Chihiro & Nekokowa Short Story

Writing Commission

“Chihiro & Nekokowa” Short Story

Commissioned by: Redreaper1951

Written by: Danni Lynn

3,000 Words

“Chihiro, open up!” Nekokowa shouts. Nekokowa, Chihiro’s best friend, stands outside Chihiro’s closed bedroom door. Chihiro’s aunt said she should still be in here, but she isn’t answering. Nekokowa raises her fist to pound on the door again.

Ever the early bird, Nekokowa is all ready for the day. Wearing her favorite purple dress, the thick skirt bumps against Chihiro’s door with the petticoat underneath sticking out and above her purple slippers. Nekokowa’s parasol is closed and the curved black handle hangs from her arm. The folded umbrella is thick with her favorite details of little ribbons and lace. Nekokowa’s long black hair hangs down her back, waving rhythmically as she hits the door. From deep within, a groan sounds from the room.

The door handle to Chihiro’s room rattles a little. It turns, and the door cracks open.

“Good morning!” Nekokowa shouts. Her voice rings and is full of the morning’s sunshine. Chihiro peeks out of her door, squinting from the darkness. Her eyes are red and Nekokowa is sure she probably stayed up all night practicing chords on the guitar or playing videogames.

“M-morning?” Chihiro mumbles. She grunts and pushes open the door. She hits the light switch with her elbow to invite Nekokowa in before disappearing into the bathroom to freshen up. Chihiro’s room isn’t too messy—her bed is undone after she just rolled out of it, and there are a few games on the floor. Nekokowa walks in and sets down her parasol and a bag she had been carrying.

“I wanted to see you first thing this morning,” Nekokowa says. She lifts her voice to make sure Chihiro can hear her from the bathroom. Nekokowa walks across the room and opens the blinds and cracks open the bedroom window to let in some fresh air.

“—but why did you come so early?” Chihiro says from the closed bathroom. There is a rinse of water and the sound of her spitting into the sink.

“I was excited! I have something fun for you today,” Nekokowa answers. Chihiro grunts again. From the bathroom, the light clicks and Chihiro comes out, wearing red sweatpants and one of her favorite black T-shirts with the red heart on it. One or two pieces of her dark hair sticks up despite her trying to comb it flat. She searches for a hair pin.

“Remember when you told me about playing with the balloon last week? You blew it up?” Nekokowa asks.

“Right. Okay, why?”

“I wanted to try that out and see how you did it,” Nekokowa says. She picks up her bag and pulls out a bag of party balloons. “Ta-da!” The balloons are in an assortment of bright colors: pink, orange, yellow, and red. “HAPPY BIRTHDAY” is printed on them in silver.

“What?!” Chihiro gasps at the assortment.

“I wanted to play too!” Nekokowa exclaims.

Chihiro laughs.

“Well, I guess we can do that today—you really want to see me blow up a balloon?” Chihiro asks.

“Yes—I can’t believe you tried this without me the first time, I would have loved to see it!”

“Alright, alright at least you are here now, right?” Chihiro asks.

“Of course! Now pick a balloon.”

Chihiro thrusts her hand into the bag. She digs around for a moment until her fingers latch onto a red one.

“This one will do,” Chihiro says. Nekokowa puts the bag down and hurries to take a seat on the end of Chihiro’s bed. Chihiro takes a stand in the center of the room, ready to begin the show for her friend.

“Okay—blow!” Nekokowa exclaims.

The first touch of the rubber against Chiko’s lips is always an unpleasant taste. It’s almost like licking an envelope, the sour-tang touches your tongue, and, in a moment, the dry taste takes over your entire mouth. Chihiro licks her lips and bites down again, the taste begins to fade to a more manageable flavor.

After getting some practice from playing with balloons last week, Chihiro blows this one up with ease. She holds one hand pinched on the neck to control the air, and her other supports the back while the balloon gets bigger and bigger.

“Wow! You’re great at this! The balloon is already as big as your head!” Nekokowa says with a laugh. She bounces in her excitement. Soon, Chihiro’s face can no longer be seen as the balloon expands past her ears, neck, and the top of her head to hide her from view.

Chihiro gasps—out of breath. The balloon whimpers a little bit of air, but she quickly pinches it shut and begins to stretch and tie the end of the balloon closed. Chihiro’s cheeks are pink, and they feel a little prickly after all that effort to blow up the balloon. Chihiro bounces the now tied balloon on her hand and pushes it in Nekokowa’s direction. Nekokowa leaps up, her hair whipping around her as she snatches the balloon and hugs it to her chest with a resounding squeak of the playful rubber on her bare arms.

“That’s as big as I am making it,” Chihiro says.

Nekokowa looks at the balloon and pokes it where the stretched out “Happy Birthday” print is now a faded color. Her finger makes a small indentation—but not much.

“If you made it any bigger, it might pop!”

“I definitely don’t want it popping in my face,” Chihiro says with a chuckle.

“What did you do to your balloon the last time you played with one? Did it pop?”

“No! It was surprisingly strong. I put it under my shirt to see if it would fit, I couldn’t even put my arms around the balloon because it was so big. I walked around a little, waddled like a penguin, and even played the racing kart game on the Wii with it still under my shirt.”

Nekokowa nods as she listens and spins the balloon in her hand. “Hmmm what else do you think we can do with it?” Nekokowa asks. “I wonder how much it can take until it pops?” She pushes her hands into the sides of the balloon, it squeaks and bulges out above and below her hands.

“Ah! Don’t break it!” Chihiro exclaims. Nekokowa laughs and let’s go of the balloon—it shoots up towards the ceiling and then descends in a slow circle. Chihiro catches it and holds onto it protectively.

“Put it back under your shirt! I have some ideas about what we can do with it,” Nekokowa says.

“Okay, let’s get started!” Chihiro shakes out her T-shirt, glad it’s the big one she wears as pajamas. Chihiro lifts the hem of her shirt and brings it over the top of the balloon. Nekokowa chirps in excitement as she sees her friend squish the balloon under her shirt which is beginning to swell at the seams with the large object underneath. The red bottom of the balloon sticks out a little from beneath the shirt, but the rest of it swells to an impressive size, once again, too big for Chihiro to fit her arms around it. Chihiro waves her arms once the balloon is in place and rolls her shoulders in her now tight-fitting shirt.

“I think it’s in place,” she says. “What should we do first?”

Nekokowa walks around the room, thinking to herself. She walks by Chihiro’s TV and picks up a few items sitting on the shelf beside it: a bouncy ball, a pair of jacks, a lucky cat figurine, and a guitar pick. She brings the items forward to Chihiro and shows them to her.

“Let’s see what we can bounce off your balloon! Which one do you think will go the highest?”

“Yeah right—these will go high and hit me in the face!” Chihiro says.

Nekokowa looks at the items and then back at the balloon. She jumps to stand next to Chihiro, “Not if I bounce them this way,” she gestures to throw from Chihiro’s side instead of at her.

“Um, those jacks won’t bounce straight, I think,” Chihiro answers. “I have an idea!” Chihiro sits down and lies on her back, holding the balloon the whole time as it tries to pop back out of her shirt. “If I lie down, everything will bounce over me.”

“Okay!” Nekokowa drops to the floor and takes a seat away from Chihiro. She puts her items on the ground and picks up the bouncy ball first, “Are you ready? I’ll count to three.”

Chihiro nods and shuts her eyes, “I don’t know if I’ll stay still if I watch you throw it at me.”

“Oh, come on, you’ll be okay! Open your eyes because you’ll want to see this.” Nekokowa picks up the bouncy ball and taps it on Chihiro’s nose. Chihiro opens her eyes and giggles.

“Okay, okay—I’ll watch. Don’t throw it too hard.”

“Alright!” Nekokowa positions herself away from Chihiro and lifts the bouncy ball up. “One, two—three!” She tosses the ball in a soft arch. It drops towards Chihiro’s distended tummy and hits with a soft echoing bump. Chihiro flinches but the ball has already sprung off the balloon and leaps into the other side of the room.

“Whoa! It like vibrated through the balloon to my stomach—that felt weird!”

“It bounced really high, higher than I threw it. Do you want me to try the next toy?

“Go ahead.”

Nekokowa picks up the pair of jacks, winds back, and tosses them at Chihiro’s belly. The pronged items hit the balloon with force and suddenly bounce away in two different directions. One zips right over her head, and the next bounces straight up and lands next to her hip.

Chihiro yelps and covers her face, “that was too close!” she says, laughing.

Nekokowa holds her sides and laughs, “Oh that was too cool—the other ones will be less crazy, I promise!” Next, she tosses the plastic lucky cat figurine which bounces with a thump and falls to Chihiro’s side. Last, the guitar pick hits the balloon and twirls away to smack into the wall across the room. Chihiro turns her head to watch the pick fall to her carpet.

“Hmm...” Chihiro says to herself. Slowly, she gets up, pushing her feet under her to stand without moving the balloon too much. A little bored with the results of the objects, Chihiro paces and walks straight into the door of her closet. She hits it with a bump and careens backwards, the balloon bouncing of the door and pushing Chiro back suddenly. She smiles and jumps towards her wall, running it into the wall with the balloon and stumbles back with a laugh.

“Nekokowa, you have to try this! I can bounce off things!” Chihiro throws her arms in the air and bounces off the wall again.  Nekokowa comes over and catches Chihiro as she loses her balance.

“Careful!” Nekokowa shouts. Chihiro stands and bounces her tummy-balloon against Nekokowa, pushing her back. “Hey!” Nekokowa pushes her back and strikes a pose. “I bet you can’t do what I do with that balloon in your shirt!” Nekokowa stands up on one leg and stretches her arms above her head. Chihiro tries to mimic her, lifting her arms until the balloon squeaked and moved, threatening to pop out of her T-shirt.

“Ah!” Chihiro gasps. She stumbles and grabs the balloon to push it back in her shirt, so it doesn’t escape.

“Ha-ha! You couldn’t do it! What else can this balloon do?” Nekokowa teases. Chihiro shrugs. She pulls her shirt down firmly and jumps toward Nekokowa and with a twist, she bumps her balloon-tummy into Nekokowa. Nekokowa yelps and stumbles backwards into the wall behind her.

“Ouch—Chihiro, warn me before you do that!” Nekokowa grasps Chihiro’s hands and despite the force, both girls start to giggle as the struggle and push against each other. The balloon shifts and continue to squeak with every disturbance until Chihiro gets her foot behind Nekokowa’s ankle and they both go crashing to the ground.

They gasp and both Chihiro and Nekokowa lay on their backs, trying to catch their breath.

“That was a bit much—is the balloon okay? Are you okay?” Nekokowa asks.

“I almost forgot about the balloon,” Chihiro says. She touches the balloon and pushes against its sides to see if it is still in shape. “It’s quite durable.”

Nekokowa gets up onto her knees and drags a blanket from Chihiro’s bed to the floor. She tosses it over Chihiro, the balloon sticking up like a mountain rising from the valley of the fluffy material. The girls cuddle up and stare at the ceiling as they unwind from their active games and balloon-themed experiments.

“Do you want to play a videogame?” Chihiro asks.

“Sure!”

“Awesome, I bet I can still beat you with this balloon in the way—I’m getting quite good at working around it!”

“Let’s do it. Can we play the racing Kart game?”

“Absolutely.” Chihiro gets up and turns on the Wii. She pulls out a set of white controllers with nun chucks and hands a set to Nekokowa. Nekokowa comes over with the blanket trailing behind her. The controller in Nekokowa’s hand sticks a little, it is a remote that lags in game sometimes and cost her their last racing championship play.

“Hey, I don’t want to play with this remote—it doesn’t work well.”

“Every time you lose you blame the remote,” Chihiro argues. “I’m sorry I’m just that good at this game.” In Chihiro’s hand, the direction stick clicks effortlessly under her thumb as she scrolls through the game’s set up menus. “Do you want items in the race?” Chihiro asks.

“I want your remote!” Nekokowa demands. She makes a grab for it and takes Chihiro’s nun chuck in hand. Chihiro freezes for a moment then grabs the end of the nun chuck’s wire and gives a sharp tug to keep Nekokowa from taking it away.

“You just can’t take it like that, I’m playing with this one!” Chihiro shouts.

Nekokowa goes onto her knees and pulls backwards, dragging the remove and Chihiro towards her. “I don’t want a broken controller!”

“Well, I’m not giving it to you!” Chihiro gets up and stands. Her arms bend around the wide balloon swelling from her body. It squishes and pushes back against her efforts. Nekokowa leaps up and sets her feet wide, ready to begin pulling. Chihiro and Nekokowa both lock eyes, acknowledging the start of an argument’s tug-of-war.

Nekokowa launches backwards, bending back over her knees and straining her back as Chihiro struggles to hang on and not pop her balloon at the same time. Chihiro twists the wire in her hands, trying to hold onto the little nub that plugs into the Wii remote while Nekokowa has the upper hand with the actual nun chuck grasped firmly in her hands. They tug and pull as the wire stretches and stretches. Towards the middle, the clean white of the wire begins to darken as the rubber coating stretches until small homes begin to open, stretching to reveal the wires inside. Nekokowa notices and begins to slowly drag her feet backwards, giving more momentum in her pull. Chihiro twists her body sideways and begins to pull towards her shoulder, above the restriction of the balloon. The wires begin to tremble and twist as the pulling pressure begins to tear them apart.

Nekokowa starts to argue again as her wrists shake and her face turns red. “I’ll win this tug of war, and then I’ll beat you at that racing game. You can bet on it Chihiro! You’ll get to play with the faulty nun chuck, not me.”

“I’m not going to lose anytime soon—just give up before you embarrass yourself! I’d beat you still with three balloons under my shirt!”

Between Chihiro and Nekokowa’s pulling, a little piece of inner wire suddenly sticks up, then another and another in such great velocity, the wire shreds itself and snaps in half. It happens so fast; the girls don’t realize what happened until they have already fallen onto their backsides on the floor.

“Ah!!” Chihiro cries out. With a pop, the balloon slips out of her shirt and bounces onto the ground beside her.

“Oh my goodness, that was quite a fall,” Nekokowa says from her spot on the floor. She sits up holding her head. “Are you okay Chihiro?”

“I think so? I lost my balloon.”

“How did that wire snap so easily? We barely started pulling on it, right?” Nekokowa asks.

“Right—I’m not sure how it snapped to be honest.” Chihiro looks at her half of the wire wrapped around her fist and fingers. The end is snarled pieces of torn rubber and wire.

“It looks like neither of us will be playing the game with the good remote,” Nekokowa says with a sigh.

Suddenly, a great idea comes to Chihiro. She reaches out and takes Nekokowa’s half of the remote and holds the two broken pieces together. “I know what we can do! We can call Zhard over and ask him to repair it for us—that shouldn’t take up too much energy from his magic, right?”

Nekokowa crawls over, beaming with new excitement. “That’s a great idea! And that means we can have an excuse to see him! He really is the best boyfriend. Do you think we could ask him to repair your remote that sticks too?”

“Yes, that’s a good idea,” Chihiro puts the broken cord down and sets aside the nun chuck with the sticking control. “I’ll give Zhard a call to see if he can come see us right away. Maybe after that we can have him try out the balloon.”

“Tell him to bring an extra remove himself so he can play games with us when he is done!” Nekokowa adds.

Chihiro locates her phone and begins to punch in his number. “Will do!” she says.