So. Here you go. :) New story. Sorry if this is all jumbled and confusing, or anything... but.. I dunno. xD

Enjoy~

Spirited Away: Goddess of the Yura River

Prologue

"'…I can't go any farther. Just go back the way you came, you'll be fine, but you have to promise not to look back, not until you've passed through the tunnel.' Haku told me..."

I yawned as I rested my head in my palm, lightly sketching the jaw line of the boy I was drawing. The graphite on the paper gradually rubbed off onto my pale pinky finger, gently streaking the paper in its midst.

"'Then I asked, 'But what about you, what'll you do?' He gave me a reassuring look and said, 'Don't worry, I'll go back and have a talk with Yubaba. I'll tell her I'm going to quit being her apprentice... I'm fine, I got my name back!' ... He seemed so confident..."

The teacher's voice echoed through the near-silent room. There was only the murmur of a few of the preppy girls, chatting away in the far corner, and the quiet rustle of pages as the teacher read aloud things that we - that I - should have been taking notes on.

" I looked at him and asked him, 'Will we meet again sometime?' and he smiled. 'Sure we will.'"

My friend bumped my arm and I hissed, glaring to my right, to catch his chocolate-brown eyes for a moment. Brown on mint-green. He gave a sorry smile, then his eyes flicked to my drawing. I nearly stabbed his hand with my pencil, and he jerked his hand away, giving me a knowing smirk, before diverting his eyes back to his own, note-cluttered paper.

"Then I said, 'Promise...' He let go of my hand and gave me a gentle push towards the tunnel and said, 'Promise, now go, and don't look back!'"

A small, triumphant smile tugged at my lips as I returned to the picture, sketching shining, almond-shaped eyes and a charming smile - despite the depressing ending of a story running through my mind.

"So, I did what he said... I ran through the tunnel and didn't look back."

Those words, they always echoed through my mind. The spirit world was always a huge question to me... always a place that I wanted to go to.

Next I knew, everyone was tucking their things away into their book bags. I looked up, slightly bewildered. It felt as if class had started a mere ten minutes ago, but it had been damn near an hour. Scowling, I tucked my picture into my binder and let it and my pencil drop into my bag.

I stood and threw one strap over my shoulder and sighed, looking around the clearing classroom apathetically. Making my way out, the friend I threatened to stab just a mere five minutes ago called my name from the corridor, smiling and holding up a spare flip-face motorcycle helmet and raising his eyebrows.

Running my hands down the front of my pale gray uniform skirt, I strode over to him.

This... was Hikaru Matsumoto, my best friend, since the ninth grade. He was pretty smart, but had those... moments of stupidity. He bleached his pretty brown hair blonde last year and has never been the same since. Girls always swooned over him and his fancy Kawasaki racing motorcycle, but I did not see it.

"You want a ride home today?" He raised a dark eyebrow at me questioningly.

I paused for a moment. "Sure, " I shrugged after a moment, ruffling his mop of bleach-blonde hair and taking hold of the spare helmet he had. "but you'll need to be careful. Jiro will go ape shit if he sees you - or me, with this on." I raised the helmet for emphasis.

'Jiro' was my father. I do not exactly like him, so I call him by his first name... The ass hates me! It is almost as if he wants me to suffer!

"Okay... But I don't get it." Hikaru told me as we began walking down the hall, toward the student parking lot.

"Don't get what?" I asked, starting down a set of stairs. He tended to 'not get it' a lot... Makes me feel like a genius.

"Why your dad hates me so much, "

"Well... You're a boy, you have a motorcycle, and you're my best friend." I said nonchalantly, as if it were nothing. I looked over at him, and his brown eyes were huge.

"Why is your dad so mean?!" he cried out, turning and pushing one of the double doors at the front of the school open, letting me slip past him.

"I don't know... He just hates me, I guess, but, what I really don't get, is why Akira is actually married to him!" I slipped on the helmet and opened the visor, then threw my hands into the air. "I mean, really, he even treats her like shit! Not just me! He's a dictator, or something!"

Hikaru frowned, peeling away his white button-up, to reveal a black undershirt. He stuffed that into his backpack, then dug out a black v-neck and slipped that on. "You wanna ask Akira if you can spend the night over at my place. She can trust me enough to know I'm not like that, " he said, slipping on his own helmet and starting his motorcycle, swinging a leg over the body of it.

I followed-suit and sighed, leaning forward and wrapping my arms around his waist as he backed up, then sped out of the parking lot. "I guess I could ask, Jiro won't be home for awhile, " I said through the howling of the wind.

He nodded, then continued on, whipping around a corner and a few side streets.

As my black hair whipped around me, I looked around at the blurs that were houses, cars, and people walking on the sidewalks. It was all so soothing at the moment, but, what I had to put up with once I got home was hell - if Sakura, my sister, was home, that is. Akira was a very nice woman, but her daughter, my half-sister, hated me just as much as my father. She was ten years old and seemed to be the brattiest kid on the planet. She got what ever she wanted (she did not have to spend the money that Jiro gave her regularly), while I had to use the money I got to buy things; but, if Jiro was not around, Akira would pay for half of what I was buying, while I paid the other half. Sakura stole my things and broke them, ruined school papers and numerous drawings. Akira, however, was there for me and I greatly appreciated it. The only reason she was still around, might have been me, or maybe my sister. But what did I know?

When we came to a halt in front of my house, I hopped off of Hikaru's motorcycle, followed by him, and approached the front, where Akira was sitting, smoking one of her menthol cigarettes.

"How was school, sweetie?" she asked with a smile, flicking her cigarette away from Hikaru and me.

"Pretty good, " I murmured, taking off the helmet, before leaning down and getting a warm, perfume-scented hug from Akira; she always looked and smelled so nice, despite the turmoil that was on the inside. "Uh, can I spend the night with Hikaru?" I gestured over my shoulder at said teen, who waved with a smile. "He's my best friend."

Akira raised an eyebrow, smiling. Her hazel eyes flicked between either of us, then she said, "Sure, why not? You can, I'll just tell your father that you went to see Chihiro."

"Thank you, Akira! So much!" I cheered with a smile, hugging her again.

She laughed and patted my back lightly. I stood, and she waved me off, to go inside and change out of my school uniform.

I ran up to my room and stripped off my clothes, down to my black bandeau bra and panties. I dug through my dresser and pulled out my whitewash skinny jeans and slipped those on. Then I got a purple long bandeau tube top and my leather high-collar bomber jacket. I got knee-high boots and my chained wallet, then clipped on my dog tags and ocean-blue choker.

I dumped out my school books, other than my binder full of writing and drawings and a pencil bag, and packed a few extra clothes and toiletries, then ran downstairs, twisting my long hair into a braid.

"Ready?" Hikaru asked, standing from where he was sitting on the couch. He was, now, wearing his whitewash skinny jeans that he always had in his backpack, as well as black Vans. I guess he went to the bathroom to change, while I was upstairs.

"Ready as I'll ever be, " I said, walking over to Akira and hugging her, yet again.

She hugged me back and smiled at me. "Have fun... Are you going to try to get through the gate?"

Hikaru gave me a questioning look and I waved my hand nonchalantly, looking back to Akira. "Yeah, I'll try it again, " I murmured, picking up the flip-face motorcycle helmet and pulling it on.

"Alright, best of luck. Jiro and your sister will be home soon, so, please, hurry." she told me, following Hikaru and I out to the street, lighting a cigarette once she got past the threshold of the front door.

Hikaru pulled on his helmet and started his motorcycle, just as I swung on and waved to Akira.

I wrapped my arms around Hikaru's waist as he took off, speeding down the street and heading out, towards his house. It was fairly far away, but he did not want to go to a school that was closer to home since all of his friends were at the school we were attending. His parents had moved out to a different county, but he did not mind; he just went with it and rode the distance between school and home on a daily basis. It made me feel bad, knowing that he had to get up early to have time to get ready and drive to school. I know, with my sleep schedule, I could not do that; I go to sleep late and wake up early. Very unconventional... no wonder I'm always tired.

I tapped his shoulder, "I want to try to get through the spirit gate, "

Again, he nodded, then zoomed towards the freeway, to get to the destination sooner.

And... You might be wondering who I am, too. My name is Setsuna Ogino. I'm a seventeen year old, residing in Japan. I'm kind of teetering between emo/goth and scene. I like colors, but mostly wear black. My hair is black and reaches my hips, layered and parted on the left, the bangs cover my right eye and reach just below my collar-bone.

My favorite cousin's name is Chihiro Ogino. She's three years older than me; twenty years old. She used to tell me stories of the spirit world and a boy named Haku. It has been about ten years since she first told me the story and I've taken every opportunity to try to reach the spirit world.

Three years following Chihiro's trip there, my mother disappeared. Her name was Midori. She was a wonderful woman, always positive. What I found strange, was that she always had to dye her hair black, as hers always grew out as a glossy turquoise. She had mint-green eyes, and I inherited that trait, though I got natural black hair from my father. Jiro was quite tan, compared to my mother and I; the two of us had alabaster skin, almost a sick color.

Soon enough, Hikaru and I were racing down the brush-crowded road that led to the tunnel where Chihiro had entered all those years ago. Dead leaves flew up around us as we made our way down the road, some branches almost reaching out and touching us.

Hikaru and Akira were the only people who knew about the spirit world and the gate, other than Chihiro and myself. Surprisingly, they didn't think I was insane - they completely believed me. It was a huge shock, but they supported in me in wanting to get to the spirit world. Before Chihiro moved away, to one of the other islands for college, she and I would always come out and walk into the field and see if we could get through. Obviously, it never happened. Otherwise, I wouldn't be with Hikaru or Akira, I would be with Chihiro in the spirit world.

We came to a stop at the statue at the mouth of the tunnel. I hopped off of Hikaru's bike and removed the helmet and hung it from a handle bar, keeping my backpack on.

Hikaru got off, himself, and put his helmet on the seat, walking to the statue and stooping, running his hand over the face of it. "Creepy, " he said, making a face and shaking his hand to get the dust off.

"Here goes nothing, " I murmured, walking towards the tunnel, disappearing into the darkness of it, with Hikaru following closely.

I hope this works...

So... Like? Dislike? :3 Review and let me know.

Just saying this now, I won't be able to update really often 'cause I have another fic going (for Avatar: The Last Airbender, if you're interested). And! School is starting on the sixteenth... and I'm in taekwondo and I'm testing for my black belt in October. So I've gotta work on that.

Anyway, until next chapter~

-BrokenBlackkDahlia