Official Disclaimer: A huge whooping thank you goes to Mademoiselle Mirage for creating the basis of this story. The genie concept belongs to her. The story, up to chapter three (discerning the prologue), also contains excerpts of her writing. I would just like to thank you endlessly, Pam, for this golden piece of work, and I apologize for not being able to finish it sooner!


Three Wishes

10: Singled


…that came and swept the fairy godmother away.


The door of the soundproof room shut gently, muffled by a layer of cloud insulation. Sumire stood face to face with two very dark and dangerous creatures.

Rei Serio, known by the alias Persona, and Hajime were no ordinary genies. In fact, ordinary genies often referred to them as extraterrestrials. They both possessed superhuman strength, superhuman abilities called Alices that only nobles were blessed with, and an unexplainable hatred of showing their faces in public.

Sumire doubted they would be any more cordial in front of her although they had yet to speak since she entered the room.

"So?" she queried. "Where is Mikan?"

"The girl," Hajime stated and Sumire realized that the two vile creatures hadn't even bothered to learn her name.

"Ah." Persona interlaced his gloved fingers. "You needn't worry about that, Sumire. She is in good hands. I think the better topic to discuss is why you are here right now, since you're so clearly convinced that you are guilty of a crime."

She showed herself to a seat, crossing her legs as comfortably as if she owned the entire tower. Tucking her hair behind her left ear, she only looked up and gave them an audacious smile.

Hajime was alert immediately but Persona welcomed the act of bravery.

"Unless, of course," he told her, "Mochu gave us a false report, in which case we'll be more than happy to punish him." The sadistic smile widened.

Sumire held up her right hand and turned to show them her palm. "Mochu made no mistake and neither did Hajime over there. As you can clearly see, I'm in the Clapping Genie World while still under my contractmy contract with Mikan Sakura."

Now it was she who had them on their toes, although this small advantage of surprise would be short lived.

Unsurprisingly, Persona was the first to regain his composure. "Ah. That settles it. You've been a naughty genie ever since you graduated, haven't you, Miss Shouda? Hajime, I think it's time for you to show her to a cell in Level Three."

Sumire almost winced when he said that. Level Three was the lowest point of the genie lands and it was reserved for the most heinous criminals. That far below the ground, there was absolutely no magical substance to sustain genies. There were stories circulating around both genie worlds about criminals that rotted and slowly shriveled away to nothing, forgetting their own identities. She had been there a grand total of one time and the stench of sickness alone was enough to make her retch.

"I see that you've become more and more unprofessional ever since getting that seat, Rei," she sneered. "So you're just going to accept my confession as is without any sort of confirmation? You won't even bring the girl up to confirm our contract?"

"Are you admitting to have committed perjury then? You know the punishment for that, don't you Sumire?"

She almost snorted. The severest punishment for perjury was a three thousand year sentence in a Basement Two cellBasement One if she managed to make the judge feel sympathetic.

"Very well," she told him in a sing-song voice. "Go ahead and chuck me down into Basement Three as you wish, but if, say someone like Narumi comes to visit me and by a slip of the tongue I accidentally reveal how eager you were to dish out arbitrary punishment…"

"Go escort the girl up from her cell," he ordered Hajime.

Sumire gloated in her victory as Hajime left the room, banging his huge scythe and sending her a chilling glare as he did. Persona continued sitting at his desk wearily, one hand framing his hairline. Every now and then he would send her a sharp glance, as if declaring that their battle was not over.

Nonetheless, a victory was a victory after all.

Then, a smile came to his black lips and Sumire narrowed her eyes just slightly. Not a moment later, the whimpers of a child came from the doorway and she got an immediate bitter taste in her mouth.

"Sumire!" the child immediately ran over, hugging her leg. The tears from her eyes ticked Sumire's skin.

"What basement did you put her in, you bastards?"

"One," Hajime said with a disappointed shake of his head. "It's unlike you to forget the law lessons. Really, would we place her anywhere else without knowing the full situation?"

You seemed more than eager to place me in Basement Three.

Warily eyeing the both of them, Sumire kneeled to match Mikan's height. She examined the girl carefully, eyes lingering on the heavy bruises on her arms, head, and the shallow cut of a blade on the skin of her neck.

"Roughing her, have you?" Green eyes flared.

"It couldn't be helped." It completely irked Sumire that Hajime stated that with such finality. "A human child in the genie worlds, after all, shouldn't even be allowed to live."

"How did you even reckon in the first place that she's a human?"

Persona laughed a very chilling laugh. "Oh, Sumire. There's a clear lamp on the back of her hand and you're still trying to confuse us. I'll praise you for being one of the more… original Genie Officials."

"Oh, stop it. Please, Serio, that's too much. If you can sign me an autograph now so I can burn it!"

"Enough chatter!" announced Hajime. "Show us your contract."

With an eye roll, Sumire held out her palm. Mikan, though, was more reluctant and only continued to cower behind her genie. Her body was shaking in fear and for a second Sumire regretted bringing herself in the situation, if only because she didn't want the girl to suffer.

"It's okay to hold it out, Mikan."

Slowly, shyly, the little girl extended her hand and uncoiled her small fingers, revealing a very faint lamp mark.

"See it now?" Sumire scoffed. "We have identical lamp markings in all the right places. Oh, whatever does this mean?"

"Plain and simple, it means that there are two cells waiting for you down in Level Three. Hajime, if you please."

The bandaged man stepped forward once more, reaching first for Mikan, who immediate shrunk as small as she possibly could.

"Now hold up a second. You're going to lock her up too? A six year old human, completely ignorant of our laws?"

"She made the wish."

"And I told her it was legal. Clearly the blame falls on me."

"It doesn't matter. She made the wish," he reiterated with a frown.

"Yeah, well you and your scythe can go suck it, changing up all the laws as you please. Take Serio while you're at it. Snapping Genie Land'll blow up before either one of you actually do any 'law enforcement.'" The last bit was sardonically emphasized with air quotes.

"Hajime."

She saw the grab long before it was coming. Supported by two strong feet, Sumire deflected Hajime's punch with one hand while twisting the handle of his scythe with the other. A spin, another elbow, and he was as good as down. For a few seconds, at least.

A few seconds was all she needed.

With a snap, her magic carpet materialized in thin air, wrapping itself around Mikan. The small girl gave only a few small cries of protest, muffled and lost as the carpet coiled tight enough to completely cocoon her in. Then, directing its sharp point at the window, the entire bundlecarpet and Mikanjumped out.

"Adding more years onto our sentence, are we now Sumire?"

Her smile was broad. "Like I said, Persona, you and your law enforcement crew can go suck it. King Yukihira was clearly not in the right state of mind when he appointed you. I hope Mochiage or some other lowlife will dethrone you in the imminent future."

He laughed. "Yes, keep going and I might even make a Level Four just for you, Sumire. Just for you."


Mrs. Andou was not a force to be reckoned with. Sumire kept telling him that, so it was really Koko's fault for not listening. But how could he let her pushiness elapse so much time? Weeks went by, wasted! He should have been at Narumi's long ago, especially since there was an nab, a small nab at the back of his head that constantly reminded him that his girlfriend was not the type to go see her former teacher and wait everything out.

For once, he wished that he was a Genie Official so he could use the express route. But in the end, he was just a lowly city patrol, there to dish out traffic tickets and such. He couldn't disobey the very laws he was enforcing. That would be hypocrisy.

It seemed like forever before his former teacher's lamp came into view. Narumi, as usual, was not in his lamp. He was outside, leisurely seated on a luxurious cloud patio chair with a smaller figure.

"Koko!" he greeted incredulously. "I didn't expect you to be here! Come, come! Have some tea with Mikan and I!"

"Mikan?" Relieved, he quickly put a hand to his heart. "Thank god. She and Sumire managed to escape to your house?"

Narumi frowned and Koko's stomach sank. At once, the horrifying reality dawned upon him as soon as Mikan's lower lip began to tremble.

"Sumire? Is she there? Where is Sumire?"

Then Mikan was crying and Narumi was scurrying and Koko had to wonder how long the chaos was going to last before they could finally piece together all their separate stories.


It was dreadful. Absolutely dreadful. Sumire was beginning to wish that Persona had actually made a Basement Four especially for her, because at least she wouldn't have to endure the sickening moans of her fellow inmates. In the first decade, she stopped trying to find any common interests with them. In the second decade, she stopped trying to tolerate them. Now she was just counting down the years between now and death because death would be so much better than now.

"Visitor for Sumire Shouda." Even the guard sounded like a complete zombie. At least the guard resided on the outside of the door so he was neither exposed to the stench nor the whines. Once, she would have looked down on that job. Now she would give anything to be in that same position.

Sumire was tired. She couldn't yawn because the air was disgusting. She couldn't rub her eyes because her fingers were unsanitary. All that was left to do was close them until the visitor arrives.

"Thank you," a very familiar voice spoke, causing her eyes to snap open. "You can leave us now."

At once, she was by the bars, reaching her fingers through to touch him, never mind how grimy and disgusting they were.

"Hi baby." Koko presented her the most brilliant smile possible. "Narumi and I are going to get you out of there, don't you worry."

"I wish you would hurry up," she moaned, leaning towards him like a sunflower in need of the sun. "Five hundred years without you and now this. I'm dying!"

"C'mon," he joked cheekily. "That's not what you told Persona."

She shot him a glare.

"All jokes aside, though, he is working as hard as he can to clear your sentence. Persona and Hajime are working just as hard to keep it. Mrs. Andou tells me that the Genie Officials were forced to split and take two sides."

"Oh great. Who's on mine?"

"Narumi obviously, his sister Yuka, surprisingly Reo Mouri and those other close-minded old men you used to grumble about. Not so close-minded now, are they?" He wiggled three fingers teasingly.

"Yeah, yeah. What about King Kazu?"

The smile dimmed just a little. "He refuses to announce his standpoint. Considering that he appointed Persona himself, though… We'll convince him somehow."

"I don't particularly care," she lied, crossing her arms. "I basically gave Persona a huge eff-you, so if Kazu's on his side then Kazu can have it too."

The gray eyed genie sighed, "I shouldn't have expected anything less."

She rolled her eyes. "I told you this when we began dating. If you can't handle my remarks, then we have no future."

"We're going to have a future. Guilty or not, I'm getting you out of this."


Sumire rubbed around her eye for the fifth time that year. Although, she had no idea why she even bothered trying to stay sanitary especially when her eye was probably infected by now. For every one molecule of air, there were probably ten billion molecules of viruses, germ-like materials and such. No wonder people went crazy in this place.

"Visitor for Sumire Shouda." She was really used to that voice by now. Since her case was greatly debated, she was solely responsible for more than half of the visitors whether they be her smiling boyfriend, her screaming brother or a former classmate that became a close friend of hers without her knowledge.

Something yellow caught her eye and Sumire allowed her heart to leap for a moment. She was sure it was Koko, coming to disclose details on his oh so secret elopement plan. As he came closer, it was obvious that he wasn't Koko.

"Oh, it's you."

Narumi waved away the guard, who looked only too happy to return to his post. "It's been a while, Sumire, hasn't it? I must confess that I'm disappointed in you."

"Already got the talk from my family. You sound like a replay of my dad at this point. Or my brother. They're both like the same person anyway."

"Oh dear pupil of mine," he cried melodramatically. "How ever did you get yourself into this mess?"

Sumire allowed herself to yawn, only to have the yawn cut off by a coughan attempt to dispel the sick air around her.

"You look seriously ill right now. When have you gotten so thin?"

Ignoring Narumi completely, Sumire peered over her former teacher's shoulder, looking for someone who wasn't there. "Have you heard from Koko lately?"

Narumi's face finally grew serious. "I hear from Koko and Mochu plus a plethora of other people every day about your situation. I think you should know that your death has been determineddeath by public decapitation. Hajime will be the one to do it."

At that point, she could only give a weak shrug. After all, it wasn't as if she hadn't expected it.

"I never thought you of all my pupils would become like this. I would have expected Mochu to land himself in prison one day, or even Koko, but not you. Jesus Christ!" He clutched his head and did a three sixty in agony. With Narumi, everything was theatrics, which Sumire absolutely detested. "Have you learned nothing? What did I tell you in the first day of class? You break rules, you go to jail, you die."

She snorted, "technically I didn't break a rule, Mr. Narumi, because I stayed true to our constitution, you know, the one you made us memorize on the first day of school."

"Genies exist to make people happy," he recalled, coming to a sudden epiphany.

She clapped very audibly, very sardonically. "If I ever get out of this alive, you should consider becoming the next Genie King."

"Don't joke with me, Sumire," Narumi replied with a smile plastered across his face. "You're brilliant! I can still legitimately claim that you're my number one pupil."

"Soon to be number one dead pupil."

"Now that won't be the case!" he chirped every word now, and Sumire could feel an oncoming headache. How it frustrated her that this ludicrous excuse for a man had access to the genie worlds and she didn't. "Do you really think that Koko and Mochu don't have a plan to get you out of there?"

"Koko and Mochu with a plan…"

"… You're right, but have a little faith in them."

Sumire attempted to sigh patiently. "Okay. What is it?"

The only thing Narumi's briefing did was successfully convince Sumire that she was acquainted with the three most idiotic genies in the existing universe.


"The bomb, is it in place?"

"Koko?"

The two other men looked to him.

"Er, um, yeah."

Truthfully, the only thing on his mind was that his girlfriend was being held by Hajime that very second. His soulmate. In the hands of a monster. Koko was surprised he could even see straight at the moment.

"Focus, Koko!" Narumi's voice went in one ear and out the other. "We're counting on you."

"Rope and extra rope?" Mochu asked, looking up from his checklist.

"Yes."

"What about Mikan?"

"Oh crap!" Narumi's hands flew to his head. "I totally forgot about Mikan. She should still be at Koko's house right now. We told her to stay put. Mikan's a good girl."

Mochu and Koko immediately exchanged wary glances.

"Does she know that the execution is today?" the former asked.

"No… I don't think so."

"Are you sure?" he pressed. "Don't you think she could have heard it from one of our meetings? Or when we were calling each other?"

The unease was growing in all of their hearts, unease that Mikan might have wandered outside in search of Tsubasa or Sumire. It wasn't the first time that the three regretted keeping her in the dark about Sumire's situation. It wouldn't be the first time she ventured somewhere on her own either.

"You should go check on her," Koko said to Narumi. "You know her the best out of us three."

Narumi conceded, immediately grabbing his carpet and setting out. With the older man gone, Mochu turned to Koko.

"Remember Yome, we only have one shot at this. If this doesn't work, make sure that the girl stays safe. If that doesn't work, I will lop off your head, Narumi's head, and my own in that order."

"I'll go set up the bomb," he stated.

Just a little more and they would be free from this entire mess. It was unfair, really, how they tried her. He was convinced that Persona pulled one string or another behind the scenes. He never seemed so confident when convicting anyone else. The smirk on his face had Koko itching to leap up and beat the daylight out of him.

The bomb was all ready to go.

As long as people stayed clear of the place, there wouldn't be any casualties but the commotion created would divert their attentions long enough for them to Koko and Sumire to slip away surreptitiously into the human world. That world was vast. Once there, they could easily conceal their presence and hide. As long as they remained on the low, no genie would be able to find them for millenniums.

Stage One was in place, and the bomb was hidden behind the smooth rope. He would come back and start the timer just as he swapped it for the rough one. The ropes were all kept in the janitor's closet and the rough rope would be completely burned at that proximity. His alibi was set.

It was time to take the entire execution platform into their hands.


Panic surged through Narumi's blood like fire would through a gas pipe. There was exactly one week before the commencement of the execution. One week. And Mikan was missing.

Narumi, for once in his life, went absolutely ballistic. In the flash of an eye, tables were flipped over, chairs got thrown over, blankets flipped. Koko's lamp simply became one haphazard mess where everything was completely out in the open.

Yet there was no Mikan.

Only half a week left. If Narumi didn't head over to the execution platform now, he wouldn't make it. A number of disastrous outcomes could arise from Mikan's absence. But a bigger catastrophe would ensue if he didn't make it in time. After all, he was the back up.

And this was a matter of life and death.


Tsubasa grinned smugly upon leaving his lamp. Mr. and Mrs. Andou strictly ordered him to stay in the house for the entire day but he wasn't going to be confined so easily. Though small, even he could see that some kind of commotion was rattling the very foundation of the two genie worlds and it would be a lie to say that his mischievous curiosity didn't get the better of him.

So the little boy smuggled his mother's magic carpet out of the carpet and set forth towards the huge gathering crowd. The ride was rocky and his steering was amateur; he couldn't help but make an angry fist at the older genies who rode by swiftly without a problem.

And then he saw her.

It didn't dawn on him right away to ask Mikan what she was doing running on the empty streets when everyone else was riding a carpet. Tsubasa was completely consumed by the excitement of the entire event. Without really thinking about it, he dove and offered a hand.

"C'mon! There's something really exciting going on!"

Mikan jolted sharply as he grabbed her wrist but visibly relaxed when she saw that it was only Tsubasa. With a toothy grin, he scooped her onto the carpet and sped towards the platform before the highest tower in the Genie World.

Their ride was smooth. There was no way he could let Mikan see his inexperience.

Suddenly, she latched onto his arm, trembling. Befuddled, Tsubasa turned to see if she was okay only to be completely taken back when he saw her deathly white face.

"What's wrong?" he asked urgently.

"It's him!" she cried hysterically before burying her face in his shoulder.

"Him wha—"

Then he understood. Before Mikan, proudly erect on the large platform before thousands of genies stood Hajime Yakumo. The scythe in his hand was larger, scarier and by far deadlier than the one on hand the day he bashed Mikan's head into a wall. The very tip of the blade gleamed in the sunlight and Tsubasa got cold sweat down his back from just looking at it.

Hajime had not yet noticed them but the terrified genie was positive that if he did, he would try to capture Mikan again. Tsubasa attempted a silent escape, steering the carpet in a U turn but he was not yet experienced enough and while turning, his eyes just happened to drift to Hajime's face for a second. But for that one second, they made eye contact.

Tsubasa, he vaguely heard his mother's voice in his head, the most important thing to do when turning is to not let go. Hold on tight, as if your life depends on it.

In that defining moment, he lost grip on his carpet and they both fell into the fray.