Red Feathers in Old Home Chapter 1
DARK DAY FOR ANIME - THE RIGHT DISHONOURABLE MARK A PAGE
darkdayforanime@hotmail.com
Disclaimer: Blah and blah don't belong to me etc...
----o
It is almost impossible to explain to someone what it is like to not have any memories. So much of our being is wrapped in the cloak of the past, simply as a point of reference to the now, that we have lost the ability to remember what things were like when we were just newborns. Losing one's memory is not entirely the same, because it doesn't mean, by definition, that we lose everything about ourselves. We don't necessarily lose the ability to walk, to talk, to think and have opinions. Deeply ingrained facets needed for our survival seep through the veil, and the amnesiac wonders why they have these things when they don't have a past.
----o
The past was lost to her, perhaps forever. She felt as if she were waking for the first time, which was patently untrue, she was sure, but there was nothing before this moment, but a horrible void that caused her to feel panic.
She opened her eyes and stared at a floor, descending into a horrible, ruddy distance. She wanted to move, but found that she couldn't. All she could do was stare through eyes smeared with red, as the redness extended towards the solitary light, rectangular in shape. She thought she could see someone there, and tried to call out to them, but her voice would not work, her mouth would not move. She was paralysed, she realised, and what little sensation she could feel was retreating from her extremities. A great darkness was opening up, and she felt the greatest fear she was ever going to experience.
And then darkness. And warmth.
----o
An Haibane Renmei Fanfiction
Red Feathers in Old Home
by Dark Day For Anime
Part 1
Summer - Feathers - Cocoon
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The clouds shifted underneath Rakka's feet, yet did not give way to her weight. It was at this point that she realised that she had to be dreaming. And it had been a long time since she dreamt of clouds. She was wearing the smock in which she was born, as a Haibane.... the soft, white smock that had been folded and placed in a trunk almost five years ago. She placed her hands against the front of the smock and started to brush down the creases and folds. For some reason, she felt comforted by doing this.
A voice, on the edge of her consciousness caught her attention. It was so indistinct that the sounds of the wind that blew the clouds almost drowned it out. Rakka turned back and forth, looking for the origin of the voice, but there were only indistinct shapes in the semi-darkness of the pre-dawn sky. The voice faded, then returned anew, stronger than before. Rakka thought she recognised the voice.... The voice of someone she once knew. But it was hard to tell.
She floated along the cloudtop, her small grey wings flapping, seemingly effectively, although it could have been an illusion. It
was an illusion: this was a dream. And yet, somehow, she felt as if this was really happening. And that thought frightened her. The voice started to fade again, and then returned even louder. "Time...." The voice was whispery, but gentle. "Time for me...."
"Who's there?" Rakka's voice sounded small and frightened, especially to herself. "Show yourself."
"Light...." The voice whispered, a gentle, comforting edge rolling over Rakka's mind, dulling her fears. She had an indistinct impression of a face, and knew, almost immediately, who the voice belonged to.
"Reki?" Rakka swallowed. "What are you... Why..."
"The time of light is near...." Reki's voice continued. "Yet so far. The blooded one is falling into your arms, only to be let go."
Rakka swallowed, the vision of Reki fading rapidly. "What do you mean?" She reached out into the empty clouds. "Reki? What do you mean? Who is the blooded one? Reki!" Rakka withdrew her hands as the clouds started to glow a dull red. No, it wasn't the clouds themselves, but thousands of floating feathers.... Red feathers.
Not just any red, but a bright, almost glowing hue. The filaments of the combs standing out individually on each one. Rakka hugged herself tightly, watching the feathers fly by, a blood-hued storm of such intense complexity that she felt dizzy, almost nauseous. And from behind them, as if chasing them away, came a brilliantly intense light....
----o
And then there was light. Rakka opened her eyes as the sunlight of an early morning dawn peaked over the top of Old Home, bathing the roof at the far end in a golden glow. Rakka sat up in her bed and stared out of the window, blearily. She reached up to her face, and felt drying tears. She then looked down at her pillow, which was also wet with tears. Just what had she been dreaming about, she wondered to herself? She very rarely remembered her dreams these days. The practicality of living in Glie didn't afford her much time to consider such fancies.
She wiped the tears away and stretched, yawning. The sky outside was an increasingly deep azure blue, the clouds being banished to the horizon by the warmth of the summer sun. She peered over at the cabinet beside her bed. It was only just past 6am, according to the small clock Kana had given her a few months beforehand. It had been a gift from Kana's boss, for services rendered when Kana had fallen ill after riding her bike home in the rain and cold. Rakka had always told Kana that she should take Reki's old scooter, rather than ride the rickety old pushbike.... It didn't offer any more protection against the rain, but at least it would have meant spending less time in the weather, and Reki really didn't need it anymore....
Rakka stood from her bed, got herself washed and dressed in short order, then wandered over to the common room, where she put the kettle on, still yawning. She had promised Kumiko, the secretary of Glie's festivals committee, that she would help out on the setting up of the Summer Market Festival. She'd managed to avoid it during her previous few summers by claiming she had other things to do, but was buttonholed by the young woman this year after some behind-the-scenes plotting with rgw Town Council and the Haibane Renmei, most specifically the Washi, who seemed amused at the prospect of dropping Rakka in the deep end. If it hadn't been for the strictly-enforced rules of silence at the temple, the old man might have found out that, underneath her otherwise calm and occasionally shy exterior, Rakka had a demon's temper....
As she waited for the kettle to boil, she stepped out of the kitchen and across to the doors, leading to the balcony area, opening them. Already, much of the bite of the cold night air was gone, and the breeze that ruffled her already messy hair was warm and inviting. She strolled out onto the balcony and leaned against the ledge, closing her eyes and soaking in the silence.
Nothing but the gentle breeze. Kana would be waking up about now. Probably. She certainly had more energy than anyone sane should have, this early in the morning. Rakka had only ever occasionally asked her about her early days in Glie, before Rakka herself had arrived. Kana never seemed all that keen on talking about it, which didn't surprise Rakka that much. Kana seemed the sort to have been something of a tearaway, though one who had been given direction very early, before she strayed off the path. Hikari, the only other Haibane in Old Home who'd arrived before Rakka, was more than forthcoming about what things had been like for herself when she'd arrived. She was also mischievously forthcoming about the finer details of others' histories....
Rakka sighed and allowed her thoughts to subside. The breeze had settled. Now the silence was almost total, and behind her eyelids she swore she could see the swirling of bright red feathers....
There was a whistle from the kitchen, and she stepped away from the ledge, stetching. "Ah...." She muttered to herself. "Almost dozed off there, for a second." She shook her head as she walked back through the doors and through into the kitchen, where she killed the flame underneath the kettle.
Before she had time to fill the teapot with leaves, however, she could hear squealing voices, coming from the other side of the courtyard. Not just any annoying, high-pitched squeals, but the voices of The Twins.... Her heart sank. It looked like there wasn't going to be any peace for her for the rest of the morning. Grumpily, she trodged back to the balcony and looked down on the two short, blond-haired Haibane, who were practically chasing each other around the courtyard, excitedly. One of the two spotted Rakka and came to a dead stop, waving. The other didn't, and ran into the back of her, sending the pair sprawling across the ground. Almost immediately, and somewhat predictably, the pair sat up and started at each other.
"Oi! What did you do that for?"
"You're the one who stopped."
"S'not my fault. You weren't paying attention."
"That's right, blame me. You always blame me."
"Well you always blame me for things going wrong." The first sister pointed to the wings on her back. "And my wings are all dirty and creased, now. You know how neat I like to keep them."
Rakka shook her head. She'd never met a pair of Haibane like the twins before, and she'd met a few strange ones from the Factory. In fact, nobody could remember there ever having been a pair of Haibane twins in Glie, not even the Washi. Rakka had been fortunate to have found their cocoons so early in their growth. It gave everyone more time to prepare for their arrival than they'd had for her own. And they'd needed it.
Because, right from the moment they'd popped out, they'd been nothing but trouble. From the fact that they both looked exactly alike (short and thin, with short, scruffy blond hair, round faces and greenish eyes), to their identical taste in clothes (they were both currently wearing simple, light blue dresses with matching cardigans and sandals) and their tendency to banter on with each other, often leading others in vocal circles. And they both had far, far too much energy for a normal person, let alone a normal Haibane.
What made it worse is that, nobody was sure if they were being consistent with their names, or whether they regarded them as interchangeable as their identities.... They been given the names "Yu" and "Sa", which practically meant "right" and "left", after the dream they had in the cocoon where they had been sitting side by side, travelling together somewhere.... They weren't sure where, and they were quite sure that it didn't really matter that much. "It wuz nowhere special", Yu would say whenever anyone would ask them. Or maybe it was Sa, pretending to be Yu. Or even Yu, pretending to be Sa pretending to be herself.... Whatever. The possible mind games the pair could play with people seemed endless. Even worse was the fact that they always seemed genuinely genuine about it all, which would give Rakka a headache.
Right now, they were about to argue over another one of their foibles.... Their seemingly inherent narcissism. At least, their narcissism about being Haibane. They took great pride in the fact that they had halos and wings, and ordinary townsfolk didn't. It frequently lead to their being on the receiving end of a few cranial wallops from their unfortunate minders, which they would, fortunately, take as a sign that they'd overstepped the mark. The townsfolk found them amusing, but then they didn't have to live with them.
Regardless, Rakka thought this was as good a time as any to head this argument off at the pass. "What are you two doing up this early in the morning?" She smiled and waved at them. They both turned to her, still looking like thunder.
"It's Sa's fault!" Said the sister who had stopped first in the courtyard, leading to the accident. "She's been waking up real early, lately. I need my sleep, or the day is just out of the window, if you know what I mean." Yu stretched out her arms expansively, as if trying to make a point. Sa whopped her one over the top of her head with a clenched fist. "Ow! What was that for?" Yu rubbed her head, turning to Sa in annoyance.
"I haven't been getting up early. I've been waking up when you've been waking up." Sa crossed her arms. "Besides, with all your snoring, it's amazing I'm able to get any sleep at all."
"I don't snore."
"Do so."
"Do not. You're the one who snores."
"Am not."
Rakka shook her head. "So, what about this morning? You two are never up before eight, regardless of who snores or not."
"Ah!" Yu put up a finger, a look of realisation on her face. "We don't have time to argue about this." She turned to Sa, whose expression mirrored her sister's.
"Yeah, we shouldn't be arguing now. It's an emergency. An emergency." They both turned to Rakka with stares so intense that she felt that she would be blown back into the common room through sheer force of will.
"We heard a noise, coming a couple of rooms down from ours...."
"....So we thought we should check it out...."
"....And we found one!"
"Our first one!"
Rakka scratched her head as the pair held hands and started jumping up and down on the spot, excitedly repeating "our first one" over and over. "Umm, so.... Would you like to tell me what it is you've found?" She eventually asked, impatiently. They both stopped and turned to her, smiling.
"We've found a cocoon." Said Yu.
"A big one." Said Sa.
"Really big. With bits going into the ground."
"And into the roof. Neeee?" Sa turned to Yu.
"Neeee?" Yu repeated.
Rakka had the feeling that her day was just about to get rather more complicated than she'd anticipated....
----o
Slowly, the girl opened her eyes. There was little light, so it wasn't painful, and the adjustment was easier. There was little to see, anyway, just a faint outline of something surrounding her, a container in which she was floating.
She wished she could remember how she came to be here. Her head hurt terribly, and she placed a hand against its side, feeling for something, she wasn't sure what. It felt intact, anyway, although she didn't know why she thought it wouldn't be.
She tried to sigh, but realised she was only feeling fluid pass from her lungs to her mouth, and for a second she thought she was drowning, before realising that she'd probably have drowned by now if she was going to. The sensation was unpleasant, as she tried to breathe, expanding her lungs with more of the fluid: an almost autonomic process of panic rising with the labouring of her muscles to draw in something that shouldn't be there, at least, not like this....
She really wished she could remember how she came to be here. And then she heard voices, from somewhere outside. Too frightened to care, she hugged her legs tight against her, chin close to resting on her knees. She wanted to sleep some more. It was too soon for her to be active, of that she was sure. She was safe here. Safe....
----o
Rakka peered through the partly open doorway. To gain access to the room, the twins had to force the door open as its hinges were pretty much rusted shut, and had only just made enough room to slip through. Rakka, somewhat bigger than the pair, wondered if the gap was big enough to accomadate her.
"Well? What do you think?" Yu asked, expectantly. Rakka looked back at them, standing behind her with rather self-satisfied looks on their faces.
"It's.... hard to see. It's so dark in there." She turned back to the door. "If only we could open this a little wider. She started to push against it, but it looked as if the door wasn't going to move another inch. The twins joined her.
"We'll help you...."
"....Get this door open."
"It was real hard to open it this far, though."
"Still got splinters in me hands." Sa showed her hands to Rakka, which didn't help one little bit.
"Would the pair of you mind?" She nodded towards the door.
The twins shrugged and pushed in underneath her, applying their weight against it. "Alright then", Rakka grunted, "on the count of three. One.... Two.... Three!"
The three of them heaved against the door, a couple of the panels cracking under the strain. Then there was a crumbling noise, dust falling on top of their heads for a few seconds, followed by a sharp snap, and the door came away from its hinges, crashing to the floor, followed by the three girls who spent the next few seconds laying in a pile, stunned.
"Wow." Sa crawled out from underneath Rakka. "That was real cool. Can we do it again?" Rakka grumbled and stood, brushing dust from the front of her dress. The light colour of it meant that all the ingrained dust showed like a stain.
"Ahhh.... I'll have to wash this, now." She shook her head as Sa helped Yu to her feet. Sighing, she turned to the now open doorway and peered into the gloom. The room itself was quite large, much larger than most rooms in the Old Home. "I wonder what they used this room for, originally." She muttered to herself, knowing full well that she'd probably never find out. At least, not in this life. "I wish I'd brought a torch, now. Can't see a damn thing in there."
"It's right down the back." Yu pointed. "Just behind the stacks of crates."
"There was really cool stuff in those crates, too." Sa rubbed her hands together. "All kinds of gadgets and stuff. Can't wait to get that out and see what I can make with them."
"And there are books. Lots and lots of books." Yu sounded hopeful.
"Bugger the books. You can read them, if you want. Probably old textbooks and stuff. This place was an old school, once." Sa patted a disappointed Yu on the back.
"Just because I like books...." Yu sniffed. "I'm not an uncultured swine like some."
Rakka, ignoring their babbling, was about to tiptoe into the room, when Kana, dressed and ready for work, arrived, scratching her head sleepily. "Oi, what's going on here, then?"
"We found a cocoon. A real big one." Sa smiled, holding her fingers up to Kana in a victory salute.
"And a lot of books." Yu mumbled.
"Baka. Kana-oneechan isn't going to be interested in books. Especially textbooks." Sa turned to Yu once more, leaving Kana to peer into the darkened room alongside Rakka, a half-excited look on her face. She knew the twins too well to get too hopeful over some of their more extravagant claims.
"So they say.... I was about to go look for myself." Rakka stepped in, but was stopped by Kana, placing a hand on her shoulder.
"Here, you'll do yourself a mischief in the dark if you aren't careful." Kana reached into the pocket of her overalls and pulled out a small pen-torch. "Got this at the knick-knack shop on the west side of town. Apparently the Touga had just brought some in from.... well, you know." She flicked a switch on the side, illuminating a small space in front of them. The floor of the room was a right mess, with missing ceramic tiles here and there, amidst small holes created by some of the crates toppling down onto the floor. The crates, themselves, were quite numerous, and, from the contents of the broken ones scattered on the floor, were as full of treasure as the twins had reported.
"Awww...." Sa stepped into the room and started rifling through some of the electronic parts that lay, rusting, on the floor. "Look at this stuff.... This ain't no good. Won't be able to sell any of.... um...."
"So, that's what you had in mind." Yu stood over her sister. "All you're interested in is getting stuff from the townsfolk for as little effort as possible."
"Oi!" Kana clipped Yu across the back of the head. "Where's this cocoon supposed to be?" She turned and watched as Rakka peered behind a stack of crates into the darkness at the back of the room.
"Back there, silly. Where else would it be?" Yu thumbed in the direction before skipping up beside Rakka. "Careful, the crates aren't the only things in here you should be wary of." She reached down and picked something off the floor, lifting it up to show Rakka. It was a spider, still wriggling in her hand. Rakka let out a short cry and fell back onto the floor. "What's wrong? It's only a little spider." And with that, she casually tossed the arachnid aside before receiving another clipping across the back of the head via Kana.
"You know better than to scare people like that." Kana growled.
"Yu got told off." Sa tuned, mischievously. Kana ignored her and helped Rakka to her feet.
"Do we really need this pair in here? If there is a cocoon in here, they'll only get in the way." Kana humphed and pointed to the room. "I don't think I've seen a room so filled with junk. How come nobody has ever been in here, before?"
Rakka shrugged. "I sometimes wonder if the rooms in the Old Home keep moving about, like the place is alive and trying to keep us on its toes."
"Brrrrr...." Kana shivered. "Now there is a great thought for the morning. Anyways, we better find this thing soon, or else the boss is going to give me grief for turning up late, again." She turned to the twins. "You two wait here. If anyone else shows up, tell them what's going on. You can do that much, can't you?"
"Roger." The twins said in unison, mischievous smiles on their faces. Kana gave them a dubious glance and took Rakka by the arm.
"I'll lead the way through. Be careful where you put your feet."
"Okay." Rakka nodded, and slowly they made their way past the labyrinth of crates, the path made clear by the thin light of Kana's pen-torch. Kana moved the light up the side of the crates.
"The ceiling in here is quite high. A lot higher than most of the rooms."
"Might have been a storeroom to begin with." Rakka suggested, feeling nervous in the gloom. She almost jumped when she heard the crumbling sound.... A sound that was quite familiar to her, before the hatching of the twins. Both she and Kana turned, and could see the familiar grey-white hide of a cocoon, partially hidden behind a couple of crate stacks at the far reaches of the room.
"I'm surprised it didn't bowl all of these crates down as it grew." Kana mumbled, before excitedly pushing her way between the stacks, Rakka nervously following her, not quite sure where she was putting her feet now that the light from Kana's torch was a good six feet ahead of her. She put her foot down on something hard and angular and almost tripped, grabbing hold of one of the crates for support. She looked down and saw that it was a weight of some kind, before realising that the front of the crate had come off in her hand.
She was about to put the panel back in place when something inside the crate caught her attention. It looked to be a painting, framed much like the ones Reki used to do, but the brush stroke and lines were definitely not Reki's. She reached in and gently eased the painting out. It wasn't terribly big, but seemed to be the only thing in the crate.
She studied the painting as best she could in the semi-darkness. The painting was that of an Haibane, probably one who had been a part of Old Home some time in the distant past. In that gloom, she felt a sense of lost time, staring at the figure.... So many must have passed through Old Home before her arrival, over who knew how many years. This painting might have been sitting in this crate for hundreds. Considering the state of the room, she wouldn't have put the possibility aside.
Then something about the figure in the painting caught her eye.... Or, at the very least, the wings of the figure.... The wings were red. Blood red. Although it was difficult to see, she was certain that it simply wasn't age-wear on the painting, nor some trick of the light. The wings of the Haibane were deliberately painted red.
"Rakka? What are you up to?" Kana called from the far end of the room, leaning against the cocoon. "I think we'll be lucky, this time. The shell of the cocoon hasn't quite hardened, yet."
Rakka forced herself to look away from the painting and tucked it underneath her arm, continuing on along the thin path between the crates. Eventually, she came to what appeared to be a deliberately cleared area at the back of the room, where the cocoon was hidden. She approached the cocoon slowly as Kana investigated how much damage had occured to the rear wall.
"That's the problem with our cocoons. They do a hell of a lot of damage wherever they plonk themselves." She muttered as she pointed at the floor. The tiles there were a complete mess: cracked and strewn all over the place. Rakka sighed and shrugged.
"At least we've had offers of help from the town renovators. Apparently news has reached people about the state of this place."
"They shouldn't, really." Kana tutted as she stared at the rear wall. "We're supposed to be looking after ourselves."
"Quite frankly, this place is so dilapidated, now, that I wouldn't be surprised if cocoons started popping up in the basements of the houses of townsfolk, soon. Or however these things are distributed." Rakka turned back to the crates. "We're certainly going to need a bit of help to clear all of this out of the way. Can't have the new feather being born in a dump like this."
"Hmmm.... But who?" Kana turned back to Rakka, and saw the painting she was holding. "What's that?"
"Oh, just something I found in one of the crates back there." She held it up for Kana to see. In the torchlight, the features of the Haibane were clearer. She was tall and pale-skinned, with longish light-brown hair and apparently deep scarlet eyes. Almost the same colour as her wings. Kana stepped up to her and took a good look at the painting.
"Oh man, you don't half find creepy things in dark places, do you?" She shook her head. "This has to be artistic licence.... There are no Haibane with red wings."
"I dunno. I just found it in the crate. It's strange, though." Rakka's voice went soft. "I feel as if I've seen her before, somewhere."
"Hardly." Kana shrugged. "But yeah, I know what you mean. She does seem.... familiar...." She paused for a few moments, then put a hand to her head. "Oh hell, I'll be late if I stay here for much longer...." She looked at Rakka, hopefully. "Are you going to be alright, here on your own?"
"I won't be on my own.... I'll still have the twins." She paused for a moment. "That's not really reassuring, though, is it?"
"Hardly. I think I might have to ask someone to help you out, clearing this place out." She gestured to the crates. "It's not like when we still had Reki and Nemu around. Even then, I don't think we'd have been able to get this lot shifted. Even worse, where do we shift it all?"
"The rooms next door are empty." Rakka looked hopeful. "I think." She held up a pleading hand to Kana. "Can you please tell Kumiko I'm sorry, I'm not gonna make it, today."
"Better still." Kana smiled wickedly. "You can tell her yourself."
"Eh?"
----o
The girl opened her eyes again, hearing the voices disappear into the distance, wherever that distance might have been.... Her curiosity had started to get the better of her, and she pushed herself forward in the fluid, pressing herself against the barrier that shielded her from the outside world. It felt strangely fleshy, like the skin of a plant. She pushed her fingers into the flesh, and found that it gave. She scopped some of the substance away and ran it between her fingers.
It was like kneading dough. The consistency was about the same. She went to sniff it before remembering that she probably wouldn't be able to use her sense of smell whilst floating in the life-supporting fluid. All the same, her nose was telling her stories about almonds, or casshews....
She pressed the material back into the space she had made and found it was easy to mould back into shape, which made her think that, whatever she was in, it was probably built around her, or something of that nature. She felt a little scared again, and pushed herself back into the middle of the chamber, hugging herself tightly. Better to stay safe in here. She really didn't want to see anyone right now. She didn't know why, but the thought of coming face to face with someone else terrified her. What if it was.... What if it was....
She just couldn't remember. Her headache worsened and she closed her eyes and tried to think of nothing. And she saw feathers, floating behind her eyelids. Bright red feathers....
END OF PART 1
----o
DARK DAY FOR ANIME - THE RIGHT DISHONOURABLE MARK A PAGE
darkdayforanime@hotmail.com
http://www.fanfiction.net/profile.php?userid=212110
FEATHER 1.0: 30th-31st August 2004
