Chapter 2: The First Wish
"Tadaima!" yelled Kanata as he slammed the shoji door behind him. He quickly removed his shoes and put on house slippers and walked into the kitchen where, as he had predicted, mayhem reigned.
"Oh no! Not again!" moaned Miyu as she snatched the frying pan from the stove where she had been frying some vegetables. The smell of burnt food permeated the room.
"Miyu-san! Watch out!" shouted Wanya as he literally flew to her side to turn off the stove. In her distress, Miyu had turned the flame to 'high' instead of turning it off.
"Oh!" gasped Miyu "Arigatou, Wanya!"
"Daa!" gurgled Ruu, who had noticed Kanata hovering hear the door.
"Oh, Kanata!" said Miyu, turning at the sound of her adopted son "You're back!"
"Kanata-san?" said Wanya as he flew forward to catch the bag that had slipped to the floor from Kanata's shoulders "Are you okay? You look like you saw an alien. He he…"
Chuckling at his own joke, Wanya went back towards the stove, to try and salvage some dinner for them all. Miyu took off her apron and threw it on the back of a kitchen chair with a look of disgust.
"I am never cooking again!" she declared.
Seeing Kanata (who never missed an opportunity to tease her) stand still and silent, Miyu went up to him and asked "Are you okay?"
Kanata managed to nod at her and turned to go to his room.
"What is that?"
Miyu's question stopped him in his tracks. His housemate was eyeing the small lamp which he still clutched in his hands.
"This?" said Kanata, raising the lamp so that she could see it better "I don't know. I found it on the stairs."
"On the stairs?" asked Miyu bewildered "It looks just like that lamp in the Arabian Nights story book I had bought for Ruu-kun last week."
"Hmmm"
"Oh, Kanata-san, Miyu-san" called Wanya as he came towards them "I nearly forgot to tell you. Seiya Yaboshi had visited earlier today."
"Seiya-kun?" said Miyu
"Where is he?" demanded Kanata, with uncharacteristic harshness.
"Eh-Eh?" stammered Wanya "He left, Kanata-san."
"Left?" now it was Kanata's turn to look bewildered.
"But then, why did he come?" asked Miyu
"He said he was on his way somewhere and had no time to stop" said Wanya, warily eyeing a ticked-off Kanata as Ruu flew around his head. "He said he will be back in 3 days for a proper visit."
"Three days, huh?" said Kanata, a vein popping on his head. He was now sure that the boy or apparition or whatever he had seen was Yaboshi up to his usual tricks.
"He left you a letter."
"Nani?" Kanata blinked as Wanya handed him a sealed letter and went back to fixing dinner.
On the front of the envelope was written in bold letters 'FOR KANATA SAIONJI'S EYES ONLY'.
"Hey!" fumed Miyu "What does he mean, only for your eyes? What about me?"
Kanata turned the envelope and found printed on the backside, 'Cultivate patience, Miyu-chan!'
He showed it to Miyu who stormed off in a huff, hatching plans to get her hands on that letter. Knowing his housemate's curiosity, Kanata decided to read the letter in the privacy of his room and later, destroy it.
Once he reached his room, he flung his bag down near the table and sat on his futon. He removed his socks, unbuttoned his shirt and took off his belt. Deeming himself comfortable enough for the moment, he took the envelope and tore it open. It contained a single piece of paper with barely-legible writing. Smirking at Yaboshi's clumsy handwriting, he began to read.
Dear Kanata-kun, (said the letter)
Now, don't be mad at me. I just wanted to test something that I had developed, combining the technologies that I had gleaned from my travels. You are the only viable candidate I can think of. As you must have guessed, I left the lamp camouflaged on the temple stairs so that only you would find it. It is a device developed using nanotechnology much advanced from that of Earth. It is designed to fulfill your greatest wish on any day. I programmed this one to fulfill your wishes for three days. It contains a holographic projection that I named Seirei which is actually the interface for this device. All humans wish for several different things on a daily basis. Seirei will grant your most powerful wish of the day, for three days. But remember, Seirei can only work with what is available to you, in your life. It will not be able to grant unrealistic wishes like transporting you to another planet (unless you happen to have a spaceship handy). So, make good use of it (hint: a certain blonde-haired green-eyed beauty could do with a kiss or two). I will see you in three days.
Ja na!
Yaboshi Seiya
P.S. Make sure that Miyu-chan doesn't find out about Seirei. Oh, and the device is touch-sensitive. So, to turn it on, you simply have to touch it and to turn it off, you simply have to say 'Stop'. The device is programmed to consider the time between two consecutive activations as one day. So, activate it at the end of each day so that your greatest wish of the day can be granted. At the end of three days from today, it will automatically switch off and you will not be able to activate it further. So, don't forget to use your wishes. Ja na!
Kanata sat back, stunned, as he tried to take in all that Yaboshi had written.
'This is crazy!' thought Kanata 'I am going to strangle that idiot!'
So saying, he got up and went about getting ready for a shower and dinner. But, despite himself, he hid the lamp inside his school bag and stashed the letter inside his Math workbook (the one book Miyu would never willingly touch) to peruse later. But, Kanata was so tired from his crazy day that after dinner, the minute his head hit the pillow, he fell into a deep and dreamless slumber.
"What did Seiya-kun say in the letter?" asked Miyu
The next morning had dawned bright and clear, but Kanata was still grumpy about being used like a guinea pig by Yaboshi. To make matters worse, Miyu had gotten over her blue funk and had started bugging him about the letter and the lamp (in a moment of weakness, Kanata had admitted that it was Seiya's 'gift'). He still hadn't told her the contents of the letter or about Seirei, but knowing Miyu, it was only a matter of time.
"You know that I will continue to pester you until you confess all" said Miyu in a sing-song voice calculated to irritate him.
But Kanata was made of sterner stuff and merely gritted his teeth and tried to ignore the annoying girl walking beside him. As it was, all her pestering had managed to do was to make them both late. He sped up, partly to reach school on time and partly to try and lose his annoying housemate.
'Why doesn't she trip over her feet or something!' thought Kanata 'that'd be a wish I'd pay to see come true.'
The school gates were in sight now. He had a better chance of getting rid of Miyu by making up an excuse of some meeting or the other. There had to be perks for being captain of the basketball team and Class President. He started running.
"Hey!" yelled a surprised Miyu "Kanata! Wait!"
But Kanata simply ignored her and ran all the way into the school compound.
"Damn that stubborn baka!" grumbled Miyu as she continued to walk towards the campus. "Why can't he just tell me what was in that letter?"
"What letter?" asked a familiar voice behind Miyu.
She was so surprised that she nearly leaped out of her skin. She turned so quickly that she very nearly lost her balance.
"Chris-chan!" gasped Miyu "You startled me."
"Gomen, Miyu-chan." Said Christine with a pretty smile "You were saying that Kanata-kun received a letter, and…well…I just had to know." A becoming blush adorned her face.
"Oh!" said Miyu "He he…"
'O God!' thought Miyu 'What do I do? It's not like I can tell her the truth.'
"Oh no!" Miyu mock-gasped with a glance at her watch, then really gasped at seeing the time "Hurry, Chris-chan! We're late!"
"Oh! Right!" said Chris.
They both made a mad dash towards school. Christine, of course, left Miyu in the dust with her super-powerful alter-ego making a quick appearance. Both girls dashed into the class with minutes to spare and collapsed in their seats as their friends laughed at their antics. Under the cover of catching her breath, Miyu took a discreet look around, but did not see Kanata anywhere in the room.
'Damn! He must be hiding somewhere.' She thought 'Well, he has to come to class sometime.'
Having settled in her seat, Christine turned her manic eyes towards Miyu.
"Oh, Miyu-chan…" she sang in a creepy voice. A silence rippled forth from her seat as her classmates clued in to the fact that Chris was in destruction-mode. Seeing her eyeing Miyu, Aya and Nanami discreetly moved beside their friend, trying to cover her. Miyu slowly looked up at the pulsing purple aura that had surrounded her friend. 'Crap!' she thought 'I'm toast!'
"Kanata-kun has received a letter" said Creepy Chris with stars in her eyes. She clasped her hands in a mock-imitation of an overjoyed Kanata. "It is from his secret lover!" She suddenly stood up and struck a melodramatic pose. "But wait! Kanata-kun is not happy. Why, you ask…" she turned to her terrified classmates (Aya was furiously taking notes thinking 'This is good stuff. Gotta plan a play.').
"Kanata-kun had broken up with his secret lover because he is now in love with Miyu-chan" Creepy Chris smiled, well, creepily, at Miyu who sweat-dropped. "He shares meals with Miyu-chan, he shares smiles with Miyu-chan, now he has given her his heart! But his secret lover will not accept this…and neither will I!" she screamed out the last word and lifted up her desk to throw at Miyu's head.
"What on earth is going on here, Hanakomachi-san?"
Mizuno sensei had arrived to find her class in uproar. Knowing Christine, she took it in her stride but her arrival had snapped Chris out of her creepy phase and she was suddenly blushing as she sat down demurely in her seat. Meanwhile, her classmates all looked as though they had just finished a battle, Avengers-style. A movement at the corner of her eye had Miyu looking in that direction, just in time to see Kanata sneak in through the back window and hurry up the aisle to take his seat. A vein began popping on her head thinking of all the trouble he had inadvertently caused, all because he was too stubborn to tell her the truth.
Kanata had a comparatively peaceful morning, but his troubles started as soon as the bell rang for break. But what was truly astonishing was that Miyu was not responsible for it. She was playing least-in-sight, having endured all she could of Creepy Chris for one day. Having come to the conclusion that it was safer for her health if she left interrogating Kanata until after they finished school and were away from Chris, she had decided to leave him be for the day. As for Kanata, he was cornered by his fan club as soon as bell rang. Having gathered the gist of Chris' manic outburst in the morning, they surrounded him and began bombarding him with questions regarding his secret lover and whether he was going out with Miyu. Ever the gentleman, he could not outright tell them to back off and resorted to evading their questions as best as he could. Besides, having missed the morning performance, he had no clue what they were even talking about. Chris watched this from outside the circle of rabid dogs..er…fans… and went straight to Creepy-mode, sending everyone (including the clue-less Kanata) into a panic. It was Santa who ultimately rescued him from the girls, by spouting nonsense about some once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to buy a 'Tori' record. Kanata had never been more grateful to his old friend's strange hobbies, but unfortunately, his feelings did not last. It turned out that Santa was, in fact, serious. He continued to bombard Kanata with unwanted details of the sale that was happening in Tokyo today, bemoaning the fact that he could not go. Kanata became so annoyed that he began to wish he could buy the damn record himself so that he could give it to Santa and finally shut him up about it. He breathed a sigh of relief when classes started again, only to endure the same drama again during lunch break which (unfortunately for his sanity) continued till the last period of school since all the teachers were called away to an urgent meeting by the school principal.
"Tadaima!" said Miyu, removing her shoes and putting on her house slippers before heading inside the house.
"Welcome back, Miyu-san!" said Wanya from the living room where he was watching a cookery show on TV with Ruu.
"Mama!" exclaimed Ruu in glee as he flew towards his adopted mother who hugged him and gave him a kiss on each cheek.
"Ano…where is Kanata-san?" asked Wanya "Does he have practice today also?"
"Oh, no." smirked Miyu "He cancelled today's practice."
"Cancelled practice?" exclaimed Wanya
"Daa?" even Ruu looked astonished (though that could have been because of the face-plant that Wanya had made when he heard that Kanata had cancelled practice.)
"But, why?" asked Wanya from the floor where he had fallen "He never cancels practice!"
"Probably because he was exhausted." Miyu laughed in glee.
"Why, what happened at school today to make him that tired?" Wanya wanted to know.
"Because he refused to tell me the truth!" declared Miyu with a grim smile "He totally deserved it!"
"Eh?" Wanya remained clueless, both about whatever Miyu was talking about and Kanata's whereabouts.
"But where is he, then?" asked Wanya, determined to pry out something from a suddenly confusing Miyu.
"Oh, he is on the porch, completely passed out." Said Miyu as she walked off with Ruu in her arms.
Wanya blinked after her for a moment and went out to the front of the house. There, he saw a comatose Kanata who blinked blearily up at him and whispered weakly "Tadaima".
"Are you sure we shouldn't wake him up?" asked Wanya.
He had just sat down to dinner with Miyu and Ruu. Kanata was still fast asleep in his room, where he had crashed after dragging himself inside the house. He had not even bothered to change out of his uniform.
"Leave him be, Wanya" said Miyu, tucking into a delicious noodle dish (Wanya had prepared it alone). "He definitely had a bad day."
"So you say, Miyu-san, although I still don't get it." Wanya grumbled.
"It's okay, Wanya" said Miyu with a smile "Trust me, you don't want to know. Just seeing it was crazy enough."
"Daa!" said Ruu looking around. It was evident that he was looking for his 'papa'.
"It's okay, Ruu-kun" said Miyu, rubbing his soft hair lovingly "Kanata is merely tired. Let him sleep, okay? He will play with you tomorrow."
The trio soon finished and cleared up dinner. Wanya left to tuck a sleepy Ruu in his bed. Miyu put the leftover noodles in a thermos dish and walked to Kanata's room. She gave a light knock and listened for a response. But all was silent inside. So, she silently opened the shoji door and padded towards the futon where Kanata lay on top of the covers.
"Baka." She whispered "You did bring this all on your head, you know." She shook her head at him, but there was an affectionate expression on her face. "I'll leave your dinner here. Wake up and eat it, okay."
She walked towards his desk and left the thermos dish on top. With a last look at her sleeping housemate, Miyu left for her own futon and blissful sleep.
Kanata woke up with a start. He sat up on the futon and rubbed away some drool from his chin. He blinked sleepily and looked at the time. The clock on his table read a quarter past one.
'Crap! I fell asleep in my uniform!' he thought, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. He still felt drained but his stomach rumbled from hunger. That was when his eyes fell on the thermos dish on his table. He dragged himself over to it and opened it. A heavenly smell of cooked noodles caused the rumbling in his tummy to worsen. He thought he knew who would have kept this here. He reached out to sample the noodles but stopped himself.
"Ugh! I feel so filthy and sticky" he muttered to himself "Better have a shower first."
An hour later, Kanata was once again lying on his futon, bathed and dressed in a comfortable pair of shorts, his belly full and eyes sleepy. Suddenly, he remembered Seirei and despite himself, was curious. How would some device grant his wish? And what wish would it grant? Yaboshi had talked about his greatest, most powerful wish. But, what was that? Soon, his brain was spinning with a hundred questions and sleep was the last thing on his mind. Kanata sat up and warily looked at his school bag where the lamp was still hidden. His heart beat picked up as he crawled towards the bag which was lying innocently beside the table. He rummaged inside, shoving aside textbooks and pens until his hand touched cool metal. There was a quiet 'zing' and Kanata turned around to see 'Seirei' standing next to his futon.
"Even-song, Kanata-sama" it said "I am at your service."
"You're still dressed as Yaboshi" Kanata noted. But, now he could see that Seirei was some sort of projection from the lamp which he was holding in his hand. Why he looked like that idiot alien, Kanata left as a question for Yaboshi later. For now, he was more curious about his wish. He licked his lips nervously and asked, "Are you going to grant my wish now?"
"Your wish is my command" said Seirei and clapped his hands once as though praying.
There was another soft 'zing' and something fell into Kanata's lap. Surprised, he looked down and saw a gramophone record.
"What the…"
He put the lamp down and picked up the record and turned it over, trying to read the label in the moonlight streaming in from his window. But it was too dark for him to see anything properly. Grumbling, he turned back to his desk and switched on the desk-lamp. He held up the record and read the label.
"Tori's Greatest Hits of 2000?" he read, a bit disbelievingly. "What the hell…?"
Kanata turned towards Seirei with a confused expression. "What is the meaning of this?"
"Your greatest wish of the day has been fulfilled" answered Seirei
"My greatest wish…?" trailed off Kanata "But, I didn't wish for this stupid record! It was Santa who wanted…" Suddenly he recalled wishing to buy the record to get Santa to shut up. Apparently that had been his most powerful wish of the day. Never mind escaping Hanakomachi or his stupid fan club or even to get rid of Miyu.
"Aarrgghh!" Kanata cursed and fell back on top of the futon and covered his eyes with his arm. This had to be the most frustrating end to the most frustrating day in his life. Period! Meanwhile, Seirei continued to stand and look down upon his 'master'. Finally, Kanata mustered up enough energy to wave his hand and said 'Stop'. Seirei disappeared and he wished he could too, or at least forget this whole disaster of a day. He tossed the record onto his table. 'Might as well give it to Santa. He won't ask too many questions' he thought. He wondered what the second day would bring. Nothing, he was certain, could top today's craziness. But little did he know how wrong he was.