A/N: I have gotten my own computer! It is an HP Livestrong laptop, and I am typing all this on it. Gets up and does little happy dance. It's mine! Mine mine mine! My own…my precious…
I have taken the initiative in this chapter to start a little romance (sizzle) between Fumi and Arata. You saw it coming…
To conclude this news bulletin, I have experienced such an outpouring of reviews (well, 4) I am incredibly grateful to allaya.

angelphantomgirl: Thank you. Maybe it is confusing…I'm not sure…I guess since I have my whole story set out in my head, it's not confusing for me…what was confusing about it?

imisseduhaku: Okay. When two people say that your story is confuzzelling, you know you have problems. Thanks for the compliments and stuff, though.

Sesshy-chansbestpal: Yes. I agree completely. I am an only child, but I dedicate this chapter to all you readers who have younger siblings. (And are aggravated by them.)

Wish Wielder: Yes, I know that they are really made of soot, not dust. And on the second part, do you want to type tsutsuwatari every time you want to reference one of them? They are very central characters in this story, and my fingers would drop off (and my word processor would freak out) if I wrote that every time. Also, I know that soot balls is the correct term for them, but 'dustbunnies' sounds more active, more interesting.

Disclaimer: I do not own Spirited Away or Puss in Boots. If I did, I'd be a lot richer. And smarter.

This chappie is dedicated to all readers with younger siblings, and Wish Wielder for (correctly) defining what the dustbunnies (I know, I know) are.

Chapter 7: Hautes Bottes

The cat spirit that descended the stairs off the train. Tanzel was a fairly large cat, almost half again of his sister's diminutive height. He was grey-and-black all over, darker than Tantou's grey-and-amber coat. However, the most interesting features of his were a pair of red leather boots that went right up to his knee joints, and a brown felt hat with a long, plumy red feather.

"Oh. My. God." Koi stared at the cat, who stood on his hind legs and made an excellent bow. "You're Puss In Boots, aren't you?"

"Oui! Le Greffier dans Bottes!"

"Hautes bottes, to be exact." Iku had taken some French, and could understand some of what the cat was saying.

"Oui." Tanzel squinted at the girls affectionately.

"Dear brother, I would appreciate it if you didn't speak in French, and spoke in a language the majority here would understand.

"Of course, my darling sister." Tanzel was about to add more, when a voice (and a bunch of flames) exploded above their heads.

"Where is she!"

Tantou's tail puffed up. Tanzel simply glanced over at the source of the noise. He turned to Koi. "I would run if I were you. Some old crone's coming after you for kidnapping or something.

"How did she find out?" Koi whispered, mortified.

"You did kidnap somebody?" Tanzel asked, sounding interested.

"No…not really…"

"There you are!" Yubaba descended on the knot of people (and cats), and pointed at Koi. "You…You…You!"

"Me what?" Koi asked, and expression of friendly curiosity on her face

In reply, Yubaba picked the girl up by the back of her uniform, and carried her off.

"I suppose we should do something to help the poor girl." Iku noted heartlessly.

"Help her? I was thinking we should help Yubaba more. If Koi doesn't drive her insane by the time you leave…"

Koi ran into the room, laughing hysterically. "It worked! It worked!" she grabbed Fumi's hands and spun her around the room.

"What worked?" Iku leapt onto Fumi's shoulder and she spun past the window where she was standing, but missed her handhold, and was pulled off by centrifugal motion. Catching hold of the end of Fumi's braid, she climbed it like a ladder until she was able to hang onto her ear.

Koi let go of Fumi, and flopped on her bed. Iku went hurtling off of Fumi's ear and landed next to her at Fumi's abrupt stop.

"Haku's gone!" she cried, "Really! For good! Yubaba found a letter from him on her desk saying that no he was free, he was going back to the human world!"

"That's so sweet!" Fumi sat next to Koi. "How did she know it was you?"

"Well, I was the one who brought Chihiro back, wasn't I?" Koi shrugged. "I told her all."

"You didn't." Fumi was scandalized.

"Of course she did. What's the worst thing she can possibly do?" Iku shrugged, a mirror of her sister's movement.

The next morning, Fumi had an announcement to make. "I am going to talk to Arata." She said firmly.

"You are?" Koi looked quite as ecstatic as she had the night before.

"Yes." Fumi tucked a piece of paper behind her ear.

"Wonderful!" Iku did a little dance, then caught one of the ribbons hanging off of her friends sleeve. "I can hide behind our hair and give you comments."

Fumi nodded slowly. "With you as a reference, how can I go wrong?" she asked sarcastically.

"I resent that." Iku climbed up Fumi's arm like a rock climber, using her ribbons as a base.

"Excuse me." Fumi tapped Arata's shoulder. "I need to speak to you."

Arata turned around, and shuffled his feet, looking at the floor.

They both stood for a while completely silently. Behind Fumi's hair, Iku flopped down onto her shoulders in an anime fall, and groaned. "Oh my God."

"I-"

"Can-"

"You first." Fumi told Arata.

"No, you."

"No, you should."

"You started first."

Fumi sighed, and looked at the floor. She pulled a scrap of paper out of her pocket. The scrap of paper. Have special powers. "Can you tell me about this?"

Despite her despair over Fumi's romance situation, Iku's ears picked up.

Arata read it, and crumpled it up in his hand. "Where did you get this?"

"I-I" Fumi looked at the floor again.

"You two could make the world championships of 'Staring at Floor'. Tell him the truth." Iku whispered at her.

"The-the dustbunnies (SOOT BALLS, I know) brought it to…me" Fumi blushed. "I want it back."

"I have to show it to Akio." Arata met her eyes for the first time.

"Why? It's mine." Fumi glared at him, into the drowning depths of his sapphire eyes…she pulled herself out of her reverie. Her face achieved a matchless state of pink.

"I need to know what book it came out of." Arata was blushing too…almost.

'I don't know!" Fumi snapped, trying to take it out of his fist. She peeled his fingers back, but Arata caught her wrist. Iku sat on Fumi's shoulder and covered her eyes.

"Don't do anything stupid please, Fumi." She whispered. "This is really the perfect moment."

Fumi, shocked at hearing this, looked up. It was true; her face was about three inches from Arata's. She stood up quickly, dropping the paper.

"I-I'm sorry. Arata stammered, also dropping the paper. "I didn't…I…" he leaned close to her and kissed her gently, then turned and hurried off, leaving Fumi with her fingers pressed against her lips and her eyes lighting up.

"That was perfect." Iku sighed. "Absolutely perfect." she pulled on the ribbons wrapped around her friend's sleeve until it came untied and she could slide down to the floor. "Well?"

Fumi stared down the hallway.

"You're not going to be one of those girls who always moons over her boyfriend, are you?"

"What? No." Fumi snapped out of her trance and blinked rapidly for a few seconds.

"Sure." Iku nodded, looking and sounding like a worn out old grandmother. "Really."

"Koi! Koi!" Iku waved at her sister. "Just wait until you hear this!"

Fumi handed Iku to her sister and quickly walked out of the room.

"What is it?" Koi stared down at her sister in her palm.

Iku scrambled up her arm and started whispering in her ear.

"What? Really? Whoa." Koi laughed. "Does she like him?"

"Of course!" Iku would have said more, but Fumi came hurrying into the room.

"I just passed Lin!" she gasped. "Can you believe it?"

"Believe what?" Koi turned to the girl. "Say, Fumi-"

"Yubaba's holding a great feast! She's inviting the spirits of all the zodiac animals. The rat just arrived, that's how Lin knows!" Fumi couldn't stand still for more than a second.

"Really?" Iku jumped. "Where?"

"Over here!" Fumi skittered out of the room.

Nezumi looked around the hall, anywhere but at the evil witch in front of him. The hall was crowded with the bathhouse attendants, small, froggy-looking folk.

Yubaba clasped her hands in front of her chest. "Nezumi, if you need anything, you can just ask one of us! I hope you find your stay here enjoyable."

Towards the back there were two humans, both girls.

"Now, does anyone wish to show Nezumi around?" Yubaba stepped aside, and the hall became a bedlam of waving hands and shoving people. The rat was immediately trampled, people picking him up and snatching and grabbing him from one another.

"Ah! Ouch! Stop!" he gasped, and vanished in a flash.

Glossary: (For all those who don't speak French)

Oui: Show me someone who doesn't know this and I'll tell them.
Le Greffeir dans Bottes: Puss in Boots
Hautes Bottes: Hip boots

A/N: See! I do have a romance now! And just wait, there'll be more! Mua-ha-ha-ha!