spirited away 2: Return to the spirit world

Chapter 18: Telling the others

Lin was getting fed up with all of this love work. She was drawing a blank on what to do. And Yubaba had to go and pester her about not working. So she had to put her plans on hold to go tend to the customers.

 Approaching the foreman, with a bored expression on her face, she said in a lazy tone, "One bath token for King Totoro."

The foreman nodded happily and handed her the token. Lin took it and sighed. Working wasn't as much fun anymore without Chihiro around.

"Lin!"

The spirit woman turned to the one calling her.

"Hey, Rita."

"How's the planning going?"

Lin sighed again. "It would be going a lot better IF YUBABA WOULD LEAVE ME ALONE!" she shouted, intending for the witch to hear her.

The foreman was quick to scold her. "Lin, please! We have customers!"

Lin snorted. "Yeah, whatever."

She walked away with a real stubborn look on her face. Rita followed close behind, looking concerned. "You're worried about her, aren't you?"

Lin visibly tensed up. "What, no way! Chihiro can take care of herself. She's a strong girl, she'll be fine."

"But she's human."

"She'll be fine!"

Rita took a step back. Lin could be scary sometimes. "It's ok to worry."

Lin threw the bath token in her frustration. It hit some random spirit who yelped in surprise, but she ignored them. "Ok, so I'm worried! Get off my back! I swear, if that dragon doesn't bring her back exactly the way she was when she left, I'll… I'll…"

Rita cocked her head to the side. What would Lin say she would do this time? "You'll do what?"

"Use your imagination!"

Lin continued storming through the bathhouse. In her anger, she forgot about her customer, and was later scolded about it by Yubaba. Rita tried to calm her friend, but when Lin got into one of her moods, it was rather hard to be around her.

But Lin's mood was about to take a sudden change, and it began when one of the toad spirits came running up to her and Rita.

"Lin! Lin! Where are you?" the spirit cried.

Rita waved the toad over. "She's over here, Clam. But be careful, she's in one of her moods."

"I heard that!" Lin shouted. She turned to the toad and glared at him. "What do you want?"

Clam gulped nervously. "Uh, just thought that you wanted to know that Master Haku has returned."

Lin's eyes widened. "About time! How's Chihiro?"

Clam looked very nervous. He pulled on his mustache anxiously. "Well… um, you see…"

"Spit it out!"

Clam gulped. "She's… not… with… him…" he said carefully, then braced himself for the explosion.

A few seconds of silence went by. "…WHAT!"

Lin sped past Rita and Clam as she raced towards the front doors. She knocked over several spirits, many of them customers, on her way. Sure enough, there was the river spirit, walking into the bathhouse, looking very depressed. Lin marched over to him with fire in her eyes.

"HAKU!"

Haku jumped at his name being called. A moment later he found himself pinned against the wall with a very, very angry Lin standing in front of him.