Summary:
'I saw it, but I couldn't believe it. The red roofs and the rushing waterfalls echoed in my memory, both distant and recent, both familiar and foreign. Haku sensed my unease, and grabbed my hand. That, too, was similar--the same, but not.' AU It's seven years since the events in the movie have taken place. Chihiro's reincarnation is dreaming of the bathhouse. When Haku finally finds her, will she be the same as when she left the bathhouse? I think not. :D And so it begins...!
Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN SPIRITED AWAY. I think Miyazaki would have a problem with that.
EDITED 11/10/08 A/N: Thank you very much for your review, Syncopation! I hadn't seen any of that, and so I appreciate your comments. I fixed the repetition (I winced myself when I reread it), but I'm going to leave Val's name as is. The meaning behind her name (I think) is a bit representative of Val herself, as well as a lead-in to later plot developments. Besides, that's what I want to name my first girl (though my sister says she will disown me and adopt my daughter as her own if I actually do follow through with that ^^;). So, I apologize if it was Mary-Sue-esque in any way, but the name stays. :D Thanks again, my anonymous reviewer! I hope you can stomach the first part enough now that I've changed it slightly to at least attempt to read the rest.
Prologue
"How the hell do you know about Yubaba? She's not..."
"Real?" Joe sneered. He strode up to me until he was a mere foot away, his face red with rage. I looked up and realized that I didn't need to look at him to know what he looked like. I could close my eyes and perfectly recreate him from memory. In fact, if I was going to be honest (if only in my mind), I could have done so the very first day he showed up at my school, because I had been looking at that face since I was ten years old.
"What do you know about real, Valkyrie Mary Hiver?" he continued bitterly. "You've been deluding yourself for over seven years. You have tried to make yourself forget this place, the people, what happened, convincing yourself it wasn't real, it was all in your head. Guess what? Play time is over, Val-san, and it is time to grow up and face the music. You have to save your brother, and you don't know how anymore."
I was shaking my head, back and forth, so slowly. "What are you talking about, Joe?" I whispered.
Joe laughed, a bitter sound that made my heart tear to hear it. "Call me by my real name, Val-san." He grabbed my arms so hard that I squeaked. "What is my name? I know yours; you know mine. Say it!" He shook me, as if he could force me to admit that I knew who he was - who he really was.
I tried to make my tongue move, but I couldn't. This was frighteningly familiar - when dreams lock your body up so tight that you're a prisoner in your own body, so that the crucial moment passes and you can't do anything to make it right.
The moment was passing while I hung in his grip. I could see the fiery anger in Joe's eyes fizzle and fade until it was nearly gone, replaced with a matte despair. I slid from his hands. He remained still, looking as if he would try to pull the confession from my eyes from pure force of will.
"Say my name," he pleaded with me. I flinched as the bitter despair in his words cut through my paralysis. "I can't help you if you don't admit you know who I am. Who you are. Where we are."
"...I can't." And I couldn't. If I admitted that I knew what Joe was talking about, if I confessed that these darkest fears of mine were true, then I would be confessing that my dreams - my nightmares - my delusions - were all real, and I couldn't handle that. If they were real, I had no hope of getting David back, and I couldn't face that.
With that single sentence, Joe shut down. It was as if I was looking at a statue of a demigod, so breathtakingly perfect and dead it looked. "I guess I was wrong, then." He started to walk away.
I slid to my knees and stared at Joe's back. It was getting smaller as I watched him walk away from me for the very last time. This time, there was no hope of waking up.