The wind was fiercer that day than it usually is in between these hills. The greens and yellows of the meadow danced along with the wind, making patterns on the ground under Oriana's sight. Her long jet black braid danced the same rhythm as the meadow, gently brushing her back to the left and to the right.
In one of her wanderings in the Miyagi prefecture, she was lucky to find a place like this, while getting lost for entertainment. This was a habit of hers before she met the Karasuno Volleyball Team and made new friends. She would wander alone, exploring, but now she would only go to where they took her or to places she was familiar with. She wouldn't want to get lost anymore, as she might worry her new friends and have to bother them to find her. It was more convenient this way. Nevertheless, she was grateful for this special spot she managed to find. It was always windy there, sometimes to the point where it clogged her ears completely, but nature felt welcoming around her.
After showing this place to Daichi only, he would often stop by when looking for her. If she wasn't home or answering her phone, most likely she was sitting in a rock, above the hills observing the patterns in the meadow, thinking of what only she would know. Today was no different.
"I found you." he crouched by her side, leaving a small peck on her cheek.
She hugged his body as he sat down beside her. In the silence between the two, Daichi was wondering, once again, what Oriana's past might have looked like. It's been months, he doesn't want to disrespect her and drive her away, but he can't erase the feeling that sharing something like that would bring them closer. There would always be a missing piece in their picture as long as Oriana would keep her secrets, a certain distance between, no matter how close they hold each other.
"Are you ever gonna tell me?" he asked softly to her ear.
"One day." Oriana said. "I promised one day I would tell you."
"I know that, but-" he thought twice about what to say next. "It feels like you don't trust me enough."
His words surprised Oriana. As a matter of fact, she was scared Daichi would not trust her anymore after he found out. The more time it passed, the thinner their trust would be.
"Just leave it be, for now." her voice faltered at the thought.
"You've been asking me that for months."
It's not that easy. You will understand why I've been avoiding it. I swear.
It's what she was going to say before Daichi spoke again.
"It's disrespectful how you've handled this." his voice became tense. Daichi distanced himself from her, just enough to look her in the eyes. "You can't just avoid the subject forever."
"You know what's disrespectful?" Oriana looked up, square into his eyes. Her soft voice turned into an angry tone. "Prying into other people's business."
"I'm your boyfriend, Oriana. Don't I deserve to know?"
"And do you tell me everything?"
"Yes, as a matter of fact, I do." he answered honestly. "I don't hide anything from you in the hopes to make you comfortable to do the same, but it's leading us nowhere."
Oriana clenched her fists around Daichi's shirt. Hurting him was the last thing she wanted to do, that's why she just had to get up and leave him there.
"Where are you going?" Daichi asked, conflicted.
"To another place, to think- To do anything but this."
Her emotions were in a wire as Daichi saw the fabric of her dress fly in front of his eyes, snapping him out of his own anger.
"Wait, let me walk you home." he said.
"I need to be alone right now."
The chains of her past holding back everything she actually wanted to say and her tears filling her vision as she stormed away in the green hills, away from Daichi.
"I'll go with you, please-please don't go like this."
Oriana did not respond and Daichi considered getting up to follow the girl as she had the habit of getting lost. He couldn't hear her sobs over the strong wind, because if he had, he would have gone after her, embraced her like he always does and they would meet in the borderline. Renew their promise once again and things would be fine for now.
Meanwhile, Oriana went on her rampage, letting go of all of her frustrated tears. She couldn't just show Daichi her powers, she couldn't reveal who she was. Oriana lived on this cycle of omiting her past, to the very lengths of hiding her true name. In the Black Bulls she could be the misfit she was, hiding her background from all the others. In Miyagi she had to hide everything that made her the person she is today and reinvent herself to fit in this world. She didn't have a choice. Oriana could not show them the monster she was.
Another tragic ending was something she did not need and hopefully, she was not too late.
Looking up, Oriana glanced around her surroundings only to realize she had no idea where she was anymore. She went down the hills, back to the road, wandered through the streets of the city until the sun had set and got herself lost again. This hasn't happened in a while and there was only one person she could call for help. Grabbing her phone from her small purse, she looked for Daichi's name in her contact list, he picked up instantly. Surprised, Oriana cleared her throat before speaking.
"Daichi… I'm lost."
"It's okay, just describe the place where you are." his patient tone calmed Oriana.
She was close to a small kids' playground, with a yellow dirty slide and a couple of rusty swings. There weren't that many playgrounds in Miyagi, so Daichi had a pretty good guess where Oriana might be.
"Stay where you are, I'm coming for you."
"I'll wait for you." Oriana reassured.
She was about to end the call, but Daichi spoke again,
"Stay on the phone with me, love."
She couldn't resist when he used adorable nicknames like those and as much as she doesn't want to admit, it made her feel safer in the darkness on the street. So, she took a seat on a bench close by, clenched her phone closer to her ear.
"I'm sorry I snapped at you." Oriana murmured and Daichi smiled softly on his end of the line.
"And I'm sorry I pressured you." he said. "I'll try to be more patient, I never wanted you to just run off."
"You are the most patient person I've ever met." she scoffed.
"Is that right?" his voice sounded both on the phone, but was also loud enough for her to hear it echoing on the empty street.
Oriana looked up and recognized the tall figure to be Daichi. They both put down their phones and walked towards each other. The first thing Daichi did was take off his dark jean jacket and put on Oriana's shoulders.
"It's too cold for you to be here without a jacket on." Daichi said as he helped Oriana with the sleeves and buttoning the jacket all the way to the collar.
"Is this really necessary?" she laughed at his habit to behave like a protective father.
When he was done with the buttons, he glided one of his hands to Oriana's lower back, pulling her close and he connected his lips to hers. Putting one hand in his face, Oriana deepens the kiss. She misses him like she hasn't seen him in ages. It feels like it was ages ago when they last spent time together alone.
"Can I take you home?" Daichi asked, leaving one last kiss on Oriana's cheek.
She hummed in agreement.
"Wanna stay for dinner? We could cook together," she suggested, fiddling with the buttons of the jean jacket.
"Sounds perfect."
The days got colder every week closer to the spring preliminaries. Three more days before the first game against Ohgiminami High. Ever since the incident in the training camp, both Sugawara and Oriana made sure to always carry their grimoires in their bags and keep them nearby at all times. Some of their friends had noticed their strange new habit of carrying their bag around even during lunch time, which was unusual, but never really asked them about it.
Speaking of such, the bell rang for the lunch period on Karasuno High and immediately students started moving around the classroom. By the time Oriana packed her bag and left her desk, an unexpected visitor was already waiting for her by the door.
"Hey, Oriana! You're having lunch with me today." Sugawara disclosed. "Is that okay?"
"Of course. But what about Daichi?" she asked, as they made their way through the hallway together.
"He and Kiyoko were abducted by Takeda. Something about discussing the details about the trip to the preliminaires." he said. "You're coming this time too, right?"
"You know I will. I saw you guys train for this, there is no way I'm missing a single game!"
The conversation about volleyball died down by the time they approached the vending machine, near the club gym. Sugawara became unusually silent all of a sudden and his expression made Oriana try and guess what was going on before asking. She cleared her throat before speaking, already in fear of his answer, but Suga spoke before her.
"Oriana, do you sense it?" he was trying to hide it, but the quaver in his voice was prominent.
"What? Sense what?" Oriana was immediately brought to her alert mode.
"I feel like…" there was a break in his voice. "I've had this odd feeling for a while."
These words made Oriana bite the inside of her cheek. Sugawara was not one to joke about matters like this one, in fact, he had never done so and his serious behaviour was a rare sight.
"What do you mean?"
"There is an ominous feeling in the air, it's coming from the north."
"Like, there is something coming here?" she asked in a panic.
"No. Not like that." he pondered for a second how he could word this feeling. "It's not coming this way, but there is something going terribly wrong in the north."
In a moment of weakness, Oriana felt difficulty to breathe. She could only imagine the danger her friends in the Clover Kingdom could be in. Even if Sugawara's danger warnings were out of this world, when Oriana told him about the elf incident, he didn't even suspect anything was happening in the north at the time. With this in mind, just how dangerous was this new threat that Suga could feel it all the way in Miyagi?
Just what the hell is going on?
The week of preliminaries went by smoothly. The Karasuno team managed to get to the qualifiers and as promised, Oriana cheered the team in the bleachers, next to Yachi, Tanaka's older sister, Saeko, and two members of the Neighborhood Association Team, Makoto Shimada and Yusuke Takinoue.
It had become a habit for Saeko to offer to take Oriana to the games with her, it became apparent that Tanaka's older sister got a liking for both Oriana and Yachi, behaving like their older sister. When they arrived at the pavilion together, there were many athletes hanging out in the entrance. With no Karasuno boys in sight, Saeko headed directly for the bleachers, while Oriana made her way to the bathrooms, where she found one of her friends in a very peculiar situation.
She was sure she saw a familiar orange head bobbing around the bathroom doors, surrounded by tall and big players from other schools and a mob of people was starting to join in a big commotion, discussing the players involved in an alleged fight.
"Is Karasuno's number 10 trying to pick a fight with them?"
Oriana heard someone comment. So she really did see Hinata in trouble. It was not like the boy to pick up fights for no reason, so she knew this must be a huge misunderstanding and that she had to intervene somehow. Pushing through the crowd, she finally made her way to the front of the crowd.
"HInata!" she called, approaching the group. "What's going on?"
"Oriana, help!" the boy cried, hiding himself behind Oriana and holding her shoulders with trembling hands. However, Oriana was barely any taller than Hinata, so he didn't do much of the hiding.
"You punks enjoy picking on first years?" Oriana spoke to the four players that had just noticed her presence.
Noticing the different uniform colours and the competitiveness in the air, she understood this was probably some argument between teams that Hinata got caught up on. She even recognised some of the colours from previous official games.
"For someone so small, she sure has guts…" someone in the crowd commented, annoying Oriana even more.
"Yeah, Oriana, you're not scared of these dudes?" Hinata asked behind her.
"Scared?" Oriana scoffed, turning to Hinata. "I know this huge, muscular man that could pick you up off the ground just from grabbing your head." she simulated the gesture she had described, leaving Hinata in awe.
"You know guys like that?"
"Yup, so these kids are nothing at all." she waved them off.
"Kids?" one of the players asked bluntly. "You are a highschool student too, no?"
"Uhm, yeah I am." Oriana was sure she saw this boy somewhere before, the purple of his uniform was also familiar.
"Wouldn't that make you the same age as us?"
Shit, Oriana was caught lying again. She is in truth, older than any of them, but if she wanted to enroll in any college or hope for a job in the future, she had to have a high school degree. Since she was still young and looked the part, the Magic Embassy in Japan enrolled her in Karasuno High without presenting any other options.
"Yeah, that's right. It's just a matter of speech." she brushed the guy off.
"I don't get it."
Is this guy serious right now? -Oriana wondered to herself.
Another one of the players was now approaching her, looking up close, she knew exactly who he was. Maybe if she saw him wearing casual clothes, she wouldn't notice, but the teal in his uniform left no room for mistake. Oikawa Toru, the captain of Aoba Johsai, the team that eliminated Karasuno last tournament.
"You have really pretty eyes." the boy hummed as he leaned down to Oriana's face level.
Clenching her fists, Oriana was ready to act had the boy come any closer, but a bouncing orange head put himself between her and Oikawa.
"Don't do that!" he said, putting his arms out protectively. "She's our captain's girlfriend and our dear friend!"
Dropping her shoulders, Oriana grinned at Hinata. She felt like a proud mother seeing him being so brave for her, even though his legs were literally shaking and his voice trembling.
"Very well… I wasn't even doing anything, though." Oikawa smiled innocently.
"Stop that, shittykawa." his teammate scolded.
The crowd eventually dispersed and Oriana headed on to the bleachers, waving Hinata goodbye, completely forgetting she had to go to the bathroom herself. If anything, this little episode made her even more fired up for the games ahead, even if she wasn't the one in the court.
However, things got really ugly during the Karasuno High vs Johzenji High match, leaving Oriana's heart on a leap. Daichi got badly hurt, his body was unconscious in court for a few seconds during the second part of the game. Oriana couldn't breathe right until he saw him moving again. Running from the bleachers to Daichi's side and assisting him with whatever he needed, there was nothing that could separate her from Daichi that moment.
Oriana wasn't doing a very good job pretending not to be worried, like Ukai coach advised. The bruise in Daichi's face was all tones of purple. In her mind, the moment Daichi's body collapsed on the ground next to Tanaka's, spitting a tooth and bleeding from his mouth soon after was on a loop. When Daichi fell asleep in the infirmary was when she allowed her signs of distress to show. Clenching her fist around Daichi's hand, she pressed her forehand softly on his shoulder and tears started coming out without anyone's permission.
Ever since that episode, Oriana didn't allow Daichi to get out of her sight. For the rest of the day, she was clutching to Daichi's side, refusing to let him go freely.
The accident kept coming up to her during her dreams. Eventually, she couldn't sleep anymore and opened her eyes. She dropped her shoulders with the vision of Daichi safe and asleep right next to her.
There is nothing to worry about, everything is fine now.
She reassured herself, bringing her body closer to his, she rested her face on Daichi's chest, shielding her eyes from the low setting sun outside. She didn't want this time to pass, ever. For all Oriana cared, they could spend the rest of eternity napping next to each other, always warm and comfortable.
Although, it wasn't long before other haunting thoughts filled her mind. Now that Daichi's scare was over, there was something else that was bothering Oriana. Sugawara's precognitive warning. She can't get Suga's words out of her head either. How something so dangerous was about to happen. How her friends were so far away and she had no way of contacting them. How she ran away from all of it.
Oriana felt Daich's arm brushing her back and his lips kissing the top of her head.
"What is it, love?" he groaned, still half asleep.
Oriana wasn't surprised, of course he knew something was off. Daichi always did.
"Are you still worried about what happened during the match?" he murmured to Oriana's hair.
"No, it's not that. I know you're okay."
Daichi tilts Oriana's chin up to get a better look at her face and the dark shadows of her eyes. A delicate thumb brushes Oriana's lips, none of them saying nothing for a few seconds. After a brief pause, Oriana's heart skips a nervous beat as Daichi looks her dead in the eyes. His voice was quiet and tense, his concern barely restrained,
"Who did this to you?"