Spirited Away Fan Fiction ❯ The Reign of the Elements ❯ The Story of the Fall ( Chapter 4 )

Chapter 4: The Story of the Fall

 

A/N: Here's the next chapter!

 

P.S. Thank you so much to my beta strayphoenix! She's awesome as a writer and a beta!

 

Disclaimer: I do not own Spirited Away, it is the property of Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki. Please don't sue! I don't make any profit out of this!

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

 

“I-I've been gone for 500 years?!” I cried, clutching my heart as if it were in pain.

 

“Hai, 500 years,” Lin said patting my head, her arms covered in scars. My lips quivered as I touched her arms, feeling the rough, rotten skin below my fingers.

 

“Lin.” A ghost of a whisper echoed from my throat.

 

“It's alright,” she wheezed weakly, “it doesn't hurt that much anymore.”

 

“So you're getting better?” Please Kami, let her be getting better!

 

They stayed silent for a long time, neither answering nor even looking at me. Lin, of course, could not see me but Kamaji refused to meet my eyes. A constricting feeling filled my being as my legs turned to jelly.

 

“It is better if I keep going with the story.” Kamaji murmured, waiting for my response.

 

It took some time for me to be able to talk through the block in my throat. Nothing would come out no matter how hard I tried. Finally, a small croaky voice emerged, urging Kamaji on.

 

“Let us then start with Haku-san.” Even the mention of his name didn't cause my heart to flutter so occupied was my mind on Lin's predicament.

 

“H-hai.” I stuttered, “Haku first!” A hollow smile crossed my lips.

 

“Well, Haku-san declared his independence from Yubaba-sama just after you left the land of the spirits. He stated that he would not work for her unless he was her equal.”

 

“Oh that caused Yubaba-sama to have a conniption!” Lin laughed harshly and then stopped, bending over and hacking into her fisted hands.

 

“You alright?” My hand patted her back gently, trying to calm her coughing fit. She waved me off not wanting my help.

 

“Keep,” she stopped to expectorate again, “keep going Kamaji-san.” Her voice wavered, threatening to leave.

 

“Yes, well,” Kamaji cleared his throat and flashed his eyes at me before continuing.

 

Was this normal? Did she usually cough like she was throwing up a lung? Science might not be my forte but…coughing that hard wasn't a good sign. Ever.

 

“Haku-san had to leave the bathhouse after his discussion with Yubaba-sama. She just would not let him stay after he rebelled!” Kamaji paused for a minute then laughed and laughed. It sounded like a cross between an old man's laugh and the brittle sound of wood breaking

 

“What's so funny, Kamaji-san?” It was impossible to contain the smile that lifted the corners of my mouth as I kept patting Lin on the back every so often.

 

“Oh, it's nothing Sen-chan,” he chuckled again, “it's just that Haku-san put up a dozen harmless traps up in Yubaba-sama's quarters before leaving!” He roared with laughter. “You should have seen her after she ran through all the traps! Ho! Ho!” He slapped his knee. “She was red with fury, spouting fire from her mouth, and screaming bloody murder!”

 

Lin started to chortle and the mental image made me chuckle slightly. Oh, Haku! I knew you had it in you to get away from Yubaba's grubby hands!

 

The laugh died bitterly in my throat as Lin coughed once again. It was impossible to laugh when my friend was suffering right next to me. My fingers swpet across her back the coughing fit shuddering through her very bones.

 

“Ah!” Kamaji sighed, bringing us to attention. Lin's cough calmed slightly as she nodded for us to continue.

 

“So what did Haku do next?”

 

“Well, that's where everything begins to get fuzzy.” Kamaji rubbed a hand across his face, “you remember that powerful river spirit you managed to clean?”

 

Hmm…river spirit, river spirit, river—oh! Yes of course! The one we thought was a stink spirit. That reminded me; I owed him tremendously for giving me that healing medicine.

 

“Hai, I remember.”

 

“He offered to train Haku-san to be a powerful river spirit so he could go back to the land of the living and create his own river.” Kamaji smiled.

 

“No!” I cried, “that's wonderful!” My heart soared despite the sorrow. Haku could get his river back! He'd be able to come back and stay in my world permanently. The prospect was so amazing my limbs started twitching with excitement.

 

“This is what I don't understand, though,” Lin piped in.

 

“What?” I asked. Kamaji nodded to her and looked at me with drawn eyebrows.

 

“He swore to go looking for you after he finished his training.” Kamaji rubbed his chin in contemplation.

 

“Then he's probably still training.” My voice was forceful with confidence. Kamaji didn't seem to be as assured as me and Lin's frown only made me even more doubtful.

 

“What?” I asked them.

 

“Sen-chan, what you don't understand is that the river promised to finish his training with Haku-san after 300 years…it's been 500 so why hasn't he found you?”

 

My heart stopped. My hand smoothed over the area where it should be beating but instead of the steady rhythm I heard frantic, irregular cannon fire. This-this wasn't happening. There was a logical, perfect explanation for this. Haku was—I mean, he—no, wait…no, he just didn't—couldn't have, b-but how—no!

 

No…no, no, no!

 

My head dropped to my chest to hide my twinkling eyes. They couldn't see me like this; they'd think I was the same sniveling, spoiled little girl that had come hesitantly through the gate of the land of the spirits. And I was further from that than they even knew

 

“So,” I said, my voice sounded foreign to my ears, “what do you think happened to him?”

 

“Worst case scenario?” His voice lifted as if in a question. Kamaji was asking me for permission to say the death sentence. My head felt like lead as it bobbed up and down in a nod.

 

“He died from the disease.”

 

Some sort of…sound, for lack of a better word, emerged from my throat before my mouth closed to lock it in. Lin sat up and wrapped her arms around me in a very un-Lin like hug.

 

Her arms were shaking. That's funny, why was she shaking? Actually, now that I noticed, everything seemed to be trembling around me.

 

Oh. It was me who was shaking…and crying.

 

My hands gripped her arms as my tears felt silently, crashing like bullets against the comforter. Kamaji fiddled with his fingers not knowing what to do, or say. Poor man, I was causing him to stress even more.

 

“This is the worst case scenario, Sen-chan.” He soothed as soon as my tears seemed to ease.

 

“Then what's the best?” My voice wavered.

 

“He might still be training with the river spirit or he might be trying to establish himself as a mighty river spirit before coming to look for you--”

 

“Or he might have found another woman to love.” My voice was small and quiet and I wasn't sure where it came from but it stopped Kamaji like a bomb.

 

No one spoke for a minute. Lin froze and then grabbed my shoulders turning me to look at her. Those sightless eyes seemed to have regained their ability, burrowing into mine as she growled low.

 

“Now you listen here, Sen-chan!” She snapped, “Haku-san was and still is madly in love with you! Don't you doubt it!” She gave me a shake for good measure.

 

“I…I want to believe you…”

 

“Then just do!” She frowned and stared into my eyes again.

 

“Alright.”

 

“Good.” Her eyes twinkled and another smile blossomed on my face as she smiled back at me as if knowing that it was what I needed.

 

Something swept across her black orbs then. She blinked, her eyebrows creasing. Again, the something passed across her vision. Lin froze before slamming her hands on my shoulders causing me to topple off the bed and onto the floor.

 

“Kamaji-san!” Lin cried as if she was dying, “help m—”

 

Her voice just shut off and an unearthly grinding noise echoed from her throat, like a groan crossed with a growl. The features of her face morphed until Lin looked more like a rabid dog than a spirit; wide, unseeing eyes, claw-like fingers, and lips pulled back. She crawled towards me, her hair sliding over her face making her look like something out of a horror movie.

 

“Se-n,” Lin croaked. It didn't even sound like her! She sounded possessed and dangerous. “You left me Sen!” She shrieked launching herself at me.

 

A scream ripped from my throat as I crouched down readying myself for the blow.

 

It never came and my eyes opened, curiosity winning out. Kamaji stood cradling a sleeping Lin in his arms. He sighed, carrying her back to her bed. Her breathing was steady and she looked like an innocent angel. No trace of the rabid demon remained on her face.

 

“Ka-kamaji-san?”

 

“Ssh!” He admonished, standing to turn towards me, “I will explain after we have left.” With an iron grip he grabbed my arm and pulled me up. My legs trembled as he led me out, out, out of the rooms not pausing even for breath.

 

We kept walking some distance away from the sick rooms and yet he would not stop. He kept tugging me along even when I protested.

 

“Kamaji-san!” Tugging at his arms produced little effect. “Kamaji-san!” Nothing.

 

“KAMAJI-SAN!” My voice rose to the top of its power and bellowed out of my throat. That pretty much caught his attention and his hand let go of my arm instinctively.

 

“Gomen nasai, Sen-chan.” He murmured, shifting from foot to spidery foot in front of the elevator.

 

“Can you just explain to me,” I growled at him, rubbing my bruised wrist, “what happened back there?”

 

“Lin went into a period of madness.”

 

“Why?” I fired back.

 

“Because, it is part of the final stage of the disease.” My head tipped back and as everything seemed to become heavy.

 

“She's not getting better.” It was a statement, not a question.

 

“No, no one gets better from this.” He murmured, looking to the side. My fingers massaged my suddenly tired eyes. There were still things he would not bring to the light and it was high time he told me!

 

“Explain. Everything.” It was best that I knew what it was that I was fighting.

 

“This disease was made,” he said. He paused for breath and then let it out in a rushing hiss, “by Boh-kun.”

 

“Boh-kun? The baby? But he's not a magician!” That baby was harmless! Kamaji had to be wrong.

 

“Boh-kun didn't evolve into a magician more powerful than his mother until years after your departure.” Kamaji explained.

 

“Why did he do this?” Questions were busting to leave and they would not be still until I had spoke them into being.

 

“He did it because of you.”

 

“Me?” An incredulous squeak scrabbled up my throat.

 

“Hai, he waited for you but when Haku-san didn't bring you back, evil thoughts brewed in his mind. He wanted you for himself, his thoughts of you became corrupted. After a while, he deluded himself into believing he was madly in love with you. Because of his corrupted mind, he believed that the only way to get you back was to destroy the spirit realm so you would come back to save it.” Kamaji took a breath to let it sink in.

 

And boy did it sink in, all the way to the center of the earth. My legs sunk right along with the truth.

 

Not happening, not happening…

 

But it was.

 

“So, I'm to blame for this.” I whispered.

 

“H-hai, in a convoluted way. You couldn't have stopped it either way, Sen-chan,” Kamaji knelt beside me. We stayed silent for some time; me fiddling with my hands and Kamaji patting my head.

 

“This disease,” I started, “how far does it progress?”

 

Kamaji sat silent as a stone for a while, not moving almost not breathing. His eyes scrutinized his hands. Oh please tell me Lin didn't have to suffer much longer!

 

“The first stage is the one you saw as you rode up the elevator,” he intoned as if reading from a phone book, “the pain is excruciating, boils pop up all throughout the body and within the person as well. Their bones ache, their muscles ache, everything hurts. They can't keep anything in.”

 

“Then what?” I prompted when he didn't seem to be forthcoming with information.

 

“Then is the second stage, the one you saw in the first room. We call this the silent stage because the victims grow calmer but, inversely, the disease becomes more aggressive. Darker, more prominent boils appear, the eyes sink into the skull and all the muscles and fat are consumed until the body is mere skin and bones, literally.” Kamaji looked up from his scrutiny of the floor, fixing his insect eyes on me.

 

“The last stage,” my voice sounded alien to my ears, “that's Lin-san's stage, isn't it?” It was pronounced like a death sentence.

 

“Hai.” One word to kill the soul. “That is the stage Lin-san is in.”

 

There was a pause as time seemed to hiccup before restarting again, leaving everything changed in its wake.

 

“What does this stage entail.”

 

“Madness,” he whispered. “When the disease first appeared, we believed that the victims were getting better when they reached this stage. You see,” he waved his arms around slightly; “the boils and the fevers go away at this point. Suddenly, miraculously, they regain all the weight they had shed and more!” He stared at me, arms uplifted in a supplication, breathing erratic.

 

“But…?” I broke him out of his joyous trance and tossed him back to earth. He swallowed and sighed rubbing a hand behind his head.

 

“They become mad. The victims' dementia starts with short bursts of rabid anger that get slowly longer and longer until they lose their sanity. Everything that used to even slightly bother them before now becomes their hated enemy.” Kamaji finished with a sigh.

 

“What?” He didn't make any sense!

 

“For example,” he began, “Lin-san, just a few moments ago, almost attacked you right?”

 

“Hai, I remember.” It would forever be engrained in the very facets of my memories.

 

“It is because she was depressed about your departure after you went back to the real world. It didn't anger her: just bothered her. Now, though, with the disease, her depression has mutated into a frothing venegance.” My shoulders shook as he watched me closely.

 

“So, she hates me?”

 

“When she is in her maddened form, yes, she does.” He placed a hand on my shoulder gripping it to let me know that he was here to help me, that I was not alone.

 

“What can I do?” My voice sounded frail, pitiful.

 

He took in a breath and let it out in slowly. His long fingers rubbed against his chin, thinking and considering. My muscles…no, my soul was tired. It couldn't even be described by bodily aches. This pain was deeper than any organic tissue.

 

My mind was silent, too. It was a void with no sounds where no amount of effort would cause a thought to even to flicker across my brain. This was depression, this was hopelessness. No wonder people felt like…like falling asleep and never waking up. It would be horrible to wake up to this feeling every day.

 

And it hit me. This is how Lin must feel and how every other victim must feel. Every morning they woke to look at the ceiling and wonder, `Is this the day I die? Will this be the day I never wake from my madness? Is this the day I kill my loved ones because I do not remember who they are?'

 

How did they live? I would have opted to die long ago…

 

If it were possible, my soul clenched even tighter against the agony. My hands were folded in on themselves, mimicking what was happening within me.

 

Kamaji stood suddenly, moving fluidly to tower over me. Indecision swam across his face as he glanced from me to the elevator and then back to me.

 

“You should see someone.” He breathed, not really paying attention to what he was saying.

 

“Who?” I asked.

 

“But I do not know if you should see that person…” well, so much for answering my question. He looked enveloped in his own thoughts and did not remember that I was right in front of him.

 

“I will have to see them sooner or later.” That caught his attention, he swiveled back to look at me then, after a great long pause to deliberate some more, he nodded stiffly.

 

“Come.” He reached down to help me to my feet.

 

“Where?” I asked as he tugged me to the elevator. We stepped in and the door shut behind us with a final click.

 

“To see Yubaba-sama,” the elevator rose sharply causing it to screech against the shaft walls. A crazed, cackling sound echoed as if someone was getting a kick out of my terror.

 

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

About the huge helping of angst…sorry if it might have hit a nerve on some people. I know near death experiences are hard (trust me I know) but the only way to show how horrible this disease is, is to emphasize the agony the victims are going through. Just thought I should put an explanation for Chihiro-chan's dark thoughts.

 

Also, the disease is fictional, to my knowledge. I just took a bunch of symptoms from other diseases like the Plague, Alzheimer's, etc. to create this whopper of a bug. What can I say, I love medical stuff! So, what did you think? Amazing? Sad? Loved it? Please do tell me, I like to hear what you think!

 

That's all the phrases for now, if use any others I'll explain them!

 

~~Go-chan