The snow slowly drifted to the ground. He looked up, his every muscle protesting the movement. He had been standing there a long time, unmoving. The sky was clouded over, as dark as his mind. It certainly did nothing to lighten his moods.

He looked back down at the now frozen ground. Somewhere below the bare tree, the girl laid in her eternal sleep. All he had to do was close his eyes, and he would witness her bitter fate all over again.

He was born for that destined day in 1999. His whole life was given to it. After that day when his destiny dawned, the sun had set on his life. He had lost everything.

Now he stood alone, and he would be alone forever. He looked around at the world he had given his life for and wondered if it had been worth it. He had protected this world for the two people he had loved, and in the end, they were the price. They had left him and had gone where he could not follow.

The wind whipped his hair into his eyes. It was the only company he had. In the spring, little birds nested in the tree, watching over the sacred ground where the girl whose name meant "little bird" laid. They had comforted him, just like she had.

Now, even they were gone. There was nothing left for him… Darkness descended and the world collapsed in.

This was a familiar place. It was within his mind. The first time he had locked himself away was after he witnessed her terrible death. Memory after memory pulled him deeper and deeper into the depth of his mind. He knew it was possible to be lost forever, and perhaps this time he will. There was nobody to pull him back.

He let go, no longer having anything to hold on to. Excessive sadness led to self-destruction.

He lay at the bottom of the darkest darkness. He could dimly feel the cold outside of his body. Everything was numb already. He would probably die from hypothermia.

Something in the darkness caught his mind's eyes. It looked like a star, the North Star, guide to the lost and forsaken. From a pinpoint of light, it grew bigger, it came nearer.

His eyes widened, trying to take everything in. She smiled at him.

"Kotori..." the name came out in a whisper.

She stretched her hands toward him, her glowing diaphanous wings pushing away the heavy blackness.

"Kamui..." she called.

He came back to himself with a snap. All of his senses came back to him in a rush. He shivered. His legs hurt from kneeling on the frozen ground. But, something was different than before.

He stared down at his limp open hands. A tiny shining feather nestled in his palms. Carefully, he tucked it inside his jacket. The little thing made him feel warmth he hadn't felt for a long time.

"You called me back..." he said, closing his eyes in grief.

Slowly, he stood up; brushing off the snow that had accumulated on him. He turned and started walking away.

He had gone a little distance before he suddenly stopped. He looked back, at no one in particular, but a transformation had happened. He was smiling. In his mind, he saw her face and felt her warmth. He wasn't alone after all.

"I'll come back and see you again soon," he murmured.

A wind caught his jacket, and he drew it close hurriedly, not wanting to lose the feather. He trotted down the steps and disappeared over a hill.

A lonely bird sat on a branch of the bare tree. It sang to the sinking sun the sweetest song never heard by human ears.