Gah...I HATE BEING SICK! DX It's the worst feeling in the world when you can't breath through your nose...grrrr, I wish Yubaba could make me a potion.
I did promise some speeding up of action, right? ^.^ Enjoyyyy!
Twice in my life, I ran as I did now. The first time was six years ago. No-face had been ready to eat me alive, and as a ten year old, I knew I was nowhere ready to die. The second time was at the Junior Olympics hosted back at home. I had represented our school for the mile event. So I ran harder, because Haku was easily more important to me than that coveted gold medal that I had secured at the finish line.
The bathing area I checked first. When the frog stammered something about the main entrance, I cursed out loud at having to backtrack my route. The seconds meant something now. Even my full sprint seemed to barely keep up with time itself.
Haku, if you can hear me, then know that the Delta Gods are here. Please, don't send me away, please don't fear for my safety. You said we'd fight together. You promised.
I gasped as I tripped on thin air and fell hard on my knees. Staggering to my feet, I gritted my teeth together to ignore the stabbing pains that ran up and down my shins. That feeling soon numbed with running.
I may be human. I may die. But this is something I have to do. I won't give into this without a fight. You know. Don't be the hero, Haku. Not my hero.
Because heroes don't get happy endings. I want you to have a happy ending, for me.
But he wants to protect you because you are his happy ending. He'd gladly die for you.
"NO!" I screamed at the other voice as I skidded into the main foyer. Haku.
At my outburst, he turned away from Lin and whirled around with the fluidity of a dragon. His eyes widened and his lips parted.
"Chihiro—" But I was ready for his refusal.
Back in elementary school, I used to play the American sport T-ball with a group of my close friends during recess. As a kid, I always loved watching the yellow dust fly as I slid into the base. Cut up knees were worth the grubby high-fives we gave each other afterward. Now, I knew what I had to do.
Ten-feet away I dropped to my knees mid-stride, onto the hard wooden floors. The momentum carried me straight to him. I grasped his hands and bowed my head, raggedly breathing through my mouth.
Please." I whispered. "Don't do this alone. I-" I yanked my head up to meet the unreadable green orbs. He inhaled sharply, but I clutched his hands tighter. "I want to be with you."
Uncertainty flashed so briefly in his eyes before he pulled me up to my feet. "What color was the magic?" The question caught me off guard. His cupped my face in his cool hands, careful to avoid the cut. "What it blue?"
I nodded. The emeralds hardened, and Haku quickly placed the tips of his fingers on the wound. He muttered an incomprehensible incantation with inhuman speed. White light filled the gash.
"I don't care—" He gave me the no-nonsense glare and I shut my mouth. The incantation ended, and he brushed a hand softly over the left side of my face.
"I care." He hissed. Gingerly, I put my hand on top of his, and he guided my hand so I could check for myself. The skin was soft and unscratched. Even the dried blood on my neck was gone. Shakily, he breathed out through his nose and surprised me by enveloping me in a tight embrace.
"Chihiro, don't underestimate the magic in this world. Blue fire," he murmured into my hair, "is lethal if not healed immediately."
"Oh." He lifted my chin to glare at my stoic reply.
"Don't you even care about your life?"
"I care about you more." He was silent at this. I wrapped my arms around him, prompting him to tighten the grip as we wandered at the invisible line of suffocation.
"Listen to me carefully." He spoke quickly and urgently into my ear. "We'll stand through this together, but," I held my breath to listen to the catch, "your safety comes first. Now, there may come a time when I will encounter danger." I shivered. "You must not lose yourself. You must not risk your own life to save me. In the end, I'll stand a better chance against death than you." I nodded numbly.
"If, for any reason, we are separated, I need you to rely on your instincts. You are gifted with the sword." He shushed my denial. "Use what you have learned."
A lumped formed in my throat. "It sounds like…you're saying goodbye."
"I made you a promise. Any goodbye is a temporary matter. Life isn't fair, Chihiro. Fate is against us, but I am not one to believe in fate. Whatever happens, I will find you. You must trust me." We stayed in that iron embrace as I tried to memorize everything about Haku. Had I bothered to look, Lin was wiping her eyes on her sleeve.
He was the first to break apart. I saw that he unconsciously positioned his body in such an angle that I was shielded. A guttural, feral growl vibrated deep in his throat.
Pale as a sheet, Gunni hobbled into the room. With a heart-sinking discovery, I realized that I could have been sending the foreman straight to his death by making him lead Ashumo and Kyo to "find" Haku. Haku had been right. I was ignorant, blatantly ignorant of the perils in the Spirit World. Fearful, I did a check of the lizard, who besides his pallor, didn't look physically injured.
He made it halfway to us before collapsing. "Delta Gods…found out, heading this way…"
Immediately, Lin, Haku, and I rushed to his side. Haku checked beneath his eyelids and compressed his lips into a thin line. Lin and I carried him behind the shelter of the front desk.
"What happened to him?" My voice quivered.
"They read his mind by force. He'll come around soon. Lin, I want you to leave right now, hide by the sea. Don't come back until I send you a sign." The spirit bowed at the orders and ran outside.
We moved closer to each other so that our hands clasped. He gave mine a warm squeeze.
"Chihiro-I've wanted to tell you this for a long time. I—" Suddenly, he shoved me behind him and his stance tensed. I peered around his shoulder to see one of those antique horsehair whisks swish back and forth in the air.
"Ah, what do we have here? Rumi, or should I call you Chihiro," He stroked the whisk tenderly with a long, skeletal finger."We've met before haven't we?" The corner of his mouth twisted into a small smile. "It appears I've underestimated your abilities as a liar. Kyo, come closer. I'm going to show you how to kill a human."
He may as well have said 'I'm going to show you how to make sushi' in the tone the phrase suggested. Before I could decide if it was a joke or not, he slashed his index finger in a horizontal line. The same blue flame sped through the air like a bullet.
Haku hadn't seemed to move, but a heartbeat later white flames intercepted the blue, sparks of gold erupting and showering the ground with glowing red embers.
"Greetings to you too, Ashumo Khahani." His voice was like frozen steel.
"Just a taster." Artfully, he tucked the whisk into his sleeve. "Surely we're past this formality stage, Haku." He took a casual step forward and Haku shifted his position around me. "In one week, you'll be my son-in-law. I say we should be able to speak like good acquaintances, cut out all of this fool's talk. You're a smart lad." His silvery gray eyes glittered. "I only marry the best to my daughter. Kyo, is this the same Chihiro we saw in his mind?"
In my dreams and mental images, Kyo had always been a sheet of pitch-black hair, faceless and as distant to me as a rock on the ground. I had never actually seen her front clearly until now. I had never bothered to give her a face. I couldn't bring myself to place human features on someone who sounded so twisted, so intent on hurting others.
She appeared to be around my human age, give or take a few years. Her skin was too white to be considered traditional beauty, her nose too sharp, her lips red enough to make cherry blossoms look white. Thick, black lashes looked like heavy strokes from a calligraphy painter who had lost control of his brush. Coal colored eyes regarded me like a diner would regard a hair in their dish. I, the human, was an obstacle that had been thrown into her way, some vermin she needed to get rid of to marry Haku.
But she didn't look bloodthirsty and evil as I had imagined her. Nor did Ashumo, truth be told. If I took a moment to ignore the remnants of blue fire that swirled playfully around his hands and the calculating in his eyes resembling a cat ready to pounce, he almost looked like my grandpa. He had a refined silver mustache and beard and sweeping silver eyebrows. Heavily lidded metallic eyes, aged with arrogance, imperiousness, and loss looked at me down a strong, straight nose.
Kyo stepped closer and tried her best to look past Haku. I felt his hand tighten around mine.
"It's her." She walked back to her father.
"I thought so. You want to know why we are here? To give you a very generous offer, dragon. You can either return your human back to her world, or Kyo or myself will have to dispose of her, and I cannot guarantee a quick and painless death. With the mating so soon, we can't have scum like her clouding your judgment."
Someone who knew Haku well could tell that his calm quiet was barely hiding the carnivore inside of him. "Never insult Chihiro like that." He spat, each syllable perfectly punctuated. "Not while I still exist."
"I take that as a no?" Ashumo sighed, fingering his long beard. "Alas, such a short break from our visits and you've already started to doubt your good fortune. Spirits," he narrowed his eyes, "would die to be in the position you are in. I'd watch your tongue, dragon. You wouldn't want your little human to see things that would haunt her dreams for the rest of her time, would you?"
It got the reaction the God wanted, whatever that was. Haku turned his head to look at me, anxiety flickering in his eyes. I reached out to touch his cheek. "What is he talking about?"
"Chihiro, don't watch—"
Ashumo laughed out loud, the deep sound jarring as I didn't think he possessed the ability to laugh. "I've hit your weak spot, Haku. You don't want her to be scarred for life, but I think this is exactly what we need. She might decide to go back on her own after seeing the pain she's caused you these years."
His grey and black traditional robe swept the ground as he lifted both his arms, spidery fingers pulling a long black rope from his large sleeves. On closer inspection, I saw it was a whip with a greenish gas hovering about its length. Instinctually, I placed my hand on the pommel of my sword, still sheathed at my hip.
Don't.
I blinked dumbly before realizing that it was his voice that had spoken in my head. I looked at him, but he was still staring ahead, unearthly calm.
You must trust me.
At last, I felt fear. I swallowed and let my hand drop by my side. Ashumo hadn't heard our telepathy and handed the whip Kyo.
"The honor is yours, daughter. Human, this is what happens when you cross a Delta God."
In that moment, I hated myself for even thinking Kyo may have been good, or that Ashumo look like my grandpa. She smiled, pulling her lips back in a predatory gesture. The whip crackled menacingly against the ground in a few test strokes, the wood marked in charcoal where it touched. Black eyes met green eyes.
The whole scene was very unsettling. She was smiling like a hyena, he was deathly still, a smirk gracing his lips. Neither of them looked at the dancing whip.
Another loud crack, and it snapped itself around his wrist, curling down the length of his forearm. The whip pulled taut, and Haku lifted his arm so that the elbow bent against the force.
I had squeezed my eyes shut, but now I opened them to see Kyo hiss in frustration. Ashumo frowned. I searched for the cause of their anger and saw that while the whip still glowed green, it wasn't maiming Haku's flesh.
"Gotten stronger, haven't you, my boy. That's fine, I didn't want someone near death to marry my daughter anyway." A vein bulged in his bald head as he started muttering into his beard. The whip surged blue, and Kyo's hand trembled.
My scream caught in my throat and ended up sounding like a yelp. Besides a glint in his eyes and the clenched line of his jaw, Haku didn't betray any signs of pain. Blood ran on the underside of the whip and dripped into a puddle about a foot away from the hem of Kyo's robes.
His refusal to give in irked Ashumo. I could tell from the way he muttered faster into his beard. Even Kyo's fiendish grin was gone as she struggled to keep her hand from shaking at the intensity of the spell. Haku slowly sank to his knees, pulling the whip tighter. I dropped down by him, shaking his shoulder in panic. My heart plummeted as he grimaced.
"Hak—" I gasped, placing a hand on the ground to support me.
The whip had dug pass the skin, and was now rapidly cutting into muscle fibers and tendon. Blood welled from the spiral pattern of the whip and odd rivulets zigzagged across his pale skin. The birch wood was already speckled. I was glad that I had a strong stomach, unlike my dad who would regurgitate all his food after seeing blood, let alone mangled flesh.
In horror, I watched, frozen, as within seconds, the black was eating to the bone. Anxiously, I cast a glance at him. His face was set, pale and drawn. It set my teeth onto the edge. I almost wished I could scream for him. I gave his other hand one last squeeze.
"Hold on." Then I did what he had warned me not to do.
I leaped to my feet and snarled, stance open and one hand curling around the sword hilt. Ashumo smirked.
"Quite the temper. Not wonder he's so taken to you."
Acting out of animal intuition, I dropped to my feet, barely missing the streak of blue that burned into the opposite wall. I ensued to do the most irrational thing in my life, which was saying something. Standing up, I turned my back to him and faced Kyo.
"Why are you doing this?" She covered her shock and sneered.
"He's my mate."
"You don't love him." For the longest time, we stared at each other. I heard her screech as I threw myself to the right, very aware that her father was trying to kill me. I was a target, he was an archer aiming for bull's eye.
"You don't know that! You don't know anything about me!" Her confident statement flew through the air.
I drew out my sword. For a second, apprehension flashed in her eyes. She was still holding onto the whip and would never draw her weapon in time. Ashumo sent frenzied blue flames at me. Miraculously, I dodged them.
The blade sliced through the air. It severed the whip easily.
Kyo watched, speechless, as her half dropped onto the ground, the green gas and blue flame dissipating. Limp, the other half unwound itself from Haku's arm and also fluttered onto the ground. I sheathed the sword. Slowly, I pushed away my loose strands of hair so I could see the lines of her face clearly. Loathing and disgust contorted my voice.
"Don't lie to yourself just because you lost the one you loved."
All of a sudden, the flower in my hair flashed and the rock around my throat burned like a hot coal. If her face could turn go whiter, it did now. She screamed.
The note was long, high pitched, and eerie. I cringed, grabbing at the lump at my chest to stop it's vibrating.
That flower…it makes me feel funny…makes me feel sorta empty. Boh's words came back to me. In alarm, I pulled the flower out, seeing that the scales were blindingly bright.
Kyo bent over, clutching at her head. The scream droned on and on. Ashumo, equally as white, ceased his attack on me to glide to his daughter. He crouched over her crumpled form.
"Kyo! Kyo! What's wrong? Tell me, what's wrong?" When she didn't answer, he turned to give me a venomous look that made my spine ice over.
"We'll be back. Just because you got lucky this time doesn't mean you'll get lucky again."
I opened my mouth to say something, stepping forward almost to help. But it was too late. Their forms shimmered before they disappeared. Echoes of her scream still rang in my ears.
"Do you think he'll be ok?" I knelt by the futon and dabbed at Haku's face with a wash-cloth. After they left, I rushed back to Haku to find that he had lost consciousness. With the help of a revived Gunni, I carried him to the first person I knew I could depend on for help; Kamagi.
Fortunately, it was just his arm, although it was in a gruesome state. Whenever I looked at it, my heart jumped to my throat. Kamagi cleansed the wounds, slathered on large quantities of healing potion, and tied on bandages so I could sit by Haku's side without being traumatized
"Of course. He's been through worse." The old spider noticed my somber quietness. He scuttled over and placed four arms around my shoulder.
"Don't feel guilty. He loves you, he's told you that, eh?"
"No." I brushed some strands of moss green hair from his features. Kamagi frowned and huffed something inaudible.
"Even if he did, he shouldn't have to go through this. It's not fair." I rubbed my temples and sighed. "Sometimes, I wonder if I'm worth all of this."
He patted my head. "He couldn't be a luckier dragon. You've got the guts, Chihiro. It'll all work out in the end, you've got my word."
I smiled though it didn't quite reach my eyes. "I think I'll go for a walk in the gardens. Will you be alright on your own?"
"Course, course. Get some fresh air, you've got enough on your plate. No need to add an old boiler man."
"Thanks Kamagi." I threw my arms around him, feeling all eight of his curl around me. "You're the best." I shuffled on my aching knees to the space by Haku's head. He looked tired, and I felt another ache in my heart.
"I'll be back." I pressed my lips lightly to his forehead and smoothed out his brow with my fingertips. Kamagi watched me as I wobbled to my feet, rubbing my kneecaps.
"Be careful out there." I nodded. The metal door opened. I stepped out into the misty dawn.
I just need some time on my own. To sort out things. I padded up the flight of stone stairs that led to the pig-pens. The gate unlatched smoothly, and I inhaled a large whiff of the summer flowers in full bloom.
Remember, you can come as often as you wish. Those days of unadulterated peace felt long ago, in a different era when I felt like I had all the time in the world to catch up with my friends here at the bathhouse, pay Zeniba a visit, train for the battle. That particular day, I had cried over something measly and insignificant. Yet Haku had comforted me all the same. I had taken the security from his protection for granted.
Today was my reality check. I did not have all the time in the world. Haku's words had sounded ominous, and I crossed my arms in front of my chest as I walked past the rose bushes.
If, for any reason, we are separated, I need you to rely on your instincts.
This was just the beginning. I passed the hibiscus, the morning glory. They would be back, and Ashumo would play his pieces carefully then. There would be no more politeness, no more games, no more "tasters". I didn't know what had happened to Kyo myself. All I knew was that somehow, I had caused it. The burning heat of the rock had blistered the skin below my throat, the flower, which I had tucked back into my hair warily, still showed visible signs of magic. I wondered if I had done the right thing, by confronting Kyo like that. In ways, I felt as if it wasn't completely her fault, but I couldn't just sit and watch. I tried not to judge her before I knew her, but in such situations when life and death were toyed with, I didn't have the luxury of digging into character. I had cut the whip in half for plain reasons. But the look on her face after my last statement was…disbelief, as if I had cut her in half. I hadn't thought her capable of such emotions. I didn't understand.
Eventually, I came to the spot where Haku and I rested after the first training session. The baby pink flowers were lavender in the bluish tones of foggy predawn light. I stood there, looking at the blossoms, lost as what to do. Somehow, I had been compelled to visit the gardens. I trailed a finger over the ruffles of petals. A few water droplets shook loose.
The thing was, I hadn't thought to ask Haku what exactly he had done to a pink flower. From all I knew, it could have been a sponge for protective magic, spells of all sorts. A princess had screamed, tortured by an innocent seeming hair ornament. I frowned. I should have asked, and had Jirou still existed, I would asked him too.
Once again, I was an unknown variable in an equation. Then again, I should have grown used to it by now.
I almost regretted coming to the garden as I weaved my way past the narrow maze, back to the bathhouse. It hadn't helped, on the contrary, my head buzzed more than it had before. The silent hedges me feel lonely, lost. The gardens were the last place I envisioned coming by myself.
Staying by Haku's side would have been the right thing to do. I wanted to be there when he woke, assure him that I was fine, in one piece at least. I wanted to see his smile. I wanted to unwrap the bindings to finds his wounds gone.
I wanted to tell him—
Two heavy weights grabbed my shoulders. A hand popped out of the layers of fine mist, muffling my scream. On my right and left were the red rails of the bridge, in front of me were the lanterns adorning the entrance. Behind—
"I didn't think it'd be this easy." Acrid breath sounded far too close in my ear. Terror plunged from my throat and landed somewhere in my intestines. A wave of nausea washed over my vision.
"Hm! Hmmmhm!" The grip was too strong, and struggle as I did, I could barely free my mouth, let alone my arms. "Hmm—"
The person or thing chuckled coarsely at my futile efforts. "He said not to underestimate you. Really, that was too easy, I was hoping for some fun—"
I managed to part my lips beneath the suffocating hand. I bit down, hard. A yell, and then the hand slipped for a fraction of a second.
"HEL—" Not long enough, though. This time, the meaty flesh clamped on more forcefully than before, wrenching my neck backwards at an unnatural angle. Bile burned its way up my esophagus.
"Scream all you want. Nobody's going to save you this time." A greasy gag was shoved into my mouth. "Say your goodbyes now."
Don't hurt me! Admit it, I rarely, RARELY do cliffhangers. But, good things always come with bad things, the good thing being the rise in conflict, the bad being the fact there may be more cliffies. NO PITCHFORKS PLEASE T.T
Do I have a strong stomach? Er...not really. I'm sorry if things got a teensy bit "graphic", I myself found it painful to write. I'M HORRIBLE, YES I KNOW. I didn't ever, EVER want to see Haku give in to pain, he's too perfect for that, but I mean, come on, even a dragon is going to feel it if a whip is eating away to the bone...O.O Not feeling so good...
Yeah, I'm sick, so I'd love it if you comforted me in the form of reviews *winkwink* If you don't, I'll still be happy to know that you enjoyed the chapter!
You did enjoy the chapter...right?