Something was very, very wrong.
Haku sat on the balcony outside of his room, waiting for the sun to rise. Even if he tried to sleep now, he knew it would never come. Not when all he could think about was Sen. Frustrated and angry, he could feel his dragon awakening inside him and wanting to get out. What went wrong? Had he made a mistake? Had he used too much magic? Or had he simply forgotten what he actually did? There had to be some explanation for it, some reason why it didn't work.
Why didn't she remember him?
He had kissed her in the flower maze with the intention of finally bringing her last memories back, but nothing happened. As they were leaving the empty pig pen, Haku had kissed her again, not only because he wanted to but with the hope that this time, it would work. Still, there was nothing. Then, Sen had kissed him on the bridge before they parted ways and still, nothing returned to her. The spell he had used was supposed to only require one kiss in order to make her memories return, but they had shared three and she still didn't remember anything. And something about that worried him very much.
Out of the corner of his eye, Haku saw an ugly looking bird with the body of a crow and the head of an old woman flying from the flower maze up to the very top floor of the Bath House. Of course, Yu-bird must have been keeping tabs on them; probably to make sure neither of them was running away again.
Yu-bird caught sight of him watching her and she immediately sped up, trying to get to the top floor as fast as possible. This made Haku suspicious, so he stood up and decided to let his dragon take hold. For a few brief seconds, the edges of his body began to shiver and blur, the pigment melting off his skin leaving behind white, shimmering scales. He then felt his torso and face twist and elongate; not painfully, but smoothly and snakelike as his body became 40 feet long. His hands and feet morphed into beige-colored claws as a long turquoise mane burst forth along the length of him and at the tip of his tail. Two angled horns emerged from his forehead along with a set of long, flowing whiskers from his cheeks. Haku then leapt of the balcony and flew up towards the top floor of the Bath House.
Careful to avoid all of the doors and windows surrounding Yubaba's office, Haku flew to the roof and landed quietly. He was able to hang onto the roofing tiles with his back claws as he used his front ones to balance the rest of his body against the vertical wall. Moving as slowly and quietly as he could manage, Haku got as close as he could to the open shoji's on the end of her balcony. Since his hearing was much more sensitive in dragon form, Haku could clearly hear the voices in Yubaba's office.
"Welcome back, Yu-bird," Yubaba said gently. "Anything interesting?"
Yu-bird cawed a few times.
The hag laughed hoarsely, "My, my. I don't know what trigger Haku put on Sen's memories of him, but whatever it is, it clearly hasn't worked. It seems everything is going better than expected. Not that I'm surprised, mind you. Haku never did know how to properly handle his power."
Yu-bird cawed again.
"So he kissed her, did he? How cute. It seems our little Haku is getting bolder and bolder all the time. It's only a matter of time before he makes her remember him… and I would very much like to avoid that."
Haku felt a snarl wanting to build in his chest.
He heard Yubaba sit in her desk chair, "Well now that we know exactly what Haku feels for her, I do believe it's time to take the next step."
Yu-bird cawed once.
The witch lit a cigarette, "Oh, yes. I'm going to make Haku regret ever crossing me."
Haku's heart plummeted; he knew Yubaba had been up to something.
...
The next morning, Sen was humming cheerfully as she finished running a towel over her damp hair. Last night had been perfect although admittedly, a complete shock. She never expected Haku to actually kiss her, and certainly not like that. She could feel herself blushing just thinking about it. The things he'd said, the way he'd looked at her… it was as if he had loved her for longer than she knew.
And of course, she felt the exact same way.
Maybe it was her imagination, but Haku had seemed disappointed after the first time he kissed her. He watched her like he was expecting her to say something and when she didn't, he seemed like he couldn't understand why. Of course she was probably just being silly and overanalyzing every little detail, but she still couldn't get that thought out of her head. She's just have to ask him about it when she saw him next.
But then she realized she had no idea when that would be.
Even though she now knew that he wasn't avoiding her, Sen still felt annoyed. It wasn't fair of him to say such wonderful things to her and make her feel like her body was on fire, only to be busy with Yubaba's errands for days on end afterwards. Obviously she realized that it was a little silly to be upset about that; even if they were in the human world, they both would presumably have jobs and not be able to spend every waking second together. But it still irritated her nonetheless.
All of a sudden she gasped, a harsh realization hitting her, "The human world!"
It didn't occur to her until now that she had completely abandoned her parents without so much as two words, let alone an explanation. But how was she to know that coming here would make her remember that this place felt like home? And how was she supposed to know that she would wilfully sign another contract with Yubaba that didn't allow her to leave? Her parents would undoubtedly find her car at the apartments where the Kohaku River used to be and assumed she'd been kidnapped or worse. Even if she managed to find some way to communicate with them, how could she ever explain where she was? What excuse could she give for never seeing them again that would be even remotely satisfactory?
Sen had no answers.
She stared at the floor for a long time, milling over different scenarios in her head. There had to be something she could tell them, somehow…
"Sen!" Rin called from the stairs, moments later bursting through the door. "Sen, come on! Grab your overshirt and let's go. Those jerks gave us the big tub again so it's gonna be a long day."
Snapping out of her reverie, Sen looked at the woman at the door confusedly, "I'm on attendant detail, remember? I have to take care of Haku's—"
Rin grabbed Sen's wrist and pulled her into a standing position, shoving her arms into the pink overshirt and tying it around her back for her, "Not today. Haku came and found me this morning when I was getting our food and he said that I need to stay with you all day. He specifically told me to not let you out of my sight, not for a minute."
The uneasiness in Rin's voice made her nervous, "What's going on? Is something wrong?"
Her friend bit her lip, "I don't know. All Haku would tell me is that Yubaba was up to something and that he needed to go and see Zeniba right away. He said she was the only one who could help."
Sen's stomach did uncomfortable little flips as she followed Rin down the stairs to the main floor. Yubaba was up to something… something bad enough to send Haku to beg for help from Zeniba. From the little she actually knew about Haku, Sen could tell that he wasn't the type to ask for help if he thought he could handle something on his own. This meant that whatever Yubaba was doing, it scared Haku.
And that wasn't good.
The girls grabbed the heavy-duty cleaning supplies from their designated shelves, picked up a few herbal soak tokens from the foreman, and made their way to the big tub. As always, the entire area that encompassed the big tub was completely filthy and caked in grime.
Rin groaned, "Great. Just great. This will literally take us all day to clean. And this tub is the most popular, so that means we will have customers tonight too. Ugh."
Sen remained silent.
"I guess we should start…" When Rin turned and saw her face, she immediately dropped her supplies and gave Sen a hug. "Hey, it's alright. I wouldn't let Yubaba do anything to you, Sen. Neither would Haku or Zeniba. We'll all keep you safe."
"No."
Rin pulled away, eyeing Sen with surprise, "What?"
"I appreciate you all protecting me, I do," Sen brushed her off to rummage through the herbal soak tokens they had picked up. "But I'm not 10 anymore. I'm an adult now and I can take care of myself."
"But—"
She gripped an herbal token tightly, tears burning her eyes and thankful that she was facing away from Rin, "Yubaba wouldn't hesitate hurting anyone who got in her way of anything. If she wants to do something to me and you, or Haku, or Zeniba stand in her way, she will do everything in her power to destroy you all. I can't let that happen. Not because of me."
"Sen…"
"I don't know why Yubaba is planning something, I thought she would be happy that I came back. But really, the reason doesn't matter. No matter what she does, I will fight. She may own my name, but I chose to come back here. I chose this as my life and I will fight to protect it. When I was here the first time, I was young and she knew how to manipulate me by using my parents. But I won't let that happen again; I won't let her hurt anyone I love just to manipulate me. That's why I can't let you guys protect me like you want to. I need Yubaba to know that I may be human, but I'm not weak and I will stand up for myself. If I'm going to stay in this world, I have to be strong enough to handle it. And I am."
At first, Rin was speechless. It took a few moments, but she walked over to Sen and knelt down, putting a hand on her shoulder, "You're absolutely right, Sen. But you also gotta remember: we all lost you once and didn't think we'd ever see you again. Now that you're back, we just want to protect you. You love us, but we love you too. So don't get mad if we all step in to help you, okay?"
Sen couldn't help but smile knowing they all cared about her so much, "I'll try not to."
Rin grinned back, "Good. Now instead of worrying about things that may or may not happen, I think we should really focus on trying to get this place clean right now. Otherwise…" She glanced around the filthy room. "Anyone that comes in tonight will probably refuse to pay."
Thankful for something to distract her, Sen grabbed a good token and knocked her fist against the small door in the wall. When it opened, she attached the ribbon to the string that hung down and pulled lightly. The string and token disappeared and she closed the door.
"Hey Rin?"
"Yeah?" She looked up from digging through her cleaning supplies.
Sen could feel her mood lightening as the realization that these people really loved her hit her. She couldn't suppress an affectionate smile, "If the positions were switched… I'd do everything I could to protect all of you, too. Even if you didn't want me to."
Rin smiled widely, turning back to her supplies, "We know."
...
Haku was only outside Zeniba's door for a grand total of 4 seconds before it swung open and a warm voice drifted through it, "Well this is certainly a surprise. Why don't you change back and then come in for some tea?"
The dragon's form shivered and blurred once again as he shifted back into his spirit form. Once the last vestiges of his dragon form had receded, Haku tightened the purple sash around his waist and walked inside.
"Noh-Face, please close the door behind him," Zeniba said gently, taking a large kettle off the fire inside the hearth.
"Ah, ah," the spirit replied, using his black ethereal hands to push the thick wooden door closed.
Haku sat at the table as he always did when he made visits to Swamp Bottom and Zeniba poured him a cup of tea. "So Haku, what can I do for you? My sister isn't the type to send her spy twice in the same month and since Sen is back, I assumed you would be spending all your extra time with her. You must be here for something important."
He held her gaze, unintimidated, "I need your help."
The old woman chuckled, taking the chair opposite Haku, "Oh? How so?"
"So far, I have been unable to bring back Chihiro's remaining memories. The trigger I placed was me kissing her, and that hasn't worked. I tried more than once."
Zeniba raised her eyebrows, "You speak so calmly, Haku. But if this were the only problem you needed my help with, your eyes would not be so desperate. What else is there?"
Haku frowned, furrowing his brow, "Yubaba's planning something else, something that would hurt Chihiro, but I don't know what. Whatever your sister's plans are though, they are heavily reliant on Chihiro not remembering me."
"Are you certain?"
He nodded, "I heard it from her own mouth."
Zeniba took a sip of her tea, "Normally, I wouldn't get involved in the affairs at the Bath House. That was the point of giving me the golden seal."
"Zeniba, please…"
She held up her hand to stop him, "I said normally I wouldn't get involved. However, I consider Sen to be like my daughter and I will not let anyone, not even my own sister, hurt her. I will help you, Haku, but first there is something you need to know. My physical body can't set foot inside the Bath House."
Knowing she would explain, Haku remained silent.
"Yubaba and I are of a very old, extraordinarily magical family. When my sister and I were young, our father expected great things from us as he well should have. But when Yubaba started showing more interest in money and wealth, he became concerned. After all, he expected us to carry on his magical legacy and keep his name highly regarded. How would it look if when he passed on his magic to his daughters, one of them squandered it for money? So instead of dividing his magic equally between us as was customary, when my father was ready to pass on his magic he created two objects: a golden seal and a Bath House. He allowed us to choose which one we wanted, knowing full well what we would pick before we did. Yubaba, unconcerned with the strength of her magic, chose the Bath House because it promised to make her very rich. I chose the seal because I saw the things my father could do with his magic and I wanted the same power. As I'm sure you can assume, my father put the majority of his magic into the golden seal; that's why it almost killed you when you stole it from me: it's much too powerful for you to handle. If Yubaba had gotten her hands on it, it would have killed her for the same reason. Believe it or not, you are actually naturally more powerful than Yubaba, but the small bit of magic my father put in the Bath House causes her to be the stronger one as long as she's in it. I can't enter the Bath House because I'm also not strong enough to handle all the power my father had. If I went in there, the small bit of magic he put in the Bath House would gravitate to my golden seal, leaving me with it all, and it would surely kill me. That's why I have to use my paper birds when I need to get into the Bath House," she paused, taking another sip of tea. "And as long as I have my golden seal, I can use magic through those paper birds because I have more of it than Yubaba. No matter what spell she casts or what type of magic she uses, I can almost always undo it."
Haku frowned again, "Almost?"
Zeniba nodded, "Of course, there are always exceptions. But you shouldn't worry about that too much. I know all of Yubaba's tricks and I highly doubt there is anything she could do that I wouldn't be able to fix."
"So assuming your magic will work, what's the first step?"
The mirror image of Yubaba flicked her wrist and a small paper bird appeared, floating in the palm of her hand, "First, you have to get me into that Bath House."
...
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AUTHOR'S NOTE: I hope you guys enjoyed the little background on Yubaba and Zeniba. Also, I thought it was important for Sen to finally realize that she isn't that weak little girl anymore who can be easily pushed around. While I think she's a little foolish in assuming that she can handle Yubaba's mysterious scheme on her own, I believe it was imperative for her to have that confidence in herself. Besides, we all know Haku and Sen wouldn't let her go up against Yubaba on her own. :) Now the question becomes: what exactly is Yubaba planning?