"Well here we are." Kane said as he stood up and stretched after the long train ride. It seemed like they had been riding for a good three hours since they left. Not to mention it had also grown dark. Chihiro's eyes looked out the window as they walked to the door to get off. The name of Swamp Bottom certainly fit the outlook of the place. A tiny road from the stop reached out into a dense jungle of trees, and on either side murky waters swept out around them. The train soon left in a cloud of dust from the now dry earth it rolled along, leaving the two to bare their dark surroundings.
"Man, who would want to live out in this?" Chihiro questioned as she tried to swat away the different flying insects.
"It's not as bad as we go further into the bog. Come on. We don't want Zeniba to wait much longer than we have to, right." He said with his usual cocky smile, as he then started off walking down the winding pathway.
The two had remained quite during their little trek. A sort of feeling that she had been here swept over Chihiro. Her eyes wandered looking for a friendly creation. No light was brought to light up their path, making for a dark, and lonesome path to walk. What was it that was bothering her so much of this place? Noticing that her hair was coming loose, she went to tighten it but just as she reached up and her fingers glided over the hair band. A white flashed in her mind showing a strange creature. It stood on a hand with a long wire attached to it that sprouted up to just about her eye level holding a lantern to light their path. The white light diminished as a soft yellow light came in and illuminated a picket fence that surrounded a large cottage, and fields of plants that stretched for miles.
"Well we're here. It wasn't that long of a walk." He stated as he then began to walk towards the building. Chihiro nodded and began to follow but in doing so also looked to the tiny lantern that hung on the overhang. It looked normal to her, but in this world it bothered her to see that it didn't get up and… move. As strange as that sounded, and seemed to almost make sense for the lantern to get up and move about. Shrugging it off, she ran back up to Kane, and followed him to the door.
Kane knocked on the door three times before it finally opened. He stepped inside without waiting for a gesture of entrance from the owner of the dwelling. Chihiro followed his lead. The house was made up of three rooms. The main room was large enough to be split up into two sections. One held what looked to be a kitchen. A warm fire was alight in the fireplace, and doing its job to heat the house. A table and chairs stood in the middle of the area, while different cabinets contained fine silverware, and a mild assortment of foods, while on the other side contained a small living room. A hearth was also situated on the far wall, burning brightly like it's brother. Soft comfortable chairs encircled it. A rocking chair sat in the far corner. A large amount of coloured spools of thread littered the ground and a small table around the rocker. A rather old machine used to spin thread rest up against the far wall behind the rocker. The other two rooms, which rested in darkness, looked to contain a bedroom and the other a bathroom.
Chihiro, now satisfied with her surroundings, looked back to Kane who had finally began to speak, as he had seemed to be also be taking in his surroundings.
"Zeniba!" Was all he was able to get out till an old lady emerged from the dark bedroom.
"Yes, yes, my dears. So glad you could make it. Oh, Chihiro. Look at how much you've grown. I was wondering when you would be returning to us." Chihiro just stood there in shock. This woman was huge. She reminded Chihiro much of a miniature giant. Her head was as wide as her arm. The lady just grinned at her. "I see you were able to find that old elastic your friends wove together for you from so long ago. And if looks like that magic was able to bring you back to us just as I had planned." She stopped and then returned to talking to all of them together rather than just Chihiro. "Come now, would you two like some tea." She turned from Chihiro and walked over to the tiny kitchen. Kane had already settled himself done in one of the chairs along the table. And was already speaking to her in a rushed sort of way.
"We don't have a lot of time. You know very well that Noria is not a patient person."
"Yes, I know, Kane. But just because she was able to remove my sister from her place doesn't give her the right to—Oh No-face." Chihiro was about to take a seat when a strange black figure formed out of nowhere in front of her. It wore a really strange mask that bore a sort of eerie smile upon it. It looked down at her and then began to motion in a happy sort of way as it pulled the seat out for her. She smiled wearily at it, unsure as of what to do. She finally landed on the decision to take the seat. The creature referred to as No-face then drifted over to her left and put out its "hands". Chihiro remained to stare at it unsure of what to do. Then suddenly multi-coloured elastics spewed from his hands.
"Yes, No-face wove all of those for you. Ever since I told him you'd be returning to us he went straight to work on them." Zeniba said with a laugh.
"Ahh… thank you." She said still a bit uneasy as No-face placed the elastics (23) onto the table in front of her. He then swept over to Zeniba and took over her job of making the tea as to allow her to return to her guests.
"Now then, I suspect Noria wants to see me once again, am I right?" Zeniba began.
"Yes. She requires your presence this coming Saturday. Be there no later then 8 o'clock. We will be—"
"Granny." Everything stopped as Chihiro muttered this word. A sort of confused and worried look mixed together formed on Kane's face. While a soft smile dawned Zeniba's. No-face remained the same.
"Yes, Chihiro. I'm glad you still remember that small request I asked of you so many years ago." Her soft smile was penetrating. As if it was trying to return something to her that she had forgotten. "For I fear ever since you lost that little ounce of magic that was left insider your hair piece, you also lost your memories of this place. Luckily enough I was able to have Haku return to his river, which then lured you to it."
"What do you mean? What river? What lured me to it? I haven't gone past any river since I first passed the tiny one when I first entered here." Chihiro demanded, not enjoying the idea of having to utter so many questioned at once.
"It's late. We have to get going." Kane had jumped up from his seat and had headed across the table and quickly helped Chihiro to her feet.
"Hey, wait a minute. I've got questions that need to be answered. I'm not leaving."
"You know enough already!"
"Like hell I do! If I did loose my memories of this place, and if I really have been here before, I want to know why I lost them! You have no right to keep me from knowing this!"
"That's enough now." Neither of the two had noticed that Zeniba had gotten to her feet. "Chihiro, you'll find out more soon enough. It's not healthy to be given so much information at once. I suggest you do as Kane says." Chihiro looked to Zeniba in amazement. Here she thought Zeniba would be on her side, and instead she's agreeing with Kane. Chihiro eyed Zeniba suspiciously. She just continued to smile at her. Kane took hold of Chihiro's arm and dragged her along towards the door. He opened it for her, and waited. Chihiro's gaze still rested on Zeniba, like she was going to say something of reassurance, which never came. Instead… "Use the trees for guidance." Was all she told her, as an impatient Kane quickly whisked her out the door.
What was that suppose to mean, 'Use the trees as guidance'? Chihiro questioned herself as she absentmindedly starred up at the trees thinking they would some how form an answer to all her questions. But just as she did so, a snake like, silvery dragon appeared amongst the branches. It's blue eyes gazed down at her. It's Aqua mane blowing about its lean neck with the gentle breeze.
"Haku?" And at the slight utter of the name, the dragon had disappeared into the darkest recess amongst the trees. Kane had stopped walking ahead of her as he must have noticed her sudden stop in forward movement. As her empty gaze still rested on where the dragon once stood.
"What are you gazing at? Come on, we need to go. I have to report to Noria. And this field trip is over." He said with a rather angry tone as he once again grabbed Chihiro's arm in a tight grip. She grimaced as she was brought back to reality at the sudden jolt of pain in her arm. She looked to Kane with rage in her eyes as if ready to nail him in the head with a sharp swing at his rudeness until she noticed he was rummaging around in his pocket. And in a split second as his hand finally finished it's groping and landed on what it was looking for, were they swept away from the forest enclosed path and landed at the entrance of the bath house.
"I have to report back to Noria. Be quiet, and return to your sleeping quarters. It's late and you need to get back to work tomorrow morning." And with that he had disappear into the bathhouse, leaving Chihiro to be by herself.
"Heh, stupid fool. I'll just be leaving now." She said with a smirk of victory as she turned to head back down the path, only to quickly be met face to face with…
"Lin!"
"Sen. What are you doing out here? Come on. If one of Noria's bugs see you out here alone you'll find yourself dead."
"There are worse things." Lin just starred at her at this remark.
"Come on. Kamaji wants to talk to you, too." Lin yanked her down the stairs towards the boiler room. God, how she hated these stairs. "So… how was it?" Lin finally spoke breaking the small bit of awkward silence between them.
"How was what?" Chihiro questioned, starring at her friend like she had just grown another head.
"Ugh, how was the journey with Kane?" She said his name like he was some sort of god. "He's amazing, isn't he? Uh, what I would have given to have been in your place."
"Heh, I would have gladly traded places with you. He was a complete asshole. The only thing he's got is looks, which hide a hideous interior. He was great the first half of the journey, then he just showed his true colors. Now I remember the real reason why I turned from that crowd of humans long ago." Lin just starred at her.
"Boy, you certainly are full of it." She finished after a cold silence fell between them. Chihiro looked at her stunned as the two entered the still steaming hot boiler room, even though the furnace had been shut off hours ago. The two stepped in to what looked like a slumber party. The tiny frogmen had rolled out their sleeping bags in the tiny square area where they had once been running back and forth from a pile of coal and the flame shooting jaws of the furnace, and were now all sleeping deeply.
"Oh, wonderful, your back. Kane didn't hurt you did he?" Chihiro ignored Lin's groan as she went to reply to Kamaji.
"No. Not in anyway I couldn't have killed him for afterward."
"Em… Kane is no good. Your going to have to keep a close watch on him whenever he's near. He's not the type of person you normally make friends with. Oh, and I trust you saw Haku while you were out." At this Lin decided to end her silence.
"What! Haku! But he hasn't been seen for ages. Everyone thinks he's dead."
"No he's as much alive as you and me. He's just been under Noria's control. I've tried to get in touch with him but I've had little luck."
"Ahh…. Haku! How can I see him! If you've been trying to contact him, you must know of a way I can get to him!" Chihiro urged, with little understanding of why she was so eager to find him. Kamaji's face drew on what looked to be a smile, considering the large bristle mustache he was wearing covered the majority of it.
"Does this mean you've gained some of your memories?" Kamaji insisted.
"I don't know. Maybe after seeing that dragon in the trees triggered something. I remember vaguely of saying his name and—"
"That's IT! Oh this is wonderful. Our Sen has finally returned to us." He said happily as he clambered on down from his platform over to Chihiro and hugged her greatly. He soon let go and stepped back. "Well. There's a secret passage at the base of the hill the bath house sits on. It was made to allow Haku to escape from Noria's dorm and out the back to remain unseen. Of course she forbade me to leave the boiler room but I've managed to sneak out at night and I have seen him fly out threw there. Only problem about it right now is that it's underwater. Haku can go threw without a problem considering he's a river spirit, but for you, I think it would be rather difficult. And then even if you do get threw the water you're met with a tunnel filled with Noria's Nano bugs." He explained.
"Well, I'm a good swimmer. I can get past the water. As for the nano bugs… we could… catch one!"
"What? How could we catch one? They see everything." Lin suggested now taking a seat on the floor.
"They can't see everything. Well not 360° wise. When I was up in Noria's room, I've seen how far they can see till they have to rotate. I'm big into technology so I watched everything they did during the times I was either heading towards or leaving her room. They have this red dot on them that rotates around. That I'm guessing is the viewer that is capturing everything that's going on. All we have to do is sneak up on it when the ball has no red spot facing us. That's when we go in for the kill."
"That's great. But what do you do with one when we catch it. I have no idea on how to control them. And have fun trying to find anyone else willing to help, seeing as since nobody here has been able to do anything about the spheres at all. If someone did know how to either destroy them we wouldn't be under her control now would we." Lin inquired miserably as she starred blankly at a wall now.
"I can take care of the technical stuff. All I need for you to do—" Chihiro said talking to Lin now. "—Is to get some sort of net or something and catch on for me. Best to do it at night, seeing as there are less people and less nano bugs around."
"Yeah, fine. And what will you be doing?"
"I'll be taking apart my CD player. You'll see." She quickly added at the confused look on Lin's face.
"One more thing before we head up." Lin stated as she stood up. "What's going to happen to us, if you see Haku, and some how do whatever your planning on doing to one of these nano bug things?"
"You'll find yourselves no longer taking orders from a techno wiz." She pointed out as she bowed to Kamaji and headed for the crawl space and shut it behind her.
"I guess getting her memory back was definitely a good thing." Lin said crossing her arms in front of her.
"Her full memory of the spirit world still hasn't come back to her. She's only acting like this cause she thinks she may have found out a way to leave the Spirit world and return to her own world. Unfortunately, it's not going to be as easy as she thinks it will be."
* * *
"Well is she coming?" Noria stated impatiently as she rested her hands on the balcony railing.
"Yes, ma'am." Came a drown like voice from the darkness.
"Good. And the girl?"
The reply came slowly. "She seems a bit more diligent to learn about her past here."
"WHAT!?" Noria's tail shot up straight, her grip tightened drastically on the railing.
A quivering voice came quietly. "But she still has yet to recall. I was able to get her out of there before any questions could be answered." Noria's grip on the railing relaxed a bit.
"Well then, you have done what I asked. I had a feeling Zeniba would help her along in finding her lost memories, but the girl succeeded in what I asked of her. Without her, your trip would have been just as futile as any of the earlier trips had been. And now, Zeniba is coming here. Finally I'll get what I've wanted for so long." She snarled as she looked out over the sea. "You are dismissed." The black figure bowed and left.
"So, Sen. Looks like it won't take much longer for your lost memories to be replenished. To bad by then, your long lost love, will no longer be around to share in that joy along with you."
Author's Note: OMG! Look I finally got the 5th chapter out! I'm so sorry everyone for taking so incredibly long with this. I ran into a really bad writer's block. The only thing good about that was that it cleared up my artist's block. During the time when I was writing the earlier chapters I had a terrible artist's block. Couldn't draw a thing. Then I fell into a lapse of writer's block, which cured my artist's block. Lol. And it now seems like my artist's block has reawakened once more. -_-;; Looks like the peoples at DA are going to have to wait while you guys here at FF.net receive what you've all lost. I hope you'll all forgive the long prolonged wait for this chapter.
Well as usual, continue to
R&R. I appreciate all of you for
still sticking with me. Feel free to
contact me via:
E-mail: uriko_san2002@yahoo.com
AIM: F00LmeTW1C3
YIM: uriko_san2002
MSN: uriko_san2002@yahoo.com
I love to talk so do send me a message my way. I'm on everyday around 6-9pm. Eastern Time. Well, happy writing/reading. ^_^
Please visit my website .