Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Her world began with a muffled sort of sneeze.

Warm darkness had cracked open moments before, cold air prickling uncomfortably over wet skin. She was alive, in that moment… But the air was cold, so she did what any warm blooded creature would do in that situation - and sneezed.

Her first memory of her mother was of a massive, dark shadow blotting out the dappled sun. Instincts prompted her to open her mouth, and swallow. She did not experience hunger, in those first few hours. The yolk in her belly still nourished her, for a time.

She began expecting the large bird, and the slimy offerings of food. It sank heavily into her stomach, hunger relenting with each eager gulp. She learned to voice her growing hunger, and her satisfaction in different notes. The other bird sat quietly, watching her with one keen, black eye.

Her body felt… awkward, somehow. It was the only body she knew (right?) yet it felt bloated, lopsided. A dozen unpleasant concepts slithered up into her brain, and the dissatisfaction grew.  Her arms were too short, legs so thin and weak she could barely move them. The bird returned, her hunger quieted, and she fell quickly into unconsciousness.

The next time she properly awoke, her body felt… less sore. A bit less tender, but just as lopsided. She was able to drag her oversized head to look around, blinking against the way her vision swam. The enormous, disgustingly high-definition body of a baby bird leaned against her.

No… that was her body.

She groaned, hearing her voice come out as a warbling sort of croon. There was something twitching at the edge of her brain that said she should be able to conceptualize this into meaningful sounds. Words, even. This body felt heavy, dragging her down away from something that should have been.

Shit.

But the shadowy bird was always swift to return when she woke up, and the desire for food drowned out logical thoughts.

The tightly woven nest still pricked her delicate skin, sunlight feeling too hot, wind too cold, and the ever-present feeling of vulnerability sitting heavy in her chest.

This wasn’t right…

But, it was the only existence she knew.

So she slept.  

----

“Wake up.”

She groaned, tucking her head a bit closer to her chest, wishing the world would just pass on by. A warm shadow passed over her.

“Wake up, before I eat you.”

A jolt of fear shot through her tiny body, and she shot upright, flailing little stubs of arms (wings?) and kicking out with her feet.

She slumped onto her back, heart racing, muscles already tired from that small movement. The shape above her sharpened into the black bird, beak open in mocking, raspy laughter.

“Now that’s better.” It growled, finally stopping the harsh choking noise. It sidestepped around the edge of her nest, peering at her from different angles.

“You wake up when I come back.” It finally demanded, nipping at her tiny stub of a wing. She pulled it away, tucking it closer to her and trying to sit upright. She glared at the bird with as much strength as she could muster, trying not to feel put-out when the bird just huffed another chuckle at her anger.

“Don’t be so prickly, little squirt. You need to eat more, or your flesh will fall off your bones.” The bird muttered something under her breath, beak clicking with irritation.

These words mean something. She noted with a blooming amazement.

As unpleasant and aggressive as they were, the bird was still Communicating with her. She opened her mouth and gave a pleased warble, the hunger growing stronger with every second. It gave her enough motivation to lift her head and look around.

Food?  She tried to ask.

The sound came out more like a long whine fading into a teetering hiss. She quickly shut her mouth as the crow snickered at her again.

“You’ll have to practice using that tongue of yours, Kuroko.” The bird’s eyes squinted shut in what could be called a smile, if one were being generous about giving birds facial emotions.

“Since you’re awake, You’ll eat something, yeah?”

She nodded meekly, the gnawing hunger writhing like it could carve open her gut. Black feathers rustled as the bird leapt away into the air, the sound of wings blending quickly into the quiet slide of leaves and wind.

A twig popped upright, from where the bird had been pinning it down.

--

She realized with a some amazement that the food she was being offered was changing, as was her skin. Black down spread swiftly across her back and sides, softening the ugly lumps of flesh. She swallowed something crunchy, and something interestingly sour.

“Always so hungry…” the bird murmured.

I can’t help it. She tried to respond, but only trilled a stilted melody.

Something is wrong, her brain whispered.

It was difficult to tell when the large bird was present, or if it had left yet to retrieve some other weird food. Sometimes she wondered if it even flew, or just appeared somehow. No, that was ridiculous. Maybe flapping just wasn't as noisy as she thought it should be.

She'd be introduced to a variety of long or recently-dead things, and a whole host of leggy, crunchy bugs. (To be honest, she preferred the bugs to the meat, but beggars can’t be choosers.)

At night, black feathers draped warmly over her body, smushing her comfortably into the nest.

The crow’s voice spoke softly of old gods, alliances between giants, and the birth of a world. She was enraptured by the stories, listening closely as the bird described a rivalry between siblings and the disgust that beget the gods’ division.

“Amaterasu brought up the sun, and Tsukuyomi pulled up the moon. Susanoo directed the storms and seas…”  

She forgot most of it, moments later, but remembered the joy in listening.

--

“Kuroko, wake up…”

The new-spring leaves unfolded before her eye, time passing in an odd haze of existing-without-direction. She grew restless as the night wind became warmer, and the melody of forest birds shifted tune.  

“Do you remember who I am? My name is Ko----”

She focused on the dappled leaves, watching them shift and dance and cast twisting shadows upon the branches around her. Itchy feathers had begun to develop, and her body had grown nearly large enough to fill up the nest. The crow’s presence became a bit too hot at night, making her squirm when the thick feathers became uncomfortably warm.

She started beating her wings, flexing the quills apart and testing how they caught the wind. It was a marked improvement on the bald, ugly stubs she had been born with. Her body looked more like a spiky sootball than a bird, but it was a marked improvement compared to the  lump of raw meat she had been born looking like. The crow watched her progress, light shining green off black feathers, glinting like pale flames.

How did she know what fire looked like?

---

As her muscles developed, it became easier to look out over the forest, watching other birds and small animals flit around. She felt a pang of longing, and looked forward to the day she, too, could fly. The freedom her bird-keeper must feel, when leaping away from the nest…

Her claws gripped the bark easily, wings pumping absentmindedly as she tried to strengthen her muscles further. She wasn’t sure if it was a gust of wind, or if she really had just lost balance, but she definitely noticed when she started falling ass-over-teakettle down through the branches.

She squawked and scrabbled at the branches and leaves, before landing in a painful pile at the base of her tree.

She lay quietly, panting and getting her bearings for a long moment. The world loomed around her.

She pushed herself awkwardly upright, hunching down and shuffling backward until she was sort-of protected by a large root.

Not good.

Her mind flashed to a dozen ways a baby bird could be gobbled up by passing wildlife. She had heard those stories, right? There were all sorts of predatory things down on the ground... snakes, cats or dogs. Hell, there might be bird-eating spiders laying in wait.

She eyed the half-decayed leaves suspiciously, heartbeat skipping.

She nearly jumped out of her skin at the dark rush sliding toward her, but relaxed when it settled into the familiar feathered shape.

“A bit impatient, are we?”

She shifted awkwardly, tongue sitting heavy and clumsy in her mouth. The apology came out garbled. It had becomes slightly easier, lately, to keep thoughts straight in her head. To remember how she was supposed to feel about certain things. 

The other bird clucked at her, hopping around before stepping closer to her and prodding her sides with that sharp beak.

When she didn’t yip or flinch at the prodding, the bird stepped back, satisfied.

“Find some bugs or something.” The older bird instructed, looking distracted. “Your squealing pulled me away from something important, so you’re on your own for this one.”

The elder bird must have sensed her swelling terror, and flicked her tail in irritation.

“Not abandoning YOU, idiot squirt. You need to learn to feed yourself sometime. ”  The bird huffed, taking again to the skies.

She swallowed, watching the bird alight on a nearby tree, turning to stare down at her. She obediently stood up, wobbling a bit as she tried scratching at the leaves and dirt for a bug. She hopped over an oddly shaped throwing knife, and a rusty plate of metal in a half-hearted chase after a centipede before deciding it was too much work.

Centipedes were bitter anyway.

She did eventually find several black beetles, almost caught a mouse, and apparently that satisfied her mother enough to come swooping in and drag the little rodent back by its neck.

They shared a bloody meal that night, and the red eyes on her back felt much more comforting than the shadows around her.

This isn’t right. Her mind whispered.

Of course it wasn’t. She was grounded. Birds were supposed to be airborne, right?

No, why did she know about birds?

She paused, tilting her head to look up at the moonlit sky.

Why did she know about knives, or metal, or how soot looked, to compare myself to? Why do I feel comfortable around that bird?

That was easier - they were both crows, right?

How do you know what a ‘crow’ is? Why would this crow care for you at all?

She swallowed, the night feeling a bit darker, uncertainty creeping in on her sleep-fuzzy brain.

Those were… very good questions.

--

When dawn began sending a pink haze into the dark sky, she woke to find the crow was missing from the branch she had last been spotted on. A warm breeze stirred some leaves, and hunger rumbled in her belly once again.

She ended up flipping leaves over, hopping around the underbrush and kicking over half-decomposed sticks and bark to find little grubs.

One large chunk of bark flipped up, and revealed a coiled up little snake. She stared at it for a moment, frozen where she stood with wings half-open for balance. Then it was moving, and she shrieked, flapping backward and tumbling into a graceless pile. Leaves rustled as the brown snake fled, and she relaxed, rolling upright again with an ungainly flop of wings and flailing legs.  

“Sometimes I wonder why I even bothered to let you live.”

She nearly jumped out of her skin at the sudden voice, chirping in distress and whirling to find the crow standing on a nearby rock. The older bird jumped down, walking toward her with an aggressively lowered head. Where on earth did she come from?

“After all this work, you jump out of the nest like an idiot, and freak out at the smallest thing.”

She blinked at the grumbled words, meekly pecking at a small spider crawling near her feet. Her feathers prickled, and she spread her wings in a futile attempt to show she wasn’t weak.

“You won’t be able to fly.”

The crow snapped her beak with no small amount of irritation.

“Not before a damn cat gets you, anyway. You’re too young and stupid to use the shadows properly, but I’d rather not have wasted all this energy for nothing.”

The ruffled chick froze, feeling her mother looming over her, regarding her with one dark eye.

“You’re the only one out of your siblings that had a lick of Chakra, so don’t make me regret not eating your egg as well.”

Undeveloped blue eyes widened, and she twisted to look at her mother - she must have been her mother. What else could that comment mean?

Darkness swallowed her.

And Darkness ignited.

---

Kuroko screamed, thrashing out of the shadows and squirming in the woven nest she landed in.

Electric fire lanced through her veins, starbursts exploding behind her eyes. Liquid shadows poured between her feathers, black claws twitching spasmodically as a billion images and impressions raced through an unprepared brain.

Her mother (That was her mother! Kokoro!) sat quietly on the edge of her nest, watching the fledgling flop around, before growing still.

Kuroko laid prone, panting as words rushed back through synapses. "The Northern Roost was laid to waste by humans-” “You were born on the eve of-” “She was jealous of her son’s Chakra, and turned our script against-” “Kuroko, can you understand me? Can you-” “Susanoo, angry at his sister’s insistence, lashed out and drove Amaterasu to hide in a cave, bringing an all-consuming night.” “Wake up, little one, I can’t tell if you’re breath-” “They stole from us, so we cursed their-" 

Kuroko wheezed, curling up a bit tighter, letting the sounds and images and thoughts, oh gods she could think clearly!  Wash over her in convoluted, overlapping trails.

"The Many-Eyed, corrupted, was pulled from their union, and split into the Great Tailed Demons. Kaguya was sealed-”  "I know you can't understand me, but I'll be gone for a while, don't wor-"  "The contract was meant to be a temporary agreement, but they twisted it to enslave-"  "Kuroko, please eat. The Southern Roost is calling, I can’t-" 

“Are you dying, Kuroko?”

She sucked in a stuttered breath, squinting one eye open at the dark crow perched over her. Her mother’s feathers were flat, red eyes dull in a miserable expectation that perfectly echoed her whispered words.

And the darkness of unconsciousness enveloped her at last.

----

When Kuroko awoke, she was alone.

Well, in the broadest sense of the term.

She could see birds swooping through the trees, and a pair of squirrels scampering from tree to tree, chattering at each other and weaving a graceful dance of travel.

For the first time, her mind was clear.

She could recall the legends her mother murmured to her in the haze of twilight, about the moon and sun, and the creation of demons. - and that word meant something now. She was a demon, not like the birds above her. 

She marveled at the efficiency of her own mind, flitting from subject to subject, directed completely by her own willpower. She focused on the word, demons, and found countless mentions over the long weeks she had been alive.

“Humans feared us or worshiped us,” her mother had said.”It depends on the individual, whether they want to call us ‘kami’ or ‘demons’. Every once in awhile, you’ll find one who does both.”

Kuroko stretched her wings, identifying the feathers that had been plucked and named while she watched in a sleepy haze.

“Coverts. Alula. Primaries.” She whispered, stretching her wing this way and that, to make them shift. Her tongue sat fluid in her mouth, shaping the syllables with a hissing rasp of understanding. “Secondaries…”Kuroko twisted her head around, tilting her head and delighting at the strained position. It was new  and novel just like the rest of her ‘awakening’.

“Tertial…” She flicked her tail. “Retrices…”

“Remember all your feathers, so you can put yourself together again.” Her mother had said.

Kuroko wiggled her tail, considering what that was supposed to mean.

She shrugged, having no idea whatsoever, and deciding that was alright.

The warm darkness still seemed to be pooled in her chest, twisting and pulling with every delighted movement she made.

“Chakra?” She wondered aloud, mentally prodding at it. The silky warmth seemed to ignore her touch.

“Chakra is your spirit’s way of connecting with the world.  It is your energy, your essence, your life. It’s how we manifest, and how our kind can use the shadows.”

Kuroko pondered that explanation for a moment, feeling the warmth shift around her body. She stretched, and the warmth stretched to her wingtips with her. Her mother had such nice things to share.

“I have to go again - I’ll be back soon. The Southern Roost needs me…. I can’t lose them again.”

Kuroko paused, remembering her mother’s words a few nights ago, before she vanished again within darkness. The roost was… “Our home, from the beginning of this world. The crows gather there to breed, and connect.” ... Like a big nest, or a collection of a hundred smaller nests. She couldn’t remember what it looked like. (Had she ever seen it?) but if something was wrong, then her mother was right to worry. That kind of thing was important.

 Right?

Kuroko flexed her wings again, looking up at the mottled clouds beyond fresh summer leaves, wondering what she was supposed to do to pass the time. Existing in a haze and worked up until that point, but she wasn’t eager to return to it.

She spent a few long hours waddling along the thick branch that held up her nest, stopping periodically to pump her wings and feel the wind stir her feathers. (And her Chakra. How interesting, the easy movement of that warmth to her will.)

Kuroko eventually fell asleep as the sun sank down toward the horizon. She remained blissfully unconscious when her mother came back, squishing against her in the tight nest, and fell asleep.

---

“Good morning, Kuroko. Are you hungry?”

She yawned, shaking her head with a flurry of bristling feathers. Kuroko blinked at her mom, and the unusually haphazard way her mother’s feathers laid. Her memories of endless nights spent listening were still trickling in, but she always remembered the glossy black feathers had been neat and tidy.

She stood up, leaned over, and tugged one of her mother’s back feathers (scapulars her mind whispered) into place.

“Yes.” She finally decided with a little head-bob. “I am hungry.”

Her mother froze.

“...Kuroko? Do you… know who I am?”

“Yes? You’re Kokoro - my mother.”

Something like a shiver ruffled up the bird’s dark feathers, and she managed to hear the raspy words “-get you some food” before her mother swept away into the early morning fog.

--

She was more careful, from then on, trying to stretch her wings. She would waddle her way to different branches, flapping furiously in a weird glide to another branch, and then climbing her way back up again. She felt like a squirrel, using her beak and claws to grapple up the rough bark, but it worked well enough that her mother let it happen. (Once she found out it was happening.)

She probably looked ridiculous, flailing her wings to try and get enough lift that her beak wasn’t so strained. Climbing a tree using your mouth and neck muscles is not fun. It was hard to spit when you didn’t have lips.

“Alright, stop.”

She slipped, whirling around to haul herself back up onto the branch she had nearly launched herself off of. Her mother hopped down from a higher branch, tilting her head and watching her daughter stand up again.

“Your feathers are developed enough. If you’re still too weak to fly, pull on your Chakra more. Stop demanding so much from a half-made form.”

Kuroko eyed her mother as the bird flapped her wings in demonstration, but didn’t really know what difference she should be looking at.

“....how?”

Her mother hissed something softly, spreading her wings and laying one of them over the fledgling. Kuroko shivered, warm darkness dripping through her feathers and curling like curious little fronds against her skin. Something about it was welcoming, luxuriating. The warmth in her chest seemed to rise up to her skin to greet it. It reached out to the living shadows, and Kuroko puffed her feathers out a bit and closed her eyes to feel it.

The first prod at her own Chakra did nothing.It still swirled absently through her body, pushing this way and that without reason. 

Several minutes passed, and her mother’s wing was starting to get heavier as the older bird lost interest in keeping her comfortable for the demonstration. Kuroko grumbled,  trying all sorts of mental twists to try to get that liquid warmth to move in some magic way that could make her fly.

Finally, just as her mother’s tensing muscles belied her desire to pull her wing away, she felt it stir.

It wasn’t fantastic or colorful. No bright swirls or mystical wind brushing through her feathers. Just… a pleasant feeling of something flowing through her chest, solidifying - echoing back a sense of sturdiness and strength.

“I think I got it.” She mumbled, and felt her mother rumble softly in approval as she continued to concentrate on moving it around.

She could shift it up to her neck, and enjoyed (read: did not enjoy) the sudden sharpening of the taste of bark still lingering on her tongue. A brief brush to her eyes, and the world sharpened and magnified in a way that made her a bit sick. Kuroko quickly dropped that enhancement. She could move it to her wings and chest muscles, and wondered if she really would be stronger. Couldn’t really move it to her legs, though. Her circulation there was awful, so the lack of chakra in that area wasn’t much of a surprise.

Kuroko shifted absently, digging her claws into the bark. She’d never have the killer grip of a falcon, unfortunately. No death-from-above for her. Maybe a hawk would be something to emulate… diving breakneck at the ground, only to swoop up and punch something to death from sheer speed.

Though, with her luck, she might not pull up in time. Better to focus on the present - just flying, for now.  

With that in mind, she took a deep breath, spread her wings, and jumped.

The warmth pooled in her chest as her wings pumped, feathers catching the air and pulling strangely on the curves of her (bonestendonsmuscles) wings. The expected descent did not come, and she overshot the branch she normally would have aimed for.

Joy bloomed in her chest, and she flapped hard, tail flailing in awkward fans to try and direct her largely horizontal flight. She twisted her head, looking back at her mother to see if the old bird could actually show pride.

Oh wait, she needed her head to steer.

Muscles pulled sharply to follow her neck's movement, and her flight pattern was abruptly thrown off. It sent her flailing through the air and landing in a tangle of thin branches.

The leaves supported her for a brief moment, wings outspread to distribute her weight across the fragile hammock.

And then it gave way, and she barely managed to flap her way onto a low branch, instead of landing on the ground again.

She made it!

Well, completely off-course and probably goofy as hell, but it was still flight!

Kuroko turned around, hopping in place with delight as her mother casually (and gracefully, the show-off) swooped between branches to land beside her.

There was definitely pride in that squint.

“Get back to the nest and practice.” She rasped, but leaned forward and prodded a feather back into place, adjusting a few other feathers on Kuroko’s wing in an impromptu preening assist.

“Once you can actually fly, I’ll try to teach you to use the shadows.”

----

The curiosity about her abrupt entrance into awareness still sat in the back of her mind, of course.  Just… waaay in the back, behind the whole ‘Holy shit I can fly’ and ‘Holy shit I can leave the nest’ and ‘Holy shit the forest is fucking huge.’

You might say she had a… Fowl mouth.

Kuroko snickered at her own pun, gliding in yet another attempt to learn how to use her tail as a proper rudder. It had all sorts of fluid dynamics and cross-currents to be aware of, and the slightest change in her body posture could throw her off balance. One needed a lot of concentration, to fly.

Her mother had left her mostly to her own devices after that initial Chakra-powered flight, letting her hunt her own mice and return to the nest without interference. It was a lot more fun now, than it had been when she was a squishy lump of pre-plucked bird meat.

There were always other small creatures in the forest around her, but never something she felt threatened by. A squirrel here, a rabbit there, maybe a few songbirds that peeped angrily at her when she crashed into a group of them. They didn’t seem to be able to talk to introduce themselves, so she’d been calling them ‘Borbs’ in her head. Bird-orbs, because they were so round when sitting. Fluffy fat little borbs.

Too bad they couldn't talk properly - it'd probably be adorable.  That was the difference between demons and normal birds. She wasn't sure what exactly it was, but the difference was there.   

Something grabbed her attention, and Kuroko pulled up short, peering down to watch a small deer bolt through the sparse underbrush. Several wolves were close on its heels, long strides easily eating up distance between them. 

Morbidly curious, Kuroko followed in the trees, jump-flying from branch to branch to follow the action. She missed the killing blow, but heard the cut-off wail of a dying animal, and the loud scuffle as they dragged it down. She watched them tear into the poor dead deer, rather desensitized to the whole violence thing after picking apart a live mouse for her own meal. 

Kuroko startled, settling down again as her mother folded her wings to watch the group, suddenly beside her. She absolutely looked forward to the day she could use shadows like that.

“Good kill!” the older bird cawed out.

A few of the wolves looked up at the two of them, body language quickly shifting between alert and amused.

“Kokoro, fancy seeing you here. Finally give up on that ratty old guy?”

Oh? Did they know each other?

Her mother wheezed a laugh, flying down to land next to the wolf. And holy hell, that was a size difference. His head was the size of her entire body!

“Come down here and greet our friends, little squirt. Don't be rude.”

Kuroko hesitated, but obediently followed her mother's example and landed on the leaves nearby. She stared uncomfortably at the young wolves that perked up to watch her walk awkwardly to her mother, already feeling vulnerable on the ground. Instincts were a hard thing to ignore, and these wolves had already demonstrated their ability to use those fangs.

“Akihito, this is Kuroko. Squirt, this is Akihito.” She peered at the grizzled wolf, clacking her beak.   “Play nice, both of you.”

The big wolf huffed a small laugh, lying down and licking the lingering blood from his lips and fangs.

“I'm surprised you finally settled down. I thought we were going to see the last of our favorite crow demons eat the dust.”

Kuroko fluffed up her feathers, only vaguely paying attention to the conversation. More interesting was how the forest looked from this angle. She’d gotten so used to flying above it and scooping her meals up into trees, she hadn’t really looked around from this angle since she was a chick.

“It's hard finding someone willing to meet me halfway, you know.” Her mother grumbled, flicking her tail in contempt. “Lazy bones wanted me to migrate to the mountains.”

Akihito chuckled again, laying his ears back and grinning with his eyes, whiffing a soft “How dare they~” and grinning harder when her mother loudly agreed.

“Don’t underestimate the other demon clans, Kuroko. They are all just as canny, just as motivated as we are. Trust their word, if not their intent. We cannot lie to each other.”

Kuroko sat down, hunching her head to her body and listening absently as the two continued to gossip. She stayed still as a younger wolf trotted up to her, laying down and resting its head on a paw to watch her. It was almost considerate, to lower his body like that, instead of towering over her.

“Fresh outta the nest, huh?”

She shot the wolf a surprised look, and he explained.

“Kokoro would have told us about a chick earlier, if you weren't new.” A wet nose pressed against her wing, mussing her feathers, hot breath whuffing over her.

“Plus, you smell like a baby.”

Her feathers bristled up in objection, and the young wolf laughed, sitting upright and perking his ears as her mother’s voice called over.

“What’s going on?”

Kokoro was walking back toward her, eyeing the young wolf speculatively.

“She’s just mad I called her a baby~” The wolf practically chirped, large paws throwing up leaves as he sprang up and loped away. Kuroko sat back down, feeling satisfied he had run from her lunging peck attempt. She wiggled her neck, pushing a crispy dead leaf off her shoulders from where the scamper had thrown it.

“Don't be rude.” Her mother reminded, clearly not actually concerned and mostly amused by the event. “Eat up. The pack is graciously, ” she stressed the word “sharing their hunt. Next time we'll have to help them scout for it, so thank Akihito for that.”  Under the sharp stare, Kuroko quickly stood up.

She gave a bobbing sort of bow to the grey wolf, still a bit uneasy to be pinned by those golden eyes.

“Thank you very much.”

The wolf ducked his chin a bit in return, and rolled over to take a nap while the rest of his pack continued to routinely pace the perimeter.

Turns out, mice and bugs had NOTHING on fresh deer meat. It was so sweet, so juicy - it was hard not to gorge herself fat and stupid on the plentiful feast. She had to keep reminding herself that she had to fly home, and needed to be light enough for that. Her mother had no qualms about hopping up and letting loose on the animal's eyeball, but Kuroko... wasn't quite ready for that. It helped that her mother was greedy when it came to eyeballs, so she didn't have a reason to try it anyway.

With a fully belly, and a slowly growing ease around the larger carnivores, she plopped down to digest the huge meal. She didn’t even protest as the young wolf slinked back to her side, laying down to watch her doze. Maybe he just didn’t see birds up close, that often.

She didn’t notice the keen stare Kokoro kept on the two of them.

---

Kuroko yawned, blinking her eyes open lazily. A warm breath tickled her back feathers, and a slow tilt of her head revealed the large, sandy-colored muzzle of the young wolf who had locked onto her. She reached out, nipping gently at the wiry whiskers in front of her, and hissing in amusement  as the canine jumped and reared his head back.

“Rude.” He huffed, laying his head down again and regarding her warily.

“What’re you so interested in?”

She blinked at her own blurted question, but likewise unused to have someone that she felt comfortable talking casually to. Her mother always seemed to be watching her like she’d break at any moment, and trying to converse with her was like walking on sapling branches.

The wolf flicked his ear, smiling with his eyes.

“I just haven’t seen a baby bird in a long time.”

She peeked around at the other wolves, noting the dramatic change in location since she last had her eyes open. Maybe she had napped longer than she thought.

“Surely, it’s not that interesting.”

“More like… none of us thought Kokoro would survive the winter, so you’re surprising.”

Kuroko whipped her head around, but the wolf was already stretching his paws, mouth opening in a wide, tongue-curling yawn.

“Geeze, you’re making ME sleepy. Stop thinking so hard.” He pushed some leaves toward her, accepting the quick peck and waving his paw tauntingly at her, daring her to try again.

She lifted her beak, trying to give him the haughty, holier-than-thou down-the-beak stare that her mother was so good at. The wolf just sniggered at her, and Kuroko realized she had been distracted from the question she wanted to ask. She preened her beak through her feathers primly, trying to push her rumpled feathers back into place, thinking of how to phrase her question.

“What do you mean, Kokoro wouldn’t-” “-Have you gotten to Chakra training yet?”

She clicked her beak shut, giving him a mild glare.

“Yes.”

“Doing any shadowjumps lately?”

She squinted her glare.

“No… Should I have?”

The wolf flicked his ear, looking off and tracking one of his packmates through the underbrush.

“Kinda figured, what with the whole whole feathers thing. You’re thinking about it too much. We're not really supposed to have a physical body, though we all kinda just assume that we do, and run with it. I guess... you're giving yourself away.”

What on earth did that mean?

She asked that aloud.

He looked at her, puzzled, tail drooping a little like he wasn’t quite sure how to answer that. Like it should be something innately obvious, and he wasn’t sure if she was trying to trick him by feigning ignorance.

“You’re thinking too hard about all the fiddly bits, so you’re missing the big picture? Like, missing the forest for the trees? If you want to pass as a real bird, you’re doing a great job, but… ”

Kuroko squeezed her feathers closer, wondering if she should be offended or not. Was this a demon thing?

He twisted around, lifting a hind leg and scratching at a spot under his chin, clearly feeling awkward. His leg dropped abruptly when a long, solemn howl started up from a wolf at the edge of their little group.

A ripple passed through the pack, awareness focusing outward as a new howl echoed back, several voices answering.  Her friend stood up, ears alert and nose up to sniff the wind.

“Sorry birdie, maybe another day. Ask your mom. She’s way older than me.”

Kuroko hopped to her feet, still feeling heavy from the earlier meal, but hauled ass up into the branches anyway. Fear prickled through her skin at the sudden change in behavior, and the strange connotations from his words had unsettled her a little.

Her mother joined her, murmuring  to keep quiet and follow her lead.

Dark bodies whispered through the trees, faster than she could properly follow at first. They were tall, strangely proportioned things with flat faces and furless skin stretched strangely over their muscles. She couldn’t help looking around wildly as humans bounded from branch to branch, settling down in the limbs. One of them sat on the same branch she and her mother perched on, but appeared to ignore them.

They all seemed a bit… wolfish. Mostly brown or black-haired, with sharp eyes and strong shoulders regardless of gender. Something about them felt… familiar, in a way. The humans who approached the pack on the ground were likewise sharp-eyed, and stood beside huge dogs. Well, huge to her. Even the largest dog was head and shoulders shorter than the average wolf.

The wolves had created a loose circle with their bodies, gold eyes finding every one of the humans perched above, ears swiveled to keep them in their range of senses even when they focused on the group below.

“Well met,” One of the dogs rumbled, tail tucking down as it stepped forward.

Kuroko watched Akihito stand up, prowling stiff-legged through the pack and staring down the smaller canine. The humans seemed on-edge, and it made her feathers itch something fierce. Probably smart, seeing as one of their heads could fit inside Akahito's mouth. Head and arm, if she was being generous. 

The dog slinked forward, offering a small lick under the wolf’s chin, looking a bit silly with the size difference.The grey alpha seemed satisfied with that, briefly leaning his head atop the dog’s, before stepping back and staring at the humans.

Kuroko noted how they all immediately averted their eyes, but did not otherwise back down. Akihito snorted.

“Same as always, then?”

“Yes. We’d like to offer Akane. She is fast, and agile. She should do well in your pack. Please treat her well.”

A long-legged dog stepped forward, likewise avoiding eye contact with Akihito’s golden stare, and laid down next to the first. Her deep auburn fur stood out rather brightly compared to the browns and greys of the wolf pack. Akahito regarded her for a moment, before turning slightly back toward his pack.

“Koharu.”  

The tan wolf that had lain with Kuroko trotted forward, ears perked in interest.

“You’ll stay with them for one year, and then return. Please accommodate their wishes to the best of your abilities.”

Koharu wagged his tail, slowing to a walk to stand at his leader’s side.

“He is my sister’s-son, strong, and proficient in our Chakra arts. Please treat him well.”

Kuroko tilted her head, leaning against her mother for some extra warmth. It all seemed so ritualized. She gathered they had some sort of agreement, but.. Were they trading pack members or something?

“What’s going on?” She whispered.

“Hush, I’ll tell you later.” Her mother nipped at her with a quiet click, an extra incentive to stay quiet. Neither of them missed how the human perched beside them stiffened at the quiet words.

Kuroko was sure he was staring at them out of the corner of his eyes, and the gaze prickled in her down.

Why did they feel so familiar, though?

Their cheeks were painted with bold red triangles, fingernails more claw-like than she remembered her mother describing humans.

“Chakra has a transformative effect. If you’re around it enough, your own chakra will change to mimic. Certain humans are particularly susceptible, with two types of Chakra to draw from.”

She twisted to look down at the proceedings with new interest, a bit disappointed to have already missed the parting words. Both groups were already backing away from each other, humans and dogs (plus her new friend) heading away, while the wolves sat back to stay by the deer.

That’s why the humans felt familiar, though. They felt like wolves .

The humans in the trees started leaving the area, retreating as fast as they had come. Kuroko peered up at the human beside them, meeting their dark red eyes.

“Creepy.” She heard him murmur, before bounding away to join his cohorts.

"Rude." She muttered back, taking a smug sort of satisfaction out of the way the human stumbled and twisted to look back at her. 

She pretended not to see, tucking her beak down to smooth a feather.

When they all departed, the forest seemed a bit quieter. Kohaku had left, and without him, the pack seemed once more a group of strangers. The idea that she might never see him again felt… oddly sad. She didn’t think she’d get so attached, so quickly.

“Those are Contractors.”

She tilted her head, tuning into her mother’s words.

“A human who made a deal with one of our kind, for the sake of power” Her mother shook out her wings and ruffled her tail, adding absently, “Different from Summoners. Instead of forcing the issue, they continue treaties.” She had an odd look on her face. Something like distaste trying to hide behind indifference. 

The old bird hopped off and swooped down to speak to the old alpha, completely ignoring the dog now getting thoroughly sniffed by other wolves.

Kuroko, however,  couldn’t tear her eyes off the new dog. Now that they were right next to each other, something about the dog felt… off, compared to the wolves.

Empty, in a weird sort of way.

She shifted on her branch, distracting herself with a quick preen of her breast feathers. Was there actually something wrong with the dog, or was she just paranoid?

Her mother flitted back up to the branch, and stared her down for a long moment.

“Back to the nest.” she decided, taking flight again. Kuroko sighed, spreading her own wings.

Kuroko shot one last look at the dog, before clumsily following her mother's wide wings.

---

In the days following, Kuroko improved in leaps and bounds. Her wings could carry her longer, her Chakra moved swifter, and her many-chambered lungs no longer felt quite as strained when she pushed herself to keep up with her mother’s swift wings.

She practiced pushing Chakra to her nose, her eyes, experimenting with different perceptions of the world.

Once, she had spotted her mother returning through the shadows, a little dark patch between branches suddenly melting to pitch black. Her long black beak and head pushed through it like a thin membrane breaking. Kokoro noticed her staring, and asked if she was so bored that she needed to practice her groundwork again.

Kuroko cheeped, launching herself into the air and practicing the aerial turns that she’d been instructed to master. Groundwork  practice involved a lot of landing and jumping into the air from the forest floor. It was exhausting . And tended to give her bruises. There was a certain technique to landing softly on the ground without tipping over, and she hadn’t quite figured it out.

Her mother started to introduce her to the Shadows. She hadn't actually figured out how to DO anything with them yet, but patient instruction led her to at least be able to sense their potential. Larger, darker ones were easier to tap into. Shallow, pale shadows made by weak light were much harder to even sense.

Her mother seemed more and more distracted, and would pop away at the drop of a leaf, leaving Kuroko to practice alone without warning.

She noticed her Borbs also felt empty, now that she knew what to look for, and spent a long moment staring at the little songbirds flitting about. They were still cute, though. Maybe she could train one to be her pet….

After a few hours of chasing around terrified little creatures through the canopy, she concluded that no, they did not want to be her pet.

Damn.

--

She became more familiar with the wolf pack, following their steady path through the forest, calling out when she spotted something of interest. Akihito taught her how to identify a mouse’s footsteps through the way leaves rustled, seemingly unbothered that Kokoro kept leaving her daughter alone with the carnivores. One of the darker brown wolves figured out she preferred the fatty rib meat, and kept setting some aside for her, after their hunts.

She felt incredibly guilty that she had forgotten his name, and couldn’t muster the courage to ask again.

Kuroko helped the wolf pack hunt a young boar, flying hard above the beast, and calling out locations. She felt her heart race, ducking between leaves and dodging branches in a three dimensional space. There was nothing but air, between her and the ground. Nothing but her own muscles sending her flying across the world, eyes bright and feathers strong. She felt present. She felt alive. These were her wings, her strength. This was her life .

During a  hunt, the auburn dog Akane proved herself, long legs pushing her further, faster than the rest of the pack. She was able to bite the boar’s hind leg, and jump away before it could gore her in return. The pause in running let the pack circle it, eventually bringing it down with a flurry of sharp fangs and terrifying snarls.

She still wasn't comfortable with the blank silence that Akane spoke with. 

It was hard to describe - made of body language and animalistic gestures, with only the faintest hint of intelligence behind the movements. The other wolves seemed to understand just fine, and from the shift in the dog's figure, she had a sneaking suspicion that one of them had become familiar with her. 

Kuroko landed easily on a thick branch above the kill and waited politely as the wolves feasted, knowing there’d be plenty left over for her.

Even a young boar was a large bounty.

She paused, noticing how the wolves had suddenly stilled, attention all angled toward one spot.

With small, dark paws, a brightly furred fox slinked out of the underbrush. Rust-colored eyes regarded the group, steady gait showing no fear.

They stepped to the side, eerily silent, but not aggressive. The slender fox seemed almost proud in bearing as it stepped between the wolves and began taking delicate bites of the boar’s haunch.

The pack watched for several long minutes, only a few movements between them as heads turned and legs adjusted to be more comfortable.

Finally, the fox lifted her head, licking her lips. She ducked her chin toward Akihito, and murmured a soft “Thank you.” before padding silently back into the brush.

Kuroko flitted down, landing on the boar’s shoulder and peering out at the bushes. She already couldn’t sense the fox. Creepy.

It took a few moments before the wolves started moving and speaking among each other again, eating at a more sedate pace. She took a few bites herself, before turning to the brown wolf whose name she forgot. Kuroko briefly considered asking the wolf his name, but once again decided not to, and instead asked what that whole weird ordeal was about.

He explained the pack was intruding on their territory. It’s an understandable thing, during a hunt, though rude. Politely sharing the kill was a way to keep relations positive between their packs. Clans. Families. The wolf blinked, considering the terms for a moment, before repeating ‘Packs’ and nodded like it was the right word to use.

He swept his eyes across the brush around them, keeping his voice low.

“As soon as we step away, the foxes will claim their payment.”

The prickle on her neck got stronger, and she realized with a start that the bushes really weren’t THAT thick, and those were dozens of eyes staring out from the shadows, invisible to her other senses. Kuroko shivered, cautiously eating her fill before flying up into the trees once more.

True to the prediction, as soon as Akihito’s pack left the scene, an uncomfortable amount of foxes slithered in, feasting on the remnants of the kill.

A silver fox stood at the edge, staring up.

No.

Staring at her

Kuroko shivered again, flapping away toward her nest.

---

She arrived back at home to find her mother sprawled across the nest’s edge, looking worn-out and rather ruffled. The concerned question about the bird’s health was flat-out ignored, so Kuroko asked instead about the wolves and the foxes, and why they seemed so wary of each other.

Kokoro considered the question, slowly pulling her wings back in, and preening her feathers back in place before answering.

“The pack looks to the moon. Foxes have a history with the sun. Tsukuyomi, Susanoo, and Amaterasu aren’t really on good terms, and their devoted tend to be at-odds.”

Kuroko remembered the legends her mother told her once, a long time ago.

“Tsukuyomi….”

“I’m surprised the pack hasn’t raved about him, yet. He’s the god of the moon, and the night. They’ll probably drag you into one of their noisy ceremonies eventually.” Kokoro shook her head, ruffling her feathers before flattening them back into place.

Is that why wolves like to howl? Kuroko wondered. Giving thanks to the moon god?

“Then, who do we worship?”

Kokoro gave her an amused glance.

“I don’t worship any of the gods. Feel free to lay out offerings, though. I’m sure the squirrels will love it.”  

The crow immediately hopped out of the nest, flying slowly away in what was clearly an invitation to follow. She took the hint, keeping in her mother’s shadow as they headed toward the shallow creek that slithered through the southern edge of their territory. Kuroko wondered if she was imagining the way her mother was keeping one leg more tightly tucked to her belly.

“Why don’t we worship anyone?” Kuroko asked. “Is it really important?”

“Ask the wolves” her mom called out, without slowing down or looking back. “I’m sure they’d be happy to give you an earful. I try not to think about it.”

Kuroko wondered if something had happened, to make her mother so callous toward the gods she described so beautifully in old stories. She had not forgotten the long tales told in her nest, stories spun about the three gods, and how they had created human and demonkind. The jealousy of Kaguya, and the Many-Eyes’ downfall, corrupted for trusting the word of a human.

A dark storm brewing in her chest, Kuroko followed the older bird to the entrance of a cave, landing next to her on a boulder. The moss felt cool and springy under her feet, and she could feel cold air drifting out of the darkness within.

“Today.” Kokoro began, now clearly favoring one of her legs, “You will begin learning how to Listen to the shadows.”

Kuroko followed her mother to the edge of the cave, ignoring the way a few of her feathers flipped the wrong way from the little gusts of cold wind coming from inside. Her mother hopped to turn around, taking a slow breath.

“The first thing you should know is that the shadows themselves are just the absence of light. There’s nothing special about them. The average bird could fly around a cave all night, but the best they’d get is a broken neck. You know this, yeah?”

Her mother shook her own head, feathers sticking up for a moment before slowly settling back down. Kuroko nodded.

“With that in mind, the shadows you see me travel through, or the the ones you’ll learn to listen through - they’re not real shadows .”

Kuroko nodded, though she wasn’t actually sure what was being conveyed. Something metaphorical? Kokoro seemed to sense the bewilderment.

“It’s more like-” Her mother paused, head tilted in consideration. “Like you’re at the edge of a dark cave.” She flicked her tail toward the cave they stood beside. “Down the tunnel, there’s another room, and by traveling through the space you reach the other room.”

“Okaaay…So caves are caves.”  

She reflexively ducked away from an anticipated peck, but only got an unamused stare from an unmoving crow.

“Once you step through the cave entrance, you can see the light of the other side, as the entrance you just stepped through is closed. Head toward the light, and you’ll reach the other side. Or, listen at the entrance, and hear whoever’s talking.”

Kuroko dutifully remained quiet as her mother sat down, taking a moment to push a small stone out of the way, to nestle on the softer moss.

“So a shadow” she finally continued “Is a cave entrance, when you’re focusing correctly.”

Kuroko tilted her head.

“All of them. All the shadows.”

Oh.

Oh damn.

She looked toward the forest, noticing for the first time the sheer number of shadows weaving between branches, under leaves, tucked up next to stems and roots and… anything the light touched, basically. The potential wasn’t just the size and depth of the shadow, but the sheer number of places she could connect between.

“That’s a lot.” She whispered, and her mother nodded, still fidgeting in place and looking anxious about something. Either to get this lesson over with, or to be elsewhere in general.

“Too many to count. That’s why you only travel to the shadows you’ve seen before. The ones you know exist, and you know what to expect coming out.” The old crow flicked a bit of moss off the boulder. “It’s a bit of a mess, coming through a shadow to a place that’s no longer big enough for your body. They only go one way, after all. There’s some risk, and half the time you’re flying blind.”

Kuroko eyed the darkened cave with a bit more wariness.  

“Relax, squirt. No jumps for you yet. You’ve got a lot of sky to cover before you could even poke your beak into one. Today you’ll just be listening in.”  She gestured with her head. “Hop on over.”

Kuroko fluttered off the boulder, hopping closer to the chilly cave.  

“Push your Chakra to your ears. Focus on the darkness. Imagine it links to the shadows around you, and listen specifically to those. Visualizing a tunnel might help.”

The first part was easy enough. The world’s audio sharpened, magnifying. She could hear the buzz of a dragonfly nearby, and the slide of blades of grass whispering as a snake slithered through. There was a woodpecker of some sort, far in the distance.

Focusing on the darkness, though…

She tried imagining some sort of spiritual experience, expecting to feel some sort of stretching, connecting feeling.

Kuroko opened her eyes, not sure when she had closed them.

The cave still looked like a cave.

Also, there seemed to be at least three different moles snuffing around down there, and a rather large colony of some sort of insect, munching and squirming and falling over each other with little clicks. Chakra-enhanced hearing was no joke.

She heard her mother sigh behind her. “Keep practicing. I’ll see you tonight.” and the whisper of wings, followed by a silence she knew was the sudden absence of a bird behind her.

Kuroko swallowed, closing her eyes again and trying to focus.

--

The next time she opened them, it was due to the ravenous hunger growling in her stomach. Right, she hadn’t eaten since the boar.

Shutting off her audio enhancement, Kuroko blinked at the sudden muffled quiet of the world around her. It was so…. Dull. Faded. She tried not to give into the urge to push her senses up again, and focused on finding enough bugs and seeds and little critters to tide her over.

After a quick meal, she returned to the cave, and plopped her ass down in front of it.

“Focus on the darkness, It links to other shadows.” She repeated, wiggling side to side to get comfortable, and glaring at a shiny rock inside.

“Focus.”

She closed her eyes, and let her ears wake up once more.

--

She didn’t know how exactly much time had passed. Enough that the warm sunlight had become cold, and long shadows stretched across the ground. Between the faint snuffle-shuffle of moles and the click of still-unidentified insects, there was…. Something.

Encouraged, she tried focusing on it, straining her ears to pick up whatever that sound was. It whispered in and out of her range, almost-syllables, echoing and layering in ways she couldn’t quite identify. Kuroko felt her heart pick up, as the ‘voices’ got louder, a little clearer. It felt like she was trying to eavesdrop on someone on the other side of a very long tunnel. The sounds were there, but almost unintelligible after resonating at such a distance.

“Can you hear me?”

Her mother’s voice came from right in front of her, and Kuroko snapped her eyes open, rearing back with the expectation of a crow in her face.

There was only the cave. No, it wasn’t just the cave. Like a black curtain had been draped over it, the shadows seemed deeper somehow, darker than they ought to be.

She looked around hesitantly, noting the shadowy landscape around her, and how the crickets that had begun their evening symphony.

“Should I head home soon?” she asked the darkness.

And the darkness answered.  

“Not yet.. Listen as hard as you can - for my voice, and others, if you can.”

Curious, she closed her eyes and listened harder, trying to pick out the raspy tones so familiar in her mother’s tongue.

“-next sunrise we-...-rthern roost...borders cross-... -eryone, return for assis-...”

They sounded scared, She noted, straining a bit to listen more closely. More voices chimed in, words overlapping and becoming hard to pick apart.

“The Southern Roost has been compromised.” came her mother’s muttered voice, suddenly behind her. Kuroko pointedly did not startle, a bit more used to the bird’s habit of suddenly appearing wherever she damn well pleased.

“We noticed humans pushing into the Southern territory before you were born, but their infighting has spilled into the Roost itself. You’ll fly to the Foxes - they’ll finish the introductory training, but I needed to know I could contact you, in case of emergencies.”

Kuroko let her grasp on the shadowy whispers drop away, and the Cave’s unnatural black faded.

She regarded the older bird quietly, not sure if she should protest or not. Her bones felt tired, chest hollowed out in hunger again. Her Chakra was getting low.

“If it’s compromised, then you’ll be-”

“In danger, yes.” Kokoro flicked her tail dismissively. “Thousands make their nests at the southern site. A few humans, even Summoners, will have nothing on us, so long as our allies come to bear. I’ll retrieve you when it’s safe.”

Kuroko tried to pretend to be casual, okay with it, but fear started to well up despite her best intentions. The idea of being completely alone loomed ahead of her. She wouldn’t even have a familiar face to keep as reference.

“Fly West, Kuroko. You’ll find a human road. Follow that north, and keep an eye out for a river. The Foxes should be at the tallest pine tree on its bank, after you’ve passed a tall human structure”

Kuroko pulled her head down, hunching a little on the branch. She remembered the creepy swarm of foxes, and the silver one staring her down. Their territory bordered Akahito's, but it sounded like their main nest - er, home - was far beyond the only border she had touched upon.

“You can’t just take me there?”

A flash of irritation in blood colored eyes.

“You need to learn to navigate beyond our little circle of forest. If you get lost, call out to me through the shadows. I’ll hear you.”

Her mother rumbled softly, carefully pulling a small fluff of loose down off of the side of Kuroko’s neck.

“West, then north along the road. Tall pine on the river. Got it?”

Kuroko nodded, repeating it back to her.

“Good. Fly well, little squirt. Don’t worry about me.”

She watched as her mother stepped back, one foot clenched strangely, spreading her wings in a rare display of showmanship. Darkness spread out from between the feathers, and she flapped up into the air, wings growing and feathers multiplying with shadowy tendrils, figure expanding into something huge and feathered and overwhelmingly dark. The world seemed a few shades dimmer, but the swelling Chakra in her heart reached out happily.

A monstrous approximation of a crow spread her wings between the trees. Three rows of red eyes glowed from the shadowy head, and her mother’s voice croaked-

“I’ll be fine.”

Before the wings snapped inward, vanishing into what could have been mistaken for a curl of black smoke, tucked into the curl of a falling leaf.

Kuroko stared at the particle darkness, watching it writhe for a moment before disappearing. Reviewing her mother’s explanation about shadows, she concluded the crow was being a show-off.

She glanced at the cave, and stood up. Something in her gut still worried that her mother was trying to bluff - or convince herself that things would be fine. It was too late to do anything about it now, and worrying couldn’t do much at this point.

Right, then.

She spread her wings, glancing at the setting sun to find her bearings, and launched into the sky.

Food first.

Then, an Adventure.

-----

After catching a small, harmless little snake and tearing it to tasty ribbons, Kuroko didn’t get much further than the ‘First a meal’ plan.

The sun had already begun to set in earnest, and her eyes - no matter how much chakra she poured into them - were not built for the night. It was too overcast to fly by moonlight, and she was already anxious from the idea of being on her own. The world just seemed so much bigger than she wanted to really think hard about.

Also, owls were nocturnal assholes.

As night fell, Kuroko found herself in the nest she was born in, hunkering down in the familiar curve of woven branches. She guiltily tucked her head down, resolving herself to setting out early in the morning to make up for time lost.

She couldn’t help but try to tune into the shadows, listening to the murmurs of familiar croaking voices, all calling out to each other in the night.

Sometimes she thought she could hear Kokoro’s decisive call.

--

Before the sun had even reached noon, her wings were already starting to get tired. Even her neck felt like it was going to cramp into knots.

Sue her, she’d never just straight-up marathoned before. Did her mother expect her to just fly straight there, or was taking a break okay? How long was that, anyway… 4 hours? 5? She was supporting her entire body weight on just her wings, and balancing in the turbulent air on top of that.

Screw it.

Kuroko landed with a thumph in a pile of thick river grass, laying in blissful relief for a few glorious minutes. Her chest and shoulders throbbed in time with her heart, wings sprawled across the flexible stalks. Moving after that felt almost sinful, but she managed to drag her overworked body to the edge, dipping her beak in for several long gulps.

Yeah, that was good.

She absently pecked up a spider as it crawled through the grass beside her, crunching it with the tip of her beak before tossing it back in a little gulp. She kept an eye out for any frogs. Those were tasty.

Something moved out of the corner of her eye, and she tilted her head hopefully. She almost missed it, until a slight movement betrayed a forked tongue. A thick brown snake was sitting still, neck coiled up in preparation to strike. Bright yellow eyes stared her down, deep pits on its nose ringing several alarm bells.

Nope.

Nopenopenopenopenoepnope nooope!

She burst upward in a flurry of feathers, ignoring her muscles screaming pain in favor of not dying, thank you very much. She looked back, once she was safely in the skies again, but the snake had already vanished into the long grass.

Right.

Crows aren’t exactly apex predators.

She took a deep breath, pushing through the ache and trying her best to ride currents for a while. She trudged on westward despite turbulent winds, wondering exactly how long she was expected to fly.

--

Hours later, that question had grown from a weary comment to an incredulous repetition, as each beat of her wings brought her lower and lower to the treetops.

This was insane.

She landed clumsily, letting her wings hang uselessly on the branch as she sucked in gasping breaths. Apparently her stamina sucked. A curling growl in her stomach reminded her that she hadn’t exactly eaten much, aside from breakfast and a random spider. Her body was not used to going without.

Using Chakra to enhance her ears only made the hunger worse, but it allowed her to pinpoint the shrill peeping of some baby birds in a neighboring tree.

…. No, she wouldn’t….They were babies… and birds. Wasn’t that cannibalism?  Should she even have morals about eating another bird? She’d never done it before - surely, her mother had the opportunity.

A few moments later, she was perched on the edge of their nest, looking down at the wide red mouths and eager little peeps, wondering if she had ever looked that lumpy and useless. (Yes, yes she had.) Thank goodness there was no swelling of maternal instinct. They were just birds. Noisy, limp baby birds.

She clacked her beak, not sure where to start. Mice always seemed like straightforward prey. They ran, you caught them. And then ate them. These little guys…

They continued to peep, reaching up toward her. They trusted her.

Damn.

Quite suddenly, her vision snapped sideways, and pain bloomed in her neck and the back of her head. Her ears were filled with the furious scream of an angry songbird parent. Her stomach growled, and the sparrow wheeled around for another run at her head.

Screw it.

She grabbed one of the babies in her claws, swooping away and dodging a very angry second songbird parent in its murder-dive. She pumped Chakra into her chest, sprinting through the air with her squishy prize. The sparrows eventually lost the determination to hunt her down, and she was able to land to eat it.

She couldn’t tell if it was still breathing, or if it was her own pounding heart warping her sight, but she was quick to snap its neck, just in case.

For all that effort and angst, the flavor was disappointing.

--

In the middle of rubbing bits of gore off her beak, Kuroko paused to grip her branch a bit harder as the forest seemed to rumble. A plume of dust rose above the tree line, buffeted by an unusual sweep of wind.

Since when did wind blow straight upward ?

Kuroko waited for a few long minutes, the active ache in her wings fading to a persistent tiredness. Good enough.

She flapped up into the sky again, heading toward the plume with no small amount of curiosity. She blinked open Chakra-enhanced eyes, scanning the leaves as she flew over the site. The enhancement was as uncomfortable as always, sharpening the world in a way that seemed to stretch her mind, everything seeming too intense, all at once. A flash of silver caught her eye.

Her wings almost missed a beat in surprise as a column of fire raced through the trees, swirling bright and fierce across the trunks. They were moving too fast for her to follow, but she caught the moments when they paused. Someone screamed, and she turned slightly to see a human collapsing to the ground, blood spurting in an arch as a long sword pulled out of them.

Someone leaped at the swordsman, but fell to the ground after their head jerked sideways with a gleam of dark steel. Somewhere in her brain, she cataloged the terrifying speed they were moving at. Somewhere else, she wondered why she had no trouble following them despite that. 

Several spikes of rock shot up, and one unlucky person didn’t get out of the way fast enough.

Fire consumed the area.

Kuroko felt herself buffeted upwards from the rising heat, and flared her tail to keep balance, closing her eyes against the bright flames. “Dual-core Humans may not be the majority, but they make up for their small numbers by sheer power and bullheadedness. They take the demon half of their heritage and use it to harness powers meant for our kind. Creative, but power-hungry and self-destructive.”

When she opened them again, the fighting had stopped. Only the green-clad people remained, walking around. She couldn’t see the detail on their outfits from this distance, but she definitely noticed when one of them looked up at her.

She quickly averted her gaze, dropping the enhancement and carefully keeping her wings at a steady pattern.

I’m just a bird, flying around. Nothing suspicious here, ignore the perfectly normal crow, la de da~

Her thoughts were strained, forced lightheartedness belying the jolt of adrenaline racing through her veins. She knew that if they decided to hunt her down, she’d be officially out of luck.

A few minutes later, she still hadn’t been struck down, and allowed herself to relax a hair.

Up ahead, the forest parted to reveal a wide dirt road.

East to road, then north to follow it. Thank goodness.

She angled her tail, gently curving to begin following the dusty tan slice through otherwise endless green forests and shining rivers. (and the occasional battle, apparently) There was a faint updraft from the heated earth, and she thankfully used it to glide between wingbeats.

When the sun was just starting to set, and there was no river - or unusual pine - visible from the road just yet. Or maybe she missed it, and was screwed. Who knew?

So many possible bad endings with just… flying around with vague instructions to a final destination she’d never visited before.

A generous berry bush, a small nest of voles, and several grasshoppers later, Kuroko tucked her head under one wing and hunkered up next to the trunk of a tree with particularly thick foliage.

Before she fell asleep, she had a sudden, certain realization.

My body is going to hate me in the morning.

----

She woke in the morning with a low groan, resigned to the fact her prediction had been 100% correct.

Kuroko lingered to eat roadside bugs a bit longer than strictly necessary, opening and stretching her wings until she was sure the ache really wasn’t getting any better. A familiar cawing drew her attention, and she was in the air in a heartbeat.

Her heart lifted at the sight of wide black wings, and she hurried to head off the familiar bird.

”Have you heard anything about the Southern Roost? Or Kokoro? She’s my mother, I-” The bird wheeled away, cawing reproachfully at her.

Kuroko opened her beak, but the bird was already flying down into the forest again.

Oh.

“Just a normal crow…” she murmured, trying to ignore the way her heart sank, a bitter taste on her tongue. She didn’t realize how much it had been weighing on her, until she brought it up again. The way Kokoro had been favoring her leg - She had been injured, hadn’t she?

How long had she been traveling to the roost, before that day?

Since before I was born?

A small part of her wondered why she cared so much. She’d only been alive for what, Four months? Maybe? How long did it take crows to learn to fly, anyway? Four months was nothing. Kuroko exhaled, focusing her eyes forward and keeping pace alongside the long road. It’d be pointless to insert herself into danger. Living day-by-day had kept her alive and well. She was just a bird…. If her mother wanted her help, she just had to ask.

The ache in her heart said otherwise.

A demon, Kuroko thought. With shadow powers. That’s something, right?  She could help… somehow.

At long last, she spotted a pine tree sticking up out of the regular variation of trees, and the glint of a river close by. She wished she could be more happy for making the journey, but her worries and aching muscles weighed down her mood.

The branches were uncomfortably prickly to land on, and hard to get into without getting poked to hell by blue-green needles. Still, she managed, settling down to wait for a fox to arrive and bring her to the next stage of training.

And waited.

And waited.

She flew off for a meal, and circled the tree before returning to her perch, beginning to feel a prickle of unease. Was she too late? Was she too slow? Was she supposed to have the stamina to just fly straight here, and the foxes got bored of waiting and abandoned her?

Kuroko fluttered down to a fallen branch, looking around from ground-level. A twist of unease had been growing for a while, along with a low-simmering resentment that she kept being left out of the loop. Her mother always seemed fine explaining things to her, but there always seemed to be a half-second of surprise, like the crow expected her to already know these things. 

She settled down, deciding to wait a bit longer before freaking out in earnest.

A faint crackle caught her attention.

She turned her head, perking up at the sight of a fox’s broadly furred face staring at her from the underbrush. She checked, and could sense the ‘presense’ of it. Thank goodness.

“I’m here to learn from the Foxes.” She called out, eager to get introductions over with. Her mother hadn’t really told her any sort of etiquette things, so she wasn’t quite sure why she wasn’t getting an answer. Was she supposed to introduce herself first?

“My name’s Kuroko?”

The fox prowled closer, shoulders moving smoothly under its thick coat. Kuroko shifted uneasily, the copper eyes focused with an unexpected intensity.

“My mother sent me - Kokoro - I…”

A presence behind her.

!!

She sucked in a breath, launching herself into the air and flapping hard to get up into a nearby tree with a distressed squawk.

She whipped around, heart racing, mind whirring with the idea that this was a trap - that she was going to be stranded here, or hunted down.

The second fox chuffed a laugh at her, sitting primly while the young crow bristled angrily and hissed .

“Aren’t you going to introduce yourself first, little one?”

Kuroko swallowed her hiss, watching the first fox lick a black paw.

“My name’s … Kuroko.”  She had already introduced herself, was he being dense on purpose?

“Kuroko, huh? It suits you. I’m Shun.”

She dropped down a branch, hopping a bit closer to the fox, but still wary about actually landing on the leaflitter. Shun seemed to notice, and flicked an ear in clear amusement.

“Paranoid little bugger, aren’t you? Slow, too. Kokoro contacted us days ago.” Well, that answered the ‘Fly straight there or not’ question.

The fox stood up, curling her tail and trotting away, the silent fox close on her heels.

“Come on, then. We’ll get you situated, and figure out a schedule so I don’t have to wake up so goddamn early all the time.”

Kuroko blinked at the sudden swearing, but figured her own mind was probably filthier.

Still, there was a sweeping feeling of relief, that she wasn’t actually abandoned.

Or maybe she was just relieved to have someone order her around again.

Neither dependency boded well for her.

----

Apparently, foxes in general were not pleased to wake up before sunset.

Several slinked out of a large burrow, squinting at the sky and retreating to slightly-darker patches of underbrush as the rest of them came out.

Shun slipped out from the burrow, two more foxes on his tail, and addressed the small gathering.

What was a gathering of foxes called, anyway? Crows were a ‘murder’... wolves were a ‘pack’. An Intrusion of cockroaches…

She decided to call them a ‘pack’, just to be simple. That’s what Koharu had called them, it was probably fine.

She kinda missed him. 

“This is Kuroko, daughter of Kokoro. She’ll be staying with us until she learns to shift her form.”

Oh? That sounded promising.

One of the foxes flattened their ears, speaking up with a note of incredulity.

“Why doesn’t she just go to a Roost?”

“Because the Southern Roost is being attacked” Shun replied smoothly, not even batting an eye. “Kuroko needs to learn the shadows before returning.”

“It’s not like here is any safer.” another murmured, but ducked their head away when Shun turned to them.

“It is what Kokoro has asked of us, and so we will proceed. Of course, since the lady sleeps at night, it’ll be up to you to wake up early.”

What… What was the weird emphasis for?

Kuroko lowered her head as the foxes began muttering among themselves, clear expressions of resentment flickering across their sharp faces. The one who had spoken up in the beginning, especially, looked outraged.

She had a bad feeling about this.

Shun dismissed them, and ignored the groaning and huffing that the foxes didn’t try to hide as they returned to their burrow. He turned to Kuroko, stepping lightly around fallen leaves.

“Since there’s still plenty of daylight, are you well enough to begin, or should we stop to get something to eat, first?”

The fox perked up his ears and smiled in a canine sort of way.

Something about it… seemed fake.

She couldn’t tell how exactly, since every movement of the sleek fox practically glowed with friendly helpfulness. But… something about her… voice, or the quickness of his support, didn’t sit quite right.

“N-no, I’m fine. We can start whenever you’re ready.”

Shun nodded his head, still smiling that slightly-off smile, and turned to pad down a well-walked little grass tunnel through the underbrush.

Kuroko took a few hops after her, before taking flight and just following the fox from above. Copper eyes flashed up at her, and Shun broke into a quick trot, matching the speed of her slow flight through unfamiliar branches.

Her stomach grumbled at her, but she didn’t mention it.

--

They ended up at the edge of the river, in a shallow area that acted more like a quickly-cycled wetlands. Patches of long grass were interspersed with tall reeds, and wiry trees growing despite the waterlogged soil.

Shun hopped between the grassy little islands, before sitting down by a particularly calm patch of water.

“Your mother wants you to learn how to travel by shadow. Apparently, knowing how to shift your form around a bit helps with that, and there’s no better shifter than a fox.”

She wished she knew fox body language a bit better. That tail flick probably meant something, but Shun’s face and voice gave nothing away but pleasant conversation.

“So we’ll start with the basics.” He tilted his head toward the slowly-moving water. “You’re going to look at your reflection for a while. Get a good picture of who you are, What you look like, what you believe in.” That tail flick again.

“Feel free to let some of your shadows leak out, I’ve heard that helps. Let me know when you’ve got all your edges identified.”

The what does what in where now?

Shun gave her a nod, and slinked over to flop onto some grass. Copper eyes turned to her, and Kuroko hopped over to get a look at her reflection. Yeah… those instructions weren’t confusing at all.

Please note the sarcasm.

Her reflection was as-expected. A black bird, with a thick beak and black eyes. Black legs, black claws, black everything. Just like her mother, some of her neck feathers gleamed green, though her eyes seemed a little grey when the sunlight hit them just right, instead of her mother's bright red. She’d seen her image hundreds of times before, drinking from little puddles or the slow-moving creek on the edge of her mother’s territory. Nothing new.

Shun yawned, a tiny whine escaping the back of her throat before she plopped her head down on the grass.

Kuroko took a deep breath, and exhaled.

She pushed some chakra around, not really sure what difference she was supposed to see. After a few long, awkward minutes of this, she spoke up.

“What did you mean by ‘Shadows leak out?’”

A slow blink.

“Mmm...No clue. Ask your mother.”

“She’s not here right now.” Kuroko stated, trying to contain the building frustration.

“I can see that.”

She couldn’t help the irritated bristling of her neck feathers, but exhaled slowly, smoothing them back down after the fact. Even if she wanted to screech and lash out at the infuriating demon, it would only reflect poorly on her mother. 

“I know what I look like.” She muttered, looking down to glare at the sharp-beaked reflection looking up at her. 

Shun jumped to his feet.

“Great!” He chirped, “Onto the next step!”

What the fuck?

“Here, check out your reflection over here.”

Kuroko obediently hopped over, looking down at the distorted ripples that only sometimes formed a crow.

“Now, that’s still your reflection, right?”

Kuroko shot her a look, but nodded.

“So if that reflection is ‘You’ and the other reflection is also ‘You’, what’s different?”

That weirdly sweet teacherly voice was definitely starting to rub on her nerves.

Or maybe she was just hungry.

“Water pressure?”

That damn tail flick again.

“Hmmm~ Almost, not quite, but close. It’s the movement of the water, yeah, but also the light bouncing off of it. If you twist the surface a bit, the image changes. Both the reflections are ‘you’, but the real you doesn’t have four heads, does it?”

Kuroko was silent, waiting for Shun to get to the point already.

“Get it?”

Fuck you.

“Yes, I get it.”

“Good! Now you just need to let your form twist around a bit. It’s still ‘you’, but different!”

Oh, that’s all, huh?  

“Ohkaaaaaayyyy?”

Shun didn’t take the hint, or ignored it, and trotted back to his grass.

“Well, get to it. Keep an eye out for hawks. I’ll be taking a nap ‘till you get it right.”

Get WHAT right? You haven’t explained anything!

Kuroko exhaled slowly again, digging her talons into the grass and staring down at her rippling reflection. How on earth was she supposed to spontaneously become something else?!

Maybe it was about visualization? Just... imagine herself looking different and it would happen?

She tried imagining herself as a fox. Probably all black, with nice white teeth to growl with. She wondered what it would be like, to have proper teeth. The sharp beak and talons were nice, but the wolves just seemed so effective with their jaws.

She blinked, trying to concentrate on the rippling reflection.

Nothing. 

Boredom picked at her mind, and the angry swirl continued to snarl quietly in the back of her head. 

She looked at Shun, who looked convincingly asleep.

This… was going to take a while.

---

And it did.

She was getting pretty accurate with them, but she really ought to stop predicting such pessimistic futures.

The sun set, with still no idea what she was supposed to be doing. As crickets started chirping in earnest (and frogs - she was definitely going to eat one of those) Shun woke up from his ‘nap’ and asked if she had made any progress.

At her negative response, the fox didn’t seem surprised.

“You’re probably just tired. Go get some rest back at the den.”

Kuroko sighed, obediently heading back, and finally grabbing a bite to eat before nestling herself in a tall, white-barked tree.

The next day was no different. Three different foxes sleepily watched her glare at her reflection, basically repeating Shun’s words back at her whenever she asked for help.

You’re still you, just give up the outside and look like something else. Right, she’ll just DO that.  

With zero progress and mounting frustration, Kuroko slept the next night a bit closer to the ground, tucked almost petulantly against the pale trunk of her chosen ash tree.

The foxes either didn't hear, or ignored the trail of muttered complaints slithering out from her branch. 

Chapter Text

Kokoro was the second daughter of the first crow demon. The world was new when she and her sister were born, and the First Betrayal had only just rocked the world.

They were each tasked with protecting and populating a Roost - a colony where crow demons would grow and live. The Northern roost sat in a small glen of woodland, just off the coast. The Southern roost laid in a marshy wetlands, among islands and rivers. They created more demons in their own image - with black wings and sharp red eyes. 

They had been happy and prosperous, for a long while. Her father had stopped visiting after a time, paranoid the humans would try something again, but the task they were given was meant to last until the world ended and they let him be.

Years - decades - passed, and Kokoro and her sister gave up thinking he'd ever return from his wanderings. When they reached out to his shadows, he seemed... distracted. 

News eventually came of one of the human villages, of their success in deciphering the demonic script that could seal a Tailed Demon. Frightened by the possibility of another Betrayal Event, Kokoro directed her Roost to work with the other demons nearby, to eliminate that knowledge.

Seals of power, written in the demon’s own script, bent the ‘Truth’ of a demon, and forced them to obey. While the demons may be strong, those humans were cunning, and quick to steal power wherever they could.  Overconfident with their abilities, or perhaps too prideful to call for more help, much of her own murder was quickly subdued by the developing seal-masters.

Shackled by seals, her own murder led the humans back to the Northern Roost. The one place she had been tasked to protect. 

When she arrived, there was already nothing but shattered wood and battered reeds where thousands of nests once wove between branches. The bodies of her children perched blankly upon the trees, seals carved into their hearts until they could do nothing but obey. 

Contracted. 

In the broken pieces of her home, her heart shattered with it.

Ashamed and scared and trying not to fall apart at the seams, she directed the remaining unmarked members to join her sister's Southern Roost. Told them to be wary of humans, to hide their home.

In an act of vengeance, she whispered into the ears of other demons, who spread her words to the nearby nations.  

“Uzushiogakure has demon-controlling seals ” she spread, and watched as the sleeping beasts of Kiri and Kumo raised their heads, and readied their shinobi. “They have forced contracts with demons, and already made a strike against an opposing clan, in another nation’s borders.”  

All of this was true, after all. The humans had such strict rules about territories. She knew they feared and hungered power, and suspected they would be motivated to act. Her Roost had lain within the borders of the Land of Hot Water, and her children had never agreed to the contract. There was easy proof, for anyone who cared to look. Her shattered roost was the workings of humans, and her truth was clear to any demon who listened. 

And they listened.

Kiri and Kumo became hurried allies, and struck both suddenly, with devastating effect.

Within three days, the Land of the Whirlpools had been obliterated, their surviving humans scattered to the four winds. What few remained were hunted down, Kokoro's vengeful wings scouring the landscape for the last of the seal-masters. Her strength was for stealth, not strength, but being the daughter of a First Demon had its perks. Still, ‘eye for an eye’ hadn’t restored her heartbreak, and she knew the secrets of their language were taken with the humans who escaped her eyes. The art of sealing still lingered in survivors.

Kokoro lived alone for many years, acting as a hunter and guardian, keeping the peace between other lesser demons as a messenger and neutral third party.

Those deaths - her mistakes weighed heavy in her heart.

Eventually, she got word that her sister had vanished as well. 

One of her old subjects had hunted her down to inform her of the fact, and Kokoro felt ashamed that she hadn't even noticed the emptiness in her shadows. Grief kindled in her heart anew, and her strong wings faltered as guilt gave way to despair. Red eyes sealed closed, one pair after another, emotion finally overwhelming her self control. What use was she, if she couldn't even protect-

Refusing the invitation to leadership, Kokoro decided to have one last child, to carry on her legacy and take over the Southern Roost. A child in the direct line of the first crow demon, who she would gift with all of her memories and regrets and knowledge that humans were not to be trusted. Not just the basics of the world, but all of it.  

She poured the shattered pieces of her broken heart into one last egg, in the hopes of a child who would not make the same prideful mistakes she had. Ready to let herself fall to pieces, she poured everything she could into it. 

One last hope. 

But the child was Kuroko.

And Kuroko did not inherit even a small measure of her mother’s instincts, as a full-blooded demon should have done.

Kuroko did not mature to adulthood as soon as she hatched. She could not speak, could not move, could not shed her weak form to become one with the shadows to protect herself. 

Even after the shadowjump forced her lifesoulself through the girl’s body and Kuroko learned to speak, things… still weren’t right.

She didn’t instinctively know how to feel for her own self or the shadows, which were their birthright. She ate physical food when hungry, matured like a mortal bird, shed feathers like a mortal bird... She had to learn to fly, and train her muscles like they were actual tissues, and learned so slowly it was almost physically painful to watch.

She acted like a mortal bird, not like a demon who emulated a bird’s form.

Compared to the countless young crow demons she had founded in the Northern Roost, she wondered if she should have given those other half-dead eggs a chance. 

But…

Kuroko was so happy when she succeeded at the silliest things, and turned to look at her mother for approval. She did try her best, and purred with happiness whenever Kokoro gave her the slightest affection.

She was a wonderful daughter.

Kokoro loved her.

Her blood was pure, yet the girl’s heart seemed more mortal than demon.

She could not lead the Roost.

She resented her daughter, for that.

And then hated herself for thinking it.

The self hatred manifested as an injury, as spiritual wounds did for her kind. Every time her daughter struggled with something she should have been born knowing, Kokoro felt a flicker of that resentment and then the corresponding blade of pain shooting across her foot when it inevitably morphed into self disgust.

If she let those emotions grow any bigger, it might spread. Her broken heart couldn't take much more of this, and the warmth that Kuroko created when being so innocent was nowhere near strong enough to heal her. 

Steeling herself, Kokoro turned the Roost’s occasional visits to help with border patrols into a steady return, easing back into the flock. It was... hard, pulling herself back together. It seemed like the slightest breeze would scatter her feathers into dust, and every new emotional twist dug deeper than it should have. Still, she had her resolve.  

They seemed to accept her without a problem, but she knew trying to grab for power so suddenly after refusing for so long would not go over well. Her sister had only recently gone missing - barely a blink ago, to their ageless forms.

She left Kuroko to the wolves more often than not, telling her to practice this and that, trying to get her daughter’s body strong enough to survive as a crow, if not a demon.

And then the Southern Roost seemed to be invaded in earnest, and she had to help them. Unsure if she’d even return, Kokoro quickly instructed Kuroko on Shadow Listening, trying to hide the deep relief she felt when the girl was able to grasp it.

The crow demons were mobilized, and she sent her daughter to the Foxes, in the hopes she would struggle through the journey and grow on her own.

She didn’t have much hope.

By the time Kokoro got back to the Southern Roost, the human invaders had already been pushed back.  Something niggled at her heart, that the worst was yet to come. Still, she organized patrols and ensured her crows would have their eyes throughout their land, whispers coordinated through the shadows.

They seemed receptive to her, and one of the older crows straight up asked if she would step up to lead the clan or not. Kokoro sidestepped the question, buying herself a little more time.

Her sister’s Roost, and what was left of her old Roost - they needed her. They needed the guidance, and someone to keep them hopeful. It was the reason she had been created from her father's shadow. To protect. 

But so too, did her daughter need her, and she knew the girl wouldn’t survive a week under the criticizing gaze of a flock that expected any offspring of hers to be their next leader. If she showed weakness - WHEN she showed weakness, they’d revolt - both against her daughter, and against herself.

The gods wouldn’t curse the child of a good leader, after all. It was already a risk, letting the wolves and foxes know about her. 

With the potential of a full invasion on the horizon, she didn’t have much of a choice.

She had step in to take her sister’s place, and leave her daughter behind.

Her heart was still heavy when she slid through the shadows, to the tall pine tree that marked the fox’s territory. Her daughter was unusually quiet, and seemed fine not talking.

That was good, she didn’t want to do this in front of the foxes. They at least, still had faith in her, if not in her child. She did not miss the scornful looks they shot at Kuroko’s back, when she had asked how the girl’s training had gone.

Not well, they said. No progress.

Somehow, the news couldn't even make her feel worse than she already did.

She returned the two of them to the nest, a leaden ball pulling down her heart.

She had to make a choice.

Her daughter’s happiness, or the Roost’s safety.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t much of a contest.

Chapter Text

The feeling in her heart was nothing short of relief when her mother arrived at the Fox’s den. She’d endured endless snipping and repeated instructions, with no clarification in sight. She had started avoiding them as much as possible, eating her meals away from their clearing and flying off to ‘explore’ as soon as the day’s watcher had gotten bored and frustrated enough to let her go.

You’d think after the first time “Let go of ‘you’ and mimic your reflection” and “stop thinking so hard about feathers” didn’t work, they’d try something else.

Apparently not.

She expected her mother to take her right back to the nest - Kuroko was already rehearsing the tale she’d spin for the Wolves back home, eager to share something new and equally resentful toward the foxes who had frustrated her so. Her mother, instead, simply flew with her until their shadows were far from the Foxs’ den.

“Are we flying the whole way back?’ She wondered aloud, partially looking forward to a trip with her mother, and partially dreading the memory of aching muscles. The old bird didn’t quite look at her, but murmured something negative before dipping down and landing on a tall tree.

Kuroko landed on an adjacent branch, flaring her tail to stay upright as the thin stick wobbled under her weight.

“We will be traveling to the Southern Roost.”

Kuroko perked up, immediately eager to see the location she’d only heard vague tales of.  Kokoro wasn’t much of a storyteller since her daughter learned to speak on her own, but she had whispered plenty of tidbits to the fledgeling.

“Your sister lives there, right?”

Her mother only made a small noise - not really affirmation, but not really a negative, either. Something like a hum of acknowledgement, with black eyes still refusing to focus on the younger crow.

“No. We’ll be traveling through shadows. Before we go, I- …. There’s something you should-....” Kokoro exhaled slowly, tucking her wings a bit higher on her body.

“Please be as polite as possible.” She finally said, a resigned note creeping into her raspy voice. “Some may not be kind, but please know you are representing me, as well as yourself.”

Kuroko tilted her head, feeling an odd prickle like she was missing something important. She opened her beak, wanting to ask …. Something, but not sure exactly what she should ask. For a strange moment, it weighed on her chest like a physical thing. This unknown, important question that she should be asking, but couldn’t find the words for.

There were several questions she could think of, like ‘Is there anyone I should know about?’ and ‘Will we have a place to sleep?’ but they didn’t feel quite right. She’d probably find those out shortly. Those weren’t the important thing to know.

“Alright.” She finally said, feeling the moment slip away like a lost feather. “Whenever you’re ready.”

Honestly, anything to get away from the foxes and their stupid inability to teach.

Kokoro gingerly hopped down, and Kuroko felt the slender stick bend precariously beneath their combined weight. The other bird still seemed to be favoring one of her legs, and she made a note to ask her mother about that, when things didn’t seem so heavy on her mind.

Black feathers spread, and dark, smoky shadows seeped out from between them.

Kuroko lost herself in a whirl of endless void, held together only by the image of feathers and the warm thrum of her mother’s heartsoulself pressed beside her.

When and Where they emerged, it had begun to rain.

-----

Kuroko shivered against the sudden change in pressure and temperature, the warm humidity of the air instantly soaking into her feathers. She shook it off, spreading her wings and flying quickly after the shadowy figure of her mother. The landscape had become… a lot more swampy than she had ever seen before.

Trees stood like skeletal scavengers, perched above tall reeds and slow-moving water, bark mottled with age and diseases made fruitful by mist and determination. Willows hunched protectively over their earthen mounds, fingers trailing across eddies and reaching out for an insect to perch upon. A stifling shroud of mist clung lovingly to the waterlogged earth.  

She instantly hated it.

Kuroko wasn’t sure exactly it was about the place she disliked, but the area in general just felt stuffy and half-dead. Maybe it was the season, or the heat overlaying the thick humidity, but even the plants seemed to droop under the pressure. She already missed the bright sun and brisk wind of her home forest.

Kokoro led them between the boughs of a huge Ash tree, briefly creating a ghostly silhouette of black wings against pale bark. They landed in the shelter of leaves, and Kuroko was quick to shake her body, trying to shed the persistent dampness that fell in an endless drizzle from the gloomy sky.

“Let me introduce you,” her mother rasped, giving her one last baleful look.

When broad wings pushed out between silvery leaves, Kuroko got her first look at the Southern Roost.

Huge was her first thought.

Surprisingly colorful was her second.

A grove of broad-leaved trees lay clustered together at the edge of a pool of still water. Under the branches was spread out a thick carpet of decaying pink flowers, their fleshy petals curling and turning brown. A few persistent flowers still lay tucked between the dark green leaves, but more remarkable still was the sheer amount of things strung up in the branches.

Strips of blue cloth, purple threads and countless little flashing beads were strung up among the heavy boughs. Shells hung from thin strings, flashing their mother-of-pearl despite the thick clouds overhead. Strings of thin needles were tied between some branches, and half-rusted tools of various shapes were hooked onto others. Where metal wasn’t present, richly colored fabrics hung pierced by spindly branches, half-covered by sun-hungry leaves.

Behind it all, beyond the flashes of color and light, was hundreds of broad nests, layered atop and between each other. The branches and woven reeds created rippling platforms that shifted between the many trees that connected in the grove.

As the two passed the outer line of connected trees, Kuroko could see past the broad green leaves and spotted several birds perched in their expertly-woven nests, watching their travel from the dry spaces within. A few fluttered to follow them, but stopped just before the cover of leaves ended.

She hastened her wings as her mother whispered something like ‘stay close’, and followed right on her tail to land on a lower branch of the tallest tree.

Under the leaves and many nests, the air felt much warmer, and drier. She could suddenly hear the rattle of thousands of feathers, and the faint whispers that followed black eyes tracking them. The shadows practically hummed with shared voices, all of them wondering. She wasn't...connected to them, per se, but this close, with so many voices thrumming through them, it seemed to leak into the back of her mind. 

Kuroko stayed otherwise perfectly still as a grizzled old bird hopped forward, but she couldn’t help the sideways glance toward a silver key that bobbed every time he moved along that branch.

“So this is Kuroko.” the bird croaked, somehow even more raspy than her mother. Kuroko dipped her head politely, not entirely sure about the etiquette of this sort of meeting. It inspired a small laugh out of him, at least. That was a plus, right?

“Welcome, at last, little one. We had hoped your mother didn’t scared you off with stories of her misadventures.”  Kokoro feigned disinterest, but Kuroko could see the faint bristling of feathers in her mother’s lower neck - a sure sign of irritation. It seemed the elderly crow noticed as well, and his chuckle crew a little louder.

“Well, make yourself at home, then. Not like I can stop you from doing what you please.”

The last bit seemed aimed at her mother more than anything, and Kuroko was quick to follow her swift ascent through the branches.

She felt lucky that she didn’t hit any nests or decorations on the way up, but the enormity of the nest didn’t quite strike her until the two of them had crested the tree, and settled amongst the uppermost branches.

Below them, hundreds of nests spread out between dozens of trees, all woven and connected and filled with countless black birds, all fluttering between the leaves or watching them, or nestling down into soft hollows or little caves within the woven system of homes.

“When the rain lets up,” Kokoro said softly, “We’ll go out to find some food. If anyone asks about your bloodline, say you are ‘half’, and my daughter.”

Half of what? She wondered, but did not press. The enormity of the crowd below her was already too daunting, and she preferred to just sink down on the bark she perched on. Satisfied that she was as small a target as she could make herself, Kuroko closed her eyes and tried to sleep with the faint heartbeat of her mother beside her.

--

She couldn’t sleep.

She didn’t know if it was due to the constant whisper of shadows around her, or the faint rasp of feathers, or the occasional but many-winged bursts of flight that kept drawing her attention. Leaves would shift, unfamiliar smells would waft up, and Kuroko  wondered again if she’d ever get to go home. Back to her real home, anyway.

She ended up watching the other birds move about for several long hours before the dreary drizzle started to peeter out, and the constant drone of soft taps over hard leaves had faded.

At some point, her mother had slipped away into the shadows, leaving Kuroko only the vague instructions that she should find something to eat after the rain let up.

Sure enough, a group of birds were gathering at the foot of the tree, scratching in a familiar pattern that said they were hunting for worms. Reluctantly (for she enjoyed neither worms nor wet feet), Kuroko glided down to join them in the thick mat of decaying pink flowers. Her appearance garnered a few curious glances at first, but no one stopped her.

After a few minutes of mutually scratching at petals and pulling up worms, A young, raggedy looking bird hopped up beside her. She obligingly set aside the worms she had pulled up, more than happy to offer the food to an apparent fledgeling. His half-developed feathers stuck up cutely as he bent down to chomp down on another worm.

“Don’t let him fool you, daughter-of-Kokoro.” One of the crows huffed, flicking her tail in an unreadable gesture.

“Tero is quite capable of finding his own food.”

The young crow cawed in protest, but under her curious gaze, his grey ruff of feathers smoothed together into a glossy black cape. She blinked, not sure exactly what she was seeing. Tero, suddenly an adult bird, hopped aggressively at the one who had spoken, but she ignored him despite the massive size difference.

When did that happen? She wondered to herself.

Tero, and a few of the other crows, now that she was looking for it, seemed substantially larger than the others. Possibly twice as large, with longer beaks and more hawk-like in head shape than the smaller birds that hopped between them. She had thought they were young, but perhaps not.

“Why is there such a size difference?” She wondered aloud.

The small group hushed, turning to look at her.

The small one who warned her burst out in a chittering little laugh, shaking her head and stealing a small beetle right from under Tero’s claw. She half-flew away from his outraged hiss, only hopping back when the rest had settled down, and Tero had resigned himself to just glaring at her.

“She wasn’t joking when she said you were young.” The little one pointed out, hopping up beside Kuroko and gulping down the beetle with a satisfied crunch.

“It’s the difference in bloodlines. Tero over there thinks he’s hot shit ‘cause he’s a full blooded demon.” She leaned in to stage whisper, “Though rumor has it, his great-grandfather was a regular crow, and he’s just fat.”

“You’re the only one who says that, Chibi-chan.” The larger bird hissed, irritation plainly showing. She just laughed at him, leaning down to look for another bug. Overhead, a group of crows flew out over the swamp, their numbers swirling together in a chaotic, synchronized dance.

“I could be right, though!” She chirped, reaching out a wing to brush a feather against Kuroko’s side. “Right, daughter-of-Kokoro? His ego is bigger than he is!”

“My name’s Kuroko.”

“-eh?”

The smaller crow looked up at her, head tilted curiously.

“My name.” She repeated, “Is Kuroko. Kokoro’s my mother, yes, but… I have a name.”

Black eyes blinked at her several times, and she could almost see the branches of thought shifting behind them.

“Alright… Kuroko-san, then. My name’s Chiyobi.”

“Nice…. Nice to meet you, Chiyobi.”

The little bird bobbed her head, spreading her wings with a stretch.

“Uwaaaah, what a day. Anyway, I’m going to try hunting for frogs. You wanna join me, Kuroko-san?”  Kuroko dipped her head, spreading her wings and hopping up to fly after her (new friend?) companion.

Their path meandered a bit over the slow-moving ponds and channels between marshy islands, heading into thicker mist. Kuroko briefly felt a flicker of unease when Chiyobi ducked out of sight, but the little bird was quick to reveal herself again. She flew down, joining the crow at the base of a gnarled tree, absently looking around for the telltale shine of a frog.

“Kuroko-san, are you-.... Are you really-... Kokoro-hime said you were her daughter, so you shouldn’t make a fool out of yourself pretending ignorance.”

Kuroko looked up, noting how anxious the little bird seemed, shifting from foot to foot, tail fanned worriedly.

“Crows like Tero won’t be kind, you know. If you give him a feather, he’ll take a whole wing. Pretending to be ignorant only hurts yourself, and Kokoro-hime has been trying really hard to keep the Roost together.”

She stood awkwardly, feeling a bit lost.

“Um, thank you? For the advice, I mean, I just... “ The unsurity was back with a vengeance, and Kuroko felt the pressure building up. Would all the crows really be looking to her with expectations? Was she supposed to know more than she did? -hime wasn’t something you called any old bird, and it was new information that she wasn’t sure how to process just yet.

Chiyobi was looking at her with such an earnest face, she couldn’t stop her mother’s words from blurting out.

“I’m half! Just… just half. I don’t know- I don’t know what I’m supposed to do, or...what I'm supposed to know.” Her mother said that was okay, right? Chiyobi seemed to be a mixture of relieved and worried anew.

“Wow- um, okay, you- You pass really well, I mean, not that you wouldn’t- I just, yeah, okay. So… Do you need help? With anything? I’m kinda assuming you want to keep passing as a fullblood.”

“What does that even mean?” Kuroko shrugged her wings helplessly with the question, sitting down on the damp moss when she realized Chiyobi was becoming more frustrated instead of less.

“What do you mean, what do I mean? Did Kokoro-hime tell you anything ? Ah, I’m sorry, I don’t mean any disrespect.” The little bird switched back to polite, still fidgeting anxiously.

“Chiyobi, please, I don’t- Seriously, I don’t know hardly anything.  Or at least, I don’t know if what I know is what I’m supposed to know, and the more I talk, the more I think I’ve been left in the dark!” She reined in the frustrated bark of words, wishing she had a more eloquent way of asking for someone to just help her understand everything, already! 

The two of them were silent for a long moment, small feet pattering back and forth across dewy grass, while Kuroko’s black eyes tracked her. 

Maybe that was her problem, wanting to know everything all at once. But, it was incredibly frustrating as well. A sharp welling of need kept bubbling up in her chest, knowledge that should have been there just.... absent. 

Maybe if she just asked then someone would be willing to provide answers. 

“Mother didn’t tell me much about the Southern Roost.” She admitted carefully, “Just that it was the North’s counterpart, and the last bastion for the Crows. That... means, something, doesn't it? Why is it so important that my mom takes over?” 

Chiyobi exhaled something meaningful, but Kuroko couldn’t tell what it was.

“You don’t plan on taking over after her, do you?”

Kuroko tilted her head as she reined in the spark of annoyance that her question was being sidestepped. The smaller bird elaborated.

“You’re not trying to become the next leader, right? You’re only a half blood, I don’t think that’s even allowed. But- If you’re trying to pass, I wonder-”

“I don’t have any plans for leadership.” Kuroko interrupted, feathers prickling at the idea. She didn’t even like having the foxes snarking after her tail. She definitely didn’t want to know what an entire Murder of crows out for her blood would feel like. Chiyobi looked distinctly relieved.

“Alright, I’ll just… I’ll leave it at that, for now.” She gave the larger crow a sharp stare. “We’ll be talking about this later, you know.”

Kuroko nodded obediently. Hopefully. 

“Alright, great! Now let’s hunt some frogs for real! Seriously, you've gotta try catching the little orange striped ones - they're super sweet.”

She blinked at the sudden whiplash, but followed the black wings a few marshy lumps away, sharpening her hearing with Chakra enough to pinpoint the steady croak of a settled amphibian.

Chiyobi was quick to change topics, bouncing from explaining the nest structure, to the complicated web of interpersonal relationships. 

It wasn't until she had gotten back to the nest that Chiyobi never had answered her question.

--

After that, her days passed fairly quickly, as Kuroko got into the rhythm of things.

In the morning, small flocks of crows would spread out, wings beating like thunder as they rose as one from the thick boughs of Mangolia trees that made up their Roost. Directed by Kokoro’s keen insight, they’d spread to the corners of the marshland, sweeping the areas for unusual activity - both animal, demon, and human.

Chiyobi became a frequent companion, often yawning and complaining about long nights before bedding down in the early afternoon. Apparently, Kuroko learned, there were night patrols as well, and most of the Roost took their turn.

It was with some unease that she realized she had not been joining the others on their regular flights around the marsh. Her mother hadn't even spoken to her since they arrived. 

It was with additional unease that she realized other birds were realizing this as well.

“Don’t mind them.” Chiyobi assured, slipping her an early-season blueberry, “You’re not supposed to be on actual patrols, anyway." She paused, appearing to consider it. "Actually, it is kinda weird you're not even scouting nearby. That's something everyone does. I'd talk to Kokoro-hime. She probably wants you for something specific."

Kuroko opened her beak to ask more about the patrols, but Chiyobi was too busy giving the stink eye to a large crow above her to notice, and cut her off with a huff. 

"-They get all twisted up about Fullbloods regardless - no point confronting the old crows about it. Did you hear what Tero said today? Professionalism on patrols my ass - He's such a-”

It really was amazing how fast her mind seemed to jump from topic to topic. She was learning it might be easier to let the little bird get it all out before trying to ask direct questions about the Roost, and how she was supposed to act around the others. 

The other birds were polite, of course, but the more she looked for a friendly face, the more she noticed how quick they were to quiet themselves around her. How quick they were to find something that needed to be done instead of sticking around to chat.

“Just nervous,” Chiyobi said. “Kokoro-hime is doing a lot for us, coming back. No one wants to upset her by stepping wrong with you.

“But I’m not sensitive.” She protested softly, watching yet another group of crows excuse themselves for an impromptu patrol. “I won’t get mad…"

That was a lie, though. The more it happened, the more she felt resentment grow, the quiet anger at being so left in the dark burbling up just a little more. She found herself flying in long, looping paths over the wetlands that bordered her new home. The marsh only extended a short ways on three sides, terminating in a drop-off as the water transformed into a wide river.  It didn't take long at all to fly to the river, and she found she could skim around the entire edge of their little peninsula between the sun first breaching the horizon and settling high overhead.  

Significantly longer was the path toward the mainland, and she assumed that's where the patrols were scouting. 

Far, far in the distance, if she squinted, she could see the trails of smoke that signaled a human settlement. 

Beyond the river, mist always seemed to obscure her sight. 

Kokoro wasn’t much of a help, once Kuroko actually tried to find her. The older bird usually either completely untraceable, or busy talking to a small crowd of crows, and politeness dictated she not interrupt that.  

For all that she was surrounded by peers, she felt more alone now, than she had at the nest.

At least then, her mother was there for her.

-----

The news of the attack had come swiftly - First in the shadows, then on urgent wings.

“They’ve returned!’ cried a messenger, breathless as he lunged up from a shadow, clawing up onto a branch. His feathers had barely collected from the darkness when another came stumbling in behind him, red eyes rolling and feathers splayed.

“A hundred strong.” The new crow gasped, staggering to another branch as the group watched with sharp eyes. “Mindless as any beast, with swords of bone and bloodlust for anything that moves.”

Kuroko was only peripherally aware of the flurry of wings that spread like wildfire around her, and the sharp snap of her mother’s voice giving orders that resonated through the shadows around them.

She couldn’t stop staring at the pain-wracked crow shuddering on the branch below, one wing in misty tatters that didn’t quite want to reform.

“Kuroko-san.”

She lifted her head, surprised to see Tero so close. He and Chiyobi were usually quite loud in their arguing, she was a bit unused to him sneaking up.

“Tero…” She echoed, looking back down to the injured crow. Her wing ached just to look at it. Somehow, the misty tendrils kept reaching out and collapsing into so much smoke. It seemed more painful than if he had been bleeding everywhere.

“What’s going on?”

The large bird sat quietly beside her for a moment, grim-faced as he watched the crow below.

“He’ll be alright, Kuroko-san. His heart is in one piece, and a bit of extra Chakra will let him mend. ” She blinked, faintly startled at the gentle tone.

“Until then,” He continued, “Kokoro-hime is launching a strike against the invaders. She’s sent word to the Cranes from the East, and some of the Spiders have volunteered for tribute. A bit overkill if you ask me, but she’s playing it safe, which many appreciate."

She was already lost.

“How can I help?”

He was quiet for a moment.

“Can you listen through the shadows?” He asked, spreading his wings to feel the breeze. 

“I- Yes?”

Tero nodded.

“Then we’ll watch, and send messages back to Kokoro-hime. How far can you hear?”

“Mother and I could hear the Roost, from my nest.”

Teru flapped, checked himself, and scrambled back onto the branch in a rather ungainly maneuver to stare wide-eyed at her.

“Didn’t she- you, live by the Foxes?”

Surely there was more than one colony of foxes, right? They’re not that rare. 

“About a day’s flight away, yeah?”

Tero made a soft noise, shaking his head fast enough to fluff up the ruff, and letting it smooth down again.

“Alright, you stay here, and I’ll pass messages back to you. Listen for my voice- You can speak just as far as you can listen, right?”

She nodded, trying to hide her hesitation. She’d never tried.

“Stick with your mother. She’ll probably have you passing messages to others, so stay ready for anything” He flapped up a branch, and paused. Tero turned slightly, to meet her nervous gaze.

“I'm counting on you, Kuroko-san. Please don’t let me down.”

He lifted up a bit higher, before diving down and plunging into a black shadow in the crook of a branch.

Kuroko swallowed, and focused on the lingering darkness before it had a chance to fade away.

Like the night sky full of glittering stars, the darkness bloomed forth in her mind with countless voices, and a unifying hum of anxious energy

“Mother, I am here.”

As one, she could feel the focus turn toward her. Her heart pounded staccato in her chest, breath catching at the feeling of a thousand ears turned toward her.  

Looks like she COULD speak that far. Something about the prickle told her the furthest crows were grouped together, while the nearest were circling the Roost’s clearing. She didn't know how she knew, and she couldn't really be exact about it, but the knowledge still sat there. 

“Alpha, Beta, Theta. My daughter will act as my mouth. Send your reports to me as usual, and listen for her directions.” The clipped voice rolled out through the darkness, comforting in tone and cadence. Familiar. The echoing expanse of it narrowed down, like a purred whisper in her ear.

“Good job, Kuroko. Be careful, now. Speak only when I’ve asked you to.”

She nodded, stepping sideways so she could lean against the trunk of her tree. Already, she could feel the Chakra draining at her.

“Tell Omega to continue circling.”

“Omega, continue to circle.” A faint ripple of affirmative echoed back.

“Perfect." Her mother’s voice was approving, a warm glow that spread from her chest. 

She could do this.

Gods, she hoped she could do this.

Chapter Text

The rhythm of her new task flowed easier than she thought it would.

Her mother murmured instructions to her, and in the pauses between directions, Kuroko listened to the hundreds of crows whispering to one another. Their presences shifted through the black shadows, the exact where of their voices never quite clear, but a general feeling was easy enough to grasp.

 It was difficult to listen to more than one voice at a time - the overlapping sounds seemed to scramble meaning, and the fact her mother seemed to be listening to everyone at once was a little mindblowing. 

“The Cranes have answered.”

Tero’s soft voice came in from the void, and Kuroko was hard-pressed to pull back from the crowd and forward the message only to the direction of her mother.

From the small chorus of raucous cheers, her aim had been a little broad.

“Stay near the river” Her mother’s words echoed from her beak, her own mind trying to remember the landscape she’d only flown past once. No, she had nothing to contribute. All she could remember was marshland and slow-moving water. “Try to drive them to unstable land, while we wait for our allies.”

Kuroko felt them shift around, and the brief quiet that told her they were too busy responding to pass messages between themselves.

“The spiders have answered”

She didn’t have the chance to pass the words along before the darkness lit up with a symphony of screams.

Shadows snapped open, several tattered crows falling from their roughly-grabbed branches and landing with soft thumps to the mat of petals below. Kuroko nearly missed sending her mother’s next round of instructions, energy thrumming through her skeleton.

She couldn’t tear her gaze from the black bodies lying uncomfortably still, on the brown-and-pink below.

“Pull back!”

She yelped the order, feathers spiking up with the urgency her mother had hissed it at her.

“Alpha, Theta, retreat. Let them follow, but maintain a safe distance. Head East.”

Another one of the presences winked out, but there was no corresponding shadow she could sense at the Roost. Curiosity and fear roiled in her breast.

What was happening?

------------------

It wasn’t often Tero felt the limits of his body.

Crows were swift, but swifter still were the long white wings of the cranes that flanked him.  Their strokes were longer, feathers catching and pulling the wind, even as long black legs dragged behind them through the sky. From what little he knew of their kind, they had originally called the northern mountains their home, but regular migration down to the marshlands had given them an excuse to linger.

It wasn’t like there was much anyone in the area could do to stop them. Where the Crows had their shadowy portals, the Cranes felt the pull of icy waters in their hearts, and could pull back. It gave them a ridiculous amount of sway, when living surrounded by water. A ridiculous amount of power. 

He wasn’t quite sure what Kokoro-hime had promised them, but the elemental birds had come to their aid, and that’s all he cared about until the flock was safe.

Tero tried pouring on speed, finally picking up the brief whispers through shadows as his team  came within range. His white entourage branched out, sweeping high above the treetops in a messy formation of long beaks and pale silhouettes against the cloudy sky.

“The spiders have answered”

Tero held back a snort at the broadcasted message, having never doubted they would. Greedy bastards.

Still, he sent a quiet thanks through the shadows, trusting Kokoro-hime to pick it up. She had chosen well, appointing her daughter as the main point of contact. Regardless of the rumors spreading, the young bird was competent in this, at least.

He dove between branches, emerging on what had become a muddy battlefield.

Long grass had been trampled, wetland herbs throwing up a medley of spicy scents into the thick air. Flurries of feathers dove in and out between manmade weapons, claws raking and beaks snapping at any fleshy opening they could find.

For all that their kind lacked in offensive power, he noted grimly, they did a fair job making up with maneuverability. Thankfully, their enemy did not seem particularly well organized, or even the most nimble crow would find themselves outmatched.

A human looked up at him as he swept over the thrashing crowd, wide brown eyes looking maniacal, clawed lips opening in a bloody grin. They leapt into the air, a bladed white staff whistling toward his body. Tero was quick to flash his tail, veering sideways and out of range. A mad cackle sounded off behind him, and he couldn’t help his wince when a nearby bird yelped in pain.

Mindlessly attacking as they were, even a wild strike could hit in a swarm.

He relayed the details as best he could to Kokoro-hime, trying to note the main groups of humans, and the physical details they shared. She ordered the flock to pull back, to fly higher than the humans could reach with their weapons. Black wings obeyed, and a few more crows sank into shadows to nurse their injuries.

Black hair, brown eyes, a tendency to wear white. The red dots on their foreheads were telling - either an unlikely coincidence, or a callback to their demon blood. Tero would have suspected the spiders, but they seemed eager to fell the two-legged prey, laying sticky traps and concealed snares to open up a place to bite any who wandered into the thicker underbrush.

Something about this whole ordeal seemed *off* somehow. He was used to butting minds with humans to scare them away from the Roost's lands. They were conquerors through skill, not strength or speed. The beastlike bloodlust and single-minded lack of tactics in this group was unfamiliar to him.

He landed on a branch, surveying the terrain again. The Cranes seemed to be doing an excellent job herding them toward the river, crackling spires of brittle ice forcing retreat at the threat of injury. Hopefully the open shoreline would give them more ability to target with deadly force. They were far too close to the roost. Far too deep into their established territory, and far too aggressive to let live.

Tero tilted his head, hearing the heavy thump and a distressed shout as a human was dragged down from a tree behind him, a telltale rustle of exoskeletons the only real signal to what had happened.

Several of the humans had stepped out onto the river and he felt a pang of irritation.

Fucking bloodlines. The Spiders seemed to notice as well, and were quick to target the white-garbed humans still charging through the underbrush.

His irritation morphed into anger when he realized the Spiders were falling back, their bodies designed for burrows and trees, not the shifting water. Typical of them, to eat their fill and help only when it was convenient. He reported the movement to Kokoro-hime, taking a quick stock of the crows who had remained. Between the miserable drizzling clouds and thin fog starting to collect again, it was hard to get a good number, but he could tell through the shadows that they weren’t eager to continue.

Honestly, he knew they'd be useless on the water, but too many crows had fallen under the onslaught of bone-white weapons and wild strikes. 

“Alpha, Theta, permission to return home. Beta, keep in the clouds - follow from afar, and be ready to supply distractions.”

Clicking his beak in relief at the new orders, Tero jumped into the sky again, racing along the choppy water to help lead the last group of humans across the water. He had his own orders to follow, and attending the Cranes was paramount.

Fog grew deeper around them, but between the teasing dives from white wings and angry shouts from humans, it was easy to keep them moving across the water’s surface. A lucky strike clipped one of their long legs, and Tero winced at the cry of pain. He darted quickly to the taller bird, risking a quick jump to appear in the shadow of her wing.

Humans already converging on the faltering crane, Tero dug in his talons, yanking hard on his Chakra to pull them out of there.

He and the Crane fell in a pile of feathers and weak limbs, feathers splashing into murky water.

Tero wobbled as he pulled himself upright, feeling lightheaded from the sudden loss and aching from the early symptoms of spiritual exhaustion. She thanked him quietly, reaching down to pull the fragile leg back into alignment. 

Tero decided not to look at it, his own leg twinging from the sight of joints bent in such a wrong direction.

He lunged back into the air, form shivering for a moment as he let the water fall through his form, wings briefly slinking into their true shadowy mist. Feathers solidified again, and he was dry. He banked sideways to ride a slow, warm updraft back toward the river. A small murder of Crows flapped far above him, asking a barrage of questions that he quickly answered.

No, it’s not over yet. We’re still here to provide support. Listen for Kuroko-san’s orders, I will not override them.

The last comment got a scatter of displeased murmurs, but they did not disobey.

It took a long moment, but he found again the cranes in their strange formation, teasing and leading the aggressive humans to shore. Head starting to throb a little from exhaustion, he angled down to follow.

They seemed to cross an invisible threshold, and the fog grew thicker, saturated with mixed Chakra. 

Shinobi, he whispered to his group.

Stay distant.

He was quick to bank off their trail, landing to watch the Cranes push the last few yards to shore. The humans didn’t stop, striking at white wings, and then striking at the other humans who darted in to subdue them.

The tactics were swift, brutal, and familiar. Tero watched the white-garbed humans throw themselves at the Mist Shinobi, pitting bone-white spears and swords against the trained swiftness and stolen techniques of the human city’s guard.

Tero twitched when he saw one of the Crane’s signature ice pillars being directed by one of the shinobi , but the broad-winged birds did not seem bothered by the sight. If anything, they continued to circle and help, raising shining walls when the violent humans tried to flee.

It did not take long before the last of the bodies fell. Already, the clouds had opened up once again, sending a light rain to spatter against bodies and blood, washing away evidence of any conflict. 

“Safe.” He reported back, keeping his voice lowered. “Return to the Roost. All are slain.” He remained in his gnarled tree, knowing one of the Cranes would be quick to call upon their new debt, even as far-away black wings turned away and headed back.

The Shinobi gathered the bodies, talking among themselves for a long while before raising the river’s bank and sweeping dozens of bodies down to be devoured by fish and other aquatic carnivores. How courteous.

One of the cranes swept down, landing beside the one who had used her technique and spoke in low tones Tero couldn’t quite detect from this distance. The human looked up, spotting his black form easily from the skeletal branch he perched upon.  

He realized perhaps a beat too late that the two were also allies, and their clan may have just been dragged into human affairs, by way of debts.

Tero took a slow breath, flattening his feathers against the uncomfortable drizzle of rain.

This wasn’t going to be a fun time.

----------------

Kuroko had kept her connection to the shadows open as long as she could, but her chest had begun to feel empty and aching in a way she couldn’t properly describe. Drained, perhaps? Like all the fluids had been pulled out of her chest cavity, and replaced with seed fluff. Corresponding throbbing of her head and eardrums were quick to appear, until the dizziness nearly pushed her off the branch.

She cut the line, feeling guilty as she did so.

A warm body appeared beside her, familiar heartsoulself of her mother pressing into her feathers lending some comfort and much-needed stability. Kuroko leaned into her, sucking in air she didn’t really need, trying to steady the flutter of exhaustion spreading through her bones.

Kokoro didn’t say anything. 

She just sat there, eyes closed even as birds tore through the membrane of shadows to flop exhausted into nests. Still, it was enough that she had come. Kuroko didn't realize how much she had missed her until the hole was being filled again. 

Kokoro didn’t react to the birds hopping onto branches to watch the two of them, nor did she open her eyes when Kuroko let out a soft, startled noise at the sight of a clearly dead crow being pulled out from one of the dark pools.

The elderly crow that had first greeted her lay sprawled across a branch. His beak hung open,  red eyes wide and dull and blankly staring. She looked away, guiltily watching birds hopping together, pressing their bodies against one another as black mist seeped out between feathers. Too tired to ask what they were doing, Kuroko finally succumbed to her exhaustion and closed her own eyes.

And slept.

Chapter Text

The next few days were terse, full of healing and quiet mourning for the crows who hadn’t made it back. Kuroko learned through observation that it was much easier to kill a halfblood, than a full demon.

She watched dozens of birds slowly reform their wings, painful tendrils of shadows reshaping and solidifying into feathered wings. Many more birds regrew wingtips or legs from skin and bone, their smaller bodies struggling to heal regardless of the amount of Chakra their nestmates lent them. A few never got up again. 

The difference, Chiyobi explained, was that a Halfblood still had a crow’s physical body - still needed a physical body . Full blooded demons could heal from just about any injury, so long as their sense of ‘self’ remained unharmed. Somewhere along the line, a demon had decided to give a part of itself up to a yet-unhatched crow egg, and the resulting hatchling walked the line between the two.

Some halfbloods just went on to live as normal, albeit uncannily intelligent, crows. They could use their demonic bloodline just fine, but wouldn’t be able to bud off a chunk of themselves in the same way - they’d have to mate, to have children.  The bloodline would then dilute again and again and again until the only sign the crow had any demonic ancestry was a fondness for shadows and above-average intelligence. Halfbloods could mate with each other, but so long as the children would never lose their need for a body, and they’d always be considered ‘half’.

Holy shit she thought to herself. That made so much sense .  

“Could a crow demon, then… just give a chunk of themselves to something that wasn’t a crow?”

Chiyobi had given her the strangest look. Somewhere between surprised and revolted at the idea. Her response was a sharp  “No.”  

No further explanation was given.

Chiyobi quickly changed the subject to what the other crows had been up to. Someone had slipped into the marsh the other day, and Chiyobi gleefully detailed the painful awkwardness with which someone was trying to woo someone else. 

"It's not like he'll fall for her - his bloodline is way better." 

She wondered if blood purity really was so important, but didn't ask. Her friend seemed to delight in pointing out the difference, so perhaps it was something else that was supposed to be obvious. 

Tero and Kokoro had become absent again, but several of the other crows had become more friendly with her since her stint as messanger. They shared meals, and no longer left or paused conversations when she visited a group clustered together. Not exactly welcomed into the conversation, per se, but not outright pushed away either.

She was still an outsider - but not a threat. 

Kokoro had begun sending her out on patrols, too.

She found it difficult to keep up with the relentless wings of her peers, their conspicuous lack of a need to breathe becoming more obvious the more she lagged behind. There were assholes who forged on, of course, and she started to hate a particularly petty crow, but more often than not, they’d notice and slow down a bit. Sometimes they even stopped to ‘investigate’ some ‘suspicious activity’ that always turned out to be some leftover human trinket or a trick of the light. She still appreciated the breaks where she could get them.

“Normally your kind don’t get sent on border patrols.” A tall bird confided in her one  evening, staring out across the treetops from where they perched together.

“Area sweeps, sure, but it’s more efficient just to send us to circle the whole marsh. We didn’t expect much from you.”

“Did you change your mind?”

Himitsua tilted her head, blinking slowly at her.

“You’re a better than expected, but still slow, so- no.” Oof. Blunt.

She wilted a little, expecting something a bit more positive.

“But…” the crow continued, stretching her wings, “Your Listening range is impressive. My brother is alive, because of your quick orders.”

She almost brought up the fact that it was her mother issuing them, but thought better of it. She should just take the appreciation and let it lie. As the small patrol lifted off into the air again, Kuroko wondered how everyone just suddenly knew about the ‘half’ thing. Was it really that obvious?

Yes. She decided, landing back on the bit of nest she had claimed after night had truly fallen, sucking in air like her life depended on it. The rest of her patrol casually scattered across the grove, landing without a feather out of place. She absolutely was that obvious .

But… something was bothering her about the whole situation, despite the growing comfort around the others of her kind. It tickled the back of her memory, like a long-forgotten smell, or a feather just barely out of place. Distracting, but not quite prominent enough to pinpoint.

“Kuroko, please join me at the line Mangolia”

She perked up at the sound of her mother’s voice, shaking off the exhaustion with a few quick breaths and taking off again. Growing agility let her weave neatly between massive maze that was becoming familiar. Sharp talons snagged a certain piece of bark in just the right way that she could scoot neatly between two tightly spaced branches.

Even in the dead of night, when fog obscured the stars, she could still manage to maneuver around these trees. Of course, she still missed her nest, and the memory of Akahito’s friendly growl left a sad sort of ache in her chest, but… she could life here, probably.

It was… becoming home.

The group of crows perched around her mother was not so familiar.

“Now that everyone’s here, we can begin.” Oh, good, she hadn’t missed anything.

Kokoro took a long breath, the feathers in her neck maintaining a constant, irritated sort of fluff. Tero stood beside her, looking just as displeased.

“In return for their aid during last week’s battle, the Cranes have named their compensation.”  Black talons dug into her branch perhaps a bit harder than strictly required.

“We will help their contracted humans, in a dispute.”

Outraged sputters broke out across the tree, several objections voiced at once. Beside Kuroko, Himitsua just hissed softly, reminiscent of a quietly furious snake. She could see the small body of her only friend fluffed up in anger, up higher in the branches. Chiyobi noticed her gaze, and puffed up a bit bigger. 

Faster than Kuroko could properly track, a shadow flickered across her mother’s feathers, and the noises silenced.

“We will not be participating in any skirmishes.” She rasped, looking around at them. “Our losses were quite enough, and they know this. We will be messengers only .” A few soft whispers broke out, and then quieted again.

“Kuroko,” She straightened. “This is where you come in. Tero will lead the group, but you’ll keep us all connected. Report back to me each night, and make sure messages get passed as they are meant to. Everyone, please teach her to stay hidden. I do not want one inexperienced action jeopardizing everyone.”

Kuroko nodded sharply, taking a quick breath and steadying herself.

Himitsua was chosen for her speed. Tero as the leader, one other bird she had only ever briefly met.

Kokoro told them to meet the Cranes at the river’s main bend, tomorrow morning. They’d escort the group and explain further, from there.

“Kuroko, please stay behind. Everyone else, good luck, and good night.”

Her mother watched the other crows fly up and out of the lone Mangolia, seeming to not even pay attention to her daughter for a long moment. 

“Please let me know everything the Cranes tell you.” She murmured, still staring up at the departing wings. “Allies or not, I don’t trust them, and I certainly don’t trust their humans. If anything goes wrong, if- if anyone gets hurt, you are to tell me immediately, and I’ll get you out of there.”

Kuroko nodded, swallowing. That did, actually, make her feel a little better. But-

“There’s something I’ve been wanting to ask you.”

Kokoro turned her head, finally facing her head-on.

“Back when I was… just hatched, you said that you had eaten my siblings for not having enough Chakra, and...that laying eggs was hard. Why did you say that?”

Her mother watched her for a long moment, before looking away, beak moving like she wanted to say something, but remaining silent..

“You said I’m ‘half’, right? That means-”

“-I know what that means”

Kuroko blinked in surprise at the interruption, feeling apprehensive as her mother shifted and ruffled her feathers, re-positioning her wings and otherwise delaying. Kuroko sucked in a small breath as it occurred to her.

“I’m not, am I?”

Red eyes glanced at her soft murmur, and then closed with a soft nod.

“I’m not a halfblood. You-, I-” She snapped her beak shut, bristling as frustration and confusion built up into a strange sort of anger. “Why did you want them to think I was half ? More importantly, Why do I still need to breathe?! ”

Kokoro wouldn’t look at her.

“I don’t know.”

“You dont-” Kuroko cut herself off and hissed, shifting side to side and plucking up bits of bark to toss to the ground.She was more confused than angry, pouring over the details she had amassed about the differences.

Demons don’t need a physical body .

“Was that why the foxes were so bullheaded? They just assumed I could suddenly stop being a bird whenever I wanted?”

“Probably.”

Her temper flared back up.

“ Why didn’t you just tell me what was supposed to happen?!”

“ You should have known already.”

“How!? You never told me! As soon as I started talking, you flew off! Why do you keep just throwing me into situations without telling me anything?”

“Because I didn’t think you’d live this long.”

Ice plunged into her heart.

Kuroko froze, her breath catching.

“W-what?” Her voice came out tiny and choked.

Her mother continued to avoid making eye contact.

“That’s, not… that’s not what I meant.”

“You... were trying to kill me?”  Kuroko swayed a little, the ice spreading and cracking in her chest.

“No.” Red eyes pinned her in place, voice firm.

“No, I never tried to kill you. I never tried to push you further than I thought you could handle. You just… Kuroko,  you were born not knowing how to talk .”

She didn’t reply, breath trembling with every exhale.

“Your friend, Chiyobi, she’s younger than you by months . You couldn’t even feel your own life until I flooded it with mine. You couldn’t fly until you’d built a body that could fly for you. Calling you a halfblood is better than-”

“-Better than calling me broken ?”

Kokoro reared back from the whisper like she’d been struck. Hesitated, then nodded once.

The ice had become a dark, heavy weight in her gut.

“If I couldn’t learn to Listen , would you have still brought me here?”

The long silence spoke more clearly than a voice would have.

“Please, Kuroko, I am trusting you with this.”

“You’re trusting Tero with this,” She corrected, watching a leaf fall and hit the ground with dull eyes. “You’re trusting him to keep me safe.”

“And I’m trusting you to keep them all safe. Do you know how far Chiyobi can Listen ?”

Kuroko huffed a breath, not answering.

“From this Mangolia to the far side of the Roost. Do you know how far most crows can?”

Still no answer.

“From here to the Willow, if they're trying. Tero can barely get to the River on a good day. You could hear the Roost from your first nest, and that’s so far away I can’t actually properly describe it. I’ve never flown that distance directly, because it’s too damn far ”

“I get it.”

Kuroko kept her wings hunched up, still staring down at the ground.
“I’ll head out with everyone tomorrow morning, okay? I’m not-” Her talons dug a big further into the bark. “I”m not going to do something stupid or anything, I just…”  She didn’t know what she wanted. To know she wasn’t broken? That was markedly false. The cold, heavy feeling seemed to increase. To know she was wanted? Apparently her mother had only stuck around to wait for her to die. Had only spent time with her, with the thought that she’d eventually bite the dust.

Her feathers felt too heavy, heart pounding too fast in her chest.

“Kuroko, squirt, plea-” “-Goodnight.”

She turned tail and fled, flapping back to the tangled web of nests and tucking herself into a warm hollow close to one of the crows she’d be leaving with in the morning. He didn’t complain, just shifted his head a little so she could step past without bumping.

Her mother never tried to follow her.

Despite the warmth, despite the familiarity of the tangle of branches and starlight past them…

She felt alone.

----

The next morning, she woke to find Chiyobi had wedged between herself and the other crow, half tucked under her wing. One sleep-fuzzed eye blinked open at her, a wry smile quirking the edges. 

"You looked upset, last night." 

Kuroko didn't make a sound either way, just leaving her wing where it lay and dozing through the bleak, early blue of morning. She rose when the other crow assigned to the group decided to, and followed him to where Tero and the others perched in wait.  She quietly listened to the small group banter back and forth, and faked an interested expression when Tero explained what the Cranes had told him. Something about brothers and betrayal. 

She couldn’t help the hopeless, empty feeling that had replaced last night’s cold weight.

They took off, flying briskly to the East, to the river and beyond.

Kuroko didn’t look back.

---

Past the river, they were joined by a single Crane, and Kuroko wished she could be more enthusiastic about this whole adventure. She’d never seen anyone with such a long neck and beak, and the bright crown of red upon their forehead certainly drew the eye.

They flew deeper into the mist, keeping low and avoiding the patrols of shinobi everyone else appeared to be able to sense. Kuroko failed to keep the bitter feeling at bay, at yet another thing about her that was broken .

The bird led them to the outskirts of a sprawling village, flying them low and quiet over a pale wall and into thicker fog. They followed several twisting channels, before darting over a lower fence and landing on the edge of a wide pond. Kuroko noted a high-arched red bridge spanning the small river that fed into the pond, and an artfully but clearly man-made waterfall a bit further up. Red maple leaves stirred only with their wings, and she briefly wondered if the fog ever relented enough for the tree to get any sunlight.

She heard the sound of footsteps and twisted around to see a human walking slowly toward them, dark hair and eyes standing out against his pale skin.

He bowed low, a crown of pale dewdrops (ice?) glinting on his hair, in what little morning light could pierce the fog.

“Thank you for answering our call. I respectfully ask for your assistance in this matter.”

Tero stepped forward, dipping his head slightly. Their guide stood placidly to the side, neck tucked up in sweeping curves against her body.

“I wish for your help to spy on my brother, for I fear his mind is too far gone. He has been acting erratically these past months, and we fear for both his safety, and the safety of our clan and our village.”

“We hear your plea, and will assist you in this manner to the best of our combined abilities, so far as none of my Murder is harmed.”

Kuroko wondered if she’d ever be able to speak as smoothly as Tero did, when answering. He must have had training on dealing with humans. But... the way he said it seemed a little....off. Like, it was almost like he had a strange accent, or an odd rolling sort of cadence all of the sudden. 

The man bowed and thanked them again.

“I will provide food and lodging for you, and ask only for information - never for your lives to be put at risk.” Tero nodded.

“Allow me to introduce myself, as I welcome you into my home. My name is Yuki Hikaru, standing head of the Yuki clan. My brother is Yuki Isamu, the Third Mizukage.”

Chapter Text

The man’s home was… nice, she supposed. Not that she knew anything about how humans normally lived. A bit too tightly controlled for her liking, but pleasing to the eye in an artificial sort of way. Kuroko supposed it could have just been the way humans liked to keep things and tried not to let the odd arrangement of… stuff… throw her off.

Hikaru led them up the stone steps, not seeming to mind when some of them took to flitting between branches and stones instead of following on foot. Ahead, an elegant home sat atop gleaming silver rocks, sturdy legs keeping it elevated above the river snaking around it. Pale walls contrasted with red-brown window frames, immaculately clean slats of wood creating a wrap-around porch that reflected neat lines into the water below.

Hikaru opened a sliding door, inviting them in with a gesture of his hand. She could hear the soft murmur of voices from another room in the house, and hesitated for a beat before following Tero’s calm glide inside.

She felt trapped in here.

The room might have been large for a human abode - she wouldn’t know, she’d never even seen one before today. Either way, there was no sky above her, no leaves to flit between. The only perches available were slick-looking surfaces of cut wood, or a reed-covered floor.

Kuroko hopped uncomfortably to Himitsua’s side, trying to pretend that she was less unsettled than she actually was. She found herself caught up in a tale of political intrigue, featuring a leader who had been devastated by the loss of his wife, falling into inaction as a corrupt council took over. Between accepting bribes and passing discriminatory laws that further divided their village, Hikaru described the Council’s actions as ‘selfishly irresponsible’ and his brother’s inaction likewise.  

“I do not seek power,” Hikaru had explained, “But my brother’s inaction is destroying our village. If saving it means taking over leadership, then I will do what I must.”

Tero, who had remained mostly silent through the explanation, simply asked;

“Where do we come in?”

“Like I said, the Kage’s chair is not what I’m after. I plan on continuing to comfort my brother in the hopes that he can pull himself together, but I need eyes and ears on the council, in case they try something.” He frowned, lowering his voice. “I fear they may plan an assassination, since Isamu has already declined retirement outright. Your mission, then, will be to gather as much information as you can about the people the Council is interacting with. If you can discover a way to prove their deceitful behavior, I may be able to convince Isamu to throw them from his advisory board. Or,” He added, “At least limit their power somewhat.”

Tero nodded, and Kuroko snuck a look at Himitsua and the other bird, straightening slightly when she realized they had been paying close attention.

“Tomorrow I will take a stroll around the village, and I’d like you to follow me to acquaint yourself with some of our significant locations - places I suspect you’ll be able to find leads. Of course, your discretion will be needed. I currently do not know which of our Shinobi are loyal to the council, or to their Kage. Things have been…. Muddled, lately.”

The crane that had guided them watched throughout the explanation, sitting quietly in the corner. Something about her…. Kuroko ruffled her tail, not sure why the other bird gave her such a sad feeling. There wasn’t anything visibly wrong, per se. The crane just sat quietly, listening. Though, come to think of it, she hadn’t heard a single word from their guide.

“Thank you for the thorough explaination, Yuki-san.”

She tuned back into the conversation at Tero’s words, trying not to show her embarrassment at missing the last bit of their briefing. She hoped context would fill in the rest.

The man stood and bowed, before excusing himself from the room and leaving the small group of birds alone. Thankfully, he left the door partially open.

Tero, Himitsua, and the crow whose name she didn’t know had begun talking quietly to each other, and the body language suggested she wasn’t invited to the conversation, or that her input wouldn’t be needed. Already feeling the sting of rejection (no matter how correct their assumptions about her ignorance might be), Kuroko stepped toward their white watcher.

“I don’t think we’ve been introduced properly.” She offered. The bird focused on her, blinking slowly.

“Kika.” She murmured. Kuroko nodded back. 

“Pleasure to meet you, I'm Kuroko.”

A long silence, where her brain said a responding ‘nice to meet you’ should have been.

“Um… right, so…” The crane just watched her silently.

“Do you… think there’s anything else we should know, for the mission?”

Kika looked away from her, and Kuroko felt the churning in her crop take on a distinctly sour taste. To her surprise though, Kika did respond.

“I’m tired.”

Great, that was a big help.

“So...ask again tomorrow.”

Tamping down the snippy comment, Kuroko nodded shortly, and a voice startled her out of her thoughts

“You coming?”

She turned, surprised to find two of her three companions gone from the room. She quickly followed Himitsua into flight, exiting the strange human abode and flapping steadily into the cold mist above a sprawling village. 

The two of them were silent for a while, long patrols and coming in handy for predicting which way her partner would turn. It took an embarrassingly long time to realize that it wasn’t a random pattern, but rather: Himitsua had been following the mazelike path that cut through the human’s network of homes. It was a lot easier to keep up, after that.

Despite being perfectly practiced in using Chakra to help her fly distance it took to circle the village, Himitsua stopped them several times throughout their journey to perch and look around. Kuroko joined her in plucking at one of the smooth stones that lined murky rivers, watching the thick mist swirl over a part of the town and obscuring where they had just been.

“Shadows.”

She perked up at the whisper, and found Himitsua staring her down.

“Listen.”

Oh, right.

Kuroko found a spot between two rough stones and spread her chakra into the darkness, deepening it and opening up several voices nearby.

“-Mitsui, are you there?” “I’m by the north river -heading your way shortly.”

Himitsua chimed in “We’re in the east corner.”, her soft voice and the echo through the shadows overlaying strangely in her ears.  

Kuroko looked toward the sky, but the overcast clouds and thickly billowing mists obscured its actual location. Surely, it was still early in the afternoon, but without the sun it was difficult to tell time - or direction.

Tero, again; “Excellent. Kuroko-san, I need you to stay connected to us so we can talk freely. Let us know if you’re getting too tired, and we can head back.”

“Yeah, alright.” She agreed casually, but the details of what was going on still escaped her.

She really ought to have paid more attention.

As it turned out, Kuroko really ought to have practiced this skill before arrival as well. As soon as they took flight again, she lost her grasp on the shadows. Himitsua’s abrupt descent told her that the other birds were quite aware that it had happened.

“I’m sorry, I don’t know how to keep it while moving.”

“Look, here.” A sharp beak threw ripples across a dark puddle, and Kuroko hopped closer.

“At your reflection - move your feathers, you can find shadows under them.”

Was it really-?

Oh, it was that easy.

Kuroko fluffed up her neck feathers, finding the shadows that trailed under each of the shafts, curling down her neck and chest. The shadows darkened, sliding cool across her throat, and she could hear them once again.

“-an’t believe we brought a-” -”Alright, we’re back.”

Himitsua was quick to interrupt Mitsui’s muttered words, but Kuroko had a prickling feeling the comment hadn't been kind. The two of them took to the skies again, black wings swirling eddies through white vapor.

She found it difficult to keep track of human buildings, and even more difficult to keep track of her directions, with mist obscuring the landscape. At least back at the roost, fog would come and go, familiar trees providing landmarks to orient oneself.

Despite her utter lack of directional prowess, it was easy enough to see that there were… stratas, to the human living arrangement. Near the center of the village, closest to the massive blue tower, homes seemed well-kept and brightly colored. The Northeastern quarter likewise, where Hikaru lived, seemed fairly tidy. In the large, long spaces between buildings, squat little stalls with cheerful lanterns drove away the fog, and humans wore a blend of brightly colored fabrics as they wove between each other.  

The rest of the place, however…  

Yeah, she didn’t even want to land down there.

Bright walls turned into modestly plain homes, turned into the kind of place she didn't really want to fly low into. 

Something about the dark streets and mold-covered buildings rang alarm bells in the back of her head. The humans wore dull-colored clothing, and she spotted groups of people lingering between buildings, or sitting to the side of the street instead of ducking into a warm home to avoid the damp. More than one of them had been coughing miserably, great phlegm-filled hacks making her own throat twinge in sympathy.

“I’m surprised you’re not asking more questions”

Kuroko suddenly realized the value of having the shadows so close to her, with the way Himitsua’s whisper carried so well to her ears, despite being several wingspans away.

“Why are the humans here, so….ill?”

“Despite what they may tell you,” Tero’s voice answered her, and Kuroko felt feathers droop. She hadn’t meant to send that to everyone. “ Humans are far less altruistic than they want to appear.”

The last cough faded into the muffled distance, and she could see the houses becoming clean again.

“And even stranger, they tend to be far kinder to other species, than their own.” Himitsua hummed in agreement, and continued the thought.

“Countless are the stories of a human freeing an animal from a trap, or hosting them inside their own homes. Likewise countless are the tales of humans waging war against each other, slaughtering for the sake of violence. When not hunting for food, humans and animals tend to be kind to one another”

Mitsui’s tittering laugh slid through the connection as he commented;

“But the only thing humans hate more than other humans, is a demon.”

Kuroko felt her stomach swoop.

“But.. We’re here…” she couldn’t quite put the idea into proper words.

“Yeah, but we’re not demons right now, yeah? We’re just crows,” Mitsui chuckled again, the noise sounding sardonic.

“Summoning Animals.” Himitsua corrected, banking down toward a familiar pond. Oh, they’d already arrived back at Hikaru’s home. The other two were still out flying somewhere, but Kuroko already felt a deep relief at being able to rest her wings and relax the Chakra enhancements required to keep up with the larger crow.  

“Or Kami, or omens, or any number of other names needed to convince them that we’re not worth attacking on sight. ” Tero added, sounding distracted. “ Himitsua, are you still in the Southeast quarter?”

“No, I returned to Hikaru-san’s home, Kuroko needed to rest”

She shot Himitsua a ruffled glare, wanting to insist otherwise, but feeling too drained by the constant connection to complain properly.

“This quickly? Would staying in one place help?”

Kuroko bristled at the suggestion that she was weak, wanting deeply to deny the question and insist on flying patrols around the city. But...no, she’d only prove herself too prideful to be trusted.

“Yeah” she muttered, trying to keep the bitterness out of her voice. “I’ll be able to keep it up longer if I don’t have to fly around.”  

“Alright, Himitsua, Mitsui, Meet me at the Kage tower for one last loop. We’ll rendezvous at Kuroko-san’s location before the sun sets. Kuroko-san, you can drop the link, we’ll see you tonight.”

She cut the flow of Chakra as instructed, once again wobbling at the sudden silence around her. Himitsua nodded at her, asked softly that she stay put, then leapt back up into the sky.   

She watched the broad wings flap away, then turned back to the shadowy room.

It still felt stifling, and too enclosed to really feel comfortable.

The crane still sat quietly, orange eyes half-lidded at the back corner of the room. It took her a moment to remember the name she’d been given.

“Hey, Kiki, you okay?”

Pupils flicked up to her, head otherwise keeping still.
“Kika.”

What?

… Oh!

“Sorry, sorry, Kika, but hey, really, are you okay? You haven’t moved.”

The long white neck uncurled, and she was struck for a moment by how tall the other bird was. Her long beak tilted upward toward the top of the room.

“Is that your ally?” Came the soft question.

Kuroko felt her feathers prickle sharply, bright fear jolting through her as she whirled around. Where was- There! She scrambled to try to connect to the shadows under her feathers, alarm making her control slip away like darting minnows.

The shape dropped down from the corner, and Kuroko found herself hissing and puffing up before she could think about reacting any other way.

She did not expect the snicker.

Chiyobi landed clumsily on the reed mat before her, picking up her feet awkwardly to keep her talons from snagging on the tight weave.

“Relax Kuro-chan, it’s just me~”  She laughed, but Kuroko wasn’t in a terribly cheerful mood after the scare. “After the gloom and doom last night, I couldn’t let you leave on a secret mission all alone~”

“I’m pretty sure that’s the point of a ‘secret’ mission.”

“Pfft, nah.” Chiyobi stretched her wings, flapping them slowly for a moment like she was shaking out a cramp. “If they wanted to keep it a secret, they wouldn’t have sent Mitsui. He’s an awful gossip, you know.”

Part of her wanted to chirp something like ‘takes one to know one’, but the grudging relief that she wasn’t alone in this situation was enough to sooth the inner turmoil into silence.

“What’re you looking at, anyway?”

Chiyobi was glaring up at the crane, who had resumed her curled-up position.

“Chiyoi, this is Kika. Kika, Chiyobi.” The crane didn’t move, and her friend clearly took that as an affront, muttering an unkind comment under her breath as she ruffled up her neck. Kuroko could already feel her control of the situation crumbling away.

“Okay, please stop. Thanks for coming along, but I really don’t need you to defend me. Kika’s always like this, she’s just quiet, not trying to be rude.”  Not that she’d know, but it was a fair guess considering the circumstances.

Wind yanked out from her sails, Chiyobi deflated, the outraged expression morphing into something like frustration. For what, Kuroko wasn’t sure, but she didn’t want to manage any other high-energy confrontations. The drained feeling wasn’t improving.

She turned, and bowed briefly toward Kika.

“Thank you for the warning, sorry to interrupt.” No response, as expected.

Kuroko hop-fluttered out onto the porch again, Chiyobi on her tail.

“Did you follow us all the way here?”

The smaller bird hummed an affirmative, looking around. They both saw a young human walking along the path on the other side of Hikaru’s pond, white robe reflecting brightly against dark water. The difference between that pristine color and the dirty state of the sick humans made something unhappy twist in her gut.

“So, what’s that face for? You look like you swallowed a centipede.”

A small part of her was grateful for Chiyobi remembering her distaste for that bug, and the warmth softened her memory of the bird’s recent rudeness. .

“I just…” She wasn’t sure what she wanted, but a vague idea was starting to slide into focus. Himitsua’s request to stay put surfaced briefly in her mind, but she brushed it away like a persistent cobweb. Kuroko took a breath, and spread her wings.

“I’m tired, so we’ve gotta go slow, but I want your opinion on something.”