Neither XxxHoLiC nor InuYasha belong to me, as they belong to CLAMP and Rumiko Takahashi respectively. Nič.
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The next day found Kagome in a rather good mood. She actually had a purpose again, even if it was only a part-time job, and would probably lead her to have to study on the subway trip back to the shrine, but still! She was actually contributing to society again, and the thought of not being useless deadweight made her positively gleeful. She was especially looking forward to meeting this new co-worker of hers, Watanuki, she thought Yuuko had called him. Maybe, just possibly, Watanuki would be able to take care of himself against the unseen world, so she could have a friend again, without panicking that he would be killed because of what stalked her. That thought sent Kagome to Yuuko's, practically skipping.
At the street just before Yuuko's shop, she stopped abruptly, tilting her head to the side, and stared curiously at the figure in front of her. It was boy, about her age, dressed in the uniform of her school. What intrigued Kagome was that boy was talking to himself, rather loudly, about 'his lovely Himawari-chan', whom she guessed was the boy's crush, or possibly, judging from the volume of his internal dialogue and the slightly demented fashion in which he was moving about, his hallucination, and seemed not to realize that he had an audience. After all, Kagome wasn't the only one staring at such bizarre actions. Kagome shook her head. Boys. Even after spending so much time with some of the most quintessential boys on the planet during the Sengoku Jidai, she still didn't understand them, and probably never would, either. His euphoria seemed to dampen slightly, Kagome noted, as he turned down a side street. Perhaps he was on some sort of drug? That would explain a great deal, she mused, absently noting that she took the same side-street, which would lead her to Yuuko's shop. Suddenly, her eyes widened. The boy had just opened the gate to Yuuko's shop. That meant... no. Kagome refused to believe that her co-worker was insane, or on drugs. She had to remain optomistic! She paused outside the gate for a few moments, fervently praying to the kami that the boy was not Watanuki, then followed him into the shop, where she was immediately greeted by the sound of conversation.
"– The Mokonas are very good. There's more to what they can do." Yuuko was saying. Kagome blinked as she headed towards the voices. What was a Mokona? Oh well.
"It's fine. I'm really happy today!" Kagome blinked. Now that the boy had calmed down a bit, he seemed quite normal. She entered the room, knocking quietly on the door, and took in the scene. Yuuko was standing on the other side of the room, near the divan Kagome had seen yesterday, with a small, black creature that resembled a cross between a bunny and a manjuu bun with a bright blue jewel on its forehead, which Kagome assumed was a Mokona. Between Yuuko and herself stood the boy she had seen earlier, whom Kagome was now almost positive must be Watanuki, as he had donned a white shift and head scarf, presumably to keep his hair and uniform clean as he worked since Kagome had last seen him.
Yuuko had noticed Kagome's entry, and smiled, sending a shudder down Kagome's spine. She knew that smile. She had seen a very, very similar one on Sesshoumaru's face just before he killed someone who had particularly offended him. Watanuki, Kagome figured, was going to be treated to something rather unpleasant.
"Are you?" Yuuko queried lazily. "Good. That means you'll be able to train your new co-worker more effectively." Watanuki stiffened, and proceeded to go back into what Kagome decided to refer to as 'psychotic rant mode'.
"What? You dragged another innocent person into your web? Where is he?" He yelled, accompanied by large, slightly demented gesturing. Yuuko laughed.
"She is right behind you. Hello, Kagome-chan. Are you ready to get to work?" Kagome bowed as Watanuki turned to stare at her, stunned.
"Yes, Yuuko-san. I take it that this is the boy you mentioned yesterday?" She asked politely. Watanuki's jaw dropped. Evidently, whatever he had been expecting in his co-worker was not Kagome.
"Indeed. Kagome-chan, this is Watanuki Kimihiro. Watanuki, this is Kagome-chan."
"And I'm Mokona Midoki!" The black creature in Yuuko's hand piped up, before leaping to Kagome's shoulder. "Nice to meet you! Shake hands?" Kagome giggled.
"But of course, Mokona." She gently took Mokona's tiny paw between her thumb and forefinger, and shook hands.
"You're really pretty! And not stupid, like he is."
"Hey! Why you little manjuu bun!" Watanuki snarled. Mokona, Kagome, and Yuuko laughed.
"Watanuki-kun, I don't think you're making a good first impression." Watanuki blushed, then stammered, before finally bowing to Kagome and saying.
"I'm Watanuki Kimihiro. It's a pleasure to work with you." Kagome bowed in return, careful not to send Mokona flying.
"And I'm Higurashi Kagome. Please take care of me, Watanuki-senpai." Watanuki nodded back.
"Now, Watanuki, Kagome, Mokona and I want another bottle of sake. Go get it!" Watanuki rolled his eyes.
"I think we're going to have to go buy some. Come on, Kagome-chan. I'll show you the fastest way to the liquor store. You're going to need to know it." Kagome blinked. Once Watanuki was out of psychotic rant mode, he was actually pretty normal, not to mention that he seemed fairly nice and polite. With a shrug, Kagome followed him. Once Watanuki had shown her where Yuuko kept a large glass jar in the kitchen labeled "Alcohol Money", and they were out of the shop, heading for the store, she worked up the courage to ask him a question.
"Watanuki-senpai, why do you work for Yuuko-san?" The boy snarled in anger and frustration.
"The stupid witch trapped me in her web! All I wanted was to stop having spirits chase after me, and now I'm her male servant!" Kagome was quickly coming to recognize the signs of Watanuki entering psychotic rant mode. She had a feeling that she would become even more familiar with them as time went on. Then it hit her.
"Spirits were chasing you, Watanuki-senpai? Why? Can you see them?" Watanuki sighed, slightly deflated.
"Yeah, I can see them. They've always chased me, ever since I was a kid and my parents died. Yuuko says it's because they can tell that I have power. Once I pay my debt, Yuuko said she'd grant my wish. I haven't been working for her very long, though, so I've probably got a long time before she'll grant it." Kagome nodded sympathetically.
"Dark creatures do tend to be attracted to power, especially if the one holding it doesn't have any way to defend themself." She agreed. Oh, how well she knew that truth!
"Yeah, well, that's me. What about you? How did Yuuko trap such a cute girl in her web?" Kagome giggled at his choice of words, and the fact that he was tearing up slightly.
"I'm not that cute Watanuki-senpai. As to how Yuuko-san managed to 'trap me in her web', hitsuzen brought me into her store–"
"So you got dragged in there against your will too?" Watanuki interrupted eagerly. Kagome smiled and shook her head.
"Not exactly. I've dealt with hitsuzen enough to know when it's tugging me to a place, and I'm not stupid enough to try to fight it. I had no problems with entering Yuuko-san's shop, so it didn't drag me anywhere. As I was saying, though, Yuuko-san explained what she does, and offered to grant my... request to get rid of a particular magical object that I've been stuck protecting for the past few years. Like you, once I finish working off my debt, she will fulfil her part of our deal." Watanuki stared at her curiously for a moment.
"Why don't you just say that you wished for this object of yours to be gone, instead of saying that she offered to grant your request?" Kagome sighed.
"Because the object in question likes to grant certain things that start with W and end with 'ishes', and any time you say that word around it, you're just asking for trouble." She explained. Watanuki looked slighlty confused.
"So it grants wishes? Why do you want that to go away?" Kagome sighed.
"Rather like Yuuko-san, for everything the shikon no tama, that's the name of the object, gives, it takes something of equal value away. Only, instead of trying to be as kind as possible with payment, like Yuuko-san, the shikon no tama seems to take a perverse delight in causing as much pain, agony, and suffering as it possibly can. Also unlike Yuuko-san, the shikon no tama is incapable of refusing to grant a wish, because, quite frankly, it's a chunk of crystal, and doesn't exactly have morals. In addition, it acts as a massive power booster to youkai and spirits, meaning that if something evil gets its hands on it, bad things tend to happen. Trust me, we'll all be better off once it's gone for good." Watanuki nodded slowly.
"So it's like an even more evil form of Yuuko. I can see why you would want to get rid of it." Kagome nodded, suppressing a shudder.
You have no idea, Watanuki-senpai. You have no idea.
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After their return from the liquor store (where Watanuki was surprisingly well-known), Yuuko immediately began to interrogate Watanuki about the cause of his former good mood, which in turn sent him into the more cheerful form of psychotic rant mode in which Kagome had first seen him.
"Himawari-chan said that according to her astrology book, she and I are compatible!" He called in triumph, tears of joy coming to his eyes. Kagome resisted the urge to hide her face in her hand, more than a little ashamed that her senpai at both school and work was an obsessive maniac about this poor girl.
"That's only if you say the sunshine, right?" Yuuko asked dryly. Watanuki's face took on a confused expression.
"Sun?" Kagome frowned. She had heard about this somewhere, even though she didn't really study astrology.
"Where the moon, or where Mars is, you can only find out if you match when you properly make the horoscope." Yuuko explained. Kagome nodded in understanding, Yuuko's words clicking into place along side what she remembered from the conversations she had heard between Miroku and Kaede, and later Kikyou, about horoscopes and drawing them up. While none of them had been gifted with foresight, they had all studied the art of astrology as part of their training, and could each manage a very basic horoscope. Miroku had drawn one up for her a few times, and his predictions, while vague and often unclear until a few minutes after it would have been nice to know what they meant, they had always been accurate. Watanuki, on the other hand, looked even more confused than before. Yuuko turned to him, bringing her glass of sake to her lips. "You don't know?"
"Not all."
"Kagome-chan?" Kagome shrugged.
"Not a lot. I don't practice astrology myself, but I knew some people who did." Yuuko frowned.
"You know, Kagome-chan, that should be part of your training." She scolded. Kagome's arms crossed her chest as she looked down and away.
"There wasn't time, and astrology wasn't high on the list of things I needed to know." Yuuko nodded.
"A wise assessment, all things considered. Watanuki," She asked, turning to the boy, "Do you like fortune telling?"
"Nope, not at all." He answered flatly. Kagome could tell by his face that he was completely serious. Yuuko's smile once again turned evil.
"Ok, then let's go!" She announced, palm outstretched for Mokona to stand on. The little black creature looked delighted with the announcement. Kagome and Watanuki, on the other hand, were left a bit startled.
"What!" Watanuki yelled.
"Where?" Kagome asked, beat behind him.
"To go fortune telling!" Yuuko announced, smiling brightly. "Maru! Moro!" She called to the two girls who had brought Kagome into the shop the day before, "Help get the new clothes!"
"Okaaay!" They chorused happily.
"Mokona will go too!" Announced Mokona, and hopped onto the head of the blue haired girl.
"So how does it become this?" Watanuki yelled, once again entering psychotic rant mode, as Kagome looked out on the chaos with unabashed amazement.
"Is it always like this?" She asked Watanuki, stunned.
"Do you mean absolutely insane? Yes, IT'S ALWAYS CRAZY HERE!" Watanuki answered, shouting. Kagome backed up a pace.
"Alright, alright, calm down. So, the two girls are Maru and Moro? Which is which?" Watanuki paused, seemingly to get a hold of himself, before answering.
"Maru is the one with blue hair, and Moro is the one with pink hair. Don't ask for their full names. Ever. You don't want to know." Kagome cocked her head to the side.
"Why not? What are their full names?" Watanuki sighed.
"Maru-dashi and Moro-dashi." Kagome burst into giggles.
"Sh-she called them 'flashing' and 'streaking'? Oh... my! I knew Yuuko-san had an unusual sense of humor, but I don't know if I consider that cruelty or just odd!"
"Yes, well, she calls them Maru and Moro most of the time, and I'm not even sure the girls know what their names mean." Watanuki muttered. "They're both good kids, though, even if they do get a bit annoying, every now and then." Kagome smiled softly.
"I bet they are. Watanuki-senpai," She began slowly, biting her lip slightly and wondering how best to phrase this question, "Do you know why Maru and Moro don't have souls?" Watanuki gaped at her.
"Did Yuuko tell you that?" Kagome shook her head.
"No... I can sense it. Why?"
"She had to tell me, that's all. No, I don't know why they don't have souls. Yuuko hasn't told me." Kagome nodded slowly.
"That's what I thought you'd say. It was worth asking. Come on, let's get ready to go fortune telling, like Yuuko-san wants."
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Another day, another chapter. Wow. I'm updating really quickly. I have no idea how long this speedy updating will last, so enjoy it while you can!
Thanks again to all the people who have favorited, reviewed, or set alert on this story! It's really appreciated, and makes me feel, to steal an expression from CardCaptor Sakura, all 'hanyaan'. So, much love goes out to you all! Thanks for reading!