Chapter 2

A certain green eyed boy's voice called out to her. She was alone, stranded in the darkness, in the void. The power she was given some time ago still surged in her veins, making her feel as if she was set on fire. She stood in the void, filled with power she could no longer control. Rampaging about, she heard that distant, yet longed for noise.

Although still raging with power, she ran towards that voice. It grew louder, louder, louder by the moment.

"chihiro! chihiro! chihiro! chihiro! Chihiro! CHIHIRO!"

Suddenly, she gazed up, and saw the blurry face of the one whom the loved most.

"H…Ha…Haku?" I whispered. My eyes were wet with tears. Pain. So much pain. It was as if my soul was being torn apart by my own power. The ground was shaking uncontrollably. "Chihiro! Calm down!" I heard him shout. Baku lifter my hand and put it right in front of my face. Instantly I was blinded by immense light, a light that flickered from pure white to soft green to dangerous red and to blue. But it also turned to black, a dense, mesmerizing black. Evil. I grimaced under the pain and confusion. Was I causing the earthquake? But how…

I started, "How…"

"I'll explain later. Chihiro, listen to me! Calm down and try to control your power!"

As much as I hated the pain, I knew I had to do this. So I took on the old courage back when I rescued Haku and had to run across the pipe and reinforced it. I compressed the power and caged it, screaming at the top of my lungs as it wrenched my soul in attempt to flee.

Finally, after what seemed like hours of inexpressible suffering and screaming, I fell into unconsciousness once again. The last thing I heard was, "Hush now Chihiro, everything is under control. Sleep well…"

"Haku!" screamed Lin.

"Yes?"

"There's an earthquake at the portal!"

"What?!"

"I don't know what caused it, but it's spreading fast!"

Just then the ground started quaking, hard. I felt an immense wave of power controlling it, guiding it forth and spreading it. Impossible! How can there be an earthquake of such magnitude? There was never natural earthquakes in the Spirit world before… unless… someone was controlling it? But how? I know of no such being that possesses this amount of power…just one, the High God, the One who Controlled All Elements.

Pushing the explanations away, I morphed into my dragon form and flew out the window.

"Hop on Lin! And hang on!"

As I flew with Lin quivering with fear on my back, I glanced around me. Looking down I could see rivers overflowing rapidly, bushfires raging through forests, and black spots where lightning had struck. Looking up, the sky was a chaos. The sun was burning with the brightest light, yet soot black storm clouds was gathering in. The rain that the storm brought, however, did not quench the fire, nor did the storm clouds affect the sun, or the sun the storm clouds. The wild fluctuation had no effect on the weather whatsoever, and these completely disastrous events led to a rainbow. The rainbow was not made of seven colours as usual, however. It was black. Pure, impenetrable black. Strange enough, everything curved around us. They had zero effect on us.

"What the hell…" gasped Lin.

I grimaced, while speeding towards the portal to the human world. After Chihiro left, Zeniba and Yubaba made up again (kinda, not that they loved each other, but at least they could get along and be 'sisters' again) and the two of them and I had shared the ownership of the bathhouse ever since. I had requested the spell the Yubaba had put on the portal be removed, so that I can visit the old, red building as often as I wanted to. She did, however I could not travel to the human world, as much as I yearned for Chihiro. Spirits were forbidden to go there, it will result in immediate death or, at the least, some form of horrible torture for the rest of your lives.

Chihiro! I wondered where she was, and how she was doing. I missed her immensely, it's as if someone took my soul and never returned it. It's even worse than losing my river, and even that can be overcome, as I carved a new one for myself, with the help of the witch twins. This, this was unbearable. Chihiro. Chihiro, Chihiro, Chihiro. For a moment, I couldn't hear anything but her name, I hallucinated that she was standing in front of me, smiling. But when I tried to reach over and embrace her, she vanished.

Tears rushed out of my eyes as I flew, wanting to forever leave that wanting behind, yet being unable to. She probably forgot me. She was only ten when she first came here. She didn't love me anyways. The last thought came down hard, shattering my heart to pieces like never before. Did she love me? I certainly hoped she did, but I knew that she probably didn't and even if she did, it was impossible for a human to love a spirit. Impossible. Forbidden.

"Are you thinking about Sen again, oh lovesick dragon?" nagged Lin. Even in the most depressing and urgent times she can still be so annoying.

I didn't answer. Instead, I landed, morphed back into my human form, and ran into the room inside the building. Nothing seemed wrong, but when I turned my eyes towards the Forbidden Bench, I gasped. A human girl had collapsed on top of it.

"But how…" I whispered, "Unless…"

Both my eyes and Lin's widened as we gazed at the the crying, unconscious figure. The blinding light radiating from her hands flickered crazily.

Slowly and hesitantly, I walked over with Lin. I reached out, and turned her over. Gaping, both we stared at the wide eyes of the barely breathing human, no spirit. No. She was a goddess.

"Chihiro!"