Kageyama slammed the door to his dorm room as soon as he got home. He ran to the bathroom, tore off the bandages, and pushed the wings out. He allowed himself to fully transform and looked at himself in the mirror.
"I'm a freak." He said out loud to himself. "What happened to me?"
His reflection did nothing to reply to his question. He hissed at the mirror before pulling off his clothes. He took a pair of scissors and cut his boxers to allow the tail through and put them on, maneuvering the tail through the hole. He then decided to try moving the wings. He focused really hard on the area where he could feel their weight and imagined muscle and bone protruding from the area. By focusing really hard, he managed to stretch the wings out to full length. The wingspan was impressive. With his wings completely extended, he could not fit in the small bathroom. They had to be at least 17 feet. He wasn't exactly sure how they managed to fit under his skin, but of course there had to be some sort of magic at work in order for this transformation to have occurred, and so he assumed that it also extended to his ability to hide the transformation from others.
"What exactly am I?" Kageyama pulled the wings back in and pulled out the laptop he was borrowing from the library until he could buy his own. He typed in the search 'black wings, cat ears, long feathery tail' and began looking through the search results. First things that popped up were a bunch of costumes. Finally, he managed to find something that said 'Karasu'.
"Crow…." He thought to himself as he clicked on the link.
It pulled up an image of a black creature resembling a fox or a house cat with wings. He immediately knew that this is what he was. He felt a sense of kinsmanship, like an animal finding one of its own kind for the first time. He began to read the description.
"Karasu, the king of crows is a creature that originated in Ireland. The mythology claims that the beast was 'created' by a witch on accident. In an attempt to summon a demon, she sacrificed hundreds of cats, crows, and foxes; creatures that are considered to be inherently magical and are commonly associated with witchcraft and evil magicks. During the sacrifice, the souls of all of the sacrificed creatures conjoined to become one soul that was powerful enough to kill the witch. The soul used its great power to create a body for itself that resembled a chimera of the creatures sacrificed, calling itself Karasu, meaning 'crow'. According to symbolism, the fox composes Karasu's mouth and ears because of the foxes wit and silvery tongue. The cat composes Karasu's feet and tail, representing the skills at stealth Karasu possesses, and finally the crow's wings, giving Karasu dominance over the skies.
Karasu is commonly associated with bad luck, but according to the myth, Karasu actually served as a protector of the forest. He commanded the creatures of the forest and kept others out, although oftentimes if a human was lost in the woods Karasu would send a crow to show them out, preferring nonviolence to murderous intent. Karasu was also said to be a skillful healer, capable of saving someone on the verge of death. Many would leave gifts for Karasu and in exchange Karasu would heal their sick and wounded.
Karasu possessed extremely powerful magicks that allowed him to change his appearance and hide well. According to mythology, many could see Karasu and not realize it, as he transformed himself and the landscape around him to disguise himself from those who would wish him harm. The only way to find Karasu was to know his true name and image, and with that in mind search for him. Because no one knows Karasu's true name or form, it was an impossible feat.
Karasu has been seen as both a great evil and a great gift for centuries, depending on the version of the myth one knows and believes."
"This doesn't explain how I am this way though. Am I some sort of reincarnation? Is this a curse?" He wondered. "Do I have magical powers?"
He looked at his hands and then imagined his back, where the wings protruded. He imagined the scars healing and closing up. He felt a huge drain in his energy, then felt an enormous pain on his back, as if someone was tugging on the wound with a hook over and over again. Slowly though, the pain began to disappear and was replaced with a soothing warmth feeling. Kageyama felt himself being drained constantly of stamina as the process continued. Eventually, after about 5 minutes, he stopped feeling the pain of the wound and began to feel nothing at all. He stopped imagining the wound and instead got up to look in the bathroom mirror. In the mirror, he could see that the wound was no longer bleeding. In fact, apart from the wings protruding from the back, it looked just the same as before the transformation. Kageyama pulled in the wings. There were two very lightly colored scars where the wings would slip in and out, but there was no blood or pain. He pulled the wings back out, allowing his muscles to relax. He suddenly felt exhausted and crawled into bed. He curled up with his tail wrapping around his body and his wings stretching out to cover his body.
When Kageyama awoke, he had about a million messages on his phone from Hinata and Daichii asking if he was ok.
He had apparently slept for 3 days straight, without waking up at all.
"Crap!" He yelled as he got up and ran over to the window. The sun was out and it was snowing. He looked at the clock. If he hurried he could make it to school in time for volleyball practice. It didn't change the fact that he had missed school though.
"Dammit, what was that?! I slept all that time?!" Kageyama grabbed his gym bag, pulled in his transformation (this time painlessly) and threw on some sweatpants, a hoodie, and the rest of his winter gear. He grabbed his box of cereal bars on the way out the door and a water bottle, and began to run towards Karasuno. By the time he arrived at the bus stop, he had eaten 4 cereal bars, and was still hungry. By the time he arrived at the gym all of the cereal bars (12 in total) had been consumed, and he was still hungry. He drained his bottle and ran into the locker room. The entire team was in there.
"Look everybody, the whipping boy is back." Tsukishima sneered. Kageyama glared at him.
"Hey Kageyama! I've been calling you for the past three days?! Why weren't you in class?!" Hinata called out, running up to the tall raven. Kageyama shifted awkwardly,
"I was…uh…I had a cold." He said, blushing. He was a terrible liar. Hinata jumped back,
"Ahh! Are you contagious?!" he cried. Kageyama shook his head,
"Would I be here if I was, idiot?" He replied.
"Hey!" Hinata cried out at the use of the term 'idiot', "You know that only idiots catch colds!"
"Actually, the saying is 'idiots don't catch colds' Hinata." Noya commented. Hinata stuck his tongue out in Kageyama's direction. Kageyama huffed and looked away.
"I'm glad you could join us for practice," Daichii greeted Kageyama. "Coach Ukai wants to see you in the office, though." Kageyama gulped,
"Oh…okay…" He managed, nervously. Daichii laughed,
"Don't worry. You aren't in trouble."
Kageyama left the changing rooms and found the coach in the office down the hall.
"Um…you wanted to see me?" Kageyama asked. Ukai nodded.
"Yes, um I wanted to talk to you about your absences and the 'incident' that happened on Monday. Are you alright?"
"I'm fine. I just had a cold, that's why I missed practice and school." Kageyama replied. Ukai looked unconvinced, but didn't pursue the matter of absences any further.
"How is your back?" Ukai asked.
"It's better. It doesn't hurt and it stopped bleeding." Kageyama replied succinctly.
"I'll let you practice with us today, but if I see you in any pain, you'll have to sit on the side. Ok?" Ukai offered. Kageyama nodded,
"Fair enough."
"Good, then go get changed. Practice is in 5 minutes." Kageyama bowed and ran to the locker rooms. He threw on his practice uniform and ran to the court, excited for his first practice at Karasuno.
During practice, Kageyama and Hinata bickered like nobody's business. They argued over every little thing, mostly about how Hinata sucked at volleyball but 'talked a big talk' as Kageyama put it. Hinata accused of Kageyama of being a dictator and an a** several times throughout the practice. Essentially the entire practice ended up being a brawl between the two more than anything else.
"Look you two, if you can't get along you both will have to sit on the sidelines." Daichii called out. "I want you and Kageyama to go outside and practice by yourselves, and until you get along you aren't allowed to play in any matches at all, got it?!"
"But…!" The two began to complain but were cut off by Coach Ukai,
"No complaints! Listen to your captain." The two looked ashamed and upset but bowed towards Ukai and walked out the door, mumbling curses and pushing each other all the way out the door.
When they got outside, Kageyama glared at Hinata,
"Look what you've done now!"
"Me?! You were the one being a jerk! I should've known that you hadn't changed! Giving me a juicebox didn't mean anything then!"
"Idiot! It was an apology, but honestly I take it back! You are the worst volleyball player I've seen. I mean who gets stuck in a net while trying to spike?! Come on!"
"It's only because I'm small enough to get tangled in it! You're like a giant black mountain, you can't get stuck in a net!"
"Just shut up, Hinata." Kageyama finished the argument and walked off towards the park that was down the road.
"Hey! Where are you going?!" Hinata called out. Kageyama made a 'tsssk' noise before responding.
"I'm going to the park to practice. There is more space."
"I'm coming too!"
"No you're not. Go away."
"But you heard Daichii. If we don't practice together we can't play on the team!"
"No he said if we can't get along we can't play on the team. It doesn't matter if we practice together, I don't think I'll ever be able to get along with you. I won't toss to you in a game either. You suck at volleyball and you drag the team down, but you won't admit it! That's what annoys me about you. You act all cool and like you are so good, and say that you want to be the ace, but you have no skill. It's irritating!" Kageyama snapped out, storming off and leaving Hinata standing by the gym as he walked away.
Kageyama arrived at the park and laid down on the grass, which crunched underneath him as it was frozen. He began tossing the ball up into the air and catching it repeatedly. Suddenly, he heard a quiet rustling. It was something he would not have noticed before his transformation, but now that his hearing was so much better he heard a lot of things he wouldn't have earlier. Following the rustling, he heard a quiet 'caw'. It was a baby crow, he somehow knew. He got up and walked in the direction of the sound, where he found an injured crow-ling in the grass. Its wing was bent awkwardly backwards and it looked like it was in pain. The crow showed no fear as Kageyama approached it. Instead, it almost seemed glad to see him. Kageyama picked it up and placed two fingers on the wing, imagining how a healthy wing should look.
"Kageyama! Hey idiot! I want to practice too but you took the ball!" A voice called out. Kageyama ignored it. Hinata was looking for him, obviously. Hinata found the volleyball and picked it up. He looked over to where Kageyama was.
"Kage-idiot. What are you doing?!" He called out before running over.
"Shit…" Kageyama thought. There was a slight golden glow around the crow's wing, a sign of magic that Hinata can't be allowed to see. But if he broke his concentration he may not be able to fix the wing, which for some reason he felt himself unable to do. Fortunately, before Hinata made it over to Kageyama, he finished the healing. The crow cawed its thanks and flew off. Hinata saw it fly away.
"Karasu!" He called out, his hand reaching in the air in the crows direction.
"What did you say?!" Kageyama breathed out nervously, wondering why Hinata had just said that.
"It means 'crow', idiot. That's what our school is named after."
"That's right!" Kageyama thought silently, "I wonder if that is a coincidence?"
"Anyway, what are you doing over here?" Hinata asked. Kageyama shook his head.
"Nothing. I guess we can go practice." He replied. Hinata smiled,
"Alright! I'll show you that I'm not as bad at volleyball as you think!"