The crows flew overhead and travelled alongside Light and the Figure.
As the mist set in, Sayu's arms became tired. She shivered. It was very cold. She could see her own breath mingling out and joining the every present mist. She longed for the golden shores. But she would not go back alone.
She turned to her left and right. She looked all around her. Where were they? They had at some point disappeared into the fog. She cried then. What could she do? There was no sound, no smell and no sight. There was just... nothing. Nothing and nothingess. This place was terrifying. Would she forever be lost here? She would lose her mind! As she sat there she could feel herself fading away and becoming one with the nothing. And her brother...her brother was still with that being. He was still away from her.
Suddenly her tears were interrupted by a loud caw. A lone crow flew past and as it did it caught Sayu's eye. They looked at each other, sizing each other up, or so it felt to Sayu. She felt like it was judging her. There was intelligence in its dark, beady eye. It wasn't particularly benign but it wasn't completely malicious either.
Coming to her senses, she quickly grabbed the oars and began following the bird, whose jet black feathers stood out like a sleek, glossy shadow on the grey backdrop.
Sayu felt that she was somehow, entering a new world as she rowed through the waters. It was eerie, and different. It was no place that she had known before. She did however, have the unnerving feeling that she would see this place again someday.
Finally, after what seemed like many days, the boat came to a halt. She was on a dry shore. She stepped out carefully and looked about her. The land was pure white. It was winter here. The only colour was the black bark of the bare trees. Here and there crows sat on branches and rocks, cawing at nothing. She couldn't tell if any of these had been her earlier guide; none of them took any note of her.
To them she was inconsequential as she had felt in the mist.
Looking around she spotted her brother and the Figure on top of a precipice. She frowned with determination, rage boiling in her stomach. She would catch them up this time and she would get her brother back!
In a burst of speed and agility, she flew up the pathway to the precipice, leaping nimbly over tree roots and rocks.
The two figures turned and watched her, surprise in her brother's eyes. The other figure was still clad in black and its face was still hidden. She ran to it and began to beat it. It was so tall that she could only hit its middle. It did not fight back, nor did it seem injured. Instead it let her exorcise her rage.
Angry tears streamed down her eyes. This...this thing was stealing her brother. She would never let Light go! Never! She needed him! She loved him! She couldn't be all alone! She couldn't take that journey back. She couldn't sit on that beach by herself! She couldn't!
Suddenly the hood fell off the figure revealing its face. Sayu looked up to see Soichiro. To see her father.
Her anger disappeared and instead love and happiness and gratitude filled her very being. She hugged him tightly.
It was a miracle.
And now Sayu understood. She finally stepped away from her father and smiled at him and Light. It was time for Light to go. He wanted to go. And father was going to lead him.
Her brother had been watching silently from the side, in a somewhat detached manner, but now he made an action. Moving in front of their father, he hugged her tightly.
Goodbye.
Simultaneously the two most important men in Sayu's life turned away from her and looked out instead over the precipice. From her position, Sayu could not see anything in detail but she had a feeling that she shouldn't look out too closely anyway.
Without warning, both men jumped. In the distance the crows cawed and rose up from their branches creating a vast, black, noisy cloud in the sky. Suddenly a thousand eagles from where her brother and father had leapt flew up into the air.
Sayu gaped amazed, and continued to do so until all the birds had finally disappeared into the distance.
The following night, after a hard day of packing away her things for university and comforting her mother, who would be left alone, Sayu dreamed again.
She was a young girl once more, sitting quietly on a beach, humming an unnamed song to herself. It was golden and warm and safe.
And in the horizon, the sun began to rise and she was bathed in its light.