A smile was for once pasted on her aging face as she continued to write on her scroll. She was seated at her huge desk, in the center of her marvelously decorated grand room.

"For once, the bathhouse is back to normal," she muttered to herself.

A few minutes passed before she finally set down her writing feather and rolled up the ancient scroll. She then slowly rang her tiny golden bell: the small, but clear sound rang through her apartment rooms. Immediately, one of her workers appeared at the entrance of her office. He bowed to her and said:

"I came to your call, Mistress Yubabaa."

"Yes," she said slowly and she levitated her scroll to him with her magic. "I want you to give this message to the Radish Spirit: what is written in this scroll is none of your business, you understand?"

"Of course," the worker agreed.

"The Radish Spirit will know what is inside. Now be gone and give this message to him as fast as you can!" Yubabaa then commanded him.

"Yes, of course," he babbled and he hurried out of her office.

When the sound of his footsteps disappeared, she smirked. I still have my power over them… she thought. After she left, I feared that they would have the idea to rebel against me… especially Kohaku…

Suddenly, the door to the nursery swung open violently as a huge baby crawled out.

"Yes, my precious?" Yubabaa said with a soft face as she got up to greet him.

"Will Sen come back to me one day?" the baby asked her with big, hopeful eyes.

Yubabaa sighed. Ever since Sen made friends with her dear baby, he was always hoping for her to come back. At first, she tried to convince him that Sen was a no-good person, but Bou would never hear about that. So instead, Yubabaa was forced to reassure him with lies every time he asked that question… which was very, very, very often.

"Of course, dear," she replied with a fake smile.

"Why don't you like her, mama?" Bou asked her as he stood up.

Yubabaa sighed again.

"You'll understand soon enough," she answered with a weary face.

That seemed to satisfy the baby for now, because he nodded slightly.

"Now, why don't you go back to bed, sweetie?" his mother then asked him gently.

"Do I have to?" Bou whined, "I just got up!"

"Okay then: you don't have to go to back to sleep. But at least go back to your nursery where you'll be the safest."

"Sen told me that if I stayed in the nursery all the time, I'll get sick."

"Sen doesn't know everything, dear," Yubabaa said softly, but with a slight pinch of irritation.

"Yes mama," Bou said as he crawled back into his nursery.

"Now that's a good little boy!" Yubabaa smiled as she closed the curtains at the entrance of the nursery.

When she was sure that Bou would not reappear again, she went back to her desk. What was I about to do…? She wondered. The answer immediately came to her. How silly of me to forget! Yubabaa picked up her bell and rang it again. Almost as fast as the first time, another one of the workers appeared at the entrance.

"I came to your call, Mistress Yubabaa," he said.

They are almost all the same, aren't they? Yubabaa thought with a small smirk. She then cleared her throat.

"Get Kohaku here: I have a new task to assign him," she said.

"Yes, Your Honor," the worker bowed and quickly left the office.

Yubabaa nodded to herself before standing up to go to her favorite mirror. It was about three meters in height and one meter and a half in width: it also had a golden frame decorated with diamonds. But its most important feature was that it wasn't any kind of mirror: it had magical properties. With this mirror, Yubabaa could see what her workers were up to.

The witch gently put her hand on the mirror and said:

"Show me Kohaku."

Rapidly, her reflection blurred and spun until finally, instead of her face staring back at her, there was a moving image of the worker she had previously seen, with a shoulder-length haired boy. The worker in the mirror ran to the boy and cried:

"Yubabaa wants to see you!"

The boy sighed and asked:

"It's about my task, isn't it?"

"Yes, Master Kohaku!" the worker nodded.

Still wearing an expressionless face, Kohaku nodded back before turning around and heading towards Yubabaa's apartments. Yubabaa waved her hand slightly and the image of Kohaku immediately disappeared, replaced by her own. She nodded, satisfied, before returning to her desk.

"This is the way it's supposed to be," she whispered to herself as she took another scroll.

There was never really any free time for her, because there were always scrolls to be filled, and workers to be summoned for jobs and tasks. She was still busy writing on the scroll when she heard a knock on her door.

"You may come in," Yubabaa said.

Instantly, both doors swung open as Kohaku marched in. His visage was unreadable as he asked her:

"What do you want with me now, Yubabaa?"

The powerful witch gave a brief, piercing glance at her apprentice. He was the only one who dared to call her 'Yubabaa', and not 'Mistress Yubabaa' or 'Your Honor'. I wonder if this behavior has anything to do with Sen? She thought, but she immediately shook her head. He never really did call me anything suitable, even when Sen entered his life. The only time he called me 'Mistress Yubabaa' was his first few days here….

"I'm giving you a task to do, Kohaku," Yubabaa answered him, now her attention back to the scroll. "But this time, it's going to be an easy one, and I doubt it'll take you more than a day to accomplish this one."

"What is it?" the boy asked.

Yubabaa put the final touches to her scroll before putting down her feather and rolling it up. Then, like the last time, she levitated it to Kohaku with her magic. He made a fast grab for the scroll before opening and quickly scanning it.

"This is what you want me to do?" he asked.

"Yes, it is," Yubabaa confirmed. "I want you to completely shut the portal of Majou No Sekai (A/N: that's the Japanese name for the Spirit World… right?) so that only spirits and gods can enter this world. I don't want any humans trespassing this place again, since the last one who came here almost destroyed everything!"

"Yes, of course," Kohaku agreed, nodding. "But I thought the portal was already properly shut…"

"Well, it is already closed, but I need you to make the final touches, because I sense that a human is coming near to entering this place… again. I don't want that to happen, do you understand?" Yubabaa then asked in a low, but dangerous tone.

"Yes, of course," the boy said. "I'll be going now."

But before he had the chance to leave, Yubabaa cried:

"Wait! I want to make one more thing clear."

"What is it?" Kohaku asked, fixing his steady gaze on the sorceress.

"I want to be sure that you can handle this task…" Yubabaa said.

The river spirit blinked in surprise, but managed to contain his posture.

"Of course," he answered, "since the portal is already almost properly shut, it is an easy task for me. You said so yourself… didn't you?"

"Yes, of course," she muttered. "You may go, Kohaku."

He nodded solemnly before leaving her office. When Yubabaa was sure that he was beyond hearing distance, she exploded with evil laughter.

"You completely forgot her, didn't you?" she cried to herself, when she stopped laughing.

"You mean… everything that she experienced here… with us… with me… she will forget… all of it?"

Yes, he did, she answered to herself, still smirking. She turned around to face her immense window, and saw the familiar silvery streak of light, which was actually Kohaku's dragon form, shoot into the air.

He was a poor tormented spirit when he finally realized that she couldn't possibly remember… Yubabaa thought. But thanks to me, it's as if she never entered his life! It's seriously not my fault that she was forced to forget him, and even if she could or did remember us, there's absolutely no way she could return to the Majou No Sekai… No way could she return to him…

A wide, broad, evil smile spread across her aging face.

Absolutely no way…