"Mom?"
Kageyama crawled out of bed from the muffled shout that had awoken him from his sleep, his pajama pant legs pooled around his ankles as he shuffled his feet across the carpet of his bedroom.
His eyes were dry and crusted when he rubbed them, his other hand clutching the side of his sleep shirt as he made his way to his parents' room. The house was cold to him; the air conditioner running overnight made the boy shiver and miss the warmth of his sheets that were washed by his mother just the day before.
The door to the room was already cracked open and Kageyama could see the light that came in from the moon that shined outside, illuminating the small area around the entrance.
He pushed the door open slowly and peered inside, stepping forward until his breath hitched from what he saw. Most of the room was darkened despite the natural glow of the moon, but he could still see the image of his mother's body dangling from the edge of the bed, her blood splattered along the wooden headboard and her arm grazing the floor of the room.
"Tobio."
The boy turned his head at the voice and looked over at his father, just now noticing the third person standing at the foot of the bed, their arm extended out and pointing at his father's head. His body was taller than him by a few inches, his hand gripping the handle of a gun and his finger pressed against the trigger.
"Tobio," his father called again, the man never moving from his spot on the bed, "Tobio, run-!"
A single gun shot was enough to silence him, his body slumping back into the sheets before Kageyama even had a chance to turn and make a break for it. His heart throbbed in his chest and his throat burned with the breath he took, his hands shaking as he looked at his parents' killer.
"You should listen to your father, Tobio."
Kageyama suddenly felt heat surrounding him, smoke filling his nostrils and flames pressing against his back. He couldn't breathe, he couldn't get out-
Kageyama's eyes snapped open and he gasped, flicking his gaze around the ceiling of his dorm room before sitting up and reaching for his phone. The ringing had woken him up and he found himself covered in cold sweat from his nightmare. His shirt was clinging to his skin uncomfortably, but he ignored the itching sensation and answered his phone. "Hello?"
"I'm sorry for calling you so early before your classes, but it's urgent that you come to the warehouse."
It was Sugawara, the man sounding a bit flustered over the phone. "What's going on?" Kageyama didn't get a reply before the call was cut off, his senior hanging up before he could explain himself. Instead of wondering, the sniper got dressed and slipped on his Karasuno black jacket, a gift that was given to him and the other new members just a few days before.
Reaching under his bed, he pulled out his gun and slipped it into his backpack, locking up his room as he left. He saw Hinata do the same in the hallway, the orange haired student grinning at the unlikely timing.
"Did you get a call from Tanaka, too?"
Kageyama walked beside him as they left the building, the two of them spotting Tsukishima and Yamaguchi just yards in front of them on campus. "Something like that. Do you think there was another attack?"
Hinata seemed focused on the pair ahead of them as well, his eyes staring at the freckled student who's back was to them. "I don't think so, otherwise they wouldn't have called us. Boss shooed us out after that last attack, remember? He wouldn't want us sticking our noses in something like that, even if we are a part of Karasuno."
They followed the hackers into the train station and took the same car, the four of them meeting up as they got off and walked to the warehouse down the dusty road. They each kept to themselves on the way to work, Yamaguchi tapping away on his phone while Tsukishima stuffed his hands in his pockets.
The warehouse was clean of the debris that had scattered throughout the establishment, but the hole was no where near being fixed up like they had planned. A few vehicles were lined up outside, Tanaka's truck loaded with wooden support planks and tools.
The windows were repaired, brand-new glass replacing shards from the attack. The door was open and outside stood Ukai, crates stacked beside him and a calculator in his hand. He typed furiously, his brows scrunched in heavy thought, a cigarette absent between his teeth for once. If he saw the four of them pass, he made no indication of acknowledgment.
Most everyone was gathered near the boss' office, Sugawara and Daichi on either side of a large blueprint, the two of them holding up and motioning near the bottom. "We'll infiltrate near the back, sending-" Daichi ceased his explanation, his dark eyes casting a glance to their arrival. "You're just in time."
Hinata squeezed past Kageyama and Yamaguchi, his mop of hair bouncing with the maneuver. He was told to bring whatever weapons he had on him, but he wasn't expecting an infiltration. Of what, exactly? "What's this about?"
The rest of the men turned towards them, Tanaka's hands shoved in his pockets and fiddling something that was inside of it. His body shifted from the change of direction, his broader form revealing a smaller, more petite one behind him. Hinata didn't remember seeing the person during recruitment, nor during the Aoba Johsai invasion.
"Yachi?"
The person in questioned jumped, her eyes wide as she spotted the source of the voice. Her anxious expression morphed into something closer to surprise, the girl waving. "Shoyo!"
Hinata jogged over and took a hold of her hand, shaking it gently as a type of mock greeting. "I haven't seen you since high school! What are you doing here?" His grin split his face, a shining difference to the mood in the room. He hadn't expected Yachi to be here, at Karasuno, of all places.
She flushed a bit at the contact, her hair different from the last time Hinata had seen her. It was shorter and she lacked her signature side ponytail, but she maintained her youthful radiance and bright eyes. She was taller than him now, something Hinata couldn't help but find a little irritating. "I was hired for a job here. Kiyoko recommended me to your boss just last week."
"We're running through the simulation right now." Nishinoya had his arms folded, his suit missing a tie and his spiked hair flopped down over his forehead. The disheveled look and dark circles under his eyes indicated a lack of sleep. Not all too different from Kageyama, if the bomber was being honest.
Hinata got a good look at the blueprint for the first time, noticing the layout and the size. "Are we robbing a warehouse or something?" Some parts were sketched too roughly, the man unsure where the entry to the rooms even began. It seemed to have two floors, most of the rooms constructed at the north of the building and the floor space cluttered with notes and scribbles indicating rushed handwriting. "Date Co…"
"The Iron Wall," Sugawara cut in, his hand now on Daichi's shoulder for support. His leg still hadn't healed completely, but the man was no longer wincing from the weight brought on his ankle. "We used to be business partners some time ago, sharing profit from the drug cartels in Europe around the Mediterranean. Date turned greedy over our part of the deal; a war broke out soon after."
"They owe us money, that's for sure." Nishinoya pulled a cigarette from the breast pocket of his suit jacket, lighting it before exhaling the cloud of smoke towards Hinata's direction. The small grimace Sugawara made at the action didn't go unnoticed by the boss.
"What about Aoba Johsai? Shouldn't we do something about their earlier attack?" Yamaguchi rubbed the side of his arm in nervous habit, but his eyes were more focused on the crowd standing in front of him. Settling the score with an old enemy was fine, but he didn't see the point of ignoring the other threat.
Daichi folded up the blueprint now that their attention was swayed by the question, rolling the paper up and tucking it under his arm. They were more stressed over who had attacked them than why. Shady business like this was full of liabilities and dangerous people, but Aoba Johsai had come out of nowhere without a known reason.
He remembered Suga s expression during the interrogation, his pupils blown as he sliced into the attacker s skin, cutting open old wounds and making him bleed over the chair he was tied to. His left hand had fingernails missing, his thumb nail hanging from a thin strand of skin that his friend never bothered to rip off completely. It had taken less than ten hours before the man had died from heavy lacerations, Sugawara never bothering to keep him alive.
If that carelessness was done by any other member, Daichi would have had them killed. It wasn't just the man's seniority that prevented his action. They needed his skill and experience more than anything, but he knew better than to insert himself in his work. Talking to Suga during an episode was walking into an early grave, something he didn't want to gamble regardless of his job.
In the end, they couldn't get anything out of the man. Aoba Johsai's attack was answered with silence.
"We don't know any details pertaining to their actions. Going in blind would be suicide." Daichi ignored the stares from the four, wishing he could do something to erase this whole mess. Everyone seemed to look up to him for leadership, despite Nishinoya's role. Perhaps if he wasn't so busy with out-of-town business, he could actually play the part of boss every once and awhile.
As if Daichi's thoughts provoked him, Nishinoya pulled the cigarette from his mouth and blew another puff out, the tips of his fingers pressing into the teeth marks left on the paper roll. "To answer your question, yes, we should." He pointed to Yachi with his free hand, shifting his eyes from Yamaguchi to meet the woman's. "Which is why we hired her." Another drag interrupted his explanation. "We have yet to have her scout our main source of interest, but let's just say that this was a test run. We need more than just one person getting into a place as dangerous as Johsai."
"Which is where you come in." Tanaka grinned and pulled something out of his pocket, tossing it to Yamaguchi without hesitation. It was a wireless earpiece, tan in color. He watched the man catch it in his hands, inspecting the item with growing interest. Tsukishima didn't have time to blink before one was thrown to him, too. "We gotta put you two to work if you want to make a living here, right?"
Rolling it between his fingers, Tsukishima hummed and carefully touched the clear, fragile antenna that was barely noticeable. "I'm assuming you want us to go with her?" He would be lying if he said he'd rather be in Thermodynamics listening to a lecture right now.
"Not you, just Yamaguchi." Kiyoko took a step out, a thin folder grasped in her hand. She held it out for Yamaguchi to look at, the student carefully taking it from her as his eyes scanned the pictures inside. "We'll need Tsukishima to stay and monitor his movements from here."
"We only need an outline of the interior, nothing too detailed." Tanaka sighed, crossing his arms. "Unfortunately, our ugly mugs are too well known around Shinjuku to do any sort of scouting around the area. We couldn't dig up any information about the building itself, either. Nothing outside of business operations, anyway."
If it was an outline they wanted, Tsukishima would gladly assist. Yamaguchi was usually sent to do these inside jobs anyway, discovering blind spots and creating a map with just the use of his eyes. The information was enough to get them in and out of their target without drawing attention, but this was far more dangerous than some city bank. Security was probably all over the place.
Yamaguchi flipped through the rest of the photos given to him, eyeing the surroundings and the crowds loitered around their target. It was a commercial area and well-populated from the looks of it. "It's a... business building." He had never traveled to Shinjuku himself, but the place seemed pretty ordinary to him. Their warehouse could have attracted more attention if it were out in the open compared to corporate headquarters in the middle of a city.
"Aoba Johsai looks too well-off to be picking a fight with us," Tsukishima muttered, adjusting his glasses. "I'm assuming it's open to the public, to an extent?" He pointed to the business woman exiting the double doors with a briefcase in hand, her figure partly distorted due to the photo.
"Johsai handles its commerce to the unaware on the outside, but deals their traffic to the lowlives on the inside. From what we know, only certain floors are available to the common people to maintain the facade of a white-glove business. It'll be your job to find out what those floors are and which ones to exploit, in a sense."
"Meanwhile, we'll be handling things with Date to throw off any suspicions of espionage. It'll be up to the three of you to make your own decisions. If one of you even so much as thinks you're in trouble, hightail it out of there, understand? We can't afford to have any of you killed on this mission." Daichi's eyes narrowed at the implication.
Kiyoko retrieved the photos from Yamaguchi and neatly arranged them back into the folder, sealing it with her hands again. "I will also be accompanying you to Aoba Johsai's headquarters in the meantime. We will be entering at separate locations to ensure our cover remains as so."
"As for the rest of you," Sugawara smiled and gained the attention of everyone else, motioning back to the rolled up poster paper Daichi had tucked under his arms. "We have a bit of planning to do."
"Were the vests really necessary?" Yamaguchi adjusted the front of his shirt for a third time, pulling at the hem to stretch it out enough. He felt heavier with it on, like he suddenly gained two kilograms from doing nothing.
"If you want to live, yes." The voice in his ear replied, albeit roughly.
"You're not the one wearing it." The man mumbled under his breath to prevent gaining attention from onlookers by talking to himself. Tsuki was probably sitting in his chair staring at their moving dots on the computer screen, comfortable and vest-free. Realistically speaking, he was probably just as nervous as he was, but he was allowed to spite every now and then.
"Take a left at the crosswalk, Yamaguchi."
Yamaguchi followed the directions quietly, wondering if the girls were having any trouble on their end. "Yachi?"
There was a sudden silence and then a meek reply. "Yes?"
"Nothing, just wanted to see if you were still there." Kiyoko and Yachi had taken the same train and were headed to Aoba Johsai together while he took a taxi half-way. He supposed having the older woman there with Yachi helped ease his mind a bit, knowing that she was in good hands, but he wondered if keeping them as a pair would throw off Kiyoko's plan of anonymity.
Yachi bit her lip out of habit, worried for Yamaguchi's safety. It didn't feel fair to go with Kiyoko and have him alone, even with Tsukishima as their eyes. He was closer than they were, but that didn't put her thoughts to rest.
Kiyoko walked ahead by a few paces, her attire fitting in perfectly with the rest of the city's passerbys. Her slacks were pressed and tidy and you couldn't even tell there was a vest under her suit jacket. She looked like she belonged in a place like Johsai.
Her nervous demeanor must have been noticed because she suddenly felt a tap on her shoulder from behind. She turned around on her heel, surprised by the action, and came face-to-face with a teenager and his school uniform rather untidy. Just a white shirt and an undone tie around his neck.
"Hey," He approached her with a sly smile and a look in his eye that already made Yachi uncomfortable. "You don't look like you're from around here. You get lost or something?"
Kiyoko had finally stopped walking, attentive to the disruption behind her. She wasn't expecting a stranger to hold them up before they even arrived at the headquarters.
"Um, no. My friend and I were just-"
"Going to see a movie." She interjected, her eyes narrowed as she reached for Yachi's hand. "We don't need directions, thank you." It was better to end this quickly before something else happened. They didn't have time to waste on teenage boys trying to score a phone number.
He didn't seem to take it as a valid answer, apparently, because he immediately answered back with just as much bite. "I was trying to be nice!" Their refusal to reply as they turned the corner only fueled his frustration. "Hey!"
Kiyoko walked faster and made another turn, narrowly avoiding running into a couple on their phones. Shinjuku wasn't nearly as crowded on the back streets as it was where they were headed, but she didn't want to take that chance.
Luck wasn't on their side, however, when she heard the boy return just a few steps behind them. "I'm talking to you, bitch." He began to walk faster until he caught up with Yachi, the boy putting his hand on her shoulder and forcing her to turn around completely. However, his attention was on the other, not her.
Kiyoko's hand had left Yachi's when she turned, the woman meeting the teenager's stare with something akin to murder. If he wanted to make a fool of himself, he had better do it quickly.
"Kiyoko, is something wrong?" Tsukishima's voice was in her ear. "The monitor keeps telling me you've stopped."
"Nothing to worry about." Her tone was even as she spoke, her eyes still trained on the boy.
It was nothing to worry about up until he grabbed onto her shirt.
A blur of pink caught her sight and suddenly the hand on her blouse was gone, replaced with an empty feeling and a ball of bunched up cloth on her mid-section. The boy had yelled something before he dropped to the ground.
Yachi had gripped his wrist as fast as he had latched onto her, driving her other arm against him until his forearm snapped from the pressure.
She never gave the kid a second to think before Kiyoko delivered a swift kick to his head, effectively knocking him out on the pavement. She looked around for any witnesses before she took Yachi and ran, making their way around the small business buildings before they found an intersection and a crowd of people to blend into.
Kiyoko maneuvered around a man and his dog before she had finally let go of her, the two of them safely away from the scene they had fled from. Before she could say anything, however, Yachi was already apologizing.
"I'm sorry, he just caught up and grabbed you and you had a knife and I panicked, I'm so sorry I almost got us busted!" Her face was red and she was flustered, her form bowing along with her expression of regret.
Standing there in the middle of the sidewalk wasn't going to get them anywhere, Kiyoko bringing her to stand up straight again. Expecting something harsh, she watched Yachi flinch and smiled instead, her fear transforming into confusion. "Don't worry, you did the right thing by stopping him."
The kid would have been dead if she hadn't stepped in.
Kiyoko glanced down at her sleeve before she continued on, Yachi trailing behind her. How she managed to catch the dagger in her cuff was something she wanted to discuss at a later date. Right now they had more pressing matters at hand.
Yachi walked beside her when they approached the entrance, the doors sliding open and allowing them inside. The lobby was decorated with blue and white themed furniture, the posh lounge just a taste of what Aoba Johsai's money could buy.
They were greeted by the receptionist behind the desk, but the women were more focused on the freckled student that stood idle by the hallway, awaiting the arrival of an elevator car.
Yamaguchi had arrived right on time.
