Chapter 14
The Explanation
Chihiro approached the small table and took her seat opposite the professor. There was barely one meter separating them. The room was devoid of the trappings of nature. The old professor made sure of that. She wanted to have Sen's undivided attention--as well as Chihiro's.
[SEN, HOW DO YOU WISH TO BE ADDRESSED?]
[I WOULD PREFER TO BE CALLED BY MY HUMAN NAME CHIHIRO, BUT OTHER SPIRITS I CARE FOR KNOW ME BY THE NAME...]
[...THE NAME YUBABA GAVE YOU? I UNDERSTAND.]
[DO YOU KNOW YUBABA?]
[KNOW HER? IN A CONVOLUTED WAY, I AM PART OF HER.]
Sen was able to piece the entire picture together. [I THINK I UNDERSTAND. YOU ARE A TWIN. YOUR NAME IS MI... YU... ?]
[ONLY MY TWIN SISTER KNOWS THAT NAME. YOU ARE INCREDIBLY SENSITIVE, CHIHIRO. MY BIRTH NAME IS MIYU. MIYU WATANABE. MY SISTER'S NAME IS KAYA.]
[YOU ARE PART YUBABA AND PART ZENIBA,] Sen concluded. [YOUR SISTER IS ALSO PART ZENIBA AND PART YUBABA. I ASSUME YOU ARE ABLE TO MOVE BETWEEN OUR WORLD AND THE HUMAN WORLD AT WILL--BUT YOU MUST...]
[...DO IT TOGETHER. YOU ARE CORRECT.]
"What I am about to tell you may make me sound like a fortune teller," started out Mrs Natori. "I assure you that I have no knowledge of your future--but I know much about your past and present."
"Then you believe my letter--that I have a spirit?"
She smiled, "You mean Sen? Yes, of course." Chihiro was stunned. The professor continued, "She's a real handful, yet gifted, sensitive, and creative--I positively adore her."
"How do...?"
"Sen and my spirit are having a wonderful conversation as we speak. Do you have any idea how rare it is to converse rather than merely interact with a spirit? There aren't more than ten on the planet right now who are aware of language, and four of them are within two kilometers of where we sit. This is all so exciting."
"Why are spirits like that so rare?"
"Because," the professor replied, "there are few people who have been to the 'other side' so long and returned. You and your parents were there for three days."
Chihiro's long-buried memory returned. "When I was about ten, right? We went into an old building or something and lost track of three days."
"BINGO."
"So the other two nearby must be my parents, right? Only they're not anywhere near here right now; I came by myself."
"No. Your parents were handled... ...differently. You were given a gift that was capable of breaching the wall between your human side and your spirit. That is the reason for your condition today." Professor Natori suddenly changed her expression. "Six thousand? Wow!" She resumed her prior demeanor. "Chihiro, you were given a little hairband to help you make it safely back to the human world. Apparently, you still have it."
"My purple hair band? It wasn't given to me--I found it."
"You merely found it where you took it off. At the time, you didn't remember receiving it." The professor leaned toward Chihiro and asked, "Chihiro, can you estimate how many Chinese characters you know?"
Chihiro thought about it a minute and replied, "Somewhere between twenty-five hundred and three thousand, I think."
Professor Natori looked confused at first, then her eyes lit up. "That's not bad, but not particularly spectacular. Your spirit knows at least six thousand, maybe more. You must have a very good character dictionary in your home, and use it often. She has gone beyond learning from you and is learning on her own."
"Dad received a copy of the Great Kanji Dictionary as a gift from the company a few years ago. It appears he had a reputation of misusing certain characters and they gave it to him as a good-natured reminder. There are several volumes, listing over fifty thousand characters. I don't use it much, but mom goes to it quite a bit." Chihiro brightened up a bit. "That explains what's been happening to me sometimes!"
The professor knew what Chihiro was thinking. "Yes, that's what's happening to you. I can fix the problem for you right now--and permanently. Your spirit and your consciousness don't need to interact with each other. As you have learned, this has caused and will continue to cause problems. Those problems will only get more serious over time. There is temporary solution I'd like to offer as an alternative. It comes in the form of a proposition..."
The Explanation
Chihiro approached the small table and took her seat opposite the professor. There was barely one meter separating them. The room was devoid of the trappings of nature. The old professor made sure of that. She wanted to have Sen's undivided attention--as well as Chihiro's.
[SEN, HOW DO YOU WISH TO BE ADDRESSED?]
[I WOULD PREFER TO BE CALLED BY MY HUMAN NAME CHIHIRO, BUT OTHER SPIRITS I CARE FOR KNOW ME BY THE NAME...]
[...THE NAME YUBABA GAVE YOU? I UNDERSTAND.]
[DO YOU KNOW YUBABA?]
[KNOW HER? IN A CONVOLUTED WAY, I AM PART OF HER.]
Sen was able to piece the entire picture together. [I THINK I UNDERSTAND. YOU ARE A TWIN. YOUR NAME IS MI... YU... ?]
[ONLY MY TWIN SISTER KNOWS THAT NAME. YOU ARE INCREDIBLY SENSITIVE, CHIHIRO. MY BIRTH NAME IS MIYU. MIYU WATANABE. MY SISTER'S NAME IS KAYA.]
[YOU ARE PART YUBABA AND PART ZENIBA,] Sen concluded. [YOUR SISTER IS ALSO PART ZENIBA AND PART YUBABA. I ASSUME YOU ARE ABLE TO MOVE BETWEEN OUR WORLD AND THE HUMAN WORLD AT WILL--BUT YOU MUST...]
[...DO IT TOGETHER. YOU ARE CORRECT.]
"What I am about to tell you may make me sound like a fortune teller," started out Mrs Natori. "I assure you that I have no knowledge of your future--but I know much about your past and present."
"Then you believe my letter--that I have a spirit?"
She smiled, "You mean Sen? Yes, of course." Chihiro was stunned. The professor continued, "She's a real handful, yet gifted, sensitive, and creative--I positively adore her."
"How do...?"
"Sen and my spirit are having a wonderful conversation as we speak. Do you have any idea how rare it is to converse rather than merely interact with a spirit? There aren't more than ten on the planet right now who are aware of language, and four of them are within two kilometers of where we sit. This is all so exciting."
"Why are spirits like that so rare?"
"Because," the professor replied, "there are few people who have been to the 'other side' so long and returned. You and your parents were there for three days."
Chihiro's long-buried memory returned. "When I was about ten, right? We went into an old building or something and lost track of three days."
"BINGO."
"So the other two nearby must be my parents, right? Only they're not anywhere near here right now; I came by myself."
"No. Your parents were handled... ...differently. You were given a gift that was capable of breaching the wall between your human side and your spirit. That is the reason for your condition today." Professor Natori suddenly changed her expression. "Six thousand? Wow!" She resumed her prior demeanor. "Chihiro, you were given a little hairband to help you make it safely back to the human world. Apparently, you still have it."
"My purple hair band? It wasn't given to me--I found it."
"You merely found it where you took it off. At the time, you didn't remember receiving it." The professor leaned toward Chihiro and asked, "Chihiro, can you estimate how many Chinese characters you know?"
Chihiro thought about it a minute and replied, "Somewhere between twenty-five hundred and three thousand, I think."
Professor Natori looked confused at first, then her eyes lit up. "That's not bad, but not particularly spectacular. Your spirit knows at least six thousand, maybe more. You must have a very good character dictionary in your home, and use it often. She has gone beyond learning from you and is learning on her own."
"Dad received a copy of the Great Kanji Dictionary as a gift from the company a few years ago. It appears he had a reputation of misusing certain characters and they gave it to him as a good-natured reminder. There are several volumes, listing over fifty thousand characters. I don't use it much, but mom goes to it quite a bit." Chihiro brightened up a bit. "That explains what's been happening to me sometimes!"
The professor knew what Chihiro was thinking. "Yes, that's what's happening to you. I can fix the problem for you right now--and permanently. Your spirit and your consciousness don't need to interact with each other. As you have learned, this has caused and will continue to cause problems. Those problems will only get more serious over time. There is temporary solution I'd like to offer as an alternative. It comes in the form of a proposition..."