Disclaimer: All properties belong to CLAMP.

Warning: typos. Grammar errors. Sudden unintentional switch between past and present tenses. Misuse of punctuation.

The dimensional witch took a drag from her kiseru pipe, watching the sky darkens on her porch. It will be raining soon, she thought. The air was damp, as it always was in summer. As the thin yukata she wore fell on one shoulder, she took another drag. There will also be a guest soon. She smirked.

"Watanuki!" She called.

"What?!"

"I want you to fill our plastic pool with water now!"

"Plastic pool!"

"Water! Water!"

"Hurry, Watanuki of April Fool!" Maru, Moro, and Mokona then proceeded to run around their caretaker, shouting the same words over and over.

In the middle of the commotion, an annoyed and confused Watanuki popped out of the kitchen door, flailing his arms and glaring at his employer. "It's going to rain soon! You don't take a swim in the rain! And I'm busy with your nabeyaki udon! Why do I have to do it now?!"

"You might want to hurry, Watanuki." Yuuko took a different demeanor and Watanuki stopped flailing. "A customer is coming."

Not long after, a plastic pool was filled with water sat innocently at the backyard of the shop, with Watanuki grouching over it. "There! Your pool is filled, Yuuko-san!"

"Good work, Watanuki!" Yuuko stepped out of her room wearing a completely new outfit. She had abandoned her thin summer yukata and switched to a sleeveless dark blue mermaid dress that left her shoulders and back bare and sequins sewed all over the lower part, perfectly mimicking scales. "Now keep it in the middle of the yard until the rain fall."

Watanuki grumbled about bossy employers who never explain things, but he did what he was told. He pushed and pulled the plastic pool to the middle of the yard just as the first drop of rain dripped on to his nose. He quickly found shelter under the porch, together with Yuuko, Maru, Moro, and Mokona.

"Just in time too." Yuuko looked up at the darkened sky, "They're coming."

Watanuki turned at Yuuko's muttering and looked up, searching what she was looking for. His eyes widened at the distortion in the sky, making it seemed like the sky is dripping. A drop of the sky went straight into the pool Watanuki had prepared and fell sloshing into it was…

"Ningyo…" Watanuki whispered in astonishment. He had heard about mermaids before, but he thought they were just a myth. He glanced at Yuuko, but she didn't show the least bit of surprise on her features. She certainly had foreseen this.

The mermaid had tosca green scaly tail that started from her waist and below. It was definitely a female. He could see obvious bulge of breasts on her chest, covered with her unusual aquamarine-colored hair. She looked disheveled, confused, and nearly hysterical as she looked around.

"You have a wish." Yuuko said simply to her.

The mermaid looked as startled as a deer in headlights. She nodded slowly. "Where am I? And who are you?"

"I am called Yuuko and this is a shop that grants wishes," Yuuko said. "At equal price."

"The fact that you are able to go here at all means that you have a very strong wish that has been heard by this shop. It is not quite often for me to have customers from different universe."

Different universe? Watanuki glanced at Yuuko again in confusion but she didn't acknowledge him. She kept staring indifferently at the female ningyo.

"So what is your wish?" Yuuko asked.

The mermaid seemed almost suspicious but she looked desperate enough that she looked up at the Dimensional Witch with determination in her green eyes. "I want to be a human."

Yuuko's facial expression didn't betray any emotion. "I would need to take your voice in exchange. Do you accept this price?"

The mermaid fingered her throat wistfully when she heard that.

"Creatures like you are magical. It is very dangerous for you to turn all of your being into an ordinary human. Are you sure you still want to do this?"

She kept the fire alight behind her green eyes as she answered with certainty, "Yes."

"I've heard of you, Dimensional Witch. I'm sure you knew what I'm searching for. For that, I need two legs. I need to be a human. No matter what happens, I will go see him again."

"Even if he doesn't love you back?"

The mermaid scrunched her eyes in pain before a sincere feeling Watanuki couldn't name entered her blue eyes. "That's irrelevant. All I want is to be by his side as long as possible."

Yuuko closed her eyes in what Watanuki had learned to perceive as resignation. "Very well. Let your wish be granted."

A magic circle appeared in front of Watanuki's eyes. It glowed and the mermaid's body glowed together with it. A moment later, a naked woman sat in the plastic tub and Watanuki shrieked in embarrassment, covering his eyes to make sure not to peek at anything. Yuuko smirked at him in amusement before once again went about her business. She walked closer to the plastic pool.

She pulled out a pretty seashell and handed it to the now human mermaid. "Sing directly into this shell until I tell you to stop."

The mermaid almost hesitated but she grabbed the seashell in front of her lips and started to sing. Her voice was magic; that was the only thing Watanuki could describe it with. It was only for a few seconds later that the seashell started glowing with dim light and Yuuko told her to stop. She received back the seashell. "I have received the payment."

The shop had decided that the transaction was done and the magic started again. This time, the plastic pool where the mermaid was sitting in distorted into a giant water orb. The mermaid smiled at Yuuko and mouthed a thank you before disappearing inside the orb and disintegrated into thin air.

The only thing that remained was the sloshing water inside the plastic pool. Watanuki realized too late that the rain had stopped. Since when? He didn't notice.

Yuuko was still standing in front of the plastic pool, studying the seashell with melancholic expression. "We would not see her again." She said. "What she wanted to do next is her own decision to make."

Watanuki waited a few moments later before asking what was on his mind all the time. "Yuuko-san. That creature, was she really a…?"

"A ningyo? Yes, she is. Or was, I guess." She corrected herself almost wistfully.

"Mermaids, or ningyo as you called it, they are magical creatures infused with powerful magic. Their song could lure sailors to their death. Their voices command the storms and ocean. Humans who eat their flesh would not age. That is the extent of their magic." Yuuko said. "And so it was very dangerous for a magical creature like her to exchange all of her magical being into a magic-less human being. Basically, all magical beings, like Mokona or kudagitsune, need their magic in order to survive. Their magic is their source of life. So when she wished to be turned into an ordinary human, she was wishing a slow death." At this, Yuuko frowned wistfully. "If she is not back into the ocean within the next three weeks, she would die from the sole starvation of magic."

"Then why didn't you refuse her?" Watanuki frowned in concern. "If that wish would endanger her life, why did you accept her wish?"

"I am bound by this shop, Watanuki." She stared at him. Anyone else would only see emotionless mask, but Watanuki had learned to hear the sadness coloring her voice. "I did not bring her here; it was this shop's decision to make me fulfill her wish. Even if she was from another universe, her wish was so strong that this shop had recognized it and pulled her here. And as the patron of this shop, it is my job to fulfill her wish."

Watanuki frowned. For as powerful as Yuuko-san was, her powers bound her to the shop and the rule of the universe. There is a limit to what she can interfere with. Customer's wishes are not one of them. Watanuki then realized that it was as painful for Yuuko-san as it was for him to grant that mermaid's wish. If anything, it pained Yuuko-san even more, for not being able to help her despite being a powerful witch.

"Anyway, Watanuki! Hurry up and bring this nabeyaki udon for dinner! I'm starving!"

Just like that, the serious atmosphere was broken by the witch herself.

"Starving!" "Dinner!" "Nabeyaki udon!" Mokona leapt off the porch on to Watanuki's face.

Watanuki angrily pulled Mokona off his face and threw him towards where Yuuko was standing. "Just for that, no sake for both of you tonight!"

"You demon!" "Watanuki is a demon!" Yuuko and Mokona's cries of dismay carried off to the kitchen, where Watanuki stomped to, resolutely ignoring them.

The next day, as Watanuki sorted through the treasure room to find something that Yuuko had told him to fetch, he came across a fairy tale book titled "The Little Mermaid". Watanuki had no doubt that Yuuko sent him here for this purpose.

Meanwhile the dimensional witch took a drag from her kiseru pipe; her hair in a messy bun and her thin summer yukata in disarray. The smoke coiled in the air around her like white snakes.

"There is no coincidence in this world."

"There is only hitsuzen."

.

.

.

End.

Glossary (source: Wikipedia):

Yukata: Japanese casual clothes that usually thinner from kimono and is usually worn in summer. It is usually made with cotton to absorb sweat.

Nabeyaki udon: hot noodle soup traditionally served in clay or iron pots. The soup usually includes chicken, fish cake, mushroom and vegetables such as spinach or carrot. In addition, an egg and a large shrimp tempura is served on top.

Ningyo: A japanese term for mermaid.

Kiseru:A japanese pipe meant for smoking. Typically the mouth piece and bowl are made of metal, with tubular shaft of wood or bamboo connecting them. The bowl is much smaller and the length is longer than western style pipes. Many kiseru have been engraved with elaborate details by skilled artists and were a status symbol for the owner.

Kudagitsune: A pipe fox, a fox spirit that held powerful magic for those who use them as familiars. It is described and interpreted in various ways in Japanese pop culture. Unlike the real fox, pipe fox is as small as a rat and can be kept in a pipe, hence the name.

Hitsuzen: fate, destiny, the inevitable.

Author's Note:

Hello. I'm Morte. This story was just a practice piece actually, but it doesn't turn out too badly. So, yeah, I decided to put it up. I'm sure there will be something wrong in here, and you guys will criticize me over the review box, but hey, at least I won't embarrass myself too badly. Thank you for reading, tho. (kisses)