Standard disclaimers apply.

Chapter 10

After Chihiro's little chat with Kamajii she headed home, but something was wrong. Her body felt as though it was on fire. It felt like a fever but no one ever got sick in the spirit world. Kioko and herself should have been very sick when they first came but something about the spirit world made it so that the common cold was not so common. Ignoring her nagging thought that it wasn't a cold she went straight home to find Kioko. But when she got there Kioko was nowhere to be found, it seemed that she was going to spend the whole evening with Rin. Chihiro sighed and headed for their room. But it seemed that her body didn't like that idea. Her head swam and she began seeing black dots around the corners of her vision. Her body shook with uncontrollable shivers. Finally she could stand no longer and she collapsed.

"I'm home sis!" called Kioko, but getting no answer she shrugged her shoulders. Maybe Chihiro had decided to stay a little longer with Kamajii. She made her way to their room when she stopped, what she saw freezing the blood in her veins. There crumpled on the floor was Chihiro. "HELP! Rin! Ki! ANYBODY HELP!"

Yu-Baaba stood silently as Rin placed Chihiro into bed. They had no doctors; they had no need for them, therefore there was no one to help the sick human. Kioko sat beside her sister her eyes full of unshed tears, Rin was silent for once, her body still. Yu-Baaba now saw what an impact Sen had made on all of them.

"Mistress Yu-Baaba, do you know why Sen is so sick?" questioned Rin, her gaze still fixed on the human.

Yu-Baaba shook her head. There was no explanation as to why she was so sick. She had shown no signs when she ate dinner with Kamajii but only after…Yu-Baaba's eyes widened slightly, her train of thought following whatever idea it might lead to. Kamajii had said that Ki the keeper of Haku's floor had brought them dinner, and it wasn't until after dinner that Sen began feeling ill. "I have some things to look at; maybe I'll find something there. Rin you are relieved of your duties until Sen is well." With that Yu-Baaba left.

In her study she had a book listing all the types of poisons that spirits had access to. If her suspicions were correct then one of those poisons would be the key to what was ailing Sen so.

"Rin…" whispered Kioko, "do you think that she will die?" Kioko's voice shook; she was terrified of losing her sister, who had been so strong before, who now fell with an unknown sickness that was surely killing her. No one needed to tell her that, she had seen Chihiro's laboured breathing, how even the slightest touch would have her flinching even in her slumber, and how her fever was raging so that even cold clothes did nothing to cool her.

Rin licked her lips. She was no good at caring for children especially ones like Sen and Kioko. Kioko was so independent that at first it had frightened Rin but seeing that Sen's determination had trickled down to her sister she understood why they worked so hard. And after hearing little snippets of what had happened to the sisters in the human world Rin in a way looked up to the two, to come out of something so horrible with nary a scratch on their minds, was down right miraculous. "I don't know kid. Sen's a tough cookie, there's no way that this 'cold' could take her out." Rin was trying but she was just coming off sounding so fraudulent.

Kioko shook her head as she replaced the wet cloth and said her voice lost in sadness, "no…she's dieing, I can see it. My big sister is dieing…" and she broke. Kioko crumpled on top of Chihiro, her tears saturating the light sheet that was placed on her.

All Rin could do was sit next to the child and rest her hand on her quivering shoulder. There was no way to comfort someone when they knew that their loved one was dieing.

Yu-Baaba scanned through the book looking for the same symptoms that Sen had and finding it she stopped her eyes burning with anger. It was 'fire seed' it had been used to kill defectors of a royal house as well as prisoners of war when the opposing side did not pay up. It was banned due to its affects on the infected, and yet here it was slowly killing Sen. 'damn it Haku get your ass back here. Your human needs you.'

Haku made his last stop and gathering all the items that Yu-Baaba had requested and he raised himself high into the sky. The string in his heart that connected him to Chihiro was being pulled tight something that didn't mean a good thing. Chihiro was in danger, but from whom or what he had not idea. All he knew was that he had to get back to her as soon as possible.

Ki stood in the shadows as she watched Kioko cry over Chihiro, her smile gleaming in the fading light. Soon Chihiro would die and all the things she had been hoping for would fall into her lap. 'Snap' just like that, kill one human and the world will come to you.

Chihiro floated in a sea of black. She could faintly hear her surroundings but everything as so muddled that she couldn't make it all out. She felt nothing in this inky blackness but she knew that wasn't a good thing. Her body was failing her where so many other times it had not, never in her years of beatings had she experienced such nothingness. Even in the times where Yuuko had beaten her into unconsciousness had she experienced such total oblivion. She covered her face with her hands trying to feel once again and opening her eyes she stifled a scream. She was fading; just like that day by the river the first time she had come to the spirit world. She was fading out of existence, she was finally dieing…