A/N: Yay, another chapter, relatively short though it is. I have this thing about not forcing myself to write when I don't want to, I have to be in the mood, so that's why it takes a while for me to update. Sorry ^_^

Disclaimer: Someday, over the rainbooooooooow, I'll own Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushiiiiii…

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"Chihiiiroooooo…"

The girl being addressed frowned at being woken up and snuggled farther under her covers. "Juss' five more minutes," she mumbled, already asleep once more. She was just sinking back into the land of dreams when coldness washed over her. Chihiro sat up, cracking her eyes open to see that Rin stood at the foot of her sleeping mat with her blankets in one hand.

"I come bearing an offering of food, O Mighty Goddess of Sleep." Rin extended her other hand, which held a bowl.

Chihiro stuck her tongue out at the spirit, and, ignoring all the other women in the room who were putting their sleeping gear away, and flopped back down onto her mat, bemoaning her lack of blankets in her head. An agitated clicking made her sit up quickly once more. The little white kodama, looking a tad bit squashed, clicked again and jumped up onto her shoulder.

Rin dropped Chihiro's blanket and waved the bowl of food in front of Chihiro's nose. "Come on, you little dope, get up! Time to go to work. The way you were sleeping, I half expected you to be in bed until next year."

"Sorry, I was tired."

"No problems, you eat and I'll put your stuff away."

"Thanks Rin," Chihiro managed to say while yawning. She ate and the two went downstairs. The preliminary cleaning was easy, and they finished quickly. But when all the customers began flooding in- and flood in they did, in numbers the likes of which Chihiro couldn't ever remember having seen- the human girl began to feel curious.

"Does it look… busier to you?" inquired Chihiro, trying to wind her way through throngs of spirits, shoving and ducking as necessary.

"M-hmm. More spirits are probably here because of the procession that came through last night." Rin pulled Chihiro aside as a particularly large burst of spirits went past.

The single busiest night of Chihiro's life ensued. She, quite literally, had almost no time whatsoever to breathe, much less to rest for a moment. Chihiro was on her feet all night, running all over Aburaya. Her gym teacher would have been proud, she mused once as she was hurtling down polished hallways and jumping over stacks of towels and pillows. She hadn't run this much, or this quickly, for a long time.

By the time that she dropped down into bed, she was completely exhausted. The very instant that she lowered herself, rather painfully, onto her sleeping mat, she fell into a deep, comforting sleep.

Everything was dark, a deep, pitch black that for some reason scared her very much. Emotion, raw, pure, thick emotion, washed over her until her psyche was engulfed in it and she knew nothing else.

Hate. That was the first thing that she felt; hate that threatened to crush her heart and soul: hate against humans, hate against the spirits, hate against everything that lived.

And triumph. At what, she did not know. But she felt that something was clicking into place, that the plans long awaited of others were coming to fruition.

Laughter. Not so much a sound, but a feeling that blocked everything else out. Even though it was not a tangible noise, the impression it left on her consciousness was just as strong, if not stronger.

It sent a chill of horror and dread throughout her. She tried to do something, anything, to block out the feeling, which only gained substance as the emotions made her imagination run mad.

She tried to raise her hands, tried to grip at the sides of her head and screw her eyes shut to block everything out, to try and make the darkness dissipate. But she had no corporeal body with which to do so- no matter how hard she tried, no matter how much her inner self screamed for release, to be away from all the malevolence that surrounded her, she was nothing but a powerless anima lost in the sea of shadows.

Chihiro awoke in a cold sweat, eyes shooting open. It took her a moment to focus on the ceiling above her. For a wildly panicked moment, she thought that there was no light, that she was back in the blackness of her dream. But there was bright sunlight behind the rice paper doors that blocked entrance to the balcony.

The dream… when she thought about it, panic coursed through her blood anew. But as always happened with the dreams that she wished to remember, everything was fading away, leaving only the memory of the darkness in her mind.

She drew a shuddering breath and decided, as exhausted and desiring sleep as she was, to get up and go outside. Silently, she stood up and wound her way to the door, praying that she didn't step on anyone. Luckily, she made it to the balcony without incident and put her outer shirt on.

For some reason, Chihiro decided that, while the balcony most certainly gave her a pretty view of the light illuminating the railroad, she wanted to be out in some direct sunlight. Ignoring the fact that she had left her shoes inside the room, she set off, winding her way down all the sets of stairs and out of the front door.

It was creepy to be up and about in Aburaya while no one else was there; the bathhouse was normally so full of workers and the spirits that came to refresh themselves that there was always noise and people. Being alone in the wide wooden halls, as beautiful as they were, especially with the last remnants of her nightmare hanging over her head discomforted Chihiro in ways that she could not explain.

The warm air outside the bathhouse helped calm her. Looking at the sun, she realized that it was just barely at its zenith- she had hours with which to wander around. She would get no more sleep this day.

She crossed the bridge, feet sounding lightly on the wooden planks, and moved on into the city. The restaurants were empty, devoid of any sign that they were full of spirits during the time that the sun did not shine. Idly rubbing her left foot on her right leg to rid her sole of a dirt clod that seemed intent on annoying her, she meandered slowly through the brightly painted, if not faded a bit, town.

After some time walking, the restaurants suddenly stopped. A very confused Chihiro found herself facing another flight of stone stairs- those she remembered to have been partly covered in water- and a lush, green meadow that she was positive hadn't been there before.

But memory suddenly flashed. When she had entered the spirit world, she had crossed a number of hills covered with grass just before the sun had set. But after the sun had sunk below the horizon, was it not all covered with water? That was, after all, how many of the spirits got to Aburaya, on a boat. The spirit world had so many things that Chihiro would never even had dreamed. It most likely flooded at night, Chihiro decided.

She walked down the stairway and crossed a small brook of rocks, hopping from one to the next until she was able to sink her feet gratefully into the cool grass. She happily climbed up a hill and paused at the top, catching her breath; the view was stunning.

The human girl flopped down onto her back in the grass and shut her eyes in contentment. The sun helped dispel the last of the fear from her nightmare. The dream, in fact, seemed quite a long way away as she lay there, outside the town, basking in the sunlight that she hardly ever saw, much less was out in.

She lay there for a few minutes, completely undisturbed. But then, just as she was drifting off to sleep once more, there was a sudden stirring of the breeze near her and a shadow blocked the sun from bathing her face.

Chihiro opened her eyes to see none other than Haku.