CHAPTER 2
Haku's POV
Someone flung a chair into her stomach, knocking her to the ground in the process. The spirit in question walked up to us and towered threateningly over her prone form.
"It's against the law to steal here, little human," he sneered maliciously, fully prepared to bash the chair against her abdomen until she died from internal bleeding.
"Stop," I commanded, placing a hand in front of the spirit's chest. "She hasn't done anything wrong."
"She stole from my restaurant!"
"In order to stay alive," I finished. "Who among us wouldn't do whatever it takes to survive?"
"We're spirits, Haku," he spat. "We don't necessarily have survival to worry about."
"Well, she does," I said, offering her my hand to help her up. She just shook her head and got up on her own. "And she is here of no fault of her own."
"She led all those other humans here!" a spirit called from the crowd that had gathered around the scene.
"False," the girl pretended to cough into her fist.
"Disrespectful little human! She's nothing like the other girl." I bristled at the mention of her. The girl beside whom I currently stood shot me worried glance; who she was worried about, me or herself, I wasn't sure.
"You're only defending her because she reminds you of that other girl!" I froze. Then she spoke.
"You know," she began, "there are a lot of nasty things in the human world."
"Like you?" the chair-throwing spirit spat at her, leaning down mockingly to her level. She only smirked.
"I was more referring to things like hitmen, mercenaries, murderers, robbers, you name it. Now whether I'm one of those nasty things… that's up to interpretation." The spirit gulped and took a surreptitious step back when he noticed her dark and hardened eyes.
"Is that a threat, little girl?" he asked, trying to remain unintimidated while slowly retreating.
"Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. The question you have to ask yourself is if you're really willing to find out."
After staring menacingly at each other for several seconds, the spirit eventually backed down and stepped back with a swallow. The girl turned back to me, some hardness still evident in her eyes.
"What comes next?" she asked me. Before I could answer, a loud noise interrupted me. Looking back, we saw a horde of spirits charging us. The leader suddenly screeched to a halt and pointed in her direction.
"There's the human!" he shouted, a cry echoed by the throng as they charged once again.
"Time to run?" the girl beside me asked quietly.
"Time to fly."
I grabbed her hand and took off, weaving between the legs of the spirits who roamed the streets each night. The women laughed and screeched as the wind we generated billowed their skirts around their thighs and threatened to expose their more private areas.
"Care to tell me how you know everything about the Spirit World?" I shouted above the noise. She shook her head.
"I already told you that you wouldn't believe me!"
We eventually wound our way across the bridge and to the bathhouse's side yard and crouched behind a bush.
"The meadow's flooded," she said. "I can't get back."
"I know. It happens every night." She was silent for a moment, looking down at her bent knees and splayed feet.
"How am I supposed to save my parents?" she whispered incredulously, as if she couldn't believe any of this was actually happening. I did not blame her.
"You can start by getting a job at the bathhouse," I told her. "If you don't work Yubaba will turn you into an animal."
"Yubaba?"
"She runs-"
"The bathhouse, I know," she said, looking down with furrowed brows.
"How do you know all these things?" She looked up with a humorless laugh.
"This will make the third time I've told you that-"
"I wouldn't believe you if you told me," I finished. "And this will make the second time I've told you to try me."
She took a deep breath and let it out, closing her eyes to steel herself before smiling grimly.
"Where I come from," she said, "you are a fictional character."