Wings of Steel

Part 10~Grandma

Shoyo winced as he landed. His leg was screaming. With every jump, it was in more pain, and the others hadn't even realised.

Well, not entirely. "Hey, boke! What's wrong? You're jumping lower." Kageyama glared at Shoyo as he laughed nervously.

"Nothing's wrong." Shoyo waved his hands as Kageyama huffed, clearly not believing what Shoyo was saying.

Ennoshita went to serve as Kindaichi leaned close to the net. "I would be careful if I was you. Kageyama doesn't deal well with disobedience."

Shoyo couldn't respond before Ennoshita served. The Aoba Johsai lot received and spiked. Tsukishima had to save the ball as Kageyama and Shoyo failed to stop it.

Kageyama got into place as Shoyo charged, jumping up and swinging, but he didn't hit the ball. Looking around in confusion, Shoyo forgot to land properly, his leg twisting as he bit his lip.

The ball hit the net and rolled out.

Kindaichi smirked, raising his hand. "If you can't spike a ball like that, the King will get mad."

"Hinata!" Kageyama walked forward, grabbing Shoyo. The group shot forward, fearing what the king was about to do. "If your hurt, you shouldn't be on the court! Go rest!"

The court fell silent as Shoyo laughed, clutching his stomach and grinning. "I didn't realise you cared, but I'm fine, Kageyama." Shoyo waved his hands as Kageyama glared at him. "See?" Shoyo did a small hop, his knee buckling under him. He would have collapsed if Kageyama hadn't caught him.

"I said go rest."

Shoyo huffed, pouting as the whistle was blown and Shoyo was called off the court. Shoyo collapsed onto a bench, not looking too happy as he leaned back. "This sucks."

"Hinata," Suga rushed to Shoyo's side with Kyoko, a worried look in his eyes. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong." Shoyo shot up, patting his knees nervously. "They just do that sometimes. It'll clear up soon. Promise."

Suga didn't look convinced. Kyoko placed a hang, motioning for him to leave before she sat next to Shoyo. "Would you like to do this out of their eyeshot?"

Shoyo scowled. "I would like not to do anything. It'll be fine."

Kyoko gave him a pointed look before grabbing his shoulder and dragging him out of the gym. Karasuno watched in concern as the first year was dragged out.

~~~

Shoyo gasped as he sat in the empty classroom.

Kyoko paused, holding the medic bag. "What can I do?"

"Don't worry about it." Shoyo rolled his eyes, hesitating before he talked. "You know, don't you?"

"About your leg, yes. The deputy head told me so I could keep you out of trouble."

"Great. Do Daichi and Suga know too?"

"No. Just me."

Shoyo huffed, reaching down to the cuff of his trouser leg. He undid a special zip, gaining easy access to his leg as he slid it off. Kyoko watched as Shoyo laid the prosthetic leg down. He slid off the protective sleeve and looked over what was left of his leg.

The skin was covered in fading scars that covered most of Shoyo's leg. Shoyo could tell Kyoko was worried. "It doesn't hurt too much. Sometimes it just struggles."

Kyoko nodded, reaching into her medic bag and bringing out a strange white tube. "It's a pain killer. It should help." She gave it to Shoyo as he looked over it. He shrugged, reading over the instructions before dosing out a small amount. He rubbed it into his stump, sighing as the pain dissipated. "You shouldn't go back to the match yet. They'll understand."

"You can't tell them." Shoyo stared at Kyoko in terror as she shook her head.

"I won't. But you should tell them."

"I would rather not. They don't judge me. Everywhere I went at my last school, it was all about my amputation. I could be left alone out of fear I would fall over and couldn't get up. I had to miss classes, and people always pitied me. That's the kid who was in the car crash. Poor little freak."

Kyoko paused as she took a seat. "It couldn't have been like that everywhere."

"Well, not everywhere. There is this group I hung out with. Daedalus's Flight. They used to be this huge biker gang before there was a massive accident. They were stuck in the hospital for months. Grandma introduced us to each other when we were in rehab. They're so cool." Shoyo's eyes sparkled for a second before he sighed. "But that's different. We don't treat each other differently because it's weirder to still have all your body parts. Even grandma lost her arm and leg," Shoyo paused, "and a good portion of her lungs, but that was a different bomb. It's actually how she met her wife and learned about physical therapy." Shoyo shook his head, leaning back. "She's lucky. All I met was a weird guy with a cat obsession."

Kyoko had to pause to process this information. "You are very strange."

Shoyo laughed, shooting up. "Yeah. I couldn't move for a while, so I made up for it with my personality. Ken taught me well." Shoyo hesitated, grabbing his sleeve. "Do you think I could go back now?"

Kyoko hesitated. "If your leg starts hurting again, you will stay on the bench."

"Yeah, manager." Shoyo slipped his leg back on, slowly standing. It still hurt but was more of a dull ache than the hot sword it had been. He gave Kyoko a thumbs up as she walked him back. "I was gone for ten minutes. How are you losing?"

Shoyo's return was heard by all. Karasuno had lost the second set. They were on a losing streak, currently down 15 points.

"Seriously? What happened?"

"Before you think we can't manage without you, this had nothing to do with you," Tsukishima announced as Shoyo raised his eyebrow.

"Really? When we left, you were on the second set and up by 5 points. You've lost 28 points since then."

Before Tsukishima and Shoyo could start a fight, Suga walked over. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. Good as new."

Suga smiled, patting Shoyo's back. "Great, you're in."

"Yeah, not even I can save this."

Regardless, Shoyo walked onto the court. He stretched out his arm before frowning. Someone new was on the court.

"Hinata," Kageyama strolled forward, looking almost concerned. "Don't collapse again."

"You know, this club would go so much further if you all learnt how to properly show affection."

"Tolerance more like," Tsukishima snarled.

"Yeah yeah, who's the bean." Shoyo pointed across the court as the third-year walked to the back line.

"That's Oikawa. Watch out for his serve." Tanaka patted Shoyo's back as he grinned.

"A super serve?" Oikawa spun the ball in his hand, running forward as he jumped. The ball blasted forward, charging at Shoyo, who didn't have time to react. The ball bounced off him and went out of bounds. Shoyo didn't look deterred at all. "Super serve."

Oikawa jumped up again, his eyes focusing on Shoyo as he hit the ball again. Shoyo took one step this time and sent the ball to Kageyama, the perfect receive.

Karasuno gaped in surprise as Shoyo began running. Kageyama shot under the ball, setting it in time as Shoyo spiked past the middle blockers. "Yeah, totally didn't need me."