Card Captor Sakura Fan Fiction ❯ God Has Given Me Wings ❯ Wings on my Shoulders ( Chapter 1 )

Note: I've only seen a few episodes of Haibane Renmei, but this idea came to me. I ended up using "The Official Art of Haibane Renmei" from Newtype USA for names and stuff. I don't know how the series ends, so forgive me for any errors. Let me know of any secrets revealed in the series, okay?

Disclaimer: If I owned CCS and Haibane Renmei, this story wouldn't be on ff.net, would it?

God Has Given Me Wings

Chapter 1: Wings on my Shoulders

Sakura blinked open her eyes. There were strange people around her; she didn't know them and they had wings?! She sat up straight and winced at the pain in her back. The girl with shoulder length dark hair stepped forward worried and asked, "Is it your shoulders?"

"Yeah, they hurt." Sakura looked at the girl again. "Who are you anyway?"

"Me? I'm Reki, that's Hikari," a light brown- grayish color haired teen, "Kana," a girl with short, boyishly cut dark hair, "Nemu," a middle age woman with neck length brown hair, "and Rakka," a brown haired girl.

Sakura opened her mouth to say her own name, but a small cry of pain came out instead. Reki sat down behind her and opened the back of the plain dressing gown Sakura was wearing. Reki could see the tips of Sakura's wings already and Sakura had just woken up. She fell off the bed and everyone stared as Sakura's wings sprouted from her back. After the wings finished coming out, Sakura slumped forward, her hands barely holding her up.

Reki was the first to gather her wits together. She stood up and helped turn Sakura onto her stomach while saying, "Why don't you lay on your stomach? It'll be easier that way." Sakura, still in shock and the aftermath of the pain, complied. "Better?" Reki asked. Sakura mumbled a positive response.

"Kana, could you get a bowl of water and the square brush for me, please?" Reki requested. Kana nodded and left the room.

"Looks like I'm going to have to multitask." Reki muttered.

Kana returned items in hand. Reki took them. Rakka commented, "Her wings are larger than ours aren't they?" Everyone else in the room sighed.

Sakura muttered, "What?"

Reki gave Rakka a look and started to clean Sakura's wings. "Looks like I have a lot to explain. But first, did you have a dream?" Reki inquired.

Sakura nodded then realized Reki couldn't see a nod. "Yeah I did. I was walking down a street lined by Sakura trees on both sides. As I got closer to the end of the street I could see a brown haired boy. I reached him and we stared into each other's eyes for a while. I turned for some reason and saw another boy only with purple tinted hair. He smiled cleverly and said `Remember.'"

Sakura stopped there. Something inside told her to be vague, to not give Shaoran's and Eriol's names or to tell of what she saw after Eriol spoke.

Everyone assumed that the girl was done talking. Nemu asked, "What do you think about Futari*?"

"Or maybe Michi**?" Hikari suggested.

Rakka asked, "What do you like?"

Sakura winced at the cleaning of her wings and questioned, "For what?"

"They are suggestions for your name, of course." Reki put in.

"What about Sakura?" Sakura suggested. "I mean, there were Sakura falling from the trees."

"Then Sakura it is. How are you feeling?" Reki questioned.

"A lot better, thanks." Sakura said, even though she felt a bit hot.

"It'll take a while to clean your wings, so we'll let Hikari do her job." Reki said and helped Sakura to sit up.

"Feather Sakura, to help guide your future as a fellow Haibane, I give you this halo." Hikari recited as she placed the halo over Sakura's head. Instead of settling over her head or even falling off, the halo simply bounced off and landed on the floor. They tried a regular halo stand but the halo stuck up from the stand and they had to tie both sides down. Just then, a clock tower rang. A collected "Oh" of moans came from the others.

"Why don't you guys go back to work? I can handle things here." This was answered by nods and a chorus of "Bye" as the other girls filed out of the room. Sakura couldn't even wave, as she was lying on her stomach having her wings cleaned again.

"Do you have a fever?" Reki asked before the door was even shut.

"No." Sakura denied. "I'm a little tired though. But I want to know something about this place before I go to sleep."

Reki paused in the cleaning and checked Sakura's temperature. Reki was surprised that Sakura's temperature was relatively normal and agreed to brief Sakura.

"We are called the Haibane which means charcoal feather." Reki started to clean again. "We are named after the dream we have in the cocoon. The townspeople let us live here so we thank them by only using items that were used by humans. We aren't allowed to have money, so we keep track of what we earn in notebooks that the Haibane Renmei gives us." Reki noticed that Sakura was forcing herself to stay awake. "Just go to sleep. We'll talk more in the morning."

"What was I wearing when I got here?" Sakura yawned.

Reki blinked and answered, "You were wearing this gorgeous ball gown-like dress."

"Can I have it?" Sakura requested already half asleep.

Reki quickly grabbed the dress from the bathroom. The blood and grease would dry on at this rate. Sakura pried her eyes open as Reki entered the room again. Reki thrust the dress at the newborn and swiftly returned to Sakura's wings.

"Bubble, help Reki then return. Good night." Sakura murmured as she drifted off to sleep.

Reki was puzzled by Sakura's words until shock replaced the puzzlement as bubbles appeared out of nowhere and covered Sakura's wings. The blood and grease came out easily with the help of the bubbles. The process didn't take nearly as long and Reki could sort out her thoughts, at least the best she could.

She had just found the cocoon this morning on the floor above hers. While it wasn't used too often, it was one of the more used areas of Old Home. Someone should have seen the cocoon before today. It was as if it just appeared by magic. Luckily, Reki only needed to shout to get the other Haibane's attention, because as soon as they reached the door, the cocoon hatched. Hikari had to fetch the halo machine and Kana had to explain what had happened to everyone's workplace and request the day off for them. The two had only just returned when Sakura woke up.

Reki's major concern now was the size and color of Sakura's wings. They were almost twice the size of Nemu's and much lighter, more silver than charcoal gray. What did it mean? How did those bubbles just appear, by magic? Was magic even possible? Reki had the feeling that the halo would never stay over Sakura's head, that this Sakura was connected to the world outside the walls. What else did Sakura hide?

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* Futari means two people.

** Michi means road.