Written Rivers

A Home Amongst Rivers

Chapter 21: A Home for the River Spirit

Over the next several weeks, Chihiro quit her job at the bath house and started her new job as a historian at the Osaka Museum of History. She worked mostly with the children, teaching them history and doing tours of the museum. She enjoyed what she did, she got to share her knowledge on a fundamental level with the next generation who would one day take care of the world they lived in. It also put her foot in the door for possible job opportunities in the future. Whatever that partialed.

Over the course of those several weeks, however, Chihiro also come to terms with Yuuka's illusions. If someone had told her the same thing two months ago or maybe even the week of her return to the Spirit World, she would have handled it a lot differently. She may have returned to the state she'd been in when she was younger. But what good would that have done? She was alive now and a different person than her past. Just because someone tells you that you were adopted, doesn't change the person you are or how you got there, just how you remember it. It gave perspective on her life, it told her that her past wasn't her identity. But there were still parts of her that felt the pain of her childhood, still old habits and triggers that brought about the anxiety that still plagued her mind.

Rumi seemed to be adjusting as well. Yuuka was still around the apartment but remained in the shadows most of the time because she didn't have an anchor to protect her from being banished by the sun every morning. The two of them were on speaking terms again, however, Rumi was still a bit stand offish. One morning she talked with Chihiro about her time with Yuuka.

"Y'know something, Chi-Chan…" Rumi had said, looking off into the distance.

Chihiro simply hummed in response as she sipped her tea over the breakfast table.

"For as long as I've known Yuuka, I've always felt this sense of longing and loneliness." She grimaced. "It didn't occur to me until we went to Zeniba-San's did that feeling make sense. It wasn't just me feeling that way, it was Yuuka. She longed for a family, it's why she was attracted to the accident the day my family died. She wanted to know what it was like to have a real family. She didn't want to see me lose that family…"

Chihiro bit her lip. It did explain Yuuka and Rumi's behavior. "What happened to her? Where we were at Oba-San's, you left the room…"

Rumi sighed. "When she was talking about her father. I happened to get a peek at her memories of him." She shuddered. "He was so cruel, Chi-Chan… He abused her and denounced her. Then the tengu that served her father 'punished' her for her mere existence. That was when she was found by Zeniba-San and she took her as her own. Even though she had Zeniba-San this whole time, she's been trying to fill that family shaped hole."

The girls sat in silence, soaking in the information. Chihiro drummed her mug softly. "Does that mean you're any closer to forgiving her?"

Rumi stared into her cup of tea. "I don't know, Chi… I don't even know if forgiveness would cover all this up…"

Chihiro nodded in response and traced her finger on top of her mug. It saddened her that her friend was going through so much. It all seemed unfair, it almost felt like it was her fault that Rumi had gotten involved. But if she said that out loud, Rumi would immediately refute it, so she kept it to herself.

Now, Chihiro found herself driving to a place she used to visit as a child. She had had to ask her mother where it was, getting confused looks from her when she said she wanted to visit it. It was a small town they used to visit in the middle of nowhere in particular, but it was the start of something bigger that happened in her life.

When she arrived, Chihiro wandered the streets of the city with buildings that still looked new. The building she was looking for would be at the edge of town, with a park nearby and an empty riverbed. She turned a corner and found a bridge that led to a park, with a filled in river that led underneath the large apartment complex beside her. This was it. This was what she was looking for.

She walked across the bridge and peered over the edge at the dirt and grass below. No sign of a river or trace of water. She frowned and continued across the bridge and into the part. It was a simple play ground that stood on part of what once was the river, the bridge acting as an entrance and a small forest surrounding the border of the park.

A small family of four was playing at the park, pushing two children on the swings, squealing as the went high in the air and came back down again. Chihiro couldn't help but smile. When was last there, there was only the river, no park. And as much as it was sad that the river was gone, she was sure Haku would be happy to know humans still smiled upon his land.

She decided to wander towards the forest. She didn't know why but something tugged her towards it. She walked along the forest's edge and peered inside its darkness. She could hear the birds and life that lived inside. In the noise, she could hear something she didn't realize she was looking for.

Chihiro stepped into the forest a bit more and the sound she sought grew louder. It was the sound of water. It wasn't a gushing sound but a truckle that bubbled softly like a brook. She followed the sound several yards in and found a narrow stream running through the forest.

She sank to her knees and hesitantly brought her hand to the water, hovering just above the surface. When she touched her fingers to the water, she felt a tug of emotion. Loss, worry, sadness, confusion, all swept over her with a single touch. But then, happiness. She knew this water.

"Haku." She choked, tears tracing down her cheeks.

The water reacted to her voice and an emotion of delight passed through her, almost overwhelming her senses. She remembered a younger version of herself being carried by the currents safely to shore, a small shoe floating after her. It was the river's memories. The river seemed quite playful and child-like, much unlike its humanoid-dragon counterpart.

"I can't believe I found you, Haku. We thought you were gone. Haku can't find you!" Chihiro grinned, wiping tears as they pooled down her face, keeping her fingers in the stream. There was an overwhelming feeling of joy and… love? emanating from the water. "We have to…" She paused. She knew what she had to do.

She rose and followed the stream deeper into the forest. It seemed to have re-forged itself after it had been filled in. There must have been just enough river and just enough of Haku's will left to re-forge itself.

After exploring a little further, she knelt and placed her fingertips back in the water, the feeling of confusion filling her. "No worries! I'll be back. Just wait!"

She rose once more and jogged back to the park and to her car several blocks away. She drove around the city until she came across a store that sold shrines. They reminded her of the little shrines by the tunnel to the Spirit World.

Chihiro looked around the store filled with an assortment of shrines, stones, ornaments, and charms. She thought of Makoto's words about how humans were creatures of habit and only celebrating the gods out of habit instead of actual devotion to them. She ran her hands across the hanging tiles of charms, the sound of wood and metals clanging together back into place.

She went to the back of the store where there was a patio area of stone shrines and wooden, surrounded by floral arrangements. She wandered the store, her eyes scanning over shrines and statues, not finding anything of interest to her.

Near the back of the garden portion of the store, she found a "do-it yourself" shrine making kit and a shelf full of assorted paints. She picked up the kit and found a few other shrine supplies up on the shelves that would make her shrine more original. This was what she was looking for.

Once Chihiro bought the shrine supplies, she loaded them in the car and drove back to the park. She hefted the pack out of the car and staggered back into the park with the heavy bag. A new family had joined the family from earlier and they vaguely gave her their attentions until she disappeared into the forest, raising a brow at her but not saying anything. Sweat creased her brow as she made her way to what was left of the Amber River. The supplies themselves weren't necessarily heavy, they just got heavier the longer she carried them.

She found the stream and followed it into a clearing where the stream widened a little. The clearing was just the right size for what she needed. She sat in the clearing and got to work on her project.


Three hours later, Chihiro was covered in paint and her fingers were stickered with wood splinters. But she didn't care, she was done with her project. The shrine she'd spent the last part of the afternoon on was about a foot tall and a half foot in width on all sides. It was painted in shimmers of blue and green, a red torii in the front with a small rope hanging across it. She placed it by the water and used the stakes she built into the base of the shrine to stick it firmly into the dirt. She then decorated the base with an assortment of stones, making a path from the shrine, she'd placed a foot away from the water, all the way to the torii she placed closer to the water.

After arranging the shrine appropriately from what she studied in her books on Shinto shrines, she stepped back and admired her handy work. She tilted her head and smiled. She then knelt before the shrine and bowed lowly, clasping her hands together.

"Nigihayami Kohaku Nushi, I pray that you'll be able to finally find rest soundly with your home back here in the Human World. That you will find refuge within the home of your river once again." She paused. "I'm sorry it's taken so long… and that I haven't taken the time to understand. There's so much more that I don't understand going on… I miss you friend… I hope I'll get to see you again, then maybe you can tell me more on your terms, rather than an unplanned visit." She chuckled lightly at the last part.

A drop of water landed on her hand and she realized she was crying. Silent tears streamed down her face as she gazed back towards the stream. "There's so much I want to tell you, Haku." She let out in an almost sob. "There's so much I'm scared of. So much that I'm anxious about. Haku." Her brows knit together in angst. "I need you. I need my friend." She let her head hang, tears dripping into her lap.

After a moment, she looked back at the stream again and saw a dragon swim through the current of the stream. It was a white eastern dragon with a green mane. Haku.

Chihiro breathed out a laugh as she watched the dragons image shimmer under the surface of the water, as if playing in the water with an old friend. Soon the dragon's image faded downstream and in front of her, the face of Haku in his human form appeared, his startling green eyes sparkling with gratitude. His hand extended to tough the surface and he mouthed "thank you."

A tear slipped past her cheek as she touched her fingers to the surface of the water where his hand was, and his image rippled away. Chihiro sat back on her haunches and listened to the sound of the gurgling stream flow past her. The feeling of relief passing through her.

/

When Chihiro returned to Osaka it was late evening. Covered in paint and splinters, all she really wanted slash needed was a warm bath and sleep. But something egged her to go to her laptop and start writing. After she showered, she sat quietly at the laptop in the girls' room and drummed the keys as stared at a blank document, cursor flashing. The room was quiet since Rumi was at her evening job at a restaurant, Yuuka was likely exploring the night life of the forests near by and she recalled Makoto laying in his dog bed in the living room.

Where did she begin?

She drummed the keys some more and thought about her own adventure to the Spirit World and the stories she'd been told by the spirits. She tapped the keys again then centered the document and typed "Spirited Away" as the title. She tapped enter several times to space it then began typing.

"People will read this and think this is a fairy tail from a book. That they are just fables of old and bed time stories to keep their children from misbehaving. But if you get nothing out of this book, at least take away this. They are still alive, and they have lived without us for thousands of years. We took their land and forced them out. We killed them and made them hide. They gave us so much, yet we forgot them. Why don't we give back instead of taking what is not there?"

And so began, Spirited Away.


A/N:

We found Haku's River! We found Haku's River! Woohoooo! What will happen now that Haku has be restored to his full self? And Chihiro has begun her book! Yeaaah, let's get this rolling!

Thanks for reading and don't forget to review! And for those that do review, I thank you a bunches!

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God bless! KawaChou