The Trees Have Eyes [Haikyuu!!]

Thirteen Years

The sun always shined too brightly in Torono Town. It was one thing that Hinata Natsu didn't miss about the place. The weather was always unbearably hot during the summer as well. She was already sweating where she stood, and she had been inside her air-conditioned car just a few moments ago. With poor reception in the country, she was forced to rely on more traditional methods to find her way back to her ancestral home. She'd stopped her car on the side of the dirt road to check her map, stepping out when the sun threatened to cook her inside the vehicle like a chook in an oven.

"I seriously should've brought sunscreen," she grumbled as she squinted at the map, making a mental note to do just that at the first store she encountered.

After consulting her map, she got back in and drove off, puffing out a relieved sigh at the cold air that blasted through the vents. A collection of her favourite Japanese rap blasted through the speakers. She'd anticipated the lack of radio service during the trip from Tokyo to the Sendai boonies, and had downloaded entire albums of METEOR in preparation.

She sang along as she cruised down the road, keeping an eye out for any wildlife that might wander into her path.

Around three in the afternoon, the town came into view. Finally! Natsu beamed as she accelerated. Torono was just as she remembered it to be. A homely town surrounded by mountains and trees. Several roads connecting the town to central Sendai had been built during her absence, and she could see vacationers leaving via the new roads as she travelled down the old mountain road.

Natsu didn't need the map anymore. Everything came back to her—slowly, but surely. Aside from the new roads, the town itself hadn't changed much at all. The journey to Karasuno High had always taken forty minutes for Shouyou to complete by bike—it took her only ten by car. There was a smaller section of town separated by a tiny mountain—it was where her childhood home was. The area was nearly exclusively residential, whereas the main streets of Torono were stacked with commercial buildings. Small businesses and the like.

Her humble little car purred as she pulled into the driveway, turning it off with the twist of a key. Apprehension seized her chest—she drank in the sight of her old house, brow knitting in a frown. They lived quite high up on a hill—she could see the slope of Torono's most famous mountain from here. Famous for all the wrong reasons, she thought, gloomily, as she turned away and unpacked her boxes from the car.

The front door rattled open. "Natsu?"

"Mom!" Natsu grinned, waving to her elderly mother. "I'm home!"

Hinata Mikuru smiled, but it didn't reach her eyes. Natsu didn't mind, though—she couldn't remember the last time her mother had cracked a real, genuine smile. Her mother had little to smile about, anyway. After all, Natsu was her only family now. She ambled down the steps. Natsu let her cradle her cheek when she approached her. "You're all grown up now."

"Well, I am twenty-one. I'm not a little kid anymore, mom."

Her hand fell to her side. "You look just like him."

Natsu's smile stuttered. "Like Shouyou?"

Mikuru nodded. "My genetics are strong, hm? But you have your father's eyes. If he were still here, he'd say the same thing."

Self-consciously, Natsu pulled lightly at the folds of her eyelid. As a child, she'd shared the same big brown orbs as her brother. But as she grew up, they'd darkened into the same inky pits as her late father. "Thanks," she murmured. "I think. But!" She clapped her hands together, a foxy grin decorating her countenance once more. "I'm starved! I'll get everything unpacked. Don't strain your back for me, mom, I'll handle it. What's for lunch?"