Wish-Granting Machine | Short-Short

Inspired by Shinichi Hoshi,
I tried writing a short-short story✍️

One day, the world-renowned inventor, Dr. M, announced a machine that could grant exactly one wish.
He called it the "Wish-Granting Machine."
The instructions were simple.


Speak just one wish into the machine.
No matter what the wish was,
the machine would realize it perfectly.
However, it came with conditions: "only once in a lifetime" and "there is no turning back."
The world went into an uproar.
The wealthy paid huge sums to get in line,


and nations plotted to use the machine as a diplomatic card.
People spoke their wishes.
But they did not know.


It wasn't that "the machine grants the wish," but rather that "the machine grants the wish as it defines it."

At some point, strange things began to happen.
A person who wished to "obtain the world's greatest beauty"
became a model but was chased by paparazzi
and suffered a nervous breakdown.
A man who wished for "immortality"
ended up all alone in a ruined world.
A president who wished for "peace for all mankind"
ended up watching a planet where all of humanity had become mute
to avoid human conflict.


And so, the people who realized this confronted the doctor.
Is this a trap?


Dr. M shook his head quietly.
No. It is just that there were many people who did not know their "true wishes."
……That is precisely why wishes had to be chosen with care.

This machine does not grant your wish exactly as you say it.
Because it "interprets" your words, defines them, and then grants them.


――You have no choice but to find your "wish" yourself,
not through the machine.

The doctor shook his fluffy tail
and flew off into the sky,
leaving only the Wish-Granting Machine behind in silence.