Noria was rather blunt in the explanation of her errand. She merely asked of her to take the train to some place called Swamp Bottom, and just to make friendly conversation with the old lady who lived there. Wasn't much of an errand. She hadn't even asked for anything. Chihiro thought to herself.
"So you want me to go to some place and make random conversation with some lady. What does that have to do with anything?" Chihiro questioned.
"We had a feud that we've been grumbling over for the past 3 years now, and I want to settle it. You're just the messenger girl who is bringing the invitation to come here for dinner. Nothing really important." She stated. Chihiro still didn't really see the point. Wouldn't it be faster to just use your powers or whatever and contact her? She thought to herself.
"Ahh okay, I guess. That makes a bit more sense."
"Good. Oh and I almost forgot." She snapped her fingers and to the right of her the spheres brightened revealing a young man who looked to be about 2 or 3 years older then her, standing there, quiet and solemn. "He will accompany you on your way. Just think of him as being your personal body guard for the trip." She sneered. The man then approached her, and with a bow he recited his name.
"My name is Kane. I plan to protect you from all threats that we run into along the way." He said finally standing back up. He stood a good 2 inches higher than her. He was well built, all the right muscles in the right places but he wasn't too bulky like those in wrestling etc. His blue hair was cut short, with wild bangs flying off over his forehead while the rest flew back and cut short in the back close to his head. His outfit looked more normal between the outfits the employees or spirits wore and Noria wore. She felt like she could almost relate to him. He had on the normal clothes a human would wear, but like Lin had told her, they rarely ever saw humans in this world. It was strange but almost comforting to have someone that most closely resembles one of her own kind. With a smile she gently returned the bow.
"And you already know my name. Chi…" She stopped herself as she quickly remembered what everyone else was calling her the time while she was there. "2029." She recalled the number in a sort of disgust tone.
"Yes. Well then, shall we go?" He said as a blue platform made by the nano bugs quickly formed at their ankles. Chihiro nodded. With a delicate hand, Kane helped her onto the platform, followed by himself and were both swept out of the room. The doors closed behind the two as they left. A sly grin dawned Noria's face. Here eyes suddenly shifted to the sound of chains grappling in another part of the room.
"Hmm… I think they would make a rather cute couple, wouldn't you say, Haku?" She said as she let out a loud laugh.
"Err…" "Chihiro… please see beyond his eyes."
The platform had taken them back to where Chihiro, Lin, and many other employees slept. Kane helped Chihiro once more from the platform as it disappeared back into 3 floating spheres and drifted off back to their designated positions in the building. Chihiro felt a bit uneasy, as this guy hadn't said a word since they had left Noria's dwelling. She always hated that awkward silence.
"Get your clothes. You can't go dressed as an employee of this place, they won't allow you on the train, by Noria's orders." Kane said insensitively. Chihiro jumped at his sudden cold voice, that once sounded much like a pure gentlemen, of course she had never really met one of those. Without a reply she went to the loose floorboard and uncovered her clothes, shoes, and other necessities. She stood back up to face him and was ready to start speaking when he all of a sudden interrupted with his own words.
"I hope you don't mind if I call you, Sen, rather than your number. It feels better to acknowledge you as being a someone, rather than a something." He said with a soft, warm, smile. His eyes sparkled with the light of the sun in them. They drew her in, almost like calling her back. Away from this world and back at home. The suddenness of the warmth of her house flooded into her. The sweet smell of fresh baked cookies cooling on the racks in the oven, the happy bark from her beloved k-9 friend, her father and mothers' warm, welcoming, smiles when she came home each afternoon from school. What was this? Was Kane, someone she knew from the real world, only that had taken on another form and name?
"That would be great. But just one quick question." She started.
"Anything." He said with the same welcoming smile.
"Are you human?" She asked bluntly. The words almost came out with little to no feeling within them what so ever. She so desired for human company, more than she had ever thought she wanted ever before. Her hatred to her fellow humans in her world suddenly had vanished as the desire to be around them once more swelled inside her.
"Heh, you could call me a human. I'm as human as you'll ever get in this world, well cept you, of course. But that's mainly because I've been lost in this world for so long, my human qualities have disintegrated. That's what happened to your friend, Lin." Chihiro's eyes widened at his last statement. Lin had flipped out about her thinking she was human. And to find out that she really was.
"What do you mean?" Was all that could escape her lips.
"Well… if you stay in this world long enough, you begin to loose your original qualities. You begin to believe that you are a spirit, and that you never were a human or other creature. Your first life fads away into nothingness, while your second life begins a new. To many it is known as reincarnation. Where you die, and are then reborn as another creature or as a mere spirit that serves or is worshiped by that of humans, beasts, or even other spirits. Humans though are a strong and ever changing species. Our kind has survived since the dawn of time almost, and we have survived every natural disaster the spirits and gods have thrown at us. But then there is always a bug in the program. A riff, as many like to call them, where time is sent in all different directions and hackers can imply that of what they want to happen. It's quite simple." Kane explained as he walked her out the back entrance and down towards the boiler room.
"So, you mean, Lin, and you, have both been here for so long that the idea of being an actual spirit rather than a human being has been drafted over your eyes and is blinding you from the truth."
"If you want to put it in a poetic sort of point, yes." He said with a grin.
"That's terrible! Why would you want to forget that? Being a human being is the best thing you could possibly want to be!" She demanded.
"That's not what you thought when you were in the real world." He said with a sly look in his eyes as he opened the boiler room door up for her to climb threw. Chihiro starred into his calm, forgiving, eyes and then walked threw, figuring she would take this subject matter up with him later on.
The blinding heat and light from the boiler room flew at her in a gust of warm air. Shielding her eyes, she clambered out threw the tiny crawl space and out into the main room. Kamaji turned his head to greet his visitors.
"Well, Sen, Noria has informed me about your leaving. I wish you good luck." His eyes then shifted onto Kane. They narrowed at him but then respectively bowed to him. Kane returned the bow and showed Chihiro to the opposite door. Kamaji let out one of his legs to stop Kane in his tracks before he left threw the open door. "You had better not harm her in anyway." He said defensively.
"Oh I won't. You can count on it." He said with a smirk as he pushed the arm away and walked out the doorway and quickly quickened his pace to get closer to Chihiro. After closing the door behind him he returned to Chihiro.
"You had better watch your step. These stairs are steep." He said as he made his way up the stairs behind her. Chihiro was becoming a bit annoyed by his over protectiveness of her. She was strong enough to take care of herself, without the help of some guy to carry her along the way. The owner of this city was in fact a female sorceress. She sighed as she started up the stairs but suddenly just before she lost her footing; a strong arm was their holding her up. She shot her gaze back onto Kane; he stood there with a grin.
"Told you they were steep." He said as he helped her regain her footing. With a slight "thank you" she started on back up, allowing for his arm to slip around her waist. I mean he was hot. Why wouldn't you want this hot, sexy, guy around you every second. She thought to herself with a wide grin.
They reached the top with little to no conversation amongst the two. Chihiro's mind still sat fixed on how to get out of there. Now that she was able to actually leave the city she was confined to, and take a ride on the spirit railroad, she might find a stop that lets off at Reality. Kane showed her a small detour around and away from all the commotion along the bridge. A small boat was docked up along the shore. It was just a tiny wooden rowboat. Nothing spectacular, and it was only large enough to fit two people. After stepping into the boat and taking a seat, Chihiro's eyes gazed off towards the cement "sand bar" that jetted out from under the water. That's where they were to go to pick up the train. It wouldn't be long before they reached it. Her gaze slowly drew down to the water as Kane began to finally start to row the boat out to the platform. To her surprise the water was only about eight feet deep. A large variety of different sizes, shapes, and colorful fish swam about below and beyond the boat. Not one fish was recognizable that she was able to deliver a name to.
Kane had supposedly noticed her curiosity in the different fish, as he had soon brought up the topic.
"That's a Green Bufet." He stated out of nowhere. Chihiro's gaze drew over to him as the strange green colored fish quickly darted off as one of the ores stroked towards it.
"Yeah. You have a lot of strange looking fish here. I thought they would be some what close to the ones that I'm use to." She stated as she looked back into the pool of fish and other creatures.
"Heh, yeah well, your also in another world. Both dimensions may be on the same planet, but both have completely different inhabitants that the humans have yet to discover."
"Haven't any humans that have come here, left? I mean, if it was so easy for me to get here, wouldn't it be easy for other humans to get here as well and leave. All I did was walk threw a valley and then over a water bed and I was here." She questioned. The question was bothering her for the longest time. Why was it so difficult to leave this unforgiving place?
"Once you step foot on spirit soil, there really isn't any turning back at that point. Who ever is in rule at the time, has control of what the terrain looks like, and the entrances and exits. The way you came in, is now covered in water. If you took this boat for instance and kept on rowing, you would keep on rowing for years and never come across anything. And then when you looked back at the place you had left, it would look like you only rowed a good half a mile away." He explained as they neared the platform. Chihiro frowned as she scratched off one idea on her invisible memo inside her head. "Well here we are." He said as he beached the small boat onto the graveled bottom. The water where he now stood was only about ankle deep. The tracks were clearly visible now. Her eyes ran along the tracks to find that they stretched on and on till they disappeared out of normal eye view. Kane then helped her out of the boat and they walked up on the platform, which was then quickly met by the train as it pulled in to a stop, allowing for a wave of water to rush over the platform. As the doors opened, a giant man in a blue conductors uniform, stood there asking for the tickets. Kane reached into his pocket and handed the man two tickets. Mulching the tickets up in a tiny shredder that was wrapped around his waste, he made off to the front of the train. Kane showed her to a seat in the back. The strange shadows of the other spirits on the train starred at her with blank eyes. She made it a point to question Kane about these strange spirits.
The train was small. Each car could hold about 20 people. It resembled much of the normal trains she would take from different parts of the city back in reality. The only really different part was its occupants. She took a seat at the end of the car on one of the comfy blue seats. She had to admit, these spirits had it good.
"Hey, Kane. Who or what, are those spirits?" She questioned quietly trying to not offend anyone. Kane's eyes moved from spirit to spirit making sure as they were not aware of the two speaking.
"Their spirits of dead humans. This is where they come when a human dies. It's the afterlife for spirits."
"Heh, so spirits actually do live lives in the after life. And this certainly doesn't look like any sort of heaven I've been told about." She snickered.
"Those stories of an Almighty God, and Heaven and Hell you humans pass around are all just something to keep you from going insane on the streets and soon begging for your lives when confronted with danger." He grinned.
"I was never religious so this doesn't really come as a shock to me. And to think all these people go and waist money at Churches, and Temples and other religious houses. All for nothing." She grinned.
"Well don't get to cocky about all this. Who knows if there is an almighty God? Just because we haven't seen one, doesn't mean there isn't one. I mean, there are God's of water and fire. I'm sure theirs a boss somewhere." He grinned. Chihiro shrugged.
"I still don't really believe in any of it." She replied, still a little unsure about the whole religion bit, like usual.
"Well, don't make any rash decisions just yet." He smiled. His eyes sparkled in the light of the sun as the train bumped along the track. With his gentle smile and attitude, she felt herself slowly being drawn closer to him. She almost even felt like she was begging to fall in love with him.
***
An evil grin spread across the girl's face, as the strange blue spheres illuminated her face with their aquaish light.
"This is going so well. The girl is completely clueless as to what Kane is trying to do. And to think, soon I'll have Zeniba out of the way. Soon, all of you little humans will feel my wrath, and Earth will be under my command." She laughed evilly.
"You wanted me, Noria." Said a dull, drawn out voice from the darkness. She stopped her excessive laughter, and standing up she walked up to the dark figure. Snapping her fingers, spheres lit up the area where she stood, and Haku was suddenly directly in front of her. She brought her hand up and moved a finger up along his cheek, as his eyes starred bluntly at her with little reaction to her cold touch.
"Why yes, Haku. I would like for you to go and keep an eye out on our little friends. Stay out of sight and out of mind. We don't need the girl to regain her lost memories of this place, and you." She said with a smile. The lights went out and in a gust of wind a long silvery stream flew out of the open windows and closing them behind her. With an evil grin she walked to a hidden room behind a wall. A see threw tube holding some strange green liquid, which illuminated the entire room, contained a strange dark figure. His naked body was wrapped up in what looked like skin like wings that protruded from his back. Tubes entered and exited from his body, with each one pulsating something from and into his frail body. Noria walked up to the glass and rested her right hand upon it.
"Just a little longer, my love. I will soon have the power to free you from this state that witch Yubaba cast on you. Just a little longer."
Author's Note: Well sorry for taking so long. School was ending and I had all of my Finals to cram for, which meant little time to type the story. Well right now I would like to thank all of you for reviewing and sticking with me. Keep the reviews coming for faster updates. I take criticism as a great source of help in writing my fics, so please feel free to criticize. But hopefully, my stuff isn't that bad. XD Well stay tuned for Chapter 5: Zeniba's. And to let you in on a little something, there will be some lemony goodness later in the story. **wink wink**
One more thing. My little thing I wrote about religion is just an opinion, so no flames, all right. Don't need that, nope. XP And I was pretty much making a shot in the dark at what those spirits on the train were. I mean they looked human enough to be spirits of dead humans. It made sense enough, and of course Chihiro had to say something about them considering she wasn't use to it. ^_- Well just though I would clear that up.