Ch 9: A Well Beaten Path

A/N: Ok kiddies, wow that has to be the fastest three reviews I have ever gotten. I kid you not, the first review I received, which the honor goes to German Mickey for that, was within 20 minutes of my posting the chapter, that's dedication. And the next two, albeit short reviews were from Katie B 17 and a new reviewer MariaDezie, hugs everyone. Your probably wondering why I didn't post this chapter right after I got Maria's review, and that is for two reasons. The first, and most important is that I hadn't even written it yet. Honestly, with the traffic of reviews recently, I was expecting at least 3 days before I got all of them.

Chihiro: He was just too lazy to write it.

YF: Fine, you write the story, oh wait, you can't, because you're in the story, so be quiet.

Anyway, the second reason is that I wanted to give everyone a chance to cast their guesses for the fan fiction points. The only one to submit a 

guess is German Mickey, and no sorry, they aren't. I'll give you a hint, they are from an anime I have seen before. Ok that's not really helpful because otherwise how could I have based characters off of them, but while you are looking at what anime(s?) I have watched; why not check out the rest of my profile.

Minako: YuriFan5 doesn't own Spirited Away or any of Miyazaki's masterpieces, but he does own Giyatso and me. And since I own Mikotah-

Mikotah: Hey!

Minako:- therefore, he owns her as well, so don't steal us, ask permission, he's a nice guy, I'm sure he'll let you use us. If you do steal us, I'll

YF: Whoa Minako, had to use the dump button there, remember, we need to keep it rated T.

Minako: Oops, sorry.

Minako led them around the back of the temple and into the woods behind it, every once in a while she would stop and she would wave her staff. Even though they couldn't see anything, they could all tell that a barrier of some kind had been removed. At one point in their journey, Mikotah ran up to Minako and whispered "Are you ok, you look like you are breathing kinda heavy."

"I'm fine, or at least I will be once we get there, its difficult to move these barriers aside in this weak form."

"Alright, if you're sure." She walked back to take her place in the column.

"Oh I'm sure I'll be fine," she muttered to herself, "the question is whether or not I'll make it that far." She picked up her voice, calling out "Come on, we are nearly there."



At last they arrived at their destination, or at least, it was their destination according to Minako. Chihiro didn't see anything special. By appearances it was just a clearing with a cave at the other end. When Chihiro told Minako as much she laughed, "Behold, the limits of the human perception. Here, allow me to grant you, an… enlightened view." She walked over and placed her hand on Chihiro's shoulder. "Look at the cave again." She did as instructed, but when she looked at it, a chill ran up her spine. "I feel… so much power from it, how could I have missed it."

"That, is the place were you must go for the test."

"Well then, let's get this over with." said Haku. As they walked towards the cave, Minako and Mikotah stopped outside the entrance. Chihiro looked at it with a mix of reverence and fear. "Go on Chihiro." said Minako. Chihiro slowly walked in. When Haku tried to follow her in, Minako's staff arm snapped up, her staff holding him back. "This is a task for her alone. Only she can complete it." And just as fast she was 

back to her normal goofy self. "Well, let's go have that bento we brought, I'm beat." She called out as she skipped over to the tree line to sit in the shade.

A/N: OK everybody, you know the drill, reviews make me happy, especially long, heartfelt reviews. I will personally guarantee that the next chapter will be pivotal.