Disclaimer: I do not own the work of absolute brilliance that is Spirited Away. I wish I was that creative...

Warning about this chapter: This chapter all on its own made the rating go up. There are graphic descriptions of violence in this. Read on at your own risk.

Elemental Spirit

Chapter Two – A Birthday Surprise

Rakasha's Sparks

Shadow Realm

The shadows gathered, surging around their master, waiting for his instructions. As they melted into one another, changing shape from one hideous form to another, they listened to his maniacal laughter, knowing their time to be released into the Mortal World was drawing closer. Look closely, my beloved ones. This is the place you will go to.

His dark twisted voice rang through their heads, filling them with a sick joy. In the mirror humans went about their daily lives, completely unaware of the evil watching them, preparing their final demise. The shadows surged, swiftly heading for the barrier between worlds, eager to fulfill their master's bidding. They would go to this city and destroy all living there until Ashika showed herself. Soon she would be reunited with their master again…then the shadows would really begin to have fun.

Yokohama, Japan

Chihiro sat flopped across the chair in her parents' living room, listening to the news reports while idly sketching in her notebook. She was hardly paying attention to the movements her hands were making on the page. when her mother sat down on the arm of the chair, looking at the detailed sketch.

"Chihiro! This is beautiful… You're really becoming quite the artist."

Taken by surprise, Chihiro looked down and choked back a gasp. Without paying any attention she had sketched out the image of her first encounter with Haku in front of Yubaba's Bath House. She stared at the details of her own young form, staring at his intense one. Occasionally she would sketch out a similar scene to this, remembering her time in the Spirit World, but never without intent or attention. She mentally shrugged it off, muttering her thanks to her mother and closing the notebook. She still had to get ready for the birthday dinner her parents were taking her to.

Every year. Every single stinking year they did this to her. Chihiro loved her parents dearly, but she really wished that they would stop bringing her out to restaurants on her birthday simply to humiliate her. With her cheeks burning up, Chihiro slid further down in her chair as the group of waiters sang a snappy birthday song to her that was unique to the restaurant, but exactly the same as every other song she had heard on her birthday for as long as she could remember. Grudgingly, she blew out the candle and endured the cheers and clapping around her, angrily noting that many of the patrons had joined in on her misery.

She looked up, about to glare at her parents, when she saw their beaming faces. They really enjoyed celebrating her birthday with her. This dinner had become an annual event for them. She smiled at them, offering each a spoon so they could attack the massive slice of ice cream pie with her, glowing inside.

The small family walked out of the movie theater, not expecting the horror that was about to befall them. Something had been nagging at Chihiro since their dinner. It was as if a writhing ball of filth was heading towards her, but she couldn't for the life of her figure out what that could be.

She paused on the sidewalk, her parents still making their way towards their beat up old car. A sudden fierce wind howled through the city, blocking her scream of fear as a hoard of monsters descended on her parents, completely enveloping them, blocking them from her view. She tried to run towards them, but the wind held her back, keeping her captive as she watched her parents slowly being torn apart in front of her eyes.

Suddenly everything stopped, all sound and wind and movement, except the massive shadow slowly retreating and her parents' raw forms falling to the ground as if in slow motion. Slowly, as if in a trance, Chihiro made her way towards her parents, kneeling down in between them and placing a hand on each of them. She couldn't even recognize them by looking at them. They still vaguely resembled humans, but they had no skin or hair on their entire body. She looked at them, at the empty sockets that used to hold their eyes, their skull was torn open and all that could be seen inside were fragments of bone and scraps of brain tissue. Their chest cavities were torn open, as were their abdomens, no traces of any organs left within them.

Chihiro slumped over in between the parents, releasing the bile that rebelled from her stomach and crying bitterly, the sobs issuing from her throat sounding more animalistic than human. She looked up at the mass of shadows on the other side of the street, not questioning why they weren't attacking her, only caring that she know who murdered her only family. As her anger and hatred for these creatures grew, something inside of her snapped. A scream of rage tore itself free from her as the bodies of her parents exploded, covering her in blood and bits of tissues. In the sky, menacing looking clouds built out of nothing, a roaring sound issuing from them as explosions of fire went off within them.

And then the heavens rained down their rage at the evil that had disturbed this city. Fire and lightening destroyed everything for miles in the city, one distraught little girl sitting protected in the eye of the storm, comforted slightly by the rage that nature released in order to protect and avenge her pain.

Eventually, everything stopped. Chihiro sat in the midst of two blood stains looking at where the shadows' charred forms lay broken and destroyed. All around her, the downtown area of Yokohama smoldered, no building left standing for miles on any side of her. After several hours, Chihiro stood. Slowly she began the long, lonely walk back to her home.

The country was panicked. No one knew what exactly had happened; eventually the government released a statement that this was a rare natural phenomenon. While no one could be sure whether it would happen again, it was thought to be unlikely. All the while a young woman hid in her home, not answering the calls of condolence when her friends heard her parents had died, not touching food, focusing only on silently drawing the last mementos of her beloved parents, tears streaming down her face and she struggled past her grief to remember every detail of their faces, trying to capture their essence on paper so as never to forget.

Spirit World

"Zaniba?"
"Yes, Kirei?"
"I need the spell books my mistress left for Ashika."
"Why?"
"She has awoken."

The cold cruel reality of the situation hit him. The worlds were at the brink of a war that could well destroy everything, and almost no one knew anything about it. He watched as the waves pounded against the shore, seeking to claim him as their own. Shifting to his dragon form, Haku dove into the ocean, racing towards the secret cave which hid the small bag he had held in his possession for more than 500 years, silently praying to whatever Gods would listen that Chihiro be protected from the coming tides.

Author's Corner:

Sorry guys! I meant to have this posted yesterday! >. Anyway, I should have another chapter ready by the end of the week! A BIG THANKS TO ALAINA FOR BETA-ING! I hope you all enjoy! ... Comments, questions, constructive criticism and other welcome! Flames will be sent to the Hall of Shame.

Kasha