[xxxHOLiC] The Fled Soul

[Mizumi]

Hm, I once wrote a xxxHOLiC fanfic so I decided to post it here. I hope you like it! ^_^ Not much to say before reading... You could practically place it anywhere in the story after the business with  with the 'ko' - the wings that sprouted out of a girl's back. I thought it was volume 5, not sure tho'.
The story spans two chapters, one big one and one small one. I'd rate the story 13+, same as the original manga, since it contains themes of death.

First Chapter

“Such a pity… just seventeen…”
 “She used to be a wonderful girl – look at her now, she’s completely destroyed by that decease.”
“The least we can do is giving her a proper funeral.”

*

Yûko Ichihara glares into a palm mirror amidst of all her other treasures in the treasure room. Suddenly, a cloud of dust blurs her vision: Kimihiro Watanuki appears with a duster, cleaning every corner of the room.
“How can you live in such a mess! Seriously…” Then, he notices Yûko still glaring into her mirror, and he sighs deeply. “And yet she’s still claiming she’s not vain.”
“I’m not,” says Yûko darkly, “I’m waiting for a special customer to come.”
“With a mirror?”
“Of COURSE with a mirror! It’s the best way to – oh, there she is.”�  Watanuki glares into the mirror too: he sees a young girl peeping through the door’s opening via it, and almost immediately, the girl is out of sight.
“She’s gone?” Yûko shakes her head.
“She’s afraid of mirrors, I suppose,” she says, “go outside and tell her I’m coming.” Watanuki sighs again, but does as he’s just been told to. Suddenly, two little girls jump up from behind a pile of boxes.
“We’ll come too! We’ll come too!” Maru and Moro call. They follow Watanuki outside, dancing around him and singing a song.
“…”

The first thing he notices about the girl is the white substance surrounding her. It’s has the same outward appearance as the spirits that Watanuki haunt, but this one is white as snow, just as the girl’s hair and dress. Her eyes are green; not pale green, but sharp, intruding cat’s eyes-green. She’s around Maru and Moro’s height, and he’d guess her age around eleven or twelve years old.
“H… Hi,” she says softly, “sorry for barging in, I didn’t want to intrude or something…” She seems to be just a normal, shy girl, but the white substance around her makes that Watanuki thinks something else.
“For some reason she doesn’t look human,” he mutters.
“That’s simply because she isn’t.” Yûko has appeared behind him in a new outfit and looks at the girl. “You seem quite young for a fled soul. I suppose this is a disguise?”
“It’s how I looked before I got ill,” the girl whispers, “before my body got destroyed by it. I used to be called pretty.”
“That explains why you hate mirrors, then.”
“Yes.”�  Watanuki looks from Yûko at the girl and back at Yûko astonished, while Maru and Moro are still dancing and singing behind him.
“Eh? What’s with this fled soul-business?” Yûko ignores him and walks closer to the girl, lays her finger against the girl’s chin.
“You have a wish, don’t you? That’s how you’ve gotten here. It’s hitsuzen.”
“Every fled soul has a wish, of course,” the girl mutters, “but it’s impossible to bring back the deaths. Even for the most powerful witch.”
“There is an arrangement we could make,” says Yûko mysteriously, “but it’ll come with a price. And it won’t be cheap.”
“I want to pay it, no matter what,” the girl says, suddenly straightening her shoulders and giving Yûko a self-confident look. “There is something I must do – something that’s impossible for me like I am now.” Yûko nods silently, looks at the confused Watanuki.
“We have an agreement – I have to explain my help here something, then he will come with you to pick up the price you have to pay me. Right, Watanuki?”
“WHAT?! Why always me!?” Yûko grins.
“Do you want the reasons alphabetically or from top to low importance?”
“AARGH!”

“I could have known you’d take ‘talking’ as an excuse to drink again,” Watanuki complains, pouring Yûko some wine into her glass.
“I need to clear my throat, don’t I?” Yûko says, emptying her glass in one draught. “Ah, that tasted good… Well, before I’m going to send you on your way with that girl, I’d better explain what she is. Then you’ll be prepared for what kind of things you might get into this time.”
“You mentioned she’s a ‘fled soul’,” Watanuki remarks, “what is that exactly?”
“Actually, a fled soul is what is says it is,” Yûko starts her explanation. “When a person dies, one’s soul leaves the body, fleeing from death, and returns to the world it’s come from. But some of these fled souls never leave this world, because they were torn away from life all of a sudden, or because there’s something they need to do before they can find inner peace with themselves. Given that this girl has probably been deadly ill for quite a while, I think the last option applies for her.” She sighs, gives her head a rest on her hands. “It really is necessary that I’m going to help her. After all, if I won’t, she’ll eventually turn into a darker spirit – the kind of spirit that haunts you, Watanuki.”
“Well, that explains why the ‘spirit’ I’ve seen surrounding her was white,” he says, “but what about your help? You can’t bring the deaths back to life… can… can you?!”
“No-one can,” says Yûko simply. She looks around, then grabs a little figure that has a lot in common with a little doll’s house-doll. “Remember what I’ve told you about the wings growing out of the back of that girl you’ve met a while ago? Her soul has left her body forever; she’s nothing more than an empty shell. This girl…” She puts away the doll and looks at Watanuki. “… is the opposite. She’s the crustacean from which the shell has been removed. She’s desperate, vulnerable at the moment, and looking for a new shell to hide in. So that’s what I’m giving her – a new shell.”
“So you can bring back the deaths!”
“No.” Yûko grabs the doll again, plays with it’s arms. “An empty shell is looking for its content; a lost crustacean’s seeking a place to hide in. I’m just bringing them together. Temporary.” She throws away the doll over her shoulder. “However, I can’t give her her own body back, nor can I give an empty body it’s own soul back. Whatever it is she needs to do, she will do it as someone else. And talking about it…” She points at Watanuki suddenly. “I need you to find out what it is that she ‘needs to do’.�  You must dive into her past to find out what’s bothering her that much in the present.”
“WHAT?! Why can’t you do that yourself?!”
“I need sooooo much preparation-time,” Yûko exaggerates, “collecting the price she will pay me, seeking her new shell…”
“I’ve already been assigned by you to pick up that price!”
“Nothing is holding you back to talk with her on your way to get it,” Yûko grins. “Now let’s get outside, our fled soul is getting impatient.”

“We’re done.” Yûko pushes Watanuki out of her shop and walks to the girl. “I suppose you now want to hear what you must pay me?”
“Yes.”
“Once I’ve called my price, you will still be able to refuse.”
“I won’t refuse it.”
“Fine.” Yûko looks her in the eyes. “My price will be your body.”
“WHAT?!” both the girl and Watanuki call. The last one glares at Yûko astonished. “I thought you didn’t take lives?”
“That’s right, I don’t,” Yûko says, “a dead body, however, isn’t alive anymore.” She walks closer to the girl, who’s giving her a frustrated look.
“I can’t give you my body, I need it! I need it to do what I have to do!”
“What is it?” Yûko suddenly asks. The girl bends her head.
“I… can’t tell,” she whispers. Then, she runs away.
“Follow her, Watanuki.”
“Wha…”
“You’ve hear me. Follow her,” Yûko repeats, “she’ll go to a place where you can find out much more about her.”
“If you already know, why should I follow her?!”
“You forget something,” Yûko grins, “your payment to me is your service!”
“Oh, right, RIGHT!”

“How could I lose her out of sight – this is gonna cost me a lot to Yûko-san,” Watanuki complains, trying to find the girl back. “She’s probably going to sue me for taking too much of her time and…” Skree, skree! He looks up immediately; the sound came from behind a couple of bushes. “What’s that?” Skree… Curiously, Watanuki puts some twigs out of his sight and glares through the bushes: and yet he’s found the girl. She’s sitting on an old swing, softly moving it with her feet which caused the squeaking. All around her, roses are blossoming in the bushes, as well as in the bushes Watanuki’s hiding in. “Roses?... Oh, damn! Thorns!” He stands up immediately with scratches all over his face and arms, and the girl looks up.
“YOU!” she suddenly calls hysterically. “Get off! Don’t look at me!”
“Hey, calm down!” says Watanuki quickly. “I only have to ask you what…”
“Don’t look at me!” she screams. Then she stands up and runs away: despite of what Watanuki would have expected, she’s quite fast, much faster than he is. She’s run out of his sight before he even realizes it.

[Mizumi]

“A-ha-ha-ha! A girl’s beaten you in running?”
“Don’t give me your ‘a-ha-ha-ha’ again!” Watanuki calls at Yûko. “She was fast!”
“Calm down, I know,” Yûko grins, “as a fled soul, she had to be quick. But you’re just so funny when you’re angry!”
“Watanuki is a funny guy! Funny guy!” Maru and Moro call, dancing around him.
“…” He looks at the girls, suddenly realizes something. “Yûko-san? Aren’t Maru and Moro without souls?” Maru and Moro glare at him with huge eyes, and Yûko lays her hands on their heads.
“They are,” she nods, “why are you asking?”
“I was just wondered… That girl with the wings, ‘ko’ you called them I believe… she became soulless too, and she was very different from what Maru and Moro are.”
“Oh, these two are a whole other story,” Yûko smiles, “a story that won’t be told right now, there are more important things – so this girl was sitting on a swing, you said?”
“Surrounded by bushes filled with blossoming roses,” Watanuki nods.
“I see…” Yûko glares at Maru and Moro, who’re playing hide and seek with Mokona now. “I could have expected it would be a matter of love – after all, it’s a choice between love and revenge for fled souls.”
“You can tell her reason by just the place she went to?!”
“Of course! You truly are a man, aren’t you?” Yûko sighs. “You’re sooo unromantic! Come on, roses – everybody knows them as the flowers of love!”
“Eh,” Watanuki remarks, “don’t you think they’re quite good to take revenge with, too? I mean, those thorns…”
“Ah! Love can hurt, too,” says Yûko wisely, “and now it’s your task to get the painful love story out of this girl!”
“That’s gonna be tough, she doesn’t even want me to look at her,” Watanuki sighs. Yûko pushes her finger against his nose.
“Just a hint – put off your glasses.”
“My…” Yûko holds out a mirror to him. “Remember her fear of her own reflection, Watanuki. Your glasses function to make an image clearly for you – but they can also function as small mirrors for others.”

She looks at a medallion on her lap, caresses the picture of a quite handsome young man inside it. “Why… why…” she mutters, pressing a kiss on the photograph. Then she hears a rustle in the bushes, and she looks up scared. “Who’s there?!” That moment, Watanuki’s head pops out of the roses. His face’s still scratched and yet more by the thorns.
“Sorry, roses don’t seem to like me that much,” he grins, standing up and sweeping away some leafs of his clothes. The girl giggles softly, but stirs as he looks at her.
“Don’t…”
“Hold a second.” Watanuki puts off his glasses, smiles at her. “Better like this?” She nods shyly, stares at the ground beneath her swing as he kneels in front of her. “Yûko-san told me you’ve become a fled soul because of something very painful that happened to you. Something in love – is that correct?”
“Why would you be interested in that?” she whispers, putting the medallion away hastily. A movement that causes it to fall out of her hands and hit the ground. It hits a small stone and breaks into pieces. “Oh, NO!” The girl falls down on her knees and starts to collect the pieces in a rush, and Watanuki is quick enough to lay his hand on the photograph before the girl can.
“Let me help you.” She blushes when he grabs the photo and looks at him. “You like this man?” Watanuki asks. She nods gently, stretches out her hand.
“Will you give it back, please?” she whispers, “I’ll tell you then… although I don’t understand why you’d like to hear my story…”
“It’s because I want to help you, just as Yûko-san wants,” he says, giving her the photo.
“Yûko-san is the woman you’re working for?” the girl asks, pressing the small portrait against her chest with a happy smile.
“Ah well, ‘work for’ isn’t the right word for it,” Watanuki groans, “but enough about me. It’s your story I need to hear to help me.” She nods gently, takes place on the swing again and glares at the photo.
“Okay,” she nods, “I’m telling you my story.”

“It all started when I was ten – my parents died in a car accident and my uncle and my aunt quickly decided they’d adopt me. I had to move from a far distant island to here, so you can probably imagine I wasn’t quite happy by then.” Watanuki nods. Of course, he’s an orphan himself; he knows exactly what she must have been through. The girl sighs deeply, looks at the portrait one more time before she continues to tell her story. “I have a cousin, a girl who’s a couple of years older than me. By the time I arrived at her place, she was fourteen and she was seeing a guy she brought with her one day. By habit, she introduced him to her parents and to me… I… I guess you could say I ‘fell in love’, even though I was just ten at that moment. It didn’t last for long between my cousin and him – a month later, she came home hysterically, screaming and crying of anger because he’d broken up with her. I didn’t think about it anymore until one day, he suddenly showed up at my school, waiting for me instead of for my cousin.” She looks dreamily at the bushes around her. “He brought me roses, red and white roses, and laid them in my arms, so I asked him: ‘Why?’ He responded with a simple: ‘because I like you’. And so, we became friends: he was my very first, real friend. But then, when my twelfth birthday had only just passed, I got ill. Very ill. Eventually, my aunt had to force me to see a doctor. I’ll never forget what he told me.” � A tear drops on the photograph and Watanuki lays his hand carefully on the girl’s, looking at her with pity.
“He told you the illness would destroy your body?”
“Yes…” Another tear drops on the photograph. “There was no cure for it; it would be too expensive to find a cure for such a rare decease… The doctor… literally told me it would be a miracle if I’d reach the age of eighteen. He was right: my last birthday was my seventeenth. By that time, he…” She caresses the portrait on her lap, sweeps away the teardrops. “He was still by my side, in spite of my probably horrible looks. And I… had truly fallen in love with hem by that time, simply because he never let me down like my aunt, uncle and cousin did. It was like they’d adopted me for the money – with my looks, I was often told I could become a model if I wanted to, but when I got ill, there was no way I could earn money by modelling. There was no way I would be able to raise money at all, because a week after my eighteenth birthday… It was the day he took a seat next to my bed and told everyone to leave the room, because he had to tell me something before it’d be too late. But I coughed, kept coughing, and eventually, my soul fled out of my body that quickly that it even surprised me… He never had a chance to tell me what he wanted to, and I never had the opportunity to tell him I love him. That’s why I need to see him – but without a body, he won’t be able to see me.” At that moment, she looks at Watanuki all of a sudden. “Talking about it, how is it possible that you can see me?”
“It runs in his blood.” Both the girl and Watanuki look up: Yûko’s standing behind them, carrying Mokona in a basket. She looks at the fled soul. “I want to thank you for telling your story,” she says. “Now, you must make up your mind about this. I’ve found you a body of a young woman – you could borrow her body if you’d give up your own.”
“I can’t,” the girl whispers. “It’s not that I don’t want to pay it… It’s… the funeral was today. I’ve already given my body to the Earth.”
“That doesn’t matter,” says Yûko simply. “Your body, even burrowed, is just as precious to you as your wish – they’re equal. It’s a fair trade.” The girl swallows, then she nods.
“I’ll pay it. You’re right; it’s the only fair price I can pay you.”
“Fine.” Yûko looks at Mokona in her basket, nods at him. Mokona jumps out of his basket and pokes the girl’s legs.
“Pick me up! Follow Mokona’s instructions; we’re going back to the shop to help you to get into that body!” The girl nods, picks up Mokona and he looks for a place to sit. He finds it on her shoulder and looks at her. “Keep going straight, Mokona knows the way!” Watanuki stands up, looks at Yûko who’s glaring at the girl.
“I thought only people with… how did you say… powers could see Mokona?”
“All fled souls should see them,” Yûko explains. “However, most of them are too fixated on their target to look around. This girl is different. She’s sought help, she’s also concentrating on the things around her. That’s why I earnestly hope she’ll reach inner peace. If she won’t, she’ll become one of the darkest spirits – a negative of what she’s like now. And we’ve already got enough dark spirits, don’t we, Watanuki?” Although the last sentence was meant to be a kind of joke, Yûko doesn’t even smile. She looks up, at the moon that’s starting to rise in the sky. Watanuki follows her look: several pairs of wings are flying to the moon, just as what happened before. “And yet, there are more,” Yûko mutters, “we’re going back to the shop, too, Watanuki. I need to do something.”

A young woman steps into the upcoming darkness. She’s got short, black hair and dark eyes, and her looks make her look around twenty years old. “I will be able to stay in this body for half an hour,” she mutters. “I must find you, quickly…” She puts her hand into her jeans’ pocket, grabs a broken medallion out of it. “What was it that you tried to tell me?” she whispers, “I must know, so please, tell me…”

[Mizumi]

“You’ve given her her cousin’s body?!” Watanuki calls. Yûko’s gazing through the window, blows out some smoke.
“It was the easiest way,” she says. “They’re blood relatives, which makes it a lot easier for her to crawl into the ‘shell’. Besides, the cousin’s soul has only just left: nobody has noticed it yet. All of this made it the perfect choice.” Watanuki just sighs.
“Does she actually know in whose body she’s in right now?” “I guess she doesn’t,” Yûko shrugs, “she’s still refusing to look at her own reflection.”
“Then you’ve made a big mistake!” Watanuki calls, “didn’t you hear her?! Her cousin used to…”
“… Date the man ‘our’ girl is in love with,” Yûko completes. “I’m not deaf, y’know. It’s not like I’d many choices left – if I’d have given her another body, I should have asked her soul instead, because of all the effort it would take to bring her into a body she isn’t related to. The only thing she has to realize is that she’s not herself right now and that she has to convince this man he’s speaking to her soul, through someone else’s body. With the medallion she’s got, I won’t consider convincing him as a problem.”
“Hmf.” It’s silent for a while in the house. Then, Mokona jumps from Yûko’s shoulder.
“Mokona’s thirsty!”
“Me too!” calls Yûko merrily. “Watanuki???”
“AARGH!”

“E… Excuse me,” she mutters, looking at the middle-aged woman who’s opened the door. “I… I was wondered if you know where this man’s living at the moment.” She holds up the photograph that came from the medallion, and the woman looks suspiciously at her.
“I’m his mother, remember? Seven years ago, you used to come here a lot.” She stares at the woman.
“I… did?! Oh, I… okay…” She blushes a bit. “Could you still… tell me where your son’s located?”
“He moved back here when his father died,” the woman says, “did he never tell you? He’ll be back in fifteen minutes; he’s finished his work now. Do you want to come in?”
“Yes, please…” She enters the small house and looks around. ‘I’ve never been here before, I’m absolutely sure of it,’ she thinks, ‘why would she say I used to come here a lot when I was ten if I never did?’ Then she spots a tall, small candle in a corner, with a necklace in front of it. A necklace with the same medallion as she’s got… She gently touches it, but as she tries to open it, the woman’s stepped into the room too and looks at her.
“You’ve got some nerves, haven’t you?” she says, while she grabs the necklace back and puts it back on its place with an angry look. “You already know its content, but still…” 
“I do not know its content,” she says softly.
“Oh, of course you do! What else could it contain than your cousin’s photograph? This necklace belongs to my son,” the woman explains, “as soon as he found out your cousin owned a medallion with his picture in it, he bought this one.” The girl can only stare at the woman who’s his, his mother and almost crushes the already broken medallion in her fist.
‘No…’ she thinks desperately, ‘this… can’t be true…’ “I think it’ll be the best if I’m going right now,” she whispers, “B… Bye.” But when she’s laid her hand on the handle of the door, someone else’s opening the door from outside. Someone steps in, someone who recognizes her.
“You.” She looks up at him, and a blush appears on her cheeks.
“I was looking for you,” she whispers, while she still can’t believe she’s found him that quickly.
“I wasn’t looking for you,” he says suddenly in a low voice. “Actually… the last person I want to see right now is you.”
“How can you say something like that?! After all we’ve been through! I thought the two of us were so close…”
“If you’re still thinking that, you must be blind,” he says, looking in her eyes for the first time. She can only sense one emotion: hate, pure hate. “I’m in love with your cousin. I thought I’d made that a very clear point.”
“You never did,” she whispers, “I really thought that you… at least really liked me…”
“I never ‘really liked’ you,” he says harshly, “you’ve always annoyed me – it took me a month, though, to figure out why. Now I know: it’s because of the way you treat people, especially how you’ve treated your cousin. She’s suffered every single day of the seven years she’s spent with you!”
“That’s NOT true!” the girl suddenly shouts. She hastily puts the medallion back into her pocket, looks at him with both tears and fire in her eyes. “I suffered because of her! I don’t know what she’s told you, but…”
“She’s never told me a thing,” he says, taking off his coat. “I could tell it whenever I was at your place. I could feel her fear for you.”
“She never feared me! She hated me!” she screams. “She hated me even more when I got ill and…”
“DON’T PRETEND YOU’VE BEEN THROUGH THE SAME AS HER!” He’s lost his temper now, and he grabs her shoulders and looks into her eyes furiously. “You will never experience the pain she had to bear, and be happy with it! I tried to help her to bear it, I…”
“So you never came by because of me?”
“Of course I didn’t!” He suddenly grabs the medallion of his own, opens it at looks at the photo inside for a moment. Then, he shows it to her. “I’m in love with this girl, your cousin, not with you! I miss her terribly much!” The girl can only gaze at the photograph, that’s showing the image of quite a good-looking girl… but she doesn’t have short, black hair and dark eyes like her cousin’s got. The girl in the picture has got hair as white as snow, as white as her pale skin that gives her an unhealthy look. Her eyes are as green as those of a cat.
“But that’s… that’s…”
“Your cousin, yes,” he says, a bit calmer now. “Look at her – this picture was taken at her seventeenth birthday, the last one she could celebrate. The day she’d fooled herself for five years in a row by telling herself she looked horrible, just because some doctor told her she’d become ‘ugly’. It didn’t matter how many times I told her she looked beautiful, she never believed me – she smashed every mirror she saw and even refused to look at the window, scared to see her own reflection in it. Everything that only looked like a mirror was scaring her.”
“Mirror…” she repeats, “do you have a mirror? I need to look in a mirror, it’s almost time…”

“It’s almost time,” Yûko mutters, looking at her clock. “Two minutes left. I really hope she can convince him, for everyone’s sake.”
“If you would have told her she’d go into her cousin’s body,” is all Watanuki mutters, “then…” Yûko gives him one of her looks.
“You really think she’d have looked into a mirror to check her reflection, to see if I was right? After five years she’s had fear for every mirror-like subject?”
“Keep your creepy looks off of me!”
“A-ha-ha-ha!”

She can only glance at her own reflection. “I’m her,” she whispers, “I’ve been given my cousin’s body… That explains everything…” She looks at her watch: sixty seconds left. She has to be quick now.
“Still as vain as you used to be?” the man remarks. She puts away the mirror, grabs something out of her pocket. It’s the medallion.
“Things are not as they seem to be,” she whispers, “I want you to have this. I can’t explain everything that’s going on right now – but when you accept my gift, everything will become clear.” She puts the medallion in his hands, lays her own hands on it. “I hope you’re gonna be happy,” she says, “at least… I am now…” He looks at her, then sees a white flash floating out of her body.
“Hey, are you alright?” He grabs her shoulders, but she doesn’t react. He raises his eyebrow, then looks at the thing she’s laid in his hands. “The medallion… There’s no way you could have it, unless…” He looks at the medallion again, at his own picture inside. “Unless… Is that possible…?”

“I’m back,” a voice suddenly whispers behind them. Both Watanuki and Yûko look up: the fled soul is standing behind them, with a blessed smile on her face. “I can’t thank you enough for what you’ve done for me,” she says, “I still didn’t tell him how I think about him, but giving him my medallion was enough.” Yûko nods, then looks at her.
“You’re sure? You think you’ll be able to find peace now?”
“I am.” She hasn’t just said it when she starts to fade quickly: Watanuki glances at her, and within seconds, the girl has faded away.
“I’m glad.” Watanuki looks up at the smiling Yûko. “I’m glad I could prevent a young girl from turning into an evil spirit. Aren’t you, Watanuki?” Watanuki shrugs, then nods. He can still hardly believe what he’s just seen: but then again, the extraordinary is the normal thing at Yûko’s place. “I think it’s time to celebrate, don’t you think?!”
“YAY! Mokona wants beer!” Mokona yells, bouncing around.
“You guys will never change!” Watanuki calls angrily.
 ~*~*~

[Mizumi]

And short chapter 2 ^_^
Second Chapter
It’s been a month now since the fled soul came to Yûko to ask for her wish. No-one in the shop has thought about her anymore: life’s just as normal, if you can call a life around Yûko’s shop normal. “Watanuki! Pour us in just one more drink, please!” When Watanuki wants to yell something as his answer, he suddenly sees someone at the gate.
“You’ve got a guest,” he calls instead of an insult. Yûko stands up immediately.
“WHAT?! Why haven’t you said that before! I’m coming!” Watanuki gives the man a close look. It’s one of the first times a man has come to visit Yûko’s shop: they’re mostly women or girls. This man, who has blonde hair and dark eyes, looks like he can use some help: it seems like he hasn’t slept for weeks and his look is gloomy. “How can I help you?” Yûko has appeared behind Watanuki, in a different, more decent outfit. “In other words, what is your wish?” The man looks up at her.
“I want to be with the girl in my heart,” he says. Yûko looks at him again.
“But she’s not among the living anymore, is she?”
“No. The only thing I’ve got left from her is this.” He holds up a broken medallion, and Watanuki can only gaze at it.
“That’s her medallion!”
“You think I didn’t notice?” Yûko sighs. The man looks at her with a surprised face.
“You know her?!”
“Yes. She came here before, and I think you know why,” says Yûko. “Actually… I think you know a lot more about her than you pretend to know. You know she was a fled soul, right? And that she came to you in her cousin’s body as her last wish?”
“I didn’t know it was you who helped her out,” the man says. “But it’s true… I already know that. When she handed me the medallion, I realized immediately what was going on… That it wasn’t her cousin speaking to me, but she herself.” He sighs deeply. “And yet she doesn’t know the thing I’ve wanted to tell her… That I want to be with her, forever. So I was looking for help when I ended up here.”
“I hope you know what you’re asking,” says Yûko thoughtfully, “being with her forever is the same as dying, y’know. Her soul has flown away – if you want to be with her, your soul has to leave too. The only decent way to do that is by dying.”
“I’m ready,” the man says, “there’s no-one left who’ll care for me. My father died earlier, my mother recently passed away. The girl I love is dead… I’ve got no other family left.” Yûko nods, then looks at Watanuki.
“Go and get a knife from the treasure room, Watanuki.”
“You’re not saying you’re…”
“He’ll have to do it himself,” says Yûko, “I can not kill him. You know I don’t take lives – not as a price, but not as a favour either. Now, go while this man and I are gonna make an agreement about his price.” Watanuki looks at her angrily.
“You want him to pay a price for this?! Isn’t his life the highest price he can afford?”
“That’s not up to you to decide,” says Yûko, pushing him back into the shop. “Now go and get that thing! And as for you…” She looks at the man again. “We’ve got a conversation to hold. You mustn’t rush into this, y’know. To take the decision to die… it’s a tough one. You must think this over and over again until you make your final decision.”
“I’ve thought about it a whole month,” he says, “and I’m sure about this. Knowing that I won’t be able to see her anymore… it’s too hard to deal with. I’ve made up my mind – I want to be with her, no matter what it takes.”
“Well, your feelings for this girl are real,” Yûko sighs, “that’s a sure thing. But, if you’re sure… Then we’ll have to start talking about a price. I can only give you the knife, the rest is up to you. But I’m giving you a tool to death. Your death is something valuable, so you’ll have to pay a fair price for it.” She reaches out her hands to him, lays her fingertip on the medallion he’s still holding. “I was thinking about this.”
“Her medallion…” He sighs deeply. “It sure is valuable to me, that’s true… But, if I’m dead, I won’t need it anymore. I accept your price.”
“Very well. Then we’re bound by hitsuzen.” At that moment, Watanuki’s returned with a knife.
“I still can’t believe you’re serious about this,” he says to no-one in particular. “Here’s the knife, Yûko-san.”
“Thank you. You can go if you don’t want to see this, Watanuki.” He nods and runs off immediately. Yûko looks at the man now. “I’ve already told you, this is something you have to do yourself. I’m just handing you a tool to your ultimate wish.”
“What if I’d have taken my own knife instead?”
“It’d hurt a lot more,” says Yûko. “This knife cuts what it needs to cut. It’ll leave blood behind, but no pain. The opposite of what you’d experience with your own knife. And besides…” She looks in his eyes deeply. “You came to me because you were scared to try it yourself with your own knife, weren’t you? You wanted to be comforted about this, to have someone who’d tell you it’s not wrong what you’re doing. You probably thought I was the one.” She hands him the knife. “I’m not telling you this is wrong – I’m not telling you it’s right, either. It’s your own decision. If you’re satisfied with the result of your choice, then that’s it.”
“You’ve dealt with this situation before, haven’t you?”
“When you own a shop that sells wishes, you get into a lot of situations,” says Yûko simply. The man smiles a bit, then takes the knife from Yûko’s hand. “You have to pay your price now.”
“Here it is.” He hands the medallion over to her; it’s visibly hurting him to give it away. “Is it OK to keep the other medallion? The medallion with her picture in it?”
“It is,” Yûko nods. “It would be asking too much from you if I’d ask that as well. Your payment must be fair.” She looks at him. “I suppose this is the last time we’ll talk, then?”
“I guess so too. Do you mind if I’m going now? I’d like to do this in private.”
“Of course you would,” Yûko says. “This choice is a very personal one – it can’t get more personal than this, actually. I hope you’ll reach the girl you love.”

Watanuki peeps through the window. “It’s done, Watanuki, you can come outside again,” Yûko says, looking at the sky together with Mokona. “In fact, he went away five hours ago. You really think he’ll come back?”
“M-Maybe he’s changed his mind,” Watanuki mutters, gently opening the door. “Or maybe something went wrong…”
“You don’t have to be afraid he’s a fled soul now, too,” says Yûko. “After all, there’s nothing left that’s binding him on earth – he was desperate to separate his body and soul from each other. No, I’ve got the feeling he is where he belongs now.” Above them, the moon’s shining clearer than ever.
It’s shining like a medallion, carrying the portrait of someone very precious.
A medallion that’s laying on one of Yûko’s cupboards now, opened, but showing another portrait than last time someone’s opened it. The glass isn’t broken anymore – and the portrait is showing a man and a young woman, smiling happily as if death never happened to them.

The End