First day of the NaNoWriMo writing challenge!...and I'm already stuck on my original fantasy idea. Lovely. Aw well. At least I've got my fanfics inspiration pumping! Read, review, enjoy!
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First day on the job and Kate was nearly late. She ended up falling asleep in the boiler room, cuddling with Keith and her clothes under a blanket (provided by Kamaji). When they did wake up, Kate was flustered and apologized to the buizel many times over. Keith muttered something but Kate didn't catch it. They raced through the bathhouse, seeing through the windows that dark clouds quickly rolled in and brought heavy downpour of rain. The honchcrow with the human head (whose it was, Kate couldn't tell) flew around the top of the bathhouse. And the town of restaurants down below lit up their lanterns to combat the darkness outside.
Kate managed to make it to Lin, who did notice her missing after all. "Where were you Pika? I was worried."
"Sorry." Kate apologized, daring not to reveal a thing.
The bathhouse was busy once more, with workers going places. Lin showed Kate the ins and outs of the place as well as their duties. While Kate had done some impressive stuff as a ranger, she quickly found much of that wouldn't be used on the job. She kept slipping while washing the floorboards. A couple of times Kate clumsily tripped over the water bucket or on the wax. Keith had to help her out on more than one occasion, for which Kate was extremely grateful.
"Gee, Pika." Lin chuckled. "Haven't you worked a day in your life?"
The shiny politoed walked up to them, a clipboard in hand.
"Lin and Pika? You two get the big tub today." He informed.
"What! That's work for the politoeds!" Lin objected.
"Orders from the top so get to work." Shiny politoed commanded.
Lin grumbled some curses of sorts, asking Kate to pour the spare water they used outside. Kate nodded and did as requested. But opening the door and splashing the water into the courtyard gardens, she saw something. It was that ghost from the bridge. He was standing out there in the rain, watching her. Kate glanced back, seeing Keith with annoyed Lin.
"Um…" Kate cleared her throat and faced the odd spirit. "What're you doing outside? It's pretty wet out there."
No response. The spirit just stared at her with that frozen smile on its face.
"PIKA!" Lin called. "Hurry up!"
"I'll leave the door open for you." Kate said.
She grabbed the bucket and ran off to join Lin. Kate didn't see the spirit slowly walk into the bathhouse and then vanish into thin air. Instead, the girl followed Lin to where the giant bathtubs were. There were many of different sizes, each blocked off by private walls to ensure the privacy of the guests. Some of the guests were soaking in the tubs, attended by the other workers who rushed about.
"Heard you got the bug tub Lin!"
"Have fun in there!"
Lin grit her teeth. "Aw shut up…"
The big tub certainly lived up to its name. And Kate saw why Lin dreaded it. It was a gigantic mess! Straw & grass all over the place, sticking to the muck on the floors and the grime within the tub itself. As if this place wasn't cleaned up in months. Kate heard snickering coming from the other tubs, clearly her co-workers were having a laugh over this.
Kate gathered up as much grass as possible and formed a pile in one part of the room. Lin used a broom while Keith figured out how to spin his tails, blowing the grass away. That was the easier part of the cleaning. The trio climbed into the tub, scrubbing hard at the tub walls with their sponges.
"Ick…this sludge is really caked on…" Lin mumbled with disgust. "It'll take days to get this thing clean."
No kidding. Kate was trying to get even a single spot clean but no dice. There were multiple layers of this gross stuff.
"Lin! Pika! You've got customers on the way!" A politoed shouted.
"Hey give us a minute!" Lin shouted, throwing her sponge on the ground. "Grrr! This is clearly harassment! We'll have to soak this junk off…"
"What do you mean?" Kate asked.
"Get an herbal soak token from the foreman. You'll see what I mean." Lin instructed.
Kate nodded and started to climb out. Though she didn't realize the black sludge got to her feet and….
"Ack!"
BAM!
…yep. Big slip and slide down the tub. Keith sweatdropped and hopped down to the floor, next to Kate.
"You ok?" He asked.
Kate nodded.
"Remember! Herbal soak token from the foreman!" Lin called out.
"Got it!" Kate gave a thumbs up. "…hey Lin? Who's the foreman?"
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Yubaba sensed something. One moment, she had been counting her precious jewels and inspected them with detail. The next, her spirit senses were alert.
"Something's coming…" She said in a hushed voice.
She gathered the jewels into her jewelry box and placed the box away. The witch opened her windows, peering out into the rain-striken world before her.
"What useless, pitiful scum is sneaking around in the rain?" She muttered.
Down in the town, the lanterns were turning off. Shop keepers closed up. The town quickly turned dark and the spirits abandoned the streets. All was quiet and still.
…except the thing Yubaba sensed. The thing that was making its way through town and over to the bathhouse.
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"I can't waste a token on you. Now get back to work."
Kate tried to ask the foreman, aka the shiny politoed, for that herbal bath token but was rejected. He seemed to really dislike her. Especially since he was giving all the other employees whatever they requested. The foreman put on a happy face for them all but glared at Kate with fierceness.
"What are you still doing here? I'm not giving you a token." The foreman huffed but then turned sickeningly sweet to a guest. "Relax! Enjoy your stay!"
"But I was told it has to be a herbal token." Kate said.
"Too bad." The foreman sneered.
"Jerk…" Keith growled.
From behind him, something started to appear. The spirit from before? Kate blinked and tipped her head, wondering if she was seeing things. The spirit gave a slight bow of its head and vanished once more. Foreman Politoed turned around to see what Kate was staring at but the phone rang.
"Foreman speaking." He said. "Yes everything's…huh?"
A bath token suddenly rose into the air. The shocked foreman tried to get it back but it zipped past him, into Kate's hands.
"Hey! What the hell is…"
"Thank you!" Kate dashed off, happy about the good fortune.
"Hey get back here!" The foreman crossly yelled after her. "Wait a minute!"
"WHAT'S GOING ON DOWN THERE!" Yubaba, who was on the phone, raged.
"Er, nothing! Nothing at all ma'am!" The foreman sweatdropped.
"We have an intruder." Yubaba warned.
"Another human?" The foreman asked.
"Not quite sure yet." Yubaba replied. "Figure it out and report back to me."
Meanwhile, back at the big tub, Lin was quite impressed with the bath token Kate got.
"Wow. You got a good one!" Lin looked it over. "Ready to see how the bath works?"
"Sure." Kate said.
"Alright then." Lin demonstrated through everything. "On the wall, there's a wooden panel loose. In here, its on the tree trunk of the mural. Open it, grab the rope and attach the bath token. Then yank it and it disappears. Goes straight to Kamaji who gives us the water."
Within a second, another panel near the top opened up. A water spout came down and hung over the bath. There was a rope attached to it.
"Pull on the rope to get the water started." Lin went on. "Care to do the honor?"
Kate got to the top of the tub and grabbed the rope. She pulled on it hard…too hard. As water came gushing out, she ended up slipping again and fell on the edge of the bathtub. Keith was trying hard not to laugh. The bathtub quickly started to fill up on water, with a peculiar aroma coming from it.
"What's in this stuff?" Kate asked, using the rope to climb back up.
"Dried worm salts, garden herbs and some minerals of sorts. Supposed to be good for you. And with the water so murky, you can't see the sludge in the tub." Lin answered. "Yank the rope again when the tub's full. And…uh…you know can let go of the rope. Right?"
Quickly, Kate released the rope from her grip. Lin was starting to leave, mentioning she was going to get some breakfast. Kate smiled and watched the tub slowly gather water. Lin was right. Impossible to see the grime and goo that once covered this tub.
"Kate?" Keith whispered. "Look over there."
Kate did so, turning to a corner of the room. The same spirit from outside and at the foreman's desk was now there. It stared at her, not doing anything. Weird. She hopped down (nearly slipping again) as the spirit walked over to her.
"Sorry sir but the bath's not ready yet." Kate told him.
From the corner of her eye, she noticed Keith's fur was suddenly getting sharper. Seemed to stick up a little as Keith went into a cautious stance.
"I don't trust this guy, Kate…" He mumbled, keeping a close eye on them.
The spirit didn't notice Keith, instead holding its hands out to the girl. In it were tons of bath tokens of different kinds. "Ah. Ah, ah."
"So many of them. Are those for me?" Kate asked.
"Ah. Ah." The spirit nodded.
It pushed its hands eerily close to Kate, urging her to take the bath tokens. This was getting a little awkward.
"Sorry but I don't need any more." Kate refused. "Thanks for the help, though."
Didn't seem like the spirit understood. It thrust its hands out to Kate, trying to get her to take the bath tokens.
"Hey, when a girl says no, she means it." Keith growled. "We're fine with one bath token."
The spirit shrunk back, finally getting it. It started to fade, disappearing into the air again. The bath tokens fell through its hands and clattered onto the floor. Kate, despite being confused by what happened, gathered the tokens one by one.
"Thanks. But what's up with you?" Kate asked.
"What do you mean?" Keith handed her a stray token.
"Fur sticking up, teeth baring, the pose you were in. You suddenly got so protective." Kate said.
Keith turned red, then turned away. "….maybe the buizel instincts got to me."
"Don't go full pokemon on me now, buddy." Kate pat his head. "We've got a long ways to go before nailing your spell and getting out of here."
"No worries. I can handle anything." Keith assured. "Hey are we forgetting something?"
Kate put the bath tokens in a spare cleaning bucket. "What do you mean?"
"Feels like we're forgetting something." Keith repeated. "…hm? How'd the floor get wet?"
"AW CRAP! We forgot to watch the bathtub!"
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Not much to say here except that the next chapter is coming soon! Now off for pizza and writing through the night!
