DARK DAY FOR ANIME - THE RIGHT DISHONOURABLE MARK A PAGE
Disclaimer: Blah and blah don't belong to me etc...
----o
Ketsu lay on top of the small rise of grass, overlooking a vast landscape, humming a tune she had almost forgotten as the sun warmed her through.
For a second, she realised that there was something missing from this moment.... Something, or someone.
----o
"What do you think it is like, over the other side of the wall?"
Kumiko turned to her strange little Haibane sister as they sat togther on the edge of the bridge, overlooking the canal. For all intents and purposes, they could have been sisters in reality, for their appearances were quite similar. The only real difference between them was the texture of their hair. Kumiko's was long and wavy, whilst Chigusa's was shorter and more wiry. Chigusa had long given up trying to grow her hair long; it just never worked.
But apart from those small differences, they were inseparable, like twins. And in all the years she had known her, Chigusa had never asked her such a question before.
"I'm not sure." Kumiko shrugged and looked away. "It isn't something I really think about."
"Why not?" Chigusa was more direct now. "I mean, aren't you just the least bit curious?"
"Hmm...." Kumiko thought about it for a few moments. "They say that evil exists on the other side of the wall, but I don't know. I've never seen what evil is like, so I can't judge. Whatever the case, it can't be as good as it is in here."
"Is that what you think?" Chigusa looked disappointed with the response. Kumiko patted her on her wings.
"Well, you're bound to find out one day. All you have to do is flap those wings of yours hard enough."
"Oh, if only that were true. You know, I used to have a life over there."
"That's the theory." Kumiko nodded. "At least, that's the only theory."
"No, it's true. For some reason, the memory of the life I lead, before I became a Haibane, isn't as clouded as it is for others. For most, those memories are reduced to little more than the dream we have in the cocoon. But I can remember events in my life.... There weren't many, but I can remember the faces of my mother and father, things they said, people they knew.... Though not specific names, or anything. Almost as if my memory has been combed through with specific little bits taken out. I've often wondered why."
Kumiko opened her mouth to say something, closed it again when she thought better of it, then decided to try another tack. "You've.... never mentioned this before. To me." Pause. "Why now? I mean, what is different?"
"I'm not sure. I guess I'm starting to grow up at last. Maybe the memories have been allowed to remain within me because I'm more grounded than other Haibane. I was born in your house. I grew up with your family...." She giggled. "And, you know, grounded is a really bad word to use for someone with utterly useless wings on her back." Kumiko giggled in turn, and Chigusa put a hand around her shoulders. "You know I'm probably going to disappear one day, perhaps not all that far away."
"I know." Kumiko let out a long breath. "I know. But not yet. We have time, yet, to be together."
Chigusa smiled and reached into the collar of her shirt, pulling out a small turquoise pendant on a gold chain. She undid the fast at the back of her neck and placed it into Kumiko's left hand. "Have this. Papa gave it to me when I turned ten, but it really isn't my style at all."
Kumiko stared at the pendant. "You really.... really want me to have this?"
"Well I wouldn't have given it to you, otherwise, silly. Besides, I don't know if I'll be able to take this with me when I eventually leave." And she closed her hands around Kumiko's, pressing her fingers down around the pendant. "Think of it as a lucky Haibane charm. It will protect you whenever you're in trouble. Or something like that."
"'Or something like that'? You know, you have a way of presenting romantically wistful notions as being dubiously unreliable."
"Can't help the fact that I don't take myself seriously enough. Something you should learn in your relations with others...."
And in the silence that followed, they watched the vermillion sunset together in a moment that was etched in eternity.
----o
An Haibane Renmei Fanfiction
Red Feathers in Old Home
by Dark Day For Anime
Part 4
Night - Stars - Eternity
----o
"You know, quite frankly.... We might be twins but there are days where I just can't understand you." Sa, lying on her side, stared across the room at her sister from her bed. "Why did you freak out at Ketsu like that? It isn't fair to her to act like that the day she arrives here."
Yu remained resolutely silent, turned away from Sa on her own bed. Typical, Sa thought to herself. The silly cow was becoming more and more moody and sulky with each passing day. It was a wonder anyone had trouble telling them apart, anymore. "Alright, then. Be like that." And she turned, facing the darkened ceiling.
Night was a time that Sa wasn't particularly happy with. It meant you had to be quiet and stop doing things, and that wasn't Sa's style at all. It was something of a worry for the older feathers, in her early days at Old Home, that the only times she would sleep was when she practically collapsed from exhaustion. Sleep, in her mind, were a few hours of precious time lost for no good. And besides, it gave her time to think and dream, all by herself. And she hated that.
"You really don't hear it, do you?" Yu's soft voice carried across the room like subliminal thunder in the dead silence. Sa huffed and pouted.
"No, I don't hear it. And if you keep talking about it in others' presence, they're going to think you're a little off in the head."
"I'm not off in the head. I really did hear her. All day. The same cries she made when she was panicking. All day."
"You, girl, are putting two and two together and getting twenty-two." Sa crossed her arms and though for a few moments. "There were so many people in Old Home, today. It could have been anything, or anyone. Or you were just imagining it."
"I wasn't imagining it."
"It could have been bird cry, too. I mean, those crows just hang around and squawk all day. They're really creepy...."
"It wasn't the crows. It was her."
Sa had gad enough. She sat bolt upright, grabbed one of her pillows and pitched it across the room at Yu, hard enough to shock her out of her reverie. Yu grabbed the pillow, sat up and turned, glaring at her sister.
"What was that for?"
"For being a stupid cow who thinks too much about stupid things. I'm glad I'm giving up the job at the second-hand goods store. I've just about had enough of your moodiness."
"Wait.... What do you mean you're 'giving up'? Where the hell are you going? Have you told Inakuma-san about this?" Yu gripped the pillow, tensely as Sa turned away, looking as if she'd let a cat out of a particular bag. She decided to run with it.
"Inakuma knows. I told her last week. I'm going to work for Kristas and Jones, the electricians, as an apprentice." She turned back to Yu. "I showed them all the stuff I'd put together, and they said I showed promise. So I'm changing jobs."
Yu's anger seemed to have drained from her. "You're leaving me behind, and you didn't think to tell me until now?" Her lips trembled in a way that made Sa feel pretty, well, bad.
"I was going to tell you. Eventually. I mean, we might be twins, but that doesn't mean we have to do everything together, does it?"
"That's not fair." Yu's voice broke with emotion. "Why is it that you always go and do your own thing, and I follow? It just isn't fair, Sa." Yu threw her bedcovers and the pillow aside and stood from her bed, shaking in the moonlight cast through the window.
"You don't have to follow me." Now Sa could feel tears coming on. "Why do you think you have to do everything I do? Why don't you get a life of your own? We aren't the same person.... We're two different people, and just because we look exactly alike won't change that."
"I don't know." Tears started to stream down Yu's face. "I don't know what to do. I thought, if I did what you did, then everything would be alright. I wouldn't have to think about it. I just don't know.... I can't ever make a decision for myself. Haven't you worked that out, yet?"
Sa shook her head, angrily. "You're just lazy. You think if, you just copy me, then you can save yourself the worry. What are you, my shadow, or something?"
"Maybe...." Yu clenched her fists. "Maybe that's all I am. Maybe that's all I ever will be. And one day, you'll turn around and find I'm not there, anymore."
"Yu...."
"I can still hear her." Yu put her hands to her head. "She's crying out in pain. Her wings are breaking through, and she's calling out to Rakka. And something horrible is watching her. I can see it. I can see it all. I don't want to be around her.... She is bringing things into Old Home that I don't want."
Yu's world started to spin, and she staggered. Sa leapt from her bed to grab her sister before she fell, but Yu brushed her aside.
"Yu.... It's alright. I believe you. You're hearing these things. I believe you." And with the way Yu was acting, she really was starting to believe. Yu was having none of it.
"You're just saying that." She clutched her head tightly, staggering away from her sister. "What is the point of your being kind to me? It's obvious what you think about me, now. Ooohhh.... The cries. It's too much."
Yu staggered to the door, throwing it open. Sa tried to follow, but Yu would simply throw an arm out every time she got close. Eventually, she staggered into the hallway and was off, like a rocket. Sa stood in the doorway, watching her disappear, not knowing what to do next.
In frustration, she stamped her way towards the now-empty storeroom, but a few doors away. Entering it, she stared at the now dried-up and broken remains of the cocoon, which, in the commotion of yesterday, hadn't been cleaned up. She stepped up to it and touched one of the broken shards. It felt no different to the remains of her own cocoon.... She and her sister had been allowed to keep a piece of both of theirs, each, in their early days when they'd just received their halos. She'd like to touch the broken shard, feel the tactile roughness of it. Somehow, it seemed to comfort her. But slowly, the shard withered and crumbled into dust, as if its place in this world had passed.
And this one felt no different. So why would Yu think she was any different? Sure, her reactions were a little strange, but she was, after all, just getting used to what had become of her.... Sa had been much the same when she arrived.
She turned the piece over in her hands, lit in a faint glow. A faint reddish glow. She looked up for a moment, at the base of the main shell. There was a warmly-radiating energy within the base that was lit with a ruddy luminescence. Sa dropped the shard and stepped up to the base, staring at it. Even closer, she could feel the warmth. The glow was gently pulsating, like a slow and steady heartbeat. She reached out and touched the base, close to where she'd earlier put her foot through. And then....
"RAAAKKAAAAAA! IT HURTS! IT HURTS! MAKE IT STOOOOOOP! OH, IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS! MAKE IT STOOOOOP!"
Sa snatched her hand away, her eyes open wide. She backed up and ran from the room, almost tripping as she did so, back into her own bedroom, into her own bed, where she threw the covers over her head. And there she remained for a while.
----o
Yu had always been more comfortable at night. She really didn't like the sun that much. Although she didn't mind the acquiescence of the summer days. It meant that Sa wasn't cooped up in the Old Home, going stir crazy. Cooped up, of course, with her.
Yu stood in the courtyard, standing stiff and upright, letting the tears flow. The other good thing about the night was the fact that it allowed you to be alone, without anyone to bother you. And on warm summer nights like this, the outside air was pleasant, especially if you happend to be outside in nothing more than a thin nightdress without so much as a cardigan and shoes. Just another thing for her to berate herself with.
She caught a sob and looked up at the sky, the moon and the stars. The moon, in full cycle. Little surprise that everything was in turmoil. Everything. She turned and looked at the window doors of the common room. There was still a light inside, and she thought she could see movement. It didn't surprise her that one of the others would be up, taking care of that new girl. But all was silent. There were no screams and cries coming from there. The girl's wings had not yet grown enough for them to break free of her flesh. Yu looked back at her own wings, remembering how quickly they had appeared. But, of course, she had not broken free of the cocoon early. It might be a couple of days, yet, before Ketsu's wings showed themselves.
Ketsu. Blood. The girl's head had been smeared with blood when she had hatched. It didn't surprise Yu at all. She had always been able to feel things others couldn't, not even Sa. And even before the cries in her head had started, she could feel something strange was happening in Old Home. After all, it was she who had alerted Sa to the sounds from the storeroom.... Not so much sounds as, well, noises. In her head. But she couldn't say that to Sa.
Sa.... Yu felt bitter tears rise once more, before she almost launched herself across the courtyard with the touch of a hand on her shoulder.
"Oh dear.... I'm sorry." Yu had almost run for her life before recognising the voice of the eldery house mother. She turned to the woman, who was wrapped in a shawl over her own nightdress. "I didn't mean to startle you, dear." She said, soothingly. "I saw you as I was returning from one of the children's rooms. What are you doing, standing out here in the open. You'll catch yourself a death of a cold if you're not careful."
"I'm okay." Yu wrapped her arms across her front, sullenly.
"Well, you're in a right state, I must say. Have you been crying?" The house mother reached forward, for Yu's chin, but the girl shrugged off her attentions. "Hmmm...." The woman crossed her arms. "I see. So its going to be like that, is it? Ah, what to do with children, these days?" She chuckled. "You're the twin Yu, aren't you?"
Yu looked at her, suspiciously. "How would you know? I might be Sa."
"Oh hardly. I can tell the both of you apart, easily. Ever since you were under my daily care, I could tell the two of you apart." She shook her head. "No matter how hard you tried to confuse everyone. It was amusing, watching the pair of you trying to fool people."
"Doesn't change anything. I still might be Sa, for all you know."
"Sa doesn't sulk quite the way you do. She wouldn't run off and cry alone in the courtyard, like this, and especially not in the middle of the night." The house mother gestured to the doorway. "If you'd like, I can make you some hot chocolate, or something suitably comforting. Looks like you're in need of a sudden boost of sugars and bliss-inducing compounds."
"Don't want any." Yu huffed crossing her arms and pouting. The house mother took her by the ear.
"That, little lady, was not an offer. You will accompany me back to a place where we can sit down, drink hot chocolate and discuss personal problems. Do you understand?"
"Ow. Yes. Ow." Yu clenched her teeth as she was lead, ear-first, back into the building.
----o
Rakka watched as Ketsu slept on the bed, her breathing slow, soft and calm. It was hard to believe that this girl had been in a state of hysterics earlier in the day. Rakka peered over at the small clock that Kana had hung on the wall at the far end of the common/guest room. Yesterday. It was past midnight, now.
And she couldn't sleep. Not one little bit. So much was playing on her mind that she simply couldn't relax on the small cot that they'd laid out earlier, next to Ketsu's bed. Once, Rakka had slept soundly on that same bed, with another watching over her, restlessly. For a few moments, the years that had passed between those moments seemed to melt away, as if there was really no difference between the then and now. Moments that lasted an eternity, imprinted upon this room like ink on paper.
Reki stood in the corner of the room, watching her. Smiling. Silent. With a cigarette hanging out of the corner of her mouth. For a second, Rakka thought she was really there, but it occured to her that Reki probably wouldn't be a smoker, now, and she certainly wouldn't still have those grey wings, and the halo. Rakka had found the halo, one time she happened to be in the Western Woods. It was nearby where she had found Kuu's, and Nemu's. Sometimes she felt she like she'd been left to pick up other peoples' messes.
Reki's figure chuckled as she took the cigarette from her mouth and tapped off the burnt ash, blowing a small cloud of smoke into the room. And then she vanished, much like the smoke. Rakka turned back to Ketsu, studying her features and her hair. There was a strong likeness between the two. Ketsu's face was thin but attractive, her hair long, straight and black. For a moment she could almost believe that Reki had returned to them, to haunt them for all eternity. Rakka bopped herself one over the head for thinking that. There was no way Reki could ever be this clingy, this needy. If it had been Reki, then something terribly wrong had happened to her, wherever she had gone after her Day of Flight. No, this wasn't Reki, this was Ketsu. Someone completely different.... Different....
"....I'm sorry, is the dream a scary one?" Rakka gave Ketsu a concerned look as the girl pulled the covers tightly over her form. Her eyes were moving from one person to another in the room: Hikari, Kana, the twins, Hana and finally Rakka. There was a deeply searching and reading expression in those dark, dark eyes that troubled Rakka when she saw them.
"No." Ketsu's voice was hoarse and husky, not simply because it had been so soon since she'd left the cocoon. "No, not altogether scary. I mean, scary things did happen, but...." Her eyes bored deep into Rakka's. "They're not going to hurt me. I'm not afraid of them."
"What happened?" Kana asked, without a hint of subtlety. She was still munching on a bread roll, the last remains of dinner that night. Ketsu turned to her, her head snapping around so fast that Kana almost dropped the roll. Ketsu's gaze was as unsettling for her as it had been for Rakka.
"I was being chased by someone who wanted to hurt me. And they succeeded. But I was saved, by an angel with red wings." She turned back to Rakka. "That angel was you, in a way, wasn't it?"
Rakka wasn't sure how to respond. "Well, the dreams we have in the cocoon aren't exactly specific and often metaphorical. I guess it could have been me." But she knew it wasn't the case. She had had Hana hide the painting from Ketsu, just in case the connection between them caused something.... she wasn't sure what, but she was sure that Ketsu would react rather badly.
"Is that all you can remember?" Hikari pressed the issue. "Just that you were being chased?"
Ketsu looked down at the floor. For a few seconds it looked as if she were ignoring Hikari altogether, but then she lifted her head and frowned. "No, I was being chased in a place with a lot of long corridors. There were a lot of doors leading away, and stairways, and a big yard outside, with trees and other buildings." She paused. "The place looked much like this, only newer. Bigger. And the person who was chasing me was someone I knew, for some time. I don't know why they were chasing me, but I know that they hated me. No, that's not the right word for it...." She paused, her brow creasing in deep thought, almost as if she were intellectually separating herself from the memories of the dream. "The person had a deep darkness within them. I was not the first person to have been hurt by them, but I did not know this, until it was too late."
"I don't think we should press Ketsu any further." Rakka stepped forward and place a hand on Ketsu's shoulder. The girl turned to her and smiled, placing a hand on Rakka and rubbing her cheek against it.
"I'll be okay. You're here. I have friends who can protect me, now."
"You shouldn't be here." Everyone turned to Yu, who was standing near the door. She stared at Ketsu, almost with the same piercing look that Ketsu gave everyone else.
"Yu...." Sa tugged her sister's sleeve with embarassment, but Yu simply brushed her off.
"You're dangerous to us all." Yu pointed at Ketsu. "I know you will be. You'll hurt us all, one way or another. And you'll hurt yourself. This place is for blessed Haibane, and you won't be blessed. Mark my words, you will destroy Old Home before you leave. I can see it...."
During her tirade, Hikari had quietly approached her. So quietly that the sharp slap across her face came as much as a surprise as it did to everyone else. Yu stood with her hand against her reddening cheek as Hikari glowered at her, her hand still raised in the backswing of the slap. "Apologise." She growled. "Apologise to Ketsu, this instant."
Tears started to fill Yu's eyes. "You just don't get it, do you? I can hear her, even now.... Her cries of fear and pain. Inside her is a dark pit of fear none of us shall be able to fill. She'll drain every one of us dry and move on." She backed away, towards the door. Sa grabbed her by the arm.
"Yu.... Stop this. You're not talking sense."
Yu stared at her sister, tears now cascading down her face. "Can't you hear them? The cries? You're my sister. Surely you can hear them? Surely?"
All Sa could do was shake her head. Yu wrenched her arm away from her sister and turned, throwing the door open and running away. Sa followed her to the doorway and watched her go. She turned back to the others. "I'm sorry.... I'll make sure she apologises to Ketsu.... in time." And with that, she followed her sister.
"She.... doesn't need to apologise." Ketsu hoarse tones echoes across the room. "I understand why she feels as she does. She's afraid. Afraid of me. She wants to run away from me. I understand those feelings well. I almost feel as if I've been spending all of my existence, running away from something." She looked up at Rakka. "I won't be running away, now. And I won't hurt any of you." Her eyes became pleading. "You do believe me, don't you?"
It was almost as if an entire eternity depended on her next few words. "I uhhhh.... Of course I believe you. No Haibane is born in Glie to hurt others. At least, not deliberately."
Ketsu smiled. "Not deliberately." And she chuckled with a genuine warmth that seemed to knock edges off the intensity she had, up until now, displayed. "Ahhhh...." She threw herself back on the bed. "I'm not really getting off to the best start, here, am I?"
"Well, it could've run more smoothly." Kana shrugged. "But then, I was a bit of a tearaway when I arrived, so how much worse could you be?"
Rakka lay down on the cot and stared up at Ketsu's sleeping form once more.
"How much worse could you be?" Rakka whispered to herself. "As bad as the Washi says you could be? Your every expression is a mask to what lies underneath. Even I could see that, Ketsu. Even I could see." Rakka reached up and touched Ketsu's face. "But I made a promise, to look after you for as long as I can. What you do with that is up to you." And with that, Rakka turned and closed her eyes, drifting off into sleep.
Moments later, Ketsu opened her own and stared at the back of Rakka's head. At the wavy, messy auburn hair, at the wings that protruded from her back, at the halo that sat, uncomfortably, above her head. A gentle smile crossed her face as she reached out to touch the halo, but retracted it when Rakka stirred. She stared at the hand for a few moments, then held it up to her mouth as she closed her eyes, hoping for much more pleasant dreams when sleep claimed her once more....
Dreams like....
----o
"So, she's going to take up the job, after all...." The house mother nodded as she sat down at the table. Yu noted that the house mother's own living space was much neater, and not to mention newer, than the rest of Old Home. Most of the walls had been freshly plastered and painted, the curtains across the windows were all brightly coloured, and the furniture was probably not much older than Yu, herself. Yu was almost jealous, as she submerged her top lip into a deep mug of thick hot chocolate, which wasn't all that hot by the time she'd got around to actually starting to drink it. "It doesn't surprise me all that much. Sa is the kind of person who finds it easiest to espress herself when she is doing something. What surprises me is how long it took for her to work this out."
"And what about me?" Yu said, almost spitting her mouthful of hot chocolate across the table. The house mother gave her a stern look over her manners.
"What about you, young lady? Surely being an electrician is not your idea of a fun time?"
"Well, no.... But...."
"But what?" She smiled, raising an eyebrow. "Somehow, I think, the life of the manual labourer is not for the quiet, sensitive young Haibane girl named Yu, don't you think?"
Yu looked down into her mug, as if studying the swirls and eddies of its contents. "I don't know what kind of life I'm supposed to be choosing for myself. Sa always seems to know what she wants, but I...."
"....Just let yourself fall into things without really thinking if that's what you want to do, hmmmm?" The house mother tutted. "Honestly, do you think that is so bad? If that's what you want to do, do you think it is so bad?"
"I don't know. I don't like thinking about such things. It always leaves me feeling confused."
"So are you going to continue working for Reiko at the second hand shop?"
Yu chewed it over. "She'd be sad if I left, wouldn't she?"
"A little. I'm sure she likes having the pair of you around, and would feel sad if you both left at once."
"Though the way people tend to look at us, I'd not be surprised if she felt a little relief, as well...." Yu chuckled. "We're not exactly the most reliable of workers, at anything, are we?"
"You're a lot more reliable than you think you are. Who was it that washed everyones' clothes yesterday when nobody else could?"
"Yeah, but...."
The house mother clicked her tongue. "You really are hard on yourself, aren't you? Honestly, I wouldn't have thought it from the likes of you. Go on, drink your chocolate before it gets cold."
Yu gulped down a sizeable portion from her mug before placing it on the table and licking the froth from her lips. "You know...." She mused. "I think I will stay at the second hand store. I was always better at collecting junk for sale than Sa was. She only ever collected stuff to use on her gadgets."
"See, you do know what you want to do, after all." The house mother chuckled.
Yu rubbed her head for a moment, then frowned. "I should apologise to Sa. I was rude to her, before." She closed her eyes and continued to rub her forehead.
"What is it, dear? Are you not feeling well?"
"No. It isn't that." Yu looked up at her. "I've been hearing strange things ever since the new girl arrived. I guess it's what has been making me so upset." She paused. "I said really nasty things to the new girl as well. I should apologise to her as well. But...."
"But...?" The house mother looked on at her, expectantly.
"But I keep getting strange vibes from her. Although I'm not sure if it is her, specifically, or something hanging over her."
The house mother nodded. Yes, I would expect that." Yu looked quizzically at her. "Oh, it's just an old story, about Haibane whose cocoons appear near the painting of the Akabane."
"What story is this?"
The house mother considered her for a moment, then cleared her throat. "Well, its like this...."
----o
Ketsu lay with her head resting in Rakka's lap atop a small rise of grass, the sun warming them both, as Rakka hummed a tune that she could only just remember the notes for, a hand gently playing with Ketsu's long black hair. Ketsu looked up at her smile before closing her eyes, feeling that she was safe enough to do so, for once. Then she realised something, and opened her eyes again. Rakka's halo was gone. She turned her head and peered up over Rakka's shoulders. Her wings were also missing.
Ketsu sat up, surprising Rakka. She looked around, but didn't recognise where they were. Nearby, a young woman with long dark hair like her own was packing away what appeared to be a picnic basket, a cigarette hanging out of the corner of her mouth.
"What is it, Ketsu?" Rakka asked, and she turned back to her.
"I.... For a second, I couldn't remember where we were. I thought...."
Rakka placed a hand on hers. "It's alright. Sometimes you forget where you are. Sometimes you even forget who you are, but it doesn't matter. All that matters is that you're here."
Those words calmed Ketsu. She lowered her gaze to Rakka's hand. "I haven't forgotten anything. Not where I am or who I am. But sometimes I feel as if I'm being swallowed up by those memories." She looked back up at Rakka's face. "I'm glad I found you, at last."
"My dear Ketsu.... I was never lost to you." And with that, Rakka held Ketsu to her. It was, quite possibly the epiphany of all of Ketsu's existence. She closed her eyes and....
....Opened them again, to the rays of a new morning. Rakka was still there, asleep in the cot next to her. No, she hadn't forgotten where or who she was.... even if she felt like she would forget herself in those memories. She reached across to touch Rakka, but found her shoulders stiff and sore, her shoulder blades cut sharply with shooting pains as if her muscles were straining under pressure. Withdrawing her hand she looked back. Small lumps were appearing underneath the nightdress, and she guessed the time was getting near for her wings to appear.
She felt a presence at the end of the bed, and looked over to see Yu standing there, an expression of pity mixed with fear on her face. She opened her mouth to say something, but the girl shook her head.
"I'm not afraid of you." Yu whispered. "There is nothing to fear from you. But there is a lot to fear around you. Be careful, when you call, that what appears has wings of red. Or there may never be another Day of Flight in Glie."
And with that, Yu turned and walked from the room, leaving Ketsu feeling alone and confused....
END OF PART 4
----o
DARK DAY FOR ANIME - THE RIGHT DISHONOURABLE MARK A PAGE
FEATHER 1.0: 4th-5th September 2004