Author's Note: Not much to say at this point. I don't own anything that is owned by Miyazaki-sama. Enjoy!
"I missed you, Kohaku," I said quietly. "I missed all of you so much."
He didn't say anything and I didn't want to turn around.
"And I was just a tool that you all used? Something to fix your bath house with, and then throw away?"
"It wasn't like that," Kohaku said. I couldn't hear any emotion in his voice. "You were guided here, because of your strength and courage. It was what we needed to fix our world, yes, but it was also to help you."
"Help me how?" I asked bitterly. My teeth were beginning to chatter. "By making me look like a crazy person? All I could talk about for months was the spirit world! The only reason I made any friends at all was because they thought I was funny!"
I sniffed a lot louder than I had intended, but it was hard to control my breathing when I was shivering.
"And now, when I found all of my happy memories again, you tell me I'm not supposed to have them…."
"You were never meant to remember what happened here," Kohaku said evenly. "Only the lessons you had learned that made you a better person."
I didn't know what to say to that.
"Come out of the water," Kohaku said. "You're freezing."
I didn't move.
"What about the tie?"
There was a pause, then, "What?"
"The hair tie," I said into the water. "It was made by all of my friends, so I could remember them. Why did I still have it if I wasn't meant to remember?"
There was another pause, but this one was longer, as if he didn't know what to say either.
"I… we let you keep it," he said finally. "Because we thought it might help you let go of us."
"Liar," I accused. I didn't know what the real reason was, but that wasn't it.
"Chihiro, come out of the water."
"What if I don't want to?" I asked. "What if I want to just sit here and wait for the next boat to come along, so I can go back to the spirit world where I belong?"
"There isn't going to be any boat," he said sensibly.
"Doesn't mean I can't wish," my voice betrayed me at the end. I didn't know now if I was crying or shivering, but it was making it hard to talk and to stay angry.
I heard the sound of soft movements through the water and suddenly hands were on my upper arms.
"Come," he said, pulling me to my feet. "You're going to get sick."
I took advantage of his solid form and twisted around as I stood so I could finally embrace him and bury my face in his shirt. Well, my original plan had been to give him a real hug, but it was all I could manage on unsteady legs and injured feet. For all that I had grown in a year, he was still taller than me.
"I missed you so much Kohaku," I said in almost a whisper. "Why didn't you come?" I felt him shift, as though his arms had been raised into the air and now they were coming slowly back down. But instead of returning the embrace, he caught me by the arms and pulled me off of him.
"This is why," he told me firmly. "You were supposed to come here, and learn, and teach us, and then leave, with all of your lessons, and leave us in peace."
"But I lost it!" I cried. I was sure I was crying now. The water on my face was warm on my cold cheeks. "I lost the band! And now I'll forget all over again and then you'll forget and I'll never see you again! Ever!"
I buried my face in my hands and felt the heat of my face, despite the chill of the rest of my body.
Then, I felt his body press against my arms, and his hands were at my back, holding me to him in an embrace of his own as we stood knee-deep in the river.
"I missed you, too, Chihiro."
It sounded so much more like him that my tears simply flooded faster, but I was laughing now.