Chapter 6

Dedicated to rusalkaz

Kazahaya felt his jaw drop to the ground. He had not thought that the two of them had that kind of relationship. And it was obvious that it was not a chaste kiss. Watanuki let out something similar to a mewing sound, his hands going up to grip tightly onto Doumeki's shirt as he was held in a strong embrace.

Then he blinked and went over the memories he had gotten from both Doumeki and Watanuki before. No…with how shocked Watanuki's face was, with no memory of things like this, there was no way that they could have had such a relationship until this moment. He glanced at Rikuou, and then away after a few seconds. He'd never seen such a…contemplative look. It was as if he wasn't really seeing Doumeki and Watanuki, but something in his mind that suddenly occurred to him.

"I told you that I didn't want that kind of help."

Kazahaya turned back to the…couple when Doumeki's voice, unlike the breathy whisper one might have expected, penetrated into his own confusion. Watanuki himself looked as if he was about to cry or throw a tantrum and with complete lack of tact for what he had done, Doumeki merely grabbed his bow and turned to leave.

Watanuki didn't try to stop him.

Gathering his feet under him, Kazahaya stood and made to go over to the bespectacled boy, to urge him to follow, when Rikuou's hand shot out and grabbed his wrist. He wanted to demand why, when his partner gestured with his head toward the woman that had sent them on such a terrifying night in the first place.

Her eyes were determined and forceful and she took a few steps forward, her voice strident as it penetrated into whatever daze Watanuki had been in, staring in the direction where the archer had disappeared to without so much as a 'goodbye'.

"Watanuki, what are you doing still standing there? Go after him!"

"Why?" the boy snapped back, eyes glaring at his employer. Kazahaya could see the anger and irritation in them, but more than that, also the confusion. He could understand those emotions perfectly, thanks to Rikuou. He shivered when he thought about the basement they'd been in and the memory of what Watanuki had seen intruded forcefully, making him grip Rikuou's hand tighter.

"We're rivals! I hate him! Wh-why should I go after him!"

Yuuko seemed to grow irritated and she pointed an accusing finger at him. "You know you don't hate him, Watanuki! If you really hated him, would you always be making him lunch, whatever he asks, every day? Honestly, you're so stubborn! If you hated him, why would you worry about him and ask that I not involve him anymore? Would you have gone to such lengths to sacrifice your own eye for his if you hated him!"

By the time the woman finished speaking, Kazahaya could see Watanuki was shaking badly. He had listened quietly to the words and somehow it seemed to him that for a boy like Watanuki, that was a bad thing.

"Watanuki-san--" he started, but the bespectacled boy shoved his hands over his ears.

"Shut up, shut up, shut up! I don't want to hear it! I don't care about Doumeki! I don't love Doumeki! I hate him! Leave me alone!"

Before anyone could stop him, he was running, shoving past Kakei and Saiga with no remorse and going in the opposite direction that Doumeki had disappeared to. Kazahaya hadn't known just how fast that boy could run, but suddenly he envied him. To be able to run so fast…if you could run that fast, was it possible to outrun your feelings?

"Oh dear. Do you think I said too much?"

"Of course you did," Saiga interrupted rudely. "Couldn't you see he's in the denial stage? You only made it worse! He didn't even have a chance to recover from that kiss!"

That was a surprise. It was definitely not his imagination that Saiga did not seem to like Yuuko. Then again, Yuuko didn't seem to care and ignored the venom in the words just as she had ignored most of the anger in Watanuki's outbursts earlier.

"I had hoped just to push it along a little. It's been months and Watanuki really is stubborn…"

Kazahaya tuned out the conversation after a few more minutes and leaned wearily against Rikuou behind him. He was tired, very tired. He'd been up all night, running around in a cursed and very evil house, and now Kakei, Saiga, and Yuuko were arguing. The last thing he wanted was to get into something new. In fact, he was tempted to slink off before Kakei could think of something else to give him to do.

"Let's go," Rikuou told him in an undertone. "They'll probably be here for the next few hours."

His recollection of actually making it back to the apartment he shared with Rikuou was all a blur. The moment he saw his bed, he couldn't help but drop into it with a grateful sigh, not even bothering to get undressed. All he wanted was a dreamless sleep and hope that the memories he had seen in that house would dissolve into dust like the house itself once they had taken the pouch that seemed to center the magic that had sustained it away.

"Hey, wake up!"

Kazahaya groaned some hours later, wincing at the light coming in through the windows. His bloodshot eyes glared at Rikuou as he towered over his bed and he yawned widely. Barely two hours worth of sleep and it had not been peaceful at all. He kept remembering the terrifying creature down in the basement and all the blood and gore he'd seen from the memories of the house.

"Kakei wants to see us in the office now. Get up."

Where had the Rikuou of the basement gone? The one that had reached out to touch his head so gently to calm him when he was panicking? Who had whispered in his ear calming things, the way you would with a skittish horse?

Then he flushed in embarrassment of thinking about Rikuou like that and crawled out of bed. Thank god that Rikuou hadn't seen his blushing face or he knew he'd never hear the end of it.

His legs felt like dead weight as he stumbled down the stairs and into the office in the back of the store. Saiga was awake, for once, and Kakei had a 'kicked-puppy' look. The moment their eyes met, Kakei was on his feet and helping him to sit down.

"Kudou-san, Himura-san, I must apologize. I can't say it enough. I had no idea what Yuuko-san's job would entail. When she explained to me what had happened, I truly feared I had sent you somewhere where you wouldn't come back. When I told you both to go meet her, she hadn't told me what she needed you for."

Seeing Kakei look so depressed and guilty, Kazahaya didn't have the heart to yell at him. Rikuou dropped down next to him on their habitual sofa and it seemed to dip in the center, something Kazahaya had never noticed before now. His shoulder seemed to be brushing against Rikuou's almost constantly, though the other boy didn't seem to acknowledge it or notice.

"What was that house anyway?"

Kakei sighed at Rikuou's question, but it was Saiga who answered. "This is all according to that woman's words, but this is what she told us: When she was young, very young, a very long time ago, she got a client. This woman deals in wishes. So long as you pay the price, you can ask any wish. Well, the client she had was having issues with her husband. He was always having affairs, but he refused to let her leave in any way. Every time she'd try to run away, he'd find her and bring her back. So she came to the woman's shop to fix the problem."

Kakei picked up in place of Saiga when he felt silent. "That's where things start to go wrong. The woman came back to Yuuko-san's shop, but she was bruised and bloody. Apparently, her husband had beaten her up quite badly. Yuuko-san felt bad and she intervened herself without a wish. She isn't supposed to do this, and this is why: when she moved to take care of the husband herself, her enemies, of which she has many powerful ones, also moved. She almost lost her life in the whole venture. Her magic collided with that of her enemy's in the house. As if that wasn't bad enough, the item she had given the woman originally had it's own magic as well."

"To make a long story short," Saiga interrupted, "all three magic powers collided at once and created a warped place. What you saw in the basement, apparently, was the husband of the woman who had been completely mutated by the magic. Over the years, people would go near the house and never come back out. Apparently, the husband who became something altogether different was killing and eating everyone."

"But if it's been going on for so long, then why was it imperative that it be taken care of last night?" Kazahaya demanded, shivering when he remembered what the thing had looked like.

"Because it seems that it was getting worse. One of the woman's enemies was going to use the potent, mixed-up magic from the house to use against her and in order to defeat it using her magic, it'd probably end up leveling half of Tokyo. What you went in to retrieve was the item that she had given the woman in the first place, which was the focus of all the magic that surrounded and penetrated into the house."

"Why couldn't she get it herself?" Rikuou muttered.

Kakei sighed sadly. "The house is a weakness to her. It's a constant reminder of her failure, and why she will not act that way again, to help someone without an express wish asking her to. Also, if she went into the house, it is very possible that someone could trap her inside of there and she'd never be able to get out. Her shop would be left undefended, as well as Watanuki Kimihiro, who everyone has an eye on in the spirit world."

"Watanuki-san?" Kazahaya blinked. He hadn't thought that the scared boy would be such a focal point. What would it be like to be the focus of the whole world that you wanted to get away from? No wonder he hated his ability. "Speaking of Watanuki-san, how is he?"

Kakei and Saiga exchanged a glance, which made Kazahaya nervous. "Well, that's what we called you down here to talk about. He's not…doing too well after that."

"And you wanted us to see him, right?" Rikuou interrupted.

"If you would. I have his address ready."

Kakei was giving them 'the look' again. Kazahaya was particularly weak when Kakei looked so nicely concerned about them. He rubbed his tired and achy eyes several times, but he knew that in the end, he'd say yes. He always did.

Lately, he didn't have any good luck.

End