Haikyuu Creature Collection

Link (Tobio Kageyama)

He's late. Every day, I'd come here to this little secluded area on the beach. It's actually quite difficult to get to, but somehow I'd managed to find it by accident one day. This is where I met him.

It was my first time staying in this area, so I'd gone out to explore the nearby beach. It was early summer and very warm, but the whole place was pretty deserted today. A perfect day to be exploring around for a nice quiet place to relax on the sand.

Climbing up and over more rocks and boulders than I could count, I soon found myself here. It was a small circular area with rocks surrounding it like cliffs. The circle continued nonstop all through water, but somewhere there must have been a hole or a tunnel in the rock wall, letting the water into the lovely little area.

It was beautiful here; the water was crystal clear and the way the light sparkled on it was simply amazing. Of course, I didn't quite realize that I wasn't alone. Nearby was something even more beautiful than this place.

He'd been relaxing on the warm sand when I'd made my way over the rocks. As I dropped down over the little cliff, he'd dived down into the water before I had a chance to see. But he'd be unable to leave this place until after I was gone; I'd unintentionally trapped him here.

Soon enough though, I'd discovered him and in no time we were talking like friends. Tobio was quite fun to talk with, though he seemed to be a bit shy. Or maybe he just wasn't good with people. Luckily though, I'd always been good with people. Of course, when I found out that he was a mermaid or rather a merman, I was a bit shocked.

I'd never actually believed that such creatures existed. Though when you considered the fact that my best friend Shoyo was a werewolf, I guess it wasn't that surprising that mermaids existed. So making friends with one wasn't all that strange after all.

"Sorry I'm late," a familiar voice called, breaking me free from my thoughts.

I looked out at the water where Tobio's head poked out and his hand waved at me. Waving back, I faked a scowl. "What took you so long?" I tried to keep a straight face, but I just couldn't and let out a laugh.

Tobio made his way over to the edge of the water and held a hand out for me to pull him up onto the sand. "My mother was questioning me about my bracelet again; I couldn't get away," he sighed as we sat back on the warm sand.

I looked down at my wrist where a bracelet made of shells rested. It was something that Tobio had given me the day we met, just before we'd parted. He'd told me that as long as I had it, then he'd always have to come back to me.

It was quite beautiful. The shells were an exact match to the scales on his tail. They were colorless in a way, but when the light would shine on them, they'd sparkle and reflect all sorts of breathtaking colors. It reminded me of the ocean itself. Water is colorless after all.

"Is it really that special?" I asked, looking from the bracelet back up to Tobio.

He shrugged and looked out at the water. "All of us have one. They're made to match our tails and no two are exactly the same," he calmly explained, though that didn't quite give me an answer. "It's sort of a tradition to give yours to whoever you choose to be your mate. If the other accepts, then they give you theirs; if they refuse, they simply return yours and you keep looking for someone else."

That's actually a very sweet little tradition. When I thought about it though, it didn't make sense why he'd given his to me; especially when he'd done it the same day we'd met. "Then you probably shouldn't have given yours to me." If this was meant to be for his mate, then a human like me shouldn't have it.

"I want you to have it. For now at least." His voice was calm and he wasn't looking at me, so I could even begin to guess what he meant or even what he might have been thinking. "I don't think of it the same way others do, so it doesn't matter."

If that was true, then just what did he think of it? Obviously, it was something important or else he wouldn't keep coming back here. I didn't get to ask; I didn't even need to ask because he was about to tell me. "I just think of it as a promise to come back to someone. No matter how far apart you are, it'll keep you linked together."

His thoughts about it were even better than that tradition. It was sweet, but it didn't have such a binding sort of meaning.

"I think I like your idea better," I said, smiling at him. Suddenly I remembered something. "Speaking of promises..." I reached behind me and grabbed something. "I brought my volleyball today. Remember? I promised that I'd teach you how to play."

Tobio turned to face me, a wide grin on his face. He'd heard me talk about how I played it so much that he said he wanted to give it a try. "Let's play."