A/N: *hides behind a brick wall as she addresses the readers* I'm finally back! And happy to be back! I am SO sorry that it took so long to get this out, I had a brief spat with writer's block, nothing too major (luckily, and I've had a few flashes of WONDERFUL inspiration to make up for it) and then finishing my junior year nearly killed me. I did well on my ACT's though ^_^. My point is, forgive me for the horrendously long wait, and I'll give you lots and lots of cookies if you do!
And now, straight to the story!
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Chihiro couldn't figure out why Rin was so mad at her. The woman walked in silence except for replying to the greetings called out by random people.
Not that Chihiro was really too concerned at the moment; her mind was full of the odd boy. He had looked to be about her age physically; his emerald eyes spoke of many, many more years and yet were a wall that showed nothing about him at all. His black hair held a distinct green tint about it, hanging straight in shiny locks to his chin. There was something about the way he moved and spoke that strongly reminded her of water.
But oh, how he had looked at her… the instant her eyes had crossed paths with his, something had flashed in those pools of green. His voice had shifted from the icy coldness it had held when he addressed Rin to something softer with the three syllables of her name. What had seemed like only seconds later his voice chilled enough to freeze her in place.
And he nad never answered her why so many people in Aburaya knew who she was… or rather, knew her as Sen, for reasons that she could not fathom. With every breath that she took, Chihiro was becoming more and more convinced that she wasn't crazy and that all of this was real.
After all, she and her parents had come to the little city outside the bathhouse long ago, when they had first moved to the city. She had been too angry with her parents back then to honestly care, but they had come down the same path and gone through the same tunnel that she had before becoming trapped within this crazy place. Only they hadn't been in Aburaya… had they?
No matter how hard she tried, the path of her thoughts always returned to Haku. She felt… different when he looked at her. Out of everything that she had seen, it was when the human girl had set eyes on him that she felt most like there was something drastically important that she was missing. Chihiro felt like she truly knew him from somewhere and vowed to sit down when she had time to think and figure out where. But at the moment, there were slightly more pressing concerns.
Rin and Chihiro had climbed a number of flights if stairs and emerged into a hallway that was desolate but for themselves. Chihiro cleared her throat, and when she received no response, she spoke, albeit a bit hesitantly. "Um… miss Rin, I don't know what I did, but I'm sorry for it."
Rin stopped and turned, looking a bit abashed. "You didn't do anything wrong, Se- Chihiro." Rin could tell that she didn't exactly look convinced of it. "Oh, come on you little dope, we have to get you settled in. Hungry?" Chihiro nodded.
Again the two lapsed into silence, but it was decidedly more amiable than before. Chihiro really didn't feel well, compounded by the fact that this wasn't your everyday trip, and therefore was quite stressful.
At last, Rin led Chihiro into a room. It was clared out a spacious, but cupboards lined the walls and Chihiro figured that there were blankets and such behind their wooden doors.
"Hmmm," said Rin, looking Chihiro over. "Food first, then we'll get you settled in. After that, you can sleep. You look exhausted!"
Chihiro nodded and walked out onto the balcony, sitting down at its edge with a sigh. The cool night winds felt good against the heat of the bathhouse. With yet another sigh, she shut her eyes and fell into a light doze.
After a while, the sound of footsteps returning made her open them again. Chihiro raised a hand to rub at her eye and jumped when she discovered that she could see right through it, straight to the train that sliced through the night far below. Her surprise was not enough to warrant much of a reaction, though; she was seeing too many odd things, was far too tired for her own good, and most certainly didn't feel well enough to do much more than stare at it in bewilderment and rotate the offending appendage in the vain hope that it was just some weird rash or something. No such luck. Her other hand deemed to be determined to be transparent as well.
"Here ya go," Rin said, handing Chihiro a huge dumpling that both looked and smelled delicious. "Eat up!" Chihiro reached out and took it, inhaling it's tantalizing scent with one huge sniff.
By the time Chihiro had finished eating, her eyelids had grown so heavy that she could barely keep them open. Rin noticed and pulled a sleeping mat and bag out from the cupboards on the wall. Chihiro mumbled a sleepy thanks and was asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.
The days quickly settled into a pattern, and Chihiro, while she missed her family and friends terrible, found that she liked working at the bathhouse. The uniform she had found by her head when she had awoken and prepared for her first night of work were the most comfortable things Chihiro could ever remember wearing. Before dusk each evening she and the rest of the people of Aburaya would rise and begin the day's preliminary cleaning. Rin got them breakfast (though at first it was odd to think of a meal eaten after the sun had set as breakfast) after a bit of scrubbing, before the customers came, unless they were running late. Then Chihiro would have to try to convince the foreman to give her bath tokens with her cheeks stuffed with food, which, as she was once informed, looked extremely silly.
She neither saw nor heard any more about Haku as the days and weeks slipped away. She was kept pleasantly busy constantly; when she wasn't working, she was usually sleeping or chatting with Rin- not that she didn't spend the entire time working chatting with her as well.
Chihiro awoke one evening later than normal to find the place in a complete uproar. She hastily finished dressing and threw her sleeping gear into the shelves and went in search of Rin. Instead of the usual semi-chaos the place was always in, Aburaya seemed to have devolved into complete anarchy, and no customers had even come, that she could see. Instead of the usual shifts, every single being seemed to be rushing around cleaning the place within an inch of its life and getting things ready, often with a large number of them trying to be in the exact same place as the others.
After having to scream to be heard over the din, Chihiro managed to get directions to Rin, who was scrubbing at the large tub like mad, even though it really wasn't that dirty. The noise abated a bit as Chihiro grabbed a brush and hopped in next to her friend.
"Hey," Rin grunted, nearly wearing the brush down by scrubbing madly at a stain. "You looked tired, so I let you sleep."
"What's going on?" she inquired of the spirit.
"Dunno," Rin replied, sighing as she slumped against the tub's side. "Haku came storming in a little while ago and demanded that everyone be woken up and get to work because a special guest was on its way. We wouldn't have gotten this stupid tub again," she added as an afterthought, "but I happened to be in his line of vision when he was saying to clean it." She made a face.
It was on the tip of the human girl's tongue to ask when they had been given the huge tub to clean before. Nobody really seemed to like talking about the time she had been a member of the cleaning squad before, though, so Chihiro asked something else instead. "Does Master Haku work with the customers at all? I haven't seen him down here."
The title didn't sit well on her tongue. It just seemed so natural to call him Haku, instead of Master Haku… not that the name Haku seemed to fit him quite right, but still.
"Nope," Rin answered, resignedly beginning to scrub again. "He's lucky. All he has to do is order all of us around."
"They're almost here!" someone yelled, their voice amazingly carrying over the noise.
Rin jumped. "Come on, just leave it, we need to fill the tub. I'll get a token, you just get all of our stuff out of here."
"Okay," Chihiro said, and that was that. Rin came running back and the tub was filled as quickly as possible. The instant they were done, they joined the huge crowd by the main doorway.
By now Chihiro was bursting with curiosity about who the guest was, and she could tell that a similar feeling was running throughout everyone assembled there. They did not need to wait long to find out.
Haku came calmly down a stairwell and walked slowly up to the massive group, emerald eyes sweeping over them all. He did not even need to say anything to get everyone to quiet down and pay attention to him. Like a ripple, the calmness that he seemed to emit spread throughout everyone.
When all were silent, he spoke. "Our guests will be arriving shortly. I want everyone to treat them with more respect than all our other guests combined. They will be arriving first and will be served first as well. Everyone will line the walkway and bridge all the way into the doors of Aburaya- silently. Rin and Chihiro, I want you at the doors, ready to escort our guests to the large tub, where they will be treated with the utmost care and speed." His words sent a ripple of murmurs throughout the crowd. Chihiro got the impression that nothing like this had ever happened before, and some of the spirits had been there for a long time.
Haku cleared his throat pointedly and everyone immediately began lining up. If even a peep was heard, his unfathomable eyes would turn in their direction. From her vantage point across from Rin and right next to the door, Chihiro could look down the extremely long line of spirits. It stretched as far as possible until the stairs, and went down and beyond them, far out of her line of sight.
All was quiet for a time. The slowly, up the line, everyone started whispering and standing on tiptoe in order to see all the way down. Chihiro caught whispers of, "They're here!" Haku seemed to have given up trying to shush people and had retreated silently back onto the platform inside the door.
Something down by the stairs was happening, though it took a bit of time for it to reach the front of the line. All the spirits began arranging themselves, fixing their uniforms, patting their hair, and deciding on the proper way to stand. And while everyone was still doing that, the guests crested the stairs.
All fell into stunned silence. Chihiro herself was rather confused. Granted, she still could not see the guests very clearly. But slowly, ever so slowly, they came into view.
It was a procession, walking up the pathway at a slow but steady pace. Spirits that Chihiro had no words to describe were in the lead. They almost seemed to glow with an ethereal light, and for some reason, when Chihiro looked at them, she thought of plants. There were many, many kinds, leading the procession and lining it on both sides. And the beings that composed the procession took Chihiro's breath away.
If there really were gods of the forest, these would most certainly be them. They looked like trees, only with slightly human faces looking out of the trunks. Of all kinds, their green leaves were edged with silver, blowing gracefully in the wind that wasn't there and making a sound like tinkling bells that carried through the silent night. They too glowed, towering in their magnificence.
An unmistakable air of sorrow swept over the bathhouse, one that was laden with the feeling of intense loss. It moved Chihiro almost to tears, and she had no clue what was going on. Worry and fear was in all of the eyes of the spirits that lined the walkway, one that chilled Chihiro. She could find few words in her to define the spirits and the feelings that they evoked; they struck her heart too strongly and were beyond mere words.
Time seemed to stretch out for all of eternity until the procession reached the doors of Aburaya. Without being told, Chihiro and Rin moved out onto the path, facing the procession, and bowed deeply. Then they walked backwards, still bowing, until they stood behind Haku. It just seemed natural.
But the image of Haku's face was burned into her mind as she looked at him out of the corner of her eye as she passed. While he appeared composed, the shadow of fear ran deep through his eyes.
