I do not own Spirited Away, the original characters and this plotline belong to me.

Chapter 13

The train tracks weren't entirely deserted. There were many spirits walking them, they all seemed lost some of them even appearing hollow. Chihiro could hardly stand to watch it. Raz had demanded she stay behind them as much as she could, but she kept trying to look at them and trying to talk to them. Some of them no longer remembered who, or what they were.

She was wringing at her hair and biting her lip when they stopped to rest at one of the old bus stations. "This is all my fault..." she hung her head low, "If I'd just stayed here that first time rather than try and go back to..." she looked up at Raz, some of the details about her previous visit had been coming back after seeing Zaniba as well but they were still fuzzy to the new spirit.

"The human world." The shaman kindly supplied but continued before she could speak again, "Chihiro you weren't ready then, the previous spirit said so himself, and that's why he didn't show himself to you that first time."

Chihiro blinked, "Really? I don't remember him saying that."

Razmillian sighed, he leaned forward and tapped her in the forehead, "I wish that spirit would of made it so events were complete when you got back some of your memory instead of pieces of it."

Indignant Chihiro sat up straight, "But I do remember more, I remember who Haku is, but the feelings that you say I have for him aren't connected to the memories I have of him."

Seriyu broke into the conversation. "What do you remember of Kuhaku?"

"Who?"

Sighing the dragon lord shook his head, "Kuhaku is the true name of Haku. What do you remember of your dragon?"

She smiled, "I remember he saved me when I was little." She let go of her hair and her hands fell into her lap, "I remember falling into the river and he came up below me and brought me back to the shore, my life has had a lot of interventions with the spirits hasn't it." She wasn't questioning it but stating it. "I guess I am special to this place."

There was a round of nods from all present, Raz spoke up, "Don't worry Chihiro, you'll be able to fix everything, once you remember though."

Again she started pulling and fiddling with her hair, "I wish I could do it now..."

Sylph flitted down from what looked to once have been a light post, "But if Chihiro uses her great magic without knowing what will happen then perhaps things will go badly? Sylph wouldn't want to see Chihiro any sadder if she did something to damage the worlds without knowing."

The group was silent for a moment, none of them had considered that there could be ill consequences to Chihiro using her powers. They all were wondering the same thing if the last two times had done something drastic to all the worlds connected to the spirit world. Chihiro slowly pulled her knees up to her chest and gave a slight whimper. She'd resumed biting her lip and was starting to taste blood. What if she'd damaged the other worlds while trying to fix her own? "Alright," She suddenly stood, the others did as a reaction to her movement, "I'm not going to use my magic again until we're sure I'm not going to do damage to the other worlds."

Mizuki was sitting on a large crate pouting. She couldn't believe that Haku would make her wait after journeying from his fortress to the bathhouse ruins. She looked longingly down at the trickle of water only feet away, her skin felt dry and brittle. Water nymphs weren't meant to fly, she just wanted to dip her feet into the cool water for some reprieve but Haku had told her to remain there until he came back. She sneered a bit, crossing her arms, hunching her shoulders, and pulling her feet up onto the crate with her.

She watched Haku walking among his troops and giving them orders, apparently Kuhaku was trying to repair the shops and other buildings in the area, almost like he was encouraging the spirits to return to their places of business. She had to roll her eyes at this prospect, was he trying to make this part of his kingdom or make it a hovel that it was before.

"Mizuki," he called, she immediately jumped to her feet with a smile and ran to his side. "What brought you here?"

She put on a pout and leaned on his arm. "Didn't you miss my company?" He did his best to shake off her attempt to hold onto him, she stood with a hand on her hip, "your little wind spirit never came back, and some of the other spirits are starting to rumor about what's making all these things change." Haku waited, "They say its your Chihiro's replacement." She said softly and looking away casually. "A spirit of the spirit world brought here by another to try and make everything better."

He scoffed, "The line was broken, she died, that power cannot simply be willed onto another human. We're left to fend for ourselves." He started to walk away, "Go back to the fortress, quell the rumors, and send someone we can spare after Wren and the sylph."

"Aren't you returning?" She asked coyly. Haku shook his head in response and walked away. Annoyed the spirit stomped to to the waters edge and put her feet into it, she sighed and let it soak up her being. She let her form fall into the water and used the current to travel quicker back to the fortress, it was more difficult to fight a current than go with it. Mizuki pulled herself from the water a short walk from the fortress. She sighed heavily looking at the building of stone and river. She would put her lord's mind to rest, then she would have him with her always, she only had to call in a few favors for just the right being to find both of the spirits.

K, so several times I've almost submitted this thing without changing the chapter names cause I through in the prologue so the normal chapter numbers are off by one... So you lucky people you, you get two chapters in one update. Woot!

Chapter 14

Wren reclined against the side of the almost-not-there border dragon. It was sleeping peacefully and looked to be a very large mound of dirt. Apparently what ever had happened to them when they slept they became almost part of the surrounding area, Wren was glad they were in Swamp Bottom and the dragon doing a wonderful impression of a dirt pile wouldn't look odd. He took a long drink from his water sack and sighed. He patted the border dragon's side, "Whoever did this to you my friend, definitely knew how to make you better." The beast gave a half a grumble in his sleep and shifted a bit. "I hope things are well with, well, you know who I mean," He looked at the bone skull, "Bah, but she'd call if she needed help." He closed his eyes to rest for a few hours.

It was then he noticed the silence. It wasn't the silence of the woods, it was the silence brought only by a predator sensed by the weaker in the woods. He remained motionless, his hands behind his head but he tapped the dragon's side twice. The beast's eyes opened but he remained motionless the eyes darting around in the gloom.

The air was cut by the sound of an arrow sinking into the ground just below his thigh. The second after it struck he was on the back of his dragon as it jumped into the overhead trees and vanished. "Come on," he yelled, "A warning shot, who does that anymore?"

"I don't give warning shots," The voice replied, "Your trespassing soldier, and I don't want anything to do with this damn war."

There was a moments silence. "Lin?"

Another silence, "Who are you?"

He sighed heavily, "That's right, you moved int Zaniba's house." He tapped the dragon's side again, slowly the border dragon climbed down from the trees. Lin came down from the from her hiding place, her hair was cut short and pulled up with clips across the back of her head, she was in a dark green hakuma and pants. "It really has been way too long Lin."

She frowned and looked him over a few times, "I don't think I know you." She pulled back another arrow on her bow, "Who are you?"

He scratched the back of his head, "Lessee... well... I'm Yubaba's son."

Lin froze. "Boh!"

Chihiro splashed in one of the puddles along side the tracks getting Black Serpent wet. His tongue flicked out in distast, "Pleassse refrain from that." The mist that hung around Chihiro dipped down at the puddle and seemed to collect fresh droplets before returning to their original positions.

"I'm sorry that I can't change you into a human form yet, Black." She said down to the serpent, "I'm sure you'd rather like walking."

The snake sighed. "I misss walking very much. Trapped as a sssstatue for decadesss makess you long for such thingsss." He noticed Chihiro was still looking at him. "Iss there ssomething elsse?"

"Why do you have two colors of eyes?"

"One isss mine, the other iss Niruu'ss." He stated.

"If you close your eye can you see what this Niruu is seeing with her eye?" She asked innocently.

The snake wondered if he should really try and reply. To his great thanks Raz interrupted. "According to what Zaniba said Niruu has been mostly basing herself near the East Gate. There's a little inn there apparently. If we keep at this pace we should be there in the next few days."

"Why don't we fly on Seryiu?" The girl questioned, "It would be a lot faster wouldn't it? If he stayed down low near the tracks then we'd be alright wouldn't we?"

"I find that the answer is that I don't give rides unless it is an emergency." The dragon lord stated, "I'm not sure how happy Byakko will be if I approach his territory unannounced. As I've heard, another is gathering an army to the south of his city. Unfortunately they recruit through press gangs if I remember what he said last we were in contact."

"We just have to lay very, very low." He looked over at Chihiro, her hair had been turning whiter everyday since they'd been looking for her memories, and her skin, while no longer the deathly pale it had looked when he'd first found her was still a very noticeable shade, "We're gonna need to fix a few things."