[A heat wave? If his gunshot wounds weren't bad enough, he can almost feel himself wilting. Damn flower alignment. Just what he needs right now.]

[He supposes he should thank that gi - Rena, for directing him to the village. He can't say it's what he would have done, but the gesture didn't seem to have a catch behind it.

When he gets there, judging by the commotion, it seems that people have taken the form of that which they hate most?

He's just content to sit back and watch things unfold. There's going to be something that's at least somewhat amusing, he's sure.

At the very least, it would serve as something to distract his thoughts away from his new holes, courtesy of that bastard Xigbar. They'd heal themselves in time, but until then, they were... more than an inconvenience.]

Blackness. Cold. Drifting...? Yes. It felt that way. But how, if he didn't have a body? It had... faded. Yes? Yes.

Could he say how long? Of course not – there is no sense of time in nothingness, and even if there were, it would be distorted. Such a silly question.

Slowly, things started coming back (but who knows after how long) and his mind began to piece itself back together, drawing closed from the insane openness that it had felt in...wherever it was. Aaahh, yes, that was it. Piecing back the...pieces.

Well, he supposed everything was still too jumbled to think of something better. Was there a body now? Was he an Other now? Realizations dawned, and they came flooding. Slowly sensations began to return – feeling something hard underneath him, feeling warmth on his face, hearing birds singing, and the sound of running water...

Half-conscious, he leaned his head back (why was it bowed in the first place) into something hard, and was met with a face full of sunlight. In reaction to the new warmth and light, blearily, he opened his eyes, and almost instantly brought his arm up to shield his eyes from the sunlight. He opened his eyes, only to see that his arm was in a white sleeve, which was strange in itself.

Shouldn't it be in black?

He couldn't stop himself from letting out something that could only be called a sigh. A flood of questions assaulted him. Was this home? Where was he? Was anyone else he knew here? Did he want there to be anyone else he knew here? He shook his head to clear it, and almost fell out of the tree he was sitting in.

Grabbing the branch, he barely caught himself before falling completely out. He let himself drop gently to the ground, and felt a strange wind at his back. He landed softly on the ground, right next to a worn path, and turned his head to see what was on his back. It came as a shock to see some small dark pink wings, the same color as his hair, poking through the white. He narrowed his eyes. There were more important things to worry about.

Such as where this path lead.

It was either up the road, to mountains, or down to a village. Neither of the options were very desirable, but simply by being in the village, he would get some answers, maybe find a familiar face. To the village, then...