Edit – (6/6/2010) I have a poll in my profile going on until July 31st, 2010. Please vote so I know where to go next. Thank you.

Discalaimer – I don't own Spirited Away.

AnimeMangaAngel: This is my first Spirited Away fic, and it's been a few years since I last saw the movie, so I forgot most names and faces – forgive me. U

Promise

Green eyes full of caring emotion… Shoulder length glossy black hair… A tall, wiry frame that was much stronger than it appeared… A soft, boyish, musical voice calling to her, "I promise, Chihiro, I promise!"… The snake-like white body of a kind dragon with blue hair… The sounds of a rushing river… The feel of his strong, protective arms around her…

A young girl with large brown eyes, long brown hair, and an all knees-and-elbows frame gasped, coming wide awake to find herself leaning against a large stone figure in front of an even larger, old rust-red building. It looked all the more strange in the direct light of the full moon, as though spirits themselves called this place home.

'It's that mess-of-images dream again! Oh… I'm back here again…' she thought softly. Even her breaths were noiseless; she felt that this place – whatever it was – deserved as much reverence as she could give it, though she had no idea why.

A soft sigh escaped her, as she shook her head at her folly: spirits would do better to find a nice shrine to stay in than this old run-down place… right?

She growled at herself now, standing up with the air of someone on a mission. "I'm coming in now!" she called loudly to whatever lay inside. She winced at the harsh echoes that bounced back at her, and in the back of her mind apologized to the resident spirits, hoping they would understand – she needed to see this place, and being loud gave her courage.

As she walked forward, she noticed with a slight shiver – not of the cold night, either – that the wind seemed to be rooting her on and pushing her in. As her eyes adjusted to the dim light, she began to see pillars and benches.

Then she saw it – the light of the moon cast the colors of the broken stain glass onto the floor in a splash of beautifully – however unearthly – art. "Wow…" Once again, her voice was hardly audible.

She shook her head again, turning back. As she began the journey back to her house, she reflected on the first time – five years ago, really – that she had set eyes on that place.

She was eleven then, and her dad, stubborn and self-reliant as always, had gotten them lost on the way to their new house because he refused to ask for directions! They had ended up at the head of that building when the car almost hit the stone statue she had been sitting on when she woke up.

They had gone inside, against her better judgment, and with the curiosity of her parents. There had ended up being nothing inside there; it just seemed to be a tunnel. The other side, however beautiful, had held nothing but an abandoned carnival or something, with acres of fresh, green grass. Her mom had insisted they stop there to have a picnic. When they finally got back, someone had decided to play a practical joke on the new-comers, and had covered their car with leaves, dust, and brambles.

At the end of it all, they had misjudged the date, and arrived at the house a whole two months late – though no one could explain how. The place and the accident had been quickly forgotten by her parents, but not her!

It was weird; after going to that place, she couldn't rid herself of the feeling that she was forgetting something important, something like breaking a promise…

In fact, when ever she tried to sort out this feeling, that was the exact thing she always felt like she was doing! After going to her first year at her new school, she started going on a whim to the place every day during the summer, staying for hours at a time without any explanation as to why when her parents questioned her.

They let it go, her mother saying that all that time out in the sun was doing wonders for her complexion, and her father saying that all that 'personal brooding time', as her father called it, was good for her in the 'growing up' department.

When school started up again, and she could no longer go there because of hours of studying and homework, a fierce longing gripped her every waking minute for a whole week.

Then that next night, she had that dream for the first time.

When she woke up, it was just as tonight was, with her leaning against the stone figure. It happened every night since then, and her feelings of desperate need disappeared once she realized she would always come back in her sleep.

She took notice when her parents never noticed the small noises she made at night coming back, which should have been enough to wake them, and didn't; when they didn't seem to notice the smears of mud and dirt on her clothes in the morning; when no one from the small town ever caught her. The list went on and on.

Over time, she had to just accept that another force wanted her there, and was making it possible to go there. For a moment, she listened to the howling of the winds, and then she turned back to stare the building in the face.

A week ago, with her sixteenth birthday, both her parents had mysteriously disappeared. She had lived in the old house alone for a week, the kinder neighbors of the block doing what they could to take care of her.

She had nothing to lose – her parents were gone, and she really didn't have any close friends in anyone at all, not since she had first moved there with her parents.

With out warning, she crumpled to the ground, her body wrecked with sobs. A name from somewhere long ago, in some far away place surfaced in her mind, and she grasped at it with all she was, because it seemed to be the last thing she had left.

"Haku! Kohaku, please come back! Oh, Kohaku, you don't know how much I need you!" her sobs rang wildly in the air, as the pieces of her dreams danced behind tightly closed eyelids; they fit perfectly with this name that she screamed so hard for.

She felt a pair of strong arms encircle her, and her tears came to a screeching halt as she gasped in shock, going stiff with fear. Then that same voice from her dreams whispered in her ear, more real than it had ever been, "I've come to take you home, Chihiro. I haven't ever thought of breaking my promise – I just wasn't allowed into the human world until you had nothing left to hold you back. I still love you, if you'll take me."

She turned and was met with startling green eyes and silky black hair. "Kohaku…?" she guessed softly. His smile widened. "I'm sorry." He blinked, holding her tighter, "What for, Chihiro?" She looked at him with hurting eyes, "I forgot. I promised I wouldn't, and I did… I didn't remember you or anything about the spirit world, and for the last five years, I forgot who I became in the Spirit World…"

She was about to cry again, when a soft smile played over his face, "Come back with me, Chihiro, and we can both keep our promises; I'll constantly remind you every day who you are, and where you are, so you never forget again, and I'll never again leave your side now that I've found it once more."

As he said this, he led her carefully through the old red building and over the never-ending stream, and there on the steps where they first met, he kissed her softly on the mouth as the human sun rose behind her for the last time and the spirit world rose to meet her for the first time in a long time, and from then on, too…

With her always by his side. Always.