"I'm Back!" Watanuki called through the door as he entered carrying groceries.

"Shh!" Maru and Moro both shushed giggling. "We have a customer!"

"A customer?" Watanuki blinked, "Oh."

He followed the girls to Yuuko's room where they cracked the door open.

Inside was a much more normal man then Watanuki was expecting to see. He was sipping his tea politely even under Yuuko's odd smirk and appeared as if he wasn't even phased by all that had happened so far, not that Watanuki knew if anything had happened, but most people were freaked out by being dragged into a store against their control, and just the store itself.

The man had messy short black hair and pale skin as if he saw far too little sun. He was relatively skinny and short but had this sort of air about him that said that didn't make him any weaker then someone far larger then him. Under his eyes were black bags that were worse then just sleep deprivation and looked more like insomnia. And covering his eyes were a pair of glasses that looked almost exactly the same as Watanuki's himself. But his eyes….Watanuki almost wanted to call them dead. They were a brilliant green he'd never seen before but there was a flat, empty look to them, as if all the feeling in them had bled dry.

Watanuki shivered even as the man smiled because the smile never even got close to his eyes.

"I see." The man said softly.

And Watanuki realized he'd missed their whole exchange.

"I…" Yuuko said, her smile vanishing.

Watanuki flinched at how she winced and realized she was almost at a lost.

"I'm sorry." She said.

And Watanuki had never heard her apologize like that. And it scared him worse then the dead green eyes.

"It's fine." The man said, quirking another odd smile.

Then he stood and Yuuko only gave him this sad look as he turned and headed for the door. Watanuki scrambled out of the way just as the man opened the door. He shut the door behind him and glanced at Watanuki and the two golems. He gave Watanuki this small smile and Watanuki could only label it as hopelessly lost and broken. He didn't breathe as those eyes focused on him and he felt his whole body freeze.

Then the man turned and walked off, away from the store. Watanuki took a few moments to stand again, trembling just slightly.

"Who was that?" He asked Yuuko.

"That was a man who has lost everything." She said softly looking down into her sake.

"Everything?" Watanuki asked carefully.

"Everything." She said. "Everyone he loved which was the only thing he ever saw of any value in his life. He offered me untold millions of dollars to give him happiness but the price was more then he was willing to pay."

"Millions?" Watanuki asked in a strangled voice. "And that wasn't enough?"

She looked at him over her saucer, a look deep in her eyes he couldn't place.

"No. The only way he could ever be happy is if he forgot. Forgot everything. But he'd rather be unhappy then forget any of the people he loved."

You had to respect a man like that, Watanuki thought he stared out the door the man had left minutes before. But he couldn't help but also think he hadn't seen a person as dead as that man, held to earth only by a body that didn't know the rest was gone.

.-.

THE END