1-3: An explosive friend

“And when. I gave him those flowers, you know what he said? He said, “get out of my house”. And then he kicked me!”

“That’s unfair.”

“I know!”

“You deserved being stabbed.”

“You’re supposed to support me! Traitor!”

The public laughed with my joke filling my ears with a beautiful sound. I tried to not look at them to maintain the immersion, but it was a little pointless since they can’t see my face.

Three months had passed since I discovered how to actually use magic. I experimented with literally everything I could, that way I learned to do a lot of things in this short period of time, and at the same time, I figured out how to make some money. I just needed to do the thing I always wanted to do: Have and give fun.

Of course, no one would take me seriously with my usual appearance, so I made some changes. I used a lot of clothing to make a huge suit that would only fit someone very tall and a giant mask that covered my entire head like a helmet. Then I used a lot of wood to make stilts so I could be adult-sized. My voice was a big problem, but I eventually found a solution.

“At least you could say *Cough* *Cough*.”

“Your own actions are sickening you. God was a little slow for the punishment.”

It was hard, but I managed to manipulate my mana with my fingers in the way I would do with strings. My left hand was focused on controlling a puppet I made with a scarecrow modified to simulate a person in a costume, and my right hand was doing the hard job. With that hand I was manipulating my own throat for having a deep voice. I had some basic knowledge about anatomy, so it wasn’t that hard. It’s really painful, but it’s also a good way to check and improve my accuracy.

I used the modified voice for my own dialogues, and for the puppet I used my normal voice so it would be funny how the serious of the duo had a childish voice. If someone wonders how I can project my voice onto the puppet, I made a giant plastic cup phone with mana and put it inside the clothes of the scarecrow, that way I just need to talk to a little version of it and that way my voice gets out. It would be perfect if it wasn’t because the things I do with mana disappear some seconds after I stop touching them, so my mobility is limited.

“Unfortunately, my show has reached the end for today, but maybe some money can make me appear again.”

“Please someone give him money, he can’t work without committing a crime.”

“That one was unnecessary.”

I received some coins and after putting them inside the scarecrow head, I abandoned the place. Walking was very complicated, but I needed a quiet place so no one could figure out that I was the one inside that complicated costume.

“Nice, with this I can finally buy the scarecrow.”

The money I collected served several purposes, one of which was to pay for my shows. In my early attempts, I only managed to get enough money to use the scarecrow for the day, but now people are waiting for me and even paying me more. My earnings even increased when I moved my shows to areas frequented by the upper classes.

“There it is.”

When no one was looking at me I walked to the exit of the town and behind a tree removed the costume. Now I was able to move in a comfortable way.

“I wanna be a teenager already, this size makes everything very complicated.”

Finally, I walked away with all my money, but also being followed by someone.

“Hmm…Then I could make a joke about someone on the street…but I’m probably gonna be killed if I do that with a noble…”

At home, I used my free time preparing my comic routines for the next four days and thinking about what things I could do besides jokes. I was thinking about a puppet show, but I need more money for buying some materials so I could make my own puppets.

“Thomas! Someone wants to talk with you!”

“Huh?”

My creative process was interrupted when my mother called me. Normally she doesn’t care about what I’m doing, so this must be serious.

Very intrigued, I went to the door and opened it. On the other side was a blonde girl with blue eyes that reminded me of a cat's. She looked my age, but she clearly wasn't from here; after all, she dressed too well.

“...Do you need something from me?”

“...”

The girl was looking at me in a very strange way. Maybe I was too rude?

“Umm, excuse me. It’s very strange having rich people here, I’m not used to-.”

“Are you the pumpkin duo?”

“...What is that?”

“The duo that do comedy in a nearby town.”

I was flattered to be given a nickname, but that wasn’t the best moment to react like that. After all, my parents were close, and the girl clearly wanted answers.

“I know about your-.”

“Wow! I can’t believe someone like you wants to play with me! Of course, let's do it on the river!”

“Huh?”

I started to run away and the girl chased me to a nearby river. In there the noise of the water was stronger than my voice, so it was the perfect place for talking about this.

“Why are you running?!”

“I already stopped.”

Very tired, the girl stopped in front of me and tried to recover. I tried to appear calm, but deep down, I was a little scared.

“So…how did you figure it out?”

“You’re not gonna deny it?”

“I prefer knowing how someone was able to discover me.”

“Well, I just followed the trace.”

“Trace?”

“Yeah”

Trying to understand what she was saying, I sat on the air while the rest of my body was in a perfect G*ndo pose.

“Explain yourself…”

“Is that necessary…?”

“...”

“Well… During your shows you left a lot of mana scattered, I just followed it until I saw someone who was also losing mana.”

“How did you even do that?”

“The first time I saw your shows I noticed something was wrong, so I used the spell to visualize mana”

“...I didn’t know that was a thing…”

“So…”

My worries only increased after knowing all that. My idea was to continue with those shows for a while, but if I left a trace then someone could make my identity public. That town is the only place I have access to, I can’t lose it.

I thought she would say that I was doing something wrong and everyone would know it now…But she said something else.

“How did you do that?”

“Huh?”

“When I visualized the mana I noticed how you were moving that scarecrow. How is that possible?”

“That?...Well, I just modified my mana until I got strings, every single string is connected to a finger.”

“I got that, just…How is that even possible?

“You don’t know how to modify the mana?”

“I didn’t even know that was possible.”

That didn’t make any sense. If she knew spells like mana visualization then she should have a bigger comprehension of the magic, things like just dropping mana and modifying it aren’t even something complicated. Trying to explain how it worked I started releasing mana and slowly changing its shape.

“Well, first you let the mana flow, then you move it like clay. At first you will do it very slowly, but after some practice you should be able to do complicated forms in a second.”

“What is the formula you use for that?”

“It’s just dropping mana, it doesn’t require a formula.”

“Really?!”

“...You’re not going to tell anyone about this?”

“That doesn’t matter, let me try it.”

The girl tried the same I was doing, but after a few seconds she fell to the ground really tired.

“Are you okay?!”

“Why…?”

“Huh?”

“I did the same…but I ran out of mana almost immediately…”

“Huh.”

Trying to understand what happened I put my hand on the place where she was dropping the mana, but I barely felt a tiny portion of what I usually use for my shows. Why is her mana so tiny?

Then I remembered what Yutwo told me. One of the extra helps was this extra mana? I wasn’t someone sociable in this world besides my shows, so this was my first time looking at someone else using magic…Wait, this isn’t the time to think about that!

“Right! How can you recover mana?!”

“I don’t have potions…I can only rest…”

“Where is your home?”

“Take me to the town, my father should be looking for me right now…”

“Got it!”

Trying to not leave fingerprints on her, I did mana gloves and carried her to the town.

“By the way…I’m gonna say that you found me after being attacked by a monster…”

“Thanks.”

“Also, I’m not going to reveal your secret.”

“I’m grateful for that.”

“But…we’ll see each other tomorrow.”

“...I was planning to do a show tomorrow.”

“We can do it after the show. If you don’t accept, I’ll tell my parents everything and add some lies.”

“...You were planning this from the start?”

“Not the part of losing my strengths.”

And that’s how I made my first friend in this world…Well, more like I was forced to make my first friend.

“At least tell me your name.”

“I’m Cloe,”

“Nice to meet you, I’m thomas.”

I’d like to say that this was the worst moment of our relationship…but I would be lying.