Level Horizon (Haikyuu!! WingedAU)

Year Two.50 1/1; Duplicate Amaurosis

The most important thing to do when you find yourself in a hole is to stop digging. ~Warren Buffet

~Six Months Later, Early Autumn~

Kei Tsukishima eyes a high toss from the thrush, his muscles tensing to break at the precise moment to maximize the height of his jump in tandem with the strike.

A breeze preceding an impending mild storm off the water gives it a little extra lift and it's slipping farther outside than he'd like, but it's nothing that he can't adjust to. His limbs move on reflex and he's in the air, his hand connecting squarely with the ball. He sends it straight at Daichi where he waits on the other side alone, working on receives.

The thrush's tosses don't key him up the same way Kageyama's do— the avian prince's just piss Kei off with how freaking perfect they are. It's totally unnatural—as if the ball were being forcibly subjugated and enslaved to the crow's will. Next to that, Suga's high, floating sets are relaxing and he breathes out as he comes down. It's probably just his own inherent dislike for the crow setter bleeding through, but Kageyama's flawless tosses still drive him up a tree.

Since Yaku's arrival last year had unbalanced the teams, he's been playing far more frequently with the former Karasuno unit instead of the cats and owls to mitigate the power shift, and it has exposed him all the more to the young king's precision. And as far as he can tell, he's the only one who gets irrationally annoyed by it. But then, he gets annoyed by Hinata's baseless enthusiasm, too.

Seriously, the redhead had been running around without a shirt last week, and the bones growing in his back would pull his skin into creepy fleshy protrusions when he'd bend. When he'd found out it weirded Kei out, the shrimp had made a point to not wear a shirt the next three days with maniacal glee.

Freaking redheaded gremlin, he mentally grumbles at the memory. The last three days have been blissful without them.

Beside him, Tadashi and Bokuto also wait to hit at the large crow. Akaashi is working the docks alone today in a rare diverging separation from his leveler and the streaked owl has been far more moody than normal. Hitoka and Shimizu both went into Sheru Bay a while ago for supplies and Kenma is curled up on one of the chairs that have found a home on the porch for an afternoon nap while Kuroo hunts.

The lax afternoon practice is halted by the sudden onset of rain from the grey clouds overhead, cold and pervasive, an insistent herald of fall. When the sand starts sticking to the ball, the thrush apologetically begs off, not relishing the grains that drop into his face with each toss. Tsukishima moves to collect the net before a full downpour; it can use some mending before it gets cold enough that they move it back into the barn for the winter.

Their standby location when the world turns frosty has consistently been available since that first year, Takeda only too happy to offer it up after that first winter. Suga and Daichi had cultivated a mutual relationship by regularly bringing them goods from town in a show of gratitude, the owls pitching in now and then with a side of fish from the docks or once even a tool to replace one showing its age. They are on good enough terms with the guy that he and his family are aware of who Kageyama and the rest of the Karasuno group are, and they know who are levelers. Really, Takeda is amenable enough with them that Kei is pretty sure the man would readily offer up his own home if they somehow ended up losing theirs.

Yamaguchi releases the other end of the net and they quickly drag the net up onto the porch before they are soaked. One of Kenma's gold eyes slips open as they clatter by him, but the small cat doesn't move from his place in the chair. The ibis is positive that wouldn't have been the case if Kageyama and Hinata had been here.