The next three years were tough. Sen got her transplant and was recovering nicely. Haku stayed with Chihiro, but he would disappear for long periods of time through out the day, sometimes he would stay away all day and only returned at night. The absences were hard on Chihiro, but surprisingly they were even harder on Sen. She grew to think of Haku as her father, so when he went missing, Sen would wait at the door for him. Chihiro questioned him about it one day when he came home after midnight. He told her that he was visiting the spirit world and Chihiro felt her world stop spinning.

"All this time...you have been...and you couldn't take me?"

"Chihiro, it hasn't been for my own amusement. I needed to research some stuff." he told her. "I found out something."

Chihiro didn't want to hear it. She was furious with him. He knew that she dreamed of it every night. He knew that she missed Lin, Kamajii, No-Face, Zeniba, Boh, and even Yubaba. Haku waited for a few days before approaching the subject again.

"Chihiro, what if I told you that you could return to the spirit world?"

"I know I can Haku, but I would have to leave Sen and I can't do that." she told him as she put away Sen's laundry. The girl was at school.

"I know, but she can come too." Haku told her.

Chihiro put down the pile of clothes and looked at him, "Why Haku? So she can go there and be a human in a world of Spirits? And be afraid of disappearing? And be insulted constantly about her smell? And be threatened by human hating spirits? Or, if she wants to be a spirit, she needs to pass ridiculous tests and have to leave the world she loves and go through what I went through? No Haku."

She picked up the pile and started putting away the clothes again.

"She's been touched by Death." Haku told Chihiro.

"So what?" Chihiro threw down the clothes and turned away from him. "I don't want her to have the life I did Haku!"

"I didn't know your life was so horrible" he whispered.

"Oh Haku stop it! You were a spirit!" She whirled around to face him "You had all these powers and you could fly. You had girls falling over you!" she shook her head. "You know what I had, I had to live with this huge secret. I had to get called a liar at a young age. I had to be shunned by my friends and kids at school because I couldn't stop talking about you and the spirit world. I had to get go all through my school years being called weird. You don't know how it feels Haku."

"I know what it feels like to have everyone hate you!" Haku retaliated. "You don't know what it's like to not know your own name. Or to not be able to get home, ever."

"I know what it feels like to think that your best friend broke a promise." she told them then walked out of the room, she ran into their room and slammed the door, then locked it.

Haku tried to open the door with the key, but failed. He sighed and rested his head against the wood. He could hear her throwing stuff and crying. It killed him to hear her like that.

"Chihiro, I never wanted to break my promise. I was sure you would have forgotten about me, so why would I go back and bring it all back again. I thought you would have moved on." he said through the door.

"Then why did you make the promise Haku? If you knew you weren't going to come back for me, why make the promise." she asked him.

"Please let me in." he told her.

Chihiro unlocked the door and opened it. Her hand was bleeding.

"What happened?" Haku asked alarmed.

"I threw a pillow at the shelf and a candle fell on my hand, the glass shattered." she said in a blank voice and shrugged.

Haku took her hand but she wrenched it away from him. "I'd rather have this pain thanks." she said coldly. Haku winced but didn't try to take her hand again.

"Chihiro please."

"Just go back to the spirit world Haku." she whispered and turned away from him.

"Is that what you want?" he sounded broken.

"Yes. That's exactly what I want. Just go back home and tell everyone that I miss them. I can't return there, not with the risk that Sen might have another relapse."

Chihiro shivered at the thought of losing her daughter. It hurt more than losing Haku.

"If that's what you want." he whispered.

There was a gust of wind and Chihiro turned around. Haku was gone. Chihiro crumpled on the floor and sobbed. She knew it was for the best, he didn't belong in her world and she couldn't return to his. It was better if he just left and let them have time to heal. A clean break. She sighed and took the hair tie that was given to her by her friends, out of her hair. She was tempted to burn it, but Chihiro knew that would hurt too much to do. So all she did is put it with Sen's stuff. Let it protect her now.

The six months that followed were rough. Chihiro lied to Sen and told her that Haku got called away to work in America. She didn't tell her that he would never return, just that he was going to be gone for a long time. Sen cried a bit, but quickly got over it when she got involved with choir. Sports were out of the question and Sen, being an only child, got bored quickly, so music was her way of escaping. Chihiro refused to even look at her journals and just kept focusing on living one day at a time. The day Sen found the hair tie and questioned Chihiro about it, Chihiro just said that Haku had left it for her as a present.

Haku tried to go on without Chihiro, it was hard but he managed. He asked Yubaba to take his memories of her away once it got unbearable. She agreed to take the feelings from him, but his memories would stay. He went back to being cold and uncaring. His heart was as cold as ice and his body was colder. Any warmth that he had felt with Chihiro had long since become frozen. He was uncaring and even the guests couldn't tolerate him. He was Yubaba's henchman again, that was all he would be.