Preparations

A/N: according to Yume no Anime's challenge, this was supposed to be about Puu and Mokona – but looky, looky, this is what turned out……

On a warm spring morning, two ordinary boys met in the street.

'You have some arrogance to presume to hire me, human,' Youko said, folding his pale arms across his barely-covered chest and glaring icily at the black-clad human who stood before him.

'Oh, no, not at all. In fact, you could even say that I'm saving your life by giving you this task – or I will be in a few centuries, at any rate.' That sweet, smug smile never wavered, crinkling sharp blue eyes.

Youko's tail twitched irritably. If it weren't for the fact that he had been mysteriously immobilised, he would have seriously considered putting a few holes in those obnoxiously white teeth. But held he was, and by some strange magic at that – he couldn't sense anything in it at all, and anyone who could hold a youkai as powerful as he was without any apparent strain needed watching. He hadn't even sensed it when he had been abruptly summoned into the human world, into this odd little room filled with insanely powerful magical artifacts that made him twitch with barely controlled kleptomania.

'What task is this, human?'

'My name's Clow. Clow Reed.'

'Clow Reed,' Youko Kurama said thoughtfully. 'Well?'

'I can't tell you until you agree,' Clow said cheerily.

'All right,' Kurama said, and let him think that that was an agreement. He was a kitsune, after all; he'd find a way to wriggle out of it later. The sheer power radiating off this man made him a little nervous; he wanted time to think, to plan.

'It's very simple.' Clow reached into his robes and brought out a glowing object that was definitely too large to have been in there before he pulled it out.

Kurama's eyebrow raised. 'A spirit egg.'

'Not quite.' That smile widened, and Clow raised a finger to his eye's level, his glasses glinting in the odd pervasive lighting of the room. 'This looks like a spirit egg. In reality, it's a container for a magic being. A very powerful magic being, and one who will be essential in the future to a certain young man.'

The eyebrow climbed further. 'And what does this have to do with me?'

'It's very simple,' Clow said. 'I need you to break into the Reikai vaults, steal a golden spirit egg and replace it with this one. It will come in handy later.'

'And why should I do this for you?' Kurama inquired.

'I don't have the skills necessary to break into the Reikai vaults, but I do have……other advantages. I can, on occasion, see into the future – and I have seen that you will be crucial to the future of this world and yours several centuries from now, at a time when others of my kind will be unable to defend it.'

'The future of the human world?' Youko barked a laugh. 'You're insane. I'm too powerful to even make it through the barrier between my world and yours. I have no interest in this place.'

'Nonetheless, you will be important. And as a practitioner of equivalent exchange, I can give you two things that will save your life in the future. Stealing the spirit egg and replacing it with this one is one of them.'

'How will my doing you a favour save my life?' he asked curiously. This man was a seer, that much was true; he had the look of it, a wisdom and fey understanding that Youko could sense even though the sight was almost unheard of among youkai. It would be useful to hear this man out; seers could not lie, after all.

'Because the one the egg is destined for will save yours, and if he does not find this egg he will die before he can.'

His life would be saved by a human?

'I never said it was a human,' Clow said, and smiled at the sudden comprehension on Youko's face. 'Yes, I can read minds. Forgive me for not telling you earlier, but I had to see what your intentions were and if I had chosen correctly in you.'

'Hn.'

Clow gave him the egg. Youko hefted it cautiously. 'What does it contain?'

'A Mokona. It's a kind of magical being another sorceress and I created together. There are several, each with their own purpose; this was the second one. Don't worry, it's harmless.'

'A Mokona, hmmm. Very well, hu-Clow. I accept your offer. I will undertake your task.'

'Thank you. In that case, I have one more thing to give as payment.' Clow handed him a piece of paper. 'This is a spell I created. You'll be needing this in the future. Memorise it and destroy the paper.'

Youko's eyes flicked over the spell. It seemed to provide the impetus for a single jump between the worlds, and a transformation from body to body. He'd see the details later. 'Farewell.'

'And you,' the mage said and bowed deeply. Youko returned it, and the summoning faded and he found himself in the Reikai……

That was unexpected, he reflected. Not many had the power to transport another into a different dimension.

'We-ell,' he said contemplatively, and went looking for the spirit eggs.

Two hundred years later

A redhead who went by the name of Minamino Shuuichi was walking down a street, just an ordinary boy, when he felt a presence watching him.

Recent experience with Yomi had made him even less happy with interference of this sort, and he lashed out immediately with his own ki, only to be rebuffed by a barrier – one he had only felt once before, but which he instantly recognised. 'You!' he said, whirling to face the–

It wasn't the mage. It was a boy, barely thirteen years old – but he looked the same and felt the same. Not unlike Kurama himself.

'I see you've recognised my aura,' the not-seer said quietly, those eyes still the same, still amused and all-knowing behind thin glass shields. 'Youko Kurama.'

'Clow Reed,' Kurama returned with a polite nod. 'You've changed.'

'As have you. I did warn you that would happen.'

'The spell came in handy.'

'I knew it would. And I see your friend found his spirit egg useful.'

'I always do what I'm paid to.'

'Which is why I summoned you.'

'It turned out to be a good deal for both of us, didn't it?'

'Profitable indeed,' the seer agreed. The two reincarnations traded identical mysterious, pleasant smiles.

'Farewell,' the seer said.

'And you,' Kurama returned, and they walked on.

Just two ordinary boys, meeting in the street.