Crossing Fates : Book 1 - Escape (BakuDeku)

2 - The Starting Line

A pause.

Tenya asked, "My lord?"

For once, his First-in-Command's legendary coolness had been shaken. It gave Katsuki a grim sense of satisfaction.

"A thief, Tenya." He bit at each word. "A thief has broken into my hoard and taken something of mine."

Tenya took several moments to absorb his words. Katsuki let him have the time.

The crime was impossible. It had never happened, not in all the millennia of his existence.

Yet it had happened now.

First, someone had somehow found his hoard, which was an incredible feat in itself. An elaborate fake setup complete with state-of-the-art security was located below the basement levels of UA Tower, but no one knew the location of Katsuki's actual hoard except himself.

His actual hoard was protected by powerful cloaking and aversion spells older than the pharaoh tombs of Egypt and as subtle as tasteless poison on the tongue. But after locating his secret lair, the thief had managed to slip past all of Katsuki's physical and magical locks, like a knife slicing through butter.

Even worse, the thief managed to slip out again the same way.

The only warning Katsuki had received was a nagging unease that had plagued him all afternoon. His unease had increased to the point where he couldn't settle down until he went to check on his property.

He had known his lair had been infiltrated as soon as he had set foot near the hidden entrance to the underground cavern. Still, he couldn't believe it, even after he had torn inside to discover the indisputable evidence of the theft, along with something else that trumped all other inconceivability.

He looked down at his clenched right foot. He wheeled in an abrupt motion to set a return path to the city. Tenya followed and settled smoothly into place behind him, his rear right wingman.

"You are to locate this thief. Do everything possible," Katsuki said, "Everything, you understand? Use all magical and non-magical means. Nothing else exists for you. No other tasks, no other diversions. Pass all of your current duties to Kyoka or Tokoyami."

"I understand, my lord," Tenya said, keeping his mental voice quiet.

Katsuki sensed other conversations in the air, although no one dared direct contact with him. He suspected Tenya had begun giving orders to transfer duties to the others.

Katsuki said, "Be very clear about something, Tenya. I do not want this thief harmed or killed by anyone but myself. You are not to allow it. You should be sure of the people you use on this hunt."

"I will."

"It will be on your head if something goes wrong," Katsuki told him. He couldn't have articulated even to himself why he pressed the matter with this creature who, for centuries, had been as steady and reliable as a metronome. His claws clenched on his implausible scrap of evidence. "Understood?"

"Understood, my lord," Tenya replied, calm as ever.

"Good enough," Katsuki growled.

Katsuki noticed they had returned over the city. The sky around them was clear of all air traffic. He soared in a wide circle to settle on the spacious landing pad atop UA Tower. As soon as he settled, he shifted into his human shape, an ash blonde male with crimson eyes.

Katsuki turned to watch Tenya land. The gryphon's majestic wings shone in the fading afternoon sun until the other male also shifted into his human form.

Tenya lowered his head to Katsuki in a brief bow of respect before loping to the roof doors. After the other male had left, Katsuki unclenched his right fist in which he held a crumbled scrap of paper.

Why had he not told Tenya about it? Why was he not even calling the gryphon back to tell him?

He didn't know. He just obeyed the impulse to secrecy.

Katsuki held the paper to his nose and inhaled. A scent still clung to the paper, which had absorbed oil from the thief's hand. It was a male scent that smelled like wild sunshine and it was familiar in a way that pulled at all of Katsuki's deepest instincts.

He stood immobile, eyes closed as he concentrated on inhaling that wild male sunshine scent in deep breaths. There was something about it, something from a long time ago. If only he could remember. He had lived for so long, his memory was a vast and convoluted tangle. It could take him weeks to locate the memory.

He strained harder for that elusive time with a younger sun, a deep green forest and a celestial scent that drove him crashing through the underbrush-

The fragile memory thread broke. A low growl of frustration rumbled through his chest. He opened his eyes and willed himself not to shred the paper he held with such tense care.

It occurred to Katsuki that Tenya had forgotten to ask what the thief had stolen.

His underground lair was enormous by necessity, with cavern upon cavern filled with a hoard the likes of which the world had never seen. The treasure of empires filled the caves.

His obsessive attention to detail, an immaculate memory of each and every piece in that gigantic treasure, a trail of scent like wild sunshine and instinct had all led Katsuki to the right place. He discovered the thief had taken a Japan-minted 1962 copper penny from a jar of coins he had not yet bothered to put into a coin collecting book.

The thief had left something for him in place of what he had taken. He had perched it with care on top of the coin jar. It was a message written on a scrap of paper in a spidery, unsteady hand. The message was wrapped around an offering.

'I'm sorry' the message said.

The theft was a violation of privacy. It was an unbelievable act of impudence and disrespect. Not only that, it was baffling. Katsuki was murderous, incandescent with fury. He was older than sin and could not remember when he had last been in such a rage.

Katsuki looked at the paper again.

'I'm sorry I had to take your penny. Here's another to replace it.'

Yep, that's what it said.

One corner of his mouth twitched.

Katsuki gave himself a deep shock when he burst into an explosive laughter.