After all, he'd never seen black rain before.
He stepped out his door and flushed out his umbrella, which was looking far more the worse for wear. The black rain, for whatever reason it came to be, slowly eroded any surface it touched. Wherever he walked, he could see the faint hints of scarring on the buildings, sidewalks, metal, and roads. And even when he looked up, peering around the edge of his umbrella as best he could without getting wet, the sky was an inky black color. He hadn't seen the blue tinge that he was used to during the day in the entire week that it had been happening. Even the stars at night were blocked away by the thick clouds, or what he assumed were clouds.
Watanuki was sure not to splash into any puddles as he reached the school building. People had learned immediately not to go out since like buildings, the black rain burned skin on contact. Not many dared to leave their homes and only those like him, persistent in their routines, came to school. The halls were almost empty and those that were there only studied out of textbooks and were silent. The whole building, the whole town, had been filled with a deadly hush. According to the news, this was happening all over Japan and they feared it would spread over the world.
The weather service had no idea what it was or more importantly, how to stop it.
It isn't going to be solved because it's not natural. Something supernatural is causing this. Maybe a spirit? Who knows? Yuuko-san's going to be back tonight though, at midnight, she said. Right great time of her to go visiting a friend for two weeks!
"Oi. See you're not missing any limbs this morning either."
Watanuki rolled his eyes and glared daggers at his archrival. "Oh, shut up, you ass. I'm not in the mood to deal with you right now." In truth, he was feeling very heavy and not at all like himself. It had been getting worse the whole week and now, the black rain, which had been falling at a steady pace, had increased so badly that day that it became almost impossible to see the air in front of your nose.
And it was Valentine's Day too. He'd even brought the chocolate he'd made too. For Himawari-chan, naturally. And maybe if Doumeki begged on his hands and knees, he might have said he made some for him too. But only if he begged.
"Seriously, though. What's happening?"
"Apparently the spirits are harmed just as much as us with this rain," Watanuki replied bad naturedly, knowing what Doumeki was asking about as clear as if he'd stated it. That in itself was scary and the fact that he knew the fact itself even more so.
"Kunogi isn't here and classes have been canceled all week. Why do you come?"
"Because it's the right thing to do, you stupid jerk!" he snapped, his voice rising in temperature. "I can use this time to catch up on subjects I'm falling behind, thanks to Yuuko-san's damn jobs and your incessant presence! If you think this is such a waste of time, why are you here?"
"Because you are."
Watanuki puffed up like a blowfish, ignoring the fact that his cheeks turned a faint pink. "See!! I knew it, you follow me around to just torture me! I knew you hated me, you jerk! You're so annoying, you want to drive me into an early grave!" he ranted, ignoring the fact that Doumeki shoved his fingers in his ears before he'd gotten three words out of his mouth.
Just as quickly as his burst of energy had appeared, it faded away. He glanced behind him out the faintly open doors to the courtyard of the school. He shivered at the black rain and it just struck him as menacing once again. If he concentrated really hard, he swore that he saw that familiar black smoke emanate from the earth sometimes wherever the rain would hit.
"And it's Valentine's Day too," he whined and slumped against the wall, sliding down it to sit down. "I made chocolates for Himawari-chan too. This is just too terrible."
Doumeki looked down at him and he pretended he didn't notice the concern in the gaze. He ignored the fact that he was beginning to read his nemesis pretty well indeed. "Black rain from a clear blue sky…" he murmured. "It's really depressing."
"The sky is black," Doumeki corrected.
But Watanuki wasn't paying attention. His gaze, focused on the rain a few feet away, became a tad unfocused. He almost thought he saw a figure approaching through, just a mere shadow. The closer it got, which he was strangely unalarmed about, it revealed itself to be female.
Her face had no features except that of a mouth. Her uniform was that from their school and he didn't even get out of his daze until she entered and footsteps of hard soled shoes clicked against the floor, deafening in the silence of the huge school building. His eyes widened and he swallowed, trying to suppress his urge to gag when the black smoke he was used to coiled around her.
She had walked straight through the rain and with instincts born of spending his whole life with his affliction, and lately solving spiritual problems, he just knew she was somehow connected with the rain. He tried to stand up, but found that he lacked strength in all his limbs. No, perhaps it wasn't quite like that. No, he could move his arms; it was just his legs that were locked down and unable to move.
"Let this whole place degrade…" that mouth moved, making a voice echo that was not because of the hall, empty of all but the two boys and the spirit.
"You're the one causing this?" Doumeki demanded and Watanuki blinked, looking up the archer. He was staring right at her, as if he could see her just fine with both eyes. Plus, he had heard her. Yet, there was no doubt that she was a spirit, as girls generally weren't missing all features except a mouth on their face.
"I hate Valentine's Day," she muttered and there was no mistaking the hatred in that tone. "He was supposed to give me chocolate. Nobody ever gave me chocolate. Even when I slit my wrists, no one came to save me."
Watanuki choked when the black smoke thickened with a sudden surge and covered his mouth, the action trying to help resist the urge to cough or vomit. He wasn't sure which it was at the moment.
In all honesty, he couldn't say he was surprised by the story. It had become almost commonplace to hear such complaints like this from dead spirits and he'd had more than his fair share of solving their problems. They were never grateful either, he bitched in his head. He never once got a sincere thank you. No, they just faded away after all the trouble without a backward glance. He never got thank yous. He was getting tired of not getting any. Doumeki, Yuuko, spirits…no one had any manners! You were supposed to say thank you when someone nearly lost a finger or limb sorting out your problems!
Her blank face turned to him, seeming to alight on the fact that next to his book bag was the small package he'd made. The chocolate was still warm from this morning, the smell slightly permeating the air as it cooled down. He blanched when the girl began to deliberately come toward him.
"Give me the chocolate, and I'll go."
It seemed like a perfectly fair deal to him and he would have gladly done it, if Doumeki hadn't been stupid. He wanted to bang his head into something hard when Doumeki stepped in between and crossed his arms. His aura seemed to put off the girl a little, like it did most spirits, but only for a bit.
Really, chocolate wasn't that big of a deal in exchange for her moving on and stopping the black rain! Seemed perfectly logical to him.
"You can't have it."
"O-Oi, Doumeki! She can have it, it's fine! If it'll make her feel better, then what's the big deal?" he hissed, reaching up with his hand and tugging on the archer's sleeve, since he couldn't stand up thanks to the fact that the spirit had glued him to the floor.
"She can't appreciate it. It's too good for her," the other boy stated emphatically and refused to budge on the subject, which only seemed to anger the girl, since the rain was coming down harder and he began to fear that would burn holes through the ceilings.
"You're so cruel! Why won't anyone give me chocolate?!" Despite her anger and lack of eyes, somehow she managed to cry and like the softie that Watanuki knew he was and cursed himself for, he found himself trying to once again convince Doumeki to let him just give her the damn chocolate.
"It's just chocolate, come on," he hissed, low enough to hopefully not be heard by the spirit. "It's not like I can't make more! Stop being so damn stubborn, Doumeki! This'll stop the rain, or hadn't that occurred to you?!"
"No one is obligated to give anyone chocolate," Doumeki lectured a bit, his golden eyes hard and unforgiving as he focused on the spirit and ignored Watanuki. "To kill yourself over not receiving any is foolish. Not getting any chocolate is not the end of the world."
"You don't understand anything!" she cried and lifted her hands to cover her face.
"Ever consider this attitude of yours is the reason you never got any?"
"Doumeki! You're being heartless!" he interrupted, getting angry on the girl's behalf instinctively.
"Who would want to give chocolate to a girl who expects chocolate like its her due and then selfishly kills herself because she didn't get any? Just because someone didn't get you chocolate didn't mean you weren't loved. You can't judge on just that. Some people are just clumsy with their emotions. They say one thing and mean another. It's embarrassing and exposing to reveal emotions like that. Maybe someone did like you, but was too frightened of rejection to say so?"
It was the longest speech he'd ever heard of out Doumeki and he blinked, slightly floored at the conviction he heard in that normally so expressionless tone. The girl seemed to be thinking about it and in response, the rain lightened just a little.
Watanuki cleared his throat, tentatively adding as he tried to talk around the smoke filling his lungs, "You made a mistake and you can't take it back, but if you stay here, stuck like this, you can't have another chance."
He almost didn't think it worked, as things were usually never that easy, but the figure before them just slowly flickered out. There were no words and she didn't seem to have lost her depressed attitude. In fact, the most that Watanuki could probably hope for was that she would think about it, but the rain did let up quite a bit. He dared to hope that maybe, just maybe, it would stop within the hour.
"And they never say thank you," Watanuki muttered, mood still somewhat black like the rain. He shifted, found that he could move his legs, and leapt to his feet. Now, onto the major problem that was Doumeki's life. "You idiot, what did you think you were doing?! If you'd have just let her have the damn chocolate, this wouldn't have happened and she could have just moved on or whatever! Do you even have any brains in your head?!"
Doumeki turned to him and shrugged, his faintly severe look in his eyes fading away to its bland expression like usual. "She'd never be able to appreciate your cooking," he insisted.
"Oh, and you can, you bastard! You never compliment my cooking and you never, never say thank you!" he ranted at the top of his lungs, his voice echoing down around him as it bounced off the walls and causing him to cringe a little.
"I don't need to say it. We both know you're an excellent cook."
For whatever reason, Watanuki found himself blushing faintly. He shoved the chocolate at the archer and averted his face. "Sh-Shut up! That still doesn't change the fact that you never say thank you!"
He watched as the corner of his eye as Doumeki opened the top and popped in a candy happily. "Better than last year's."
"I didn't give you that chocolate last year!" he corrected, growling out with teeth slightly gnashing. "You ate it without permission and got your soul stolen!!"
"You got it back though."
"That's because—"
Doumeki leaned forward and Watanuki swore that that brushing against his cheek was a kiss. "Thank you," he said to a speechless Watanuki. "Happy Valentine's Day."
He floundered in silence as his vocal cords became disconnected and Yuuko's parting words as she had gotten on the bullet train two weeks came back to him.
"Chocolate is a very powerful thing."