Haikyuu Creature Collection

Regrets 2 (Shohei Fukunaga)

Looking up at the building before me, I brushed my bangs around for the thousandth time. I'd once had them grown out as long as the rest of my hair, but now they're cut just above my eyebrows. I'll never let them be any longer or any shorter than that.

I've never gone to high school before. I'd run away back then and ended up joining the Collectors. That had been sometime during middle school. Too many fights with my parents and I'd thought I could find a better place. And I had, until that little werecat.

I wonder how he's doing? I thought as I entered the building. I was a little older than the first years, but that's what year I ended up as. He'd probably be at least a second year by now.

As I entered the building, all eyes seemed to settle on me, making me very self-conscious. Could they see it? That horrid word that forever stained my forehead... carved into it repeatedly, marking the word anew over and over again until it was scarred into my flesh.

Traitor.

It was likely that it would be there for the rest of my life... an eternal reminder of what I was. Even if I'd done the right thing by letting him go, I'd still betrayed those who had welcomed me into their ranks when I'd had nowhere else to go. If anyone ever knew, I doubted they'd ever accept me.

The days begin to pass like normal, or what I assumed was normal. That is, until one of those days passed and someone saw that scar across my forehead. That awful word that forever marked my past as a part of me.

The other students began to swarm around me, hurling insults my way. This, I'd learned was sort of a normal thing that happened to those that were deemed freaks or just simply the outcasts. Having the word "traitor" carved into my forehead certainly left me in either category.

For some time, the days became just like that. I suppose I deserved it though. I betrayed the only family I really had, my only friends... Maybe this was fate's way of punishing me.

And then, suddenly someone stepped in, silently signaling that my punishers had done enough. When I looked up, I saw the face of my guardian angel. Or more accurately, my guardian werecat. That very same little werecat that I'd helped escape all that time ago.

A smile lit up my face as the crowd dispersed, leaving me with my savior. He says not a word, but places his hand on my forehead. His fingers brush the hair back, mimicking the way I'd always used to part my hair.

Fukunaga remembered. Even after this time, he still remembered me. His lips curve up into a small smile. Not a single word leaves his lips, as I would have expected. He was always my quiet little werecat and that's how I'd want him to stay.