Disclaimer: I do not own Spirited Away or any of the characters in it.

Iznil the Gothic Faery – Thank u!

Kia twee – thank you! But I have to answer your review with a no comment! I'm sorry, the answer could either be a yes or a no! Sorry! Hehe.

Depressed pixie – thanks!

KatzEye – Thank u so much! I did put a lot of effort in the description actually, I'm glad u noticed. Lol thank u.

Aurorasrisen – Thanks! I will definitely try to keep up the good work. I glad u think it IS good work to begin with. Lol. I really like ur story btw. Lol.

Sparkling-Ruby Gem – Thank u! Since you have been a loyal reviewer, I will tell u! Hehe, Haku will definitely see Chihiro again! Just be patient for a little longer and it will happen! Hehe.

Absolutely ludicrous – Thank you!

Sweetdreamer – thanks for the review! Well, I can't really tell you much more about the mystery girl yet. But you will find out in a few more chapters.

Crazianimegirl – Thank u so much! I'm glad it wasn't too cheesy, lol. Oh thank u so much for pointing out that its Kohaku – I changed it straight away! You see, without nice reviewers like you, I never would have known – that's the good thing about having people review your story. Lol.

A/N – Hey! It's me again, obviously. Lol. How have you all been since my previous update? I'm not too keen on this chapter; I don't think it is all that good. Hmm…there's quite a lot of dialogue in this chapter, that's probably why… Lol. Anyway, I'm sorry to all the readers but you don't actually find out who the mystery girl is until a few more chapters into the story– I took the time to plan out what happens in each chapter you see. Sorry, but if keep reading, you will find out! I think the repeated swearing at the end of this chapter adds to the realism, I mean if something serious like that happened, wouldn't you keep repeating a word because you can't think clearly. On second hand, it could just be me. Lol. Again, thank you to all the reviewers! You guys are awesome! Anyways, on with the chapter! Please review afterwards if you have time! Thank you! Enjoy!

Chapter 6: The Illusory "Accident"

As he woke, Haku opened his eyes slowly to adjust to the lighting of the room. Squinting at the strange yet familiar surroundings, he tried to identify his location. He realised that he was no longer at the mansion when he acknowledged the western style of the room. The room itself did not keep to a particular colour scheme; in fact no two objects in the room seemed to match, but were still pleasing to the eye.

A relaxing scent of vanilla and lavender drifted in the air. Apart from the bed, a wooden dressing table, a low stool and a small wardrobe, there was no other furniture in the room. The shallow white walls were painted with floral patterns and the bed he lay on was high off the ground, unlike the traditional futon that he was use to sleeping on. The feathery pillows and velvet duvet were of different colours: soft shades of red and blue, respectively. And hanging from the four wooden posts surrounding the bed was a translucent veil made from a fine and delicate, pale lilac material. Haku lay back in the springy, comfortable bed and looked directly up at the ceiling through the thin cloak of silky material above, and saw that there was a thatched roof covering the house. He recognised where he was and knew that he was safe.

Haku lowered his eyes and sighed.

'Master must have brought me here after I passed out. But why here?'

Although his wounds were not external, he saw that his chest had been bandaged with some clean white linen cloth. Touching the injured region of his upper body lightly, Haku groaned sorely. His internal wounds were deep; he could feel sharp ripping pains in his thorax from just the slightest of movements. Shuffling carefully to the side of the double bed, he placed his feet on the ground and sat up, propping the heavy weight of his body up with his arms straight by his sides and his hands placed firmly on the mattress. His body was still very weak from the ceremony.

'I wonder how long I have been sleeping for…'

The atmosphere in the room was rather hot and stuffy, making him feel quite uncomfortable. Looking around, Haku spotted a pair of closed wooden shutters with peeling flaky green paint. He edged to the end of the bed. Lifting himself slowly from his sedentary position, he stood up and supported himself against one of the bedposts. He could tell that during the ceremony, his body had suffered a serious strain; he could barely stand up. Attempting to open the window for some ventilation of the humidity, Haku began to stagger gradually across the room.

By now, he was well over half way to reaching his destination. But a sudden surge of pain from his heart caused his muscles to contract, resulting in him crashing into the nearby dressing table and knocking the disordered assortment of glass objects off. With a fierce smash, the glassware shattered violently across the uncarpeted surface of the floor.

Hearing all the chaotic noise, a plump old lady rushed in immediately. Alarmed to see her patient on the floor, sat leaning against the side of the dressing table with numerous shards of glass stuck in his hands, she hastily went to assist Haku off the ground.

"Oh my! Are you alright?" Zeneba questioned frantically with her deep loud voice, as she helped him back into bed.

"I'm fine," answered Haku weakly.

With a flick of a finger, the glass debris was removed painlessly and two strips of white linen cloth began wrap themselves around his hands. With another flick of a finger, Zeneba ordered all the glass on the floor to return to the dressing table and refit back into their original shapes. Satisfied with what she saw, she gave a pleasing nod and turned back to Haku.

"Now, what on Earth were you doing out of bed, Haku?" she questioned, genuinely concerned about him.

"Nothing, I just wanted to open the window," he replied pathetically.

Yet again, Zeneba flicked her finger and the window automatically opened. The cause of her obesity was not a mystery. She never had to do anything herself; she merely had to flick a finger and all her desires would be granted. It was only the occasional sewing and cooking that she did without the use of magic, because those were her recreation activities that she enjoyed doing. But mostly in her spare time, she would take the pleasure out of wreaking havoc at the bathhouse for her sister, Yubaba, to deal with. Though her age was more than we could comprehend, she was quite a cheeky and fun old granny.

The sunlight from outside reflected off her large grotesque blue dress onto the walls, tinting them with a faint blue colour, like the sky.

"Why didn't you just call for me or even just call for No-Face?"

"I didn't see the necessity to call you for such a trivial task,"

"Nonsense, you need to rest, dear; you've been through a lot,"

Almost dismissing her last remark completely, Haku went on to ask "How long have I been sleeping?"

"For over a week now, but despite that, you still need to stay in bed,"

"Why did Master bring me here?"

Sensing that Haku would be asking more questions, she sat down on the low stool by the dressing table, before answering his question. "Well, Emperor Hiromitsu brought you here because he wishes for you to stay here to rest. He told me about the ceremony,"

"I see. So when did Master say I will be returning back to the palace?"

"He asked for you not to return to the dragon lands in the East; he believes that it is safer for you here,"

"What?"

"I realise that this is very difficult for you, but he left the book of Maryoku in my possession and wishes for you to train here and study from the ancient book, but that is only when you have fully recovered. He also said that when the time is right, you will one day return to the palace and claim your rightful place as ruler,"

Haku looks down at his hands. "I understand,"

"Haku, you must take great care with the book of Maryoku; it holds extremely powerful magic and is one of the five most powerful spell books found in the spirit world. Dear, please don't fret, he cares a lot about you, I can tell,"

"I know,"

Zeneba pulled out the top drawer of the dressing table and began to rummage through the contents. She pulled out a little dusty wooden jewellery box and placed it on the table. Unfastening the silver latch and lifting open the lid, she pulled out a faded-red, old hair tie. Walking over to the bed, the shoes on her little feet made a clicking noise on the ground. As she sat down next to Haku, the bed sloped to one side because of her weight.

"Here take this. You ought to have it; it will probably mean more to you than it does me. It was hers; she accidentally left it here after I gave her a crystal one, before she returned to the human world,"

"Thank you,"

Taking the hair tie, he looked at it with his stone face. But, he wasn't fooling anyone with that emotionless expression; Zeneba could see the deep loss that he felt, burning in his eyes. It was the last thing that remained of her in this spirited world that she had parted from five years ago. He held it tightly, reflecting on the time they shared together and how he misses that time very much.

"Did Master say how Chihiro was to be happy again?"

"Well dear, yes. There isn't really another way for me to say this, so here it goes: Chihiro is going to lose her memory,"

Hearing the last clause of her speech, Haku cast his eyes down to his hands, shadowing them behind his hair. A moment of silence suspended between the two. Zeneba knew that had she said anymore it would only have pulled harder at his heartstrings and she did not want him to feel a deeper loss than he already did. She was not even able to find words that would come close to comforting him. There was nothing that she could say; all she could do was wait for him to acknowledge and accept what she had said.

"So, it was her memories of this place that caused her unhappiness?" Haku still had his eyes shadowed behind his hair so that Zeneba could not see how he felt. But, Zeneba knew, just from that lasting silence, exactly how Haku felt inside; she could read him like a book. "Even after all these years, she held onto those memories of us. You know Zeneba, she told me something in a letter she wrote to me,"

"And what was that, dear?"

Haku smiled an untrue smile, almost laughing at the irony of it all.

"She told me that it was her experiences here and her friends here that motivates her,"

Haku lifted his head and looked out of the window, gazing with uncertainty at the vast blue sky.

'I wonder…did I really make the right decision?'

Monday. The first school day of the week had come once again. Chihiro looked down at the several grazes found on her arms and legs and sighed, dreading the school day. It was early morning and she had just had a wash and was in her room preparing for school, when she heard something tapping quietly against the windowpane. She went to look.

"Rain?"

She was surprised to see this type of weather because it hadn't rained since early spring, which was a good few months ago. She stood by her window, staring out at the thick dark clouds, looming in the sky and the slanting rain, falling heavily to the ground. This rain, it was strange because Chihiro wasn't sure how, but she felt as though she could feel somebody crying.

'There's something very sad about this rain,' she thought to herself.

It was often told that sky dragons, like Haku's Master - Emperor Hiromitsu, had the power to affect and change the weather at will and whenever they pleased. But in this case, for Haku to have done something so selfless, even the sky was touched by this act of love and took pity on these star-crossed lovers and cried. Each tear of rain held more love and sadness than Chihiro would ever realise.

"Chihiro Ogino of class 1B please report to the principal's office, immediately. I repeat Chihiro Ogino of class 1B please report to the principal's office, immediately. Thank you,"

At the time when the announcement was called out, Chihiro was standing by her locker, gathering her things for the swimming lesson. After hearing the broadcast, she closed her locker and headed towards the principal's office at once.

On the way, she received a few nasty sniggers and rude remarks, but wisely chose to ignore them. And besides, she had too much on her mind to even care about what her cruel peers thought anyway.

'Oh no, what could it be? I've never been called out of class before,' Chihiro thought worryingly. 'What if it's all the hurting that I've been doing recently? I mean I did slap Akiko and what about Arashi? Oh no! What if it IS that? What if I made him impotent and now he's told the principal? What if I get suspended? Or even expelled? How am I going to explain this to my parents? That will be a pleasant conversation, won't it…'Hi mom, hi dad, I made a boy from school impotent and now I've been expelled from school, I hope you don't mind,' what will they think of me? They're going to be so ashamed of me, I'll never be able to face them again…'

Chihiro was panicking; she didn't know what to do. When she arrived at the office, she knocked on the door hesitantly. The more she thought about the reasons why she was there, the more the unrealistic and strange the possibilities became. She even thought it could be something to do with her lunch, which is highly improbable!

"Come in!" A woman's voice called from inside the room.

Chihiro turned the metal doorknob with a shaky unsure hand. When the room was finally exposed to her, she went directly into a low bow and spoke in a trembling voice:

"H-Hello Mrs. Nanahara. I-I hope I'm not intruding,"

"Chihiro!" Two familiar voices called her name.

She looked up and unexpectedly saw her parents sat in the chairs, opposite the principal.

"Mom, dad? What are you doing here?"

"Your parents came here today to discuss the matter of misbehaviour among certain students in this school,"

"Have I done something wrong? Because if I have, I'm very sorry; I didn't know you see,"

"No no dear, Mrs Nanahara is talking about bullying,"

"I'm sorry, I didn't know I was bullying anyone, please let me apologise to them. I won't do it again, I promise,"

"No, Chihiro listen, your parents came here today to try to resolve the bullying, not on others, but on yourself. Do you understand?"

"Oh I see,"

"Now please be seated, Chihiro,"

The principal indicated a chair next to her parents and Chihiro sat down obediently. She breathed in deeply, trying to calm herself. Her heart was still racing and her hands were still very sweaty. But admittedly, she was relieved to know that she wasn't there because she had done something wrong.

The rich aroma of coffee hung in the air and clung to the various pieces of furniture in the room. It reminded Chihiro of the thick, sticky cigarette smoke in Yubaba's office. The blinds on the windows were open but not much light was shining through, so the artificial lights were switched on. Looking out of the window, Chihiro saw that the weather hadn't improved much since this morning and was still very gloomy. The office itself was quite spacious, but had a few too many filing cabinets, making the room seem cluttered. But that was expected of schools, which had many pupils attending. The office wasn't a particularly bright place; it mostly consisted of dull shades of grey with the exception of a few personal items, such as a framed photograph. It looked as though her principal liked to keep up a very professional appearance.

"Chihiro, I have already discussed this with your parents, but I believe that you ought to know also. Teachers have been noticing certain students misbehaving towards you and have reported these sightings, in particular at the recent school dance. We have firstly given these pupils warnings and then detentions. But that did not seem to take effect, so we even suspended a girl from your class, Mahiru one of your bullies, as a warning to others, dissuading them to continue. But that also did not work, did it?" She pointed at the cuts on Chihiro's arms. "We have now come to our last resort – extra protection from teachers. As of today, a teacher will be escorting you to each and every lesson and the teacher of the lesson will keep a watch on you so that you will not be harmed,"

"What?" Chihiro exclaimed "No you can't!"

The sudden outburst took both her parents and the principal by shock.

"Chihiro, calm down this instant!" Her principal gave her a stern look, "This is only for your own safety,"

"Don't you understand?" Chihiro wasn't calming down, but she had a valid reason for not doing so. "If you do this, I'll just be bullied even more! The teachers can't watch over me every second of the day for the rest of my life!"

It was true – they couldn't. And when a teacher was not watching her, what then? At the very least she would be teased, but that is only the VERY least. The harassment from others will most likely become more frequent as a result of carrying out this so-called protection plan. Her classmates will probably think that Chihiro requested the extra protection herself, which will subsequently distance her further from the social groups within the school and provoke more violent bullying on her – physical abuse.

"I DON'T WANT THE PROTECTION!" Chihiro stood up and in a more controlled voice said, "I'm sorry, but you will have to excuse me - I have to get back to class now," She gave another bow and left the room.

Chihiro changed into her swimming costume with no haste. Yes, she did say that she needed to get back to class, but once she was in the changing rooms, she wanted to delay as much as possible. She spent the time hiding her school uniform and other possessions in one of the toilet cubicles so that the other girls would not find her things after the lesson. This has happened before and on the previous time, they scattered all her clothes around the school in the busiest hallways for Chihiro to humiliatingly find each piece of her uniform, whilst still being in her swimming costume.

Looking at the clock, she gave a tiresome sigh and headed towards the pool area. The strong smell of chlorine lurked heavily in the humid air. It has been a couple of weeks since Chihiro last had a swimming lesson. The lessons for the previous two weeks had been cancelled due to the unbalanced proportions of the chemicals in the water. Although she was lucky enough to have missed two of her swimming lessons, she still felt reluctant in joining the class.

When her eyes caught sight of the stairs that lead to the pool, she gave another sigh and began to think about what she had just said to her parents and the principal. Her parents would probably punish her when she got home and as for the principal, she would probably tell Chihiro to go to the nurse and let the nurse reason her into agreeing to the protection plan.

So deep in thought, Chihiro did not notice a most definitely recognisable boy, standing at the bottom of the stairs. It was the scumbag Arashi and another one of his friends, Takakazu. They saw her slowly descending down the stairs, but Chihiro herself still remained clueless of their presence. Detecting that she was completely unaware of the two, Arashi decided to take advantage of this.

"Hey Takakazu," he whispered, "Watch this,"

With a broad and vengeful grin on his face, Arashi stuck out his foot as Chihiro reached the bottom step. And as he had planned, she tripped over it embarrassingly. Instantly, Arashi burst into laughter as Chihiro began to fall. But the floor was wet. Unable to regain her balance on the slippery surface of the wet tiled floor, she slipped backwards. With a brutal smash, the back of her head crashed quickly into the rock-hard edge of the bottom step. Shock. Pain. These were the only two emotions that she could feel. The two boys watched, laughing at what had just happened to her. But a moment had passed and she still remained unmoved. The mocking laughter soon changed to take a more serious tone when realisation struck them. Blood.

"Fuck! She's bleeding!" Takakazu yelled as he crouched down hastily to help her, "Fuck! Arashi, What the hell did you do that for? Fuck! Ogino, can you hear me?"

"I-I-I-I," Arashi stood shocked and unable to answer his friend. Guilty thoughts rushed through his mind; he would more than likely be blamed for this and be in a heap of great trouble. His hands were sweating and his body was shaking; he didn't know what to do.

"Fuck! Arashi get help! Oh Fuck! OGINO! STAY AWAKE!"

Takakazu held her closer and more securely. Chihiro looked up and for a split second, she thought she saw Haku, holding her tightly in the warmth of his arms. She thought she could see his beautiful delicate face. This illusion was so real that she could almost feel his velvet skin and smell his unique, yet pleasant scent. She smiled a soft and weak smile.

"Haku…" she murmured in a fading voice.

The welcoming darkness attracted her mind so invitingly, drawing her deeper and deeper into its shadows. Her blood seeped slowly into the cracks of the tiles as she fell unconscious. Locking away in the furthest recesses of her mind, that collection of past thoughts and experiences that people more commonly know as memories.

A/N – Before I have people screaming and shouting at me for killing off the main character, can I just say that Chihiro is NOT dead! Lol. Please review if you have time. It's always appreciated. Thank u!