Pretty much an archive

I wanted him to be more threatening and in the end I don't know what his face is doing. It was a fun excercise of how much damage and how many signs of agitation I can display. Ruffled EVERYTHING. I bet the Thieves didn't intend to pull feathers or hitting his tail but the combat that Akechi was engaging in in the boiler room didn't really allow for holding back.

An unfinished comic I wanted to do, speculating about their first meeting, how everyone is suspicious, except Minato. The last picture would be captioned "I want that man's hands on my wings". He's the epitome of avian: he has big sleek wings, he looks powerful, he accessorizes, they're black like his own but also have a light show going on... he's perfect.

Some experiments with flight cycles... I very much don't know what I'm doing lmao

A lot of scenes from that fic live rent free in my head, so here's the first one, from chapter 1-2. I referenced the Marudyne art included in the fic heavily, and made a guess for the face writings.

Wing AUs usually have me in an unrelenting grip, and this one is well thought out and has art to visualise it and really, who was I to resist? I tried to take as much design inspiration from Vinegar as I could but filled in some gaps too, it was very fun.

General design note, I take a lot of inspiration from real birds to make wings; I haven't quite ventured away from that yet oops. Real bird patterns and wing shapes just go to show what works IRL so I know I can use it with confidence.

Minato: I had to magpie him, that poll sparked the brain chemicals and I had to. The tail was a bit of a struggle but friends helped decide how it should look! The shape though is very Toothless, it just seemed to fit. Ryoji: he may not have 4 wings, since that only happens in very specific circumstances, but he has weird wings because he still is a god in some way, he's not like the humans (and dog). I wanted to give him one of the unusual wing shapes from @scribbly-blue-hearts's wing compendium, and seraphine, to make it seem like 4 wings at first glance, similar to Minato, seemed to fit! And his tail is an unsubtle crescent moon lol. If he never opens his wings or tail, nobody will notice, right?

Junpei: I didn't have much of an idea here so I went with something hawky or eagley, so it's versatile, dependable but fast as well, with a hawk pattern because I take inspiration from real birds often. His colours are sorta camouflagey, which wouldn't help in the city, and his tail has a spike I don't know why but I liked it in the MC week art. Yukari: Yukari was giving me dove vibes, though I know she's not a helpless damsel healer. The chibi art showed her with some sort of wing spurs so I have her wing fingers instead of alulas. Might be a weird choice but idk, I kinda like it. Her tail is more fur/hair-like than feather-like and her ears are feathered as per that chibi art too.

Kotone/Hamuko: luckily that MC week art was great inspiration! Thankfully she has big butterfly flag energy lol, but it did take fiddling lol. She's SUPER showy, but I wonder how she keeps the flag feathers from dragging... Mitsuru: I wanted something elegant for her, and ended up with swallow wings and colouring, except the navy. Navy is peak in swallows, but alas I didn't think it would fit Mitsuru. She would have had a lot of trouble learning to fly but thankfully she's one of the oldest members of SEES with the most experience with wings so the others wouldn't have seen her stumbling around and crashing into pillars; that means she was alone for years before meeting Akihiko though. Her tail has a couple long spurs like a swallow tail but I wasn't sure about them at first. Then again, they're sharp like speed and elegance and danger, which fit her. I headcanon that the Kirijo Group made her a bunch of furniture to accommodate her new limbs, and as new members joined, the furniture was put out to be used by others, first just Akihiko and Shinjiro, and then like 9 people. The others were quite prepared going into having wings, with Mitsuru and Akihiko there. Speaking of!

Akihiko: I wasn't sure on him but I wanted something sturdy, fast, practical, and also black and white. A polar falcon seemed fitting! Ergo gyrfalcon ugh patterns I imagine he looks cool to newbies as well. His tail is one I was most iffy on, but I decided on a fan to help him steer as well as a plume of hair to help slow him down when needed, since gyrfalcons are up there in fastest birds in the world. Ken: so Ken isn't grown yet so his wings are a bit too small for his size. I didn't have many ideas here either so I went with something similar to Junpei but with less stripes and keeping more around the yellow hue. I quite like it! his tail is short because he's young and a fan because I'm undecided and fans are generally useful lol. They give lift and steering!

Shinjiro: this one was FUN. I don't like thermal gliding wings so I fought the slots as I added them, but the colouring was awesome! I made a version with less red on it just in case, but I like this one ngl. He has a short tail with a fan because he already has a lot of power in his wings, his flight would tend towards slower (but he could go faster; he'd have to, with Mitsuru and Akihiko as the only other SEES members) so I assume steering would be easier. He has a pretty lowkey palette because he doesn't need colour to signal he's a danger, he's massive and could easily block out the sun with a shrug (threatening mantling oooo) Fuuka: I was so lost on Fuuka I asked Cici her thoughts, she said hummingbird, I doubted that but unexpectedly found a Vinegar reply saying hummingbird so Cici won. Unfortunately for Fuuka, she's very flashy with iridescent green and blue feathers; I suspect she's use the SEES battle cape as a way to hide some of it. Her tail is shorter than it otherwise would be because hummingbird wings need as little mass as possible but she can also use the fan to brake suddenly. Watching her fly would be so fun.

Messiah Minato: finally a relief from magpie, he does look angelic tbh. I have a question though, does he get a third pair of wings like that one sketch showed? Because oof that'd be hard on him, but so pretty. Koromaru: I've never put wings on an animal so I had some reservations and asked my friends, they had good suggestions like lovebirds, but I ended up going with something pigeon-like, both for their size and for their loyalty and companionship.

On the outfits: since the wings can pass through clothing, the accommodations aren't technically necessary, but I imagine the Kirijo Group would want to reduce distractions in battle, so they'd make suitable clothing so nothing needs to pass through and possibly distractions (I'm going with Chained Wings logic). I tried to redesign the standard battle jackets to be suitable for winged people, since the Group would have precedent from Mitsuru and Strega to know to expect wings. the buttoned strap at the waist in the back would be able to unbutton on both sides so the jacket can be thrown on easily, and I imagine to take off when injured as well. Poor Minato had to figure out how to wear his jacket, before deciding to just stick the smaller wings out under its hem (I forgot to plan for that and didn't end up showing that in these drawings). Mitsuru's unique outfit got a big gap in the back and her cape serves as modesty. Akihiko has a different harness that's much more Ryoji styled than the in-game one, and he, as well as everyone, has a school uniform tailored for the new limbs (why do they wear their school uniforms to fight again?). Various gear has been redesigned to not impede wings, like Junpei's sword sheath being secured to his belt, and Ken getting a bum pack on top of his Evoker belt, instead of a diagonal bag. Yukari's quiver has also gone to her waist on one side. Shinjiro doesn't have adapted clothing because he's still in his self-punishing phase and he quit SEES so he doesn't have that gear (and probably refuses new gear); plus he's used to wearing normal clothing 24/7 so it won't distract him. Koromaru's shirt (and probably battle vest) just has bigger gaps and probably more fastenings to get it on him. Ryoji's only adapted clothing is his suspenders; his shirt and pants are normal. He's ethereal, it makes sense he'd find no problem in phasing through stuff (but I imagine he'd be confused in his amnesiac state).

Oh and one last note: half-joking headcanon that as soon as a person joins SEES, Mitsuru mandates that anyone who wears a skirt also wears shorts or a skort, because she'd hate for modesty to cause a split second of hesitation when flying away could save their lives. Plus they have tails now, those might flick unexpectedly.

The first picture is with updated bandage colours and haori diamonds, since they were very uneven and sketched in before (see picture 2).

I recently tried to figure out how to draw expressions and while looking at Shiro's wiki page I realised his teeth need to be black, which made me look at his Zangetsu, which of course had black bandages! (Deadly Darts looks like a baller technique that I'd love for Kaito to learn ngl) So I changed the bandages to black, while this picture still has the white bandages on both as a relic.

I recently discovered the treasure trove that is kaminokatachi and browsed their poses for inspiration, and the bow section had these that spoke to me! That site in general is really useful, and helps me visualise poses in 3d, which most references don't normally give.

I figured I'd put Kaito in various outfits his father may have gotten him; I don't think a lilac yukata would be meant for men, but hey, he somehow found children's patterned adult jinbei, so. He regularly manages impossible things.

For hair, I haven't really figured out how to draw it yet for various poses or in general so it's inconsistent.

The non-bankai bow was oddly the thing that gave me most trouble, and I think I bent it too much when it's drawn, when looking at anime screencaps, but what's done is done.

Some of my favourites here are the upside down bankai pose that stayed in my mind after I read it as SO badass; the top right Kaito sorta lounging and casually giving Uryuu a run around, you can imagine Urahara sitting nearby just chatting; and the bottom right where I hope I conveyed scorched ground and smoke well enough. Poor guy, but he did ask for this.

There's a secret subtle little detail I included that might be overlooked but I'll be happy if someone notices!