Chapter 2
It was a beautiful day. The sun was shining, its rays reaching every inch of the dimension in which happiness almost always reigned eternal. The shining sunrays penetrated the mist-like clouds and caused the dew droplets to reflect tear shaped prism reflections on the damp face of Kayuki, commonly known as Kayu.
As a fairly young angel, Kayu was only 1 earth day old. She didn't know the protocol for Heaven yet! Her own mother didn't recognize her and she knew no one in this strange new realm. Kayu was a special kind of angel; she was quite unlike the rest of the heavenly host. Kayu was a human. Or had been at one point, about a day or so ago. Ah, but it seemed like ages since she had walked to the poor, impoverished schoolhouse on the edge of her small village. Encased in her misery, Kayu's mind took her back to the day before; when she had been happy, content, and satisfied with her life.
Kayuki Yorimaru had been an orphan since she could remember. She had no parents that she could recall, but she did used to receive flashes of memory of a kind faced woman standing over her and smiling; clapping her hands together and singing to her. She could never remember the words to the song, but she always hoped that they were somewhere, locked inside her memory, eventually accessible. Kayu used to constantly hum snatches of the song to herself, especially when she felt stressed. It had always sounded like a lullaby to her.
The only person she
had ever known who had been like a mother to her was a learned Shinto
priestess named Kinomi. Kinomi had taken Kayu in when she had found
her crying in the rainy streets, her clothes drenched with the water
from the sky. Her parents and brother had been lying dead in the
ramshackle hut just up the road. She had taught Kayu everything she
could ever have needed to know and more. Kayu was taught to read,
write, do mathematics, basic and advanced sciences and medicines,
philosophy, poetry, theology, martial arts, kenjutsu, and classic
literature. Kinomi had also taught Kayu things traditionally learned
by women too; such as the tea ceremony, art, music, dances, and many
other things. In many ways, she had received the type of education
most in Japan only dreamt of.
At age 14, Kayu began her
life as a teacher. Many times over the course of the next two years
would she be offered positions as a private tutor for the children of
the local daimyo, but everytime, she would decline in favor of her
less privileged students. She could never work in such a stuffy,
formal atmosphere. After her first day of teaching, she found she
loved it so much she couldn't possibly give it up. Unfortunately,
at age 16, two years after beginning her career as a teacher, Kayu's
life came to an abrupt end.
The mournful event occurred one night in her home, after a long afternoon of walking home from a particularly hard day of teaching. One of her students, a young boy named Shiro, was having an extremely hard time learning how to write. Kayu had spent most of the day hovering over his shoulder, and assisting him in his studies in whatever way possible. Her energy spent, Kayu wearily trudged home to her damp and dreary hut, desperately hoping that she still had a few tea leaves and enough ingredients for a small pot of stew in her dilapidated little hovel she was forced to call home.
Upon entering her dwelling, she immediately checked her larder and found that even thought it was nearly bare, there was enough left for a cup of tea and a good meal. As she began to stir certain ingredients together in the attempt to start a stew, Kayu heard a sound coming from the one other room in the hut: her bedroom. With a fear of a very real bandit lurking behind the doorway, she took her kitchen knife and held it tightly in her shaking hands and crept as silently as possible towards her room. Edging the long, ragged cloth which served as a door and leaning inside, she spied a cloaked and hooded figure rummaging through the few valuables and heirlooms she owned. And it didn't stop there, at her jewelry pouch. Oh no, this bandit must have figured that she had hidden even more valuables in her closet. Of course, he was wrong. For inside her closet resided her meager wardrobe, which consisted of three hand-made cotton kimonos, two for common wear and the third for holidays, a worn obi, an extra pair of worn tatami sandals. The final piece of her wardrobe was an expensive silk uchikake given to her by Kinomi as a gift on her fourteenth birthday. Wrapped inside was her only tie to her lost family: their ceremonial katana, the Sasayaki no za Kaze.
As she watched in horror, the bandit snatched up the uchikake, causing the Sasayaki to fall to the ground in a loud clatter. The intruder unceremoniously stuffed the uchikake into his sack and reverently bent to retrieve the fallen blade. His eyes seemed to light up the dark room as he drew the wondrous blade from its perfect sheath and marveled at its flawless contours. He made as if to cram that into the bag as well, but thought better of it and tied it about his waist, admiring his appearance to the best of his ability without a looking glass.
She could no longer contain her anger. How dare he? This person, unknown to her and her home, was intruding upon the little ownership she had in this world. He was taking from her, her only connection to her ancestors and to her family, now long dead from this place. She could take it no more! She burst through the curtain; her knife raised high and poised to attack.
However, as she looked around her room, she saw no one. Realizing that no one was in the room, she relaxed, just for a second. That one second, however, was all the time her assailant needed to catch Kayu off her guard. Dropping dramatically from his hiding place on the ceiling, he drew the Sasayaki no za Kaze, and with the back of the one-sided weapon, struck the area just below her shoulders, causing her arms to go inexplicably limp at her sides. Recalling in an instant her training with Kinomi, Kayu continued to battle with her unknown attacker.
After a time, she began to tire, having only been battling with her feet and legs. Again, her opponent took advantage of her weakness and took the opportunity to disable her completely with a swift slash to her lower back.
Fully paralyzed now, Kayu lay there, in a pool of her own blood and stared defiantly up into the cold, emotionless eyes of her attacker. As he raised her family's blade to end her life, she spoke for the first time since the attack had begun.
"Why are you attacking me?"
Apparently not feeling the need to dignify her question with an answer, he took a deep breath and plunged the unstained blade through her chest. Blood spouted from her and dyed her worn, rose colored kimono a deep, dark crimson. As the life faded quickly from her body, Kayu repeated her previously unanswered question and spoke her last in the same breath.
"W-Why…?"
With a tremendous shudder and a sharp gasp, the last remaining traces of life evaporated from the schoolteacher's corpse. Seeing that his victim was now lifeless, the brigand gathered his spoils and made a hasty retreat.
Her heart had ceased to beat and her chest had ended its monotonous cadence of rising and falling, her brain was enveloped in a white fog, and her life began to play itself out before her eyes. She recalled how her parents had hugged her tightly and told her they loved her, and then watched as they lay dying on the dirt floor of their tiny hut. She recalled Kinomi finding her on the street and telling her that everything would be all right. She recalled in pain, the times in which she had been thrown to the floor during her training with the priestess. Her students' happy faces smiled back at her in this dream world where everything was slurred together worse than the speech of an inebriated man. Shiro's wide, toothy smile blinked through her mind as he proved to her that he could, in fact, write his own name. Finally, the ethereal slide-show was ended with the vision of her attacker claiming her few possessions as his own and snuffed out the brightly glowing candle that had been her life. All of these images played themselves out in her head as her contented, yet curious soul floated up to the heavens.
When her soul finally breached the misty clouds separating the heavens from the earth, she saw the Gates of Heaven; the same gates, which she had heard, described on earth as only the most amazing sight in the universe. They were immense in size and were crafted from gold and inlaid with mother of pearl and scattered tastefully with miniscule fresh water pearls. An angel with scrawny, grayish silver wings sat at an ancient, yet beautiful, desk saw her approaching and hastily began to comb back his hair and preen his wings. When she reached him, he seemed to drink in her impeccable features and nervously inquired as to her name. He also wanted to know her age at time of death, and if she had had any pets or relatives whose deaths had predated her own.
Kayu smiled kindly down at this angel, who looked as if he longed for attention, company, or at least a some brief companionship and answered his three questions promptly and truthfully.
"My name is Kayuki Yorimaru. I am…er… was… sixteen years old and I had my two parents, one brother, and a cat, named Chiyu, die previous to me."
The angel was so intent on recording her information in a large book before him, that he suddenly jumped in his seat when he read over the data he had so carefully recorded.
"Good…Good…Goo—Whoa. Wait a moment. You said your name was 'Kayuki Yorimaru,' am I correct?"
She nodded, sensing that something was wrong.
"Well, Otou-sama wishes to speak with you immediately. Apparently, it is extremely urgent, something different."
She did not like the sound of that at all. The angel smiled nervously up at her again and whispered,
"Good luck, " and pointed towards a set of stairs that had suddenly appeared to his left. She could not help but find herself thinking, 'Perfect. I finally arrive in paradise and I am already in trouble with the daimyo!' Trudging up the fluffy and bouncy stairs, which appeared to be made of clouds, Kayu continued to have such ominous and foreboding thoughts as she continued her ascent up the heavenly stairwell.
After what seemed like hours, but had probably been longer, she finally reached what she sincerely hoped was the top. At the peak of the staircase, was a doorway, standing strangely on its own. The doorway glowed with a golden aura and as she reached out to touch it, she could feel the air around it crackle with holy, pure energy. Kayu gulped heavily as she opened the door and put one-foot through, and then, finishing her step, entered the doorway.
As soon as she stepped through the door, she was transported upwards; it seemed, to another dimension. The sensation she felt was as though she were flying. Suddenly, when she stopped, she was thrown forward with great force. She was fast approaching a large stone chair, head first. Her last thoughts before she made contact were, 'At this speed, if I hit that, I'm going to die!' and that's when realization reared its ugly head. 'Oh…wait…I'm already dead… Is it possible to die again?' Just before she was about to smash into the stone structure, her body…stopped and just hung there, suspended in midair by some unknown force. Floating gently downwards, she landed upright with a stunned expression on her face.
"Do not look surprised, Kayuki-chan, anything is possible in Tentou."
The voice was a deep, calm voice filled with compassion and loving tenderness and seemed to come from everywhere and no where at the same time.
"N-Nani?" she stuttered nervously. "I'm in Tentou?"
She couldn't see the face to which the voice belonged, but she could "see" and feel it smile and nod gently in her… well, mind.
"Yes, you are in Tentou, and you will be my tenshi-chan." It replied calmly.
Now, her voice had reached a high, chirping level she had before believed been only attainable by such creatures as the birds and bats.
"Impossible! You cannot be serious! I was under the impression that human souls could not become angelic beings!"
The voice smiled again.
"They can't."
"Eh?"
"Normally, they cannot. But you, however, are special. You were so pure in life, tenshi-chan, and the purest of the pure. You hated no one, yet you had many occasions in which you could have hated the world and me. You were incredibly poor, yet you were never once dissatisfied and wouldn't have traded your poverty for all the riches of the daimyo. You had lost so much, yet you never blamed others or resented them for any reason because of your misfortune. You lead a hard, well lived, and loving life. Not many can say that."
"Please, how are my students? Who will teach them now that I am…gone? Will they be well? Is Shiro well?"
Once again, she could "see" and feel it as the voice chortled softly.
"They are all well. That is what has earned you this great honor, Kayu-chan. You care more about the welfare of others than for yourself. And you think little of the personal gain each task will bring. That is why you are to be," She felt a breeze blow past her face, as if someone had waved a hand in front of her. She could feel the enormous rush of power flow through her and permeate every cell on her body. " My tenshi-chan."
Suddenly, Kayu felt a sharp pain in her mid-back and as she looked behind her, she was forced to gasp at what she saw. Soft, silvery blue wings had erupted from her flesh and had grown larger and stronger within seconds, adhering themselves quite soundly into her back. Her hair changed from its previous shade of raven to silvery blue streaked subtly with royal blue and her once mud-brown eyes were transformed to a bright indigo with ice-blue streaks. Her battered, worn and ragged kimono was replaced by one of such splendor, it would have made the emperor's daughter blush in her best court robe. It seemed to outshine the sun in all of its glory, for the material was softer than any silk and moved like water. It had been dyed soft lavender, which bled to a darker, more defined orchid-purple near the hems. Finally, around her neck hung a simple gold chain. Strung on this chain was a tiny, golden ring with wings engraved around the outside edges and inlaid with small, simple, white diamonds. On the inside were symbols written in an unknown language. As she began to attempt to decipher it, the voice chuckled once again and said,
"Do not worry, my Tenshi-chan. You will be able to read it when the time comes. Only then, will you really need to know the meaning of those symbols."
"But sir, what language is it written in? Maybe I know this strange dialect and have just forgotten."
"No, I am afraid that is not the case. Tenshi-chan, you will not know this language. It is not yet known to your people and will not be so for many years. It is the language of a race that lives far across the earth and seas and will soon die out. It is known as Runic."
"Roo-nick?"
"Yes, Runic. You will learn of it eventually, but it is of no concern to you at this time. Now, I must cut our discussion short, for I have a conference at which I must be present. Another 'negotiation' with Satan, I'm afraid. Would you like to attend?"
"Could I?"
"Of course. But we must leave now. Fly to the Rainbow Bridge and await me there. I must collect the other members of my…er…advisors, I guess you could say."
"Hai, Otousan-sama."
With that, Kayu spread her glorious new wings and took to the air. Soaring high over and through the clouds, she saw oh so many things on the ground below her. She saw older angels, going about their tasks and standing over mirrors which looked as if they saw into the world below. She saw younger angels, playing and having a grand old time, just like her students used to do after their classes. The angels, however, seemed to be doing something useful, no matter how unknown, as they played. She saw human souls, lined up at the gates where the same dingy silvery-winged angel she had seen before sat, now looking thoroughly bored. She hailed him and waved, bringing an instant smile to his wearied face. She saw human souls walking and talking inside the gates and others sitting dejectedly in corners. Then, turning her gaze to her right, she saw the soul of someone she had only before seen in her dreams. Someone she never thought that she would see again, especially not in person.
"M-Mama!"
