Author's Note: Well, this is it, the end of the story. Hope you enjoyed--or at least tolerated--reading this.
GOODBYE
The next weekend after Shizuku and Seiji's visit Haru was summoned again, but this time not to the Cat Castle but to a lonely place in the Spirit World, past Zeniiba's house in Swamp Bottom.
The place was full of mist, a solid portion in the middle of the bog which made strange sounds around her as she stood with the others in front of an aged torii. The structure was an unhealthy variegated black in color, framing a path which ran into the grayness amid a tunnel of willows and other trees laden with moss. With her were Haku, Zeniiba, Nausicaä, Mrs. Kusakabe, Howl, Selm, Baron, and King Lune, as witness for the Cat Kingdom. Shizuku and Seiji were also there, of course.
Shizuku stepped out in front of them and gave them all a deep, solemn bow.
"I can't thank you enough for everything you've done for me," she said somberly. "I'm sorry for all the trouble I caused."
"Think nothing of it," Zeniiba returned. "Everything's been returned to rights, or will be shortly, and that is payment enough, Amasawa-san. I think shocho would approve of what we've done."
"Are you sure this will take me back home?" Shizuku asked, indicating the path behind her.
"Yes."
Taking a deep breath, the writer turned to her husband. "You're sure you want to do this?"
Seiji nodded. Shizuku had already told him the entire truth, and he has received it with surprising equanimity. "Can you fly when you're in Iblard? Of course I am. It's not as if I'm going to leave you to do this alone, am I?"
"Okay, then." Shizuku dug into the bodice of her white dress and pulled an envelope out. "Here, Haru. This is for you."
Taking it from her, Haru eyed the packet with trepidation. "What's this?"
"Read it later, okay? That's a little surprise. A parting gift, I should call it."
"Sensei, again?"
"No, nothing shocking this time," Shizuku assured her. "I'll miss you."
"Me too."
Hesitantly Shizuku stepped to her and gave her a hug. "I hope you don't mind. We might never get to do this again."
Haru returned the gesture with compound interest. "I don't mind, sensei. I really—" her voice cracked a bit "—really don't mind."
The elder woman turned to another person as she and Haru broke their embrace. "Baron, I'll miss you as well. Take care of yourself."
"Likewise." The Cat kissed her on both cheeks. "Take care, little one."
"Keep an eye out for Haru's sake, will you? She's got this tendency to get herself into trouble..."
"No I don't!" protested the younger woman. "Things just happen to me, that's all."
"I think that's true," Lune interposed. "And I'm thankful that they do happen. If she hadn't saved me from the truck, she would never have come to my father's attention, but I would be dead right now."
An impish grin grew on Shizuku's face. "Whatever you guys say. I won't insist I'm right. Obaa-sama," she said to Zeniiba, "please take care of my journal."
"Of course. It'll be safe with me." Shizuku had spent the past days writing in it, at a feverish pace. None but the old sorceress knew what she had set down, but it had to be important: they were told that they could never read it until many years had passed.
"Well, I guess this is goodbye," Shizuku said, the awkwardness in her voice apparent. "Seiji?" She stretched a hand out.
Her husband took it, and without a further word their feet began to move down the path. They carried nothing with them but the clothes they wore.
Haru watched them walk down the green-gray tunnel until the mist had swallowed them up completely. Several silent seconds passed.
"Goodbye... okaa-san."
------oOo------
Arm in arm, she and Baron trudged back to Zeniiba's little cottage along with the others.
"I'm glad our woes have now ended," commented Baron. They were at the rear of the group, and the others were some distance apart from them, perhaps thinking that they—Haru especially—needed the space. After all, she had just said farewell to someone who was dear to her.
"Yeah." Haru gave the Cat's forearm a press. "Have you decided yet?"
"Decided what?"
"When you'll get married?"
"No. Louise and I can't agree on a specific date. I'd like December, but she says she never wanted to be a winter bride."
"I'd rather get married in the spring," said Haru.
"You are?"
"What?"
"Getting married?"
"Crazy! No! I was just thinking that if I were to get married, I'd rather do so when the cherry blossoms are blooming."
"They were late this year."
"I know."
On they went in silence, and after some minutes Baron spoke again.
"Haru, I'm glad you were able to come to terms with Machida."
"Yes, but not without price." Haru smiled wanly at the Cat. "If he sees us like this he's probably going to blow an artery and disown me. And Mom would probably never let me out of her sight again."
Baron closed his eyes briefly. "I'm glad you can still joke about that. For what it's worth... I'm sorry."
"Oh, Baron. For what?"
"That I almost ruined your relationship with your boyfriend. That I made you be unfaithful."
"Baron, what's done is done. Non, je ne regrette rien, as the song goes. Like I told you before, what we shared is over—take it and set it aside in memory, for that's where it belongs now."
The Cat turned to study her, his expression perturbed.
"What? Have I suddenly grown an extra nose or something?"
Baron shook his head. "You know, when you say things like that, you hardly sound like yourself. You sound... well, all grown-up."
"Me? All grown up? I hope not. Adults are so fuddy-duddy. I'm still just plain old Haru, who trips over her own feet and does what she shouldn't and ends up complicating things." She gazed straight into her former paramour's eyes, and for a moment ditched her bantering tone. "I nearly lost you, and sensei, and Kei-chan... It wouldn't have surprised me if I had gone insane at one point or another."
The Cat inclined his head. "Am I a fuddy-duddy then, Miss Haru?"
"Oh... sorry. "
"It's okay. A
"I'll welcome that. Speaking of wishes, don't you guys ever disappear on me again, you hear?"
Baron nodded.
"And speaking of sensei... I wonder what she left me." Haru took the envelope from her pocket and ripped it open. The tearing sounded obscenely loud in the oppressive silence of the swamp.
Haru read the letter, for that's what it was. Her eyes grew large, and she let out an involuntary whoop which caused everyone to jump and look at her.
"What's the matter?" Baron asked, alarmed.
"Oh, uh," stammered Haru, "sorry, everyone." She waved a hand and lowered her head, like a turtle seeking to retreat into its shell. "Sheesh. I've got to learn to stop doing that."
The aristocrat smiled. He could never tell her now, for fear of being misunderstood, but he loved the touch of her arm, the clumsiness and the muley insistence and the gamine charm, the way she had dared the impossible for what she felt was right. This was no longer the seventeen-year-old he had rescued from the Cat Kingdom years ago; and he didn't mind the change at all.
------oOo------
They all went home that day: Nausicaä and Selm, without any portals or overt magic—they were there one moment and just sort of vanished the next; Mrs. Kusakabe on board the Nekobus, with the widely-grinning King Totoro also a passenger; King Lune back to his kingdom, where the cats reigned and played all day, and Howl with him, since that was where Sophie and Michael and Calcifer were, awaiting his return. Only Zeniiba and Haku were left, because Swamp Bottom was her home, and his sometime abode, as a student of her magic. They sent Haru and Baron back, one to her dwelling in Koganei, and the other to his office.
The second she stepped out of the portal Haru ran out of the house and headed for the bus stop. It was late in the afternoon, but if she hurried she might make it to Seiseki Sakuragaoka and back before her mother's assigned curfew. It was one of the few conditions she couldn't weasel out of.
------oOo------
"Konban wa," she said, bowing. "Is, um, is Amasawa Shizuku-san in?"
The person who had opened the door was a tall blond man who wore eyeglasses and was dressed in a blue pullover and dark blue slacks. He was cradling an overweight white cat in his arms. "She is, but I'm sorry, she can't see anyone. She's just come back from Italy with her husband, and is recovering from a serious illness. I could take a message, though."
Haru was about to do just that when she remembered what Shizuku had written in her letter and decided the better of it. "No, I'll come back another time, thank you."
"Who shall I say called?"
Naoko Yoshioka's only daughter turned to go. She smiled over her shoulder at the man and the familiar cat he carried.
"A friend." With a nod she walked briskly away, away from the red building with the sloped roof and the sign 'Chikyuuya' above its door, and headed back down the hill.
I can't believe you did it, she rejoiced. Thanks, sensei. Even if your double doesn't know me... thank you for caring.
THE END
"Who was that, onii-san?"
"Some girl. Wouldn't give her name. Said she was a friend."
"Oh? I wonder who she is."
"Me too. You hungry yet?"
"Yeah."
"Alright, wait a moment. Keep an eye on Moon for me, bro."
"Sure thing. Are you feeling alright, Shizuku?"
"Why?"
"You've got that look on your face again. Concrete. You know, like a road."
"Oh, that's just awful. Seiji?"
"Hmm?"
"I'm glad we got out of that disaster."
"I told you we'd make it. You need to have a little more faith in me."
"Yes. I'm sorry I doubted you. I didn't think I'd see you again this way, standing amid all these memories. The violin-making boy from Midorichou Mukaihara Junior High who mocked me but eventually became my husband."
"Oh, Shi-chan, stop talking mush."
"I will, if you'll come over here and give me a kiss."
"Sure!"
------oOo------
"Moon?"
"Yeah, Luna?"
"Did you get your overtime pay from Muta?"
"Yeah. I got yours too, why?"
"Whew. That's a relief. I had a nightmare last night about him using our overtime pay to buy jelly rolls and coffee, and a hundred kilos of prime maguro. It was most... distressing."
"I'll go on strike if he ever does that. C'mon, let's go on to the shop and buy those Morita crackers Baron wanted us to get, okay?"
"Heh. I don't know why he wants them, unless he's planning to give them to Queen Yuki."
"Give them to Queen Yuki? Why?"
"She likes them, don't you know that?"
"No. But then again I haven't been the gossip poking my nose into other people's affairs."
"Hey! Take that back!"
"No, I won't. Nyaaah."
"Why you... you twerp!"
The two black cats on the small roof above a glassware shop dashed off into the maze of awnings and moldings and fire stairs and ladders, just above the heads of the people at the Crossroads.
------oOo------
"Nishi?"
"Yes?"
"You never told the little girl my name was Louise too?"
"No. I didn't get the chance. Why?"
"Oh, nothing. At least everything's fixed now. We've met, and they've met too."
"Yes. Everything's fixed now."
------oOo------
"Shocho, I'm glad to report that I've finally sent everyone an invitation."
The old man with the glasses and white hair closed the book he had been perusing. "Good. Did you have any troubles?"
"Well... no, not much."
"I see. Thanks for the help, Baron. Would you care to come downstairs with me and have a bite before you leave? I know you must be very busy."
"I'd be delighted to." As the old man left the narrow confines of the book-lined conference room, the Cat peeked at the cover of the book he had left on the table. It was Margery Williams' The Velveteen Rabbit; or, How Toys Become Real.
------oOo------
"Alright! Hold your horses, I'm coming!"
"What's that, Kei?"
"Nothing, Dad. Someone at the door. Yes, what can I..."
"Hi, sempai. Remember me, sempai? Sempai?"
"Huh? Oh, of course! Long time no see. Come on in, Chieri. What brings you here?"