I'M ALIVE!!!!!

Why did this take so long?  I'll let you read the chapter first.  Another long one to make it up to all of you ;).  Long rant at the end.

Disclaimer: Spirited Away = not mine.  Spirited Away = never mine.  You sue = you get rabbit that is currently undergoing its every-three-months crazy shedding period because he's all I've got.  And some empty Pocky boxes.  Money?  What money?

Warning: The following chapter may be a little....er, violent.  Injury-wise.  I don't think it's enough to raise the rating because there aren't many details, but that's just my opinion...so don't say I didn't warn you ^_^;;

Never Forget

Chapter 5: Blood

by Nereix

Chihiro dropped her school case on a chair and fell backwards onto her bed, a happy sigh escaping her lips.  Her face felt as if it would split in half, she had been smiling so hard the entire afternoon.  She squeezed her eyes shut and bit her lower lip, unable to hold back an excited squeal.

            He had looked so adorable.  His face was showing a hint of a blush, and his eyes didn't seem to want to meet hers.  He had looked down at his shoes, scuffing at the sidewalk; bit his lip; and then he had squeezed his eyes shut, turned bright red, and blurted out:

            If you're not busy, do you want to do something this Sunday?

            Chihiro suppressed another joyful squeak.  Turning on her side, she gazed at the far wall of her room.  I'm okay with it, she realized.  It's really okay if he doesn't remember.  It doesn't seem so important now.  Because...when I'm together with him, no matter where or what, he still gives me the feeling that everything will turn out all right...

            Even her large load of homework didn't get her down.  That night, she fell asleep with a dreamy smile.

                                                            =====================

Zeniiba's lined face, illuminated by the glow of her scrying crystal, was smugly satisfied.  Not only had she finally gotten them to meet, but the two were getting along better than well.  Apparently, even Yubaaba couldn't tamper with genuine attraction.

            The reflection of Chihiro, sound asleep in her bed, flickered.  Zeniiba's smile faltered, just a bit, before she reinforced her connection channel with an extra layer of magic.  The image stilled, wavered, blurred into a dark blue smudge, and blinked out.  Before her eyes, the entire clouded orb cracked down the middle and shattered into pieces, fragments of the crystal scattering around her table and splashing into her tea.  It was then that Zeniiba's usually placid temper reared its ugly side.

            "Oh, no," she muttered.  "She did not just do that."  She was well aware that Yubaaba considered the entire thing a game.  Fooling with the magic motes, interfering with the connection channel—they were all strains of their never-ending rivalry for the upper hand over the other.  But this was taking it much too far.  Zeniiba peered into her teacup.  The contents were saturated with magic dust.  What a waste!

            She stood up abruptly.  "Kaonashi-kun, can you look after the place while I'm gone?"

            The faceless creature looked up from where he was spinning thread.  "Uh, uh?"

            Zeniiba's mouth was set in a grim, determined line.  "To see my sister."

                                                            =====================

"I'm sorry!  Were you waiting long?"

            Kohaku turned around, his face lighting up at the sight of the girl behind him.  "No, not at all!"  In truth, due to a sudden anxiety attack in the early hours of the morning, he had reached their meeting place well over twenty minutes early and had been waiting for nearly half and hour.  But seeing her, brown hair pulled back into her usual ponytail, simple pastel t-shirt bringing out the color in her cheeks—and he felt that he could wait years and not complain a word.

            He still couldn't really believe that she'd said yes.

            Ever since that day in the dance studio, they would keep bumping into each other everywhere.  They'd see each other in the halls, or run into each other at the grocery store—and every time, just talking to her and being around her felt so natural, as if they'd known each other for years.  And she'd smile—and his heart would skip a beat, and his breath would catch.

            Kohaku had never considered himself a romantic, but if love at first sight existed, he was pretty sure that it would have felt something like his past week.

            He gestured behind him.  "The movie's starting in ten minutes.  Shall we go?"

            "Un!"

            Her smile again.  As they entered the theater, Kohaku was very aware that he was grinning foolishly, and also very aware that he didn't mind a bit.

                                                            =====================

Yubaaba flicked her eyes up from her papers to see her own face glaring at her.  "I'm supposing that I know what this visit is about?"

            Zeniiba's eyes narrowed.  "...You aren't obstinate enough for that to have been over the loss of one apprentice."

            Yubaaba chose to stay silent, regarding her with calculating eyes.

                                                            =====================

Chihiro blinked at the sudden transition from dark to bright.  She rubbed her eyes, trying to get accustomed to the brilliance of the wide hallway outside the theater.  Next to her, Kohaku stretched and linked his fingers together to rest behind his head.  He smiled down at her.  "Liked the movie?"

            "Un!  It was a lot more different from the manga than I had expected."

            "Yeah, the manga really went much further into it.  I still prefer that, even with the black-and-white pages..."

            "The music was beautiful though," said Chihiro softly.  "And the artwork was wonderful!  The details in the cave, and the colors!  The movie itself is very old, right?"

            Kohaku nodded.  "Aa.  I was surprised you hadn't seen it yet.  We're lucky they decided to bring it out to the theaters for today."

            Chihiro laughed.  "Nothing like Miyazaki's work on a giant screen, ne..."  She was interrupted by the sound of a stomach growling.

            Kohaku turned red.  "Uh...feel like lunch?"

            She gave him a bright smile.  "I'm starving!"

                                                            =====================

            Yubaaba whirled around, fixing a fierce gaze on her twin.  The flames of the fireplace behind her cast harsh shadows on her face, turning even the gentlest wrinkles into heavy, sinister creases.  "You really don't see it, do you?" she accused from behind clenched teeth.

            "See what?"

            Yubaaba's expression was torn between a grimace and a smirk.  "What a surprise.  You really haven't noticed it at all.  And here I thought you were just acting stupid..."

            A soft growl rose in Zeniiba's throat.  Once again, the only person who could really irritate her was her own sister.

            Yubaaba stopped baiting her.  "There's a power rising up on the human side of reality," she explained in a business-like tone, flicking a heavily-ringed finger at the door to lock it.  "I don't know exactly what it is, but I've kept it dormant for a while, and recently it's started to wake up again."  She fished out a cigarette out of her desk drawer.

            "Recently," Zeniiba repeated.

            Yubaaba shot her a sudden, hate-laden glare.  "Yes, recently," she almost snarled.  "Approximately two hours.  A week in the human world."

            Something in Zeniiba's mind clicked.

            "That power," Yubaaba gritted out, "is about to tear apart the balances within the barrier.  The relationship between the human and the spirit worlds is going to crumble out of order.  And"—her voice became coldly furious—"those two are right in the middle of it."

                                                            =====================

"There it is," said Kohaku, pointing across the vehicle-filled street to a small sushi restaurant.  He glanced at the end of the block, where the light had just turned red.  "It's okay, we can go."

            The cars were immobile, stuck in slow-moving traffic.  As they weaved through them, Kohaku realized that the back pocket of his jeans was curiously light and turned around, scanning the ground.  "You go ahead, I dropped my wallet..."

            "Be careful!" Chihiro called after him.

                                                            =====================

Yubaaba seemed to have calmed down, sitting at her desk and lighting her cigarette.  She took a long drag and slowly exhaled, the wispy smoke curling around her face.  "Fortunately," she said coolly, "I've set up something to take care of it."

            Zeniiba's eyes drifted to Yubaaba's crystal ball, sitting innocently on the desk, and widened in horrified realization.

                                                            =====================

Things happened too quickly for Kohaku to make much sense of it.

            He had bent down to reach for his wallet.  Then the earsplitting screech of a nearby vehicle nearly deafened him.  As his head jerked up, eyes wide, and saw the solid front of a truck bearing down at him, he tried to scramble out of the way—but there was another car in back of him, and he was in an unprepared position, and the truck was moving too fast—and it was already too late.

            Cold iron wrapped itself around Chihiro's heart and squeezed.

            The truck moved backwards.  Kohaku collapsed.

            And she was by his side and on her knees, crying his name, clutching at his clothing, cradling his face.  His face was so pale.  His hands were so cold.  Tears and shock were half-blinding her.

            Spreading out, bleeding into the ground, soaking into her jeans: crimson.

            There was blood on her hands.

            No.  No—

            Her vision shifted.  Bare arms were replaced with soft coral-hued material.  Rough, dark lines of black-red on her palm.  And fear...fear...

            Blood: on her hands, on his ashen face; staining his lips, outlining a scarlet arc to his chin.  His shirt was soaked with it.  And visible through numerous rips in the cloth, his chest—his chest was—

            Her pupils contracted in terror.

            No.

            Oh, god, no.  No.  Don't do this to me...She couldn't find a pulse.  No.  No...

            A twisted, choked animal sound.  It took Chihiro a while to realize that it was coming from her own throat.  Her cheeks were wet with tears.

            In the distance, the blaring siren of an ambulance.  Hands were tugging at her, trying to pull her away from him.  But she couldn't leave, he'd die, he'd die—his eyes were so empty—was she screaming?  She couldn't tell.  Oh, god, Kohaku, wake up.  Wake up.  Baka, you can't do this to me, wake up...

            He didn't answer.  Didn't move.

            No.  No.  No.  No.  No.  No.  No.  No.  No.  No———————

            Black.

                                                            =====================

Yubaaba jerked bolt upright, staring at the crystal with an expression of shocked fury.

            "That girl," she hissed.  "That girl!  What did she do!?  What did she just do!?"

—tsuzuku.

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...Gomen, but...can you say cliffhanger? ^^;;

I don't know whether I should be laughing in triumph for finally finishing this chapter or apologizing profusely for leaving you with this...eh, gomen, gomen ^^;;

This thing took a long time because my muse eloped with my inspiration, leaving me with three paragraphs and nothing else.  So I decided to do the obvious thing, and procrastinated; namely, reread my Recca no Honou manga ^_^.  (And you know, it took a shorter time to finish than the first time around...probably because the cries of "What??!  Nooo!!" no longer pop up. =P  Those of you who have read this manga series, I need only to say one word and you'll probably know exactly what I'm talking about: Joker. =(  Him and Raiha were my favorite characters...sniff Those who have been unfortunate enough to not read this, read it!! _  It's been licensed, so it'll be in English soon...)

Hm.  That was a long paragraph on something that had nothing whatsoever to do with this fic...sweatdrop In any case, when I dragged my muse and inspiration back, they got mad at me, so I think I tried a bit too hard on this one...hope the writing isn't strained in places...=P bravely suppresses an urge to rewrite the entire thing ahem...

Kudos to anyone who can guess what movie they were watching, btw ^_-

And!  Once again, I want to thank aaaaall my reviewers!  I love you guys!  Individual responses below. =)

Frying Pan of DOOM – Thank you! ^_^  I know!  I love that scene! (btw, I love your pen name...burst out laughing...hehe...Patricia C. Wrede's Enchanted Forest, right?)

Melodylink – Thank you for your kind review!  This story will be nice and long, I promise ^_-  As long as my muse can endure!  grabs muse by back of collar as it tries to run ...Er, my birthday was on the 25th but I actually have a friend whose birthday was on the 13th!  It really is a small world!

Anime Fan26 – Thank you, and enjoy the chapter =)

Jenn – I'm very glad you like it ^_^  Thank you so much for reviewing!  It's so pleasant to read your reviews, you're always so nice... ^_^

FluffyLuver4Eva – I really like Inu-Yasha, but I'm afraid I haven't read or watched Yu Yu Hakusho at all, though I heard it was good ^_^;;  Thank you for reviewing!

MysticAngel4 – Yeah, I'd probably go crazy too.  But I guess this chapter made it even worse for Chihiro then...gomen, gomen ^_^;;  Thank you!

DizAznAngel – Thank you ^_^  Here's the update!

Escance – I want to put Souichi more into the story, I really like him too! ^_^  But my little brain can't figure out how ^^;;  Thank you for reviewing, and let's hope that Souichi gets more lines...^_^

Questions?  Comments?  Or, god forbid, flames...? looks nervous  Review!  Review!  It makes me very very very happy and hyper ^_^  All you have to do is click that little button below...thaaaat's it...^_-

bows Minna-san, arigatou gozaimaaaasu!