Chapter Three: Broken Gates
Chihiro yawned as she woke up, she had been dreaming about Haku again. Sighing she got up and dressed, her friend Keiko was waiting for her. They walked silently to school, nether one saying anything. A chilly wind blew through the trees, despite the fact that it was mid-summer. The events of the day before filled her mind as someone blocked their path. "Hey Chihiro," greeted a boy around their age, "how's it going?"
"That's none of your business!" Chihiro screamed and walked forward. The boy continued to block her path.
"Something wrong Chihiro?" the boy sneered. "Wow, I thought that you would enjoy a little company on your way to school."
"My company is enough," Keiko shouted, "now leave us alone!"
"I will once Chihiro agrees to let me accompany her to school today." The boy said. Chihiro shook her head and grabbed her friend's hand; they ran past the boy before he had a chance to stop him.
"Maybe you should be quicker next time!" Chihiro shouted back at the gapping boy. She and Keiko giggled as they walked to school, a few other classmates greeted Chihiro and Keiko and they would wave back. As they walked inside the school, Chihiro thought of Haku and shook her head. A single tear fell out of her eyes but it was quickly wiped away before anyone noticed.
Rin and Natsuko were munching on some of the food that Chihiro had left for them the day before. The weather was as chilly as the day before and they were tense from fear and worry. Natsuko had seen Chihiro leave with a girl and a boy had blocked their way. She prepared to put a spell on the boy that would make him freeze, but luckily the girls were able to get past the boy before she did. After all, she had heard what he said and it made her very angry. Thoughts of Haku filled her mind, thoughts of when they were still young river spirits, and thoughts of what had happened only a few days before. She missed him and wanted to get back as soon as possible. "You seem quiet Natsuko is something wrong?" Rin asked her friend.
"What no I was just thinking about something." Natsuko replied.
"Are you sure? You seem quite sad."
"No I am fine, don't worry about me Rin."
"If you're sure Natsuko…" Rin was worried about her friend. She wisely decided not to talk about it anymore because it seemed to make her friend sad.
No one noticed the young spirit walking through the gate that separated the Human World and the Spirit World. He knew something was wrong though, it shouldn't be this easy to access the Human World, but he was curious and continued on. He soon approached a large building, curious he walked inside. Chihiro was listening to the teacher, bored she looked outside she thought she could see someone enter the building, but it turned out to be her imagination. The spirit approached Chihiro's classroom, and opened the door. The teacher was surprised to see a young man of about 13-years of age there looking at the room. "Are you lost?" she asked him.
He looked nervously at the teacher and replied, "No, I was just looking."
"Who are you looking for?"
"Chihiro," the spirit replied, "I need to see her." Keiko looked at Chihiro in surprise; Chihiro was also quite surprised she had never seen this person before.
The teacher nodded, "Chihiro you are excused." Shocked Chihiro got up and walked to the person, he looked surprised.
"I didn't mean that," he started to stammer, "I never thought that she was here."
"I see," the teacher said curiously, "were you looking for someone else?"
"I just never thought that she was real I only thought that she was a legend or a myth that Haku made up."
"You know Haku?" Chihiro looked at the spirit.
"Yes, I do."
"What do you mean that you thought that she was only a legend or myth?" the teacher asked quizzically, "If you asked to see her then you must of known that she was real."
"I was kidding," the spirit said. Nervous he started to change into a dragon, just then Rin and Natsuko arrived. He stopped and turned around to face them.
"Yoshiro," Natsuko hissed, "I think we better leave these kind people in peace. I don't think your brother Haku would want to you disturb Chihiro if she has something important she needs to do." Yoshiro looked at her in astonishment, Natsuko never ventured out of the Spirit World, he didn't expect her to come.
"Yoshiro," Chihiro whispered, "you're Haku's brother?" Yoshiro nodded and looked outside the window. Lighting flashed across the dark sky and thunder shook the building, it started to rain. Light at first but steadily growing harder, wind whistled across the earth and the spirits knew something was wrong. The spirits ran out of the building and the teacher looked at the class. The sudden interruption had startled the class and she continued to teach the class despite the weather outside. Soon school was over and everyone looked outside, it was still raining too hard to walk home, meaning that everyone would have to take the bus home.
"Who's Haku?" Keiko finally asked her friend. "Do you have a boyfriend that I don't know about?"
"Haku," Chihiro lied, "who are you talking about? I don't know anyone named Haku."
Keiko giggled, "You asked that guy if he knew Haku when he mentioned him."
"I had a friend named Haku," Chihiro quickly lied, "he drowned in this river."
"So why was the Evil One chasing her," Yoshiro asked Rin, "I don't get it."
"She's the…" Rin hesitated and looked up at Yoshiro; she didn't want to say because she was fearful that someone might overhear her.
"She's what Rin," Yoshiro glared at her, "what's so special about her?"
"The dragon that could control all elements, that's why she was being chased by the Evil One."
Yoshiro starred at her and then at Chihiro, awed and amazed. Speechless, he walked over to Chihiro and bowed in front of her, some people thought that he was crazy but Rin knew otherwise. She smiled as he walked towards her. Keiko looked at Yoshiro for a second and then looked away blushing. Chihiro, noticing her friend's reaction, shook her head she felt exactly the same way about Haku. Tears started to fall out of her eyes as she thought of him. The bus soon arrived and Chihiro, Keiko, and a few others bored it.
Chihiro starred outside the window of the bus, the rain was stopping, and she smiled. It would now be easier for her friends to get back to the hiding spot in the woods. She wondered about Haku and how he was doing, she thought about the dream that she had.
Keiko quickly noticed that she was crying, "What's wrong Chihiro?"
"Nothing," Chihiro replied, "I was just thinking about something."
"It has to be something," her friend replied, "you're crying. What are you thinking about?"
"Stuff, don't worry about me I'll be fine." The tears stopped streaming out of her eyes and she smiled.
"It you're sure then." Keiko looked at Chihiro, worried; Chihiro thought that she could see two squiggly lines in the air. She realized that it must be Yoshiro and Natusko flying towards their hiding spot in the woods, she prayed that no one would notice them. As the bus stopped and Chihiro walked back slowly to her house, a spirit watched her.
Zeniba had followed Yoshiro when he walked through the gate, and she knew that something was wrong. She had come here to warn Chihiro that the gates were weakening and would slowly break. She soon spotted Yoshiro and Natsuko landing, quickly running over to them she quietly told the bad news, "The gates are weakened, soon they will break and the two worlds will soon be aware of each other. Yoshiro, you were not the first spirit to set foot on this land when the gates started to break, the Evil One was."
Rin looked at Zeniba, shocked, "If the gates are breaking, then doesn't that mean that the gods and the Spirit World are being somehow weakened? Oh no, the Evil One must of taken over control of the Spirit World, and if he's here in the Human World and the gates are breaking then that means that the Human World will fall to him soon! We must stop him!"
"How are we supposed to do that?" Yoshiro rebuked Rin. "No one, spirit or human, has ever defeated the Evil One except for the dragon who could control all elements, the dragon of nature."
"Yes, and we know who that dragon is." Zeniba looked at her, awestruck.
"You know who the dragon is?" Zeniba asked her. "Who is it tell me!"
"You know her, its Chihiro. We just found out."
"Chihiro, you mean that Chihiro is the dragon of nature!" Rin nodded and Zeniba was amazed. Yoshiro thought about what Zeniba had just told them, that the gates between the worlds were breaking. He knew that the effects could be disastrous and hoped that they would be able to stop the Evil One soon.
Chihiro walked inside her house and was surprised to see that her friends were there. Zeniba and Rin seemed to be talking about something while Yoshiro and Natsuko were looking around the house. "Oh you're home Chihiro," her mother greeted her, "some people came by asking to see you; they said it was important and had something to do about a dragon that could control all elements. It was still raining quite hard outside so I asked them to come inside."
Her father was fuming with anger. "You're mother let perfect strangers into the house." He quickly explained.
"Well," her mother said, "they knew Chihiro."
"How do you know that they weren't planning to kill her?"
"Please sir we assure you we won't harm your daughter." Yoshiro said bowing. "We owe her much for she saved my brother Haku's life."
"Then don't kill her!" her father roared in anger.
"We weren't planning to kill her." Rin muttered to Natsuko. "I wonder if all humans act as crazy as this when a stranger enters their home." Natsuko nodded slightly to show her agreement, so slightly in fact that Rin wondered if she had imagined it. Chihiro's father looked at her and she bowed, along with Natsuko in case he had noticed that she had nodded.
Making sure that Chihiro's parents had left the room Zeniba told her, "Chihiro, I have bad news. It doesn't have anything to do with Haku rather with the Spirit and the Human world. The gates are weakening and soon they will break, meaning that there will be no difference between the Human and Spirit Worlds. While you may not think it is bad we do, this is why. If the gates are breaking then it means that the Evil One has taken over the Spirit World and will soon take over the Human World, we are all in terrible danger."
"I never knew that," Chihiro replied, "I didn't think that if the gates are weakening that both worlds are being taken over by the Evil One. Why do they do that? Is there something else I might have to worry about if the gates break?"
"Unfortunately yes," Natsuko said cautiously, "there is something else you might have to worry about. Humans seem to attack or kill anything they are afraid of, meaning if they see spirits roaming around; they may try to develop weapons that can kill spirits such as us. The gates break because there is no difference between the worlds; both worlds are controlled in different ways. If a spirit or human gains control of both worlds, the gates will break. After the gates break the border between the two worlds will weaken, and will soon disappear. There are reasons why humans and spirits were kept apart and one of them is that so both worlds can not be controlled by the same spirit or human."
"Then how did the Evil One gain access to the Human World? Isn't supposed to be extremely difficult to gain access to the other world?"
"True it is difficult but it is not impossible. The difficulty is there to try to deter whoever is trying to pass through the gate from actually passing through. Though the gate in the Human World is generally easier to pass through, it is still hard to get through to the Spirit World. It is very rare for a spirit in the Spirit World to meet a human. I suppose the Evil One was able to gain access to the Human World after he somehow gained control of the Spirit World, though I am not aware of it. Perhaps he was determined enough to pass through, although difficult the gate will eventually give up and let you pass." Zeniba told her.
"I see, so um is it now possible for others to pass through the gate?"
"It always has been, though I wouldn't recommend it now. The gate may not be too stable as it is breaking, and if too many pass through the border the border itself will also collapse. By then it may be too late to repair the damage and the worlds may never be separate again."
"I see Zeniba," Chihiro said, "I just wanted to see Haku."
Zeniba smiled, "I will be returning to Spirit World soon, if you want me to I can bring Haku with me when I come back."
"Yes, please do!"
"Alright then, I should leave now as I am afraid if I stay here too long it will be hard for me to return to the Spirit World." She left; Yoshiro looked Chihiro who was now blushing.