Happiness Pusher
Nagi-shan, theshe are all flowersh we have available!
Oh no… That’s not enough.
Well, you can’t jusht come back from the HAMA Houshe out of nowhere and shpring thingsh on me!
I’m sorry. Can you bring out the flowers from our warehouse too?
Aye, aye, shir! I’ll just bring in everything we’ve got! Geez!
‘Scuse me. Sorry if you’re kinda busy.
Oh, hello. How may I help you?
I just had a quick question. I can use IzuPay to do laundry here, right?
IzuPay… Ah, unfortunately, we don’t accept that at the moment. We have plans to, but we haven’t made the arrangements yet… I apologize for the inconvenience.
Ahh, okay. Well, it’s a local service just for this ward, so that makes sense.
We do accept other forms of digital payment. You can also pay in cash, if you’d prefer.
Woah, cash? I didn’t even know cash laundromats still existed.
I thought they all got destroyed along with the Valley of the Sky. Like, Panyose! Or something.
Hey, don’t be rude. They clearly still exist. And they already finished airing the movie. I’m sorry about him.
…It’s okay.
(That must mean that the movie night back at the House is over too…)
(…What am I thinking?)
(I couldn’t have possibly stayed in…that place…for the whole movie. Just thinking about it gives me chills. I feel bad for abandoning Toi, but I had to find a chance to slip out, for everyone’s sake—)
The flowersh are all ready!
Thanks. Okay, let’s go. Now.
Excuse me…
Welcome to—
Good evening… Haven’t seen you in a bit.
……
Can I talk to you real quick, Nagi-kun?
……
(He left the HAMA House in the middle of the movie… The party must’ve been really awkward for him.)
(I thought that he’d get used to things in time, but…maybe I was being overly optimistic.)
……
(Did he notice that I left…? That’s not good. He might be mad at me…)
(No, maybe he came here to make sure I was okay. It’s entirely possible that he’s just about the fact I’m socially awkward…)
(Either way, I caused him trouble… My existence is even more worthless than a plant-sucking aphid’s… At least aphids are useful to ants.1)
(Someone who’s more worthless than an aphid…can’t be a ward mayor.)
(I agreed to join the company, so I wanted to see it through, but…)
Um, so I heard about this from Yodaka-san, but…
Yes?
Nagi-kun, is it true that you haven’t slept overnight at the HAMA House yet?
……
(He found out. I knew I couldn’t fool him.)
……
(Ahh, Nagi-kun stiffened up…)
(Maybe I shouldn’t have been so direct.)
(I wanted to ask him about his goals or hopes for the future if he had any, but it’s possible that he’s not even interested in being a ward mayor… Hmm… What should I say?)
……
(He looks really conflicted. I feel so bad for making him feel this way.)
(I kind of don’t want to, but I should try to explain things. I know that. But if I tell him everything, he’ll definitely think that I’m a weirdo.)
(But then if I stay silent, I might end up hurting him. What should I do…?)
(Now I’m finding myself looking at the cyclamens in front of the store. In flower language, they symbolize resignation and goodbyes…)
(Next to those, anemones, which symbolize abandonment. And next to those, pot marigolds, which symbolize the sorrows of parting.)
(I see… Okay.)
Umm…
(I need to steel myself.)
……
…If I don’t give out flowers, it’ll come back to me.
Huh?
The other side of the yajirobe.2
Pardon?
This is a theory I came up with myself.
O-Okay.
I think that a yajirobe can represent the state of human emotions. No matter how happy or unhappy you become, it’ll all naturally balance itself out with time.
I-I see.
But the weights on both sides of my yajirobe are particularly heavy. As soon as something happy happens to me, something unhappy needs to happen in turn.
That’s why I got caught in that bee trap at the cafe. The day before that, I won two tissue boxes in a raffle while I was shopping.
I call this phenomenon the Yajirobe of Happiness Theory.
M-Makes sense. People do usually say that misfortune doesn’t last forever and that it eventually leads to fortune… Is that what you mean?
…Are you a genius? I guess I didn’t have to come up with such a weird-sounding theory. That’s so embarrassing. I’ll explain it like that from now on.
No, I think your yajirobe explanation was really good too.
To keep my yajirobe in equilibrium, I try to avoid situations where I might be too happy.
So getting a piece of cake is out of the question. That level of kindness is too much happiness for me to handle.
(So he was so happy at getting the piece of cake that he refused it and left the house to avoid the misfortune that was coming…?)
But as much as I try to avoid it, I do end up gathering too much happiness by accident sometimes.
And when that happens… Here.
A flower…?
My special skill, Happiness Pushing Flower Power.
…Hm?
If I imbue all of my happiness into flowers and give them to people, I can push that happiness onto them. It has unlimited uses. The only debuff is a little bit of embarrassment on my part.
(Ah…)
(Is that why he was walking around with a bunch of flowers when I first met him?)
(I’m not sure how much I can truly believe, but Nagi-kun seems to be serious about this…)
O-Okay, I see. So if you give out flowers…
The unhappiness rebound won’t be as bad.
The unhappiness rebound won’t be as bad… Um… I see.
(I knew he’d be confused.)
So joining HAMA Tours and living at the HAMA house is…
It puts me into happiness debt.
And that’s why you left.
Yes. The…
The happiness level that stems from living with a “big family” like that is unfathomable.
(Happiness level…)
If I got showered in that much happiness… If everyone joined hands and shouted Panyose together…
Then I wouldn’t be shocked if the earth opened up and completely swallowed the entire house…!
……
(He’s speechless. But of course he is.)
(I’ve always avoided people. Someone like me couldn’t possibly work and live with others.)
(So he probably thinks that I’m a weirdo. I bet he doesn’t understand anything I said either. I wouldn’t be surprised.)
(I’ll just ask him to fire me, so I can go back to my old life. My quiet, predictable, and peaceful old life.)
I understand.
……
Can I have all of those flowers then?
……
Huh?
You’ll lessen your happiness debt if you give flowers to people, right?
But it takes a lot of time to look for new people to give them to every day. I’m sure that’s hard on you.
Is that…what we were talking about?
I think so.
And since you’re giving away so many flowers, you end up spending a lot on restocks… I assume.
No, that’s not an issue. I buy in bulk, so it’s cheaper…
Oh, okay. Then the problem might be looking for people to give flowers to. If you keep giving them to strangers, it might tire you out mentally, and the people you give them to could be confused.
But since I know what’s going on, I’ll always accept your flowers.
…Y-Yeah, I guess, but…
Isn’t it a little annoying?
Not at all. I always love getting flowers. Flowers symbolize the start of a new life, right? They always bring good things.
……
Here.
Oh, a flower! Thank you! You pulled it out like a magician.
…Flowers just popped into my life one day. So I always have them with me to pop out for others.
But wow, it’s such a big flower! What’s it called?
Chinese peony.
Wow…! It’s gorgeous. And it smells wonderful too.
……
Here. Another.
Oh, it looks so interesting… What’s this one?
Serruria.
It’s so cute and unique. What should I pair it with?
Here.
Wow, that’s a lot! It’s starting to look like a full bouquet.
Here.
Ah, the colors are kinda starting to clash…!
Here.
I can’t see…! But…
Thank you, Nagi-kun!
Thank you too.
Thank you for accepting my happiness, Chief.
Footnotes
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Aphids, also known as plant lice, are small insects infest and feed off of plants. They have a mutualistic relationship with ants. Ants protect aphids from predators, and aphids provide ants with food. ↩ ↩2
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A yajirobe is a traditional Japanese toy that you play with by trying to balance its pointed tip on your finger while weights on both ends of the toy pull it in either direction. ↩