The wooden door crept open. The sound was near silent, but it still made it's way into the old boiler-master's ears. Kamaji turned around and his glasses almost fell off of his face. He pushed them back with one of his six hands. "I-is that you, Se- I mean, Chihiro?" He cleared his throat. "Last time you were here, you were hardly this tall!" He held another one of his hands about four feet from the wooden floor, above the soot-sprites, which were congregating around her feet in a fuzzy black hug.
"Mhm!" She said, giggling at the tickly sprites, which were now crawling up her legs. "Okay guys, enough! I missed you too!" She waved them off. "It's good to see you again!"
"It's very good to see you too!" He smiled widely, his moustache stretching across his tired face. "But what are you doing back here?" Chihiro opened her mouth to answer when the realization hit him. "Oh!" He held up all of his hands. "Are you here about Haku?"
"Yes, sir. Yubaba sent me an urgent message, telling me to come." Chihiro's eyes were again serious. "What's going on?"
"Oh. No one's told you?" He frowned. "For a good amount of time after you left, he was fine. He tried to continue about his duties. Infact, for about the first three months, he kept going about, telling everyone what his true name was. He was so thrilled, it was beyond belief!" He grined, but it quickly faded. "But then, he started to get more and more tired. He got pale and sickly looking. Yubaba said it had something to do with his real name, but I don't know much about that." He shrugged, and Chihiro nodded. "Anyway, he'd get better, and then worse, better, then worse. He'd start feeling better for about a week, and then go for a month looking...well... dead. It got to the point where even Yubaba herself asked him to stay in bed, but he refused. And then, three days ago, he was standing on the railing, looking out across the ocean and he finally collapsed."
"What?" Tears welled up in the girl's eyes. "Is he okay?"
"Calm down, he's fine." Kamaji said, holding up two hands. "Well, he's not fine, obviously, but he's been in bed. Not up and about anymore." Chihiro nodded, quickly wiping the tears from her cheeks. "You should hurry up to see him. If Yubaba called you, then it must be serious."
"Get your shoes off, and I'll take you to see him." Lin said, grabbing her arm again. She sat chihiro down on the wooden part of the floor and helped her pull off her shoes. "Here. You remember this secret door, right?" She said, leading Chihiro inside. The floor was cold on Chihiro's feet, which were bare. (She'd been in such a hurry to leave, she forgot her socks.) Through vents in the wall, she saw all sorts of spirits walking, all holding onto their red bath-passes. The feeling of awe that held her captive caused her to smile once more. "Oh. By the way, welcome back, Chihiro."
The reached the top of the staircase, Chihiro feeling as if her lungs would burst. There, infront of a cracked door, stood Yubaba, who looked up at the sound. Chihiro couldn't tell if the look on the old woman's face was that of concern or disgust. "You made it." She said, her voice laced with irritation. "You took long enough."
"Sorry," Chihiro said with a bow. "I came as fast as I could."
"What's important is that you're here." She said quickly. "I need to warn you. He probably won't take it easily that you're here. He's very worried that I'd try to keep you here again if you came back. Obviously, I won't. I asked you here." Chihiro nodded. "I'll explain what I need you to do shortly. For now, just play along." Before Chihiro could agree, Yubaba stuck her head into the room.
"Haku? Are you awake?" She asked in a tone almost motherly.
"What?" He asked, never facing her.
"If you're feeling well enough, I brought you a visitor." The elder said, pulling Chihiro into the room by her shoulder, which was still very thin compared to her baseball-mitts of hands.
"Don't wanna see anyone..." He muttered with an inaudible sigh.
"I'm sorry to hear that." Yubaba smiled devilishly. "It's a shame. She came all the way here, just to see you." Chihiro shuffled her feet nervously on the floor.
"Well," The boy said, sitting up irritably, "You can tell whoever it is that I-" He whipped his head around and froze. He couldn't believe his eyes. "Ch...Chihiro...?"