His long limbs stretched, new bones cracking as he accustomed to his new form. He felt grass in his mouth, blades of overgrown greenery itching at his sides. The boy shifted to a sitting position, spitting out the grass from his mouth and eyeing his surroundings. He was in a meadow that seemed to stretch on for miles. There were buildings behind him, led by a narrow gravel path. A few steps away was a red stone tunnel, casting a dim shadow over his face. The boy looked down at himself, surprised to see himself completely dry of any water. He'd never left his river in this form before and the odd feeling of warmth made him uncomfortable. He kneeled on shaky legs, trying to find a sense of balance.
A life as a river spirit had not prepared him for the odd, clumsy feeling of a human body. He adapted quickly and stood, brushing himself off of any dirt. He looked around - which way to go? He looked at the tunnel, emerald eyes searching for any sign of home. He decided to take his chances and moved towards it only to find himself walk directly into a wall. An invisible wall at that. He grumbled, rubbing his nose and put his hands up to feel the wall. There was no denying it - there was a barrier between the tunnel and the meadow. But to keep who out? He paused. Or to keep who in?
He took the path back towards the buildings, thoughts rushing through his mind. Why was he here? Who was protecting his river if he wasn't with it?
The boy looked down at his body, pale and naked in the late afternoon sunlight. Long strands of green hair fell in front of his eyes, reminding him of seaweed. He touched it with his fingertip, the first reminder of home bittersweet.
He reached the end of a path, welcomed by nothing. The doors to all of the tiny shops were closed, some appearing boarded up, all lights out. The Kohaku River frowned but continued walking through the small abandoned street, looking for any sign of life. He reached a bridge, pleased to see small lanterns lit. The sun was beginning to set and as he walked across the bridge, he looked back to see the shops begin to light up, boards disappearing off of buildings and hundreds of spirits bustling around. He watched in awe: never in his life had he seen so many spirits in one place. Not since before he was the Kohaku River, but just a shadow figure. He turned back around and found himself facing a large red building, doors wide open and lights full ablaze. Spirits were wondering in and out, toad and frog spirits smoking outside the entry way.
A toad spirit made eye contact with him and walked towards him, blowing cigarette fumes in his face. "Boy, there are ladies around here! You can't just go around naked! Have some respect! Go find Kamaji." The toad pointed towards the back of the building and Kohaku followed the building around, climbing down the stairs until he reached an old, heavy door. He twisted the handle and let himself in, finding himself in an extremely humid room. He heard yelling and turned the corner to find an odd looking man working the boilers. He had three sets of hands as well as a pair of legs and as Kohaku watched, the man's arms appeared to stretch as necessary.
"Excuse me," Kohaku called, his voice higher pitched than he expected after all of those years in dragon form. The man made no move to turn around. "Excuse me!" Kohaku repeated, this time louder and with an edge in his voice. He jumped down a step into a mess of soot ball sprites carrying coal. He narrowly avoided stepping on them, making a beeline of the spider-like spirit. The spirit, Kamaji, looked down in surprise, his glasses falling down his nose slightly.
"Boy, where are your clothes? This isn't a place for the homeless, leave!"
"A toad sent me to you. I am the God of the Kohaku River and I arrived here today... I have some questions." Kamaji grumbled about spoilt river spirits before reaching a long arm into one of the top drawers of the tall building, pulling out a set of white and blue workers clothes.
And finally, Kohaku was fully clothed, his green hair a deep contrast to the turqouise on his white kimono. He clumsily tied a lilac sash around his waist, grumbling about how useless human bodies were.
Kamaji gave Kohaku a riceball and nodded his head in encouragement. Kohaku obliged, pleased to feel more grounded in this strange world he'd found himself in.
"Where am I?" the boy asked, raising his leafy green eyes to the spider.
"You're in my boiler room. I've given you clothes, now get out and find Yubaba. She can answer your questions." Kohaku bowed in thanks, walking out the way he come. "Other way, boy. And wait... before you go, listen to me. Don't get mixed up with Yubaba. She'll take away your identity."
At last, Kohaku took the elevator to Yubaba's office, amazed by the functionality of such a boring box. He arrived at the door and was about the reach for the door knocker when it opened its eyes. Immediately, Kohaku bowed.
This seemed to amuse the face on the golden handle but the doors - yes, plural - opened and Kohaku walked through the seven doors to Yubaba's office. He looked around in disgust. The room was a disaster, paper work thrown over the entirety of the floor, gold pieces scattered across the room. A curtain opened up, revealing a tycoon of oversized pillows and toys. Kohaku remembered cleaning his river, spitting out all types of toys - race cars, toy pianos, even a dragon teddy bear once. A collection of all of the toys he'd found wouldn't have held a penny to that mess in front of him.
An older woman stepped out of the curtain with an oversized head and nose to match. She wore a navy dress with a giant jewel at the centre and had long dark finger nails, reminding Kohaku of claws. Gold rings decorated all ten of her fingers and even her hair was held up by a golden band. The woman caught eye contact with the boy and frowned, flicking her index finger at him. Kohaku felt himself fly back into the wall, held up mid air. He choked as the air left him. A witch.
"Why are you in here?! Can't you see I'm busy?" the woman's voice was hoarse and low, an alto by any standard. She walked over to the boy, pointing a long nail at Kohaku. "You're not an ordinary spirit, are you? Who are you?"
Kohaku remained calm. "I'll answer once you put me down."
The witch rolled her eyes and dropped her hand. Kohaku fell to the ground neatly.
"My name is Nigihayami Kohaku Nushi. I am the God of the Kohaku River." The witch looked up at him, lips pursed. She appeared impressed.
"A God, huh? Must be rich, yes? Care for a bath?" The witch waggled her eyebrows.
Kohaku remained silent until the witch rolled her eyes once more. "A river spirit with no sense of humour, what a surprise."
"I have some questions."
The witch walked over to her desk, paperwork piled high and in no obvious order, baby food and random bathhouse tokens scattered across. "Sit." The boy followed her. "My name is Yubaba. I'm the owner of this bath house. I see you've met our boilerman, Kamaji."
Kohaku nodded, folding his arms neatly across his chest. "Why am I here?"
Yubaba blinked at him as if it was the most stupid question she'd ever heard. "You're in the Spirit World, Kohaku Nushi. That means your river doesn't have enough life within it to sustain you, or has died."
"Died?" Kohaku's voice wobbled, shock plastered across his face. He visibly paled. "But how could it die?"
Yubaba's face softened slightly. "You're a river spirit. Drought, pollution, perhaps you were filled in. Do you not remember?"
"Remember...?" Kohaku sat back in the chair, trying to recall his last memories with his river. He could practically feel the caress of his river against his skin and he longed for it. "There were people at my river often. Some of them wore worker uniforms and had clipboards. One day, a truck filled with sand came as well... I don't remember anything after that."
Yubaba nodded knowingly. "Do you feel it anymore?"
The boy thought about her question for a moment. He didn't feel completely empty, still felt the slight hum of his waters crashing against each other. "Yes... but I believe it's shrunk... and been abandoned. There's little wildlife left." Kohaku stood on his feet quickly. "I need to go back, how do I go back?"
Yubaba sat back in her chair, a smirk rising on her features as she put her hands together. "I can give you access to the Human World at any time you want... if you become my henchman. I like your attitude - calm but to the point. You'll be excellent at handling those stupid yuna."
Kohaku's eyes lit up, Kamaji's words escaping his mind. "Yes, yes. I'll do it. Please let me go to the Human World!"
Yubaba cackled and Kohaku was reminded again that she was in fact a week. "Slow down there boy. You haven't proven yourself to me yet. I have a task for you. You successfully do it and I will have a contract drawn up for us."
Kohaku's face fell. Nothing was easy in this world. "What is that task?"
"My sister has a seal that I desire. It is made of pure gold and she holds it against me constantly. You take it off her and bring it back here and the job is yours."
Kohaku nodded. "Give me the address and I'll be on my way."
It took Kohaku approximately twenty minutes and several swear words to work out how to change back into his dragon form. He glided happily, glad to be rid of those nasty human legs. It was night time but there wasn't a cloud in sight. He danced and glided under the stars, the first sense of joy he'd had since entering his world. His white scales rustled in the wind and his green mane flew behind him. He couldn't do this back home - not without putting wonder into the heads of humans and that was the number one rule of being a spirit: don't let the humans know.
He arrived at Yubaba's sister's home in just under an hour, surprised to see how very different it was to what Yubaba's office was like. This home was a small stone building with a roof made of straw. A chimney sat atop the roof letting out smoke and warmth as Kohaku sailed over it. He continued flying a little ways a way to avoid being heard and transformed back into his human form for silence's sake. He was glad to see it was easier the second time.
He peaked in the window to see the woman - an exact copy of her sister - baking pies, a small record player floating mid air and playing tunes unrecognisable to Kohaku. He moved around to the door and knocked, undecided on what to say yet. The woman opened the door and looked up at the river spirit, pie in hand. Without giving the boy a minute to speak, the woman grinned.
"Oh, you must have smelled the pies! Are you hungry, dear? Do come in! My name is Zeniba, what's yours?"
Kohaku silently cursed himself. She was the opposite of her sister, homely and kind and he had to steal from her? Kohaku thought back to his river and shook himself out of it - he had to focus. "My name is Kohaku and I would love to."
The witch led to the dining table and placed two pies in front of Kohaku. "They're blueberry and custard," the witch smiled delicately. "My speciality."
Against Kohaku's will, his stomach grumbled and his mouth watered at the very smell of these pies. The witch laughed. "Can't get a better compliment than that!"
The witch went back to her baking, striking up casual conversation as Kohaku, figuring a meal couldn't hurt, dug into his first pie. He nonchalantly looked around the room as he did so, answering questions with "mmm" and "ahh." The witch took this as him being busy with his meal. The house was small but homely - photos of Zeniba with friendly faces hung every wall and she had flowers in vases with thank you notes across the living room table. There was even a poster that read "make strangers your family." Kohaku wanted to vomit out of guilt.
His eyes laid on the golden seal - that had to be it. It sat on a royal blue velvet pillow in the middle of the living room, seemingly unprotected.
"And the old tree spirit had the nerve to say I stole the last bag of blueberries from her cart! Please. A little magic doesn't count as stealing." Kohaku looked at Zeniba in surprise, a small smile rising on his features. Excellent idea.
Kohaku began his second pie, all while working out the extent of his powers. He'd only ever used magic in his dragon form and this new human appearance left him a little dumbfounded. Finally, he managed to have the seal floating. Upon this, Kohaku decided he needed to distract the witch.
"These pies are delicious," Kohaku announced. "Tell me, how did you make the crust crunchy but the middle so soft and delicate?"
The witch went off on a very long talk about the important of good ingredients, busying herself as she was spooning more blueberries into a pie tray. Kohaku motioned for the seal to come to him and very shakily and slowly, the finger sized piece of gold found its way to his lap. He stiffened - now what? He stood up, wrapping his hand tightly around the seal.
"You know, I really should be going." Kohaku interrupted the woman who had just gotten onto a tangent about how good custard had to be made with rat milk.
Zeniba clapped her hands as she saw the boy's empty pie plates. "Did you like them? Would you like one for the road?"
"They were excellent, thank you very muc-" he was interrupted by the woman giving him a wrapped up pie, beaming at him.
"Oh, it has been so nice having such splendid company! Do come around again, you hear?" She wrapped her small figure around the boy although her arms only reached his waist. Kohaku smiled politely at her but the woman's face had changed.
"What do you have in your hand, boy?" Kohaku stiffened as the woman's nails sharpened, reaching for his hand. Seemingly instinctively, he put the seal in his mouth and swallowed before transforming into his dragon form and flying out of the house, although not without knocking the door down in his wake.
He felt fire behind him, hot and on his heels. He grimaced and tried to fly faster, just missing a burned tail.
"I'll find you Kohaku! If it's the last thing I do!"
A/N: Hi folks! Welcome to my first Spirited Away fic on this account. I've written quite a bit from SA but during that "i'm-a-teenager-who-doesn't-want-to-admit-they-love-fanfic" stage, I deleted my account. But I'm passed that now so I hope you enjoy this! I recently rewatched the movie and there were so many times where I was like, wait, why did that happen? I couldn't imagine Haku ever going out of his way to steal, and why on earth would he swallow it? I'm hoping to tie up all of those loose ends for myself and thought you might enjoy being along for the ride. Not sure how long I'll continue this or if we'll get to the Chihiro part of the story but I'd sure like to! So for now, enjoy chapter one and I'll hopefully have chapter two out very soon!