I intend to go back and edit this chapter sometime before I post the next chapter in two weeks. The transitions are a bit rougher than I'd like, but the majority of the content is there. Thanks for your patience and support.
Chapter 12:
Three days had passed in a breeze with no cries of the wounded bell and no word from Zeniba. Chihiro's short flashes of what she believed to be memories began to occur sporadically as she went around the bathhouse. They were nothing more than momentary flashbacks, but they would stun her temporarily. Each morning, Chihiro found a new vase of different flowers in front of her door. Finding Haku each day to give her thanks had become a new game between them. After watching Haku and Chihiro work in the same room for a period of time, Lin noticed the way that both of them watched each other when they thought the other wasn't looking. It was cute and also disturbing to her at the same time. Were they like this before and she hadn't noticed?
Lin claimed that she finished their portion of work well before closing each night in order to send Chihiro upstairs early. It would be nice if the dragon changed his mind and let her stay for good. With that intention in mind, she was going to push them together as much as she could. Lin might not have been as eager to send Chihiro away if she knew what she had actually been using the time to do. After Lin would dismiss her, Chihiro would help Yui out at the infirmary and care for Hikaru. Hikaru never spoke much or explained why he had given her his name, simply watched Chihiro work. When she was done, he would thank her and ask her to return again the next day. In this peaceful, yet odd manner they continued in secrecy. It was on the third day post awakening that Chihiro and Yui moved him to the main infirmary and things began to get lively.
Okita greeted them loudly as Chihiro and Yui moved Hikaru on a stretcher between them. Sliding him onto the cot beside Okita, second closest to the door, Chihiro had been soundly scolded by him for not remembering to visit him and how he neglected he felt being unable to discuss his mischievous plans with her. When she had argued that they had barely talked at all in their times together thus far so it shouldn't have mattered, he laughed and told her all the more reason that they spend time together. Taking his flirty attitude in stride, Chihiro mockingly begged his pardon and promised that she would get him something to make up for it. While Yui returned the stretcher back towards the dock entrance, Chihiro quickly ran up to the kitchen and stole two yokan while the chef's back was turned. Returning quickly to the infirmary, she offered one up to Okita as a reconciliation gift for his "troubles". As he spouted off his acceptance of her "humble" gift in his mocking tone, she turned around and gave Hikaru the other stolen treat. Okita gasped in shock and dismay, but Chihiro smirked back at him mischievously, daring him to say a word against his new neighbor. Hikaru smiled at her, despite his obvious pain from the transfer, and tucked it away for later. Gathering her basket of supplies from the corner of the room, Chihiro kneeled down beside Hikaru's cot to get to work.
"Besides my loving personality, why does a doll like yourself come down here anyways," Okita asked as he wheeled himself over to sit beside her. Biting into his yokan happily, he watched her change the fox's bandages. With his fast recovery rate, the poultice had been replaced with normal bandages the day before.
"Well Yui can use any hands she can get and I'm happy to help out. I've always liked taking care of people and the hard work doesn't bother me. I actually considered going into nursing back when I was applying to take the university entrance exams, but my parents talked me out of it. The nearest university that had a nursing department was five hours away and they wanted me to stay nearby. I wound up in the next town over, studying management. I thought I could go into healthcare administration, but the only job offer I received when job hunting was at a British toy company. I have been there for two years now overseeing a team of twenty three staff members and company profits are up fifteen percent this quarter."
"Wow, quite impressive. I never would have thought you were a business woman."
"Neither did I, but here I am anyways," Chihiro chuckled. Their conversation was cut short by Yui arriving with the supplies to change Okita's bandages. Shooing him back to his bed, Yui set to work unwrapping his mangled legs. Chihiro focused back to her work on head and began quietly singing to herself as she continued.
"You have quite a beautiful voice, Chihiro. I never noticed before," Yui complimented her. Looking up from the smoothly combed wet fur, she smiled at her.
"Thanks, Watari-san."
"You should consider sticking around for the water festival at the end of the month. It is quite a fun event and we could use someone with your talents."
"Haku says I will be leaving as soon as Zeniba reports back later this week, but thanks for the offer. I'm sure the festival will go wonderful if you are involved in planning it." Yui fluffed her feathers proudly, but her eyes remained sad.
"You may belong in the human world, but enjoy your time here while you can. It will be over before you know it."
Chihiro couldn't ignore the wet coughing coming from the cot closest to the fireplace as she finished brushing through the fox's fur. It had been two days since she had been regularly attending the main infirmary and despite the salamander's instances that he was recovering well, the cough had yet to ease. Yui had mentioned in passing that the salamander had inhaled some dying shadow tendrils on the battle field, but something about his pale green color didn't seem right to Chihiro. Each time a staff member asked how he was feeling, he always insisted that he was feeling better than the day before. When she had first moved Hikaru over to this unit the other day, the coughing sound had seemed dry, but now it sounded heavy and wet, as if blood was coming up with each cough. Glancing over her shoulder at the salamander across the room, Chihiro felt Hikaru's eyes probing into the back of her head.
"When I was inside myself fighting the Black, I could hear the sounds of the world around me." Chihiro looked back at Hikaru and folded her hands before her to show her full attention as he continued. "I could hear how everyone kept saying that I was going to die, that there was no hope left for me, and yet now I lay here on the road to recovery from the brink of death. I believe in miracles, but he," Hikaru nodded his head towards the salamander, "is not going to make it."
A sickening wet cough that sounded closer to a retching sound cut him off. Before Chihiro could look back over her shoulder, the lights shut off throwing the room into pure darkness. Red lights flashed in the corners of the room, illuminating it in hues of reddened black as the sound of a wailing siren unlike anything Chihiro had ever heard before pierced the air loudly. Caught somewhere between a tsunami warning siren, a fire alarm, and a nuclear test warning sound, the warning attack siren sent a strong wrack of shivers down her spine and put every nerve in her body on high alert. As the red lights flashed again, Chihiro realized that she was alone in the infirmary with the patients. Yui must have stepped out to grab more supplies since all was peaceful. Nobody had ever gone over the protocol for an attack, what was she supposed to do? Hikaru's arms wrapped around her in a crushingly tight hug bringing her diverted attention back to him.
With a strong yank, Hikaru brought Chihiro onto the bed and rolled over on top of her. Fear spiking, she struggled against his body weight, but he pushed away from her quickly.
"Curl up and be silent," he ordered as he got his knees on either side of her and crouched in a defensive stance over her. Realizing that he was trying to protect her, she curled up as he asked. His single large tail fanned out into a full nine tails, each tail reached out to gently brush against her as if to comfort her while he braced himself for attack. Okita's playful mischievous attitude had dropped like a hat at the sound of siren and was replaced with a deathly seriousness. Despite his pain, he hobbled over from his cot and took up a similar defensive stance at the foot of the bed where Hikaru hovered. Chihiro felt something warm and wet drip down onto her calves, but it was hard to see anything between the darkness of the room and the mess of tails hiding her. The attack warning siren stopped its shrill cry and all they could hear was the heavy breathing of fear amongst them in the sudden pitch darkness. The salamander's wet cough shook the heavy tension in the air as everyone held their breath and waited. Though it was only a few minutes later, the lights returned to normal in what felt like an eternity later.
With the lights on, it was apparent that nothing had changed in that time except their positions in the room. Hobbling back to his bed, Okita flopped down exhausted from his efforts. Retracting his tails back into one, Hikaru moved off of Chihiro to face her. Chihiro could see that the wet substance on her leg was actually blood that had leaked from Hikaru's chest. The sudden movement and effort had torn open some of the fragile tissue that had healed and the wounds had begun to weep blood again. Sitting up, Chihiro caught Hikaru before he could fall forward and helped him lay back onto the bed. She grabbed some of the bandages from her abandoned supplies beside the bed and began to work on redressing the wounds.
"Sorry. I guess I'm not quite well enough yet," Hikaru joked dryly as Chihiro finished fixing the dressing. Taking a rag, she wiped the blood off of her calves and sent up a quick thanks that the blood didn't get onto the sheets. There might not be time to change them quickly if more patients were arriving. Yui crashed through the door with a wild look in her eye, but visibly calmed at seeing Chihiro sitting beside Hikaru just fine.
"Are you alright," Yui asked as she rushed over, taking a glance at the fresh blood coming from Hikaru. He nodded yes as Okita rolled over to look at them.
"We kept her safe, ma'am. No shadows down here. Do you know what triggered the alarm," Okita cut in.
"Since the alarm turned off before the white lights came on it must not have been an attack on the bathhouse. The only news I got from upstairs was that Haku was seen flying out of the bathhouse at lightning speed just a few minutes ago. He said something to Lin about a spirit devolving into a Shadow in the center of the market across the river, but that shouldn't have caused the alarm to go off…not unless he had been stretching his magic to cover the town below up to the river's edge. If that were the case, then the bathhouse warning bell would go off from the proximity of the attack. There are sure to be wounded," she mumbled off just as the wounded bell began ringing. Turning her head back to Chihiro, Yui gave her a concerned look.
"I know, I know. I will head upstairs and send Lin down. If Haku is gone, then who will be controlling the water barrier," Chihiro asked as she stood up and put her supplies away. Okita and Hikaru looked to be in well enough shape for her to leave as it was, but it would have been nice to spend a bit more time talking with them. Even in their conditions they had moved to protect her and that meant the world to her.
"I will. It doesn't come as naturally to me as a crane spirit as it does the dragon, but I can do it as necessary. Move along now before I have to explain your presence here." Stopping at the door, Chihiro turned back to face the boys. Bowing low she thanked them for their actions earlier before sweeping out of the room to return upstairs.
The bathhouse was in organized chaos as Lin and Chihiro changed positions. Chihiro was relieved when they finally sent the last guest home and the staff was dismissed for the evening. Fixing herself a cup of green tea, she found herself sitting out on the balcony again looking out towards the town across the river. A small trail of smoke was visible from this distance, but the damage couldn't have been too bad if the wounded bell rang for so short. Or maybe there were more dead than wounded this time, Chihiro thought bitterly. She still got the occasional nightmare from her short visit to the docks. Moving away from the negative images of the stacked corpses piled up in the buckets to cross the river, she tried to come up with something to distract herself with. She should ask Haku what exactly she is supposed to do when the warning alarm goes off again. Chihiro hated the idea being useless and having to be outright protected because she didn't know how to protect herself. Maybe if she could get someone to teach her then she could help out if there were an emergency… Haku landed onto the balcony and transformed back to his human form before entering the living room. Greeting Chihiro with a nod, he fixed himself a double shot of whiskey. Ignoring the obvious tension around him, she called him over to ask about his day.
"What happened today? Are you alright," she asked as he flopped down beside her. Taking a gingerly small sip from his whiskey, he proceeded to tell her how he had been called out to fight a shadow spirit that had erupted in the center of the market. It hadn't taken him long to contain it and destroy it, but the bathhouse alarm had still gone off and sent everyone into a panic. Panic causes spirit's impurities to multiply quickly meaning the bathhouse would be slammed with visitors for the next few days all because the clock tower watchmen hadn't been at their posts! If they had been in the clock tower watching over the town like they were assigned to do, the devolving spirit would have been identified and taken care of long before it escalated to the point it had today. People's lives were at stake and those damn eels weren't doing their jobs! Haku had more than enough power to cover both sides of the river, but for how long could he extend himself so far? It was already quite a lot to cover this side of the town and control the water barriers when wounded arrive…
"Haku, I know this probably isn't the time to ask, but will you teach me to fight? Lin told me you were the most skilled in the bathhouse-"
"No," he interjected flatly. His irritation twisted into a frown as he stood up and entered his office. Though granted it was a bad time to ask him such a question, Haku doubted that any other time would have yielded a different answer. The idea of Chihiro, Chihiro of all people, fighting this battle alongside him was madness. He would never purposefully put her in harm's way. She was meant to be protected, cherish, loved…
"Why not? I could help out when the bathhouse gets attacked." Following closely behind him, Chihiro's shocked expression quickly shifted to stubbornness. Spirits like Hikaru and Okita shouldn't be protecting her. What if someone got hurt trying to save her? She should be strong enough to protect herself.
"Spirits are faster and stronger than humans. The likelihood of you being able to make a difference is slim." Haku's taut response and disinterested actions as he started to shuffle papers around his desk, irritated Chihiro.
"But knowing how to fight could improve that slim chance," Chihiro pushed as she slammed her hand down on top of Haku's papers. Staring hard at him, Chihiro kept her face firm. Haku looked up at her and sneered as he came around his desk towards her. Turning to face him, Chihiro stared right back at him, challenging him. He had had more than enough challenge for one day with the attack, yet here he had another battle to fight at home. Recognizing the small voice in the back of his head warning him not to take out the day's frustrations on her, Haku decided to cut the discussion to the point.
"You don't understand, so let me make this a little more clear. Any spirit with a strong grasp of magic could stop you in a heartbeat without any effort." Chihiro felt her entire body freeze and no matter how hard she struggled, she wasn't moving. It was as if her entire body was covered in wax and she was no more than a statue. Standing in front of her, Haku grasped her cheek and pulled it upwards with no effort so that she was facing him. Looking down at her with a mocking smile, he continued. "Freezing you like this is child's play and you would have no way to stop me."
If Chihiro could glare at him, she would have. Haku's eyes glossed over her lips as if he were considering taking advantage of the situation and he moved confidently closer. With her unable to move, it wasn't like she could deny him. The predatory look in his gaze sent chills right through her, and she was torn somewhere between arousal and fear. He had her in the palm of his hand and to think, he could have done this at any point. Part of her recognized how vulnerable she had been all this time and was scared.
"I could do anything I wanted to you, heck, even make you say anything I wanted to hear." Chihiro's body moved forward as if drawn out by strings. Her flat palms rested on Haku's chest and she pushed her body up scandalously against his. The folds of their clothes did nothing to hide the throbbing beginning in either of their abdomens. A different sort of tension hummed around them, mixing with the residual anger and anxiety from the day's earlier events. Letting his hand drop away from her, Chihiro felt her head cock to the side and look up at him.
"Please Haku, won't you kiss me? I'll do anything you ask," Chihiro's voice pleaded desperately. One of her fingers traced its way dangerously low, implying exactly what sort of task anything could be. In the back of her mind, Chihiro's inner voice was screaming in embarrassment. She would never say anything like that! How dare Haku use magic to control her just to prove his point!
The smell of Chihiro's anger tempted the dragon within Haku. Anger was a powerful emotion and with just the right twist of magic, he could turn it into a just as passionate lust. Not that it would take much, he could smell her arousal the moment he started around the desk towards her. The temptation to bring his point home and make her lost in desire fought against his strained rationality. He had needs just like any other male, and though he regularly abstained, something about the fiery female in front of him brought him to new heights and new desperations. How far am I willing to go to possess her, he asked himself rhetorically.
Haku's expression grew distant as he looked down at her and with something short of a wistful sneer, he released his magic on her. Within a second, Chihiro's hand slapped him across the cheek with as much strength as she could muster. Tears of indignation bloomed, but did not fall as she regarded him with a look of disgust. Running out of the room, she left him standing there holding his cheek with a distant frown.