It is I, Jjah-Jjah! Here I am again. I'm bored and I have to inclination
to entertain you people today, so I'll just get onto my splendiferous
reviewers!!!
Dragonmaster01: Thank you! *bounces* 'tis true!
Angel Of Joy: Well here's the new chappie! Thank you!
Two reviews.... I LOVE YOU GUYS!
Ah well... Here's the disclaimer.
Disclaimer: Do I *look* like Miyazaki-san? Do I?
Onward!
****************
Chapter 2
Numbly, Chihiro wished she were a lump of coal.
It wasn't that Professor Sakai's lectures weren't interesting... Heck, he was her favorite teacher... She just didn't feel like being in class today. She felt strangely compelled to suddenly jump out of her seat and go running like hell towards her river. She suppressed the urge.
Just barely.
She had yet to show the Professor the photo. She planned to as soon as class was over. Absently, she played with a lock of hair that had fallen loose of her customary ponytail. She already knew everything he was lecturing about, soil erosion...
Kami! There's dirt and the water carries it off... Whooptie do! Let's move on!
But nooooo... There seemed to be a few particularly dense specimens who needed further clarification. Shoot me now.
Chihiro sighed quietly and tried to take a nap. Fortune would have it however, that as soon as she fell asleep class was abruptly over. She woke with the bell and then fought against the tide of leaving students as she tried to reach the podium.
"Professor Sakai!" She called as she finally came up..
"Ogino-san!" Professor Sakai answered, smiling. The Professor was a pleasant man. He was short, but not fat. His face was round and creased with laughter lines. "Is everything ok, Ogino-san? Is there something you need help with?"
"Well kinda. I saw this weird thing on the bank of the Kohaku yesterday and I took a picture of it. Could you look at?"
"Of course."
Chihiro quickly gave him the photo she had at the ready. He put on his reading glasses, looked at if for a while, and then assumed a rather startled expression.
"You say you took this at the Kohaku River?"
"Yes."
"That's very odd..."
"You know what they are then?"
"Yes. They're an otter's mud slides."
"Otter mud slides?"
"Mm hmm. They're made by otters sliding down a slope into the water, like children in a playground. Otters are very playful creatures; they do it for fun."
"I didn't think otters lived in Japan."
"Well, they don't. Not anymore. Otters used to live in Japan, but they were wiped out by loss of habitat, water pollution, and over hunting. Maybe this one escaped from a zoo and somehow got into the river, or someone released it... The only other explanation I can think of is that it swam here from somewhere otters still live, like Indonesia or Vietnam, but that's just a little too far fetched. I have a book here that might help you..."
Professor Sakai went to the bookshelf behind his desk and pulled out a large colorful looking book. He handed it to her. "This is all about otters."
"Thank you Professor!"
"You're welcome. Just don't forget to bring it back when you're done."
"I won't! Bye bye!"
"See you tomorrow!"
Chihiro raced to her dorm, the book in hand. Otters? She certainly hadn't seen that one coming... She eagerly raced back to her dorm room so that she might shed some light on the mystery.
******************
"Ach, Chihiro! Look where you're going!"
"Sorry!" Chihiro smiled at her roommate Asako, whom she had nearly run over. Chihiro plopped down on her bed and opened the book.
"What's that?"
"A book on otters. I think an otter is living in the Kohaku River."
"No fooling? I wonder what effect that's gonna have on the ecosystem... Have you seen any yet?" One didn't have to know Asako very well to know that she wasn't referring to otters.
"No Asako! Listen, if I see any, you'll be the first to know!"
Asako had done her thesis on an animal called the Giant Salamander. It was the biggest amphibian in the world and Asako was it's biggest fan. She was constantly screening lakes, rivers, streams, and mud puddles for the illusive and rare creature. Chihiro thought she was obsessed.
But then she was obsessed too, so that was ok...
Speaking of obsessions, Chihiro had narrowed the field of suspects down to three. Only three kinds of otter actually lived in the immediate area around Japan, the Oriental Short-Clawed Otter, the India Smooth-Coated (or just Smooth) Otter, and the Hairy-Nosed Otter...
Ok. So all she had to do was go down to the river and have an otter stakeout. She still needed to get those silt samples anyway... Sounds like a plan.
She hesitated on her way to go put on her bathing suit. There was that photo again. Entranced, she picked it up and looked at it. Why was this, this feeling when she looked at it so familiar? She hadn't felt this way since... Since Spirit World...
The wind chime that hung in the open window jingled once, and then was ominously silent.
Chihiro looked toward it. It wasn't even swaying. The photo fluttered from her fingertips and fell to the floor. Her brow furrowed and she stood. She went to her closet and started shuffling through her things.
"What are you doing?" Asako asked looking up from the homework she was finishing.
"Looking for something." Chihiro mumbled. Where was it? She knew she had packed it when she moved in. Why had she ever stopped wearing it anyway? Ah yes... She was afraid she might lose it... Well that was dumb, now she had... Arrgh.
"What are you looking for?"
"A hair tie. A purple one."
"The one that shimmers?"
Chihiro abruptly extracted herself from the closet bumping her head against the upper shelf in the process. "Yes! That's the one!"
Asako raised a brow and pointed towards a frog figurine on Chihiro's bookshelf. It was wearing the offending hair tie like a little necklace. Chihiro blinked, then laughed sheepishly. Asako chuckled at her roommate's behavior and went back to what she was doing. Chihiro walked over to the shelf and exchanged the tie with the one she was wearing. It was the hair tie Zeniba had given her; made out of the threads her friends had woven together. Where were those friends now?
If only she knew.
Perhaps this hair tie would bring her luck. Zeniba had said it would protect her...
With that thought in mind, Chihiro started to get ready for her trip to her river.
**********
The wind felt delicious against her skin. She was moving at a leisurely pace. Nature was all around her and the only offensive sound was the faint whir of the bicycle's wheels. Since the death of her car, Chihiro had decided she would adopt this alternative mode of travel. It took a lot of creative thinking when it came to keeping all her equipment balanced, but she found she enjoyed it a lot more than driving. The glimmer of the river was blue in the distance and if she closed her eyes, Chihiro could almost imagine that there were horns beneath her hand rather than handlebars.
Sometimes she missed those precious few rides with Haku so much that she cried. A single such tear escaped before she could stop it... No more came and she increased her speed towards the river.
She couldn't go on thinking about Haku. There were a whole lot of reasons. For one he was a spirit and she was human. For another they would probably never see each other again. Not to mention that he probably never felt the same way for her as she did, no had for him...
But why was she doing this? Why had she devoted her entire life to saving this river, if not for him?
Kami, she needed a vacation.
The bicycle skidded to a halt spraying dirt up in every direction. Chihiro dismounted and carrying all her stuff, took great care this time not to fall down the embankment. She hurriedly made her way to the boat, left her stuff and then went to go check on the mudslides. They were still there, but less defined than before, as if they had not been used in a while. She sighed and went back to the boat.
Three silt samples: one from the waterline, one from the opposite shore, and one from the deeper regions. She would have to get out of the boat to get the last one. First, she took the waterline sample and then she dragged the boat into the water, so that she could row across. Luckily, the Kohaku was a small river. It didn't take very long at all to row across. After she took that sample, she took off her outer clothes revealing her modest bathing suit. Chihiro stretched. The sunlight felt good. Then she hopped into the water test tube in hand with a small splash.
"Whoo! Just right!" She laughed. She loved being in the water. She loved to swim. Many a summer job had she spent being a lifeguard at some local pool. The only problem with that job was that you didn't get into the water much. Maybe if people drowned more...
Ah well.
Her feet just barely touched the bottom, stirring up sediment. She ducked under the water for a moment, holding the boat in place with her hand, and filled the test tube with a deft sweep. She came up, put the stopper in, and placed it back in the boat. She stared down at her feet for a minute and noted something. The color of the sediment there was a dark greenish brown that mimicked Haku's hair color perfectly.
"Augh!" She yelled. "Think about other things, Chihiro!" She shook her head violently as if to fling the unwanted reference out of her head, and then tried to push herself up off the bottom and into the boat again. She was surprised in that, rather than cool mud beneath her toes, she felt something warm and slippery.
She made a strangled sound and let go of the boat just as she was pulling herself up. She fell into the water with a mighty flailing splash. She banged her head against the boat's underside twice and then came up sputtering.
"What was that?" She mused to herself. She hoped she hadn't stepped on anything alive and hurt it. She waited patiently for the water to clear, and then her brow furrowed at what she finally saw.
A glimmer of sun-like color, shining out of the silt. She ducked back under the water and picked it up. She was shocked. In her hand was a rounded-smooth stone made of what she was sure was amber. It was heavy and just barely fit into her palm. She tried to get back into the boat, and this time succeeded.
She turned it over in her hands. What was it doing here? Kohaku meant 'amber' didn't it?
A summer wind blew at her back as if trying to alert her to something. She looked up.. Across the river at the mudslides, a small streamlined creature stood on its hind legs like a weasel, looking directly at her. They stared at each for a long time. Then the creature flopped forwards, and was gone in a ripple of silver.
Chihiro stared at the ripples till they disappeared. That was when she realized the slow current was carrying her away. She struggled to row back to where she kept the boat and didn't think about what she had seen till she got there. That was the otter... Only... It didn't really look brown, as all otters were. The play of the sunlight on the water gave it the illusion of looking almost...
Purple?
*************
Chihiro toweled her hair dry as she sat on the grass. When she was finished she put her hair back up into a messy ponytail. What now? She put her pants and Teva sandals back on and walked over to where she had seen the otter. There was no sign or trace that it had ever been there. She sighed and pouted. Then her stomach growled.
Chihiro retreated to her backpack to retrieve her lunch. Her little bento box was filled with one of her favorite foods: sushi. She liked eel and yellow stripe best. She broke her chopsticks and began eating, but felt restless. She decided to walk along the bank as she ate. She paused again at the mudslides, picked two pieces of sushi out of her lunch and put them as near as she could figure to where the otter had been. She continued her walk.
She had been walking for about fifteen minutes when she found a lovely little place. It was odd she had never seen it before. It was a little rounded dip in the bank where the water was still and smooth, caught in an eddy apart from the rest of the flowing river. An old tree trunk protruded on the bank from the water. Chihiro could see dozens of little minnows dancing around the submerged end of the trunk. She sat on the dry end and watched them. They were so active and merry, like little aquatic susuwatari. She smiled, but then her reverie was cut short by a loud quack.
A little brown female duck swam up to her and quacked a hello.
"Hello." Chihiro smiled. "I'm sorry, I don't have anything for you to eat."
The duck begged to differ and quacked again.
"Look, I don't have anything.." She stopped short when she reached into her pocket and felt the last of a pack of crackers she had gotten a few days before. She brought it out, crumbled them, and tossed it towards the bird. The little duck nabbed the floating particles with an enthusiasm only matched by the dancing minnows that ate what the duck missed.
"You know, you shouldn't come up to people like that. Someone might give you something bad to eat or hurt you."
The little duck tilted her golden-brown head to the side and looked at Chihiro as if she understood, then she turned and swam away.
Chihiro chuckled noiselessly at the display and started back. She was nearly dry and she was done eating. She trudged along till she came to the mudslides and then she froze.
There was a purple otter inspecting her sushi.
Well, it wasn't exactly purple. It was more of a pinkish-purple, but who the hell cares? There was a pinkish-purple otter holding a piece of sushi in its large webbed paws looking at it as if it were poisoned or possibly explosive. It was to say the least unsettling.
The familiar feeling washed over her again and this time she recognized it. The otter was inspecting the sushi far too thoroughly; the gaze was too intelligent... Too intelligent for it to be *just* an otter.
It was a spirit.
A spirit! Here in the real world! In her own Kohaku River! It was amazing, yet puzzling. It seemed so strange to see an actual spirit somewhere else than spirit world. It was like fantasizing something that you knew couldn't really happen all your life and then suddenly seeing it one day. It was a dream that carried on into conscious thought...
Now what?
"Um... Hello." Chihiro managed.
The otter glanced at Chihiro, ate the sushi, and then looked away dismissively. It waddled up the bank to the top if the mudslide, and then slid down, landing in the water with a faint splash. Then it started to come out again. It's head protruded from the water and it gave a delicate yawn revealing lots of sharp pointy teeth.
"Um.. Excuse me..."
"What?!" The otter snarled its voice, obviously female, sounded annoyed.
"You're a spirit aren't you?"
"How astute of you. What the hell else would I be?!"
Dang this critter was rude! I mean, how else are you supposed to start a conversation with a purple otter that you just happen to randomly meet one day? It wasn't as if there was a handbook!
"Sorry! I mean... I was just wondering.. It isn't as if you see spirits around here all the time and I was wondering where you came from, that's all."
"Oh. I come from spirit world."
"I know that! But, if you're... Then how did you get here?"
"I swam. Now go away and leave me alone! Kami, you're the most annoying human I've ever met..." The otter slid down the bank again.
"Sorry..."
"Stop saying you're sorry!"
"So--... So what brings you around here?"
"None of your business."
"Oh."
"Pfft. Whatever." The otter flopped back into the water and began swimming away.
"Wait!" Chihiro called. "I still want to talk to you!"
"Why?" The otter scoffed, and then disappeared beneath the water.
Chihiro stood there, suddenly alone. Why did she want to speak to it anyway?
Duh.
The answer to all her subconscious thoughts: Haku. Perhaps the spirit had been to the bathhouse recently and heard something of him. Perhaps the otter even knew a way into Spirit World, so she could go see him herself. Involuntarily, her thoughts turned back to the day she had attempted to go back to Spirit World.
It had been a summer day, not unlike the day she visited Spirit World for the first time... It was right after she had found the Kohaku River still flowing. She had followed the faint trail towards the old amusement park with excitement running through her veins. She had felt so happy...
She saw the imposing tunnel entrance towering out of the trees. It was silent this time. Too silent. Too normal. She followed the tunnel expecting to see it open up into the large room with the benches, but instead, she hit a solid surface. The entrance didn't look like it had ever been finished. It simply didn't go any further...
There was no way back.
Chihiro sighed and started packing up her things. She had to get back for her afternoon class. For a moment, at the top of the bank, she looked back over the river. Then she turned and walked away.
As soon as she had left, the river seemed to sigh.
She would be back.
**********************
"Are you *sure* you haven't seen any?"
"NO! No, no, no Asako! I haven't seen any frikken salamanders!" Chihiro reached up and turned her light off with a huff, and then flopped down into her bed and pulled the covers over her head.
"You're sure?"
"YES!!!!!!"
"Alright." Asako turned her light off as well.
Chihiro lay there for a long while. The wind chime in the open window whispered a soft lullaby, but Chihiro didn't hear it.
"Something's not right..." She mumbled to herself silently..
Then sleep claimed her.
**************
A pink shoe was swept down and away and the world was suddenly a brilliant liquid green. Bubbles rose from her mouth and rose towards the surface; a dull strict world that possessed none of this one's clarity. Her tiny hands clutched at smooth horn, her legs tickled from brushes against a feathery mane, and the shimmer of silver scales swam beneath her. She was rising to the surface, surely.... But did she really want to?
Haku.
Not Haku; Kohaku, Kohaku, Kohaku!
He was Nigihayami Kohaku Nushi *not* Haku! He was not what Yubaba had made him! He was something else! He was Kohaku! He was the spirit of a river that came back from the dead! How could he not be? Where was he? Why didn't he come back home?
What was wrong?
Chihiro stood on a bank overlooking a river. The bank was unfamiliar, but the river was not... It was the Kohaku River, a deep blue shimmering ribbon... That seemed to be getting lighter. Before her eyes the deep blue of the water faded down to a pale unhealthy aqua. It wasn't till pockets of yellow sand appeared here and there that she realized what was happening.
The water was disappearing; the river was drying up.
"No!" She yelled, but the sound was carried away as the wind began to pick up speed and a familiar, if indistinct form rose out of the drying riverbed.
It was Kohaku in his dragon form. He reared out of the sand as if he were being burned alive. He roared in pain, but all that seemed to come out of his mouth was a cascade of dry choking yellow sand. Chihiro wasted no time in running towards him; it was closer than it looked. When she finally came close enough to get a good look at him, she realized that it was too late. The sand had nearly eaten away his body. As soon as she reached to wrap him in her embrace, he simply fell apart in her arms.
"Kohaku! Come back! I'm sorry! Please come back!"
She dug through the sand as tears ran down her cheeks. She closed her eyes, trying to will her weeping away and when she opened them, her hands were covered in blood. She looked at her trembling hands, and then at the ground. The blood was seeping from the ground as if from a wound. She whispered her realization.
"The Kohaku River is dying..."
**********************
Chihiro shot out of bed as if someone had kicked her in the fanny. She gasped; she had broken out in a cold sweat. Shivering, she looked at the glowing red face of the clock. It was exactly 2 o'clock. As swiftly and quietly as she could, she immediately started packing.
She knew with the same certainty that she had known that her memories were not supposed to exist that the dream had meant something. The Kohaku River was dying. Why hadn't she thought of it before? Koahaku wasn't here! A river couldn't go on flowing without its spirit, could it? It was a mystery to her why it had come back in the first place, but the important thing was that the river survives. If the river died again, Kohaku wouldn't have a home.
Surely the river had come back as a second chance for the kind dragon. What would happen to him if he missed this amazing second chance?
She had a feeling she didn't want to know...
So here she was packing. The solution was simple. She would go to Spirit World, find Kohaku, and tell him his river had randomly popped up again. No problem...
Getting to Spirit World. That seemed to be the greatest problem, but she knew where she needed to go. The river, of course. That was where everything started, wasn't it?
Silently, with the pin-light on her key chain for assistance, Chihiro found the gray waterproof bag she had bought for the field. It was designed for keeping valuables in during white water rafting so it not only floated, but it also sealed to be completely watertight. She didn't pack much. No hoopla. Just a change of clothes, her first aid kit, some food from her mini refrigerator, and on a whim, the amber stone she had found.
Then she got dressed. Habit made her put on a bathing suit: a red and black tankini with short sleeves like a tee shirt. Then she put on a well-worn pair of tan surf pants. She pulled her hair up with her special hair-tie and slipped on her Teva sandals. She was ready to go... Accept for one thing...
"Asako..." *poke* *poke* "Asako..."
"Mrrph... Wha?"
"I'm going on a little field trip, so tell everyone not to worry about me, ok?"
"Snn.. Sure..." Asako dropped back off to sleep. Chihiro smiled. She left a note anyway, just in case... Then she was gone.
The wind chime jingled in approval.
******************
The bike clattered noisily to the ground. Everything was silent. The river was oddly different at night. Luckily the moon was full and allowed enough light for Chihiro to see by. She ran towards the bank and there stopped. The otter. The otter had to have gotten here from spirit world somehow...
"Hello?!" She yelled. Her voice sounded strange over the water. Even the crickets were silent.
"Please! I need help! I have to get to Spirit World!"
Silence.
"Please! I'll do anything! I need to find someone!"
Nothing.
"I have to get to Spirit World!!!! Please, a friend of min--"
"KAMI! Shut up! We all hear you!"
Chihiro looked down. It was the otter. It looked pissed.
"What's this about going to Spirit World? It's not a place for humans you know. Why would you want to go there?"
"I need to find a friend of mine. His name is...Haku... I need to tell him something that's really important."
"And this Haku is a spirit?"
"Yes."
"And you want *me* to take you to Spirit World so you can find him?"
"You can do that?! Take me to Spirit World?"
"Ack!" The otter was caught. "Well... kinda."
"Please." Chihiro said respectfully and bowed. "My name is Chihiro and I'd be deeply indebted to you if you'd take me to Spirit World."
The otter sighed and twitched its whiskers and seemed to actually consider Chihiro's request for the first time. It hopped up beside the girl, touched her leg with a large webbed paw, and sniffed appraisingly. It seemed impressed.
"The wind and water are strong in her... Very odd..." It muttered to itself. It looked up at her, searching her face. "Wait here." The otter leapt into the water and was gone again. However, only a few seconds later it immerged again, this time with a leather pouch grasped in its mouth. It opened the pouch and took out a round green piece of what looked like candy.
"If you want to go to Spirit World with me, you'll have to eat this." It held out the candy. "I have the power to pass between worlds, but only through places where water is present. This candy will give you the ability to breathe underwater for one hour, so you won't drown... My name is Roku and I promise its not poisoned..."
Chihiro took it. "So you'll take me?" She took the candy.
Roku shrugged. "Hell, why not? It's not like I have anything better to do." With that the otter jumped back into the water, but this time a transformation took place. Roku went down a plain old purple otter, but came back up a really really big purple otter. Chihiro blinked.
"Don't look at me like that. This just my transformed state. Now eat the frikken candy and hop on."
Well. It was what she wanted... Chihiro popped the candy into her mouth and then waded into the water. She grabbed handfuls of Roku's thick fur and hauled herself onto the creature's back. The candy dissolved in her mouth; a strange herbal taste.
"You got a good grip?"
"Yes ma'am." Chihiro nodded and secured her bag. Roku tossed her pouch around her own neck with a string that was attached.
"Then let's go!"
In a flurry of movement that Chihiro barely comprehended, the otter leapt into the deeper water with a splash and was diving straight down to the riverbed. Chihiro arched like a distressed cat, but held onto the spirit's neck for dear life. They swam till she couldn't hold her breath anymore, but when she finally had to breathe; she realized she didn't need to. She felt absolutely no need to breathe. 'That could have been useful back then...' she mused inwardly. In only a few seconds, the muddy river bottom came into view. The spirit showed no sign of stopping.
Chihiro would have screamed had there been an impact, but there wasn't... She simply felt a strange sensation, as if the water had thickened, like jell-o. Then a blue light encompassed them, or more precisely the water they were swimming through glowed blue. Lacy nebulae of sediment hung motionless around them. Roku swam around them and Chihiro looked ahead. It looked like another river bottom. She looked over her shoulder... Nothing was there. She turned back around as they passed through the next barrier... Then they were spiraling upwards. Chihiro could see the faint outline of the moon and stars shimmering from far above the water. They surged into the air in a spray of bubbles.
Chihiro breathed in actual air and sighed contentedly. She looked around. They weren't in the Kohaku River anymore. Here, the water was shallow; reed dotted the surface. There was no shore in sight.
"That was amazing!" Chihiro beamed. It was an incredible experience! And now she was in Spirit World. She knew it. A strange bird's cry echoed over the water.
Now to find Kohaku.
*************************
Well. Chapter two... Chapter three may take a while.... Be patient... Farewell, and review!
Dragonmaster01: Thank you! *bounces* 'tis true!
Angel Of Joy: Well here's the new chappie! Thank you!
Two reviews.... I LOVE YOU GUYS!
Ah well... Here's the disclaimer.
Disclaimer: Do I *look* like Miyazaki-san? Do I?
Onward!
****************
Chapter 2
Numbly, Chihiro wished she were a lump of coal.
It wasn't that Professor Sakai's lectures weren't interesting... Heck, he was her favorite teacher... She just didn't feel like being in class today. She felt strangely compelled to suddenly jump out of her seat and go running like hell towards her river. She suppressed the urge.
Just barely.
She had yet to show the Professor the photo. She planned to as soon as class was over. Absently, she played with a lock of hair that had fallen loose of her customary ponytail. She already knew everything he was lecturing about, soil erosion...
Kami! There's dirt and the water carries it off... Whooptie do! Let's move on!
But nooooo... There seemed to be a few particularly dense specimens who needed further clarification. Shoot me now.
Chihiro sighed quietly and tried to take a nap. Fortune would have it however, that as soon as she fell asleep class was abruptly over. She woke with the bell and then fought against the tide of leaving students as she tried to reach the podium.
"Professor Sakai!" She called as she finally came up..
"Ogino-san!" Professor Sakai answered, smiling. The Professor was a pleasant man. He was short, but not fat. His face was round and creased with laughter lines. "Is everything ok, Ogino-san? Is there something you need help with?"
"Well kinda. I saw this weird thing on the bank of the Kohaku yesterday and I took a picture of it. Could you look at?"
"Of course."
Chihiro quickly gave him the photo she had at the ready. He put on his reading glasses, looked at if for a while, and then assumed a rather startled expression.
"You say you took this at the Kohaku River?"
"Yes."
"That's very odd..."
"You know what they are then?"
"Yes. They're an otter's mud slides."
"Otter mud slides?"
"Mm hmm. They're made by otters sliding down a slope into the water, like children in a playground. Otters are very playful creatures; they do it for fun."
"I didn't think otters lived in Japan."
"Well, they don't. Not anymore. Otters used to live in Japan, but they were wiped out by loss of habitat, water pollution, and over hunting. Maybe this one escaped from a zoo and somehow got into the river, or someone released it... The only other explanation I can think of is that it swam here from somewhere otters still live, like Indonesia or Vietnam, but that's just a little too far fetched. I have a book here that might help you..."
Professor Sakai went to the bookshelf behind his desk and pulled out a large colorful looking book. He handed it to her. "This is all about otters."
"Thank you Professor!"
"You're welcome. Just don't forget to bring it back when you're done."
"I won't! Bye bye!"
"See you tomorrow!"
Chihiro raced to her dorm, the book in hand. Otters? She certainly hadn't seen that one coming... She eagerly raced back to her dorm room so that she might shed some light on the mystery.
******************
"Ach, Chihiro! Look where you're going!"
"Sorry!" Chihiro smiled at her roommate Asako, whom she had nearly run over. Chihiro plopped down on her bed and opened the book.
"What's that?"
"A book on otters. I think an otter is living in the Kohaku River."
"No fooling? I wonder what effect that's gonna have on the ecosystem... Have you seen any yet?" One didn't have to know Asako very well to know that she wasn't referring to otters.
"No Asako! Listen, if I see any, you'll be the first to know!"
Asako had done her thesis on an animal called the Giant Salamander. It was the biggest amphibian in the world and Asako was it's biggest fan. She was constantly screening lakes, rivers, streams, and mud puddles for the illusive and rare creature. Chihiro thought she was obsessed.
But then she was obsessed too, so that was ok...
Speaking of obsessions, Chihiro had narrowed the field of suspects down to three. Only three kinds of otter actually lived in the immediate area around Japan, the Oriental Short-Clawed Otter, the India Smooth-Coated (or just Smooth) Otter, and the Hairy-Nosed Otter...
Ok. So all she had to do was go down to the river and have an otter stakeout. She still needed to get those silt samples anyway... Sounds like a plan.
She hesitated on her way to go put on her bathing suit. There was that photo again. Entranced, she picked it up and looked at it. Why was this, this feeling when she looked at it so familiar? She hadn't felt this way since... Since Spirit World...
The wind chime that hung in the open window jingled once, and then was ominously silent.
Chihiro looked toward it. It wasn't even swaying. The photo fluttered from her fingertips and fell to the floor. Her brow furrowed and she stood. She went to her closet and started shuffling through her things.
"What are you doing?" Asako asked looking up from the homework she was finishing.
"Looking for something." Chihiro mumbled. Where was it? She knew she had packed it when she moved in. Why had she ever stopped wearing it anyway? Ah yes... She was afraid she might lose it... Well that was dumb, now she had... Arrgh.
"What are you looking for?"
"A hair tie. A purple one."
"The one that shimmers?"
Chihiro abruptly extracted herself from the closet bumping her head against the upper shelf in the process. "Yes! That's the one!"
Asako raised a brow and pointed towards a frog figurine on Chihiro's bookshelf. It was wearing the offending hair tie like a little necklace. Chihiro blinked, then laughed sheepishly. Asako chuckled at her roommate's behavior and went back to what she was doing. Chihiro walked over to the shelf and exchanged the tie with the one she was wearing. It was the hair tie Zeniba had given her; made out of the threads her friends had woven together. Where were those friends now?
If only she knew.
Perhaps this hair tie would bring her luck. Zeniba had said it would protect her...
With that thought in mind, Chihiro started to get ready for her trip to her river.
**********
The wind felt delicious against her skin. She was moving at a leisurely pace. Nature was all around her and the only offensive sound was the faint whir of the bicycle's wheels. Since the death of her car, Chihiro had decided she would adopt this alternative mode of travel. It took a lot of creative thinking when it came to keeping all her equipment balanced, but she found she enjoyed it a lot more than driving. The glimmer of the river was blue in the distance and if she closed her eyes, Chihiro could almost imagine that there were horns beneath her hand rather than handlebars.
Sometimes she missed those precious few rides with Haku so much that she cried. A single such tear escaped before she could stop it... No more came and she increased her speed towards the river.
She couldn't go on thinking about Haku. There were a whole lot of reasons. For one he was a spirit and she was human. For another they would probably never see each other again. Not to mention that he probably never felt the same way for her as she did, no had for him...
But why was she doing this? Why had she devoted her entire life to saving this river, if not for him?
Kami, she needed a vacation.
The bicycle skidded to a halt spraying dirt up in every direction. Chihiro dismounted and carrying all her stuff, took great care this time not to fall down the embankment. She hurriedly made her way to the boat, left her stuff and then went to go check on the mudslides. They were still there, but less defined than before, as if they had not been used in a while. She sighed and went back to the boat.
Three silt samples: one from the waterline, one from the opposite shore, and one from the deeper regions. She would have to get out of the boat to get the last one. First, she took the waterline sample and then she dragged the boat into the water, so that she could row across. Luckily, the Kohaku was a small river. It didn't take very long at all to row across. After she took that sample, she took off her outer clothes revealing her modest bathing suit. Chihiro stretched. The sunlight felt good. Then she hopped into the water test tube in hand with a small splash.
"Whoo! Just right!" She laughed. She loved being in the water. She loved to swim. Many a summer job had she spent being a lifeguard at some local pool. The only problem with that job was that you didn't get into the water much. Maybe if people drowned more...
Ah well.
Her feet just barely touched the bottom, stirring up sediment. She ducked under the water for a moment, holding the boat in place with her hand, and filled the test tube with a deft sweep. She came up, put the stopper in, and placed it back in the boat. She stared down at her feet for a minute and noted something. The color of the sediment there was a dark greenish brown that mimicked Haku's hair color perfectly.
"Augh!" She yelled. "Think about other things, Chihiro!" She shook her head violently as if to fling the unwanted reference out of her head, and then tried to push herself up off the bottom and into the boat again. She was surprised in that, rather than cool mud beneath her toes, she felt something warm and slippery.
She made a strangled sound and let go of the boat just as she was pulling herself up. She fell into the water with a mighty flailing splash. She banged her head against the boat's underside twice and then came up sputtering.
"What was that?" She mused to herself. She hoped she hadn't stepped on anything alive and hurt it. She waited patiently for the water to clear, and then her brow furrowed at what she finally saw.
A glimmer of sun-like color, shining out of the silt. She ducked back under the water and picked it up. She was shocked. In her hand was a rounded-smooth stone made of what she was sure was amber. It was heavy and just barely fit into her palm. She tried to get back into the boat, and this time succeeded.
She turned it over in her hands. What was it doing here? Kohaku meant 'amber' didn't it?
A summer wind blew at her back as if trying to alert her to something. She looked up.. Across the river at the mudslides, a small streamlined creature stood on its hind legs like a weasel, looking directly at her. They stared at each for a long time. Then the creature flopped forwards, and was gone in a ripple of silver.
Chihiro stared at the ripples till they disappeared. That was when she realized the slow current was carrying her away. She struggled to row back to where she kept the boat and didn't think about what she had seen till she got there. That was the otter... Only... It didn't really look brown, as all otters were. The play of the sunlight on the water gave it the illusion of looking almost...
Purple?
*************
Chihiro toweled her hair dry as she sat on the grass. When she was finished she put her hair back up into a messy ponytail. What now? She put her pants and Teva sandals back on and walked over to where she had seen the otter. There was no sign or trace that it had ever been there. She sighed and pouted. Then her stomach growled.
Chihiro retreated to her backpack to retrieve her lunch. Her little bento box was filled with one of her favorite foods: sushi. She liked eel and yellow stripe best. She broke her chopsticks and began eating, but felt restless. She decided to walk along the bank as she ate. She paused again at the mudslides, picked two pieces of sushi out of her lunch and put them as near as she could figure to where the otter had been. She continued her walk.
She had been walking for about fifteen minutes when she found a lovely little place. It was odd she had never seen it before. It was a little rounded dip in the bank where the water was still and smooth, caught in an eddy apart from the rest of the flowing river. An old tree trunk protruded on the bank from the water. Chihiro could see dozens of little minnows dancing around the submerged end of the trunk. She sat on the dry end and watched them. They were so active and merry, like little aquatic susuwatari. She smiled, but then her reverie was cut short by a loud quack.
A little brown female duck swam up to her and quacked a hello.
"Hello." Chihiro smiled. "I'm sorry, I don't have anything for you to eat."
The duck begged to differ and quacked again.
"Look, I don't have anything.." She stopped short when she reached into her pocket and felt the last of a pack of crackers she had gotten a few days before. She brought it out, crumbled them, and tossed it towards the bird. The little duck nabbed the floating particles with an enthusiasm only matched by the dancing minnows that ate what the duck missed.
"You know, you shouldn't come up to people like that. Someone might give you something bad to eat or hurt you."
The little duck tilted her golden-brown head to the side and looked at Chihiro as if she understood, then she turned and swam away.
Chihiro chuckled noiselessly at the display and started back. She was nearly dry and she was done eating. She trudged along till she came to the mudslides and then she froze.
There was a purple otter inspecting her sushi.
Well, it wasn't exactly purple. It was more of a pinkish-purple, but who the hell cares? There was a pinkish-purple otter holding a piece of sushi in its large webbed paws looking at it as if it were poisoned or possibly explosive. It was to say the least unsettling.
The familiar feeling washed over her again and this time she recognized it. The otter was inspecting the sushi far too thoroughly; the gaze was too intelligent... Too intelligent for it to be *just* an otter.
It was a spirit.
A spirit! Here in the real world! In her own Kohaku River! It was amazing, yet puzzling. It seemed so strange to see an actual spirit somewhere else than spirit world. It was like fantasizing something that you knew couldn't really happen all your life and then suddenly seeing it one day. It was a dream that carried on into conscious thought...
Now what?
"Um... Hello." Chihiro managed.
The otter glanced at Chihiro, ate the sushi, and then looked away dismissively. It waddled up the bank to the top if the mudslide, and then slid down, landing in the water with a faint splash. Then it started to come out again. It's head protruded from the water and it gave a delicate yawn revealing lots of sharp pointy teeth.
"Um.. Excuse me..."
"What?!" The otter snarled its voice, obviously female, sounded annoyed.
"You're a spirit aren't you?"
"How astute of you. What the hell else would I be?!"
Dang this critter was rude! I mean, how else are you supposed to start a conversation with a purple otter that you just happen to randomly meet one day? It wasn't as if there was a handbook!
"Sorry! I mean... I was just wondering.. It isn't as if you see spirits around here all the time and I was wondering where you came from, that's all."
"Oh. I come from spirit world."
"I know that! But, if you're... Then how did you get here?"
"I swam. Now go away and leave me alone! Kami, you're the most annoying human I've ever met..." The otter slid down the bank again.
"Sorry..."
"Stop saying you're sorry!"
"So--... So what brings you around here?"
"None of your business."
"Oh."
"Pfft. Whatever." The otter flopped back into the water and began swimming away.
"Wait!" Chihiro called. "I still want to talk to you!"
"Why?" The otter scoffed, and then disappeared beneath the water.
Chihiro stood there, suddenly alone. Why did she want to speak to it anyway?
Duh.
The answer to all her subconscious thoughts: Haku. Perhaps the spirit had been to the bathhouse recently and heard something of him. Perhaps the otter even knew a way into Spirit World, so she could go see him herself. Involuntarily, her thoughts turned back to the day she had attempted to go back to Spirit World.
It had been a summer day, not unlike the day she visited Spirit World for the first time... It was right after she had found the Kohaku River still flowing. She had followed the faint trail towards the old amusement park with excitement running through her veins. She had felt so happy...
She saw the imposing tunnel entrance towering out of the trees. It was silent this time. Too silent. Too normal. She followed the tunnel expecting to see it open up into the large room with the benches, but instead, she hit a solid surface. The entrance didn't look like it had ever been finished. It simply didn't go any further...
There was no way back.
Chihiro sighed and started packing up her things. She had to get back for her afternoon class. For a moment, at the top of the bank, she looked back over the river. Then she turned and walked away.
As soon as she had left, the river seemed to sigh.
She would be back.
**********************
"Are you *sure* you haven't seen any?"
"NO! No, no, no Asako! I haven't seen any frikken salamanders!" Chihiro reached up and turned her light off with a huff, and then flopped down into her bed and pulled the covers over her head.
"You're sure?"
"YES!!!!!!"
"Alright." Asako turned her light off as well.
Chihiro lay there for a long while. The wind chime in the open window whispered a soft lullaby, but Chihiro didn't hear it.
"Something's not right..." She mumbled to herself silently..
Then sleep claimed her.
**************
A pink shoe was swept down and away and the world was suddenly a brilliant liquid green. Bubbles rose from her mouth and rose towards the surface; a dull strict world that possessed none of this one's clarity. Her tiny hands clutched at smooth horn, her legs tickled from brushes against a feathery mane, and the shimmer of silver scales swam beneath her. She was rising to the surface, surely.... But did she really want to?
Haku.
Not Haku; Kohaku, Kohaku, Kohaku!
He was Nigihayami Kohaku Nushi *not* Haku! He was not what Yubaba had made him! He was something else! He was Kohaku! He was the spirit of a river that came back from the dead! How could he not be? Where was he? Why didn't he come back home?
What was wrong?
Chihiro stood on a bank overlooking a river. The bank was unfamiliar, but the river was not... It was the Kohaku River, a deep blue shimmering ribbon... That seemed to be getting lighter. Before her eyes the deep blue of the water faded down to a pale unhealthy aqua. It wasn't till pockets of yellow sand appeared here and there that she realized what was happening.
The water was disappearing; the river was drying up.
"No!" She yelled, but the sound was carried away as the wind began to pick up speed and a familiar, if indistinct form rose out of the drying riverbed.
It was Kohaku in his dragon form. He reared out of the sand as if he were being burned alive. He roared in pain, but all that seemed to come out of his mouth was a cascade of dry choking yellow sand. Chihiro wasted no time in running towards him; it was closer than it looked. When she finally came close enough to get a good look at him, she realized that it was too late. The sand had nearly eaten away his body. As soon as she reached to wrap him in her embrace, he simply fell apart in her arms.
"Kohaku! Come back! I'm sorry! Please come back!"
She dug through the sand as tears ran down her cheeks. She closed her eyes, trying to will her weeping away and when she opened them, her hands were covered in blood. She looked at her trembling hands, and then at the ground. The blood was seeping from the ground as if from a wound. She whispered her realization.
"The Kohaku River is dying..."
**********************
Chihiro shot out of bed as if someone had kicked her in the fanny. She gasped; she had broken out in a cold sweat. Shivering, she looked at the glowing red face of the clock. It was exactly 2 o'clock. As swiftly and quietly as she could, she immediately started packing.
She knew with the same certainty that she had known that her memories were not supposed to exist that the dream had meant something. The Kohaku River was dying. Why hadn't she thought of it before? Koahaku wasn't here! A river couldn't go on flowing without its spirit, could it? It was a mystery to her why it had come back in the first place, but the important thing was that the river survives. If the river died again, Kohaku wouldn't have a home.
Surely the river had come back as a second chance for the kind dragon. What would happen to him if he missed this amazing second chance?
She had a feeling she didn't want to know...
So here she was packing. The solution was simple. She would go to Spirit World, find Kohaku, and tell him his river had randomly popped up again. No problem...
Getting to Spirit World. That seemed to be the greatest problem, but she knew where she needed to go. The river, of course. That was where everything started, wasn't it?
Silently, with the pin-light on her key chain for assistance, Chihiro found the gray waterproof bag she had bought for the field. It was designed for keeping valuables in during white water rafting so it not only floated, but it also sealed to be completely watertight. She didn't pack much. No hoopla. Just a change of clothes, her first aid kit, some food from her mini refrigerator, and on a whim, the amber stone she had found.
Then she got dressed. Habit made her put on a bathing suit: a red and black tankini with short sleeves like a tee shirt. Then she put on a well-worn pair of tan surf pants. She pulled her hair up with her special hair-tie and slipped on her Teva sandals. She was ready to go... Accept for one thing...
"Asako..." *poke* *poke* "Asako..."
"Mrrph... Wha?"
"I'm going on a little field trip, so tell everyone not to worry about me, ok?"
"Snn.. Sure..." Asako dropped back off to sleep. Chihiro smiled. She left a note anyway, just in case... Then she was gone.
The wind chime jingled in approval.
******************
The bike clattered noisily to the ground. Everything was silent. The river was oddly different at night. Luckily the moon was full and allowed enough light for Chihiro to see by. She ran towards the bank and there stopped. The otter. The otter had to have gotten here from spirit world somehow...
"Hello?!" She yelled. Her voice sounded strange over the water. Even the crickets were silent.
"Please! I need help! I have to get to Spirit World!"
Silence.
"Please! I'll do anything! I need to find someone!"
Nothing.
"I have to get to Spirit World!!!! Please, a friend of min--"
"KAMI! Shut up! We all hear you!"
Chihiro looked down. It was the otter. It looked pissed.
"What's this about going to Spirit World? It's not a place for humans you know. Why would you want to go there?"
"I need to find a friend of mine. His name is...Haku... I need to tell him something that's really important."
"And this Haku is a spirit?"
"Yes."
"And you want *me* to take you to Spirit World so you can find him?"
"You can do that?! Take me to Spirit World?"
"Ack!" The otter was caught. "Well... kinda."
"Please." Chihiro said respectfully and bowed. "My name is Chihiro and I'd be deeply indebted to you if you'd take me to Spirit World."
The otter sighed and twitched its whiskers and seemed to actually consider Chihiro's request for the first time. It hopped up beside the girl, touched her leg with a large webbed paw, and sniffed appraisingly. It seemed impressed.
"The wind and water are strong in her... Very odd..." It muttered to itself. It looked up at her, searching her face. "Wait here." The otter leapt into the water and was gone again. However, only a few seconds later it immerged again, this time with a leather pouch grasped in its mouth. It opened the pouch and took out a round green piece of what looked like candy.
"If you want to go to Spirit World with me, you'll have to eat this." It held out the candy. "I have the power to pass between worlds, but only through places where water is present. This candy will give you the ability to breathe underwater for one hour, so you won't drown... My name is Roku and I promise its not poisoned..."
Chihiro took it. "So you'll take me?" She took the candy.
Roku shrugged. "Hell, why not? It's not like I have anything better to do." With that the otter jumped back into the water, but this time a transformation took place. Roku went down a plain old purple otter, but came back up a really really big purple otter. Chihiro blinked.
"Don't look at me like that. This just my transformed state. Now eat the frikken candy and hop on."
Well. It was what she wanted... Chihiro popped the candy into her mouth and then waded into the water. She grabbed handfuls of Roku's thick fur and hauled herself onto the creature's back. The candy dissolved in her mouth; a strange herbal taste.
"You got a good grip?"
"Yes ma'am." Chihiro nodded and secured her bag. Roku tossed her pouch around her own neck with a string that was attached.
"Then let's go!"
In a flurry of movement that Chihiro barely comprehended, the otter leapt into the deeper water with a splash and was diving straight down to the riverbed. Chihiro arched like a distressed cat, but held onto the spirit's neck for dear life. They swam till she couldn't hold her breath anymore, but when she finally had to breathe; she realized she didn't need to. She felt absolutely no need to breathe. 'That could have been useful back then...' she mused inwardly. In only a few seconds, the muddy river bottom came into view. The spirit showed no sign of stopping.
Chihiro would have screamed had there been an impact, but there wasn't... She simply felt a strange sensation, as if the water had thickened, like jell-o. Then a blue light encompassed them, or more precisely the water they were swimming through glowed blue. Lacy nebulae of sediment hung motionless around them. Roku swam around them and Chihiro looked ahead. It looked like another river bottom. She looked over her shoulder... Nothing was there. She turned back around as they passed through the next barrier... Then they were spiraling upwards. Chihiro could see the faint outline of the moon and stars shimmering from far above the water. They surged into the air in a spray of bubbles.
Chihiro breathed in actual air and sighed contentedly. She looked around. They weren't in the Kohaku River anymore. Here, the water was shallow; reed dotted the surface. There was no shore in sight.
"That was amazing!" Chihiro beamed. It was an incredible experience! And now she was in Spirit World. She knew it. A strange bird's cry echoed over the water.
Now to find Kohaku.
*************************
Well. Chapter two... Chapter three may take a while.... Be patient... Farewell, and review!