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Satori sighed as he watched the trees roll past him, peeking out of the bars of the cage that he had been trapped in this time. It felt a little overkill at this point, sure most powers would be restricted by iron but he was a shapeshifter ... If he could turn into animals (not his strain, sorry Oikawa!) he would be out and about already. Sure if he had been able to cast spells or charms or something maybe the iron would make sense, but really? Iron bars for a shapeshifter? They didn’t even put shackles on him.
It would almost be insulting if it weren’t for this cage. He could make fun of the bars all he wanted but the fact of the matter was that Inarizaki’s hunting group had definitely done a little homework on him. Sure the iron bars wouldn’t stop him, but the fact the cage shrank alongside him every time he tried to shapeshift definitely would.
He sighed again, the cage had already shrunk a bit when he had considered shrinking to see if he could slip through the bars. It was edging on uncomfortable, but when he opened his mouth to complain, one of Inarizaki’s guards slammed the bars with his shield to make sure he shut up. Satori scowled, the guard smirked back at him, flashing his fangs and letting the tip of his forked tongue poke out. The guard looked like he wanted to say something, but then there was noise from the front of the cart and his sleepy eyes were forced away, pupils now in slits as he rolled his eyes at those arguing at the front of the party.
Satori rolled his eyes, he never understood special creatures (Satori had never really been a fan of the term monster... ) that joined hunting guilds. Sure Satori was part of a hunting guild, but that was all a ruse. These guys were part of an ACTUAL hunting guild, no excuses there as far as he was concerned. At least Inarizaki was known for only capturing people instead of outright killing them. Not that had really ever stopped special creatures from joining guilds that did kill their bounties. Anything seemed to go nowadays as long as you weren’t too obvious about what you were.
He had seen enough of that.
So he settled for now, waiting for Wakatoshi or someone else from his guild to come save him. Knowing how Wakatoshi got... he would probably show up himself, despite how many times Washijou and Eita had told him it wasn’t safe to be showing his face every time one of them got captured. Satori smiled to himself, the Ushijimas had never been ones to mess around when it came to their guild members.
Still... he had been under the impression that Shiratorizawa had an... “understanding” with Inarizaki. Last he heard from Wakatoshi was that one of their guild leads had caught a peak at the Ushijima estate and its colorful cast of residents. This had led to Wakatoshi making the incredibly fair deal of their guild lead keeping his mouth shut and not taking any special creature bounties that were affiliated with Shiratorizawa, and Shiratorizawa would not forcefully annex their guild hall.
Truly, Wakatoshi’s kindness knew no bounds.
So Satori wasn’t entirely sure why it looked like Inarizaki had taken his bounty. It was especially suspect that not only had they taken his bounty, but it looked like they had gotten their reference materials from Aoba Josai—
He was startled out of his thoughts as the cart came to an abrupt halt, a bright light flashing briefly from where their twin guard had been leading at the front. Satori whistled to himself as the rest of the party rushed ahead to see what was going on. He had heard about those twins but hadn’t really ever seen them in action. He had heard the rumors though. Sure there was all to be said about their talent, their skill, their uncanny intuition, and how in tune they were. But what had really been the talk of the town since they had appeared was the fact that while they were supposedly twins, only one had special creature characteristics.
There was plenty to be said about that. Satori had heard the whispers, seen the glances, watched as people pointed; all thinking the same thing. Changeling .
It was definitely one of those thoughts that better remained kept to oneself. There were plenty of reasons the term had seen a large fall off in usage, both from offense from the fae at the mere concept they would even want a human child, and because it was becoming rarer and rarer to see children stand out from the rest of their families like that. And of course, if anyone from Inarizaki heard hide or hair of it aimed at their... more gifted half of the twin guard, people seemed to disappear.
Not that any of that had stopped the gossip when the twins began their rise to fame. But after enough bold critics had reappeared raving, and enough bar fights had been lost, people learned to keep their comments to themselves.
Satori was still interested in them of course, it was still rare to see special creature characteristics appear from seemingly normal families, let alone in twins. Plus, as someone who had had the term changeling slung at them more than enough in his own life, Satori could admit he felt some odd form of kinship with them.
He peeked over the front of the cart as the guild leads dismounted to deal with the commotion, trying to see what was going on.
There were two people wrestling on the ground, both yelling as the rest of the party tried to find a way to pull them apart. Satori guessed those had to be the twins, though this didn’t exactly fall in line with their supposed “perfect cooperation” that he had heard so much about. He couldn’t see their faces yet, just their matching armor, weapons discarded on the ground as they wrestled. One had an odd sort of lighter gray hair coloring and the other... had what could only be described as puke green hair.
Satori felt his eyebrow raise.
“Take it back!” The green one yelled, pulling his brother in by the straps on his chest plate as they rolled on the ground.
The gray one scowled, and it was only then that Satori was able to get a proper glance at both their faces. He hummed appreciatively, genetics were impressive. Satori had never really seen twins before, especially not identical ones. They really did look exactly alike. Besides the hair of course. He wondered which one was the special creature?
“Why should I? Reminds me of the taste in my mouth every time I have to see your face,” The gray one responded.
Satori wondered if anyone was going to tell the gray kid they had the same face.
“We have the same face, idiot!” Greenie responded. Aptly, if you asked Satori.
The twins continued wrestling, each getting in a few good hits. It was all well and good but lack of weapon or magic use meant Satori still wasn’t sure who had the special creature characteristics. Maybe Greenie? He seemed a lot livelier, Satori also felt like he had caught a hint of fangs when he yelled. Maybe not fully grown ones but they looked pretty young anyways. Magic tended to make people jumpy, especially in specials who differed from the rest of their families. All that extra energy and no proper outlets and all that. Maybe the fangs were small because he was still growing into the characteristics?
Greenie seemed to have the upper hand in their fight now, rubbing what seemed to be mud and crushed grass from the sides of the path into Gray’s hair.
“Now we match!” Green yelled, staring at Gray’s now vaguely green brown hair, filled with mud and grass. “Have anything you want to say?”
Then there was a flash of light again, and Green was flying across the path.
Oh, well. Looks like Gray was the one with characteristics.
“Osamu!” Another kid in the party yelled, Satori thinks someone had called him Gin earlier. “You know you can’t use your characteristics against Atsumu!”
“Oh, I’ll show you characteristics ,” Gree- Atsumu growled, springing up from the ground and stomping over to his brother.
That’s when the entire party devolved into a mess of yelling and trying to keep the twins from each other. Everyone trying to get them to not kill each other (or in the case of snake eyes, trying to egg them on). Satori glanced at their guild leads, he’d known the both of them for a while, they hadn’t seemed the type to let a party fight like this.
“Your kids are fighting,” Kita solemnly informed Aran.
“Oh, so when they fight they’re my kids?”
“When the twins fight they’re your kids. I’ll take responsibility the rest of the time.”
Aran sighed, “It’s only ever the twins that fight.”
“I know.”
Aran grumbled as Kita gave him a reassuring pat on the back and let him break apart the twins. The yelling in the group only got louder. Satori sighed and settled back into the cage, he had a feeling they were going to be here for a while.
He stared through the bars, watching as the sun went down, when did he get so used to getting caught?
Back before Karasuno had reemerged on the scene, the only people that really put in the effort needed to catch Satori were Aoba Josai. Seijoh had something personal against the entirety of Shiratorizawa, and the fact that they had trouble proving Satori Tendou even existed seemed to get under their skin like nothing else. Sure, everyone knew about the Satori Tendou that worked in Shiratorizawa, sure not many (or perhaps, not even any) people had really seen him, but was that so strange? Shiratorizawa was high profile, very busy, and their hall was on the private Ushijima Estate.
But proving that there was a shapeshifter in the region, hell, even in the province, was a different story altogether. Ignoring the fact that Satori was very good at his job, proving the existence of someone not even Seijoh had seen the true face of, was... difficult .
Satori had been untouchable for a time, much improved from his clumsier younger years when he still had problems maintaining a shift. But once he had gotten the hang of it he had gone undetected for years. It was only once he finally affiliated himself with a guild, (Washijou could be very convincing when he wanted to, and having a group of people to rely on had seemed nice... not that Satori would ever admit it) did people even start to recognize the pattern of his work.
It had been nice to be recognized, but Seijoh had taken it personally. Or at least, they had taken Satori releasing or stealing several of their high rate bounties personally.
Not sure why that would be!
Still, Shiratorizawa supported him in those endeavors but he was expected to contribute back. It led to Satori doing a lot more work than usual and eventually Seijoh had realized what was going on and put a bounty out on Satori himself. Satori didn’t really consider the work he did bad. Not all of it was releasing special creatures, sure, but he figured he had probably done enough of it to land him squarely in the gray of morality. But ambitious guilds like Seijoh didn’t really like to acknowledge grays. Being one of the few top guilds that Satori can confidently say is made up purely of humans, they didn’t take kindly to guilds that supposedly gained their ranks by accepting use of characteristics.
Meaning they had it out for Shiratorizawa already and the confirmation of Satori’s status only had them chomping at the bit even more. Didn’t help that Satori had joined around the same time as Wakatoshi, meaning around the same time their guild had started maintaining top rank in the region. They had released the bounty and started doing everything they could to prove Shiratorizawa was mixed and that there was a shifter. Not that it had done much besides raise some suspicion.
Not until Karasuno.
Karasuno had been the definition of coming out of nowhere. Another one of those ambitious guilds doing everything they could to raise in the ranks. They weren’t a capture to kill guild, but they did enough capturing to know what happened to the bounties they turned in. So they weren’t much better in Satori’s eyes. And boy did Satori have some thoughts about what he saw in his eyes the one time they had run into Karasuno.
Karasuno had, at one point, been fairly important. Or at least that’s what Satori had heard somewhere or other. Not much anymore, as until they had managed to catch Satori they were still essentially unheard of. Whatever reputation they once had dying right alongside the hunters of that era.
Probably for the better, considering what the hunters of that time had been like.
Well, for now it meant that when Shiratorizawa had noticed them going after bounties in their territory they had severely underestimated their opponent. Satori maintains that if they had known what they know now they wouldn’t have lost, but Wakatoshi gets a weird look on his face when he brings it up so he’s stopped mentioning it for now (even if it’s true ...).
So Satori had been cocky okay! He had sauntered into their camp, not knowing that they were one of the few teams that believed Seijoh when they said that there was shifter in the area, and probably the only team that believed Oikawa when he said it was in Shiratorizawa.
So Satori had been overconfident, he hadn’t gotten all the information he usually based his disguises off, he hadn’t been ready to face a group that was ready for a shapeshifter, and he had started making bad guesses. Then he had gotten captured, Shiratorizawa and Washijou had freaked out, Karasuno had partially iron blades, and then it had taken 3 days and 19 hours for anyone to get Satori out. By then, not only had they gotten close enough to turning him in that the government was able to not only confirm the existence of a shifter, but they had also managed to wring out his true face, and now there was a bounty out for Satori’s head and it was a miracle that they hadn’t been able to pin him to the Shiratorizawa Guild. They had lost their bounty, their claim on that part of the region, and the safety that Satori’s recon work provided them.
It was still something that hung heavily over the guild. Wakatoshi hadn’t let Satori out of his sight for weeks after that, never one to admit to being afraid but tensing at the smallest of shadows. As if something might come and grab Satori out from under him any minute. Then Satori’s effectiveness in the field had plummeted. Nothing like some national paranoia to really get everyone questioning those they know. What were a few communities destabilized in the face of getting rid of another person with characteristics?
Well, Karasuno was committed if nothing else. Now Satori had to stick with his guild or risk recapture, and Shiratorizawa’s efficiency had dropped, and here Satori was. Captured. Again. He sighed. Well it wasn’t as if people hadn’t already been calling him a monster. Now there was just a poster spread throughout the region with his face on it saying the same thing.
His true face wasn’t even scary, or at least not scary enough to justify a bounty as high as the one he had been given. Any times he looked scary were on purpose! Perfectly planned in a mirror for at least 20 minutes! Truly it was an unappreciated form of art, he was ahead of his time with this. The world just wasn’t ready for body art where you took your body apart and put it back together in new and exciting ways.
They didn’t even have a list of his actual crimes. Satori huffed, now there was a list that would warrant arrest.
He hummed as he thought about Karasuno’s sudden revival. Everyone had pinned their new marksman with characteristics, but Satori didn’t see it. Not every person who was good at something had characteristics, and while the marksmanship was impressive and the kid seemed to have an innate ability to control whatever fight he was in... it wasn’t enough to really be a characteristic. It was one thing to work hard to be skilled at something, it was another to be made for it. That orange-haired kid though... Now there was someone Satori would put serious money on having characteristics.
Karasuno touted themselves as being characteristic free, which is why they were supposedly so committed to what they did, but Satori didn’t buy it. You didn’t come back from droughts like Karasuno’s without someone with characteristics and whoever it was, was the definition of a sellout. Bounty-out? Whatever. Satori didn’t appreciate the lack of solidarity! From one monster to another, they could be doing better.
Satori had thought he’d make it as a sellout. After all, he had never actually gotten along too well with others with characteristics. He had struggled with them early on too, making him easy to tease. It had reached the point where he had run away, only to be found and scooped up by Washijou a few years into his new life as a wanderer. Being a hunter had seemed secondary in the face of somewhere that Satori could just be . Washijou cared less about characteristic status and more about power, however unconventional that power may be. Satori had to give him credit for sniffing out a shifter before seemingly anyone else on the continent and deciding that would be the perfect addition to his guild instead of a perfect addition to the government gallows.
Washijou had assured him the guild was full of like-minded people, which hadn’t been a lie but... only one other person had characteristics, barely even noticeable ones. Eita had also been angry at the world in a way Satori liked to believe he wasn’t. So walking into a hall full of humans, had not been the most encouraging start. But having Semi introduce himself as someone with characteristics right off the bat had helped. Reon’s easy going nature and having a history with Semi had calmed him further. Yamagata had taken to Satori’s pranks easily and happily. Jin had been quiet but calm when Satori had shifted in front of him for the first time, even though Satori had put on his scariest face at the time.
The only outlier had, of course, been Wakatoshi.
Satori smiled to himself, thinking about it now. Satori hadn’t been able to pin down exactly what had made him so taken with Wakatoshi at first. Besides the obvious power he held, to the point it felt like it was almost radiating out of him, Wakatoshi had been the only one to show no reaction whatsoever to Satori’s status as a shifter.
Incredible. Being informed someone in your party for the foreseeable future was straight out a fairytale and not giving a damn. Satori hadn’t stood a chance, it was in his nature to get reactions!
Plus, to not get a reaction out of someone who was so completely and obviously and openly human had definitely struck... something in Satori.
Wakatoshi was human in a way few other people were. Carrying his humanness like a flashlight, a beacon meant to be seen. His humanity was on purpose, open, outright. It felt almost insulting, to see someone so powerful and overbearing and to have them be 100% human. All this concern over the unfair advantages characteristics would give someone, as if Wakatoshi wasn’t the definition of overpowered.
Not to say that the other humans in Shiratorizawa weren’t powerful, they had all been recruited by Washijou after all. But Wakatoshi was a step above, in every way. Flaunting not just his strength but his humanity, like it was just another aspect of what made him strong.
Satori had been obsessed . Following Wakatoshi around like it would physically hurt him to be apart. Asking every question he could think of. Toeing the line around him to see what made him tick. To see why this human was so different from the rest of them. To see why he wouldn’t react. To see what had made him so different from every other person in his life. To learn why Satori was able to give someone every tool to hurt him and watch them never use them. Wakatoshi made it obvious that what he cared about was strength and Satori had apparently met that requirement, making everything else unimportant.
Wakatoshi didn’t change. No matter if Satori would use his most unnerving shifts, or the most incomplete ones. Only ever getting close when Satori would mess up their training, shooting him looks that edged on neutral disapproval. Even those started to go away, shifting to more amused than anything else.
Satori had thought that he would die, never having discovered what a proper reaction from Wakatoshi would look like until they had their first hunt.
That had also been around when Satori had firmly decided that being a sellout probably wasn’t for him. He would blame the sudden escape of the Seijoh bounties that day on Semi until the end of time, but it was all but confirmed that Shiratorizawa had screwed them over. Their first mission had been creature capture (just creature, not Special creature, there was a difference!) but when Satori and Semi had come across Seijoh... well Satori still maintained they had made the right choice.
...Even after they had gotten too confident and Satori had been caught.
They had been lucky that only Satori had been caught, features already shifted to remain unrecognized. Semi had given him a horrified look from the bushes as Satori had been dragged away and all Satori had been able to do was gasp a strangled “RUN,” before he had been taken.
He had been lucky they thought they had caught a human, ropes instead of chains, cloth gags instead of a metal muzzle. An environment that had been possible to escape on his own if it came down to it. He hoped Semi had run. Wakatoshi and the rest of their party had moved forward with the mission, barely stopping when Semi and Satori had made it obvious they were going to be screwing over Seijoh.
Satori had expected push-back of some kind, but all Wakatoshi had done was give a simple “do what you must,” before continuing forward. Satori had laughed at the time, the indirect permission just being perfectly Wakatoshi, but now all he could do was hope that Semi would be able to find them again.
Even now Satori isn’t sure how long he traveled with his captors before they stopped to set up camp. The sun had gone down by then and they had stopped close enough to a settlement that the place was meant for travelers to camp at. There were already a few things set up when they arrived and Satori had been tossed into the nearest shed.
Then all he could do was wait. Try to escape, fail, and wait.
Hope.
Satori maintains that the day was one of his luckier ones. It’s not an experience anyone there likes to talk about, all having thought Satori slippery enough to get himself out of a bind if needed (Satori himself included). It had been a rough wake up call.
Just like the pounding on the shed door had been. Satori had gazed up at it groggily, feeling like his ears were playing tricks on him. He had fallen asleep at some point, not sure when he had gotten so tired, but then the pounding on the door had stopped and Satori felt his eyes close again.
This is where the guild argues on how the story goes. Yamagata and Semi always say that the shed was old and rotting, hinges so rusted they were about to fall off the frame as it was. But Satori swears up and down that the door had been sturdy and that he had thrown himself against it enough times trying to get out to confirm it.
The point being that after the pounding had stopped there had been one pull on the door, then another, and then Satori could feel light on his face. He had looked up and felt his mouth drop open around the gag because his party had come after him! They had come to save him! And Wakatoshi was standing there with the shed door hanging from one hand because he had ripped it off its hinges .
Satori had just sat there staring, at least until Semi had come barreling in and grabbed him. Satori thought they would take the time to at least cut the ropes but Semi and Wakatoshi had just picked him up and booked it. Barely giving Satori to see the state of disarray the rest of the camp had been left in by the other party members.
“This isn’t exactly comfortable!” Satori yelled as he swung by the two ends of the ropes binding him that Wakatoshi and Semi had grabbed.
“Can’t you see we have other issues!?”
“One of you is going to end up choking me! Or spraining something! Something that belongs to ME!”
Before Satori could continue his complaints, Wakatoshi tugged on his part of the rope, taking most of Satori’s weight, and threw Satori over his shoulder.
“Wh- HEY! Not what I meant!” Satori yelled, struggling in Wakatoshi’s unsurprisingly strong grip.
All he managed to do was make eye contact with Semi who was now running behind them. Semi just shot him a smirk and Satori vowed to get his revenge (or maybe to not get his revenge... they were saving him after all). This wasn’t exactly an ideal position, but to be fair it did seem like they were being chased now.
So Satori decided this time he would let it pass, glaring at any of the party members that joined them and looked like they wanted to make a comment on Satori’s state of affairs. Yamagata obviously was not getting the hint, his smirk only growing as Satori tried to make a crude gesture in his direction.
Thankfully they did reach their cart, Wakatoshi dumping Satori into the back next to where they had put their bounty. He briefly made eye contact with... whatever it was that they had actually ended up catching. We’re not so different... you and I , Satori mentally sighed.
“Not really sure how I feel about being put with the cargo-”
“Satori.”
Satori felt the world freeze.
He slowly turned to face where Wakatoshi was looking at him. Satori stared, Wakatoshi’s body was tense in a way Satori had never seen before. Stiff and uncomfortable, stressed.
He had never seen Wakatoshi stressed before.
“You... should be more careful,” Wakatoshi continued carefully. “Your presence is appreciated and it is stressful when you are... not here.”
Satori watched Semi’s mouth fall open from the corner of his eye. He’d had trouble suppressing a reaction of his own similar to that at the time.
Wakatoshi puts a hand where the ropes are still holding Satori’s together. Satori could not believe he was having what might have been Wakatoshi’s first heart to heart while still tied up. It hadn’t felt real.
“I’m glad you are safe,” Wakatoshi finished, patting the bonds. The words like a fatal final blow to Satori’s psyche.
Then Wakatoshi had climbed into the cart’s driver seat, Jin giving him an unreadable look from where he’d sat next to him. Wakatoshi had summarily ignored it.
“We’re leaving.”
Then the cart was off, barely giving anyone enough time to fall in line and start following.
The movement seemed to be enough to shake everyone from the shock they had experienced during.. whatever that was. Yamagata gave Satori a look that meant nothing but trouble.
“Have any words for the rest of us big guy?” Yamagata called, trying to get into Wakatoshi’s line of sight to shoot him a meaningful glance. “Since you were so nice to Tendou?”
“He doesn’t!” Satori yelled, realizing now that he was still tied up. What was the point of saving him and then not letting him go??? “I’m just special! Now someone let me out of these!”
Wakatoshi hummed as Yamagata and Satori began to argue. Satori hadn’t noticed at first, but it seemed like everyone in the party had been shooting looks at Wakatoshi. Obviously something was up, but he was still tied up, and it seemed like nobody had any intention of letting him go until they got back to their guild. This obviously took priority.
“Thank you to everyone for completing their work adequately,” Wakatoshi said neutrally, barely audible over Satori’s complaints.
Jin raised an eyebrow, “That’s it? Satori got three whole sentences, you know.”
“Plus Tendou’s was personal! ” Semi added, happy to join anyone in their complaints.
“Is my feedback that important?”
“It is!”
“Sorry! I’m just Wakatoshi’s favorite. No complex syntax for anyone but me!”
“Is that so?” Reon asked.
“Of course! None of you understand a warrior’s bond .”
“We are all the definition of sharing a warrior’s bond, you little-”
“Well Tendou is my best friend after all,” Wakatoshi interrupts simply, not seeming to care about the bombshell he had dropped on their group. “It makes sense I would unintentionally show some favoritism. I apologize.”
Their whole group stared at Wakatoshi for a beat. Wide-eyed.
“He’s what?”
“ I’m your BEST FRIEND?”
Everyone’s stares shifted to Satori.
He took the words in for a second. Wakatoshi shot him a confused look. Everyone gave Wakatoshi a confused look.
“Are you not? I apologize if that’s not-”
“I AM!” Satori interrupted. “I am your best friend! No take backs! You said it first!” Satori wriggled in the ropes again, “Someone let me out so I can go thank my best friend!”
“I am never letting you out now,” Semi scoffed. “Enjoy your new lifestyle as Ushijima’s best friend.”
“Agreed!” Yamagata yelled from the other side of the cart.
“You’ll be incredibly safe, if nothing else.” Reon told him calmly.
“It does make it easier to keep an eye on you this way...” Jin agreed.
“Wh- Let me out! What happened to all of us sharing that warrior’s bond?”
“Ask your best friend to let you out.”
“Wakatoshi, your party is rebelling,” Satori informs the front seat solemnly. “The best course of action is to free me and allow me to quell the riots.”
Wakatoshi was suspiciously quiet. Somewhere near the front Reon badly stifled a laugh.
“Wakatoshi..?”
“...”
“No way.”
“It is easier to keep an eye on you this way...” Wakatoshi mumbled and Semi laughed so hard he fell.
Satori chuckled as he remembered trying to get Wakatoshi to run Semi over. The day overall had been stressful, but well. Wakatoshi’s opening up had gotten the ball rolling. Satori giggled to himself, then the rest had been history.
“Why’s he laughing?” One of his current captors asked Aran. It was the kid possibly named Gin from earlier.
“I wouldn’t know,” Aran answered simply, “He probably has his reasons.”
Before maybe Gin could respond to that, there’s a rumbling noise and suddenly the cart was shaking. It was a great wake up call for the party, considering the fight was long since over and the lack of action since then had obviously been affecting some of their younger members.
“Everyone on your guard!” Aran called out, the party shifting to the alert. “Rumbling is a common sign before-”
He didn’t get to finish his sentence before one of the twins collapsed.
Snake eyes went down next and Satori had started trying to see if he could figure out where Shirabu was getting them from. Before he could make a guess, one of the tall ones fell, and then Aran was falling to his knees with a hand clasped over his neck.
There’s the sound of metal hitting metal, and Satori can see Gin blocking a hit from Eita. The ground shook as Eita took a step forward, forcing his sword down onto the kid trying to stop him.
“Don’t scare the kid too much!” Satori scolded, “He doesn’t even know what’s happening.”
“Wh-” The kid starts (proving Satori’s point), before he too collapsed with a dart to the neck.
“Here’s hoping that was enough to make him forget the sight of you giggling to yourself about Ushijima,” Eita sighed, shuddering to himself.
“Aweee don’t be jealous Eita! You’ll find true love one day-”
A dart embedded itself in the cart wall next to Satori’s shoulder.
Satori saluted in what he assumed was Shirabu’s general direction, “Message received.” He turned to Eita seriously, “Shirabu wants me to tell you that-”
Satori had to duck to avoid the dart this time. He’s able to catch Eita chuckling, giving a quick thumbs up in the exact opposite direction that Satori had saluted. Satori stuck his tongue out at where Shirabu supposedly was, he’d get them together if it was the last thing he did.
Then there was another clash of metal and it’s loud enough for Satori to know Wakatoshi had shown himself. He’d been on his way to Satori, and now was caught up with the second twin that had yet to be taken down. Meanwhile the last Inarizaki member besides Kita had gone after Eita again, trying to catch him off guard.
“You think I wouldn’t notice you went after ‘samu first?” Atsumu growled at Wakatoshi, “You’re going to regret not going after me! ”
Satori winced, definitely have some sibling issues hiding in there.
“Akagi, after their marksman,” Kita ordered quickly, and the one fighting Eita nodded before trying to take off.
He didn’t make it far, running into what looks like thin air. Stopping with enough force that his head gets thrown back into Eita’s waiting sword hilt. Satori whistled as Akagi fell and Taichi stepped out of the treeline.
“I knew you cared Taichi!” Satori cooed. Taichi rewards him with a sigh.
“Going after characteristics first won’t help you!” Atsumu yelled again, incredibly talkative for someone dueling one of the most respected guild leaders in the region.
Another dart is shot, but Atsumu is apparently fast enough to dodge and get a smack into Wakatoshi’s side. Satori’s brow raised in what might be interest. It wasn’t every day someone could hold up this long against Wakatoshi.
“You think you have the advantage because you got Osamu first! But what they don’t tell you is-” Atsumu collapses before he can finish.
Kita sighed as he stepped out from where he had been behind Atsumu, sword hilt raised above where Atsumu’s head used to be. Aran rose from where he had knelt on the ground, hand coming off of his unmarked neck.
Aran shook his head as he glanced over Atsumu’s body, “What they don’t tell you is that sometimes your guild captains get you attacked on purpose because they have something to do,” he sighed. “You two are always causing issues,” He paused as he began to collect their fallen party, “Hello again Ushijima.”
Ushijima nodded at him briefly in recognition before turning back to Kita, holding a hand out.
“The key to Satori’s cage.”
It wasn’t a question.
Kita handed it over to Wakatoshi, who threw it to Semi. Who caught it and held up a slashed lock in his hand.
“Sorry, thought we were just going to break and enter.”
Kita sighed, but opted not to say anything. Letting Satori climb out and tackle Eita to the ground as Kita resumed his conversation with Wakatoshi.
“We have information from Seijoh.”
Wakatoshi’s eyebrow twitched, “They gave you it?”
“Sent an unarmed messenger through our guild territory,” Aran called from where he was stacking his unconscious party members, “Basically the same thing.”
“It was probably sent through purposely.”
“Or Tooru doesn’t know we’ve been looking out for Seijoh intel,” Kita sighed as he handed Wakatoshi the scroll, “It seems they’re trying to look into your members again. It was unsurprising to see they’d target Satori, but it was interesting to see Tooru mention his confidence in the fact that you are hiding Special Characteristics Wakatoshi.”
“I remain 100% human,” Wakatoshi replied simply.
“Keeps making the rest of us look bad,” Aran sighed.
“Thank you.”
“Not a compliment.”
“It could be!” Satori yelled from where Eita was trying to peel him off his body.
“This isn’t the only message Seijoh has tried to send through,” Kita continued. “Here is a compilation of the other ones. It’s probably best Shiratorizawa look through them as soon as possible. Some of them are particularly... interesting.”
“Anything you want to point out now?” Eita asked, ignoring the child sized Satori clinging to his leg. “To give us a head start?”
“Well... it seems like there is a connection between Tooru and Karasuno’s marksman. There are some supplements we included that seem to confirm that Karasuno’s marksman used to be Tooru’s... apprentice.”
Satori gasped, abandoning Eita’s leg as he ran up to Kita, body shifting and growing into the form of Karasuno’s grumpy marksman, “This kid!? I thought he hated Seijoh!”
Kita shrugged, “Regardless of how he may feel now, Kageyama definitely has a history with most of them. Which makes it interesting...”
Shirabu rolled his eyes from where he emerged from the bushes, “Don’t bother with this. Just tell us.”
“It makes it interesting that Seijoh is working with Karasuno.”
Satori’s eyes widened as he gasped, “Oh this is interesting! Who would’ve thought Oikawa would have it in him to actually work with people that aren’t his little lackeys!”
“Certainly none of you,” Kita replied bluntly, ignoring Satori as he scowled at him. “We thought it important you know, given our...”
“I can’t do this,” Shirabu sighed, “Thanks for the intel.”
“Thanks for taking Satori off our hands for a few hours,” Eita said as he helped Aran stack the last of his party members.
“I will not be thanking you for that,” Wakatoshi informed Kita.
“I understand.”
“I knew you were the only one for me Wakkun!”
Wakatoshi smiled at Satori, evidently done with the conversation. He silently nodded at Kita, who returned the nod with equal silence and whatever the rest of the vibe he and Wakatoshi seemed to share was. Satori rolled his eyes, sure that Aran was doing the same, trying to pretend that he didn’t find it incredibly endearing.
Instead he flung himself into Wakatoshi’s arms, satisfied to focus on their happy reunion.
“Wakatoshi you know I would’ve gotten out by myself right?” Satori told him as he hung off his neck. “You know me, no one can hold me for long!”
“You had no method of escape that we weren’t prepared for,” Kita commented.
Satori kicked a rock at him.
Wakatoshi just smiled, wrapping his arms around Satori, “I know. I just wanted to make sure you were okay myself.”
“Aw, well if you put it like that...”
“The others were also worried for you, what Inarizaki left wasn’t... encouraging.”
“I wasn’t!” Shirabu and Eita called from where they were waiting with Reon and Tsutomu.
“Eita almost fell in his haste to leave the hall to go search for you,” Wakatoshi whispered, loudly.
“I did not!”
Satori just laughed, letting himself nuzzle into Wakatoshi’s chest as Yamagata and Taichi made gagging noises. Tsutomu yelled about the efforts he had made to go find Satori as well.
“No Jin this time huh?”
“He is with the others, we still had to go for the Seijoh bounty today after all.”
“Oh! I forgot we were messing with Seijoh today! I take it back, how could it take you so long to rescue me? I was so excited to see that angry look on their faces!”
Wakatoshi just hugged him harder, resting his head on Satori’s shoulder, “You’re right, I’m sorry.” He pressed a smile into Satori’s shoulder, “I like hindering Seijoh as well. You are correct, their angry faces never fail to entertain.”
“Ohhh I’m a bad influence on you Wakatoshi, whatever happened to calling my and Semi’s work ‘secondary’ hmm?”
“It is not a bad influence, it is a much better one than most people have.”
“Oh. Well, I can definitely think of other ways I can be a bad influence, if you-”
“Are you two done making the rest of us sick or are we going to wait until Inarizaki wakes up and tries to capture Tendou again!” Yamagata yelled.
“Give me another minute!”
“Atsumu recovers quickly, it’s best you continue this at your guild hall.”
Satori shot a look at Kita, who was now walking back to the cart where Aran had finished loading their fallen party and was waiting, reins in hand. Kita didn’t look back at him.
Satori leaned into Wakatoshi, “Did he just tell us to get a room?”
Wakatoshi huffed a laugh, “I believe he did.”
“Well, I guess we better listen to them huh? Just this once.”
“Just this once.”
With that Wakatoshi lifted his head and walked Satori over to the rest of their party, hand in hand. Where there was notably no cart waiting for them.
“...tell me you didn’t get here on foot.”
Reon sighed, “Washijou told us we were free to bail on Seijoh but that all the carts were needed for that job, so if we wanted to come get you...”
“We ran here,” Taichi stated.
Satori groaned, “The Seijoh job only needed two carts!”
“Yes.”
“We have like 15!”
“We do.”
“You know how Washijou is,” Reon tried. “Sure he was worried, but he can’t express emotion without somehow adding a punishment on top of it.”
“So we’re walking?”
“So we’re running .”
Satori sighed, “Well in that case... Wakatoshi and I are going to be the first back! See you losers later!”
And with that he pulled Wakatoshi by the hand and took off. Laughing as he heard the rest of their party start yelling at them and begin to follow.
“Looks like we’re going to have to work for that win, hm Wakatoshi?”
“Yes, but I’ve found that I am very good at winning. In many different respects.”
Satori laughed again, “Well then I guess I have nothing to worry about!”
Wakatoshi squeezed Satori’s hand, “Yes. You don’t have anything to worry about. Now, or in the future.”
Satori just smiled, “Thanks.”
He let the silence sit for a moment, just the two of them running through the forest, hand in hand.
“...You know if we run fast enough maybe we can still catch Seijoh.”
“I was thinking the same.”
Satori’s smile took on a mean edge, “Guess we better hurry then!” He turned to where the rest of their party was running behind them, “Change of plans! Don’t get lost!” He shifted his face to Oikawa’s and flashed a peace sign. “We’re going to go see our favorite guild!”