The doors of the apartments seemed faded and Chihiro was surprised that Yu- baaba, who clearly prized herself on her wealth, had let things decline in such a manner. She placed her hands on the doorknobs, expecting the golden doorknocker to come alive and scream insults at her. But the door remained lifeless and the hallway silent. Biting her lip, the girl pushed open the door and poked her head in.

"Hello?" she tried to speak in a strong tone, but only succeeded in croaking shakily. She cleared her throat. "Yu-baaba!!" She called, walking along the ornately decorated hallway. She expected to be yanked to the main suite by sneaking, magical hands at any moment and became increasingly suspicious when nothing happened. 'Where is she? I thought she'd be jumping at a chance to scare the daylights out of me by now.' Chihiro thought to herself, a frown on her face.

She wandered down the hall, her bare feet cold against the ocean-blue tiles. She rubbed her arms, which had acquired permanent goose bumps since the trip through the icy Spirit World earlier. The hall was dark, like the rest of the Bathhouse, and smelled faintly of dust and soot. Chihiro noticed a darkened stain on the floor, towards the middle of the hall, and hurried towards it. As she bent down, she saw that the blue tiles had been scorched, turning them a dusty black. She was reaching out a pale hand to brush across the spot when a voice from behind startled her.

"Sen!"

Chihiro jumped, losing her balance and fell backwards onto the cold tiles. Her head, still sore from the frog-workers, smacked dully against the floor hard enough to bring tears to her eyes. "OW." She looked up from her position to find Rin, her old friend and partner, staring down at her with a look of bemusement. "Rin!"

"Still as clumsy as ever." The young woman grinned, holding out her hand.

"Am not." Chihiro groaned, accepting her friend's hand and sitting up. "You just scared me half to death." She stood up slowly, rubbing her sore skull, mildly concerned that she would have brain damage before the day was done. "Rin, what's going on? Where's Haku? And where is Yubaaba? And what are you doing up here? And why is the bathhouse empty? And-" her slew of questions seemed to startle the young attendant.

"Whoa, Sen, slow down. I'll answer all your questions, I promise. Come with me." Rin led Chihiro down the corridor, into a warmly lit kitchen.

* * *

Rin paused to rub her hands together over the fire that crackled on the hearth. The decorative tiles that framed the fireplace had long since faded. Chihiro couldn't resist the feeling that the very life, the essence, had gone out of the bathhouse; out of the walls themselves.

"Here, put these on." Rin handed a large pile of clothing to Chihiro. "You must be freezing."

The teenager gratefully accepted the clothing, which she noted had changed from the pink uniform she had grown so accustomed to wearing before. The girls seemed to have planned accordingly for the cold; the old uniforms had been replaced with long cloaks and warm skirts. The colors were cheerful, but the attempt seemed to fail in the freezing Spirit World. Chihiro took the top piece of clothing, a warm cloak, and wrapped it around her chilled frame.

"You've grown up." Rin cocked her head, smiling as Chihiro tied the waist of the cloak. "You're still awfully puny though."

Chihiro attempted a smile, but her mind was on other things. "Please tell me what's going on."

Rin's eyes changed as she studied Chihiro. "I was going to leave explanations until tomorrow, until you'd had some rest, but you don't seem interested in that."

Chihiro sat gingerly in the armchair opposite Rin. "I expected Yubaaba to be here. I thought she had sent the frogs to kidnap me from my world."

Rin frowned. "The frogs didn't tell you anything?"

"No." Chihiro raised an eyebrow. "They hit me on the head and knocked me out and the next thing I know, I'm here."

"THEY KNOCKED YOU OUT?" Rin exploded, startling Chihiro. "Why those two- faced, rotten, fat-headed.when I get my hands on them, I swear they'll be."

"Rin. Rin!" Chihiro tried to interrupt the woman's rant. "Forget about it. But please tell me what has happened?" She bit her lip hesitantly. "Is Haku really missing?" her voice was soft.

Rin studied the girl's worried expression and nodded, taking her seat once again. "So is Yubaaba, if you hadn't guessed by now. They've been missing for awhile now, Sen. At first, we tried to find them ourselves. But with the little magic we have between the lot of us, it wasn't very helpful. We've lost so many." her normally-bright eyes faded and lines appeared where there were none.

"What happened, Rin?" Chihiro's voice lowered almost to a whisper, for she was almost afraid to ask the question herself.

"It happened on the day you left us." The woman stared into the fire, her eyes troubled. "The weather turned cold and the snow began to fall." She gestured to the windows. "In all my time here, it has never snowed in the Spirit World. For awhile, we went about business like normal. Haku remained with Yu-baaba, as her apprentice. But he refused to do any of her dirty work. But the weather grew worse, the customers stopped coming and Yu-baaba had to shut down the Bathhouse. She devoted all her time and effort into trying to find out what was happening to the weather. I must say, as much as I hate the old hag, she really did try hard to find the answers. One night, she asked Haku to go on a mission for her. We all assume it had to do with what was happening to the Spirit Realms. He never returned. Days later, Yu-baaba flew away. That was the last we saw of either of them."

Chihiro's worry was evident on her face. She chewed a nail, her thoughts flying. "What about Zeniba?"

"No one's been able to contact her either. Obviously none of us can leave the bathhouse to go to Swamp Bottom and make sure- we're all bound to the premises by our contracts- but Kamaji is certain that she is gone as well. Probably taken by the same forces that took away Yubaaba. And. Haku."

"We used the last bit of our magic to break the wards on the contracts of those two frog-faced idiots and send them into the Human Realm. I would have gone myself, but their contracts were the least important, thus the least binding. I didn't actually think it would work." Rin marveled with a faint smile. "But I'm glad you're here."

The room was silent for the first time since their conversation began. Chihiro could hear the winds howling beyond the dusty panes of glass. She felt exhausted by the amount of information she had just been given. Exhausted and terrified. The warm feeling she had experienced at her first sight of the Bathhouse had crumbled into tiny shards of ice that pierced her stomach.

Rin noted the look on her friend's face and nodded. "I know, it's a lot to digest. Listen, we'll talk more tomorrow. You look exhausted. You should get some rest."

* * *

Despite the lack of customers, the bathhouse was still on the same schedule it had kept during Chihiro's earlier stay. The servants rose with the moon and fell asleep to the sunrise. Since Rin was now essentially running the Bathhouse, she had given Chihiro a luxurious room in Yu-baaba's grand apartment.

"Why not take full advantage of it while it lasts?" the older girl had joked with a faint twinkle in her eye. Chihiro had to smile as she imagined Yu-baaba's expression at seeing servants sleep in her beds and eat her food.

Chihiro pulled the heavy curtains shut over the tall windows, shutting out the drab light of the snowy day. She clung to the thick fabric, as if it were the last connection to a reality that existed on that early, winter morning in the Spirit World. Her thoughts traveled to the same place they had been since her arrival in the realm: Haku.

'I suppose I should call him Kohaku now.' She mused, wrapping a thick rope around her slim hand thoughtfully, twirling the velvety strands between her fingers. 'I wonder if he even remembers me; it's been four of my years, but Rin said that time has passed much faster here.'

The girl sighed, turning to face that magnificent suite that she now occupied.

Chihiro sat on the giant bed and her small frame was practically engulfed in the luxurious down comforter. The bed was terribly comfortable and for a moment, she could picture herself collapsing against the velvety pillows and surrendering to long, uninterrupted sleep forever.

But Haku's face filled her memory, his tearfully thankful eyes as they fell through the clouds those four years ago. The knot that had formed in her stomach clenched tighter and Chihiro lay back against the big pillows, her eyes vacant and staring, her worry clawing at her insides. Sleep would not come that day, nor the next.