Chapter Three
Daichi's voice caught in his throat as he absorbed what exactly he was looking at. Sugawara was lying unconscious on the window, which had cracked beneath him, so much so that the captain didn't understand how the glass hadn't already given way. Below Suga, Daichi could see the immense gap between the bus and the top of the trees below. The drop was at least a hundred feet down with nothing to cushion the fall but needle-like branches and the rocky side of the mountain.
"Suga!" Daichi yelled as he tried to move a little closer to his friend.
With his movement, the bus shifted slightly and Daichi froze. The last thing he wanted to do was tilt the bus forwards and send it hurtling over the edge but he needed to reach the setter and get him out of there as soon as possible.
"We'll move further back."
Ukai grabbed Takeda-sensei, despite the shorter man's protests, and ushered him back towards the rear of the bus. As much as he would prefer to get each and every student off the bus immediately, including Sawamura and Sugawara, he knew he was in no condition to lift someone who was unconscious.
The bus seemed to balance out a little more as the two adults moved back and Daichi wasted no time in climbing closer to Suga. He straddled the edge of the seats closest to his friend and tried to get an idea of his condition. Suga's face was bruised and a small cut under his right eye was oozing red steadily but it didn't look too serious. What worried Daichi more was the way blood had pooled underneath Suga's arms, more specifically his elbows. It must have been where he'd struck the glass as the spider-web of cracks seemed to originate right where his elbows lay. Trying to ignore those worries and focus on the bigger picture, the captain reached down as carefully as he could and prodded Suga's leg. He didn't want to add any more pressure to the glass as it looked like the slightest change might make it shatter into a million pieces and so poked his friend's leg once more, praying that it would be enough to wake him.
Finally Suga stirred. Pale brown eyes fluttered open and he moved to sit up, only to be frozen by Daichi's next words.
"Suga, do not move!"
Even in his half-conscious state, Koushi's brain automatically obeyed the voice of his captain and his body halted its movement. Slowly, he turned his head to look up at Daichi and a kind of half-smile made its way onto his face.
"Hi..."
Daichi sighed, thankful that the setter seemed to be mainly unharmed, "Hi."
Suga's head turned robotically to look down at the glass he was lying on and when he turned back to look at Daichi his face seemed to have paled slightly, making the blood trickling down his cheek stand out even more.
"Um… Daichi, this is bad," Suga's voice wobbled as he spoke but he didn't move.
Daichi nodded, "Yeah. But we've been in worse situations, right?" He couldn't think of one off the top of his head but it felt right to say in the moment, "I'm going to reach down and you're going to reach up, okay?"
Suga's eyes bugged out and he shook his head, soft greyish hair swishing side to side, "If I move it'll smash!"
That's a definite possibility but we're not going to think about that right now, Daichi thought as he shook his own head in response,
"Not if we're quick."
"I'm not Hinata, Daichi! I can't move that fast! I-"
"No, you're Karasuno's third year setter and I'm the captain so you'll do as I say, got it?"
Suga bit his lip and nodded, eyes glued to Daichi's darker ones. The setter got onto his knees, trembling as the cracks beneath him pinged and snaked out a little more, and raised his arms above his head. His fingers touched Daichi's calloused hands but not enough to be able to grab on tight. He dared one foot on the glass and stretched upwards like a middle blocker and finally got a stronger grip on his friend's arm.
The bus shifted.
Daichi felt the movement of the vehicle sliding forwards and could just make out the trees below tilting slightly as the front of the bus skidded on the rocky surface. This time though, the momentum didn't seem to be stopping. The bus continued to skid, albeit slowly, but within a minute or so it would be entirely off the road and free-falling through the air.
"Koushi!" Daichi yelled, startling his friend from his terrified daze, "You need to jump!"
"What?!" Suga still had his hand tight around Daichi's arm but didn't dare stand on his other foot for fear of completely smashing through the glass under him, "I can't!"
The sound of pebbles bouncing down the bus and over the lip of the road like rain filled their ears and Daichi could feel his composure slipping away and following them over the edge. He inhaled deeply and looked down at Sugawara with complete confidence, captain-mode dialled to the max.
"I'm going to count to three and you're going to jump and we're going to get out of this god-damned bus!"
Suga nodded feebly and shakily got to his feet. He looked down at the hundreds of cracks blooming from his feet like a giant flower and couldn't control the trembling of his knees as he reached his hands up towards Daichi. The captain gripped his friend's arms tightly and braced himself more on the seats.
"Okay. One," the bus shifted and more cracks formed on the glass, "Two," bags began to fall from the back of the bus to the front like boulders in a rockslide, "Three!"
Daichi's biceps burned as Suga jumped up. The window where he'd been standing suddenly shattered beneath him, exposing them to the elements, but neither boy had time to think about what-ifs. They both scrambled to the window above, Daichi boosting Suga out of it first, and then with an almighty screech and BOOM, the bus skidded over the edge of the road and tumbled down, down, down to the forest below.
Suga lay on his back in the middle of the dusty road, panting furiously. An overwhelming feeling of relief washed over him and he smiled, almost laughed as he turned to check on his saviour and friend. But Daichi wasn't there. The setter could hear the rest of the team a little further down the road, Ukai had managed to get them all out safely, but the captain was nowhere in sight. He sat up, eyebrows furrowed and mouth agape as he looked around frantically for Daichi.
"Daichi?!"
Noticing Suga's obvious distress, Tanaka jogged over to his senpai and knelt down beside him.
"Suga-san! Are you okay?"
Suga looked up at him like a lost child, panic in his pale eyes, "Daichi saved me..."
Tanaka nodded, "Yeah! Our captain's the best! Where is he anyway?"
Shakily, Suga got to his feet and shuffled towards the edge of the road. He turned to Tanaka, who's face had turned ashen at the sudden realisation, and swallowed thickly.
"I don't think he got out," tears pooled in Suga's eyes as he stared into the empty space where the bus had been just moments before, "He pushed me out first. Why would he do that?" He grabbed Tanaka's collar roughly, "Why would he do that?!"
"Because that's what captains do. We look out for our team."
Suga turned back to look at the edge of the road, Tanaka's collar still firmly between his fingers,
"Daichi?" he looked at Tanaka and shook the second year like he was trying to steal his lunch money, "Did you hear that?!"
Tanaka nodded, wincing slightly at the pain in his shoulder.
"A little help?" Daichi's fingers wiggled at the edge of the mountainside, confirming his location and that yes, he was in fact alive, "I can't get up."
Suga finally released Tanaka's collar and darted over to Daichi, quickly pulling him up onto the road, despite the protests of his bleeding arms. They knelt there, panting and coughing until Suga suddenly karate-chopped Daichi in the ribs and pouted angrily.
"BAKA!" Suga tired to fold his arms in annoyance but his elbows throbbed painfully, "You should have just saved yourself! You could've died!"
Daichi was going to say something witty but at the sight of tears streaming down Suga's bloodied face he opted for a polite head-bow and a muttered 'sorry' before ruffling the setter's hair.