Chapter 5: The Light Festival and the River God

They left Kamaji in absolute admiration and shock, and giggled on their way out. They walked up the stairs and onto the streets, to find festive activities taking place. The food stalls were all out, spirits were arriving by the second to watch the festival, and people performed making the night filled with happiness. Chihiro had never seen such a display, and tried to hide her shock as fireworks of many colours exploded in the sky into different shapes. A thought eventually struck her mind as they sat themselves down at a food stall to eat dinner:

"Where is Yubaba on such an important night?"

"She takes a month of Sundays to prepare herself. Goodness knows she only has three items of clothing that actually fit her. She tends to make quite an entrance at the strike of twelve."

"I see…" said Chihiro, her thoughts tailing away into the festiveness. Something was missing, and Lyn could see it in her face.

"Relax! We'll go and look for him as soon as we've finished our food."

Chihiro blushed pink just thinking about him, wondering if she looked anything special tonight, so as to make an impression upon him. Lyn seemed to read that off her face as well.

"He'll be happy to see you anyway, don't you worry." She said comforting Chihiro as a worried expression remained on her face.

They finished their food, and wandered around just looking. Lyn tried to spot Hakku, who should've been at the festival somewhere, but got distracted by a group of bathhouse ladies she knew. They started talking, and Chihiro knew that by the time they had ended, Hakku would've been long gone.

"Lyn, I'm going to look by myself. I'll meet you back at the food stall by ten."

"OK." Lyn seemed not to take any notice but continued to laugh with her friends.

Chihiro wandered around alone. Considering she was very pretty (even for a spirit), everyone seemed to notice her presence, though they didn't comment on how she smelt. She just looked somewhat familiar, although nobody could guess her identity.

After looking for an hour the clock struck 7:45. Hakku was still nowhere to be seen. She eventually came up to the edge of the gardens on the other side of the bridge, where Hakku had once taken her to meet her parents. Did she dare go through? She decided that she was willing to risk anything at the moment to just catch a glimpse of him…anything…

She started to walk through the maze of hedges until she reached the end where garden met hill. She looked down upon the pig pens, now silent as it was night time. She sat on the hill, fed up.

"Hakku, why are you ignoring me?" she posed this question rather to herself than to Hakku. She sat for a while, just staring and thinking about him.

Little did she know that a snake-like figure lay basking in the cool waters of the river just beyond the pig pen. Only when there was a slight thrashing sound of water did she sit up and peer into the distance to see the snake-like figure. She decided to investigate.

After quietly running down the river, Chihiro peered around the back of the pig-pen to see what lay in the waters. What she saw was a long, silver dragon, tossing (not thrashing) as if trying to cleanse itself or take away whatever pain it was suffering in the river. She decided to address it:

"H-hello?"

The dragon turned its head to see who was addressing it. It turned out to be a beautiful young woman, not much younger than it in fact, with familiar features to that of the girl it had loved only four years ago. His emerald eyes flickered in the moonlight as they both remained still as statues.

She took the first move by taking two steps to reveal her figure. The dragon lifted itself, with fatigue, as if it had been on a very long mission (which it had). She then walked over to the edge of the river and put a hand out to touch it. The dragon rested its head and mane under her hand and sniffed it out. She felt something stir inside her, as if she knew this dragon…

She glanced at its body, which had multiple cuts, tears and scars. She felt so sorry for it, yet so connected to it. She saw pain in its face, and then a sense of longing as if it wanted something from her. She suddenly realized…the green in those eyes were too familiar to forget…

"Hakku?" she whispered, tears coming into her eyes.

He nodded his large head. She put her arms around his neck and refused to let go. Then suddenly, her feet left the ground. Clutching the neck of Hakku (who started to rise as well) she swung herself up onto his back just in time, for he suddenly took to the sky, rocketing vertically upwards.

Chihiro was afraid, for the ride was not smooth at all. Hakku was in pain, and could not control his flying abilities very well. He had to dodge fireworks and other flying objects at the last minute, jerking horribly from side to side. Chihiro could only duck into his mane and watch ahead of her.

He seemed to be speeding towards the bathhouse. He nearly crashed into the wall, narrowly missing ledges of windows and other ornaments of the building. They now went up not to the highest window, but to an extended miniature tower which Chihiro had never noticed before. There was a small terrace and beyond that a closed glass door. Chihiro was very afraid, as they got closer the doors there was no sign of them opening. Hakku himself became afraid as the glass in front of him sped closer to them. Chihiro had stopped breathing. Her heartbeat was non-existent for the next few seconds as…

Hakku slammed head-first into the glass panel, shattering the whole thing. Chihiro seemed to see it all in slow motion. The tiny pieces of glass flying around them and the sticking into hers and Hakku's skin, she watched in both fear and fascination. Then the oddest thing occurred. Hakku's body flickered from solid flesh to nothing, then back again. It was the strangest sight, even if it was the last thing Chihiro would remember in a couple of hours.