The Way Out is There

“By the order of the human Prime Minister, all fairies in the city of Sendai are to be placed under arrest and resettled to areas deemed safe by the National Security Bureau.”

Security Bulletin 230226-01

Tokyo

“Are you sure this is the right way to go about this?” Shimano asked as he, Suzuki, and several other agents scurried about the Security Bureau’s headquarters.

“Over two hundred people were just killed in an incident involving the shinkansen, the first ever in the long history of the system,” Suzuki explained. “It just so happens that some freak magical anomaly caused the incident? This has fairies written all over it.”

“How can you be so sure?” Shimano asked. “Humans and fairies have been at peace for over a hundred years. What would suddenly cause that peace to fall apart?”

“The hell if I know, Shimano. All I know is that catgirl was on that train, and now she's gone missing. Get the Bell ready. We're going hunting.”

“Hunting where?”

“Nearest city to the site of the incident,” Suzuki replied. “That would be Sendai.”

“Yes, sir.”

•

Sendai, Miyagi

It took two and a half hours of walking for Kenta and Melody, but they had finally arrived in the city of Sendai. The National Security Bureau was none the wiser.

“We're home…” Melody said as they entered the city. “We're finally home.”

“Home?” Kenta asked.

“Home. My whole family lives here,” Melody explained. “There's a house here, somewhere… at the edge of the forest that we've been staying at.”

A couple more minutes of scouting the edge of the forest, and Melody found the house she was looking for. It didn't look much different than any of the other homes in this neighborhood except for what was painted on the door. Fairy wings. This was an indication to her that this was a safe place for her and her family.

Melody made her presence known with a gentle knock on the door. Answering the door was a girl about Melody's age. She sported bright bubblegum pink hair and wore a mock flight uniform, indicating she may have been some sort of wannabe pilot.

“Melo?” the girl asked. “Melo, is that really you?”

“It's me, babe. The one and only.”

The two girls ran towards each other giggling like they hadn't seen each other in a long time. It took no time for them to be folded into an embrace, even sharing a couple of kisses in the meantime.

“Melo, it's been way too long,” the other girl sighed. “Hey, did you hear about that train accident earlier?”

“Hear about it? Pinkie, I was in that accident. Not fun.”

“They're already blaming the fairies for it,” Pinkie explained. “Something about an assassination attempt and a splinter cell. Please tell me you aren't getting yourself involved in that kind of nonsense.”

Melody cupped her hands around Pinkie's face. “No, no… Sweetie, I would never. You and I both know I've never been one for politics.”

“Just making sure,” Pinkie replied. “You don't really say much about all the odd jobs you gotta do, and… Dad's been worried about you.”

“Zim's always worried about what I'm up to,” Melody replied back. “That's just how oni are. So how's the little hooligans? I'm sure they've been worried sick about me, too.”

“We were just about to put them to bed when,” Pinkie began to answer when she noticed Kenta standing behind Melody. “Who's the boy?”

“Oh, this is Kenta,” Melody answered. “The latest odd job I have to do is bring him to Tokyo. Pretty simple stuff.”

•

“Hey, everyone!” Pinkie shouted as the three of them entered the house. “Melody's home!”

Five little cat-kids of various ages ran down the main hallway to greet them. Shouts of “Melo!”, “Melody!”, and “Dee-Dee!” filled the house. All of the kids lined up one-by-one to say hello to Melody. Three of the kids: sixteen year old Harmony, thirteen year old Rhythm, and twelve year old Blues had grayish-blue hair just like Melody. Eleven year old Timbre had black hair with a strip of white hair along both his head and his tail. Nine year old Coda had tabby-colored hair. Of the kids, only Harmony had a bell and ribbon wrapped around her tail.

Each one of the kids wanted to show off something they did or something that happened to them while Melody was gone. Harmony had just turned sixteen, so she learned how to perform the ribbon ritual online. Rhythm and Blues showered Melody with all the artwork they made. Timbre stood up to a bully at school, much to Zim's chagrin. Coda finally lost his first tooth.

After their little reunion, everyone went back to bed. Several of the cat-kids offered their beds to Kenta (especially Rhythm), but Kenta resigned himself to sleeping on the couch. When Melody asked him why, Kenta's answer was simple: “This isn't the first time I've had to sleep on a couch. It probably won't be the last either.”

•

Kenta awoke to the sound of broken glass. His first instinct was to inspect the windows, but he was interrupted by the sound of Melody shouting. She and Zim were arguing in the kitchen.

“You did WHAT?!”

“Keep quiet, Melody,” Zim told her. “You'll wake the kids up.”

“Why would you do something like this?”

“The government named you as the prime suspect of that train disaster,” Zim explained. “I've helped you with all of your odd jobs and random missions as much as I could -”

“You can't seriously think I have the kind of magic necessary to create a disaster like that!”

“It doesn't matter if you do or not. What matters is you're giving us fairies a bad name.”

“Zim… Like you're giving fairies a good name?”

“I'm the vice-president of the V Corporation,” Zim replied. “A respectable company -”

“You're a token, an object the humans parade around to show each other how progressive they are. Deep down, they're still afraid of you and all your horns everywhere, looking like the Devil from their Bible.”

“So destroying a shinkansen train is supposed to make people less afraid of us?”

“I didn't… Don't tell me you believe what the news is saying.”

“What am I supposed to believe? You, who keeps going on secretive missions to steal things from the humans and can't even tell me who you're working for? Or the people who are giving me some idea of what I don't know? Melody, you can't even tell me who this Saber Rider guy is!”

“That's because I don't know who he is! I don't know what he wants with Kenta!”

“I'll tell you what people like him want with people like Kenta,” Zim answered. “He's obviously some Yakuza crime lord looking for powerful magic users to recruit into his army. He probably got you into this train nonsense.”

“You're not even worth arguing with…” Melody finally said. “Just tell me how you really feel.”

Neither of them said anything for some time. After taking the moment to gather his words, Zim at last gave his answer. “You're becoming a bad influence on my daughter. I can't have someone like you around putting me, my daughter, your own siblings even, in danger. You still haven't told them what happened to Cadence.”

“And I won't,” Melody replied. “They would hate me forever if they thought I was responsible for Cadence dying.”

“I'm not saying you were,” Zim told her, “but if you were actually here for your siblings instead of galavanting around Japan doing temp work for this mob boss and odd jobs for that slimy politician, she wouldn't have been snatched up by the Bureau. She would still be here.”

Melody said nothing.

“I'll let you stay the night,” Zim continued, “but in the morning, you and the boy are leaving this house. You are not allowed to come back until you straighten up, maybe get a real job, maybe go to college. I hear the national prison system pays for young offenders to go into rehab and school. No more of this crime business.”

Melody still said nothing, opting instead to slip out of the kitchen and into bed, defeated.