Dragon's Requiem
a/n: I remember doing one Spirited Away fanfic which I thought went very well. Now, I'm back with my first in years, after watching the movie again, I am completely inspired. Story line completely made up from my head. Whole story in Chihiro's POV. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I own nothing, but I wish they would make another Spirited Away movie! T^T
[ Chapter One ]
The air is so thick, like honey. The burning sun rays against my pale peach skin, while my curtains wisp through the air. I can feel my fingers crawl to my face and then when my eyes begin to crept open and focus onto my hand, I notice myself and realize that I am transparent. My mind stubbornly functioning and eyes wide open, I get up and press my arms around my legs, head bowed and everything. I feel like something makes me remember being like this, in this position, doing the same thing I am now. Something so incredibly important that-! I stop.
"I lost it…" I whispered, lips chapped and crisp, full and pale pink to match the tone of my skin.
I bit on it, cursing to myself. Getting out of my covers and out of bed I head into the bathroom, stretching out my arms and walking off into a pearl covered sanctuary, other than my room that is.
Getting out of the bathroom and still in my pajamas, which are just a pair of pink shorts and a baby pink tank top, my chocolate brown hair was neatly tied up in a ponytail. On my way downstairs, something literally boomed like a bomb explosion in my home.
"CHIHIRO!"
I scrammed my way downstairs, practically running like a dog. I didn't smell smoke or anything that would probably represent a fire was not unlikely.
"KOHAKU!" I screamed, the kitchen flashing into my eyes and I saw my younger brother on the floor, sitting with a bunch of pots and pants around the floor as well as a pot on top of his head.
"Chihiro? Get it off Chihiro!" he cried.
I gave off a small laugh and knocked on his head twice before slipping it off like magic. His pearly brown eyes perked up at me while his pale pink skin and shaggy brown hair all seemed to fall peaceful against him.
"You silly, you just can't keep your hands off? It's like you want your head to mold like a pot!" I laughed at him.
"You're so mean Nii-chan!" he pouted and I just rubbed his small eight-year old head. I picked him up as he helped me with the pots and pans and put them away in the kitchen cabinets.
"So Nii-chan, what are we going to do today?" Kohaku asked me, while I began to make some cereal for the two of us.
"I don't know…what do you want to do today?" I asked him instead, not having a clue of what to do for our little Brother and me time.
He put his finger to his mouth and thought a moment, "I want to go to that amusement park Dad is always talking about!"
My mind stops and my heart skipped a beat. Amusement Park…? What amusement park…?
"Yeah, you know! The one down the hill!" he yells excitedly.
I stop what I'm doing and then make my way to the living room window. Looking out of the window I go down the hill and see the dark entry way into the faded red, white blotched building with the sign of unreadable letter overhead. The looks of it intoxicated me and almost seemed to call out my name.
"Okay."
"What? For real Nii-chan?" Kohaku said in astonishment.
"Yes, let's go," I turned my head to smile to him.
He jumped up in a cheer and ran up the bedroom, but before I could run up with him to chase after him, a chill shivered down my spine and I could've sworn that someone, as if in pain or dying, was calling my name.
Outside heading down a walk-able trail, I held Kohaku's hand in mine as I went down first through the trail while Kohaku followed behind me and finally made down on the stony trail. I held Kohaku's hand tightly as he held mine and I looked at the oval-shaped stone plastered against the ground. I blink my eyes and Kohaku stares at it oddly. When I looked at the seemingly never-ending tunnel, I'm almost drawn to it. I take one step forward and another until I'm practically inside. When I realize it, my hand is completely empty but air filling it. I turn around and Kohaku is standing near the small statue.
"Nii-chan…I'm scared…" he said, the sound of fright in his voice.
A memory flickers past my eyes that I couldn't seem to attain it at all, "But you're the one who wanted to come over here anyway!"
"Yeah…I know…" he sounded like he began to regret it.
"Then come on!" I encourage him.
He comes running towards me and holds my arm tightly while we make our way through the tunnel and into a large chapel-like room. I look around, Kohaku is still holding my arm, then I continue walking with him and we go through another tunnel. Everything, everything is so nostalgic but it just didn't make sense, why was it all so familiar?
When there was finally a light, we headed straight for it. A flash made my eyes blind and when I could finally see again, there were green pastures and hills everywhere, rocks and rubble all around, the sky was so blue and clouds pure white. The summer wind blowing through my tied up hair and sweaty neck felt so good. Kohaku let go of me and stared at everything in awe.
Then, Kohaku pocked me right on my side and laugh, "Tag you're it!"
I scoffed at him playfully and ran to chase him. We laughed and played around like no tomorrow while the clouds covered the sun over and over again. Finally we fell onto the soft pastures and sighed, the fun beaten out of us. I sit up and notice a trail cutting through the pasture. There looks like old buildings beyond the trail and I felt curious.
"Wow! Nii-chan! You didn't tell me your hair band sparkled!" Kohaku said in amazement.
Sparkled? I thought, feeling my scale-like hair band of purple-blue.
"Nii-chan…" Kohaku began to make his way up the trail as I followed right behind him.
Get out… Someone warned in my head.
I winced, not expecting it but I continued on anyway. We made our way through the trail and crossed the rocks, me before Kohaku so I could help him through. As I saw some of the old, beaten up buildings, Kohaku finally reached to the end of the stairs. We made our way up, and my eyes felt as though they deceived me. Absolutely every house after the ones we had just seen were either burned or crushed down by some sort of evil force, I could just feel it in the pits of my gut.
"Wha-What happened here…?" Kohaku said, expecting nothing like this, and I was on the same level as him.
He held my arm tightly again and this time, I made sure that he wouldn't let go. We walked around, soot poisoned my nostrils and it made me feel this anger inside of me that stirred so badly.
Get out of here…now! The voice again warned me. This time, I made sure to not even note it, more so ignore it.
We continued walking up stairs until we reached a bridge. At first to me it was bright red with a sort of golden touch to it but when I looked at it again, it had been stained with black markings and gray dust. Beyond the bridge was a black and gray factory like building, so large that it almost took my breath away. From a tall pipe, black smoke came out and that smoke it was the poison that led my nose here.
"Humans! Near the factory!" I heard someone yell.
I turned around, Kohaku turning with me as I didn't see anything or anyone. What in the world was going on?
"N-Nii-chan! Over there!" Kohaku pointed east of me as there were people, no, frogs and abnormal people, spirits maybe?
"Hey! You two! Stop right there!" a few of them yelled, I was guessing they were male spirits.
"Kohaku stay close to me," I snapped quickly to him.
But then, I heard him yelp and I turned around, there were now black, almost transparent spirits behind us, we were as if surrounded.
"Don't move! We have to take you to Kurokami-san!" they tell us.
"Don't touch us! Don't come any closer!" I took to the defensive.
I made Kohaku hug me tightly while my arms were free enough to punch whoever tried to touch either of us. Luckily my mother made me take those self-defense classes, or else I would've never been able to stand up for myself against those bully girls in my new school when I had just arrived.
"I don't think she'll be willing to go that easily…" whispers one of the henchmen.
"Ask them for their names!" whispered loudly another one.
"Be quiet!"
I raised a brow, Kohaku continued to hug me tightly, scared out of his wits.
Don't say your real name, they won't understand you by your real name… the voice came back, but this time I listened.
That what do you want me to say! I snapped back
This was crazy; Tell them your name is Sen.
"My name is Sen!" I yelled, following the voice.
Everyone murmured and seemed completely confused.
Remember who you were here Chihiro…
I blinked my eyes and then the nostalgia suddenly wore off, I was actually here, right years ago. It was all coming back to me now, "My name is Sen! I was ten years old when I first came to the Spirit World and I came to work here at the bathhouse for Yubaba!"
Everyone was silent, almost dead silent that it scared me. It hadn't really occurred to me that I recognized almost everyone who was standing before me.
"Sen…?" that voice was so familiar, it sang to my ears.
"Rin!" I almost gasped.
"Move out of the way everyone! Move!" she made her way through. She looked just a tad bit older but not much about her changed. Charging towards me, Kohaku squeezed me a bit hard before she came up to me and looked at me concerned.
"Oh my God…" she gasped.
"Nii-chan…" Kohaku whimpered.
Rin looked over at my brother before she could looked at me again, "Everyone! We must keep Sen away from Kurokami's hands! She could be used against Yubaba and Zeniba and we'll never be as we once were before!"
They all looked at me with a bright hope gleaming in their eyes. Rin took me by the arm while I grabbed Kohaku and we were running fairly quickly across the terrain. I checked back to make sure Kohaku was holding up fine, and he seemed to be catching up fine. I gave him a reassuring smile which lit his mood up a bit. When we got underground into a very compact safe house, Kohaku embraced me closely while I hugged him back.
"Rin! What happened here?" I asked, now that we had sometime to speak.
Rin looked at me even though the dimly lit room was hard to see her contours and all. She sighed and put her hand gently to my face, looking at me as though she had missed the life of me.
"Gee, you got so big…I feel like I haven't known you at all…" she told me.
I smiled to her, "Well, my hair grew I guess but not much of me has changed…besides being transparent…"
"Well you don't look so transparent to me, I mean you are practically a lady now…" she laughed a bit, "Wait until Kohaku-!"
"What?" Kohaku responded.
Rin blinked at my younger brother, "That's your little brother right?"
"Y-yeah, he happened to be named Kohaku just like…" Then it struck me, "What happened to Kohaku…?"
My little brother was confused but he kept quiet. Rin looked at me with contempt.
"Kohaku…went missing just after Kurokami took over…"
For some reason, it didn't seem that way in my head and I just found it hard to believe, "Wait! Who's Kurokami…?"
"He's the one who been running this town lately, and forced Yubaba and her twin sister Zeniba to force up their magic so he could begin running this town like it were just a toy…" Rin explained.
So there was a war… I thought to myself.
"Isn't there a way to stop him?" I asked.
Rin looked at me desperately, like she knew but she couldn't, "Yes but…I can't tell you because I don't know where or who to look for but I know who can!"
Soon, we were off again, but the sun was going down and my time as being human was growing thin. Rin had given us the same red pills I had when I first arrived here. Kohaku, my younger brother, was a bit reluctant to take it but he did anyway. We began to make our way through the factory unnoticed but I couldn't help but notice everyone working the hard labor this Kurokami guy was putting them through.
"Kamaji!" Rin whispered.
I looked over and saw the same old grumpy, six-legged, hard-working spirit that I had grown close to my last stay here.
"Rin…" Kamaji's eyes seemed to drop at my appearance and I smiled brightly, "Well would you look here…a fine lady indeed."
"It's so good to see you Kamaji," I smiled.
"Kamaji, I know Kohaku told you where to see the Shirakami, and I know he went looking for Shirakami after Kurokami took over. Now that Sen is here, she can finish what Kohaku couldn't, finding a way out of this mess!" Rin explained.
Kamaji looked at me curiously and began to rummage through his things. Rin blinked at him absurdly while I just stared curiously. Finally, Kamaji finished his searched and pulled out a golden red rod, in the shape of a small flute. He handed it to me and encased my hands around it.
"Search where Kohaku got lost, he told me to give this to you. He knew you were coming back my girl, so he went in search of the Shirakami on his own so you wouldn't get hurt. But just in case you came by, he told me to give you this and to sing only one song to it. You know the song very well Sen, it's called, the Dragon's Requiem."
A bell rang into my head and practically made everything in my body jump. I gripped the flute tightly into my hands and then a tear ran down my eye.
"That big idiot, I swear I hate hit guts sometimes, he should've listened to Uranaishi!" Rin muttered.
An Uranaishi…a fortune teller?
"Listen Sen, before you even begin your search to the Shirakami, you must first get to the Uranaishi, but listen to me. The Uranaishi cannot be found…but its been heard that he roams Pumpkin Village often now, I don't know how he found Kohaku, but its possible he might be expecting you," Kamaji told me seriously until there was a lot of noise and yelling.
"Have you heard? Sen is back!"
"She's back?"
"Keep your mouths shut or else a guard will whip you until you confess every single word!"
"I think you should go now, take Rin with you!" Kamaji wrapped us all around in his tangling arms and booted us out of the boiler room and to an underground passageway that I have never seen before, "Take this passageway out, it should lead you straight to town, from there head west to Pumpkin Village and whatever you do, DO NOT RUN INTO ANY GUARDS!"
Heading west from the once most wonderful town and now all burned down and filled with guards, Rin, Kohaku my little brother, and I were fugitives wanted. While we walked and traveled, my little brother was getting told the whole story about us and the magic of the bathhouse that it once was. While I wandered just a bit behind looking at the dragon tattooed flute in my hands.
"Hey Sen, we're going to take a rest here for the night," Rin told me and I nodded.
With a campfire set and my younger brother was asleep. Rin was watching the night stars and I was sitting up and continually staring at the flute.
Play it…
With that voice still in my head, I played it anyway; I played the Dragon's Requiem. It was a very slow tune at first, low and almost deadly to the human ear. Then it started to grow with loud booms of bombs yet it flowed like a river. I stood up and closed my eyes, playing it to the wind. With the music growing higher, I also felt something grow inside of me, waiting to come out. As soon as I hit the last note of the chorus something pierced my body and I dropped the flute, gasped and falling backward.
Stay calm…
There was a burning ecstasy filling inside me and I wanted to scream mercy but not even my mouth would respond.
It will all be alright…
My head was blurry and hot, filling with coursing adrenaline and fire.
It'll all be over soon...
"Sen…? Sen?" I opened my eyes again and I could see Rin standing before me, my younger brother still asleep luckily but she looked at me as if she had seen a ghost.
I tried to speak but I couldn't I felt my head nodding though. What was wrong with me? I lifted my hand up but I saw a paw and claws! I looked at myself all over, I was frantic, I didn't know where I was moving or even how to!
"Sen! Sen calm down or else you're going call the guards here!"
With fright and agony, I took off into the air, flying like I had never flown before and raced down the large ocean that covered most of this land. I looked at my reflection through the bright moonlight and saw that I had become a dragon.
a/n: Review please?