“The Bird” “Tori” (鳥)

Hikaru gives Rakka a pair of wing covers that will protect her from the cold atmosphere, though she uses it just to hide her wings. After Reki helps Rakka move Kuu’s bed into her room, Rakka questions her purpose for her existence, to which Reki suggests she must find out on her own. They take the Young Feathers to buy winter clothes. After talking with the store owner, a woman tries to touch Rakka’s wings. She flees out of the store, and, as she trip onto the pavement, one of the wing covers comes loose. A man helps her back up and gives her back the wing cover, and she ashamedly runs into the Western Woods, led by the crows, who take her to an old well where she learns about her cocoon dream. Rakka feels both nostalgic and amnesiac of the crow she has seen in this dream.

“Scar — Illness — Arrival of Winter” “Kizuato — Yamai — Fuyu no tōrai” (傷跡 — 病 — 冬の到来)

Rakka refuses to believe Kuu will never return from her Day of Flight, since it has now been a month since then as winter soon approaches. She goes insides Kuu’s room to clean up the place, but she begins to notice sickly black spots begin to appear on her own wings. Depressed, she goes into town alone to get something to eat and later encounters Hyoko. Although he is relieved that Reki was not the one who has disappeared, Rakka becomes upset since she really cares about Kuu. When Rakka returns to Old Home later that day, more black spots start to show, and Reki begins to worry when she catches sight of this. Rakka cries as she runs back to Kuu’s room, and Reki follows and embraces her. Reki gives Rakka special medicine extracted from an elderly tree for her wings. Reki explains that a Haibane is deemed to be sin-bound if they have forgotten their dream while inside their cocoon. She also reveals that she was sin-bound when she was a newborn and that she had been haunted by nightmares since then.

“End of Summer — Rain — Loss” “Natsu no owari — Ame — Sōshitsu” (夏の終わり — 雨 — 喪失)

Rakka searches for a room of her own to move into, but most of Old Home is in disrepair. Kuu gives her a warm coat to prepare for winter, but as she leaves, Rakka is disturbed to see the halo over Kuu’s head flickering. Seeing Rakka in her new coat, Kana tells her it was the first item of clothing Kuu bought for herself, despite being too large, and that Kuu has always had a habit of trying to imitate her older companions, often with disastrous results. Returning to her search, Rakka discovers that Kuu has circled a specific room on her map. She goes there and is delighted to feel a sense of familiarity. Kuu, who has been waiting for her, explains that this is the room where Rakka was born. She then thanks Rakka for the influence she has been, and leaves. That night, a rainstorm hits, and Kuu is nowhere to be found. After Rakka sees a light in the Western Woods, Reki says that Kuu may have taken her Day of Flight and passed outside the walls. The Haibane all don raincoats and go to the woods, where they find Kuu’s halo, now cold and dim.

“Library — Abandoned Factory — Beginning of the World” “Toshokan — Haikōjō — Sekai no hajimari” (図書館 — 廃工場 — 世界のはじまり)

Rakka goes to work with Nemu at the library. There she meets Sumika, a kindly, pregnant librarian who asks for Rakka’s perspective on what it was like to be born. Rakka then explores the library books for information about the world outside the walls of Glie. Sumika tells her that she, too, has made such a search and found no answers. At the end of the day, Nemu tells Rakka that she is working on a gift for Sumika involving an old, partially destroyed book they once discovered called “The Beginning of the World.” As they walk, they catch sight of Reki and witness an unfriendly encounter between her and a male Haibane named Hyoko. Nemu explains that he comes from another nest, Abandoned Factory, and that he and Reki once ran away together. As a result, they are no longer allowed into each other’s territory. The next day, Nemu shares with Rakka the gift she is working on, a rewritten version of “The Beginning of the World” with the gaps in the story filled in. Together, they finish writing it, including a possible origin for Haibane and a bit of Nemu’s own sleepy personality.

“Trash Day — Clock Tower — Birds Flying Over the Walls” “Gomi no hi — Tokeitō — Kabe o koeru tori” (ゴミの日 — 時計塔 — 壁を越える鳥)

Exploring her job options, Rakka spends a day with Kana. This begins early in the morning with taking out the trash and fighting off crows that plague the yard. Rakka suggests setting aside any leftover food the crows might like, but Kana replies that birds are the only creatures that can fly back and forth over the walls of the city, and that if they were to become too comfortable inside, they might never be free again. She then shows Rakka her personal project, a broken-down clock tower on the Old Home campus, and they hurry off to Kana’s work place, a much larger clock tower and shop in the center of Glie. Kana’s employer is a gruff old man who treats her very strictly but secretly appreciates her and worries that Rakka’s presence means Kana will leave soon. After Kana and Rakka clean up a mess left by repair workers, they go out on a balcony which turns out to be the highest point in town, other than the walls. They then return home, and Kana’s boss gives her a set of tools with which to repair the Old Home clock tower.

“Temple — The Communicator — Pancakes” “Jiin — Washi — Pankēki” (寺院 — 話師 — パンケーキ)

Rakka goes to visit Reki, who wakes up on the floor after falling from her bed during a nightmare. From the paints and other materials in the room, Rakka learns that Reki is an artist, although she will not share any of her paintings. Hikari takes Rakka to the temple of the Haibane Renmei, where Rakka meets the Communicator and is approved as a new Haibane. He gives her the notebook with which she can make purchases and encourages her to search for a job. Back at Old Home, Rakka finds Reki dealing with her own job, which is to help cook and care for the Young Feathers. To help convince the children to eat their carrots, Rakka volunteers to go visit the bakery where Hikari works and purchase some pancakes. Kuu, the youngest of the older Haibane, accompanies her and shares her belief that, despite their small wings, each Haibane will one day be able to fly. At the bakery, they discover that Hikari had used the halo mold in a cooking experiment, which explains the effect Rakka’s halo has on her hair.

“Town and Wall — Toga — Haibane Renmei” “Machi to kabe — Tōga — Haibane Renmei” (街と壁 — トーガ — 灰羽連盟)

Rakka’s new companions introduce around Old Home, the previously abandoned dormitory in which they now live in. This place also houses numerous children referred to as the Young Feathers. Rakka is then accompanied by the Haibane, except Reki, into the nearby town of Glie, which is mainly populated by ordinary humans. Rakka learns that certain rules have been set down by an organization called the Haibane Renmei. They are required to work and are only allowed to own secondhand items that humans have stopped using. Because they are also forbidden to use money, they must instead write down their earnings and expenses in special notebooks provided by the organization. The town and local countryside are surrounded by an enormous wall through which only the mysterious traders called Toga can come and go. A masked figure called the Communicator is the one person allowed to speak with them, and then only through sign language. Rakka has an eerie feeling as she looks at the Communicator and at the crows near the walls. When the group returns home at night, Reki waits for an exhausted Rakka and watches her until she falls asleep.

“Cocoon — Dream of Falling from the Sky — Old Home” “Mayu — Sora o ochiru yume — Ōrudo Hōmu” (繭 — 空を落ちる夢 — オールドホーム)

A girl dreams that she is gently falling through the sky and that a crow is trying to save her. Later, she wakes up inside a giant cocoon. Upon breaking out, she is tended to by a group of winged and haloed people who introduce themselves as Haibane. They name her Rakka. Like her, none of them can remember anything before being born from cocoons into this world, and all are named after their own dreams. They give Rakka a newly-forged halo, which slides away from her head and must be temporarily strapped on, then leave for the night. Reki stays behind to help Rakka through the ordeal of growing her wings. After they erupt painfully from her back, Rakka sleeps while Reki cleans the blood from her feathers.