HAIBANE RENMEI:

DER

AUSFALL

DES

FLUGES

A fanfiction.

By

Micheal Gioe

(This is a Fanfiction, so I claim no ownership of the Haibane Renmei Title or any of it's original characters or names, except my own)

-- Thanks for reading, please enjoy, and keep in mind I will probably come back and fix all these horrendous errors and inconsistencies at a later date!--

2– White Wings

The Destroyed Wall.

Traurigkeit

In one small town there was a large house.

In this house lived many blessed Haibane.

One day, their protection from evil vanished.

Evil thoughts and feelings ate their hearts.

These thoughts would not let the Haibane break their own circles of Sin.

The Haibane could no longer make peace with themselves.

They could no longer achieve a day of flight.

They all became Sinbound.

The Haibane Renmei, which protected the Haibane,

refused to help Haibane who were not willing to try.

The Evil prevented them from trying, but there was nothing they could do.

Until one Haibane was born who could break their Circle of Sin.

This Haibane helped others to make their journey as well.

Even though everyone's wings were black and dead,

and their halos useless, the Haibane's feathers were White at birth.

Eventually, The House returned to normal, and

Haibanes began making their Days of Flight.

-"White Wing"

From "Der Letzte Tag" Page 1.

Brennin awoke again to the same room she had been in the night before. She was getting good at waking up, she thought. This time, noone was in the room with her. She wore the same robe as the night before, and her wings were still there. The others had halos, though. Well, some did. The big man did not, if she remembered correctly. But he had wings.

Outside, big heavy grey clouds blockaded the sun, making sure that only dim patches of light entered the room. Brennin had hoped she would wake up at home, wherever that was. Maybe she would wake up in a bit.

Suddenly, there was a low thud from the closet. Brennen froze. It was quiet again. Then another thud, but louder.

"Help!" Brennen called as loud as she could.

"What?" A sleepy looking Essen opened the door to Brennen's room.

"There's something in the closet." Brennen hugged her legs.

"Oh, I see." Her face drooped a bit and she marched in.

Essen grabbed the little knob to the closet door and slid the door over.

"And you wonder why you're sinbound." Essen put her hands on her slim hips.

"Geez, you had to come in and ruin everything." Came a voice from inside the closet.

Out stepped a medium sized boy with stringy black hair. He brushed the hair back and gave a toothy grin to Brennen, who realizing that she was only in a robe, quickly ripped the sheets up around her shoulders.

"Aw, come on, let's be friends." The boy shot out a scruffy hand, perhaps expecting a handshake. He wasn't getting it.

"Well, I guess this guy here is Trunk." Essen sighed.

"Actually, my full name is Entrunken, thank you." He scowled at Essen, who rolled her eyes.

"His name means "Drowning", but who would wanna drown this loveably guy?" Essen sang sarcastically.

"Your mother." Trunk stiffly retorted.

"Sorry about him being in your room, he does it whenever we get a New Girl in here." Essen's face gave birth to a very wide smile. "And sometimes when we get a New Boy."

"Hey! I told you, I thought he was a chick! He sure as Hell looked like one!"

"He likes to watch 'em sleep." Essen whispered in Brennen's ear.

"You shut up, unless you wanna get some baking soda all over your pillow, see how that'll taste in the morning!" Trunk threatened.

"Who was the boy?" Brennen piped up, hoping to join in.

The room got silent instantly.

"He's not here anymore, it doesn't matter."

The conversation was over.

That afternoon, Brennen got a chance to meet a lot of the house's residence. They all had a rather large lunch in the room that Brennen was staying in. There was Essen, Trunk, and the large man, who Brennen learned was named "Bier". His Shell Dream consisted of him drinking a large amount of alchohol, and Bier is the word for Beer. He was huge, but he was also very nice, and laughed a lot. Almost too much. His characteristic throaty laugh certainly stayed with anyone who heard it forever. Also at the table were a short boy about Essen's height named Stiegen, which roughly meant "Ascending" or "Going up". A girl of Essen's height named Abstiegen which meant "Descending" or "Going down". Although this sounded like they were related, they both swore they didn't know each other, and even argued that their Shells broke months apart. There was a very tall girl named Geschlachtet, her nickname being Gesh. She wouldn't tell Brennen what it meant, however, and her eyes darted eerily from person to person at the table, her lips pursed. The strangest thing about her, though, were her wings. They were black, like everyone elses, but Brennin thought she could see what kind of looked like bone under some of the feathers. But she still had a halo, unlike Bier. Come to think of it, Bier was one of the few who didn't have a halo.

As Brennen's eyes reached the farthest down the table, she came across a tall boy, maybe even a young adult. His hair was matted and fine, not like the stringy hair of Trunk. His name was Kiesel, which meant "Rocks." His Shell dream was him climbing huge rocks. He was very quiet, and merely sat his chin on his folded hands and watched the conversations, occasionally casting a too-long-for-comfort- kindof glance at Brennen. Next to Kiesel, in the shadows, sat a girl about Brennen's height. Her hair was a beautiful deep red, complimented by deep blue eyes. She merely sat and watched her plate with a blank stare. Brennen found out through hushed whispers that her name was Laufen, which meant "Running".

Trunk leaned in close to Brennen and whispered: "She's a real Sad-Girl, you know, cries a bunch, is lonely, needs someone to hold." Trunk grinned.

"Not interested." Brennen glared at Trunk.

"Oh, oh you thought." Trunk drew back as if insulted. "No, I meant...well, okay, yeah sure, but I was just kiddin."

Trunk grinned again and looked out the window for a second.

"Hm. Looks like rain."

"So, Brennen, you were born where?" Essen was studying a cup of coffee.

"In...this old kitchen, in the basement, I think." Brennen also studied her coffee, which didn't really look all that appetizing.

"Wow, you know, we never use that anymore." Piped Gesh.

"Yeah, if it hadn'ta been for Fel goin downstairs to pick up some flour, this little lady woulda hatched all alone." Boomed Bier, followed by a deep chuckle.

"You know what, I've been thinkin." Trunks jumped in. "Brennen's not the best name for such a cute girl."

Brennen looked at her plate.

"How about Bren? Or maybe Ren? We don't really care much for names around here, that's why a lot of us have nicknames." Trunk explained.

"Ren...sounds okay." Brennen nodded slowly.

"There, now that's better." Trunk laughed.

After a few more minutes of eating and chatter, Ren decided to start asking the questions she had been holding in for what seemed like forever.

"Where are we? Why can't anyone leave, or remember where to leave to?" Ren tried to lower her voice as she leaned in a bit to Essen.

"I told you about the house, right? Well, this house lies outside of a pretty large town. Why we can't...well, couldn't leave before is...there's this big wall, and-"

"Ah, tellin' the big wall story again, eh?" Bier bellowed.

"Did you tell her the part about it exploding?" Came an excited cry from Stiegen.

At this everyone stopped talking and looked over at Essen. Even the quiet redhead at the end of the table looked over.

"Well." Essen started. "There's this big stone wall that seperates this town from pretty much everything else. This wall also is alive, it can make those who get near it sick, or those who touch it injured. No one can go beyond these big walls, not the townspeople, not anybody."

"'Cept the Vermittler." Abstiegen chimed.

"Yeah, but I'll get to them." Essen wagged a finger. "So it's pretty much impassable, right? Well, one night, we hear this big boom. Like thunder, only louder, and it shook the house. So we all go outside to investigate. Guess what? There was this mother of all holes, right in the middle of the wall! We could still see the dust in the morning!" Essen gave a chuckle. "But..." She paused. "The wall was what kept Evil out of this town. Now a lot of us...okay, most of us, are sinbound because of it."

"Who...who broke the wall?" Ren asked.

"No one knows for sure. The Vermittler were crawling all over it within minutes, along with a bunch of gatekeepers and other important looking people. Ever since then, they've put people in their homes and forbidden us to leave The Old House, unless it's for official business with the Haibane Renmei. They say they'll have it fixed soon, but I doubt it."

"How long has it been since it happened?"

"Uhm. Lets see. I was here when it happened. Bier wasn't. Gesh wasn't. Fel wasn't. I think only me, Trunk, Laufen, and Kiesel were here. Maybe six years ago?"

"Well, yeah, you guys and the rest of the house." Abstiegen pointed out.

"The rest? There's more?" Ren turned back to Essen.

"Yeah. There's quite a lot, in fact, who live in this house. All you see here is maybe 30 percent, roughly."

"Wow." Ren tried to imagine how many that was.

"Yeah, but the others formed groups, kinda like ours here, and we don't see or talk to them much."

"Um, I know I'm asking a lot of questions, and this is taking a long time, but..." Ren started.

"No, go ahead. You have a right to ask." Essen leaned back in her chair.

"What's the Haibane Renmei, and what's Sinbound?"

After about a half hour of explanation from Essen, who kindof seemed to enjoy lecturing, Ren learned that the House was not on friendly terms with the Haibane Renmei. They were not on friendly terms with the town. She also found out that Vermittler was the name for the only people who could legally go outside the walls. They also assisted the Haibane Renmei. She also learned that sinbound meant you could not take your day of flight, which was when a Haibane leaves their town to possibly go somewhere better. The Sinbound can't do this, and they often vanish as well, often after a long period of living in this world.

Gradually, the conversation returned to other matters. Lunch hour was just about over, when something caught Ren's eye. The redhead girl at the end of the table was staring at her. It began to make Ren uncomfortable. Suddenly, she thought she saw a little flash, like a spark. Then another. It was coming from Laufen's halo. A tiny fletchet of glowing material fell from her halo and softly "Pink"'d on her plate. She immediately shot up out of her seat, like her pants were on fire. She gripped her halo with both hands tightly, and walked quickly from the room.

"Hey, Laufen, what's goin on!" Essen leaned towards the empty doorway and called, but got no answer.

"Why isn't Felson joining us today?" Ren asked, trying to change the subject.

"Oh, she's mad cause you're not the Whitewing." Essen briefly explained the legend of the Whitewing.

"I'm sorry." Ren looked down.

"Hey, it's fine." A little smile appeared on Essen's face. Something twinkled in her eyes. Something odd. Something Ren couldn't place.

"She really believes strongly in that legend then, doesn't she?" Ren looked out the door as Abstiegen and Stiegen shuffled out.

"Yeah." Essen chewed thoughtfully. "We found the book behind the Illusion Frame, and she's been hoping ever since that-"

"Illusion Frame?" Ren looked around the room, perhaps expecting to see a mirror.

"Oh, right. Well, it's not something you wanna see by yourself. It's hanging somewhere near the back halls of the House, on one of the higher levels, I think.

"Why wouldn't I want to see it alone?" Ren started to feel a bit disturbed.

"Cause it's haunted, that's why." Gesh giggled as she walked past Ren on her way out.

"Please. Nothing in this house is haunted." Essen scoffed as Trunk got up to leave as well.

"Hey, uhm, Essen?"

"Yeah Ren?"

"How come some of you don't have halos?" Ren stared at Essen's halo.

"Cause you probably won't need one. Everybody here's Sinbound, and it just hurts when you lose your halo anyway." Essen shrugged indiferently.

"You lose your halo?" Ren's eyes widened.

"Yeah, and your wings too." Essen nodded. "First they get really black, then they just...I guess peel off one by one, and you shed them."

"I...I really...want a halo." Ren smiled at Essen sheepishly.

"Really? Okay." Essen nodded, and a tiny flicker of respect crossed her face.

"Where do you keep them?" Ren looked around.

Kiesel got up and slowly walked out the door.

"No, we don't have any here." Essen sighed. "We have to go to the Haibane Renmei."

-Okay, so maybe not a HUGE cliff-hanger, but why not read on anyways? As always, reviews are appreciated.-

Again, I hope you enjoyed, and please feel free to leave a review or ask a question. Thanks!