Chihiro was feeling an assortment of emotions, anger at being stuck inside the confining tower with the bane of her existence; Koga. Sorrowful when night came and she sat alone in her designated room, fearing that maybe her Haku had truly given up on her, or that maybe he wasn't powerful enough to free her from this prison. She would become exasperated when the spirit that held her there started his onslaught of advances, touching her here and there seductively, surprising her from behind and whispering into her ear very naughty ideas. In short, he was a creep.

She was always able to back him off, bringing up made up flaws that she pretended to notice, wiping that suave look off his face as the paranoid spirit ran over to the nearest mirror; the pansy. As days turned into weeks, Chihiro started to notice something odd about her skin. At night it was the most noticeable, she'd look at her stomach and notice that part of her flesh had a bit of a glow to it. As her due date neared, the glowing got more prominent, now able to notice it during the daytime as well.

Koga spoke not a word about it, this new glow about her, frustrating the young woman because she wanted to know if this development was normal. It frightened her, this strange happening, it could mean anything! Was it the spirits world way of letting someone know they had cancer? Ridiculous as that sounded, it was an honest to goodness worry for Chihiro. So much of this world was unexplained, she had only known a fraction of things about it. If only the smug faced river spirit would indulge her, enlighten the young woman for pity's sake!

Final she had been silent enough, Chihiro marched one morning right up to the river spirit, lifted up her already short shirt, and pointed a finger directly at her glowing tummy. "What the hell is wrong with me?" She demanded, tried of coming up with scary ideas, wanting a damn answer.

He stood and looked at it, as if just now noticing how her flesh glowed, the ass! He made a bunch of hmm noises, before taking a hand and touching her flesh. His hands felt incredibly cold, making the woman shiver and gasp.

"Cold!" She shrieked, backing away from the icy touch. Of course he just kept following her, holding his hand steadily against her flat tummy. He held a peculiar smile on his face, as if he knew of a secret.

"Well?!" She chided, tired of his silence and ready for the guy to get his chilling hands off.

"It's getting ready, Chihiro." He smiled excitedly at her, to which the girl only stared dumbly at the spirit.

"Ready? How about being more specific." She groaned, making the other chuckle at her moody look upon her face.

"It's readying itself for life, for it's exit. I'd say three days or so more and it will be here." He informed the less than pleased Chihiro.

"It hasn't been that long!" She tried arguing.

"It's almost been a month, Chihiro. Four months is a typical cycle for new spirits." He casually explained.

"I don't believe this! Haku should be here by now, he has to!" Chihiro pouted openly to the unimpressed Koga.

"Still counting on him, eh? Poor Chihiro, you've bet on the losing horse." He shook his head, "There's still time to change your bets, Chihiro. Choose a winner, you're bound to me either way, but it would be so much nicer if you were happy with our bond." He watched as the young woman pursed her lips, her slender brows furrowed irritably, cheeks a rosy red due to her frustration. An adorable sight to witness, the spirit took his hand from her stomach and placed it against one of her warm cheeks.

"You could love me too, Chihiro." He offered, smiling affectionately towards her.

"I love Haku." She stated her stance, moving from his touch, grateful that he didn't follow her this time.

"For now." He shrugged, still within the mindset that she would change, hearts left alone were easy to break and find shelter elsewhere. In his absence, Haku was only making Koga's desires easier to achieve. Sure, the spirit truly wanted this new offspring to teach and control, but he also found that it wouldn't bother him to have the mother of his child as true mate, not just a prisoner within his home. Humans held a breaking point, when it came to matters of the heart, Koga had yet to hit Chihiro's. He was patient, though. Sooner or later, the girl would open up to his offers of affection.

-0-0-

"This is harassment!" Lin shouted towards Yubaba, knowing the witch had witnessed the grubby faced spirit Lin was attending touch her inappropriately.

"Haven't you ever heard that the customer is always right?" Yubaba snapped, unwilling to stop the randy behavior going on between spirit and server.

"If Haku was here..." Lin began.

"Well he isn't! He's abandoned all of you, so get use to it!" The wrinkled faced witch shouted these words for everyone to hear.

No one was happy to have Yubaba in charge, all the servers loathed her mean ways, and wished for their Master Haku to return. The witch was even ignoring her son's threats of hating her if she continued to be mean to everyone, the witch was behaving odd in that respect. Her baby was use to her always wanting him happy with her, now that he had aged, and was more child like, his mother seemed less and less enthralled with him.

"Momma, I'm gonna tell on you to aunt Zeniba!" Yubaba's son threatened his mother, the words getting her attention at last. "I mean it!" He huffed, tired of watching everyone suffer because of his cruel mother.

"Zeniba wouldn't dare to come here. Now stop bugging mommy and go take a nap or eat something!" She shooed her son off, unimpressed with his warning.

-0-0-

Haku was on the verge of mastering the seal that made Zeniba so powerful. He had finally brought the dead tree back to life, a task that had taken great skill and patience. Zeniba was about to show him the final art of controlling the seals magic, when a very large bird carrying a heavy toddler on it appeared in the sky.

It was Yubaba's son, both Haku and Zeniba paused their lesson and met the worried face youth halfway. The large bird he rode in on landed heavily to the dirt, a few feet away from Zeniba's home. The kindly witch greeted her guest warmly, hugging the plump child and asking him if everything was alright.

"Momma's being mean, Haku! Come back to the bathhouse, we need you!" He implored, looking towards the river spirit desperately.

"I can't, not until I've finished learning everything from Zeniba. Once I do, I can rescue Chihiro and then we'll both return to fix Yubaba's mess." He promised the dissatisfied child.

"Everyone's miserable! Why can't you just come now?!" He whined, his behavior surprising both adults.

"Well, Haku is almost done. When I show him my last lesson, maybe I can go back with you and try to make sure your mommy hasn't harmed too many innocent bathhouse workers." Zeniba tried compromising.

"She's started turning humans into pigs again, Haku! She even started eating some of them!"

"what?!" Haku was shocked and outraged.

"See? You got to come back!" The boy insisted.

Zeniba and Haku shared a silent glance, hearing this news was beyond disturbing. "Haku, my final lesson is a simple one. You don't need to preform any tasks or exercises. All I have to do is touch you, and let my final knowledge seep into you. Are you ready? Yubaba needs dealt with, I'll meet you and Chihiro at the bathhouse once you've rescued her." The kindly witch watched as Haku readily agreed, her wrinkled hand reached out and touched his forehead.

-0-0-

She was looking through Koga's books, reading the titles on his many shelves, deciding on what to read as she waited out her imprisonment, when her body gave her a surprise pain. Her hand clasping a book by its spine, the girl leaned against the shelf, riding out the pain until it passed.

"The Hell?!" She gasped, her book free hand touching her always glowing tummy. It hit her again, the severe abdominal pain, causing her to fall to the ground, her hand pulling the book out of its slot, letting it thunk to the ground as she entered a fetal position, gasping in pain.

The noise had reached her captors ears, the shirtless Koga walking in and staring curiously at the grounded human, watching her moan and groan.

"It's time, Chihiro!" He exclaimed excitedly, watching eagerly as she rolled onto her back, rubbing her tummy that was beginning to glow brighter and brighter. A heat was forming inside her, making her nauseous and sweaty. She had comprehended his words, but the pain had made her unable to speak. Her mouth was too busy moaning and crying at the discomfort she was feeling.

"Come, new spirit! Be among us!" He cried joyously, kneeling down beside Chihiro and watching the glow intensify. Soon Chihiro could see nothing, the brightness around them making her temporally blind. As she felt her pain get to another level of intensity, her mind wandered to her mother. How had she gone through such a dreadful experience? Childbirth sucked ass! Her mom probably never hurt this bad, having a spirit child probably made the experience ten times worse! Still, Chihiro had a growing respect for other child bearers as she was in the process of becoming one herself.

In a strange flash, the light was gone and an unusual mist rose from her. Chihiro's sweaty face looked upon a somewhat see through abnormality that held her facial features. A essence she knew was of her and Koga's making, a newly made spirit, and it had her face! It was there one moment, and then suddenly it just vanished.

"What?" Koga rose from his kneeled position, his head spinning around, trying to look for the being.

"Young one, come out!" He cried, leaving her completely to search the tower.

Chihiro knew where the spirit had gone, though now after seeing it, noticing it held her resemblance, she was feeling a pang of guilt in choosing to let Yubaba take it. She could hear Koga distantly, calling out to the thing in vain. Her eyes looked about her, as she tried to move. Feeling still weak and woozy, she crawled towards the shelf and used it to inch by inch stand up. Her face looking upon the book titles as she slowly rose, her movement stopping as her eyes took in a strange sight. Where her book had been, there was a strange glow. What in the world could this be?

"Chihiro!" She heard her name roared out, the dope must by now assume she had something to do with his new spirits disappearance.

Curious as to what the glow was, she ignored the roaring anger of Koga nearing, and placed a hand inside the glow.

"Where is it?!" He demanded, the words being the last she heard as a odd force unknown to her pulled the human inside the shelf. Her eyes closed in fear as she felt her body and soul pulled at, removing her from Koga's presence.

-0-0-

Right as the angry spirit watched his human disappear, a loud thundering caught his attention, followed by his whole home shaking as if experiencing an earthquake! The shelf toppled over, so strong was the shake, his handy portal broken as he watched the wood shelf break in the fall.

"No!" He roared in outraged, his body transforming in his anger.

The towers shaking halted, Koga took this time to exit the home by using the window, this scaly form slithering out and his irate eyes searching for the cause of his homes damage.

Haku was in his human form, standing at the towers door, looking up at the flying dragon. Koga flew down, gracefully landing a few feet in front of the other, his fangs poised and ready.

"I've come for Chihiro. Give her to me." He commanded of the sneering dragon. Koga's tail whipped out at his enemy, the other dodged, still keeping his promise of not causing harm to the dragon.

"Why so hesitant to fight, Haku? I've had your beloved Chihiro all to myself this whole time, she's quite the dirty little whore." He provoked Haku, watching as the other closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

"Where is she?" Haku spoke evenly, opening his eyes which held fiery contempt.

"Too late, she's gone." Koga informed the disbelieving other. "She's done something with my new spirit, I intend on finding the sneaky slut and retrieving what's rightfully mine. Too bad you can't go into the human world, Haku." He laughed at the spirit who couldn't travel between worlds.

"You're not going anywhere, Koga." Haku let his body form into the long, lean figured dragon. He realized that he had made a promise to Zineba, but if he only used his old powers to get Haku to chase him, perhaps his promise could still be kept. Haku was willing to try it and see what happened afterwords.

-0-0-

"What do you think you're doing here? This is my place of business, you're not welcome!" Yubaba yelled at her visitor, Zeniba. The twin had arrived with her son, the little traitor, Yubaba wasn't going to let her sister interrupt daily life within her precious bathhouse.

"I'm not pleased to be here, sister, but your son has informed me that you've been causing chaos wherever you go within the bathhouse. Haku is coming here shortly to have a few words with you about all your deeds." Zeniba warned her grumpy sibling.

"When will all you people get it in your thick heads that this is MY bathhouse, not Haku's!" Yubaba yelled angerily for everyone to hear, "Let him come, I'm not going to get bullied by that bastard any longer!" She humphed, crossing her arms afterwords.

Zeniba was about to lecture her sister even more, when the pissy twin got a strange look about her wrinkled face. Suddenly she was rushing away from Zeniba! Hauling ass through crowds of servers and heading up flights of stairs.

-0-0-

Yubaba made it to her private rooms just in time, the misty being appearing before her as she watched in growing anticipation. The new spirit was hers! That little brat had no clue the powerful thing she had handed over to Yubaba. With this fresh spirit, Yubaba could conquer any thing that got in her way! As the mist began to settle and take shape, her plastered smile began to fade as she looked upon an all too familiar face. This spirit held Chihiro's face. The face of the little girl she absolutely hated!

"Mother?" it's wispy voice called out to the witch, bringing Yubaba out of her shocked state.

"That's right, sweetie, I'm your new mommy. Mommy has lots of plans for you..." Yubaba smiled coyly. Chihiro was a fool, this spirit would have been dedicated to her, but now, all that devotion was going to be towards Yubaba. . .

-0-0-

Spirited Away belongs to Hayao Miyazaki.