"Hey."
Marisa poked Nitori again.
"Hey."
"Mm."
"Wake up."
"Mm..mm."
Nitori could hear the clanking of glass someone around her sounding both like a close roar, and simultaneously a distant rumbling from a faraway party. She opened her eyes, but could only see Marisa through a film of liquid still smeared over her just waking eyes.
"You came crashing down to Earth again, huh?"
Nitori simply stared at Marisa.
"Well, I have something that might make you feel better."
Nitori didn't have the energy to respond, only to adjust her gaze away from Marisa in a display of malcontent.
"There's a story of a lot of people in the village becoming 'emotionless.' They still show up and work, but they're just completely zombified."
Nitori turned her head to Marisa out of interest in the case, "What?"
"I figured I'd let you know about it because that's something you should be an expert in."
Nitori punched Marisa in the shoulder and rolled away, sulking.
Marisa continued sitting by her, grinning now, "You're interested, aren't you?"
"I hate being this way, you know that."
Marisa rubbed Nitori's hair, "Oh come on, it's not all bad, you're just so loveable in moments like these."
"Stop messing up my hair and tell me what's going on."
"Well, there's an alleyway in town that anyone who has gone through it, ends up just being drained and losing all their motivation."
Nitori glared at Marisa, "Are you trying to drop me off at a day labor office?"
Marisa guffawed, "No, I swear not, ze. Want to go?
Nitori sighed, "Fine. After all, it's not like I have anything to lose."
They came to the alleyway and everything seems normal. Just a completely barren alleyway.
Nitori crooked her head, "You know the likelihood that this is just another urban myth, right?"
Marisa shrugged, "Wouldn't hurt, I thought."
They stood in awkward silence for a second.
"Sooo, shall we head ba-"
Before Nitori could finish, Marisa noted, "I'd pretty sure I heard about this from the restaurant down the street, let me go down and ask him for more details again."
Nitori nodded, "Alright, I can wait for you."
Marisa rolled her eyes, "Yeah, yeah."
As she left, Nitori paced down the alleyway and leaned against the wall. In retrospect, hanging out in an abandoned alleyway was probably not the safest thing to do. She soon saw a silhoutte on the other end of the alleyway.
"Oh, Marisa, I thought you left from the other en-"
Nitori narrowed her eyes. This wasn't Marisa, this was a different witch.
She sighed, "You're a witch."
"How very observant."
"It's just...it's just a witch sapping people's motivation with magic."
"Why, whatever do you mean?"
Nitori groaned and whispered under her breath, "Just once, I want something technically amazing. Not these little stupid mysteries."
Nitori looked up and added, "Well, I'm here to stop you, I guess?"
The witch grinned, "And now you'll see how I get away with it. You see, all I need to do is take away your motivation to even think of stopping me!"
The witch waved a hand in front of Nitori, but to her surprise, the only change was a disappointed frown on Nitori's face.
She blinked, "You're not going to go away now?"
Nitori put her hands on her hips, "Lady, if there's anything I know how to deal with, it's suddenly and painfully losing all motivation to go on with something. Now tell me what's going on here. Why are you destroying people's will? You just, take it from others?"
"Hm," the witch frowned, still contemplating how to get rid of Nitori, "You know, I didn't even collect that much from you, now that I think about it."
Nitori gave the her a deadpan stare, "I KNOW, RIGHT," she sighed, but tried to collect herself to not make this about herself. She rolled her eyes, But this power WOULD be amazing for me to learn about.
"Listen, just answer my questions for me at least. I'm not turning you in."
The witch gave Nitori a lookover before nodding slowly.
"So, you're stealing other people's motivation?"
"If I place a stick into a roaring fire, am I 'stealing' the fire?"
"Well, I mean, I guess not."
Nitori was incredibly torn on this case, on the one hand, she knew this witch was committing a crime and should be turned in, but a voice inside her was screaming, "YOU WOULD HAVE DONE THE SAME THING GIVEN HALF A CHANCE."
Ugh, Marisa would get mad at me for this, but I'd feel I'd be casting the first stone if I didn't show mercy on this case.
"Look, what do you need this for? Some weird potion or something?"
The witch blinked absentmindedly, "To survive!"
"What?"
"Well, if I didn't have any emotion myself, I'd die!"
Nitori gave a deadpan reply, "No. Trust me on this. You'd feel like you're dead. But you most assuredly wouldn't die." (for some reason, it feels like Nitori is staring at the reader)
"Is there a difference to being a rock on the ground and being dead?"
Nitori looked away. This witch was hitting too close to home for her, and then something struck her.
"If that's the case, why are you so determined to taking more motivation?"
"Because there's something I must do that I don't want to. It's the same for anyone, isn't it?"
Nitori gave a knowing sigh, "No. Unfortunately. Some people don't even need motivation to do what they don't want to do."
It was the witch's turn to be confused, "What?"
Nitori shrugged, "I know. I'm just as confused as you, but I swear to you, given my observations so far, it's the only thing that makes sense to me."
Nitori took a deep breath, "We aren't getting anywhere with this, so let me try a different tack and suggest this: do you know what farming is?"
The witch gave Nitori a despondent look, "Don't patronize me."
Nitori shook her hand, "I didn't mean it that way. What I meant was that instead of just strip-mining everyone's motivation, just take it a bit slower at least. And, might I suggest, aim for the people who have it in great abundance but waste it."
She murmured under her breath at the hag, "That's a rather large demographic, so I don't think that should be an issue."
And then added, "If you don't at least do that, you're going to get caught in short order. The village already sent for someone like me to investigate, and trust me, you don't want some of the more troublesome characters to be investigating you."
"But I don't have time for that kind of detailed motivation hunting!"
Nitori's wit could trap the witch now, "You mean you're not...motivated...enough to do that?"
Later, Nitori was walking back home with Marisa. Explaining how the situation had been resolved.
"Wait! It was a witch?!"
Nitori nodded, and in response Marisa blocked her path with her hands on her hips.
"What?"
Marisa gestured to her hat and to her broom.
Nitori look at her confused, "Again, what is it?
Marisa pouted, "What do you think I am?! I'm a witch! Why didn't you tell me?! The best thing to take on a witch should be another witch! We could've done this case together!"
Nitori dismissively waved her palm at Marisa, "Nah, trust me, you would've," she grinned, "lost interest."
