To Fly Free: Resolve

Chapter 22 - Crows

 "There. Done." Coach Ukai placed a large bandage over the newly stitched up cut on Shoyo's chest, layering on another to cover his tattoo. Shoyo hadn't made a sound through the entire process. At one point he even spit the cloth out of his mouth, not finding any need for it. The three boys sitting on the bed, watching from a distance, were left amazed at the pain resistance Shoyo had built up. Tendou only watched the needle threading through flesh with mild interest, never letting go of Shoyo's hand. Not needing the cloth to bite down on did not mean Shoyo didn't need the comfort of a hand to hold.

"Now let me see that hand of yours. You can sit up if you want." Shoyo nodded, slowly and carefully sitting up and moving to sit sideways on the bed so he could face Ukai.

After inspecting Shoyo's hand and removing a shard of broken plate from the cut, Ukai cleaned and wrapped his palm. "Alright, and a bandage for your head." He said, placing a square bandage over the cut.

"Okay. That should be it for now." Ukai concluded, moving to wash his hands before sitting down on one of the chairs in the room with a heavy sigh. "I think you probably know this already, but after hitting your head and getting stitches, I can't let you play volleyball for a little while." Shoyo nodded in response. "The good news is, it will take you less time to heal then it would for your average person, so it will probably only be around three weeks or so. If you're really good at not exerting yourself too much, maybe less than that." Another nod.

"Thank you." A pause. "Coach? How do you know about me?" Shoyo asked his question again, voice laced with curiosity and a hint of wariness.

Ukai gave a small smile. "I had a little brother. Akio. I was with him when he discovered he had wings. He was five and I was eleven at the time. We kept it a secret, even from our parents, but we weren't careful enough." His smile faded. Hinata's brow furrowed. "Someone must have seen his wings when we went to the forest so he could go flying, because one day he got taken. I remember watching him fly, when suddenly he blacked out and fell from the sky. I was too far away to see where he landed, but I ran to where I thought it was and made it there in time to see them load him into the back of a truck and drive away. I was young and too stupid to think of getting the license plate, but I remember seeing the Secret Facility emblem on the side of the truck." Shoyo and Tendou tensed up.

"I remember giving my statement to the police. And I remember that Akio's case went absolutely nowhere. It made no sense to me when I was a kid. The more time that went by with no sign of Akio, the more certain things about the whole situation bothered me. So I started doing my own research, on Secret Facility, and on winged children. The deeper I dug, the harder it was to believe that the police did any investigation at all. I found more than the police did. Akio's case got swept under the rug because he was special. He was different. People don't like different. When I found out what was really happening at Secret Facility, I got angry. Really angry. I was angry with Secret Facility, angry with the government, angry with the police, but more than anyone, I was angry with myself. I blamed what happened on my own recklessness. He was my little brother. I was supposed to protect him.

"I was in such a terrible state of self hatred that I decided I wanted to end my life." Noya gasped a little bit, and Asahi silently grabbed his hand. "I got in my car and I drove for hours until I found a bridge I could jump off of in the middle of nowhere. And I did jump. But, as I was falling, I remember feeling as if Akio would be so disappointed in me if I died that way. That was the last thing I wanted to do, but I had already jumped. I was so desperate to live. To live for my brother, the next thing I knew I was flying. I had wings too. All that time." Shoyo's eyes widened, blurring with tears.

"It brought on more conflicting feelings that I wasn't sure what to do with. If I could have had them before, then Akio wouldn't have been all alone in that terrible place. But I decided I was going to live and make the most of my life. I've dedicated myself to finding a way to shut Secret Facility down. Telling the public wouldn't do much since I'd need some good proof, and even then, they aren't breaking any laws. Winged children aren't considered human, so regular laws don't apply. I haven't given up though, I'm still looking. And I won't stop anytime soon." Ukai met Shoyo's gaze with a determined stare that startled the ginger a little.