Author's Notes: This story was written in the space of an hour or two after I'd read one too many "chihiro is da most beautifulest princess in da whole world and is sooooooooo loved by haku that he allows her to slap him and treat him like crap instead of a river spirit that deserves respect! becuz men is STOOPID, duh!" fics. And the hideous part is that not all of the authors are teeny-boppers; some of them are adult women who would know better than to allow a "Mary Sue" to exist. For those of you who don't know what a Mary Sue is, please go to and search for Mary Sue; learn; and realize why most of the good writers of fiction fight hard to keep this creature from occurring.

Let it also be known that I AM dyslexic – and I refuse to hide behind that excuse. Anyone can ensure that their work is written neatly and presented in an easy to read format so as not to annoy the literate people in the world. Using dyslexia as an excuse is just another way of saying "I'm too lazy to make the effort of writing decently." To that end, this fic has been beta'd by a friend known as "JackisLove" who also hates the utterly craptastic quality of SA fics to be found on the 'net.

Disclaimer: "Spirited Away" is property of Hayao Miyazaki; Studio Ghibli; and Disney film studios.

Chihiro Ogino was not an average teenager.

Certainly, she did alright in school; she had friends, she played sports, she participated in after-school activities and did the chores required of her by her parents.

But she was also good-natured and unfailingly polite to her elders and teachers, and didn't whine when things didn't go her way; she simply knuckled down and worked around the obstacles in her path, and that was what was so un-average about her. Instead of being a rude, hormonally out-of-control, sex-obsessed brat, she was calm, confident, and a hard-worker, and followed the rules set down for her by her parents. Akio and Yuuko Ogino loved their daughter and delighted in what a well-mannered, socially adept child they had managed to raise.

Until one day...

The first indication that this morning was different from others was that she had been tossed out of bed roughly... and that her bed was, in fact, a nest of filthy, ragged blankets that weren't fit to wrap a corpse in.

"What...?" she mumbled blearily.

"Don't you 'what' me You're late! You're supposed to be up before we are; to have our breakfast ready! You know that!" growled a deep male voice.

Chihiro looked up to see her father glaring down at her as if she were trash. His hands were curled into fists and planted firmly on his hips.

"Daddy...?"

A scowl of disgust crossed his features. "How many times have I told you not to call me that? 'Sir' is what I want you to address me as!"

"I don't – Daddy, what's going—" She gasped and scrabbled backwards, pressing herself into a corner when he abruptly stomped forward, his hand raised threateningly. "Sir! Sir! I'm sorry, sir!"

"That's better," Akio grunted, and lowered his hand. "Get dressed and get upstairs. Your brother is whining to be fed."

"Where's—" 'Mom', she wanted to ask, but had the feeling that such a name wouldn't be received well. "—Madam?"

"She's having a lie-in. She deserves one, having to put up with you , after all. Why can't you be more like your brother?" Akio asked disparagingly.

I have a brother? Since when? Chihiro wanted to know. Only yesterday, she'd been the beloved only child of Akio and Yuuko Ogino. Seeing that her father was expecting an answer, she hurriedly bowed her head and said, "Yes, sir!"

He gave another grunt and stomped out of the room – which turned out to be the basement, upon closer inspection.

Chihiro shivered in a combination of shock, horror, and actual cold, and hurried into the dirty rags that apparently were her clothes. As she dressed, she noticed more changes had taken place. She was still sixteen – though, how she knew that, she wasn't sure. After all, her slim, athletic body had changed overnight; becoming as bizarre as the new family relationship she found herself in. She had the body of a fully mature adult woman: Long-long legs, curvy hips, a long torso, and an enormous set of breasts that made her lower back ache with the strain of their weight.

Chihiro also noticed an incongruity with her physical features, in that she apparently lived in squalor, but her skin was perfect; porcelain-dainty and her limbs were elegant. There wasn't a scratch on her, but there were a few bruises placed here and there, almost as an afterthought. Strangely enough, they barely caused any pain. Her hair, amazingly, was long – down to her hips, and thickly rich and absurdly curly; gleaming in a glorious chestnut color that never came anywhere except out of a hairstylist's dye bottle.

What has happened to me? she wondered, afraid of these new changes. I feel like I'm trapped in a nightmare! Almost as I did when I visited the spirit world – and from what I see, I'd rather my parents were turned into pigs! And what's this about a brother?

She ascended the stairs and found herself in the kitchen... where a vague mass that was apparently male sat at the table, glaring at her. It was a boy and had black hair and blue – no, green – no, brown – no... Oh, to hell with it. The color of the eyes kept changing, but the expression remained the same: Pure loathing.

"You're late!" declared a whiny, nasally voice. "You were s'posed to fix my breakfast hours ago!"

"It would have been cold by the time you ate it," she replied quietly.

An instant later, the vague boy form was off the chair and standing in front of her, kicking her shins and punching at her.

"I'm gonna tell Daddy you talked back to me!" the boy-thing shrieked, and kept striking her. "I'm gonna tell! I'm gonna tell!"

A part of Chihiro automatically cringed at the thought of being tattled upon; as if she knew she could expect something bad from such a thing happening. A larger part of her had different ideas.

Right, she decided. Enough of this. Time to find out what's going on.

She caught hold of the boy-form and marched it back over to the table, plonking it down on the chair it had occupied. The ever-changing eyes looked up at her, wide with shock, as she bent down to face the thing.

"I'm sorry you're upset," she said quietly. "That wasn't my intention. But, I'm afraid something is dreadfully wrong. I don't remember living like this. I don't remember having abusive, negligent parents; I don't remember having a brother. There's another thing: I can barely see you! All I can really make out clearly is your hair and your eyes, but I don't even know your name! Would you help me figure out what's going on around here?"

There was stunned silence for a few moments. Then, the mouth of the boy-thing opened and a piercing wail set forth.

"DAAAAAAAAAAAAAADDEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE...!!!!"

Akio thundered down the stairs from the floor overhead and charged into the kitchen. Chihiro found herself shoved roughly out of the way. Thanks to her new physical attributes, she overbalanced and fell hard on the floor. She winced as what should have been a minor sting instead made her feel as if she'd been hit by a runaway truck.

"There-there, Katsuo," murmured Akio, hugging and petting his beloved son. "Shhh... Daddy's here. What happened?"

Katsuo sniffled and huddled in his father's embrace. "That stupid bitch is making up lies! She says she doesn't remember any of this! She just doesn't wanna make my breakfast!"

Chihiro's eyes widened as the little boy used foul language. Even in the normal world – the one she remembered – if she'd said anything like that, her parents would have washed her mouth out with soap!

Akio let go of his son and turned to loom over his raggedy daughter. Behind him, Katsuo stopped sniffling and a mean look of vicious glee firmed his face; gave him finer detail than before.

"So... you don't want to work, is that it?" Akio demanded. "We keep you out of the goodness of our hearts and this is the thanks we get?"

Chihiro got slowly to her feet. She bowed politely, but did not take her eyes off the man that was supposedly her father. "I beg your pardon, sir, but I am telling the truth: None of this is familiar to me. I recall being the loved only child of Akio and Yuuko Ogino. Please, I would like to make sense of this situation!"

A moment later, she was knocked to the ground, and she cried out. Curling up to protect herself as best she could, Chihiro felt her father's feet and fists pound against her body, even as he yelled about her "just wanting to dodge work, you ungrateful, good-for-nothing little whore!"

Unable to fathom what was happening to her, Chihiro felt herself slipping away.

"Haku! Hey, Haku!"

The river spirit turned at the sound of his name. He was the same as he had been when Chihiro had left—

Haku gasped, abruptly, as his body changed shape without his command. But, it wasn't his dragon form he morphed to, but a new human body. Within a matter of seconds, he was taller, more muscular, and his hair apparently could not decide whether to be black or the sea-green it normally was, and eventually settled into being black with green highlights.

Lin appeared and stared at him in shock. "What happened to you?" she finally blurted out. "You were... you looked like a boy only a minute ago!"

Haku stared at his hands – now larger, square-shaped and long-fingered, and strong. "I don't... know," he said, and blinked at the sound of his voice; deeper, and rougher.

"Your eyes are freaking me out," Lin said bluntly. "They keep changing colors! They're not supposed to be blue!"

He gave her a worried look. "My eyes…?"

"Are – changing – color," she repeated, firmly and slowly. "It's really creepy. One second, they're green like usual, and then they're this dazzling shade of blue, like you'd find on a summer day."

They both blinked.

"Wait... what? Where'd that come from?" Lin asked, and went cross-eyed as she tried to stare at her own mouth.

"I have no idea," Haku muttered, and winced at the new timbre of his voice. "What did you need me for?"

"Hmph! I don't need you; Yubaba says there's a new guest that needs looking after, and that you're the only one who can do it." Lin frowned. "It was really weird, too – she seemed kind of withered; not like her usual self. And she called you 'The Master'."

"So? My title is Master Haku – my due as a river spirit."

"No... Not like that. As in: 'Go and fetch the master; he's the one she needs to see.' Like that."

Haku frowned. "She? Who's 'she'?"

"I have no idea. All I know is it's someone important enough to send Yubaba into a tizzy. Must be some sort of princess or another." Here, Lin smirked at him. "And you know what they say about princesses and dragons..."

"Yes – that princesses give dragons a bad case of diarrhea," Haku retorted. He waited for Lin to stop laughing, and then said, "That doesn't sound like Yubaba. Do you suppose she's ill?"

"She might be," Lin replied. She bit her bottom lip and looked worried. "She said something about calling Zeniba and asking her to come over..."

Haku's eyes widened. Now he knew something was seriously wrong.

"I'm on my way," he said. "Keep an eye out for anything else that looks... fishy."

Lin nodded and headed back into the bathhouse. Haku transformed into a dragon and made his way up to the top floor, where Yubaba's gaudy and sumptuous penthouse suite was kept.

When he got there, a frog hopped up to him. Haku's lips pulled back from his teeth and his ears flattened. The sight of the frog always made him hungry. However, Yubaba would not take kindly to him eating her helpers; would, in fact, most likely make him pay for "damages".

"Master Kohaku!" yelled the frog. It leaped up from the floor, hovered a moment, and fell down to the ground before leaping back up again. "Thank goodness you're here! Mistress Yubaba needs to see you right away!"

Haku melted back into his new form, and frowned when the frog failed to react with surprise to his new appearance. "So I've been informed," he said dryly.

He made his way through the suite to Boh's room and found both Yubaba and Boh clustered around the giant baby's bed, looking down at someone lying on it. Kamajii was there; one spindly spider-arm supporting the occupant while another tipped a cup of herbal infusion down the person's throat.

"Oh, Kohaku!" Yubaba gasped, and turned to him with tears in her eyes. "Thank goodness you've come! You'll never believe who's come back!"

Haku stared, horrified, at the sight of the tears. Yubaba never cried; she was a hardened old crone who lived for money and material things. Any affection she had was small, at best, and reserved only for her precious son.

"Yubaba...? Are you well? And why am I here, anyway? Why am I not—?" Before he could finish his question, she whirled away from him and gestured at the bed with a grand flourish. Boh mimicked his mother; a beaming smile on his chubby baby face.

He found himself looking at a human girl – utterly, gloriously beautiful despite the single bruise marring her left cheek. There was a faint scent of blood, but he couldn't see a wound on her anywhere.

"Ah... okay? Who is this?" he asked, confused.

"Who is...? Are you blind? It's Sen!" Yubaba cried, giving him a look like she believed he'd lost his marbles. "How can you not recognize her? You love her, after all!"

"I care for a young human girl – this is a woman!" he argued.

"Time passes on the human plane," the witch replied with a roll of her eyes. "It's been several years since she left us!"

Haku blinked. "How do you know? We've never followed the passage of human time before!"

She flapped a be-ringed hand at him; a gesture of impatience that served as her answer.

"It's Sen!" burbled the giant baby. He clapped his hands in delight. "Sen came back to play with me!"

"Of course she did, dear!" simpered Yubaba. "Sen is the sweetest, most loving girl, isn't she? Naturally, she'll want to play with her friend!"

"Hold on a minute, there," Haku cautioned. "Simply because Chihiro has returned – and we have yet to identify this woman as such – she might have other things on her mind than playing with a baby she hasn't seen in several years."

"Like what?" Boh pouted belligerently.

"Like getting back to her family? I know we all told you about how hard she worked to get her parents back. She's not likely to abandon them now."

"No... Please, don't send me back!" a frail voice quavered, and Haku looked back at the woman lying on the bed. Her eyes – a vibrant deep amethyst color – widened when she saw him. "Ha... Haku...?"

"I am the Kohaku River," he said quietly. "And you are...?"

Tears filled her lovely eyes and he felt a pang somewhere inside him for making this girl – girl? – cry. The others gave him disapproving glares.

"It's me... Chihiro," said the lady on the bed. She struggled to sit up, moving as if she were in great pain. Kamajii slipped an arm around her again and helped her up. She sagged back against him weakly. "Don't you recognize me...?"

"Frankly, no," he said, but before he could say anything else, she was scowling at him.

"I'm not surprised," she retorted, and her voice was strong and steady in an amazingly short amount of time. What had been quivery and weak a moment before was now cold and hard. "I'm not surprised – since you promised we'd see each other again and you never came for me!"

"I... what? I never told you I'd come for you," he stammered. "I only promised that we'd meet again someday. Where'd you get the idea I would...? And where would I take you, anyway, if I were 'coming for you', as you thought I would?"

"Well... to bring me back here, of course!" she pouted. "This is where I belong!"

"Working in a bathhouse?" he murmured skeptically.

"No!" A little, wounded cry. Her eyes filled with tears again. "Working with you... or just off flying somewhere... being with you!"

He sighed tiredly. "Chihiro... be reasonable. You're human. You can't expect you'd stay here. What would you do?"

To his surprise, she scrambled out of the bed, stalked over to him, and slapped him hard across his face.

"You're cruel!" she said coldly, and glared at him through the copious tears pouring from her eyes. A quick stamp of her foot that made her large bosom do impressive – and somewhat frightening – things. "You're not like I remembered, Haku! You're supposed to be my friend and be glad to see me! You're supposed to have missed me as much as I missed you!"

Slowly, he put a hand to his face. Where was the charming, sweet-natured girl he thought he'd known?

Wait… she remembered? How had that happened?!

To his surprise, rather than be angry at her for her unmitigated rudeness in striking him, or questioning how she recalled something she wasn't supposed to remember, he found himself saying, "I'm so sorry, Chihiro! Of course I missed you! Of course I'm your friend!"

She put her hands – dainty and elegantly pale things – to her face and wept hard. "No! No! You think I'm some ugly, smelly human! You think I'm worthless!" she bawled.

"Now look what you've done!" chorused Yubaba, Boh, and Kamajii at once; all three sounding as if they'd love to chop him into tiny bits and turn him into bath ingredients.

Haku was vaguely horrified by such reactions. Instead of attending to them, however, he wrapped his arms around the weeping young woman and hugged her tight. He kissed her hair and murmured, "No, I don't think that! Please, Chihiro, forgive me! I wasn't expecting to see you for a while, and now that you're here... It's amazing, Chihiro. You're a beautiful woman – so very beautiful!"

She stopped crying and lifted her gaze to him. Her tears sparkled like diamonds on her thick, black eyelashes. "You... you really mean it?" she sniffed. Abruptly, she stiffened and pushed him away. She walked over to the window to look out over the river, hugging herself.

"You can't mean that," Chihiro said tiredly. "You won't mean it; not when you... you learn of all I've had to endure."

A general feeling of alarm swept through the group. A more pronounced and urgent need to unrepentantly slaughter whoever had hurt her took hold of them.

"What happened?" Kamajii demanded. "Who hurt my beloved granddaughter?"

Chihiro smiled a watery, weary smile at the old spirit. "I missed that," she whispered. "I remembered you calling me 'granddaughter'." More tears pooled in her eyes. "I needed a grandfather, so badly!"

Kamajii hobbled over to the distraught young woman and wrapped her up in a firm hug and let her cry on his shoulder.

Lin appeared, then, and took in the scene before she turned to Haku and asked, "How did I get here? I was just scrubbing the radish spirit's tub!"

He had no real answer for her. All Haku did was smile and gesture at the pair by the window. "Look, Lin! It's Chihiro! She's come back to us!"

Lin looked at the young woman dubiously. "Wow... They really know how to grow 'em in the human world, huh?"

"Yeah..." Haku's eyes were shiny with adoration as they looked at Chihiro; eyeing her curvaceous form with a different sort of hunger than he normally felt.

Lin gave him a disgusted look. "So... what's going on? Why all the crying?"

Murderous fury crashed across the handsome face. "Somebody hurt her!"

Lin's eyes widened. "Who?"

"We don't know. All she's told us is that we'll hate her when we find out!"

"Hate her? For getting hurt? What a dope," Lin muttered.

"Oh, Lin!" Chihiro squealed. She pulled away from Kamajii with enough force that the old spirit toppled over onto the floor. She ignored him to rush over to Lin and throw her arms around her.

"Hey! What the—?" Lin sputtered, and struggled as she found herself wrapped up in a surprisingly strong hug.

"It's me – Chihiro! But, you'd know me as Sen, I suppose," said the young human woman with a giggle. "Oh, I've missed my sister so much!"

"Sister?" Lin repeated, confused. "Since when are we sisters? And since when do you knock Kamajii down and not help him up?"

Chihiro jerked back with a small cry of despair. "Oh, no! Not you, too! You don't remember me?" She completely ignored Kamajii as the old spirit picked himself up off the floor.

"I remember a little girl that was cute enough as far as humans go who started out as a huge pain in the butt and ended up being someone I could respect. I don't remember anything about that little girl being my sister!"

"But... we were best friends!" whimpered Chihiro.

Lin put her fists on her hips. "Uh-huh. Well, friends, I'll accept. Best friends? Eh... no. So, which is it? Sisters or friends?"

Chihiro gave another whimper and started to collapse.

Haku scooped her up and cradled her against his strong, manly chest.

"Now, Lin... how can you be so heartless?" chastised Kamajii. "Sisters can be friends, too!"

Lin snorted and crossed her arms. "Spoken like you've never had one."

The amethyst eyes opened and looked at Lin, with such a surge of emotion that Lin gasped and swayed, feeling light-headed.

A hand caught her arm and steadied her. She looked down to see Yubaba smirking up at her.

"Obviously, Lin has been working too hard," said the old crone. "That must be why she's saying something so mean. Of course she remembers you and loves you!"

"Yes..." murmured Lin; dazed and confused. "I... yeah... that must be it." She looked at Chihiro and panicked. "Oh, Sen! I'm so sorry! I never meant to hurt you!"

"That's okay..." whispered the young woman. She offered a brittle smile. "I can understand how you'd forget. I'm just a stupid human, after all."

"You are not," Haku growled possessively. He carried her over to the bed and settled her tenderly on the mattress and stroked her hair away from her face. "You're my light; my shining star and I've missed you so much... Chihiro... I haven't lived until this moment!"

"Oh, Haku! I've missed you, too! I... I love you!" she blurted out endearingly, reaching up to press the palm of her hand to his face lightly.

"My darling," he said softly, with such love in his eyes and his heart. "My love, my reason for being! We will never part from this moment forth! I am a river god – and you shall be my goddess!"

"I don't think so," growled a new voice.

Everyone spun around to see a black shade, roughly shaped as a human female, standing in the room.

Before anyone could form a defense – which should have been powerful and quickly enough – the black shade darted forward and wrapped its hands around Chihiro's neck and squeezed.

The woman on the bed kicked her feet timidly as she let loose a strangled, bleating squeal of fright.

"By the power of Miyazaki, I vanquish thee!" the shade yelled, and squeezed tighter.

Chihiro began smoking as her features slowly, ever so slowly, melted away. Pink, glittery vapor filled the air, and the spirits fell back, coughing and gagging.

When it was over, a new human woman lay on the bed. Her hair was neatly trimmed to her shoulders and a plain brown color; relieved only by a glittering band of purple. Her body was long-limbed, but slender and firm, and her charms were not overly generous. She had a pretty face, but it wasn't anything extraordinarily spectacular.

The black shade was gone. As the pink vapor dissipated into nothingness, the spirits all looked around, confused.

"What... What just happened?" asked Haku – once more in his young-boy-of-perhaps-eleven form.

"I don't know," growled Yubaba. "I think we were all under a spell." She gave Haku and Lin a mean-eyed glare. "It'd be the only thing that would make me speak like that to either of you – or allow you in these rooms, Lin! Get back to work!"

"Not until I get an explanation!" the working-girl retorted hotly. "I don't want to be here, but I wanna know what that was!"

"That," said the figure on the bed, her voice slightly hoarse, "was some evil entity pretending to be me in a manner of wish-fulfillment. I guess. I'm not sure. All I know is that I woke up in the human world to find that I suddenly had a brother I didn't remember, and an abusive father who beat me up for questioning reality."

"Chi... hiro?" Haku asked warily.

Chihiro sat up slowly and grinned at him. "Hi, Haku! Long time, no see."

He stepped back swiftly. "You're not about to slap me for that, are you?"

She blinked and slowly shook her head. "Why would I do that?"

"Because you – the other you – did. A few minutes ago, in fact."

Chihiro sighed. "Sorry about that. But, it wasn't really me." She looked around. "Y'know... it's really strange. Now that I'm here, I can remember being here when I was ten. But, up until this happened, I didn't recall anything. Just... maybe bits of a dream, here or there."

"That's our defensive magic," growled Yubaba. "If we didn't spell it so you human forget, every last one of you who's ever stumbled through to our side would have gone to collect an army and come back to take over. You lot are greedy that way."

Chihiro grinned impishly at her. "Said the pot to the kettle, right, Granny?"

"Don't you dare—!" Yubaba snapped, and pointed a gnarled finger with a long, bright red fingernail on it at the human girl.

"Sorry, Yubaba," Chihiro said contritely.

"You're not here to play with me?" asked Boh sadly.

"No, Boh... I'm sorry. I really do have to get back. I think everything's back to normal in my world, and my parents will be worried about me," Chihiro said softly, with honest regret.

Kamajii patted her on her back and she grinned at him.

"It's good to see the real you again, Sen," he said gruffly. "Now, you'd better get back across, or you'll start to fade."

"Good point," said Haku, and he held out his hand to Chihiro, who climbed off the bed and took it.

"Sorry about the glomping," Chihiro said to Lin, who smirked at her.

"You'd never have done that in your right mind," said the snappish spirit woman. She made shooing motions. "G'wan, get out of here." The human teenager started to turn, but paused when Lin called out, "Wait!"

"Who or what is Miyazaki?" Lin wanted to know.

Chihiro frowned, confused. "What?"

"Some black shade thing showed up and started choking the other you. It shouted: 'By the power of Miyazaki, I vanquish thee!' and that's when the other you melted into pink gas."

The human girl shrugged, bewildered. "I can't tell you, Lin. I have no idea."

Lin sighed and nodded. "Alright. I guess this is one of those 'mysteries of life' things. Get going."

Chihiro nodded and allowed Haku to lead her out onto the balcony. The three green heads and the Yu-bird suddenly appeared from thin air; in time to witness their departure as Haku launched himself and Chihiro off the balcony.

They flew through the air – both of them in human form – down the length of the building; spiraling around the structure, over the bridge, and down to the steps that would lead the way to the sunny, grassy plain that had previously been a moonlit river.

"Hey, Haku..." she called over the rush of wind. "What'd you mean by 'we'll see each other again'? Did you know this was going to happen?"

He didn't answer her; intent as he was on getting them to the steps where the plain began. It wasn't until he landed them again that he turned to face her.

"No," said Haku, tilting his head back to meet her dark gray eyes. "I only meant that we'd meet again when your spirit finally shed its mortal coil and crossed over to the spirit world to stay."

Chihiro blinked. "I... have to die to be here?"

He smiled at her sadly. "This is the spirit realm, Chihiro. You got lucky once. The magic that rules this plane might not be so benevolent again. You're human – and you're meant to live a human life until it ends, as all human lives eventually must do."

She sighed and looked away. "I guess that makes sense."

Haku took hold of her hand and squeezed gently. "What Yubaba said about humans forgetting this place to avoid the greed of humanity is true... but it's also a kindness for you, as well. This way, you won't pine away to nothingness, longing for something you can't have."

Chihiro smiled at him. "That's the Haku I remember – for now. Honest, but considerate of my feelings. You're a good friend, Haku."

His answering smile was large and full of warmth. "And you are as I remember you: A strong, practical, kind-hearted girl. If we had more time, I'd ask for stories of what your life has been like since you left us the last time, but you'll begin to fade soon if you don't go now." He frowned. "Just... reassure me? That you aren't being abused?"

Chihiro laughed. "Not in the least! My parents are good parents; they want what's best for me, but they don't spoil me rotten."

"Good. Otherwise, they'll have undone all our hard work," Haku teased. "It took some doing to take that whiny edge off you last time."

She pretended to pout, but quickly gave up when she realized he wasn't fooled in the least.

They hugged each other tightly for a long-long moment. Finally, they pulled away.

"Tell me all about everything when you come back," he told her quietly. "I'll be expecting to hear of a life lived to its fullest."

Chihiro nodded. "What about you?"

"Rivers can't be stopped; I found the source of mine again and I maintain what length of it I have. I'll be here and there—"

"—and back again," Chihiro said, along with him, and snickered at his surprise. "Remind me to tell you all about a guy named Tolkien and a story he wrote a long time ago."

"I look forward to it," Haku said. He took her hand and turned her around, aiming her to face out over the plain. "Now, go – and don't look back."

Taking a deep breath, Chihiro nodded once. She squeezed her friend's hand, felt a return squeeze... and then, walked forward; firmly and decisively breaking her connection to the spirit realm.

She would be back someday.

But she knew she had a true friend in the spirit of the Kohaku River waiting for her when she returned.

End!