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A Different Beginning	By : Takeda Category: +S to Z > Spirited Away Views: 16070 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own Spirited Away, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 1
- 2
Author's
Note: I am well aware that it's been years since I've worked on this
piece, but I've made a resolution to finish it. I, dear cancer
patient, do solemnly swear to complete this story sometime within the
next few months, if, by chance, I do not, I give you all permission
to find and beat the living day lights out of me. On a happier note,
I've gone through previous chapters and have altered them only
slightly.

The
Middle of Nowhere
Chapter 1

It
was official now, oh yeah, definitely official, she hated
car rides.
Especially the sort where it was a one-way trip from one home to
another; a.k.a. moving. “Be happy,” they said, “it's
fun,” they said.

Yeah,
and hell is a koi pond, she
thought with a snort.

Chihiro lay across the back seat of her
parents’ car with her music playing through her headphones, an
empty box of pocky sitting rather snugly between her body and the
back of the rear bench of the car. A small bouquet of pink flowers
lay across her lap and she turned the card that had come with them
side over side through her fingers, stopping every few turns to read
what was written:

“Good luck, Chihiro, we'll meet
again.
Your Best Friend: Rumi!”

She sighed, don't
wanna move.

As
her father drove down the small roads, she watched the trees pass
with only a mild interest. The landscape was kind of similar to where
they had last lived, but a hillside in Tokyo is just about as
different from this place as rags are from a Geisha's party kimono.
They had lived just near the Kohaku-gawa, the very river she'd grow
up by her whole life; at least until they had drained it and built
three new apartment complexes in it. The years after that Chihiro had
grown more and more unruly, and at times, depressed as.

“This
really is the middle of nowhere,” she heard her mother say to
her father. “I'll have to shop in the next town."

“It'll
be great once we get used to it,” her father countered
matter-of-factly.

It's
going to suck, Chihiro
thought in a rather sardonic tone, only vaguely noticing when the
trees gave way to the scattered buildings of the small town.

“Look,
there's the school!” her father exclaimed, “There's your
new school, Chihiro.”

I'm
not a child; you don't have to point out everything.
As she lazily sat up
and glanced out the window her mind just barely registered the soft
tones of her mother's voice:

“It doesn't look so
bad.”

Chihiro narrowed her eyes at the bleached stone
and cement building, and then stuck her tongue out at it stubbornly.
“I liked my old school better,” she said in a voice that
sounded like she was worn out, exhausted. That's
why I took the entrance exam for that school and not this
one.

“It'll
be alright, dear,” her mother told her encouragingly.

Doubt
it,
and she turned around to lay down again, shifting so that she faced
the back of the seat. Only when the plastic wrapping crunched and
crackled did she realize that she was, quite effectively, crushing
her flowers as she moved.

Damn
the luck, she
thought and groaned, sitting back up.

“What is it,
Chihiro?” her mother asked, turning in her seat to see what the
matter was.

“My flowers are getting crushed,”
Chihiro said with a mournful sigh. “I can't believe
this!”

Her
mother took the card from her fidgeting fingers and examined it for a
moment, “No wonder, the way you cling to them so. We'll put
them into some water when we get there and they'll perk right
up.”

“My first real bouquet is farewell flowers,
how crappy is that,” she slumped down in her seat, trying to
look as small as possible, lest any of their new neighbors see
her.

She took her card from her mother and went back to
turning it over through her fingers again. She looked down at her
poor flowers, the only bouquet she'd ever been given by someone other
than her parents. It was special, especially since it was from the
girl who had been her best friend since they were small
children.

“What about that rose you got for your
birthday or the flowers you got for sports? Don't those
count?”

Chihiro sighed, “No, I said a real
bouquet. Getting
flowers for sports doesn't count and a single rose isn't
a bouquet.”

Her
mother sighed again, turning to her husband who did nothing but shrug
with a you-can't-really-blame-her expression on his face. “I'm
opening the window. C'mon, be happy. It's a big day for all of
us.”

It
doesn't care, Chihiro
thought, slightly amused at the fact that she was referring to
herself as an "it", and watched the electric poles as they
sped down the little two-lane highway. Then she bolted up out of her
seat, leaning between her parents and speaking rather excitedly,
“Quick, turn around and let's go home, there's still time! I
would bet you money that they haven't even sold our house yet!”

Her
father laughed his deep belly laugh, so deep that it affected even
his voice when he spoke. “No, no, it's not that easy,
sweetheart. Besides, the movers are already on their way to our new
house.”

She flopped back onto the rear bench and crossed
her arms over her chest, pouting slightly, “Can't blame me for
trying,.”

Lying back down, her feet propped up on the
armrest of the car door; she turned up her music to drown out the
sound of the wind rushing through the car. I
hate this, she
decided just as they turned onto the exit for Tochinoki. As they went
up the hill, Chihiro could tell that everything was going to change,
no matter how much her parents said it would be exactly the
same.

Almost half an hour later, she could feel a change in
the texture of the road, as if it had gone from paved to unpaved.
That
can't be right, she
thought, sitting up to see what was going on.

They were
stopped right beside a huge tree, one that had to be at least a
hundred years old judging from the fact that it was wider than the
shrine-like arch in front of it. The arch itself was poorly taken
care of; only small flecks of paint remained on what she could only
assume had been a bright red surface. The wood was bowed and the
structure of it was very unstable, as if it might fall at any moment
if it weren't so deep in the ground.

“Hey ... Did I take
a wrong turn?” her father asked as he stuck his head out the
window, glancing at the poorly kept dirt road leading into a large
group of trees.

Great,
he got us lost, not surprising, she
thought following her father's gaze towards the dirt road.

“That
must be it, look,” she heard her mother say through the music
playing in her ears.

“Unh?” her father leaned over
to look out of the passenger-side window, trying to catch what his
wife was seeing.

Miyavi,
save me, Chihiro
begged, looking up the hill behind the tree they were beside. Okay,
which one?

Almost
as if on que, her mother answered her silent inquiry, “It must
be that blue one over there.”

“That's it! I must
have missed the turn off,” her father realized.

She
wasn't impressed, not impressed at all. “I still say we turn
around and just go home,” Chihiro said, mostly to herself since
they weren't going to listen to her anyway. Then she peered down at
the trunk of the tree, something gray catching her eye. What
the…?

“I
bet this road'll get us there,” she heard, so she rolled her
eyes and shook her head, turning off her music just in case the road
they got on was too bumpy.

“This is always how you get
us lost,” her mother complained as he pulled the car
forward.

But her father wasn't going to listen, again. “Just
a little farther, okay?”

Typical
male, she
thought, shaking her head once more. Then she pulled herself up
against her mother's seat, “What do you think all those shrines
are for?”

“The people pray to them, some might
even believe that little spirits live in them.”

“Instead
of just going to a temple? Great, we're moving in amongst psychos.
What next, they dress up like frogs and dance around in circles
waving fans around?” Her eyes followed the tree and the arch
before it as they entered the path through the group of trees.
Chihiro was slowly developing a bit of a sinking feeling as they went
further and further into the trees, or maybe that was just her
imagination.

“Dad, are we lost?” she asked after a
few minutes, once again kneeling between her parents's seats, looking
from one to the other.

“We're fine, we've got 4-wheel
drive,” he assured her with that classic smile that said what
he had neglected to:

“I'm a man and I'm having probably
way
too much fun plowing
a path through the trees with my itty bitty Audi.”

We
are all
going
to die, she
thought, remembering the last time he'd gone driving down a back
road.

The tradition held true once more as her father sped up,
jolting down the dirt road. The car lurched forward over the old
cobblestones and Chihiro fell back onto the back seat, clutching her
flowers to her chest.

“Sit down, Chihiro,” her
mother said, not bothering to look back at her.

Just
shut up, she
thought, pulling herself up to sit more steadily on the seat and
glowering at the back of her mother’s head.

She noticed
something grayish nestled in the trees through the corner of her eye.
When she looked over she saw that it was something like a statue or
gargoyle that was shaped or sculpted rather to look like a monkey of
some sort. But she couldn't really tell because in no time at all
they had zoomed past it and she had to turn in her seat to look at it
through the rear window. It looked like a guardian really, the way it
sat in the forest overlooking the road like it did.

“You're
going to kill us!” her mother cried out, gripping the armrests
so tightly that her knuckles turned white.

Chihiro wisely said
nothing, neither agreeing with her mother nor disagreeing with her,
but she definitely knew that if the idiot driver didn't get off his
high then they'd end up running smack into a tree. Then they'd all
die and Chihiro would never get to see her best friend ever again ...
she'd never get her first kiss or go on a real date or meet a boy
that didn't completely infuriate her.

“A tunnel?”
came his voice, and then he suddenly hit the brakes.

Chihiro
squeezed her eyes shut and braced her arms against her mother's seat
to keep from flying through the windshield. Then, when the car
finally stopped, she opened her eyes and saw before the hood of the
small car a stone statue almost exactly like the one she'd seen in
the forest scant seconds before. This one was covered in moss though,
and stood like a guardian in front of the tunnel that lead through
the red building a few meters in front of them.

“What's
that strange building?” her mother asked, the question
mirroring the thoughts Chihiro felt running through her
head.

Chihiro's father opened his door and stepped out of the
car, “Must be an entrance.” He walked to the tunnel and
looked over it, obviously trying to figure out what its purpose
/really/ was.

This didn't sit well with her mother, though; in
fact it didn't make her happy at all, because she stuck her head out
of the open window and yelled, “Honey! Let's go back,
honey!”

Strange,
Chihiro thought. I
wonder why a building this big would be out in the middle of nowhere
like this. Wonder what it is.

So,
her curiosity took over her and she too got out of the car, only
noticing that she still had her flowers clutched tightly in her hand
once she stood on the other side of the door. She carefully placed
them on her seat, making sure not to do any more damage to them than
she already had. Somehow, though, she managed to unconsciously slip
the card into the pocket of her jean shorts and then hurried to her
father's side.

“Chihiro!” she heard her mother
call out from the car, “No ...” If she had looked back
she would have seen the glower covering the middle-aged woman's
face.

When she reached her father, he was running his fingers
over the side of the building, flakes of red paint falling off here
and there. “It's just plaster,” he said finally, smiling
at her, “This building's pretty new.”

Who'd
have guessed? Chihiro
wondered absently, looks
pretty old to me. A
chill ran down her spine and she felt a feeling of foreboding grow in
her gut.

The two of them looked down the tunnel; a moaning
sound seemed to come from further inside the darkness. Chihiro gasped
softly, feeling the wind rush around her mostly uncovered legs, her
shorts only covering down to her upper thighs. Leaves and dead flower
petals stumbled end over end inside the mouth of the tunnel and her
grayish blue eyes widened slightly.

“The wind's going
in,” she said mostly to herself, disliking the building more
and more.

The passenger-side car door opened and closed and
Chihiro could hear her mother’s foot falls as she walked up to
them, “What is it?”

Her father looked back at his
wife, a strangely boyish grin covering his face, “Let's have a
look. There's a way through.”

Chihiro looked over at
him, “It's creepy, Dad. Let's just go back.”

“No
need to be scared. Just a little farther, okay?”

Who
said scared? she
thought, narrowing her eyes at him and tightening her mouth into a
thin line, I
just said creepy, like a really big, slimy, many-legged bug.

“The
moving van'll get there before us,” her mother told him and
Chihiro did a mental happy dance.

Score
for Mom!

“So,
let 'em, they've got the keys. Let the movers move us,” he
countered as if it were as simple as that.

Her mother crossed
her arms loosely over her stomach, gripping the elbows of her bright
pink sweater with the tips of her fingers. “I know, but
...”

“No, no, no! I'm not
going in there!”
Chihiro told them pointedly, running back to stand in front of their
small blue car, which was, consequently, right next to the
moss-covered gargoyle. “Dad, I really think we should go
back.”

“Nothing to be scared of,” he told
her in a soft voice.

“I'm not
scared, but I won't
go,” she said
with a menacing scowl. Then she looked over at the gargoyle that
stood beside her and she grimaced, clutching at the sleeves of her
green and white shirt.

When she looked up, she saw that her
father already heading inside and her face fell like a hammer. Damn
you, fat man ... she
cursed him silently, holding up a proverbial fist of damnation with
which to smite him.

“Chihiro, wait in the car,”
her mother called back to her as she followed her husband.

“Uh,
bu- ...” she looked back over at the gargoyle that seemed to
laugh at her rather pitiful attempts to make them listen. I
know you're up to something, so just shut up, she
thought at it, narrowing her eyes. “Wait up!”

Chihiro
ran after them despite the tingle that ran down her spine again,
making the hairs on the back of her neck stand straight up. Her
father looked back, an adventurous expression etched into his
features.

“Watch your step,” he told her before
turning back and continuing on towards the rather dim light ahead of
them.

At the end of the tunnel was a rather large room which
seemed to resemble a train station. Several wooden benches, colored
glass windows, a structure that looked like a bird-bath here and
there. The bright late afternoon sun shone through the circular
windows, but the building looked like it had been abandoned for years
and years.

“Where are we?” Chihiro asked, looking
around the large open space in wonder.

Her mother put a hand
to her ear and smiled slightly, “Say, do you hear that?”

She
listened for a moment hearing nothing at first, then a low whistle
sounded and the whirring of metal wheels could be heard. “It's
a train.”

“Maybe we're near the station,”
her mother offered with a bright smile.

Then her father got
that wild adventurous look on his face again, “Let's go and
find out.”

Chihiro got a really bad feeling about going
any further than where they were, but since her parents were already
on their way out, she might as well follow them. When they were out
through the other side of the station, they were met with an open
field of lush green grass. Here and there were scattered statues like
the ones on the other end of the tunnel and small shacks were here
and there. But when she looked around, she noticed a bunch of them
off in the distance.

“What are those houses doing here?”
she wondered and the wind picked up a little, ruffling her clothes
and sweeping the longish hair around her face in her eyes. I
knew I shouldn't have gotten bangs, she
thought, remembering when she had wanted them about three years ago.
Not
even long enough to pull back out of my face.

“I
knew it. This must be an abandoned theme park. They built so many in
the early 90's, but they all went down with the economy. This must be
one of 'em.”

He's
a history book now, Chihiro
thought, turning around to get a better look at the building they'd
just come out of.

It looked like a square palace with a clock
tower pasted on top. The roof tiles were black and the outer walls
were red, the characters on the clock were done in black but the way
it was made was just so ... She didn't know how to describe it, but
more than anything, it was looking more and more like a beacon for
far off travelers.

Her parents started to walk off again and
she turned around to find them several feet away already. “What?!
No! We've seen the other side now let's go back, Dad!”

But
they didn't stop walking; in fact it seemed as if they hadn't even
heard her at all. They just made their way on to the large group of
houses in the distance, climbing up the hill without a care in the
world.

“C'mon!”

The wind picked up a bit
more, like it was pushing her forward and she heard the building let
out a sound. It was moaning! The building was actually moaning at
her. She ran forward to catch up with her parents again, though her
better judgement told her not to.

“Freaky building,”
she said, looking back at the building from a safe distance, “It
moaned.”

“Sweetie, it's just the wind, you know
that,” her mother said, not even looking over at her. “What
a lovely spot. We should have brought our lunch with us.”

Chihiro
stopped and her mouth fell open, From
the person who wanted to get to the house before the movers.
Then she shook her
head and followed close behind her to keep from hearing other such
strange things. Since
when does she like the outdoors?

Before
long, the three of them were crossing a line of boulders. The rocks
were covered in moss and mud and a small stream ran through the
cracks as if trying to get someplace better. Chihiro stumbled over
the first two, losing her balance on the slick surface. Then she
huffed at them and planted her hands firmly on the largest ones she
could find, trying to use them as a sort of handrail.

“They
were making a river,” her father noted. Then he sniffed the
air, holding out an arm for his wife. “Hey, you smell that?”
he asked her as she stumbled into him and sniffed at the air again.
“See, smells great.”

His wife followed his lead
and took a sniff then smiled brightly, “You're right.”

“Maybe
they're still open,” he said, obviously thinking out loud
because that statement didn't make any sense.

An
abandoned theme park still open? Chihiro
thought rather sarcastically, that
makes a lot of sense.

“Hurry
up, Chihiro,” her mother called out as they went up the stone
stairs.

She was having a bit of a problem crossing, though, so
it took her a while. I'm
a soccer player, not a mountain climber, damnit.

“Wait
for me!” she yelled as she finally made it safely across. Then
she bounded up the steps only barely noticing the moss-covered frog
statue and the water stains that lead from his mouth and down the
steps to the boulders.

Her father was leading the three of
them, following his nose like a bloodhound through the strange town.
When they got to what appeared to be a main street they stopped and
he turned around and around, trying to find the source of the smell.
“This way,” he told them, picking a direction and heading
off again.

“Can you believe it, they're all
restaurants,” her mother said with a voice full of awe.

Nope,
can't believe it, she
thought, sarcasm coloring her mind again, here
they have a perfectly fine abandoned theme park and it's nothing but
restaurants. Kami, what were
they
thinking?

But
still, was
it abandoned?
Chihiro had to wonder, because if it had been abandoned, why were the
paper lanterns still intact, why weren't they just as worn as the
rest of the place? The brightly colored buildings had their paint
flaking off but the curtains around the entrances looked as if it had
been cleaned only yesterday. The wooden stools inside weren't rotten
or old; they were just ... there, looking like they were constantly
kept up. Nothing in this place made sense if it was what her father
had said it was.

“Where is everybody?” she
wondered.

“Over there!” her father shouted a few
seconds later. Then he ran on further down the street and looked
around a corner. “Hey, hey!” he called to them before
turning the corner and going who knows where.

Chihiro and her
mother followed soon after, the aroma of whatever her father had
smelt was strongest here. When she looked past him, she noticed huge
platters of food, all of the dishes foreign to her. Something inside
her screamed that this was a really bad idea, the same thing that had
made her spine tingle and the hairs on the back of her neck stand up.
Whatever was going on her, she had to stop it before something
happened, and whatever it was that was going to happen, she knew it
couldn't be good.

“In here, here,” her father
said, motioning to his wife and Chihiro.

Her mother followed
his lead into the sit-down restaurant. “How amazing,” she
commented in awe, looking at all the different kinds of
food.

“Excuse us, anyone here?!” her father called
out, looking into the kitchen behind the counter.

“Come
in, Chihiro,” her mother urged taking a seat on one of the
stools, “it looks delicious.”

But Chihiro shook
her head, shoving her hands deep into her pockets to keep from doing
anything that would make the sensation in her gut any
stronger.

“Excuse us!” her father called out
again.

“Oh, don't worry,” her mother insisted,
picking up a piece of food that vaguely resembled an extremely small
chicken. “We can pay them when they get back.”

“You're
right,” he said looking on down the counter. “That one
looks great ...”

“I wonder what this is called,”
her mother thought aloud before taking a rather large bite.
“Delicious! Chihiro, taste it.”

Chihiro frowned
and shook her head, “I don't think so.”

There was
something wrong here, she knew there was. Food didn't pop up out of
nowhere in an abandoned amusement park. And even if it wasn't
abandoned, where were all the people? She gathered up the bottom of
her shirt in her hands, twisting the fabric nervously and chewing on
her bottom lip.

“Let's go,” she urged, “They
are going
to be mad
at us.”

Her
father moved down the counter, piling food on three separate plates
as he went. “Don't worry, you've got me here. I've got credit
cards and cash.” Then he placed one of the plates in his hands
in front of his wife, taking a seat on one of the stools as well
before he started eating.

“Take some, Chihiro, it's so
tender,” her mother said, looking at her over her
shoulder.

But Chihiro shook her head again, looking rather
forlorn as her parents went on eating. Her father dished something
out onto his plate and passed it on over to her mother, saying
“horseradish” before he went right on eating.

“Thank
you,” she managed between bites.

Chihiro looked from
left to right down the small alleyway, trying to find someone in this
empty-looking place, but there was no one to be found. “Mom!
Dad!!” she yelled, hands balled into fists and stomping her
feet in frustration.

But they continued to eat, seeming to not
have heard her at all. She let out a sigh and her whole frame just
slumped. Then, looking back down to the end of the alley, she headed
back to the main street.

May
as well find something to do, she
thought angrily, if
I know them, they'll be there until Dad is full. Stupid Old People.
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A Different Beginning