Spirited Away: Return to home

Reunion

The next evening was filled with a lot of chaos and yelling. Somebody was shrieking, "There's humans in here! How did they get in?" I groaned and sat up looking around at the women all frantically huddling at the other side of the room. Misa was somehow still asleep, so I gently kicked her, and she woke up with a start.

I smiled at the spirits who were still shouting and making a rachet. I stood up and grinned saying, "You guys forgot about me already? You guys seemed to mind me being here 7 years ago." Soon they were being roughly pushed out of the way by a familiar brown hair woman. "SEN! You finally came back, I missed you so much," yells Lin scooping me up into a huge hug.

The before I knew it everyone else was joining in on the huge and I gasped in surprise. I really didn't expect the other girls to miss me considering I'm human. Misa coughed behind me and I smiled an apology at her. Lin turned around and faced Misa to ask her, "And who might you be young lady?"

Misa smiled politely and held out her hand. "My name is Misa, I'm the best friend," she tells Lin. Lin smiled but had a glint of seriousness in her eyes and asked, "You've been taking good care of our Sen I take it?" Misa nodded quickly and Lin turned and clapped her hands loudly. "Okay everyone, work starts in 10 mins so lets all get ready," she announces.

I quickly dressed and braided my long hair down my back, then I turned and helped braid Misa's long ebony hair. I squeezed her shoulder encouragingly and gave her a quick rundown on the basics of what we were going to do today. I grabbed us something fast for breakfast and we started off our first day of work.

A little while later Misa and I grabbed some lunch and met Lin by the big tub which was supposed to be our next job. Misa was looking around and she said very quietly, "I never thought that I would ever end up here. I believed your stories about this place completely, but it still doesn't feel real."

I look towards Lin sitting near us having lunch and I suddenly felt very nervous. I cleared my throat and, "Lin, do you know where I could possibly find Haku?" She looks over at me and gives me a mischievous grin. "Even after all this time your still attached to dragon boy?" I blushed and looked away quickly and frowned. Misa spoke up also grinning and said, "You have no idea." I pushed her and gave her a small glare and pouted.

"He's actually not here at the moment, but he should be back in a few days or so," Lin informs me. I gave her a worried look. "Where did he go?" I asked. "He said that he was going to take a trip to see his river. The one he's spiritually connected to." I nodded understandingly and with that we returned our dishes to the kitchen and prepared to get back to work.

On our way back we were stopped by the frog spirit from the front desk. He rushed around the corner and told us, "You guys have an extremely important customer coming in soon. She's a very well-respected forest spirit so don't mess this up!" He quickly ran back to the front desk.

We waited quietly by the entrance waiting to greet our very important guest and I gasped when I saw who it was. She glided around the corner and I instantly recognized the beautiful woman wearing her pure snow colored kimono and her black ebony curls bouncing as she walked. I gasped quietly and we all bowed deeply and greeted her.

She smiled a brilliant smile and in a soft tone she said, "Good Afternoon ladies. I appreciate the welcome, however I will only need Chihiro to attend to me tonight." They both glanced at me with curiosity and scurried away quickly. I bowed once more out of respect.

"No need to bow my little one," she says gently. I smile widely at her and say, "Its so nice to see you again." She walks behind a changing screen and comes back out in a towel wrapped around her and sinks into the warm bath.

"I missed you dearly, I am sorry it took so long to get back into contact with you. I've been busy with preparations for your return home," she says apologetically. "I do have something very important that I need to tell you, "She says seriously. I nod and side cross legged on the wooden floor waiting for her response.

"There is a deeper reason on why you and Misa are so close. She is actually your sister," she tells me. I look at her in shock and repeat the statement. "Misa is my sister?" Natsumi nods and continues, "You see, your sister wasn't as willing at first to go with you to the human world. She's come to hate humans with a passion. There was a village and they were expanding quickly, and they had no care for the forest or the creatures inside of it. One of the forests they cut down was your fathers."

A pained and sad expression crossed her face as she looked at me. "When they cut down your fathers forest it broke his spiritual connection to it and he was never the same after that. However, despite your sisters hate of humans, she loves you more than anything and would follow you to the ends of the earth."

My mind was racing, and all of this was a lot to process. I couldn't believe that I had chosen to leave the spirit world and become human and that I had a sister.

She smiles and says hopefully, "I was hoping that if Misa could live in the human world, she wouldn't hold so much hate when she regained her memories back." "I don't think she will let her anger consume her," I say reassuringly.

She nods in understanding and steps out of the bath and disappears behind the screen again to change her clothes. When she emerges again fully clothed, she embraces me and says, "I've missed you my daughter, I cannot wait until your 18th birthday." "Only a few more weeks," I assure her.

She steps back and holds me at arms-length and glances over me one more time before saying, "I must go now, but I shall see you soon." With one last smile she leaves a medium pile of gold behind and whisks away through the door.

I pile the gold up in a bucket and leave it with the foreman to take up to Yubaba. After a little bit of searching I finally find Misa waiting for me anxiously. "Who was that?" she asks me. "What did she want." I pause and then instead of saying anything I pull her to a quiet hallway.

I look at her and tell her, "You are my biological sister, and that was our biological mother Natsumi."