Disclaimer: Chihiro and Haku do not belong to me. They belong to the talented Mr. Miyazaki.Any character that didn't appear in Spirited Away. . . Their soul belongs to me.Mwahaha!
Well, enought of this. On with the fic!!!

Kyo

The next class was one of Chihiro's personal favorites- Art. All she had to do was doodle on a piece of giant paper, (Which came very easily to her; she was a very good artist.) and that was it. Today, though, they were going to begin to use watercolors. Chihiro thought that they were a pain, and she managed to get more watercolor paint in the old shirt she was wearing to keep her uniform clean, than on the paper. But she still managed to paint the cluster of flowers she had wanted. She sighed, and wrote her name at the bottom corner of her painting, and then began to look around to see how her friends were doing: Nikki, feeling a burst of lack of imagination, was just filling the whole paper with one color. Akari was struggling to make a tree. But when Chihiro looked over at Haku, she couldn't help gaping in amazement- He handled the watercolors really well, and he was painting a wonderful panoramic view; Chihiro recognized it as the front of Yubaba's bathhouse, with a couple of trees and the sea in the background.

"Whoa. That's amazing!" Chihiro whispered gazing at his picture.

"You like?" He smirked.

"Definitely!" She exclaimed.

Mr. Keyko, the art teacher, was walking around checking to see if everyone was working, when he noticed that Chihiro and Haku were talking. "Well, having a nice chat, are we?" He said, walking towards them. Chihiro jumped. Mr. Keyko looked from Chihiro to Haku. "Why aren't you two doing your work?"

"I-I already finished, Mr. Keyko." Chihiro stammered.

"And you?" Mr. Keyko turned to face Haku.

"Just about finished, sir." Haku answered promptly.

Mr. Keyko scanned Haku's painting. "Wow," he said, "You're doing a really good job there; I know I wouldn't have been able to work with watercolors that good. But I want you to finish. Understand?"

"Yes, sir." Haku nodded.

Mr. Keyko smiled and walked away.

"I can't believe that you actually got complimented on your artwork by Mr. Keyko !"said Yuki (who had settled to paint next to Haku at the beginning of class). "Your artwork must be really good- he usually doesn't say anything." He walked over to Haku to look at his artwork.

"Yeah," Nikki agreed, "Getting praise from him is really something. I know that he has never said anything good about my artwork. . ." She sighed.

"Feh, no wonder; all you did was color your paper blue." Akari pointed out.

"Yeah, well, today isn't bringing me any inspiration."

"You never get inspired to do anything in this class!"

Art class ended with Nikki and Akari bickering slightly.

History class passed by without anything new going on- except that Nikki got some competition in being the best student in the class, when Haku showed the class how much he knew about Ancient History. Chihiro couldn't help laughing out loud when Kohaku whispered at her, "I can't help knowing about this stuff- I was there when most of it happened."

The last class of the day was gym class. The teacher, Miss. Kyoko, said that they would be playing soccer. Yuki whispered a very enthusiastic "Yes!" under his breath. "But first," Miss Kyoko said, "I want three laps across the gym for warm-up." The class groaned, but began to run. Chihiro, Akari, Nikki, Haku and Yuki were jogging slowly, when Nikki decided to ask, "Hey, Haku, how fast can you run?" Her eyes had an unusual glint, and Chihiro knew that she wanted to see how fast he could go by using magic.

Haku raised an eyebrow, and asked, "Why? Do you want to race or something?"

"No." Nikki answered, "I was just . . . curious." She gave him a meaningful look.

"No magic, though." He whispered back. He didn't wait for an answer; he began to run at full speed. The people he zoomed by barely saw him- they just felt as if a very powerful breeze had hit them, and then they would see Haku a long way ahead. Haku was done by the time that most of the others were halfway through their second lap. Nikki was thoroughly impressed once again. "Whoa," Yuki said, "that was fast!" He paused to think for a while, and then asked, "What did he mean with 'no magic'?"

"Nothing!" Chihiro said quickly.

After warm-up, the class voted for team captains; Yuki was Chihiro's class's captain and a boy with white hair and bright black eyes was chosen as the other captain (Two classes took gym at the same time). Yuki and the other boy shook hands, and the game began.

Yuki and Haku were easily the best players in their team: They worked together and did such great moves, that it seemed as if they had been practicing together for a long time. Yuki's team was winning 14 to 9, when the other team began to play more fiercely. The captain of the other team began try to block only Haku. Every time that Haku would try to pass the ball to anyone else, that boy would be blocking his way; anytime he tried to turn another way, the boy was in his way again. The other team was getting better, and Yuki's team was losing its lead.

There were about five minutes left of gym class, and the other team had managed to sore four more points. Yuki's team was only one point ahead.

"So, you're the new student, aren't you?" The boy asked once, while trying to take the ball away from Haku.

Haku nodded, while trying to dodge him again.

"Where do you come from?" he asked.

"I've always lived around here." Haku answered shortly.

The boy still tried unsuccessfully to engage Haku in conversation, but Haku was too concentrated in trying to keep the ball away from him.

After a couple of minutes of silence, the boy suddenly said, "Y'know, you look unusually familiar."

Taken aback, Haku looked up. The boy took this opportunity to swing his leg around Haku's ankle, and get the ball. Haku lost his balance and fell. The boy looked down at Haku for a minute, thinking hard and then whispered, "Ah, yes; how could I ever forget? You're Nigihayami, aren't you?"

Haku didn't answer. How had that boy known that his name was Nigihayami? Nobody called him that, except for his grandmother. "Have we met before?" Haku asked.

"Oh, yes; plenty of times." The boy answered.

Haku struggled to try to remember, but gave up quickly, sighed, and answered politely, "I'm sorry, but I just can't seem to recall who you are."

"Really? I was under the impression that you had a great memory." The boy smirked, and then whispered, "I guess that a couple of hundred years can really change some people."

Haku's eyes widened. His mouth had gone dry. "Wh- who are you?" he stammered.

"Still can't remember? What a pity." The boy's eyes narrowed, but he smirked more widely than before. "Maybe my name will ring a bell." He paused.

"The name's Kyoshiro Sanada."

Kyoshiro tried to score a goal, but Haku managed to stick his left leg out and push the ball out of place before Kyoshiro could reach the ball; the result was that Kyoshiro kicked Haku's foot instead of the ball, with tremendous force.

Haku's brain numbed with pain as he felt Kyoshiro's foot make contact with his ankle. He screamed in pain as he felt a soft pop and his ankle bone snapped. But Miss Kyoko hadn't seen what had happened: the papers she had in her clipboard had suddenly been strewn across the soccer field by the wind, and she had been trying to pick them up.

"Sorry bout that." Kyoshiro said, but he didn't sound sorry at all. He looked at Haku, with an evil sort of grin on his face, and then, noticing Chihiro, Akari, Nikki and Yuki running towards them, walked away, leaving Haku clutching his broken ankle on the grass, tears of pain welling up in his eyes.

"Haku!" Akari cried.

"What happened?" Yuki asked.

Haku didn't answer. His face was pale and sweaty both from pain, and fear.

"Are you okay?" Chihiro asked uncertainly, kneeling down next to Haku.

"It can't be—Kyo . . ." Haku whispered painfully.

He allowed Yuki to steer him up to the nurse's office, followed closely by Chihiro, Akari and Nikki.

TBC. . .

A/N: Hey readers! Thanks so much for keeping up with my fic. Just to let you know, if you have any ideas or questions, feel free to e-mail me!
Responses to reviews: Wyldcat:About the old woman. . . Heehee. . . All in good time! Keep reading if you want to find out!
Kataan: Happy 15th birthday!

Ookies. . . the more you review, the faster I'll update!!! Till next chapter,
Appl3sauce