Inspired by the thousand cranes I'm making. -Rin
Paper Wishes
Even since Yukimura Seiichi had collapsed in October and been hospitalized, his teammates had been wishing for his speedy recovery. The youngest of them, Kirihara Akaya, suggested that they make one thousand paper cranes together.
He'd read online that if you make a thousand cranes, you get a wish granted. Well, they had a wish. Now all they needed was paper to fold. Yanagi Renji found instructions for making the cranes in a book, and they all sat down together after practice one day and started folding.
After an hour, they had a large pile of cranes in the middle of their little circle. Someone boxed them up and they stored them away in the locker room.
They all felt more tired than they usually did after practice, but they blamed Sanada Genichiro, saying he made them work harder than they usually did. They all went to bed early that night.
The next day they repeated the process. After a week of staying after practice to make cranes, Akaya did some more reading online, and consulted Renji over the weekend. They reported their findings on Monday.
"Guys, I think we need to talk." Akaya spoke to the group before they started making cranes. They all looked at him, waiting to hear more.
"We were all wondering why we've been so tired, right?" They nodded, and he continued.
"I did some research. Renji helped. But you know how you have to blow into the hole in the bottom of the crane to make it...not flat?" Again they nodded.
"Well, I think we've been putting a little of our life force into each crane when we did that." He paused to let that sink in, searching for the right words to continue. Renji saw his hesitation and stepped in.
"I believe we've been shorting our remaining lifespan every time we made a crane and blew into it. I couldn't say how much time each one takes from us, but my research suggested that those who make cranes in large numbers feel tired at first, but they get used to it. So if we continue, we will too. The question is...should we? If we stop now, we won't have done much harm to ourselves. But we won't get our wish."
Sanada stood. "I'm still going to make cranes. I'm willing to trade a piece of my life to save Seiichi's."
One by one, the others agreed. And that was how the regulars of Rikkai began killing themselves slowly.