"What are you...?"
The figure seemed to have been waiting for this question, as it threw its blob hands into the air and exclaimed
"Yours truly is a Member of the Cosmos with the self-appointed name of Kah! I am the regulator of many worlds in the cosmos, and seeking "employees" to work for me in a further expansion. Therefore, I've come here to offer a partnership with me, Sekan Doho. If you can aid me in my Ambitions, I will relentlessly help you become the Number 1 Earthling in the universe...!"
That answer did not really satisfy Sekan's curiosity, and the one question he asked turned into many questions in his head after hearing what he said. But in the midst of his confusion, the words he had heard allured him. He had already made it clear that the person in front of him really was a creature he'd never seen before, so the unbelievable things he was saying became believable. If he agreed to help this figure allegedly called "Kah", he thought he really could become the Number 1 Earthling.
Without thinking about his parents, school, Arisa, his weekly chess club, his earlier embarrassments and successes, Sekan Doho looked up at the fully illuminated figure Kah in front of him and made a decision.
"What is that? Are you charging up an ability? Are we fighting?"
Sekan was holding out his hand flatly and vertically, facing Kah who was looking at it hesitantly.
"You may not know this, since you haven't been here many times. But this is how you agree to something and make a Business deal on Earth. Reach out your hand, or blob, and I'll shake it to show we both accept."
Kah seemed to smile for a moment as they walked forward and slammed their limb forward, meeting Sekan's.
The impact didn't necessarily hurt, but it jolted Sekan who wasn't expecting it at all. He quickly commented
"You don't have to be that eager! You'll scare all the customers away...!"
Kah responded
"I'm not a business though? For me, it's better if the people I meet don't know what to think exactly. Fear is easy to control"
Sekan looked at Kah with unsure eyes, as he didn't really know what to say in reply.
5/95
Kah smiled and said
"You see, just like now. You're not really sure of what to think. But that just now was merely an accident, I haven't really done this before and I got a bit excited. Either way, there's no merit in scaring my Partner employees. I apologize."
It was like a wave of awe mixed with dumbfoundedness and disappointment ran through Sekan as he sighed to himself. He quietly just said
"At any rate..."
Thereafter, he grabbed ahold of Kah's blobby limb and gave it a firm shake. Sekan immediately felt the strange feel of Kah's hand, it was similar to a human hand but felt more like a ball of Mochi or a stress ball. And like he didn't have a skeletal system in his body, Kah's whole arm was shaking in waves which didn't seem to surprise or bother him whatsoever.
After the handshake came to an unnatural ending, Sekan tried to use Kah's hand to pull himself up from the ground.
*BAM*
When he grabbed and pulled on it, he fell to the ground again still holding Kah's hand in his. Like it was made out of clay, the whole arm had been extended and lengthened. Sekan stared at it with an awkward facial expression
"Ah... Did I just...?"
"Aaah, what have you done!? You just permanently altered my hand! What am I supposed to do now!?"
Sekan immediately let go of the hand and in a state of panic replied
"I'm sorry...! I didn't mean to do anything, I just-- I just wanted to get myself up again, I expected it to just be like a normal hand. I-I-I----"
*Shlooooop"
Just like that, the arm immediately snapped back to its original size and length. Completely returning to its first form, Sekan stared at it.
Like his face was made of iron, he had a brazen look on his face for a few seconds as he stared silently. Kah showed a small smirk and said
"Just kidding, haha. I can alter my physical form almost however I want."
"Damn you..."
Sekan had probably wanted to react more, but the few hours of sleep he'd got were getting in the way. Especially as the previous day had been draining him in various ways. Kah made his hand into a more solid form and helped Sekan stand up again, at which point Kah realized something.
"Oh, I've forgotten about time. This is really urgent, we need to get out of here quickly."
Slowly nearing the window, Sekan asked
"Get out of here? What do you mean by that...?"
Sekan hadn't thought of this at all up until now, but he realized that since they had been talking about the universe and the cosmos up until now, the answer to this question could be worrying.
"You are my Partner employee now, so we need to go to my base of operations to set up your space and discuss your next mission"
With the wind blowing against both of them, Kah stood up on the windowsill facing the open window and the outside world.
"Where is that? What are you doing...?"
Turning around and looking down on Sekan, Kah said
"What am I doing? To put it in simple terms,
I'm stealing you from Earth"
As soon as he finished talking he jumped up into the air, out of the window, with Sekan in his hand who followed after him. Effortlessly, he walked in the air like it was a staircase on the ground and soared higher and higher.
Sekan started out screaming as soon as they started ascending and almost passed out as they came higher and higher. Beneath him was the cityscape of the city he'd always lived in. Beneath him was hundreds of thousands, soon millions, of people who rested and lived soundly, and beneath him was everything that he had ever known or recognized.
His memories, possessions, failures, and trials all seemed to become more remote as the city grew smaller and smaller. His momentary decision seemed more grounded now than it had before as he physically grew more distant from it, and the view of mountains and fields below him robbed him of satisfaction from that decision. Would he ever see it again? He wasn't sure. Clouds started to remove his view entirely, and the glistening ocean and city lights were the only things seen until they also disappeared.
Aside from the terror of being dragged through the air by a blobby figure, a feeling of heartbreak came over Sekan. That heartbreak was only natural, yet not expected.
Left in him was also the hope and ambition he always tried to carry with him, and with what he had wanted to make that decision originally. Before, he had never truly considered doing something very extreme to fulfill his ambition. He realized now that maybe he'd always wanted to become the greatest without trying to become the greatest.
Leaping above the clouds, across an entire landscape of white smoke, they continued to ascend.
For a moment, as they passed into space, almost passing out himself, Sekan thought to himself
- Maybe my fate was never to become the greatest on earth -
Soon, the urge to pass out was too strong to resist and he fell into slumber
...
Although many people slept through the ascend into the sky, a few people who were awake witnessed glimpses of it. Many of those thought it was some aircraft or balloon that had floated into the sky, but some looked at it in wonder. Arisa Mayham of class 2C, who had stayed up thinking about the previous day, saw a shadowy figure and a trail behind it in the sky. Pressing her head against the window in curiousity, she stared earnestly into the moon-lit sky.
And on the opposite side of town from Arisa, a young man with short red hair and a strange outfit stood on the side of a mountain, staring into the sky. Seeing a shadowy figure disappear into the clouds above, eclipsing with the moon for a moment, he scratched his arm as he commented to himself
"Another slave contract made with one of our residents
What a vexing sight..."
...