Archive of Our Own ^beta

karasuno krows kaw kaw

deadchi:

Where are the rest of you guys?

lightning:

what do u mean?

deadchi:

I mean, how long will it take for you guys to get here?

Most of us are already at Nekoma

lightning:

what

i thought the camp’s tomorrow

deadchi:

No, the training portion starts tomorrow

We’re supposed to be here by 6pm today for orientation and to settle in.

lightning:

shit

deadchi:

Please don’t tell me you’re still in Miyagi

lightning:

ok

i wont say anything, capt

deadchi:

Nishinoya Yuu.

lightning:

Waking up my sister to drive me there now.

deadchi:

You better.

Where’s Tanaka, then?

Please don’t tell me he’s also in Miyagi

thunder:

nope

tokyo

stuck in traffic

saeko said that if it’s really important to be on time she’ll find a way out of traffic

deadchi:

What does that entail?

thunder:

idk

probably using the sidewalk as her personal lane

deadchi:

Please take your time.

little crow:

im riding down the hill!

we should be there in 10 mins!

deadchi:

‘We’?

littlest crow:

HINATA PLEASE STOP TEXTING WHILE RIDING

IM GONNA DIE

deadchi:

Jesus.

Get off your phone, Hinata.

Don’t kill our manager.

little crow:

aye aye captain!

thunder:

wait.

did hinata just cycle both himself and yachi-san all the way to tokyo?!

littlest crow:

oh god, no.

we took the shinkansen and he rented a bike from the train station

deadchi:

That’s… Still pretty far but at least it’s better than cycling from Miyagi.

Where are you, @narita ?

kazoohito:

Uhm…?

I’m here?

deadchi:

What?

kazoohito:

I’m sitting beside Ennoshita…

deadchi:

… Oh

sugar:

so

one of our kouhai is still in a different part of the country

the other one’s likely going to end up in a car accident

the other two, in a bike accident

and you neglected the last one

everyone give a round of applause to daichi

captain of the year

deadchi:

Suga, I will actually bench you indefinitely.

sugar:

do it

you wont

coward

deadchi:

Sigh.

I should have joined the basketball team.

Day 0 of Nekoma’s training camp went as smoothly as expected.

Almost a third of the players arrived late, Fukurodani’s bus had broken down halfway so they had to walk to the school, one of Karasuno’s members had been dropped (thrown) off by a speeding van with a police car chasing after them and Lev had snuck a cat in.

Eventually , things had settled down and the captains were able to carry out the orientation. As per usual, they went through what their schedule was going to look like for the week and what were their goals for the camp. It was pretty standard, apart from the mysterious threatening aura that radiated from Karasuno’s captain during the part where he read out the rules for the camp.

Since the ‘first’ day was just dedicated to orientation and settling in, the gyms were not open for practice yet. Of course, some players (Kageyama & Hinata) simply used any open space to practise. The rest of the members simply decided to set up their rooms and have dinner.

As it usually went with a camp full of teenage boys (and a few teenage girls), some students sneaked off to explore the school. Lev had once mentioned that the bathroom near the Science block was haunted and Tanaka had picked up on that bit of information. Initially, he had planned for only him and Noya to explore the area. Except Yukie and Yamamoto had caught them sneaking away and insisted on joining them.

With everyone walking around freely from the cafeteria to the open fields to the common rooms, it was difficult for the captains and coaches to keep track of everyone. Unfortunately, it meant that the four’s disappearance had not been noticed for a long time.

In fact, by the time Bokuto had realised that one of his managers had gone missing, most of the campers were already getting ready for bed. After checking to make sure no one on his team had seen her, Bokuto freaked out on the other captains. It wasn’t long until they realised that they all had someone missing on their team.

Thankfully, the four returned before the captains had to get the coaches involved. They had dust, cobwebs and dirty stains all over them but they were relatively unharmed. As much as they (Daichi) tried to scold them, they quickly gave up once they saw a spider crawl out of Yukie’s hair then sent them to the showers. Right before they left, Daichi asked them what had happened in the bathroom.

“Oh. We don’t really know. It was super dark inside and we couldn’t see anything so we just walked out and went back.”

“You guys explored in the dark for a few hours?”

“Nah… I don’t think so. We goofed a bit and tried to spook each other but Yukie’s terrifying so we tried to get out as fast as we could. Felt like twenty minutes, max.”

“That doesn’t make sense…”

“Maybe we didn’t leave as late as we thought. Who knows. Could be the Ghost of Time.”

“Go shower, Tanaka.”

Kageyama could not sleep.

It was weird. Usually, he could sleep through anything. After all, he was dating Hinata and Hinata slept like a bulldozer. Loud, violent and knocks down anything in his way. Kageyama was not a cuddler, but he grew to be one when he realised it was the only way to keep Hinata’s limbs from flailing around like missiles aimed straight for his crotch.

Except, that night was no different from other nights. Sure, they were at camp but it wasn’t like he wasn’t used to having people around him anymore. Despite the semblance of normalcy, something felt off .

After some time of staring up at the ceiling (or down at his partner’s face), it clicked.

It was silent.

It was deathly silent.

There were no snores, no footsteps of someone going to the bathroom, no sleep talking and he couldn’t even hear the crickets outside the window. If it weren’t for the fact that he could see the rise and fall of his teammates’ chests, he would have assumed that they weren’t breathing. He rubbed his fingers next to his ears to see if he had gone deaf after the lights went out, but he could hear it perfectly fine.

Once he noticed the lack of sound, he also noticed the lack of movement.

Hinata was still in his arms and tucked between his chest and his cheek but Kageyama realised he had not felt his partner fidget once during the entire hour he had been asleep. Craning his head upwards a little more, he saw that his team was still asleep in the exact positions they fell asleep in. Noya had not magically appeared on top of someone else’s futon and Yamaguchi had not kicked off his blanket.

That was strange.

In all honesty, Kageyama was a little spooked. Not wanting to deal with this shit alone, he had begun shaking Hinata to rouse him.

“Oi, dumbass. Wake up.”

Soon, Kageyama’s gentle nudges became full body jerks as he realised he could not wake Hinata up. His voice slowly started getting louder and louder and yet the boy had not woken up. It started to dawn on him that Hinata was not the only one being unresponsive. Even though Kageyama had begun to raise his voice from a whisper to a yell, no one else in the room had even opened an eye. Their bodies were stiff like boards and faces stoic and unmoving.

It was like he was alone. But he wasn’t .

Panic started to seep in and Kageyama was just about ready to throw Hinata onto his back and carry him out of there when he heard a creak coming from behind him. The door was behind him and he was pretty fucking sure it was locked . The setter whipped his body around to see what had caused the noise but before he could even finish turning, he blacked out and laid limp right on top of Hinata’s body.

Daichi felt like crap.

It wasn’t abnormal for him to wake up with a crick in his neck or a dead arm from someone’s head having laid there the whole night, but a full body ache was definitely new. They didn’t even play volleyball the previous day or did any heavy lifting. He must be getting old.

The captain gave himself a moment to lay down a little more and let the ache subside before he had to get started on the day. He could feel just how badly his body needed more sleep but he had to force himself to wake up.

Even with the full body ache, Daichi could still feel how numb his left arm was. At least that was familiar. Opening his eyes, Daichi looked down and was about to check in on a sleeping Suga when he realised that Suga was already awake.

And that he wasn’t Suga.

Instead, Nekoma’s Kenma laid frozen on Daichi’s arm and was staring at the captain in nothing but horror.

Well, Daichi was definitely awake now.

“Kozume-kun?”

“...What?”

“Uhm… I think I should be asking you that.”

“No… I should be asking you what you’re doing in Fukurodani’s room, Kuroo-san.”

“Fukurodani…? Wait, did you call me Kuroo?”

“Yes? I called you by your name… Wait, why did you call me Kozume?”

“Because you’re Kozume Kenma.”

“No, I’m not.”

Frowning, both men sat up and looked around them. Kenma (?) was wrong, they were not in Fukurodani’s common room. Judging by the red and black jerseys hanging around the room and the faces of the sleeping campers around them, this was clearly not the correct room.

“How did I get here…”

“Because you slept here? Did you forget that you’re from Nekoma, Kuroo-san?”

“I’m not Kuroo! Why are you calling me Kuroo?”

“But… You are.”

Daichi sighed and leaned forward to put his face in his hands in frustration. It was too early for this shit and he did not want to get mad at another team’s player. Especially Kuroo’s partner.

“You’re not making any sense, Kozume-kun.”

“I… Wait a minute”

Kenma dug around the blankets and beneath their pillows until they found a phone. Daichi recognized it as Kuroo’s phone, which made no sense to him because it was under his pillow. The setter then opened up the camera and flipped it to selfie mode.

Looking back at them were the faces of Kuroo and Kenma. Daichi had Kuroo’s face and the messed up bedhead that came with him. He looked horrified while Kenma looked more like he was in disbelief. Dots began to connect in Daichi’s head and if he was not Kuroo, then maybe Kenma wasn’t actually Kenma.

“Who… Who are you?”

“Akaashi Keiji. Who are you?”

“Sawamura Daichi…”

The two of them took a moment to process everything that was happening. Kenma (Akaashi) was currently looking at the camera from different angles to make sure it was not a filter or anything despite the fact that it was the normal camera application and he could actually feel Kenma’s hair on his head.

Meanwhile Kuroo (Daichi) began looking around and waking the people around him. Yaku was on his left and beside the man was Lev. Kai and Inuoka were sleeping on the futons behind them so he woke them up as well.

“Hng… Kuroo-san? What are you doing in our room?”

Kenma (Akaashi) and Kuroo (Daichi) looked at each other and grimaced. Seems as though they weren’t the only ones. 

“Who are you?”

“Wh– What?”

“As in, what’s your name?”

“You know my name, Kuroo-san. It’s Hinata.”

Lev (Hinata) sat up to look at the Nekoma captain in confusion. Daichi and Akaashi watched as the boy began to realise that he was not in Karasuno’s common room right as the others began to get up as well.

Slowly but surely, everyone became aware of things not being right . Hinata was reeling from how long his arm was, Fukunaga had not moved an inch or said a word since he had sat up and Inuoka had gone back under the blankets and Daichi could hear him mutter something about everything being a dream.

“Hey, hey, hey! Whatcha doin’ here, Kuroo?”

Kuroo (Daichi) and Kenma (Akaashi) turned their attention to the last person to wake up; Yaku. Who apparently was Bokuto because no one else in their camp spoke like that. Everyone in the room paused in what they were doing to face the very-out-of-character Yaku (Bokuto).

“Bokuto-san… I think all of us swapped bodies.”

After gathering up the Karasuno players that had woken up in Nekoma’s common room (Lev, Inuoka and Fukunaga), Kuroo (Daichi) made his way to the room where he was supposed to be sleeping. A part of him was praying that everyone in there was still asleep so that he could manage the fallout.

As it usually went with Kuroo (Daichi) and his hopes for his team, things never turned out the way he wished they had. He had not even opened the door yet and they could already hear yelling and screaming coming from the inside. Kuroo (Daichi) was pretty sure that he heard something crash but he wanted to ignore it. He already had a headache on top of the body ache that had not left .

Breathing in deep to prepare himself for the chaos, Kuroo (Daichi) opened up the door to the mess that was the Karasuno common room. Immediately, all eyes were on him and Kuroo (Daichi) knew that the body swapping had happened to them too. He had never seen Tsukishima look that joyful or Asahi scolding someone.

“Daichi!”

The captain only had one second to look at who was charging towards him before he had the wind knocked out of him and he fell backwards. If it weren’t for Lev (Hinata) and Fukunaga (?) behind him, he would have fallen on his ass and hit his head.

(Then again, getting knocked out might be better than dealing with whatever magical/supernatural/demonic shit that was going on.)

Looking down, Daichi could see the familiar silver hair that he should have woken up to that morning as his partner squeezed his torso. Judging from Suga’s reaction, this was actually the real Suga. Which meant that the body swap had not affected everyone, just a large majority of people.

“Oi, Sawamura. Give me back my body.”

Daichi looked up and saw Kuroo in his body, leaning up against the wall with his signature smug look that did not look right on Daichi’s face. Since Kuroo was in his body, it meant that Lev was in Hinata’s and everyone else was in whoever they had swapped with.

Well, at least it was a little easier to manage than if everyone had swapped around and couldn’t find one another.

“I would if I could, Kuroo. I feel like there’s a colony of some new species living on my scalp.”

“Oi!”

Daichi (Kuroo) picked up a pillow and threw it at Kuroo (Daichi) but the other captain dodged it, causing the pillow to hit Lev (Hinata) in the face. The poor boy was still not used to being in such a tall and lanky body so he had lost his balance and fell backwards. Except, Inuoka was behind him but he was not able to catch the middle blocker as he fell on his ass.

Daichi silently apologised to the real Lev for all the bruises Hinata was about to leave on his body.

“Okay. We need to figure out who’s who. If you’re from Karasuno, stand on the left side of the room. If you’re from Nekoma, stand in the middle and if you’re from Fukurodani, go to the right.”

Thankfully, everyone listened to him without resistance. Even the boys that had followed him from Nekoma’s common room went to stand on the left side with their fellow players. From where Daichi stood, he made a mental note of where everyone was.

Tsukishima, Yamaguchi, Noya, Kageyama, Asahi, Kinoshita, Ennoshita, Lev (Hinata), Inuoka and Fukunaga were standing on the left side. With Suga still around him, Kuroo (Daichi) was pleasantly surprised to see that most of his team was there. Maybe not physically, but at least they were in the room with him.

Hinata (Lev), Narita and Daichi (Kuroo) were standing in the middle of the room and facing their counterparts. Daichi already knew that Hinata and Lev had swapped and was aware of his own swap. Since Narita was staring at Inuoka, he assumed that his second year must have swapped with the first year.

Tanaka was the only person on the right, which made him the only Fukurodani player in a room of loud Karasuno members. Kuroo (Daichi) felt bad for whoever it was.

“Who’s in Tanaka’s body?”

“Akinori Konoha.”

“Ah, the third year wing spiker?”

“Yes, Sawamura-san.”

“Okay. Konoha, Kuroo, Inuoka and Lev, you guys should probably head back to your own common rooms. Kuroo, I don’t know much about the swaps on your team but Bokuto is in Yaku’s body and Akaashi is in Kenma’s.”

Nodding, the four quickly made their way out of Karasuno’s room. He couldn’t blame them. Karasuno was not the most peaceful team to wake up with. Now that Kuroo (Daichi) was alone with his team, at least he would be able to figure out who was who. He already knew that it was going to be a nightmare trying to remember everyone so he sent Suga to grab some paper, tape and markers.

Despite already knowing about some of the swaps, Daichi still made everyone re-introduce themselves so that everyone else would be aware of who was who. (Though, some personalities were so strong that it was nearly impossible to not realise who it was).

Kinoshita and Ennoshita having swapped bodies didn’t feel as much of a headache as hearing that Tsukishima and Noya had swapped bodies. Noya was hard enough to contain when he was 159cm, but it was going to be even harder now that he was at a whooping 190cm. The libero was thrilled but the middle blocker looked absolutely miserable.

Lev (Hinata) had been excitedly talking to Kageyama when he found out that it was Yachi that had occupied his best friend and partner’s body. Daichi realised that it meant that Kageyama had woken up in the girl’s common room. Though, in comparison to the rest of his teammates, he realised that a very homosexual boy that had to share a room with his older sister for most of his life was probably the ideal person to have swapped with.

Asahi being Coach Ukai was personally very entertaining to Daichi. Not only did it mean that ‘Asahi’ could finally be as intimidating as he looked , but it meant that his best friend had woken up with the coaches and teachers. Daichi would pay good money to see that.

Using the materials Suga had brought him, Daichi made everyone write their name on a piece of paper and tape it on their chests. Even Suga and Yamaguchi wore a nametag despite not needing it.

Suga and Yamaguchi were the only ones that had not swapped with anyone. It meant that all of the players had been accounted for. Since Yachi was in Kageyama’s body, Daichi made an educated guess on who was in Fukunaga’s body.

“Kiyoko-san?”

“Unfortunately.”

Upon realising that Shimizu was in the room with them, Tsukishima (Noya) had scampered off and began to tidy up the room. The futons were a mess and many of them had clothes laying around in an unkempt manner. Noya (Tsukishima) looked like he was in pain as he watched his body behave like a monkey.

“Jesus Christ. Noya-san, please. I can feel my dignity dropping with every second that passes.”

“Quiet, Tsukishima! We must not expose our Goddess to our boy-stench!”

“She’s been in here for half an hour. Also, did you forget that she woke up in Nekoma’s room?”

Tsukishima (Noya) immediately dropped the pillow he had been holding and began to look distraught. The boy clutched his chest and fell forward into the futons while letting out a sound that conveyed his misery. Noya (Tsukishima) wanted to kill him.

As everyone debated on the swaps and who had the worst swap, a question popped into Daichi’s head. 

“Wait. Why are Yamaguchi and Suga still in their own bodies?”

It was weird. Both Suga and Yamaguchi were there the previous day and had done exactly what Daichi (and the others) had done. They ate dinner, hung around in the cafeteria to socialise with the others, set up their futons in the room, took a shower then slept. It wasn’t like they had an odd number of people, they could have swapped with each other.

The rest of his team (including the two in question) also did not know the answer to that. Tsukishima (Noya) theorised that maybe they had some kind of guardian angel that prevented the swap. Asahi (Coach Ukai) offered something more reasonable and asked if the two boys had gone off campus at any point. They both had not, which meant that they were back to square one.

Before they could hypothesise further, the door burst open and Konoha (Tanaka) ran into the room.

“Guys. Yachi isn’t waking up.”

The entire team clumsily made their way to the girl’s common room. Many of them tripped because of their new, lanky limbs (Lev, Tsukishima and Kageyama) and some had almost hit something because they ran faster than they normally did (Noya).

When they got there, they saw Fukurodani’s managers, Yukie and Kaori, standing outside the door with worry. When they saw the team, they asked whoever was in charge and Kuroo (Daichi) stepped up.

“I’m the captain. In… Another captain’s body.”

“Okay. We’re still Yukie and Kaori but we’ve swapped bodies. Fukunaga woke up in Kiyoko’s body and already went to Nekoma’s room. We thought Hitoka was just tired but we’ve been shaking her for ten minutes and she isn’t waking up.”

The two ladies stepped aside and let the team enter the room. Inside, they saw Yachi (Kageyama) bundled up in a bunch of blankets with a cup of salt beside her.

“Salt?”

“We heard smelling salt can help someone wake up. But it didn’t work so we poured it all over her incase this was a ghost thing.”

“I don’t think that’s how ghosts work.”

“Well the alternative is that she’s dead.”

“Let’s get more salt.”

Yukie and Kaori nodded and left the team to their own devices. Kuroo (Daichi) went ahead to check on Yachi (Kageyama) and see if he was breathing. He was glad to see that he was but was a little concerned to see just how much salt had been poured all over his body, including his face.

In the corner of his eye, he saw Lev (Hinata) kneel beside him and inspect Yachi’s body. Lev (Hinata) looked like he wanted to reach out and do something but he kept his hand hovering in mid air.

“Hinata?”

“I’m… This is Kageyama and he’s my partner. I’m worried and I want to check on him but he’s in Yachi’s body and… Well, I don’t wanna touch a sleeping woman…”

“You could ask the real Yachi?”

“Yeah, but I can’t ask Kageyama. It’s Yachi’s body, but right now it’s also Kageyama’s body and I can’t ask Kageyama if I can touch this new version of him…”

“You know what? That’s fair. We can see that he’s alive so let’s just… let him be?”

Lev (Hinata) nodded and moved to sit down on Yachi (Kageyama)’s other side. The boy announced that he was going to stay there with his partner until he woke up. Considering how unlikely it was that anyone was going to get any practice that day, Kuroo (Daichi) realised that having Lev (Hinata) sitting inside one room instead of running around was a good option.

“Uhm… Should we get him to the hospital?”

The entire team turned to look at Asahi in slight shock from how loud and authoritative his voice sounded. For a moment, they had forgotten that Asahi was actually Ukai. Asahi must have had the capability of power but was too scared to actually figure it out.

“I don’t think so. It’s pretty obvious that his unresponsiveness is a result of the swap. How are we supposed to explain that to the doctors? What if he wakes up in Yachi’s body with a nurse or doctor in the room? We’ll all get sent to a psychiatric ward.”

Asahi (Ukai) agreed with what Kuroo (Daichi) had said. The man was stressed out. Being one of the only adults in a camp of children that aren’t in the right bodies was not something he had signed up for but he had to take responsibility anyway. It made him want to have a smoke but when he searched his pockets, he remembered that he was in Asahi’s body and he couldn’t smoke with his kid’s lungs. He was miserable.

Realising that there wasn’t much that they could do and that Kageyama (Yachi) was beginning to freak out over her body being in some kind of coma, the team decided to have breakfast first. The bodies they were in definitely needed nutrition to keep up with the events of the day. Not to mention, most of them were still experiencing the full body aches that they had woken up with.

In the cafeteria, they were reunited with Ukai (Asahi) who looked like he had been crying. Asahi (Ukai) shoved tissues into his own face because it was embarrassing to look like that in front of his team at seven in the morning.

As everyone started talking with the other teams and helping the other schools set up a name tag system, they realised that Suga and Yamaguchi weren’t the only two people unaffected by the swap. Takeda, Coach Nekomata, Washio and Tamahiko were also in their own bodies.

Yaku (Bokuto) had gotten Bokuto (Yaku) to call up two Fukurodani players that had stayed home because he didn’t want to spook them with having Nekoma’s libero call them. Since the two sick players were unaffected by whatever had happened, it meant that whatever was going on only affected those at the camp.

Breakfast seemed to be going smoothly until they heard a loud yell coming from Fukurodani’s table. Everyone turned their heads in time to see Bokuto (Yaku) body slam Yaku (Bokuto) into the ground, shocking both of them involved. Those that had swapped into very tall or very short bodies completely understood the lack of coordination in that leap.

“Did you take a bite of that?!”

“Whaaaaaa! Yakuunn! That hurt!”

“Did you eat the sandwich, Bokuto-san!”

“I have a bite in my mouth…”

Bokuto (Yaku) grabbed Yaku (Bokuto)’s face and began (not-so-lightly) slapping it. A ball of wet bread and peanut butter covered in spit came out in one hack.

“Spit! It! Out!”

“Ow, ow, ow ! It’s out, it’s out! Uwaaaaaaah, Yakun! You’re so mean…!”

“I’m deathly allergic to nuts! If you swallowed that you would have died! Fuck, we need to give you an epipen even if you didn’t swallow all that peanut butter. Take a deep breath because you’re about to stop breathing soon… Fuck, my pen’s in my bag. Wait here.”

Bokuto (Yaku) stood up and booked it out of the cafeteria, running into the wall outside of the cafeteria because he couldn't control his speed but picked himself back up immediately. True to his word, Yaku (Bokuto) only had a few seconds to process what had happened before he felt his throat and cheeks swell up. Kenma (Akaashi) was immediately at his side and telling him not to panic because it would make things worse.

Everyone was shocked out of their stupor as they realised that they had forgotten about the health aspects of the body swap. Half the campers scampered out of their seats to rush to their counterparts to make sure that the occupants of their body didn’t kill themselves.

Apparently a third of them had some form of allergy to food and a fifth of them had a drug allergy. Noya (Tsukishima) had to write ‘NO STRAWBERRIES’ on Tsukishima (Noya)’s name tag because he didn’t trust his senpai to remember it. (Unbeknownst to Tsukishima, Noya already knew that about him. He was committed to being a good senpai so he had already memorised all of the allergies his kouhais had).

Hinata (Lev) took note not to take any panadol because apparently it could kill Hinata’s body. Fukunaga (Kiyoko) had to regretfully tell Kiyoko (Fukunaga) that she was in her pre-period cramps stage and that if he felt any type of intense pain that it was normal .

Both Akaashi and Kenma had asthma, so they both didn’t need to worry about having to teach the other how to use an inhaler if it was needed. 

Now that over half the camp was worried about their lives, the lives of their counterparts and Yaku (Bokuto) in the infirmary, training was definitely cancelled. Even those in their own bodies decided to put themselves in charge of watching over everyone.

After breakfast, most of the campers decided to sit around in the gym together. It was better to stick together than to split apart, after all. Those that had better control over the bodies they were in had gone to clean up the cafeteria and the teacher from Nekoma as well as his student counterpart had gone to grab his laptop from the teacher’s office.

Since everyone was gathered in one spot, Kuroo (Daichi) and Kageyama (Yachi) brought Lev (Hinata) and Yachi (Kageyama) to the gym with them. They had asked Kageyama (Yachi) to carry her own body and she had never been so impressed at ‘her own’ strength, or her body’s weight. A small voice in her head wanted her to toss her body in the air and see how high it would fly but she shoved that thought down fast. She was going to go back into that body some day and she would prefer it if it wasn’t injured.

When the teacher returned, he passed the laptop to Akaashi (Kenma) to use. The setter immediately set himself up in the corner with Daichi (Kuroo) and shut himself off from the world as he began researching on whatever the fuck was happening. Taking his lead, a lot of the more studious campers began searching on their phones for some kind of answers. The rest simply theorised what could have happened.

“Aliens?”

“Who are you? Oikawa-san from Seijoh?”

Lev (Hinata) threw one of the pillows they had used to surround Yachi (Kageyama) at Noya (Tsukishima) for comparing him to the Grand King. Though, his theory was totally plausible. Everything they knew about reality had been challenged overnight so who’s to say aliens weren’t real.

As everyone was discussing, a loud shout came from the front of Nekoma’s area. Kiyoko (Fukanaga)’s head was laid down on Hinata (Yaku)’s lap as he curled up painfully and gripped the front of Hinata (Yaku)’s shirt so tight that it began to wrinkle. Konoha (Tanaka) and Tsukishima (Noya) got up immediately to protect their Goddess’ body when Fukunaga (Kiyoko) told them to sit down.

“Don’t worry about him. It’s normal.”

“It’s normal?!”

Fukunaga (Kiyoko) nodded and returned her attention to the article she was reading. The men around them were looking in disbelief as Kiyoko (Fukunaga) continued to groan and cry from whatever pain he was experiencing. After a minute, Fukanaga (Kiyoko) had a thought and silently got up and left the gym.

“It really is fine. It happens all the time.”

The boys all turned to look at Kaori (Yukie) as she sat perched on her chair while eating a watermelon. Yukie (Kaori) was sitting beside her, holding a phone playing a YouTube video about body swapping for the two of them to watch. She paused the video and turned to the group.

“Period cramps. Y’know, the thing where your internal organs squeeze and cramp up so it can get rid of the tissue and blood inside you?”

“So this happens monthly ?!”

“Not all people with periods get cramps.”

The room sighed at the idea that it might just be an uncommon health thing that only Kiyoko and a few others had to deal with.

“Only like… 80% of people with periods do.”

“THAT MANY?!”

“Yeah?”

“How the hell do you guys function?”

“We just do.”

At that, Fukunaga (Kiyoko) walked back in with a towel and a water bottle. She gently turned Kiyoko (Fukanaga) over on her back, wrapped the bottle with the towel and placed it on his stomach. The poor guy initially whimpered from the weight on his lower torso but when the heat began to spread, he curled his arms around the towel to press it closer.

“When it gets cold, ask someone to refill the bottle with hot water. If it gets bad, take some panadol but my body is quite resistant to it so I recommend that you try to get comfortable instead. Good luck.”

With that Fukunaga (Kiyoko) made her way back to where she had been sitting and calmly continued to scroll through her phone. Glancing back and forth between the nonchalant Fukanaga (Kiyoko) and the sweaty Kiyoko (Fukanaga), the boys were all glad they had woken up in a body with organs they were familiar with.

(Kageyama didn’t count since he didn’t even wake up.)

After two hours of researching they came up with nothing.

They couldn’t find any reports on mass body swaps happening and with the few articles on people claiming that they had swapped bodies with someone else, it had been debunked as some kind of schizophrenic episode. Though, the boys weren’t quite sure if it was an actual episode or if the doctors had labelled it as such because how could they believe otherwise?

Akaashi (Kenma)’s search was the closest they had gotten to making sense of what had happened. He had found a Reddit post about a horror story that the Redditor’s mother would tell them when they were little. Their uncle had once pissed off a ghost and the ghost put a curse on them overnight. When they woke up the next day, all of the six siblings had swapped bodies. It took them a whole week to realise that they had to fix what they did wrong to return to their original body.

It would have made sense, especially since the Redditor’s mother talked about having no recollection of the night the swaps happened and that they woke up with full body aches. But no one could think of anything they did to piss off a ghost. Not unless the field was an old cemetery and that they had offended the spirit’s sensibilities by practising their receives there.

“Wait.”

Tsukishima (Noya) stood up as though he had cracked the case, then looked towards Konoha (Tanaka) with wide eyes.

“The Science block bathroom.”

“Oh shit–”

A volleyball flew across the gym and almost hit Konoha (Tanaka) in the face if it weren’t for Tsukishima (Noya)’s quick reflexes. Konoha (Tanaka)’s counterpart muttered something about not making such a stupid looking expression with his face and Konoha (Tanaka) was about to retort something about it being his natural look when Suga asked his juniors to get on with it.

“Right. Yeah, we went to explore the bathroom at the Science Block yesterday because Lev said it was haunted.”

“Hey! Don’t rat me out! I didn’t go with them!”

“Yeah, yeah. Anyway, we only went there for like twenty minutes but when we got back, the sun was already down and Daichi-san was mad at us for skipping dinner. Apparently, we were there for like four or five hours. I forgot about all of it because it felt so short for us.”

“... Yeap. There’s the issue. What the hell did you guys do in the bathroom? Did you piss on the wall or something?”

“Ew! No! Besides, Yukie-san was with us. If I’m honest… I don’t remember anything from that trip.”

The two boys looked for Sarukui (Yamamoto) and Kaori (Yukie) for their thoughts, only for both of them to shake their heads. 

Everyone else around them looked at the four in disbelief. It was such an obvious source to all their problems and it took them over half a day to arrive at that conclusion. Akaashi (Kenma) and Noya (Tsukishima) looked like they had a lot of words they wanted to say but they were being physically silenced by Daichi (Kuroo) and Yamaguchi.

Suga sensed the dangerous aura in the room and immediately clapped his hands and stood up to diffuse the situation. Now that body swapping was apparently a real thing, he didn’t want to risk finding out someone had mind powers by having them kill his kouhais with a glare.

“Okaaaaay! So we know what caused this. Now, all we have to do is figure out how to unswap everyone. I’m open to suggestions.”

“I say we throw the four of them in the bathroom, lock it from the outside and see if the ghosts spit them back out alive.”

“I am open to suggestions from everyone but Tsukishima.”

“Tie them up in the volleyball nets, open the door–”

“I am open to suggestions from everyone but Tsukishima and Kenma!”

“What if our souls go back if we die in the body we’re in–”

“I am no longer open for suggestions.”

Suga slumped against Kuroo (Daichi) in defeat but Kuroo (Daichi) was still not used to his body so he fell backwards and both captains ended up in a heap on the floor. Suga simply laid there, on top of Kuroo (Daichi) with his face stuck to the ground. Noting his boyfriend not making any effort to get up, Kuroo (Daichi) simply combed his hair in a comforting gesture.

He out of all people knows how exhausting it is to wrangle children.

“Uhm… I have an idea.”

Heads turned to Ukai (Asahi) and the boy yelped at the sudden attention. To be fair, three teams of tall boys suddenly turning their heads to look at you all at once was a little unnerving but it was a hilarious sight to see Karasuno’s coach look timid and anxious at everything.

Asahi (Ukai) on the other hand, looked exhausted. The ace had a freak out earlier because Takeda had ‘broken up’ with Ukai for the day because it felt weird to have a boyfriend that was in the body of an eighteen year old (or a boyfriend with the mind and soul of an eighteen year old… it was complicated) so the two adults decided to break off until everyone was back in their bodies.

Despite the entire situation not being Asahi’s fault, the poor boy still apologised endlessly and freaked out over ‘ruining a relationship’.

It was a weird day.

“What’s your idea, Asahi?”

“Uhm… If all this started in the bathroom… Maybe we should just go there? Everyone who switched at least?”

“There’s too many of us… But we could probably send in ten people to test things out.”

Akaashi (Kenma) and Noya (Tsukishima) open their mouths to sacrifice volunteer some names but Kuroo (Daichi) was quick to cut them off.

“I do think we should send in the original four since they started all this.”

“I wouldn’t say we started all of this…”

“But who should the other six be?”

All at once, every hand in the room pointed at Kuroo (Daichi).

“Figures. I need five more.”

Suga volunteered to tag along but as someone to stand guard outside the bathroom. He had not swapped so he figured he’d be the better option as a lookout. He was also familiar with his own body so if he heard any screams coming from the outside, he could probably run faster than the others to call for help (or run as far as he could).

With Suga as a lookout, they still needed five others. Right on cue, Yaku (Bokuto) walked into the gym with Kenma (Akaashi) and Daichi (Kuroo) volunteered both himself and his best bro after confirming that Yaku (Bokuto) was okay.

Asahi (Ukai) joined them as well since he was the only adult that had swapped so it’d make more sense for him to follow them than one of the non-swapped adults there. Yukie (Kaori) decided to join them since Kaori (Yukie) was going and she would like to stay close with her body.

Ukai (Asahi) was the final member since he realised that his body, his partner and his two best friends were going and he did not want to get left behind. Was he scared shitless? Yes. But he’d rather go out fighting ghosts alongside his friends than hear of their deaths from the crowded gym.

(Kinda).

(Not really but he had already volunteered so it was too late).

With that, all eleven of them left the gym and started to make their way to the ‘haunted bathroom’. As they walked, Suga and Kuroo (Daichi) were still trying to get answers out of the others.

“Are you sure you don’t remember anything at all?”

“Nope! I swear we only went in for a few minutes! I don’t even know what we would do in the bathroom! At most I’d try to ambush Ryuu in the stalls but the place was too gross and dusty for that.”

“Maybe you did ambush me in the stalls when I was checking it out, then we fell and we hit Yamamoto and Yukie-san so they fell too and we all hit our heads then BOOM! Body swap!”

“Woah! You’re so smart Ryuu!”

Kuroo (Daichi) sighed. He didn't think they fell, hit their heads then caused the entire camp to swap souls. But that certainly could give reason for some behaviour only explainable by brain damage.

By the time they reached the place, their running theory was that they had disturbed some kind of peace and a ghost trapped them in there for a few hours. They had no game plan other than ‘let’s walk in and see if the ghosts fucks us up or if we’re completely wrong about this.’

So, things were going fine.

Right as Kuroo (Daichi) put his hand on the door to push it open, Ukai (Asahi) spoke up and stopped the captain from entering the room just yet.

“Wait! Should I pray? Like, as we enter the room. Should I pray for protection or something?”

“Do you know a prayer for protection?”

“I think my grandmother taught me a Buddhist one. Wait! What if the ghosts are Catholic or Christian or something else! What if I walk in, say a Buddhist prayer, offend it and it kills us!”

“Then don’t pray.”

“But then we’d be walking in unprotected!.”

“Should I grab you a helmet from the equipment room, Asahi?”

Suga reached out to grab and twist Kuroo (Daichi)’s ear for his sass, then turned to apologize to Daichi (Kuroo) for harming his body. It was somewhat comforting to know that Suga’s ‘I cause pain as a sign of affection’ habits were still there even though everyone had swapped bodies. Kuroo (Daichi) was pretty sure he saw Suga karate-chopping Ukai’s body for something Asahi had said during lunch.

“Don’t worry about it! We’ll be fine! Let’s go!”

Tsukishima (Noya) did not think before he acted. Somehow he had forgotten how big of a body he was in now and how small of a body Asahi was in (compared to how he was before) and tried to jump on Ukai (Asahi)’s back . Unfortunately this only caused a domino effect leading to Kuroo (Daichi), Suga, Ukai (Asahi) and Tsukishima (Noya) tumbling through the doors and into the cold, hard floor of the bathroom.

“Oh, Jesus. Did you land on my face, Sawamura?”

“Wow, thanks for the concern. And no, I did not. But I’m starting to think that I should have.”

Daichi (Kuroo) snorted and simply helped his fellow captain up. Yaku (Bokuto) opted to jump over the pile of bodies and land inside the bathroom. Both Ukai (Asahi) and Asahi (Ukai) nearly had a heart attack when he did.

“Woah!! This place is pretty neat, man! Damn, I wanna decorate my room to look all spooky and haunted like this! It’s so dark and gloomy and eerie. I wonder how they’d get it to look so abandoned and scary?”

“... Probably the paranormal activity.”

“Hm… Nah, that can’t be it.”

The others began to make their way into the bathroom while Suga stepped out to stand guard outside the door and use his phone. Kuroo (Daichi) had to get his partner to promise not to get on TikTok because he had seen first hand how distracted Suga could get once he began scrolling. 

One time, Daichi nearly died from an accidental misuse of medication and Suga had not heard Daichi’s calls for help from the bathroom because he had been too immersed by a video of a hot man making bread and talking about something that had happened at his workplace.

Needless to say, Suga was banned from TikTok if he was supposed to be keeping them alive. Instead, he opted to open AO3 instead. 

“Koushi…”

“No fic is going to make me feel so immersed that I would not be able to hear you begging for your life.”

“That’s a lie and you know it.”

“You’re right. How about I read smut? I’ll be too paranoid about someone reading over my shoulder so I’ll be hyper aware of my surroundings.”

“I’ll take it. See you on the flip side.”

Suga gave a salute and even completed it with a stomp right before shutting the door in everyone’s faces. What the vice captain had failed to remember was that the lights were turned off and it was pitch black inside.

“Koushi! The lights!”

“Oh.”

The group heard movement coming from outside before the lights in the room started to flicker to life.

Somehow, it made things monumentally creepier.

The windows were boarded up and since no one had been in that bathroom for a long time, no one bothered to replace the busted light bulbs so the bathroom was dimly lit. Though, clearly there had been some delinquents that used the space as a hideout since there was graffiti on the walls and cigarette buds littering the floor.

“Uhm… Koushi? Maybe we should keep the door open.”

“Tanaka! Did you guys leave the door open or closed when you went in the first time?”

The not-so-bald-anymore spiker thought to himself for a short moment before answering that they did close the door since he remembered opening it when they left. At that, they heard a thump on the other side of the door, clearly the sound of Suga getting comfy and leaning against it from the outside.

Daichi could not believe some people did not consider his partner ‘evil’.

Yaku (Bokuto) figured he should get things started by talking into the air and seeing if he could communicate with the ghost.

Well. It wasn’t like they had many ideas on what to do anyway.

“Yo! Ghosties! I hope you don’t mind us bargin’ in like this but aaaayyy… Just wonderin’. Do you think you could give us back our bodies? Please?”

The silence was deafening.

The other two captains did not know how to react to Yaku (Bokuto)’s way of communicating with the supernatural and Ukai (Asahi) looked terrified at how flippant the other boy was.

“No answer? Awhhh, c’mon! Don’t ghost me, man… Wait.”

Even in the dim light, the others saw how fast Yaku (Bokuto)’s face lit up at the realization of what he just said.

“I’m getting ghosted by a ghost! Come on! You have to react to that pun! At this point it’s just rude, man.”

Kuroo (Daichi) sighed and patted his fellow captain on the back as he walked past him to explore the bathroom. While he would not have gone about it the way Yaku (Bokuto) did, Kuroo (Daichi) did consider trying to communicate with the spirits. If their search was fruitless, maybe he would try it too but in a different manner.

The two managers began to check out the sinks and the mirrors while the other boys checked out the stalls and the showers. Ukai (Asahi) was the only one that stayed close to the door and helped the two managers inspect the sinks closest to him.

Everyone was looking around for clues despite having no idea what to look for. They did not have any ‘ghost detection devices’ or a psychic with them so they were just trying to find something that would set off their internal ‘danger alarms’.

At least, that’s how Tsukishima (Noya) worded it. Kuroo (Daichi) already knew that if the real Tsukishima was there he would have begged Noya to stop talking.

After a few minutes, Sarukui (Yamamoto) hummed as he noticed something written on the walls that stood out against all the other crudely drawn graffiti.

“Guys? There’s something written here.”

“Really?! What does it say?”

“...”

“Yamamoto?”

“...”

Kuroo (Daichi) and Daichi (Kuroo) sped over to the cubicle Yamamoto was surveying only to see the boy squinting in the dark at something on the wall. Kuroo (Daichi) figured Sarukuri (Yamamoto) must have bad eyesight and that it was hard to decipher what was there but Daichi (Kuroo) laughed once he realised what was going on.

“BAHAH I FORGOT YOU CAN’T READ KYOUIKU KANJI!”

“Shut up, Kuroo-san!”

“BAHAHAHA– Oof!”

Kuroo (Daichi) smacked the back of his body’s head, knowing that if he hit anywhere else it wouldn’t have the effect of quieting the other captain. Three years of being around Suga had led to him developing a thicker skin and higher pain tolerance. It was almost as if Suga had caused Daichi’s body to max out its defensiv

e points and yet Suga’s attack bar was constantly growing.

The Karasuno captain leaned in closer to the wall to read what was written there, only to be hit with a strong and sudden headache as he did.

Yep. This was definitely something , alright.

“Sawamura! Hey! You alright?”

Both Daichi (Kuroo) and Sarukui (Yamamoto) placed their hands on Kuroo (Daichi) to keep him steady. It was then when Kuroo (Daichi) realised that his vision had faded out for a moment and that it wasn’t Kuroo’s obnoxious hair obstructing his vision again. The commotion did cause the others to crowd around the outside of the stall.

“I’m fine… Hey, could you guys read this for a second?”

Kuroo (Daichi) avoided looking at the writing on the wall as he pointed to it. Like he did, the others all leaned in to see what it was, then immediately flinched and grabbed their heads before they could process what it had been. Sarukui (Yamamoto) suddenly felt thankful. It was the first time his inability to read kyouiku kanji had actually been beneficial .

“What does it say?”

“I don’t know. It won’t let us read it for some reason”

“But I can read– Uhm. I can see it.”

Kuroo (Daichi) heard Daichi (Kuroo) snicker behind him and elbowed the captain before his snickers could turn into full on guffaws.

“Could you describe it then?”

“... How about I write it on one of your palms instead.”

“You don’t know how to describe the strokes?”

“I’ve embarrassed myself enough. Kuroo-san, let me use your palm.”

The Nekoma captain reached his hand out and concentrated as Sarukui (Yamamoto) began to trace out whatever was on the wall onto his hand. Sarukui (Yamamoto) was a little sloppy but the captain managed to make out what it was.

“Leave… Don’t? It says not to leave?”

“Uh oh. Are we trapped here?”

Tsukishima (Noya) remembered that his partner had decided to remain rooted by the door so that he could flee the moment something seemed suspicious. So, Tsukishima (Noya) yelled out to Ukai (Asahi).

“Asahi! Could ya see if the door can be opened or if we’re shut in! Ghostie said they don’t want to let us out!”

“WHAT?!”

From a short distance away, they heard the coach-ace fumble with the doorknob, followed by the sound of a thump and Suga’s shout of surprise.

At least they know they weren’t trapped there.

“Alright, thanks babe! You can come back in now!”

“Wh– Noya!”

Asahi (Ukai) cringed at their exchange and Tsukishima (Noya) remembered that this whole thing was weird for them because of the swap between a teenager and an adult.

“Sorry to impose this, kid. But could you not call Asahi ‘babe’ when he’s still in my body? Something about that feels weird.”

“Fair enough, sorry about that.”

“Don’t be. This whole thing is weird. God, I can’t wait to get back into my own body.”

Now that they knew they weren’t actually trapped, the group began to theorise what had happened the previous night.

Kuroo (Daichi) and Daichi (Kuroo) wondered if the four of them had done something that caused the ghost to trap them and that the ghost decided to extend the bad omen to the others on school campus.

The original four protested at the idea claiming that they may be reckless and dumb (sometimes) but they wouldn’t disrespect spirits. Asahi (Ukai) then brought up the idea that maybe that place was holy ground and they did not know they were trespassing.

As everyone was discussing the possibilities, Konoha (Tanaka)’s head began to hurt again. It was not as bad as when they looked at the scribbles on the wall but it was enough for the boy to grip his head and slump against the wall of the stall.

“Ryuu? Ryuu! You okay man?!”

Tsukishima (Noya) rushed to grab Konoha (Tanaka)’s arm and support him. As he did so, he noticed that Konoha (Tanaka)’s arm had goosebumps on it.

“What the f–”

Out of nowhere, the temperature in the bathroom began to drop. It had been blazing hot earlier that day so everything that was happening was definitely unnatural. Despite the sudden chill, Tsukishima (Noya) and Kuroo (Daichi) did not take their eyes off Konoha (Tanaka) for one second. Not only did he seem to be in pain, but he looked like he wanted to say something.

It took the second year a moment but eventually he managed to get the words out.

“Remember… Yesterday… A little… Fucking shit. It hurts... Tell them to stop.”

All three captains were in distress. Konoha (Tanaka) was withering in pain and asking them to tell someone to stop but they did not know who he was referring to.

The three heard a snap behind them and jumped, thinking it was some kind of spirit but in actuality it was just Kaori (Yukie) that had snapped her fingers. She looked like she had just remembered something and judging by the way she swiftly walked away from the stalls, she probably did.

The others were quick to follow her, especially Yukie (Kaori) because she was worried her body was about to be possessed by some demon if she left Kaori (Yukie) alone. 

When they caught up to her, she was standing in front of the large mirror behind the sinks. She urged everyone to stand by her and make sure they were standing in a way where they could see themselves and everyone else. She even managed to wrangle Ukai (Asahi) into it.

“What are you doing? Ryuu’s in pain! We gotta–”

“Relax. He’s going to be fine. Just keep staring at the mirror.”

Tsukishima (Noya) protested but did as he was told. The others followed her lead despite most of them being terrified of what was happening. A few seconds passed and nothing had happened but Konoha (Tanaka) was starting to feel his headache slowly subside.

“Ryuu? Are you doing better?”

“Yeah. Thanks, Noya-san. Fuck, that hurt like a bitch.”

“It looked like it. When this ghost shows up, I’m gonna give them a piece of my mind–”

“No! No, you don’t have to. They’re nice. They can’t control this.”

“Wh–”

Tsukishima (Noya) was interrupted by Ukai (Asahi)’s scream. If Asahi (Ukai) had not been scared shitless himself, he would have yelled at the ace for embarrassing him but from what had… aparated in front of them was definitely worth the scream.

At least Ukai (Asahi) was not alone. Yaku (Bokuto) and Daichi (Kuroo)’s screams were simply drowned out by Ukai (Asahi)’s. If anything, Asahi (Ukai) was impressed that his lungs had the capability of screaming like that. He thought the cigarettes had damaged it beyond repair.

“Hello Yukie, Yamamoto, Tanaka and Nishinoya. Welcome back.”

“Hey, Spirit-san!”

The original four seemed to have gotten back their memories as they waved to the figure that had appeared behind them.

In the mirror, all of them could see each other in their actual bodies. Daichi was staring back at himself and he could see his friends as how they were supposed to look. Except, in the corner of his eye he knew that everyone was still swapped.

Actually, he could tell because Kuroo’s annoying fringe was obstructing his right eye again.

But what really freaked everyone out was the… shape? A figure? Something that was standing behind them in the corner. It looked like it was made of shadows but it also had a glowing white outline. It had an eerie ‘voice’ and Daichi could not tell if it was speaking or if it was connecting to them telepathically.

Either way, he was freaked.

Despite the terrifying nature of it all, the only reason Daichi had not begun some kind of exorcism ritual was because the original four seemed to be pleased by the figure’s presence.

That, and Daichi did not know how to perform an exorcism.

“‘Spirit-san’?”

“Yeap! Spirit-san doesn’t have a name so Yukie started calling them Spirit-san yesterday.”

“Yesterd– Okay. I really need you guys to catch us up on what’s happening because Bokuto is on the verge of crying out for Akaashi and I’m pretty sure Kaori is about to faint.”

The Fukurodani manager waved them off when they glanced at her through the mirror. She did look pale and lethargic but it did not look like she was spooked by what was going on.

“I’m fine. This is all weird but I just get like this when it’s too cold.”

“Oh… I’m sorry…”

Daichi felt a shiver going up his spine when he heard the voice again because he could see it in the corner but it felt like it was speaking to him from right behind his ears. The shiver was definitely because of how unnerved he felt and not from the cold because the temperature in the room started to slowly rise.

“Is this better?”

“Yes. Thank you, Spirit-san.”

It was still a little cold but Daichi deduced that the spirit simply could not tell how cold or warm the room was. Through the mirror, Daichi saw Bokuto take his jacket off and pass it to Kaori. Since the jacket he had on was Yaku’s, it fit Kaori perfectly. 

Kuroo called Kaori out on being way too calm about what was happening but the manager just shrugged and stated that she was glad that it seemed like a friendly ghost. She figured that since she was still breathing, the spirit could not be that bad.

“She’s right. Spirit-san is harmless… Uhm.”

“They literally gave you a splitting headache less than five minutes ago.”

“They can’t control it!”

“I did? I’m sorry, Tanaka.”

“It’s fine! I’m fine! See what you did, Daichi! You made them feel bad!”

Daichi was absolutely taken aback by the entire conversation. If he was honest, Daichi did not believe in ghosts or spirits. He knew something paranormal must have happened to cause the swap but he figured aliens or magic was more feasible compared to ghosts and spirits.

Except hard evidence was staring at him directly in his face so it was hard to deny their existence now.

He still couldn’t believe that Tanaka just berated him for making a ghost feel bad .

“I… I’m sorry?”

“I accept your apology. I must express mine for the trouble I seemed to have caused… I truly do feel bad. I have been trying to find a way to reverse the curse and yet I return bearing no answers.”

Well. That wasn’t concerning at all .

“Ah, don’t feel bad! We’re here to help you out. Right, Noya-san?”

“Hell yeah, Ryuu!”

Ukai finally snapped out of whatever trance he had been in. It took the man a moment to realise this was reality and he was not having some kind of vivid hallucination. He had never taken drugs before but he felt as though this was what it was like to be high.

“Hold on. Back up. Did you say you cast a curse on us?”

“Yes… I’m sorry…”

“I– It’s uhm… It’s okay. But like… how did it happen?”

“Oh… It appears as though in my efforts to keep my new friends around, I have released my curse to everyone. I’m sorry…”

Daichi felt like keeping score of the number of times the ghost had apologised. He wondered if they could beat Asahi’s highest number of apologies in a day.

He did feel bad for how sad the spirit sounded. Apparently spirits had emotions and heavy guilt complexes. Who knew.

“Well it looks like you did not do it on purpose, Spirit-san. So, it’s okay.”

“Really?”

“Y…Yes? I think so… But what did you mean by your ‘efforts to keep your new friends around’?”

“Oh… No one comes to this place anymore and I am confined to these walls. It has been lonely so I found solace in their company yesterday. I had communicated this to them and they had expressed enthusiasm in staying here longer but was worried about the consequences of doing so. So, I attempted to manipulate time to prolong their stay and minimise the fall out. I have failed.”

Now Ukai and the captains felt guilty even though they had nothing to do with what had happened. There was just something about an eerie and forlorn voice that had been isolated for years stating that they had failed their friends that just hit the heartstrings.

“Manipulate time?”

“I am able to manipulate time. I made an attempt at slowing down the speed of time in this room yesterday so that they could stay here longer. Tanaka had expressed concern over how you and your captains were to react to their sudden and prolonged disappearance.”

Well, Tanaka was right about that. Bokuto definitely panicked when he found out Yukie had gone missing. 

“How long did they stay here yesterday?”

“I am not sure. If I were to convert it to the measures of time for humans, then… A day? A day is twenty-four hours, yes? I had not kept them here against their will. They had free reign to leave the bathroom at any time.”

Daichi, Kuroo, Bokuto and Ukai’s eyes went wide at that revelation. If it weren’t for the fact that they all had to keep their eyes facing forward at the mirror, Daichi and Kuroo would have turned around to berate their second years.

“Wow. That’s long… But I still do not see how the curse comes into play.”

“Us ‘Spirits’, as you call us, have a set of abilities. In addition to time manipulation, I was able to alter the state of their bodies and minds so that they would not go hungry in their time here.”

“Minds? Is that why they lost their memories when they came out?”

“Yes. That had not been my intended action. I had wished for them to keep their time with me but I… I do not have control over my abilities.”

“Pardon?”

Ukai blinked a couple of times at that. A spirit had manipulated his kids’ minds and led to them losing their memories as well as his other kids swapping bodies. His instincts wanted him to lecture the spirit for not taking care of his kids properly but he really did not want to test out how amiable the spirit was.

Ukai was not ready to address how he'd started to think of the boys on the team as his own, and the strangely strong paternal instincts that came along with that. Takeda would have a field day.

“I have trouble controlling one ability at a time. In my attempt to apparate here and appear visible to you, I caused a significant drop in temperature and brought pain to Tanaka. In order to apparate, I needed a piece of writing to anchor myself on but the phrase I had attempted to write had not appeared correctly. To put it simply, I lost control trying to reign in my abilities last night and had accidentally triggered a curse.”

Never in their lives did they think they’d have to deal with a spirit that seemed to be both trying their best and also failing miserably. Not that they would ever voice it, of course. The spirit may not have been human, but it definitely had one too many traits in common with Asahi, Yachi and Kageyama.

That was not even mentioning how they had accidentally triggered a curse powerful enough to affect over thirty people.

Clearly, the spirit was a little out of practice.

“Uhm… Is there a way to… undo the curse?”

“There is one way… I promise I have tried to lift the curse on my own but I have not succeeded. I did not want to hassle you and your friends any further so I attempted other methods first but they have been nothing but fruitless efforts. I truly am sorry for the inconveniences.”

“Spirit-san, it’s okay. I think everyone would like to go back into our bodies so we really do not mind. It is no hassle at all. Just let us know what we need to do.”

The captains were glad that Ukai had taken charge of the conversation. Daichi was very close to using his Asahi-method on the spirit but he did not know if the spirit would appreciate the tough love or they would sink further into their depression.

Bokuto would not have been able to stay on track because he had always been the type of man to mirror other’s emotions, and he could already feel himself wanting to hug the figure in the back and tell them that it was totally fine if they never returned to their bodies.

Kuroo on the other hand was a man of science. He would also get distracted but it was because he had so many questions to ask the spirit.

“I would have to manually lift your souls from your current vessels and thread them back into your original vessels.”

Asahi would have felt a lot more reassured if the entity had not referred to their bodies as ‘ vessels ’.

“And what would the process look like?”

“I would need the vessels and the souls to come forward in pairs and I begin the process of transposition by rendering them unconscious as it is the safest and easiest way to pull a soul out.”

Asahi wanted to begin praying but he still did not know which religion the spirit was (or if they had a religion) and he did not want to offend it. So he opted for option B; crying on the inside.

“Okay. So you just pluck our souls and put them back into our bodies? I assume by ‘render unconscious’ you meant that you were going to get us to sleep peacefully, right?”

“The process of transposition involves delicately threading one's soul back to their vessel. This must be done extremely carefully so that we can be certain that the soul and the vessel will resonate back to life. As for the latter question, the process is peaceful and painless but you will not be asleep. You will be dead.”

Okay. Now, Asahi opted for crying on the outside.

No one else in the room had expected that and Daichi could see the expressions of fear and worry etched on their faces. Except for Noya. Noya looked like he thought the entire thing was cool .

Daichi really wondered if anyone on his team was normal.

“And what are the chances of success?”

“Very high. I am a powerful entity, I simply do not have control over my abilities.”

Ukai wished they had stopped at ‘I am a powerful entity’. His hopes had just begun to rise and now he was filled with worry once again.

A spirit with anxiety and lack of self-control was about to kill and resurrect them.

This was fine.

“Okay then. Well. Who would you like to start with? I do not mind going first so that the others can observe what it’s like but I think Asahi would have a breakdown.”

“I do not recommend being in here as I perform the process. I will be doing it in complete darkness and the sight of pulling out souls and threading them back is very unsightly for humans. Additionally, there is a chance I accidentally pluck the incorrect soul if one is too close.”

“Social distancing. Got it.”

Through the mirror, Daichi studied the look on everyone’s faces. While Ukai, Noya and Bokuto looked willing, Asahi definitely did not and both Noya and Bokuto’s bodies were back in the gym.

So he made a decision.

“Kuroo and I will go first.”

The other captain gave Daichi a look that screamed ‘like hell we are’ but Daichi was quick to remind him that the sooner he returned to his body, the sooner he could go to Kenma as himself. Also, that it would be reassuring to know what the process was like to experience, before sending any of their kouhais to go through it.

“Very well. I will lift the time warp I had placed in the room before the others leave in order to avoid another accident.”

“You were manipulating time this entire… time?”

“Yes. I had noticed a boy waiting outside and deduced that he would worry if all of you were locked in here for an extended period of time. So, I sped the flow of time here.”

Daichi would bet his entire tuition fund that Suga would not have panicked if they were in there for as long as they have been. He was on AO3 . Daichi and the others could be stuck in there and Suga would only begin to worry when his battery had died and he realised that his friends had not come out after he finished a 100k long fanfic.

Though, if something had really gone wrong, he would also bet on Suga realising it immediately even if they had not made a sound.

Suga had too much faith in his intuition. It would have frustrated Daichi more if Suga wasn’t right all the time .

“Good move. We’ll send the others out now. Could you return us to the normal passage of time, Spirit-san?”

“Very well.”

While none of them had realised the time warp earlier, they noticed it when it had been put down. It was as though they felt a light sonic wave pass through them. It could possibly be due to the fact that they were paying attention this time or maybe stopping a warp had a bigger effect than starting one.

Either way, the spirit told them it was safe to leave but before they did, Daichi voiced out something he had been wanting to ask since the entity began to explain what had happened.

“Spirit-san? Why did Suga and some of the others remain in their original bodies?”

“Some souls have a certain level of protection that can only come from a soul that has passed. If they had not been affected by the curse, then it means that a deceased soul had chosen to place the remnants of their soul onto this person.”

That was some pretty heavy information. Especially with the knowledge that Suga’s mother and Yamaguchi’s older sister had passed away when the two boys were younger.

Though, it did lead a few more questions to pop into Daichi’s head. Specifically about Kageyama, because Daichi had a pretty strong suspicion about  who would have placed the protection on Kageyama; judging from the way Kageyama talked about the man, Daichi would have assumed it to be more than enough to keep Kageyama in his body.

“We have someone who did not wake up after the swap but he’s still alive. Is that related to the protection thing or something else?”

“It is likely that he does not have all the remnants of a deceased soul. It is not uncommon for the deceased to spread their remnants and protect multiple people.”

Right. Kageyama did say that he had an older sister.

“Though, in that case, his soul may have been split since he did not wake up. I recommend bringing him and his vessel here next. Do not worry, it is fairly easy to thread a split soul back together. It is only difficult placing a soul into a vessel.”

Ah yes. Hearing that his kouhai’s soul had been split into two was exactly what Daichi needed to hear before going under the paranormal knife.

Somehow it brought him comfort that the other’s faces held the same expression he had. At least he could consider himself still thinking rationally if the others were reacting in the same way.

Him and Kuroo made eye contact through the mirror and nodded. The others took that as their cue to leave. As the others looked away from the mirror, Daichi and Kuroo watched as their reflections transformed back into the bodies they had been in when they walked into the bathroom.

As they left the room, they turned to look at the corner that the spirit was. Judging from their reactions, they were not able to see the spirit. Daichi realised that the spirit was not in the room with them, rather it was inside the mirror they had been looking into.

When everyone had left, the lights started to dim and the room temperature dropped once again.

“I apologise for the temperature. In order to focus on the process, containing the curse and maintaining the time warp, I will likely need to relinquish my control on temperature. Though, you will be dead so it will not affect you once you are out.”

“I… Uhm, that’s okay. If we can’t feel it then it… should be fine?”

“Very well.”

Soon, both captains began to feel some kind of buzz in their head. It was almost as though the buzz was trying to lull them into sleep. Daichi tried to feel at peace and gaslight himself into thinking he really was about to sleep, rather than accept the reality that he was dying .

Thankfully, Kuroo’s tired words broke the silence and prevented Daichi’s brain from racing.

“Hey, Spirit-san?”

“Yes?”

“You don’t need to cling onto others or warp time just to hang with people anymore. I’ll start a tradition in the club and during training camps so that you'll get all the company you want.”

“That is not necessary. I do not want to be a bother.”

“It’s no bother. I mean, having a ghost-friend is pretty cool. Don’t you think so, Sawamura?”

The Karasuno captain was  losing consciousness faster than Kuroo so all he could manage was a weak-sounding ‘yes’. The last thing Daichi remembered before he died was the spirit agreeing that Kuroo’s plan seemed like a pleasant idea.

While each process took nearly a day for each pair, the spirit had managed to effectively manipulate time so to them, each process only took five to ten minutes.

Although, Kageyama and Yachi’s transposition took over twenty minutes. It was likely due to the complexity of Kageyama’s soul but at least it gave the group time to explain to those that stayed in the hall what had happened.

As expected, they had to find a way to shove everyone into the bathroom to prove the spirit’s existence. Ukai was pretty sure he saw Takeda look up the address for the nearest psychiatric ward after Daichi got to the part about curses.

Once they managed to prove that the spirit was real and that it had helped Daichi and Kuroo return to their bodies, the rest of the day went smoothly.

Fukunaga and Kiyoko went in after Kageyama and Yachi since the poor guy’s cramps had not eased up since his flare up in the gym earlier. Five minutes later, both Fukanaga and Kiyoko walked out perfectly fine except now, Fukanaga knew the pain she was feeling in that moment and it amazed him how nonchalant and unphased she was.

In fact, she had offered to make drinks for those waiting for their turn.

Fukunaga officially joined Tanaka and Noya’s Kiyoko (and Yachi) protection squad after that. That woman was a tank .

Kageyama was definitely experiencing a lot of emotions at once. Not only did he learn that Yachi had occupied his body during his ‘coma’, but that he had been in Yachi’s body. He was beyond grateful that he had been unconscious throughout the whole thing because he would have felt very uncomfortable being in his female best friend’s body.

In his mini spiral, he mentioned how it would have been horrible if he had to use the bathroom in her body. It was then when the others had realised they had not used the bathroom at all that day.

Turns out, that was also the spirit’s doing. They figured everyone would have been too uncomfortable so they manipulated their mind to not need the bathroom until they were back in their bodies. Though this meant that after every transposition, all the pairs had ended up running to the nearest bathroom with running water.

As everyone went through their process, they started talking to the spirit more. After every ‘operation’, Daichi, Kuroo and Bokuto would pop into the room to check on the spirit and notice that their mood began to improve with each new pair that had to enter.

Soon, the time taken started to get longer as some pairs wanted to have the chance to talk to the spirit a little more before they died.

Though some were still freaked out by the fact that they had to die during this whole thing. 

Daichi did find the whole thing insane until someone made a joke about Asahi truly being the embodiment of Christ after his resurrection. That joke alone made Daichi think that maybe it was all worth it.

And yes. They carried on with volleyball practice the next day because nationals were around the corner and no one would believe them if they said ‘we didn’t get to train because a powerful spirit with anxiety caused all of us to swap bodies so we had to die in order to return back to our original ‘vessels’ and it hindered  our training camp itinerary’.

It did not stop Daichi, Kuroo and Bokuto from giving Oikawa a detailed rundown on what had happened and watch the setter think he was being gaslit, only to have the story be confirmed by every single person from Karasuno, Nekoma and Fukurodani that he had in his contacts.

(They planned on introducing him to Spirit-san after Oikawa convinced himself that the other three captains were playing an elaborate prank on him.)

Daichi was beginning to think that Suga was rubbing off on him.