Serendipity: Haikyuu Fanfic

Chapter 10: Bad People

Jun remembers this memory very clearly:

It was a quiet evening in the town of Otaru. Located in the island of Hokkaido, this traditional little village is dotted with small neighborhoods and dense with leaves so lush and vibrant in the youth of the summer. As a child, Jun visited this quaint town each summer to visit her grandparents.

"Your mother probably asked me to teach you, didn't she?" The old lady said with a knowing, warm smile.

Jun's grandmother is on her mother's side, a faithful buddhist, while her step-grandfather is a hearty fisherman. They lived in a humble, cozy house near the coast.

Jun remembers this exchange clearly when she was only six years old. Jun sits on the bare tatami mats, watching her grandmother sit still, as if she is meditating.

"Yes, oba-san." Jun says respectfully. "She said you know kendo."

Her grandma laughs airily. "As expected of my daughter. She loves you —so very much... She might have forgotten how my joints are not so good anymore, but I suppose trying doesn't hurt."

Despite at the age of 72, her grandmother seemed more healthy and active than others of her age. She says that it's her meditation and inner stregth that had kept her mobility. That — and the soybeans that she grows in her garden.

"Do you know why your mother wanted me to teach you?"

Jun answered, as innocently as any other 6 year old:
because there are bad people in this world.

-*-

Now, Jun has never used it on others — she hasn't found a reason to. The things she learned from her are like how others would learn useless scientific formulas: stored away in a metaphoric attic in your brain. Collecting dust.

She barely thought about them, until she had been recieving cryptic, mysterious clippings of magazines for the past week. On the back there is a hand-written phrase:

"I know."

Yesterday was different — she only got the word "tomorrow." Just thinking about it makes her mouth feel dry. While Jun watched Kuroo struggle to win against the basketball team, there was an underlying paranoia — paranoia that gnawed on her. She felt like she was being watched, observed.

Now that she is alone in the gym's equipment room, this feeling only feels stronger. It feels a little harder to breathe.

Jun quickly takes off her shirt and rushes to wear her regular uniform.

It was a dark, dusty equipment room. It is silent, only the sound of the howling wind and the rain hitting the tiny window.

Then — oh so slightly — the wood floor creaked behind Jun. She snaps around and —

A pair of hands wraps around her and muffles her mouth.

-*-

"What's up with Kuroo?" Yaku asks, annoyed at his wet ankles as he pushes through the bad storm. "He's really out of it."

Kenma merely shrugs, letting the rain shower him for a bit before picking up Kuroo's umbrella from the pavement.

Meanwhile, from a few blocks away, Kuroo sprints back to the gym — he slips on a stupid puddle — scraping his already wounded knees. He grimaces, then shivers, then promptly runs again. All of his muscles feel strained and tired.