_hot_: Tsuru No Ongaeshi Story

What she saw made her gasp.

The old woman cried out and fell back. The old man rushed in, but it was too late. The crane transformed back into the girl one last time. She looked at them with sad, gentle eyes. tsuru no ongaeshi story

But temptation gnawed at them. One night, after the girl had shut herself in the weaving room, the old woman could resist no longer. She crept to the sliding door, made a small hole in the paper screen, and peeked inside. What she saw made her gasp

There was no girl. In the lamplight stood a slender white crane, plucking its own feathers and weaving them into the loom. The beautiful cloth was made from its own body. The crane’s legs were bare and bleeding; its once-glorious wings were thinning and raw. It was the same crane her husband had saved. The crane transformed back into the girl one last time

At that moment, the crane turned and saw the old woman’s eye at the hole. A single tear rolled down its beak.

The weaving stopped.

She stepped outside into the snow. As they watched, she spread her arms and became a crane again—pale, beautiful, but wounded. With a sorrowful cry, she rose into the dawn sky and flew toward the mountains, disappearing over the white peaks.