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Chapter 1
"Do you really mean it?" wondered Yaone, disbelieving what she had just heard from the old man. It sounded so like in the fairy-tale books.
"Yes, I do," the old man nodded. That kind purple-haired girl was generous enough to share food for him and were willing to house him, the old begger.
"You can grant me almost anything?"
The old man responded, "Well, almost anything. Anything that is material and as long as it doesn't involve direct influence on other people's lives, and freewills."
"Huh?" asked Yaone, confused slightly.
The old man sighed before explaining, "I can give you anything on earth. You name it, servants, country, palace, gold. But I can't help you bring back or take away lives, or force anyone to change his thinking. It's against the law of Tenkai."
Yaone bowed her head politely. It was clear that this man was out of his mind. Yet, it was rude to say that you did not understand or believe what the other was saying despite the long explaination. "Would you want tea and biscuits, ojiisan?" she asked, trying to change the topic of discussion.
"What are your three wishes?" he asked impatiently. Yaone thought very carefully. She decided to play along. "I really don't need anything, ojiisan.. I have everything I could asked for," she smiled.
The old man snorted. "There's bound to be something that you want. I'll give you a chance to think about it. When you thought about it, call out 'Tori' three times," he said before leaving out through the door. Yaone sighed and sat down at the counter.
"Kyuuu." A small white silverish dragon suddenly flew in through the window, and landed on the counter, in front of her.
"Harkuyuu," cried Yaone in delight, as she petted the little dragon's head. Harkuyuu cooed delightfully at the biscuits that the girl offered The owner must be coming over any moment now. Sure enough the bickering noise of two rowdy young men was heard outside, while another distinct gentlemanly voice was heard trying to pacify the other two.
"Chibi bakasaru, chibi bakasaru, chibi bakasaru," a man's voice repeatedly teased. Goyjo.
"How many times, I tell you I'm not baka and saru, ero-kappa?" scowled a younger boyish irritated voice. Goku. "And I'm not chibi, for goodness sake, you red cockroach!!"
"Maa, maa," pacify the third patient voice. Hakkai. "We're here to ask favour from Yaone, not make trouble here. Goyjo, the last time you and Goku were here, you had wreck almost half of Yaone-san's shop."
Yaone flinched at the last sentence. She had the misfortune of taking in Goyjo and Goku as workers to reimburse the repairing bill. Goyjo's pervert and flirt nature had reduced almost three quarters of total women customers (the other quarter was made up of old women), while Goku's usual hungry stomach made her lost half of her yearly profit (on feeding her worker, especially Goku). If it was not the fact that the two ex-Sanzo-ikkous were her friends, she would have chased them out. That and the fact that she had fallen in love with Cho Hakkai. Yaone blushed at the thought of the forest-eyed monocled man.
It was three years ago, she had fallen for her arch-enemy. At first she did not hate him as she should from the first time she met him at the restaurant to their final confrontations. However, after the battle, her admirations and respect towards her enemy counterpart turned unintentionally to love, when it dawned to her how much of efforts Hakkai made to save her from danger. Gyumao was able to be resurrected at the end of the experiment. But something went wrong, Lirin-sama was to be sacrificed to her father. Yaone tried to rescue her, but failed. She was ready to die for her failure if it was not for Hakkai. His quick reflexes saved her from falling into a deep volcano hole. And when the castle was ready to explode, Hakkai insisted on not leaving her behind, carrying her on his back despite her pleas to save himself only.
"Konicchiwa, Yaone-san," greeted Cho Hakkai as he opened the door. His green eyes swept around the store before he saw the female youkai sitting behind the counter, petting his pet gently while staring at the empty space.
"Yaone-neechan.." started Goku, but stopped as Hakkai set his finger on his lips and pointed another at Yaone. It seemed that the purple-hair storekeeper cum pharmacist was lost in her thoughts, daydreaming. Her hand moved absently, as if she was stroking Harkuyuu except, Harkuyuu was no longer on the table. Hakkai quietly made his way behind her.
"Yaone-san!" said Hakkai all of a sudden, putting his hand on her shoulder.
Yaone jumped and screamed a little. Without warning, she instinctively flung the person that touched her forward. Caught in a surprised, the brown-haired youkai grabbed hold of her arms, causing her to fall also on top of him.
"Sugoi! Do it again!" cheered Goku, clapping his hands after watching how Yaone unwittingly tumbled her 'opponent' and how Hakkai managed to bring Yaone down with him.
Goyjo smirked as he saw his best friend lying on the floor, holding the beautiful purple-haired girl in his arms. "Don't mind us, Hakkai," waved Goyjo as he dragged Goku and Harkuyuu out of the room.
Yaone's purple-pinkish eyes enlarged when she found out who she was wrestling with.. "Hakkai!" she exclaimed. Then a pink blush tinged her cheeks as she also realized she was on top of him, and their faces were inches away from each other. She quickly scrambled to get up. "Anou, are you hurt?" she asked anxiously, lowering down her face, refusing to look at him.
"No. Sumimasen. Silly me. I shouldn't give you a scare," smiled Hakkai, running his hand through his brown hair. Yaone smiled in return and looked at somewhere else. Both were quiet as they too shy to speak to each other. At the same moment, both of them spoke "Yaone," "Why are you..," Both flushed in embarassment.
"Why don't you speak first, Yaone-san?" suggested Hakkai sheepishly.
She nodded. "What brings you here? I thought I sold you almost half of my foodstuffs last week," she asked curiously.
"Goku visited me yesterday," answered Hakkai apologetically. She nodded understandingly. "But that's not the real reason I'm here," he blurted out. She stared at him, waiting for him to continue. "I like to bring my students to a camping trip, near the hill. The boys are fine with me, but some of the girls' parents insisted that I should bring along a woman chaperon, to take care of the girls. Or else we can't go."
"You want me to come along?" guessed Yaone slowly. Hakkai nodded. "How many children are there, and how many days is the camp?" "About five girls and five boys and it's only for five days. I'm teaching them how to survive in the jungle," explained the handsome brunette. He looked at her hopefully, "Imagine it as a holiday. Will you come?"
"I really don't know," she began. She felt very uneasy over Hakkai's invitation. She really like taking care of the store and felt uncomfortable about leaving the store for one day. "Who's going to take of the store when I'm not here?" she questioned.
Smilling nervously, Hakkai gave out his famous sheepish laugh, "Eh, Goyjo and Goku?"
There and then Yaone wanted to faint. But she could not because she was never a frail person. "Surely there are other persons with a business mind," she said, hinting slightly that the two especially Goku could close the shop permanently. He shook his head. "Sanzo might come in to see the shop occasionally. Besides, any loss and fixing expenditure would be taken care by Sanzo's Three Aspect Credit Card."
What I'm worried is losing my customers to the others, thought Yaone worriedly. She looked at Hakkai's handsome face, expecting and hoping that she would help. "I really hope you could come, Yaone. You really need to take a break," he said gently. "Since Gyumao's resurrection, you've been working yourself hard till.." he stopped, feeling guilty suddenly that he brought up the incident. He knew that Yaone still blamed herself for Lirin's tragedy .
Yaone bowed her head and clutched her hands. Perhaps that was the reason I like this store. To stop thinking about Lirin-sama, Kougaiji-sama…And maybe that's why I shouldn't go for the camp. I'm afraid that with the girls I will remember Lirin-sama…I don't think I could protect the girls well…
Gentle but firm hands wrapped both her hands. Yaone looked up and saw Hakkai gazing sympathetically. "It's not your fault, Yaone-san. She wouldn't blame you. And she wants you to enjoy the camp."
"But what if I fail to take care or protect the girls, like I did with Lirin-sama?" she asked, shuddering a little.
"We do it together, you and I," he replied firmly. "Besides, there's no more wild youkais around, unless if there's going to be another Minus Wave attack," he continued, twinking his left eye.
"I supposed I could go," she nodded weakly.
*TBC*
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Ignore the grammar. I do.
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