(A/N: All I have to say is... ENJOY!)

Disclaimer: I do not own Spirited Away.

"Promise"

By: Arlina'Harris

Chapter 10

"Granny," I said, looking out the window. "I want to ask you something."

"Anything, dear," Yubaba's twin sister said without looking up from her knitting. "But you should come over here with me. He won't be back until tomorrow. He told you that."

I stood from my window seat and walked over beside her. Kohaku had left me on his way to his river yesterday. There were things he had to do now that he was the only God with claims to it. Why I couldn't go with him remained a mystery to me.

"Nevermind," I said quickly.

"No, no. You can ask me anything, and I will answer you truthfully."

"Don't worry about it, Granny. It was nothing."

Sitting down beside Granny Zeniba, I picked up a pair of extra knitting needles, and Granny asked if I wanted to learn. It probably would have been neat to learn, but I wasn't in the mood. I was too torn between what to do next. I wanted to go back to speak with Minori again. She hadn't had time to tell me everything. But then I remembered Boh and his bathhouse. Something told me I wasn't finished there.

"Granny, I changed my mind."

"Well, then, what is it, dear?"

"Boh - he took your powers, right? And his mother's too?"

Granny Zeniba stopped knitting and looked up at me at once. She was stunned. "Yes, Chihiro, he did."

"Well, why did he do it? Why is he doing what he's doing? I know he wants power, but why? There has to be a reason. I mean, Boh's not really evil. He couldn't be."

"We may never know his reasoning, and that is something that we will both have to live with," she told me after thinking if over for a moment.

I nodded in response, and another question came to mind. "When Kohaku gets back, he'll probably take me somewhere 'safe,' won't he?"

Granny didn't answer me but went back to her knitting.

"I figured as much," I whispered as I stood. "I think I should go then."

I headed out the door, ignoring Granny Zeniba's questions. She didn't have the power to stop me any more. But she'd have it back soon. Someone had to confront Boh, but the way I was now, I'd just get myself captured. Minori, my mother, would know what I needed to do.

I combed my fingers through my wet hair as I sat down on the train. The trains ran only one way, and I had no way of knowing if I was headed in the right direction. But what else could I do? I wasn't a dragon.

The walk through the woods had been tiring enough, and as soon as I reached the train station, it started to rain. I stood there for hours until the train showed up just after dusk. I didn't have a ticket, so I didn't board as I normally would have. Kohaku would scold me for it later, but I jumped onto the rear of the train just as it started speeding up again. Honestly, I almost died. But hey, I'm okay. It was fine. Even if I almost froze to death waiting on the back of the train for the Shadow to finish up and peek into the empty train car and leave. As soon as he slid the door up front closed, I dashed in from the back and sunk into the nearest seat.

Pulling my knees up to chin, I wrapped my shivering arms around my legs and tried to keep what warmth I had left in. Kohaku wasn't supposed to return to Granny's house until tomorrow afternoon or so Granny had said. He wasn't going to be happy. But he probably already knew. I guess whatever he had to do was more pressing than me taking a train ride. I sighed and wished that I could do whatever I wanted without having to worry about him getting beside himself or coming to stop me. I might as well have been back in the human world where Mom would be lecturing me on the importance of going into the medical field.

That was the reason I was going back to see Minori again - to tell her that I had made up my mind, to get the power that I needed. I wasn't going to be the kind of person who let everyone else make decisions for me or take care of me. I was going to take care of myself.

The train screeched to a halt suddenly after only a few minutes. I looked out the window at a small train station in front of what looked like a small village of Shadows. The Shadows slinked around in the rain outside of the largest building. It was strange, how they looked. They were called Shadows, and they looked like just that - human shadows sprung up from the ground, walking around. To me, they had no distinctive appearance. To them, they looked human just like me, and they weren't dead. To them, they were still living.

The door to my train car slid open, but I didn't look up. It closed again a moment later. That's when I looked up. There wasn't anyone in there with me, so I wondered if it was just my imagination.

I shrugged it off. There wasn't any point in dwelling on it. I sat on the train for a long time wondering when it would be leaving again when the lights shut off. Jumping up, I ran to the front of the car and peered through the windows. I didn't see anyone and the door wouldn't open. Then I tried the back door that I'd came in before. It wasn't easy, but with some effort I was back out in the drizzling rain where the train had stopped for the night.

The village beside me was completely quiet. There a few lights on in some windows, but they started flickering off soon. Bed time... I hopped over to the slippery platform and managed to keep from sliding everywhere. Now what?

I was sure that I was nowhere near the city. It was on top of a mountain, and I was stuck in the middle of nowhere. I started down the long platform that ended up being as long as the train itself only to see that there were no tracks in front of it at all. This was the last stop. And since it didn't run back the other way any more, I wondered how it would get back around if the tracks stopped.

After a moment, I started walking through the tiny village. I couldn't see much because of the darkness, but my eyes adjusted enough to make a path when I reached the edge of the village. It headed in the direction the train had been travelling, so I thought that maybe it would take me to the mountain where the city was. Scaling the mountain? I would worry about that when I got there.

I walked for hours and just hoped that the sun would come up soon. I didn't like the dark very much. Eventually, I tired out and slumped against the base of a tree beside the road.

And before I realized it, I was jerking awake to the sun shimmering across a lake that I hadn't realized was there. It was still low in the sky, still morning, and I pushed myself to my feet to continue walking. Back on the road, I looked into the distance in front of me. A huge mountain stood before me. It wasn't close by, but it wasn't as far as I thought it was.

"Getting to the top isn't going to be fun," I whispered to myself.

"No, but it will be a lot easier with my help."

I looked above to see the messenger that had come for Kohaku before.

"Her Majesty has requested that you return to her immediately. She was not finished with you as of yet. Much to my dismay, I must offer to carry you, Lady Chihiro."

The messenger sneered every word he spoke, and his glare made me nervous. Carry me? What, was he going to carry me to the top of the mountain then drop me by "accident"? That seemed most likely.

Still, he was my only option because I didn't pack for mountain climbing.

The messenger flew me to the top of the mountain, over the gates where we had stopped before, through the city, and onto a balcony on the side of the palace. As soon as my feet hit the marble floors, the messenger was gone. "He really doesn't like me," I said.

"Of course not, Chihiro. No one here likes a human."

Minori stood in front of me. I could see her easily through the flowing sheer curtains across the balcony. She beckoned me inside.

"I've decided that I want to stay here," I told her as I walked inside. "There are some things that I feel like I should do though."

"Yes, yes. The moment you decided, I knew. You should have realized. I also know what it is that you will do."

"Okay, so how does this work?"

Minori laughed and took my hand. She led me out into another of those endless hallways and into a room with a very large dining table."For now, we must converse."

The king sat at the head of the table. "I see the resemblance to you, my wife, that I hadn't seen before you informed me of her true existance," the king said in a very tired voice. "Takehiko and she would have been splendid together... It is a shame that she would cause the death of her own brother."

"That sentence made no sense," I blurted. "Takehiko is my brother, but we would have been good together? That's just wrong."

"Not in this world, it isn't," Minori told me soflty. "Actually, you were born to take my place. That means more than a strong connection with Fate. That means that you are to be Queen. Your brother was to replace the king. But now he is no longer. Had he survived, he would have been your husband. But you would have been most unhappy. I chose your happiness over his life in my advice to you. But I knew that whoever defeated him would take his powers and his place. My husband could step down and fade into a peaceful abyss, and my child would be happy."

Althought what I was hearing now should have been obvious because of the conversation we'd had before, it was still shocking. Coming back didn't seem like the best idea anymore. I didn't sign up to be a queen.

Minori guided me to sit beside her on the left of the king.

"I can't be a queen. I just can't."

The king laughed. "Child, what you cannot do is refuse."

"Well, then I can't be the queen just yet. I just need my powers awakened like you said, Minori."

"You will not recieve your powers until it is time for you to take my place. You will stay the way that you are until then."

I sighed. "Then, I guess I'll be back when I'm done with everything then. How can I leave? And can Kohaku not know about all of this?"

"About who you are, he will not know until he is told. However, he knows well what will be expected of him since defeating the prince."

I nodded.

"You can leave," Minori continued. "and return as you wish using these."

She held up a small bowl of glowing green orbs. "Throw them onto the ground and think of a place that you want to go to. The pearls will break, and the mist will take you there."

"What are they?" I asked her, taking the bowl from her.

"These are Yuuko's Pearls."

Three tiny pearls sat the bowl. I tookt them out of the bowl and shoved two of them in my pocket, leaving the other in my hand.

I stood up and told them that I'd be leaving. They didn't say anything else. Instead they watched my throw the pearl onto the ground and a thin mist slowly surround me.

(A/N: Can you guys please message me a better summary for this story so far. I feel like quiting this story. It's barely going anywhere and doesn't make sense. I'll be posting more chapters like tomorrow!)