DARK DAY FOR ANIME - THE RIGHT DISHONORABLE MARK A PAGE
<darkdayforanime@hotmail.com>

Disclaimer: Blah and blah don't belong to me etc...


----o


Ketsu lay on top of the small rise of grass, overlooking a vast landscape, 
humming a tune she had almost forgotten as the sun warmed her through.

For a second, she realised that there was something missing from this 
moment....  Something, or someone.


----o


"What do you think it is like, over the other side of the wall?"

Kumiko turned to her strange little Haibane sister as they sat together on 
the edge of the bridge, overlooking the canal.  For all intents and 
purposes, they could have been sisters in reality, for their appearances 
were quite similar.  The only real difference between them was the texture 
of their hair.  Kumiko's was long and wavy, whilst Chigusa's was shorter 
and more wiry.  Chigusa had long given up trying to grow her hair long; it 
just never worked.

But apart from those small differences, they were inseparable, like 
twins.  And in all the years she had known her, Chigusa had never asked her 
such a question before.

"I'm not sure."  Kumiko shrugged and looked away.  "It isn't something I 
really think about."

"Why not?"  Chigusa was more direct now.  "I mean, aren't you just the 
least bit curious?"

"Hmm...."  Kumiko thought about it for a few moments.  "They say that evil 
exists on the other side of the wall, but I don't know.  I've never seen 
what evil is like, so I can't judge.  Whatever the case, it can't be as 
good as it is in here."

"Is that what you think?"  Chigusa looked disappointed with the 
response.  Kumiko patted her on her wings.

"Well, you're bound to find out one day.  All you have to do is flap those 
wings of yours hard enough."

"Oh, if only that were true.  You know, I used to have a life over there."

"That's the theory."  Kumiko nodded.  "At least, that's the only theory."

"No, it's true.  For some reason, the memory of the life I lead, before I 
became a Haibane, isn't as clouded as it is for others.  For most, those 
memories are reduced to little more than the dream we have in the 
cocoon.  But I can remember events in my life....  There weren't many, but 
I can remember the faces of my mother and father, things they said, people 
they knew....  Though not specific names, or anything.  Almost as if my 
memory has been combed through with specific little bits taken out.  I've 
often wondered why."

Kumiko opened her mouth to say something, closed it again when she thought 
better of it, then decided to try another tack.  "You've.... never 
mentioned this before.  To me."  Pause.  "Why now?  I mean, what is different?"

"I'm not sure.  I guess I'm starting to grow up at last.  Maybe the 
memories have been allowed to remain within me because I'm more grounded 
than other Haibane.  I was born in your house.  I grew up with your 
family...."  She giggled.  "And, you know, grounded is a really bad word to 
use for someone with utterly useless wings on her back."  Kumiko giggled in 
turn, and Chigusa put a hand around her shoulders.  "You know I'm probably 
going to disappear one day, perhaps not all that far away."

"I know."  Kumiko let out a long breath.  "I know.  But not yet.  We have 
time, yet, to be together."

Chigusa smiled and reached into the collar of her shirt, pulling out a 
small turquoise pendant on a gold chain.  She undid the fast at the back of 
her neck and placed it into Kumiko's left hand.  "Have this.  Papa gave it 
to me when I turned ten, but it really isn't my style at all."

Kumiko stared at the pendant.  "You really.... really want me to have this?"

"Well I wouldn't have given it to you, otherwise, silly.  Besides, I don't 
know if I'll be able to take this with me when I eventually leave."  And 
she closed her hands around Kumiko's, pressing her fingers down around the 
pendant.  "Think of it as a lucky Haibane charm.  It will protect you 
whenever you're in trouble.  Or something like that."

"'Or something like that'?  You know, you have a way of presenting 
romantically wistful notions as being dubiously unreliable."

"Can't help the fact that I don't take myself seriously enough.  Something 
you should learn in your relations with others...."

And in the silence that followed, they watched the vermilion sunset 
together in a moment that was etched in eternity.


----o


An Haibane Renmei Fanfiction

Red Feathers in Old Home

by Dark Day For Anime


Part 4

Night - Stars - Eternity


----o


"You know, quite frankly....  We might be twins but there are days where I 
just can't understand you."  Sa, lying on her side, stared across the room 
at her sister from her bed.  "Why did you freak out at Ketsu like that?  It 
isn't fair to her to act like that the day she arrives here."

Yu remained resolutely silent, turned away from Sa on her own 
bed.  Typical, Sa thought to herself.  The silly cow was becoming more and 
more moody and sulky with each passing day.  It was a wonder anyone had 
trouble telling them apart, anymore.  "Alright, then.  Be like that."  And 
she turned, facing the darkened ceiling.

Night was a time that Sa wasn't particularly happy with.  It meant you had 
to be quiet and stop doing things, and that wasn't Sa's style at all.  It 
was something of a worry for the older feathers, in her early days at Old 
Home, that the only times she would sleep was when she practically 
collapsed from exhaustion.  Sleep, in her mind, were a few hours of 
precious time lost for no good.  And besides, it gave her time to think and 
dream, all by herself.  And she hated that.

"You really don't hear it, do you?"  Yu's soft voice carried across the 
room like subliminal thunder in the dead silence.  Sa huffed and pouted.

"No, I don't hear it.  And if you keep talking about it in others' 
presence, they're going to think you're a little off in the head."

"I'm not off in the head.  I really did hear her.  All day.  The same cries 
she made when she was panicking.  All day."

"You, girl, are putting two and two together and getting twenty-two."  Sa 
crossed her arms and though for a few moments.  "There were so many people 
in Old Home, today.  It could have been anything, or anyone.  Or you were 
just imagining it."

"I wasn't imagining it."

"It could have been bird cry, too.  I mean, those crows just hang around 
and squawk all day.  They're really creepy...."

"It wasn't the crows.  It was her."

Sa had gad enough.  She sat bolt upright, grabbed one of her pillows and 
pitched it across the room at Yu, hard enough to shock her out of her 
reverie.  Yu grabbed the pillow, sat up and turned, glaring at her sister.

"What was that for?"

"For being a stupid cow who thinks too much about stupid things.  I'm glad 
I'm giving up the job at the second-hand goods store.  I've just about had 
enough of your moodiness."

"Wait....  What do you mean you're 'giving up'?  Where the hell are you 
going?  Have you told Inakuma-san about this?"  Yu gripped the pillow, 
tensely as Sa turned away, looking as if she'd let a cat out of a 
particular bag.  She decided to run with it.

"Inakuma knows.  I told her last week.  I'm going to work for Kristas and 
Jones, the electricians, as an apprentice."  She turned back to Yu.  "I 
showed them all the stuff I'd put together, and they said I showed 
promise.  So I'm changing jobs."

Yu's anger seemed to have drained from her.  "You're leaving me behind, and 
you didn't think to tell me until now?"  Her lips trembled in a way that 
made Sa feel pretty, well, bad.

"I was going to tell you.  Eventually.  I mean, we might be twins, but that 
doesn't mean we have to do everything together, does it?"

"That's not fair."  Yu's voice broke with emotion.  "Why is it that you 
always go and do your own thing, and I follow?  It just isn't fair, 
Sa."  Yu threw her bedcovers and the pillow aside and stood from her bed, 
shaking in the moonlight cast through the window.

"You don't have to follow me."  Now Sa could feel tears coming on.  "Why do 
you think you have to do everything I do?  Why don't you get a life of your 
own?  We aren't the same person....  We're two different people, and just 
because we look exactly alike won't change that."

"I don't know."  Tears started to stream down Yu's face.  "I don't know 
what to do.  I thought, if I did what you did, then everything would be 
alright.  I wouldn't have to think about it.  I just don't know....  I 
can't ever make a decision for myself.  Haven't you worked that out, yet?"

Sa shook her head, angrily.  "You're just lazy.  You think if, you just 
copy me, then you can save yourself the worry.  What are you, my shadow, or 
something?"

"Maybe...."  Yu clenched her fists.  "Maybe that's all I am.  Maybe that's 
all I ever will be.  And one day, you'll turn around and find I'm not 
there, anymore."

"Yu...."

"I can still hear her."  Yu put her hands to her head.  "She's crying out 
in pain.  Her wings are breaking through, and she's calling out to 
Rakka.  And something horrible is watching her.  I can see it.  I can see 
it all.  I don't want to be around her....  She is bringing things into Old 
Home that I don't want."

Yu's world started to spin, and she staggered.  Sa leapt from her bed to 
grab her sister before she fell, but Yu brushed her aside.

"Yu....  It's alright.  I believe you.  You're hearing these things.  I 
believe you."  And with the way Yu was acting, she really was starting to 
believe.  Yu was having none of it.

"You're just saying that."  She clutched her head tightly, staggering away 
from her sister.  "What is the point of your being kind to me?  It's 
obvious what you think about me, now.  Ooohhh....  The cries.  It's too much."

Yu staggered to the door, throwing it open.  Sa tried to follow, but Yu 
would simply throw an arm out every time she got close.  Eventually, she 
staggered into the hallway and was off, like a rocket.  Sa stood in the 
doorway, watching her disappear, not knowing what to do next.

In frustration, she stamped her way towards the now-empty storeroom, but a 
few doors away.  Entering it, she stared at the now dried-up and broken 
remains of the cocoon, which, in the commotion of yesterday, hadn't been 
cleaned up.  She stepped up to it and touched one of the broken shards.  It 
felt no different to the remains of her own cocoon....  She and her sister 
had been allowed to keep a piece of both of theirs, each, in their early 
days when they'd just received their halos.  She'd like to touch the broken 
shard, feel the tactile roughness of it.  Somehow, it seemed to comfort 
her.  But slowly, the shard withered and crumbled into dust, as if its 
place in this world had passed.

And this one felt no different.  So why would Yu think she was any 
different?  Sure, her reactions were a little strange, but she was, after 
all, just getting used to what had become of her....  Sa had been much the 
same when she arrived.

She turned the piece over in her hands, lit in a faint glow.  A faint 
reddish glow.  She looked up for a moment, at the base of the main 
shell.  There was a warmly-radiating energy within the base that was lit 
with a ruddy luminescence.  Sa dropped the shard and stepped up to the 
base, staring at it.  Even closer, she could feel the warmth.  The glow was 
gently pulsating, like a slow and steady heartbeat.  She reached out and 
touched the base, close to where she'd earlier put her foot through.  And 
then....


"RAAAKKAAAAAA!  IT HURTS!  IT HURTS!  MAKE IT STOOOOOOP!  OH, IT HURTS IT 
HURTS IT HURTS!  MAKE IT STOOOOOP!"


Sa snatched her hand away, her eyes open wide.  She backed up and ran from 
the room, almost tripping as she did so, back into her own bedroom, into 
her own bed, where she threw the covers over her head.  And there she 
remained for a while.


----o


Yu had always been more comfortable at night.  She really didn't like the 
sun that much.  Although she didn't mind the acquiescence of the summer 
days.  It meant that Sa wasn't cooped up in the Old Home, going stir 
crazy.  Cooped up, of course, with her.

Yu stood in the courtyard, standing stiff and upright, letting the tears 
flow.  The other good thing about the night was the fact that it allowed 
you to be alone, without anyone to bother you.  And on warm summer nights 
like this, the outside air was pleasant, especially if you happend to be 
outside in nothing more than a thin nightdress without so much as a 
cardigan and shoes.  Just another thing for her to berate herself with.

She caught a sob and looked up at the sky, the moon and the stars.  The 
moon, in full cycle.  Little surprise that everything was in 
turmoil.  Everything.  She turned and looked at the window doors of the 
common room.  There was still a light inside, and she thought she could see 
movement.  It didn't surprise her that one of the others would be up, 
taking care of that new girl.  But all was silent.  There were no screams 
and cries coming from there.  The girl's wings had not yet grown enough for 
them to break free of her flesh.  Yu looked back at her own wings, 
remembering how quickly they had appeared.  But, of course, she had not 
broken free of the cocoon early.  It might be a couple of days, yet, before 
Ketsu's wings showed themselves.

Ketsu.  Blood.  The girl's head had been smeared with blood when she had 
hatched.  It didn't surprise Yu at all.  She had always been able to feel 
things others couldn't, not even Sa.  And even before the cries in her head 
had started, she could feel something strange was happening in Old 
Home.  After all, it was she who had alerted Sa to the sounds from the 
storeroom....  Not so much sounds as, well, noises.  In her head.  But she 
couldn't say that to Sa.

Sa....  Yu felt bitter tears rise once more, before she almost launched 
herself across the courtyard with the touch of a hand on her shoulder.

"Oh dear....  I'm sorry."  Yu had almost run for her life before 
recognising the voice of the elderly house mother.  She turned to the 
woman, who was wrapped in a shawl over her own nightdress.  "I didn't mean 
to startle you, dear."  She said, soothingly.  "I saw you as I was 
returning from one of the children's rooms.  What are you doing, standing 
out here in the open.  You'll catch yourself a death of a cold if you're 
not careful."

"I'm okay."  Yu wrapped her arms across her front, sullenly.

"Well, you're in a right state, I must say.  Have you been crying?"  The 
house mother reached forward, for Yu's chin, but the girl shrugged off her 
attentions.  "Hmmm...."  The woman crossed her arms.  "I see.  So its going 
to be like that, is it?  Ah, what to do with children, these days?"  She 
chuckled.  "You're the twin Yu, aren't you?"

Yu looked at her, suspiciously.  "How would you know?  I might be Sa."

"Oh hardly.  I can tell the both of you apart, easily.  Ever since you were 
under my daily care, I could tell the two of you apart."  She shook her 
head.  "No matter how hard you tried to confuse everyone.  It was amusing, 
watching the pair of you trying to fool people."

"Doesn't change anything.  I still might be Sa, for all you know."

"Sa doesn't sulk quite the way you do.  She wouldn't run off and cry alone 
in the courtyard, like this, and especially not in the middle of the 
night."  The house mother gestured to the doorway.  "If you'd like, I can 
make you some hot chocolate, or something suitably comforting.  Looks like 
you're in need of a sudden boost of sugars and bliss-inducing compounds."

"Don't want any."  Yu huffed crossing her arms and pouting.  The house 
mother took her by the ear.

"That, little lady, was not an offer.  You will accompany me back to a 
place where we can sit down, drink hot chocolate and discuss personal 
problems.  Do you understand?"

"Ow.  Yes.  Ow."  Yu clenched her teeth as she was lead, ear-first, back 
into the building.


----o


Rakka watched as Ketsu slept on the bed, her breathing slow, soft and 
calm.  It was hard to believe that this girl had been in a state of 
hysterics earlier in the day.  Rakka peered over at the small clock that 
Kana had hung on the wall at the far end of the common/guest 
room.  Yesterday.  It was past midnight, now.

And she couldn't sleep.  Not one little bit.  So much was playing on her 
mind that she simply couldn't relax on the small cot that they'd laid out 
earlier, next to Ketsu's bed.  Once, Rakka had slept soundly on that same 
bed, with another watching over her, restlessly.  For a few moments, the 
years that had passed between those moments seemed to melt away, as if 
there was really no difference between the then and now.  Moments that 
lasted an eternity, imprinted upon this room like ink on paper.

Reki stood in the corner of the room, watching 
her.  Smiling.  Silent.  With a cigarette hanging out of the corner of her 
mouth.  For a second, Rakka thought she was really there, but it occurred 
to her that Reki probably wouldn't be a smoker, now, and she certainly 
wouldn't still have those grey wings, and the halo.  Rakka had found the 
halo, one time she happened to be in the Western Woods.  It was nearby 
where she had found Kuu's, and Nemu's.  Sometimes she felt she like she'd 
been left to pick up other peoples' messes.

Reki's figure chuckled as she took the cigarette from her mouth and tapped 
off the burnt ash, blowing a small cloud of smoke into the room.  And then 
she vanished, much like the smoke.  Rakka turned back to Ketsu, studying 
her features and her hair.  There was a strong likeness between the 
two.  Ketsu's face was thin but attractive, her hair long, straight and 
black.  For a moment she could almost believe that Reki had returned to 
them, to haunt them for all eternity.  Rakka bopped herself one over the 
head for thinking that.  There was no way Reki could ever be this clingy, 
this needy.  If it had been Reki, then something terribly wrong had 
happened to her, wherever she had gone after her Day of Flight.  No, this 
wasn't Reki, this was Ketsu.  Someone completely different....  Different....



"....I'm sorry, is the dream a scary one?"  Rakka gave Ketsu a concerned 
look as the girl pulled the covers tightly over her form.  Her eyes were 
moving from one person to another in the room: Hikari, Kana, the twins, 
Hana and finally Rakka.  There was a deeply searching and reading 
expression in those dark, dark eyes that troubled Rakka when she saw them.

"No."  Ketsu's voice was hoarse and husky, not simply because it had been 
so soon since she'd left the cocoon.  "No, not altogether scary.  I mean, 
scary things did happen, but...."  Her eyes bored deep into 
Rakka's.  "They're not going to hurt me.  I'm not afraid of them."

"What happened?"  Kana asked, without a hint of subtlety.  She was still 
munching on a bread roll, the last remains of dinner that night.  Ketsu 
turned to her, her head snapping around so fast that Kana almost dropped 
the roll.  Ketsu's gaze was as unsettling for her as it had been for Rakka.

"I was being chased by someone who wanted to hurt me.  And they 
succeeded.  But I was saved, by an angel with red wings."  She turned back 
to Rakka.  "That angel was you, in a way, wasn't it?"

Rakka wasn't sure how to respond.  "Well, the dreams we have in the cocoon 
aren't exactly specific and often metaphorical.  I guess it could have been 
me."  But she knew it wasn't the case.  She had had Hana hide the painting 
from Ketsu, just in case the connection between them caused something.... 
she wasn't sure what, but she was sure that Ketsu would react rather badly.

"Is that all you can remember?"  Hikari pressed the issue.  "Just that you 
were being chased?"

Ketsu looked down at the floor.  For a few seconds it looked as if she were 
ignoring Hikari altogether, but then she lifted her head and frowned.  "No, 
I was being chased in a place with a lot of long corridors.  There were a 
lot of doors leading away, and stairways, and a big yard outside, with 
trees and other buildings."  She paused.  "The place looked much like this, 
only newer.  Bigger.  And the person who was chasing me was someone I knew, 
for some time.  I don't know why they were chasing me, but I know that they 
hated me.  No, that's not the right word for it...."  She paused, her brow 
creasing in deep thought, almost as if she were intellectually separating 
herself from the memories of the dream.  "The person had a deep darkness 
within them.  I was not the first person to have been hurt by them, but I 
did not know this, until it was too late."

"I don't think we should press Ketsu any further."  Rakka stepped forward 
and place a hand on Ketsu's shoulder.  The girl turned to her and smiled, 
placing a hand on Rakka and rubbing her cheek against it.

"I'll be okay.  You're here.  I have friends who can protect me, now."

"You shouldn't be here."  Everyone turned to Yu, who was standing near the 
door.  She stared at Ketsu, almost with the same piercing look that Ketsu 
gave everyone else.

"Yu...."  Sa tugged her sister's sleeve with embarrassment, but Yu simply 
brushed her off.

"You're dangerous to us all."  Yu pointed at Ketsu.  "I know you will 
be.  You'll hurt us all, one way or another.  And you'll hurt 
yourself.  This place is for blessed Haibane, and you won't be 
blessed.  Mark my words, you will destroy Old Home before you leave.  I can 
see it...."

During her tirade, Hikari had quietly approached her.  So quietly that the 
sharp slap across her face came as much as a surprise as it did to everyone 
else.  Yu stood with her hand against her reddening cheek as Hikari 
glowered at her, her hand still raised in the backswing of the 
slap.  "Apologise."  She growled.  "Apologise to Ketsu, this instant."

Tears started to fill Yu's eyes.  "You just don't get it, do you?  I can 
hear her, even now....  Her cries of fear and pain.  Inside her is a dark 
pit of fear none of us shall be able to fill.  She'll drain every one of us 
dry and move on."  She backed away, towards the door.  Sa grabbed her by 
the arm.

"Yu....  Stop this.  You're not talking sense."

Yu stared at her sister, tears now cascading down her face.  "Can't you 
hear them?  The cries?  You're my sister.  Surely you can hear them?  Surely?"

All Sa could do was shake her head.  Yu wrenched her arm away from her 
sister and turned, throwing the door open and running away.  Sa followed 
her to the doorway and watched her go.  She turned back to the 
others.  "I'm sorry....  I'll make sure she apologises to Ketsu.... in 
time."  And with that, she followed her sister.

"She.... doesn't need to apologise."  Ketsu hoarse tones echoes across the 
room.  "I understand why she feels as she does.  She's afraid.  Afraid of 
me.  She wants to run away from me.  I understand those feelings well.  I 
almost feel as if I've been spending all of my existence, running away from 
something."  She looked up at Rakka.  "I won't be running away, now.  And I 
won't hurt any of you."  Her eyes became pleading.  "You do believe me, 
don't you?"

It was almost as if an entire eternity depended on her next few words.  "I 
uhhhh....  Of course I believe you.  No Haibane is born in Glie to hurt 
others.  At least, not deliberately."

Ketsu smiled.  "Not deliberately."  And she chuckled with a genuine warmth 
that seemed to knock edges off the intensity she had, up until now, 
displayed.  "Ahhhh...."  She threw herself back on the bed.  "I'm not 
really getting off to the best start, here, am I?"

"Well, it could've run more smoothly."  Kana shrugged.  "But then, I was a 
bit of a tearaway when I arrived, so how much worse could you be?"



Rakka lay down on the cot and stared up at Ketsu's sleeping form once more.

"How much worse could you be?"  Rakka whispered to herself.  "As bad as the 
Washi says you could be?  Your every expression is a mask to what lies 
underneath.  Even I could see that, Ketsu.  Even I could see."  Rakka 
reached up and touched Ketsu's face.  "But I made a promise, to look after 
you for as long as I can.  What you do with that is up to you."  And with 
that, Rakka turned and closed her eyes, drifting off into sleep.

Moments later, Ketsu opened her own and stared at the back of Rakka's 
head.  At the wavy, messy auburn hair, at the wings that protruded from her 
back, at the halo that sat, uncomfortably, above her head.  A gentle smile 
crossed her face as she reached out to touch the halo, but retracted it 
when Rakka stirred.  She stared at the hand for a few moments, then held it 
up to her mouth as she closed her eyes, hoping for much more pleasant 
dreams when sleep claimed her once more....

Dreams like....


----o


"So, she's going to take up the job, after all...."  The house mother 
nodded as she sat down at the table.  Yu noted that the house mother's own 
living space was much neater, and not to mention newer, than the rest of 
Old Home.  Most of the walls had been freshly plastered and painted, the 
curtains across the windows were all brightly coloured, and the furniture 
was probably not much older than Yu, herself.  Yu was almost jealous, as 
she submerged her top lip into a deep mug of thick hot chocolate, which 
wasn't all that hot by the time she'd got around to actually starting to 
drink it.  "It doesn't surprise me all that much.  Sa is the kind of person 
who finds it easiest to express herself when she is doing something.  What 
surprises me is how long it took for her to work this out."

"And what about me?"  Yu said, almost spitting her mouthful of hot 
chocolate across the table.  The house mother gave her a stern look over 
her manners.

"What about you, young lady?  Surely being an electrician is not your idea 
of a fun time?"

"Well, no....  But...."

"But what?"  She smiled, raising an eyebrow.  "Somehow, I think, the life 
of the manual laborer is not for the quiet, sensitive young Haibane girl 
named Yu, don't you think?"

Yu looked down into her mug, as if studying the swirls and eddies of its 
contents.  "I don't know what kind of life I'm supposed to be choosing for 
myself.  Sa always seems to know what she wants, but I...."

"....Just let yourself fall into things without really thinking if that's 
what you want to do, hmmmm?"  The house mother tutted.  "Honestly, do you 
think that is so bad?  If that's what you want to do, do you think it is so 
bad?"

"I don't know.  I don't like thinking about such things.  It always leaves 
me feeling confused."

"So are you going to continue working for Reiko at the second hand shop?"

Yu chewed it over.  "She'd be sad if I left, wouldn't she?"

"A little.  I'm sure she likes having the pair of you around, and would 
feel sad if you both left at once."

"Though the way people tend to look at us, I'd not be surprised if she felt 
a little relief, as well...."  Yu chuckled.  "We're not exactly the most 
reliable of workers, at anything, are we?"

"You're a lot more reliable than you think you are.  Who was it that washed 
everyones' clothes yesterday when nobody else could?"

"Yeah, but...."

The house mother clicked her tongue.  "You really are hard on yourself, 
aren't you?  Honestly, I wouldn't have thought it from the likes of 
you.  Go on, drink your chocolate before it gets cold."

Yu gulped down a sizeable portion from her mug before placing it on the 
table and licking the froth from her lips.  "You know...."  She mused.  "I 
think I will stay at the second hand store.  I was always better at 
collecting junk for sale than Sa was.  She only ever collected stuff to use 
on her gadgets."

"See, you do know what you want to do, after all."  The house mother chuckled.

Yu rubbed her head for a moment, then frowned.  "I should apologise to 
Sa.  I was rude to her, before."  She closed her eyes and continued to rub 
her forehead.

"What is it, dear?  Are you not feeling well?"

"No.  It isn't that."  Yu looked up at her.  "I've been hearing strange 
things ever since the new girl arrived.  I guess it's what has been making 
me so upset."  She paused.  "I said really nasty things to the new girl as 
well.  I should apologise to her as well.  But...."

"But...?"  The house mother looked on at her, expectantly.

"But I keep getting strange vibes from her.  Although I'm not sure if it is 
her, specifically, or something hanging over her."

The house mother nodded.  Yes, I would expect that."  Yu looked quizzically 
at her.  "Oh, it's just an old story, about Haibane whose cocoons appear 
near the painting of the Akabane."

"What story is this?"

The house mother considered her for a moment, then cleared her 
throat.  "Well, its like this...."


----o


Ketsu lay with her head resting in Rakka's lap atop a small rise of grass, 
the sun warming them both, as Rakka hummed a tune that she could only just 
remember the notes for, a hand gently playing with Ketsu's long black 
hair.  Ketsu looked up at her smile before closing her eyes, feeling that 
she was safe enough to do so, for once.  Then she realised something, and 
opened her eyes again.  Rakka's halo was gone.  She turned her head and 
peered up over Rakka's shoulders.  Her wings were also missing.

Ketsu sat up, surprising Rakka.  She looked around, but didn't recognise 
where they were.  Nearby, a young woman with long dark hair like her own 
was packing away what appeared to be a picnic basket, a cigarette hanging 
out of the corner of her mouth.

"What is it, Ketsu?"  Rakka asked, and she turned back to her.

"I....  For a second, I couldn't remember where we were.  I thought...."

Rakka placed a hand on hers.  "It's alright.  Sometimes you forget where 
you are.  Sometimes you even forget who you are, but it doesn't 
matter.  All that matters is that you're here."

Those words calmed Ketsu.  She lowered her gaze to Rakka's hand.  "I 
haven't forgotten anything.  Not where I am or who I am.  But sometimes I 
feel as if I'm being swallowed up by those memories."  She looked back up 
at Rakka's face.  "I'm glad I found you, at last."

"My dear Ketsu....  I was never lost to you."  And with that, Rakka held 
Ketsu to her.  It was, quite possibly the epiphany of all of Ketsu's 
existence.  She closed her eyes and....



....Opened them again, to the rays of a new morning.  Rakka was still 
there, asleep in the cot next to her.  No, she hadn't forgotten where or 
who she was.... even if she felt like she would forget herself in those 
memories.  She reached across to touch Rakka, but found her shoulders stiff 
and sore, her shoulder blades cut sharply with shooting pains as if her 
muscles were straining under pressure.  Withdrawing her hand she looked 
back.  Small lumps were appearing underneath the nightdress, and she 
guessed the time was getting near for her wings to appear.

She felt a presence at the end of the bed, and looked over to see Yu 
standing there, an expression of pity mixed with fear on her face.  She 
opened her mouth to say something, but the girl shook her head.

"I'm not afraid of you."  Yu whispered.  "There is nothing to fear from 
you.  But there is a lot to fear around you.  Be careful, when you call, 
that what appears has wings of red.  Or there may never be another Day of 
Flight in Glie."

And with that, Yu turned and walked from the room, leaving Ketsu feeling 
alone and confused....


END OF PART 4


----o


DARK DAY FOR ANIME - THE RIGHT DISHONORABLE MARK A PAGE
<darkdayforanime@hotmail.com>
http://www.fanfiction.net/profile.php?userid=212110
FEATHER 1.0: 4th-5th September 2004


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