Chapter Text
[19:23]
[Jacket, Goggles, earplugs…]
[19:48]
[Outfit in place… hair tied back…]
[20:23]
[Music… dummy in place… door locked.]
[20:30]
‘W4bb1t’ was off into the world. His neon pink straps flying after him as he jumped roof to roof, pixelated creatures followed after him all chittering and laughing.
Kiryu Mitsuki, a technical summoner. He can bring certain things to life for a period of time and command them. There’s a limit on how many things he can move and how big they are. Currently for him they can be no bigger than your average stuffed animal… They also for some reason become pixelated…
He slid down a ladder and to the ground, stretching. “Alright, I can do this!” He turned to walk and ran into someone else who was also hiding in the alley. He was tall, really tall, his hair was back in a ponytail bun and he had a mask on. He looked down at Kiryu… and Kiryu looked up at him.
“...”
“...”
“Hey-”
“-Hi?”
They both stopped.
Who the hell is this sneaking in the alley at night? It was a union thought.
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“Nire… did you know most baby birds fail to fly before they gain their feathers?” Suou put his finger up.
Nirei looked over at him with a slightly annoyed and slightly surprised look. “Huh?”
Suou nodded. “Birds often will flap their wings, and baby birds will fall from their nest, flapping desperately to fly and they fail, and they fall… they do this over and over until eventually they take off to the sky.” he stepped in front of him. “Or they stay confined to their nest and die, given they don’t die upon impact with the ground.”
There was a long silence between the two of them. Nirei opened his mouth to speak but he didn’t, so Suou continued. Despite his words, his tone was gentle. “What I’m trying to say is… I understand how you feel… you’ve suddenly manifested power and the power you thought would help you has left you feeling trapped instead. Lamenting on what you should be able to do won’t help you achieve what you can do and you can only achieve that once you experience falling from the nest again and again until you finally touch the sky like you want to.” He turned away from him. “I don’t know anything about flying… but in the short time I’ve known you I can say… I don’t think you’ll die on impact from the ground… which is why I don’t think you should keep yourself shackled to the ground.”
He then simply turned and walked away. Disappearing as he walked out, Nirei stayed sitting there, leaning back against the wall. The only way to fly is to fall, okay…
Sakura woke up many hours later, practically… In the morning, he sat up quickly, and immediately swung around himself, looking around. When he saw where he was, he only relaxed a little bit. His gaze fell on Nirei, who had seemingly stayed there all night, he was laying on one of the wooden benches with his wings over himself to act as a blanket.
[“... he kinda looks like a bird…”] Sakura walked up, tilting his head to the left… and then the right as he looked him over. He was trying to first make sure he was okay and second look at his wings. They really were pretty… bright white and they faded to a little bit of brown at the ends.
He reached out to touch one, he wanted to know how they felt… his fingers brushed one of the feathers and Nirei jolted awake which made Sakura jump back.
He rubbed his eyes and sat up and Sakura stepped back, pretending like he wasn’t staring at him and touching his wings. “You’re… awake… why are you still here…” He mumbled.
“Wuh…” Nirei squinted. “You got knocked out by those sound waves… I wanted to make sure you were alright… I’m not sure if my healing actually did anything but I tried to do something if you were in pain…” he rubbed his eyes again.
“Oh… thank… you…” Sakura was blushing.
Nirei just smiled a little. “Um… Sakura… were you touching my wings…?”
“No! Well- Listen! They’re like… weird okay! I mean they look like bird wings but they feel… soft…” He shook his head and groaned. “I just wanted to know what they felt like!”
Nirei opened his wings and closed them again, it was still so weird having them honestly, yet moving them now felt like it was just moving another body part. He stood and walked over to Sakura, stretching a wing towards him. “Here.”
Sakura looked over at him, before down at his wing. He slowly reached out and carefully ran his hand along one of the feathers. They were soft… not exactly like a bird's feathers but still light. “Amazing…”
“Aww did I miss the sleepover?” It was Suou, he walked up with his hands behind his back and was calm as usual. He was holding a bag. “Did you two sleep well?”
“Yeah…” Nirei nodded.
“What’s that?” Sakura pointed.
Suou held the bag up, before setting it down and opening it. Bottles of tea and water, snacks, and a really odd looking brush.
“What’s all this for?” Nirei tilted his head.
“Well there isn’t much here so I brought these.” He handed Sakura the snacks since he was inching closer. “As for the brush, it’s for your wings. You don’t have claws or any other bird-like features to keep them in shape so you’ll have to use a brush.” He turned to him, smiling. “How about I brush them first?”
Nirei made a face. “I’ll pass… you seem too excited about that.”
“Of course, it’s not every day you get to prune a bird's wings, most do it themselves.” He motioned him to sit, which he did.
“Yeah but I’m not a bird… I don’t think…” Nirei huffed, opening his wings so Suou could brush them. He carefully picked through his wing with the brush, humming happily. He just really likes animals honestly.
“Sakura~ would you like to try?” Suou turned to him.
Sakura stopped mid bite. “Eh?” He looked over.
Suou pulled him over to where he was standing and put the brush in his hand. “Just carefully run the brush through, you don’t have to pull hard.”
Sakura gave him a slightly worried look, before looking back at the brush in his hand. He carefully took Nirei’s wing and began to run the brush over it.
Only a few feathers fell from them brushing it out, and the feathers seemed to turn gold and dissolve once they were detached from his wings… How fascinating.
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They spent the better half of the evening watching Nirei attempt to fly, using a makeshift trampoline and a pile of trash to make sure he wouldn’t get too hurt when he jumped off of the second story. They made some progress though! At least he can glide and somewhat hover now. And so they all got ready to leave that night, getting into their costumes. Suou using his illusions, Sakura pulling his hood and each piece of his costume on, and Nirei taking his staff which made his hair and eyes change, it also changed his outfit.
They took off into the night. They usually rotated areas, staying in one place was usually asking to be caught by a hero. So today they were east of where they had been the last few nights. In this place the streets were a little more narrow and a little more darker, especially since it was much more residential, meaning there would hopefully be less powered criminals and just petty idiots trying to steal stuff. The three of them sat on top of the building of a convenience store, Sakura was eating a sandwich they had grabbed before they got up there while Suou and Nirei were keeping watch. It was so boring tonight, much less eventful than the last few weeks have been, though maybe it was a needed break… between running from heroes, running from villains, and Nirei’s powers awakening they were all tired in their own ways.
Someone came running out of a house nearby, followed by screaming and someone else following after them. A robbery, it didn’t look too… big though. The guy was just outrunning whoever he robbed.
Sakura stood, but Suou opened his hand. Created an illusion of a pitfall in front of the guy to make him stop. Though before the guy reached it a… pink bear slammed down on top of him. They all sat up at that, who was that?
Someone jumped down, from nearby, and on his shoulder was someone else wearing a visor. He carefully got to the ground and picked up the items that were taken, he then turned to the one who had been chasing him and offered it back. The man seemed to thank the two quite adamantly before departing back home. They both stopped at the sight of Suous illusion once they were going on their way again. But the taller one seemed to say something and both walked over it like it was nothing.
The three decided to jump down to see the two. However Suou walked forward first, he usually hung back and let Sakura handle it…
“... It’s you.” He mumbled.
“OH HEY MEIMEI!” He laughed. “I KNEW THAT WAS YOUR ILLUSION!”
Suou made a face. “Uh… huh…”
Nirei and Sakura looked between Sakura and the other. He was really tall, he had a bandage mask and he kinda… looked like a wrestler from his makeup and outfit… odd he knows Suou though… these two couldn’t be more opposite…
They’d never seen Suou look so… bothered.
“Meimei…” Nirei mumbled.
“So… you two are…” Sakura stepped up next to Suou.
“W4bb1t~” Kiryu hummed, waving his sleeves around, Sakura looked at the other who gave a big smile. “Virtue!”
“Virtue… and Wabbit…” Nirei took his book out to write. Kiryu walked up next to him. “You spelled it wrong… W4abb1t…”
“H…uh…? Wait, how are you doing that?” He squinted.
“Doing what?”
“With… the numbers- nevermind…”
“You guys aren’t heroes are you…” Sakura spoke, simply watching them still.
“Far from it.” Suou answered. “Kiryu… Didn’t you get in trouble already from doing this?” He tilted his head.
“Hey hey, what happened to not saying actual names!” Kiryu frowned.
“It’s not like it’s a secret… your power is the only one advertised by an entire family.” Suou began walking.
Kiryu shrugged. “I wasn’t caught, I just got grounded, that was all.”
“H… Hey- why don’t we have them join us!” Nirei turned, watching Suou who paused at Nirei’s suggestion. “I mean… I know the three of us handle things pretty well but… it wouldn’t hurt to have just two more… Right Calico?” He looked over at Sakura, who just shrugged. “I don’t care either way…”
And so… they recruited two new members! They returned to the base and the two looked around. It… was still extremely run down though. To be fair they really only sat around there sometimes and then went out… other than that Sakura just slept at night and then went out during the day. Kiryu hummed as he looked around. “Wowie, what a place. Kinda trashed though~” he pushed at a piece of wood on the ground. “I’m sure we can fix it up though.”
“Fix it up?” Sakura mumbled. “It’s fine for its function…”
“Mmm yes but it could also be nice and cozy~ And cozy makes you comfortable!” He smiled.
“comfortable?” Sakura tilted his head.
“Oh yeah!” Kiryu turned. “What’s your name by the way?” He looked at the taller one.
“What.” all three spoke in unison.
“You were sitting on his shoulder like you were so familiar though…” Nirei mumbled.
“Not to mention you immediately trusted his word about walking into Suou’s illusion!” Sakura added
“And you didn’t even know his name…” Suou continued.
He laughed loudly, waving his hand. “It’s fine, being cautious is just how we have to be as vigilantes. Withholding information is unfortunate but now that we’re teammates I’ll now trust you all! I am Tsugeura!”
Tsugeura Taiga. His ability allows him to enhance himself and sometimes those around him via words. The effectiveness of his enhancements links to the roll of the “dice” in his eyes. The higher the number the more belief in his words. His power, just like his name, is called Virtue.
“Oh hey where did Suou go?” Nirei looked around. Suou had vanished.
“Doesn’t he always do that…” Sakura mumbled
“Oooh Meigui is as mysterious as the rumours~” Kiryu waved his sleeves and hummed.
Tsuge just hummed in agreement as well.
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“So they beat Kaji and his group as well? That’s amazing!” He laughed. “We didn’t even mean for him to run into them that time.” He clapped, sitting back against his chair. “These new guys really have spunk huh, they’ll be helpful for what’s coming.”
“Helpful… only if they’re on our side. At this rate though they’ll be our enemies though if we keep running into them like this.” Hiiragi sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.
“I know I know… I get what you’re saying.” He sat up. “I guess it’s my turn then, I’ll go try and talk to them myself.”