A/N: I renamed her Masako, Fuyumi because I wanted to name her after a close friend of mine. Well part of her name.
Disclaimer: I don't think I'll ever own Spirited Away in this lifetime.
Chapter 2
"The sad longing builds up
It feels like my breath will stop
I follow the faint light
And now I go to you
Love comes like snowflakes
I hold out my hand to catch it but it always melts
From the moment I first saw you, it was always you
I take one step and again another step
Because to me, it needs to be only you."
"Love is like a Snowflake" – Junsu (Nice Guy OST)
Third POV
Haku knew he could not tell Chihiro why he came over. It wasn't hard to think of a lie. What was the real test, was the fact that he had to lie to her face. He thought back to his last months in the Spirit World.
"Hello Haku. I believe you know why I called you up here." Yubaba calmly greeted him.
"I am no longer your little puppet Yubaba. No more dirty work. I'm going back downstairs. And my name is Kohaku for kami's sake." Haku turned away, a little irritated.
"Okay then. Kohaku," Yubaba cleared her throat. Yubaba mellowed an astonishing amount since Chihiro arrived, but she was still very protective of her gold. "There is an epidemic spreading. Fast. All the major gods are trying to contain it and quarantine it, but it is not controlling the problem at all. They're a bunch of numbskulls honestly. They should simply uproot the source. Or cure the source if possible. They have sent and posted flyers of the list of symptoms." Yubaba handed him the yellow sheet.
It read:
"As you all know," '…all know? Obviously not,' Haku thought. "There is an epidemic spreading. We are not sure of the source and have sent out an enormous number of professional doctors and nurses. As long as you do not go venturing into unclean spaces, or around the patients, you will be safe. We encourage wealthy families and businesses to take in some unfortunate spirits who are not equipped to defend themselves. Please send a spirit displaying any of these symptoms to a doctor immediately:
· High fever. Remember, different types of spirits, different average temperatures
· Shallow breathing
· Light-headed
· Extreme sweating in certain places
· Talking to themselves or acting a bit strange. Not acting like themselves
· Random bloody noses.
We urge you to immediately report this to your doctor so they may run some tests. It is contagious! Many of our brothers and sisters have already perished due to this plague, so save the remaining brothers and sisters we have left in order to vanquish this infection. Thank you.
The High Gods and Lady Amaterasu"
Haku scanned the paper and he could not believe it. Spirits were….dying?! Yes, spirits died but that required power or their land, or whatever they're bonded to, destroyed. It was hard to believe.
"So Kohaku, I urge you to warn the others, and also close off a part of the bathhouse. It will be the area for sick/unfortunate spirits and doctors and nurses to work."
Haku was suspicious. What were her motives? "What do you get out of this? How will it benefit you?"
"If the situation gets too out of hand and it becomes even more contagious, and it's too late, we'll all die."
Haku was in shock. It just didn't register. It didn't seem like a natural cause. Something changed in the environment or either, a spirit actually decided to create such a powerful concoction to wipe us all out. But why? It hurt his head to think too much of it.
"Alright. I will warn the workers. Thank you, Yubaba for informing me." He bowed respectfully and left to alert the workers of the upcoming evil.
Two months after, the bathhouse was part-time hospital. Ruefully, Haku is like any other spirit. He, too, eventually caught the plague. All of the bathhouse employees, including Yubaba, Boh, even Zeniba and Kaonashi (No-face), were stunned. They were left speechless when they were informed that their great, and beloved Kohaku-sama, was ill. No one could believe it, not even he. He was furious at himself! He would not succumb to death before seeing Chihiro one last time. He would not allow it.
Lady Amaterasu was visiting every infected spirit, trying to offer words of advice and to be a beacon of hope. If they were close to the brink of death, much like Haku, she granted their last wishes, if it was reasonable and within her power to.
When she arrived to Haku, he simply blurted it out. He knew death was on the horizon and it could not wait any longer. "I'm very sorry to ask this of you, but please send me to the Human World, Lady Amaterasu!"
"Dear boy, calm yourself. Now why would you like to visit the Human World?"
"Well, someone very special to me is there and I would like to see her before I…meet my end." Her eyes were not judging him, but sort of pitying him yet encouraging.
"I can grant you your wish. Although, are you sure you can even get up? Your body might not be well enough to adapt to the Human World. Would it not hurt this special human to see you like this?" The Lady was right. Haku could barely breathe without an air spirit's help. He passes out daily from fatigue. Although, he could not give up. He must see Chihiro. He must keep his promise.
"Lady Amaterasu, no matter what, I must see her. I do not want her to see me like this, but I want her to at least know I kept my promise and she has never been forgotten, and never will be." Lady Amaterasu just fell in love with his words and devotion to this human.
"May I inquire, what is so special about her?"
Haku did not know where to begin. Her thoughtful gray eyes? Her courage and independence? How painfully kind she was to everyone and spirits.
"She is a remarkable being in all the worlds. No one can have as much courage or independence as her. She was forced to grow up and adapt under some very strange, unusual, and tough circumstances. You see, she and her parents accidentally stumbled upon the Spirit World and Yubaba turned her parents into pigs. She was able to get a job here, but wreaked some havoc. Of course she fixed it all. She was unbelievably kind to everyone. Oh yes, and she freed me. She returned my name to me. Also she broke the protective spell on the golden seal and squashed the slug that was controlling me. That isn't much, but what she did was unbelievable! I just want to make her happy in my last moments so she doesn't have a bitter memory of me."
Amaterasu looked at him pitifully. Fate were playing the two. Despite her mortality, he was the one who would die first.
"I will grant you your request. Although, if your condition begins to worsen drastically, you will be sent back here immediately. You must take care of yourself. Losing each one of you is like losing a child."
Haku felt a bit guilty now. Most spirits did not have parents nor did they really have children. Spirits were created when a new tree grew, a new flower bloomed, or a human believed strong enough for one to be born. Like gods of war and poverty and such.
"You may leave in the morning, but for now rest. Have your friends pack a sack for you. I wish you luck, my child." She handed him a bracelet. She then moved onto the next bed.
Haku could not wait to see Chihiro. Rin packed him enough medicine to last a few decades. They did not have the best relationship but they did care for each other at a certain level.
"Be careful dragon boy. You better come back alive or I'm dragging both you and Sen back to the Spirit World. I can't imagine Sen's face and heart if you died in front of her!"
Rin continued to babble on but the image of Chihiro crying as he was dying was playing in his mind. It would be a horrible nightmare that neither of them would be able to wake up from. Rin embraced him crying in her incoherent babble. Haku wrapped his arms around her. "I'll miss you, too Rin. Take care." He wiggled his way out of her hug.
It was daytime so many of the spirits were asleep. They ran on a nocturnal schedule mainly.
"Use this, it will allow you to cross the border into the Human World. It will also be monitoring your health which reports back to us. If your health decreases too drastically, you will be transported back here and everyone you ever had contact with would have forgotten about you." Lady Amaterasu's voice echoed at the back of his mind.
He ran for the border, then through the tunnel, and did not look back until he was on the other side.
\(^.^)/
The time came for him to talk to Chihiro once the bell rang to dismiss them. Chihiro grabbed her bag and headed for the door. Did she perhaps forget? She waited by the doorway and looked over in his direction impatiently. He picked up his stuff and headed out the door with Chihiro. They traded their uwabaki (indoor shoes)for their kutsu (regular outdoor shoes) and headed out the school gate towards the hill. Fuyumi trailed close behind, but out of earshot giving them space.
"So why did you finally come? It's been nearly eight years. I gave up on you. If you could have arrived sooner that would have been preferred."
"Chihiro…I'm really sorry for hurting you and making you wait so long. It is not easy to come here. I had to ask Lady Amaterasu herself. Do you realize how long it takes to just get an appointment with her?" He did it. He lied, sort of, to Chihiro. He felt horrible.
"I'm really sorry for blaming you for something that was out of your control. At least you haven't forgotten me, so that's good. Forgive me for being so rude." She hugged him tightly, but not as tight as Rin did. "Don't ever leave me again. I don't think I could handle it." It broke his heart to hear that.
"Don't you have even a smidgen of faith in me?" Haku joked. "Don't worry. I will never leave you again." He hugged her back softly, afraid that if he hugged her too tightly, she'd break and he'd be snapped out of this beautiful dream. They were both blushing at this point.
"Awwwww. You two reconciled? That fast?" Fuyumi jumped in ruining the nice reunion. She rested her elbow on Chihiro's shoulder coming in between their hug.
"Uh yeah. Sort of. I mean, he did come back in the end didn't he?"
"Alright, let's go back to the house Chihiro. I'm starving."
"We both can't cook, Fuyumi."
"Well I wasn't talking to you, Chihiro. What about you Ishikawa-san?"
"Well at my former place of employment, I helped out in the kitchen."
"Great! You can make us food from now on. Breakfast, brunch, lunch, the thing in between lunch and dinner, dinner, dessert, the after dessert, and midnight snack! Chi, can he stay with us? Don't we have like a guest room?"
Chihiro turned towards Haku. "I'm going to assume you don't have anywhere to stay so why don't you stay with us?"
"I hope I wouldn't be a bother."
"Of course not." Chihiro took his hand in hers and beamed at him reassuringly.
\(^.^)/
"Make yourself at home."
Chihiro headed upstairs while Fuyumi plopped down on the couch and covered her head with a pillow. Haku sat down on the chair adjacent to the couch. He kept his hands to himself not sure what to do. He surveyed the room. There were many bizarre things. There was a black, rectangular, thin, glass thing (the TV) and a shelf with many awards. He approached the shelf and read off the awards.
"1st place: Chihiro Ogino," and there was a scroll and quill implying she won something for writing. There were many of those and a few art ones. Haku picked up a picture of Chihiro and Fuyumi all dressed up with bouquets. It looked pretty recent. Chihiro was glowing as usual and Fuyumi looked really nice.
"There was an arts festival that day." Haku spun around and saw Chihiro leaning against the wall. "I displayed some of my art pieces and she performed a solo during the concert. We knew both of our families would be too busy to show up so we got each other a bouquet and went out for some Vietnamese food afterwards. She's basically my sister."
"You both look cheerful." He placed down the picture frame where he found it.
"The guestroom is livable now so you can put your stuff down. Second door on your left. It's next to the bathroom. I'm going to wake up Fuyumi."
Haku silently went up the stairs and went straight into the guestroom. Although he paused to see what were those two red sigils on the two doors across from his. He made a mental note to ask Chihiro later.
The room was decently sized with a queen sized bed. There was a walk-in closet, a wooden desk with a smaller version of what he saw downstairs (a computer), and a trashcan. The walls were a nice shade of blue and so were some of the furniture. It reminded him of water which was nice and it relaxed him. He was a river spirit after all. He laid down on the bed succumbing to his exhaustion.
\(^.^)/
When Haku woke up from his nice, refreshing nap he looked out the window and saw many hours had gone by. The sky had darkened. He had no idea how late it was so he ran downstairs to the living room to look for Chihiro. With his enhanced sight, he could see well in the dark. There was no sign of them. He looked up at the digital clock hanging on the wall. It read 11 PM.
He went exploring into the next room and found the kitchen. There was a note attached to a bag.
Dear Haku,
We did not wish to disturb you so we went out for Thai food. We brought you back beef pad see ew.
Chihiro (:
He peered inside the bag and found a to-go box with a plastic trident-thingy (a fork) inside. He picked up the plastic trident confused. He could smell beef from inside the contents of the to-go box. He opened the container to find food! He had nothing to eat it with considering he had no hashi. A light-bulb went off in his brain.
'The plastic trident must be a utensil to pick up the food!' Haku mentally applauded himself. Haku stabbed the fork into the noodles then pulled it up. He cautiously took a bite unsure if it was delectable. The food finally made it into his mouth and he gulped it down.
He could not believe it. It was the best thing he ever had! It was savory and nicely cooked! Well it was the best human food he's had so far. Spirit World food was still better. He continued spearing his food as he headed back upstairs to his room.
"I'm going to kill you!" He heard through one of the doors. Haku bolted inside immediately.
Translations:
Kami: It means "god" in Japanese.
Amaterasu: She is a major deity in Japanese Shintoism. She is the goddess of the sun (nihon/nippon which means Japan in Japanese, the kanji literally means, "base of the sun") and universe.
Hashi: Chopsticks
kathy—Here's your update! Thank you for the compliment! I hope you enjoyed this chapter (:
A/N: The italics messed up my sight a bit. I'm never doing that again for the majority of a chapter. Sorry if it messed yours up, too. Oh and don't worry. It's not really a cliffhanger. Leave me your thoughts. Thank you for reading! Thank you to all those who reviewed, followed, and pressed favorite!
Review please~
~fandomnerd12
Guys. Are we not going to talk about Legend of Korra Book 3 trailer? Seriously. There is hope and promise in this one, well more so than the others.