[ORIG][Fic] Angel Dawn, Chapter Two
hcobb
By Henry J. Cobb, all rights reserved.
Archive at http://www.io.com/~hcobb/anime/fanfic/angel_dawn.html
I think that the characters and situations presented here are
original, but I owe a heavy debt to my influences.
Chapter two: "Dawn of the Dream"
It was night. I was sitting in the back seat of a different car than
I had rode in the previous day. Mr. Himoto was driving and a woman
was sitting next to him. The three of us rode in silence.
I was griped by a strange overwhelming emotion. I found I couldn't
look at the two and so turned to the window to stare out in the night.
We passed a light and I could see my face in the window's reflection.
It wasn't my face. It was another girl's.
The entire situation felt odd and uneven. I must be visiting a
human's dream. I tried to pull my soul away from hers, but I felt
bound and trapped by the strange emotion. I focused my strength and
leapt to my own identity.
I felt my body in motion and it did feel like my new body. I was
moving to music, it was a performance, some sort of dance. I looked
around and saw that boy I had learned Japanese from. I looked down at
myself and saw that I was dressed in extremely thin fabric that hardly
covered anything. It just wasn't practical to stay warm in such an
outfit. I exerted my will over the dream and changed my coverings to
my school outfit.
The boy, who had been leaning forwards, fell back onto his bed and the
music stopped.
This must be his dream. "Excuse me, but I must have offended you
yesterday."
"What?" He sat up.
"I touched you without introducing myself first. My name is Dawn."
"Ichiru, er I mean I'm Ichiru Sakurayama."
"Excuse me again Ichiru, but there are things I must attend to. You
are not injured?"
"No, no, I'm fine. You can come by anytime."
"In that case let me leave you this token," I closed my eyes and
thought for a moment, then handed him a red candle, "Light this when
you want me to visit your dreams again. Goodbye for now," I summoned
my wings of fire and flew up, through the ceiling of his imagined room
and out of his dream.
I stood on his dream, in the field of dreams. There was a minor
insect-form demon nearby but I looked at it sternly and it scuttled
off. Why was it so near the dream of a human? I looked up and saw
the Tower of Darkness nearby and the Tower of Light in the far
distance. Not a good place for an angel to be.
I focused my will and changed my perspective until Ichiru's dream
could fit in the palm of my hand. I picked it up. It was quite
heavy, but my will was sufficient. I don't think I had moved a
human's dream before. Was that even allowed? Well too late now. I
flew up then turned towards the Tower of Light.
As I flew I could see some angels and demons tending to human dreams
and others heading out to deal with the distant other things. I
landed well short of the Tower of Light and put Ichiru's dream gently
down on the surface, where it could bathe in the light. One thing I
was sure of was that dragging a human's soul into Heaven would have
drastic effects of some sort.
I stepped up to the gate. It was closed. I pressed my hand against
it and it did not budge. I banged my fist against the gate but there
was no answer. How could it be left unattended like this?
I remembered that there was an observation platform at the top of the
tower so I flew up towards it.
There was a flash of lightning and my connection to the world of
dreams was painfully severed.
"Ow!" I woke with the beating of new heart in my new head. My
thoughts were all scrambled and my brain felt like it was engulfed in
fog.
As I sat up I noticed a pressure in my abdomen, but somehow I knew
what to do about it. I found myself walking out of my room and then
to another small room where I used the facilities. As I washed my
hands and face afterwards I found my thoughts clearing. I wondered
how I had known this bathroom was there or how to use it. I suppose I
must have read it off some object I had held.
I returned to my room. It was all in darkness, except for a faint
glimmer from the window and the door I had left open. I held the
curtain to the side and looked out onto the street. The only lights
were mounted on poles that were placed every so often down the sides
of the street. I glanced up, but could not see the stars against the
glare. Humans had done this. They had setup this artificial barrier
of fake lights to hide Father's work. No wonder they had gone so
astray.
I turned back to the room and turned on the ceiling light with the
switch embedded in the wall. I looked over the room. Most of the
things I had explored the previous morning, but there was a shelf with
thin boxes. Most of these had labels and one of the labels included
the word Brazil. I pulled it from the shelf and it fell open. There
were pages with pictures and writing inside. I read through one page
and the writing continued to the next page. It was sequential.
Best to start at the beginning then. I pushed all the pages to the
side and reached the very first page in the book. While most of the
writing in the book was extremely regular in size and alignment, there
was a very short bit of writing on the first page that was at an angle
and unevenly spaced, "For Haku-chan." I ran my finger over it, but
all I could tell was that some writing tool held in somebody's hand
had left it there.
I flipped the page and started to read. It was a book about the
country of Brazil, the people, the places, the animals and plants.
There was a comfortable feeling as I read it. Somebody else had held
this book and turned these pages and it had given her relief of some
sort. I basked in her feelings.
I was a dozen pages into it before I considered that this book might
be very useful to my mission. If somebody asked me to tell them
something about the place where I was supposed to have lived, then I
could simply quote something from this book and if they hadn't read
this one book they would accept my answer.
I put the book down. The comfortable feeling was gone. That would be
deception. How could I lie?
I remembered the first time I had considered a situation other than
total honesty.
"Yes Dawn?" Father had read my concern on my face. Well I didn't
have a face back then so he had actually read it on my aura.
"Why don't you tell them? These humans. Why don't you tell them
everything about you?"
"There already is a place where everybody knows everything about Us."
"Where?"
"Right here. And the result is both Heaven and Hell. Either one
accepts all that We say without question or one defines themselves in
their defiance of Our word. It's quite limiting really. That is why
We started over again with Earth. Any answer We give to the humans
directly is unearned, but by struggling to understand Our will they
lay the foundations of their own understanding. So say We gave onto
you something, what would you do with it Dawn?"
"I would treasure it always."
"And that is the difference between how angels and humans act."
From what I'd seen so far, Earth would be a much better place if
humans acted even just a little bit more like angels. But I would not
ever stand up against Father. If He wished to keep His works hidden
then it was my job as one of those works to hide. I picked up the
book and continued reading.
Sometime later I heard a sound and looked up at my door. Mr. Himoto
was standing there in loose clothing. He had a fuzz on his throat and
cheeks.
"Have you been up all night reading?"
"No, I had a problem while sleeping."
"Is there some problem with the bed?"
"It isn't a problem on Earth."
"Oh," Mr. Himoto stood there for a moment then said, "You shouldn't
sleep in your school clothes."
"I'll take them off then."
"I mean my daughter left behind her PJs," He walked to the closet,
slid the door open and pulled out a hanger with clothes in a different
style on them.
"Very well," I took the hanger then put it down on the bed so I could
have both hands free to remove my school outfit.
"Stop! I mean there isn't time to try them on now. We need to get
ready for school. So get washed up."
"Wash up?"
"I'll show you," He led me back to the room I had used a few hours
before and indicated a separate area to the side, "This is the shower.
You activate this control for the hot water then when the water is too
hot you activate this control for the cold water. Apply enough water
to get your body wet then turn off the water and use this to create a
foam on your body then use the water again to rinse that off."
"Then I'll use this other item to wash my hair?"
"Yes, that's the shampoo my daughter liked."
"Why do you need to be so careful to turn the water off each time?"
"There is a drought."
"A drought?"
"The water we use comes from the natural environment. The more we use
the less there is for plants and animals."
"Oh!" I hadn't considered that my presence here would be destructive
to Father's works.
"Using a little is fine. And cleanliness is next to godliness."
"Really?" How would cleaning a human's body move their soul any
closer to Father?
"Just keep the curtain closed when you are using the shower then use a
towel to dry yourself afterwards. Now go get another school outfit
and put it on this hook, along with your underwear so you can change
after your shower."
"The top part of the underwear does not fit me."
"I'll bring you one of my wife's bras."
I used the shower. The "hot" water was quite cold at first, but
quickly warmed up to a comfortable level. I didn't need to use the
cold water at all. The entire experience was somehow very familiar,
but I found myself switching from using my left hand to my right hand
whenever my mind wandered.
As I dried myself I noticed that the mirror had become clouded so I
rubbed the towel on it to clear it up. The bra Mr. Himoto had offered
fit much better than the one I had tried the previous morning. With
the complete outfit in place I studied my reflection then reached for
a brush to work my hair into shape.
As I left the bathroom I followed an unfamiliar scent to the room we
had eaten in the previous night.
"Have a seat," Mr. Himoto was working with a pot, "I admit it isn't
any good. I've only ever cooked for one, but I've had some practice
over the past several months."
He served me a breakfast with rice, soup and fish, "Let me know if you
hate it and I'll arrange something else for tomorrow," Then he went
back to his room.
There was a folded stack of papers there. I read them while eating.
It was a chronicle of recent events, near and far, in words and
pictures along with notices of upcoming events, such as specials on
appliances and clothing. Whatever these specials where, they didn't
seem especially noteworthy or threatening. As for the rest, there
could only be one explanation, "Demons."
"What was that?" Mr. Himoto had returned, in his suit. His face no
longer had the fuzz.
"Your world is overrun with demons."
"And that's why you're here."
"Yes," But to commit such evil there would have to be a great
multitude of them. Whatever the odds, I would not cause Father shame.
"Well, let's get ready for school," He held up an item I had spotted
in my room, but not investigated, "I put in the books you'll be using
this semester, along with your gym clothes."
I stepped out of the car and into the crowd of students. I spotted
one I knew, "Ichiru!" I waved to him.
"Uh, Miss Himoto."
"Did you have pleasant dreams last night?"
"Um, yes," He blushed and turned away.
"Good to hear it," I turned to see where he was looking.
"Uh Miss Himoto, how do you know my name?"
"You told me last night in your --" I noticed that some of the other
students had stopped and were listening. Best not to reveal my
abilities, "-- room."
Some of the other boys stopped to crowd even closer.
I decided that I was drawing too much attention so walked to the
classroom and took my seat.
After lunch we had gym. I went with the other girls and changed into
the gym outfit I had been given.
This time the activity was not the basketball. Instead mats had been
placed on the floor and wooden structures were placed on these. The
girls took turns running up to these structures and balancing on them
at strange angles.
I had been at the end of the line, but when I came to the front the
coach said, "Dawn, show us what you can do."
I ran forwards and attempted to judge how high a human could jump. I
bounced on the wooden platform then twisted three times around in
midair, aiming for the suspended beam.
I found I was coming down a little faster than I had intended. I did
not wish to damage the beam so I bent my left arm slightly and let my
elbow bend as I landed. I raised myself on my left palm and looked at
the coach, "Is this okay?"
"How did you?"
"She has been training in acrobatics all her life in Brazil," It was
that cool breeze again.
The coach and the girls all blinked in unison. Why were humans acting
in synchronization like this?
There were shrill sounds behind me so I twisted around on my fingers
to look. It was the boys, they had stopped their activity and some of
them were making the shrill sounds by tightening their lips. I tried
to copy the motion, but noticed that my body was still turning.
My fingers were losing their grip on the beam so I pushed away from it
then flipped over to land upright.
"Look at that," One of the boys said, "She landed on her feet, just
like a cat."
"That's enough Takehoso," The coach walked over to that boy, "One
more time and you're in detention."
That night I returned to the dream of the car drive.
I attempted to leap out, but I found myself restrained, "I'm stuck?"
"Who is that?" My lips formed the words, but the voice was not mine.
"I am Dawn," Best not to reveal my true nature.
"Finally somebody who responds to me. It's been hell sitting here.
No matter how much I scream, those two never respond. Not that they
listened to me when I was alive. I'm dead, aren't I?"
"I do not know. What is your relationship to Mr. Himoto?"
"Those are my parents."
"Are you their only daughter?"
"Last I heard."
"He said you were beyond objections."
"That's a relief. I've been worried that I was laying in a coma,
playing the same events over and over again. So what kind of boy
spirit are you?"
"I'm a girl."
"With that accent?"
"I picked it up from a boy."
"Okay, this is officially too weird for me to be making it up. I
always thought that death was it, end of story, but I guess I was
wrong. So what are you doing here?"
"I don't know why I'm stuck in your dream."
"So, do you go around poking into dreams usually?"
The streetlight flashed in the window and I saw the girl's face
reflected in the window. I'd seen it someplace else before, "No I
came to your world to-- I'm staying with your father."
"My world? Yeah, I guess you are a spirit of some sort. If that old
letch is putting you up then you must be pretty hot."
"How did you know my element is fire?"
"Heh, good one. Well don't worry, this dream will be over real soon
now. You mentioned my father, how about her?"
"I haven't met that woman."
"Well that's one less person on my to-do list. Brace for impact."
"What?"
Mr. Himoto struggled with the controls. The car lurched and skidded.
I was pressed against the side of the car and then something came
crashing through the door. I was pinned in place and my limbs
wouldn't answer my frantic efforts to escape. I saw Mr. Himoto crawl
out of his window, "Daddy, daddy!" I screamed feebly. Then the
flames washed over me and they burned. How could fire burn me?
I woke screaming.
"Dawn!", Mr. Himoto ran into my room and grabbed me, "What is it?
What's wrong?"
I leaned against him for a moment as I struggled to get my breathing
under control, then I pushed him away, "I know where I've seen her."
"Her?" He followed me down the stairs.
I turned on the light in the living room and picked up the picture
with the three of them, "Who is this girl?"
"That was Hakumei, my daughter."
"She died in the car crash, didn't she?"
"Yes."
"And this woman was her mother? And she also died then?"
"Yes," He looked down at the floor.
"Thank you," I put the picture back, then walked past him to my room
and shut the door.
I spent the rest of the night lying in bed and staring at the faint
light in the curtains, but sleep eluded me.
The next morning Mr. Himoto said nothing as he made breakfast and
later drove us to the school.
At lunch the girl from my class who had commented on my basketball
toss brought her tray to the table I had sat at, "What's with your
uncle? He said you were too busy to join the Basketball team. Is he
forcing you to work part time jobs?"
"Did you strain your brain again Yasuki? You know I'm no good at
sports."
"So you've been reading her diaries? I guess dawn really does follow
twilight. Fine, I won't ask again."
Where had that come from? How did I know her name? And the word she
had used for Twilight, it was Hakumei, the dead girl whose place I had
taken. I pondered going after Yasuki and offering an explanation, but
I couldn't explain it to myself. Instead I waved to another I knew as
he carried his tray over to the tables, "Ichiru!"
"Miss Himoto," He took the seat I indicated.
"I need you to me a favor."
"Of course."
"Do you still have that candle I gave you in your dream?"
"Yes, it was in my dreams again last night. How did you do that?"
"Can you light it tonight please?"
"Sure."
That night I lay in bed, unable to force myself to sleep, despite my
fatigue. I got up, turned on the light and picked up the book on
Brazil. I read it for a few hours until my sight got blurry. I put
it to one side and dozed off. I found myself back inside the dream of
the car ride.
"So," My body, well hers really, straightened in the seat as
Hakumei's spirit noticed my presence, "Are you back for another night
of spills and thrills?"
I ignored her and focused my attention as I searched for the faint
spark. There, I found it, "Goodbye," I jumped to the other dream.
"Hakumei!" Ichiru had been sitting in front of the lit candle I had
given him, but now fell over backwards.
"Still on the floor worm? And that's Upperclassman Himoto to you."
"It can't be you. You're dead."
"Don't you know that anything is possible in a dream?" She moved my,
her, body around to observe his room. There had been some changes to
his conception of it in the past two days. There were posters of me
on the walls. Some of them mentioned concerts and in some I was
posing near the water in very skimpy tops and bottoms, hardly more
than underwear. On his shelves there were small dolls of me in
various strange outfits.
She stopped in front of a mirror. It was her face and not mine, "Not
bad for a dead girl. So how long have I been dead?"
"Six months."
"So you're in the same class as me now? The same class I was in
anyway."
"What happened to Dawn?"
I struggled for a moment then spoke, "I'm here."
"What, you again?" Hakumei made a dismissive motion with her hand.
"Dawn is inside Hakumei?"
"Who gave you permission to say my first name? The nerd in here is
way too thick. Goodbye losers," She reached for the door.
"Wait," Ichiru raised his hand, "Don't!"
"Get lost worm. I never want to see you again," Hakumei opened the
door and stepped out into darkness.
We two souls in one body fell and tumbled. I tried to summon my wings
of fire, but could not break through her wall of panic. After many
minutes she gathered her courage and awoke.
She sat up in her bed, "That was intense," She looked around her room
until her gaze settled on the mirror, "What?" My face looked at its
reflection in her surprise.
She stood and walked over to look very closely in the mirror, "Gold
eyes? Really? And they're not even contacts? And this red hair,"
She reached up to push it back along my forehead, "No roots! And are
these real?" She felt at my chest then undid my top and bra to feel
them again, "They are! I may have died, but I've certainly gone to
heaven."
The door to her room opened and her father looked in, "Dawn are you
alright?"
They both froze for a moment and then Hakumei spun my body away from
his gaze, "Eek! Daddy you pervert! I told you never to look in my
room again!"
"Sorry!" He left and closed the door.
At breakfast she grimaced, "Daddy! Why's the soup lukewarm?"
He checked his bowl, "It's not."
She bent my face down to her bowl and looked closely to watch the
vapors steaming off of it. She stuck my finger in the bowl then
licked it off and raised the bowl to gulp it all down in a few
seconds, "Neat!"
"Dawn, young ladies shouldn't eat like that."
"Who are you to tell me what to do, you dirty old man?"
"Sorry."
When he left to get his things she walked to the stove, turned on one
of the burners and stuck my finger into the flame. It didn't hurt of
course, but the substance she had put on my fingernail smoldered. She
quenched this by clinching my fist then rubbed my thumb against the
finger, "Wicked." She shut off the flame and walked to the door,
"Come on, you'll be in trouble if you're late again."
At the school she stood by the main entrance and watched the other
students arrive. Her emotions were overpowering, but there was no
place to run from them.
"Dawn!" Ichiru walked up to us, "I'm sorry, there was some sort of
mix-up."
"Get out of my sight worm," She pointed at him, "I never want to see
you again. You know what? Forget this. There isn't anybody here I
want to see anyway," She walked out of the school. Some of the other
students watched, but nobody said anything.
She walked back to her house and took out the key Mr. Himoto had given
me to open the door, "Where would he put it?", She walked into his
room and searched through the closet until she found a large cardboard
box, "Yeah, this is it," She searched through that until she found a
black wig and dark sunglasses. Then she went back into the closet and
pulled out a cloth hat with a wide brim.
She returned to her room and stripped off the school uniform. She
turned in front of the mirror and looked over the shape of my body,
"This is so cool. I've got curves and looks, my vision's perfect and
I feel stronger and healthier than any day in my all so short and
tragic life. I know exactly who I want to share this with. Say, how
strong am I?" She knelt down to leverage up her bed with one hand and
then she slowly placed it down on the floor again, "Yeah, no way am I
going to waste my time going though the same dumb classes again. I've
got the answer to everybody's question and a body to die all over
again for. I'm going to rule this world."
She changed into a dress from her closet then put on the wig, along
with a long coat, the sunglasses and hat.
She returned to her father's room and searched for a bit before
finding some money, then shoved the box of her mother's things back
into the closet.
She stepped out of the house and turned and walked away from the
school. She ran for several blocks until a woman stared at her, then
she dashed around a corner, stood straight and took a deep breath of
air, "I'm not even winded! I could be great at sports, not that it
matters anymore!" She laughed.
She walked for a few more blocks then turned and walked up to a house.
She pressed the doorbell and waited a few minutes then knocked at the
door, "Nobody's home? Well, I know where he likes to hang out."
She walked around the town for several hours, had lunch at a
restaurant and wound up sitting on a bench looking out over the river,
"Well maybe he's home now," She stood and turned the corner to see a
girl and a boy who were slightly older than me walking hand in hand.
"Her! How could you choose her!" Hakumei walked up to the couple and
slapped the girl so hard that she fell to her knees.
"What are you doing!" The boy reached his hand out, but Hakumei
grabbed his arm and held it in place. He put up his other arm but she
grabbed that and pushed him back against the wall.
Then she turned to the girl and said, "Get lost. He's with me. If
you stick around you'll get hurt."
The girl nodded silently, got to her feet and ran away.
"Who are you?" The boy struggled against my strength.
Hakumei turned back to him and ran my lips up his throat and along his
jaw before settling on his lips. She pressed my lips against his for
several seconds before suddenly releasing him and stepping back, "Who
do you think it is, lover?"
He dropped to the ground and looked up at us, "Hakumei? It can't be,
you're dead!"
"Oh, I'm back from the dead and better than ever," She undid the belt
on her coat and opened it then undid the top few buttons on her dress
to show off my chest, "Like what you see? It's all real."
He felt at his lips and sat there.
She redid the dress and coat then turned back to him, "Is your father
still part of the organization?"
He nodded.
"Great, let's go see him now. I've got so much to tell him."
"I've got a part time job."
"When do you get off?"
"Nine pm."
"Okay, I'll go home and pack. I'll see you at your father's
restaurant at ten."
He nodded and stood. She moved forwards to kiss him again, then
backed off, "Don't leave me waiting lover," She turned and walked
back to her house.
Mr. Himoto's car was sitting in his driveway. He was waiting in his
living room, "Where have you been?"
"None of your business."
"What was your connection to Sakurayama?"
"Ichiru?"
"He killed himself at school today."
Hakumei stopped in shock and I was able to reassert control of my own
body, "He was the boy I learned Japanese from. Please excuse me as I
am holding a dangerous spirit that I cannot deal with on this plain.
I will explain more in the morning."
I went up to my room, took off the hat, glasses, wig, coat and dress
and lay down on the bed. With a vast exercise of will I kept her
suppressed and went to the land of sleep.
Next: Dawn ends Twilight