The morning sunlight poured into the cafeteria. Its radiance reflecting on the surfaces of the empty chairs and tables. A few employees sit far away from the beaming light as they prefer not to blind themselves when having their early meal. Among those few employees, there is an Indian woman sipping her coffee idly as she scrolls through her social media on her phone.
Another woman with light-skin and visibly protruding horns, holding a tray of a hot bowl of noodles, maneuvering around the tables and chairs blocking her way towards her Indian friend. Her presence was noticed and she was greeted with a smile.
“Good morning Tasha.”
“Good morning, Akane~ So, what did the boss say?” The miden* asks as her friend slowly places the tray on the table and sits down on the chair across from her.
She sighs before answering her friend, “The boss is sending me to Penang.”
“What?! Why??” Tasha moves her body closer to the table.
“He wants me to go to an antique shop that also happens to sell magical items and do the whole reassessment thing. Said there was no one in the Penang branch who was ‘free enough’ to take on the assignment.” She picks up her chopsticks and gracefully slurps a mouthful of noodles.
“Ooo~ Isn’t that great? I thought you were fed up with all that paperwork? How many days has it been since you started your current longest paperwork streak?” Tasha snickers a little before drinking her coffee.
She gulps down the noodles, “I think it is around 10 months? Or was it 9 months? The last time I remembered being on the field was subduing the cursed hairpin.”
Her friend laughs a little, “I remember that one! That happened during early February and your hair was messed up for a whole week.”
“I wish I had taken the entire week off like I was planning to,” She let out a depressed sigh and cringes a little reminiscing it.
“At least you got some hazard pay out of it,” Tasha grins, “Although, why did Haziq send you to reassess the shop’s items? Did the shop get involved with some shady stuff? Or was it abandoned recently? Or….maybe there is an earth-shattering magical weapon hidden in the shop, and Haziq wanted you to grab it before someone else did?(!)”
“Being imaginative as usual, Tasha.” She chuckles with her friend, “But Haziq did mention that the original owner passed away two years ago.”
“Then why only do it now?”
“Apparently, the higher-ups did not trust the new owner to handle the magic items being sold in the shop. The magic items were collected by the original owner, someone they trusted. It is an issue because the shop had only been selling regular antiques up until recently again, after the previous owner’s death. So now I am being sent there to reassess all the magic items there and update their status to current standards.”
“The previous owner didn’t do a status update in the past 30 years? What? How much did the higher-ups trust this previous owner?”
She shrugs, “Who knows? Honestly, I do not know if this assignment is going to be better or worse than what I have right now. There is a chance that the magic items I will find are boring, and all I can look forward to is more dull paperwork.” She slurps down more noodles.
“Even if the items turned out to be boring, at least it’s a change in scenery, Akane. You should be happier~”
“I would if I do not need to find a place to live. There is no way I can drive back and forth every day between Ipoh and Penang.”
“This would mean that we won’t be able to meet each other often from here on out. Now I feel sad.” She frowns.
“We can still use Accord to video chat or you could visit me and we can have some fun together. I have always wanted to visit a couple of places in Penang.”
“Especially the famous chicken pie?”
“Especially that, yes.” Akane grins.
“Well, I hope you’ll have a great time there. Remember to take lots of picture for me~”
“I will, no need to worry.” She slowly finishes up her noodles.
“When will you be moving?”
“I am supposed to give the shop a visit first to notify the shop owner about my assignment. Haziq told me that he received orders for my assignment only yesterday, so no contact has been made with the shop’s owner regarding my arrival yet.”
“Why not ca- Nevermind. You hate calling people.”
Akane clears her throat, “It does not matter if I call the owner beforehand or not. Even if the owner is currently not there when I arrived, I can just take the time and scout out for a potential place to live.”
“If you say so.” Tasha shrugs.
“I will be going now. See you, Tasha. I will miss our dinners together.” She winks.
“Goodbye Akane, and good luck!”
“Do not die of boredom before I come back~” With a smile on her face, the tray on her hands, she leaves.
***
Akane gradually decreases the speed of her red Myvi and pulls over in front of the antique shop. She double-checks the address and name of the shop to confirm she is at the right place, which she is. She adjusts her car’s position and parks right in front of her destination. She takes her black handbag and leaves her car.
She stands in front of the building, admiring its old but well-maintained architecture. The design of the building is a common design for the Chinese during the 1960s in Malaysia. Intricate patterns were carved into the concrete and wood that made up the building. A lot of work was clearly done to attract customers, practically screaming at their faces that there is fancy merchandise waiting inside. Right above the entrance is a huge, worn-out wooden sign that says 梦想的花园. A newer, much longer LED sign can be seen awkwardly attached above the old sign and right below two short balconies extending out from the second-floor rooms with the words “The Flower of Dreams” written on it.
Akane backs away a bit to see what’s on top of the building while realizing that the shop is twice the size of the building attached to the right side of the shop. She feels that the original shop might have been smaller and that its current width is due to combining a building right next to it into the shop, making it twice as long compared to the house on the right. When she backs away enough, she realizes that the owner of the shop built a rooftop greenhouse, and she can somewhat make out the flowers way up high. The third and second-floor balcony, with its closed wooden windows, also has a few pots of similar flowers.
They must have loved flowers a lot. She notices there are two more rectangular flower pots with a unique blue-ish flower planted at each side of a three-step stair that leads to an elevated platform. The platform and the stair are made of granite. There are two granite pillars that match perfectly with the door frame at the end of the elevated platform, which has polished, artistic cement tiles fitted in. There are a couple of Chinese characters carved into the granite pillars, but Akane can’t make it out what they are.
She sees an ‘Open!’ sign hanging in front of the wooden door. She looks through the semi-transparent glass pane on the upper half of the door and sees a person sitting behind what appears to be a desk. She pushes the door open, which causes the bells installed on top of the door to ring, alerting the person inside and causing them to stand up and prepare to greet a potential customer.
As she approaches the front desk sitting at the left side of a wooden sliding door, she gets a better look at the person in front of her. He is a fairly short and slim young man, at around 165 cm, with a noticeable hairpin attached in front of his stylish blond hair. He wears an….apron? A pink one at that. Curiosity swells up in Akane’s mind, but she presses it down to focus on the task at hand.
“Welcome to The Flower of Dreams~ We now sell antiques and magic items. How may I help you~?” He gives her a warm smile.
Akane slightly aims her sight downwards as she is taller than him, “My name is Akane Sakamoto. I am a Magic Item Appraiser from the Ministry of Magic and Metaphysics. Nice to meet you.” She slightly bows.
“Nice to meet you too, Ms. Sakamoto~ My name is Ezra Rennard~ I have been expecting you~” He reaches his hand out to shake hers.
“You are? My superior told me that you are not notified about my arrival.” She gently grabs his hand and shakes.
“Not from the Ministry~ When I received the permit to sell magic items on Monday, I was told to expect an Appraiser to update the status of all magic items in the shop to the latest categorization standard. But, they didn’t tell me when exactly you would arrive. A phone call before you came would be nice~”
“Ah, I see. I apologize, my superior urged me to visit your establishment as soon as possible. I was only briefed of my assignment right before I drove here from Ipoh, and I did not want to break the law by driving and calling.” Akane smiles awkwardly.
“Oh, you are from Ipoh~ I have been wanting to visit there and give the famous bean sprout chicken there a try~ I always hear people praising them~”
“Only if you know which restaurant to go to. Not every one of the places that sell them is as good as people say.” The edge of her mouth curves upward.
“I guess that is true~,” his smile relaxes, his eyes narrow slightly, “Forgive me for saying this, but would you mind providing me some proof that you are who you claim to be~? Occasionally, there are those who lie about their identity in an attempt to steal the shop’s merchandise~”
“Ah, I understand,” She digs out her employee tag and shows it to the man, “It has the same government-issued mark on paper money to prevent counterfeiting.” The man inspects it closer, and sure enough, there is an unmistakable magical mark with swirling dark green and blue color at the bottom left of the tag. “Is this enough of a proof for you, Mister Rennard?”
“Yes, I think this would suffice~ Please, come and take a seat with me at the desk. It’s much more comfortable than standing~” He playfully smirks. The two walks to the desk and Ezra pulls out the chair in front of the large, wooden desk for Akane first, “Thank you,” before they both sit down simultaneously.
“Since you’re an appraiser, would you mind showing off your skills for me~? I’ve never seen an appraiser for magic items in work~” His elbows rest on the table, his fingers gently tangling with each other. The smile on his face persists with a softness to it.
“What would you like me to appraise?”
“How about this teapot~?” He pushes the teapot closer to Akane, “I want to see how you figure out its activation method and its effect~”
She picks the teapot up carefully to examine it as there is liquid sloshing inside it, “The design dictates it originated from India. I rarely see a metallic teapot before,” She places it down, grabs a lipstick-shaped item from her handbag, and switches it on. A purple light is emitted on the alluring and complex design of the teapot, indicating that it perhaps once belonged to the rich and powerful.
Akane then makes a circle by letting the tips of her forefinger and thumb contact with each other. She looks through her finger-circle and at the surface illuminated by the purple light. She slowly moves both her hands across the teapot, “Not a blessed or cursed item or else there would be a faint amount of mana covering the entire teapot.” When she notices the thumb-sized ‘words’ near the lid, she traces her thumb over it, “Not carving, the Bengali words, or spell, were imprinted on it. They were added after the teapot was already made, which means the effect of the teapot would not activate automatically when a condition is fulfilled, instead it has to be manually activated by the user.”
The words on the teapot directly connect with the words on the lid itself and then continue to connect with the words on the other side of the teapot. She puts down her device after switching it off and uses both her hands to slowly flip the teapot from left to right to examine the entire teapot quickly, “The spell is not carved into the teapot likely because it would allow the artist who designed the patterns and the spell to have more creative freedom. The length of the spell is not symmetrical on both sides, but the artist made the words appear longer on the left side so it would fit the rest of the design better. May I open the lid?”
“Sure, sure. Go ahead~” Ezra becomes more impressed with each observation made by Akane.
She carefully lifts the lid off and peers inside the teapot, consisting of tea leaves and water. She uses her device to light up the interior wall of the teapot. No markings. She looks under the lid. No markings. However, she notices there is a tiny part of the lid that appears to be more worn out than the rest of the lid. She looks at the edge of the teapot hole and notices a tiny dent. She puts the lid down, matching the worn out part with the dent part, and realizes that one-half of a symbol is on the lid and on the edge of the teapot hole. So, she lifts up the lid again, and with some force, knocks the lid at the teapot hole while connecting the symbol to make it complete. Then, she let’s the lid settle back into the teapot hole and the spell starts to glow red. A few seconds later, steam came out of the teapot spout. She lets her hand get close to the teapot, and her assumption that the spell will cause the liquid inside of the teapot to become hot is confirmed.
Ezra claps his hands loudly, startling Akane a little bit, “Wow, impressive! It took me awhile to figure out how to activate it since the shop’s catalog was vague about the details~ I guess you really are an appraiser~”
“You doubted me?” She raises an eyebrow.
“Apologies, Ms. Sakamoto. I have to be careful when it comes to the shop’s merchandise. They are very valuable~” He pours himself a cup of tea with the teapot.
She smirks and places her hand down on the table, “Will you trust me now?”
“You’re at least who you claim to be~ I will be happy to assist you with the reassessment~ Tell me more about the reassessment process, it would be in my best interest to know more~” He reaches down his hand under the desk. He pretends to scratch his legs a little bit but in actuality, he was touching a magic item underneath the desk. Relief washes over his mind as the item is neither hot nor cold.
“Of course, Mr. Rennard. But before that, may I ask what is your relationship with the previous owner?”
“It’s a little complicated. I never met the original owner of this place as she had passed away before I arrived. The current owner of the shop is the grandchild of the original owner. Since they are still not an adult yet, I am responsible for taking care of them and the shop~”
“Oh? How old are they?”
“14~ Do you need to talk to them~?”
“Is the permit registered under yours or their name?”
“Both actually~”
“Then I believe it would not be necessary. How much do you know about the reassessment process, Ms. Rennard?”
“Only that it is something that needs to be done~ The shop already has a validated catalog though, is that not enough~?”
“It would be 30 years ago. However, Malaysia decided to adopt the international standard for magic item safety labels. Therefore, all magic items that are not under public possession are required to undergo a reassessment as the previous standard the Ministry used was found to be lacking.”
“How so~?”
“The previous standards allow much more dangerous magic items to be sold in commercial settings and it was found to be the cause of several incidents related to magic items. The international standard is stricter, much more consumer-friendly. Any magic items above a designated standard level would not be allowed in common commercial stores and would be subjected to strict regulations if one wishes to sell them.”
“What if our shop has magic items like that~?”
Akane raises three fingers, “One of three scenarios will happen.”
“One,” She lowers two fingers, “You would need to acquire another permit to demonstrate that you are qualified to sell these magic items and willing to obey the strict regulations of how to handle, maintain, sell your merchandise to the ‘right’ customers.”
“‘Right’ customer~?”
“Customers who possess the license to purchase the magic item.” Ezra nods and gestures Akane to continue.
“Two,” She raises one finger back, “A corporation may offer to purchase the magic items with a low price under the supervision of an agent from the Ministry. You could choose to keep the magic items, but unless you have a license to operate them, you would be forced to seal the magic items away indefinitely.”
“Three,” Three fingers, “The Ministry will confiscate the magic item. There would be monetary compensation, the amount is on a case-by-case basis.”
“I see~ Hopefully, all the magic items in our shop would be within the acceptable standard after your reassessment~”
“May I take a look at the catalog? Having it would speed up my appraisal process tremendously.”
“Of course~ But, I still have some questions. Is the appraisal process only going to be what you showed me just now~? A few minutes on a magic item looking at it with your little device~?”
“That is only the most rudimentary process of determining its safety, function, and effect. The real appraisal and cataloging process for a magic item of this caliber will take around an hour. It depends on the type of magic item. Unless a magic item was made with the intention to replicate an existing magic item, they rarely share the same creation process. The more complex a magic item is, the longer it will take for me to analyze it thoroughly.”
“I guess that’s true~” He lets out a small sigh.
“Is there something wrong, Mr. Rennard?”
“Wellllll, you see, the original owner was not only an adventurer before she settled down here with her husband, she was also quite the hoarder.” His smile turns slightly rigid.
Akane gulps, her heart drops a little, “How many magic items are there in your shop?”
“I have a feeling you won’t like what I have to show you, Ms. Sakamoto” He bends down his body, pulls out the drawer at the bottom, and lifts the massive catalog onto the desk. He sees the color on her face drain out.
The catalog is about 40 centimeters in width and length. The papers of the catalog appear to be quite yellowish and have a few wrinkles, held together by a spiral binding. Its thickness, however, is about as thick as a dictionary, “I was told she could not bear the thought of magic items being abandoned and left forgotten by the world~ So, she and her husband started selling magic items with the hope that each of those items will find an owner who appreciates it~”
Akane slowly opens up the catalog, her heart sinks lower and lower with each index page she flips through, “Even counting the magic items that have been sold over the years, there are probably still more than a thousand of them in the storage room~ It’ll likely take a long time for you to go through every one of them.” He looks at her with slight pity.
She closes the catalog, and despite her attempt to hide her real feelings, Ezra could easily see that she is clearly distraught. No wonder they could not find anyone in Penang to take on this assignment, she thinks to herself.
“Do you have any places you can stay in Penang~?”
“No...I do not-” Her sentence is cut short when she hears loud and quick thumping noises coming from behind the wooden door beside the desk. The noise gradually becomes louder, as if a person is descending a flight of wooden stairs. Before she could say anything, she hears the sound of someone throwing down their sandals onto the ground and wearing them behind the door. Swiftly after that, the door slides open from the opposite side.
“Ezra-” A tween steps out from the door. As soon as they see Akane, they quickly hide behind the wall and slightly peeks out from hiding.
“Come on out Emil, don’t be shy~” He leans further back on his chair, turning his head and so his eyes meet with Emil’s. The tween reluctantly walks out of the door and slides it back.
Akane stiffens herself up because if she doesn’t, her squeals would leave her mouth upon seeing how cute the boy(?girl?) standing in front of her is. The tween is about the average height of a 14-year-old with white, smooth skin. Their sapphire blue hair just barely touches their shoulders, with some of it softly sitting at the ridge of their nose; their green eyes avoiding the direct line of sight with Akane; their long, pointy, yet flatten ears slightly trembles due to their nervousness. They wear a jacket and a t-shirt with a cartoon character underneath it while rocking a pair of short pants and sandals.
“This is Emil~ They are the real owner of the shop~ Emil, this is Ms. Sakamoto. She is from the Ministry of Magic and Metaphysics~ She has come to reassess all the magic items in the shop so that the Ministry can feel safe knowing what the magic items can do~”
Emil shyly nods. Akane puts up her best poker-face, stands up, and approaches the tween. She gives them a warm smile, reaching out her hand with the intention to shake theirs, “Nice to meet you Emil. My name is Akane Sakamoto. As you can see from my horns,” She points, “I am a half-oni. As your caretaker has mentioned, I am a Magic Item Appraiser sent from the Ministry to make a complete reassessment of all the magic items in your shop. You will be seeing me often for the next…,” Her smile cracks a little and turns dry, “...few years to finish appraising all the magic items.”
“We will do our best to help you, Ms. Akane.” They then return a soft and genuine smile back to her, hoping that they can cheer her up. She barely pushes down her urge to go all ‘Awwwww’ mode.
“You should properly introduce yourself to Ms. Sakamoto, Emil~”
“My name is 曾星雨 (Chan Xing Yu). Emil is my nickname. I am an elf adopted by my miden grandmother. She passed this shop to me when she died, but Ezra is the one taking care of it right now because I’m only 14. You can refer to me with ‘he’ or ‘him’ if you want, Ezra prefers to call me by ‘they’ or ‘them’.”
“Oh, are you non-binary?”
Emil nods.
“Ah, no wonder. I will use ‘they/them’ then, is it okay?”
They nod again.
Ezra stands up and claps, “Now then~ Since our introductions are over, we-”
The doorbell rings. Akane turns around and focuses on the customer that just came in as the other two do. It is an old Chinese woman, around her 80s. She slowly but steadily walks towards the desk.
“您好，欢迎来到梦想的花园。请问我可以如何帮你~？(Hello ma’am. Welcome to The Flower of Dreams, how can I help you~?)” Ezra quickly approaches the old woman.
“这里是有驱魔师的地方，对吗？(This is the place with exorcists, right?)”
“没错~ (That’s right~)” Ezra helps the old lady to the chair Akane sat just now.
“外面没有牌子写着这里有驱魔师，我还以为我来错地方了呵呵。(Since there aren’t any signs outside saying there's an exorcist here, I thought I came to the wrong place.)” The old lady chuckles as she sits.
“我家的喷壶好像是被恶灵占有。一开始我以为我老人家了，眼花看错东西。不过最近它开始一直移动，然后弄出了一大堆声音，尤其是早上的时候。我的儿子亲眼看到那个喷壶才相信我。现在那个喷壶被锁在储存室里，幸好没有人受伤。(My house’s watering can seem to be possessed by an evil spirit. At first, I thought it’s because of my old age and my eyes are seeing things wrong. But lately, it was moving a lot, and then it makes a lot of noise， especially during the morning. Only when I soon see it moving with his own eyes does he believe me. Right now the watering can is being locked inside a storage room, and luckily no one was hurt.)”
Ezra sits back down on his chair, “那为什么不要去找警察? 他们因该可以帮您处理这件事~ (Then why not go and find the police? They can probably handle this~)”
“那个喷壶是我的老公的。他去世之前会每天用那个喷壶浇他花园的花。我是不想看我老公喜欢用的东西被摧毁，所以我想请驱魔师帮我弄掉那个恶灵，复原我老公的喷壶。(That watering can belong to my husband’s. Before he passed, he would use it to water the plants in his garden. I don’t want to see my husband’s favorite thing be destroyed, so I want to ask help from an exorcist to get rid of the evil spirit and restore my husband’s watering can back to normal.)”
“我明白您的心情。不用担心，我们会帮您去除恶灵，回复你老公的喷壶~ 至于价钱呢，我们驱魔之后才能让您知道是多少。我推测您所形容的情况，到最后可能会是多多少少一百五十至三百五十令吉之间~ (I understand your feeling. No worries, we will help you eradicate the evil spirit and recover your husband’s watering can~ As for the price, I can only let you know after the exorcism is done. From what I can guess with your description of the situation, it will roughly be around 150 to 350 ringgit~)”
“我觉得你跟我的儿子讨论价钱比较好。我老人了对钱没那么敏感呵呵。(I think you should discuss the price with my son instead. I’m old now, much less sensitive to money.)”
“好吧~ 请问您要我们现在去您的家驱魔吗~？(Alright~ Do you want us to go to your home and exorcise it now~)”
“如果你们驱魔师不忙的话可以跟着我孙子的车带你们到我家。她的车是浅蓝色的。(If you exorcists aren’t busy, you can follow my grandchild’s car back to my home. Her car is light blue in color.)”
“好，没有问题~ 请给我们十分钟准备~ (No problem~ Please give us ten minutes to prepare~ )” The blond stands up and prepares to go past the door on his left.
“我希望你们两个年轻人可以顺顺利利把恶灵除掉。 (I hope that you two young people can successfully exorcise the evil spirit.)” The old lady smiles brightly at Ezra and Akane.
Before the half-oni could speak, Ezra cut her off, “不不，她不是驱魔师。这位才是驱魔师~ (No no, she’s not the exorcist. This right here is the exorcist~)” He points at Emil, who shyly looks away.
“这位小弟弟是个驱魔师？？(This boy is an exorcist??)” The old lady looks appalled, staring at Emil with greater intensity.
“是啊，别小看他~ 他是非常有能力的，不用担~。我呢只是他的助手而已~ (Yeah, don’t look down on him~ He is very capable, don’t worry~ In fact, I’m just his helper~)”
“年轻人，你没在开玩笑吧？驱魔不是挺危险的吗？这孩子不会受伤吗？(Young man, are you really not joking? Isn’t exorcism pretty dangerous? Won’t this child be hurt?)”
“老奶奶，请相信我~ 这孩子从小就被训练成为一位驱魔师。他努力了很多就为了能当一个驱魔师。他甚至有个执照证明他是个真真正正的驱魔师。到时候您看他驱魔，您就会相信我了~ (Granny, please believe me~This child has been trained since he was little to become an exorcist. He worked hard just to be one. He even has a license that proves he is a legitimate exorcist. When you see him exorcise, you will believe me~)”
“好吧，好吧。那么我现在我孙子的车等你们。浅蓝色的车啊。(Alright, alright. Then I will be waiting in my grandchild’s car for you. The light blue colored car.)” The old lady slowly waddles back outside the shop.
Just as Ezra stands up and about to go grab his gear while Emil follows along, Akane quickly stops them in confusion, “Wait a minute, what did you just talk about with that old lady?”
Ezra turns to the half-oni, “Oh, how rude of me~ Emil and I are going to the old lady’s house to help exorcise an evil spirit right now~ I can explain more on the car ride there if you would like to join us~ If not, I’m afraid you’ll have to wait for us to come back before we can resume our business~ What will it be, Ms. Sakamoto~?”
She opens her mouth but closes it again before she speaks. She thinks about it for a few seconds before responding, “I will join you.”
“Please wait for us here then, Ms. Sakamoto~,” The blonde man opens the door to the back half of the house, “We’ll take off after we grab our equipment~” He then crosses the threshold with Emil following behind before closing the door.
Akane was both confused and intrigued. If her non-verbal understanding of the conversation is correct, it seems like Emil will be the one exorcising the evil spirit. But...that can’t be true, right? A 14-year-old having an exorcist license? She never heard of such a thing before.
5 minutes pass and the duo returns to the shop area of the building. Akane does not know how she should feel upon seeing their ‘gears’. Emil’s ‘armor’, if one could call it that, resembles a Catcher (in baseball) with safety pads on his joints. On the other hand, Ezra’s ‘armor’ appears to be a poor man’s version of riot gear. However, it looks like it allows its wearer to have more mobility and flexibility while still offering an ample amount of protection. He is also wearing a unique looking pair of gloves with a circular object attached on the back of the glove akin to a roll of strings.
Ezra notices Akane’s expression of disbelief, “You look like you have something to say about our protection gear, Ms. Sakamoto~ Not what you imagine exorcists wear~?” He smiles.
She nods hesitantly, “I have never seen exorcists wearing...those before. I thought you would wear magically enhanced clothing that looks more....stylish.”
“Different exorcists utilize different types of magic~ We could not afford those that you would normally see in movies or Japanese animation nor do we need to. Just imagine our exorcism targets to be particularly difficult-to-handle pests. Shall we~?” He guides the still-somewhat baffled Akane out of the shop and to the shop’s van (after locking the doors).
Emil lets Akane sit beside the driver, then goes to the backseat. The half-oni is a little impressed by the elf’s courtesy. She and Ezra sit on their respective seats and close the doors at the same time. Ezra turns on the engine and the white, aged van roars to life. Ezra signals the old lady’s car before following it slowly to their destination.
“Is Emil an exorcist?” She turns her head back a little to peek at them.
“Yes~ Aren’t they cool~?”
“How did h- they managed to get a license?” Almost messed up the pronouns.
“It’s not a complete license~ If anyone ever made a complaint about Emil or if they caused themselves or other people to go into hospital, then their apprenticeship license will be revoked~”
“That still does not explain how they manage to get a license.”
“The person who issued their license is a good friend of their grandmother~ He was initially completely against Emil’s request, but their months-long, unwavering request broke though the old miden’s heart~” He chuckles. Emil looks out the window and pretends to not hear anything.
“But it would still mean that Emil passed all the mental and physical tests from the Board, right?”
If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
“Yes~” He flips on the turning signal before taking a corner turn.
She turns her head to the back, “That is very impressive, Emil. I never heard of a 14-year-old passing the Board of Thaumaturge’s license test. For an exorcism one, no less. Is there a reason why you worked so hard to get that license?”
There is an awkward silent pause before Emil speaks up.
“My grandma was an exorcist. She taught me her exorcism spells that she is really proud of. I want to make her proud and happy. I want to remember her by using the spells I learned.” They look downwards, Akane barely enters the upper half of their field of view.
“Aww, that’s sweet--”
“But, I also want to help people,” They suddenly look up and their eyes meet with the half-oni’s. They then quickly shy away from her gaze and stare out of the window again, their cheeks slightly red.
Akane chortles, “Your grandmother would be proud to have such a caring and kind-hearted grandchild, Emil.” They nod a little.
She turns her head back towards the front, “How long have you two been conducting exorcism services?”
“A couple of months~ Emil started applying for the license last year, and he only passed the license test during the mid-year school holiday~ It took a while before the exorcism services started taking off. Emil and I spent a considerable amount of time building a social media presence. Luckily, we had some help~”
“How many customers have you two gotten so far?” The van arrives at an incredibly large roundabout. Ezra doesn’t answer until he manages to merge into the roundabout and is still following the clients’ car.
“8, all of the jobs are fairly safe and uneventful~ There was one that took only less than a minute~”
“Just some miasma? Or a docile ghost?” He nods to agree.
“From the look of your gear, are you going to exorcise side-by-side with Emil? Or just protecting them?”
“I’m not an exorcist, if that’s what you’re asking~ I have a license for a special magic item that I use to assist in Emil’s exorcism~ Mostly to make sure the danger is contained~”
“I cannot wait to see your magic item and Emil’s exorcism in action.” She smirks. She wants to ask one more question, but after seeing the client’s car gradually slow down and turns into a residential area, she decides to keep the question for another time.
The gate to one of the houses slowly slides behind a wall and the client’s car gently pulls up into the car porch. Ezra carefully parks the van beside the road, in front of the house. Emil’s ear twitches slightly. The trio exit the van and head into the client’s house. There was a middle-aged man standing in front of the front door. The old woman’s granddaughter helps her slowly walk toward the man.
Ezra stops approaching the old woman once the man starts to talk fiercely with the old woman. Both of them have a mildly heated argument in Chinese. The man looks disappointed and shakes his head a little. Eventually, he looks like he gives up and the old woman smiles. She then points at Ezra and Emil and talks more with the man. He appears to be shocked and gestures to the trio to come closer.
“你是我妈请的驱魔师? (You are the exorcist that my mother hired?)” He looks at Emil and asks, which they nod shyly, “你还那么小，真么可能会有 license? (You are still so young, how can you possibly have a license?)” Emil reaches into their pocket, pulls out their license card from their wallet, and shows it to the man. The man takes the card and stares at it intensely. He then returns the card to Emil and looks at the other two, “你们两个才是真正的驱魔师吗? (Are you two the real exorcists?)”
“可以用英文谈话吗? 这位小姐听不懂华语~ (Can you use English? This lady over here doesn’t understand Chinese~)” Ezra non-offensively points at Akane.
“Who are you two supposed to be?” It is clear that the man is getting impatient.
“You can call me Mr. Rennard, sir~ I am Mr. Chan’s, the exorcist's assistant~ This beautiful lady right here is from the Ministry of Magic and Metaphysics. She can vouch for Emil over here that he is a legitimate exorcist~” He dishes out his signature smile, with a glint of slyness in his eyes.
Akane stares at him wide-eyed, unsure of what expression she should make to reflect her astonishment and flashing anger. She notices both Emil and the man are waiting for her answer, so she responds with: “Auhm, yes, I can vouch that Emil is capable of handling the task he was hired for.”
“And there you have it, sir~ An endorsement from an agent of the Ministry~ We will fulfill your mother’s request without a problem~ Can you share with us more details about the possessed watering can~?”
“I saw the can moving and causing a ruckus in the house and I want whatever that’s possessing it gone, what’s more to say?” The man crosses his arms.
“The details are very important for us to decide what method we should use to exorcise~”
“Go ask my daughter. She knows about everything and more than I do.”
“Alright, sir~ Emil, how about you go and talk with his daughter while I discuss the fee to this exorcism with Mister…~?”
“Mr. Cheah.”
“With Mr. Cheah over here~ Ms. Sakamoto, can you please accompany Emil~?”
She nods, then makes her way towards the daughter with Emil, who is sitting on a chair, talking to her grandmother. Emil’s ear perks up more, but they resist the temptation to search for the source of the sound.
“Your father mentioned that you know about this situation more than he does. Is that true?”
“Yes. You want to know more about the spirit?” The granddaughter quickly informs her grandmother that the exorcists are going to ask questions and that she should head inside to rest. The grandmother reluctantly agrees and talks a little more in Chinese before heading in.
“Em-, Mr. Chan over here will be asking the questions.” She gestures Emil to ‘go-ahead’.
Emil steps forward a little, but they keep staring at the ground, their hands grasping each other tightly. They try to speak, but all that comes out from their mouth are only soft mutterings. The half-oni notices Emil’s hand starting to tremble.
“Do you...want me to help you ask some questions, Emil?” They must be really shy.
The smol exorcist frantically nods. “Alright then. May I know what your name is, miss?”
“Celine.” She looks understandingly at Emil, then at Akane.
“Nice to meet you, Celine. Can you tell us when this spirit started to cause trouble?”
“It was a few days ago. I saw it moving a little bit before, but no one believed me. Then grandma saw it, but my dad still didn’t believe me. It started to make a lot of noise during the morning, but he thought it was just the crows banging on the roof. It happened sometimes ever since grandpa died, but I knew it was the can. Then one night, when my dad was going to the toilet, the can suddenly showed up and attacked him. He woke all of us up and we managed to lock it inside the small garden storage room. For now.”
“Was your father hurt?”
“No. I don’t think it was serious about attacking my dad. It was just kind of pushing and banging my dad. I think it’s because my dad said he was going to throw out the can or sell it to someone else. Then whatever was living in the can got unhappy and decided to make my dad change his mind.”
“That sounds plausible.” Suspicion rises up in Akane’s mind. Something isn’t making sense.
“If grandpa is still alive, he would never let dad even consider throwing it out, even if there is a spirit living inside it.”
“It is precious to your grandfather?”
She nods, “My grandma said my grandpa already had the can by the time they met. It was the last gift he received from his mother. Grandpa really loves gardening, and he always uses the can to water the plants every morning while singing old people's songs.” Celine smiles nostalgically as she glances at the many pots of flowers beside the car porch, “After he died, the can was kept inside the shed and we only use the hose to water the plants.”
“May I know when did your grandfather pass away?”
“He died last year. He was 82 years old.”
“I see. My condolences.”
“It’s fine.”
“Was that information enough, Emil?” She turns her sight to the left, and she sees Emil staring at something at the side of the house. She walks a little further to the right and spots a small garden shed at the corner where the edge of the small garden and the house wall connects.
She points at the shed, “Is that where the can is currently being locked inside?” Celine nods.
“....it’s whispering...” Emil thoughtlessly mumbles.
“Hmm? Did you say something, Emil?”
Ezra approaches the duo before she can get an answer, “Emil~? Did you find out all that you need to know about our target~?” The elf looks at Ezra and nods, “Great~ Let’s start then~”
The exorcist and their assistant walk over to the shed. They see the handles of the shed were locked tight with a padlock. The man walks towards Ezra and gives him the key, “Do we need to wait inside the house?”
“Not really~ Unless the spirit was more dangerous than your daughter described~” The man walks back to the porch, standing right outside of the small garden with Akane and her daughter. The three of them silently observe the duo.
“...it’s getting louder...”
“Hmm~? What did you say~?” The moment the padlock is off the handles, the door burst open. The duo immediately leaps backward, instantly entering into combat mode. The observers are shocked as they see a rusted, metallically silver watering can fly out from the shed with great force and speed.
The can is floating in the air, its rose aiming downwards at the humans. When it realizes Emil is about to cast their spell, a violent and forceful stream of water rushes out from its rose and straight towards the duo.
Emil immediately raises up a two-finger gesture (the index and middle finger sticking close to each other), yells out, “护！(Protect!)” and moves their right forearm 90° upwards. A semi-transparent sphere instantly spawns into existence around Ezra and Emil, protecting them from the incoming water damage. The water gets deflected onto the garden’s grass. Akane’s eyes are wide open, an old memory springs up into her mind as she sees Emil’s spells.
The can continues to shoot out the forceful stream of water towards Emil until it recognizes Mr. Cheah who is standing not too far away. It immediately changes its target and directs the water towards its object of hatred. Emil notices the spirit’s intention and quickly utter the same “护！(Protect!)” after he raises up his two-finger gesture. A large sphere spawns in front of the father and daughter. The water goes right through one side of the sphere but does not exit through the other side of the sphere. Instead, the water slowly fills up the interior of the sphere.
Enraged by this turn of events, the spirit plans to damage the house instead. However, before that could happen, it is suddenly yanked back by Ezra. It could not see what is binding its body, preventing it to move towards any other direction. The blond is pulling something that is limiting the can’s movement back. Thanks to the sunset and water, she is able to make out the almost invisible threads wrapping around the can, connected to the circular thing at the back of Ezra’s gloves.
The spirit realizes it could not use its telekinesis to bust out from the bind, so it turns, aims its back towards Ezra, and fires the stream of violent water, using the backward force of the water to propel itself right at him. Ezra quickly dodges and successfully avoids the diving attack.
Just as the can was about to hit the garden hard, it cuts off the water stream and manages to make a last-second turn to avoid the ground entirely and uses telekinesis to float upwards with the preserved momentum. The spirit attempts to leave, but Ezra is faster. He pulls one of the threads that was still attached to the can and uses the magic item to ‘staple’ the other end of the thread to the ground.
“EMIL!” The young exorcist yells out, “驱和止！(Exorcise and Stop!)” after bringing their finger down. A sphere spawns, with the can at dead center, it becomes affixed in mid-air. Then, the bottom of the sphere, as well as the can, slowly glows in bright light. The light gradually moves its way to the top. The grandma inside the house opens the window and stares out at the can.
It is then Emil hears the whispers turning into a weak whimper. They stare at the can, at the spirit, and they can hear, no, feel the spirit’s emotions swelling up.
Is it fear? No, not fear. Something deeper. Something that touches Emil’s heart. Something that they are all too familiar with.
Their hands start to shake, the bright light is reaching the halfway point. The internal conflict within their heart reaches its peak, one side telling them to finish the job, while the other, pleading them to let the spirit go.
They look at the grandma. She stares at the can, expressionless. But they could see it. Her eyes reflect a glimmer of sadness.
Emil looks away, closes their eyes, and deactivates their spell. While everyone was surprised by the sudden disappearance of the sphere, the spirit in the can takes a few seconds before realizing it isn’t going to die and shoots out a stream of water and flies away, causing the thread to snap.
Their feeble heart sinks as the others walk towards him. They could hear the man furiously walking towards them.
“I knew I shouldn’t have trusted a kid who claims to be an exorcist! Not only did you cause a mess at my house, but you also let the damn spirit run away with the can!” The man was shouting at Emil, causing them to flinch in fear. Ezra quickly steps between them, putting up his signature smile with a touch of hostility, “Sir, please calm down. Let me talk to Mr. Chan first.”
“Talk?! I--” “阿林! (Ah Ling!)” The angry man looks back at his mother, who is giving him the most intense glare as if warning her son to not speak another word. She gestures to him from the window and slowly makes her way outside. The man huffs at Emil and stomps away. Akane strides towards Emil as Ezra kneels down and gently comforts Emil. They could hear the man shouting, quickly followed by silence and the old lady’s footsteps ambling in the direction of the emotionally distraught exorcist.
The elf’s caretaker stops the grandma from getting any closer. Despite that, her gestures suggest she simply wants to talk with Emil, which causes him to reluctantly take a step backward.
“孩子，我为我儿子的行为先抱歉。那么大个人了还像小孩子一样。(Child, I apologize for my son’s behavior. Despite being an adult already, he still acts like a kid.)” The elf remains silent, fidgeting a bit. Ezra translates it to English for Akane.
“孩子，可以告诉我为什么你让那个恶灵离开吗? (Child, can you tell me why did you let the evil spirit leave?)”
“那个不是恶灵。我听到它在哭。它很生气，很害怕，很伤心。我听到它在想念一个人。我...我做不到。我不能杀掉一个在哭的精灵。(That is not an evil spirit. I hear it crying. It was very angry, very scared, and very sad. I can hear it was missing someone. I...I can’t do it. I can’t kill a crying spirit.)” Their voices are shaking like they are on the verge of crying.
“It is a tsukumogami.” Everyone turns their attention at the half-oni. Now Ezra, slightly annoyed, has to translate English into Chinese for the grandma.
She continues with her explanation, “I think you might have heard of it before. Sometimes when an item has lived to 100 years old, it will develop sentience, which is what the Japanese call a ‘Tsukumogami’. I am not sure what the Chinese call them. But, if an item has received lots of love and care from its owner, it may develop sentience faster. It may only take 50 years for that to happen in this case.” The grandma nods and confirms that her spouse has indeed been using the can for more than five decades.
“This would explain why it was acting so violently. Celine mentions that Mr. Cheah was planning to sell it. The spirit living within the can must have overheard the conversation and did not want to leave, so it tried to make Mr. Cheah injured in some way to prevent him from removing it from its home.”
“难怪以前我老公跟我说他好像有听到有人在跟他讲话。我还以为他是因为老了，耳朵出问题。原来是壶的精灵再跟他说话。(No wonder in the past, my husband would tell me that someone was talking to him. I thought it was because he was getting old, and there were problems with his years. So it’s the can’s spirits talking to him.)”
“我老人家很对不起那个精灵。我老公死后，我们不单单把它锁在一个暗暗的地方，自己孤独一个人，我们还想要把它卖出去，逼它出它的家，(I felt sorry to the spirit. After my husband died, not only did we lock it inside a dark place alone, we even wanted to sell it away, forcing it out of its home.)” She switches her gaze back to Emil, “孩子，谢谢你没有把它除掉。也谢谢你让我知道它其实也在想念我老公。既然它跑掉了，我可以要求你帮我把它带回来吗？那个驱魔的钱照样给你。我会跟我的儿子讲。 (Child, thank you for not killing it. And thank you for letting me know that it is also missing my husband. Since it ran away, could you get it back for me? I will still give you the money for the exorcism. I will let my son know.)” She glances knowingly at Ezra when she mentions money. Ezra’s mouth curves up.
“But, how are we going to find it? We do not know where it went.” Akane ponders as the daughter approaches them and answers, “The direction it was flying towards was the graveyard. It’s about ten minutes from here. It could have overheard us talking about where grandpa was buried and flew to his grave.” The trio nods.
“老奶奶，不用担心~ 我们保证会很快把那个壶带回来~ (Don’t worry, granny~ We promise to quickly retrieve the can for you~)” The same Ezra smile again.
“孩子，我可以相信你把它平平安安带回来吗？” The old lady gives Emil a warm smile. Emil nods and smiles genuinely in return. Akane quickly looks away again, fearing that she couldn’t keep her squeal down. The caretaker notices, but decides to say nothing. After that, Emil deactivates their spell. They made sure to move the sphere full of water to the nearby ditch and then despawn it.
The trio gets into the van and makes their way to the graveyard.
“You have some nerve to make me vouch for Emil like that. I could have you arrested for that.” She glances at the driver.
“You have the authority~?” His smirk appears to be confident.
“Partial authority. I do not like to be used.”
“My sincere apology~ But, I was right, wasn’t I~? Emil is a capable exorcist, so nothing wrong happened~ Mr. Cheah needed a little more persuasion, and I merely utilized an opportunity to make it happen~”
“Now I know what kind of person you are. I guess the way you speak is to hide your true self?” To that, Ezra does not answer, only whistles a song as they get closer and closer to the destination.
The orange light of the sunset stretches across the graveyard, reflecting off of the tombstones of those who once bask in the same light as the trio is right now. The graveyard is incredibly wide; many of the graves are elevated, reflecting the wealth of those who still breathe and obscuring the ground-level graves behind it. The van continues to drive forward in the graveyard, Ezra relying on Emil’s ‘hearing’ to guide them.
Eventually, Emil signals their caretaker to stop and locks their sight on a grave quite far away from the road. The van’s engine is killed, and the trio amble towards the grandpa’s grave. As they get closer, they are able to make out the can sitting in front of the grave, as if mourning for its owner’s death.
“Can you hear what it is saying, Emil?” Akane can’t help but ask.
“It’s singing.”
“Singing~?”
“Ah, Celine mentions her grandfather would sing as he waters the plant with his can.”
“I see~”
There is still quite a distance between them and the can, but the spirit notices their presence and immediately floats upward and turns its rose towards them.
“I think it’s better for me to go alone.” The young elf says to the adults.
“Good luck Emil~”
“Ganbatte.” Akane further supports them with a fist pump.
Emil starts walking towards the can. The spirit was sending waves of ‘warning’ towards the elf. Still, they press on, staring at the spirit with unwavering determination. When the can realize its ‘words’ aren’t going to affect its target, it begins to shoot a violent stream of water towards the exorcist.
They did not avoid the attack. Emil staggers backward a little, water gushing at most of their body. Akane’s concern grows, fearing that the force of the water would blow the tween’s feeble body away. However, her concern drops completely when she sees that they summon a sphere around their hand and deflects most of the water to the side. They are still completely drenched, each step getting smaller and with more effort as the force of the water stream increases. Yet, they trudge forward without hesitation.
As Emil got even closer to the can, the water output gradually decreased. The spirit heard Emil’s ‘voice’, just as they heard its. Finally, the young exorcist stands before the can. They swipe their wet hair to the side, water still dripping down their face, allowing the spirit to be able to see their eyes clearly.
There, at twilight, both of them standing and staring at each other, sharing a peaceful and warm silence. Then, Emil gently raises their arm, and tenderly places their palm on the top of the can, patting it.
“It was scary, wasn’t it? Being alone, in the dark, missing someone you love.” The can starts to tremble slightly. The young elf continues to speak in a soft, knowing tone.
“I was there too. Alone. In the dark. Missing my grandma. Wishing she would come back again, and do all the things we do every day. Just like you, wishing you could sing again with your owner.” The can trembles more intensely.
“But they’re not coming back, no matter how much we miss them.” Emil’s voice starts to tremble as well, the edge of his eyes starts watering up.
“They’re not coming back, but there are still people waiting for us, for you back home. They want you back home, and they are sorry about how they treated you. They miss your owner as much as you do, and they don’t want to lose another part of his memory forever. Will you go back to them?”
The can trembles intensely, water drips out of its rose, like tears. Emil hugs the can, quietly sobbing with the spirit within. Two souls, longing for the loved ones they’ve lost.
After the two have calmed down, Emil wordlessly accompanies the can back into the van. The exorcist uses their spell to make themself completely dry before entering. Akane and Ezra are silently aware of the situation and atmosphere, and so they remain silent as well all the way back to the client’s house.
“请照顾它，它也很想念它的主人。(Please take care of it. It also misses its owner a lot.)” Says Emil as they let the can float to the side of the old granny.
“不用担心，我会好好照顾它的，呵呵。(Don’t worry, I will take good care of it, hehe.)” She smiles and gives them a loving hug, “孩子，谢谢你。(Thank you, child)”
Emil leaves the hug and speaks with his happiest and cutest voice, “不用客气！(You’re welcomed!)” while smiling from ear-to-ear.
On the other side of the car porch, Ezra and Akane fill in the details with Mr. Cheah and her daughter.
“I see. Thank you for telling me this. I must apologize for my behavior earlier. I had bad experiences with exorcists before and I thought my mother was getting her money scammed again. I am very grateful that your exorcist did not kill the spirit. My father would be very sad and angry at me if it happened.”
“See? I told you, dad, the spirit isn’t just something evil that possesses grandad’s favorite watering can. If you called someone from the Suppression center, it would have been dead. You should apologize to the kid for yelling at him. He looks like he’s about to cry earlier.” She shakes her head disappointingly. Her father seems defeated and a little guilty.
“I will. Can I use the Dollar Everywhere app? I don’t have that much cash on me right now.”
“Of course~” Ezra and Mr. Cheah pull out their smartphones and make a quick transfer of money. “Thank you for your patronage~” The man gives Ezra a weird look (because he doesn’t know what patronage means) before he proceeds to approach Emil to apologize. The young elf reverts back to their shy self and gestures that they forgive the man.
When they are about to leave, Celine takes her opportunity and asks Emil, “你是中华生吗？(Are you a Chung Hwa student?)” Emil was confused but nods nonetheless. She grins before going back to her family and waves goodbye with them at the trio. The can shake itself left and right gleefully as an attempt to ‘say’ its farewell.
The sun has completely set on the horizon, but sunlight is still visible in the sky. The exorcist and their assistant take off their gear and put it at the back of the van.
“Mr. Rennard, may I suggest something?” Her hand pulls the door and shuts it.
“Yes~?”
“Since we are going to work closely from now on, is it alright if the three of us have dinner together?”
“Oh~? That’s an interesting proposition~ Hmm, perhaps--” Emil moves their body and reaches their head to the front, staring right at Ezra’s eyes, and then sits back down. The caretaker wants to argue against it, but he could do nothing against the look of Emil’s eyes. Like a deflated balloon, “Fine. Is there a restaurant you would like to go to as a visitor to our state?”
“Nazrin’s Chicken Pie!”
“Nazrin’s Chicken Pie!”
Akane turns back to look at Emil, who is grinning as much as her while blushing a little. She reaches her hand out for a high-five, and Emil fulfills her non-verbal request like a pal.
“Chicken pie it is.”
The trio listens to the radio during the entire journey. 30 minutes later, they arrive at a massive hawker center with bright, colorful lights and a sea of people. They manage to occupy an empty table located at a rather secluded spot. Ezra sits at the table, making sure no one will come and get it, while Emil accompanies Akane to the famous chicken pie stall. The chicken pie stall is incredibly large, occupying three times the size of a normal stall with 6 people managing a different section of the stall. The duo looks over the menu. Emil orders the usual for themself and Ezra. Akane feels obligated to try out the expensive chef’s recommendation, so she makes her decision fairly quickly. Emil let the person taking orders know their table’s number before heading back with Akane.
“Wow, I do not expect the hawker center to be this huge and with this many people.” The half-oni comments after placing an order for her beverage to the waiter.
“That is how large hawkers are like in Penang~ Not a common sight in Ipoh~?”
“Not really. Ipoh is not a Wonder like Penang. I went to Melaka and Singapore before, but even there I did not see a view like this. Is this not uncomfortable?”
“You’ll get used to it~ If you don’t mind me asking, Ms. Sakamoto, are you a local~?”
“I was born in Malaysia. My parents moved to Ipoh during the ‘90s. My mother is an Oni while my father is a Japanese miden,” She playfully touches her horns, “In Japan back then, interspecies marriage was not as widely accepted as it is right now, especially with the Divine War and all. My parents heard Malaysia was a more relaxing and accepting country, so they moved here.” The two adults pay for the beverages when it arrives. Emil quietly sips on their apple juice while listening to the conversation.
“You live in the Japanese District then~?” He cracks open his 1000 Plus can and pour it into an empty cup with ice cubes in it.
Akane takes a sip from her beer, “No. My parents wanted to distance themselves from the rest of the Japanese. They were lucky to find a place with a welcoming community, and that is where I grew up. How about you, Mr. Rennard? Are you a local too?”
“Not really~ I am a Malaysian citizen, but only after I became Emil’s caretaker~”
“Where were you originally from then?”
“Somewhere in Europe~ I don’t remember which one because I have been moving from place to place my entire life~”
“Really? How did you become Emil’s caretaker then?”
“It was a request from his grandmother before she passed, and that’s all I will say~” His fake, sharp grin surfaces.
“I will not pry further if you do not wish to say.” She takes another sip and shifts her focus to the elf, “Emil, you learn your spells from your grandmother?”
They nod, “I remember seeing those kinds of spells before when I was in university. I think it was used by a once-famous exorcist family in China. But I thought they went into hiding a long time ago. Is your grandma one of the members of that family?”
They think, “Grandma says that she ran away from home a long time ago. She doesn’t like to talk about her family.”
“Oh, I see,” She takes out her phone, “Maybe you can tell me her name? I think Wikipedia has the name for all members of the family.”
“Her name is Chan Chew Yue (曾秋月).”
She completely froze. Her mind racing, doubting what she has heard, “I am sorry Emil, but can you repeat her name? I think I misheard it.”
Emil repeats louder, “Her name is Chan Chew Yue.”
She stares at Emil with disbelief, then closes her eyes, massaging the ridge of her nose, then opens them again, “You mean-- the woman who went toe-to-toe with Thor-- one of the most powerful thaumaturge of the century-- THAT Chan Chew Yue?”
“Grandma said that was her nickname once.”
She almost blurts out a loud “WHAT?!” as she slams her phone and both her hands on the table, her eyes are as wide as they could, staring bafflingly at the quite frightened elf. She is completely astonished, her mouth wide open. Only when Ezra starts to laugh did her senses come back.
A Malay approaches their table, carrying three individual-sized chicken pies with telekinesis. The Malay places down the chicken pies and tableware like a zooming tornado and lets the trio know the prices of each chicken pie. Ezra stops his laughter and pays for Emil and himself while Akane is still baffled as she pays for the pie. The Malay then quickly zooms back to the stall to deliver more chicken pies.
She finally snaps out of the daze and turns her sight towards Ezra, grinning like his prank was successful, “Why did you not tell me that Emil’s grandmother was Chan Chew Yue?!”
“Because I know you’ll react like this~~” He chuckles devilishly. Before she could decide to get annoyed by Ezra, Emil swoops in, “Ezraa, you promised me that you won’t do that again.” A small pout appears on their cheek. Akane witnessing Emil being cute completely cancels out her shock and brings her back completely to reality.
“I’m sorry that Ezra laughed at you like that, Ms. Sa-ka-mo-to. Whenever me or Ezra mentions my grandma’s name, people usually don’t believe us. So we decided, unless the person really needs to know her name, we won’t tell anyone who she is. Usually, when we go to government places, they would have the same reaction as you, and then Ezra would laugh like this, even though he promised he won’t do it again.” They shoot a harmless glare at their caretaker.
“I see. Now I know why the higher-ups in my division did not conduct a reassessment. Who would doubt one of the heroes of Malaysia handling magic items? Although, it is difficult to believe that you are her grandchild. Everyone knew she did not have any children. But...why did she adopt you?” Emil turns their gaze from Akane to the steaming pie, seemingly unwilling to answer the question.
“Leave the questions for another day, Ms. Sakamoto. Enjoy the pie while it’s hot.” He uses his fork to point at her pie, then starts eating his.
She promptly realizes how that question sounded, “I am sorry, Emil. I did not mean to upset you.” He non-verbally replies that it’s alright, and gestures to her excitedly to try out the pie.
She smiles with relief. Pictures were swiftly taken and posted on social media for her friend to see. Emil patiently waits for her to take the first bite with her.
“Shhhoooo gooooodddddd~~” She praises with utmost euphoria. It is so much better than she could ever imagine. Especially the sauce. What is this heavenly sauce?!
“You like it, Ms. Sa-ka-mo-to?” They really like her joyous expression.
“Very~” She could not stop herself from immediately having another bite.
The three of them alternate between eating and drinking with satisfaction until both are finished.
“No wonder Penang is Malaysia’s Wonder of Food~ That is one of the most delicious things I have ever eaten.” She wipes her mouth with a tissue paper and throws it into a nearby recycling bin.
“Ms. Sakamoto, I remember that you mention you do not have a place you can stay in Penang. What will you do~? I don’t think it’s possible for you to go back and forth between Penang and Ipoh every day~”
“You are correct, it is not possible. I would need to find a place to live in. Are there any apartments or flats near the shop?”
“Well--”
“Why not live with us, Ms. Sakamoto?” Emil asks innocently, “Ezra was planning to rent out rooms in our building anyway to increase our income. If you live with us, you can check our magic items easier….!”
“Hold on, Emil. I haven’t--” Ezra’s attempt to stop Emil from speaking further failed as Akane is faster with her question.
“How large is a room?”
“The width is about 3 meters and the length is about 5 meters. I measured it before because Ezra wanted to know.”
Her eyes move to the upper right corner as she thinks, “Hmm, that sounds quite spacious actually. It probably could house all my measurement equipment. It would be really convenient too; I can just bring the magic item to my room, appraise it, and return it so the shop can sell it.” She turns to Ezra, “How much is the rent?”
A lightbulb flashes through his head, his smile turns devilish once more, “I was thinking around 1000 Ringgit~”
“Ehhh? That is too high for a single room.” Her expression turns sour.
Emil gently kicks Ezra’s leg under the table and gives him a stern look. Ezra tries to convince Emil to not let Akane live under the same roof by using subtle facial expressions. Emil’s expression does not change. The caretaker gives an annoyed look and lets out a defeated sigh.
“I was just joking. I was thinking about 700~750 ringgit. There’s a big bed and closet already. There's an air conditioner and super fast wifi. The bathroom is fairly large and has a bathtub. You can use the kitchen whenever you want, as well as the condiments in the kitchen. We’ll clean the rooms weekly and wash the clothes daily. You need to pay for your own electricity and water use. There are a lot of places you can easily go to from the shop, like a supermarket, various fast-food restaurants, regular restaurants, hawker centers, bank, car mechanic, petrol station, clinic, etc. There’s also a weekly night market every Friday night not far from the shop. There’s also a place to exercise that you can reach on foot. You must have seen it when driving to our shop. There’s a public pool about 10 minutes of driving from the shop if you’re interested in that. Has my list justified the price yet?” He gawks at her ‘I’m interested’ face.
“That actually sounds pretty good! The price seems reasonable. Hmm, if I help out with the house’s chore, would you give me a discount?”
“It depends on how much you help out~”
“I can help clean the house, like the floors and the bathroom. I do that back at my parent’s house anyway. I can wash the dishes and clothes. I can even help with the cooking if you are willing to let me. I know how to make a few Japanese dishes that my dad taught me.”
“Really?” Emil looks at Akane with sparkling eyes.
“Yes, really.” Hold yourself back, hold yourself back.
“Won’t that affect how many magic items the shop can sell if you do all these things?” He raises his eyebrow with suspicion.
“Oh, that is not a problem. If a customer wishes to know more about a magic item or plans to buy a specific type of magic item, you can still use the catalog to let them browse through your wares. Once they pick out one that they want, you can get me to appraise it first, and if there is nothing ‘wrong’ with it, you can sell it directly to them. This way, it will not affect your sales.”
“I can accept that. Before we discuss the discount, surely you would need to take a look at the house first~?”
“Tomorrow is a Saturday. I will come early in the morning to look at the house and room. Maybe 9am. Is that alright with you two?” She looks at the duo.
“Why so early~?”
“I need to head to the Penang branch of the Ministry during the afternoon to deal with some paperwork. If the time is not suitable, I can come at another time.”
“I see~ You can visit the shop tomorrow morning at 9am~” The blond makes an ‘OK’ sign.
“Ahh! It is already 7pm. Can we head back to your shop now?” She stands up, then followed by the duo standing up.
“Of course~” And so the trio head back to their metal carriage. As they are walking back, she notices Emil’s ears are slightly...flapping? She vaguely remembers what it meant, and decides to comment on it.
“Are you excited that I might live at your house, Emil?” When the last word leaves her mouth, their ears stop moving, and a very faint red colors their ears.
“U-uhm, a little bit. It used to be just me and my grandma, and then now me and Ezra. The house is really empty with just two people. I always imagine what it would be like if every room in the house is lived by someone. We could have a big dinner every day, we could play games with each other, and we would always have someone to talk to. I think that would be really nice.” A faint melancholic smile surfaces, there is no longer any red on their ear.
Unexpectedly, Akane pats Emil’s head, “That sounds very lovely, Emil.” They exchange a warm smile, imagining a lively family living in the house.
And of course Akane squealed hard inside her mind AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
They reach the shop, bid each other goodbye, and go their different ways.
“Sighhhhh. Now I have to clean the house early in the morning. What a pain in the ass.” Ezra pretends he’s dying as the duo walk towards the shop.
“Then you shouldn't pretend to act so nice, Ezra.” They elf grins mockingly.
“It’s my performance. I can’t just take it off. Especially after you insist that we should let her live in our house.” He crosses his arms and pouts, pretending to be angry.
“But I really want her to….” They look downwards.
“I know, I know. You want the house to look less empty and dead. I promised you that I’ll rent the rooms out, I just didn’t think it would be so fast that someone already wants to live in it.” He unlocks the front door, switches on all the lights, and locks the door.
“Since you want her to rent a room here so badly, you can choose to either do your usual clean up now or tomorrow morning before she comes.”
“Ehhhhhh, but I was so close at beating my game.” Emil uses puppy eyes!
“This is your idea. Don’t think you can weasel out of it.” It’s not very effective...
“Fine.” The tween sighs depressingly and prepares to clean the floor.
End of First Chapter.
*Miden = irl humans