Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to have all the responsible older members of the household downstairs, and all the younger, not so knowledgeable ones upstairs. Maybe there should have been some mature, reasonable, voices present when the young ones gathered in one of the bedrooms.
Kumiko: "What does this mean, Minato comes back, loses her wings and halo and Day of Flight light goes without her."
Daiani: "Well, maybe the Day of Flight light show is not actually connected to the haibane. Maybe it is fake light show, and generally the haibane is somewhere else. But this time they missed Minato because she stopped and turned back."
Murasaki: "But what about the wings and halo coming off?"
Komai: "Maybe they just automatically come off when it is time for all of this."
Kumiko: "But why? If we are going to have a Day of Flight we need wings to fly!"
Daiani: "Maybe the light show is just the means of dragging up the haibane by their halo? When they get to the top, the halo comes off and they fall into... What?
Komai: "Into the fishing net?"
Several at the same time: "What?"
Amo: "Fishing net? But we eat fish!"
Kumiko: "That's insane!"
Murasaki: "Well, suggest something else!"
Daiani: "Maybe the halo causes the haibane to turn into a flash of light?"
Murasaki: "You mean an explosion? My cocoon dream was about flashes of orange yellow getting closer, destroying everything they touch."
Kumiko: "But if the halo does that, then why was there still a Day of Flight light beam? Because Minato came back with her halo."
Murasaki: "Perhaps the halo lures the haibane out to the proper target area, and then in comes the flash and destruction, which kills the haibane."
Kumiko: "But why kill him or her?"
Murasaki: "Ok, the flash and explosion just acts to push the haibane out of Guri."
Amo: "But this time they missed Minato?"
Kumiko: "But what about a normal Day of Flight. What happens to the haibane?"
Amo: "Dragged upwards and eaten like a fish?"
Daiani: "Maybe that's what the walls are for, to keep out the wolves."
Murasaki: "What? And what is a wolf?"
Daiani: "I just now remembered an extra part of the cocoon dream. We were running away from wolves."
Komai: "Yes, I remember that also!"
Amo: "But what are wolves?"
Daiani: "Big dogs, that are hungry. And have sharp teeth."
Kumiko: "This is horrible"
Komai: "Perhaps a Day of Flight is a way of feeding a haibane to the wolves on the other side of the wall?"
Amo: "Or maybe it just kills babies."
Kumiko: "Huh, what babies? We weren't talking about babies."
Amo: "My baby. He was dead. In my cocoon dream."
Murasaki: "But, but, that does not anything to do with a Day of Flight!"
Amo: "How do you know?"
Kumiko: "How would I know? But I can tell you; this talk is starting to hurt my head. What is a Day of Flight supposed to be, anyway?"
Amo: "We achieve what we have to here, and then fly on to the next stage." She was reciting from her talks with the Communicator.
Daiani: "How do we know this?"
Komai: "The Communicator tells us."
Daiani: "What if he is lying? Perhaps the Renmei kidnap and kill the haibane and feed them to the wolves."
Kumiko: "This is all crazy talk!"
Amo: "Then explain why Minato came back but the Day of Flight still happened?"
Murasaki: "Perhaps the Communicator just kills the haibane, and sets of the light show to pretend there was a Day of Flight?"
Kumiko: "But WHY!" Her voice was starting to shriek.
Amo: "How do we know? Do we really know anything about Days of Flight, really?"
Daiani: "You all must admit, something horrible is going on. And I don't think it is to our advantage in any way. We have been lied to and used."
There was a general consensus on that.
Eventually they went to bed. Komai dragged her mattress into Daiani's room and slept on the floor. Amo moved her mattress into Kumiko's room. Murasaki, and the others, slept with their doors open, so they could feel closer to the others. Their dreams were not nice.
* * *
Early the following morning, Kumiko was the first upstairs haibane to wake up. She crawled out of bed, trying to get the sleep out of her eyes. Her dreams had been full of wolves with teeth, fish caught in nets, dead babies, and overarching them all, the sight of Minato's halo falling off, the sight of Minato's wings falling off and lying on the floor, blood dripping off their stumps. She looked down at Amo, still sleeping on her mattress on the floor, then staggered as quietly as possible to her desk and found her hand mirror in her small collection of junk.
"Yep, blood shot eyes, black shadows under them." she mumbled.
She wondered if that makeup stuff that human girls were supposed to have would fix this. Probably not, the ruins were too extensive.
She really wanted to cuddle up to Yoshe.
She crept out of the room, then ran downstairs, quietly poked her head into a couple of bedrooms, and found Yoshe's.
Yoshe's dreams were also disturbed. She was dreaming about Minato's wings, and the watchmen knocking at her door, and about being squashed by something falling on her...
"Humph, what?" Yoshe was dragged out of her sleep by a small body jumping into her bed and wrapping her arms around her.
"Yoshe! Are you awake?"
"Hmm, I am now." She wrapped her arms around Kumiko. "What's up?"
"Minato. I keep remembering." Kumiko shuddered and Yoshe patted her back between the wings. They were silent for a while. Yoshe was slowly surfacing from her sleepiness. She pressed her cheek against Kumiko's face and enjoyed the warmth a little bit more, before having to face today's looming problems.
"Yeah, I know. Rakka is going to the temple soon; hopefully we'll get some answers. I think that Minato is still asleep."
"Yoshe, it's not just Minato. It's all of the other haibane are upstairs. We had a big talk last night, it was full of hungry wolves and explosions and catching haibane in nets and dead babies and Communicators not telling the truth..."
Yoshe abruptly sat up and looked at Kumiko in disbelief. "What? What was all of that talk about?"
Kumiko tried her best to summarise last night's conclusions.
Yoshe shook her head, "This, this is really, really crazy. I don't think, I not sure, I..."
She took a breath. "Let's go and find Rakka. She's the most reliable senior haibane here at the moment."
Yoshe and Kumiko softly opened Murasaki's bedroom door, and entered. Kaori wasn't present; she had gone to sleep on her own bed next door. Rakka was slumped in the chair, face looking a lot worse that Kumiko's, chin in her hand, staring at Minato. It being still early morning, the sun was only just above the horizon. So the shadows were still long and the light dim, but there was enough to show. Enough to show Minato, without a halo, without wings, sleeping. Her face looked disturbed, she twitched, and her dreams must have been unpleasant.
Kumiko looked at the absence of a halo on a person who always had had one. She wrapped her arms around Yoshe and looked away.
"Rakka, I think you should hear what Kumiko has to say. So should Kaori."
They went next door, and woke up Kaori. She looked bad also. And after hearing what Kumiko had to say, she looked worse. Rakka didn't look any better.
"Let's wait until everyone is up and had breakfast. Then we shall talk."
Rakka and Kaori, their concern for Minato overriding their concern for anyone else at the moment, went back to Minato's room. Yoshe took it upon herself to find Ukimi, and between the two of them they started preparing breakfast.
Upstairs, Komai had woken. Seeing it was light outside, she gently shook her brother's shoulder, eventually he cracked open his eyes to look at a new day.
"Can't I go back to sleep?" he muttered.
"No you can't! And I keep on dreaming about our cocoon dream. Promise please promise me you will never leave me." said Komai. She clutched his arm and trembled.
Daiani sat up, wrapped his arms around her. "Of course I won't leave you. After all I followed you here to Guri. And, up till last night I was sure that I would be with you when we left. But now... But I won't leave you, Ok?"
With that, Komai went to her bedroom to get ready for the day. After a few minutes, they walked, hand in hand, down the stairs to the breakfast table.
Murasaki woke next. His dreams had been filled with flashes of explosions, coming closer. He got dressed, and not wanting to be alone he looked at the other bedrooms. The only haibane upstairs left was Amo, just beginning to crawl out of her bed.
"Hi, Amo. I'll wait outside your door until you are ready."
Amo went to her room and got dressed.
Murasaki was idly, if somewhat morbidly, wondering if a cocoon dream of explosions coming near was better, or worse, than a cocoon dream of holding one's dead baby, when Amo appeared again. Looking at her face, Murasaki decided that her cocoon dream must be the worst.
They went downstairs to breakfast.
Minato was the last to wake up. She sat in her bed, staring straight ahead at something that could have been a thousand kilometres away. Rakka eventually put her head in front of Minato's visual line of sight and said
"Would you like some breakfast?"
Minato focused onto Rakka's face. "No, not really. Could I have a mirror?"
With reluctance, Rakka found a hand mirror and tentatively gave it to Minato. Minato looked at where her wings should have been showing behind her, and where her halo should have been glowing above her. After a while she dropped the mirror onto the bed and went back to staring into space.
"What did I do wrong?" she whispered.
Rakka didn't know. After all, Minato's wings had been their normal charcoal colour, with not a trace of the dreaded black spots, when she had left to go to her Day of Flight.
"I don't know. But I'll ask the Communicator. I'm sure he will have some answers." Rakka couldn't work out if that counted as a lie or not, she certainly didn't feel any such certainty.
"But right now, how about having breakfast?"
Kaori and Rakka checked Minato's back. The wounds were surprisingly healthy, almost healed over with new, still reddish, skin. Finally Minato was guided to breakfast, Kaori and Rakka sitting either side of her.
"Now, everyone, let's eat breakfast, then have a talk." This was Kaori's command, and everyone did so. They didn't eat much, and everyone kept on looking at Minato, then glancing away in embarrassment whenever Minato looked up. Eventually:
"Will you all stop looking at me!" said Minato, tears running down her face and her fists clenched.
"Sorry, sorry" said various voices.
After breakfast. "Now, I have heard that, while Minato was sleeping and you should have been sleeping, you lot had a rather... intense... discussion last night." started Rakka.
Everybody tried to talk at once.
"Shut up! Everyone please!" It was the first time those present had actually heard Kaori yell in such a way.
"I'll point to the next person to talk, OK?", said Kaori. She pointed to Daiani.
"Well, the point is, there must be something really bad happening. I'm no longer sure a haibane is safe after a Day of Flight."
Kaori rubbed her forehead with her hand. "Something is definitely wrong, but that does not necessarily mean something is bad."
"Ah, stop, only the person I point to!" Several people had tried to talk at the same time.
She pointed to Komai.
"I keep thinking about our cocoon dream, with wolves closing in on us. Maybe that is what it is like here on a Day of Flight?"
Kaori took a deep breath. Yoshe folded her arms in front of her and grimaced, then said, "I can't see that it would be that bad, surely?"
"But you're human, it doesn't apply to you!" said Komai.
"Maybe" said Kaori. "Amo?"
"I kept dreaming of my cocoon dream, holding my dead baby. I kept thinking, why did he die?"
"But that's nothing to do with a Day of Flight" said Murasaki.
"Well, I think it does!" said Amo.
"Please, I beg you, don't start arguing." Kaori felt she was under water and sinking rapidly, the oxygen in her lungs running out.
"Murasaki?"
"The orange and red flashes of light getting closer; do they have anything to do with the Day of Flight light show? I'm pretty sure that when one of those flashes came to my location is when I died."
"I don't know." said Kaori. "Let's move on, Kumiko?"
"Well, I don't really know. I don't think the Communicator is doing anything bad, and I don't think that the Day of Flight is bad, but after last night..."
"At last, someone who isn't panicking outright." said Kaori, but only to herself.
"Minato, do you want to say anything to all of this?"
"Can I have my Day of Flight back?" This was in a whisper; she looked down at the hands in her lap.
"I can only hope so." said Rakka, giving her a pat on the back, between the bandages.
"Ukimi, you weren't in last night's tense encounter, what do you think?"
"Honestly, I think that while something bad happened, it cannot be as bad as all of these theories. We need to find out what went so wrong in Minato's case. But that does not mean that every other Day of Flight is also wrong."
"At last, a voice of calm, practical, reason." said Kaori. She added, to herself only, "From my very own Ukimi. You may have an extra biscuit ration. After you make them, that is."
"I think so, too." said Yoshe. Finally Rakka spoke.
"I cannot believe that the Communicator would allow anything bad to happen. He has only good intentions towards us, even if he cannot always help us as he would like. So if you could all please don't do anything silly and I will very soon go to the temple and ask for help."
"I agree with Rakka and the other two." said Kaori, "I may have had certain issues with the Communicator in the past, but I try not to let that blind me to the fact that he is trying to do his best for you haibane."
There were grumbles and words of dissent from the younger haibane, but they abided by the request, and settled in to a morning of trying not to panic too much.
Before Rakka set off, Kaori had the presence of mind to remember that some of her haibane had jobs. Today was Sunday; however she did not have much hope of resolving everything completely by tomorrow, so they wrote a series of letters, to the various employers, seeking forgiveness for not turning up at work because of various problems. Rakka posted these, and made a detour to Old Home, to tell the twins that there were problems at Leyton House, and she wouldn't be in for a few days. She then hurried, as fast as possible, to the temple.
* * *
Rakka was now standing in front of the Communicator. She felt jittery and jumpy; this time was the first time she had felt like balking at the ceremony of putting on the hand and wing bells. Also at the back of her mind was the little question- "Does the Communicator spend all of his time waiting at his pagoda for haibane to arrive?"
"Rakka, you appear to be agitated. Please speak about what is on your mind."
Deep breath. "Last night Minato went to her Day of Flight, but came back, and then she lost her wings and halo, and the Day of Flight occurred anyway, and all of the younger haibane at Leyton House are freaking out and thinking that haibane die or get eaten after their Day of Flight and I don't know what is happening and please help Minato please."
Rakka sank to her knees and started crying.
The Communicator stood there, congealed and frozen, for a long minute or two.
"Oh"
After that very un-Communicator exclamation, he also knelt down, in front of Rakka and gently patted her head.
"That Day of Flight was for Megumi, the haibane that lived in a room at the back of the watch house. She was afraid she would never get to have a Day of Flight, but nonetheless it came around for her after all. So the light show was not Minato's. Now, slowly, please tell me exactly what has happened."
Rakka told him all the details. It took some time.
Eventually the Communicator said, "Both of us need to go back to Leyton House and I will talk to Minato and the others."
"But, can Minato have her Day of Flight?" said Rakka, calming down somewhat.
There was a small silence.
"It is best that I don't talk about that now." he said.
"But why can't you? Unless there is something bad going on" said Rakka, beginning to get disturbed again.
"There is nothing bad, it is just that I am unable to talk about that at the moment."
"Why not? Why not? If everything is Ok, then why can't you say, one way or the other?" Rakka was beginning to shout. So disturbed was she that she didn't even realise that she was actually shouting at the Communicator.
"Rakka, I wish I could tell you now, but I have to refrain..."
Rakka felt as if a dark and threatening blackness was rising around her, blocking out the warm friendly Guri she thought she had known, and replacing it with something strange, fearful. The reasons for her life here, for hatching and living with her companions and then for the Day of Flight, that she once thought were solid and stable and fundamentally decent, were dissolving and distorting into nightmarish scenarios, with futility and death as the only things to look forward to. She knelt and wrapped her hands around herself and trembled. She was reliving the halo and wings falling off Minato, and Minato collapsing.
The Communicator reached out to comfort her, but Rakka jerked back
"No, don't touch me!" She jumped up and ran towards the door, then stopped as the panic wore off slightly. She leant against a tree and shook.
The Communicator was making urgent hand signs to some of the surrounding Renmei. One ran off, and came back with another Renmei. This one walked up to Rakka, gently took Rakka's hands and-
"It's all right; we understand that you are feeling fearful and upset. We need time ourselves to work out what is going on, so we can't answer all questions."
The voice was obviously female. Rakka stopped crying in sheer surprise at being addressed verbally by one of the always silent Renmei, a woman at that.
Half an hour later, the Communicator and Rakka and the Renmei that had comforted Rakka set off for Leyton House. Rakka was still considerably disturbed, but the feeling of being trapped and powerless in an unfolding and unstoppable nightmare was abated. As well, the Communicator had requested some of the other Renmei to send messages to all of the other haibane nests, saying that Leyton House was having a difficult time and requesting (actually ordering) that no one visit them for the a while.
It was now just before lunch time; they were all gathered in the dining room. The Communicator was standing at one end of the room, with the Renmei standing a little to one side. Everyone else was sitting on chairs or benches; Minato was sitting between Rakka and Kaori. The Communicator had already examined Minato's back and had merely said that the wounds were healing nicely.
"One of the basics of a haibane's life here on Guri is love, to love others and to be loved in return. Normally the others are haibane, but" here the Communicator nodded to Yoshe and Kaori, "sometimes they can be humans."
"Without love a haibane is unlikely to achieve a Day of Flight. Unfortunately love can be problematic, love generally helps, but sometimes love can hinder. Hana and Yoshe loved each other, and this helped Hana achieve her trial and thus allowed her to go." At this Yoshe bowed her head and looked at the ground.
"But sometimes the love can tether the haibane to Guri; they don't want to go because they wish to remain with the one they love. The Wall detects this and won't allow the haibane to leave. It's a bit like being Sin Bound (tsumitsuki), but since there is no 'sin' present; there is no associated blackness on the wings. We call it being Love Bound. But, nevertheless, the haibane cannot leave. Such haibane remain in Guri and live as normal humans. They can become temple Renmei, or, after sufficient time has passed that no other haibane in Guri knows them, they can live in Guri as humans. There are several humans in Guri that you all know that are in fact failed haibane. I hope you forgive me if I don't say who they are. So this is what has happened to Minato."
At this point, Minato, who had been following this description with intent concentration, burst out-
"But I and Kenji had already broken up! We agreed not to ever see each other again last month! It was never going to work out anyway! I don't want to remain in Guri!"
The Communicator spoke as gently as he could, "Apparently you still had some feelings remaining for Kenji, and this is what the Wall detected. Presumably if your Day of Flight had been just a bit later, none of this would have happened."
"So what do I do? Can I still have my Day of Flight?" wailed Minato.
"At this stage I cannot answer that-"
"But why not?" said Minato.
"Well, we don't ourselves know what will happen in the near future..." said the Communicator.
Minato was starting to freak out, "I don't want to remain here!"
Some of the younger haibane were muttering to themselves, and Kaori stood up and said
"Please, I'm sure that the Communicator is doing the best he can, please calm down and be sensible!"
Komai couldn't keep it in any longer "But you're human. Maybe the Communicator is lying to you also! It's not a matter of being sensible; it's a matter of Minato losing her wings and halo!"
Murasaki continued before the Communicator could say anything "How do we know for sure that the haibane don't just die on their Day of Flight. After all, we died before we came here; maybe the Day of Flight is our final death!"
The Communicator remained silent, waiting to see what else would be forthcoming.
"Honestly, while I don't feel all that comfortable with the Communicator, in this matter I cannot believe that he is doing anything else than his best. He did his best to allay Yoshe's worries over Hana's Day of Flight and I was impressed with that" said Kaori.
"But he still won't say if Minato can have her Day of Flight!" said Daiani.
Several of the other young haibane started shouting. Minato started crying. Yoshe, looking around at the anguish, reached out and held onto Kumiko.
"Quiet please. Kumiko, do you feel confident in the Communicator?" she said.
Kumiko looked over to where the Communicator was standing, and then looked up at Yoshe. She held onto Yoshe's arm and said "Yes, I think the Communicator is Ok"
Ukimi held Kaori's hand and also said "I think we are panicking too much here, we need to take some time out and wait to see what happens."
At this, everyone calmed down, a little. The younger ones agreed to wait a bit more. The Communicator spoke
"I will go now and give you some breathing space. If you can all please follow Kaori's and Yoshe's and Rakka's guidance and we will see what happens tomorrow. Right now I would like to speak to Rakka in private."
"Rakka, can you come back to the temple with me to discuss this? This is important." asked the Communicator.
At this, Rakka was conflicted. She really wanted to stay here with Minato, and the others, and she was still shaken from the morning's meeting with the Communicator. On the other hand she did not want to directly refuse him.
"I don't want to think about it now, can I think about this tomorrow morning? I want to be here for the others, for the time being."
"Hmm, Ok, that will have to do." With that, the Communicator and the Renmei left to go back to the temple.
That night, the younger haibane got worked up again about the situation. However, this time, everyone was present. This time Kaori and Yoshe and Rakka managed to moderate the extremist opinions of the younger haibane. Unfortunately there were unable to eliminate such opinions entirely, with unfortunate consequences that will become visible soon.
Rakka went to bed feeling emotionally exhausted. As she lay there, staring at the ceiling, she remembered Nemu telling her how she had sat at the table in the guest room, praying for Reki's salvation. Maybe the praying helped, and maybe not, Rakka didn't know. But it couldn't hurt, could it? So Rakka put her hands together and prayed to the powers that be that Minato could have her Day of Flight. And as she prayed she drifted off to sleep.
"Rakka"
The voice woke Rakka up. There, sitting in a chair by the side of her bed, was Reki, patting Rakka's hand.
"Reki? But..."
"I'm here just to say that you need to trust the Communicator in this matter. Heavens knows I had issues with the Communicator in the past, but in this matter he is acting in everyone's best interests, to the best of his ability."
With that, Reki bent over, lightly kissed Rakka on the forehead, and was no longer there.
In the morning, both Amo and Murasaki came looking very much the worse for wear. They both had black spots on their wings.
"I'm starting to have nightmares about my dead baby" said Amo.
"I keep thinking about those explosions and flashes coming closer." said Murasaki.
The younger haibane started feverishly whispering that maybe it is better to be sin-bound and be prevented from going on a Day of Flight, instead of going and risking Day of Flight being bad. Yoshe sat on a couch with her arms around Kumiko, as if in a vain attempt to protect her from any evil influences. Kaori temporarily gave up trying to deal with the mob, and instead retreated to the kitchen where Ukimi was making breakfast. Rakka sat with a stunned look on her face, there was an endless loop of images running through her mind: her own wings going black, and Reki's wings going black as she tried to drive Rakka away when they were in Reki's cocoon nightmare room. Things were getting progressively worse, if something wasn't done soon then what disasters would prevail? She remembered the Communicators request to go to the temple this morning, maybe there was something that could be done?
Rakka stood up. "The Communicator asked me to go into the temple again; perhaps he has some scheme to stop this unfolding disaster. I'm going now."
Rakka popped into the kitchen to say the same to Kaori and Ukimi, and then rugged up for the cold and set off for the temple, for the second time in two days.
* * *
As usual, the Communicator was waiting at his pagoda. "There is a way you can help Minato have her Day of Flight. But to do this you will have to pay a price."
Rakka listened with these words with dismay. "And, what is the price?"
"That you in turn loose your Day of Flight."
The words went round and round Rakka's head.
"Lose my own Day of Flight"
"Lose my own Day"
"Lose my own"
She sat on the ground, put her head in her hands, and tried to think.
"Minato can have her Day of Flight back. But I lose mine. I want Minato to succeed. But if I don't go on my Day of Flight, then, what? Does that mean I never meet Reki again? But if I don't help Minato, and Minato stays here, and I had a chance to help her, what does that do to me? Do I feel guilty for the rest of my life here in Guri? Will I get tsumitsuki from this and be unable to go anyway? And what about Murasaki and Amo? If they see Minato go, perhaps they will get better and be able to leave also. Or if Minato doesn't go, and is stuck here, being very unhappy, will that make even more of the young haibane fail?"
Rakka opened her eyes and looked at the ground. There was a little beetle crawling along, testing the air with its antennae. She kept thinking-
"Now, if I was a little beetle, I wouldn't have any of these problems. But then I wouldn't have any thoughts about anything. I wouldn't have the memory of Reki. But I do have those thoughts and memories. Which appears to unfortunately mean I also have problems?"
"Damn this!" she said aloud. Rakka was not normally the one to swear.
She stood up and looked at the Communicator. "Ok, I'll do it. I expect to regret it for the rest of my life here, but I choose to do it."
"Also, do I have to tell Minato about this?"
"All things considered it is probably best not to tell her beforehand." said the Communicator. "Do you want to wait for a while, just to make sure?"
"No, let's get this over and done with. What do I need to do?"
Rakka pushed open the door leading down to the inside of the wall, stepped through, and walked down the stairs. At the small hallway where the protection suits were, she briefly stopped, looked at the suit which she normally used, and walked past it. As the Communicator had told her, this time she needed to go unprotected. This time she wanted the powers of the Wall to affect her. But even though she had proper business being down here unprotected, and the Wall knew it, she was still going to get Wall sickness.
"The Wall is absolute. If you transgress its boundaries, you have to pay the price. It is unfair, but that is the way it is." the Communicator had explained.
She kept going down the stairs at the other end of the hallway, and came out into the tunnel under the wall. It felt cold and damp. The water flowed along the central channel, with little ripples moving along its surface. There was the occasional dripping sound of water drops, the light from her lantern lit up the nearby walls and reflected back as lots of gold sparkles from the wall plaques. She boarded the round boat, and propelled it along, then tied it to the bollard and alighted. It felt weird, walking along without wearing the full suit.
She kept thinking "I'm going to lose my Day of Flight, I'm going to lose my Day of Flight ..." the refrain going around and around her head.
She started to hear the echoes "You're losing your Day of Flight, You're losing your Day of Flight", every drop of water set off another echo.
"Is this what I want to do?"
"Is it?"
"What is my choice?"
But she kept walking, until she came to her plaque. The Communicator had thoughtfully arranged beforehand for someone to place a small flag in front of hers, so that there was no mistake.
She had asked: "Do I have to do something dramatic like chisel off my name and replace it with Minato's?"
But the Communicator had just shook his head. "No, nothing like that. But it will be painful."
Now at the plaque, Rakka grimaced at this memory. "Yeah, it's always painful. The wings out, saying goodbye to friends, now this."
Deep breath. "Do I want to do this? Not particularly, but"
She reached out with her unprotected hand, and placed it onto her plaque. The pain almost made her jerk her hand away, but she managed to keep it there.
"What do you want?" asked the Wall.
"Ah, that I give my Day of Flight, uh, to Minato ... Please." Her hand was hurting.
"You accept the price; you lose your own Day of Flight?"
"Yes" Her whole arm was hurting.
"Very well."
As the pain increase even more, she staggered back and collapsed.
She regained her senses, and found she was lying on the cold ground.
Reki was kneeling besides her. "You will be fine." she said, as she held Rakka's hand.
Rakka's next memory was of being carried back down the tunnel and up the stairs by two Renmei, fully suited up in protective suits.
She was now lying on a bed in a room somewhere inside the temple complex, she felt nauseous, her arm ached and she was running a fever. The refrain in her head was now
"What have I done?"
"Will I regret it? Probably"
"Will it be worthwhile?"
"What becomes of me now?"
The turmoil going through her mind was worse than what she had felt when she had first woken up in Guri. Because now she had a past with which to compare her current state with. She wondered if it would be best if she could just forget everything and start off afresh, again. At least she still had her wings and, she felt above her head, her halo.
"How long will they last for?"
At this point the door opened and in walked two ordinary looking people. One was an old man, wearing what looked like second hand overalls from the thrift shop, and one was a middle aged lady, wearing a plain dress, with patches, probably also from the thrift shop. The lady's hair was tied back into a pony tail; she had worry lines and smile lines on her face. Currently she was smiling kindly and said hello to Rakka.
Rakka recognised the voice. "You're the lady Renmei that spoke to me the other day!"
"That's right. My name is Tori."
Rakka looked at the old man, and finally noticed the tattooed stripes on his face.
"The Communicator?"
"Of course. Pleased to meet you. But before we talk about anything, we must treat your Wall sickness."
The Communicator held Rakka's head up with steady hands, while Tori held a mug of the bitter Wall sickness medicine for Rakka to swallow. It tasted just as vile as it had the first time she had needed it.
"Now you need to rest. Your next trial will be your halo and wings falling off, probably in a few hours. I need to go to Leyton House and prepare them for Minato's restoration as a haibane, but Tori will stay here and offer any comfort she can."
With that, the Communicator left, and Rakka sank back into her pillow and drifted off to a very disturbed and fragmentary sleep.
Some hours later she woke. Tori as still there, sitting next to bed.
"Tori, I think my wings are going to, ah, they're getting painful, does this mean they will..."
"They will be soon. But have courage, it's not too painful. Physically that is. Emotionally it will be very painful. I speak from experience, but you will get over it."
At this point Rakka's halo flashed a few times, went black, and dropped down like an inert weight. It bounced off her head and landed on the floor. Rakka started crying.
"There there, it will be Ok, but you're allowed to cry now."
Within ten minutes Rakka's wings fell off also. Tori cleaned up the mess, and applied bandages.
"Here, drink this. It will make you sleepy. Tomorrow is soon enough to start adjusting to your new life."
Rakka drank what she had been offered, and was grateful to drift off into a deep sleep.