Spirited Away II: Return to the Spirit Realm

Chapter 8

Lin was not in the mood to be messed with.

Her day started out bad and so far, not a good thing happened to her. During the average "morning" routine of getting ready for the big day ahead, her shirt ripped; causing her to be late for work because she had to mend the rip. Yubaba did not care for reasons. She successfully embarrassed Lin by telling her in front ofeveryone that if she didn't "meet required standards for an average bathhouse worker", she would have to face the consequences.

Of course, the staff took the oppurtonity to laugh at Lin that entire day. And just to make her day even worse, she was assigned to the big tub again - doing frog's work.

So here was a very grumpy Lin, having tough luck scrubbing the sludge off the dirty tub. She winced at her aching muscles, remembering Chihiro and her cheery smile that would light up anyone at the darkest of moods. "How it would be, if she was here," she mused, smiling.

"Lin!" It was the foreman.

"What?!" Lin snapped, not bothering to look up at the foreman.

"Yubaba wants to see you."

"Wait - what?" Lin dropped her brushes and climbed to the edge of the big tub, staring at the foreman in disbelief. "Me?"

"You heard!" the foreman yelled roughly. "Now get going."

Lin shook her head, muttering how her life just couldn't get any tougher. Why Yubaba would want to see her was beyond the weasel spirit - she was just an average worker, like thousands of others that worked in the luxurious bathhouse. But it was better not to risk it. Just get it over with, Lin thought to herself and marched down the bathhouse with her head held high.

The noise grew fainter and fainter until it wasn't even in ear shot as the elevator took Lin to the highest floor. The eerily quiet luxurious halls were enough to scare even the arrogant foreman into behaving. Lin stopped, jaw-dropped, as she saw something truly shocking: the doors that eventually would lead to Yubaba's office were open.

"W-what?" Lin stammered quietly. Taking a deep breath, she walked through the doors and carefully made her way to the office. As she approached the office, she heard two voices: one loud, demanding, rude, threatening; and another voice that was frightened and meek.

The frightened and meek voice was Yubaba's.

Yubaba spun on her heel quickly, making Lin gasp and quickly hide behind a curtain. Though she wasn't still in the office, she knew that she didn't stand a chance escaping. The slightest gasp, the quietest footstep and she would be discovered.

"How dare you think I am imagining this?!" the rude voice yelled. "There is a human here."

Human? Who ever it was meant Chihiro. Lin definitely wasn't leaving now.

"Oh, of course not sir," Yubaba whispered. "Just if there was..."

"JUST IF THERE WAS!" Somebody slammed a fist on Yubaba's desk, rattling the china and upsetting the order of the paperwork. "Listen here, witch. There is a human here. I want that human's head on a silver platter."

"Of course, honorable sir," Yubaba promised, bowing slightly. "As soon as I find any traces of the human, I will let you know."

"See to it you bring satisfaction," the voice hissed. "Iam the Dark Spirit. You know what will become of your son - and I'm not mentioning you - if this isn't taken seriously. I want every corner of this bathhouse searched. You know that humans are the real threat to my very being."

"I promise you, sir!" Yubaba stammered, bowing again.

There was a warning, terrible silence in the office. Yubaba seemed to tremble from head to toe at the being before her. With a loud, disapproving sniff, the Dark Spirit said: