AN: I do not own Spirited Away, nor Studio Ghibli or any of their works. I am not sure if this is a one shot or not. Hope you enjoy!
Chihiro's mind drifted off as she gazed out the window. She had only been at her new school for three days and yet her mind seemed to linger on her past.
The only problem was that it wasn't her past. Chihiro's memories weren't trapped with her previous schoolmates as she yearned to return to her friends that she grown up with.
No. Her mind was stuck somewhere else. As if it was stuck halfway between her old home and her new one.
She must have eaten something weird during the car ride that made her sick and hallucinate. What was that candy her best friend had handed her before she got into the car? Whatever it was she would never be eating it again.
Chihiro's eyes focused on the swaying grass following the movement as it rocked back and forth in a steady rhythm. The pattern reminded her of something, but she couldn't place what it was. It almost seemed similar to the flow of water in a river, but why would that remind her of something?
She laid her head on her desk drowning out the teacher. Moving was a lot more effort than she would have thought, and she wouldn't want to move again. Unless it was back home. Not only did she have to help unpack all of the stuff, but since her parents were so busy with their new jobs she had to go to the market the last two nights to get food for their meals.
Of course, since she was too young to drive and her bike was lost in the big move, so she had to walk to the market. Which was five miles uphill.
Last night all she had found when she finally got home was a message on the answering machine that her parents had gone out to dinner and for her not to stay up.
Her parents hadn't been the same since the move.
Before in their previous home, their town was so small that Chihiro could barely go anywhere without seeing her parents first, but now it was like they didn't even exist.
Sure, it had only been three days since they had arrived, but it was different and Chihiro hated it. She wanted to go back to the old town that she had grown up in; where everyone knew her, where she always saw her parents, where things didn't change.
Things changed in this town. It was a tourist destination. One of the top cities to visit in every American's Fodor's book. Construction was always going on and they would add any tourist trap they could if they thought it could lure in the crowds.
Chihiro thought that town was creepy, and that wasn't because of the missing two weeks. That her parents refuse to acknowledge...
No. It was like some giant presence was looming over the town. Don't get her wrong, Chihiro and her family had never been the overly spiritual family, but this town gave Chirhiro chills down her spine. She even took a longer route home because the shortcut involved cutting across some terrifying shrine and Chihiro refused to ever do that again.
'Again? Where did that come from?' Chihiro thought to herself, 'when was the last time I came across a creepy shrine besides the one here?'
A shrill voice broke across her mind as she heard the tail end of the word, "-hiro."
Chihiro, abruptly pulled out of her daydream, found herself staring wide eyed at her teacher. 'Shoot! First week and I'm already on her bad side.' She refrained from slamming her head into her desk. Though it seemed like a good idea it would probably alarm the teacher and cause some heads to turn.
Her teacher, what was her name again, was staring at her expectantly. Chihiro racked her brain trying to recall the last topic the teacher was on. Was it science? English? No. Not those. Oh! It was math!
"Two." Chihiro stated very confidently.
Her teacher paused then raised an eyebrow, "Unfortunately the answer to last night's biology homework is not... two," the words rolled off of her tongue dripping with venom and Chihiro knew she was screwed. "Chihiro, I am going to need you to stay after school today so we can go through the answers to your Biology homework together.
Chihiro pressed her hands over her face in embarrassment as the classroom echoed with laughter. Glancing back up at her teacher Chihiro concluded that it would indeed be a very long day.
Chihiro coughed as the dust that had settled into the erasers covered her entire face. This is not what she was thinking of when her mom told her to find more things to do after school.
She was stuck here. Two hours had already passed and she was still cleaning the classroom. Her nameless teacher told her that she would tell her when she was done, but Chihiro watched her teacher walk to her car fifteen minutes ago and drive away.
Should she wait? She concluded that she would wait five more minutes before heading home.
It's not like she had anything to do at home.
She loved the feeling of the cool wind blowing across her face. It was one of her favorite things about walking home from school these past few days.
She stood in front of the normal route home. Something seemed off. It felt like something was waiting for her on that path.
She regretted staying after school. She should have acted better in class. Then she could have walked home with the normal crowd at her normal distance behind them. As loud and obnoxious as they were she felt much safer with them in this unknown town.
She was short of breath as she stood in front of the path. There were only two paths that she knew about that led home, and the other one passed in front of the creepy shrine.
The wind tugged at her hair, pulling her toward the other path, and she turned trusting her gut.
Taking a deep breath, she started her journey home.
The walk up the hill to the shrine was exhausting. Chihiro had more than her fair share of hills in this town and was not pleased to see she had to climb another one.
The further she climbed the hill the more she saw of the shrine that had fallen into disrepair. She was panting when she finally reached the top of the steep climb hunched over to grab her knees so she could catch her breath.
"Chihiro?"
Her head snapped up as she stared into his green eyes. She knew him, but couldn't place where she knew him from.
She stood frozen across from the boy unsure of what to do. Why did he seem so familiar?
He grinned looking at her, "I found you."