Spirited Away 2: Return to the Spirit World

Chapter 20: A Big Mistake

"Master Haku, I'm getting a little worried about you." said Clam. "You haven't gone to sleep since you've gotten back. Why not let one of us take over being lookout for awhile and you get some rest."

Haku gave his friend a smile but politely declined the offer. "No thank you, Clam. It's not that I don't trust you or the others, I just want to be the one to keep watch. This way I know for a fact that I can't miss her. Besides, I'm too worried to get to sleep."

"Kamajii may have something to help." Said Clam. He turned to the 2 soot balls in the room. "Does he?"

The soot balls squeaked and nodded. Haku, once again, declined the offer. "Thank you, but I'll be fine. You and the others just keep searching for the killer."

Clam sighed, but nodded. "As you wish." He turned to leave, but Haku stopped him.

"Do any of you have any leads?"

Clam's shoulders sank. "No, nothing. Do you suppose Lord Okaia just said such a thing to send you back?"

Haku's eyes widened. He had never considered that as a possibility. He thought about it for a minute. "No, he wouldn't lie like that. There must be something we're not seeing."

Clam nodded. "Then we'll keep up the search and report back to you anything we find."

With that he left the room. Just outside was Lin and Rita. They both looked worried.

"How is he?" Rita asked.

Clam sighed. "Very depressed. He's really worried. And not getting any sleep isn't helping him."

Lin nodded. "Yeah, that's not exactly healthy, even for a spirit."

"He's just worried." Said Rita. "He doesn't want to take the chance of falling asleep and missing Chihiro returning."

"But he's going to need his strength to face whoever it is we're looking for." Clam said suddenly. "He can't exactly beat them all tired and drained of energy." Lin smacked him over the head. "Ow! Why is everyone always hitting me? What was that for?"

"For being an idiot." Lin muttered. "Haku is the strongest one here. Even extremely weakened he could take down anyone that challenged him."

Clam glared at her. "Once again, you don't let me finish. Yes, he is very powerful, but what if it's not one of the bathhouse employees? There are some spirits that come here that are stronger than him. Ow! Stop hitting me!"

"Idiot." Snapped Lin impatiently. "According to Lord Okaia, whoever is after Chihiro has been here for a long time."

"LET ME FINISH!" Clam shouted, rubbing his head. "Just think about what that means for a moment. Lord Okaia never said that it was an employee; just that it's someone who has been here for a long time. Some customers do come here a lot. It could be a very frequent customer."

Lin and Rita were silent for a moment as they considered this possibility. Then they cried out in unison and ran to the railing, knocking poor Clam over in the process.

"How could we have been so stupid?" Lin cried, looking down at the many customers.

"As if this wasn't hard enough!" Rita shouted. She lightly banged her head against the railing in frustration.

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Zeniba noticed that something was bothering Chihiro. She had been acting funny ever since they had met that lake spirit. She wondered if she was worried about running into this angry spirit, Yuteela.

"Chihiro, is there something on your mind?" she asked in concern.

Chihiro just sighed. "I fine. I guess I'm just worried about Haku."