Life aboard a navy frigate was neither as awful as Yamaguchi had feared nor as exciting as Hinata had hoped. Mostly it was a lot of hard work: drills, drills, and more drills. They were expected to learn the basics of the ship, not with training so much as being thrown right into it. and they did indeed swab the decks. The main part of the day was training with their assigned gun crews, carrying their heavy cartridges from the magazine to the gundeck and back again. Hinata's strength and speed stood him well in such exercises, but Yamaguchi struggled. And by the end of several hours of incessant running, being shouted at and cuffed for any hint of lagging, even Hinata began to run out of energy and optimism.
But they were not ill-treated and bullied, at least not as a general rule, as Yamaguchi had seemed to expect. True, they were at the bottom of the ship's hierarchy, below even the other powder boys since they were newest and the youngest. Most of the older sailors considered them a nuisance underfoot, and a casual box about the ears for being in the way fell on Hinata regularly. In that respect, at least, Yamaguchi fared a bit better—he was much more skilled than Hinata at fading into the background. This was not calculated cruelty or purposeful harassment, just a consequence of being small and unimportant on a great, big ship with a great, big crew, all much too busy and much too rough to bother with two young boys new to the sea. The exception being, of course and always, Tanaka-senpai.
The Swan had more than a dozen powder boys when Hinata and Yamaguchi were brought aboard. They were greeted early in the first day by a small group of them, all a year or two older than the new recruits and beginning to outgrow their role. They looked at Yamaguchi and Hinata with mingled curiosity and disdain. The oldest of the group, Yokote, was still very short, but the others were growing into gangly adolescence.
Yokote was sharp-eyed and sharp-smiled, given to pushing his overlong hair back out of his face as the breeze tossed it about. He narrowed in on Hinata immediately, giving him a stare-down the moment they met that Hinata did not understand at all. Hinata stood gap-mouthed under the scrutiny, more in awe than anything, for here was an experienced sailor who had been doing Hinata's new job for years.
Yokote stalked closer to Yamaguchi and Hinata, who were standing alone on the deck, abandoned for the moment as Tanaka had duties to attend to after he gave them their first tour of their new home. Yamaguchi trembled at Hinata's side, shrinking back, but Hinata didn't move. He stared at Yokote in confusion and wonder.
Yokote leaned in to stare into Hinata's face. Though he was only a few centimeters taller than Hinata, he carried himself as if he was ten times as large. To Hinata, he had the dignity and presence of an admiral commanding twenty fleets of warships.
"Let's get one thing clear straight away," Yokote said, staring into Hinata's eyes without blinking. "If you do not obey my orders to the letter, you will die the instant the Swan joins another ship in battle. You may think you're strong and fast, you may have been admired and victorious in whatever pisshole you came from. But you're on the Swan, now, and things have changed. You're a tiny fish in a big ocean, and you'd do well to listen to what I have to tell you."
Hinata flushed at this. He had, in fact, thought that he was strong and fast. He was used to being among the most athletic in his neighborhood, victorious in almost every physical game he took up. But he wasn't as stupid as Yokote seemed to think he was. He knew he wasn't in Yukigaoka anymore. He knew things would be different here, and he had a lot to learn. From everyone.
"Aye, senpai," he said, giving a nod he thought to be almost military, swift and precise. "I'll listen to everything you tell me. I take orders well, you'll see."
Something hard in Yokote's eyes went a touch gentler, though it was more like a porcupine lowering half its needles than a rough sea smoothing out to glassy clarity. He leaned back on his heels and rested his hands on his hips. "Do you mean that? Will you follow through? It's easy to say now that you'll be a good little shipmate and do as you're told, but when the battle begins, when the cannons and roar and the splinters fly, will you stand true or will you fold to your knees like a coward?"
"I'll stand true!" Hinata declared, puffing himself up and pounding himself on the chest.
Yokote raised one eyebrow, and Hinata deflated, his arm falling to his side again. "Well, I'll do my best."
A hint of a smile twitched Yokote's lips. "Aye, you will. We'll see to it that you will."
Having received satisfactory respect from Hinata, Yokote flicked his gaze to Yamaguchi. "And you? Will you stand firm in battle? This ship depends on us. Without an adequate supply of powder, every battle will fail, and we'll all die, consumed by the sea and the brigands who sail it. You look like a wimp. What colors will you show when the stakes are high?"
Yamaguchi quailed, hunching down behind Hinata's shoulder. But then something happened. A change swept over him, subtle but strong, like the shift of a tide. He stood straight and looked Yokote in the eye for the first time.
"I won't run," he said, a touch of iron in his voice.
Hinata looked back at him, eyebrows rising in appreciation. Yamaguchi still seemed to be trembling, and his stance was weak and unbalanced enough that a gentle shove to his elbow would knock him straight over. But he looked back at Yokote without blinking, and his jaw was firm. There was something behind his eyes, something firm and mighty. Something both Yokote and Hinata could see, though it was nearly defeated, nearly drowned, by the quiver in his voice.
Yokote looked Yamaguchi up and down in assessment, his eyes heavy-lidded but not dismissive. After a long moment of contemplation, his lips quirked in a smile. "I supposed we'll just have to wait and see."
Hinata bristled, but Yokote spun on his heel and sauntered off, his taller companions snickering along behind him. Hinata moved as if to chase him down and tell him off, but Yamaguchi stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. He shook his head slowly from side to side when Hinata paused and looked back at him.
"It's all right," Yamaguchi said. "I'm not insulted. We truly will have to wait and see if I can live up to what I just said... I don't know, myself."
Hinata wrapped his hand around the Yamaguchi's wrist and squeezed hard. "Of course you won't run, Yamaguchi. You're braver than you think you are."
Yamaguchi just shook his head again, and that was that.
Later, the new recruits lined up on desk while Captain Ushijima inspected them from the forecastle, his hands clasped behind his back. The captain's shoulders were broad, and the feather in his hat bobbed in the breeze. Metal glittered on his shoulders and on his chest, the insignia and marks of a well-decorated navyman. His face was stern and set, and there was a darkness in his eyes that frightened and fascinated Hinata in equal measure.
"That's him," Yamaguchi murmured to Hinata, his lips barely moving at he stared at the captain without blinking. "That's the captain they say is the best naval officer in all the Archipelago. They say no one can stand against him, whether in a ship-to-ship battle or man to man. He's too strong. He downs every opponent who ever faces him with a single blow, crushing and overwhelming them before they can answer back."
Hinata stared up at the captain, Yamaguchi's words washing over him like icy waves. He'd heard of the Swan and of Captain Ushijima, of course, but he'd never paid much attention to the tales. Now he wished he had. He'd never seen such an imposing figure in all his days.
A much smaller figure stepped up beside the captain, also looking over the gathered sailors. Yamaguchi's breath caught. "Could it be...? I think, I think that might be Captain Ushijima's navigator. They say no one ever sees him. They say he's too precious to be allowed out in the weather, so the captain keeps him shut up in the cabin all the time. The way people talk about him, it's like he's as much a pet as a crewmate."
The guy who might be Ushijima's navigator had the appearance to match the stories—small, slight, pale from living out of the sun. Every other face on the entire ship—including Hinata's and Yamaguchi's—had more coloring and weathering than the navigator's. But he moved up beside the captain with no hesitation, stepping into Ushijima's space. And Ushijima didn't even twitch at the invasion. They must have known each well.
The navigator nudged Ushijima's arm with his elbow and leaned up to say something in his ear. Hinata couldn't hear the words, but he saw the captain's eyes narrow. He glanced at his navigator and said something back, his expression indifferent. The navigator repeated what he'd said, a bit more vigorously.
Captain Ushijima let out a breath and faced the gathered sailors again. His broad shoulders slumped, no longer completely square against the bright blue of the sky behind him. "Apparently I am supposed to say something now," he said.
The sailors became still and silent, those that had been fidgeting or muttering going rigid in attention. The captain raised his voice not one iota, and yet the sound reached every centimeter of the deck with no effort at all. His voice was deep and rough and attention-grabbing, yet also strangely flat.
"So I will say this, and only this," Ushijima said. "Fight for me. What I tell you to do, you do. That is life aboard the Swan. Do not forget it. You're in the navy now, and you are my men."
The sailors waited, expecting more. Wasn't a captain supposed to be inspirational? Wasn't he supposed to motivate his underlings to rouse their emotions for use in the fight? Wasn't he supposed to be charismatic and interesting and...well...not quite such a clod?
But the captain said nothing else. He nodded to the gathered crew, stiffly, once, then turned and plodded away, his boots making such sounds on the deck that it seemed that a giant was stomping over the ship. The navigator, behind him, rolled his eyes, then bowed to the sailors and hurried after the captain. And that was it. That was Hinata and Yamaguchi's introduction to the Swan.
All in all, it was a strange day. Hinata did not know whether to be glad or disappointed to find that Terushima was not among the Swan's sailors. He was glad because it was a clue in favor of Terushima not being a conscripter who had fooled Hinata into liking him and enjoying his company. But he was disappointed because this meant that Hinata was not Terushima's shipmate, and he was very unlikely to ever again hear Terushima sing that song Hinata had enjoyed so much.
Hinata and Yamaguchi treasured their rare free time, wandering around the parts of the ship they were allowed to go and trying not to get in anyone's way. Sometimes they hung around on the deck, trying to catch a glimpse of Tanaka going about his duties, but someone usually chased them off before too long. Hinata loved leaning over a railing and staring at the sea rushing by below, watching any sea life in evidence while Yamaguchi held on to the back of his shirt and begged him not to fall. One day a pod of dolphins swam alongside the Swan for several hours, and Hinata was in raptures.
Yamaguchi preferred the whiles he and Hinata spent talking, leaning up in a quiet corner of the sloping deck. There was a nook of the forecastle where the cabin met the bow that seemed custom-made for two boys to sit and gab away the time. They first started using it because it happened to be out of sight of the railing, as well as sheltered from the wind, and even after several weeks at sea Yamaguchi still blanched at the sight of the water and longed for any respite from it. Early on, Hinata found this place and led his new friend there, and it soon became their familiar haunt. Eventually Yamaguchi grew a little bolder and more confident ("Your sea legs are finally coming in!" Hinata had declared), but they still appreciated the relative freedom and solitude of their chosen home.
Yamaguchi talked a lot about his friend, Tsukki, and the things they did together. They were too quiet and too uninteresting to Hinata's eyes, but Yamaguchi was truly wistful and grieving their loss, so he kept that to himself. He felt like he came to know this Tsukki person through Yamaguchi's stories—a wondrously strong friend who was funny and kind and confident and cool-headed and the smartest person in the entire Archipelago. Then Hinata made the mistake of asking about Yamaguchi's family
Yamaguchi hesitated at first, but Hinata kept pestering him, and he broke. He spoke of his family and how much he missed them—his parents, the carpentry shop they ran in Karasuno, his two older brothers and three younger sisters. Yamaguchi had always felt lost in the crowd amongst his own family. There was always someone talking louder than him, always someone grabbing more attention, always someone better or stronger or faster or cuter. He'd envied his oldest brother's skill with his hands, his other brother's intelligence. He'd envied his sisters for the effortless way they seemed to control their surroundings, their beauty and confidence and sense of the way things should go together.
"I always thought," Yamaguchi admitted once, just for Hinata's ears, "that if I ever vanished someday, no one would notice. Why would they? I was just Tadashi. I never stood out. I tried to be dependable and to do what was asked of me, but I always failed in one way or another. And now I really have vanished and all, probably forever, and I don't even know if I was right or not. Did anyone notice? Did anyone care?"
Hinata gaped at Yamaguchi in dismay. He wanted to yell and scream. Of course they noticed! Of course they cared! How could anyone not notice when you vanished, let alone your own family? They must be heartbroken! But he didn't know that. He didn't know Yamaguchi's family. His only window into that world, that life, was Yamaguchi himself, and he was beginning to understand that Yamaguchi perhaps did not see himself and his surroundings as clearly as he ought to.
It was all completely outside of Hinata's experience. He had never doubted his own importance, his own validity and worth and value. He had been captain of his own little gang for as long as he could remember, and his family was noisy and grubby and half-starved much of the time, but they never lacked for affection.
After a long moment, Hinata said the only words that would come to him. "Well, I would care if you vanished. And so would Tanaka-senpai! We would care very, very much. So you have to be careful not to do that, aye? You have to stay safe and stay strong, because you're our Yama-chan and we can't lose you!"
Yamaguchi blinked at Hinata in bald astonishment. And he blinked. And blinked again. Then he smiled, sudden and sweet and broad and bright. "Aye!"
Hinata grinned back, and he got up on his knees so that he was tall enough to give Yamaguchi's hair a good ruffling. Then he sat down, cross-legged on the deck again, and looked his friend in the face. "My turn! I have more stories I haven't told you."
Yamaguchi nodded. "Aye, please tell them all."
Hinata told Yamaguchi about his own life, so far removed from Yamaguchi's even though they'd lived only one town apart. Yamaguchi had grown up well-fed and well-clothed, the third son of a prosperous craftsman in a populated town. Hinata had grown up as the child of a groomsman in a fishing village, and his life had been loud and boisterous and as active as the port that defined his town. His family was small and rough and usually scraping to get by, and they fought and scrabbled with each other as much as they ever did with outsiders. But Hinata had never had any reason to dislike his life, as pitiable and difficult as it might have seemed to anyone who hadn't lived it.
"I was always happy where I was," Hinata said. "There was always something fun going on, someone to play with and some game or competition to try. I liked my life, and I miss my mom and my dad and my little sister and my friends, but I'm not sad about being at sea, either. There's a lot going on here, too! We're going to meet lots of people and have lots of adventures. And someday, aye someday, for certain and sure, we're going to see a dragon. I know it! Won't that be grand?"
Yamaguchi watched Hinata with a smile, soft and fond, his chin resting on his folded hands. "Aye, you're happy where you are, always and all," he said gently. "It's a lovely gift of the spirit, and I envy you your contentment, I do. We need to spend more time together, Hinata-chan. You have to teach me how to be like you."
Hinata laughed at that, shocked and pleased by the compliments. Yamaguchi was rarely so open with his feelings. Hinata tumbled over on his side and rolled on the deck until he ran into Yamaguchi's legs, and Yamaguchi patted his head and laughed, too.
It was true that they did not get to spend enough time together. They stole away for every free moment they had, but those were rare and hard-snatched, and always there was the pressure of looming responsibilities and the knowledge that they would have to return to the drills and the lessons and relentless, unending work in just a little while. In a way, though, that only made these moments all the sweeter.
"Ahh, we have to get back now," Yamaguchi said reluctantly, pushing himself up to his knees and peeking around the edge of the cabin. "They'll be looking for us soon. I don't want another caning."
Hinata made a face. Canings were the worst. Neither he nor Yamaguchi had earned a formal punishment yet, but the casual stripes for laziness or inattention or any of a hundred other offenses were bad enough.
"Aye, you speak the truth." Hinata dragged himself to his feet. After a quick look around to make sure the coast was clear, they sidled out of their hiding place and began moving back to the gundeck.
"You!" cried one of the other powder boys when he spotted them coming. "Where have you two been hiding?" He pointed at them as if in accusation, and two other boys moved up behind him, leering at Hinata and Yamaguchi with hostility and a creepy kind of pleasure.
Yamaguchi's shoulders hunched up, and he tried to make himself even smaller than he usually did. Hinata looked at him with narrowed eyes, then back to the boys who blocked their path. "Leave us alone, Billy Hanson," he declared. "It's none of your business where we were. We're back in time for the next drills, so who cares?"
"I care," said Billy Hanson with a sneer. "I care what you're doing with little Pimple-Face Tadashi there, because he's a worthless, scrawny wimp and he'll drag you down with him if you're not careful."
Hinata bristled. He cast a glance back at Yamaguchi and saw him staring at the deck, a hot flush of red painting his cheeks. Yamaguchi had told him, once, that he had known Billy Hanson and his two friends back in Karasuno. The three had vanished without a word a couple of years ago, and Yamaguchi had been surprised to meet them again on the Swan. It hadn't sounded like Yamaguchi missed them.
Now Hinata knew why.
He looked back to Billy Hanson, crossing his arms over his chest and widening his stance on the deck as it tilted with the waves. "You shut up," he said. He wished that he had a better comeback, but that was all that came to his lips. "You don't know anything. Yamaguchi is a brave sailor and a good friend, and you're a turd."
Billy's crooked smile only grew. He pushed closer to Hinata, backed up by his friends, and loomed over him. Billy Hanson was as tall as Yamaguchi, but he was considerably broader and more muscular. Hinata looked up at him, holding his ground, though he wished that Tanaka-senpai was around so he could hide behind him. He refused to be intimidated. He would not let this bully push him around. But he wasn't finding it easy.
"You'd better watch your mouth," Billy Hanson said, menacing and low. "We'll find out where you've been hiding and report your laziness to the bosun. You'll both get a whipping. We'll see who's the turd then, won't we?"
Hinata held his ground, but he could feel his knees begin to waver. He didn't like it. He was used to having the upper hand in any childish fight he got into, he and his little band of companions. But things were different aboard the Swan. He and Yamaguchi were powerless here, at the mercy of whatever their elders chose to do to them.
"You leave us alone, Billy Hanson," he said again, but he could hear the tremble in his own voice, as much as he tried to hide it. "We didn't do anything wrong."
It might have been that tremble that Billy was waiting for. He laughed, leaning back, his posture falling loose and relaxed. He'd gotten what he'd wanted—he'd succeeded in frightening a smaller, younger boy. A petty triumph, but it was what he had wished for, and Hinata had given it to him.
"Don't worry, little kouhai." Billy chuckled and gave Hinata's head the most condescending pat he'd ever endured. Hinata grit his teeth and stood still, his skin crawling. "As long as you show me the proper respect, I won't let Captain Ushi hurt you or your buddy, there."
Hinata twisted up his face. "Captain...Ushi?"
"Isn't it fun how our captain's name sounds like a cow?" He leaned forward, whispering into Hinata's ear. "But if you ever tell anyone I called him that, I'll push you overboard when no one is looking and let you drown."
Hinata stepped back, his feet moving on their own. Yamaguchi caught his shoulders and held him steady, and the two of them stared at Billy with undisguised terror. Billy Hanson laughed and backed off, beckoning for his friends to follow.
Hinata and Yamaguchi stared at each other, wide-eyed and sweating. Neither of them had anything to say, no words of comfort for each other. Yamaguchi held Hinata's shoulders tightly enough to hurt, and Hinata leaned back into the grip and concentrated on keeping his feet underneath him.
Then the gun master called for the drills to begin again, and they had no more time to absorb what had just happened. The work went on, and there was nothing to do but get through it.