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.”