Chapter Text
Chapter One
Vibration
It wasn't often that Chihiro got a moment to herself to really think about her adventures in the Spirit World. She had devoted her youth to pretending they had never happened, and that they were just some horrible, crazy dream brought on by the bacon cheese burger she'd consumed before they had set out the morning they'd moved. Her teenage years were spent trying to desperately reclaim the magic she once had in abundance but that seemed to be absent in her current life.
Now she spent her days painting, illustrating every moment she could remember and hoping that somehow, if she made the images real enough, she would tap into that thrumming magic again and unlock the vibration in her soul she felt every time she she walked by a shrine or though a gate.
And she was close, so very close. The very air hummed in the twilight around her, shifting restlessly against her skin and waiting for something.
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Chapter Two
Distraction
It was a beautiful piece, this image of her dragon. Kohaku was always what her fingers created when she gave them free reign of her canvas. He was her distraction and her inspiration all at once, and she had hundreds of illustrations of his likeness hung around her studio.
Images of his flowing mane and watery scales.
Studies of his eyes and their unique shade of green that she had never seen matched on another.
And his hands, always his hands.
They fascinated her to no end. The way they felt, looked, moved; she ached to watch them again and the inhuman grace with which he wielded the appendages. He moved like water, calm and steady and unpredictable; he moved in ways no ten year old boy should know how.
And as her own hands moved over the canvas she tried to capture some of that difference, some of that effortless elegance.
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Chapter Three
Continuation
Sighing Chihiro set down her paintbrush made her way to the window of her studio. She leaned against the sill to stare out at the reflection of stars beginning to twinkle in the twilight sky against the ocean as the first tendrils of night overtook the landscape.
She always felt wistful when she finished another piece, restless and strange, almost possessed in her need to submerse herself in water and swim until exhaustion overtook her. A continuation of their first meeting she assumed; some primal need to recreate that fateful day, so that it was real in her mind for that much longer.
That urge had her pulling her dress over her head, heedless of paint covered fingers which smeared a rainbow of colors across her bare skin, crawling out of the window to sprint down to the water.
She needed to feel the caress of the water against her skin again, needed to feel the only thing she had left to remember him by.
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Chapter Four
Rendition
She knew, as she sliced though the surface of the water, that she was trying to recreate the emotion she'd felt with him, the emotion she hadn't been able to feel since her departure from the Spirit World. She never denied missing with him with such a passion that it burned her, she'd just never spoken the words aloud. Her rendition was merely a poor replica of what once was, though, and she knew that too.
She was in love with a river, and her river didn't flow though this world anymore. He was a ghost on the other side; a guardian spirit with nothing to preside over. Just as she was a painter with an image she couldn't make real.
The water was shockingly warm in the waning half light, as if still trying to hold onto the heat from the sun even though it had disappeared from the sky, and she relished the feeling as it flowed over her skin. It moved around her in a mockery of a caress as she swam, running across her flesh like a lover's hands. Embracing. Consuming. Real.
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Chapter Five
Fruition
Chihiro lazily explored the depths of her ocean cove, relearning every reef and cave by touch in the failing light, the darkness having altered the lines with which she was so familiar.
Something about this place had called to her when she was just a girl, the land having been passed down though the hands of her family for generations. Her adoration of the spot had sprung into fruition when her grandmother finally had passed into the next life. The house on the cliff and the secret cove she had spent her summers hiding from the world in was in turn left to her to care for.
She was the only person to have swam in these waters for generations, the only who wasn't afraid of the spirit that was said to resided here. His wrath had sunk a her ancestors ship, sparing no one save a single, pregnant woman, her lover lost to the sea.
And this lack of fear was not for any disbelief of his existence. She had no doubts he watched her as she leisurely traversed his watery domain, she had walked with spirits before and she knew what it felt like to be forgotten.
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Chapter Six
Preparation
Chihiro broke the surface of the water, pushing her hair from her face and breathing deep the ocean air in preparation for a deeper dive.
Something about the chill night air as she swam reminded her of what else lurked just below the surface. How even though she was solitary in her actions, she wasn't alone. It was thrilling really, every time she felt the brush of scales flit past her in the darkness.
She knew it was him, the god that ruled this place. He liked to remind her sometimes that he was there, watching her movements like an indulgent parent.
When she was a child she had felt a chill go up her spine every time she had approached these dark waters, that is, until in a fit of hormonal teenage rage that craved a refreshing swim in their depths, had screamed at him. Pleaded with him. Acknowledged him.
Would you seriously just stop with the 'oh look at me, look at me! I'm a great and powerful Ocean God' already? You don't scare me. I've worked in Yubaba's bathhouse and I've gone toe to toe with Spirits far more scary than you are, so its really starting to get on my nerves. Why don't you pay her a visit and have her take out that stick you seem to have lodged up your ass? Tell her San sent you for a bath. You'll feel better afterward, I promise.
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Chapter Seven
Resolution
The resolution of the matter proved to be his actually listening to her, whoever he really was. She had expected for a great wave to rise up and swallow her whole the moment she'd spoken to him like that, and by all appearances one looked to be coming for her. But then she whispered Twenty-One precise little words, and her gods entire demeanor changed; a sadness washing over the beach.
And when you do, please, if you see the Kohaku River, tell him Chihiro misses him. Tell him I miss him.
For three days, her cove had been impossible to enter; a storm had settled right on top of her and refused to budge, sending massive swells to crash against the cliff and send her house rattling. She knew it meant the god had gone from this place, sending it into chaos to prevent her entrance during his absence.
She didn't mind, she knew he would return. And when he did there was a calmness in the waters, an invitation that had never existed before, and an almost pleading tone to the wind as it gently pushed her toward the waves.
Chihiro made sure visit him every day after the change, swimming out to one of the large rocks that jutted out from the surf to keep him company, telling him any inane thing came to mind as she spent hour upon hour speaking with a spirit she knew would never answer her.
And that was how she made herself a space in the heart of yet another god.
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Chapter Eight
Revolution
She then dived back into the water, making her way steadily toward the ocean floor in the darkness, using the wall of the cove as a guide. This was always her favorite part of swimming with her god, making her way to the bottom. She liked to release the air from her lungs and sit there in the sand, letting the underwater world move around her uninterrupted. It was her personal sort of rebellion against life, a revolution is you will, a chance to see what the world would be like if you weren't there.
It was so peaceful, so pure. And if she held on just long enough, she could feel him, wrapping around her in long, scaled coils, urging her to swim.
She'd opened her eyes the first time she had felt it, but saw nothing more than sunlight shimmering on the water, even though she could feel the solid warmth of his form around her. She'd allowed him to ferry her to the surface that time, relishing the feeling of his mane between her fingers. It felt like sea weed though there was nothing in her hands.
So she didn't fear when she felt his long snake-like body curling around her again, head bumping against her legs to get her moving. She merely ran fingers across she silky smoothness of him for a moment before giving a sharp kick of her feet that propelled her toward the air.
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Chapter Nine
Exception
Once taking a much needed breath of air Chihiro made her way toward the closest rock jutting out of the water and clambered on, uncaring of her nudity. Her god had no use for modesty, after all, and the ocean breeze felt delicious against her skin.
She had something to tell him and she knew he would listen without question, she was his exception after all, the only mortal, or however close she still was to that term, who was safe in his waters.
"You know today is the 18th anniversary of the day I was spirited away to Yubaba's Bathhouse? That was the day I met the Kohaku River for the second time in my life. I was 10 years old," She moved to dip her toes in the now chilled water absently, watching as the tiny waves lapped over her flesh ever so gently. "I still remember it like it was yesterday. I still remember him like it was yesterday."
At that admission she sighed, closing her eyes and tilting her head back to face the sky. "I know I can never have him back. I know this. I really do. They built over his river. But that doesn't stop me from wishing he was here." In the darkness of her closed eyes, she thought she felt a hand come to rest over them, pressing into the tears she refused to admit she was shedding. "I painted him again today," she whispered to the water. She felt warm lips press against her forehead in comfort before the entire feel of him was gone, leaving nothing but the warmth of the wind.
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Chapter Ten
Communication
When she opened her eyes again, she had to blink a couple of times to make sure she wasn't seeing things.
He was there. Her nameless god. She'd never seen his face before, but she could recognize him anywhere, and the look of sadness in his turbulent eyes spoke of a kindred understanding she knew was as great as her own loss. It was a look she'd never wanted to see in this young boy's eyes.
Even though they were not a young boy's eyes, those eyes were set in the face of a child, but they held centuries of memories she could only hazard a guess at.
If this was his way of letting her know he was ready for some communication between them, then she most assuredly took his hint.
"I fell in love with your great, great grandmother when she was but a child who spent her days swimming through my waters. And I thought to claim her for my own by removing her lover from this world. Foolish, I know. She never forgave me for that, and for a time I thought her hatred was the most painful thing I've ever endured. I was wrong. It was her despair that destroyed me more than I thought possible."
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Chapter Eleven
Imagination
It didn't take much imagination after that admission to understand why his waters were so untouchable, and as she went to speak to him words of comfort, he continued, shaking head to stop her from speaking, and sending his sea-foam hair into disarray.
"I allowed her to hate me, I made her; because it forced her to feel. To acknowledge me. And I think that was the second cruelest thing I could have done to her. I never allowed her, or anyone else, to again touch my waters, and she was forced to live out the remainder of her days knowing her lover's murder was just outside the door. And that he did it out of love."
The small boy moved to sit beside her on the rock, looking so purely innocent as he stared pensively out at the bay, even in the face of his words.
"What's your name?" Chihiro asked softly, and those ageless black eyes slowly turned toward her again, before sliding back to the water they seemed to mirror.
"I am the Nameless; merely The Cove." His voice was devoid of emotion as he answered her, sitting in silence for a moment before then gesturing with one delicately clawed hand toward the waves beneath their feet. "His ship still sits down there; untouched by time. Bring to me the necklace that is still seated around his neck; she made it from shells plucked from my own shores, hoping I would protect him. For that I will help you reclaim your love from the spirit world."
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Chapter Twelve
Flirtation
Reading the question in her eyes, he spoke. "I cannot raise the trinket from the depths. I have power over the sea, yes, but no control. Should I try, I would dislodge the entire vessel from the ocean floor and my children call its hull their home now. It seems most fitting that it should be her decedent that reclaims it for me, do you not think?"
Chihiro nodded softly. "I'll bring it back to you, I promise." With that she moved to jump into the water, but a small hand grasped her arm and spun her to face him, surprise written across his face.
"Wait until light. There are more dangers than the fish in the darkness below. Should you get trapped inside, I'll not be able to rescue you. I cannot step foot on any structure not of the earth and his ship the only place in my domain that I cannot protect you."
Her eyes turned toward the shadowy water again. This mission seemed to be an exercise in flirtation with danger, but she couldn't refuse his offer. Couldn't refuse the sadness in his eyes which mirrored her own so perfectly.
Slowly, she nodded. "I'll return in the morning, and I'll bring you back the necklace. I swear."
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Chapter Thirteen
Expression
His expression softened then, and he looked at her with such a tenderness that it made her heart ache, tracing clawed fingertips down her cheek gently so as not to scratch the tender flesh. "You look like her you know, my Yumi." And with that, he slipped off their rock and disappeared into the depths with a flash of silvery scales, leaving her to contemplate the exchange in the fractured silence of the night.
It wasn't long after that the comforting embrace of the wind took on the chilling bite of darkness and forced her to leap back into the water and swim for shore.
She wasn't sure why, but the little girl in her ached for his approval, to do something to earn that approval. Maybe it was the obvious age she saw in his eyes, or that he was somehow the grandfather she'd never had, in a roundabout way.
But whatever the reason, she decided as she made her way up the beach, she was going to make him proud of her. She'd walked among the spirits and passed Yubaba's test; she could recover the necklace.
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Chapter Fourteen
Collision
By the time Chihiro finally made it to her house on the cliff she felt as if she'd been in a collision with a dump truck. Her hair smelled of salt and seaweed, her skin finely dusted with grains of sand, and exhaustion clearly written on her face from the emotional run in with the nameless cove god.
It was all she could do to shuffle under the spray of her shower and scrub the worst of the grime off before collapsing into bed without bothering to dry herself. It wasn't as if it was the first time her sheets had suffered this sort of abuse; she could usually be found in such a state after finishing a painting of him. That it was their anniversary only added to the fact, and as per usual, it didn't take her too long to fall into a fit of restless, fractured sleep.
Ever since her adventures at the bath house, it was all she dreamed about – the spirit world, that is. And he was always there, on the edges of her awareness, just beyond her sight. For her to reach for him always meant waking up, and she wasn't ready for that just yet. She wanted to saver his image for a few moments longer.
He was far away for now, but not for long. She was going to win him back. She had to.
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Chapter Fifteen
Vindication
There was a sort of vindication that came with the knowledge that she could right the wrong her cove god had unwittingly created. For some reason, by retrieving her great great grandmother's necklace, she felt as if she was fixing something that had been broken.
And maybe, just maybe, she could fix him too. Because he looked so broken, and the sadness that laced his every action wounded her soul.
That was the curse though, of a god falling in love with a mortal. She and her River would have to face the same trial one day, and she didn't know what they would do when that day came. A god was not meant to be human, and they could not be judged by any sort of mortal moral code. The Cove had only done what came natural to the ocean; use his power to claim what was his. And by doing so, he lost the one thing he'd always wanted.
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Chapter Sixteen
Condensation
There was something about the way light played off the condensation on leaves in the early morning that inspired Chihiro to just sit beside her window and stare out at the world as the sun slowly rose to its place in the sky.
No matter what was happening, it always served to relax her -infuse her with a level of calm she found from nothing else. And it was with that calm that she prepared herself for what she was to do today.
She was to dive down into the depths of her cove, find a sunken ship and subsequently her great great grandfather's skeleton, remove an antique necklace from his person, and present it to the god who had taken his life in the first place so that she might bring back the one person she cared for more than any other.
All in the name of love. His love and her own.
That man who shared her blood was a lost soul down there in the depths of the ocean, and she had to bring a piece of him back, he deserved that much from her at least.
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Chapter Seventeen
Perfection
The cove was a picture of perfection as Chihiro and her small boat made their way out onto the water, slowly rowing towards the mouth and into the bay that was calm and clear and serene. She knew it was his doing.
She could see him there -her nameless god- standing on the cliff in his little wooden sandals, watching her as she anchored her boat to a rock and prepared to leap into the waves. He was counting on her.
Taking one last deep breath of air, she dived, letting the water consume her and searching the ocean floor for the fishing boat she knew must be there.
And it didn't take her long to find, as she twisted around to explore the new reaches and crevasses the opening into the bay created, she spotted it there. With a reef growing though the side of its hull and various sea creatures lazily resting around it; it was unmistakably the ship she'd be searching for. She knew it was, even without seeing the skeleton on the bow, leg caught in a net to holding him to the wreck.
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Chapter Eighteen
Determination
Chihiro held her position for a moment, treading water as she considered her options. She could make it down to the wreck with her remaining air, but should the necklace prove hard to find, she wouldn't be able to make it to the surface in time.
She stared down at her prize for a moment longer, watching an eel as it twisted and corkscrewed though holes in the wooden structure, before swiftly swimming towards it with a determination she didn't know she still possessed.
As she approached, she could feel her lungs screaming in protest from the lack of air, but she deftly ignored the warning. She had to at least see what she was getting into, inspect it, before making her way to the surface for a new breath of air.
The eel she had been watching came to rub around her legs like a contented cat, and she ran fingertips over its glossy body before kicking her way back up to where the water and the sky met.
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Chapter Nineteen
Destruction
He was standing on the water as if it was solid ground, looking down at her curiously as she took a few deep breaths.
"I had to locate the wreck first; ran out of air right as I got down to it, but I'm looking. I'll find it for you in the destruction, don't worry." And with that she was diving deep into the waves again, fighting against the current as she made her way steadily down to the ocean floor and skirting up around the side of the wreck.
Her fingers danced over wooden hull, following its edges and she tried to steady herself in the water. Swimming deftly though a hole in the hull and hooking a leg though it to anchor herself to the ship, she began to methodically inspect the skeleton of her ancestor.
The image of his bones floating in the water, and the knowledge that his spirit was forever lost to the waves made her sad; she'd never known the man and his remains had rested here for more than a hundred years, but that didn't make the ache go away.
And as her fingertips gently ghosted over his skull, she spotted what she'd come here for.
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Chapter Twenty
Elation
Nothing could compare to the elation she felt when her eyes spotted the shell necklace resting against his breast bone. It was beautiful; thick twine knotted to create a delicate pattern around what were once finely polished shells. It must have taken weeks to carve the kanji that was on the inside of each shell, now faded and unreadable, but still beautiful.
And as she lightly traced over each shell, she could understand why her nameless god coveted it so; she could feel the love her grandmother had poured into this charm.
Deft fingers found the knot around his neck that held the necklace firm, dancing over it, and fighting against the stiff twine that had held it in place for more than a hundred years.
Her nails dug into it, trying to squeeze into the knot and loosen it as she tried to hold onto the last of her breath.
She was running out of time, but she was not going to face him again knowing she had held her prize in the palm of her hand and couldn't grasp it. It was right as she felt herself hit her limit the knot came loose, and the necklace floated down into her palm.