Difference between revisions of "Rise of Glie Chapter 24"

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[http://haibaniki.rubychan.de/wiki/Rise_of_Glie Back to Rise of Glie main directory]
 
[http://haibaniki.rubychan.de/wiki/Rise_of_Glie Back to Rise of Glie main directory]
  
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Previous: [[Rise of Glie Chapter 24]]: Growth
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Previous [[Rise of Glie Chapter 23]]: Reestablished
  
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== FHD Remix: The Rise of Glie ==  
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== FHD Remix: The Rise of Glie ==
  
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Chapter 25: A Second Chance
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Chapter 24: Growth
  
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The crow is lost, soaring over the ruins of the Earth.  By following other crows, he's learned how to ride in thermals and ridge lift, learned how they form, and the weather that makes them, which isn't as common or safe as he'd like.  He can soar all day with only a few flaps of his wings to take off, assuming the weather is right.  He struggles to get enough to eat from the dead of a starving population of strange creatures, most of which don't even resemble humans.
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"Try it," Washi asks gently, "try moving one wing at a time."
  
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The dream haunts him.  He threw himself off that building to end the driving evil that directed his steps, and end it he has, but ... when his human body hit the street after the long fall, his spirit lived on, leaving it behind in the shattered heap with the cars screeching and the people screaming in horror, he could not utter a sound.  Silently, he rode a current to meet a God who was supremely and predictably pissed off at him for living the life that he had led.
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Kagami moves one of her wings instead of both.  The bells on her right wing ring.
  
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"I chose to end that life because of what it was ... The monster I had become," he cried, "What else could I have done?" It came out as thoughts, not words.
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"That means yes," Washi says, "Now try the other."
  
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"Nothing," a softer voice said.
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Kagami rings the bells on her left wing.
  
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He looked up to see a man glowing, with fire in his eyes, a white robe with a golden belt, and white hair, "I have done everything you needed.  All you needed to do was accept that."
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"That means no," the Communicator says, "Very good, Kagami-kun."  He reaches around with his new walking stick, not yet adorned with the little winged ball, and taps his own, wooden left wing, "I wish I could do that."
  
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"Another wasted life," it was a snide growl off to his right. He turned to see a bony monster with bat wings proudly sneer, "He has worked great evil.  I kinda like him."
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Kagami squeals gleefully.
  
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"Silence," God said.
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As the Communicator approaches, pulling a grey notebook from his robe's pocket, Kagami gets scared, and backs into Aware's legs.  Her bells ring muffled as her wings press against the elder haibane.
  
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"Accept you?" He remembers saying it, but not hearing himself say it.
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"It's okay, Kagami," Aware whispers, "He's not going to hurt you."
  
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The man extended his hands to take his, and as the sleeves of his robe slid back off his wrists, he could see scars, holes where nails had been driven through.
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Washi kneels, bringing his face to her height.  It provides her little comfort, since she can't see it through the strange mask.  In fact, she seems to get more scared.
  
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In shock, the spirit fell flat on the glass floor, seeing the holes in the man's glowing bronze feet, "You ... you're ''real!''  The only one who can save me. Could you please?"
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"This," he offers the grey notebook in both hands, "makes you the ''first'' member of the new Ashfeather Federation who is actually an ashfeather," he explains, "it guarantees your daily life in exchange for your service to our community."
  
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"Useless worm, look at him grovel!" the monster accused.
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"Service?" she asks.
  
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"Saved you are," God announced, "but there is no room in heaven for one like you, my child. You can stay in the courtyard given for those without a room, or..."
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"Once you're big enough," Washi says.
  
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"I feel your love and your power to do away with the evil that was my life," the spirit quietly bawled, "Please don't send me away, how may I serve you?"
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"What's your name, sir?" she asks.
  
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"You will recognize the place where I send you," said God, "but you may still need to remind yourself that it is not hell."
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"No one is allowed to know," Washi says softly, but dutifully, "So don't tell anyone.  Since Aware's my closest friend, and ''you'' are special among the haibane, being the first girl and youngest hatchling since the battle twenty four years ago, I'll make an exception.  First, please," he almost touches the notebook against her chest, "this is ''yours.''"
  
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No kidding.  The crow lands on a carcass and quickly downs bite after bite, looking about lest the monsters catch him.  They can throw their fireballs quite some distance, and one must be quick to avoid them.  A minute later he is back in the air, sated for another day.
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It has the T-handle symbol of the Haibane Renmei, its name in kanji, and her name on the cover.  Slowly, she takes it.
  
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It is little trouble to live as a filthy scavenger who is saved, rather than as a human monster compelled by evil thoughts to do such horrible things that he committed suicide to escape a justice system that refused to do the right thing and execute him.  That is how he saw himself, and that is why he eeked through judgment into another life.
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The Washi reaches up and lifts his hood and mask, revealing a face wrinkled by smiles, but with a note of deep sadness in his eyes, "My name is Shiden.  I lost my wings.  Take good care of yours," he chides, "They can never be taken from you."
  
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The crow spent three years picking up the monsters' language.  God had given him two languages.  The first was spoken, and written with a huge variety of ideographic symbols, some of which he found in his travels and was able to read signs and pages from ruins that were no longer relevant.  By this, he learned that more than one language used those ideographic signals, but not the graceful alphabet unique to his.  That's how he learned he was sent back to a ruined Earth.  The second is a language of the hands, with no spoken sounds, and simpler symbols.  It bothers him that he has neither a voice nor hands, and wonders how he is supposed to earn his room in heaven without such capabilities.
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"Thank you, Shi-"
  
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He tries to rescue orphaned animals.  [Real crows have been known to do this.]  If he succeeds, that's great.  When he doesn't, there's a little to eat.
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"Sssssh," he interrupts with a finger over his own lips, "Remember, you're not allowed to know."
  
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That can't be it, obviously.  There must be more to this life than rescuing kittens and sparrows.  He's looking for the monsters' biggest complaint, a phrase that has become the worst expletive that can be uttered: "Sudden City".  He's learned that it is surrounded by a wall that no one can look over, and no one can touch except on the first Saturday of winter, and that it has been that way for twenty-three winters.  This means that nineteen winters before he hatched from his little cocoon, ''something'' happened to change things about that city.  Something that none of the monsters talk about.
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Kagami retreats behind her friend Aware as Shiden stands.  "Aware, she ''will'' remember more than she has told you, that's the Saviour's promise," he puts a hand on his friend's shoulder, "Get her a human friend.  A woman, probably Crystal.  When it hits, be there, but be sensitive.  You won't understand it."
  
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Where is it?  Where is the Sudden City?
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"Do you?" Aware asks
  
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Soaring for it, he got lost in an enormous forest where the monsters don't like to hang out.  At night, he perches on high branches and stares into a cloudless sky, wishing the sparse stars could tell him where he was; wishing that he had come to know the sky better as a human ... wishing he had done many things better as a human.
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"No, none of us ever will," Shiden replies, "But I know from my own experience that you will not let her down."
  
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This morning, he wakes, then goes about the task of finding his day's meal, flying easily before the sun is hot enough to produce thermals simply because he weighs less after the previous day's meal is digested.  He follows an interesting smell through the air, going back and forth through it to follow it upwind to find its source.  He knows he's close, and finds the body of a domestic cat.  Very unusual.  He lands close to it, but not quite right at it, looking about, ready to fly, wondering if it is a trap.  After satisfying himself that there is no one else claiming the kill, nor any monsters near or downwind, he walks up to the cat and chows down.
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"I will do my best," Aware quietly promises.
  
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The cat and the crow are gathered up together into a net, and the latter emits a frustrated squawk as it dangles from the tree.  Counterweights don't have a smell, he realizes.  Escape is his only option; he must fulfill whatever purpose God sent him for, and to do that, he must survive.  He gets on top of the cat, within the dangling net, and munches a few more bites before making for an opening he's pretty sure he can squeeze out of.  He's a mess and must preen and clean at least a little before trying to find a safer perch, lest whoever set the snare should come back for him.  It seems specifically designed to catch a crow, after all.
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Shiden steps backwards two paces, then pulls his mask and his hood back into position, formally becoming the Communicator again, "Send the rest of the haibane for their official notebooks, one per day except Saturday, Haibane Aware ... in any order that you see fit.  Farewell."
  
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The robed man makes absolutely no effort to sneak up on him.  Far from it, he announces his presence from twenty feet away by tapping his walking stick on a tree.  By this point the crow is free of the trap, clinging to the outside of the net, and already knew he was there.
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"Why?" Aware asks.
  
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The man, whose face is covered by a pale grey scarf, tucks his stick under his arm and signs, "You must be new around here" in the sign language.
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"Farewell, Haibane Aware," Washi says, almost coldly.
  
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The crow looks around for who the man must be talking to, but sees no one else.  It suddenly dawns on him that this is the first time he's seen the sign language he's known since he emerged into his life as a crow three years before.
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--------
  
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"All the crows familiar with this area know about this trap," the man signs, "since it has caught many of them.  Some even trigger it for fun, but I know them.  We are the Toga, welcome to our camp."
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"I started stamping coins for Glie," Bahitsu explains happily, handing him one of the shining examples as they walk along the path to the Temple cliff the next day, "How does it look?"
  
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The crow realizes that the net really wasn't designed to constrain him, but rather, the rotten bait has slimed up his feathers so badly that he can't fly.  He starts preening madly.
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"The haibane aren't allowed to own money," Aware says.
  
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The man taps his stick on the tree again, and signs, apparently hoping he has the crow's attention, "Wouldn't you like a bath?"
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"It's not mine," Bahitsu says, "I make several before giving them to Stanley.  It's slow going, of course, and I'm teaching Haoto and a couple of the human boys how to run the press so they can take over."
  
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Someone's offering me a ''bath???''  The crow decides to pay some attention.
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The obverse contains a faithful reproduction of the Haibane Renmei T-handle logo, while the reverse has the simple numeral "1" on it.
  
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"I'm not here to hurt you," the man signs, "We're enemies of the hellspawn, so we try to make our camp hard for them to find, but easy for you crows, our friends."
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"So what's the currency unit?" Aware asks.
  
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He suddenly realizes that he is surrounded.  Crows in the high branches seem to chuckle amongst themselves at his misfortune, and about a dozen robed men have apparently emerged from the ground itself.  He realizes that the trap is the town square of an ''extremely'' well concealed encampment.
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"I don't know," Bahitsu says like it's no big deal, "They haven't decided what to call it yet."
  
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The man offers the handle of his cane as a perch for the crow.  He spreads his soggy wings and takes it, riding it unsteadily back to the man's tent, within which is a pot of warm water.  The crow jumps in, splashes around a bit, climbs onto the edge of the pot and starts preening his feathers properly.
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Tossing it back, Aware says, "Well, that explains the notebooks."
  
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The Toga signs, "I know how smart you are, not like animal crows, but smart like us. It is a harsh world, and most crows who are new here recognize the trap.  Then they stake it out to see who tends it.  We know to look for this."
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"Notebooks?" Bahitsu asks.
  
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The crow feels silly for not trusting his instincts, but grateful for finding a friend who knows how to communicate with him, even if he can't offer much of a reply.
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Aware spends the rest of the long trip explaining the new Haibane Renmei, including the new wing bells.
  
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"You remember," the man signs, "that the language the Saviour has given you includes some simple gestures for creatures with wings."
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The Washi goes through the relatively simple procedure of welcoming Bahitsu to the Haibane Renmei and giving him his new notebook, and on the way back, they discuss Fushoku's plans for a new crystal furnace, designed to produce a junctioned transistor crystal 15mm in diameter and 5mm long using what they have no idea is called the Czolchalski process.
  
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With hardly a thought, the crow pauses in his preening to extend and wave his right wing, then continues to straighten out coverts and primaries from its dorsal side.
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"I can tell Fushoku is looking forward to having his vacuums drawn by electrical power instead of his arms," Bahitsu goes on, "Pulling that pump all day must be exhausting."
  
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"You must have been a crow a couple of years," the Toga signs, "practiced at observing the happenings around you while busy preening or eating.  Most don't take long to find us."
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"Why does he want to make them bigger?" Aware asks, "I thought his goal was to make them thousands of times smaller."
  
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The crow tucks his wing back to his side and looks up at the man.  He's right, obviously, but the crow doesn't know how to say it.
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"Well," Bahitsu explains, "once he gets the furnace working, that'll be the easy part.  The tough part is slicing up the big crystal into many small ones.  He'll use a diamond dusted saw blade from the Toga."
  
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"The Sudden City lies west," the Toga signs, "It is where the clouds come from.  Some crows never go there.  Most find their purpose with us.  Most crows will visit there, since ''our'' purpose is with them."  The fluent speaker of Toganese knows how to add emphasis to certain gestures.
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"Sounds like something Jabez would be interested in," Aware says, remembering the "nothing new" rule for the haibane.
  
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The crow continues preening and "listening" to the Toganese gestures.
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"Oh, it is, it is," Bahitsu says, "and he buys them for us.  He uses them to cut one rafter on the fancy mitre chop saw he got from the Toga, then says <<There, it's used.>>"
  
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"My instinct tells me that your purpose is with us, the Toga ... at least for now.  In any case, it is about to rain, so I'd wait-"
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They laugh at the arrangement.  Bahitsu then goes on, "Fushoku doesn't think it's so funny actually, he insists the residual dust from the wood will ruin the transistors."  Aware already knows that Fushoku had made a motor for the saw blades, and I contributed some of the parts to it.  The clamp for the crystal and the tongs for removing the cut pieces will be carefully polished."
  
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The crow jumps to the floor, gliding as best he can, scrabbles out of the tent, which is somewhat underground, and climbs along a branch forming part of the roof.  He starts preening furiously where he can see the gathering clouds, in a massive hurry to get away.  The only "rain" he's ever experienced came down as fifty kilogram balls of ice that smashed what little was left of the abandoned human town he was in at the time into little smithereens.  He and his murder shared the flesh of a large bear that was killed by that storm.
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"The quality of the original saw blades must really matter," Aware observes.
  
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"It's okay, it's okay," the Toga frantically signs after following him outside, "The rain is gentle near Sudden City.  We can even farm if it's not too far from the wall.  Please, come back inside, I have much to tell you."
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"They were designed for cutting microchips," Bahitsu says, "Fushoku says it's the same kind of thing that he's trying to make.  Oh, I'm so glad they're getting along."
  
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The crow seems quite wary of the clouds, and still preens furiously.
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Aware follows his eye to Kagami, who's dancing around Crystal, the much larger human.  One would guess their ages at five and thirteen years.  The latter would be correct, but the former would need to be amended to five ''days.''  Aware notes that her wings are moving comfortably as she plays, and her halo is faithfully following her head.
  
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"At least," the Toga now signs, "I will set the cat's body in a safe place for you to finish it if you like.  It is not fresh enough to remain in the trap, you've surely realized."
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"She can't stand boys, especially human boys," Bahitsu complains, "She won't even say hi to us.  Do you have any idea why?"
  
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Another, somewhat smaller crow lands next to him on the broken branch.  He was higher up in the tree staking out the trap.  It is obvious to the crow frantically preening his feathers, that he is looking into very inexperienced eyes on his fellow bird.
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"No," Aware says, "but my instinct tells me that it is not her fault."
  
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"Yes, my friend, it is my trap," the Toga signs, "It will not harm you if you trip it."
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"Can't she just ''choose'' to like us?" Bahitsu asks, "Like I can choose to like or not like you?"
  
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The fledgling looks like he's in a playful mood, so he takes off, glides down the unmarked path, alights on the dead cat and gets caught with his wings outstretched.  He squawks indignantly at the Toga, but once the Toga has lifted the counterweight again, lowering the bait and resetting the trigger, he seems none the worse for wear and didn't get anywhere near as dirty.
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"I don't know," Aware says, remembering his choice to like Shiden even after his abuse shattered his soul in those early days.  He speculates, "Maybe there's a point a soul can be damaged beyond where one can make the choice to like someone."  Aware remembers how hard it was to make that choice.  Far more vaguely, he remembers that his precursor made that choice to like someone quite easily and that like went on for his entire life.  Perhaps he was what the humans call "married".  He wonders if there is an opposite.
  
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"It is your life to live," the Toga signs to the elder crow, who is now ready to fly, "You were never my prisoner."
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Kagami instantly cowers behind Crystal when she notices Bahitsu and Aware returning from the Temple.
  
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He turns to the younger crow and signs, "You mustn't have seen the hail far from Sudden City.  The stones are no smaller than thirty kilograms, nurtured into such proportions by raging high altitude turbulence.  Usually the clouds pass over without incident, but when they do, they will drop their entire load in two or three minutes.  It is best to avoid them if you're far from here."
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To make casual conversation and show Kagami that these are her friends, Crystal asks, "Why can't Washi issue all of the notebooks at once?"
  
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It's not too hard.  Clouds are extremely rare anywhere other than around Sudden City.
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"He has to ''make'' them," Aware answers easily, "Bahitsu and I snuck up on him, since we're not allowed to talk in there before he allows us to.  We caught him drying the paper for Haoto's notebook."
  
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The younger crow seems to trust the Toga.  The elder crow watches with him as the Toga removes the half-eaten cat from the trap and sets it under another tree, where he clears away bones picked so clean it would take very trained eyes to tell what wild, or semi-wild creature they may once have belonged to.  Within minutes, several members of the local murder are feasting on it, but the two crows to set off the trap have already had their fill.
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"Hi, Kagami-san," Bahitsu says.
  
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They lift off as one as the rain begins to fall, and find themselves high branches for refuge.  The gentle rain does them no harm.  The two "new" crows accompany him inside the tent, where the Toga tell them many things.
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"Oh," Kagami says, "Hi, angel-boy!" she squeals.
  
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"We too, are scavengers as well as traders," the Toga explains well into his lesson, much of which is familiar to the elder crow, since he is three years old in this world.  "We serve the needs of Sudden City, and they seem willing to serve the needs of the world.  I wish I could live there," he signs.  He takes a moment's rest, probably longing after the safe community inside the protective wall.  "We are looking for fuel oils and engines, pumps, and other machines.  We can also produce fuel oils from grain and rotting ruin; remains too far gone for you crows to be interested in, so we are more interested in the machines.  You can point them out on the map when you return-"
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After the two haibane pass on, rejoining the other angel-boys hard at work building the first wind turbine generator, Crystal turns her gaze west and shades her eyes from the setting sun to look at the men hard at work digging the foundation for the first generator tower on the Hill of Winds.  How are they going to get that thing up there?  She crouches for Kagami, brushes her bangs away from her eyes, then asks, "Why do the boys scare you, Kagami-san?"
  
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The elder crow, who has wandered around the continent for three years, hops onto the Toga's table and wanders over the map, showing the Toga where he hatched, thousands of miles away, and taps on abandoned human settlements some of which are marked on the map already, some of which aren't. The Toga marks these places with yellow chalk.
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"I don't know," Kagami says, "They just do.  The angels ... ''haibane'' are okay, but them," she looks nervously over at the men of the camp half a kilometre away, "I don't know."
  
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"Do you know these are abandoned ''human'' settlements?" the Toga asks.
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"It's okay," Crystal assures her, "There's no need to be scared, but if you can't help it, that's okay."
  
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The crow extends his right wing and flaps it once, slowly enough not to blow himself over.
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"Washi said my wings can never be taken from me," Kagami says, "yet he lost his own, what is that about?"
  
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"Hellspawn settlements?" the Toga asks.
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After a pause, Crystal answers slowly, "Kagami-san, I haven't the faintest idea."
  
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The crow extends his left wing, but does not flap it, trying to convey that his knowledge is unreliable.  The monsters are moving around a lot, probably because "rain" is so rare and causes massive havoc when it hits.  The crow then taps a smaller number of places on the map.
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[Author's Note: Shiden is aware of the rules of the much larger ''featherwings of love'', which would be destroyed by the crimes committed against Kagami's precursor.]
  
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"Any places where the enemy has remained for more than one year?" the Toga signs after marking the new spots with black chalk.
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Next: [[Rise of Glie Chapter 25]]: A Second Chance
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The crow taps just one spot on the map, which was already marked with black chalk when he first saw the map: the nearby ruin of Chita.
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"That's what I figured," the Toga signs before he puts away his chalk.
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The crow caws at him and points at the map.  He knows where they are and taps that place with his bill, then gently drags his bill west along the map.  After that move, he looks at the Toga again and caws.
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The Toga does not understand what the crow has asked.
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The younger crow jumps onto the map and gently pushes his older companion out of the way, then points at a specific spot on the map, northwest of Chita and east of the deep lake.
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The Toga suddenly understands, "The Sudden City is not marked on this map," he signs.  "The hellspawn don't like us, but they really ''hate'' the Sudden City.  They do search us, and for that reason our maps are never marked with Sudden City.  We don't want them to know how close we are to our friends within the wall."
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The Toga reads the question from the eyes of the corvids.
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"Very close," he answers, "That's all I can tell you."
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Next: [[Rise of Glie Chapter 26]]: The Engine
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[http://haibaniki.rubychan.de/wiki/Rise_of_Glie Back to Rise of Glie main directory]
 
[http://haibaniki.rubychan.de/wiki/Rise_of_Glie Back to Rise of Glie main directory]

Latest revision as of 23:00, 3 December 2011

Back to Rise of Glie main directory

Previous Rise of Glie Chapter 23: Reestablished

FHD Remix: The Rise of Glie

Chapter 24: Growth

"Try it," Washi asks gently, "try moving one wing at a time."

Kagami moves one of her wings instead of both. The bells on her right wing ring.

"That means yes," Washi says, "Now try the other."

Kagami rings the bells on her left wing.

"That means no," the Communicator says, "Very good, Kagami-kun." He reaches around with his new walking stick, not yet adorned with the little winged ball, and taps his own, wooden left wing, "I wish I could do that."

Kagami squeals gleefully.

As the Communicator approaches, pulling a grey notebook from his robe's pocket, Kagami gets scared, and backs into Aware's legs. Her bells ring muffled as her wings press against the elder haibane.

"It's okay, Kagami," Aware whispers, "He's not going to hurt you."

Washi kneels, bringing his face to her height. It provides her little comfort, since she can't see it through the strange mask. In fact, she seems to get more scared.

"This," he offers the grey notebook in both hands, "makes you the first member of the new Ashfeather Federation who is actually an ashfeather," he explains, "it guarantees your daily life in exchange for your service to our community."

"Service?" she asks.

"Once you're big enough," Washi says.

"What's your name, sir?" she asks.

"No one is allowed to know," Washi says softly, but dutifully, "So don't tell anyone. Since Aware's my closest friend, and you are special among the haibane, being the first girl and youngest hatchling since the battle twenty four years ago, I'll make an exception. First, please," he almost touches the notebook against her chest, "this is yours."

It has the T-handle symbol of the Haibane Renmei, its name in kanji, and her name on the cover. Slowly, she takes it.

The Washi reaches up and lifts his hood and mask, revealing a face wrinkled by smiles, but with a note of deep sadness in his eyes, "My name is Shiden. I lost my wings. Take good care of yours," he chides, "They can never be taken from you."

"Thank you, Shi-"

"Sssssh," he interrupts with a finger over his own lips, "Remember, you're not allowed to know."

Kagami retreats behind her friend Aware as Shiden stands. "Aware, she will remember more than she has told you, that's the Saviour's promise," he puts a hand on his friend's shoulder, "Get her a human friend. A woman, probably Crystal. When it hits, be there, but be sensitive. You won't understand it."

"Do you?" Aware asks

"No, none of us ever will," Shiden replies, "But I know from my own experience that you will not let her down."

"I will do my best," Aware quietly promises.

Shiden steps backwards two paces, then pulls his mask and his hood back into position, formally becoming the Communicator again, "Send the rest of the haibane for their official notebooks, one per day except Saturday, Haibane Aware ... in any order that you see fit. Farewell."

"Why?" Aware asks.

"Farewell, Haibane Aware," Washi says, almost coldly.

"I started stamping coins for Glie," Bahitsu explains happily, handing him one of the shining examples as they walk along the path to the Temple cliff the next day, "How does it look?"

"The haibane aren't allowed to own money," Aware says.

"It's not mine," Bahitsu says, "I make several before giving them to Stanley. It's slow going, of course, and I'm teaching Haoto and a couple of the human boys how to run the press so they can take over."

The obverse contains a faithful reproduction of the Haibane Renmei T-handle logo, while the reverse has the simple numeral "1" on it.

"So what's the currency unit?" Aware asks.

"I don't know," Bahitsu says like it's no big deal, "They haven't decided what to call it yet."

Tossing it back, Aware says, "Well, that explains the notebooks."

"Notebooks?" Bahitsu asks.

Aware spends the rest of the long trip explaining the new Haibane Renmei, including the new wing bells.

The Washi goes through the relatively simple procedure of welcoming Bahitsu to the Haibane Renmei and giving him his new notebook, and on the way back, they discuss Fushoku's plans for a new crystal furnace, designed to produce a junctioned transistor crystal 15mm in diameter and 5mm long using what they have no idea is called the Czolchalski process.

"I can tell Fushoku is looking forward to having his vacuums drawn by electrical power instead of his arms," Bahitsu goes on, "Pulling that pump all day must be exhausting."

"Why does he want to make them bigger?" Aware asks, "I thought his goal was to make them thousands of times smaller."

"Well," Bahitsu explains, "once he gets the furnace working, that'll be the easy part. The tough part is slicing up the big crystal into many small ones. He'll use a diamond dusted saw blade from the Toga."

"Sounds like something Jabez would be interested in," Aware says, remembering the "nothing new" rule for the haibane.

"Oh, it is, it is," Bahitsu says, "and he buys them for us. He uses them to cut one rafter on the fancy mitre chop saw he got from the Toga, then says <<There, it's used.>>"

They laugh at the arrangement. Bahitsu then goes on, "Fushoku doesn't think it's so funny actually, he insists the residual dust from the wood will ruin the transistors." Aware already knows that Fushoku had made a motor for the saw blades, and I contributed some of the parts to it. The clamp for the crystal and the tongs for removing the cut pieces will be carefully polished."

"The quality of the original saw blades must really matter," Aware observes.

"They were designed for cutting microchips," Bahitsu says, "Fushoku says it's the same kind of thing that he's trying to make. Oh, I'm so glad they're getting along."

Aware follows his eye to Kagami, who's dancing around Crystal, the much larger human. One would guess their ages at five and thirteen years. The latter would be correct, but the former would need to be amended to five days. Aware notes that her wings are moving comfortably as she plays, and her halo is faithfully following her head.

"She can't stand boys, especially human boys," Bahitsu complains, "She won't even say hi to us. Do you have any idea why?"

"No," Aware says, "but my instinct tells me that it is not her fault."

"Can't she just choose to like us?" Bahitsu asks, "Like I can choose to like or not like you?"

"I don't know," Aware says, remembering his choice to like Shiden even after his abuse shattered his soul in those early days. He speculates, "Maybe there's a point a soul can be damaged beyond where one can make the choice to like someone." Aware remembers how hard it was to make that choice. Far more vaguely, he remembers that his precursor made that choice to like someone quite easily and that like went on for his entire life. Perhaps he was what the humans call "married". He wonders if there is an opposite.

Kagami instantly cowers behind Crystal when she notices Bahitsu and Aware returning from the Temple.

To make casual conversation and show Kagami that these are her friends, Crystal asks, "Why can't Washi issue all of the notebooks at once?"

"He has to make them," Aware answers easily, "Bahitsu and I snuck up on him, since we're not allowed to talk in there before he allows us to. We caught him drying the paper for Haoto's notebook."

"Hi, Kagami-san," Bahitsu says.

"Oh," Kagami says, "Hi, angel-boy!" she squeals.

After the two haibane pass on, rejoining the other angel-boys hard at work building the first wind turbine generator, Crystal turns her gaze west and shades her eyes from the setting sun to look at the men hard at work digging the foundation for the first generator tower on the Hill of Winds. How are they going to get that thing up there? She crouches for Kagami, brushes her bangs away from her eyes, then asks, "Why do the boys scare you, Kagami-san?"

"I don't know," Kagami says, "They just do. The angels ... haibane are okay, but them," she looks nervously over at the men of the camp half a kilometre away, "I don't know."

"It's okay," Crystal assures her, "There's no need to be scared, but if you can't help it, that's okay."

"Washi said my wings can never be taken from me," Kagami says, "yet he lost his own, what is that about?"

After a pause, Crystal answers slowly, "Kagami-san, I haven't the faintest idea."

[Author's Note: Shiden is aware of the rules of the much larger featherwings of love, which would be destroyed by the crimes committed against Kagami's precursor.]

Next: Rise of Glie Chapter 25: A Second Chance

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