Chapter 3

After today’s bath, I rolled onto my bed and, while performing my daily magic stimulation and circulation, I recalled my sister’s behavior in the bath.

Recently, I’ve noticed that although my sister listens to my stories with enjoyment, her level of interest is different from when I first started telling them.

I’ve tried to add variety by using finger gestures on the edge of the bathtub and tapping the water to create sound effects, but the effects have been minimal.

“I was too optimistic. Kids in my old world would be captivated by the same animated story.”

It’s not that my sister finds them boring; I think she’s just getting used to stories told with words and clumsy gestures.

I need to find a breakthrough. If I stagnate with the excuse that “this is the best I can do,” I’ll be washed away by the wave of obsolescence, just like in the history of entertainment. Just as radio was affected by the advent of television, and television by the internet.

“Maybe I should start with visuals. If I can create simple shapes, water magic might work?”

I muttered to myself, activating the magic and thinking about how to express it.

◇◇◇◇

A few days later, bath time arrived.

While listening to Alice’s “Niantan and the Bath” song, I was nervous.

Would she be moved by this? Should I have improved it more before showing it? But I decided to go ahead. Even if it failed, there would be meaning in doing it. It’s okay to fail; I can ask Alice for her honest feedback and make adjustments.

“Niantan, what’s today’s story?”

“Today...”

I changed the story of the peach-born hero to one where the hero is born from the fruit of the World Tree and fights monsters, and I announced the title.

I think Alice’s lisp has improved a bit from listening to stories all the time. She’s probably a genius.

“Hey, haven’t I heard this story before, Alice?”

She sometimes wants to hear the same story again and even asks for it, and when she does, she joins in telling the story. But today, she doesn’t seem to be in the mood for this one, and she looks a bit disappointed.

However, I think this story is the best for what I’m planning to do today.

“Yeah, but today we’re going to do something interesting. Will you help me tell the story, Alice?”

“...Okay.”

Alice still looks a bit disappointed, but I start with “Once upon a time, in a faraway land...” and use the natural stimulation and circulation I’ve mastered to create two stick figures with water magic. One has a circle for a head, two squares for the body, and eight sticks for arms and legs.

These are essentially stick figures. I made them at a one-tenth scale, representing an old man and an old woman.

The part I struggled with was creating human-like shapes. No matter how many times I tried, I couldn’t make them look like actual people.

Using water magic, I can easily float simple shapes like circles and squares in my room, but I couldn’t transform them into more complex shapes.

It’s not a matter of my magic power or quality; it feels like something is missing.

That’s why I made stick figures.

I was curious about Alice’s reaction and peeked at her. She had a puzzled look on her face.

I thought I had failed, but then—

“Niantan, what’s this?”

She pointed at the stick figures standing there.

–Ah, I see. She didn’t recognize them as dolls.

“These are... Alice...”

I tried to explain but stopped. Instead, I made the old man stick figure walk, bending his waist and placing his hands behind his back for a more exaggerated movement.

“Grandpa!!”

Indeed, the father of my father, our grandpa. She recognized him immediately, which shows how perceptive she is. My sister is amazing.

“What about this one?”

I brought a smaller stick figure next to the old man, keeping its body straight and placing its hand on its lower abdomen.

“Grandma!!”

“Grandma” is what Alice calls our grandmother. If my father or I call her “grandma,” we get a punch. I understand why; she looks like the old man’s daughter, so it’s understandable she doesn’t like being called that. My father probably does it on purpose.

“Yes, it’s Grandpa and Grandma.”

I looked at Alice again, and her eyes were sparkling as she watched intently. She seemed to like it. Now that she understood these represented people, I continued the story and moved the stick figures along with it.

◇◇◇◇

From then on, I moved the stick figures to advance the story. The background, the World Tree’s fruit, and the accompanying animals were quite rough, but Alice was still very excited.

I chose this story because Alice already knew it, making it easier to connect the visuals with the narrative. Another reason was to involve Alice and enhance her immersion. But the biggest reason was one more.

The story had reached the scene where the hero invades the monsters’ lair and defeats them.

This is where I wanted to increase the number of monsters as much as possible. Just like I couldn’t make the dolls, I could easily create more stick figures, but moving them all at once felt like something was still missing.

But I wanted to make the final battle in the lair exciting with a large number of enemies. I remembered being deeply moved by a video of stick figures moving dramatically on the internet. This was the last piece.

Even though they were just stick figures, I knew that with passion and effort, I could create something amazing. I didn’t want to cut corners; I wanted to push to my limits.

In front of me, the protagonist, holding a stick as a sword, fought against a large number of enemies on the edge of the bathtub, receiving support from his companions, cutting through the crowd, and facing a particularly large boss. The protagonist reached the boss, and the companions prevented more monsters from coming from behind—

To make the climax more exciting, even though something was still missing and my brain was burning from the effort, I—

◇◇◇◇

The story ended with the stick figures carrying crude treasure back home. I was exhausted, but my chest was filled with a sense of accomplishment.

There were things I could have done better, and some movements were failures, but I had done it.

And I could tell from Alice’s face whether she liked it or not. Her expression showed even more excitement than when I started the story.

This day, when I pushed my limits with the stick figure play, marked a turning point. I had been practicing magic without a specific goal, just to keep the bath calm and quiet. But after seeing Alice’s expression of excitement at the climax and the ending, a deep desire to see more of it welled up inside me. My goal became to use magic to express the wonderful entertainment that still exists in Japan.