~The Wolf Spirit~{Spirited Away} ON HOLD

Ch. 2 The Bathhouse

Yuki led Chihiro out of a small door on the side of the bath house and they could hear the rest of the people panic knowing a human was here. Yuki and Chihiro then came upon a flight of stairs and Yuki saw that Chihiro was clinging to the side of the building for dear life. Yuki met Chihiro's gaze and nodded toward the stairs. As Chihiro watched the white wolf walk down the fearful stairs, she was still holding on to the side. She looked down the stairs that looked like they would go 50 feet down. She gulped as she carefully went down each step at a time.

As Chihiro was going down each step carefully, she slipped on a step making Yuki look behind her to see what was happening back there. Yuki saw that Chihiro was taking her sweet time and turned her head forward and started walking down the steps.

It was only a few minutes when Yuki and Chihiro started walking down the stairs until Yuki heard something break behind her. Yuki's ear twitched then looked behind her to see that Chihiro was now racing down the steps screaming her head off. She raced passed Yuki and Yuki watched Chihiro continue racing down the stairs and in the end made face contact with the wall. (that part was funny XD). Yuki shook her head as if she was trying not to laugh.

Yuki was now at the bottom of the stairs and then moved to Chihiro's side looking at her. Chihiro removed her face from the wall and stared down at Yuki who seemed to have a wolf like smile. They saw a toad like person open a window and let out a smoke but didn't see Chihiro or Yuki. Yuki tugged a little of Chihiro's sleeve motioning her to follow her.

They were now closer to where the boiler man would be. Chihiro followed Yuki down another flight of stairs but were made of concrete. Once they were down the stairs Yuki went to a door and pawed at it motioning Chihiro to open it for her. Chihiro got the message and opened the door letting Yuki go in first then herself. Inside was machineary and steam coming out of them. Yuki peeked around the corner and saw Kamaji, the one they were looking for. Chihiro slowly walked behind Yuki and jumped when a puff of steam hissed next to her.

Chihiro peeked around the corner too and saw a man working and these little black puffy things working too. Chihiro saw that the man had many arms and got a little scared and started backing away. Yuki saw this but nudged Chihiro's back forward telling her to go on. Chihiro looked at Yuki nervously but walked forward. Chihiro then looked behind her again to make sure that Yuki was with her and she was. This made Chihiro feel more safer.

As they entered the room, the little black puffy things were gone and the man was still working. "Uh... Hello?" Chihiro said softly and timidly. The man didn't hear her as he continued working. "Hello?" Chihiro said a little louder but it didn't work. Chihiro then started walking up to the man and Yuki was right beside her. "Uh Hello? Are you Kamaji?" Chihiro asked louder. The man finally noticed her. "Eh?" He then looked at the girl more closely making Chihiro more nervous.

"Uh Haku told me to ask for work could you give me a job here please?" Chihiro asked quickly. A ding was heard as a 5 bath tokens came down causing Kamaji to look away. "Ahhh! 5 bath tokens at once?! Come on get to work you little runts!" Kamaji yelled out causing the little black puffy things to come back out of their holes. "I'm Kamaji, slave to the boiler that heats the baths. Move it you stupid little sootballs!" "Please i gotta get a job here!" Chihiro said. "I don't need any help. I got all the workers I need." Kamaji said as the sootballs carrying coal, came out of the holes.

As the sootballs carried the coal to the heater, Chihiro had to move so she wouldn't be in their way. Yuki just sat down next to the stand where Kamaji was sitting on top of, looking at the sootballs go by. Soon Chihiro saw that one sootball was having trouble carrying this big coal that was twice its size. Chihiro ended up helping the little guy and tossed in the heater. The sootballs saw how easily Chihiro could carry the coals to the heater and purposely all of them dropped their coals on them. This caused Kamaji to get annoyed. "Hey you rotten runts! You wanna be turned back into soot?!" He then turned his gaze to Chihiro. "And you back off. You can't just take someone else's job. If they don't work then the spell wares off and they turn back to soot. There's no work here for you got it? Go somewhere else."

All the sootballs lifted up their coals and made a uproar to the old man and started piling the coals around Chihiro who looking at all of them not knowing what to do. "You sootballs got a problem? Now get back to work!" Kamaji yelled. A door opened and a lady with brown hair in a ponytail and pink clothes carrying food entered. "Chow time!" Yuki's ears alerted up and turned her head sharply to the owner's voice that came in.

"What's going on? Are you guys fighting again?" The lady went up Kamaji still carrying the delicious food. "Where's your other bowl? From yesterday. I keep telling you to leave it out Kamaji." Kamaji grabbed his food then in return gave the lady his empty dish. The sootballs then scurried over to the lady wanting their food. Yuki walked up the lady and when she saw Yuki she smiled and petted her head. "Hey Yuki." She stopped petting Yuki as she feed the sootballs little sprinkles that looked like stars.

The woman gasped and Yuki looked at the direction the woman was looking at which was where Chihiro was. The woman stood up "A human! Your in trouble. Your the one that everyone is looking for!" "She's my granddaughter" Kamaji said surprising Chihiro and the woman. Yuki just tilted her head to the side. "Granddaughter?" the woman asked. "She wants to work here. Will you take her to see Yubaba? She's a tough little girl." "No way! I'm not risking my life." "What if I give you this?" Kamaji then held out what looked like a fried lizard. "Gimme that! Come on little girl, you better follow me" the woman said as she dumped the rest of the sprinkles to the sootballs.

Chihiro then ran up to the woman and Yuki. "Can't you manage a yes ma'am or a thank you?" "Yes ma'am!" "What a dope. Come on" "Yes ma'am!" The woman told Chihiro to leave her socks and shoes and she sounded pretty annoyed. Yuki and the woman went through the small door and Chihiro bowed to Kamaji thanking him. Kamaji wished her a good luck.

"We have to go all the way to the top floor, that's where Yubaba lives" the woman said. The woman and Yuki checked around to see if it was clear to go and once it was they nodded to Chihiro that it was safe. Yuki and the woman were in the elevator with Chihiro and the elevator stopped on one floor. The woman checked around again to see if it was safe then quickly walked on with Yuki and Chihiro right behind her. Around a corner, one other lady that worked in the bath house came out of another elevator and when she wasn't looking the woman, Yuki, and Chihiro hurried in that elevator and went up more floors.

"We're almost there" the woman said. Once the elevator stopped and the doors opened the radish spirit was there waiting to get in. He motioned upwards meaning he wanted to go up further but the woman told him he needed to go up a different elevator. The woman along with Yuki and Chihiro walked quickly out and to the next place where they were going at. Chihiro became nervous when she noticed the radish spirit was following them. Once the next elevator was open and a few spirits and their frog caretaker came out the woman pushed Chihiro in the elevator so the frog caretaker didn't see her. The radish spirit then got in with Chihiro.

The woman and the caretaker talked and once he tried to get the fried lizard she had, she distracted him while Chihiro had the chance to leave and see Yubaba without being noticed. Once the elevator doors closed the woman ate the whole fried lizard and the frog caretaker then sulked. He went away to take care of the spirits he was taking care of and when he left the woman sighed. "Well thats over. Come on Yuki, I'll get you some food too" Yuki followed the woman into what looked like a fancy kitchen. The woman gave Yuki some meat and some other food on the side on a dish. Yuki started eating as the woman left to do something else that she was needed for.