Disclaimer: I do not own SpiritedAway.
"Small" note at the end of this chapter.
Chihiro hesitated as they reached the entrance to the worn red building, Lin darting right in without a second thought. Made sense, it was her home through there, but… Was this all really happening? I guess if this is all some kind of crazy dream, I'll wake up when I go through to this spirit world.
Taking a deep breath, she entered the building. Complete silence surrounded her, as if the outside didn't even exist. Chihiro slowly made her way to the other end where two large wooden doors sat, one open by a slight crack. Chihiro had been inside before, but this time seemed different. Not only that, but she had tried to open those doors before, and they would never budge.
A large crashing sound echoed from the entrance of the station, and Chihiro sprinted to the doors, slamming them closed once she did. A warm breeze fell on her back as she slowly turned around, gasping. This world didn't seem real at all, like she was in some hollywood studio with millions of dollars worth of effects.
Biting her lip nervously, she crossed the grass field, dotted with brightly coloured flowers. The air was fresher than she had ever smelled, even though she lived in a small town in the country. She made her way to a small fairground, one she knew very well from her paintings.
As she carefully climbed the steps, a voice shouted out, "Sen! About time!"
Chihiro jumped and turned her head to one of the buildings to see a woman grinning and walking over, "...Lin?"
Lin nodded, "Yup, that would be me. Oh wait, is Sen even your real name?"
Chihiro quickly shook her head, "No, it's Chihiro."
Lin nodded again, crossing her arms slightly as she made it to stand in front of Chihiro, "Right, even after all these years it's still confusing, since you know, pretty much everyone kept the names Yubaba gave them because that's the name they grew to know the most. Some never even remembered their real names."
Chihiro remained silent and Lin jumped a little after a moment, "Oh!" She pulled a piece of paper out of her pocket, "It was a little complicated to give this to you while I was a fox."
Taking it, Chihiro quickly scanned it over. It was from Haku, he said both her and the bathhouse were in danger, including everyone in it and involved with it. He apologized for taking away her memories and said he missed her. Chihiro wasn't entirely sure what to think.
Even without her memories, she felt hurt and anger build up in her chest. Haku had taken her memories away, yet said how much he missed her? Her thoughts were very much petty, but honestly, she was more than a little annoyed.
Did he think she was a complete idiot that would have refused to go home? Even if her paintings reflected those locked memories, even if she had loved the spirit world, she would have never abandoned her home. Was just talking in the real world every so often too much to ask from him?
Chihiro sighed and took another look at her surroundings, her brain still struggling to understand what was going on. It all looked surreal. Even the abandoned looking fairgrounds looked too beautiful to be real, especially with a huge field and bright green grass dotted in colourful flowers. She could hear Lin walking slowly across the stone ground away from her, but not saying anything. Chihiro could only assume it was to let her take it all in for a little while longer. Maybe she had thought too quickly earlier, everything about this place screamed home.
A breeze swept by and Chihiro thought she could hear faint joyous singing and welcomes from within it. She eventually forced herself to turn away from the field, away from the distant train station that would take her home, and follow Lin into the fairgrounds. She struggled to walk over the stone creek, Lin coming back to help her cross. The wound in her side was proving more troublesome than she had thought it would be. The fairgrounds were, but not eerily so. She couldn't explain it, and honestly didn't want to. The best way she could is, it was like the fairgrounds themselves were holding their breath, waiting for the moment she regained her memories and they could breathe again.
Chihiro began to be drawn by the smell of food, not having realized how hungry she had been. Lin noticed Chihiro having stopped to inspect the food and spun around, shouting, "Hey! We have better food at the bathhouse, hurry it up! It's going to be dark soon!"
Something else Chihiro had failed to notice, the sun sinking below the horizon. Lanterns at the entrance of the fairgrounds began to light up, buildings following suit. The creek they had crossed slowly expanded into a large lake, lights lighting up in a blur in the far distance. Some of the lights slowly started becoming clearer as they approached the fairgrounds. Chihiro was stunned still, watching the beautiful lights fill the sky, only snapping out of it when she felt Lin grab her and walk quickly towards the bridge leading towards the huge and beautiful bathhouse.
Chihiro jumped as she realized there were figures appearing and walking beside them, slowly gaining more solid forms as the sky darkened and the fairgrounds lightened. Chatter filled to previous quiet air, the louder voices obviously happy and excited. The fairgrounds had turned into a completely different place entirely, and Lin soon stopped at the bridge, huffing at being blocked from the amount of creatures going back and forth.
The creatures gave the pair odd and suspicious looks. It wasn't hard to guess that humans weren't normal, and were probably not even allowed to be there. Lin being there, however, seemed to keep the creatures at bay and not get too close, which even if this was a dream, caused Chihiro to sigh in relief.
Lin pulled Chihiro close, keeping Chihiro's wounded side out of harm's way. Chihiro let out a sigh of relief as she was willingly dragged across the bridge, Lin ignoring the creature's excited greetings. Chihiro couldn't help but grin and chuckle at how popular Lin was, she was the only one who could see the redness on the back of Lin's ears.
All of this seemed so familiar. It was like she was living in her paintings. All the same creatures. The same bridge, the same bathhouse that was looming over them, Lin. She felt herself start to get a headache, her mind was screaming at her that she needed to remember something, something was wrong and her remembering was the answer, but there was nothing to remember. Surely this was all a dream. Even with the pain, exhaustion, and hunger, dreams could be this realistic, couldn't they?
"Oi!" Lin stopped dead causing Chihiro to nearly slam into Lin's back. Chihiro peaked around Lin to see what the woman was looking at. A frog sat on one of the wooden cropping on the bridge fence that was supposed to be hosting a lantern, the lantern seemed to be missing. After a moment, Chihiro realized it had been the frog who had spoken, and she struggled quite visibly to not scream.
The frog narrowed its eyes at Chihiro and she flinched, causing Lin to smack the frog, making it almost fall off its perch, "Cut it out, Aogaeru." The frog, Aogaeru, huffed and leapt down from its perch.
"You know Yubaba gets pissed when people are late." Lin grabbed Chihiro's arm and followed Aogaeru, pushing through the crowds, hardly giving Chihiro anytime to have a good look around as they approached what seemed to be an elevator.
"Yubaba can deal with it. Sen needs food and rest first." Lin retorted, Aogaeru sighed and shook his head.
"Alright, don't come crying to me when you get into shit." Lin huffed and the frogs words and pulled a lever to open the elevator. Chihiro tensed up and squeaked when she saw what only could be described as a living radish standing at the back. The creature seemed just as surprised, before giving what the woman assumed was a greeting.
Lin dragged Chihiro into the elevator and pushed a button, looking like it was completely at random. Chihiro couldn't help but be drawn to looking at the floors they passed, looking through gaps in the elevator walls, which seemed to be made out of bamboo or wood, definitely not metal.
The bathhouse was full of activity, even louder than outside. At one point the radish creature stepped out and waved goodbye, before they finally reached their destination floor. Lin led Chihiro out into a dark hallway, paper walls on either side, some with faintly glowing light. Chihiro followed Lin for what seemed like forever before Lin stopped and opened up a door hidden in the paper walls, revealing a very soft looking tatami bed, along with a plate of food.
Lin smiled softly as Chihiro's eyes lit up, but before Chihiro could dive into the food, Lin stopped her, opening up another door to show a bathroom. Chihiro hardly noticed and sat down to eat as soon as Lin allowed her.
Hello everyone! First of all, I just want to thank everyone for all the support on this story. Second of all, I want to apologize for the wait on new chapter. I hit a hump in my life, as you do, and completely lost myself. I really hated where this story was going and so there will most likely be another delay as I rewrite (again) further chapters. So far, I don't love it in the least, but it's a lot more satisfactory and flows smoother so hopefully you guys appreciate the change (even though you probably won't notice lol.) Anyway, as I started doing that real life happened and it's been a long couple weeks. Nothing exciting and nothing involving the current world wide situation, so I won't bother you with details. Just wanted to apologize and thank ya'll once again for the support, and I hope you will continue supporting this story until its end. :)