A Co-Captain's Doubts

United Front

In his haste, Hinata took a wrong turn on his dash to the gymnasium and had to double back as he found himself at the school entrance, realizing he had gone the wrong way. Berating himself both mentally and through the constant stream of his panicked muttering that flooded from his mouth, the red headed first year finally burst through heavy metal doors into the high ceilinged room where the rest of his team was lined up and in the middle of a spiking drill.

Running to the first person that came to mind, Hinata lurched to grab onto the back of a number nine jersey, bending to pant and catch his breath.

"Kageyama! It's- It's Sugawara!"

Startled and then quickly shifting to annoyed, the black haired setter wrestled to get the decoy's fingers out of his shirt.

"What are you doing, dumbass?! Get off me!"

"But- We've gotta help! I promised I'd be right back, we have to go!"

Furrowing his brow as he gripped Hinata's wrists in his own hands, Kageyama tried in vain to understand what the heck the shorter player was going on about.

"Hinata, there you are. Feeling any better?"

Light sheen of sweat coating his arms and forehead, Daichi approached the duo with the rest of the team turning to see what the commotion was bout. Noticing he was alone, the upperclassman began looking around.

"Where's Suga?"

Yanking free from his fellow first year, Hinata scampered up to Daichi, hands clenched tight in anxious fists at his sides.

"Captain!"

"You don't need to yell, Hinata. I'm right here."

The red head flushed embarrassed, but carried on trying to explain.

"It's Sugawara! Three giant jerks from the other team tried to beat me up, but he saved me! The ugliest one punched him in the face, we have to go back and help him!"

Eyes bursting open in abrupt distress, Daichi made a startled noise as he took a step toward Hinata, the other Karasuno players moving closer to better hear.

"Wait- What?! Where is he now? Coach!"

Not waiting for an answer, Daichi pushed through his teammates in a rush, only to find the blond haired man had already made his way over, his attention finding its way to Hinata.

"What's going on? It's about time you got here, Ginger, what took you so long? We've only got fifteen minutes before the match, start warming up!"

Disregarding Ukai's concerns about preparing for the match, Daichi moved into his line of vision with an intensity pouring out of him, a hard set to his eyes, and brows turned down in anger.

"Coach, Suga could be in serious trouble, I'm going to find him. Asahi, let's go."

"W-Wait, Suga's in trouble?" The gentle third year stammered, confused as to what was going on and being intercepted by Tanaka and Nishinoya who appeared in the way of their Captain's exit.

"If you're about to kick some ass on Suga's behalf, we're right behind you!"

"Hell yeah!" Noya added heatedly, clenching a fist in obvious outrage.

Daichi was about to impatiently shoo them out of the way so he could get to the door, but was caught off guard as the other three second years came forward with unwavering fury etched in their faces as well.

"Us too, where can we find Sugawara?" Ennoshita inquired.

Daichi's heart swelled with pride as his teammates rose to the defense of his fellow third year, even Yamaguchi, Kageyama, and Tsukishima shared quiet fierce expressions and looked as if they would be joining. He knew he probably shouldn't be encouraging his underclassmen to fight, but that sort of speech sounded more convincing coming from his silver haired friend anyway.