FINALLY! an update. I've actually had most of this written for a while but I havent had the time to update. So I sat down tonight and wrote the last umm...looks like about 6 lines lol and posted! So I'll try and be more frequent with updates. Thanx for all of the reviews! I'm really pleased with them all!

As far as the year difference goes umm...the only way to explain that is authors error? I've been busy latley and probably just... forgot lol I'm pretty sure most of you can put two and two together and figure out that...yeah it wasnt 6 years or whatever...(see i cant even remember! lol) n'e who hope you enjoy this chapter and if its too short i'm sorry lol. Like I said I've been busy

Enjoy!

Chihiro sighed as she walked into the bathhouse. It was still dark and would be for a few more hours. It was only moments ago that she had watched Haku change into his dragon form and jet into the sky. She walked along the near deserted hallways until she found Lin, throwing the last of the used robes and towels into the white heaps of laundry waiting to be cleaned.

"Hey." Lin smiled.

"Want to come sleep in the guest room with me tonight?" Chihiro asked. Lin grinned widely.

"Do I?" She exclaimed happily and skipped towards Chihiro and linked arms with her. Chihiro loved to see her friend this happy. It didn't happen very often. Lin was a very down to earth and hard working girl but every once in a while even when Chihiro was working with her years ago, she had managed to poke a few smiley buttons with Lin. The two headed up the elevator to Chihiro's room. As soon as Chihiro opened the tall door that led to her room Lin ran into the room and threw herself on the bed.

"Wow! Talk about living. I mean, I've heard great things about this place but I never actually thought this much of it!" She exclaimed.

"You should see the bathroom." Chihiro motioned to the door. Lin leapt up and ran to the door and threw it open.

"Wow!" She cried. 20 seconds later the two sat in the giant tub together covered in foamy bubbles. Lin sighed and lay back.

"Oh yeah I could get used to this."

"So could I." Chihiro admitted.

"So what did The Master want with you?" Lin asked Chihiro who shifted her eyes.

"I don't know if I'm supposed to talk about it." Chihiro said uncomfortably.

"Who will I tell? Honestly." Lin asked. Chihiro nodded and told Lin everything Haku had explained to her.

"Well I knew all about the war and such but I didn't know about Yubabba luring you here and planning to use you." She said thoughtfully. Chihiro suddenly remembered Kazuo.

"Oh no! I totally forgot to ask Haku about Kazuo!" Chihiro leapt out of the tub and grabbed the royal blue robe that sat on the edge of the tub.

"Whoa speedy." Lin laughed. Chihiro bolted out of the room and into the hallway in search of Haku. She pulled back strands of her wet auburn hair that stuck to her face. She wandered down the seemingly endless hallways until she reached a set of doors that Haku had earlier identified as the doors to his bedroom. She knocked and waited, no reply. Finally she remembered he had left. She sighed and began to walk back to her room when she heard a small faint familiar voice.

"Chihiro." It cried. She turned around to look down the dark narrow hallway.

"Kazuo?" She asked uncertainly. The voice cried louder for Chihiro.

"Kazuo?" She cried frantically. She ran down the hall towards her brother's cries. She finally found a pair of doors and pounded on them madly. She pulled on the handle but it was locked.

"Kazuo?" She hollered.

"Chihiro!" His voice came from inside.

"Hang on." She told him and turned around to Yubabba's offices. She threw open the doors, ignoring the knockers annoyed tone. She marched through the doors and stood before Yubabba who sat at her desk.

"Yubabba please let Kazuo go." Chihiro asked. Yubabba looked up at her unimpressed.

"Why should I?" She asked.

"Because he's my brother! You can't just keep him here against his will!" Chihiro exclaimed.

"Can't I?" Yubabba shifted herself in her seat comfortably. Chihiro stared at the old woman her black eyes filled with tears of frustration. She couldn't stand the small faint sound of Kazuo's small voice crying for her. A small smug smile appeared on Yubabba's old lips.

"Are you going to cry Chihiro?" She asked. Chihiro blinked back her tears.

"No." Chihiro said defiantly. Yubabba smirked.

"Perhaps you should know the details Chihiro." Yubabba finally spoke.

"I know why you made me come here, what you were planning to do and what's going on between you and Zaneba." Chihiro explained. Yubabba's eyes widened slightly impressed.

"I suppose Haku told you," She gritted her teeth slightly

"But I'm sure he didn't tell you what I really brought Kazuo here for." Chihiro looked at the old woman blankly and shook her head. Yubabba stood up.

"I never intended to give Kazuo back to you, and I still don't. Every 12 years an evil spirit rises and threatens our Spirit World and the human world. The Opfer Spirit. Every 12 years it rises and asks of one thing. A human sacrifice." Chihiro felt her heart sink deep into her chest as Yubabba continued. "So I figured I would bait you here with you're brother, win the war with Zaneba and save the worlds with your brothers life and then erase every memory of him that ever existed in the human world." Chihiro felt her hands growing clammy and felt herself beginning to shake slightly.

"Why Kazuo. Why not me?" Chihiro asked. Yubabba rolled her large eyes at Chihiro.

"Because if you were killed there would go my plans of Swamp Bottom." She reminded her.

"And besides, it is easier to erase mortals memories of someone who hasn't been in the human world for very long." Chihiro looked down and nodded.

"All of this just to open a bath house?" Chihiro asked, her voice quavering.

"Actually it's more that that," Yubabba strolled around her desk and to the fire.

"Swamp Bottom is rich. I mean the land. Zaneba doesn't make use of it and refuses to pass it on to me for whatever reason I'm sure I don't know but that's not really important."

"Rich with what?" Chihiro asked.

"Gold Chihiro." Yubabba looked at her as if it were the grandest thing in the world. Chihiro shook her head sadly. She should have guessed. Yubabba was a greedy power-groping witch. She could commit murder without batting an eyelid if it helped her gluttonous hands reach gold or something rich. Chihiro was suddenly angry, angrier than she was when she marched into Yubabba's office in the first place. She marched up behind Yubabba and growled in her ear.

"You're not getting my brother. I've out witted you once, I can do it again Yubabba." And with that Chihiro spun on her heel and marched out of her office leaving Yubabba staring after her. A shocked looked across her old wrinkled face.