Work Text:
Suzume felt her black hair billowing behind her as she held on tight to a giant red paper crane, flying through the air. She smiled and laughed, though as usual she couldn’t hear a thing. But she could still feel the air around her, the paper beneath her, the flaps of the bird’s wings beneath her. She’d never felt like this before.
The crane beneath her descended, and she could see it flying towards a bed of paper flowers, each intricately folded out of origami paper. Just as it was about to crash into the ground, her mount turned upward into a gentle glide. Suzume bent down to brush her hands through them, plucking one for herself. Even though they were made of paper, they felt and smelled just like the real thing.
As she turned up towards their destination, Suzume gasped. Before her the field of flowers seemed to thin, opening to an empty white expanse. The crane beneath her came to a gentle landing at the edge of the flowers and turned its neck to look at her. Somehow, she knew. She nodded, and the wing at her side lowered to the ground so she could slide carefully down it. For a moment, she stared into the empty white expanse. Then she took a deep breath, and walked.
After what seemed like forever, when she could no longer see a trace of the cranes or the flowers behind her, Suzume saw a woman in a white dress, kneeling down to something. She stood as Suzume approached, smiling, and offered her a white square of paper. Almost as if by instinct, Suzume took it in her hands.
“So, you want to be a magical girl,” the woman signed to her.
Suzume folded the paper into a crane and held it back to the woman, nodding.