'Back to the Spirit World' Ch. 1 Fanfic

Chapter One

       Chihiro Ogino flipped to the next page in her book.  She sighed and wiped the sweat from her face.  It was the first week of summer vacation and she was spending it inside reading a book.
   It had been six years since Chihiro had crossed over to the Spirit World.  Six years since she had met Haku, her first love.  Six years since she saved the Spirit World.  Six long years had passed since she let go of Haku's soft hand and walked back into the human world.
   She didn't realize it until she crossed into the human world and couldn't look back; she loved Haku.  She loved a Spirit.  Even though she was young, her feelings for Haku were there.  She didn't know why or how it happened, but it did.  She loved the impossible.
   She hadn't told anyone about the Spirit World, her friends, or even Haku.  She didn't have time to tell them.  With every passing day she forgot a little more about the Spirit World.  She would try to remember it with all of her brain power, but she couldn't figure out what was happening or why it was happening.
   She lost her last memory of the Spirit World one night while she was dreaming.  The last look at Haku's face before turning around toward the human world was her last memory.  She woke up and had an aching pain in her heart.  She knew she had forgotten something but she couldn't figure it out.  Then eventually, she didn't even try to remember.  She dreamed about the Spirit World often, but didn't realize that it had actually happened.
   Chihiro wrote down the dreams that she remembered in a notebook.  Almost every entry was about Haku and her friends.  She never gave a second thought about it.
   She was never able to have a boyfriend.  When someone confessed to her, she told him the truth, "I'm sorry, but there is someone else.  I can't even remember him at all.  I don't know who he is.  I just can feel something.  You wouldn't understand.  I'm sorry.  It's nothing I can explain easily."  They all thought she was just lying and giving an excuse for not saying yes.  
   Oh of course she liked some boys.  There was one boy named Eichi.  She liked him a lot but that same something kept her from pursuing their relationship.  The day Eichi confessed to her was a little more than a year ago.  Chihiro was walking home from school when Eichi rode his bicycle up beside her.  "Can I talk to you?"  At that point they were already in the woods leading up to her house.
   "Yeah, what do you want to talk about?"
   "Chihiro," Eichi muttered nervously, "I, um, see I," Eichi looked down at the ground in embarrassment.
   "Yes?"
Eichi looked up quickly and closed his eyes, "I like you!  Will you be my girlfriend?!"  Eichi kept his eyes shut and was breathing heavily.
   Chihiro's mouth was open with shock.  She liked him so much, but something inside her told her that she couldn't accept.  She then realized how much it took for him to confess.  She walked over to him and hugged him.
   "I really like you too, a lot.  But I can't be your girlfriend.  It's complicated."
   "Tell me.  Why can't you if you like me too?"  She could tell that he was hurt.  She wanted to tell him everything she could.  He deserved that.
   "Let's sit."  They sat on a huge rock and she told him about not being able to remember something, but every time a boy would ask her out, something inside of her told her not to accept it.  She told him that no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't get rid of the void in her memory.
   After she told him everything she could, they sat there in silence.  Eichi eventually broke it, "I understand.  I'm sorry."  He smiled at her and got up.
   "Eichi!"  He turned around, "If I get this thing figured out, I'd be happy to be your girlfriend."  The autumn leaves rustled violently.  
   "Do you promise?"  He came over and held out his pinky finger.  Chihiro held out her pinky finger to entwine hers to his when the leaves ferociously flew off the tree in a gust of wind.  Chihiro looked to the trees after pulling her hair out of her face.
   She quickly entwined their fingers, "Promise.  Now let's get out of here before the wind blows us away."  They laughed and went their separate ways.
     The wind followed her until she got home.  She had no idea why these things kept happening.  She wanted to find out, but she would have to wait for the right time.
   Chihiro reached over to her desk and grabbed her cup of ice water.  She took a sip as she continued reading.  A strong wind suddenly blew into her room and leaves flew in.  One stuck to her face and she picked it off and looked at it.  Her gaze wandered out the window.  Her chest suddenly tightened, and she had the urge to go outside.
   Chihiro closed her book, slid off of her bed and changed into her loose purple shirt and jean shorts.  She brushed her long brown hair and braided the front sections of her hair to the back and secured it with a colorful hair band that she kept with her at all times.  She walked to the front door and slipped on her flip flops.  
   "Mom, Dad, I'm going for a walk!"  She yelled over her shoulder.
   "Ok, be safe Chihiro."  Her mom called back.
   Chihiro slid open the door and stepped outside.  She started walking towards town but the wind pulled her the opposite way.  She felt the same pain in her chest again.
   "Well, I guess I'll go this way first."  She laughed to herself.
   She entered the forest beside her house and kept walking.  As she was wandering around, she looked around at the trees and birds and all the life inside the forest.
   The last memory she remembered before the void was driving through the forest toward the house.  The memory right before that was getting out of the car and running in to something.  What was it?  She thought.  She tried concentrating really hard on that one thought but nothing appeared.  She groaned loudly.  
   "This is so frustrating!"  She yelled, "It doesn't make sense.  The sequence is out of order.  How can that be possible?"  She hit her hand against the tree next to her in anger.  As soon as she took her hand off of the tree, rain started to pour down.
   "Of course you would!" she yelled at the sky.  She tried to cover her head with her hands and stand close to tree but it was raining too hard.  She moaned and started running to find cover.  In the corner of her eye she saw something huge and red.  She turned her head and saw a tunnel.  "Thank god!"
   She ran toward it and saw a weird statue standing in front of it.  She stopped abruptly in front of it and stood in the rain.  She looked down slowly at it.  It stared right back at her.
   ("Slow down you're going to kill us!")
    "No."  She whispered.  Her head shot up towards the tunnel and she ran in to it.
   "That statue gave me a strange feeling.  I think I've seen it before but I don't remember."  Chihiro continued running full speed until she reached the middle of the tunnel.  She looked around and saw that there were benches on each side.  She decided to take a seat for a little while to catch her breath and get dried off.
   Chihiro suddenly heard the distant sound of a train.  
   ("Do you here that?"
   "It sounds like a train."
   "We must be near a train station."
   "Come on, let's go check it out.")
   Chihiro stood up and ran to the exit of the tunnel.  As soon as she got to the opening, she gasped.
    The sky was perfectly blue and it wasn't raining anymore.  "What?"  Her confused face looked into the sky and then back down to the land in front of her.  The wind was blowing gently and the grass was a perfect shade of green.  
   "Wow.  This place is beautiful."  The wind picked up a little bit and a couple leaves hit the back of her head.  She turned around to look at the tower that stood before her.
   ("I knew it.  It's an abandoned theme park.  See?")  Chihiro stared at the building and then back behind it.  There was nothing but grass going on forever it seemed like.  
   "That doesn't make any sense!  I just came out of the woods!"  She started to walk quickly back towards the tunnel but a strong wind picked up and blew in her face.  She could hear a soft, deep sound and it came from the building in front of her.  She was suddenly nervous to go back in.
   ("Did you hear that building?  It was moaning."
   "It was just the wind.")
   Chihiro shook her head.  She didn't know where all of these weird thoughts were coming from.  But this place was beautiful and she wasn't going to spoil it.
   Chihiro ran through the grass twirling and jumping.  She felt like a kid again.  She stopped abruptly.  "I was such a bratty kid.  I should have acted like this!  I was always whiny and annoying."
   ("Anyone can see you're a lazy, spoiled crybaby.  And you have no manners!")
   Chihiro wrinkled her eyebrows in confusion.
   She started walking again.  She jumped across a stream filled with big rocks, and up a flight of stone steps.  She began to smell something.  It smelled delicious.
   She walked quickly up the hill and into a small town.  Cute, colored little buildings lined the streets.  She walked through and came upon a store with food on the counters.  She walked in and stared at the food.
   ("Come on, you guys.  You can't!")
   Don't eat it.  Her instincts told her.
   Chihiro sighed in disappointment, "Darn.  It looked so good.  But I mustn't be greedy, it was probably put out there for someone else."  Chihiro kept walking.
   "It seems like there's no one here.  Why was there food on the counter then?  They must be somewhere nearby."  She started looking around for other people.  "Hello, is anyone here?"  Silence.  "Hello!?"  Chihiro started to get nervous.
She soon came to a large set of steps.  "Maybe they're up here."  She started to climb.  As soon as she got to the top, she gasped.
   ("That's weird...It's a bath house.")
   On the other side of the bridge, was a huge bath house.  "Why does this seem so familiar?"
   The light had started to fade from the sky.  "Wow!"  The sunset was a gorgeous shade of orange and red.  She ran to the side of the bridge to look at it.
   ("You shouldn't be here.  Get out of here.  Now!")  
   All of the sudden Chihiro's heart started hurting; like she had lost something dear to her.  She started crying.  She knelt down on the side of the bridge and put her head in her lap.
   "What have I forgotten?"  She sobbed.  "I know I have forgotten something important, and I want to know!  It hurts."
   ("Will we meet again sometime?"
   "I'm sure we will."
   "Promise?"
   "Promise.  Now go.  And don't look...")
   "It's you."
   Chihiro quickly looked up and gasped in shock.  She hadn't looked at the person yet.
   "Oh, I'm sorry!  I almost took your food, I'm so sorr-"  
   "Chihiro."
   She looked the teenage boy in the face.  He had shoulder length green hair and large green eyes.
   ("Don't be afraid.  I just want to help you.")
   ("And don't forget, Chihiro.  I'm your friend."
   "How did you know my name's Chihiro?"
   "I've known you since you were very small.")
   ("Meet me at the bridge.  I'll take you to your parents.")
   ("I've tried everything to remember mine."
   "You can't remember your name?"
   "No.  But for some reason, I remember yours.")
   ("I've got to go now, but I'll be back to help you soon.  Just stay out of trouble."
   "Thank you, ----, you're a good friend.")  Think Chihiro, think.  Chihiro stared into this boy's face and he smiled.
   ("You did it, Chihiro!  I remember I was the spirit of the Kohaku River."
   "A river spirit?")
   ("Keep quiet!  I don't want my sister coming up here.  Ow!  A paper cut!"
   "---- we're falling!")
   Chihiro stood up and looked at the boy's clothes.  She stared at his face, hair and eyes.  He smiled at her, and suddenly, (HAKU!)
   "Haku?"  Chihiro said slowly.  The boy nodded his head while smiling.
   Haku tilted his head and whispered, "Chihiro."