Paths of the Heart

Chapter 9

Remembering

Disclaimer: Please... You must know the drill by now. We've only been over it 8 times already.

It was warm, blessedly warm. She came around slowly, the soft moan that escaped her lips waking those who had kept watch over her. Instantly the little soot balls began to leap and hop, squealing gleefully in their high, curious voice. The commotion soon woke Kamaji, and he smiled as he looked down at her.

"Feeling better, are we?"

Chihiro began to tremble violently as she back away, moving as fast as her body would allow in its weakened condition. Kamaji stared at her, as though he could not decide what to make of her reaction. A rough sliding noise behind her made the girl jump even higher, and she froze, now caught between the monster and a strange woman.

Lin's glee at finding her former helper conscious was visible, though she was confused when Kamaji held up a hand to stop her from rushing forward. The older spirit mouthed silently, "She does not remember."

Helplessly, the woman lowered the tray and basket that she had brought with her to the ground, and mouthed a single word in reply. "Haku?"

He shrugged. It was worth a shot, and nodded in agreement. Lin left, the panel in the wall sliding shut with what seemed a grinding finality to Chihiro. The six armed thing leaned forward, somehow managing to rest his chin on all six of his hands as he looked at her. She met his gaze fearfully until a tickling sensation on her hand made her look down, and scream.

At the sound the soot balls backed away quickly, squeaking in distress. They still remembered her as a friend, and did not know what to make of the way that she was treating them. The entire time the strange things eyes had not left her, and the pressure of that gaze was finally too much. Recalling which panel the other woman had entered and exited through, she threw off the blanket still covering her body, and scrambled recklessly for the door.

It opened just as she reached it, and she stumbled, surprised, into waiting arms. Haku caught her before she could fall, and shifted her upright. He looked at her frozen face, then realized that she was not looking at him, but staring fixedly at some point over his shoulder. He followed her gaze, but all that he could see was some of the frogs employed at the bath house, something that Chihiro should have been quite familiar with. Then she screamed and went limp again. He grabbed her tighter and dove through the opening as Lin danced in the hall, holding one foot off the ground and growling dire threats.

She looked up to find the frogs staring at her, having been attracted by the scream, and pointed to her foot. "What ever idiot sanded this floor last didn't do a very good job. I just got a huge splinter in my foot. Look at it!" She said as she shoved the offended limb in their direction.

The frogs settled for backing away as they snickered among themselves. After all, it wasn't every day that you could say you heard Lin scream! And hadn't that dance been funny? Who should they tell, and who should they not, and was it maybe possible to keep it to themselves and wave it in her face as blackmail?

Satisfied that she had served her purpose, Lin limped with as much dignity as she could muster into the boiler room, slamming the door behind her. Kamaji was looking down at Haku as the river spirit placed the young woman back on the bed and covered her up again. He chewed on his mustache reflectively, and then turned to look at Lin. Then all three of them stared at Chihiro. Haku was the first to break the silence.

"So...what do we do now?"

"What can we do?" Lin's voce was bitter. "It's obvious that she doesn't remember us. And we can't keep covering up that fact that she's here, especially if she's going to be pulling things like that."

"Is there anyway that you could get her out to Zeniba's?"

Haku made a face. "As long as a job doesn't come up in the next few hours, I could probably get her out to Zeniba's without being missed. But if I do get called, I have to come. What if I'm over the middle of nowhere? I can't just set her down and leave her. Some of my assignments can take hours. Anything could happen to her. She could wake up, something could find her..."

"Hmmm..." Kamaji fiddled with his mustache. "Is the river spirit planning to take a bath today?"

Lin snorted. "If he wasn't, he wouldn't have come to a bathhouse, now would he? Why does that matter though?"

The six armed spirit only smiled. Reaching into a pocket, he produced an odd shaped clip and handed it to the woman. "See that you are the one in charge of his bath, and clip it to the bath token when you drop it down. Haku, as soon as he goes to take his bath, you get yourself down here as fast as you can, and be ready to leave."

The other two were now thoroughly confused, but they were also willing to trust him, though his shout of, "And whatever you do Lin, take care that you don't fall in the bath water like Chihiro!" after them did make them wonder.

Haku swam through the air, still amused and worried. When the river spirit had gone to take his bath, both Haku and Lin had followed Kamji's directions to the letter. It was as he was gathering up Chihiro that Haku had finally figured out the boiler workers plan. He had mixed some extra herbs in the bath water, and just as long as they didn't back fire and actually inspire the river spirit instead of drug him, Haku would have all the time he needed.

At the thought of Chihiro he glanced over at the blanket wrapped bundle strapped to his shoulders. Kamaji had taken a moments break from his work to load the girl on his back and secure her firmly, agreeing with Haku that this position was probably much more safe than the dragon bearing her in his claws. Though he would never hurt her, Chihiro appeared to have enough problems as it were with him injuring her with a wayward talon.

A sigh of relief escaped him as Zeniba's came into view. Landing with just enough force to announce his presence, he waited quietly for someone to come and remove the bundled girl from his back. After a moment the door opened, and No-Face's mask curled curiously around the door jamb. Realizing that something was preventing Haku from coming himself, it disappeared, and the river spirit heard a stream of urgent grunts issue from the still open door.

"O he has, has he?" Zeniba asked genially as she stepped out the door and smiled at the waiting dragon. "No-Face has informed me that you have not come alone this time. So what have you brought-."

The dragon growled and hopped forward in her direction, hissing urgently.

"Now don't you start acting like that with me, young man, or you and I will be having a talk that you will not enjoy. But let us see what you have brought with you this time-oh!"

She exclaimed as she pulled the blanket away, revealing Chihiro's pale features. "No-Face, Bo, get out here and help me!"

As soon as Chihiro was removed from his back and well on her way into the house Haku gave himself a good shake and shifted into his human forming, instantly bowing his head. "My apologies for my action, but I fear that my time here may be short, and she needs help. I should be going..."

"Not before you come inside and give me an explanation as to what this is all about. I know about your job and your current assignment. And if he has problems with it, he can take them up with me."

Haku winced. "Well, it would be preferable if he was to never find out I was here..." he said, and quickly outlined Kamaji's plan as they entered the house, and leaving the witch doubled over in a fit of laughter.

The voices were familiar to her, though she could not quite place them. Chihiro shifted and rolled over, squinting in the direction of the noise.

"As best as we can tell, she doesn't remember us at all. She ran away from Kamaji and Lin, and almost had a heart attack when she saw some of the frogs that work in the bathhouse. I found her on the river bank."

"She was alone and hurt?"

"I didn't see anyone else around, and I don't think there are anymore pigs than there were yesterday. It looks as though she might have fallen and hit her head."

Alone, but...she hadn't been alone...

...Tanner and she had gone for a walk to try and help her escape...

...escape the nightmares...

And suddenly she realized what she was looking at. Many of her nightmares were sitting around a table. Discussing her. A little squeal escaped her, and she scrunched herself as close to wall as she could, pulling the blankets up around her and over her head as though they could shield her from them. A sudden tug ripped the covers from her hands, and she found herself face to face with the scary witch from her dreams, the one that was always yelling...

With a cry she backed off the end of the bed and into a corner, where she huddled, quivering, and buried her head in her knees. "Please...please just go away...leave me alone. I...I can't take it anymore. Just go away and leave me alone. Let me rest in peace..."

Zeniba stared at the pitiful thing that cringed in the corner. This was not the Chihiro that she had known. This was a pale shadow of the spirited girl that had once come to her begging for the life of a friend. She looked over to where the others were still seated at the table. Bo looked seconds from bursting into tears at the fact that his friend did not remember him, and No-Face waved his hands about, grunting softly to himself in distress. Haku face was a mask of resigned pain, for out of all of them he had been the only one with any idea of how bad it had gotten.

The hurt that she saw steeled the witch, and she pulled something from her pocket. As she approached the girl tried to pull further away. Zeniba stopped just inches away and dropped something at her feet.

Chihiro was so afraid that it took a moment before she recognized that it was her own hair tie lying between her toes. AS she reached forward to pick it up, the witch began to speak. "You don't have to be afraid. We are your friends Chihiro. We would never hurt you. Don't you remember us? Bo and No-Face have missed. As have I. As has Haku."

As her fingers touched it, images flooded her mind. Unclouded images, clear as crystal, with none of the darkness and fear that tinged the edges of her nightmares.

...Boo...of course!

Kamaji and Lin!

No-Face!

She remembered.

And...

"Granny?" She whispered, looking up into the smiling witches face.

"Yes dear?"

And... "Haku!"

Chihiro did not think that she had ever moved so fast in her life as she leapt up from the floor and into his arms. He held her tightly, joyfully, only finally releasing his grip as a searing pain tore up his side. The look of surprise and worry on Chihiro's face as he pulled away a bit, hand pressed against his side, prompted him to explain.

"I got away from Yubaba, and found other work. My employer is not happy about something. I need to go."

Chihiro's face fell, and as the pain died away, he hugged her again quickly, whispering, "I'll be back as soon as I can. Stay here with Granny and enjoy yourself."

They all gathered around the door as Haku changed and soared off into the growing darkness. Only after he was indistinguishable from the other twinkling, glowing stars did Zeniba finally take action.

"And now young lady, you need a bath, clean clothes, and a real meal, in that order. You boys clear out and let her take a bath now, all you! And then you can explain."

blink... coming from me, this is a long chapter. Wow. I know that it need an edit pretty bad, but ya'll can live with it for now. I am so brain dead. And my muses have abandoned me. So R&R. And if you criticize, that's fine. I'm sure that this one deserves it.