Chihiro watched as the spirit stormed past her and slowly dropped his body down into the tub.
"Ah, that's nice." he sighed heavily while closing his eyes. A grimace settled on Chihiro's face before she forced a smile and put her hands together preparing to interrupt the grumpy spirits moment of peace.
"Is there anything else I can do for you?" She watched carefully as the spirit snorted loudly as if her help was the most ridiculous thing it had ever heard. Chihiro knew that most spirits didn't like the thought of humans, let alone getting help from a human. Silence settled for a moment until Chihiro cleared her throat expecting an answer; after all, it was her job to take care of the customer. The spirit seemed to reawaken at the sound and she watched as steam blew out of his nose.
"I don't need anything from a measly human!" Silence followed as the spirit huffed to himself; he had pulled up out of the water slightly when he had screamed at her. Chihiro didn't hold back her stare of disappointment, this spirit was even worse than the dinosaur looking one from when she had first arrived.
"Very well, if you need anything in the future please do hesitate to ask." she knew it was dangerous to play with words like she was; that it was dangerous for her to talk back to such a powerful spirit, but she had had enough of the younger brother's attitude. Chihiro turned to leave while the spirit was too stunned respond; maybe no one has ever spoken to him like that? Chihiro didn't care at the moment, her only objective was to get away from this mean spirit and get back to her duties.
"What are you even doing here; go back to where you belong!" She had almost done it, almost gotten away; but he just had to stop her. She blew out a breath before turning back towards the spirit with a straight face; she didn't want to give him the satisfaction of seeing how angry he was making her.
"This is where I belong; not that it is any of your business however." she stayed silent as the spirit began laughing loudly and obnoxiously. Personally Chihiro didn't mind being mocked; but his blatant disrespect was eating away at her resolve. Though she did find it interesting that as the younger brother laughed sparks flew out from his mouth; what kind of sickness did this spirit have?
"Humans don't belong here; you don't belong here. Why else do you think your kind fades away when exposed for too long; you're race is nothing but trouble." The spirit looked away from her dismissively; that was the very last straw for Chihiro.
"That's not true and you know it!" she glared deeply at him while he looked at her disbelieving. She didn't want to crack, didn't want to show the amount of disrespect to this spirit as he was to her; she wanted to be the better person.
"You think I'm wrong?-" the spirit paused as he turned his whole body towards her with a daring smile of his face; one that dared her to say anything against him. "Then riddle me this little human; if you humans aren't bad, then why have I watched your kind destroy the land around my mountain for centuries? Why am I now suffering for the doings of your people?"
Another round of silence followed as Chihiro's anger began to fade; she had forgotten that this grumpy spirit was indeed in pain. Now that she was hearing some of the reasoning of his pain she did feel bad; Chihiro couldn't help how the human race treats the spirit's land; it wasn't her fault that they were all connected to the human world.
"Perhaps I can help you if you explain some more. How have they been destroying the land around your mountain?" she was curious onto what this spirit could possibly mean; perhaps they were just building houses or tilling the land? She watched as the spirit shook his head and leaned back into the tub once again before closing his eyes.
"There's nothing you can do; you can't help me, no one can." the sadness in his voice was the only reason Chihiro didn't push for a response at that moment. Sweat dripped down from her forehead making her realize the odd temperature change in the building. The Bathhouse was normally very humid and warm, but it was HOT and humid; it was getting hard for her to breathe.
"If you give me a chance to help, you may be surprised on what us humans can accomplish once we've put our mind to it." Chihiro wiped her forehead and stared down at the sweat on her hand; was she coming down with something? When silence was the only thing that followed, she quickly looked back up towards the grumpy customer with a raised eyebrow.
"And why do you care?" the spirit stared at her suspiciously for a long moment before Chihiro shrugged her shoulders. The younger brother was surprised at her boldness; it was strange to him that a mere human would seem so relaxed in his presence; even in the human world mortals marveled at the size of his mountain.
"I simply wish to prove that not all humans are cruel and destructive; that, and I don't want to see anyone suffer if I can do something about it." She looked down at her nails for a moment before looking back up to give her first real smile. At her smile the spirit looked as though he was actually considering her offer; Chihiro felt hopeful that maybe she, as a human, could finally do right by this mountain spirit.
"Alright fine, but I don't see what good you'll be able to do." The spirit brought one of his massive hands up to run over his head; Chihiro watched the motion proud of herself for finally getting this spirit to talk to her. "I've got the biggest headache in the history of headaches; my body hurts and is feverish; I feel like I'm constantly just waiting to throw up and-" he paused as he heaved a horrible sounding cough, Chihiro watched as sparks flew from his mouth an all over his hands, and smoke blew out of his nose. "I feel like it's getting worse." he heaved out through smaller coughs. Chihiro gulped quietly, she had no idea what to do for this spirit; she had an idea as to what was wrong with him, but she didn't know how to deal with his problems.
"Excuse me for just a moment, I'll be right back." She quickly exited the stall and began running through the bathhouse heading for Yubaba's office; she hoped that she could reach her sooner, but either way Chihiro knew she had to get to the older woman.
"Yubaba!" she called through the hallway when she caught a glimpse of her back turning around a corner. Chihiro sped up her run to try to reach her faster. "Yubaba! Yubaba please!" she screamed trying desperately to get to the old woman while also dodging around other workers and the busyness of the Bathhouse. After running up a flight of stairs Chihiro finally got to the corner she had thought she saw Yubaba turn down and came to an immediate stop when the witch appeared out of nowhere and startled her. Chihiro screamed loudly before Yubaba zipped her mouth shut.
"Quiet! You're disturbing the customers." Yubaba paused and watched as sweat poured down Chihiro's face. "What is it Sen?" she unzipped the girls lips and watched as she greedily sucked in air.
"Yubaba there is something seriously wrong with that spirit; he claims to be a mountain spirit, but there are very persistent characteristics of another spirit being shown." Chihiro muttered pointing in the direction of where she had left him. When Yubaba merely raised a confused eyebrow Chihiro sighed heavily and grabbed a hold of the witch's sleeve. "Just come and see for yourself; he's really suffering and I don't know how to help him."
Chihiro quickly lead her back to where the spirit's bath was and noticed he was in even worse shape than when she had left him. His body was trembling, and his bath water was boiling; the air around him was distorted by the amount of heat his body was putting off.
"Oh my!" the old witch exclaimed before putting her arm out in a protective manor in front of Chihiro; of course the girl hadn't noticed it though.
"I told you! Have you ever seen a regular mountain do that! I don't think so!" Chihiro cried while watching the spirit struggle. She hated to see anyone or anything in so much pain. The spirit had looked up with a glare when he heard the two women talking loudly.
"What did you do to me!? I feel even worse than when I first arrived here!" His body began trembling violently this time making Chihiro run forwards, towards him hoping to give at least some sort of comfort.
"Just hang on, everything is going to be-" before she could finish she screamed in pain; she had touched his flesh which was unreasonably hot. She tried to step back away from the pool of boiling water but lost her balance and in turn almost took a nose dive directly into the tub; the only thing that had stopped her was a spell Yubaba had hurriedly casted; it saved her life by not allowing her body to drop.
"It hurts!" tears began to spill from the spirit's eyes. "Brother! It hurts!" the spirit screamed for his brother to come making Chihiro cover her ears; the very sound of his voice was enough to make her head spin. The young girl turned towards Yubaba for instructions but even the old woman was star stuck; she didn't know what to do for this spirit, but she definitely didn't want Chihiro to be more exposed to the danger than she had to be.
"Everyone who is not attending another customer, get over her now!" Yubaba suddenly bellowed as loud as she could before floating over the boiling water to hover just in front of the spirit's face. "Sir, I am a witch, if you tell me what your symptoms are, I may be able to-" before she could finish her statement the spirit sneezed roughly sending her flying back into the barrier wall. Yubaba was now covered in a substance that Chihiro thought looked a lot like ash. She wiped her face while Chihiro looked on in horror; she knew what this spirit was, and it was nothing but trouble.
"We're here Ma'am! What is it that you need?" one of the Bathhouse workers that had been called forward said as she pulled herself off of the ground. "What's going on?"
Yubaba didn't answer; she just reached up and wiped off her face. "Ashes?" she whispered to herself while looking down at the grayish white substance that covered her hands. Only the sound of the spirit's heavy breathing and groans of pain followed while Yubaba snapped her head up to stare at Chihiro in horror. The old witch looked from her hands to the spirit to Chihiro repeatedly before reaching towards the young human with a panicked look.
"Sen get away from there now!" she screamed when the spirit leaned forwards and grabbed a hold of the rim of the tub; the once white porcelain turned into chard black material. Panic was the only feeling the old witch had while watching the swelling spirit so close to her young human. "It's not a mountain spirit! It's an erupting volcano spirit!" she tried reaching for her again but the spirit suddenly vomited into the bath, which overflowed onto the floor; however, it wasn't vomit, it was lava. Luckily Chihiro was standing behind the spirit on the higher part of the tub which meant no lava or boiling water could get to her.
"The volcano must be erupting for the first time! It's affecting him in his spirit body!" Yubaba exclaimed floating up from the lava while the others had darted back away from it.
The spirit's body began to darken like it was burning in an oven; Chihiro stood still, terrified. The young girl was trapped, she had no choice but to watch as the mountain spirit's back darkened. Chihiro knew that this spirit was indeed a volcano spirit; though she had wanted Yubaba to confirm her findings before accusing anyone of anything. Perhaps it was possible to not know what kind of spirit one is? Chihiro didn't know for sure. She just watched helplessly as large orange cracks began to split his body causing him to scream out in extreme agony. Chihiro was sure that the pain was unimaginable, he looked as though he was cooking from the inside out; which was exactly what was happening to him. The younger brother was becoming his own official volcano spirit.
"Hang on I'll get you some water!" Chihiro noticed that his tub was half empty; it had drained when he had vomited out the lava earlier. She quickly scrambled past the hardening lava and ran crazily through the crowd of workers. She was lucky not to burn her feet on the cooling rock. "Does anyone have a bath token!" she had screamed before noticing one in a random worker's hand; as quickly as she could she ripped it from his frog-like hands and ran back to her spot behind the spirit.
"Sen, get back here now!" Yubaba screamed failing to grab ahold of her arms when she ran past her. "It's too dangerous for you! He's erupting for the first time!" she tried to reason with the young girl; Yubaba didn't want anything to happen to her.
"I don't see any of you jumping to help him!" Chihiro screamed while fumbling with the bath token trying to put it into the slot where it would be sent down to Kamajii. Finally she had deposited it and the bath water began to pool in the holding tank, ready to pour at any time. Chihiro went to pull the string which allowed for the water to be released but just when she grasped her hand around it the volcano spirit suddenly burst into flames. Almost immediately the younger brother began screaming in horrible pain, making Chihiro jump in panic and drop the string. The water holder had spun slightly making it hard for her to attempt to grab it again. It had swung over closer to the spirit's heated water.
"Hang on! I'm almost there!" she cried facing the heat, and ignoring the burns that were appearing on her skin as she slowly made her way to the hanging string. If she would be able to help him, she would have to get closer to his heat.
"Get away from me!" he cried popping open one eye to take in her burning clothes and the red burns starting to show up on her skin. "Foolish human, you'll kill yourself if you get any closer!"
Before Chihiro could say anything in defense, the spirit screamed in pain while grabbing ahold of his head. The top of his head was visibly pulsing and glowing with bright red and orange colors that Chihiro had never seen before; if it wasn't so hot and dangerous she would have tried to take a sample. Tears of clear acidic material poured from his eyes instead tears; the very smell was enough to take a simple person's breath away. The screams of the mountain spirit only encouraged Chihiro to take more action; she wanted, no, she needed to help this being; she felt an obligation. Getting as close as she possibly could to the edge of the boiling tub without falling in, she reached as far as she could before a boiling hot bubble popped spraying water onto her ankles and feet; Chihiro screamed loudly and stepped back for just a second before she forced herself to stretch farther.
"Sen! Be careful!" Yubaba screamed not being able to get any closer to help her; all she could do was watch with the rest of the available staff. The old woman just hopped that the young girl didn't fall in; she couldn't help any other way.
"I got it!" Chihiro screamed when she finally was able to grasp a hold of the rope; in a jerky motion she stumbled backwards without letting go of the rope therefore accidentally pulling on it. The water began flowing, pouring down on the spirit right as his skin began to be coated in flames; Chihiro was thankful of her timing even if it was by mistake. The water seemed to reduce his pain considerably, but obviously not taking it away entirely. Steam flooded the room when the cooler water hit the boiling hot water of the tub.
"Oh god, I can't take it anymore." the spirit moaned looking like he was breathing fully for the first time in the whole ordeal. Tears started to blur her vision as she covered her mouth feeling defeated; if water didn't help she didn't know what else she could possibly do.
"Please tell me how to help you!" she cried while watching as the spirit's pain grew in numbers once again; the heat of his body had burned off the remaining cool water, and now all that was left was the painful heat.
"Stay away from me!" the spirit screamed before backhanding her away; in truth he hadn't meant to hit her so hard, but he was in too much pain to care. Chihiro's body was sent flying back until she smacked hard into the divider that separated each bath. Moments afterward the spirit roared out in pain until his head erupted; a blast of uncontrollable flames shot up straight into the air like cannon fire, lava began to pour out of the flames which spilled onto everything around him; luckily none hit Chihiro who had still not gotten up from the place she was thrown. She had hit that median HARD, Yubaba didn't think she would get back up. The flames and lava shot straight through the Bathhouse ceiling, burning everything in it's path. After it had gone through the ceiling, the stream stopped abruptly while the spirit slowly sank down under the water.
When Chihiro had finally gotten to her feet again, she watched in desperation as the spirit sank under the water; it was now a thick black liquid; tar to be exact. She hoped the poor thing was okay now; she hoped it's pain had finally ended.
"Sen! Are you alright!?" Yubaba called through the smoke, she could no longer see the spirit, or her human worker; there was too much smoke and ash floating through the air.
Chihiro ignored her call while watching the tar pit move slowly; the spirit was emerging. The spirit rose slowly, covered head to toe in the tar, his eyes were glowing red and his body no longer looked as though it was burning; Chihiro was happy for that.
"Sir, are you okay?" Chihiro asked cautiously while stepping closer to the bubbling tub. She didn't expect what happened next however; it truly was something spectacular.