Kohaku & Chihiro
By Arwen Imladviel
'Shall we ever meet again?' 'I'm certain of it.'
-Chihiro's and Kohaku's last words to each other in the movie 'Spirited Away'.
One: Me, Chihiro
I never returned to the forest road, never took a step past the ancient altars of spirits under the trees. Instead, I treasured my memories of flying while trying to keep my both feet firmly on the ground. My parents once suggested a picnic at the "old amusement park", as they called it. Luckily, it rained that day. Actually, I think it was more than luck. We were protected. By whom, I know not. Yubaba or her sister, maybe. Or the River God, whom I had helped. Someone, certainly. Later we were told the locals never go there. There are legends about ghosts. Older than the altars. I've even heard a story of invisible passengers stepping into the train at the nearest station, and leaving it at an unused one. That is a new story...
I made many friends at my new school. One, Kyoko, is still my best friend. We now study at different colleges, but in the same town, so we meet now and then. Kyoko has a boyfriend, but I'm not jealous. They suit each other. I'm friends with her boyfriend too, and when Kyoko's parents don't want her to go somewhere alone with Yusaku, I get to be their chaperone. We've seen many good movies that way. Yusaku is a Star Wars - fan. He knows almost all the old movies by heart. Kyoko wants to be a comic artist. Or rather, she already is. She draws like a new Rumiko Takahashi. She is very interested in ghosts and aliens, and is drawing a story named 'The Mystic Train', about the spirit passengers.
My second-best friend is a cat. His name is Yoshi. He is silver-grey and very silly. I say that because he loves plastic bags. He sleeps in them, but I'm sure he won't suffocate, because he rips them full of holes first. I still live with my parents, in the same house, except during school weeks when I stay at the dormitory. It's a boarding school, you see. Everyone thinks I'm ordinary. I read a lot, and I wear glasses nowadays. Kyoko says I'd look better with contact lenses, but I'm not sure I want to look any better. I mean I'm not ugly and I know it. I want to be taken seriously. For some reasons, people think girls with glasses are smart while, for example, girls with blonded hair are stupid. Also, boys leave serious girls alone. And until I meet a boy I'm interested in, I don't want any of the boys at the school to get interested in me. And I definitely don't want anyone to think I'm trying to steal Yusaku from Kyoko. If he went around with two fashionable girls intead of one such and another serious-looking, people could get weird ideas. In short, I like having friends much better than flirting. My parents think I'm a good student, but I'm only a little above the average. I love reading, but not always the school books. I plan to study arts and crafts and become a designer of some sort. Not clothes, maybe glass or jewellery. Or interior decoration. But certainly not Feng Shui. Nothing to do with magic. Both feet on the ground, Chihiro, remember...
Kyoko does not know my secret. Nobody knows. People think that I love the river Kohaku so much because I spent my early childhood near it. It's a good explanation; I know Yusaku loves a village in the Hokkaido island that way, and my cousins say they could never live anywhere else than Tokyo. I love rivers in general as well, actually all waters. I'm saving money for a diving course.
By Arwen Imladviel
'Shall we ever meet again?' 'I'm certain of it.'
-Chihiro's and Kohaku's last words to each other in the movie 'Spirited Away'.
One: Me, Chihiro
I never returned to the forest road, never took a step past the ancient altars of spirits under the trees. Instead, I treasured my memories of flying while trying to keep my both feet firmly on the ground. My parents once suggested a picnic at the "old amusement park", as they called it. Luckily, it rained that day. Actually, I think it was more than luck. We were protected. By whom, I know not. Yubaba or her sister, maybe. Or the River God, whom I had helped. Someone, certainly. Later we were told the locals never go there. There are legends about ghosts. Older than the altars. I've even heard a story of invisible passengers stepping into the train at the nearest station, and leaving it at an unused one. That is a new story...
I made many friends at my new school. One, Kyoko, is still my best friend. We now study at different colleges, but in the same town, so we meet now and then. Kyoko has a boyfriend, but I'm not jealous. They suit each other. I'm friends with her boyfriend too, and when Kyoko's parents don't want her to go somewhere alone with Yusaku, I get to be their chaperone. We've seen many good movies that way. Yusaku is a Star Wars - fan. He knows almost all the old movies by heart. Kyoko wants to be a comic artist. Or rather, she already is. She draws like a new Rumiko Takahashi. She is very interested in ghosts and aliens, and is drawing a story named 'The Mystic Train', about the spirit passengers.
My second-best friend is a cat. His name is Yoshi. He is silver-grey and very silly. I say that because he loves plastic bags. He sleeps in them, but I'm sure he won't suffocate, because he rips them full of holes first. I still live with my parents, in the same house, except during school weeks when I stay at the dormitory. It's a boarding school, you see. Everyone thinks I'm ordinary. I read a lot, and I wear glasses nowadays. Kyoko says I'd look better with contact lenses, but I'm not sure I want to look any better. I mean I'm not ugly and I know it. I want to be taken seriously. For some reasons, people think girls with glasses are smart while, for example, girls with blonded hair are stupid. Also, boys leave serious girls alone. And until I meet a boy I'm interested in, I don't want any of the boys at the school to get interested in me. And I definitely don't want anyone to think I'm trying to steal Yusaku from Kyoko. If he went around with two fashionable girls intead of one such and another serious-looking, people could get weird ideas. In short, I like having friends much better than flirting. My parents think I'm a good student, but I'm only a little above the average. I love reading, but not always the school books. I plan to study arts and crafts and become a designer of some sort. Not clothes, maybe glass or jewellery. Or interior decoration. But certainly not Feng Shui. Nothing to do with magic. Both feet on the ground, Chihiro, remember...
Kyoko does not know my secret. Nobody knows. People think that I love the river Kohaku so much because I spent my early childhood near it. It's a good explanation; I know Yusaku loves a village in the Hokkaido island that way, and my cousins say they could never live anywhere else than Tokyo. I love rivers in general as well, actually all waters. I'm saving money for a diving course.