Chapter Two

A Familiar Face

She waited. A second… Two seconds… Three…

'Chikusho!' she thought, too frightened to open her eyes. The ringing in her ears (if truth be told, Chihiro hadn't really realized that her ears had been ringing…), and as it slowly drifted away, she could hear the sounds of a fight.

She slowly gathered the courage and opened her eyes. Her eyelashes melded everything together, and it wasn't until her eyes shot open that the brown and silver formed into two distinct shapes. One, of course, was the bear yokai, its flailing limbs and dangerous sickly yellow eyes and sheer size making it a frightening creature.

And one was a dragon.

A silver dragon. With teal ripples of hair down its spine and sharp claws.

The hissing sounds coming from it made her cringe as its claws broke through the yokai's pelt. "Ha-Haku?" Chihiro whispered, leaning forward, still on her knees.

Haku was thrown away by the bear who turned back to Chihiro, as if blaming her for the injuries Haku had given him. Her own eyes narrowed and it was only the fear of Haku's safety and that small annoying voice in the back of her head telling her it was foolhardy to attack this thing keeping her back.

A flash of silver made Chihiro cry out and fall back as Haku slithered in between the yokai and her. His lips rose and a hiss slowly seeped out from his clenched teeth. The bear growled and took a step forward, but froze. Its eyes, far from feral, even if it couldn't speak, shot from Chihiro to Haku, and back again. Then, with what Chihiro could swear was a shrug, it turned away.

Haku turned back to Chihiro to find her hugging his head, the only part she could really get close enough, and pressing her forehead affectionately into his.

Tugging his head away, Haku took a step back, letting the scales fall from his lean form to let a boy of eighteen or nineteen years stand there, his hair no longer that of the thirteen year old Chihiro knew. It was short and ruffled, looking very attractive on him. But his eyes, those deep emerald orbs, were the same.

Then she was on him again, clinging to him and laughing and crying at the same time. Seven years, seven long years, since she had seen him, and she felt that if she let him go, Haku would disappear from her. Forever.

"Haku! Haku! You're here! You're really here!"

He grinned and pulled away from her slightly. "Did you ever doubt I'd find you again?"

Chihiro shook her head wildly, her long brown hair that had grown to her waist flying about in its braid. The ribbon her friends had created for her shimmering on its end. "Of course not! I never doubted your word for a second, but…"

She leaned back into his haori. The feeling she got there… it was… nice.

"But?" he prompted, wrapping his arms around her.

"But… I was beginning to lose hope you'd ever find me before I was an old lady… and then…"

She didn't need to finish her sentence. If he HAD found her as an old lady… their time in each other's company would've been extremely short.

Shaking away the thoughts, Chihiro pulled away from him and began to study him closer. Everything, besides the hair, was the save, down to the outfit, though it was slightly larger than his old one, to fit him, of course.

"Chihiro…?"

His voice made the said girl jump, looking back up at him. A smile spread across her face and her bright hazel eyes sparkled. "Hai?"

Haku was looking her over, taking in her ripped jeans from a fall ages past, the grass stained knees, her t-shirt with the words "I have the body of a god (unfortunately, it's Buddha)" in English. She blushed when he looked her over. 'Thank you Obaa-chama for having it in English! That would've been… embarrassing, to say the least!'1

Chihiro took a deep breath, fully intent on asking Haku why a giant bear yokai had attacked her… or more why a giant bear yokai was here in the first place, but she didn't need to. He answered her question without stopping making sure no limbs had been ripped off and she bore nothing worse than fright and a bruise here and there.

"I don't know. Yokai have suddenly appeared everywhere in Japan. Most spirits have kept a low profile, but more than a few have also appeared."

She opened her mouth-

"I don't know that one either. They have absolutely NOTHING to benefit them suddenly appearing back, ripping themselves out of myths and stories."

She opened her mouth again.

"That one I do know! The only reason they could be turning up is that something is driving them insane with the need to attack…"

'Ok, one more time!' Chihiro thought, slightly annoyed that she didn't even need to get a word in.

Opening her mouth experimentally, a determined look on her face.

Nothing.

She closed her mouth and thought for a bit. Was there any way of making them stop? Of keeping spirits and yokai from suddenly making an appearance and killing hundreds of people?

She opened her mouth to try and ask but-

"I don't know. We'll need to talk to one of the four Taisho. They represent the four seasons. A cold and distant dog demon for winter, a warm cat demon for summer, an old tree demon for fall, and a young wolf demon for spring. Well… young for yokai, and warm for yokai. Either way you look at it, the dog and the tree are cold and old but…"2

Chihiro narrowed her eyes at her. "How did you know what I was going to ask?"

He shrugged. "I just had a feeling… that and I asked the same questions myself to Zeniba when I heard about it. She told me that the yokai were attacking humans, and I took my leave to make sure you were ok. Seems I came just in time."

Chihiro nodded, biting her lower lip to make herself stop blushing.

Opening her mouth, she watched as Haku began to answer and closed her mouth again, raising an eyebrow.

"We'll need to travel to one of the four yokai. Or to all of them. Each month at the full moon they met in a glade and talk about treaties, how their kingdoms are doing, ect. ect."

Chihiro jumped. "You mean the spirits allow yokai to rule over them?"

He shook his head. "No. Only weak spirits allow the four Taisho to rule over them. The higher ones, the ones you saw at the bathhouse, were the ones that nobody could rule or contain. They are usually peaceful, but powerful. The river spirit that you helped is one example of the power but peacefulness that they have," he explained, finally looked back at her. "So, he concluded. "You wanna come and help?"

Chihiro leaned on one leg, her sarcasm coming in for a moment. "I need to think about it- Yes!" she cried, grabbing his hand and yanking him in a random direction. The laughter behind her made her jump and look about. Haku was laughing his ass off.

"What!?" Chihiro asked, putting her hands on her hips and clenching her teeth as she always did when annoyed at a peer.

"Wrong direction," he rasped, shaking his head and still grinning. They had both changed. They had changed a lot. But, if truth be told, Chihiro liked seeing Haku laugh. It made her smile.

He turned back to his dragon form, his body growing to that of a serpent's, but with the claws of a komodo dragon.

Grinning, Chihiro jumped onto Haku's back, hugging his neck and whispering into his ear, "Haku… Arigato…" She felt just like the ten year old she still was on the inside. Haku smiled and took off. 'Time for something new,' Chihiro thought drowsily before the day's events made her slip into the welcome world of unconsciousness, her body still clinging to Haku's neck.

1) Well, hello there! First author's note!!!! W000000000T!!!!! XD This is so that all the people who read my stories can keep on reading, or look down here for the author's notes/foot notes. Ok… The "I have a body of a god, unfortunately it's Buddha" is an actual t-shirt! I saw it shopping for Christmas presents AAAAAAAAAAGESSSSSSSSSS ago! Just thought I'd put that in… Look for your nearest Holiday Market t-shirt rack for it! It's FAWESOME!!!!! … -cough- So… I'll… just… go now… -jumps out of side of screen-

2) For us InuYasha fans, we AAAAAAAAAAAAALL know two of the four demons. Or at the VERY least one!!!! –ahem- Sesshomaru and Koga!!!! Dog and wolf!!!! As for the cat yokai and the tree yokai… just ideas.

3) This idea came from Warriors, with the gatherings! The four Clans of the forest gather every full moon at either Fourtrees or The Island, depending on which series you're reading, Warriors or New Prophecy… or is it still The Island? I haven't finished Sunset yet so… -shrugs- Meh, unimportant. Either way, they meet on neutral ground, and it's going to be much the same with the four yokai leaders.