How exactly girls, who were cursed to be birds in daylight, were going to fight against unwanted neighbors, was a good question to ask. The fact that they lost human consciousness while they were birds, did not help.

“That’s it,” Ri exclaimed, dropping her arms to her sides. “We have to do it at night.”

“Do what, exactly?” Mako twirled her dark hair around her forefinger. She’d been twirling her hair ever since it grew out of that bob. It now hung to her waist, the dark strands hugging her round figure.

“Boo!” Sakura made a face. “Scare the intruders away like this, I guess,” she rolled her eyes.

“Ai? What do you think?” Still twirling the strands of her hair around her finger, Mako took Sakura’s joke seriously and turned towards Ai who was now like their leader. 

Ai nodded her head thoughtfully. “Sure... maybe…”

Kaori furrowed her brows. “But it’s risky.”

Momo shivered, her senses in agreement. All the girls exchanged a grave face. They would have to somehow scare the people living in the red-bricked house during the night, which meant exposing themselves and risking discovery. They hadn’t spoken to another human being besides each other in four years. 

A knot formed in Ai’s throat, but she choked it down and continued to form her thoughts out-loud. “Like Sakura said, we have to scare them.” Ai grabbed a stray stick and scraped ‘fears’ into a dirt patch. “We’ll be like ghosts. Luckily, it's not so far from the truth since the people in this town already think we’re dead. If the newcomers know this, then we’re lucky.”

Ri grinned, clapping her fist into her empty palm in delight. “Oh! Like we’ve come alive!” 

“Umm,” Nana shook her head. “I think we’re supposed to be ghosts haunting our graves.”

Mako leaned forwards. “So, the plan?” 

Ai tapped on the ground where she scraped in ‘fears’ and had drawn a line. “Yes, we’ll start with a list of fears.” 

“Ugh, bugs.” Sakura spoke immediately, hands resting lightly on her hips. “They’re gross!”

“I bet you eat plenty as a bird.” Kaori smirked.

Sakura held up a hand. “No.”

“Okay,” Ai scratched in ‘bugs’ beneath the banner of ‘fears’. “What else is there?” 

“Dogs?” Ri said at the same time Momo suggested, “The fear of discovery?”

“Dogs!?” Sakura exclaimed. “Who in their right mind would be afraid of cute, loyal beans?” 

Ri blushed. “They have teeth.” 

“We have teeth,” Sakura sighed.

Ai continued taking notes. 

The list soon grew long and a plan began its formation to haunt their new neighbors on the following night. The sun appeared over the horizon, and when Ai and the girls opened their eyes again, it was time.

—----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ai crouched behind a row of towering hydrangeas and held up three fingers. “On the count of three-”

THUNK.

Six girls spun their heads towards Kaori. “Sorry.” Kaori whispered, arm out in an obvious show that she’d worked out of line to throw a stone. 

“Go, go, go!” Ai pushed at Nana in front of her who was startled off balance and fell over the fence into a bed of tulips instead of jumping soundlessly as planned. The other girls followed suit, throwing stones at the windows and slowly circling the house at all sides. 

“Okay, whose idea was it to get them to come outside?” asked Ri when their ruckus produced no outcome. 

Ai tossed a pebble in the air. “They’re probably deep sleepers.” She chucked the stone. 

“Yeah… maybe we should try going inside,” shrugged Nana before chucking a stone the size of her fist. It crashed into the front window, shattering the glass. The girls froze and blinked at each other in the darkness, waiting for angry people to stumble outside to confront them. 

Nobody came.

Confused, Ai stepped up and tried the cold, bronze handle of the front door. It swung open soundlessly. Ai looked back at her friends and motioned for Nana and Ri to follow. 

The three girls crept inside which was coated in some blackness darker than the outdoors. Blinking as her eyes adjusted to the inherent lack of light, Ai spread her arms forwards and tiptoed across the hard floor into the open room.

Suddenly an orange glow burst forth and flame erupted on candles across the room, illuminating the girls’ faces and revealing another subject who stood holding a top hat with gloved hands. The girls were so startled with the appearance of the man that in that instant, they forgot their purpose for ever entering the house and turned to escape out the way they came from. The door behind them was now closed.

Ai fumbled for words that excused the group’s behavior. “Pardon our intrusion…” she stammered looking at her feet. “I believe we lost our way…”

The man chuckled and spread his arms wide. “Well, then fate must have brought lost birds here for a reason, no?” In that instant, a stone hit the window and created a deafening crack. Ai’s eyes widened. She and the two other girls were now holding onto each other's hands darting nervously like rabbits caught in the talons of their predator. The man however, looked unbothered and only waved a hand in the direction of the broken window. Before their eyes, the glass resealed itself.

Ai’s legs lost its ability to right itself as she slid to the floor, her hands covering her mouth. Nana and Ri collapsed alongside her, the three girls in a tight huddle as fear curled at their sides. 

Ai knew now that she’d made a mistake. The girls should have left this place. They had dared to face an opponent they did not know in hopes that human trickery of playing ghosts would scare them away. But towering over them, was a wizard.

“You may call me Rothbart,” said the man. He was tall, way past six feet and wore the clothes of a western foreigner of a waistcoat and suit. The wizard was redheaded with a clean-cut ginger beard. He leaned forwards, his sharp, golden eyes caught in the firelight and seemed to pierce through Ai, as if he could read all their secrets. 

Ai then realized how the man had referred to them as lost birds. As if he knew. Something a normal human might not be able to tell at a glance, but he was a wizard…

Ai pushed herself to her knees and bent forwards in a respectful bow. Her forehead touched the cold floor. “Please, sir,” Ai breathed, hoping only for her and the girls to come out of this alive. “Please help us, sir.”

Ai peeked to the sides at Nana and Ri. Seeing their leader in a respectful position, the two quickly followed suit. Their previous plan to scare their new neighbors was now long forgotten.

“We are girls from Hikizu village,” Ai explained. “But no one remembers us because we’ve been under a witch’s spell for four years.”

“I can tell.” spoke the wizard. “There is a certain magical energy within all of you. You girls live double lives. I see more energies outside the house… four more. There are seven of you.”

Ai reddened in shame. “Yes.” So the wizard could already sense their ambush before it had begun. The three girls trembled before the wizard’s feet. “Please remove the spell on us.” Ai begged. “If your good heart may feel it, please help us.” 

Rothbart leaned back and seemed to think deeply. “When the sun rises, you are cranes,” he said out-loud. “And when the sun goes down, you guys are girls...”

“Is there a way to break this cycle?” whispered Ai. 

“Of course,” Rothbart nodded. “Magic is only a kind of science. To break a spell, we only need to reverse it.”

“Revers…?” Ai furrowed her brow with concern. “But I don’t know the original spell.”

“There’s no special incantation for any spells,” laughed Rothbart. “Just intention.” His yellow eyes glinted as if the wizard could see something the girls didn’t. “What was the witch’s purpose for casting this spell on you?” He directed the question towards Ai.  

Ai had to think for a minute. She remembered asking the Hakusei to help them. They’d asked to fly from the flames. Freedom from fire. Freedom.

“We wanted to be free,” Ai replied. She looked up and squarely stared back into the wizard’s yellow eyes. “The purpose was so that we can be free.” 

Wizards, witches, those who used magic and wore the face of a human didn’t have a good reputation. It was why the identity and existence of her sister as a daughter of the Torizora family was hidden. It was why her sister was never given a name. Just a title, Hakusei, meaning, the White Fairy, because her parents had wanted their daughter to be pure. But Ai could sense now that this wizard was like the devil playing with his food. The girls had fallen into his trap.

The man twirled his hat and placed it on the black, wooden table decorated with red flowers Ai didn’t know the name of. “A witch cast a spell on you so that you can be free,” said he. “Yes, I know how to break the spell which you must do by reversing it. To reverse a spell, you must reverse the intention.” 

Ai swallowed the bile that was building up in her throat. Nana and Ri’s grip by her side grew tighter. 

“I think you girls are intelligent enough to understand what I’m saying.” said the wizard. “But I will spell it out for you. If flying is freedom, you must remain chained to the soil. If escapism is what you wished for, you must find yourself trapped.”

“For how long?” challenged Ai. “For how long will you chain us?” She said this because she knew from the sly look of the man, that he would do all the cruel work.

“For how long have you been a bird?” demanded the man. “Four years. It’ll take that long. Then on the last day of reversal, the sun will rise and your human form will remain.” 

Nana collapsed in a sob. Ri buried her face into the folds of Ai’s soiled and faded kimono. Ai also mourned. Four more years as cranes. Four long years. Then finally, finally, they might be free. There was no one else they could ask for help. The girls were at the mercy of a wizard. Perhaps he would be good to them. 

Ai stood, and bowed in polite thanks. “We are indebted to you.” She held out her wrists, prepared for a chain to clasp them together. 

The wizard shook his head. “I will create a barrier so that you cannot leave your lake. I will make the wind dull and the air too heavy for your wings to fly. But I will not tie your wrists.” He smiled. “I am not a demon.”

Ai was too afraid to smile back, but she released a sigh of relief.