Bakemonogatari – 'A Thousand Miles, A Thousand Days'

She – Hanekawa Tsubasa – had been good at everything. Was good at everything. Is good and will always be good at everything. She was a good cook, a clever assistant, a kind woman, and she knew more than many people in this world. It could be said that she knew everything, though she would always claim that she only knew what she knew. Her humbleness added to her perfect figure, she was the best person ever lived. When it was said that she knew everything, it meant everything; every nook an cranny in this world.

The spiritual world was no exception.

So when her daughter told her about the mess outside the house, her instinct told her that it was no usual occasion. Her daughter's description, 'two men fighting ang causing disaster around them', also indicated that it must have been aberrations. Being unable to walk too far due to her old age, she asked her 18-year-old daughter to observe the situation. It was not too long that she knew Araragi Koyomi was the cause.

Her daughter – Hanekawa Sakura – gave her a clear description of the two men, and since those two were alike, she could conclude that they were relatives. Hanekawa could never imagine any other explanation than this: both were father and son. As far as she knew, Araragi had no relatives similar to him, and if there was, the person would be of old age.

"Well, it's not like I know everything. I just know what I know."

He had been an important person in her life, so important compared to the father of Sakura. She did not even know his face, she did not even know his name, though she knew so many things in the world. It was in the dark corner of the street, when she felt something hit her from he back, all happened about 19 years ago. Well, maybe his hair was black, since so was Sakura's. After knowing what had happened to her, she was depressed, frustrated and sad, but decided to go against abortion. The little life that only started its first heartbeat had no sin.

But if it's not for the cat, she might have committed suicide.

Having a vampire draining most of the cat's energy was a quick solution, but not a permanent one. Once she found a source of stress, the meddlesome cat would rise once again. She was draining the energy of every son of man that caught her attention, and that time her stress was so strong that she transformed during the day, once. The stress was too much even for a cat to bear, so ultimately, she shared the stress with her daughter inside her womb. She shared her 'cat'.

"Please protect Araragi Koyomi, if you can."

Being connected physically, mentally, and spiritually with her daughter, she could maintain a certain type of telepathy to the point where they could share vision of one another. So as the sun set, she slowly closed her two, weary eyes and started to see through her daughter's. Unlike her, her daughter could transform to a cat at any time she wanted, since she was 'born' with stress. Moreover, she could control it, so it was actually her gaining the cat's power, and her mother possesing the cat's personality. As the sun set, she established the telepathy.

That was why she couldn't understand the bright sunlight in her she found her daughter biting the neck of a girl.

It was the phoenix, she concluded.

"Vampire burns under the power of the sun."

She wanted to yell at her daughter to check the vampire's condition, but receive a resistance from the other side. To her, it was a good decision that her daughter deprived the phoenix from its true power, but in truth, the power was too much that Sakura couldn't control his cat form. A sight of a dying man engulfed in flame, then the telepathy stopped.

She was never this uncomfortable of not knowing something before. She did not know the condition of her most beloved, the man and the girl. The last time the telepathy stopped, it was because her daughter fainted, being hit by a gangster. That itslef was another story, but from that she could say that there's something wrong with her daughter.

She was most bothered by the split-second vision of the man. Was it him? Was he okay? What had happened to him? As far as she could remember, he had several aftereffects of being previously undead, but not to the point where he burns under the sun. Or is it the overwhelming power of the sun god that burns even a little essence of vampirism in him?

"Araragi-kun, don't do such lonely thi-"

She couldn't continue her sentence. It was suddenly so obvious to her that he utterly didn't wnat to do that, but he must. For his only son, for his only wife, for his family. He had matured enough so instantly, and he decided to sacrifice himself for the well-being of his family. He do considers being away from aberration a good thing, since everything was messed up, mixed up, and confusingly confiscated once a person was involved.

That kind of silence had never fallen between them before. It was the silence of seriousness, determination, and resistance, yet also the silence of respect and understanding. He had never been this seroius before, but his eyes implied that his decision was not to be questioned. Gone was the day when conversation was filled with jokes, unneeded thanks, and all other trivial things. There was only a meaningful silence.

"Thank you," a whisper of him departing.

"I call upon thee, the Orion, once again to recite the written destiny."

And that very moment, a thick book with plain brown cover appeared in front of her. The paper in the book smelled so old, yet it was strong enought that nobody could tear it. That was the legendary book of fate, a recent copy she acquired. She flipped to that day's afterlife new resident section, only to be shocked to find a few familiar names. The names are : Oshino Shinobu (pseudo-vampire, 572 years on earth), Hachikuji Mayoi (grim reaper, 275 years on earth), Imami Tsukihi (phoenix body), Hanekawa Sakura (human-cat, 18 years on earth), Araragi Koyomi (pseudo-human, 62 years on earth), Hanekawa Tsubasa (human, 62 years on earth).

That would be the day everything ended, she thought.

I find myself unable to draw such good development. All I have is a bombing beginning and that's it. I suck at fanfic with chapters, but that's why im practicing..

And for Deluhi lovers; Orion Once Again !