After a long while, Chihiro spoke. The world Haku had painted with his words was still bright behind her closed eyelids. “Haku. I mean, Nigihaya…”
“Haku,” Haku said quietly. “Just call me Haku.”
“Haku then,” Chihiro said. She was silent for a time. Then she said, “You’re telling me that this is all… real.”
“Yes,” Haku said.
“And right now, we’re in one of these... these... pathways bridging the worlds.”
“Yes, Chihiro.”
“And you’re a spirit. You’re not human.”
“Yes,” Haku said again.
“Is this a dream? Am I going crazy?” she asked quietly. She shuddered, and then continued, slightly hysterically, “you actually want me to believe that, that the world is filled with dragons, and trolls under bridges, and… and ghosts?” Haku touched her shoulder, wanting to reassure her, to calm her down. She stiffened at his touch, but she didn’t pull her arm from his hand.
“Chihiro,” Risuni admonished. “You collect folk tales. You obsess over them. As long as I’ve known you, you’ve loved them.”
“But they’re just stories!” Chihiro exclaimed. Her words bounced back to them from the walls of the tunnel. Even though she protested, Chihiro could feel something in Risuni’s words stirring inside her. Risuni squeezed her hand, steadying her.
“You say that because you’ve been hearing it for years, from our teachers and from the kids at school, and from your parents,” Risuni said. “But you don’t really believe that. I know it's probably a big shock, but like it or not, you're part of the story now.”
Haku gritted his teeth. Risuni was probably right, but that didn't mean he liked it.
Chihiro took a deep breath and gripped her friend's hand harder, as if it could anchor her to reality. “If I’m being honest,” Chihiro said, “no, it’s not. A shock, I mean.” She sighed. “You’re in this tale, too?” she said. “You never mentioned it.”
Risuni nodded, then realized that Chihiro couldn’t see her. “Yes,” she said. “There is spirit blood in my family. And are you so surprised I didn’t mention it? I didn’t think you would believe me. But I didn’t know that Haku was the Prince until today, when my grandfather called.”
Haku made a face. He didn’t like the direction that the conversation was taking. But Chihiro did not choose to follow up on Risuni’s words.
“That river spirit you have a shrine to in your house,” she said. “He’s real, then? A kami? Are all kami dragons?”
“Tenryu, you mean? Yeah, he’s real, he’s the one who told Grandfather about Haku,” Risuni tried to say, but she was interrupted by Chihiro pulling her arms away from her guides to press her palms against her pounding head. Maniacal laughter rang and filled her mind, and she thought she felt steam so stifling hot it was hard to breathe. She sank down into a crouch, curling herself into a ball.
“Chihiro?” Risuni’s said worriedly, bending down next to her. Her parents, who had been walking in front, turned around at the sound. Suzume walked back toward them, looking concerned.
“Chihiro, think about something else, and it won’t hurt anymore,” Haku said.
Chihiro only buried her head deeper between her knees and hugged her legs to her. There was mud between her toes, clinging to her skin, dragging her down. Haku looked at her helplessly. He was afraid to touch her for fear it would trigger her memories even further.
Suzume began to sing, and after a line, Risuni and her father joined in. It was a rhythmic song, a song about mountains and rivers and the people living in them. Its melody echoed and filled the hollow space of the waiting room. And as they sang, Chihiro relaxed. Suzume motioned for Haku to pick Chihiro up, one arm below her knees and one supporting her back, and placed her arms around his neck. Her skin was burning hot.
“Don’t open your eyes yet,” she whispered to Chihiro, “we’re almost there,” before she picked up the song again.
They walked on, Haku carrying Chihiro in his arms. Suzume stomped out the rhythm during the chorus as if she could stomp the thoughts from Chihiro’s mind.
“What’s wrong with me?” Chihiro asked softly. “My head hurt before, too, during the first earthquake, when I looked at the statue in the shrine.”
“Does it hurt now?” Haku asked, speaking quietly through the song. Her face was so close to his. He felt her warmth in his arms and against his chest, and from her arms around his neck.
“No,” Chihiro said slowly. “But I’ve forgotten what the statue looks like, and I don’t remember its name. Even though I remember how it feels in my hands. Even though I looked it up when I got home. The Toi gold mine. Even though Risuni just said it! The river runs just north of here.” She sounded scared.
“There’s nothing wrong with you, Chihiro,” Haku said. “There’s a spell on you. A spell of forgetting.
“I wish I could tell you your story, because you need to know it. You deserve to know it. But even if I told you, it wouldn’t be real to you, because it wouldn’t be you remembering. It would just be another story that happened to someone else. And it might hurt you.” He paused for a moment, thinking.
“Here’s what I can tell you,” he said. “Seven years ago, you and your parents stumbled into the Spirit World. You were trapped there for only a few weeks, but during that time you made many friends. One of them gave you the purple hair tie that you’re wearing around your wrist. She was very wise, and foresaw the need, so she put a protective charm on that hair tie.
“When you left, you passed through one of the World Gates. This one, in fact. The Gate is spelled to ensure that the human never enters the Spirit World again. That’s why you can’t see the Gate. Without a guide, you would never find the entrance. You could not have crossed the threshold, had your eyes been open. It would have erased your memories the way it did with your parents, but for the protective charm. To protect your memories, the charm turned them into dreams that the spell won't let you remember. Your head hurt because seeing the statue was triggering your memories, and the spell wants you to forget them. It uses pain to build associations inside your mind, to make you fear those memories.”
All at once, Chihiro felt the sun on her face and darkness behind her. From the darkness, wind blew. Before her, there was the sound of grass rustling. “You can open your eyes now,” Haku said, and set her down.
She opened her eyes. She could see the beginnings of a vast sea of light green studded with grey, but not much else. A mist hung around them like a velvet curtain, obscuring the view in every direction, unwavering despite the breeze. The Shinkonos stood a little off to the side, staring into the mist. “Have I been here before?” Chihiro asked.
Haku was taken aback. “Does it look familiar?” he said, worried. “Does your head hurt?”
“No…” Chihiro said, hesitant. “No, it doesn’t.” She couldn’t remember - there was nothing to see but the fog, but the sound of the wind through the grass made tears well up in her eyes. She expected to hear a faint cry of pain in the distance. The feeling faded before she could place it.
Haku shook his head. “The view here should be different enough that it shouldn’t trigger any of your memories. If it did, the spell on the Gate would activate.”
“I have been here before, then.”
“Yes,” he said. Risuni put her arm around Chihiro sympathetically.
“Look,” Risuni said, and pointed to a shape moving within the mist. “It’s Shika,” she said. The shadow grew larger much more quickly than Chihiro thought possible. It seemed to have antlers.
A deer? Chihiro thought. It was indeed a deer, a large one with branching antlers and a shaggy, spotted coat. It emerged from the mist just meters from where they stood. Before Chihiro could blink, Risuni had run up to it and was hugging its neck. Shika, if that was its name, licked her face in affection, making Risuni laugh. Risuni’s parents bowed formally in greeting, but Shika walked up to Suzume until they were eye to eye, and placed its head on her shoulder. Suzume laughed and hugged it just as Risuni had, and even kissed it lovingly on the cheek.
“Chihiro,” Risuni said. “This is my cousin, Shika.” She laughed as Chihiro boggled. “My very distantly related cousin. He can travel between the worlds without triggering the Gate spell. Shika, this is my best friend, Chihiro.”
The deer raised itself onto its hind legs and became a lean, dark-skinned young man, about their age, in a straw hat, frayed, threadbare pants, and a tattered green vest that showed off his wiry, muscular limbs. Standing next to the pale, always immaculate Kohaku, he looked every bit the pauper to Kohaku’s prince. He bowed to Chihiro, sweeping off his hat and revealing a top-knot. “My lady." He then bowed to Haku. "My prince,” he said. “Allow me to escort you into the hinterlands.”
To Chihiro’s amazement, Haku laughed. “Your poor parents! You are a sight to behold,” he said.
Shika smiled. “I feel sorrier for you,” he said, “having to spend all that time listening to them bemoan my fate at court.” Then Shika looked around at them all. “Ready to go home?” he asked.
Risuni smiled widely at Chihiro. "We're going to stay with my grandparents. Don't worry. You'll love it there."
The six of them clasped hands and walked into the thick fog. Chihiro found herself deprived of her sight for the second time that day as the whiteness closed in around them.
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