I took a while to update, didn't I? Well, that's because I'm back at school now :( and this year is a much more important year than last year, which means that I have a lot more homework, which means less fanfiction…
Anyway, I'll only be able to update on weekends from now on. If you see no update then, that means next weekend.
Also, I don't know when the next chapter is going to come, because I haven't written it, and I've got very little time to go on the computer. Gee, school's annoying. So don't blame me if the next update is in a month or something. Don't get impatient either.
"Chihiro! Wake up, you're going to be late for school!" Her mother rapped on her door impatiently.
Chihiro mumbled something and snuggled deeper into her quilts. She did not want to get up, for today they had a test. It wasn't one of those really important ones, but it was a test all the same.
"Honey, you only have ten minutes left until the bus leaves! Don't expect me to drive you again!"
She heard her mother's footsteps retreat down the stairs.
Chihiro grumbled a bit more before dragging herself out of bed. She stumbled out into the corridor and headed to the bathroom. About two minutes later she stumbled back out, almost bumping into her father who was leaving for work. "Have a good day at school," was all he said, leaving Chihiro to think sourly, Sure.
Back in her room, she ran a comb through her hair, changed into her uniform and packed her school bag, all accomplished in five minutes. That's got to be a world record.
She then raced downstairs, grabbed her breakfast, said goodbye to her mother and shot out the door. Then she slowed down, content on leisurely walking to the bus stop so that she would have time to eat breakfast. But that satisfaction soon evaporated as she saw the bus about to leave. Crap! She sprinted full speed down the pathway, passing the houses in a whirlwind, almost making it…but a cat got in the way. It yowled at her indignantly before leaping over a high wall. Chihiro pouted a little, first staring at the top of the wall, then to the bus roaring around the corner towards school, then back at the wall. What now? she grumbled.
Finally she decided she might as well walk, because if she went home to ask her mum to drive her, she wouldn't be very pleased and would probably tell her how irresponsible she was all the way to school. Plus, she'd arrive on time for the test. However, if she came really late she'd miss it, and considering how absent-minded their teacher was, she most likely wouldn't have to do the test at all. Pleased with her reasoning, she proceeded to stroll to school.
As she walked past one of the quieter streets in town, she felt the hairs on her back prickle in warning. She stopped, listening for anything wrong while her eyes scanned the area. Seeing nothing unusual, she relaxed her guard and carried on. Then she stifled a scream. She thought she saw…was it a huge grey dog? Or maybe her eyes were playing tricks on her, but she was so sure she saw something just then. But it was gone, along with the prickling sensation from before. Taking a few steadying breaths, she immediately sprinted the rest of the way to school.
-
Ugh, stupid test, stupid test… She glanced sideways at the next table as inconspicuously as possible, trying to cheat – she had no choice. Then the teacher coughed and Chihiro almost jumped out of her skin. She averted her eyes back to her own table, staring at her paper until her eyes burned from the lack of blinking. She really didn't want to get caught; already she could imagine the endless tirade her parents would give her.
Then over in the corner, one of the students began to giggle. Slowly a chain reaction formed, and soon the whole class was giggling. Chihiro had stuffed her fist in her mouth to stop herself from laughing out loud as she exchanged looks with her friend Naruko across the room.
Their teacher glanced up at the class, irritated. The volume increased, and at last he slammed the newspaper down on the desk and thundered, "Get back to work!"
Naruko, being the class spokeswoman and clown, objected, "But sensei, there's a shadow behind you dancing on the wall…" She trailed off, erupting into another fit of giggles along with the other students.
The shadow seemed to be doing a kind of tap dance to some phantom music. The class roared with laughter, and it stuck its tongue out and waggled it. Suddenly the shadow came off the wall, like a dark, transparent bed sheet. It hovered over the teacher menacingly and dove, wrapping itself around him.
The laughter turned into screams of fear, and Chihiro rushed to get away from the shadow like everyone else. She caught up to Naruko, and hand in hand they ran down the corridor and out the door to the playground's furthest side. Only when they reached the boundary of the school did they stop.
Chihiro leant against the fence next to Naruko, panting hard and wondering what on earth that scary shadow-thing was. Suddenly her hyperactive friend giggled.
Chihiro stared at her, cocking her head to one side in question. But her laugh was infectious and soon they were both rolling on the ground, laughing hysterically at something neither of them knew. But it was fun.
When they finally got over it, Chihiro asked, "Hey, since our sensei's probably getting tortured by that thing –" She had to stop when they both started laughing again. Quite a while later she continued, tears streaming down her cheeks from laughing so much, "Do you want to come to my place? My parents are out."
"Ha, why should I?" Naruko asked, pushing Chihiro onto her back. "My house is empty too – oh wait, my mum's probably going to be home with my little brother…"
"See?" Chihiro yelled in her face. "C'mon, you're coming over!" She climbed over the fence and helped Naruko over. Then they both dashed down the street, almost getting run over by a car. But they laughed it off. After all, they were still young and naïve.
Their run to Chihiro's house slowly turned into a race as to who could get there first. Right now, Chihiro was far ahead, her long legs being put to good use. As she tore round a corner, her vision filled with a navy blue and suddenly she was knocked onto her back, staring up at the sky while the clouds drifted lazily by. "Ow…" She sat up and rubbed her head.
"Sorry!" exclaimed the person Chihiro had bumped into. Behind her she could hear Naruko's footsteps slowing down and finally stopping.
"It's all right," Chihiro said, still rubbing her painful head.
"Hey!" Naruko yelled, being the loudmouth as always. "Who are you guys? I haven't seen you around."
Finally Chihiro opened her eyes and pulled herself to her feet and stared at the newcomers. One of them was an older girl with straight brown hair, wearing a plain blue dress that reached to just above her knees with a white belt around her waist. The other was a boy with the most intense green eyes she had ever seen.
"Yeah, we're new around here," she replied. "Our parents tend to move a lot, so we don't know how long we'll be in this town. Do you live here?"
Naruko said loudly, "Yes! But you haven't answered my question: who are you?"
"My name's Rin, and he's Haku. And…" Rin turned to Haku, glaring daggers at him, "Oukami disappeared a while ago…"
He shrugged, still staring at Chihiro. She was starting to get unnerved by his steady gaze.
"I'm Naruko, and this is Chihiro."
Rin and Haku nodded politely.
"Are you siblings?" Naruko chirped.
"Uh…yeah." Rin glanced at Haku quickly, as if for conformation.
But Naruko didn't notice as she rambled on, "Do you want to come with us? We can play some games in the park or something."
Rin and Haku glanced at each other, and finally Haku said, "Oukami will find us later."
She agreed, "Okay."
Naruko talked non-stop about everything, giving Rin and Haku a pretty good picture of who they were. Rin also talked quite a bit, and by the time they reached the park, they were comfortable with each other.
"Hey," Chihiro said over Naruko's happy yells as she swung to and fro on the swing, "I'm having a sleepover next Saturday. Do you guys want to come?"
"Of course!" shouted Naruko.
"Sure," Haku said, sitting on a nearby bench.
"Can our brother Oukami come too?" Rin asked.
"Yep!" Chihiro said. "Cool, already four people are coming!"
-
Rin opened the door to their rented home. It was a dusty, rundown and very small, but it was liveable.
"Where did Oukami get to?" Rin asked, slamming the door after Kohaku. She could feel a headache coming on after Naruko's high volume of constant talking, and their decision to act younger than their age to fit in with Chihiro's friends left Rin in a very bad mood.
"Here." They both looked up and saw Oukami hovering near the ceiling, an instant noodle packet in each hand. Without warning, he threw both at them. Kohaku managed to duck while Rin was hit head-on. "Ow, what did you do that for?" Logically it shouldn't hurt much, but…Oukami must have done something to them.
"You need to eat, don't you?" He dropped to the floor lightly and went to the kitchen, Rin and Kohaku close behind.
"Where were you today?" Rin snapped.
"Playing tricks at the school."
Rin groaned, and she could've sworn the usually stoic Kohaku did too. "I told you…"
"Hey, it was just the shadow trick! All I did was make it dance on the wall during the test they had, and then…well, I had some fun with the sensei…"
"What kind of fun?"
"Uh…I wrapped my shadow around him?"
Rin sighed, exasperated. Her voice rose, "Stop harassing people!"
"The proper word is 'trick'."
"Just…" Rin gave up, "stop doing your 'tricks'!"
"Sure," he replied.
"Really?" asked Kohaku hopefully. He sounded sincere.
"Ah…" Oukami pretended to think it over. Then he grinned and said flatly, "No. Why was I called the Trickster anyway? You've got to live up to –" But he was interrupted by a very put-out Rin giving him a sharp cuff on the back of his head.
"That's a payback," Rin declared as Oukami flew up out of harm's way.
Oukami pouted childishly, then grinned, "I like you anyway."
Rin clenched her fists in annoyance while Oukami just smiled benignly. Then he turned to Haku and said, "I saw your human-girlfriend today."
"Her name's Chihiro, idiot," Rin hissed.
"Huh, whatever."
"It's Chihiro!" Rin yelled as she threw the noodle packet at him. Then she chased him all around the house, flinging odd objects in his direction while Kohaku laughed softly behind them at their antics.
-
Rin lay awake, silently contemplating the cracked ceiling above her. She was too on edge to sleep – they were in the human world, they had seen Chihiro, and they were going to her sleepover on Saturday. The question was, when were they going to tell her? And would she believe them or not?
Just then a quiet whisper rang through the silence. "…no, I didn't mean to…"
Rin jumped and twisted around to see Oukami tightly curled up on the floor in the faint moonlight, clutching his head as if it would break.
"You didn't mean to." The voice was contemptuous, unforgiving.
"I'd bring you back if I could."
"After everything I've taught you, you're capable of it, boy."
"I'm not that good," he whined.
There was a pause, and Rin strained to hear his next words.
"Liar."
Suddenly Oukami began to shake and thrash around at an unseen opponent, twisting on the floor while still clutching his head. Rin sat up, beginning to get worried.
Then he stopped, just as abruptly as he had started. His eyes were open now, unseeingly staring at the ceiling. He panted heavily as if he had just run several kilometres. Then Rin saw with shock that his normally purple eyes were dark red and angry. From his mouth the dark voice said, "I'll be waiting."
Oukami's eyes receded to their normal purple, and he lay utterly still for several minutes, cold sweat covering his skin. Rin didn't dare to move, she didn't want him to know that she was watching him.
At last Oukami sat up. He stared out the window at the half-moon hanging in the night sky and curled up into a ball, his chin up to his knees. Slowly, quietly, Rin lay back down and shut her eyes, listening to Oukami repeat over and over again, "Why me?"
So, watcha think? I know it isn't the best chapter since I didn't have time to do a proper edit, but…hey, it's pretty long!
Oh yeah, lots of people have been putting me on their author alert list. 25 people, actually. So, if you are reading this story, please review because I don't know how many people are actually reading this. Besides, it'll keep me from getting a mental breakdown because of school. So, review!
Reposted 22/11/05 to remove review responses