He hung back until finally he could force his feet to move toward the gnarled stump that the two people were gathered around. It was rather obvious to him, at least, who the demon was. After all, normal people didn't really have wings that looked, well…like demon wings.
The other person was hardly normal either. His sight, always affected by his gift, let him see the outline of some woman behind the man. Where had he seen that before…? It had been shortly after he'd met Yuuko, he knew that, but that was months ago…Why was that image so familiar to him?
"Bout time you showed up!" the demon snarled at him and Watanuki winced a little. It might be in the middle of the day, even in this deserted area, but that didn't lessen the demon's frightful aura. It hovered around him like a pulsating thing that wanted nothing more than to devour him.
Watanuki glanced at the other person there, who seemed little more than nineteen now that he got a closer look, but there was not a single whisper from those closed lips and expressionless face. Great, another "Doumeki". This was wonderful. He must have wronged Yuuko in a previous life or something, because she always seemed to have the worst tasks picked out for him to do.
He dragged the slip of paper from his pocket to look at the names written on them. "You are Himura Rikuou and…" He squinted a little at his boss' handwriting and he was hardly surprised when the letters wriggled a little to become obligingly clearer. "Kukuyo?"
"Wrong," the demon interrupted and he looked up in surprise. "Kukuyo can't make it today, so I'm here instead. I'm Koryu." It didn't help Watanuki's state that slowly those eyes were looking him up and down and a slow grin was coming to his pretty features. "Say…you look yummy…"
Well, that just was the finishing touches on a day that had already been bad from the beginning. Spirits were always wanting to eat him and now demons too?! He was about to write his whole life off as one big mistake in a few minutes. It didn't help that the demon was actually pretty handsome, far more than he was himself (which didn't do anything for his self-confidence), and looked very good in that black outfit he wore.
"Then I'm leaving."
"What?" Watanuki blinked and looked at the hitherto silent boy next to him that looked normal except for that strange outline of a woman at his back.
"My boss told me that I'm only to do business with Watanuki Kimihiro and Kukuyo. If Kukuyo's not here, I'm leaving."
"Hey now!" Koryu protested in annoyance. "I'm not good enough?!"
"It's not that you're not good enough, Koryu-san!" Watanuki interrupted hastily. He didn't want some crazy demon on the rampage and most likely try to eat them both. Yes, this person was very much like Doumeki, saying whatever came to mind, right? Damn it all! "It's just that…if Himura-san's boss is anything like mine, you don't ever do anything unless exactly as instructed, for safety's sake. If Kukuyo-san isn't here, then we really can't do anything otherwise…we'll get it later."
Himura seemed slightly impressed that Watanuki understood what it would be like and though it didn't seem to placate the demon much, at least he wasn't on a rampage for food.
"Look, humans, that may be your problems, but it's you two that don't understand. If I go back without the damn thing that Kukuyo wants, I'll be the one to get it. So just give it here already!"
There was an awkward silence as Watanuki wondered what to do now. The small package in his hands seemed to weigh so much right there and he wished he could just exchange it with Himura and then be out, since that was the limit of his role. Then it was Himura's problem to get the package to Kukuyo.
Come to think of it, where's the item that Himura was supposed to have for him…?
"Rikuou! Damn you, leaving me behind all the time! Do you know how heavy this damn thing is?!"
Then things developed into chaos while Watanuki could only watch bewildered. A young boy had appeared, with light brown hair and sweet, soft golden eyes, even if they were crackling with annoyance right then. His hair was unevenly cut, but it somehow managed to still look good on him. He was huffing for breath, holding a heavy box, and his red face could have also been due to rage.
"Kohaku?! What luck! Yes, time to torment!"
The boy's appearance seemed to delight the demon and already there was a fireball forming in his hand. Himura seemed to find this offensive and placed himself between the newcomer and the demon. Was it coincidence that the nearby streetlamp just shattered for no apparent reason?
"Stop protecting Kohaku, you stupid human!"
"But I'm not—"
"I'm not moving," Himura hissed, cutting off whatever the new boy was going to say and Watanuki, using instincts developed after sixteen years of evading spirits, sensed an oncoming war was about to break out.
"This is what happens when you don't call me," called a familiar voice before the sounds of wings were distorting the air and nearly knocking him to the ground. He felt like crying, really. He just wanted to go home and sleep this bad day off. It didn't help that he was still getting the feeling that the demon Koryu had not forgotten about him.
"Doumeki! What are you doing here?" he demanded, suddenly feeling better, even if he'd never admit it. At least with Doumeki there, maybe it would be slightly harder for the demon to devour him.
"Yuuko called me, even though she told me she told you to call me."
"Koryu, please stop this at once! This is all getting out of hand!"
"What are you two doing here?!"
Watanuki was gladly hiding behind Doumeki, peering around the broad shoulder to notice another demon had appeared beside Koryu, but this one seemed older and somehow far more impressive. As if Koryu was just a punk kid and this other older, more powerful, and so much cooler. And what could only be two angels, what with the feathery wings, were there too. It didn't surprise Watanuki very much. Where demons were, angels had to be too, right?
What had Yuuko gotten him into this time?! He was so denying her any sake of any kind when he got home!
There seemed to be a massive argument ensuing between demons and angels. The humans temporarily forgotten, Himura and the newcomer had inched there way near Watanuki and his rival. Now that he got a closer look, the newcomer boy looked almost unnaturally like one of the angels, especially the hairstyle.
"Anyone have any idea what's going on?"
Watanuki shrugged at the boy still being protected by Himura, much like Doumeki was to him. This "simple meeting" that Yuuko had sent them on had gotten a great deal more complicated, which didn't really surprise him either. That was just what Yuuko was. The last time he had been surprised had been five months ago when a river sprite had referred to Yuuko as The Butterfly Mage. Well…either that or The Purple Butterfly. He couldn't remember now, her voice had been very squeaky.
"Oi."
"Just shut up," Watanuki hissed automatically when Doumeki had broken the humans' silence a few minutes later.
"Just go up there and ask if one of them is who you need to give the thing to."
"But it's not," he corrected, blinking.
Doumeki glanced over his shoulder. "What? Then what are you doing here?"
"Well, it's somewhat confusing. According to Yuuko-san, I have to come here with this broach, give it someone named Himura Rikuou. Then he'll give me a box, then the broach is supposed to be given to a demon named Kukuyo, and then the demon will give something back to Himura-san. Trading over."
Doumeki frowned ever so slightly. "If the demon is supposed to end up with the broach, then why don't you just give it him, why the need for the middleman?"
Watanuki shrugged again. "Something about the fact that the demon didn't contact Yuuko-san. I think, from what she said, that the demon contacted Yuuko-san's acquaintance for something and that person knew that Yuuko-san had what the demon asked for. So for the broach, the person is giving Yuuko-san something, so that he can give the demon the broach and the demon gives him something back in payment."
After a moment, Doumeki shook his head. "Seems unnecessarily complicated."
"It's Yuuko-san," Watanuki replied, as if that explained everything.
"Well, let's just trade our stuff," the newcomer prompted, the humans ignoring the otherworldly beings still in an argument. "I've got the box and you've got the broach. Rikuou can keep an eye on them for us while we do this."
Watanuki nodded, having forgotten about them for a few seconds. There was a very specific way to trade. He had to give the broach with his left hand and take the box, which looked heavy, with his right. The problem was that the box seemed heavy, but so long as it didn't touch his left hand, Yuuko had said it would be okay.
"How do you want to handle the box? One hand isn't going to work, it's heavy, but you do have to touch it."
"Watanuki can take one end and I'll grab the other," Doumeki interrupted. "So long as he touches it and holds it with his right hand, it doesn't matter if someone's helping right?"
"I guess not," the boy muttered and glanced at a piece of paper in his hand. "Doesn't say anything about that being not allowed. We'll do that then."
By the time they finished the complicated maneuver, which had Watanuki almost dropping the box and shattering it's obviously very old wood, the demons and angels had managed to finish their conversation and were watching intently.
"Guess we can go home now," Watanuki muttered when he struggled to hold the box in both hands when he got rid of the broach, but his eyes still strayed to watch the rest of the dealing. He shivered when he noticed that Koryu was still watching him with a not-healthy gleam in his eyes. Doumeki seemed to also have seen it and he was always in between the two of them as they left the meeting place.
An hour later, the box was safely ensconced in Yuuko's store and he was nursing his strained arms. He didn't even want to know what was in that box that Yuuko was very intent on keeping a secret.
"So what was that all about?" he asked at last as Yuuko was busy drinking the sake that she had helped herself to even when Watanuki had denied her.
"Well, I suppose I can tell you at no charge," she said at last. "You see, my acquaintance, Kakei-san, owns a drug store with a little side business of getting "rare" items for people that ask."
"Supernatural items, you mean? Like what you do?"
"Sorta," she said at last. "I collect items in exchange for wishes for people who will eventually need them. Kakei-san sends his little errand boys to fetch things people ask him to get in exchange for a trade or money. Anyway, the demon approached Kakei-san's partner about acquiring a very rare broach for his lover, who just happened to be an angel. Incidentally, Hisui was an archangel until he was thrown out for falling in love with a demon."
"And that demon was…?"
"Kukuyo, the son of Satan." While Watanuki gaped, she ignored his open mouth and swallowed a whole mouthful of her favorite wine, pouring more with her other hand expertly, like a bartender. "Anyway, Kakei-san knew that I had the broach. I've had it for at least three hundred years or more, long story with that, and we made a deal. I'd give him the broach in exchange for a certain item that I've been looking for, for quite a while now. Far as I know, he sent his little errand boys out to get it a day or so ago, just before the meeting today."
"Why'd the demon want the broach, though?"
Yuuko shrugged. "Guess he wanted to give it to Hisui as a gift. Maybe it was their anniversary or something. Don't you usually give presents to the person you love?"
Watanuki huffed and folded his arms over his chest somewhat painfully. His shoulders were just aching. "Well, it almost didn't work. Kukuyo-san wasn't even there when I got there. Someone named Koryu-san was there instead."
That got Yuuko's attention and her eyes lit up with an amused and bright light that he hated. That usually meant he was going to get teased. If Koryu had been there, he would have felt pity for the demon.
"Koryu was there?! Oh, how priceless! I wish I could have been there!"
"You know Koryu-san?"
"Well, not personally, but I do happen to know Hisui. According to Hisui, Koryu has a secret crush…"
Watanuki tuned Yuuko out after a few minutes of listening to a story about Koryu having a crush on an angel named Kohaku, who had fallen in love with a human and had just recently woken up after 100 years of sleep to live with the reincarnation of his human lover, who had died. He was not surprised Yuuko had such enthusiasm over the whole thing. She was not only a matchmaker, but a total romantic about love-triangles. She kept trying to make one with him, Himawari, and Doumeki after all, where there was no such thing possible.
He just couldn't wait to go home and forget about the whole thing. He'd lecture Yuuko later about getting him even more involved in the supernatural world instead of out. On a good day, sometimes he said at least his life was never boring with her around.
That was on a good day. Today was not a good day.
End