Chapter 2. /Ghost
"HAKU!" Lin screamed slamming her hands down on the desk piled with papers.
"Huh? What?" the dragon boy looked up from his work.
"God, why are you so dazed? I've been calling you for like a thousand years!" The brown haired woman glared, but then softened up and smiled slyly. "Are you thinking about Sen?"
Crash! Haku fell right out of his chair as soon as Lin finished her sentence. "W-what?" he stood back up, his green eyes widened. "I-I was . ."
"No, no, no." Lin waved her hand like she was swatting flies. "Don't deny it. Your face says everything." She leans down, beaming as if she'd hit the jackpot. "You miss her don't you?"
Haku continued to stare at the desk as his hands sorted out the papers he had dropped during his surprise fall. It had been six years since Chihiro left the Spirit world and he hadn't visited her even once like he promised.
But even if he had gotten his name back, Haku wasn't allowed to go through the portal at this period and the order was from someone he couldn't go against no matter how strong he was. That person was the Spirit King.
Not many people know why the King had ordered this, but according to some rumors, it is said that a certain criminal had escaped from the dark pit and had declared war against the king. All the spirits were to participate in this war.
As if that wasn't bad enough, Haku couldn't even go see his river, since it was in the human world as well. With no place to go, he had to work at the bath house, but without forgetting his name of course. He knew Yubaba's trick now and wouldn't make the same mistake twice. Being the only best worker she had left, Yubaba had no choice but to let him work.
Haku clenched his fists angrily making the papers in his hands disolve into dust. Just because of this war he had to hold off his reunion with Chihiro. Who knows how long this war will be? Chihiro might be dead when everything is done and that was what made Haku upset.
"What did you want to tell me?" he asked, trying to focus on his work. Perhaps this war might end faster than he thought. Maybe.
Lin pouted, upset that Haku had managed to go around her question. She sighs, defeated. "Just wanted to tell you that Yubaba had called for you over thirty minutes ago." She says and crosses her arms.
"What? Thirty minutes ago?" Haku dashed towards the door. "Why did you say so?"
Lin shrugged. "You were dreaming about Sen." She smiled smugly. "Don't you know it's bad luck to wake a dragon from his sleep?" Haku growled and left Lin laughing her head off.
…
Chihiro yawned. School was so boring and there was nothing she could do to pass the time. The teacher had already taken her book, her mobile phone, even her notebook. What in the world was she going to do now? Thank god it was lunchtime. She could at least rest during then and find another book in the library.
It was hard to eat her bento and orange juice. Normally, she would have two or three books beside her to keep her company as she ate, but now that most of her books were taken away, she was left with nothing but food for a friend. Just thinking about this already made her feel bored.
As she looked around the cafeteria, her eyes started seeing things again. Each person in the cafeteria had a ghost-like person who looked just like them, coming out from their head. She couldn't see them correctly, but could see what their true natures were. When someone said, "Ah! It looks so cute on you!" the ghost on top of their head would growl, "What a stupid outfit!"
Chihiro shook her head and tried to concentrate on her lunch. But she couldn't help but see the ghosts everywhere. They were on every person. Not to mention, she could hear them loud and clear. Clearer than what the real person says.
"You just lost your books to the forces of evil." A girl with short auburn hair smiled, plopping down beside Chihiro. "It's not funny, Kisa." The brown haired girl sighed again. "It was a very good book. Now I can't find out what else happens."
"Oh boo hoo, seriously Chihiro, you have to read something else besides myths and legends. They just make people superstitious. Why don't you try reading something else like romance or adventure?" Kisa suggested on as she opened a her yoghurt box.
If you were wondering about Kisa's ghost, it looked rather normal and sometimes would say, "Come on, think for yourself!" or "Wake up! Earth is calling you!" Kisa's ghost was usually a sky blue color.
The ghosts had strange colors to them. Those who were normal and happy were sky blue. When something happens, they change according to their emotions. Like if angry, the color would be red, or if sad, it would be a dark blue. There are other colors like pale, soft blue, which represents laziness/sleepy/boring etc etc. Yellow usually represents happiness, but gold represents greed. Green equals envy and violet is vanity.
Chihiro shakes the thoughts from her head as she sips her orange juice. "Those books don't have the excitement I find in myth books." She says, but deep down she knows the truth, that why she read those books was to find out more about the spirit world. She missed her friends and especially Haku, missed him so much it hurt to even think about him.
"No excitement?" Kisa nearly choked on her yoghurt. "What part?"
"Well, everything!" Chihiro said, whipping her head around to look at her friend. "I don't feel the spark in it, no feeling, nada. Myths are different. They have a sense as if things like it really did happen long ago. A sense of reality and fantasy meshed together. Adventures are fun, but to me they aren't as exciting."
Kisa sighs. "Oh well, shut up about about your sainted myths for a second and listen to this. You know the annual Summer Queen Dance party? This year they're hosting it at the beach! Isn't it cool?" Soon Kisa was droning on and on about an upcoming dance party. "Yeah, it's cool." Chihiro said poking at her rice.
But it was oblivious to Kisa how boring the conversation was to her. If there was anything that could brighten her mood at the moment, it's if there was a possibility that she could re-enter the Spirit World. She had tried finding the familiar red gate, but she could never find it no matter how many times she retraced her way to it. There were no little shrines on the road and there none of those creepy-looking statues.
"Just what happened? Why can't I go back?" she wondered and sighed again.
A few hours later, school finally ended and Chihiro walked down the hallway with Kisa still going on about the beach party. "You're coming this year right?" her auburn-haired friend grabbed onto her arm, with big puppy-dog eyes. "Please, please, please! I don't want to go alone! And besides there's a beach, why not go?"
"Sorry Kisa, but I have plans already." Chihiro said shaking Kisa's hands off her arm. "Yeah," she thought to herself. "Plans to find the tunnel . . . again."
"Aww, you're no fun! Come on, it's just once a year! It'll be fun!" Kisa pleaded.
"What part is?" Chihiro wanted to know. "The party or the part where we'll be openly humiliated by miss-too-perfect-behind?" As if to make her point clear, she nods her head towards the end of the hallway where a perfectly beautiful girl with long gold hair and stunning emerald eyes. The ghost hanging above her head had a self-satisfied look and was completely violet.
"What? Yumiko?" Kisa shook her head in disbelief. "You're always scared of her aren't you?"
"I am not!" Chihiro hissed. "It's just . . . I'm tired of her telling me what an overly-unattractive person I am."
"Well, news flash!" Kisa threw her hands in the air. "Guys like you! Plus, miss-I-rule-the-world hates you, because YOU ARE attractive! She's just plain jealous that's all! It's time you get confident enough to fight back! You said you're tired of her telling you, you not attractive right? Well get up, dust off and bite her!"
"Easier said than done." Chihiro mumbled and clutched onto her backpack. Somehow, what Kisa said wasn't wrong, but it wasn't that Chihiro didn't want to fight back. She was afraid that even if she did fight back, she'd still end up losing. That was what scared her more than any blond haired queen could. Shaking the thoughts from her mind, she decided to focus on the spirit gate.
As she walked out to the parking lot where her bike was, Kisa trailed behind her trying to talk her into joining the party. A sudden bubbly laughter caught her attention. When Chihiro looked up, she saw a bright pink convertible parked right beside her bike. Yumiko was holding a bottle of water in one hand while the other was holding a bright pink bag.
The blond girl was about to get into her car when she saw Chihiro and Kisa. Smiling slyly and with a quick movement, she dumped her entire water bottle on Chihiro's shirt.
A sharp gasp drew from the brown haired girl's lips. "Oh!" Yumiko said casually. "I didn't know you were there. You were just so . . . invisible!" her lips curled in an evil smile.
It was as though the stress of school and the spirit gate rose to the maximum level. Because before Kisa could say anything, Chihiro was already screaming, "You did that on purpose!" She was quite shocked about it. She had never fought back before and somehow, it felt good.
"Oh yeah?" Yumiko stuck out her chin at the brown haired girl and walked up closer. "What are you going to do about it? Shine your utter ugliness on me?" She cracked up laughing like a maniac, her cronies behind her joined in the choir of mocking laughter.
Chihiro growled, "Do me a favor would you? Go curl up someplace and die!"
Yumiko's emerald eyes squinted angrily at the retort, but then smiling evilishly, she says, "What's this?" With a swish of her hand, Chihiro's brown hair flowed to her shoulders, as the purple hair tie left her.
"GIVE IT BACK!" Chihiro screamed, reaching out to grab it.
"Uh-uh!" Yumiko said and pulled it out of the other girl's reach. "You want it? Come and get it! Only pretty people deserve something as cute as this." Yumiko said and tied her own hair with the hair tie.
"YOU WITCH!" Kisa glared. "Chihiro's way prettier than you and your huge butt!"
Again a sharp gasp escaped the blond girl's mouth. "H-huge . . . butt?" Yumiko glared at Kisa. "I AM THE PRETTIEST GIRL IN SCHOOL! I AM PRINCESS! I AM QUEEN! HOW DARE YOU SPEAK TO ME THIS WAY! MY DAD OWNS A BIG COMPANY AND HE WILL SUE YOU TO HELL! ONLY I AM ALLOWED TO HAVE PRETTY THINGS! NO ONE IS PRETTIER THAN ME!"
Chihiro's chocolate brown eyes widened. The ghost was turning into a different color, but not like before. The ghost was now growing bigger and bigger into something like a shadow and was changing colors rapidly between brilliant red, violet, and black.
Suddenly, the purple hair tie began to spark. "Huh? What?" Yumiko could feel a strange heat behind her head. Her hand instinctively reached up to there it was and jerked her hand back as the hair tie sparked again. "W-what's happening?" her eyes widened.
Chihiro noticed that the hair tie she had been wearing for years from the spirit world till now was beginning to burn. "No!" she thought and ran over to try and yank it off. "I don't want it to burn! It's the only proof about the spirit world!"
But her hand couldn't touch it. Yumiko's hair was now on fire. It didn't take long for the fire to consume her entire body. The blond girl screamed as the fire continued to run down her body from the tips of her hair to the end of her heels.
Chihiro stepped back, frightened at what she was seeing. Some of Yumiko's friends tried to stop the fire by splashing her with the water in their bottles and the teachers were running out of the school to see what was happening, only to see a dying cheerleader.
The ghost was now a giant black fog screaming angrily at Yumiko. "I AM PRETTIEST!" it shrieked at her. It wasn't trying to stop the fire, instead it just let the fire go and kill Yumiko. It seemed as though the hair tie was the thing causing her to combust into flames.
With one last scream, the flames and their victim turned into black dust and flew away with the wind. All that was left was the purple hair tie. Chihiro walked over slowly, she was still shocked and frightened at what had just happened. That ghost seemed to have triggered something that caused her hair tie to combust. Picking it up, Chihiro continued to ponder over what had happened.
Deep down, she knew that this had something to do with Zeniba's spell.
The teachers were asking all of Yumiko's friends what had happened and they all pointed at Chihiro. "She did it!" they said.
"Wh-what?" the brown haired girl stared in shock. "I didn't do anything!"
"We'll talk about this later. All of you go home. We will call your parents and talk about this tomorrow." The principal ordered, still quite flustered at what had happened. One of their cheerleaders had all of a sudden exploded into flames and crumbled to dust. Just what had happened?
Chihiro gulped and pulling out her bike, she starts heading down the street. She knew someone who could answer her question and luckily, he isn't from the spirit world, but a person who had ventured through that same gate like her.
"Hey wait! Where are you going?" Kisa called after her. Chihiro turned her head back and said, "I'm going to find Koutsuki!"