AN: Another edited chapter :)
I'm working on the third one right now! That's when the KageHina will begin to take root.
"Oh man, did you see Kageyama's face when he saw that ball bounce?" Kindaichi chuckled, "It was priceless!"
The previous members of Kitagawa Daiichi Junior High's volleyball team were all at Tooru Oikawa's house, gleefully celebrating the last week of Christmas break before their third semester began. This involved sake, Saporro, and pizza, slouching over the two couches in the den, and watching a cheesy old vampire movie and talking about memories of their junior high.
"That was kinda mean, you know." Iwaizumi commented.
"Yeah, but he deserved it. Always thinking he was better than the rest of us." Oikawa sneered. "You won't believe where I saw him though."
"Where?!" Kindaichi asked, with a voice that sounded like someone aching for gossip.
"He works at that Bluster's down the street from the mall. He has been attending the local high school and claims that he is going to Karasuno for the next semester."
"Yeah, whatever team takes him is cursed to fail." Kindaichi laughed and took another swig of beer, "Aobajousai saw that and denied him. That's why he is at the local school. But why is he working?"
"It turns out that his family isn't well off and he is working to pay for himself to go to Karasuno."
"Curse Kageyama. Acting like he was better than the rest of us, and he is nothing more than a lower class peasant."
"That would be fun." Kunimi commented mysteriously. Oikawa snorted in disbelief,
"Are you saying you'd like to be poor and hypocritical?" Kunimi shook his head,
"No, I mean cursing Kageyama would be fun. My uncle is friends with a Tengu and he curses people sometimes."
"You mean the crazy uncle that lives in the woods and always talks to himself? Have you ever seen one of his curses work? Or even met his Tengu friend?" Oikawa asked.
"Nah. I don't believe in that kind of thing, really. But it would be fun to release our anger at him in some way. Plus, if it does work, it would knock him down a few levels." Kunimi pointed out. "It can be like a party game."
"I'm in!"Kindaichi called out raising his hand. Oikawa nodded,
"Me too. It will be fun." The three boys look over at Iwaizumi, who looked at the ground, nervously shuffling his feet.
"Do I have to? I mean, I didn't like Kageyama either, but cursing him seems like a bit much."
Kunimi placed a hand on his shoulder,
"Don't worry. Nothing is going to really happen. It's just for fun."
"I guess….I guess I'm in…" Iwaizumi stuttered. Oikawa smiled.
"Alright, so how do we do this?"
Kunimi pulled a book out of his backpack.
"I've been reading this book I stole from my uncle's library. It has a curse to turn someone into a were-beast. It says we can substitute the creature with anything, real or fake, that we can imagine."
"I know just the thing!" Oikawa ran upstairs and came down with a poster.
"Karasu, the King of Carrion!" He smiled, showing the picture, "Part of my sister's magical creatures collection!" The picture depicted a creature that looked a bit like a feathery cat with wings. The snout was one of a fox, as were the front paws, and the wings were those of a crow. The tail, ears, and body were those of a cat, but there was a ridge of feathers that flowed down from the nape of the neck along the spine until it met the tip of the tail, where a small gathering of slightly longer feathers extended outwards.
Kindaichi read out the description under the picture,
"'Karasu: The Demon Crow; AKA the King of Carrion, the King of Crows, King of the Night
Karasu is a black creature resembling a housecat, except the presence of wings and slightly longer tail with feathers. This creature is extremely clever and independent, possessing genius intellect, excellent awareness of surroundings to the point where it feels like the creature is reading one's mind, and a sense of superiority. It is said to be found in graveyards, feeding on the flesh of recent victims, however this tends to be regarded as an urban myth compared to the original mythology of the beast, which states that Karasu was most often found in forests, where it would protect the creatures of which it was composed: Foxes, Crows, and Cats. According to myth, Karasu was created by accident when a witch tried to sacrifice thousands of creatures with magical potential in order to summon a demon. Unfortunately, the souls of those thousand creatures combined into one soul, and with that strength, created a new body with which it murdered the witch. This creature has become associated with bad luck, and it is from this creature that the myths of black cats being bad luck originated….'
….That sounds perfect!"
"So is it decided?" Kunimi queried. All heads nodded, albeit Iwaizumi nodded only half-heartedly.
"Ok, so sit in a circle around the table. Oikawa do you have a pen and paper, and a candle?" Oikawa ran upstairs and came down with a pen and a sketchpad, along with a lighter and a bunch of green birthday candles. Kunimi grabbed a paper, drew a magic circle of some sort on it, using the book for reference. Finished, he placed it on the table. He then melted the bottom of one of the candles and stuck it onto the paper in the middle of the circle, lighting it in the process.
"When I stop reading, you need to imagine Karasu in your head and blow out all of your hatred of Kageyama into the flame. If the flame goes out, then the curse failed. If it stays lit, the Tengu has heard our prayers and placed the curse on Kageyama. Fair enough?" Kunimi asked. Everyone nodded and started staring at the candle.
"Tengu, please hear our calls." Kunimi calls out and begins reading aloud in a language none of the boys had heard before. After a few moments, he stopped reading and nodded to the boys. They inhaled deeply and all blew at the candle. The candle flickered and almost went out, but managed to remain lit through the bombardment of wind.
"Well, I guess it worked, considering the flame stayed lit." Oikawa commented. Kunimi shook his head.
"I don't think this kind of stuff is real. It was just a fluke."
"That was so COOOOLLL!" Kindaichi fisted the air. "I feel better already!"
Iwaizumi remained silent, fearful for what they had just done.
Kageyama was in the shower when it hit him. He felt a cold chill flow through his body and then he felt all of the air leave his body as if he was hit by a car. He collapsed to the floor as he gasped for breath with which to scream. He felt something like a snake slithering underneath his skin, and his entire body felt like he was being stabbed. Finally he managed to get enough air to scream as he felt multiple somethings rip the skin of his back, pulling muscle out behind it. The pain was so intense that he passed out shortly thereafter.
Kageyama awoke to the feel of the shower, now cold, spraying water over his body. His entire body ached, like he had been working out for too long without stretching, and his back felt like how he imagined a lashing would. As he pushed himself up onto his hands, he saw blood trailing off of his body and down the shower drain. There was a fair bit of it.
"Did I slip in the shower?" He wondered. He pulled himself to a standing position, and felt something heavy on his back. Reaching back he felt something feathery that seemed to be attached. It also appeared to be the thing that was causing him the most pain. Kageyama felt his vision become spotty as his body threatened to pass out again from the pain and blood loss.
Kageyama hissed as he stood up and dragged his bloody, beaten body to the full size mirror on the back of the bathroom door. Looking into it, he did a double-take. His appearance had changed dramatically.
His ears had become cat ears, flicking back in forth as if they had a mind of their own. His eyes also changed, but not too noticeably. They just looked….deeper and older. Opening his mouth he realized that he had sharper teeth. Even his hair, which normally had no body and hung around his head limply, suddenly looked feathery and would curl up slightly at the ends.
The biggest changes were not those of the face and ears, however. From behind his shoulders, Kageyama could see a black feathery item protruding from both sides, probably the thing he had just pulled on, causing a gush of blood down his backside and down…his tail?
He now had a long, cat-like feathery tail that was swishing behind him.
"What…happened to me?" Kageyama wondered, too shocked to even move. He tried to recall everything. One minute he was in the shower, and the next he was on the ground, bleeding and with new extremities. He somehow now had feathers…
Kageyama turned sideways to get a better view of his back. There were black feathers trailing down his back, from his hairline and down his spine to the base of his new tail. Also, the two feathery things that Kageyama had pulled on were wings; large black wings. The area around where they protruded was bleeding, which explained all of the blood everywhere. He suddenly had the urge to lick himself. The smell of the blood was delicious.
What had happened to him? It has to be a dream. Kageyama stepped back into the shower and rinsed the blood off of his body. He then put on a t-shirt and boxers, trapping the wings under the shirt, but pulling the tail out of the top of the boxers. The shirt started to get stained with blood, but Kageyama didn't care. It was a dream, after all. He left the bathroom, mess and all, and entered his room, where he curled up on the bed, chest first. He closed his eyes and went to sleep.
When Kageyama woke up, he immediately smelled blood. Sitting straight up, he looked at the bed and saw blood everywhere. Suddenly remembering his dream, he looked for signs of wings or a tail, but saw nothing. There were, however, sharp pains on his back. Running to the bathroom, there were feathers and blood everywhere, but his ears were almost normal, albeit pointier. Perhaps most importantly there were no feathers. The only indication that anything had happened (other than the blood and feathers on the ground) were the pointed ears, the canines being sharper, the eyes looking different, and his hair being slightly feathery. Also, his back had two long scabs across the shoulders that sent pain shooting across his body.
"It wasn't a dream?" He wondered. In the other room, his alarm went off. That's right, today was the first day of his new school. He had to get ready for class. Why did this have to happen today of all days?
Kageyama stepped into the shower and began to wash himself. Everything was wrong. He suddenly felt extreme dislike for the water he had never felt before. It just felt so gross. The shampoo and soap also smelled too strong, even though it was unscented. It was like his senses had been heightened to a point where everything made him uncomfortable. He finish the shower quickly, brushed his teeth and towel dried his hair before throwing on his school uniform and running into the room for food. He was currently living in a dorm temporarily, and had an en-suite bathroom connected to a pretty small bedroom that contained a bed, a mini fridge, a microwave, and a desk. Kageyama opened the fridge and looked at what he had. All that was there was some ground beef (for spaghetti, the only thing other than rice he could really afford) and eggs. Kageyama's mouth watered at the thought of eating the meat and eggs raw. It was like he couldn't hold back as he reached in and grabbed a handful of ground beef with one hand, and an egg in another. He knew that what he was doing was gross, but he couldn't help it. He was so hungry and could not control himself.
He shoved the ground beef into his mouth, swallowing it almost without chewing as he made embarrassing noises, almost a mix between a purr and a chirp. After polishing off the ground beef, he bit into the egg, chewing on the shell while egg dripped down his face. He shoved the second half of the egg into his mouth chewing it and swallowing it quickly. Letting the yolk flow down his throat, he rubbed the excess off his face and licked it off his hand.
Realizing what he had just done, Kageyama suddenly felt sick. What if he got salmonella from that? Or a parasite? He couldn't understand why that had felt so good.
Kageyama looked up at the clock and ran upstairs to wash the remains off of his face. After thoroughly scrubbing his face, he dried it in a fluffy towel and grabbed his school bag, cell phone, and winter gear, running out to the bus stop for his first day of Karasuno.