Alright! I hope you're all loving reading this as much as I am writing! I've honestly never had so much fun writing something! I'm having a blast with this! I've never branched out so creatively. It's a big step for me considering all I usually ever write are teen dramas. Anyways thank you for the last person who reviewed. There should be another chapter comming back up by the sunday evening. I intend to be up writing this for the rest of tonight! I even planned out a sequel! YAY! Anyways...R&R!!! Oh yeah and as you can see I have discovered the wonder of the "Horizontal Bar" tool!

"What? You're staying in Yubabba's guest room?" Lin exclaimed the next morning as Chihiro helped her fold and put away sleeping bags.

"Lin it's really not a big deal." Chihiro shrugged.

"Not a big deal?" Lin exclaimed shoving a sleeping bag into the shelf. "It must be awesome. And of course you must have Haku waiting on you hand and foot."

"I guess so." She shrugged. Lin's face gazed off dreamily.

"I would give anything to have Haku whipped." She said seriously. Chihiro laughed. Chihiro had talked to Haku the moment she had woken up, but he told her to wait for him to find her. She really couldn't think of anything she could do so she changed into the plainest robe she could find and helped Lin with work. After they finished folding the sleeping bags and the sleek hardwood floors were cleared of everything they headed to the foreman who assigned them both to work on a room full of mini tubs for smaller customers. Chihiro looked down at the tiny tubs that couldn't be much bigger than her head.

"They're so tiny, what kind of customers use these?" She asked.

"Infant Spirits usually." Lin said sitting down beside one and scrubbing the black inside.

"What are they?" Chihiro asked scrubbing one herself.

"Usually any young spirit. Sometimes animals or plants, mostly plants. The cutest ones are Infant Fruit Spirits." Lin smiled sweetly. Chihiro nodded and continued scrubbing. They swept and washed the wooden floors finished scrubbing all of the tubs and filled all of them.

"Lin you have some customers." A frog announced sticking his head through the door.

"Okay." She replied. She handed the buckets and brushes to Chihiro.

"Take these back to the storage closet and while you're there, grab about a dozen bathrobes and towels." She instructed.

"Alright." Chihiro smiled and headed out of the room. She walked down the hallways passing strange looking characters including the familiar Radish Spirit who almost winked at her as though he recognized her. Chihiro struggled back to Lin, piles of robes and towels folded neatly in her arms. She weaved in and out of bustling spirits, workers and frogs when she suddenly crashed into someone the towels and robes falling to the floor.

"I'm sorry." Haku looked up at her apologetically.

"Oh, it's ok." Chihiro bent down to collect the dropped items.

"I'm sorry I haven't gotten the chance to speak to you." Haku apologized.

"Oh it's alright. There's no hurry." Chihiro smiled as Haku handed her the last of the robes.

"Actually, there is." He admitted. Chihiro felt her heart stop.

"What?" She asked.

"Chihiro! I need those towels." Lin called. Chihiro looked from Lin to Haku.

"Okay." She hollered back and ran back to Lin, her bare feet slapping against the floor.

"Here Lin." Chihiro gasped for breath passing Lin the bundle in her arms.

"Thanks." Lin smiled. Lin and Chihiro placed a neatly folded towel and robe beside each tub and waited for their customers

"Awe they were so cute!" Chihiro smiled as her and Lin cleared away the small mess the Infant Spirits had made.

"Weren't they? Very rich too." Lin noted on the heavy jingle of gold coming from her apron pocket.

"Mhm." Chihiro nodded looking towards the door. Lin noticed her friend was distracted.

"Do you want to go? Because I can finish things up here easily." She offered.

"Huh? Oh no I'll stay." Chihiro insisted.

"Why so eager to leave anyways?" Lin asked.

"I have to talk to Haku." Lin snorted with laughter.

"I wouldn't be in much of a hurry if I were you." She muttered.

"Why do you two hate each other so much anyways?" Chihiro asked. Lin stopped sweeping the floor and rested her chin on the broom handle thoughtfully.

"I don't know. No real reason. He just takes his job as Yubabba's apprentice so seriously and he gets bossy and then I react because, you know me. I don't like being told what to do." She explained. Chihiro nodded.

"Things weren't always that way though." Lin admitted. "We were pretty close when he first arrived here. No one really knew what to think of him, but I was young and could really care less where he came from or why he was here. It wasn't until he realized how privileged he was to be sleeping on the top floor and running off to learn magic from Yubabba that things started to fall apart. One day he just spoke to me as if he owned me and I haven't cared for him since."

"Wow, who'd of thought?" Chihiro joked. Lin punched her shoulder playfully.

"I've missed my little assistant. Things haven't been the same without you dope." Lin told her.

"I just can't believe I've forgotten all of these years." Chihiro shook her head.

"Hey well you remember know." Lin offered. Chihiro smiled up at her friend.

"Chihiro." Chihiro whipped her head around to see Haku standing in the doorway.

"Come with me." He instructed.

"Guess you don't have much of a choice." Lin muttered to Chihiro who grinned.

"Lin!' Haku snapped, "Get back to work."

"I haven't stopped working you worthless whipped pig." Lin retorted. Haku glared at her and led Chihiro out of the room. They walked out of the bathhouse and to the bridge outside. The shops outside were closing up and the frogs were putting out the lanterns. Chihiro hoisted herself up onto the railing of the bridge and perched there. Haku stood tall and straight never once losing his wise confident demeanor.

"Things have changed since you've last been here." He told her. Chihiro nodded.

"I know. Kamaji told me quite a bit."

"I know what he told you. But there is more." He began.

"Yubabba and Zaneba have never gotten along, you know that as well as anybody, but they've let sibling rivalry go too far. Yubabba has attempted to claim Swamp Bottom to open another bathhouse. Zaneba however rules it.

"I never knew that." Chihiro said quietly.

"You wouldn't think it the way she lives."

"Zaneba has always been the conservative type. She wants to keep Swamp Bottom as it is. A quiet, undisturbed place, she feels no need to glamorize the place. The locals living there like it the way it is. Yubabba attempted to take rule of the town and claimed to the public that she was Zaneba. This caused an uproar in community. When Zaneba found out, she was outraged and cursed Yubabba. Now it was either Zaneba's curse or mere coincidence but whichever the two, Yubabba's baby grew gravely ill. Now war rages between them."

"He's always been Yubabba's weak spot." Chihiro nodded. There was a silence between the two.

"You said Yubabba lured me here by taking my brother. Why would she do that?" Chihiro finally broke the silence.

"No Face." He said shortly.

"What about him?" She asked.

"He knows you and cares a great deal for you. He is practically Zaneba's son and therefore her weakest point." Haku noted. "Yubabba's plan was to trade your freedom for possession of Swamp Bottom."

"But a war, between two such small little...towns?" She asked.

"It wasn't just this. Many spirit villages have hated Yubabba for years. Others who stand by Yubabba hate Zaneba. It's been an ongoing thing. Sooner or later something had to give."

"Looks like it has." Chihiro said quietly.