Spirited Away: The Return Home

Chapter 5

 He was almost on me, his one hand reaching for mine. I could see he was yelling something, but no sound reached me over the roar of the wind in my ears. Even if the wind wasn't deafening, the way my heart seemed to beat in my ears was enough to stifle anything from his lips.

Finally, he was close enough for our fingers to almost touch. "Take my hand!" I heard him call, but I was already reaching, fingers grabbing desperately for where I thought he'd be.

And then I felt this palm, skimming my hand along until it wrapped around his wrist. An electric spark ran up my arm as he pulled me up to where he was— still falling, might I add. Angling his body back, he pulled me upright, feet to the ground. 

With my hair now in a whirling tornado above my head, I could finally see clearly. And despite the water coming towards us at a tremendous speed, I couldn't help but stare. 

He was beautiful. 

Even with his black hair whipping madly around his face, I could see the brilliant green of his eyes. They seemed to be almost alive in the dark.

He opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came out as we plummeted down to the water nearing our feet.

Haku saw the panic that spread across my face and took one of his hands away from mine. This made me want to cry, but when he wrapped the arm around my waist, I was glad that I hadn't died after eating the food Zeniba gave me earlier; then I would have missed this.

He pulled me close enough that we were touching at every spot and whispered— or screamed most likely— in my ear "Hold on tight!" and I did. I wrapped my free arm around his neck and then the other when he let go of my hand to join his one arm with his other around my waist.

It took me a while to realize that we were gradually slowing down, but not nearly fast enough. "Haku!" escaped my lips, and at that moment we came to a stop, mid-air.

My hair dropped from the air, covering my face and I suspected even some of Haku's. I didn't try to smooth it away, only hung on for dear life.

"It's okay now, I won't let you go Chihiro," Haku whispered, adding, "never again," so softly that I wondered if I had even heard him correctly.

I pulled away in shock, staring at him, my mouth in a large O before I spoke.

"You recognize me?" I asked, surprised.

Haku looked like he wanted nothing more than to laugh at me. With a small cough, clearly meant to hide a smile, he answered, "Yes, but now's not the right time to catch up. We'll talk once I sort out what is going on up there." 

We started to move upwards, very fast, and before I knew it we were standing on the railing, the group of people staring at us in sheer astonishment. 

In one swift motion, we dropped onto the deck in front of the three men. I tried to keep my composure, but truthfully, if it wasn't for Haku's arm around me, I wouldn't have been able to stand upright.

Despite that, anger was slowly filling my veins. They had actually tried to throw that little girl over and then they forced me to get myself involved. 

After checking the stability of my legs, I untangled myself from Haku and stood a few spaces away from him. I shook out my arms and rolled my neck, hoping it would loosen the muscles that were sure to be sore the next day. 

"Now, seeing as you don't have anything more to gain, I'll have to ask that you leave," Haku requested in a voice dripping with a deathly calm. I could see a part of the Haku that I had often experienced when he was around Yubaba. The one that shut me out, shut everyone out.