Five Crossover Encounters During Anthy's Search - Part Two
One Witch to Another
Watanuki doesn’t hear the girl enter the shop. She is slight and elegant-looking, making him keenly aware that he’s wearing a kerchief and apron (at least they’re not the girly, flowery ones Yuuko-san once tried to drunkenly foist on him) and that his hands are covered in flour. Some primal part within him rises up to resent her for the way she looks as though her clothes never wrinkle, but he promptly battles it into submission. Where the hell had that come from? Irrational dislike is only something that happens to him around Doumeki - and that’s perfectly rational, thank you.
“Excuse me, might I speak to the proprietor, please?” Her voice is clear without being clipped; he might even call it melodic.
“Uh, certainly.” Watanuki’s uncomfortably aware that his face has just turned bright red.
He leads her to Yuuko’s receiving room and knocks. The girl strides past him when a ‘come in’ is heard. In the dim lighting, her dark hair looks almost purple. Watanuki sees Yuuko stand to greet her. “It’s been a while, hasn’t it? What name are you going by now?”
“Himemiya Anthy.”
“Anthea, eh. The name they used to call Hera, in Argos, later used as a metaphor for spring and all things flowery. It suits you.” Yuuko squints at her. “Now more than ever.” She turns to Watanuki. “Our guest is going to want some tea, and,” she shakes her sake pitcher at him, “I’m going dry over here.”
He returns with the drinks, still muttering under his breath about his lush of a boss. Even so, he manages to overhear, “You must understand. I have to - I need to find her. I’m sure the words are a cliché to you by now, but no payment is too high. I’ll do anything.”
“Need?” Yuuko raises an eyebrow. “You have changed, haven’t you.”
“Not to the point of unrecognizability.” The girl’s voice is mild, but there’s something both playful and hard in it; not an implied threat, but not the lack of one, either. Whatever it is, it makes Yuuko look like nothing so much as a purring cat.
“Are you- no.” Yuuko’s look goes from skeptical to resigned. “You of all people would know not to bargain lightly. Let me think.” She takes a swig of her sake. “This would be much easier if I still had the White Mokona with me. I can give you the push, but the rest you’ll have to do on your own inertia. Will that do?”
“Nicely.” For the first time, Watanuki notices how tired the girl’s voice is and his heart goes out to her.
“Very well then. Shall we?” Yuuko takes the girl’s hand, almost flirtatiously.
They walk outside, Watanuki trying so hard to be unobtrusive that he winds up tripping over a doorstop. The girl’s brief smile at his flailing almost makes it worth it.
The wind begins to pick up. “Why is it always raining every time I try to do this?” Yuuko pouts. “Bloody pathetic fallacy. It’s not even particularly appropriate.” And, sure enough, fat drops are striking the ground by the time she’s done speaking. Yuuko seems unaffected, but Anthy turns her face into the rain, letting it wash down her hair and shaking her head when Watanuki grabs for an umbrella to offer her. Yuuko speaks in a language Watanuki doesn’t understand a word of and the girl’s body begins to dissolve.
Before she disappears completely, Watanuki calls out, “I hope you find the one you’re looking for.”
Her eyes meet his and something in them lightens. “Thank you. I’m sure I will.” And she’s gone.
“Who was that?” he asks, taking off his glasses and cleaning them on his apron. His right eye is starting to ache.
Yuuko only grins and he just knows that she’s about to demand more sake and let the whole thing fall by the wayside.
“She’s not human, is she, but she didn’t feel like a spirit, either.” He’s pretty sure he could tell the difference. (Or could he? His mind treacherously supplies the example of the woman who’d been nothing like his actual mother, but who’d made him feel like he was her son, for a brief while, even if the interaction had nearly killed him. No. He’d known she was something other and had gone to meet with her anyway. It was his decision and pretending ignorance only diluted the impact.)
“No,” Yuuko says, “she wasn’t a spirit.” And suddenly it hits him that the feel he got from Anthy reminded him of Yuuko-san herself.
“I should hope so.” Every time Watanuki starts to believe she can’t read his mind… Yuuko rolls her eyes. “I can’t. You’re just predictable, and yes, she is a Witch, like myself.” He can hear the capitalization dripping off her words. “She’s more than that, though. An Incarnation, you might say: the distilled embodiment of the concept of Witch.”
Watanuki whistles. “Sounds powerful.” Not to mention way at odds with her frail image.
“She is. In another lifetime, she was regarded as a goddess, but…”
“Wait a second.” Something occurs to Watanuki. “So you did all that for free, a favor from one witch to another?”
Yuuko chuckles. “Oh, she paid, and it wasn’t a price to be taken lightly. Once, she had sealed herself away, when the pain became too much to bear. A doll is unable to feel and a mirror never shows its own face. She’ll never be able to do that again. Every fear and hope, every connection and emotional slight, she’ll feel them as keenly as a human might, if not more so. She’ll know the sacrifices the one she seeks made for her and she’ll have to live with that knowledge. She’ll travel world to world on the wings of her own power, searching but unable to set root. And when she finds her at last, that power will run out. She’ll be nothing more than a human girl, with only one lifetime to live.”
“But she’ll have her person with her, right? So that’s not too bad.”
Yuuko’s smile is measured. “No, perhaps it isn’t.”
“I just wish…” Watanuki turns away, knowing that if Yuuko-san saw his face, she’d make fun of him. “I just wish I could help her.”
Yuuko produces her pipe, from somewhere in her cleavage and proceeds to light it. “Don’t let it worry you. This is not a woman who’ll ever need rescuing again.”
The smoke begins to rise into the sky, stubbornly ignoring the rain.
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