Poison: Whew. The story has finally been set in motion. The hardest part of any story is setting it up. This chapter is longer than the first two. There was just so much I needed to pack into here. I apologize if it's too long. If you think so, review and tell me what you think! I need your reviews to help me make this story the best it can be! If something's bothering you, please don't hesitate to tell me. I can take any kind of criticism extremely well and I won't dislike you for it. In fact, I will love you for telling me what you think, whether you love it or not. Oh yes, this question has popped up in some of the reviews, so I will answer it right here. I POST A NEW CHAPTER EVERY WEDNESDAY UNLESS ACTED UPON BY SOME OUTSIDE FORCE THAT KEEPS ME FROM DOING SO. THANK YOU. I will try to warn you in advance if something comes up and I have to post a chapter at a later time. Honestly, I felt this chapter came out a bit jumbled and I'm sorry. I hope you can still enjoy it. I would like to take a moment to thank IceBreakers Sours Gum for helping me focus when I get distracted and for keeping my cough down. Thankfully, my cough and sickness is almost completely gone. Please enjoy! Review! Oh, and fangirls, don't worry. I haven't forgotten about the onsen. They may be in the next chapter and will definetly be in one of the next couple chapters.

It was faintly chilly in the hallway that Watanuki and Doumeki were brought to, but Watanuki was sweating bullets. He wasn't nervous or anything, but he felt slightly ill as he was led by a Yamada down the hall. His mouth grew sticky and he found he couldn't swallow anymore. It almost felt like he was approaching something so foul and polluted that it was contaminating his entire body. It was so disgusting… Watanuki found himself fighting down stomach bile.

"Here we are," the Yamada said as they reached the last door down the hall. Watanuki gently held his stomach. The door looked the same as every other door in the hallway—gray and stoic. Watanuki fought against his nausea and wrapped against the door.

"Please enter," a voice from within boomed. Slightly uneasy, he walked in and glanced over his shoulder to make sure that Doumeki was right behind him. He didn't want to be alone.

For the owner of a huge and prosperous resort, he had quite a boring office. There was a desk in the back center, a window on the right wall, a bookshelf on the left wall, and two chairs seated in front of the desk. Watanuki turned his attention to the man at the desk. Doumeki immediately went into a deep bow and Watanuki did the same.

"Hello, Kikuchi-sama. My name is Kimihiro Watanuki and this is Shizuka Doumeki. We were sent by Yuko Ichihara for something that you requested of her. I hope that you will treat us well," Watanuki finished, staying in a bow.

"Yes, yes. Please take a seat, both of you," he grumbled, gesturing to the two chairs in front of the desk. They quietly sat down and watched Kikuchi attentively. He was an old man, probably about in his 60s or 70s. His gray hair was slicked back and the wrinkles in his face were deep, especially where his frown was.

"I'm surprised she sent a couple of schoolboys over to do such an important job. But, she told me you guys were the best in the business, so you better not mess this up. I'd like us to keep our voices down due to the nature of this job I have for you both." He scrutinized both of them as he spoke. Doumeki was passive, but Watanuki had to struggle because of his nausea. They both nodded.

Kikuchi placed his chin in his hands. "Alright then. So, I'm not sure if you've heard the rumors, but there are some going around that this place is haunted and that people have been going missing. Thankfully, right now they only stand as rumors. The truth is, some people have gone missing, but they were all employees. That way we were at least able to keep that part quiet. However, the rumor about the ghosts has driven some of my customers away and I need to get rid of them."

"And you believe that there are actually ghosts and this isn't a human's doing?" Doumeki interjected. "You didn't exactly strike me as the superstitious type."

Watanuki wondered, what was Doumeki getting at? Kikuchi's hand flew to his throat and he began fiddling with something around his neck. He saw that it was a small copper coin with the kanji for luck on it. A matching pin was also on his lapel.

"As a man of business, I can't afford to ignore things like this," his said. He still had a commanding voice, but it had begun to shake.

"Don't worry, sir. We are here to get the job done and we will, but we need some information from you first. What kind of signs do the spirits give and where does it happen most frequently?" Watanuki asked.

"The spirits don't exactly show themselves to people. They only appear during certain times. Before my employees went missing, it was said that they were in a daze and weren't quite themselves before they went missing. That's all I know," Kikuchi said gruffly, now messing with a four-leaf clover charm on a bracelet he was wearing.

"Don't you think it's a bit odd that only some of your employees have gone missing and not any guests?" Doumeki asked.

"Why should I find it strange? My employees live here. Therefore, they're here the most and are more exposed to the spirits. Makes sense to me," Kikuchi replied, giving Doumeki a threatening look. Watanuki's hand flew to his mouth. For some reason, after Kikuchi had just spoken, he'd felt like he was going to throw up. He took a minute to regain his composure and get rid of the dizziness.

"You all right, boy?" Kikuchi asked, softening a little.

"Yes, I'm fine. I just feel a little woozy."

"Ah. That's the altitude doing it. It'll go away in a while. Have some water." Kikuchi pointed out a water dispenser to the left. Watanuki gratefully got up and got himself a Styrofoam cup-full. Doumeki continued watching the old man.

"That's an interesting bowl of salt you have on your desk. With all those luck charms you have, you'd think that maybe the spirits were after you, Mr. Kikuchi," Doumeki said with a voice like ice.

"Oh my! I thought that woman was sending me exorcists, not detectives!" Kikuchi shrugged it off with false laughter. "If you are suspicious of my morals because I'm a business man, don't worry. That woman said I would need to pay a price and I'm prepared to pay you both handsomely." Watanuki finished gulping down his water and threw the cup away. The old man stood up and approached him. "Feel better soon, boy. I want you at your best for this job," he said with a smile, placing a hand on Watanuki's shoulder. His shoulder burned at the man's touch, but he ignored it and nodded with a smile.

"We'll get those spirits out in no time," he promised.

"You may leave now," Kikuchi said, taking his seat once again at his desk and giving Doumeki one last nasty look as they left the room.

The minute the door closed behind them, Watanuki fell to his knees coughing. He'd been holding it in during their entire meeting. Doumeki got on his knees beside him and began patting his back.

"Hey, you alright? Oi, come on. What's wrong?" Doumeki tried asking while he held Watanuki's shoulders, keeping him steady.

"That man," Watanuki said weakly. "There's so much… poison surrounding him. He's got so many lucky charms that it all stays off of his body and floats around in the air around him. I could hardly stand it," he finished, wiping some sweat off of his brow.

"Well, we're done now. Let's hurry up and get out of here," Doumeki said softly, hoisting Watanuki to his feet and holding on tightly to his arm.

"I can walk by myself," Watanuki said, trying to sound angry but too weak to do so.

Doumeki ignored him and began leading him out. "That guy's aura must be really powerful if not even my presence helps ease your pain."

Watanuki looked up at him. His last statement had sounded very out of character. Not what he said, but how he said it. He had sounded very apologetic and his face wasn't in its usual apathetic state. There were lines of concern around his eyebrows and his frown was a little deeper. Was Doumeki actually concerned about him? Maybe he'd been too hard on the guy.

"Hey, I feel alright now. I can walk now," he said, gently pulling his arm away. "I'm hungry. What do you say we go get something to eat?"

Doumeki looked at him, slightly surprised. "Yeah, sure. I'm in the mood for a steaming plate of okonomiyaki."

"I was actually thinking of that little Italian restaurant I saw in the main building. It looked really good."

"Okonomiyaki is better for you."

"Well, I feel like eating Italian."

"But the okonomiyaki here is made by some of the top chefs in the area."

"Agh! I try to be nice to you and you contradict everything I say! I don't even know why I bother!"

"Hey, what's the problem?"

They both turned to see Toa. Today, he had his long black hair down and it hung halfway down his back.

"Oh, hey Toa. I was just trying to tell this idiot that we should eat Italian instead of okonomiyaki. We can get okonomiyaki back home," Watanuki said, his bad mood lifting a little.

Toa rubbed his chin. "I'm going to have to agree with Doumeki, man. The okonomiyaki here is some of the best. And the Italian here is more of a dinner thing. Why don't we go grab some okonomiyaki and then some Italian for dinner? That way, everybody's happy."

"Alright, if you think that's what's best, Toa," Watanuki said, reluctantly giving in. He half expected Doumeki to protest since it was obvious he didn't like Toa for some reason, but he remained silent as they walked toward the eating area.

The plates of the pancake-like food steamed in front of their faces and they all eagerly dug in. "Itadakimasu!" They took a couple of moments to enjoy the heaven before Doumeki spoke.

"Toa, you're a full-time employee, aren't you?"

Toa looked at him questioningly with a mouth full of food. "Yeah. Why?"

"So, you live here at the lodge then?"

"Yeah. All the employees live in this huge building that's separated between the men and women."

"What about school?" Watanuki interrupted. Toa laughed.

"I'm 20! I already finished high school. I didn't think college was necessary since this was what I wanted to do."

"20? Wow. I could've sworn you were my age," Watanuki said before shoveling more okonomiyaki into his mouth. Doumeki continued.

"Living in that building must mean you know a lot about the employees here, right?" Doumeki asked.

"Yeah. We're pretty close. We tell each other things. Something you wanna know?"

"Can you tell us about the employees that went missing?"

There was a clank as both Watanuki and Toa dropped their chopsticks. "Doumeki!" Watanuki hissed.

"Nah, it's cool. Sure. What do you want to know about them?" Toa said, calming Watanuki down.

"Do you know how they disappeared? Tell me every detail you can remember."

Toa scratched his head and leaned back in his chair. He tilted his head to the side, thinking. "It always happened at night, but I guess stuff like that usually does. The ones who went missing always acted weird the day before they went missing. None of us really noticed it until after they'd gone missing, though. No one knows what really happened to them. What Kikuchi always officially released to the authorities was that their bodies were found and it had been suicide. But that's a bunch of crap. No one was ever found and whether or not any of them are still alive is a complete mystery. That Kikuchi is lolo. He has more lucky charms than that cereal. He tries to carry good luck around in his pocket," Toa finished, twirling a finger next to his head.

"Lolo?" Watanuki asked.

"It's Hawaiian for crazy," Toa explained.

"Why would he try to hide something like that?" Watanuki wondered aloud. "You think he'd want the police's help so that they could help figure out if these people actually died or not."

"I don't think this is a case the police could handle," Doumeki said, giving Watanuki an intense look. Watanuki nodded. Doumeki then turned his attention back to Toa.

"I find it odd that you grew up in Hawaii yet you followed your dream to teach snowboarding. Wouldn't surfing be what you wanted to do?"

"Well, I came to Japan every winter when I was a kid to visit some family and go snowboarding and skiing. I told you yesterday that I'm a hapa, a half-Japanese and half-Hawaiian. I loved the snow since there was never a single snowflake in Hawaii. I was lucky enough that my Japanese half, my father's half, of the family was old acquaintances with the Kikuchi's. Something about the Kikuchi's being obligated to us. So, I got this job." Toa took a slurp from his tropical smoothie.

"An obligation?"

"Yeah. I don't know anything about it though. Why all of these strange questions? What kind of job did you guys say you were here for?"

"We're here to clean up some filth," Watanuki said, suddenly becoming serious.

Toa frowned. "I want you guys to be careful. Kikuchi's a shady character. He has complete loyalty from his entire staff except me it seems. I don't know what he's getting you both into, but I don't like how it sounds." He turned his deep dark eyes on Watanuki. "Please promise to take care of yourselves. Especially you, Kimihiro."

Watanuki nodded wordlessly. Toa broke out of his serious expression and gave one of his lop-sided grins. "Alright. My break's over. I'll catch you dudes later." He got up and gave them a Hawaiian shaka sign, in which he made a fist with his pinky and thumb skyward.

"Tell us if you find anything else out!" Watanuki called after him. Toa waved in recognition.

"I don't completely trust that guy," Doumeki said quietly.

"Why not? He's really nice. Besides, we're dealing with spirits, not people. There shouldn't be any reason to distrust anyone who's living." He patted his stomach. "Now that we've eaten, I think we should get to work. We only have a week to do this thing, and I'd like to hurry up and finish so that we can have some free time."

"Okay. Where do we start, Inspector Watanuki?"

"Tch. Don't get smart with me. We're going to explore all the buildings and see if I detect something. If there are spirits in this place, I'll feel them. You're job is to stay close and be quiet."

"Can do, inspector."

***

Watanuki furrowed his eyebrows in concentration. Nothing.

"Man! What is up with this place? There's this whole big mystery going on and I can't even find a spirit anywhere! We've been to every inch of every building and haven't found anything. I thought for sure there would be something in the employee building because of the disappearances, but that place was a dead zone too. No pun intended," he ranted, rubbing his forehead.

"I guess this means it's time for dinner," Doumeki said.

"Is food all you ever think about?! I mean, we should stop for now, but we're at a dead end right now. I can't think of anything else to do and it's getting us nowhere. Just thinking about what Yuko would do to me if I failed this job…" He shivered. That witch could be scary.

"Maybe they don't live here. Maybe you'll just have to wait until they come to the resort again. I'm sure at some point this week they'll come wondering around. Let's go get that Italian we agreed on."

Watanuki nodded, thinking of the delicious pasta waiting for him. It was just as wonderful as he'd imagined. Everything from the pasta to the warm buttered bread was perfect. He loved this resort and its food. Once he'd eaten enough to never want to see a tomato again, he fumbled for the pager in his pocket and pressed it. He hardly even remembered making the walk to the shuttle stop because the food had made him so sleepy.

"Have another eventful day?" Kenji asked as cheerfully as ever.

"Not really. We worked all day. The only break we had was when we ate that delicious okonomiyaki with Toa," Watanuki said, remembering just how delicious it had been.

"Toa? Toa Waka?" Kenji asked quickly.

"Um, I don't know his last name. But I'm sure it's the same person. Brown skin, long black hair, you know."

"Yeah, yeah. You're friends with him? Lucky you! He's an awesome guy."

"Are you friends with him?"

"A little bit. He really is wonderful, though." At that, Kenji went silent.

They arrived at their sad little shack and gave their goodbyes to Kenji before going inside. "God, it's cold," Watanuki huffed, rubbing his arms.

Doumeki took that as a cue to start shoveling coal into their little heat oven. Watanuki busied himself with lighting more candles. He then took a seat at the table and watched Doumeki continue to shovel.

"You know something? This place sucks. It's always cold, the wind always drifts in, it creaks like crazy at night, and water drips from a leak on me sometimes when I sleep. But you know what else? I kind of like it. It's really peaceful. Nice and private. No noisy neighbors, you know? Oh god, this trip is getting to me. I'm actually talking to you about my thought now. Now that you mention it, I wonder how Himawari's doing. It's so odd that I haven't even thought of her once since we left." Watanuki didn't feel the same fluttery feeling he usually felt when he thought of her. He'd only been away for a couple of days and already she was becoming something distant to him. That couldn't be a good sign. His thoughts were interrupted.

"I like it out here too," Doumeki agreed. He put down his shovel and started walking toward Watanuki. He grabbed the other chair at the table and brought it close to Watanuki. He had the chair so that he and Watanuki were facing each other rather than next to each other. Doumeki grabbed Watanuki's long slender hands in his own large ones. His face got close enough for Watanuki to count his eyelashes.

"I really like being out here with you," Doumeki said softly, his breath brushing Watanuki's cheeks.

Watanuki jumped up with a start. His chair fell over behind him and he backed up quickly. "Wh-what the heck?! You've been acting weird!" He suddenly felt the same feeling he'd felt when he'd first entered the lodge. It felt like his entire body was drenched in water and he began shaking uncontrollably.

"What's wrong? Is it still too cold in here?" Doumeki asked, standing up and approaching Watanuki.

"No! It's fine. It just means that spirits are near," Watanuki said with a weak shaky voice, backing away further.

"Let me help—"

"No! Just stay where you are. I'm going to go see if there are any spirits out there!"

Before Doumeki could say anything, Watanuki had grabbed a candle and ran out of the cottage. He really had believed that he felt spirits near, but he'd mostly used that excuse to get away. Doumeki had been acting out of character ever since they'd left and it was scaring him a little. Especially since they were stuck in that shack together until Sunday. He couldn't just stand around. Doumeki would come after him and then what? Watanuki turned to where he felt the spiritual energy and found himself running toward the forest beside the resort. He disappeared into the thick growth of trees and discovered that it went into a sharp decline. He moved as quickly as he could down the hill without falling. Eventually, the land leveled out and he moved faster. He could feel the spiritual energy getting stronger and stronger with every step he took. I'm getting close, he thought.

Suddenly, there was a sound. A loud sound. Watanuki stopped and looked around. He heard another rustle and he spun around, looking left and right. Was there something there? Spirits maybe?

"Hello?" he called. His call was answered by more rustling and some crunching in the snow. His heart was pounding, but he stood his ground. He was greeted a couple moments later by a deer.

"Ah. It's just a deer. Hey there! Aw, you're just a cute little guy! I can't believe how scared I was," Watanuki said half to himself half to the deer. "Come here, Mr. Deer…"

The deer pricked his ears and ran off at full speed. "Oh no. I must've scared him away," Watanuki said quietly. However, a deep rumbling told him that he was wrong.

"Hello?" he called once again. Why had he left the shack so readily? It was dark and he was sure he had no idea where he was. Even if Doumeki was acting creepy, it was better than this.

A huge figure emerged from the trees and stood silently. Watanuki held his candle up to see what it was and nearly fainted. It was a bear. A really, really big bear. And it was standing not five feet away from him. Oh lord, what am I going to do, he thought in horror.

He didn't have time to decide what to do. The bear leapt at him and he screamed and tumbled out of the way. He watched the candle sail out of his hand and hit the snow where it was extinguished. Now he was in complete darkness. He could only hear the bear now.

The bear let out a small roar and Watanuki heard its large paws crunch through to snow towards him again. He ran off to the side and managed to dodge it again. He then made the wrong move and decided to stay still to listen for the bear. Before he heard anything, he felt the bear's claws ram into his side and send him flying. He rolled through the snow and grimaced. He could feel warm sticky blood ooze out onto his cold body. I'm going to die, he thought.

He looked up at the sound of something whizzing by and hitting the tree beside him. He saw that it was an arrow. "Doumeki?"

The next arrow that came was one made of Doumeki's spirit energy and it stuck right into the bear's shoulder. The animal cried out in pain and ambled off as quickly as it could. It disappeared into the trees and soon Watanuki couldn't hear it anymore.

"Watanuki?" came Doumeki's voice, scruffy and filled with worry.

"I'm here," Watanuki croaked, waving an arm in the air.

A small candle light bobbed over towards him and soon Watanuki was looking at Doumeki's illuminated face.

"Are you alright? That was no ordinary bear," Doumeki said.

"Yeah, I know. It was some sort of spirit. I could tell," Watanuki said, holding his side where the bear had scratched him.

"Did he hurt you at all?"

"Just in my side. It's nothing serious," he replied, trying to keep the pain out of his voice.

"Let me see." Doumeki moved to where he saw Watanuki holding his side and brought the candle close to the wound. "He got you pretty good. Thankfully it's not too deep. It'll stop bleeding soon. We need to wrap it up quickly, though, before it gets infected."

Watanuki sighed and tried to push himself up. The slices in his skin screamed at him and he let out a small yelp.

"Don't try to get up and walk. It'll only make it bleed longer and open up more. Hold this," he said, handing Watanuki the candle and his bow.

"Why do I have to hold—?"

Before he could finish, Doumeki had hoisted him up and was holding him bridal-style.

"Hey! Put me down!"

"Shut up." Doumeki's voice was stern now. "There's no way you'll be able to walk back."

Watanuki did as he was told and shut his mouth. Doumeki made his way through the path and back up the large hill. He wasn't even breathing hard. Was he really that light? Watanuki could only wonder. The candle lit up Doumeki's face and boy did he look pissed. Watanuki closed his eyes so he wouldn't have to look at it. He squeezed the bow to help ease some of the pain.

When they reached the shack, Watanuki was relieved to feel the warmth from the oven. Doumeki placed him down on the floor and pulled out a first aid kit from his bag. He took the candle and bow from Watanuki and put them aside. Sitting cross-legged, he began applying hydrogen peroxide to Watanuki's wound.

"It stings," Watanuki whined.

"Shut up," Doumeki commanded. Watanuki clamped his mouth shut.

The two fumbled to pull Watanuki's shirt off and Doumeki swore as the wound began bleeding again as they did. He quickly wrapped bandages around Watanuki's waist and taped them off. Watanuki pulled his bloody shirt back on. It wasn't warm enough for him to be shirtless.

"Thanks," he mumbled. He felt himself getting a little less selfish towards Doumeki.

"Why the hell did you do that?"

Watanuki looked up at Doumeki and realized that his glasses had cracked and the frame had been bent extremely crooked.

"Well crap," he muttered, feeling his destroyed glasses. Doumeki ripped them off of his face and threw them aside.

"Answer me."

This was the loudest Watanuki had ever heard Doumeki speak. "I felt something out there, alright? That's all. That is why we're here, you know."

"I'm supposed to go with you! You can't just run off and solve this by yourself. What would have happened if I hadn't followed you just now? You'd have more than just this little cut. You could've even—" He cut himself off and bit his lip.

"I'm sorry, okay? I won't do it again. Sheesh."

"Promise me."

"What are you, a kid? Fine, I promise. Cross my heart and all that crap. I'm hurt and my glasses are ruined, but at least now we have a lead. They're somewhere down in that forest. I'm sure of it."

"We'll start looking tomorrow. Right now we need to sleep."

"Tch. All you do is eat and sleep."

Doumeki ignored him. He got up and retrieved his glasses from where he had flung them. "I guess we'll need to get you new glasses first. I'm sure the resort has some. It has everything." He looked over at Watanuki. "You look good without glasses, though. You have a nice face. Have you ever considered contacts?"

"Hell no! I would never be able to put up with those things. Now quit saying weird stuff and blow out all the candles." He slowly crawled into bed with his thick tight bandages. All the light left the shack and Watanuki felt Doumeki climb in next to him.

"Good night, creep."

***

Doumeki was awaken the next morning by a pleasant and warm smell that wafted into his nostrils. He rolled over and stretched to find that Watanuki wasn't in the futon. He sat up and grunted. What was that smell?

"Morning."

Over at the cooking stove, Watanuki was busily shoveling eggs and bacon across a steaming pan. He'd changed out of his bloody clothes from last night and was wearing a dark blue long-sleeved shirt with a short-sleeved light blue one over it. Jeans hugged loosely at his hips and trailed down to the house slippers on his feet. To top it all off, he was wearing an apron that'd been hanging beside the stove that was white with a large red heart in the center.

"Morning," Doumeki replied. After straightening up the futon, he walked over to the table and sat patiently, waiting for his food. "How's your wound?"

"It's fine. I put on new bandages this morning. It might scar, but it's healing fast enough," replied Watanuki as he began placing the hot food on some plates. He whipped out some thick bread rolls and slathered butter on them before sprinkling garlic powder on them. He carefully poured some orange juice into two glasses, but ended up spilling a little.

"Dammit," he swore, rubbing his eyes. He really needed some glasses. He quickly wiped it up and placed the food on the table. "Um, this is my way of saying thanks for last night. You said you liked western style breakfast, so I pillaged through the food they provided in here. Don't think I'm going to do this all the time. This is the only time I plan on cooking during this trip."

Doumeki was hardly listening. He was too busy getting the food from his plate to his mouth.

"Hey! Listen to me when I'm talking to you! I did something nice for you, ya big jerk! I had to squeeze that juice out by hand because there was only water and fruit! Hey!"

Doumeki looked up finally at Watanuki. "Oh. I forgot that you don't have your glasses."

"Yeah. They're kind of destroyed right now. That better not be a smile on your face," Watanuki said, squinting at Doumeki. God was he blind.

Doumeki handed Watanuki his dishes when he was done and Watanuki took them angrily. He gathered all the dishes and got up. "You could at least say thank you! Were you raised with no manners? I can't believe guys like you." He piled the dishes up next to the stove. There was no sink, so he was going to have to find another way to clean the dishes.

"Thank you."

Watanuki turned. "Did you just say what I think you did? You've never said thank you for anything I've done. Are you messing with me?!"

"Well, this is the first time you've thanked me for saving your life, which I've done many times."

"I decided that I wanted to be the better man, okay? You're still just an ungrateful—"

Doumeki walked over to Watanuki and grabbed his chin. His coffee colored eyes stared holes into his own blue eyes. "What kind of glasses do you need? We'd better go get new ones now if you can't even see my face across the table."

"Just because I can't see you very well doesn't make it any more okay for you to be this close to my face," Watanuki snapped, pulling Doumeki's hand off of his chin.

Out of nowhere, a bright light seeped through the cracks in their shack and a large whooshing sound could be heard.

"What the—?"

Watanuki ran outside and Doumeki followed close behind him. He looked around but couldn't see anything.

"Up there," Doumeki said, pointing toward the sky.

Watanuki strained his eyes all he could, but all he could make out were five falling shapes, four large and one small and white. Doumeki grabbed Watanuki's arm and pulled him out of the way just in time for the figures to hit the ground.

"Oh look! Snow!"

"Ouch! Get the hell off of me, wizard!"

"Are you alright princess?"

"I'm fine."

"Yay! Lots of fluffy snow!"

One of the figures turned toward Watanuki. "You! You work for the time space witch. Only, you're not wearing glasses. Does this mean we're in the world of Japan?" The figure drew close enough for Watanuki to make out his face.

He was staring into the face of Syaoran of Clow.