Addiction

by ZareEraz

Fem!Watanuki! Watanuki has been able to see spirits for as long as she could remember and one day she meets a mysterious woman who says she can grant the girl's wish to be free of them, but at a price. The seer is then forced to work in the witch's shop as payment and also team up with a guy she hates and a black fur ball she wants to cook. But it's all just inevitability...

12. The Photo and The Superstition

A/N: ZareEraz here! I know its been a long time coming but here's the next chapter of Addiction! We're almost done with the first season people! Hooray! Don't forget to review and comment because I love hearing from you guys! Happy reading!

Chapter Eleven: The Photo and The Superstition

Watanuki stirred the melted chocolate, sugar and butter in her saucepan over and over again, making sure the consistency was smooth enough. She was standing in the kitchen in her usual cooking attire, surrounded by her bowls, cups and trays, the lights turned off so not to disturb the others in the shop, and it was getting increasingly difficult and annoying to have to cook in the dark, but she bore it because this was her job after all…no matter how much she hated it at times. The girl took her spoon out of the chocolate, watching as the warm, sweet liquid dribbled off the end and nodded in triumph.

"There…it's finished." She whispered, so not to alert the many observant people in the shop. But too bad for her, they were listening. A switch clicked on, flooding the kitchen in light and suddenly Watanuki was surrounded by Yuko and Mokona on her right and Maru and Moro on her left.

"Did you say, 'finished?'" Yuko cooed, clapping her hands together and leaning into the girl. Today, Yuko wasn't dressed as flamboyantly as she usually was, wearing maroon, long-sleeved butterfly top, her yellow arm wrap that was slung over both her elbows, and a red skirt with her boots.

"That's what she said!" Mokona agreed, and then giggled at the other stupid joke that had popped up in the sentence.

"Yay! Yay!" The twins sang, throwing their hands into the air.

"No! The chocolate's ready to pour, that's all I meant!" Watanuki protested loudly, frowning. Mokona started reaching its grubby little paw towards the chocolate bowl, smirking in triumph. Watanuki snatched the pot out of its reach and held it above her head.

"Not so fast! No snatching food!" The girl snapped.

"Drat!" Mokona said, clutched in the jaws of defeat.

"Oh, stop that!" Watanuki sighed, moving to her left to pour the chocolate into the cups that would bake the cakes she was making. She'd stuck them on a tray just in case she spilled chocolate on the counter, but it seemed that Mokona was ready to handle any mess she made as long as it could eat it. "You're going to have to wait. The longer you mess with me the longer it's going to take." Watanuki poured the chocolate into a bowl of beaten egg whites, and carefully stirred and folded both mixtures until they'd melted together. Mokona took one step towards the bowl…then two…and then leapt! But Watanuki was too fast and too practiced at this kind of thing and snatched the bowl away again, expertly pouring the mixture into the cups while avoiding Mokona's greedy attempts to snatch a bite.

"There." The seer said, once she was done pouring. "But I don't see why you needed me to rush over here and make these for you." Watanuki commented. She'd received a phone call late that evening when she was doing homework, and Yuko insisted that she had to come to the shop immediately and make cakes, no matter what she was doing at the time. So Watanuki did it, knowing that if she didn't Yuko would make life more difficult for her in the long run, and she'd keep calling until the girl came over, interrupting her sleep if need be.

"Because tomorrow is the fourteenth of February!~ Valentine's Day, remember?" Yuko replied, tapping her lip with one slender finger. "And it wouldn't be Valentine's Day without chocolate."

"I know its Valentine's Day." Watanuki huffed. "Its kinda the point for girl's to make chocolate for the boys. But did you have to do it this late?"

"If I'm not causing trouble for anyone else, it's fine to make chocolate this late, right?" Yuko said, bringing her fingers up under the raven's chin, holding her face as if she was going to kiss the girl.

"No, as long as you're not troubling anyone, then sure, fine! Whatever you want to do!" The girl batted the witch's fingers away for her face and glared at the woman, getting in her face. "But when you call in the middle of the night and spring this cake job on me – and not just any cake, a fancy French job!" Watanuki angrily pointed to the cups filled with cake batter and then had to bat Mokona away from the tray before it ate everything. "I had to run to two different stores in freezing weather to get the ingredients and if that's not trouble then I don't know what is!" She shouted. Yuko just giggled, a delighted blush on her cheeks and Mokona joined her. "What the hell are you laughing at?!"

"Watanuki's really mad now!" Maru sang.

"Watanuki is really mad now!" Moro repeated. The twin's both danced around and then started laughing with Mokona and Yuko, pissing the girl off even more. But she forgot all about that when a wonderful thought popped into her head.

"There is a good side, though!" The girl smiled, fist pumping. "I'm going to do it! I'm going to give Wari one of these on top of the chocolates I made for him! It'll be perfect!~"

"Hello?" The girl's triumphant moment was interrupted by a woman's voice calling into the shop, accompanied by the front door closing. A customer? This late? That's really odd. She voiced her confusion out loud.

"A customer? This late?" She said and then she called out to the woman. "Coming!" The girl ran out of the room, sliding on the wood floors in her socks when she made the turn into the hallway. Yuko watched her little slave go, her eyes unreadable as her next customer arrived. Watanuki jogged down the hallway and turned the corner towards the front door. The woman was standing in the genkan, clad in a tanish-brown skirt and a teal coat, a purse slung around her shoulder. She was biting her bottom lip nervously, getting lipstick on her teeth which she then licked off. She had sad dark eyes and bobbed hair that was disheveled, as if she'd run all the way to the shop. Watatnuki walked up to the edge of the hallway and greeted the woman.

"Good evening. Is there something we can help you with?" The seer asked. The woman's hand shot out and grabbed her arm, pulling her into a weird and frantic hug.

"They told me if I came here that you could take care of it for me!" She was nearly shouting, pleading with Watanuki as she wrapped both arms around the girl's one. "I'm begging you!" Watanuki tried to explain that she wasn't the one with freaky wish granting powers, that was Yuko's deparment (of course, she'd say it nicer) but the woman didn't let her get a word in edgewise.

"Um, you want-"

"You can grant my wish, can't you?" This time the woman did wait for an answer.

"No, I can't help you. That is…we can but it's not as simple as you think it is!"

"You've got to help me! I'll pay you anything you want! You can take everything!" The woman pleaded, her words becoming even more desperate.

"Okay, but like I said-" This time is wasn't the customer that cut her off, but Yuko.

"You've got the wrong person." The witch interjected, walking into the entrance. Both the girl and the customer turned their heads towards Yuko. She looked quite regal and mysterious standing there, her hand on the short moon screen, her yellow butterfly wrap gracefully draped across her shoulders and pooling on the floor. "I'm the owner of the shop. You'll want to talk to me. How can I help you?"

Several minutes later, both women were in the octagonal tower of the shop, sitting at the small table, the clock ticking in the silence. Yuko sat very calmly, crossing her legs and waiting for the woman to speak. The customer looked really nervous as she sat, all shifty, her eyes not lingering on one thing for long before darting to something else. The customer broke the silence first.

"I'm sorry, but I heard about your shop from someone else who-" Yuko held up her hand to stop the woman.

"I would rather you not mention the name of the person who told you to come here. It is enough that you found your way to my shop." Yuko explained. "You see, those who come here are in need of something only this shop can provide."

"Then you can do something about it for me, can't you?" The woman exclaimed.

"In exchange for the right payment, certainly." Yuko stated, starting her trap all over again. Watanuki rolled her eyes as she walked in on the conversation, catching that last part over the rustled of her tea tray cart. The girl listened in as she rolled her cart to table and started to set out the tea cups and serve the beverage for the ladies.

"I've heard you require payment." The customer said. "Can you give me an idea of what you need from me?"

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves. First, I need to know a little more." Yuko continued. "What do you want from me precisely?" The woman grabbed her purse from the floor and set it in her lap. She opened the top flap and started reaching for something inside but stopped, her hand trembling. She pulled her hand back to her chest, still trembling and then reached inside. Her fingers caught whatever it was she was looking for and pulled it out. A brown envelope wrapped with string emerged from her purse and she set it on the table, pushing it towards Yuko. What is that? Watanuki wondered.

"What have we here?" Yuko asked, her voice boarding on amused and deeply interested.

"Nothing's worked." The woman withdrew her hand and clutched it around her purse. "I've been to temples…shrines…I even went to see a professional psychic! All useless." The woman hung her head. Yuko reached out and took the envelope, looking at it carefully. That package…I wonder if its something dangerous, Watanuki thought as she watched her boss.

"If you want me too…I'll keep it here for now." Yuko offered. "But understand: out of sight is not out of mind. In the end, you will have to decide what to do with it." The woman seemed scared by this, her head snapping up, her face holding an expression of suppressed terror. Watanuki didn't know what to make of it, but the woman left after that, leaving Yuko with her name and bowing respectfully in thanks. Watanuki saw Yuri to the door and then Yuko decided that she wanted cake. Sooooo, Watanuki finished baking the cakes, set up Yuko's low, dining table with the rest of the tea and the cakes when they were done and viola, midnight snack. Yuko took a bit of her cake and Mokona inhaled it's share before anyone said anything.

"Delicious! This cake might be the best thing you've ever made, Watanuki!" Yuko complimented her employee as she took another bite.

"Yeah, thank you." The girl couldn't even enjoy the compliment because she was too busy staring at the strange envelope sitting on the table. It was giving her the creeps, sending chills running up and down her spine as she stared at it.

"What's the matter?" Yuko asked. "You seem a little uncomfortable."

"That envelope…I don't know. It seems dangerous somehow." The girl said, voicing her concerns.

"Perhaps you're right. It is one of the more unusual items I've come across, at least." Watanuki shivered where she sat.

"Seriously?!" She yelped. "If you think it's unusual then it must be pretty dangerous!" As if to terrify the girl, Yuko picked up the envelope and started unwrapping the string from around it. "Hey! Be careful with that thing! What if that string is some kind of seal?!"

"No…I don't think so." Yuko said, her face looking like the face a curious cat would make. "This is just ordinary string. She must've wrapped it up like this to make herself feel better." Yuko pulled the last of the string off with a flick of her wrist and the force opened up the envelope and something white came flying out, drifting down right past Watanuki's face and onto the floor. The girl shrieked, startled and terrified by what it could be. She threw her arms over her face and peeked out to see what it was, curious just like Yuko. Her shriek faded away as she looked down and saw that it was a picture of a woman. The woman had long, brown hair that fell to her shoulder blades, she was wearing a blue skirt and a white, long-sleeved shirt, and she was holding a sunhat, her back turned to whoever was taking the picture. It had been a sunny day, the blue sky bright with only a few white clouds in the background. It seemed so…ordinary.

"So that's it?" Watanuki asked, still looking at the picture.

"Yep, 'fraid so." Yuko said, resting her elbows on the table and clasping her hands together.

"But it looks just like an ordinary photograph."

"Are you sure about that?" Yuko asked.

"Well…I don't see anything strange about it…" Watanuki leaned down to get a closer look. "It looks like any other run of the mill snapshot.

"Then you must feel pretty silly for screaming like a girl, riiiight?" Yuko asked.

"Right!" Mokona agreed.

"First off: I am a girl! So screaming like a girl is what I do because I am a girl!" Watanuki snapped. "And second: it felt completely different when it was in the envelope! I could feel cold chills running up and down my spine!" And then it hit Watanuki. "Maybe the envelope's the problem! Maybe it's cursed!"

Mokona waddled over to Yuko and took the envelope from her, looking it over for a moment before leaping at the girl, sticking it right on her face with a laugh. When the paper touched her skin, Watanuki freaked out, believing that it really was cursed and started screaming and wriggling around, trying to get Mokona off of her. And then she suddenly stopped.

"Well?" Yuko asked.

"No, it's not the envelope." Watanuki said, sweatdropping and sitting down normally. Mokona was still attached to her face, grinning like an idiot.

"And what do you suppose that means?" Yuko asked next. Mokona unstuck itself from the seer's face and waddled back across the table to finish its cup of tea, setting the envelope down.

"So that means…" Watanuki looked down at the picture again, scared of what was wrong with it, but she couldn't figure it out. After ten minutes of staring, Yuko finished her cake and tasked Watanuki with cleaning up, having decided that it was high time they both retired to sleep. And Watanuki ended up staying the night because it was way too late to walk home, so she just consoled herself with the fact that she had the foresight to bring her schoolbag and a change of uniform and her jacket when Yuko had called her so late with her cake request. There was nothing more tiring than dealing with Yuko's whims, but on the up side, she could crash at Yuko's place when she'd completed those tiring errands.

The next day as school, Watanuki gave Wari the chocolates she made him for Valentine's Day, blushing sweetly and then asking the boy if he wanted to eat his cake during lunch with her. He agreed, smiling cutely at the raven and sending her heart aflutter. They took their lunch in the empty cooking classroom, sitting at one of the counters as Watanuki served her special Valentine's Day cake to her crush. Wari smiled again as he cut into the small cake with his fork, letting the melty center ooze over his plate. Watanuki explained what had happened in the shop the previous evening as she poured coffee, trying to get all her fears and apprehensions out in the open so she could talk to someone about then without Yuko teasing her for being spineless.

"So the photograph is the problem?" Wari asked.

"That's the way it seems anyway." Watanuki said, setting down Wari's cup of coffee. She then poured herself a cup and got ready to eat her own cake. "But you wouldn't know it just by looking at it. It's a normal looking picture of a pretty girl in a sundress with her back turned to you."

"That's really weird." Wari commented, looking up at the girl from his seat.

"But it's just a snapshot, so how bad could it be?"

"Where is it now?" Wari asked. "Is Yuko keeping it at her shop?"

"Uh huh. She's got it in a frame sitting in her living room." Watanuki turned to reach for her cup of coffee and take a sip, the rim almost to her lips. But before her could a hand came out of nowhere and snatched the cup out from right under her nose. The girl turned in shock to see who it was and found Doumeki downing the cup in a few swallows. She gaped at his rudeness and let him have it.

"YOU IDIOT!" She waved her fists at the jerkass. "Did you just think you could come up and steal my coffee?!" She didn't even notice the huge bag of chocolates that Doumeki was carrying around. But Wari did.

"That's quite a bit you're carrying there!" The curly-haired boy commented. "Good Valentine's Day?"

"Yeah, I guess so." The archer replied, finishing the coffee.

"I'm not surprised. You're a pretty popular guy." Wari said. And then he held up his own bag of chocolates which was just as full as Doumeki's. a sweet (but gloating) smile on his face as they compared gifts. Watanuki took one look at both bags and fell into a depression, knowing that the two boys that she hung out with were really popular with the girls and that she had basically no chance to snag Wari. She didn't care about Doumeki, that bastard could go to hell! Man, he's not that special! He's just Doumeki! Okay, maybe she cared a little.

"What's that you got there?" Doumeki asked, eyeing Wari's cake.

"Watanuki made me a French pastry called le fondant au chocolat for me. The melted center is great, it's nice and warm!" Watanuki basked in the boy's compliment, but before she knew it, Doumeki had walked up to her cake and took a bite, abandoning his cup for something better.

"AHHHHHH!" Her hand were instantly on his collar, trying to choke the living daylights out of him as she shook him back and forth. "What do you think you're doing?!"

"You're right." Doumeki said as he was pushed back and forth. "The chocolate center is great. Nice and warm."

"Spit it out! Spit it out now!" Watanuki ordered, letting go of Doumeki to clench her fists in frustration at his behavior. "I made those especially for Valentine's!"

"I don't get it." The archer stated. "You make food you don't want people to eat?" Truth be told, Doumeki was quite pleased that he'd gotten to steal Watanuki's food. It was a simple pleasure he enjoyed on a daily basis.

"Of course they should eat it, but they shouldn't!" The girl shouted. What she really had meant to say was that Doumeki wasn't allowed to eat if because the cake wasn't for him, but it came out all weird. "Hold on a second, I'm all confused now." Watanuki crossed her arms to think about it and Doumeki took another bite of cake while she did. "Oh well, whatever!" And then she noticed that Doumeki had eaten half her cake.

"It's always so much fun to see you two joke around together like this!" Wari said with a smile. Watanuki gaped, hating that her crush thought that they did this for fun! She melted into the floor in mortification and Doumeki finished the cake.

"Those cakes were special for Valentine's Day!" Watanuki grumbled as she stomped home, other students from her school walking the same way as she was. "And I worked on them all night too! I can't believe that Doumeki had the nerve to eat one! This is the worst…it's the pits!" The girl continued stomping down the street, starting to sweat under her gray jacket. But the more she thought about Doumeki the more pissed she got, remembering just how many gifts and chocolates he'd gotten from other girls. The seer expected that for Wari because he was nice, and sweet and caring towards others, but with Doumeki? She just couldn't see how a guy like him could be so popular! The girl stomped to a halt in the middle of the street and let her annoyance get the better of her.

"Why does a jerk that that get so many chocolates in the first place!?" She shouted, drawing the attention of any students within the sound of her voice (and her voice carried quite a bit). They stopped to gape at the crazy girl as she continued yelling. "Stone-faced slim ball!" But as soon as she got mad, Watanuki's frown cleared up and she beamed from ear to ear. "But that's okay as long as I got to spend some alone time with Wari!" The girl jiggled from side to side like an out of control Slinky, clutching her school bag to her chest. And then she started spinning. "And it was fabulous!" And then the smile disappeared and the frown returned in full-force as the girl stopped spinning and started glaring. She looked into her bag and saw a heart-shaped box of chocolates, just like the ones she'd given Wari, only this box had a different recipient, a more annoying one that Watanuki hadn't been able to give them to. Out of obligation only! "But then Doumeki had to ruin it! That bastard!" And then all the students around Watanuki dashed off, getting as far away from the crazy girl as possible. And so the girl spent the rest of her walk with only herself to argue with.

"Heeeellllooooo." The girl called as she stepped into the shop. A few seconds later, Maru and Moro came running in, dancing around in circles in their socks.

"Watanuki's back! Watanuki's back!" They sang. Watanuki let the girl's do their thing and sat down to unlace her shoes. The twins stopped giggling and waited quietly for the girl to take off her shoes.

"So where's Yuko?" Watanuki asked after the witch didn't appear and order her to do something.

"The mistress is taking a bath!" They replied.

"Huh?" This early in the afternoon? That's strange. Watanuki kicked off her shoes and crawled into the hallway, standing up after a few steps and making her way down to the bath to see Yuko. As she approached, the girl could hear the woman humming in the bath, her subtle movements splashing the water around.

The witch was quite enjoying herself in the warm bath. She'd stripped down and washed herself, taking time to clean her body thoroughly before climbing in to soak, pulling her mass of hair up into a bun and then a towel. And of course, she brought some nice beers to sip while she soaked. Mokona was enjoying the beverage too by the looks of it, floating around on its back, balancing its third can in the center of its body. Yuko uncrossed and re-crossed her legs languidly, sipping her beer.

"And drinking too, I bet." The raven sighed. Maru and Moro giggled as they danced around the seer.

"It's beer today!" Moro tattled.

"Fine." Watanuki did some calculations to save Yuko's liver. "She'll probably drink about six cans in the bath so that's six cans I can subtract from dinner."

"Impressive, Watanuki!" The twin's cheered.

"Then again, what the heck. I'm having a pretty good day." The girl smiled. "Maybe I'll let her have an extra one for Valentine's Day." But the girl never made it to the bath. As she walked past the living room, she spotted the picture in the frame that Yuko had put it in. The lady was still standing with her back turned (like she could stand in any other position) and the frame consisted of two pink and white butterflies facing in towards the picture at the top and bottom. They were sitting on a small, round table that Yuko had pulled from another room. Nothing weird. But no matter how ordinary the picture seemed, Watanuki still got the chills whenever she saw it, like now. Staring at the picture gave the girl an odd sense of foreboding, her hands trembling by just staring at the thing. It didn't seem natural and then it did as the same time. It was something she couldn't put her finger on.

"It's just an ordinary picture…isn't it?" She asked out loud to no one in particular, a drop of sweat running down her cheek. No one answered her, even the twins were silent."Of course it is. What's wrong with me?" Watanuki made to walk towards the bath when she stopped again, something about the picture catching her eye. She couldn't figure out what it was but she stared at the frame again and thought she saw something move. But that can't be…it's a picture right? Pictures don't move. But the girl was curious now and cautiously walked towards the table. When she reached it, the seer knelt down and looked at the picture again. Nothing out of the ordinary.

"Strange…for a minute it looked different somehow." And then it struck her, the white flourishes on the butterfly frame started oozing, melting as if they were in a hot fire, the globs of material slinking down the frame. The woman in the picture…she started moving…ever so slowly. She stared turning around, her face shadowed. Watanuki's eyes widened in horror and she screamed.

"That thing moved! It moved!" Watanuki shrieked, falling backwards on her ass and throwing her book bag, scattering her papers and notebooks in the process. Soft footsteps were right behind her.

"Yes, so it did." Yuko appeared behind the girl, wearing a blue cloud kimono with a purple moon obi, her hair pinned up in a bun after her bath.

"Yuko!" Watanuki exclaimed, startled. The witch stepped around Watanuki, walking up to the picture and giving it a critical eye.

"I thought I could stop it with that special frame as a seal…I guess I underestimated it's power." The woman in the picture was still moving, slowly turning around. More and more of the frame started melting, the liquid it was becoming sloshing down unnaturally. Watanuki scuttled away yelping and shrieking, hiding behind the moon doors into the room, peeking her head out to watch from a safe distance.

"W-w-w-what is w-wr-wrong with that picture?!" The raven stuttered. "Is is a picture of a ghost?! Is it haunted?! Shouldn't you purify it or something?! Or burn it! Yeah!"

"Believe me, burning a spirit's photograph would never work." Yuko said, looking back at her scared little employee. "It could never be destroyed that easily." She said it so calmly!

"Then what are you going to do?" Watanuki asked fearfully.

"That's up to Yuri." Yuko turned back to the photograph. "It's her decision." Watanuki swallowed, hating the fact that the photo would stay like it was until Yuri decided what to do with it. The frame was melting even faster now, most of the top butterfly being consumed by whatever malice the photo held. The woman finally turned around, her shadowed face illuminated by the sun in the photograph. Her hair twirled around her gracefully, and her eyes were finally revealed behind her bangs. She was smiling.

"It's just a normal picture…isn't it?" Watanuki said, coming out from behind the door to take a closer look. "It looks scary, when it moves, but other than that…she's not threatening…she's just smiling."

"Excuse me!" A voice called out from inside the shop. The woman's voice. Yuri's.

"Wait, I know that voice!" Watanuki recognized her.

"Seems we have a visitor." Yuko said, her eyes narrowing. "I knew she would be back." Maru and Moro escorted Yuri in a few moments later, one on each side. She looked even worse today, her bright, cheery, yellow coat eclipsed by her shifty eyes, nervously clasped hands and air of discomfort. She picked at the threads of her brown skirt every few seconds and then went back to clasping her hands, looking from side to side. When Yuri finally brought her eyes up, she spotted the photo and she gasped in fear. Her hands came to her chest, trembling and she was having a hard time breathing, gasping every breath, the air flowing in and out of her lungs broken and hitched.

"As you see, I can't control it." Yuko said, breaking the ice. "I used a powerful seal and yet, it can't be contained. The girl in the photo must have something important to say. Something that she desperately wants to convey." The girl in the photo finished turning around, the ribbons of the hat in her hand fluttering with her hair. Watanuki watched; the rest of the butterflies melting away until there was only the picture suspended to the stand of the frame.

"Have you made your decision?" Yuko asked, a little forcefully.

"I…I-I don't know." Yuri caved into herself, hugging her arms as she shook and trembled.

"You have to decide what you're going to do with it." Yuko repeated.

"But I don't know!" The woman in the picture was waving now, her face happy. And then another person stepped into the picture, a purple coated back blocking out half the frame. Watanuki gasped as the other person shrunk, walking forward towards the brunette woman. It was Yuri! Yuri was in the picture too! She was holding something, maybe a camera and both women were talking. All of a sudden, a blur of yellow and brown dashed past Yuko and Watanuki, grabbing the photo and frame and hugging it close to her chest, hiding it.

"Don't look!" Yuri gasped out, kneeling on the floor to hide the picture better. She was crying now, huge sobs wracking her body. Why is this woman so terrified? Watanuki watched her with growing concern. The photo shows nothing but happiness. If she didn't want it seen she could've just burned it or ripped it to shreds. Watanuki's brain circled to what Yuko had said earlier and the girl looked at the witch. But wait a minute…Yuko said burning it wouldn't do any good. But in that case, she could've just hidden it somewhere. The room narrowed down to the three women, as if they were the only ones that existed so perfectly in this room. Nothing outside its walls mattered.

"You wanted to rid yourself of that photo, am I right?" Yuko asked, walking up behind Yuri. "But you were scared. And the reason for that is…that image is a reflection of your past. You see, a picture always reflects the past. It captures a moment in time and reflects it honestly, unlike a painting, which can display emotions as well. At times, a photograph can reflect things you don't want to see." Yuri shot up at this, looking back at Yuko and shaking. The last of the frame melted away. She tightened her grip on the picture frame and doing so allowed the photo to slid out, slipping from her grasp and fluttering to the floor in front of everyone.

Yuri in the picture was smiling, wrapping the camera cord around her wrist and reaching out with both hands to the brunette woman. She was standing demurely, holding her sunhat in both hands by her thighs. They were smiling. Yuri's hands came to her shoulders and they stood like that for a moment. One endless moment. And then Yuri pushed the woman back forcefully. She fell out of the picture, her hat flying into the air, her hands grasping for something to stop her fall but they too vanished off of the border of the picture.

"N-no…It was an accident." Yuri whispered, her hands on the frame that she'd put on the floor. She crumpled into herself again as she spoke, sobbing. "Even the police said so. They said she lost her footing and fell of the cliff. "

"Is that so?" Yuko asked, walking around Yuri to kneel in front of her. The witch's fingers came up under Yuri's chin, pulling her head up. "Then why are you kneeling here on the floor crying?" Yuko stood up again now that she'd gotten her customer to look up. "And more importantly…what do you want from me?"

"I want you too…please…" The woman pointed to the picture on the floor, the one of her facing away from the camera. "Get rid of it! Just make it go away!"

"A payment is required of that." Yuko said, always a stickler for balance and compensation. Yuri held her head in her hands, squeezing her eyes shut tightly.

"I don't care! I'll do anything." Even to Watanuki's unpracticed sense of compensation; that was not something that sat well with her. Yuko could literally do anything if Yuri said that (not that she would), but words were powerful things, the seer had learned that much. You don't go throwing around words like "anything" without consequences. And Yuko was going to back her up.

"You should be more careful with your words." Yuko chastised neutrally. "Saying you'll do 'anything' is never a statement you should take lightly."

"I don't care!" Yuri repeated. Watanuki looked at the photograph. The picture was rotating around to Yuri's front as she looked over the cliff. "I'll do anything to be free of this torture."

"Very well." Yuko reached down and picked up the picture, holding it between her middle and pointer fingers on her right hand. The picture was facing Watanuki, and she watched at the room filled with smoke and Yuko preformed the closest thing to magic that the girl had ever seen. The picture started dissolving! Staring in the right bottom corner, the photograph was disintegrating out of existence. Soon it was just a scrap of paper in Yuko's hand, but that didn't stop Watanuki from seeing picture-Yuri's face before it disappeared. The woman was looking down at her carnage, smiling sickly as her friend fell to her death. Her eyes were narrowed maliciously, her lipsticked mouth pulled into a horrifying grin. It scared Watanuki and she had to take a step back, shivering at the image before it finally faded away. It would only be a little longer before the picture completely disappeared. Yuri was nervously looking around, watching at the picture that haunted her disappeared forever, when she spotted Watanuki's book bag strewn all over the floor. Sitting near it was the box of chocolates that Watanuki hadn't given away yet and that seemed to spark something in the woman's eyes. Her face contorted, from shocked, to scared to angry and back to scared.

"She was always like that…she only stole what was mine." Yuri whispered. "She knew I liked him, but she still gave him chocolates on Valentine's Day." Her fist clenched, a sharp anger tearing through her fear. "And in the end, she stole from me again. She said she needed me…but she really just used me whenever it was convenient for her." The last of the photograph disintegrated, the smoke clearing from the room magically as Yuko finished.

"The photograph is gone from this world," Yuko stared, her arm coming down to rest at her side. "I promise that you will never see that image again. However, there is something I must as of you in return and this condition must never be violated."

"Of course, I'll do whatever you want me to. Just tell me." Yuri composed herself, more calm now that her murder would be kept secret in this world.

"Your image must never be captured by a visual medium." Yuko stated. Yuri looked confused. Watanuki was upset that Yuko was letting this woman get away with murder, but Yuko had her contract with Yuri and Watanuki knew she couldn't interfere.

"You must avoid having your picture taken at all times. Avoid getting caught on any film or video or projections. Do you understand what I'm saying?" Yuri stayed silent. "If you are photographed, her image will appear with yours and show the entire world the truth." Yuri's face morphed back into terror as the price for her wish was laid out. "It's easy to avoid being photographed, however, what if you were to appear on a television program? Her image would appear on that program as well and the show's viewers would see what we just saw."

"It can't be…!" Yuri gasped. She thought her worst nightmare was gone, but it was back to haunt her again, in the form of her price.

"You said you would do anything to be free." Yuko repeated. "You made that decision." Yuri looked absolutely devastated and she left soon after that, her feet dragging behind her as the shop's door closed. Watanuki saw her off but she was still mad that the woman for committing murder and still mad that Yuko had let her get away with it.

They ended up on the porch that evening, the waning crescent moon hanging above them in the sky. Yuko was smoking her pipe and Mokona was drinking as Watanuki sat next to them. The girl tore her gaze from the moon to look at the heart box in her hand, the red ribbon shimmering in the soft light.

"Do you think she really did it? Did she really push that girl?" The raven asked, breaking the silence.

"Judging from the way she was panicking and from the way she was mumbling to herself after she saw your Valentine's chocolates, I'm assuming that she did."

"But if that's so, then shouldn't we report it to the police?" Watanuki asked.

"But the photograph is already gone now." Yuko said, a small smile gracing her lips. "What proof do we have to show them?"

"I don't understand…why did you make the photo disappear?"

"Because that's what she asked me to do, Watanuki." She didn't sound too pleased with her actions either, her voice hard. Yuko took a puff of her pipe, the smoke billowing into the night sky as she breathed it out. Mokona loudly drank its whiskey, the ice in the glass clinking in the pause.

"But she may have murdered someone…" Watanuki trailed off.

"True. And a murderer should carry the burden of what they did. You think I let her off lightly, don't you?" Watanuki had been thinking that. "It is impossible to avoid having your image captured for the rest of your life. You never know…you could get caught in the background of someone else's photograph. Someone out there could be filming a TV show or a movie. And when was the last time you saw a store without any security cameras in it? And think of all those video camera displays hooked up at electronic stores. Do you really think you could avoid appearing on one of them? There are cameras everywhere…just how long do you think you could stay hidden?" It made sense now. Yuko had turned the wish into her price, the wish of getting the image erased turned into the price of never having her image shown again, the same fate. "Although…there is one way you could pull it off."

"What is it?" Watanuki asked quietly. Yuko puffed her pipe again.

"If you never went outside…if you never saw anyone again for the rest of your life." Watanuki shivered at the prospect of a life alone. She didn't think she could endure something like that, not after finding friends and people that she liked to be with. "Remember what I said? A murderer should forever carry the burden of what they've done. And there's more than one way to end a life."

Watanuki walked home that night trying to understand what life would be like if she were stuck in her house all the time, unable to go out and see people, even just a walk would be terrifying if she didn't want her picture taken by someone else accidently. It was too depressing to think about. The girl clutched her Valentine's chocolates in her hand as she walked down the street, the box meaning so much more now that she knew at one point that something like this had driven Yuri to murder when the man she loved was taken by the girl in the picture. She didn't want to give these to Doumeki anymore! But, the girl had already eaten enough chocolate taste testing for Wari's box that she really didn't want any more chocolate in her apartment. Best to get rid of this box so she could stop being reminded of Yuri altogether.

Watanuki slowly made her way to Doumeki's temple, entering the courtyard and walking quietly past the rows of trees to Doumeki's porch. She crawled up the stairs and left the box by the door, feeling a little guilty that she hadn't just slipped it discreetly in his huge bag of chocolates at school, that way he'd have no idea it was hers. But who cared? He was probably expecting obligation chocolates from her anyway since they were…uh…gah…haldkfariadfljld…friends. Sort of. Kind of. It was a hard thing to wrap her head around, okay?! Watanuki crawled back down the stairs and quietly left the temple. And if Doumeki said anything tomorrow about receiving the most fabulous, glorious box of heavenly chocolates, she'd deny that they were hers to hell and back. Watanuki stole one last glance of the heart-shaped box propped up by the door, illuminated by the moonlight, before she turned the corner. Yuri's picture wouldn't leave her head for a long time, she knew that. All she could hope for was that her next Valentine's Day wouldn't be so depressing.

Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ

"Well then, I'm off!" Watanuki smiled and waved back and Yuko as she sat down to put on her shoes. "I think I'm going to accept your offer. I could use a lazy day off tomorrow." Watanuki reached for her shoes, slipping her feet into them as she sat in the genkan.

"Hold on…" Yuko asked, putting a hand on her white, skirted hip. Mokona was rest in the crook of her other arm and Maru and Moro were standing behind them, watching the girl as she prepared to leave. You was wearing a brown, long sleeved shirt with a pink tsubaki flower depicted on the front and that had a halter neck instead of a traditional one and had paired that with her white pencil skirt nad orange tassel earrings. The only reason Watanuki paid that much attention to such an ordinary outfit (for Yuko that is) was because Yuko wasn't wearing something outrageous like she normally did. "What does that sly smile mean?"

"Nothing at all." Watanuki threw her answer over her shoulder, tying up her brown outside shoes as she did. "I'm just happy to get a day off for a change." Yuko stared down at the girl…more specifically her shoes.

"Those shoes…they're brand new, aren't they?" The witched asked. Watanuki sat up, having tired her shoes…or so she thought. In fact, as the seer grabbed her school bag and her shopping bag, she'd left on shoe untied in her hurry to leave.

"They sure are!" She said.

"New, shiny shoes!~" Maru cheered, clapping her hands with her twin's.

"New, shiny shoes!~" Moro repeated.

"Is this your first time wearing them?" Yuko asked.

"No, I tried them on last night." Watanuki replied, wondering where Yuko was going with this. They were just shoes after all.

"Did you hear that? She put new shoes on at night!" Maru said, shocked, tucking her head behind Yuko's back and whispering to her twin.

"Did you hear that? She put new shoes on at night!" Moro repeated, copying her sister's movement.

"Huh? What?" Watanuki asked, concerned that the twins knew something about her shoes more than she did. And they sounded pretty shocked.

"She's not supposed to do that!~ She's not supposed to do that!~" The twins grabbed each other's hands and danced around in a circle behind Yuko.

"Huh?" Watanuki said again.

"Don't you know the proverb?" Yuko asked. "That its bad luck to try new shoes on at night?"

"Oh yeah." Watanuki answered. "I've head of that one before somewhere. But it's an old wife's tale, right? Some kind of old superstition or something like that?"

"Listen to Ms. Skeptic over here!" Mokona huffed and jumped out of Yuko's arms, poking the girl in the chest before jumping back, as if to make a point but not really making one at all. Watanuki scratched her head.

"Stuff like that…I don't really…you know…"

"Believe in it?" Yuko finished.

"Yeah."

"You don't believe in it?" Mokona asked.

"'Fraid not." Watanuki shrugged.

"Well, alright then. As they say: to each his own."

"See ya!" Watanuki said cheerfully, turning to walk out of the store. As she did so, the girl stepped on the shoelace that wasn't tied, her balance disrupted and she couldn't pick up her trapped foot to catch herself. She fell to the floor spectacularly in a heap, her face, elbows and knees hurting where she'd hit the stone tiles. Her skirt flipped up in the process of falling, revealing Watanuki's underwear with cute little black cats on it. Yuko chuckled at that too, shaking her head.

"Ah!" The twins exclaimed. Watanuki laughed at her clumsiness, and let go of her bags to push herself up to hands and knees.

"I tripped over my shoelace!" She laughed again.

"You don't believe, huh?" Mokona said snarkily. Watanuki looked back to glare at the fur ball but then noticed that Yuko was the one smiling smugly.

"Believe in what? I just tripped." The girl sat up and rolled onto her butt, making sure to tie both of her shoes this time. She stood up again and grabbed her bags, glad to be almost out of the house of weirdos. "See you later." She waved and walked out, shaking her head at Yuko's expression, letting the door click shut behind her. She was ready for her day off, and none of Yuko's or Mokona's superstitious comments would get in her way.

The next morning was Sunday, the girl's day off of school and work. For as long as she could remember at this point, Watanuki had been working every day of the week for Yuko since beginning her contract – never getting a break or a day off. So it was satisfying to open her eyes at ten in the morning, the sun peeking through her curtained windows. The girl stretched lazily and yawned, reaching for her glasses to make the blurry world clear again. She pushed herself up into a sitting position and stretched her arms above her head again before crawling out of her futon. She didn't even bother folding up her blanket or rolling up her mat – she planned to spend all day lounging on them. Watanuki got up and went to the bathroom, brushing her hair and letting it hang down past her shoulders freely, only pinning her bangs out of her face with those white and yellow tsubaki hairpins that someone had secretly given her, put on deodorant and peed before coming out to make breakfast for just herself. After that was taken care of, the seer left her dishes in the sink and changed into a comfy outfit (a blue tank top and loose grey pants) and grabbed herself a snack for the later morning: consommé punch potato chips. It was a weird taste that she'd picked up from Yuko the one time the witch wanted her to buy all the flavors of chips at the grocery store so she could taste them all. She'd eaten almost every one (except the anchovy flavor and the steak flavor because they were "too weird" and Watanuki thought that was rich coming from a woman with a dark tunnel leading to Ginza in her receiving room and a vase that could transport you places instantly depending on the image painted on it and a storehouse filled with other weird things). The consommé punch chips were one of the rejects and Watanuki had tried one chip…and then took the whole bag home. So, she'd stocked up on that flavor the next day, not knowing if the store would have them for long (1). And they'd kinda stuck with her.

After grabbing her snack, the girl grabbed all the Macaroni Horenso volumes that she'd borrowed from the shop after remembering that Yuko had said it was the best manga to come out of the seventies. Even if Yuko was really strange, she was serious about her manga so it had to be fabulous. She placed the manga issues on the floor and walked over to her desk, opening up her curtains and flooding the room with light. Ka, her goldfish, was swimming contently in her fishbowl and the girl sprinkled some fish food into her water so she could eat. The goldfish swan up to the top of the bol and caught food in her mouth, her goldish-red scales shining in the late morning sun. Watanuki smimled at her pet and watched her for a few minutes, remembering how she'd gotten the fish in the first place. If it hadn't been for Doumeki, the girl would've never caught a fish at the festival. But Ka had been a nice addition to her apartment, making the girl feel as if she wasn't alone all the time when she was home. She was easy to take care of, beautiful and it was nice to have someone to come home too, even if that someone was a fish.

After watching her fish eat and swim for a few moments, Watanuki flopped down on her futon again and opened up the first volume, holding the book above her head one-handedly and got started reading. By the second page, she was laughing her head off, munching on her chips contently as she chuckled. Today if the first paid vacation day that I've ever gotten from Yuko. It's kinda nice to take a break once in a while.

"This guy's a genius!" Watanuki laughed again, reading on in the manga. By the time lunch had rolled around, she'd blown through half of her stack and went to make herself some lunch, still reading Macaroni as she slurped on noodles. The girl took a nap an hour later, setting down her manga for a little bit as she lazily dreamed the afternoon away. When she woke up, it was back to Macaroni Horenso until the suns started setting. The world outside the apartment dimmed, the light slipping behind the building and the horizon. The shadows of the people who were walking around outside lengthened, the people in their homes flipping on lights one by one, preparing for the evening. Watanuki's lights had been on all day, so she didn't have to get up until her stomach growled at her, signaling that she needed to eat again.

"Ug. Man, I'm getting hungry." Watanuki sighed, closing her book with a snap and rolling onto her side to put it down with the rest of the finished manga. She then reached behind her to grab the last one that Yuko had kept in the shop (in that particular place anyway…she could have others lurking around somewhere), but as she felt around for it, her fingers didn't brush against the book. Instead all she could feel was the tatami mats beneath her hand. "Where…?" The girl knew it had to be there, she'd hadn't moved them from beside her futon except the one she took with her when she ate lunch.

"You know you're missing the last issue, right?" A voice asked. Watanuki was supposed to be the only one here – it was her apartment after all! The girl shot up, recognizing the voice and it pissed her off instantly.

"What the hell is this?!" She shook a fist at the archer angrily. "Where did you come from all of a sudden?! How did you get in here?! Answer me!" Doumeki was directly in front of her, her borrowed manga stacked next to right side and a wrapped box sitting on his left, leaning against the wall, sitting with his feet propped on the floor; his legs open for his elbows to rest on as he read the volume of manga Watanuki was searching for. The brunette was wearing a burgundy, long sleeved shirt and grey pants and his presence startled Watanuki in more ways than one. First: he was in her house when she knew she'd kept the door locked. She hadn't needed to go out today so the door had been locked since last night when she went to bed. Second: it was Doumeki who was in her house! Third: he wasn't wearing his uniform or his archery uniform so it threw her off to see him so casual (and, though she'd never admit it to anyone else…he looked good).

"You're even dumber than I thought." Doumeki said, looking at the girl with his emotionless face. "I know where your spare key is, remember? I brought you home after the demon parade."

"Oh, yeah." The girl remembered that he had, and that she'd woken up next to a half naked Doumeki in the morning. The girl blushed, half mortified at the thought (which she hadn't been able to get out of her head for some time after that had happened) and half pissed off that he'd made her remember that again (and she couldn't stop thinking about what Doumeki looked like under his shirt…in fact…she couldn't stop thinking about Doumeki in his boxers either).

"You know, I could hear you laughing from the bottom of the stairs." Watanuki's hand came up and snatched the book out of the boy's hands.

"That's none of your business! Don't read those before I do!" She snarled that he'd somehow gotten into her house…again. He was like a stalker! "Now what are you doing here anyway?!"

Doumeki reached to his left side and pushed the cloth wrapped box forward, towards Watanuki. The girl looked down at the box, wondering what could be inside of it. She picked it up, completely ignoring Doumeki and took it to her kitchen table. She pulled at the knot holding the cloth together and let it fall on the table. She lifted up the lid of the box and found treasure inside. It was Matsuzaka beef!

"It was a gift from a supporter of our temple." Doumeki explained as the girl drooled over the raw meat. This was stuff that she could never afford to buy. This beef was one of the three big, highly coveted, beefs that Japanese produced. This beef was globally famous with its high fat-to-meat ratio and it was said to be one of the most delicious things you could cook! That Doumeki is always getting the good stuff! Watanuki grumbled to herself. And I bet he just came over to brag about it! That jerkass!

"Whoa..Matsuzaka beef!" She was still gaping as she said it.

"And wouldn't you know…" Doumeki started again. "There's no one home today."

"Huh?" Watanuki's head shot up. What is he getting at!?

"That means you're going to have to cook it for me. Sukiyaki."

"HUH?!" Watanuki was gaping at Doumeki now, appalled by his lack of manners and his audacity to come into her house uninvited and shove dinner onto her! And then her stomach growled. Watanuki glared down at her stomach and cursed its existence. Why should I cook for him?! He's being rude like he always is! I don't have to take this! This is my house! But then her stomach growled again, telling her that Matsuzaka beef was not something she could eat every day…even if Doumeki was the one who brought it over. If I cook it…I can have some…that's a pretty good deal…NO! I don't want to cook for that bastard! But the meat…Watanuki glared at Doumeki. He stared back.

"Fine! I'll cook it." She gave in, throwing her hands up in the air. "You'd probably ruin it if you cooked it anyway!"

"What a good little housewife." Doumeki replied.

"I am not a housewife! Especially to you!" Watanuki snarled, snatching up the beef to go cut it and the other ingredients that they'd need for a sukiyaki pot dinner. Doumeki watched the girl stomp to the counter.

"I thought it was cute." He commented.

"Get out! Of my kitchen!" Watanuki pointed to her bedroom/living room.

"Why are you always kicking me out?" He asked, walking where her pointing finger was directing him too.

"Because you're an ass!"

"You're an ass." He shot back, his tone the same as always. Watanuki gaped at him again, her mouth dropping to the floor in shock. Doumeki leaned back and looked behind Watanuki, his eyes on her butt. "And I like your ass."

"GET OUT!" Watanuki shoved Doumeki out of the kitchen, knife in hand and growled at him before turning back to the beef. "If you say anything else I'm kicking you out of my house and you don't get any dinner!"

"Too bad you're wearing pants today." Doumeki goaded the girl again. He found a knife embedded into the wall next to his head where Watanuki had thrown it as a threat. The girl was panting in frustration and Doumeki calmly sat down, deciding that now was not the best time to egg her on. Instead, he stared at her butt when she turned back to the counter, picking up one of her manga volumes as a cover so that she didn't catch him staring.

"If it wasn't for that Matsuzaka beef, I'd get rid of that jerkass so fast that it's crazy." Watanuki grumbled to herself as she cut tofu into squares for the pot. It had been a full five minutes and Doumeki had been quiet the whole time…no jibes at her butt, her temper or her "slowness" in getting dinner ready. Watanuki was kind of scared about what he was doing in the other room – it was her bedroom after all. The girl slowly looked behind her and saw Doumeki reading her manga. Unbeknownst to her, he had been looking at her butt up until the moment she'd turned around.

"HEY YOU!" Watanuki waved her other knife in the air. "Like I said: don't read them before I do!" She snapped. Doumeki didn't do as she said and she knew he wouldn't. "Well, then you'd better put it right back where you found in when you're done!" She growled and turned back to the food. Doumeki smiled to himself. She hadn't told him to put it down right away like the old Watanuki would. It was a small step, but a step nonetheless. With the girl distracted, now Doumeki could carry out his true goal: finding her panty drawer.

As much as he'd like to continue watching Watanuki, he really, really wanted to know where she kept all her cute underwear. It was a quest. He'd have to be quiet, stealthy and quick to find the drawer before Watanuki was done cutting stuff up for sukiyaki. Doumeki put down his manga and crawled over to her low dresser. He carefully pulled out the far left drawer and found socks. He shut it quickly and moved on. The one below that had her uniforms in it, skirts, shirts and a spare jacket for the winter uniform. The next had her casual pants, and the next? Shirts and tank tops. Doumeki moved onto the next drawer, knowing that his time was running out. Bingo. Bras and underwear. The archer gazed into the drawer, his eyes darting from one cute pair of underwear to the next, finding a plethora of lacy, polka dotty, bow-y panties. It was a treasure trove of Watanuki's teasing undergarments. Having achieved his goal. Doumeki stored away the location of "the drawer" for later and crept back to his spot on the floor. He peeked into the kitchen as he picked up the manga again. Watanuki was none the wiser, still preparing dinner. Doumeki smiled to himself and went back to reading.

When Watanuki was done in the kitchen, she brought in a platter of meat, a platter of vegetables and tofu to put in the pot, the broth and set up her low table with her portable burner and a large sauce pan as a substitute for a sukiyaki pot. She set out bowls and chopstick for both of them before sitting down, crossing her legs Indian style under the table. Doumeki sat down on the other side and Watanuki turned on the burner, the blue flames leaping to life to warm up the pan.

"You don't have a regular sukiyaki pot?" Doumeki asked, his first words in minutes sounding like an insult to Watanuki's ears when he was really just asking why they were using a saucepan.

"I live alone! Why would I have something like that! I don't do much entertaining!" Watanuki shot back.

"On the contrary, you're very entertaining."

"Shut the hell up!" Watanuki reached for the teapot of broth called warishita and was about to pour it into the pot to start cooking.

"What are you doing?" Doumeki asked, watching the girl with his deadpan face.

"Huh? I need to put in the warishita, Doumeki."

"Sauté the meat first." He ordered.

"You cook the meat after you do the broth." Watanuki argued back.

"I want Kansai-style sukiyaki." Doumeki said, requesting the Western-style dish. "You have to cook the meat first thing, and then season it with sugar and some soy sauce." As the boy was speaking, Watanuki's face was getting angrier and angrier, her fangs showing. She slammed down the container of broth onto the table growling at her guest.

"Let me cook it my way or cook it yourself!" Watanuki demanded. Doumeki stared at her for a second, not liking the way their first married couple-like argument was going and then decided that he'd cook it himself if she was going to cook it Kanto-style instead of Kansai. He picked up his chopsticks and placed two slices of beef in the pot, hearing it start to sizzle.

"Uwwwaaaahhhh!" Watanuki gasped. "You didn't even put in oil!" She dumped in some oil and then snuck in the broth for added measure. She wasn't going to let Doumeki have his way in her house – it just wasn't going to happen.

"Ha! Looks like we're having Kanto-style sukiyaki! In your face!" The girl gloated evilly, laughing at Doumeki. It was a small victory, but a victory nonetheless. He just stared back at her. Watanuki kept smiling smugly as she grabbed the plate of veggies and tofu and started placing the ingredients in one by one. Doumeki, hating to lose to his crush, grabbed everything on the plate with one hand and dumped it into the makeshift pot childishly while maintaining his calm demeanor.

"Geeeyoooooo!" The seer vocalized again, gawking at Doumeki's actions. She picked up some of the ingredients and held it up to his face. "You aren't supposed to put these in until the end! Otherwise everything will smell like it!" But Doumeki wasn't done yet. He picked up the bag of sugar Watanuki had brought it and dumped some into the pot. "Yeeeeeeee!" Then Doumeki grabbed the bottle of soy sauce and dumped some in as well. "Daaaaaahhhhhh!" And then he stirred it all together and grabbed some of the sukiyaki out and held it over his bowl before shoving it in his mouth. Watanuki was still shrieking, her face ghostly white as Doumeki just cooked himself.

"Shall we eat?" He asked, taking a bite of their Kanto-Kansai sukiyaki and wondering if it was always going to be like this: he and Watanuki would fight and one of them would force a compromise whether they liked it or not. It seemed to happen enough times.

"If you're going to make it yourself then why did you come?!" Watanuki snapped. Doumeki just gave her a look, his eyebrows raising slightly.

"Jerkass!"

"Idiot."

"Bastard!"

"Moron."

"Just shut up and eat!"

"You shut up and eat!"

"Hey!"

"Oi."

"My name is not 'oi!'"

"Just eat."

"I will!" Watanuki grabbed some meat and shoved it in her mouth, losing herself in the deliciousness of the Matsuzaka…even if Doumeki had ruined the style of the dish. They each took turns taking from the pot until they got down to the last strip of meat, over which, they had a chopstick fight in the middle of the pot which Doumeki won. But instead of eating the whole thing, he bit off half of the strip and then held out the rest to Watanuki. The girl gasped and stared at the meat, wondering what he could be doing, so she asked.

"What are you doing?"

"What does it look like?" Doumeki replied, still holding up the meat. "If you don't want it I'll eat it."

"No! I want it." She blushed slightly, reaching out to take the meat in her own chopsticks.

"Just eat it off of mine." Doumeki said, moving his chopsticks back. He wanted to feed the girl the last piece, just to see if she'd do it. And because he wanted to feed her.

"Why should I?" The girl snarled, staring at the meat but not wanting to eat if off is his chopsticks.

"Fine then." Doumeki opened his mouth to drop the Matsuzaka into it when Watanuki reached out her hand.

"Stop! I want it!" Doumeki did stop and held out the meat again. Watanuki glared at him, a light blush dusting her cheeks.

"Say, 'ah.'" Doumeki prompted, wiggling his chopsticks. Watanuki's glare deepened, as did her blush. The archer waited for her to do it.

"Ah."Watanuki opened her mouth, hating that she was giving into him. What it always going to be like this? Would she always lose out to him and did what he said? But right now, those questions didn't matter because the brunette was placing the delicious meat in her mouth. She chewed thoughtfully, savoring the last bite and refusing to look Doumeki in the eye. She hated losing to him. "Fanks." She said as quietly as she could. Doumeki still heard her and smiled internally, happy that he had shared. The old him would've just eaten the last bite. Watanuki flopped on the ground, softly patting her stomach as she smiled over the meal.

"Man, I'm stuffed! I ate so much I can't even move!" She sighed contently, the weird feeding episode over.

"You'll turn into a cow if you lay down right after you eat." Doumeki commented. Watanuki scoffed at him.

"Have you actually seen anyone turn into a cow?" She replied sarcastically.

"If they turn into cows, how can you tell if they used to be humans or not?" A cross vein popped out on the seer's forehead.

"Take your old kitchen tales and get the hell out of here if you're done!" Watanuki held out her hand. "But before you go…can you hand me those manga volumes over there…please?" Doumeki rolled his eyes at her and did as he was told. He even took the dishes into the kitchen and washed them off as Watanuki giggled at her manga. But instead of leaving, her plopped back down on the floor and watched the girl.

"What are you doing?" The raven voice held a threat as she peeked out from behind her comic book.

"Nothing."

"Then why are you still here?"

"Don't want to leave yet."

"Why the hell not?!" Watanuki glared at him again.

"Because."

"Because why?"

"No reason. I just want to stay." Doumeki got up again and walked over to the girl's desk. He'd noticed that she was wearing his hair clips and as he looked down into the fish bowl, he saw that the goldfish he'd won her was doing just fine. "What's her name?" He asked, pointing to the fish.

"If you must know, it's Ka." Watanuki huffed, looking up at her desk from the floor.

"That's a good name. Its means 'summer,' right?"

"Yeah." Watanuki turned back to her manga. Doumeki smiled a little to himself. 'Ka' was also apart of his name and that made him happy, whether Watanuki had done that on purpose or not. Doumeki stuck around a little while longer, just being his quiet self and watching Watanuki. He left after another hour, thanking Watanuki for helping him cook. She scoffed at him and reminded that he'd ruined the dish…but that it still tasted good anyway.

As the two teens conversed, Yuko was having a horrible night at the shop.

"With Watanuki gone we don't have a decent thing to eat around this place." Yuko sighed, lounging on her couch in one of her more odd dresses. It was long and yellow, decorated with a huge white lilly on the cloth and a purple collar necklace and she'd pulled her hair up into a big bun and accessorized with a huge lily pinned in her locks. The witch sighed and sipped at her sake, picking at the snacks she had laid out before her. But she really didn't feel like eating, wondering how she ever lived without Watanuki's cooking.

"IIIIII'mmmmmm staaaaarrrrvvvvinggggg…" Mokona groaned, flopped on the floor. Maru and Moro suddenly rose into view and turned to face their mistress. In their hands they held two trays of hot food.

"Watanuki left some extra treats!" Maru said, smiling.

"We just microwaved them!" Moro finished.

"Yay!" Yuko and Mokona both leapt up and high fived.

"Go Watanuki!" Yuko added cheerfully.

"A whole dried fish in one gulp!" Mokona said, gobbling down the whole fish in one gulp, just like it had declared.

"Ah! It's nikujaga! I love this stew!" Yuko picked up a potato in her chopsticks and popped it in her mouth. "It's sooooo gooooood!~"

"I wonder if Watanuki had eaten yet!" Maru said, clapping her hands together.

"I wonder if Watanuki had read her manga!" Moro added, copying her twin.

"I wonder if Watanuki has brushed her teeth!" Maru added, looking a little worried as she folded her arms.

"I wonder if Watanuki has finished her homework!" Moro added again, copying her twin. Yuko gulped down another glass of sake.

"I hope she's cooking!" Yuko declared, holding up her chopsticks.

Back at her apartment, Watanuki sneezed, wondering if someone was talking about her.

While Yuko was eating the snacks that Watanuki had left her, the girl herself was having a rough night after Doumeki left. She'd felt heavy for a while, unbalanced, even when she took a bath to make herself feel better. She just couldn't shake the horrible feeling in her stomach and decided to go to bed early. Lying on her futon, the girl groaned to herself in the dim light of the moon.

"Ug. This is awful." She moaned, resting her hands on her stomach. "I feel like I really will turn into a cow, just like Doumeki said. I seriously ate too much."

Mooooooo…

Watanuki heard a cow moo somewhere close by. But that couldn't be right…she lived in Tokyo, there were no cows here.

Moooooo…

It came again and Watanuki sat up, trying to find the cow that couldn't be there.

"Is that…a cow…?" Watanuki looked around blurrily, scratching her face with her left hoof. "Where is that noise coming from?" And that when she noticed the cloven hoof next to her face. The girl's eye shot wide and she screamed as she looked down to find that her legs weren't her legs anymore: there were cow's legs!

"Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god!" The girl screamed again and tried to roll over as she felt her face morphing. Her nose and mouth got longer, protruding in front of her face a long with velvety black skin and hair. Her eyes moved to the sides of her face and her ears moved up, shifting into floppy cow's ears and horn sprouted from her head. The girl screamed and got on all fours, her hooves all flat on the floor. She mooed loudly, trying to call for help when her body expanded, bulging out and shredding her clothes as a tail grew out from her butt. She was a cow! A real cow!

Watanuki's eye shot open, the morning sun chasing away her nightmare. The first thing the girl did after gasping in horror at her dream was to look down to see if she was actually a cow. She wasn't, her human torso, legs and feet staring back at her (along with her incredibly tiny bust size).

"Et, did you pack your gym clothes?" A little girl called from outside of Watanuki's apartment as she stared at her human body. They were the neighbor kids, heading to school for the day.

"Yeah! Is today the pop quiz?" Et replied.

"Boy, I sure hope not!" The kids voices drifted away. That's when Watanuki realized that if the neighbor kids were heading to school, that meant…that she was late.

"Damn, I'm late." The girl sat up, trying to hurry when a pain in her torso had her flopping forward onto her futon, her knees stuck to the ground and her butt stuck in the air. She could hardly move, the pain worsening when she did. "What is wrong with me?" She grumbled, already irritated that her body picked the perfect day not to function properly. The girl tried to scramble around her apartment to get ready quickly, but the best she could do was a moderately slow shamble as she washed her face, pulled her hair up and got dressed. The thought of food had her torso zinging in pain so she skipped breakfast and just grabbed the lunches that she'd made the night before, her stomach roiling at the prospect of eating food later. Then the long walk to school began.

The seer shambled along in the crowd of her classmates on the way to school, barely holding onto her bags and the lunches as she walked, stooped over as if there was a great weight on her shoulders. She was sweating and she didn't feel well at all, the pain and discomfort from this bug was really getting to her. My body…is so…heavy. It feels…like I'm carrying…a ton of bricks on my back or something! As the girl stumbled along, a soft hand brushed across her shoulder. The seer turned and found Wari smiling at her. He looked chipper as always but there was one thing out of place…but not out of place per say, just different. He was wearing a red scarf wrapped around his neck, to ward off the chill of the morning, Watanuki guessed. She stopped walking and tried to smile back.

"Hey, Watanuki! How's it going?" Wari asked.

"Hey, Wari." The girl mumbled back, trying to sound at least a little cheerful. It didn't work.

"You look terrible!" The boy's face fell into a concerned expression, his eyes soft. "Are you doing okay?"

"Oh yeah. I'm okay." Watanuki did manage a smile that time, nodding to her friend. I am so not okay. I hope I don't collapse.

"If you say so." Wari's smile returned. "Let's go."

"Sure." Watanuki started walking with the boy, trying to keep up to his moderate pace in her condition.

"You know, this morning I had an upright leaf in my tea!" Wari commented happily, making conversation as they walked together. Watanuki had to resort to putting one had on the walls fencing off houses to keep herself upright.

"Hehehe. Good for you, Wari." Watanuki laughed tiredly.

"It's good luck to find an upright tea leaf!" Watanuki looked ahead at the curly haired boy but her attention was diverted to the red scarf he had on, watching it bounce with his step and ripple in the breeze. Her eyes went wide as something other than the pain in her torso took a hold of her, making her stare at the scarf intently for reasons she couldn't understand.

"Yeah…I've heard…that…I think" Watanuki replied, looking away from the mesmerizing scarf. She didn't know what was wrong now, but she was hooked on that scarf. Watanuki felt something rise in her, a desire to shake her head like a bull, to cry out at the challenge of the red scarf. It was damn weird.

"I know most people just think it's a stilly superstition, but I think it's fun to believe in it if it's a positive thing!" Wari continued on, completely oblivious to Watanuki. The raven's eyes were still glued to the scarf waving in front of her, watching each and every movement like her life depended on it.

"Yeah, so do I." The bull in Watanuki raised its head again, snorting angrily. "It's…kind of fun…" Watanuki tore her eyes away from the red scarf and glanced at her shadow. The darkness on the wall looked like a cow again, but that couldn't be right. Her mind had to be playing tricks on her again, like it had in her dream. She looked up at Wari again, watching the scarf.

"I forget…is it good luck in green tea or black?" Wari asked, turning around to glance back at the seer with a cute smile…one that she didn't want to appreciate right now. With his turn, the red scarf whipped in front of Watanuki, signally the challenge like a Matador in a bull fight. Watanuki's inner bull scraped its hoof on the ground, readying to run with all its might and catch the red cloth, its tail swishing in anticipation.

"I don't know…" The girl replied, preoccupied with the scarf as her eyes followed it. Her bull was salivating, itching for a run, for a fight. Wari turned away and started walking ahead. The girl shoved herself off of the wall, breathing heavily as she tried to control herself…but it was too much. She had to get that red scarf. The bull scraped its hoof against the ground one more time, readying to dash. Watanuki's foot scraped along the ground as well. Suddenly, the weight on her back was gone and the bull dashed ahead, charging towards the red scarf. Watanuki was right behind it, running full tilt towards Wari, ready to crash into him and win her victory. But suddenly, the boy ran off, calling to a classmate ahead of him.

"Kazumi!"

"Hey, how's it going?" The girl asked, greeting her friend. Watanuki skidded to a halt in shock, the desire to run suddenly evaporating. She had no clue what she had been doing but it was damn strange.

"Good morning!" Wari replied. "How's your cold? Are you feeling any better? You really had me worried."

"Yeah, I'm okay." Kazumi answered. Watanuki's legs were shaking, barely holding her up where she stood as they talked. She was panting, her breath coming out in gasps as she got a hold of herself again. The weight was back, pushing her down, making every movement a struggle.

The day continued on like that and even Doumeki left the girl alone in her state, no snarky comments or demands for more food. It was kind of nice…too bad Watanuki was feeling too horrible to appreciate the reprieve. And after school she had to go back to her job again, shopping for Yuko as fast as she was able (which wasn't very fast at all) and lugging herself back to the shop. By the time she got there, the crescent moon had risen above the buildings of Tokyo and the girl slumped to the floor of the receiving room, accidently tossing her groceries and school bag on the ground as well as her body.

"I'm finally here." The girl sighed, tired of moving, tired of the pain in the body and tired of being so tired. "Sorry I'm late." She apologized.

"Yeah, I'll say you're late." Yuko was lounging on her couch in a simple salmon kimono with an orange obi, disgruntled and annoyed that Watanuki was so late. "We're practically starving here!" The witch sat up and reached for something at her feet. It was Mokona. "Look how skinny poor Mokona's gotten!"

"Watanuki! Save me!" The fur ball pleaded, his usually round form as flat as a piece of paper.

"Hey, how about a little sympathy here guys. I'm not doing so hot either." The girl groaned.

"What's that?" Yuko asked, completely oblivious to the girl's struggle. Either that or she just ignored it over the prospect of food.

"It took me an hour to walk here from school and my feet felt like lead." Watanuki crawled across the floor and pulled herself up onto Yuko's couch. The witch made room for her but she seemed really disinterested in anything the raven had to say. "I don't know what's up but my body has weighed a ton since this morning."

"You did spend all of yesterday lying around and being lazy, didn't you?" Yuko asked, resting her chin on her hand, smiling amusedly. Watanuki glared at the woman.

"I don't need to hear any lectures about lying around from you!" Watanuki grumbled, hauling herself to her feet. You're lazier than me, you know. "I'll go get dinner stared right away." She stumbled into the kitchen with the groceries and started preparing dinner. Forty minutes later, it was done and Yuko and Mokona ate with gusto. The witch downed her fifth glass of red wine and sighed in contentment.

"Now that's much better!" She cooed, eating one last bite before a smocked Watanuki took the plates away for cleaning. Maru and Moro were sleeping peacefully on the couch, both of them sitting up and leaning on each other cutely. Mokona sucked in the last of the scraps from the plates as Watanki stacked them up. "'A snake will come if you whistle at night.'"

"Huh?" Watanuki asked, looking at the witch. Yuko swirled her wine around in her glass and kept talking.

"'Hide your thumbs when you pass by a graveyard,' or "if you go to sleep right after you eat, you'll turn into a cow,' or 'if you clip your nails at night you won't be present when you're parents die.'" Watanuki knew what she was talking about now…she was still stuck on superstitions. Mokona hiccupped in the pause, pausing in its chugging of its wine. "You think these things have no basis in reality, right?"

"Well, no." Watanuki replied. "They're…moral lessons. They're meant to be taken symbolically not literally, I think. For instance, the thing about clipping your nails at night was because in old times they didn't have electricity and probably figured that it was dangerous and you'd probably get hurt."

"Okay…" Yuko started, ready to tear Watanuki's argument apart. "But what does that have to do about missing your parent's death?"

"Oh. That's because…um…" Watanuki thought for a moment, placing her hand on her chin to do so. "Well…I don't know." Yuko chuckled once and stood up, pushing her chair back.

"If there's no truth to the adage, if it's just a silly superstition like you say, then why has it been passed down for so many generations?"

"Hm. Well, I guess that's because there's something…" Something…what? Watanuki just didn't know what she was trying to get at…that there was some truth after all?

"Something what?" Yuko asked, prompting the girl to get at what she was trying to get at.

"Like something too it." The raven finished.

"Like…maybe a grain of truth worth passing on?" Yuko added slyly.

"A grain of truth? Really? Like what?" Watanuki asked, Yuko walked past the girl, still smiling.

"I think that you should spend the night, Watanuki." The girl turned around to follow Yuko as she walked away.

"Why? Is something going to happen to me?" The seer got a little nervous, her voice showing it. Mokona giggled to itself. She hadn't gotten an answer yet. "Yuko! Am I in danger? What are you not telling me?!"

"Well the truth is…I want pancakes for breakfast!" Yuko blushed at the thought of Watanuki's fluffy pancakes and she was almost drooling in anticipation.

"That's what this is all about?!" The girl snapped, a cross vein throbbing on her head.

"Yay! A sleepover!" Mokona jumped into the air and cheered.

"Dinner was late tonight so I think you should make it up by cooking breakfast tomorrow!~" Yuko pointed out.

"Noooooooo!" Watanuki screamed. In the end, she did end up sleeping over. Yuko had the girl stay in the spare room she always did when she slept over and let the girl lay out her futon and change into the extra set of pajamas that she had stashed in the dresser without any interruptions. And then the witch headed off to bed herself. Watanuki folded up her school uniform for tomorrow and grumbled about Yuko as she did.

"Oh man, that Yuko is the most self-centered person in the world!" Watanuki sighed, stretching her arms above her head until her back popped. The girl rolled over and flopped on her borrowed futon, still feeling heavy, placing her hands behind her butt so she could lean back on them. She sighed moodily. "No matter how you cut it, this has not been my day." The girl stared idly down at her feet and blinked slowly as she spaced out. That's when she noticed that her toenails were peeking over the ends of her toes. They were really long for her.

"My nails are getting long." She said out loud to no one in particular. The girl sat herself up straight and folded her legs in Indian style, grabbing one foot and pulling it closer as she leaned down to check her nails. "And I have to play soccer tomorrow for gym." And nothing hurt more that kicking a high speed ball with long nails in her shoes, she could give herself blisters if she rubbed her feet wrong. "Damn it! Where can I find a nail clipper?" The girl looked around the room, not getting her hopes up of finding nail clippers in the mess that was Yuko's house (even though her cleaning kept it in pretty good order, things tended to move around on their own despite her best efforts). And then, she spotted them. The nail clippers were on a small desk at the end of the room, lying on a cloth to catch nails as they were clipped. Watanuki stared at the clippers for a moment, highly suspicious. Nothing was ever this easy for her, especially in Yuko's shop. It was a little creepy. "It's like they're screaming to be used…" But whatever. The girl needed to clip her nails, so she would. Watanuki crawled over to the desk and picked up the clippers, taking them back to her bed. Yuko's words shot through her head, echoing the superstition about clipping your nails at night.

"'If you clip your nails at night, you won't be present at your parent's death…'" She whispered, starting to half believe that this one might be true, but not really because there was one huge flaw with that proverb when it pertained to Watanuki. "But I don't have any parents so…here goes."

The girl placed her feet on the little white cloth that came with the clippers and propped her left knee up and bent down to clip her toenails. Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Watanuki worked on her nails, her back turned to most of the room and she was none the wiser to what was happening behind her. With each snap of the clippers, a darkness was creeping in from the corners, bit by bit, synchronized with the sound of the clippers. Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! The wall of black slowly over took the room, creating a void behind the seer as she worked on her toes. The sound changed as well. First it was just the snap of the clippers but now…now there was another sound coming from the void, a noise that sounded like scissors scraping shut or a sword hacking down. Click! Swish! Click! Swish! Watanuki sort of heard the second sound and looked up, glancing behind her. There wasn't anything out of the ordinary to her, so she shrugged and went back to clipping. Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! She started up again and finished her left foot. Watanuki switched knees and starting working on her right foot. Click! Click! Swish! Click! Clang! Click! Clang! The darkness was back, reaching for the raven where she sat. Watanuki sort of heard it that time, the noise that followed every snap of the clippers. She paused for a moment, the tool poised above her big toe. She clipped off part of the nail cautiously. Click! Clang! Oh, it was gone again, so she shrugged and kept cutting. Click! Clang! Click! Clang! Click! Clang! Click! Clang! Click! Clang! Click! Clang! Click Clang! Now the darkness was covering the entire room, an sinister pair of blades creeping out of the black to snap shut above the girl's head like a giant pair of scissor blades. Watanuki heard the noise again and her back shot straight. The blades clinked open behind her, their curved metal ready to scythe towards the girl's neck, gleaming maliciously. Watanuki turned around, finally noticing the darkness around her, see the blades aimed for her head. She got ready to scream, but it got caught in her throat. The blades snapped shut. Watanuki dove to the floor, barely missing death by an inch.

"My body still feels so heavy!" The girl groaned, trying to crawl away from her certain doom. The weight on her seemed to increase, pushing the seer down into the ground. She couldn't move! She was going to get cut by those giant blades! "I-I can't move my legs!" The blades moved behind her, clanging as they angled themselves down towards Watanuki. The girl glanced back and screamed, watching at the blade crept nearer and nearer. She was going to die!

Suddenly, a kimono rode floated down from the air, its yellow cloth fluttering like the purple butterflies embroidered on its surface. Watanuki felt it drape itself over her and she looked back in shock to see where it had come from.

"Stay down!" Yuko commanded, standing in front of the floating blades, her hair blending into the blackness. Watanuki screamed again as the blades snapped down on Yuko. They got her! But they hadn't. Yuko was still standing, a red flower in her hands, the blades mere inches away from her throat. The blades had cut the blossom of the flower and it drifted down softly, severed from its stem. The blossom hit the ground, its petals breaking apart limply. The blades retreated into the void, taking the darkness with it and returning the room to its original state. Yuko turned and looked down at the trembling girl behind her. Watanuki was kneeling on the floor, Yuko's robe draped around her like a blanket, the girl hiding underneath it like a scared child. She was in fact, a scared child. The girl's head peeked out of the yellow robe, watching Yuko with wide eyes. "It's okay now." The witch stated for Watanuki's benefit. The girl's face was pale, the shock at almost dying in the one place that was supposed to keep her safe unsettling her mind.

"It is?" The raven asked, huddling under the robe still. "Did that thing come because I was cutting my nails?" Yuko was a little proud that she had pieced it all together, despite having told the witch that she didn't believe in superstitions.

"Uh huh." Yuko nodded knowingly.

"I get it…" Watanuki finished piecing together the encounter as she thought. "So…you're not supposed to cut your nails at night because…"

"That thing will attack you." Yuko finished dramatically. "And if lobbed off your head it's safe to assume that you wouldn't be present at your parent's death." Watanuki glanced down at the flower, watching it release smoke from where the blades had cut it. It had warded off the spirit.

"What was that thing? A ghost?" Watanuki asked, her hand coming up to touch her throat gently. She'd almost lost her head!

"I'm not quite sure actually." Yuko looked at the severed stem in her hands. "I do know that it's been around for ages. A spirit that has haunted mankind for generations."

Watanuki reached down and picked up the clippers that had been the catalyst for the whole situation, staring at their silver surface as the rest of her strange encounters of the past couple days flew threw her head. There was the one where she tripped over her shoes laces, because she put on new shoes at night…the one where she'd laid down after she'd eaten and felt heavy for the rest of the day, even going as far as to bull charge Wari on the way to school…and now this.

"Sometimes," Yuko started. "Humans are forced to encounter the unseen world, and then those people will try to explain it, what happened – to describe the incident, their awesome mystery that they've encountered." Watanuki stared up at Yuko as her cranberry eyes watched the girl. "They soon find that there are few who believe them…so they transform their story into a kind of warning. They reduce it to its basic idea, making it a kind of riddle of sorts. These riddles are then passed down, turning into the superstitions that we have today." Watanuki was still shaking, spooked by her own supernatural encounter even though she had several of those every week. It was discomforting to know that her disbelief of superstitions had almost killed her, her arrogance and dismissial of those small warnings blocking her own supernatural sight. If something like that happened again, she really could die.

"Should we cast a spell to end the retribution of superstitions on you?" Yuko asked, clearly sensing the girl's unease. Watanuki looked at her, confused as to how Yuko could do that. Weren't the superstitions universal? If so, how does one person escape their effects? It didn't matter. Right now, Yuko was offering to free her from superstition and she'd take it if it meant her life wouldn't be in danger from their punishments. And that's how they ended up outside in the moonlight, Watanuki sitting on a small mat and the witch stood in front of her with Maru and Moro at her sides, her hands pressed together as if in prayer. Watanuki had crossed her legs in the lotus pose (really surprised that her hips and knees were that flexible to do it in the first place) her forearms resting on her thighs, her thumbs and fingers pressed together in a meditation pose.

"This spell had been handed down for generations." Yuko intoned, reaching one of her hands down towards the girl. "Humans are not alone in this world. Never underestimate the unseen powers." Watanuki nodded. Even though she could see spirits, that didn't mean that she understood them fully. She'd have to be more careful in the future if she wanted to live. Yuko placed her hand on Watanuki's head and started chanting, her hand circling Watanuki's head. "Fear…fear…go away…come again some other day…" And when Watanuki realized she was singing the "Rain, Rain, Go Away" song, she knew that Yuko was pulling her leg. The girl opened her eyes and looked up as Yuko swung her arms to the side, her leg popping up as she pivoted. "Get out!~"

"Get out!~" Maru and Moro chanted, mimicking their mistress.

"What'd you think?" Yuko giggled, placing her hands on her hips and leaning over the girl, a coy smile on her face. "I had you going for a while, didn't I?" Watanuki was shaking in anger, having been made a fool out of again. It was just Yuko messing with her!

"Oh, you ruined the whole thing!" She snapped, slapping her hands down on her knees. And now she really felt like an idiot, playing along with Yuko and hoping that she really could be free of superstitions.

"I thought you said before that you didn't believe in stuff like this?" Yuko questioned, undermining Watanuki's anger. The witch and the seer looked at each other for a moment as Watanuki realized something.

But I did…a long time ago. The girl fell back into her memories, all the way to elementary school when she was young. Once I heard and old superstition from a friend of mine. Watanuki remembered gathering around the boy's desk during school, joining a bunch of other kids as her friend told them about the superstition of hiding your thumbs as you pass graveyards. It scared the girl, and with her experiences with spirits, it scared her even more than the other kids. She knew weird stuff could happen and it would if she wasn't careful.After that, every time I passed a graveyard or even when a hearse drove by me, I hid my thumbs, otherwise, my parents would die young. Watanuki had run past graveyards, scared of the spirits that could lurk in them and she turned her back and trembled whenever a hearse passed her. It was an uncontrollable fear that she couldn't contain, she was so scared of losing her parents. I always made sure to hide my thumbs. Always. I never cut my nails at night either. But it didn't matter. My parents died anyways. In spite of what I did. And that's when it happened…that's when I stopped believing in superstitions.

"I supposed it's possible to live your whole life with your eyes closed, to avoid ever encountering the unseen world you find in the old stories." Yuko mused, staring up at the moon with Watanuki. "To hide." She looked down at the girl, catching her eyes. "But to live blindly, to cast out the vastness of existence, that would be a waste." Yuko patted the seer on her head again. "You should go get some sleep now."

Watanuki looked up at Yuko, feeling the warm hand on her head. Nobody had patted her on the head like that in years, since her parents died. It was a nice feeling, having been protected by someone that she considered half a guardian now (half because Watanuki babied Yuko like she was the child most of the time) and something warm blossomed in the girl's chest. She nodded at the witch and they all went to bed peacefully.

The next morning, Watanuki was up bright and early in her smock, whipping up the pancakes that Yuko had requested the previous night. She felt a lot better, her body back to normal, her scare from last night just a bad dream now. It's weird, my body feels lighter since last night. Did that joke ceremony work? The girl poured some batter into her pan, making Yuko her first of many plates, glancing back at the witch at the table.

"Maple syrup, honey, strawberry jelly, and marmalade." The girl announced as she set Yuko's first plate and the condiments out on the table with her tea. "Just help yourself to whatever you like and enjoy!"

"Oh, Watanuki! These pancakes look absolutely scrumptious!" Yuko clapped her hands together in delight. Mokona nodded in approval. The kitchen doors slid open to reveal Maru and Moro dancing behind the woman.

"Pan pan pancakes!~ Pan pan pancakes!" They sang and then the door shut again, the performance over.

"Nobody makes pancakes like Watanuki!" Mokona cheered.

"Come on, guys, it's no big deal." The girl blushed at the praise. "There's nothing to get excited about." The girl poured water though a strainer with hers and Yuko's tea, mixing up the hot drinks. When she set the pot asides and took out the strainer, Watanuki found an upright tea leaf in her cup. "An upright tea leaf!" The girl picked up her up to look at the leaf, smiling as steam rose from her cup. That meant that something good was going to happen.

"So tell me…" Yuko smiled at the girl as she set down her own cup of tea. "Do you think that you will believe in that kind of stuff from now on?"

"Weeeelllllll…." The seer started. "I think it will be case by case for me." She compromised.

"By the way.." Yuko started again, picking up her tea cup again, a knowing smile on her lips.

"Yeah?"

"Will you run down to the storehouse and pick me up a bottle of Napoleon brandy?"

"This early in the morning?" The girl grumbled. But, since she was in a good mood, she went to fetch the bottle. In the store house, Watanuki searched for the bottle of brandy that Yuko wanted, her gaze glancing over the shelves. "What a pain…it's a little early for brandy, even for her! Ah, this is it!" Watanuki grabbed the box with the correct bottle in it. "Unless she wanted something else…" The girl glanced at the shelf again, double checking that it was the right bottle. Her eyes caught onto something brightly colored wedged in between two books and she reached up to grab it. As she pulled it out, the girl's eyes widened in delight. It was the last volume of the Macaroni Horenso manga! "Wow! It's the last volume! Ah! It worked!" The girl's upright tea leave had foretold something good happening. Watanuki smiled and headed for the storeroom door. "I guess I don't mind believing in tea leaves and superstitions, as long as they're the good ones."

The afternoon found Watanuki in her apartment again, giggling over the last manga volume as she sat at her desk. When she was finished, the girl snapped the book shut and stretched the soreness out of her shoulders. "Well, that's the end of that! I wonder if he'll do a squeal. I guess I'd better start making dinner." Watanuki scooted out her chair and stood up. As the turned she spotted the same unwanted guest from the other day sitting on her floor reading manga. "Nooooooooo!" It was Doumeki in his teasingly good looking casual clothes! And he'd brought food again, the box of meat and bag of groceries at his side.

"Tadiama. I'm home." He said, holding up Macoroni 2. "The squeal's really quite good."

"This is not your home!" Watanuki said, pissed at the traditional greeting. "And what are you doing here again?! Do I need to get a restraining order!?" Watanuki stalked up to the archer and snagged the manga out of his hands. "Give me that!" I'm going to have to move my key so he can't get in, she thought to herself.

"I wasn't finished." The brunette stated.

"I don't care if you're not finished, I want to see it!" Watanuki opened the first page of the comic and started reading, a smile breaking out on her face as she began laughing again. He really was a genius! Doumeki watched the girl and decided that as much as he liked to piss Watanuki off, seeing her smile and laugh was the best thing in the world. But he was hungry, so comics would have to wait. The boy reached up and snatched the book out of the girl's hands and set it aside, replacing the manga with the pork he'd brought over.

"Food, Watanuki." He demanded in his monotone.

"Why do I have to cook it?! Can't you do it yourself!?" She complained, very loudly.

"I like your cooking." Doumeki replied, complimenting the girl casually. Watanuki stopped shouting and glared at the boy, a blush rising on her cheeks. She really was a sucker for flattery, even when it came to Doumeki. Doumeki decided that he liked making her blush too…but he may have decided that a long time ago as well. He couldn't remember.

"Fine! I'll cook! But you'd better not mess up anything in here while I'm gone!" Watanuki grabbed the bag of groceries and stomped into the kitchen. She whipped out her apron and put it on, tightening her pony tail's ribbon and got to work.

"You really are a good housewife, Watanuki." Doumeki called to her. She growled and something zipped into the room and embedded itself into the same spot on the wall that Watanuki had gotten a few days ago. It was a knife. Doumeki had barely escaped with his life for the second time that week.

"Shut up about that, bastard!" Watanuki snarled and went back to cooking, surprisingly pleased with her aim. "We're having nikuman!"

"I like hot buns. Good choice. With sushi." Doumeki requested.

"I don't have stuff for sushi!" Watanuki turned to glare at the boy again. He pointed to the grocery bag. She gave him a skeptical look and peeked in the bag. Sure enough, he'd brought sushi stuff.

"Oh wow. Stuff for sushi." Watanuki stared into the bag for a moment before baring her fangs at Doumeki. "Did you look through my fridge or something the last time you were here?!"

"Maybe."

"Gah!" Watanuki went back to cooking, knowing she's lose if they kept arguing. Better to back out beforehand than to lose. Dinner was just as pleasant as it was last time…that is to say Doumeki wanted things done his way and Watanuki got mad at him and they ended up with some very interesting sushi combinations because of their reluctant, fought over compromises. By the end of the night, Watanuki just consoled herself that she would only get her way half the time with Doumeki and left it at that. She ended up kicking the archer out after three "seconds" and saw him off at her doorway.

Doumeki put on his shoes and grabbed what was left of his groceries and shoved them in the bag. He was standing in Watanuki's genkan when he turned around and gently took the seer's hand in his own. Watanuki jumped, startled by his action but she got and even bigger shock when he leaned down and kissed her cheek, his warm lips pressing into her skin. She stood frozen, unable to think about anything else other than his lips on her cheek, the smell of his lemon body wash wafting past her nose. Doumeki enjoyed his little kiss for a moment longer before pulling back to a nearly brain dead Watanuki. He squeezed her hand, yanking the girl out of her head. When she realized that he wasn't kissing her anymore, Watanuki's glare returned in full force.

"What was that for?!"

"That's for dinner." Doumeki said, thanking the girl for the meal.

"You didn't have to kiss me! A normal "thank you' would've been enough!" Watanuki was blushing like crazy, torn between liking the thank you but disturbed that Doumeki had gotten the drop of her again and kissed her.

"I'll be back." He stated, looking deeply into her eyes.

"No you will not!" Watanuki retorted, pushing him out her door. But as she already knew, Watanuki would only get her way half of the time when it came to Doumeki. The other half of the time...he'd have his way. And that's the way they functioned together.

To be continued…

A/N: And there you go! Hope you enjoyed it and see you next time! :3

Note 1: In Japan, convenience stores and supermarkets stock a huge variety and flavors of chips like shrimp flavored, or black pepper and garlic. Some of them get really strange but they're advertized in the stores as "limited edition" flavors because they won't always be in stock. That's why a lot of the time, you won't find a flavor of chips after it's gone out of stock.