Democracy Manifest

“Not since the Last War has there ever been such an existential threat to the harmony between humans and fairies. We will not allow these… monsters… to destroy everything we have worked so hard to build. We will find them, and justice will be served just like revenge, cold.”

Kaito Suzuki, during the 11:00 news

At that moment, Kenta noticed someone's phone ringing. The name on the screen’s caller ID suggested that Saber Rider himself was calling. Must be Melody's phone, Kenta thought to himself as he picked it up. As he answered it, he put on his best impression of Melody's voice. He apparently thought Melody sounded like a boy pretending to be a magical girl because that was the voice he decided to use.

“Hello?”

“Where are you, dirt worshipper?” the man on the other end of the line asked rudely. This, Kenta assumed, must have been Saber Rider. “And why do you sound like a fourteen year old boy?”

“Oh, uh… I have a cold,” Kenta lied while pretending to be Melody.

“I'm out here in Shinjuku freezing the rest of my hair off waiting,” the man continued. “Where's my package?”

“Yeah, uh… There's been a bit of an incident with the trains, and uh…”

“You seem to not know me very well,” the man answered. “When I ask someone to do a job, they get it done when I say so, and if not…” A gunshot could be heard in the distance on Saber Rider's end. “I've heard the stories of the trouble you and the boy have been getting into. You think you're getting smart and trying to pull one over on me. But I got eyes everywhere. I'm giving you until Friday to get your bums over here or I'll find you myself. And you wouldn't like what would happen if I did.”

“What would happen if we don't get to Tokyo on time?”

“I heard an old legend that fairies need to be buried in flowing water so they can gain access to Fairy Heaven,” the man answered. “But setting the body on fire condemns them to Fairy Hell. Have a nice day.”

The man hung up, leaving Kenta too terrified to even speak, let alone sleep for the rest of the night.

•

February 23rd

When Kenta finally did gather up the courage to sleep, he was interrupted by the sound of someone, or perhaps a bunch of someones, busting in the front door. Over a dozen Bureau agents stormed the house looking for any and everyone inside. In just a couple of minutes, they had captured Melody, all of her siblings, and Zim. Kenta made an attempt to intervene, but the remaining agents blocked his path.

“What's going on?!” Kenta asked the wall of agents.

“By the order of Uzo Watanabe, Prime Minister of Japan, all of these fairies are to be placed under arrest and transported to the appropriate resettlement area,” one of the agents answered.

“Let go of me!” Melody shouted as she was pulled into Kenta's view. “Do you have any idea who you're dealing with here?”

“You have the right to silence,” another of the agents told her. “Anything you say can be used against you in a court of law.”

“Kenta, this is democracy manifest!” Melody told him. “What's the charge? Being a fairy? Struggling to live life as a fairy? Get your hands off my tail!”

“You have the right to an attorney…”

“Yes, Bureau HQ?” Agent Suzuki could be heard saying in the distance. “The Phantom Thief is in custody. We will be transporting her soon.”

“You'll be doing no such thing!” Melody shouted as she went to kick both of the men restraining her where Kenta could not see. Whatever she did, it was enough to send both men to the ground wincing in pain. She had just enough time to chant “Hide Me From The Eyes!!” before anyone else could attack her.

“Stop her!” Agent Suzuki screamed at the other agents. “We can't let her get away again!”

“Get the Barrier Mages on site now!” one of the other agents shouted.

“That's not going to work if she can use her high magic,” Suzuki warned. “Shimano, let's roll!”

“Yes, sir!”

Kenta took advantage of the confusion to make his own escape. There was a large window at the front of the living room that he was able to force open. Before anyone noticed, he too quietly chanted “Hide Me From The Eyes” and made his escape.

•

Miyagi Forest

Kenta tried to predict the path Melody was taking by judging which route she took out the house. He could only hope that she hadn't been captured by the agents again. Even in the depths of winter, the forests around Sendai were thick with trees, standing or otherwise. The terrain made it very difficult for someone to run through in a hurry, especially as unprepared for the cold as Kenta was. His route through the forest was stopped by someone grabbing him from behind. Whoever it was, they knew exactly when to grab him and exactly where to take him.

“Let go of me! I'm a sankyū in karate!” Kenta formed a quick little lie to make himself sound more threatening.

“Kenta, it's just me!” Melody told him. “Gods above, it's just as I feared. They're doing to the rest of my siblings what they did with Cadence.”

“Who's Cadence, and what did they do to her?”

Melody had to sit down for this one. The weight of everything happening had finally hit her. Well, slammed into her with the force of a semi would have been a more accurate turn of phrase.

“She was one of my little sisters,” Melody explained. “I was seventeen, and she was sixteen at the time. The Bureau took her away in the dead of night, and they performed horrific experiments on her. We fairies believe that all magical creatures have a connection to the Heart of the World.”

“The Heart of the World?” Kenta asked as he too sat down in the snow.

“The source of all magic in the world,” Melody continued. “We have a punishment in place that severs a fairy's connection to the Heart, but it's reserved only for the most heinous of criminals. Severing that connection is basically a death sentence for a fairy.”

“So that's what happened to Cadence?”

“That's what I think happened to Cadence,” Melody corrected him. “I tried to rescue her, but it was too late. She was already gone by the time I got to her. If the humans have figured that out…” Melody shuddered at the mere thought of what could happen if she finished that line of thought.

“But if this has happened before, that means you know where they're taking the others,” Kenta realized. “That means we can rescue them!”

“Don't bother…” Melody sighed. “We can't reach them in time. We would need a really fast plane in order to -”

“Did someone say plane?” a girl behind them asked.

Melody and Kenta turned around to see Pinkie had found them.

“Pinkie…” Melody began to cry at the sight of her girlfriend, standing above her like a wingless angel. The lights of the helicopters flying above them occasionally shined over her, making her Fairy skin sparkle in the snowy weather. “I could kiss you right now.”

“They say a wingless Fairy is bad luck,” Pinkie told them. “So I decided to make my own luck, and build my own wings. Wanna come see?”