From Blue Sky - Chapter 2/15

[h_itoshi]

Title: From Blue Sky
Status: 2/15
Fandom: Hey! Say! JUMP
Pairing: None. Main characters are Yabu, Hikaru, Yamada and Chinen.
Overall rating: PG-15 for minor character death and depictions of violence
Warnings: AU. I made Chinen 11 years old which is what the plot revolves around.
Wordcount: 3670

Summary: "He's a cute boy, isn't he?" Takaki says, his voice dangerously low as his eyes follow the young boy, probably around ten years old, walking next to his classy mother and seemingly trying to nag her into something. "I think he'd be even cuter lying at my feet with his throat sliced."

Notes: This is inspired by the Mayonaka no Shadow boy PV and a movie which I won't admit to ripping the plot from until someone calls me on it. I love the atmosphere of the PV and wanted to write something similar to it, and I've had this plot lying around for years, so I thought it was finally time. I'm planning on posting twice a week if you want to stick around~

 

The look in Takaki's eyes when Yamada confesses what happened is much more ill-boding than if he'd yelled, hit him, or in any way reacted. The look says that he's disappointed and furious enough not to care about what he does to Yamada.

Yamada doesn't dare look away from the dark eyes fixed on him, but he hears Yuto's uneasy intake of breath and sees Daiki shift at the corner of his eye. They care for him, but nobody questions Takaki's decisions.

“You're worthless.” Takaki finally speaks, his voice so low Yamada wouldn't have heard him if there wasn't only silent darkness around them. “Did you kill him?”

Yamada shakes his head and casts Yuto and Daiki a glance. Daiki's got blood stains on his shirt and a splatter over his cheek, and Yuto looks a little pale, but okay. “I only hit her.”

“Then find him, and bring his body to me. Dead or alive, just bring him.” Takaki growls, and Yamada swallows to keep in his shaky sigh of relief. One more chance. He can't screw up.

“I will find him.” He says, voice as steady as he can get it, and Takaki's eyes narrow, trying to see through him, but Yamada keeps his face neutral. “I'll bring him to you.”

“You better.” Takaki agrees, voice threateningly deep and low, but he reaches into his jacket for a gun that he pushes against Yamada's chest. “We're heading back to Tokyo. Don't take too long.”

Yamada nods and accepts the gun, before he turns and leaves his comrades once again to head back towards the river, knowing that if he doesn't find the boy's body, he might as well use the gun to shoot himself.

 

~*~

 

When Yabu exits his hotel room for an evening walk after a few hours of doing practically nothing, Hikaru's sleeping in sitting position on the floor outside his door.

Yabu stares at him, frozen in the motion of wrapping a scarf around his neck, because he was so certain the man had left long ago. Hikaru had followed him to his hotel, chattering about himself and asking Yabu questions that he grumpily answered, and he didn't shut up until Yabu reached his hotel room, firmly telling him goodbye and closing the door in his face.

He'd heard Hikaru's goodbye through the door, and of course figured that he'd run off to bug someone else. And so, he stares down at the blonde man where he sits leaning against the wall, arms loosely wrapped around his drawn up knees and head lulled to the side, that yellow and orange checked scarf tugged up to his nose.

Yabu goes through the past couple hours in his head, how he's taken a shower, watched the news, had dinner brought up, and read five chapters in his book. He glances at his watch, seeing that it's 10:30 pm and he feels a little guilty for Hikaru's sake even though he makes a face at himself for it.

He nudges the man with his foot, because he can't let him sit there all night. “Hey.”

Hikaru mumbles something incoherent and shifts a little, so Yabu nudges him again, a little firmer. “Hey!”

Hikaru's eyes fly open, and he looks bewildered and almost a little cute, like a ruffled baby bird or something with his disorientated look and pink cheeks. “What?”

“What are you doing here?” Yabu asks, voice firm, and Hikaru blinks and yawns, looking around to see where he is.

“Oh.” He says, voice still a little heavy with sleep. “I was waiting for you.”

“Why.” Yabu says, mouth pinching in discomfort.

Hikaru just shrugs and stretches a little, pulling his scarf down enough for his whole face to show as he looks up at Yabu once. “Are you going out?”

“I'm going for a walk.” Yabu answers, tone short, but Hikaru lights up and starts shuffling on the floor.

“Great, I'll come with you!” He says happily, and Yabu just breathes a short sigh through his nose, still having that unwelcome guilty feeling that keeps him from just telling Hikaru off.

“Whatever.” He finally says and starts walking towards the elevator while buttoning his jacket.

He hears Hikaru get up and follo, his light steps hurrying after him as he steps into the elevator.

“That's a classy jacket.” Hikaru comments as Yabu finishes the last button and the elevator door closes behind them.

Yabu frowns at him, not sure what he's supposed to answer to that, and so ends up with nothing.

Hikaru just frowns back, clearly trying to imitate Yabu's expression. “You don't talk much, do you?”

“Not really.” Yabu agrees.

“Aren't you a business man? You look like one. They talk, don't they?” Hikaru goes on, looking around the elevator as they descend, and jerks when he sees himself in a slim mirror, hands immediately going to his messy hair.

“I'm not really a business man.” Yabu makes a face at the label he just got, and Hikaru glances at him through the mirror, tilting his head in question while sorting out his bangs.

“No? What are you then?”

Yabu shrugs as the elevator chimes and the doors open on the ground floor. “Not a business man.”

“Oh. Okay.” Hikaru shrugs, easily agreeable, and hurries to follow him when he leaves the elevator. “I'm not one either, so I guess we fit perfectly together!”

“No, we don't.” Yabu says clearly as he heads for the door and towards the chilly night air.

“Yes we do.” Hikaru insists. “You're way too negative about things, are you depressed?”

“No.” Yabu answers tiredly, folding up his collar around his scarf to protect himself from the cold wind.

“I think you are, that's why you don't eat enough.” Hikaru says wisely, sticking his nose into his big scarf again, and Yabu frowns, turning to glare at him.

“I eat enough!” He says, raising his voice because hell, what's wrong with his weight? He doesn't think anyone has actually commented on that before.

“Oh please Yabu-chan, you're taller than me and thin like a stick.” Hikaru says simply, and Yabu's eyes narrow both at the unwanted nickname and the implications.

They walk down to the river and continue along it, the night cold and quiet as they bicker for a while, and then Hikaru keeps talking about nothing while Yabu listens or gives the occasional snide remark when he says something stupid.

Mostly he enjoys how the scenery changes as they get out of the centre of town towards the more suburban areas, and when they reach what seems to be an industrial area, Yabu is just about to tell Hikaru they're going back now when he sees something that subconsciously catches his interest.

There's something on the tiny shore by the river a little further away, what looks like two dark lumps, and he just considers if maybe they are some kind of rocks, when one of them moves.

He stops, alarmed, since whatever that is he probably shouldn't get involved. Hikaru takes another few steps, but then cuts off in his ramble about a candy brand and turns to look at Yabu, confused. “Yabu-chan?”

Yabu doesn't answer, simply watches as the lump that had moved moves again, and he's pretty sure he sees an arm stretch out towards the other, smaller one. His eyes narrow, and he's just about to turn on his heel when Hikaru yelps after having followed Yabu's gaze.

“Oh my god!” He says, and then grabs Yabu's wrist and tugs him towards the objects Yabu would rather avoid, hissing what Yabu suspected from the first second. “That's people!”

“Yes.” Yabu says, and tries to tug Hikaru back but he can't, reluctantly thinking that Hikaru may have a point that he's too thin. “We shouldn't bother.”

“What, are you crazy, we have to help them!” Hikaru insists without even turning to look at Yabu, and lets go of him to hurry down the slope to the shoreline.

Yabu hesitates for a moment, before figuring that if the authorities would find Hikaru and ask questions, he'd definitely tell that Yabu was there too, and that inevitably makes him slowly follow Hikaru down. When he gets closer, he sees that the smaller lump is an unconscious boy, probably around ten years old and curled into an unnatural position, hair plastered to his face and clothes dark with water. The moving one is a woman, long hair in wet tangles around her face, and she's only halfway up from the water. It's easy to tell why when Yabu sees the red dark stains on her bright jacket, covering almost the entire back and she can't seem to move one of her arms.

Hikaru's kneeling beside her, asking how she is and what happened and what's going on, questions rambling out of him while his bloodstained hands shake as he tries to help her out of the water and stop the bleeding at the same time.

She makes small noises that's not words but could be attempts at it, and keeps looking at the boy almost desperately, using her working arm to try and crawl towards him.

Yabu stops a metre away from them, thinking that this definitely means trouble. But then the woman looks up, seeming not to even see Hikaru, and her eyes are panicked, urgent, and Yabu's heart almost stops for a moment, bringing up memories he'd rather forget. But then she averts her eyes again, back to the boy, her free hand clawing into the gravelly dirt to try and drag herself towards him, but she's so weak she can't do it, and Hikaru's too upset to understand what she's trying to do.

Yabu hesitates for a second, before he kneels down next to the boy and touches his pulse point, wincing a little at the cold skin, but feels heartbeats. He moves his hand, holds it gingerly under his nose, brushing the small cold lips that border on blue, but he feels breath too and turns to look at the woman, who watches him with horrified eyes, and now that Yabu sees her up close, he thinks that this might be the last answer she ever gets.

Yabu nods slowly, and she visibly relaxes, her hand in the dirt going slack and her eyes fall closed.

“Hey? Hey! Are you okay?” Hikaru asks, panic in his voice as he shakes her unhurt shoulder when he feels her relax, trying to stop her bleeding with his jacket, and it's soaked with red while his hands and pants are bloodstained.

Yabu doesn't say anything, but turns to the boy instead, quietly thinking that he's seen enough people die, he doesn't need to see another.

He brushes the boy's dark hair out of his face, and he curses quietly when he feels how cold the child really is, and makes an effort to lift his head from the ground, dirt stuck on his cheek and in his hair, and starts tugging off the small soaked jacket.

“Ehm... Yabu-chan...” Hikaru's voice is a little shaky, quiet enough for Yabu to hear the sounds of the running river, the low sighs of the cold night wind and the buzzing from a lonely streetlight. “I think she's dead.”

Yabu twists a small arm out of a sleeve before answering. “Yes, I think so too.”

“What happened here?” Hikaru asks, and his voice is so fragile Yabu has to turn and look at him. For as bubbly and annoying as Hikaru's been up until now, his face shocks Yabu, serious, pale, blood on his hands and stains all the way up to his elbows. “Is he okay?”

Yabu looks back down at the boy. “He's cold. He probably won't make it much longer.”

“Yes he will.” Hikaru says, and his voice now is fierce as he takes his jacket from the woman's shoulder and rises. “We can't let him die.”

Yabu tugs off the other sleeve of the little jacket, dropping it aside and rises as well. “He's not our responsibility.”

“I don't care, I won't let him die.” Hikaru says stubbornly, and Yabu can't help but be fascinated by his determination, which he would not have thought was there until now.

“Then you take him.” Yabu says calmly, and steps aside from the boy on the ground.

Hikaru gives him a glare that almost burns. “You're not going to help? You don't care?”

“He won't make it much longer anyway, and this has nothing to do with me.” Yabu explains, gaze trailing from the boy to the dead woman, lingering on the blood on her clothes. “It's hardly a good idea to get involved.”

“... Fine.” Hikaru says, and then drops to his knees before the boy. He tries to wipe the blood from his hands on his jeans before he grabs the boy's shoulders and hoists him up enough that he's sitting, head falling limply onto Hikaru's shoulder, against his scarf. “Then I'll do it myself. I'm taking him to a hospital.”

Yabu crosses his arms and watches, a lot of feelings he doesn't like threatening to bubble to the surface within him as he watches Hikaru struggle to lift the boy properly. “You should just leave him, you don't even know who he is.”

“He's a child.” Hikaru says, simply. “He shouldn't have to die because some selfish bastards didn't help when they could.”

Yabu's mouth pinches at the jibe, and he sighs, trying to brace himself against the guilt that Hikaru seems to be able to evoke in him. After watching Hikaru trying to get the boy up but slip and almost drop him, Yabu sighs in defeat.

“Fine. Only to the hospital. You're making him bloody.” He grumbles and crouches to help.

 

~*~

 

Yamada hears his heart in his ears as he hurries along the river, carefully watching the movement and direction of the current to make sure he's on the side where something would float ashore.

He's moving quickly, but tries not to look too suspicious in case someone would see him. He knows there are policemen all around, looking for the same people he does, and he has to find them first.

He keeps cursing himself for fucking up so badly, but has to push the thoughts away, trying to focus all his energy on just finding them.

He's gotten far down enough that he's starting to lose hope, wondering if he'll have to follow the river all night since he's already reached the outskirts of the city, a dark industrial area with a few lonely streetlights, when his heart almost stops.

The first thing he sees is two people, one crouching and the other standing, a small body on the ground between them and another, larger at the water's edge, and he immediately thinks they're policemen. But he doesn't stop moving towards them, only slows his steps, and when he continues watching them, he's convinced they're not. Instead, they seem to argue, voices carrying words Yamada can't separate yet through the cold night, and he relaxes a little. If they're not police, he can make them hand over the boy.

The standing figure, seemingly a tall man, leans down as well, and Yamada raises a hand to brush his bangs from his eyes, correcting his own gun under his jacket in case he'd need it, and strolls towards the two.

He hears their conversation now, and he can't help but wonder who they are.

“Let's just get this over with.” The taller, slim one says, sounding stressed, but the other doesn't seem to listen to him, busy doing something on the boy's chest. “How do we even leave him at a hospital like this, look at you, how will you explain that?”

Yamada glances at the concentrated man, noting his blonde messy hair, but then sees the blood he's got all over his clothes.

“He's injured, I carried him.” The blonde says, and Yamada frowns, worry clutching at his heart because he's so certain he didn't hit the boy, but if he's hurt, he's definitely in trouble.

“He's not though.” The taller says, and Yamada relaxes. “Besides, we don't even know who he is or where he comes from.”

Yamada's close enough to be heard now, but the two seem caught up in their argument and doesn't listen for sounds like soft footsteps, and he can't help but smirk as he leaves the asphalt of the road and steps onto the gravelly shore.

“He's Chinen Yuri.” Yamada says, loud enough for the two men to jerk, and he notices how the tall one makes a quick, automatic motion with his hand that Yamada would recognize anywhere, but nothing happens as the man stops it halfway through. “You might know who his father is.”

“Who are you?” The tall one asks, brown bangs hanging into his angular face and his eyes are narrowed in suspicion.

“Does it matter?” Yamada tilts his head, stepping closer as he keeps his eyes fixed on the tall one and his hands in his pockets.

“Yes.” The tall one says, glaring back and Yamada puts on an innocent face.

“Do you know him?” The blonde asks, not at all as suspicious as the taller, on his knees on the ground and keeping the boy in a sitting position.

“... Not personally.” Yamada admits, thinking hard about how he could make these guys just leave. “I know a lot about him. His dad is one of the tops in Tokyo's security police. He's eleven years old. And there's some people looking for him that you wouldn't want to get involved with.”

“Who?” The taller asks while the blonde gathers the boy into his arms as if trying to protect him.

Yamada shifts his weight before answering, taking an extra second to think about his answer, wondering who this tall guy might be. “You ever heard of Diabolos?”

“Nope.” The blonde answers, at the same time as the tall one's eyes narrow in recognition, just as Yamada thought they might do.

“Yes.” The taller confirms, and his tone is even more hostile now. “What would they want with a child?”

“Beats me.” Yamada shrugs, acting like it has nothing to do with him. “But I wouldn't want to get involved.”

“We were just taking him to the hospital.” The blonde explains, and Yamada turns to look at him again, at his earnest eyes and big fluffy scarf. “He's cold and maybe injured. His... I think it's his mother. She's dead.”

Yamada just casts a glance over the blonde's head towards the body laying halfway in the water, taking in the blood on her clothes and has to restrain his smirk when he sees what a good shot he managed even though he pretty much shot without aiming. But he's a good actor, and so he frowns in concern. “Oh.”

He looks at the blonde again, since he seems a lot more pliable. “I could take him? He's none of your concern, is he?”

“No.” The blonde tugs the boy closer, like a child with a teddy bear someone wants to lend. “He's ours, we'll keep him safe.”

“Yours?” Yamada raises an eyebrow because he can't help himself, glancing between the two men and his annoyance almost shines through. “You sure are an odd couple.”

“And what interest is he to you?” The taller asks, voice cold and firm while the blonde just shrugs at the comment.

“I'm just an innocent bypasser wishing to help.” Yamada says with a small sarcastic smile, since he knows the taller won't buy anything he says anyway. “I'll take him to his father.”

“Why not just the police?” The taller questions. “I'm pretty sure his mother didn't die naturally so the police are probably involved.”

“There are insiders within the police. They'll take him immediately.” Yamada says, voice serious enough that at least the blonde seems to accept that instantly. “It's safer to just bring him straight to his father without involving them.”

He's starting to get a little stressed. This area isn't secluded at all, and there might be someone coming by any second and that's the last thing he needs. “Please, just let me take him?”

“No.” The taller says, and the blonde lights up when the taller leans down and helps him tug the boy up from the ground. “We'll take him to his father in that case.”

“Do you even know where to go?” Yamada asks, frowning.

“I don't.” The blonde admits as the taller helps him get the boy onto his back so he can carry him.

“I could lead the way.” Yamada offers, desperate for an excuse to stay with them. “I know where to go without being noticed by the police or anyone from Diabolos.”

The tall one's eyes narrow in thought as he drapes his own jacket over the boy on the blonde's back, picking up a small, soaked piece of clothing from the ground, but he doesn't answer.

“That sounds like a pretty good idea to me.” The blonde says, looking at the taller. “We don't know the way?”

“There's no 'we' in this, I only agreed to bring him to a hospital.” The taller says curtly, and then starts walking. “We need to get him warm. Hikaru, come on.”

The blonde hurries to follow him, and Yamada grits his teeth. The only reason he doesn't shoot them both right here is that the taller keeps glancing back at him.

He sends a final look at the mother's dead body, before pursuing the two, determined not to let them get to a hospital.

 

~*~

 

TBC

 

Chapter 1

Chapter 3

Comments

[sanadas-sanity.livejournal.com]

Oh gosh this chapter has me even more interested in who Yabu is. Cause he definitely seems to have some sort of underworld connections, and Hikaru is either more innocent then I imagined or really good at playing stupid. And now Yamada has thrown himself into their little group to make sure Chinen ends up dead. Makes me wonder how Chinen is going to react whenever he wakes up.

This s definitely getting more interesting, and I can't wait to see where you go with this!

[h-itoshi.livejournal.com]

All in good time haha~
Thank you for reading and letting me know your thoughts, it makes my day :D

[mysteriousgal11.livejournal.com]

This was an interesting fic! I love stories like this~

Will definitely follow your story! 😃😍

[h-itoshi.livejournal.com]

Yay!! Hope you'll like it~ :3