The Everlasting Bond

Chapter 15: A Break

When the next morning arrived, Iori and Riku were standing at the entrance of the apartment complex as Nagi stood in front of them, seeing them off to go to their next request. Initially, they weren't supposed to go to any other requests but seeing how the request they'd just received is only a couple minutes away, Iori thought they might as well do it.

"It was a fun night, I really enjoyed it and your company. Thank you both so much!." Nagi said, shaking their hands enthusiastically.

"You don't need to thank us, we really enjoyed it as well." Iori managed to reply whilst Nagi shook his hand, his words weren't all complete lies yet he did wish to get some semblance of sleep instead of watching a whole series of an anime in one night.

On the other hand, Riku, who also stayed up, seemed fine and was perfectly energetic along with Nagi.

"Yes! We should do it again sometime since we're friends now!" Returning the vigorous handshake they were doing, Riku smiled at the thought of them doing it again to Iori's dismay.

"That'll be wonderful~! Oh wait, before you leave- " Nagi paused his words and gestured to one of his chaperones standing at the side to come towards him. Once the chaperone was standing beside him, he presented an umbrella in front of Riku and Iori.

"Please take this." Nagi offered. "I'm guessing neither of you brought an umbrella with you since it wasn't raining yesterday so you can take this one, it'll be raining the whole weekend."

Iori took the umbrella from the chaperone and gave his thanks, "Thank you. We'll be heading off now, when we meet again we'll give it back to you."

As they began leaving the building, Riku turned back and waved his hand. "Bye-bye Nagi!"

"Bye Riku! Bye Iori!" Nagi called back, watching them leave until he couldn't see their silhouettes anymore.

Thanks to the umbrella that Nagi gave them, they were sheltered from the rain and were able to briskly walk to where the requester was. Around ten minutes of walking and following the direction the requester sent them, they arrived at a small-cozy looking house.

Once they stood in front of the door, Iori knocked and waited for an answer. An older woman who looked to be over fifty came and opened the door, smiling at the two visitors she had.

"Hi! You two must be the people from that site, please do come in." She greeted.

The woman led them to the living room where they saw a small boy playing with building blocks whilst staring curiously at the transparent sliding door that led to their garden.

The woman's wish was a simple one: wanting the rain to stop and the sun to come out. Her reason for that specific wish was for her grandson who'd wanted to go out but couldn't because of the rain, resulting in him sulking for hours.

After the wish and the rainy clouds disappearing, Iori and Riku stayed for a bit longer when the little boy asked them to play with him. Riku and the little boy were outside playing in puddles whilst Iori stayed with the grandmother sitting on the porch.

"I'm really grateful for you to be able to give us this beautiful sunshine." The grandmother suddenly said, snapping Iori out of his musings. "That young man over there must be very special to be able to make wishes come true."

Iori looked towards Riku seeing him help the little boy jumping over a puddle and noticing something different about him, he narrowed his eyes. He frowned upon realising that Riku's complexion seemed to be paler, looking more tired than normal and breathing more deeper.

'He looked perfectly fine at the beginning and was able to do at least ten wishes a day but now that I've noticed, he can only do three wishes without showing any signs of tiredness. Could it be that there are effects on him when he makes too many wishes?'