Disclaimer: isn't mine I can only dream
Warning: Spoilers if you aren't up to date on the manga.
Chapter Seven…Don't ever leave us
Yet another fun filled day of high school. Well okay it wasn't ALL bad Watanuki reflected as he walked down the hall with his marvelous Himiwari-chan. They were hauling stacks of printouts for their homeroom teacher. Being a helper sure had its perks. And the Sakura trees were coming into bloom the grass was turning a bright green, spring looked so pretty this year….
"Kimihiro?" A small hand rested on his shoulder.
Watanuki, turned away from the window he was staring out of (so what if that hunk…I mean idiot Doumeki was walking across the lawn in his Kyudo uniform) and turned towards his perfect and Oooo she was just so CUTE Himiwari-chan.
CRACK – CRACK –C RACK
"KIMIHIRO!"
Huh?!... Falling?
THUD
Darkness…..
"NO!"
Running, screaming, blood. A student has fallen from a window on the second floor. Doumeki's heart already knew what he would find before he got to the shattered body on the ground. Watanuki lay there, blood slowing pooling under him, gathering the shattered boy into his arms, he didn't even realize that the loudest cries were his own.
"I can hold him to this world for now, but we have to get him to Yuuko's, fast. I cannot do this alone, I haven't the strength."
Unable to speak he nodded. Standing up he started moving, then he ran, ran as if all the demons of hell were chasing him. There were no Demons, it was in fact two very terrified teenage girls chasing after him down the street. Whose very fear for the life of the one he held, allowed them to keep pace with the athletic and desperate Archer.
Yuuko met them at the gate of her shop.
"The price will be very high"
"Anything" Doumeki whispered thru his tears.
"Yuuko, I can use the Wild Magic to heal him. I just can't do it alone."
"Then the cost will not be as great for the others. Who else will share in the price?"
"We both will" Himiwari stated, speaking for both herself and Doumeki, knowing he would do so anyway.
"Good, Himiwari your price will be to take the scars Watanuki would have had."
"Yes Gladly."
"Doumeki, you will provide the same amount of blood that Watanuki has lost"
"Ye…
"No, it is far too much. It may kill him, I will share half the cost of the blood"
"You will have your own price to pay the Wild Magic, are you sure?"
"Yes"
"So be it then, hurry Doumeki-kun, bring Watanuki inside, I have the circle already set up, I will hold the Kekki in place."
Gently carrying the shattered Watanuki Doumeki entered the shop of the dimensional witch for the first time. He had a wish he needed granted. Himiwari and Aya close behind with the Dimensional witch herself.
"Here, put him down here"
He placed the shattered youth on a mat beside which an odd looking bowl with legs stood. Doumeki sat on one side as Aya quickly gather hair from each the teens and some of the bloodied hair from Watanuki. She wrapped the hair around a selection of herbs and twigs and placed it in the bowl, she then pulled a finely honed dagger from a hidden sheath on her thigh (she WAS a knight after all) and holding her forearm over the bowl she quickly cut her arm and let the blood flow into the bowl. She repeated this process with Doumeki's arm. With Himiwari she only took her hand pricking a finger so that just a few drops of blood fell upon bundle. Yuuko then handed Aya a bit of hair with some dried blood.
"Another prepaid a price, in case something like this ever happened to Watanuki. This will help as well" Aya nodded and added the bloodied hair to the rest. Yuuko established the kekki around the four teens. Once the barrier was erected Aya used her magic and ignited the blood soaked bundle in the bowl, closing her eyes she reached for the Wild Magic.
{Please, give me the strength to heal Kimihiro. Please.}
[-]
{Yes, I hear, I understand, I accept}
She took a deep steadying breath as the power began to enter her, placing her hands delicately over Watanuki's chest she released the Wild Magic into his body. Eyes closed, she felt as the magic repaired internal organs, knit broken bones, stemmed the flow of blood loss and then began to replace that lost blood with her own and Doumeki's. Then the magic moved to his head and started on the delicate process of healing the damaged brain and rebuilding the shattered skull.
Broken Glass.
Ah, she thought to herself in the back of her mind, glass had been imbedded in his skull, THAT'S why the price was so high. Not that it mattered, she would have paid anything to save him.
Yuuko watched the thru the Kekki barrier she had put in place to protect the vulnerable teens as the Wild Magic did its work. It was a powerful display of Magic. The Mage glowed bright with the power of the Wild Magic flowing thru and around her, blowing her hair this way and that, the strength of her will showing upon her face as she healed the youth under her hands. When Watanuki was healed of all but the most minor of his wounds, the magic stopped as suddenly as it had started, causing the drained Mage to fall unconsciousness across the boy she had just saved. As soon as the Magic stopped Yuuko dropped the Kekki and pulled the girl to her. She too had 'heard' the price had Wild Magic had demanded of the mage.
"You Stupid Wonderful girl, what have you done."
Once Doumeki regain enough of his senses to notice that Yuuko was supporting the Mage, he reached over and pulled the unconscious girl into his lap. Himiwari moved to the vacated spot next to Watanuki's head, they settled in to watch and to wait for the healed youth to wake. Listening to his steady heartbeat and even breathing was music to their ears.
Doumeki sat on the floor against a wall, still in his blood stained kyudo uniform, holding the unconscious Mage, she was drained to her utmost limits and so he shared his life force with her. Watanuki had finally woken, (thank all the gods) Himiwari was speaking to Watanuki and trying to do something stupid. Fortunately, Watanuki wasn't going to let her get away with it. Good for him.
Lord he was tired. Watanuki was awake. His head dropped until his cheek came to rest upon the head of the exhausted Mage in his arms. Finally closing his eyes, he slept.
After Himiwari left, Watanuki had a chance to look around the room and saw the slumbering archer and unconscious Mage. The traces of the tears they had shed still visible upon their cheeks.
Doumeki had cried, for him. Yuuko stood in the doorway watching Watanuki take it all in.
"Yuuko, Tell me everything."
"You fell, out of the second story window. They brought you here, there was no other way. "
"Who paid, what price did they pay? Yuuko, Please Tell me."
"Himiwari-chan, wears your scars. (You will find that out soon enough on your own.) Doumeki-kun and Aya-Chan replaced the blood that you lost, and one other. Aya-chan used the Wild Magic to heal you as it was beyond the level of interference I am allowed, I could only help with a barrier."
"What did she pay as a price to the Wild Magic" Yuuko had left the door and was now sitting on the edge of the bed, the one she and the two soulless girls Maru and Moro had moved him to once he had been cleaned up and bandaged.
"I can't tell you that, it is for her to tell. When she is ready, she will do so. I can only tell you that it will be paid sometime in the future"
"Why? Why would they do this for me" Leaning towards the injured Watanuki, Yuuko cupped the side of his face with her hand.
"Oh, my dear Watanuki, isn't it obvious? They don't want you to disappear."
Tears, pooled in the lovely mis-matched eyes, his heart tight with feeling, turning his face away from Yuuko, he looked once again at the two sleeping figures still in the room with him.
"Sleep now get some rest, all will be well. No one paid a price that was more than they could bear, and they paid it gladly."
The exhausted seer closed his eyes, breathing deepened he let himself be pulled into a healing sleep. With one last lingering gaze, the Dimensional witch carefully got up from the bed, so as to not wake the injured teen. She headed into the living room where Mokona waited. She bypassed the Sake Mokona had laid out for her, going to the liquor cabinet she grabbed a bottle of Bourbon from inside it, pouring herself a tall stiff drink she lifted it to her lips and drained the glass. She brought the rest of the bottle over to her chaise and sat down.
"Yuuko, you're going to miss them, aren't you?
"More than I ever thought possible." Yuuko filled her glass once more, drinking deeply trying to dull the painful feelings brought on when she dwelled far too long on the day that Must come, if the worlds were to be saved, and her memories of the past, Clow… A tear fell from the eye of the woman most only knew as the powerful Witch of Dimensions. Mokona wiped that first tear away, snuggling against her cheek, as she wept and drank.
Hitsuzen could be a real bitch sometimes.
AN: I have several more chapters in process, TRC cross over coming up soon. Our Mage's true identity will be revealed.
