I am REALLY REALLY sorry that this took so long, but the ending of a story is always the hardest to do, and this is indeed the ending chapter, also, things have gotten hectic in my RP game (We're gettin into the serious business now... Soon as Lin can get Chihiro (me) and Haku out of bed... seems hittin them pillows didn't quite work) and, we recently had snowfall here, and It's been a LONG time since I seen that much snow, so of course, I was out enjoying it as much as I could... Anyway, on with the final chapter ... I hope you enjoy it.

Chapter Nine: You're Going Down With Me

Chihiro tore here eyes away from Ryu, when she felt the chain around her ankle fall away. She saw Lin's surprised look, and realized that the older woman must've been free as well. She looked down at Haku, whose eyes were still closed, but she knew he was awake, because he wore a smirk. A screech drew her attenion back to Ryu and Kei. Ryu had hold of a large handful of Kei's kimono, that was quickly begining to burn. Kei yanked away from Ryu, and tried to stop the flames, but they spread faster than they should have naturually. It seemed Ryu was helping them along.

In an instant Haku was on his feet, and pulling Chihiro up with him. He called to Lin who nodded, and rose as well. As the trio ran from the chamber, Chihiro remembered something.

"Wait! Ryu! We can't just leave him..."

"Yes we can!" said Lin, "He's the reason we're in this mess!"

"He was threatened Lin!"

Haku sighed, "Lin, you get Chihiro out of here, I'll go get Ryu..."

"But-" Chihiro started, but Lin had grabbed her arm and was dragging her away.

A small set of stairs led upward, to the very door that Chihiro had found that morning. With some difficulty they pushed it open. The smell of burnt wood hit them both as soon as there was the smallest crack, making both women gag. They rose from the dark chamber to see the ruined remains of the bathhouse. All the wood was charred, or turned to ash by now, and here and there, areas were still burning. Chihiro felt her eyes cloud over with tears, and she struggled to hold them in. Ryu hadn't been lying. The Bathhouse was indeed gone. Under the smell of the wood was the smell of burning flesh.

Lin was holding her breath, though wether it was to avoid the smell, or hold in her own tears, Chihiro didn't know. The two walked for a ways, until they reached the edge of the ruins, and looked back over them.

"Lin? Chihiro?" said voices from behind them, making them jump. Both women turned to see Zeniba, No-Face, Boh, a few toads, and a few of the younger girls standing near by. "We thought you were dead..." said Boh, "Where were you?"

Both Lin and Chihiro stared for a moment, before Lin replied, "There's this chamber underneath the bathhouse.. we were under there... "

"Kei betrayed us," Chihiro said, simply, "She planned all this... Made Ryu set the fire..."

"Ryu was in on it before Kei threatened him, I'm afraid," said Zeniba, "He was hired by my sister, to cause a little mischeif, then leave... I should have seen Kei's involvement... We might have been spared this..." the woman paused a moment, "Where is Haku?"

As Chihiro started to answer, a loud cracking sound stopped her, and she spun to look towards the charred remains of the bathhouse, and saw a large chunk of it cave in. "NO!" she screamed, and started to run for the area, but foudn herself held back by Lin, and another girl, "HAKU!!"

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After Lin and Chihiro were gone, Haku proceeded back to where Ryu and Kei were. Kei had appearently managed to put her kimiono out, for she was standing over Ryu, murderous intent written all over her, as the fire spirit struggled to breath. Spotting a naginata propped against the wall, Haku made a dash for it, making as little noise as possible. But as he went past Kei, he felt a sharp pain in his arm. Appearently he hadn't been quiet enough, for the source of the pain was Kei's claw-like fingernails being buried in his flesh.

Hissing in pain, he tried to wrench away, but Kei held on tight. "Oh no you don't, boy! I'm going to drain you dry, then I'm going to get your little girlfriend, too..."

Haku suddenly froze. And to Kei's surprise, and to his as well, he began to laugh, so coldly it rivaled even Kei. The woman had made the young dragon so angry that he had gone past the point of blind rage, and straight to the point of amusement. His laughter increased, until Kei was actually afraid. Involuntarily, she released his arm, and backed away a few steps.

"You really think you frighten me?" Haku asked, in a dead serious tone, "Do you honestly think that you can intimidate me, like you did Ryu?"

"No, not like I did Ryu," Kei spat, though not with as much self-confidence as she would have liked, "i don't intend to use you... Only kill you."

"You really have no idea who you're dealing with... do you?"

Before Kei could answer, he began to change forms, and before she had time to fully register what was happening, the boy was no longer there. In his place was a gigantic white dragon. He lunged at her, and Kei barely managed to escape being caught in his jaws. She snapped her shukusen open, as he went by her, making a long gash down his side. The dragon spun, and faced her, blood dripping on to the floor, forming a large pool. Kei allowed herself a small smirk of satisfaction. "The more you fight me, dragon, the more power I can drain from you while you're still alive..."

Haku emitted something like a scoff, before whipping his tail in her direction. Kei smiled at the dragon's growl of surprise when she held the end of his tail firmly her grip, "You see? So long as I'm near you, in this form, I can enjoy an endless flow of power."

Alright then... Haku thought, changing again, "I'll just have to beat you like this then, won't I?"

"You can try," Kei remarked, brushing her fingernails against her kimono, "All I have to do is finish off Ryu here, and I can proceed to burn you to a crisp."

"You mean this Ryu?" said a dry, cracked, voice. Ryu leaned against the wall, breathing heavily, struggling to stay up. He grabbed the naginata, and tossed it to Haku, who caught it easily, "Give her a good beating for me, would you, Scaly?"

Haku nodded, and faced Kei again.

"You know, Ryu," said Kei, "things wouldn't have happened like this, if you hadn't gotten a sudden case of guilt... You'd still be unharmed, and probably on your way out of here by now... But no... He had to try and be a Hero... I'll show you what happens to heroes as soon as I've finished with the dragon..."

Said dragon only shook his head, chuckled, and prepared to attack.

Ryu watched from the sidelines as Kei and Haku fought. Staying concious, and on his feet was getting harder and harder to do. He looked at one of his shaky hands, and saw that they were much, much paler than his normal, already pale skin tone. I must look like a ghost... Which is what I'm going to be soon... A sharp cry drew his attention back to the fight. Kei sported a long cut down her thigh, and her leg had already become almost comepletly scarlet from the blood flow. Angry, Kei lunged towards Haku. Big mistake. With the naginata, he had a five-foot eighteen-inch advantage over her, and he used it.

As Kei lunged, Haku easily side-stepped out of the way, and brought the naginata down, in one smooth movement. Kei was on the floor, sliced cleanly from shoulder to hip, blood pooling around her. Surprisingly, she laughed... Or rather, choked, but it ws still clearly meant to be a laugh.

"What's so amusing, Kei?" Haku asked, standing over her, "You're dying... I could finish you off, here and now, and not lose a bit of sleep over it... Or I could let you bleed to death. So what, I ask, could possibly be funny?"

"J-...just be-because you've...k-killed...me... It d-doesn't mean... you're g-going to escape... You're... going... down... with me..."

Ryu narrowed his eyes at the woman... what was she talking about? Then, Kei said one last thing, that neither Ryu nor Haku understood, and followed by it was the first sound of cracking stone.

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Chihiro broke free of her captors, and raced over to where the underground chamber had once been. The ceiling had caved in. It would have crushed anyone left in there. She stared down at the rubble, feeling numb. He can't be dead... He can't be! She heard rocking crumbling, and being moved about, but she ignored it... When someone tried to move her, she yanked away, so hard, she nearly toppled head first into the newly created pit. Whoever had tried to move her, caught her. She looked up at her rescuer, and found herself staring into an all too familiar pair of bright emerald eyes.

Before she had time to register that she wasn't imagining things, Haku had her in a tight embrace. Chihiro was stiff as a board for a moment, before she had her arms around the boy, holding him just as tight as he was her.

"I thought that... When I saw the place collapse..." she said. She leaned back away from him, and met his gaze. He leaned down, and kissed her, so deeply that Chihiro thought she might well fall down.

"Get a room," said a weak voice near by.

Chihiro looked, and saw Ryu being supported by Lin, as Zeniba looked at the gash across his chest.

'You're lucky, Ryu," said the old witch, "You would have been dead, if you hadn't been brought to me when you were."

"Thanks Ryu..." Chihiro said, nodding at him.

"For what?" he wanted to know.

'For helping us... If you hadn't come to your senses, we'd be dead..."

Haku and Lin nodded in agreement, and Haku said, "Thanks for the help you gave me, too..."

Ryu only gave them a bewildered look, before he winced as Zeniba began poking around the wound, to heal it.

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Several months, three magical mishaps, and at least twenty minor injuries later, the bathhouse was well on it's way to being comepletely rebuilt. It was hard, getting the help that was needed, considering that many of the employees had died in the fire, but they had managed. Luckily, the boiler room hadn't been harmed. In fact, Kamaji had slept through most of the incident, without knowing what was going on.

Haku, Chihiro, and Ryu stood back, admiring the newly built bathhouse. Ryu turned, and began to walk across the bridge. Both Chihiro and Haku turned to watch him.

"So you're really leaving?" Chihiro asked, already knowing the answer.

"Yeah," Ryu replied, "I helped rebuild the place... Now it's time to go... I don't think anyone around here would trust me, after what I did, anyway..."

"You're right," said Haku, though there was no hint of unpleasantness in his voice. He was simply pointing out the truth, "they wouldn't."

Chihiro gently elbowed him in the ribs, to let him know he could be a little more supportive, "Where're you gonna go?"

"Home... See if I can't track down what's left of my family... So long Chihiro... And you, Scaly." said the Fire spirit, with a wave, and a smirk. He continued across the bridge and out of sight.

"Was that Ryu leaving?" Lin asked, approaching them. Both Haku and Chihiro nodded. "Thought as much... Knew he wouldn't stick around much longer... Pity really, I was just starting to like the kid."

"You'll miss him," said Haku.

"And you know it," Chihiro finished, in a teasing manner.

"Bah, the fireball was nothing but trouble," Lin fake-scoffed. But she didn't deny their accusations.

As Lin turned, and left, muttering something about having work to do, Haku turned to Chihiro, "Well, we'll finally have some privacy, now that we've gotten this far."

"You mean so long as Lin doesn't pick the lock this time?" Chihiro joked.

Laughing, Haku replied, "Have to make sure she can't this time around." Chihiro nodded in agreement, and together they walked towards the new bathhouse.

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Somewhere, far off in the distance, a lonely fire spirit made his way to what had once been his home. He had lied to Chihiro, and Haku. He had no family left, all of them, were dead. Not that he wasn't used to being alone, in fact, he often preferred it that way... but after months of being around others, being alone didn't seem too great.
But he had to stay away. That was certain. No one trusted him after what he'd done, and he didn't blame them. He didn't even trust himself anymore.

As he sat on an old stone, he felt a bit of cold air cross his spine, giving him the shivers. Prob'ly nothing...

"Hello again, Ryu," said a calm, cool, smooth-as-silk voice, that somehow sounded dead, "Did you miss me?"

END.

I love ending things like that... Always so fun...

Anyway, only part I really liked about this chap was the ending bit... Rest just didn't seem right to me... But then, I'm always like that about the endings of my fics, particularly first ones, on a certain subject... I'll do more Spirited Away fanfics as soon as I've gotten to watch the movie again...And it is supposed to be shipped out thursday :p
Most likely, it'll be a while before a full-length fic, but maybe a few One-Shots, and songfics, until then :p