Spirited Away: The Wait [ORIGINAL]

Needle in a Haystack

     Anybody walking past could hear the cruel sounds of things falling to the floor and shattering glass in Haku’s room. It was rather quiet in the shelter that day; nearly everyone had been expecting a wondrous celebration in light of the engagement, but when Haku had returned with an aura that kept people from even uttering a word of greeting to him, they understood what had likely just happened. Unsurprisingly, many others had been taken aback by the news as well, fearing for their founder’s emotional state at the moment.

     The staff had handed the task of comforting Haku to Shou, though they hadn’t even needed to ask; Shou was already making his way towards the noisy room, but never found it in him to knock on the bruised door and enter. He knew, from experience, that when Haku went on a rampage like this—Haku often did this during his period of mourning for Sora as well as her subsequent Sora’s death anniversaries—no one could stop him and he just needed some time to himself.

     What perplexed Shou deeply was what had happened at the meadow. He’d personally gone down to help out with the preparations, and hadn’t been satisfied until everything was top-notch, absolutely perfect and flawless. How could Chihiro have rejected Haku’s proposal? She should have recognized the amount of effort Haku put in just by looking at the pictures and the messages written behind them; should not that alone have moved her?

     Something was wrong with this couple, he decided, judging from the various arguments they had as well as the insecurities that Chihiro struggled with. Haku was open enough with his actions and was always trying to assure her that they would be fine, but somehow Chihiro was always unconvinced. She worried about too many things, the infinite ‘what-if’s that existed in choosing to be with Haku, although she did only have Haku’s best interests at heart, Shou knew. He sighed, folding his arms across his chest as he leaned against the wall outside of Haku’s room, cringing at the sound of more glass shattering. This room was probably going to require more renovation… And there goes the shelter fund again, he thought miserably.

     He didn’t know how long Haku remained in there, or how Haku managed to find that many things to break and destroy for two hours. Shou was starting to get restless standing there and not being able to do anything, but he restrained himself, gritted his teeth, and told himself that Haku needed alone time. The questions could come later.

     Speaking of which, he had told the staff to report to him if they saw Chihiro come back, but until now there hadn’t been a sign of her. He was starting to get worried. The Spirit Realm was a large, dangerous place for a lone, vulnerable human to be wandering around in, especially at night, so he quickly found Sakura and the others to help look for Chihiro.

     However, the team that went out in search of her came back with no news, other than the fact that it looked like a fight had taken place in that area. They also found a torn yellow piece of cloth that smelled like Chihiro.

     The first thing Shou thought of was that Chihiro had been attacked; well duh, she obviously had been. He couldn’t leave to search for her though, which frustrated him to no end, so he had left it to the small rescue team to help pick up her scent and find her whereabouts, but even after spending a good few hours there scouring the area as well as the surrounding forest, they couldn’t find any sign of her.

     Haku was still cooped up in the room, which had long fallen deadly silent, and Shou contemplated going in. Restlessly, he paced up and down, chewing on his lip. He couldn’t keep still, not while Chihiro’s whereabouts were unknown, or when Haku was in such a state. He really wished he could duplicate himself and go help out in the search for the woman, but right now, Haku needed him, and he had to place his trust in the rescue team; they did care about Chihiro to some extent ever since being acquainted with her, so they were undoubtedly trying their utmost to find her.