Disclaimer: No, not mine; they belong to Miyazaki, excluding Akari Kinomoto, Nikki Ishida, and Ms. Terusa. I own their souls. Heehee

Chapter 2: They Meet Again. . .

Chihiro let the alarm clock ring a couple of more minutes before stretching out her hand and turning it off. She opened her eyes slowly, and yawned.

As she headed for the bathroom to take a shower, she went over the dream that she had just woken up from; she smiled: In that dream, she had been ten years old. She had just passed the test that Yubaba the witch had made up to let her and her parents go back to the Human World- She was in the world of the spirits then, and the entrance to that world was near her house (It was trying to find their new house, actually, that Chihiro and her parents had found the entrance to the Spirit World, an old tunnel).

Chihiro smiled. It surprised her that she could still remember every detail that had occurred during the time that she had been in the Spirit World (Four days), when all of that had happened almost six years ago. . .

Chihiro quickly put on her school uniform, grabbed her school bag, and went down to the kitchen to have a small breakfast and hurry to school. Her father had already left to go to work, and her mother had gone to go do some shopping on the neighboring town.

On her way to school, Chihiro met up with her best friend, Akari Kinomoto.

Akari had long dark hair that was usually braided or separated into two pigtails; Chihiro had never seen Akari go to school with her hair down; in fact, the only time that she had seen Akari with her hair down had been the time she had gone over to Chihiro's house for a slumber party. Chihiro had always admired Akari's hair, thinking it to be much more beautiful than her own shoulder-length, sandy brown hair.

They walked down the street talking animatedly, and when they reached their classroom at Seijyu High School, they sat down next to each other, and patiently waited as the rest of the class filed in slowly. Another one of Chihiro's close friends came in pretty soon. Nikki Senshin had short curly blond hair, and wide blue eyes. She was one of the best students in her class.

"Hey!" She greeted Chihiro and Akari, "Did you know that someone moved into the old house around the block?"

"Really?" Akari looked interested. "do you know who?"

"Well," Nikki sighed, and sat behind Chihiro. "I think it was a guy about our age and an old woman. What do you think of that?"

Chihiro shrugged, and began to doodle absentmindedly in the back of her notebook.

When their teacher, Miss Terusa came in, she greeted her class in the usual way. "Good morning, class!" she called, while she put her bag on her desk and took out a clipboard, "I need you all to settle down; I have an announcement to make before we begin with our classes today." Some of the students stopped talking, but others continued to talk in hushed voices to their neighbors.

Miss Terusa wrote a name down on the blackboard, and then cleared her throat: "A new student will be joining us today." The entire class was now paying attention to Miss Terusa. Chihiro looked up from her drawing and stared at the board: The new student's name was "Nigihayami Kohaku Nushi." Miss Terusa turned to the door, opened it, and said, "You can come in now, Kohaku."

Everyone turned to face the door. A boy with short greenish-dark hair walked inside. He stepped in front of the blackboard, and calmly stared back at the class. Chihiro thought that he looked strangely familiar, but. . . It couldn't be. . .

"Would you like to introduce yourself, Kohaku?" Miss Terusa asked the boy.

The boy waited for a minute, then said in a calm voice, "Hello, my name's Kohaku Nushi. Pleased to meet you all." As he looked around, he caught Chihiro's eye; he grinned at her, and winked.

Chihiro gasped.

"What's wrong?" Akari asked.

"Haku?" Chihiro whispered incredulously.

A/N: Yes, Haku is back!!! If you'd like to read more of my fic, please review!!! The more reviews I get, the quicker I'll update- that's a promise!