Yawning, I stretched, flinging my arms out carelessly and—thunk. My right arm hit something solid. I opened my eyes, blinking at the brightness of the morning. Looking to my right, I saw a very sleepy Haku blocking my arm with his. Why was . . . ?
"You could've hurt me, you know," Haku grumbled, lowering his arm.
Blushing madly, I snatched my arm back.
"Don't tell me you forgot I was here!" he exclaimed, pretending to be affronted.
"I won't, then," I replied.
"So cold," he complained. Silence settled into the room, both of us staring at the ceiling.
"I should probably leave," Haku reasoned, sounding as if he was trying to convince himself.
"Probably," I echoed, with even less conviction.
"Otherwise someone will walk in," he guessed.
"Probably," I reiterated.
"And then . . . I don't want to think about it."
"Definitely."
After a moment of silence, Haku asked, "You're sure you want to stay here?" He wasn't talking about my room anymore.
"Where else can I go?" I wasn't talking about my room anymore, either.
"There's no one . . . else back there?" Haku inquired, voice devoid of emotion.
No one . . . else? "If you mean friends, I don't mind leaving Li and Henry. And Sylvia," I replied hesitantly.
"That's not what I meant," Haku said, frustration creeping into his voice. "There's no one special to you back there?"
"No?" If he meant anyone I loved, there was only one person in that category. And he was lying right next to me.
"Oh." Was it just my imagination, or did he sound relieved? "Forgive me for being so nosy."
"It's fine."
With a groan, Haku stretched and rolled onto his side to face me. I faced him, too, and we stared at each other.
"You're so beautiful," Haku commented.
I could only stare at him, shocked. "Eh?"
"I . . ." Haku flushed. "Sorry, I didn't mean to say that."
"So you don't think I'm beautiful?" I asked, slightly hurt.
"No, you are!" Haku assured me. "I just . . . I suppose it's not my place to say that, but . . ." he reddened again. "And I'm sorry for intruding upon you like this. It's improper, and I wasn't quite myself yesterday."
It felt like he was raising a wall between us, a wall I wanted to crack and crumble.
"I—it's fine," I replied. Now miles stretched between us.
Haku levered himself off the bed, wincing a bit. He walked over to the window, drawing the curtains back so light shone in. I cautiously got out of bed, too, grimacing at how sore I was. Dragon riding was not comfortable, to say the least.
"I'll go now. You should have breakfast soon," Haku said, turning towards the door.
Just as he opened the door, I grabbed on to the back of his shirt. Haku froze, then closed the door and faced me.
"Thank you," I murmured, not quite looking at him. "For protecting me. If there's anything I can do in return—"
Before I could finish, Haku hugged me tightly. "Just be yourself," he whispered, kissing my forehead and sweeping out the door.
I touched the place he'd kissed. Men were so confusing. At times, it seemed Haku cared about me. At others, it seemed he didn't. Why couldn't he just make up his mind?
When I came down to have breakfast, I only had time to see a flash of black hair before Masuka careened into me, making me stumble.
"Are you okay, Chihiro?" she asked, fervently checking me over for injuries.
"I'm fine," I reassured her. She had a few scratches here and there, but they looked superficial, so I didn't worry.
"I was so scared!" she cried, burying her head in my shoulder.
"Don't be," I told her. "Haku was with me." He would protect me, I realized. He'd said as much earlier. He really did care.
"I suppose," she sniffed. "I don't really trust him, though."
"Thanks," Haku replied, walking into the room with two bowls of rice.
"You abandoned her after making a promise like that!"
"I thought we already sorted that out."
"Whatever. If you harm one hair on her head, I'll skin you," Masuka threatened.
"Masuka!" I exclaimed.
"And I'll make it so you won't ever have children again," Rin added, walking in.
"Why am I surrounded by scary women?" Haku muttered, running a hand through his hair.
I detached myself from Masuka and walked over to a window. Blue sky with no clouds greeted me. How could it be that a war raged and tore spirits apart while nothing had changed in the bathhouse?
In the background, I could hear Rin and Masuka arguing about something, per usual, but I didn't pay them any attention.
What good was it to have a war when it didn't affect everyone? Then the people it didn't affect wouldn't take it seriously. Reality always seems so far away, I thought.
"Overthinking much?" Haku said, suddenly behind me.
"Maybe."
"Don't wear yourself out," he advised.
Sighing, I faced him. "Why did there have to be a war when I finally got back to the spirit world? And I still need to get Masuka back to the human world."
"True, the solstice is coming up," Haku observed.
"When is it, exactly?"
"In . . . three weeks, I think," he told me. "That's plenty of time to get to the portal. At least, it would be without the war. The war is currently being fought around the center of the world. Zeniba's house isn't far from it, which is why there were bombings. That's just the outskirts, though," Haku explained with a grimace. "The center of the spirit world is in the middle of a labyrinth, and the war around it is so intense that you'd probably be vaporized even before you got to it."
"Vaporized?!" I exclaimed, horrified.
"Well, magic is the most efficient way for spirits to fight, so there's a lot of vaporization. Even when a spirit is physically wounded, it doesn't affect their magic. The magical body and the physical body are two different things."
"How am I supposed to get to the center, then?" I asked, putting my head in my hands. "I don't have magic. I can't defend myself."
"Zeniba and I will have to go with you," Haku said. "But I don't know if that will be enough."
"We have to try."
"Yes. We'll try."
"They have admirable courage, Ametsuru. I see not why you dislike the human so."
"She disrupts the balance, Yinaku," Ametsuru boomed in his gravelly voice. "Humans are not meant to live with spirits."
"What is the point of being immortal, then? If we are stagnant in our age and nothing changes?" Yinaku challenged, her clear voice echoing through the great hall. "Is it not the same as death?"
"Still, I do not like it. Let us make a wager. If the human can find her magic and get to the portal, I will let her stay."
"Ametsuru!" Yinaku snapped. "If? There is no way the human can get through the vaporization walls you have set up even with magic! Even the river spirit would not be able to get through them!"
"There is a way. You, of all spirits, should know it. The river spirit must give up part of his spirit heart. Perhaps he will lose some of his morals, perhaps not. But that is the only way the human can survive."
"It is dangerous," Yinaku warned. "They will most likely die."
"If — if — they die, it will mean that they were never meant to be together in the first place," Ametsuru stated calmly. "And if they do not die, well, we shall see what happens."
When night finally came, I was so glad to go back to my room. As I rounded the corner and reached the door of the bedroom I shared with Masuka, I heard her voice.
"Yes, I know," she said. Who was she talking to? "I'll make sure she gets there." Huh? "Yes. Don't worry about me. I know. Even if it costs me everything, I will do it." What?! "Yes. Thank you. Bye."
I crept in silently, but Masuka was the only one in the room. "Masuka?"
Masuka jumped and turned to face me. "Chihiro! Are you going to go to bed soon?"
"Yes. I'm exhausted and I hurt," I complained, deciding to forget about Masuka talking to nobody. I'd seen weirder things. She was probably making a phone call. Assuming phones worked in the spirit world, which I didn't know because I'd left my phone in my car . . .
"Why didn't you say something earlier?" Masuka reprimanded, crossing her arms. "You're injured and you stayed up this late!"
"Sorry," I said sheepishly.
Masuka ordered, "Now go to sleep, otherwise Haku will worry."
Complacently, I readied myself for bed, turning off the lights and slipping under the blanket. "Do you think we'll make it to the portal, Masuka?" I asked hesitantly.
"Of course," she replied assuredly. "Don't worry. Not even a war can stop us."
"You're right, I suppose."
"Of course I'm right," Masuka sniffed. "I'm always right. Never forget that."
That night, the clouds covered the moon and stars. The wind whipped around the spirit world, and almost seemed to argue with itself.
Five Days Later
"Chihiro, wake up!" Masuka exclaimed, making me groan.
"I know, I know," I mumbled. "I'll be up in five."
"You don't understand! The war has stopped!"
What?
For the past five days, the war had spread even to the bathhouse, where business ceased and customers had hurried home lest they be stuck there. Flaming arrows, poison arrows, ice arrows, all sorts of arrows flew. Bombs struck the ground around the bathhouse and bounced around the protective bubble Yubaba had erected. For the first time, Masuka and I caught a glimpse, then more than a glimpse, of the "soldiers" who fought the war. They were awful.
Farmers, merchants, all sorts of spirits had joined in this brutal war. Limbs went flying, and every time a head hit the barrier (which was only twenty feet away from the bathhouse's outer wall), I cringed. Though harming a spirit's physical body didn't harm its magical one, it certainly disrupted concentration, resulting in an enemy's advantage. And, like humans, a spirit missing a head was not really a spirit at all.
The one answer I wanted kept evading me, though. What were spirits fighting about? No one knew. Not Haku, not Rin, not Kamaji. When I asked Yubaba, she said, "Aren't all wars about the same thing? Power?" and left it at that. I even went back to the library and asked Ume, but she claimed not to know. I suspected she was lying, but I didn't say anything. It wasn't even really my business since I wasn't a spirit.
Haku looked worried all the time now. Everytime he passed a window, he glanced outside anxiously. It made me worry endlessly, too, that he should be this worried. How often did spirits have wars? Were they usually this harsh? It frustrated me to no end that no one had, or was willing to disclose, any information on this war.
"Come on, Chihiro!" Masuka demanded, but I was already out of bed and getting dressed.
"In the closet, there are two sacks. Get them," I instructed, putting on the clothes I'd brought from the human world, which I'd retrieved from the soot balls earlier.
"What are these?" Masuka asked, holding up both sacks. One was a nondescript drawstring bag I'd filled with nonperishable food, water, and the like, and the other was bigger, filled with sleeping bags (at least, the spirit world equivalent).
"Stuff for the trip. I've had the essentials bag for days. And I did not pack any books, mind you."
"Books?"
"Haku. We need to find Haku." I opened the door and found Haku outside, poised to knock.
"The war—" we began at the same time.
I cracked a smile. "We should be going. Who knows when it will start again."
"My thoughts exactly." Haku sighed. "I suppose we'll have to wait for Rin."
"What'd I miss?" Rin demanded, skidding to a halt next to Haku.
"Nothing," I told her. "We need to try to get to the portal though."
"Right. That'll be easy." Rin led us down the hall, not stopping to talk to anybody.
"What about—" I started to ask.
"I already received Yubaba's permission," Rin said. "She lent us some supplies, too, can you believe it? Although what she gave us is kind of weird, but I won't complain."
Our little group made it through the bathhouse uninterrupted until we reached the bridge.
There Yubaba stood, just on the bathhouse side of the bridge. "I won't say good luck," she decided, "but I will say this: when in doubt, remember the red threads. Fate is the only true contender in the competition of life. Now shoo, before the war starts again and I have to clean up your goo."
"Thank you, Yubaba," I said, bowing. "I won't fail! Hopefully . . ."
With that inspiring parting, we bid goodbye to the bathhouse and the various residents not brave enough to venture outside, but daring enough to stand by the windows and wave.
I only hoped I made it back.
A/N: Sorry again for the long wait. Updates will now be infrequent, but I'll try my best to write when I can. Note to self: never again make up a story as you go along again. Doesn't work. Thanks for your patience, and REVIEW! It will make me way more motivated to update the next chapter quickly. Which, believe me, I need.