Spirited Away II: The Return of Sen

A/N: So this is my first Spirited Away fanfic. It's a movie I have loved for years but only recently found the fanfiction for. Constructive criticism is appreciated, flames are not. If you don't like it then don't read it. IMPORTANT NOTE AT END OF CHAPTER, PLEASE READ AS IT'S IMPORTANT YOU UNDERSTAND HOW SEN AND CHIHIRO ARE DIFFERENT AND IS INTEGRAL IN HOW I WILL BE DEVELOPING HER FOR THE STORY! This chapter is a short one but it's a prologue anyway, so I won't apologise.

Disclaimer: I do not own Spirited Away; that honour goes to Miyazaki-san and Studio Ghibli.

Full Summary: When Chihiro left the Spirit World, all her memories of her time there turned into vague dreams courtesy of her magical hair tie, otherwise she would have forgotten completely. Now something evil has discovered she went to the Spirit World and survived and it wants to break her. It'll take returning to the Spirit World and her friends there to stop it, but will she be able to save herself in time?

Prologue

"Well, well, well. What have we here, hm? A human who travelled to the Spirit World? Oh, ho, ho how delightful. I shall have fun with this." A sinister voice chuckled.

Chihiro woke with a gasp, bolting upright, her sheets soaked with sweat and tangled around her legs. She gave a small shriek at the red-eyed, grinning shadow in the corner of her room, kicking at the sheets and trying to get them off.

"Go away! You're not welcome here!" she cried, feeling her heart thumping in her chest. Suddenly the shadow vanished seeming to leave one final comment, "You cannot escape me, little human. I will have you eventually and when I do, I will break you piece by piece until there is nothing left!"

"Chihiro? Chihiro?! Are you alright? I heard you scream." Yuuko queried as she opened the door to her eighteen year old daughter's room. Chihiro took a breath and exhaled slowly, calming herself down enough to answer her mother.

"I'm fine, Okāsan. It was just a bad dream and I thought I saw something out the window when I woke up." Chihiro replied, telling a half truth.

"Alright then, you try and get some more sleep. It's three in the morning and you have school at seven. I'll wake you up again at six." Yuuko said softly. About a month after they'd got lost at that old abandoned amusement park near their new home, she'd known there was something wrong with her daughter but she just couldn't figure out what. Something had changed and every so often, Chihiro would have nightmares, granted they'd lessened over the years but she still had them and Yuuko had become a light sleeper ever since her daughter's first week of almost realistic nightmares. Yuuko closed the door quietly after Chihiro had nodded and sunk back into her bed reluctantly. Before she realised it, she had nodded off again and was being shaken awake by her mother.

"Time to get up sleepy-head. You've got school in an hour and you don't want to miss it; especially as it's the last day of finals for you." Yuuko said softly, gently rousing her daughter.

"Hmm, Okāsan? I dun wanna go t'school. Jus' wanna sleep, m'so tired." Chihiro mumbled.

"Sweetie, you can't miss the last day of finals. Besides, don't you want to see Reika again? You're both going to different universities in the Fall and you won't see her again for a while. She'll be so disappointed." Yuuko coaxed.

"Reika? Kuso! Reika!" Chihiro sat up wide eyed. Yuuko chuckled. If there was one thing that was sure to get her sleepy daughter out of bed it was the threat of her best friend's disappointment. It always made Chihiro feel bad because she hated letting her friend's down.

"Come on then, breakfast is on the table. I hope you packed your bag last night, I don't want you to be late again; especially not on your last day." Yuuko said as she left the room, closing the door again so her daughter could get changed in privacy. Chihiro quickly pulled on some clean undergarments, and threw on her uniform (skirt, blouse, tie and cardigan) before grabbing her socks and bag and running downstairs. She thumped herself into a chair at the dining table, dropping her bag and socks on the floor.

"Itadakimasu!" she exclaimed before shovelling her breakfast down and then bending over to quickly pull on her socks and check her bag.

"Got everything, dear?" Yuuko chuckled as she put out breakfast for her husband, Akio, who was sleepily shuffling down the stairs.

"Hai Okāsan!" Chihiro replied with an enthusiastic nod, accidentally flipping her long hair onto the table and back again. Akio chuckled sleepily at his daughters antics as he started eating breakfast.

"Well, you'd best tie your hair up and get going then. School starts in forty five minutes and I'm sure Reika is waiting for you at the corner."

"Hai. Sayonara Okāsan! Sayonara Otōsan!" Chihiro said as she quickly pulled her hair into the special hair tie made by Zeniba and No-Face before grabbing her bag and running to the door.

"Sayonara Chihiro!" Her parents called after her as she ran out the door.

As she did so, she never noticed the shadowy figure watching from the shade of the trees in her yard.

"You might be protected by that witch, Zeniba, but I will have you eventually my dear and I will break you so badly that not even your beloved dragon could save you and put you back together again." The figure cackled.

Within Chihiro's soul, another part of her came awake at the threat she never heard. It was time for Sen to return.

A/N: I'm trying to incorporate some Japanese into it, partly due to the origins of the movie and partly due to my love for the language and culture.

Also, I think I should explain what's going on at the end there with Chihiro's soul. When Chihiro first set foot in the spirit world, a spark of her soul awakened. All humans have this spark which allows us to see spirits and the like but most of the time the only part of our souls that is awake is the part that essentially keeps us alive and gives us personality etc. which is why, if our soul is old enough to have had past lives, we don't remember them; that part of our soul is essentially asleep. Occasionally something will wake part of the soul which is how mediums and psychics come into being and this is basically what's happened to Chihiro when she originally went into the Spirit World; in saying that, when she left all her memories of her time there faded and would've been erased had it not been for the magical hair tie that Zeniba and No-Face created, instead they became vague dreams. While in the human world, Chihiro exists and is fully human; Sen is who she is as a spirit and the contract of work Chihiro had with Yubaba pulled Sen awake more than just entering the Spirit World did. Sen is the part of her that exists only in the Spirit World and is the only part of her that would be able to survive being tortured and broken by a spirit who wishes her harm, like my bad guy Akuryō does. While Chihiro didn't hear his threat, Sen did and started the slow process of waking up; if she was in the Spirit World Sen would wake faster. Also, Sen is the one who holds Haku's heart which is something very important to spirits as it is the part of them that is the most vulnerable, much like a human, however theirs exist in a metaphysical sense rather than a physical sense like ours do. If Chihiro was completely human in the Spirit World, she'd die or be broken very easily; this is why Sen exists. Sorry this was so long but it had to be explained. Please let me know what you think and leave a review.

Translations

Sayonara: Goodbye
Akuryō: Evil Spirit
Otōsan: Dad
Okāsan: Mum
Hai: Yes or Okay
Itadakimasu: Let's eat