Disclaimer: xxxHolic belongs to CLAMP and Warriors belong to the authors collectively known as Erin Hunter. I own absolutely nothing in relation to either works, except for the idea to mesh them together.
Chapter Two – Whitestorm
"A white cat?" I asked doubtfully. "Isn't that a bit too easy?"
Yuuko-san laughed. "Naughty child. Weren't you listening? This curse is powerful, but easily broken. Continue, Doumeki."
"You also need the location," Doumeki said. "Exactly where it happened is important, as well as exactly what happened. In other words, you and the white cat must be in the exact spot you and the black cat were in when the first incident occurred. Then, the white cat must move in a way that is similar to how the black cat crossed your path."
"You call that EASY!" I exclaimed at Yuuko-san.
She shrugged. "Comparatively."
I sighed, frustrated, and said: "Back up for a moment. You said I had to be exactly where I was when the black cat crossed my path? What if I don't remember?"
"You spend the rest of your life cursed with powerful bad luck," Doumeki said indifferently.
I groaned. "So I have to remember to get rid of this curse."
"Can't you tell us what you've seen while you where running away pathetically from my friend?" Yuuko-san suggested.
"I wasn't running away pathe –"
Yuuko-san said, "Just get on with it!"
I growled. But I recounted my tactical retreat. "Once I lost Doumeki, I started retracing my steps and eventually came to a fork on the road. One of the houses straight ahead looked tempting to enter, so I immediately assumed that it had some kind of enchantment or curse on it that made me want to enter."
"Suspicious, aren't you." Yuuko-san laughed.
"I learned that from you," I said stiffly. I continued: "So I turned right instead. I walked along that street for a couple of meters, and then it forced me to turn left. When I did, I finally recognized a street in front of me, so I hurried forward, and to come here, I turned left, and then I took one step and the cat was suddenly running in my path, and I tripped over it, skinned my hand –" at this point I raised my hand to show them – "and then when I looked up to the right, where the cat went, the house was right there! Its gate was even slightly open. Like it wanted me to come inside, or was expecting me. And the black cat was just sitting right in front of the house. I'm still sure it's cursed."
Yuuko-san took two seconds reflecting on what I just told her.
Then she suddenly started laughing so hard I jumped.
"Ha-ha," Yuuko-san just laughed. "ha-ha-ha-ha…!"
"What's so funny?" I angrily tried to interrupt her.
It took Yuuko-san thirty full seconds to recover, and by that time she claimed her cheeks where hurting and she needed alcohol. I replied that she had enough for the day, and I was not about to give her any more without an explanation, at which point she stuck her tongue out at me.
She said: "Alright, Watanuki, tell me this: if there is a square with points A, B, C, and D in that order, and you start from point A, how many ways can you go to point B?"
I blinked. A math question wasn't what I expected. "Well, you have to go straight from A to B, don't you?"
I got more annoyed when Yuuko-san giggled infuriatingly. "Watanuki, you're being too straightforward. Even if it takes longer, you can still just go around, can't you?"
I frowned for one moment, and then suddenly it hit me. Hard.
Yuuko-san laughed even more at my expression. "Let's say the house is point B on the square," she said to my ever-reddening face. "If you're on point A, of course you'll be able to see it, because there's a straight path from A to B. But at the same time, if you turn right to point D, then turn left and arrive at point C, then turn left again, it's no wonder you ended up at the same point B. The street system in Japan is mostly grid-based, remember?"
Mokona laughed as well. "Watanuki! That was so obvious!"
"Shut up! You didn't get it until she explained either!"
"It's no wonder he can't keep up in class," Doumeki said.
"You shut up too! You shouldn't be talking!"
The worst bit came when Maru and Moro came in.
"Watanuki's it, the ca-ter-pit!" Maru sang.
"He's a really big i-di-ot!" Moro finished.
That did it for conversations that night. I marched straight into the guest room in the shop and slammed the door closed.
"Frustrated?" soft voice said from the darkness of the room.
I yelped. I forgot about the customer.
"I don't blame you," he went on, "but just remember that things could be a lot worse and just because you messed up once, doesn't mean you have to prove something immediately to make up for it."
I blinked. He had a kind, but wistful, voice. "Th-thank you," I stammered.
I excused myself and as I exited the room, he said, "Just be careful of not to get tangled in the black cat's bad luck."
I glanced at him. Sitting on the bed, he had tight-fitting white shirt and some kind of cut-off of what must once have been a shiny black overcoat.
And a tattoo on his chest that said XIII.
As I hurried over to the other guest room, another thought hit me: he must have especially keen senses if he could hear our conversation from where he was.
The next day I was feeling much better. I walked out of the second guest room, and tripped over Maru and Moro.
"What the – what are you to doing here?"
"Listening to you snore!" Maru and Moro said at the same time, and giggled.
I was really tempted to go back to my bed, even more so when I accidentally banged my foot on the door into the dining room.
"Oh, here you are, Watanuki!" Yuuko-san said with a smile. "Go make me some omelettes!"
I growled, but complied. Ten minutes later Yuuko-san was eating six ounces of omelette while I had a phone book in my lap.
Yuuko-san glanced over at the page I was on and smirked. "You won't find the white cat you need in a pet store, Watanuki."
I looked up, startled, and asked: "What do you mean?"
"Let me ask you a question first, Watanuki. On a scale of one to ten, where one is dull black and ten is shiny black, what would you rate the cat that crossed your path last night?"
That was definitely an odd question. "I would rate the cat one. Its fur was really, really dull… a lot unlike other black cats I've seen. Now that I think about it, I don't think hair is supposed to be that dull."
Yuuko-san nodded. "So you need a total antithesis to such a spi – I mean, such a ragged-looking cat."
I frowned. "Such as?"
Yuuko-san had a wide smile on her face. "A spirit of a cat, of course."
"But Doumeki said I needed a living white cat," I protested.
"Well, he was wrong. I was going to correct him last night, except of course for your sulking."
"I was not –"
"In any case, for that small correction, I want to eat spaghetti with meatballs for lunch today!" Yuuko-san sang, "Accompanied by lots and lots of wine!"
I rolled my eyes, but didn't complain this time. I could've been charged for a lot worse, like the shark dinner I had to make Doumeki.
"So, if you don't mind… where would I find the ghost of a white cat?"
"The spirit of a white cat," Yuuko-san corrected me. "And I'll bet that I can find one in the parking lot by the mall that your beloved Himawari-chan was at yesterday."
"What would a spirit of a white cat want to do in a parking lot?"
"You could ask him, if you like."
I blinked. "Do you know this spirit?"
Yuuko-san examined her trimmed nails carefully. "Do I?"
I growled again. This wasn't getting me anywhere. I stood up. "I'll be going now then."
Yuuko-san had that all-too-familiar smile on her face. "Go on."
Annoyed, I was about to go, but then I remembered something. "Wait. What about that customer of yours that came yesterday?"
"He already left, don't worry about him."
I was surprised. Yuuko-san usually made me do the dirty work.
"I know what you're thinking," Yuuko-san warned. "Don't think like that."
"What the – now you're a psychic too?"
Yuuko-san winked. "Who knows?"
Fearing for my sanity, I left.
I arrived at the shopping mall forty minutes later on foot.
In truth, I would've liked to use my bicycle, except for the fact that it had a flat tire. As fixing punctured tires are not one of my specialties, I decided to go on foot, which turned out to be a mistake, because it was utterly exhausting.
Today I was without Doumeki so that I could actually see the spirit. Although, I was still confused as to what a white cat's spirit would be doing here. After all, a cat likes mice more than cars. Then again, if the cat knew Yuuko-san, it definitely wasn't a normal cat, to say the least.
After taking a careful look around the parking lot, I concluded that I must be insane. There was no way that a cat could come in here. Although most of the time Yuuko-san was right, I couldn't see what the cat would be doing in here, unless it wanted to look at cars. After all, there was no food, no trees, and probably not even any mice. Deciding that I was probably wasting my time, I started to move toward the stairway.
And then I saw it. Great, just when I gave up.
It was obviously a spirit; it was shining so distinctly white I wondered how I could've missed it. Its entire being was covered in points of light, like being made up of stars. It smoothly lifted a paw, licked at it, and then touched the windshield of the car that it was sitting on.
I still wondered at its fascination with cars.
But more importantly, this cat would be the key to getting rid of the so-called "curse".
I regretted thinking that almost at once when I heard a screech of tires. I yelped and jumped forwards, banging my head on the bumper in front of me, just as a car came roaring down the pathway, missing me and the other cars in the lot by mere ten centimetres.
The white cat yowled in surprise, its fur sticking straight out, and jumped higher up onto the roof of the car. "Keep away, monster!" it screeched.
Well, I nearly got run over, and all I could say was: "You can speak?"
The cat turned to me, in even further surprise: "You can see me?"
And I, ever the idiot, replied: "You can hear me?" (Well, after all, this is the first non-humanlike spirit to ever see me without trying to latch itself on me. Blame me for thinking none of them can hear me.)
"You can understand me?" the cat replied incredulously.
I took a deep breath. "Okay, this is officially getting us nowhere."
The cat was trying to flatten its fur. "I agree."
"Let's introduce ourselves first." I smiled and held out my hand. "I'm Kimihiro Watanuki."
The cat licked my hand in return. "I am called Whitestorm."
A/N For the parking lot scene - I mean more like parking buildings, not just an open pavement of lined space. Just to be clear.
