Love Lessons and Such

To all the crazy people on this website who supported this and other endeavors of mine.

Melody and Kenta worked to free the remaining test subjects as Saber Rider was carried away from the scene by Bureau agents.

“There we go,” Kenta said as he opened the last cell. “That should be everyone.”

Saber Rider, Mr. Ito, had been sealed in an anti-magic bubble by a couple of Barrier Mages and was in the process of being loaded up into a police van.

“Have you people any idea who I am?!” Mr. Ito asked the agents. “I am the Minister of Defense! It is my sworn duty to protect this country from any threat!”

“Yeah, yeah, tell it to the judge…” one of the Mages said as she closed the door on the van.

Kenta and Melody made it out of the base with the Prime Minister joining them.

“So, Mr. Prime Minister, do you think this is a case of one bad apple or do you think this is more of a systemic issue,” Melody asked the Prime Minister.

“Definitely systemic,” the Prime Minister gave a swift answer. “If people like that are allowed to hold office, I wouldn't be surprised if we have more incidents like this in the future.”

Before Melody could answer, two Barrier Mages tackled her and sealed her in an anti-magic bubble as well.

“We have the Phantom Thief!”

“Put her in the van,” the Bureau chief replied, revealing she had orchestrated the takedown. "Take her in for questioning.”

“Leave her alone!” Kenta shouted.

The Prime Minister put a hand on Kenta's shoulder to calm him down. “Let me handle this.” Turning his attention to the Bureau chief, he continued, “Miss Sakamoto, I'm sure we can sort out some sort of arrangement here. This catgirl saved my life. Surely, that counts for something, right?”

“Your Excellency,” Miss Sakamoto replied, “I'm sure we can sort this out. But we really need the victory here. We just arrested one of the top wanted criminals in the country. It would be so good for publicity.”

“Eh, I should have seen this coming sooner or later,” Melody admitted. “Couldn't keep running forever.”

“Are you gonna be okay?” Kenta asked her.

“Me? Yeah I'll be alright. Zim said I gotta do my time one of these days,” Melody answered. As the agents loaded her into the van, she decided to put on a show. “I can't believe I've been foiled by the likes of you! My dad was right, after all. Crime really doesn't pay… Sir, I caught you looking at me. Do you like my hair? Do you like my ears more when they're up or down?”

Once the Bureau chief entered the same van, Melody asked her, “Hey, do you think we can get Mr. Watanabe voted out in, say, a couple of weeks?”

“Why do you ask?” the Bureau chief asked in response.

“He says this thing with Mr. Ito is likely a systemic issue,” Melody answered. “If he wants to change it, he should start by either resigning, which he won't do, or getting voted out. He did kinda let this whole thing happen on his watch.”

“Noted.”

•

As they watched Melody leave, Kenta, Pinkie and Zim had a conversation amongst themselves.

"Does she not realize that she's already dating someone?" Zim asked.

"All part of the show, as she likes to say," Pinkie replied.

"Are you sure she'll be alright?" Kenta asked her.

“She'll find a way to weasel her way out of this,” Pinkie answered. “I give it two weeks.”

“I give it twelve hours,” Zim replied. “That being said, gotta give her flowers for finally owning up to her life of crime. For now...”

“You and Melody had an argument about that,” Kenta remembered. “How long has she been doing this?”

“How long have you known Melody?” Zim asked Pinkie.

“Since we were twelve,” Pinkie replied. “We met at a summer camp for delinquent fairies. On the first night of camp, she used magic to swap out our dinner for the dinner the staff made for themselves.”

“About eight years, then,” Zim told Kenta.

“What are we going to do about this Gloom thing?” Kenta asked.

“We'll have to cross that bridge when we get there,” the Prime Minister answered as he overheard Kenta's question. “But coming up with a solution will take many months of debating, drafting up legislation, and voting. Lots and lots of voting. It'll take a while, but I'm confident that we'll come up with a solution.”

The others just stared at him in disappointment. All three of them understood that politics meant bad news. Kenta soon noticed there was someone missing from amongst Mr. Ito's intended test subjects.

The blob.

Kenta wandered off to see where the blob was headed. He reasoned that something without legs couldn't have gone very far. However, the blob was nowhere to be found. Kenta searched for several minutes, but had no success. After a while of searching, he heard the mysterious voice talk to him one last time.

“Thank you, Kenta… for everything…”

This, naturally, confused Kenta because out of everything that happened in the last couple of days, he really didn't feel like he did all that much. But he decided to tell the blob, “You're welcome,” just in case.

He could not shake the feeling he and the blob, or the blob's voice, would meet again.

“Mom…”

•

Wakkanai, Hokkaido

At 9 am, the Kimura family heard a knock at their door. Stacks of papers filled their kitchen, missing posters for Kenta, who disappeared from the streets of Wakkanai on the morning of the 22nd. Each knock at the door gave them a bit of hope, only to be met with disappointment when it turned out to not be Kenta.

This time was different.

Kenta's dad opened the door to see Kenta standing there. With tears in his eyes and not a word in his mouth, he ran to hug his son. Kenta was home.

He had made the government promise to not disclose his role in what happened during the last forty-eight hours. This meant his family would never know about the train accident in Sendai or the fire in the mountains or the fact that he helped bring Mr. Ito to justice. He felt they didn't need to know. All they needed to know, according to him, was that a catgirl kidnapped him and spent two days trying to bring him to Tokyo before he was found and she was arrested.

Kenta's dad immediately took him inside to make him breakfast.

•

Sendai, Miyagi

Zim and Pinkie had a special surprise waiting for them when they got home. Melody had snuck in the contract money she was given by Saber Rider/Mr. Ito, four hundred million yen in total. Melody's siblings were the ones to let them in on the secret. She had used a special teleporting spell to send the money there just before she was arrested.

•

Tokyo

Kaito Suzuki had spent the last twenty-seven hours in a jail cell. He had been arrested (thanks to a tip from Shimano) for his role in the Sendai fire.

As promised, the Bureau chief, Miss Sakamoto, came to visit his cell personally.

“Mr. Suzuki, I would say consider yourself fired and prison-bound,” she told him. “But you're already in prison. So just consider yourself fired.”

She walked away, leaving Suzuki to stew in his own despair. He spent the entire time he had been in the cell thinking about what had happened and how much he hated Melody. Refusing to eat or drink or speak until Miss Sakamoto's promise was kept, he finally uttered his first words since the fire.

“I swear by all the gods, Melody, I will have my revenge…”

•

March 10th - Tokyo

As for Melody herself, she would spend two weeks in a prison cell awaiting the Bureau’s final judgment on how many charges she would be facing. Having already spent that much time made Melody very impatient. She could have used this trick at any time during the past two weeks, but she wanted to at least try to play nice. But if they were going to waste her time like this, she was now going to resume playing the game by her rules.

No more Miss Nice Catgirl.

Melody sat on her bed and chanted her signature high magic spell:

“Hide me from the eyes,

Whispers in the dainty wind.

Catch me if you can!”

By the time anyone noticed she was gone, Melody had already traveled a considerable distance from the Tokyo metro area. Where she was headed, only she knew. Off she flew to wherever the wind would take her.