Chapter 1: Heading Home

It was always strange coming home. Chihiro mused over her next stay at her parents' home on her 3 hour ride from Tokyo to Nagoya. Her parents had moved when she was 10 years old to quiet town north of Nagoya when her father had accepted a promotion within his employer Audi. But that meant changing to another location, and away from all her friends much to her dismay. Thankfully since then, her parents decided to stay rooted there. Since the move, Chihiro had been able to reestablish with new friends but through the years they had all come and gone with middle and high school. All that seemed so trivial now with college.

Following study in environmental conservative, Chihiro was floored when she got her acceptance to the illustrious Tsukuba University. Being an hour outside of Tokyo, it was quite a distance from home, so she got a place to stay by the university. This suited her fine since she felt it was always hard to be able to focus at home. Something had always seemed... off about home. Like something was missing or had been missed. She always felt she was forgetting something when at home, making getting by in middle and high school a very difficult undertaking. She remembered all the grueling hours spent focusing on studying to not only pass but to get high marks so she could get into a decent university. Being away from home allowed her to really push herself further.

Not that home was a bad thing, far from it in fact. She had a wonderful childhood there, full of good times and fond memories of her family. She really, really missed her parents sometimes. They had been absolutely enthralled with her acceptance to Tsukuba and so they happily paid for her tuition and even helped her with her living expenses so she could focus on her studies. When she had first moved out, she frequently visited home, as often as she could. Now between the increasing difficulty in her classes and her part time job, she could only spare the time to visit very sporadically.

Hearing that her stop was coming up soon had snapped Chihiro from her trance. She looked out the window of her train at the familiar bright and sunny landscape. Virtually nothing had changed since her last visit six months ago, save for the season. Overall, it changed very little, if at all, in the 10 years since she and her family had come here. Such a contrast to how she felt how she had changed on the inside. These days she felt she had adopted a cheerful, can-do kind of attitude, always up to challenges and new things. However, upon moving here, she remembered being resentful and sullen, especially over the move. She even remembered treasuring a bouquet of flowers her friend Rima had given her as a farewell present and the depressing feelings that came with it. That bouquet had strangely wilted in the car when they had stopped to look around their neighborhood for a few minutes.

The train slowed to a stop. And again Chihiro had to shake off her daydreaming so she could get up and retrieve her bag. She looked out the window to see if she could spot her father, who would be driving her home the rest of the way. When she didn't see him she figured he was probably on the other side and headed outside. As soon as she stepped out on the platform, she looked around but a playful gust of wind fluttered her bangs everywhere so she took a second to put them back into place.

She looked around again and spotted her father waving at her further down the platform so she went to greet him. "Hey! There's my girl!" Akio beamed as he pulled Chihiro into a hug. "Hi Dad. You're looking well. I like how full your beard has come in now," Chihiro responded pulling out of the hug. Though his hair had greyed a bit and with his age his eyesight now required glasses, she felt her father had aged well. He had a health scare a few years ago while she was in high school and with Chihiro constantly goading him, he had lost weight and had adopted a healthier lifestyle than before. Now, with his suits he wore to work, glasses, and new well-groomed full beard Chihiro thought he looked very dignified.

He grinned and scratched the back of his head. "You like it? I wasn't sure it would be so full since I was only able to grow that mustache for years, heh heh. C'mon, let's go home. Your mom is waiting for us. Haku had been waiting for you too." And they started for the parking lot. Still feeling guilt having moved so abruptly 10 years ago, Akio had gotten Chihiro a dog for companionship after they had settled in. She named him Haku, with his shaggy white fur and his sweet demeanor, Haku seemed a right fit. They were nigh inseparable for years but when it came time to go to college, she had to leave him at home so he could have more room than the tight confines of her apartment. Only after her parents promised over and over, they would take good care of him.

"Dad, tell me you've been taking him for walks everyday. He's getting old now so I don't want him getting fat or arthritic!" Chihiro teased. "Are you kidding? He's in better shape than me! Besides I've grown attached to our late afternoon walks. We're helping each other stay fit," he answered as they reached the car. "Did you get a new car Dad?" Chihiro asked.

"Yeah, what do you think? I figured with retirement around the corner, it'd be good to have something newer to take care of your mom and I. So I traded in the old one. Custom paint on this one too." he answered patting the roof then sliding inside. "Same A4 as before, just newer year. All wheel drive too, of course. Do you want to drive it home?" Chihiro looked at the interior and lingered on the backseat, reminiscing how roomy it had seemed as a child, but now it seemed much tighter. She put up her hands in a declining sort of way and gave a slight shake of her head. She sat in the front, next to her father and gave a small smile and answered, "You know I've never been big on cars Dad, but as long you're happy and taken care of, I'm happy. Now let's go. I wanna see Haku."


Hello and greetings friends. So what do you think so far? Yeah, not much happening yet but I'm already working on Chapter 2. I'm still trying to figure out what to call the story because I'm kind of winging it, to be honest. Which it is kind of hard while trying to stay as close to how the characters would actually be 10 years later. So we'll see how this pans out. Thank you for your time to read this.