'Why would she ever want to be with someone like me? I doubt the thought would even ever cross her perfect little mind. How could I ever –Haku?- let her leave? She was almost definitely, no, she wasdefinitely the one; I'd never met –Haku!- anyone like her before in such a long life! I would have done anything for her, and now –Ugh, Haku?- she's gone. If I could see her just one more time, I would tell her-' "HAKU!"

"Huh, wha, what's going on?"

A look of pure relief flourished Lin's usually expressionless face, followed suddenly by the other usual scowl of anger. "Finally! You know, Haku, I really wonder what's going on in that messed up head of yours sometimes. Anyways, we gotta go! You've overslept, once again, and Yubaba's screaming at us to get you up! We always end up pickin' up your slack cos' you're just too damn lazy. Now, hurry up and get dressed. My head can't take much more of that old hag."

"Sure, er, sorry, I uh. We should probably get going." sighed a very confused Haku. Lin's face remained expressionless, before another usual roll of the eyes could tell she was either bored or just tired of the same old Haku. Well, the same old Haku ever since 'you know who' left. Besides what either of them were thinking, they simply got on with whatever it was they were supposed to be doing. Ignoring the fact that they didn't actually know what they were supposed to be doing.

The truth was, ever since Chihiro left that long seven years ago, Haku was merely nothing more than something simply living for the sake of it. He remembered how he felt before 'you know who' came. Or, more like what he hadn't felt. He remembered how he was living for a purpose. Not just for the sake of it, but for a purpose. He was living quite simply to serve the bathhouse. He was living to keep the customers happy. But whilst he was 'living' for all that, he noticed he wasn't even keeping himself happy. He was miserable. So miserable that he didn't even notice he was miserable. Something that always made him smile was the greenery around the bathhouse. It wasn't that it was pretty to look it, but the spirit land always had such wisdom and power circulating its constantly beautiful atmosphere. Something even more powerful loomed in the air today, something that seemed to be pulling him outside. Almost as if he was destined to be standing on that bridge at that exact moment.

And he was. And you know perfectly why he was.

Haku had tried to open the spirit gate himself on so many failed occasions, but even he knew it had a mind of its own. At least, that's what everyone thought. On so many days he woke early hours of the morning, breathing heavily and detached from whatever was really happening. Chihiro was the only thought that circled endlessly round his mind, causing him on so many occasions to become oblivious to everyone and everything around him. This was a problem for Yubaba. It's not just the fact he rarely finishes his work, or the fact he's no longer her apprentice, or even the fact she can't control him anymore. Sure, these things annoyed her, but what really bothered Yubaba the most is simply that it wasn't just Haku who felt this way. Lin, Boh, Kamajii, Zeniba and even Yubaba herself could only ever think about 'that girl who walked in one day and changed their world, then walked out and changed it once again.' They couldn't help but feel guilty of the way they treated her. "Humans, ugh!" "Stinky, revolting, useless creatures." "Born just to destroy things!" Nobody thought about how much they wanted Chihiro Ogino to stay, until she left. Now things just aren't the same. The atmosphere is simply unbearable.

Oh, did you think I meant Yubaba was bothered about everybody being upset? No, no, of course not! Yubaba could never be that nice. The atmosphere was so unbearable that they were losing customers. Not just one or two, but they would be lucky to gain 10 or 11 a day now. Yubaba was simply fuming that on so many occasions they bathhouse was just a place for everyone to live. And one day, seven years from the exact date Chihiro left, she decided enough was enough.

She stormed arrogantly to the boiler room, completely ignoring Kamaji's inquisitive expression, and just sat and closed her eyes. She wasn't praying, or meditating, and to be fair nobody really knew. By nobody I mean Kamaji and the enchanted specs of soot. After not 10 seconds of complete silence, Yubaba's eyes burst open and she exposed the room to an almost beautiful harsh light. It was so intense, any physical object in the room was obscured, but what you could see was much, much better. Chihiro's whisper echoed the room, her face surrounding bright shades of light. The room appeared to be much bigger, and at one glance Yubaba appeared to almost be radiating some sort of blue aura. Then a dragon of a fierce red colour landed on what appeared to be floor, where a young girl lay on his back. The girl grew, and grew, and grew as the dragon became more vivid and real, with green eyes and a back lined with the clearest shade of blue. Suddenly the girl disappeared into, what appeared to be, a broken heart, causing the dragon to explode with outrage. Suddenly the light vanished, and the dragon was crashing into every wall, draw and jar in the room. Finally Yubaba fell to the floor, with some sort of golden box in her hand. The dragon appeared to turn to somewhat of glass, crashing into the floor and smashing into a billion blue shards. The shards began to grow and become even more blue as if… as if… as if it was turning into water! With a loud thud, the now obvious water fell to the ground, rapidly filling up the room. But this, this wasn't a light. Kamaji, and even Yubaba had to hold their breath as it rose over their mouths and even higher to the ceiling. 'Something about this must be magical' Kamaji thought to himself. 'We can't just die? How odd.' He must have been right, considering almost any spirit didn't have to hold their breath underwater if they didn't want to. He looked down to a completely out-of-it Yubaba, who still had that 'golden box' clasped tightly in her hand. And, unable to hold it any longer, Kamaji opened his mouth and took a very long, very easy breath. This is when he noticed himself laying, opening his eyes from what seemed to be such a realistic dream. But when he saw himself drenched with water, and Yubaba laying on the floor with now what was obviously a golden book in her hand, he knew what just happened was real. He couldn't explain it. Nobody could. But it was real.

And something seemed all too strange about that book.