Seven Years Later

Chapter 1 - The legend of Sen

A contract. In the Spirit World, that's all it takes to be controlled or have control. Usually, in the Spirit World, it's humans who make them with the old woman who runs the bathhouse, Yubaba, so they don't get eaten or attacked in a world foreign to them. Yubaba was never that excited when working with humans. However, that all changed when a small, kind 10 year old got stuck in the Spirit World and made a contract with her. The bathhouse was never boring until she left, she had taken all the excitement with her.

As of the day the girl left, Yubaba had a lack of human contracts. After the 10 year old's leave, only one more human made a contract, and thanks to the girl before the new worker's influence and hard work, the newest girl was accepted a lot easier than expected. The little 10 year old had made friends in the bathhouse and even found love in Yubaba's henchman, a boy called Haku. The day she left was almost seven years ago in the Spirit World. Everyone missed her,

And now the story of Sen, the little girl who broke expectations of herself by being so kind and hard working, was told to the new girl as an almost legend. The person closest to the girl, Lin, became quick friends with the new girl after she joined. Thankfully, the new employee was just as hard working and polite as Sen, if not easily angered and way too curious.

She was only fifteen when she made a contract after running away from home and finding herself in the Spirit World. She ran into Haku, just like the previous girl did, as he was kind to her, offering help when she had no-one else to turn to. And then the rest was history. He told her to go through a side door just beyond the bridge to the magnificent building of the bathhouse and find work. Whilst Kamajii didn't have any for her to do, he told her to find Yubaba at the top of the bathhouse and get a contract. And with constant questioning, enough to annoy the old lady, the girl turned from a curious and clueless girl wandering around an unknown world into Mina, a young worker at the bathhouse. She owned no other name now and couldn't remember her past after a mere few days working and sleeping in her workplace. 

A routine and something to keep her going, namely her three friends; Lin, Miyaki and Chiei, was all she needed for the place she was now bound to to feel like where she was meant to belong. She was, however, constantly confused about the culture of the bathhouse and how things worked having never worked in one before but caught on quickly with explanations and teachings from Lin and the other workers, who were all like older family to Mina.

But then Lin left. She went to go find a place that felt more like home than the place she was forced to work at by contract. She went on to try to live something better. The last time Mina saw her was when she was waving her off as Lin wandered down the train tracks. And no one had seen her since.

That was five years ago...

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Water splashed onto the floor as a short, black-haired girl fell into the giant bath. A muffled groan escaped her lips as she swum to the top, the water overflowing the bath. Thankfully, another worker with her extremely long golden brown hair tied into a high ponytail was nice enough to pull the rope unleashing the water for her.

"You sure are a klutz, Mina. Did you hurt yourself?" the woman asked, helping her out of the water. 

Mina sighed, rubbing the red patch on her forehead, "Yeah... I just hope i haven't got brain damage. The bath needs to be cleaned way more often!" The woman laughed as she ruffled the girl's loose, shoulder-length hair.

"You said it! Tie up your hair, Mina, a customer could be here any minute now."

Doing as told, she grabbed her hair ties and tied her hair into two low pigtails, out of the way. Another worker rounded the corner quickly, out of breath, "Y-your customer... is here!" His nose was scrunched up as soon a putrid smell arose throughout the bathhouse, despite the calming smells of the room.

Mina made a sound of disgust as her face too scrunched up, her hair doing the iconic Ghibli floof, "Oh no... L-let's get to work... Right, Miyaki?" she looked up at the taller woman as Miyaki's face went even paler if that was even possible. "...yeah..." was all she could mutter as they walked out of the way.

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After a long day, the women of the bathhouse retired to their room, desperately needing a bath themselves from the smell that had stuck to them. Mina stood outside, her legs dangling over the edge of the balcony through the holes of the intricately decorated railing.

"Miyaki?" Mina asked after a long pause.

"Yeah?" the taller woman asked as she lay on her back on the deck.

"Did you ever meet Sen?"

"Again with Sen? You're way too curious about her! You must have 'the legend' at least a hundred times yet you're somehow never bored of it..." Miyaki sighed, running her hands through her long brunette hair.

"Sorry..."

"Listen, kiddo. If you wanna know about Sen, why not go ask Haku? He knows way more about her than any of us!"

Mina piped up, scrambling to beside Miyaki's laying form, "You want me to walk up to Yubaba's henchman and just say 'Oh you know that girl you liked years ago? Tell me about her!'? That'll probably get me shut down and ignored or even worse, getting shut up permanently! He's so mysterious that i can't tell what he's thinking most of the time, he has this thousand-yard stare!"

The woman chuckled slightly, slowly rising to her feet, "You sure like talking that much, don't you? Mina, you'll never know about her if you don't try. Go find him in the morning, he might answer you questions if you're lucky-"

A very short employee crawled out onto the balcony as she blew out the lights, "It's lights out you two. Yubaba told all of her employees who worked the baths to go to sleep early so we can properly bathe in the morning. Apparently we stunk that bad she didn't want us working until it was gone." The other two nodded as the woman crawled into her bedding, the room now very dark.

"Like i said, go find him in the morning. You can have your chance after bathing!" Miyaki whispered as she too crawled into her bedding and dropped into sleep like a dead fly. Mina stayed where she was, swinging her legs as she looked up at the night sky.

"Yeah..." she gazed at the multitude of stars littering the sky,

"Maybe i will..."