Spirited Away Fan Fiction ❯ The Other World ❯ Friends Lost, Trouble Found ( Chapter 6 )

Disclaimer: I don't own Spirited Away. There, happy now?!

 

DS: BOO! Did you really think I'd leave it like that? Pleeeeez. I can't leave Haku out. He's the best part! XD Nahhh, Chihiro hasn't gone insane. Read and learn!

 

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For a while all Chihiro could do was sit and cry, huddled against the wall in the rain. None of this made sense. She knew it was real, she knew it! It had to be. It just HAD to.

After about half an hour she moved, sitting up. Maybe she was crazy. Maybe it had been all a dream.

Chihiro stood up, fresh tears rolling down her face. She couldn't bear it if it was so. Slowly, uncaring about the rain, she made her way up the trail home. She didn't want to go down the same path that she and Sakura had so happily hiked only and hour ago. Instead, she cut across the path and into the woods, heading in a straight line that should take her to the field.

 

Just then, Kimi Morokuna finally made her way around the bend. She had stopped for a bit under a tree, intending on waiting for the rain to stop, but had gotten impatient and continued on. She was no longer in a remotely pleasant mood, due to the fact that she was dirty, wet, tired, and not to mention hungry! She planned on flaying Chihiro and Skaura alive when she caught up to them.

Cursing under her breath, she looked up from her feet for any sign of the two. What she saw instead made her stop in wonderment.

There in front of her was the deepest, darkest tunnel she'd ever seen. It was tall and vine-covered, and some of the paint was chipping off. What was it doing here, this deep in wolf-infested woods? It must be hundreds of years old.

Approaching it cautiously, she looked down and shuddered. She'd never liked those creepy spirit statues with their ugly, mossy faces and buggy, frog-like eyes.

Concentrating on the tunnel again, she shivered slightly as a brisk, wet wind howled past her and into its depths. She noticed something odd, then: though the wind was blowing through the tunnel, no rain hit the inside. Finding this quite intriguing, she peered inside, trying to see how deep it was. Eagerly she noticed a small pinprick of light at the end.

Kimi looked at her watch...it was only and hour past noon. She still had several hours until she had to be home, and the tunnel seemed nice and dry. In the end, her natural curiosity won her over, and she decided to do a little exploring. Taking a breath in anticipation, she stepped into the tunnel.

Chihiro sat on the old bridge, trying to convince herself to just go home and sleep. She lay her head in her arms, Mika's words echoing in her memory.

"The wall has always been here. . .There was never any tunnel."

The wet sound of the rain hitting the river soothed her crying heart for a while. Then she raised her head, puzzled. She had never mentioned the tunnel in front of Mika. How had she known about that?

Chihiro's eyes flew open as it dawned on her. She stood up rapidly. Righteous anger gave her energy as she turned back toward the woods.

She bowed over the bridge as the rushing water, as if it had given her inspiration. "Thank you, master River!" She shouted over the rain in parting, running back through her shortcut to the tunnel.

Chihiro stood, shaking, staring up at the dark, gaping hole of a tunnel. A white-hot rage rose in her throat. She didn't know how it happened, but she loathed the thing for hiding itself from her.

"Damn you!" She gestured rudely at it. "You'll get yours!" She knew full well how stupid it was to yell at a hole in the wall, but it made her feel better. Suddenly, she knew what she should do.

Chihiro raced back to her house in a fourth of the time it usually would have taken her. She grabbed her bike without bothering with a helmet, or a jacket for that matter. She barely noticed the rain anymore. Pedaling madly, she soon reached her destination: Sakura's house. She banged loudly on the door.

Sakura's face appeared as the door opened, then began to close again.

"Sakura! Wait!" Chihiro stopped the door. "You have to listen to me!"

Sakura frowned, looking both concerned and annoyed. "Chihiro, what are you doing?" She attempted to close the door again.

"Stop it, Sakura." Chihiro yanked the door open, causing her startled friend to stumble forward onto the porch. "Sakura, you have to listen to me. Please!"

Sakura straightened, meeting Chihiro's eyes steadily. "Chihiro, you shouldn't be out in the rain like this..."

"YOU'RE NOT LISTENING!" Chihiro wailed in frustration. "Come with me. I can prove that the tunnel's there. I can take you to the Spirit World! Isn't that what you've wanted?"

Sakura sighed. "Go home, Chihiro."

She thinks I'm crazy, thought Chihiro, heartbroken. Determined to prove her sanity, she grabbed Sakura's arm and pulled her into the rain.

"Chihiro - Chihiro, what are you doing?!" Sakura yelped in the cold water, trying to pull away. "Let go of me!"

Chihiro struggled to pull her further, but Sakura wouldn't budge.

"Stop it! Let me go! Somebody, help!"

Then, suddenly she stopped struggling. Her eyes went wide, then fluttered and closed. She fell forward into Chihiro.

Chihiro stared, stunned, at the boy from earlier who had been arguing with Mika. He was holing a brick, presumably one he had hit Sakura with.

"I thought you could use some help," he stated calmly, as if it were normal for strange boys to appear out of nowhere and hit people with bricks.

"I...uh...thanks?" Chihiro croaked, bewildered. She turned and put Sakura on the back of her bike, the mounted it herself. She turned back to the boy, but once again, he was gone. Shrugging, Chihiro took off up the Hill.


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DS: Wheee! Is it just me, or does anyone else like that kid? I have a name for him ,too, but I ain't saying it yet. I really like him. I hope you all will, too. ^_^ I like making up new characters to introduce. It's just so much fun! ^.^ Tee hee. Seeya next chapter!

Please review!