please note that this is my first ever Spirited Away FanFic. I know some things will be a little off, as I am certainly no expert in Japanese culture, nor am I familiar with many of their names for things, other than a few weapons.

Also, if the characters are a little OOC for the first couple of chapters, I am sorry, but it has been far to long since I last watched SA, something I hope to remedy ASAP, now that I have the money for the DVD.

Please forgive any errors, factual, or grammar/spelling-wise.

Last but not least: Enjoy, and please review.

Separation

Chapter One: Missing You


Some people, or rather, spirits, would have said that the young dragon was cold, and unfeeling. Sometimes even bordering on rude. Those were the ones who didn't know Kohaku. The spirits who did know him knew that he was lonely, that he missed her. It seemed to be something he would keep doing until the end of time, or until she came back.
She was Chihiro, the young girl who had been trapped in the spirit world, and had stolen Haku's heart. It was a difficult thing for a dragon to admit, falling for a human, especially when the girl hadn't even tried, or known.
Of course, she had been a rather young girl, when he had last met her, no more than eleven, so how would she have known? Though, his human form hadn't appeared much older than her, maybe twelve. Chihiro would be close to fifteen now, and Haku's appearence was now that of a tall, thin, handsome boy of sixteen.

Each passing day, made Haku miss the girl even more. He hadn't been much for talking in the first place, but since Chihiro's return to her own world, he spoke even less. This annoyed Lin, who thuoght that the best way to make him snap out of his long depression was to make him angry, since that was an emotion he never showed anymore. She got close, a few times, but any time she got close, Kamaji would intervene, before she could succeed. One day, after being dragged away from Haku in a particularly rough manner, Lin got angry.

"Why do you keep stopping me?" she grumbled, "an outburst might do him some good."

"It won't make him forget Sen. I told you, you didn't didn't understand love," said Kamaji, "All him getting angry will do is earn you a lost limb."

Pouting, Lin began to feed the sootballs their lunch, which they had been squeaking for, for half an hour. Haku, whom had been listening to their conversation, slipped quietly out of the boiler room, in dragon form. He was going to talk to the bath House mistress, Zaniba.

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Chihiro fiddled with the shiny violet hair-tie she had been given years before. When her parents had asked where she'd gotten it, she simply told them she had found it in her room one day, and they had asked no more about it. Strange that her parents didn't remember their time as pigs. Chihiro remembered it all though. She remembred her parents transforming into pigs, seeing a barge full of spirits, meeting Yubaba, and her twin, Zaniba. she remembered working in the bathhouse, but what she remembered most was him. And his promise that they would meet again someday. That had been four years ago, and she missed Haku terribly. She had tried to get back to his world several times over the years, always on the day that she had arrived the first time, but it never worked.

Her parents thought that Haku was possibly a boy from school, as most of her free time was spent day-dreaming, or drawing him. Both in his human and dragon forms. The drawings were something that often made her mother refer to the boy as "Chihiro's Dragon."

Today had been a particularly bad day at school, for the girl. She wasn't the most popular, kept to herself, and as a result had no friends. Most seemed to think that she was strange. She heard the whispers behind her back that she wasn't normal, that she wasn't of that world. Maybe the fact that she had spent so long in the spirit world had changed her somehow, or maybe it was just the other teens being mean. Today there had been more whispers and taunts than normal, and one event that she would have rather forgotten. So, her afternoon was going to be spent doing an art project for school. Art assignments were always her favorite. They gave her an excuse to do something she loved.

"Hey," said her mother's voice, from the doorway, "What are you painting today?"

"Something for school," Chihiro replied quietly, "We were told to turn some of our most memorable dreams into one painting. At least all mine are of the same place, and will make sense, all put together."

Her mother got closer, so she could see the rough sketch, that was just beginning to be covered with paint, "Ah, your dragon again. And the spirit BathHouse. Chihiro, where have you seen all this before?"

"Just things from my dreams Mom... It really is a wonderful place to escape to," said Chihiro. Without thinking, she turned her face towards her mother, allowing the woman to see the bruise that covered her left cheek, That had come from the event she hadn't wanted to think about. A gang of bullies had cornered her on her way home.

"Chihiro!" her mother cried, "What happened!?"

"Nothing that hasn't happened before," Chihiro muttered, turning back to her work, "It was a bunch of kids from school... They cornered me, and hit me."

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Zaniba sighed. She had heard this question from Haku many times since she had taken her sister's place, as the mistress of the bath house. He wanted to know if there was any way he could see Chihiro, or speak to her.

"All I can do," the old witch informed him, "Is show you something that has happened recently that had a strong impact on her mind. You may see a few things, I'm not sure... But most likely, it will be memories from today."

"Do it," the boy replied. It wasn't a request. It was an order.

For a moment, Zaniba considered refusing, just for his nerve to give her an order, but then she remembered Lin telling her how miserable the child was. "Should I, No-Face?" she asked the dark spirit who stood in the corner, perfectly still.

"Uh... Uh..." he replied, nodding.

Knowing that the spirit would say yes, Zaniba had already turned her attention to Haku, "Very well. Close your eyes, boy. " Haku did as he was told, and felt Zaniba's hand on top of his head, and heard her mutter something he didn't understand. He didn't have time to decipher what it was, for almost instantaneously, he was no longer looking at the backs of his eyelids, but a group of kids, following another girl, who looked as if she was trying desperately to ignore them, It was Chihiro! She had certainly grown. She was no longer the ungangly, clumsy, stick of a child he had met, four years ago. She had turned into a real beauty. Something flashed, in her long hair. The hair-tie Zaniba had made for her, he realized.

The group behind her said something, but Haku couldn't hear what. He saw Chihiro's brown eyes widen for a moment, but she kept walking, she didn't turn to face them. She did turn around, however, when another group stepped in front of her, blocking her path, but the first group was already to close for her to get away. She ran down an alley, in an attempt to escape, but the alley only led to a dead end. Cornered, Chihiro seemed to plead with the mob, and pressed herself against a wall, as if she were trying to go through it. The first blow was from a boy, probably twice Chihiro's size, to her cheek. The rest were all to the lower areas of her body.

Before Haku could fully register the fact that there was nothing he could do to help, the memory changed, to one of Chihiro, talking, or rather, arguing, with a woman who had to be her mother. As before, he couldn't hear what was said. After a moment, Chihiro's mother left, and Chihiro went back to the canvas in front of her. Looking at it, Haku realized that it was of him, the bath house, and some of the other spirits that Chihiro had met. Looking around the room, he saw that there were sketches, and paintings similiar to the one she was working on right then.

"Haku..." he heard, and he jumped. Somehow he was able to hear the girl now, possibly because what she said had stuck in her mind, "I miss you... I want to get back to you... I want to see you again..."

"I miss you too, Chihiro..." Haku sighed, wishing she could hear him. And all too soon, he was back in Zaniba's office.

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Chihiro shook her head, as she answered her father's call for her to come down and eat dinner. For a few minutes there, it had felt like someone was in her head, sifting through her memories. And for a moment, she could have sworn that she felt Haku there... But that was silly, he was in another world. A world that she was more than likely never going to see again. What if I could go back? She wondered, stopping on the middle of the stairs, Would he remember me? Has he even missed me, as much as I have him? Thoughts like that continued to float around her head, until finally her father had to call for her again, to bring her out of her thoughts.

Dinner was as it usually was. Silent. Chihiro didn't bother to share the day's events with her parents, and they didn't ask. They had learned not too, long ago, after a particularly bad day of teasing. So, their meals were spent in silence, Chihiro daydreaming, and her parents wondering just what to do about their daughter, and her introverted ways. They hadn't thought much of her being forever in daydreams at first, nor had they thought much of the fact that she didn't seem to fit in at her school. The day dreams were an escape from all the things she wasn't used to, and as for not fitting in, she was the new kid. But after six months, they were little concerned, after a year, they were worried, after one and a half, they had accepted that she just wasn't going to fit in at her school, and that her constant daydreaming was a relief from that. Now, after seeing the bruise on her face, and glimpsing some of the others, on her upper arms, they were worried again, especially since Chihiro had told her mother it had happened before.

She had been like that since they had gone to that old theme park, and came back out, to find the car filled with dust, and they had gone to their new home, to find that the furniture was also covered in a fine layer of dust. They had tried to talk to her about what was bothering her, but all she would say was she missed a friend. After that was when her sketching the boy she called "Haku" started. Neither of them could remember a boy by that name in the town they had lived in previously. Chihiro was a confusing girl, to say the least... Strange, even, as much as her mother hated to think it, knowing that the girl put up with being called names at school. It was if she had changed over night, one day, she was sullen, and opinionated, and talkative, the next she was depressed, introverted, and quiet.

The few dates she had been asked out on had been turned down with a mumbled "no, thank you." A few of the boys had asked again, after being rejected once, but not many, and those who did were turned down again, and again, if they asked a third time. Finally, all boys had given up, and not long after, one of Chihiro's drawings had been stolen from her desk, and the rumors that she was not normal, or not being of the human world started circling about.

That had only made the girl withdraw farther into her shell.

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Left hurt by what he had seen, Haku didn't speak to Zaniba, until she asked, "Is that what you wanted to see, boy? Her being miserable?"

"Of course not," he replied, quietly, "I had hoped to see her happy..."

"Well, she isn't... You didn't make her forget. She might have been happy, if she hadn't remembered anything about our world, and about you. Now she's in her world, suffering, because she loves a man she can never be with, and because she is considered 'different' by her peers. Not making her forget was a very selfish thing, Haku..."

"I know..." said Haku, ashamed, "If I had known the extent to which it would harm her, emotionally, I wouldn't have been so selfish... And how do you know she loves me?"

"You weren't in my cottage, when she came to beg for your life, without realizing she had already saved you, by simply loving you, Kohaku. And I saw, and heard, what you did, when you were in her memory. If that isn't enough of a clue for you, my boy, then all hope is lost for your powers of observation."

"Is there any way that I could speak to her, Zaniba? Even for a moment?"

"I'm afraid not. She would have to come to this world for you to have any contact with her, other than seeing her memories, though you should be able to do that on your own now, since you've been in her head once now."

"I think that would only cause me more pain," Haku muttered, but Zaniba still caught it.

"If it is meant to be, for you and your human, then fate will bring her back, Haku, take comfort in that, at least."

"But what if it isn't?"

"Then you will spend the rest of eternity pining for her, and she will do the same.. Only she will get a release eventually... Death. You will have no release."

Haku suddenly became very interested in the floor. He knew she was right. He was truly trapped there, in that world, forever.

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"Chihiro," said the girl's father, "Are you alright?"

"Yes, Dad," Chihiro answered, from under her blankets.

"I don't think you are," he said, sitting on the edge of her bed, "You got beat up for no reason, Chihiro, you have no friends, and you spend all your time either painting, or off in another world. Why?"

"Maybe I just don't belong here, Dad," she replied.

"When we moved here, you said you could handle it."

Of course you'd think I meant "here" as in this town, and school. She thought with a mental sigh, that's not what I meant at all... "That was four years ago. I tried to fit in," Lie... I never did, but I shouldn't have had to change just to make others like me... "But you see how well that has gone." It might have gone a damn bit better if they all didn't have some sort of sixth sense or something, that lets them know I've been elsewhere...

"Your mother and are just worried about you. Half the time, I don't think you're even here, really, that you're in another dimension, with that boy you draw all the time."

"Maybe I am," Chihiro said, "Maybe my dreams are better than things here. At least when I'm 'in my own world' or 'dimension' whatever you want to call it, I can avoid being hit for no damn reason, I can avoid everyone that hates me, or thinks I'm strange. "

Her father sighed, and left, knowing better than to press her any farther that night. And Chihiro was left to dream of soaring through the sky, on the back of a long white dragon, adding another scene to her painting.

The dream changed, however, to depict her dragon burning, and the bath house, and the rest of her friends with him. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't get to them, to save them. When she woke in the middle of the night, screaming, drenched in sweat, and skin so hot even her eyes were burning, she knew something bad was going to happen. Something very bad.

And there wasn't anything she could do about it. Not a single thing, unless she could get back to the spirit world.

Chihiro didn't sleep for so much as the blink of an eye for the rest of the night.

Well, what did you think? Remember, first SA fic... Doing my best.