That same, classical music from before alerted those still sleeping (if they had gotten any sleep at all) that it was time to wake up. Oikawa and Iwaizumi already were, having woken up roughly four hours prior to switch shifts with Kuroo and Kyotani. The lights came on with the music that played over the intercoms, making Oikawa squint at the sudden brightness. There was no gradual dawning of light in this sealed room as the morning approached on account of the lack of windows. He’d had no idea how much time had really passed until the abrupt signal that it was at least daybreak the next morning.
Throughout the past few hours, he and Iwaizumi had barely spoken. It was too quiet in the room, apart from the occasional snore from those who actually managed to fall asleep (Kuroo included), and there seemed to be a mutual understanding between them that they didn’t want to draw attention to themselves during the night. Nothing had happened, no fights had broken out, no screams for help or sounds of struggle from anywhere in the room. The music, though jarring, came as a relief when Oikawa realized they had all survived the night without incident. Maybe they didn’t have to worry so much about the other players, even if they did like to throw around threats fairly liberally. The real threat, after all, was outside those doors.
Said doors swung open then and a swath of guards walked in carrying metal tables to place at the front of the room and crates of smaller boxes that they began stacking on those tables. A square mask instructed them to form lines in front of the table to receive their morning meal.
Kyotani had woken up to the sound of the music, but Kuroo was still out cold, so Oikawa took the liberty of grabbing his arm and shaking him violently to change that. Kuroo, mid-snore, choked on air as his eyes fluttered open wide, barely registering Oikawa’s presence before rolling over to escape the assault and promptly falling off the other side of the bed. For the first time since arriving here, Oikawa laughed.
“Well, gee, I didn’t mean to make you fall! Get out of the floor, why don’t you?” he teased, crawling over the bed to peer down at Kuroo’s disgruntled figure on the floor.
“Yeah, why don’t I? Why don’t I give you a piece of my mind! C’mere, ya little—”
Oikawa giggled and ducked back out of reach, standing up on the other side of the bunk bed to walk around the front and meet Kuroo on the other side.
“Hey, numbskulls,” Iwaizumi called. Oikawa and Kuroo looked up to see him waving them over, Kyotani close behind. “Get over here and make sure you get some food. I’m not givin’ you mine if you miss out.”
That was a lie, Oikawa knew, but he was still quick to go join him as they all got into one of the lines together. He also didn’t think that the guards would intentionally provide less food than necessary to feed everyone in this room, but he didn’t really feel like testing his luck to find out. He was starving after not having eaten at all yesterday, which was a little surprising, considering he so rarely felt hungry anymore. He still ate when he knew he was supposed to, but more often than not, he had to remind himself to do it, or someone else had to. Mostly his sister. Midori knew better than most that Oikawa was capable of going days without eating simply because he forgot and never felt the urge to do so. She had tried convincing him to see a doctor about it once, but he didn’t see the point. It wasn’t that big of a deal.
They were given makunouchi bento boxes filled with lukewarm rice, pitifully thin slices of fish, carrots, and spinach. It certainly wasn’t the most appetizing breakfast, but at least it was food. Oikawa, Iwaizumi, Kuroo, and Kyotani returned to their beds to eat after receiving their meals.
“So,” Kuroo began as he sat cross-legged on one bed, bento box in his lap, and broke apart his chopsticks. “Wanna tell each other why we’re all here?” He flashed them all a wicked grin before he shoved a slice of salmon in his mouth.
“Not a great topic of conversation, Kuroo,” Iwaizumi chided, breaking apart his own chopsticks to start arranging his food the way he liked it. He always had to mix in the vegetables with his rice.
“Aw, come on. We’re all dead men walking, right? What’s the harm in sharing a few secrets before we go out?” Kuroo said with a snicker.
“That’s not funny,” Iwaizumi snapped, shooting him a glare. Kuroo stared at him for a moment with a hint of that smile still in place, chin propped up on the palm of his hand as he brought another piece of fish to his lips and chewed.
“Gotta cope with the inevitable somehow, you know?”
Iwaizumi glanced up again at that, some sort of reluctant understanding passing between them, but he said nothing more. In the blink of an eye, Kuroo’s artificial amusement returned to his face.
“Anyway, I, for one, got into a little trouble at work,” he said without prompting. “Got myself a girl. Real nice and sweet. Started gettin’ pretty serious, too, ‘til I found out she was embezzling money from my business accounts.”
Oikawa choked on the bite he had just taken. Iwaizumi was quick to slap his back with enough force to to make Oikawa spit the mouthful of rice back into his hand. Oikawa made a face and shook it off into the empty lid from his bento box, wiping his hand on his pants.
“She really did that to you?” he asked after recovering from his disgust, glancing back up at Kuroo. The latter hummed and nodded.
“Mmmmhm. ‘Course I took the fall for it ‘cause the accounts were under my name,” he said. “She’d been withdrawing money from ATMs for months. I had no idea how she even got access to ‘em, but then I started wondering why my accountant never brought it up ‘cause he had to have noticed. Then, lo and behold, both of ‘em skip town after bleedin’ me dry. Should’ve fuckin’ seen it comin’ after he started makin’ all those house calls.”
“That’s…awful. I’m so sorry,” Oikawa said, frowning down at his food. “But…your company’s, like, really lucrative, right? I mean, couldn’t you have just…paid it all back somehow?” He didn’t like making the suggestion, considering he was talking about Kuroo’s hard-earned money that he would have been handing over despite the company’s losses not even being his fault, but…
“I did,” Kuroo said, taking another bite of rice. “I paid back every cent I could with what I had. Wasn’t nearly enough, though. That bitch stole half a fortune from us and, naturally, they sued me.”
“They sued you?” Iwaizumi asked incredulously. “How does that even make sense? I mean, didn’t they know—” Iwaizumi cut himself off as Kuroo arched a brow at him. Sighing, he closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Of course not.”
“Damn right I didn’t tell ‘em shit,” Kuroo affirmed. “Think I wanted everyone knowin’ my accountant fucked my fiance, drained my business accounts, and ran off all right under my nose? Hell no. Wouldn’t have changed anything, anyway. Like I said, the accounts were in my name. I was responsible for those assets.”
“Couldn’t you have gone to the police?” Oikawa asked, picking at his vegetables.
“Naaah. I didn’t have anything I could give ‘em to track down those two,” Kuroo said with a wave of his hand. “I’m pretty sure she’s been doing that sort of thing for a while. She knew how to cover her tracks, and I guess she taught my accountant a thing or two about frauding people out of their money, too.”
“What a bitch,” Oikawa said. Kuroo snorted.
“No kiddin’. What about you, Mister Perfect?” he inquired then, tilting his head in Oikawa’s direction with a sly look in his eye. “What brings you to the brink of financial ruin? I thought things were going well for you in Argentina for a while there.”
“Kuroo,” Iwaizumi said in a warning tone. Oikawa reached over to pat his arm, giving him a look.
“It’s okay. It’s…” He took a deep breath. “Things were…going well. For a long time, but… Well, I guess you probably saw the footage from that game, right?” He glanced back to Kuroo, who looked at him with sympathy and understanding, much the same way that he could feel Iwaizumi looking at him from the side, too.
“Yeah, I did. That was a pretty rough tumble, huh?” Kuroo said. Oikawa nodded, nibbling on a carrot.
“You were overworking yourself again,” Iwaizumi chimed in, mixing his fish into his rice now that he had finished off his vegetables. “You know better.”
“Just because I know better doesn’t mean I listen,” Oikawa said, trying for a teasing tone of voice, but Iwaizumi was staring down at his bento box now. The brunet sighed again and turned his attention back to Kuroo. “Anyway, after…after the accident, they kicked me off the team. Said I was too much of a liability. In all fairness, I was the reason they didn’t get to go to the Olympics that year.”
“Damn,” Kuroo scoffed. “You must’ve felt like shit.” Oikawa pursed his lips and narrowed his eyes at him halfheartedly.
“In a manner of speaking,” he agreed before huffing out a laugh himself and looking back down at the food he had barely touched. “I got a call from my parents after that and they told me their company was filing for bankruptcy. They couldn’t afford to help me pay for school, and I certainly couldn’t afford it myself, so I moved back to Japan last year. They lost their house in the collateral and we all moved in with my sister. Her deadbeat husband’s gambling addiction finally caught up to him and his debtors started sending Yakuza to our house—”
“Yakuza?!” Kuroo exclaimed, eyes wide as he chewed his food. “Are you serious?!”
“As much as I would like to say I’m kidding, I’m not,” Oikawa said. “So that’s it. That’s…why I’m here. If all the debt wouldn’t have brought me here, having my family threatened sure would have.”
“Damn,” Kuroo said once more. “And I thought I had shit luck.”
“It’s not a damn competition,” Iwaizumi said, finishing off the last of his food. “We’re not here to judge who has the most tragic tale. Eat your food, Shittykawa.”
Oikawa pouted, but started picking at his rice anyway, since he knew he had to eat. That appetite he felt earlier had disappeared along with his light mood that morning, now absent of the urge to eat at all even though he hadn’t eaten since the supper Midori and his mother made the other night. After being drugged, running across a large field and watching people get gunned down in the process, and being forced to stare down his imminent demise over hours of sobbing until his voice was hoarse, he should have been famished, but he just…wasn’t.
“Never said it was, Iwaizumi-kun,” Kuroo drawled, waving his chopsticks as he spoke. Then he narrowed his eyes, leaning forward on his elbow to pin Iwaizumi with a pointed stare. “And just what exactly is the great Iwaizumi doing here in the first place, huh? Last I heard, you had the Jackals well on the path to victory a few months back. Now, I can’t help but notice nearly half the team’s here with you. What’s with that?”
A part of Oikawa urged him to jump to Iwaizumi’s defense, to dissuade Kuroo from prodding at him and asking about things Iwaizumi was clearly uncomfortable talking about, but another part of him was undeniably curious about the same things. He pressed his lips together, keeping his head down as he continued to nibble on small amounts of rice. Even though he knew Iwaizumi wasn’t looking at him, it still felt as if the scowl he undoubtedly wore was directed at him anyway.
“That’s none of your business,” he said finally.
“No, it’s not. But tell me anyway,” Kuroo said, smirking. “Just between us pals, yeah?”
“Forget it. Kyotani, come with me,” Iwaizumi said as he stood up, carrying his empty bento box in his hand. Kyotani stood alongside him, having also finished his food without having said a word the entire time, and silently followed Iwaizumi across the room to deposit their bento boxes in the designated disposal crates. Oikawa watched them retreat for a moment before taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly.
“It’s…a sensitive subject,” he said quietly, even though both of them were out of earshot now and it was just him and Kuroo. Oikawa kept his eyes on the other two as Iwaizumi began speaking to Kyotani, wondering what they could be talking about. “His mother is very ill.”
“...I see,” Kuroo said, setting aside his empty bento. He also observed Iwaizumi and Kyotani from where they sat, but his attention was on Oikawa. “I didn’t think it was a fun story, but that’s…that’s rough.” Oikawa hummed in agreement.
“I didn’t have any idea how bad it was until yesterday,” he admitted. “He never said… He always made it seem like she was getting better, like she would get out of the hospital soon, but I think it’s the opposite. And he said…he said something about failing at being a trainer. I don’t know if that has anything to do with the Jackals or what, but… I don’t know.” He shook his head, stirring around his food with his chopsticks. “It’s all just…so insane how we all ended up here.”
“Yeah. ‘Insane’ is one word for it,” Kuroo said. “Biggest coincidence I’ve ever seen, that’s for sure. Someone might even say it was orchestrated.”
Oikawa lifted his head at that, searching Kuroo’s eyes, but he still wasn’t looking his way. His brows drew together and he opened his mouth to ask what Kuroo meant by that, but he didn’t get the chance to voice the question.
“Attention: the second game will begin shortly. Please follow the staff’s instructions and swiftly make your way toward the game hall. I will now repeat the instructions.”
Oikawa swallowed. Suddenly he was reminded of what being here meant for all of them. Kuroo finally glanced at him from the side, holding his gaze for a moment before he flashed a smile that didn’t reach his eyes.
“Let the games begin.”
He stood up, carrying his bento to the disposal crates and passing Iwaizumi and Kyotani on the way. Oikawa watched him place a hand on Iwaizumi’s shoulder and as they exchanged a few words he couldn’t make out from here. After Kuroo left to follow the rest of the people who were beginning to file out of the room to follow the guards, Iwaizumi looked back at Oikawa. He waved Kyotani ahead as he crossed the room again the reach the brunet just as Oikawa stood up.
“You didn’t eat anything,” he chastised as soon as he was within earshot. Oikawa pursed his lips.
“That’s not true. I ate some,” he muttered.
“Bullshit. Come on, scarf it down already,” Iwaizumi urged.
Oikawa was about to argue with him, but a glance over his shoulder allowed him to catch sight of a guard staring directly at them. The last few people were trickling out of the room. Feeling his heart begin to speed up, Oikawa quickly placed the lid back on his bento and made a point of showing Iwaizumi how he tucked it underneath the pillow on their bed.
“There’s not enough time right now. But look, see? I’ll save it for later. Okay?” he offered. Iwaizumi didn’t look pacified, but he had taken notice of the guard as well, so he didn’t bother trying to argue with him any more.
“Fine. Let’s go.” He turned around to lead Oikawa out of the room after the others. Oikawa half-expected him to grab his hand again, so when Iwaizumi didn’t, he stuttered in his step a bit to catch up. He spared one last glance at the guard who seemed to follow their every movement as they passed through the doors to make their way through the maze of stairs outside of that room.
After much climbing, they were let out into an open field area, this one covered in grass with real trees several yards in the distance. Oikawa took a deep breath when he emerged into the fresh air behind the others, sighing as he felt a light breeze lift his hair. If he let himself fantasize for a moment, he almost felt as if he could make a run for it into the treeline and leave this all behind. He knew that would be a death sentence, though, and even if he did make it into the trees, he would be a fool to think that there wouldn’t be some sort of perimeter that kept them all in a certain area. They wouldn’t have let everyone outside if that weren’t the case.
They were arranged into rows, one behind the other, with enough room in between for a person to walk. Guards with triangle masks stood at either end of each row, guns held in front of their waists. The voice from the intercom echoed through the air.
“Welcome to the second game, players. You will be playing Hide and Seek.”
Oikawa looked ahead at the treeline in front of them that stood tall and promising, albeit in a mocking sort of way. He was sure they would all have to make a mad dash to get to the cover of the forest while the seekers were counting, wasting some of their precious time, and then figure out where to hide from there. Climbing into the canopy was his first thought, but he was sure it would be a lot of people’s first thoughts, too. He wondered if there would be anything special within the trees, interesting hiding places that weren’t just fallen logs and crevices between boulders. The idea of having to navigate such an area seemed daunting as it was, but it would be easy to spot the colourful teal of their track suits amoungst the darker green foliage. Or maybe not. If he came across a stream, he could always wet his clothes to make them darker, but that would also slow him down, not to mention leave him freezing in this temperature.
“Please turn your attention to the staff member holding the black bag. This bag contains red coins, and blue coins. If you draw a red coin, that means you will be seeking. If you draw a blue coin, you will be hiding. Please draw your coins without looking in the bag as the staff member comes by and await further instructions.”
Oikawa craned his neck to look at the circle mask starting at the edge of the front row, holding out the bag to the first person as they reached inside to draw a coin. The circle mask continued on to the next person and the next until they reached the back row. With Oikawa and Iwaizumi at the end of the row, they were the last two to draw coins from the bag. Oikawa swallowed, his throat suddenly very dry. Could they have given them something to drink with their meal? He could have used that.
The guard stopped in front of Iwaizumi, who glanced over at Oikawa before taking a deep breath and reaching his hand into the bag. Slowly, he withdraw his hand, producing a red coin. The guard came to stand in front of Oikawa. He closed his eyes and reached inside.
Please be a red coin. Please be a red coin. Please be a red coin.
He grabbed the last coin in the back, pulled it out, and opened his eyes.
Blue.
He looked at Iwaizumi, who was already staring at him. Even without saying anything, their eyes spoke volumes of what they were both thinking. They were on opposite teams. If Oikawa’s hunch were right, then when the people who were supposed to be hiding were found by a seeker, they would be eliminated. Iwaizumi, the hunter, and Oikawa, the hunted.
“Congratulations, seekers and hiders. If you drew a red coin, please follow the staff member to your left and put on the red jersey you are given to signify that you are a seeker. If you drew a blue coin, please follow the staff member to your right.”
Neither of them moved for several seconds. There were words left unspoken between them that they couldn’t articulate. Realistically, there was a good chance that Oikawa would make it through this round. Staying hidden in a forest should have been easy. But if he were found…
Reluctantly, without exchanging a single word, they parted ways, holding each other’s gazes for a moment longer before Iwaizumi forced himself to look away. Oikawa did the same, taking a deep breath as he turned his back on his best friend and approached the guard to the right of his row. The hiders were led closer toward the treeline, albeit only halfway, while the seekers dressed in their bright red jerseys.
“The rules of this game are as follows: a seeker’s goal is to find the hiding players. If a seeker touches any hider they find, that hider will be eliminated.”
Oikawa gulped. He should have felt some relief knowing that merely being spotted didn’t mean certain death, but the addition to that rule was daunting in and of itself.
“A hider’s goal is to remain hidden throughout the entire hour of the game’s duration. If a hider is spotted by a seeker, the hider may attempt to gain immunity by running back to the starting area and standing inside the designated ‘safe zone’.”
Oikawa glanced at the red netting that covered a circular area on the ground in front of where they had been lined up previously. He tilted his head. So there was still a grain of hope even if he were caught and chased, huh?
“Hiders may not enter the ‘safe zone’ until they are spotted by a seeker, or until thirty minutes have passed, at which time there will be an announcement. Additionally, seekers are not allowed to enter the ‘safe zone’. If you do, you will be eliminated.”
…So seekers could get eliminated, too, then?
Oikawa searched for Iwaizumi in the midst of seekers standing behind them, but they were all facing the other way, likely by instruction from the guard. He had to wonder how they were going to “eliminate” the players in this kind of environment. They couldn’t exactly station guards around every hider without giving away their location, and if the entire point of the game were to hide then who was to say that they couldn’t just stay hidden? What then? If their hiding place were good enough, it would take ages for the guards to find them, if they even knew they were still alive. Right?
Well, this was all a little more…involved than the last game, to be sure. He couldn’t underestimate these people for a moment. They had likely thought of every loophole and flaw before approving this kind of game in the first place. He had to assume they had the means of tracking them down without the guards hovering around them the entire time. He also had to assume that they had ways of killing them on the spot for trying to make a run for it.
He turned around again to look at the forest before them. All he needed to do was stay hidden, or make a break for the safe zone if he got caught. As long as a seeker didn’t touch him, he could get through this round. Simple enough. In theory.
“Hiders will be given five minutes to hide before the seekers are released. Please prepare yourselves now. Your five minutes begin in three…two…one.”
A loud siren signalled the beginning of the game, Oikawa’s feet jerking him forward before he really knew where he was going.
“Good luck, players!”
Oikawa started into a sprint toward the treeline, the other hiders hot on his tail, though they all began to fan out as they neared the trees and disappeared into the brush. He didn’t stop running until he was deep enough that he couldn’t see the field through the gaps in the trees behind him. After that, he allowed himself to slow down, taking his time to pick his way over logs and rocks without slipping and breaking his ankle or something.
He didn’t really…have a plan here, apart from the obvious. It would have been nice to get a lay of the land beforehand, but he supposed that would have given the hiders an unfair advantage over the seekers. Still, he had just bolted into the forest without any particular direction in mind, simply going straight ahead as fast he could. He was tempted to span out to one side or the other, but he didn’t have much time left. If he had to guess, he would have said that nearly two minutes had passed since the game began. He could try to go even deeper into the forest, but on the off chance that he was found, he wanted a short, clear path back to the safe zone. He could end up getting lost if he strayed too far.
He started looking up into the canopies. Most of the branches looked fairly sturdy, but they were high up. It would take a lot of effort to climb up to the first set, a lot of energy he would need to run if he were caught, and if a seeker started climbing his tree while he was in it, he was pretty much screwed.
He returned his attention to the landscape around him instead. The ground was uneven, rising and dipping and covered in gnarled roots that stuck out of the dirt. It was also inclined, leading up into the mountains he had caught a glimpse of from the starting area. He wondered where the border was.
The underbrush grew thicker around him now, the bushes taller and harder to get through. He couldn’t even see over the top of it from where he was. If he could get inside where it was the most dense, carve out a little squat hole for himself and cover his tracks where he entered, he would be sitting pretty. It was a good thing he used to go camping with his uncle quite often as a kid and learned a lot about surviving off the land from him.
Iwaizumi used to join him on those camping trips. Oikawa paused. Right, that meant that he more than likely knew all the same tricks that Oikawa did. But…Iwaizumi wouldn’t use those against him, right? Even if he did stumble upon Oikawa’s hiding spot, he wouldn’t actually…try to eliminate him…right?
He shook his head. Of course Iwaizumi wouldn’t do that. That was just the paranoia getting to him and nothing more. He had no reason to doubt Iwaizumi like that. If he wanted Oikawa gone, Iwaizumi wouldn’t have caught him when he almost tripped during Red Light, Green Light. He wouldn’t have stopped that thug from pummeling him. He wouldn’t have acted so worried about making sure that he ate something this morning. Iwaizumi was still the same loving, gentle soul he always knew. Even this twisted game couldn’t change that. Besides, Iwaizumi had been one of the ones to vote for ending the game altogether.
Having reassured himself of that, Oikawa began to pick his way through the underbrush where there was no clear path leading into it. He jumped when he heard that siren from before in the distance. His five minutes were up. He had to move quickly.
As he moved deeper into the foliage, he took care not to snap any twigs or leave any obvious signs that he had passed through, kicking forest debris over any footprints he made in the ground behind him. He glanced over his shoulder every so often, checking to see how visible the outside was from his vantage point. When he could no longer make out the details of the trees around him, finding himself pressed up to the base of a tree growing in the middle of all the shrubbery, Oikawa let himself relax for a moment. He could stay here until he needed to move again, leaning back against the trunk and head held low. His brown hair and green-ish suit only aided in his camouflage, he thought. The vibrancy of his clothes wasn’t as noticeable under all the shade, and certainly not this deep into the brush.
He stiffened when he heard a scream in the distance, followed by a gunshot. For some reason, the sound of the gun surprised him. So they were just going to shoot them down if they were caught? After pondering it for a moment, Oikawa came to the conclusion that there must have been guards accompanying each of the seekers. That could be the only explanation. They certainly wouldn’t entrust guns to the players, and there were too many places here where fixed snipers wouldn’t be able to line up a shot like the ones set up in the Red Light, Green Light arena. He wondered if the red vests for the seekers might have been a little overkill if those walking eyesores were going to be following them around the whole time.
For now, though, all he had to do was wait.
Several minutes passed by without incident, the only noises around him being that of the forest itself. More than once he had to swat away bugs that flew into his face or started crawling on him from the plants that surrounded him, and each time his heart lurched at the thought that his sporadic movements would give him away. He had yet to hear anyone approach this area of the forest, though, so he continued to breathe and calm himself down, trying to minimize his reactions to the annoying insects.
He always hated bugs. When Iwaizumi would take him out bug hunting when they were kids, Oikawa always complained, even though his friend had the time of his life studying those disgusting little things up close and personal. He was sure Iwaizumi had many memories of him throwing tantrums and completely freaking out when one would fly into his face or land on him or, heaven forbid, get stuck in his hair. Iwaizumi would call him a big crybaby and help him calm down anyway after carefully removing the bug in question from the brunet’s haphazard swings and lashes.
Oikawa’s lips stretched into a small, nostalgic smile. His reminiscing thoughts were abruptly shattered by another yell followed by a gunshot somewhere far to his left. That one sounded closer than the first. Oikawa took a deep breath and let it out slowly. How much time had passed? How much longer did he have to sit here and wait it out? How many had actually been “eliminated” so far? Just the two, or were others that he couldn’t have heard? He was sure he wouldn’t have missed any gunshots when they echoed that loudly.
He startled when he heard rapid footsteps approaching from behind, the sound of someone running. He didn’t turn around, didn’t move so much as an inch as he heard the person’s shoes thud against the forest floor and come to a sudden halt just on the outskirts of the underbrush he had secluded himself within. His heart pounded in his ears as he listened to the laboured breathing from whoever stood a mere few feet away from him. Given that he didn’t hear anyone follow them, he assumed they must have been a hider. Why were they running around out in the open? Were they found? Were they being chased by a seeker?
His questions were answered when he heard twigs snapping and more footsteps racing up from the same direction the first person had come from. He heard the hider curse under their breath and dart away again, the sound of their feet disappearing before Oikawa listened to two more people come to a stop nearby. Through thin gaps in the foliage, he could see just enough of the outside to spot flashes of red coming into view. Oikawa held his breath.
For several, long moments, neither of them moved. The seeker was breathing heavily, much like the hider they’d been chasing, and Oikawa watched, unblinking, as the slivers of red in his vision paced around outside the foliage.
“Shit!” they cursed outwardly, kicking at the ground by the sound of it. Oikawa didn’t recognize the voice, but he wondered if he might have recognized the person they had flushed out of hiding. He certainly wasn’t going to walk out and ask, at any rate.
They eventually wandered off, either in search of another hider or to track down the one from before, Oikawa couldn’t care less. He was just relieved to be able to breathe again. He was, however, starting to sweat. The midday sun, though blocked by the canopy above, still filled the air filled with a hot humidity. When they were all standing out in the field before the game started, Oikawa could have sworn that he heard the sound of the ocean not too far away, smelled a familiar sea salt carried on the breeze. He had to wonder if they were somewhere along the coast of the mainland, or if they had been taken to some sort of island. Considering the extreme measures these people took to “maintain confidentiality”, he was willing to bet on the latter.
Three more gunshots sounded in an undetermined span of time. Then, a musical tone echoed throughout the forest.
“Attention players: thirty minutes remain.”
Oikawa took a deep breath and let out a long sigh. He had made it to the halfway point. All he needed to do was stay right where he was for thirty more minutes. He recalled that this was the point in the game when hiders could seek out the safe zone regardless of whether or not they had been spotted by a seeker yet, but he didn’t see a reason to risk it. His hiding spot was excellent; a seeker had walked right past him without noticing a thing. He didn’t need to move. He just needed to—
Twigs snapped and leaves rustled behind him. Judging by the proximity, someone was picking through the underbrush from behind the tree he was pressed against. Oikawa’s eyes widened and his heart leapt into his throat.
What should I do? They’ll see me for sure if I stay here now, but if I run out there…there’s no going back.
He flinched when the approaching footsteps came closer. Opening his mouth wide to suck in another deep, silent breath, Oikawa braced a foot against the base of the tree, counted to three, then bolted through the shrubbery in front of him. He winced when sharp branches lashed at his face, but he didn’t let that slow him down, not when he could hear the person from behind break into a sprint after him, shouting out some warning threat or another. Oikawa could barely make heads or tails of it through the drumming in his ears, heart pounding furiously in his chest.
When he broke free of the underbrush, he emerged in a different direction than when he entered it, having lost his bearings in his panic. He anticipated the downward slope of the forest floor, considering they were at the base of a mountain, but he didn’t see the steep drop hidden by tree roots until it was too late. All too suddenly the ground disappeared from beneath his feet and he took on air, landing on his shoulder a few blank seconds after with a hard thud and a searing pain that shot through his entire arm.
Oikawa cried out, then immediately bit down on his tongue even though he knew it was pointless. Someone was already chasing him. What did it matter if he inadvertently drew the attention of other seekers? He rolled over onto his side that wasn’t pulsing with pain, gritting his teeth when he tried to flex his right arm. It wasn’t dislocated, at least, but he could feel that something was broken. It wasn’t the first time he’d fractured a bone. He didn’t have time to sit there and dwell on the pain, though, not when the sound of feet scurrying across the forest floor behind him jumpstarted his flight instinct once more.
He took off again, clutching at his injured arm with his other hand as he dodged around trees and ducked under branches. His ankle throbbed with every step he took, likely a sprain, and it didn’t help that it was his right foot, causing his knee to ache. If he weren’t cursing his bullheaded high school self for not taking proper care of his body when his old injury cost him his volleyball career, then he sure as hell was now.
There was a break in the trees ahead. Oikawa caught a glimpse of the open field through the thinning trunks. If he could just make it out to open land, he could sprint toward the safe zone without having to watch his step at every turn. He could hear his heart loud and clear in his ears, feel it in his throat, the taste of blood at the back of his mouth. Gods, how he hated running. It was different on a volleyball court, his body more attuned to the sharp pivots and jumps he would use to maneuver, but he wasn’t built for speed endurance like this. His legs burned with a vengeance, the pain blooming out across the entire right side of his body, but he had to keep going. He didn’t have a choice.
Just before he broke free of the treeline, Oikawa took a sharp turn to the left. He could hear his pursuer hot on his tail and he had made a beeline straight for a tree in his path, so when he lunged off to the side, he got the satisfaction of watching the seeker plough straight into the trunk half a second later. He couldn’t take the time to revel in his cunning maneuver, though. He was at the final stretch.
Once he burst into the open field, he felt a new kind of dread overcome him. Standing vigil around the safe zone were no less than three seekers, and all three pairs of eyes were trained on him. He didn’t stop running, but his mind reeled in an attempt to come up with a strategy to get around them. There were bodies littered all across the field, hiders who had made a mad dash for the safe zone in vain. He was too distracted by the corpses that surrounded him to notice the one directly in front of him.
He experienced a strange sense of deja vu when the toe of his shoe hooked on something—a shoulder—but this time, there was no one to catch him when he plummeted to the ground. The air was punched straight out of his lungs when he collapsed, his chin smacking none too elegantly into the hard dirt. He tried to push himself up, tried to ignore the tears in his eyes, the fire in his chest and all over his body, but time was moving too slowly, as if in a dream, and his limbs felt heavier than stone. In the back of his mind, Oikawa had the thought, I’m going to die.
It was an odd thing to be faced with one’s imminent demise. To look straight forward and see nothing despite the world moving so quickly around him, past him, without him. He didn’t get the cliche movie reel of his life flashing before his eyes, but he did see his sister, his parents, and his nephew, and all he could think about was the crushing, overwhelming failure that he felt in that moment. He didn’t care about losing some stupid kid’s game with a macabre twist, watching as if from outside of his own body as the three seekers rushed at him. He cared about the fact that he wouldn’t be able to return to his family, and that he knew they would be encumbered by grief and debt without him.
What a sorry, pathetic excuse for a son he was.
“OIKAWA!”
And in an instant, one, single voice yanked him out of the graveyard blossoming in his mind. Oikawa’s head snapped up just in time to see the shadow of a figure vault over him, the wind of the wake sending his hair aflutter. He watched Iwaizumi tackle down the nearest seeker in front of him at full speed, sending them both to the ground with mirrored grunts. He watched the two other seekers flanking behind them, could now see the stark black hair and fierce amber eyes of Kuroo as recognition and horror flashed across his face. Without missing a beat, he changed course with a twist of his foot, and grabbed at his fellow seeker, the third still bolting toward Oikawa with nothing short of bloodlust in his eyes.
Oikawa, in all his brilliance, could do nothing but kneel there and watch as the pairs came to blows, the two faces he didn’t recognize twisted in confusion and anger as they were pinned down and held back from claiming the life of their next target. He met Iwaizumi’s frenzied, stormy eyes.
“Run!”
And so he did. He pushed himself up on two, unsteady legs and limped into another jog toward the bright red mesh netting on the ground that marked his freedom. Iwaizumi and Kuroo would be fine. They were in no danger as long as they didn’t step inside the safe zone. They were buying him time, precious time that he was wasting with this stupid sprain. Oikawa growled as he pushed himself farther, harder, a new hope fueling his aching body. He could do this. He could get through this. Just a few more feet.
An arm shot out in front of him. It was a solid wall between him and the way out, one that dug into his chest and shoulders, gripping at him with an opposing force. Oikawa felt his heart stop. He turned to look into the eyes of the man directly responsible for what was about to happen to him. He saw blond hair, a brown undercut, rich brown eyes he had always secretly found rather charming to look at. Eyes that stared right back at him, wide and in denial, the colour drained from his face. He opened his mouth to speak, but Oikawa couldn’t hear him over the all-consuming silence that screamed through his ears. He could make out the words from the way his mouth moved, though.
I’m sorry.
What a thing to say to someone you’d all but killed with your bare hands.
Oikawa’s eyes wandered over to the mask with the white circle painted on it, then the gun pointed over Atsumu’s shoulder and aimed at his head.
“NO!”