Haibane Renmei Fan Fiction ❯ Kazakiribane ❯ Wings of Flight ( Chapter 5 )

Disclaimer: "Haibane Renmei" and its associated characters & places used within this story are based upon Yoshitoshi ABe's original concept: "Charcoal Feathers in Old Home". They remain the undisputed property of the owners that hold copyright. I am writing this story for free enjoyment and not for profit, but even so I maintain creative ownership of my own story concepts. None of this story is to be copied or reproduced etc. without my knowledge or permission.

This Fanfiction is a story concept that I'd had in my head for quite awhile now. There's quite a lot of it that I'm still tweaking here and there for continuity issues before the story can be completely finished, but I'll post it in segments as I finish editing them. Read on... and feel free to leave a review if you are so inclined.

In some parts of the story, I have tried to use italics to help indicate whenever any characters are supposed to be conversing in Japanese. After all, this is supposed to be a story not a language lesson, so I hope that you aren't disappointed if I stick with English for the most part. ;-)

Kazakiribane - Chapter Five: Wings of Flight
By Shizukana Sakka

Mori slowly opened her eyes and was a bit puzzled by the large, blurry shape in front of her face. With a bit of effort, she brought her eyes into focus and realized that she was staring at a pillow. As more of her sense of awareness began to filter its way back in, she discovered that she was lying on her stomach… and she could feel a dull ache that permeated throughout her entire body. She felt an odd tugging sensation from a strange area on her back and slowly craned her head around to see what was going on.

The first thing she noticed was what had been causing the `pulling' she'd felt in her back. Emerging from behind her shoulders was a pair of large wings, and seated just behind her was Rakka… who was gently working a brush through one of them.

“Hey, Rakka! Look… she's finally coming around,” Hikari called from a little farther back in the room.

Further behind Rakka, Mori could see Hikari busily tidying up the room. When she'd looked over and noticed Mori gazing at her, she smiled brightly and came over to sit in the chair at her bedside.

Rakka leaned over a bit so that Mori could see her a little more clearly. Mori's large wings were a bit of an obstruction, and their occasional involuntary `twitch' made it a little difficult to keep eye-contact.

“Good morning, Mori,” Rakka said with a gentle smile. It was a smile that spoke volumes about how relieved Rakka felt, as much as the dark circles under her eyes told of how tired she was. “How are you feeling now?”

Mori took a moment to find her voice, which sounded a little raspy to her ears.

“Tired, but better… I think. I feel like I've just run a couple of marathon races. Did I win any of them?” She asked the last with a bit of a chuckle.

Both Rakka and Hikari seemed equally relieved at Mori's amusing little quip. They each exchanged silent looks with one another and nodded in satisfaction.

Mori returned her attention to the wings on her back and looked over her shoulder at them in amazement for a few moments.

“So… that's them, hmm?” She said quietly. She was briefly surprised when they seemed to twitch slightly all by themselves.

As Rakka resumed her gentle brushing of the wings, Mori suddenly realized something significant. She glanced quickly at Hikari's wings, then Rakka's… and then back to her own.

“Hey, wait a sec… how come they're so large? Are they supposed to be this big?”

“Well… no, not really,” Hikari replied. “In fact, before you we'd never even heard of a Haibane with such large wings. The wing-growth is usually hard enough on those of us with `normal'-sized wings, but I can't even begin to imagine how painful that must have been for you!”

“How much do you remember, Mori?” Rakka asked quietly from her obstructed position behind the large wings.

She thought about it for a few moments.

“Not all that much, I guess I must've been really out of it. I remember the start of the fever yesterday… and how the pain in my back kept getting worse… but not much else after that.” She paused as the import of what Hikari had said sunk in. “Maybe I'm better off not remembering too much of it.”

“That's for sure,” muttered Hikari.

Rakka finished up with her brushing and then helped Mori sit up properly on the bed. Due to the large size of Mori's wings, they had her sit with her back near the edge of the bed so that she'd be a little more comfortable.

“Well, the first thing we need to do is get you something proper to wear. That isn't going to be too easy on account of your large wings, but I'm sure that we'll be able to find something.” Rakka paused for a moment as she seemed to mentally assess Mori's measurements.

“Next, you definitely have to eat something. I know that this may come as a bit of a surprise to you, but what little you can remember actually happened more than 2 days ago. You've been asleep the entire time while you've been recovering.”

Mori took that bit of news with the expected amount of surprise.

“Wow… really, that long? I guess the wing experience must've taken a lot out of me.”

Rakka nodded her head emphatically.

“Definitely. It took a fair amount out of the rest of us as well. We need to get you up and around as soon as possible, because we're all expected at the temple of the Haibane Renmei later this afternoon.”

“What is the Haibane Renmei?” Mori asked curiously.

“It means `Ash-Feather Federation',” Hikari explained. “All Haibane live under their protection and guidance. They provide for us, and in return we follow their regulations… even when they might seem a little silly or old-fashioned at times.”

Rakka frowned briefly at Hikari and shook her head slightly.

“All New Feathers are required to make an appearance at the temple within a few days of their hatching so that they can be officially recognized by the Haibane Renmei. Normally, a New Feather uses those first few days to recover from their wing growth and to get a little better acquainted with their new world. Unfortunately, since your ordeal was so… unusual, you've slept through those days.”

Rakka paused as she considered the Communicator's unusual request for all of them to accompany Mori to the temple that afternoon. Out of the numerous times that she'd been working at her job at the temple, she had only once come across mention of `Kazakiribane' in some of the strange text that she was still only beginning to make sense of. According to what she'd been able to understand, a Kazakiribane was rare among the Haibane because they actually possessed the ability to fly. This distinction not only made them rare, but also represented a significant danger to both Haibane and townsfolk alike.

Rakka had a pretty good idea what was troubling the Haibane Renmei about Mori. The township of Glie was completely enclosed within the boundaries of the Great Wall. It was forbidden for any resident of Glie -- human or Haibane -- to ever pass beyond the wall, and those that did never returned. No one really knew why the township and its residents were always so isolated from what lies beyond the Great Wall, but whatever the reason it was an accepted and integral part of their society. Everyone knew that the Touga, who came from beyond the Great Wall to trade with the town, were the only exception to this rule.

What sort of consequences could there be, then, of a Haibane that could travel beyond the Great Wall and back at will?

She glanced at Mori's large wings and easily imagined her being able to achieve flight with them. Although, she conceded, just because she could fly beyond the wall did that mean that she actually would? That was likely to be a large portion of what the Communicator was going to be discussing with them when they all appeared at the temple later that day.

A few minutes later, Chou and the Haibane twins entered the room with several different articles of clothing for Mori to try on. They knew Mori's size quite well since they'd taken all sorts of measurements while she'd been sleeping. Their only real difficulty had been trying to effectively modify the `wing slits' to accommodate Mori's unusual wing size. After some experimentation, the girls had settled on a skirt and blouse combination similar to what Rakka wore -- although it had been a combined effort just to get Mori's wings to fit through the appropriate slots in the back.

No one had been very surprised to see that Mori was exceptionally hungry at breakfast, so they took their time to ensure that Mori had enough time to eat everything they put in front of her -- which was quite a lot. After everyone had finished eating, they brought Mori on a tour of the grounds of Old Home. Everyone had gotten a good laugh at her reaction to the Young Feathers, and an even bigger laugh at their reaction to her.

“Wow! You've gotta be the new girl that everyone's been talking about!” said one little girl whose wings twittered excitedly as she spoke. “Your wings are incredibly huge! I'll bet it really hurt when they came, right?”

“Umm, well… I suppose it must have. I remember some pain, but I can't remember the worst of it,” Mori admitted. She blushed slightly at all of the attention that she was being given by the small crowd of cherub-sized pseudo-angels. They fluttered all around her like a bunch of pigeons competing for breadcrumbs.

“Can you stretch your wings out for us? I wanna see how big they really are!” asked a little boy with freckles.

“No she can't, dummy!” Said another little boy next to him. “She's still a newborn. She wouldn't know how to do anything like that yet!”

Mori felt a slight tug on her wings as a couple of other Young Feathers started petting them.

“See! I told ya they were real!” One dark-haired boy said to his companion.

Rakka cleared her throat loudly to get the Young Feathers' attention. It had an immediate effect, as did the disapproving look she gave them.

“Okay, that's enough. Mori's wings are still probably a little sore, so why don't you all stop pestering her before you accidentally hurt her?”

“That's okay, Rakka,” Mori said with a little hint of a smile. “… in fact, my wings actually feel pretty good, unlike the rest of me. I guess I'm still a little tired.”

Mori hid her mouth briefly with a hand to cover a yawn, then extended her arms over her head and gave them a comforting stretch. She closed her eyes as she tilted her head back and smiled as she felt the warmth of the sun on her face. She felt an odd sensation in the new muscles in her back and then opened her eyes when she heard a series of startled gasps around her.

All of the Haibane were standing around her with wide-eyed expressions on their faces -- even the boisterous Young Feathers, who for the moment were too stunned to say anything. At first she didn't quite understand why they were all staring at her, but when she happened to notice the shadow she was casting on the ground it became quite clear. While stretching, she'd inadvertently extended her wings out to their full span and it was quite an astounding sight.

She glanced over each of her shoulders to get a better look at them and concentrated on those new muscle groups she'd felt. Almost as if by instinct, she worked the new muscles and her wings responded. She gave an experimental flap with her wings that, due to their substantial size, buffeted a number of the other Haibane with a gentle breeze.

“Whoa! That was so cool!” Several of the Young Feathers chorused together.

Of the Older Feathers, Rakka was the first to find her voice.

“Did… did that hurt at all?” she asked carefully. She was surprised that Mori was able display such control over her new wings so quickly, and apparently without any signs of discomfort.

“Um.. no, not at all. It felt really good, to tell you the truth,” Mori replied with a thoughtful look on her face. She gave her wings a quick shake and then folded them into their relaxed position on her back. She glanced at them briefly from over her shoulder and then gave a satisfied nod before turning her attention back to the rest of the girls.

The Older Feathers all exchanged glances with one another and then simply shrugged.

`Maybe being asleep for those two days helped her to heal quickly,' Rakka thought to herself.

The tour of the grounds was cut short by Kana's return a short while later. With all of the Older Feathers group now accounted for, it was time for them to keep their appointment at the Haibane Renmei temple. Mori noted with interest how everyone, including her, had a wooden nametag marker at the archway entrance to Old Home. Hikari explained the purpose of the tags -- to mark who was `home' with the white side of the tag or `away' with the red side -- and demonstrated their use by flipping Mori's tag over for her.

“This area is also where our community notices are posted,” Kana pointed out as they passed the bulletin board that was covered with an assortment of drawings and notes of varying sizes. “This is where you'll usually find any summons notices from the Haibane Renmei. They didn't bother to post one for this group visit to the temple since the Communicator notified everyone in person when he was here the other day.”

Kana paused and gave Mori's large wings a quick once-over. She'd been reluctant to examine them in any great detail over the past few days due to her somewhat disturbing memories of witnessing their painful emergence from Mori's back. As it was, thinking about that event still sent a bit of a shiver down her spine. It was undoubtedly more traumatic to the rest of the Haibane since Mori had been so deeply submerged in the fever at the time that she likely wouldn't remember much of it. Lucky her, Kana thought idly to herself.

“So… um,” Kana began awkwardly as their group began their long walk to the temple. “You look a lot better now. How're the uh… wings?” she asked as she gestured with her thumb towards Mori's back.

“Well, right now they're probably doing better than the rest of me,” Mori answered as she tried to stifle another yawn. “They're fine, but I'm still feeling really stiff and tired. How far is it to this temple, anyways?”

“It's a bit of a long walk from here, I'm afraid,” Rakka answered quietly from behind them. “We can stop to rest a couple of times if you need to, but we won't have a lot of time. We can't be late for our appointment at the temple.”

“Well, why don't ya just fly instead…” said Chou as she glanced back at Mori -- just before Umi and Hoshi pounced on her.

Mori sighed wistfully as she gave her wings a gentle shake.

“Yeah, right,” She snorted derisively. “As if I really could. All these are probably good for is amusing the Young Feathers. Haibane don't actually fly, remember?” Her expression softened slightly before she continued, “Still… I'll bet it would be really nice if we could.”

Just behind her, Rakka, Kana and Hikari all exchanged worried glances with each other, but said nothing. Other than on their 'Day of Flight', it was true that Haibane did not fly. But a Kazakiribane, on the other hand…

As promised, through the course of their long trek to the temple, the girls took a few brief breaks to allow Mori to rest. The twins spent much of the trip chattering away at Mori to give her a crash-course in all the things she needed to know about living within the township of Glie. Mori found the distraction to be quite pleasant, as it gave her a chance to put aside the apprehension she was experiencing about their imminent meeting with the Haibane Renmei. Although the other girls didn't quite say so, Mori got the impression that there was a little more to this than the required initial visit of a New Feather. While she was certainly grateful for their company, she was a little puzzled as to why all of the Older Feathers were accompanying her on the trip. Surely only one or two at the most would have been necessary to show her the way and make introductions?

When the temple first came into view as they followed the rocky trail along the river, Mori let out a slight gasp of surprise. It was an odd-looking structure, but surprisingly beautiful. In some ways it reminded her of a large, multi-tiered cylindrical birdhouse -- a thought which prompted a slight giggle when she thought of the multiple avian similarities between Haibane and birds. First there was the hatching from their egg-like cocoons, then their wings... and now a large birdhouse. If not for the fact that Haibane weren't able to fly, the temple's appearance almost made sense.

When they had arrived at the waterfall, Mori eyed the simple wooden bridge speculatively as it swayed slightly from side to side.

"Uh... is that actually safe to walk across?" she asked the others carefully.

Hikari gave a bit of a laugh and immediately ran out onto the bridge where she started to perform a few pirouettes. The other girls groaned slightly and shook their heads at their companion's antics.

"She does this every time," Kana muttered under her breath. "We gotta have a talk with her about it. She keeps freaking out the New Feathers."

Rakka shrugged. "It's not like I haven't tried a few times already. That's just Hikari."

The girls all walked across the bridge and made a point to ignore Hikari's cavorting around as they passed by her. Mori had remained on the opposite side until everyone else had crossed. She took a tentative step out onto the bridge and gulped slightly as she adjusted her balance. Hikari ran back to her and clapped her hands with glee.

"See? It isn't really so bad, is it?" She exclaimed happily. "I always get a big thrill out of crossing this thing!"

Mori found that watching Hikari's jumping around made her feel worse. She took her eyes off of Hikari and glanced over the side of the bridge. It was a fair distance down to the water below. She shivered slightly at the thought of falling from that height. Though it probably wasn't a big enough fall to be life-threatening, it would undoubtedly be very unpleasant. Her attention was suddenly drawn back to Hikari when she heard the older girl let out a surprised gasp.

Hikari had been so caught up in her careless frolicking that she'd accidentally tripped herself. She tumbled towards the side of the bridge and frantically reached out to grab one of the rope barriers to stop her fall. Just behind her, Mori saw what was happening and immediately rushed forward to try to stop Hikari from falling over the side. Unfortunately her added momentum not only interrupted Hikari's attempt to hold on, but it unbalanced both of them and they fell over the side together. The rest of the group watched helplessly from the opposite side as the two girls fell out of sight into the mists below the bridge.

Mori had clenched her eyes shut and held tightly onto Hikari as the two of them fell towards the water below. She held her breath as she anticipated the abrupt end to the unpleasant sensation of weightlessness that awaited them. A few tense moments passed... and then a few more. It slowly began to dawn on her that the fall seemed to be taking longer than she'd expected it would. She carefully opened one eye, and then the other. She could see the river below them but instead of falling towards it; both she and Hikari seemed to be drifting along in the air above it.

'Drifting?' Mori thought to herself. 'Not quite, more like... gliding!'

She quickly glanced over her shoulder and saw that her wings were once again fully extended. Behind her, the view of the waterfall with the wooden bridge they'd just fallen from was rapidly falling back into the distance. She looked back down at Hikari, who was carefully looking around as though she couldn't quite believe what she was seeing.

"Whoah..." whispered Hikari in awe, giving voice to the very thought that was going through Mori's own mind. Mori, on the other hand, found herself incapable of saying anything at all.

The two girls glided through the air together in silence for a few more moments until Hikari glanced down and noticed that they were gradually getting closer to the water below them.

"Um... Mori, do you think that you can bring us up a bit higher? That water looks really cold..."

Mori shook herself out of her temporary daze and took notice of their slowly declining altitude.

"I'm not sure that I understand how I'm keeping us up like this as it is, but I'll try. Hang on tight, okay?" She replied.

Ever since she'd awakened that morning, Mori had felt a growing awareness of her wings as her body adjusted to their presence. Although they'd felt a little odd at first, she had gradually grown quite comfortable with them as the day wore on. By the time that she and Hikari had fallen off of the bridge together, she'd become so used to them that she'd forgotten they were there. She had been surprised that she'd opened them without even realizing it and now, with her wings fully extended, she was able to feel the very air flow through every one of her feathers. She gave her wings a few experimental flaps and felt the strange new group of muscles asserting themselves as they worked to maintain their flight. Immediately, the two girls began to gain altitude. She began to work her wings faster and reveled in the remarkable ease with which she was able to propel them through the air. They rapidly rose out of the small canyon and soared up into the open sky.

"Wheeee!" Mori squealed with delight as she began to increase their speed. "This is so much fun!"

They flew along for another couple of minutes before Hikari cleared her throat nervously and glanced up at Mori.

"Uh... M..Mori, c..can you bring us back down now? The Haibane Renmei are still waiting for all of us at the temple."

Mori had been so caught up in the exhilaration of the feeling of flight that she hadn't been paying attention to how high she was taking the two of them. She blushed slightly and nodded her head.

"Oops! Sorry Hikari. You're right... the others are probably worried about us," she answered and then sighed softly. It felt so good to fly that she didn't really want to stop, but she knew that it would have to wait. She didn't want to be late for her first official meeting with the Haibane Renmei.

She circled back towards the small canyon and followed the river towards the waterfall. Rapidly, they approached the bank where the rest of the girls were waiting for them. With a few gentle flaps of her wings to slow their descent, Mori effortlessly touched down in front of the group of stunned Haibane. As soon as Mori had released her, Hikari slid to the ground when her legs seemed to collapse beneath her. They all stared incredulously at Mori in silence with their mouths hanging open as she gently relaxed and folded her wings against her back.

Chou was the one to finally break the silence. With a look of awe and in a voice barely louder than a whisper she said,

"You really are a Kazakiribane..."

More to come in the next chapter: A Special Destiny