Spirited Away Fanfiction
by Tashhhh
so sorry people! This is the real chapter four. If you read the next chapter without reading this one... well I guess you won't miss that much, but read it anyway D:
Also another mistake I noticed is that in the last chapter I pretty much settled on AkuSen going to the local middle school in town, which has the creek running through it. In chapter 2 I had AkuSen and Iyashi getting on a train to commute to a school in the city. Let's just say they were ditching school that day and going downtown for some shopping instead. Which they must do quite often since they have met the same students to pick on more than once, as was implied.
Anyway, without further embarrassment to the author, here is chapter 4, and the next one which I already uploaded is now chapter 5.
Chapter 4 Ice cream Relapse
Kohaku ducked beneath the trees, then changed into human form in the canopy of the woods. He wandered through the forest in the early evening breeze, following the one scent that stuck out to him. Suddenly, the scent was uninterrupted by forest matter, as Kohaku came across a clearing across river that was small enough to be called a creek, but big enough to be paddled by canoes.
Over by the corner of the block, crossing a street, was a girl that could have been 11 to 14 years old. Her hair was a little lighter than most people in this country, and it was tied up into a ponytail with a small speck of hot pink visible in the distance. She had a long sleeve white shirt, a cream-colored sweater vest with blue trim, and a cool gray skirt that she wore at mid-thigh. Long white socks and sleek black loafers completed the look of the fashionable Japanese middle school girl.
Kohaku was about to run over to her and say hi, when he heard something else. His sensitive ears picked up on a small voice somewhere behind him. It felt like the distress of a spirit so similar to his own, that he could not ignore this call. He growled to himself, annoyed at having to wait to see Chihiro again, but alas duty calls.
He went back near the woods, and wandered along the creek until he saw a small boy sitting on a section of rock on the opposite side, crouched with his head down in his folded arms. Kohaku stepped on a brown paper bag clinging to the bank, as he waded across the river, and then emerged on the other side, using some magic to dry himself off instantly.
Small sobs could be heard from the shaking child. He was also soaking wet head to toe.
Kohaku stepped beside the boy, softly, but not silently, so that he would not startle the poor child.
"Shimai on Ogawanushi," he greeted softly.
The boy raised his tear stained face to look the older guardian in the eyes. "H-Haku-nii?"
"Shi-chan," he replied affectionately, remembering the nicknames they used to use. He knelt down and put his arm around the smaller boy's shoulders, speaking gently. "What are you crying for, Shi-chan? Look how big and beautiful your river has gotten. Look how the insects have gathered, they can't stand to see you like this."
Indeed, there were a dozen small neon lanterns popping on and off around the pair. A frog sat in a crack of mud between two rocks croaking softly. A confused honeybee wandered by and brushed her fuzzy yellow coat against Shimai's white shirt, leaving a little bit of sticky nectar. Well, at least she tried.
Shimai turned and hugged Kohaku tightly. "HAKU-NII! I haven't seen you in forever! Wow, I thought you were dead! Your river is all concrete and caps now."
"I put spells on some of the caps so that humans can't get in," irrelevant as this statement was, it made Shimai giggle. He brightened up while talking to Kohaku.
"Wow, they'll be so pissed! But you're back now, so who needs humans? Where did you go? Where have you been all this time? I missed you, Haku-nii!"
"Heh, slow down little one," said Kohaku. "Come and walk with me." They got up and Kohaku led the younger spirit out of the forest preserve, heading for the ice cream shop in town, which Kohaku had one gotten to know well since his return to the human world.
"When the humans built over my river, the change was such a shock to my spirit that I almost died. I was brought to a bathhouse to recover, but I ended up signing a contract and getting trapped there."
"Aw, that's terrible! What were they thinking? God, I hate humans!" Shimai shouted spitefully.
"Oh, Shi-chan. Humans may be troublesome, but we spirits would not exist without them. Besides, they are no different than every other animal on this earth, trying their best to survive."
They got to the concessions-style ice cream stand, where Shimai got a strawberry scoop with whipped cream on top, and Kohaku ordered cappuccino flavor. In waffle cones, of course. "Also, they invented ice cream. When I got back from the spirit world, I had the biggest junk food binge..."
They both laughed loudly and smiled. Then Shimai continued, "But Kohaku, it seems like some humans are evil for no reason at all. They just torment you and dump crap into your rivers and laugh in your face!"
Kohaku saw right through to the subtext of Shimai's remark. "Alright. Tell me what's going on, Shi-chan."
"A human has been bullying me..." he looked slightly ashamed.
"What? Who has been doing this? I'll definitely help you!" Kohaku growled, while licking off a melting trail.
Haku could not believe Shimai's story without seeing it for himself. He couldn't help imagining how it would have gone if he had ran up and greeted Chihiro like he originally intended, and was now very glad that Shimai had distracted him.
The next day, he observed quietly, using various bits of magic here and there to help remain invisible to Chihiro, as he watched her throughout the school day. Indeed, it was true. The kind brave little girl had been replaced by some kind of awful demon. But this human still looked, sounded and smelled so precisely like Chihiro, and even though it was completely out of character, it's personality somehow resembled the darker sides of the good Chihiro. For a second Kohaku thought maybe there was nothing wrong with her and she had just gone bad, but he refused to believe it. There had to be some sort of explanation, and he would find out what was going on.
After a while he got frustrated with thinking "evil chihiro, good chihiro," all the time, he decided to reserve Chihiro's name for her real self, and came up with the name "AkuSen" to describe this new personality.
He growled in frustration to himself as he went flying in the night to relieve the stress. Why do these problems happen to him? He was a powerful river spirit and he had a dragon form and tons of magic at his disposal. Why couldn't his problems be things that he could bite in half or blow up? The wind howled frustration, and a certain devilish girl shrieked in annoyance, running home as she was suddenly pelted with rain.
This is a fan-based work which is not affiliated with Studio Ghibli, and not published to any commercial ends.