Disclaimer – As long as that big "D" word is here…I'm fine, rite?? '' See last chappie for disclaimer pls!

Note – As in my other Spirited Away fic, the characters' thoughts are done in BOLD…the "haunting voice from the space of non-existence" (how much worse can I describe this… #.#) and flashback thoughts are gunna be in italics for as long as they decide to actually upload for me(=.=")…hopefully, you'll enjoy this one-shot-turned ficcy!

Across Time and Worlds / Forget Me Not

"Kouga-san…Kouga…" a tearful ten-year-old girl looked at him with her big, luminous hazel eyes, filled with a degree of emotion that words fail to express. Her cheeks were brightened by a slight winter wind, her long auburn hair blowing softly in it. Her arms hung loosely by her side; her hands shaking. Looking at her face, the young boy smiled through misty eyes and took her trembling hands in a gentle grip.

"It's all right, Kasumi. Everything will be all right." He said reassuringly, trying to hold his tears in to keep them from betraying his true feelings.

I'll never see you again…will I?

"This is the way things have to be…it'd be dangerous for you to stay here any longer, you know. You must return to your world…but everything will be all right, you'll see. I'll come find you…I'll find a way to come to you, no matter what."

Looking slightly reassured at his words, she returned his grip and looked up at him, her eyes filling with the hope he had given her.

"Can you promise me, Kouga?" came softly from her lips. "Promise me you won't forget me. Promise me you'll come find me."

Reaching out one hand to wipe the trail of tears on her cheeks, he smiled, his eyes shinning with all his love for her.

"I promise."

:: Flashback ::

She could hear the beeping sound of several machines. Moaning slightly, she found that she could not move. Her right arm stung terribly when she tried to lift it, but she ignored it for the splitting headache she was becoming more and more aware of with every passing second.

In the distance, she could hear people moving around and someone speaking in an excited tone of voice.

"She's waking up! Go run outside to call for your father and the doctor, Yumi! Tell them your sister is waking up…hurry!"

An excited little squeak could be heard, followed by hurried footsteps and the sound of a little girl yelling "'Tou-san!! 'Tou-san, come qwuick, come qwuick!! 'Kaa-san said that Onee-chan is waking up!"

:: End Flashback ::

"Isn't that right, Onee-chan?"

Snapping to attention at the familiar voice calling her, Shinobo Kasumi realized that she had drifted off to dreamland once again. Turning her head guiltily to face her sister, she smiled a little apologetically.

"Gomen ne, Yumi…what were you saying again?"

"Mou, 'Nee-chan," the voice that had woken Kasumi from her memories said rebukingly, crossing her arms over her chest. "You've been so out of it lately, it almost makes me wonder if it's some strange new disease that you and Chihiro-chan somehow both caught."

Smiling sympathetically at the sheepish look on Kasumi's face, Chihiro nudged her best friend gently in the ribs and said teasingly, "And seeing how you're the only one that aren't displaying 'symptoms' of this wonderful new disease that you just named, maybe you're the one that caught a new virus, and we should start staying away before we catch it too."

Shaking her head, Yumi pretended to glare at her childhood friend, understanding just what her friend's intension had been. You big softy… Her lips twitching into a good natured grin, she continued to play at Chihiro's game.

"Well, if this disease happens to originate from me, then you can rest assured—anything of mine is too special to replicate itself anywhere else."

The two friends stared at each other in the eye in silence for about a whole second before all three erupted into golden laughter, its sounds seeming to echo in the still, quiet streets of the early evening. Catching her breath, Yumi went back to their original topic, still smiling.

"Mou, Chihiro-chan…! Anyhow…'Nee-chan…I was just telling Chihiro-chan that you had short-term amnesia when you were ten from that accident…remember?"

"That's…yes, that's right." Came the quiet reply, almost as if she was speaking to herself. "When I woke up from my coma, I couldn't remember anything before the accident. The last thing I remember was getting hit by that truck…then…

Then nothing…nothing at all. But you know what? I've always felt…

I've always felt as if there's something I need to remember from that time I was in my coma…something important to me."

Turning her face up towards the sky, so beautifully colored by the sunset, Kasumi smiled gently at the cloudless yonder as if looking at something only her missing memories has conscious knowledge of. Chihiro looked strangely at her childhood friend's sister but remained silent. Her words hung in the air for the fourteen-year-old girl, as if echoing something the girl herself was feeling deep down.

Something important…something I need to remember…

Just…what is that something? Why can't I remember?

Shaking her head mentally, she tried to clear these unsettling thoughts, telling herself that it was just some trick her mind was playing on her. Nethertheless, she walked in silence beside the still-chattering Yumi the rest of the way to the Shinobo residence. However, her mind was not as quiet as she. The stinging feeling that she was forgetting something refused to leave her mind, no matter how much she tried to think of something else. Somehow, a picture of strange creatures busily spinning shinning pink thread kept hovering in the background of all her thoughts.

There's no fighting it…I can feel it in my heart.

An enormously big bathhouse with all sorts of strange creatures that did not exist appeared; the smell of wonderfully cooked food assaulted her mind's sense of smell.

There's something I'm forgetting…something important.

A moonlit sky sparkling with stars. She was falling; white clouds hovered about her as she descended to earth rapidly.

Then she was floating, holding…something. She felt happy and warm all over, especially her hands which were touching the invisible unknown.

There was a promise that I made with someone…

A silver dragon, chased by a thousand flying white paper birds. She felt cold all over—cold with dread and fear for the dragon's life.

But who? Who did I promise…and just what did I promise?

What happened to me?

"Will he really be all right?" a voice belonging to a circle of heads bending over a magically enhanced water mirror broke into the silence that had reigned over the group. All five eyes were fixed on the boy in ancient clothing—clothing belonging to the world of the Majou no Sekai—who currently stood transfixed before a modern house of the world of humans. He stood with his back towards them, motionless.

"He's as good as he can be, Rin." Kamiji said kindly, his usually gruff voice gentle. "He will do whatever he can…whatever it takes…to get to little Sen. It's the strongest force in the world that's driving him on, after all. He won't give up, no matter what."

"That's not what I meant." Replied the former. The rest of the circle seemed as restless as she. "I know he'll do whatever it takes, and I know he won't give up. But there are some things…" biting her lips briefly, she continued, worry in every line of her body. "There are some things that cannot be forced or predicted, no matter what…no matter how much he or any of us might want to. What if…what if…"

"I know what you're trying to say, Rin. She's right, you know." Yu-Baaba said suddenly with her usual briskness. A stranger would've thought the old witch didn't care, unless that stranger happened to look into her unguarded eyes and saw the agitation in them. "There's no telling what could've happened to Sen on her way back home. You remember what happened to that Kasumi girl all those years ago, Kamiji."

Grim looks overshadowed the faces of the twin witches of the Majou no Sekai and the old broiler master. The silence which followed was so thick that Rin didn't dare break it, curious though she was about this name she had never heard about. At last, it was Kaonashi who broke the silence by muttering inquiringly to Zeniiba. Sighing, she explained.

"This was before either of you showed up at the Aburaya, Kaonashi and Rin." She said tiredly, tearing her eyes away from the mirror for a moment. "A little girl's spirit stumbled into the Majou no Sekai, and was trapped here for some time. A spirit—the shadow spirit—helped her escape and put her back into her own body. However, in the process her memory of the time she had spend here was somehow blocked or erased. Whether she had done this consciously, or something the magical Boarder had done to her, I do not know. But that was the last we saw of her. The shadow spirit was broken over this—or at least, his heart was, though he refused to admit it. He went mad with anger and hurt, and disappeared. This was a good eight years ago though. Nobody has seen or heard from him since then."

An uncharacteristically somber Rin closed her eyes, fearing the worst for her two dear friends. What if Sen had also forgotten about them? The thought itself hurt so much that the girl wanted to scream and clamp her hands over her ears to try to shut these painful thoughts out. Knowing that would do no good, however, she opened her eyes to stare at the water mirror again. To her dismay, the tears which had begun to roll down her cheeks refused to stop, as one drop after another fell on her lap. At the touch of a ghastly feeling but warm hand, Rin jumped, her eyes falling on the hand's owner.

"It…wu…won't…ha…appen…to…oo…Ss…sen." Kaonashi slowly stumbled out, simply and trustingly while smiling with his large, liquid mouth. Seeing the once wandering stranger smiling ever so genuinely, Rin felt herself smiling back through her tears. Covering the hand on her shoulder, she nodded at Kaonashi, understanding.

"She won't forget about us." She said confidently. "I know she won't. And even if she did…even if something happened to her memories…"

"Then she'll find a way to remember us." Finished Zeniiba, smiling over at the unlikely pair. Nodding to each other, they were surprised as they were joined by another voice.

"That's the way with her, I suppose." Yu-Baaba began reluctantly, hesitating. Almost seeming afraid to go on speaking out of fears of forever ruining her cold front she put on around others, she gave in to her true feelings and continued. "she always cares too much…she cares too much for us to not remember us…to not find a way to remember us. She'd make the impossible happen, for those she cares about."

A true smile softened the witch's features, taking years off her aged face. "Because she truly cares, you know. It is as simple as that."

"Not only about us," Kamiji finally rejoined the conversation, his eyes dancing behind his permanent sunglasses. "But about Kohaku too—especially about Kohaku. After all, the love that brought him to follow her into her world isn't one sided ne. The times might've changed, but something like this…"

"It's everlasting." Finished Rin, looking once again at their window into the other world.

Three days of life here, searching for you…seventy-two hours of your human time, reaching for you…

A lifelong list of things that I want to tell you…that I want to share with you.

But you're not here.

A dark-silver haired boy of seventeen gazed steadfastly and somberly at the little house, with its lights flickering in the growing night darkness. Its two main occupants were sitting at the kitchen table, eating a hearty late night snack, unaware of their visitor. A light flickered and went out upstairs in a room facing the east, its mistress closing her eyes and surrendering to a peaceful night's sleep.

I can feel your aura…I know your body reside here. But…

But why, at the same time I know it's you, does your aura feel so…strange? So indifferent? So cold?

Chihiro…Chihiro…where are you?

Well, here's to another lengthier one! Kekeke…actually, all right…so all of my chappies woulda been this length, and are gunna stay this length. But hey, another one done, and one less to go before the end, eh? XP Hopefully, by now the story is better tied together and not "all over the place" still for you guys! I dunt like stories that are too confusing either…but I can't help being born a confusion child! Kekek…gomen gomen Hopefully you'll still like me the way I am…and not to mention, like this chappie the way it's presented too!

Dictionary portion - hahaha…I almost got too lazy to put at least one or two lil saying in…but shrugs I did say I'd try to make this at least an attempt at connection with the more Japanese culture…thingy… " Kekke…these are really really simple…but they're still Japanese () so here we go…

'Tou-san (Otou-san) = father

'Kaa-san (Okaa-san) = mother

Onee-chan= older sister

All right…Kasumi's story (yes, that "little girl from 8 yrs ago" is Kasumi). A little subtly told that I woulda liked it to be…but serves it purpose. shrugs Since I wanna cut down the length of this ficcy just a tad, this couldn't be helped. But hopefully, this gave you guys a better understanding of what happened. Ne?? ::smiles:: Also, I dunno when Rin showed up at the Aburaya (the bathhouse)…she might've been there forever? For my purposes, let's just pretend for me that she showed up after Kasumi's part, shall we? XD

As for our "looking five"…keke…I know they seem a lil…immobile…at the moment, doing nothing except looking and talking oO But they are important to this ficcie…just wait and see! I know you guys are all nice enuff to be patient…rite guys?

Mou, enuff rambles…I tend to do this a lot, eh? Hahaha…please look forward to the next chappie, coming out soon!

As usual, as critics, suggestions, comments or textbooks are most welcomed…though you might have to send the last one by snail mail instead XP

Aqua Sunshine n.n