The next six years were torturous for Chihiro. She got married within a week, got pregnant within a month, and became a mother and a widow within a year. Nagiori went into Africa for a week of doing missionary work, and came back tired and sick. After going to a doctor and doing intensive tests, it was determined that he was HIV positive. It turned out that there was a hole in his glove and he had a paper cut. When he was working with the people, one of them brushed up against him and blood got into the open cut. Luckily, since Chihiro was pregnant at the time that this was discovered, she didn't contract it. However, he refused to take the treatment, since it would make him sicker than he was. Once the disease turned to full blown AIDS, there was nothing they could do. In the back of Chihiro's mind, she knew this would make her returning to the spirit world harder. Now she was going to leave her daughter an orphan.
After the funeral, Chihiro moved back in with her parents and spent all her time thinking about him. She drew his face on every piece of paper. Or drew his dragon form. She drew herself with him, and even drew her tiny daughter, Sen, with them. She was always drawing, so her mother paid for her to go to an art class. There she drew so many dragons that she became famous for it, at least in their town. Not knowing when she would see him again, Chihiro would write down her every thought in a journal and she would address it to Dragon. Her parents thought it was a nickname for Nagiori, they never suspected that their daughter was in love with a spirit.
Once Sen turned three she was diagnosed with Leukemia, Chihiro thought it was just the flu. Sen was weak and tired all the time, so Chihiro pumped her with Vitamin C and hoped that she would get better. When she started getting bruises, Chihiro took her daughter to the hospital. They ran the tests and admitted her that night. Chihiro felt as if her world was crumbling. Not only did she lose Haku and Nagiori, there was a chance that she would loose her daughter too. Chihiro went useless when Sen had to go through Chemo. The drugs made the girl so sick that she looked like a skeleton with bruises and skin. Chihiro was so consumed that she had pushed the memory of the Spirit World back into her mind. The only thing that remained of it was a dream.
Finally remission was achieved and Sen went on maintenance therapy. Chihiro felt as if she could breathe again. She started thinking of Haku again and dreaming of returning again. Her life felt as if it started again. This dream crumbled when Sen turned five. Only a year and six months into her remission, the cancer came back, more aggressive than ever, a bone marrow transplant would be Sen's only hope. She was put on transplant list and the days turned into weeks and months for the small family. One night Chihiro go an odd dream. She kept hearing, "Return to the place where we first met." Being a huge fan of an anime, she thought it was referring to an episode of that same name. Chihiro ignored it at first and then it dawned on her. Her six years were over. She could return now! She looked at the calendar and realized that it was the same date that she had first met Haku, when she nearly drowned in the river. She got excited for half a second, then she realized that she could never leave Sen now. Chihiro had to leave the room so Sen wouldn't see her crying when Chihiro realized that she couldn't just leave to chase a dream.
Six years, six long years. As soon as Chihiro was safe, Haku refused to marry Soren. He fled to the bathhouse and stayed there under the protection of Yubaba, who secretly hated Soren and her followers. They always made such a mess in the bathhouse, and they tipped horribly. Haku constantly thought about her. He hardly did any work and spent all day working on a way to communicate with her again, of course, without her being in the river, it was useless.
One day when he was running an errand for Yubaba when Soren jumped him again. Still convinced that he loved her, Soren wanted to force marriage on Haku. When he got away from her, Soren screamed and claimed that Haku had done something to her. Of course, by then the entire Spirit World knew how the Ocean Spirits and the Wind Spirit had hurt a poor human girl that was just trying to find true love. The Spirit World shunned her and she was all but banished to the Wastes, a place for banished Spirits and Witches and Wizards.
Six long, miserable years of not seeing her. Haku was excited when the date approached. Shinigami and the Twins visited him and told him the date when he would see her again. He knew that the only way was through his river, so he waited for her to go there. He waited for hours, until the sun was setting and he realized that she wasn't coming. His heart hurt when he thought that maybe she didn't want to return. Maybe she didn't want him anymore. He left the bathhouse and went out for a walk. Where was she? Why wasn't she there? He got his answers when Shinigami and the Twins visited him again.