Fan Fiction / Spirited Away Fan Fiction ❯ Spirited Hearts ❯ Aburaya ( Chapter 2 )

Disclaimer: (Sigh) I own nothing, so don't sue me.

Chapter 2: Aburaya

After Kama left, Kairi walked through the door and climbed down the steps. It was rough going, but she continued. Suddenly, one of the steps she was on broke, and she raced down the remaining steps, screaming all the way, until she ran smack dab into a wall. Rubbing her nose, she looked up quickly as a nearby window opened, and a frog -man leaned out to blow a stream of smoke. Sure that no one had seen her, Kairi continued on her way. Soon, she reached the door to the boiler room. Carefully, she opened it and went inside. The boiler room looked like any you would see in any school, but Kairi was still frightened. At the end of the boilers was a huge room with wood paneling. At one end of the room was a desk-like thing where a man with spiky blond hair sat turning a wheel and grinding some plants under a stone. On the floor (which was lowered,) several black creatures with long antenna and yellow eyes were scuttling back and forth out of holes in the wall and carrying large pieces of coal.

"Uh, hello?" Kairi asked the man. "Are you Cloud?" The man turned to look at her.

"Yes, that is my name. What do you want, human?" he asked irritably.

"Uh, Sora told me to ask you for a job," Kairi said quickly.

"I don't need any help!" snapped Cloud. "I have all the help I need!" He waved a hand at the wall, and some parts of it opened up, (Apparently, the wall was made up of drawers.) and out flew several grasses and herbs. Cloud grabbed them and started to grind them. "There were lots of shadows down here, so I cast a spell on them and made them my workers." he continued.

Crestfallen, Kairi walked over to where the Shadows were coming in and out of the wall. One Shadow could not carry its load, and fell down. The coal landed on its body, and it flailed about wildly, but none of the other Shadows stopped to help it. So Kairi leaned down and pulled the coal off the poor creature. The others stopped to watch, before returning to work.

"What should I do with this?" asked Kairi. "Should I put it down?"

"Finish what you start, human!" replied Cloud. So, Kairi found herself having to carry the heavy piece of coal through the crowd of Shadows (Who were nice enough to clear a path for her.) over to the furnace, where she had to throw the coal in. She quickly did so, and ran to the side of the desk. "Not bad, " said Cloud, "But you can't just take other people's jobs, other wise the spell wears off."

But the Shadows had other ideas. They dropped their pieces of coal on themselves, and started flailing. Cloud banged a gavel on the desk. "Knock that off! Do you want to turn back into shadows?" But the Shadows got up and threw their pieces of coal at Kairi. "Cut it out!" Shouted Cloud. Just then, a door in the other wall opened, and a young woman with dark hair stepped in. She wore a pink shirt and pants, as well as a white apron. She also carried a basket.

"Mealtime!" she called loudly. The girl looked around. "You guys haven't fighting again haven't you?" she asked.

"No, of course not, Yuffie," Cloud replied.

"Where's your other bowl?" the girl asked Cloud, who gave it to her. "I keep telling you to leave it out," she scolded him. Cloud banged his gavel on the desk.

"Okay you runts, mealtime!" The Shadows left Kairi and ran to where Yuffie was throwing out colored candy stars. As she was giving out the food, Yuffie looked over to where Kairi was standing ankle deep in coal.

"A human!" she exclaimed. "You're the one everyone's been looking for!"

"She's my niece," said Cloud, putting ramen noodles into his mouth. "She wants a job, but I don't need any help. Take her to see Maleficent." The girl sighed.

"Fine," she said, dumping the contents of her basket on the floor, where the Shadows scrambled to gather them. "Come on little girl," she said. Kairi stepped out of the pile of coal, and followed her, remembering to take off her shoes first.

"You don't need your shoes or your socks, so just leave them here." Kairi put her socks in her sneakers then put them on the floor with the Shadows. As she went to the door, Yuffie whispered, "Thank the boiler man you idiot! He's really sticking his neck out for you!"

"Thank you, Mr. Boiler man!" she called, before slipping through the door.

"Good luck with Maleficent!" Cloud shouted back.

Kairi followed Yuffie into an elevator, where she stood facing the wall.

"Do you want to lose your nose?" Yuffie asked her. Quickly, Kairi stepped away from the wall. When the elevator stopped, the two of them ran over to another one, with Kairi hiding behind Yuffie. "We're almost there," said Yuffie a few minutes later. Kairi looked to one side as they passed several slits in the wall, to see the bottom floor was covered with pools where many odd creatures were bathing. As they got to one of the top floors, the doors opened up to reveal a large round creature with a small head. "A Large Body," whispered Yuffie. When the creature pointed up, Yuffie replied, "I'm sorry sir, but this elevator doesn't go any higher. You'll have to find another one." And with that, they left to find another elevator. Kairi was surprised to her the sound of rubbery footprints behind them. She turned her head, only to see the Large Body.

"He's following us!" she whispered to Yuffie.

"Well, don't look at him," the other girl replied. Soon they came to an elevator that went to the top floors. Kairi slid in, followed by the Large Body. Then, a frog man who was nearby leaned over to Yuffie and said,

"Hey Yuffie, you smell like a human!" Yuffie sighed.

"What's it to you?" she asked.

"I think you're hiding something," the frog -man said. Yuffie reached into a pocket of her apron and pulled something out.

"Is this what you're looking for?" she asked. The frog- man's eyes grew wide.

"A roasted newt?!" he exclaimed, lunging for it, but Yuffie pulled it away.

"No way pal," she told him. "I'm keeping this all for myself." As the frog- man tried to grab the newt out of her hands, Yuffie called over her shoulder, "If you want to go up, pull up the lever on your right." Kairi squeezed out from behind the Large Body, and pulled the lever. The doors closed just as Yuffie thew the roasted newt, making the frog- man dive after it. On the long ride up, Kairi looked at the Large Body, who looked at her before she turned her head away. Finally, they reached the top. Once she got out, the Large Body bowed, then pulled a lever. Kairi walked along a well-furnished hallway up to a pair of large red doors that had a knocker shaped like a dragon on one. To her surprise, the knocker's eyes rolled and in a reedy voice it said,

"Aren't you going to knock? You're the laziest girl I ever met." But the doors opened anyway, and the lights came on to reveal more hallways.

"Come in," said a cruel- sounding voice. Kairi took a step back. "I said come IN!" Repeated the voice and suddenly, Kairi was pulled through the doors, across several hallways, and into a room that seemed more like an office. Behind her was a fireplace that had a painting of a white-haired man dressed in black. (A.N: If you didn't know, that's Sephiroth from Final Fantasy VII) In front of her was a desk covered in papers and bags of gold and jewels. Behind that desk was the most evil-looking woman Kairi had ever seen. She had pale skin, and wore a purplish-black robe. On her head were tall horn-like things. Suddenly, four lantern-like creatures hopped around her. They all looked the same, except they were different colors. One was red, another was blue, the other was yellow, and the last was green. (A.N.: These are the Blue Rhapsody, Green Requiem, Red Nocturne, and Yellow Opera enemies from Kingdom Hearts) "Quiet down, you're making a racket," said the woman, who then turned her steely gaze on Kairi. "Well, well, if it isn't the little human. Your parents were foolish enough to eat the offerings of the gods, so they were turned into pigs. I should make you a piglet. Or maybe you'd prefer a lump of coal."

"Please mam, I came her to get a job!" said Kairi. The woman (Who was, of course, Maleficent,) made a zipping motion with her hand, and to Kairi's surprise, her mouth zipped shut. Maleficent walked away from he desk over to Kairi.

"Now let me tell you something," she said. "This bathhouse is a resort for spirits and gods to heal themselves or just relax. We don't need a human around. But I'm surprised you got this far, you probably got some help. Just who was it dear?" she made a zipping motion with her hand, and Kairi found she could talk again. But she didn't want to get Yuffie into trouble, so when she could talk, she yelled,

"Please give me a job!"

"Not that again! " snapped Maleficent.

"I'll work really hard!" Kairi begged. But before Maleficent could say anything, a loud cry filled the air.

"Oh dear! You woke up the baby!" shouted Maleficent as she ran towards a back door. She stopped and looked at Kairi. "Why are you still here?" she asked.

"'I'm not leaving until you give me a job," Kairi said boldly.

`Fine, fine just be quiet!" sighed Maleficent. And with that, she ran through the door. All was quiet for a few moments, then a paper floated up to Kairi followed by a pen.

"Just sign on the dotted line," said Maleficent as she came through the door. "Give a job to anyone who asks! Why on earth did I take that oath?" she grumbled. Maleficent turned her gaze to Kairi, who was on the floor writing her name. "Are you done yet?" Maleficent grumbled. Not waiting for an answer, she waved her fingers and the paper floated over to her. "Kairi," she said, looking at the writing on the bottom. "What an exquisite name." she waved a hand over the letters, and they floated into her palm. "And now its mine!" she gloated. Turning to Kairi, she said, "From now on, your name is Umi. Do you hear me? Answer me Umi!"

"Yes mam!" said the girl. Just then, the boy from before stepped into the room.

"You wanted to see me?" asked Kama. Maleficent grinned.

"Ah, yes. Kama, I want you to take Umi here and give her a job downstairs." The boy bowed.

"As you wish." He turned to Kairi/Umi. "Come on." Kairi/Umi followed him out of the room, and into an elevator. As they were going down, Kairi/Umi turned to Kama to say something, but he replied, "Don't talk to me. From now on, you will refer to me as Master Kama. Understand?" Kairi/Umi nodded a little hurt and betrayed.

~ End Chapter ~

Note: Ok, it's time for a Japanese reference. Kairi is a Japanese term for a nautical mile, so the name "Umi"- which means ocean- would be a perfect name. Now for the reviews:

Marissa- Thanks!

Caribbean-Crossbones - Well, Riku DOES act very similar to Haku in the beginning of the movie, but he becomes less cold as the movie progresses. Besides, I prefer Sora/Kairi relationships to Riku/Kairi ones.

FlikFreak- don't worry, I'm working on that.

Charles Xavier- Thank you! And this fic will follow the movie pretty much, but I'll have to change a few things. And, I want to do a fic concerning the great movie "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" and various animes. (Which will feature only Animes I know about) Of course, I don't want to copy off your fic, unless you say it's ok.

Dstrike- Thanks and again, I'm having Sora as Haku and Kairi as Chihiro because I like that pairing. (Actually, I like both pairings of Chihiro/Haku and Sora/Kairi)

Mikari- Thanks and I fixed the run on problem, so it's easier to read.