"It still feels like a dream," Adith murmured out loud.

Fauna was a tiny human with wings flying around gracefully but nobody noticed his presence. The road was packed with crowds and not a single head turned to see the fairy floating between them.

Instead, people's gazes drifted toward Adith, currently in his magical form and dressed in a blue sweater and white short pants. Their expression ranging from judgmental to mid-squeal and worry. It was understandable, anyone would be concerned if they found a little kid wandering alone unsupervised, but their stares still made him uncomfortable anyway.

Some adults his age tried to stop him and asked where his parents were but Fauna sent them leaving with a flick of his finger.

"Simple mind trick," Fauna explained.

"Can I do that too?"

"Of course," Fauna answered as if he was stating the obvious.

Adith looked down at his blue sneakers, created by his magical power. It had been a week since Fauna turned him into a Magical Kid. Since then, Adith kept experimenting, creating all kinds of stuff he could think of. He burned all his old tattered clothes until there was nothing left with just a single snap of his fingers. The closet was now mostly filled with children's clothes which he bought with magical money.

Out of curiosity, Adith tried to create some clothes with his own power but it didn't feel as comfortable somehow. Next, he tried telekinesis and teleportation. They both worked very well when he had a clear goal and destination. He could also project a very realistic illusion if he concentrated high enough.

"Imagination is your limit," Fauna had said.

The rule also applied to homemade food. Adith could create foreign food on the fly but he couldn't create the same taste if he never ate them before.

It wasn't exactly a setback. With an unlimited amount of money at his disposal, Adith could just buy the objects he couldn't create.

All these things he could do already made him light-headed. This was the best job any jobless person could ask for.

Adith ended up telling his parents that he got hired by an important individual to do some odd tasks. It wasn't exactly a lie. His parents were skeptical, rightfully thinking he was getting scammed.

But, it's really not a scam.

Adith walked faster to catch up with the aforementioned 'important individual'.

"There's something I don't understand," he said out loud. The headset in his ears and handphone in his hand gave the passerby an illusion that he was talking to someone. It did garner him some strange looks. What could be stranger than a kid wandering alone unsupervised? A kid wandering alone unsupervised with a phone.

Ignore me, Adith thought, feeling sweats trickling down his face. I am not a kid involved with anything bad, or rather, I am not actually a kid, so please ignore me.

Fauna kept flying forward, tilting his head at Adith to continue with his question.

"Why don't you hire real kids?" He lowered his voice. "If imagination is the limit then children would have more freedom than some boring adults."

Fauna was quiet for a second. When he answered, his voice was laced with unidentified emotion. "My superior once told me that we used to do that."

"Why do you stop?"

"Why do you think?"

Adith shut his mouth.

I am not getting scammed, am I?

He'd accepted the job because, frankly, he couldn't find one. The money he saved up was starting to dwindle. His parents even begged him to go home. How could he face them with his jobless and penniless status? In such situations, Adith would grab any opportunity that came his way.

But he wasn't an idiot. With such limitless reward, the job that came with it surely possessed near-death risks.

Even if it is a scam, Adith thought mournfully. It's too late to refuse.

Now that he already had a taste of being rich and wearing expensive clothes, he couldn't go back to the way he was.

If Fauna asked me to murder someone, I'd quit right away, Adith thought. His resolve already wavered with each step he took.

The rest of their walk was spent in silence. Fauna's expression didn't change but he could tell that he'd broached a topic that shouldn't be brought up.

"Do you see that?"

They stopped in front of a school gate. Fauna didn't point at anything but he must be referring to huge curling black shapeless form wrapping half of the school building. It looked like massive nasty black slime. To put it simply, it was disgusting.

"What the heck is that?"

"It's negativity," Fauna said as if it answered everything. "It's still level one right now."

"I have to destroy that thing?"

"No, you will absorb it," Fauna looked him up and down. "Disguised yourself as a student first."

In his confusion, Adith obeyed worldlessly. He looked around to make sure there was no witness before transforming his sweater and white pant into school uniform and turned himself taller. The only thing that didn't change was his phone and headset.

"You learn quickly," Fauna praised him, clearly impressed.

 

"..."

What they were doing here exactly? Fauna explained that it was the kind of thing he wouldn't understand unless he'd experienced it himself.

 Adith hadn't gone to school in a long time, much less wearing a school uniform. This wasn't what he expected when he accepted the job.

He took off his gloves, feeling his palm sweating.

Uncaring of his current emotion, Fauna went in. Adith had no choice but to follow suit. Fortunately, it was school break time. They could blend in with actual students.

Adith was honestly afraid one of the students would recognize him as an outsider but they all just walked past him without a glance. There were students who stayed inside the classroom, students who walked together in the hallway, students who crowded together beside the window, students who laughed very loudly, and lastly students who walked alone with a gloomy face.

"Do you think I'll fail the test?"

"Hey, let me borrow your homework."

"Did you see the show last night?"

"I heard they're dating already!"

With that kind of chatters filling up the hallway, it was noisy and crowded and felt absurdly normal. Adith brought up a hand to cover his mouth, holding back his puke.

"Can't they see it?"

As far as he could see, right in front of him, the hallway was completely swallowed up by the black slime thing. Up close, it was more accurate to describe it as black smoke instead of slime. Just like how Fauna was invisible to human eyes, students walk through the black thingy and carried on as if nothing happened. They were scattered across the hallway up until the top staircase where Adith currently stood. As if being blocked by an invisible barrier, the black thingy didn't spread further and stayed within the hallway and covered the wall outside.

Adith stuck his hand in. It came out dirty as if someone just dropped a pile of ashes into his palm.

"Listen, Adith," Fauna started. The hallway was filled with students chattering but his voice remained clear. "Humans released the energy they couldn't use from the higher plane when they feel certain negative emotion. That thing is what happened when the energy formed by the human's negative emotion gathered together. Right now, it's still in stage Level 1, but if we leave it alone as it is, it will enter stage Level 2. We, the Lower Beings, call them the negativity."

"Got it," Adith nodded. He absolutely didn't get it. "So what am I supposed to do?"

"It's simple, you just have to absorb them and convert them into your magical energy."

Adith lost him at 'absorb'. The confusion must have shown in his face because Fauna rested on his shoulder and ordered. "Open your palm."

Hesitantly, Adith extended his hand toward the negativity and did as he was told.

"Now close your eyes and concentrate."

Adith gulped. "I am not very good at concentrating."

"Just do it."

He closed his eyes.

"Can you feel it?"

Adith could. It was an overwhelming feeling he usually felt when looking down from a high place. It was, undoubtedly, fear. And it wasn't just simple fear either. Bringing a hand to his chest, Adith could feel his heart beating so loudly like it was going to jump out of his body.

"I don't like this at all."

He didn't mean to whine but the words came out of his mouth nonetheless. His knees almost buckled but the thought of falling apart in the presence of teenagers kept him standing up.

"Take it, Adith," Fauna said. "It's all yours."

Adith closed his eyes. Feeling it was bad enough but absorbing it was even worse.

He choked, suddenly finding it hard to breathe. Dying, Adith thought fearfully. I am dying.

And as sudden as it came, it was over in a blink of an eye.

Adith leaned his side against the wall for support. His feet were trembling. Not out of exhaustion, he mused distantly. For a split second, before the negativity was fully absorbed, he really thought he was going to die.

Fauna tapped Adith's shoulder with his tiny hand in sympathy. "You'll get used to it."

"...Easy for you to say."

But Fauna was right. If he kept doing this every day, even this feeling of being submerged in the deep ocean would disappear on its own. Adith was very good at adapting. He survived college. He could survive this job too.

"Hey, you there, are you alright?"

A female student came to his side. Her action made the other students turned their heads in his direction. Adith forced a smile at the unwelcome attentions.

"I feel sick," he answered truthfully. "I am going to go home."

At his words, the students started gathering around him. One of them even offered a bottle of water.

"Hey, where is your class? I'll bring your bag to you."

"Oh, my goodness, you look pale!"

"I'll notify the teacher."

"Maybe you should rest in the infirmary first..."

Listening to the concerned chatters around him, Adith forced himself to stand up straight.

They're good kids, he thought.

Middle school was hell for him but in high school, everybody treated him nicely. They could have just left him alone in the corner, but they didn't.

"Fauna-"

"On it," Fauna murmured from his shoulder.

The students had a blank expression for a second before they suddenly scattered to do their own things and left him alone.

Adith made a mental note to start training his mind magic.

On his way outside, nobody approached him anymore. Some teachers stared a little longer at him, probably wondering why there was an unfamiliar face they'd never seen before. Adith could have teleported quickly to his home but the side effect of teleportation like sudden dizziness and light car sickness combined with his current situation now would be a nightmare.

As soon as Adith stepped outside the school gate, he transformed to his magical form, back to his sweater and blue sneakers. Then, much to his embarrassment, he couldn't stop himself from throwing up.

Fauna observed everything calmly. He didn't ask are you okay? Or are you up to this job? The answers to both questions right now would be no.

"I can do it," Adith said. "I can take this job."

He probably didn't look very convincing like this, with the smell of puke and body trembling. It was already too late, anyway.

There was no need to overthink this. For the money, he reminded himself.

He stood up straighter. Already, the nausea was gone, replaced with the urge to lie down in his comfortable bed.

"I can do this," Adith repeated more confidently.