A/N: I put ALL the words I use in this story (and other stories) on my profile along with the name meanings! I knew there are AT LEAST two words in here that people probably don't know!

Enjoy!!

BTW! I do NOT own the rights to Haibane Renmei!! It is another anime ALL to itself!! I just used the name and SOME of the idea of the Haibane Renmei in this story because I like Haibane Renmei!!

I groaned and opened my eyes slowly.

"Kaori…?" someone asked.

"Sesshoumaru…?" I mumbled I tried to roll over and found that I couldn't.

"Don't move… They're not done yet…" Sesshoumaru leaned down and gazed into my eyes, relief flooded his face.

"Done…? What do you mean not done…?"

"They're still cleaning your wings."

Okay… this was getting weird… I didn't have wings. I'm a human.

As if they had heard my thoughts one of the ladies spoke up finally. "You're mother blessed you with her gifts before she passed away. She decided that on your eighteenth birthday that you would be bestowed that which was to be yours."

"But I'm not her real child… none of us ever were her real children."

"Yes, but you were her first and though you are not the oldest, nor the only girl, she still loved you most and wished to bless you with her own gifts..."

"But I'm human and a war orphan."

"You were human, you're not human anymore."

"That doesn't make any sense! I'm human!! I have black hair and brown eyes; I was born to a mother who sowed silk kimono and a father who made weapons for the army. I was abandoned outside the forest when my mother and father were killed by the invading armies. Brielle found me there and took me home."

"You were human… but you're no longer human. You're mother gave you her magic; she taught you spells and made sure you remained in the palace even after she died. You're eyes are no longer brown but orange and your hair isn't black, but a dark blood red."

Okay that hit a bell in my head, I remembered the blood that had splattered from my back and had hit my hair and when my hair fell in my face I remembered thinking that I needed to wash it… "I thought that was blood…"

"No that is your new hair color."

"I want a mirror…"

One of the women got up and left the room I was in and returned with a mirror.

I grasped it and stood up slowly; Sesshoumaru stood with me and had placed a hand on the small of my back. "Kaori…" He began.

I shook my head and pursed my lips. There in the mirror was the face I knew but the eyes were a vivid tangerine orange and the hair, though messy and knotted, was a deep burgundy color. I turned slightly and held the mirror at a different angel and there on my back was a pair of slightly blood, but very real wings… I fainted…

I woke again later in a much different room.

It was much larger, there was a bed under me, and there were even windows (which, from the look of it, it was already dark outside.)

I was lying on my stomach again as the appendages on my back were extremely tender. I sighed.

There was the sound of breathing coming from my right. I turned my head and saw the sleeping form of Sesshoumaru, god was he gorgeous…

I scooted closer and laid my head against his arm softly.

"Kaori…?" He mumbled.

"Mmhmm…" I answered softly.

"I don't care what you are… human or not… I still love you…" he murmured as he pulled me closer and draped his arm over my lower back.

I blushed. He loved me? No way… He must still be asleep… He would never love a person like me…

Though I knew he didn't mean it I still made myself he did, even if it was for this one night, and I curled closer to him and fell asleep in his arms.

Hours later I was awake and I was very, very stiff… I sat there in my new room grumbling at the women who scurried in and out to check on my shoulder blades and the little wings that protruded from them. They came in and out constantly, once to check to see if there was swelling in the skin around where the wretched appendages protruded, once to make sure they had cleaned the gray colored feathers of all the blood so they wouldn't stain. They came in to take my measurements, probably to make me a garment that I could wear home (I was completely naked from the waist up, not like it mattered, none of my dresses would go over these wings…) and finally they came in to help me get washed up. They cleaned me thoroughly (yes I mean THOROUGHLY), they dried me and sat me down on a clean bed mat where they proceeded to untangle the mass of hair I had.

Through all of the Sesshoumaru had been forced out of my room and into a different one because "it was indecent for a man and a woman who were not yet married to be together in the same room especially when the woman had little to no clothing." And no it did not matter that Sesshoumaru was my mate, whatever that meant…

By the time they had completed the detangling of my hair the ones who had taken my measurements returned holding a lovely pale pink kimono and a nagajugan. They also had a Michiyuki that had no holes for the wings, so I assumed that it was for covering the wings if or when I wanted or needed to…

"When will I get to know what or who I am, where I am, and why I have these wings?" I finally asked after I had been dressed.

"Come with us and we'll tell you everything…" One of them answered and they all began to file out of the room.

I got up to follow them but stopped. "Sesshoumaru…?" I called quietly.

One of the doors slid open and Sesshoumaru stood there before me.

"I know you're just as curious as I am about what happened to me… Come on." I took his hand in mine and headed in the direction the women gone.

There was a set of large doors standing at the end of the hallway and two of the cloaked women stood on either side waiting. "He's not allowed to enter this room…" one of them said.

"Well he's going to go with me." I retorted.

"He is not one of us, he isn't allowed."

"Well then I'm just going to leave and head home. Come on Sesshoumaru let's go." I turned around and began heading back down the hallway.

"Wait." Someone called.

I turned around to face a new girl standing between the now open doors.

"He can come in as long as he knows that speaking of this place will not only bring death to this temple but also to you Kaori-san."

I looked over at him, I didn't know what they meant by death to me but I waited to see his reaction.

"I would never do anything that would cause harm to Kaori…" He answered.

I guess that was good enough because she nodded (well I think she did, they all wore cloaks and you could never see their face…) and led us inside.

Inside the large room all the women that had been attending to me lined up on both sides of the room and at the end sat a woman on a raised platform. I took my seat on the pillow in front of me and motioned for Sesshoumaru to sit on the one next to me.

The two girls that had been outside the door came in and shut it behind them, and sat behind us.

"Kaori… as you can see the women here all wear cloaks with the hoods up so that their faces are hidden from view. This is for the safety of the people who are here. You see Kaori… Our race is supposed to not exist anymore… Brielle was supposed to be the very last Haibane, or charcoal feather. For humans and demons to know that this temple and these women exist would cause great suffering to us all…" The woman at the end of the room began.

"But why…? Why is it so bad that you all exist? What is going to happen when people find out Brielle wasn't the last? What about me…?"

"It is not hard for people to believe that your mother had a daughter and that she gained some of her abilities but for the entire race to still exist… that would be a very big problem… For a very long time our clan, the Haibane Renmei, coexisted with demons and humans. We gave them help and health and in return we were allowed our own place to live, but after some years the humans discovered we had more powers than we actually led them to know. They became fearful that we would try to over power them and use them as slaves so they began to slaughter our kind. The ones that weren't killed fled and hid here in this temple and began life a new. Unlike you Kaori most of our kind are born in eggs..." She turned and pulled a curtain that had been behind her.

Behind the curtain was a large round translucent egg, there was a person inside it.

"As the person inside grows the egg becomes larger and as the time approaches for their birth becomes translucent. In the end it will crap and spill out the contents and the person inside. When they're released they look like a normal human, but within a few hours they develop a fever and a few hours after that they're wings release from their back. After the wings have been released and they have been cleaned they receive a halo that symbolizes their joining the Haibane Renmei, or the charcoal feather federation."

I gasped as I remembered the halo that had floated above my mother's head all the way up to the day she…died…

"Ah… I see you remember Brielle's halo… Brielle was a special Haibane… She left our temple with the consent of the others to live amongst the humans for she fell in love with one man… Shinji…"

"My father…" I murmured.

The woman smiled. "That's right, your father. He was the young lord of the village that's below us. When she joined his village she claimed to be the last of her kind so that if any human or demon outside the village saw her they would believe that she was the last. When they married your father had become the lord of the village when his father passed on and though they could never have children they adored one another. Then one day Brielle found you and brought you home to live with her for that was her wish; to have a child of her own and to give orphans a place to live. For years she found orphans and brought them to live in the palace with her and your father."

I nodded at her. "There's Seiko, Suzuki, Makoto, Amane…" She stopped… there was no way to list all of the children Brielle had taken in after they had been orphaned, most of them didn't stay in the palace but went on to other homes of families who either couldn't have children or had lost their first child… "But that doesn't explain why Brielle… died…" she continued.

The woman nodded. "Not only are we born different than normal humans but we die differently too. We have a wish when we come into this world from wherever we were originally, it almost always has to do with why we died originally… some unfinished business… but when that task or wish is completed we leave and continue on like we were originally supposed to… We disappear… Your father knew that Brielle would disappear one day, that she wouldn't stay forever like most humans and demons do, so he tried to prepare for it the best he knew how…"

"Does that mean that I will do the same…?"

"No… fortunately you are not bound by the same laws as we are… you will not receive a halo like the rest of us and you will not disappear when you've completed what it is that brought you here. You never died to come here. Brielle blessed you with her magic and abilities so that you could continue to live happily without her."

"So every woman here has a halo and wings…? And every one of them have died before and had some unfinished wish or business and that's what causes them to be born like this…?"

She nodded.

"And I didn't die with something unfinished but was gifted this from my foster mother Brielle…?"

She nodded again.

"But she's not my real mother, how was she able to give me her magic…?"

"That I do not know… We assumed that it had been part of her wish to be able to share her magic with her child."

I nodded this time. "And what about being a Haibane…?"

"You cannot mention that the Haibane Renmei still exist for this world isn't ready for us to be apart of it again…"

"Is that all…?"

She nodded. "Yes… You're allowed to leave now…"

I bowed and stood. The girls by the doors stood and opened them for us.

"Be careful little one…" The woman called behind me. "Even if you are supposed to be the last there are still enemies out there and some who would love to use you for their own gain… I do hope that your mate will be able to protect you when the time is needed…"

I just nodded and followed one of the cloaked women out of the temple with Sesshoumaru close behind me.

"So…" I started when we were outside the temple.

Sesshoumaru walked up behind me and draped the michiyuki on my shoulders. "I will protect you…" he murmured as he kissed the side of my head.

I nodded slightly and began my journey home with Sesshoumaru by my side.