[Team Canon] (Idyllic Countryside) Cocoon 3/3

[mikkeneko]

Prompt: Idyllic Countryside
Title: Cocoon (Part 3 of 3)
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Fluff, angst, self-harm
Spoilers: Indirect spoilers for Kurogane and Fai's backstories.
Summary: Four travelers arrive in a strange town surrounded by walls, where no one is able to enter or leave. With no memory of who they are or where they're going, will they be able to find a way out - or even last long enough to try?

Author's Note: All the thanks go to eijentu, who assured me multiple times that this story was not boring and I should not throw it out the window. This story is set between the Koryo and Jade/Spirit arcs of the manga -- in other words, it's very, very early in the journey.

Quick cheat sheet:
Kurogane = Pyre
Fai = Fall
Syaoran = Rain
Sakura = Aught
Willow, Frost, Viv, Bubbles = OCs

Fall had roused himself when Aught came back -- distraught and frantic and full of dire stories about Rain's mad plan. She'd come looking for Pyre mostly, because of all of them Pyre was the strongest and if need be he could subdue Rain -- or carry him.

Carrying him turned out to be what was needed. Fall did not go with the others to find Rain -- the thought of approaching the Walls filled him with a paralyzing terror -- but he was awake and dressed (and with Aught's covers pulled over his wings) by the time they got back. Pyre was stony-faced and grim, Aught in tears. Rain -- who had never seemed so small as he did then, slung over Pyre's big shoulders for transport -- was unconscious, and could not be roused.

Willow, taking charge as usual, set up a rotation for each of them to sit up with the stricken boy. By midnight he had developed a soaring fever, tossing and moaning restlessly in his sheets and his skin burning hot to the touch. They were all kept busy making ice compresses to cool his forehead and neck.

Morning brought no improvement. At last Willow, white in the face and with heavy bags under her eyes from lack of sleep, directed them to bundle up Rain for transportation to the hospital in town. She herself departed for the enclave of the Touga, to beg their aid. They all moved in a cloud of hushed terror; Rain had broken the most sacred of rules, committed a vile sacrilege, not only by touching the forbidden Wall but by driving three stakes into it before he had been overcome. For that crime, what would the punishment be? Could it be any worse than what the Wall had already visited on him?

Fall accompanied them to the hospital, although he felt stupid and useless the entire trip. He couldn't bear to stay behind in the hushed, empty halls of the old church, not knowing if… not knowing.

"But why did he do it?" he asked Aught, as they trudged through the chilly pre-dawn streets in Pyre's wake. "I knew he wasn't completely happy here, but…" But he hadn't thought that Rain would be as desperate for escape as himself -- although much braver.

"I tried to stop him," Aught said tearily, and the words poured out of her in a flood of guilt that Fall could not have gotten a word in edgewise to say that he never doubted it. "I did! But he wouldn't listen. He's so stubborn. Oh, why does he always have to be so stubborn? He was just so worried, the things he found in that book convinced him that we had to get out now,  before -- before --"

A chill stole over Fall, and he turned towards her. "What book?" he asked. "Get out before what?"

Aught refused to meet his eyes. "Before -- before anything bad happened," she said nervously. "Please, Fall -- he was just so worried about you -- all of us were…"

The cold chill settled in Fall's bones, freezing like water thickening into ice. His pace slowed, and it was all he could do to put one foot in front of the other; only the sight of Pyre's broad back, with Rain's tousled head of hair just peeking out from beside his arm, drew him to keep moving forward at all.

My fault,   he thought numbly. It was my fault after all. I should have known…

It was so quiet in the hospital -- quieter than Fall would have expected. The town was at a funny size, too large for a single doctor's office but too small and too peaceful to fill up a whole hospital. Some cautious governor in past years had built one anyway -- just in case of emergencies -- but there were no more than a dozen other patients there when the rushed and bedraggled party of Haibane arrived. The nurses took over Rain immediately, transferring him from the motorbike to a crisp-linened hospital bed; giving medicines, checking vitals.

Rain finally awoke as he was moved into the bed, his torn and muddied clothes exchanged for an open-back hospital gown. He moaned and thrashed, strange wordless vocals that were more disturbing than any of his earlier fevered mumbling. Nurses crowded around his bed, repeating questions to him that he could not seem to answer.  His hands and feet twitched, seemingly at random, with no coordination or purpose.

Fall leaned heavily back against the doorframe, then slid slowly down to the floor. He hated his own cowardice, but he could not force himself to go any closer to the hospital bed where Rain made those terrifying animal-like noises. There was nothing he could do for his friend, anyway, that the nurses could not do better; he was useless, useless, a curse…

Because of his angle of view, through the wardroom door and into the hallway, he saw the flash of earth-colored robes and jangling bone tokens. The Touga had arrived, although he saw no sign of Willow; he recognized the Communicator, speaking in grave tones with the head doctor.

Seized by a sudden anxious trepidation, Fall crept closer. There were two of the Touga, their elaborate robes and morbid decorations seeing bizarre and out of place in this solid, comfortable town building. They brought with them the breath of the forest, cool and rank and indifferent to the suffering of mortals. Had they come to exact some punishment on Rain?

" -- arrangements within the Confederation for his long-term care," the Communicator was saying in a cool voice. "After a time it may be possible to move him back to the nest, where the other children can continue to care for him; in the short-term, however, it would be best if he could be under constant supervision."

The doctor murmured something, and the Communicator slowly shook his head, his amulets swinging. "The medication we will provide can bring down the external symptoms, at least," he said, and Fall noticed the damp-stained leather herbology bag carried by the second Touga -- the source of the forest smell, no doubt. That smell, combined with the sight of those robes and masks, took Fall back to the day in the woods, where he had torn through the leaves and branches in his panicked flight -- the broken-off twigs and plants beneath his feet had given off just such a pungent, earthy smell --

The second Touga turned his face towards Fall, without otherwise moving. That wooden, indifferent mask, with the dark hole in the center -- it was like an accusing eye, a gaze that was unblinking and unwavering in its judgment. It saw everything about him -- his stained and frayed clothing, worn by weeks of neglect; the lies and masks he habitually wore; the black stain spreading over his wings.  "But unfortunately," the Communicator went on talking, although behind their hoods and masks, it was impossible to say from which cloaked figure the merciless voice came; "the damage to his mind is irreversible."

Your fault,   the empty black gaze seemed to whisper to him. Another moan from Rain's bed, behind him, struck up the hair on the back of his neck. Irreversible. He did it for you. You know he did. Your fault, your fault, your faultyourfaultyourfault --

Fall jumped to his feet. The hospital walls tilted crazily around him, the walls and ceiling wavering at crazy angles and threatening to collapse and crush him. He had to get out of here -- he was suffocating --

The hospital staff dodged hastily aside, flustered and affronted by his blind, barreling progress down the corridors and out the door into the sunlight. In the sickroom behind him, with all eyes on the stricken young Haibane in the hospital bed, no one else saw him go.

The street was a little better than the hot, close air of the hospital, but not much. As the day brightened, more and more people were out and about, and he could feel their astonished, contemptuous stares as he stumbled along on the cobblestones. Here in the heart of town, the tall buildings rose up like walls around him -- and behind them, he could feel the ominous presence of the true walls, a crowding barrier that penned him in like a trapped animal. Fall panted as he staggered forward, struggling against the feeling of inescapable confinement. Trapped, trapped, he needed some space, that was all --

Fall's blurred eyes fell on the clock tower, rising clean and high and lonely into the sky above the crowded town. Up there, he would be above everything, above the walls that wanted to topple and crush him. Up there, he might be able to breathe --

The thought of a possible escape route shook him from his paralysis, seized his muscles and drove him forward. He set off towards the clock tower at a dead run, as though all the legions of Hell were on his heels.

  
--------------

It was quieter in the hospital room, now, with only the three Haibane left in the room. The doctor had come to give Rain some mysterious, bitter-smelling medicine, then shake his head slightly and go off again. The nurses had done their best to make Rain comfortable, but in the end there was only so much they could do, and they too had drifted off to their usual duties. One came by every half-hour or so to check on Rain's progress, but so far there had been no change.

Rain was awake, but so far he had been able to say nothing about what had happened to him. Indeed, he seemed not to be able to say anything at all. His voice came in wordless cries and moans, unshaped by any words or even any control of his own volume. His movements were spastic and jerky, his hands and arms flopping around without coordination. The nurse had helped to feed him; he didn't seem to be able to manage the dishes on his own, or even to sit up properly.

Aught hated herself for thinking it, but it had been a relief when Rain had fallen back into sleep.

Of the Haibane from the old church, only herself, Bubbles, and Viv remained. Willow had not appeared at the church yet -- most likely she was still dealing with the Touga, or trying to maintain order back at the church after this violent disruption of their lives. The boys had accompanied them to the hospital, but now vanished; whether to go to their neglected jobs or just because they couldn't stand to stay here any longer Aught didn't know. She couldn't really blame them.

Vivid had hung back by the hospital door for most of the morning. Now she uncrossed her arms and pushed forward, approaching the bed as tentatively as  though it contained a nest of snakes. She reached out, hesitantly, to stroke Rain's cheek… and then at the last moment just brushed against the pillow beside his head instead.

"You know, I sometimes -- thought about it," she blurted out suddenly, and looked up to meet Bubbles' and Aught's questioning stare. "Going over the wall, I mean. It wasn't like I really wanted to go anywhere, or go back to my old life. It's just that -- it's just that -- it always made me so mad. There are all these rules that we have to follow, you know? And I thought, it just isn't fair. Why should we have to do this and do that, just because some old guys in smelly robes say so? Why shouldn't we have money and nice clothes and live in new houses?

"So I thought -- I'd show them. I'd go to their precious Wall and I'd, I'd… I never really thought it through. He  had a plan, he even brought ropes, and that's just so… I would never have thought of that. He took my idea and he went through with it, and I never quite dared, and now…" She trailed off, shaking her head, her coppery curls falling raggedly into her face.

"I'm glad you didn't," Bubbles said quietly. "We wouldn't want you to have been hurt, either."

"Yeah, but -- maybe if I had, he would have known better?" Viv looked at Aught, a guilty and hunted expression on her face. "I don't know. Maybe not. It's just -- really weird, that's all. I always thought the rules were just, were just, I don't know, made up to piss us off. To keep us humble and make us behave. I never -- thought that there was a real reason  for them. I never thought that anything bad could really  happen, just by breaking their stupid rules."

Nobody knew quite what to say. Aught looked down at her hands, clasped tightly around her bare knees. She'd tried to hold Rain's hand, earlier, but he'd jerked it around so much she had to let go.

"I hope he gets better soon," Viv said at last, breaking the silence. She stood up, her expression subdued and troubled, and left the room.

"What's happened to him?" Aught whispered. She didn't really expect anyone to answer her, and for a very long time it seemed like no one would.

"Rain asked me," Bubbles said, her quiet voice barely stirring the silence. "Why it was that we all spoke the same language. It… it was almost the first thing he ever said to me, you know?" She gave Aught a trembling smile.

"That's Rain for you," Aught said numbly. "Always asking questions… He was always interested in finding out how things worked…"

"At the time, I… didn't really know what to tell him," Bubbles said. "At the time, I… didn't really know what to tell him. I hadn't ever thought about it. You don't think about the things you have, you know? Not until they're gone.

"They say…  they say that the Wall holds our memories, until the new year when it releases them to the sky.  They say that when the Haibane are born into this world, they forget everything. But that's not really true, is it?"

"What do you mean?" Aught asked, confused.

"It's true that we forget our names, and where we came from, and everything like that. But there are all sorts of other things we still remember. Like…" Bubbles waved a hand vaguely. "How to talk. How to read, and write. How to ride a bicycle, or just how to walk. How to feed yourself, and what is and isn't okay to eat. How to tie your shoes, or tie knots. How to use keys and light switches and… and a hundred other little things that our hands remember, even if our mind forgets. Even if we don't remember where we learned them.

"And… I think that Rain has lost all of those, now," Bubbles said, in a voice close to a sob. Tears welled up in her brown eyes, rolling in fat droplets down her cheek. She rubbed her cheek with the back of her hand, and the wet streaks coursed down over her wrist. "I think he's forgotten everything.  Everything he used to know. The Wall took all that away from him."

Aught felt sick. It was a strange, weightless feeling inside her, like her stomach didn't want to stay where it was supposed to be; it left her feeling distant and nauseous and faint. She knew Bubbles was right, that this was the horror that none of them wanted to admit had befallen one of their own.

He won't remember me,   she thought, and hated herself for that selfishness. But that was the least of it. Even if he'd forgotten about her,  at least he would still have been there,  clever and serious and always, always supportive. She looked at Rain, tossing restlessly on the bed, and the Rain she knew was just gone,  that clever mind and caring soul had just been sucked right out of him, leaving… blankness. Nothingness, an empty slate like a newborn baby.

Would he grow up again? she wondered. Like an infant, learning everything again for the very first time? Or would he be unable to make any new memories, ever? An infant's mind trapped in a teenager's body… it was too horrible. Surely they couldn't keep him in this hospital forever, but would he really be any better back at the old church?

Either way, Aught realized, as she blinked the blurriness out of her eyes, he wasn't going to come home today. And they'd been in such a tearing hurry to get him down here, they hadn't stopped back by the church for any of the essentials. Aught took a deep, calming breath, and forced her spine to straighten. "I should," she said, and her voice wobbled a little until she tamped it out steady. "I should go back to the church, and bring him a change of clothes."

"Okay." Bubbles said wanly, the younger girl looking pale and forlorn in all this bleached-linen sterility. But then, Aught didn't suppose she looked much better, her face puffy from crying, her clothes mussed and stained from the peltering run from the Wall to the old church and back. She'd regained her breath from that run hours ago, but a little pain still lingered in her lungs and her heart.

"And maybe --" Bubbles said, and Aught paused at the foot of the bed. Bubbles gave her a peaked, hopeful smile. "Maybe some things from his room. You know… familiar things, they might help him remember."

Aught paused. Despite her words earlier, it seemed that Bubbles couldn't let go of a last bit of hope. "Okay," she said quietly.

It was a long walk back from the hospital to the old church.

--------------

The church was completely deserted. Aught wandered from one room to the next, through the kitchen and the laundry room and the big meeting-room with the three angled windows where she had been born. Where she and Rain had been born.

The air was still and cool, the peeling wallpaper looked lonely and decrepit. Although surely it couldn't have been empty for long -- a few hours at the most -- the building had a sad, lonely quality to it. The echoing empty vault of the chapel, the confused tangle of hallways and rooms of the adjacent wings, all seemed so pointless  without people there. Without voices to fill the air, and footsteps to echo across the cracked tile floors, the fading sorrow of the abandoned church settled over it like a patina of dust.

In the cloakroom by the back entrance -- nestled into the wing between the west wing and the chapel -- she finally found a sign of habitation. It was a note from Viv, written in her familiar spiky, hurried handwriting. It said that she was taking Frost and the other young children to the Old Factory to stay the night, since they weren't sure when Willow would get back from town.

How like Viv, Aught thought to herself, to avoid the responsibility of feeding and looking after the children for the night by bundling them all up to trek halfway across the valley. It would never occur to her that it would be easier to just settle down and do the task put to her instead of ducking out.

With the note in her hand, Aught climbed down the narrow splintering staircase and let herself out the sticking back door. The sun was still warm and bright on the southwest side of the church, lighting up the grassy hillside in a blaze of verdant color, until each blade of grass glowed with its own emerald light.

A sudden crushing wave of sorrow gripped her, and Aught choked down on a sob that echoed down the hillside and out over the river. Her legs felt suddenly weak, and she sat down on the worn white paint of the bottom step, wrapping her arms around her knees. She thought she might indulge herself in a good cry, but the spasm of misery faded as soon as it had come.

Still she sat there, soaking up the last of the sunlight, staring out across the river over the valley. The cold rain had cleared up hours ago, leaving the sky washed a bright blue, and the tops of the trees of the distant woods and the stones of the road reflected a bright silver. The same cold rain had at last silenced the cicadas that had provided a faithful evening chorus in the last few weeks.

It was very quiet.

It had never been this quiet before. Always before the old church had been full of noise; the excited laughter and yelling of the younger Haibane, the more relaxed and measured conversations of the older ones. The clatter of pans and cookery, the sizzle of a fire, the sound of chopping wood echoing from the woodlot around the east side. They had all filled Aught's ears and her days, distracting her from the empty silence inside herself.

She found she was crying after all; not violently or hysterically, but a gentle, slow drip of water down her cheeks. She stared out over the peaceful, sunlit countryside, and wondered how such a beautiful place could harbor so much secret unhappiness.

The wind that shushed through the grass was gentle now, although the dip of the land in which the staircase lay strengthened it to a low note in her ears. It was a warm breeze, but enough to dry her tears cold on her cheeks, make her eyes sting. What's wrong?  the wind sighed. Why do you cry?

"I feel so helpless," Aught said aloud. "I'm not strong, like Pyre, or clever, like Fall, or brave, like Rain. I'm just me."     

Most people are,   the wind observed.  That doesn't usually stop them.

Aught blinked, then squeezed her eyes shut and rubbed them with the heels of her hands. She stood up and opened her eyes wide, staring out over the valley. She could almost -- not quite, but almost -- make out a transparent whirling in the air, a bright and curious presence dancing around her. If anyone else had been around, she would never have dared, but -- she was alone. "Are you speaking to me?" she said cautiously.

Are you listening?   came the curious response. You never did before.

The voices had a familiar tone to them, and Aught thought they might have sung to her before; when she was flying on her roller skates through the streets of the town, too caught up in the joy of motion and the freedom of flight to pay notice. Was she just hallucinating this? Had she gone crazy?

"Wind," she said hesitantly, not sure how one addressed a talking breeze. "What's outside the walls?"

Things. People. Other places, the wind answered. Or so we hear. We don't get out much. Walls are too high.

"You, too?" Aught almost laughed, a shaky gasp, but the reminder of the Wall brought a cold pang to chill her elation. The walls were formidable, frightening, and they concealed a deep and dangerous power. There was no getting out past the Wall.  "What… what's in the woods?"

Things forgotten, the wind whispered, swirling around her. Breezes flattened her dress to her legs, teased strands of hair away from her head. Things not permitted. Things that have been thrown away. Pieces.

"Pieces of what?" Aught asked.

Pieces of you.

"Of me?" Aught asked, startled and frightened. "What do you mean, of me? Or of us?"

There was no answer. The breeze died away, leaving her standing alone in the sunlit garden.

Aught stared across the slowly crawling river, and her heart began to beat faster as her hands and face pricked with excitement. "No, I can't," she whispered, half-expecting someone to answer her, half-not. "It's forbidden. It's not safe. I can't…"

It was madness even to consider it. Fall had told her, quite explicitly, to stay away from the woods, that there was something dangerous there. The rules were there for a very good reason. Just look what had happened to Rain, when he broke them.

Aught drew in a sharp breath, and the cool air seared in her throat and her lungs. But she was all alone now, she thought. There was no one else to rely on.

And there was one thing that Rain had been right about, however else he'd been terribly wrong. You weren't going to get anywhere by waiting around for the world to fix itself for you.

She went back into the house long enough to put Viv's note on the kitchen table, to get a coat and a pair of better hiking shoes. Then she set off across the hillsides, boots squelching in the rain-wet grass, towards the dark shadow of the woods.

--------------

The wind had felt gentle on street level, nearly imperceptible between the houses, but up here it fair gusted, filling the top of the clock tower with a rushing sound. Fall gasped for breath and failed to catch it; the pressure of the wind against his throat and chest was not helping his panicked feelings of suffocation. His shaking fingers scrabbled at the collar of his shirt, the stitches ripping from the worn and faded fabric as he yanked at it.

He regretted it a moment later when the cold air hit his skin; it was cold, cold up here with the breath of oncoming winter, and within minutes he was shivering as the sweat dried to his skin. Shivering and clutching his arms, Fall thought about going back down -- down, where it would be warmer -- but the thought of the stifling air in the tower below him drove him outwards instead. There was a glimpse of blue sky through the gears and rods of the mechanism, and it pulled him forward like a fish on a line.

A gust of wind hit him like a blow as he stepped out onto the balcony, and his teeth chattered. This was the tallest building in town, over a hundred feet off the ground; from here he could see easily over the roofs of the town buildings out to the rolling green of the fields. Beyond it he caught a silver-blue glimpse of the river and then, rising up to encase it all, the grim dark stone of the Wall.

He'd hoped that the free air and height would make him feel less stifled; instead, this birds-eye view of the town and valley on brought home to him how very small their world was, how confined. Everything was circumscribed by the wall, only a few small square miles of land in between one side of the valley and the other; even here it felt like the walls were moving inwards, grinding up the green hills and buildings between them like the squeezing sides of a vice.

All at once the feeling of tight confinement surged up in him again, and his legs seized up with the terrible urge to flee -- but there was nowhere to run, nowhere higher to go, nowhere in this world he could run to escape that judgmental, brooding gaze. His clothes and skin felt too tight and confining; he pulled at the seams of his shoulder and arms to try to loosen the restrictions. His trembling hand, groping at the shoulder, brushed against the top of the wing covering; in a sudden spasm of fear and fury he ripped it off and flung it away from him. A moment later its mate joined it, and the air around him was filled with a flurry of drifting black feathers.

Fall snatched awkwardly at his wings, and a handful of feathers came loose in his fist; they should never have come free so easily, but they were already dying, sick and withered and weak in their pinions. He stared at the ragged, coal-black feathers in his hand, and bile rose in his throat until he had to throw them away from himself. He shivered violently, fingers scratching at his arms and chest even though his shirt flapped torn and loose around him; he was disgusting,  he wanted to be free of it, this awful skin, this sinful body. He stumbled towards the rail, gagging, and the chilled iron rod caught him in the stomach and brought him up short.

The wind gusted around him, and a swirl of feathers spun into the open air. Fall watched them go, mesmerized by their movements. Dancing on the wind, it looked like those feathers were really free;  free of fear, free of pain. That wind, Fall thought, could fly free over the walls and escape, and leave all doubt and pain behind.

He didn't plan it. He didn't even really stop to think about what he was doing; all he knew was that the dark stone walls of the clock tower were threatening to crush him, the walls and ceiling and floor  all rising up to squeeze him to death. The open air called him, and he stilled his trembling hands and gripped the iron bar hard. He climbed up onto the railing and pushed himself straight, and for one endless moment he teetered there, balancing in the free air.

Then he closed his eyes, spread his arms and wings wide, and let himself fall.

A shout sounded from somewhere behind him, and an iron-strong grip latched onto his elbow and jerked him back. Fall's eyes popped open, and he saw the sky and ground and town careening crazily around him. His feet scuffed and slipped on the railing, and his knee impacted very painfully  against it as he lost his balance and footing. Then the vice-hard grip was dragging him back over the railing and away from the edge, and all the breath whooshed  out of his lungs as he landed on his back, staring up at the dim, rusted inner workings of the clock tower.

A pair of red eyes glared down at him. "You idiot!"  Pyre roared, right in his face. "What the hell did you think you were doing?"

"I --" It was hard to talk with the breath knocked out of him, but even if it hadn't been Fall had no idea what he would have said. His teeth began to chatter as the shaking spread in waves throughout his body. "I d-don't --"

Pyre reached down and hauled him to his feet, an angry scowl on his face that deepened as his gaze swept over Fall's front, taking in the ripped seems, the scratch marks on his chest and neck. "Damn it!" he cursed, his voice full of the growl of a thunderstorm. "Why did you let it get to this? Look at you!"

That was the last thing Fall wanted to do. "Let go of me, Pyre," he said unsteadily.

"What? So you run away? So you can try to throw yourself off the tower again?" Pyre demanded.

"I wasn't going to -- " Fall began, but Pyre interrupted him.

"I'm sick and tired of you lying and covering up your pain!" he said, and his left hand came up to grip Fall's right shoulder, pulling him to look straight into Pyre's eyes. "Don't you understand that I would do anything to help you? But I can't  unless you tell me what's wrong!"

"I don't know!"  It burst out of Fall in a wail of despair. As though that admission had broken a dam inside him, the words came tumbling out in a flood. "I can't remember!"

A pause, and then, "Something from your life before here?" Pyre asked quietly.

"I don't know," Fall repeated, and he raised his trembling hands to clutch at his hair. That, at least, didn't come out in bunches like his wing feathers, but the stinging pain as he yanked at the strands helped to ground him, a little. "Something terrible -- someone terrible, maybe several someones -- they're coming for me. I know they are. And when they catch up to me, I… I don't know. Something… something bad." Words failed him. He couldn't articulate the dread, the nameless doom that pressed down on him from all sides; he only knew the mortal terror that it left behind in him. Something bad. That was all he knew.

"All the details, all the specifics -- I've forgotten them all. But that doesn't help, don't you see? Just because I've forgotten them,  doesn't mean they've forgotten me!  They're going to come for me, and nothing will be able to stop them. That I've forgotten -- that I don't remember who or what or why -- it just means I don't have any way to fight back! I'm trapped here, I can't run and I can't fight, and they're coming for me…" Tears were pouring down his face, the bitter taste of salt in his mouth. He pulled at his hair harder, and pain flashed through his scalp as the blond hair began to part from it.

"Stop that!" Pyre said sternly, and pulled his hands loose from his hair. He grabbed Fall's face, forcing him to look Pyre straight in the eyes. "You are not alone, do you hear me? We're all with you. Whatever's going to happen, you won't have to face it alone. We'll be here to help. We'll fight for you…"

"No!" Fall's panic redoubled, and he struggled -- futilely -- against Pyre's hold. The big man had always been strong, and a summer of hauling around beams and blocks had only sharpened that strength. "No, you mustn't! Don't you understand? I deserve  this! Whatever I did, even if I don't remember it, it was awful enough that I have this coming. No one else must interfere, because I'm not worth --"

"Shut up!" Pyre snarled, pinning Fall tight against him, blocking his escape. Fall froze, his body taut and quivering with the need to run, run, run… to escape this place, because this awful, beautiful place was too much like Heaven. And he knew that he  belonged in Hell.

And then Pyre kissed him.

It was a fierce, hot and hungry kiss, his red eyes closing on an expression of intense concentration, brows knotted as his lips claimed Fall's. Fall gasped in surprise, taking in a breath for what felt like the first time in hours, and Pyre took advantage of the opening. He stood frozen in shock for a long moment; Pyre shifted him around in his arms, pulling him flush against his body, and deepened the kiss.

Heat bloomed in Fall's mouth, starting with his lips and tongue and traveling down his throat, through his chest and belly and hips. It melted the icy fear inside of him, leaving him feeling loose and warm for the first time in -- in longer than he could remember. He sighed and relaxed into Pyre's embrace, his own eyes fluttering closed. Without conscious volition his arms wound around Pyre, steadying and balancing him, and he found himself pushing up on his toes to return the kiss.

His frenetic desperation dwindled away, not gone -- not completely gone -- but, just for this moment, not seeming so all-encompassing that death seemed the only escape. For the first time since he'd woken up in this strange little world, he felt he was exactly where he was supposed to be.

The wind had died down; the huge metal arms of the turbines were still as Aught passed under them. The rusty joints creaked only slightly, and it had a lonely sound, up here on the hill away from everything. Aught knew that the great windmills turned the generators and provided power to most of the town, as well as to the Old Churchhouse itself, and were therefore terribly important; but on the hillsides swept clean by the wind of all but the hardiest short grasses and low, small-leafed shrubs, she thought they seemed very lonely.  

Autumn was advancing fast on the countryside; much of the grass had turned golden-tan, and the summer flowers had withered. The trees growing alongside the road were beginning to turn at their very tops, yellow and red and brown, although the branches lower down were still a full leafy green. The woods ahead, though, loomed a dark green seemingly untouched by the tides of the seasons.

She passed from the heat of the golden autumn sunlight into the cool green space under the trees -- not without some trepidation, for the warnings of Fall and the others still rang loud in her head. But although the air under the trees was cool and dim, it was not dark, and once her eyes had adjusted to the crepuscular air Aught had little trouble picking her way between the trees.

She went slowly and carefully, because the footing was slippery and uncertain.  Although the trees remained solidly green, the ground was covered with windfalls that rolled away dangerously underfoot; spiky brown balls from the sweetgum trees, hard pointed acorns that broke underfoot with a crunch. Aught was glad she'd brought the boots, and glad for the stiff wool of the coat when grabbing a branch to steady herself brought a brief cold shower of rain on her head and shoulders and wings.

A few minutes into the wood, though, Aught slowed to a stop, unsure. Where was she going? Fall's description of his trip into the Woods had been terse, concentrating more on warning them away from the well than providing any helpful directions for finding it. He'd said only that it was near the west end of the woods, closer to the Wall; but that still left a huge volume of the woods to search, even if she could tell one direction from another in this twilight.

There was no wind in this woods; the thick foliage blocked it out. But Aught heard the rushing of water not far away and set out towards it. This stream must feed into the same river that ran by the old churchhouse, she realized; the Woods were upstream of them. The thought made her feel oddly more secure here, in having that link back to the rest of the world.

She came out into a gap between the trees and found the stream, somewhat smaller than she had expected given the noise. The streambed lay in a deep channel between its banks, with the trees on either side sending down deep brown roots towards it. Bright glints shone of the rushing water, dark amid the slick black and grey stones of the streambed -- reflections, Aught realized as she bent over it in fascination, of her own halo.

Now what? Aught glanced around, looking vainly for some form of direction; but she was alone. "Water," she said aloud; she felt somewhat foolish, but who would be here to see it? "What's in this wood?"

She was not as surprised as she should have been when the babbling stream spoke back to her. Places to play and leap and sing and dance,  it said. High places and low places and fast places and deep places. Light places and dark places that have been long long forgotten.

"I'm looking for one of the… deep places," Aught said. Surely if anyone in a forest would know where to find a well, it would be the water. "An old well -- near the western wall. Can you help me?"

The sound of the rushing stream filled with laughter.  Of course we can help you,  it said. Up the bank and through the gully and around the bend and around again and then you'll be near, it's not too far away. We can still hear the echoes sometimes although it's been dry for a long long time.

She listened to the stream as she continued to hike up along the streambank -- it wasn't always easy to stay close to the brook, which twisted and dipped among the trees and didn't offer much in the way of footing. Once she slipped and splashed right down into the water -- icy cold against her legs, and seeping quickly into her boots and the hem of her skirt. "Oh, sorry!" she gasped out involuntarily, as she climbed hurriedly back up the tree-roots, but the stream didn't seem to mind enough to respond.

Here,   the water said at last, after she'd been hiking along the streambed for what seemed like a long time.Follow this gulley to the top of the ridge, then turn when you reach the boulder and go downhill towards the stand of willow trees and when you pass through those to the other side you'll see the well.

"Thank you," Aught said, unsure of the proper etiquette for receiving advice from a stream -- but it didn't feel right to just walk away without saying anything, either. "You've been very helpful. Thanks."

You're welcome,   the stream replied cheerfully, even if you are one of the children of the air we like you and we like to help people we like.

The grove of the willow trees was just where she'd been told, but Aught's footsteps slowed as she reached them, until she was almost dragging her feet. She'd come out this far, but -- she could still turn around. She could still leave and go back, before it was too late, before she did something unforgiveable and ended up as badly off as Fall or Rain…

Thoughts of her friends steadied her determination to go on. She couldn't  go back, not after having come all this way and accomplishing nothing! Maybe there was something up ahead that could help them, or maybe there was nothing; she might not gain anything from going forward, but she surely wouldn't gain anything from going back.

Taking a deep breath and stiffening her shoulders, Aught marched forward into the clearing ahead. There it was, just where the water told her -- an old well, with moss growing thick up around the sides and the stones of the rim crumbling with age. The air of the clearing felt heavy, tingled where it touched her skin, but -- Aught couldn't feel any evil, any ill intentions. Just the ancient agelessness of the woods around, and a strange aura from the scattered stones of the well, something like regrets…

Aught walked up to the edge of the well and, after a moment's hesitation, put her hands on the rim and peered down. The shaft of the well disappeared into darkness, and the light of her halo extended only a few feet below the level of the rim. "Hello?" Aught called out into the shadows below. Her voice echoed down the depth and came back up at her a few seconds later, unaltered. There was no sound or smell of water; this well was dry, indeed.

Was there something down there?

Aught strained her eyes to the limit; she thought she could make out movement, down there in the deep darkness, just like Fall had said. But it was a slow, faint movement; it didn't seem to be coming up towards her. It had been here for all this time; perhaps it couldn't  leave, even if it wanted to? Perhaps it was stuck, just needing help to get out?

If she wanted to meet whatever was in the well, she would have to go down there herself.

There were rungs set into the stones of the wall, thick metal staples like the ones Rain had tried to drive into the Wall to make his escape. Moving slowly, carefully, testing each step before she made it, Aught moved her legs over the lip of the well and pushed her feet tentatively against the first rung. It seemed steady enough; and so, taking a deep gulp of air, Aught swung herself onto the ladder and began the slow and careful descent.

The last of the sunlight lay in a slanted block a few feet below the top of the well; from there, it grew rapidly darker. Aught made her way down by feel, wishing she had thought to bring a lantern with her in addition to the boots and coat. But then again, she wouldn't have had a hand free to carry the lantern or anything else.

Her groping foot met packed dirt instead of a metal rung and Aught stumbled a bit; she'd reached the bottom of the well. Slowly, carefully, Aught lowered herself to the ground, gripping the last ladder rung for confidence before she could make herself release it and turn around. She'd gotten this far and no vicious creature or evil spirit had attacked her; what more was there to be afraid of?

Her halo gave off a faint light, the only light in this dark well. Even as her eyes adjusted to the darkness, it took her a long moment to make sense of what she was seeing. Aught took a few steps over to the middle of the well and crouched down, tilting her head to study the patch of blurred whiteness that resolved itself, as she neared, into two small white objects.

One was a round, white, fuzzy creature with long ears a little like a rabbit, except the body and head were too round and smooth and a bright red gem set in the middle of the critter's forehead sparkled in the light. The creature's chest rose and fell smoothly with its breath, but it made no other movement or sound; it was asleep.

The other white thing was a feather -- a big one, bigger than any bird she'd ever seen, as broad as her hand and longer than her palm to her fingers. It was a pure white, much brighter than her own grey wings, but gilded with an intricate black design.

Aught hesitated, the hairs on the back of her neck pricking up with an eerie feeling. She hadn't known what she'd expected, but… if she could have imagined anything less dangerous, anything less like Fall's description of a malicious danger lurking at the bottom of the well, she couldn't think what. She reached out a hand and, after a moment of hesitant wavering between fur and feather, picked up the feather.

For a moment there was resistance, as though the object had been glued to the ground, before she managed to lift it free. For a moment longer there was an odd sensation of distance -- like holding a warm pan through a potholder, or snowball through a thick mitten --  as though she were holding the feather but not actually touching it. And then there was a sound like glass breaking, somewhere nearby but also very far away, and the feather seemed to come alive in her hand.

It felt electric to the touch, warm and full of life and power, and so familiar -- so much a part of her --  that she couldn't think how she had ever been without it before. Pieces of you,  the wind had said, and so it was little surprise when after pulsing in her hand for two or three heartbeats, the feather brightened into pure illumination and began to melt away into her skin.

As it slid back into place in her body, the memories started to come back -- not just one memory but dozens of them, falling into her like raindrops in a sudden downpour. She could hear the whisper of others rushing past her, pouring through the rent in the world that her feather had made when she'd touched it, flowing past her and away into the distance, and a detached part of her knew that not all of these memories were hers. But most of her was too lost in the sudden sweep of remembrance -- identity -- understanding --  to notice when the white rabbit-thing in the well beside her began to stir and awaken.

She knew who she was now. She was not Aught, she was not nothing; she was Princess Sakura of Clow, and she was on a journey with her four companions throughout many worlds with the aid of a great magician, the Witch of Space and Time. The three men who had been born with her were her protectors and companions, and her friends.

Visions of the worlds before this one swam through her mind; she remembered vague, sleepy recollections of a noisy place with busy, hectic streets. Buildings that rose up on either side like impenetrable cliffs, strung about with wires and clotheslines and illuminated with brilliant lights of every color. The teacher and his wife -- Sorata-san, Arashi-san -- and her own watchful companions, standing attentively at her bedside for that first awakening. Fai, Kurogane, Syaoran.  Syaoran. Great looming figures that were more than human, shapes of birds, dragons and wolves, disappearing into the distance.

Then another world, one more familiar, with smaller buildings and quieter streets. That world had a name. Koryo,  she remembered that, and a trip to the marketplace where she had played dice and won them all new clothes. A friend there, closer to her own age -- straight, stark black hair and a face full of fiery determination. Chu'nyan. Chu'nyan had showed her the magic of that world, done with charms and fudas and mirrors. Going with Chu'nyan to help her friends, to defeat the evil Ryanban who'd caused so much hurt and sorrow; to break the spell of illusion that had enslaved the villagers and turn the tide of the battle in favor of Syaoran and the others.

Syaoran, standing so battered and so brave, demanding that the Ryanban surrender the feather that was not his -- because this was all about the feathers, Sakura remembered that now, from start to finish it had all been about the feathers. They held her memories, fragments of a life before that first awakening in Hanshin, a life that she'd somehow forgotten -- and then forgotten again, when they'd come to this strange world, and the laws of the walls and the world had demanded that they surrender all their memories in exchange for being allowed to live here in peace.

"Sakura?" A tiny voice piped up from beside her, and Sakura blinked her way out of the half-trance she'd fallen into with the weight of memories restored for her. She turned to her side and there was Mokona, the smallest and warmest and most cheerful of her companions, Mokona who had carried them faithfully from world to world. She and her kind were not allowed here and so she had been exiled, torn from their arms and forced to the bottom of this well and sealed in slumber, that she would not disturb the peace and order of this place. "Sakura, where are we? Is this a new world? Where are Kurogane and Fai and Syaoran?"

"They're not far, Moko-chan," Sakura answered, gathering the tiny creature up in her arms and hugging her to share some of her own warmth. "Everything will be all right now. Let's go find them."

---

He was late.

Syaoran blinked himself a wake with an urgent feeling that someone had been calling his name -- or that he had overslept an alarm. He was late for something, but what? His job at the library -- no -- he was supposed to be on the dig site right now -- no, not that either -- wait, where was he? This wasn't his bedroom --

And what digsite?  For that matter, what job? And…

And his name was Syaoran.  Not Rain. Not anything else. Or --

Syaoran jolted upright, his head swimming as all the thoughts and memories churned about inside it, seeking their proper place. He clutched his head and groaned, feeling a twinging pain through his skull, down his neck and back and arms. He was in a hospital. Again. With no memory of how he'd gotten there. Again.

This was really not a habit he wanted to get into.

He blinked at a watery vision of the sunbeam falling in through the window, golden brown dust motes floating in its path, and tried to sort things out. He was in the hospital in Gurie; he'd been here once before. The last thing he remembered before that was the Wall -- he'd tried to climb it, like a fool, and it had been a complete disaster. He remembered shocking pain, and a confused babble of voices and faces -- and through them all, one face stood out through the mist, upturned and anxious and with tears brimming in her wide green eyes.

Sakura!

"I have to go to her!" Syaoran said out loud, and all at once the world settled into place around him. Of course he was late, incredibly late, he'd been wasting time puttering around in this world for weeks  and he still hadn't found Princess Sakura's feather!

He pulled himself free of the tangled bedsheets and stood, his hands feeling strangely clumsy and his legs strangely shaky. How long had he been out? No matter. He had to find Sakura and deliver the feather to her. He pushed away from the hospital bedframe and slogged determinedly towards the door, the loose hospital gown flapping around him.

Syaoran made it about ten steps down the corridor before he almost collided with a nurse, coming around the corner with a clipboard in her hand. She looked as flabbergasted to see him as he was to see her, and she caught his arm with one strong hand as he listed towards the opposite wall.  "Now, sweetie, what are you doing out of bed!" she said in astonishment.

"I'm fine," Syaoran gasped. "Excuse me -- sorry -- I have to go…"

"Not that we're not all pleased as punch to see you up and about," the nurse said, the her tone combining pleased surprise and exasperated scolding, "but you won't be going anywhere just yet. Well! I never thought I'd see it! The doctors were all sure you'd be out of things for much, much longer, you know…"

She began to steer him expertly back to bed. Syaoran resisted, but his balance was none too steady. "I really am fine," he protested. "I just need to go see my -- my friend. I have to get back --"

The nurse tsked, and deposited him back on the edge of the bed. "And where exactly do you think you'll be going in those clothes?" she challenged him.

Syaoran felt his face flaming red -- in his hurry to rush out of the hospital and find Princess Sakura, he hadn't even stopped to think about the fact that all he was wearing  was a loose green hospital gown, totally open down the back. "Sorry, ma'am," he said meekly. "Do you, um, have a change of clothes…?"

"That little redheaded girl said she was going to get you some and bring them back," the nurse said, and rolled back his sleeve as she grasped his wrist firmly in her fingers and held up her other arm to regard her watch. "She left hours ago. Practically sleepwalking herself, she was. I have to say, sweetie, you gave everyone a scare. I'm sure all your friends up at the Church will be glad to see you up and about -- let's just get you properly checked over, and then you can go on home to them, hmmm?"

"Yes, of course," Syaoran said automatically, but he was already thinking quickly ahead. Sakura had left -- where had she gone? Did she have anything to do with why he suddenly remembered who he was? And -- the most important question -- if he  remembered everything, then what about the others?

---

The only warning he had was a faint, faraway buzzing in his ears -- not nearly enough to distract him from what he was in the middle of -- before he was overwhelmed with a cascade of images. He saw as though through a dark-tinted glass the visions of a faraway country: the blue-hazed mountains, the green valleys, sun and sky glinting in reflections of the water striped by square straight rows of rice. Distant figures moved and stooped among the seedlings, their kimonos tied up above their knees and elbows as they worked, and every one of them was black-haired, dark-skinned like him.

This was his home, the home he had missed and longed for even when he couldn't remember it -- the home he had lost, all in one night of blood and flame, the same flames that haunted his dreams. He had lost everything -- father, mother, homeland, innocence -- and then even his own princess had sent him away, chiding him for the unapologetic violence that he inflicted on those who dared to cross his wrath. It didn't matter, it didn't matter. He would return and show her the truth of who he was -- when he had proven himself Kurogane, the strongest warrior not just in Nihon, but in any world. 

Along with the memory of self, came the memories of others -- his fellow travelers, the kids he'd been roped into protecting. The brat had been so lonely, so heartbroken standing there in the rain, forgotten by the one he cared about the most -- Kurogane had professed not to care, but he wasn't  a monster. And likewise the princess when she'd awoken, confused and ailing and so obviously needing to be cared for. And the mage, with whom he'd fought back-to-back with against the kiishim, who drove Kurogane crazy with his obnoxious nicknames and obfuscating stupidity, and --

And whose body was pressed very, very close against Kurogane's own.

Kurogane opened his eyes and found himself staring into blue ones, that pale face inches away from his own. Horrified.

They both more or less leapt backwards, scrambling to separate from each other and struggle for composure in the drafty confines of the clock tower chamber. Kurogane pulled on hems and collars, re-did the tiny buttons on his blue workman's shirt, and was very glad that his hot blush did not show much on his skin; Fai was not so lucky, his face and throat flushing a bright red as he struggled with the fastening of his own clothing. It was weird, fucking weird to have this strange double vision of the man -- both the friend he had grown so close to in the past weeks and the troublesome mage who had so annoyed him on their journey, standing there with wings  and a halo  like a fucking bodhisattva.

Gods, had he actually just been kissing  the man? -- and more than kissing, halfway into his clothes, if they'd been left alone for another hour who knew what would have happened? And that was not  something that Kurogane was prepared to deal with; now that he remembered who Fai was, he remembered how deeply he mistrusted him, those fake smiles and that tongue that lied so easily and smoothly. He'd lied when he told them -- in Hanshin -- that he'd given away his source of magic to the Witch of Time and Space; she'd pretty much said so to his face when they called on her in Koryo. If he'd lied about something so important, so fundamental, what else was he lying about?

But -- and yet -- he was also Fall, the more-or-less brother  who'd been born into this world at the same time as Kurogane, who had struggled and learned the ways of the Haibane alongside him. Even not knowing his own name, Fai had been kind; even when he had nothing of his own, he'd been generous.  When he wasn't playing the fool, he was such a good man. Why did he try to hide that?

"Well!" Fai exclaimed brightly, turning around and pasting a vacant smile on his face. He seemed to have gotten all his clothes in order and his expression under control, but there was a lingering high color in his cheeks and his blue eyes seemed brighten than usual. "That was a fun little interlude, eh, Kuro-chummy?"

Oh, so they were back to this  again. Kurogane felt the angry scowl snap down over his face as though it had never left, and glared at his companion. "What the hell just happened?" he growled.

"That's a good question, Kuro-myuu!" Fai said, and brought one hand up to tap at his lips. "Obviously, something released our memories -- broke through the barrier between this world and the world outside. It wasn't Syaoran-kun's attempt on the Wall, or it would have happened this morning -- so something else from outside of the world must have brought our memories in with them. At a guess, I'd say that Mokona probably --"

"That's not what I meant," Kurogane interrupted. "We have  our memories back, so who cares how? I meant the other  thing -- the --" Kurogane broke off, flustered and angry to be so.  "You and me. Just now."

"Ah!" Fai said, and he turned a lazy, condescending  smile on Kurogane that made the ninja want to punch it off his face. "Just a misunderstanding. Don't worry, I won't hold it against you --"

"Hold it against me?"  Kurogane said, outraged.

"Well, Kuro-forceful was  the one who grabbed me and started sticking his tongue where it wasn't asked for," Fai said, his eyes flashing. "But that's all right. I'm sure we can move past it and put it behind us. After all, neither of us were in our right minds at the time, right?"

Kurogane said nothing. He didn't know what the expression on his face looked like, but whatever it was, it made a little of the plastic cheerfulness on Fai's face fade away.

"I just forgot myself for a while, that's all," Fai murmured. "To think that you would ever…"

On a sudden impulse, Kurogane reached out -- to do what, he wasn't sure. Put a hand on Fai's shoulder, punch him, kiss him again? It didn't matter; as soon as he moved, Fai stepped quickly back from him, and the distance stood like a stone wall between them.

Fai turned abruptly away and headed towards the stairwell leading down the tower. "I won't let it happen again, I promise," he said. "Let's go. We need to find Syaoran-kun and Sakura-chan and leave this place before anything else happens."

Kurogane kept his eyes on Fai the entire climb down the stairwell; the other man must have felt his piercing gaze, but his back was stiff and straight and he didn't turn around or slow down even once. Running away again. 

Fai could make whatever threats or promises or airy excuses he liked; he couldn't make the weeks they'd spent together -- growing together, learning about each other -- not exist. How fucking fitting was it, Kurogane thought bitterly, that he'd learned more about his companion when Fai hadn't even known his own name, then in all the rest of the time they'd spent together?

But something had been formed between them in these weeks, something that Fai couldn't wish away and he couldn't easily break.  Fai had been honest, at the last, when he'd confessed his misery and terror. And Kurogane had not lied when he'd promised to protect and support him.

He'd remember that promise, even if Fai wouldn't.

---

"Syaoran-kun!"

At the sound of Sakura's glad cry, Syaoran's heart lifted. The next moment his arms were full of a laughing, crying Sakura, still dressed in her faded green clothes and a dark brown wool coat. "You're all right! You're okay!"

"Y-yes, I…" Syaoran found himself blushing fiercely, and had to hem and clear his throat several times in order to speak in something approaching a normal voice. "I woke up in the hospital about an hour ago. Kurogane-san and Fai-san said that they got their memories back at the same time."

Indeed, he'd met them on the street, heading back towards the hospital even as he finally made his escape from it, dressed now in a pair of loose green pyjamas and an old pair of work boots (at least it was a step up from the paper gown.) As soon as they greeted him Syaoran had realized that they had come back to themselves, too -- and Fai claimed to know where they could find Sakura and Mokona.

He'd led them off in a hike across the fields and through the woods to an old, abandoned well; Sakura hadn't been there, but they found her recent tracks over the wet ground. The tracks had led off towards the western edge of the woods, where the trees ended before the great Wall. It was a place that Syaoran had seen mentioned a few times in the old books about the Haibane, a round clearing on a broad rise, and at the very center of the clearing was a flat stone altar flanked by two smooth granite pillars.

All the texts had insisted it was a magical place, solemn and powerful and sacred, and the anxiety Syaoran had felt at the thought of Sakura near such a dangerous place hadn't lifted until he found her there and all right. "Did your memories come back, Princess?"

"Yes! And I remembered who you  are, too!" Sakura beamed at him, and Syaoran's heart thumped with a sudden wild hope.  Then she blinked and looked around at all of them, from Syaoran to Kurogane to Fai. "You're my very good friends, who came to help me when all of my feathers were scattered to other worlds!"

"Oh…" Syaoran said, more than a little crushed. But it was hard to feel too  disappointed when she was still holding onto his hand and smiling like that, so after a moment he did the only thing he could and smiled back. It had been a foolish idea; Sakura would never remember him, never remember their old life together. That was the price that he had paid to the Witch of Time and Space to save her life -- all of their memories together.

But, he realized suddenly and for the first time, that didn't mean that they couldn't build a new  life -- and new memories. The past few months, if nothing else, were proof of that. It was strange, looking at his companions now and trying to resolve the memories of the people he knew, from before they'd come to this world, to the friends he'd come  to know while they stayed here. The two sets of images were gradually melding back together, though, as he watched the familiar habits and movements; the way Fai tossed his head back when he laughed, the subtle shift of Kurogane's muscles as his hand touched his thigh where the sword usually hung; the way Sakura distractedly pushed her hair out of her eyes, strands flying every which way in the breeze.

"Is Mokona all right as well?" Fai was saying, and he came closer and bent over to look closely at the little critter riding on Sakura's shoulder. "It would have taken something powerful to keep you sealed for all this time. Were you harmed?"

"No, just asleep," Mokona replied, and hopped from Sakura's shoulder to Fai's outstretched hands. "Sakura woke me up when she picked up her feather. I'm so mad! Sakura told me all about the fun you guys were having together, and Mokona didn't get to see any of it!"

"It's all right, you didn't miss much," Fai said blandly. Kurogane made a choking sound, but Fai didn't so much as glance in his direction. "Now, Mokona, do you think you feel strong enough to take us to the next world?"

"Mokona thinks so," the white creature replied. "There's a strong magic around this world, but it's mostly for keeping people out, not in! As long as we don't actually touch it, Mokona won't have any problems."

"Oh -- but --" Sakura looked crestfallen. "Surely we can't leave just like that, can we?"

"You recovered your feather, didn't you?" Fai looked over at her, smiling. "So we have what we came for, and it's time for us to go."

"Yes, but, what about all the others back at the church?" Sakura said. "We can't leave without saying goodbye!"

"Why not?" Fai said with a tilted smile. "It's tradition, isn't it? The Day of Flight."

"Yes, that's right," Syaoran said. "At least in the books I read. They all say that when a Haibane gets ready to take his or her Day of Flight, they never tell anyone where they're going. They just get strange and restless, and give away all their precious possessions, and then leave without saying goodbye."

"Mokona wants to meet everyone too!" Mokona cried, bouncing back into Sakura's arms. "Willow, and Vivid, and Bubbles, and all the children! Mokona wants to meet all your friends!"

"Personally, I don't want to leave without having a chance to get some of my own back against whoever decided to mess with us," Kurogane commented. Fire snapped in his red eyes, with the echoes of past injustice. "Whoever thinks they have the right to mess with my head and take away my memories, I have a thing or two I'd like to say to him."

"It's not like that, Kurogane-san," Syaoran found himself saying, to his own surprise. "It's -- it's not a person.  It's just the way this world is, the way it was made. The walls…" He hesitated, a shudder going through him at the memory of those agonizing visions. Yet, there was neither fear nor anger in that memory.

"The walls aren't alive, they don't think  like a person does, but they're very strong. They have a certain task to do, and that's to take the memories of anyone who comes from the outside. It doesn't matter whether it's a Haibane like Willow or the others, or -- or just travelers who are passing through, like us. As far as the Wall is concerned, they're all the same."

"Someone had to make the walls," Kurogane began to argue heatedly.

"Now, now, Kuro-bloodthirsty," Fai interrupted him, in an exaggeratedly soothing voice. "There's no need to get so upset. Whoever created the walls probably passed on long ago. And we've already spent too long in one place as it is. It's time to move on."

"Oh!" Sakura exclaimed. "Will that really be okay, do you think? I mean… our wings and… the haloes, too! They'll look awfully strange one we get to other worlds…"

"Mokona doesn't think it will be a problem!" the white creature piped up. "Those things aren't really real -- Mokona can tell, because I'm the same way. They belong to this  world, not any other world, and when we leave this world, they'll stay behind!"

Kurogane leaned forward towards Fai and spoke more quietly. Syaoran could only barely make out his words; he didn't think Sakura, standing further away and talking animatedly with Mokona, could hear them at all. "And you want to be far away before whoever's after you is coming after you arrives, is that it? You've remembered who it is now, haven't you?"

Fai's eyes slid uncomfortably towards the ground. "Kuro-chan, you should just forget I ever said that. I was confused at the time, I… worked myself into a panic over nothing. It's nothing you or the others need to be concerned about."

"You think I'm going to buy a load of bull like that?" Kurogane shot back. "It's not like it's hard to figure out. You don't want to stay in your own world, you want to go to as many worlds as possible, as quickly as possible. That means you're on the run. And you're strong -- you have to be at least as strong as Tomoyo, to come to the Witch's world all by yourself -- so whoever's after you, they have to be even stronger than you. That means trouble, trouble coming our way. And you don't think it's something we need to know?"

"All the same, I think we should leave," Fai said loudly, deliberately turning his back on Kurogane. "The magic that erases memories has been broken, at least for the present, but the longer we stay in this world the more time it has to assert its power over us. Mokona, isn't that the case?"

Mokona's ears tilted downwards. "Maybe," she said. "Mokona isn't sure. The magic is very strong."

"Better safe than sorry, I guess," Syaoran said. He was a little sad at the thought of leaving all their friends behind, but -- if they went to see them now, it wouldn't be for just a quick goodbye. They'd have to explain everything, and Mokona would cause all sorts of questions, and … and…

And the Walls and all the people in this town, all devoted their existence to making sure that the Haibane stayed safe, and that they were untroubled by memories or knowledge of the outside world. Syaoran didn't know exactly why that was so important, but he was stone-certain that it was. He didn't want to do anything that would jeopardize that.

Besides -- out there somewhere, in the other worlds, Sakura's feathers were still waiting.

"It's time," he declared, turning back towards Sakura and taking her hand. He held his hand out towards Mokona, and smiled as she jumped into the crook of his arm. It was strange how much he had missed her cheerful presence, even when he couldn't remember her.

Sakura nodded, looking slightly tearful, but she adopted a brave and determined expression on her face as they looked back towards their older companions. "I'm ready," she said. "Kurogane-san? Fai-san?"

"Let's go!" Mokona cheered, and then she leapt up; the familiar golden, glowing lines of the transportation spell sprang into existence around them. Syaoran's heart lifted, and beat faster with excitement, as he wondered what sort of world they were going to find next.

"All the same," Sakura said, even as the air around them began to shimmer and warp, "I'm glad we came to this world. I'm not sorry that we stayed for so long, or that we got to meet everyone. I will always, always remember you."

The golden lines converged; four faces blurred into light. Four pairs of grey wings -- three a light charcoal grey, one a dark coal grey -- shredded soundlessly and melted into the air, the wind whipped up by their passage carrying them away.

Four haloes fell through the suddenly unoccupied space and thudded on the ground; their glow faded as they cooled, no more than empty rings of metal.

There they remained for all that night, and the next day, while strong winds hurried the clouds across the sky overhead. That night there was a frost, the first of the season; and when dawn came to the clearing, slanting in across the woods from the east, every leaf and blade of grass lacquered in delicate white.

Drained of their light, the rings of metal were already starting to corrode; the frost coated every ridge and bump in their surface, giving them the illusion of the white light they had once held. And that was how the other Haibane found them, wrapped up in coats and scarves and mittens, their breath huffing and steaming in the chilly dawn air.     

It had been a long walk out to the wall with just the three of them; although Frost had been willing enough to help them search the woods the day before, this sudden cold snap had left him pale and ill and Willow had fussed him into bed. Viv would have been happy to stay in bed, too, but she hadn't been given that option.

"This is the place, isn't it?" Viv said, puffing as she hiked up the last of the slope. She  was overheated by the walk in the morning sunlight under the heavy coat, but it was really too cold and biting to take it off.

"Yes…" Bubbles walked forward to the center of the clearing, turning her head slowly from side to side. The wooly hat she wore had earflaps on either side that were too big for her small face, making it hard to see anything not directly in front of her. "This is -- the place that Rain talked about in his notes, the ones he translated from the library. This is where the Haibane go on the Day of Flight, before they leave this world forever."

"Well, that's it then, isn't it?" Viv said. The sun glinted off a shard of metal on the frosty ground, and she bent over and picked it up. She handled it gingerly, turning it over in her hands; it was freezing cold from lying out on the ground all night, and the metal ring felt oddly hollow, as though it would crumble away under her touch. "They've gone. They've flown the nest."

"How can we be sure that all of them made it safely, though?" Willow said, coming up behind the two of them. Instead of a hat she wore a scarf wrapped around her neck and head, making her look years older than she was. "Rain was in no condition to make it out here all on his own -- he couldn't even walk by himself! And you know that Fall hasn't been well --"

Viv sighed. They'd been arguing this all the way out here; Willow had wanted to search the woods all throughout the night with flashlights, convinced that Rain or Aught must be dying in the woods out here. They'd finally managed to convince her to take a rest overnight, but she'd been up again at dawn the next morning. "Will you least believe your own eyes?" she said, stooping and picking up another one of the discarded haloes. "Look. Four of them. They've all gone, Will."

Willow took one of the haloes in her gloved hands, her dark eyes troubled. "That can't be," she said. "In all the time there have been Haibane, there's never  been --"

"-- four who took the Flight all at the same time?" Viv interrupted her. "You may be right, but come on. Those four were weird right from the start. When did they ever   do anything according to the rules?"

Willow grimaced. "Yes, and look where that got them," she retorted. "One in trouble at his job, another sick, a third one in the hospital in a coma!"

"The nurses said  he was fine,"  Viv said, exasperated. "He was awake and talking, walking on his own, he even checked himself out! Will you just admit that they're gone, they fixed themselves up without  your help? Not everybody in the world needs you to  be their mother -- "

"I can't believe he's gone," Bubbles said, her voice only just too soft to be a wail. She sunk down into a crouch, arms crossed over her chest, staring down at one of the discarded haloes. "He didn't say anything. None  of them said anything."

Tears threatened in her voice, and Willow and Viv exchanged a look of mutual agreement to table their argument for later.  Willow crouched down next to Bubbles, smoothing a warm hand up and down her back. "They never do, Bubbles," she said gently. "Silver was the same way, do you remember? -- We just woke up one morning and he was gone. It doesn't mean that he didn't care about you -- it's just the way it has to be."

"Rain was…" Bubbles sniffed deeply, then swiped her eyes with the back of her mittens.  "Rain knew all about this sort of thing. He was only here for a few months, and he already found out more about the Haibane, about us,  than anybody else knew in the town. Why couldn't he have stayed?"

"Well, you know," Viv said, feeling awkward at inserting herself into the conversation. "Rain, uh -- he left all his notes behind, didn't he? All the ones he took while he was studying at the library. And he found all those old books, and the dictionary to translate them, too. If you wanted to -- you could sort of take over for him, you know? Pick up where he left off."

Bubbles' sniffling stilled; after a long moment she nodded, her long hair falling in a curtain around her face.

"I'm sure it's all right," Willow said, and the words seemed to be as much for her own benefit as for the girl's. "I -- I guess they didn't need me, after all. They've gone together, so they'll be able to look after each other from now on."

"Yeah," Viv said. She looked up the sheer face of the cliff, and couldn't help but smile when she imagined what lay behind it. "They're a pretty tough bunch. I'm sure wherever they went, they can handle anything that the universe can throw at them."

"I just hope they're happy, wherever they are," Bubbles said, and she looked up to give the older girls a wan, wobbly smile. "And I -- I'm glad they came here. I'm glad I got to meet them, if only for a little while."

"Yes," Willow said, and she slid her hand down Bubbles' arm to take hold of her hand and squeeze it. Viv tossed aside the decaying fragment of the halo, and came around to take Bubbles' other hand, swinging the girl to her feet. "So am I."

And I will not forget them.

-the end.


Thank you for reading! How did I do?
Please score my fic according to these guidelines:
1. How well did this fic fulfill the prompt? (1-10)
2. How Original was this fic? (1-10)
3. How much did I enjoy this fic overall? (1-10)

Comments

[cloverfield]

*stares*

*stares*

*stares some more*

So I kinda wanna quite the contest, if only so I could score this. My god. My god. Mikke, you amaze me. I can't even anything. The names, the setting, the ending-

asdfghjkl;k.

Words, gone. I can't.

[mikkeneko]

Noooo don't quit the contest! *clings to clover's legs* I haven't had time to read anybody else's entries yet, but dude, I'm sure they're awesome! XD

Now I just have to figure out how to attract more voters... @_@

[cloverfield]

I promise I won't :DDDD Still. You and your talent, Mikke. salkfhdsljg, I swear. See, this is the awesome thing about posting first- now I get to sit back and see what everyone else has written! XD

I know, it's like there's hardly any voters ;___; Here's hoping some more join up now that you've got the word out on lj too...

[caffeine_buzz]

This was absolutely splendid. I love Haibane Renmei and the crossover here was just perfect. I liked how they're all so clearly themselves, even with no memories, and poor Fai's just all broken without even knowing why. Lovely fic.

[mikkeneko]

Whew, sigh of relief! I was sweating through the first couple chapters especially, when I couldn't use names (or even aliases!) I'm glad that their characters came through strongly despite the loss of memory and name.

And yeah, poor Fai. That's why the Touga said that staying here wouldn't help Fai -- he's just got too much baggage. He still carries the feelings of guilt and fear, only now he doesn't have a context to put them in and deal with them and they just overwhelm him.

[farenmaddox]

So.

I'm speechless.

Like, completely speechless.

.....I don't even know what to say except this is utterly perfect and I want to be you when I grow up. Except I might beat you up the next time I see you for that interrupted kiss. OH GOD MY HEART ;____;

[mikkeneko]

they got in lots of un-interrupted kisses! as many as you would like, really, since the timespan in that scene was VERY indeterminate. XD Really, when you think about it, they were up there making out for as long as it took Sakura to walk back to the church and then out to the woods...

now, anything MORE than kisses... but then again, this was meant to be pretty early on in the journey. So if they were knockin' boots this early it wouldn't really fit with their dynamic in the next few worlds. (Everybody knows they weren't doing that till Yama!)

[farenmaddox]

ahahahah, yes, but the heartbreak wasn't so much the lack of kissing as the fact that it was interrupted with Fai's Issues. XD

LOL. Now if only I could make up my mind and get an Official Headcanon about whether it started in Yama or whether they held off till Nihon...

[jezzra]

1 - 10.
2 - 10.
3 - 24182yu-2391yu239557 (but Ill settle for a 10).

Mikke. Wow. I don't even know where to start. This was absolutely amazing. Once again, I find myself in awe of your talent.

Just settle for my enamored flailing. <3

[mikkeneko]

Wah, thanks so much. I'm glad you are able to read and enjoy all of the Olympics entries; I know the past few weeks have been really hard on you.

[jezzra]

Yeah, I wish I had had the opportunity to finish my own and post it, but hey, at least I can vote and such now. And yours was wonderful. Makes me want to watch that series badly to see what Im missing...

[quinconcinnity]

Omg, I finally had time to sit down and read this..and I just haven't got enough words for how haunting and beautiful this is.
I want to hug them all and tell them everything will be alright. Fai/Falls despair and Sakura! And that kiss! So hard to see things go back to the way they were after that, and yet it feels like the story folds perfectly into canon. I can see the seeds of things to come. Like what the foreman told 'Pyre' about strength, I can see Kurogane putting it out of his mind only to have it surface again when things are falling into place for him.

I've never seen Haibane Renmei so I wasn't at all familiar with the setting. So I read the wikipedia entry on it to get some idea of what was going on, and I like how you worked with the setting but used ocs and set it far enough into the future that the events of the anime don't come into it much. Very cool idea for a crossover.

1. How well did this fic fulfill the prompt? (1-10)

10

2. How Original was this fic? (1-10)

9

3. How much did I enjoy this fic overall? (1-10)

10

[mikkeneko]

Thank you so much! I admit that when trying to decide where in the series to place this story, I chose this particular time (between Koryo and Spirit) because that was the gap that showed what seemed to be the greatest jump in character development for all of them. Sakura became much more independent and capable in Jade; Kurogane seemed much more reconciled to their journey; and they all seemed much more comfortable interacting and relying on each other.

Kurogane might not be ready to accept yet that strength for its own sake is lesser than strength used to help others. But it won't hurt him to have the idea spoken into his ear.

Which is not to say that I thought it was unrealistic or that I minded that character growth in any way... but I thought an interim world where they all grow closer to each other would fit right in!

[quinconcinnity]

It really does fit right in. It feels like the beginning of a lot of things that happened in the series <3

[eijentu]

MIKKE! HIS WINGS! ;__;

JUST SO YOU KNOW, THIS IS SAD AND SWEET AND WONDERFUL AND I <3 IT MASSIVELY!

[mikkeneko]

SICK WINGS ARE VEXING JO ;;_;;

Thank you! And thank you sooooo much for all your help on this! ♥

[eijentu]

THEY ARE MASSIVELY VEXING, MIKKE! ;___; BUT WING COVERS AND CLOCKTOWER MAKING OUT ARE HEALING OK!

OMFG, THANK YOU FOR WRITING WONDERFUL FIC FOR ME TO FLAIL OVER! <333

[peaceful_fury]

This was wonderful and even though I didn't know the anime you placed it in that didn't matter cause this was awesome :)

1. 10
2. 10
3. 10

[mikkeneko]

You shouldn't need to know the anime it came from, don't worry! Everything basically got exposition'd in the beginning.

Thanks for reading and voting!

[tarmachan]

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH THISTHISTHIS
Fai's spiral into darkness, Kuro's will to protect him, Sakura being all strong and talking to water (which was both hilarious and awesome at the same time)... HEARTS FOREVER

I especially loved that you had Kurogane be all quick to anger because of the early setting of the fic. And the bit where they get their memories back and Fai immediately adopts a fake grin broke my heart. MY HEART, DAMMIT!


1. How well did this fic fulfill the prompt? 10

2. How Original was this fic? 9

3. How much did I enjoy this fic overall? over 9000 10 <3

[mikkeneko]

Yay, I'm glad Sakura talking to wind and water wasn't too disconcerting. :D We know she can do it cos she does it once in the series and then... never again. XD But I needed her to have some way to know what to do or else it would just seem too deus ex machiny.

Glad you liked it!

[tarmachan]

Yeah it was a nice way to have Sakura go off on her own and save everyone. She doesn't get a lot of time to shine in the manga pre-angstfest (apart from that bit with the wind), so it was great.

[bottan]

AKSDFJHAGFKAPIHGÖLA *A* *A* *A*

MIKKE, MIKKE, MIKKE! THIS WAS GORGEOUS!! AAAAGH, I got no time to comment properly, but I tell you, THIS WAS TWO OF THE BEST THINGS EVER MASHED TOGETHER TO FORM ANOTHER OF THE BEST THINGS EVER!! DON'T EVER STOP BEING SO AMAZING, MIKKE! :DDD

10 - 10 - 10

[mikkeneko]

~MASSIVE HEARTS AND LOVES AT YOU~

I was seized with the idea of doing a TRC/Haibane crossover a while back, but I never would have actually sat down and done it without the framework of this challenge to work with. :D They went together better than I thought they would!

[lexi_nyanko]

You won me over right away when I saw this fic was based on Haibane Renmei. *-* It's such an overwhelming anime... I remember I first saw it almost 10 years ago (time flies...) and it made a very deep impression on me. Placing the TRC cast into this world was done flawlessly (though I didn't expect anything less from you ♥). The scene with the wings growing out was very powerful...as well as the emotional struggles of each character.

After chapter 1 I decided to dig out the anime and watch it sort of "simultaneously" while reading the fic because I pretty much forgot what happened in the story after Rakka's depression over Kuu's Day of Flight. And it amazed me how well you took over and implemented all the important elements, as well as personality traits of the original Haibane cast, yet created a whole new story. I enjoyed your original characters as well! <3

Sakura in rollerskates makes the cutest image in my head. *w* Kurogane on the construction site is just awesome. xD Not to mention picturing him with small wings and a halo is just...DAWW. xD Fai and Syaoran were perfectly fitted within their own jobs as well (though I first took it for granted that you'll make Fai a baker or a coffeeshop owner, haha~).

The twist with Mokona at the end - I totally didn't see that one coming (though I WAS wondering where Mokona was left behind). o.o It all came full circle...<3

Overall I enjoyed this story veryVERY much! TwT Listening to the Haibane OST boosted the mood and made me shed a tear here and there...♥


Scores:
1. How well did this fic fulfill the prompt? 10
2. How Original was this fic? 9
3. How much did I enjoy this fic overall? 10+++ <3


P.S.: Let me add that these olympics are awesome and you guys should organize them at least once every season. There are so many great writers here and such fun events clearly inspire all of them. ^^ I just wish I had more time to read....*cries* I want to read all the stories written for this event but I doubt I can finish and score them all on time. T^T Either way, you guys are great so keep writing! >w</

[mikkeneko]

Oh lord! One Olympics each season? I think most of our writers would be dead of exhaustion before long. XD As much as I enjoy contests like these and how it brings out everybody's best efforts, it is also a lot of strain on people... and so long as they're working on contests they can't work on their own projects. So maybe once or twice a year is about as much as we can handle...

[(Anonymous)]

Very well done. You definitely have some great talent as a writer and the plot line was just complex enough to be efficiently tackled but not to complex to drag it out of leave loose ends.
http://www.fanfiction.net/~mindlessadri

1. How well did this fic fulfill the prompt? 9
2. How Original was this fic? 10
3. How much did I enjoy this fic overall? 8

[mikkeneko]

Thank you for reading and voting! And thank you for providing that link :) I'll have to find the time to check that out as well. There's always hope...

[renlylittlerose]

Finally I finished this! I've been reading it for three days now, but because of tests I could only read a chapter at time. I've got to confess it got me a while to get used to the setting and the "new" names, since I didn't see the anime and didn't have the time to really search (now it's in my list to watch ^^), but by the second chapter I got hooked. It was beautiful and it fit right into the place where you set it. I loved how they were still so in-character, despite having lost their memories. Sakura was so lovely (with rollerblades just like in CCS!), Kurogane, still immature, but starting to care for everyone (I liked the forshadowing), Syaoran and his natural curiosity and determination and Fai, oh dear Fai... His panic, his sickness, they were all so sad, so vivid. You really wrote that well! <3 And the OC's were also cute and added another dimension to the story.
I won't even comment on the kiss, because I was so mad at Fai for running away after it happened, but seeing as this is so early in the journey it was normal. Kuro-tan an Fai are only beginnig to know each other, so the bond isn't strong and they still don't trust one another (and everyone knows that Yama was the arc for THAT kind of stuff xD).
Anyway, I really loved it!

1. How well did this fic fulfill the prompt? 9
2. How Original was this fic? 10
3. How much did I enjoy this fic overall? 9

[mikkeneko]

Sorry that the new names and everything were confusing! It's something that's a lot easier to handle in a manga or anime perspective, where you are looking at the character's image and can recognize them by that no matter what name they use. In text it's a lot harder and there's just no way around that. I normally try to avoid renaming characters for that reason, but in this case I needed to. Thank you for sticking with the story anyway!

Haibane Renmei is definitely worth watching, and I'm not sorry if I can inspire anyone to watch it. ;)

[(Anonymous)]

1. How well did this fic fulfill the prompt? (8)
2. How Original was this fic? (9)
3. How much did I enjoy this fic overall? (8)

[mikkeneko]

Thank you for reading and voting :) Would you mind leaving a link to some form of identification, so we know who's voting?

[(Anonymous)]

I want to say, I loved every fic I read. Every fic deserves a 10 - but because this is a contest, I put my all into nitpicking so that I could create some sort of proper ranking. I am astonished by how talented and elegant every single writer is.

Cocoon:
1. 9, felt a little more small town than countryside, but definitely has the idyllic countryside feeling.
2. 10. Perfectly in character, as always!
3. 9. I loved it, but climax was a little weak.

[mikkeneko]

I appreciate your vote, but can you please post a link to some form of identification, so we know who's voting?

[irenegerke]

Yours was actually the first one of the Olympic fics I read and I didn't comment earlier not so much because I was waiting to finish the others, but damn woman. How the hell can I judge this when I am so flipping speechless. Just so you know I liked the names you gave them especially Sakura and Kurogane's. Syaoran's determination to scale the wall and Sakura's resolve to find answers in well were beautiful glimpses into those strengths they would demonstrate as the manga progresses. I enjoyed watching Kurogane's and Fai's relationship and internal growth progress - the pattern was a condensed version of the path they would take through out the manga while wearing a different mask and costume.

1. 10
2. 10
3. 10

[mikkeneko]

I really agonized over the names! In the original series the new Haibane are given names taken from their cocoon dreams -- as here -- but the names are all meaningful/significant/have a hidden double meaning based on the kanji with which they're written. So I had to decide, did I give them names in Japanese or in English? Which would be more true to the spirit of the tradition, a name with the Japanese double meaning or a name that my readers could understand? ...And more important, which would sound dumber?

I eventually went with the English names, but I'm very relieved that it didn't put people off or sound stupid!

Thank you so much for reading all these, and voting and commenting ♥

[aija]

You managed to write a complete AU setting for the characters while writing for Team Canon and it WORKS. I'm astonished at how you actually manage that! xD
It's a crossover, so not noting the initial idea of the setting, but still... you paid a lot of attention to detail and character introspective. As always you just have a talent for vivid story telling!

1. How well did this fic fulfill the prompt? 10 (a little urban, but I think the atmosphere is what counts, not the literal prompt)
2. How Original was this fic? 10 (this belongs in the actual canon! just for the sweaty construction worker Kurogane and the way Fai manages to angst at all costs!)
3. How much did I enjoy this fic overall? 9 (because the ending was pretty abrupt and all the tension left hanging and dammit, it would have been so cool for an AU ending ><)

[mikkeneko]

I can sympathize on #3! Really this was the only down side of writing it in the canon instead of in AU -- that no matter how they grew and changed in the course of this story, they'd still have to default to the status quo once their memories were restored. It might be an intriguing thought to imagine this as an AU instead of setting it in the canon -- imagining them all as "normal" Haibane who lived in that world at the same time -- but... well, it would be a different story for sure.

http://konungarike.tumblr.com/

[(Anonymous)]

1. How well did this fic fulfill the prompt?
9 - I really like the idea of no matter how pleasant it seems it's still wrong somehow. Great twist to the prompt.

2. How Original was this fic?
9

3. How much did I enjoy this fic overall?
9

Re: http://konungarike.tumblr.com/

[mikkeneko]

Thanks for reading and voting! I almost feel sorry for the Haibane Renmei landscape, it's so maligned. XD But it really is very creepy and unnatural when looked at from this angle.

[shadow-of-egypt.livejournal.com]

...Man, I go away for a few days after reading to try and consolidate my thoughts on this before commenting, and it still seems to largely consist of ahhhhhhhhhh?!! In the best way. XD;;;

I think knowing a little bit about Haibane Renmei before reading this really helped. Or at least, it gave me something to dork about when you brought up the rules of the world, or the setting, or just. Anything. I wanted to flail a lot. I really like the jobs you assigned to them (Kurogane, always getting the gruntwork), especially Sakura's. The reasoning behind it seemed to fit her well, and it was good to imagine her on rollerskates again, á la Cardcaptor Sakura. Also love for her name; I just like the sound of 'Aught.'

It was lovely to see you poking at the people who these characters are without their artifice at this point in their timeline; it really rams home that they all are something, even the artifically created ones, even if they have to scrabble and work for it. Basically, I just really enjoyed this. &hearts

10, 10, 9.

[mikkeneko]

I admit when people replied to this saying "now I want to/plan to watch Haibane Renmei!" I do a little dance behind my computer screen because it's just such an awesome show. In a very different way than TRC, although once I got down to the business of melding them together they meshed better than I thought.

And yes, putting Sakura on roller skates was a little homage to her CCS self (also just because wings + roller skates = AWESOME!)

Thanks so much for reading and voting on ALL the entries <3