I fly towards the city in a puppet best described as a clone, landing a bit away from the crowded parts of the city center. As I do, I mask myself with [Mind Magic: Misdirection]. I switch to my main body, currently in the ‘angel’ form, an androgynous form which is as scientifically good-looking as I could make it, given Google-fu and a lot of looking at myself in the mirror.

I double check that my three bags are whole and their contents are still there, then start walking towards the same place I stood the first time I tried to sell stuff. Well, I did sell some things. A few bags, that is. But this time I have done a lot more planning, and also have the benefit of hindsight. And I have more… generally useful things to sell.

The side-street is small enough that my mana bubble can cover it comfortably, but once I get more into the open, those even a meter beyond my bubble can easily see me without the filter of magic. I got [Mana Manipulation: Mana Sphere Control] yesterday, but I’m not that good with it yet.

It’ll probably be fine with this many people around though. I mean, it would be even if I walked without masking myself, I’m only doing that for mystique or something like that. It’ll be more magical this way. Yeah, let’s go with that. Not that I need to make excuses for myself. I take a spot off to the side, ten or so meters away from where I stood the last time, then put down my bag.

First, the goods bag. It can stay here, since I’m not gonna use it just yet. Same for the smaller bag containing the lists of goods (both in paper and wooden tablet format) and a couple miscellaneous things. I’ll just summon the little bugs to see how this looks from the outside, and then it’s time to unveil the big one.

I tone down the masking to a level where people will still notice me, but not pay that much attention. Or, that’s the plan. With this form, the toga-robe-thing I’m wearing, and the fact that I am magically assembling a magical construct, I probably won’t get quite the same results as while I was out testing [Mind Magic: Misdirection], both with masking and ‘highlighting’, the opposite.

I mostly walked around as a baseline human, but to test the extreme limits I went… extreme. Specifically, a stereotypical female centaur with bright pink blanket over the lower body and wearing a nice green top and a homemade aluminum foil hat. It went… rather well. In fact, it was somewhat disturbing how people walked around me without batting an eyelash, while beyond the mana bubble there were people staring and/or pointing.

That test was… exciting. In the ‘terrifying’ sense, not arousing. Turns out I’m not into that. Or maybe I’m doin’ it wrong. Anyway, with the four corners of the construct set up, I completely drop the masking. Suddenly people pay a lot more attention to me, as well as my six faerie puppets, one of which gets a bit too close and I instinctively swat it away.

Ah, controlling this many bodies and several strands of magic is hard. I’m glad I practiced, the first time I summoned all six was a mess. Well, I might as well roll with ‘the faeries are annoying bugs’ since I’m putting on a play anyway. I connect the control unit to the centerpiece of my little project and, stepping out of the rough rectangle, manually send mana into it.

“Hm, looks fine.” I say the singsong neither-this-nor-that voice, both familiar and foreign at the same time. Magic bro, doesth thou speaketh it?

To ensure that it does in fact work, I grab the nearest faerie(making the others scatter), shake it, then throw the now disoriented puppet into the rectangle, which it floats through magnificently… only to promptly flop down on the grassy ground beneath when it leaves the counter-gravity zone.

“Perfect.” I say, hooking up the mana crystals I prepared in place of constantly supplying mana.

I then stand up with a smiling, satisfied pose. With a swirl of air and dazzle of lights, I turn around, spreading my arms. “Terra Arcana.”

“Magical goods and services. We are now open for business.” My voice is magically enhanced (and slightly enchanted), but no louder than if I was talking to someone across a room.

With that I turn around, grab one of the wooden tablets from the bag (this one with the wand prices) and get to work tuning the counter-gravity field for roughly moonlike gravity. It’s not that difficult, just turning on and off a number of switches.

Each switch is connected to its own mana crystal, so more switches turned on means more force to counter gravity. The crystals have slightly different outputs of mana, and the level change as the use their stored energy, so I have to calibrate each time it is used.

Now hopefully someone takes the bait and asks what I’m doing, though I don’t really expect that. I have a plan B, but it kinda depends on the authorities not catching on too quickly. No takers? Well, the moon-gravity simulator field (let’s call it MoGS) is ready and tuned, so time for plan B.

I turn around again, this time with no flourish, to ‘find’ that two of the faeries are getting very close to a young girl in the audience. She’s giggling, and her presumed parent does not seem afraid of the faeries harming her little girl. No longer concentrating on the field I direct three more faeries to the little girl, who then seem a bit overwhelmed.

So I take a step forwards and cause a gentle gust to blow the faeries away from her. Except one which holds on to her hair. “Now, don’t scare the dear girl.”

I look at her for a moment, as if thinking. “Tell you what, I wanted to show off my little invention here anyway. It makes you floaty, as if you were on the moon with low gravity. Would you like to try?”

She looks to her mother, and I follow her eyes. “Will that be fine? You will be there with her.”

“Is that safe?”

“It’s no more dangerous than falling over or jumping and falling.”

The woman steps closer with her child, so I lead her to the MoGS. “You can stand outside the field and hold your daughter’s-” No complaints? I was right, then. “-hand. And you can just enter the field.”

They do as instructed, and the girl stumbles, eyes going wide as she enters the zone. “Now try to jump, not too high.”

After a short test bounce she instantly kicks off hard. “Weeee-oh!” But while holding hands she doesn’t get far, and instead twists from inertia. Her mother reacts quickly, though, and turns her back the right way up.

I then have the girl try to walk, and when I think she got it down I tell them she can probably try it without holding hands. The girl promptly does a far too tall and long jump, and I magically suspend her in the air when she exits the field. “Please be careful. You must stay within the field.”

I let her play around a bit more and after being reprimanded by a relative stranger she is a lot more careful. I also have the mother enter. She has a similar reaction to her daughter, but looks a lot more silly as she tries to figure out how to move in the unfamiliar environment. To end it off the girl lifts her mother, proudly announcing that she’s “stronger than dad!”

From there I let various people try the MoGS, while also advertising my other wares, some of which I also give demos of. A big favorite is the ‘Mind-bond Stone’, a smooth, enchanted stone (with an inlaid mana crystal) which essentially forms a mind bond between those who touches it. I should have made more of those, since my stock of ten is empty within an hour.

I also get a few more sales of bags, most of which buying the pre-made ones. These have colors and a bit more modern design than the ‘mk1’ bags, so they don’t look out of place in a locker room or something. Just a bit different. There’s a lot of interest in the flying stuff, but no one seems to dare take the next step. Shapeshifting is even less interesting, apparently.

“Excuse me.”

I turn around, finding four late-teen girls. “Yes?”

“Uhm, how does the cat ears look?”

I glance at the tablet they’re gathered around. “For shapeshifting? That depends. What do you want? Simple black cat ears? Tabby ears? Maybe those of a panther or jaguar?”

They look at each other. “Now you have to.” “Tabby ears!”

“But… uuuuh! You have to, too!”

“Uh, yeah.” “Only if you go first!”

She turns to me. “Do the ears go like-” she put her hands on her head and do a little motion, then looks at me as if I can read her thoughts.

“If you can move them? That would be a minor functional shapeshift. Here, let me show you.”

Given white skin and blonde hair I should probably make ears like Leon, a neighbouring cat who is (acts as) the undoubted king of the apartment complex. I form an oversized set of Leon-ears on top of my head, bending down for the girls to see them properly as I wiggle them slightly.

“Aww, that’s cute. Hey, you should buy them already.” “Yeah, c’mon!”

Yeah, c’mon! It’d be great if I can get some products out there, and the best advertisement is satisfied word of mouth. It seems the threshold is too high. Let’s help them out. “It appears to me-”

“Can I touch them?”

I freeze, then as my thoughts catch up, twitch the right ear. “Pardon?”

“Can I… touch them?”

“But-” That’s- no harm done, isn’t it? “All right.”

She reaches out with a careful, hesitant hand before gentle rubbing the tip of the ear. This is… I don’t… I just! Ah, just deal with it! So embarrassing. The other girls giggle, probably at my discomfort, and when one reaches out I give them a glare. “Not you.”

I clear my throat and stand up straight, reverting the ears. “Ahem. I suppose I should mention that reverting changes is free of charge, should you change your opinion, and you will get to try the change before you decide to pay the full price.”

“See, worst case scenario you just change back!”

“Yeah, so why don’t you buy it?”

“How about this, then:” I start, getting more than a little annoyed at them. “If you all buy together you get twenty-five percent off.”

“Yeah, that’s a good idea! I’m in if you’re in.”

“Only if she’s in.” “Yeah, but what if you change your mind after I’m done?”

Aargh! Fuck it. Time for a trump card. “Then, to make it easier and as a sign of goodwill to the first customer of the service, whoever goes first gets it for free.”

I’ll give them just a moment to parse that, and then…

“I’ll do it!” “Me!” “Me first!” “I wan- awww…”

And so, in the end, the first customer (does she count as such if she gets it for free?) becomes the one which was pushed by all the other girls. Call it karma or someting. “All right, think about how you want it to look, and whether you want to be able to move them or not.”

While they do that I grab four of the papers I’ve prepared, each with a pen and also a tablet to put the paper on when writing. I fill in the dates, then hand them off to the girls to fill in the rest.

Shapeshifting Name: Age: Date: 29/7 - 17 Email: Phone:

Sign:

☐ The above information is my own, and I can be contacted with the details given above. In addition I agree that Terra Arcana and its employees will have no responsibility for the shapeshift beyond performing the change itself, and that I know I can have it reverted free of charge. (Filled by Terra Arcana)Product:

“Why do we need to write our age?”

“Legal reasons. If you’re under the medical legal age of sixteen you need permission from a guardian, and for some changes you need to be eighteen.”

Finding my answer satisfying, she quickly finishes the form (I mean, I made it intentionally short). The others return their forms shortly afterwards, and I go over the changes they chose.

“Uhh, I want movable cat ears.”

“Just to be clear: You want ears on top of your head in addition to your human ears? The ears on top won’t have any hearing, but will have a sense of touch.”

“You can change the normal ones?”

I smile and put my hands to my ears, and when I remove them a second later they’ve turned into large, furred, triangular ears with a slight droop and tuft of hair at the tips.

“Okay. No, I want normal cat ears. Uh, on the top, I mean.”

“And the looks?”

“Cute and black.”

‘Cute’ is not really helpful… But black ears on blonde hair? Well, the contrast should work fine. Well, I assumed people would have less than useful descriptions, which is why I prepared a special Mind-Bond Stone. It’s special in that it does not have internal mana-storage and gathering, or even the spell itself. Also, it’s made of wood, not stone. It’s a glorified stick, really.

“Hold the other end of this, and imagine clearly how you want it to look. Try to ‘project’ the image into the stick.”

The mind-bond stones work fine, but with me being the caster I can get much more control and clarity, the stone only really gives vague concepts, images and ideas. That makes it a lot safer to sell, since it’s weak and vague, but not ideal for this. As for why I even need the stick… I don’t, I just figured not all people like physical contact, and it is enchanted to make the spell easier.

With a clear idea of what the (free) customer want, I move on to the next, and knowing how it works, the next two girls quickly show me their wishes. Well, that and some things I assume was unintentional and pretend never happened. The fourth girl has a simple question. “Can I have dog ears instead?”

I nod. “Yep. Cat ears, dog ears, jaguar ears, wolf ears, fox ears, bunny ears and probably some I can’t think of.”

She nods and reaches out to grab the stick I’m holding out, instantly showing me a picture of… me. My current form, but with the ears of a golden retriever, a matching tail and a collar. In a ‘paw’ pose. This is exactly why I made sure the mind-bond stones kinda suck. People have no mental control.

As I write down ‘kemonomimi - golden retriever’, one of the others change her mind. And then the first girl seems to follow suit, before deciding to stick to her first choice. When they’ve finally all decided, I explain how things will go from here. First I will perform the changes, which they can get a feel for it and decide to keep the change or not. To prevent abuse, that will cost ten percent of the full price. After purchase reverting is free, of course.

After that I finally do the actual changes and get the payment. I stand around for a while longer, answering questions about the suddenly a lot more interesting shapeshifting service, shapeshift myself a pair of pretty big angel wings for demonstration, and all around do the whole salesperson shtick.

At some point I start running out of goods to sell (hurray!), have several people signed on for this or that, (yay!) and am getting pretty tired (ugh). While a lot more successful than last time, I have other things to do, and to a surprising amount of dismay, I begin packing up, starting with the MoGS.

I head home to drop of my stuff and make something to eat, before meeting up with my flight student for the second session. We decide to take the last session, the one where he actually learns to fly, next week. The next shapeshifting group meeting is next week, too, as is the interview with the Magic Mic. That… sounds a lot more busy than it really is. Probably.