Ena Kano, a convenience store worker, who just made a deal with Elio Sato, a man who fell onto her store’s roof, to help him retrieve a bird from the nearby apartment, goes back to work.

“You’re finally back. Did that boy cause you any trouble?” Ask the manager.

“No, he’s fine. It’s all fine…I think.”

“Well, good. Handle the register, then you’ve got some stocking to do.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

As Ena gets back to work, Elio enters the store, grabs a basket, and begins to shop. He grabs two packs of ramen, one beef, one chicken, a bottle of water, a pack of bobby pins, a pack of pain relief pads, and hairpins. He goes to the register where Ena is working.

“Long time no see.” Elio smiles.

Ena scans Elio’s items. “Sure has. Did you find everything?”

“I think so. Do you heat up food here?”

“We can do that. Which ramen would you like for us to heat up?”

“Can you do both?”

“Sure.” Ena gestures over to a seating area. “You can enjoy your meal over there if you so like.”

“That sounds good.”

They finish the transaction with Elio sitting down with his steaming hot ramen. Before he starts eating, he applies the pain relief pad all over his back. Elio takes his time enjoying both his ramen, alternating between the bowls. Once he finishes, he throws away his trash and makes his way over to Ena, who is now restocking shelves.

“Hey, how much longer?”

Ena looks up from the shelf. “Like 20 minutes.”

“20 minutes?” He says in an annoyed tone. “Can’t you just leave now? No one is here.”

“No,” she says, matching his tone. “I can’t just leave. What’s the rush?”

“I want to go home and take a bath. Let’s get that bird and.”

“Just wait, play on your phone or read a magazine or something.”

“Magazine? Who reads those? I just spent all my extra cash on those ramen, anyway.”

“Then go wait outside.”

“Outside?” Pouts Elio.

“Yeah, sorry, but if you aren’t a paying customer or eating here, you have to go. My manager doesn’t like people staying here for too long anyway.”

“Fine, I’ll just play with your Bounce.”

“Play?” Ena says as she turns back to the shelf and waves Elio away. “Go right ahead.”

Elio walks out of the shop as Ena shakes her head, reevaluating her latest decisions. 20 minutes later, Ena gets off her shift and leaves. She is now wearing a casual outfit of a peach tank top with an open short-sleeved olive-green cargo jacket that has two breast pockets, a pair of jeans, and a pair of white running shoes. She is also wearing a beige crossbody bag across her torso. On a retaining wall next to the store, she spots Elio sitting. He is bouncing a small stone on the ground like a ball.

“Check this out. Pretty fun, just imagine what I could do if you grow your Bounce.”

Ena looks at the bouncing stone. “Yeah, I think I’m good on that. Let’s get going.”

“Well, before that. I got some questions.”

Ena looks suspiciously at Elio. “Hmmm, what is it?”

“Why do you agree to help me?”

“You said you’ll help me with my ability. It’s a fair trade.”

“Helping a stranger to get a bird from an old man just for a little tutoring is weird. Why are you weird?

“I’m not weird.” Ena Scoffed. “My ability has caused me too much trouble, and you said you can help me with it. That’s all there is to it.”

“Trouble? How has it done that?”

Ena let out a defeated sigh and looks down at the ground for a moment until she looks back up at Elio. “Fine, I got into MMA in middle school, and then in high school, I joined a gym and started to train, but nothing too serious. Then I went to college for programming. But when I started college, gym time went down. About two years ago, I graduated from college and got back into MMA, really got into it. Where I left my job to focus on it.”

“You quit your job for MMA?”

 “It was tech support for this little company; there were two techs, and that one was more than enough, so it was fine. Then I found this store was hiring, and they had flexible hours so I could schedule my shifts around my training.”

“That’s convenient.” Elio chuckles.

 It helped a lot for my training. Then I had a few practice matches, and three months ago I finally had my first official match.”

“Oh, fun.”

 “It went horribly.”

“Oh, no.”

 “I just couldn’t make any progress. My opponent was so good. She easily took me to the ground. I was losing, I was going to lose. I started to panic as I tried to free myself, and that’s when my ability activated against one of the pillars of the cage. I could immediately feel what happened. And everyone saw I did something unnatural. They weren’t sure what I did, but they knew I did something wrong. The fight stopped as they examined everything: me, the cage, the ring. They couldn’t find anything but knew I had done something against the rules. I lost by disqualification. Then they suspended me for a while.”

“Oh, that’s rough.”

“Yeah,” Ena sighs, “My trainer was moving to another gym and he said once I win, I could get a free month there. I was going to move over to that gym, but after the match, he said I still could get the free month, but now it felt off. I told him the new gym was too far for me, but I just wasn’t feeling it. He understood; he probably understood the real reason. I couldn’t even go to my regular gym. I quit my gym and started going to this small one on my street. I just didn’t feel comfortable there anymore. I couldn’t look at anyone there.”

Elio looks around, avoiding Ena’s contact. “…Yeah. I see”

Ena raises her arms in frustration. “And then!”

“Oh, there’s more.” Elio worries.

 Ena starts to pace back and forth. “Like a week after the fight, my girlfriend broke up with me! Like what! We talked about moving in together after we graduated but she kept putting it off. She graduated after me, so we had to wait on that. But when she did graduate, she got a nice office job, but she said she should stay at her apartment since it’s closer to her work. I said I could move in with her, but she said I should stay at mine since it was closer to my work.”

Elio nods his head. “Uh huh.”

After my match, I told her I wanted to move in with her or we could find a new place together. She told me she had to think about it, but she got pretty distant for a few days until the day came when she told me she wanted someone more stable in her life, and that wasn’t me, so she broke up with me. Like, what does that even mean? I have a job, come on! I had a feeling it was coming, but still it hurts.”

Ena deflates as she sits down next to Elio. “And that’s pretty much why I don’t like this ability.”

“Ah, I’m not good with relationships,” Elio says with an uneasy smile. “But I’m not sure how related all that is to your Bounce.”

After a moment of silence, Elio crosses his arms. “I think I got it. Your mixed martial arts career was going well until your first match, where you accidentally used your bounce and got disqualified and then your girlfriend broke up with you. So you’re in a rut.”

“I guess.” Ena shrugs.

“And you want to get control of your Bounce to help get your life back in order?”

Ena leans over, putting her elbows on her thighs. “I wouldn’t mind that. You’re the only person I’ve told the entire story to since no one else knows about these abilities. It felt nice talking about it, sorry if it was a bit much.”

“Don’t worry about it. Glad I could help.” Elio stands up. “Alright, let’s get to it.”

Ena stands up too. “Yeah, let’s go but now I want to ask some questions first.”

“I guess that’s fair. Go ahead.”

“ About these abilities, what are they? Why do we have them?”

“Don’t know and don’t know. There are plenty of theories. I have my own, but who knows which is closer to the right answer. I would like to think mine is right since I have some of the best experiences with them.”

“How do you have the best experience with them?”

“Because of my Alter, I have touched and used hundreds of abilities. So I got a good gist of them.”

“Hundreds? How many types are there of them?”

Elio scratched his head. “Types? That’s a bit tricky. I guess it depends on how you describe types. The basic types that I used are internal or external. Internal means it affects just your own body, and external is a bit self-explanatory, but it means it affects outside your body, like yours. However, that doesn’t mean one can’t turn into the other; that takes a lot of skill. A simple Alter I can do is switching the type of ability.”

Ena nods her head as she tries to understand. “Okay, but what about super strength, flying, controlling the elements, teleporting, and mind reading?”

“Oh yeah, totally all of those.”

“And what types are those?”

“I don’t know, they vary.”

“Have you used all those?”

Elio shrugs. “I think so. I forget most of the boring ones.”

Ena can’t help but smirk. “Is mine boring?”

“No, yours is fun, quite fun.”

“At least I got that going for me.”

Elio exhales and starts walking towards the apartment. “Let’s get a move on.”

Ena follows suit. “Fine, last question, what exactly is your job? A bird catcher?”

“Nope, I work for Joaw.”

“…Joaw?” Ena asked in a confused tone.

“J. O. A. W. Jack Of All Works, good name, right? I’ll do any job for any price, a reasonable price. As long as it’s not too illegal, I’ll do it.”

 “Wait.” Ena pauses. “What do you mean by ‘ too illegal’? You commit crimes for the right price?”

Elio lets out a slight chuckle. “No, of course not, but if a law or two has to be broken to finish the job, I see no problem there. Take this job, for instance, I got hired to get a bird back from a lady’s ex-husband because she got the bird in the divorce, but he snagged it when he was leaving. She tried to get it back using the law. She called the cops to search the ex’s place for the bird but, of course, they didn’t find it. Later on, he told her that he let it go just to spite her, but she could tell he was lying.”

“That’s when she hired me to find the bird. First, I checked up on the husband. He was a bad liar. I had to get a closer look inside his place. I only got a few steps inside before he pushed me back outside, but that’s all I needed to smell that bird.”

“pushed out?” Ena asks. “Did you try to break into his place already?”

“No, of course not, I simply just tried to get a better view, but he pushed me out, saying I wasn’t allowed inside his apartment,” Elio replies. “Then I spent the next few days searching for that bird. I checked all around his apartment and even around their old house, which he got in the divorce. But finally, on this peaceful morning right before I meet you, I spotted that bird flying in the direction from their old house into that parking garage.”

“Well, that’s lucky you found it.” Ena smiles.

“He must have trained the bird to hide in the old house and fly to his apartment when he calls it, right?”

Ena glances at Elio. “Uh, sure.”

 Elio continues. “The lady just wants the bird back. And since the Ex had a better lawyer, she lost almost everything in the divorce, it’s all she really has left. Now, don’t you think she deserves her bird back?”

Ena nods her head. “Well, yeah, I guess. If that bird rightfully belongs to her and he took it, that’s illegal. Plus, if he got everything else, she deserves the bird.”

Elio stops walking and smiles at Ena. “Right!”

Ena gives a cautious smile. “Right.”

He points to the building in front of them. “Anyway, we’re here.”