iPanda16: I did it! I finally did it! I posted my Spirited Away/Yugioh crossover fanfic that I worked on for maybe two years now! I've been advertising this mother on Deviantart too and I got wamee12 to draw a cover for it so feel free to check it out on my DA account
Echo Song Smith: WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! ,
"I'll miss you, Ryou. Best of luck, Jin." Ryou read aloud from the goodbye card he received from his friend a day before the move. In his lap lay a book that Ryou had been dying to read but now that he had it he wished that it was back in the store instead.
Ryou sat in the passenger seat of the car while his mom drove and his thirteen year old sister Amane sat in the back with most of the luggage. Their mother had warned them about the move to another town but they had told about this for so many times that Ryou became skeptical of it and was completely taken aback when their mother announced that they really would move. Ryou didn't want to move to another town. He'd totally be going to another school and would be leaving his friends and everyone he knew behind and start anew in a different school. Amane wasn't looking forward to it at first but over time she became giddy about moving to a knew place. That's typical of her. She's always been so optimistic while Ryou tried to be realistic. Some things that are said to be good are usually a curse. And in this case this move was a curse to him
"Ryou, honey, aren't you gonna read that book Jin got you?" His mother asked while looking at the road. Ryou looked out through his window.
"There's really no point in it. The book I've been desiring all this time is a goodbye present. It's depressing." Ryou commented. His mother glanced over sympathetically but Ryou didn't want to make eye contact. He was too upset to even look at his own mother.
"Hey, mom, isn't that the school Onni-chan will be going too?" Amane asked pointing through the window at the high school they were driving by.
"Ah, yes. Hey, Ryou, it looks like a pretty good school, right?" His mother asked. Ryou hummed a little in disagreement and moved his focus from the school to the road.
"Where's the school that Amane will be going too?" Ryou asked keeping his focus on the road as his mom had to stop at a red light.
"I believe it's just a few streets away from your school, Ryou." His mother said looking at her son, happy that he's talking about something less pessimistic only to frown sadly that he still didn't look at her.
"Oh, that's so cool! Me and Onni-chan are practically going to the same school!" Amane squealed cheerfully. Ryou would normally smile at this but chose to be quiet instead. He's not normally like this with his sister but moving really did get the best of him. Of course anyone would be upset about moving away so Ryou thought it was no different that he was a little grumpy right now. His mother made a turn from the highway down a slightly bumpy road in hopes of getting to the house sooner but was met with some disappointment.
"Huh? Did I miss the turn off?" His mother pondered.
"Hey, mommy! I can see our house from here!" Amane said rolling down her window and pointing out up the hill to a row of houses on top of it. "It's the blue one right?" Amane asked.
"Why, yes it is, Amane. Thank you for noticing. Hey, maybe I'm not on the wrong road after all?" His mother asked slightly cheerful now. In a way Ryou was glad to finally see that from here the house didn't look bad in person. The internet made the house look really appropriate for a suburban neighborhood and added a few details explaining how "perfect" it is. Ryou knew some of it probably wasn't true but the house was pretty cheap at the same time so his mother went and bought it.
Ryou took one last look at the house before his mother continued on the bumpy road. It's like people forgot to put asphalt here. And the strange part is, is that it seemed the road got bumpier with each meter they passed and further closing in on the new home they'd be staying in. Ryou hated it when they drove on bumpy roads. It made him slightly car sick and scared that they might blow a tire even though it never happened before. But there's a first for everything of course. Finally after driving for what felt like an hour they finally drive into a clearing and his mother stops at a building. The building looked as old as the environment around it as the paint on it as chipping off and it appeared to have cracks up the walls.
"What is this, mommy?," Amane asked. "This isn't on the map is it?" Ryou's mom picked up the printed out map equally confused and looking it over.
"It shouldn't be. I may have made a wrong turn after all." She said aloud. Ryou slumped in his seat. Wow, could this get any better? Ryou sat up hearing the clicking sound of the door opening.
"Amane, where are you going?" Ryou asked.
"I want to check it out while we're here. Come on!" Amane said running up to the entrance of the building and waving for them to follow her.
"Amane, get back in the car, okay sweetie?" Their mother called out but Ryou stepped out of the car as well and catching up with his sister. "Wait, Ryou, where are you going?" His mother called out also stepping out of the car.
"It wouldn't hurt for a little detour would it?" He asked smiling. Truthfully he just wanted to stay away from their new home as long as possible but that front seemed to go unnoticed as Amane cheered happily and tightly hugging him.
"Oh, all right, you two." Their mother smiled stepping out of the car finally, unlocking the car as soon as she stepped out. Who would steal their car in the middle of no where?
"We'll just take a quick look around and go back to the car okay?" His mother said catching up with her children. They both nodded in agreement and stepped into the deserted building.
The interior of the building didn't look half as bad as the outside. Just a lot of dead leaves and some dirt piled around. It looked like this place wasn't supposed to be a building at all. More like a tunnel of some sort as the only furniture was a few concrete benches and even a bird bath lying around. They stopped in the middle of the tunnel to take a full look around the place.
"This isn't a normal building is it, mommy?" Amane asked.
"No, I don't think so…" Their mother replied almost quietly like she was thinking and speaking at the same time. Ryou knew in his heart that they all were thinking the same thing: What is this place and where does it lead? As if on cue they saw the exit from the tunnel.
"Hey, I can see the exit! Let's go!" Amane said running to the outside of the building. And just like that both Ryou and their mother ran after the cheerful girl and came to the other side of the tunnel and looked around them astonished to see a nothing other than a grassy field with a few deserted buildings and old statues that over time have developed moss over them.
"This isn't right. There's nothing here." Their mother said.
"Wait I think I here something." Ryou said narrowing his eyes in focus trying to decipher the sound.
"Hey, I here it too!" Amane said, "It sounds like… A train! Maybe there's a train that runs through here." Amane said.
"But there's nothing here. There shouldn't be a train here at all." Ryou told Amane. He loves his sister but sometimes she can be childish when jumping to conclusions.
"Ryou, just because there's nothing here doesn't mean that there isn't a train around here." Their mother corrected him.
"Hey, who wants to find the train?" Amane asked already running off without receiving an answer from either of them. Ryou didn't want to stay here any longer and wanted to get back to the car as soon as possible. For some reason he had a bad feeling about this place and wanted to leave the seemingly deserted area.
"Come on, Ryou. It should be fun." His mother said running off to catch up with her daughter. Ryou stood at the exit not moving from the spot. He just wanted to leave.
"Hey, you said we should make a quick look around. Come on, lets get back to the car, please!" Ryou pleaded for his family to come back. They probably didn't hear him as they continued walking further and further away from him. Ryou sighed and for a moment thought of going back to the car without them so they could have their fun but a strong wind blew in through the tunnel pushing him away from the building. Ryou looked back at the building one last time until the wind became too strong and he quickly made his way to his family. The scary part was is that it sounded like the building was saying "GO!".
"Hey, wait up!" Ryou called out trying to catch up to them. They stopped at a dried up river bed where rocks were jutted out of the ground and a little bit of water was trickling between the stones. Ryou quickly caught up to his family and bent over with his hands on his knees panting heavily.
"I knew you'd follow us here, Onni-chan." Amane said smiling coyly.
"It's just… there was a strong wind… back at the tunnel…" Ryou explained still panting heavily.
"Onni-chan, you're so out of shape. You need to participate more in P.E." Amane teased. Ryou stood up straight finally breathing normally now. Ryou wasn't one to enjoy P.E. especially since his old P.E. teacher Karita-sensei picked on him a lot in class. If it weren't for his friends Ryou would've been depressed during school.
"I'm sorry. Hey can we please go home now. I don't like it here." Ryou begged one more time hoping that they can actually finally go home despite what he thought the building said. Ryou didn't care that he was going to his knew home he just didn't want to continue their journey into no where.
"Ryou, it wouldn't hurt to explore a little. Consider it as a quick detour before going home, okay?" Their mother explained with a hopeful smile upon her face. Ryou sighed giving up. His family can be stubborn sometimes.
"Alright, but I still don't like it here." Ryou murmured. His mother frowned immediately but Amane grabbed her brothers hand dragged him along on the stranded boulders in the dried up river.
"Come on, we'll just check this place out for a few minutes and come back to the car okay? It shouldn't be that big of a deal right?" Amane asked with a smile on her ever cheerful expression. Ryou smiled back too. Despite this "uh-oh" feeling he's getting about further exploring this completely unpopulated place he supposed it wouldn't be too bad to take a quick look around the village up past the river bed would it?
Ryou and Amane bounced along the boulders almost in a race to the finish line. Since they were kids Ryou and Amane always made it a race when they ran across the dried up river trying not to slip and fall on the rocks. It's funny because their mother commented that its like they were deer sprinting on the ground. Amane made it to the other side first and then Ryou came to the end of the river, and their mother walked carefully to the other side catching up with her kids.
"Yay, I won!" Amane laughed bouncing on the ground. Ryou panted and looked around. Look how far away we are from the car… If we continue this hike it'll be night time by the time we get back… Ryou thought.
"Are you alright, Ryou? I have some water if you're thirsty?" His mother offered pulling a water bottle out of her purse. Ryou shook his head and waved the offered water bottle away
"I'm fine. Hey do you smell something?" Ryou asked sniffing the air. Amane stuck her nose out at the sky and pretended to sniff the air mockingly at her brother but eventually she did catch wind of what Ryou was referring too.
"Hey, I smell it too. It smells like food!" Amane said cheerfully. And just like that she went running up the stairs that were placed on the hill.
"Amane, slow down!" Their mother called out running up the stairs not wanting to lose sight of her daughter. Ryou ran up too wanting to catch up to his sister again. He could admit that his sister can be impulsive but he's glad that she's still like that after all this time. And for a moment Ryou was able to forget about his "uh-oh" feeling, or nervousness. They were finally able to catch up to Amane when she started to slow down pinpointing where the food could possibly be. Finally she stopped at a turn and waved for her mother and brother to hurry up.
"I found the food! This way!" Amane said running off again. This time Ryou and his mother were able to catch up to her to see her standing in front of a buffet of food set up on a counter of a small restaurant. There were a row of table stools in front of the counter. Ryou and Amane have been to restaurants like this before only on festivities. Seeing restaurants like this everywhere with so many food Ryou supposed that there was a festival going on even though it wasn't even the right day for any particular holiday
"Wow, look at all the food, Ryou. You want to eat?" His mother said going to fix herself a plate.
"But, mother there's no one here. We would get in trouble if we were to eat here without paying first." Ryou explained.
"It'd be okay, Onni-chan. We'll pay them back once the employees get back." Amane said sitting herself up and filling her plate with the mysterious food. The stuff smelled good but they didn't look like the normal food you'd have back home. And something wasn't right about the food placed before them at all.
"Guys, I don't think we should eat that. We'd get in trouble if we did!" Ryou pleaded. But they didn't listen to him. In a way they merely listened to their stomachs. Ryou was hungry but he also didn't want to get in trouble with the staff for stealing their food.
"Ryou honey, it'd be fine. We'll pay them back once they get back from whatever they're doing. It shouldn't be a problem. Here I fixed you a plate too, come eat." His mother offered but Ryou shook his head. Something was telling him to stay away from the food. Sure he was a little hungry and the food did smell good, but the food was so strange looking and the fact that there was no on around in the entire town meant something bad to him. He felt something hard fall into the pit of his stomach as his mother and sister gorged themselves on the food. He tried pleading with them to get away from the food, but they weren't even listening to him. He was no longer a part of their world at the moment.
Ryou gave up and decided to give a look around the town, and wandered away from his mother and sister. Truthfully he wanted to find a clue as to why there could be food and yet no people inside the town. He turned to his right once he left the alley and saw a row of stairs that led up to a small tower with the kanji for oil on it. Ryou looked at the tower before turning his head to another direction and saw giant bathhouse on the other side of a bridge. This just gets stranger and stranger… Ryou thought to himself as he made he way up to the bridge to get a closer look at the bathhouse. Upon closer inspection he noticed that water was flowing through the pools on the other side of the walls and that smoke was coming out of the chimney. Why would they have a working bathhouse in a abandoned town? Ryou thought. He stood in the center of the bridge before going to the ledge to see what could be below him. The distance from the bridge to the ground could be at least 200 meters. It was so far away that Ryou couldn't almost see the bottom before he saw something zip under his eyes.
"There's the train!" Ryou said. For a moment he thought of going to his mother and sister to show them the train but he didn't want to trouble them as the train would've already disappeared once they got back to the stairs. So Ryou decided against it and went to the other side of the bridge to catch sight of it one more time before the train disappeared completely.
Ryou leaned over the railing looking at the train until he felt that he wasn't alone and looking over to his right he knew he was when he saw another boy standing right there. Upon closer inspection he looked a little like Ryou but his expression was different than Ryou's normal expression and he was wearing a type of kimono that Ryou would normally wear on festival days. His eyes were narrowed as if he was examining him and a look of total shock came over the other boy and he instantly glared at him.
"You shouldn't be here! Get out, now!" He ordered moving closer to Ryou.
"What are you talking about…?" Ryou asked quietly moving away from the railing. The tone this boy was using made Ryou a little frightened of him.
"You have to leave before dark! Get out!" He barked loudly pointing to behind Ryou as if he would obey him and run off, but Ryou didn't know what he was talking about. Sure he didn't feel safe about coming to this place from the beginning but Ryou didn't see what the other boy's problem was about him or this place. Behind the boy the bathhouse started lighting the lamps as if signaling that nighttime was coming soon.
"They're lighting the lamps. Quick get out of here, I'll distract them!" The boy said pushing Ryou away off the bridge and Ryou this time obeyed him and started running down the stairs while the other boy turned around to face whoever was there. Ryou looked over his shoulder one more time at the boy.
"What's going on here…?" Ryou asked mostly to himself before running to meet up with his family. Ryou ran down away from the bridge and closer to his family hardly noticing how dark it was getting and all the lights that were lighting up and all the shadows inside the buildings with glowing yellow eyes. Ryou just wanted to get out of here. For once he felt like he had proof that something wasn't right about this place and that they shouldn't have come here after all. He immediately rushed over to where his mother was sitting and tapped her on her shoulder.
"Mother, we have to get out of here! There's something wrong with this place!" Ryou exclaimed mostly in fear. He was indeed scared of this place. Scared of the shadows that lurked inside the buildings and the white haired boy that shooed him away. And the nervous feeling he had before came back overwhelming his body, almost making him tremble with fear.
His mother didn't respond to him, so he shook her shoulder trying to get her attention, but what saw made him both shocked and horrified at the same time. A giant pig wearing his mother's clothes turned around to look at him before going back to the food but was slapped away by a shadow holding what looked like a spatula making the pig fall to the ground. Ryou looked to where his sister was sitting before to only see a slightly smaller pig wearing Amane's clothes. And without another thought Ryou ran for it calling out to his family desperately. But neither of them came and more shadows started moving around him making him even more terrified. He thought about going back to the car hoping that his family went back to the car without him and that it was some sort of sick prank that those pigs were dressed just like his mother and sister. He ran as fast as he could desperately trying to escape this unbelievable town and even went to where the first set of stairs were until he accidentally ran straight into a river.
"Water? When did this river form?" Ryou shouted trying to get out of the water and crawling back onto dry land. Half of his body and clothes were soaking wet now and his body began to tremble again, from both fear and the cold as his wet body became exposed to the chilly night.
Their were lights on the boats that were moving across the river and Ryou again wondered why there would be so much life in a town that was deserted only hours ago? And a thought came to him. He was dreaming. It was just a bad dream where he was stuck in one place and didn't know his way back. And all those shadows, the pigs, the lights, and that boy are all apart of his subconscious. He was just having a terrible nightmare. Ryou pinched himself in the arm hoping he would snap out of it but no such luck. Feeling hopeless Ryou crumpled to the ground crouched down in a ball fighting back his tears.
"It's just a dream, Ryou. Just a dream. You'll wake up back in the car in a few minutes. Everything's just a terrible nightmare." Ryou repeated this over to himself hoping that they would all come true. Strangely, Ryou felt his body getting lighter, like it was fading and Ryou moved to look at his hands only to see to his horror what was going on to his body. He was disappearing! He rubbed his hands together hoping he could still touch things. He could but it still didn't help that his body was slowly fading away. He started rubbing his arms to keep his body warm and to remind himself that he's not disappearing. Although it didn't help that he could see through his arms.
Ryou looked up to see one of the boats pull up to the stairs. The doors on the boat opened and paper figures exited off the boat and once they left cloaked figures formed from the floating paper and climbed up the stairs. Ryou looked on in shock. This isn't real, Ryou thought. There's no way this could ever be real! He looked to the river when he heard some slight splashing and saw that the shadow figures were coming out of the water. They were everywhere! Without another thought Ryou ran away from the river. He didn't know where he was going as long as he was away from the shadows. Even if he was to be stuck in this town forever anywhere could be safer than being with these beings!
Disclaimer- Yugioh and Spirited away do not belong to us