Story Characters Episodes Miscellaneous




Birds

Original Air Date: 12-4-02

Rakka goes to Kuu's room where everyone's waiting patiently for her. Reki asks Rakka if the bed is all she wants from the room. Rakka quietly points out that she wants the frogs in the window as well. Reki brings the bed to Rakka's room and Rakka sadly sets up the frogs on her desk. Reki tries to get Rakka to take her mind off of things, but Rakka's still sad and confused about the life of a haibane. Reki sits back, lights a cigarette, and explains that she once felt that way.

Rakka goes with Reki into the city as she takes the little ones all to get coats. They get to the store and the little ones try out the coats and they are all messed up so they have to be altered. Reki offers to help get the little ones' coats off and she tells Rakka to pick out some winter clothes. She picks out a dress and brings it to the clerk who suggests she get some shoes to match as well. Rakka becomes a bit hesitant about it, but the guy just says that haibane should always be happy. Rakka asks why and he explains that his grandmother told him that haibane brought blessings like a good luck charm or something. The guy finishes preparing Rakka's purchases, but she remembers that she only has one page left in her book but the guy tries to pass it off as a gift. However, Rakka still feels like she's such a failure. A couple comes into the store and the girl turns around excited to see Rakka, a haibane which upsets Rakka. The guy says that she's disturbing her, but the girl says that she isn't and asks Rakka if she's right. Her words echo through her head as she remembers the pain she went through with the spotting of her feathers. Just as the girl is about to touch Rakka's wing, she snaps and runs out of the store. Her vision becomes blurry and she falls down. A man helps her up and she appologizes. Her wing cover had fallen off and the man picks it up to return to her and a spotted wing fall out. Her vision becomes blurry and sounds slur as the man hands it to her. She grabs it and runs off again.

Rakka walks into the area with the windmill and when she gets under one, she doubles over thinking about how she doesn't have a place and that she might as well be dead. Then suddenly, she hears a crow cawing. She thinks back to all the times she's seen crows. She figures that they've been calling her and follows them into the western woods. Deep into the woods, she comes upon a well where several crows are sitting and then she really knows that the crows were calling for her. She looks into the well and sees darkness and she asks the crows if this was what they wanted her to see. She begins climbing down into the well and midways, one of the steps breaks and she falls in.

Rakka falls from the sky again like in her dream, but this time she's cold. She opens her hand and inside is a black feather. Like the dream, a crow grabs hold of her dress but again she says that it's useless and the bird flies off leaving Rakka to fall through the sky and into the well. Rakka wakes up at the bottom of the well and lifts herself up. She opens her hand to see a black feather and becomes surprised. Looking over her hand, she sees the corpse of a dead crow and becomes shocked. She tries to get up but she has incredible difficulty because of the pain. She pulls on one of the steps and it crumbles. Then she realises that all this time she's been at the bottom of the well and she sits back down. She looks again at the corpse wondering why she isn't scared. She crawls over to it and asks it if it was the one calling her. She feels like she's known it.

Reki rushes into the guest room to see if anyone has seen Rakka. None of them have seen her. Kana wonders if Rakka's day had come but Reki quickly interrupts saying it's not like that. They figure maybe Rakka ran away or something so they go out to look for her. Meanwhile in the well, Rakka buries the corpse talking to it wishing she could remember why she should be remembering that person. When she finishes, she sits back and explains that she was always alone and thought about leaving, but that bird was always by her side. She figures that the birds called her to tell her that she wasn't alone.

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