Helping Others

Yoshio had gotten his first customer. In less than thirty minutes, no less. I was jealous. If only my business could’ve found success this fast. We didn’t necessarily have top of the line advertising, I just stood there with a cardboard sign in front of Yoshio while Miharu tried to speak to any kid that passed by.

Regardless, it worked. Kids were a lot easier to convince than adults. It seemed to be a rabbit boy in overalls who approached him.

“You say you solve everything, right?” He asked. “Can you help me with my problem?”

“Of course!” Yoshio said. “What is it?”

“Uhh… I need an assistant for my magic show… but nobody else wants to talk to me. Or help me… and it’s kind of hard to do a magic show without an assistant.”

“Really?” I asked. “Doesn’t everyone here do magic?”

“My magic is special magic!” the rabbit-boy insisted. “It works best with multiple people, and I need some help to make it look cooler.”

“Well…” Yoshio seemed to awkwardly look around. “I-I’m sorry if I gave you that impression but I don’t actually know magic really…”

I wouldn’t have said that to a customer. If they were willing to pay money then this was the kind of job that seemed easy to fake. Though, I guess since I was now officially a magic user due to this ghost floating right next to me.

“No, no, it’s fine. We can practice together, here and now. The talent show is super soon! I’ll even pay you, what do you want? My name is Ouki, it’s good to be your client!”

“Uh… five hundred yen?”

He asked for an absolutely paltry amount. I feel like you could’ve charged way more than that. Granted, I’m no rates expert, so I’m not sure what I would’ve charged. Maybe I should set that up at the office rather than everything being negotiable.

“Done!” Ouki threw over a 500 yen coin. “Come on, let’s practice. I wanna show you the cool things I can do.”

***

I watched Yoshio get trained in the mystic arts. It was mostly him holding up various props as Ouki did some magic nonsense. I’ve realized that despite having a magical ghost in my body, I really have no clue about the inner workings of what exactly she did. I don’t think Miharu necessarily did either.

Regardless, it was good to watch Yoshio learn about magic. This wasn’t something easily taught in schools, especially to humans like them. I wondered what it was like being a typical magician like Ouki in a city full of actual magic users, but I supposed the plan was to dazzle with aesthetics.

“You’re a great assistant!” Ouki said. “The talent show is in… twenty minutes. I’ll see you there!”

“Eh? Already?” Yoshio asked in confusion.

“Mhm! I need to set things up, so I’ll see you!”

Yoshio watched as his new client ran off into the crowd, leaving him alone to contemplate his new mission. The boy seemed to think for a while, so I sat down next to him.

“Doesn’t that feel good?” I sat next to him. “You’ve helped two people so far.”

“Yeah… seeing them smile is nice. I just don’t know what I’d do if I ran into mean people like those fire guys…” Yoshio said. “But maybe I just won’t run into them again.”

I took a deep breath. I wanted to impart some good wisdom onto this kid, it felt like one of my duties. So, I had to be honest. “You probably will, or you’ll have to run into people like them soon. But it’s okay, ‘cause there are even more good people in the world. The more you help people, the more you’ll find them.”

“Plus, the more you help people the more likely you can turn those bad guys good! It’s like a big spreading chain that makes everyone better!” Miharu also suggested, giving the kid a thumbs up.

“I see. I hope I only find good people then. And we can make a good world”

“Ouki seems like a good kid. Let’s get ready for that magic show, then, I think you’ve got a big opportunity here.”

***

The stage was way bigger than I expected. It was like Yoshio was going to perform to the entire school, instead of a smaller audience. It seemed to be a talent show, of some kind. In hindsight, we should have definitely charged more.

“That’s… a lot of people…” Yoshio was looking out from behind the curtain, he seemed to be shaking nervously.

“Hey,” Miharu floated over his shoulder. “Instead of worrying about what’s out there… how about we uhhhh… talk to some of the other kids here! I’m sure they’re all going through the same nervousness you are.”

“Yeah, that seems like a good idea,” I agreed. “It’s good for you to try and make more friends.”

“But who do I talk to?” Yoshio asked. This was a good question, as the starting point was always the hardest part. I looked around, trying to see if there were any particularly approachable people. Though, Miharu spoke up before I did.

“Hey! Isn’t that the girl you helped earlier? Maybe you can talk to her,” she suggested.

“Hm, yeah, good find. Go and talk to her,” I pushed Yoshio forward. With a few timid steps, he walked towards the elf girl. The elf girl didn’t seem to notice him before he spoke up.

“H-Hello, miss…”

“Huh?” The elf girl turned around. “Um, who are you, again?”

One sentence in and I could immediately see all the color drain from Yoshio’s face. What kind of a greeting was that?

“I’m… Yoshio,” he said. “I… I helped you get your stuffed animal so…”

“Oh.”

It felt like the color drained from her face as well as soon as he introduced himself. That wasn’t the reaction I was hoping for.

“Did you want like… a cookie or something?” she asked, seemingly also nervous.

“Uhh… no? T-Though I do charge for my services now, so…”

“Well… you didn’t tell me,” she muttered. “Plus I’m not gonna give money for a deed I didn’t want… anyways.”

“What?”

I did a double take as well. Her stuffed animal was literally in a tree, what do you mean she didn’t want it?

“The stuffed animal was me trying to get the attention of a boy I liked. Sorry,” the girl said.

“Oh. Okay. Sorry,” Yoshio responded.

The two kids awkwardly looked at each other for a while. This was bad. What kind of kid does that even? And she’s ungrateful for Yoshio saving it? Ridiculous. I began to walk over to him and touch him on the shoulder.

“Hey. Maybe this wasn’t a good idea, let’s go.”

I pulled Yoshio away, trying to bring us back to our own little corner of the room. It was probably better to be alone right now, because we got really unlucky with our pick. Miharu and I gave Yoshio a chair and kneeled down to him.

“Hey? Hey? Are you okay?”

Yoshio was a strong kid, it seemed. He didn’t cry, and he didn’t get angry. But he did definitely get upset, like he was holding something in.

“It’s okay. You helped someone!” Miharu said. “Even if they didn’t ask, you can’t let that get your spirits down.”

“But she didn’t want my help, I screwed up,” Yoshio responded.

That was probably really messed up for her to say, I’d admit. But, I couldn’t let that ruin Yoshio’s day. So I had to speak up as well.

“That doesn’t matter. Lingering on that past doesn’t matter, what matters is moving on to help more people in the future. That way, things will get better.” I turned Yoshio’s chair to the curtains. “Your future is right there, so keep on moving forwards.”

“...Yeah, Ouki is nice, isn’t he? He wants my help, right?” Yoshio asked.

“It doesn’t matter if he does or he doesn’t,” I told Yoshio. I was pretty sure Ouki wanted it, but I was prepared for any possibility. “What matters is that you’re looking forward to making the world better, and that’s what you should focus on. Not their reactions.”

Miharu seemed to look at me oddly. I wasn’t sure why, I was presenting the lesson to the best of my capabilities. That seemed to cheer him up, at least.

“Yoshio!” Ouki seemed to have finally met up with us. “I’m almost ready to do the show. Are you ready?”

“I guess, yeah. Let’s do it,” Yoshio responded, a bit cheered up with Ouki’s present.

“It’s going to be great!” Ouki said.

I supposed that was our cue to join the audience. I couldn’t miss Yoshio’s big performance, after all.

***

Yoshio’s performance was going great. The performance was definitely typical magic show stuff, but with like, real magic instead.

The boy seemed a bit disoriented, because he kept on being teleported everywhere, but he seemed to be holding his own just fine. He was helping the performance, and keeping the crowd’s energy high. I could not be prouder.

“He’s a natural at this,” Miharu said.

“Pretty simple job, but he’s doing it well. Just need to smile and perform for the audience,” I responded.

“So, what do you think? Planning on making the Yoshio Solve Everything Agency an official branch of ours?”

“Well. If we’re trying to sound professional then we should probably not have one of our department heads be eight years old. But I think if he could help more people, that’d be healthier for him.”

We watched as Ouki began to present his new trick. A magic card trick.

“Be ready to be amazed!” Ouki began to shout. “I’m going to pull out a card that my assistant chooses, and it will perform a special effect!”

He presented a set of cards to Yoshio, who looked through them.

“Hmm… I guess… I’ll pick the one with the dragon? It looks cool.” Yoshio picked up the card. A cool little magical effect began to play out of it, before Ouki grabbed it back.

“Now, let me do a little bit of magic on this!”

I was watching intently, curious to see what would happen next. However, I felt Miharu whisper something into my ear.

“Hey, I’m feeling something weird.”

“What. Do ghosts need to use the bathroom or something?” I asked her.

“No? I’m saying I’m sensing a disturbance. Like, a magical disturbance,” she responded back.

“I mean there’s a ton of magic here. Are you sure your senses aren’t being tickled or something?”

“No! This is serious. You know what, let me just…”

Miharu ran into my body, fusing the two of us together again. Her energy began to infuse into my eyes, rendering my entire vision at 4K. It was a bit of an information overload to take so suddenly, and I got a pretty mild headache, but I got the picture eventually.

“H-Hey! Don’t just do that without me telling you…”

As I was telling her off, I felt another striking sense throughout my entire body. It was definitely a magical disturbance, but nothing like I had ever felt before. It was kind of like a chill, sent to me from the air by the world itself.

“You feel that? Now look around, maybe you can find something.”

I shut up and took Miharu’s order. I glanced around, viewing the crowd of clapping people and the sound of Ouki’s show. Despite it already being quite loud, I put Miharu’s energy into my ears, hoping I could find something.

This hurt my ears pretty badly, and I made a mental note to never fire Kyoha while doing this. But, there was something else that assaulted my hearing as I did so. The sound of scratching, like, nails on a chalkboard level. And it was coming from… above the stage.

I turned my eyes to the top rafters that stood above Yoshio and Ouki, and I saw a figure. A feminine, shadowy figure in a black cloak that covered her face. She was holding a knife that looked to be pierced into the fabric of space itself. A glowing energy emanated from the air…

A rift!

“Yoshio! Get out of there!” I instinctively shouted out loud, which caused the entire crowd to turn to me. I turned off Miharu’s super hearing and immediately pulled out Kyoha, but despite that, I was too late.

A massive head emerged out of the rift that was being cut open, before the rest of its body fell out onto the stage. It just missed Yoshio and Ouki, who were knocked to the side, as it crashed onto the ground. It looked up, and roared. It was a dragon, an apparition of one, at the very least.

“Let’s move.” I told Miharu. The crowd began screaming, panicking, and running, but there wasn’t any time for me to waste.