Aftermath (five years later...)
A fanfic about Spirited Away
Written by: ZimXGir
Disclaimer: I do not own Spirited Away.....although I do own Pernaki. X3
A/N: runs in screaming and bounces around gleefully Yay I have vanquished the evil 'YOU MUST BE GROUNDED SO THERE' dragon! Yay and now I can update!
Chapter 3: In which Sen takes a bath
Sen sat down beside Kamagi and rested her head on the side of the table that he laid on. Sighing she thought 'me? The Cloud Spirit? There MUST be a mistake!'
'No there is not! Think about it! This world feels more like home to you!' the little voice inside her head argued.
'Sigh….I guess your right…but what about mom and dad?' she thought but before the voice could comment the little door to Kamagi's right slid open as a wave of steam and tasty aromas spilled into the room.
"Kamagi! How many times do I have to tell you to leave your bowl out?" a familiar voice called a slight irritation hinting in the speakers voice.
As Sen lifted her head and peered over Kamagi's hand at the source of the voice; Kamagi rolled his eyes and looked for his bowl.
To Sen's amazement the voice had come from Lin. One of the servants that Yubaba controlled.
"Sorry Lin… I was going to but I got a little distracted!' he said as he smiled. Lin's jaw dropped as she dropped her basket; that held the suit balls meal and dirty dishes. She soon dropped to her knees and bowed low.
It looked as if she was kissing the floor. "C-Cloud Spirit it's a true honor to finally meet you! I am…"
"Lin" Sen smiled. "I know who you are silly! Please don't bow like that, your embarrassing me!"
Lin arose and looked a little thrilled and nervous all at the same time. "Of course you know who I am…how stupid of me! You all know…I had forgotten. Is there anything you desire me to get you?" Lin asked as she bent down and began to pick up the suit balls food and cast it across the bouncing sea of black.
"No there is nothing…but I do have a question for you." Sen said smiling as she bent down and helped pick up the dishes.
Lin looked a little shocked when Sen started to help her. "Um…you don't have to do that madam…"
"I want to" Sen smiled and handed Lin a dirty rice bowl that had a faint smell of soy sauce. Kamagi smiled watching them as a crap load of bath tokens fell down.
Kamagi looked over at the dangling tokens and muttered something that sounded a lot like "Gawd damn tokens! Can't they give a guy a break?"
The two girls giggled as they finished picking up the dishes and casted the last hand full of food across the small black river.
"Oh" Lin said as she got up and hurried over to the sliding door and grabbed Kamagi's bowl of rice and of deep fried lizards. "I'm sorry Kamagi here's your food."
Lin apologized as she gave him his bowl and watched him begin to scarf it down, muttering a "thanks Lin" as two more tokens appeared in front of him.
Chihiro stood and brushed her hands off "Um shall we go upstairs and let Kamagi work?" she smiled and walked over to Lin.
"Yes" Lin nodded and then looked at the small door. Then blushed "maybe we should go other way…you might get dirty"
Chihiro grinned then shook her head "If I didn't get dirty crawling through that door on my first visit then I shouldn't get dirty this time." She laughed as she watched a really confused look creep up onto Lin's face.
Kamagi turned and cleared his throat as Lin faced him "Sen…has returned!"
Lin's eyes grew big as she whirled around to face Chihiro "Sen?"
Chihiro blushed and nodded as Lin fell forward into her arms and hugged her. 'It's so good to see you again Sen! We have to go find Haku!"
"NO! We can't let Haku find out!" Sen yelled. Surprised at her own tone of voice; she looked away from Lin, Kamagi and the bouncing suit balls. "I-I'm sorry…Didn't mean to yell…I just…"
Lin stepped back from her and half smiled "You must have heard then huh?" Sen nodded as a sky blue tear made its way down her soft face. As her tear ran to the end of her face and free fell to the floor, it morphed into a small baby blue pearl and rolled a little ways as it hit the floor.
Lin's eyes opened as wide as they could as she snatched the pearl up; as if it was a scrape of food and she was a greedy, starving, child that knew no better.
"H-how!?!?!?" Sen shuttered. Staring at the pearl in Lin's hand.
"The Cloud Spirit's spirit is trying to her you that you are her." Kamagi said as he opened a drawer of herbs by Lin's head.
Lin had a very confused look upon her face "Um….what the hell are you to talking about?"
Kamagi snickered and just muttered "Lin let's not get into this again. Besides Yubaba must be worried."
Lin's face grew a shade of white "Holy shit!" She grabbed Sen's hand and ran towards the door and quickly crawled through then slammed it as soon as Sen was through.
"Lin….wait!" came Sen's voice from behind the rushing Lin. "Why are you in such a hurry?"
"Yubaba's counting on me to make sure you are very relaxed and are taking a bath in one of the best baths!" Lin said as she ran in to a service elevator and pulled Sen inside as the door closed and then began to move.
"Why would she do that?"
"Are you completely clueless Sen?" Lin said and she gently knocked on Sen's forehead (checking to see if her brain was still there.) "You're the Cloud Spirit! You HAVE to take the greatest bath!"
They had gotten as far up as they could and ran across the hall and into another elevator this time the ride was silent until the door opened again to reveal the main floor.
"Come this way" Lin said loud enough for the small group of servants that were standing around hoping to get a glance of the almighty Cloud Spirit of legend. The small mob parted as Lin lead the way to the bath token booth and held out the pearl that she had snatched up earlier.
The spirit that was running the booth eyed her suspiciously then caught sight of Sen and quickly smiled and handed Lin the most expensive and greatest token (only the wealthiest river god could use it.)
Lin looked over her shoulder at the blushing Sen and smiled as she said "This way madam." She led Sen to the last bath on the left (which ironically was the same bath that Lin and herself got stuck cleaning then had to give a great river god a bath in.)
As the turned the corner and Lin hooked the token to the string she whirled around as is disappeared and gleefully squealed. "I can't believe that that pearl got you such great water! Hardly anyone can afford it! And it just took you ONE pearl!"
Chihiro had to admit she was surprised too. When Lin was finished filling the bath full of the herbal water she left Sen to undress and soak in the bath a little while. As she left she started muttering something about dumplings and lizard tails.
When Chihiro slid into the hot herbal water and closed her eyes, relaxing, she began to wonder how long it would take before Yubaba would kick her out for impersonating the Cloud Spirit.
"I hope you are enjoying your bath madam…..is there anything I may get you?" a voice from over by the door called. Chihiro opened her eyes and found that she was facing a very soft very pretty young woman (about 15 in the human world) standing at the door holding a towel.
"Oh there's nothing I need, but please do come in." Chihiro said as she half stood revealing her soft wet cleavage. She thought 'I should have put up my hair!' As though it was by command the young woman walked over to the side of the bath and pulled back Chihiro's hair and tired it up in a bun with a ribbon.
"There now you won't get your glorious hair wet!' The girl said smiling a sweet smile. "Are you hungry? May I go see if the cook has any dumplings left over? Or is there something else you would care for?"
"No there is nothing….thank you by the way…..this ribbon is so beautiful where did you get it?" Chihiro asked as she lifted her dripping hand from the water and softly stroked it.
The young women blushed and she answered "My fiancé gave that to me when he asked for my hand."
"Oh" Chihiro said hoping this girl wasn't who she thought she was. "Um and who…may I ask, are you betrothed to?" 'Please not Haku please not Haku…' Chihiro chanted in her head clutching the side of the bath now despite to her what the girl was going to say.
"Well he works here and his name is….."
"Yuiki! How many times do I have to remind you not to bother the customers!" scorned Lin as she walked over to the bath and glared at the young girl.
"I am sorry Lin I was just……um….never mind I shall go now….It was a pleasure to met you Ms Cloud Spirit." And with that she disappeared down the hall.
"Lin who was that?" Chihiro asked, but knew what the answer would be.
"She's like you…..just showed up here at random one day…"
Chihiro didn't need to even hear the rest of Lin's explanation before blue pearls started to form a small puddle at Lin's feet.
A/N (part two): I hope you enjoyed this chapter! It was really fun to write! I got a lot of ideas for the next chapter so now all I have to do is put them in order! Please R&R! JA!
