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9: The Decisions IV Haku

It had been such a simple kiss. As natural as the rising of the moon and the setting of the sun; was their first kiss. Yet he had not realized the far-reaching implications of that innocent kiss until she had left. Their brief time together touched him like the softness of a rose petal that inexorably had the power to force him to his knees. She had woven a wicked spell upon him. As she had undoubtedly done with the human man he had seen her with.

For the past fifteen human years he lived at the surrogate river that was his lair, where he had spread the rumour that it was once named the Kohaku River East. Of course, it was not, but it was wish and tendency, as an elemental spirit to cultivate an understanding to humans, of the importance in identifying earth's elements as soulful entities - that the earth is not just a resource to squander. Now and then, he re-entered the enchanted realm to replenish his elemental force, before returning to his adopted river that was once the meeting point for both he and Chihiro when she was a child.

When Chihiro left for the human world with her parents and Yu-baaba's spell no longer bound him to the bathhouse, Haku chose to enter the human world despite the extinction of the original body of water where he reincarnated. Haku never suspected along with the other workers, that Yu-baaba herself was under an employment contract, until Raiden's sudden manifestation. To Haku, Raiden's appearance was a relief and perfect opportunity for him to escape. As an unlearned deity, he yearned to be free of responsibilities and commitments, similar to the mentalities of adolescent humans; and the bathhouse was definitely of those obligations.

His short reprieve from the bathhouse ran over a decade and a half. Raiden explained his absence to the frog and slug spirits as 'unpaid long service leave' for all the years he devoted, running Yu-baaba's wayward errands; Until Chihiro had awoken his benevolence.

He had flown over the small town upon departure from the realm sensing Chihiro's chi – life force- and was nicely surprised she was closer than he anticipated. A tiny waterway snaked at the knoll below her parents blue rendered house so he chose this brook as a home to watch over her. A few weeks after his move, destiny brought Chihiro wandering down to his waterway.

At first she sat by his shores complacent and weeping like the cherry blossoms did over his waters in autumn, dangling her skinny legs into the waters of the riverbank. The fiery inferno in her whiskey brown eyes diminished flame by flame to a flicker, before the fragile light extinguished leaving nothing but a tart abyss of darkness.

As the weeks drifted by she began to converse with no one in particular, about her parents disbelief of her so called 'grandiose fairy tales', and of her unwillingness to recant her stories that were indeed, fact and not fiction. He listened to her, feeling her crystal tears fall upon his surface like droplets of sorrow becoming one with him. He'd tasted the salty tears that became part of his elemental being.

She visited him daily for a few years, and he witnessed with admiration her child's body blossom into womanhood, as her recollections about him and the bathhouse faded with her childhood figure. Too many forlorn moments, he yearned to manifest himself, to console Chihiro, but he correctly surmised such an action served only to undermine her re-immersion to human life, and he longed only for her happiness.

Then one day, she didn't come to him. The days turned to weeks, into years and he knew not where she went. In time, the seasons and flowers faded. They had had their seasons, and so did his season with Chihiro, fade like the fruits of summer. Never had he felt so close to nature, water, earth and the inestimable sadness of life and its transience.

The treasured memories of her presence settled and swam through his veins as the flora and animals lived in his waters. She was a part of him. Her quiet appearances at the river played mischief on his heart, making it ring with alarm like a thousand glass bells. He was ever more fearful the fish, turtles, frogs, and ducks sharing his river could eavesdrop on his liquid emotions permeating within the waters. At times, he thought he was quite ill or dying as a repercussion of his absence from the supernatural realm. Fifteen years later, he realized what those symptoms heralded and what heart threatening sickness afflicted him.

His only recollection of time started in the human world from the second he'd saved her as mere babe. Ending the moment when Chihiro left him behind in the enchanted realm, and once again when she left his surrogate river.

How else could you have remembered her name when she came to the bathhouse and not your own?

xXx

He plunged head first into the shaft of the floor in his study, soaring in a downward spiral in human form to Kamajii's basement, after finding the unsigned contract that slay his heart to a bloody mess, to within a thread of his immortal life. He never imagined a simple parchment in her hands had the power to maim him so.

The bitter winds lashed at his face ravaged with anger, his nails puncturing welts into his palms. His human body was sleek slicing through the darkness and his clothes flapped rapidly, streamlined with the velocity of his descent. His eyes tapered, unable to blink in the shadows as he descended deeper into the shaft lined with ancient red earthen bricks. A chaotic race of emotions of outrage, fear and grief laced his blood like splinters of glass. Vengeance's voice spoke the clearest, intent on punishing Rin for allowing Chihiro to leave the realm. The black void of the shaft mirrored the hollow of his chest.

You belong to me. His hair flayed along his back, his breath was ragged. No matter where you go.

"You're useless!" his self-deprecating howl echoed in the shaft behind him.

A small dot of orange light expanded from a pinprick into the rounded opening of Kamajii's boiler room. The boiler room ironically, came to represent the cold fire left to him in the wake of her departure. Haku curbed his speed, halting to float at the end of the shaft letting his feet descend through the bottom of the opening first, landing soundlessly as a feather on the wood panelled floor. Pungent scents of burning charcoal, mingled with exotic scents of jasmine, mint leaves, pinecones and the wisps of smoke twisted around him, attempting to bathe him in calm.

The fire in the furnace crackled and Haku heard the coal crumbling between the metal cogs as the soot balls worked their beeline.

"Eeep eep eep!" chirped the soot balls at Haku as he landed.

His breath was thin and his chest heaved rapidly. The high temperature of the room couldn't rival the volcanic magma coursing through Haku's veins, nor melt the stony continence of his face. Ignoring the soot balls he turned to Kamajii who was in the midst of grinding herbs for guests' tokens in his stone mortar and pestle.

The spider spirit had his back to Haku. He left two of his arms to grind and swivelled his baldhead to observe the lividly glacial young dragon. The old man narrowed his eyes detecting what was clearly vexing the boy. It was as transparent as the waters surrounding the bathhouse.

"Haku. Is something wrong?" Kamajii asked in a very placating tone.

"Rin," Haku scowled, the strain visible in his jaw trailing to the chorded muscles in his neck. He slid the gaze of his lightless eyes to the soot balls.

"Was she the one responsible for shaking the walls of the bathhouse?" Kamajii joked knowing full well, the answer to his own question. The wise old man, unlike other spirits and kami, appreciated the full range of uncontrollable sentiments that humans and inexperienced young spirits, like Haku, were capable of wielding. It made kami and spirits a little more human.

His beady eyes hidden behind his black spectacles followed Haku as he stood at the edge of the raised flooring. The water spirit's body was unyielding, hardened with the pent up force of embroiled bitterness and loss. Haku's refined profile froze in place, his lips chorded like a tight rope. His lids framed thick with curled dark lashes lowered as he sightlessly surveyed the soot balls scurrying back and forth on the dirt floor. Even the shadow Haku cast against the wooden drawers on the wall was more alive than his crestfallen human form.

"Chihiro has certainly blossomed into a lovely young woman hasn't she, ne?" Kamajii persisted intending to steer Haku's next action.

Haku exhaled sharply as Kamajii continued. "She's as sweet as she ever was…kind and caring that she decided she couldn't go back to her world without visiting the ailing Zeniiba…," Kamajii finished.

Haku's eyes remained fixed on the soot balls, knitting his brows. "Then she's… gone?" his whirling emotions hidden under his hooded eyes, incapable of hearing what Kamajii insinuated. "Did…" Haku started and stopped to a dead silence blinking erratically… she say anything about me?

"I think she should still be there if you hurry…" Kamajii hinted sympathetically, articulating each word at a snail's pace, speaking cogently to the stupefied water spirit, as if he was talking to someone quite loopy.

A palpable silence congested the boiler room until Haku's eyes sprung open in revelation and he shot up into the shaft like a hell-bent whirlwind. Haku couldn't comprehend why he was pursuing Chihiro, but his head no longer compelled him. As he soared into the rising night sky, he recognized that it wasn't that wretched Rin his injured pride, and something else demanded redemption from.

"Eep eep epp!" the soot balls squealed in delight as the vortex of wind sucked them into the shaft after Haku, only to drop back down to the boiler room in a rain of black puffy snowflakes.

"Get back to work you lazy soot balls!" Kamajii clipped vociferously to his army of black cotton-like balls. "Sometimes the truth is hard to see when it's right in front of you, isn't it Haku, my boy?" he giggled knowing after Haku.

xXx

They had administered the herbal rub of basil, black pepper, pine and peppermint to Zeniiba's leathery parched skin to help stay the pain due to the witch's deteriorating muscles. The good witch was physically decaying from the inside out, as penance for her twin sister's current activities in the human realm.

Kao Nashi stood bent over the red brick oven brewing a Ginger Routine of powdered midnight ginger that grew only in the enchanted forest, brown sugar, and soy powder ground from the beans growing in their garden patch. It was a recipe Kao Nashi, the benign demon, created especially for Zeniiba and her ailing appetite. Liquids were the only meals the Lady of the house was able to keep down. She was to sip on the Ginger Routine for nine days. 1/2 bowl for breakfast. 1 1/2 bowls for lunch and two bowls for dinner. If fables were anything to go by, then the magical properties of midnight ginger would heighten her appetite to help the witch stave off the deterioration in her body.

His wooden ladle clanked lightly on the bottom of the earthen pot to stir the congee texture of the simmering egg white soup. He stared languidly at Chihiro sitting on Zeniiba's bedside, surprised at her 'new appearance' because the last time he had seen her, was when she was a child. Kao Nashi having led a sheltered life within the realm, did not understand that humans aged rapidly. There were unusual bumps on different parts of her body he was intrigued about and wanted to inspect when he had more free time.

The modest thatched roof cottage had stood still in time since Chihiro last left the hidden forest all those years ago. The wooden spindle and loom remained tucked away in the back corner of the cottage next to bushels of dried flowers and yarn. The red and white gingham curtains hung with care covering the green painted French windows, the old country style dining table and benches sat in the middle of the living area. Tapestries adorned the golden peachy walls, strewn with upturned drying bouquets. The crispy fragrance of pine forest lingered within the home. The old-world and welcoming charm of the abode was warm and inviting as a heated comfy bed on a winter's night. All was warm and well except for Zeniiba, who had been bedridden for the past few months.

The witch's every laboured breath wreaked of the rotting flesh inside her. Her bulbous eyes opaque with a grey haze and she drifted in and out of consciousness. Her once lustrous glimmering hair lay limp and grey, splayed on the pillows. For the past hour Chihiro had wept relentlessly while assisting Rin with the herbal remedies from Kamajii. She wondered if Zeniiba even knew she was there as she continued clutching desperately to the good witch's clammy hands.

"Granny, do you remember me? Chihiro? I returned your gold seal and you had Bo and Yu-bird spin that glittery hair band for me…," Chirhiro asked her tone low and frightened, squeezing the witch's hands harder hoping for a physical response. She used the hair band to tie the straps of her tote bag together, the very tote bag hanging from her back. The hair band from Zeniiba, was the solitary proof Chihiro had her encounter here wasn't a figment of her imagination.

"Isn't there anything we can do to help?" Chihiro rasped repeatedly to Rin, looking grievously at Zeniiba. The witch had not uttered a syllable since their arrival, but had managed a feeble and welcoming smile on their arrival.

"Only if we can stop Yubaaba, Chihiro," Rin's face was glum, her voice filled with scorn at the thought of the wretched witch. Finding her was an act of futility as the former bathhouse administrator had departed to an unknown location since her exile. Kao Nashi had failed to locate Yubaaba on his recent quest, before he returned with urgency to nurse his friend and Lady of the cottage. Bo and the Yu-Bird were presently scouting across Japan for her as Rin spoke. Haku's absence rendered him useless and Raiden-sama was the elder responsible for vanquishing the realm of Yubaaba. Rin inhaled a sigh of resignation, at what she foresaw, was a hopeless scenario for Zeniiba.

A hushed roar of wind crept over the horizon and the sombre peace of the cottage shattered. The sparkling glass panes of the windows shook into frantic tremors as if terrified by the approach of an unwanted visitor. Chihiro startled, falling off the bed with a thump in agreement.

"JEEZ! Is-is this a hurricane of something?" Chihiro asked rubbing her rump, as the windows stilled, the supposedly hurricane suddenly gone.

"If I had to guess…," Rin drawled grinning with anticipation, struggling to pierce her sight through the windows near the entry door. "I'd say it's a hurricane all right, a pissed off hurricane on four legs, kiddo." Rin chuckled knowingly. "May Buddha be with you when the IT comes through the door."

"Uh, Uh!" Kao Nashi grunted propping the ladle over the rim of his earthen pot, skimming over the polished wooden floor to the door.


A review would be lovely. If not, oh well. :)

AN: In case anyone is wondering, I've used the Japanese spelling of Kamajii, Zeniiba and Yu-baaba - hence the double 'ii' and 'aa'.