The Shopkeeper

BBBRRRIING

As the school bell rung, the students immediately packed up, neglecting the rest of their teachers' lectures. All but one, Arashi Hoshino. She was asleep, so who could expect her to wake up in time?

"Miss Hoshino, Miss Hoshino, time to wake up," A hand gently nudged Arashi's shoulder. "Ughh...where am I?" She groggily asked the person nudging her, who she thought was her mother. The person cleared her throat, and said, "You are at school, Miss Hoshino, and it is now 6:00pm, which is the school closing time. I thought I should've awoken you before the doors are locked up."

Arashi suddenly remembered that this was her teacher, not her mother. Abruptly, she stood up and bowed like there was no tomorrow.

"Excuse me for my behavior, I'm very sorry to have troubled you like this! I have completely forgotten my manners! Please forgive me for my actions!" Arashi bowed, over and over again. "You're excused, Miss Hoshino, but please, don't fall asleep in class next time. Education is very important for your future! You'll regret not learning enough if you don't pay attention now. Shall I phone your parents to pick you up?" Arashi's teacher asked.

"Oh, I live alone....My parents are away at the moment, and I live fairly close to the school. Thank you for asking though. I'll be on my way now." Arashi bowed again and exited through the school's back door, the only one that was open. 'Oh my gosh....I can't believe I fell asleep at school!' Arashi thought to herself.

The sky grew darker and darker as she strolled down the alley to her big, lonely house. Arashi sighed. It's so lonely without her parents....She looked at the time on her watch. 'What?! Only 6:15pm?! Why is it so dark, then? It's almost summer....The sun sure is setting quicker than usual...' Arashi analyzed in her mind.

She took a right turn, where she usually does, but tonight, it seemed a bit different...For example, the streetlights didn't seem to be turned on. In fact, they didn't even seem to BE there! What was happening? Also, what are those shimmering lights doing at the end? It was a dead end when she walked there yesterday...Out of curiosity, Arashi decided to check it out. After all, it wouldn't hurt, would it?

The farther she went, the dimmer the lights seemed. 'According to my science teacher, shouldn't the apparent magnitude of a light be brighter if you went closer to it? This is getting weird...' Arashi tried hard to think of an explanation.

After a few moments, she arrived right at the lights. Oddly, the lights were actually fireflies! "How can fireflies be so bright?!" Arashi questioned once again to herself. To find out what was happening, she went up to them, and actually grabbed the lights. A mysterious force pulled her in. She wanted the force to stop pulling her, and yet, she also wanted to be sucked in, just to know what was inside.

A few seconds later, she landed in front of a....shop? That was odd...what was a SHOP doing in the middle of nowhere? She stood still for a moment or two, when a woman with flowing black hair emerged from the elaborate doorway to the shop.

"Ah....I see you have arrived safely. Morodashi, Marudashi, escort her inside." The impeccably dressed woman commanded somebody. She then suddenly disappeared. She was just....gone! "What just happened...??" Arashi wanted to ask the woman, when two little girls, each with some kind of....soul-less and somber eyes, forcefully but happily pulled her in the doorway.

The place was a maze! Everywhere Arashi turned was a screen or a door! However, the "soul-less" girls seemed to know their way around very capably. Shortly, Arashi was dropped off in front of another white screen door in the traditional Japanese style, like the ones she saw when she first arrived.

'Curiosity killed the cat...but here goes!' Arashi thought to herself, and opened the door to reveal....

"Pour me some wine now, Watanuki!" The woman who Arashi considered elegant a while before she saw this said. "Oh, you're here. Good." The black-haired woman demanded, "Watanuki, my wine! And where is my midnight snack?! Hurry it up, will ya?!"

To finish what she thought before opening the screen door, Arashi thought, '....And satisfaction brought it back.' Arashi joked to herself. Moments later,

a bespectacled young man of about sixteen appeared from another screened door, wearing an apron and a head wrap, and carrying a tray with a large bottle of Japanese sake and some homemade snacks. He glanced at Arashi, then, hearing the woman's demands for her wine, immediately ran off to deliver what's on his snack tray. Arashi guessed that the boy was Watanuki.

The woman stood up, and said, "Well, my name is Yuuko, and this a shop, apparently. But what makes this shop different from the others is that...I sell wishes. In exchange for something equal to what you want, for example, if you wanted to get rid of, say, a stalker, I can do that, but you have to give me something in return, like your soul or maybe something precious to you." She continued on, "I know that if you knew this shop was here in the first place, you probably would've came to ask me to have your parents come back to you, right?" She smiled slyly.

"H-how did you know?! Are you...also related to Clow?" Arashi asked, remembering back to what she studied at a magic users' academy a while back.

Yuuko's eyes opened a bit wider. "You know about him?" Yuuko asked, then answered herself, "Why, of course you do! You're from the magic academy...You're that Arashi girl, aren't you?"

Arashi's eyes went wide. "...yes, but I haven't used what I learned there since I got out of the academy!"

"With your abilities and knowledge, it would help me very much, and you want your parents to come back, don't you? Why don't you help me in the shop in exchange for the wish? Your partner will be Watanuki. That's good, isn't it?" Yuuko asked.

"I...guess so...but how long do I have to work here?" Arashi questioned. "As long as I think you have to, to pay off your debt." Yuuko answered, then smiled, "Don't worry, it's only part-time, and it'll be fun." Arashi saw a twinkle in Yuuko's dead-looking eyes.

"But how do I get here? It doesn't seem all that apparent in the daytime..." Arashi inquired. "Well...I'll open it up. Or just stalk Watanuki. He comes here after school too." Yuuko laughed, and Arashi saw that Watanuki looked somewhat exasperated.

"Modoki here will be your traveling companion." Yuuko gathered up a black, somewhat diminutive, rabbit-like creature into her hands. "He will ALWAYS be with you while you're on the job. Why? Because he keeps an eye on you and later tells me what you did." Yuuko paused for a second, then asked, to nobody in particular, "Did I forget anything else? Hmm....I don't think so, but it seems like it....I guess not...That's all I have to go over with you, any questions?"

"Well....how am I supposed to go home?" Arashi asked.

"I'll send you home. With the help of Modoki. Just ask him nicely and he'll automatically help you get home. Anything else? No? Okay, just remember to come by tomorrow, I have an important task for you and Watanuki." Yuuko looked at them with a mischievous smile, and exited the room with Modoki.

"Well...." A male voice said beside her, "I never even introduced myself, so...I'm Watanuki, nice to meet you." He bowed, as did Arashi, to return his bow. "Just to let you know, when Miss Yuuko, she forced me to call her that, tells you in advance that she has a job for you, it's not a good sign. But don't worry, you can get out alive. If you don't screw up. If you do, she'll extend your time in order to pay her back, and, as interesting as the experience is, it's hard work. Tires me out like heck."

"....Is she really like that? She looks kind of weird, but she seems to be a nice person. Just a bit...peculiar. And I'm Arashi Hoshino. Nice to meet you too." Arashi bowed deeply, Watanuki followed her and also bowed deeply.

After a few moments of silence, Arashi said, "I need to go now, thanks for the umm...tips about miss Yuuko. Have a good night!" Arashi waved and exited through the door to find Modoki.

"Modoki!" Arashi called, "Where ar-"She was cut off when a black object flung itself at her face. Arashi peeled it off her face and found...."Modoki! Can you please send me home? I have homework to do. Thanks." Modoki acknowledged her with a "Puu!", opened his mouth, and...sucked her in!

The next thing Arashi knew was that she was standing in the middle of her bedroom! Arashi was shocked. 'Modoki is amazing.... wonder who trained him like that?' She asked in her mind. 'I'll find out someday...Ahhh! Got to finish my science....' Although the questions weren't easy, Arashi kept at it, and soon finished in only half an hour, but she was already asleep!

Next morning

Arashi felt a warm beam on her face, and stirred from her comfortable spot. "Stop shining into my face...." Arashi said to the light, and woke up, trying to stop it from shining, when she caught a glimpse of the time.

"9:00?! What?! I'm late!" With that, Arashi hurriedly scrambled down the stairs to get ready. After a few moments of rushing around, trying to do everything she need to, she opened the door, ready to depart when she saw.....

"It's raining?! What the heck?! And it's a fifteen minute walk to school too....Maybe I should just use my powers...." Arashi decided, "All right. I will. But if Modoki was here, it would be easier....oh well...."

Arashi closed her eyes and concentrated. She saw a light from inside her mind, meaning that she had enough power. Arashi opened her eyes, and a moment later, in a flash of brilliant light, arrived in front of her classroom. 'Hmm....I should use it more often.' Arashi thought, then opened the door. She found that not a single person was in the room. She looked around the school for signs of people, and soon it hit Arashi. Today was a professional day. She rushed her butt off for nothing! Arashi sighed, and then decided to go to Yuuko's, since she had already finished all her homework. Again she used her powers, and arrived in front of the shop a second later. It was actually visible this time!

She strolled in through the front door, where she saw Yuuko and Watanuki standing in the doorway. "Oh, Arashi, just in time, I was going to explain what Watanuki's job is. You better come with me." Yuuko invited Arashi. She nodded meekly and followed the pair.

"Modoki," Yuuko commanded the little black bunny, "send us to the place where Arashi's mother and father are."

Modoki opened his mouth as wide as possible, and a strong wind engulfed the trio. A while later, they arrived in what seems to be Hong Kong. "Don't worry, Arashi, we're invisible to other humans, so your parents won't be able to see us." Yuuko assured Arashi. 'This is the job? To see my parents?' Arashi was confused. Arashi looked around, and saw a huge stadium connected to a laboratory. 'What was this? Is this where they work and live?' Arashi wanted to explore the place. "Do you want to explore this place? Go ahead if you want to. We'll meet you outside, by the well. Just exit the front door, turn left, and you'll see it. If we didn't arrive there yet, wait for us, or you'll be stuck in Hong Kong forever." Yuuko had read Arashi's mind. 'This will give the girl a chance to think about her wish.' Yuuko smiled at the thought. "We'll see you later. Come, Watanuki." Yuuko waved and disappeared around the corner, with Watanuki chasing after her.

'Yuuko's amazing too....' Arashi thought, 'better be careful what I think when I'm around her. Oh well, time to find some things out.' Arashi walked down a carpet decorated with crowns and wings, and when she reached the end of the carpet, she saw a door with a sign on it, saying, "Chitose Hibiya", which was her mother! Arashi immediately opened the door, but her hand went through the doorknob! 'Oh yeah...I'm invisible...' She remembered, and walked through the door. There she saw a girl on a bed, and her mother sitting beside her, checking the girl's....ear? Arashi went closer, and saw that the 'girl' was a persecom, a robot that her mother and father developed a few months ago from a line of moving dolls created by her father about a year ago. It was very advanced, since the dolls responded to your thoughts received from a helmet worn by its players. There were even tournaments that player could participate in, where the dolls fought with each other. She got a closer look, and found out that this girl was the same one that her cousin showed her last week on the computer! The first prototype! But what was she doing here?

"She's in very grave condition" a familiar voice resonated in the room. Arashi thought a moment, and remembered that it was her mother's voice! She hasn't heard it in almost a year! "Almost all her memory is lost, and the only thing left is the memory of....you." Chitose's voice became quiet. "Me?" A male voice asked, "All the trouble I've put her through, and she's still thinking of me?" Arashi recognized the voice. It was her father's. There was a silence after that last statement. "I still cannot believe that persecoms are capable of emotion. If they didn't have any, she wouldn't have loved you, would she? What kind of software did we put in her?" Chitose almost whispered, "We have to find out a way to fix it....or else there would be practically no more real couples in this world..."

"Well, it's not exactly a bad thing, right? I mean, we can make baby persecoms that can love and be loved, and simulate the emotions and actions of a real one....married couples would have an easier time, especially when one part is a persecom. Don't you agree?" Arashi's father, Mihara, suggested.

"But how should the baby develop? How would it grow? Would the parents have to buy a new one after they have had enough? Love can't be simulated! We have to correct it! I don't care how long it takes, we just have to!" Chitose said.

"But what about Arashi?" Mihara asked, "she's been living by herself for almost a year now! We haven't even caught a glimpse of her since then....I know we've been monitoring her this whole time, but....what if something happens to her? We won't be able to help..."

In reply to this, Chitose said, "Well...maybe we can send Freya and Elda to watch her? I've considered this, after Freya shuts down completely, we can merge her remaining memories into Elda's hard drive! If you don't want Elda to remember anything that has happened to her, we can store the memories on a separate drive and activate them if we need it. The disk is, of course, password protected, so nobody but us would be able to access it. What do you think? We can even receive news from her email system. I'll equip her with the basic software, like the school tutor software, and high-speed internet access, so she can help Arashi with her schoolwork and such." Mihara was astounded. "You're going to do all this just to protect love?" Chitose's reply was, "Of course. The world needs it, and so do I."

Arashi didn't need to hear anymore, she understood. Besides, who needs their parents when she's going to get a shiny new robot? Arashi happily strolled to the front door and met Yuuko and company at the well. "Ready to go?" Modoki asked her. "Of course!" Arashi replied. 'I see she has figured it out...' Yuuko smiled.

After the arrival back to Japan, they settled down with a nice cup of tea and discussed whether or not Arashi would stay, since she didn't want her wish to be granted anymore.

"Of course you have to stay, Arashi! If you didn't have my service, you wouldn't have realized why you shouldn't want your parents to come back to you! Now you have to pay up." Yuuko said slyly. "I thought that was a job...?" Arashi asked, even though she kind of wanted to work for Yuuko.... "Oh, that was just an excuse." Yuuko smiled even wider this time. "Watanuki could use some help in the kitchen, plus I still need your help. Stay for dinner! Watanuki is cooking tonight. He's awesome." She winked.

"Oh, thanks for the invitation. My parents are going to give me a robot soon....can I bring her along?" Arashi asked. "Sure, why not. I'm always looking for extra help." Yuuko said, "I almost forgot, here are your working clothes. So I can spot you from a distance while you're working for me. They're beautiful, if I do say so myself. I designed them."

Arashi felt a kind of happiness inside. It was like....she had another family. And what girl can resist free clothes? Arashi smiled and said, "Thank you."