My holiday gift to you! Enjoy ^.^
There were always firsts in life, even in a life as prolonged as Yubaba's. Not once had she left early from a business affair, never thought she would. The chair scraped the ground as she stood.
"I must return to my Bathhouse at once, something is amiss." The man across the table nodded slowly. Yubaba had been a long-term acquaintance of his. Anything that would draw her away from a pre-scheduled meeting would be of grave significance.
"Of course." Sensing her urgency, he tapped the wall once and a round window about five feet in height appeared. "May the Gods be with you."
"And you too." She clambered onto the curved ledge, taking a glance at the ground below. Then she jumped. Her dead weight plummeted at first, but soon she was a speck in the early morning sky.
He rubbed the back of his neck, watching the black V unfurl and close.
"I can't find her anywhere." The only piece of evidence, a shred of dark blue cloth, fluttered from his hand to the ground.
Kamagi grunted. "Are you saying that she just ran off on her own?"
"No." The green stare was unnerving, and the boiler man grunted again, scratching the side of his head.
"Then what do you think happened?" The soot balls crowded in on Haku.
"Do you—do you think she would have gone back to the human world because—because…" Haku hung his head so that his bangs fell into his eyes. He stretched out his arm. "Because of this?"
Kamagi didn't need to lean forward to know what the boy was referring too. Shiny, coral colored scars spiraled like new burn marks from the thin wrist up to the elbow.
"She—she was saddened, yes, greatly saddened, but no. Did you know that she promised you while you were out that she'd be back? Haku, have you told her that you love her yet?"
He jerked his head up and opened his mouth, closed it, opened it again. At last, he shook his head.
"Why?"
"Now is not the time." His eyes glinted resolutely as if daring the spider to challenge him. Kamagi shook his head.
"I'm an old man, Haku. For me, love is a story of the past. I've had as much experience with it as they have." He flicked his bony wrist at the sootballs. "But something tells me that you should have told her."
"Once this is over." A hint of pleading crept into the relatively refined voice. "Once this is over—"
From outside the boiler room, a loud crash sounded. Both boy and spider turned around, eying the door. Another crash, and the wood splintered. She squeezed her way in. Dark brown eyes darted like minnows around the room until they stilled on the two.
"H-Haku—"
"What is it?"
"While I was hiding by the sea, I saw some bastard cutting across the train tracks. I tried to catch him, but he was too fast, and-and—"
"And what?"
"He was carrying someone over his shoulder. That person was wearing dark blue."
Lin couldn't remember what happened next exactly. She thought Haku glanced at something the ground, but the next moment he was gone like a puff of air.
"Hey! What's up with him?" She looked at Kamagi for an answer. The spider sighed.
"Ask later. I'd stop him if I were you."
Weasel Spirits could maintain bursts of speed for a short amount of time. Lin knew she held the upper hand, if only he hadn't gotten too far.
"HEY HAKU! GET YOUR SILLY BOTTOM BACK HERE!"
She took the steps outside the entrance two at a time. The morning mist had cleared up enough that she could see a flash of white rounding around the corner, to the eastern side of the bathhouse. He was heading for the sea.
She turned a sharp left, around the concrete, and almost fell at the sudden change of running surface. The soft sand slowed her feet down, but it didn't matter anymore.
He was standing with his back towards her, locks of spruce hair dancing in the wind. Green eyes were mere slits.
"Kidnapped."
Lin walked until she was by his side. She placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Haku—"
"Henchmen. Theirs."
"Ha—"
"I will not wait." She shivered at the cold monotone.
"Haku, you must listen! We have to wait until Yubaba comes back. We'll have more options then."
"It will be too late by then."
"For Spirit's sake, I'm dragging you back to the bathhouse if it's the last thing I do!" Her words were big, but she knew that she could never drag a dragon against his will. It was all up to him and his cooperation. "Chihiro told you not to do anything pig-headed! Running off to the liar of the Delta Gods by yourself definitely tops the list of idiotic things to do. They've got first class defense there, I'm telling you!"
He grit his teeth. Lin placed a hand on the good arm.
"Come on, Haku. Please, for her, wait. Wait until Yubaba comes back."
He was still, before giving a sharp little nod. Then he sighed. She watched his fist clench and unclench. What pain he must be in, she thought. Helpless. Not being able to do anything.
"I'm sorry." Lin swallowed, looking down at the foam receding back into the ocean. "I'm sorry."
Blackness. Velvet, intoxicating, seductive blackness.
A sharp spasm ripped across her side and temple. The impact being thrown like a sack of potatoes onto a hard surface made Chihiro's throat seal. Head throbbing, she reached into the darkness, needing to feel something. Cold, damp, bare.
Her fingers twitched on their own accord. Nails grated against the stone surface until a fist formed. A loose, shakable fist, but a movement nonetheless. She couldn't deny that it drained her just to control five fingers to obey her command. Her one arm shook as she tried to push herself away from the ground. She lifted her upper-torso about five inches before tremors connected from wrist to shoulder. All she wanted to do was lie still and feel the stone brush against her cheek, but survival instincts told her that she must make the effort. Slowly, the shaking subsided, elbow bending at a hard ninety-degrees.
Her head swam as she cracked her eyes open, barely seeing through her lashes. Simultaneously, her stomach contracted. Black spots nibbled at the corners of her vision as she wiped away a trail of acid hanging on her chin.
Have to…get up…
Chihiro finally forced her eyes open, only to double over and feel her stomach to give another dry heave. Something grabbed the only arm supporting her, yanking it out from underneath her weight. She felt the sudden urge to vomit as the hand lingered on her arm.
"Girly, you're coming with me." The coarse voice triggered something in her dormant mind, causing her to collapse and grasp the sides of her head weakly. The nausea, where was all this nausea coming from?
"If you don't cooperate, then I'll have to knock you out again, we don't want anymore bruises to disfigure this pretty face of yours. Come on, we don't have all day."
Flickering torches. Dark, damp cell. Iron door in the opposite wall. Torches. A heavy-set man with knives in his belt. Puddles of run off. Torches. Worn cobblestones. Fuzzy, black shapes. Decay, death, mold. Torches.
The human stumbled to her feet in response to the none-too-gentle pull of the arm.
Where am I?
The figments connected to a previous memory, something that she could not draw out. She knew this place, she had seen it previously…
The rope around her wrists bit into the skin as she was tugged through the narrow passageways. Where the crumbling walls met the ground were stagnant puddles, hidden by the shadows and darkness cast by the only sources of light; torches. They crackled in the iron holders overhead, and every once in a while, a flame would hiss and sputter. Water leaked from the sodden ceiling, trailing into the paper-thin crevices between the individual bricks that lined the walls.
Barely two people could fit side by side without bumping into each other. As Chihiro followed, she muted the persistent voice in her head that told her to wake up. She was awake. She was walking. Only that mattered for now. The wide shoulders of the man in front swung back and forth like an ape, taking up the little space there was. He stopped abruptly before a barred iron door.
"We're here." She brought a hand up to shield her eyes from the sudden burst of light as the bolts unlatched and the mass of metal swung open. A forceful shove from behind sent her tumbling to the ground.
"Lord Ashumo, I have carried out your orders."
"Very good. You may leave now. I shall deal with her."
That voice. She scrabbled to pull herself up, but a sudden pain through her right temple made her collapse once more like a broken toy.
"As you wish."
The clang of metal signified her captor's leave. Soft footsteps approached her. Something nudged the side of her ribs.
"Now, you will answer truthfully. Ever single word that comes from your mouth from this point on will have an effect on your fate. Do not attempt to play dumb on me again. I may have been fooled once, but never is a God fooled twice."
The room spun and the ground seemed to tilt. She clung onto her head, onto her dear life. For the first time, Chihiro almost believed that the world was flat, a flat disk supported by an axle strung through the middle. This flat disk rocked back and forth like a sailboat in the midst of a storm.
Considering her state, it was miraculous that she was able to get a vague sense of her surroundings. The room made Yubaba's quarters seem small. Sapphire-streaked marble pillars surrounded the walls. The ceiling was a traditional dome-shaped, gold leafed Kanji etched into the marble. There was not a single window.
"What did you do to my daughter?" It took her brain longer than usual to process the question.
"I do not know—" She stifled a cry as he yanked her up by the roots of her hair.
"Careful now. Remember what I said, human." The words, soft as they were, echoed around the room. The sailboat rocked in the waves. Back and forth, back and forth.
"I said I do not know! I didn't do anything purposely to your daughter." Whatever that had poked her before kicked her in the stomach. The blow threw her sent her flying until she slumped against a marble pillar. Warm liquid trickled from the corner of her mouth and down the side of her head.
"The truth. Only the truth."
"This…is," What had started on a fit of temper broke off into cough. Chihiro wiped the blood away from her mouth. "The truth. I am…not a liar," she rasped.
Silver eyes bore into her unfocused ones. She wrapped one arm around her middle as she coughed again into the crook of the other arm. "Whatever happened…I did not—" Still coughing, she fought to stand on her feet. The sailboat swayed. "Mean for it to happen." His eyes regarded her coldly.
"Yes, my lord?" She gave a start, reminding herself to turn around slowly. Her kidnapper stood in the doorway leading to the dungeons. "You called for me?"
He did?
"Yes. I'm done with her for now. She's no use while she's like this. Take her back to the dungeons. You have the liberties to do whatever you want with the human until the next time I need her."
"Gladly, my lord."
"Wait!" She wobbled for balance, trying to look at the lined face as a wave crashed into the boat. "What—what is it with you and tradition?"
His face was emotionless as he swished the whisk in the air. "Take her away."
Even the demonic orange light from the torches couldn't penetrate her mind, for in that moment, Chihiro's boat capsized.
The next time she came around was an improvement. She couldn't say that her head didn't hurt. She couldn't deny that a knot the size of a walnut throbbed at her temple. She couldn't pretend that the nausea had left. She couldn't wash out the taste of blood in her mouth. She couldn't turn a blind eye to the scratches that crisscrossed on her arms and body and the bruises that festered on her pale skin. But she could, she could feel her mind sharpen as the blackness evaporated by the second.
She was: Chihiro Ogino, human of sixteen years of age. She was a pork hater, a fast runner, a strong swimmer, a good artist, and an analytical thinker. She had friends back at the bathhouse named Lin, Gunni, Toro, Kamagi, No-face, Boh, Zeniba, and maybe even Yubaba. She loved a dragon by the name of Kohaku Nushi, better known as just "Haku".
She was currently in a very, very nasty situation. Some bastard spirit had kidnapped her on the bridge, knocked her out, and brought her to this place. This place, she remembered, was the place Jirou had shown her in her dream. This place was the dungeons of the Delta God lair. And if she had to make an educated guess, the lair was underground. So far, she had seen not a single window, the only light coming from fire. More specifically, Chihiro was almost positive that she was underneath the Khahani Delta.
Okay, so if that were the case, then she had to draw up some way to escape. If she managed to fight past all the guards, she would swim to the surface of the delta, then find her way back to the Bathhouse. Easier said than done.
The kidnapper-guard spirit wasn't in the locked room for now, but by Gods was he…disgusting, filthy, and just plain a creep. Getting past him would require careful planning on her part. And although she wasn't mortally wounded, it would take at least a few days for her head injuries to heal. Every few minutes her empty stomach battled itself. On top of that, she had hardly been around the Spirit World. She could be miles, miles away from home.
There was also the gnawing thought that she had a duty to do before escaping. What that duty was she did not know, but it was just this feeling… She wasn't a fool, she knew she couldn't change the ways of Ashumo and Kyo unless she wanted to remain imprisoned for a decade, but if only she could understand what caused them to do this.
Why was tradition all that important anyway?
A clang made Chihiro shrink into the wall. The door burst open and in the iron frame stood the guard.
"Eh, pretty bird, I see you came around." She flinched as he knelt in closer, the smell of month-old fish coming from his mouth.
"S-Stay away!" She muttered a mental curse for stammering. He was much too close…
"You don't sound as brave as you did when you bit me." He sneered and placed a hand on her knee. She slapped the meaty piece of flesh away.
"I can smell your fear." A speck of spit flicked onto her cheek. From her peripherals, she tried to find a way to escape, but his thick arms locked her in that cage sized space. The wall pressed into her back.
"I said stay away!" He tilted his head back and laughed.
"I can do whatever I want with a pretty bird like you. After all, I am your guard and you shall remain prisoner. Unless—" He licked his lips, "that dragon of yours comes to save you. All the better, it is part of the trap, you know?"
Her rapidly widening pupils showed the alarm she tried to hide. He fed off the emotion like a parasite off blood.
"Ah, I see that nobody has told you. Well, you see," he stroked the line of her jaw, "you won't find a better guarded lair than the Khahani Delta. The minute an intruder sets place on our grounds…" He made a cutting motion across his throat. "I don't think I need to elaborate. Long story short, nobody, nobody is able to attack from outside." The hand trailed from jaw to throat. Chihiro whimpered softly.
She hadn't thought of Haku coming to the rescue, when it was such an obvious thing he would do. The new crisis made her forget about the hands that invaded her skin. Of course, he would play the part of the hero, come and save her, all the while falling into a trap…
"No…" She breathed in panic. This can't—can't be. Was I captured as bait?
"Oh yes." Delight contorted his features. She felt a hand slide up the back of her shirt, but she was frozen.
"What do you plan to do with him if he does come?"
"Kill you. He'll be so traumatized that he'll have to mate the Princess." He chuckled and set a bowl down by her hand. "That's your dinner. You may eat once I'm done with you. Maybe he won't even save you, who knows."
Chihiro blinked, before realizing that in her disbelief how his other hand had crept to the back of her neck. Fear overtook her.
"Please." Moisture dotted the fabric around her chin as tears began to slide down her face. "Please."
He grinned wolfishly, then manipulated her head forward. His mouth forced hers open. She felt something slimy slither against the roof of her mouth, reaching the back of her throat. She gagged, trying with all her might to push him away. It was no use. From the start, she had no fight left. Her muscles and bones screamed. He was blocking her in the front, his hands roaming and face glued to hers. The wall was blocking her from behind. All she could do was cry.
Cry she did. When he broke away, she wiped away the tears to feel new ones pour out.
"P-Please stop this—"
He threw her down so she was pinned against the floor. "You're no fun, you have no fight left. I was hoping you could entertain me. Guess not." He lunged forward. She summoned the last of her strength to turn her head aside, bring her hand into the air, and punch him in the chest. The effect was close to none. It only seemed to anger him.
"You cursed fox-spirit*!" He roared, knocking Chihiro back down as she tried to drag herself up.
The sound of tearing fabric reverberated in her head. The tears were gone now. If this was fate, then—
So this is the end. I have nothing left. Everything, everything I fought for, and now…I never thought there would come the time to give up.
She closed her eyes and ground her fingernails into stone. Why can't I faint, why?
"Your dragon will be most unhappy. Tell him I said "hello" if you see him—"
The rest went unheard, for her hand knocked into something. The bowl.
He didn't notice as Chihiro slowly dragged the bowl nearer. Knowing very well that it was boiling hot, she dipped a finger inside. Soup. It contained soup. Inch by inch, she brought the ceramic vessel closer while holding her breath. Even when he drooled saliva all over her face, she kept her calm. The ground raised and dipped according to the pattern of cobblestones. If the soup spilled, so would the rest of her life, perhaps even her sanity.
At last, after two life-death minutes, she slipped her hand around the bottom, making sure she had a strong grip. It wasn't easy, considering all her life she had been taught to read the "Caution: Hot" signs and stay away from burning objects.
"Excuse me, sir, but there's a spider over your left ear," she gasped. It was hard to breath with a brute as large as him plastered all over her.
"What?" He turned his head around, frowned at seeing nothing, then guffawed. "Come on, is that the best you can do? Excuse me sir, but there's a spider over your left ear! You are quite entertaining, human."
She was ready when he turned back to her. She lifted the bowl, wincing as some of the liquid sloshed over the rim on ran down her arm. "I know, right? I'm really fun considering I'm a lowly human." His beady eyes stretched out.
"Wait-what do you think—argh!" A tortured scream bounced around in the confined spaced. The empty bowl clattered to the ground he pawed at his blistering face. Burning flesh wafted through the damp air. Chihiro rolled out of the way, trying to get as far away as possible.
"MY EYES! YOU DEMON FOX*, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MY EYES? I CAN'T SEE, I CAN'T SEE!"
She didn't see the blow coming until it was too late. Her head connected with the wall with a sickening crack. He continued to flail his arms about blindly.
"I'll get you back for this! I swear! I-I'll make sure of that!" His howls and curses grew more distant.
She struggled to maintain consciousness after the iron door closed. The bastard was gone, but what had it cost?
Gingerly, Chihiro touched the side of her head. The impact had barely missed on of her main arteries. Violently shaking, she pressed two fingers to the cut to staunch the flow. Without warning, she retched, bile dribbling onto the floor. Hardly recovering from the first time, she vomited again. And again. Her mouth felt dirty, her face was flecked with saliva and blood and sweat. Her shirt was torn at the shoulder, her hair stuck to her clammy skin.
Considering the whole scheme of things, she had been lucky. But the sour taste wouldn't leave her mouth, the fear didn't leave her heart.
Bait. I've been captured as bait.
She crawled on her hands and knees into the farthest corner of the room. There, Chihiro curled herself into the tightest ball she could manage and rocked back and forth. Tears were gone, and oddly, she was lonely without them. Her heart felt hollow.
Don't come, Haku. Stay away. Stay away. I'll manage. I'll get out by myself. Stay at the Bathhouse, Haku, do you hear me? Don't try to rescue me.
She slipped in and out of alertness while she remained cocooned in that corner. She lost track of how long she was alone, without food or water, without moving so much as a finger. Maybe a minute, maybe a day, time didn't travel when a person didn't care. She would have given up long ago, yet the only thing that fed her spirit was ironically, the thing that ate away at her soul.
Don't rescue me, Haku. Don't rescue me.
A thin sliver of light fell like a beacon from the narrow open in the door to the cell. She didn't bother to raise her head, even when she felt the warmth from a candle approach her corner. Something landed by her feet.
"My advice, though quite unworthy, would be to clean yourself up."
*fox demon- an old Chinese saying for an evil woman, b*tch, etc.
The first part with Chihiro may have seemed...vague almost, but she wasn't completely in her right mind, so forgive the vagueness.
Yay, I have finally introduced the last and final OC. I hope you like him/her ^.^
Please review, that would be the best Christmas gift ever! Thank you, and Happy Holidays!