I do not own any part of Spirited away. Please enjoy this next chapter!
~Something else~
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Kohaku reached for a pail of water and gently poured its contents onto his head. The herbal scent of the water filled the bathing room he was in, and soaked itself into his hair. After rubbing soap on his skin he rinsed and wrapped a white robe around his body. He ringed the water from his hair that fell just past his shoulders, and then he began to collect his cloths that he had worn. The door to the room slid open and a young female worker skipped in to begin cleaning the room. She hummed as she pulled cloths out of a pail she carried, and began to scrub the bath.
Kohaku watched the girl and began to try to place a name with her face, but failed. He walked towards the door, not disturbing her from her work. She looked up at him and stood quickly, "Sorry sir, I thought no own was in this room."
Kohaku was silent for a short time and then replied, "Its fine, I was finished."
The girl bowed and continued scrubbing the porcelain tub. Kohaku left the room, slid on his sandals, and began walking back towards his room. He pushed open the sliding door and entered his small, square room. He tied the robe tighter around his waist and then pulled on a white hakama and tied it around his waist, also, with a sea foam-blue rope. Kohaku then slide his arms through another robe, the same color as the rope, which stopped at his knees. Exiting the room, he slid the door shut and walked towards the main compound of the bath house. He passed by customers and workers alike and nodded to a couple in a hello.
He paused as a familiar shadow floated by and acknowledged Kohaku's presents. It continued on and disappeared as it had appeared, quickly. He found himself wondering the bath house more than anything anymore. The popularity of the house had gone down in the past years, and no one was ever busy. Kohaku leaned against the rough wooden wall in the boiler room and looked to the old boiler man as he awakened from his sleep. Kamaji coughed a few times and waved one of his hands as a greeting to Kohaku. "Hello, Kohaku. I haven't seen you down here for awhile, what brings you here?"
Kohaku closed his eyes and replied in a short tone, "Nothing really."
"I see, well stay as long as you like." The man grumbled as he started on work that he had neglected.
"How have you been Kamaji?" Kohaku asked opening his eyes and gazed thoughtfully at the man.
"Old." He replied in a rough laugh.
Kohaku didn't reply, he just continued to watch the small puffs of black scurry around his feet. He pulled one from the ground and held in the palm of his hand. Nervously it moved from one side of his hand to the other, it gazed at him thoroughly frightened. Raising his other hand, the puff of dust flinched, and Kohaku dropped it from his hand. He was in a foul mood; everything seemed to make it worse. Stepping back onto the wooden platform he slid into a sitting position. "Something wrong Kohaku?" Kamaji asked looking over his perch high above the man.
"No." Kohaku replied bitterly, he was enjoying the silence of words in the boiler room.
"You've become a bad liar." The man's face became etched with wrinkles as his mouth formed a smiled.
Kohaku's gaze darted towards the man. It would have killed him, were it possible. "And you've become far too nosy."
"I've heard stories about you recently." The man leaned his saggy head on his boney hand. "The workers are losing confidence in you. At least Yubaba had money coming in."
The dragon boy twitched in anger as he was compared to the hag who had left the bath house to him after her defeat by Chihiro. He hated how she was higher than him, but no matter how he hated it, Kamaji, and the worker were right. Yubaba at least kept the bath house running properly. "Do you have nothing to say in your defense Kohaku?"
He was against admitting defeat, but gave in shortly after the elderly spirit's question. "No."
"You know Kohaku," The man scratched his stringy white mustache, "You could use some help. Why not that young girl… what's her name?"
"Chihiro…?" Kohaku replied in a monotone voice.
"That was her name! What about her?" The man gazed towards Kohaku with a knowing look.
"No, I won't bring her back here. She has a life I'm sure." Kohaku stood and brushed off soot from his clothes.
"Well then, figure out something else." Kamaji turned and continued to work.
Kohaku then excused himself from the man's presents and exited the side door. He stood on rickety pieces of ply wood nailed together crudely. He began to walk the stair to the up levels when a board snapped behind him and fell into the raging sea. Kohaku looked back to the space where the board once resided and walked slow to it. He knelt down and gazed at it, almost intrigued by it. As he concluded that there was nothing left to see, his rose. But he stopped in a half standing position and gazed at the boards next to the one that had fallen. They bent downwards as if a person was standing on them, they moaned as pressure was applied to them, as they had when Kohaku crossed them. He looked further up to see nothing but clear air, emptiness. He reached his hand forward, and grasped the air in front of him. When he felt nothing he pulled back his hand and gazed to the sky. He turned and continued walking. Touching the metal wall beside him, he thought of Kamaji's words.
"Figure out something else."He almost laughed.
His skin, that almost glowed in the bright sun , formed scales, and his hands stretched into long brown claws, sharp and deadly. Fangs began molding from his teeth, as white as snow. Once his body was completely transformed, he propelled himself off the wall leaving scratches and tears in the dull metal. He slithered through the air, pressing farther and farther away from the bath house. He shot off and became a shining speck in the sky. He wasn't running, far from that, he was finding the woman who started his pain. And he planned to make her fix it, or there would be hell for her to pay.
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End of chapter 3. I hope you enjoyed it, I must say I've enjoyed writing this story a lot more than the other stories I've started. Please review this story for me and tell me your thoughts. Thank you!