Not Out, but a Fowl Ball

“My-best-friend, Doc-tor Kawa-guchi, is-a-man!”

He said it slow and clear like I was five years old.

“How am I supposed to know that! All you would say is the Doctor came!”

“You’ve met him before!”

“I’ve never met him! You’re both like fifteen years older than me!”

“Thirteen.”

I gave him a side eye.

“Whatever! He would come during the week, and I only had time on the weekends. I was in school!”

Keisuke sat down to pet the dodo. Avoiding eye contact.

“Maybe you have never met him.”

“Does he have a sister?”

He stopped petting the dodo, and looked up at me.

“…Maybe?”

“What do you mean maybe?”

“He may, like maybe ten years older?”

I pinched the bridge of my nose; I could feel a headache coming.

“Does he know you have a sister?”

“Probably?”

I’m going to hurt this man. I’m never going to visit him again.

“Did you work with another Dr. Kawaguchi; did you maybe think to ask if they were related.”

He shook his head.

“There was only one Dr. Kawaguchi at the MaMA.”

“Are you sure?”

“When I worked there, Yes.”

“Are you absolutely sure?”

“Yes Rei.”

“Do you know women can be doctors too?”

“Yes Rei! Are you kidding me?”

I went to get a glass of water, and thought about sticking my head in the freezer.

But there was no time.

“I don’t know? I don’t know anything anymore. Why would Lady Doctor Kawaguchi lie to me about knowing you?”

He picked up the dodo, and went over to the end of his living room. He put the dodo into the dark storeroom attached.

He turned to look at me with a tired glaze over his eyes, this conversation was wearing on him.

“Maybe she just though it would be easier Rei. Maybe she wanted something from you? Or maybe she wanted something from me?”

“What could she want from a guy who never leaves the house?”

He leaned against the storeroom door, looking down at his shoes. I kept pressing him.

“How long was she thinking she could keep this up?”

“I guess as long as I didn’t bring it up?”

I sat down next to Ms. Hiyori who was playing patty cake with Okame on the couch. She had asked if she should leave, but I asked her to stay. We would’ve been yelling more if it was just the two of us.

If Dr. Kawaguchi knew our relationship, she probably could’ve kept the charade going for years. I would drop off groceries, play a few rounds of video games. We would maybe eat and then I would leave. If the dodo hadn’t escaped, I would’ve never known about her date.

“She’s got to be hiding something?”

Keisuke looked up at me. His voice got soft again.

“So uhh you haven’t seen or run into a Mister Doctor Kawaguchi since you been working?”

“no, sorry, haven’t heard of him. Maybe he transferred? Or maybe he switched offices with his sister?”

Keisuke shook his head.

“That isn’t like him, he loves Tokyo. It’s the best city on earth he said. The way he would drag me out on the town, He was practically an ambassador for Tokyo.”

Keisuke didn’t talk about his friend very much. It just made him sad, but maybe now thinking about it. I should’ve asked, he looked more troubled from not talking about him for so long.

“Keisuke, how long have you had the dodo?”

“Odd-Ball?”

He was good at naming things, he helped me come up with my codename; Pet Rock.

“He manifested four days ago.”

I knew it deep down, but I didn’t want to believe it.

“You’ve been chanting spells?”

He nodded.

“I thought you didn’t like to do that anymore, you said it was dangerous.”

He nodded.

We sat for a little bit. There were sounds of a blind dodo scurrying around in the room next door. Little pats as Okame’s hands met Ms. Hiyori’s.

“What’s dangerous about snow-cones?”

Me and Kei blinked at each other a few times. He gave me a look like “what is she talking about?”, I returned it with a shrug saying “Your guess is as good as mine.”

I turned to look at Hiyori.

“Why would a snow-cone be dangerous?”

“Well, your mother can summons pastries, and Kei can summon snow-cones.”

I was so tired from theses miscommunications.

“Ms. Hiyori, why do you think Kei summons snow-cones.”

She stopped her game of patty cake with Okame.

“It was the day I first met Kei, like five years ago, he had used the essence training rooms before me. I went in and there were scratches and explosions, and weird markings on the wall. But in the middle of the room was the most beautiful and delicious snow-cone I had ever had.”

This elegant lady ate a random snow-cone off the floor. She told the story so earnestly and there was a look on her face like she had been chasing the flavor of that snow-cone for years.

“It made me think that there was more to essence and life than hunting monsters. So, I quit and started to run my family’s store.”

I looked over at Keisuke hoping he would know what she was talking about.

“I remember that snow-cone. It was the last straw that made me quit being a hunter.”

He started to cry.

“It was so useless, and I thought I was useless because of it.”

“Oh no, it was the most delicious thing. It tasted of ocean waves, cool night air, and shooting stars. It was like a wish captured on your tongue.”

“I didn’t know anyone ate it.”

I mean would anyone have eaten it. Hiyori got up and sat down next to Kei who was now slouched on the ground.

“I found your name on the training room sign in, but I never found you before I quit myself. It’s the reason I make snow-cones. Maybe one day when you’re feeling up to it, you could make me another one.”

“I can’t make snow-cones, Ms. Hiyori!”

“Yes you can! I know it was you!”

Ms. Hiyori got unnaturally, very indignant. I needed to taste that snow-cone too if she felt that strongly about it.

“It was me. But not on purpose.”

“Your essence isn’t snow-cones?”

I couldn’t let the confusion continue. This was just ridiculous. I sat down next to them and put my hand on her. Okame peering at us from over the back of the couch, quietly observing human behavior.

“No, he can’t make snow-cones, his essence is much better than that.”

I meant it.

“It’s Ether, he can summon a spell chant from anyone, anywhere in the world.”

Keisuke put his head in his hands, crying as I explained.

“He can cast more spells than that thousand spell blowhard. He can cast a million spells. He can do everything!”

I was proud of my brother and his spells, it was the greatest essence I could think of, much better than talking to rocks.

“Yeah whatever, I’m the guy who can do everything but when it comes down to it, I can’t do anything. It’s random Ms. Hiyori.”

He said random with such volatility. He got up and walked over to the kitchen, using a lot of hand gestures.

“I can cast lightning, I can find the nearest bathroom, I can see into the future, I can turn into a cow, I can summon the perfect snow-cone. Just never when I want too. My codename is Jackpot, but everyone calls me Crackpot; and they should.”

“That’s a fantastic essence Keisuke! No wonder those hunters kept coming down here to recruit you when you first moved her.”

“Yeah and that’s also why they never came back when I explained it to them.”

He had a poster explaining it on his door for a while. Keisuke’s essence was rank S, there weren’t that many. His file didn’t say what it was unless you had authority, but it would tell you the rank. It was a bragging point for countries, and a hiring point for groups.

“I’m useless. I went on hunts as an Analyst and as a last resort. There were a few times I was helpful but not enough to go higher than silver rank. But no one knows more about essence than me. At least back then.”

I rubbed my head again, trying to fend off the headache.

The dodo’s essence was Ether type, allowing it to teleport and make eggs filled with random objects. Keisuke had been using his spell enough times for essence to clump up thick enough to manifest a monster.

Keisuke poured himself a glass of water.

“I couldn’t let Odd-ball escape because he’s just like me. He’s also useless. And maybe if I could figure out how to harness his essence, it could help me with mine.”

I took a deep breath, trying to not stress him out any further. Kei could summon a meteor and destroy his house, or turn himself into a rat. That’s why he didn’t use it anymore, it was too unpredictable.

“Kei why have you been using your magic?”

He turned away from me.

“Kei?”

He drank his water, avoiding my gaze again.

“Kei, I don’t care what you do. But you said yourself you wouldn’t.”

He sipped his water, and said in a whisper.

“I said I didn’t want to. Not that I wasn’t.”

I was really going to hurt him. He was such an annoying older brother.

“I know you didn’t hunt an arch-monster.”

He winced. I grabbed the files and threw them onto the kitchen counter.

“I’m platinum rank, captain Kawakami showed me. But it doesn’t say anything about dad.”

He sipped his water again.

“Why did you say there was an arch-monster.”

“Because you were little.”

“I’m sorry a little louder please?”

He put down his water.

“because you were little and the monster was me! It wasn’t a hunt, it was a research trip to help me harness my essence.”

“It was a research trip.”

I tried to remain calm.

“Yes, a research trip, on me.”

I got closer as understanding him was getting harder.

“I’m just a useless guy, who can’t save his dad.”

I tried to figure out what he just said.

“Can’t save. Couldn’t save? Can’t. Can’t?”

He sunk to the floor again. Lots of floor time today.

The crying got worse, and he pointed to the storeroom.

Me and Ms. Hiyori looked at the door, the only sounds filling this gloomy house was a sobbing man in his thirties and the muffled flapping of a dodo.