LAST DANCE- Chapter 3
It was over, their relationship. They had children, but not a single one of them knew that they would outlive their mother by hundreds of years. Chihiro sighed, as she and Haku looked at each other, knowing that her end was drawing closer. Was there anything that they could do to prevent her death? Nothing could hurt to be tried, at this point.
~
Do we know more than we knew then
Or do we know less and we just pretend
Should I ignore my heart and walk away
Your eyes tell me more than words will ever say
~
Chihiro thought back to how she felt the time she had been told to leave the spirit world. She had been forced to ignore her heart to save her parents. But now, there was nothing forcing her to leave Haku, so she would try anything to stay with him.
~
Should we take a chance and dance the last dance
Should we spend the night one more time
Caught up in this romance
Or maybe wait and see
Let it be, the way that it will be
Should we take a chance and dance the last dance
~
Would they try anything to keep Chihiro alive? Would it be worth it to 'give it all'? Or would it be better if they just waited, and watched to see if fate had any kindly surprises for them?
~
How can I be wrong when I feel the way I feel
How can I deny emotion that's so real
In the middle of the night I call out your name
Do I ever cross your mind
Do... do you feel the same
~
All the questions that had plagued their minds when they were separated had been long since answered, but Chihiro and Haku couldn't help but feel that everything was degrading and backsliding into the original questionable relationship. After all, who could keep love going for thousands of centuries with the knowledge that the one he loved was already dead?
~
Like we should take a chance and dance the last dance
Should we spend the night one more time
Caught up in this romance
Or maybe wait and see
Let it be, the way that it will be
Should we take a chance and dance the last dance
~
It wouldn't hurt to try the last resort. After all, the only thing it could do other than turn Chihiro into an immortal would be to force him back to the spirit world, and it would only speed up his 'death' by a few weeks. Their children could live without them; they were old enough now. Haku sighed, looking at Chihiro's frail face, knowing that without her, he would lose his strongest bound to the human world, and with the children believing he would eventually die, there was no way he could live much longer in the human world. He blinked back tears, thinking back to the time when she had left the tunnel to spirit world, and returned to the human world.
~
Let me go
Come to me
Which way is the way that it should be
This is so bitter sweet
There's no that way we will ever know for sure
~
He had told her to let him go, and to return to her world. He had promised to go to her and find her. And he promised to meet her again.
Chihiro gave him a weak smile, mouthing the words, "I love you," as he finished drawing the runes.
He looked back at her and wiped a few tears out of his eyes, as he replied, "I love you too," and started the ritual.
~
Unless we take a chance and dance the last dance
We should spend the night one more time
Caught up in this romance
Or maybe wait and see
Let it be, the way that it will be
Should we take a chance and dance the last dance...
(Fade Out...)
~
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Years later, Keiko Ogino, twenty-six years old, and her brother Heiji Ogino, twenty-four years old, stumbled through a worn-down tunnel.
"Wow! This place is beautiful!" Keiko whispered to her brother, looking around at the flowing fields of grass that surrounded them.
"Look! There's smoke coming from over there! Let's go see if anyone lives here. We need to clear them out before the demolition crews reach the tunnel." Heiji gave a small frown, wondering why demolition crews cared about an old tunnel inside a forest anyway. He jogged toward the smoke after noting a restaurant that was apparently open. As he and his sister jogged to the top of a hill, they saw an ornate bathhouse.
"I thought all the bathhouses in our town were torn down last year... why is this one still here?" Keiko stepped onto the bridge, preparing to talk to the owner of the bathhouse.
"A human? Who? No, it doesn't matter. Leave! You shouldn't be... here..." A voice trailed off as a tall female stepped into view on the other side of the bridge.
"Rin? What's going on? Is everything alright over there?" Two more people, a female and a male, stepped into view around the corner of the bathhouse.
"Rin? Are you okay? Hello?" The female wave her hand in front of Rin's face, before turning to look at what Rin was staring at. "What's this? Humans? Here? Wait... K-Keiko? Is that you!?"
"M-mom? Your d-dead... right?" Keiko stammered for a moment, before looking at her 'mom's' companion. "Dad? Y-you died too... right?"
"We /did/ die, in a sense of the word. Come on in Keiko, Heiji."
"How can you be alive? Something fishy is going on here..." Heiji looked at his 'parents' for a while. "How can we be sure that you two are really our parents?"
Chihiro and Haku looked at each other, and smiled, before relating the tales of their lives to their children. At the end of the long conversation, it was well past sunset, and the only proof that the two siblings needed was provided by the hundreds of spirits walking through town.
"Mother! Father!" The two siblings threw themselves into their parents arms, and followed them into the bathhouse for a full explanation of their ancestry.
~The End~
_____________________________
Sorry if it's a bit cheesy, but I wrote chapter 2 and 3 in about thirty minutes. I'm trying to get back to my Ranma story right now. Heh. I hope you enjoyed this story as much as I enjoyed writing it. Please C&C or R&R. Thank you very much, and I sincerely hope you'll e-mail me if you have any massive comments to give me. ^_^.
-Ayanami Rei
It was over, their relationship. They had children, but not a single one of them knew that they would outlive their mother by hundreds of years. Chihiro sighed, as she and Haku looked at each other, knowing that her end was drawing closer. Was there anything that they could do to prevent her death? Nothing could hurt to be tried, at this point.
~
Do we know more than we knew then
Or do we know less and we just pretend
Should I ignore my heart and walk away
Your eyes tell me more than words will ever say
~
Chihiro thought back to how she felt the time she had been told to leave the spirit world. She had been forced to ignore her heart to save her parents. But now, there was nothing forcing her to leave Haku, so she would try anything to stay with him.
~
Should we take a chance and dance the last dance
Should we spend the night one more time
Caught up in this romance
Or maybe wait and see
Let it be, the way that it will be
Should we take a chance and dance the last dance
~
Would they try anything to keep Chihiro alive? Would it be worth it to 'give it all'? Or would it be better if they just waited, and watched to see if fate had any kindly surprises for them?
~
How can I be wrong when I feel the way I feel
How can I deny emotion that's so real
In the middle of the night I call out your name
Do I ever cross your mind
Do... do you feel the same
~
All the questions that had plagued their minds when they were separated had been long since answered, but Chihiro and Haku couldn't help but feel that everything was degrading and backsliding into the original questionable relationship. After all, who could keep love going for thousands of centuries with the knowledge that the one he loved was already dead?
~
Like we should take a chance and dance the last dance
Should we spend the night one more time
Caught up in this romance
Or maybe wait and see
Let it be, the way that it will be
Should we take a chance and dance the last dance
~
It wouldn't hurt to try the last resort. After all, the only thing it could do other than turn Chihiro into an immortal would be to force him back to the spirit world, and it would only speed up his 'death' by a few weeks. Their children could live without them; they were old enough now. Haku sighed, looking at Chihiro's frail face, knowing that without her, he would lose his strongest bound to the human world, and with the children believing he would eventually die, there was no way he could live much longer in the human world. He blinked back tears, thinking back to the time when she had left the tunnel to spirit world, and returned to the human world.
~
Let me go
Come to me
Which way is the way that it should be
This is so bitter sweet
There's no that way we will ever know for sure
~
He had told her to let him go, and to return to her world. He had promised to go to her and find her. And he promised to meet her again.
Chihiro gave him a weak smile, mouthing the words, "I love you," as he finished drawing the runes.
He looked back at her and wiped a few tears out of his eyes, as he replied, "I love you too," and started the ritual.
~
Unless we take a chance and dance the last dance
We should spend the night one more time
Caught up in this romance
Or maybe wait and see
Let it be, the way that it will be
Should we take a chance and dance the last dance...
(Fade Out...)
~
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Years later, Keiko Ogino, twenty-six years old, and her brother Heiji Ogino, twenty-four years old, stumbled through a worn-down tunnel.
"Wow! This place is beautiful!" Keiko whispered to her brother, looking around at the flowing fields of grass that surrounded them.
"Look! There's smoke coming from over there! Let's go see if anyone lives here. We need to clear them out before the demolition crews reach the tunnel." Heiji gave a small frown, wondering why demolition crews cared about an old tunnel inside a forest anyway. He jogged toward the smoke after noting a restaurant that was apparently open. As he and his sister jogged to the top of a hill, they saw an ornate bathhouse.
"I thought all the bathhouses in our town were torn down last year... why is this one still here?" Keiko stepped onto the bridge, preparing to talk to the owner of the bathhouse.
"A human? Who? No, it doesn't matter. Leave! You shouldn't be... here..." A voice trailed off as a tall female stepped into view on the other side of the bridge.
"Rin? What's going on? Is everything alright over there?" Two more people, a female and a male, stepped into view around the corner of the bathhouse.
"Rin? Are you okay? Hello?" The female wave her hand in front of Rin's face, before turning to look at what Rin was staring at. "What's this? Humans? Here? Wait... K-Keiko? Is that you!?"
"M-mom? Your d-dead... right?" Keiko stammered for a moment, before looking at her 'mom's' companion. "Dad? Y-you died too... right?"
"We /did/ die, in a sense of the word. Come on in Keiko, Heiji."
"How can you be alive? Something fishy is going on here..." Heiji looked at his 'parents' for a while. "How can we be sure that you two are really our parents?"
Chihiro and Haku looked at each other, and smiled, before relating the tales of their lives to their children. At the end of the long conversation, it was well past sunset, and the only proof that the two siblings needed was provided by the hundreds of spirits walking through town.
"Mother! Father!" The two siblings threw themselves into their parents arms, and followed them into the bathhouse for a full explanation of their ancestry.
~The End~
_____________________________
Sorry if it's a bit cheesy, but I wrote chapter 2 and 3 in about thirty minutes. I'm trying to get back to my Ranma story right now. Heh. I hope you enjoyed this story as much as I enjoyed writing it. Please C&C or R&R. Thank you very much, and I sincerely hope you'll e-mail me if you have any massive comments to give me. ^_^.
-Ayanami Rei