Waiting eight years for something would kill most people. Humans simply don't have enough time to wait that long. They'd either drive themselves crazy or forget about it and move on.
Chihiro certainly never forgot.
As a ten year old girl, Chihiro went on a life-altering adventure in the spirit world, but you should already know that. What you might not know is that this journey lasted just a full moon short of a year, according to mortal time. However, the important thing you must remember is the little promise Kohaku gave Chihiro before she left, that they would meet again someday.
Well, the day Chihiro returned from the spirit world, she vowed to start working towards meeting him again. Remembering that the boy had stated he couldn't find his way home, she figured that if his filled-in river was restored, he could return to the mortal world. Poor Chihiro, it took her six long months of bugging her father to propose at one of their town's monthly meetings restoring the Kohaku River. Fortunately for Chihiro, a candidate for the next mayor election caught wind of the idea and ran away with it on a purple elephant.
The man, whose glory-hogging name won't be mentioned in this story, rallied the local environmentalists and took their battle to court against the apartment complex owners who originally filled in the river.
A year later...
The environmentalists were the only ones still fighting, the owners of the complexes had been ruined publicly. Luckily, the environmentalists managed to secure the right to restore the river, just rerouted so it went near (but not through) the apartment complexes that covered the old route. As a bonus, the restoration project would be governmentally funded and protected.
ANOTHER seven and a half years later...
The project was to be completed the next morning (the government funds had halted several times and thousands of dollars had to be raised locally, causing the huge delay). Chihiro was now a fresh nineteen and as mysterious as ever to the mortal world. To humans, she had been uncannily mature, easy-going, an environmentalist (she loved to volunteer), happy with her friends, but always had an aura that made people think she was always looking for something very important that she lost. The locals believed it had something to do with the year she went missing with her parents, an event that was blamed on three kidnappers notorious for holding their victims for long periods of time on drugs that resulted in memory loss.
In private, Chihiro sometimes broke down crying when she went to bed, quietly because she still lived with her parents, or when driving her car. She could remember Kohaku clearly and often dreamt of him in both human and dragon form. It was a real love, the kind that never really dies. She could've moved on, dated other boys, even married, and she never would have rid herself of him.
Instead, Chihiro chose to wait until the river was officially restored. The official summer day, set at noon, she was hard to pick among the crowd of hundreds. The current mayor (who was not the candidate that promoted the project) was there with spectators and others who just wanted an excuse to get out of work and party. Chihiro beyond ecstatic; she just sat stunned at the river's dry edge, away from the crowd. It was hard to believe that her dream was finally coming true.
The workers had dammed up the spring that fed the old river when they had first filled it in. Now, far upstream, they were slowly tearing the dam down. Chihiro watched for several hours, unmoving, only gaping at the water that was slowly covering the rock-based riverbed. It wasn't until pitch dark, when nearly everyone had gone home and the river was at its fullest height that she began to panic.
The river had returned, but the spirit had not.
She mumbled, eyes watering, hugging her knees to her chest at the river's edge. In a fit of madness, she starting whispering her friend's name. She reached out towards the river with an open hand, crawling on her hands and knees, tears now ran freely down her face. Ice cold water met her small hand and she still continued moving forward. Seconds later, she had no choice but to start swimming.
If only she had known what I knew.
She was thrashing, disoriented, but never cried out. Slowly, she was falling into the water as her body tired and her hopes died out.
I adore e-mails, reviews, etc.
I have an idea of where this story will go, but any thoughts/suggestions/comments could help mold it into something better...updates are going to be very frequent.
