Aha! Everyone, I'm BACK! Well…sort of. I have exams next week. Anyone heard of the School Certificate that Yr 10 people in Australia have? Well, that will be on next week Monday and Tuesday. I should be studying.

Anyway, this is a MASSIVE chapter, if you would look at the scroll bar! (nods happily!) It's a treat from me (at least I think so) since I hardly ever update now. I wrote it in parts over a period of something like, two months, so… I don't know what the outcome is going to be like, but in any case, happy reading!

Chapter 17: Unmasked

The silence that met Rin's ears was as deafening as the earthquake outside. But that wasn't all. As far as she could tell, her feet were not on the floor, so she was probably floating. On top of that it was pitch black and she couldn't hear a thing, not even herself. "Hello?" she shouted, but it was wasted breath. She might as well have been mouthing those words.

Suddenly it was like somebody flicked the light switch on in a dark room. Rin blinked, taking in her surroundings. Everything around her was grey. Different shades of grey that swirled and eddied in random directions. The light by which she could see seemed to be coming from everywhere and nowhere at once. To her right stood Kohaku and Chihiro, and Rin began to run over to them.

But she didn't seem to be moving. No matter how hard she ran, she always seemed to be running on the same spot. And like before, there was no ground to stand on, she could only float. She was glad it wasn't making her nauseous. "Geez, what is this place?" she muttered in annoyance as she attempted to get to Kohaku and Chihiro's side again.

"Running doesn't work."

"Wha...?" Rin spun around quickly, only to find Oukami. "Oh, it's just you."

Surprisingly, he let that slide. "You have to fly."

"Fly?" she repeated uncomprehendingly.

"Lean forward and you'll get the idea. Go over to Haku, I have to take care of something." With that he flew off. To Rin it looked more like floating, like he was a puppet on strings. Her eyes followed him to a round, black circle with edges the crackled like fire. It seemed to be just hovering there amidst the swirling grey. She watched him as he began to concentrate, his hands making some kind of seal, before she turned away and began to master the art of float-flying, as she now thought of it.

It was slow progress, but Rin found that if she moved her arms a bit she would go faster. Soon she found the whole process fun, even exhilarating. But that feeling evaporated when she noticed Chihiro and Kohaku trying to stifle their laughs. Were they laughing at her?

"What?" she glared when she reached them. "What's so funny?"

"You," Chihiro said between giggles. "You looked like you were swimming."

Rin frowned and crossed her arms. "Oh shut up."

Suddenly a brilliant flash of light blinded them and Rin distinctly felt herself being pulled into a vortex of air. She tried to scream but nothing came out. Just as suddenly as it came the feeling stopped, and she could see again. The portal was gone; once again everything was swirling grey. She looked over at Chihiro and Kohaku, the latter having an unfamiliar expression of disbelief and awe. "What?" she asked.

He shook his head, saying, "Do you know how much energy that took? Shutting a portal in a normal plane is hard enough, in this place between worlds it's even harder, and on top of that he had to hold this illusion of swirling grey, enable us to breathe normally, and hear and see each other. If we didn't have this illusion we'd all have gone crazy because we wouldn't have had anything to pinpoint our location. Can you imagine that, existing in nothing?"

They both looked at him, the enormity of the task impacting them and stunning them to silence. As one they all realised how much they owed Oukami, aka trickster and demon.

"Well, that's that." Oukami had come up behind them, looking worse for wear than ever. His face was pale and there were dark circles under his dull eyes. He looked as if he would keel over and sleep for days.

"Are you all right?" Chihiro asked worriedly.

He waved off her concerns, attempting a light-hearted smile that suddenly turned into a hacking cough. His eyes watered as the burning feeling from his lungs intensified; somewhere in the back of his mind he wondered why he hadn't noticed it before. At last the coughing subsided, and he looked up at the three of them standing around him awkwardly, uncertain of what to do. He didn't blame them; he hadn't felt so drained of energy in a long time. He rubbed his chest, easing the burning pain a little. "Poison gas," he explained, shocked at how hoarse his voice was. He fought back down what seemed to be another bout of coughing, not wanting to worry them too much. "Let's go," he managed to force out. He beckoned them to follow.

There was a strange whoosh and they were suddenly all whisked off to another place. Rin still recognised it as the 'between worlds' place, but with a difference. There was a frosted glass-like platform as thin as paper, and around it was a protective barrier invisible to the eye but she could clearly feel it when she passed through. Atop the platform was a cluster of odd, mountain-like piles. As Rin looked closer, the piles, haphazardly scattered around the platform, were actually the strangest collection of objects she had ever seen. Priceless treasures were mixed in with useless items that were similar to what was found in Aburaya's rubbish tip.

"My junk," Oukami gestured around. "Bath over there," he pointed straight at one of the numerous piles, "and I'll see you later." Then he disappeared behind another taller pile.

The other three exchanged looks, and Chihiro asked, concern in her voice, "Do you think he's okay?"

"I'm sure he will be," Kohaku replied, though his eyes betrayed concern as well.

They set about finding the bath, which actually didn't turn out to be that hard. It was out of place and in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by the piles of junk. There was a large hoop that hovered (probably by magic) over the bath with a shower curtain hanging off it to provide adequate privacy. When they looked in, the tub was already filled with steamy herbal water. There were no taps to be seen.

"So where does the water come from?" Rin asked. She had never seen anything like it; even the bathhouse had taps – a basic necessity.

"I suppose we'll figure it out eventually," Chihiro replied, though she was as bewildered as Rin.

At both Kohaku and Rin's urging, Chihiro took the first bath. Kohaku reasoned that since she was the least dusty out of them all, it wouldn't make sense to let her go last because by then the water would be so dirty that Chihiro would end up being dirtier than before.

Much to their amazement later on, they found the water to be just as crystalline as before, like it had never been used.

"I could drink from this," Rin declared, dipping a finger in, "if it wasn't this herbal stuff."

The water misted over for a moment, then cleared into cool, fresh water. Rin blinked and sniffed the water carefully. She couldn't detect the herb smell anymore except for traces of it still lingering in the air. "Wow," she murmured.

They had found clean clothes laid out for them, which they all gladly exchanged for their dusty ones. Afterwards they spent their time exploring, not knowing what else to do. They had found a box filled with dumplings and other random objects. Since that was the only food they had seen, they each took one. As they were munching away hungrily, Kohaku realised, "This is where Oukami gets his stuff! Remember, Rin? When he pulled out one of these dumplings out of thin air? He was actually reaching through a portal to here." He reached upwards towards the grey, groping blindly until suddenly his hand disappeared. "It's only a small tear, but it's big enough." His excitement and amazement were equally reflected in Chihiro and Rin, and together they experimented with the tiny portal.

"Where does it lead to?" Chihiro asked, wiggling her fingers in the hole.

Rin shrugged, and Kohaku said, "I think it's one of those things we'll never understand."

Later on, it was Chihiro who brought up the question, "How long are we going to stay here?"

"And what are we going to do once we get back to the spirit world?" Rin added.

They both turned to Kohaku, who looked uncertain for a moment before he said, "Chihiro, you'll be staying with us in the spirit world, right?"

She nodded firmly, and Kohaku continued, "According to the laws we have, you're not allowed to stay permanently unless you have permission."

Rin's eyes narrowed. "Those five oh-so-important spirits?"

He nodded, "That's the problem."

"What?" asked Chihiro, confused.

Rin elaborated, "They're old-fashioned, conservative, conceited and old, with a one-track way of thinking. Because there has never been a human who wants to stay – be proud, you're the first –" Rin patted her shoulder, "they won't take the idea easily. And they'll be doubly annoyed since Kohaku managed to regain all his memories about you, as well as opening the portal without their permission and so on."

"Oh yeah," she said, recalling the events Kohaku had told them at the boiler room back at Aburaya. It seemed so long ago.

"But we'll convince them, don't worry!" A big, confident grin spread across Rin's face and Chihiro couldn't help but smile.

Rin rolled over for the hundredth time, realising that finding a comfortable position was near impossible. She looked over to Kohaku and Chihiro; they slept close together, almost touching but not quite. Rin would have found that amusing – something to tease them about – but right now she didn't care. She desperately wanted to go to sleep, but she couldn't.

They had found this secluded place earlier, junk-piles surrounding them on three sides (it was the best they could get) and after clearing out the litter for an empty space, they settled down to sleep. Both Kohaku and Chihiro fell asleep in a matter of minutes, leaving her to count sheep and glare at the piles of junk and the swirling grey above her. It was not fun.

During all this time, from looking for Oukami right up to now, she hadn't had time to have a good think to herself. She remembered that she had followed Kohaku in hopes of finding Oukami so that he might help her remember her name. But that purpose was lost long ago amidst all the adventure they had. Now she just wished to see Chihiro and Haku safely together first before worrying about herself.

She rolled over, again. What was her real name anyway? She had spent ages trying to rack her memory for it at the bathhouse, mainly when she was first employed, and just after Haku had left. Chihiro was probably the first worker to have been freed from Yubaba's greedy clutches, and hopefully not the last. Who would have known that one human would have made such a difference to all their lives? Once the word had got out amongst the bathhouse workers that two people had managed to get their name back and leave Yubaba, everyone, she included, had tried their hardest to get theirs too. Some even went as far to ask Yubaba straight out, which was a stupid thing to do for when they did they always came back downstairs demoted to the lowest of the lowest of workers. Though – here she smiled to herself – no one could be as stupid as her, running away and ending up in several life-threatening situations.

And of course, there was that incident at the inn at Kagemori, where they had first met Oukami and they had played that card game. The strange grey shades surrounding people, which had somehow enabled her to surprise him by coming close to winning. Speaking of Oukami…she thought back to when they were in the human world, and what she had witnessed that night the three of them slept for the first time under the same roof. She pondered this for a moment, wildly guessing what that whole incident was about. Something clearly scared him that night, and with Oukami being Oukami, whatever scared him like that was probably enough to scare the living daylights out of anyone else.

He was a puzzle, really. Often the most unassuming people would be the most surprising, she realised. Sometimes their actions would not immediately communicate into words of explanation as to why they did it. Like Chihiro saving Haku. From what she knew, Chihiro had no idea who Haku really was at the time, and yet, she still helped him. And also…why did Oukami save her from getting hit by that fire disc? She really couldn't figure that one out. Unless… Did he actually care?

With so much on her mind; it was no wonder that she couldn't sleep.

She turned over once again and began to clear her mind when a cry shattered the silence. Rin sat bolt upright. It was not a loud cry – neither Haku nor Chihiro had woken – but it was a cry tainted with fear that penetrated her. With only one other person in this place, there was no doubt about who it was.

Rin clambered to her feet and hurried in the direction of the sound, the incident that night in the human world still fresh in her mind. Rounding the bend, she caught sight of Oukami and slowed down, suddenly feeling out of place. Violet eyes blankly stared into space, and Rin hesitantly called, "Oukami?"

She approached cautiously, as if treading on thin ice. Oukami was absolutely still, eyes unfocused and completely oblivious to his surroundings. She took a few more steps when abruptly he snapped out of his trance. Aware of her in an instant, his posture shifted ever so slightly to defensive and his eyes flashed to a hard glare. Rin inadvertently took a step back. "I – I'm sorry…!" she stuttered, backing away further. "I'll just…"

"What are you doing here?" Oukami demanded. His voice shook with anger, partly at her and partly at himself for being so careless to be caught unaware like this.

"Nothing!" Rin said quickly. "I mean, I heard you and I kinda came to check…" she was babbling and she knew it.

"You heard me?" Panic began to seep into his voice, though Rin did not notice, flustered as she was for being caught in this uncomfortable situation.

"You cried out, that's all, but…but I thought you might be…you know, like that night when we were in the human world and you were talking to someone else in your sleep and –"

"That night?" Dread took hold of him and he launched to his feet. "What did you hear?" When she didn't answer immediately, he repeated, biting off every syllable in fury, "What did you hear?"

Taken aback by his unexpected ferocity, she stammered out, "I…well nothing much…" Violet eyes flashed dangerously; Rin gulped and forced herself to continue, "You were talking to someone and…oh, I don't know! You did something terrible to him I think – he was really angry with you, and when you opened your eyes they were red…"

Oukami growled, forcing simmering rage beneath the surface with effort and between clenched teeth he said, "Never, never, repeat what you said to anybody, or else." He left the threat hanging ominously before sinking to the ground, all his energy drained.

Rin stood frozen for a moment, completely shocked. She felt her heartbeat return to normal before she quietly turned to leave, when two soft words stopped her. "I'm sorry."

She turned. Oukami had his knees tucked under his chin, staring at the ground. He was talking, so quietly she could hardly hear him. "What?" Rin asked in confusion.

"…why am I so stupid?" he asked rhetorically. "I shouldn't have gotten angry with you. Damn it, you're probably scared of me now." He laughed derisively.

Rin blinked, then said, "No, of course not."

He continued on unheedingly, "But whatever. Why, why do I even care?" He sighed. "I'm the biggest idiot in the whole damn world."

Rin crouched down in front of him, and with a sudden, swift movement she hit him on the head. Hard.

"Ow!" he yelped, falling backwards. "What was that for?" Tenderly he touched the bump on his head, glaring as he did so.

"Just knocking some sense back into you – you deserve it," she retorted. "You have some seriously major issues, wolf-boy. Why should I be scared of you? I don't even know who you were talking to anyway. All it sounded like was some guy with a deep dark voice, so what?"

"He's not exactly 'some guy with a deep dark voice'," Oukami corrected.

"Then who is he? He can't be much worse than you."

"Well…uh, he's actually Tanuki-sensei." Oukami looked distinctly uncomfortable.

Rin's eyes widened. "You mean…the Tanuki?" When Oukami nodded, she backed away. Everyone knew of the infamous monster demon, so powerful that he could have taken on all five Great spirits with ease if he wanted to, and to think… "Is he in you?" Rin asked fearfully.

Oukami laughed outright at that. "Hell no, I'd go insane if he was."

"Then…?" Rin left the question hanging in the air.

He swallowed his pride, feeling that he owed her an explanation. "They're just dreams. Nightmares…whatever." He looked away. "Every time I fall asleep… It's always the same dream, I watch myself kill him again and again, and he's never stopped asking me to bring him back to life."

"But you killed him," Rin paused, taking time to absorb that incredible fact, "so how come his voice keeps coming through you? And it's been what? A thousand years since then?"

"More than that, but his spirit still isn't weakened."

"And…and you've been having this same dream for over a thousand years?"

"It isn't so bad," he said with forced cheerfulness. "If you don't sleep you won't dream."

Rin had no answer to that. Then she remembered, "Did you say 'sensei'?"

Oukami nodded, still grinning for all his worth.

"How did that happen?" she asked curiously.

"I wanted to learn to fly. He just happened to be around."

"Then why'd you kill him?"

"Because. Just because."

Rin glared daggers, and Oukami defensively elaborated, "Demons like to kill each other, you know?"

"But you're a wolf spirit," she objected.

"But when you learn from a demon, you pick things up, yeah?" He nodded. "And now my question – why weren't you sleeping?"

"What? I… I was!" Rin protested. She didn't want him thinking that she was worried about him, did she?

"No you weren't. If you were asleep and I woke you up, then that dragon and his human would have woken too. But since you're the only one here, it proves that you were awake when you heard me. Besides, you're a heavy sleeper."

"Am not!" She glowered down on him.

Oukami snorted disbelievingly, then asked straight to the point, "What's on your mind?"

"Uh…" She stopped, trying to weigh all her questions and worries to see which was the most important. But the task proved impossible, so she finally blurted out everything. "Why did you protect me from Yubaba's fire disc? What's my real name? And at Kagemori, when we were playing Cheat, I could kind of see a greyish shadow around everyone…what's that?" She took a deep breath after saying all that without pausing.

Oukami considered for a moment, then said, "For your second question, I can't help you. You're going to have to remember that yourself, or try and get Big-nose to tell you." Rin opened her mouth to object but he kept going. "Your third question; I've met someone who has that same ability – to see through lies. So that's why you suddenly became so good at that game," he mused.

"So I can tell when people are lying?" She looked delighted at the prospect.

"Apparently."

"That's cool." Immediately she began to think of the possibilities, and decided that she had better start practising.

"And for your first question…" Rin snapped to attention. "Well…I don't know," he admitted, frowning in concentration. "I just did it. It seemed like the right thing to do."

"But you got hurt because of me!" Rin protested, suddenly noticing his charred clothes that stuck to his skin.

Oukami had a disgruntled look on his face. "Yes, it's all your fault. Heh, I don't even know why I saved you," he said scathingly.

Rin fired up. "I don't even know why I care about –!" She abruptly stopped and mentally slapped herself. Quickly she glanced at Oukami who was thankfully paying no attention to her while using magic to unstick his clothes from his skin. She relaxed ever so slightly.

"Well…goodnight," Rin said after a moment of uncomfortable silence.

It was only after she had disappeared round the bend did Oukami let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding.

Well now! I hope this chapter worked out okay. I spent AGES working on the part with Rin and Oukami over the holidays! (which was three weeks ago.) I think this is the longest I spent on a chapter. It was one of those chapters where you have to spend time checking for plot holes and either patching them up or going "uh-oh".

Thank you for everyone who reviewed!

Oh yeah. Review please? I'd like to know how my hard work went!

Reposted 22/11/05 to remove review responses