What are the odds

10

Tanaka Saeko had had a bad couple of days. With long shifts and crappy hours, she'd hardly had time to eat and sleep let alone to realise the awful quiet of the house. But now, she finally had a day off, a day to herself. She planned to use her Sunday well.

She had so many grand plans, starting with spending the entire day on the couch with a bunch of junk food and some sappy movies. She contemplates knocking on her brother's door to invite him to watch some with her before deciding against it with a chuckle to herself, it was nine in the morning, her brother was probably still sleeping much like her parents who must not have gotten to bed until the early hours of the morning.

Saeko maneuvers the food in her arms, a spoon for the icecream already dangling from her lips as she picks up the remote turning the tv on.

It opens onto a news station and she's about to change the channel before six words catch her attention.

"Karasuno boys volleyball team still missing," typed in bold letters headlining the bottom of the screen.

The spoon from her mouth drops clattering to the floor loudly as an image of her baby brothers team flashes on the screen. She rushes to turn the sound up.

"The boy's team has been missing since late Friday night, search and rescue have been looking for the group but as of yet have been unsuccessful. It is assumed that the storm sent them off the road on their way home but with all the storm damage there is no way to determine how far they got therefore making the search area vast. Authorities say it could take days, possibly even weeks to find the boys. We pray that the team is alive and well and our thoughts go out to their families,"

With that, Saeko falls to her knees, grief-filled sobs causing her body to shake violently as she whispers "no" to herself over and over getting louder and louder. Until shes loud enough to wake her parents. They come rushing from their room and upon seeing the news program on the tv, her mother pulls her into a crushing hug.

"No, no," she shouts, "They have to be okay, they have to! Tanaka is meant to- he's meant to be here and he's meant to be annoying and bring his friends around- a- and he and Noya are meant to eat my food and com- complain about- about homework," She stutters out, her sentence periodically interrupted by loud sobs. "They have to be okay," She reiterates.

Her parents just look at each other, tears forming in their own eyes.

They sit there, the three of them huddled on the ground sobbing together as grief rips through them and hope starts to slip away.