Chapter Three: An angry customer... shrine maiden?

"Manager, the fryers are messing up again." "Manager, the soda box is empty." "Manager, I need tomorrow off." On and on they call me. Every time I fix something, another thing breaks. Every time I help someone, another person has a problem. Every day, I question how I ended up here. However, I can never find an answer to that question.

I wonder if everyone has to deal with this, or maybe I'm just the unlucky one who got stuck in a never-ending, annoying, dead-end job. Either way, I continue to march on like nothing matters. Well, it's pointless to think about, after all, I shouldn't waste my lunch break questioning life. As soon as I take a bite into my burger, the break room door opens.

"Manager, an angry customer is asking for you." I can't even eat my lunch! I dropped my burger onto the plate and stood up. "Fine, I'll handle it," I said, trying to hide my annoyance. I walked out to the front, where my employee pointed to the person. I looked over and saw a short girl in a...

Shrine maiden outfit... Don't tell me. Was smacking me over the head not enough for her? Plus, didn't she say to forget about everything? Well, I have heard that criminals sometimes return to the scene of the crime, but seriously, what does she even want from me? Before I could just ignore her, she looked over and saw me.

She started walking over to me. Can this day get any worse? Wait, don't answer that. I already know it will. She stood right in front of me, and now that I got a better look at her, she looks pretty. Or at least I think so? She was about a head shorter than me and had dark brown hair and brown eyes. Granted, she looked way too young for me and...

"Where is it?" she asked. "Wheres what?" "Don't play games with me. You know exactly what I'm talking about." "Well, you see, my memory is a little foggy after being hit by something last night." She glared at me. "Then, I'll have to hit you again to see if it jogs your memory." "Aren't you a little young to be hitting on older guys?"

Her face glowed a bright red after that comment. "Why... You..." Ring, ring. Before she could say a retort, my phone started to ring. I looked at it and saw that Seiji was calling. That's odd, he hardly ever calls me. "Sorry, shorty, but I need to take this call." I went back to the break room to answer the call. "Hey, where are you going. I'm not done with...

I closed the door and drowned out her voice. "Hey, what's up, Seiji?" "Hey, boss... I've got some bad news." I could hear from his voice that he was deeply upset about something. "Okay, what is it, Seiji?" "My daughter..." I could hear Seiji take a deep breath. "She has stage four leukemia. So, I need to quit working..." "It's fine, Seiji, you should be with her more now than ever." "Thanks, boss."

"Don't worry about it." I heard Seiji start to cry as he hung up the phone. Damn, what's wrong with this world? Giving an innocent child cancer. And here I was complaining about my terrible life, yet this world wants to take a child's life. Before I could process any more philosophy, the break room door opened.

"Manager, you're girl or whatever is still out there waiting for you?" My girl? Does she really think I would go after some... You know what I'd rather not think about how these kids see me. It will probably make me hate my life even more. I stood up and headed out the door to see her standing there with her arms crossed, glaring at me.

"Look, I'm going to be honest with you. I'm tired and don't have the time to care. Just tell me what you want," I stated. She still looked annoyed, but relaxed her arms. "Fine, do you have that wishing orb?" Wishing orb, wait, was that hallucination real? No, maybe that marble thing is some new fad, and I just recalled a random advert about it somewhere.

"Yeah, it's..." I patted my back pocket, but remembered that I changed uniforms this morning. "So, I might have left it at home." Her anger flared up again, and she grabbed me by the collar. "Then go get it." "Wish I could, but I'm working right now." "What time do you get off work?" "Probably around one in the morning."

Her grasp on my collar loosened. "But, it's only nine right now." "Yup." "Fine, I'll be back at the time, so you better not run off." She released me and then stormed out. I really hope she doesn't. Anger customers are one thing, but... Wait, the time! I looked over at the clock on the wall and saw I only had a few minutes left on my so-called break.

I quickly rushed into the break room and jumped into the chair. As I did, I felt pain hit my rear end. I sat up, looked down at the chair, and noticed a faintly glowing blue marble. Woops, I guess I forgot to change my pants this morning. I reached down and picked it up.

"So have you chosen to participate?" I looked up and saw that the fox was sitting in the chair across from me. "You can have whatever wish you want." The call with Seiji echoed in my mind. With that girl pestering me, I didn't really have time to process it. I shouldn't put any hope into some crazy hallucination, but what if I could wish for Seiji's daughter to get well?

"So you would like to make a wish? Let me hear it." The hell with it, what's the worst that's going to happen? Wait, don't answer that one either. Let's just humor my crazy mind. "Can I wish for Seiji's daughter to get well?" "Indeed you can, but I wish like that will cost you." "Cost me what?" "Become a participant and you will find out." "Fine, whatever you say, imaginary fox." "Understood, participant. Welcome to the Wish Granters' game."

A bright light flooded my vision, then everything faded to black.