Haibane Renmei Fan Fiction ❯ Kazakiribane ❯ A New Friend ( Chapter 2 )

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

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

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

Kazakiribane - Chapter Two: A New Friend
By Shizukana Sakka

Joey opened his eyes and looked up at the now-familiar sight of the ceiling over his bed. He tried to force his still sleep-fogged brain to retain as much of the dream as he could while he was still able to remember any of it. This wasn't the first time he'd had that particular dream; when he'd first appeared in that strange world. He'd had it a couple of times before and knew that eventually he'd have it again. Each time, he'd managed to retain a little more of it as he'd awakened and he hoped that eventually he'd be able to recall all of it with perfect clarity.

For him, the novelty of the repeating dreams had worn off long ago. He knew from what little reading on dream interpretations he'd done that these dreams were a bit uncommon. It was even more odd that they repeated themselves from time to time, sometimes seeming more like memories than dreams. He'd dismissed that notion long ago due to the fantastic nature of his dreams. He knew that there was no way that any of that could have possibly been real, so he just summed it up as the creations of an active but really odd imagination.

He'd considered on more than one occasion that he should try to keep a written journal of what he remembered from his dreams, but he was worried about someone else finding it and reading it. If any of his current foster family ever found out, he was afraid they'd think he was really weird and then he'd probably be moved to yet another foster family. He was a bit surprised that this concerned him as much as it did, but as much as he'd tried to deny it he'd grown to like living with the Jamesons.

He yawned as he sat up and gave his arms a comforting stretch. He was caught short in the middle of his stretch by a small twinge in his shoulder muscles. It was really brief, and not very painful but for some reason it seemed a little familiar. Try as he could, though, he couldn't quite remember why. He cleared his head with a bit of a shake and glanced over at the clock next to his bed. It was earlier than he normally got up for a school day. He briefly considered staying in bed as he usually did but decided against it. It was early enough that he'd probably be able to have first crack at the shower and he wouldn't have to rush, either. After making up his mind, he donned his bathrobe and quickly headed off to the bathroom.

As soon as he'd flicked on the lights, he caught a glimpse of something reflected from the bathroom mirror out of the corner of his eye. It was gone when he'd turned for a proper look, but he was still a little puzzled. For a moment, he could have sworn he saw another of those strange glows from the day before. He stared at his reflection for another minute but saw no trace of the odd phenomenon. He shrugged and started to run the water for the shower. It was probably just my imagination, he thought to himself.

School that day went a little easier than he'd thought it might. Since the class was still going to be studying Japan for the next week or so, he was sure that his teacher would draw more attention to the fact that Joey could understand Japanese. However, despite his teacher's apparent surprise the previous day, Mr. Gibson didn't direct any more attention towards Joey than he usually did. His classmates also seemed to have forgotten about the events of the day before, so the day turned out being about as normal as it could be.

After school that day, being that he typically wasn't in any rush to return to the Jameson's house, he decided to try walking along some streets other than the ones he usually used. Every so often, he liked taking small detours and simply looked at the world around him. Even though he'd spent a lot of his life relocating between foster homes, he still found that once you got yourself into a routine you stopped noticing what was around you if it happened to be something you saw every day. He preferred to break out of that mindset whenever he could, as he wanted to appreciate all that he saw each day and take none of it for granted.

Most of the houses in their neighborhood were of a pretty decent size for an average family. Not too far away, in the slightly wealthier area of their neighborhood, some of the houses were bigger still -- with a few looking almost like small mansions. Though such houses were a bit older than those of their neighbors, they practically seemed to radiate elegance and beauty. Joey always liked looking at the big, old houses in particular. It was often very quiet and tranquil on the streets with the older houses and he found it to be very relaxing just to walk along them.

On that particular day, he'd been so caught up in his relaxed mood that he'd inadvertently walked much further into that part of the neighborhood than he'd originally intended. By his best estimate, although he wasn't entirely sure since he hadn't really been watching the time, he'd been casually strolling along those streets for close to an hour. Just as he'd reached the point where he decided it'd be best to head back -- after all, Heather would worry if he took too long getting back from school -- he began to hear some emotionally-charged voices nearby.

A little further up the street was a private girl's school that, due to the late hour of the afternoon, seemed nearly empty. Undoubtedly most of its students had eagerly left for the day, but the voices he'd heard coming from that direction suggested at least a few were still around. Normally he wouldn't be so curious, but the tones of the voices he'd heard carried a hint of the emotions behind them. He could sense that something wasn't quite right, and decided to move a bit closer so that he could hear them a little better. As he drew nearer to the wall of the enclosed schoolyard, the voices became clearer as did the apparent situation that was causing them.

“C'mon you freaky little weirdo, come and get it!” said one unseen girl's voice.

“You're wasting your time, Melanie,” said another. “She's way too much of a chicken-shit.”

“Yeah, Mel… you might as well just give it back. The stupid foreigner is probably having a hard time understanding you, anyways.” Said yet another voice, her apparent boredom evident in her tone.

Joey frowned as he decided he'd heard enough. Normally he minded his own business and never interfered in the affairs of others, but something about this situation was really grating on his nerves. Perhaps it was the notion that girls would bully each other like he'd often seen boys do, or maybe it was because he just didn't like the odds from the sounds of them. Whatever the reason, he knew he wasn't going to simply walk away without trying to help whoever it was that was being singled out by the others. He jumped to grab the top of the wall and pulled himself up on top so he could get a good look into the grounds.

A little further down the wall from him, he saw a trio of girls roughly around his own age that had backed a fourth up against the wall. They were all wearing identical school uniforms and carrying similar book bags, but it appeared that the largest girl was holding an additional one in her outstretched arm and seemed to be trying to goad the fourth girl into taking it back from her. Joey noted with interest that other than being a little smaller in build and height than the other girls, the fourth girl didn't look any different than the others. When he'd heard one of the girls mention `foreigner', for some reason he'd imagined said girl would have an Asian appearance.

The girl had reddish brown hair that hung down just to the top of her shoulders, a fair complexion and radiant green eyes that he could discern even from over 20 feet away. Those same eyes readily displayed her obvious distress at her situation and were rapidly filling with tears. She looked ordinary enough, Joey thought. What was it about her that these girls found odd enough to pick on her about?

“Oneg… P..Please… My bag… give back…” the girl stuttered in a tiny voice.

Joey widened his eyes in surprise as he heard the girl's slightly broken English. That certainly answered the question as to why the other girls had called her `foreigner'. For a moment, he felt that there was something kind of familiar about how she was speaking, but he couldn't quite place it.

The largest girl, who Joey assumed to be the one named Melanie, sneered at the smaller girl.

“What's the matter, you little twerp? Is normal-people talk a little too hard for you? I'll give it back if you can manage to ask me properly,” she said with a smug look on her face.

“Ah.. g..gomen. I try better,” the smaller girl said with a sniffle as she wiped a few tears from her eyes.

`Gomen?' Joey thought to himself as he suddenly realized why the girl's manner of speaking sounded familiar. `She speaks Japanese!'

He paused for a moment as he considered that it was a bit out of the ordinary for a Caucasian girl of that age to be more fluent in Japanese than English. Of course, he had only just discovered his own mysterious aptitude for the language so he certainly wasn't one to go pointing fingers. Now he was even more eager to try and break up this little bullying session.

“Excuse me,” he called out in Japanese from his position on the top of the wall. There was a startled gasp from all four girls and they quickly turned around to look up at him.

Joey locked his eyes onto the smaller girl's and asked, “Are you okay?”

The smaller girl quickly shook herself out of her initial surprise and answered, “Y..yes, thanks. This happens sometimes. I'm used to it.”

He decided to take advantage of the other girls' surprise and jumped down from the wall. He casually walked up to them and gave them ample time to get a good look at him.

“So, what's going on here?” he asked the rest of them. He tried not to smirk at their wide-eyed expressions when they'd heard him address them in perfect English.

“What… I mean, how…” Melanie began as she slowly recovered from her surprise. “How come you can speak Chinese like Hannah here? You're not even Chinese!”

Joey frowned at the taller girl's display of ignorance and shot her a contemptuous look.

“I wasn't speaking `Chinese', genius. Neither was your friend over there,” he said with a nod towards the smaller girl. “That was Japanese. Are you bothering her just because she doesn't speak English as well as you?”

“That's not the only reason, not that it's any business of yours! Who are you, anyways? What are you doing here? Are you creepy-Hannah's brother or something?” Melanie asked as she recovered more of her composure.

“Maybe. Or maybe I just don't like seeing three people ganging up on one. Why don't the three of you take off? Don't you have anything better to do than pick on someone smaller than you?"

Joey tried to stand a little straighter to add a touch of physical presence to his challenge. It was a bit of a bluff, but he was hoping that they were still caught off guard from his sudden appearance that they'd back down just the same. He didn't really know anything about fighting and even if he did, he knew he wouldn't feel right about mixing it up with a bunch of girls.

Nothing was said by anyone as a silent standoff played out between Joey and Melanie for a few moments. Finally, with an annoyed snort, Melanie threw the extra book bag onto the ground near its owner.

"Whatever. I'm bored with this anyways," she said as she started walking away with her two friends falling into step behind her. "We'll finish our little 'talk' some other time, 'kay Hannah?" she called back over her shoulder.

Joey watched the trio until they passed through a gate further down the wall and then directed his attention back to the remaining girl. He picked up her bag and handed it back to her.

"Are all the girls at your school as stupid as her, or is she just a special case?" he asked, switching back to Japanese.

"Most of the others don't like me very much either, but at least they leave me alone," she replied. She held her book bag with both hands and gave a polite bow. "Thank you very much. It was very nice of you to help me like that."

He returned the bow and then started to walk with her along the wall towards the gate.

"I'm glad I could help. So, your name is Hana, right? I'm Joey."

Hana smiled a bit as she heard how differently he'd pronounced her name compared to the way everyone at her school typically said it.

"I'm very pleased to meet you, Joey. You speak Japanese very well! Where are you from?"

Her smile faded as she watched Joey's expression sadden.

"I don't really know. I never knew my parents. I live with a foster family not too far from here." he answered with a bit of a sigh.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to...” she said with a bit of a worried expression on her face.

"Nah, it's okay. Don't worry about it. Why don't you tell me about yourself?"

Joey smiled inwardly as his new friend chattered away excitedly to him. She was clearly much more comfortable conversing in Japanese so it was understandable that she was so relieved to finally have someone with whom she could have a good discussion. As such, Joey was content to let her do most of the talking. He was still getting over his surprise that he could actually converse in the language as well as understand it and read it. He hadn't even known that he could until he'd first appeared at the top of her school's wall.

Hana's full name was Tanaka, Hanako - but aside her family, most people just called her Hana. It turned out that she lived a short distance from her school, so Joey decided to walk her home in case Melanie and her friends were still nearby. She was new to the area since she and her parents had only just moved in around the start of the school year. She'd explained that she had been born in Japan and raised there until the age of 10, when her father's employer needed him to transfer overseas to North America for a while. She didn't get into too many details about what sort of work her father actually did, but apparently it had required their family to relocate a couple of times since arriving in the United States. Having moved around so much, Hanako was often the 'new girl' whenever she got registered at a local school. It also didn't help matters much that her English wasn't as good as the other kids', who were confused about how an ordinary-looking 'white American girl' like her spoke Japanese better than she could English. This was one of the reasons that she'd decided to use a shorter version of her name at school to help draw a little less attention to how different she was from the other students.

Hanako was only half-Japanese, and while she'd grown up immersed in her father's native culture, she'd inherited most of her physical attributes from her mother. Her mother had originally grown up in America and had moved to Japan to teach English shortly after she'd graduated from college. Before long, she'd met Hanako's father and the rest was, as they say, history.

Joey easily identified with Hanako's unhappiness about having to move around so much. He'd been in the same situation often enough, and he remembered several instances where the other kids at school had been a bit rude towards the new 'stranger'. He couldn't quite understand how that might make her appear 'freaky' or 'creepy' to her schoolmates, though. The language difference at its worst would likely only merit a bit of teasing from some but by her own admission, most of the girls at her school didn't like her for some reason. When he'd tried to ask her about what that girl Melanie and her friends had been going on about, Hanako just shrugged and changed the subject. Joey got the distinct impression that there was something more that she wasn't telling him but was probably not comfortable talking about it, so he decided to drop it.

When they'd arrived at the Tanaka residence, she'd insisted that he come in and meet her mother. Joey was getting a little concerned about how late he was going to be getting back to the Jameson's, but he didn't want to appear rude so he agreed to stay for a brief visit. Mrs. Tanaka had been delighted to meet Joey, and while her Japanese wasn't quite as fluent as her daughter's -- or Joey's either, for that matter -- the three of them conversed pleasantly for a few minutes before she had to excuse herself to return to her preparations in the kitchen. At her insistence, Joey had agreed to stay for dinner and called his foster mother to let her know where he was.

While Hanako went to her room to change out of her school uniform, Joey wandered around their family room and looked at some of the pictures displayed on the walls. His new friend's Japanese upbringing was even more evident in many of their family portraits as she and her mother both wore kimonos in most of them. He noted with interest that there were a few framed sketches on the wall that had apparently been drawn by Mrs. Tanaka. Being that he was only 13, he wasn't much of a judge of artistic talent but he was impressed by Mrs. Tanaka's ability just the same. One frame held a beautiful rendering of rolling hills with some wind-driven turbines in the background. Another depicted a view down an old village street with a tall clock tower just visible in the distance. And another showed...

Hanako had stopped in the kitchen to pick up a small tray of refreshments for herself and her guest when she and her mother both heard a large `thud' sound in the next room. They both rushed into the family room and saw Joey picking himself up off the floor after apparently tripping backwards over one of the chairs.

"What's wrong, Joey? Did you trip?" asked Mrs. Tanaka in English.

Joey didn't answer her immediately, and seemed to be staring intently at something on the wall. She followed his gaze and saw that he appeared to be focused on a couple of her sketches.

After a few moments of uncomfortable silence, Joey coughed slightly and regained his voice.

"Um... sorry, I was really admiring your drawings, Mrs. Tanaka. I guess I wasn't paying attention to where I put my feet."

He stepped carefully in front of one image in particular, and almost seemed to tremble as he did so.

"M..Mrs. Tanaka? Can you tell me about this one?" he asked in a voice that sounded a little strained.

Hanako's mother stepped forward to get a better look at the one he was pointing to. It was a simple portrait sketch of a young girl seated next to a window and gazing outside at the scenery with a contented smile on her face. She was dressed only in a simple blouse, skirt and sandals, but what made the portrait a bit unusual was the pair of wings protruding from the girl's back, as well as a shiny ring frozen in space over her head.

"Oh, that one. That's Hanako's favorite. It's a character from a bedtime story that my husband used to tell her when she was little. It's called a..."

"Haibane," Joey finished for her.

----

A short while later, the three of them were seated around the kitchen table drinking tea. Joey listened as Mrs. Tanaka talked about what she could remember of that story her husband used to tell. Although her husband had told her years earlier that the story was merely based on a local Japanese legend from the region in which he'd grown up, she'd never known anyone else who'd ever heard of it. She was pleasantly surprised that their guest seemed to know some Japanese folklore as well as being able to speak the language so well.

She could only recall bits and pieces of the story -- something about some mythical place where humans and these angelic-looking beings called 'Haibane' co-existed together -- but Joey had listened to her every word with rapt attention. He tried to keep a reasonably calm outward appearance, which was in complete contrast to his frayed nerves and rapid heartbeat.

`Those drawings and her story… it's exactly like in my dream,' he thought to himself.

There was a lot more to this than just coincidence; of that he was certain. He was positive that those images were of the place that he'd visited so often in his dreams. He was making slow progress with his efforts to retain some fragments of the dreams when he awoke so a lot of his memories were still pretty hazy. Though after seeing those sketches, and the portrait of the Haibane in particular, he was quite shocked to say the least.

Hanako had been unusually quiet the entire time, and Mrs. Tanaka was reasonably sure it wasn't simply because their conversation had been mostly in English. Although she tried not to be too obvious, Mrs. Tanaka could tell that her daughter was trying to look their guest over in that 'special' way of hers. She resolved to discuss that with her a little later.

Before long, she had to return to the final preparations for dinner that evening, so she sent the two youths out into the family room. As soon as they sat down on the sofa, Hanako regarded her friend curiously.

"How do you know about the Haibane?" she asked.

Joey looked uncomfortable for a moment and tried to think of an answer without being too evasive. Although he'd only just met this girl, she was probably the first friend he'd had in awhile and he wasn't about to scare her off by saying something about seeing things in his dreams. He almost laughed at that thought. 'If only it was as simple as that', he thought wryly.

"Um.. I don't know exactly. I'm not even sure where I'd learned to speak Japanese, so maybe I'd heard that same story back whenever that was."

Hanako looked thoughtful for a moment and seemed to accept his answer as being logical enough. She looked over her shoulder back towards the kitchen for a moment and then directed her attention back to her guest. She placed her index finger against her lips and beckoned to Joey to quietly follow her. Without a word, he silently rose from the sofa and they both crept down the hallway together.

They'd approached a door, which Hanako took great care to open as quietly as she could. She slipped into the room and then quickly motioned for him to step inside as she shut the door behind him.

Almost immediately, Joey could feel something strange about the room. He started to develop a minor headache, but ignored it as he glanced around the room. It appeared that they were in her father's study. Aside from a desk that was placed off to the side, there were several filing cabinets stacked around the room and a few bookshelves lined up along the walls. Mrs. Tanaka had mentioned earlier that her husband did a lot of research, and his office certainly showed it.

Joey was starting to feel more uncomfortable with each passing moment. There was something in that room that he could feel 'pulling' at him. He'd never felt anything quite like that before and, quite frankly, it frightened the crap out of him. Whatever it was, it was trying to pull him further into the room and the longer he ignored its call, the worse his headache got. He didn't want to freak out his new friend, but he wanted to get out of that room as quickly as possible.

"I wanted to show you something that I'd found by mistake in my father's things a few months ago," Hanako whispered excitedly to him. "When I saw how you'd reacted to my mother's drawing, I knew right away that you'd find this interesting..."

Leaving him standing by the door, Hanako went over to her father's desk and picked up the desk lamp. Despite his discomfort, Joey was intrigued as he saw her extract a small key from the base of the lamp. She then set the lamp back down and moved to the larger of the desk drawers where she used the key to unlock it. She beckoned for him to come closer as she began to withdraw what looked like a small sealed box from the drawer. She sat down on the desk chair with the box balanced on her knees and started to fumble with the latch.

The 'pulling' sensation suddenly increased in intensity, as did his headache. He winced painfully and began massaging his temples with his fingers. 'It's that box... it has to be', he thought to himself. Whatever was inside it was doing this to him. Even though he was frightened, he was terribly curious as well. He just had to see what was in that box. He took a few steps towards Hanako just as she opened the lid of the box and turned it around to show its contents to him.

Nestled inside the box within a carefully shaped mould of velvet was a simple, silvery-looking ring, roughly 5" in diameter. The instant Joey saw it; he felt a searing pain shoot through his entire body. If that hadn't been enough of a cue for him to get the hell out of there, what happened next sent him packing in a BIG hurry. Hanako had just been turning towards him when the ring started to glow. She was so surprised that she'd lost her grip on the box and accidentally dropped it. The impact knocked the glowing ring loose and it fell out onto the floor. From behind her, she could hear Joey making gasping sounds. When she'd looked back at her friend, what she saw almost caused her to fall off her chair.

What she hadn't wanted to admit to her new friend earlier was the real reason that many people thought she was a little 'spooky'. As far back as she could remember she'd been able to see things that most people could not. She was what her father referred to as 'spirit-sensitive' and she'd apparently inherited it from him. Every so often she would see strange colours and lights surrounding people, which her father had explained to her were people's 'auras'. When they'd lived in Japan, her father had sent her a few times a week to a nearby temple where a close friend of his started showing her how to meditate and perform 'fire readings'. At these sessions, he would train her to focus her sight for brief glimpses into the future. More often than not she'd met with little success but her father's friend was very patient and explained that she'd get better with time and lots of practice. He had been correct and as she got older her gift got a little stronger, though she still needed to work on her control.

After they'd moved to the United States, she'd quickly discovered that Americans were usually far less open to that sort of thing than the people of Japan. On a few occasions, the mere mention of such things would be enough to make some of them turn downright hostile. As a result, she'd tried her best to keep that aspect of herself a secret but every so often she'd slip up. Reacting to things before they actually happened was often a pretty good way to get one's self branded as a freak, even if she never did it intentionally. On rare occasions her special sight would reveal some really fantastic things and, as she stared incredulously at her new friend, she decided that this was definitely one of those times.

There was a faint outline of a pair of wings protruding from Joey's back, as well as that of a similar glowing ring floating a few inches over his head. In addition to that, as she continued to stare at Joey with wide-eyed amazement, she could see a translucent overlap of a girl's body that was superimposed over his own. From the girl's long chestnut-brown hair to the gentle feminine curves of her body, it was difficult for Hanako to see where the girl's image stopped and Joey's real appearance began.

Her friend also appeared to be in a great deal of pain and was holding his head with both hands as though he were trying to keep it from exploding. He made a small whimpering noise and then staggered back towards the door. He fumbled with the doorknob for a moment before he'd managed to get the door open, and then practically ran out of the room. As soon as he'd left, the glow of the ring faded out and it returned to its original silver colour. She blinked her eyes in surprise for a moment and then quickly raced out of the room after her friend.

She caught up to him at the front door as he was hurriedly pulling his shoes on. The strange image of that angelic girl was gone, but he still looked as though he was in some kind of pain.

"Joey, what is it? Do you... know? About that girl? Who is she?" Hanako asked him in a nervous tone of voice.

"...Don't know... my head... it hurts... gotta go," he mumbled in English

As soon as he'd finished donning his shoes, he left their house as fast as he could. On the way out, he nearly bowled over a middle-aged Japanese man who had just started up the front steps to the house when Joey charged past him. Mr. Tanaka looked curiously at the departing youth and then back to his daughter who was standing at the front door with an anxious expression on her face. He raised an eyebrow in a silent query, prompting her for some sort of explanation.

Hanako nodded in acknowledgement of his unspoken request and waited for him to finish removing his shoes before she led him down the hall to his study. He frowned in disapproval when he saw that his desk drawer had been opened. `Time to find a new hiding place for that key', he thought to himself. When he realized that not only had his drawer been opened but also what had been carefully stored away in it had been removed and dropped on the floor, he practically ran to the fallen object and then delicately and reverently replaced it back into its box.

"Hanako, I'm very disappointed with you. You know that you shouldn't be in here without permission," he said as he gently replaced the box in the drawer and locked it. "What I've locked away in here, I've done so because it's very special and extremely important. It is not some toy to be left lying about on the floor."

She bowed deeply to her father.

"I'm very sorry, father. I had not meant for it to end up on the floor. I only wanted to show it to my friend, but as soon as I did I was startled by something I saw and dropped the box by accident."

His curiosity piqued, Mr. Tanaka's expression lightened a bit as he considered his daughter's special 'sight' and what she might have seen with it.

"Tell me what happened, then." He said to her.

AN: I hope you like it so far. More to follow in the next chapter: "Unusual Developments"