It has been three years. Three years since I came back from the spirit world, three since I met Haku…since I lost him.
Most people in the town had forgotten about how my family and I disappeared 3 years ago for an entire year. My parents were still utterly befuddled at how they could enter a tunnel and come out only hours later to find a year had gone passed. Only I knew what had truly happened.
I hadn't even told anyone about it. It was not like I had any one to tell. I had no friends then but thanks to everyone forgetting I was able to make two really close friends, Emiko Hoshigawa and Hirotada Arikira. They both moved here after the incident so they weren't able to experience it first hand. And even though the other kids told them about it they were still my friends.
A bell rang, it ended the last class of the day. Emiko and Hiro walked over to me and stood and chattered on about nonsensical things while I put my things in my school bag.
"Chihiro? Chihiro? Are you listening to me?" Emiko waved her hand in front of my face as I stumbled out of my thoughts.
Wincing I looked up, "Sorry, what?"
"We were wondering if you wanted to hang out later," Hiro glanced over at Emiko and then back at me.
"You want to hang at my place?" I asked following them out of the classroom.
I had figured out long ago that Hiro had the biggest crush on Emiko a while ago. When I confronted him about it he threatened that if I told he would push me in the river after school. I had laughed at him, he was too nice so I knew he wouldn't be able to pull it off. Besides if he did Emiko would push him in after me and not talk to him for a week.
Both my parents were out when we walked into my house, my dad was probably still at work and my mom left a note saying that she went to the store the next town over to get a few things.
I grabbed some snacks out of the kitchen cupboard and we sat down in the living room to take part in some idle chit-chat.
Haku was animatedly talking about some new video game being released soon and how he had been saving for it.
Emiko and I kept giving him dirty looks but he wasn't paying attention.
All of a sudden we could hear loud crashing from the kitchen. Exchanging glances we jumped up to go check it out.
"Mom? Dad?" I called out warily.
Hiro walked in slowly first, he tried to act all big and scary but he was a wimp, Emiko was the one with the black belt.
Once Hiro deemed it clear we walked into the kitchen and looked around. A pile of broken dishes and pots and pans lay in a pile on the ground. We all looked around but couldn't find the source of the disturbance.
Suddenly, as we were heading out of the kitchen to look around the rest of the house an orange streak flashed out ahead of us. It was heading into the living room so we chased it there.
The bag of chips we were sharing was laying discarded on the floor and there were chips all over the floor, an orange cat sat on the living room table eating the chips.
"How did you get in here furry?"
Stepping forward to pet the cat it lashed out at me with it's claws.
I jumped back to avoid getting hit bumping into Emiko. She began to fall backwards but Hiro caught her before she hit her head on the floor. He pulled her back up.
"You stupid humans. Always calling us 'fuzzy'. I can't believe Haku asked for you." The cat started calmly licking it's paws.
Emiko and Hiro exchanged glances and started freaking out about the talking animal.
"Sorry, Cat-sama. I didn't mean to insult you."
The cat yawned and began to stretch out. "I suppose I can forgive you, after all you are friends with Haku besides if you don't you'll kick me out and it is going to rain later."
The cat curled up in a ball and seemed to fall asleep.
"Say Chihiro, why is there a talking cat in your house and who is this Haku it keeps talking about," Emiko asked wringing her hands.
"Oh cat-sama is a youkai, from the spirit world. Haku is my friend."
"Oh, that is nice."
"It is okay, I don't think that it is going to hurt anyone."
"Oh that makes me feel so much better," responded Hiro.
I rolled my eyes at him and turned back to the cat.
"Cat-sama? I am sorry to wake you but…I was wondering why you were here."
The cat woke up and looked over at me yawning, "Oh I almost forgot, Haku wants me to give you a message."
My heart started beating faster at the thought of possibly meeting Haku again.
"He says, 'Don't come looking for me, stay out of the spirit world, Chihiro.'"
"What do you mean? Why would I go looking for him?"
The cat looked over at my friends.
"It is okay, they won't say or do anything."
The cat nodded and stood up. "There is a war in the spirit world right now. Haku was leading a small invasion army to stop the god of wind, Fujin. Fujin seems to be hypnotized; he doesn't know what he is doing. They believe that someone is controlling him. Fujin kidnapped Haku. In three days Haku will be put to death."
My eyes widened at I slowly sat down on the floor in shock.
"What is the war about?" I could hear Hiro question the cat.
"The war is about a human. Three humans were illegally held in the spirit world, where no human is allowed to enter."
I could feel Emiko and Hiro's gazes turn to me as I started to freak out. This war was all my fault. Haku was going to be murdered and it was all my fault.
Emiko walked over to me and hugged me to her. "Chihiro, everything will be okay. I don't know what we are going to do about this yet, but…"
My breathing evened out as I started to realize what I was going to have to do.
"I don't know what 'we' are going to do but I know what I am going to do," I sniffed at I stood up drying my tears. "I am going to save Haku."
The cat watched me for a couple more seconds, "Do what you wish, Haku never asked me to try and stop you from going in to the spirit world. However, it might have been implied. Make sure when you head through the tunnel you do it just before sunset otherwise you won't be able to successfully go through. You could end up in a place between both the worlds."
I nodded and ran up to my room to change out of my school things. I pulled on a cute white top and a short pink skirt with shorts underneath. Hopping out of my room pulling on my socks I almost ran into Hiro and Emiko.
"Chihiro, you can't just leave. Last time this happened, you were gone for a year! What are we going to tell people when they come looking for you?"
"I don't know. Lie, tell the truth, it doesn't matter to me."
"This, Haku, is he really that important to you?"
"I love him, more than anything. Besides I have to go beat him up, he promised we would see each other again, and there he goes getting himself murdered. Stupid."
"Wait!" Emiko and Hiro yelled after me in unison.
"Emiko, Hiro, don't try and stop me."
"We aren't trying to stop you." Emiko said.
"We are going with you." Hiro responded after her.
I turned around rapidly and looked at them. Both of their faces were completely serious. Smiling I jumped at them hugging both of them tightly. "You guys are the best of friends."
"Yeah, we know." Hiro said laughing.
"You owe us Chihiro."
I nodded wiping the tears from my eyes and led them out of my house.
We stopped by both of their houses for them to change and then we went to the tunnel.
I lead them through the tunnel and across the familiar meadow. Once we got to the stairs on the other side of the river I turned and smiled at them, "Welcome to the spirit world."
It was dark; it smelled of blood, tears and urine. Pain radiated through my body as I tried to move. I could feel her. Chihiro was back in the spirit world, I told her not to come for me. Why did she come? I thought for sure she would have forgotten about me anyways. My long hair spilled over my shoulders as I tried to sit up. The pain became too much and I fell over passed out, "Chihiro…"