“The hell is she doing?! You don’t speak with clients! Just do your job!” shouted a voice full of fury and confusion.

It belonged to a scrawny figure clad –from head to toe– in a dark robe. In a dimly lit room, they faced a huge golden pipe on which smaller golden pipes were embedded. There were huge lenses at each end of the pipe. Some might dub this device a telescope.

However, the figure intent for the device extended beyond merely stargazing, to something much less nobler. They were partaking in one of the world’s vilest acts : Peeping.

Peeping at the encounter between a certain kid and a fairy.

“Wow, this kid is bold! How can he do… that? Has he no fear? …Or is he just stupid?” mumbled frenziedly the peeper, their ‘face’ now stuck on the telescope lens. 

A moment later, their breath became erratic and slight quivers began coursing through their body. They had become excited.

“Damn! I never expected to witness something as lewd as this. This kid is right, she screams beautifully well. Human kids sure grow fast! They even know how to do it when they are this young. I wish it could be me there and not him!” 

But as they began to lose themselves in questionable reveries, a certain scene caught their eyes. The boy was crouching on his –soiled– bed holding his head, while the fairy approached his face and-

“NOOOOO!! WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING?!!” bellowed the shady fellow, fury painting their voice. “YOU CAN PLAY AROUND AS MUCH AS YOU WANT, BUT THIS? YOU’VE GONE TOO FAR!!”

In frustration, their bony limb hit the device which began to spin. The peeping tom, head hung low, retreated slowly with heavy steps.Tears streamed down their face as they crouched on the tiled ground, amidst scattered old scrolls.

“How could she choose this puny human kid? What does he have that I don’t?” they whimpered with their ‘hands’ on their ‘face’.

Fumbling on the ground, they seized a scroll, using it to wipe away their tears.

“Sniff…I’m more handsome, wealthy and mature than this brat…I am a scholar dammit! I know so many fascinating things…I even gave her a home while she was drifting into nothingness… How could she? Sniff… Was he that good?... Sniff…Huh?... Wait.”

The figure clad in black paused and stared at the scroll in their hands. A scroll filled with snot… or whatever that brown slimy liquid was. 

“Oops… I shouldn’t be playing with that.” they said, trying to wipe away the filth with their sleeves.

 “Hum… Should be legible now”, they mumbled, as they delved into the scroll's contents. But the more they read and the more their body began trembling. Soon clacking sounds could be heard in the room. With an exaggerated motion, the figure flung the scroll aside, their trembling unabated. Hands pressed against their face, they began muttering incomprehensible gibberish.

“... N-No way… My time is up?... Now of all time? No… I should check again just to be sure…”

With those words, the figure hurled themselves at the scattered scrolls, hastily gathering them like the scholar they ought to be. Yet, as they read more, the clacking noise intensified. A transparent purplish liquid seeped from their trembling figure, staining their dark robe—it was sweats. The dark scholar seemed scared.

"This cannot be happening...Not by this kid’s hands…I can’t lose my home! Moreover it's too early... I am not ready!" they shouted, unleashing chaos by flinging and scattering scrolls once more. They then lunged towards the telescope, pressing their face against the lenses and adjusting the tuning gear on the device's side.

“Let’s take a good look at the f*cker, who is trying to steal what’s mine. ”

Clack! answered the device as the other side became clear.

However, instead of a bedroom where there was a kid and a fairy, there was soil.

Gray, rocky, and void of any hint of life. The dark scholar wondered for a second if they had made a mistake. Yet, as they resumed turning the gears, adjusting the device, a figure came into view.

It was a young man with dark skin, blue overalls, and a straw hat. He was hopping about with exuberance, clutching a hoe in one hand while pointing towards the sky with the other.

“Oye! Alice! Look at the sky! There are shooting stars! Hurry, make a wish with me! Who knows? We might be able to harvest something this year!”

“Huh? What an interesting fellow. He is talking with a hoe” giggled the scholar. He then glanced behind him where darkness dwelt. Colorful glints answered his gaze. 

“If I wasn’t in a hurry I would have added him to my collection. What a pi-”

But as they went back to look through the telescope, their body jolted. After a brief pause, they cautiously peered through the lenses once more. Something was amiss.

The young farmer had stopped moving and was now staring quietly upward, toward the scholar. It was as if he was looking directly at them. Suddenly, a large grin parted his lips.

“Woah! These are some things that we have been seeing today. What could this thing be? Is someone spying on us? Peeping is bad, you know? By the way, do you happen to ha-“

The scholar backpedaled in a panic. 

“What’s happening today? Is karma that hell bent on reminding me that I’m screwed? I knew I should have just paid the rent…” they whimpered. “Still, I can’t let it happen like that. I have to uncover the how and when.”

Buoyed by newfound courage, the scholar approached the telescope once more, resolutely adjusting the gears and ensuring that they entered the correct coordinates.

Tack! came the satisfying sound of the gears getting back at their first positions.

The figure leaned in, pressing their face against the lenses and saw…

A small window embedded within a yellowish wall. Its tiny size implied that whatever was beyond seemed of utmost secrecy. Like a bedroom where-

The scholar zoomed in without wasting any second.

On the other side, an elderly figure clothed in a blue robe sat within a small chamber. With reverence, he perused a weathered scroll exuding an aura of antiquity. Clasped between his parched lips was a silver cigar, adorned with a wolf's head. Above his head lingered a grayish-white fog, casting further shadows upon the dimly lit room. Nestled at his side lay bundles of scrolls as ancient as the one he held.

“Heh, a meteor?” he said while frowning, “I HAVE A HUGE ONE RIGHT HERE!!!”

The scholar jolted again, though it was not the elder's shout that startled him.

PLOUF!

"T-Those were toilets?!" the scholar stuttered, horrified by their hideous revelation. Their eyes began to sting, and their vision blurred. "Oh, my poor eyes... What did I witness? It was so damn hairy!!"

It took a bit longer for the scholar to recover from this shock.

“Let’s continue!”they said again after a while, their composure restored, “My very life is at stake, after all.”

With a renewed fervor, the mysterious scholar reached the telescope. 

“ I hope that this geezer isn’t planning on using those scrolls as toilet paper. They almost look as precious as mine.” they mumbled while turning the gear again. 

Tack!

The scholar then resumed their morally questionable activity. As they peered through the lens once again, what unfolded before their eyes was...

A little girl torturing an older boy. 

Within a circular room bathing in the sun’s golden rays, she was jumping with both feet on the boy’s stomach.

“All right! All right! I surrender! So pl-BFFUORRGH!!!”

“ Ouch looks painful” commented the scholar, “ but, is this thing broken? Why does it not show me what I want even though I entered the right coordinates? Should I try ag-... Wait, those two seem familiar…”

The scholar's train of thought was abruptly halted as they turned their gaze towards the older boy. He was writhing in pain and clutching his stomach on the scarlet refined carpet adorning the room. The little girl approached him, her tiny frame carrying a weighty book. Fear etched across the boy’s face as he cast a glance at her through his slanted, apprehensive eyes.

The scholar focused on the kids’ appearance trying to awaken their memories.

Covering the little girl, dark-brown skin was a white kind of traditional dress –a hanfu– embellished with a black belt and a blue decorative crystal. Similarly, the boy donned the male version of the outfit, featuring contrasting colors. This striking contrast extended beyond their attire—his ebony hair and fair skin juxtaposed against the girl's ivory hair and dark skin. Observing them side by side evoked images reminiscent of the Taiji symbol.

“Hum… Strange, I’m sure that I have seen them before… Why can’t I remember?” mumbled the scholar.

As they muttered, the little girl positioned herself atop the writhing young boy. Raising her arms, she swiftly brought the weighty book crashing down upon his already sore stomach.

“ARGH!”

“Are you gonna back out again?”

“W-Wait... I swear I will not! I’ll read it to you! You can even treat me as a couch if you want!!” he shouted, totally panicked.

‘’Hmpf… Good.’’

“Looks like this little girl is quite a tyrant, isn't she? I suppose I shouldn’t judge a book by its cover.” the mysterious scholar commented, growing even more intrigued by the children's dynamics. “Same for the dude over there. He looks tough but he is just a sissy.”

The scholar's attention was then drawn to a piece of wooden furniture that concealed half of the room's wall. At the far end stood a small desk adorned with numerous trinkets. However, it was the massive rectangular piece of wood covering the wall that captured their gaze.  Divided both horizontally and vertically into smaller rectangles each holding a few books.

It was a bookshelf housing a legion of those books.

‘’When the hell is she gonna learn to read? Tch… If only the old fart didn’t spend his time brooding or shitting all day long…’’ mumbled the older boy to himself.

‘’Why aren’t you teaching me then?’’

‘’We already tried it, you dork! But you kept running away after the first thirteen seconds!”

“Who are you calling dork, wormy? It’s your fault, to begin with! Your face, when you’re reading, is the ugliest! I don’t wanna end up like that!” the little girl retorted fiercely, forcefully adjusting the boy's posture and settling herself upon his lap.

“What are you waiting for?” she asked a few seconds later, showing impatience as the boy continued to recover from his stomach ache. “Do you want me to stomp on you that badly?”

‘’Urgh…, I don’t swing that way you know?’’, He said while massaging his belly.

[ I don’t think so…] thought the peeping scholar.

‘’Is it coming?’’

“Right away, ma’am!!!”

The boy hurriedly snatched the hefty book and began frantically flipping through its pages in search of a suitable story, when someone entered the room interrupting the kids. It was the elder from the toilets. The sight of him caused a wave of revulsion to wash over the scholar, making them quiver in disgust.

“Well, I have other things to do… ” they said as they adjusted the gears for another attempt.

This time, the scholar made certain to inspect the gear positions, and to their realization, they discovered that they had forgotten to turn the gear on the other side of the device.

"Oh... I can be quite clumsy at times," the scholar admitted with an embarrassed chuckle.

Tack!

Tack!

Two satisfying sounds later and the peeping scholar finally achieved their anticipated outcome... or so they thought.

“Why am I seeing things as if I’m him? Did this device have a function like that?” they pondered aloud. “...Well, no biggies. As long as I can get some info about this damn brat…”

Yet, to their surprise, the first sight that greeted the peeping scholar was a looming shadow. The colossal silhouette bore two gleaming red orbs, presumably its eyes. They stared at the child from above. And from this shadow appeared a void. Appendices came out, and they swooped down on the kid.

“AAH!!”

The peeping scholar let out a piercing scream and instinctively recoiled, as if they had been struck by a venomous snake.

“What happened? It’s the right coordinates right?” they said as they checked the device. “Yes, this time I didn’t forget to turn a gear… The hell does this mean? “

"Why is he being consumed? How can he threaten me if he’s dead? Or could this be the catalyst for his awakening to this place’s power, to the power of infinity? It must be that! There’s no other way!"

Filled with a misguided sense of realization, the peeping scholar eagerly continued their voyeuristic pursuit, now trembling with excitement. Triumph seemed within reach, ensuring their survival and that they don’t become homeless. As long as they discerned the nature of the power the child awakened, they believed they could devise a countermeasure, regardless of its form.

After all, this was their and ‘this place’ speciality.

With bated breath, they took another peek, their minds already relishing their victory. 

Yet, apparently, today wasn’t their lucky day.

They were only blurred images on the other side. 

“What? Don’t tell me that it broke… Did I overuse it? ”

The scholar peered nonetheless. After a while, they were able to discern two figures  : one with whitish hairs and the other one with brownish hairs. They appeared to be positioned above the child, fervently shouting something.

Plic…

Something fell on the lens –on the kid’s face–. 

Tears. 

The figures were crying, their tears blurring further the scholar's sight.

A few seconds later, everything went black.

…

“What?... That’s it?” The scholar straightened himself after a while to ponder. “So he just dies in the end? Does that mean all my worries were for naught?”

A deep sigh escaped their lips and they let out a low laugh as they walked away, fading into the darkness.

“What a waste of time…”