Chapter 14: Sacked

"And where exactly is the Water Spirit Haku?" Chihiro heard as she stood outside the door.

"Well…" trailed off the voice of Yubaba.

Silently Chihiro shifted so that she could peek through the crack in the slightly open doorway and cast her eyes on the party inside.

Yubaba was stood by her desk looking slightly worried, The Great Water Spirit stood before her with eyes which flickered in the candlelight from the table and his daughter silently watched the stars outside.

"…Haku is not currently in the Bath House, he had to travel to visit his…sick friend," Yubaba finally concocted. The Water Spirit did not look convinced.

"If you will excuse me," came a soft voice from the window, "but I should very much like to meet this Haku before I am to marry him."

Chihiro could almost feel the tension grow as the girl's father cast an angry eye upon his daughter. She seemed to sink in his presence and turned a sad eye to the outside world again as if he had already declared that such a ridiculous request even be taken into consideration.

"I am sure you will find that Haku will make a pleasant husband," came an assuring voice from Yubaba which sounded fake in every possible way.

Chihiro had had enough. Silently she turned and crept down the corridor until she was out of Yubaba's ghastly lair and away from that girl and her father. All she wanted to do was to run out of the building and leave forever. She wanted to return to her world, to her mum and the triplets and forget this place forever. But there was no way out.

Lin's smile greeted her as she entered the baths to begin the job which was forced upon her. Her uniform was rolled up to her knees and beyond her elbows as she poured a bucket of a sweet smelling hot liquid over the guest she was currently attending to.

"Chihiro, be a dear and scrub this man's back will ya?" she asked in a loud voice as she tried to make herself heard over the guest's moans of pleasure in the hot water.

Chihiro smiled a little as she decided to push the troubles out of her mind until later when she could do something about it. If she could have she would have laughed at the scene before her. The guest, an elderly spirit who was lying deeply within the luxurious water surrounding him, was not ashamed to show his pleasure as he let deep groans of immense pleasure rumble from deep within his throat and poor Lin who was desperately trying to make herself heard over his sigh's and trying not to laugh all the while.

Picking up the nearest scrubbing brush Chi dipped it into the soothing water and began scrubbing the man's back, which proved to add to his current pleasure as another deep moan emitted his body.

Lin could not hold it in anymore and let a snort of laughter roll out of her mouth which she tried desperately to cover with a soggy hand. But she needed have worried for the guest was being so loud he completely missed it.

"He's been like this for ages now!" she gigged to Chi, "he refuses to get out and I keep having to top up with hot water to make sure it doesn't go cold!"

Chihiro smiled at Lin's delight as she scrubbed harder on the man's back and even let out a small giggle as she watched the man's face relax further into pleasure.

"So what was your little job about this morning?" asked Lin eventually.

"Oh…nothing really," Chihiro decided on, "you know what Yubaba is like."

Lin frowned slightly but let it pass and began another conversation about how the pink uniforms were completely useless as she resorted to pinning them up around her knees again after they had fallen down for the fourth time.

51 pleasuring groans, 46 back scrubs, 14 hot water top up's and 3 hours later the guest finally decided that his skin was wrinkly enough and he finally got out of the bath and, after thanking Chi and Lin with a few gold pieces as tip, he made his way out of the bath house.

As the two girls washed away the last of the grime in the bottom of the bath tub Yubaba approached them again with her smug face in place as usual.

"A word please, Sen."

Chi rolled her eyes at Lin and climbed her way out of the bath tub and dripped her way over to her boss.

"So you met Haku's bride to be?" she smirked evilly as though to remind her of what she had seen that morning, "Yes, Rin is a lovely girl. Any man would be lucky to have her as a wife."

"She is very pretty," Chihiro smiled as she hid her anger to this foul woman.

"She does no other girl any justice in their features."

"Did you want me for something? Or was it just to admit that you are just as ugly as the rest of us?" Chi sneered. She knew she should not have said it but it was just too hard not to.

Instantly Yubaba's smirk transformed into a scowl. "How dare you say a thing like that to your boss!" she shouted.

"What are you going to do? Give me all the worst jobs in the building? Oh no wait, you've already done that!" spat Chihiro, she knew she shouldn't but it just felt so good to let out some of her anger to the woman who had caused her grief since she was 12 years old.

"I would advise you to keep your mouth shut!" angered Yubaba.

"Really? That's what you want is it? Well in my world there is such a thing as freedom of speech! Since I was 12 years old you've ruined my life, all the nightmares, all the images in my head, they were all because you. You and your stuck up ways! You think your so much better than anyone else but if you took a moment to get to know the employees in your bath house you'd realise that not everyone is as evil as you are. Not everyone is as ugly as you and there is no one with as worse a dress sense or taste in vulgar over-dressed rooms in either the spirit or the human world!" The words shook out of her mouth as she yelled them at the woman before her and if she could have looked around her she would have seen a hundred faces of bath house workers stood around her with a jealously for her bravery to speak in such a way to Yubaba in their eyes.

"Get out," whispered Yubaba through clenched teeth, "get out of my bath house."

"Oh don't worry, I wouldn't stay here another hour if you paid me," shook Chi and she spun on her heel and strided out of the building.

"And don't ever think you'll get back to the human world, your stuck here forever!" shouted Yubaba after her.

Chihiro's footsteps turned into a run as she weaved her way between the workers who looked stunned at the girl who had finally stood up to their evil master. As she ran out of the door she heard a sudden burst of applause follow her as the workers jolted out of their stunned shock.

But she did not turn to look, she just kept running. Out and over the bridge weaving her way through the guests who were either arriving or leaving, she did not care which. Sprinting her way through the crowded shops she heard her belly rumble and plead with her to eat some of the sweet smelling food within, but she kept on running.

Down the steps she almost felt herself trip and slowed a little feeling exhausted from within. She had done it, she'd left the place that had bought her the nightmares. But the realisation of what she had done was finally beginning to dawn on her and Yubaba's last words, "don't ever think you'll get back to the human world" , rang in her ears.

A/N: I know it was short and very late but it eventually arrived right? Going through a busy time at the moment what with exams and all that but now that I'm on study leave I will hopefully find some time to write!

Please R&R, feel free to moan at me for being a slow and very late writer .

But because it was so late you all get double helping of cookies! hands out the cookies