Author's Note: I once planned a sequel to my standalone "The Last Haibane", charting the story of the newborn that was headed towards Old Home, a new Haibane after all the others had gone-Rakka, just two weeks before. The communicator had his work cut out for him, but it was to fall to him to re-establish for a new generation just how the Haibane were to live.
Various circumstances arose, however, and I decided to shelve the idea.
However, very recently, I was looking at the sequel again (for what I did write managed to encompass many pages) and this flashback concerning Kuramori stood out. It exists very well on its own, and is something I strongly felt happened, so I present it to you now. It is so short, but it says so much...
It was not yet dawn. Not even the barest hint of gray was yet in the eastern sky, but Kuramori was fully dressed. She had not slept easily, and she knew that while her own journey here in Glie was complete, she was too full of worry in it to rejoice at the moment.
She'd held off as long as she could. Far longer than most. How many Haibane lasted as long as she did? Very few, she was sure, and immense love and the need to remain for others had held her here. Her own desires had held her here, long, long past when the Wall had judged her ready to leave and began its subtle urgings for her to go.
She had closed her eyes and mind to it, ignored it-how could she, when she was so needed here?-but the flickering halo on her head firmly reinforced a fact she simply was unable to put off for any longer.
Nemu and Reki were older now. They were not the young children they were when they first hatched, and were capeable of taking care of the many young feathers that had appeared in the last two years, with the help of the newly-installed Housemother.
Logically, there was no reason to stay any longer.
Logic, however, didn't fall in line with her heart.
She went into the "guestroom" where the two girls were sleeping heavily, tired out from the exciting day they'd had.
Silent as a shadow, she crept across the room. She had to say goodbye to them.
For a minute her hand lingered on Nemu's soft hair. The girl was so soundly asleep she did not notice.
Nemu was always a good Haibane. She had been for some time. The day she had accepted Reki, the day Kuramori had awoken to find the two girls asleep by her bedside, hands joined-that day was when a lot of turbulent issues within Nemu settled down. She had learned not to judge so shallowly, and her patience and forgiveness had deepened. She dealt with many life issues now without seeing a need to panic or be unsure of herself.
Tears filled Kuramori's eyes. Nemu, she had no doubt, continue to grow inside as well as out and would one day follow the path she herself could put off no longer now.
Kuramori knelt there a minute longer, praying inside that the love she was trying to convey so hard would transmit itself to Nemu, so that she would not grieve too long. It would not be easy. Kuramori herself could not break the custom of telling the girls of her own impending Day Of Flight. It simply wasn't done.
Lingering over her final goodbye to Nemu, Kuramori finally got up and crept to the other side of the bed, to the other sleeping girl.
Just looking at that face, so innocent in her sleep, made Kuramori's heart ache sharply.
She'd prayed. She'd hoped. She had held this girl tightly in her embrace, loving her from the start, trying desperately to make the girl believe that the love was hers.
Yet when it WAS made clear to her, she reveled in that love, and showed signs of strength-but all the while, never forgot about the darkness on her wings.
Kuramori still hoped that one of these days Reki's wings would be the same beautiful charcoal grey throughout, without the aid of medicine.
"I promised to always be by your side, Reki-please believe me," she mouthed the words soundlessly. "Even when I am not here...I will still always, always be by your side. I will never stop loving you."
She stroked the braids and went on soundlessly. "Some say the Haibane go and don't come back. I'm sure that is not true. I'll always watch over you, and if I can come back in any way...reach you in any way...I will do it. I will keep my promise. You're never alone, Reki. You cannot break out of what binds you if you're alone."
That promise...the day she'd surprised both of them by feeling a rare surge of anger and slapping Reki for cutting her feathers, then hugging her fiecrcely and starting to cry with the force of love she felt and trying, so hard, to make Reki understand it. She'd made the promise then, and meant it with her entire being.
Kuramori knelt there for several more minutes, unable to move. She felt so numb.
Only when the walls called again, only when her vision filled with light and started pulsing in the direction of the west, did she arise. She could stay no longer.
Silently, she crept out of the room, crept past the painting Reki had gifted her with-a portrait of herself-just the day before.
In her own younger days a few Haibane had remarked that something in themselves seemed to fill up, and those were the ones that were gone within a few days afterwards. Most had left in her first couple years, and a long drought had occurred with few or no cocoons at all. So she had stayed...and stayed...and stayed, taking constant care of the few Young Feathers that appeared, and the single Older Feather, Nemu. And then, Reki...
She now understood what the others had meant. Her heart had been full for ages, and now it overflowed. Like water, it could contain no more and spilled everywhere. A lot of love could be collected over the course of fifteen years.
Her delicate health and frail body had made the Western woods a serious danger to her in the past...but now she was guided by something stronger, so her tiredness was gone. The pulsing lights around her led her to the stepping-stone...such a small stone...but big enough for her.
"Reki," she whispered as she placed one foot on the stone, ready to step up..."Such a small stone...but may you stand on this stone one day, just like in your name..."
She allowed the power of this last wish to grip her heart, this last dream to go on, and the hope that in the long run, all would be well.
Her Halo burned out, her wings grew in a shower of golden sparkles, then came a rush of brilliant golden light, filling the night sky with an exotic dance...her vision of Glie dissolved...and she was gone.