Spirited Away : A Voice of Healing

Chapter 3: The Sacred Chamber

She jolts awake when she felt the cab come to a stop, she then sits up properly and wipes the embarrassing drool from her face as she peers out the window, seeing the long familiar stairs of the shrine entrance. She had slept almost the entire trip, her mother would probably scold her for falling asleep in a car with a stranger, but oh well, the cab driver did his job nevertheless.

"Here you are miss, that will be 6,085 yen" the cab driver states.

"Oh right, here you go sir, she says as she fumbles through her school bag for her wallet, she skims through and takes out the amount she needs, however then decided to give the guy a little extra for the trouble, it is quite late after all, the poor guy probably just wants to get to bed. She then hands him 6,500 yen and then smiles gratefully "keep the change, you earned it".

She then hops out of the cab and gathers her things, when all her stuff was accounted for she turns away from the cab as it drove away. She looks up at the familiar semi-overgrown stairs, beside the stairs was a familiar stone statue...it was just like the one outside of the tunnel when she was younger, only larger. She remembers how weirded out she used to be by them, but now that she know what they are, she was no longer weirded out by them, they were like guardians of sorts, they helped protect the barrier to the spirit world, you can normally find them where the barrier is thin, or where high spiritual energy resides, so finding them at shrines is a given.

She gives it an affectionate pat "don't you worry, I won't abandon you...I'll figure something out I promise" she whispers softly before finally making her way up the stairs with her stuff.

20 minutes later...

She opens up the residential part of the shrine with ease since she had her own copy of the key, when she walks in she turns on the light only to find that what was left of the furniture was now gone in the kitchen and living room, only boxes remained, boxes that were already full of their grandparents things and a bunch that have yet to be packed...this place will only get emptier and emptier as days go by. With a sigh she sets down her things by the hallway and opens her luggage, hopefully the luggage is big enough for everything..but carrying the luggage, backpack and skateboard was all she could manage.

"Alright...let's get started!" she pumps herself up, determined to get this done as quickly as possible.

She turns to the room that she had been earlier that day, the spare room. She slides the door open, only to find that it was completely empty of furniture, guess they already started the other rooms. Sighing, she steps out and closes the door, she tries to think of where the best places to rummage through would be. she looks down the hall to her grandparents room...no-one has even opened the door today yet, not even to peek. However she was sure that if she was going to find anything it would be in there...going through their stuff almost seems criminal, but alas..she has a good reason....

She walks down the hall and goes to grab the door, however something stops her in her tracks...her heart clenches as a sudden feeling of grief takes over her, making her unable to open the door in front of her. she shakily lets her hand retreat as she calms herself down, on second though, she will take what she needs from the shrine first and then maybe the training room. So turning around and avoiding the stacks of boxes in the hallway she makes her way out of her grandparents home, taking her mostly empty school bag with her.

Before entering the shrine she makes her way to the purification trough, taking a wooden ladel, she washes her hands and mouth, as is tradition. She makes her way to the main hall, making sure she takes her shoes off before entering, as is customary. Although you can tell that the shrine is old, you can still see the love and care that her grandparents had put into this place. She takes an incense burner and with the match provided, she lights it and lets it burn for a bit. The smell of sage wafts through the air as she waves away the flame at the pinnacle of the incense and then sets it down in the incense burner.