Remix Chapter 6: The Communicator

DISCLAIMER: References to features of religions or faith beliefs do not necessarily mean that the authors, Terry Wilson, Matthew Costello, and Yoshitoshi ABe (or anyone else for that matter), take them seriously. All characters featured are new; none appear in either FWL, Doom 3, or Haibane Renmei. Also, don't forget that this is a work of fiction, not prophecy. Past characters created by the other authors are mentioned in this story. Their histories and personalities are modified and filled out by Terry Wilson in ways that the original authors probably do not intend. This means that what is said about these characters is not what fans call "canon", that is, it is not a part of their existence in their own worlds. This story was written by Terry Wilson, who makes no copyright claims against the concepts of the other authors. This work will never be commercially published without the permission of the copyright holders for all three worlds.

The Communicator walks with Tatakai in the garden. He wears costume wings and a one-eyed mask just like in the anime series. Looks like a cyclops, but unlike in the anime, he is a few inches taller and walks without a cane.

"I missed it," he laments.

"Missed what?" Tatakai asks, her white wings are smartly folded over her back. As a Featherwing, she normally did this because Featherwing wings are so much larger than Haibane wings. On her as a Haibane, it looks very unusual because Haibane wings aren't large enough to be so inconvenient.

"My Day of Flight," the Communicator says.

Tatakai reads his tone, and asks him, "Do you wear that mask to hide your tears?"

He does not answer, and Tatakai decides that it is better not to press. Instead he talks about someone else, "You remind me of Rakka," he says, "she is unique in the history of the Haibane. The only Communicator that was not a Fallen. The longest lived Haibane, at forty-seven years. She kept histories beneath the wall, kept it in repair. She was something else."

Tatakai then asks, "How is the Communicator chosen?"

The Communicator says, "He ... or she ... really isn't chosen, but a willing person, almost always a Fallen, never a human, simply assumes the role. When the Communicator of Rakka's time died, no one knew his name, not even Rakka herself ... there were no Fallen."

Tatakai then says, "So why isn't anyone studying her work?"

The Communicator answers, "It is too hard for most. Rakka wrote it in Toganese."

Tatakai asks him, "Can you teach me?"

The Communicator nods, "Rakka taught me, but according to her histories ... she learned it on her own."

After a few weeks, Tatakai knows this new language, and this morning goes under the wall. She has become familiar with the robe. "Dang, these things are heavy," she gripes.

The Communicator answers, "Well anything beats that ... what did you call it?"

Tatakai answers, "Delta radiation. The place glows with the stuff. If this wall collapses, we're screwed. All of Glie would have a lethal dose within a few hours. This hikarinium," she points out the light leaves scattering the tablets, "is not where it is coming from. Somehow these little irritations," she pauses, holds out her hands and zaps an invisible creature [Doom 3 Wraith] with the Saviour's light, "are getting in here."

The Communicator says, "From reading Rakka's histories, they have been getting in here since at least her time. You are the only Haibane to even see them let alone actually be able to deal with them. That light of yours-"

"Not mine," Tatakai says, "The Saviour's. If I ever call it mine, it'll quit working. It's sure a lot handier than the weapons I was used to before I came here. I'm glad I don't have to use it as often." After a pause, she says, "Also, I don't see them, I hear them. From Rakka's records, they have been seen before, I know that they have to become visible to attack. I know what they look like from my previous life."

She picks up a tablet and starts reading, flicking hikarinium bits into her collector, "Sweeeeet," she says, "This is the part of the wall the Saviour's light repaired, that time I got sick, remember?" Shrugging her robe, she adds, "Should have brought one of these."

For the first time in Tatakai's memory, the Communicator might have chuckled.

The next morning, she's walking down the halls of the North Wing with her friend. The North Wing is slowly being demolished from the top down for materials to build more habitable houses just to its west. It's roof has been replaced by a series of sturdy tarps held up by a scaffold around the building.

"Shimoni," asks Tatakai, "if the humans see us as lesser beings, why the blazes don't they ever stare down their fears and ask about Rakka's histories, or the dangers of the walls? These are things we better under-"

"What?" Shimoni notices Tatakai's startlement.

"It came from this room," says Tatakai, wheeling around and swinging open a door. Seeing it, she asks, "Do they like, always appear in the coldest, messiest rooms?"

Shimoni admires the watermelon sized cocoon, "Wow."

Tatakai kneels beside it, as Shimoni warns, "Don't touch it."

"Silly," Tatakai says, "I had no such intention. Nobody touched mine."

Tatakai smiles at it, "See you in about," she ponders, "five months."

Shimoni laments, "The winter again? Maybe it's a colleague of yours."

Tatakai says, "Menmo might have been. She had my type of wings in her dream. But she showed up in spring. Rakka wrote that seven years before her appearance, Reki appeared in winter ... the day of her emergence went unobserved, and she was discovered by Kuramori some time after her wings emerged. She emerged Sin-Bound and almost missed her Day of Flight. ... We're in no hurry this time."

Shimoni says, "I still can't wait to get back and tell everyone."
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