Back with another update! (Sorry for the wait!)
You might've noticed that I've changed the title for the story to Across Two Worlds, suggested by een nihc. Thanks again! It's a better title than It's Easy To Forget, isn't it?
Last chapter: Chihiro returned to her parents for a short while before Oukami whisked her away again…
Anyway, on with the story. Oh, I disclaim, once again.
Chapter 20
Chihiro slid off Oukami's glossy silver back and walked, slightly apprehensive towards the boiler room door. "So I have to convince Yubaba to give me a job again before the Great spirits realise I'm still in this world, and you call that easy?" she asked as a way of summing up what he had just said. When she glanced behind her though, Oukami was gone.
With an exasperated sigh at his abruptness, she pushed open the door. Walking down the steamy corridor quietly she couldn't help but edge around the corner like she had done when she was ten years old. She watched the susuwatari go about their tedious job with a smile on her face before she stepped out in full view and called, "Kamaji, I'm back!"
"Sen!" he exclaimed before promptly glomping her with all his available arms. Then he worriedly looked past her. "Where is Haku and Rin?"
"I don't know," she answered truthfully, "but they're probably still with Zeniba. I'm just here to get a job."
"What?" Kamaji asked, not believing his ears.
"Well…" she faltered, "it's a long story. I'll explain after I convince Yubaba to take me on again." Quickly, she crawled over to the panel in the wall and slid it open.
"Sen!" Kamaji shouted after her. "Why are you in such a hurry?"
"I'll explain that too when I get back!" she replied before sliding the panel shut with a small click.
Rising up through the lifts and past the many floors, she encountered no one along her way. She guessed most spirits were still asleep at this early hour, and she was glad for it. She needed this quiet time to mentally steel herself for Yubaba's onslaught of vile insults that was sure to come.
Finally the lift doors parted at the topmost floor, and Chihiro stepped out and quickly walked across the cold tiled floor. Reaching the huge, ornate double doors, she firmly grabbed the doorknocker and knocked loudly. "Ow…I remember you," the doorknocker groused before opening the doors with a grudging creak. Chihiro smiled and walked through confidently, not wishing to land on her head like last time. Behind her, the doorknocker called after her, "Next time don't knock so hard!"
"Okay!" she replied cheerfully, to which the doorknocker grumbled even more.
She walked through the well-lit mazelike corridors, almost getting lost on the way, but finally she found Yubaba's quarters. Once inside, she looked around. Little had changed; the place still held its gaudy cluttered look though it was messier than she last remembered it. Yubaba wasn't there either.
Chihiro briefly considered waiting for a while, but then she remembered the cord that Yubaba had pulled to call Haku. It was still hanging there, so she took a chance, reaching up and pulling down hard while hoping that she wouldn't be in too much trouble for this. However, the only person that appeared at one of the many doors leading out of the room was a girl in a plain dark green yukata, slightly taller than Chihiro and with long silvery blonde hair tied back in a loose ponytail. "Ah, I thought it wasn't Yubaba," she said, walking in with the three heads bouncing after her. "Do you want a job?" she asked.
"Um…yes!" Chihiro nodded, and without thinking she asked, "Who are you?"
The girl, who was tugging a piece of paper out of the box on Yubaba's desk, unexpectedly spun around with a flourish and grinned like a child, her eyes curving upwards. "My name's Konta, pleased to meet you! I'm Yubaba's apprentice!"
"Konta…?" Chihiro repeated while taking the brush and the clean sheet of paper from her.
"Yep!" She waited until Chihiro wrote her name, then bent down and picked it up. "And you're Ogino Chihiro? Nice to meet you!"
Suddenly Bou crashed through the door with a broad smile on his face, the tiny Yu-bird perched on his shoulder. "Kontaaaaa! Please finish that story! And do you have any more sweets?" he begged with large, adorable eyes.
"Oh?" she replied with a cheeky smile, not at all fazed by his big-eyed look – unlike Chihiro – while digging around in her pockets and finally fishing out four pink sweets delicately shaped into little spirals.
Bou gurgled happily and reached out to Konta, saying, "Two for me, two for you!"
Konta shook her head and said, "We have a visitor, so we have to share!"
Bou suddenly noticed Chihiro who was standing quietly to one side and watching the scene play out with wide eyes. "Sen!" he cried, launching himself at her and grabbing her in a bone-shattering hug.
"Chihiro," Konta corrected. "You worked here before?" It wasn't really a question.
"Y-yeah," Chihiro replied, startled that she knew.
"The workers still talk about you." she smiled, then cocked her head to one side and with childlike curiosity she asked, "You thought I was going to steal your name?" Chihiro nodded mutely, and Konta laughed. "Well, Yubaba still does but I haven't made it a habit too. Aren't you lucky you ran into me first?"
Then Bou came up from behind and picked her up, raising the slim girl up to his shoulders. "Sweets!" he begged her.
"All right," she replied, tossing one into his wide mouth and happily watching as he savoured the sugary taste. Then Konta looked down at Chihiro who was gaping slightly at the sight in front of her. "Would you like one too, Chihiro-san?" she asked politely.
Chihiro's astonished expression faded slightly. "Yes please," she smiled, accepting the sweet. As she sucked on it she realised it was deliciously addictive, just as Konta's childish, bubbly personality was contagious.
"Hey, Chihiro-san," Konta said, popping a sweet in her mouth before jumping off Bou's shoulder lightly. She sat on the plush, carpeted floor and patted the space on the left of her for Chihiro to sit down too, while on her right Bou joined her. Opposite her the three heads bounced over, and seeing their expectant looks on their greenish faces she guessed, "You want the last sweet?"
"But you said I would have two!" Bou protested, though Chihiro noted that there was no demanding tone behind those words.
"I lied!" Konta said gaily.
"You're so mean!" Bou pretended to cry and chase her around the room (and causing a mini-earthquake with his heavy footsteps), never quite catching her while Konta always stayed within arm's reach of Bou. Chihiro couldn't help laughing while the three heads sighed to one another. After they had circled the room at least ten times, Konta let Bou catch her. "Give me the sweet!" he said, triumphantly plucking it out of her grasp. His chubby fingers broke the sweet into three pieces with surprising dexterity, and the heads bounded over and each took a piece from his outstretched palm.
Meanwhile Konta was staring out the window at the darkening evening sky with an oddly piercing expression. Below her in the streets the restaurants were beginning to open and the bridge leading to the bathhouse started to fill with customers lining up to enter, but nowhere could she sense Yubaba. "Chihiro-san," she said, ceasing all small chatter from behind her. Suddenly she turned around and beamed. "You're a bit late for work, and Yubaba is also late, so why don't you stay with us for today? It's storytelling time!" she exclaimed, retaking her position in the circle. "You first, Chihiro-san."
"Um…what kind of story?" she asked uncertainly.
"Hmm…" Konta thought for a moment, then her expression brightened and she suggested, "Why not tell us how you came here the first time?"
"Okay…" Chihiro said slowly while trying to think quickly. There wasn't anything wrong with telling Konta – who was really a complete stranger and Yubaba's new apprentice no less – and the others about her first trip to the spirit world, was there? A quick mental overview of the past events found nothing too secret, so Chihiro began, albeit a little hesitantly before warming up to her story. No one moved an inch throughout her entrancing tale except for Konta who merely waved her hand to dim the lights for the perfect atmosphere.
When Rin was angry, she snapped. When Kohaku was angry, he brooded. As a result, Zeniba's patience was wearing thin from the outbursts of verbal sniping when each got on each other's nerves over the past few days. At the moment they were again having a go at each other, and Zeniba couldn't stand it any longer. Stepping outside and walking away from her cottage across the fields, she admired the bright moon against the dappled blue, so much that she almost missed the shadow against the moon.
It was heading directly for her, and as the shape neared her eyes bulged as she recognised the wolf shape. Then they narrowed; she would make him pay for taking Chihiro and making Kohaku and Rin give her no peace of mind.
Suddenly a white blur shot past her shoulder and streaked through the air to collide directly with the wolf and taking him down with him. Rin had found a wooden rod and held it half-raised, already preparing to strike once they reached the ground.
In a tumble of scales and fur, they collided with the ground and the dragon quickly rolled and pinned the wolf down, using his larger size to his advantage. He growled angrily at Oukami just as he was shifting form. "Hey wait!" Oukami protested, wriggling under Kohaku's tightening hold. "I'll explain!" The dragon's tail thrashed around and the sharp canines loomed closer. "Chihiro's safe," he said hurriedly. "I pretended to side with those spirits so that they would believe she's still in the human world."
Rin had come up next to Kohaku with a strange, blank look in her eyes. "Where is she now?"
"Aburaya," Oukami managed out – Haku's grip was starting to get unbearably tight.
She gave him a long look before she said, "Haku, let go of him." He growled at her, but Rin explained, "I saw him," she gestured at her eyes, "and he's telling the truth."
Kohaku recalled what Rin had told him about her ability a few days ago, so he slowly stepped off and blurred back, and Oukami stood up quickly as well. "Why did you take her to Yubaba?" he demanded.
"So she can get a job, because then those spirits can't take her back until her contract has expired," he grinned.
Kohaku suddenly had a strong urge to shake some sense into him roughly while Rin could've sworn the temperature dropped several degrees. "Did it ever occur to you that Yubaba could turn her into a pig?" he bit out while trying to keep his shaking hands at his sides.
"Uh…oops?" Oukami grinned brightly.
At that moment, Kohaku loathed that happy, unconcerned expression more than ever. A torrent of raw emotions crashed through him – anger, hate, worry for Chihiro's safety, and without thinking he struck the smaller spirit, sending him stumbling backwards. He could tell Oukami wasn't expecting that from the way he hurried to block, and it only fuelled his anger more. He lashed out bitingly, "You don't care about anyone but yourself, do you!" He hit him squarely on the chest this time, sending him flying back several metres but he didn't miss the strange expression that crossed his face – it didn't match his usual demeanour. But Haku dismissed that thought and slammed back into Oukami, pinning him down with minimal effort. It gave him an odd sense of satisfaction, just seeing that overwhelming him could be so easy. He bared his fangs and growled, "If anything happened to Chihiro I'll –"
"Stop it Haku!"
He looked up to see Rin pointing her rod directly at him. "Get off him," she commanded.
For the second time in a minute, Kohaku slowly rose to his feet and stood to one side. Rin glanced worriedly at Oukami who had sat up and was staring blankly ahead before rounding on Haku. "Stop being childish, dragon. It's one thing to be possessive of Sen, it's another thing to take it out on someone else. Did you really think for a moment why he stayed with us for so long? Did you wonder why he helped us escape from Yubaba twice, or why he opened all those portals for us everywhere? Of course not." She glared at him and Haku quickly looked away, shamefaced. From his silence Rin guessed that she had made her point.
Then she crouched down next to Oukami and studied his vacant expression before waving her hand in front of his eyes. He started and reflexively struck out but Rin was expecting it so she managed to block. "You okay there?" she asked. When he nodded she grinned and gave him a hand up.
From behind them Zeniba suddenly announced, "My sister's here."
"What?" Rin spun around and squinted at the spot Haku pointed at. She could just make out a pair of large telltale wings.
Some distance away, Zeniba was casting a spell and slowly but gradually getting faster the blades of grass swirled around her before rocketing directly to Yubaba. She gracefully dodged the sharp projectiles with the ease of a more streamlined bird, but the blades of grass gained on her as she plunged toward the ground. Near the ground she banked and conjured a shield of fire before flying straight into the storm of needles, leaving behind a flurry of dry grass that drifted gently to the ground.
Zeniba frowned and said, "You three, don't get involved." Her eyes never left Yubaba who was turning around for another attack. "Go to Aburaya and see if Chihiro is all right," she ordered.
"But…" Oukami protested, itching for a fight.
"No!" she snapped. "This is between me and my sister. Go."
Kohaku didn't need to be told twice; he had already begun to fly even before Zeniba finished her sentence. Rin climbed up on Oukami's back and took off after him. She glanced back once to see Zeniba providing an explosive distraction. Then Oukami increased his speed a little to keep Kohaku in his sight, and behind them the cottage disappeared into the distance.
As they flew, Rin pondered the previous events between Oukami and Haku. She didn't know what possessed her to say that to Haku. It must have been unexpected, she mused; she had noticed Zeniba looking strangely at her afterwards. She wondered if what she did was normal, sticking up for a world-renowned demon. Then again, what Haku did wasn't normal either, though it could be argued that he was worried for Sen and some dragon instinct kicked in. Well, whatever it was, she didn't know and didn't care at the moment either. It was freezing cold after flying into the wind for several hours non-stop, and she was starting to go numb.
She looked back and forth at the dragon and wolf she rode on. Earlier on when they first started out, they both kept their distance but soon after Haku turned to look at Oukami and something inexplicable passed between them. However Rin would have been willing to bet anything it was an apology of sorts. She smiled a little then; for Haku it was probably easier to apologise in his dragon form. Previously she had gotten the impression that he wasn't too comfortable in his humanoid form.
It was a relief when Aburaya appeared on the horizon several more hours later. Oukami followed Haku down to the boiler room, and with a slight movement of his head the door opened and Haku flew through without slowing. He changed back and yelled over the noise of the boiler, "Kamaji, have you seen Chihiro?"
"Haku!" Kamaji exclaimed, peering at him closely. "Hmm…she said she was going to Yubaba's office to – hey, what's the hurry? What's going on?"
Kohaku had already flown out the door, leaving Rin to yell, "We'll explain later!" Then she and Oukami took off after the dragon, leaving Kamaji to grumble to himself, "That's what they've both been telling me."
Oukami reached the top floor just in time to see Haku snake through an open window. Once inside he changed back and ran after Haku, Rin following as fast as she could while trying to ease her stiff joints from the ride.
Kohaku burst into the office, startling the three heads, Bou, the Yu-bird, Konta and Chihiro. "Haku!" Chihiro said, surprised.
He had almost started forward with every intention to hug her and check if she was okay, but when he realised the others were curiously observing him he restrained himself and instead turned his embarrassment into irritation, directed at the girl in dark green. "Who are you?" he asked flatly.
She smiled, despite the hostile look directed at her. "My name's Konta, pleased to meet you."
"I'm Haku," he replied shortly.
"I'm Rin."
Oukami just grinned, and sure enough Konta recognised him. "Oukami-sama," she bowed respectfully. He blinked; he was definitely not expecting that. When was the last time someone attached that suffix to his name?
An uncomfortable silence descended on the group, finally broken by Chihiro who said, "Don't worry, you can trust her."
"Did she steal your name?" Rin asked cautiously. Chihiro shook her head and Rin relaxed somewhat. Suddenly a thought occurred to her and she whispered into Haku's ear, "Do you know where Yubaba keeps our real names?"
Haku shook his head slightly before thoughtfully staring at Konta and Bou. "I heard you," Konta said.
"Do you know then?" Rin asked.
"No, but we could always look!" She leapt to her feet and began to poke about in the drawers and cabinets around Yubaba's messy table while the others exchanged glances before splitting up to search as well. Kohaku was still suspicious though and kept an eye on the girl. He was concentrating on her so much that he didn't even notice Chihiro come up beside him. "Don't worry, she's a good person considering that she's probably controlled by Yubaba."
"She's her apprentice?" he asked, surprised. He would have never guessed.
Chihiro smiled. "Nothing like you either," she teased. "She wants to know her name as much as the other workers do."
"How do you know?" he asked curiously.
"She told me. She's really quite open."
Kohaku felt his suspicion ebb away a little.
"So what's been going on when I was away?" Chihiro asked, curious.
"Nothing much," he replied, leaving out the parts where he got so angry at Oukami since the others were still in hearing range, and that would be potentially embarrassing. "What about you?"
"I saw my parents again. They weren't really impressed when I told them the truth."
Kohaku chuckled and said, "Of course not."
On the other side of the room Rin was gazing in open wonder at the financial records she had found in one drawer. "Look at this," she said, "Yubaba is so filthy rich."
From over her shoulder, Oukami grinned cheekily and said, "All the more reason to cheat her to bankruptcy. Have you seen those money bags in the box over there?" He undid the knot on one bag and showed her his hand overspilling with gold.
"Wow…" Rin breathed, taking another bag and finding more gold. "She should pay us more – she's got way too much for it to be useful."
"Exactly!" Oukami nodded brightly and began to take as much gold as he could carry with Rin echoing his movements. Oukami smirked when he saw this and said, "I knew you had it in you."
Rin was confused for a moment before she realised what he was implying. "I'm doing this for all the workers," she said, a little angrily. "Maybe I can bribe Yubaba to give us back our names."
"I know, I was joking." He grinned wider when Rin looked even more irritated at him.
Suddenly a loud crash sounded in the adjacent room and they all jerked towards the noise. Then the door to the room slammed open and a raging, beady-eyed witch appeared with dark smudges on her face and dress. It took a moment for the individual identities of each person to sink in, but when it did, Yubaba raised an angry, shaking finger and screeched furiously at the top of her lungs, "How dare you set foot in my bathhouse!" She breathed heavily, small wisps of smoke drifting from her overlarge nostrils and suddenly directed the brunt of her fury to Chihiro. "You! You're the one that started this! You've caused nothing but trouble since the day you came!"
A sizzling bolt of fire erupted around Yubaba and without warning it streaked directly towards Chihiro, moving so fast that all she could do was freeze in horror as the orange flames licked closer and closer.
A/N: As you can (hopefully) see, things are starting to kick off in the story – there aren't many more chapters to go and I hope to get this story finally finished in the next few weeks. (My evil conscience says, "Wishful thinking!")
So yep, between now and the next update, wonder what happens to Chihiro, and wonder what happened to Zeniba. And wonder about how the story's going to end too…
Some other notes:
I've re-uploaded chapters 6, 8 and 10 (no major changes though); chapter 6 because the 'sirs' that Haku uses to address the Great spirits are inconsistent with the rest of the story; chapter 8 because Konta used to be called Meko. I changed her name because I realised that it was Kame-ko (亀子), not Ka-me-ko, and you can't really shorten her name into Meko. And chapter 10 because I changed the Rotten Eyeball Inn to the Sakanameya (魚目屋) because it didn't really make sense to me that the town would be called Kagemori, but the inn would be in English. So! Sakana means fish, me means eye, and ya means shop/inn, and can also mean 'person who does …'. That's according to the dictionary anyway. I'm not calling it the Sakaname Inn since Aburaya…well, that's what I've been calling it. It's a matter of consistency, really. I couldn't translate from the Rotten Eyeball Inn so I stuck with the Fish Eye Inn. Does anyone know how to translate Rotten Eyeball anyway? Now that I think about it, Sakanameya is one long name for an inn…
By the way, if anyone wants to work out the kanji for Konta's name, do so! (I want to see what you all come up with!) Tell me in your review or send me a PM. And yes, Konta is the shortened name. Also, do towns have a suffix? Like the –mura suffix?
Review please! And thank you to everyone who has reviewed so far, you're all wonderful at motivating lazy people like me. Mini Me motivates me at school too (and in various other ways...hehe), which is even cooler since afterwards I have something interesting to think about at school instead of listening to the teachers blab…