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onsen - bathhouse

Nippon - Japan

tasuki cord - that cute thing Chihiro uses to tie up her uniform sleeves

Nobody believed her, not even her own parents, who'd been there in the spirit world with her, albeit as pigs.

That wasn't unexpected, but it still bothered her. When she was ten, she could talk all she wanted about river spirits, witches and faceless monsters, and it was an 'overactive imagination'. Now that she was fourteen, she just looked crazy.

Chihiro gave up trying to convince people, but she kept the memories alive, tending them like a wondrous garden close to her heart- she never doubted once that it had happened, though at the time, it had been very much like a dream. Sometimes it seemed more real than her life now; she could still feel the glassy smoothness of Haku's silvery shattered-mirror scales, and the soot sprites tickling her ankles. She could remember what the endless water looked like a thousand feet below her, and the taste of Granny's cake. It hadn't faded at all with the years- each night Chihiro dreamed of the spirit world and her spirit friends, so vividly that it was suffocating, waking to her ugly bedroom ceiling. She'd have to scramble for her hair tie and hold it in the moonlight until it gave the old, comforting sparkle.

Sitting here, though, next to the long red tunnel that led to the spirit world, with her back pressed to the mossy, two-faced statue guardian, she could breathe. The old trees were swaying above her head, dappled shadows were dancing across the homework on her lap, and birds were singing. It was peaceful. She had a secret theory that some spirit magic leaked through here, at this eerie place where the two worlds met.

She came here a lot, actually, to luxuriate in memories and daydreams. It was so close to her house, so why not? A year ago, she'd started cleaning up some of the tiny stone shrines, the spirit homes. Sometimes there were extra-dark shadow and glittering lights inside them now, if she squinted just right.

Haku had let her go. He had given her back to the human world to grow up. Chihiro knew that had been the right thing, for her to be loved with her parents, to have a chance at normalcy, but still-

"I miss you guys," she whispered, staring down the tunnel. It was deeply black, as if it went on forever, without a hint of the bright blue sky and rippling fields she knew lay beyond. She never dared to go through it. She was just too afraid it wouldn't work, that she'd find nothing but a broken-down tourist trap, mundane and empty of spirits, rubbing her own lonely humanity in her face.

"Don't look back," Haku had said, voice holding all the hidden depths of the river he was, but she'd been able to do nothing else since. Would he be glad she remembered her friends, or upset that she hadn't fully moved on? Most of the time, she had no idea, but it worried her.

Something rustled in the bushes. Maybe a weasel spirit like Lin, maybe an actual weasel, maybe just a bird; she set down her History book and crawled closer. "Hello? Hello there."

A moment of silence, then a very familiar green figure wrapped like a sausage in a too-tight blue yukata popped out of the leaves. "Sen! Sen, it's you, I found you!"

"Oh!" she shrieked, falling back right onto her rump in shock. Two bulging eyes blinked at her, apparently quite unsurprised by her mortal clumsiness; it was the little frog who'd been eaten by No-Face. "I don't remember your name, I'm sorry!" Names were important.

He blinked at her again, twiddling his webbed thumbs, then hopped closer. "It's Aogaeru! Sen, you look different. I wasn't sure I had the right human."

She bit back an impolite giggle before remembering to answer. "It's cause we age. You look the same."

Apparently Aogaeru took that as quite the compliment, because he began to visibly preen. "Thank you! It's all the free baths, you know, great for the skin. Best part of working in the onsen. Listen, I was sent here to fetch you-"

"Fetch me?" she said eagerly, scrambling upright and tugging on the hem of her shirt. "Back to the spirit world? By who?"

"I was getting to that," Aogaeru croaked, puffing up his cheeks angrily and dancing from foot to foot. She clapped a hand over her mouth. "It's Master Haku. He needs some help. There's- well, something happened, and he had to go for a while, and Granny came to run the place but she brought that awful No-Face with her! So the foreman went on strike, and then something broke in Kamaji's furnace, and-!" He flung up his hands, bulbous eyes goggling more than ever. "Granny needs help, but really it's Master Haku who needs the help, because it's his onsen now, and we all want to keep him as a boss! He's a lot nicer now that he's got a name!"

"Ohhh," Chihiro breathed, feeling her own eyes going rather wide. It felt dreamlike and blissful, to speak to a spirit again, and everything was flooding back, stronger than ever. And Haku had friends now! He wasn't lonely, like she'd feared! She could nearly feel that enchanted wind again, pushing her towards the tunnel. "Am I allowed back? Is that okay? I want to help, but I gotta tell my parents something so they don't worry while I'm gone."

Aogaeru frowned sulkily. "Fine, go on, do your human things, I'll wait here. Don't take too long, though, this is a big spell that's letting me cross over. Granny said not to dilly-dally!"

I'm not surprised Granny's made everybody call her Granny, instead of Mistress or Zeniba, Chihiro thought joyously, bounding up the wooded hill to her house so fast that she nearly brained herself twice. Granny was like that: warm, loving, and sweeter than a pound of sugar. And I get to see her again! And I get to see Haku, and Kamaji, and Lin, everybody! She felt like a shaken-up bottle of pop.

"Dear, why are you dancing?" asked her mother, looking up from her tea with raised eyebrows as Chihiro burst through the garden door. "And why are you so dirty?"

"Mom, I just-" Chihiro blurted, and then she stopped, literally on her tiptoes. She was going to have to come up with a really good, excellent, first class lie to get away with suddenly disappearing for possibly many days. Why couldn't Granny have come up with a spell to bamboozle her parents, too?

But that wasn't fair. Granny was undoubtedly working hard, and Chihiro's parents only worried and nagged because they cared. Maybe honesty was the best policy here. Chihiro squared her shoulders and leaped in headfirst, hoping she could figure it out as she went. That was kind of her strong suit, after all. "Mom, I just ran into an old friend who came to town. Remember? When we very first moved here, I was-"

"That sweet little girl who gave you the bouquet? From your old school, oh, what was her name," Mom murmured. "Oh, how nice!"

"Uhh-" Chihiro decided to let that one lie, and plowed on, trying not to wring her hands. "So if you don't mind I've been invited to stay over for a few days, and it's summer, after all, and I've already done most of my summer homework. Please?"

Her mom squinted thoughtfully into her tea, pursing pink lips. "I don't know, honey, it seems kind of sudden. And for days? Are you sure you didn't misunderstand the invitation?"

Aogaeru, and everyone, was waiting. "Noooooo-"

"So here I am!" said Chihiro, grinning at Granny until her face hurt. It was very odd seeing Granny in Yubaba's elaborate chambers, which hadn't been changed at all since she left the onsen, though all the elaborate finery looked a bit dusty. Yubaba would never beam and blush the way Granny was doing, though, even if they still apparently dressed exactly the same way. "I hope I can help. I missed you guys so much!"

"You've gotten so big," Granny cooed, for the sixth time, clasping her hands beside her oversized face. Her big hooked nose nearly knocked Chihiro out when Granny pulled her in for yet another hug. "Look at you! Look at all that hair, oh, I just can't believe how time flies. We've got to fatten you up, though! And you've still got your hair tie!"

"Yeah," said Chihiro happily, reaching up to touch it. "So I know Haku's not here right now, but I really want to see Lin and Kamaji! Is that okay?"

Granny chuckled airily and waved a hand gleaming with gems. She seemed to have sobered at the mention of Haku, though; what on earth was he up to, that had taken him so suddenly from the onsen? Probably Granny was stressed, having to run such a huge business all by herself. Even a witch didn't have as much energy as a dragon. "Of course, dear. Go right on down. Lin's running around somewhere, but she'll find you soon, I'm sure. Go on, go say hi and later we'll have some cake with No-Face and talk business. All your old friends know you're here!"

That was a nice thought, and Chihiro was still smiling as she got into the elevator. She was sharing it with a yuna, one of the large-headed, delicately beautiful women-spirits who liked so much to gossip and scold. This yuna didn't seem to recognize her, though she did lean away and lift the sleeve of her pretty kimono to cover her nose. Chihiro sighed to herself as the elevator shuddered jerkily to life; she'd forgotten about the 'human stink'.

But as the elevator clattered downwards, stopping and starting, swallowing and then spitting out all the kinds of spirits she'd been dreaming about, she started to get excited again. It didn't matter that they all ignored her (politely and otherwise). The humid air of the onsen smelled like strange herbs and cinnamon, and she could hear the clamoring of customers and bustling staff every time the elevator doors opened.

The basement-slash-boiler room was a searing blast of heat against her face, and she breathed it in with an open mouth as squeaking soot-sprites immediately abandoned their coal to dash at her. She was swimming to her ankles in them before she made it two steps off the elevator.

Kamaji twisted around to peer at her, black glasses glimmering redly in the furnace's flames. One long, long arm stretched out, and she nestled her face into the bony hand that cupped her cheek. "Sen!"

Oh, she had missed that bristly mustache! "Kamaji!" she shouted, running forward into a many-armed hug. It was possibly the best hug she'd ever received.

He held her back to look at her, mustache wriggling even more wildly. A soot sprite bounced happily off her nose with a very tiny mumble; two more, impressed, promptly followed suit. "You've gotten big, girl," he said gruffly.

"I grew," she informed him smugly. "It's a human thing. I'm back! Only for a little while, but I'm back! Will you tell me what's been happening?"

He shrugged, which was quite the production considering how many arms he had. "Yubaba's been gone, and Haku runs the onsen now. Boy does quite a good job, too, if I do say so myself. Brings me the best herbs. Lin's running her own wing of the bathing floor now, she's in charge of twenty tubs, all on her own, and let me tell you they're the cleanest tubs in the whole place."

"That's Lin for you," Chihiro said fondly, stepping down among the trilling soot sprites and crouching, stretching her hands out so they could come zooming up her arms. When they nuzzled against her cheeks, they felt like the very softest of breezes, ephemeral and sweet.

"What do you feel like, Sen?" asked Kamaji.

"Like I'm home," she said immediately, without even thinking.

"Ahhh," he murmured, smiling. "That's good, that's good."

She picked up a handful of soot sprites and let them dangle, chirping, off her fingers- but her time here was limited, and she had business to take care of. "Will you tell me why Granny really sent for me? I sort of thought about it, you know, and she's a really strong witch. It seemed weird to me that she was having so much trouble with the onsen, especially with you and Lin still around. Is Haku really okay, or is something going on?"

Kamaji gave an approving nod, and Chihiro felt a little frisson of pride. As if reading her mind, Kamaji said gently, "The first time I saw you, I didn't think much of you, you know."

"I grew," she said gladly, cuddling the soot sprites. "It's a human thing."

"I'm looking for Lin, please," Chihiro said desperately to the mustachioed host, peering up at him as his green hat wobbled dangerously.

He squinted down at her with unnervingly massive, coppery eyes. She was vastly relieved when he didn't seem to recognize her, though the way his nose wrinkled meant her humanity hadn't escaped him.

Sure enough- "A human? What are you doing here?"

She sighed. She had sort of hoped her sojourn here four years ago, however brief, might have softened the spirits' anti-human opinions, especially after Yubaba finally learned her lesson. "I just really need to see Lin, please, and I know she's around here somewhere." Steam curled around her face, rich with strange, green smells, and a neat line of ootori-sama chick spirits waddled by, peeping gently. Little girl-figures in pink uniforms, their sleeves tied up with floppy tasuki cords, scurried past with buckets of sudsy water, and of course the yuna were everywhere at once while managing to do nothing at all. The chaos was achingly familiar, but it made it very hard to spot a particular person.

The host, Chichi-something, stared at her scathingly down his bulbous nose. "Look, little girl, you need to leave before you get in the way! We don't have time for-"

"You talk that way to Sen again and I'll stuff that ugly hat right down your throat," someone threatened, and Chihiro spun around.

"Lin!"

"The one and only, kid." There was that same old pretty, flashy grin. "You're back! We weren't sure you'd come!"

Chihiro submitted to Lin's hair-ruffling with good grace; Lin wasn't much of a hugger, to say the least. "Of course I came! I missed you guys! But Lin, I need you to give me some, uh, advice about something.. I need your help."

The yuna were suddenly quiet, undoubtedly sensing gossip, and Lin frowned, brown eyes very sharp. "Is this about what I think it's about?"

"Yeah."

"So you gotta go talk to the old river god, then," Lin deduced, crossing her arms and leaning against Chichi-whatever's fancy lacquered desk.

"Yeah," Chihiro said again, staring down at her worn pink sneakers, so strange and out of place on the glossy onsen floor. "Tomorrow morning. Granny's gonna spell me there, or something."

"That old lady has so many tricks up her sleeves it's a wonder she doesn't topple over," Lin snorted, whacking a passing frog upside the back of the head without even looking. Several bath tokens, obviously attained via dastardly means, clattered out of his yukata. "Well, I'm sure it'll go fine, Sen. Come on, let's go get something to eat, and you can tell me what you've been up to. Dumplings tonight, mmm!"

Chihiro nodded happily, stomach gurgling. She was getting a little transparent.

'Spell' turned out to mean 'here, have some giant, magical paper wings, Chihiro, and pray to all the gods you don't crash into a mountain.'

Flying was hard. It had been so easy when she was riding Haku, not scary at all! At least they're pretty, she thought wildly, glancing with watering eyes at the twisting, turning rope of greenish-blue far below her. It was the river that belonged to the river god they'd all mistaken for a stink spirit, the one she'd helped- and, it seemed, also the one that flowed past the onsen, beneath the red bridge and out onto the flat delta by the railroad tracks. It was the river that appeared each night, when the ferry full of spirit customers arrived.

And lately, it had slowed to nearly a trickle. Even at this height, she could see the barren stone of the dry banks. The onsen needed that river; it turned the massive water wheels that provided power, it guided their guests to their door, it watered the gardens and livestock (strictly animal, now- she'd checked with Kamaji). Without it, the future of the onsen was dim to say the least. She hadn't noticed last night until Lin pointed it out, but almost half the gigantic tubs were sitting empty, gathering dust.

Haku's river is dead and gone, too, she thought sadly, shivering as she plunged unexpectedly through a wispy cloud, coming out the other side with frost on her lashes. The paper wings seemed to respond to her thoughts more than anything, and luckily, they were much more competent at flying than she was. Is that why he left? Is he trying to help the river god, too? Or was it just too much for him, seeing another river die?

But the Haku she knew would never have ignored his responsibilities, never have abandoned all the hundreds of spirits who lived and worked in the onsen. He could be stern and cold sometimes, like the water he was, but he was also loyal and very brave.

The spirit world below paralleled her own in many ways, though they certainly weren't identical. As she flew north, spotting landmarks here and there, she was becoming more and more certain that she knew the river god's river.

"Look at this, honey, they're finally bulldozing that old park and putting the land to use," her father had said from behind his newspaper, months ago. She'd mumbled something over her cereal before dashing out the door to catch the bus, and she wouldn't remember it at all if not for what he'd said next. "Bunch of environmental activist folks are out there protesting, something about a river- ahh, what about progress? Can't go backwards, you know!"

So the river god might be dying all over again, because of humans, and here came a human to save him. She suspected it might be something like irony, the most tragic kind, and she felt tears freeze on her cheeks as the wind of her passage chilled her face.

By the time she saw the distinctive, fang-shaped mountain peak that Granny had told her to watch for, it was late afternoon. It took some delicate maneuvering to land; she ended up crashing through the top of the treeline, and she hit the ground hard, rolling a few times before coming to a stop against something very soft.

She shook her head. "Whew!"

"Mmrrrrrrp?"

She froze, then craned her head back to see what had broken her fall. It was an ootori-sama, one of the chick-spirits- except this one was, apparently, the mama. This spirit was no fluffy, yellow ball of peeping adorableness. This was a gigantic, yellow-eyed hen, with a sharp beak as big as Chihiro- and she'd landed right in the hen's lavish plumage.

"I'm so sorry!" she shouted, scrambling up and backing away before dipping into a low bow. "That was an accident, I didn't mean to hit you!"

Her paper wings were shaking, making little rattling sounds. The hen cocked her head. "Bbbrrrrrrr!"

Well, she was big and scary looking, but she didn't seem dangerous, despite those humongous claws. Chihiro bowed again, just for good luck, then gathered up all her bravery and said cautiously, "I'm looking for the river god, of the Toyohira River, the one that's just over there. Can you help me?"

The hen blinked twice, ruffled her feathers, then turned her head and lowered it, peering at Chihiro with round eyes. "Mrrp, rrrrrrr!" she trilled, before beginning a complicated series of clucks.

Chihiro nodded politely, even though she didn't understand any of it. "So… that way?" she guessed, pointing towards the fang mountain, where the river originated.

The hen nodded decisively, fluffed her plumage again, then trundled off into the thick forest, obviously very done with the strange human interloper.

Chihiro sighed and closed her eyes for a moment, listening for the sound of the water, and then she headed into the trees too, her path lit by the glow of tiny, curious kodama. They were sweet, harmless tree spirits, but their faces looked like skulls, and she had to fight back another attack of the shakes. These dark woods were truly wild, in the most primal sense of the world, and the spirits lurking here owed her nothing.

The Toyohira River- her guess must have been right, because she recognized the Toyohira from her own world- wound a steep path up the mountain. "Nippon doesn't have rivers, it has waterfalls," she panted sourly to herself, mimicking her geography teacher. It was true, though, and by the time she had made it to the river's start, it was growing dark, she was exhausted, and her wings were so torn as to be useless. She'd have to find another way back.

The river, so mighty and fierce miles downstream, was birthed from a small spring, bubbling up from shining granite and rich moss. "Ooh," she said, quite involuntarily, as she realized suddenly how beautiful her surroundings were. The emerald moss was everywhere, turning the shadows of the gigantic old trees to deepest velvet, and air smelled wet and sweet, the purest she'd ever breathed. Motes of glittering dust floated all around the shaded clearing, or maybe it was just undiluted magic; she reached out to touch one delicately, and it chilled her fingertip before jumping away.

"Ooh, indeed," agreed a voice- a wonderfully familiar voice, deep and amused.

She whirled around. "Haku! Haku, it's you!"

"Chihiro," he breathed. He looked just the same- a little older, of course, and much taller, but his moss-green hair was still cut into a sharp bob, and his sharp brows still wrinkled in the same way. "What are you doing here? How did you find me?"

He looked tired, too, and she linked her hands behind her back, suddenly shy. Her instinct had been to lunge forward and hug him, but those wide, vivid river-green eyes were staring at her in clear shock, and she was oddly afraid he wouldn't reciprocate.

"Granny sent for me," she said quietly, unable to keep from devouring him with her gaze, all the familiar angles of his face, the new broadness of his shoulders. "She said she needed help running the onsen, 'cuz you were off doing something important, but I didn't think that was the whole story. It's the Toyohira River, isn't it? He's dying, because of- humans."

Her own humanity sickened her, suddenly, in the face of all this endangered purity. She had to turn away from Haku, covering her face.

"Yes," Haku said softly, and then strong hands were on her shoulders, turning her around and pulling her close.

"S-sorry," she wailed, trying not to get snot on his kimono.

"It's not your fault, and he's not dead yet," Haku said grimly. His hair was impossibly silky where it brushed her cheek. He'd let himself age in this form, as if he were a real boy, and she wondered why. "And he won't, if I have anything to say about it. I've been nursing him, and Yubaba taught me more magic than she ever realized. I didn't know Zeniba would send for you, I didn't- I never wanted you to come back here, Chihiro."

She could practically hear her heart breaking. "What? Why not?"

He sighed. "I wanted you to have a happy, normal human life. I didn't want you to have to see the things that are happening to my world. I didn't want you to feel… guilty. As you do now. Humans change when they spend too much time here, and they can't always get back. Or if they can, they're always half what they were- part of them stays here."

She tore away from him fiercely and actually stomped her foot, sending the last shreds of her tattered wings floating gently to the ground. "Don't you think that's exactly what it's been like for me? It's too late for me not to be- half! I missed you guys so much, I missed everything here!"

Haku was staring at her again, beautiful eyes reflecting the golden magic-motes swirling all around them. "We missed you too," he said at last. "Perhaps I was wrong."

"Maybe," she said darkly, sniffling.

He shook his head, then turned to look at the stream. "What's going on in the human world that's making him so sick? Can you tell me?"

She winced, then knelt down to gather up the pieces of her wings. It seemed wrong to just leave them here, in such a perfect place. "It's the same thing that happened to your river," she whispered at last.

She was unprepared for the vicious, entirely dragon-ish snarl that burst from Haku, or the way his teeth suddenly turned to fangs. "They're destroying it?" he growled.

"Yes." Chihiro swallowed hard, shoving the torn bits of paper into the pockets of her jeans. "It was a big park, in my world, this place here where the river begins. They started to prepare the land for development, but some protesters delayed it, I guess. That's all I know right now, I'm sorry."

Haku was pacing now. "Protesters? What do you mean, what are those? Spirits?"

"No, humans. Just people who want to protect the environment." She was wringing her hands, watching him so upset, but then a thought struck her so powerfully she was fairly sure her heart might have stopped. "Haku, I'm a human! When I get back I can go help them, I've still got two months before school starts again, maybe I can get the local spirits to help if you talk to them too in this world! Maybe with the extra help the protesters can pass a law, or something, get the park declared protected land!"

"I have very little idea what most of that means," he said, pausing in his pacing to squint at her. She was relieved to see the fangs had receded. "But it sounds… like it might work. Do you really think so? He'll heal in time, if they let his river alone, but right now he's in pain, his magic's mostly gone."

"Yeah, I think it will work! I think I can!" she said, very determined. "Did it…"

"What?"

"Did it hurt when your river died?" she said, feeling the ache of oncoming tears begin again..

He closed his eyes. "Yes. But that was a long time ago. You were so small… you've grown, by the way."

"I know," she laughed. "Is he here? The Toyohira River? Would it make him feel better if we told him we've got a plan now? I always feel better when I've got a plan."

Haku grinned at her, possibly the first true smile she'd ever seen from him, and his face remained boyish, but it was a dragon's smile, toothy and wild. "I know that feeling. Yes, he's in the cave. It'll be a tight squeeze for you, though. Hang onto my tail so you don't get stuck."

"The cave?" she squeaked, suddenly envisioning huge spirit-spiders crawling everywhere, but Haku was already in his dragon form, filling up the dark clearing like a ray of moonlight come to earth. She grabbed onto the end of his tail as he darted into a dark corner between two mossy stones, very near to the spring. Sure enough, it was a cave, and Chihiro closed her eyes tight as she wriggled through after Haku, flinching every time anything brushed her skin. She didn't want to know if it was spiders, moss, or something even more horrible. It was a very tight fit indeed. The passage was narrow, and Haku apparently found it perfectly easy to slither through, but for Chihiro it took more effort.

She was sweating by the time she fell out the other side of the stone passage, into a much larger cavern, and Haku, already back in human form, huffed out a faintly amused breath as she sat up. The river god's cave was gigantic. Chihiro's jaw fell open as she looked straight up at the crystalline ceiling, glimmering in a thousand shades of purple and blue in the light of the golden motes, which were even thicker here, like a million supernatural fireflies. The air was cold, and her breath plumed out misty and white.

"Haku, this is beautiful," she whispered, heart pounding.

He offered her a hand up. "Yes. He's very old, and he's lived here for a long time. Come on." She clutched his hand tight as he led her through the glittering cavern, past stalagmites taller than she was, and it reminded her of that long-ago dash through the onsen's gardens.

The river god was much smaller than she remembered, his watery form curled in a translucent ball atop a smooth, wide outcropping of stone. He stirred as they drew closer, and she froze when he lifted his head to look at her. The gnarled, laughing mask was shaped differently now, more like an animal's skull, and there was pain evident in the lash of his tail.

She dropped Haku's hand and fell into a low, low bow, ponytail slipping forward over her shoulder.

"Do you remember her?" said Haku, and there was something different in his voice now, something like the echo of time itself as he spoke, one dragon to another, river to river.

The mask seemed to shift, and she watched from beneath her lashes as it twisted into something vaguely like she remembered. Apparently that was a 'yes' to Haku, because he turned to her and pulled her up out of her bow. "Are you sure it's okay for me to be here?" she said quietly.

"Yes." There was that almost wolfish smile again, practically blinding her in the cave's gloom. Then, to the river god, he said, "She's going to help you. She's going to go back to the human world and stop the destruction of your river, and I'm going to work with the spirits here to sabotage the-"

"Construction," she supplied, when he paused, searching for a word. She hadn't exactly meant sabotage, but, well- the spirits were defending their homes, so maybe a little bit was okay.

"Construction, yes. You're not going to die." Then, just like that, he turned around and began walking. He had such total faith in her.

She scampered after him. "Goodbye, and I hope you feel better! Don't be afraid, I'll work really hard to help!" she called quickly to the god, as he sank back into his slumber.

Haku snorted as they made their way through the twisted stalagmites, waving glimmering motes away from his face. "You've changed, but you haven't."

"It hasn't been that long," she pointed out, watching her feet carefully.

Getting out of the cave was just as uncomfortable as entering it had been, but she held tight to Haku's tail, and there was nothing creepy-crawly on her when she finally stumbled out into the evening air.

He didn't change back to a boy. Instead he dipped his head low in front of her, glassy antlers shining, and she wound a hand tentatively into his bluish mane, just as satiny-smooth as his hair. He felt very warm to the touch, almost startlingly so. "Are you going to take me back? Is it okay for you to leave the river god? The wings Granny gave me fell apart."

His head dipped lower, and she smiled as she threw a leg over his neck.

He landed on the roof of the onsen hours later, as silently as a ghost, and Chihiro, who was half asleep with her wind-chilled face buried in his furry mane, fell right off him.

Human arms caught her an instant later. "I always forget how fast you can transform," she said drowsily, yawning.

"Chihiro," he said. "Look at the river."

She rubbed her eyes, confused. "What?"

"Look at the river," he persisted, taking her hand and walking her nearer to the edge of the roof.

She made sure not to look down- even if she did fall, Haku could certainly catch her before she hit, but the onsen was very, very tall indeed, and she'd never quite been able to enjoy heights if she wasn't riding a dragon. Instead she held his hand tight and looked out, past the lantern-lit gardens and the restaurants and the bridge, to the Toyohira River.

It was full to the banks, a leaping, wild thing, beautiful to see as it tore down the distant mountains. "It's back!" she screamed, dancing around. "He's better!"

"He's not better yet," Haku corrected, but he looked happy, although his brows were wrinkled in mild confusion as he watched her bounce around. "And I'm sure he'll be tired tomorrow. But hope will do a lot."

"Good," she laughed, trying to twirl him around with their joined hands as joy bubbled up in her heart. "I'm not gonna stop until he's safe, I promise! The onsen will be fine, everybody will be fine. I'll work hard."

"I'd forgotten so much about you," Haku said, and she stopped mid-step.

"I didn't forget you!"

He shook his head. "Not on purpose. I didn't think I'd ever see you again. I thought- it was so frightening for you, the last time you were here." She didn't protest when he pulled her over to one of the big, square, carved beams that ran across the roof, and they sat down beside each other, high among the cold indigo clouds of the spirit world, with the river and the mountains and the gently winding railroad tracks spread out endlessly around them and the bone-pale moon above. "I didn't think you'd ever want to come back. And after a while, it hurt to remember. I kept… I never forgot how it was to be in darkness, and then to hear your voice calling my name, but the rest of it, well." He shrugged, an oddly mortal gesture from a being with so much power. "It hurt."

She swallowed, staring up at the vibrant moon until her eyes began to water; it was so much brighter here, so much closer. "I know it takes big magic for me to cross over, but the more I come, the easier it will get, right?"

"How did you know that?"

"I guessed." She giggled a little, swinging her feet against the beam. "And it's so close to my house, after all. Maybe sometimes if I walk through it will work just like it did the first time, if I want it bad enough, and Granny won't have to spend her magic. And I can help you. Uh, and everyone."

Haku laughed, very quietly, and she only just managed not to jump when she felt his fingers lace through hers again. "You're always surprising me, Chihiro."

"It's a human thing," she told him, breathing deep.