"23ji no ongaku," or "songs for the 23rd hour," is a collection of Blade Children-centric drabbles and stories. These pieces mainly follow the manga, but are in no sequential order and follow no storyline. They are miscellaneous items I have written over the course of nearly four years, and collected together under this title. Pairings are mainly canon, although there may be hints of silly things aside from that.

Read, enjoy, and leave feedback as you like. Thanks for your attention!

23ji no ongaku
opening act: five shades of white

They were there, at his wedding, and he realized it only when he grew bored with the rambles of the pastor, tilting his head just enough so that he could see those who sat at the back of this tiny chapel - and it was there they stood, all in a neat little row, dressed in shades of white.

Rio was the first, and she wore the dress of a little girl (something she could really not be - no, she had witnessed too much to really be a little girl anymore) in a blinding, innocent white. One of her hands lay absently on the frills of her skirt and the other was grasped in Kousuke's, who stood beside her, his new glasses falling down his nose. He wore a suit that looked used and thus was not so white, and his brightly colored hair stood out like a flame on a candle. Beside him, in the middle, was Ryouko, scrawniest and somehow the prettiest, seeming awkward in a long cream dress that had probably been designed for a bridesmaid. She was as tall as the other two boys, taller than Kousuke by at least three inches, and somehow it seemed an obvious fact that frills and lace (what Rio had opted for) would not have worked with her. Eyes lingered by her side and kept his attention on the floor, his blueish locks of hair covering much of his face. His suit looked new and expensive, the only proper choice of dress for this ceremony - but only Eyes would be able to afford a new suit, after all, and so that had to be considered.

Kanone stood on the end, and Kiyotaka's gaze remained fixed on him for just a moment too long, long enough to be noticed. The German's lips slowly eased themselves into a smile, the kind of expression that the older man was familiar with and did not like seeing. Kanone's suit was the darkest of them all, not even a white but perhaps more tan, and for a moment Kiyotaka wondered to himself what this meant - this dark person among a sea of innocence - but convinced himself that it was only a shadow and looked away just as the ceremony began to make movement in the right direction. He did not have time to think about it now, because he was getting married and they were only watching.

When he and his wife proceeded down the aisle they were gone, but even that could not erase the image of those five children lined up together, all in white (or four in white and one in shadow), all watching without speaking a word. He wondered why they had come, but then Madoka smiled at him and he thought of it no more. He would think of it later and wonder if it was an omen.