Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters from xxxholic or Full Metal Alchemist.

Summary: I guess its time I explain this. Yes, this fanfic will crossover and have cameo appearances of characters from other mangas, their storylines will intermingle…its all part of my evil plan _.

So, you will scarcely find any characters that I will have invented on my own…because I'm lazy and I figured that I have a thousand characters at my disposal…I hope you like it!

Oh, and I wanted to say thank you to the following people for adding my story to their alerts:

pockylover123

chibi tsuki hikari

Miyo Yukimora

Jio-chan

and Thimble for your wonderful reviews.

Thank you, its a real booster ^_^.

The Dragon's Vein vs. Sakura's Tree.

Swirling patterns came together, interlocking with each other to make elaborate designs of anonymous faces and intricate battle scenes on a paper white background. Staring up at the ceiling, it was like playing cloud games, shaping them to ones own amusement and imagination.

Watanuki didn't just see faces though; he saw outstretched claws for hands, disembodied figures with too long limbs, masked facades of multifaceted eyes and smoky essence. They seemed to move with the bluish moonlight streaming in from his window, in a strange dance of their own muse and sounds.

His imagination was too broad; perhaps he had seen too many things, definitely more than the average human.

He reached out a hand, touching the soft skin over his closed right eye, deep in thought.

No, there was nothing to see beyond blue skies and darkened asphalt, neither behind reflective windows nor broken mirrors.

He opened his right eye and shut the left one and the World was back to the way it was supposed to be; stable. Normal.

He shifted to the right, turning away from the ceiling to stare out the window veiled by a translucent curtain.

It was late, passed midnight by now. Yuuko-san had yet again insisted that he remain in her home or shop or bar, he wasn't sure what to call it anymore.

Monsters patrolled the streets at night, Yurei hung on the edges of houses, hands reached out through the reflection of shadows, turning to ominous claws as they neared their prey. Yuuko believed in Folk tales that claimed night time as belonging to the dark side of our World.

He tightened his grip on the edge of the futon, vein pulsing and brows furrowing in frustration. It wasn't as if he were some damsel in distress, or little Red Ridding Hood stalked by a drooling wolf. Well, the latter part he wasn't too sure about, but he was definitely not in distress.

His parents were watching over him after all…weren't they? Even if he had forgotten their names and faces, their shared moments, they could still be real to him right…because in theory he knew he had had parents. He believed with all his heart they had loved him and there would be proof of that…if he could remember how they had lived and died.

Drifting off to sleep, Watanuki closed his eyes, submitting to the weariness until a clatter snapped him back to wakefulness.

The door had been pulled open, a light breeze sipping in from the gardens, making the curtain dance like a demented spirit.

Watanuki sat up, clutching the fabric of his shirt over his pounding heart. He waited a few minutes until his nerves had calmed down and ensured there was no real threat before padding towards the doorway.

But, instead of closing it he crossed the threshold, leaning against the door frame neither in the house, nor outside.

-'You shouldn't stand in the in-betweens. Nasty things hide there.'

The sudden male voice made him jump back and fall hard onto the wooden floor, mouth agape in mid scream.

-'I'm sorry; I didn't mean to frighten you.' A hand was trust to Watanuki with a reassuring smile.

He took it, sitting up and re arranging his robe before looking back up at the monk garbed in a deep green kimono, different from his attire in the picture.

-'Haruka Doumeki?' Watanuki inquired shyly as the man took to stand on the patio porch, arms crossed over his chest, a stream of thin smoke whirling from the tip of his cigarette as he stared down at Watanuki with a smile.

-'I see She told you about me.'

-'Yuuko…san?'

Instead of answering the question, Haruka extended once more his hand to Watanuki. 'We must go somewhere; tonight isn't safe for you here.'

The boy frowned at the strange phrasing, blue eyes scanning over the monk before him, hand still outstretched, waiting patiently. He looked over Yuuko's ornate garden, the iron fence picketed with crescent moons, the sky above darker than usual because of the moon's absence and looked back at Haruka. 'This is a dream….' It was more a statement than a query, but Haruka confirmed it anyways.

-'Indeed it is.'

Hesitantly, he took the man's hand and stood up, his surroundings blurring with the sudden motion. When he had settled, they were no longer on Yuuko's porch, but standing beneath a Sakura Tree, its branches weighted down by a mound of cherry blossoms. But, when a small wind blew, what it carried with it weren't the normal pink petals, but a myriad of white feathers with a thin swirl of pink at its center. He held his hand out and caught on in his long fingers, looking up at Haruka with questioning bafflement.

-'It is Sakura's Tree,' the man explained, staring up at the dark sky dotted with millions of white feathers. 'A holy tree with the will to protect.'

Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

The earth rumbled beneath his feet, a sensation choking the breath out of Shizuka. He backed into the temple he had taken refuge in, his grip tightening around the bow in his hand, wincing slightly at the sensation. Amidst the discord, he closed his eyes, relaxing his mind before opening them once more. This time, his right eye discerned a flash of purple light breaking the still darkness of the night. But, just as it had appeared, it vanished along with the earthquake and the sensation.

Releasing the bow, he walked to the porch and scanned over the garden cast with strange dancing shadows.

It was no use venturing out now; it would be reckless and pointless in the night. He turned back into the temple and slid the door shut behind him.

Morning would bring more answers.

Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

Yuuko watched as a purple axis alighted the sky, the grounds within the fence barely trembling, though she could still feel a small wave of the ki that had suddenly burst to life.

-'So it happened, the Dragon's Vein, the flow of ki within the Earth, has awakened…' she murmured, eyes half lidded as she watched the purple dissipate and the sky return to its night shade.

She turned away from the gardens and walked back into the house. She had had to reinforce the barrier around her shop, but even with that, Watanuki would've been in danger if his soul had remained within the shop. His location would've surely been revealed.

She glanced sideways at the Hawk that had nestled at the edge of a low table; gold eyes fixated on the dark sky and pulled out a small note from her sleeve. The note the bird had brought to her.

It contained no explanations, or writings for that matter. But, she needed neither as the crest of two arrows crossing over each other spoke more to her than words. Just like Haruka Doumeki, the boy was more of direct and blunt actions than of fanciful letterings.

-'Shizuka…Doumeki…' she muttered with a smile.

Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

Shizuka shifted, blinking away morning light before rising from his makeshift bed, the feeling from the night still fresh in his mind and body.

He had come to the temple the Monks at Senso-ji had told him about, the abandoned building rotting away as dust clung to all the furniture, doors half falling in on themselves. But it was nothing compared to the gardens, defecated by decades of neglect and worn down with the passing of the seasons. He could still see soggy autumn leaves rotting on the Shrines surface, and they were in Spring.

He ventured out onto that garden, passed the shrine and towards the dense forestry standing like a sentry around the temple.

He had to find out if his suspicions were true. And what damage last nights night lighting had ensued…

It felt like an hour had passed before he reached the temple's cemetery.

What seemed to be intricate decorations on the walls delimiting the cemetery's perimeter, upon closer inspection, were actually customary chants engraved onto the walls for the soul purpose of protecting the inside from the threats of the outside.

A kekkai.

He frowned, deep in thought. Something was off about it. The three crescent moons that stood over the arching gate were rotted away. They still stood, even if it wasn't normal for them to be shading away with rust. He glanced down, knowing already what he would find there.

The primary kekkai barrier that had been etched on the ground was supposed to be one of the strongest. The sun with its wavering rays was not just carved bluntly onto the surface, but the lines that made it up were also chants that interlocked with each other, forming an even stronger barrier of its own. Without having to look, he knew that opposite from the sun, on the other end of the cemetery, a moon would be carved with similar chants delineating it. Connecting it all was an array of five stars circulating the walls, making a total of Seven astronomical bodies.

But, just as he had deducted from the rusting Archway and Moons, and the poor state of the Temple, the Primary Kekkai had been broken.

A crack in the earth broke apart the natural flow of chants, bringing the kekkai to an abrupt end.

He passed over it and walked under the three crescent moons, the faltering of their glow deepening his scowl. Without the protection of the outer Ward, time had finally taken a toll on the iron and its efficacy.

A creeping silence reigned over the grounds, barely broken by the sounds of shifting branches and whistling breeze. The burial grounds extended over a large perimeter, the landscape broken by the erect tombs symmetrically placed along each other, lining blunt, stone stairways and wooden bridges. The forest was mostly made up of pine trees, though on specific locations in these woods, Nine Sacred Trees were scattered as another protective barrier, each retaining its own task and properties. Though, it was obvious that without proper care, that barrier too, had lost most of its power. He couldn't help but wonder, with the importance these Burial Grounds held, why was it that it had been abandoned for so long without anyone noticing?

He came to a stop at one of the many crossroads in the cemetery and looked left to right. His calculating eyes followed the path embedded with stones weaving through the graves; this entire Burial Ground was a labyrinth, dating back to the times when the Miko of this particular Temple used to perform the Maze Dance to banish evil spirits, summon ancestors and see visions of events to come. It was more of a graceful procession from one end of the cemetery to another, each major crossroad representing one of the Nine Sacred Trees and their properties related to the Other World.

However, recent decades and the passing of old traditions into mere legends and ghost tales had reduced those practices to the point of non-existence. This was the end result.

He stared down at the center of the crossroad, discerning the small engraving of an Apple Tree; the key which opens the door to the Otherworld. Adjacent to it was one of the last tombstones to have been added to the Burial Grounds, the stone still smooth and gleaming in the little morning light that penetrated through the trees.

He knelt in front of it, his hand doubtfully hovering over the earth, a frown deepening the creasing of his eyebrows. Something wasn't right, even if he couldn't see it, he could feel it.

Drawing a small pouch from his obi sash, he withdrew a small amethyst stone shaped like a pyramid and placed its point over the grave.

He drew back in a flash as the soil collapsed abruptly, his gemstone tumbling down a deep gaping black hole. The grave had been robbed of its corpse.

He looked up at the name carved into the tombstone.

-'Edward Elric…Alchemist…'

He frowned.

At his temple, the Monks had a strong belief that when a person with particularly strong gifts died, their body retained that knowledge, especially if their power derived from seals, because even if the mind was no longer there to recall, the body remembered. Though at his temple, bodies were usually cremated because of that belief. However, here, in respect and memory of those gifted people, their bodies under went preservation rites to withstand the trials of time. Hence, the strong barrier.

It was just a belief but still…someone had gone through the trouble of robbing the temple of any Keeper to make sure the barrier weakened in preparation for the moment it would break.

That moment had been last night.

And, the only reason for someone to steal Edward Elric's body was for his deepened knowledge in Alchemy and creating a Philosopher's Stone.

Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

(to be continued...)

Thank you for reading! Please review and offer your opinions, it always helps!