Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters in Spirited Away. If I said I did, Mr Hayao Miyazaki would sue me. That is all.

Chihiro awoke with the sun beating against her tired face. She got up from her sleeping mat, only to notice that everyone she had been sleeping with had already gone to work. Including Rin. She scrounged around for her socks and shoes and made her way down to the boiler room (no screaming and running this time) so she could stay with Kamaji for the day.

Kamaji was already hard at work when Chihiro got there. Three bath tokens hung in front of his face as the little soot-sprites carried heavy lumps of coal into the large, steaming boiler. Chihiro plopped down against a wall, waiting for Kamaji to finish. She didn't notice him staring at her moments later.

"You're worried." Kamaji startled Chihiro. She nodded and stared at the floor. Kamaji grunted. "Usually, I'd say that you shouldn't worry too much about Haku, but to tell you the truth, this doesn't feel right," Kamaji said.

"Kamaji, what if he's hurt?" Chihiro whispered. There was a desperate look in her eyes, as if the last thing she'd want to see before she died was Haku. Her eyes began to fill with tears.

"Hmm… I'm sure we can send a messenger to Zeniba somehow," Kamaji said thoughtfully, scratching his bearded chin. Chihiro stayed silent, pondering.

"I could visit her myself!" she exclaimed, an idea forming in her head.

"But how will you ever get there? I haven't got any more tickets to spare; you'd have to buy them yourself. Besides, you'd be crazy to walk to Zeniba's house. It'll be farther than you remember," Kamaji said, peering through his sunglasses. Two bath tokens dropped from above and Kamaji ordered the soot-sprites to get working again.

"I could work for Yubaba in exchange for tickets or money to buy some," Chihiro spoke as Kamaji was busy mixing herbs. She watched soot-sprite after soot-sprite carry lumps of coal into the boiler. Finally, Kamaji was finished with the bath tokens.

"Well, I suppose you can do that," Kamaji said. "How about we wait for Rin and see what she thinks about this, all right?" he said. Chihiro nodded and sat back down at her place against the wall.

"Lunchtime!" Rin called out as she emerged from the small sliding door leading into the bathhouse. She threw a basketful of star-shaped candies over the soot-sprites and carried bowls of rice to Chihiro and Kamaji.

"I knew I'd find you here," Rin said to Chihiro as she handed her a pair of chopsticks. Chihiro ate slowly, as she didn't have much of an appetite. Rin settled down next to her and ate her own bowl of rice. After they had all finished eating and Rin collected the bowls, Chihiro told them about her plan.

"I'm going to ask Yubaba for some work so I can get train tickets. I can use them to get to Zeniba's house, so I can find out if Haku's there or not. If he isn't, I'll ask her to help me find him," Chihiro explained briefly. Kamaji and Rin nodded in agreement.

"I suppose that's the best way of finding out," Kamaji said. "Rin, take her to Yubaba. You'd better take her now, so she can start immediately," he said. Rin was having some doubts.

"What if Yubaba refuses her and turns her into a pig?" she asked, worried. Chihiro smiled slightly.

"Don't worry. A friend of mine will be able to help if Yubaba disagrees," she said reassuringly. Rin shrugged and stood up. Soon, both her and Chihiro made their way to Yubaba's part of the bathhouse.

"I'll leave you here," Rin said as the two of them were in front of the last elevator. Chihiro stepped out, and as the door was closing, Rin called out, "Good luck!"

Yubaba's part of the bathhouse was the same as Chihiro remembered it, except many parts of it were cluttered with enormous toys almost as big as Chihiro herself. She walked until she was in front of the front doors, pausing to grasp the brass knocking- handle to knock. A face engraved on the knocker came to life and began to talk.

"Oh, it's you. I thought I'd be seeing you soon. Come in," Yubaba's voice spoke through the brass face's mouth. The doors opened and Chihiro was once again pulled in by what seemed like strong, invisible hands. Instead of landing on her face, she was dropped onto a squishy chair. Yubaba was seated in her usual chair, behind the same old table from 4 years ago, tottering with jewels and gold. The Kashika* were bouncing about as usual making their grunting noises.

"So, what do you want?" Yubaba said to Chihiro while looking over some sheets of paper. She peered over her many piles of books to have a closer look at Chihiro. "You've grown quite a lot. How long was it since you've been here? Three years?" Yubaba said.

"Four years," Chihiro answered. "I was wondering if you could give me a small job. To earn a bit of money," she said. Yubaba looked taken aback.

"A job? What do you want a job here for, little girl?" Yubaba said, getting on her feet. She walked to where Chihiro sat and looked at her closely. Chihiro stood up and faced her.

"I need train tickets," she said. "To find someone."

Yubaba laughed loudly and it echoed through the vast room. This caught the Kashika* off guard and they stopped bouncing and grunting for a moment.

"I should've known," Yubaba said after she wiped off tears that were beginning to form from her eyes from laughter. "You want to look for that precious boyfriend of yours, don't you?" Yubaba said, almost reading Chihiro's mind. Chihiro blushed a bit from hearing Haku referred to as her "boyfriend" but kept her guard.

"Haku is not my boyfriend," she said after Yubaba had finally stopped laughing. "I feel that he's in danger and I want to look for him, that's all!" she exclaimed. Yubaba raised an eyebrow.

"So you want to play hero now, eh, little girl?" Yubaba said, sneering. "But that still doesn't give me a good reason to give you a job in my bathhouse. We honestly don't need any humans stinking up the place," she said.

"But-" Chihiro was interrupted by a loud boom. Soon, the ground was shaking, and Chihiro felt like thought was an earthquake happening. An enormous, fat figure of a giant four year old proved her wrong.

"Sen! Sen, you're back!" Bou, Yubaba's giant baby, emerged from a curtained room, and upon hearing Chihiro's voice, rushed out to hug her tightly. Chihiro's air was cut off and she struggled to breathe, until finally Bou let go.

"Hi, Bou. How are you?" Chihiro greeted after she finally took a nice, deep breath. Bou beamed at her.

"You remember! I'm doing well! Mama taught me how to write my name, see?" he thrust a piece of paper into Chihiro's face with his name scrawled on it. Chihiro smiled and patted Bou's enormous hand.

"That's great, Bou," she said. She noticed Yubaba standing with her arms folded in front of her, waiting patiently.

"Are you quite finished yet?" she said. Chihiro nodded. "Good. Now, you still haven't given me a good reason why I should let you work," Yubaba said. Bou's ears perked up.

"Mama! Why won't you give Sen work?" Bou whined. A small smile played across Chihiro's face. Her plan was going along well.

"Sweetie, you know that my employees need to have a good reason to work in our bathhouse, or else we'd be ruined!" Yubaba said. Bou scrunched up his round face.

"If you don't give my friend work, I won't let you play with me anymore," Bou said, eyeing his mother. Yubaba sighed and gave up. She knew there really was no point in arguing with her large, spoiled child. She turned to Chihiro.

"All right, Chihiro. I will give you work for three days, enough to buy yourself a train ticket. After that, don't expect any more nice favours from me, understand?" Yubaba said. Chihiro nodded, then paused.

"Wait, don't I have to sign a contract?" she asked. Yubaba shook her head no.

"Contracts are completely unnecessary if you're only going to be working three days," Yubaba said. "Besides, you don't have anyone to remind you of your name this time now, do you?" she said. Yubaba took a piece of paper and scribbled something on it. "Go find Rin and give this to her. She'll set you up with a job," and with that, Yubaba waved her hand and led Bou into his playroom. Chihiro bowed and made her way to find Rin. In no time, she can finally see her Haku.

***

Haku still lay in his bleeding, crumpled state. His straight, dark-blue hair lay matted across his forehead as blood seeped through his blue and white garments. Wounds and bruises covered his body as he lay, facedown on the cold, hard ground as the moonlight shone upon him. He was in immense pain, both physically and emotionally. He was hurting physically because of his injuries, while his heart ailed for his Chihiro. Haku was dying, both inside and out.

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*Kashika – strange, green heads bobbing around in Yubaba's office.

W00t! Sorry if it took me a while to get this chapter up! I was a bit busy, with Internet stuff and such… Well, the story's getting better, right? *shifty eyes* Come on, Chihiro can't just magically pop up next to Haku just like that! Explanation is needed! Who said they were going to meet anyway? XD Well, hope you enjoyed this, and please R&R!

Much Thanks,

False Euphoria a.k.a. Lucky Thirteen