-Catgirl-of-Bavaria-: Sorry again it took me so long to get this story updated lately. Like I said, new story, birthday party, and now a new, very meanboss in my FMA video game consume my life. Not to mention my dad is trying to get me into studying for my drivers license, correspondence classes, and let's not forget… Bible studies. –Shudders- Organized religion is just not for me, I'm sorry…Anyway, enough of my crappy life story, onward to Chihiro's and Haku's! (Even though Haku isn't in this one…whoops..) Gomen!
Chapter 17— Advantage
Chihiro and Shizuka were working the wooden floors, cleaning them with wet rags. Chihiro had finally mastered the ability to actually run the rag over the floor, a feat she had never been able to do when she was first a worker of the bath house.
It was only the two human girls cleaning the wide floor, by the orders of Yubaba. Usually, the girls would be accompanied by other young girl spirits, but Yubaba had, unsurprisingly, set them to the hardest work she could find for them.
Shizuka seemed to be having the same trouble with the chore as Chihiro once did, sending the watching worker spirits to cackle under their hands at the new and clumsy looking human.
Chihiro ran past them, scooting the wash rag over the gleaming floor.
"Don't you guys have some sort of work to do?" She retorted to them, casting a quick look of disapproval for the teasing of her friend.
The workers, however enthralled and amused by the fumbling human girl called Izu, were just as quick to take an order from their "savior" Sen. With busied murmurs and nervous laughter, the crowd that had gathered dissipated, leaving Shizuka and Chihiro to clean the floor in peace.
Chihiro, having watched the last frogs and slugs disappear to their own chores, sat down heavily on the gleaming floor with a sigh. Looking with malice at the rag in her hand, she threw it at the wooden planks beneath her.
How had this happened? She was there, in the spirit world, reunited with the young man of her dreams at last, his face and name once more in their rightful spot in her heart. And yet, here she was. Still torn from him. So close, and yet so far.
With her head resting in her dirty hand, her mind wondered briefly if Haku had awoken yet.
"Thanks for that, Chihiro…" Shizuka crawled over to her friend, catching her breath.
Chihiro lifted her head at the mention of her name. She was forgetting it, again…
"Chihiro…Ah, dammit, I'm losing my name!" She hissed, running her hands through her bangs and silently cursing Yubaba.
Shizuka looked, wide-eyed at Chihiro.
"Well, I still have it, right? That way you'll never forget it," She suggested. "And you have mine, so…"
"So we'll look after each others names for each other." Chihiro suddenly smiled, realizing this advantage over the witch who stole their names to begin with.
"Shizuka!" She playfully poked her friend in the side, reciting her name.
"Chihiro!" Shizuka responded with a giggle, matching her friend a poke.
"Um, I hate to break up the party," a voice said above them. The girls looked up to see Rin, standing above them, trying to stifle her smile and be serious. "But we've got work to do!" With that, she yanked them both up by their wrists. She took Chihiro to just inches from her face.
"Se- I mean, Chihiro, I'm going to—" Rin began in a whisper, before she was interrupted by one of the higher ranking frogs butting in.
"Rin! You and your humans are on the big tub today!" He threw a quick look at the two human girls, the quiet Shizuka in particular. "We have a big guest coming, so I suggest you get to work!" The frog commanded of her.
"Hey, wha--! Me and Haku cleaned that just a couple of days ago!" Rin called angrily after the frog who was carrying on, no doubt to deliver chore assignments to the other workers.
"Well, it's dirty again; we do have many guests every day, Rin!" The frog waved his three fingered hand indifferently in the air without looking back at them. "Orders from the top!"
"Grrr..I swear, that woman has it in for me!" Rin fumed beneath her breath. "Well, no use complaining, I guess…" She continued with a hopeless sigh, rolling up her pink sleeves and tying them back with the white ribbon on her back.
For a brief moment she had a would-be amusing thought of Yubaba sending deals and bargains to the biggest and dirtiest spirits, just to make Rin's job a harder one.
Chihiro and Shizuka exchanged nervous glances.
"Um, you were about to say something to me?" Chihiro asked nervously, approaching the still fuming Rin cautiously.
Hearing the girl behind, her, Rin spun around, remembering the few seconds before the frog condemned her once again to the dirtiest tub in the place.
"Oh yeah!" She suddenly bore a smile that she saved for the human girls she'd come to adopt as sisters. She grasped Chihiros wrist gently, and pulled her close.
"It's just about time to give Kamaji and the soot balls their food…Normally I do it, but I'm going to let you do go down there…and see how things are." She hinted at Haku in a hushed voice.
"Oh! Ok, thank you, Rin," Chihiro nodded, quickly understanding.
"I'll take Izu to the big tub and show her the ropes, and you go to the kitchens." Rin instructed Chihiro. "Just tell them that you're going to feed Kamaji, they'll give you his food and the soot ball candies. If you have to, tell them that I sent you, they'll surely give the food to you then."
Chihiro gave a quick nod, and turned to Shizuka.
"Stay with Rin, she's a good teacher," Chihiro told her friend cheerfully. Shizuka nodded, her small black ponytail bobbing behind her head. "Right, Thanks, Rin, I'll be quick!" Chihiro ran towards the kitchen, waving to her friends.
Chihiro wondered through a corridor, calling to her memory the location of the kitchens. She'd been through them once with Haku, another time when she was running from No-Face.
On her journey, she spied many a familiar patron of the baths, including the snow-colored radish spirit. He gurgled low, but friendly as she walked by, the little whiskers at his mouth wriggling animatedly. She bowed respectfully to him as she passed, laughing inwardly at herself at the thought that she'd been frightened of the jovial spirit the first time she had seen him.
Catching a glint at her right wrist, she looked fondly at the silver bracelet that bore a dragon of Haku's exact resemblance. She smiled down at it, proud of herself for making such a rare find, and wiped the water spots from the face with her pink sleeve. She made a note to engrave Haku's true name on it once she had the chance.
She suddenly felt herself walk into a wall of a frog, knocking her backwards and off her feet. Looking up awkwardly, she saw the frog was wearing the face mask that the cooks wore, and carrying a tray full of onigiri.
"Look where you're going, Human!" He growled, setting the tray down on a counter just next to her. "What are you doing in the kitchens, anyway?" He demanded, looming over her and casting her into shadow.
"Erm…" Chihiro stammered, nervous and embarrassed. "I-I need to feed Kamaji! Could you please get me his food, please?" She vaguely noticed her fingers fiddling with each other as she stared up at the frog.
"You're feeding Kamaji, eh?" He said suspiciously. "Shouldn't you be working on the tubs or something?"
"Please, Rin sent me to feed him! She's busy training the new human!" Chihiro blurted out in a shaky voice that she recognized from when she was first asking for a job. It seemed strange now, for her sixteen year-old self to be so articulate.
The frog glared down at her, possibly contemplating her honesty. With a disgruntled sigh, he turned on his heel.
"Stay here, Human." He commanded. Chihiro stood nervously, but did as she was told.
Her eyes wondered to the onigiri to her right. Looking again at her silver "Kohaku" bracelet, she remembered Haku.
"He's probably hungry as well…" she murmured to herself, remembering that it'd probably been a while since he'd eaten something, with all of the rest to regain his strength.
Her glance shifted again to the onigiri. There were many of them; the frog may well not miss one…
With a deep blush, she realized she'd been contemplating stealing food straight from the kitchen, from the frog that was nearly twice as large as her and already angry with her running into him.
"Still," Chihiro told herself, glancing around at the surrounding hallway. It was empty, for the time being. If she was going to do this, it had to be now. "Haku needs to eat something. He sacrificed his onigiri yesterday to help Shizuka…"
She gave the room another quick scan, and hurriedly snatched an onigiri and stuffed it into her breast pocket. A split second later, she heard the deep thuds that were approaching, recognizing it easily as the frog who had interrogated her. Nervously smoothing her uniform, she feared briefly that the rice cake in her shirt would form a noticeable bulge.
He held a bowl of white rice, complete with chopsticks, and the basket she remembered Rin carrying, full of little star-shaped candies for the soot balls.
"Here's his food, now get lost!" The frog grumbled above her as he handed her the food roughly, nearly spilling the top of the mound of rice.
"Thank you, sir!" Chihiro bowed low, and ran off in the other direction, wondering if he'd noticed the missing onigiri.
Her heart still pounding, she reached the final lift that would take her down to the boiler room and the river spirit.