Whispers in the Wind

“We are living in a period of immeasurable uncertainty, which tends to accelerate towards horrendous upheaval and tremendous social change, leading eventually, as I hope, to the unity of humankind and fairykind.”

Emperor Masato, twelve days ago

Kenta Kimura found himself in another dream. Standing in the middle of the Ishikari Plain, amidst a seemingly endless rice field, Kenta took a deep breath. He was at peace. The crisp summer wind blew through his long hair. Even in his dreams, the air had never felt so fresh before. The warmth caressed his face.

“Kenta…”

He ignored the voice calling out to him. Nothing, absolutely nothing at all, not even that voice, was going to ruin this moment for him.

“Kenta…”

Still no response from Kenta. He was enjoying the summer breeze too much.

“The tree, Kenta! There, you will find me…”

Suddenly, he was transported to the base of Mount Fuji. The warm summer breeze had been replaced by a brisk winter chill. Standing in front of him at a distance of fifty meters was an immense cedar tree. Stripped of all its needles, the crown of the tree carved a thin, spindly silhouette into the sky. At the base of the tree, the bark had already begun peeling away in hundreds of places, with each opening oozing out a thick, black sludge.

“Find me…”

Without even a moment to think about it, Kenta began tearing away at the bark of the tree. The voice grew louder, more desperate, but it was futile. No matter how much of the tree Kenta tore away, no matter how much sludge he splashed around, he was unable to find the source of the voice. The sludge even began to stick to him, as if the tree (or what was left of it) began to consume him as well.

Eventually, the voice stopped, but Kenta continued to search for where the voice came from. The more he struggled against the sludge, the more the sludge consumed him. In a matter of minutes, he was now the one struggling and gasping for air as the sludge pulled him into the tree.

Approaching Asahikawa, Hokkaido

The next time Kenta awoke, he was already on a train headed south. Melody was with him, making sure he didn't accidentally hurt himself on their way to Sapporo.

“Ugh… how long have I been out?” Kenta asked her.

“About four hours,” Melody answered. “We'll have to switch lines once we get to Asahikawa, but other than that, it's smooth sailing from here to Sapporo.”

“Everything hurts…” Kenta said.

“I hope not,” Melody replied. “Every injury you sustain on the way to Tokyo means I get paid less. That being said, that was some impressive high magic you pulled off back in Wakkanai.”

“High magic?” Kenta asked. “I know high magic?”

“You know a high magic,” Melody corrected him. “Everyone learns exactly one high magic spell in their lifetime. You just so happened to luck into one of the strongest ones I've ever seen.”

“Why are you doing this?” Kenta asked her, trying to withstand the pain. “The whole kidnapping thing… And don't say you don't care about the details. Someone hired you to do this. Who was it?”

Melody pondered for some time as to whether or not to answer. After a while, she relented. “Some guy with the codename Saber Rider. He seems to think you possess some powerful hidden magic that he needs. He didn't say what for, but he sounded like some important government guy. Unfortunately, that's all I know.”

“Do… Do you trust him?” Kenta asked.

“I have to trust him,” Melody replied. “I have no other choice. He's paying me a lot of money to bring you to him.”

“You always have a choice,” Kenta told her. “You chose to kidnap me. I chose to leave the house this morning. Those agents chose to come after you.”

“You don't always have a choice,” Melody replied. “My people didn't choose to be treated like second-class citizens, forced to hide ourselves from the prying eyes of human society. The Prime Ministers and the Emperor speak of a new era of peace, but for many of us, it's like the war never ended.”

"War?" Kenta asked. "What war?"

"There was a war, and we lost," Melody explained plainly. "And to the losers go the spoils: pain, frustration, and disrespect."

“Is that why you became a thief?” Kenta asked as he sat up in his seat. The pain had already begun to subside for him. “Are you getting back at society for treating your people badly?”

“It's me doing what I can to take care of my family and my partner,” Melody answered. “Me following the rules isn't enough to put food on the table.”

Kenta understood well what was happening. He'd prefer that it wasn't happening to him, but he silently nodded in reply. Before he could ask any more questions, though, a voice called out over the train's intercom: “Next stop, Asahikawa Station. Arriving in one minute.”

Two men then entered their train car, asking passengers for their tickets. As was the custom, tickets were checked at each stop, and each train had two people assigned to check for the validity of the tickets, marking them if they were valid. For a limited express train such as this one, two tickets were required per passenger, one for the actual train ride, and one for the express train surcharge. Melody and Kenta, however, were stowaways. They had no tickets to speak of.

“Damn it!” Melody said to herself. “I forgot about the ticket checkers.”

“You mean you forgot to pay for our tickets?” Kenta asked.

“The thought may or may not have crossed my mind,” Melody admitted.

“You had this grand plan to kidnap me and it didn't involve buying our train tickets?”

“Do I look like I can afford train tickets in this economy?!” Melody whispered.

“Wait, let me try that high magic thing again!” Kenta said.

“Not going to work,” Melody admitted. “You can only use your high magic ability once a day.”

“Good to know.”

The men at last made it to their row. Nobody was seated all the way in the back row of the last train car. People rarely sat back here unless they absolutely had to. Seeing as there were no tickets to mark or troublemakers to discipline, the men began to make their way back to the front of the train. Melody and Kenta were safe for now, but where were they?

As soon as the coast was clear, both Melody and Kenta took a big gasp for air.

“Got any more brilliant ideas, Sherlock?” Kenta asked Melody.

“Let's just get on the next train before anyone sees us…”

“It's not too late to take me back to Wakkanai,” Kenta smirked.