying happy enough to cheer a sick teenager up – he walked across the plaza. Only one pedestrian was there as well, but while he was walking toward the south of the plaza, the other person was walking towards the north. He carried an umbrella to stay as dry as possible, but the other pedestrian was only wearing a coat with no hood. It was a girl, he could see when they neared each other, she was wearing a school uniform of Karasuno. She had long, brownish hair which already started to drip with waiter. Her shoulders were slumped, and her gait was slow, almost unsteady. She wasn't really watching where she was going, so she stumbled on the slick cobblestones.

When they crossed each other, he had a look at her face and recognized her immediately. It was the girlfriend of the Karasuno-Captain.

"Hey! Karasuno-girl! It's me, Oikawa!", he called out, but got no reaction.

But he wouldn't be Oikawa Toru if he would give up only because of such a little rebuff. So he turned around and fell in step with her. Always a gentleman, he raised the umbrella over her head.

"So, Karasuno-girlfriend,", he started, "fancy meeting you here! Alone. We didn't have a nice start, so let's start all over, right? I've a nice umbrella here, can I escort you somewhere? Hey?" When she gave no reaction and just continued her way over the plaza without raising her head, he halted. "Hey!" Oikawa hollered loudly. "That's not a nice way to behave when someone is kind to you! Do you hear me? HEY?!"

No reaction followed.

Irritated he turned around and walked towards his cousin's house again. Silly girl. Before he turned in at a street, he cast a glance over his shoulder again. This girl… Something seemed off with her today. She had been so feisty when they met for the first time, and right now, she seemed completely off balance. Shaking his head, he walked on. It was time to cheer someone up.


Yona's nervousness must have rubbed off on him. That's what Daichi thought during the training on this Monday afternoon. His mind was frazzled, his thoughts circling around his girlfriend and her health. With that, he excused himself from working with the team and practiced first serves on his own.
The volleyball-boys were in the midst of training, their training session was almost over, when the door to the gym banged open and a man entered the sportsground quickly. Checking the people inside, he came to a halt. It was Yona's older brother, wearing a dark scowl on his face.

"Oi, Tomoya!", the coach greeted. He frowned and made his way over to the visitor. Daichi stopped his workout and turned his head towards the brother of his girlfriend.

Tomoya didn't care about his street shoes and walked towards Coach Ukai. "Kenshin! Have you seen my sister? Is she here?"

Takeda-sensei joined the two men now as well. Concern was written in his face. "Sadai-san wasn't here today. She told us that she had a doctor's appointment, that's why she was even absent from school lessons?"

Now, Tomoya's gaze fastened on Daichi, who let the ball fall to the ground and made his way over as well. Nearly everyone had stopped doing what they were doing now to listen in on the conversation.

"She sent me a message this morning when she was on the train, but since then, I haven't heard of her again.", Daichi answered. The heavy feeling in his gut doubled now.

Tomoya shook his head. He was pale. Then, he turned towards the teacher. "She had a doctor's appointment in the clinic today. But she was supposed to call right after and stop by on her way to school. I haven't heard of her for hours. She vanished."

The second the last sentence left his mouth; he was surrounded by the whole team. Concern was now in everyone's face. Well, not in Tsukishima's, but he started pushing up his glasses – which he didn't need to do with his sports glasses.

"Have you called the hospital?", the teacher asked.

Yona's brother nodded his head yes. "Yeah, and she was there. I couldn't talk to her doctor so far because he was busy… I should have accompanied her, but there was an important meeting at work today, so I couldn't take the day off." He looked at Daichi again. "Try calling her! I've already tried several times to no avail, but maybe… If she sees it's you who calls…"

"Of course!" He sped off towards the locker room to retrieve his phone and was already calling when he came back towards the gym. Dread was filling his stomach now. More and more with every ringing tone. When the voice mail started, he ended the call. "Nothing."

"God dammit!" The youngsters all looked taken aback when the brother of their advisor started to curse.

"Tomoya, this mustn't mean something happened…", Ukai started to calm the man down, but Tomoya shook his head no.

"Something must have happened. Either an accident on her way home – but then she would've tried to call me back – or the appointment didn't go as planned. I've told you how… driven she is by playing. She… the accident almost broke her. Bad news about her healing process…"

Everyone present could see how desperate the brother was. While Daichi started to wonder how the coach and the brother of his girlfriend knew each other – and well enough to be on first-name basis – it was Yamaguchi who murmured: "He's in the neighbourhood-volleyball club."

"Of course," Daichi thought while he tried to reach Yona's phone again. "With his sports-crazy family he must have played as well during his youth. The neighbourhood-club was a nice outlet for him for sure." When his call went to voicemail, he shood his head. "Nothing."; he told everyone.

"Gosh, where could she be? Could someone have taken her? Maybe directly from the hospital? Grabbed her and ran? What if she had an accident and is laying somewhere in the rain? What if…", Yachi's imagination went wild with all the possibilities. That was not helpful, for Tomoya's face got darker with every sentence. Daichi looked at his team. When his gaze crossed Ukai's, the trainer nodded.

"Everyone, I want you to get into your street clothes right now. We need to go and search for her. Go and grab your mobiles as well, we'll meet in front of the gym and split up."

"Yes Sir!", shouted everyone at once and they ran to the locker room. It must have been the first time that everyone was in clothes during minutes. When they met in front of the gym, the adults had already made plans who was to search which part of the city.

Soon they were on their way, teamed up in pairs, to cover as much ground as possible during the next hours. When Daichi jogged lightly through the streets, his mobile in his hand and Suga at his side, he realized that it was not only the rain which was matter for concern. The temperatures had dropped as well, it was damn cold. They needed to find her quickly. Daichi's heart was racing with fear.

But they had no luck. The team covered all the way from school to the station and from the station to the hospital, for the teacher had driven a few boys there in his car. Their team chat stayed silent, so no one had found her…

And then, Daichi had just checked his phone again, the device started to ring. Without checking the caller-ID, he accepted the call. "Yes, Yona, is that you?"

"Ah, eh, no, but thanks for the honour of thinking I'm your girlfriend.", a sappy voice sounded.

"Oikawa? What do you want? I' don't have time for you!", Daichi snapped. Suga watched his best friend with eyes as big as saucers.

"Geez, what's going on? First your girl, now you? Trouble in paradise?", Oikawa was miffed.

"My girl? Have you seen her? Is she with you? Tell me!" Daichi's voice cut through the air like bullets.

"Oi! Have some respect!", Oikawa said. "I'm sorry that I'm calling you, but your girl seemed off earlier today. I just wanted to be polite and ask if she's alright!"

Daichi took a deep breath. It was Oikawa he was talking to, after all. "Okay, sorry for this. But, please tell me: Have you seen her? And if you have seen her, please tell me where!"

"That's better.", Oikawa's voice sounded pleased by the apology. He told the captain of the rival team what had happened earlier. When he started to talk in his usual smalltalkish way, Daichi interrupted.

"Oikawa, I owe you one. Thank you! Bye!" With that, he ended the call and told Sugawara: "I think I know where she is. Follow me!" And he took off running, Suga right behind. They ran for twenty minutes straight and during their run, Daichi told his friend of the first real talk he had with his girlfriend, and where that talk took place.

When they neared the place he had in mind, he slowed down. There was no sense in reaching the place completely out of breath. Also, he didn't want to alert her of their presence. If she was really out of it like Oikawa said – would she maybe run away when she saw him? "

Daichi stopped in his tracks. He was looking at a playground and both boys saw a figure on one of the swings. The head hung low, shoulders hunched, there was no movement in the swing as well. The person just sat there.

A closer look confirmed his suspicion. He found her. Finally.

He turned to his friend. "We found her. I'll bring her home, please head back and call her brother and the team."

Suga clasped one hand on Daichi's shoulder. "Will do. Good luck."

Daichi nodded his head, then he turned towards the playground. "Yona, what happened?" This thought had crossed his mind a thousand times during the search and watching the small figure on the swing of the playground, it crossed his mind again.

He took a deep breath.

Then, he opened the gate of the playground and walked closer.


And here we are - vanished and found again.
I hope you had some fun reading this, I had fun writing about Oikawa. It wasn't the last time he'll show up in this story, that's sure.

But next chapter will bring up some painful truths...

See you next time, and thanks for the favs!
Katily