sooooooooooooooo...Hell Girl! and xxxHolic! They were made for each other! If i owned either, they WOULD be the same story...but i dont. but i decided to make them the same story anyway. there will be one more chapter and that will be the end. this wasn't made to be very long. i apologize for the format. i kinda such at it. dont no how to fix it. i was experimenting but i've kinda given up by now.
'thoughts' "speaking out loud" kinda obvious but just making it more obvious
Watanuki stopped sweeping and shuddered. 'There must be a spirit nearby.' He thought to himself, leaning on the broom. 'And a particularly powerful and malevolent one too, if that horrible aura it's giving off is any indication.' He wondered briefly if Yuko, or even that idiot Doumeki, were around it scare it off for him, before hating himself for even allowing the thought to enter his head. "I'm probably safe anyway as long as I stay on Yuko's property. I remember from my first day here that the gate is spelled against spirits." He resumed sweeping, but after about 30 seconds morbid curiosity got the better of him and he went to peer out the window. (note: I'm not sure if Yuko's house has a front window, but for the purposes of this fic, it does)
Nothing of the usual sort of blob monster was floating outside the gate, and in fact there was nothing there at all. Watanuki was puzzled. If anything, that horrifying presence seemed stronger than before, so why couldn't he…ah. Something was coming down the sidewalk now. 'No, wait. It's just a school girl.' He shuddered. Her long black hair reminded him annoyingly of Yuko's. 'That's strange. That uniform doesn't belong to any of the schools around here. But, that really doesn't scream supernatural.' Watanuki blinked, then jumped back and screamed an undeniably girly scream. 3 people now walked just slightly behind the girl, partly surrounding her. Three people who had not been there before. The girl hadn't reacted at all to their sudden appearance. He wondered if she had even noticed. 'Maybe they're ghosts. Maybe they're possessing her, and they're combined aura is what I'm sensing.'
One was young man, probably around 20 years old. His black hair fell casually over one eye, and he walked at the girl's left hand side with his hands in the pockets of his green and white zip-up. A strange pendant hung around his neck. At her right hand side was an old man, looking to be in his 80s. He wore a black banded brown felt hat on his head, a brown traditional style Japanese coat (note: don't know what it's actually called) and had a red scarf thrown around his neck. The last was a beautiful middle aged woman, who walked immediately at the girl's back. The sash of her blue kimono, Watanuki was embarrassed to notice, was tied at the front. (note: that's how prostitutes wear theirs)
'If those three are really possessing her, then I wish there was something I could do to help her. The spirits don't look evil, but then I have to admit, some of the scarier things I've meet in Yuko's employ looked safe and human too.' All of this had taken place in only a few seconds time, so the girl was only just approaching the section of the fence that opened to the path leading down to the shop. As she reached it the girl stopped abruptly in her tracks, but still stood facing directly ahead of her. Her companions stopped with her. "Why did she stop?" He whispered aloud. 'I remember being told that only those with a wish can see the store. Doumeki even said it just looked like an empty lot to him. That shouldn't give her any reason to stop at this particular place, and she hasn't even looked over here yet."
The ghost theory was busted wide open when the woman, looking curious, walked over to the front of the girl and crouched down so that their faces were level. "What is it, Mistress? Why have we stopped?" "A shop." It didn't occur to Watanuki that he shouldn't be able to hear what the woman was saying at this distance and through the glass of the window. Still staring expressionlessly at the sidewalk running ahead of her, the girl stretched out the hand at her side and pointed straight at the store, and to his horror, the window out of which Watanuki was spying on them. He hurriedly ducked out of view, and ran to the door.
He heard her say to the girl, "Do you want to go inside?" Sliding the door open a crack, Watanuki stepped halfway outside, cautious and embarrassed because he knew the whole group could see him there. "Um, are…are you a customer? Are you here to see Yuko?" The girl ignored them both and finally turned to face the doorway. He could only stifle a gasp as he noticed the color of her empty eyes. Blood-red.
She slowly reached out a hand, as if to grasp the air on the other side of the opening. To Watanuki's immense horror, an immense spider web, as solid and transparent as glass, formed in and around the doorway before his very eyes. Her hand met and pressed up the barrier without making a sound. There was no hint of anger or surprise in the mysterious girl's face. She leaned forward and breathed on the glassy barricade, leaving a foggy patch starkly visible against its translucent surrounding. It faded quickly. She looked up, first at Watanuki and then her companion, and shook her head, answering both of their previous questions with the same gesture. Then she turned and continued walking in the direction she had originally headed. The old man and the woman followed after her, but the younger man gave Watanuki a sympathetic smile and a wave before jogging off to keep up.
'How strange…who were they?' Watanuki thought to himself. He slowly closed the door and walked back to where he'd placed the broom against the wall.