Hitsuzen
Disclaimer: I own Tsubasa. You can tell, because, after volume one, Fai and Kurogane declared there undying love to each other, and ran away together. And the story is renamed "The KuroFai Chronicles". Wait, isn't that what happened? Really I'm not Clamp.
Yuko did not so much grant wishes as she read Fates. She could see the threads of one's Fate, twining about them as a spider wed, tangling the lives of seemingly unconnected people. And that was her true power. Not to grant wishes, but to make sure she had the objects on hand to help her clients Fate come to be; or to help them dispute it. And thus the price, for everyone has a thing that another needs. It was her job to see those objects arrived at the necessary place. Make things run smoothly, as it were.
So on that day, she stood in the rain, Watanuki beside her, awaiting them. The ones fate told her would come. A soft magic crackle and a shimmer in the air brought the four in an instant.
She began the Dance. Knew it by heart after so many centuries as the proprietor of the dream shop. The question. The wish. The pain. The price. And the rain poured about them.
Yet, all the while, she watched them. The two children, she had seen long ago. She had read them from Clow Reed's Fate, as they were closely connected to his. They were the reason for creating the Mokonas. And also, the two men, who stood in the back removed from the others. The tall, dark, caped form, the one who was to be her pawn in this great game of wits. The other, the lithe blond, willowy form shrouded in his thick, fur coat, the enemy's chessman. With them, would be the start of the game.
But, her mind snagged, when she saw those two. There appeared to be an unusually strong bond of Fate between them. Fate came in degrees. There were minor Fates, silvery tendrils, thin as silk, that twisted about one's form. Transient, malleable fates, changing at a whim, or with a choice, or by an act; those that weave the complex symphony that is one's everyday life, and relationships.
Then there was hitsuzen. The inevitable. Destiny. The type of Fate one cannot change. No matter how strongly one may wish to. It was the kind of Fate that had brought Watanuki to her.
Between those two men was defiantly a major string of Fate. And for Yuko, it was implacably familiar. She had seen this type of Fate before. It seemed to her it was terribly common, yet she could not place it. She was rather irked that she, the mistress of Fate, could not recall. It was like having a word, on the tip of one's tongue, at the front of one's, yet being unable to say it. What was it?
The two themselves seemed to feel it. It would have been impossible not to. It was a powerful force, hitsuzen. The shorter blond looked surprised, mildly. He had some small smattering of magic. Not on Yuko's level, of course. More of a breeze, before a hurricane, to compare him to herself; however, few were on her level. But it was enough, or so it would appear, for him to recognize the force pulling him as some kind of Fate. Even if he could not hope read it.
The black–clad man felt it too. But it was clearly in his nature to be a loner. He obviously did not understand the somewhat magnetic force at all. So, he distrusted it. He felt close to this stranger, and he did not get close to anyone. He did not depend on anyone, did not trust anyone. So he fought, to look anywhere, at anything but the blond, the blond who was now staring at him, with a pensive countenance.
What was this Fate? Why could she not place it?
She decided for now, to concede to failure. There where more pressing matters than this, a curiosity. She turned her discerning gaze on the children, and their Fates, for the fist time.
And she nearly broke her porcelain composure!
Her eyes darted, the men the children, and back again. She stifled a laugh. That was not good business ethic. But, really, who would have ever thought. The Fate binding the young couple, and the two men was the same!
The delicate performance ended. She collected their prices, (ever the hardest part, to take another's precious things away) all the while, marveling. Mokona outstretched her wings and whisked them off. She made a mental note to ask Mokona latter about their sleeping habits; those of all four, so as not to arouse any suspicion. She had to wonder, when she would get the report…
With the customers out of sight, she broke into a hearty, malicious laugh. She called for Watanuki to bring Sake, so she could toast the irony of Fate.
Watanuki gave her a look. Laughing maniacally in the rain? Was there something wrong with the woman?
"Are you already drunk?" he exclaimed.
"Watanuki, I'll make you a bet."
The boy's face drained of color. A bet? Oh, this would no be good; knowing Yuko, it would be horrible.
"I bet you, one days wage, those two in the back will be sleeping together in three months time."
Watanuki's face flooded with color, this time, in a nervous blush.
"WHAT THE HELL IS WRONGE WITH YOU! You must already be drunk!" with that he stormed off, in search of his lost sanity.
Pity. A whole day's wage… She would win, of course. She was the one who could read fate.
Even so, in all her time, with all the odd things she had witnessed, she would not have guessed this. Not to see those two men individually. But to see them together it was blatantly obvious.
Still, who would guess that the fate binding those two was true love?
