The night was a rough one. Lin had taken her back to the room she was staying in along with many other people. She had ditched her clothes and other little extras under a loose floorboard she had found. She was given clothes that the rest of the crew wore and food to eat. Then they all settled in for the night, but Chihiro couldn't sleep a wink during the night. Just thinking about the fact that she was now here, in this strange world, working as an employee under some psycho path sorceress lady, who instead of working magic she worked technology. Yeah she did feel like she had a bit of an advantage over many of the other spirits here. Back in the "real world" she worked on computers all the time. She had become a computer wiz and found her friends to only really be the freaks in the school followed by friends she met on the Internet. She was slow on the nano bugs bit, but she figured if she could get a hold of one of the floating blue sphere's without Noria's knowledge, she could take the little thing apart and find out how it ticked and possible reproduce them under her own control. But this called for some extensive research on the whole building and where every camera and bug was in the building, and more about the people in it. She was just bogged down with ways of trying to get out of here, sleep resisted her call and soon enough she found herself being drawn out of her trance and swept back into the daylight hours.
"Hey, sleepy head. We've got a hard day of work ahead of us. Hope you slept well." She said as she tousled Chihiro's hair and grabbed her shirt that hung over a clothesline that was suspended in the air above their heads and walked out to the bathrooms. Chihiro moaned at the thought of having to get up after such a restless night.
"It can't possibly be morning already." She wavered as she leaned up on her arms and looked to the bathroom.
"Believe it or not, that bright bulb out there is the sun." Lin stated from the bathroom with the sound of sloshing toothpaste in her mouth.
"Ugh." Chihiro let out bluntly as she tossed the pillow back over her head. "Why!!!!" She cried out as she jumped out of the bed and walked out onto the balcony leading down and into the bathhouse. She grabbed hold of the railing and let her hair fly out every which way as the breeze blew in off of the grassy fields and off the river that surrounded them on all sides, allowing for escape from this place impossible, excluding powerful spirits. Lin walked out and went into the same pose and looked out over the fields. A smile spread across her face. Standing back up she walked past her and slapped her on the back.
"Well, come on. I need to start showin ya the ropes so you can keep up." She stated as she then started down the stairs. Shaking her head she grabbed her hair elastic out of her pocket and quickly threw it up and as she tried to pull her hand away, a voice suddenly began ringing inside her head. The voice sounded sad, and at moments screamed in pain, making Chihiro's hands shoot to her hears as if she could block out the sound. As the voice quieted it slowly let out a hissing, "help me" from a raspy voice and then finally subsided. Opening her once squinting eyes, she lowered her hands slowly and stood erect once more.
"What's goin on with me?" She thought as she finally grabbed her shirt and walked down the long staircase to the bathhouse main rooms below.
"DAMNIT!" A large bang erupted from the table as the girl slammed her fist down on the table. "That old wench is hiding from me the one thing I need most to rid this damned planet of spirits!
"Zeniba's powers are still no match to us, even with your technology, she remains untouchable." A young man answered the sorceress.
"But there has to be some WAY!" She yelled as the nano bugs flickered and slowly moved away from the ragging women. Silence fell over the room as the two sat in thought.
"What about the girl?" The man let out, breaking the ever-growing silence.
"What about her!?" Noria scowled.
"Well, Zeniba had a soft spot for this girl many years ago when she first visited us. Why not send her out to steal it?" He suggested, still standing stock-still.
"Hmm… you know, that really isn't such a bad idea. Good work, Haku. I knew you would come in handy some day." She snickered as chains suddenly flew at Haku and clamped down around his arms and ankles dragging him into the darkness now fully awake.
"NORIA! YOU'RE NOT GETTING AWAY WITH THIS!" Haku yelled from the darkness. Sparks suddenly spurt from the darkness again, as flashes of green and red colours of stripes flew at the dark shape that now struggled against his bindings. Screams of pain came from the darkness.
"It's so unfortunate that I need to pump you full of drugs to get you to obey me. It would just be so much easier if you just went by your own free will." She said with a cocky grin.
"I… will never… go against… anyone to help you." He said weakly.
"Ha! Don't make me laugh, Haku. I have the power to sustain a spirits powers and bend them to my will, and you have no way of bending it back." She laughed out loud as more electric bolts struck Haku's ripped and shredded body.
"Well at least you seem to know what your doin." Lin said as she sat down on a bench and whipped the sweat from her forehead with her apron.
"Yeah well, I'm use to it. My parents really force the choirs down on me. But it's not as bad, I get to use a mop." She said with a slight laugh.
"Yeah. Well you do what you earn. Now why don't we go get some lunch? I'm sure your hungry after all of the cleaning." She said with a smile as she stood and headed off to the kitchens. "Fried rice sound good?" She called back.
"Yeah." Chihiro answered plainly.
"Alright. I'll be back in a bit. Just rest up." She said and finally left the room. The room had emptied as people all headed off to eat lunch. It was for once quiet and she could sit and think for a little while to herself. She missed the peaceful life she had left at home. Not to mention her friends and family. She leaned over and put her elbows on her knees and tucked her chin in her cupped hands. Letting out a sigh she starred off into space as the bright light reflected off the rather unusually clean floor beneath her. Footsteps from down and around the corner suddenly grabbed her attention as she quickly sat up to see who had entered the quite room.
"Chihiro." Said a dull quite voice. Chihiro jumped at this. She was slowly getting use to everyone calling her 'Sen' and suddenly someone calls her by her real name. What was this? She slowly stood up and walked to the wall that divided the room from the hall.
"Yeah, that's me. Who's there?" Her walking suddenly stopped as a young man around her age stepped out from behind the wall. She took a step back as a sudden pain surged threw her head. She looked back up at the new face as the pain began to ebb.
"Who… are…" She began as memories flooded into her head but broke up quickly allowing for little to return to her.
"There's no time for that now. Noria needs to see you in her room, immediately." He insisted. Chihiro eyed him suspiciously. Besides the fact that he was absolutely gorgeous, he also had a strange aura emitting from him, that didn't seem normal for this person that she somehow once met a long time ago.
"Come now. Noria is not a patient sorceress." He abruptly stated and turned and started back down the hall only in the opposite way he had come. Chihiro decided to follow this young man; still with the curiosity of learning this guys name, and possibly getting to know him a bit better. She some how felt that his actions were not normally so stern like this, and that he was more of a kind, and sweat-hearted person, and that she had inner… feelings… towards this guy. She shook her head back and forth trying to drive out the strange thoughts.
"I've never even been here before. How could I possibly know this guy is possessed or something?" She thought to herself as she finally followed him to a blank wall. The same little blue spheres that lined Noria's domain of the bathhouse along with some of the halls in the rest of the building, flourished in this tiny area. The man stopped, allowing for her to almost run into him. Chihiro took a step closer to him, getting ready to give him her usual pick up line, when he suddenly called out.
"Noria's Chamber." He said instantly. The glowing blue spheres pulsated brightly and quickly gathered below their feet and created a platform below them, and suddenly shot them skyward. Chihiro jumped at the sudden propulsion and almost lost her balance on the floating platform, before she realized that the young man had grabbed her by the waist and was holding her up from falling off the edge.
"Your okay, right?" He said with a smile, as he settled her back up easily. "You wouldn't have fallen anyways." He started, as he put out his hand in a leaning posture and a blue glow held his hand as he rested it at the edge of the platform. "See." He pointed out as he stood back up right.
"Oh. Heh, thanks, anyways." She said blushing a bit at her clumsiness. "Umm… what's your name?" She asked politely, trying to see if she could get some information out of this truly adorable guy.
"You should already know me. I'm—ARG!" He yelled out suddenly as he wrapped his hands around his ears, almost trying to block out some sort of invisible sound that she couldn't hear.
"What is it!? Are you okay?" She asked trying to help him in whatever way she could, which at this point looked to be nothing. Her eyes suddenly fell on some strange markings on his skin. They looked to be red tattoos that criss-crossed on the top of his hands, on his arms and neck. Strange, but she wasn't aware of any sort of cultures that are worshiped by spirits, so she chose not to say anything and returned to trying to see if the young man was alright. Not noticing the abrupt halt in there ascend, the man stood up, completely fine once more, but the sternness in his eyes returned and he suddenly took a step forward towards just a random wall. He raised his hand and placed it on the solid surface. Blue lights flashed about under his fingertips and suddenly the wall disappeared in a flash of blue light. The familiar futuristic hallway lay in front of the two once again.
"Come." He stated harshly. Chihiro jumped at the cruel tone in his voice now, and quickly walked up threw the once solid wall and followed up behind him. He started on walking down the hall. The blue spheres parted in his wake but buzzed around Chihiro's head in curiosity like they had never seen her before. The two walked down the hall in utter silence. Only the faint whizzing by of the spheres and quiet footsteps broke the silence. Gaining up her courage once more she tried it once more.
"I'm sorry but I didn't catch you name before."
"Don't talk to me." Her eyes widened at this abrupt statement. This same voice and sternness that wasn't really his seemed familiar in some way. It was almost like a long time ago this man was possessed and had said the same remark to her a long time ago. Her pace slowed a bit as they neared the giant doors that held Noria's chambers. The two doors soon opened up allowing them entrance. The man walked forward and with a bow began to speak.
"Noria, I have brought the girl, Sen. She has come willingly, and is ready to comply to your needs." He said as he stood back up. He stepped to the side and cast his blank eyes onto her. The two eyes almost ripped threw her like she was a rag doll. Drawing her gaze away from him, she searched the front of the room for the girl. A quick breeze blew by her, sending her hair whipping about her. She looked about the room trying to find the source of the breeze. The sudden scratching of some sharp objects on the floor ahead of her drove her attention back to the front of the room. The breeze returned in a giant gust from the clawing noise as it slowly dissipated and a soft voice came from pitch-black area.
"Welcome back, Sen." The doors behind her suddenly slammed and sealed shut behind her. Without removing her gaze from the front of the room, the blue spheres laminated the familiar floating chair with the now visible Noria sitting upon it. "I hope my friend here treated you well up here."
"Ahh… yes he was very—"
"Now down to business." Noria interrupted. "I have a little errand for you to run for me."
Author's Notes: This was a fairly short chapter. I apologize. The next one will be much longer considering it's an important part to the whole story, not to mention I've got a new character to introduce which will help in gaining more of Chihiro's lost memory. Hehe. ^^
Well as usual please R&R. I hope everyone is enjoying the fic so far, as it still has much more interesting things to bring to all of you lovely fanfic readers out there. ^_^ And once again, I'm not sure if the old link worked or not but here is a link to my art site, and you can find the picture of Haku by looking for the title "Haku A Styling Dragon" under the list of pictures. Feel free to look at all my other art as well.
Just copy and paste that URL to your address box thingy and it'll bring you to the homepage. ^^ Well stay tuned for Chapter 4: Errands. ^_-