Chihiro was surprised to see two heavily injured spirits showing up at her doorway. Nushi was supporting Haku who was unconscious. She quickly stepped aside to let them enter.
"Who's at the door, darling?" Chihiro's mum voice came from the kitchen
"My friends! They're spirits and they are seriously injured! Can they stay and rest?" Chihiro replied, earning a surprised look from Nushi.
"Sure, let them rest on the sofa while we think of something" Her mum's reply came. Following her mum's order, Chihiro helped Nushi to lead the unconscious Haku onto the sofa and laid him down.
"Your mum knows about spirits?" Nushi asked
"Well, I told my parents about our trip to the Spirit World, thankfully they believed, they are the only ones who did." Chihiro would only learn later that this made no sense to one who had no idea about what had happened in the past. Luckily for her, Nushi had heard some part of the story. "Nushi, how did Haku get into this condition?" She turned to look at Nushi
"Long story" Nushi turned away as if something was bothering him "You can call me Shinano by the way, Nano Nushi was just a fake name"
"I see" Chihiro didn't ask anything about what happened. She was too worried about Haku to care about anything else. He was still wearing his school uniform, was that all he had? For a spirit to come to the World of The Living, he probably didn't have any casual clothes. Where was he living? There was no way he had a home here. Would he be okay?
"How's his condition?" Her mum came forward, Shinano glanced at her mum cautiously as if judging if she was on their side or not.
"I don't know, it looks like he's heavily injured" Chihiro didn't take her eyes off Haku
"Does he need a doctor?" It was her dad who came forward this time, Shinano was still on guard. To her parents, it only looked like a teenager sleeping while the other male had some red stains on his shirt. Well, at least her parents won't freak out, Chihiro really didn't feel like dealing with freaked out parents.
"Thank you for the offer, but Lord Kohaku will recover soon by himself" Shinano said, hearing Shinano say that, Chihiro felt so relieved. Then she thought of something, Shinano looked like he had been injured very badly too, how was he?
"How about you, Nu… I mean, Shinano? How are you doing?" Chihiro looked up again
"I got a few broken ribs but they will heal soon" Shinano said with his poker face as if it didn't hurt at all. Chihiro nodded and said no more. Somewhere in the distance, Chihiro heard her parents were offering to help Shinano wash his blood-stained clothes and give him some casual clothes. How did it turn out? Did Shinano accept or reject the offer? Chihiro didn't know nor care. What she did knew was that she was soon alone.
Chihiro took Haku's hand and held it in her smaller ones. She held it tight and stare blankly at Haku's face. It was just like seven years ago, Haku being heavily injured and Chihiro looked after him. In the past, Chihiro had went to Zeniba to seek for help, which turned out unnecessary by the way, but this time, how was she supposed to help? She didn't even know the cause. All she could do was sit beside Haku and blink back her tears, feeling scared and lonely. She had finally met the man in her dreams, would she have to lose him in the very same day?
In the end, Chihiro failed to keep her tears back.