-Catgirl-of-Bavaria-: So It's been more than a week since I updated, probably the longest time of neglect that this story has seen, right? Haaah, gomen nasaii. But, like I said last update, I got my correspondence class in the mail last update, and that has unfortunately kept me busy…erm, most of that time being spent just trying to badger my brain into focusing on the task at hand instead of daydreaming…I've been doing that far too much for my own good lately, I have so many ideas for this new manga of mine bouncing in my head that it monopolizes the use of my brain that should be used to get my class crap done… -Sigh- What a terrible time to be so inspired…-sob-
In fact, I should be doing my homework as I write this, because I didn't get anything done yesterday because I got an issue of Shojo Beat that kept me busy and reading and fantasizing about Japan and getting addicted to a series called Vampire Knight… Ack, and Odosan is going to be home soon! Eep! So, I will shut myself up here and let you guys read the next chapter, and feign doing my homework –Ninja shifty eyes- Anyway, I love you guys for reviewing and reading my story, and I will be back when I can! –Huggles everybodyz-
Chapter 9- A Crack in the Barrier
"Gaah! Cold COLD!" Chihiro cried, leaping from her emerald sheets and out of her slumber. Water trickled down her face and through her hair, her shirt was soaked again. She peeled the wet material of her flannel sleeping shirt from her body as she knelt away from the water stained pillow at the head of her bed.
A little girl stood, her arms crossed sulkily over her pink sweater, an empty and dripping cup in one hand. Rin wore a look of slight satisfaction at the waking of her older, lazier sister. Her mahogany hair was sloppily pulled into a ponytail, as she had done it herself, and it wasn't something she was very good at.
"Finally, Onee-chan," she scolded her sister, Chihiro throwing her a grimace. "You're even later than usual today, I even got dressed while I was waiting for you."
"Aw man, and I just washed my sheets from the last time…" Chihiro grumbled, pulling herself out of her green nest and poking the soppy pillow case and comforter. "Aright, Rin, I'm awake already…" She trudged over to her wardrobe, wiping the water from her face and wringing out some strands of hair.
The young girl rolled her bright grey eyes and vanished off to see if she could prepare her bowl of cereal herself. Chihiro basked in her aloneness, reflecting on the previous day, preparing for what she may have to repeat, had Taro indeed not gotten the message. She grabbed two wristbands from the desk drawer that she'd doubled as something of a jewelry box, and pulled them gently onto her wrists, relieved to see that the purple bruises weren't visible. Luckily the previous night she'd managed to dodge her parents up to her room where she had put her long PJ pants on, and hide her wrists beneath some extra long sleeves of a sweater.
She snatched some knee high socks that would hide the uglier bruise on her shin, and pulled them on as well. Now she moved onto the rest of her uniform, once more the warm version of it, paired with the blazer, as the fog had come for a third visit outside her window. The outside world was a little brighter than most mornings, so Chihiro hastened up, figuring that she must have been later then even her late wakings.
"What…" Chihiro suddenly mumbled, noting that her purple hair tie wasn't on it's normal place on her desk. Suddenly, thinking on it, she realized that she hadn't set it there the previous night like she normally did. She recalled lying in her bed, late that night in the dark, just staring at it as it caught even the slightest light from the moon or streetlights outside. "My bed?" Chihiro flustered, leaping at her emerald comforter and sheets, searching left and right for the woven band.
"Onee-chan, what are you doing?" Rin's voice came from the door as Chihiro lifted her fluffy pillows one by one, her comforter now discarded on the floor.
"L-Looking for something…" Chihiro whined, throwing herself under the pillows that covered the head of her mattress. "It's gotta be here somewhere!" she felt her hair grow static from her self burial in the fluffy fabrics, searching every inch. She had to wear it, she just had to! The meeting with Taro had proven that her obsession with the band hadn't been unfounded. She still didn't understand it completely, but it was all she had, besides Hakuno, who couldn't be there with her all the time like that band could.
She grew desperate, emitting little whimpers as she pulled herself from the pile of pillows, her hair fluttering out of control. Rin, meanwhile, caught glimpse of a purple shimmer from beneath Chihiro's bed. Chihiro watched, bewildered as the little one scrambled under the bed, awkwardly squeezing into the confined space. She scooted on the dusty floor past an old shoebox, and reached for the shimmering material. Chihiro leaned over the side of the bed, watching the floor just where the little girl had scurried under it.
"Is this it?" Rin asked hopefully, popping her head and shoulders out from under the bed, somehow having transferred to her back on the way out. In her extended hand, Chihiro spotted a small and friendly shimmer of violet, emitting from a woven band of purple thread.
"Y-Yes!" Chihiro exclaimed, taking the tie from her little sisters small hand. "You found it!" She would have hugged her sister that moment, had she not been still mostly under the bed.
"You were freaking out over that little thing?" Rin asked quizzically, pulling herself out from the overhanging bed frame. She brushed the dust sloppily off of her pink sweater and blue jeans, looking curiously at her sister Chihiro, who was now holding the band between her lips, and straightening out her hair with her hands.
"Why do you like that thing so much? You've had it forever!" Rin continued.
"I really have no clue," Chihiro told her sister honestly and just as curiously. She wrapped the hair tie in question around a collection of her now smoothed out brunette hair, masterfully twisting it around in her fingers. "But still, I just somehow can't throw it away…" She sighed, getting to her feet.
"Come on, we're later than usual today…Did you eat breakfast?" She took her younger sister's hand into her own and led the girl down the stairs. Rin nodded. "You put the milk away, right?" Chihiro enquired further, acting more like a big sister than she had for a while.
"Yes, Onee-chan…" Rin sighed exasperatedly, tugging her arm through the sleeve of her jacket. Chihiro just noticed the girl's ponytail, a messy one to begin with, but probably further ruined by her venture under the bed. She shouldered her bag and tugged the hair tie gently out of her sister's hair.
"Hey, what the…?" Rin said, surprised and reaching back at her hair.
"Hold still, I'm fixing your hair," Chihiro assured her. The stubborn little girl folded her arms again, muttering something like 'I don't need any help…I'm four years old…' Chihiro grinned as she took the little hair tie from her mouth, replacing it in the sienna brown curtain of hair, dragging her hands around the silky locks to the ends. "There. Now let's get out of here before I get a detention."
She turned towards the door just as Rumi rang the bell from the other side, twice and urgently, obviously also in fear of receiving a detention.
---
Chihiro sat, bored in her seat, listening to some lecture on some piece of literature. Something about a guy named 'Shakespeare'. She doodled on her notes again, the same dragon again, the same one that appeared at least once on each page of her notes. She was getting quite expert on this doodle, leading her to vaguely think about getting into art just to draw bigger and better pictures of that dragon. Her cheek lay mashed onto her hand as she wrote some distant piece of information that she'd actually caught into her notes, sloppily and near illegible, a mess compared to the amazingly detailed doodles in her margins.
She glanced at Rumi, just a few seats up and the next row over. She was apparently sleeping behind her propped up book, a common trick in the classroom. It was hard for Chihiro to tell if Ryumi-sensei noticed and just didn't care, or if he was just clueless. Luckily she hadn't gotten detention for tardiness,—she and Rumi had just barely made it in- but her lack of completed homework over the past few days had added up enough to qualify her for a detention nonetheless.
She'd remembered just earlier, at the homework call, Ryumi had singled her out, asking her publicly where her assignments were. She recalled sheepishly apologizing for the absence of her work, promising to get better at doing her work, meanwhile silently cursing him for the all too public assignment of detention. She'd looked back at her dragons, after just catching Hakuno's glance from her left, an awkward kind of 'You'll be fine' look. His eyes, comparable to Taro's, were so expressive that he didn't even need words sometimes.
She looked over at him in the present, and he was contrastingly intent on the lecture, pensively staring at the sensei as he mentioned something from a play called 'Hamlet', tearing his eyes away every now and then to write something down. So focused and oriented, as opposed to herself or more accurately, Rumi.
She let out a silent sigh, giving up on making eye contact with her friend beside her, and began to stew things over in her own mind. Reviewing the last few days, surveying her feelings, trying to bring back every detail of those visions she'd had when she was with Hakuno. She thought about Taro, who she hadn't seen that day. She was still worried that the combination of drunkenness and shocking pain had worked together in not allowing her shouting to penetrate his mind. She thought about the possible prospect of having to repeat herself later that day.
She was just grateful that today she'd have Hakuno with her, as well as Rumi. She reassured herself that she wouldn't step one foot into Taro's building again.
---
Hakuno made his way to his locker again that day, Rumi and Chihiro by his side. The day had gone by terribly slow, and he was glad to be able to get out of the stress of the classroom lessons, able to have time with Chihiro and Rumi, the lights of his life. The two were contemplating what activity they wanted to partake in after they left school. They only had one more class to endure, and they were currently on one of the periodical breaks that the school schedule had allowed the students.
The halls were packed, hectic, and deafening, as usual, but Hakuno was slightly more at ease with the chaos, now that the two girls he'd befriended were with him, and he wasn't so worried and tense about Taro. He hadn't seen Taro all day, and thought maybe he was skipping that day, after the break up on the previous day. He smiled to himself, hoping that Chihiro's words had indeed soaked in, despite the young man's tipsiness.
"Hmm, you got any new video games, Chi?" Hakuno heard Rumi ask Chihiro from beside him.
"Ah, no, all the same old ones that we've already beat three times over…" Chihiro sighed, folding her hands behind her head.
"Yeah, me neither. The stupid things are so expensive…" Rumi joined her friend in a sigh. "Ooh! I know, we could show Hakuno the mall! Window-shopping and laughing at people that are funnier-looking than us! Yeah!" Rumi suddenly lit up, punching the air enthusiastically.
"The mall?" Hakuno enquired, curious as to what it was.
"Yeah, they're big shopping places with lots of stores, for clothes, mostly. The idea comes from America, I hear they've got them everywhere over there." Rumi said knowingly. "The stupid things are huge over there too, we've just got a small one in the next town over, but still it's pretty much the same. What do you think?"
"Um, sure," Hakuno said, uncertainly, but eager still to hang out with them free of Taro.
"Alright! Chi? How 'bout you?" Rumi squealed, turning to her girlfriend.
"Sure!" Chihiro brightened, extremely eager to do something fun other than fretting over events and lost memories.
"Alright, so after next hour, we all meet by Hakuno and Chi's locker and we'll go to the mall!" Rumi confirmed bouncily.
They continued walking aimlessly through the hallways, Rumi and Chihiro listing off the sorts of stores they had in the shopping mall, at least the ones they remembered, to Hakuno, trying to find his interests; Interests that he himself didn't really even know. The bell was soon to ring, so they aimed themselves into some round-a-bout way to get back to class.
Something slipped into Hakuno's senses as they proceeded through a locker-bordered hallway, something urgent, something troubling. Something behind him and his two friends…
"Chihiro." A deep voice commanded from behind the group, sending a wave of frustration and anger through Hakuno, a wave of fear through Chihiro.
The group turned, seeing that the voice indeed matched up with Taro, just a foot from where they stood, standing tall with his arms folded in his signature pose across his broad chest. His black school blazer made his shoulders look even more square than they naturally were as they looked up at him. Hakuno's hair glinted in front of his ferociously gleaming eyes as he peered with hostility at the older boy.
'He hurt Chihiro. He's the reason those bruises are there. This bastard does not even deserve to look at her after that!' Hakuno furiously thought to himself, resisting the urge to smite him with those exact words.
"About yesterday." Taro continued, once more showing no emotion. Chihiro eased, but only slightly. Perhaps he was apologizing for his actions? She could only hope. Taro continued, however, dashing those hopes.
"I'm not giving you up that easily." His dark eyes narrowed beneath his curtain of raven hair. "I'm not giving you up to this little shrimp." He gestured towards Hakuno, who was just boiling beneath his surface, but managing to keep a calm, straight-postured composure.
"That is not for you to decide, Taro." Hakuno told the elder firmly, coldly. "You had your chance to make Chihiro happy, but you only hurt her with your idiotic envy." His own emerald eyes narrowed, giving the boy a very menacing aura.
The hallway around them had almost become quiet, students flowing a good distance around the scene, many taking glances, some whispering to their friends. There were obviously rumors being ignited in that hall, and the students sensed a fight brewing, as if it were a sixth sense that blessed each and every high school student on earth. Some paused, some contemplated between getting to class and staying to see some action.
The girls in the middle of the scene, Chihiro and Rumi, had joined together, Rumi grasping her friend protectively, sending a glare of her own at Taro, as if daring him to come any closer to her friend. Her deep eyes were narrowed as well, showing the same hate for Taro's abusing of Chihiro.
"Who the Hell asked you, you little punk?" Taro shot back at the boy with malice. He turned back towards Chihiro. "Like I was saying, it's not over, and you're still my future."
Chihiro stared back at him. So he did remember some of the previous day. If only he'd seen how much he'd hurt her. He was still so unreadable. Why wasn't he taking the break up? Why was he causing a scene over it?
"You're going to have to find a different future, Taro." Rumi beat Chihiro to the punch, glaring the guy down, gently tightening her grip on Chihiro's shoulders. "Chihiro doesn't want this anymore. She's sorted out her heart; I suggest you do the same before you hurt her again."
Taro's dark, unreadable eyes turned towards Rumi, sending a vicious glare at her. They had all turned on him, in just a matter of days. He'd been on top of the world, in control just the other day. He was used to being cast away, pushed under, and he didn't like the feeling at all. He didn't want it to happen again in this way.
The larger boy took a few steps towards Chihiro, as Rumi noticed and drew Chihiro back, matching Taro's steps. Hakuno's eyes suddenly glinted, and he found himself situated straight between the girls and Taro. He'd dreaded this moment for the last few days, dreaded that Taro would just proceed straight and forcefully through him and get to Chihiro despite his protecting her. His posture had bent over, into an aggressive stance, ready for a fight, if it came down to it.
"Don't you dare touch her." He felt his voice surprisingly threatening, the coldest volume he'd ever used. "It's over. Leave her be." He glared through his spruce colored hair at the taller boy, and vaguely sensed it flowing slightly with some non-existent breeze.
"Get the Hell out of my way, or I'll make you move." Taro growled at him, the audience that had gathered chanting a small 'oooh', as if wanting to spur on the fight. Hakuno held his ground, not moving an inch, not taking his glinting emerald eyes off Taro's dark ones.
"Hakuno…" Chihiro whimpered from behind the green-eyed boy, finding herself glued to her spot, unable to make herself rush to Hakuno's aid.
"You'll never hurt Chihiro, or Rumi. Not while I'm here." Hakuno finally hissed, his green orbs doing a spectacular job at disguising the fear that was coursing through him at that moment.
Taro's eyebrow rose slightly, as if he was surprised that the kid in front of him had actually taken things into his own hands. He stared at those eyes, those eyes that were simply too deep and glimmeringly emerald green to be normal. Still, he needn't waste his time sizing the boy up; he was so much smaller, so much more slender than he. His frown twisted into a heinous grin. This fight would be over in a heartbeat.
Hakuno's eyes snapped shut as he felt searing pain shoot through his right cheek, as toughened steel of a fist flew through it. He stumbled slightly towards the window to his left, caught by the impact's momentum. He vaguely heard Chihiro's voice call to him just as it happened.
He brought his fingers to feel his swelling cheek, noticing that it hadn't swollen up nearly as much as it made itself out to be. He felt the place of impact throbbing as he threw his glance back to Taro, hateful as ever. He was grinning to himself, same as ever, cracking his slightly pinkened knuckles. He'd punched him, and hard.
"You want some more, Hakuno? That was just a taste." Taro taunted Hakuno, who was still slightly hunched over, assessing whatever damage that had come with Taro's fist. "I'm actually curious as to how much you can take, it's been a while since I had a good fight," He continued with relish that Hakuno could only comprehend as sadistic.
Hakuno rose to his normal straight posture, rounding his stance again towards Taro, his eyes losing none of his anger. He ignored the cooing encouragements of the crowd that had accumulated, it was just him and Taro as far as he was concerned. So he'd landed the first hit. That didn't mean it was over. He had to stand his ground, had to win Chihiro's freedom from the possessive second year, even if this was the only way how. The younger took a couple of steps forward, leveling himself with Taro, ready for the fight to continue. Even if he did think he was somewhat insane to be doing this, he somehow knew also that he could somehow outdo his foe.
Taro's fist swung again, but this time was dodged by Hakuno, sending the elder boy slightly past him and slightly off balance. Hakuno had an advantage now, and prepared to send the larger boy to the ground. Before he managed anything, however, a force slammed into the back of his head, knocking him momentarily senseless. He immediately calculated that his adversary's elbow had been that force, and scolded himself for giving the boy an opportunity for that in replacement for a punch. He rubbed at the piercing pains that shot through his head, feeling an enormous head ache coming on, not having time to respond to the knee that forced itself into his gut as he staggered backwards toward the window again.
"Taro, Stop it!" Chihiro cried from Hakuno's right. He noticed he was on the ground now, on his knees, doubled over with the double strike that had left him breathless and slightly off-key. He sensed Chihiro's boots clacking towards the 'battle field', headed straight for him.
"Stay where you are, Chihiro." He called out to her, hoping his voice hadn't come out too harsh. Her footsteps immediately halted, and Hakuno pulled himself to his feet, lifting his green eyes first to Chihiro, giving her a reassuring look. She looked drained, scared for him. Rumi stood just behind her, just as shocked, her deep eyes wide and worrisome, probably debating stepping in herself. Her hands that had previously held Chihiro back still hung in the air, apparently not knowing what to do with themselves as Chihiro had left them. Behind them both, he was reminded of the crowds on either side of the hallway, blocking the group in. The spectators wore looks of awe, fear and excitement.
The next person Hakuno's eyes found, was Taro; still standing smug and triumphantly, his arms in their former position across his chest. Hakuno felt something wet on his lip, and licking it, he tasted blood. His own bottom lip must have been torn with the initial punch, he figured. The metallic tasting liquid spurred him on, as if it was feeding him some sort of blood lust, and he fed on the minimal supply that his injury provided. Another glance toward the girls told him that Chihiro was now back in the hands of Rumi.
The cheerful school bell finally tolled as Taro and Hakuno's glares met again, drawing some of the audience away, causing some to bear looks of torn confusion on their faces, apparently wanting more action. The noise had kicked up again, but all Hakuno could hear was the sound of his own heartbeat, the steady panting that filled his lungs, Chihiro's small gasps for air beside him. More blood trickled from his lip and he licked it up as it flowed. It seemed to feed life, encouragement to him.
Taro suddenly lunged again, his fist flying in the air beside him. Hakuno was ready this time, and braced himself, catching the older boy's fist, much to his and Taro's surprise, in his own hand. His emerald orbs flashed, and with that bloodlust finally catching up to him, he slammed his own, free fist straight into Taro's gut. What he hadn't anticipated, however, was how powerful the punch would be.
Hakuno caught a quick glimpse of silver as Taro flew straight back, around five feet, through the air. And Fast. The impact sent him straight into the lockers behind him, creating a loud and hollow metallic bang that echoed through the hallway. Taro's form sunk to the ground, doubled over in intense pain, revealing a rather hefty dent in the grey metal of the lockers.
Hakuno stared, wide eyed, as other eyes around him became glued either to him, or the dent in the metal just above Taro's head. He stared at the dent himself, his breath caught in his throat, wondering, how on Earth he'd managed so much damage with a punch that logically shouldn't really have even affected Taro? How had he sent his foe nearly through the wall, just that simply?
Whispers rose, more fervent than ever, now on the subject of Hakuno's strange powers. His green eyes peered at the spectators around him, catching their stares, causing some to turn away awkwardly as he made eye contact with them, almost wanting nothing to do with him, others just staring dumbly, others to turn to people around them, spreading heinous and ungrounded rumors, hurtful and jeering looks on their faces. His gaze at the crowd led his eyes to Chihiro and Rumi, who were also staring wide-eyed at the boy, speechless, not daring to move, not daring to contemplate what they'd just seen. Just staring. Like everyone else. The whispers met his ears suddenly, his hearing had adjusted itself to catch what types of rumors they were.
"Straight through the air, five whole feet!"
"Taro's huge! How the heck did that small fry manage that?"
"That can't be natural…that can't be human!"
"L-look at his hands…!"
"Whoa, That's not human at all!"
Hakuno was startled by the last couple of remarks, and stared down at his palms, not knowing what to expect. His eyes became wider still as he saw silver, swirling tranquilly around his hands, lacing up his arms and seeming to disappear as they reached his torso. It was that silver, he'd just glimpsed as he sent Taro flying, the silver he'd written off as some trick of his eyes in the heat of battle. But this was no trick, the others could see it too.
He tossed his head quickly up to see Chihiro and Rumi, what their reactions were. The girls' eyes were just as large, just as intriguingly frightened as every other set of eyes in the place. He caught gaze with Chihiro, whose brown eyes held some familiar sense of alarm. Something that he'd swear he'd seen before. It was directed towards him, towards his glowing hands, his strange outburst towards Taro. His eyes fell slowly to his hands again, that silvery aura not fading, just swirling playfully around his now shaking hands. The whispers he'd heard earlier, along with the ones still filling the hallway rang through his ears.
'That can't be natural…That can't be human!'
He felt the crowd seem to pull away from him, seem to want to get away. He looked at Taro, who'd also taken to staring at him and his silvery hands. The older boy's eyes across the hall were narrowed, almost suspiciously.
"What the Hell are you, anyway?" Taro grumbled through whatever pain from Hakunos' punch that remained.
Hakuno stepped back from him.
'That can't be natural…That can't be human!'
He looked at Chihiro again, his eyes starting to sting. Her brown eyes stood stationary, wide and relatively the same as last time he looked at her. She hadn't moved, not even to come to him. She hadn't reacted at all.
"Alright, move along people, get to class!" Some female's voice came over the murmuring crowd on the side of the hall behind Chihiro. "Ditching class to watch a fight, I swear if I had each of your names, I'd put you ALL in detention!" The angry voice drew closer.
Hakuno hadn't separated glances with Chihiro yet, but felt tears of fright and insecurity welling up in the corners of his wide emerald eyes. With one last look at Taro, who sent him back a glare, the panicked boy bolted away from the scene, fighting needlessly through the crowd of students, who'd recoiled, clearing a path as soon as he turned for them.
"Hakuno!" Chihiro suddenly cried after him, seeing the swarm of students part for him as he tore through them, his silver-laced arm covering his face.
"Ogino-san! I hear your group was the ringleader in all this?" A stern looking third year teacher stared stormily at her peering through a glint in her rectangular glasses. "What's going on here, Ogino? Namiko? And why is there a gaping dent in the school's expensive locker!" She grew more indignant as she surveyed the actual scene. Turning her head back towards the two girls, she noticed that it'd been narrowed down to one, Rumi Namiko.
"Ogino-san!" She bellowed after the brunette, who was now running break-neck speed in Hakuno's same path. "Ogino-san, get back here! Being involved in a fight at school is very undignified and a very punishable action!"
"Sensei, if you don't mind, Chihiro will be back, she has to go after our friend," Rumi explained timidly, as the woman threw her a very tepid look. "Until they come back, I'll explain, though…" She offered, not wanting to anger the already boiling sensei.
"I don't care what friend it is, she owes me a detention!" She stormed, not really satisfied at the girl's offer, but knowing that it was all she could do, with Chihiro gone. She cast a glare at Taro, who now was sitting, arms slung lazily around his knees, staring back at her, below the dent in the locker that she'd been raging about.
"You, what's your name?" She cast malevolently. "Taro Fushiyama, correct?" Taro nodded. "Well, I guess mobs of rumor spreading kids aren't completely useless after all. You both follow me, now."
The two followed the woman, Rumi hustling to walk beside the woman, not wanting to be next to Taro.
"There was another boy, wasn't there? Hakuno, was it?" The middle-aged woman asked the girl next to her. Rumi nodded obediently with a small and quiet 'yes, Sensei,' her hands collected together in front of her. "So, I presume he was fighting you, and he sent you somehow into that locker, Fushiyama-san?"
There was no response from behind them, and Rumi whirled around, gasping to see that there was no Taro behind them, or anywhere else in the hallway.
"Fushiyama-san?" The sensei's anger was surfacing again, as she turned around as well, finding that it had been narrowed down to just this blonde girl, Namiko. "Agh, Oh great, now they've all disappeared…Oh well, they'll be rewarded with more detention, then, that's their own consequence. Come on, Namiko, to my office. Now. Might as well get the story from at least one person while I still can." The woman growled, her mood not bettering by the disappearance of the third culprit of the fight. She grabbed Rumi by the wrist, making it impossible for the girl to chase after everyone else herself.
---
Zeniba was picking up the living room of her cottage, cleaning up whatever had been displaced with the visit of her nephew spirit, Boh. The sorceress had only just returned from escorting him back to his home at the bath house, as his visit with his aunt had to come to an end for Yubaba's crankiness of her absent child.
The old ruler of the bath house let her child to visit her sister only for the reason that it made him happy, but still hated knowing that the boy had familial affection for her sister, even after she'd raised him away from her his entire life. Another thing to chock up to the human girl, Chihiro, she'd reasoned.
"Oh, that boy is growing, isn't he, No-Face?" Zeniba said with a sigh, smiling at their guests' presence. "It truly is hard to believe that such a sweet baby was raised by my sister!" She laughed heartily, receiving a smile and nod from No-Face, who was doing his part of straightening in the kitchen. It was far past sunrise, the time they normally went to sleep, but they chose to organize things first before finally retiring.
She finished straightening her knitting corner, and nearly dropped the yarn balls in her great hands, for a small pang that made itself known in her mind. Her eyes widened as she figured out what it was, nearly immediately.
"Ah…Ah?" No-Face lightly asked, his own way of asking if everything was alright.
"Yes, No-Face, dear. Everything's fine," Zeniba smiled honestly at her companion. "Things are changing for Haku, as well." She gave him the reading of her sudden premonition.
"Ah…?" No-Face asked further, cocking his head slightly.
"Yes, dear." Zeniba nodded. "His memories have already begun coming back, and just now, his powers surfaced. He really is quite a powerful being for this to happen…I expected for the memories to return to him, eventually, he's such a determined young man, but his powers…"
No-Face smiled thoughtfully, returning a pan to it's rightful spot.
"There's a crack in the barrier that holds his true nature, his memories, and that crack is getting wider." Zeniba cast her eyes out the window, to the spot where she'd cast the spell on the boy in the first place. "We'd better ready ourselves for guests!" She cackled heartily, smiling underneath the deep wrinkles etched into her face. No-Face's painted mouth displayed a little smile as well, imagining that they may soon be able to see Chihiro again, after the past five years.
'Soon, the crack won't be able to hold, and it will burst.' Zeniba prophesized, still staring out the window.
"Let us hope that Haku is ready for it."