Chihiro stared at a lone petal, willing it to become full again. The pinkness of it was fading fast, covered by dust too dangerous for the bit of flower to remove and paled by time. Luckily, it had been dry enough in the car to preserve most of the flowers, but her parents had not allowed her to keep them. They symbolized the unknown- why their car was covered in leaves when they came back from the old amusement park, what had so shaken and changed their daughter.
Only this one petal remained, just now smuggled in to her new bedroom through her pants pocket. Chihiro couldn't help but stare at it, the familiar pricks at the back of her eyes triggered by her frustration. It was true that she had gained patience with her secret venture into the realm of spirits, and became much less prone to crying. However, one reasonable cause persisted.
Haku. Or rather, the Kohaku river spirit. She missed him. And while she knew that she would see him again, the river had been filled in, and her last piece of evidence, the petal, was decaying fast. It was a surprise that it hadn't garnered some mold yet.
Wait. Chihiro had one last and great piece of evidence, the greatest of all. It was the ultimate proof that her adventure had happened, wasn't it? Her hand crept up to her hair, fingering the band. It came loose easily, shimmering in her hand like liquid silver. No one else seemed to see it as anything other than a regular purple tie, and in fact it seemed to have lost some of its luster to the spirit realm, but to Chihiro it would always keep its beauty. She held it up to her face, calming herself with its unique scent.
It slipped out of her fingers. Chihiro grabbed at it, but it paused in the air. She stared at it as it leisurely floated towards her bedroom's door, and tripped out of her seat towards it. The band slipped though the crack between the door and the frame into the hallway just before she managed to whip the door open, her heart racing. It zipped through her house and out to the yard, causing Chihiro to trip in her attempts to keep up with it. Just before it could reach her yard's fence, Chihiro caught the band, promptly dropping it. What if it were leading her to a spirit? She looked around her yard expectantly, trying to take deep breaths to still her racing heart a little. There was nothing, no one, and it hurt her badly.
She sat down heavily, looking at her hands in sadness only to discover another loss: in her rush, she had crushed her last petal. Its remnants lay on her hand, more dust than flower. Chihiro lifted her palm to her face, the tears beginning to glass her eyes. In one last effort, she blew the grit into the air, remembering Haku and a similar movement.
Her pout faded as she watched the bits take on a glow imperceptible at first, following the way that her own hairband had levitated in the air. They flew to a single bush and merged with it, causing it to glow as well. For a second, Chihiro could not look at it: when she looked back, it was covered with pink flowers the very match to her first-ever bouquet. The bush seemed to retain the ephemeral glow. Chihiro looked at the beautiful sight, but not even its wonder could distract her for long.
Hands wrapped around her own, sealing the offering position they had remained in. "Sooner than ever," Haku's voice promised her, the hands fading as quickly as they had appeared. Chihiro stared off, only able to say his name to the newly budded bush. And even in the stress of explaining the bush to her parents- "Maybe the flowers you made me throw out took revenge!" or in her first day at a new school, the words echoed clearly in her head. She kept them close to her heart, along with a bunch of new flowers pinned to her shirt. The words found special volume as she saw the first of her new classmates, and among them a very familiar head of dark hair.