The Space Between
Disclaimer: Spirited Away is belongs solely to Hiyao Miyazaki.
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CHAPTER 1: lit belief
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"Ochida, Keisuke."
"Present."
"Odaka, Harue."
"Present."
"Ogino, Chihiro."
"Here." Mr. Tanaka paused and gave Chihiro a meaningful glance. "Oh, I mean, Present." She received a curt nod.
"Onizuka, Tsubasa." He continued. Blushing lightly, Chihiro returned to staring out the window. The garden club was currently planting some new additions to the school's garden, which was situated in the center of the courtyard around which the buildings were positioned. Not a fan of math, Chihiro let her mind drift. Her eyes landed on a particularly bright assortment of flowers that one student had just brought out from the opposite building. Even from the second story, Chihiro recognized the dazzling violet and pink hues. She suddenly remembered running through a narrow trail between two walls of those same flowers, anxiously following a boy with a white robe and brilliant green eyes.
Who was he? She reached out before her as they both raced through the flowered walls. He pressed on, seemingly unbothered by the various twigs and flowers that occasionally grew out into the path. He was walking much faster than she was jogging sideways. Chihiro tried to grab the end of his white robe, but suddenly he was another ten meters ahead of her. She was losing him! He turned the corner around another wall of the purple blossoms. Chihiro's breathing became heavier. She couldn't- she couldn't lose him again- not again!
Chihiro swiped at the bushes now, and they fell apart under the force of her swings. Running full forward through what now seemed to be a maze, Chihiro desperately tried to find him amongst the leaves, which were now growing at an amazing rate, creating corners in the middle of a straight path and dying off just as quickly to make a new route. The sky above her was growing darker and dark blue clouds were rolling towards her ominously. Panic-stricken, Chihiro ran without any thought. She didn't even feel some of the branches scratching her skin as she bolted by. The air became cold and the light was disappearing. Everything was bathed in blue as the sky merged into one flat palette of navy blue. The clouds began to section off into identical square tiles, and created patterns along the deepening gray vision overhead. Preoccupied by the strange activity above her, Chihiro yelped in shock when her steps suddenly became the sharp clacks of heels on tiles, rather than the dull thud of sneakers on the dirt.
She drew her eyes back down and gasped. She was in the hall of her school again. Weak moonlight filtered through the tinted windows that lined the abandoned hall. Chihiro glanced up and down the long passage. Nobody. Wringing her hands on the hem of her shirt, she approached the window. The small city was dark. Every building's lights were out. The only tiny specks of illumination that penetrated the dark town were old fashioned paper lamps that hung from the modern ones along the streets. Chihiro breathed heavily, making a foggy cloud on the glass.
"Chihiro." Her heart stopped. Swinging around wildly, Chihiro turned to find the source of the voice. The classroom behind her opened without warning or sound. Light suddenly burst from the doorway. Chihiro shielded her eyes with her arm.
"Chihiro." Chihiro Chihiro, who was Chihiro?
"Chihiro. Chihiro." She tried to lower her arm, but the light coming from the room was too bright. It felt as if she was not meant to look at it, as if the sun was residing in that room. "Chihiro." Who is it?
"Sen." Chihiro gasped. She threw down her arm, and the light penetrated her field of vision. All she could see was a faint outline- it was a garden. Walls of purple flowers, wilting quickly under her gaze- and standing in the middle, a young man with eyes that flashed emerald.
"Ms. Ogino!" the tin ruler smacked her desk. Chihiro snapped back from her dream with a start. She jumped in surprise and fearfully turned to face the smoldering face of her math teacher. "Number 9?" he demanded incredulously. Chihiro glanced at the blackboard where she saw various numbers over some letters that accompanied ever more numbers.
"Uhm…" Mr. Tanaka huffed.
"After school Ms. Ogino…again." He emphasized. Chihiro groaned. She had almost gone two months without having after-school detention.
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After-school detention wasn't entirely horrible. It was a just nuisance on her schedule, having to stay another hour after school. Chihiro disliked school enough having to stay there until six or seven every night to study for the High School Entrance Exams, depending on which teacher was supervising the "Optional" cram session. Detention added another hour to her sentence at school, AFTER studying, thanks to the flexible teachers at Oike Junior High.
The small room felt ancient. The walls needed a new coat of paint. Old newspapers were stacked in the corner, and forted off by several old boxes. Chihiro, Saito and Keisuke from Class 3-B were left to serve out their detention in the storage room.
"The boxes are dusty so move them to the desks by the window before you open them. When you're done unpacking the books into the shelves, mop the floors. I'll be just down the hall in the Teacher's room if you need me." Said Mrs. Hito.
"Yes'm." they choired. The teacher left the room. Chihiro started towards one of the boxes. They were indeed dusty, as if it had been dumped in the room and neglected for years. Coughing as fine particles rose into the air as she picked up the box, Chihiro made her way to the window.
'What's in this thing?' She thought painfully. The box weighed a million pounds!
"Need some help?" The other student from 3-B, Saito, picked up one end of the box.
"Oh no, you don't need to- uh, oh ok." Chihiro started, then admitted defeat and allowed him to help her ease the box onto the table. The duo moved awkwardly, avoiding touching hands under the hefty box. A cloud of dust rose up as they set it down. Chihiro waved her hand in front of her trying to clear some air. She leaned in to open the window behind the box. As she cleared the dust from her face and groped for the handle of the window, a flash of white seemed to weave between the stars in front of her, but before she could blink and confirm what she saw, it was gone. Her hand froze over the latch.
Chihiro stared at the spot in the sky where the flash seemed to have emitted from. It couldn't have been- no it was star, not-
"Is it…"
"What?" Saito was giving her an odd look. "Are you ok?"
Chihiro blushed. She must have looked ridiculous, staring off into nowhere.
"Oh! Oh, right, I'm fine! I just-" She glanced over her should, out the window again. "I guess I was just seeing things." Behind her, the other two students exchanged looks.
"You saw something?" Chihiro nodded.
"What did you see?" Keisuke asked tentatively. Chihiro paused, contemplating how she should answer.
"I don't know- something white in the sky." She decided. "It's nothing, probably just a star." Chihiro hurriedly returned to the other corner of the room, not noticing another nervous glace the two boys swapped. She couldn't exactly say she'd thought she saw a familiar white dragon. It must have been a delusion; it wouldn't be the first time. Sometimes the reflection of a cloud in a window often stopped her heart as they drove down the street. But on every occasion, Chihiro's double take would only reveal the mysterious opaque figure for what it really was; a cloud, a kite, a loose balloon…it always ended up a letdown and filled Chihiro with a familiar sense of ebbing hope.
It was strange though. Why had she dreamed of him today? Her memories of the Bathhouse and the company were fading slowly, in pieces. She hadn't been able to so vividly remember, much less dream of her time there since she was eleven. In the two years since that day in the rain, Chihiro had wrapped up that chapter of her life to be a product of a long and imaginative summer. She was tired of her heart racing every time they drove by the path that led to the old station. She was tired of sleepless nights with the face of a lost boy inscribed in her mind. Chihiro made efforts to forget the mysterious memories. But feelings could not be forgotten so easily- and a small purple band seemed to refuse to be thrown away.
They worked in relative silence. Chihiro had hoped that the other two, being from the same class would make their own conversation so that an uncomfortable silence, like that which was presently residing in the room, wouldn't occur. Unspoken thoughts seemed to fill the room. It weighed down the air. The tension between the two boys was heavy with anticipation. Chihiro, thinking that maybe the two have had a fight of sorts, didn't want to intervene by talking. Chihiro wasn't an introverted personality, but it took time for her to really feel comfortable with other people, especially boys. Those who paid her too much attention were rewarded with an awkward silence, their affections kilted. Chihiro didn't mean to appear cold, but the fact of the matter was, her heart just didn't skip a beat for anyone, even if she made an active effort and tried to force herself to fell something for someone who looked upon her with kind eyes. The problem was, whenever she tried to return the gaze, a boy ran across her distant memory, and she wasn't even sure he really held her hand. Did he even exist?
A metallic clang rang through the hall. Saito and Keisuke jumped. Interrupted in mid-thought, Chihiro looked towards the doorway frantically.
"What was that?" She wondered aloud. She turned to the boys for an answer, and was surprised to find them huddled in the far corner of the room, farthest away from the entry to the class. "Are…you two ok?" They turned their eyes towards her fearfully.
"Ogino, get over here!" they hissed and motioned frantically. "He'll be here any minute-"
"What're you talking about? Who's coming?" She raised an eyebrow at their curious behavior but moved closer anyway to appease their wild gesturing. Keisuke pulled her down behind the desk with them.
"The Ghost." He whispered. Saito looked to the side frightfully as if saying the word would summon the subject. Chihiro gave them a dubious look.
"The ghost." She repeated. Saito and Keisuke made hysterical shushing noises.
"Shh shh! Yes! Be quiet- he doesn't say anything if he doesn't see you."
"It says something?"
"Not if he doesn't see you-" Keisuke emphasized. Chihiro shook her head.
"You guys are acting crazy- there's no ghost."
"No Ogino- you don't know! You haven't seen him! You don't know the warning signs! Just be quiet!"
"Oh and you do?" They nodded furiously, looked increasingly anxious to end the conversation.
"Yes! That streak you saw earlier? That's one of them- its how it always starts, around this time- now shut up, he'll hear you!" Chihiro paused. The same streak she thought was…it's a precursor of a ghost? Was it a coincidence?
"How do you know that that flash was a sign?" They gave her exasperated looks.
"Because he's been here before! We've seen him- a couple times now! He's been coming around her for at least a month."
"Maybe longer, we don't know, we've only had detentions since May." Keisuke added in a hurry.
"It always starts the same way, same time- that's how we know he's going to show up." Saito urged. Keisuke kept glancing towards the door.
"What happens?" she asked reluctantly giving in to curiosity. The boys looked at her with an expression that clearly said they'd like nothing better than if she would just stop talking. "What happens?" she repeated.
"Ogin- ahg-" Saito rubbed his head in frustration. "Ok- first there's a white streak across the sky. Then a loud crash, somewhere down the hall, in the other wing, the one you just heard."
"That could've been anything-" Chihiro started to get up, but Saito pulled her back down shushing her urgently. Keisuke shook his head to her comment.
"-and then the lights are going to kind of flicker in order, from wherever he starts from and travels with him… you cant say that's nothing."
"Well that didn't happen." Chihiro said defiantly.
"It will!" He insisted. She frowned.
"You two are just trying to scare me now. That's just a bunch of things that would happen in a movie." With that, she stood up and quickly moved away from the desk. They stumbled, startled. Without getting up they began to motion for her to return again.
"Ogino!" She shook her head.
"Nuh-uh, I'm not going to fall for some story. Ghosts, spirits- dragons-" She added, almost as a reassurance for herself rather than to counter their claim, "-they're not real. I'll prove it, I'll go find out what fell over then." Their hisses urging her to come back followed her out into empty hall. Stubbornly keeping her eyes ahead of her, Chihiro walked out of the class with a purposeful stride. She wouldn't let them make her a fool. Taking a right, with no real intention to find the source of the crash, Chihiro headed for the cafeteria downstairs. She could use a snack between moving such large boxes. She'd tell them it was a pail later.
Her footsteps echoed off the walls. Chihiro tried to move quickly, becoming a little scared despite her determination to not let the boy's story get to her. Still, she picked up her feet and walked lightly on the balls of her feet so that she wouldn't make any self-haunting sounds as she proceeded down the stairs.
The lights were still on in the school for now. They would probably shut off around nine, which was when the last of the late clubs were to leave the campus and detention students were to go home- AFTER cram session of course. Chihiro, never who liked the dark, much less a dark empty school, was for one, grateful. She hummed an unknown tune softly, and walked into the cafeteria. The vending machines in the far corner were restocked at night if she did the math right. And they also always held the best snacks, which she could never get to in time during school hours because of rambunctious boys blockading the machine at lunch time. It really wasn't fair that her homeroom was so far from the lunch room. Slightly cheered by the prospect of getting a Mango Bread, Chihiro walked briskly to the machine.
"250 yen?" Chihiro frowned and began to rustle through her pockets for a 50 yen piece. "These prices are ridiculous." She mumbled to nobody in particular. Finally managing to scrounge a 50 piece from the deep unknown of her lint filled pocket, Chihiro quickly stuffed the money in the slots of the machine. With a friendly clink, the vending machine coils began to whir with electricity and untangle her coveted Mango Bread when-
"Hey!" The machine suddenly went dark and lost power. Chihiro seethed. "You stupid- you, hey gimme my bread!" Angrily, she hit the plastic face of the machine, as if it would revive the power. The failed method drove Chihiro to kick the base of the contraption. Unfortunately, the indoor school shoes were quite thin in the front, and Chihiro ended up cursing softly under her breath.
"Ooo, you-" In the middle of her berating of the machine, the cafeteria lights began to wink in and out of life. Chihiro paused, straightened up. A mild current shimmied down her spine in a strangely, not UN-pleasant, familiar manner. She began to wring her hands within the lower folds of her long gym shirt, which she had been wearing since after-school. Chihiro turned around slowly, backing up against the vending machine.
She yelped when the lights faded all together, and quickly clapped her hand over her mouth. With a quick scuttle, she went around the corner of the machine and squeezed herself into a space between the machine and the tray shelf. Chihiro heard her own breaths echoing softly within her cupped hands. She sat back on her heels and held her fists together between her folded knees and her chest, breathing deeply.
"They were just trying to scare me- it's just a coincidence- they were just trying to scare me- it's just a coi-ahh!" the lights flashed back on. Chihiro had just buried her face into her closed hands and didn't realize the lights were back on until she forced herself to pry her eyes open slowly. From her vantage point, Chihiro could see the whole cafeteria. It seemed much bigger and brighter then when she had first walked in. She dully noted how high the ceilings were now that she really saw them from being so low to the ground. Feeling vastly smaller than before, Chihiro stood up slowly, still not daring to let her noisy heels fall on the tiled ground.
"What just…oh!" Chihiro flew to her feet and dashed for the door. "Saito and Keisuke-" Her heels clacked carelessly on the linoleum steps as she raced up the stairwell. As she neared the top, she could see Ms. Hito poking her head out the door to the Office. She looked up as Chihiro neared.
"Ms. Ogino, don't run in-"
"Did you see?" Chihiro burst. Ms. Hito gave her an odd expression.
"See what?" Chihiro frowned.
"Uhm…nothing, just, uh, sorry!" She took off again.
"Hey- I said no running!"
"Sorry!" Taking no measure to slow down, Chihiro quickly reached the old store room where she, Saito, and Keisuke had been carrying out their detention. She opened the doors with a loud rattle.
"Ahhh!"
"Ahh!" Chihiro bounded from the doorway and tripped onto a nearby box. The three students looked at each other in slight shock. Breathing a little heavily from her run, Chihiro got up quickly and looked around. Keisuke and Saito were half crouched on the ground and seemed to have retreated even further back and were now along the far wall.
"What-" She takes another breath, "-what happened? Was it- uhm..i mean…" Not wanting to admit her curiosity regarding the rumored ghost, Chihiro looked away. She could hear Saito and Keisuke getting up.
"Ogino?" She looked up. The boys looked pale. Just by their expressions, Chihiro knew what they were about to say.
"A-are you sure it wasn't just a student?" They nodded together.
"He can't be he…doesn't wear a uniform of any kind, they're more like-"
"Robes?" Saito nodded furiously in agreement with Keisuke, who was looking distant.
'Robes?' Chihiro furrowed her brows.
"He asked for her again." Keisuke interjected into her thoughts. She looked up and met his eyes. They were shaking slightly, still darting a little from her to the door as if he expected it to open again.
"For who?" She asked, a little fearful now. Keisuke pressed his lips together, looking reluctant to answer.
"I don't know who she is."
"Who?" Chihiro pressed again. Saito was the one who answered.
"Sen."
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A/N:
NOTE: 250 yen about 2 dollars 50 cents, which is a lot for bread from a machine I think, but my thoughts on how much a vending machine bread costs might not be (probably isn't) accurate.
NOTE: Shirakawa-go- It's a small mountainous city famous for it's old farmhouses and rich history. I chose this place as a setting for Chihiro's life because it is close to another famous town in the Gifa District called Takayama. Takayama is a historical city, known for its narrow streets that are lined with small shops, cafes, and restaurants. It reminded me of the little village at the foot of the bathhouse in the movie, so I thought I'd base the fic in a slightly more modern city that is still close to the historical areas. Okie Junior High's name is derived from Kyoto Okie Junior high School, which is a real school in Shirakawa-go, but I didn't want to use it so directly. Anyways…
I wonder if some people might get angry with me because of how Chihiro has changed in the last three years. I don't like it, but I think it's more realistic that over the course of three years, a person might begin to wonder, and to doubt if something so magical that happened when they were merely ten really did happen. That's the thing with magic- it's so intangible that you're not sure if its there or not, or if it ever was.
I hope you've enjoyed this chapter- I really do because I creeped myself out a little writing it in the dead of the night as I usually do- not that it was very scary, but I'm a very visual person and it kept playing over in my head but with more horror film details than fantasy. I really cut out anything that implied horror so much so that this felt more like a children's movie.
Hehehe, yes i know, Haku barely has any part in this fic so far- in fact his name hasn't been mentioned since the prologue- i hope you caught that.
CH TITLE EX(planation): 'lit belief' refers to the flickering lights that marked the ghost's arrival as well as Chihiro's wavering belief. they were solidified when the lights flickered out then came back on full blast in the cafeteria. They were confirmed when she returned to the classroom.
Review please!