YEAR ONE.50 1/1 Umbral Encounter
In a world that's changing so quickly, you're guaranteed to fail if you don't take any risks. ~Mark Zuckerberg
Kuroo Tetsurou glances over his shoulder a little uneasily as he skitters through the shadows looking for a good vantage point.
The rookery is unusually active for how late in the evening it is with a large number of people still milling around while the last rays of light disappear as the world rolls over for another day. Of course, it was only after he'd gotten here that he remembered the bustling mass of avians the rookery turned into in the days just before migration.
He finds a ledge in shadow just inside civilian premises and deftly leaps up and settles into place to wait. He shouldn't be stuck here long; his target just finished delivering his daily report. All that was left was to catch him when he was alone. Kuroo grimaces.
He'd nearly been caught twice as he'd moved around, one of them while he'd been slinking through the rafters of the large assembly building on military grounds. Being cornered in the middle of one of the main military buildings and surrounded by the largest concentration of sentries in the rookery would likely have been most unpleasant.
He'd found an alcove above the Grand King's study in the course of shadowing his target, Iwaizumi… and had entertained more than one fantasy of offing that monster while he waited for the sentry crow to show up. He's been inside the rookery more times than he can remember, but he'd never been quite that close to the Grand King. All it would have taken was a slight leap between a couple support beams near the vaulted ceiling for him to drop down on top of the rookery leader and taking him out at that point would have been easy. It was remarkable, he thought, that avians— masters of the sky— even they didn't look up.
Iwaizumi had come in, still half sweaty after an aerial Volley practice, and the ensuing conversation had been entertaining to say the least. The rookery leader's and his son's personalities were truly night and day. The sentry leader was nearly as antagonistic toward the Grand King as Kageyama was toward the redhead… the difference was in the Grand King's reactions. Where Hinata would immediately fire back a retort and promptly lose himself in a bickering match, the rookery leader was a crackerjack manipulator and excelled at crafting elaborate verbal sparring traps. He could lay out a perfect insult and expertly maneuver Iwaizumi straight into it. To his credit, the sentry leader had been stoic through all of the Grand King's superficial animation, adeptly picking out the important details camouflaged within the cheerful childishness.
Seeing this man, this monster from his memories, so oddly playful around Iwaizumi had made him wonder if he was really the same person who'd marked Hinata for elimination. But then Kuroo'd remembered the faces of the people he'd lost at the whim of that man— and it had sobered him. It had taken a solid dose of control not to act on any of those dormant emotions that surrounded his memories of the Grand King, and he'd left the assembly building as soon as the sentry leader was finished in order to keep it that way.
As Iwaizumi walks by his shadowed hiding place now, Kuroo smirks.
Quickly surveying the empty area, he silently drops in behind him. He has to hand it to the crow— he seems to have taken their criticism on his movements to heart and his steps are much quieter now. Kuroo almost has to pay attention to his own as he crowds in close to him.
"Gotta say, this place is different than I remember—and yet completely the same." He drawls quietly just over his shoulder and the sentry leader nearly leaps out of his feathers.
Kuroo smirks, because thanks to that last fight their most volatile level pair endured, he knows what that looks like and can easily picture the crow before him with bald wings. But even knowing how much smaller and far more fragile those limbs appear without the feathers, Iwaizumi's wings still spread into an impressively threatening display that almost has him backing up a step.
The crow's fists come up in front of him defensively before he freezes. Iwaizumi stares at him for a long moment, his eyes as large as Bokuto's and his jaw open slightly in horror. And then his face darkens into a black scowl and his hand darts out and latches onto Kuroo's shirt. The black cat does his damnedest to strangle the urge to bristle at the contact as the crow swiftly ushers him out of the open. He might be their inside link, but he isn't like the other former unit members Kuroo spends his days with; this man has no loyalty to the avian prince or their companions.
"What the hell are you doing here, cat?" Iwaizumi spits when they reach the darkening shadows of a couple buildings.
"Sightseeing." He deadpans and the crow shoves him up against a wall.
Careful little bird, Kuroo wants to growl at him. He's not accustomed to being manhandled, and restraining himself from retaliating is growing irksome.
"How did you get in?" He hisses. An eyebrow creeps up Kuroo's forehead.
"Could have sworn you were conscious through the bit about this being one of my favorite haunts before we went and marooned ourselves on some beach. Even if the place looks different, your security details haven't improved much. The holes in your perimeter coverage are still exactly where I remember them." He murmurs, unable to keep from ribbing the avian. Iwaizumi's eyes narrow and his fist twists in Kuroo's shirt.
"Why are you here?" He seethes and the black cat almost punches him. With even control, he reaches up and closes a hand around the arm holding him.
"You requested ravens not be sent your way, so I'm the alternative. The message is probably better delivered in person in any case since a raven can be intercepted."
"A raven would have been preferable to a cat showing up in the rookery. You could have at least sent someone with wings. Gods know you have plenty of those." He snaps. Kuroo tightens his grasp on the crow's arm and pries it away from himself.
"Because that worked so well the last time. And of everyone who can operate with stealth, I was the one who'd been here before."
"What if you're seen?" He asks in an agitated whisper. Kuroo shrugs and shoves his hand off.
"I've been doing this for years. I'm not worried."
"If you're caught, they will interrogate you. If you wind up captured, I'll tell the Grand King everything myself."
"Don't want your great leader to find out about your involvement from someone else?"
"I'd rather he not find out I've been privy to any of it at all. You need to leave."
"Love to, but I've been tasked with delivering a message. And just a side note— I fail to show back at camp by morning, my companions head straight back to the beach and you'll lose all trace of Feathers and his unit again."
"Then say what you have to say and get lost." The crow says crossing his arms. Kuroo scoffs.
"Freaking sentries. You're all so impatient… We ran into an issue a couple weeks back and your avian prince nearly croaked." Iwaizumi's eyes sharpen.
"A sentry?" He asks tightly.
"Nothing so external… something of a bout of illness spurred by circumstance." He says dismissively and Iwaizumi frowns in confusion.
"What—"
"Doesn't matter, he's coming through just fine. But the thrush came up with a tentative solution to ensure it doesn't happen again. It's risky, but the alternative might be worse. The beach group will periodically be splitting up. Half will stay at the house, the other half will be traveling. Feathers and the redhead in particular will always be in the group that leaves the beach. It might work out in your favor anyway as they might be sighted, giving you a bunch of 'false leads' to chase down that won't trace back to our little town. We figured we should let you know so you weren't left scrambling when you came back in the spring. They are planning a trip up to the northern coast around that time so they probably won't be home when you guys return from the migration." Kuroo says and the sentry leader's eyes slide to the side in contemplation.
"Thanks for the heads up, I guess." He says with a frown, his demeanor more subdued. "Is that all?"
Kuroo ducks his head slightly and raises a hand in mute farewell as he turns away. He's nearly around the corner of the building when his feet pause on him and the hand comes up to his neck. It's a bizarre combination of compassion and deviant impishness that makes him return to where the crow watches him critically.
"Ano… I was surprised that the Grand King was setting up a contingency plan this year for your flightless residents. And allowing two units to remain with them…that's not his typical procedure for dealing with grounded avians." He says with a cocked brow, a large part of him grinning maniacally at the way the crow's pupils blow wide at information the black cat shouldn't have been privy to.
"How—"
"I told you before, offing one unsuspecting crow would be a simple matter." He says with a cheeky grin, enjoying the tension that crashes across Iwaizumi's muscles.
He's actually easier to needle than Feathers at this point what with the way the avian prince has grown immune to half his barbs. Really this guy was too easy a target; riling him up lacked challenge almost to the point that it wasn't fun.
"You were—"
"I was just noting that I was frankly shocked that he was doing it. And the choice of an outpost on the ocean. Let me guess…a winter medcamp was your idea?" The crow mentally stumbles for a few moments before shaking his head.
"Actually, he suggested it… but I pushed for the location, yeah. He wanted to set them up with a permanent system here, but I convinced him to move it away from the colder interior and to the coast after seeing you guys get by alright there. It was the Grand King who called for a couple units to remain with them to provide some standing protection, though."
"Really. Color me shocked. Anyway, I mention it in light of your other concern with the snakes." Iwaizumi's eye twitches and Kuroo knows he's hit on something that confirms beyond doubt how close he'd been to the conversation between the sentry and rookery leaders a short while ago.
"What about them?"
"You're correct that they are trafficking, but it's not just pirated wares. They specialize in moving people. They've been doing it for centuries." Kuroo says, his voice gaining a hard edge. The crow's head tilts and the large cat knows he has his full attention.
"You know this for sure?" Kuroo shrugs mildly.
"One of the perks of living outside the rookery… you have a tendency to know what else does, too. Their network has grown in the last several hundred years… another downside of your Grand King removing all the people— like us cats— who'd kept them in check. But that's neither here nor there at this point, and I'd feel remiss if I didn't warn you. The location you've selected along the western coastline for your 'flightless' outpost is in precarious proximity to one of their main transportation checkpoints. It could place them at risk, especially if it is supposed to be a location for disabled or recovering avians. Another spot ten or fifteen leagues north would probably be safer."
The crow stares at him incredulously and Kuroo smacks him on the shoulder and takes a single step before pausing once more. And against everything he feels in his gut, he releases a soft oath and a sigh.
"My brother's spirit will probably strangle me in my sleep… any other day, and I might keep silent or even assist with a coup," he says, bitterness creeping into his voice, "but you should also be careful of the guy who heads the training units. He's gunning for your boss."
"Then why are you helping now?"
"Poor life choices."
"Seriously."
"Seriously? Your king bites it, you're probably in the cross hairs, too, since you seem unusually close with him. We lose you, we lose our inside contact and are left flying blind once more. And the hunt for Feathers will be a precaution to ensure he can't come back and challenge whoever takes over, one I'm positive will wreak havoc on his life prospects. I'll take an evil I know how to deal with over one I've never faced… although with the changes happening here, I'm not sure if that is such a solid analysis anymore either."
"The Grand King has changed since Kageyama's abdication. It's had a promising effect on the rookery as a whole despite the political upheaval. That's why he can't come back. I can't be sure our leader wouldn't revert to the way he was before if he did."
"Then his leaving was the best option all around. If you'd have told me this would happen when I saved his ass that night they fled, I'd have laughed in your face."
"Wait, that was how they got out?" The sentry leader's eyes go wide and Kuroo chuckles.
"Give a bird eyes in the dark and a getaway was far from impossible."
"Skies. That answers so many questions. I can only imagine how hard that would have been for Kageyama. He's always been hostile with things he struggles at."
"The other option was death, so he had little choice." Kuroo mutters and Iwaizumi blinks.
"The Grand King might be twisted, but he'd never kill his own son." He rebuttals, and Kuroo cants his head.
"Close… he wouldn't kill him intentionally, but if Feathers had stayed, he'd have eventually wound up dead with your wonderful leader to thank."
"Are you saying he'd have gotten someone else to take him out?" The sentry leader asks darkly and Kuroo huffs with amusement.
"Nothing of the sort… it's far more abstract than that." He says with a grin and catches the sentry's shoulder once more. Perhaps he could get along with this Iwaizumi crow.
"If you happen to see Feathers with the redhead and their unit again a few years down the road, I think you will understand. I promise, the explanation will be one for the record books, so try to stay alive until then, Iwa."
A/N: WOW 0.o I couldn't believe how well that last chapter went over. I agonized over it incessantly, lol. This one is more world building than actual action/plot advancement? I hope it doesn't bore anyone out after the mess of the last three chapters. Have a great night guys!