Disclaimer: I do not own Spirited Away
Warning: POV-tainted OOCness, misunderstandings galore, experiment fic
Un-Beta'd
Ogino Chihiro was a peculiar child. Everyone in school agreed. And so did anyone she happened to meet.
She was incredibly amiable though - for all of her eccentricity. She was friendly, curious, helpful, and hardworking. She was also rather religious – regularly visiting shrines and paying her respects to the various guardian spirits she came across. She was a great swimmer and an incredible artist. She was known for doodling in class, and of her vivid paintings and drawings of dragons, fire-breathing witches, and grotesque images of unidentifiable entities.
Chihiro was also an avid environmental enthusiast. Whenever she had free time, people could see her knee-high in creeks and rivers picking up trash and pulling out bicycles, carts, tires, and whatever else that polluted the waters. It was a regular sight to see her picking up whatever litter she came across, and was known throughout the school for her admonishing of any litterers that she'd catch red-handed. And when she did, her victims would just smile sheepishly and pick-up their trash and dispose of it properly. She never failed to give them a beautiful smile when they did.
It wasn't really a surprise to any of her schoolmates that she formed the Environmental Club in both middle school and high school.
Yet, despite her friendly demeanor and her green reputation, Chihiro was still a mystery to everybody. She hardly ever gave anyone straight answers unless it was about schoolwork or something environmental, but even then, she would give them religious answers about spirits and how pollution affects them. With her cryptic answers, most of what they knew came from observing her. They knew she had an aversion to pork, ran down the stairs, even if she wasn't in a hurry (out of habit, she claimed), had a fondness for spiders, mice, birds, weasels, frogs, slugs that weren't black, and even soot of all things.
Everyone in school knew, or at least knew of, Ogino Chihiro. She was eccentric, but well-liked by everyone. Of course, given her popularity, there were a lot of boys in the school who had a crush on the charming girl, but she never seemed to notice. It didn't seem as if she knew of her popular status, however, despite the love-letters and confessions she'd occasionally receive. She turned them all down though, gently stating that she'd already given her heart to someone.
And didn't that fuel the rumor mill. Not that she noticed, though.
There was even an unofficial club dedicated to solving the mystery of Ogino Chihiro. Of course, in such a small, quiet town, they really had nothing better to do. And coming up with various theories about the girl was probably the most entertaining thing they could do in such a boring town. Of course, Ogino Chihiro was oblivious to all this.
So when an unknown, pretty woman in a kimono showed up in school one day, everyone knew. And so, of course, everyone knew that Chihiro was incredibly familiar with her, going as far as to engulf the woman into a tackle-turned-hug. The mystery surrounding Chihiro increased when they learned that the woman repeatedly addressed Chihiro as "Sen."
Rumors and theories contemplating Chihiro's alias sprung up like weeds.
When a classmate asked Chihiro who the woman was, Chihiro replied with, "Oh, that was my sister, Rin." And when the woman showed up a few days later with Chihiro's forgotten bento, a brave student apparently tried to hit on her.
The boy came back to school a week later with barely-healed injuries and the entire school knew: Chihiro's sister was a yanki. Or at least, had been one.
And the entire school wondered how Ogino Chihiro wasn't a delinquent. They were careful not to provoke Ogino Chihiro after that. After all, a violent temper like that must run in the family, right? And if by some miracle Chihiro wasn't as violent as her sister when angered, that didn't mean that yanki wouldn't seek retribution for her little sister.
When another pretty woman appeared at school during lunch, all dressed up in a kimono, looking for "Sen," people paled and quickly sent her in the direction of Chihiro's classroom. The woman bowed to the class to please excuse her interruption, before addressing Chihiro as "Sen" and informing the girl that "Young Master Haku" would like to see her when she has time. With that, the woman bowed out and left, but not before Chihiro managed to thank her, addressing the woman as "Yuna."
Chihiro was absolutely radiant for the rest of the day. And people speculated who this "Young Master" was and his relationship to Chihiro.
Her boyfriend?
When the cultural festival came around, female students gossiped about a gorgeous boy their age – whose aura and disposition practically screamed nobility, coupled with that formal kimono of his – that came to see the school festival. The male students got tired of hearing the girls gush about the mystery boy. The only one who didn't was Chihiro, who was cheerfully working in the class's café. When her shift was over, she was reportedly seen holding hands with the boy – accompanied by Chihiro's sister and another woman, who looked strangely like that "Yuna" lady.
At some point, the school learned about Chihiro's eccentric family members through her various, scattered off-handed comments. She had an unimaginative grandfather who had various pets – to all of which he bestowed the name "Sootball." She had a grandmother who she claimed was sweet and caring but had a vindictive, vengeful streak when crossed. She had a grand-aunt, the twin of her grandmother, who Chihiro had once swore could breathe fire, and was a cruel, but reasonable, old witch when it didn't concern her son, Bôh. Then there was someone named Kaonashi who was gentle, helpful, and kind, but could turn into a violent beast when provoked, though Chihiro claimed that she's only seen it happen once.
Strangely, no one was surprised about the awful tempers of the Ogino family, given Rin, the yanki older sister. They dreaded the day they would have to face Chihiro's wrath
Once, Chihiro had laughingly mentioned to a classmate about how the men in her life were kind of over-protective. The "Young Master Haku," the very same one that the girls had gushed over during the cultural festival, they had learned, was Chihiro's boyfriend. A classmate had reported to witnessing his defending Chihiro from a drunken bunch of delinquents. "It was brutal," said the classmate. And the way he had…disposed of them… And how Chihiro's sister came to help clean it up.
Rumors circulated.
Chihiro was dating a yakuza prince and her sister was his underling.
There were no more love-letters or confessions after that.
Hmm... debaing whether or not I should mark this as "Complete." I may or may not have another chapter for this.
Oh well. Sorry for the messy style.
R&R please?
