Haikyuu Creature Collection

My Knight In Furry Armor (Hitoka Yachi)

"Come on, move!" a voice was quietly panicking. It appeared to be coming from the other side of a wall-like rock that was just ahead. Being the oh so heroic knight in furry armor that I am, I obviously decided to check it out.

I climbed up over the rock and dropped down onto the sand below. Looking around, the source of the voice came into view. And boy was I surprised. Sitting there on the hot sand was a girl who I guessed was probably around my age.

However, she didn't look like she was having a good time. The girl appeared to be pushing against a large rock next to her, but it didn't move even a millimeter.

"Are you alright?" I asked coming over and sitting on the sand next to her. She jumped in surprise and then began trying more frantically. I think I scared her. "Whoa! Calm down!" Grabbing her shoulders, I tried to calm her down and show her that I wasn't going to hurt her.

She still looked scared, but she slowly calmed down and stopped trying to push the rock that was clearly not going anywhere. "You're not going to hurt me?" she asked in a small voice, backing away slightly. I shook my head and held my hands up defensively. "Then maybe... could you help me?"

The girl's eyes shifted downwards to the bottom half of the rock. There, I saw why she was so desperate to move to rock. She was a mermaid and the rock was on top of her tail. Remembering something I'd heard from my friend, my eyes flicked over to her wrist. As I expected, there was a shell bracelet that matched the color of her tail.

I nodded and tried to push the rock away. My strength is a bit above average, but it wasn't enough for this task. The rock didn't even budge the slightest. If only I had Asahi's strength... Asahi! I could call for Asahi! The whole team was here since we had a practice match with a school nearby tomorrow afternoon.

But before I could do anything, I picked up on some voices heading this way. There were saying something like "Come on, it's over here." With the tones they spoke in, I could already tell that they weren't the friendly type who were coming to help us out.

"Stay close," I whispered to the mermaid beside me. Like she actually had a choice... she couldn't go anywhere. But I said it anyway and shifted into my wolf form. As two human faces appeared over the rock, I stepped between them and her. Crouching down to look like I was going to attack, the hair on the back of my neck stood straight up and I let out the most vicious growl I could.

Upon seeing me, they quickly ran off. If there's one thing humans know, it's that you never mess with a werewolf. Especially when that werewolf looks severely pissed off or when they feel threatened.

As soon as I was sure they were gone, I relaxed and gave the boulder one more try. Being a bit stronger in my wolf form, I'd hoped that maybe I could get it. No such luck. Having no other choice, I left out a howl, making it sound like I was in pain. I was calling out to Asahi who I knew would come running. We were good friends and both werewolves.

Once that was done, I shifted back to my human form and waited. Sure enough, he was there in no more than a couple minutes. But the second he saw me, he was incredibly confused since I looked perfectly fine. But after I explained the situation, he gladly helped me to free the trapped girl.

Looking her over though, I noticed that something was wrong with her tail. It seemed really unlikely that she'd be able to swim with it in that condition. Being friends with a merman, I knew quite a bit about their kind, though not nearly as much as he did.

I turned my back to her and crouched down. "Climb on," I told her and she hesitated before doing as she was told. "We should take care of that tail, but there's only one person I know of that would know how to handle something like that." Her arms wrapped around my neck as she pulled herself up and I used my arms to hold her up. "My friend Tobio's a merman, so he can help you out. By the way, you have a name?"

"Yachi," she said nervously.

"That a first name or a last?"

"Last."

I smiled as we walked along. "So what's your first name?" Personally, I preferred to call people by their first names. Or sometimes a nickname.

She was quiet a second or two before answering me. "Hitoka."

"Hitoka..." I said, trying out the sound of it. I liked the way it sounded. "That's a very pretty name. Perfect for a pretty girl." Okay, maybe I was flirting a little, but I couldn't help it. I was just naturally flirty; most of the time I didn't even realize I was doing it.

"You know you should introduce yourself," Asahi pointed out, walking along beside me.

But I only grinned. "You can just call me your heroic knight," I laughed to myself. "Anyway, you'll like these guys we're going to see. They might seem a little scary at first, but they're great. Ain't that right, Asahi?"

He nodded. "Asahi's a werewolf like me." I nodded towards the tenderhearted giant beside us. "Let's see... Shoyo's about our age and a werewolf. I already said Tobio was a merman. Our captain, Daichi, he's a Kitsune."

At that, Yachi became a little confused. "Captain?"

"We're all in the same volleyball club." I mentally hit myself for not mentioning that sooner. "Then Suga, Tadashi, and Tsukki are all vampires. Couldn't tell you what Chikara, Hisashi, Kazuhito, Ryu, and Noya are though. They seem insistent on not telling me and no one else will talk about it when I ask. Personally, I think that no one has any idea what they are." As I finished the last ones, I remembered someone that I'd forgotten. "And there's Kiyoko. She's the manager of the team and a succubus."

As I continued talking about all the members of the team, Yachi seemed to relax a bit and even begin to open up a bit more. But as we approached the rest of my team, I was met with an angry-looking Daichi and a worried Noya and Tanaka.

"You sly dog!" Tanaka's worried expression quickly melted into a grin as he saw Yachi on my back. "We thought you were seriously hurt and you're just off playing the knight in shining armor! Nice!"

"You got it wrong, Ryu!" Noya grinned. "It's 'Knight in Furry Armor' 'cause he's a werewolf! He's furry, not shiny!"

At that, the three of us burst into laughter. It was a joke we'd made many times, but it was always funny. But our laughing quickly ended with a glare from our captain. I was in trouble. Handing Yachi over to Asahi to take to Tobio, I prepared myself to face the captain's wrath... and whatever punishment I would get for making everyone get seriously worried about me for no reason.