Underwater Savior
Chapter 9: Dead Ends
By LadyRainStarDragon
Rating: PG-13 / T for violence, occasional coarse language, and dangerous situations.
I do not own Spirited Away, which is property of Hayao Miyazaki. Not mine. I can only wish, it is just a fan fiction.
Kohakunushi stood before the building company's complex. It wasn't very impressive he thought. It was just another one of those ugly city buildings encroaching upon him more every day. At least this building had been erected taking into account the land's natural flow, and had even been painted in natural colors. What was odd was the little mini-shrine to Oinari at the main entrance and the plentiful rice guarded by foxes in the company logo.
While paying his respects to the guardian kami of the location, he noticed movement in one of the windows. A flash of reddish-brown as curtains were drawn hastily shut, and a flicker of chi raised his suspicions even more.
As he prowled about the property, he noticed that there were no kami coming out to greet him. He found this very strange, as usually everywhere in the area, the kami interacted with each other often, even if at times it was only exchanges of pranks or territory disputes. Even though he saw no one, he could still feel eyes following him.
He found nothing of interest. Kohakunushi would have liked to explored in the building itself, but he could feel the presence of a spirit that would not let him. It didn't feel like it was malevolent at least. Sighing, the confused kami turned towards his river and melded with the waters once again.
Her slender hand snapped shut the reddish-brown curtain at the window. She had seen the young dragon acknowledging Oinari at the main entrance. Being perfectly aware of how keen a dragons eyes were, she felt the risk of movement sufficient. She would rather him see a flash than levitate to the window to read their lips.
"Father, is there no other way?"
"You consider him a friend don't you?"
"Yes, but I don't think that a friend would willingly see another friend's home destroyed. What if he doesn't escape in time? What if he doesn't make it to the Spirit World, or even worse, caught between? Is this risk worth possibly getting him killed?"
"You know as well as I do that a dragon without a mate for too long can and will go feral. Look at what happened to the Western Dragons. Most of them did not take mates of either dragon, human, or other spirit. However, they also could not control their urges without their balance. So, they stole and hoarded treasures and gobbled innocent maidens in not-so-pleasuring ways."
"And do you really think that someone as self-repressing and shy as Nigihayami Kohakunushi is all of a sudden going to snap and start pillaging and all that goes along with it? Exactly how many Eastern Dragons have you heard of doing that?"
"At least one."
She looked at her father. Her father looked at her. She raised her eyebrow. His eyebrow lowered. Her fingers drummed her opposing arms. His drummed his desk.
"I still think he is the most unlikely dragon to do that. Ten the Spring Spirit maybe, but not Nigihayami Kohakunushi. If you want to see a dragon move faster than light, just send a pretty girl to be his bride."
"And that is just exactly what even our fellow kitsune said about me before I took your mother, my daughter."
"You? Mr. Way Too Fertile himself? Dad, you being shy is as hard to believe as Kohakunushi eating a 'fair young maiden' and enjoying it."
"If he wasnt feeling the stirring of a desire to breed and be a father, then why do you think he used to play with the children so much and retreated so far into himself when he could do so with only a carefully chosen few? A repressed desire to be a pony perhaps?"
"As I remember it, he just likes to see kids be happy. So once again, what happens if he doesn't make it out in time?"
"Let's not think about it right now."
"I hate avoidance. Fine, if you need me, I'll be in my office 'Father.' Good day."
He watched his daughter exit his office, her scarlet suit blazing beneath the florescent lighting. Bowing his head, he thought to himself.
"I don't want to see another dragon perish like that ever again. He's too nice a lad for that fate."
Chihiro stretched as she woke from her nap. She felt so much better than before. Noticing that one side was warmer than the other, she turned her head to see her father's sleeping face.
'Huh, guess kids aren't the only ones who need naps sometimes.'
Carefully getting up, so she wouldn't wake him, she then tiptoed to the door. It took her forever to open it, since she was trying to be quiet. It took just as long to close the darn thing too, but at least it was worth it. She found her grandfather sitting before the little kamidana, but wasn't sure if he was sleeping or not. She had never seen someone sleep sitting up before. Getting ready to ask Kohaku about it, she looked around and noticed that he wasn't there anymore.
'Phoo! He's gone again.'
Chihiro settled for sitting facing her grandfather to stare in comfort. If she looked hard enough, she could sort of see the hairs of his chin grow.
'Wonder what he's dreaming?'
Koji could feel little eyes boring into his body. He tried to ignore it, but it had been a while. The little eyes kept boring into him, focusing now on his chin. It was almost like a child's stare, but Akio had long since grown and Chihiro was asleep. He opened one eye to check his surroundings.
'Correction. Chihiro was asleep. Past tense Koji.'
The boring sensation intensified, distracting him completely from what he was trying to do. Koji briefly wondered if his son regularly engaged her in staring matches or something.
"Grandfather, what are you doing if you're not asleep?"
"Meditating."
"What's that?"
"Calming your mind so you can hear the spirits and ancestors."
"Why?"
"I have some questions for them."
"Oh."
Silence filled the small house, and Koji returned to his meditation.
"Can I learn? I'd like to talk to Grandmother someday."
"You might as well start practicing now. Close your eyes and focus on your breathing until I tell you to stop."
Chihiro closed her eyes. As she began to pay attention to her breathing, she began to notice where the air was going and the stir of feeling with each breath.
"Well, this is weird. Kinda fun though."
She was really getting into it, and beginning to notice that she could hear a high pitched buzzing in her ears and the blood flowing through her body when she heard a gentle voice call her name from across the room.
Opening her eyes and looking up, she saw her father with his keys in hand. Her grandfather was handing him a small paper bag, probably filled with the rice balls that he knew she liked. Really, who would turn down sweet rice balls?
"Are you ready to go Chihiro?"
"Ok."
She gave her grandfather a hug, then took her father's hand as he lead her to the car. It was time to go home.
Tsukaimono stalked the hall towards her office. Office workers dashed out of her way when they saw the green eyes flickering with anger and frustration. A few of the workers later swore that they could see the fiery hair that was usually upswept faintly stirring with a life of its own. These were the same workers who also thought they could see a lush fox tail thrashing from side to side at her backside. They received counseling and a two week vacation to combat workplace stress as the upper management termed it.
She threw her door open, allowing it to bounce off the wall with a bang. It had been specially padded years ago for just this reason. For such a delicate looking flower, she was rather strong-armed. It wasn't really surprising though if you looked at her heritage.
No comfort was derived today from the tastefully decorated office. The green of the carpet to simulate grass and the woodland murals on the wall did nothing to calm her wild emotions. The small porcelain fox statues flanking a mini-shrine to Oinari watched her with emerald eyes as she paced to her pine desk. The accounting paperwork stared up at her, but she could not focus on it. Instead, she slumped forward, forhead perched heavily upon her hands.
"Oinari, what am I supposed to do? The plans are too far forward to put a stop to Dad's stupid plan."
A voice floated to her ear from the mini-shrine. The Tsuni's no longer took care of rice fields, but as they viewed the people of Nippon as rice, Oinari the Rice Kami still oversaw their work. In a sense, the kitsune family had moved on to taking care of a much larger and much more difficult rice field than that which they had guarded so long ago.
"You could try to warn him."
"How am I supposed to do that? He runs from almost every female who isn't his family now."
"You're mated now though. Why would he run from a happily married woman?"
"How about because he's starting to get paranoid of almost every female who comes in grabbing distance of him? The only females I've seen or heard of him with lately are his adopted sister and the little girl from his old Shrine's family."
"How do you know if you don't try?"
Tsukaimono sighed. The Rice Kami was right. Taking a rice cake out of her lunch, she placed it at the mini-shrine. She took another look at her desk, the account books open and staring at her. They could wait. The River Kami had helped her so long ago, it was now time to pay him back.
Opening her door thoughtfully, she glided out and back into the hall. The haze of anger had lifted from her eyes, and she could see the green carpet and light blue walls, a potted plant here or there. Turning to her right, she went to the stair, seeming to float down them, and then on the bottom floor, stopping at the front desk.
"I'm going for a walk. If anyone needs me, have them leave a memo."
The young receptionist nodded her head, deep brown eyes twinkling behind her thick glasses. She too understood the need to go take a walk on a particularly stressful day.
"Yes ma'am, Ms. Tsuni."
As she passed through the glass doors, Tsukaimono briefly wondered if the ningen would still be as respectful if it was known that she was a kitsune. She missed the days that it was safe to just be herself instead of using illusions to hide her more distinctive traits. Bringing herself back to the present she looked around. Kohakunushi was no where to be seen.
"Dragon just can't seem to stay put."
Walking over to the river, she looked down into the waters. They seemed empty to her, but then again, she didn't understand the element of water, as she was earth.
"Nigihayami Kohakunushi? Are you here? I need to speak with you."
Silence greeted her call and the river continued on its merry way. Either she was being ignored, or he had already moved on. He seemed to be searching for something earlier. Perhaps he had continued his search then.
"Fine, be that way you skittish dragon. I'll just go bother your daitoku then. So there!" She stuck her tongue out at the water in a childish manner. Still she received no answer as the water flowed by.
Stepping into a bush, she looked carefully around her. No one was looking, so she took back her natural form. From the bushes came a large fiery red fox, with a white star on the chest and a little black fur on the eyelids. After looking around once again, the fox put on a grin and began her trot towards where everyone knew the old priest lived.
Half-way there, she smelt dog. Looking around, she saw a pair of golden eyes.
'Crap! Please don't let that be who I think it is.'