Chapter two! WHOO! This one was extremely hard to write for some reason, so its not perfect, and to most people standards it's probably extremely badly written. But, hey, I have the guts to accept and state that here, so take that oo;
Anyway, enjoy this chapter, starting with the disclaimer n.n

Disclaimer: The only things I own in this story are the Raibane oo; So, I'm sure that you can guess that I don't own Haibane Renmei n.n

"A Raibane."

"Raibane?" The voices in the room rung together in harmony, in a rather strange fashion. Each were utterly surprised that the word had been uttered, and being uttered, it obviously meant that they said it rather loudly.

"A Raibane has been born in Old Home."

"You always know these things, Momo!" The only female voice in the group cooed, shoving her face dangerously close to the handsome nine-teen-year-old-looking-boy, who moved back with a 'don't-you-do-that-to-me' look on his face.

The group that were discussing – if you could call it that – the birth of the Raibane, were a group of four (three males, one female), each of which looked about the age of nineteen, and not a day older. They had ordinary faces – maybe not the hair colour, seeing that the male leaning out of the open window of their shack had striking blue hair, but basically everything else – in fact, they could have been Haibane, if their wings hadn't been positioned differently. In fact, where their wings were, was just… wrong.

"Gah. There's too many Raibane's these days!"

The blue-haired man turned his attention toward a boy with deep brown hair, who was leaning back on a random chair, before turning his attention back to the surroundings outside. The surroundings never changed, it was always forest, forest and more forest. They were smack bang in the middle of the forest, but the only problem was that they hardly knew what forest they were in – only two out of the four dared to even leave their small clearing.

"Excuse me, winged-butted-dimwit, there are only four of us!" The female thwapped the brown-haired boy on the head sharply, and he responded with a giant "OW!"

"What is a Raibane?" Rakka asked, kneeling beside the newly born male Raibane, as he'd been named by the Old Home Haibane, and replacing the wash-cloth on his head. In fact, she seemed to be the only person interested in taking care of the small boy, the others too into the girl.

"A Raibane," Hikari said, sparing her a glance. Rakka looked extremely worried – it was as if she'd heard the word 'Raibane' somewhere before. "Is a Haibane that is born just not… right."

"Not just right?" Kana stated, or more-or-less yelled from the other side of the room, "A Raibane is the devil! They symbolise the worst kind of bad luck, and now, we have one in this room!"

"But he doesn't look like he brings bad luck…" Rakka said, bending down closer to the sleeping face to get a better look. "He looks… peaceful."

"Don't be fooled, Rakka." Hikari said, once again replacing the washer from the sweating Haibane, "We lost a Haibane to them once."

"How?" Rakka turned her attention away from the boy for a second, to look at Hikari.

"She was… murdered… a few years back."

"Oh." Rakka said, looking down at the mat, then back to the boy. Perhaps they really were bad…

"Perhaps I can explain." Nemu said, walking in. Nobody had noticed she was gone, and Hikari and Rakka both jumped at her voice. She'd emerged with what looked to be a cow brand – and a pot of extremely hot coals.

"A Raibane," She explained, taking a seat next to Rakka, and picking up the boys right arm – then noticed the bruising. "Is a Haibane born with wings on different parts of their bodies, or they are too big, or too small, or they're born with only one wing. We don't know how it started, but every Haibane grows up hating all Raibanes."

"Oh! So, where are this boy's wings going to grow?"

"His hands."

"Oh."

Nemu made a clucking sound with her tongue as she ran her finger lightly over the lump, then turned to look at the branding equiptment she'd brought in.

"… Nemu… what is that here for?" Rakka asked, looking at it with concern.

"Raibane's are not given Halos like Haibane are, instead," she started, while rolling the boy over, onto his stomach. "Instead, they have a Kanji branded onto them, normally on their hands, but with this one, I guess we'll have to go with the shoulder instead."

Needless to say, the night was not only full of blood and wings, but hot coals as well.

Every Raibane can sense the pain of another, and when the blue haired Raibane woke in a cold sweat that night, he seemed to know why. That newly born Raibane, was not only growing his wings – but he was getting branded as well! The nerve of the Haibane, how dare they even think of branding him without their consent!

He jumped out of his bed – which happened to be a bunk, and he made a massive thud on landing, causing the girl of the group, who slept below him to roll up, rubbing her eyes. "Kie… where are you going?"

"To get the Raibane,"

"It's Three-am in the morning!"

"They've branded him."

The line ran through the house, and met the ears, not only of the girl, but of the other pair as well – who didn't hesitate to race from the room they shared into the room that occupied Kie and the girl.

"They branded him?" The Raibane with the wings just above his buttocks said, putting his hands on his hips. The Raibane dubbed 'Momo' said nothing.

"I'm going to get him." Kie stated, turning to walk away, but his hand was caught by the girl, who looked increasingly worried. "Don't worry, Mai," He cooed in the only way he possibley could. Poor Mai hadn't left the shack since she came, she was much too afraid of what people would think of the girl that had two wings poking out the side of her head.

"…" She didn't reply, but let go of her Brothers hand none-the-less.

"Be careful, man." The Butt-winged-Raibane said, petting Kie rather roughly on the shoulder. Kie simply rolled his eyes. When ever he left the safety of the hut, the others just seemed to worry. Momo seemed to get the drift, and he muttered in his normal boring voice, "I'll go with him."

This seemed to calm the other pair.

"Well… See you both later!" Kie said, trying to sound enthusiastic to help 'up' the pair that were being left behind. Momo simply lifted his arm, and gave a short wave, before leaving.