"What?" Karlin strolled into his grandfather's office without knocking. He didn't know why he was called, but he was more than happy to get out of class.

The room he entered was old, with brown paint peeling from the walls exposing dark stone. Wooden bookshelves lined these walls, full of fraying book spines. This general shabbiness, however, just added to the academic aura.

"Ah, Karlin. You're here. I wanted to talk to you about the foreign exchange program." The old headmaster of Koldovstoretz, Dmitri Zolotov put down the piece of parchment he was holding, his forehead unwrinkling, and focused on Karlin. Behind the thin-framed glasses, his gaze was as sharp as ever. He could be intimidating when he wanted to be, especially to the other students, but as Karlin's grandfather, he wasn't at all scary to him.

Karlin scrunched his nose in disagreement. "I've already told you, I don't want to go anywhere. It's not as if you have a dearth of students willing to do this program, so just send them wherever you want to. I know Vasily would kill to be able to go to Beauxbatons. Send him there and—"

"No, no, it's not that." His grandfather shook his head. "Since Koldovstoretz is sending students abroad, some foreign students will be coming here as well to build our international relations. I wanted to know if you would like to be a liaison to some of them. It's a good opportunity to get to know other cultures, and it'll stand out on your resume. Besides, acquainting yourself with people from other countries can never hurt."

He raised an eyebrow. "Interesting. And what would I have to do as a liaison?"

"Show them around, help them understand our country and traditions, and altogether be the person they go to if they need anything. It might take a little work, but I believe it will stand you in good stead."

"I can handle work." He paused, thinking. "What if I don't like them?"

"Well, you won't be the only liaison. You can work it out among yourselves regarding who is in charge of which student," Dmitri suggested. "And I don't think it's likely that you'll hate all of them. But you can also have me weigh in when you need me to."

Karlin nodded. "You make good points. I'll think about it."


"Hi! I'm Khristina Agapova. I'll be your co-liaison!" The blonde pigtailed girl shot up from the couch to greet him as soon as he entered the meeting room after classes. Her sickeningly upbeat demeanour was already annoying him. She had never been on his radar before, but from what he knew, she was from the brown house, Nanosnoy, the one with all the people who were obsessed with sports.

"Pavel Belsky," called the other boy who had a quiet dark quality to him. He also stood up when Karlin entered, like Khristina, but in a much calmer and more composed manner. Karlin recognised him from Farfor, the white house where they lumped in all the nerds.

An accepted fact about Koldovstoretz was that Vizantiya, Farfor, and Nanosnoy were the representatives of the school. Zelen students—the green house, the 'outcasts'—were never given any standing; it was the same for the 'average' orange Sumerki students, albeit they got a fraction more of opportunities. It was why second year was so crucial for all students, because they would be sorted into houses the next year that would impact them and their careers for the rest of their lives.

He didn't feel the need to introduce himself, so he simply acknowledged them with a nod. They definitely knew who he was anyway.

"Here are copies of the files," Khristina shoved six files into his pale hand. "The students are from Durmstrang in Eastern Europe, Uagadou in Africa, Castelobruxo in Brazil, Beauxbatons in France, Ilvermorny in the USA, and Mahoutokoro in Japan. We can divide them, allotting two per liaison, once the three of us are updated on them. Sounds good?"

"Yes, I thought that was a given," he drawled with loaded words, taking a seat at the table in the centre of the room. He didn't like the way Khristina had taken charge, but he was the one who had arrived late. It didn't matter anyway. He'd be able to wrest the authority from her as soon as he wanted. In the meantime, he had to look through the files that were handed to him.

There was Nikolaj Berzina from Durmstrang, who was burly and intimidating at first glance. Talita Ribeiro from Castelobruxo smiled with remarkable cheer in her picture. Then there was Imani Mostafa from Uagadou, Luis Rodriguez from Beauxbatons, Brandon Harris from Ilvermorny, and finally, Suzume Shimoda from Mahoutokoro. The last girl was unassuming at first glance, with silky straight black hair and a fringe falling over her eyes. Clad in painstakingly embroidered Mahoutokoro robes, she wasn't doing much in the moving picture.

He shut the files on her face, announcing, "I'm done."

Khristina clapped her hands together. "So am I! And I think Pavel's done too. So let's get to dividing responsibilities, shall we? First things first, do any of us speak a language other than Russian? I know some Spanish."

"Why should that matter?" Karlin asked.

"Because we want the students to feel at home here. We should know their language," she explained.

He couldn't help but roll his eyes. "If they're coming here, to Koldovstoretz, a school in Russia, they're expected to know our country's language. It's not our obligation to bend over backwards to accommodate them."

She opened her mouth to say something, but Karlin plowed on, "I've already decided which two students I want to be in charge of."

She looked put out but didn't argue. "Who?"

"Brandon Harris and Suzume Shimoda." Both of them seemed moderately sedate on paper and not likely to bother him all that much. He didn't need someone running after his every move and asking stupid questions all the time.

Khristina and Pavel divided the other two among themselves, Khristina in charge of the Beauxbatons and the Castelobruxo students, while Pavel took charge of the leftover two. Once that was said and done, the trio took their decision to Deputy Headmaster Krupin who was to give them further instructions.


It was a little less than a month into the school year when the foreign students were set to arrive. Karlin, along with Pavel and Khristina were instructed to wait at Lake Ladoga while some teachers escorted the students there. It was late, and on a normal day, all the students would have been cooped up in their student schools, doing homework or just unwinding. However, given that the Russians wanted to make a good impression on their international counterparts, the entire student body was now in the Assembly Hall of the main school, waiting to welcome the foreigners.

The three liaisons didn't talk much—well, Pavel and Karlin didn't. Khristina was jabbering on about something but Karlin had tuned out—as they waited at the lake bank, every one of them wondering what the students would be like. Karlin fidgeted with the sleeves of the dark blue Koldovstoretz overcoat, the one they had to wear at official school events, though he was careful to not displace it too much. As the first representatives of their school, every part of their uniform had to be immaculate.

It was a clear day, or at least it had been before darkness fell. The water of the lake reflected the sky, with barely a glint of light in sight. Soon enough, the teachers arrived from Leningrad Oblast with all six students, each adorned in their school uniforms. He picked out Suzume and Brandon, wearing teal and blue-cranberry respectively, among the small crowd, but he couldn't approach them until the teachers gave the go ahead.

"These are Karlin Zolotov, Khristina Agapova, and Pavel Belsky, your liaisons," Professor Krupin introduced. "If you need anything, you can go to them."

Taking that as the go ahead sign, Karlin moved forward, shaking each of their hands until he came to Brandon and Suzume at the end of the group. Both were a good deal shorter than him, which meant he'd have an easier time maintaining his authority. "Good evening. I am Karlin Zolotov, student of Koldovstoretz. I am to be your liaison during your stay at our school. Contact me if you have any questions or difficulties while you're here." Or don't, he wanted to add but his grandfather had asked him not to scare them off too soon. Speaking of which… "You should also know that my grandfather is Dmitri Zolotov, the headmaster of our fine institution."

"Thank you," Suzume said simply. Her words weren't perfectly pronounced, but they were understandable. It was evident she wasn't very confident with Russian. Her loss, really, because Koldovstoretz taught mostly in Russian and she shouldn't have come to a place whose language she wasn't good with.

Brandon, in his ill-fitting Ilvermorny robes, only nodded at the greeting, leading Karlin to shoot him a sideways glare which he missed. His mousy brown hair flopped over his pallid face and he seemed to shrink into himself when anyone even looked at him.

"Right. Follow me," he instructed. He led them to the docks, where large scaly green sea serpents were waiting to take them to the main school.

Suzume stopped in her tracks. "What are those?" she asked, eyes wide.

"Sea serpents. You ride them to the school. It's on an island in the middle of the lake."

"Isn't that… unsafe?"

"No. They're trained."

She didn't look convinced, but thankfully didn't press any further. Brandon, on the other hand, had turned white as a sheet on seeing the serpents, clearly terrified to death. But since he didn't mention anything, Karlin didn't bring it up. He was not going to waste his time and breath comforting someone scared of something so harmless to humans as a sea serpent.

The teachers helped the new students to mount the serpents. Most of them had an uneasy expression on their faces, either gripping onto the poor creatures with an iron grasp or barely touching them for fear of being bitten.

Karlin and the other two liaisons didn't need help to get on the serpents, having done it once before in first year. It was a nice feeling of nostalgia, though Karlin was a little wary of them now. Since getting his pet mouse, Molotov, he'd become a lot more careful about animals that liked eating mice—owls, cats, and snakes being prime examples. Molotov wasn't with him at that moment but it had become second nature to scout for such animals.

The teachers all got onto the boats usually reserved for the seniors, and once they were all ready, the serpents began to move. The pace was slower than Karlin remembered, although he supposed it was for the benefit of the other students. On one side of him, Brandon was clinging onto his serpent for dear life, his breaths so loud Karlin could hear how ragged they were over the splashing water. Suzume, on the other hand, had taken to the ride surprisingly well. Her demeanour wasn't entirely comfortable, but she did fare better than the others.

It took around twenty minutes of travelling on the lake for them to reach school. All the students straightened up in awe when the majestic castle, lit up by magic in the colours of Russia's flag, came into view. The surrounding four partly-submerged student schools—North, South, East, West—were also lit up, but with white lights to accentuate the icy blue of the onion domes reflecting down on the rest of the building. The sight never got old—though it usually wasn't lit up so well—no matter how many times Karlin saw it. And he had seen it more times than the average student, given that he lived there full time with his grandfather whose home was the headmaster's quarters.

The serpents came to rest at the main school dock. Karlin, Khristina, and Pavel got off first. Seeing the others having a little difficulty getting off, Khristina went over to aid them in the process, something that had never even occurred to Karlin as he watched her from the side. Once everyone was ready and on solid land, and once the professors had dried the bottoms of everyone's uniforms which had gotten wet from the lake spray, they made their way up the cliff stairways to the castle.

The nine of them were made to wait outside the Assembly Hall while the teachers went inside to sit in their designated area. As liaisons, they had been told from before that they'd be entering the Hall one by one, escorting any two of the foreign students. Among themselves, they agreed to escort the students they were in charge of.

"What is inside?" Suzume asked him.

"It's your welcome feast. We're just waiting for your names to be called," he answered, remaining short and to the point.

The doors were closed, but the announcements inside rang loud enough for them to come through anyway. Which was good because now they'd know when exactly when to enter. He could hear his grandfather's voice telling the school to behave.

Finally, the moment they had all been waiting for arrived. From inside the hall, the words echoed, "Please welcome our students from abroad! From Durmstrang and Uagadou, Nikolaj Berzina and Imani Mostafa!"

Pavel entered, followed by Nikolaj and Imani. Next, it was Khristina's turn with Talita and Luis. Finally, Karlin with Suzume and Brandon alongside him were called in.

The Hall looked different. Instead of the long tables that were usually brought out for meals, a number of small round tables dotted the room, located at strategic intervals. Most seats were already taken, except two tables near the front, which he deduced were for the students and liaisons. Everyone was standing and applauding their entrance, and inwardly Karlin knew it wasn't for him but he could still bask in the praise.

He made his way to where Khristina and Pavel were standing, Suzume and Brandon following him. He noticed Suzume seemed decently happy with the applause, contrasting Brandon who would have probably shrivelled up if he had the means to. Honestly, in Karlin's esteemed opinion, that boy needed to be bullied a little, if only to force him out of his shell.

"Please sit," Dmitri Zolotov said.

That was the cue for hundreds of chairs all across the room to be pushed back, the scraping and grating like a curse to Karlin's ears. Unfortunately, as he sat, he got wedged between Suzume and Khristina. Well, at least it wasn't weepy Brandon, who had to move over to the other table to sit with Pavel, Nikolaj, and Imani. Talita and Luis were at Karlin's table too.

Unlike usual, when food just magically appeared on the tables, long tables with buffet options materialised around the Hall, near the walls. "Tuck in!" called his grandfather from the teachers' table which immediately restarted the chair-scraping. Their food had arrived on their tables as usual, so he couldn't see any teachers getting up to fix a plate.

"Alright, Suzume, go get whatever you want," he told her, and went off to get himself food. The selection was… questionable. There were noodles, sushi, tortillas, galettes, burgers, a strange pink soup he couldn't recognise, and a ton of other types of food from all over the world. There wasn't anything he was used to, and he really didn't feel up to trying something new. From the other end of the room, he caught his grandfather's eye and made a disgusted face to sign that he didn't like any of the options.

Dmitri nodded ever so slightly. A moment later, somewhere off to the side, a tray of beef stroganoff appeared. Karlin smiled; it was his favourite food.

It so turned out that Suzume was helping herself to the food near him, and had noticed his small interaction with his grandfather. "What was that?" she asked, balancing her plate full of sushi on one hand.

Karlin smirked, puffing his chest out somewhat pompously. "As I told you, my grandfather is Dmitri Zolotov, headmaster of Koldovstoretz. This is why I get a few other advantages over the rest of our student body. You should feel fortunate you received me as your liaison."

She furrowed her brow. "Sounds like that's just… favouritism."

"Excuse me?" he managed to sputter out, but she had already left. Fuming, Karlin walked across to his table, knowing she'd be there soon. Then maybe he could confront her. Karlin Zolotov was not a result of favouritism. He completely deserved everything good that ever happened to him, and for this Japanese girl to question all of that with only one statement was absolutely preposterous. She had no idea how things worked around here, and Karlin would not take such disrespect—

While his brain went off on the tangent, he was accosted by Sonechka Chernyshevskaya, a beater on the North School red secondary team. She was the team captain's sister, and had a guaranteed spot on the primary team after last year's captain graduated. "Karlin!" she shrilled.

"What?" he snapped.

She didn't take the hint that he didn't want to talk to her. "You're a liaison! Can you introduce me to the foreign students?" She peered over his shoulder, and something lit in her eyes. "Especially the Durmstrang guy? He's sooooo hot!"

Karlin turned back to see Nikolaj Berzina talking amicably to Suzume Shimoda. His mood soured even further, his features contorting into a scowl. "No, I can't. Go talk to him yourself and leave me alone."

"But—"

He didn't wait to see what she'd say. Back at his table, Khristina seemed to be in a bad mood too, since she didn't notice Karlin glowering. "Luis Rodriguez is the WORST," she declared. "So far, all he's done is critique our school and tell me how much better Beauxbatons is. And I can't even be mean to him since I'm a liaison."

"Who cares about being mean? Just tell him to sod off. He shouldn't have come here, to the best magic school in all of the world, if he's so in love with his Beauxbatons."

Khristina took that as an invitation to continue ranting for some reason, but Karlin zoned out while he was having his food. Finally, once he was done, instead of waiting to see where the other students were, he left the duty of helping the foreign kids to the other two liaisons, opting to simply go up to his personal newly-received liaison's room.


Karlin had initially gotten out of showing the foreign students around the school. Both Pavel and Khristina had demonstrations in a double Charms period when they were supposed to do the tour, but he simply had to cry about it once to his grandfather, and their demonstration was magically postponed. It ended up being redundant, because, as it turned out, he had Transfiguration then, and the first classes were generally quite boring since they focused on the theory part of the art.

So, there he was with Pavel and Khristina, showing the newly-arrived students around Koldovstoretz.

He wasn't a particularly enthusiastic host, and neither was Pavel. Khristina did all the work, but he would never admit it. However, it was the general magnificence of the school that held most their attention as they were taken through the familiar halls.

Luis was an exception. "Beauxbatons is better," he huffed for the fifth time in an hour after no one paid any heed to him.

Well, if he wanted attention, he'd get it. "Too bad you're not there anymore," growled Karlin. "Khristina might be too much of a pansy to say what we were all thinking, but you shouldn't have come here if all you are going to do is whine. And for the record, I've been to your school, and it's nothing special. This place is leagues better."

"Karlin!" Khristina gasped. "Luis, I'm so sorry—"

Luis could only gape. He hadn't been expecting an outburst, and Karlin knew it. But if he was to live at Koldovstoretz, then sooner or later, he'd have to learn that Karlin Zolotov didn't play by expectations.

Afterwards, they went through one of the student schools in silence punctuated by Khristina's tentative commentary. Karlin didn't know why the foreign students had to see them when their quarters were located in the main school. The six would probably never catch sight of the half-submerged buildings after this day. Then they had to row over to the central school, where they were introduced to the general classrooms, important landmarks, and all that jazz, leaving the Quidditch pitch and forest for last since they were at the other end of the school.

The Quidditch pitch was large, even larger than the pitches used for World Cups. When they arrived, a collective gasp travelled among the group at the sheer size. Even Luis's eyes were round with awe.

"And this here is the Quidditch pitch." Khristina had to increase her volume so that her voice carried properly. "It's this big because Russians play Quidditch as a game of strength, on uprooted trees. We require the size for scale."

Suzume Shimoda seemed exceptionally attentive now. Karlin had been quite stand-offish with her since her comment at the dinner, but she hadn't seemed to realise it, still talking to him as usual. "How does that work? Wouldn't it be too impractical? Trees have much less… mobility than broomsticks." Her words were staggered, but the genuine interest came through.

Karlin took this opportunity to insert himself into the conversation, scoffing. "More like broomsticks are too light to maneuver accurately."

"If you say that, you don't know how to play on a broomstick." He was about to retort at the clear jab, but she didn't give him the chance to. Without a beat, she stuck out her arm and said something in another language, Japanese perhaps. In mere moments, a broomstick appeared over the spectator stands, shooting into their midst straight into Suzume's hand. It was a sleek model made of dark wood, and he found himself admiring the craftsmanship for a split second before he realised what she was doing.

Suzume mounted it and kicked off into the sky, leaving dust from the ground settling on the group in her wake. She was deathly fast, so fast that she had zoomed to somewhere near the other end of the pitch by the time Karlin figured out which distant speck she was.

"Suzume, what are you doing? Come back right now!" Khristina's futile yells probably didn't even carry to a quarter into the pitch. Even Pavel's usually expressionless face held fear.

Karlin, instead, was observing her. There was no denying it, even if he would never say it to her face. This girl had serious skill, although it was only on those pathetic twigs she called broomsticks. She performed impressive zips and twirls that only an experienced Quidditch player could feel confident enough to do. Everyone's heads moved to and fro as their eyes followed her flying around the whole pitch.

By the time she touched down on the grass expertly, blowing stray hairs out of her face, a small crowd of onlookers had gathered. They began to applaud her.

There was a pleased glint in her eye from the attention, but other than that she didn't acknowledge it. "Good pitch," she said with a lot more confidence than she had ever shown. Her Quidditch terminology especially was quite practiced. "Positioned well, and not much scope for seaward wind resistance. It's bigger than where I've played but that's not a problem—"

Khristina used that moment to pounce on her. "What do you think you were doing? You should have asked first! That was dangerous. Not to mention, you were flying on a broom! Do you know how unstable those sticks are? You could have fallen to your death!" Her words were all tumbling over each other, it seemed like she was about to drop down dead of a stroke.

Her chastising was interrupted by Sacha Chernyshevsky, the well-built seventh year prefect of house Nanosnoy and captain of Karlin's Quidditch team, who had apparently been hiding in the crowd. "Ey, Zolotov, what's her name?" he hissed.

"Suzume Shimoda," Karlin said, not sure where this was going.

Sacha strode forward. "Damn, Shimoda! You think you could fly like that on a tree?"

Suzume frowned. "Maybe. Who are you?"

Sacha stuck out an imposing hand, which she shook. "Sacha Chernyshevsky, captain of the North School red team. We've won most of the recent Quidditch Leagues. What position do you play?"

"Beater," she said. Beside her, Khristina's face turned a drastic shade of red, but she would never go against a prefect.

"That's perfect!" Sacha exclaimed. "Believe me when I say, we could use you."

"Wait. Am I allowed to play Quidditch in Koldovstoretz?"

Now, Sacha's expression baulked. He glanced over his shoulder where Karlin was glaring daggers at him for complimenting her, when suddenly his face brightened. "Karlin, request your grandfather to give the international students permission to join school teams. Or if not all, then at least Shimoda here."

"Absolutely not," said Karlin, crossing his arms. "We've got a great team, Chernyshevsky. Your sister is literally coming on this year. As a Beater, if I may add. We don't have to jeopardise the Quidditch Cup for someone who can do fancy tricks on a stick."

His broad shoulders drooped. "Come on. Please. You saw it yourself, she's a brilliant flier. With a bit of practice, I can guarantee she'd do equally well, if not better, on a tree."

"We've got brilliant fliers who are actually from our school and know how to handle a tree. Just use one of them. There's no lack of people who want to get onto the team." He made a motion to walk away, but Sacha caught up to him.

"Hey, listen. It's my last year, Karlin. Next year, when you're the captain, I'm sure your team is going to trust your judgement implicitly, but this year, I'm asking you to trust mine."

Past him, Karlin caught a glimpse of Suzume watching them expectantly. Drawing his gaze back to Sacha who was staring at him like a kicked puppy, he sighed. "You know what? Fine. Only because you think having her is going to make a difference. But, I have one condition."

"Anything."

"You announce next practice that I get to be assistant captain this year. Which means I get a say in our plays, authority over the team members, and when you're not there, I get to run practices instead of Franziska and the other year sevens."

"Done," said Sacha immediately, perking up.

Karlin hadn't expected him to be swayed that easily by such an unorthodox demand. Maybe this foreign exchange program had some short-term upsides after all.


Suzume was frowning at the tree laying at her feet. "How do I fly on this?"

Given that he was the one to ask, his grandfather had obviously agreed to allow foreign students on house teams. None of the others seemed as athletically inclined as Suzume anyway so it didn't particularly matter. She claimed to play Beater, but Karlin really couldn't see how a girl as frail as her played such a physically challenging position.

Now, they were in their first practice of the year as a team. Sacha had just announced that Karlin was to be the reserve captain, much to the chagrin of the seeker, Franziska Turgeva, who had been expecting the position as a seventh year student.

Suzume was playing alongside Sacha's sister, Sonechka. The other guy who used to play Beater with Sonechka when both of them were on the secondary team was completely overlooked, but that was what happened when one didn't have the right connections. Karlin had come to that realisation early on in his second year that connections really were everything, in school, as well in the real world.

"Karlin. How do I fly?" Suzume asked again. He hadn't realised she was talking to him the first time. She didn't have an official uniform, and so, was wearing muggle clothes paired with a long white cloak that mimicked the flag of Japan.

"Are you serious?" He thought she was joking. Given her expression though… clearly not. "It's like they don't teach students basic tree flying in other countries," he muttered to himself, making sure he was loud enough for her to hear. "Mount it. It's like your spindle stick, just wider and heavier. Don't leave your feet hanging, rest them on the knobs of the trunk. And when you fly, use those two branches at the top to steer yourself." He felt his explanation was pretty good but she still seemed unsure.

"… can't I just play on my broomstick?"

He sneered. "No chance. You're in Russia now, you play the Russian way. Follow my lead." Saying that, he went through the usual motions to mount his tree, and turned to see Suzume following his every move religiously. "Feet up," he reminded her. And he took off.

For her first time on a tree, she was actually not that bad, albeit quite slow. Karlin could dash along the pitch with ease, holding years of practice to his name, but Suzume's movements were surprisingly steady. Her dark eyes were narrowed as she zeroed in on her path with immense focus. All of a sudden, Sacha called from the grounds, "I'm releasing a Bludger!"

She froze midair, turning towards Karlin with shock. "What do I do? I don't have a bat."

"Watch." Karlin locked in on the Bludger hurtling towards them and flew towards it. With a resounding push, he hit the ball with the back of the tree, causing it to shoot back at the rest of the team on the ground. Luckily—or perhaps unluckily; Karlin wasn't a fan of a few on the team—they caught it in time and no one was hurt. "And that's how you tackle a Bludger in Russia," he announced, brushing away his blond hair which tended to flop on his face, feeling the hint of a smirk come on.

Suzume looked impressed, and rightfully so. Karlin wasn't a natural Beater, but anyone would admit that hit was a good, clean one.

"The tree won't break when I hit the Bludger, will it?"

"There's supposed to be a metal cover on the back of the Beaters' trees. They can withstand the strength of the ball, but the cover is just a precaution. It makes it easier to identify Beaters in the midst of a game too," Karlin explained. "Now, come on. Chernyshevsky's calling us back down."

He landed gracefully, and turned his attention over to her, curious to see how she'd handle the landing. It was rough; she misjudged how far she had to go before falling from two feet and rolling on the ground. The tree hovered for a moment without a rider to guide it, and then fell with a heavy thud. He had definitely done better his first time, but then again, not everyone could be as good as him at everything, could they?

"Still think broomsticks are better than trees?" he jibed at her.

"Definitely. You Russians are crazy."

The rest of the evening passed with the team teaching Suzume to hold her own on a mount much larger than she was used to. However, her raw talent helped her through, and by the time they were done, she was on par with the weakest members of the secondary team.


(A/N): After a ton of whining on the Discord about how I'll never finish this AU, I finally decided to post it, even though I still haven't finished it. In three parts, because I didn't realise that trying to fit an entire year into a one-shot simply isn't possible. I would have just sent it there but the three-part format is better suited to FF.

To anyone not from the Discord who decided to click on this for whatever reason, go check out A Conspiracy of Ravens by the wonderful GreenWithAwesome. It is genuinely an amazing fic which inspired this AU, and you won't regret it. Credit where credit is due, Suzume Shimoda was created by the equally wonderful rysarium.

Anyway, hope you guys liked it, and I have no idea when I'll post the next part, but it will come. Someday.

— Llama