Hime reached out, her tiny fingers hovering just inches away from the shimmering chocolate butterfly. She looked up at Agung, her crimson eyes—so much like Maki's—filled with a mixture of suspicion and growing wonder.
"Are you a magician, mister?" she asked, her voice hushed as if speaking too loudly might make the magic vanish.
Agung gave her a warm, steady nod, his heart aching at the "mister" but determined to earn his place. "Yeah, Hime-chan. I'm a magician who can make anything with just a thought. Whatever you can imagine, I can pull it out of the air."
He leaned in a little closer, his voice dropping to a gentle, conspiratorial whisper.
"So... that 'papa' of yours... he missed two of your birthdays, right? How about this? Since I'm a magician who's staying, I want to make up for those missing gifts. Tell me, Hime-chan... what did you wish for that never came?"
Hime looked down at her pajama-clad feet, then back at Agung. She held up two small fingers. "He missed two. Last year, and the year before."
The kitchen was pin-drop silent. Maki stood just behind her daughter, her hand trembling slightly against her apron. The "Auntie Squad" had stopped laughing; even Nico looked uncharacteristically somber.
Hime bit her lip, thinking hard. "Last year... I wanted a piano. A real one, not the toy one in the playroom. Mama said we didn't have space for a big one in the apartment."
Agung smiled, a genuine, "Panda" grin. "A piano? For the daughter of the great Maki Nishikino? That's not a gift, Hime-chan, that's a necessity."
He snapped his fingers—not a loud clap, just a soft *click*.
The air in the corner of the dining hall rippled like water. In a flash of soft, golden light, a sleek, white *baby grand piano* materialized. It was perfectly sized for a child but built with the craftsmanship of a masterpiece, the keys polished to a brilliant shine.
Hime's jaw dropped. Maki gasped, covering her mouth with both hands.
"And for the year before that?" Agung asked softly, ignoring the stunned gasps from the other girls.
Hime stared at the piano, then back at the "magician." A small, hopeful light began to dance in her eyes. "The year before... I wanted a bouquet of flowers that never dies. Because Mama gets sad when the flowers in the vase turn brown."
Agung's expression softened. He reached into the air, his hand seemingly disappearing into a fold of light, and pulled out a single, eternal **Crystal Rose**. It glowed with a faint, warm pink light, its petals as soft as silk but shimmering with a magical permanence
.
"Here," Agung said, handing her the rose. "This one will stay bright forever, just like your Mama's music. And the piano is yours to play whenever you want."
Hime took the rose, her eyes welling up. She looked at the piano, then at the glowing flower, and finally at Agung.
"Mister..." she whispered, before corrected herself, her voice a bit more certain. "Magician-papa... thank you."
Maki let out a sob she'd been holding back for three years, leaning her head against the doorframe. Agung looked up at her and gave a small, weary nod. He was a street sweeper from Pekalongan, and he had fourteen of these encounters to go—but for the first time since he arrived at the Kanda Shrine, he felt like he wasn't just a "glitch." He was the man who was going to fix the world, one birthday at a time.