Heart's Trust

"What's going on down here?" inquired Lin as she came down the stairs to where the gang had been meeting, "I haven't heard such a commotion from you girls since the day that Kira got herself trapped in the laundry chute. And I still don't understand how she managed that." At the mention of her most embarrassing moment, Kira began to laugh louder than she'd ever done before. The others just sighed. Why did they have to deal with a crazy Animal Spirit who never wanted to grow up at all?

"Lin! You'll never guess what! The new girl who came here with Hana and her crew is Chihiro; Sen! She's been alive and in suspended animation for a thousand years!" exclaimed Haku. And when Haku is excited, then it must be something amazing; or at least that's what Lin thought since he had always been serious and ever since Sen had vanished he'd become extremely dour. She walked down the final few steps and saw the group together. Well, that explained why the girl looked just like Sen.

Lin embraced Chihiro and said, "You had us all so worried! I'm just happy to find you're ok now. And I finally know your real name too. Well, now we can all get out of the funk that's been clouding over the bathhouse for the past millennium; so many people were sad to hear you had been killed by some unknown assailant. Haku mentioned some oddities about the situation, but we never though of Inferno."

Ayame harrumphed off on the side. "You should always think of Inferno first if it's a missing girl and Spirits seem to be involved. I wasn't surprised to hear that he went gunning for a human this time. He's become increasingly frustrated with the fact that we Spirits don't take his little games lying down."

"Don't blame them," scolded Hana, "I mean I had no idea that there was a way to turn a human into a Spirit. That's why the thought never crossed my mind; he would be impatient with an aging mortal bride more so than a restless Spirit one. So nobody would possibly believe he could be after a human."

"It's a secret Shadow art he stole from my clan when he abducted me. That's why Inferno could turn a human into a Spirit. The ancient magic was used in ceremonies when the ancient cultures would sacrifice young virgins to whatever deity they believed in. We Shadow Spirits would transform the girl as her soul passed on so that she could live in another reality. Not used much anymore though," she replied.

Yume inquired, "If you knew that Ayame, then why didn't you tell us about the spell long ago? We could have alerted the Great Spirits that Inferno the chauvinistic Volcano Spirit knew how to turn a mortal girl into a Spirit. They've only not made a move to stop him because the Spirits are able to escape with ease since their clans have always protected them. But humans like Chihiro don't have that crutch."

Ayame turned away in disgust. "I never thought he'd try it, that's why. Thought he'd bee too intent on the quick and easy way out that he wouldn't think of it. But Inferno has proven me wrong and I guess my mistake cost a lot of grief for many humans and Spirits alike. We can remedy that now though."

"If anything," Kaze retorted, "We should go in there and rip his head off right away! Inferno won't give up; he'll take this as a sign that he needs to beef up security and find other ways of keeping his castle from the view of altruistic Spirits. Then, he's just going to abduct another mortal girl and try the same game as he did with Chihiro. You know that I'm right; he doesn't stop until he gets what he wants."

"Unfortunately, he still wants all of us. Even catching one of his runaway brides would satisfy his lustful soul. We must be on our guard. Kaze, you act like you know it all, but you speak before you think. We should appeal to a higher power than we have between us six and get help," Hana told her friend.

Chihiro asked, "But where are we going to find a higher power willing to fight Inferno? They say that you never see the Great Spirits. Should we just wait around here and hope and pray that one decides to visit the bathhouse? Or is there someone else we can more easily access to protect us all?"

At that moment, a very annoyed Yubaba came down the stairs. She'd heard more yelling in the short span of an hour than she'd heard in her many years as the manager of the bathhouse. "What in the world is going on with you girls? Not only does Inferno wreck my bathhouse and scare off my customers once again, but now you are all making a commotion and it hurts my ears. Not even when your younger two girls have arguments do you get this loud. You're lucky I don't try and hurt my paying customers."

"I think we just found our help," muttered Haku, "She'll do anything to get Inferno off of her back and somewhere far away. Every time he comes to complain, there's a major disaster and she's in a bad mood for the rest of the week. I hated those times when I used to work here; they were plain miserable."

"Oh mighty Yubaba! We need help dealing with Inferno once and for all. No longer do we wish to hide away and live our lives in fear. We former brides wish to be free at last! And we've long heard of how powerful you really are. How about it? Can we join forces to fight against this common enemy?" Hana spoke; Kaze and Kira rolling their eyes at how painfully sickening the entire speech was. But Hana was a master of words. She knew just how to sell a conversation to anybody; they'd believe anything.

Yubaba replied, "If it will stop him from destroying my property, then I'll do it! And I'll go and ask my sister to help out too; she's good for some things when you think about it." Then, without even looking back to see what else was going on, she went back upstairs. Kira and Kaze burst into a round of giggles.

Chihiro looked to Haku. "You know, she forgot all about the reason that she came down to yell at us in the first place. And we didn't even get to tell the story. I guess we'll just have to explain everything when Zeniba comes to join the fun. If Yubaba can't convince her to help, then I'm sure she'd listen to the rest of us. After all, she's been nice to us in the past and she was probably really worried about me."

"She was," Haku told her, "When I said how you'd disappeared, I thought she was about to cry; and we know that Zeniba isn't one to cry. You were like a granddaughter to her and she felt that she'd let down her own relative. But don't worry. I'm going to stay by you now; nobody is going to hurt you again."

They looked directly at one another; staring into the eyes of the one that they had longed for all of these years. "So…are you two going to kiss or what?" inquired Kira, giggling at the same time. Both Haku and Chihiro began blushing. At that moment, both Hana and Ayame pulled her away as Kaze and Yume walked on their own. Lin smiled as she too left. Best to let them have some time alone now.

Teefa's Last Words...

Well, they've just got to get things together. Then there can be a showdown. Don't know how exactly I'll work it as of now. I always just go with the flow based on a general idea. That way, I can be flexible.