Finally got the next one. Sorry, I got distracted with some other projects. But hey... it's here now, so... yeah.

**Note- The line always represents a POV change, though I will not reveal the POV until it becomes obvious in the story.

Disclaimer: No. I own not Haku, not Chihiro/Sen, or the setting. All belongs to Miyazaki.

The streets were empty. The shops stood still, food set out and waiting, hot and steaming, beckoning to any unfortunate human such as myself. Night hadn't fallen yet, the sun hadn't set... so the Spirits hadn't come to cater to their shops. But I knew that inside the bathhouse, there had to be residents. I was riding on the chance that Haku was still there... maybe waiting for me, if he wasn't going to come.

When I reached the Bridge, I stared at the smooth wood, suddenly struck with a thought. Was it too late to hold my breath as I crossed it, now? Did the rule apply to each individual visit, or was I condemned to be visible since I hadn't been able to cross the last time? If it wasn't too late, would Haku be able to see me as he had been able to before, if I held my breath?

What if I had made it across last time? Would Haku have ceased to see me, the moment I took that last step off the bridge?

I'd been wondering too much, lately.

I shook my head to myself. No, it was too much of a risk to hold my breath. What if he couldn't see me when I got to the other side?

I took the first step, taking a deliberate breath as my foot touched the surface, and breathing in and out evenly as I crossed. With each new breath, each new step, I felt like I was becoming more and more vulnerable.

I closed my eyes, letting myself become a part of the Spirit World. Trying to erase every doubt I had of my old friend.

When I opened them again, I was looking at a girl with dark eyes, staring coolly back at me.

"My name is Serendipity," the girl said, taking a step closer. Her dark brown eyes met my green ones with familiarity, prodding at my memory.

"Of course; I could never forget you, Serendipity," I said, smiling at her where she sat across from me in the grass. "It's been so long, though."

"I know, Ouji," she said, smiling. My lips tilted up at the corners at the sound of my name on her voice, as if it were a song. "I've missed you, too."

She crawled forward until she was sitting next to me, her head on my shoulder, her hazelnut hair tickling my neck. I was smiling, now, wider. She was so close- I remembered when we were children, before she had been forced to leave me. I didn't want her to go away again.

"Why did you come back?" I asked.

She looked up, her face only inches from my own, her expression hurt. It was like a threat, when she did that. She didn't seem to intend it, but any expression of pain that crossed her face fed a red glow in my chest. "You don't want me to go, do you?"

"No, of course not, I-"

She nuzzled my cheek, cutting me off when I lost my breath, but I stared straight ahead, eyes riveted on a small, pink berry that was just beginning to turn its true color. She giggled, and when I didn't acknowledge her, she straightened beside me.

"Oh, Ouji," she said, touching my face so I would turn to look at her again. "You're just as sturdy as I remember you."

"Serendipity, you know that I-"

"You what, Ouji?"

"I haven't really seen you for-"

"Yes, but we were so close before I had to go," she said, her eyes boring into mine. They really were beautiful, so deep I could lose myself in them. "I was only gone for a little while."

I nod, slowly. "You're right," I say, "Of course, but-"

She lifted a hand and toyed with my shoulder-length hair, twisting it around her fingers. "I have to go back to the Bathhouse," she said, smiling quietly to herself. "The workers need me there, or they'll get rowdy."

"You're quite a leader," I said, sighing, "Where would we be without you?"

"Well, you'd be alone," she said, "because there's no one for you but me, and the bathhouse would still be run by a woman too clumsy to give trespassing humans what they deserve."

I stand, catching her hand and gently guiding her up with me. "Just don't overwork yourself, alright?"

"Sure, Ouji, don't worry about me," she said, "I'm perfectly fine. Why don't you come with me? You can give me someone to talk to."

"Anything."

She grinned at me, but as we started walking back toward the House, I noticed a far-off black cloud in the sky, just barely catching in my peripheral vision. After a moment, I recognized the voices that rose on the wind, carrying the ominous echo of many, many sounds converging into one. It sounded like an unkindness of ravens. I hadn't realized that I had stopped in my tracks until Serendipity did, too, her lips pulling down at the corners. "Oh," she gasped. When I glanced down at her, I saw the tears pooling in her eyes.

"What is it?" I asked frantically, moving to brush the hair out of her face where the tear-stains held them there like glue.

"It's that woman," she said, her voice low with the beginnings of a sob. When I opened my mouth to ask, she shook her head, stopping me dead.

"Is there anything I can do to help you handle it?" I tried again, reaching forward to touch her hand. I had to stop her from crying, before it...

She frowned. "They want to hurt me, Ouji. The birds."

"I can get rid of them for you," I whispered, softly. I didn't have to think about it- my skin became smooth white scale, body lengthening into the snake-like form of the dragon. My hair became a mint-green mane. My teeth became razors, my nails talons, my tail whipping out behind me like wire.

My surroundings took on a different light- shadows of blue and silver replaced the black and gray. The air became more viscous, and the light was reflected into millions of pinpoints of brightness continuously alighting the sky like stars.

I was in my own world now.

"You're so beautiful," Serendipity said, softly, lifting a hand to brush the side of my face. The reflection of light on the water that was now the sky created a simmer to her movements, alighting her skin. She reached forward and hugged my nose to her, letting her forehead rest on mine. "You do love me, don't you, Ouji?"

"I know you," the girl said, eyeing me warily. I was frozen in place. She didn't know me- it almost seemed like she was me.

Well, me without my imperfections.

Her hair was the same color as mine, and it was worn up in the same pony tail that I'd worn since I was five. Except where my hair had a certain uncontrollable poof that almost looked like a curl, her hair was in perfect, glossy near-curl waves that looked like hours had been spent just to arrange them. She had my eyes, but they were deeper, more perfectly shaped than mine were. The same thin arms and legs, but with more of a willowy grace than I had ever had. Same body, fuller curves. Where I was dressed in a T-shirt and jeans, she wore a tight, deep red sweater and black jeans.

I wanted to hit her.

She giggled at me. Her voice was softer than mine, too. I scowled.

"You are that girl," she said, walking towards me until we were standing face to face. I didn't step back.

"Who are you?" I asked, crossing my arms. "Shouldn't you be getting ready for the customers?"

She just laughed at me again.

"I've already prepared the place," she said, turning to look behind her at the Bathhouse. Now that I looked closer at it, I could see the differences in the building. There was even more color than there had been before- in fact, everything looked brighter, as if it had recently gotten a new coat of paint.

"You've prepared the place?" I asked, still staring at the building behind her. "Who-"

"I'm the supervisor," she said, which brought my attention back to her immediately. "The boss. I don't have to do much else but make sure the others are working."

"Wait," I said, frowning, "I thought Yubaba was the..."

"She was," the girl agreed, smiling, "But she was replaced. Because of you, actually, Chihiro."

"That can't be right, I couldn't have- they can't-" And then I finally realized, "...You just called me Chihiro."

"I did." She was laughing at me again. "It is your name, isn't it?"

"Yes, but... how did you know it?"

"We have some friends in common."

The way her voice was steadily calming, getting lower and more intense, was beginning to frighten me. She was my height exactly, and her eyes were locked with mine. I gritted my teeth. It was too much like staring into my own.

"Don't be frightened of me." She was smiling; I could hear the sneer in her voice. "I just want to talk to you. I just want to get to know you, like a friend of mine once did."

I looked down at the wood of the bridge, unable to stand facing the me that wasn't. I spoke without looking up.

"Do you know a spirit named Kohaku?"

There was a space of silence during which the air grew thicker. I could feel a horrible wave of energy coming from the space in front of me, like the will of anger itself being forced against me, coming from where the girl stood. I could barely breathe through it.

"No."

Her voice had changed. It had lowered, and what came from her direction was a growl, not a giggle. I shivered involuntarily, glad I couldn't see her beneath my bangs, hanging in front of my bowed head.

I didn't know what to do. What was I supposed to say?

But I didn't need to say anything- she spoke before I did.

"I wish Ouji were here," she said suddenly, her voice becoming all velvet once more. Except she didn't seem to be speaking to me. Her voice, in fact, sounded like an order given to a favorite subordinate. I blinked, my eyes slowly making their way to rest on her left shoulder, where I didn't have to look directly at her.

"Who's Ouji?" I whispered.

"Here he comes..." She said, voice brightening cheerfully.

I looked up when a slow gust of wind blew my hair over my shoulders as a shadow passed over me, and a powerful force slithered through the air overhead. When the figure passed by, slicing back around to face me, I saw him.

It was Haku.

Knowing he was here made it easier to look up, to face the girl in front of me, to stand my ground and breathe easy. He was here to help me, now.

His body danced like a ribbon through the air, his scales reflecting the sunlight, giving him a faintly metallic look.

It was him. There wasn't a doubt in my mind.

But when his claws touched the ground, they didn't skid to a stop in front of me, his head didn't fill my arms so I could finally hug him again. He didn't greet me.

It was Serendipity that he went to, corded body creating a low wall around her, his head moving to rest on the top of hers as if she were a delicate gift he was afraid of losing.

As if she might have been... me.

His eyes locked on mine as if I were a stranger.

He had grown. The muscle under his scales pulsed with every movement, corded and strained with power. His horns, his talons... they were sharper, longer, thicker. He was the beast of nightmares that had always been in my most treasured dreams.

He was the friend I'd since before wanted to know again, taken away from me.

"You're her, Chihiro," Serendipity said, again, watching my gaze lock with the dragon's.

"You bitch," The words came out of my mouth before I could hold them back, but as I said them, her own voice layered over mine, saying the same words in the same tone.

"You bitch."

Serendipity recoiled from me, as if I had been the only one to speak.

"I only wanted to be your friend," she said, and to my confusion (and maybe triumph) tears welled in her eyes. "I've always wanted a sister, I thought it would be you."

But then her voice darkened again, and the same energy seemed to glow from inside her. "But now you've hurt me."

And then all sound was obliterated by the single, all consuming roar of the dragon, blasting through my eardrums. The shockwave knocked me back, sending me sprawling to the ground. When I looked up, the still eyes of Serendipity met my gaze, cool and calm.

And then, moving faster than I could follow with my eyes, the dragon threw himself at me, talons reaching, jaws gaping wide, teeth waiting to feel my flesh tear between them.

()()()()()()()()()()

When I opened my eyes, I breathed out a sigh of relief to find that it had only been a-

Except that it hadn't.

My surroundings crashed down on me with traumatizing force. It wasn't my bedroom, the walls weren't the soft blue they should have been. The walls were white, the soft couch I was sitting on was white. The entire room, fully furnished with every comfort item to be imagined, nearly blended into the wall.

I looked down to find that I was dressed in a colorless robe. It was similar to a plastic wrap that a doctor would wreathe you in, tied at the back of my neck and just above my hips, falling down to my knees.

There wasn't a sound in the entire room.

The only oddity was a faint smell, like roses. Roses and... soap.

And blood.

When I looked down at myself, I noticed the only color in the room was coming from me. Along both of my forearms were slash marks, bound not quite entirely with white bandaging. I felt a pull on the skin of my chest and stomach when I moved my arm forward to examine it, and fear of the damage I would see was the only thing stopping me from looking at what shape my torso was in.

I raised a hand to the skin just under my eye, where a slight stinging sensation was accompanied by a slight moistness. My finger came away red.

I tried to take a deep breath, to calm myself, but the movement sent searing pain up my neck, down my chest, along my spine, and I fell to my knees, sobbing before I could register the pain.

It wasn't only the physical pain that sent me to the ground, it was more than just the burning in my nerves.

It was that I was trapped here, in this room, in the Spirit World.

And the reason I'd come at all had tried to kill me.

Okay, well, I hope it wasn't too terrible. If you hate it, you can scream at me all you want. To be honest, I love degrading criticism just as much as constructive criticism. It helps me either way! And if you don't want to review me because you feel like it'll be considered a compliment of my work, I'll also take a PM with fire.

Did you know that the human brain stores more info than 4 Terrabytes?

I'll get another chapter up some time in the future.

-Susu