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“What do you mean our show’s not on?!?!” yelled Anzu.
Riri knew that they had not actually done anything—the complexities of local television broadcasts were often beyond the ability for Wizards like them to alter on such short notice. Magic had its limitations after all. But it wouldn’t hurt to let Anzu believe that they had… after all, they liked it when Anzu got furious like this. “Tsk, tsk, Anzu you know the rules to the game. No romance and you start losing things.”
“Except puff ball, it’s not just my show, it’s Tsukasa and Junta’s show just as much as mine! How does the Wizard Corporation think I’m supposed to have romance if I’m not spending quality bonding time with my potential love interests watching our show, hmm?”
“You will just have to bond over something else! Perhaps we could watch a romantic movie?” suggested Riri with a certain devilish glee. Truth be told, Riri just wanted another excuse to watch a movie with Anzu… it had been quite nice the last time, even if it had been just purely for academic reasons before—yes, that’s all it had been for then.
“Did cleaning the basement erase your memory Riri?” asked Anzu as she grabbed a hold of the tiny little Riri and squeezed. Luckily for Riri, it took just one poof and they had taken on the Riho form which was far less easy for Anzu to squeeze the ever-living daylights out of with just one hand. Now, Anzu just had her hand around the front of his collar, making it a little tighter than was comfortable.
“We don’t have to watch a sick girl romance… perhaps something a little more upbeat? Why not a romantic comedy or a musical comedy?” suggested Riho.
“Romantic Comedies lose their appeal when you’re forced to be living in one!” shouted Anzu as she pushed Riho up against the wall.
“Can you two quit rough housing and just put something on? I need something to take my mind off of practice…” said Junta as he stretched out his shoulder which had lately been giving him problems ever since Riri had tricked Anzu into coming to one of his games, distracting him and causing him to slide into second on it all wrong. At least it had to have been a trick, it’s not like she’d come to one on her own—she never had before.
“Practice not go well?” asked Tsukasa as he leaned forward. That was one change that Junta hadn’t expected to appreciate as well as he did. It was nice to have more friends outside of his baseball team, and Tsukasa, as much as he was his rival for Anzu’s feelings, was quickly becoming a good friend as well.
“My right shoulder’s been acting up is all. Messing up my throwing and catching.”
“How long has it been bothering you?” asked Anzu, her attention being taken from the wizard and allowing Riho to drop to the floor.
“For a little bit. It’s no big deal, I’m sure it’ll be fine in a week or so,” said Junta nervously. Oh god, he’d brought attention onto himself, the very thing he couldn’t handle well.
“Has it been more than a week since you injured it?” asked Tsukasa.
“Umm… yeah. But it’s probably nothing,” said Junta, hoping that by downplaying it, he would cease to be the center of attention.
“I’ll get an ice pack,” said Tsukasa, getting up off the couch and heading over to the kitchen.
“You need someone to knead out the tension for you, Junta?” asked Anzu.
“w-What? Y-you’d do that for me, Anzu?” asked Junta, clearly stary-eyed.
“Oh no, Junta, but Riho here will,” said Anzu immediately grabbing Riho by the arm and pushing the wizard in boy’s form at Junta.
“What? Why me?” exclaimed Riho before almost tripping onto the larger athletic boy.
“Think of it as an apology for taking off our show tonight… and besides, you boys want to make me happy don’t you?” asked Anzu, purposely adopting a cutesy facial expression.
“Uhh… yes Anzu…” said both Junta and Riho equally star-struck.
“Then Riho, help make Junta feel better, because Junta’s happiness will make me happy, and happiness leads to… romance,” said Anzu with a decided grin. She’d win this game yet, and she wouldn’t fall for the old ‘let me massage your physical pain to make you feel better, oh no, we’re incredibly close enough to kiss’ song and dance routine. There were standards to be maintained after all, and Junta didn’t deserve to have his feelings toyed with like that. If she fell in love, it would be for the right reasons, and not because she was tricked into a compromising situation.
Riho thought about contradicting Anzu, but instead an idea popped into his head. In a poof Riho transformed into their human girl form, Riri. She leaned down and whispered in Junta’s ear, “Don’t worry, we can have our own bit of fun with this, just follow my lead.”
“Bit of fun?” asked Junta, confused as to what she meant and worried as he felt her bunch up and grab the top of his shirt.
“Shh, don’t spoil it,” insisted Riri as she immediately whipped Junta’s shirt off in one quick pull, causing his arms to snap suddenly and wrenched his shoulder into even worse pain than it’d already been in.
“OW!!!!” yelled Junta.
“Now Junta, don’t overreact,” scolded Riri as she then proceeded dig her fingers into Junta’s shoulder. Riri had images in her head where Anzu would grow jealous of Junta getting attention and interrupt leading to more romantic hijinks... or maybe just get jealous of Riri showing Junta some attention perhaps?
Junta writhed under her far too firm and distracted grip, nearly tearing out his hair in pain. He yelled, “Quit it! You’re making it worse!”
Anzu, despite herself, fought with keeping herself from laughing at the zany antics of Riri and the now shirtless Junta. She couldn't help staring at the two... especially Junta. Sure, she’d seen his pecs filling up his shirts, but those abs looked… new. Hearing Junta wail in pain again brought her out of her momentary lapse and helped her to say, “Riri, quit messing around.”
“Did I miss something?” asked Tsukasa as he came back into the room, ice pack wrapped in a towel in hand. He was confused as to why the incredibly well-built Junta’s shirt was now off for Anzu to stare at, which Tsukasa noticed she was trying to distract herself from between looking at Junta and the now girl Riri.
“Tsukasa! Keep Riri away from me!” yelled Junta, grabbing the ice pack wrapped in a towel, applying it to the injured shoulder and immediately jumping behind the blonde confused boy for protection—just like if Riri were a cockroach.
“I was just doing what Anzu asked me to do,” said Riri with a cutesy devilish smirk.
“I said Riho should make Junta feel better, not Riri,” countered Anzu—she wouldn’t allow her to escape that trap so easily.
“If you’re done torturing Junta, then return to your Riho form please,” said Tsukasa solemnly.
Riri obliged and immediately returned to being Riho.
“Much better,” said Tsukasa before immediately punching Riho squarely in the cheek.
“Ouchies!” exclaimed Riho.
“If you ever mess around when one of us is clearly in pain like that again, I promise you you’ll get more than just one punch, Riho,” said Tsukasa.
Anzu couldn’t help but admire the way Tsukasa stood up for Junta in that moment. Especially with how Tsukasa had always avoided getting close to too many people before. A few weeks ago, they could hardly stand to share the same bedroom—which admittedly they still couldn’t—but now Tsukasa and Junta seemed to have come to some sort of comfortable understanding with each other now that their circumstances were truly understood by each.
“Put our show back on the air and let us enjoy what little time we have left of the evening how we’d like to!” protested Junta.
“Uhh…” started Riho.
“Come on Riho,” insisted Tsukasa.
“It’ll help with the potential for romance,” said Anzu over dramatically.
“Thing is… I uhh… didn’t, umm take your show off the air tonight,” admitted Riho.
Anzu’s eyes narrowed into a glare. “I said to stop Riho. Earlier you said that it was taken away because of the lack of romance happening.”
“I’m telling the truth! Really, I am!”
“Quit messing around Riho!” said Junta.
“You’ve got to believe me!” said Riho.
“I’ll believe you when you try to fix it and fail,” said Tsukasa who grabbed Riho by his shirt before pushing the wizard towards the television set that Junta had turned on.
“But… I didn’t—really I didn’t—"
“Riho is telling the truth, because it was me who took away your favorite show tonight,” said a rather squeaky but stern voice, and suddenly another small yellow puff of a wizard appeared from out of the television set. This one had a pair of rectangular wire-framed glasses on and, a blue-green cloak and hat with a rain drop wand that it held with its stick arms.
“Kate?” asked the clearly confused Junta. The yellow powder puff shook its head.
“No, she’s got her hands full with her current case now. The name’s Kyo. And Riho, you didn’t think you could continue being the head wizard in charge of this case AND be a potential suitor for Anzu did you?” asked Kyo.
“Come to mention it… it seemed awfully generous of the Wizard Corporation to allow that,” admitted Riho.
“Well, they didn’t. I’m here to make sure you four all get down to business and get this case closed sooner rather than later.”
“What do you mean by sooner rather than later?” asked Anzu—she’d beaten Kate and Riho before in debate and negotiation, she was sure she could do the same with Kyo this time.
“You’ll find out. So, until some romantic developments occur something each of you enjoy will be confiscated from each of you.”
“Riho, can you take on this little powder puff?” asked Tsukasa.
“Me?”
“You’re the one with a magic wand you dolt!” explained Junta.
“Oh yeah… you’re right! You’re gonna regret messing with me and my friends, Kyo!” said Riho, stepping forward and dramatically pulling out his star-shaped wand and aiming it at the clearly non-plussed Kyo. A poof of yellow smoke obscured Kyo for a moment, before fading to reveal Kyo still floating in mid air in front of them, clearly slightly irritated. Riho noticed however that with that puff suddenly his wand had suddenly turned black, cracked, and disintegrated. The entire room’s jaws dropped, except for Kyo's of course.
“M-my magic is gone?” asked Riho, utterly defeated, and sinking immediately to his knees.
“Good, got that out of your system early. You didn’t think you’d get to keep all your powers AND be a potential suitor, did you? It would be a rather unfair advantage for you, Riho.”
“What powers do I keep?” asked Riho.
“Just your ability to shape shift. The Wizard Corporation decreed that that was fair—after all, we wizards can’t be contained just to one form after all. We are too effervescent, too much like the sparkle of a star, and as intangible as a moonbeam to contain us to just one form, why that would just be inwizardly.”
“Inwizardly? I’ve never heard of that word,” said Tsukasa.
“What you would refer to as inhumane,” explained Kyo while adjusting their glasses.
“But without the rest of my magic… what do I do?” asked Riho, continuing to stare at his now starless wand, clearly having never to contemplate truly being without his magic before. Losing it due to contamination was one thing--after all the magic would return when the wand was purified, but this? There was no promise that he'd ever get his wand back.
Anzu could clearly see the distress and existential horror painted on Riho’s face, and immediately vowed to herself to help Riho get his magic back if it was the last thing she did.
“That’s something most teenagers must figure out, Riho, and I’m sure Anzu will be more than willing to help you out there,” said Kyo with a rather perfunctory devilish glee.
Hearing her name was enough to break her concentration on Riho. “Powder puff,” she said.
“Kyo. Either use my name or suffer romantic consequences. I’m not a pushover like Kate was,” stated Kyo firmly.
“Powder puff, I would like to talk to you in private if you don’t mind.”
Kyo poofed a book into existence and marked off a tally on one of its pages.
“What was that for?” asked Anzu.
“Oh, I’m just keeping a tally of every time you call me powder puff since I’ve warned you to stop so I know how many times you need to suffer romantic consequences,” said Kyo while looking over the rim of their glasses. Anzu took Kyo by surprise, grabbing the yellow puff of a wizard by its midsection and dragging it into a room away from the existential Riho with Tsukasa and Junta trying their best to process everything they’d just witnessed, probably missing the glances she’d thrown at them meant to tell them to help Riho.
“Oh is that so? Well then, tell me powder puff what chances are there for me to have romantic consequences with Riho if he’s in a complete state of mourning for losing his powers—outside of shapeshifting.”
Kyo poofed out of her grasp, and just out of reach with the tally book appearing once again and another two tallies being marked as they said, “I’d say rather high, actually with him being on equal footing now with Junta and Tsukasa.”
“I only called you powder puff once that time!” protested Anzu.
“One tally for the name, and one for grabbing hold of me like I was some sort of chocolate cream puff. It’s unprofessional behavior like that which caused Riho and Kate to fail before. In the future you will keep your hands off me so that this business can be concluded without further hijinks.”
“This is all besides the point. Do you think I’m just going to stand by and let you completely devastate Riho like that and not do something?” asked Anzu.
“That’s exactly what I’m counting on,” said Kyo with a devilish smirk before vanishing in a cloud of green smoke.
“Powder puff? Powder puff!” called Anzu to no avail, knowing that two more tallies were marked in its book, but she didn’t care.
Anzu let out an exasperated scream and then rejoined her friends in the living room. Tsukasa and Junta seemed to have finally figured out that Riho needed some sort of cheering up, but both were giving rather half-hearted attempts, not that Anzu could blame them given everything Riho had put them through, but at least they were trying.
“Guys… I know what you’re trying to do… but without my magic… I… I just don’t know!” exclaimed the boy, suddenly jumping up and running into a room and slamming the door behind him, crying like a little boy would.
Tsukasa stood to go after Riho, but Junta grabbed his housemate’s arm with his good arm, “Let him cry it out, sometimes you just need to have a good cry to let it all out.”
Anzu was surprised at Junta’s rather… wise remark.
“Yeah, but he doesn’t have to cry it out in my room. If he’s living with us here now, then he’s staying out here on the couch” said Tsukasa before marching over to the door to Anzu’s father’s home office to futilely knock on the door asking to be let into the locked room.
This… this was going to take some getting used to.