Author's Note before hopping right into the story.

So for those of you that follow me thank you for taking interest in this story. I honestly have been working on it for awhile and only just now settled on a better storyline than just the fact that Chihiro has no memory of being in the spirit world. I didn't originally want to make this mature rated but then I felt perhaps it would be fine if she was about twenty at her time of return.

Those of you that are first time readers for one of my stories. Oh my gosh thank you showing interest I hope I don't disappoint. I personally love Spirited Away and it is probably my second favorite of all the Studio Ghibli films (a very close second to Howl's Moving Castle).

Things you should know regarding this story. So first of all I had to do some digging on the internet to get some facts and as we all know some of those facts may be somewhat obscure or off. I realize that Yubaba's baby had a name but it never appeared in the English dub version so I had to look it up. It both appeared as Boh and Bou so I used the one I personally like a bit better. Also, when it comes to memories regarding her time there I made them a bit foggy on purpose again just because the dub and sub are different.

Now having all that being said. Please enjoy this chapter and don't forget to follow/fave and please leave me a review on how you think this chapter went. I can't wait to hear from you!

Chapter 1

Chihiro pushed desperately at the pedals of her bicycle. If only that one incident in her past hadn't kept her from getting her driver's license. She didn't often quibble over the circumstance that now kept her maneuvering pathways and roads with her two wheel transportation. With the way each downward lunge was currently winding her just a little bit more she felt it urgent to mentally gripe about the adversities she had to deal with in her short life.

The deep aching breaths she took had her chest expanding and collapsing as she followed the familiar road through the forest. She had been staring at the road on and off again for the past decade. She didn't know what compelled her to look that direction so often. She didn't even know where the road led. All she knew is that she constantly felt this inner need to be adventurous and follow the twists and turns that weaved in and out as they ventured further through the entanglement of trees to where the road must have ended. If it didn't stop somewhere abruptly it would surely have met up with the road that her parent's small blue house sat on.

Her creative mind would conjure up fantastical stories about what lay beneath this path. It had led her to seek out a career as a novelist. But she was already growing tired of her characters being the ones to set off on adventures, and her muse had decided to take a hike. It was time to experience something new.

So now she kept desperately pushing at her pedals, urging her bike up the small incline of the hill, despite how her chest burned as she released shallow breaths from her lungs just to begin a brand new adventure of her own. The trees grew wild here at this part of the forest. The limbs reaching out to the road as if to lash their branches out at her. She momentarily shivered as she mentally conjured up the illusion that the trees were trying to stop her from following the path. Finally, she was able to spot something in the distance. What she saw before her made her heart stutter momentarily in confusion because of how familiar the sight seemed to be.

Chihiro stopped her bike, planting her feet to either side and visually scanned what she perceived before her. A huge red building with a large mouth like opening took up a majority of the backdrop. In the foreground was this strange statue that would have kept any automobile from proceeding forward. The face of it sort of reminded her of something she saw in her dreams. She hadn't wrote about the woman who wore two faces. But this character was recurring. Sometimes she was a cruel greedy tyrant who enslaved her and kept her in a nightmare like setting. The other times she was kindly affectionate and guided her through stories and gave her motherly (or rather grandmotherly) advice.

She could have written about this woman from her dreams. She didn't though because unlike some of the other fantastical things she conjured these two apparitions almost seemed too real to her. That realness had once gotten her put on medications that muddled the access to her muse too much. So she didn't discuss the realness of these dreams. The only person she had been able to discuss any of this with without judgment was her childhood friend, Kyoko. The only friend she had made since moving here when she was only 10 years old.

My mother and father were talking in the front seat, and I was honestly only half listening. I had only told my friends goodbye the day before. One of them, Risa, had given me a flower bouquet as a goodbye present. I held on to them tightly as my mother pointed out my new school as we passed.

I remember looking out the window and being aggravated. I stuck my tongue out at the new school, dreading how I would have to start all over again. That's when I had noticed how the flowers began dying. I immediately started complaining about never having received a bouquet before now. Gosh, I really was an ungrateful stubborn little girl.

It was strange though because just after that I remember arriving to our new little blue house and my attitude had completely changed. I now was excited to start a new adventure. My mom had been convincing me during the whole trip to see it that way, and suddenly my mind had been convinced that was exactly what this move would be.

Unfortunately, the first day of school hadn't lived up to the adventure I had hoped it to be. Belatedly I regretted taking my mother's words to heart. All of my classmates were already set on the friends they had and didn't seem to have a big enough heart to try to include me. It wasn't until a month later when Kyoko had moved that I began to feel included.

The two of us became inseparable since that day. We practically lived in each others pockets. We flopped weekends on who's house we slept at. We would do our homework side by side even if we weren't in the same classes. We often did each others nails and hair. Neither of us were really that into dolls but we were both obsessed with pokemon. We made sure that when a new cartridge came out that she would get one and I would get the other so we could easily trade the ones that were exclusive to our cartridge.

Of course we had our ups and downs in our friendship. Late middle school we had hit a huge rough patch in our friendship. Kyoko had brought over a large poster for me to put up on my wall. It was some K-pop band and I had only heard a handful of their songs. As she was unwinding it from it's tight cylindrical shape she was pointing out each of the members. She would give them each ample praise but of course would keep coming back to the member that happened to be her favorite. Then she turned and asked me what I thought.

I hadn't known what to say. It wasn't that I didn't think the boys were attractive. They most definitely were. But none of their looks had my heart wanting to pound out of my chest. This was a sensation I had only experienced when I would dream of this shadow prince that I couldn't see. Well, Kyoko unfortunately took my indifference to mean that I didn't like the group at all and that we couldn't be friends because of this one kink in our friendship. We made up pretty fast but I never really had looked at boys the same way the other girls our age had. None of them were my mystery shadow prince and therefore none could hold a candle to him.

Thinking back on it now it was Kyoko that constantly encouraged her to go down this pathway. It had been her that pointed out that it was quite possible this was where she would meet that shadow prince of hers. Growing up Chihiro had basically given up on her dream man. But her curiosity about the winding road persevered.

She blinked away her nostalgia and looked back up at the red building in front of her. A single open doorway marked the otherwise blank red wall. Should she venture further? Should she take this adventure another step? Before she even realized she had done it she had hopped off her bike and put the kick stand down. Her right hand pressed against the wall to balance her weight as she leaned in to the open doorway. It was nearly pitch black further in so she couldn't really make out where the path led. She pulled out her cell phone from the front pocket of her jean shorts. It only took a few moments to access her home screen and pull up her flashlight app. She frowned at the beam that transmitted in front of her. It wasn't a great source of light but it would at least provide enough where she wouldn't trip and fall.

A dozen worries wandered through her head as she warily inched onward. She was really beginning to become unsure she wanted to be venturing further into this building. What kept her moving down the darkened space was the fact that it nearly felt like something inside herself was beckoning her forward. Not only that, she again felt the presence in her mind that something about all of this seemed vaguely familiar to her. Did she dream this place up too and simply forgotten?

A howling breeze swept over her from the darkened space in front of her. It should have felt like it was pushing her away but somehow it gave more the impression of being pulled in. Like she was beckoned toward the darkness stretched before her.

She finally had made it to a round open room that had some light falling in from narrow windows evenly spaced around a dusty concrete floor. There were a few benches scattered here and there much like a train station or bus stop. It was quite obvious that no one had visited this room in some time. The only clean spots on the floor were marked in a curled swirling pattern that could have only been produced by a breeze similar to the one that had called to her just before.

As if she summoned the wind with her thoughts she was once again struck by the breeze pulling her forward. However, this time it seemed to ensconce her within a small cyclonic shaped funnel. It wasn't harming like a tempestuous tornado would normally be. In fact it felt more like it was somehow keeping her immobile and safe.

Quite suddenly the ground beneath her feet rumbled and began to shake. If it hadn't been for the helpful funnel around her she probably would have been knocked down. The building began to rattle from the powerful tremors testing its foundation. Dust and sentiment crumbled and fell from the roof as she heard a grating, ripping sound produced from just above her.

Her protective cyclone widened it's range around her as if it were sentient and was taking preemptive measures to assure her safety. Chihiro's eyes widened the size of saucers as she processed what she was seeing. She couldn't keep her balance as her knees began to wobble in fear, and she fell limply to the ground as the fear washed over her. Her eyes trailed upward where they widened as she took in the visual before her. She stared in confusion and trepidation at a large bald giant as he ripped off the roof of the building. If the size of him weren't enough to instill fear than the eerie manic smile he wore would.

He sniffed deeply before making a sort of chuckling sound deep in his chest. "I knew I smelled a human."

If it weren't for his inhuman size she probably would have questioned his choice of words. But there was no way a human could ever be as big as this behemoth above her. "Are you—" She realized she was stuttering so she took a deep breath and tried again. "Are you going to grind my bones to make your bread?"

She expected anything he uttered to be nightmare fodder for the rest of her life. What she hadn't considered at all was the youthful mirth that bubbled forth. "Are we going to have fun like we used to, Sen?"

She gulped deeply. "I think you have me confused for someone else."

"No. I remember. I may have been young but I remember. You may look different but I remember." Chihiro realized that while he was a giant there was a youthfulness to his face. He was probably at most twelve years old. He looked like he was about to throw a temper tantrum though, and she worried that if he did he would bring the building down around her.

"Look, I'm sorry I upset you. I really honestly don't know who you are though." Chihiro frowned up at him. It was partially breaking her heart that she had unintentionally upset him.

He sniffled. "Oh. That's right. Humans forget after they leave here. So, you forgot. You forgot meeting all of us."

"Bou! Bou, where are you?! If you are on the human side again you are going to be grounded to your room."

"Oh no. That's mama. I'm not sure what she will do if she finds out you came back." He frowned as he looked thoughtful for a second. "I'll need to sneak you to the other side of the river and get you food so you don't disappear once we reach the spirit side. I just don't know what to do after that."

The giant boy reached his chubby large hand inside the building. "Don't worry little breeze. I'm Sen's friend. I won't hurt her." The cyclone must have sensed his sincerity because it dispersed as he placed his hand palm up. "It will be faster if I carry you."

Chihiro didn't really have many options. From what Bou said it sounded as if his mother would hurt her if she discovered she was there. So she could either abandon her adventure before it even started, or she could trust him and hope he actually would carry her off to safety.

Chihiro wasn't overly afraid of heights but she wasn't terribly fond of them either. If she looked down as he escorted her across the river she would probably get a horrible case of vertigo. So instead she looked across the horizon. It was just after noon and the sun was directly overhead. She gasped when she turned slightly and saw a large serpentine mass growing as it headed there way. "A dragon!"

"Kohaku! Come here! Come here!"

Chihiro wanted to scream at him for beckoning the dragon over but fear had closed up her throat, and she was barely able to manage the squeak that snuck past her lips.