Author's Note: Chapter Two! Time to see how the Hamada boys like the spirit world! I do not own Spirited Away or Big Hero 6.

Tadashi sprinted towards where the scream must have come from, ignoring his brother's protests for the moment. He had no idea where he was, or what the hell was going on, but someone was in danger, and he couldn't ignore that.

He ran up a hill and then running down the other side, having to slow down to trudge through a river. He sprinted between the booths, trying to avoid the... whatever those things were.

"Hey! You there!"

Tadashi whipped his head around for a moment and froze in place. A purple creature with tiny eyes and a huge mouth was starring at him. It advanced towards Tadashi, sniffing the air as it went. Tadashi began sprinting again just as the creature opened its gigantic jaw to bellow, "HUMAN!"

He ran along a street towards what looked like a bathhouse. He had thought the screaming was coming from there, but now he was less certain. He didn't have much time to decide though, since he could hear several sets of feet stampeding behind him. Surrounding the bathhouse were even more creatures, but most of them were focussed on going in and weren't paying attention to him. Or so he thought.

"Oooo someone's running awfully fast, now aren't we?" said an old woman's voice.

Tadashi took one look at the source of the question and fled. He was clearly breaking into something that people weren't allowed to enter. He passed a few booths and hid between two that didn't have many people near them. He squatted down and tried to caught his breath and regain some control over his mind that was completely confused.

The scream. That's why he came here, he had to find whoever was hurt. He had to grab them and grab Hiro and run until this place was miles behind them.

Hiro.

Oh no.

Where was Hiro? Tadashi told Hiro to stay put, but what would happen when Hiro didn't listen to him (as usual)? What if one of the monsters tried to grab him? Tadashi pinched his arm, just to make sure that all of this was really happening.

Just as he made up his mind to get up, he heard the scream again coming from his left, only this time, it sounded much closer and less human.

Confused, Tadashi got up and looked to the left. He could see booth after booth of the strange beings eating and enjoying the festivities, but a little ways down the path, he saw a creature that seemed to just be a mask and a cloak. The creature was being carried away by a few humanoids, reminding Tadashi of a bunch of cops removing a drunk man from a party. Another scream echoed through the night, this one sounding more like an impression of a human. The creature laughed, sounding plastered.

Tadashi was so transfixed by the strange scene that he didn't notice someone approaching him until the old woman's voice said, "You done running yet, you little guinea pig?"

Tadashi jumped and barely resisted the urge to run again. He faced the most hideous woman that he had ever seen in his entire life. She had a hooked nose that covered most of her face, which was saying something, considering that her face was about as wide as a baby pool. She had a wart on her forehead and wrinkles that were probably deep enough to hide something in. Her hair was in a bun, making her hair look like a large gray circle under a smaller gray sphere. Although she was shorter than Tadashi, he cowered away from her as if she were a giant.

"Who are you? Where am I?" Tadashi meant to ask in a polite, nonthreatening way, but it came out sounding like a demand.

The old woman blinked, long eyelashes coming together and pulling apart. "You certainly are a demanding little human, aren't you? Well, you should know that humans aren't allowed here."

"Okay! I'll go! Just let me -"

"Oh, no. That's not how it works here, deary. You see, I can't have you wondering around here, and I'm not going to distract one of my employees or disturb any of my guests by getting someone to escort you out."

Tadashi swallowed. He wasn't seeing any options that would work in his favor. "I swear, I just want to leave. I don't know how I got here, and I just want to go home." He looked around. There were more creatures not too far away, and he was terrified that this old woman also had claws, or tentacles, or something that could easy grab him if he somehow got away. He needed to get back to Hiro. This whole journey had been for nothing.

"Well, it actually is a good thing that you came here. We are running low on food supplies." the woman said almost casually.

Tadashi could feel his heart pound and his hands sweat. He felt like he was going to throw up. In a mad panic, he tried to shove the freaky woman aside and felt his hand pass right through her. In a full-on adrenaline rush, he ignored how disturbing that was and sped away.

"Pesky thing!" he heard a snap.

Suddenly, he was running on all fours at a much slower pace. He tried to get up so he could go faster again, but he found that he couldn't. Frustrated tears built up in his eyes and he began to beg the woman to stop whatever she was doing to him.

Loud oinking filled the air every time Tadashi opened his mouth. In confusion, he spun around, only to see that where his arms and feet used to be were now tiny pink legs. What?

The old woman approached him and he tried to get away. There was something important he had to go to...something precious.

"Lock him away with the others and fatten him up," the woman said. Large arms hoisted him up and carried him away.

The pig squealed. There was something important, just on the other side of that hill.

...

Hiro anxiously moved back and forth, working up the courage to not run away screaming back home. Finally, his mind made itself up and he thundered up and down the hill after his brother. "Tadashi!"

Splash. What? Hiro looked around down and around. He was knee deep in a river. The water seemed to be a few feet higher on either side of him, as if something were keeping the water from crushing him. Trying to avoid freaking out even further, he powered on, noticing that the festival seemed to be getting farther and farther away from him as he tried to get closer.

It took every ounce of energy that he had, but he finally made it across. He leaned against a wall and tried to catch his breath. He was soaked and sweaty, and his legs ached from fighting the river. Looking backwards, the small river seemed like a lake. He couldn't even see the tunnel they went through. Instead, (he had to rub his eyes to make sure they were working) he saw what looked like brightly-lit ferries coming across the bumpy waters.

"What?" Hiro mumbled, at a loss for what to say. Where was he? Was this some kind of parallel world? Was this the after-life? That would explain why Hiro was apparently a ghost.

"Hey! You there!" a high voice said from his right.

"Argh!" Hiro replied, turning around and running away. Where the hell was Tadashi? He must have made it across the river/lake, he couldn't have drowned. Hiro stopped running when he came out of an alleyway and onto a street. He looked to the right. Large beings that looked like crayon sketches of what animals and people were supposed to look like milled about, stopping at the food booths or walking towards something that was on Hiro's left. Looking to the left, Hiro saw an old-looking bathhouse, towering above all of the other buildings. Still no Tadashi.

Hiro wanted to yell out again, but feared what would happen if one of the strange...things discovered where he was. He searched the ground and found a block of wood. That would have to do for a weapon. He reached down to pick it up, but his hand slipped right through it. Oh, yeah, Hiro thought. Forgot about that.

His eyes scanned the crowd again, hoping that his brother would just pop out. No such luck. Okay. Hiro took a deep breath and prepared to take a step forward.

"Hiro? What are you doing here?"

Hiro didn't scream, but what he did do wasn't much better. He jumped in the air and immediately thrust out an arm to smack whoever made the noise.

The creature he nearly hit blinked and slowly looked down at the arm that was passing through its stomach. It looked like a large, white blob with two black dots for eyes and a black line for a mouth.

Hiro took a breath and decided to go with the defensive strategy. "Stay away from me!" he narrowed his eyes, hoping that his voice didn't crack.

The creature didn't seem to feel even mildly threatened. "I am Mubō. I seek to heal the sick and injured." He seemed to regard Hiro curiously. "Humans are not allowed in the world of the spirits."

Hiro gulped. The voice didn't sound threatening, but Hiro was too freaked out to think optimistically. "Alright, well," he stepped back a couple of paces. "I'm just going to get my brother and go, okay?"

"Hiro, humans are not allowed here."

Hiro's hands were trembling. "H-how do you know my name?"

"I have known you since you were little."

Okay, that's a little weird. But Hiro was on the urge of a panic attack and needed help. He needed Tadashi. "Listen, have you seen another human today? I need to find my brother."

Mubō looked at him with what must have been sympathy (it was difficult to tell with two dots and a line for a face). "I have not seen another human."

Hiro's mind raced. "Do you have any idea...? I just... I don't know where to look."

Boy, Hiro felt like a big baby. Hot tears threatened to leak out of his eyes. God, he was frustrated. He just wanted this to be over!

"You will be alright. There there." The spirit reached out and patted Hiro awkwardly on the back.

Hiro took a deep breath, a little uncomfortable with the fact that the spirit was touching him. "Please, I need help. You said humans weren't allowed here. What happens if someone finds one?"

"If one is found, Yubaba deals with them."

Hiro felt blood leave his face. "And...what does she do to them?"

"They are converted into the food supply," the being said matter-of-factly.

Hiro jerked his head around, feeling more and more desperate. He had to get his idiot brother out of here NOW.

"Where do they keep the food?"

"Humans are turned into pigs and taken to the pigpen. It will be several weeks before your brother is considered fat enough to be eaten."

What?! Hiro had no idea how to turn a pig back into a human. Somewhere in his muddled brain, Hiro made a note to never let Tadashi live this one down. He would be making pig puns forever. But then he remembered that this was real, and that his brother would be eaten, if he hadn't already faded away.

Hiro looked down through his arms. He couldn't do anything other than move around and talk. He didn't even have any cool ghosty powers. How was he supposed to save Tadashi like this, especially without being caught himself?

"I don't know how to save him! Can you take me to him and turn him human again for me? I don't know what's happening to me!"

"You are in the world of the spirits. This is where spirits come when they're not in the material world. Humans aren't meant to be here."

Maybe that meant that they would be okay once they got back home? "But...What can I do to get Tadashi back?"

The spirit held out a hand, offering something the size of a walnut. "Eat this, it will stop you from fading."

Hiro didn't normally trust people he just met to give him food. Several scenarios popped into his head, most of which involved the food being poisonous. But since he saw no other option, he picked up the food and swallowed it after only a moment of chewing it.

Looking down at his body, he almost laughed in relief to see that he was no longer transparent. He poked his stomach... he could feel it! He reached over to the wall and put his palm against it, for the first time feeling grateful for the way the cool brick felt against his skin.

The spirit regarded him curiously. "You are less anxious."

"Yeah, well it's nice to be 'real' again." Then Hiro remembered something Mubō said earlier. "Wait, that wasn't a part of the 'converted food supply,' right? I didn't just eat something that used to be a human, right?"

"To my knowledge, no."

"That's reassuring." Hiro thought about the food properties. He had no idea how magic worked (he was still shocked that it even existed), but it seemed safe to assume that the food he had just ate had the ability to revert you back into your true form; thus making him a tangible human again. Maybe the same could work for Tadashi?

"Would feeding this to Tadashi make him human again?" Hiro asked, desperately wanting a yes.

"No, you would need a spell to make him human again."

There goes that theory. "How do I get the spell?"

"I will try to assist you in searching for a spell, but if you intend to stay here, you need to get a job."

Hiro raised an eyebrow. "A job? What, you spirits kill humans unless they agree to work for you?"

"If you have a job, no one, not even Yubaba can hurt you." Mubō replied, not entirely answering the question.

Hiro thought about it. He occasionally took shifts at the café his Aunt Cass owned; and he hated every minute of it. He was constantly bored and hyper at the same time, he hated interacting with the customers, and he just hated the whole 'working' part of it. Whatever job he got here would probably make that seem enjoyable. But if he wanted to save Tadashi, it didn't look like he had a choice.

Tadashi was going to owe him for the rest of his life.

"What kind of jobs do you guys give us petty humans?" Hiro's cocky attitude was returning.

"Go to the boiler room and ask Kamaji if he can help. He could get a job in the bathhouse."

Hiro peered around the corner at the large building. A long line of spirits were crowding into the door of the first floor. He guessed that given the size of the building, the overflow of customers, and the fact that they were willing to spare his life only if he took the job, that it would be the hard manual labor that people are normally against minors doing. This was going to suck.

Author's Note: I hope you enjoyed! It was interesting to write how Hiro would react to this situation, since he and Chihiro are so different. Mubō seems like Baymax, doesn't he? But why wouldn't Baymax know his own name? Hmmmm

The scream is based a little on a true story. My uncle has goats that sound like a person screaming, which freaked me out to no end when I went to visit him. But who was that spirit and why was he screaming?