No face was brooding. Sure now he had a place to stay and Zeniba did her best to make
him feel comfortable, but she was just like all the others, only nice to him because they
were afraid. Afraid of what he could do, or like Yubbaba afraid that he might return to
ravage the bathhouse. No face could not stop thinking of Sen, he missed her so much, he
remembered the day he had first seen her going across the bridge. He could see her
because like her he could become invisible when he wished. She had been the only
person to ever look him in the eyes and be kind to him. He had followed her because she
had acknowledged him, it had been so long since some one had paid any attention to him
that he had felt a great need to follow her when she began to go beyond his reach. He
watched sadly as the dragon boy Haku used his magical abilities to prevent the frog spirit
from telling everyone about the human, despairing that he could not be the one to help
her. He watched as she was told to go to kamajii and watched as she started down the
stairs. He almost flew out to catch her when she fell only to shrink back in shame, she
would not want a thing such as him touching her beautiful body. So he watched from a
distance, using his tendrils to help her back to her feet. He watched concerned for her
when she tripped an ran into the wall, he wanted so much to follow her into the boiler
room, to make sure that she would be okay but he had no power here, only the spirits
with money and power could enter the bathhouse without pain. Therefore, he waited long
moments wondering if she would be able to get to Yubbaba without being discovered. It
pained him to think of what could have happened to her as he watched the doors and
windows for any sign of her. Then three days later she was there, it was raining. She had
dumped her bucket outside; he took the opportunity to reveal himself. He was overjoyed
when she asked him in, but was afraid of being caught. He despaired that he might have
lost his only opportunity to get to know this bewitching human, then he heard her say she
would leave the door open for him and that he should come in out of the rain where it
was warmer, then she left. He was now able to step inside without feeling any pain thanks
to her invitation, he made himself invisible again as he walked with her down to the big
tub with her new friend Lin. He walked outside the rim watching with pleasure to see
how hard she could work when she put her mind to it. Then the time came that Lin told
the girl Sen to go get a token for the bath and No face was happy that he finally knew her
name, he followed her down the hall again and to the booth where she waited patiently
for the overseer to give her a token. It angered No face when the overseer would not give
his Sen a token so he took one from the overseer and became visible after giving it to her.
She bowed and thanked him as she took off, the overseer looked back to see who Sen had
thanked but No face was already invisible once again. He took the opportunity while she
was getting the tub ready to be scrubbed to steal more tokens for her. He put them in a
bucket so he could give them to Sen, he was happy. If she was thankful for just one
token, he could just imagine what she would do for him with all of the ones he had got
just for her. He became visible again after making sure Lin was not there and offered his
gift to her. She refused saying she only needed one. Depressed, No face went invisible
again and dropped the bucket. He thought maybe she was like the others, but no that was
not possible, the gift he gave her must not have been good enough. He watched as she
cleaned hoping that by watching he could figure out what she liked. He was proud of her
when she took on the stink spirit and figured out that it was really the river god, but was
sad that he could not give her such a gift. Then later that night as he stood in the tub
soaking up her scent, he saw the frog spirit that had almost ruined everything for Sen.
He remembered how everyone went crazy over that yellow material that had washed onto
the floor after the junk was out of the river god, so he used his abilities to make some to
tempt the frog. When it got close, he swallowed it, hoping that if he was able to talk he
could tell Sen how he felt about her. He made more gold, hoping that it would attract Sen.
But with every gulp of food he began to forget about pleasing Sen and only thought of
pleasing himself. Then when he saw her running down the hall with blood on her hands
he offered the gold to her, but she did not accept his gift and ran away saying she had to
save the dragon boy. Dismayed he dropped the gold and people flocked around him, he
hated what he had become, he was sure that was why she would not accept his gift. He
felt anger at the man and woman who laughed at Sen and warned them not too; when
they still smiled, he ate them. Finally, the idiots at the bathhouse figured out he was not
what he pretended to be and rounded him into a room where he waited. Yubbaba showed
up later trying to get him to leave but now all he could think of was Sen so he asked for
her. When she finally showed up he offered her food, she refused. He answered truthfully
that he wanted her when she asked what he wanted. He told her he was lonely hoping that
pity would help him win her to his side. She showed incredible courage when she gave
him the present from the river god, he knew what it was, but he would have done
anything to make her happy so he ate it. It made him mad that he could no longer have
the pleasures of the bathhouse so in his rage he chased Sen down the stairs throwing up
the bad stuff in him as he chased her. Finally, as they came to the river and Lin was
waiting she defended him even though he had tried to harm her. She knew that it was not
his fault and waited for him as she walked to the train station. He was worried when it
arrived and the waves almost swept him away, he had to get on the train with her. Soon
they arrived at the swamp and mourned the loss of the ability to tell her how he felt.
When they arrived at Zeniba's with the rat and fly/bird, the first thing she asked was
forgiveness for the dragon boy's crimes. It was then that No face realized that she loved
the dragon boy and that she would never see how much he loved her, if only she knew
what he knew about the dragon boy she would not be so eager to save him. However, he
knew it would hurt her so he satisfied himself with making the hair band with her friends
so that not only would she be protected but also he would always be able to find her. She
thanked him and left with the dragon and her friends. No face wanted to go with her, to
tell her the truth but he knew that it was not the time.
One day he would find her again, tell her what he knew about her 'precious' dragon boy
and hopefully she would come to love him as much as he loved her. His thoughts were
interrupted when he felt a human presence in the spirit world and he knew she had come
back to see dragon boy. He took off to meet her, to show her the truth and hopefully to
show her the way to true happiness, with him.
End chapter
Man this is good, I like this a lot. I was going to make a Chihiro/Haku ficlet in which Chihiro comes back but there are too many of those so I did this instead. Hope you liked it.