"Hey, how you holding up?" Haku looked up to see the Weasel Spirit that had become his friend and right hand woman.
"Fine, Rin. Just thinking." The water spirit answered.
"Thinking about this last battle, or thinking about the war?"
"Neither actually. Thinking about the past, when we were at peace. Before the war started, before I had to go into battle. Back when I was just a trapped River Spirit who found it impossible to deny help to a ten year old girl." Haku stood and walked towards the window.
"She's been gone for eight hundred years, Haku. If there was any way of her returning, it would have been centuries ago. She's not the one."
"But the way she could calm the spirits. She has to be the one Rin. There is no other explanation how she controlled the No-Face. It was no coincidence that her being here sparked the revolution in the first place! You got your name back two weeks after she left, as did most of the workers. Yubaba was overthrown only a century later."
"And the biggest war between Yubaba's allies and Zeniba's friends was sprung. I know Haku. I've been there from the start. Maybe she was a catalyst that started the war between the sisters, but she can't be the one to end it, she'd die in the process!" Rin was getting agitated, the thought of her friend between the two waring sisters terrified her.
"Not if she was destined for this from the beginning. A spirit in a human vessel, kept safe in the human world until the time came for her to return to our world and end the war. Rin, if this war continues it'll bleed out into the human world, we could end the Universe."
"Haku, have you ever heard of anything like that? And how do you explain her returning in the first place hmm? Was she supposed to have started it, then end it?"
"I don't know, Rin. It's just too much of a coincidence, I cannot ignore it. I-" he was cut off by a knock at the door.
"Master Haku! Humans are at the bridge! One of them looks like Sen, she was on the floor!"
"Chihiro..." Haku glanced at Rin before taking off out the window. He turned into his dragon and flew down where the two disappearing humans were kneeling.
Rina and Linnette were on the edge of hysteria. First they enter this bizarre place that mimics the dreams their best friend had been having. Second their best friend passed out in pain. And third, they were disappearing. Their hands became transparent until they could no longer see them. Both girls were passed the point of shouting for help, and just stared in horror as their forearms and elbows began fading away. Suddenly there was a cold wind and a boy had appeared. With no preliminary introductions he shoved the berries into the girls' gaping mouths and stooped down to pick up the chestnut haired girl lying on the ground.
"Follow me." he said in a hollow voice. The girls just nodded and followed along behind him. They couldn't keep the shock or the recognition off their faces. He was the one from the pictures. Rina thought of the portraits that lined the halls of Chihiro's room, most of them were of the green haired man with piercing Emerald eyes. The drawings hadn't done him justice, he was gorgeous!
Haku led the two girls over the bridge, through the first floor to the elevator. After exiting on the twenty second floor he led them back across the bathhouse until they reached the elevator that took them upstairs to the top floor, where his office and bedroom were held. Rin was already waiting by the door with food.
"You need to eat more or you'll disappear." she had started to say until she noticed the limp girl still in Haku's arms. She quickly thrust the bowls into the other two's arms and shadowed Haku until he laid Chihro on a futon.
"Explain." Haku said in the same hollow voice.
The girls started talking, sometimes over each other, but they managed to get the point across. Chihiro used to dream about this place, she would draw this place. They explained how they got there and how she collapsed after seeing the bathhouse, and how her collapse was an hour ago.
"She hasn't woken up." Rina said in a soft voice.
"What are your names again?" Haku asked, curiosity filling his tone.
"I'm Rina."
"And I'm Linnette."
"And how long have you known Chihiro?" Haku asked.
"We grew up together. We've known her for years. Have been her best friends since kindergarten." Linnette answered proudly.
Haku's brow furrowed, "So you three and Rumi?"
"Who?" Rina asked, confused.
Haku just shook his head and walked over to the human laying on the futon. He knelt next to her and placed his hands on her templed, "In the name of the water within me, awaken her."
Chihiro had been dreaming again, but this dream was more detailed than every before. She saw everything. From the moment her parents turned into pigs to the time she gave Haku his name back, all the way to her returning home and passing through the gate. She was remembering everything and the searing pain in her head was ebbing away. Then she heard his voice and she became aware of everything again.
Everyone gasped when Chihiro sat up in her futon. "Haku!" she turned and looked into the green eyes next to her, and without thinking, threw her arms around his neck. She clung to him and adjusted her body so she was kneeling. Her face was buried in the hollow of his throat and her hot tears trailed down his neck and chest. He was startled at first, but his arms wound their way along her waist and he held her tight against him, murmuring soothing words into her hair. Chihiro sobbed away the last eight years of her life then stood up and shakily made her way to Rin, where the tears started all over again.
"How did you get back?" Haku asked after the tears were dried, the girls were fed and they were all settled in with hot mugs of tea in their hands.
"I don't know, I was on my way home and something pulled me over here, I just had to come and see if the gate was open."
Haku nodded and took a sip from his mug. "It's not safe in our world. Zeniba and Yubaba are at war with each other."
There was a tinkle of broken glass and a puddle of tea spread along the floor, but the Chestnut haired woman didn't move or speak. Rin cleaned up the mess and picked up the glass and all eyes were on Chihiro to see her reaction, and to make sure she didn't have a fit.
"How?"
"After you left, the workers started remembering their names. They, they revolted against Yubaba for their freedom back. To be out of their contracts. But many of them didn't want to, they wanted to forget their past, to forget why they chose to lose their true names in the first place. The spirits that wanted freedom looked to Zeniba for help. She agreed that enough was enough and that Yubaba needed to stop, those that wanted to forget signed their names back to Yubaba and she turned them into her army. Many other spirits, old friends and acquaintances of theirs chose sides. We haven't had peace for eight hundred years."
"But I left eight years ago."
"Time runs different here." Haku shrugged.
"So, now what?" Rina asked, looking around the spacious room. She seemed to be soaking in the details.
"So now you three have to go." Haku said with a stern voice.