Promise of a River

By: LadyRainStarDragon

Chapter 11: Our Stuff!

Rain owneth not ye Spirited Away.

Back to the comedy.


Our entertainment for today opens with Kohaku holding up, by a slobber soaked and mangled strap, what had once been a new sandal. The key word here is once, as in some time between when he laid down for rest and when he got up. As time had wended on and he was dealing with . . . whatever had happened to him over the rest period, he had become a deep sleeper.

The other sandal was no where to be found, which aggravated the poor dragon greatly as he had outgrown his others. In other words, he was shoeless, and was not excited about the prospect, since he had a mission outside today. The thought of walking about shoeless in dirt that wasn't his own filled him with dread, while the suspicion of who had eaten his shoes made one eyebrow twitch.

'Blasted heads, they listened in on too many thievery lessons in my early apprenticeship.'

Taking a few deep breaths to keep calm, he allowed his darker soul temporary control of his body before it decided to bust out and cause some damage. The vibrant green eyes washed out and became greyer, closer to steel, and hard as stone. Containing his anger, Haku stormed out of his room, the evidence of the 'visit' still clutched tightly.

So annoyed was he, that he only narrowly missed running into one of the other male workers on his floor, who also was clutching the remains of a shoe.

"Watch it! Oh, so sorry Master Haku."

Haku noticed the mangled footwear in the frog's hand.

"You too?"

He nodded in reply. In unison, he and the foreman made their way to the lift, intent on confronting the shoe slayer, or more likely slayers. As they were about to summon the lift, the doors slid open, to reveal a steaming Lin, holding aloft a dripping and mangled manga.

"Haku! Did you sic the Kashira on me, thinking that since so much time passed since the shirt incident that I wouldn't connect it to you? It or they ate every last one except this one! Destroying a woman's manga is just sick and twisted Haku!"

"No, I didn't. Did you set them on me as some stupid joke again?"

"No."

"We'd better go confront Yubaba, then. It has to be one of her pets. Look at these teeth marks!"

Furiously shoving his mourned and expensive (as he was picky about the quality of his gear) zori sandal in her face, the chews did indeed seem to match the strangely humanoid pattern of teeth.

"Mine too! I say we have eyeball soup for dinner!"

Haku and Lin both looked wide eyed at the frog, surprised to hear him come up with the suggestion, as he was actually quite peaceful. Haku was the bloodthirsty one. Inside his own head, Nigihayami coughed in surprise, wondering if his dark side would actually drag the poor heads down to the kitchens to prepare cranium casserole or something. Yes, he too was angry with them, but he didn't want to eat them, since who knew where they'd been if they had found the dirty manga Lin hid. Dragging himself back to the point of his thought as he watched the goings on from inside the safety of his head, he realized that something like that Lin usually said first. They all shook off the surprise though, as there were more important fish to fry - er, Kashira to catch. The lift actually moved quickly for once, the first time it had ever done it, and probably the last.

As the door swished open onto Yubaba's private floor, a furious scream could be heard billowing from her quarters.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! My boots!"

Of course, this caused Haku and Lin to smirk at each other.

"That almost makes it worth my manga. Too bad you didn't get a chance to read the latest one. There were a few suggestions you could use on Sen when you get to see her."

Haku, being the perverted part of himself, didn't even blush, just rolled his eyes. Nigihayami however, was ready to burn the next one that Lin was waiting for. Kohaku was occupied in mentally dousing himself with cold water. Sadly, it didn't help, because he was then reminded of the naughty swimming dream he'd had a couple nights ago.

"You and your hentai manga, it's surprising that you actually read them instead of just drooling over the pictures. I would have thought the perverted fox would have been enough for you. This is not worth my shoes."

Grinning maliciously, Haku slammed the knocker . . . repeatedly. The echoes were lost to the witch's screams though, and the sound of her office being torn apart caused the frog with them to cringe. Performing their duty and recognizing the Apprentice who had gleefully abused the ugly knockers, the doors swung open, leading them to the office.

The three adventurers, uh, bath house personnel, desperately wanted to laugh at what they saw. Too bad they couldn't if they wanted to live. So, instead they all kept a straight face, using their indignant anger at the destruction of the little personal property they had accrued to cover their amusement.

Yubaba's office was a shambles. Vases were knocked over, a few broken. Lamps lay shattered about the floor. One of the pictures of Yubaba's ancestors had been ripped, while the others all hung askew like some demented American pop artist had hung them. Papers were everywhere, the desk overturned, and an unknown sticky substance of changeable coloration now obscured the blood stains Haku had forever etched in the preposterous Persian rug as well as the signs of Bou's little 'accident' with his blackberry juice. There was more damage, but it would take too long to describe how trashed the one pristine room was.

In the middle of all this chaos, bounced the three heads, 'oi'ing their hearts out and seeming to be having a grand time as Yubaba was chasing them with a rolled up newspaper. Both of her boots were thoroughly shredded, the remaining carcass of one still in the mouth of the alpha head. Apparently, the shredding of her boots had left her without a shred of reason, as she could have easily toasted them to cinders if she had thought about it.

"Those were my Mother's! How dare you!"

'Now I understand why she is so partial to those things, and why I always have to shine them when it's slow here.'

'Wow, Yubaba had a mom? That's just scary. I'll corner Haku later and see what I can get out of him. If anything, damn close-mouthed Dragon-boy.'

'Why does the mistress let these creatures get away with stuff like this? Why does Master Haku look enlightened about something? Why does Lin look ready to tear into Master Haku?'

Leaping over the desk, Yubaba actually managed to almost hit one. Almost, she fell on her face instead since she slipped on some paper.

"I'll get you! Bad Kashira, Bad!"

Fed up with the chaos, Haku stomped (barefoot still, and none too pleased about this) to the currently witless witch, snatched the newspaper, and used it to send all three heads flying into the wall.

"Enough!"

Pointing at the now terrified Kashira, he continued.

"You ate my zori, the foreman's zori and Lin's manga. Pay up! I know you've got money!"

There was a very good reason that she sent Haku when someone was late with their payment, not doing their job, or she needed something done the first time. He was truly terrible when angered. Even she was a little spooked seeing the boy like this. The heads shook a negative and looked at each other, clearly pleased with all the chaos caused and all the attention they were now receiving.

"NOW!"

Lin casually stepped behind the foreman, realizing how much of a good sport Haku had been when allowing her to attempt to torment him. Good thing, she'd hate to be on his bad side seeing this.

One of the heads thumped quickly out of the room, returning dragging a sack of gold from one of the bribes they had taken. This was left at Haku's feet.

"You . Will . Not . Do . This . Again."

Throwing the zori at the heads, he turned around to face the other two intrepid thrill seekers, uh, beleaguered bath workers.

"Come on, we're going to the market."

"Now just a minute Haku!"

"Yes, new boots. Don't worry, I'll be back in time for my mission and for them to work."

Without another word, he took dragon shape and sauntered to the balcony, motioning the other two to get on. They didn't want to, it wasn't safe to ride a pissed off dragon, but the look that he gave brooked no argument, so they complied to spare their lives.

A half hour later, they returned, new items in hand. Haku had even managed to find boots extremely similar to Yubaba's old ones. Lin and the Foreman made it to work, and Haku took off in a huff once she gave him his assignment.

'The boy will make a good guardian, he's finally learning.'


After his scheduled work hours, it took Haku quite a while to write his problems down.

When he fell asleep, his dream was about a young woman, who was very familiar to his eyes now. So too was the room, a western styled mattress supported by a distinctly Japanese frame enshrined the sleeping form, Tenderly enfolding her with bedding of blue and green, the inner sheets a snow white. The walls too were white, the curtains a lavender purple like his sash. A finely detailed small dragon kept watch over her, emerald eyes reflecting a bit of moonlight, the body glowing with the moon's luminescence. The summer night heat had caused her to wiggle out of the flimsy top, leaving a good bit of her chest exposed to him, but not the part he wanted to see.

Noticing that his light side was sleeping deeply, as was his Kohaku aspect, he approached her sleeping body. Concerned with the flushed look she possessed, a cool hand was pressed to her forehead, causing her to snuggle towards it.

(Heh. They keep me locked up too much.)

"Haku."

She was obviously asleep. However, the way she murmured his name . . .

(What are you dreaming of?)

Her lips pursed, as if she were displeased with something. The pout was unresistable, and he found himself leaning down to taste of it.

(Might as well enjoy this dream, so rare to get one to myself, what with those two almost always keeping me suppressed.)

She was fevered, but it wasn't the good kind of fever this part of the river kami wanted to instill in her. She was sick, he could taste the malicious bacteria on her lips. Sighing, he lay down under the covers with her, touching every part of her with his cool waters to comfort her.

"Haku."

She was still talking in her sleep. Curious, Haku asked a question to see if she would answer.

"How old are you now, Chihiro?"

"18."

So, she heard him and answered. It was getting to be a strange dream, and even stranger since he wasn't sure if this is what she really looked like at this time.

"Will you wait for me?"

He nuzzled into her neck, pleased to smell his river and cherry blossoms again, the child's body having taken his smell long ago.

"Yes. OHHH, Haku!"

A banging sounded on the door, causing Haku to jump. It was irritating, he'd been enjoying the dream, enjoying trying to egg her into making the proper move and distract her from her illness. He also realized that if it was Nigihayami breaking into his wonderful dream he was dead meat, figuratively speaking. That thought woke him up.

(That was the weirdest dream yet!)

'What dream?'

((Go back to sleep, you two.))

Unknown to him, it wasn't really a dream. A short man with closely cropped brown hair and dark eyes burst into the room, sniffing suspiciously at the scent of the unknown male who had been in the room with his friend.

"Was it him again, Ryu?"

"Yeah, 'Wind. It was that blasted incubus again. With all the wards Koji and I have put in this room, not to mention Maiden Snake's, you'd think he couldn't get in here."

"Haku."

"Why can't we just let them finish whatever they are doing instead of interrupting it every time? She always sounds so frustrated afterwards."

"Haku?"

"One, if we don't she could get pregnant 'cause it smells like it's at least part dragon. Two, if this spirit takes her virginity, she can't be the Miko at the River Shrine when it's finished. Three, she'd kill us if she woke up one morning distinctly not virgin. Four, I just find it annoying that some spirit is trying to seduce her under my snout."

"Should we wake her?"

"Sunrise isn't for another hour, let's let her sleep a little longer."


Fyraga: Yup, it is an invasion. Oh well, that's what happens with a diary, somebody reads it. :cough, cough:

Sakura-no-hana-hoshi: Inspiration is a fickle master.