A Spirited Away Oneshot fanfic about that shadowy girl Chihiro sees at the spirit station when she looks out the window.
By Luna Silvereyes
Chihiro looks out the window of the train and sees a shadowy child standing quietly a ways away from the disembarking passengers. She appears to be waiting for something. Who could she be waiting for? Her features are shadowy as she a she stares back at Chihiro to the best of her knowledge. As the station slips out of sight, the shadowy child follows the train with her gaze. She wears a faded yellow blouse, pink skirt and Shirley Temple shoes. Her face is shadowed and obscure and Chihiro can make nothing out of her appearance. As the girl disappears on the horizon, Chihiro thinks about her. Could the girl be a runaway, searching for a new life after abandoning her old one? Could it be, if that were indeed true, that she is waiting for a familiar face to appear and take her away to a better home somewhere far away from all of her miseries? Perhaps a sister, brother, uncle, aunt, mother, or father?
It could also be said that the girl was waiting for a beloved one to get off the train. Perhaps she is a refugee sent before her family for safety reasons and is anxiously awaiting the return of her mother and father.
The girl could even be an orphan living among other shadow, spirit kids who may come to see the train each day. It's possible that she had never seen a train until now. Chihiro could only imagine. The girl by the tracks might be waiting for something, anything to happen to her because she has a boring life that has her trapped. Chihiro sighs and sends a mental thought out to the girl, saying to take back the wish if it's true. It's better to keep the dull, boring life you do lead, than to struggle for whatever you want in an adventurous one.
The girl by the tracks would forever haunt Chihiro's memory, even after she would return to the human world after locating Haku and Zeniba. Perhaps, she would never find out what the girl by the tracks was waiting for. She would never know what was in her mind the day they saw each other, one from the window, one from the station as the train disembarked. She would never know if whatever the girl by the tracks was waiting for would arrive.
She would never know.