Hey guys! Hope you like the fic so far! Here's chapter 16…it may take a while for you to read…its kind of long.
Disclaimer: I do not own Spirited Away. There. Happy now?
Chihiro ran desperately through the forest. Her, Rin, Kuja, and Rio, were given the sanction but had to catch up with Haku before he hurt the guards. They had received a token from the emperor as proof of the sanction and were going to use it to get pass the guards. Haku on the other hand was going to get through the rough way.
When the team got there, the guards were on the floor. Not a good sign.
"Who did this? How long ago did the man leave?" Rio asked as he and Kuja lent a helping hand to the wounded soldiers.
The man struggled to speak but finally answered, "He…went inside. He was here not too long ago…I'd say…ten minutes…ugh…" The man then dozed off.
Rin walked up to the open gate and stared intently. She made a quick decision and ran inside. Kuja noticed and ran after her.
"No wait! Stop!" Yelled the other guard.
Chihiro bit her lip. "Rio, we have to go. What if Haku is in danger?" She said as thoughts of the monster came into her head.
"You are right." Rio turned to the man he was helping. "We have a sanction from the emperor. Would it be ok if we left you alone?"
"I'm alright. You need to close the gate though…and if you go in, you can't come back out…until the monster is killed or the emperor orders it. Do you understand?" Asked the guard.
"Yes. I do." Rio said. Then the man turned to Chihiro, waiting for her reply.
Chihiro raised her fists to her sides and was anxious to take the plunge into the ruins already. "I have made up my mind. I'm going in no matter what. If I get locked in…then I'll find my way out. I'm going to get through this one way or another. Now let's go Rio!"
Rio let go of the guard and rose to his feet. The guard then spoke softly, "My, my…such talk for a human. You have a strong will. What is your name?"
"Chihiro." She answered.
Rio, as quick as a jet, ran to the gate. "Come Chihiro. If you've really made up your mind, then we have to save them."
"Ok! Then lets go!" Chihiro got powered up a bit and ran off with Rio. They made sure to shut the gate and with that, dashed as quickly as possible into the ruins. It took a while to get there but they finally made it.
At the entrance, Haku, Rin, and Kuja were standing, trying to figure out how to get in.
"Good! We've caught up with them." Rio said as he and Chihiro ran up to them.
"We have to leave!" Rin exclaimed as the other two joined the team.
"We just got here." Kuja remarked.
"We can't go back either!" Chihiro stepped into the conversation. "What's going on?"
"The door is locked." Haku murmured. He was looking really angry at this point. Anyone who messed with him now was really going to get it.
"Then we should leave!" Rin said. She was eager for them to get out.
Suddenly, Rio spotted something in the bushes. "Now I'm thinking we really should leave…" In that moment, the door to the ruins opened.
Chihiro shuddered. "I don't think we can leave…it's too late now. We just have to go in and hope for the best."
Haku, ignoring the others, walked in to the dark ruins without a problem. The others followed, scared of what was hidden in the shadows. As they came to a lighted room with several torches on the walls, they noticed a fork in the path.
"I'm going this way. You guys can take the left side." Haku said. He really wanted to be alone. He didn't want the others to hold him back.
"No!" Rin said. She walked up to the paths and suddenly fell through a trap floor. Kuja dashed forward and grabbed her arm. Unfortunately, he was pulled down with her. Chihiro gasped as the lights on the torches died down. All was dark but for a moment.
"Is this place haunted?" Chihiro said as she shivered in fear.
"Yubaba is behind this." Rio said, as the lights came back on, revealing the trap door to be gone.
"Well isn't she the scum of the earth?" Haku said, still in the stoic and violent manner he was carrying. "I can't believe she's related to Zeniba…twins nonetheless!"
Chihiro looked at the two paths. "We need to hurry. What if she tries to come after us next?" She said.
"Doesn't matter." Haku said coldly. "I don't need any help in this. You guys can stay here and rot for all I care."
Rio looked at Haku in surprise. He then quickly looked away and walked through the path to the right.
Haku then started towards the left side. Chihiro followed Haku.
"Go with Rio, you spec." Haku said, as he walked down the path.
"No. You need help Haku. Besides, I am your slave."
"I released you, remember? I no longer have any use for a mortal being such as you."
"You may not think so, but you need your friends more then anything. It's the only thing that can help you now."
"I thought I told you, I don't need you." Haku turned his head slightly to look back at her, as he was walking down the path.
"You say you don't need anyone, and yet you still can't get over your mother's death. You needed her back then but she wasn't there Haku!" They both paused their movement and stood still.
"Back then your father tortured you. Now look at yourself! You torture yourself day by day and won't let the people around you who care about you help! Why are you doing this to yourself?"
Haku stared down at the floor and grew silent. "Haku…" Chihiro continued. "You said that you die every time you have a nightmare about your father…" Chihiro walked up to Haku and stood behind his back.
"Why can't you let go of that past where you were dead and let me help you make a new life?" Chihiro put her hand on Haku's shoulder but he didn't say anything.
He just stood there, still as a rock. Chihiro then started to move her arm down his shoulder and onto his back. It was kind of like the time when Haku had 'haunted' her way back when. She moved closer to his body, just as he did before on the day they 'met'.
She didn't whisper in his ear though, instead, she encircled her arms around his waist and dug her face into his back. Haku stayed motionless, staring at the floor, his hair covering and shadowing his eyes. He thought about what she was saying and could not stay stubborn any longer to keeping his malice. Shame, guilt, and pain crept up slowly into his soul as Chihiro had started to whimper silently with her face on his back.
Rio had practically run down the path. He took out his staff from his long robe and found a room at the end of the path. It was a large room, but also a dead end, with nothing but inscriptions on the walls. There were some vases and items around also, all adding a cultural allure to the room. It seemed pretty pleasant, but a bit too eerie…
Rio looked around. He sensed there was something in the room, just lurking around, waiting to swallow its prey.
"Show yourself!" Rio demanded, once he was sure that it wasn't his imagination getting the best of him.
In the middle of the room, there was a shadow of one of the torches flickering about. As soon as Rio had demanded the entity, the shadow grew larger. It then plunged off the floor, into a 3D likeness instead of 2D, revealing a witch.
"Yubaba!" Rio exclaimed. The shadow's blackness had left, showing now all the ugly features of the horrid witch.
"So pleased to kill you!" Yubaba said, snickering.
"So happy to see you again, too." Rio smirked. "Get ready, witch. I'm gonna make you regret the day you were born!" As soon as Yubaba started to power up, Rio raised his staff in the air, harnessing large amounts of energy.
"You fool…" Yubaba whispered loudly, and her voice echoed throughout the ruins.
Meanwhile, the long drop knocked out Kuja and Rin. They hit their heads a little to many times on bumps in the wall. The landing wasn't to nice either. But the waking was sweet…well, for Kuja…
Kuja awoke to find an unconscious Rin resting right on top of him. Her head was laid gently on his chest and her hands lying on his shoulders.
After admiring her beauty for a moment, Kuja looked around the area. While falling down he had tried to stop and grab on to something. He somehow pulled something while falling down and he remembered hearing a rumble below. It was completely dark while falling down, but now it was fairly lighted…this time with normal lights instead of torches. Some of the lights were blinking though.
"Where are we?" Kuja asked himself. "Well, I guess there's not much to do now…" Kuja turned to the woman and sat up straight. Her head slid down and rested on his lap. Then Kuja noticed her forehead had a bleeding cut.
"Rin…" Kuja put his hand on her cheek and instantly, Rin opened her eyes and grabbed his hand. She looked around and got up quickly.
"What were you doing! Do you think now is the time to move up on me!" She yelled, angry that he could even think about touching at a time like this.
"Wait a minute! I wasn't doing anything! I swear! You were just bleeding. That's all."
"And why was I on your lap?"
"Hey, if I planned for that to happen when we fell, I would have made this place. Besides, I was unconscious after we fell through that trap door. Plus I was trying to save you!"
"Alright, alright…Sorry." Rin apologized, as she blushed. She felt the bump on her head and looked at the blood on her fingers. "Shoot."
"Here…" Kuja said, as he ripped off a piece of his shirt and tied it around her wound. "That'll stop the bleeding…"
"Thank you…" Rin said, as she blushed a deeper red.
"No problem. Now we got to figure out where we are."
"Right…" Answered Rin. "This place looks like a lab. Look at that computer over there! I'll bet it controls some of the booby traps."
Rin and Kuja started to explore the lab. It was a normal sized room with all kinds of technical buttons around. Computers and machines just stood there, still active though, with their buttons glowing and lighted up.
You fool…"!…. Kuja, did you hear that?" Rin said as she turned to Kuja, who was pressing buttons on one of the computers.
"Yeah…it sounded like…" The two gasped and simultaneously shouted, "Yubaba!"
"But where? I don't see her anywhere!" Rin said.
"Wait…look at this computer!" Kuja exclaimed. After pressing multiple buttons, the computer started showing areas in the ruins.
"I never would've guessed…there's cameras everywhere…" Kuja said.
"Yubaba is the reason for this. She's harnessed the powers of good and turned them into something else." Rin said.
"Why do you say that? Tech isn't all that evil…except for the fact that she used it to get the upper hand on defeating us." Kuja said.
"I say that because of that. Look at camera five's footage right now." Rin answered
Kuja gasped at what he saw.
Back in the hall, Chihiro abruptly let go of Haku as soon as she heard the echoes of the witch.
"Yubaba…" Haku whispered. Haku then started to run. Chihiro dashed on behind him.
As they came to the end, there was a red double door entrance with ancient inscriptions all over it.
"No Face…" Haku said as he rubbed the door's imprinted writings. "It says something else about the Golden Seal but I can't make it out."
Haku looked behind him to make sure Chihiro was there. She nodded to him and he nodded back, as he slowly opened the double doors. He opened the door so that it was slightly ajar. He then looked around the room. It was totally empty. There were just inscriptions all over the walls. The carpet stretched around the corners of the room, creating a bare square-shaped floor in the middle of the room. At the end of the room was a table made out of rock. On it was the legendary Golden Seal.
Haku then quickly busted both the doors open all the way and ran in quickly.
"Show yourself Yubaba!" Haku shouted.
Chihiro just stared at him. It seemed that there was nothing else in the room but Haku. But as soon as Haku turned back to look at Chihiro and shrugged his shoulders, a monster's tail came from the ceiling and smacked him straight across the room and onto a wall.
"Haku!" Chihiro shrieked. The monster known as 'No Face', or Baba, dropped down from where it was hanging and looked straight at the human girl. She shuddered in fear but quickly started to power up her own strength. She ran in the room and bravely faced the monster, but still remembering the scar the monster had left behind on her back.
Suddenly, Haku charged forward and with a kick, sent the creature flying towards the other wall. "Chihiro! What are you doing? Get out!" He shouted.
"No! You need my help!"
"I don't need anyone's help!" Haku retorted. "He's too strong and you would only be getting in my way!"
"I won't leave you Haku!" Chihiro said.
"Spec…" Haku started, in a more forceful way. "Leave! I don't need you!" Then suddenly, the monster struck back at Haku with his tail again, crushing him into the floor.
"Hurry…get out…" Haku said as he struggled to get the tail off.
"No, Haku…No!" Chihiro dashed towards the monster, leapt into the air, chanted a spell, and threw an energy ball at the monsters eye. The monster shrieked out its pain and started to move away from Haku, bumping into a pillar.
Chihiro ran to Haku and helped him up. "You need to leave! Why are you still here?" Haku said.
"Because you need me." She responded softly. She couldn't let go of the feelings she had for him. Although he hadn't always treated her the way he should have, she found the good in him. She knew that deep down he was good, especially after the trial.
She remembered it so clearly, like it was yesterday. She was nervous about the trial. During the council's decision making, Haku stood up for her. He made an outburst in the council and practically declared his love for Chihiro. Well, maybe he didn't declare love exactly, but from that day on, Chihiro knew for sure that he genuinely cared about her.
"Look out!" The ceiling, being an old piece of architecture, started to collapse. The monster made quite a hit on the pillar.
As soon as Chihiro looked up and noticed a huge rock falling from straight above, Haku grabbed her by the shoulders and rolled both his and her body away.
On the floor, Chihiro noticed the creature look at the Golden Seal. He seemed to be making sure it was still intact. Haku then slowly got off of Chihiro and helped her get up.
"Haku, I am not leaving ok? So just forget about it! I don't care if you don't need me. I'm staying right here." Chihiro said. She was so sure of her decision, Haku didn't object.
"Fine…but you need to be quick, Chihiro." Haku then noticed the creature coming up to them and powered up. He then charged towards Baba. He let out a series of punches and kicks. The monster, doing his own attacks also, was at an equal range of power with Haku. Good thing Haku had trained for this.
Rio, in his powering up, chanted some foreign dialect and was enveloped by a black orb of energy. Yubaba marveled at it but then resumed her confident smirk. Whatever it was, she thought she could defeat it easily.
Oh how wrong she was.
The black orb then started to flash words in white. They were foreign to Yubaba, though, so she could read them. Then, in a flash of light, Rio's body emerged from the growing orb and revealed a giant three-headed dog. It was a Cerberus.
Look who has the upper hand now.
"What the heck is that!" Kuja said.
"It's No Face. He was once a gentle god but now he's a bloodthirsty monster. No Face is gone now. Yubaba defeated him somehow and turned his remains into that…with some of her dirty witch craft." Rin answered.
"But…" Kuja started. "Chihiro and Haku are going up against them look! And look over there! Rio is going against…Yubaba!"
Rin gasped at the sight. She was even more in shock when she saw the Golden Seal, though.
"Oh no…the Golden Seal!" She exclaimed.
"Wait! Isn't that the treasure you've been looking for?" Kuja asked.
"Yes, but…I can't risk it. Life is more important."
"Huh? But we can just stash the thing after killing Baba."
"Yeah…but there would still be a curse."
"A curse?"
"Yes, Kuja. I know now that my life shouldn't be just for money all the time. It's absolutely worthless. That Golden Seal…see…I was going to sacrifice Haku's life, or any of you guys for that matter, to get it. Although I doubt the curse will do that to you, it is still very possible. I'm sorry…I just…"
Kuja just stood there shocked at her. He knew she had a somewhat of a cold heart, but risking the lives of people she barely knew was something else. He couldn't even say anything to that.
During the fight between Baba and Haku, Haku sort of got beat up…really bad. Chihiro, In all her strength, could not help. But, when Haku was weakened and in the coils of the snake, ready to be squeezed, she came up with an idea. Chihiro ran to the Golden Seal, which was resting in the hands of a small statue with nothing but hands, feet, and a head with a pair of eyes. It looked kind of creepy, but nonetheless, if she grabbed it, she would take the attention away from Haku, giving him a chance to rest.
"No Chihiro! You mustn't touch the Golden Seal! It's cursed!" Shouted Rin.
"Rin, they can't hear you. We can't do anything about this!"
"Oh yes we can. Start pressing buttons! There's got to be a way to end this."
"But…"
"Start pushing now!" Rin commanded, and Kuja obediently followed orders. She was a lot like her sister in some ways. Especially when it came to giving orders.
"Hey Baba!" Chihiro said as she held her hand out to grab the Seal. "You want your precious Seal!"
Baba instantaneously let go of Haku and glared at Chihiro. It shrieked at Chihiro and she tried to make an equal sound back. She mocked the creature for as long as she could. But as soon as Baba started moving in, she saw Haku still on the ground, struggling.
Haku looked up at what was happening, he saw the monster closing in on her, so he tried even harder to get up.
Chihiro then grabbed the Seal and ran across the room, chanting protection spells on herself. But nothing could be stopped. The creature charged.
"Chihiro!" Haku screamed, as he finally found the strength to get up and going again.
Chihiro turned around and outstretched her hands to enforce a protective barrier. Being a beginner with magic, it was no use. The beast sunk his fangs onto her back, renewing the old wound he gave her, and making it much deeper. Chihiro screamed out in pain. As the monster slowly backed up, its fangs dripping of blood, it shrieked loudly and caused Chihiro even more pain.
Suddenly the monster was thrown back into the other side of the room. Haku had used one of his telekinetic abilities for it and didn't hold back. He ran to Chihiro's side, while the monster was still stuck under some rubble.
"It has been done!" Yubaba laughed insanely, as she and Rio were in the middle of a battle.
Rio looked around the room, trying to think of what she was talking about.
"You still haven't figured it out? The Golden Seal has a protective curse. In order for me to attain its great powers, I needed someone to take the curse from it, so that I may acquire it without problem. That's what Rin was planning to do it."
"That's a lie!" Said Rio, in a dog language.
"Go ahead, don't believe me. But if that human girl dies, then that's really too bad." Yubaba said, still laughing.
"What did you say? Witch!" Rio started to get angry at her words. He could sense Chihiro's life force declining but he had to stop Yubaba. "If you want that Seal, You'll have to come through me!"
"As you wish…" Yubaba snickered.
In silence, Haku walked up to Chihiro's body. He got on his knees and put his hand close to her cheek. She smiled up at him as he moved his hand quickly away.
"Haku…I knew you were good…" She said, as she closed her eyes.
"Chihiro…I wanted…um…" Haku started to turn red. "Please…you should of left when I told you to."
"I always knew it…you were…ugh…" Chihiro let go. Her body lay motionless, without a sign of life.
Haku slowly caressed her face and her hair. He grabbed her hand and squeezed it tight. Still no sign of any life was shown. He moved his other hand slowly to her heart. Feeling as though he had violated her he quickly moved it away, but then realized it wasn't beating. Haku then tried to hear her heart beat again.
He slowly moved his on her chest and put his ear against it. He couldn't hear anything.
His eyes widened. He felt a piercing emptiness and inexplicable pain consume his stomach. He felt sick…and his heart was broken.
"…No…Chihiro…you can't…CHIHIRO!" Haku screamed as loud as his lungs would let him, so all could hear his pain. Nothing in his life had ever him hurt as much as this.
OK! Sorry if this chapter was boring, long, and made no sense, I was in a really big hurry to finish it and my bro challenged me to finish in 17 chapters which is not gonna happen. No way in this world…anyway, I apologize but I had to get this thing up and I had to end the chapter with Chihiro's death, or her "death." You can't be too sure now can you?
Reviews Corner:
Tippy-chan: so glad you like! Thanks for reviewing! Oh, and your story aint a bad piece of work either-keep writing gurl!
Samsonite: Thanks for reviewing! Let me know what you think later on of it. And yeah, Haku was a jerk, lol. But that's all part of the story, you know.
Fatlazicat: Dawg, go get yourself some help. Even if I did approve of gays (I'm a Christian so I don't, sorry), it would still be sick. Dude, that's like incest! Eww…nasty…no offense to you…just, go get some help ok? Oh, by the way, thanks for reviewing. Have a nice day.
Paxton V. French: Hello! Thank you so much for reviewing. Hope you do so again! Merci! (in thick French accent) haha, just messin.
Thanks to everyone for reviewing! Remember to review this chapter too! Yay!