Chapter 2

Chihiro's grip on the mesh fence loosened until she let go completely, allowing her feet to touch the ground again and her hands to fall to her sides.

Did that really happen? Did a dragon take her brother away?

"Chihiro-chan!"

Chihiro turned her head absently. Their neighbor was leaning out her window on the second floor, staring down at her.

"Is everything all right?" she asked worriedly. "I heard you scream."

Chihiro stared blankly at the woman. What she going to say? That a dragon carried off Sei?

"I—" she began, then stopped. She turned back to the fence, her eyes staring at the place where the dragon disappeared with Sei. Over the wide forest.

The forest…and that was a dragon…

No, she thought, gripping the fence with a hand. It can't be! How could a dragon from the Spirit World come here? And that dragon…it looked so much like Haku…

But it couldn't have been Haku…could it? After all, it attacked her. The Haku she knew wouldn't attack her.

"Are you really all right?" asked her neighbor again. "Your hands are bleeding!"

This snapped her back into reality. What she doing just standing there?

"I'm all night, Mrs. Sanagi," called Chihiro, running back towards her house. "Don't worry about me!"

"But—"

Chihiro didn't wait for her to finish. She ran into her house, carefully avoiding the glass shards on the floor. She ran up the stairs up to her room, taking three steps at a time on the stairs.

I have to go back, she thought as she fished through her closet. I have to save Sei and find out what's going on…

She found what she was looking for; a long white button up cotton sweater with pockets. It was too hot for that sort of thing, but Chihiro knew that the nights were getting colder and her simple summer dress wouldn't shield her from it. She tied the sweater around her waist and ran back to the door.

Then, as if by an instinct, she grabbed her wallet off her dress and stuffed it into one of the pockets of her sweater.

"Come on," she muttered to herself, running back down the stairs. She grabbed her sneakers from the front door and jammed her feet into them. Then she ran back to the backyard.

Before, the pains of her injuries had stopped her, but this time she was running on adrenaline. Ignoring her aches, she quickly climbed the mesh fence and jumped over the top.

She ran across the widespread of grass as fast as she could, her feet pounding the earth. She realized that it was probably wiser to save her energy, but her gut feeling was telling her to move as fast as she could. The wind was starting to pick up fiercely, blowing her loose brown hair into her face. Cursing to herself, she fished into her pocket, pulled out her hair tie and tied her hair into a quick ponytail.

Chihiro got to the passage into the forest in five minutes. Nostalgia filled her senses as she was reminded of the fateful journey her family took into these woods, though then it was by car.

"Here I go," she said softly and took off down the path as fast as she could go. She kept telling herself that it wasn't too far off, that she had reached the area in less than five minutes six years before.

But five minutes came and went and she was still far away. An annoyed feeling consumed her as she remembered that she had been in a car and her father had been speeding at the time. Meaning she had another ten minutes of walking before she got there.

Chihiro allowed herself to slow down and her pains came back to the surface. Maybe this was too reckless. A dragon kidnapped her brother. She was just a sixteen-year-old human.

I have to try, she ordered herself. I managed to save my parents despite facing powerful spirits, and I was only ten at the time!

She was still walking and trying to catch her breath just a few minutes later that her surroundings felt icy. Was she near the tunnel? She didn't feel this icy last time. Was it a good thing?

She finally reached the end of the forest path, the area illuminated by the pale moon. The same double-sided statue that had frightened her when she was ten remained in its spot.

"I'm here," she panted. Her legs and her sides were aching, but she knew she couldn't stop. She had to get Sei back right away.

Chihiro walked past the statue and entered the building. The feeling of nostalgia consumed her as she remembered trailing after her parents into this quiet building; the only sound being the howling wing and a train going by.

It wasn't quiet anymore.

She heard conversations as she drew near to the center of the building. The blinding overhead light greeted her as she reached the room. What she saw made her stop in her tracks.

What had been a dilapidated room was now clean, bright, and full of shadowy people. The soft lull of voices melded together as the people either remained seated or started heading towards the opposite door. One was even drinking from the drinking fountain, which seemed to be out of use six years ago.

What's going on? she wondered, staring at the people as she walked towards the opposite door. It wasn't like this when Mom, Dad, and me came here. I only saw the spirits when I crossed over to Yubaba's bathhouse and at night. And while it is at night, I haven't crossed yet. Am I already in the spirit world?

Chihiro didn't know what was going on and she didn't like it. She went through the opposite door and down the passage. Spirits shuffled past her, not taking the presence of a human in. She ignored this for the moment and silently prayed that the river wasn't there yet.

Her wish wasn't granted as a dock and a large ferry similar to the one she saw before greeted her. But there was something different about the atmosphere of the ferry. When she had last seen one there was a feeling of happy anticipation as the spirits reached the spirit world. But now…now the feeling was almost somber.

Well, I can't get there by walking. I should try getting on the boat.

Chihiro followed the spirits around her as they boarded the ferry. Just as she was about to board, one of the spirits stopped her and held out a black mass to her as if signifying that she had to give him something.

"I need a ticket?" she asked absently. She didn't know that it was required for the ferry. But considering how stingy the train was about tickets…

She left the ferry, feeling angry. How was she supposed to buy a ticket? She was human for god sakes! It wasn't like she could go buy one with the spare change she had in her wallet!

She looked out towards the other side of the river, her chest feeling tight. Sei was over there somewhere, probably very afraid.

It would serve him right, but I don't want him to go through what I had to go through. He's younger than I was when I first came here and his stubborn attitude won't help his situation.

Chihiro looked down into the dark water and then back across the river. There seemed to be only one way to get there now. And though her swimming skills still weren't the best they could be, she knew they would be enough to get her over there.

She wasn't looking forward to it.

Sighing in exasperation she pulled off her sneakers and stuffed them into one of the pockets of her dress. Then she took a deep breath and dove into the water.

It was icy cold and felt slimy, but she tried to ignore these sensations as she started swimming onwards. She had the unfortunate company of several spirits who were swimming along with her, but she ignored them as well and focused on her task. A few moments later the ferry's horn sounded and it set off across the lake. It swept by her smoothly as if it were floating on the water's surface. She was afraid the current would suck her underneath the boat, but no such thing happened. The spirits on the ferry looked down at her with mild curiosity as they passed.

"This really sucks," she complained. Her already sore and tired legs and sides were ready to give and her arms weren't helping much better. Her hands and arms were still slightly bleeding from the glass attack and her entire body couldn't help but remind her that she had landed so forcefully on the coffee table that it collapsed. Her parents weren't going to be thrilled about it when they got home.

After swimming for nearly a half hour her legs finally touched solid ground and Chihiro knew she could walk the rest of the way. She stood upon her already unstable legs and forced herself to walk up the bank and up the stairs. The ferry had docked long before and was setting back out.

"Gotta find food…" she gasped, the night's events finally taking their toll on her. She was soaking wet, exhausted, and wounded. As her legs gave out and she collapsed onto the top step, she knew she could no further. Her already heavy eyelids slammed shut and she spun into dark.

-

"…Lucky to be alive…"

"…Is it really her…"

"…I wonder why she's back…"

"…She's waking up…"

Chihiro groaned softly as she came back to awareness. Her body was still sore, but she wasn't wet or cold anymore. She forced her eyes open and was greeted by a welcoming sight.

"I see that you're awake," said Kamaji. One of his many arms reached behind him and produced a teacup. "Drink this up, Sen."

Chihiro took the cup and drank the tea gratefully. "Thank you, Kamaji. How did you know it was me?"

"I didn't," said Kamaji simply. "She did."

Before Chihiro could respond she was pulled into a tight embrace, nearly dropping her teacup.

"I can't believe you came back Sen!" cried Rin, ruffling her hair. "Long time no see!"

Chihiro smiled at Rin. Though Kamaji still looked the same in appearance, Rin had obviously grown in the six years since she last saw her. She was older, but more beautiful than she had been when Chihiro first saw her. "Long time no see."

"It was really shocking," said Rin, releasing her. "I heard someone talking about a human who collapsed at the steps near the river, but I had no idea it was you! It took a lot of convincing to bring you down here."

Chihiro looked around to see the boiler room. The soot balls were jumping enthusiastically, squeaking merrily at her. "Wow. This place hasn't changed."

Suddenly, both Kamaji and Rin became silent and their faces sullen. "What's wrong?"

"This boiler room hasn't changed," said Kamaji gravely. "But the whole damned place has undergone a massive transformation."

"I'm not sure it's safe to keep you here," said Rin, looking around suspiciously. "Considering what's going on."

"What's happened?" demanded Chihiro. "Is it terrible? My little brother was kidnapped and brought here. Is all these changes linked to the kidnapping?"

"Still looking after your family, I see," said Kamaji, shaking his head. "I haven't heard anything about a human boy. Not even Minori has mentioned anything."

"Minori? So Yubaba wasn't behind the kidnapping? When I saw the…" Chihiro stopped herself. She didn't know if she should voice her fear that the dragon might've been Haku.

Rin let out a sad laugh. "That's a name I haven't heard in a while. No, Yubaba's not running the bathhouse anymore. She was run out and Minori took over."

"…Run out?"

"After you were given your freedom a lot of workers demanded that Yubaba give them the same chance to get their freedom. They all refused to work unless they did. This made Yubaba very angry, but there wasn't much she could do about it. Just to make them shut up she did give out chances. The majority failed their test, but some did manage to get out of here. And those who lost wanted more and more chances to be free from their contracts. Yubaba took a lot of her magic to suppress any mutiny, and…well, Haku wasn't her subordinate anymore so there was a decrease in support—"

"Haku left?" asked Chihiro asked, her hopes sinking. She had been hoping she could run into Haku and see him again.

"Yeah, right after you left. He said something about remembering his true name and that he wasn't following Yubaba's orders anymore. That was the last time I saw him. He just upped and left without a word after telling Yubaba left.

"Well, with all this chaos going on one day we got a new guest. That was Minori. She told us how much she sympathized with us and how we were in the right. She said she had more power than Yubaba would ever dream of having and if we joined her she would make sure Yubaba would never harass us again. It certainly sounded like a reasonable request. So we sided with her…and she took on Yubaba.

"Yubaba was the strongest person I knew, but she didn't stand a chance against Minori. Minori declared that Yubaba's shady business schemes were over and that we were going free of her. Yubaba had no choice but to take her loyal followers and flee the bathhouse."

Chihiro swallowed. The thought was almost frightening to her. Even after everything Yubaba did to her, she couldn't help but feel sorry for her.

"I didn't really care about the events either way," said Kamaji. "But I knew from the start that something wasn't right about Minori. But everyone was too blind to the promise of freedom that they followed her every wish."

"After Yubaba left, Minori's true motives were made clear," said Rin sadly. "We all expected that our contracts were now invalid and many tried to leave. And those that left…died."

"Died?" asked Chihiro. "Is that possible?"

"When Minori found the contracts she put a new stipulation on them saying anyone who tried to quit would be killed. She said, "This bathhouse is a vital resting place in the Spirit World. Are you really stupid to think I'd let it go out of business because of a couple of disgruntled employees!" It was frightening when she took control of the bathhouse. It was obvious she was using it for something, but we didn't know what. And she knew everyone that went on, and if someone didn't meet her qualifications she killed them. If someone didn't do things to her exact standards she would kill them. It felt like, and still feels like, you're too scared to not look over your shoulder."

"And the spirits have been acting up," said Kamaji. "Minori's dark influence has infected the area. Everyone is too untrusting and frightened. It's monstrous seeing spirits fighting and killing each other. Spirits even report false testimony to Minori on other spirits to get in her good graces. It's really disgusting."

"Where's Yubaba now?" asked Chihiro.

"She's probably with Zeniba, or Minori might've killed her."

"…And this Minori, do you think she was the one who took my brother?"

"She's running the show around here. I can't imagine anyone else taking him."