Problems Can Come From Any Side

The bell rang, ending the class, and I felt the energy return to my body. It was the last class of the day so it was time to go home, but just as I was picking up my things Asuka, my friend approached me quickly, it seemed that she wanted to ask me something.

"Maria!"
"I was thinking of going to the karaoke with a friend but she won't be able to go, however, I had already made a reservation so I wondered if you would like to go to  wouldn't lose it?"
"I think it's near your house, do you think you could show it to me?"
"I am curious to see what a western house is like"

Asuka was once again curious about me being a stranger. I wanted to accept to try to increase my relationship with her, but there was no way for me to explain to her all the things that happened there, the only thing I could do was to make an excuse for her.

"I'm sorry but today I have to help again at my family's restaurant"
"Another day would be better, how about Saturday? so we can go to more places instead"

"Really? It's a pity"
"..."
"By the way, I noticed that lately, you come with those two weird girls from the other section"
"I guess they live near you"
"Do you know anything about the tall girl? Tamamo?"

"Tamamo?"
"Well that's weird, people tend to ask more about the little one for obvious reasons"
"If they live nearby, we usually come together for safety, there are a lot of perverts everywhere and stuff"
"But why do you want to know that?"

Just at that moment a funny rhythm appeared, it came from Asuka's skirt, she noticed the call from her cell phone and rushed to answer immediately, a rather rude gesture for a Japanese so I understood that it was a serious matter.

"Yes, Dad?"
"Where have you been!? Do you know how worried I was!?"
"It's been a whole day!"
"When I returned there was no one in the temple, I had to call another priest to help me with the funeral"
"..."
"What do you mean in prison?"
"What happened?"
"..."
"..."
"A misunderstanding? But how?"
"...."
"...."
"And that's why they always tell you not to talk too much"
"I was worried that maybe a demon had appeared or something"
"...."
"...."
"The matai what !?"
"...."
"...."
"If it's ok, I'll be right there, just don't talk anymore"

"Is everything ok?"
"Do you need help with anything?"

Asuka stared at me in a rather strange way, seeming to be impressed by what I had just said.

"A yes, you are a foreigner"
"It's normal where you come from"
"...."
"I appreciate the gesture but it's not necessary."
"It seems that yesterday something happened near my father's sanctuary and somehow he started acting suspiciously in front of the cops and they ended up locking him up"
"He's at the headquarters so I'll go there to pick him up I guess."
"..."
"Looks like that karaoke is not going to happen today anyway"
"See you later"

Asuka left right after I spoke so I couldn't say anything back to her. My brother and Tamamo had an activity at their club today so they wouldn't be coming home early, so I had to go home alone. I had to get ready to go to work at the cafe but first I had to leave my things at home, so I decided to go there first and then to the cafe. However, things got quite complicated just after I passed the door of my house because Tifa came flying as fast as she could to get help.

"Maria!"
"Quick, I need help!"
"It's Levia, she fell several hours ago and she's still on the ground!"
"This way!"

When I heard this I ran after the fairy to see what had happened. Arriving in the living room I found the mermaid lying on the floor, near her was the wheelchair she used to move around the house, near her was the crystal box that Momo had gotten for my brother, the crystal was near Levia, finally, there were also several packages of cookies and a small bottle of water. The disabled girl when she heard me raised her head and looked at me trying to smile.

"Levia?"
"What happened? Are you ok?"

"Oh, this"
"It was just a little miscalculation that I made"
"...."
"I wanted to see this nice crystal closer but I couldn't reach the top of the fireplace, so I stretched to reach it but I lost my balance and that's how I ended up like this."
"Then I tried to get back to the wheelchair but I couldn't and I ended up getting tired so I was resting before I continued"

"She spent the whole morning trying to get back in the wheelchair"
"Since she couldn't even get to the kitchen, I brought her some food"
"It was the least I could do for her in this situation" Said the fairy.

"Did you try to take Luna out of her box!?"
"Oh my god! Quick let me pick this up quickly!"
"It takes guts to touch my brother's third daughter"

"Third daughter?"
"This gem?"

"It's a hundred, you haven't been here long so you don't know it yet"
"It's a complicated subject as always"
"This gem is a memento of a girl Cesar knew"
"She was raised by him but was killed by a group of dragons"
"The gem was the only thing he has of hers now"
"He has a lot of respect for her so he doesn't let anyone touch it unless it's an emergency"

"Another daughter?"
"So she was his oldest daughter?"

"More or less, I think" I said as I finished putting the glass box back in place.

Now it was time for the real challenge, to get this girl back in the wheelchair and get her moving again. I don't even have the strength of a normal person, let alone the strength required to lift a mermaid about 5 times my size. But what was worse was that all the people who could lift her were busy right now. Cesar and Tamamo were still at school, Lisa was probably with my mother again since I hadn't seen her in the cafeteria when I passed by, and the twins are helping Saeko because even though the cafeteria in the mornings doesn't need so many people, by this time is when more people start to show up. Levia is able to move very, very little, but if she says she is tired it means she can't move at all, besides, her arms would not support the weight of lifting her tail, it must be difficult to have such a useless body out of the water.  I had to do it myself, but how could I do it?  this was a challenge of ingenuity rather than of strength. 

I can't lift with brute force, nor is there any tool with which to lift her up enough so that she can sit back in the chair. I can't lift it high enough to get it back in the chair. Even if I could get something a forklift wouldn't go through the front door. I think I could drag her if I put something underneath her first so she could slide, but what, borrow a skateboard? It wouldn't break easily.

"You don't have to worry so much about me"
"I know you want to help me but I'm aware of how heavy I am"
"I can wait here until tonight for someone who can help me"
"Go change your clothes and tell the others I'm taking the day off."
"That should keep them from worrying about me in the meantime"

"No, don't worry"
"We are a family, we have to help each other"
"I want to do it, I want to find a way to help you"
"I know I can, I just have to figure out how to do it"

"If only I was as big as a tall person I could help"
"Maybe between the two of us we could have lifted her up"

There had to be something that could be done, but I had to get more creative with the solutions. Maybe I could use a rope to tie her to something and lift her up, something like the pillar between the kitchen and the dining room! No wait and then what do I keep her there while I get her into the wheelchair? I can't tie her to anything else, Tifa won't be able to hold her and maybe the rope won't be strong enough to start with. The carpet is quite big, I can put it next to Levia and ask her to roll on it, with that I should be able to at least drag her on the floor of the house, but how to return her to the wheelchair?

"To make matters worse, it looks like it's going to rain soon"
"There are still clothes outside and I can't pick them up"
"It will be your turn to pick it up too, Maria"
"I'm sorry for being so useless" Said Tifa, almost sadly

"Well, this wouldn't have happened in the first place if I hadn't fallen down"
"...."
"We are both so useless really" Said the mermaid in the same tone.

I turned to look back at the duck to see what the weather was like. It looked like it was close to rain. But because I was looking at the sky I forgot the bleacher that was there and ended up losing my balance and falling too.

"!!!!"
"Maria!"
"Are you ok?" the fairy came flying to ask me.

"What happened?"
"Did Maria fall too?"
"...."
"I can't even go to see what happened"
"I'm sorry" said Levia.

"Don't worry, I'm fine"
"It was just a silly fall, nothing serious"
"See I'm fine, nothing happened"
"It was just the fault of this stupid step"

I looked at the origin of my fall, and it was then that an idea occurred to me.

The space between the step and the ground outside the house was not very big, but with the difference in height the wheelchair was underneath enough for Levia to be able to sit in it, she just had to bring it up here using the carpet, then she would just go around the outside of the house and take it to the entrance where the wheelchair ramp is and that's it, problem solved!

"That's it!"
"Thank you very much, Tifa!"
"Thanks to you I know how to help Levia!"
"In a moment you'll be back in the saddle as if nothing happened!"
"...."
"Well, you better wait a little longer, if I don't get the clothes in the house before it rains my mother will cripple us all!"

It took me several minutes to get all the clothes in. Although there were many of us living here, we didn't wear as much laundry as you would think. Momo and the twins wear clothes once in a while, most of the time they don't wear anything. Lisa only wears those strings so they don't last very long to dry. Tamamo never gets her clothes dirty no matter what, but still, because they are quite fine and expensive kimonos, so she has them washed at a store that specializes in washing kimonos, but only once in a while. Tifa washes her clothes herself. The only people who wear normal clothes are my mother, my brother and me. The maid's clothes from the cafeteria are sent to a store to be washed as well and are included in the store's expenses.

After picking up all the clothes it was finally time to put my plan into action. I put the rug next to Levia and she rolled on it. I tried pulling on her arms but I couldn't move her, then I tried to push her but I lacked grip on my feet, I had my bare feet, and pushing with a great force I was able to move her a little. Although it was only a couple of meters the trip cost me a lot of time and energy. When she was already next to the step I went for the wheelchair, I put it right at the bottom next to the step also and put the brakes on, although to avoid more problems I also borrowed a couple of large stones to press the wheels and prevent them from moving for any reason. Then it was just to finish pushing her and she managed to hold on to the chair herself, finally sitting on it.

"You did it!"
"Thank you so much, Maria!"
"I can't tell you how much I appreciate your help"
"I would have been there all day if it hadn't been for you!"

"No problem"
"I just helped as anyone would have done"
"In any case, I regret that it had to be this way and not something more normal"

After I finished settling Levia in, I walked her around the yard and went back into the house through the ramp. Since I had already spent a lot of time with it, I quickly got ready to go to the cafeteria to work. I also carried the siren all the way myself, as it was much easier to move her around in the chair. When I arrived my mother was greeting Saeko, she had just come back from working in the office, Lisa took Levia and brought her to the aquarium without any problem. The rest of the day was much calmer, although just like the previous days Haru arrived again, this time she came in alone, without the company of my brother or Tamamo.  She herself came to the counter to talk to me.

"Coming alone? That's really strange"
"Where are the others?" I mentioned.

"Actually, I came along with Elise and Tamamo as usual"
"But for some reason, it seems that Elise suffered an anxiety attack"
"Elise said she felt short of breath and dizzy, her hands were shaking and she started to cry"
"Tamamo took her to the park to rest and said she would take her to home later"
"It was quite a strange thing, did something happen recently?"

"Was she sleeping before that?"

"In the subway?"
"Yes, how do you know that?"

"Well, that explains it all"
"From time to time these things happen to her"
"Some things happened in a dark subway and other things like that"
"I'm sure she had another nightmare again"
"...."
"Don't think too much about what happened"
"Tamamo usually takes care of those things"
"Just don't ask her what happened, just forget about it and don't bring it up"

"What happened before?"

"...."
"Difficult to explain and classified"
"If she won't tell you I can't either, it's a delicate matter for her"

"Another secret?"
"But how many does Elise have?"

"I ask myself the same question"

"Maria, is there any type of popular dessert that is about to run out?"
"Do we need to make more of anything?" Momo asked, coming out of the kitchen, wearing her new set of clothes and metal mask.

"A nun?"
"Who is she?" Haru asked as she saw her approaching.

"She?"
"It's Momo, Elise introduced her to you before, isn't it?"

"Is it Momo?"
"Oh, I see, that makes sense"
"It looks fun to wear those clothes and the mask but I understand why you're doing it"
"At least it doesn't stand out from the rest of the cafeteria"

"At least?"
"I was hoping that with this I could go out to more places!"
"I sewed it myself! It took me 2 weeks to make it and a month to wait for the mask to arrive in the mail!"

"Well, it will certainly attract attention, but knowing what you really look like is a big step"
"I don't think you'll lose as much attention if you go somewhere with a group of friends"
"..."
"By the way have you always been working here?"
"I've never seen you before, what do you do?"

"I am a kitchen assistant"
"I help keep track of the ovens, peeling fruit, washing dishes, inventory, taking out the garbage, etc"
"I also take care of the maintenance of almost everything and build the things Adelis asks for"
"Although now I'm trying to get Saeko to teach me how to cook"

"Oh, quite interesting"

"Hey, glass bottle"
"We are almost out of chocolate cakes, we need to make more"  Said Lisa approaching us as well.

"Oh, Hi Lisa"
"How are you?"

"More or less"
"Unfortunately, the group of weird morons continues to grow."
"If this keeps up I'd rather be the one doing the cooking"

"Well, Lisa is a pretty attractive girl, so it's normal that men want to talk to you in one way or another"

"And that's the biggest problem!"
"I hate them!"
"Why don't we segregate customers by sex?"
"We leave the nice area for the women, the bastards with dicks can go to the bathroom to eat ...."  Lisa stopped talking when she saw that my mother was watching her out of the corner of her eye, waiting for a mistake to end her life.

"???"
"You also have a necklace"
"..."
"But Maria does not"
"..."
"I thought it was part of the uniform"
"But now that I see it is the same as Tamamo, Momo also has one, and Levia too"
"...."
"Wait the ones with the necklaces are the same girls who are close to Elise?"

"Oh, this"
"Yes, they are Slave collars, they are quite nice aren't they"
"They're so big and heavy, a single big piece of metal"
"It's impossible to forget it's there"
"Just thinking about it almost makes me feel like getting wet"

"Lisa, if you don't want to have to walk around with a limp, I suggest you refrain from talking like that at least inside the store"  Said my mother as the only warning.

"Slave collar?"
"What is that? Does it work like in the manga?"

"Yes, just like that"
"Those who have them cannot refuse any order from their master."
"That includes our lives, we are Elise's property, her toys"
"If she orders us to stop breathing, the same thing will happen to us, whether we want it to or not"
"Our bodies even move on their own to carry out her orders"
"It is so sexy to know that you can die any day just by the changing will of a single person"
"Elise can decide what my last day will be if she wants to"
"Just thinking about it makes me feel like I'm going to get we... work better"  Lisa stopped talking for a moment and then continued while massaging for no reason one of her legs.

"That's scary!"

"Lisa, stop scaring her!"
"It's not as extreme as you think"
"It's more of a security measure"
"How do you think so many fantasy creatures are living here without causing problems every day?"
"Well although I can't deny that they have the magic as she says"
"But Elise is a good person, if you want to ask the others and they will tell you that they don't mind."

"Do you agree with that?"
"To be treated this way?"

"In what way?"
"As a family? Having a job, a house"
"Being able to be able to buy the things I want with the money I earn"
"Most of us would be lost if it weren't for Elise"  surprisingly it was Momo who responded, with an angry tone.

"...."
"Well if they agree then I can't do anything"
"At least Elise doesn't seem like a bad person"
"Although I understand the part as a security measure"
"I don't want to imagine what Lisa will do without that collar" Said Haru.

"Kill all the men in this place"
"Don't doubt for a second that I wouldn't do it!"
"That one over there I'd slit his throat, the one next to him I'd rip his skin off"
"The fat bastard I'd sew him in oil, then feed him to pigs"

"Lisa, shut up"

"...."
"Wow, you really hate them so much"
"...."
"I mean aren't you supposed to be a Succubus?"
"I thought seducing men was your specialty?"
"How are you going to do it if you behave like this"

"That's what I have Elisenium for"
"That's all I need to live"

"Really?"
"I thought succubus fed on sex with men to live?"
"You do it with her instead, you have slept with her"
"Are you a virgin right?"

"!!!!"
"...."
"...."
"Not me ...."
"..."
"Please don't!"
"Don't touch me!"
"Stop, no!"
"Please help me!"
"Help me!"

"Lisa, are you all right?"
"You are worrying me" said Momo.

"Don't come any closer!"
"Stop it!"
"Don't touch me anymore!"
"I don't want this!"
"Help me!"
"Somebody stop him!"
"Stop it!"
"Get away from me!"
"..."
"Help"
"...."
"Waaaaah"

Lisa ran frantically to the door, which she opened with a bang on her shoulder, and continued running in the direction of the house, without stopping for anyone, even knocking over a lady who was walking on the sidewalk.

"What just happened?"
"Did I do something wrong?"

"Haru"
"For a detective's granddaughter, you're pretty dumb, anyone ever tells you that?" I was honest and straightforward with her.
"Just think about it, a Succubus who hates men"
"Doesn't that sound weird on its own?"

"I don't understand the relationship of one thing to the other."

"...."
"Don't ever ask her anything like that again"
"...."
"We believe Lisa is a rape victim"
"Or at least an attempted one, so it is a rather sensitive issue"
"...."
"It's since then that she's been bad in the head..."
"..."
"We don't know because she always gets like this and doesn't say anything"
"...."
"Obviously she'll lose one more screw if the subject comes up again"

"Oh, I'm sorry"
"I didn't think something like that had happened, especially someone like her"
"It seems that no matter how strong someone is, everyone has their own difficult battles"
"It was my mistake"

"It's amazing"
"You managed to make two of our best warriors cry in one day"
"That's quite a feat considering the track record of those two"

Without a doubt, Haru had ruined that day for everyone else. My brother didn't come to the cafeteria, and Tamamo didn't come either because he was taking care of him and then adding Lisa, I imagine he had a hard time trying to calm them both down. Adelis herself went outside the store to apologize to the girl that Lisa threw away while she was running. The rest of the day was quite gray, since Momo, the twins, and I had to keep working because of the missing waitresses, and Levia sang to entertain the customers because of the long waits, Haru had to sit alone all day.