Crisis in Sendai

“Never trust a catgirl. Logic immediately gets thrown out the window once you meet a girl with golden eyes and cat ears.”

Leslie Jenkins, 2001

Tokyo

It was just another day at the office for Prime Minister Uzo Watanabe, the human half of the Prime Minister duo representing Japan. He was on his way to his personal office when he discovered his office door was locked. Finding this odd, but making nothing of it, the Prime Minister simply reached for the office key he always carried on his person. It didn't work. Now in a state of panic, the Prime Minister tried to bust down the door, but to no avail.

A staffer spotted him trying to break down the door and said, “Sir, we need to get out of here. There is a special emergency.”

“Of course, there is,” the Prime Minister replied. “Someone's changed the locks on my office door, and I can't get inside. I have important confidential information in there that I need for my meeting with the Minister of Defense in twenty-five minutes.”

“I would listen to your staff, sir,” another man said as he walked up to the Prime Minister. This was Masahiro Ito, MP for the 1st District of Tokyo in the House of Representatives, and the Minister of Defense, the man Watanabe was supposed to meet with later. “We don't have much time. There has been a threat reported against the Diet. This is on top of the shinkansen incident and now a large explosion has been reported in Sendai. We must act quickly!”

“Well, if you insist, then yes, we should evacuate as soon as possible,” the Prime Minister admitted. In no time, he was escorted away by the two men.

•

Miyagi Forest 

Shimano had had enough of his superior’s shenanigans. The man he had once respected had just willingly thrown innocent lives in danger, and for what? Some petty grudge? He didn't care if Suzuki was his superior, or that he was practically blind. Shimano was pummeling his treacherous bum into the snow. Not even the intense flames rising above them could prevent Shimano from trying to knock some sense into Suzuki.

“You maniac!” Shimano screamed. With each punch came a few more words. “What is your problem?! Do you have any idea how many people you could have killed?”

Suzuki was not fighting back. “Do you have any idea how many people the fairies have already killed? We need to stop them no matter the cost. We are at war, Shimano.”

Shimano realized his superior was too far gone. Some sort of madness had completely taken over Suzuki.

As he let go of Suzuki's uniform, Shimano said, “I will not have any part in this war. I quit.”

He walked away.

Suzuki shouted, “You won't be able to make it out there without someone watching your back! It's war, I tell you!”

Sendai, Miyagi 

Melody, Pinkie, and Kenta stared in horror as the flames encroached upon the edge of the city. If something was not done soon, the entire city could have been at risk of getting swept up by the ensuing firestorm. Pinkie was the first to come up with an idea: classic aerial firefighting tactics.

“Kenta, do you happen to know any weather magic?” she asked him.

“Only a little,” Kenta answered. “I've only just started my magical studies.”

“That's gonna have to be good enough,” Pinkie admitted. “We'll need to create a perimeter around the fire and starve it of fuel.”

Melody was about to interject with some comment about the area being full of snow. However, she stopped herself at the realization that the snow was doing nothing to stop the fire.

“Perhaps I could be of some assistance, Pinkie?” Zim asked as he walked up behind the trio.

“Dad!” Pinkie shouted upon hearing his voice.

“As the saying goes, one must fight fire with fire,” Zim continued.

“Alright, sounds like a plan!” Melody said. Zim simply shrugged her off.

“Take the lead, Pinkie,” Zim told his daughter.

“Wait, where are the kids?” Melody asked. Zim ignored her again.

“Dad, can you take the kids home first?” Pinkie asked her dad. “Then, meet us back here so we can board the Hoshino.

•

Miyagi Forest

A half an hour had passed, precious minutes wasted, but the Hoshino was finally back in the air. Even with a large oni inside, the Hoshino proved to be quite comfortable for all four of its occupants. Well… in Melody's case, not completely… It had been made quite apparent to her that she and Zim were no longer on speaking terms. Pinkie piloted the plane, while Melody and Kenta sat in the middle and Zim took up the turret.

“I had no idea you wanted to be a pilot!” Zim said through the turret.

“It was just something that's been on my mind for a while,” Pinkie replied. “We are approaching the fire.”

“Zap It -” Melody tried to say before she was interrupted mid-casting by Zim.

“No,” he told her. “If you want to make yourself useful, don't do anything. Don't touch anything. Don't even say anything. Just sit there and let the real good guys show you how it's done. You might learn something.”

“Dad, she's just trying to help.” Pinkie tried standing up for her girlfriend, but it was no use.

“Oh, she's helped out quite a bit already.” Zim made his opinion of Melody quite clear. He truly believed everything that had happened was her fault. “Watch and learn. Hellfire Rocket!” Using the turret, Zim launched a stream of fire directly at the forest, sending dozens of trees down to the snowy ground. Notably, the way his spell hit the trees pointed the fallen timber away from the city of Sendai, creating a gap approximately twenty meters wide between the fire and the rest of the forest.

“Kenta!” Pinkie shouted. “It's your turn!”

“Right!” Kenta answered. As the plane turned so he was facing the fire, Kenta flipped through the list of every spell he had learned in his mind. Because it had been about twenty-four hours since he last used his high magic, he had something to use.

“Stricken by blindness,

The world itself stops breathing.

Behold the dark light.”

This was, to put it nicely, a bad idea. Pinkie barely had enough time to put the plane on autopilot before everything fell into the abyss. Kenta, however, had a lot more control over his high magic this time around. He was able to use it to knock down several more trees without setting them on fire. The idea Kenta came up with seemed fairly simple: create a path to isolate the fire, making it easier for the firefighters who were arriving on scene to assist in the actual fighting of the fire.

There was just one slight problem.

He couldn't see the other side of the fire to clear out a path there. He was, however, able to use his dark light to carve out trenches where there were no trees to enhance the buffer between the city and the rushing flames.

After several minutes, the effects of Kenta's high magic went away, allowing everyone to see once more. Melody immediately spotted something very wrong with the scene.

“Uh, guys…?” Melody tried to ask before she was silenced by Zim.

“I told you to keep quiet,” Zim told her.

“But -”

“No.”

“Dad,” Pinkie interjected, “she's trying to say something.”

“I don't care. She's no good.”

“Oh, forget this,” Melody finally said. Without another word, she opened the side door and jumped out, diving straight into the flames.

“Melo!” Pinkie shouted.

“Melody!” Kenta shouted.

“Good riddance,” Zim said under his breath.

Despite the apparently senseless falling right into danger, Melody had a plan. She had noticed the flames were plowing through the obstacles Kenta and Zim created. As if nothing had happened, the flames continued onto the city limits. With the others watching, Melody revealed she had a trick up her sleeve.

“Aquato Grenade!!” In addition to her lightning and fire-based magic, Melody knew a little bit of water magic. Her Aquato Grenades had the effect of dropping giant water balloons onto the fire. If fighting around the fire didn't work, Melody reasoned to herself, fighting above the fire should.

“Aquato Grenade!” Melody repeated each time she launched another water attack, thirty times in total. Through the flames, however, Melody spotted another problem.

The black sludge. This was another Gloom moment.

Melody began to fall towards the fire. It was as if her body had forgotten how to fly. She tried desperately to launch any spell she knew, but nothing worked. Not the Aquato Grenade, not the Zap It To You, Mate, not the Roasted Fireball, not even the Channel Fireball. Nothing worked.

Inside the plane, the others watched in horror as Melody fell, absolutely helpless, into the flames.

Kenta heard a very familiar voice call out to him, “Kenta… Kenta…”

“Who's there?” Kenta asked the voice. “Who are you?”

“Kenta? Who are you talking to?” Pinkie asked. Kenta did not respond to her.

“You have to stop this, Kenta…”

“But how?” Kenta asked the voice. “What else can I do?”

He suddenly remembered a haiku his father taught him when he was little. He was always told that it was a prayer passed down through generations of his family. When in doubt, he was told, chant this prayer and watch for a miracle. Kenta felt time slow down, his breathing slow down, his heartbeat slow down.

“How can you hear me?

Whatever harm is done here,

Render it undone.”

And then…

Nothing…