Chapter Text
Tsukishima slowly woke up. There was a small bit of light coming from the high window of the underground room that was telling him it was now daytime, probably around two in the afternoon. He looked around and swallowed. Most of the men had left and there was only a few hanging around and chatting. The tables and lights and games were left unattended, the TV still played the news channel with a banner of a 36-hour lookout for Kei, and his nose still hurt like hell. He coughed a little.
Tsukishima wasn't sure what to do. He was in immense pain, hungry, lost... and he felt worse for his family and friends than himself for going missing. He could only imagine what his Mom, dad, and brother were thinking, what Tadashi was going through, even if they had to cancel practice or school because of the shock and trauma of his leaving. He almost didn't want to think of Yamaguchi's crying face, his eyes red and puffy with tears flowing down. He didn't want to think about the horror his family was going through. He didn't want to think about how the cops would probably give up the search in three days. He didn't want to think anything of this.
Tsukishima looked down when his stomach growled. He was hungry, like, mad hungry. He could almost feel a vortex in his stomach eating himself alive. He glanced around a bit, staying seated, and saw just some plastic water bottles and pizza and takeout Chinese food. Kei's stomach growled again. He would kill for some of the lukewarm pizza right now and a room-temperature water bottle. But who in their right mind would just walk up to their kidnapper and ask for food? He was trying to keep a composure here. At least most of the burly and intimidating men were gone. He counted out about four of the mystery men who had still hung around and they were all chatting at a table. One of them looked back at him when Tsukishima's stomach went off again.
"Perfect! See, I told you he'd be hungry. We'll be able to pull it off right now. Heh, maybe the poor kid is at school, everyone will see." The young man who spoke up looks to be mid to late twenties, light brown thin hair hanging past his shoulders, and a beanie to go along with it. He grinned a little and stood, leading the others over. He grabbed a phone off one of the cheap tables, most likely Tsukki's, and his baggy pants brushed against each other as he walked. His droopy eyes were full of mischief more than menace. Tsukishima glared up at him but said nothing. This man wasn't that scary, but it was obvious that he could have fun by simply beating someone up, so he didn't snap a rude remark at the older man for his own safety. "Hey kid, you're hungry, right?"
Kei only glared up at him more, looking between the devilish man and the others who looked a bit more composed for thugs, or, whatever they were. His jaw tightened. "I'll take that as a yes. Hey, say we make a deal. Do me a favor and i'll do you one by getting you some food and water, maybe some Aspirin if we have any." Kei's eyes lit up the slightest at the mention of painkillers and food. If anything, his nose hurt more than it did when it was first broken, most likely because of the shock at the time. The man noticed this and chuckled a little. "Alright, just unlock your phone for us, we're gonna need it."
"Yeah..." Kei grumbled quietly, but it was enough for the others to hear. He stood and gladly took the phone from the man's hand, turning it on and unlocking it for them. He grinded his teeth. Why did they need his phone? The only reason he could come up with was blackmail, which he honestly was scared of. But anything to get some food in his stomach. He gulped a little. "Alright, it's unlocked." The phone was handed back over to the men and they started tapping at the screen, probably going through his stuff and saved apps and pictures on his phone. "Can I get something to eat now?" Kei crossed his arms, more out of fear and anxiety than stubbornness, but that was in there too.
The older man laughed. "Slow down, 'm not done yet." He grinned a little and tapped the screen, holding the phone up as if he were about to take a picture or video. He laughed. "Here's Tsukishima Kei, straight from HQ." Kei tensed up a little and unfolded his arms when two of the other men stepped forward and kicked him to the ground. Most of them were chuckling and laughing. "That's you, right, Tsukki?"
"It's Tsukishima." He glared up at the camera. "Don't call me Tsukki."
"Alright pretty boy, Tsukishima it is." He laughed a little. Kei opened his mouth to make a retort but was cut off when he got kicked back down to the ground, muttering a curse or two in pain, attempting to sit back up again. He wiped at the side of his mouth and glared over at the two men who were beginning to beat him. "So, Tsukishima, anything you want to tell the camera?"
"I-" Tsukishima was punched in the face and hit the back of his head against a wall. He stumbled to the ground, everything in his upper body felling sore and each intake of air sent a sharp pain in his chest.
"Huh? I didn't quite get that. Speak up a little."
"Let me fucking go! Ow!" Tsukishima was punched and kicked again and again, being 'interviewed' by the man the whole time. The video was about five minutes long. By the end, Kei was bloody and bruised and had tears running down his cheeks that burned a cut above his jaw. There was no doubt he broke a few ribs and his collarbone, his already disfigured nose had been violated again which only caused him more pain, a few tufts of his hair were soaked in blood from a kick to his head, and his glasses were cracked and broke, yet he wore them anyway.
"Alright, alright, haha, that's enough." The man grabbed Kei by the collar of his shirt and pulled him closer to the phone. "We did it guys, we broke him. Look at his fucking face, not so pretty anymore, huh? Kei?" The man chuckled a bit and threw him back to the ground. He tapped the small camera icon on the screen so it turned to tape himself. He only showed his torso and mouth to hide his identity. He was grinning again. "Well, that's it for this podcast of Tsukishima101. Stay tuned for next week! Peace." Kei assumed that the man had stopped recording the video when he went back to holding it normally. "Let's see who here would like this video." He trailed off, sarcastic thought in his voice. "Eh, how'd you like everyone on your contacts list to see? I'm sure they'd be thrilled, especially this Kageyama kid. You two don't seem to get along. Hm... too bad you only have your dad's cell on here. Ah, well, anything goes."
Within the next five minutes Kei was given his promised food, water, and painkillers, but not enough to dull all of it. He stayed silent while the lanky devilish boy read off texts that were replies to the video that he apparently sent to everyone.
"You sick bastards, what the hell. Let Tsukishima go already! That was from Kageyama Tobio, you guys really do care about each other, aww. Hinata Shouyou replied 'TSUKKI!! ARE YOU OK?!'. Cute. Sawamura Daichi said 'What the hell do you want anyway? He's just a kid!' Your coach, huh? Oh, let's hear from Tadashi. Your boyfriend? 'Tsukki!! if you're reading this I'm so sorry! I'm sorry! Please stay safe! You trashbags can let Tsukishima go, we'll give you whatever you want! Please!' Aww, he's worried about you. Who do you want to hear from next? Sugawara, Nishinoya, Tanaka, a few messages from Asahi..."
"...Dont read any more..." Kei let some tears fall down his cheeks as he picked at his food. He sat against the wall hunched over a bit. He didn't want to hear about the hurt he was causing everyone else, didn't want to hear their cries and begging for his own release. He didn't even want to talk to any of them. He didn't want to tell them he was fine when he wasn't. He didn't want anything to do with this.
The others chuckled a bit and made a few comments and rude remarks before leaving him alone again. He wasn't hungry anymore, but Kei slowly ate anyway, knowing he needed something in his stomach. He wasn't sure if they would pity him enough to give him food again until later at night or even until tomorrow. He honestly didn't know anything about this. He didn't even know what material use he was being used as to get whatever they wanted. Maybe... No, he had no connections there, they could care less about some random kid. Money would be the suspected ransom, but to split among the many men who took him would get out of hand. Maybe they just wanted to play with the hearts of everyone else. Maybe they wanted him as... some sort of toy, which he honestly didn't want to think about.
His thoughts wandered off to the group of men who captured him. Where were they, anyway? Who were they? How often was it that a boy was the one kidnapped and not a girl? This was getting too confusing for him. Hell, there were infinite possible situations for this to unravel into. He sighed and put down his half-eaten pizza. Hopefully the police would be able to determine where he was by the short footage in the video, or maybe track down the voices heard? The four who just beat him didn't seem that smart anyway. He looked down at his hands. Scraped, callused, dirty, this was different than the abuse that he would get from volleyball. For once, he actually missed the stinging feeling on his forearms and the palm of his hand from hitting the ball.
Kei looked up when a phone began ringing. His hopes dropped when it turned out to be one of the others' phones and not his, but he listened in anyway. Maybe he could gather up some clues and information from the conversation.
One of the men picked up and held the phone to his ear. Tsukishima couldn't hear what was being said on the other end, but he could make out the aggigated mumbles from the man who was on his end of the call.
"Yeah, no, he's fine... Huh?... Oh come on! You know Hide, the idiot doesn't have half a brain... Yeah, we get it... No words from 'em yet, they're pretty stubborn about it. If this keeps up we might as well just take another kid for good measure. That'll get them, right? H-hey, calm down! We have it taken care of!... The cops know better than to barge in here... Alright. Got it."