So I was just listening to Studio Ghibli's Music Collection on Youtube yesterday and then bam! I realized I had to write something for this amazing movie of theirs.
A complete newbie in the Spirited Away fanfic base, read a few renowned fanfics but still haven't caught wind of all the cliches and overused plots and whatnot.
This is just a prologue, but hopefully the idea will be intriguing to you guys and hopefully it hasn't already been used before.
Happy Reading!
Disclaimer: Hayao Miyazaki is a goddamn genius. I am not.
The Memories Shared Between Us
-Chapter 1: Prologue-
XXX
Splish. Splash. Splish.
Chihiro wriggled her toes through the steamy water and sighed, leaning back to stare at the cloud-swept sky. School bells rang far in the distance.
Today was a school day. Meaning it would be a generally peaceful day, with the majority of her customers suffering through stifling classes and tedious schoolwork.
Not her though.
She sighed again and lifted her feet out of the water, grabbing a nearby towel to dry them off. She didn't mind the silence or the solitude—it would get busy in there later—but being alone meant more time to think and more time to think meant more brooding over herself and a past she didn't remember.
In any normal situation, a healthy, seventeen-year-old girl shouldn't be splashing her feet around in a hot spring on a Monday morning. But in Chihiro's situation, it was pretty ordinary for the manager of an onsen spa to have a relaxing foot bath before starting her work for the day. At seventeen, she was merely fulfilling her deceased parents' wishes for her to inherit their family's onsen business.
Chihiro walked around the open-air hot spring, analyzing water temperature and steam level and the surrounding environment. Then she nodded to herself, put a check on a mental clipboard and walked back into the spa.
Five years ago, on a stormy, windy night, a terrifying car accident claimed the lives of both of her parents. She was in the car too, but she survived with a few broken bones and severe memory loss. After regaining consciousness, she couldn't remember anything or anyone prior to the accident, including her mom and dad. It was both an unsettling and scary experience, feeling absolutely nothing after being told that both of her parents had died.
She didn't have many close relatives to begin with, but the few that happened to live nearby just didn't have the time or the resources to raise another child. Luckily, an elderly couple that used to be good friends with her mom was willing to take her in and she stayed with them in the neighboring province for the next two years.
At fourteen, she received a call from the current boss of the onsen spa—a close friend of her parents' who took over after they passed—who told her about her family business and her parents' wishes and how his family was planning on moving to Hokkaido. The spa surely couldn't last without a manager and he felt obligated to tell her about it, as young as she was, for she was the last remaining true owner of the business.
Up until then Chihiro had been wandering through her school years aimlessly with nothing to define herself but her name, detached from the world by both her amnesia and her hollow character, so the opportunity to regain a connection to who she was and fulfill her parents dreams was all too tantalizing not to take. She quit school and took up the job without hesitation, protected by the fact that it was a family-owned and family-run business, and worked alone for the first year. Customers dwindled at first due to the young new manager, but Chihiro's hard work and persistence restored their faith in the spa and business boomed once again. The increased social interaction cured Chihiro in more ways than one and soon she felt the burden of her amnesia slowly fade and a new self being reborn. After a year or so she managed to hire a few jobless moms and old ladies in the area who helped allocate the workload and facilitate more services for the customers.
Now, with the passing of Chihiro's seventeenth birthday just a few months before, the Ogino Onsen was a hotspot amongst the students of the nearby high school as well as a popular destination for locals and tourists alike. Chihiro was proud of herself for coming such a long way from nothing at all, but whenever she had some quiet time to herself, she never failed to wonder about her life before the accident, and the memories she had lost.
She didn't know why, but she just had this gut feeling that, besides her parents, she had forgotten something else very dear and precious.
XXX
"Haku, are you sure about this?" Zeniba reiterated, eyeing the young river spirit sternly.
"Yes, Zeniba—after all, I have a promise to keep," Haku replied without batting a lid.
It had been seven years since he had seen Chihiro. Seven long years. Between settling his conflict with Yubaba and figuring out a life for himself, Haku had been very busy and hadn't had the time nor the means to attempt to contact Chihiro. With the system humans called school, he was certain that the other girl had been busy herself. However, upon his request two years ago, Zeniba began classified research on ways to transform spirits into humans, and finally, after countless failed experiments and disastrous concoctions, she created a potion that could do the job.
But, as it defied the very laws of the universe for a spirit to become human, it came with heavy risk.
Haku would not be able to escape the harmful effects that the human world had on his spiritual essence. Shortly after entering the human world, he would need to find a spiritual object there to keep him connected to the other realm, or else he would decompose painfully after two short months.
But the problem here was not the spiritual item itself but whether or not it was still accessible. Because it was none other than the enchanted hair tie that Zeniba had made for Chihiro seven years ago.
Zeniba had her doubts. No matter how deep of a bond the two children shared, seven years was still seven years. She couldn't be sure that Chihiro still had the hair tie—she couldn't even guarantee that the human girl still remembered Haku. Humans were forgetful creatures, after all. But despite several of these warnings, the river spirit remained adamant.
And if that wasn't enough, the other side effect of the potion—Haku would lose his memories of the spirit world until he came into contact with the spiritual item. So he couldn't even take the initiative in this quest. It would be entirely dependent on Chihiro's wits and instinct.
If everything worked out, Haku could finally spend time with the girl he had longed for all these years. If everything worked out, he would have the choice to severe his spiritual ties and become fully human, to stay by her side. But if things didn't work out, not only would he forever lose his memories of his time with her in the spiritual world, but he would also have only two months to live as an ignorant human in a place he didn't truly belong.
It was incredibly risky, but this dragon boy was also incredibly stubborn.
"You could lose your life, Haku," Zeniba warned again. "If Chihiro doesn't remember…"
"No, Zeniba," Haku smiled as he took the flask from the old woman's gnarled hands. "I have faith in Chihiro and faith in the promise we made. She'll remember me, I'm sure of it."
Zeniba blinked at the strength of his resolve, then smiled to herself.
"Love is truly a wonderful thing."
Patting Haku's shoulder, she looked up at the boy with unwavering eyes, etching his face into her memory for it was possibly the very last time she'd get to see it in person.
"You will be a transfer student at the school in her neighborhood. You will live with a family who has taken you in as an adopted son. Everything in regards to your insertion into human society will be taken care of. But you will be alone from there on out. I can only monitor your progress with occasional reports from Earthly spirits. There will be no way for me to interfere if anything goes wrong."
"And I wouldn't have wanted anything more." Haku grasped her both of her hands gratefully. "Thank you so much, Zeniba. I owe you more than I can ever repay in a lifetime."
"You owe me nothing, child," Zeniba harrumphed with a disapproving shake of her head. "An old woman like myself can only wish for the happiness of youngsters, eh? Now go on and find your happiness."
Haku smiled and gave Zeniba one last reassuring hug before he raised the bottle to his lips. There was a blinding glow and poof, he was gone, leaving behind only a trail of sparkles.
Zeniba sighed as she stooped down to pick up the now empty bottle.
"May your journey fare well, my child."
With one last worried glance to the sky, she retreated into her cottage.
And that's the end of the Prologue!
Mostly narration and boring stuff, I know, but I had to set a premise for the story somehow.
It took me a while to come up with all the conditions to Haku becoming human and I don't know if I was able to explain it well, so please tell me if you don't quite understand it or if you see any loopholes in the story.
More interesting things will be coming next chapter, but that is if you guys enjoyed the prologue enough for me to write one ;D
Tell me what you think! Comments and constructive criticism are welcome!
-momocandyXD