COUNTING EVERY SPARROW THAT FALLS FROM HEAVEN
Nausicaä!
Haku watched as the Child of the Wind dove away from him. There was nothing he could do: even as he tried to go after her, the phoenix slammed into him from above, grasping him tight with talons as sharp as shards of glass and snapping at his nape with its hooked beak.
The heat burned him. Haku roared in pain and violently wriggled to try and throw the bird off. When that failed, he grappled with the raptor for several precious seconds to free himself.
"I shall eat your heart when I've slain you," the phoenix hissed as she clawed the dragon.
You think I'll let you do that? Haku snapped back. Shizuku, stop this madness! We're here to help you!
A thin cry from somewhere high above came to their attention as they continued to fight with each other. Phoenix spun with dragon and looked up to see a human-shaped shadow falling out of the sky, just like Nausicaä.
------oOo------
"He1p!" cried Haru despondently. "Toto! Someone! Anyone! Help me!"
She was terrified and confused. One moment she was backing away from the Neko-jou, the next she was falling through the floor and then darkness, to find herself under a louring sky over an endless ocean.
Scanning below her, she saw two monstrous shapes that appeared to be struggling with each other. One was whitish and snake-like, while the other looked like an eagle on fire.
Seeing that they were her only possible source of help, Haru tried to adjust herself so her fall would angle nearer to them. She had never gone skydiving before, but now seemed as good a time as any to try its techniques out.
"Help!" she screamed again.
------oOo------
"Where are all you interlopers coming from?" Shizuku asked as she contemplated the falling figure. "I shall have to find out whoever's—"
She never finished the sentence, for at that moment Haku bit into her leg. She shrieked and let go of him, and he used to opportunity to separate from her and rush down after Nausicaä.
"You bastard!" the phoenix-woman railed. "I'll get you for that! Your death will be slow and agonizing!"
Just then Haru, who had made a mistake in her calculations and maneuvering, rammed into the back of her head feet-first. The tremendous speed at which they hit each other broke Haru's legs; Shizuku, given strength by her supernatural nature, was spared such a fate, but the impact stunned her, and as Haru tumbled down her neck and back she dropped like a stone from the sky.
------oOo------
Rolling through the blowtorch-hot flames on the monster's back wasn't as painful as Haru had expected. There was a couple of seconds' sensation of being seared by a pain like no other she had ever experienced, then she surprisingly felt very sleepy and pain-free. The fact that she couldn't feel her legs somehow didn't seem to bother her as she slid off the bird's back.
Uh-oh, she thought drowsily, watching the horizon rotate and the vast ocean come into view as she fell. Not again.
------oOo------
Haku, unaware of what was transpiring above him, swore silently as he raced after Nausicaä. She was a dot already, a speck without color nearing the deep-blue water.
I'll never get to her in time! he thought despairingly. He was about to force himself faster when he saw something hurtle towards Nausicaä, at an angle much shallower than his but with terrific speed.
The river spirit watched in wonder as a pair of white-feathered wings unfolded themselves to their full length and breadth. He could see them visibly slow down, splaying out in the thicker air above the water, acting as brakes. They flashed over Nausicaä, and she was gone from sight.
I have her, sent a not-unfamiliar voice. She's safe, beloved Haku.
Haku raised his brows. Angel?
Yes. You are needed elsewhere. Look above.
Haku did as the mysterious girl asked, and saw a pair of dots also falling out of the sky. He climbed to assist them.
------oOo------
Shizuku groaned as she shook her head. Her head throbbed painfully. As she regained her vision, she noticed two things. One was that she had transformed back into a human, and was wearing a diaphanous white dress. The other was that a smoking Haru was plummeting only a few feet away from her, her body from the chest down a solid, sooty black.
Haru? she thought woozily. Haru! I remember! Good Heavens, I remember!
She eased herself closer to the falling girl, catching hold of one flapping jacket sleeve and using it to pull her into a protective embrace. As she hauled Haru closer she could see that she was very badly burned. So burned, in fact, that most of her clothes and hair were gone, except for the upper part of her jacket and blouse and her underwear. There were portions where her skin consisted more of charred ash than of flesh. And in her belly was an opening the size of a dinner plate, and Shizuku thought she could see...
"No..." She averted her gaze, her whisper lost in the rushing wind. The words she had used on Nausicaä came back to haunt her. You killed him. You killed him. And yet you called him son. Now here she was, with someone she considered her own child... and she had killed her too.
"Haru! I'm so sorry! Forgive me for hurting you!"
"Mmm... sensei? Is that you? I'm... I'm so glad to see you... Why are you crying?"
"I-I never thought I'd see you again..."
Haru smiled lazily at her. "Me too. Waitaminute, you're... you're supposed to be dead, so how come... am I dead too? Is this heaven? Why are we falling instead of flying?"
"'Cause people can't live in the sky," Shizuku answered through her tears. "No, this isn't Heaven. This is a Hell I made."
"But if you only put a little green land, sensei, it would look so pretty..."
"I know where to find some, dear. Just go to sleep and I'll bring you there."
"'Kay, if you say so..." Haru closed her eyes. Shizuku hoped it wasn't for good.
A long white length flashed upwards past her. She turned her head to follow it as it made a vertical U-turn and came alongside.
"Master Haku!" she yelled into the wind. "I need your help!"
In what way? the dragon asked as it looked at her.
"I'm rattled and can't use my power," she said. "Give me a ride. I must save this girl!"
The dragon bobbed its head and maneuvered so that Shizuku could ride on its back. Haku gradually pulled out of his dive around three hundred meters above the water and came upon Angel, who was bearing Nausicaä beneath her, holding on to her outstretched arms.
Need help?
No, thank you. The girl with the ash-flaxen hair and white wings smiled sweetly at him. We can manage. Right, Nausicaä?
"Uh, of-of course," stammered the Princess, looking down. Nothing separated the soles of her boots from the ocean surface hundreds of feet below.
I have to go ahead, said Haku. Shall I see you later?
Uh-huh. Go on, shoo. We'll be all right.
The dragon left in a flash and was soon swallowed up in the distance. Angel was content to fly placidly along. The weight of Nausicaä hanging beneath her seemed to faze her not a bit.
"Thanks," said the Princess, smiling gratefully at her savior. "I knew you'd come to rescue me."
Oh, you did, did you? For a moment the merest hint of a frown crossed the normally serene face. To Nausicaä it was as if someone had dropped an artillery shell directly on her head. Of all her accomplishments in life, being the only one to get the sweet, mute girl annoyed was not a desirable achievement.
You put yourself in danger and relied on me to get you out of it? That's... so unlike you, Princess.
"I didn't have a choice," Nausicaä said contritely. "If I stayed with Haku we would've both been killed. And I was feeling so wretched about what Shizuku–"
Who's she?
"She was the one riding on Haku's back. You know, the smaller woman."
Oh. You were saying?
"Never mind, Angel. I suddenly don't feel like talking about it any more."
Something about Ohma, yes?
Nausicaä sighed. "Yes."
I'm sure Ohma knew you had to do what you had to do. Even at the end, he called you 'Mother,' didn't he? If he was smart enough to know you feared him, he surely was also smart enough to disregard that fear. The decisions you had to make were not easy ones.
"You... you were listening, weren't you? To Shizuku and I, a while ago?"
Angel smiled inscrutably down at the hanging wind-rider. I am always with you, in spirit and flesh, in storm and zephyr, in happiness and sorrow.
"Angel..."
I know what you're going to say. I'd love to tell you who I am and why I know these things, but I can't. You'll know the answers, in time. Please don't press me for them, or I'll drop you into the sea.
"You wouldn't dare."
Well, you were telling Kushana what a lovely thing a bath was after a long journey before you came to the Cat Kingdom, Angel remarked.
"That was then. This is now."
Just kidding. Arms about to come out of their sockets yet?
"A little. I spent so much time with Haku I think I'm going to grow scales any minute."
Nausicaä?
"Yes?"
Close your eyes.
The Princess did, and when she opened them again they were standing under a sunny sky, on a verdant sward the likes of which she had always dreamed of walking on but knew was forever out of her reach, thanks to her people's adaptation to their world's pollution. They faced what appeared to be a giant closed flower of some sort. Its petals were translucent and gave off a soft white-silver glow.
"What? Where?"
We're here, way ahead of Haku. It's lovely being in a world like this, Angel mused. You can do so many things in it. She wordlessly took hold of Nausicaä's hands. Farewell again, Child of the Wind.
"No, Angel, don't do this to me..."
With powerful flaps of her wings the enigmatic girl rose into the air. Nausicaä remained standing in the vortex she created, squinting her eyes against the debris and the glare of the sunlight.
Don't count on me to get you out of trouble, were her parting words. I won't always be there to help you, understand? Take care of yourself. There will be at least two boys who will be very sad if they lose you. Then she rose higher and higher into the sky until she vanished into the clouds.
Nausicaä sighed and looked down at her feet. There was something lying on the fine-shorn grass, and she knelt down and picked it up.
It was a feather, a small, downy one. For some reason, whenever they met Angel always left a feather behind. It was the only proof of her existence.
But when I leave this place, I'll lose this one, Nausicaä thought. She contemplated the now-empty sky as she tucked the memento in her belt pouch. I wonder when we'll meet again.
------oOo------
True to Angel's word Haku arrived about an hour later, hurtling over the surrounding mountains and arrowing across the lake to the island she was on. Shizuku immediately dismounted and, bearing the horrifically injured Haru in her arms, walked into the closed flower straight through a petal, instructing the pair to wait for her.
Haku turned back into a human and flopped onto the grass at the base of the structure, groaning. He stretched his legs out. "I swear, I'm never, ever going to do this again..."
Nausicaä sat down beside him. Fell down, actually, since her joints were aching so much she didn't want to put weight on them as much as possible. "You and I both," she agreed. "What about your wounds?"
"I'll live." He chuckled. "If this persists when we get back, I'll wangle some tender loving care from Chihiro-chan. Ouch."
The Princess plopped onto the grass, made a pillow of her hands, put her head on them, and then closed her eyes, savoring the warmth of the sunshine. "I was surprised when I saw Shizuku on your back. What made her have a change of heart?"
"I'm not sure... but I think Haru has something to do with it."
Nausicaä opened her eyes. "Haru?"
"Didn't you recognize her?"
"Was that her? I thought that was someone else..."
"She's been terribly hurt. It was unintentional, really." Haku narrated what had happened, based on what Shizuku had told him on their flight over.
"Of all the things that could happen, this is one I never expected," commented Nausicaä after Haku had finished his story. "I just hope she'll be okay."
"I think she will. Shizuku has power over everything here." He chuckled, but it was an utterance strangely devoid of mirth. "Humans. Always got to lord it over everything else."
"What are you talking about?"
"Nothing, nothing."
------oOo------
Long did they wait for anyone to come out of the flower, which Haku told Nausicaä was a lotus bud, or at least an oversized representation of one. It was well into the afternoon when they gave voice to their worries, which had been quietly building all day long.
"I hope they're alright," Nausicaä said, looking at the rounded, softly-glowing structure.
"Yeah. Want to see if we can find a way in?"
"But she told us to wait here–"
"Do you want to do that?"
Nausicaä shook her head.
"Under the circumstances, I think we may be excused for intruding."
They marched around the entire circumference of the structure, but found no entrance of any sort.
Haku eyed the top of the bud. "Hmm... I wonder." He positioned himself and beckoned. "Come on, Nausicaä. Piggy-back."
Nausicaä obliged, and as Haku lifted her he groaned. "You're heavy, you know that? You must be eating well nowadays." His feet came unstuck from the earth.
"You're just tired," the Princess retorted, smiling at his back as they flew up. "Speaking of eating, do you feel hungry?"
"No. You?"
"Uh-uh. I've been wondering at that."
"Oh."
They landed on the top, which consisted of little more than the edges of the petals all bunched together to form a solid roof. In the center was a hole, big enough for a person to squeeze through.
"I knew it," Haku said triumphantly. "I'll go in first."
When Nausicaä clambered down the brightly-lit hole she found that there was no floor beneath. A floating Haku urged her to let go, and she fell into his waiting arms. Both of them floated silently into the cavernous chamber inside, into its pearly luminosity.
There was nothing inside save a bed of stalks which shed little balls of light, on which lay Haru Yoshioka, motionless. Her clothes and hair had somehow been restored, and provided the only splash of color in the place. Her patchwork jacket had been carelessly strewn on the floor, while the silk blouse and camisole top she had worn underneath had been pushed up to reveal her belly. Above this Shizuku had placed her hands, and an actinic light was issuing forth from them as Haku and Nausicaä descended.
Haku landed and gently let the Princess onto her feet. As they watched, Shizuku brought a fingertip to her lips, then took it away as she bent over Haru and kissed her.
Haru's back arched, as if in agony. She let in a shuddering breath and Shizuku collapsed, falling first against the stalk-bed, then onto the smooth, flawless ground.
With a cry of alarm the two ran towards them. Haku picked Shizuku up and was relieved to discover her weak but apparently okay. Nausicaä went to see to Baron's former girlfriend.
With a wavering smile Shizuku looked up at Haku. "So fortunate to see you here. Could you... could you please see if she's okay?"
Before Haku could move, Nausicaä signaled to him with a nod.
"Yes, she is. Are you hurt?" He brushed away a streak of blood from Shizuku's lips.
"I'll be fine. I needed blood to... wake her, so I bit myself." She held her right hand up. The index finger was bleeding.
"I can help you with that."
"No need. Put me on the floor. I wish to rest..."
"What about Haru?" asked Haku as he lowered her onto the cool gray surface.
"She'll be fine now. I must ask you to bear with me a little while longer. When I wake, we will talk."
"Okay."
"Master Haku?"
"Yes?"
"Don't go out any more. To revive Haru I had to give up a lot of my power. You will die instantly if you venture outside—the world out there is disappearing as we speak. I'm sorry I forgot to call you. I was so worried about her..."
Haku nodded. "I understand. Sleep now."
Shizuku closed her eyes.
------oOo------
"You know what this reminds me of?" Nausicaä said as they stood beside the recumbent, still-unconscious, and newly-healed Haru.
"What?"
"The Ohmu. Their tendrils looked like this." Nausicaä touched a stalk's glowing tip, and it gave off little bits of light with a very faint tinkling noise. They watched them float downwards, to wink out of existence as they touched the floor. "How I loved to watch the spores drift down in the Forest of Corruption." She gestured towards the sleeping girl. "It was like the snowfall in their world. Haku, do you really love Chihiro?" Nausicaä suddenly blurted out. "I know I shouldn't be asking this, so I'm sorry if I've given offense."
Haku didn't speak for a while. "No, it's alright. She's very dear to me. Why do you ask?"
"Nothing. It must rankle, having to wait for her to grow up."
To her surprise, the river spirit chortled. "I have the whole of eternity to wait, if I must. What's a decade or two compared to that?"
"But you're so old, and she's so young."
"Like they say, age doesn't matter, does it? I can't very well start courting her now, or I'll rightfully be accused of being a cradle-snatcher. Besides, I think she still needs some more time to mature and be her own person."
"Well, don't wait too long. We humans don't live forever, you know." Nausicaä paused. "I wonder what he has to say about that."
"He?"
"You know."
"Oh. Why don't you go and ask him?"
"I can't. Believe it or not, if we hadn't gone to the Cat Kingdom I wouldn't have been able to return to his world, because there wouldn't have been anyone to take me there." Nausicaä looked at the floor. "He won't live forever either."