Red Tornado

Hinata remained quiet on the bench, her thoughts tangled all over the place.

Crow's door creaked open. Yuzu stepped out, kicking the door wider with her shoe.

“Okay, he’s still alive,” she announced, letting the door swing shut behind her.

She stepped softly into the hallway without her usual sharpness.

“It’s been a while since he’s had this, right?” she asked, her voice dipping lower.

Dylan leaned back on the bench opposite Hinata, arms crossed, ankle hooked over the other.

“They ran tests. Nothing showed up. There must be a trigger. Could be psychological,” he remarked.

Hinata drifted again. Her mind wandered on the rooftop, the fall, the sound of shallow breathing. Before that… the street, the alley, the cap in the dirt, his body shielding hers.

He hasn't been okay. Even now, he still suffered around her.

Yuzu snorted a breath, half-sigh, half-laugh. “Wanted to bolt here the second I heard he got hospitalized,” she muttered. “But you know Crow. He never asks for help. When I try, it feels like I'm being nosy.”

Dylan chuckled lightly, leaning towards Hinata. “He got into detention for destroying two people who were stalking Yuzu.”

She kicked lightly at the floor. “Stupid, right? I could have beaten up those two myself, you know.”

Dylan shot her a disbelieving smirk. “Yeah, right.”

“Shut up,” Yuzu glared, brushing off her jacket. “But I guess, it's not bad to have someone make you feel safe.”

Hinata glanced at her, the feeling oddly similar and comforting.

“So, he's like this all the time? What a dork.”

Yuzu grinned, loud and fiercely certain.

“But he’ll be fine. That idiot’s made of stitches and duct tape. That’s just how he is,” she looked up with a smile.

“That’s why I’ll be right behind him. Either yelling in his ear or saying nothing, it doesn't matter. Everybody needs a little help sometimes.”

Something inside Hinata shifted a little. Yuzu’s trust in Crow wasn’t blind; it was proud, brash, but rooted, unwavering.

Yuzu sprang up with a dramatic huff. “Alright! Mood’s too serious!”

She took a few steps back, struck a ridiculous pose, and pointed a finger gun toward the hallway.

“You ready for a flashy beatdown?!”

It was bold. Embarrassingly accurate. She even pitched her voice to match the in-game line. Her delivery was absurd, ridiculous, and absolutely something Crow would lose it over.

“I know he’d laugh,” she muttered, flashing a sly smile toward the door.

Hinata flinched.

"What the hell was that?"

But truly, at the back of her head, this girl—a tornado in red sneakers—was confident and warm in all the right ways. Effortless. Like sunshine that showed up even when it rained.

And for Crow, the guy who gave so much, she had something to give back.

"What about me?" Hinata felt that in her bones.

Crow never asked for anything, and somehow, that frustrated her.

She looked at her hands, realizing the vast space between herself and the world—Crow's world—slowly revealing itself.

Then—

“Hey, you.”

Hinata looked at Yuzu, standing straight, arms crossed.

“You may look like Kanno Hinata, but I won’t lose to a low-tier like you.”

Hinata’s nerves twitched.

Dylan’s jaw dropped in horror.

“YUZU. DAMN YOU AND YOUR STUPID MOUTH!!!”

Yuzu strode towards Hinata, her short hair bouncing, staring her eye-to-eye. Hinata stood slowly, towering above her, fingers twitching.

“I am Okamura Yuzuha! You will be my rival, so raise your head and stop looking like a loser!”

Dylan’s soul left his body.

“WE’RE SO DEAD!!!”

Hinata’s glare morphed into a lunatic smirk.

“I am… Kanno Hinata. Challenge accepted.”

Yuzu paused. Dylan melted on the bench.

Hinata turned around and walked off slowly. “I’ll be back, I need some air.”

Yuzu watched her go. Dylan slumped lifeless on his seat. She drifted over to Dylan, brows furrowed comically.

“Hey, Dylan, did she say her name is Kanno Hinata?”

Dylan groaned like a dead man being forced to live. “…Yes.”

Yuzu blinked, once.

“Oh.”

A sweat bead later:

“DYLAN! WE’RE GONNA DIE!!!” Yuzu hollered.

Yuzu grabbed Dylan’s collar, shaking him back to life.

“…I told you to shut up. Too late.”

Meanwhile, Hinata kept walking as Yuzu and Dylan’s panic-filled banter faded, unable to help the tiny smile on her lips.