Spirited away 2

Chapter Eight:

       "Oh don't you worry about it, what's Yubaba going to do? Fire me?" he laughed loudly while his other arms started furiously working. "I'm her slave, there's nothing she can do to me now!" He laughed more but it sounded bittersweet; he was a slave after all, she had never heard Kamajii say that out loud until now.

The way the older man spoke made sense, but Chihiro still felt bad; it was her fault he was behind now and would have to work extra hard to catch up. She looked down at the ground when Kamajii glared down at her feet; the soot balls were still happily checking out her shoes.

"Hey you little pests, get back to work! She doesn't like you sniffing her shoes." Kamajii jabbed a finger down at them, but they just ignored his order and continued to swarm about her feet. Chihiro smiled down at them widely but waved her hands shooing them away; she didn't want them to get into trouble. The soot balls squeaked loudly at her request.

"Hey, come on now, you can get reacquainted later. We've got customers to attend to now." Kamajii snapped sounding slightly amused, but Chihiro knew he really needed them to get to work. He was behind on work and even if Yubaba couldn't fire him, if he fell behind then it was just more work on his plate.

"Go on, I'll be coming back later and you can play with my shoes." The soot balls bounced around her feet, seeming like they really didn't want to let go of her feet, before they bounded off to start gathering coal again. Chihiro smiled as she watched them go before looking back to Kamajii; she watched him trying to focus on her while also trying to work efficiently.

"Alright, I need to go find Lin since Yubaba wants me to get settled in." she smiled at the thought of really being able to stay in the Bathhouse; it was a dream come true.

"If you just wait here, I'm sure she'll come running in soon; she's probably already heard the news about your return. With that being said she'll probably want to be the first one to tell me you're back." he chuckled to himself thinking of the young woman. Lin was more like family than anyone in his life; more like a daughter than he lets on. Just as he finished his sentence the door to the boiler room burst open and a young woman with long brown hair came rushing in; sweat was dripping down her forehead as she completely ignored Chihiro's presence.

"Speak of the Devil." Kamajii smiled widely and chuckled to himself as he noticed Lin's excited and hopeful look; it was good to see her show some emotion.

Chihiro stood silently off to the side while watching the whole thing happen; Lin looked the exact same as she had remembered her. Chihiro smiled to herself while watching Lin seem overwhelmed with her own happiness while she quickly scrambled towards Kamajii.

"Did you hear the news?" she asked excitedly, her hands were constantly being rung together as she smiled at the older man; seeming completely unbothered when Kamajii didn't turn around. Chihiro knew he was just pretending to be uninterested. She didn't even give him time to reply before she blurted out her news. "They say Sen is back! Can you believe it?" she laughed happily while clapping her hands.

Chihiro couldn't believe she was seeing so many different emotions coming through on her friend's face; she remembered Lin to be grumpy and uninterested in most things. At least that's how she had drawn her multiple times in her journals; Chihiro had missed her dear friend and mentor; if it wasn't for Lin all those years ago she doubted she would have been able to survive for as long as she did trying to work in the Bathhouse.

"I've already heard the news Lin, it's nothing special." Kamajii still didn't turn towards her as he spoke. Her face fell when he dismissed her quickly.

"You already heard? And how can say it's nothing special?" she whined at the older man before sounding angry. She couldn't believe that Kamajii didn't care about Sen returning.