Underwater Savior
Chapter 21: Around the River Bend is Future
by: LadyRainStarDragon
Not mine. I can only wish. If you've seen the movie, then you know which characters aren't in it. Hey, at least the plots in my stories are mine!
Chihiro didn't remember any of the events connected with the monster, and Koji was rather glad about that. So was Nushi, who watched over the child from within the spring, not being able to leave the spring itself as his river no longer flowed.
Kohaku returned to the bath house, unable to find his home and his human, and also unable to recall the monster and his events. He became Yubaba's apprentice to her magic and the bath house itself, believing that if he could just get stronger he could find his river and his human again. Having signed Yubaba's contract, he became Haku, though he struggled to recall his true name. The only name he could remember didn't belong to him though. It was his human's, Chihiro.
He tried to escape one day, desperate to see that she was alright. Yubaba then tricked him into eating a slug after he recovered from that, having hidden it in a dumpling she said was enchanted to make him stronger. When the slug got its hold on him, he forgot much about his human, believing her to only be a fantasy to ease his loneliness.
After all, since when did spirits make friends with humans.
Time passed by for Haku, taken up by training, bath house duties, babysitting and missions.
Time also passed for Nushi, and he watched in despair as illness began to take hold among his children, some strains mutating into something deadly enough to kill some. Using the energy he was storing finally, he used spells to heal his little friend each time she caught one of the super bugs, but she had a perpetual flush to her cheeks from the recurrent infections. Chihiro's parents moved, trying to keep her from catching any more illness. Nushi watched her leave through his mirror, wondering if he would ever be able to soothe her fears again.
That day, Haku found her on the bridge, Yubaba's hold on him weakening with the return of his source. Fearing for her safety, he later helped her get back to her world, allowing her to run through his fingers, but not before making her a promise.
The next summer, and every summer after that until she reached her 17th year, she returned to the Kohaku community, and to him though she didn't know it. With each progress she made on returning his river to the surface, both Kohaku and Nushi felt themselves grow stronger.
Then something happened that filled Nushi with great joy.
"Chihiro, please. I will need a Miko, and not only do you have more training than the other candidates, you are also a blood descendant."
"Sure Grandfather, I'll help out at the new Shrine. I'll just need to arrange my hours around my classes. I can't do much until the river is running though."
"Don't worry Chi! Just another year and we'll see all that sparkly water again if we keep to the schedule."
"I guess that means I get to lug more rock doesn't it, BlowingWind?"
"That's right Ryu."
"Wonderful! Just wait until the other Shrines hear my little granddaughter is going to be the Miko!"
The End of Underwater Savior