Chapter 5: Supreme Ruler Plots a Kidnapping
Chapter 5: Supreme Ruler Plots a Kidnapping
I should kidnap someone!
Mia shot up from her chair, toast hanging from her teeth, struck by a sudden flash of inspiration. She turned the words Ren had said to her before, “With your smarts, or lack thereof, you shouldn’t try to think too hard”, over and over in her mind, and came to the disheartening conclusion that he, in fact, had ridiculed her with that statement. This discovery prompted her to accomplish at least one evil deed, even if it killed her, and thus finally start acting in a way befitting of the Supreme Ruler of Evil.
Kidnapping, abduction, confinement, squatting—each of them evil deeds in their own right. According to the news, whoever perpetrated those always got sent behind bars, not to mention that a villain abducting children was a staple of the superhero shows she loved so much.
“But abducting a child will not do. Their parents would be beside themselves with worry, and it would cause undue distress to the public at large.”
Isn’t there someone well-suited to be her target, someone whose disappearance wouldn’t cause anyone grief?
“Or, maybe, someone who wants to get abducted…or something. No, that’s impossible, of course…” Mia sighed disappointedly and munched on her toast.
Summer break was finally here, so today, Mia, who now had more spare time than she normally did, was trying to finish her breakfast as soon as possible so she could go patrol the town as usual.
***
“UGH… Will someone abduct me and take me somewhere faraway, please?”
“THEY DO EXIST?!”
It happened on an early summer afternoon, in a park where a chorus of cicadas filled the air with their ear-grating cries. Mia, feeling thirsty, had purchased a bottle of iced tea, and was in the process of drinking it on the nearby bench, when a woman who was sitting next to her suddenly mumbled that she wanted to get abducted.
Mia, still tightly gripping the plastic bottle in one hand, surged from her seat sputtering incredulously, “Y-You really want to get abducted?!”
“Huh? Yeah. Oh, if only that would actually happen to me, I’d be over the moon…”
“Incredible! And I doubted I would find someone. Well, I had better get to abducting you then! Come!” Mia grabbed the hand of the woman, who tilted her head in puzzlement, twirled her wand, and sonorously chanted the spell, “Fly with me into the skies!”
Their bodies immediately felt lighter than air, causing them to float upward, going higher and higher.
“Waaah?!” The woman screamed, holding onto Mia’s waist for dear life, her hands digging into her sides in a death grip.
“Ah! Hey, that tickles! Stop it! Hee-hee-hee!”
“Nooo, stop wriggling! Kya-ah! A-Aagh!” The bewildered woman shrieked, desperately clinging to Mia.
The ticklish clawing of her captive bothered Mia, but the kidnapping, and now screams of terror—everything else was just like in the superhero TV shows. Mia nodded to herself with profound satisfaction; this was it, now she was finally acting like a true villain should.
***
FINALLY, their ascent stopped. Panting heavily over the insanity of the past few moments, the woman ventured a reluctant glance down. The park looked pretty small from where they hovered, as if she were looking at it from the apex point of a Ferris wheel. She shook her head with a vengeance—no more looking down for her.
What is this? What happened to me? Were people created with the ability to fly, and I just forgot? She was desperately trying to stop her racing thoughts and be rational, but how could she stay sane when she was floating in the sky!
While the kidnapped woman sought to stay calm or risk shattering the magic keeping her afloat, she glanced at her kidnapper who had crossed her arms and sat cross-legged as she slowly spun 360 degrees head over feet with a look of intense concentration on her face.
“All right, step one, abduction, is hereby complete. But what do I do next? Hm, shall I return home for now?”
“Huh?! Did you kidnap me with no forethought whatsoever?!” the panicked woman cried out in consternation despite herself.
The strange girl scratched her head somewhat awkwardly as she continued to spin like some kind of demented genie. “Mm, I just wanted to try to abduct someone and see how it goes. What do you normally do after you kidnap someone?”
“Eh?! Err, usually you demand a ransom, and if you’re not after the money, then you lock your victim up and rape them or something, I think?”
“Lock up? Rape?! Ransom?!” Her spinning came to a stop as Mia regarded the woman with eyes wide with terror, horrified at what terrible things she had come up with off the top of her head.
The woman, forgetting all about being suspended in midair, high in the sky, looked back at Mia with exasperation in her eyes. Her kidnapper was no longer spinning, but was still upside down in a cross-legged position gaping at her.
The two weightlessly bobbed around in the air in silence for a few charged moments. Mia, still staring her captive down, growled in frustration.
Ransom. She had no desire to demand money using threats. It wasn’t like that was the purpose she had abducted the woman for in the first place. She just thought that by kidnapping someone, she’d get one step closer to being a good—if this word could actually apply to her—Supreme Ruler of Evil, which was why failing to think ahead and make a plan about what to do next was very imprudent of her indeed.
Noticing Mia’s lapse into silence, the victim timidly inquired, “Hey, so, you can fly?”
“Hm? Yes, I can. Under normal circumstances, I would have to make you disappear as soon as you found out about me being a sorceress, but I can’t abduct you without using magic, so I shall let it slide this one time as an exception.”
“Wow, most of the things you’re saying go straight over my head. Don’t worry, even if tried to talk about this to someone, no one would believe me. Heck, I can barely believe what’s happening to me right now. Okay, so you whisked me away without thinking it through, right?”
Mia gave a breezy nod, to which the woman breathed out a tired sigh. “I just want to go far away from here…”
“…I see.”
“I want to get away from this town, go somewhere, anywhere. So, take me away, please.”
“I don’t mind doing that, but I’m somewhat short on money.”
When Mia told her captive about her financial situation, the woman exploded, her voice rising, “UGH, seriously?! You’ll bear the responsibility for taking me away, right?! As my kidnapper, you should at least do this much for me, your victim! It’s not like I’m asking you to take me overseas! Somewhere not that far away from here is fine, just take me somewhere!”
“I-I can’t!”
The woman grabbed Mia’s hands, bringing her spinning to a stop. Letting out a long sigh laced with anguish, she consented, “I guess it’s fine, even my kidnapper doesn’t care about me… Just drop me from the sky to my death. It’s not like a single person cares about me after all.”
Mia’s drifting attention snapped back to the woman. “D-Drop you here?”
“Yes, since even my kidnapper doesn’t care, I might as well die. Maybe someone will sympathize with me when they hear about my body splattering on the concrete over the news.”
“W-Wait I-I am not going to just drop you!”
Moaning with utter despair and tears in her eyes, the woman cried out, “How could I be so worthless that even my kidnapper hates me?!”
“Ah…” Mia searched the area for some kind of distraction, for someone to help, to no avail. Was this really what kidnappers had to deal with? Were kidnapped people really this depressed and suicidal? “Oh! I’ll be right back!” Mia said as she zipped off toward a vending machine.
Watching her go, the woman sat floating in the air with tears in her eyes. “Are you going to leave me too?”
Zipping back over a minute later, Mia held out the can of hot tea. “Here.”
“Huh? Tea?”
“Whenever I feel depressed hot tea always helps me calm down. Feel better?”
The woman sniffled, “Maybe if you got some food…”
Mia nodded. “I think I saw a convenience store.”
“No, no, no, I am much too depressed for convenience store food. There is a nice restaurant that does amazing takeout right over there.” The woman pointed to the east. “They’re quite expensive, but I am sure as my kidnapper you wouldn’t mind paying…right?”
Mia froze as the woman gazed pitifully at her. “I don’t really have the money—”
She sniffled again as tears filled her eyes. “I see, then maybe I should just die. Just let me fall to my death, if even my kidnapper is unwilling to get me some simple food…”
“All right, all right.” Mia rushed to pull her wallet out, quickly checking how much money she had. “I’ll take you.”
The woman smiled, her previous tears vanishing in an instant. “Wonderful, it’s right over there. Oh, and there is this lovely clothing store nearby that I have always wanted to shop at. You wouldn’t mind buying me something there too, right?”
“But—” Mia tried to object and was instantly cut off.
“Right? You wouldn’t be such a mean kidnapper and deny me this would you? Now let’s go, it’s right over there.”
Groaning, Mia began drifting in the direction the supposed victim pointed in.
***
IS this really how a kidnapping is supposed to work? Mia wondered as she took the woman who had still not given her name, from place to place. First they went to a high-end takeout restaurant, then a clothing boutique, and now her victim was buying an ice cream with Mia’s money. At least the woman paid for her own clothes.
“Okay, I’m ready for the next place!” Mia’s victim happily declared as she marched over and forced Mia to take her back into the air.
“Isn’t this enough?” Mia groaned.
Staring into Mia’s eyes as if trying to bend her will, she declared with a waspish whine, “Not in the slightest! Now on to the next location. Or are you going to abandon me, and take responsibility for your utter failure as a kidnapper?”
Sighing and unable to resist, Mia ended up nodding in agreement. She had already argued several times with her, and each time it ended in tears with Mia feeling guilty.
The woman planted one hand on her hip as they floated into the sky, lowered her eyes, and began thinking aloud, “My husband was in the park you took me away from, he’s probably looking for me as we speak. There’s a chance that he might find us if we go to the nearest train station or continue shopping close by, so fly us to the station that’s two stops ahead, we’ll board a Special Express from there.”
“Err, uhh, b-but…” Mia helplessly sputtered, obviously reluctant.
Her would-be victim glowered at her, a threatening gleam in her eyes. “Please? I just know that I won’t be able to recover from this poor attempt at kidnapping unless you take responsibility for the mental trauma you have placed me under. If not, I guess I should just die here and now. Maybe I’ll end up in an insane asylum, stuck with a shrink, outcast and alone. And everything would be your fault.” The woman sniffled, tears once more forming at the edge of her eyes.
Mia didn’t understand what the woman was talking about, between the two of them, she felt far more traumatized, but the woman strung together enough really scary words for Mia to give in.
Reorienting her position in the air, Mia stretched her legs out and focused on the supposed victim glaring at her. “All right, I shall do as you say!”
Wasn’t it just her luck that she ended up kidnapping a woman who said such horrifying things without batting an eye? Mia was close to tears, but braved them to press her own, small demand. “…Sorry, but can you please let me go use an ATM? I only have 237 yen left on me.”
“Ugh, you know, even elementary school kids have at least a 1000 yen on them at all times nowadays! You’re so hopeless. Go on then. But make it quick!”
Mia nodded vigorously and took off in a hurry with the woman in tow. Pointedly not mentioning that she had more money before the woman had pressured her into paying for a shopping spree.
***
“…MIA’s on the move.”
“Huh? You mean, on a different route than her usual patrol?”
Ren held his phone in one hand, his other hand occupied with an insect catcher. He was wearing a police uniform instead of his Crow Ranger jacket. Shou, also in his uniform and with an insect catcher in his hand, stood next to him.
“Yeah, seems so. She’s about to cross into another prefecture. Hm, is she going on a trip?”
“Doubt it. I can’t really imagine Mia going on a trip for fun. She’s more likely to go, ‘Ah, now that I have more time due to summer break, I must devote even more effort to achieving world domination!’ and fly around the town all pumped up.”
Ren nodded in agreement. He had a map open on his smartphone, and right now, a small red dot was moving swiftly towards the prefectural border. The red dot represented Mia’s movements.
Mia Oonari was under surveillance, with Ren in charge of the operation. He didn’t know how the system worked or the principle it was based on, but whenever the girl used magic, the tracking system on his phone reacted to it. The system had been adopted in her father’s generation. Apparently, it was one of the few tools to survive the wars between the Champions of Justice and the Forces of Evil.
Ren really didn’t understand the science behind it. Whether it was her blood or the magical energy that reacted with it, since the very beginning, there was a small chip buried inside Mia’s body. He didn’t even know who implanted it in her body, whether it was her father or someone else, but it was definitely there. What that implied, at the very least, was that there was some kind of connection between Mia’s father and the police…or the organization that was known as the Champions of Justice.
This generation of Champions of Justice had never crossed weapons with Mia’s father. Apparently, their chief along with a team of his fellow officers had fought him, but Ren didn’t care for the story, so he had never asked for the details. In fact, he still didn’t care, but he did think there had to be more than what he had been told. Anyway, that was the reason why he appeared before Mia as if by magic that very first day they met.
While Shou was trying to sneak a peek at Ren’s smartphone screen, “Over there!” a voice called out in the distance.
The two policemen immediately raised their nets, ready to strike, and Ren slid his phone into his breast pocket. After a few moments, a nearby patch of grass started shaking, making a rustling noise, and out peeked the face of a small monkey.
“Aha, bingo! Come to daddy—”
“Don’t screw up now, Shou.”
“’Course I won’t! I’m a pro at cornering my prey—”
Just like they had agreed in advance, Ren swiftly snuck behind the monkey. Then, Shou, brandishing his insect catcher, charged ahead, running straight for the animal. Screeching, the monkey tried to escape him by running in the opposite direction, where Ren was already in position, his net at the ready. A swing, and the monkey was captured.
“Phew, finally we captured it!”
“Hehe, what’s more difficult: capturing this monkey or capturing Mia’s heart?”
“Hmm, the latter? But it’s also way more fun!” Ren snickered, and then contacted the zoo official who requested the police’s assistance over his radio.
Soon after, a zookeeper with a cage and the other police officers came running, heavily panting.
“Oh, thank you so much! You have really helped us out here.”
“Ah, it was nothing. Please make sure the little guy won’t escape again!” Ren said, a fake polite smile he had never once shown Mia playing on his lips, and gave the monkey, still tangled up in the net, to its caretaker.
The monkey had escaped from the zoo and had been causing trouble for the people living in the neighborhood ever since. The caretaker moved the monkey to the cage, locked it, politely bowed to Ren, and took his leave.
Subaru, who had also been participating in the hunt for the monkey, joined the group, and Ren, taking his phone out again, gave him an update on Mia’s status, specifically her odd detour from her usual patrol routes. Subaru, an insect catcher still in one hand, seemed worried after hearing the news.
“…She’s traveling to another prefecture? She didn’t mention anything yesterday. And I told her to contact me if she’s going somewhere or if she won’t need dinner!”
“Well, Mia’s on summer break, maybe she’s trying to pull off some crazy scheme?” Shou suggested, chuckling.
Ren seemed exasperated by his ability to be amused by everything and anything, but said nothing, instead swishing around the insect catcher he got back from the monkey caretaker. “We can get traveling expenses reimbursed, right?”
“Well, if they’re work related, sure. I’ve got nightshift today, so I can’t tag along. Oh, take Aya with you! She seemed free and bored last I saw her.”
“I’ll be on standby until you contact me. Does that work for you? Not sure about Misaki, but we should at least let him know what’s happening,” Subaru said, taking out his phone.
Ren reached for his chest pocket, but then he remembered he was in his police uniform. “Ack, got no cigarettes. Dammit. I’ll return to the station first, let them know about the monkey, report Mia’s movements to the chief, finish up my administrative tasks, and then go on a hunt.”
“He-he-he, are you gonna punish her once you get your hands on her?” Shou asked with a wicked grin.
“Duh!” Ren smiled at his grinning friend.
***
KUH-KLACK, kuh-klack, kuh-klack. The Special Express Train zipped forward with tremendous speed. Mia was staring vacantly through the window at the ever-changing landscape racing past her.
After boarding the train, Mia and her ‘victim’ had finally made their introductions. The woman’s name turned out to be Kana Shirakawa; she was twenty-seven years old. Kana looked like she took good care of herself, but she didn’t wear any makeup. Her shoulder-length thick brown hair was gathered in a bunch, her clothes unremarkable—a plain combination of a tunic dress and leggings, plus flat sandals on her feet. The woman was fiddling with her phone, a disgruntled look darkening her features.
Mia, for her part, cast a furtive glance at her hands, in which two tickets to Nasu-Shiobara Station were clutched. She had wondered aloud why they had selected Nasu as their destination, but that had only earned her a glower from the woman. Somehow, she had this terrifying quality about her that made it impossible for Mia to disobey.
For a while, they rode in silence, rocked back and forth by the train’s movement, and then Kana opened her mouth, “We’ll take a shuttle bus once we arrive at the station.”
“Wha-?”
“It’ll take us to the ryokan I’ve already reserved for us. It’ll be about 16,000 yen for the both of us.”
“Wha-ha-ha—”
Mia was completely taken aback. Did kidnapping someone imply spending this much money?! She already regretted choosing this particular option as her “evil deed” from the bottom of her heart.
On that note, Mia’s cape and wand lay in her backpack now. She was forced to put them away with tears in her eyes after having Kana scold her about how, “a kidnapper can’t possibly wear such a flashy getup!” But she was the Supreme Ruler of Evil! She couldn’t help but feel depressed about this entire situation.
“Nasu was the last place I went on a trip with my husband.”
“I-Is that so? Uh, but your husband is still alive, right?”
“Of course he is. I meant that was the last place we went to together, just the two of us. Then came our daughter, and we had no time or energy for traveling anymore.”
Mia hummed noncommittally in response. She sensed that if she dared to point out the absurdity of all this, it would not be pretty, so she decided to play it safe.
Kana continued talking in a quiet, subdued tone, her gaze trained on the shifting landscape on the other side of the window, “We haven’t been on a single trip ever since our baby girl was born. If we go somewhere, it’s only ever to visit my husband’s parents. There, I have to attend to my mother-in-law’s whims, take care of our kid… Sucks all the joy out of the trip. And then my baby’s sitting in my lap all the way there too, and if she’s being fussy, I have to get up from my seat…” she complained under her breath, on and on.
Mia just listened in silence to her grumbling. Kana opened a can of beer she bought at some point in time at a station kiosk and began greedily gulping it down.
Refreshed, she deeply exhaled, and carped on, the alcohol loosening her lips further. “My hubby, he’s not that bad actually, you know! He’s trying to help me with childcare and household chores and stuff, in his own way… But, you see, I don’t really want him to! But he’s sooo eager to do it, as if he’s trying to make up for everything by doing that. Well, I’m telling you, he’s got it all wrong! So, so wrong. It’s like, when have I ever told him I want him to help me out with the kid and chores? …That’s not it at all. I don’t want him to just see me as the mother of his children, I only want him to look at me as his wife…” She heaved a long-suffering sigh and took one more swig of her beer.
Then, she called out to a passing attendant with a trolley selling snacks and beverages, “Excuse me, miss. I’ll have some dried scallops and a peanut and rice cracker mix. And some smoked squid. And two beers, please!”
“All of that?!” Mia whined through her tears, but promptly handed over her wallet, sniffling, after being glared at by Kana for her insolence.
“Um, and a bar of chocolate with almonds as well, please…” Mia felt that unless she at least allowed herself to indulge in some of the sweets she loved so dearly, her spirits would be dealt irreparable damage for the day.
Meanwhile, Kana continued her sob story. Her daughter was in her “no” stage and wouldn’t listen to her, her husband treated her like a mother and not at all like a woman, even though they had been so lovey-dovey with each other when they were dating—and other tales about her family woes and day-to-day life. When they went to visit her husband’s family, she’d have to tend to her mother-in-law, which was a huge bother, and when she mustered up the enthusiasm to help the woman around the house, that didn’t go very well.
Kana expected to finally be able to laze around at least at her own parents’ house, but her mother would pester her to lend a hand with the chores, and when she’d vent about her family life, Kana’s mother would shut her down with, “It’s a miracle you found someone who was willing to take you as a wife, so don’t let me hear your privileged whining again,” which made her even angrier. It was one big pity party, and alcohol was probably helping in keeping it going.
Mia sipped on green tea from her plastic bottle, thinking that starting tomorrow, she would have to stop going to Subaru’s for dinner and subsist on a diet of onigiri and water for a while. Out of all her meager living expenses, the food costs were probably the only item she could cut down on to stay afloat.
Subaru will probably pop a vein when he hears about this, thought Mia as she halfheartedly listened to Kana’s endless monologue.
“…so, you get what I’m saying, right? My hubby, he’s, like, only thinking of me as his baby girl’s mama. You know what he’s calling me these days? ‘Mommy’, can you imagine that?! Mommy! And I’m all like, ‘I ain’t your mommy, dude’! Seriously, we haven’t had sex in ages. Well, I mean, we definitely don’t wanna wake our baby up at night, so that can’t be helped, but not being desired just—”
As Mia was lending the woman a sympathetic ear without interrupting, her soliloquy took a saucy turn, so she rushed to hush her. “H-Hold on just a minute! B-before you go any further, I would like to remind you that we are in a public place!”
“Lame. Ah, but you sure look like you’ve never had a boyfriend. They say that the high schoolers nowadays are precocious, but you aren’t experienced at all, are you?”
“Experienced? In what way do you mean? L-Let’s change the subject for now… Uh… Oh, right! I was wondering what your baby girl’s current age is!” Mia blurted out the first question that popped into her head, trying to distract Kana from the sex topic.
“Baby girl?” Kana cocked her head to the side in puzzlement for a brief moment, and then with her cheeks turning red, she bit out, “…She’s two.”
“Ah, two years old! …Is it common at this age to have the ‘no’ stage? The one you were talking to me about earlier?”
“Uh-huh! No to this, no to that! If I try to change her clothes, she runs away, if I scold her, she turns on the waterworks. And when she does, she wails ‘Papaaaa’ and clings to him like a leech! I’m the one who wants to cry here, you know! But my husband goes all, ‘Don’t be mad at her’!”
Wow, she has a lot pent up inside her, Mia sympathized with Kana. When I get married and have children, will there come a day when I’ll want to complain about life, just like Kana?
And so it went, Kana grumbling profusely with her beer and snacks in hand, and Mia listening to her in the next seat. Eventually, they reached Nasu-Shiobara Station, thus drawing a close to their train ride, most of which consisted of Kana’s monologues. The opportunity to vent did the woman a world of good, apparently, because she now seemed happy as she merrily checked the time on her smartphone with a smile.
“The bus will be here any minute now!”
Mia nodded, flooded with relief. A few moments later, the shuttle bus indeed arrived, letting the two women board and driving off down the road.
“Mm, there was this one time we came here on a school trip. I don’t remember it that well.” Mia had a vague recollection of going to a ranch in this area; she faintly recalled frolicking with goats and cows.
“I see. So, this will be your first time at the local hot springs. Let’s enjoy it to the fullest then!”
That sounded rich, coming from someone who reserved a room at an inn with someone else’s money without telling them a word about it. Mia laughed, admitting defeat. This woman had a commanding presence about her that she just couldn’t disobey, and Mia did come all the way here—enjoying it as much as she could was indeed the better choice than grieving over all the money she had lost.
Forgetting their roles as the kidnapper and her victim, Mia and Kana relaxed into a lively conversation about Nasu’s attractions, while the bus took them to their ultimate destination. Eventually, it dropped them off at the ryokan of their—Kana’s—choice. It appeared to be a popular place, if a bit on the shabbier side; the price was very reasonable, but it reflected back in the overall look.
“...By the way, I didn’t bring anything with me.”
“Ah, right. I think I saw a convenience store close by. Let’s buy everything we need there. I’ll pay for that much myself.”
Just like Kana had said, there was a lone store standing a short way down the hill. The two girls purchased some underwear and a couple of toiletry sets, and once again set foot in the ryokan’s entrance hall.
The space the hostess led them to and showed them was, just like Mia imagined it would be, a modest Japanese-style room. It did look quite old, but it didn’t seem unsanitary; it was obviously well-maintained and meticulously cleaned. Mia plopped down at the table and immediately stretched her hand out to grab the complimentary candy. Kana, meanwhile, was staring out at the scenery stretching behind the inn’s window. Somehow, her back seemed very lonely.
However, when she turned around, it was with a grin that she proposed, “If we go soak in the hot springs right now, we won’t make it in time for dinner. Let’s eat first and bathe later!”
“Huh? …Ah, sure.” She thought the woman was crying, but that proved to be a false impression. Mia let out a breath of relief at that.
Together they enjoyed some tea and sweets until their dinner was brought, which they ate with relish. Mia wondered briefly just how many future dinners at home the money she paid would’ve covered.
***
“AHH! The food was out of this world! And the liquor’s amazing too, keep it coming!”
“Kana, you’re drinking too much. You’ve already emptied two bottles of hot sake. Are you all right?”
Kana grinned as if to show she was just peachy. She had three cans of beer on the train, and two bottles of hot sake over the course of the evening meal. A pink flush settled firmly over her face. Mia, who had never had a drink in her life, was beginning to worry about her.
When they went for a soak in the hot springs, Kana only dipped up to her hips, so that the air would hit the upper half of her body, cooling it. To Mia, this was her first time at a hot spring.
Ah, so this is the pleasure that is an open-air bath, the realization seeped deep into Mia’s bones with the hot water surrounding her. Kana kicked up one of her legs, making a small splash, and exhaled in relaxation. And then, she abruptly mused aloud in a small voice, “I wonder if he’s worried about me…”
“Your husband?”
“Y-Yeah. Well, my phone was ringing nonstop. I put it on silent, though, ahaha.”
“Of course he’s worried—calling you so much proves it.”
Having said that, Mia was hit by a sudden realization; she remembered that she was the one who abducted the woman in the first place. Mia awkwardly stared at her feet. She was an evil sorceress, so doing bad things was a must. Why was it then that her chest felt so tight?
“I wonder if he’s calling because he’s worried about me. Maybe Sakura is crying and he just doesn’t know what to do.” She let out a mirthless chuckle.
‘Sakura’ must’ve been the name of her daughter.
“I do not claim to understand your situation, but your husband is not thinking of you solely as your daughter’s caretaker, is he?”
“I wanna think he’s not, but I just don’t know! Ever since we had our baby…I’m not sure of anything anymore. ‘Cause ever since Sakura was born, all you ever hear from him is Sakura this, Sakura that. I care for Sakura too, y’know? She’s so cute, and I love her to death. But…I wanna be loved, too.”
“Hmm… Kana, I was thinking…have you told your husband any of this? Like, ‘don’t call me mommy’ or ‘love me, please’?” Mia, sensing that she had just asked something very embarrassing, blushed scarlet.
Kana silently shook her head with a somewhat resigned smile. “No, never. How can I say that I want him to love me now, after all this time? He’ll go, ‘what are you saying?’ and laugh me off, no doubt. As for the pet name, after he started calling me ‘mommy’, I started calling him ‘daddy’ in return too. It’s too late to change it now…” Kana trailed off, sighing deeply.
Mia couldn’t possibly understand Kana’s feelings. Not only did Mia have zero experience with married life, she didn’t even have a boyfriend. It was next to impossible for her to empathize with all the subtleties of her emotions. Despite that, Mia didn’t hold back and candidly shared her thoughts with the woman. “The way I see it, you’re putting up a brave front, but it puts a strain on you. Do you not have anyone you can vent to?”
“Nope. I got friends who are also young mothers, but I don’t think they’ll like it if I complain too much.”
“But doesn’t that mean your husband is actually the one you could share your frustrations with the most? Also, don’t you think he feels shut out because you won’t spill a word of your problems to him?”
“Huh?” Kana inadvertently raised her face at those words.
Mia sunk in the water up to her shoulders and looked straight at Kana, who was sitting on a stone step. “I mean, you are a couple, right? It shouldn’t matter whether you have a daughter or not. You are treading on eggshells around everyone, including your husband. Just let it all out. Whine, grumble, moan, just don’t keep it pent up to the point where everything may fall apart.”
“B-But… What if he hates me for it, or tells me I’m annoying… I don’t think I can take that…”
“Is he the kind of husband that would say that just because you vented to him?”
Kana suddenly fell silent, as if lost for words. Mia didn’t beat around the bush, and with her straightforward attitude she breached the walls around Kana’s heart. It wasn’t a bad feeling.
Was the husband Kana loved so dearly the kind of man who would turn away from her if she dared to voice her grievances? Didn’t she, somewhere along the way, start thinking that she was the one who had it tough, who struggled, and fell into the trap of victimizing herself?
“Saying something won’t change a thing” and “no one would understand me anyway”—she was just shutting herself off with those thoughts and steeping in her feelings of discontent, letting them grow. Was it because she could finally whine all she wanted and thus expel the heavy weight from her chest, that she realized with a start that she never tried approaching her husband with any of this?
“Do you think it’s really okay to tell him?”
“Sure. Why would it not be? You are a couple, after all.”
Hearing Mia’s confident answer cracked Kana up, and she burst out laughing beside herself. Mia was right. They were a couple, a married one at that. How could she forget something so simple? Nothing would ever change that, not even the birth of their daughter. Why did she even think something had changed in the first place? It suddenly seemed so funny she couldn’t stop giggling.
Mia cautiously watched Kana giggle hysterically to herself. She was getting worried that Kana was far drunker than she would admit.
“H-Hey, umm… About Sakura, your daughter… Uh, do you love her? Do you…treasure her?”
“Huh? Of course I do! How could I not adore her? She drives me up the wall a lot, and she can most certainly make me go insane. There are times when I think that I can’t take it anymore, but…that doesn’t really matter.”
Kana segued into boasting about her baby girl, which she did with so much gusto one could wonder what all of her previous complaints were for. Sakura could count all the way to ten; she could make scissors with her hand; she would compliment Kana on her cooking when she ate and snugly cuddled up against her when she slept; the way she acted so cute and dependent on her mommy was utterly adorable… Somehow, it seemed that there was a lot more to brag about than to grumble over. Mia giggled softly at that, and looked up into the night sky.
There was no moon, but the stars were beautiful. Today had been a blur, and she had no idea how she ended up where she was now, but Kana was gushing about her daughter happily beside her, and so Mia found herself not minding everything that had led up to this at all.
Mia’s mother had breathed her last when she was just two years old. Naturally, she had no clear memories of her; she could only remember her face from a photograph. That was why her father had been the only parent to her and her everything. Father used to tell her that her mother had adored her, but when she heard Kana complaining about her family life, it made her uneasy.
What if her mother had just hidden her troubles from her father, and there were actually days when she had thought of Mia as a bother? But then she noticed how radiant Kana looked when she was speaking about her daughter, and her heart felt light as a feather again. If her mother had felt tired and at her wits’ end at times, but still loved her on a deeper level…Mia would be happy with that. She hoped that it was true, as she let her thoughts wander to her deceased mother.
***
PLEASANTLY warm from their long soak, the two girls put on crisp, rustling yukatas and left the springs behind, engrossed in lighthearted chatter. The moment they were out the door, Mia was greeted by the sight of two incredibly familiar people, along with a man she didn’t know, and a small girl.
“R-Ren and Aya?!”
Ren’s gaze locked on Mia, “HA! HA! HA! Mia… So, all this time we’ve been searching desperately all over for you in our rental car, you were here, enjoying delicious food and relaxing in a hot spring? You are so gonna get it!”
“Oh, Mia! We were so worried! What are you doing in a place like this?” Aya lightly knocked her on the head.
As Mia was gingerly rubbing the sore spot on her head, she heard Kana’s voice. “…Masayuki.”
The way Kana spoke his name left no doubt in Mia’s heart that this was the woman’s husband. Why would her husband be with those two? Mia looked thoroughly mystified, so Aya offered an explanation.
“Some time ago, a woman was reported missing. She disappeared from the town park at around noon, and although her family looked everywhere for her, they couldn’t find her.”
While they had been combing the park and its vicinity, there had been a call from a station attendant who had seen Kana and a teenage girl head towards a platform together. When Ren and Aya had caught on that the teenage girl must have been Mia, they felt their blood freeze in their veins. They had been absolutely convinced that Mia had gone on a trip on her own, but now they had learned she had been spotted with a woman who had been reported missing!
Had Mia gotten herself involved in some kind of trouble? The two police officers, convinced that that must be the case, had taken Kana’s husband and daughter with them and had come all the way here. Thanks to the tracking device, they had been able to approximate their location quite easily, but there were so many hotels and inns in this area; they had had no idea which place it was exactly that Mia and Kana had chosen to stay, so they had to resort to asking around randomly and hoping for the best. The search had taken them quite some time, but eventually they had reached here.
“Ugh, here we were, thinking you’ve gotten yourself into some kind of crazy mess, worried out of our minds, looking for you everywhere, and here you are, stuffing yourself full of food and lazing around in a hot spring without a care in the world! You are so in trouble for this. I’m not letting this go until I dish out some extra special punishment!” Ren gritted out, closing in on her with malicious determination.
Mia backed away, snapping defensively at him, “Wh-Why in the world did you have to worry about me?! Whatever I choose to do is none of your concern! I am the Supreme Ruler of Evil! It is my job to perpetrate evil deeds. You get no say in what I do to perform my duties!” Mia yelled at him with mounting desperation.
That didn’t seem to faze Ren, who took a final big step towards her, and pulled her into his chest by the arm, tightly closing his arms around her. Holding her in his arms, he whispered in her ear, “…I’m begging you, please, if you’re gonna stir up trouble, do it somewhere close to us. Don’t stray too far away from me,” he bit out, almost pleadingly.
Mia’s eyes flew open in surprise, her mind racing a mile a minute. She felt so confused her head started spinning. Why was there so much sadness dripping from his voice? How could she deny him after hearing it?
“Why? …Why do you care about me so much? We are enemies. You are the Champions of Justice, and I…I am the Supreme R-Ruler of the evil orga—”
“Mia. To me and to Ren, to all of us, you are just Mia before you are the Supreme Ruler of Evil, and we worry about you. Caring about people has nothing to do with their position,” Aya softly asserted, brushing through Mia’s hair with a gentle hand.
When Mia looked up at Ren, she noticed that his brows were furrowed, his face drawn painfully. His clothes under her cheek were damp. A tentative sniff revealed a slight tang of sweat. He had probably worked it up while looking for her. As she glanced over at Aya, she saw that her shirt was sticking to her chest too, a dark circle of perspiration discoloring it. Mia felt terrible at her discoveries.
“…S-Sorry,” a word of remorse spontaneously tumbled from her lips.
Her own mouth was betraying her, apologizing to her mortal foes, the Champions of Justice, against her will—something she would never be caught doing under normal circumstances. Ren smiled softly in response and tenderly stroked her back. Mia felt warmth spread through her heart at that one small gesture.
Kana and Mia quickly changed from yukatas into their regular clothes, and exited the ryokan. Kana and her family said they would take a cab to the train station. Ren, Aya, and, by extension, Mia, would go back after returning the car they had rented, which meant that this was where Mia and Kana would part ways.
“Glad that we could find the missing person within the day, before something happened to her!”
“Yes. I am so sorry to have caused you so much trouble.” Kana bowed her head politely, and her husband, who was standing by her side, did the same.
Mia eyed Kana pensively, thinking whether she should say something to her. The woman, however, beat her to it, flashing her a big smile. “Mia, thanks for listening to me and my petty whining. I feel so much better now. Thanks to you, I feel like I might’ve gained a new perspective.”
“I-I see. Um, well, what can I say… Be good to your husband and daughter!” Mia said, awkwardly scratching her head.
Kana nodded, lovingly looking at her family. Her husband tentatively called out to Mia. “Um, I still don’t understand how you’re connected to all of this, but thank you very much for being there for Kana.”
“N-Not at all! I did nothing worthy of your gratitude! Rather, I was the one who abdu—A-Ah, err, never mind! Um…” Mia stammered, flailing her arm out in front of her as if trying to wipe away what she had just said.
She couldn’t very well say, “Hey, I was the one who kidnapped your wife,” so to distract the man from her slip of the tongue, she blurted out the first thing that came to her mind. “C-Could you…could you talk more to Kana? A-And give her lots of love!”
“Wha—Mia?!” Kana gaped, startled, her face rapidly reddening, but Mia had already lost control of her mouth, babbling further.
“I-I completely understand that you care for your daughter very much, but Kana was feeling lonely. She was struggling, but kept it all to herself, so as not to cause you unnecessary worry. S-So, wh-when you manage to get some alone time, don’t call her ‘mommy’, call her by her name, a-and, k-kiss her, and, well, you know, things like that. Um…”
“M-Mia! What are you saying?! N-No, Masayuki, it’s not like that, it’s, uh—”
Kana’s husband watched the two girls working themselves into a frenzy with slightly widened eyes for a while, eventually breaking down and laughing out loud, “Ahaha, so that’s what this was about! I’ve noticed that you’ve been a bit off lately. So this is why! …You should’ve told me earlier, so silly. But, I’m sorry. I was the reason that you pushed it all under the rug and sucked it up.”
“Shh, I know. Let’s take our time speaking about it afterwards. I’m really sorry. Let’s talk things through nice and slow, okay?” Masayuki offered, gently stroking Kana’s head.
Kana nodded, sniffling.
“Well, Mia, you don’t mince words, do you? Don’t worry, I’ll do as you said. Thanks for lending Kana an ear.”
“N-No thanks needed. Take care of your daughter too!”
Mia had no idea what kind of facial expression was appropriate for this kind of situation, so she ended up looking distraught. The couple, carrying their sleeping daughter, stepped into the taxi and rode off. Ren, Aya, and Mia watched them go until the car disappeared from sight.
“So, how in the world did you end up here? Did that woman, Kana, kidnap you or something?”
“N-No! It was the opposite, actually. It was me who abducted her, er—”
Mia realized that she had said something she shouldn’t have too late. Ren scowled, his face darkening beyond his default ‘villain-face’ into something utterly ferocious, and Aya raised her eyebrows, flabbergasted. Mia gave up on trying to salvage the situation and ended up spilling everything.
“Bwahaha, ahahahaha! Hoo! Boy, you’re such a dummy! Oh my, you really do lack in the mental fortitude department! Pffffff!”
“R-Ren, stop laughing so much at the poor thing! But, hehe… Ahaha! It’s classic Mia, isn’t it?”
Ren and Aya were in stitches over Mia’s story. This raised her hackles so much she exploded, a blush high on her cheeks. “This is no laughing matter! Yes, I was a bit intimidated by Kana…but I really thought that this is what a kidnapping is supposed to be like!”
“That’s why I’m telling you that you aren’t the sharpest tool in the shed! Ahaha! You abducted her, and yet ended up paying for everything: the food, train tickets, her drinks, the snacks, even the lodgings! She totally mooched off of you! Hope you enjoyed your trip!”
“Shut your insolent mouth! Th-This was a slight miscalculation on my part. Next time, I will pull off a perfect kidnapping, you shall see!”
“And end up getting sponged off of by someone new? I think you should give it a rest. You aren’t suited for these sorts of evil deeds, I’m telling you. Haha!”
Mia made a face and sulkily looked away. Then she seemed to remember something important, so she turned her face back to glance at Ren, and mumbled awkwardly, “Um, so, by the way… I don’t think I will be able to come to Subaru’s for a while. Could you please tell him that for me?”
“Eh? Why’s that?” Ren, tired from all the laughing he had done, let out an exhale to catch his breath, and inclined his head to the side.
Mia winced uncomfortably and explained, “Uh, this whole incident drained my funds, and I don’t have much money left to use until the end of the month. I will have to subsist on onigiri for a while.”
“Uh-huh, and you think that Subaru and I will just nod and say, ‘okay, gotcha’? Subaru’s gonna throw a fit. Don’t sweat it, you’re still welcome at his place.”
“B-But, I cannot very well freeload off of you both knowing I have nothing to pay you back with!”
Mia’s face radiated unease; she was very particular about financial matters. Seeing her expression shift like that, Ren narrowed his eyes slightly, and flashed that infamous evil grin of his.
“In that case, let’s settle it with punishment. If you take the extra-special version of it quietly, including the bonus for making me almost lose my mind with worry, not only will I let this whole thing slide, I’ll throw in paying for your share of grocery expenses, too!”
“Huuh?! I require nothing of the sort! As if I’d take anything quietly!”
“Oh? So the ‘sorry’ you said earlier was just hot air? Is the feeling behind your apology that shallow?”
Mia’s face showed extreme discomfort at Ren’s stinging words. She cast a quick glance to Aya, begging her for help, but the young woman just observed the pair over the edge of her smartphone with a small smile, seemingly content to assume the role of a bystander. Mia slumped her shoulders in defeat and looked up at Ren through her lashes.
“It looks like I have no choice. Very well…”
“Heh. …Atta girl, glad to see you showing some remorse.”
A slow smile unfurling over his features, Ren gently but firmly gripped Mia’s shoulders; her body tensed with apprehension. Then, he leisurely let his lips trail up the length of her neck.
“Mmh?!”
A shiver ran down Mia’s spine. His smile deepening, Ren sucked on her neck gently, making small sucking noises. When he pulled away, a crimson mark was left blooming on the milky-white expanse of her skin where his lips had sealed over it. He regarded his handiwork with apparent satisfaction.
“Ah, a-are you…done yet…?”
“As if. Not even remotely,” Ren replied in a husky voice.
“Not even remotely?!” Mia almost squealed in panic, as she tightly shut her eyes, scared of what was to come.
She looked almost painfully adorable, still not used to these things after all this time. Raising her chin slightly with his hand, Ren pressed their lips together. It felt the same as usual, yet different; a long, insistent kiss. Eventually, deciding it was enough, Ren gently broke the kiss. Mia blinked owlishly, her face stained scarlet.
“Th-there was… t-tongue…”
“Yep. I didn’t call it ‘extra special’ for nothing. Hope you’ll think twice before misbehaving next time!” Ren smiled complacently.
“Bleh.” She dejectedly stared down.
“You guys done? I think we’d better go soon!”
“Yep, all done! Let’s get outta here.”
Mia was manhandled into sitting in the backseat of the rental car, Aya settling down next to her. Ren hit the gas pedal, and off they went. The girls in the backseat started a conversation, apparently about Kana. Ren eyed Mia through the rear-view mirror; she was still red in the face, her tone somewhat subdued.
Well, ain’t she the cutest, Ren thought, driving while listening to Mia talk, his eyes crinkled at the corners.
***
THREE weeks had passed since the tumultuous abduction incident, and Mia’s summer break was nearing its end. She had battled with the monstrous amounts of homework she had been given, had patrolled the town as the Supreme Ruler of Evil, and now, she was hugging a watermelon to her chest with a sullen face.
Why is this happening to me? Inside the moving car, Mia let a small sigh escape her.
The car was a spacious minivan with seating for eight people, divided into three rows of seats. At the wheel sat Misaki with Subaru right next to him in the front passenger seat. Then in the second row were Shou and Aya, with Ren and Mia behind them in the third row.
But seriously, why is this happening to me? Mia knit her brows helplessly.
Yes, Mia had been kidnapped by the Crow Rangers. It had been just another day of her summer break, when she’d put on her cape, the wand already in her hand, and had stormed out of her apartment ready to seize the day.
However, it had been exactly at that moment that her neighbor Mrs. Ozawa had chosen to make her appearance, and Mia ended up receiving a watermelon from her. She had decided she’d better go make her rounds after putting the watermelon in the fridge, and when she had been just about to return to her apartment, a black minivan had abruptly stopped, brakes screeching.
Mia had paid it no mind, making to go up the stairs, but then the van’s door opened with a bang, and she felt a sharp tug backwards. Frozen in shock, she had been quickly stuffed into the van. The one who had pulled her in by the arm turned out to be Ren.
Mia had been protectively clutching the watermelon as she was dragged inside, and it was not seconds later that the van had taken off. The car, Mia had discovered to her abject horror, contained the full lineup of Crow Rangers.
“Well, now that everyone’s on board, let’s hit it!” Aya had enthused.
What is going on? I don’t understand a thing. And just like that, Mia had been taken captive by the Crow Rangers.
“Um, I would really appreciate it if someone gave me an explanation about what is going on right now.”
“Hm? Well, I’ll give you a hint!”
“A hint?!” Mia echoed incredulously, earning herself a grin from Ren, who had been smoking out of the open window, but turned to look at her after her outburst.
He patted the air in a placating manner toward Mia. She just continued fuming about annoying Rangers kidnapping other people and then daring to talk about “hints”. Ren jerked his chin to point at the trunk of the car.
“Your hint is the stuff lying in the trunk.”
“The ‘stuff’?!”
With a grand total of three seat rows, there wasn’t much in the way of storage. When she peeked into the cramped space, Mia discovered a cooler with a bunch of paper bags crammed on top of it. Lying haphazardly next to it were three fully loaded supermarket plastic bags. Her inspection thus finished, Mia readjusted her seating position and tilted her head to the side in confusion.
“You don’t get it?”
“No. Are you all going somewhere together?”
“Bingo!” Shou responded gleefully from the second row. “Coordinating our days off was so hard! See how Subaru’s conked out in the front? He just got off duty.”
Indeed, Subaru was sound asleep in the front seat, his arms crossed over his chest and his eyes shut tight. Mia remembered that during yesterday’s dinner it had been just her and Ren too.
“Misaki and I are off duty, and only Ren and Aya could take the day off. You see, ideally we wanted to go to the seaside, but we gotta go somewhere we can return from quickly in case the station calls us in. Sorry, but we’ll have to stay close to town!”
“I don’t really mind tha—Wait! Why are you taking me with you? I was about to do my rounds!” Mia fumed, hugging the watermelon.
Aya turned around, holding a Pocky box in her hand, and drawled exasperatedly, “What are you talking about, girl? You can take a break during Obon, at the very least! You should be honoring the spirits of your ancestors during this time, not running around plotting world domination. Have you even visited your family grave yet? Want a Pocky?”
“Oh! I will h-have one. Ugh, what am I saying…?” Mia vehemently shook her head, but still snatched two chocolate-covered sticks and proceeded to chew on them huffily. “I paid respects at m-my family grave yesterday. That was supposed to be the end of my summer vacation. …Why is this happening?”
“Want a Toppo, Mia?”
“Yes, thank you. Where are you planning to go anyway? You said ‘close to town’, but…”
As Mia was munching eagerly on the hollowed breadstick filled with chocolate paste, Misaki answered in an apathetic voice all the way from the driver’s seat, “We’re going to Okutama. …Ugh, I’m with Mia on this one. Why is this happening?” he complained, shoulders sagging, his hands on the wheel.
“Yeah, but what can you do?” Ren said without a trace of remorse in his voice, grinding his cigarette into his pocket ashtray. “You’re the only one with a minivan. You don’t even have a family, but you own a minivan. …I don’t even have to ask if you’ve done it in this car—it’s obvious that’s why you own one. I just hope you cleaned it afterwards?”
“Oooh, it’s for going for looong rides with your girlfriend, the one you have a long-distance relationship with… I see. If you fold down the second and third row seats, you can make them flat. Ooh! Kinky!”
“Argh! Quit talking about this kinda stuff in the presence of a minor! Also, stop saying such vulgar things!” Misaki squawked at Ren and Aya who were milking it for all it was worth.
Mia was listening to the conversation unfold with a blank look on her face, not really following what they were talking about.
“Heh? For all you say about us being ‘vulgar’, you did take the time to tint your windows.”
“It’s only because I hate it when the sun shines right in my face!” Retorted Misaki, shaking his head in annoyance at his friends’ antics.
“Come on, you must’ve done it here at least once!” Shou prodded with a cheeky grin.
“NOT! EVEN! ONCE! I only bought a minivan ‘cause I like big cars, okay?”
Shou made a face as if to say “how boring” and started fishing around in a box of snacks, when Mia, cocking her head to the side curiously, asked him, “Hey, what were you talking about? Misaki is ‘kinky’?”
“Don’t call me that!”
“Well, there are a lot of guys who are kinky, in general, but it seems like this one isn’t. Don’t worry, you’ll find out what that was all about soon enough. Ren’s gonna explain it all to you, nice and slow, trust me. His car’s small, but it’s still a station wagon, after all.”
“Huh?! What’s fun about doing it in a cramped car? Besides, unlike Misaki, I’m not an exhibitionist.”
“Well, I ain’t one either!” Misaki shouted, but his voice got drowned out by everyone’s cackles.
“It’s not funny!” The poor man whined pitifully.
Mia, who utterly failed to comprehend what was going on, sulkily stared down at the watermelon she relegated to her lap. All of a sudden, she felt someone tap her on the head. Raising her head, she realized it was Ren, who sent a smile her way, “Don’t let this bother you,” he said.
***
IT was a long way from the town where Mia and the Rangers lived to Okutama. Lulled by the car’s movements, Mia found herself gradually nodding off. When her head started lolling forward, someone gently shook her.
“Mia, Mia.”
“Mmh—”
“Wake up, Mia. We’re here. If you won’t wake up in three seconds, I’m gonna kiss you.”
“Mm… Kiss…?”
“Three… Two…” a male voice was counting down.
“One…ze—”
“Aagh!”
Mia’s head shot up with a start. Ren’s face was right in front of her, barely a hair’s distance between their noses.
“Tsk, we’re here, like I said.”
“Did you just click your tongue at me?!”
“Nah, you’re just hearing things!” Ren said nonchalantly and climbed out of the car.
Apparently, she ended up falling completely asleep at some point during the car ride. Mia seemed to vaguely remember leaning against something warm and solid, someone gently holding her shoulders. She could have easily figured it out if she tried, but with her sleep-addled brain refusing to kick into gear, she just stepped out of the car, cuddling her watermelon close to her body.
“Ooh…”
A quick look around showed that she was in some forest. Although she could see a road and a camping site nearby, if she cast her gaze a bit further, countless trees filled her line of vision. A fence stretched over the back of the parking lot; when Mia examined it, she discovered there was a river flowing at the foot of the cliff. Its waters calm and tranquil, it seemed like a great place to enjoy a barbecue or do some fishing.
“Mia, over here!”
When she turned around at the sound of her name, she saw Aya beckoning her to join her with one hand, while the other hand was occupied with a bag. When Mia approached Aya, she took Mia’s free hand in hers and, after walking some distance, they reached a two-story log house, the door to which Aya promptly opened with a key.
“Come on in! This is our home for the day.”
Mia cautiously stepped in. She saw a spacious living room, a kitchen, and a staircase leading up to the second floor.
“There’s two bedrooms upstairs, one for the boys and one for the girls. And over here, we can make our barbecue!” Aya bubbled, calling Mia over to where she was standing.
Mia stepped through the balcony door and found herself on a large roofed terrace; there were a number of wooden chairs lined up on the deck, and a grill too.
“Wow…”
Mia curiously stared at the big grill for a few moments before she went over to the railing, leaning on it with her elbows and examining her surroundings. There was a river flowing under the balcony, the same one she saw earlier at the parking lot, and a number of families and groups of people milling about, enjoying their vacation on riverbanks, fishing and barbecuing.
Taking in the pleasant view and wonderful weather, Mia returned indoors. Aya was just taking food out of the cooler and moving it into the fridge.
“Uh, um…”
“What is it? Ah, the tea’s right there. Lemme give you a cup.”
“Er, no, that’s not what I wanted to ask. Um, why did you take me here?” Mia asked, hugging the watermelon to her chest with both hands.
The question seemed to surprise the older woman, her mouth opening slightly.
“Uhhh, because Shou came up with the idea of doing a barbecue with the whole gang during Obon? If we’re all going, that naturally means that we’re bringing you with us too.”
“B-But why would you bring me with you?”
“Well, if you decide to get up to no good while we’re out of town, we’ll get called back to deal with any mischief, right? If that’s the case, all we need to do is just take you with us in the first place, see?”
“So that’s the reason!”
Mia almost dropped to her knees, her shoulders slouching. She felt deflated. So that was how it was. They had wanted to have some fun together. However, if Mia were to cause trouble in town while they were away, they’d have to intervene as Crow Rangers, which would bring an end to their time off. They had no regard in the slightest for her plans or convenience.
For Champions of Justice, they are terribly inconsiderate, grumbled Mia inside her head.
Aya chuckled at the displeasure written plainly on Mia’s features. She stepped closer to her and gently lifted the watermelon from her hands.
“Come on, you don’t have to carry it around anymore. Let’s eat it for dessert! You came all the way here, so just let it all go and enjoy it! Now, let’s get something ready for when the guys come back. Give me a hand, okay?”
As soon as Aya put the watermelon in the fridge, she went to the kitchen and started setting up for the barbecue.
Truth be told…this ‘kidnapping’ was meaningless—if Mia wanted to, she could just fly back home. Or, fighting the Crow Rangers was certainly an option, too. There were ordinary people here as well, and that would cause trouble for them, but why did she have to care about that? She had her cape and her wand with her, so she was free to fight as she pleased. …And yet—
Mia took some of the ingredients from the fridge to the kitchen, and began peeling the leaves off the cabbage and trimming the stems of the shiitake mushrooms. Why? This was a question she had asked herself countless times already when dealing with humanity in general. It was as if there was something inside her heart that burned with yearning, tingled with excitement, leaped in anticipation.
Barbecue for dinner. Ren and the other guys had gone to the nearby supermarket to buy some drinks and snacks, according to Aya. Mia hadn’t had barbecue since the school camp some years ago.
It had always been Mia and her father, just the two of them. She never really went out to play with her friends, because she had always been told that there was work to be done. Day in, day out, she had trained by meditating on the same image and manifesting it, until the magic that her father had taught her about started coming to her naturally. That, though, had been it. Father had given her love and attention, of course, but they had never done anything for fun. Mia hadn’t known the delight of having fun with someone; she only had memories of being with her father.
Aya kindly showed Mia, who was really clumsy with a knife, how to use it properly. Mia was cutting onions, her movements still awkward, when the door to the log house crashed open, heavily thudding against the wall.
“Honeys, I’m home!”
“Oh, welcome back!” Aya responded to Shou’s greeting.
The latter lumbered into the kitchen, both of his hands weighed down by enormous supermarket bags. “I bought the beer you wanted! It’s E…Bi…Su—Ta-da!” He put the sparkly gold tin can on the table with a flourish.
“Whoa!” Aya exclaimed appreciatively.
“I’m back! I just grabbed a random bottle of juice off the racks, I hope you’re o—Hey, Mia, why are you crying?”
“…Huh?”
Ren entered the house soon after Shou, and immediately upon reaching the kitchen, he let a startled question fall from his lips at the sight that greeted him. Tears were dripping down Mia’s face in two fat streams.
“Ah, it’s the onions.”
“The onions?! I almost had a heart attack!”
“Wh-What are you getting mad for? I can’t help this; the tears just keep on flowing!”
Mia couldn’t fathom why Ren had looked so shaken at the sight of her crying. Now, the tears weren’t the only thing running down her face anymore, there was copious amounts of snot involved, too. As Mia sniffled repeatedly, snot bouncing up and down from her nose each time, Ren couldn’t take it anymore. He fished a cloth out of his pocket and began wiping her face down with it.
“Mmh! Mmph! R-Ren…too…rough!”
“Zip it. …Hm, there ya go. All clean.”
When the rough bout of wiping was over, the liquids covering Mia’s face were gone without a trace. Ren put the hand towel back in his pocket and headed out to the terrace. …He probably needed a smoke.
“What was that even supposed to be, ugh,” Mia muttered under her breath as she transferred the onions she managed to finish cutting to a plate, grimacing slightly at her tingling nose and undereye area that took the brunt of the towel assault.
Shou and Aya snickered behind her back at that.
“Is he trying to be her boyfriend or her big brother?”
“That’s ‘cause Ren’s absolutely no good at expressing his feelings. He’s only got two modes: trying to shove his tongue down her throat from the get-go, or behaving like a mother hen. That’s what makes it so amusing to watch though!” Shou shrugged with a devilish grin.
Just then, Misaki and Subaru appeared, having finished parking in the garage, and joined in the preparations for the barbecue.
***
THE wooden table on the terrace was loaded with an assortment of cuts of meat and vegetables, canned and nonalcoholic beers, bottled tea and juice, while the grill fire crackled merrily. Subaru was in charge of cooking, grilling meat and bringing vegetables to sizzling perfection one piece after another with practiced ease. Mia followed his every move with rapt attention.
“…Is this really so interesting?” he asked her.
“Yes. It’s not what I imagined it would be. For the barbecue I remember, we used wood and charcoal to start a fire, and then put a grill rack or a camping pot over it to cook food.”
“This one also uses charcoal, but here you can regulate the heat level by turning the knob.”
Wow, what a handy contraption! Mia regarded the grill with a newfound respect. Subaru watched her calmly, checking the temperatures of the meat.
“Beef tongue’s ready, everyone!”
“Okay! Well, let’s dig in then!”
At Misaki’s words, everyone reached for their drink of choice. Mia poured herself a glass of apple juice, and everyone toasted. As soon as the meal began, the air became filled with noise and boisterous chatter.
Misaki, who drove all the way there, was in a sour mood at first, questioning why he had to participate in the festivities too, but a generous portion of grilled meat restored his good spirits in no time, putting a smile on his face.
Subaru was heaping meat and veggies upon plates thrust towards him from people asking for seconds. He kept the best cuts for himself, though, and continued cooking, a beer in his hand. Shou and Aya were exchanging complaints about their workplace, and seemed to enjoy the party just fine. A few steps away from the rest, Ren was lighting up a cigarette and nibbling on grilled meat instead of the normal snacks.
Mia took a seat at the table and was inhaling the meat. It was so good! Not to mention that grilled meat was a rare treat for her. She was thus minding her own business, when suddenly, an avalanche of vegetables dropped onto her plate. …It was Subaru’s doing.
“Eat your veggies.”
“Ugh, but can’t I just enjoy meat, at least on this occasion?”
“Grilled vegetables taste amazing, just so you know. Grilled shiitake mushrooms, in particular, are a delicacy. I’m making some baked potatoes in the coals now too.”
Mia thought that baked potatoes weren’t a special enough dish to make for the party, but kept it to herself, chomping down on a shiitake instead. “Mm… Oh! It’s delicious!”
Just by getting grilled over hot coals, the abundant juices from the shiitake, a mushroom she had eaten so many times before, gained a special, deep flavor and aroma. Subaru sprinkled some lemon juice on top of the mushroom she was eating, and she found that the slight hint of sour complemented it perfectly. Subaru, nodding in satisfaction to her reaction, returned to his duties at the grill.
After that, Mia tried eating other veggies, and all of them tasted heavenly: the slightly crunchy pumpkin, onions and cabbage turned sweet by the heat, fragrant bell peppers.
“Whoa, I just made a new discovery! Who would have thought that grilling turns vegetables this tasty?”
She couldn’t help but wonder if she could replicate this at home. If all you had to do was cut and roast the veggies to make them this good, she could save money on the condiments, which would also make it very practical. Mia continued munching on her food, entertaining such domestic thoughts, until it was time to try the baked potato. She had Subaru put some butter on it for her, and bit into it very carefully, huffing around the small mouthful to cool it down somewhat. She was surprised to discover that it too, was scrumptious.
“Mm! Mmm! I never would have thought a lowly potato could be this delicious!”
“You really get surprised over the most mundane things, don’t you?”
She didn’t know when he had managed to sneak up on her, but Ren was standing right beside her, eating a baked potato as well. His topping of choice was mayonnaise.
“Is it good with the mayo too?”
“Yep, real good! Want some?”
Seeing Mia nod, he held his half-eaten potato out to the girl’s mouth. She took a small bite. She found that the hint of sourness in the mayonnaise enhanced the potato’s flavor.
“I know, right?” Ren smiled at Mia upon hearing her state her honest opinion with the utmost seriousness.
The two of them nibbled on their respective potatoes for a while in companionable silence, until, out of the blue, Ren ventured a question, “Hey, Mia, I was thinking… You say you’re the Supreme Ruler of Evil, but what is it that you do, exactly?”
“…Huh?” Mia blinked at Ren in surprise.
He finished his potato and took a swig of his beer. “Well, we’re doubling as Champions of Justice, but I can’t say we’ve got a good understanding of the situation. The rest of the gang’s the same—one day, a scrap of paper came out of nowhere, signed by our chief, and that was how we got the job.”
“Seriously, I couldn’t believe my eyes! All of a sudden, he’s all like, ‘stop the Supreme Ruler of Evil!’ or coming up with stuff like ‘Crow Rangers’ and ‘Pink’… I thought the poor old guy went completely bonkers,” Aya inserted herself in the conversation.
Mia looked around the terrace and noticed that Misaki, Subaru, and Shou were all listening in. Apparently, they really didn’t know much about what they had gotten involved in.
However, Mia couldn’t offer much in the way of explanation either. Most of the battles and knowledge of the wars from before faded with her grandfather and all but disappeared with her father. What she was striving to do was extremely simple, but she was still struggling to find a concrete way to make it work, plagued by contradictions and inconsistencies in the teachings her father passed down to her.
“What is it that I do exactly, huh? Maybe it’s worth telling you who are my mortal foes! We are working tirelessly towards our long-cherished dream of achieving world domination!”
“Uh, we kinda know that already. But what are you doing to make that happen?”
“W-Well, that is… F-For now, I decided to take over the town I am living in before I advance on the world, so whenever I have free time, I am patrolling my domain, and beating up whatever reprehensible miscreant who does something that contradicts my ideal or causes trouble for the ordinary working class, or, at least, that is my intention.”
As she ended the explanation of what she was currently up to, Subaru crossed his arms and said, “I see.”
Shou also nodded in understanding, and flashed her a grin, stretching his lips around the mouthful of potato. “So that’s why you were flying around the town whenever you were on a break!”
Then, Aya raised her hand, like a diligent student in class. “I want to ask something, too. What are you going to do if you pull off taking over the world?”
“Eh?! I haven’t thought that far ahead. But you had better be ready for what comes after I defeat you—I shall activate the great magical art of darkness, thus completing the world conquest!”
“The great magical art of darkness?” Everyone raised their eyebrows.
“Ah!” Subaru exclaimed, seemingly having remembered something. “Are you talking about that beautiful rain of light that you showed us the day we first met? I seem to remember you calling that the great magical art of darkness.”
“Ah, the one Mia used to run away from us with her tail between her legs?”
“NO! That was the magic I used as a part of my distraction strategy! The spell I shall use after I lay you lot low is a different one!”
Everyone hummed as if they understood what she was talking about, but she could tell they didn’t. No wonder, for Mia didn’t understand it all that well either. What she did know was that there was a spell that she was supposed to execute in the wake of triumphing over the Crow Rangers.
Mia had been taught the great magical art of darkness by her father ever since she had been but a small child, training to manifest the correct image over and over again. Mia hadn’t been allowed time to play with her friends or to devote to her hobbies—all she had ever done was learn the great magical art of darkness and other spells that came with it from her father.
If Mia had to use one word to describe that great magical art of darkness, it would be ‘history’. Her father had carefully explained to her things not unlike those one would learn about in an elementary school’s social studies class, and then she had to recreate the scenes in her imagination in great detail and make images out of them. This kind of training had continued day after day.
This was why, if Mia was being completely honest, she couldn’t venture a guess as to what would happen when she used that spell after defeating the Crow Rangers. A gun salute…or something?
As Mia sunk into a reverie, Misaki noisily poured himself a cup of tea, breaking the silence hovering over the terrace, and addressed Mia. “Have you got any aspirations, something you wanna achieve with the whole world conquest thing? ‘Cause usually, when someone’s talking world domination, they have a picture of what kinda society they wanna create.”
“Of course I have that! I want to create a world where the workforce toiling for my benefit can spend their days safely, pleasantly, and in good health! People will most probably resent and reject my dominion, but that cannot be helped, for I am ‘evil’! However, the ordinary folk bear no sin, so I would at least want to provide a happy and merry everyday life for them.”
Ren’s eyes widened at Mia’s speech.
What was she saying? It almost sounded like…
“Hey, hey, Mia, what about the people who are not in the workforce, like the seniors and the children?”
“Hmph! The children are the future workforce that must be protected and kept safe! And seniors and those with disabilities must be treated with kindness and respect!”
…a child’s “perfect world”.
There’s a phrase that children would often use when describing the ideals of a ‘Champion of Justice’. That phrase is, “a world where everybody is happy”. What Mia was talking about was essentially that very same thing.
When children become adults and learn how society works, they mostly come to realize the futility of that dream. There is no way for all the people in the world to attain happiness; it’s difficult enough for the people in one’s immediate vicinity to do that. Eventually, they will learn that making even themselves happy is easier said than done, and will spend the rest of their lives in a desperate pursuit of bliss.
That was why Misaki, and everyone else, thought the same thing—that Mia’s thinking, although she was saying she was evil, was fundamentally that of a ‘Champion of Justice’. Why was it, then, that she insisted so stubbornly that she was ‘evil’? It looked horribly forced on her part.
“…I’ll try bringing it up with the chief,” Ren muttered.
There were a number of things that Mia had mentioned that he was curious about, and a lot of mystery surrounding the previous Supreme Rulers of Evil, such as the tracking device surgically implanted in Mia’s body. Clearing up those questions would be his first priority now.
“Is something wrong?” Mia inquired, her head tilted in puzzlement.
“Nah, I’m fine,” Ren smiled and patted the girl on the head.
“But that must be tough on you. No matter how much you patrol the town, there will always be something. Even we, the police, apprehend and arrest so many people every day, but there’s no end to the troublemakers,” Subaru, who kept silent per usual, spoke up, a beer in his hand.
Mia nodded solemnly, crossing her arms over her chest. “Yes, that’s true, the small conflicts will not cease. However, I must not let that stop me! Oh, right! This is not related to the previous topic, but there is magic I have been training to cast in order to enforce my ideals. I was thinking of activating it behind the school building someday.”
When Ren asked her why it had to be behind the school building specifically, she explained that there were delinquents who liked to frequent that particular place at her school, whom she beat up on an almost daily basis, but who just wouldn’t learn their lesson and continued to engage in shakedowns, pushing weaker people around, and smoking.
“This is why I want to create a flower garden behind my school building. Those scoundrels will not be able to rob others of their money anymore when they will be surrounded by beautiful flowers, right? I intend to secretly cast this spell in all schools around the country! He-he-he… Let me treat you to a sneak peek! It’s still a work in progress, though!” Mia exclaimed, pride oozing from her, and stood up from her seat.
She grabbed the wand she left propped against her chair, and twirled it. Then, she fixed the image in her head, and let the words ring out, pouring intent into them. “Break open and bloom, o flowers of the heart!”
As soon as the last sound escaped her lips, the ground beneath the Crow Rangers’ feet became shrouded in a faint glow. Then, right out of the terrace floor, a multitude of flowers emerged, their buds instantly breaking open to reveal the colorful petals within. Gerberas, carnations, daisies, violets, lotuses, sweet peas, dandelions. The air was filled with the sweet, slightly grassy smell so characteristic to flowers. This was indeed a true “flower garden”.
“How pretty…”
“Yeah,” Subaru gave a faint nod in response to Aya’s words of marvel.
They followed the stems with their gazes, and were surprised to see that the flowers seemed to be rooted in the grains of wood on the planks lining the terrace floor. Even Misaki and Shou seemed to have lost their ability to speak in awe of this sight.
Ren was…he was looking at Mia. She was slightly out of breath. Was she tired?
“…Is this taxing on you?”
“Yes, I feel a bit drained. I always do when I use magic that conjures things up on a broad area. This flower spell is my original creation, but it’s close in scope to a great magical art of darkness. It’s less exhausting than Solassi, though.”
Solassi, the clumsily named great magical art of darkness. That, too, was something that Mia had come up with on her own; the most beautiful thing she could imagine made real.
“Actually, I don’t have a name for this spell yet. Besides, I would like to add more types of flowers, I’m trying to remember them by looking at a botanical field guide. When I put the finishing touches on this, the flower garden the spell will produce will be even more splendid. Bwa-ha-ha!”
As Mia struck a daunting pose, laughing loudly, Misaki walked through the flower field with a shell-shocked expression.
“These will look good at home!” Aya muttered, stalking around and picking a bouquet.
Subaru and Shou seemed to have fun picking flowers as well. Ren was the only one who didn’t take his eyes off Mia.
Mia was no “villain”. No, she was, rather, more of a good person than the Crow Rangers, who grudgingly wore the title of the ‘Champions of Justice’ just because it was a part of their job. She was also a bit lacking in intelligence, her ways of thinking often more befitting of a child rather than the high school student that she was. Most of all, deep down inside, she was very lonely.
Ren had realized that; Subaru, probably, had too. When the three of them would sit around the dinner table, every time she enjoyed herself or was about to crack a smile, she would cast her eyes down. She didn’t want to let them see that she was having fun, so she would stare down at her plate and hide it.
Every time she did that, Ren wanted to make her laugh, wanted her to show him a smile shining with happiness. He had noticed that she sometimes let her guard down and smiled at Aya or Subaru, but he had yet to see her lips quirk up for him. That upset him far more than he wanted to admit.
She wormed her way into his heart from the first time they had met. The way she wore her heart on her sleeve, her unyielding spirit, and her pluck. The way she reacted to his teasing. The more she tried to run, the more he wanted to give chase and catch her. The more she tried to defy him, the more he wanted to corner her and make her give in to him.
When he kissed her to spite her, she blushed, her dark eyes glistening with emotion. He inevitably got an earful from her for that, but he was obviously attracting her attention. When he realized that, it endeared him to her even more. Before he knew what was happening, his infatuation had already grown into affection, and dare he say it, something more.
Both of the spells Mia claimed had been her original creations, were beautiful—the fairy-tale-like rain of light and the vibrant field of flowers. The two sights were so much like something glimpsed from a little girl’s dream; it could hardly be something a villain would come up with.
If you’re talking magic befitting a villain, you should make it a bit more aggressive, don’cha think? Ren wanted to laugh sometimes.
But, such was Mia. This was the reflection of the very heart of Mia Oonari, kind and unable to harm people without a good reason. Indeed, it was because of the goodness of her heart that she could only produce such images. The magic she gave birth to could only be something beautiful. And yet, the girl called herself evil, despite anyone with eyes seeing that she was anything but evil. Did this eat at her as much as it did at him?
Silently, Ren clenched his fist as he watched Mia shoo Shou away when he started trying to make flower angels in the densely packed flower growths. Ren decided here and now that he would learn more about Mia Oonari.