Spirited Away: The Return Home

Chapter 16

"What now?" I asked, running a hand through my messy hair.

A hand softly touched my shoulder from behind. "If it were me, I'd do what she says," Yoru said silently, almost as if he knew what it felt like to be threatened. I turned around to face him.

"That would be an option if I weren't here," I almost yelled at him, but realised I had no right to be mad at Yoru. Well, I did have a little right, but yelling at him wouldn't exactly help my cause either.

"Well, if that's what you're worried about, then don't worry," he said, "I've been given orders to take you back home, well, back to the bath house anyway."

I looked at him suspiciously.

"Oh, don't worry, I promise there's no strings attached," he said when he noticed my expression. My legs shook a little as we left the room, the feeling of dread not staying behind as the doors closed.

I followed him out and back to the room I had been put in when I first woke up.

"Oh, and by the way," I asked Yoru on the way, "What am I wearing?"

Yoru, only giving me a single glance, suddenly started laughing, almost so loudly that he needed to stop and catch his breath.

"Your dress had been torn on the way here, and the only clothes available were the servants clothing," he explained once he calmed down. We passed my room and headed back to the stairs. I was able to catch a brief glimpse of my dress and felt a little pang inside my stomach. It was such a beautiful dress.

Once we had reached the bottom of the stairs, Yoru told me to wait for a moment. Barely a minute later he returned with what seemed to be a cloak hanging from his arms.

"Here you go," Yoru said and handed it over to me. "We're going to be flying; you'll freeze to death before I can get you home."

Gratefully I pulled the cloak around my shoulder, fastening the strings at the front. After I had finished, Yoru came and stood in front of me.

"Sorry Chihiro, but I'm gonna have to blind fold you," he said sheepishly, obviously not comfortable with the idea.

"It's okay, understand," I said, trying to sound as cheerful as possible. Gently Yoru began to wrap a piece of cloth around my head until the world became black.

"Okay, I'm going to pick you up now," he said before scooping me up in his arms. I wanted to ask why, but held my tongue when he started to chant. The words were in a different language, so I decided to block it out and feel if there was any change around me. At first I couldn't feel or hear anything strange, but a few verses into Yoru's chant, I felt a prickle. It started at the nape of my neck and soon spread to the rest of my body, almost as if the darkness outside was consuming us. Then it stopped.

A cool breeze blew across the two of us, fresh air flooding into my lungs.

"You can take of the blindfold now, but don't panic when you open your eyes," Yoru said close to me ear. I could feel his lips near my ear, but it sounded like he was far away.

I reached up and undid the knot, wanting to pull it off, but before I could stop it, it was whipped right out of my hand. The wind current was so strong that I had to keep my eyes closed before prying them open. When I finally did open them, I cried out. I instantly understood why Yoru sounded so far away, it was because we were very, very, very high up. Unconsciously I wrapped my shaking arms around Yoru's neck, who seemed to be completely confident in his ability not to drop me.

Slowly I pulled away from him; bit by bit until I was able to look down. In the dark the world looked beautiful from up in the sky. Everything seemed to blend together, but at the same time everything was set apart. I could see little houses and animals, trees and fields of grass. It wasn't like it was my first time up so high, but when I was with Haku it was completely different. Back then I was too young to fully admire the view. That and the fact that Haku and I had our first PG-rated moment.