Of Dreams and Wishes

Wow. I'm on a roll. Three chapters in two days. Hopefully, this plot bunny would continue on strongly.

Thanks for wanting to read this fanfic. I hope you like this story.

I have yet to read xxxHolic manga — all my current knowledge regarding that manga series stem mainly from Wikipedia and some other sites. But I'd read the manga later for references for certain parts. This fanfic would mainly follow xxxHolic anime with some addition from the manga. But I would be changing the order of the episodes around and wouldn't include all the cases.

Of Dreams and Wishes takes place after the Inuyasha series, with changes with its ending and certain details. Also, most of the characters from Inuyasha and Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles would not be mentioned extensively in this fanfic.

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Vocabulary

Hitsuzen — inevitable, fated

Shikon no Tama — Jewel of Four Souls

Ame-warashi — rain sprite

Kami — god

Miko — priestess, shrine maiden

Youkai — demon

Jaki — miasma, evil energy

Youki — demon energy

Reiki — spiritual energy

Miko ki – priestess energy

Kokkuri-san — one of the many names for a popular Japanese divination method akin to ouija boards; supposedly, the "players" would call down a spirit or god (depending on what they believed) to answer their questions

Hyakumonogatari — 100 ghost stories

Jii-chan / Jii-san — grandfather

Onee-chan — big sister, or a girl who is older

Inu no Taishou – Dog General

Chapter 3 Angel of Death

It was raining again.

It had been raining for the past few days. Outside this time, not inside. But there was something different about this downpour. Not only had there been no warning signs, but Kagome had sensed faint traces of energy in the rain. It felt sad… desperate… It wasn't dangerous, so she didn't bother mentioning it to anyone.

She paused in her steps when she felt two people entering the barrier. Ever since she started living here at Yuuko-san's shop, she had been attuning herself to the energy signatures of her friends, so she could tell Kimihiro-kun had brought someone here, a guest who wasn't human.

Kagome placed the duster down and hurried out of the storeroom. Kimihiro-kun had a history of being unable to differentiate between humans and human-looking creatures. So far, he had been lucky to not have met anyone too dangerous, but that luck won't always hold, especially since Yuuko-san was slowly pulling him deeper into their world.

Moro-chan and Maru-chan's cheerful voice reached her ears: "Mistress has a guest! Mistress has a guest!"

She slowed down and sighed in relief. Good. Kimihiro-kun wasn't in the company of a malevolent creature. The girls wouldn't have welcomed the guest in otherwise.

Kagome then made her way towards one of the meeting rooms, and found the guest seated on a reed mat. Her pale skin stood out in contrast to the black Lolita-style dress and her dark red hair, which was tied up into two pigtails by black ribbons. If she was human, Kagome would've commented on how she must've hardly ever gotten out in the sun. But it was obvious to her senses that this girl, purer than any youkai or ghost, was the one affecting the rain.

"Rain, rain, falling, falling…" Moro and Maru sang, dancing around their new customer, holding large lotus leafs about her head. "Rain even more…"

Mokona's voice joined the song. "If you don't have an umbrella, raise a leaf instead…"

Peeking from behind sliding doors were Yuuko and Kimihiro. "You looked like Nobita-kun crying all the way here," the shopkeeper teased.

"I wasn't crying!" he protested, waving a fist. "So, what is she really?"

"She's an ame-warashi. A creature that governs the rain."

Kimihiro blinked. "You mean, a youkai?"

"Even higher up," Kagome replied, walking up to them. "Ancient youkai are creatures born from the earth itself while it's said that sprites are created by kami."

"Hey! Why must I sit on this reed mat?" Ame-warashi complained when she noticed Moro laying down a red cushion before her.

Yuuko entered the room and sat down on the cushion. "To counter the moisture," she replied. "So… What can my Watanuki do for you?"

Kimihiro frowned, "What does she mean by 'my'? And why zit always me? Kagome-chan works here as well."

Kagome giggled. "It just means that Yuuko-san's never letting you out of her clutches, Kimihiro-kun." She still couldn't understand what obsession their employer had for him though. Kimihiro-kun wasn't the only spirit-sensitive person out there. Yuuko-san could've easily granted his wish for a different price. It was as if she was preparing him for something very important.

Being in such close proximity with Yuuko-san for so long, she could tell that maintaining this dimension and granted wishes was taking a toll on her spirit and body. Not to mention, she seemed emotionally compromised, which would also affect her powers (as Kagome had learnt firsthand). She had lost someone very very dear to her, and she was suffering for it.

"There's something I'd like him to do," Ame-warashi replied.

"And that's something that can't be done without my Watanuki?" Yuuko asked, her voice as smooth as silk.

Before Ame-warashi could reply, Kagome strolled into the room, "Would I be able to help you in Kimihiro-kun's place? Kimihiro-kun has a prior arrangement with a friend that must be done tonight."

Earlier at school, Himawari had approached Kimihiro regarding a problem at her friend's school. Kokkuri-san, or Angel-san as those students called it, had become very popular at that school, and perhaps, due to that, strange things have been happening there. Before her adventures in Sengoku Jidai, Kagome had played Kokkuri-san once in a while with her friends, but she now completely steered away from any games like that. Kokkuri-san could really call out some nasty spirits and it took power to send it back.

Himawari was hoping that Yuuko would be able to help, but later, when Kimihiro told her of the situation, the shopkeeper had pushed the responsibility over to them. Kimihiro had complained, right up until Yuuko told them, if she had been the one to grant Himawari's wish, Himawari would have to compensate for it.

"Doumeki-kun could take my place as Kimihiro-kun's partner," she continued on. "He could repel spirits away better than I could." This case shouldn't be that life-threatening, but it should be dangerous enough for Doumeki to have a taste of what it was like to be in their world. Hopefully, he would have an answer to her earlier question before the night was over.

Kimihiro stormed into the room. "What! Why do I have to go with Doumeki!"

Kagome waved him off. "Like I said, Doumeki-kun could help you with the worse of whatever's in the school. I'll also recharge your bracelet before you leave."

Ame-warashi stared at her critically. "Hm… You have holy powers."

"Yes, I'm a miko."

"You can probably do a better job than that ungrateful child."

Arms flailed around. "Hey! What do you mean by that! Hey! Aren't you listening to me?"

The girls ignored his rants. "Fine," Yuuko said. "But I'll need payment."

"How much?"

"Naturally, something equivalent."

Her eyebrows furrowed for a moment before relaxing again. "That's fine. I'm an ame-warashi. If I find out you've shafted me, you'll become a laughingstock in this world."

XxXxXxXxX

A few hours ago, Higurashi-san had called and asked him to help Watanuki deal with a spirit at Kunogi-san's friend's school. He had, of course, agreed to help, especially after Higurashi-san had told him to learn from this experience and see if he wanted to back out from their world or not.

Shizuka had been thinking about her question ever since the night they did hyakumonogatari at his family temple. He knew that Higurashi-san was one year younger than him, but at that time, she had seemed centuries older — tired of life, but still living it because she was alive.

It reminded him of his late grandfather, Doumeki Haruka. Jii-san had always been able to see things he couldn't and had told him many stories of those creatures. The stories he told were often amusing — like the ones about the tiny tree spirits or the Dream Buyer. Others were warnings — "Remember this story, Shizuka. Don't you ever make the same mistake he did."

But sometimes, he would see his jii-san, sitting on the porch, smoking a cigarette, sighing heavily; and his eyes were always gazed off in the distance. Shizuka had never brought himself to disturb him during those times and he also had never mentioned it.

But seeing Higurashi-san's unseeing eyes when she told Naraku's tale as if she had been there in person and when she warned him of the dangers in their world — her world, Watanuki's world, jii-san's world — made him wished he had asked his jii-san about it, if only to unload some of his mental and emotional burdens.

Hearing footsteps, Shizuka pushed himself off the wall and greeted their dejected owner. "You're late." Even under the dim streetlights and the shadow casted by his umbrella, he could see the pink flush splashed across Watanuki's cheeks. Shizuka paused, staring at the ridiculous white-ear-lookalike his schoolmate was wearing. Holding back a smirk, he turned around, "Shall we go?"

"At least make fun of me a little!" Watanuki shouted, pointing at the white ears. "Isn't it ridiculous, this obivious thing over my ears?"

Shizuka glanced at him. "If that's what you like, then there's nothing to say, is there?"

His face flushed from embarrassment and anger. "Idiot! How could I possibly like this!"

"Well, it is kinda funny."

Watanuki waved a finger at him. "There's no need for you to say that!"

Shizuka raised an eyebrow. And who was it that told him to make fun of the white ears earlier?

After a short message from Yuuko-san through the headphones Watanuki was wearing, they climbed over the school gates. Watanuki stopped in his tracks and gasped. "There's a dark thing over the building… A spirit? It's dark and moving around and around. Like it's wrapping around the school building." A reply from the Yuuko-san and he sighed, "I was afraid of that…"

He glanced at the school. It looked perfectly fine to him.

"I can't help it if I'm the only one that can see it!" his schoolmate yelled defensively after a short bout of silence. Giving his attention back to the thing he saw, "I'm getting an incredible feeling. To call it strong or big… Anyhow, I just can't believe it!"

"Could it be that the strange things at this school are happening because of that thing?"

"Probably."

XxXxXxXxX

She was definitely correct about Himawari-chan when she noticed Ame-warashi hiding behind a streetlight as she left her friend's house.

"I'm surprised you can get along with that girl, even if you can purify her aura!" the rain sprite scowled. "How can you even stand to stay near such a taint?"

Kagome smiled. "Himawari-chan is a nice girl. She can't help it if she was born with such an aura. Right, Mokona?" Yuuko had ordered her to bring him along, so he probably would play an important role for this case.

The puff ball in her arms bounced. "Yep! Yep!"

Ame-warashi sighed. "Whatever." Then she pointed at Kagome, Mokona, and the two white ribbons they had gotten from Himawari (which were already purified from her friend's tainted aura). "I have this and this and that and that in hand. So please… I want you to help me." She stared down at her feet. "I wanted to do something, but I couldn't. I couldn't even come close. Help me," she pleaded, gazing into her eyes.

Kagome nodded. That explained the desperation she had felt in the rain. Following Ame-warashi's instructions, they soon arrived at a park, with a huge bush of bluish-purple hydrangea. No. At a closer look, Kagome noticed that several balls of hydrangea were bright red near the bottom and they all gave off a faint scent of blood. She would've never caught it if she hadn't gotten used to the smell sticking onto her clothes. The scent never had completely washed away, no matter what she did.

Her eyes narrowed. Jaki was emitting from within the bush. Youkai? No, it wasn't laced with youki. A spirit was stuck in there. And the flowers were… trying to protect it? Several red hydrangea balls reached out and wrapped around her foot. Jaki shot out from the bush and enveloped her. She was about to purify it, but a voice begged for help, and so she let it drag her down into the darkness.

XxXxXxXxX

Shizuka followed Watanuki around the school building, searching for a way in. Suddenly, his schoolmate gasped, staring at something only he could see, and they followed it to an unlocked classroom window. They climbed in and Watanuki pitched his nose, grimacing.

"It's strange," he said, replying to Yuuko over his headphones. "There are tons of spirits. And a strange smell." Shizuka sniffed at the air. He couldn't smell anything wrong and told the other male such when Yuuko-san asked.

As they ascended the stairs, Shizuka noticed that Watanuki was breathing heavily, as if having participated in a marathon, and he was also staggering in his steps, supporting himself with the railings. Had jii-san also experienced something like this before?

"It seems to get worse as we go up." A pause. "Okay…"

"Are you alright?" Shizuka asked. His friend's face was getting paler by the minute. Shizuka also noticed that the bracelet Higurashi-san had given him was glowing with a pale pink light.

"Worry about yourself," Watanuki replied, one of his hands still pinching his nose. "You seem chipper in such a smelly place."

"Well, I can't feel anything." While he would like to be able to see what was affecting the other male, he was glad that he wasn't bombarded with whatever putrid scent Watanuki was currently smelling. Shizuka could already imagine that it was something akin to rotting bodies in the summer heat. He tended to stay away from that part of the temple then.

Watanuki mumbled to himself and his employer as he slowly made his way up with Shikuza staying a few steps behind, ready to catch his friend if he flattered from whatever was affecting him. And soon they reached the roof.

XxXxXxXxX

It was pitch black, and yet, she could still clearly see herself. The strong scent of death — rotting flesh mixed with blood — hung heavily in the air. Where am I? She had been to the realm of the dead before (admittedly, it was only a part of that realm where the grave of Inu no Taisho, Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru's father, was), but it was nothing like this.

Faint sounds of sobbing reached her and she headed towards it. Kagome soon found a little girl crying in her knees. It was a spirit, her senses revealed.

"What's wrong?" Kagome asked, kneeling down beside her.

"I can't go," the girl whimpered. "But I must hurry." Leaping up to her feet, she wrapped her arms around the miko and nuzzled into her chest. "There's a place I must get to…" She looked up with glistening eyes, "But I don't want to go alone." Tears trailed down her cheeks. "Am I a coward?"

Kagome wiped the girl's face and smiled. "Of course, you're not. It's natural to be scared in such a dark place." This must be some kind of limbo, not the realm of the dead. She must've gotten lost on the way there.

"Onee-chan, if you come with me, I could probably make it." Her lips wobbled with suppressed sobs. "Please. Come with me!" She tugged at Kagome's arm. "Please."

Her lips tugged into a small smile. "Uh. Alight." She could stay with the girl for a little while longer, but there was no way she would follow her till the end. Hopefully, there would be someway they could both leave here. She had a really bad feeling about this place, and it wasn't just the terrible smell.

XxXxXxXxX

Watanuki twisted the doorknob of the roof door and opened a crack, but the door was suddenly flung wide opened, starling Shizuka. It seemed to be the doing of more than just the wind as he noticed his friend struggling to go outside. However, once he did make it, Watanuki start dancing really oddly, with his limbs jerking all over the place, and eventually leading him to face-plant onto the ground.

Shizuka blinked. "Did she tell you to make a fool of yourself?" It wouldn't be surprising if she had. Yuuko-san seemed to like teasing her male employee.

"She didn't!" he protested, sitting up and shaking a fist. Watanuki froze and turned around. "Is someone crying?" He got up and Shizuka followed him to the other side of the roof, not bothering to tell his friend he didn't hear anyone crying.

When they arrived, Watanuki started a one-sided conversation and was grasping in the air at something only he could see. Then, for some reason, he ran towards the edge of the roof, his back against the railing and both arms wide opened.

"Help me out here, Doumeki!" he yelled, frustrated.

With his hands resting on his hips, Shizuka asked, "What have you been doing by yourself?"

Watanuki's eyes widened, staring at the space in front of him. Then, he suddenly tipped over backwards, over the railing. Shizuka ran forward and caught one of his hands just in time.

"Hey, Watanuki!" he called out to the dangling boy, bracing himself against the railing. "Open your eyes, Watanuki!"

When his friend finally realized his situation, he flailed around, almost making Shizuka lose his grip. "Hurry and climb up."

"Y-You don't have to tell me!"

Shizuka reached out his other arm, but Watanuki grimaced, staring at the space above his head. He glanced back, only to meet darkened rainclouds. "Is there something behind me?"

"There is!" Watanuki replied, his voice laced with panic. "Whatever gods that use Kokkuri-san, Angel-san, or whatever, seemed to have all gathered."

Shizuka felt something tighten painfully around his right arm, the same one that kept Watanuki was falling to his death. It really hurt, and blood seeped out from beneath his sleeve. The thing must really want his friend's death. Well, too bad. He wasn't going to let go. No matter what.

"Your hand!"

Keeping his voice steady, Shizuka replied, "Don't struggle. And be quiet."

Watanuki shook a fist at him. "What was that, you jerk!" Then he gasped, "Blood!" As if he didn't notice it earlier. "Too late!" he yelled.

Hm… he was probably talking to his employer.

"What's that?" Watanuki asked. There was a long pause as Yuuko-san explained something to him.

Shizuka barely held back his sigh. Couldn't they talk later, when Watanuki wasn't dangling at the side of the school building? His arm was still held in the clutch of the invisible thing, and once every few seconds, he could feel a weight on his shoulders and back. It also didn't help that the rain water and his blood were making their hands slippery.

Watanuki gasped and glanced below him. "The big black thing is underneath me now" His body flailed, panicking at something only he could see. "I can't hear you!" he shouted into the headphones. He looked upwards. "Look out!" he warned, just a split second before Shizuka felt the earlier weight vanishing.

Taking that chance, Shizuka hurriedly pulled the other male up, not knowing when the thing would return. Watanuki's headphones, loosened from the motion, clattered onto the roof a few meters away.

"Snake!" he screeched, twisting his arms above his head defensively.

Shizuka looked in the direction Watanuki was gawking at. "Where?"

"Oh yeah, you can't see it…"

He might not be able to see it, but it definitely felt like something was staring at them.

XxXxXxXxX

The girl, holding on her hand, led her deeper into the darkness. "I'm so glad you showed up. I was lonely, calling out for so long for someone to come. I had to stop calling out. They said it as useless… But I was so lonely!"

"Who said it was useless?"

"They've always been here," she explained. "I came later, and I think I'm in the way. But I didn't come here on my own."

Her eyebrows furrowed. "Who's always been here?"

"You've met them too."

Kagome frowned. I have? She clasped a hand on her nose. The smell was getting stronger. It was now akin to the putrid scent of sewage during the moist but hot summer days. She paused in her steps.

"That way!" the girl cried out happily.

She pulled her back. "It's dangerous. We shouldn't go there." Miasma was very thick in that direction. It didn't lead to the realm of the dead. A cluster of malicious spirits was gathered there. "We should go back."

The girls gaped at her, betrayed. Then she clutched at her arm. "Please, come with me. I don't want to go alone! You say it's bad and I'm scared!"

Kagome bent down and pulled the girl into her arms. "That's not a place you'd want to go to." The poor girl. She got really got lost on her way to the afterlife.

"I have to go that way!" she yelled, tears filling her eyes again.

"No!" an ever-changing voice from above stated firmly. "You can't take her with you." A sweet scent slowly replaced the horrible odour.

The girl shook her head, staring at the endless space above. "No way! Onee-chan's coming with me!"

"Please, take that girl with you."

Kagome nodded, standing up and scooping up the young spirit, so she couldn't run away. It had taken a few minutes, but she finally remembered where she had smelt it before — it was the scent of hydrangea. The flowers had mostly likely been the ones to prevent the girl from falling into darkness.

"I'll take you to a brighter place," Kagome whispered, walking away from the miasma and bathing them with her miko ki. A white road appeared before them — Himawari-chan's ribbon, their way back. "A place where the sun never sets. A place where wisps of reiki smoke covers the air. A place where skeleton birds take flight. A place where a powerful and kind Inu no Taishou stands guards. It's very beautiful. You'd like it there. I haven't been to other parts of that realm, but I'm sure they'd be just as bright and peaceful."

XxXxXxXxX

Was this what the frog felt like when it was stared down at by a snake?

Shizuka, clutching his unmoving right arm, followed Watanuki's lead as they ran across the roof, being chased after by something only the other boy could see. Eventually, they were literally cornered by that thing. Although, to Shizuka, there was a large space before them, he didn't dare move forward.

"I can't see it, but I have this feeling of being coerced," he said.

Watanuki glared at him. "Don't be so composed, you idiot!" Then he screeched. "We're gonna get eaten!"

Suddenly, Yuuko's voice was heard from the headphones. "It's something that has lived on this earth since ancient times. Manage your hatred. Brave in body, I shall offer up myself."

Before his eyes, the headphones disappeared and all tension left Watanuki's body. Taking that as his cue the danger was gone, he, too, relaxed. But to be sure…

"Are we saved?"

Watanuki nodded, shoulders slumped in relief. "Yeah, the snake went back to whenever it came from. I wonder if he was just hungry…" Then, noticing Shizuka's gaze, he straightened his back. "If you don't want to believe, then don't."

"No one said anything about not believing." Normal people would've thought his friend should be placed in a padded room; but he knew better, they knew better. "Reality isn't limited to the things one has seen. I may not be able to see, but you say there are spirits who follow you around. You say there are, so there are." Besides, it wasn't as if his spontaneous injury, and what happened when they did hyakumonotagari, could be explained by something other than the supernatural.

"Doumeki…"

He couldn't resist taking a job at the other teen. "But it's pitiful when you cry out like a girl when seeing them."

"What was that!"

"It sure is a shame we've lost those ears."

"Why's that?"

"Because they made you look funny."

"I'll beat you up!"

XxXxXxXxX

With the help of the hydrangea bush (and with Mokona cheering her own), Kagome dug out the skeleton of the little girl she had met in the limbo from beneath the plant. She had promised to not leave her alone, and she would keep it.

Then, wrapping the skeleton in her coat, Kagome carried the precious bundle over to the police station, where she was quickly led aside to play a game of twenty questions. She told them how a ring she had accidentally dropped had rolled underneath the hydrangea bush. Then, while she was searching for the ring, she discovered something white, and as she dug deeper, she found the skeleton of a human hand. After that, she hurriedly uncovered the entire skeleton and brought it over to the police station.

The police easily bought her story, especially since she actually had a ring and the wet clothes clinging to her frame were splattered with mud. She was detained there for about fifteen as the police searched through their database for the identity of the little girl. Thankfully, the torn clothes covering the skeleton were found to be consistent with those of a girl who went missing since the year before, and her parents were quickly contacted.

After being thanked by the sobbing parents over the phone and saying goodbye to the little girl, Kagome made her way back to the shop, patting a subdued Mokona's head. She was really glad that she had taken this case instead of Kimihiro-kun. Her friend wouldn't have known the girl was a spirit, at least not at the beginning; and there was a chance that Kimihiro-kun, even with the protection of his bracelet, would've never returned from that realm, swallowed up by its miasma.

Rain abruptly stopped pouring on her head and she looked up, seeing a red umbrella covering her. She smiled at its owner. "Doumeki-kun! Did you and Kimihiro-kun finish dealing with the spirit at that school?"

"Ah. How about you?"

She nodded. "Same here. I found the skeleton of a little girl underneath a hydrangea bush. Her spirit had gotten lost in the limbo between life and death, so I helped bring her back. I took her body to the police and her parents were contacted. Hopefully, she'd be able to complete her journey without getting lost this time."

Kagome glanced over at him, noticing for the first time, his right arm was held in a sling. She gasped. "What happened?"

Doumeki shrugged. "Watanuki fell off the roof and something wanted me to let go of him. I didn't, so this happened."

Her hands glowed pink with miko ki, hovering over his injured arm. "Here, let me heal your wound." She frowned when she noticed that her friend had more than just scrapes and bruises. It had actually fractured his bones.

"That's a useful ability." His face was as blank as ever when he said that, though his eyes were trailed on her hands.

She smiled. "Thank you." No one had formally taught her about how to heal. In fact, according to Miroku-sama, while miko were capable of purifying jaki from people (hence, enabling their illness to recover or their wounds to heal faster as a side effect), no miko had been recorded to be able to actually heal injuries. But she had been. It was an ability she had developed out of necessity when their enemies were strong than the last. She had wanted to do something to help her friends who constantly got injured because she wasn't as useful on the battlefield.

"Thank you for saving, Kimihiro-kun." Kagome let out a soft laughter. "I'm pretty sure he hasn't thanked you yet."

"You're welcome. And no, he hasn't."

She giggled. "Kimihiro-kun has pride issues, especially when it comes to you."

"Ahh…"

After a brief silence, Kagome asked, "Have you come to a decision yet? Do you want to stay or do you want out? We can still remain friends even if you don't want to get involved. Our world is dangerous. Next time, you might end up with something worse than fractured bones. You might be able to exorcise spirits and ward off youkai, but it would be really difficult for you since you can't see most of them."

"I'll stay." Then for the first time since she had met him, a smirk graced his face. "That idiot needs all the help he could get."

Kagome laughed, "That's true," as Mokona bounced around, singing, "Watanuki written as April first is an idiot. Watanuki written as April first is an idiot."

But she just couldn't shake off the feeling that everything was going according to Yuuko-san's plan. Or rather, fate's plan. After all, nothing was coincidental. Everything was hitsuzen.

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What do you think of my third chapter? Please Read and Review. I would love to know how good and how bad my fics are. If you want to flame me, at least make it constructive criticism.

Disclaimer: Anything you recognize from the xxxHolic, Inuyasha, and Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles aren't mines; they belong to their respective owners. Anything else belongs to me. Please ask for permission and getting it before taking my things.

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May fantasy guide your writing through it all - Dementra