After letting Nausicaä rest a while in the small guest room given over to her in the topmost floor, the three bathhouse denizens led her down the corridors to a waiting bath. The sight of a round tub filled partway with warm water greeted them as they entered the specially-prepared stall. Lying on a low wooden table beside it lay some bathing paraphernalia and what appeared to be folded towels. Three small stools also awaited them.
"Here," said Haku to Nausicaä without preamble, handing her two small round things that looked like pills. One was as red as a cherry, while the other was a deep blue. As blue as the eyes of an Ohmu...
"Swallow them both."
"What are they for?"
"If you don't take them, you'll become a spirit yourself, and you'll have to stay here forever."
Nausicaä quickly swallowed the bitter-tasting medicine down.
"I must for the present leave you, hime-sama," said Haku. "In good hands, I hope." He arched a fine eyebrow at Rin, who turned her back to Nausicaä and stuck her tongue out at him.
"Haku," Chihiro giggled. "Stop bugging Rin like that."
Haku's imperious expression briefly changed into a smile. Then he left, walking down the way they had come and disappearing around a corner.
"I still don't know what you see in that guy," Rin remarked as Chihiro told Nausicaä to enter the stall. "No one ever really understands him. Sometimes he blows hot, sometimes he runs cold."
"That's why I like him, Rin," said Chihiro. "He remains true to himself, despite all that's happened over the years."
The fox spirit snorted. "Hah. I guess he feels obliged to be nice to you, considering that you freed him from a lifetime of servitude to Yu-baaba."
Chihiro looked down the wooden-floored corridor where Haku had vanished. "Oh, Rin. Deep inside, I know he's a nice guy."
"Then why didn't you marry him?"
"Because..." In the sunlight-drenched memories of a few years back Chihiro found the answer. It was a a vision of Haku standing in front of her outside Zeniiba's house in Swamp Bottom, holding her by the shoulders, saying, "It would never work out between us. Spirits and humans can never mix any more. They used to, once upon a time. But the two kindred have gone their separate ways and become estranged from each other, no longer able to understand one another's hearts."
Chihiro, confused as to where the loyalties of her heart--and Haku's--lay, had blurted out, "But why won't you try? Why can't you be brave enough to try?" And Haku's answer, whispered into her ear as he suddenly hugged her to him, would forever be known only to her.
"Because, Chichiro, I care for you too much to break your heart with my wild ways."
And that was that. Loving friends, in the end, was all they made of themselves. Chihiro had found someone to fill the void in her heart, but Haku was content to revel in his freedom, often disappearing for days on end, according to Rin, Bou and the other denizens of the bathhouse, going off to no one knew where.
"Chihiro?"
At the soft call, Chihiro blinked and found the twin baffled faces of Nausicaä and Rin looking at her.
"I'm sorry!" she exclaimed. "Oh, Yu-baaba will kill us if she sees us standing around like this. Nausicaä, please disrobe here."
The wind-rider, who felt herself standing on the edge of things she didn't understand, nodded and began by removing her helmet, belt and gloves. Rin went to the low table and took a white towel from it. Flapping it open, she shielded the Princess from sight as the latter continued to discard her clothing. There was no worry anyone would see her from above; this stall was on the topmost floor, somewhat isolated from the rest of the establishment.
When Nausicaä had finished, Chihiro told her to step into the tub. She took five long red markers from the low table and walked to the hidden recess in the wall, where she slid a panel open, hooked the markers to the waiting strap inside the long message tube, and gave it a firm yank. The cord snaked into the darkness. Now all they had to do was wait for the spout to come down from the wall and deliver the scented water to the tub.
Chihiro returned and found Nausicaä already lying in the water, her head resting on the rim, cushioned by a pillow made out of a small folded towel. A blissful expression was aborning on her face.
"How are you feeling?"
"Heavenly. Just heavenly," Nausicaä answered, her words slightly indistinct. The pink flush on her cheeks matched the windburn Chihiro had seen earlier on her.
"That's nothing. Wait till you try..." As if on cue the wooden spout came out from the siding and lowered itself over the tub. Rin cautioned the Princess to close her eyes and she pulled the cord attached to its end.
A stream of fragrant water issued from the spout and splashed into the tub. Rin filled the container to the brim and pulled once more on the cord, causing the flow to stop and the mechanism to retract once more into the wall.
Nausicaä breathed deeply. "Oh, this is simply wonderful, Chihiro, Rin," she said happily, dunking her head under the water for a split-second. She emerged blubbing from it and asked, "What is this?"
"Just a couple of herbs and medicines, hime-sama," answered Rin. Chihiro did not trust herself to speak. The combination of tokens she had sent down to Kamajii reminded her uncomfortably of the mixture traditionally used in some country districts to bathe bodies being prepared for burial.
"Thank you, Kamajii-jiisan," she said to no one in particular, to hide her uneasiness.
"Hey, he's off-shift," Rin reminded her. "It's that bear from Mizu who's working the boilers now."
"Really? Thanks, then, Kumagorou-kun."
Chihiro bloused her pants, produced her tasuki from her uniform's pockets and tied it around her shoulders, using it to keep her suikan's sleeves out of the way. The fox-lady was already suitably prepared, with her pants already pulled up to mid-calf, her tasuki already tied, and with her assistance Chihiro bathed Nausicaä, washed and scrubbed her clean of the grime and dust of her travel. After they had finished, the Princess lay back in the tub and made lots of small talk with her compatriot, then slowly fell asleep in the water.
"Hmm," Rin noised, moving around hesitantly. "Well, I certainly didn't expect this. I didn't know that you were that much of a bore to talk to," she remarked, grinning to show that she was only joking and meant no insult.
"She must really be tired," said Chihiro as she looked up from the small bath stool she was sitting on. She had been massaging Nausicaä's hand as they talked. So young, yet already so callused... "I could sense that the moment I first saw her crossing the bridge. Should we wait for her to wake up?" She extended a hand, ready to place it on Nausicaä's shoulder to rouse her.
"How should I know? I'm not a yuna." Rin watched Nausicaä's peaceful countenance for a second, then smiled. "Naah. I think we should let her sleep."
Chihiro smiled back. "Yeah, I think you're right. Look, since there's nothing to do just now, you can go if you want to. I'll send someone to fetch you when she wakes."
"Hey, thanks!" Rin's face brightened and she rubbed her hands in glee. "Don't forget to reduce the tub's temperature. It's not good for anyone doze off too long in hot water. Now, if you don't mind, I'll just nip downstairs and have some of that roasted newt. If Okiko's already gotten her filthy paws on it..." Leaving the sentence unfinished, she nodded and silently hurried on bare feet out of the stall.
------oOo------
Sara jumped at the touch on her shoulder. "Juna! Don't sneak up on me like that!"
"Sorry."
"You walk as one who has cat's feet," observed the songstress. "What're you doing here?" They were in the bottom level of the common hall. Tribal artifacts such as shields, masks and spears hung from the wooden posts and beams of the shady place, and some love sticks leaned against the open walls. The Avatar wondered why Sara had so many.
"I just came to watch you make those sticks," she said, sitting down on the rough-hewn bench beside her. "Could you teach me?"
The pretty shaman raised her eyebrows. "Whatever for? I mean, surely as a foreigner and outsider you find this custom of ours quaint and backward."
Taken aback by the harshness and vehemence she heard in the other girl's voice, Juna was speechless for a moment.
Sara sighed and lowered her head. Her knife stopped whittling. "I'm sorry. You've been nothing but a boon since you arrived here, but... I can't help it." She looked directly at Juna. "I'm naturally mistrustful of people who come from the outside."
Juna saw the barely-concealed pain in her eyes and, despite not wanting to seem overly nosy, couldn't help asking, "Why?"
Sara shook her head and held out her work. "Here. I'll show you how to make one. You're a woman, so you need to - "
Their hands touched as Juna took hold of the stick. The world in her mind's eye came alive in sepia-toned memories. Unprepared to deal with the Drop of Time's onslaught after being free from its powers the past few days, she gasped and arched her back, her head jerking to look up at the bamboo-slatted ceiling.
------oOo------
Blood. There was blood coming out of the crook of her--Sara's--arm, flowing through a small needle into a collecting vial. The needle hurt and she wanted to pull it out, but was prevented from doing so by the eager clutch of the wizened, eyeglass-wearing old man on her forearm.
He chuckled, and the sound sent shivers traveling up Juna's--Sara's--spine. "Now, now," he said softly. His voice was reptilian and cold and cruel. "This won't take long. There, finished." He pulled the needle out of Sara's skin and placed a bandage over the puncture.
Frightened and feeling violated by his rough actions, the young girl spun around and ran away into the jungle, crying.
"Thank you for your cooperation," the old man called after her.
------oOo------
A tall, muscled man with a moustache, wearing ceremonial garb and a feathered headdress, and holding the same staff Sara carried with her, looked down sternly at her--Sara and Juna--after addressing the old man. The scientist had just left her alone with him. "Do you know what you have done, my child?" the man asked, his voice quiet and low, heavy with disapproval. The air was muggy, still, and oppressive. "Always, always remember the bird-person. How many times must I remind you of that?"
"Father..." She felt the dull pain in her arm and wished the earth would suddenly come alive and swallow her up, so great was her shame.
------oOo------
Juna gasped again, as a drowning person would, and popped out of her dream world. Beside her she heard an intake of breath akin to her own and found Sara sitting stiffly on the seat beside her, her eyes wide and unseeing. Her rigid fingers pinned Juna's to the half-finished courtship stick.
"Sara!" Juna called, trying to shake her hand free of the painful grip. "Sara, wake up!"
The other woman came out of her trance and slumped forward. Juna caught her just in time to keep her from banging headfirst into the work table.
As she came to, the shaman shook Juna's hands off her shoulders and stayed seated, silent and hunched over.
"Sara... did you - "
"Yes. Yes, I did." She twisted around to stare at Juna, a look of mingled fright and wonder and suspicion on her features. "I betrayed my father's trust, and my people as well. And for what? A tawdry necklace, a mere trinket!" The fright grew into suppressed terror. "Who are you, Juna Ariyoshi? What enables you to see into my heart and mind? Are you a bird-person, awake at last, come to destroy my people and the whole world?"
"No!" Juna answered emphatically. Her hand still in the other girl's, she was caught up in the maelstrom of Sara's feelings. "Of course not!" She finally pulled free of Sara's grasp, and the stick rattled as it fell to the floor.
"You came from the sky," the shaman insisted. "You are a stranger and an outsider, and I have only your words to vouch for you."
Juna's heart grew cold and she became quiet. She stood up from the bench. "My words are all I have, Sara. I came to you bearing nothing but myself. If I do not use them, how can I prove otherwise that you're wrong, that I'm not your dreaded tori no hito, that I mean you no harm? If you didn't want to trust me, why did you take me in?"
Sara gave no answer, and Juna, feeling herself hurt beyond the power of speech to describe or remedy, stalked out of the room.
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(Posted Tue, 21 Jun 2005 19:03)
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