Chapter Text
“Catch me if you can, Kageyama!”
“Oh, you are so dead!”
“Not if you can’t catch me–oof!” Hinata’s foot caught on a root sticking out of the ground, causing him to faceplant straight into the grass and drop the volleyball he had just stolen from a tall boy with dark hair and deep blue eyes. The ball rolled down a hill and into the woods just behind the Karasuno High School volleyball gym. Hinata spat a few blades of grass out of his mouth and began to push himself back to his feet, but as he did, another body slammed into him from behind.
Kageyama had been charging after Hinata but hadn’t expected him to fall down and now had too much momentum to stop himself. He barreled straight into the ginger-haired boy and sent both of them tumbling down the hill. Their limbs smacked into each other haphazardly until the ground finally leveled out and all was still.
“Ow, what was that for, Kageyama?” Hinata whined as he sat up and rubbed the back of his head.
“You’re the one who can’t keep track of your own feet, dumbass.” Kageyama said with a glare as he propped himself on his elbows.
“Oh whatever,” Hinata rolled his eyes. “Hey, where’d the volleyball go?” he said, standing and looking around.
“Does it matter? There are plenty more back in the gym. Which we should be getting back to, by the way.” Kageyama didn’t bother hiding the annoyance in his voice as he stood and turned to climb back up the hill.
“Hey, I see it!” Hinata bounced excitedly on his toes and held a hand above his eyes like an adventurer scanning the horizon.
The tall setter turned around to see that sure enough, further down and over a small creek, nestled up against a clump of trees covered in ivy, was their volleyball. Its bright yellow and blue coloring stood out distinctly against the greens and browns of the natural landscape.
“Race ya for it!” Hinata grinned before charging down the hill.
“Oh, not a chance!” Kageyama yelled as he bolted after him, any hint of indifference about the lost volleyball long gone in the face of yet another challenge from the over-energized middle blocker.
The pair were neck-and-neck as their volleyball shoes splashed through the creek, but Hinata managed to just shove himself in front of his opponent at the last moment as they both dove for the volleyball with hands outstretched. By just a fraction of a second, Hinata’s hands touched the ball first and he was able to wrench it away from Kageyama’s grasp and pull it tight to his chest, curling up in a fetal position as if the ball were some kind of lifeline.
They both laid motionless in the grass for a few moments, chests rising and falling rapidly as they tried to regain their breath. Between gasps, Hinata managed to choke out, “that’s… fifty-two…to fifty-one.”
“What…ever…dumbass,” was Kageyama’s response.
Once Hinata felt like he could breathe normally again, he moved to stand up and reached a hand behind him to use the tree for support. But instead of finding a solid surface, his hand found nothing, and he fell backwards through the cluster of vines with a startled “woah!”, leaving only his legs sticking out.
Did that tree just eat Hinata?? Kageyama thought alarmingly, eyes wide.
But a moment later, Hinata popped back out of the vines as he sat up, volleyball still sitting in his lap. He then craned his head around to look in wonder at what appeared from the outside to be an ordinary cluster of ivy.
“Woahhh, there’s like, totally a secret cave in there! You gotta check this out, Kageyama!” Before Kageyama had a chance to protest, Hinata had already shifted the volleyball to one arm and grabbed Kageyama’s wrist with the other, dragging him through the vines.
Kageyama found himself in a very large, cavernous space. He was pretty sure their whole volleyball gym could fit in here with room to spare. Which, of course, seemed like a total physical impossibility given that they had just walked through a tree, one that had appeared to have nothing but open space behind it. Tall stone walls and a stone ceiling enclosed the space, save for a single large hole that allowed sunlight, or at least, what one could only assume to be sunlight, to spill in from above. This light illuminated intricate carvings which adorned the walls, showing many things the boys couldn’t begin to understand. An illustrated landscape wrapped around the entire cavern depicting what looked like buildings sitting on top of… clouds? And birds. Lots, and lots of birds. These birds swirled around what was clearly the main focus of the carvings, the large humanoid figures. There were several of these figures, each one much larger in scale than the images surrounding, all floating with arms outstretched and wearing what looked like fancy robes of some kind.
But what was by far the most interesting about these figures was that they had wings. Huge, powerful wings made up of what must have been hundreds of feathers, each one individually carved into the stone in painstaking detail. Each pair of mighty wings extended to nearly twice the length of its figure’s arms.
“Woah,” the two boys breathed, unable to feel anything but awe for what they were seeing.
And in the center of it all, illuminated by the skylight overhead, was what looked to be some kind of altar. A small raised platform with steps on all four sides housed a pedestal in its center which supported a single, glittering turquoise jewel.
“Some kind of…historical…something?” Kageyama voiced the only possible explanation his mind could come up with about this place. As he slowly turned in a circle to take everything in, he realized a certain short ginger was no longer next to him.
Hinata was, instead, halfway across the room, walking towards the ominous looking altar.
Kageyama ran to catch up with him. “Hey, don’t just go messing around with random stuff, moron, we don’t even know what this place is,” he chided as he grabbed the back of the boy’s shirt.
Hinata stood silently for a few seconds, leaving Kageyama a bit confused as to why he wasn’t responding. “Um, hello? Earth to dumbass!” He gave the shirt a shake, and that seemed to suddenly bring him back to normal.
The shorter boy turned around and said with a smirk, “What, are you scared?”
“No!” Kageyama shot back defiantly, instantly releasing him.
“Then come on, silly!”
Kageyama rolled his eyes as his hyperactive teammate practically skipped up the steps of what could be the site of some ancient ritual sacrifice or something.
But then Hinata stopped just a short distance away from the strange jewel, his body suddenly freezing in an unsettling, almost trance-like way.
As Hinata stood there, the jewel’s slight otherworldly glow reflected in his wide, brown eyes and danced through his wild strands of orange hair. Then, slowly, he started to raise one hand toward the mesmerizing gem while the other let his volleyball drop to the floor, seemingly forgotten.
It could have been Kageyama’s imagination, or perhaps a trick of the light, but he swore the jewel got brighter as Hinata’s hand reached closer. He suddenly had a really bad feeling about all this.
“Hey, maybe you shouldn’t touch that-”
Hinata’s palm made contact with the jewel and instantly the entire cavern exploded in blinding blue light.
“The hell-?!” Kageyama instinctively raised an arm to shield his eyes from the intense brightness. When he looked out again, he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
The entire cavern was aglow. The wings of the stone figures on the walls had lit up a brilliant blue. What he could only describe as magical blue sparks hung in the air all around amidst the light.
And in the center of it all was Hinata, his body floating above the ground with his hand outstretched and grasping the jewel, which was now also levitating above its pedestal. His hair and clothes flew about wildly, and his entire body radiated with that same blue light, almost like the rays were breaking out of him from the inside.
Hinata’s face scrunched up and his muscles went taut. The feeling wasn’t so much painful as much as it felt like every cell in his body was supercharged. It was like the buzz of excitement he felt before a volleyball game but a million times more intense. It was entirely, indescribably overwhelming.
“Hinata, let go of that!” Kageyama yelled from behind.
But Hinata didn’t respond. Couldn’t respond. Couldn’t even move. His mind couldn’t focus on anything.
All he could think about was the sensation of lightning shooting through his arms and legs. The ringing in his ears that grew more piercing by the second. The blinding blue light that was slowly overtaking his vision, encroaching from the edges. It felt like his body was about to rip apart from so much raw energy coursing through it.
But just before the blue void took him over completely, he saw through tunnel vision two hands close around his wrist.
Kageyama yanked on Hinata’s arm, trying to pry his hand away from the freaky glowing jewel, but to no avail. He tried again and again with the same result. It was like the smaller boy’s hand had somehow fused to the rock. Then he heard a weak, pleading voice from behind,
“H- help… me…”
Kageyama turned around and saw with alarm that Hinata’s eyes were now completely glazed over with the same blue light that threatened to envelop the rest of his body. He looked, well, terrifying. But also terrified.
Kageyama made a decision then. Steeling himself, he turned back with renewed determination and braced one of his legs on the jewel’s pedestal for extra leverage. Then he pulled once more with all the strength he could muster, gritting his teeth with the effort.
Slowly but surely, he started to feel movement, and then finally, Hinata’s hand separated from the jewel and lightning-like energy crackled in protest within the newly vacated space. The two boys flew backwards and landed harshly on their backs a short distance from the altar.
Groaning, Kageyama looked up to see all the magic floating sparks suddenly get sucked back into the jewel and the lighted carvings on the walls go dark.
For a moment all was quiet.
Then the jewel began rapidly rotating and pulsating violently. If an inanimate rock could be angry, he was pretty sure this is what it would look like. He looked down at Hinata, whose head was lolled to the side against Kageyama’s shoulder. He didn’t move, and his eyes were still glowing pure blue.
That’s when a tendril of energy shot out from the glowing rock straight towards Hinata. Before he could even think, Kageyama moved his body in front of the smaller boy to shield him. The tendril hit the setter in the side and he cried out, imagining this is what being struck by lightning must feel like.
Still, he wasted no time. Ignoring the pain in his side, Kageyama scooped Hinata up in his arms and sprinted for the cluster of vines they had entered through. The tendrils continued to strike, following as he ran. A couple of them grazed Kageyama’s legs, and it hurt like hell, causing him to stumble. But he didn’t stop running. He tried his best to position himself to take the brunt of the attacks while keeping Hinata shielded.
Finally he burst back out into the open woods and ran back up the hill the way they’d come, not stopping until the innocent-looking ivy cluster was completely out of sight.
Kageyama collapsed on the grass and let Hinata slide out of his arms. The tall setter remained on his hands and knees breathing heavily, trying to calm his racing heart. The places he had been struck by the blue energy stung like crazy, but the pain was slowly fading.
So he turned to assess Hinata’s condition. He didn’t look outwardly injured, at least, and he appeared to be breathing normally. His eyes were closed now, so Kageyama had no idea if they were still doing the freaky glowy thing.
“Hi-Hinata?” He tentatively shook the young middle blocker’s shoulder. “Hinata, wake up!” Kageyama hissed.
After what felt like forever, his teammate stirred and slowly opened his eyes, and Kageyama was relieved to see they were back to their normal brown hazel color.
Hinata blinked a few times, and it took a moment for the concerned face hanging over him to come into focus.
“H-hey Kageyama…” he said drowsily.
“Are you okay?? What the hell was that?!” Kageyama blurted out.
Hinata groaned and slowly pushed himself to a seated position. “I’m–, ugh, I’m okay… the last thing I remember was touching that jewel thing, and then it was all just bright…” he put a hand to his head and squeezed his eyes shut at the memory.
“Well I told you not to touch it, idiot!” Kageyama gave him a shove.
“Yeah well-” Hinata started, ready to defend himself, but then stopped and stared off in confusion. “I’m… not really sure why I wanted to touch it so bad, to be honest. I just remember being excited that we had found some kind of secret hideout, but then suddenly all I could think about was that jewel, and I wasn’t thinking about you, or our team, or… anything…”
He trailed off as he seemed to have a realization and turned back to his brooding, dark-haired teammate. “Wait…did you…get me out of there?”
Kageyama quickly looked away and picked at some blades of grass absentmindedly. “Um, yeah, I guess,” he muttered. Then he turned back with a glare, but not an entirely hostile one. “You’re lucky I was there to save your sorry ass.”
Hinata blinked, and that’s when he noticed the painful-looking red marks on Kageyama’s legs.
“Hey, your legs…”
“It’s nothing.” Kageyama said quickly, drawing his legs closer to him. “Barely hurts at all anymore.”
Hinata just stared as he processed this. Kageyama had risked his own safety… even gotten a little bit hurt… for him?
A soft, grateful smile started to form.
But before he could say anything else, Kageyama cut in, “Anyways, are you hurt or can we just get back to practice?”
Hinata surveyed himself and realized there was one place where pain seemed to be lingering. “My back kind of hurts.”
“Oh, well..maybe you just landed awkwardly after I pulled you away from that thing,” Kageyama reasoned, remembering it was a pretty rough landing. “Is..that all?”
“I think so-”
“Kageyama! Hinata!”
Both first-years turned towards the voice calling their name. It was Sugawara, their vice captain. “Are you guys out here? Break time’s over! We’ve got a lot more to do!”
Kageyama stood up, proud of himself for wincing only slightly at the pain in his legs and side. “Well, I’m good if you are…”
“Yeah.” Hinata followed suit and stood up, but nearly lost his balance when he did so.
Kageyama’s arms moved almost imperceptibly towards Hinata at this, but stopped when Hinata successfully righted himself.
“Coming, Suga!” Hinata called as he started up the hill, Kageyama following close behind.
As the two emerged from the woods, Suga saw some red marks on Kageyama’s legs, and also noticed that Hinata seemed to have a bit less bounce in his step than usual. “Woah, what happened to you two?” he said with a concerned expression as he jogged over to them.
“Uh, I just fell and scraped my legs is all,” Kageyama said while not meeting Suga’s eyes.
“Y-yeah, me too,” Hinata added quickly, although he didn’t appear to have any visible marks on his legs. Kageyama shot him a nasty side eye.
Suga leveled the pair with a disapproving Team Mom look, figuring he knew what had happened. “You guys have got to stop getting into scuffles like that, or one of you is going to get hurt.”
“Sorry Suga,” Hinata muttered as he looked down at the ground.
“Yeah, sorry,” Kageyama echoed.
Suga shook his head, but then smiled kindly and put his hands on the boys’ shoulders to lead them back inside the gym. “Just at least try to be more careful next time, yeah? We can’t have our favorite quick-attack duo out of commission right before training camp, now can we?” he said lightheartedly. The boys murmured sounds of agreement. Suga felt satisfied that he had lectured effectively, but couldn’t shake a twinge of lingering suspicion. Something seemed off.
The rest of practice proceeded as usual. Kageyama and Hinata were able to forget about their strange experience for a while as they zoned in and got focused on the game. They were landing most of their attacks well and everything seemed normal. Hinata’s back hurt a little when he would go to jump for a spike, but he figured he was just sore, and it was nothing he couldn’t deal with. Even Sugawara forgot about his bit of worry from earlier, instead focusing on sending the best sets he could to Asahi and Tanaka from his side of the net.
Before they knew it, it was time to head home for the night. “Great work today, guys!” Daichi said as he clapped his hands together. “Let’s get all this cleaned up!”
“Yes, sir!” the team responded.
As Kageyama and Hinata ran around picking up stray volleyballs, they caught each other’s gaze. They knew they were both thinking the same thing. Should we tell them what happened?
Maybe they just hit their heads and imagined the whole thing. It seemed so impossible, after all. But wait, how could they both imagine the exact same events? Hinata shook his head to himself, sure that that theory wasn’t correct.
But at the same time, there didn’t really seem to be any reason to tell the team. Neither of them had any serious injuries. They hadn’t had any major problems playing today. Maybe it was better not to worry everyone else. They would probably think the two of them were crazy anyway. Well, more than they already do, that is.
Plus, they had another training camp coming up soon, and Spring Nationals after that. They all needed to be at the top of their game; better not to distract everyone with something weird like this. Not to mention it was kind of their fault for fighting that the whole thing happened anyway. They certainly didn’t want to get in trouble with the Captain or Coach Ukai.
As everyone finished up and filed out of the gym to disperse for the night, Hinata and Kageyama made a silent agreement. This would be their secret. And they would put it behind them for now, because at the moment they needed to focus on performing at their very best, and getting better each and every day, so that they could keep playing volleyball and stay on the court the longest.
That’s what really mattered.