-/ Chapter 4 \-

After only ten minutes or so, the door to the wishing shop bangs open and Watanuki storms out, rushing into the garden. "Out, Doumeki! You're not telling me what to do, now get out of my way!" he shouts impatiently, and actually pushes Doumeki to the side as he strides to meet Himawari, his stiff robes floundering in the air behind him.

After a brief, irritated glance in Doumeki's direction—a warning for him not to come any closer—he reaches the gate, stops, and deliberately smiles at Himawari.

Himawari's stomach makes a half-hearted flipflop. She tries to smile back, but can only manage a stiff grimace.

"How are you?" he asks. "And Tampopo?"

"Fine," she says. "And you?"

"Mostly well. Doumeki's been on my case lately for some, well. Accidents." Watanuki coughs. "Not this time, though."

Himawari resists rolling her eyes. Watanuki is such a bad liar. "You should be more careful," she tells him.

Instead, Watanuki frowns. "According to Doumeki, being careful means that I shouldn't be talking to you," he tells her bluntly.

The smile instantly slips off her face, leaving her grim. "Then maybe you shouldn't. We're only supposed to meet on April 1st, aren't we?"

"You're only allowed on the shop grounds on that day. I see no reason why we can't chat over the fence," Watanuki responds agitatedly. "Like neighbors. Of course I still want to see you."

Himawari breaks eye contact, and doesn't reply.

Watanuki stares at her, wide-eyed, a sense of horror swiftly falling over him: something's wrong, that he's unknowingly said exactly the wrong thing.

He backtracks. "Look, well. Hisaki Muun is fine now, he's doing okay."

"Good." Himawari's hands down at her sides squeeze into fists, and relax. "I heard you threw salt at him," she says, misleadingly casually.

Watanuki chuckles nervously. "As a first response, it works a surprising amount of the time. You and Doumeki should carry some. He got a bit upset with me though. Thought I was insulting him, I guess."

"It didn't stop there, though." Himawari's tone is flat.

Watanuki folds his arms. "No, but honestly, Doumeki should be able to exorcise the spirits that are weak to salt pretty easily. This one was a little tougher." He's fidgeting though.

It makes her nervous. Himawari steps forward and hisses, voice rising, "Damn it, Watanuki, what happened to him? Where is he?!"

"He's safe. He's resting in the wishing shop—"

"—So help me, I can't go in there, Watanuki, why don't you tell me the truth!" Himawari yells.

Watanuki stares at her. "It was just one of those spirits that used to attack me before I met Yuuko. Nothing major. I thought you figured that out."

"Muun doesn't have your powers or defenses," says Himawari, voice brittle. "He's completely ordinary. Your blood may have made you a target but it didn't make you weak. And anyway, there's me!"

Watanuki looks miserable. "He needs sleep right now, but I swear it, Himawari, he's perfectly well and will be healed by the time he wakes up. He's just tired. He was so busy fighting the spirit that he just passed out after a while—that's normal, it meant he was rejecting it. Which means he wasn't possessed. We started with the salt, moved on to water, and then we tried a few rituals. It took a while because I didn't want Doumeki to shoot him because who knows what that would do to his soul, but after a while Mokona found something in Yuuko's scrolls and we fixed it. Truly, it was the easiest thing I've had to deal with all week."

Himawari leans on the fence next to the gate and twines her fingers into her hair, averting her eyes. She can't look at him. "Fine. Fine. Okay." Now all of this can stop...

A little bit too eagerly, Watanuki offers, "If you don't believe me, I could ask Doumeki to take a picture of him for you—"

Himawari shakes her head. "Really. Don't. Thanks, but no." If someone found out—if Muun found out—she would never live to see the day. It was a really bad idea. Even if she really did want the proof. She's shocked that Watanuki even offered.

Watanuki swallows. "He should be able to go to school tomorrow."

"Thanks." Himawari nods, and steps away from the gate.

"Himawari-chan—"

But Himawari turns her back and flees.

He keeps watching her and the road, even after she's gone, staring dumbly at her footsteps. His mind is blank.

It takes a minute before he remembers that he still feels awful for reasons other than Himawari's rejection. A second later, he realizes that he's already swaying on his feet. "Doumeki," Watanuki mutters out of the corner of his mouth, wiping his forehead, "Can you. Can you come here?" He tries to sound a little louder. "I feel sick..." He turns towards the house stiffly.

Doumeki appears at his side out of nowhere and he grasps Watanuki by the arm to steady him. "You idiot."

He instantly feels a little better. Just enough to say— "It worked," said Watanuki, leaning back on Doumeki's hold, with a lopsided, giddy grin. He's entirely too pleased with himself.

"Aho!" Doumeki hisses, just audibly enough to hit Watanuki's ears. "Are you dumb, or crazy?"

The retort is not satisfying. It never is, firstly because Watanuki never listens, and secondly because this time Watanuki turns white as chalk and faints, turning into dead weight.

Doumeki starts cursing.

About halfway to the stairs Watanuki comes back to consciousness. "...know you think…wasn't lying…" he's muttering.

"About what?" Doumeki replies grimly.

Watanuki passes out again.

Somehow Doumeki gets them both back into the house and into the bedrooms. Maru and Moro run ahead of him, opening doors and preparing things, and when he reaches the last room he practically throws Watanuki down on the futon next to Hisaki Muun. Doumeki slumps down the wall to sit. Glancing at him, the girls tuck the newly-christened shopkeeper in, and leave.

A minute or two later, Watanuki opens his eyes. "I wasn't lying..."

Doumeki grunts.

"This really was the easiest thing I've had to deal with all week." Watanuki sighs.

Doumeki stands up, flexing his hands, and storms out of the room before he decides to break something.

The next morning, Muun wakes up to loud rustling noises the next bed over. He sits up slowly. Turning his head, he sees the shopkeeper flailing and struggling and yelling at Himawari's friend Doumeki, who is growling and trying to pin one of the shopkeeper's arms at the same time.

Finally Doumeki gets some leverage and huffs, "I can't treat you if you won't stay still—!"

"Then why did you wake me up?!" Never mind that this doesn't make sense. Doumeki's still, set face suggests that probably wasn't what he meant to do. Watanuki the shopkeeper, who takes no notice, makes a peculiarly catlike yowling noise and screeches, "I don't want you to treat me, I can do it myself!"

"No you can't, you can't even see that body part properly, aho!" Doumeki glares at him.

"What do you expect, I treated myself at home all the time, I've survived seventeen years without you and no parents either DOH-MEH-KEY, of course I can take care of myself now LEAVE ME ALONE!" Watanuki rants, and pushes back.

To Muun's surprise, Doumeki obeys. Watanuki sits up, wriggles his arms out of his kimono, and checks himself over. There are bandages all over his arms. He hisses when he tries to turn so he can see the back of his upper arm and his elbow.

Right next to him, Doumeki looks frustrated and torn between wanting to say, "Can we just get on with it?" and "I told you so." He says neither.

At last Watanuki gives up and mutters sullenly, "Fine. You can do it." He pointedly looks away. In doing so he spots Muun, and his entire demeanor changes from irritated and prickly to warm and friendly. "Oh, Hisaki-kun!" he says, smiling. "You're awake? Good morning!" Behind him, looking dour, Doumeki silently does his work, unwinding and re-bandaging Watanuki's arm in between applying salve.

Slightly stunned, Muun mumbles greetings, then— "It, the—the monster-thing—it didn't hurt you that much, did it?"

Doumeki looks up.

Watanuki smiles at Muun. "No, this burn was from an accident earlier this week."

"But, I don't remember you getting hurt…" Muun touches his forehead. "But maybe it was after I passed out… I don't quite remember everything..."

Watanuki forces a laugh. "It's nothing, I was merely briefly overwhelmed. Such things have a miasma, you see, that poisons everything around them. This guy worries too much," he says, pointing at Doumeki.

Doumeki frowns deeply.

Muun isn't really sure what he's seeing, or whether to believe what Watanuki said, but they seem to be fairly close. "So, um…" He blushes, because this situation is so weird. "Do you know what attacked me…I mean, us...?"

"Not its name, no, but I've met things like it pretty often," says Watanuki. "They're usually much more manageable, though."

"Oh. Um, I'm sorry I doubted you when you threw salt at me."

Watanuki smiles. "No, that was my fault. Doumeki keeps telling me I need to explain things better, it's practically a force of habit with me."

"Yeah, but I couldn't breathe, so." Muun takes a deep breath, relieved that it is now just as easy to draw breath as it was before the attack. "I shouldn't have tried to argue."

Watanuki inclines his head. "No hard feelings. I'm still new to my job."

Muun blinks. "Are you? What's your name?"

"Watanuki Kimihiro."

"Huh. Your name was on the locker I collapsed in front of."

"I know. Doumeki told me." Watanuki sneaks a look at him over his shoulder. Doumeki won't look him in the eyes.

"Did you used to go to our school?"

Watanuki thinks about lying but decides not to. "Yes."

"Himawari got much more frightened when I told her the name of the locker she was stuck in."

"She has her reasons." Watanuki clears his throat. "You could say that we aren't good for each other."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean it's none of your business," Watanuki says mildly.

Muun glares at him.

Watanuki sighs. "I'll say only this. Believe me, Hisaki-kun, when I say it was an accident. Neither Himawari nor myself bear you, or any other person, ill will. We are friends, but what happens when our spheres of influence touch is beyond our control. Supernatural things are drawn to us, and we nearly always make each other's problems much, much worse. It's our fate, you understand? You happened to get caught in the crossfire, so to speak. But it was not intentional, and we never meant it to happen. You must believe this."

Muun mulls on this for a while. "So, what you're saying is, you and Himawari are incompatible..." he concludes, "but you still...?"

Watanuki nods.

"This is weird," Muun mutters.

When Doumeki's just about finished up on his arm, Watanuki finally remembers the immediate thing left to do that could prevent more ugly incidents.

"What is it?" asks Doumeki, without looking up.

"Could you remove all the labels with my name from the school? I think the school will fill my place once they're gone. Right now they've probably forgotten about me. If I don't own anything there, Himawari shouldn't run into any more trouble because of me."

Doumeki reluctantly agrees.

"Am I going to forget you?" asks Muun.

Watanuki shakes his head. "Not until I disappear, or until you want to. That reminds me. I assume that you wished to be healed yesterday?"

"Yes."

"I am the keeper of this wishing shop, so don't think my services are for free. What kind of payment do you think would be appropriate?"

"What—" Muun says faintly.

Watanuki's tone turns businesslike. "Money doesn't quite work. Think of this exchange as a barter system. It has to be a payment that pertains to you personally, but equal in value. Whether it's worth anything to me is irrelevant; in my line of work, hitsuzen will take care of it. Also, you're not paying alone. Himawari will have to pay something, too."

"I can't begin to think of anything." Muun shook his head.

"Think about what you came for. Healing. All told, it was pretty easy this time... Think about what healing means for you."

"I could…get you some first aid supplies?" Muun guesses.

"The object in question should already be in your possession," Watanuki hints, and waits for the shop's latent powers of suggestion to kick in.

After a minute, his face clears. "Oh. Oh. I've got crutches, will that work? I haven't used them since I twisted my ankle a couple years ago. I'll get them to you in a day or two."

Watanuki tries to smile, though he suddenly has a bad feeling about this. "Yes, that should work just fine." When he glances to the side, he can see Doumeki's jaw locked in a deep grimace, and he's staring hard at the wall. Watanuki leans over and snaps his fingers in Doumeki's face. "Oi, Doumeki. I'll be fine," he says sharply. "Nobody's going to get hurt."

Doumeki jerks back and expels the breath he'd been holding in a huff. "Of course." But he doesn't believe him.

Right now, even Watanuki doesn't feel quite so confident as he should that disaster won't be coming soon. When it comes to Himawari, hitsuzen is always much too strong. Watanuki isn't sure how many ripples Himawari will make in his fate this time. There's always the possibility that there will be one too many. Unfortunately, even as a seer, it's impossible to see his own future.

That doesn't mean he can leave Doumeki to dwell on it and make himself sick, though. He'd been doing enough of that even without the business with Himawari.

Muun stares at them both, a little bewildered. "Is it a bad price?" he tries to ask.

Watanuki shakes his head. "No, the balance is just right. I felt it. To be perfectly honest, that's all I can focus on right now. My art isn't sufficiently advanced, so I keep making mistakes. You're definitely not the one in the wrong, remember?"

"Right," Muun says uncertainly.

"It's about time you went to school. I promised Himawari you'd be there for her to see. She was worried sick for you."

"Uh, right. Is Doumeki coming, too?"

Doumeki says, "After breakfast."

"Oh."

"Watanuki makes very good breakfasts." The comment seems sort of out of joint. Doumeki looks like he's searching for words to make small talk, but isn't actually interested in it. In fact, he looks a little scary.

"I see…" Muun mumbles, wishing he could sink into the floor.

Muun really can't figure them out, but he doesn't need to. All he has to do is get back to school and away from these strange people, and maybe later to deliver the crutches he promised. He sighs. Nothing that happened to him after he simply "stopped breathing" really makes sense. Himawari was involved somehow, so maybe she could explain at least a little. But any way he looks at it, this situation is simply bizarre. He, an ordinary student, could hardly belong here in this mystery.

It feels like a fluke. An accident. Coincidence.

And what was the word Watanuki spoke of? Hitsuzen.

Muun knows no such thing as luck.