Part I: The New Customer

"Watanuki...." ordered Yuuko for the third and most pleading time, hand over her forehead, body lain outstretched on her sofa and limp. To most, she would appear sick and pathetic. But to Watanuki, who was well experienced to this point knew she was only acting this way for one reason. As he stepped in slowly, he tried playing dumb.

"Yes, Yuuko-san....?" he sighed. She lifted one weak hand to him. In her grasp was an accessibly large, empty sake bottle.

With weakness in her voice she muttered out, "Refill........"

"REFILL?!!?!?! This is your FIFTH TIME DRINKING DOWN THAT BOTTLE!!!!" He shouted out to her, trying to get the point across. "You know VERY WELL drinking like this all the time is going to wind up seriously hurting you! Then, THEN who's going to get me out of this blood curse, HUH?!" Yuuko, however, seeming unconvinced, just shook the bottle in front of his face.

"You mean, 'Who would I serve then', don't you. Maybe Doumeki-kun can use a hand now and then, yes?" She stated with another shake of the bottle. Watanuki, with the thought of having to put up with either Yuuko or Doumeki making him grit his teeth, snatched the bottle from her grasp and storm into the kitchen. "That's a good boy." She smirked.

"Dammit... I hate this hold she has on me......" he muttered to himself while pouring in some fresh sake for her. "Just give me some sort of a break....for once....ah, but of COURSE any break I get I have to work it off twice as hard! SO WHAT'S THE POINT?!?!" he shouted to himself, blunt to the fact the sake he had been pouring out had overfilled the bottle and was now dribbling down his hand and onto the floor. When he finally came back to, he looked down to the spilled sake and groaned. Somehow, with the fact some of her sake was wasted, Yuuko had gained the strength to stand watching in the main doorway.

"Actually, now three times to work off this mess you made so carelessly with my precious sake, Watanuki." She said coldly.

"WHAT?!!?! Why??!?! It's just a few drops!!! You make such a big deal about THIS?!!?"

"Would you like to make it four?"

He looked away, not responding to the threat made by his strict employer and merely began to clean up the puddle.

"That's better." She said, then grinned to Mokona, who had just bounced up onto her shoulder. "He really IS a good worker, isn't he"

"He is!!!" giggled the small, black, rabbit-like Mokona. Watanuki groaned loudly at both of their comments.

"Now then, I'll leave you to that. You know how very busy I am." Yuuko said as she strolled out casually.

"Hmph....." he muttered. "....busy my-"

"Yuuko-san!"

"Yuuko-san!"

Two voices shouted out in unison while running towards her with a mysterious, blue orb.

"Yes, Maru....Moro....what is it?" she asked to the pink and blue haired children.

"A new customer!" Maru said softly.

"A new dimension!" Moro continued.

Yuuko looked down into the orb for a moment as its cloudy contents shifted and changed to form the region where her new customer existed.

"So........" she stated slowly and cool. "Seems like our Watanuki has yet another assignment...... however......" she watched carefully as the orb changed to the image of the customer and smirked. ".........he may be in for something..........a little different." Her smile broadened from the full image inside the orb. "This will be fun indeed......."



Part II: Oh I wish...

"Well? Come on already! Hit me!" The orange haired, hot tempered teen shouted out into the forest in front of him. "So typical of you to run off like that!"

"It's called a very good strategy, Kyo. Figure it out for yourself." Said the well-built black and white haired boy behind him with a cool tone. "I suggest you stay on your guard. Only she knows what will become of you next."

"She does this everytime!" He shouted, back turned to the wooded area. "Even worse than that rat boy at fighting! Just like her to be this way....No WONDER she's-" At that instant, he was interrupted by a blunt pain off the back of his shoulder. By instinct, he turned quickly and grasped whatever had hit him with both hands. Afterwards, there was a loud thud from behind him. He held the now stunned Shakeda by the ankle and pinned her with her own knee. "-a devious little weasel!"

"EXCUSE ME?!?!?!?" she flailed angrily. "How long, HOW LONG have we known each other exactly!?!?! I'm most DEFINATLY NOT A WEASEL!!!" she tried to kick out with her other leg, but she was well stuck under his weight. After a long moment, he came back up slowly and helped her back up.

"If you two are finished with each other, can we please get back to training?" The other boy requested casually.

"Yeah yeah whatever, Haru." Kyo replied. "Let's get this over with."

"You two go ahead...." Shakeda said softly. "I need to take care of a few things by home." She began back for the house.

"You sure?" Haru asked. "It's not much fun beating up the kitten if you're not around to help."

"HEY! DON'T START NOW or you're getting a one way ticket to the SLAUGHTER HOUSE!!" Kyo shouted back to him.

"Don't go killing each other....then who will I have to fight next time?" She smirked and walked off, limping slightly from the pin.

Just about halfway home, Shakeda looked back down onto her beaded bracelet, the thoughts of her past coming back on her. How she lost her mother. The death of her sister, Shiomi. Being shunned completely from her father and being feared by the head of the family. And the several hardships she gained in between. She sighed deeply and tried her best to get out of the storm inside her head.

As her home came into view, she stopped for a moment. It felt like she was being held back. Like she had forgotten to do something. Or like something was going to happen.

"Yeah, sure...." she muttered to herself. "What's there to happen now? Nothing's too fun for now...." She groaned at the thought of having to fill in for Tohru, since she had gone on her class vacation for two weeks and sighed at the fact there was hardly ever anything to do but training with Kyo and Haru.  "Not much fun after beating them all the time..." she laughed.

Taking this time as a break, she walked over towards her usual resting spot. The large boulder just by the lake. She sat down on it and looked to the vivid, blue sky. Feeling more at peace, she leaned back, her short, black hair just barely touching the edge of the boulder. Letting out a light sigh, she shut her eyes and muttered out, "Yeah....nothing special........"



Part III: A New Assignment

"Watanuki....would you come in here now?" Yuuko asked smoothly.

"I need a minute, Yuuko-san." He replied, trying best to clear up the greater filth pile in her treasure room after being sent there for the THIRD time in a month. "There's a bit much around here that still needs to be-"

"Did I say you can have a minute? I clearly remember saying 'now'!" she demanded impatiently. Watanuki, however, ignored the demand and continued to clean.

"If I don't get this done now, I'm sure you'll make me do it on my off-time! Either that or it'll never get done!" Yuuko, not much of one being ignored, reached out with her long arm and grabbed him swiftly by his collar and dragged him into her main room. "GAAAAH!!!! OK!!! OK!!!!! What do you want NOW?!!?"

She let go after a momentary restraint and sat him down next to the large, blue, mystifying orb. Pointing to the images inside of it, Yuuko grinned and began. "It seems.....there's someone in need of our assistance. Someone who is in desperate need of a wish being granted."

Watanuki, looking into the orb for a moment, muttered to himself, "By our....I beat she means....." He then shut his eyes tight, angermark throbbing on his forehead.

"Doumeki won't be accompanying you this time. There's no need to be bothering him this time." Yuuko said, knowing he'll respond easier. Then, when hearing a sigh of relief from Watanuki, Yuuko grinned slightly. "Unless, of course, you might feel like you'll be in need of assistance.....or maybe you'd just miss him too much...."

"HELL, WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY THAT??!?!! I'd be MORE THAN HAPPY to know that CREEP will be out of my hair for ONCE!!!!"

"So it's settled then." She stated quickly while holding Mokona up to his face. "You know where to bring him, right?"

"Hai!!" He responded and bounded into the air.

"Eh?! W-Wait, Yuuko-san...Y-You haven't told me-"

"Ciao, Watanuki......I'm sure you'll figure it out in time." As she spoke, she stepped back a bit from him as a beam of light shot from the blue crystal on Mokona's head, and, mearly with a wave, she watched him start to vanish.

"WAIT! NO!!!.......YUUKO-SAAAAAAAAAN~!!!!!" At that moment, both Watanuki and Mokona disappeared from sight. Yuuko sat back down onto her sofa, seeming satisfied with herself, watching silently into the orb.

What was going to happen will be worth watching.