The Missing Eyes

Disclaimer: Not mine; not yours. Translated from行方不明の目

Watanuki hated going outside after multiple typhoon warnings had gone up in the weather forecast. Hell, he didn't even watch NHK, not owning a television, but his classmates had checked the news from their cell phones, the sort of cell phones he could afford in 20 years provided that his "work" for Yuuko Ichihara had finished, and they'd complained that the typhoon was 12 hours early: they wanted to miss tomorrow's exam. The sort of weather they cancel school for, and he was out shopping.

The umbrella he had cherished for a 200-yen price tag (the very one that Himawari-chan stood under for 30 whole seconds last week!) had decided to flip inside out in the wind, and he was now drenched, 200 yen short on his budget, and- well, dammit; that umbrella meant a lot to him! There was no way that this wasn't Doumeki's fault. Doumeki was bent on stealing Himawari-chan. In typical Watanuki-logic, the creator of the logic was allowed to make ridiculous assumptions matching the ludicrousness of the truths that surrounded him and Doumeki's conspiracies was really no stranger than demons of rain and pretty pink rabbits that rained sugary confections. The latter was bound to exist in some dimension and he'd met the former weeks ago.

The city was going to flood. The warnings on the news were there for a reason. Watanuki had gone out knowing that there were heavy wind and rain warnings, as well as flood warnings. But Yuuko Ichihara was not one to worry about natural disasters affecting her beyond how they affected the crops she would eventually eat, and dimensional witches apparentlyposessed some inherent right to send a consumptive high-school student to his death in the rain if she saw fit.

This just sucked.

(30 minutes earlier)

"Watanuki, Watanuki♪!"

Maru and Moro shrieked in delight as they ran circles around him the moment he stepped into the shop.

"What gives you the right to mock my name in song? Quit it already!"

"Aww. You're no fun. Ne."

"Boring. Ne."

"Yuuko-sann, can't you do something about these two?"

"Youths are so energetic. It's quite cute, don't you think? But I'm waiting for my boiled pot-stickers and battera sushi. What's keeping you?"

"What? Yuuko-sann, those things don't go together; anyway, I'd have to go shop for the battera, and what the hell is he doing here?"

"Yo. I want fried pot stickers. Thanks. Oh, I'm staying for dinner so you'd better get cracking on the shopping. Want a poncho?"

"No! My grandfather would walk out of his grave before I'd wear your castoffs!"

"Now, it's nice that you're playing with Doumeki-kun, Watanuki, but hadn't you better get going?"

"Going out, going out♪"

That was how he'd somehow been pushed into going out in monsoon weather. It wasn't as if he could find a dry spot under a roof and wait out the storm, since if weather reports he saw through shop windows were right, this typhoon wasn't moving. He was dragging his feet under the last roof of the road home when a sword tapped his shoulder and a resonant bass announced:

"Oi. Yeah, you. You got a bint called Ichihara where you're headed?"

His day just got impossibly shittier. This guy was too pale. He was paler than Watanuki, even. Even so, his head seemed to reach into the sky and blend with the darkness of the low storm clouds. To top off the effect, this new guy resembled a telephone pole. Grey kimono, black sheath, pale grey face reaching into the sky. And a sword. A real sword. Watanuki changed his mind. This guy was a samurai cosplayer more than he was a telephone pole. It was funny how most people were too busy trying to get home to notice the freak with a sword out.

"What!"

"You deaf or something? I'm looking for Ichihara?"

"Oh. Oh. Are you a customer for Yuuko-sann?"

"Something like that. Gonna follow you home, brat. Hope you don't mind."

So this rude stranger was a Kansai person. Something clicked in his brain so he started walking. He asked, over his shoulder, "You wouldn't happen to carry an umbrella," but got stony silence for his pains so he avoided puddles all the way back to the shop. Yuuko-sann had competent guests; this man could walk himself to Yuuko-sann's place with no problems. Even with a sword out. Even though swords rust. Damn, the rain was strong. The grocery bags had better hold out.

(20 minutes earlier)

"I asked Doumeki-kunn to come keep you company. I think it's really nice of him to come. You don't mind setting dinner for him tonight?"

"But I never asked for him! And Yuuko-sann, I can't do one of your long shifts tonight; I have an exam tomorrow! You must remember having been in school in mid-July yourself. Can't this job wait until vacation starts?"

"Watanuki, you really do talk too much. Come, you have to go shopping before the typhoon really hits."

"Talks too much, too much, too much♥!"

"Guys…"

Before he had too much time to think about the customer, he was taking his muddy shoes off in Yuuko-sann's genkan.

"Yuuko-sann? Are you here?"

Yuuko-sann with a quietly giggling Maru and Moro in tow appeared in the doorway.

"Oh, good; you've brought him safely. You know where dry clothes are. And you, may I have the pleasure of knowing your name?"

"Don't you remember me?"

An odd look crossed Yuuko's face as the man's teeth bared.

"It was you that arranged this predicament of mine. A price, you called it. A price that lost me the eyes I saw this world through."

Watanuki decided to start dinner rather than listen. Yuuko-sann had an unfortunate habit of informing him of whatever he didn't want to know whenever she wanted an errand done anyway.

"The guy smells weird," Watanuki groused, "but when Doumeki came out, he smelled less. The guy isn't a spirit. Doumeki seemed to see and hear the guy just fine, judging from his raised eyebrow at the sword, and that was a lot of reaction out of Mr. Stoic-And-Handsome. So not a spirit. But what? Not that I care."

Watanuki walked into the closet under the stairs and changed into a clean and thankfully dry yukata. Yuuko-sann was, apparently, against modernity even in other people's nightwear. His uniform was coated in a layer of mud knee-down. Shit. But it was 4:50 and high time to start cooking so he hung up his uniform and dragged his shopping bags into the kitchen.

He'd tied his apron on and started chopping vegetables while the pot-stickers cooked by the time Yuuko-sann waltzed into the kitchen.

"No snacking before meals," he reminded her as she threw herself carelessly into a chair. Doumeki followed her in and popped a cucumber slice into his mouth before a reprimand even came to Watanuki's mouth.

"That goes for you too!"

"Dinner! I want one too!"

"No! Mokona!"

"Watanuki, if you keep playing with Mokona and Doumeki-kunn, you'll burn my pot-stickers. Do you want to know why that man came to our shop?"

"Hitsuzen, right? It's what you always say."

Watanuki turned back to his cooking and fumed over his sodden uniform pants.

"You're cranky today. Did something happen?"

"What? No!"

"Do you want to know the name of that man?"

"No."

"Amai Shuichi. He's taking a bath now."

"And you tell me anyway!"

"He came to ask a wish. I'm going to send you and Doumeki to grant it. Would you like to know what he is?"

"Huh?"

"His grandmother is the root of all typhoons. He is only an unfortunate substitute for this decade."

"I never asked that either!"

"His payment for his daughter's continued existence a decade ago was to carry all typhoons on Japanese land for his grandmother with his daughter as his Eye. And that involved giving the girl the eyes he uses to see this world with."

"Eyes? He saw me just fine, Yuuko-sann. And he isn't drowning in that bath."

"This shop crosses dimensions, as do you. He sees other worlds with different eyes. So you must have stood out in a crowd like a particularly pathetic firefly. You jump between dimensions too fast for mortal eyes to catch, that's all."

"I jump dimensions?"

"He misplaced her somewhere between Kyoto and Osaka. He can't go back himself; he follows barometric regulations unless he can find otherworldly shelter."

"You just ignored my question!"

"I want you to bring her back to him. I suspect the girl is with her grandmother now, whom, coincidentally, is no longer on speaking terms with Shuichi-kun. It's because he gave his eyes away to a soulless shell. Not her fault, really. He doesn't have the heart to recapture his eyes from her because those eyes in her head are all that keep her in this world."

"Huh."

"Besides, you could go eat okonomiyaki like those odd kansai people! It'll be fun! Oh, Shuichi-kun, you're out. Would you like beer or sake tonight?"

Yuuko-sann's three-second changes of mood never ceased to amaze him.

"Dinner's ready," he declared through a haze of exhaustion.

A/N: That's the happy ending for Chapter 1. I'm not too into these little notes, but tradition (is costly and often harmful) will be kept because I need feedback on what works and what doesn't. The good thing about self-translation is that I can alter timeline and delete scenesto fit the different cultures, but I might be thinking too anally about "this worked over there so I have to bring it here" and missing the point entirely. So let's see. Please do one of these things after reading the story. Grammar corrections will be taken seriously (and changed accordingly) unless I decide you're wrong.

1) Copy/Paste a line that made you laugh.2)Tell me if a line(or a whole conversation)was out of character.3) Tell me you liked it using a smiley. Creative smileys give you points./0X!4) Request something with a suitable bribe. 5) Other.

Pretty reviews (even smilies) are always rewarded with longer updates; I hardly need to remind you all. Thank you for reading! Next update is Monday or Tuesday depending on time zone. Longer though. (Have pity! I do this in Japanese first!)