Haku flew back straight. The sky was just brightening. Few humans were awake so early on a Saturday, and he was just a passing flare on the windshields of those who were. It was quiet. Too quiet. The birds knew, and they had all gone. Haku scanned the ground below frantically. There she was, walking out of her house. Haku dove down between two houses, careful to keep out of her sight, and transformed. He went over his appearance with care. Urgent as this was, he couldn’t afford a mistake now. His ears were ringing with tension. Fujisan had just as much as said he was… Haku pushed the thought away and ran out from the alley into the street. She was nowhere to be seen.
Haku took a deep breath, sorting through the scents that lingered in the air, and found hers easily. He followed it at a run, turning a corner just in time to see her walk into a house at the end of the street. With the door open, he could just hear a woman’s voice coming from within the house out into the quiet morning.
“Chihiro?” the voice was saying. “Risuni has a friend named Chihiro. She spends a lot of time here. In fact, she just walked in.”
There was a pause.
“She’s about Risuni’s age. They’re both headed off to college soon.” Pause. “What? Kohaku is here?”
The door swung closed. Haku cursed the need to be discreet, and ran faster. He would need to find out who they were, and what they knew, but for now he kept the questions out of his mind. There were more pressing matters. Less than a minute later, he reached the house and pulled the door open to see Chihiro and her long-haired friend, as well as an older woman whose voice he had heard from the street, staring at him. She was still holding the receiver of the phone.
His gaze skipped from one stunned expression to another. “Get outside. Now,” he ordered. “There’s an earthquake coming.” A part of him registered that the small television in the back of the living room showed dark plumes of ash rising from the familiar cone-shaped mountain.
They didn’t waste time questioning how he knew or where he had come from, only ran out of the house after him, for which he was grateful. As soon as the last person had left the shadow of the eaves, a shockwave threw them all to the ground. A window shattered. The house creaked menacingly. The asphalt on the street cracked as they watched, throwing up clouds of dust. Cars parked up and down the road sounded their cacophonous alarms.
Chihiro scrambled to her feet.
“Chihiro,” Haku called. “Wait!” Another wave pulled the ground from beneath her and she stumbled, scraping her knee, but then she was up again.
“I’ve got to make sure my parents are okay!” she called back.
The metallic tinge of her blood mixed with the bitter scent of fear already in the air. “Damn it, Fujisan,” Haku muttered as the ground continued to shake violently. “Damn it!” he said, louder, then picked himself up and ran after Chihiro. Can’t lose track of her now, he told himself. No one noticed that his feet didn’t always touch the ground.
The ground rumbled again just as they reached the Ogino residence. Glass rained down from the second floor windows. Haku reached out and grabbed Chihiro’s arm just in time to keep her from tumbling onto a pavement littered with broken glass. Her trembling legs barely held her weight. “Be careful!” Haku said.
“Thanks,” she gasped, fighting for breath. “Mom! Dad! Are you okay?” she yelled, as she fumbled with her cellphone. “Mom!” No one answered the phone. “Dad!” She pulled open the front door. “Are you guys in here?”
“Chihiro!” Akio Ogino ran down the block toward them. There was dirt smeared on his palms and his clothes. “Thank goodness.” He hadn’t changed much, Haku noticed, other than a few more gray hairs here and there.
“Dad! Where’s Mom?”
“She was home…”
Akio led the way into the house. They picked their way through smashed picture frames and furniture strewn haphazardly on the floor.
This isn’t safe, Haku thought. She can’t stay here. “Chihiro,” Haku said tensely, but she wasn’t listening. She had heard a low moan coming from upstairs. Chihiro and her father ran up the stairs toward the sound. Haku followed reluctantly. Yuuki lay on the floor, pinned by a fallen bookshelf.
“Haku!” Chihiro called. “Come help!” Together they lifted the bookshelf off of Yuuki Ogino.
“Chihiro,” Haku said again, but she still didn’t respond. He ground his teeth. He could feel the currents of magma stirring below the surface. The earth was awake. I need to get her out of here.
“Mom. Mom!” Chihiro shook Yuuki by the shoulder. “Wake up!” Yuuki stirred. “Thank the kami,” Chihiro sighed.
“Chihiro,” Haku said insistently, as a siren began to sound outside, joining the chaos of car alarms.
“Wait,” she said. She tried to stack the scattered books back on the shelf.
“Chihiro!” Haku grabbed her shoulder.
“What?” she demanded.
“Mount Fuji is erupting.”
“How do you know?” she asked.
At that moment, an alarm started blaring from the street. “All residents, please evacuate the immediate area,” a voice proclaimed over the clangor of car alarms. “This is not a drill. I repeat, all residents are asked to evacuate the area. This is not a drill.”
Chihiro and Akio looked at each other, blood draining from their faces.
“Dad,” Chihiro said, “what about Mom? There’s something wrong with her leg.” The leg was bent at a strange angle.
“Don’t worry, sweetie, it’s just a break. Daddy can carry Mom to the car.”
“Dad!” Chihiro said worriedly as Akio picked Yuuki up, grunting with the effort. “Be careful! I’m going to call an ambulance.”
Akio carried Yuuki slowly down the stairs, followed by Chihiro talking into her phone at full speed and simultaneously steadying her mother’s broken leg. Haku hung back, all but forgotten.
“They’re going to airlift her out, Dad,” Chihiro said. “They said the traffic’s getting bad. They can’t get an ambulance through.”
“Airlift?” Akio said.
Risuni’s family, waiting out on the lawn, breathed a collective sigh of relief when they finally emerged from the door. A helicopter’s rat-tat-tat-tat soon filled the air. The pilot waved them all out of the way and then landed delicately in the street.
“Where is she?” the pilot called as two paramedics wheeled out a stretcher.
“Here,” Chihiro called.
The paramedics helped Akio settle Yuuki into the stretcher and seemed to swarm around her, checking her pulse and blood pressure. One placed an oxygen mask over Yuuki’s face. They wheeled her up into the belly of the helicopter, calling to each other and pulling out equipment.
“We can only take one of you,” the pilot said as both Akio and Chihiro made to follow the stretcher.
“Don’t worry, Akio,” Risuni’s father said when Chihiro and Akio looked at each other helplessly. “You go ahead. Chihiro will be okay with us.”
“Thank you so much, Tasuo,” Akio said. Then he turned to Haku. “Thank you, as well, very much.” He disappeared into the helicopter and it was off.
Chihiro watched the helicopter fly up and out of sight.
Risuni’s mother patted her on the back reassuringly. "Yuuki will be fine," she said. “They’ll take good care of her, and you’ll see her again in no time. Do you need to pack before we go?” Chihiro nodded and turned to run into the house.
Haku grabbed her arm. “Wait.”
“What?” Chihiro said. She looked slightly surprised to see that he was still there.
Haku stared at her wrist. Her hair tie sparkled purple in the sun. “Nothing,” he said, and let go. She gave him a funny look and went to fetch her things.
Haku felt like an outsider. The last time Chihiro had lost her parents, she had turned to him. Now she had others to depend on. She no longer needed him. He turned to look at Risuni’s family. Her parents bowed to him.
“You know who I am?” Haku asked. I thought the legends had all but died out, and yet this is the second family to recognize me.
“Yes,” Risuni’s mother said. “I am Suzume of the Shinkono family; my husband is Tasuo. Our family guards the bloodline in this part of the world.”
This startled Haku. This was Tenryu’s clan. What are they doing all the way out here? They would surely understand. They knew the war.
“We heard that you’d disappeared,” Risuni added.
“Yes. Chihiro found me when she accidentally ventured into the Spirit World seven years ago. However, her memories have been erased by the Gate. She cannot stay here. I have attracted too much attention to this place by being here.”
The Shinkonos nodded. “We know about the Gate, and recognized her symptoms. We’d been keeping an eye on her,” Suzume said.
“So you did lead Kiyo here?” Risuni asked. “I didn’t really think…”
“It’s entirely possible she tracked me here,” Haku said. “It also doesn’t help that Tenryu has been dropping Chihiro’s name all over the Spirit World. Kiyo is of no consequence anymore, however. She has been taken care of. What matters is that we get Chihiro out of here.”
“We already had plans in place for evacuation, made when the tremors started,” Tasuo Shinkono said, “but they involve going through the Gate.”
“You are able to pass through the barrier without side effects?” Haku asked.
“Our cousin Shika will meet us and help us cross,” Suzume said.
Haku blinked. “Lady Ame’s son?” he asked.
“Yes,” Suzume said. “He is able to…” but Haku was already nodding.
“Yes, that will likely be the safest way,” he said.
---
Chihiro ran upstairs and got her backpack, stuffing into it a few changes of clothes and her toothbrush. She put her phone and wallet in the inner pockets, and still there was room in the bag. When would she come back? She spun around, scrutinizing the room. Her gaze glanced off the stuffed animals piled on her bed, the posters of boy bands plastered on the walls, the piles of jewelry and makeup. They had been part of her disguise, but she wouldn’t need them now. Her gaze settled on the stack of books on her desk. She still hadn’t managed to finish reading that story, and maybe now wasn’t the time to think about it, but… oh well. She slipped her diary and the library’s copy of the Kojiki in next to the clothes.
She met the others outside where they were waiting, and they walked back to the Shinkonos’ in silence. The house was a mess. Tiles had fallen off the roof and smashed, and the pavement had cracked everywhere. Mr. and Mrs. Shinkono ducked inside to retrieve their papers and a few necessities, leaving the young people waiting outside.
Chihiro looked at her companions. Risuni seemed unfazed, as usual. It seemed to Chihiro that not boy drama, nor final exams, nor natural disasters could shake her calm. Haku was harder to read. His cheek was bleeding, but he didn't seem to be aware of it. He was staring off into the distance. His presence confused her. Why is he here? she thought. She considered asking him where his parents were, and decided it was none of her business. Instead, she pulled a packet of tissues from her pocket and dabbed at his face where the cut was.
He looked at her, startled. There was longing in his expression, and determination, and what could he be thinking? It sparked some recognition within her, a kind of déjà vu.
Risuni's parents emerged from the house. Instead of getting into the car, however, Mr. and Mrs. Shinkono led them down the track into the forest below the highway where Haku had found Chihiro just the other day. Yesterday, in fact.
Chihiro looked at Risuni. “Where are we going?” she asked.
Risuni smiled back. “Remember that friend back home I told you about?” she said. “The one who’s like a brother to me? We’re going to meet him.”
Chihiro did remember. Risuni had mentioned that Haku was too similar to this friend who was like a brother to be attractive, no matter how hot he was or how high fashion his tailored jacket was. But what did that have to do with anything? She did not have the patience to solve whatever riddles Risuni had in mind today. “Don’t do this to me right now,” Chihiro said. “What the hell are you talking about?” She took a deep breath and bit her lip, trying to keep the reins on her temper. “Sorry. It’s been a long day.”
A hand, large and warm and gentle, suddenly slipped around hers, silently asking her to stay calm. She pulled her hand away as though burned. It was Haku, because who else would it be? Who else has been popping up fucking everywhere the last few days? She looked up. Behind the concern in his eyes Chihiro saw the hurt from her pulling away, concern, and behind all that the sadness that always seemed to be there, and it reminded her of… “What’s going on?” she demanded, looking from Haku to Risuni and then back again. “Why are you here? Where is your family? I appreciate your help with my mom, really I do, but how is any of this any of your business?”
Haku waited until the venting slowed, then said, “My family isn’t here. I’m alone.”
“Chihiro,” Risuni’s mother admonished. “Kohaku is our guest, for now. Just as you are.”
Her anger deflated. They had reached the clearing with the squat stone statue, who stood there, grinning widely as usual. A breeze had picked up. She could feel a headache coming on. She closed her eyes to try to stave it off.
“Chihiro,” Haku said, drawing her gaze to him again. “You’re going to be fine. Don’t worry. What matters right now is that we leave this place. To do that - and I know this sounds strange - to do that we need you to close your eyes. Please trust me. We don’t have time right now - we need to go - but I promise, I will explain everything.”
“You?” Chihiro asked. “Who are you? And where are we going?”
“My full name is Nigihayami Kohakunushi,” Haku said quietly. “I’m the youngest son of the Sea of Japan. We’re going to cross into the Spirit World.”
It was a ridiculous statement. She looked around and saw that everyone was looking at her, and that Risuni’s parents, who had felt like family for so long, were smiling at her encouragingly as if nothing extraordinary was going on. It seemed impossible that all of them were crazy. Either that, or it was all a dream, and none of it would matter in the morning.
And under the disbelief - reasonable disbelief, she thought - there was another feeling. One she couldn’t quite place, like being carried away by a current and then standing up and finding solid ground beneath her feet. Like a feeling of coming home after a long journey abroad. She nodded, and closed her eyes, and let Risuni and Haku each take hold of one of her arms and lead her into cool darkness.
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