My Normal Life Now Has a Nine to Five

Tama slung her arms behind her head. “Damn, no Niches? Guess we gotta call it quits and go home early.”

“T…Tama,” Chiho said, hesitating before saying Tama’s name with the clumsy carry of a fowl’s first steps, “it’s only been twenty minutes.”

“Really? Damn it.”

“And they’re Nachts, remember? Not—erm, whatever other name you gave them…”

“I don’t even know what a Nacht is. Give me a break.”

Chiho glanced about—the pair walked down a street leading through a shopping district (faeries hidden in Chiho’s fashionable purse), though at the late hour they patrolled, only one or two people passed them by every minute. Even then, Tama couldn’t imagine any of them cared. Still, better safe than sorry. Chiho waited until the stragglers petered out.

“Nachts,” she began, thrusting a finger in the air, “Are summoned from a human’s suppressed negative emotions. For some reason, people feeling extreme hate or despair have been creating ‘monsters’ in their sleep. Our reports indicate none of the victims are conscious of the act. But even if they’re summoned from something intangible like dreams, they wreak far too much havoc for us to ignore. The first attack…almost hurt someone I care deeply for.”

Chiho put a hand to her heart. “I had to begin my destined duties early to save them. There must be someone inducing their creation, but…we don’t know who. All we can do is stop them as they’re born.”

“Is there, like, any pattern to it? Any warning signs or weird possession stuff going on?”

“It’s not possession—and there’s no way to tell when a Nacht will emerge, nor from whom they will come. There’s far too many innocents suffering from turmoil each day for us to monitor all of them. We may be magic, but Society Prime has only so many resources. We even have to ask those who don’t know magic to help…like you, even if you’re somewhat of a special case.”

Tama shrugged. “Technically, unspecial.”

“Aha, that may be an apt description, but still—I just need you to keep an eye on anything odd and alert me to a Nacht’s presence. How about…”

Chiho pointed at a statue of a dog. “There. We’ll patrol for about two hours on the other side of the city. By then it’ll be—2 am, I believe? It should be a safe time for us to return home. Nacht form as soon as someone falls asleep; by that hour, much of Tokyo will be deep in slumber.”

“How’re you gonna get home?” Tama said. “Don’t you live like, a couple hours out?”

She stopped, scratching her cheek. “Well, I find it only takes half an hour to return as long as I use my powers to vault there.”

“Ooooh. Guess they’re pretty useful outside of fighting crap.”

“I suppose. Shall I ‘see you later’, then?”

As if on cue, Sarine flew out of Chiho’s bag and propped herself on Tama’s shoulder, giving the girl a glower. Chiho left with a wink and a thumbs up towards the pair.

Stragglers drifted around them, until that crowd too dried up, leaving Tama and Sarine to face the wafting scent of the drunk from the scant smattering of bars open—a long, empty road ahead.

…Tama pulled out her phone, moving on. Sarine glared.

“Hey, you’re supposed to be scouting! Stop messing around and focus!”

“I’m trying to catch up on my shows, asshole. Besides, those things are huge nightmare monsters or something. How the fuck would I miss something like that?”

“Easily, if you’re watching your phone instead of the road. Plenty of people die in car accidents because of that.”

“Like you’d know, you lived in sugarcane happy world before getting stuck on Earth.”

“You don’t know anything about where I lived!”

“Yeah, but I can guess.”

“No you can’t.”

“Yes I can.”

“No you—” Sarine crossed her arms, fixing Tama with a terrifying glare. “I’m not doing this again. Okay, fine, you’re right, Nacht sightings here grab a lot of attention. So we need to find quiet, open areas to scout. Like the street we walked through when the Arm-Nacht captured us.”

Tama groaned, putting in a single wireless earbud and shoving her phone in her pocket. “Fiiiiine, fuck. Can we at least take a break and grab some food soon?”

“As long as you promise to share.”

“I’ll let you starve, asshole.”

“Hey! I’m trying to be nice for once!”

The two traveled out of the shopping district, away from lingering sentiments of life and into the cold indifferent glow of streetlights. Houses, dimly lit and slipping into slumber as they passed by, lights flickering to silence.

Side to side, up, down.

No shadows etched graves into concrete, no creatures with too many limbs and too many eyes and sharp, ravenous mouths threatened these roads. Tama closed her eyes, reminded herself of the horror they possessed and the chill they sent down her spine with a mere touch.

“So…” Tama started, then realized: Am I really gonna talk to this evil fucking creature? Then again—Sarine had no intention, nevermind the ability to leave. She might as well figure out something about where the little fly-human came from.

Tama cleared her throat. “Where’d you come from, again?”

“The faerie world,” Sarine said, hands on her hips. “I’ve told you several times.”

“Yeah, but I figured it’d have a name or something.”

“…You know, that’s a good point,” Sarine said. “But that’s what it’s always been called. It’s the origin point for faeries across all worlds—even for worlds which have faerie colonies in them, their ancestry can easily be traced back to us. We’re naturals at magic, flying, and giving advice to creatures who don’t know what they’re doing.”

Sarine put a hand to her mouth, giggling. “Like humans. They’re the masters of impulsive behavior.”

Tama flicked Sarine, who darted away and shot her a glare. “Point proven,” Sarine snapped.

“Whatever.” Tama thought to leave it there, but—well, she still didn’t know as much as she wanted. And while the streets stayed silent, she filled the void however she could. “So…when you say world, d’you mean some kinda planet? Is it super small to fit all the super tiny faeries? Do you have spiders? Do they catch and eat you?”

“What’s with those questions!?” Sarine yelled. “It’s as big as it needs to be.”

Tama frowned. “And what’s with that answer!?” Sarine ignored her, though, rambling on.

“We don’t really have a scale for the size,” she continued, flying in circles around Tama as her wings caught the bright white lights projected down from streetlights, “we have spiders, insects, whatever, but since we’re the only ones who know how to channel magic, they’re not much of a threat. The Faerie Queen, the most talented, long-lived faerie rules over us and communicates directly to the Powers of Prime. She’s the reason we’re able to come to the sides of our Chosen and guide them for the rest of their life.”

“…For the rest of my life?”

“Seriously, you can at least pretend to care.”

Tama crossed her arms, then waved Sarine off. “No, no, this is—ow!”

A rock made her stumble, and she jumped on her heels as she regained her balance and resumed walking. “Totally fascinating, yeah, but also, how the fuck am I supposed to wrap my head around this? You can’t just show up and expect me to accept this. Like—think about it. If it were you, living your average life, and then someone showed up and told you to fight monsters while a bunch of strangers told you about powers and secret societies and that now all of this was your problem, what would you do?”

“I—I…”

Sarine’s wings dropped. She scrunched her nose up, freezing in place as Tama stared her down. Crap—she hesitated for too long, and now, all the weight in the argument shifted to Tama.

Tama didn’t look too happy about it, though. Or like anything at all. She waited for an answer.

“I…” Sarine started, eyes fixed on the pavement. “I don’t know, okay? But—destiny made me be here, so there’s no going back now.” Looking up filled the little faerie with panic. She didn’t want to see whatever Tama shot her way, smug satisfaction, rage or otherwise. It seemed safer to look away, shut that out.

So she didn’t see it. Only Tama did, the blot moving across the pavement, leaping out, a shark emerging from nothing with a wide jaw and endless teeth ready to devour Sarine whole.