The Wait 2.0: The Month of New Life
The next morning, Shou continued to show Chihiro around the shelter. Haku had to tend to other administrative matters in the shelter so he did not accompany them.
After breakfast, the two stopped by the field at the courtyard of the shelter. It was a large space covered with lush, green grass. Drops of morning dew on the soft blades shone under the sun like little diamonds scattered all about. The field was surrounded by bushes and shrubs dotted with flowers of various colors. Many spirits were out for a casual walk in the courtyard, and as they passed Shou and Chihiro they gave a smile in acknowledgement, though others who were more reserved avoided eye contact. Most of the spirits around at this time were elderly spirits who were seated on wooden benches watching the children playing in the field.
Peals of laughter filled the fresh, sweet morning air. A smile touched Chihiro's lips at the sight of the playing children. Their hair were of varying shades, and it looked like a lovely mess of rainbow colors on the field from where she was. Some of them also had peculiar skin colors, as well as notable features such as pristine white wings sprouting from a certain child's back or black stripes marking another's wrists and arms. There were others who looked like human children as well.
Momentarily Chihiro wondered if she would be able to draw portraits of some of them. Hopefully they wouldn't be too scared of her though — she had no idea what sort of rumors about humans were commonly spread amongst the spirits here.
"What game are they playing?" she wondered, turning to Shou who was watching them with a curiously wide grin on his face.
"Just a game of tag," he replied vaguely, his eyes fixated on them with a bright smile on his face, appearing more than eager to join them. Chihiro smiled to herself, amused by how childlike the man was despite his age. Apparently, he was just a hundred years younger than Haku, which made him an old man too.
"Wanna play with them?" Shou asked.
Chihiro stared at him, arching a brow. "You... do realize that I can't walk on my own, let alone run, right?"
"Don't sweat the minor details, Chihiro. That's no fun," he teased, patting her shoulder.
"Define 'minor'—"
"Let's go!" Despite her protests, he began wheeling her towards the field at an alarming pace, shouting, "Hey! You guys!"
The children all paused from their game, snapping their heads in their direction. Their lips were parted as they panted, some bending over and resting their hands on their knees as they tried to catch their breaths while others fanned themselves with their little hands, beads of sweat rolling down their flushed faces.
While some of them initially looked excited to see Shou, their glee quickly faded when they noticed the woman together with Shou. Chihiro reached a hand up to pat Shou's hands that gripped the handles to her chair — this was clearly a bad idea. The children seemed rather wary of her, some backing away and until all of them eventually huddled in a big group. The thought that they resembled penguins struck Chihiro with some amusement.
"Oh come on, you guys. What, not happy to see me?" Shou asked.
The children peered up from what seemed to be a strategic military meeting of sorts to glance at the two of them, before returning to their talk for a little more. Shou sighed, and Chihiro whispered, "This is a bad idea. We should just go and not bother them."
"Nah, they'll be fine. Look." He pointed, and Chihiro turned back around to see a young boy striding towards them with a brave face put on; albeit one that seemed a little forced. He locked gazes with her, and she marveled at the deep, blue hue of his eyes. His hair was a lighter shade of blue more similar to that of the sky.
"Kai, you look like you're preparing to fight somebody. Stop that. It's rude," Shou chided with a click of his tongue.
"You're a human," he stated, ignoring Shou's words.
Chihiro blinked, not exactly sure how this conversation would end up. "Yes... I am," she replied.
"But you don't stink."
"Kai." Shou's voice was sharp, and the boy visibly lost some of the resolve he had initially, though his chest remained puffed out. It was cute.
"Are you gonna hurt us? They say humans spread diseases and stuff too."
"Well, I don't carry any contagious disease, that's for sure," Chihiro answered with a kind smile. "And I would never hurt you guys. Besides, I can't exactly move right now," she said with a grimace, pointing to her legs.
That seemed to satisfy Kai, and he looked back at his group of friends who were watching them intently, gesturing for them to come forward.
Chihiro heard Shou release a sigh behind her. "Guys, she's perfectly fine. She's really nice, and she's the same age as most of you, so you'll get along fine."
It was her turn to sigh now. Did he really have to bring that up again? She was certain that he would keep harping on the fact just because she called him an old man once. He was impossibly petty. But that fact appeared to pique the interest of the spirit children, whose eyes were wide as they stared at her, scrutinizing her features.
"But she looks so old!"
"She looks like you, Shou!"
"Hey! I'm not old!" He shook a fist at them in mock anger, making them giggle cutely. A couple more questions later, the children were comfortable enough to get up close to her, although there were a few others who remained wary of her, understandably.
"Does that hurt?" A girl, Mariko, questioned as she pointed at Chihiro's bandages.
"Not that much anymore, thanks for asking," Chihiro smiled. Mariko returned the smile with a toothy grin, and Chihiro noticed her white, tiny fangs.
"Shou-nii! Do you wanna play with us?" Chihiro turned her attention to the man who had somehow turned into a mini-playground for the children. There were five of them in total on him. Two of them were wrapped around each of his legs, one was clinging onto his back, another clinging to his front and one more settled on his shoulders, wrapping his arms around Shou's face. They laughed as they watched him attempt to move around like a clumsy bear, his movement proving near impossible with all the weight on him.
"Get off me and maybe I will," he grunted, shaking his body lightly. The tremors only made the children cling tighter to him as they screamed and laughed.
"Do you want to play too, Chihiro-nee?" Kai asked fondly. He had taken to her quite quickly, as she did him. Any tension between them initially had dissolved completely, and Kai was proving to be a very outgoing and friendly boy.
Chihiro shook her head with an apologetic smile. "Sorry, but I don't think I can play with you guys like this," she said, gesturing to the chair and her legs. "I'll just watch."
"But that's boring. C'mon! We can all play a simple game." Kai took her hand in his sweaty one and tugged her forward towards the center of the field.
A while later, everyone was gathered in the field and split into two opposing teams. Chihiro was in the same team as Kai, and Shou was in the opposing team. Each team stood in a row, facing the opposing team, while Kai stood in the middle to announce the rules of the game.
"Chihiro-nee, you know what Hanaichimonme is, right?"
The woman nodded. "It's been a long time since I played it," she commented, though hardly surprised that traditional games would still be popular amongst spirit children. These games were hardly played by human children now, since computer and video games were so much more popular and engaging.
"It's probably different from the human version of it," Shou warned, flashing her a smirk.
She eyed him warily. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"You'll see."
The game began quite normally, going according to what she remembered playing as a child. Two members would be randomly chosen from each team to meet in the middle and play rock-paper-scissors. The winner would return to his or her team and then both teams would sing the hanaichimonme song, before the winning team decided who it was they wanted from the opposing team.
It was simple enough for a children's game. However, what Chihiro was not expecting was the startling show of power from the children over it.
It happened when it was Kai's turn to play from her team, and Mariko emerged from the opposing team. There were murmurs of approval and comments of how it was a good match-up. That struck Chihiro as a little odd. What kind of match-up would actually be needed in a game of rock-paper-scissors? She kept mum though, deciding to observe and see where this would go.
The two children met in the middle, raising their hands and chanting, "Jan, ken, pon!" Both flashed rock, the first time there was a tie in the game.
That was when it started.
Cheers erupted from both teams as the ground began to tremble and a circle of bright, yellow light surrounded the two. Chihiro's jaw fell slack as she dumbly watched the two shoot up into the air while standing on the large spherical piece fo soil that had been magically removed from the ground. And then, the children began to clap in sync in a moderate pace, chanting the syllables of "ha-na-i-chi-mo-n-me" with each clap.
As they chanted, Kai and Mariko began their showdown. Mariko brought a hand up, causing tremors to tear through the entire sphere. She maintained perfect balance atop the sphere, but Kai nearly fell off, though he managed to keep his balance by clawing his hands into the dirt. He was hanging perilously off the edge of the sphere, making Chihiro gasp. The others didn't seem concerned by it, however. They merely cheered louder as Kai appeared to be preparing a counter-attack.
The boy pulled his arm back and landed a punch in the center of the soil, burying his arm in it. Cracks and fissures formed in the sphere, growing till it began to break apart. Flakes and chunks of dirt fell neatly back into the gaping hole in the field that it had emerged from, but the two were not done yet. Stepping on a chunk of the soil, Kai launched himself at Mariko, who attempted to kick him away, but it appeared to be of no effect.
It was now the third time chanting 'hanaichimonme', and the chanting grew louder with every syllable, signaling the nearing of the end of the battle. Kai and Mariko were falling, both of them fighting to switch positions so they wouldn't be the one on the bottom. Mariko seemed to be able to use force from her palms alone to push Kai off of her, except that it seemed to not be effective as he somehow managed to stay on top by tweaking his positions every now and then.
Just before the last syllable was called, the two landed in the dirt, causing dust to fly upwards, obscuring everyone's vision of the outcome. Chihiro shouted in alarm, worried that they were injured, but the boy, Hiro, next to her assured her that the game was perfectly safe and that they would be able to protect themselves with magic.
When the dust cleared, everyone found Mariko sitting victoriously on top of a rather sour Kai. Mariko's team cheered in victory as she returned to them with a smug look. Kai dusted himself off as he got up and marched back to his team, where everyone still congratulated him on a job well done. "Man, I was so sure I would win her this time," he pouted, folding his arms across his chest and staring defiantly at the ground. The small lift of the corner of his lips betrayed his sour demeanour, however, and his team gave him pats of encouragement, saying that he would be able to do it someday.
"What was that?" Chihiro asked, still mystified by the whole thing.
"It's a friendly duel that happens when there is a tie in rock-paper-scissors to determine which team wins," Kai explained. "Both of us chose 'rock', so the winner would be the one who is the last to fall off the rock."
"But Mariko landed on top of him, so that means he lost," Hiro teased, earning himself a glare from Kai.
"Okay, we need to sing the song and then they're gonna take someone from our team."
The round ended with the second verse of the hanaichimonme song and the opposing team choosing Riko, a little girl with green pigtails, over to their team.
The game continued a couple more rounds, and then it was Chihiro's turn to get picked. Dread filled her when she noticed Shou walking towards the middle as well. If this ended in a tie, what was she supposed to do? She would lose, no questions asked.
"Ready to lose?" he smirked, drawing his fist back already.
"How can you be so sure you'll win?" she challenged, not about to back down so easily. She drew her fist back as well.
"Because I'm the king of rock-paper-scissors!"
"But Shou-nii, you always lose!" Kai yelled.
"Kai, you jerk! Stop saying things that make me look like a liar!"
Chihiro laughed, adding, "I can't believe you're letting a kid walk all over you like that."
"Only because I let him."
"Yeah, right."
"Okay, if this ends in a tie, how are we going to fight this out?" he asked. "Because you obviously can't use magic to win me."
"We could just re-do the round," Chihiro suggested, which was quickly shot down by Shou as too "lame".
"We'll each think of a dare. Loser is the one who can't carry it out," he suggested with a smirk, and Chihiro contemplated this for a moment. She was certain that he would come up with a ridiculous dare, but so could she.
Meeting his gaze evenly, she tipped her chin upwards in defiance. As if she would back down so easily. "Deal."
"I like your boldness," he grinned.
They raised their fists, but just before they could begin, a loud call of his name stopped the game.
"Koushou! Hey!"
Chihiro and the man in question both turned to see a woman with bright pink hair calling for him, carrying three stacked, heavy-looking crates in her arms. "I need you to go with me to the storeroom to check out something, are you free now?"
"Yeah!" he called, before hastily excusing himself from the group, much to the dismay of the children. "You guys have fun with Chihiro. And Chihiro? I'll meet you back at the cafeteria around lunchtime, okay? Or you could go back to the sick bay and get some rest — do you know the way back?"
"Yes, I do. I'll be fine on my own. You should go."
"Okay, I'll be back soon!" With a quick wave, he sprinted across the field towards the pink-haired lady, offering to take the crates for her.
A while later, Chihiro decided to take a break by the side and let the children play something more engaging, since it was clear they were getting bored of hanaichimonme already. They were back to playing tag as she watched quietly by the side.
Her eyes roamed around the field wanting to take in the scenery here and commit it to memory. Perhaps it would be a good idea to go back to the sick bay and get her bag.
She was about to wheel herself out when she noticed Haku passing by, and she called out to him. "Haku!"
He heard her, pausing in his tracks and looking in her direction. All he offered in response was a small smile, before turning back and heading back to wherever it was that he was going. She couldn't help but notice that as he passed by the other spirits walking about, they would avert his gaze and steer clear of his path with peculiar wariness.
"Chihiro-nee?" Chihiro looked behind her shoulder to see the children all running towards her like a herd of cattle, evidently forgetting all about their game. They looked like they had just seen a ghost.
"What's wrong?" she asked worriedly. Did they need a break from their playing? It was getting pretty hot now that it was close to midday.
"Chihiro-nee," Kai tugged on her sleeve and stared at her with wide eyes. "D-Did you just call him H-Haku?"
His uncharacteristic stuttering prompted her to raise an eyebrow questioningly. "Yes... Is there something wrong?"
A series of gasps and exclamations of surprise erupted amongst the children, and Kai let go of her sleeve in astonishment. She furrowed her eyebrows, concerned by the fuss that they were making. "What's wrong?"
"It's just... No one would dare to call Kohaku-nii by his old name, Haku," Mariko said.
"He hates that name," Kai added. "Once I called him Haku-nii and he got pretty mad."
"Mad?" Chihiro frowned at the thought of an angry Haku. She got the feeling she wouldn't ever want to see that side of him. "Did he scold you?" she asked.
"Nah, he didn't. But we could tell that he was upset because of it, so we stopped calling him that. It's like an unspoken rule here in the shelter. Everyone knows about it," Kai replied.
"Oh... I didn't know. Haku- I mean, Kohaku didn't seem to mind at all when I called him by his old name. It's out of habit more than anything, really."
The children exchanged puzzled glances, but in the end they concluded that it would be safer for her to address him as Kohaku from now on.
"It's nearing the Month of New Life, after all."
Catching the look of confusion on her face, Hiro questioned, "You don't know about it?"
"Is there something special about this Month of New Life?"
"It's..." Mariko appeared rather uncertain as she trailed off. The other children exchanged similar expressions, but then Kai nudged her, indicating for her to speak. "There used to be a lady helping out here in the shelter," Mariko said. "Sora-nee was really nice too, and she was really close to Kohaku-nii."
"There was even talk about them becoming mates," Hiro added, and there were murmurs of approval. Chihiro was surprised to learn about this. So Haku had a lover in the past? He never mentioned it, nor did Shou, Kamaji or Lin.
Her name somehow struck a chord with her. Had she heard it somewhere before?
"Did something happen to her? Where is she now?"
"No one knows what happened," Mariko said sadly. "All we know is that one day she left for a job and she never returned from it."
"Kohaku-nii has never been the same since," Hiro added. "I still remember how he was when he got back to the shelter that night... I've never seen anyone look so scary before."
Kai nodded. "I was there with Hiro too. That's why we don't really bother him when it's near her death anniversary. His mood is always particularly foul at this time of the year."
"That's terrible..." Chihiro frowned as a heaviness tugged at her heart. She knew all too well how it felt to lose a loved one... "Did it happen recently?"
"It's been three years," Mariko answered. "But all of us still miss her just as much."
"We don't talk about it much though. Kohaku-nii's the one who's hurting the most."
"I see..." Chihiro wondered if there was anything that she could do to help. The only time she had been of any help was in giving him back his name.
Even then, names could be returned. Loved ones would not. Nor would broken hearts ever heal entirely.
Chihiro did not have much of an appetite for lunch, so all she did was sit at the table together with the children. They were all ravenous after a full morning of playing outdoors, and they wolfed down their food hungrily. It allowed them to push the thoughts of Sora out of their minds for the time being.
"Oh, you're here." Chihiro looked up at the sound of Shou's voice, and he waved at the other children as well. "You're not eating anything?" he asked, worry plain in his disapproving gaze.
"Not hungry," she shrugged. "I'll eat something later."
"Do you not like the food here? I'm on lunch duty, so I can check if there's stuff out back for you."
"Thanks Shou, but it's fine. I'm really not hungry."
"Are you sure? You should eat more, especially since you're so thin."
"I'm really fine, Shou." They heard a few people calling his name from a distance. "You should go," she urged.
"Fine..." He sounded reluctant. "Oh, by the way Chihiro, mind doing me a favour?"
"What is it?"
"I'm on lunch duty so I can't bring Kohaku's lunch to his room. Could you do that for me? And make sure he actually eats it and not just leave it alone in a corner."
"Of course."
After a couple of wrong turns down the hallways, Chihiro managed to find her way to the dragon's room. His tray of food was resting on her lap as she wheeled her chair forward to knock on the door.
There was no answer. He was probably not in the room at the moment. What should she do? Chihiro supposed she could leave the tray of food outside his door, but putting his food on the floor would be a bad idea. What if he kicked it over when he was entering the room?
She tried the knob and found that the door was unlocked. Resolving to put the tray somewhere and making a quick exit, she pushed the door open and entered. The room was brightly illuminated, the sun's rays streaming in through the clear, open glass window. Chihiro had always imagined Haku to be the neat, organized type, but the dismal state of his room was proving her otherwise. His bed was not made, the blanket haphazardly collected in a small mountainous heap on the floor next to the bed, the indent of his head still clear on his pillow. Stray pieces of paper littered the floor, and his trash can was knocked over, with crushed pieces of paper spilling out of it. The room smelled a little stale, but there was a hint of the smell of rain and fresh water. His scent.
Chihiro snapped herself out of her thoughts. This wasn't the time to be inspecting his room. She had to leave quickly, or risk getting caught by him in his room acting like she was snooping around.
Thankfully, his desk was not too cluttered. Carefully, she lifted the tray and placed it atop it, making sure not to disturb the piles of paper near it. With her job done, Chihiro wheeled herself backwards and was about to leave when a sudden strong gust of wind through the open window sent the piles of paper flying into the air and falling to the floor like dead autumn leaves.
Chihiro frantically moved forward to pin the pieces of paper down with her arms, looking around for possible items that she could use as paperweights. There were a couple of brushes on his table, and she decided they would have to do. After pinning them down on the table and neatening the stacks, she got to work picking up the pieces of paper from the floor.
It was a hassle having to bend down and reach for them, since she couldn't exactly get off her wheelchair. She managed to pick up a few pieces of paper, and was careful not to crumple them as she placed them on her lap.
She reached down to pick up yet another piece of paper, and was surprised to find that it was a drawing instead of the formal documents she had been picking up earlier. It looked like a child's scribbles, and was a simple illustration of a stick figure with long, blue hair. The background was that of a cloudy blue sky.
Did Haku draw this, by any chance?
"Help..."
Startled by the sudden sound, Chihiro flinched back and dropped the paper. It fluttered to the ground slowly. What... What was that? A voice? It sounded strangely familiar.
"Chihiro?"
The woman turned towards the door to see Haku standing there. "What are you doing here?" He stepped in, and she handed the stack of papers in her lap to him, point at the tray with her free hand. "Shou told me to get you lunch, and I was going to leave but the wind blew and sent your papers flying."
"I see." He accepted the papers from her and bent down to take the picture that she had been looking at earlier.
Chihiro wasn't sure if she imagined him stiffening when he laid his eyes on the drawing.
"Did... you draw it?" she asked softly.
"No." His answer was curt, and he stood up, placing the papers back on the desk and waving his hand once in a full circle. The other pieces of paper began magically floating up from the floor back towards the desk, arranging themselves back into neat piles.
"You should leave."
The stark coldness in his voice startled the woman a little. This was completely different from how he was last night. This wasn't the Haku she knew. A part of her knew that the best thing to do would be to make a hasty exit from his room and not say anything else to him, but she wasn't exactly thinking at the time.
So being the genius she was, Chihiro blurted, "Is that a picture of Sora?"
Haku's head jerked towards her with immense force, a mix of confusion and pained anger swimming in his green eyes. "Why do you know her name?"
"I... I was talking with the children earlier, and they told me what they knew about it..." She trailed off uncertainly, feeling any confidence she had evaporate under his piercing gaze. His lower lip trembled and she watched his hands that were by his sides slowly ball into tight fists.
"Sorry for bringing it up," she muttered, dropping her gaze to the floor, the tense atmosphere unbearably suffocating right then. "If- If there's anything I can do to help, I can lend you a listening ear. I mean- I'm not- I know what it feels to lose someone you love, so—"
"I said, you should leave. Now." The sharp warning in his voice didn't go unnoticed by the woman, and she even swore she heard a low growl in the back of his throat as he turned his back to her.
"Sorry..." Without a moment's hesitation, Chihiro spun around and left the room. The moment she was out of his room, the door slammed shut behind her, the sudden loud sound making her jump a good few centimeters from her seat.
Her heart still pounding in her chest as she reeled from the shock and the aftermath of that tense exchange, Chihiro blankly sat in her wheelchair for a good few minutes, chiding herself for being so insensitive and bringing up something that the children had already told her not to say to the hurting man. A pang of guilt hit her for making the situation worse than it already was. Well, it wasn't as if she could do anything to help. Only time could heal wounds that deep, and even then the scars would remain. Haku didn't seem like he would be getting over Sora's death anytime soon.
After a while more the woman finally found the sense to leave and head back to the sick bay. On the way back to the sick bay, she bumped into Shou, who greeted her cheerfully as usual, but noting her listlessness, was quick to voice his concern.
"I just said something bad to Haku- I mean, Kohaku," she said miserably, burying her face in her hands.
"Did he told you to stop calling him Haku?"
"No, he didn't," she replied.
"Then what happened?"
Chihiro briefly recounted the encounter earlier to Shou, who listened with an uncharacteristically grave expression on his face. Once she was finished, Shou wordlessly went behind her and began wheeling her somewhere.
"Where are we going?" she asked.
"Since you already know this much, you might as well learn everything about Kohaku's past."
Shou brought her out to the small, empty garden in the shelter. The place smelled of herbs and spices that were being cultivated for use by the shelter's residents. There was no one else in sight, and they came to a stop by a small pond filled with crystal clear water, and no visible sign of fishes or any living organisms inside.
"This is where they first met," Shou said, taking a seat next to her on the grass. He kicked his legs out and dropped his head back, closing his eyes and allowing the wind to run through his bright orange locks of hair. "And it's where they decided to build this shelter."
"They founded this shelter together?" Chihiro asked.
"Yeah. It happened about seven years ago. They were both kind of roaming about, I guess. They never really told me the details — I guess they had difficult circumstances, and they were kind of built a relationship based on that." He let out a long sigh. "I miss her too, you know. Sora was one of my best friends, and I really thought she and Kohaku would be perfect for each other. They were just... so compatible and had great chemistry and everything. It was only natural for them to become lovers. We all thought they would become each other's mates someday too. It's like... they were inseparable, you know?"
"I can imagine..."
"Both of them started out in the Shugorei, that's how I got to know them. We were all assigned to the same team since we were the greenhorns who just joined at the time."
"I see. Was Sora a dragon spirit too?"
"Yeah, one of the prettiest I've seen too," Shou said with a wistful laugh. "But she's really strong too. We used to spar a lot and we were usually neck and neck with each other. Haku always won the both of us though."
Chihiro smiled. "Sounds like it was a lot of fun back then."
"I guess," he said, his laugh fading away into a grimace. "Sometimes I just wish we could all go back to how it used to be."
"What happened to her?"
At the question, Shou heaved a long sigh and sat up, cross-legged. "It happened when we were assigned with a mission that was more difficult than usual. It was only assigned to our team, and none of us really anticipated it the criminals to be that skilled. We were all surrounded, and we requested for back-up but it would take a while before they could come to our aid, so in the meantime we were toughing it out.
"Kohaku was about to get killed, but Sora pushed him away just in time, saving him." His voice dropped several decibels. "She... She didn't make it."
Chihiro placed a hand on Shou's shoulder, squeezing it in silent reassurance. He offered her a smile and patted her hand, indicating that he was fine. "Kohaku hasn't been the same ever since. He always blamed himself for not being strong enough, and even after we managed to convince him that it couldn't have been helped, he distanced himself from everyone. He continued to excel in the Shugorei as a mage and continued to maintain the shelter in Sora's place, but it's like he can't and won't let anyone in anymore. Even I can't get him to talk to me candidly about what he's going through."
"That's..." Chihiro couldn't find the words. "He just decided that he would be able to handle it alone?"
"Not just that. I think he decided that getting too emotionally invested in another relationship would only burden him, so he just distanced himself from everyone else, all except for me and Sakura."
"Maybe he just needs more time."
Shou sighed, scratching the back of his head. "Maybe. It's just worrying and vexing to see him like this every year."
"I understand. But I think it's great that you've always been there for him, as one of the only people he can count on now. I'm sure he'll be fine with you and Sakura and the others supporting him like this."
"Thanks, I appreciate it," the man looked up and offered her a genuine smile. "I think you might be able to help too, you know."
She raised an eyebrow. "Me? How? This is my first time seeing him after twelve years. I'm not exactly the closest friend to him."
"Well, there's the fact that he lets you call him 'Haku'."
"Is it that much of a deal? I thought he was just letting it slide since we're old friends."
"Names are our lives, Chihiro, never forget that," Shou said sternly. "If he's letting you address him by his old name, then you must be something special."
"I don't think so..."
"I can tell these things. I've known him for years."
Chihiro fought back the rebuttal on her tongue, knowing that she would just get shot down again by the man.
"Help..."
Chihiro found herself surrounded in a familiar darkness, called by that same voice. This time, she wasn't afraid.
"Sora? Is that you?"
There was a sob — not of sadness, but of relief.
Then, from the corner of her eye, she spotted a wisp of blue. Spinning around, she found herself staring at the back of a woman with long blue hair that cascaded down her back, pooling at her feet like a waterfall. Her body was glowing with an ethereal light, her skin a pearlescent white that shone brilliantly in the darkness. Her shoulders were trembling as she cried, and Chihiro slowly stepped towards her.
"Help him."
Her voice was much clearer this time. Far from its initial ghostly quality when she heard it the first time, Chihiro found her voice especially pleasing to the ears, flowing sweetly like honey and tinkling musically like small chimes in the wind.
Chihiro stopped a few meters away from her, when she could no longer hear her crying and the place became like a silent void.
She spoke, breaking the silence. "How can I help?"
A/N: 'Hanaichimonme' is a traditional children's Japanese game.
Long, update, so I'm forgiven? Hopefully? :D
Sorry that I took over a month to update, I've been busy with school. Unfortunately I'm going to take another month to update because my A'level exams are just around the corner. After my exams I'll be free to sleep all day and do stuff like write fanfiction to my heart's content too haha so thanks for reading and I'll be back!
