A/N: Konnichiwa peeps! This is my first actual story so I apologize for any grammatical/spelling mistakes I made and for the length. I hope to get better as a I continue. Also I'm a guy trying to write in first person as girl so cut me a little slack please. :P
The rain cascades down from the heavens falling softly on the roof of a sleeping home. A few raindrops strike a large window at the back of the house. As they slid down the window, they would see, if they could see, the bedroom of one of this home's inhabitants. They would see the light purple walls covered with photos of a girl at a variety of ages with friends and family in a variety of locations. Where the walls are not covered by these snapshots of memories, they are covered by artwork. Paintings and drawings of a mystical world and people. The most recurrent theme among the art was the image of a dragon. The dragon was long and serpentine with glistening white scales and a long jade green mane.
Brrrring. Brrrring. The alarm clock yelled breaking the calm of the morning. Sluggishly I raised one hand and brought it crashing down on the infernal device silencing it. With the noise of the evil contraption muted, the sound of the rain seemed to grow louder. I could hear the constant drum against every inch of the house. The warm rain of the summer solstice covering everything in its gentle torrent. My sleepy eyes fluttered open revealing the eyes of the girl in the photos. My long brown hair was matted and twisted after resting the entire night. Half-lidded eyes looked over the room lingering on the drawings of spirits before I managed to gather up the energy to get out of the comfortable warmth of the bed.
Steam rose into the air in lazy spirals as the hot water cascaded down my body. Like everyday in the shower, I took time to think about my dream that could have not possibly have been a dream. Everyday I asked myself if what I remembered was the truth. If I had actually been spirited away into the world of the spirits. If I had actually worked in the bathhouse, had actually meet my spirit granny, if I had actually met Haku. Haku. Like every time I thought of him, the image of his jade eyes flashed across my brain and I momentarily lose my breath. And then the anger fills me again. The whisper of his promise buzzed through my head like hornets and I dimly realized I was crushing the soap I was holding. Seven years had been plenty of time to gather my a lot of anger and almost hatred towards the river spirit.
"He promised to come back," I mutter angrily through gritted teeth, "but seven years later I don't even get so much as a sign!" I growled to myself as the soap fractured in my hands the pieces landing on the shower tile with a dull thud. And now came the heart wrenching, agonizing, despair. The emotion I desperately tried to hide away under my façade of happiness. The mask I wore of complete normalcy even though I felt completely abnormal. When we had first arrived back from the spirit world, I had asked my parents about what they remembered. They had given me strange looks and asked me what I was talking about. When I had begun to tell them about the adventure I had just had they laughed and told me I had a great imagination. When I kept insisting it was real they began to get worried. Weeks went by and eventually they called in a witch of a psychiatrist who just said I was a stubborn little girl with a vivid imagination. That's when I decided to never tell anyone about the spirits again. I went to school and over the years had built up an illusion of happiness and perfection and at times even forgot about Haku, Yubaba, Rin, Zeniba and all the other spirits.
But every year on June 21, the summer solstice, the anniversary, my walls fell and the world of spirits came rushing back to me. I dried myself off with my towel before wrapping it around myself and made my way back to my bedroom.
As I finished getting dressed, I spared a glance at my calendar and had to do a double-take to make sure what I was seeing was the truth. There in ink the date screamed at me. June 21. But it was not the fact that it was the anniversary that had shocked me, I of course knew what today was. I had dreaded it all week. No what really shocked me was what day of the week it was. The abbreviation for Saturday stared back at my shocked gaze as I realized that today there was no school and that I had got up for completely nothing!
I growled and sat down at the end of bed feeling even more angry at the day. I was already fully dressed, showered, and more importantly fully awake. There was no hope of going back to bed now. Sighing, I decided I might as well make the most of it and that I was going to go for a walk. I quickly brushed my teeth and quietly as to not awaken my sleeping parents, took the stairs down to the kitchen. Quickly writing my parents a note, I threw on my rain jacket, grabbed an umbrella and was out the door into the early morning rain.
The sun had barely risen and the world was wrapped in a gray twilight that was quickly lightening. I made my way down the road enjoying the feel and sound of the rain. I twirled the umbrella in my hand sending water droplets crashing into their falling brethren, as I lost myself in the memories of this day.
I wonder how everyone is doing. Does Rin still work at that bathhouse? How are Granny Zeniba and No-face? Did Kamaji every get his assistant? What about Boh and Yu-Bird? And did… Haku ever get back to his river? With all the time that's past how much has changed?
I was rudely ripped out of my thoughts as I tripped over one of the little spirits houses I had strayed into. With a wet squelch, I landed flat on face covering myself with mud. "I hate today," I ground out from my clenched jaws. I roughly brushed what mud I could off myself and continued walking. I went about 5 steps before I decided to close my umbrella and let the rain try to wash off more of the mud. The rain gave me a tingling sensation as it hit my already wet hair.
After walking 10 more minutes I reached an intersection in the road, to the left the road curved and continued to the community park and straight ahead a dirt path lead into the forest. I had planned on going to the park and maybe swing a bit but something about the forest was calling me. Like a inaudible whisper in the back of my head urging me on. Pushing me into the trees. I gave a quick glance to the left and I could make out the empty park in the distance, a nice quiet place to think and relax. Taking a deep breath, I quickly made my decision and stepped into the trees.
Immediately I regretted it. The moment my foot hit the dirt path a huge gust of wind ripped through the woods and twisted around me, ripping at me, trying to push me out of the trees. I opened my umbrella to try act as some sort of shield but the relentless gale ripped it from my hands. Bracing myself I took another step forward and the gale stopped. The roaring in the trees stopped and I could hear myself breath again. Taking deep breaths I tried to calm myself and turn around but it was like some sort of energy had taken over my legs and I was forced along for the ride. The urge pulled me down the trail through the oddly silent forest.
For about an hour I was pulled through the trees until I reached a tree so big that it could not have possibly been there. It looked ancient and towered so high above the other trees that everyone would be able to see from a distance above the treetops but I had never see it before in my life. It was extremely thick with leafs an impossible shade of emerald green. A shimenawa was wrapped around its immense trunk. As I walked over to it I could swear I heard it breathing, a gentle rustle in the leaves. I could feel something powerful radiating off it, it reminded me of Zeniba or Yubaba. Old and powerful. I went over and sat under it finding that no raindrops found their way to me beneath the sprawling branches even though I could tell it was still raining.
The tree reminded me so much of the World of Spirits. It brought even more memories flooding back. I sighed and looking up at the canopy of leaves above me I decided to make a wish.
"I wish I could go back and stay in the Spirit World," I whispered to the great tree.
"Well ain't that sweet."
I whipped my head around to see one of the scariest and definitely ugliest things I had ever seen, in dreams or reality, standing before me with a evil grin.
I gulped. I really hated the Solstice.