#kamoda

“Hey, why are we calling each other by our colors?” Arthur spoke up. He was drifting around, trying to find a good spot in the Bird Club’s natural v-shaped formation.

“That’s our codenames. Our human and bird club lives are different!” Kamoda replied.

“Oh! Oh yeah, who’s this ‘advisor’ you were talking about earlier today, Red?” Arthur asked.

“He’s a human.” Takayama said.

“Huh?!”

Detailed as ever, Takayama. Eishi thought dully. He felt his phone ring and answered it.

“Hi, Eishi. Are you all in the air?” Naoyuki asked.

“Yeah, I’m looking for your signal now, old man.” Eishi said. He felt Arthur fly up next to him, listening in no doubt with a frown on his face. Eishi ignored him, searching the ground for a flashing light.

“Over there!” Kamoda dived to speed up below Eishi and pointed.

“Confirmed signal. Beginning descent.” Eishi tucked his wings in and dived down to a house in a speedy fashion. Unused to their formation, Arthur fell behind and was the last to land on a large porch. Naoyuki was there, turning off his flashlight and waving them inside a dark room.

“Where is this? Is it safe?” Eishi pressed, keeping his mask on.

“We’ll talk inside.” Naoyuki said. Eishi nodded and followed him closely into the house, the others squeezing in behind him with their wings wrapped around them. “Ok, you can turn on the light now.”

The light flashed on, revealing Marilyn and a man in a room filled with costumes, masks, and hats.

“Iiiit’s Marilyn’s room!” Marilyn announced.

“Wahh, that scarf is so cute!” Umino squealed, pointing to the fox scarf that the man was wearing.

“Huh? Who is that?” Eishi asked, staring at the man.

“Is that a Russian?” Kamoda whispered.

“It’s Mr. Smith.” Rei replied.

“Wait,” Marilyn stared at Arthur, who stared at them as if they were oddly shaped aliens, “Are you…”

“The american birdman!” Mr. Smith said, blinking wide-eyed as he took off his hat, “You’re alive?!”

“HEY NAOYUKI?! WHY DID YOU BRING HIM HERE?! Are you trying to se-” Eishi panicked as the information of a ‘stranger’ being here sunk in.

Naoyuki wrestled Eishi to keep his hand over his mouth,“Shhh! Calm down! The neighbors can still hear you!”

“Can someone please translate for me???” Arthur cried.

“Kamoda, do you mind doing it? Gotta concentrate.” Rei asked.

“No prob!” Kamoda translated for Arthur. Arthur, quite suddenly, gave Mr. Smith an intense glare. He shouted something in english, fast enough that none of the bird club understood, but when they heard ‘Eden’ all eyes were fixed on Mr. Smith. Mr. Smith smiled as if resigned. Naoyuki stood in between Arthur and Mr. Smith, sensing Arthur was about to become violent.

“Please, let us explain.” Naoyuki pleaded with a panicked look on his face. Umino was the one who tugged Arthur back.

“Let me handle this, Phoenix.” Eishi said, and although Arthur let out a angry huff he stayed back.

“This is your case officer from Eden.” Naoyuki began. Eishi felt a bristling distaste, bordering on hatred, rise up in him.

“Helllooo, I’m Adam Fox, a former employee of Eden.” Mr. Smith, erm, Adam said.

“Johnathan Smith is an alias, then.” Rei said coldly. Johnath- ADAM tilted his head as if considering that.

“Johnathan is what my friends call me. My real name is Adam.” Adam replied with a smile.

“Adam... I’ve heard that name before. They’re clones.” Arthur spoke, crossing his arms, “I’ve seen them in the farms. They don’t live very long.”

“Phoenix informed me that you’re a clone that doesn’t have long to live.” Eishi spoke out loud.

“And he’s right.” Adam confirmed, “That spares that explanation.”

“Are you the one who shot Kamoda?” Eishi coldly asked.

“I ordered it.” Adam confirmed again without missing a beat. And Eishi felt his power creeping up, about ready to consume the danger in front of him.

“He shot Green?!” Arthur growled after Kamoda uneasily translated. Eishi could suddenly feel Arthur’s aura goading his forward so they could-

“Wait. No violence.” Naoyuki said hurriedly, putting an arm in front of Eishi. Eishi glared at him as he inwardly wrestled with his last few shreds of common sense, “In a way, he’s your ally. He knows Eden’s inner workings… Let’s talk first.” He said cautiously.

“I thought you said he was our enemy.” Eishi said such in a forced calm that nearly had the man pull away from him. The moment he snapped, so would the rest of the Bird Club, especially with Arthur practically boiling behind him.

“Please!” Naoyuki pleaded with him, definitely terrified now.

“Sorry,” Adam said, “I know a lot has happened, but I’m not as strong as you guys. It would be a problem if you beat me up until I could no longer move.” He met Eishi’s gaze, “I can receive… your ill wishes.”

“Die.” Eishi hissed.

“Soon…” Adam said.

There was a moment of tense silence, before Eishi stepped forward and sat at the table.

The meeting continued relatively smoothly after that. Everyone was encouraged to borrow some costumes; Rei immediately put on a crown and an egyptian looking necklace, Kamoda put on a panda hat, and Umino had a tribal-looking cat mask on. Arthur put on a ridiculous-looking santa hat that had a cone-shaped spring with a cotton ball at the end that jingled whenever he moved his head. Takayama didn’t seem interested; in fact he was looking at the window now of all times. Eishi did not have time to mess around or question Takayama’s ways, he was assessing Adam and coming up with questions.

Adam explained that Arthur was set up by a group called Eve III, who wanted to destroy the world using the birdmen. He also urged the bird club to not give up on humanity.

“She said her name was ‘Sky’.” Arthur said. He wasn’t looking at them, and he was somewhat curled into a ball again, “So she just wanted to use us… I wanted to free her, too…”

“Are you using your tweets again?” Naoyuki asked all of a sudden.

“It’s the only way we can communicate with Phoenix.” Eishi replied. He supposed he did pause a lot to not only think, but also listen to the others... Umino cautiously patted Arthur’s knee, who gave her a small, forced smile and curled into himself a bit more.

“Well, if he says anything you think we should hear, please tell us.” Adam said. Eishi nodded, and Adam continued on to detail a plan of cooperation for their next blackout and answer the questions that followed it.

The meeting was then concluded. Everyone filed out and took off quickly from the veranda of the house.

It was a few minutes before Arthur burst.

“Why in the world do we have to care about humans, anyway?” He suddenly declared, “If they left us alone that would be great! We-”

Umino suddenly dived bombed him with a flying kick.

“Ow?!” Arthur yelped, but quickly caught his balance in the air.

“Not everyone doesn’t care about humans!” Umino shouted, “We all have families and friends that are humans!” She flew away from him right next to Rei.

“What in the world did she just say?”

“She said that you don’t speak for us.” Eishi said, perhaps with more bite than he wanted.

“Learn your place, newbie!” Kamoda chimed in.

“Kamoda, that’s unnecessary.”

Both Arthur and Kamoda hung their heads and sulked. Rei covered his mouth and tried not to laugh.

“... Hey Eishi, he’s carrying a hat.” Rei remarked. Arthur flinched as if he were caught.

“...” Am I watching a little kid? Eishi wondered, and spoke, “Guys, go ahead to the sky tower. Arthur, come with me, we’re returning the hat.” The others acknowledged this and Eishi and Arthur split off to circle back in the other direction.

“You guys found it funny when I was wearing it!” Arthur protested, fluttering to Eishi side with crossed arms.

“Do I really have to educate you on why stealing is bad?” Eishi asked in exasperation, “I’ve seen videos of your flock raiding grocery stores and stalls for food. Has your thievery extended to material objects as well?”

“But...”

“Listen, if something belongs to someone else then you shouldn’t take it without permission. This is a basic rule in order to have a functional society.”

“They’re humans, Eishi.” Arthur’s tone suddenly changed for the worse, and Eishi wondered if he had chosen the wrong words, “You don’t understand yet because you still have families… but they’re not worth fighting for. They’ll recover from what we take just fine.”

Eishi wanted to argue back immediately, but stayed silent to choose his words carefully. Losing his cool here would not do either of them any good...

“In fact, why do we need to be around them? If we can get away, find a place to settle, make our own food, we can be free and none of them will touch us again.” Arthur continued. Eishi saw the house in the distance, but circled back to settle on top of the nearest skyscraper. Arthur followed, his talons skidding against the concrete rooftop for a few feet.

“Let’s make our own kingdom, and with enough Seraph we could make a sanctuary where no one can get hurt.” Arthur straightened up, gained confidence the more Eishi listened to him. The  ridiculous bouncy and jingling hat in Arthur’s hands did not ease Eishi’s silently growing unease as they folded their wings, “It might take some time, but we could figure it out. It can start here… we could make it together.” Arthur approached him, within arm’s reach, “All you have to do is throw away this silly game of playing human.”

The way he’s ushering me away from humanity… It’s reminds me of Takayama... but that guy’s better at hiding it. Ah. Eishi made an educated guess; this guy has been a seraph for a while, hasn’t he?

“When were you turned, Phoenix?” He asked. Arthur didn’t seem to be prepared for the question and blinked dumbly, “Four years ago?” Eishi guessed.

“Oh, no. Eden took me when I was real young. I was turned when I was five.”

This guy... was a Seraph even longer than Takayama was. Was this viewpoint what awaited all of the bird club?

“The majority of us were turned months ago.” Eishi said, crossing his arms.

Arthur recoiled, “What?! Almost all of you awakened, what…. What in the world happened?!”

“Eden happened.” Eishi said, looking out the glimmering city below, “But we’re still going about our daily lives from when we were human... If Eden left us alone, we’d continue to blend in with humanity until we were dead. I don’t think that’s a bad life… maybe if we were the only birdmen, it would be possible...” He trailed off, looking to Arthur, “But we’re not… the bird club has to move carefully. As Adam said, we have be careful not to act out too much.”

“But that’s... not freedom.”

“It’s good to have restrictions.” Eishi smiled humorlessly, “From my experience humans are terrible when they’re unrestrained.” He gave Arthur a pointed look.

“What are you looking at me like that for?! Is it because of the stealing again?!” Arthur huffed, “Besides, we’re not human! We’re so much better than that now!”

“Better, less, what we can be, what does it matter?” Eishi said bitterly, “Humans at the moment still think you’re a pest, a thief, a terror coming in to take something precious. We need to be held to their standards for us to peacefully coexist.”

“We don’t have to coexist!” Arthur’s voice was almost hysteric now, as sudden anger burned in his eyes, “As I said before, we can make our own kingdom! If we combine our powers, I’m sure we could call out to everyone and gather them-”

Arthur stopped abruptly. Eishi was still shocked at Arthur’s tone, bordering on a death tweet, a fear that Arthur would make him do something he didn’t want creeping almost venomously into him, would he have to-

“It is not time yet, Arthur.” Takayama landed between them suddenly- coming in without warning like he usually did.

“You told me that before…” Arthur said softly, and stood still as Takayama reached out and grabbed his hand. Takayama’s feathers were flared, and he had a sharp look in his red eyes.

“Hey, hey, hey!” Eishi spoke up, suddenly feeling nervous for a different reason, “What in the world are you two talking about?”

They were silent, no doubt communicating in that weird way. More secrets… Eishi thought uneasily, but as his anger slowly simmered down in the silence he tried to hope that Takayama and Arthur weren’t going to do anything harmful. Telling them to stop, to not keep anything from him regardless of what it was… would really restrict their freedom, and he didn’t want to tie the people around him down.

Takayama let go of Arthur, leapt off the skyscraper, and flew off. Arthur took a step forward as if to follow him but stopped, looking at Eishi.

“Maybe we can… agree to disagree?” He said, in an apologetic tone.

“That’s not enough, Phoenix... But it’s a start.” Eishi said. Arthur nodded and went to take off, “Where are you going?”

“I wanted to ask Takayama something-”

“Not before you return the hat and apologize.” Eishi said, taking Arthur’s arm and dragging him off the skyscraper with him. Arthur fell into formation behind him without protest for once. Eishi took out his phone from his wing mass-case and texted Naoyuki that they were coming back to return a hat.

“Oh, you can keep it if you want!” Marilyn later said with a grin and a wave of her hand as Eishi bowed in apology and held a confused Arthur’s head down too.

“Marilyn said you can keep it.” Eishi said.

“See? She didn’t need it anyway!”

“I want you to thank her.”

“She doesn’t understand english, does she?”

Eishi let go of Arthur, “Repeat after me.” He spoke the words for ‘thank you, Miss Marilyn’ slowly. Adam, who was still lingering in the room and writing, paused to watch with an interested gaze.

“Th...ank you, Miss Marilyn.” Arthur said in a heavy american accent.

“You’re welcome, Arthur!” Marilyn squealed with joy.

“Am I going to have to learn Japanese...?”

“Yes.” Eishi spoke out loud to Arthur.

“Uh, was that a greeting?”

“No, it was a confirmation.”

Arthur groaned as Eishi made his farewells to the rest of the advisors of the bird club and took off, expecting Arthur to follow.

“Why do I have to learn Japanese? Do I have to talk to humans? I thought you wanted me hidden…”

“Don’t you want to know what people are saying without having us translate?” Eishi asked.

“No, I don’t mind at all.”

“What if we’re not around?”

“Eh?” Arthur’s voice took on an almost scared tone, “But seraph stay together...”

“We’ll have leave you alone somewhere for a while while the rest of us go to school. If a human talks to you, you should know basic Japanese or else you’ll look incredibly suspicious.”

“Oh… I guess I have to learn, then.” Arthur grumbled. As silence sank between them, Eishi looked ahead to the sky terrace and came to a conclusion.

“Come on… let’s take a detour, Yellow.” He said carefully.

“Alright!” Arthur said curiously. He really did seem to like that nickname, “Wait, what about the others? Won’t they be wondering where we are?”

“They can wait.” Eishi said, closing his eyes to read the wind for a moment before flapping his wings to climb into the air. He couldn’t let Arthur see the others in this state… if Arthur kept bad-mouthing and demeaning humans the way he was doing… Umino especially would get really mad and Eishi didn’t want everyone to, in the worst case scenario, turn against or reject Arthur.

Eishi flew up until he could feel the clouds brush at his face, and formed his helmet as he broke through the first barrier and the air became more thin. Arthur flew up besides him, also wearing his helmet.

“Have you ever flown higher than this?” Eishi asked, gliding over the dips and hills of the cloud beneath him. He didn’t mind cloudy nights as much anymore… the clouds gave him more obstacles to cross, and up here the stars glimmered more than he could ever see on the ground.

“Oh, no, I never got the chance. If my group flew higher than this, some people would fall behind.” Arthur replied, diving in and out of a cloud like a spinning dolphin with wings.

“Wanna try it?”

“What if we fly into space?”

“We could try landing on the moon, then.”

“... That’s ridiculous!” Arthur laughed, and some of the tension between them loosened. Eishi took a deep breath in and darted upward. Arthur pulled ahead at a great speed- faster than Eishi had even seen Takayama go.

A few minutes of rapid ascension before-

“This is tough work.” Eishi said, panting even through his special mask. It was harder to breathe, and he felt thirsty and freezing cold. He couldn’t reach Arthur anymore, who was struggling and falling and rising like he was fighting the cosmos itself.

“Come on, Black! We can do this!” Arthur was suddenly reaching down to him, his furious flapping not generating as much as wind as it should.

“I’m gonna faint if we go on.” Eishi said, taking his hand anyway.

Arthur pulled them both up to Eishi’s horror and excitement, “Wow… I can really see our breaths up here! Is that ice on your wing?!”

“If we both faint and die from fall damage, I’m going to kill you.” Eishi said, practically hyperventilating at this point. Ugh, he was going to get a chest cramp from this…

“How can you kill me if we’re both dead?”

“I’m done.” Eishi’s wings drooped, his weight dragging them both down. Arthur wheezed with airless laughter before dropping him and folding his wings to freefall besides him.

“What a view!” Arthur cried out as the air whistled around them. Eishi took a breath of the icy-cold air rushing in and regained enough focus to look around, his heartbeat thrumming through him. He could see the curvature of the Earth from this height, and far beyond the city he lived in. The lights were beautiful, and for a moment he wondered if there were any distinction from the stars in the sky and the city’s lights below. It was absolutely beautiful, but...

“I am… not ever doing this again.” He said, rubbing his arms even as he fell. He was shivering, both from adrenaline and the cold. Luckily the air got a bit warmer as they skydived since it was close to summer… if it were winter Eishi was sure he’d get hypothermia.

“Agreed… I want to set something on fire and take a nap there.” Arthur said.

“You live up to your name, Phoenix.”

“I do?”

“Are you a pyromaniac, too?”

“What?! No way! I’m just cold right now!”

“Right now… Oh, I can’t believe I’ve made you a pyromaniac…”

“Blaaaack!!!”

Eishi snapped his wings back into form and swerved at the last second to dive through a gap in the clouds. Arthur dived right through them.

“AAAAAH, THAT’S COLD!” He yelled while Eishi grinned, “You did that on purpose, didn’t you!” Eishi shrugged nonchalantly. “I’ll get you back for this!”

“That’s what all the villains in television say before they’re taken to jail.”

“I doubt they said it telepathically! Well, maybe a few in a marvel comic books I didn’t read yet… Wait, I’m going to jail???”

“Hmmm…” Eishi hummed both inwardly and out loud as he set his sights on the sky tower, “Maybe cops and robbers would be a fun game for the bird club.”

“You guys play games?”

“We’re a club for a reason.”

“That sounds like fun! I want to join!”

“Of course you get to join, Yellow, you’re already an official member.”

“Ah… yes, of course!” Arthur beamed.

The silence that passed was much better than the previous one. Eishi was a bit guilty that he and Arthur basically ditched the others who were no doubt waiting for them, but it turned out well enough in the end.

“You know… I really wish my flock could have met you guys.” Arthur said, settling into a glide besides him.

“Even if we’re posing as humans?”

“No, cause’ I think we’d all be really good friends… Canary and Rei would get along so well, I think.. Fly and Kamoda are so similar… And Robin always did need help opening up to others, she’s such a shy girl, maybe Umino could have helped her...” Arthur spoke their names and others Eishi did not recognize. But as he went on and on, his voice seemed more and more choked with emotion.

“... What happened to them, Phoenix?” Eishi asked softly, tilting his wings to drift away from the sky tower again.

“I don’t mind it if the others see me cry, so can we head back to them?” Arthur said softly, “I don’t like being apart…”

“Okay.” Eishi replied, putting their course back on track. He worried about Arthur, and wondered if he’d really be okay being by himself even if it was just for a school day tomorrow… Something, just felt off about how quickly Arthur was opening up to him. Was it because they were both bellwethers? Was it because he couldn’t go back to his flock-?

“... My group... was shot down, I think.” Arthur whispered, barely loud enough to hear.

“... You think?”

“I… can’t remember clearly. Can I try showing you?” Arthur flinched, “Wait, no, I’m sorry, it’s-”

“Hey! Heyyy! What took you guys so long?” Kamoda suddenly called. In the distance the others were jumping off the sky tower and flying towards them.

“We took some detours.” Eishi replied.

“No fair, Eishi, taking the new guy for yourself!” Rei chided, “Umino wanted to kick him around some more!”

“Eh?!” Arthur cried. Umino darted ahead to meet them.

“Prepare yourself for ditching us on your first day, Yellow!” She shouted, coming at them way too fast, “You, too, Black!”

“Me too?!” Eishi shouted, and successfully dived under Umino’s swiping arms heading in his direction only to get his helmeted head kicked. He was sent spinning right into Kamoda, who caught him by his wings.

“Black successfully captured!” He said proudly. Eishi didn’t bother struggling-he knew Kamoda was far stronger than him and resistance would only feed his huge ego.

“That was sneaky, Blue.” Eishi said approvingly, looking up to see Arthur was faring.

“Haha, is this one of the games?” Arthur and Umino were doing figure 8’s at such high speeds that Eishi’s eyes were spinning, “You can’t catch me, Blue!” His wings thrummed powerfully as he spun up at a rate that left Umino let out a groan of frustration. His helmet melted back into his armor as he flashed them a cheeky grin.

Eishi sighed, “Umino, both Takayama and Kamoda couldn’t catch him until he gave himself up. Your efforts are probably meaningless-”

“Silence, prisoner!” Rei cried out, “We can all catch him if we work together, yeah?”

“Yeah!” Umino and Kamoda chorused, although Umino was doing all the work. Takayama seemed content to watch, perched on a skyscraper crane below.

Eishi was glad they were getting along, but felt as if he had unfinished business with Arthur. However, seeing him and the others so happy now… there was no way he wanted to ruin this by talking about the destruction of Arthur’s flock. It would have to wait until later…

I should prepare myself for that memory-sharing thing, too… Eishi thought, unconsciously holding his hands to his chest. He didn’t like it, it felt beyond way too personal, but if Arthur knew of a threat that could harm the bird club, or a way to get him back to what remained of his flock if there were any left, he’d put up with it...

“Hey, Black, you wanna make your punishment less severe by helping us catch him?” Kamoda asked.

“You’ll let me go?” Eishi asked.

“Yeah.” Kamoda let got of him, and Eishi suddenly dived and darted away out of sight, “Hey! Eishi! You said you’d help!”

“I never agreed to anything, just asked if you’d let me go.” Eishi replied matter-of-factly, swooping up before the city lights could reveal him too much and tucking in his wings to go through a gap between the pipes behind a billboard to slow Kamoda down before finding a blessed updraft of air that made him shoot up into the air.

“Reiii, Eishi’s getting awayyy!” Kamoda lamented.

“It’s your fault, you were supposed to watch him! You’re getting punished too!” Rei declared.

“You’re not doing anything, Rei! I’m gonna punish YOU!” Umino cried, tackling Rei who screamed. 

“Attacking the president! You’re getting punished too, usurper!” Rei shouted as he struggled fruitlessly. Eishi snickered from above, only to sense someone coming too late- he was grabbed! And considering those yellow markings on those arms-

“I caught Black! Does that mean my punishment is less severe?” Arthur called.

“Yes!” Kamoda cheered.

“Traitorous pickpocket, I should have known…” Eishi grumbled. Arthur laughed as he dragged Eishi down to the others.

“What even is the punishment?” Umino asked while she held a limp Rei in a headlock.

“... Catch Takayama.” Eishi said. It would both be challenging and maybe drag Takayama out of the weird funk he was in.

“Oooo! That’s a great idea!” Umino cheered, “Let’s get im’! … Hey, Rei, are you okay?”

“I’m dead.” Rei muttered.

“Cool!” Umino said, dropping him. Rei yelped but regained his balance quickly and elegantly as if he had never made a sound, coughing as if to clear his throat.

Takayama, the definition of elusive, didn’t move as everyone glanced to one another before diving down to him in unison…

He’s baiting us! Eishi thought, but besides a few shocked blinks Takayama didn’t do much as everyone grabbed onto him in a weird winged pile. There was a shocked silence.

“... Was I supposed to fly away?” Takayama asked, completely pinned down. Umino burst out laughing, which got everyone else going at how ridiculous this all was. Takayama gave a smile.

“Of course you were!”

“Get off me, Kamoda, you’re heavy!” Rei whined.

“Ok-owowowOW EISHI WATCH THE CLAWS-” Kamoda said.

“Whoops.” Eishi snickered.

“Why you little-”

“Can you please not fight when you’re lying on top of me!” Arthur cried.

“Think of how poor Takayama feels!” Umino said, her face red as she realized that she was stuck, too.

“I’m fine.” Takayama said as he turned towards her, making Umino scream and kick and soon everyone was struggling to get out of this pile. They dispersed in a few moments and hung onto various parts of the crane, panting and giggling like idiots.