Disclaimer: I don't own Spirited Away or any of its characters.
Chapter 3. Orphanage
Sakura had slept the whole ride to the orphanage, and woke up the next morning in a warm bed. Sakura sat up in her bed and looked around. There was twenty beds ten on one side of the room and ten on the other side. Not all the beds were occupied, Sakura could tell that on the opposite wall of bed, were for boys and the beds on her side for girls. In the middle of the room were a few small tables and very few scattered toys. The door was on Sakura's right and the large window that gave the room its gray light was on the left.
The door slowly opened and a short woman with black hair and brown eyes stepped in. she flicked the light switch on, "Ok Wake up! Jiro introduce everyone, Miki and Kado show Sakura around before breakfast!" the woman left with a loud bang of the door. All the children got up still in pajamas and stood in a line youngest to oldest in front of Sakura.
The eldest was a blonde haired boy with blue eyes and tan skin, "My name is Jiro I'm ten years old." Then he stepped out of line and pointed to a girl with shoulder length black hair with soft brown eyes and skin, "This is Kaede she is nine." The next in the line was a girl with long red hair and blue eyes, she had lots of freckles, "She is Koto, also nine years old." After Koto was another girl with medium dirty blonde hair, she was pale with green eyes but a darker green then Sakura's, "Midori, also nine." The next girl in line had long frizzy brown hair and brown eyes, with golden brown skin, "Chika is eight." The next was a small pale boy with dark brown hair that was almost black but in the rising sunlight you could see the natural streaks of red and light brown. He had green or brown eyes Sakura couldn't tell she starred into his eye they were neither brown or green they were yellow, a real yellow, the yellow of the setting sun. Around the boys wrist was a shiny purple bracelet, or outstretched hair tie Sakura didn't know which, "He is Miki who is seven." The next boy had chin length blonde hair with blue eyes and golden skin, "That is Kado who is six. Next in line would come you, Sakura and your also six," Sakura nodded, "Makoto is five." Jiro had pointed at another red head, this boy had green eyes and tan skin unlike Koto. The next boy was extremely pale with silvery gray eyes and black hair, "Tanaka who is five." Next to Tanaka was a girl with the same face only her hair was long, they were obviously siblings, "Hana who is four." The next was a boy with neither pale or tan skin he had blue eyes and brown hair, "Hiroshi, four years old." The next was a girl who looked just like Koto only with shorter hair, "Gin who is three." A tan boy with black hair and blue eyes stood next to Gin, "Raidon who is three years old." The last two girls were both pale the second to last girl had blue eyes and long jet black hair, and the last girl had brown hair cut in a reverse bob with blue-violet eyes, "Kyoko, and the little one is Mika they are both two." Sakura looked at the kids and nodded, "Ok now we are all split into groups depending on our age, two and three year olds, Gin, Raidon, Kyoko, and Mika. Four and five year olds, Makoto, Tanaka, Hana, and Hiroshi. Your group the six and seven year olds are Miki, Kado, and you Sakura. And the last group is mine the ten, nine, and eight year olds, Me Jiro, Kaede, Koto, Midori, and Chika."
After Jiro stopped talking everyone returned to their beds and retrieved clothes, all the girls filed out of the room. The yellow eyed boy walked up to Sakura, "Tea, the girls get dressed in the bathroom and the boys get dressed in here. This morning we have clean up so once we are all dressed Kado and I will show you around."
Sakura nodded and then looked down at her blue shirt and white shorts, "All I have are these clothes."
"Well then wait outside and we'll come and get you, "replied Miki with a smile before he turned and walked over to his bed. All the boys had already pulled off their sleep shirts, Sakura quickly walked out and sat down with her back to the wall next to the door. Sakura looked around the hallway was dark but she could see two other doorways and a set of stairs going down.
----------
Kohaku met Chihiro outside on the bridge after getting permission from Zeniiba to return and look for Ryu. Chihiro picked the backpack off the ground and they walked through the streets, "Kohaku I still don't know why we came back here, last night Zeniiba said that she didn't send Kaonashi after us."
"I know it is very strange, we'll ask Rin today if she made a mistake. Maybe it wasn't Kaonashi maybe it was a relative of his," replied Kohaku.
"Yeah your probably right, but why would they say Aburaya was in trouble if it wasn't?" asked Chihiro.
"I don't know Chihiro.... That is odd," replied Kohaku.
"What's odd?" asked Chihiro.
Kohaku looked at Chihiro she hadn't been watching where they were walking, "The water is still here."
Chihiro looked up, Kohaku was right. Instead of the endless green grass that always met them when they went to the Human world, it was endless blue water, "Well...umm... Ryu went to the Human world that time when the field was covered in water and no one gave her permission. So we'll just fly across the water."
Kohaku nodded and turned into a white dragon with his green furry mane. Chihiro climbed onto Kohaku's back and held a patch of green fur. Kohaku flew low across the water, Chihiro let go with one hand and let it skim the passing water. It was only second until they landed near the entrance of the red building.
Chihiro got off Kohaku and walked towards the door of the building. Kohaku changed back to his human form, a red glimmer of the early morning light reflecting off of something that was in front of the red building.
"Wait Chihiro!" screamed Kohaku picking up a small rock. Chihiro stopped and turned around centimeters from the door, "I don't think you can pass through." Kohaku whipped the rock at the door it hit a red shiny force field causing a ripple effect. The rock didn't pass through the red ripples but bounced back and landed in the middle of the blue water.
Chihiro looked shocked and relieved that the rock wasn't her. The wind picked up and teased Chihiro's hair, she was still close to the door. The wind blew a few dead leaves that were on the floor, out of the tunnel towards Chihiro. The leaves blew slowly out of the tunnel with out a care or reaction to the force field.
Kohaku looked confused. He walked over and picked up one of the leaves that blew through the force field without any trouble. Kohaku got really close to the force field and slowly pushed the leaf across the ground towards the force field. As the leaf touched the force field it curled up like it was being pushed against a solid wall.
Chihiro opened up the backpack and pulled out two pieces of paper, a marker, and the duck tape that Yoshi insisted that they have because 'Duck tape is a life saver'. Chihiro wrote on the pieces of paper and then duck taped them back to back on a stick that she found on the ground. Chihiro shoved the stick into the ground so that one piece of paper faced the tunnel and the other the water.
Kohaku read the piece of paper, "Mysterious One way force field, You can come out of the tunnel, but you can't go back in. Please no complaints we don't know why it is here and we are looking into removing it. Thank you for your corporation. ~Sen and Haku," Kohaku looked at Chihiro, "what is that for? What if a human reads it?"
"Well it is mainly there for Asuko and Yoshi, because after they realize that we didn't return for Ryu then they'll come and at the least leave us a note and be stuck here. And it is a risk we are going to have to take, that is why I didn't say 'you can come to the spirit world but you can't return'." Kohaku nodded his agreement and changed back into a dragon.
----------
Miki and Kado walked out of the room and found Sakura sitting on the floor starring off into space, "Ok lets show you around, "said Kado.
"Well lets go downstairs, the door to the left is the bathroom, and the door on the right is that lady's room," replied Sakura.
"Umm... well yeah, her name is Ms. Tori and her daughter is Miss. Tori," replied Kado.
"Well come on," said Miki walking down the stairs. At the bottom of the stairs was the front room and to the right was the classroom and the connecting room to the classroom was a small empty room for gym when the weather wasn't good to go outside. To the left of the stairs was a hallway the first room off of the hall way was a small living room area, the next was Ms. Tori's office, and then their was the huge dinning room. Off of the dining room was a second bathroom, that had a bathtub while the upstairs bathroom had two showers, the kitchen was also connected to the dinning room. The dinning room had a huge sliding glass door that opened up into the back yard there was a porch, a small swing set and a small strand of sand before the lake. In the lake there was a T dock.
Miki and Kado showed Sakura the chore chart, "Ok we are the blue stars, so today we are cleaning up after breakfast, then we have first class today, after that we have to clean the upstairs." Sakura examined the chart it stated three weeks because there was three meal related chores, and three sets of normal chores so for the three different colored stars to get back to where they began it took three weeks. Each week Monday through Sunday was written in a different color. Next to the chart was a calendar that had each week colored one of three colors. For the month of May the first week was colored blue and the second week on the chart was written in blue. So you could easily match up the day with the proper chores of that day. On the calendar every other day had a 'G' and the others had a 'B'. The list of chores also included which class period you had. On the other side of the chore chart was an itinerary that read:
Wake up – 6:00
Set up and cook/Free time – 6:30-7:00
Breakfast – 7:00-8:00
Clean up/Free time – 8:00-8:30
School Lesson 1/Chores – 8:30-10:30
School Lesson 2/Chores – 10:30-12:30
Set up and cook/Free time - 12:30-13:00
Lunch – 13:00-14:00
Clean up/Free time – 14:00-14:30
Sports – 14:30-15:30
School Lesson 3/Chores – 15:30-17:30
Set up and cook/Free time - 17:30-18:00
Dinner - 18:00-19:00
Clean up/Free time – 19:00-19:30
Free time – 19:30- 21:00
Bedtime – 21:00
"It looks confusing," replied Sakura.
Miki looked at her, "It really isn't Tea. If you aren't setting up or cooking breakfast then you have free at that time. we only have school two hours a day so in the other four hours reserved for school we do our chores, after chores we do our homework, take a shower, or have free time. You can only take a shower if the day has written a 'G' on it for girls and only when a shower is free. We are not allowed near the lake unless we have sport down there. The two and three year olds don't do any of this because they are to young they have structured play, and sport with the rest of us, along with meals. Understand?"
Sakura nodded, Kado looked over at the table it was 7:00, "Come on breakfast is ready." They walked over to the big table on one side sat in this order, Jiro, Kaede, Koto, Midori, Chika, Miki, Kado and Sakura. On the other side sat Makoto, Tanaka, Hana, Hiroshi, Gin, Raidon, Kyoko, and Mika. On one end of the table sat Ms. Tori and on the opposite end was a younger Ms. Tori who Sakura assumed was Miss. Tori. Sakura noticed that Miss. Tori had her hair cut rather short and looked a lot like Kaede, but it was obvious that they were not related.
"Thank you for the food in front of us, the warm cloths we wear, and the roof over our heads, "said Ms. Tori, a grace written to not be thanking any specific god, of any specific religion. So that there was no confliction if there was ever a child who knew what there religion was or chose a religion.
Everyone began to eat their bowls of rice. Ms. Tori between bites made morning announcements, "I'm happy to say that summer has come especially early, and the outside temperature and water temperature are already warm enough to go swimming. So sport this afternoon is swimming lessons. Sakura don't worry I have a bathing suit for you and a few pairs of clothes."
Sakura nodded everyone was happy it was only May 26 and it was warm enough for swimming. Sakura smiled and then noticed that the only two who weren't happy were Miki and Kado.
Sakura whispered to Kado, "You two don't like swimming?"
"I'm not a very good swimmer and Miki is afraid of the water," replied Kado in a low whisper.
Sakura nodded, "I see." They finished breakfast then everyone got up from the table and went off to enjoy their free time leaving Miki, Kado and Sakura at the table to clean up.
They picked up the dishes and brought them into the kitchen. Miki washed the dishes, Sakura dried the dishes, and Kado washed the table and put the dishes away. Sakura was supposed to watch Kado and see where all the dishes belonged.
After they finished with the dishes they went up stairs to grab their school stuff they had six subjects: Japanese, Math, Science, History, Culture, and Language. In Culture they learned about culture in other countries, and the language that they were learning was English. Each day they had two subjects an hour for each subject, that day was Math and Japanese. Miki and Kado gave Sakura a copy of the Math book, their Japanese book which was Grimm Fairytales translated into Japanese, and their English workbook. Sakura left the English book on her bed and followed Miki and Kado to the class room where Ms. Tori was waiting.
In the back of the room Gin, Raidon, Kyoko, and Mika were having their structural play, that was finger painting. Miki, Kado and Sakura sat in the middle of the front row. The room only had two rows of five desks for the children who had school.
The first hour was math, they were working on multiplication, which was advanced for their age group. (And was very advanced for Sakura who couldn't tell time(she would just look at where the sun was in the sky and estimate.) couldn't count money (she was used to gold) or anything with fractions.) when they got to a question about multiplying fractions Sakura need extra help, not like she wasn't already getting help she only previously knew how to do simple add and subtract. Japanese was a lot better they had to take turns reading paragraphs from the story Briar Rose (Briar Rose is the English name, Sleeping Beauty is the Disney name). Sakura was the worst reader out of the three but by the end of that hour her reading wasn't bad at all. Sakura didn't understand how they could have homework when they lived in the same building that the class room was in but that didn't matter for Ms. Tori they had math homework and had to read a Fairytale of their choice and write a summary about it.
After the class was finished Miki, Kado and Sakura went upstairs. Kado explained they must pick all the stuff that doesn't belong on the floor and after mop the floor. In the bedroom they also had to dust and clean the windows. In the bathroom they had to clean out the four toilet stalls, the two showers, and the sinks.
All three picked up the toys in the bedroom and put them away then they dusted and washed the window. Then they moved to the bathroom to scrub that up before they mopped all the floors. Sakura was scrubbing a shower, that wasn't neglected, but poorly scrubbed. There was lots of water stains and calk, some of the tiles in the bottom corners had some mold. Sakura scrubbed it all away, which to her was hard but could have been worse. Miki and Kado who in the beginning laughed at Sakura because she was trying to get the shower 100% clean were surprised to see a half an hour later that it was completely clean. After the bathroom was clean they went back and moped out the bedroom followed by the bathroom and then finally the hall. It had taken them the whole two hours to clean.
They went outside it must have been 32°C (89.7°F) and they sat on the swings. The swing set was rather nice it had four regular swings, the 'two person back and forth swing' (A/N: I have no clue what the names of these swings are, I hope you know what I'm talking about), and the big 'four person swing'. There was also a ladder that led to the top of a 'fort' with a bumpy slide. They all sat on the normal swings and had 'how high' contests and jumping contests till it was lunch time.
Lunch went the same as breakfast except they had dumpling soup with their rice. At clean up Sakura washed the dishes, Kado dried, and Miki put them away.
----------
"Where are they Yoshi? They should have been here by now!" said Asuko, surveying the playground where Ryu was last seen.
"I don't know, maybe they are searching the wood or something. If we don't see them all day then we'll go find them," replied Yoshi.
A police man walked over to them, "Are you Mr. and Mrs. Nushi?"
"No we are good friends of the Nushi's, we don't know where they are right now," replied Yoshi.
"Well would you be able to identify the missing person? A Ryuichi Teataura Nushi?" asked the policeman.
"Yes, we would," Asuko said with high hopes.
"Well a doctor in Okayama, reported a supposable homeless six year old girl, who has an acute memory loss, and goes by the name Sakura," said the policeman.
"No, that can't be her she has a home, her name isn't Sakura, and I don't see how she could have gotten to Okayama," replied Yoshi sadly.
The policeman nodded, "Well if you would like to look at this doctors file you can whenever you want, compare it to other files of found children, if there are anymore."
----------
When they were finished they went up stairs Sakura found a pile with two shirts, a pair of pant, a pair of shorts, a pair of pajamas, a sweatshirt, and on top was a light blue bathing suit. Sakura went into the bathroom and changed into her bathing suit. Chika handed Sakura a towel that matched her bathing suit and all the children walked out to the lake.
Gin, Radion, Kyoko, and Mika played in the sand on the beach under the eye of Ms. Tori. Makoto, Tanaka, Hana, and Hiroshi practiced blowing bubbles in the water and holding their breath and going under water, Miss. Tori watched them very carefully. Jiro, Kaede, Koto, Midori, and Chika swam the crawl one by one from shallow water to deep water and then treaded water until their turn to swim back, with Miss. Tori as a teacher. Miki, Kado, and Sakura were supposed to tread water where they couldn't touch, their teacher was Ms. Tori. Since this was the first day of the swim season, everything was review. Miki was supposed to be able to tread water already, Kado and Sakura would be learning. Sakura was surprised how advanced everything was she was six and learning to tread water (she can't remember that she already knows how).
"Ok Miki, now jump in here where it is deep tread water for ten seconds and swim in," said Ms. Tori. They were standing on the dock where the water was too deep and about 30 centimeters over their heads.
"No Ms. Tori I can't," replied Miki.
"You did it last year, you can do it this year," answered Ms. Tori.
Miki was as white as ivory he was just shaking his head, "N...No...i...i...its...to...o deep." Miki was trembling slightly while he stuttered. For some reason Sakura couldn't look at Miki when he looked liked he did. Sakura turned her attention to the younger kids who were learning the front glide, and back glide, with all its variations (with kick, etc.). Sakura turned back when she heard a splash of water.
Miki had jumped in the water, he resurfaced and tried to tread water, he missed a kick and sunk slightly. Miki panicked and put his arm up in the air, which was his mistake, he sank completely. Ms. Tori kicked off her flip flops and put her hands on the waste band of the shorts she wore over her bathing suit. She was expecting Miki to resurface in a few seconds.
Sakura on the other hand wasn't, only a few seconds after Miki disappeared under the waters surface she dove into the water. Sakura swam to the bottom of the lake she could easily see Miki, but then the water flashed darker with her goal the same only in dark water, water after sunset.
Sakura grabbed Miki and pulled him to the surface arm around his waist. It was a good thing that in water everything weighed less. Sakura resurfaced with Miki, she was struggling to keep them both above the water. Sakura was treading water but Miki wasn't.
Miki coughed a couple times, "Thank you Tea." He looked at the dock and was surprised to see they were a good three meters away from it. Miki got scared again and motioned to put his hands in the air again.
"No Miki don't you'll drown us both, you just need to kick your legs in circles and move your free arm over the waters surface like me. Whatever you do don't put your hands in the air," quickly replied Sakura.
Miki obeyed and soon they were both safely treading water. Sakura let go of Miki's waist and held his hand they treaded water for another minute. Then Sakura let go of Miki's hand and they treaded water on their own. Ms. Tori just watched from the dock, relieved and surprised to see them both safely treading water.
Ms. Tori yelled out to Miki and Sakura, "Ok you two can swim in now!"
Sakura turned to Miki, "After you." Miki broke his rhythmic treading and swam a shaky front crawl in. Sakura followed in his suit but with a much better front crawl.
----------
"Excuse me are you the parents of the missing girl?" asked a lady with blonde hair and soft features, next to her stood a man with dark brown hair.
Asuko and Yoshi turned around to see the couple standing by the swing set of the playground, "No we are friends of the family," said Asuko.
"Well we just wanted to say that we were very sorry for your friends lost and that if we could help in anyway we would be more then happy to. We don't have any faith in these police," replied the man.
"That is very kind of you, but why don't you have faith in the police?" asked Yoshi.
"Well my brother, his wife and son moved to this town two years ago. Witnesses say they left their new house to take a walk and they never returned. The police still haven't found a trace of them anywhere. We haven't seen my brother Ituki, Toshi and their son Miki since," replied the man.
"I'm very sorry for your lose, but who are you?" asked Asuko sympathetically.
"Oh sorry, I'm Yuumi and this is my husband Tsunehiko Natsuki. Well anyway my husband works for the local News station and could send out a report for your friends daughter," Said Yuumi.
"That would be great," Asuko replied, Tsunehiko took out a pen and pad of paper prepared to take down notes on Ryu, "Her name is Ryuichi Teataura Nushi but she goes by Ryu or Tea. She is six years old with long brown hair, usually in low pig tails, with emerald green eyes. Last time I knew she was wearing an old oversized ripped, stained, orange work clothes with a navy blue apron."
Tsunehiko finished writing everything down, Yoshi held out a card to Yuumi with their phone number and address. Yuumi took the card and Tsunehiko gave Yoshi his own business card, "We'll keep in touch, we'll find her don't worry, don't give up hope."
"Thank you, "said Asuko, "you guys don't give up either I'm sure you'll find your family as well." Yuumi and Tsunehiko smiled and they left.
Yoshi and Asuko walked to the red building to the Spirit world to leave Chihiro and Kohaku a note. Yoshi stopped before he walked to through the entrance of the Spirit world.
"What's wrong?" asked Asuko.
Yoshi pointed and read, "Mysterious One way force field, You can come out of the tunnel, but you can't go back in. Please no complaints we don't know why it is here and we are looking into removing it. Thank you for your corporation. ~Sen and Haku," he looked at Asuko, "No wonder they didn't return they couldn't."
"This is bad, really bad, "said Asuko shacking her head.
Yoshi laughed an evil laugh and turned to Asuko with an evil grin. His eyes where red and if they weren't red then they were brown which was wrong, normally his eyes were blue! It seemed that there was a black ore surrounding him, inside and out. Yoshi laughed in a voice that wasn't his own, "Why is it that bad? Are you scared?" Asuko was still shaking her head and now was backing away from Yoshi, "what leaving so soon? Why don't you go tell Sen and Haku that I possessed your husband?" Asuko was still backing up, "no? But wouldn't it be so fun to try and swim across that lake, that will drown you silly human, or eat the food of the gods and get turned into a pig?" Asuko took her gaze from Yoshi and looked passed him. The field that she always remembered to be there was covered in water, even from here she could smell delicious food, Asuko was tempted to find the source of the tantalizing smell. Yoshi laughed another evil laugh, "Weak Human!" then Yoshi collapsed to the ground the black ore seemed lifted and gone.
"Yoshi!" Asuko ran to Yoshi's side, her eyes full of fright and tears.
Author's Note: Umm... actually there is none...lol... Oh wait I request creation credit if you use anyone at the orphanage I created them all, and Yuumi and Tsunehiko Natsuki. I hope you enjoyed the chapter! ~Na
Chapter 3. Orphanage
Sakura had slept the whole ride to the orphanage, and woke up the next morning in a warm bed. Sakura sat up in her bed and looked around. There was twenty beds ten on one side of the room and ten on the other side. Not all the beds were occupied, Sakura could tell that on the opposite wall of bed, were for boys and the beds on her side for girls. In the middle of the room were a few small tables and very few scattered toys. The door was on Sakura's right and the large window that gave the room its gray light was on the left.
The door slowly opened and a short woman with black hair and brown eyes stepped in. she flicked the light switch on, "Ok Wake up! Jiro introduce everyone, Miki and Kado show Sakura around before breakfast!" the woman left with a loud bang of the door. All the children got up still in pajamas and stood in a line youngest to oldest in front of Sakura.
The eldest was a blonde haired boy with blue eyes and tan skin, "My name is Jiro I'm ten years old." Then he stepped out of line and pointed to a girl with shoulder length black hair with soft brown eyes and skin, "This is Kaede she is nine." The next in the line was a girl with long red hair and blue eyes, she had lots of freckles, "She is Koto, also nine years old." After Koto was another girl with medium dirty blonde hair, she was pale with green eyes but a darker green then Sakura's, "Midori, also nine." The next girl in line had long frizzy brown hair and brown eyes, with golden brown skin, "Chika is eight." The next was a small pale boy with dark brown hair that was almost black but in the rising sunlight you could see the natural streaks of red and light brown. He had green or brown eyes Sakura couldn't tell she starred into his eye they were neither brown or green they were yellow, a real yellow, the yellow of the setting sun. Around the boys wrist was a shiny purple bracelet, or outstretched hair tie Sakura didn't know which, "He is Miki who is seven." The next boy had chin length blonde hair with blue eyes and golden skin, "That is Kado who is six. Next in line would come you, Sakura and your also six," Sakura nodded, "Makoto is five." Jiro had pointed at another red head, this boy had green eyes and tan skin unlike Koto. The next boy was extremely pale with silvery gray eyes and black hair, "Tanaka who is five." Next to Tanaka was a girl with the same face only her hair was long, they were obviously siblings, "Hana who is four." The next was a boy with neither pale or tan skin he had blue eyes and brown hair, "Hiroshi, four years old." The next was a girl who looked just like Koto only with shorter hair, "Gin who is three." A tan boy with black hair and blue eyes stood next to Gin, "Raidon who is three years old." The last two girls were both pale the second to last girl had blue eyes and long jet black hair, and the last girl had brown hair cut in a reverse bob with blue-violet eyes, "Kyoko, and the little one is Mika they are both two." Sakura looked at the kids and nodded, "Ok now we are all split into groups depending on our age, two and three year olds, Gin, Raidon, Kyoko, and Mika. Four and five year olds, Makoto, Tanaka, Hana, and Hiroshi. Your group the six and seven year olds are Miki, Kado, and you Sakura. And the last group is mine the ten, nine, and eight year olds, Me Jiro, Kaede, Koto, Midori, and Chika."
After Jiro stopped talking everyone returned to their beds and retrieved clothes, all the girls filed out of the room. The yellow eyed boy walked up to Sakura, "Tea, the girls get dressed in the bathroom and the boys get dressed in here. This morning we have clean up so once we are all dressed Kado and I will show you around."
Sakura nodded and then looked down at her blue shirt and white shorts, "All I have are these clothes."
"Well then wait outside and we'll come and get you, "replied Miki with a smile before he turned and walked over to his bed. All the boys had already pulled off their sleep shirts, Sakura quickly walked out and sat down with her back to the wall next to the door. Sakura looked around the hallway was dark but she could see two other doorways and a set of stairs going down.
----------
Kohaku met Chihiro outside on the bridge after getting permission from Zeniiba to return and look for Ryu. Chihiro picked the backpack off the ground and they walked through the streets, "Kohaku I still don't know why we came back here, last night Zeniiba said that she didn't send Kaonashi after us."
"I know it is very strange, we'll ask Rin today if she made a mistake. Maybe it wasn't Kaonashi maybe it was a relative of his," replied Kohaku.
"Yeah your probably right, but why would they say Aburaya was in trouble if it wasn't?" asked Chihiro.
"I don't know Chihiro.... That is odd," replied Kohaku.
"What's odd?" asked Chihiro.
Kohaku looked at Chihiro she hadn't been watching where they were walking, "The water is still here."
Chihiro looked up, Kohaku was right. Instead of the endless green grass that always met them when they went to the Human world, it was endless blue water, "Well...umm... Ryu went to the Human world that time when the field was covered in water and no one gave her permission. So we'll just fly across the water."
Kohaku nodded and turned into a white dragon with his green furry mane. Chihiro climbed onto Kohaku's back and held a patch of green fur. Kohaku flew low across the water, Chihiro let go with one hand and let it skim the passing water. It was only second until they landed near the entrance of the red building.
Chihiro got off Kohaku and walked towards the door of the building. Kohaku changed back to his human form, a red glimmer of the early morning light reflecting off of something that was in front of the red building.
"Wait Chihiro!" screamed Kohaku picking up a small rock. Chihiro stopped and turned around centimeters from the door, "I don't think you can pass through." Kohaku whipped the rock at the door it hit a red shiny force field causing a ripple effect. The rock didn't pass through the red ripples but bounced back and landed in the middle of the blue water.
Chihiro looked shocked and relieved that the rock wasn't her. The wind picked up and teased Chihiro's hair, she was still close to the door. The wind blew a few dead leaves that were on the floor, out of the tunnel towards Chihiro. The leaves blew slowly out of the tunnel with out a care or reaction to the force field.
Kohaku looked confused. He walked over and picked up one of the leaves that blew through the force field without any trouble. Kohaku got really close to the force field and slowly pushed the leaf across the ground towards the force field. As the leaf touched the force field it curled up like it was being pushed against a solid wall.
Chihiro opened up the backpack and pulled out two pieces of paper, a marker, and the duck tape that Yoshi insisted that they have because 'Duck tape is a life saver'. Chihiro wrote on the pieces of paper and then duck taped them back to back on a stick that she found on the ground. Chihiro shoved the stick into the ground so that one piece of paper faced the tunnel and the other the water.
Kohaku read the piece of paper, "Mysterious One way force field, You can come out of the tunnel, but you can't go back in. Please no complaints we don't know why it is here and we are looking into removing it. Thank you for your corporation. ~Sen and Haku," Kohaku looked at Chihiro, "what is that for? What if a human reads it?"
"Well it is mainly there for Asuko and Yoshi, because after they realize that we didn't return for Ryu then they'll come and at the least leave us a note and be stuck here. And it is a risk we are going to have to take, that is why I didn't say 'you can come to the spirit world but you can't return'." Kohaku nodded his agreement and changed back into a dragon.
----------
Miki and Kado walked out of the room and found Sakura sitting on the floor starring off into space, "Ok lets show you around, "said Kado.
"Well lets go downstairs, the door to the left is the bathroom, and the door on the right is that lady's room," replied Sakura.
"Umm... well yeah, her name is Ms. Tori and her daughter is Miss. Tori," replied Kado.
"Well come on," said Miki walking down the stairs. At the bottom of the stairs was the front room and to the right was the classroom and the connecting room to the classroom was a small empty room for gym when the weather wasn't good to go outside. To the left of the stairs was a hallway the first room off of the hall way was a small living room area, the next was Ms. Tori's office, and then their was the huge dinning room. Off of the dining room was a second bathroom, that had a bathtub while the upstairs bathroom had two showers, the kitchen was also connected to the dinning room. The dinning room had a huge sliding glass door that opened up into the back yard there was a porch, a small swing set and a small strand of sand before the lake. In the lake there was a T dock.
Miki and Kado showed Sakura the chore chart, "Ok we are the blue stars, so today we are cleaning up after breakfast, then we have first class today, after that we have to clean the upstairs." Sakura examined the chart it stated three weeks because there was three meal related chores, and three sets of normal chores so for the three different colored stars to get back to where they began it took three weeks. Each week Monday through Sunday was written in a different color. Next to the chart was a calendar that had each week colored one of three colors. For the month of May the first week was colored blue and the second week on the chart was written in blue. So you could easily match up the day with the proper chores of that day. On the calendar every other day had a 'G' and the others had a 'B'. The list of chores also included which class period you had. On the other side of the chore chart was an itinerary that read:
Wake up – 6:00
Set up and cook/Free time – 6:30-7:00
Breakfast – 7:00-8:00
Clean up/Free time – 8:00-8:30
School Lesson 1/Chores – 8:30-10:30
School Lesson 2/Chores – 10:30-12:30
Set up and cook/Free time - 12:30-13:00
Lunch – 13:00-14:00
Clean up/Free time – 14:00-14:30
Sports – 14:30-15:30
School Lesson 3/Chores – 15:30-17:30
Set up and cook/Free time - 17:30-18:00
Dinner - 18:00-19:00
Clean up/Free time – 19:00-19:30
Free time – 19:30- 21:00
Bedtime – 21:00
"It looks confusing," replied Sakura.
Miki looked at her, "It really isn't Tea. If you aren't setting up or cooking breakfast then you have free at that time. we only have school two hours a day so in the other four hours reserved for school we do our chores, after chores we do our homework, take a shower, or have free time. You can only take a shower if the day has written a 'G' on it for girls and only when a shower is free. We are not allowed near the lake unless we have sport down there. The two and three year olds don't do any of this because they are to young they have structured play, and sport with the rest of us, along with meals. Understand?"
Sakura nodded, Kado looked over at the table it was 7:00, "Come on breakfast is ready." They walked over to the big table on one side sat in this order, Jiro, Kaede, Koto, Midori, Chika, Miki, Kado and Sakura. On the other side sat Makoto, Tanaka, Hana, Hiroshi, Gin, Raidon, Kyoko, and Mika. On one end of the table sat Ms. Tori and on the opposite end was a younger Ms. Tori who Sakura assumed was Miss. Tori. Sakura noticed that Miss. Tori had her hair cut rather short and looked a lot like Kaede, but it was obvious that they were not related.
"Thank you for the food in front of us, the warm cloths we wear, and the roof over our heads, "said Ms. Tori, a grace written to not be thanking any specific god, of any specific religion. So that there was no confliction if there was ever a child who knew what there religion was or chose a religion.
Everyone began to eat their bowls of rice. Ms. Tori between bites made morning announcements, "I'm happy to say that summer has come especially early, and the outside temperature and water temperature are already warm enough to go swimming. So sport this afternoon is swimming lessons. Sakura don't worry I have a bathing suit for you and a few pairs of clothes."
Sakura nodded everyone was happy it was only May 26 and it was warm enough for swimming. Sakura smiled and then noticed that the only two who weren't happy were Miki and Kado.
Sakura whispered to Kado, "You two don't like swimming?"
"I'm not a very good swimmer and Miki is afraid of the water," replied Kado in a low whisper.
Sakura nodded, "I see." They finished breakfast then everyone got up from the table and went off to enjoy their free time leaving Miki, Kado and Sakura at the table to clean up.
They picked up the dishes and brought them into the kitchen. Miki washed the dishes, Sakura dried the dishes, and Kado washed the table and put the dishes away. Sakura was supposed to watch Kado and see where all the dishes belonged.
After they finished with the dishes they went up stairs to grab their school stuff they had six subjects: Japanese, Math, Science, History, Culture, and Language. In Culture they learned about culture in other countries, and the language that they were learning was English. Each day they had two subjects an hour for each subject, that day was Math and Japanese. Miki and Kado gave Sakura a copy of the Math book, their Japanese book which was Grimm Fairytales translated into Japanese, and their English workbook. Sakura left the English book on her bed and followed Miki and Kado to the class room where Ms. Tori was waiting.
In the back of the room Gin, Raidon, Kyoko, and Mika were having their structural play, that was finger painting. Miki, Kado and Sakura sat in the middle of the front row. The room only had two rows of five desks for the children who had school.
The first hour was math, they were working on multiplication, which was advanced for their age group. (And was very advanced for Sakura who couldn't tell time(she would just look at where the sun was in the sky and estimate.) couldn't count money (she was used to gold) or anything with fractions.) when they got to a question about multiplying fractions Sakura need extra help, not like she wasn't already getting help she only previously knew how to do simple add and subtract. Japanese was a lot better they had to take turns reading paragraphs from the story Briar Rose (Briar Rose is the English name, Sleeping Beauty is the Disney name). Sakura was the worst reader out of the three but by the end of that hour her reading wasn't bad at all. Sakura didn't understand how they could have homework when they lived in the same building that the class room was in but that didn't matter for Ms. Tori they had math homework and had to read a Fairytale of their choice and write a summary about it.
After the class was finished Miki, Kado and Sakura went upstairs. Kado explained they must pick all the stuff that doesn't belong on the floor and after mop the floor. In the bedroom they also had to dust and clean the windows. In the bathroom they had to clean out the four toilet stalls, the two showers, and the sinks.
All three picked up the toys in the bedroom and put them away then they dusted and washed the window. Then they moved to the bathroom to scrub that up before they mopped all the floors. Sakura was scrubbing a shower, that wasn't neglected, but poorly scrubbed. There was lots of water stains and calk, some of the tiles in the bottom corners had some mold. Sakura scrubbed it all away, which to her was hard but could have been worse. Miki and Kado who in the beginning laughed at Sakura because she was trying to get the shower 100% clean were surprised to see a half an hour later that it was completely clean. After the bathroom was clean they went back and moped out the bedroom followed by the bathroom and then finally the hall. It had taken them the whole two hours to clean.
They went outside it must have been 32°C (89.7°F) and they sat on the swings. The swing set was rather nice it had four regular swings, the 'two person back and forth swing' (A/N: I have no clue what the names of these swings are, I hope you know what I'm talking about), and the big 'four person swing'. There was also a ladder that led to the top of a 'fort' with a bumpy slide. They all sat on the normal swings and had 'how high' contests and jumping contests till it was lunch time.
Lunch went the same as breakfast except they had dumpling soup with their rice. At clean up Sakura washed the dishes, Kado dried, and Miki put them away.
----------
"Where are they Yoshi? They should have been here by now!" said Asuko, surveying the playground where Ryu was last seen.
"I don't know, maybe they are searching the wood or something. If we don't see them all day then we'll go find them," replied Yoshi.
A police man walked over to them, "Are you Mr. and Mrs. Nushi?"
"No we are good friends of the Nushi's, we don't know where they are right now," replied Yoshi.
"Well would you be able to identify the missing person? A Ryuichi Teataura Nushi?" asked the policeman.
"Yes, we would," Asuko said with high hopes.
"Well a doctor in Okayama, reported a supposable homeless six year old girl, who has an acute memory loss, and goes by the name Sakura," said the policeman.
"No, that can't be her she has a home, her name isn't Sakura, and I don't see how she could have gotten to Okayama," replied Yoshi sadly.
The policeman nodded, "Well if you would like to look at this doctors file you can whenever you want, compare it to other files of found children, if there are anymore."
----------
When they were finished they went up stairs Sakura found a pile with two shirts, a pair of pant, a pair of shorts, a pair of pajamas, a sweatshirt, and on top was a light blue bathing suit. Sakura went into the bathroom and changed into her bathing suit. Chika handed Sakura a towel that matched her bathing suit and all the children walked out to the lake.
Gin, Radion, Kyoko, and Mika played in the sand on the beach under the eye of Ms. Tori. Makoto, Tanaka, Hana, and Hiroshi practiced blowing bubbles in the water and holding their breath and going under water, Miss. Tori watched them very carefully. Jiro, Kaede, Koto, Midori, and Chika swam the crawl one by one from shallow water to deep water and then treaded water until their turn to swim back, with Miss. Tori as a teacher. Miki, Kado, and Sakura were supposed to tread water where they couldn't touch, their teacher was Ms. Tori. Since this was the first day of the swim season, everything was review. Miki was supposed to be able to tread water already, Kado and Sakura would be learning. Sakura was surprised how advanced everything was she was six and learning to tread water (she can't remember that she already knows how).
"Ok Miki, now jump in here where it is deep tread water for ten seconds and swim in," said Ms. Tori. They were standing on the dock where the water was too deep and about 30 centimeters over their heads.
"No Ms. Tori I can't," replied Miki.
"You did it last year, you can do it this year," answered Ms. Tori.
Miki was as white as ivory he was just shaking his head, "N...No...i...i...its...to...o deep." Miki was trembling slightly while he stuttered. For some reason Sakura couldn't look at Miki when he looked liked he did. Sakura turned her attention to the younger kids who were learning the front glide, and back glide, with all its variations (with kick, etc.). Sakura turned back when she heard a splash of water.
Miki had jumped in the water, he resurfaced and tried to tread water, he missed a kick and sunk slightly. Miki panicked and put his arm up in the air, which was his mistake, he sank completely. Ms. Tori kicked off her flip flops and put her hands on the waste band of the shorts she wore over her bathing suit. She was expecting Miki to resurface in a few seconds.
Sakura on the other hand wasn't, only a few seconds after Miki disappeared under the waters surface she dove into the water. Sakura swam to the bottom of the lake she could easily see Miki, but then the water flashed darker with her goal the same only in dark water, water after sunset.
Sakura grabbed Miki and pulled him to the surface arm around his waist. It was a good thing that in water everything weighed less. Sakura resurfaced with Miki, she was struggling to keep them both above the water. Sakura was treading water but Miki wasn't.
Miki coughed a couple times, "Thank you Tea." He looked at the dock and was surprised to see they were a good three meters away from it. Miki got scared again and motioned to put his hands in the air again.
"No Miki don't you'll drown us both, you just need to kick your legs in circles and move your free arm over the waters surface like me. Whatever you do don't put your hands in the air," quickly replied Sakura.
Miki obeyed and soon they were both safely treading water. Sakura let go of Miki's waist and held his hand they treaded water for another minute. Then Sakura let go of Miki's hand and they treaded water on their own. Ms. Tori just watched from the dock, relieved and surprised to see them both safely treading water.
Ms. Tori yelled out to Miki and Sakura, "Ok you two can swim in now!"
Sakura turned to Miki, "After you." Miki broke his rhythmic treading and swam a shaky front crawl in. Sakura followed in his suit but with a much better front crawl.
----------
"Excuse me are you the parents of the missing girl?" asked a lady with blonde hair and soft features, next to her stood a man with dark brown hair.
Asuko and Yoshi turned around to see the couple standing by the swing set of the playground, "No we are friends of the family," said Asuko.
"Well we just wanted to say that we were very sorry for your friends lost and that if we could help in anyway we would be more then happy to. We don't have any faith in these police," replied the man.
"That is very kind of you, but why don't you have faith in the police?" asked Yoshi.
"Well my brother, his wife and son moved to this town two years ago. Witnesses say they left their new house to take a walk and they never returned. The police still haven't found a trace of them anywhere. We haven't seen my brother Ituki, Toshi and their son Miki since," replied the man.
"I'm very sorry for your lose, but who are you?" asked Asuko sympathetically.
"Oh sorry, I'm Yuumi and this is my husband Tsunehiko Natsuki. Well anyway my husband works for the local News station and could send out a report for your friends daughter," Said Yuumi.
"That would be great," Asuko replied, Tsunehiko took out a pen and pad of paper prepared to take down notes on Ryu, "Her name is Ryuichi Teataura Nushi but she goes by Ryu or Tea. She is six years old with long brown hair, usually in low pig tails, with emerald green eyes. Last time I knew she was wearing an old oversized ripped, stained, orange work clothes with a navy blue apron."
Tsunehiko finished writing everything down, Yoshi held out a card to Yuumi with their phone number and address. Yuumi took the card and Tsunehiko gave Yoshi his own business card, "We'll keep in touch, we'll find her don't worry, don't give up hope."
"Thank you, "said Asuko, "you guys don't give up either I'm sure you'll find your family as well." Yuumi and Tsunehiko smiled and they left.
Yoshi and Asuko walked to the red building to the Spirit world to leave Chihiro and Kohaku a note. Yoshi stopped before he walked to through the entrance of the Spirit world.
"What's wrong?" asked Asuko.
Yoshi pointed and read, "Mysterious One way force field, You can come out of the tunnel, but you can't go back in. Please no complaints we don't know why it is here and we are looking into removing it. Thank you for your corporation. ~Sen and Haku," he looked at Asuko, "No wonder they didn't return they couldn't."
"This is bad, really bad, "said Asuko shacking her head.
Yoshi laughed an evil laugh and turned to Asuko with an evil grin. His eyes where red and if they weren't red then they were brown which was wrong, normally his eyes were blue! It seemed that there was a black ore surrounding him, inside and out. Yoshi laughed in a voice that wasn't his own, "Why is it that bad? Are you scared?" Asuko was still shaking her head and now was backing away from Yoshi, "what leaving so soon? Why don't you go tell Sen and Haku that I possessed your husband?" Asuko was still backing up, "no? But wouldn't it be so fun to try and swim across that lake, that will drown you silly human, or eat the food of the gods and get turned into a pig?" Asuko took her gaze from Yoshi and looked passed him. The field that she always remembered to be there was covered in water, even from here she could smell delicious food, Asuko was tempted to find the source of the tantalizing smell. Yoshi laughed another evil laugh, "Weak Human!" then Yoshi collapsed to the ground the black ore seemed lifted and gone.
"Yoshi!" Asuko ran to Yoshi's side, her eyes full of fright and tears.
Author's Note: Umm... actually there is none...lol... Oh wait I request creation credit if you use anyone at the orphanage I created them all, and Yuumi and Tsunehiko Natsuki. I hope you enjoyed the chapter! ~Na