Level Horizon (Haikyuu!! WingedAU)

Year One 3/8; Metempsychosis & Trace

When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves. ~Victor Frankl

Hajime Iwaizume looks up from stretching after the evening practice as the voice of Saeko Tanaka reaches his ears.

The woman was known well enough through the rookery for her performances at festivals so when his eyes confirm her identity, it's merely a formality. Despite the blemish her family name had suffered with her brother's desertion last fall, the female crow had remained tall and she'd never lost her place at the drums. Truthfully, there was no one who could touch her performances, though; the drums never sounded quite as powerful for anyone else.

He can't make out what she's saying to her companions— neither of which he recognizes, but her demeanor is as colorful as ever. She points out something in the military compound and one of his brows cocks, his curiosity piqued. When she points another direction, her voice steadily floating to his ears, his head tilts.

Saeko is doing all the talking, her two companions nodding and following her lead.

That isn't an interaction between friends... she's acting as a guide.

Which isn't that unusual, he supposes. She was known for having a diverse and eccentric group of friends and acquaintances, a couple more oddballs isn't out of place.

At least it's not until she banks and leads them toward the residential region that buts up against military premises. Hajime knows Saeko doesn't live over there; she lived above the cafe her family had run for years— in the opposite direction.

Huh. Strange.

He shrugs and climbs to his feet, heading for the Grand King's study to deliver the report that came in today. Still his thoughts stray to her companions. The one had been just another crow, but the other... his pale wings and white-blond hair were anything but crow. He'd been tall, too, and as Hajime drops outside the large assembly building that houses the main congregation hall, several strategy rooms, and the Grand King's office among other things, he racks his brain for what the lanky pale outsider might be.

As he runs through the blond's physical attributes, the sentry's feet carry him through the door and down the halls with unconscious memory, Hajime having walked this route nearly every day for the last year. His sheer size rules out the likelihood that he's any type of songbird, and he can't be an egret because while his wings are probably one of the lightest in the entire rookery at the moment, they aren't the stark white like the fishing bird. His wing strokes looked too precise and quick to be a crane, but his shoulders weren't really wide enough to be a gull. He's too slender to be a swan, so really, what was left?

Hajime is so busy sifting through any avian he knows that might have pale wings that he's caught off guard when he steps into the Grand King's office.

The rookery leader sits at his desk, staring sightlessly at a missive in his hand. His eyes make Hajime think of a man set adrift in the vast sea of memory without a paddle or tether or any way back— lost to the world until someone rescues him from the outside. His mouth is set into a flat line, his forehead creasing slightly, forming a dip between his brows. It's a look that Hajime's seen far more often in the last year than he's ever wanted to.

The Grand King is nothing like he used to be.

He's aged what looks like a century in the last twelve months, his conviction wavering alongside his health. He's far more reserved, his easy demeanor around others faltering far more frequently, and he's prone to bouts of pensive silence like this one. Those episodes aren't confined to the privacy of his study or personal quarters, either. The Grand King had been in the middle of a meeting just last week and had trailed off, his gaze going hollow and Hajime had rescued him from that one, but he's not always been on hand to step in, and the sentry knows there have been moments where he appears weak to those around him.