And All the Prince's Men (haikyu)

𝘗𝘢𝘳𝘵 24

"Don't grip it so tightly," Kyoutani snaps, "Just enough so it doesn't slip out of your hands."

"You death grip everything you hold," Yahaba counters, "It's confusing."

Kyoutani growls under his breath, lowering Yahaba's arm slightly to correct his stance, "Ok, now the thing with daggers is you need to use your speed to get the upper hand. Your blade is small, you need to get close before they realize what's coming."

"Right," Yahaba nods, fingers squeezing the daggers grip experimentally. He lunges forward, taking quick steps, bringing the dagger down in an arc. His sudden movement has the blade thrown out of his grip entirely, embedding into the ground near Iwaizumi.

"Suggestion," Iwaizumi calls out, plucking the knife from the ground, "We practice with sticks."

Yahaba reddens a little, "He told me not to hold on to it tight!"

"I didn't tell you to throw it, dumbass!" Kyoutani barks back, red himself.

"If you guys have so much energy to fight, shouldn't we be moving on?" Iwaizumi wonders aloud.

The two teens grumble something about the horses being tired, and Iwaizumi chuckles to himself. He returns his gaze back to the unfurled map on the ground, marking off where they had stopped for the day. It had been about two week and a half since they left the Shiratorizawa mansion and they had made decent progress.

They had just passed through the second town, where they had spent the night at a local inn. The people were just as Ushijima described, and as long as they mentioned nothing about politics nor demons, everything was fine. The people were all too busy to worry about three poor travelers passing through.

The villagers raced around, collecting supplies and building stalls for the upcoming festival to celebrate the Goddess of Harvest and her bounty. Iwaizumi, himself, had never heard of the deity and simply nodded and smiled whenever she was mentioned.

With those two obstacles traverse, they would soon be leaving Shiratorizawa to cross into the Karasuno border. In other words, they would be leaving Ushijima's protection. The Prince had given each of them a signed certificate giving them permission to travel within the kingdom, only to be used if they were questioned or barred entry anywhere necessary. Luckily they hadn't needed to use it.

There were no such safe guards in Karasuno. Furthermore, Iwaizumi knew very little of Nekoma and even less of Fukurodani. Soon, they would be completely on their own.

He tries not to think of it that way. Focuses on the task at hand. Finding Oikawa and bringing him back.

A sharp pain blossoms on his shoulder and he lets out a shout. He turns his head, hand clutching at his bleeding shoulder. Yahaba and Kyoutani are upon him in seconds shouting apologies and curses, respectively.

"What did I say about using the dagger!" Iwaizumi snaps, now that he's realized what's happened. He tries to calm himself, because although painful, he can tell it's a minor cut. It was more the surprise of it than anything.

And then the world goes black.

He blinks his eyes open, finds himself somewhere he's never been before. It is dark, inhumanely dark, but for some reason he can see. There are figures all around him, looking at him curiously, grins manic and bright and fanged.

Iwaizumi backs away, pressing against a tall tree, it's bark rough and it's leaves like needles. He's not used to trees like this. Just where the hell is he? Where the hell were Yahaba and Kyoutani? He looks around, foreign faces creeping closer, and he feels himself compelling them away, urging them to leave him be, pushing at them without lifting a finger.

And then he's back, by the river, clutching his bleeding shoulder. Well, actually, he is now knee deep in the river, staring at his disheveled reflection in the rippling water. He blinks, lifting his head up to look back at a wary Yahaba and Kyoutani.

"Did you guys push me into the river?" Iwaizumi asks, perplexed, shoulders slumping.

Yahaba and Kyoutani look at each other in disbelief. "Are you serious?" Kyoutani snaps back.

"What?"

Yahaba creeps closer to him, reaching a hand out to him, "Iwaizumi, are you alright?"

"Of course, well, other than the scratch on my shoulder."

Yahaba takes his hand, helping back onto dry ground, "You, you freaked out for a moment."

"I did?"

"Yeah, you, you snarled at us, is the best way I can describe it. Kind of like, KyouKen does but more vicious and less silly."

"Shut up, Yahaba." Kyoutani snarls.

"That's weird. I don't...For a second there, it felt like, I was somewhere else. But, I...Weird, I can't remember, exactly why?" Iwaizumi lifts his hand to rub at his temple.

Yahaba helps him sit back down, giving him some water to drink, "I think we're all just tired. We should turn in early."

Iwaizumi agrees, mind feeling a bit foggy with confusion. But as they all lay down to sleep his thoughts keep him awake. He searches for the images he had seen, searches for some sort of explanation for the weird episode. His neck burns, his shoulder stings, and the world seems much too loud to find any sort of peace in.

Worst of all he can hear his companions whispering to each other well into the night.

"Shouldn't we have told him?"

"I didn't want to upset him any further. He looked so confused."

"Yeah, well, I'm confused too and would like some damn answers," Kyoutani hisses, "He looked like he was going to kill us."

"He was muttering to himself: are you ok? what's wrong? oh god, you're fine, you're fine, don't worry me like that, you're fine." Yahaba shudders.

Iwaizumi furrows his brows in his feigned sleep. He turns over, away from the teens and curling up slightly. His movement makes the other boys quiet down. His fingers come to rest at his neck, massaging at the cloth wrapped around his skin. It's warm under his touch. He bites his lip.