There was a time when I accepted defeat, accepted the life I had and was satisfied with my incomplete existence. I wandered, day to day, through time with no destination. No goal. No purpose. I walked a dark road, not caring where it lead or how far it took me away from the things that had once made me human. The things that had defined me as, me, a place to return to. Once you have wandered that dark road for so long, you lose that place you once had. When that place grew small in the distance I continued to watch until it disappeared on the horizon, remorse only making the burden more difficult to bear.

I don't remember when it happened, but I noticed one day as I walked my dark road that I stopped looking at the ground. Until that day, I had watched the winding road, the fragile, endless road. Somewhere along the way I stopped watching that road, and now, I only watched the sky.

Aozora

Lia : Tori no Uta

"Kanna,"

She glanced up at her with curious eyes, scrambling onto the end of the bed. The woman smiled, "I want you to go home early today, will you do that for me please?"

"Why?" She asked, it was unusual for her mother to ask her to leave, often she begged the attendants to let Kanna stay after visiting hours.

"Because," She motioned for the girl to come closer, "I hid a present for you, under your desk you'll find it if you go home early. If you don't, the magic will fade away and it'll disappear."

The child giggled and nodded, "M'kay, I'll hurry." She leaned over and gave her parent a hug before trotting off down the hall. "Ja ne!" Kanna called back affectionately before disappeared from the room.

The girl rolled onto her back, holding the picture above her head, it'd been awhile, six years now? She sighed; kicking off her sneakers and letting her arms fall to reveal the plain white ceiling above. Her small room on the second floor was littered with pictures and cats, an odd combination. Kanna had a secret passion for photography… and cats, or better yet photos of cats. A tiny black kitten crawled onto the futon and curled up on her stomach, purring rather loudly for such a small animal.

Delicately she reached up and stroked it, colorful fingernails threaded in the soft baby fur. She woke up this morning not feeling well, a common occurrence, and had decided a day off would be nice. Now she was starting to reconsider, rather than refreshing it was boring. Another sigh was issued, followed by a surprised gasp as a loud noise pounded against her eardrums.

With a grumbled she reached over her shoulder and picked up the blaring cell phone, "Moshi Mo-"

"Ka-chan! Can you sneak out?!" Kareha, the closest thing she had to a 'gal pal', kanna preferred to hang out with boys to be quite honest. Girls could be so… dramatic.

Gently pushing the cat off her stomach, the girl rolled onto her stomach, stealing a glance at the clock before responding: "Well why wouldn't I?"

"Well, for one you weren't in class today."

"Um, well…"

"Aha! Ka-chan was being naughty-naughty! So meet me in front of the station in twenty minutes!"

"Twenty minutes?" If she expected her on time, she wouldn't even have time to change. "Fine." With that she closed the phone and slipped her sneakers back on. Often Kanna was too lazy to change out of her uniform anyways, although most girls would religiously change right after school.

Kasumi was a tiny town; the population couldn't be more than eight thousand. The downside of being in such a small town is that it took awhile to get to the shopping district. If you wanted to go anywhere worthwhile you'd have to take the trolley to the city nearby. From Kanna's house it took nearly fifteen minutes to get to the station, and another five just for good measure, Kareha got fussy if she was too late or too early.

Needless to say, grocery shopping could be a pain in the ass, unless she dragged Keiichi with her to carry the bags.

It wasn't an exciting place, by any means, but it was peaceful and that's what she liked most about it. Aside from seasonal festivals, nothing interesting happened in the area, even in their neighboring city. So what could Kareha possibly be excited about? She remembered receiving a similar called months ago demanding her presence in front of the station. Although that had been when the lingerie shop opened, and Kareha was desperate to buy unmentionables because of some risqué manga she read.

Her mind wandered to all the horrible possibilities; hopefully none of them involved lace panties.

Kareha beat her to the station, looking as cheerful as ever, "Maa maa! Ka-chan is uber-uber late! Penalty game!"

Oh heavens.

She raised a brow, pushing strands of chestnut hair behind her ear, "So what will the penalty be for being a few minutes late?" Kanna started forward again as Kareha lead the way to the ticket booth, the two flashed their train passes and boarded the trolley. They traveled in silence, making the situation even more peculiar. The blonde was usually bubbly and talkative, naïve but always full of energy, today she seemed oddly calm.

So she had to ask, "Is everything okay?" The slow nod that followed only further stimulated her curiosity. Kanna was not one to pry, so she didn't push the matter any further, the rest of the ride followed in silence.

The sun was already starting to set when the two stepped off the train. Tonight's sky was a dark red, pink tinting the outer ring of the fading sun while purple night was creeping over them. They were immediately dropped into the busy shopping district of Kazehana, Kasumi's neighboring city. Colorful lights and cheerful chatter filled the chilly air, giving off an atmosphere of warmth.

Suddenly Kareha's arm hooked around her neck and dragged her forward. "You're penalty game is-!" She pointed to a shop across the street, "To get that guy's number!" The blonde was pointing to a clerk that just entered the store; he looked to be at least ten years older than they were.

"I'm not doing that! He's probably some creepy old lolicon!" She twirled out of Kareha's grasp, turning her gaze to the brightly colored sign hanging above the store. Her crimson eyes widened slightly, somehow… it looked familiar, but where had she seen that symbol before? Kanna reached into her pocket, after a moment of digging through her wallet she discovered what she had been looking for. A small, wrinkled, bent pink card, it had definitely seen better days. She held it up to the light, the mascot with the tiny crown on the sign, and the faded drawing on her card matched.

Kanna jogged across the street, approaching the glassy doors with millions of questions running through her mind. The two girls were greeted by the female staff, dressed in uniforms that looked almost like angel costumes. Kareha's eyes sparkled in awe, she had a passion for cute things, the store was like her dream come true. Everything from the stunning staff to the plush toys on the shelves was adorable in every sense of the word. As the girl wandered off, Kanna only shook her head and began to explore herself. All the while, holding the card out in front of her.

On the flip side was a single word, and a tiny sketch of an egg with wings. Odd, but there had to be some meaning behind it. She wandered up and down the countless aisles with no luck, until a curious staff member approached, "Um, miss, is there something you're looking for?"

Kanna hesitated before holding the card out, "What is that? What is this place?" She almost seemed embarrassed not to know.

The woman examined the card for a moment, adjusting her glasses before replying, "Ah! An angel egg, are you interesting in Angelic Layer?"

"Why does that sound familiar?" Kanna chuckled nervously, twirling a lock of hair around her finger nervously, "Yeah, sure, what is it?"

She looked surprised, "Well, I'd be amazed if you hadn't heard of it. Angelic Layer is ranked the number one game nationally, and it's broadcast frequently." She motioned for Kanna to follow her, leading her to a wall covered with winged eggs, accessories and other devices the girl didn't recognize. Her head spun.

"Angelic Layer is a fighting game, you could say, the deus controls an Angel-" She motioned to the eggs, "Which you custom make, and battles against other players. It's a lot of fun."

The girl wandered toward the bin full of 'eggs', lifting one up towards her face. "Well, it's not very cute…" Kareha commented from her friend's shoulder, she had popped up at the mentioned of 'Angel', it usually referred to something beautiful or at least cute.

"Ahaha, well your Angel is customized later on, you design it's clothes, skin, eyes, everything!" The clerk motioned to a poster hanging on the wall. Two gorgeous 'Angels' posed dramatically, one with red hair and cat-like feature; the other one was smaller with pink hair and a star-theme. Kareha squealed, instantly regretting her comment.

"Kawaii!" She giggled, slapping her hands on her cheeks to contained her excitement, "Ka-chan, buy it!"

However, Kanna had tuned her out, once again staring at the tattered card. Her heart pounded and she looked up at the clerk, suddenly full of fire. "I'll take one."

She dozed off on the way home, her head full of questions and her wallet unpleasantly lighter. Somehow the girl had hoped that discovering the meaning behind the symbols would lead to more answers than a game. Maybe things would make sense after she started playing? Doubt flickered through her thoughts, and she felt her heart sink, discouraged.

Kareha would not stop bugging her about the doll. Eventually she got sick of answering the phone and turned it off, enjoying the silence that followed. She was leaned against the wall, innumerably cats pawing at her feet and the creepy-looking doll that sat across from her. After cleaning it off in the sink she discovered it looked rather menacing without a face. She could easily fix that, hell, she'd set up the tiny 'layer' already. All she needed to do was hit a few buttons and her Angel would be complete.

Though something bothered her about the card. There was still one piece left that she didn't understand. The single word printed on the back: 'Tamber' She could see her mother had scratched it neatly on the back, as if it were something very important. However, Tamber wasn't even a word, she discovered after flipping through a dictionary. Another dead end.

Kanna had set the layer up next to her old, worn laptop since it was the closest place to an outlet. She glanced at the doll; it seemed to stare back, despite the lack of a face. She grumbled, walked over, pulling out several items from the Piffle Princess bag. Kanna might as well get it over with; it'd be better than having it rot in the bottom of a drawer somewhere. Especially considering how much she'd paid for the damn thing. The clerk had been kind enough to provide her with a number of wigs for no extra charge. To be honest, she hadn't bought the thing with a specific design in mind. She'd really only bought it with the hope that some questions could be answered. Not surprisingly, they went unsatisfied.

She booted up the rickety piece of junk, her laptop, and decided to goof around on the Internet for a design. When her homepage popped up she searched under photos, and jokingly typed in 'Tamber'. Kanna was quite surprised when nearly 300 results returned from her search. The very first image was of quite a pretty girl, her eyes were darkened out but her hair was a lovely short green color. Maybe it was fate, but one of her wigs matched the color almost perfectly. A few quick snips later and she placed the wig on her Angel and returned it to the layer. The doll hovered inside the blue cylinder, technology was quite amazing these days. A computer screen below it asked for general information about Kanna: name, sex, birthday, the usual. Finally it began asking for parameters on her new Angel. As an active member of the track team, she gravitated towards the lightweight option for speed, but selected balance and power as her secondary parameters. She set a bit of an extra emphasis on balance, she'd been known to be a bit clumsy and didn't want her Angel to end up the same way.

After the hard part was done it began asking questions about the appearance, skin color, eye color, facial features, etcetera. Glancing back up at her laptop the next image featured a girl with striking blue eyes; Kanna selected a darker shade of blue and a pale skin tone. The Angel opened her eyes, suddenly looking more innocent than creepy. Finally came the last question, and it was a no-brainer.

Parameters: Balance/Speed

Skin: Pale

Hair: Green

Eye: Blue

Deus: Minase, Kannabi

Angel: TAMBER

The Migrating Coconut

JESUS, how long has it been since I logged into fanfiction? (cobwebs, lawl) For those who remember me, I missed you. For those who don't, I'm Ve1vet and I used to be known to prowl about the Angelic Layer fic listings.

After losing interest in Angelic Layer (DGM ftw ;D ), which was right after my first AL fic 'Against all Odds' I really only continued because I was an attention whore. However I'm back with this short fic-ette, Aozora. It'll be short, only a few chapters long but the chapters will be longer than this one was. I'm pretty bad with introduction chapters.

I'll warn everyone ahead of time, this deals with more mature themes, yanno: blood, death, alcohol, all the things we hold near and dear to our hearts. For those who can't handle a touch of foul language then this might not be for you. I write horror stories my duckies, this is not going to be a very happy-happy fic.

Other things I wanted to point out (before this gets too long) that I'd be willing to do something special for a person who can point out all the Bishoujo-game references. Aside from Tamber, but if you can name her model I'd be very impressed. Every character, right down to their appearance has a game reference (Hint: They're mostly Key or Navel references) so if you can name where all the names come from in this chapter, well, gold star for you. Fun scavenger hunt for the weary and bored.