Kingdom Come | Haikyuu Fantasy AU

Chapter 1 |Running|

Kingdom of Karasuno

The first rays of dawn broke through and stung Natsu in her left eye, giving her an unpleasant start to the morning. Groaning and throwing aside her stuffed crow to the floor, she made her way to the small wooden bathtub that was already filled with nice warm water. Natsu sighed and rubbed her still tired eyes, knowing full well who set up the bath for her.

"Shoyou!" she yelled as loud as a tired 9-year-old could. No response. Natsu sighed and sunk deeper into her morning bath. Her brother was always up early in the morning doing who knows what. Whatever, so long as he wasn't bothering their mom, right?

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Everyone did their best to make way for the head full of fluffy orange hair dashed through the marketplace. It was practically their morning routine now, only a few tired souls not making it far away enough. Those unfortunate people would either have their backs scratched or their feet crushed, but it was a small price to pay for guaranteeing no collisions.

"There goes that Hinata again!"

"You think he's ever killed someone by crashing into them?"

"You think anyone's tried to catch him?"

"Well, the guards certainly can't!"

It was only a few minutes every day and no one ever got seriously injured, so they never really cared. No one knew why he ran down the street at dawn. They only recognised him as 'that Hinata' because of his signature tangerine hair.

When Hinata reached the familiar alleyway shortcut, he skilfully made the sharp, nearly 90-degree turn, practically dodging into it like a cheetah. The alleyway itself wasn't a smooth sail either, crates and homeless people all sat in his way. Hinata was not fazed. He had been doing this ever since he could run. One foot on the first crate was all he needed to keep his momentum that kept him propelling across the crates and over the sleeping homeless. Once he was out of the alleyway, he was out of the common realm and in the fields of the Karasuno countryside where farmers tilled the vast lands and beggars sat by the roads doing their best to survive, just like he was.

Hinata made his way in front of the small shabby stone and wooden mixed hut that he and his family called home. He had torn a new hole to join the many others in his yellow shirt, a new tear in the fabrics of his blue pants, both from running around and performing all of those stunts. Like usual. In his dusty hands, he held four pork buns whose origins didn't matter. What mattered was they were in his hands. He pushed the chipped and battered wooden door lightly, lest they live in a house with no door at all.

"Natsu! I'm home! I got us breakfast!" he exclaimed excitedly. Natsu popped her head out from behind a wall, drooling at the sight of the pork buns. She had a coral sweater on in as decent of a condition as it could. The two siblings plopped themselves on the floor, sitting at their small wooden bench they called a 'table'. Hinata handed two pork buns to his sister, who pouted in response.

"Shoyou! Stop giving me most of the food! With all that jumping and running, you're probably the hungriest here!" she complained, taking only one of the pork buns Hinata gave her. Hinata smiled widely in response, thrusting the other pork bun into her hand.

"No, I'm fine! You have it! You're younger after all!" Natsu thrust the pork bun back at him, and they went back and forth like this until tears started to form in the corners of Natsu's eyes, which made Hinata surrender immediately and swallowed the pork bun. Once he gulped it down, the droplets by Natsu's eyes immediately disappeared as if she wasn't about to bawl her eyes out a second ago.

"Haha! Yay! Now let's go give one to mom!" cheered Natsu. Hinata grabbed the last pork bun and eagerly followed the other little tangerine into their mom's room. Mrs Hinata sat up in her bed and smiled when she saw her two children, Natsu climbing onto the bed with her while Hinata kneeled beside it. She couldn't have been any happier seeing her children alive and cheerful, but her smile quickly disappeared when she saw the pork bun in Hinata's hands.