***AUTHORS NOTE***: I do mot own anything Spirited Away except my character Haruko. Everything in 'Italics' in the story will be present time. The next chapter will explain and talk about when Haruko actually found the spirit world so past tense times will be in bold. Most of the story, I would say 95% will be in bold I should say since it's telling about when she first showed up and how she got turned into a soot ball :( lol but thank you for reading :) please review.

It was crowded under the floorboards , as usual. What else should I have expected? Kamaji,i the boiler man, was snoring loudly and it was annoying me. I hated snoring so much. It's the most loud and obnoxious noise ever. Over the years I had became very grumpy and irritable. I couldn't help it. With the situation at hand, anyone would slowly succumb to their misery. Suddenly the snoring stopped. I was grateful but that had meant that Kamajii the was awake again and it was time to get to work. I headed out with the others and picked up a piece of coal. It was tiresome work we did. Day in and day out, providing steam for a bath house for spirits. It's supposed to be a place of replenishment and a place to rejuvenate, but workers find themselves anything but relaxed...seriously.

Shortly after Kamajii awoke from his slumber, yelled at us all to get back to work, the strangest thing occurred. Before grabbing more coal, I peeked out from one of the many openings from the floor boards and saw a human. A girl. She was flimsy looking with a white shirt that draped over her with a green stripe across the middle. Her skinny legs seemed to barely be able to support her as she walked into the boiler room. Brown bangs framed her young face as she wore her hair in a ponytail. My eyes would have widened if they weren't already wide. A human. Here. In the spirit world. It wasn't exactly unheard of but I was still shocked. A frightened look appeared on her face as she caught sight of Kamajii many arms as he grabbed some herbs from a jar next to him. I snickered but continued carrying my coal. A few others noticed her as well but continued to work diligently. The more of us worked, the sooner it seemed we'd be done for the day. Finally we were finished with the first round and we made our way back to the openings on the floor boards. I peeked out to see the girl. She was still there of course. I wonder if she was going to ask Kamajii for a job. If I could have laughed, I would have.

"Hello, excuse me..." She mumbled. Her voice was barely audible from where I was down below. She needed to be more firm if she wanted a job. Especially with Kamajii.

He basically ignored her and continued on with whatever it was he was doing. Grabbing some herbs and drinking something straight from a kettle.

"Haku told me to come here and ask for work, could you give me a job please?" She asked as she moved closer towards him.

Haku? Why would he do that? why would he even let her stay here? And couldn't he just take her to Yubaba himself? He never helped me out. I tried not to get upset over the idea.

Just as she finished her last words, the bell , some bath tokens were placed in front of Kamajii and we were back to work with the coal.

"Ughh, four bath tokens at once. Come on, get to work you little runts!" He yelled.

She continued to beg for a job, only for him to respond that we were all the help he needed. Slightly amazed and curious by our fast ability to move the coal to the boiler , a few others bumped into her knocking them off balance and dropping their coal. Great, now we were all off pattern. She apologized and made her way over to the corner and watched as we coal seemed to be heavier then usual today as I watched as others carried a large pieces. Suddenly the girl picked up one that was apparently to heavy and carried it herself to the boiler and threw it in.

She couldn't do that! That was someone else's work. And heck yeah I was mad. I rolled out in from of her and dropped my coal too, hopping she'd be a sap enough to pick mine up as well. Everyone else began to do the same. She panicked.

"Hey, you can't just take someone else's job, if they don't work the spell wheres off." Kamajii yelled.

He was right for the most part. I was the only one who technically didn't have a spell on me. Not from Kamajii anyway. Mine came from Yubaba...but that's to be explained later.

As he yelled at us to get back to work, Lin came in brining in food asking if Kamajii was fighting again. He did frequently fight with us and over the smallest things. She threw us some star shaped candies that I must admit tasted pretty good.

And as expected Lin flipped out over the fact that a human was present. And unexpectedly Kamajii stood up for her, saying the girl was his granddaughter. Ha! Like that was believable. Kamajii somehow was able to convince her to take the girl to see Yubaba by offering a roasted mute. The stuff they ate here was soooo weird. As Lin and the girl left, but not before he wished her good luck, I made my way over to his side while the others ate.

"Huh, what is it?"

I stared at him agitatedly.

Why didn't he ever help me out when I was human? It wasn't fair.

As if he read my mind , since I wouldn't really speak but pronounce unusual noises, he chuckled and patted my head.

"She's just a young girl. You were pretty much grown." He said as he began to eat the food Lin brought.

I chewed on a pink star shaped candy angrily.

When I was human, before I Was a soot ball, things were completely different around here. Not just anyone could work in the bath house. Not just anyone could waltz right in and talk to Kamajii like not. And not just anyone could speak to Yubaba. I'd never been so scared in my life. It was a challenge and at the same time an adventure.