Angels in the Architecture

Part 1: Prologue

(These are the 5 prologue chapters of the fic. They are relatively lighthearted compared to the rest of the work. Please be warned, this fic will only get darker as it continues. Main characters: Kumiko, Reina, Hashimoto, and Taki. It might not seem like it at first, but I promise you these are the main characters.)

TAGS FROM AO3: Kumirei (Kumiko x Reina), Cute!Kumirei, Protective!Kumiko, Conductor!Niiyama, Conductor!Hashimoto

TRIGGER WARNINGS FROM AO3: foster care, canon divergence

The following 5 chapters contain links to concert band music, but FF won't let me embed them like AO3 does. A lot of these links are broken. For the best reading experience, I VERY STRONGLY RECOMMEND READING THIS FIC ON AO3. You're missing out. Really.

archiveofourown ,org /works/11100084

Chapter 1: Wings

Kumiko waited restlessly for the last rays of light to fade from the dark-blue horizon. Perched dozens of meters high on a tree limb above the woods, hidden by bushels of blue-tinged autumn leaves, she finally felt safe enough to stretch and relax. Nobody would see her up here in the dying evening light.

Yawning and arching her back, Kumiko lazily extended her massive wings.

Amber-toned feathers fanned out through the leaves as the middle school girl stretched her seldom-used avian limbs. She sighed as she slumped back against the tree trunk, enjoying the twilight breeze blowing through the treetops and ruffling her short brown hair. One of her legs dangled over the bough as she shifted to reach for her phone.

Suddenly hesitating and deciding that there still could be hikers out at this time, Kumiko glanced around at the foliage below her before folding her wings back into the shadows. Stretching now was maybe not so smart. After all, her full wingspan was more than five times her height; about the length of a small bus. She was not exactly invisible when she risked herself like this.

Kumiko flipped her phone around and unlocked the screen, then started dialing her home phone.

Her dad picked up, speaking in English.

"Kumi? Are you still in band rehearsal?"

"Yeah," said Kumiko, answering in Japanese as she lied awkwardly. "We're rehearsing late tonight. Just wanted you to know."

"Okay, sweetheart. Call us when you need to be picked up."

"Uh, actually," said Kumiko, "I can take the train myself, so, uh, you don't need-"

"No way Jose. Maybe when you're in high school, but you're a bit too young for that right now. Call me when rehearsal is over, okay?"

Kumiko rolled her eyes in annoyance, flicking nearby branches with her feathers and snapping a twig in the process. Great. Now she'd have to fly all the way back to Kita middle school for her dad to pick her up. Actually no- she couldn't even fly the entire way, or she would be seen. She'd basically have to get back on foot.

"Okay," she said, sighing. "Bye, dad. I gotta go."

"See you later, alligator."

Kumiko hung up and groaned in frustration. Now she had to cut her flying short just to make time for the walk back.

Glancing beyond the leaves, Kumiko saw that it was dark enough now. Tonight was a new moon, and the first stars were peeping out behind wisps of clouds. There were no lights anywhere in the sprawling woods below, and even if anyone saw her, they might just think that they'd seen an unusually large bird in the dark sky. It was a perfect night for flying.

Tucking her phone away in her pocket and zipping it shut, Kumiko stood up carefully, keeping one hand against the tree trunk for support. It had been an entire week since the last time she came out to practice. She drew in a deep breath of crisp autumn air and felt the wind rush between her fingertips. Now, finally, the world below was entirely hers to explore.

Kumiko smiled, then dipped forward, and let herself plummet toward the earth.

She unfurled her wings in midair with a loud whoosh, breaking the fall and swooping upward into the night. Laughter tore from her lungs at the adrenaline as she rolled upside-down into inverted flight, viewing the stars above her as wind roared in her ears.

Flying in an inverted loop was a trick that she'd taught herself last week, her newest skill after figuring out how to break a fall with her wings. Up until recently, Kumiko's forays into flight had not been as fancy, consisting mostly of retracting and extending her wings, taking off from the ground running, and- most terrifyingly- learning how to land without breaking her legs.

Kumiko flexed and tilted her wings awkwardly to change directions. She circled around in the air, keeping an eye on the spot she'd taken off from, so that she wouldn't get lost later.

It had only been a year and a half since she had discovered her wings, and Kumiko knew there was still a lot she had to learn; not just furthering her flying skills, but also discovering her origins, and her purpose. She figured she wasn't meant to be a superhero or anything, since her only skills were flying... and the weird glowing thing.

As she flew, Kumiko flipped her hand over and focused a small ball of light in her palm. It was pleasantly warm in her hand against the cold wind up here, but it didn't seem very practical for a superhero in the modern world. Even a flashlight could outperform her, and a military jet would definitely outfly her. There was nothing she could do that technology couldn't. If she were created to fulfill some kind of superhero mission, then whoever created her had messed up.

Also, Kumiko thought back to all the times she quit practicing taking off because she was too scared to think about landing... and knew that she wasn't exactly brave, or bold, or determined. She was literally nothing like the energetic pixie-girl heroines in manga books or anime shows. All she knew was that she loved the thrill of flight.

Maybe it was okay to just do this for fun. Flying was simply another thing Kumiko liked doing, alongside playing euphonium, eating snacks, and reading extreme horror novels. It had become an ordinary part of her life as much as anything else. What was wrong with that? As long as she kept it a secret so she wouldn't endanger her mom and dad, Kumiko didn't see a problem with just enjoying her otherwise useless abilities. Right? There was nothing wrong with that... yeah... it was all fine...

When it came time to land, Kumiko began to glide closer above the treetops, reducing her altitude and speed as she descended in a spiral. She had learned to land safely by copying airplanes. She was relatively confident in her landing technique these days; as long as there weren't strong winds, she had no problem with safety.

The forest was too dense for Kumiko to land directly on the ground, so she decided to employ her take-off tree as a transition point.

Her wings swished powerfully to keep her aloft as she touched down on the branch. With little effort, she dropped down to the leaf-strewn earth, wings fluttering to slow her fall before she hit the ground. A perfect touchdown.

Kumiko broke into a self-congratulatory smile. She picked up her schoolbag from the tree trunk where she'd left it, and started off along the trail leading out of the woods, humming to herself.

Then a twig snapped behind her.

Kumiko whirled around, heart pounding. Darkness loomed before her.

A beat of silence.

Footsteps crackled through the underbrush, drawing nearer.

Kumiko tore into a sprint. She dashed through the blackness, gasping for breath and stumbling on the bumpy trail. She could not be seen. She could not be seen.

As she rushed forward, her enormous feathers began tearing away, fluttering into the night and crumbling into dust. Kumiko ran faster, panicking and desperately praying her wings would shed quickly. Oh god... if anyone saw her...

She was stupid for coming out tonight. Why wasn't she more careful? Why did she have to be so stupid?

Luckily, by the time she reached the edge of the woods, her wings had completely disappeared.

Panting and sweating from exhaustion, Kumiko threw her schoolbag on the sidewalk and collapsed against a streetlamp by the road to catch her breath. She glanced behind her into the gaping darkness of the trail entrance behind her, but saw nothing.

Swallowing, she reached over and ran her palm over her back, just to make sure she looked normal. Then she stretched back and zipped up the two open slits on the back of her school uniform shirt. The zippers were modifications she'd added herself to accommodate her extra limbs.

For good measure, Kumiko fished her crumpled blazer jacket out of her schoolbag and pulled it over her sweat-drenched shirt, completing her school uniform and hiding the zippers.

Kumiko's heart never stopped pounding as she made her way to Kita middle school. Every few steps, she looked over her shoulder for anyone tailing her. Each time a car approached from behind, she expected it to pull over next to her.

She didn't get a single hour of sleep that night.