Chapter Five

"So how do I get back to the human world?" Aika stretched her legs. She had fallen asleep last night on the hard wooden floor and was dealing with a rather nasty bruise she had earned from her mistake.

Bo shrugged. "Sen and Haku had to trick Mama into letting her go."

Hmm... How could she do that..? Yubaba seemed capable of commanding her to do anything.. A woman, or witch, with such power couldn't be dissuaded easily.

"Who is Sen, Bo? Everyone seems to know who she is, but me."

Bo's face lit up. "Sen was great! She was human too, though a lot more human than you seem to be. You would've liked her. Mama gave her a job here and turned her parents into pigs. I got very mad at Mama, and she let her go after a while."

Aika smiled. "You mean Chihiro?" Her heart ached slightly for her far-away friend. She had been in the Spirit world for two days now.

Aika watched as Bo frowned down at her with an intensity that was unusual for a baby. Of course, as she had found out from her discussion with him, he wasn't actually the age he looked. Apparently he was reaching his fifth millennium this month. She had to ask him why he chose to be so young sometime. Aika took a mental note of this whilst she waited for Bo to respond.

"No. I haven't heard of anyone called Chihiro coming through the portal before. Was she important to you?"

"Yes and she still is. I think the 'Sen' you are describing is Chihiro.. She told me Yubaba stole her name, like she stole mine. Chihiro and I were about to move to Tokyo before I fell into this place."

"What is Tokyo?" Bo asked curiously. "Is that a bathhouse too?"

Aika stared at him incredulously. "You've really never heard of Tokyo?"

"No, we don't hear much about the human world at all. Just all about the pollution and bad things you cause."

Aika blinked. "Well don't you have any good things here that came from the human world? Like maybe.. Chocolate? DVD's? Umm.. Electricity? Or wifi?"

Bo shook his head. "Who is Chocolate? Is she or he a human too?"

Aika's jaw practically hit the floor. "You poor guy! I need to fix this immediately!"

She rummaged through her pockets praying it hadn't been ruined by her soggy trip. Ah hah! She held it in the air triumphantly.

"What is it?" Bo prodded it with a large finger. "Is it safe?"

"This, is chocolate." She handed a small cube to him. "It is from a place from the world I come from. You eat it."

Bo looked at it wide eyed. "It's all squishy."

Aika winced a little. "Sorry about that. It melts pretty easily." She gestured to it. "Go on, have a taste."

Bo sniffed his fingers, before raising them to his mouth and carefully giving them a lick. His eyes brightened suddenly and he sucked the rest of his hand. "I wanna have more!"

Aika grinned. "Pretty nice, huh?"

Bo plucked the whole bar from her and scoffed it greedily.

"Are there any other things from the human world you brought with you?"

"Hey! I was going to eat that!" Aika watched him dismayed, then emptied out her jacket. "I have.. my paintbrush, my sketchbook, a pencil, one comic, a pack of gum and.. Oh, my phone."

Bo giggled gleefully. "Are any of them yummy like the Chocolate?"

"Not exactly.. What would you like to see first?"

"Well, the paintbrush is just like our paintbrushes, and we have sketchbooks and pencils here already. What is that?" He pointed.

"That? That's just my phone."

He leaned forwards to examine it closer. "It doesn't look like our type of phone. Ours is connected to the wall."

Aika picked it up and turned it on. "That's because in the human world we have portable phones now. Hang on a minute, I'll show you some of the apps I've got."

"Apps? Are they like apples? How do apples fit inside your phone?"

Aika chuckled. "Nope. They're definitely not apples. Look, this app is called 'Spotify'. You listen to music through it." She handed it to Bo. "Pick a song."

Bo tapped at the screen with a pudgy finger. Music blasted noisily from the phone, making him jump backwards.

"Oops, sorry Bo, I forgot to turn the volume down. There. That's a bit better."

Bo smiled happily and clapped his hands. "Your magic phone has a speaker in it!" He nodded to the song. "Does it do anything else?"

"Yep. I'd say I have at least five games on my phone, maybe three social media based apps and some other bits and bobs. Like with your phones it's main purpose is communication. I can text, send emails and call people from anywhere in the world."

"Wow." Bo gawked at the phone with respect. "What is text and email?"

"Basically a different way of sending letters and messages. Oh!"

"What?"

Aika clasped her phone tightly. Her blood raced with joy.

"Maybe I can send Chihiro a message to let her know I'm okay." She held her phone in the air hopefully, but she had no signal. None at all. "Damn. I guess I can only call people when I'm in the human world."

A loud sigh escaped her. She stared at the phone for a while, her heart sinking. She bit her lip. Aika was truly separated from her home. She couldn't even text her family, never mind see them. For the second time since she had arrived in this world, she let herself collapse.

She cried, letting her tears patter against the floor like raindrops. This was all too much. She couldn't remember her name at all; she hadn't eaten; she had barely slept; she would have been completely alone if it wasn't for Bo, in a world she knew practically nothing about still; and she was under the spell of a witch.

Bo tottered over to her, with one of the green heads from Yubaba's study following behind.

"Yob, yob?" It handed her a handkerchief.

"Thanks Hank. Sorry, I'm being a bit soft at the moment. I just feel so confused and everything that has happened seems so.. Impossible. A week ago I'd be sat in my room painting and chatting with my friends. Now I'm sat in a bathhouse for spirits telling a green, bobbing head I've nicknamed Hank my sob story."

It hopped up onto her lap and gave her the best hug a head was capable of giving.

"Thanks."

Bo looked at her. "What are you doing?"

Aika chuckled behind her tears. "No idea."

"No, really, what are you doing? Sen did the same when she was here, but with water."

Aika looked back at him, a puzzled expression on her face. "I'm crying."

"Oh. I was just wondering if there was a different name for it when you don't do it with water."

Aika froze. "What do you mean without water?"

Bo shrugged. "Well you're not using water at the moment."

Aika stared at him. "Bo. Humans are meant to cry water. What. am. I. crying?"

"Umm.. I don't want to worry you but.."

"But what?! I'm already worried!"

"Umm.. Well.. Aika, you're crying fire."

"What?!"