I'm very sorry about the previous chapter for being so short and this being late. What length do you want the chapters to be?

Expect many delays in every single story. It's because I have been expanding on the story lines and plots so there might be a lot of rewriting chapters which were supposed to be updated soon.

Disclaimer: I do not own Spirited Away.

I became sort of afraid of looking out of the window but the longer I looked away, the more I longed to discover this strange ability of mine. I thought I was going crazy at that time but when lunch came around, I discovered it was really just me who can see it.

I frowned. While I walk out of the class to rest under a giant tree, I look up and see strange mythical birds that rest there and then they would disappear but I could see their shadows. Strange. Some people were murmuring around me when one mean looking girl came up to me.

"You dare to sit there?" she says pointing at me. Was there a problem with sitting there?

"What do you mean?" I ask. She shoves me and I fall to the ground, scraping my elbow and hands.

"You're really stupid aren't you?" she says once again but this time kicking me. This was bullying and I couldn't endure it.

"It hurts you know," I say. I notice that one of the birds was far larger than others and it was actually a paper bird. It flew down and it passed through the girl in front of me and she was knocked back.

"What was that?" says one of her friends.

"What did you mean? Why am I not allowed to sit here?" I pushed on with my question. I hated it when people don't answer questions.

"Ugh, how can you not know? The great Haku sits there," she says as she tries getting up and brushing off.

I felt a hand pat my shoulder and then pull me up from the ground.

"Is there a problem?" says the person. It was Haku.

"Oh, uh, this girl was sitting in your seat," she says firmly and innocently.

"I was just sitting there, what's the pro-" I exclaim and when I looked back at Haku I saw something absolutely amazing. It was a magnificent dragon with beautiful scales.

"A dragon?" I say. Haku widens his eyes and he quickly drags me away.

Huh? What? We literally fly away in lightning speed and we stopped at the back of the school building hidden by the shadows and from the girls' view, they just saw us disappear.

"Can you see the dragon?" he asked pointing at himself.

"Ye-yeah!" I look at him. It was a dragon alright and it was definitely Haku. It was just a flashing image that appeared on his body.

"You," he says depressed, "you can see spirits!"

He meant all those strange creatures. I nodded vigorously.

"But… you can usually only see them when you are going between the human and spirit world. We're in the human world and there are no portals that can lead us to the spirit world or you're on the verge of death but that's not possible…" says Haku walking in paces. "So is it an ability? The spirits around are currently taking a break. No, Zeniba and Yubaba are here too so that must be why."

Confused, I asked about what he was saying. He seemed like he was genuinely sorry for my sake.

"Zeniba and Yubaba are the some of the most powerful witches. They're also sisters and wherever Yubaba goes, an entire horde of spirits follow. Zeniba is a keeper of all sorts of treasures so it's highly likely that Yubaba followed her to the human world to take whatever treasure she is finding here."

"Okay then how do you know all this?" I ask.

"I'm cursed to be Yubaba's apprentice. I don't remember my true name and I don't even know how to break the curse. We have to go. Is it alright if I walk with you after school?" he said. I nodded.

We were instantly put into the school's main hallway and then the end of lunch bell went. I sighed, unable to eat lunch. I wanted to ask Haku where to meet but he was already gone. Questions swirled around my head. All these events didn't make sense but what else could make sense with the things happening around me?

After school, I started to make my way out of the school when a hand clamped over my mouth. While I struggled, the arm dragged me to an empty hallway. By then most of the students had gone home.

"Sen?" said the person, "listen to me. Don't leave the school."

"Haku? But why?" I ask.

"Here, take my arm and hold your breath when we exit the door. It'll only take a few seconds, until we reach the gate," he said, holding out his arm. I took it quickly and took a breath in as I exited the through the door. We stepped outside and all I saw was a large mass of black shadows and strange animal like figures which were the spirits. I had to let go of my breath as I felt my chest tightening and my face heating up. Before Haku noticed I had run out of breath, I looked up to see a large crow staring above and then flying away.

"Come on!" exclaimed Haku anxiously, dragging me back inside quickly. I was terrified. That crow was definitely Yubaba even without knowing it, my instinct was reacting to it.

He dragged me along as we rushed from a school hallway to another and a door opened and we rushed inside.

"Huh? This is the…" I said as I looked around in the room. It was the nurse's office where the students would go if they were sick or were hurt.

"It should be time. We should be safe here," says Haku as walks towards me. When he meant it should be time, I didn't expect what would happen next. As if an alarm clock went off the entire surroundings were changed.

"What is this?" I ask, as the room shifted and moved.

"Tch," he clicked his tongue, something I also didn't expect to happen. He seemed pissed off. "Precisely at 6pm in the human world, there is an open portal from the spirit world to the human world. The school is precisely where the bath house would be in the spirit world."

I looked out the window. Instead of houses, there were food stalls and strange shops that lined the street.

"Haku, the houses turned into food stands," I said. He looked away towards the door and sighed.

"I can't explain right now. I can hear them trying to find me," he said and put a small omamori, which is a charm, into my hand.

"Uh, okay," I say looking down at the charm and then reading what was carved into the wood. "Chi-hi-ro. Chihiro… Is that my name?"

He nodded and smiled. "If the school is replaced with the bath house, go down the stairs to the very bottom level and keep going down the hallway until you come across a steel door. It is hard to miss it, but I'll show you." He put his hand on my head and showed me a flash of images on where to go.

"Where am I going?" I ask, curious.

"It's the janitor's room for the school but it's the Boiler Room now. I'm sorry but I must go," he said and he opened the door and disappeared. I stared onwards. Chihiro. At least I knew my real name now. I stood up and brushed off the collecting dust on my uniform and put the omamori into the pocket of the blazer, as if it was a precious artefact.

Opening the door, I started to make my way towards the stairs.

That took a while. Half of the chapter had to be rewritten because of some amazing ideas which I expanded on when two of my friends suggested I should do.

Hope you enjoyed!

Zaira Swift.