Where am I?

She glanced down at her slender hands, pinching her lips together. Something arose within her: a simple, seven-letter word. Chihiro. Then came another: Sen.

Another tense thirty seconds passed. Then a third name swam from her bottomless memory: Kohaku.

Chihiro. Kohaku. Sen.

With furrowed eyebrows she appraised the stark white walls. Approaching one, she slid her fingers over the empty space of what was supposed to be a firm, solid barrier. She stepped further, yet the whiteness encasing her seemed still out of reach. With a reluctant sigh she let her arm fall to her side.

"I see you have arrived, my dear."

Even the unexpectedness of a voice didn't dissuade her weird calmness. She turned around, pinched her lips into a smile, and – stared in jaw-slacked incredulity. She had seen that lady before; of that much she was certain. The sight of those heavy-lidded, twinkling eyes sent warmth spreading through her.

She knew that lady. She knew that white hair, tanned face, and bright blue eyes.

She knew that despite the lady's rigid posture and firm lips, she was a merciful, motherly soul.

She also didn't want to leave her.

"Where … am I …?" she began, faltering.

The lady cocked her head, sending tendrils of snowy hair cascading. "Why, don't you remember, my dear?"

She was tempted to blurt out "no" vehemently, but something within the lady's cinched expression made her pause.

"I remember … names."

"Names." The lady paused. "What names?"

She quoted them.

The lady looked thoughtful, lowering her head so that her white hair covered her sunburned visage.

"Three," she murmured. "Three is a lucky number."

"Remembering your name is also a lucky omen," the lady continued at the girl's perplexed look. "Once, the fact that you remembered your name – who you truly are – saved your and your parents' lives."

"But … I can't remember." Her voice wavered at the last syllable. "Who am I?"

The lady proceeded to circle the brunette.

"Notice that you do not ask who I am nor do you ask what this place is. You likewise do not ask how you ended up here nor do you question how come your hair is so light and airy and your skin so pearly.

"Didn't you notice, my dear, that despite the oddness of it all you feel quite at home here? Isn't that, simply put, odd?" She paused right before the pallid girl. "Tell me, what do you think this place is? How did you end up here?"

"I … I … I'm dead, aren't I?"

The lady nodded.

"And this is the afterlife."

"No. Not exactly."

"And are you a … a goddess?" It seemed all too befitting.

"I have many names. I have been known to all men, even though I have very few visitors. Some called me merciful; others called me cruel. Some called me a goddess, but I am neither."

"Then who are you?"

"Why, dear, you know the answer yourself. I'm Fate."

She blanched.

Fate? How could "fate" be motherly or merciful or kind?

It couldn't be; the world was too cruel.

"You're not," she croaked. "You can't be fate! Fate is -"

"The choice of men," interrupted Fate, "and the consequences of those choices. You're thinking destiny; I, Chihiro, am fate and I don't destine. Instead I watched every petty choice made from the beginning of time."

It showed, too. Not even the lady's beauty could hide the wrinkly eyes and the hair that was now so obviously white with age.

"You have the power to change that cruelty – not me," the lady pointed out. "You can be a kind correcter, so think thoroughly before you reply to this: Do you want to remain here, or do you want to go back to the land of the living?"

She gawked. "But you said you can't -"

"I can't interfere, yes," Fate relinquished. "But you have people in your life who love you very much. This question comes from them."

She flushed crimson. What a gift! What a privilege! But therein lied the most difficult choice. A part of her wanted to fling herself into Fate's sun-kissed arms, but another part pulled her in the opposite direction.

"Choose," Fate commanded. "That, by the way, was metal."

That honeyed voice fueled her daughterly desire to stay. Oh, but what was it that fluttered within her passionately, and why did that name "Kohaku" sent a piercing pain?

She parted her lips to reply.


A flurry of snow, a rush of breeze, a clap of lightning, and then – nothing.

He stared hard at the spot where she stood just a few minutes ago. He stared harder, some dull sense overtaking him. She wasn't there; she really wasn't there. Nothing. Just two halves of a yellow crystal.

As the ice encasing his body began to crack, he realized what that "dull sense" was. It was horror – mind-numbing, bone-chilling horror, the kind that permeated all defenses and broke even the coldest of hearts.

He moved; he was on his knees, shakily scooping up the shattered Yellow Gemstone. He looked around as if expecting to find the girl standing near him.

Instead he saw his mother. Her grief-stricken face multiplied his own agony.

"Oh, no, oh, no, no!" she croaked.

He saw out of his peripheral vision his army's tentative approach. He felt their astonishment, sensed their sizzling joy, but he knew that there wasn't a grief of ounce in them for the dead human girl. They didn't need to mourn, though; his own heart was grieving enough to make up for an entire army.

Warm wetness made its way down his cheeks.

He lowered his head. An unreleased sob hurt his throat.

"Go," a voice murmured.

He looked up. His Uncle Daisuke's ocean-blue eyes bore into his, intense with compassion.

"Go," he said again. "She may be alive."

He took off to the skies.


He saw her sinking form when he was still in the sky. Her peachy cheeks were leeched of color; bubbles of oxygen escaped her mouth; her eyes besought him.

His scales turned into skin mid-fall. His river parted before him, softening the fall, gently pushing the body into his arms as he embraced her. She was cold – too cold.

He pulled her out of the river and dropped her on the riverbank. He touched the side of her face and assessed her wrists. He pressed his fingertips to the pulse in her neck. Finally, he lowered his ear to his chest and listened to the silence.

His hopes ripped up when he looked into her eyes – really looked into them. He imagined the "alive" look in them. They were glassy and empty.

They would never fill up with tears, soften with warmth, or burn with love.

His hopes ripped up.

He let out an ear-splitting roar.

Spooked birds abandoned their nests in frantic flight.

He slumped over her body, sobbing.

He did not know how long he was there, drenching her cold chest with hot tears and begging dolorously for her to return. But he finally heard a gentle murmur.

"Let her go, young prince. Let her go."

He glanced up. The birds he wrongly scared earlier were now circling him. A dove alighted near her head, staring at him with a gaze much too intelligent.

"Let her go," the dove cooed kindly. "Let her rest in peace."

His bleary eyes locked with the dove's beady black ones. A minute later, the birds fluttered away in a cloud of white feathers into the rising sun.

The kind bird was right. It was the least he could give to his love. He lied down on the sprouting grass next to her and closed his eyes.


She opened her eyes. A look of terror was reflected within them. She was submerged in the memories, and her breathing came in short little gasps. But the sight of the vast blue sky was calming. It was a sharp contrast to the dreary, gray sky she remembered.

A sigh tickled her hair. Heart pounding, she slowly turned her head and looked at her love's angelic face. Big, blue bruises shaded his eyes. Cuts and scraps cut across each other. Despite that sigh, she shakily pressed her fingertips to his neck. His strong pulse seemed to be the only healthy thing about him.

"Haku! Oh, Haku!" she gasped.

He remained stoically still without as much as a flutter underneath his eyes. If it wasn't for the pulse she sensed, she would have been obligated to fear the worst.

"Oh, was I too late?" she whispered anyway. "Haku, wake up. Haku!"

This time she scooted a little closer to him, intertwining her fingers with his in that comfortable, friendly grasp she knew from childhood.

His icy green orbs were suddenly boring into her.

She laughed a nervous, semi-hysterical little laugh.

"Haku!"

"Chihiro," he gasped, mirroring her own breathless tone. "You're alive!"

Her smile of gratification lit up the riverbank. "As are you."

"How could you have done that – it killed you!" His tone was reprimanding, yet there was an undercurrent of awe.

"It was the only way."

"No!" he exclaimed. "No, dear, it wasn't; we had a plan whereas the villain would be transported into another parallel dimension. And you …"

"You were ice when I came," murmured Chihiro. "That – your plan wouldn't have succeeded. I just want you to know that I would do anything for you."

With trembling fingers he tucked her hair out of her eyes. "And I would do anything for you," he whispered, "because I love you, dear, more than life itself."

Then they sealed that vow with a beautiful kiss.

Years later, Chihiro will look back at that moment and realize that it was the turning point of her life. It was her decision to never, ever, ever let her heart break, to never let that feeling of fulfillment escape her, no matter what the price may be.

It would be a road of sunshine. At times it would blister and burn her, being so close to her sun. She knew that. But then there would be times the sun will bask her in gentle, life-giving warmth. After all, without that warmth, she couldn't live, and she wouldn't even if she had the choice.

Fin.


After amazing years of publishing this fan-fiction I have only words of gratitude to my readers. Thank you, all of you, for sticking around for so long and reading each chapter. This chapter is the last one for "Spirited Away II: Return to the Spirit Realm." I hope you all enjoyed Chihiro's second adventure!

I would like to ask all of you to do a simple thing: post a review, regardless how big, not just for this chapter alone but for the entire fan-fic. What were your favorite parts? How much did you like my story overall? How would you rate it on a scale of one to ten? I appreciate each and every one of your opinions.

I will be posting a one-shot from Chihiro's mother's point of view before the New Year, so keep a lookout for that to see how Chihiro's adventure concludes in more detail.

Happy New Year, and till next time!