Treasure Hunt Ushiten

Play The Game

I do not claim credit for any of the art. I found the images on Google.

A little background to bring you up to date on everyone's favorite ship: Ushijima and Tendou live together as fiances, but they cannot legally get married in Japan. They have been engaged for two years. They graduated from Shiratorizawa several years ago. Wakatoshi became a professional volleyball player on the national team. He had a very successful career until he was considered too old to play and became head coach at his old high school. On with the story!

Ushijima's POV

Ushijima Wakatoshi sighed as he walked to the door of the house he shared with his fiance, Tendou Satori. He had had a long day coaching, and all he wanted was to curl up on the couch with Tendou. He touched the doorknob before realizing there was a note on his door. Confused, he looked up at it.

It read "When you finish the treasure hunt you will find him. If you do not, you will never see your Satori again. If you contact anyone I will know. Go to UIF QMBDF ZPV NFU."

Ushijima's first reaction was pure shock. What had happened?

"Satori?" He called into the house. No answer. He darted inside, hoping this was just a prank, or a bad joke, or something. He ran through the house, opening all the doors, calling for Tendou. There was no sign of the ebullient redhead.

Wakatoshi slowly walked back outside. His Satori was in danger. His hands shook. His face remained still, but inside he was terrified.

The former ace pulled out his phone, about to call the police. Then he hesitated. The note said if he contacted anyone they would know. He doesn't know if that's true or not, but he can't risk hurting Tendou. Ushijima's mouth tightened in fear and worry as he put his phone away.

Alright, you bastard. I'll play your sick game, he thought. He reread the message. If this was like a treasure hunt, he had to follow the clues to finish the game. Now, Go to UIF QMBDF ZPV NFU? What on earth could that mean?

Well, it was a clue. Oh, it was probably a code. UIF QMBDF ZPV NFU must be the important part. He thought about codes he read about in books (yes, the farmer boy did read). Some of the most common were turning letters into numbers, picking out the third or fourth words in each sentence, or using the letters before or after the one you mean. After a moment's thought, he decided to test the last theory, since it seemed the most applicable here.

Let's see. If U means V, I means J, and F means G, that spells VJG. Is that short for something? Not that I know of.

He tested it the other way. If U means T, I means H, and F means E.....That spells THE. Thinking he may have figured it out, he quickly transposed the rest of the letters. When he put them together, his eyes widened. UIF QMBDF ZPV NFU became THE PLACE YOU MET.

Of course. Where had they met? The Shiratorizawa volleyball gym, when they were in high school. That had to be it. He tensed, about to break into a run toward the gym.

Wait. We met officially at volleyball practice in our first year, but we encountered each other before that. Where was it? He frowned, trying to remember. They had stood in line for something. What?

Comprehension dawned on the former ace. The lunch line in the cafeteria. On their first day, Satori had been standing in front of Wakatoshi, talking about how good he'd heard the school bentos were. He had reached around Ushijima to open the mini refrigerator. When Ushijima saw he couldn't quite reach it, he'd asked what the redhead was looking for. Satori had told him "water," so Wakatoshi had opened it for him and given him water. Was the cafeteria where he should go next? If he got this wrong, he didn't know what would happen to Tendou, but he doubted it was good. He took the note off the door and put it in his pocket.

Choosing to risk it, hoping this was not a huge mistake, he took off at a sprint, heading toward Shiratorizawa.