Well, hello there. My first fanfic, so read with salt ^^ I originally wrote this as part of an in-class writing thing. Writing prompt had something to do with people and happiness by giving or something... Anywaaays...

Costly

Yuuko Ichihara had a shop. Well, we can call it that, but really it didn't even exist in this world for some people. To explain why takes about 17 books and/or a couple dozen episodes. This is the story of a series of events that took place centered around said shop, and a few people involved. Something that must be said before this is continued is that nothing in this world (whichever world this is) is coincidence. There is only the inevitable. This fact was Yuuko's mantra. Everything revolved around this in some form, even the meeting of Watanuki Kimihiro, you almost-average high school student. Watanuki wasn't exactly normal because he could see spirits, though. As in ghost and demons and everything else you could think of. You might think that this could have been a gift, something he should have been proud of, but it wasn't. He hated it. The things that he could see had too much control in his life. He wished with all his might to be rid of this 'gift', and that wishing brought him into Yuuko's shop. The reason? Yuuko's shop granted wishes, for a price. Yuuko said she could help Watanuki, and to pay for this, he began part-time work at Yuuko's shop. It turns out that Yuuko should have been dead already, the shop didn't exist for some people or at certain times under certain circumstances, and Watanuki had a sort of shared soul with someone important from another world, and Yuuko was a sort of infamous time-space dimension witch. Anyhow...

Watanuki had been working at the shop for a while when this event happened, though he hadn't really yet grasped the importance of his meeting Yuuko and the shop and its associated world. Anyways, he was walking from school to Yuuko's shop one day when he saw something overhead in a particularly majestic cherry blossom tree. What he saw was a woman, slightly transparent, sitting high in the branches. As he stepped closer to get a better look (to make sure this spirit wasn't a dangerous one or anything), a quiet voice said "You can see her too, can't you."

Watanuki was startled. It wasn't exactly every day he met someone else who saw the spirits. He replied with "She looks lonely".

"That's because all the other cherry trees around here have been cut down"

The speaker was an unassuming little girl with long blond hair, one eye covered with an eyepatch, and an arm in a sling. Soon, Watanuki learned that she was Kohane, a bit of a TV star who performed exorcisms and such on various television shows. Because they were virtually the only people they knew who saw the same sights as the other, they soon became close, like the siblings they never had. They met occasionally over the nest while, but nearly every time, Kohane had some sort of injury; this worried Watanuki. He was thinking this over one day at the shop while he was working in the yard . Yuuko lounged on the porch in a vibrant red kimono, looking rather relaxed. Watanuki decided this was a good a time as possible to ask Yuuko if there was some way to help Kohane. Yuuko had met Kohane a few times before, and asked Watanuki what he thought was wrong.

"Well, I thought maybe there was something going on at home, or perhaps something at school.." He began.

"No," cut in Yuuko "Not like that. What did you see about her. Anything that struck you as odd. Anything? Something only you would see...?"

All that Watanuki could think of was that there always seemed to be a lot of nasty spirits clinging to her like the little bothersome ghosts they were. But this was no different from his situation, was it? How could she be so affected by it? Then a thought hit him; there always seemed to be that one spirit in particular hanging around... The one that looked like a smouldering bat gone moldy. The one that gave him chills just to think about..

"Watanuki, remember that time she exorcised the ghost from that old house? It was an especially nasty spirit. When she got rid of that spirit, other spirits got wind of this. They want revenge on her. Think about it. The ghost was doing what it knew how to do (which was terrorize people) when all of a sudden someone came and destroyed it. To spirits, this just isn't fair. Their logic isn't like ours. It doesn't matter if the ghost was doing something wrong in the first place. Kohane destroyed in, so Kohane must pay."

"That's not fair! Isn't there anything I can do to help her?" Watanuki squeaked.

Yuuko sighed, almost imperceptibly with a gentle smile. There was a shiny bracelet, simple in design but for a red eye emblem. As long as Kohane wore it, she could be safe from the ghosts and other things she exorcised.

"The spirits that follow her are very powerful. I could grant your wish, but the price would be too much for you to pay. For everything you wish, you have to pay an equal price in return. You know that. I've told you before many times. You can't get more or give more. You can't get less or give less. It must be in balance, or else there will be chaos. The price to pay that spirit to go away would be..." explained Yuuko.

"I don't care! If it is in my power to give, I will give it."

Soon after, Kohane was free from the spirit. When she noticed its absence, she knew someone had done something without her knowledge. She didn't have near enough power to rid herself of the spirit, so who was it that helped her? Who did she know of that had that much power? She wished to know who had saved her life from that ghost. A wish, of course, that could be granted at Yuuko's shop.

Yuuko began; "Kohane,Watanuki wanted you to be happy, which you could never really be with that ghost hanging on to you, always hurting you. It was his wish that you be freed from it, and I granted his wish."

"But that must have cost him so much! I don't understand. He wasn't the one who was being hurt, so why would he help me?" Kohane asked. Kindness was a bit of a stranger to her, what with her childhood being what it was.

"In this world, (just this one) there are two kinds of people. Yourself, and others. Even family are still other people. Other than being related by blood, is there any other relation? Aside from yourself, everyone else will always be other people. The only thing that people do is what makes them happy. This can be very hard to see, but it's true.. People that make themselves unhappy believe that to be the cost of their happiness, and 'paying' for that happiness makes them happy, in a way." Yuuko had said this before to Watanuki to try and dissuade him from paying the cost for Kohane, but it hadn't worked.

"Watanuki is happy when the people he cares about are happy. He doesn't really care that much about himself. This might sound like a good thing, but... He doesn't see that hurting himself to help others actually hurts those people he cares about. You being free from that spirit was worth more than his own wish. When one sacrifices oneself to help another, it could actually be painful to the person being helped, especially when that person is of importance to them. "

Kohane didn't understand, and her expression conveyed this painfully clearly to Yuuko. Yuuko didn't elaborate, however, because the knowledge would cost Kohane too much. The knowledge that Watanuki would never be able to not see spirits, the exact opposite of his wish. Forever would the demons and ghosts and other such things pester him and put his life in danger, just so Kohane would be safe.

Yuuko had always wondered when she would see someone wear that bracelet. It had been a payment for creating a god in that other world. A valuable piece. But of course, for everything you wish, you have to pay an equal price in return. You can't get more or give more. You can't get less or give less. It must be in balance, or else there will be chaos. So Watanuki had to pay. "All of this worked perfectly" Yuuko muttered half to herself, half to Mokona on her shoulder. It was inevitable, as it were. Watanuki would forever see what he had to see, and this would allow him to one day take over the shop. He would be able to become the shopkeeper once Yuuko had that time was approaching, faster than anyone knew. It was all inevitable, of course.

Yuuko sighed. Perhaps it really was worth the payment that hired the spirit to haunt Kohane. Just maybe...