Chapter Text
Complaint
(Hinata’s Age: 20 (?) years old)
“I can’t believe that Meian-san refused to let me skip out on the raid to watch Tobio’s match.” Shouyou whined. “Does he forget that I’m allowed to make a selfish request twice a month!?”
Hinata Shouyou is many things. Japan’s National Treasure, one of the most powerful beings on Earth, one of the 12 Great Hunter Saints, and at least for the moment, above all else, a 20 year old “boy” who really really wants to watch his best friend’s debut as an Olympian despite the date overlapping with an important raid.
Kenma sighed. “Shou, you’re the leader of the raid team. They literally can’t work without you. You agreed that your selfish request can be turned down if it involves something only you can do.”
“Then they should send another team!” Shouyou exclaimed. “It’s just an A-Rank Dungeon! A stable one at that! Shion-san’s team can clear it!”
“‘Just’ an A-Rank huh.” Kenma mused out loud. “I’m pretty sure if you said that in front of them they would try to murder you in your sleep.”
Shouyou snorted. “That’s why I said that in front of you.”
“Shou, Meian-san wouldn’t have “gone back on his words” unless he had no other choice.” Kenma chided. “You know that.”
“I know. Doesn’t make it any less annoying though.”
Kenma felt bad for Meian, really. From the beginning, it’s quite obvious that the reason why his guild is chosen as Shouyou’s guild, instead one of the actual top guilds in Japan, was because despite being the leader of a small but very well-run and well-liked guild, Meian himself was relatively unambitious. In a way it’s what little conscience that the people in charge have shielding Shouyou from being one of the Great Guilds’ pawns, considering he’s only 16 when he joined. The problem is of course, Meian finds out about it at the same time as Shouyou, which also happens to be when everyone else finds out.
To say that the man was not prepared to look after an S-Class Hunter, a teenage one to boot, would be an understatement. Kenma had always been where Shouyou went to when he wanted to complain about something, and from the beginning Shouyou had a lot to complain about. To begin with, Shouyou had never wanted to become a Hunter, knowing full well that being one would essentially end his dream of being a pro volleyball player.
Shouyou is not the first and nor was he the last S-Class to have their awakening as a teenager. In the 40 years since the Great Cataclysm, there’s at least 7 others before Shouyou, and recently one more after him who did, and all of them were immediately bound by law to start becoming a Hunter. It is somewhat understandable, with S-Class Awakened being as rare (there were only around 63 of them around the world, not even one in a million, but more like one in a hundred million) and powerful as they are. Even an inexperienced and untrained, teenaged S-Class with offense oriented abilities is commonly considered to be more powerful and effective in dungeon clearing than a fully trained team of A-Classes. Such is the gap between the S-Class and the A-Class.
So, as much as Shouyou himself, his family, and his closest friends loathed the fact, Shouyou had no choice but to become a full-fledged Hunter at 16, and thus Shouyou’s dreams to become a pro volleyball player died with it. While there’s no restriction for any Awakened from becoming a pro athlete, as there are many measures implemented to ensure the fairness of the game (something that’s also done in non-professional settings), Hunters above a certain rank are required to always be on alert with few exceptions, and unfortunately for Shouyou, a volleyball match was not one of those exceptions, and there is no professional team in the world that would take the risk.
Combine the fact that Shouyou had never wanted to become a Hunter in the first place, the fact that becoming one ended his actual dream, and just general teenage angst, plus the fact that Meian and his guildmates are completely out of their depth, the first few months of Shouyou’s tenure as a Hunter in Meian’s Guild was not a very good time for Shouyou. Being the closest friend available, Shouyou had gone to him to vent about his frustration with the Guild all the time.
(“They’re great at their job, and they’re great at explaining things to me.” Shouyou said then. “But I don’t think they know what to do with me.”
“Kenma I messed up, I snapped at them during training because I got annoyed since they keep mentioning that I’m an S-Class. What should I do if they hate me?!”
“Meian-san is so nice, he told me that I can take the week off and go back to Miyagi for Karasuno’s school festival!”
“Kenma, what should I do? The guys were so excited when I told them I could come. I’m pissed off that Meian-san goes back on his words but I heard the guild is getting more work than normal because I’m with them now…”
“They keep telling me that they should be able to trust me during raids but have they even done anything to make me trust them? They don’t even talk to me outside of training and raids!”
“Kenma, be honest with me. Am I venting to you too much? I wish I could talk about all these with someone else, but the other kids in the guild seem to be afraid of me, the adults barely talk to me, and I don’t know who else to turn to since the others are so far away in Miyagi…”
“Ughhh I felt really bad for messing with Meian-san like that. I feel like I’m just making things worse by being petty, and I know they’re doing their best to work with me. But…”
“I’ve got offers from other guilds, but their leader always gives me the creeps. Especially the S-Class ones. They invited me to their get together but I got the feeling that they all hate each other. Are the S-Class from other countries all like that too? Am I the only normal one in Japan?”
“Does it make me a bad person that I’m this hung up about having to put volleyball aside? I mean I would never have to worry about my livelihood anymore, and things are pretty easy for the most part and I’m keeping people safe by doing my job. But no matter I still want to play volleyball as much as I want…”)
It was really only the fact that despite his anger at the situation, ultimately Shouyou has a good heart and conscience that things didn’t turn out even worse. They did cut it pretty close on some occasions, though Kenma thinks that he, alongside Shouyou himself, is the only one who knew how close Shouyou was to truly losing his shit back then, only held back by Shouyou’s own unwillingness to make trouble for others and the fact despite all else, he does consider Meian the best option he have. It’s a good thing that when Shouyou is close to his limit, Meian finally managed to turn things around and make Shouyou actually comfortable there, though a happy Shouyou does also meant that Shouyou gets more comfortable about being “selfish”, thus the compromise they came up with.
“I’m sure Tobio will understand.” Kenma said after some time of mulling over his words. “You can still come for the other matches.”
Shouyou grumbled something under his breath, probably something about ‘You’re so reasonable it’s annoying’, but made no further attempt to complain anymore.
Unfortunately, once the match did happen and Kenma saw what Tobio accomplished in it, he knew that there’s no way that Shouyou wouldn’t complain about it for the next week or so, at least.
“I CAN’T BELIEVE I MISSED SEEING TOBIO DID FIVE SERVICE ACES IN A ROW AGAINST FRANCE. FIVE!”
In the end, having chosen this for himself, Kenma could only do his best to let him air out his grievances. Who said that being an S-Class Hunter’s best friend is easy?
Learning
(Hinata’s Age: 16 years old)
Meian Shugo, 29, would happily admit that he’s 100% blindsided when he’s told that his guild would be the one to look after and help train Japan’s newest and youngest ever S-Class Hinata Shouyou. Not once did the possibility ever come to his mind, let alone be brought up to him. He had thought that maybe Shouyou had liked his guild and requested for it, but nope, the kid doesn’t even know about them which stings a little, considering despite not being particularly large or prestigious, Jackals was still a well-respected A-Ranked Guild.
That could only mean that someone in the Association had been the one to make that decision, and for the life of him, Meian couldn’t figure out why . After all, in cases when someone underage Awakened as an S-Class, usually they already have a Guild in mind they want to join. So the fact that it was left to the Association meant that Shouyou didn’t have one in mind and let the Association choose for him. While that alone is already quite weird, the fact that they chose Jackals over any of the Great Guilds was yet another layer of weirdness. He knows just how competitive the Great Guilds are and had assumed that they would do everything in their power to make the Association “give” Hinata Shouyou to one of them. Yet.
However, after meeting Hinata Shouyou for the first time and seeing just how apparently displeased he is about being a Hunter, Meian thinks he knows why. It somewhat soothed him that the Association has enough conscience to not hand over a 16 years old who does not want to be there to one of the Great Guilds, but also lamented that he is the one that has to deal with the 16 years old who doesn’t want to be there.
For the most part, Shouyou is a sympathetic and well-meaning kid, one that does understand the responsibility that possessing the power he has come with. The problem is that understanding it doesn’t mean he’s happy with it. While never outrightly hostile, Shouyou never quite hides how unhappy he is having to spend most of his days either training or going on raids. While he never purposefully did anything detrimental, he didn’t make things easy either, only doing what is required of him and not a thing more unless there’s genuine danger. There were more than one instances of Meian having to find out until the very last second if Shouyou is going to help them with a difficult monster or not, and it’s been really bad for his heart.
Meian did his best to be understanding. It’s perfectly understandable that Shouyou is upset about having his life turned upside down with no choice in the matter. He could see just how much Shouyou loved volleyball, and how much having to put it aside upsets him. So he does his best to give Shouyou enough free time to maintain some semblance of his old life, to at least have some time to play volleyball with his friends, though it became apparent that it’s not quite enough.
But the cold, harsh truth is that the Dungeons waits for no one, and that both the public and the higher ups are far less understanding than him. There’s the widespread, almost universal perception that becoming an S-Class is the greatest gift one could receive as a human, and the way that most S-Class Awakened had talked about it only further reinforced that. The idea that an S-Class Awakened might be unhappy with being one is unimaginable for the vast majority of people, and the general protocol is that working them to their bones is perfectly acceptable.
Meian disagreed, but what does his disagreement worth when the life of his guild members is on the line? The Association had assigned more and more responsibility to the guild under the assumption that Shouyou would have covered them, and Meian knew above all else that if he didn’t do so, his members would be the ones in danger from being stretched thin and exhausted. So he had no choice but to break his promises many times and hoped that Shouyou would still be able to trust him after.
It’s understandable that Shouyou would resent him and Meian had more or less resolved that if Shouyou had asked to move to another guild, he wouldn’t have stopped him. All the Great Guilds had not been happy that they’re not given the chance to try to recruit Shouyou, and Meian knew that they must have approached Shouyou with various offers. He had even brought up the idea to Shouyou once.
Shouyou had rejected the idea without any hesitation.
“It’s exactly because you don’t give me much that I haven’t gone crazy yet.” Shouyou stated bluntly. “I can say no to you, be a bit of a jerk sometimes, and complain all I want because I don’t have any real obligation beyond the minimum expected. If I got paid more and given more freedom like the other Guilds promised, I know they won’t take any of my back talking as well.”
To say that Meian was flabbergasted would be an understatement. “So you’re saying that you want to stay because you want to be able to complain?!”
“...and because I’ve met the Guild Leaders of the Great Guilds and hated all of them.” Shouyou admitted. “Look, I might complain a lot, don't always listen to you, and make trouble for the other members sometimes but it was because otherwise I might actually do something worse okay?”
“And if the things I said and did made you feel like I hate you guys, then I’m sorry.” He added quietly. “I want to say I’m having a difficult time, but even that sounds like an excuse to me. So again, I’m sorry.”
Before Meian could say anything, Shouyou had already been called back to his training, leaving him to ponder about that whole conversation.
That whole conversation had made Meian re-evaluate everything he thought he knew about Shouyou. In fact, thinking about it, for a 16 going 17 year old who was forced to give up on the thing he’s passionate about to take on work he had never wanted to do without being given a choice about it while also having all the power that he does, Shouyou had been very graceful. His idea of stress relief and expressing frustration at his lack of agency had been limited to petty disobedience and nothing more drastic, which is very age appropriate.
In fact, when he talked about it with his mom the next time he had dinner with her, she had just chuckled and said, “Sweetie, welcome to being responsible for a teenager. In fact, I think that Hinata Shouyou is more well behaved than you were at the same age.”
Meian grimaced at the reminder of his own teenage days, “Ugh, let’s not talk about that.”
“I think you should try talking with him more.” His mom advised. “I’m sure he’s burying more than he lets on and is far from his friends and family. Does he have friends his age in the guild?”
“None at all.” Meian sighed. “I think he tried befriending some of the kids we’re training, but they’re not… very comfortable around him.”
His mom frowned. “Does he at least have someone he can talk to?”
Meian thought about it for some time and settled on, “I’m pretty sure he messaged and talked with his friends in Miyagi all the time. And he has a friend in Tokyo he often goes to.”
That turned out to be the wrong answer, as his mother’s frown deepened. “Shugo, have you or your guild members done anything with the boy other than training and going on raids?”
“He’s only interested in volleyball!” Meian defended. “We can’t take him out to drink either!”
“Then play volleyball with him! And take him out to places with no alcohol! Isn’t your Guild’s office close to the Gymnasium?” His mother scolded. “Aish… no wonder he makes trouble for you all the time.”
Oh right . This whole time he had been thinking how to get Shouyou, a newly awakened, still in training teenager, to fit in with the system of the guild and work with them better and never thought that maybe they are the ones that should have revised their system to account for the fact that they have a newly awakened, still in training teenager working with them now. He was stuck thinking how to make things easier for Shouyou for being stuck with them and not how to make Shouyou feel like he belonged with them.
“You’re right, thank you mom. I think I needed that.” Meian said sheepishly.
“Of course I’m right.” His mom huffed haughtily. “You’ve always had trouble with seeing the obvious unless it’s pointed out to you.”
That night, Meian thought long and hard on what he should do next, now that he has had the important realization that he and the guild need to get along with Shouyou more than just as guildmates but also as friends . Thinking about everything he and the guild members had done with Shouyou, the things they had said to him, Meian realized that it’s a miracle that Shouyou had not gotten completely fed up with them.
The way their guild works have always been predicated upon teamwork, trusting their back to each other so they all can be more than the sum of their parts. Everything is predicated on mutual trust, and they had expected to be able to trust Shouyou without giving him much of a reason to trust them back. In fact, for all the pettiness and complaints, Shouyou had never done less than what they asked him to do. It’s just that they’re too used to having guildmates that go above and beyond for each other that Shouyou not doing the same felt almost like betrayal.
It was with a grimace that he realized, after scrolling through it for some time, even after three months of being with them, the amount of time that Shouyou had sent any message on the guild’s group chat could be counted on one hand, and one of those is his introduction.
God, how badly had they messed up? Thinking back to his conversation with Shouyou a few days earlier, he thinks it’s safe to assume that Shouyou must have actually felt bad for all the time he had messed with them, even though the reason why he’s stressed out in the first place was because they couldn’t accommodate him well enough.
Something has to change. Quick.
But first, he needs to have a genuine, heart-to-heart talk with Shouyou first.
The next day, he approached Shouyou after they finished with morning training.
“So, you like volleyball right?” Meian asked.
Shouyou nodded slowly, his hesitation apparent.
“One of my friends gave me two tickets for an Adlers’ match, since I told him that I have a guildmate who likes volleyball. Would you like to watch it?”
Seeing the way Shouyou’s eyes sparkled and the bright smile that followed, Meian could only berate himself for not doing this sooner.
It’s (Not Going to Be) the End of World
(Hinata’s Age: 17 years old)
Around the world, millions if not billions of people are being consumed by panic that the world had not seen for almost 20 years. Between then and now, the culprit is still the same: The appearance of an S+ Ranked Gate.
If 20 years earlier said Gate appeared over New York, this time, the gate opened over the Pacific Ocean. Which might have sounded good. The only problem is the fact that “Pacific Ocean” here actually means 50 meters off the shore of Sendai. Which means that should the Dungeon within it ever break, the first in the line of fire would be them, then the rest of Japan. Not that the order particularly matters, when every single thing they knew about S+ Gates told them that should they fail to contain it, it might as well be the end of the world.
20 years ago, when the first S+ Ranked Gate appeared, it had allowed up to 50 people to enter it, with a time limit of three months. Thankfully for the world, the 36 S-Class Awakened that existed then, along with 14 of the strongest A-Class Awakened, had succeeded in containing it. Unfortunately, only 3 out of 50 made it back out, scarred for life and eventually took their own lives within a year. They were what remained of the 36 S-Class Awakened that entered and committed suicide the very same day as the declaration that a new S-Class Awakened had emerged.
And twenty years later, an S+ Ranked Gate had appeared again, and this time, it would only allow 15 people in and had to be completed within one month before it broke. Between the significantly less people allowed and the shortened time window, it’s not really an exaggeration to say that this one would be 10 times harder than the previous one and that nobody coming in should expect to ever make it out. A suicide mission, essentially.
The only bright spot to the whole situation is that compared to 20 years ago, humanity is much more prepared, their understanding of dungeons more thorough, and the Hunters themselves are more powerful on average, with stronger and more advanced equipment and techniques available to them. The difficulty had gone up significantly, but it’s not like humanity and the Hunters had sat idly by for 20 years either. That said though, the pervasive feeling of “once you get in, don’t expect to get out” persisted.
Some scouting drones were sent in immediately, and the World Hunter Association immediately called for all 65 of the S-Class Hunters to gather in Tokyo to decide who among them would enter once enough information was gathered. The 15 that would enter weren’t necessarily going to be the 15 strongest, but the 15 most suited to deal with the environment of the dungeon and have the ability to counter or neutralize it.
So, when the woman explaining what they’ve managed to gather about the dungeons through the scouting drones they’ve sent in said that “It seemed to have unique gravity fields that if not neutralized could pose serious risks to everyone inside”, the other 64 not so subtly turned to the only teenager among them, and Hinata Shouyou, 17 years and 10 months old, knew that once again the choice had been made for him and he had no say in the matter.
.
.
Ten minutes ago, Ushijima received a message from Hinata Shouyou, asking him if he’s free and saying that he wants to meet and talk to him in the cafe where they’ve met from time to time if he is free.
Five minutes ago, Tendou forwarded to him a news article that essentially listed out the 15 people in which humanity is going to rest their hope on.
“I’ve seen the news.” Ushijima said as soon as he came and took the seat across Shouyou. “Congratulations.”
Shouyou burst into laughter. “I think you’re going to be the only person on this planet who would congratulate me for it.”
“Is that not why you asked to meet me?” Ushijima asked after receiving the menu from the waiter.
“Maybe.” Shouyou said before taking out his turned off phone and began staring at it.
Ushijima let him be, and called the waiter so he could take his orders.
“We’re entering in one week. None of us can contact anyone starting tomorrow since we’re gonna start training to work together as a team in a special simulation thingy.” Shouyou suddenly said once the waiter was finished taking Ushijima’s orders.
Ushijima raised an eyebrow, and Shouyou chuckled. “And because they don’t want us to have second thoughts. The latter part is only implied, but I think they’re specifically looking at me when they’re implying it.”
“I’m kind of envious of some of the others. They practically volunteered.” Shouyou continued. “Alexios from Greece volunteered to go in knowing he’s going to die inside because it’s going to give the rest of us more time.”
Ushijima opened his phone to look up who this “Alexios” is, but Shouyou interrupted him, “He can dilate time. Make three hours inside the Gate only one hour outside. That kind of thing.”
“Ah.”
“It’s a good thing too, because that means we don’t really actually have to worry about the time limit as much.” Shouyou said before sighing. “I’m sorry, I actually don’t know why I called you here.”
Ushijima nodded but didn’t say anything.
The two sat there for some time in silence, only interrupted by the waiter delivering Ushijima’s orders.
“Say, Ushijima-san. If you’re told that you have to quit volleyball otherwise someone is going to die, what would you do?”
“Why would me not quitting volleyball make someone die?” Ushijima questioned.
“I don’t know, maybe they’re held hostage by someone who really wants you to quit. Whatever.”
Ushijima pondered about it for some time before replying. “I’ll probably call the police. Or you. I think you can probably stop that kind of thing easily.”
Shouyou burst into hysterical laughter at Ushijima’s answer. One that would go on for several minutes as Ushijima calmly ate the steak he ordered, unperturbed by the madman in front of him.
Wiping his tears and still shaking from the laughter, Shouyou smiled and said, “You know I love you, right? As a friend, I mean.”
“And Tendou told me that it is most likely what I feel about you too.” Ushijima replied, causing Shouyou to burst into laughter yet again.
“Thanks for that, really.” Shouyou said once he calmed down. Looking at his watch, Shouyou sighed. “I’m gonna have to leave.”
He took out his wallet, pulled a card out of it and gave it to Ushijima. “Order whatever you want and use this to pay. And I mean that for whatever, not just this meal. You can return it to me in a month.”
Ushijima nodded and accepted the card. Just as Shouyou was about to leave, Ushijima looked up to him and said, “I still haven’t made you taste defeat yet. Don’t forget your promise that you’re gonna make it on the same stage as me one day.”
“...you really are the only person on Earth who would be saying that kind of thing to me.” Shouyou chuckled. “Don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten, just like all the time you’ve said that before.”
And then he left, leaving Ushijima by himself.
.
.
“Huh, I didn’t know you’ve made enough money to be carrying around that kind of card.” Tendou said after he finished paying.
“Hinata Shouyou gave it to me.” Ushiima replied simply.
Tendou froze for a moment before looking at his friend, confusion very apparent on his face. “Hinata-kun gave it to you?”
Ushijima calmly nodded. “He asked to meet some time ago. We talked for a little while before he gave me this card, told me to use it for whatever, and left.”
“Wait wait wait, is this before or after-”
“After.” Ushijima replied.
Tendou was practically gaping at the revelation. “So he didn’t say anything to anyone from Karasuno, his family, or any of his other friends… but he talked to you? Did you two start dating without telling me?”
“I don’t see why you would come to that conclusion.” Ushijima frowned. “We’ve only met seven times within the past year.”
“....you know what. I’ll just ask him once he comes out of that Gate. Well, assuming he didn’t die and the world doesn’t end.”
Ushijima thought about it for a moment before saying, “I don’t think he’ll die. He said that he hadn’t forgotten his promise about making it on the same stage as me.”
“I wish I could live inside your head, Waka-kun.” Tendou said. “Well, that aside. There’s this restaurant I found that apparently caters to athletes, something about making nutritious and balanced meals still delicious. Do you wanna go there tomorrow?”
Ushijima nodded in assent, and that was that.