Epilogue

A few years later:

“I haven’t been back to this part of town ever since I moved out.”

“You really have to visit Ms. Hiyori more often, Kei.”

“I know but I was waiting for today, my fifth spell can I only be used once a year and she’s been waiting so long.”

“You thought you would build up more suspense.”

He looked sheepish, there were still times I wanted to hurt this guy.

“I guess when you put it like that.”

“Not everything has to be some big event, you have to do little things and have smaller moments each day as well.”

“That’s true, I do like the little things. Smaller moments, since I stopped my stint indoors.”

“That doesn’t include online monster gambling.”

“Oh just hurry up there’s people waiting for us.”

Daichi and his beautiful older sister were inside. We had gotten to know each other better over the years. Did you know she isn’t actually a doctor? Women can be doctors, she’s just not one of them.

“Hi guys, good to see you.”

Kei was all smiles as he saw the Kawaguchi’s, sitting next to Daichi. I sat next to his sister. The bell rung, two more people walked through.

“See I told you we wouldn’t be last.”

Asaka, nudged her husband in the ribs.

“That’s because I shoved us out the door.”

Asaka smiled at me, I had been working under her at the MaMA but it was always nice seeing her outside of work. I was happy to call her my friend. Chihiro sat next to his friends, Daichi and Keisuke making faces at him. You would often see the three "Kawas" together at the MaMA or out on the town. Laughter filled wherever the three friends went, and it was always a good time when the three put their heads together to party.

Ms. Hiyori came over to the long table, she was holding a tray filled with all sorts of specialty snow cones.

“I’ve prepared all of my top flavors; we’ll see if I got anywhere close to recreating that snow cone, the one I found on the training room floor.”

One of my favorite people in the whole world, even if you shouldn’t eat things if you don’t know where it came from, that was part of her charm.

“No really she made a lot.”

The bad girl that was often the first to arrive, Meika set down a tray of snow cones.

“Hi guys!”

She received a raucous greeting from everyone. We were still best friends, and Kei and his friends were like ten years older than me. We were enjoying our twenties and hunting monsters, figuring out the rest of our lives, but today we were just panelists on a very serious snow cone survey.

The bell rang again.

My mother walked through.

“I hope it wasn’t rude to bring some of my own food, they’re little cookies that help cure brain freeze”

My mother was sweet as could be, running the most sought after and dare I say magical cafés in all of Tokyo.

“She made me carry it all the way here, so how about a thanks?”

My father Kawashima Hidei, in the flesh. I still got a little emotional when I saw him, but it was almost as much time as he had been back that he had been gone.

“Thank you Mr. Kawashima!”

The table cheered, I could tell a lot of them felt the same way.

He placed the box of cookies on the table and opened it, a flurry of confetti popped out and a young lady in a mask popped out, in her arms were a large bird and a small monkey. Odd ball scurried around the floor, Ms. Hiyori put down a snow cone with birdseed on it she thought he’d like. Marco Frederic scurried up on Asaka’s shoulder.

“What were you thinking leaving these two at home.”

“Okame!”

It was always a delight to see the arch laugh monster. She would often come out with me and Meika, disguised as a human. She would disappear for a while but always find a way to make a grand entrance. Daichi raised an eyebrow at her.

“You learned from the best. I guess we’re just going to have to wait for the right moment.”

Okame winked at Kei.

“You know him well.”

“I guess I better get started then.”

Kei smiled and rubbed his hands together. The arch mage’s essence began clumping around the room, becoming dense and full, the feeling only a final epiphany can have. His chant was smooth and the essence was just as delightful as when I had first felt it on the street years ago.

“SNOWCONE OF WISHES!”

His first spell, could summon any chant from anyone in the world, his fourth chant could narrow it down to a specific type, but his fifth spell. Once a year if he was diligent in clumping his essence. Kei could decide to make one thing happen, no matter how outlandish, it would come true. He said there were a few exceptions, but essentially, he was granted one wish. It was the kind of chant buried in the essence of a guy who took forever to decide on something. He had this garish monster statue in his garden, it would probably take him more than five years to figure out what to do with that.

Kei held out his hands as the ethereal snow cone of almost pure essence appeared in his hands. He grabbed the spoon, thinking clearly about his wish, and took a bite. The dessert fading away into the light of Ms. Hiyori’s convenience store.

“Ms. Hiyori I don’t know if I ever told you this but you telling me that the random snow cone I summoned all those years ago The on you ate off the floor. That that snow cone had an effect on you, and actually you thought it helped you. That helped me gain the courage to leave my house again. You all did really.”

He looked around at everyone at the table.

“If I hadn’t known that sometimes the things I took to heart, were only failures in my eyes. That it could be something completely different, maybe even magical to someone else. I would’ve been still living up the road. So thank you all.”

Everyone clapped as a large snow cone, exactly like the one Ms. Hiyori had tasted all those years ago, but a little bigger; appeared! Just as Keisuke wished, it stood tall on the already desert laden table, the giant snow cone smelling of ocean waves, cool night air and shooting stars.

“Thank you to my sister who always visited me, and my friends that didn’t give up on me!"

I promised myself, no tears on the snow cone.

Kei reached out and lifted the summoned treat up. So he could see the bottom of the cup.

“Thank you too, my funny friend.”

There a small man in robes, and a mask with a mouth that puckered and rosy cheeks, that was the size of a bug on the bottom of the cup.

“I’m not funny, i'm hilarious!”

Everyone laughed. Hyottoko gave a half hearted leap onto the table, throwing his hands in the air.

“Grand entrance?”

The end!

Afterward
From one Oddball to another, if you got this far you’re definitely odd. I hope you had as much fun reading this as I did when I wrote it. I’ll miss all of these characters so much. Writing a piece longer than 15,000 words for the first time, there were times when the characters would just say what needed to happen. I definitely felt myself improve as I went. That was so exciting, I can proudly say I had one or two epiphanies myself while writing. Thanks for making this far, it’s a wish come true.

Dedicated to my sister, who would drag me out of the house just like Rei if I am ever too hard on myself, snow cones on me <3