"Hm?" Chihiro looked up, the pencil she had been twiddling in her fingers dropping to the desk. Her eyes still danced with the tiny print of the research paper she'd been reading; she had to blink a few times to clear her vision. The smiling face of a young man, his bushy haircut in disarray, came into focus. "Oh, Yuta." She smiled at the intern. "What can I do for you?"
"Do?" Yuta grinned, brushing his hair away from his eyes with one hand. Chihiro hadn't noticed it before, but there were blond streaks bleached into the otherwise jet-black mess. "Ms. Ogino, have you forgotten what the date is?"
"The date?" She looked down at her desk, noting with dismay that the dropped pencil had left a long, grey streak across the report. Her calendar was nowhere to be seen. She shuffled a few papers, sending paperclips and a pink gummy eraser skittering in all directions before giving up. She gave Yuta a sheepish smile. "No, sorry. What day is it?"
"April ninth," Yuta said, his grin widening when she didn't immediately respond. "You know, the last day of the Hakumori Dam removal?"
Chihiro gasped, looking quickly at the clock. "How could I forget?" she wailed.
"Don't ask me," Yuta said. He held up his hand, car keys dangling from between his fingers and jangling. "Come on, there's still time before sunset."
"Thank you, Yuta!" Chihiro quickly gathered up her purse and shoes, locking her tiny, cluttered office behind her. She hurried Yuta out through the halls of the cramped storefront. The walls they passed were covered with maps and photographs; rivers and forests from all across the country, all of them under the protection of her small group.
Yuta's little red car waited by the curb; soon the concrete, steel, and neon of the city gave way to fields and the occasional factory with the tracks of the bullet running parallel to them. The quiet hum of the car's electric motor was barely audible over the sound of the air conditioner running full blast. Chihiro stared out the window at the metal rails sliding continuously by.
"Hm?"
"I said... Ms. Ogino, if you don't mind me asking... you've helped get dams removed before, haven't you? You haven't gone to any of the other ones. I'm just wondering, you know, what's special about this occasion?" Yuta glanced at her sideways, around his sunglasses.
Chihiro laughed softly. "Oh, have you been gossiping with Mr. Nakamura?" She was fairly certain that the young lawyer had something of a crush on her. He paid far more attention to what she did than seemed normal.
Yuta sat up straight, his face a picture of offended dignity. "Hey... I don't gossip."
"You men gossip just as much as women do," Chihiro said, laughing. "Maybe more. I know how often you go to the bar with your friends."
"But we're drinking, not gossiping!"
"Ah, but what is it you do while you drink? I bet you talk!" She giggled. "I'm sorry, I'll stop teasing. No... I guess the Hakumori Dam is a little special to me." Outside her window, the scenery became more familiar, like she was taking a step back into her childhood. They were getting close.
"I kind of figured that out," Yuta said. "But why?"
"I used to live here, when I was very young," Chihiro said. "It was before they dammed the river and filled in its streams. It was a lot greener back then. Even in the summer, I remember the air being cool and sweet from all the trees and flowers." She turned toward Yuta, smiling. "It'll be that way again. It will take years, but the erosion will stop, and the river will start depositing good topsoil. This is just the first step. But first steps are important, aren't they? I'd like to see this one."
"Too bad people had to build dams in the first place," Yuta said, his tone becoming bitter. "It's like we can never leave well enough alone."
Chihiro sighed. She'd felt like that herself, when she'd been going through school. Every day of class had been like a litany of mankind's sins against nature. "They only wanted to build apartments in a nice place," she said. "Don't be so angry. The world's had billions of years to find the best way of doing things. I think we're doing pretty well, all things considered. Anything can be fixed with patience and love."
Yuta sighed theatrically and shook his head. His eyes were hidden, but Chihiro would have bet money he was rolling them as well. She turned her attention back out the window, smiling at her own ghostly reflection.
Large dump trucks carrying concrete and rebar rubble began to pass, going the opposite direction. Yuta guided his car from the highway, turning toward the low mountains in the distance. They were dark green with forest, but all that grew near the streets they drove on were buildings and a few weeds. The fields beyond the apartments looked tired and sickly.
"Don't worry," Chihiro murmured. "It will change."
They parked in front of one of the apartment complexes. It looked familiar, but all the buildings looked the same. Chihiro wondered if this was the one she'd once lived in. She couldn't even remember her old address, and neither of her parents had when she asked them.
A concrete sidewalk led them around the building and a few kilometers to a park. The ground was torn up from the tracks of backhoes and the tires of trucks; they had dug a new channel for the river so it would flow safely past the town. Chihiro squished through the mud, barely noticing it, toward where the newly freed river churned and gurgled over sharp, fresh rocks.
"Oh man, my shoes…" Yuta said.
"You shouldn't wear anything nice out into the field!" Chihiro called over her shoulder, laughing. Her own simple black pumps were no doubt ruined as well.
She stopped on the banks of the river, her heels sinking deeply into the mud. Yuta squished up next to her. "Oh. It's already flowing…" he said.
"Of course, silly Yuta," Chihiro said, slapping him lightly on the arm. "What do you think they were doing with the water while they broke up the dam and hauled it away? They certainly weren't going to build an entire new dam." She chuckled.
"I hadn't thought about it, really."
"Today is just the day that the last of the dam leaves." Chihiro crouched down, resting her arms against her knees, looking into the water. "I think we passed it on the highway."
Yuta replied, laughing, but she didn't really hear his words. His voice mixed with the sounds of the river flowing. She knew it was her imagination, but it sounded almost joyful, like a child running around to stretch his legs after a long day of sitting still for a car trip. Perhaps it was Yuta's words mixed with the watery chuckles, but it was like there were words on the currents, barely under her hearing.
Feeling a little stupid, Chihiro leaned a further toward the river. It was beautiful. And –
'Chihiro…'
- it was calling her name.
A memory stirred deep within her, of another time with deep, cool water, and laughter. How could she have forgotten so much joy? Tears of happiness and sorrow prickled at her eyes as she struggled to unearth that long buried memory.
"Chihiro!"
She pitched head first into the river.
The water hadn't looked so deep from above. Chihiro flailed in panic moment as cold water filled her nose and mouth, her fingers momentarily breaking the surface. The current tumbled her head over heels, dragging her downwards.
Well, she thought, what a way to go. Ecologist killed by the river she had only just brought back from extinction. She was sure some politicians she'd angered in the past would get a good laugh out of that.
She closed her eyes tightly as she caught site of rocks moving rapidly toward her.
And then she was floating, free of the tug of the current. Chihiro cautiously cracked one eye open, then the other. A few inches from her nose was something smooth and pale, textured with delicate lines like scales. Hesitantly, she reached out to touch it, familiar wonder squeezing at her heart.
A light voice chuckled by her ear. "Chihiro… I said I'd find you."
"Haku!" She laughed, her eyes filling with tears at the same time. A dying hallucination, perhaps? That would explain why she was suddenly able to breathe, speak, and cry under water. "You didn't find me! I… I found you!"
Haku laughed, curling sinuously around her. The white dragon was precisely as she remembered now. "Either way, does it matter?"
"Haku…" Chihiro reached out to touch his nose. "I'm dreaming this, aren't I? That's all this can be. A childhood dream that I'd almost forgotten…"
"You're not dreaming," Haku said. "And you're not about to die, either. Let's get you back to the surface, my clumsy Chihiro…"
In a rush of bubbles they moved through the water. Chihiro's lungs burned, the water hurting her eyes as she moved. She clung to the horns that sprouted from Haku's head like she had twice before, and closed her eyes. Just for a moment, until they were out of the water…
"Chihiro! Open your eyes!"
Her chest hurt, a lot more than it had a second ago. Chihiro rolled to one side, coughing water out of her mouth. Her eyes burned as she opened them. She could barely make out the blurry outline of Yuta's face.
"It's alright. I think she'll be okay," he said, looking toward the side. His voice was hoarse. "God, Chihiro… you scared the hell out of me."
"W-what?" It hurt to talk. It didn't seem right, somehow, that she felt so awful. When she'd been young and Haku had rescued her before, she'd been just fine. And Haku – where was Haku?
"You fell into the river!" Yuta shouted. "I thought – you could have been killed! You're lucky someone was… uh…" He paused, looking to the side. "What were you doing in the river, anyway?"
"I was just checking the bed," that wonderful, light voice said. Haku's human face moved into her view. He looked older than she remembered, though he still had the same pale skin and dark hair, now slicked down with water. It was a silly thought. A river god that normally looked like a dragon could probably do whatever he wanted. "I'm sorry," he murmured in her ear. "I was so distracted… I almost didn't catch you in time." He lifted one of her hands up and placed a kiss on her cold, stiff fingers.
A little warmth flowed into her. Chihiro managed a smile. "It's okay. You saved me again." She did her best to give his hand a soft squeeze. "I'm so sorry, Haku. I forgot everything."
"Haku?" Yuta said. "Uh… do you two know each other?"
"Since we were children," Haku said. He kissed her fingers again. "You're here, aren't you?" he said to Chihiro. "You never forgot, even if you couldn't recall."
"What about you?" she whispered. "Are you here? Really here?"
He gave her a teasing smile. "It took a long time to find you," he said. "I don't want to go through all that again!" His expression became more serious as he reached out to smooth her water-soaked hair back. "As long as the river lives, I'll be here for you."