Freedom From Our Chains?

And so it came to pass here,

That two parties had met here.

Their goal? To establish here

A law that bound living here.

Laridel's Lament, stanza 57

Wakkanai Station was in clear view, but the entrance was blocked by a dozen police cars. They were waiting for her.

“This sucks,” Melody said to herself. “How did they know?”

“Look, Melody,” Kenta started pleading. “I don't know what you want with me, but please don't perform experiments on me!”

“Why the - ?! Why would I do that?” Melody asked him.

“I've heard stories of children being snatched off the streets,” Kenta explained. “The stories tell of children being taken to labs so that they can be experimented on. Horrific experiments that get the children killed.”

“You seem to be getting your species mixed up, kid,” Melody corrected him. “You humans have been doing that to fairy children.”

“So, why are you doing this?” Kenta asked.

Having to take some time to think about the answer, Melody answered, “Family, freedom from our chains. Life isn't easy for fairykind. My boss seems to think you're very important, but I never really cared about the details.”

Melody soon realized she and Kenta were surrounded. This time, two Bell 206 helicopters approached the duo from behind them. From one of the helicopters, a man shouted at Melody, “Well, it looks like the cat finally dragged herself out of hiding!”

“Good one, sir,” another man said from inside the helicopter.

Melody turned around to see Agent Suzuki and his assistant were inside the helicopter.

“Thanks, I've been waiting to say that all month,” Agent Suzuki told his assistant.

“Suzuki!” Melody shouted. “Why can't you government cronies leave me alone?!”

“You're the fourth most wanted criminal in Japan,” Suzuki explained. “You're the only one in the top 10 to be wanted by both the human government and the Fairy government. And, not to mention, each crime you commit only makes this harder for you.”

“So, I'm a petty thief, so what?” Melody replied. “Awful lot of effort to go after just one petty thief.”

"How does a common thief end up as one of the top five criminals in all of Japan?" Kenta asked her, still stretched across Melody's shoulder.

"I may... have stolen the moon,” Melody lied to him.

"You stole the moon.” Kenta wasn't sure whether to believe her or not.

"Yup."

"How the fluff do you steal the entire moon?" Kenta asked. His tone wavered from confused to genuinely curious to not dealing with this.

"With magic, obviously,” Melody explained. “Have you forgotten nearly every living thing on this planet is capable of performing magic?” Realizing this wasn't working, Melody corrected herself. “Nah, I stole the Sacred Regalia, loads and loads of jewels, the mascot costumes for two of Puro Yakyuu's most successful teams, the key to the city of Tokyo, and I may have kissed a princess by mistake."

"How do you kiss a princess by mistake?" Kenta asked, now more confused than anything.

"I was aiming for the Prince, but she just happened to be in the way,” Melody replied. “Sweeter than honey, if I do say so myself.”

“If the two of you are done,” Suzuki told them. “I promised the Prime Ministers that I would bring the catgirl in personally. They gave me the full blessing and resources of both governments. Dead or alive, it doesn't matter. What matters is you can either come along quietly or we can fight. Your choice.”

Melody realized in a flash what Suzuki was implying there.

“Are you challenging me to a duel?” Melody asked.

Inside the helicopter, Shimano tried to talk his superior out of accepting the challenge. “Sir, I'd advise against -”

“Of course!” Suzuki accepted the challenge without even a second thought.

“Sir, please!”

“I even got a bigger and better wand,” Suzuki taunted Melody. “You'll be the first to see it in action.”

•

Melody, Kenta, Suzuki, and Shimano made their way to the beach, some distance away from people. Duels were considered the honorable (but still dangerous) method of dealing with disagreements and arguments such as this.

“I'll have you know,” Suzuki explained, “I was the top rated duelist at Osaka East High. I am not to be toyed with, Miss Melody.”

“Funny how you mention your performance in high school,” Melody replied. “Did you develop magical dysfunction in college?”

“No wonder you became a thief,” Suzuki teased her. “You wouldn't have made it in stand-up comedy.”

Agent Suzuki readied his new wand, a fresh military-issue Oliveira 2000, a 10 1⁄2-inch wand made, as the name implied, by olive branch wood, with a special scope attached to help the wielder aim their spells at opponents.

“I assume you've been taught how to duel?” the agent asked Melody, assuming criminals like her had no desire to follow any rules. He also assumed (correctly this time) that a boy like Kenta had not yet been taught how to duel.

“My people invented dueling,” Melody replied before getting into a defensive stance. As a fairy, Melody had no use for such things as wands. “Of course, I know the rules. First, we bow to our opponent, as we would at a shrine.” She and her opponent bowed to each other. “This is our way to show respect to each other and to the kami.”

“Then, we must abide by the ten-meter rule,” Suzuki added. “We walk away from each other until we are ten meters apart. This gives our opponent enough time to plan out their attacks.”

Once they were ten meters apart, they turned to face each other.

“We each have one free spell to shoot out our opponent,” Melody explained. “A display of fairness passed down through the centuries. Zap It To You, Mate!!” Melody shot a bolt of electricity from her right hand, straight to her opponent. Agent Suzuki carefully positioned his wand to block the lighting. As it was made out of wood, the wand resisted the lightning, keeping him safe.

“Looks like wands aren't so lame, after all,” Suzuki sneered. As soon as Melody realized her spell was useless and ended her spell, Suzuki replied with his own spell, “Ruptured Space Typhoon!!”

A hideous blast of wind roared towards Melody, exploding on contact and sending her flying for tens of meters. Upon landing in the water, she laughed. Melody was enjoying the duel. “Now that all those blasted formalities are out of the way, now comes the fun part. The free-for-all. As long as it doesn't maim, torture, or kill our opponent, it's a fair game spell. Zap until one person gets knocked out.”

Continuing her laughing fit, Melody stood up. Getting wet didn't even faze this cat. It probably didn't even register in her mind that she was now standing in calf-deep water. The thrill of the fight was all she thought about. Her eyes widened, and a creepy smile crept across her face.

“Oh, you have no idea how long I've waited for this…”