Haibane Renmei is the creation and property of Yoshitoshi ABe and Aureole Secret Factory, translated and distributed in America by Pioneer and distributed in Europe by MVM. I make no claims of ownership of anything featured in this story.
Rakka looked at the festivities around her and smiled, cherishing a brief moment of relative peace. The young feathers had split up, each going with one of the senior haibane, leaving her alone with the twins - Kochi and Seifuu, a boy and girl who looked related and were roughly the age Kuu had been - and the newest feather in Old Home, Ukimi. She was older than the twins, almost the age Rakka had been when she was born. This would be the first Passing of the Year festival for all three of them and Rakka wanted to make sure it was special.
The twins were boisterous, and had spent very little time this evening standing still. The group had found an area of the town where stalls operating games and challenges were set up, and for the past hour they had been tossing hoops, shooting corks, squirting water, fishing for goldfish and many other fun distractions. Kochi sometimes wouldn't leave a game until he'd won something, and Seifuu wouldn't leave until she had bettered her brother - which led to a spiral of competition.
Rakka was starting to run out of pages in her notebook, from paying each of these stallholders for countless games. And she'd only got this new one last week!
But it was good to see each of them having so much fun, and it was wonderful to see them getting along so closely. The two of them had a tendency to fight like cats and dogs - she still remembered with horror the incident in the temple - but she'd always known they truly loved each other, from the moment they grabbed for each other's hands as their wings broke through their skin. And she, in turn, had grown extremely fond of them.
Ukimi, on the other hand...
It wasn't that Rakka didn't like, or didn't care for Ukimi. But she was an oddity, and she acted like it. She hadn't been born at Old Home - apparently Kana had found her in the town itself and had been the only Haibane there to help when her wings had emerged. By the time Rakka had found out Ukimi even existed she had been winged, named, and transferred to Old Home by the Haibane Renmei. That had been about a month ago.
Consequently, while it was now Rakka's job to look after new feathers, she had difficulty bonding with Ukimi in the same way that she had bonded with Reki, or with Kochi and Seifuu, especially since Ukimi seemed rather distant around everyone but Kana. Right now she was hanging back from the games, only joining in when Seifuu dragged her in.
The twins had found a stall where you threw bean bags to knock over cans, and Rakka paid for a few games each for them and stepped back, watching them from a distance. She really relished the festival this year - last year she had been worried about Reki's Day of Flight, and really hadn't been able to enjoy herself. This year, even though she had new responsibilities, her heart was far lighter and completely open to the celebration of a thoroughly happy year.
She walked over to Ukimi, and smiled at her.
"Are you enjoying yourself?"
Ukimi looked up at her, and nodded. "Yes..." she replied, her breath creating a temporary mist."The lights are so pretty..."
"They are." Rakka agreed, looking around at the decorations. "The townspeople really put a lot of effort into the festival. Wait until you get to the square and see the clock tower." Kana had been boasting about how they had put special effort into decorating the tower this year, and Rakka had seen it in the daylight. She was looking forward to seeing it lit up.
Ukimi seemed to feel the same way, as her face glowed at the suggestion. That was something Rakka had noticed about Ukimi - more than any of the haibane of Old Home, she really loved this town. Every shop and house, every street and alley. Her heart lifted in a way that didn't show at Old Home, and she was always looking around for a new place to explore.
Or maybe, as Rakka often suspected, she was looking for someone.
Even now, she could see Ukimi was searching the crowd, slightly anxiously. The younger girl looked up at her and asked "How long is it until we give out the bell nuts?"
"In the last few hours of the old year," Rakka replied, "about half an hour from now."
Ukimi nodded nervously. "I hope I can find her by then."
Rakka was about to ask about this when Seifuu ran up behind her. "Rakka, look what I won!" With that she held up a small stuffed doll, and Rakka immediately had to fight to suppress a laugh.
The doll was obviously a haibane. A girl wearing a long blue jacket with a short brown skirt, and her hair was straight, black, and tied up into two pigtails. It was a Midori doll, and a tag attached to its leg said it was a "Good Luck Haibane."
Unable to fight it any more, Rakka broke into a grin. It was funny. The doll was adorable in a way that Midori, well... wasn't. And Rakka liked Midori, but had never considered her to be good luck. But still, her own experiences told her that's what many in the town considered them to be...
Suddenly she froze. If there were Midori dolls, then...
Rakka ran to the stall to inspect the other prizes. The shouting started thirty seconds later.
It only stopped when Ukimi pointed out that they didn't have long now until it was time to hand out bell nuts. Coming to her senses, Rakka gave a few cutting parting words to the stall owner and they both threatened to report each other to the Renmei.
The group headed for the square, Rakka striding ahead with Ukimi just behind her, and the twins taking up the rear. They were in awe.
"Wow, Rakka!" Seifuu said. "You were AWESOME!"
"Yeah!" Kochi agreed. "The way you threw that ball..." he mimed the action, and added "POW!"
"It's a shame she hit the back of the man's head though." Seifuu told her brother. "With a throw like that she could won her own doll."
Rakka cringed. She had the feeling she was going to regret that, but she'd got caught up in the moment.
Eventually the exchange of bell nuts began, and Rakka was quite surprised when she was almost immediately handed nearly a dozen red nuts, most of the young feathers competing to get her to take theirs first. She herself gave red nuts to the dorm mother, the man in the clothes store, the pharmacist and Hyouko. Midori got a green and she gave Rakka a white, and they embraced. (Midori was also given the doll, and only joked about it) Finally, Rakka exchanged brown nuts with Hikari.
While she was doing this, the others were all handing out their own bell nuts, and with her own ones delivered Rakka went looking for the kids, as they had wandered away from her. She quickly found Ukimi standing in the street, looking quite distraught.
"Ukimi? Is something wrong?"
"Rakka!" The new feather turned to face her, and Rakka thought she saw tears forming in Ukimi's eyes. "I... I found the friend I wanted to give a red nut to... but I've lost it! I'm sure I had three, one for you, one for Kana, and one for her, but it's not here and, and..."
She was starting to panic. Rakka stood in front of her and put her hands on Ukimi's shoulders.
"It's ok, it's ok... here." She reached into the pocket of her coat, and pulled out a red nut. "I was going to give this to someone, but... well, I guess I didn't think it though. He's not the type who would turn up here, and he probably wouldn't accept it anyway. And I can't give it to him after tonight. So..." she held out the nut, "here, give this to your friend."
The girl's face brightened immediately and she took the nut, carefully clasping it her hands. "Rakka... thank you! I'll... I'll be back in a moment!"
With that Ukimi ran off, and Rakka followed at a short distance. She wanted to see who this friend was, and watched as Ukimi rounded on a pretty young woman with short brown hair and handed her the nut. The woman looked surprised but delighted.
Then the woman looked in Rakka's direction and her face fell, like a weight of shame and guilt had settled on her. She looked away for a moment, before apparently steeling herself and approaching Rakka.
Rakka just stood there, quite confused, as a woman she'd never met before bowed her head and held out a bell nut.
Some moments passed while Rakka tried to make sense of this, and then she reached out and accepted the nut. After all, this tradition was just as much for the giver as it was for the receiver, a chance to say something when you couldn't find the words.
The young woman seemed to relax a little at this and looked up, a thankful expression on her face. And with that she walked away.
Ukimi drew up beside Rakka and looked at the nut. "It's brown. What does that mean again?"
"It means 'I'm sorry,'" Rakka answered. But why?
It was a puzzle that bothered Rakka while the haibane gathered to watch the walls sing, and when it was finished, she asked the other senior haibane to take the children home. She was going back to Glie.
Traditionally the people of Glie gathered separately to witness the wall's performance. If Rakka looked over at the Abandoned Factory, she could see haibane perched on the rooftops. The Haibane of Old Home seemed to prefer to gather on a hill halfway between the town and Old Home. As for the townspeople, Rakka had heard that they would gather at the large plaza by the massive gate the Toga used to leave and enter the town, where they had a close-up view of the wall. If she was going to find this mystery woman, she'd need to start there.
There were still plenty of townspeople at the square when she arrived, but no sign of the woman. So Rakka started asking around, searching for a woman named Kaori (Ukimi said that was her name) and eventually heard that'd she'd been spotted heading west, as her house was on the western side of the town.
As she ran up the cobbled streets, Rakka couldn't help feeling a little put out. What kind of person apologises without letting their victim find out what they did? It was like putting a splint on a healthy arm.
Then, after about ten minutes of looking, she glanced down a side street and saw her quarry. Rakka took to a jog, quickly catching up with the woman and running into her path.
"Okay..." Rakka said, holding up the brown nut, "I have to thank you for the nut, but really, I thought about it and I can't accept it..."
"You, you can't?" The woman interrupted, her high pitched voice sounding irritatingly familiar to Rakka.
"YET." Rakka finished. "I can't accept it yet. I'm sorry, but... well, this is awkward and probably silly and I'm very sorry about it but I don't recognise you at all! I don't know what I'm forgiving."
"Oh." The woman's eyes widened, and then she nodded ruefully. "I guess I was arrogant to think you'd remember me. I was behind you almost the whole time." She paced around a little. "Maybe this will jog your memory."
With that she clapped her hands to her cheeks and opened her eyes wide. "Oh WOW," she practically squealed, "it's a cute little haibane! She looks a very unhappy, and it's extremely rude, but I think I'll go play with her halo!" And then she mimed poking a halo on top of her old head. "Ding!"
Rakka just stared at the pantomime, and the woman sagged and folded her arms.
"God, I was such an idiot."
"Wait... that was you in the clothes shop, that time? When I ran out?"
The woman nodded to answer, and Rakka found herself giving a little laugh, which annoyed the woman.
"Why are you laughing?"
"I'm sorry," Rakka replied. "I'm just relieved. I was afraid it was going to be something difficult. Of course I can forgive you for that!" She closed her hand around the nut. "There was a lot going on in my life at the time... I was very upset about a lot of things. You just... tipped the scales. But that's all gone now. Apology accepted."
A smile crept onto the woman's face, and she breathed out. "That's a relief. Even when you took the nut the first time, I was still worried. I guess bell nuts can't do everything that words can."
"No. They can be useful though."
There was a brief awkward moment, and Rakka eventually broke it.
"I do wonder though... why now? It's been over a year, and I had almost forgotten about it."
"Ah," the woman said. "That's a longer story."