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Description
It is Light Novel Series written by Miu Kawasaki and Hiro Mashima
The novel consists of several different stories, concluding with a return to the world of Edolas. The stories are chronologically set after the Edolas arc and before the Tenrou Island arc.
The Color Residing Within The Heart
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"Who’s there!"
A stern voice echoed off the stone walls.
The sound of footsteps was amplified by the high ceiling.
"What are you doing there!"
In answer to the hurried and angry voice — a shadow leaped out from behind the contraption in the middle of the room.
"Hughes! I’m asking what you were doing just now!"
The young man named Hughes lifted his head.
His mouth twisted on his handsome face, revealing a strange sort of anxiety.
"That, Prince…. this is…"
He couldn’t give him a clear answer.
The man that he called the Prince looked surprised and stared straight at Hughes’s wandering eyes.
"…It couldn’t be!"
He quickly pushed Hughes aside and stretched his hand towards the broken contraption.
"Were you trying to use this broken machine…!"
"…"
"Answer me, Hughes!"
Hughes had a pained expression on his face as the Prince grabbed him by the collar.
"I can’t stand this world without magic…"
"Even so…you can’t start the Anima again! If you forced it, then what would happen if you affected the other side — Earthland!"
The young man did not reply.
It didn’t matter what happened to the world on the other side.
Their own world was the most important.
"Jellal!"
A voice near the door called out for the Prince — Jellal.
"What is it…?"
Jellal loosened his hold on Hughes’s collar and looked back.
A blonde woman dressed in close-fitting leather clothes stood by the door.
"It’s Lucy…what is it?"
"This time it’s Area G that got attacked!"
"What are you saying!? Didn’t we force them to retreat just yesterday!"
Jellal hurried to dash out of the room.
"I’ll go!"
"Wait a second, Jellal. Your wounds are too serious right now."
Lucy grabbed his wrist.
Jellal had a pained expression on his face as he got caught.
His wrist underneath his cloak was covered in bandages that were painful to look at.
"Sorry…I didn’t do it on purpose…"
Lucy let him go.
"No, it’s no problem. This sort of injury is nothing."
"But…"
"I can’t just complain about the pain and leave everything to you and the people!"
"…"
Faced with a speechless Lucy, Jellal smiled.
"On the other side, aren’t there plenty of people who’d still face their enemies directly, no matter how serious their injuries? I of course can’t fall behind."
"Even so… I’ll call the defense forces. But before that happens, please wait inside the walls. Construction only just finished on them in Area G a while ago, so they should stand up to an attack."
"…I understand."
Jellal looked back at Hughes, who was standing there listlessly.
"That’s fine. Let’s go, Hughes."
"…"
Even though he was spoken to directly, Hughes still did not respond.
He mumbled something to himself as he looked down.
"Captain of the Third Division Hughes, depart!"
"I…"
Even with this sort of command, he still couldn’t say a word.
His entire body was shaking from his unhappiness.
"I understand how you feel. But Edolas is already a world that’s lost its magic — for the survival of this world, now we must fight."
"It’s easy for you… you’re already used to fighting in that other world. But what about us!"
Hughes looked up.
His eyes were brimming with tears.
"We only know how to fight with magic! Using ordinary iron weapons…is impossible!"
"Hughes…"
Jellal didn’t know how to respond.
Not long before this, when he was still in Earthland, Jellal had moved about as Mystogan, an S-class wizard of Fairy Tail.
He was originally from this parallel world called Edolas, but had traveled to Earthland because he disagreed with his father Faust’s methods.
What Faust had done — was use the dimensional magic Anima to absorb Earthland’s magic, bringing Edolas unlimited magic.
In Earthland, magic had been without limits.
But absorbing its magic was wrong! Jellal had thought so and couldn’t understand his father.
Be it flora or fauna, stone or mountain, or even friends and family, everything could be turned into magical energy by this magic called Anima. It was a terrible sort of magic.
That was why.
Jellal stayed in Earthland for so long, secretly suppressing Anima.
"…."
He knew that he was standing up against his father.
But even so, for the sake of both worlds, he had no choice but to do so.
Afterwards, because of a certain event, the machine that started Anima had been broken.
He had broken it himself.
That was why — he had to bring some stability to this world that had fallen into disorder after the loss of magic.
"When you calm down, come to Area G," said Jellal as he left the room.
"What do you mean calm…hey!" Lucy called out, but he had already disappeared.
"Hughes, will you go?"
Lucy stared at him.
She didn’t expect an answer.
But.
"How do you feel about the loss of magic?"
Hughes looked at Lucy.
It seemed as if he was pleading for an answer. Under that sort of gaze and all its assorted complicated feelings, Lucy shrugged.
"How should I put it, I don’t know what to do either. The very last magic guild Fairy Tail has temporarily disbanded. Even though we’ve made a new kingdom, it’s still a complete mess right now… I don’t know exactly what to do either. But…"
”?”
"If it was those guys, they’d still follow their own ideals no matter what."
"Those guys…are you talking about Earthland’s wizards?"
"That’s correct. Didn’t you fight with them, Hughes? Those guys’ll always be full of their ideals no matter what. No matter how painful it is, no matter how much they want to escape, they’ll never give up. Just like Jellal, they’re my role models too."
Lucy laughed, embarrassed.
"Even though we grew up in different worlds, we’re both Lucy. I have to try hard so I won’t lose to them."
"…Is that so."
Hughes looked up.
"So there’s also someone just like me over there…"
"Definitely," said Lucy as she turned around.
"This is no time to dawdle. I’m going."
Watching her departing figure, Hughes sighed.
"Never give up huh…I wonder what they’re doing now."
In the Kingdom of Fiore — in an eastern merchant city called Magnolia, there was a guild.
A very famous one. A free-spirited one. A guild that charged forward courageously. Full of destructive power.
No words could accurately describe this guild.
A guild of renown, a guild without limits — its name was, “Fairy Tail.”
A stern voice echoed off the stone walls.
The sound of footsteps was amplified by the high ceiling.
"What are you doing there!"
In answer to the hurried and angry voice — a shadow leaped out from behind the contraption in the middle of the room.
"Hughes! I’m asking what you were doing just now!"
The young man named Hughes lifted his head.
His mouth twisted on his handsome face, revealing a strange sort of anxiety.
"That, Prince…. this is…"
He couldn’t give him a clear answer.
The man that he called the Prince looked surprised and stared straight at Hughes’s wandering eyes.
"…It couldn’t be!"
He quickly pushed Hughes aside and stretched his hand towards the broken contraption.
"Were you trying to use this broken machine…!"
"…"
"Answer me, Hughes!"
Hughes had a pained expression on his face as the Prince grabbed him by the collar.
"I can’t stand this world without magic…"
"Even so…you can’t start the Anima again! If you forced it, then what would happen if you affected the other side — Earthland!"
The young man did not reply.
It didn’t matter what happened to the world on the other side.
Their own world was the most important.
"Jellal!"
A voice near the door called out for the Prince — Jellal.
"What is it…?"
Jellal loosened his hold on Hughes’s collar and looked back.
A blonde woman dressed in close-fitting leather clothes stood by the door.
"It’s Lucy…what is it?"
"This time it’s Area G that got attacked!"
"What are you saying!? Didn’t we force them to retreat just yesterday!"
Jellal hurried to dash out of the room.
"I’ll go!"
"Wait a second, Jellal. Your wounds are too serious right now."
Lucy grabbed his wrist.
Jellal had a pained expression on his face as he got caught.
His wrist underneath his cloak was covered in bandages that were painful to look at.
"Sorry…I didn’t do it on purpose…"
Lucy let him go.
"No, it’s no problem. This sort of injury is nothing."
"But…"
"I can’t just complain about the pain and leave everything to you and the people!"
"…"
Faced with a speechless Lucy, Jellal smiled.
"On the other side, aren’t there plenty of people who’d still face their enemies directly, no matter how serious their injuries? I of course can’t fall behind."
"Even so… I’ll call the defense forces. But before that happens, please wait inside the walls. Construction only just finished on them in Area G a while ago, so they should stand up to an attack."
"…I understand."
Jellal looked back at Hughes, who was standing there listlessly.
"That’s fine. Let’s go, Hughes."
"…"
Even though he was spoken to directly, Hughes still did not respond.
He mumbled something to himself as he looked down.
"Captain of the Third Division Hughes, depart!"
"I…"
Even with this sort of command, he still couldn’t say a word.
His entire body was shaking from his unhappiness.
"I understand how you feel. But Edolas is already a world that’s lost its magic — for the survival of this world, now we must fight."
"It’s easy for you… you’re already used to fighting in that other world. But what about us!"
Hughes looked up.
His eyes were brimming with tears.
"We only know how to fight with magic! Using ordinary iron weapons…is impossible!"
"Hughes…"
Jellal didn’t know how to respond.
Not long before this, when he was still in Earthland, Jellal had moved about as Mystogan, an S-class wizard of Fairy Tail.
He was originally from this parallel world called Edolas, but had traveled to Earthland because he disagreed with his father Faust’s methods.
What Faust had done — was use the dimensional magic Anima to absorb Earthland’s magic, bringing Edolas unlimited magic.
In Earthland, magic had been without limits.
But absorbing its magic was wrong! Jellal had thought so and couldn’t understand his father.
Be it flora or fauna, stone or mountain, or even friends and family, everything could be turned into magical energy by this magic called Anima. It was a terrible sort of magic.
That was why.
Jellal stayed in Earthland for so long, secretly suppressing Anima.
"…."
He knew that he was standing up against his father.
But even so, for the sake of both worlds, he had no choice but to do so.
Afterwards, because of a certain event, the machine that started Anima had been broken.
He had broken it himself.
That was why — he had to bring some stability to this world that had fallen into disorder after the loss of magic.
"When you calm down, come to Area G," said Jellal as he left the room.
"What do you mean calm…hey!" Lucy called out, but he had already disappeared.
"Hughes, will you go?"
Lucy stared at him.
She didn’t expect an answer.
But.
"How do you feel about the loss of magic?"
Hughes looked at Lucy.
It seemed as if he was pleading for an answer. Under that sort of gaze and all its assorted complicated feelings, Lucy shrugged.
"How should I put it, I don’t know what to do either. The very last magic guild Fairy Tail has temporarily disbanded. Even though we’ve made a new kingdom, it’s still a complete mess right now… I don’t know exactly what to do either. But…"
”?”
"If it was those guys, they’d still follow their own ideals no matter what."
"Those guys…are you talking about Earthland’s wizards?"
"That’s correct. Didn’t you fight with them, Hughes? Those guys’ll always be full of their ideals no matter what. No matter how painful it is, no matter how much they want to escape, they’ll never give up. Just like Jellal, they’re my role models too."
Lucy laughed, embarrassed.
"Even though we grew up in different worlds, we’re both Lucy. I have to try hard so I won’t lose to them."
"…Is that so."
Hughes looked up.
"So there’s also someone just like me over there…"
"Definitely," said Lucy as she turned around.
"This is no time to dawdle. I’m going."
Watching her departing figure, Hughes sighed.
"Never give up huh…I wonder what they’re doing now."
In the Kingdom of Fiore — in an eastern merchant city called Magnolia, there was a guild.
A very famous one. A free-spirited one. A guild that charged forward courageously. Full of destructive power.
No words could accurately describe this guild.
A guild of renown, a guild without limits — its name was, “Fairy Tail.”
Magnolia, a merchant city full of stone buildings.
Along the canal that ran through the city center — there walked a blonde, busty teenage girl.
Like a child on a stroll… she traced a path along the canal’s edges.
No, it wasn’t entirely accurate to call her a teenager since she seemed a bit older than that, but she was also a bit too young to be called a woman.
Her mini-skirt of an eye-catching sky blue color revealed much of her legs and her slim waist. The only things that unfortunately didn’t seem very alluring were the whip and golden keys hanging at her waist.
Those keys clanged together with her every step.
"Mm, the weather is pretty good today! I’m sure to get a really well-paying job!"
She reached her arms up towards the sky, letting her entire body bathe in the brilliant sunlight.
"Lucy, you seem in good spirits."
"Don’t get in any trouble today okay!"
A few voices called out to the her — Lucy from within a boat in the canal.
"Yes!" Lucy replied, full of enthusiasm, and smiled as she waved at the boat.
"You should be careful too!"
Saying so, Lucy sighed as she watched the boat sail towards the sea.
(They actually told me not to get in trouble, it’s not like I go looking for it everyday…)
Lucy directed her gaze at the building in front of her.
The stone building that sat directly next to the street seemed like a little fortress.
A flag flew on its roof, and a sign was hanging above its door.
"FAIRY TAIL"
This was the guild that Lucy belonged to.
In this world — in Earthland, there were organizations called guilds.
The people who couldn’t join a guild to get the news or search for jobs, could only really be counted as half a worker.
No matter if they were merchants, mercenaries, or wizards, everyone received both their jobs and their compensation from their respective guilds.
Each guild had its own special characteristics stemming from their masters, and had different levels of popularity depending on its members and rules.
Speaking of which, the guild that Lucy was part of was famous enough to be mentioned in the specialized magic magazine “Weekly Sorcerer.”
Without needing to go further into how popular it might be, it was enough to know that it was an extremely famous guild.
Even those who weren’t mages could come into the Fairy Tail guild’s bar, and outside shops sold figurines of the guild’s members and simple magic implements.
A guild that was open to all — that was “Fairy Tail.”
It really wasn’t too much even to call it Magnolia’s calling card.
"Lucy!"
As soon as she walked into the Fairy Tail bar that was unusually busy this morning, someone called out to Lucy.
Looking at him running towards her, Lucy couldn’t really help but let out a forced laugh.
This person wore shorts that looked easy to move in, with only a vest covering the top half of his body.
To tell the truth, he didn’t look like a wizard at all.
"Natsu, good morning. You’re all fired up even this early…"
"What, are you not feeling well?"
The teenager called Natsu stared at Lucy’s face.
His eyes that slightly slanted upwards were fixed on her.
His slightly messy sakura-colored bangs waved back and forth in front of her eyes.
"No —-"
As soon as she opened her mouth, Natsu smiled in relief.
"Then let’s go!" he said as he grabbed Lucy’s wrist and started running.
"Ha? Hey, wait a second! What’s going on?"
Lucy quickly stopped him and looked at him in surprise.
"What… it’s a job, a job."
Natsu had a “what are you talking about” expression.
(Ah, this is really too much!)
Lucy yelled at him with her hands on her waist, “It’s like this every single time, so today I want to make it clear!”
"What."
"Even if we’re a team, you shouldn’t just decide on jobs yourself every single time, okay?"
That’s right.
In the guild, those who were on good terms with each other grouped into teams. This way they could take on jobs that were impossible for a single person to finish and receive greater compensation.
Speaking of which, Lucy and Natsu, Happy, Gray, and Erza were part of a 5-person team.
In terms of strength, they were the guild’s strongest team.
However, other than Lucy, the members of their team had an extreme lack of common sense. Each time they were out on a job, the compensation that they had to pay for the property damage was enough to eat up their entire reward.
"You should get to choose once, I guess."
"Even so…"
(Even so, what! Whose fault was it that we never manage to get the reward!)
Trying to force herself not to say that out loud, Lucy and Natsu stared at each other.
Natsu’s gaze was extremely sharp. His white dragon scale-like scarf was a gift from his adopted father, the fire dragon Igneel.
No matter what the temperature, he always wore that scarf.
"What…?" Natsu closed his mouth, not willing to give up.
(What should I do…)
But without Natsu, she wouldn’t be standing here this moment. And she had to continue working with him, for sure.
(In the end nothing I say will be of any use…)
Lucy gave up and said to him, “Fine, I give up. What’s the job this time?”
***
On the train as it rocked back and forth — Natsu was extremely pale as he fought the urge to vomit.
Even though his abilities as a mage were exceptional, he was at a complete loss when it came to transportation.
He’d always become unspeakably weak.
"He’s like this each time, it’s pretty sad really…" Lucy mumbled as she sat next to him, chatting with the blue cat Happy.
Exceeds like him could use a magic called “Aera.” They were not originally from Earthland, but from another world — a parallel universe called Edolas that one could reach through the dimensional passageway named Anima.
But Happy was special in that he was hatched from an egg here in Earthland, so he didn’t know much about Edolas.
Because of a certain event — in order to stop that world from converting Earthland’s magic into its own, Lucy and them had even started up a huge revolt there.
In the end, Edolas lost its magic and they lost their guild member Mystogan, but peace was finally restored.
It was only after he went to Edolas that Happy knew who he truly was.
But even so, he didn’t seem to change even one bit.
Speaking of which, the Exceed, since they all possessed internal magic, had come to live in Earthland with its infinite magic.
Even though Lucy and them didn’t know where they ended up settling down.
The lack of news must indicate that they weren’t getting into any sort of trouble, so Lucy and them didn’t reach out or send out search parties.
"Happy, sorry but could you explain it again? I didn’t really understand what Natsu was trying to say."
"Aye~!" Happy replied. Then he thought for a bit and said, "Actually I’m not sure either. We just received a message this morning."
"Message… from the Exceed?"
"Aye. It’s a lot of trouble."
"Trouble… what happened? They should’ve gotten used to living here by now."
Lucy stared out of the window at the scenery as it sped by, thinking.
When they arrived in this world, the Exceed were determined to try to make a new life here. And since they had internal magic, they should be able to solve many problems themselves. Then why had they sent a message today? And why hadn’t they let anyone know where they settled down? The questions came one after another.
(They must’ve encountered a problem that they couldn’t solve themselves, and were forced to do this as a last resort…)
Lucy gripped her golden keys tightly as she felt a bad sort of premonition.
The towns and villages had gradually vanished from the scenery outside. Now all she saw was a mountainous wasteland.
"The Exceed are really in this sort of place?" Lucy couldn’t help but ask.
Happy replied, “I heard they moved to a place on the border between Fiore and another country.”
"Why would they move to such an inconvenient place —" Lucy started to say, before she stopped herself.
They were a race that could fly, and were different from humans in appearance.
If they wanted to live in a place where they were free from people’s stares — then they could only come to this sort of place where the environment was so poor.
Screech!
After a moment of extreme shaking, the train suddenly stopped.
"What, what is it?!"
They hadn’t arrived at a station yet, and this was no place to stop.
Was it one of those awful things that often happened in out of the way places like this?
Lucy hurriedly stood up and looked outside.
”!”
The scene outside stunned her into silence.
There was a large crowd of people right outside of the train. Looking carefully, she saw that every single one of them was armed with a sword, a gun, or some other weapon.
(….It’s thieves!)
But they all had a tattoo on their hands or some other part of their bodies, so it must be some sort of a guild. A dark guild, that’s what they were.
"Natsu!" Lucy called at Natsu, but didn’t get any response.
It looked like he was passed out.
Even if she shook him —
"Uhuhuhuhu…"
She could only hear the sound of him moaning.
(What should I do…)
The sound of arguing and gunshots — as well as the anguished cries of the passengers started to echo from inside the train.
It’d probably take the army a while to get to a place like this.
(And Natsu is… temporarily incapacitated.)
Lucy’s right hand that was gripped tightly on the windowsill, had the Fairy Tail tattoo.
If she were to run away, that would bring shame to Fairy Tail’s name.
"There’s no other choice… Happy, it’s up to us."
"What is it?" Happy looked blankly at her. "Are fish flying in the sky?"
"—Hey! Have you looked around you!"
"Why are you getting angry."
"That’s not the problem here!"
Happy leaned out of the window, looked covertly outside, and froze. “There are actually thieves here? We have to stop them!”
"That’s what I’ve been saying just now!"
Grabbing her whip, Lucy jumped out of the window.
Luckily, there were only a few thieves here, and none of them noticed Lucy and Happy as they approached them.
Lucy raised her whip as she rushed up. ‘Stop!”
The whip fell on a man who was about to climb into the locomotive.
Fleuve d’etoiles, a whip that extended however she wished, wrapped around the man’s wrist.
"Uwa!?"
"Okay!" Lucy gave the whip a good yank.
"Uwa!"
The man fell from the train and landed on his back with a heavy crash.
"Who are you?"
The fierce-looking men all looked at Lucy.
"She doesn’t seem like a soldier…eh?"
"Hey, look at her hand!"
"That’s Fairy Tail!"
There was a commotion amongst the men.
Fairy Tail was widely known not just in Fiore, but also in many other countries.
"Since you recognize us, then I’ll say it up front. Stop doing idiotic stuff like this." Lucy raised her voice, holding her whip.
(There’s only Happy and me here… it’d be bad for us if we dragged this out.)
It was only a matter of time before they realized her exact situation.
(Or maybe I should use Happy’s “Aera” to stir things up —- eh?)
"Happy’s gone!"
Happy had somehow disappeared from her side.
"Eh, where did he go?"
Lucy looked all around but couldn’t find him anywhere.
(Hey…!)
Seeing her flustered like this, the men started to jeer.
"Hey, she’s all alone."
"She’s just a little girl, get rid of her!"
The men raised their guns and started shooting at her without hesitation.
"Ahhhh!"
In order to find cover, Lucy immediately ducked behind a small stone outcropping.
(I’ll wait until they run out of bullets…)
She carefully looked around to find out what the enemy was doing.
But the sound of guns firing didn’t stop, and the bullets continued to strike the rock.
(Looks like they’re magic bullets… and I’m not entirely sure what kind of weapons they’re using, so should I save my magical power for now or…)
Lucy bit her lip.
(There’s no other way!)
While keeping an eye on the men, Lucy took out a key from the bunch at her waist and raised it above her head.
"Open! Gate of the Scorpion… Scorpio!"
Along with her yell came the ring of a bell.
A magic seal appeared at the tip of the golden key.
"We Are!"
A young man appeared with that shout in the middle of that magic seal. With short hair and a confident smile, he also had a long scorpion-like tail.
"Did you need my help?"
"That’s right. Scorpio, beat them all up!"
"OK, leave it to me☆"
The hail of bullets hadn’t stopped. The rock that Lucy was hiding behind was slowly being whittled away.
"I’ll let you go have a date with Aquarius afterwards, so hurry!"
"THANK YOU ☆ Master."
Hearing this, Scorpio jumped out from behind the rock without a shred of hesitation.
"You’re quite brave, pointing those guns at me!"
"Eh?" The men stared at him, surprised.
That was only natural, since up until now, Lucy had been alone behind the rock. And now there suddenly appeared a rather confusing man.
They really couldn’t help but be surprised.
"What happened?"
"Is that transformation?"
They stopped shooting.
"No!" one of them suddenly shouted. "…That woman, is a celestial spirit mage!"
At the same time as he yelled that, Scorpio had directed his tail that was as large as the rest of his body at them.
That thing that looked like a tail, actually — was a giant gun.
"Sand Buster!" Scorpio yelled.
A myriad of sand specks came flying out of his tail, turning the entire area into a sandstorm.
Visibility was zero.
Under these circumstances, magic guns were useless no matter how many of them there were.
"This isn’t good!"
The now completely helpless men could only cover their mouths and yell, “Take cover!”
"Retreat! Retreat!"
Lucy looked over at them as they ran away.
"That’ll be all, Scorpio. Thank you."
"We Are! Then I’ll be going."
He snapped his hands, and the sandstorm stopped and visibility returned to normal.
But the thieves were already nowhere to be seen.
"Scorpio, gate closure!"
Lucy raised her golden key again and waved it in the air. A magic seal appeared, and Scorpio gradually faded away into it.
"Whew."
Letting out a sigh of relief, Lucy returned the key to her waist. The sound of cheers and applause erupted at the same time.
The passengers, who had been watching the whole thing, were all cheering for her.
"Ah heheh…" With an embarrassed smile, Lucy hurried back to Natsu’s side.
"What was that all about! You were all of a sudden gone! Where could you have gone!"
Happy merely shrugged as she yelled at him.
"There was a child crying, so I had to go cheer him up. There was nothing I could do."
"Actually saying there was nothing you could do… you should learn some self-awareness too."
After yelling at Happy, Lucy turned around and looked at Natsu as he walked over to them.
He was ordinarily quite cheery, but today his expression was the exact opposite —
"I’m never getting on a train again…" he was mumbling.
"If we don’t get on a train, then how will we get back?"
"We’ll run!"
"How long do you think that’ll take…" Lucy shrugged helplessly. But then she suddenly opened her eyes wide.
There was the smell of baking bread coming from somewhere. That meant that there were people living nearby.
"There’s food!"
"You mean, there’s a village here! But where?"
"Isn’t that the same thing?" Natsu’s voice had regained its vitality. "Anyway, let’s go fill our stomachs first!"
"Hey!"
Was it that their voices had carried over to the village? Or was it that they had been waiting for them all along — they could see a black cat running towards them on two feet.
"We’ve been waiting for you!"
"Nadi!"
The Exceed was waving to them just as he had been the last time they saw him.
He had said before that this sort of movement was just a habit, and that he felt uncomfortable if he wasn’t doing it.
Seeing it again gave one a very nostalgic sort of feeling.
"All right, come this way… Chagot-sama is waiting for you."
Under his guidance, Lucy and them walked into the village.
It was full of tiny little houses, and occasionally they could hear a child’s voice coming from somewhere.
"Eh, the sound of children?"
Nadi smiled, seeing that Lucy had noticed this.
"Since we’ve decided to stay here, we started thinking about the next generation. We’ve also been searching for the children sent to Earthland to escape the calamity, but…"
"You haven’t found any of them?"
Nadi slowly nodded his head. “Earthland is really too big. We have no leads and nowhere to start looking, so the search is currently in a state of frustration.”
"Is that so…" Lucy didn’t really know what to say.
(It can’t be… that they wanted to ask us to do it?)
Before — in order to let their children escape from an Edolas that was gradually losing its magic, they had sent their eggs through to Earthland.
A total of a hundred of them.
Happy was one of them.
Other than Happy, Lucy only knew of Charle from their guild.
Thinking about the remaining number made her heart ache.
"Wow, that’s amazing! …It’s like a real village," Natsu said as he looked around.
There were fruit trees all around. Flowers grew next to the roads, and tender shoots were sprouting from the fields.
"This isn’t anywhere near enough. In order to restore what we once had in Edolas, we’ll have to continue to try hard." Nadi clenched the fist that waved around.
"Even though Nichiya’s protective force has been standing guard day and night, we’re still rather limited in what we can do."
"Standing guard? Is that to say there’s trouble nearby? Ah…" Just as she finished speaking, she realized.
She thought of those thieves from earlier.
(Could it be… that they’re the trouble that Nadi spoke of?)
"Okay, we’re here."
Lucy and them arrived at the largest building in the village, and were quickly ushered into a reception room.
Even though it couldn’t compare to the luxurious life that Chagot had lived in Edolas — there was still some very good food inside.
"Wow, that looks really good!" Natsu reached out to try some.
At this time, a pure white Exceed entered the room and bowed deeply to them. Lucy hurried to return the gesture.
"Wait a second!"
After Lucy knocked Natsu upside the head, since he’d already started gobbling down the food, he finally turned to look at the Exceed.
Wearing decorative clothes, she had been the Queen of Extalia in Edolas, Queen Chagot.
But now that Extalia didn’t exist anymore, they didn’t know whether to still call her a Queen.
(What’s wrong…)
Chagot looked extremely tired.
Before, she had always seemed quite dreamlike, but now she was quite different.
There were dark circles beneath her eyes, and she looked thinner than before.
She looked extremely weak.
"Chagot?"
"Chagot…" Seeing her eyes that were filled with sadness, Lucy couldn’t find anything to say.
"Our people have been captured, and turned into slaves," said a rough voice.
Lucy turned around and saw an Exceed dressed like a knight standing by the door.
"Eh… Nichiya? Did you say slaves?"
"Forgive my sudden appearance."
Looking more carefully, she saw that Nichiya was covered with wounds. Even the scabbard at his waist was smeared with blood.
(What happened?)
Seeing him like this, Lucy couldn’t help but feel tense.
As a fellow Exceed, Happy looked even more shocked as he stared wide-eyed, waiting for Nichiya to speak.
"Even though we Exceed have magical power, but now it’s the same as having none at all. The Exceed that have been captured by a nearby dark guild —"
Nichiya stopped talking.
Was it because he was ashamed? He bit his lip.
"Were there very many…"
"…More than you could imagine. Other than the four elders, even the hunter Salvare was taken…" Nadi replied.
"And our defense gets weaker by the day… We don’t have the spare time to go searching for the children who were sent to Earthland…"
"So it’s like that…"
"The Queen is also reaching her limits. Since she’s finding it difficult to use her precognition abilities, she hasn’t been sleeping much lately… It’ll be difficult to manage the situation with just our power."
(Mm…)
But were there really no other things that they could’ve done?
Lucy suddenly asked, “You never thought about moving?”
Faced with this question, Chagot answered weakly, “It’s all because I… wanted to live here at first! If we could’ve escaped earlier on, then we wouldn’t be in this sort of…”
"It isn’t the Queen’s fault! It’s natural that a parent would want to protect their children!" Nichiya loudly replied. "So please don’t be hard on yourself, Your Majesty."
(So it was like that.)
Looking at it from the point of view of Happy and Charle’s parents, this place really was quite fitting.
It was close to Magnolia, where their children lived, and also not heavily populated.
Even if problems cropped up, the Exceed, who strongly believed in their ability to solve their own problems, definitely would not leave.
Because they were close to where their children were.
They could fly to them whenever they wanted to see them.
As parents, there was nothing that could make them happier.
"This is the only place where we could watch our children grow while maintaining a certain distance from the humans…" Chagot murmured.
Lucy gripped her shoulder tightly. “It’s no problem! We’ll definitely help you out!”
"…definitely will solve this problem," Natsu also spoke up. "So all we need to do is just defeat the enemy?"
"It’s not that simple …Do you even know who that guild is?"
(If they went about it carelessly, then the Exceed might suffer reprisals if they failed… If it’s a large dark guild, then probably it won’t be enough if it’s just us…)
Next to a hesitant Lucy, Natsu still looked as if he couldn’t wait to go.
"What does it matter!"
The air around him suddenly started to warm up, as if he was surrounded by flames.
"Natsu… calm down."
"Can you actually forgive them!"
"…I feel the same as you! It’s completely wrong as a human being to take another as a slave! But —"
"But what! Let’s go!" Natsu kicked the chair over as he stood up.
It looked like he wasn’t going to listen. Such a hothead.
"Wait a second!" Lucy also stood up.
Faced with the fiery look in his eyes, Lucy couldn’t help but close her own.
(Will nothing that I say matter…)
Lucy shook her head to get rid of those thoughts and made up her mind.
"…I understand. Let’s just go take a look at the situation."
"Oh!" Lucy sighed, looking on as Natsu dashed heroically out of the room.
"Um…" Chagot appeared nervous as she watched the two of them talk.
Nadi also looked up respectfully at Lucy. “If this can be resolved through peaceful means, we don’t want any violence… we just hope that everyone can be rescued.”
"I understand. I’ll be going now."
Happy and Lucy left the room, close behind Natsu.
Even though Natsu looked like he was a complete hothead who didn’t think before he acted, Lucy knew that he really wasn’t like that.
In front of the client — the Exceeds, he didn’t really want to discuss the plan, so he decided to leave first.
Their enemy this time wasn’t a single wizard, but an entire dark guild. Going in without a plan was tantamount to suicide.
"Great, you really were waiting for us."
Near the entrance of the village, Lucy caught up to Natsu.
Hearing her voice, Natsu didn’t look around, but continued to stare out at the forest.
"Natsu, what is it?" Lucy asked, worried and peeking at his expression.
"Happy stays in the village."
His voice that brooked no disagreement made Happy’s eyes grow round. “Why? I want to fight too!”
"That’s right, Natsu! Why are you making Happy…"
Even though he wasn’t a strong fighter, Happy took on the job with them.
He was their important friend.
(There’s no reason for this except…)
"I also want to help the village!" Happy yelled.
Natsu stooped down until they were eye to eye. “It’ll be your job to protect the village. Didn’t you see just now? Nichiya and Chagot are both very tired.”
"I saw…"
"So if someone comes to attack while we’re not here, then it’ll be your job to protect everyone."
"I’ll protect… the entire village…"
As if to encourage Happy who had a doubtful look on his face, Natsu smiled. “Happy, you can do it, right? That’s because you’re a member of Fairy Tail.”
Natsu’s words made Happy feel a certain warmth in his heart. A smile also appeared on his face.
"Mm! I can do it! Just wait and see!"
"Great. Then we’ll be going. Lucy."
Natsu and Lucy walked up the mountain path under Happy’s gaze.
"Good job, Natsu."
"Eh?" Natsu stared at her.
"You want all the outsiders to just look at this as a legal guild destroying a dark guild, right?"
"Not really…"
"Dark guilds are similar to legal guilds, in that we are both connected to other guilds via alliances. If you let Happy, an Exceed, go with us, then even if we destroy the guild in question, then Chagot and them might suffer reprisals from other dark guilds. That’s what you were thinking, right?"
"You’re so noisy. Let’s go!"
"Right. Seems like you’re pretty easily embarrassed."
(That’s right… the reprisals should only face Fairy Tail!)
If it was Fairy Tail, then even if they were to suffer reprisals, they’d still win.
Putting her trust in this belief, Lucy ran to catch up to Natsu.
* * * *
"Is this the place?"
At the end of the forest — the base of the dark guild could be vaguely seen at the edge of a cliff.
A black flag flew up in the air, carrying the same guild mark as those thieves from earlier.
"Natsu, don’t just go charging in, okay? Let’s take a look first."
"What a hassle."
Lucy had a hold of his hand, so he couldn’t go charging in even if he wanted to.
(This flag… where have I seen it…)
Lucy felt a certain sense of disquiet.
She’d been a member of Fairy Tail for almost a year by now, and already had a few run-ins with a number of dark guilds.
(…I remember now!)
"Natsu, call for help — Eh, where did he go!"
Natsu had disappeared.
She looked around, and saw him surrounded by flames, prepared to attack.
"Eh —!" Lucy yelled out, but he had already started fighting. "Natsu, wait a second!"
Just as she hurried to go stop him, some figures suddenly appeared behind her.
Sensing someone behind her, Lucy looked back, shaking.
(…Wah!)
"Yo, where did this girl come from?"
"Isn’t it the celestial spirit mage from just now?"
"She actually dared to come after us. She’s got guts."
(Damn it…)
Seeing her scared like this, the men started to smile.
"We should get a good price if we were to sell her, right?"
"Yeah, but we’d need to train her first…"
"What —!"
(I didn’t want any violence… but Natsu’s already started to attack…)
Lucy’s gaze suddenly became sharp.
"Eh? What’s with the look in her eyes?"
"Looks like you want to lose again." Lucy raised a key from her waist. Just as she was about to summon a spirit… "Open — eh?"
There came the sound of an explosion from over near the cliff.
"Uwaaaa!"
Along with Natsu’s angry yell, the ground started to shake.
"Hey, we have to go help! If the Magic Council finds out about the dungeons below then it’ll be bad for us!"
"But what about this girl?"
"Forget her! If we’re busted over there then we’ll all be dead for sure."
The men dashed over to the cliff, panicking.
Even though things didn’t go quite as she’d expected, she was happy that she didn’t actually have to fight.
"That hurts…" Lucy clasped her hands over her chest as she fell to the ground — but quickly recovered.
(But, it really was great…!)
Celestial spirit mages weren’t very strong in close combat.
At that sort of close range, Lucy didn’t really have any hope of winning.
"This isn’t good, Natsu — but there’s really no point in stopping him now."
The fact that she was a member of Fairy Tail had already been revealed on the train just now.
(Seems like we’ll have to go with Plan T then!)
Lucy gripped her hand tightly into a fist.
Plan T - was just a sneak attack, and nothing more.
"Speaking of which…"
Lucy shook the dust off her butt and thought back to what the thieves were saying.
"They said they had some underground dungeons… That has to be where they’re keeping the Exceed, but they also said something about the Magic Council."
The Magic Council - was an organization that governed the magical world.
They were tightly knit with the government, and could put mages on trial.
(Where are these underground dungeons?)
Flames erupted in her field of vision, proof of Natsu stirring up trouble.
She could see some mages crawling out of tunnels in the cliff.
(Looks like I’ll just let Natsu be the bait for now…)
Lucy suddenly had a flash of inspiration and started to snicker.
(I just had a great idea!)
She picked out a key and and lifted it up high.
"Open! Gate of the Maiden… Virgo!"
A magic seal appeared in the midair, and out leapt an emotionless young girl wearing a maid outfit and broken manacles on her wrists. She looked coldly at Lucy and gave her a respectful bow.
"Hime, did you call me?"
"I have something to ask you! Please dig a tunnel down to the underground dungeons! There should be some captive Exceed there."
"Hm…" Virgo leaned her head sideways a bit. "Digging a tunnel, is that punishment?"
"No! Please, hurry up!"
(Hm? Wait a second?)
Lucy seemed to think of something.
Those men just now must be going down to the dungeons. The spirit in front of her, Virgo, unfortunately wasn’t a battle spirit. If she were to run into them, she’d be completely helpless.
"…Virgo, I’ll go with you."
"Hime will go too?" Virgo leaned her head sideways.
"Right, so please dig the shortest tunnel possible."
"…Understood! Well then — "
She leapt up and flipped in midair, flying down nose-first. “Hime, come with me.” She broke through the ground in one stroke. As if she was digging through something incredibly soft, she went deep down into the ground.
"Is it okay to go in?" Lucy looked down the dark hole, feeling a bit scared.
But since she already said she’d do it, she couldn’t just stand here waiting.
"Hm?" Suddenly, the ground shook and the trees in the forest around her started to sway.
She could hear angry yells, and the soft sobs.
There really wasn’t any more time to be standing here like this.
The fight had already started.
No matter how strong Natsu was, he was facing many people alone — and they were part of a guild under the wing of one of the strongest dark guilds out there.
"Okay, let’s go!"
Giving her Fleuve d’etoiles a swing, Lucy jumped down into the tunnel.
* * * *
"Yaaaaaa….." Lucy’s cries echoed through the dark tunnel as she slid down.
(I clearly said I wanted the shortest one possible!)
This winding tunnel couldn’t be called short in any sense of the word.
But just as she started getting dizzy, she saw light in front of her.
(An exit…!)
She gripped her whip tightly.
"Ah!" Lucy flew right into a man wielding a sword.
"Wu!"
She hit him squarely on the nose. He almost fainted.
"Who are you?" he asked, staring at Lucy.
Lucy adjusted her posture, facing his sword.
"What, what are you saying… hey!"
Just as she lifted her whip — she noticed Virgo, who was already tied up.
"What are you doing!!!"
"I’m very helpless when facing so many people."
"Are you an idiot!"
The man looked at her and called out, “I’ll take care of this woman. You all get those cats out of here!”
"Yes!"
(That’s right!)
Lucy recovered her bearings and noticed the Exceed as they were brought out of their cages.
Every single one of them had lost a lot of weight and their steps were heavy.
Lucy immediately got very angry.
"Who gave you the right!"
"Ah?"
"I will definitely not forgive you!"
Lucy gave the man a fierce glare as she cracked her whip.
"So what?"
Flames erupted from the man’s sword.
(He’s a sword mage then?)
There was no longer any time to lose. If she didn’t hurry then…
She grabbed her set of keys. She didn’t need to look and could tell them apart by how each felt.
Lucy removed two keys from the bunch.
"Virgo, gate closure!" Lucy yelled as she waved the key through the air.
Immediately, Virgo disappeared like a puff of smoke.
"What’s going on?"
Just as the man looked back at Virgo, Lucy waved the second key through the air.
"Open! Gate of the archer, Sagittarius!"
A man in a horse costume appeared in front of her, wielding a large bow.
"Did you call me, moshi moshi."
"There’s no time, destroy them!"
"I understand, moshi moshi."
Sagittarius raised his bow.
"Did you think we’d just sit idly by!"
The man with the sword dashed up to them.
"You’re just a side character, so get off the stage already!" Lucy wrapped her whip around the man’s foot. Sagittarius also shot him with an arrow.
Stepping over his prone form, Lucy ran after the Exceed. “Hurry up, Sagittarius!”
"I understand, moshi moshi."
****
"I will never forgive you people!" Natsu yelled as he was surrounded by mages. Fire came from his mouth and his eyes were aflame with his battle spirit.
"This, this fellow… what’s up with him?"
Even if they used magic guns to fire at him, the bullets all got burned to ashes when they came close to him.
If they wanted to get close to him, it was equally difficult since with his ability to jump and leap, he was about as difficult to catch as a butterfly.
"Are all our attacks useless?"
The mages surrounding Natsu started to get scared.
"You’re just attacking without knowing what you’re doing —-" Natsu breathed in deeply. "You’re so damn annoying!"
He puffed out his cheeks.
"Roar of the Fire Dragon!"
A blazing hot line of fire came streaming out of his mouth, covering everything around him.
"What is this guy!"
The trees all were ablaze, and behind them was their base on the cliff. There was no way to escape.
In this hellish landscape, someone yelled out, “This guy is a dragon slayer!”
"So what, did you think that you could run away if your enemy’s strong?"
Natsu walked slowly up to them, covered in flames that crackled with his every step. Those flames soon took the shape of a fire dragon roaring up at the sky.
"I asked you, why your attitude suddenly changed when you’re facing someone strong!"
Nobody replied, since they had already run away.
They had vanished from his field of vision in an instant.
"Hey! Wait!" Just as Natsu was about to go after them, someone grabbed him by the shoulder.
"What…. Lucy."
"It’s already over, look!"
He looked over at where Lucy was pointing, and saw the Exceed that had escaped the dungeon. Even though everyone looked like they were in very bad shape, but they still seemed very happy.
"Isn’t it best to let them rest right now?"
"That’s true…"
After Natsu agreed, Lucy led the Exceed down the mountain to their village.
At the entrance to the village — Happy stood alone, wielding a big stick.
He looked straight ahead, not moving.
"Hey, I say. Shouldn’t you rest for a bit?"
An Exceed that looked a bit like him yelled at him from inside the village.
"Lucky-san… I can’t. I’m a member of Fairy Tail too. Since Natsu and Lucy are both trying hard, I can’t rest either!" he replied, gripping his stick tightly.
"You…" Tears appeared in Lucky’s eyes. Seeing his child growing up, he couldn’t help but sniff a little.
Happy turned and stared at him. “…You… are you…”
Hearing this, Lucky felt a sudden warmth.
Before they found every single child, he couldn’t say “I am Happy’s father,” but he had thought it many times.
Queen Chagot was the same. She was also one who couldn’t call herself a mother.
"Do you have a cold?"
Hearing Happy’s question, Lucky couldn’t help but shrug. “Ka! You thick idiot!” Suppressing his complicated feelings, Lucky stared at him. “I hope your friends will be back soon.”
"Aye!"
At this time — they heard the faint sound of footsteps coming from outside the village.
"Who’s there!" Happy gripped his wooden stick, shaking. "I will protect everyone…" He stared in the direction of the forest. "Please retreat, sir!"
Just as he yelled, he saw Lucy and Natsu appear in front of him, along with the captured Exceed.
"Happy! You really are guarding the village!"
Happy scratched his head, embarrassed at Lucy’s question.
The returned Exceed caused a commotion in the village.
Chagot, Nichiya, and Nadi rushed over when they heard the news.
"Everyone!" Chagot became weak in the knees when she saw how weak and tired they all were after a few days in captivity. "I, I don’t know how to thank you…"
Natsu and Lucy exchanged glances.
"We’re already pretty much like family. If you don’t mind, then feel free to call us whenever you need something."
"That’s right, Next time we’ll help you completely destroy them!"
"Hey, Lucy, did you even do anything…" Natsu looked at Lucy.
"Didn’t I help rescue the Exceed!"
"That wasn’t you. That was the spirits."
"You’re so noisy!!"
"Natsu, Lucy… thank you so much!" Chagot bowed deeply.
The village had regained its vitality.
"Ah, that’s right… there’s this." The skilled hunter Sarvale took something out from within his robes. "This is a jewel that I found when I was in the underground dungeon. You can have it!"
"What jewel?" Lucy took it and examined it closely. It was a round gem about the same size as one’s palm, of a fiery red color.
"As for the reward…" Chagot looked up at Natsu and Lucy as she hugged the returned captives.
"We’ll just take this."
Natsu looked at the jewel in Lucy’s hands. “It looks pretty expensive. Okay, we’ll take it.”
"But…"
Lucy laughed. “Since Natsu says that’s enough, then it’s enough. Would you like to come to the guild to visit? Charle definitely is waiting for you to come.”
"Is… is that okay?" Chagot instantly seemed much happier.
Lucy suddenly realized that they might actually be mother and daughter.
Because Charle and Chagot had the same precognition abilities. It could be that it was an inherited ability.
"Sounds great," Natsu said, smiling at the Exceed. "We’ll be waiting for you, right?"
Happy nodded. “Yes, we’ll be waiting for you!”
Hearing this, Lucky also smiled.
(Parents and children…)
Lucy felt warm inside.
(That person… is he also thinking of me?)
Thinking of her father, she felt a pang in her heart.
(What, why did I get all depressed all of a sudden!)
Lucy shook her head to get rid of those feelings and then yelled to Natsu and Happy, “All right, we should get going. Everyone needs their rest.”
"About that, can we eat it…" Happy stared at the jewel.
"Why are you trying to eat pretty much everything," Lucy muttered, looking over at the village receding into the distance. "Hey, Happy."
Happy, who was about to put the jewel in his mouth, stopped and looked at Lucy.
But Lucy was looking out the window. “Ah, sorry, Happy,” she said, looking at him. “Do you want to find your father and mother?”
”?” Happy looked surprised and glanced over at Natsu, who was passed out at their side. “But I have Natsu.”
Watching Happy take care of Natsu, Lucy’s expression also became warm and kind.
"Natsu, how is it? Are you still sick?" Happy put the jewel on Natsu’s forehead.
"Hey! What are you trying to use it for
"Uwaaaaaa…!"
"Hm?" Lucy, who had been going to the guild today to find a job, turned around to find the source of the yelling. "Ah, Natsu!?"
Natsu walked up before her, wearing his silver-white scarf and looking very pale. For some reason, he looked extremely weak, as if he had suddenly lost a lot of weight.
"Na… what’s wrong —"
But before she finished speaking, Natsu had already run far away. “What, what is this…?”
Lucy stared as his figure slowly receded into the distance. She waited a bit, but he showed no signs of coming back.
(What, what on earth was that… really!)
Gathering up her spirits, she started walking again.
To the place that could be called her second home — the wizard guild “Fairy Tail.”
**
Situated in the southern part of Magnolia, the “Fairy Tail” guild hall was built next to a giant lake.
It was rather busy today. Someone was playing music in the guild’s bar, and someone was singing along with it. The sound of laughter could be heard everywhere, and one could also see a fight that started over pretty much nothing.
Maybe it was because she’d arrived later than usual, but the bar too was very busy.
"Lucy, good morning!"
A voice called out from by the counter.
Lucy smiled upon hearing that voice that always made one feel happy. “Mira-san!”
The girl named Mira was waving at her.
Mirajane was a barmaid and also helped the Guild Master with administrative work. It seemed like other than her work here, she was also a cover girl for the wizard magazine “Weekly Sorcerer.”
Even though she was a very calm and collected girl, but Lucy heard that before she’d entered the guild, Mirajane had been rather formidable in both personality and powers.
The top few mages in the guild were known as S-class mages. Mirajane had once been one of them. But at a certain point, after Mira believed that her sister Lisanna had died, she had sealed her magic away. But now that Lisanna had returned, Mirajane no longer hesitated about using her magic.
But even so, Mirajane never accepted jobs.
"You seem in good spirits today as well," Mirajane smiled.
"Yes - just as usual!" Lucy said as she sat down in front of the bar. "Are there any good jobs today?"
"I just posted the new job flyers on the job posting board."
"Really!?"
Lucy looked at the board at the very end of the bar. There were many different job flyers on the large job postings board. Each flyer listed details about the job offering for the mage, as well as the rewards. With that flyer, a mage could go on that job.
Of course, it was first come first serve.
If there were no suitable jobs for a particular mage’s skills or if he couldn’t complete the jobs on his own, then that mage would have nothing to do that day.
There was nobody currently in front of the board, probably because everyone was still eating breakfast.
“I need to hurry up and go look right now!”
Seeing Lucy push away her chair and stand up, Mirajane chuckled. “You’re in need of money again?”
“Umm, yes…mmm,” Lucy mumbled, shrugging in embarrassment.
“But you’re clearly an ojou-sama.”
“Leave me alone, Mira-san. I didn’t take any money with me from home… besides my family is now like that,” Lucy said, looking downwards.
Lucy’s family, the Heartfilia family, was once one of the richest in the kingdom of Fiore. She didn’t know for what reason it had gone bankrupt, but now her father had decided to start over again at his old merchant guild “LOVE & LUCKY.”
But compared to worrying about her father, right now the more important thing was –
(My monthly rent is 70,000 jewels, and if I don’t make that money this week then I’ll be in trouble…)
Lucy swallowed.
She really liked her current place.
It was a roomy place that had wooden pillars, white walls, an oven that she could cook pizza in, nice breezes from the canal outside, and a large bathroom. It was also close to the shopping district, in a really good location.
Even though the distance from the guild would seem like a mark against it, but in order to lose weight, walking didn’t seem bad.
Even if she wouldn’t get immediately kicked out for being late on rent, she still didn’t feel good about the idea.
Lucy’s self-respect wouldn’t allow her to owe someone money and not pay them.
“I’ll be back as soon as I look at the board! I will definitely go work today!”
“Ara, aren’t you going with Natsu and them?” Mirajane looked at her sideways, her silvery-white hair swinging. Her big eyes were fixed on Lucy.
“Eh, Natsu? Umm… I saw him just now as I was coming here.”
“If it’s Natsu, he accidentally ate Gray’s food and went home just now,” said a voice from near Lucy’s feet.
She looked down and saw Happy standing there.
“Happy, what’s going on?”
A half-naked teenager walked up from behind a confused Lucy. There was a navy blue guild stamp on his right chest. His eyes drooped a bit, but his gaze was sharp and cold. Even though he was quite handsome, Lucy just couldn’t get used to him walking everywhere in his underwear.
“That smelly flame is completely unforgiveable, eating other people’s food when he feels like it.”
“Gray!” Lucy turned around towards him.
The scar on his forehead unexpectedly suited his handsome face.
Lucy noticed that he seemed quite upset.
“Natsu just ate my cold food, thinking that it was his hot breakfast.”
“Ara…” Mirajane cocked her head sideways.
“Natsu was still sleepy!” said Happy, and Lucy finally realized what had happened.
Natsu was a mage who used fire magic. He used the lost magic fire dragonslayer abilities that his father Igneel the fire dragon had taught him. He really liked fire and hot things, and disliked cold things. In contrast, Gray was an ice-make wizard and disliked hot things.
She didn’t know if it was because their magic were the opposite of one another, but Natsu and Gray didn’t get along.
(But, really it’s…)
It was like that saying, they got along better the more they argued with one another.
She could see that Natsu and Gray were aware of each other’s thoughts without having to say them outright.
“Ah, so it’s like that. Mira, make another cold breakfast for me.”
“Yes,” Mira said as she walked into the kitchen, smiling.
“So, Gray, could you please put on some clothes?”
“Oh!”
Lucy was seventeen years old, but had never been in a relationship. Even if it was a friend, she still had an aversion to nudity. Gray had pretty much made a habit of going half-naked, but her nature was such that she just couldn’t get used to it.
And Gray was Gray, often taking off his clothes without realizing it, and only noticing when someone pointed it out.
“Speaking of which, where’s Natsu’s breakfast?”
It wouldn’t do to just let food that was still on fire just sit there.
(Fine, I’ll go clean it up…)
“Don’t worry, Juvia already took care of it.”
“Juvia is here!?” Lucy was surprised at seeing Juvia appear from behind Gray with a tray full of sodden food in her hands.
“I’ll take this.” On the tray was Natsu’s hot breakfast, now looking extremely wet and depressing. “Because putting it near Gray-sama is very dangerous.”
“Are you okay, Juvia?” Lucy looked at her, concerned.
Juvie was a water mage. She had originally belonged to an enemy guild, but had joined “Fairy Tail” for some reason.
And that reason was –
“If it’s… for someone I li-like…” Juvia blushed bright red and mumbled, her words getting lost in the noise coming from the bar.
“Eh? What?” Lucy asked as she looked behind Juvia and was taken by surprise seeing the crowd forming in front of the jobs posting board. “Ah-! Wait! Wait, wait for me! I want to pick too-!”
Lucy hurried over and pushed people away until she managed to get right in front of the board. “This, this one!” Lucy immediately started reading the words in front of her.
Solve the mystery of the persistent fog.
Location: Cactus Village
Reward: 100,000J (with more rewards to be added)
(If it’s not defeating magical beasts, I should be able to do it! And just this one job will take care of the rent!)
After snatching the flyer, Lucy made a victory pose. “Okay, I have my job today!”
“That’s great, Lucy,” said Nab admiringly at her side.
“What are you doing, Nab?” Lucy asked, staring at him.
The very large Nab was always standing in front of the job postings board. But, no matter how long he stood there, she’d never seen him go on a job.
He himself always said, “There are no jobs that suit me.”
“I wanted to say that being able to find a job that really suits oneself is great.”
“I’m sure Nab will find one soon. Okay, I’m going then!” Lucy replied and returned to the bar counter. “I have to get ready to go!”
“Hmm- …, it looks okay. But, the reward won’t be too small?” Gray said, looking at her flyer.
“It’s not small at all. It’s enough for my rent!”
“No, that’s not right. Split with me and Happy and Erza, it’ll only be 25,000 each.”
“Split with Natsu too, so it’ll be 10,000 each!”
“Why would it be split! And Happy your math is wrong!”
Happy stood by her feet and calmly said, “Because, we’re going to go together, right?”
Lucy’s expression turned a bit stiff upon hearing this.
Though they didn’t always go together, but the number of team activities had been on the rise lately. And though nobody would force her to go with the team, but being asked in this way made it hard for Lucy to reply.
(If everyone wants to go, then I should’ve picked a job with a bigger reward…)
Lucy stared down at the flyer in her hands.
She believed that everyone in their team had their own strengths, and that was why they were the strongest team in Fairy Tail. But other than Lucy, the rest of them had an extreme lack of common sense, so they still hadn’t had the experience of receiving a full reward. This was one of the reasons why Lucy was always short on money.
(Well, fine then!)
“That, that’s right. Since I still have a lot of time left, everyone should go together,” she said, though her shoulders sagged in disappointment.
“Okay, I’ll go call Erza,” said Happy as he walked towards the center of the bar.
“Ara? If it’s Erza, she’s already on an S-class job,” said Mirajane, walking back with Gray’s breakfast. “She should’ve left already.”
“S-class task?” Lucy repeated.
Mirajane smiled in response. “She left this morning. The Master asked her to do it, so she should be out of the city by now.”
“Is that so.”
Erza was a S-class mage, just like Mirajane. Calling her Fairy Tail’s strongest woman wasn’t too much of a stretch. S-class jobs were harder than normal jobs, and only S-class mages could go on them.”
“Then, other than Erza there’s still-“
Just as Lucy started speaking.
“Uwaaaaaa….!”
From near the counter came Gray’s tortured cries.
“It’s so, so spicy… in my mouth, and hot… uwaaaa…”
“Ara?” Mirajane took a bite of his breakfast and chewed on it without changing expression. “Hmm—…. It seems like I messed up on the salt content.”
Gray suddenly collapsed in front of her. “Water, water…”
Now that he’d mentioned that, Juvia couldn’t just stand by and do nothing. She used her power and it started to rain around him. “Ah, you, you mean this…!”
“Wait a second, Juvia!”
Perhaps it was because she was too nervous, but not only Gray, but also Lucy by his side was also soaked by the rain.
“Hey…!” Gray stared at Juvia. “You, what are you doing…”
Juvia stopped the rain when she felt his gaze on her.
“Ara…what’s going on?” Mirajane hadn’t noticed anything at all and handed a cup of tea to Gray. “Please drink.”
He took the cup but seemed to lack even the energy to drink by now.
“Gray, Gray-sama!” Juvia cried out in panic by his side.
“Gray, are you okay?” Lucy stared at his face. Her large chest swung back and forth in front of his face. “Just throw it all up first!”
“!” Seeing this, Juvia pouted. “Could you go alone?”
“Eh?”
“I’ll take care of Gray-sama!”
“But, Happy… eh?”
Happy, who said he’d go call Erza, was now next to Charle, a fellow Exceed. Charle, who was a completely unembarrassed and rather cold pure white Exceed, usually went about with Wendy. There was a time when she was extremely cold to Happy, but because of a certain incident, she’d gradually started to warm up to him. But even so, they still hadn’t actually become close.
“Wait, Happy!”
(Happy was the one who said we should go together!)
“Ah! Lucy, you can go. I’m going to stay here today!”
“Oh, okay.” Lucy couldn’t help but smile, seeing him trying to strike up a conversation with Charle. But no matter what, it seemed like Charle liked him too.
(So, it’ll just be me then?)
Lucy let out a long sigh, and stared at the flyer in her hand.
(A persistent fog… eh.)
**
Lucy got off the train at the nearest station. The sunny sky had all of a sudden turned completely overcast. A moist wind blowing down from the mountains surrounded her.
“So the railroad stops here…”
She frowned, looking down at the map. It looked like to arrive at the village, she could only walk or catch a ride.
Dust blew about the deserted train station. There was nobody renting out magical four-wheelers. There weren’t even any horse-drawn carriages nearby.
A magical four-wheeler looked like a car, but it was fueled by the driver’s magical power. A SE plug placed on the driver’s wrist absorbed magical power and converted it to kinetic energy to move the vehicle. It could go faster the more one put magical energy into it, but once a mage’s energy was exhausted, it would stop.
But even if there were magical four-wheelers here, Lucy didn’t have a driver’s license and couldn’t drive one. And even if she did have one, her own magical power wasn’t enough to carry her to the village.
(So burdensome…)
It was also too far to walk. It’d probably be evening by the time she arrived.
Even so, the reality was that there was no transportation here.
“Hmm…. Ah!” Lucy saw someone coming out of the tiny shop in front of the station and ran over. “Excuse me, could you tell me how to get to Cactus Village—“
“Cactus!?” The wrinkled old lady looked suspiciously at her. “What do you want? Do you have business with Cactus Village?”
“Yes. If there are any carriages carrying goods out of this town, could I catch a ride as well?”
“There’s nothing like that.”
“But, in order to get to Cactus, I have to get there from this town—“
“I don’t want to listen to any more of this. I’m going home,” said the old lady as she walked away from Lucy.
“Wait a second!” Lucy looked incredulous at being left alone like this. “Could you at least tell me why you’re acting like this?”
She shifted her bag to the other hand, and stared up at the tall, craggy mountain.
The village that prospered from mining ore, Cactus.
A plea for help had come from that place.
No matter what, Lucy would find a way there. If she were to abandon a job because she couldn’t arrive at the location, it would sully Fairy Tail’s name.
“No matter what, I’ll have to rely on myself to finish this job!” Lucy encouraged herself, and prepared to take her first step.
Just then, the old woman came back with a horse-drawn wagon. Even though the wagon was creaky and the horse was old, Lucy could tell that it was still well cared for.
The wagon stopped in front of her.
“…Old lady?”
“Come up here,” she said, pointing at the wagon.
“But, just now—“
“I changed my mind. You’re a mage, right,” she said, looking at the guild stamp on Lucy’s hand. It was a pink stamp and signified her status as a Fairy Tail mage. Natsu’s was on his right arm near his shoulder, and Gray’s was on the right side of his chest.
It was a proof of their friendship that would never disappear.
“I will lay my hope on you. Quickly, come up.”
“Thank you!” Lucy clambered into the wagon and it began to slowly move forward.
She looked around at the scenery in this town, and started wondering. She’d noticed it just now too, that there was nobody to be seen in this town. Even though there was frequently nobody around when she got off at a station in the countryside, but there was nobody at all in this town.
What was going on?
(Perhaps there’s some connection with the persistent fog coming from Cactus…)
“It’s just as you suspect.”
Lucy’s unease had been apparent on her face.
The old lady looked back at her as she drove the wagon. “One day, fog suddenly came down from the mountain. The fog blown down here from that village will erode the body. That is why everyone stays at home to protect themselves.”
“Erode?”
Did the fog carry a disease with it? But if that was the case, why was the old lady able to walk just fine?
The old lady continued to explain, “It’s not that affects any part of the body, but one will gradually become weak and powerless.”
“Is that so… but then are you okay?”
“I can’t say that I’m okay, but perhaps becoming limp and weak as a result of the fog is a result of thinking about it too much. But if I don’t think of it that way, then there’d be no way to go about my business everyday,” she replied, and pulled harder on the reigns as the horse slowly began to speed up.
They could no longer see the station and had already left the town. The wagon slowly traveled up the unpaved road.
The fog coming down from the mountain also slowly became denser.
“If ore doesn’t keep coming down from that village, then our town is done for. It’s because the ore from that mountain is very rare. Our clients are also getting impatient. But, if we don’t get the ore, then we can’t make our goods.”
(Ah, so it’s like that…)
The town had been full of jewelry and weapons shops. The town and village must’ve sprung up together.
“That’s why I’m asking you to do your utmost to solve this problem for us.” The old lady’s voice shook slightly. “The village head over there is my twin brother… please.”
“Leave it to me! I came here for that reason.” Lucy gripped her keys tightly, full of motivation. “I am a celestial spirit mage, so I keep my promises. I will definitely get rid of that fog for you!”
“Celestial spirits?” The old lady looked back at her, surprised. “That’s pretty rare.”
“You know about them?”
A celestial spirit mage could be called one as long as they had some magical power and a key that could call up a spirit. They also had to make a contract with the spirit. But even so, there were very few celestial spirit mages. It resulted in many people not even knowing that they existed. Lucy was very happy that this old lady who apparently didn’t know any magic knew of celestial spirits.
“…She was an old friend, and also a celestial spirit mage. She was like you, always carrying her keys and clinking everywhere she went.”
“The most basic part of being a celestial spirit mage is keeping your keys with you everywhere you go.”
“She said the same as you.”
“Is that so.” She tried to imagine this celestial spirit mage that she’d never met.
Every single one that she’d met so far were the type that’d abuse their spirits, not even loving them as they should. But the mage that this old lady once knew seemed to love her spirits just as Lucy did.
“If the children…”
“Eh?” Lucy sat up straight to listen to her words.
“If the children cried, then she would call up a spirit to sing to them. Once they heard the song, they would stop crying and smile as they fell asleep…”
“Singing… maybe that was Lyra?”
Lyra of the Harp constellation was famous as both a singer and harpist. Lucy had a contract with her and occasionally listened to her sing, always feeling calm afterwards.
“She was a blonde celestial spirit mage just like you. What was she called… I think it was Laila something.”
“Laila!?” Lucy’s eyes opened up wide. “Was it… Laila Heartfilia?”
“That’s right! If you know Laila, then that must mean she’s a really famous celestial spirit mage then.”
(It’s because, she’s my mother…)
Her chest suddenly felt rather warm. She never knew this about her mother, who’d passed away from a disease.
“Is she doing well. I think if it was her, she’d be able to get rid of this fog.”
“She, she’s fine!” Lucy replied energetically.
“Ah, but… I didn’t mean that your ability isn’t enough.”
“I know.”
(I’m going to finish this job, in place of my mother!)
“Just leave it to me—uwa!” A sudden shake of the wagon made Lucy crash onto one of the crates inside. “What, what’s going on?”
The road here was steep and dangerous, and it looked like the wagon could go no further. She looked closely and saw that the earth here had become completely barren.
But Cactus was just a bit farther up the road.
“Thank you. This is far enough.” Lucy stepped lightly off the wagon and smiled. “Just relax and wait. I think I’ll be able to bring you good news very soon.”
She started walking in the direction of Cactus.
Lucy had no idea what would be awaiting her there.
**
“Uwa… what is this.”
The closer she got to the village, the denser the fog got, to the point where it was hard to breathe. It hadn’t gotten too thick to see in front of her, but what she could see wasn’t very pleasant. Just like that town just now, there was not a single person in sight, but Lucy could still feel people staring at her from behind the tightly shut windows.
(Anyways…)
She decided to walk to the large building that looked to be the home of the village head. All she could hear was the sound of her footsteps echoing around her.
(This is really very depressing…)
She felt cold and hugged herself as she sped up her steps.
“It should be here…” Lucy knocked loudly on the heavy wooden door.
She thought she’d have to wait a long time, but the door actually opened immediately.
“Miss mage, we’ve been waiting a long time for you!”
Lucy couldn’t help but smile, seeing that the old man wanted to hug her, and was led into the room. His wife brought a cup of red tea to her. The steam coming off it reduced some of the tension that had been building up in her body.
“It must’ve been hard on you to travel from so far. I’ll just get straight to the point then—“
“I already heard a lot of it on the way here.”
“What?” The old man looked at her sideways.
“Your twin sister brought me here.”
“In that case, then this should be simple. The fog comes from the mine within this mountain. If you can’t get rid of it, then we’ll have no way to go on living.”
“Do you know the reason why it appeared?”
The old couple exchanged glances.
“Or if there’s something strange about it.”
“When it first came, a new miner had just gone missing.”
“A newcomer?” Lucy frowned. “Did nobody go looking for him?”
“How should I put it, it was a really shady person… right, husband.”
“Don’t speak nonsense.”
Hearing the old man’s stern tone, the woman closed her mouth.
(They seem to be hiding something!)
Wanting to get rid of the awkward environment around the two, Lucy leaned forward and said, “No, maybe it has something to do with this. Could you tell me the details?”
The old couple frowned.
“I definitely won’t share anything that you tell me with anyone else. I just would like to hear the details so I can finish this job.”
Hearing Lucy’s words, the old woman started to respond fearfully, “On his face, there was this tattoo-like shape. Like this…”
Lucy swallowed after she saw the old woman draw the tattoo on a sheet of paper.
(This is…!)
She’d seen this tattoo before.
She hadn’t forgotten it.
It was the symbol of Phantom Lord, the guild that’d once kidnapped her and destroyed Fairy Tail’s guildhall.
(They clearly got an order to disband though…)
Getting kidnapped and abused – thinking back to that time, Lucy shuddered.
(No… these people are awaiting my help, so I can’t let them know that I’m very disturbed…)
As if to drive away those feelings, Lucy gripped her fist tightly.
But, why.
(Is it because of the rare ore?)
Ore often went for high prices, and this rare ore must be very valuable. It wouldn’t be surprising if someone wanted to take over the mine for himself.
“But what’s the connection?”
“Maybe there’s something.” Just replying to herself took up a great deal of Lucy’s energy. In order to prevent the others from finding out how disturbed she was, Lucy suddenly stood up. “Anyway, I’m going to go take a look.”
“Sorry for the trouble.”
“Go straight down this road and you’ll arrive at the mine.”
“I understand.” Lucy forced a smile and walked out into the fog.
“Should we take you there?”
“No, it’s not a problem.”
The old man watched Lucy disappear into the fog, and murmured to himself, “This is the third one… hopefully this one can return safely.”
**
Lucy squinted as she walked down the dark, damp tunnel. Since the ore inside the mine was faintly luminescent, she could walk even without a source of light.
Now and then, she could hear the sound of water dripping somewhere. Other than that, there was only the sound of her own footsteps. And since she was inside of a cave, every single sound echoed off the walls, something that was extremely discomforting.
Lucy suppressed her urge to flee and walked deeper into the cave. At first, she’d only wanted to be able to pay her rent. And it would hurt her self-respect to refuse the job. But now after meeting the clients and hearing about her mother, Lucy wanted to finish this job no matter what.
(I have to complete this job!)
Just then, she heard some sort of sound come from deeper inside the cave.
“Who is it!” Lucy asked, but they did not respond. “I am a Fairy Tail mage! I am here to disperse the fog!”
They were still speechless after hearing her.
“I already know your true identity! Phantom Lord should’ve disbanded already. If you’re using magic to do evil, the Magic Council will punish you!”
“I already know that. If I was scared, then would I still be a disbanded mage!”
“Disperse this fog immediately. If you refuse, I’ll make you regret it!”
“This stupid woman is so noisy,” the other said, and Lucy could see a figure coming towards her.
(If it’s a famous mage, then I’ll lose…)
She prepared her whip and waited to see the figure’s movements, her breathing irregular because of her nervousness.
(Calm down…)
Even if she told herself that, she couldn’t stop shaking. She was still reminded often of that time when Phantom Lord kidnapped her. At that time – just by herself, there was nothing she could do. She couldn’t even escape.
It was only because of her friends that she was saved.
Even if she was only facing one of them, just seeing that guild stamp caused her old fears to resurface.
The dense fog slowly filled her lungs.
(…But I’m still, a member of Fairy Tail!)
“If you don’t want to come, I’ll go find you instead!” Lucy called out, and cracked her whip through the air.
(Is he there!)
The whip unexpectedly hit its mark, and seemed like it had wrapped around her target’s wrist. After feeling a reaction from her target, she pulled hard.
“Uu… so heavy…!” Lucy gritted her teeth as she pulled the person through the fog.
The person who appeared before her was someone she’d never seen before.
(What, okay… looks like this guy is a lower-level mage.)
Just as Lucy started to relax.
“You’re… Lucy Heartfilia…!” The mage used his magic at that very moment. The dark cave was suddenly covered with many magic circles. “I haven’t gotten to the point where I’d lose to an ojou-sama!”
Large hands made of white fog burst from the circles and stretched towards Lucy.
Lucy, with both hands on her whip, was unprepared for this and was sent flying.
“Ugh!”
She hurt all over but didn’t have the spare energy to check on her injuries. She took out one of the golden keys from the bunch at her waist and raised it high into the air.
“Open, Gate of the Bull! Taurus!”
A cheerful bell sounded and an extremely bright magic circle appeared before her.
“MOOOO———!”
An extremely muscular humanoid bull appeared from within the magic circle. He wore a pair of swimming briefs and wielded a large axe. Among Lucy’s spirits, he was one of the strongest. However…
“Lucy-san’s chest is just as great as usual.”
His personality was a bit off.
“I know. Taurus, go defeat him!”
“MOO!” Taurus swung his giant axe and rushed at the giant hands. But just as he cut through them, they materialized again. “MOO, this is…”
“Change your target! Go after the source!”
“Understood!”
Because he couldn’t see very well, Taurus’s attacks were not effective. He turned to the fog mage and swung his axe.
“Success!”
Just as Lucy gripped her fist, Taurus was sent flying far away. Because she didn’t have time to dodge, she was also sent flying.
“Ugh!”
“What, is this…?”
The hands appeared before Lucy and Taurus. Since they were made of fog, there wasn’t much that they could do.
“We aren’t making any progress like this… could it be that Taurus can’t beat him…!?”
“MOO, very sorry.”
“Don’t apologize,” Lucy said as she fixed her eyes on the fog mage and gripped her keys.
Lucy’s collection of spirits was one of the greatest among all celestial spirit mages, but a spirit that could defeat something like this was extremely rare.
(If I can’t get close to him, then we’ll have to attack from range!)
“Taurus, gate closure!” Lucy raised her golden key, and a magic circle like the one just now appeared. Taurus melted into it and disappeared.
Calling only one spirit at a time was one of the basic rules of celestial spirit magic. Calling many spirits at the same time would cause extreme strain on the summoner’s body, sometimes even leading to death. There were mages who could call multiple spirits at once, but since Lucy’s power wasn’t enough, she couldn’t accomplish it.
(At this distance… there’s only the archer Sagittarius!)
She knew which key to pick without even bothering to look. She grabbed the key and raised it high above her head.
“Open, gate of the centaur! Sagittari—aaaah!”
A fog hand swung over at her, as if to stop the magic circle. The keys in her hand dropped to the ground.
(Crap!)
No matter how sparkly they were, her visibility within this dense fog was approaching zero. And since the attacks kept coming, there was no way she could go searching.
(If it was Sagittarius… then he could definitely defeat him!)
Lucy gritted her teeth and stared at the fog mage.
“Without celestial spirits, you’re just a girl. Actually, even if you had them, they’d just be ornaments.”
The fog mage used his magic again, and a giant hand came flying towards Lucy.
“Ugh…!”
Lucy dodged the hand and adjusted her battle posture. If she didn’t have her keys, then she couldn’t use magic. It wasn’t that she couldn’t keep fighting, but she didn’t think that she would win.
(What should I do…?)
Lucy gripped the whip in her hands. Even if she could disperse the hands, they’d just reform again.
(If I don’t attack the source then…)
Lucy turned towards the fog mage.
“Are you going to say that you’ll beat me again.”
“You mean I can’t?”
“You couldn’t even if you wanted to. This is my territory.”
“That isn’t up to you!” Lucy shouted and flicked her whip. It flew towards the fog mage as if guided by its own intentions.
“Are you an idiot?” The fog mage laughed and used his magic.
“Aaah!”
A hand appeared next to Lucy and pressed her painfully against the wall. She was still flinging the whip even while pressed. The fog was growing so dense that it was hard to breathe.
"Ugh… Ha…"
Her field of vision went sideways. Even the fog mage gradually faded away.
Luckily her hands were still free to move, so Lucy flicked the whip at the fog mage. But it couldn’t reach him, and no matter how hard she struggled the result remained the same.
"Is this it?" The fog mage picked up the bunch of keys from near his feet. He examined it closely and then sighed. "Sagittarius, Aquarius, Gemini… Wow, you have nine out of the twelve zodiac gates. Ojou-sama, you’re quite impressive."
Lucy watched him play around with her keys and stretched out her hand at them. “No, don’t…”
"I’m going to sell these for a lot of money. Since there exists only one key for each zodiac gate. Relax and die already."
He smiled as he swung the keys around on his finger. “It fell…” The keys slid off his finger and clanged together as they fell on the floor. “Some very expensive goods fell.”
Lucy watched as he kicked the keys up into the air and caught them, and her eyes filled with tears.
"Stop, stop joking! Celestial spirits aren’t tools…!"
"Ha? If they’re not tools, then what are they. If you didn’t have these tools, then you wouldn’t be able to fight, right?"
(That doesn’t make them tools… even though I’ve always been helped by those spirits…)
Lucy bit her lip. “They’re friends! They’re not ornaments, or tools. Because they’re friends, I can ask them for help…!”
"Are you still talking like that?"
The fog mage used his magic, and the giant hand started applying more and more pressure against Lucy.
(I actually… lost against this guy… I’m sorry, everyone…)
"Cough, cough…"
The rest of the air within her lungs came out along with some blood. Lucy had lost all her strength.
"Wow, did she die?"
The fog mage clutched his belly and laughed.
"…Eh?" He felt the air within the cave vibrate and lifted his head. "Ah, what?"
A magic circle appeared above Lucy’s head.
"It doesn’t seem like help’s coming…"
Just as he walked towards the magic circle, a cheerful bell sounded. A mermaid surrounded by water appeared from within the circle. She carried a jug of water and was called —
"Aquarius?"
"I don’t remember you calling me by any such name!" Aquarius stared at the fog mage as she gritted her teeth.
"What? But, I have the key… No, more than that, there’s clearly no water, yet you—"
"She’s just a girl, but she’s also my master. Of course I’d come help her!" Aquarius yelled and aimed her water jug at the fog mage. "Can you take this too!"
Giant waves came spilling out of the jug, dissipating all the fog. The mage completely lost his bearings and was about to be swallowed by the waves.
"Ugh, ugh… Sa-save me…!"
The cave turned into a sea of water within the blink of an eye. Lucy was pressed against the wall by the fog hand and had luckily avoided the waves.
"Cough cough cough…!" The fog mage had swallowed a great deal of sea water and passed out.
"You should be thankful that I let you live." Aquarius spat at him as she gathered the waves back into her jug.
Since the source had fallen, the fog hand holding Lucy against the wall disappeared.
"You’re such a troublesome girl…" Aquarius moved lightly through the air and deposited Lucy at the mouth of the cave.
She was still passed out and didn’t appear to be waking up right away.
"Lucy…" Aquarius’s eyes turned vaguely red.
The bell sounded again within the now silent cave.
"Lucy!"
A man appeared, wearing a suit and with a hairstyle that looked like a lion’s mane. The eyes behind his tinted sunglasses appeared very kind.
"Oh… it’s Loke." Aquarius quickly left Lucy’s side.
"I had no idea!" When the spirit named Loke arrived by their side, his eyes went very wide. "That you would come…"
"Didn’t you know that fog contains water? Huh?"
"No, I know…"
"Don’t tell that girl." Aquarius glanced at Lucy again and then gradually melted away into the air. "I’m going to go on a date with my boyfriend now. With my boyfriend."
"Wait, Aquarius!"
"Don’t say anything, okay? If you say anything, I’ll kill you!" Aquarius yelled as she disappeared.
"…pfft." Loke chuckled and then picked up Lucy in a warm embrace.
(Even if I tell Lucy, she probably wouldn’t believe me…)
Loke shook her shoulder. He didn’t think that she was already dead. If she was dead, then her spirits would be released from their contracts. Since that hadn’t happened, then Lucy must still be alive.
"Even so, this is pretty worrisome…" Loke started yelling at her. "Lucy, are you okay?"
He rubbed her body which had gradually been getting colder, and her face started to regain some of its color.
(That’s good! If it continues like this, she should wake up soon!)
"….ughhn." Her eyelashes moved and she slowly opened her eyes.
Lucy looked at the defeated fog mage and at Loke, who was holding her.
(What happened exactly…)
She took in all her surroundings and gave him a relaxed smile.
(So Loke saved me…)
Loke had once been a Fairy Tail mage. Since he had once used his own magic to stay within the human world, he could come over from the celestial spirit world even if Lucy didn’t use her magic to call him. Because of that, she’d often gotten his help.
"Loke, you went through the gate on your own again…"
"Ah… no."
(The one who helped you this time… wasn’t me…)
But, even if he said that it was Aquarius, Lucy probably wouldn’t believe him. And when he remembered what Aquarius had said, he didn’t really want to confess. Even within the celestial spirit world, Aquarius had a reputation for being quite fearsome. The only one who didn’t know about it was her boyfriend Scorpio.
"Thank you for saving me."
Seeing her grateful eyes, it became even harder for him to confess. However,
"No problem… so let’s do this," Loke said, and picked Lucy up in a princess carry.
"Wait, I said I can walk!"
"You clearly have no more magical power, so don’t overtax yourself." Loke blinked, like a prince.
"You’re so… so in love with yourself!"
Even as she said that, Lucy closed her eyes while in his embrace.
(Friends, no, seems more like family…)
**
"I didn’t think, that you would really solve the problem for us! Ah, thank you so very much!"
The old couple came out to thank Lucy.
The village looked as if it’d regained some of its vitality.
"I knew early on that that fellow looked suspicious."
"It’s wrong to let outsiders in after all."
"Let’s take this opportunity to bring back the young folk who went out to the city."
"Ah, thank you so much! Mage-sama!"
Hearing the villagers speak one after another, Lucy could only smile awkwardly.
(Seems like I can’t tell them that… actually, I was defeated and such.)
The village head handed an envelope to Lucy, who was embarrassed at being praised by all the villagers.
"This is the reward. Please receive it."
"Thank, thank you."
"And, there’s also this—"
The village head held out a piece of ore about as big as his palm.
"This piece of ore only comes from this mountain, so it’s very rare. Please take it as an added bonus!"
"But, it looks very expensive…"
"We’ll be able to mine even more from now on, so please take it!"
With this sort of encouragement, she decided to receive it with gratitude.
"Thank you very much!" Lucy said, and looked down at what she received — a gem that shined with a light pink sparkle, and gave off a faint and warm fragrance of the sea.
"Hm?" Lucy, who had been going to the guild today to find a job, turned around to find the source of the yelling. "Ah, Natsu!?"
Natsu walked up before her, wearing his silver-white scarf and looking very pale. For some reason, he looked extremely weak, as if he had suddenly lost a lot of weight.
"Na… what’s wrong —"
But before she finished speaking, Natsu had already run far away. “What, what is this…?”
Lucy stared as his figure slowly receded into the distance. She waited a bit, but he showed no signs of coming back.
(What, what on earth was that… really!)
Gathering up her spirits, she started walking again.
To the place that could be called her second home — the wizard guild “Fairy Tail.”
**
Situated in the southern part of Magnolia, the “Fairy Tail” guild hall was built next to a giant lake.
It was rather busy today. Someone was playing music in the guild’s bar, and someone was singing along with it. The sound of laughter could be heard everywhere, and one could also see a fight that started over pretty much nothing.
Maybe it was because she’d arrived later than usual, but the bar too was very busy.
"Lucy, good morning!"
A voice called out from by the counter.
Lucy smiled upon hearing that voice that always made one feel happy. “Mira-san!”
The girl named Mira was waving at her.
Mirajane was a barmaid and also helped the Guild Master with administrative work. It seemed like other than her work here, she was also a cover girl for the wizard magazine “Weekly Sorcerer.”
Even though she was a very calm and collected girl, but Lucy heard that before she’d entered the guild, Mirajane had been rather formidable in both personality and powers.
The top few mages in the guild were known as S-class mages. Mirajane had once been one of them. But at a certain point, after Mira believed that her sister Lisanna had died, she had sealed her magic away. But now that Lisanna had returned, Mirajane no longer hesitated about using her magic.
But even so, Mirajane never accepted jobs.
"You seem in good spirits today as well," Mirajane smiled.
"Yes - just as usual!" Lucy said as she sat down in front of the bar. "Are there any good jobs today?"
"I just posted the new job flyers on the job posting board."
"Really!?"
Lucy looked at the board at the very end of the bar. There were many different job flyers on the large job postings board. Each flyer listed details about the job offering for the mage, as well as the rewards. With that flyer, a mage could go on that job.
Of course, it was first come first serve.
If there were no suitable jobs for a particular mage’s skills or if he couldn’t complete the jobs on his own, then that mage would have nothing to do that day.
There was nobody currently in front of the board, probably because everyone was still eating breakfast.
“I need to hurry up and go look right now!”
Seeing Lucy push away her chair and stand up, Mirajane chuckled. “You’re in need of money again?”
“Umm, yes…mmm,” Lucy mumbled, shrugging in embarrassment.
“But you’re clearly an ojou-sama.”
“Leave me alone, Mira-san. I didn’t take any money with me from home… besides my family is now like that,” Lucy said, looking downwards.
Lucy’s family, the Heartfilia family, was once one of the richest in the kingdom of Fiore. She didn’t know for what reason it had gone bankrupt, but now her father had decided to start over again at his old merchant guild “LOVE & LUCKY.”
But compared to worrying about her father, right now the more important thing was –
(My monthly rent is 70,000 jewels, and if I don’t make that money this week then I’ll be in trouble…)
Lucy swallowed.
She really liked her current place.
It was a roomy place that had wooden pillars, white walls, an oven that she could cook pizza in, nice breezes from the canal outside, and a large bathroom. It was also close to the shopping district, in a really good location.
Even though the distance from the guild would seem like a mark against it, but in order to lose weight, walking didn’t seem bad.
Even if she wouldn’t get immediately kicked out for being late on rent, she still didn’t feel good about the idea.
Lucy’s self-respect wouldn’t allow her to owe someone money and not pay them.
“I’ll be back as soon as I look at the board! I will definitely go work today!”
“Ara, aren’t you going with Natsu and them?” Mirajane looked at her sideways, her silvery-white hair swinging. Her big eyes were fixed on Lucy.
“Eh, Natsu? Umm… I saw him just now as I was coming here.”
“If it’s Natsu, he accidentally ate Gray’s food and went home just now,” said a voice from near Lucy’s feet.
She looked down and saw Happy standing there.
“Happy, what’s going on?”
A half-naked teenager walked up from behind a confused Lucy. There was a navy blue guild stamp on his right chest. His eyes drooped a bit, but his gaze was sharp and cold. Even though he was quite handsome, Lucy just couldn’t get used to him walking everywhere in his underwear.
“That smelly flame is completely unforgiveable, eating other people’s food when he feels like it.”
“Gray!” Lucy turned around towards him.
The scar on his forehead unexpectedly suited his handsome face.
Lucy noticed that he seemed quite upset.
“Natsu just ate my cold food, thinking that it was his hot breakfast.”
“Ara…” Mirajane cocked her head sideways.
“Natsu was still sleepy!” said Happy, and Lucy finally realized what had happened.
Natsu was a mage who used fire magic. He used the lost magic fire dragonslayer abilities that his father Igneel the fire dragon had taught him. He really liked fire and hot things, and disliked cold things. In contrast, Gray was an ice-make wizard and disliked hot things.
She didn’t know if it was because their magic were the opposite of one another, but Natsu and Gray didn’t get along.
(But, really it’s…)
It was like that saying, they got along better the more they argued with one another.
She could see that Natsu and Gray were aware of each other’s thoughts without having to say them outright.
“Ah, so it’s like that. Mira, make another cold breakfast for me.”
“Yes,” Mira said as she walked into the kitchen, smiling.
“So, Gray, could you please put on some clothes?”
“Oh!”
Lucy was seventeen years old, but had never been in a relationship. Even if it was a friend, she still had an aversion to nudity. Gray had pretty much made a habit of going half-naked, but her nature was such that she just couldn’t get used to it.
And Gray was Gray, often taking off his clothes without realizing it, and only noticing when someone pointed it out.
“Speaking of which, where’s Natsu’s breakfast?”
It wouldn’t do to just let food that was still on fire just sit there.
(Fine, I’ll go clean it up…)
“Don’t worry, Juvia already took care of it.”
“Juvia is here!?” Lucy was surprised at seeing Juvia appear from behind Gray with a tray full of sodden food in her hands.
“I’ll take this.” On the tray was Natsu’s hot breakfast, now looking extremely wet and depressing. “Because putting it near Gray-sama is very dangerous.”
“Are you okay, Juvia?” Lucy looked at her, concerned.
Juvie was a water mage. She had originally belonged to an enemy guild, but had joined “Fairy Tail” for some reason.
And that reason was –
“If it’s… for someone I li-like…” Juvia blushed bright red and mumbled, her words getting lost in the noise coming from the bar.
“Eh? What?” Lucy asked as she looked behind Juvia and was taken by surprise seeing the crowd forming in front of the jobs posting board. “Ah-! Wait! Wait, wait for me! I want to pick too-!”
Lucy hurried over and pushed people away until she managed to get right in front of the board. “This, this one!” Lucy immediately started reading the words in front of her.
Solve the mystery of the persistent fog.
Location: Cactus Village
Reward: 100,000J (with more rewards to be added)
(If it’s not defeating magical beasts, I should be able to do it! And just this one job will take care of the rent!)
After snatching the flyer, Lucy made a victory pose. “Okay, I have my job today!”
“That’s great, Lucy,” said Nab admiringly at her side.
“What are you doing, Nab?” Lucy asked, staring at him.
The very large Nab was always standing in front of the job postings board. But, no matter how long he stood there, she’d never seen him go on a job.
He himself always said, “There are no jobs that suit me.”
“I wanted to say that being able to find a job that really suits oneself is great.”
“I’m sure Nab will find one soon. Okay, I’m going then!” Lucy replied and returned to the bar counter. “I have to get ready to go!”
“Hmm- …, it looks okay. But, the reward won’t be too small?” Gray said, looking at her flyer.
“It’s not small at all. It’s enough for my rent!”
“No, that’s not right. Split with me and Happy and Erza, it’ll only be 25,000 each.”
“Split with Natsu too, so it’ll be 10,000 each!”
“Why would it be split! And Happy your math is wrong!”
Happy stood by her feet and calmly said, “Because, we’re going to go together, right?”
Lucy’s expression turned a bit stiff upon hearing this.
Though they didn’t always go together, but the number of team activities had been on the rise lately. And though nobody would force her to go with the team, but being asked in this way made it hard for Lucy to reply.
(If everyone wants to go, then I should’ve picked a job with a bigger reward…)
Lucy stared down at the flyer in her hands.
She believed that everyone in their team had their own strengths, and that was why they were the strongest team in Fairy Tail. But other than Lucy, the rest of them had an extreme lack of common sense, so they still hadn’t had the experience of receiving a full reward. This was one of the reasons why Lucy was always short on money.
(Well, fine then!)
“That, that’s right. Since I still have a lot of time left, everyone should go together,” she said, though her shoulders sagged in disappointment.
“Okay, I’ll go call Erza,” said Happy as he walked towards the center of the bar.
“Ara? If it’s Erza, she’s already on an S-class job,” said Mirajane, walking back with Gray’s breakfast. “She should’ve left already.”
“S-class task?” Lucy repeated.
Mirajane smiled in response. “She left this morning. The Master asked her to do it, so she should be out of the city by now.”
“Is that so.”
Erza was a S-class mage, just like Mirajane. Calling her Fairy Tail’s strongest woman wasn’t too much of a stretch. S-class jobs were harder than normal jobs, and only S-class mages could go on them.”
“Then, other than Erza there’s still-“
Just as Lucy started speaking.
“Uwaaaaaa….!”
From near the counter came Gray’s tortured cries.
“It’s so, so spicy… in my mouth, and hot… uwaaaa…”
“Ara?” Mirajane took a bite of his breakfast and chewed on it without changing expression. “Hmm—…. It seems like I messed up on the salt content.”
Gray suddenly collapsed in front of her. “Water, water…”
Now that he’d mentioned that, Juvia couldn’t just stand by and do nothing. She used her power and it started to rain around him. “Ah, you, you mean this…!”
“Wait a second, Juvia!”
Perhaps it was because she was too nervous, but not only Gray, but also Lucy by his side was also soaked by the rain.
“Hey…!” Gray stared at Juvia. “You, what are you doing…”
Juvia stopped the rain when she felt his gaze on her.
“Ara…what’s going on?” Mirajane hadn’t noticed anything at all and handed a cup of tea to Gray. “Please drink.”
He took the cup but seemed to lack even the energy to drink by now.
“Gray, Gray-sama!” Juvia cried out in panic by his side.
“Gray, are you okay?” Lucy stared at his face. Her large chest swung back and forth in front of his face. “Just throw it all up first!”
“!” Seeing this, Juvia pouted. “Could you go alone?”
“Eh?”
“I’ll take care of Gray-sama!”
“But, Happy… eh?”
Happy, who said he’d go call Erza, was now next to Charle, a fellow Exceed. Charle, who was a completely unembarrassed and rather cold pure white Exceed, usually went about with Wendy. There was a time when she was extremely cold to Happy, but because of a certain incident, she’d gradually started to warm up to him. But even so, they still hadn’t actually become close.
“Wait, Happy!”
(Happy was the one who said we should go together!)
“Ah! Lucy, you can go. I’m going to stay here today!”
“Oh, okay.” Lucy couldn’t help but smile, seeing him trying to strike up a conversation with Charle. But no matter what, it seemed like Charle liked him too.
(So, it’ll just be me then?)
Lucy let out a long sigh, and stared at the flyer in her hand.
(A persistent fog… eh.)
**
Lucy got off the train at the nearest station. The sunny sky had all of a sudden turned completely overcast. A moist wind blowing down from the mountains surrounded her.
“So the railroad stops here…”
She frowned, looking down at the map. It looked like to arrive at the village, she could only walk or catch a ride.
Dust blew about the deserted train station. There was nobody renting out magical four-wheelers. There weren’t even any horse-drawn carriages nearby.
A magical four-wheeler looked like a car, but it was fueled by the driver’s magical power. A SE plug placed on the driver’s wrist absorbed magical power and converted it to kinetic energy to move the vehicle. It could go faster the more one put magical energy into it, but once a mage’s energy was exhausted, it would stop.
But even if there were magical four-wheelers here, Lucy didn’t have a driver’s license and couldn’t drive one. And even if she did have one, her own magical power wasn’t enough to carry her to the village.
(So burdensome…)
It was also too far to walk. It’d probably be evening by the time she arrived.
Even so, the reality was that there was no transportation here.
“Hmm…. Ah!” Lucy saw someone coming out of the tiny shop in front of the station and ran over. “Excuse me, could you tell me how to get to Cactus Village—“
“Cactus!?” The wrinkled old lady looked suspiciously at her. “What do you want? Do you have business with Cactus Village?”
“Yes. If there are any carriages carrying goods out of this town, could I catch a ride as well?”
“There’s nothing like that.”
“But, in order to get to Cactus, I have to get there from this town—“
“I don’t want to listen to any more of this. I’m going home,” said the old lady as she walked away from Lucy.
“Wait a second!” Lucy looked incredulous at being left alone like this. “Could you at least tell me why you’re acting like this?”
She shifted her bag to the other hand, and stared up at the tall, craggy mountain.
The village that prospered from mining ore, Cactus.
A plea for help had come from that place.
No matter what, Lucy would find a way there. If she were to abandon a job because she couldn’t arrive at the location, it would sully Fairy Tail’s name.
“No matter what, I’ll have to rely on myself to finish this job!” Lucy encouraged herself, and prepared to take her first step.
Just then, the old woman came back with a horse-drawn wagon. Even though the wagon was creaky and the horse was old, Lucy could tell that it was still well cared for.
The wagon stopped in front of her.
“…Old lady?”
“Come up here,” she said, pointing at the wagon.
“But, just now—“
“I changed my mind. You’re a mage, right,” she said, looking at the guild stamp on Lucy’s hand. It was a pink stamp and signified her status as a Fairy Tail mage. Natsu’s was on his right arm near his shoulder, and Gray’s was on the right side of his chest.
It was a proof of their friendship that would never disappear.
“I will lay my hope on you. Quickly, come up.”
“Thank you!” Lucy clambered into the wagon and it began to slowly move forward.
She looked around at the scenery in this town, and started wondering. She’d noticed it just now too, that there was nobody to be seen in this town. Even though there was frequently nobody around when she got off at a station in the countryside, but there was nobody at all in this town.
What was going on?
(Perhaps there’s some connection with the persistent fog coming from Cactus…)
“It’s just as you suspect.”
Lucy’s unease had been apparent on her face.
The old lady looked back at her as she drove the wagon. “One day, fog suddenly came down from the mountain. The fog blown down here from that village will erode the body. That is why everyone stays at home to protect themselves.”
“Erode?”
Did the fog carry a disease with it? But if that was the case, why was the old lady able to walk just fine?
The old lady continued to explain, “It’s not that affects any part of the body, but one will gradually become weak and powerless.”
“Is that so… but then are you okay?”
“I can’t say that I’m okay, but perhaps becoming limp and weak as a result of the fog is a result of thinking about it too much. But if I don’t think of it that way, then there’d be no way to go about my business everyday,” she replied, and pulled harder on the reigns as the horse slowly began to speed up.
They could no longer see the station and had already left the town. The wagon slowly traveled up the unpaved road.
The fog coming down from the mountain also slowly became denser.
“If ore doesn’t keep coming down from that village, then our town is done for. It’s because the ore from that mountain is very rare. Our clients are also getting impatient. But, if we don’t get the ore, then we can’t make our goods.”
(Ah, so it’s like that…)
The town had been full of jewelry and weapons shops. The town and village must’ve sprung up together.
“That’s why I’m asking you to do your utmost to solve this problem for us.” The old lady’s voice shook slightly. “The village head over there is my twin brother… please.”
“Leave it to me! I came here for that reason.” Lucy gripped her keys tightly, full of motivation. “I am a celestial spirit mage, so I keep my promises. I will definitely get rid of that fog for you!”
“Celestial spirits?” The old lady looked back at her, surprised. “That’s pretty rare.”
“You know about them?”
A celestial spirit mage could be called one as long as they had some magical power and a key that could call up a spirit. They also had to make a contract with the spirit. But even so, there were very few celestial spirit mages. It resulted in many people not even knowing that they existed. Lucy was very happy that this old lady who apparently didn’t know any magic knew of celestial spirits.
“…She was an old friend, and also a celestial spirit mage. She was like you, always carrying her keys and clinking everywhere she went.”
“The most basic part of being a celestial spirit mage is keeping your keys with you everywhere you go.”
“She said the same as you.”
“Is that so.” She tried to imagine this celestial spirit mage that she’d never met.
Every single one that she’d met so far were the type that’d abuse their spirits, not even loving them as they should. But the mage that this old lady once knew seemed to love her spirits just as Lucy did.
“If the children…”
“Eh?” Lucy sat up straight to listen to her words.
“If the children cried, then she would call up a spirit to sing to them. Once they heard the song, they would stop crying and smile as they fell asleep…”
“Singing… maybe that was Lyra?”
Lyra of the Harp constellation was famous as both a singer and harpist. Lucy had a contract with her and occasionally listened to her sing, always feeling calm afterwards.
“She was a blonde celestial spirit mage just like you. What was she called… I think it was Laila something.”
“Laila!?” Lucy’s eyes opened up wide. “Was it… Laila Heartfilia?”
“That’s right! If you know Laila, then that must mean she’s a really famous celestial spirit mage then.”
(It’s because, she’s my mother…)
Her chest suddenly felt rather warm. She never knew this about her mother, who’d passed away from a disease.
“Is she doing well. I think if it was her, she’d be able to get rid of this fog.”
“She, she’s fine!” Lucy replied energetically.
“Ah, but… I didn’t mean that your ability isn’t enough.”
“I know.”
(I’m going to finish this job, in place of my mother!)
“Just leave it to me—uwa!” A sudden shake of the wagon made Lucy crash onto one of the crates inside. “What, what’s going on?”
The road here was steep and dangerous, and it looked like the wagon could go no further. She looked closely and saw that the earth here had become completely barren.
But Cactus was just a bit farther up the road.
“Thank you. This is far enough.” Lucy stepped lightly off the wagon and smiled. “Just relax and wait. I think I’ll be able to bring you good news very soon.”
She started walking in the direction of Cactus.
Lucy had no idea what would be awaiting her there.
**
“Uwa… what is this.”
The closer she got to the village, the denser the fog got, to the point where it was hard to breathe. It hadn’t gotten too thick to see in front of her, but what she could see wasn’t very pleasant. Just like that town just now, there was not a single person in sight, but Lucy could still feel people staring at her from behind the tightly shut windows.
(Anyways…)
She decided to walk to the large building that looked to be the home of the village head. All she could hear was the sound of her footsteps echoing around her.
(This is really very depressing…)
She felt cold and hugged herself as she sped up her steps.
“It should be here…” Lucy knocked loudly on the heavy wooden door.
She thought she’d have to wait a long time, but the door actually opened immediately.
“Miss mage, we’ve been waiting a long time for you!”
Lucy couldn’t help but smile, seeing that the old man wanted to hug her, and was led into the room. His wife brought a cup of red tea to her. The steam coming off it reduced some of the tension that had been building up in her body.
“It must’ve been hard on you to travel from so far. I’ll just get straight to the point then—“
“I already heard a lot of it on the way here.”
“What?” The old man looked at her sideways.
“Your twin sister brought me here.”
“In that case, then this should be simple. The fog comes from the mine within this mountain. If you can’t get rid of it, then we’ll have no way to go on living.”
“Do you know the reason why it appeared?”
The old couple exchanged glances.
“Or if there’s something strange about it.”
“When it first came, a new miner had just gone missing.”
“A newcomer?” Lucy frowned. “Did nobody go looking for him?”
“How should I put it, it was a really shady person… right, husband.”
“Don’t speak nonsense.”
Hearing the old man’s stern tone, the woman closed her mouth.
(They seem to be hiding something!)
Wanting to get rid of the awkward environment around the two, Lucy leaned forward and said, “No, maybe it has something to do with this. Could you tell me the details?”
The old couple frowned.
“I definitely won’t share anything that you tell me with anyone else. I just would like to hear the details so I can finish this job.”
Hearing Lucy’s words, the old woman started to respond fearfully, “On his face, there was this tattoo-like shape. Like this…”
Lucy swallowed after she saw the old woman draw the tattoo on a sheet of paper.
(This is…!)
She’d seen this tattoo before.
She hadn’t forgotten it.
It was the symbol of Phantom Lord, the guild that’d once kidnapped her and destroyed Fairy Tail’s guildhall.
(They clearly got an order to disband though…)
Getting kidnapped and abused – thinking back to that time, Lucy shuddered.
(No… these people are awaiting my help, so I can’t let them know that I’m very disturbed…)
As if to drive away those feelings, Lucy gripped her fist tightly.
But, why.
(Is it because of the rare ore?)
Ore often went for high prices, and this rare ore must be very valuable. It wouldn’t be surprising if someone wanted to take over the mine for himself.
“But what’s the connection?”
“Maybe there’s something.” Just replying to herself took up a great deal of Lucy’s energy. In order to prevent the others from finding out how disturbed she was, Lucy suddenly stood up. “Anyway, I’m going to go take a look.”
“Sorry for the trouble.”
“Go straight down this road and you’ll arrive at the mine.”
“I understand.” Lucy forced a smile and walked out into the fog.
“Should we take you there?”
“No, it’s not a problem.”
The old man watched Lucy disappear into the fog, and murmured to himself, “This is the third one… hopefully this one can return safely.”
**
Lucy squinted as she walked down the dark, damp tunnel. Since the ore inside the mine was faintly luminescent, she could walk even without a source of light.
Now and then, she could hear the sound of water dripping somewhere. Other than that, there was only the sound of her own footsteps. And since she was inside of a cave, every single sound echoed off the walls, something that was extremely discomforting.
Lucy suppressed her urge to flee and walked deeper into the cave. At first, she’d only wanted to be able to pay her rent. And it would hurt her self-respect to refuse the job. But now after meeting the clients and hearing about her mother, Lucy wanted to finish this job no matter what.
(I have to complete this job!)
Just then, she heard some sort of sound come from deeper inside the cave.
“Who is it!” Lucy asked, but they did not respond. “I am a Fairy Tail mage! I am here to disperse the fog!”
They were still speechless after hearing her.
“I already know your true identity! Phantom Lord should’ve disbanded already. If you’re using magic to do evil, the Magic Council will punish you!”
“I already know that. If I was scared, then would I still be a disbanded mage!”
“Disperse this fog immediately. If you refuse, I’ll make you regret it!”
“This stupid woman is so noisy,” the other said, and Lucy could see a figure coming towards her.
(If it’s a famous mage, then I’ll lose…)
She prepared her whip and waited to see the figure’s movements, her breathing irregular because of her nervousness.
(Calm down…)
Even if she told herself that, she couldn’t stop shaking. She was still reminded often of that time when Phantom Lord kidnapped her. At that time – just by herself, there was nothing she could do. She couldn’t even escape.
It was only because of her friends that she was saved.
Even if she was only facing one of them, just seeing that guild stamp caused her old fears to resurface.
The dense fog slowly filled her lungs.
(…But I’m still, a member of Fairy Tail!)
“If you don’t want to come, I’ll go find you instead!” Lucy called out, and cracked her whip through the air.
(Is he there!)
The whip unexpectedly hit its mark, and seemed like it had wrapped around her target’s wrist. After feeling a reaction from her target, she pulled hard.
“Uu… so heavy…!” Lucy gritted her teeth as she pulled the person through the fog.
The person who appeared before her was someone she’d never seen before.
(What, okay… looks like this guy is a lower-level mage.)
Just as Lucy started to relax.
“You’re… Lucy Heartfilia…!” The mage used his magic at that very moment. The dark cave was suddenly covered with many magic circles. “I haven’t gotten to the point where I’d lose to an ojou-sama!”
Large hands made of white fog burst from the circles and stretched towards Lucy.
Lucy, with both hands on her whip, was unprepared for this and was sent flying.
“Ugh!”
She hurt all over but didn’t have the spare energy to check on her injuries. She took out one of the golden keys from the bunch at her waist and raised it high into the air.
“Open, Gate of the Bull! Taurus!”
A cheerful bell sounded and an extremely bright magic circle appeared before her.
“MOOOO———!”
An extremely muscular humanoid bull appeared from within the magic circle. He wore a pair of swimming briefs and wielded a large axe. Among Lucy’s spirits, he was one of the strongest. However…
“Lucy-san’s chest is just as great as usual.”
His personality was a bit off.
“I know. Taurus, go defeat him!”
“MOO!” Taurus swung his giant axe and rushed at the giant hands. But just as he cut through them, they materialized again. “MOO, this is…”
“Change your target! Go after the source!”
“Understood!”
Because he couldn’t see very well, Taurus’s attacks were not effective. He turned to the fog mage and swung his axe.
“Success!”
Just as Lucy gripped her fist, Taurus was sent flying far away. Because she didn’t have time to dodge, she was also sent flying.
“Ugh!”
“What, is this…?”
The hands appeared before Lucy and Taurus. Since they were made of fog, there wasn’t much that they could do.
“We aren’t making any progress like this… could it be that Taurus can’t beat him…!?”
“MOO, very sorry.”
“Don’t apologize,” Lucy said as she fixed her eyes on the fog mage and gripped her keys.
Lucy’s collection of spirits was one of the greatest among all celestial spirit mages, but a spirit that could defeat something like this was extremely rare.
(If I can’t get close to him, then we’ll have to attack from range!)
“Taurus, gate closure!” Lucy raised her golden key, and a magic circle like the one just now appeared. Taurus melted into it and disappeared.
Calling only one spirit at a time was one of the basic rules of celestial spirit magic. Calling many spirits at the same time would cause extreme strain on the summoner’s body, sometimes even leading to death. There were mages who could call multiple spirits at once, but since Lucy’s power wasn’t enough, she couldn’t accomplish it.
(At this distance… there’s only the archer Sagittarius!)
She knew which key to pick without even bothering to look. She grabbed the key and raised it high above her head.
“Open, gate of the centaur! Sagittari—aaaah!”
A fog hand swung over at her, as if to stop the magic circle. The keys in her hand dropped to the ground.
(Crap!)
No matter how sparkly they were, her visibility within this dense fog was approaching zero. And since the attacks kept coming, there was no way she could go searching.
(If it was Sagittarius… then he could definitely defeat him!)
Lucy gritted her teeth and stared at the fog mage.
“Without celestial spirits, you’re just a girl. Actually, even if you had them, they’d just be ornaments.”
The fog mage used his magic again, and a giant hand came flying towards Lucy.
“Ugh…!”
Lucy dodged the hand and adjusted her battle posture. If she didn’t have her keys, then she couldn’t use magic. It wasn’t that she couldn’t keep fighting, but she didn’t think that she would win.
(What should I do…?)
Lucy gripped the whip in her hands. Even if she could disperse the hands, they’d just reform again.
(If I don’t attack the source then…)
Lucy turned towards the fog mage.
“Are you going to say that you’ll beat me again.”
“You mean I can’t?”
“You couldn’t even if you wanted to. This is my territory.”
“That isn’t up to you!” Lucy shouted and flicked her whip. It flew towards the fog mage as if guided by its own intentions.
“Are you an idiot?” The fog mage laughed and used his magic.
“Aaah!”
A hand appeared next to Lucy and pressed her painfully against the wall. She was still flinging the whip even while pressed. The fog was growing so dense that it was hard to breathe.
"Ugh… Ha…"
Her field of vision went sideways. Even the fog mage gradually faded away.
Luckily her hands were still free to move, so Lucy flicked the whip at the fog mage. But it couldn’t reach him, and no matter how hard she struggled the result remained the same.
"Is this it?" The fog mage picked up the bunch of keys from near his feet. He examined it closely and then sighed. "Sagittarius, Aquarius, Gemini… Wow, you have nine out of the twelve zodiac gates. Ojou-sama, you’re quite impressive."
Lucy watched him play around with her keys and stretched out her hand at them. “No, don’t…”
"I’m going to sell these for a lot of money. Since there exists only one key for each zodiac gate. Relax and die already."
He smiled as he swung the keys around on his finger. “It fell…” The keys slid off his finger and clanged together as they fell on the floor. “Some very expensive goods fell.”
Lucy watched as he kicked the keys up into the air and caught them, and her eyes filled with tears.
"Stop, stop joking! Celestial spirits aren’t tools…!"
"Ha? If they’re not tools, then what are they. If you didn’t have these tools, then you wouldn’t be able to fight, right?"
(That doesn’t make them tools… even though I’ve always been helped by those spirits…)
Lucy bit her lip. “They’re friends! They’re not ornaments, or tools. Because they’re friends, I can ask them for help…!”
"Are you still talking like that?"
The fog mage used his magic, and the giant hand started applying more and more pressure against Lucy.
(I actually… lost against this guy… I’m sorry, everyone…)
"Cough, cough…"
The rest of the air within her lungs came out along with some blood. Lucy had lost all her strength.
"Wow, did she die?"
The fog mage clutched his belly and laughed.
"…Eh?" He felt the air within the cave vibrate and lifted his head. "Ah, what?"
A magic circle appeared above Lucy’s head.
"It doesn’t seem like help’s coming…"
Just as he walked towards the magic circle, a cheerful bell sounded. A mermaid surrounded by water appeared from within the circle. She carried a jug of water and was called —
"Aquarius?"
"I don’t remember you calling me by any such name!" Aquarius stared at the fog mage as she gritted her teeth.
"What? But, I have the key… No, more than that, there’s clearly no water, yet you—"
"She’s just a girl, but she’s also my master. Of course I’d come help her!" Aquarius yelled and aimed her water jug at the fog mage. "Can you take this too!"
Giant waves came spilling out of the jug, dissipating all the fog. The mage completely lost his bearings and was about to be swallowed by the waves.
"Ugh, ugh… Sa-save me…!"
The cave turned into a sea of water within the blink of an eye. Lucy was pressed against the wall by the fog hand and had luckily avoided the waves.
"Cough cough cough…!" The fog mage had swallowed a great deal of sea water and passed out.
"You should be thankful that I let you live." Aquarius spat at him as she gathered the waves back into her jug.
Since the source had fallen, the fog hand holding Lucy against the wall disappeared.
"You’re such a troublesome girl…" Aquarius moved lightly through the air and deposited Lucy at the mouth of the cave.
She was still passed out and didn’t appear to be waking up right away.
"Lucy…" Aquarius’s eyes turned vaguely red.
The bell sounded again within the now silent cave.
"Lucy!"
A man appeared, wearing a suit and with a hairstyle that looked like a lion’s mane. The eyes behind his tinted sunglasses appeared very kind.
"Oh… it’s Loke." Aquarius quickly left Lucy’s side.
"I had no idea!" When the spirit named Loke arrived by their side, his eyes went very wide. "That you would come…"
"Didn’t you know that fog contains water? Huh?"
"No, I know…"
"Don’t tell that girl." Aquarius glanced at Lucy again and then gradually melted away into the air. "I’m going to go on a date with my boyfriend now. With my boyfriend."
"Wait, Aquarius!"
"Don’t say anything, okay? If you say anything, I’ll kill you!" Aquarius yelled as she disappeared.
"…pfft." Loke chuckled and then picked up Lucy in a warm embrace.
(Even if I tell Lucy, she probably wouldn’t believe me…)
Loke shook her shoulder. He didn’t think that she was already dead. If she was dead, then her spirits would be released from their contracts. Since that hadn’t happened, then Lucy must still be alive.
"Even so, this is pretty worrisome…" Loke started yelling at her. "Lucy, are you okay?"
He rubbed her body which had gradually been getting colder, and her face started to regain some of its color.
(That’s good! If it continues like this, she should wake up soon!)
"….ughhn." Her eyelashes moved and she slowly opened her eyes.
Lucy looked at the defeated fog mage and at Loke, who was holding her.
(What happened exactly…)
She took in all her surroundings and gave him a relaxed smile.
(So Loke saved me…)
Loke had once been a Fairy Tail mage. Since he had once used his own magic to stay within the human world, he could come over from the celestial spirit world even if Lucy didn’t use her magic to call him. Because of that, she’d often gotten his help.
"Loke, you went through the gate on your own again…"
"Ah… no."
(The one who helped you this time… wasn’t me…)
But, even if he said that it was Aquarius, Lucy probably wouldn’t believe him. And when he remembered what Aquarius had said, he didn’t really want to confess. Even within the celestial spirit world, Aquarius had a reputation for being quite fearsome. The only one who didn’t know about it was her boyfriend Scorpio.
"Thank you for saving me."
Seeing her grateful eyes, it became even harder for him to confess. However,
"No problem… so let’s do this," Loke said, and picked Lucy up in a princess carry.
"Wait, I said I can walk!"
"You clearly have no more magical power, so don’t overtax yourself." Loke blinked, like a prince.
"You’re so… so in love with yourself!"
Even as she said that, Lucy closed her eyes while in his embrace.
(Friends, no, seems more like family…)
**
"I didn’t think, that you would really solve the problem for us! Ah, thank you so very much!"
The old couple came out to thank Lucy.
The village looked as if it’d regained some of its vitality.
"I knew early on that that fellow looked suspicious."
"It’s wrong to let outsiders in after all."
"Let’s take this opportunity to bring back the young folk who went out to the city."
"Ah, thank you so much! Mage-sama!"
Hearing the villagers speak one after another, Lucy could only smile awkwardly.
(Seems like I can’t tell them that… actually, I was defeated and such.)
The village head handed an envelope to Lucy, who was embarrassed at being praised by all the villagers.
"This is the reward. Please receive it."
"Thank, thank you."
"And, there’s also this—"
The village head held out a piece of ore about as big as his palm.
"This piece of ore only comes from this mountain, so it’s very rare. Please take it as an added bonus!"
"But, it looks very expensive…"
"We’ll be able to mine even more from now on, so please take it!"
With this sort of encouragement, she decided to receive it with gratitude.
"Thank you very much!" Lucy said, and looked down at what she received — a gem that shined with a light pink sparkle, and gave off a faint and warm fragrance of the sea.
"Hey."
Inside the guild’s bar, someone was trying to talk to Lucy.
"Hm?" Lucy slowly raised her head, looking for the owner of the voice.
Levy had a head of refreshingly blue hair the color of water, which was always held up by a thick hairband. At the moment, she was smiling as she stood by Lucy.
"Levy."
"Lu-chan, do you have some free time?" Levy smiled warmly.
Other than the fact that she was a mage that controlled words and letters, she was also quite a bookworm. It was hard to count the number of books that she’d read.
After she learned that Lucy was writing a novel, even though they’d never been in the same team, she was still on very close terms with her.
"I don’t have anything in particular…why?" Lucy asked.
She felt rather listless today, and the sun was setting, so just as she was about to go home —
"If you don’t have anything going on, would you like to come to my place?"
"Your place is… Levy, you live in the dormitory, right?"
"Yes! So how about it?"
"Doesn’t the dormitory have a curfew?"
That Fairy Tail had a female dormitory called Fairy Hills — was something that Lucy had only found out recently. Since it had vacancies, she’d wondered if she should move in, but had given up on the idea because the rent was too high.
Well, she did really like her current home.
Perhaps because Lucy’s question was a bit too strange, Levy started to laugh.
"Eh? Did I say something strange?"
"Because…ahahaha."
"What, what?"
"Because we don’t know at what time we’d finish our jobs, so the dormitory has no curfew!"
"Ah, that’s true." Lucy smiled, embarrassed, and looked up at Levy.
"So will you come?" Levy asked again, and Lucy nodded. "That’s great! We’re going to have girls’ get-togethers from now on!"
"Girls’… get-togethers?" Lucy’s head filled with questions at hearing this thing that she’d never heard before.
"Yes. It’s just getting together in the dormitory and chatting. Everyone usually doesn’t have enough time to get together, but since there were very few jobs today, it looks like everyone can get back tonight. I thought we could get everyone together then."
"Eh… but, if it’s like that, can I join too?"
"It’s because you can that I asked you to. Let’s go then!" Levy grabbed her hand. "Ah, that’s right."
"Hm?"
"Since we still have time, Lu-chan, I think you can bring your regular stay-at-home clothes with you from your place!"
"Eh?"
"I’d let you borrow mine… but you see, that… um." Levy looked down. Her cheeks turned red and she glanced at Lucy.
(Wh-what? What kind of expression is that!)
"Levy?"
"You see, with Lu-chan’s body type, my clothes might not fit… and if you wear really tight clothes, then you might not be able to relax…"
"Eh… ah" Lucy looked down again at her own body. Even though she’d never really noticed, but comparing Levy’s chest with her own, she discovered that hers was far bigger than Levy’s.
"Then, I’ll go home and bring my clothes!"
"Mm! I’ll wait for you at the dormitory!"
Lucy walked out of the guild and hurried back home.
(Girls’ get-together eh…)
It seemed like it would be a lot of fun.
Since she grew up in a very strict household, she didn’t have much experience visiting friends’ houses.
Actually, she didn’t even have anyone she could call a friend.
Because of that, she was extremely happy to be invited like this.
"Ah, what should I bring…" Lucy arrived home and started looking inside her clothes drawers. "Stay-at-home clothes, right."
In order to find some very cute clothes, the floor ended up covered with clothes that she took out of the drawers.
Ah- but not this one, or that one, Lucy mumbled.
When she’d finally made a decision, the sun had already set.
"Crap!" Lucy noticed that it’d already turned dark outside, and hurried out the door.
Just as Levy said, she brought some stay-at-home clothes.
"And this is such a rare invitation!"
Lucy was so panicked that she could cry, and ran along the streets towards Fairy Hills.
**
The female dormitory Fairy Hills was located right by the Fairy Tail guild.
Since it was built next to the lake, it had a view of the sea in the distance. Made of red brick, it looked a little like a small luxury hotel.
"I’m here!"
There was a vague sound of music coming from the Fairy Hills building on top of the small hill. It was a relaxing music that you couldn’t help but close your eyes and listen to.
"Lucy! We’ve been waiting for you!" Erza’s voice came from a window on the topmost floor.
Lucy looked up and waved energetically. “Sorry, I’m late!”
"No problem, the get-together hasn’t started yet. I’ll come down now," Erza said as her scarlet hair swung around and her figure disappeared from the window.
It looked like they had very strict entry rules.
Not long after, the door before her eyes opened up.
Erza looked at Lucy with her determined eyes. “This is the second time you’ve been here?”
Lucy thought a bit before replying. “It seems…so.”
"Everyone’s waiting in the cafeteria. Seems like I haven’t shown you around there before. Come."
Erza, who was always wearing armor, was in normal clothes today. Even though her speaking style and movements seemed like a man’s, she was actually a beautiful woman when she wasn’t talking, and wearing a dress with an embroidered miniskirt.
It looked like she really liked mini, embroidered, or lacy and cute things.
"Sorry for the trouble!" Lucy said as she walked into the cafeteria, exhausted.
Everyone turned to look at her. There was Levy who’d invited her, Juvia, Bisca who’d immigrated from the western continent, the girl Wendy, Charle, and —
"Ah!" Lucy couldn’t help but exclaim.
Evergreen, who she thought would never show her face at a get-together like this, was also sitting in the cafeteria.
Since she highly admired Makarov’s grandson Laxus, she formed the Raijin tribe with two other members.
She was a bespectacled, cold person.
Rather arrogant, but also capable of empathy.
She seemed like a queen at first glance, but after speaking with her she would also seem unexpectedly kind.
"Ah, you came too."
"Levy invited me…"
"Come, Lucy, sit," Erza said with her hands at her waist, looking around the cafeteria. "Good, looks like everyone’s here."
"Then, let’s eat!" Bisca, who had straight bangs with a part in the middle and long hair, came out of the kitchen with a tray full of good food. "I don’t know if it’ll suit your tastes or not… this is food from my homeland."
She placed on the table fried chicken and cakes made out of cornmeal.
"Wow… this, all this was made by Bisca?" Lucy exclaimed as she sat down.
"Yes. I asked Alzack about the recipes," Bisca replied, her cheeks turning red.
"Ah, that’s right. You and Alzack are from the same place."
"This is so good." Wendy’s mouth was full of cornmeal cake, causing her cheeks to puff out.
Charle started criticizing her, seeing her completely uninhibited like this. “You, it’s all over your mouth…”
Like a mother being a busybody.
But looking carefully, you could see that Charle was smiling.
"Well then, please eat as much as you can everyone!"
Lucy also started eating just like she was instructed.
Other than when she ate at the guild, she pretty much always ate alone. Being here with everyone seemed very new to her.
No matter what, she couldn’t eat faster even if she tried.
"Lucy, what’s the matter? Did you eat laughing mushrooms?" Erza stared at her, confused.
"No. I just feel very happy."
"Happy… is that so. It’s true that eating together with everyone is quite nice," Erza said as she sent some food into her mouth.
"Erza…" Lucy started to laugh, seeing her like this.
Erza turned towards her, confused. “What?”
"It’s on your mouth." Lucy took out her handkerchief and wiped the corner of Erza’s mouth.
"Mm… very sorry."
(This part of Erza really is pretty cute… is this what a natural airhead is like—!)
A smiling Lucy was suddenly hugged by Erza.
She could feel something soft beneath the layer of cloth.
Lucy’s face was buried in Erza’s chest.
"It… hurts —- It doesn’t hurt."
Since she was used to being hugged by Erza in her armor, there was no way she could get rid of the impression that it was very painful.
Hearing Lucy, Levy couldn’t help but laugh.
"Lu-chan, you’re so easily frightened."
"Do I look very frightened?"
"It’s not like I don’t understand. Since slamming into armor is pretty painful."
"Ah, Levy’s also been hugged too!?"
"Yes!"
Erza’s expression turned a bit embarrassed.
"All right, let’s eat while it’s still hot!"
**
"Well then, come over here!"
After they’d finished eating and changing into their stay-at-home clothes in the bathing area’s changing room, Levy led everyone to a certain room.
That was — Juvia’s room.
Juvia greeted everyone, a bit embarrassed, and then stood to go make tea.
Each room in the dormitory was outfitted with a little kitchenette, so the residents could do some simple cooking in their rooms.
"This is the first time I’ve been in Juvia-san’s room!" Wendy’s eyes shined as she looked around.
Little tables with the legs carved into cat paws, and little bookcases full of cute dolls.
There was a heart-shaped cushion on the sofa.
It really seemed like a girl’s room!
"It’s just like a princess’s!" Wendy stared admiringly at the canopied bed.
"That’s because Wendy’s room is furnished pretty simply," said Levy.
Wendy shrugged. “Because, Charle doesn’t like it that way…”
"You two live together!?" Bisca was very surprised. "I thought you lived next door."
"Because we’re still not very used to everything, I thought it would be better if we stayed together… and when we were at Cait Shelter, we used to live together."
Wendy smiled as she replied — she had once been part of a mage guild called Cait Shelter.
It had been destroyed in the fight with the dark guild Oracion Seis. After that they’d been invited by the central guild in that incident, Fairy Tail, to join. And so they entered the Fairy Tail guild.
"Is that so?" Charle sniffed.
Bisca said, “Really, it seems like Charle can’t leave Wendy.”
"I’m concerned about this child." Charle looked up at Wendy with a pained smile. "I have no idea what she’ll get up to if I look away even for a moment."
Levy nodded. “It’s true, Wendy is a bit of a natural airhead.”
"Eh!? Really?"
"Isn’t everyone like that when they’re young?" Evergreen said.
"Evergreen, you came too?"
"Yes. Since, a get-together of the girls in Fairy Tail — that must be to talk about secrets, right? I am a fairy. So why can’t I attend."
"What is Evergreen’s room like? I’d like to see," said Levy, imagining it. "Feathers everywhere, and a few plants."
"Levy, why plants?" Lucy asked.
"You ask why…" Levy continued, full of self-assurance. "Because, doesn’t everyone say that fairies live among plants? If it’s Evergreen, I think she’d have plants everywhere."
"No…" Evergreen’s face turned red, perhaps because she’d guessed right. "It, it’s none of your business."
"I guessed right then. Isn’t that really cute? Lu-chan, don’t you agree?"
"Mm, mm." Although she’d agreed, Lucy still felt that feathers and plants didn’t really suit the rather severe-looking Evergreen.
(Well, everyone’s different.)
"About that," Wendy suddenly said. "What kind of room does everyone have?"
"Our rooms?" Bisca and Levy replied at the same time.
"It’s full of our favorite things," said Levy, whose room was full of books.
Other than the wall with the door, the other three had bookcases that reached up to the ceiling. They were full to bursting with books, with the rest of them covering the floor to the point that nobody could enter. It was the room of someone who was both a solid script mage and a bookworm.
"Me too. There’s practically no place left to sleep."
"Eh!" Wendy exclaimed. "It’s really full of your favorite things?"
"Yes. Everyone sleeps together in the hay, so relaxing."
"Ha-hay?" Wendy clutched her head, unable to imagine such a thing.
"Bisca’s room is full of animals," said Levy.
Lucy thought back to the one time when she visited Bisca’s room. She was from the western continent, and had brought many animals with her when she immigrated. There were over ten of them, with horses, sheep, and maybe even an elephant. It was like a little zoo.
The dormitory had rules against pets, but she couldn’t let the animals that came with her go, so it seems like Erza had made an exception.
"There isn’t that many… the reality is…" Bisca seemed to have heard Lucy mumbling. "That’s the number after I got rid of some."
"Re-really!?" Lucy asked, her eyes wide.
From behind her came a voice.
"The tea is ready. Please have some." Juvia walked out of the kitchenette. "Since there are many people here, please just sit on the floor."
"That’s true. Acting completely carefree is someone else’s room really is quite…" Erza said as she lay on the bed.
"That’s too carefree!"
"This soft bed is so wonderful. Where did you buy it?"
"I bought it from the Heart Kreuz company."
"What did you say!" Erza stood up on the bed in surprise. "Heart Kreuz company actually sells beds too… I have to go buy one immediately."
Bisca watched as Erza was about to walk out the room, and asked, “Are you going right now?”
"Yes."
"But they’ve already closed."
"I will ask them to sell one to me." Erza stubbornly refused to back down.
Since Levy had grown up with Erza in this dormitory ever since they were very young, it seemed like she knew how to comfort her.
"Erza, we’re going to start the secret talk soon. Just make do with Juvia’s bed for today."
"Juvia’s!?" Juvia’s eyes grew round upon hearing Levy’s words.
"Okay." As if she’d accepted Levy’s explanation, Erza lay back down on the bed. Not even caring that her miniskirt was rolling up, she smiled happily and buried her head inside the comforter.
"Erza actually really likes cute things!"
"What, what does that matter!"
"This is what is called contrast moe." The corners of Levy’s mouth turned up in a smile. "I think, if she didn’t move or speak, Erza would be quite popular."
"Wouldn’t that make her a puppet!"
Bisca seemed to think of something as she heard Lucy’s exclamation, and clapped her hands. “Speaking of puppets, look! The guild’s store sells figurines of members. Max said that the Erza figurine sold really well.”
"Ah. Are you talking about that completely pose-able figurine? Max must be really idle, making stuff like that." Levy rested her chin on the heart-shaped cushion.
"Levy, yours…"
"Hm?"
"I saw Jet and Droy with your figurine…" Wendy’s face turned completely red as she blurted it out.
Not knowing what to say, Levy just took a sip of red tea.
Seeing her like this, Bisca said admiringly, “You’re liked, Levy.”
"Mm—… but I feel like love and such within a team is a bit strange…" Levy said and smiled, embarrassed. "If I stop saying that I want to go on jobs together, maybe those feelings will gradually…"
"I think Gajeel-kun has feelings for you too," said Juvia seriously, seeing Levy sighing like that.
"Aaaaaaaaaah," Levy screamed loudly enough at Juvia’s bold declaration that it almost shook the entire room. "It can’t be it can’t be it can’t be…" Levy shook her head violently, her cheeks completely red. "You see, it’s probably because he still feels apologetic about what happened with Phantom Lord."
"I also feel… how to say, could the look in Gajeel-kun’s eyes when he watches Levy be called kind…"
"Ah—… Is that so…" Levy mumbled, perhaps thinking of Gajeel.
"Gajeel-kun, despite how he looks, is very devoted."
"Since you put it like that, it does look very kind…" Bisca entered into Juvia’s conversation with enthusiasm.
"Really!" Perhaps because she wanted to avoid talking about herself, Levy pressed Bisca. "You say that, but what about you, Bisca? Didn’t you have your heart set on Alzack even before you came here?"
"Ah, is… is that so?" Lucy’s eyes went wide.
She thought of Alzack. He had a head covered with messy hair and often wore a cloak. He didn’t make a fuss like Natsu or Gray in the guild, and was a very dependable member.
"Yes, Lu-chan. Haven’t you noticed too, Erza?"
"I believe that they are very suitable for each other." Erza was completely rolled up inside the blanket, though the look in her eyes was very serious. "That’s why, I said that you should go confess already."
"Erza! But, you see… Alzack, when we’re alone together, he won’t even look at me… and if our hands touch at all, he’ll run far away… I think it’s because he doesn’t even see me as a woman?"
"The exact opposite." Evergreen sat on the sofa like a queen on her throne. She raised a finger. "It’s because he sees you as a woman that he gets embarrassed."
"So, so it’s like that." Bisca’s cheeks turned red with happiness. "But, having me confess is…like that."
"Alzack does seem very traditional…" Levy mumbled and clapped her hands together. "There’s no problem if you confess. It’s not like the female can’t confess first."
"But, if I get rejected—"
"It definitely, definitely won’t happen." Levy smiled. "Who knows, maybe you’ll go straight to getting married!"
"Getting… getting married…" For some reason, Juvia’s face turned completely red. "If married, then at night then that’ll happen for sure…"
Juvia sunk inside of her delusions.
Erza let her sink into her delusions, and glanced at Evergreen. “Evergreen, what about you? Aren’t you also in a team with two males, just like Levy?”
Erza seemed to unexpectedly like to talk about love matters. As soon as they broached the topic, her eyes seemed to sparkle.
"Ahh…" Evergreen thought back to Freed and Bixlow. "No," she said with no room for disagreement.
"Then, what about Laxus?"
Evergreen’s expression turned stiff at Erza’s immediate follow-up question.
(Wait, wait! Maybe she guessed right!)
Although Laxus was the guild master Makarov’s grandson, he had once held the entire town of Magnolia hostage, and had been expelled from the guild.
Even so, as a member of his bodyguard team the Raijinshuu — Evergreen was still awaiting his return.
"…No. I don’t want a man who doesn’t treat me as a fairy."
"Haha," Lucy couldn’t help but laugh.
Laxus gave the impression that he respected nobody but himself and noticed nobody but himself. It didn’t seem like there was anyone close to him, and certainly not anyone female.
"Laxus, he seems pretty cold…"
But who knew what he was really like.
Since Levy and Erza had grown up with him in the guild, Lucy thought they might know what sort of person he was.
"I can’t say if he was good or bad, but he gave the impression of a child king. I never heard any love-related rumors about him… what about you, Erza?"
"I didn’t either. I actually thought he was definitely that sort of person…"
"That sort is…!" Lucy’s eyes went wide. It was true, Freed from the Raijinshuu was quite handsome… perhaps that was it. "Only Laxus…" she said.
"It’s not that either! It’s just that, rather than that, he’s more concerned with himself." Evergreen tried to cover for him.
"Mm, it’s true."
Being expelled from the guild, who knew where he was right now…
Even though one day he might understand and come back, but who knew when that would be.
"It’s true that Laxus is like that… but there’ll be someone he likes even more…" Levy said, as she inched closer to Lucy. "What about you, Lu-chan?"
"Eh? Me?" Lucy shrank away now that the spotlight was on her. "Not me. I don’t really understand that sort of stuff."
"Eh? You’re seventeen, and you don’t?"
"Mm, mm…"
Lucy was the only daughter of the Heartfilia family, one of the richest in Fiore. Before she left home and joined Fairy Tail, she didn’t even have a friend of the same gender, not to mention the opposite gender.
That was why, to her, love and such seemed to be a completely alien concept.
"But you clearly have such a great figure," Levy said and pointed to Lucy’s chest.
Lucy’s face turned red as Levy’s finger dug into her chest. “Wait, wait!”
"I’m just touching. It’s no big deal. We’re all girls here," Levy said and looked down at her own chest, pained. "I don’t know if it’ll grow anymore from now on…"
"Good form is all that matters," Bisca tried to console her.
"Levy-san, you’re so bold…" Wendy’s face had turned bright red.
"When Wendy grows up, then her chest will too. Right?" Bisca asked Lucy. "You ran into an adult Wendy in the alternate world Edolas, right?"
"Ah… mm." It’s true that she had a great figure.
"I didn’t look there." Wendy shook her head, embarrassed.
Charle cut in, “That wasn’t an adult Wendy, it was a whole other person.”
"Really?" Bisca asked.
"Yes. The Edolas you and Alzack were very much in love."
"Re-re-really!" Bisca blushed bright red.
"That’s to say, even if I grow up, my chest will stay the same…"
Seeing Wendy stare at her chest, Levy consoled her, “Don’t worry. There are people who like that sort of thing!”
"Levy… that’s not really helping…"
Juvia mumbled at Lucy’s side, “Juvia also wants to go to Edolas…”
"Eh?"
"Because that’s the world where Gray-sama likes Juvia." Her face completely red, Juvia started on a trip into her world of delusions again. "I think, they’ve definitely done this and that…"
"Wait, wait! Stop your delusions now Juvia!"
As if to stop her, Lucy shook Juvia by her shoulder.
"But, really, I think Natsu has feelings for Lucy," said Levy.
"Is, is that so?" Wendy asked with a bit of regret. Since they were both dragon slayers, it seemed like Wendy deeply admired Natsu.
"Because Natsu had never joined a team before. After Lu-chan came he immediately formed a team with you. It has to be like love at first sight!"
"Wow — how wonderful." Bisca’s face turned warm, as if it was about herself.
"It can’t be it can’t be it can’t be…." Lucy thought back to how they’d formed a team. Since the Duke’s household had put out a request for a blonde maid, Natsu had asked the blonde Lucy to go along.
(I think as long as they were blonde, anyone would do…)
Even though Natsu had said that he’d invited her because she was Lucy, but she wasn’t really sure what that meant.
Well, she didn’t dislike Natsu.
"Then, what about Gray?" Levy looked into Lucy’s eyes with her own sparkling ones.
”!”
As soon as she heard Gray’s name, Juvia started shaking from where she sat on the floor.
"Juvia likes Gray… but why? He’s pretty good-looking, but he’s also a habitual stripper!"
"That’s right!?"
Among the sounds of everyone agreeing, Juvia gave her own point of view. “Because, Juvia’s…”
"Hm?"
"Because he’s the one who caused Juvia’s rain to disappear…"
"He used magic to do it, right?" Evergreen, who pointed out the truth, was immediately doused with water.
Juvia shook and mumbled, “It wasn’t magic… it… it…”
"What was it." Evergreen lifted up her sopping wet hair and challenged her.
"It was the power of… love…"
"This is so boring, I’m going back to my room." Evergreen shrugged and walked out.
"Ju-Juvia is…" Her voice shook. Even though it had happened as a spur of the moment, she knew that she’d done something wrong.
"Don’t worry too much about it. I think even if Evergreen realized that she said something wrong, she wouldn’t use magic."
If Evergreen had been really angry, then she wouldn’t act like she didn’t care.
"….."
Seeing Juvia so depressed, Erza suddenly leapt up as if she’d remembered something.
"That’s right! I have something to give Juvia!"
"Eh?"
Erza smiled at Juvia, who was confused.
"I have one for each resident of the dormitory. I already gave Wendy and Charle one. I just haven’t had the opportunity to give you one too."
”?”
"Wait just a second! I’ll bring it here."
She walked out, still wrapped in the blanket.
"Looks like Erza really likes that blanket…" Lucy said as she watched her leave.
"What about Loke?" Levy continued to ask.
"Eh? We’re going back to the previous topic? But, Loke is a celestial spirit. So it’s not possible."
"So if he wasn’t a celestial spirit, then it would be possible?"
"It would be even less possible if he’s human. I can’t deal with playboys like that."
"Lu-chan is so conservative."
"Is that because she was an ojou-sama?" Bisca asked.
"I don’t think so… who wouldn’t want their partner to only look at them?"
"In that case, Loke would be very suitable. As soon as you’re in danger, he comes rushing in to save you like a prince!"
"Eh—…" Lucy frowned, though she felt a bit sorry for Loke.
"But can celestial spirits and humans marry?"
"Eh, what would happen. I never thought about it."
Wendy asked, “What about Erza-san?”
"Erza?" Levy asked, and sank deep into thought. "Speaking of which, I never heard anything about Erza."
"That’s because she’s the guild’s strongest female knight," Bisca said as if that was the end of the matter.
(But…)
Since she’d gone out on jobs together with Erza, Lucy had noticed.
The one that Erza longed for should be Jellal.
He had infiltrated the magic council in order to resurrect the greatest dark wizard of all item, Zeref. He had also raised the magical weapon Nirvana among other evil deeds.
Right now, he was in the magic council’s jail.
He definitely, would never… come back out.
(Since Erza disliked injustice more than anything else, she didn’t try to protect him…)
But he still existed within her heart.
Even though Lucy herself had never been in love, but she believed that somewhere in Erza’s heart, there was —
"Sorry for the wait!" The door opened with the sound of Erza’s voice. "Juvia, it’s this!"
Erza held in her hand a chest of jewels.
The late matron of Fairy Hills, Grandmother Hilda had put a job on the jobs board. The reward for that job had been this chest of jewels.
Even though Lucy had been the one to finish the job, but she wanted to respect Hilda’s last wishes — to give the genuine jewels to Erza — and handed the chest to Erza.
"Lucy once completed a job for the matron. This was the reward…" Erza said as she opened up the chest.
Inside were many sparkling genuine jewels.
"Wow, so beautiful!" Juvia’s deep ocean-colored eyes shone.
"I decided to give the jewels to the residents." Erza compared Juvia with the stones, and then took out a necklace encrusted with sapphires. "This one isn’t bad."
"Erza, you’re not very good at picking!" Levy looked and started going through the gems. "What about this?"
She tried to take out a jewel, but it wouldn’t budge. “Eh? That’s strange.”
"Let me." Even though Erza used all her strength to try to pry out the jewel stuck at the bottom of the chest, it still wouldn’t move. "What’s going on?"
Everyone moved in to take a look.
It appeared that there was a magical seal on it.
"Then, let’s just leave it like this?" Lucy said.
(I think Grandmother Hilda definitely had a reason to prevent us from taking it out.)
"Just cover it up and treat it as a relic. The one that Erza picked is quite beautiful."
"That’s true." Everyone nodded their heads at Lucy’s suggestion.
The jewel buried inside the the chest would definitely continue to keep watch over the dormitory residents.
Inside the guild’s bar, someone was trying to talk to Lucy.
"Hm?" Lucy slowly raised her head, looking for the owner of the voice.
Levy had a head of refreshingly blue hair the color of water, which was always held up by a thick hairband. At the moment, she was smiling as she stood by Lucy.
"Levy."
"Lu-chan, do you have some free time?" Levy smiled warmly.
Other than the fact that she was a mage that controlled words and letters, she was also quite a bookworm. It was hard to count the number of books that she’d read.
After she learned that Lucy was writing a novel, even though they’d never been in the same team, she was still on very close terms with her.
"I don’t have anything in particular…why?" Lucy asked.
She felt rather listless today, and the sun was setting, so just as she was about to go home —
"If you don’t have anything going on, would you like to come to my place?"
"Your place is… Levy, you live in the dormitory, right?"
"Yes! So how about it?"
"Doesn’t the dormitory have a curfew?"
That Fairy Tail had a female dormitory called Fairy Hills — was something that Lucy had only found out recently. Since it had vacancies, she’d wondered if she should move in, but had given up on the idea because the rent was too high.
Well, she did really like her current home.
Perhaps because Lucy’s question was a bit too strange, Levy started to laugh.
"Eh? Did I say something strange?"
"Because…ahahaha."
"What, what?"
"Because we don’t know at what time we’d finish our jobs, so the dormitory has no curfew!"
"Ah, that’s true." Lucy smiled, embarrassed, and looked up at Levy.
"So will you come?" Levy asked again, and Lucy nodded. "That’s great! We’re going to have girls’ get-togethers from now on!"
"Girls’… get-togethers?" Lucy’s head filled with questions at hearing this thing that she’d never heard before.
"Yes. It’s just getting together in the dormitory and chatting. Everyone usually doesn’t have enough time to get together, but since there were very few jobs today, it looks like everyone can get back tonight. I thought we could get everyone together then."
"Eh… but, if it’s like that, can I join too?"
"It’s because you can that I asked you to. Let’s go then!" Levy grabbed her hand. "Ah, that’s right."
"Hm?"
"Since we still have time, Lu-chan, I think you can bring your regular stay-at-home clothes with you from your place!"
"Eh?"
"I’d let you borrow mine… but you see, that… um." Levy looked down. Her cheeks turned red and she glanced at Lucy.
(Wh-what? What kind of expression is that!)
"Levy?"
"You see, with Lu-chan’s body type, my clothes might not fit… and if you wear really tight clothes, then you might not be able to relax…"
"Eh… ah" Lucy looked down again at her own body. Even though she’d never really noticed, but comparing Levy’s chest with her own, she discovered that hers was far bigger than Levy’s.
"Then, I’ll go home and bring my clothes!"
"Mm! I’ll wait for you at the dormitory!"
Lucy walked out of the guild and hurried back home.
(Girls’ get-together eh…)
It seemed like it would be a lot of fun.
Since she grew up in a very strict household, she didn’t have much experience visiting friends’ houses.
Actually, she didn’t even have anyone she could call a friend.
Because of that, she was extremely happy to be invited like this.
"Ah, what should I bring…" Lucy arrived home and started looking inside her clothes drawers. "Stay-at-home clothes, right."
In order to find some very cute clothes, the floor ended up covered with clothes that she took out of the drawers.
Ah- but not this one, or that one, Lucy mumbled.
When she’d finally made a decision, the sun had already set.
"Crap!" Lucy noticed that it’d already turned dark outside, and hurried out the door.
Just as Levy said, she brought some stay-at-home clothes.
"And this is such a rare invitation!"
Lucy was so panicked that she could cry, and ran along the streets towards Fairy Hills.
**
The female dormitory Fairy Hills was located right by the Fairy Tail guild.
Since it was built next to the lake, it had a view of the sea in the distance. Made of red brick, it looked a little like a small luxury hotel.
"I’m here!"
There was a vague sound of music coming from the Fairy Hills building on top of the small hill. It was a relaxing music that you couldn’t help but close your eyes and listen to.
"Lucy! We’ve been waiting for you!" Erza’s voice came from a window on the topmost floor.
Lucy looked up and waved energetically. “Sorry, I’m late!”
"No problem, the get-together hasn’t started yet. I’ll come down now," Erza said as her scarlet hair swung around and her figure disappeared from the window.
It looked like they had very strict entry rules.
Not long after, the door before her eyes opened up.
Erza looked at Lucy with her determined eyes. “This is the second time you’ve been here?”
Lucy thought a bit before replying. “It seems…so.”
"Everyone’s waiting in the cafeteria. Seems like I haven’t shown you around there before. Come."
Erza, who was always wearing armor, was in normal clothes today. Even though her speaking style and movements seemed like a man’s, she was actually a beautiful woman when she wasn’t talking, and wearing a dress with an embroidered miniskirt.
It looked like she really liked mini, embroidered, or lacy and cute things.
"Sorry for the trouble!" Lucy said as she walked into the cafeteria, exhausted.
Everyone turned to look at her. There was Levy who’d invited her, Juvia, Bisca who’d immigrated from the western continent, the girl Wendy, Charle, and —
"Ah!" Lucy couldn’t help but exclaim.
Evergreen, who she thought would never show her face at a get-together like this, was also sitting in the cafeteria.
Since she highly admired Makarov’s grandson Laxus, she formed the Raijin tribe with two other members.
She was a bespectacled, cold person.
Rather arrogant, but also capable of empathy.
She seemed like a queen at first glance, but after speaking with her she would also seem unexpectedly kind.
"Ah, you came too."
"Levy invited me…"
"Come, Lucy, sit," Erza said with her hands at her waist, looking around the cafeteria. "Good, looks like everyone’s here."
"Then, let’s eat!" Bisca, who had straight bangs with a part in the middle and long hair, came out of the kitchen with a tray full of good food. "I don’t know if it’ll suit your tastes or not… this is food from my homeland."
She placed on the table fried chicken and cakes made out of cornmeal.
"Wow… this, all this was made by Bisca?" Lucy exclaimed as she sat down.
"Yes. I asked Alzack about the recipes," Bisca replied, her cheeks turning red.
"Ah, that’s right. You and Alzack are from the same place."
"This is so good." Wendy’s mouth was full of cornmeal cake, causing her cheeks to puff out.
Charle started criticizing her, seeing her completely uninhibited like this. “You, it’s all over your mouth…”
Like a mother being a busybody.
But looking carefully, you could see that Charle was smiling.
"Well then, please eat as much as you can everyone!"
Lucy also started eating just like she was instructed.
Other than when she ate at the guild, she pretty much always ate alone. Being here with everyone seemed very new to her.
No matter what, she couldn’t eat faster even if she tried.
"Lucy, what’s the matter? Did you eat laughing mushrooms?" Erza stared at her, confused.
"No. I just feel very happy."
"Happy… is that so. It’s true that eating together with everyone is quite nice," Erza said as she sent some food into her mouth.
"Erza…" Lucy started to laugh, seeing her like this.
Erza turned towards her, confused. “What?”
"It’s on your mouth." Lucy took out her handkerchief and wiped the corner of Erza’s mouth.
"Mm… very sorry."
(This part of Erza really is pretty cute… is this what a natural airhead is like—!)
A smiling Lucy was suddenly hugged by Erza.
She could feel something soft beneath the layer of cloth.
Lucy’s face was buried in Erza’s chest.
"It… hurts —- It doesn’t hurt."
Since she was used to being hugged by Erza in her armor, there was no way she could get rid of the impression that it was very painful.
Hearing Lucy, Levy couldn’t help but laugh.
"Lu-chan, you’re so easily frightened."
"Do I look very frightened?"
"It’s not like I don’t understand. Since slamming into armor is pretty painful."
"Ah, Levy’s also been hugged too!?"
"Yes!"
Erza’s expression turned a bit embarrassed.
"All right, let’s eat while it’s still hot!"
**
"Well then, come over here!"
After they’d finished eating and changing into their stay-at-home clothes in the bathing area’s changing room, Levy led everyone to a certain room.
That was — Juvia’s room.
Juvia greeted everyone, a bit embarrassed, and then stood to go make tea.
Each room in the dormitory was outfitted with a little kitchenette, so the residents could do some simple cooking in their rooms.
"This is the first time I’ve been in Juvia-san’s room!" Wendy’s eyes shined as she looked around.
Little tables with the legs carved into cat paws, and little bookcases full of cute dolls.
There was a heart-shaped cushion on the sofa.
It really seemed like a girl’s room!
"It’s just like a princess’s!" Wendy stared admiringly at the canopied bed.
"That’s because Wendy’s room is furnished pretty simply," said Levy.
Wendy shrugged. “Because, Charle doesn’t like it that way…”
"You two live together!?" Bisca was very surprised. "I thought you lived next door."
"Because we’re still not very used to everything, I thought it would be better if we stayed together… and when we were at Cait Shelter, we used to live together."
Wendy smiled as she replied — she had once been part of a mage guild called Cait Shelter.
It had been destroyed in the fight with the dark guild Oracion Seis. After that they’d been invited by the central guild in that incident, Fairy Tail, to join. And so they entered the Fairy Tail guild.
"Is that so?" Charle sniffed.
Bisca said, “Really, it seems like Charle can’t leave Wendy.”
"I’m concerned about this child." Charle looked up at Wendy with a pained smile. "I have no idea what she’ll get up to if I look away even for a moment."
Levy nodded. “It’s true, Wendy is a bit of a natural airhead.”
"Eh!? Really?"
"Isn’t everyone like that when they’re young?" Evergreen said.
"Evergreen, you came too?"
"Yes. Since, a get-together of the girls in Fairy Tail — that must be to talk about secrets, right? I am a fairy. So why can’t I attend."
"What is Evergreen’s room like? I’d like to see," said Levy, imagining it. "Feathers everywhere, and a few plants."
"Levy, why plants?" Lucy asked.
"You ask why…" Levy continued, full of self-assurance. "Because, doesn’t everyone say that fairies live among plants? If it’s Evergreen, I think she’d have plants everywhere."
"No…" Evergreen’s face turned red, perhaps because she’d guessed right. "It, it’s none of your business."
"I guessed right then. Isn’t that really cute? Lu-chan, don’t you agree?"
"Mm, mm." Although she’d agreed, Lucy still felt that feathers and plants didn’t really suit the rather severe-looking Evergreen.
(Well, everyone’s different.)
"About that," Wendy suddenly said. "What kind of room does everyone have?"
"Our rooms?" Bisca and Levy replied at the same time.
"It’s full of our favorite things," said Levy, whose room was full of books.
Other than the wall with the door, the other three had bookcases that reached up to the ceiling. They were full to bursting with books, with the rest of them covering the floor to the point that nobody could enter. It was the room of someone who was both a solid script mage and a bookworm.
"Me too. There’s practically no place left to sleep."
"Eh!" Wendy exclaimed. "It’s really full of your favorite things?"
"Yes. Everyone sleeps together in the hay, so relaxing."
"Ha-hay?" Wendy clutched her head, unable to imagine such a thing.
"Bisca’s room is full of animals," said Levy.
Lucy thought back to the one time when she visited Bisca’s room. She was from the western continent, and had brought many animals with her when she immigrated. There were over ten of them, with horses, sheep, and maybe even an elephant. It was like a little zoo.
The dormitory had rules against pets, but she couldn’t let the animals that came with her go, so it seems like Erza had made an exception.
"There isn’t that many… the reality is…" Bisca seemed to have heard Lucy mumbling. "That’s the number after I got rid of some."
"Re-really!?" Lucy asked, her eyes wide.
From behind her came a voice.
"The tea is ready. Please have some." Juvia walked out of the kitchenette. "Since there are many people here, please just sit on the floor."
"That’s true. Acting completely carefree is someone else’s room really is quite…" Erza said as she lay on the bed.
"That’s too carefree!"
"This soft bed is so wonderful. Where did you buy it?"
"I bought it from the Heart Kreuz company."
"What did you say!" Erza stood up on the bed in surprise. "Heart Kreuz company actually sells beds too… I have to go buy one immediately."
Bisca watched as Erza was about to walk out the room, and asked, “Are you going right now?”
"Yes."
"But they’ve already closed."
"I will ask them to sell one to me." Erza stubbornly refused to back down.
Since Levy had grown up with Erza in this dormitory ever since they were very young, it seemed like she knew how to comfort her.
"Erza, we’re going to start the secret talk soon. Just make do with Juvia’s bed for today."
"Juvia’s!?" Juvia’s eyes grew round upon hearing Levy’s words.
"Okay." As if she’d accepted Levy’s explanation, Erza lay back down on the bed. Not even caring that her miniskirt was rolling up, she smiled happily and buried her head inside the comforter.
"Erza actually really likes cute things!"
"What, what does that matter!"
"This is what is called contrast moe." The corners of Levy’s mouth turned up in a smile. "I think, if she didn’t move or speak, Erza would be quite popular."
"Wouldn’t that make her a puppet!"
Bisca seemed to think of something as she heard Lucy’s exclamation, and clapped her hands. “Speaking of puppets, look! The guild’s store sells figurines of members. Max said that the Erza figurine sold really well.”
"Ah. Are you talking about that completely pose-able figurine? Max must be really idle, making stuff like that." Levy rested her chin on the heart-shaped cushion.
"Levy, yours…"
"Hm?"
"I saw Jet and Droy with your figurine…" Wendy’s face turned completely red as she blurted it out.
Not knowing what to say, Levy just took a sip of red tea.
Seeing her like this, Bisca said admiringly, “You’re liked, Levy.”
"Mm—… but I feel like love and such within a team is a bit strange…" Levy said and smiled, embarrassed. "If I stop saying that I want to go on jobs together, maybe those feelings will gradually…"
"I think Gajeel-kun has feelings for you too," said Juvia seriously, seeing Levy sighing like that.
"Aaaaaaaaaah," Levy screamed loudly enough at Juvia’s bold declaration that it almost shook the entire room. "It can’t be it can’t be it can’t be…" Levy shook her head violently, her cheeks completely red. "You see, it’s probably because he still feels apologetic about what happened with Phantom Lord."
"I also feel… how to say, could the look in Gajeel-kun’s eyes when he watches Levy be called kind…"
"Ah—… Is that so…" Levy mumbled, perhaps thinking of Gajeel.
"Gajeel-kun, despite how he looks, is very devoted."
"Since you put it like that, it does look very kind…" Bisca entered into Juvia’s conversation with enthusiasm.
"Really!" Perhaps because she wanted to avoid talking about herself, Levy pressed Bisca. "You say that, but what about you, Bisca? Didn’t you have your heart set on Alzack even before you came here?"
"Ah, is… is that so?" Lucy’s eyes went wide.
She thought of Alzack. He had a head covered with messy hair and often wore a cloak. He didn’t make a fuss like Natsu or Gray in the guild, and was a very dependable member.
"Yes, Lu-chan. Haven’t you noticed too, Erza?"
"I believe that they are very suitable for each other." Erza was completely rolled up inside the blanket, though the look in her eyes was very serious. "That’s why, I said that you should go confess already."
"Erza! But, you see… Alzack, when we’re alone together, he won’t even look at me… and if our hands touch at all, he’ll run far away… I think it’s because he doesn’t even see me as a woman?"
"The exact opposite." Evergreen sat on the sofa like a queen on her throne. She raised a finger. "It’s because he sees you as a woman that he gets embarrassed."
"So, so it’s like that." Bisca’s cheeks turned red with happiness. "But, having me confess is…like that."
"Alzack does seem very traditional…" Levy mumbled and clapped her hands together. "There’s no problem if you confess. It’s not like the female can’t confess first."
"But, if I get rejected—"
"It definitely, definitely won’t happen." Levy smiled. "Who knows, maybe you’ll go straight to getting married!"
"Getting… getting married…" For some reason, Juvia’s face turned completely red. "If married, then at night then that’ll happen for sure…"
Juvia sunk inside of her delusions.
Erza let her sink into her delusions, and glanced at Evergreen. “Evergreen, what about you? Aren’t you also in a team with two males, just like Levy?”
Erza seemed to unexpectedly like to talk about love matters. As soon as they broached the topic, her eyes seemed to sparkle.
"Ahh…" Evergreen thought back to Freed and Bixlow. "No," she said with no room for disagreement.
"Then, what about Laxus?"
Evergreen’s expression turned stiff at Erza’s immediate follow-up question.
(Wait, wait! Maybe she guessed right!)
Although Laxus was the guild master Makarov’s grandson, he had once held the entire town of Magnolia hostage, and had been expelled from the guild.
Even so, as a member of his bodyguard team the Raijinshuu — Evergreen was still awaiting his return.
"…No. I don’t want a man who doesn’t treat me as a fairy."
"Haha," Lucy couldn’t help but laugh.
Laxus gave the impression that he respected nobody but himself and noticed nobody but himself. It didn’t seem like there was anyone close to him, and certainly not anyone female.
"Laxus, he seems pretty cold…"
But who knew what he was really like.
Since Levy and Erza had grown up with him in the guild, Lucy thought they might know what sort of person he was.
"I can’t say if he was good or bad, but he gave the impression of a child king. I never heard any love-related rumors about him… what about you, Erza?"
"I didn’t either. I actually thought he was definitely that sort of person…"
"That sort is…!" Lucy’s eyes went wide. It was true, Freed from the Raijinshuu was quite handsome… perhaps that was it. "Only Laxus…" she said.
"It’s not that either! It’s just that, rather than that, he’s more concerned with himself." Evergreen tried to cover for him.
"Mm, it’s true."
Being expelled from the guild, who knew where he was right now…
Even though one day he might understand and come back, but who knew when that would be.
"It’s true that Laxus is like that… but there’ll be someone he likes even more…" Levy said, as she inched closer to Lucy. "What about you, Lu-chan?"
"Eh? Me?" Lucy shrank away now that the spotlight was on her. "Not me. I don’t really understand that sort of stuff."
"Eh? You’re seventeen, and you don’t?"
"Mm, mm…"
Lucy was the only daughter of the Heartfilia family, one of the richest in Fiore. Before she left home and joined Fairy Tail, she didn’t even have a friend of the same gender, not to mention the opposite gender.
That was why, to her, love and such seemed to be a completely alien concept.
"But you clearly have such a great figure," Levy said and pointed to Lucy’s chest.
Lucy’s face turned red as Levy’s finger dug into her chest. “Wait, wait!”
"I’m just touching. It’s no big deal. We’re all girls here," Levy said and looked down at her own chest, pained. "I don’t know if it’ll grow anymore from now on…"
"Good form is all that matters," Bisca tried to console her.
"Levy-san, you’re so bold…" Wendy’s face had turned bright red.
"When Wendy grows up, then her chest will too. Right?" Bisca asked Lucy. "You ran into an adult Wendy in the alternate world Edolas, right?"
"Ah… mm." It’s true that she had a great figure.
"I didn’t look there." Wendy shook her head, embarrassed.
Charle cut in, “That wasn’t an adult Wendy, it was a whole other person.”
"Really?" Bisca asked.
"Yes. The Edolas you and Alzack were very much in love."
"Re-re-really!" Bisca blushed bright red.
"That’s to say, even if I grow up, my chest will stay the same…"
Seeing Wendy stare at her chest, Levy consoled her, “Don’t worry. There are people who like that sort of thing!”
"Levy… that’s not really helping…"
Juvia mumbled at Lucy’s side, “Juvia also wants to go to Edolas…”
"Eh?"
"Because that’s the world where Gray-sama likes Juvia." Her face completely red, Juvia started on a trip into her world of delusions again. "I think, they’ve definitely done this and that…"
"Wait, wait! Stop your delusions now Juvia!"
As if to stop her, Lucy shook Juvia by her shoulder.
"But, really, I think Natsu has feelings for Lucy," said Levy.
"Is, is that so?" Wendy asked with a bit of regret. Since they were both dragon slayers, it seemed like Wendy deeply admired Natsu.
"Because Natsu had never joined a team before. After Lu-chan came he immediately formed a team with you. It has to be like love at first sight!"
"Wow — how wonderful." Bisca’s face turned warm, as if it was about herself.
"It can’t be it can’t be it can’t be…." Lucy thought back to how they’d formed a team. Since the Duke’s household had put out a request for a blonde maid, Natsu had asked the blonde Lucy to go along.
(I think as long as they were blonde, anyone would do…)
Even though Natsu had said that he’d invited her because she was Lucy, but she wasn’t really sure what that meant.
Well, she didn’t dislike Natsu.
"Then, what about Gray?" Levy looked into Lucy’s eyes with her own sparkling ones.
”!”
As soon as she heard Gray’s name, Juvia started shaking from where she sat on the floor.
"Juvia likes Gray… but why? He’s pretty good-looking, but he’s also a habitual stripper!"
"That’s right!?"
Among the sounds of everyone agreeing, Juvia gave her own point of view. “Because, Juvia’s…”
"Hm?"
"Because he’s the one who caused Juvia’s rain to disappear…"
"He used magic to do it, right?" Evergreen, who pointed out the truth, was immediately doused with water.
Juvia shook and mumbled, “It wasn’t magic… it… it…”
"What was it." Evergreen lifted up her sopping wet hair and challenged her.
"It was the power of… love…"
"This is so boring, I’m going back to my room." Evergreen shrugged and walked out.
"Ju-Juvia is…" Her voice shook. Even though it had happened as a spur of the moment, she knew that she’d done something wrong.
"Don’t worry too much about it. I think even if Evergreen realized that she said something wrong, she wouldn’t use magic."
If Evergreen had been really angry, then she wouldn’t act like she didn’t care.
"….."
Seeing Juvia so depressed, Erza suddenly leapt up as if she’d remembered something.
"That’s right! I have something to give Juvia!"
"Eh?"
Erza smiled at Juvia, who was confused.
"I have one for each resident of the dormitory. I already gave Wendy and Charle one. I just haven’t had the opportunity to give you one too."
”?”
"Wait just a second! I’ll bring it here."
She walked out, still wrapped in the blanket.
"Looks like Erza really likes that blanket…" Lucy said as she watched her leave.
"What about Loke?" Levy continued to ask.
"Eh? We’re going back to the previous topic? But, Loke is a celestial spirit. So it’s not possible."
"So if he wasn’t a celestial spirit, then it would be possible?"
"It would be even less possible if he’s human. I can’t deal with playboys like that."
"Lu-chan is so conservative."
"Is that because she was an ojou-sama?" Bisca asked.
"I don’t think so… who wouldn’t want their partner to only look at them?"
"In that case, Loke would be very suitable. As soon as you’re in danger, he comes rushing in to save you like a prince!"
"Eh—…" Lucy frowned, though she felt a bit sorry for Loke.
"But can celestial spirits and humans marry?"
"Eh, what would happen. I never thought about it."
Wendy asked, “What about Erza-san?”
"Erza?" Levy asked, and sank deep into thought. "Speaking of which, I never heard anything about Erza."
"That’s because she’s the guild’s strongest female knight," Bisca said as if that was the end of the matter.
(But…)
Since she’d gone out on jobs together with Erza, Lucy had noticed.
The one that Erza longed for should be Jellal.
He had infiltrated the magic council in order to resurrect the greatest dark wizard of all item, Zeref. He had also raised the magical weapon Nirvana among other evil deeds.
Right now, he was in the magic council’s jail.
He definitely, would never… come back out.
(Since Erza disliked injustice more than anything else, she didn’t try to protect him…)
But he still existed within her heart.
Even though Lucy herself had never been in love, but she believed that somewhere in Erza’s heart, there was —
"Sorry for the wait!" The door opened with the sound of Erza’s voice. "Juvia, it’s this!"
Erza held in her hand a chest of jewels.
The late matron of Fairy Hills, Grandmother Hilda had put a job on the jobs board. The reward for that job had been this chest of jewels.
Even though Lucy had been the one to finish the job, but she wanted to respect Hilda’s last wishes — to give the genuine jewels to Erza — and handed the chest to Erza.
"Lucy once completed a job for the matron. This was the reward…" Erza said as she opened up the chest.
Inside were many sparkling genuine jewels.
"Wow, so beautiful!" Juvia’s deep ocean-colored eyes shone.
"I decided to give the jewels to the residents." Erza compared Juvia with the stones, and then took out a necklace encrusted with sapphires. "This one isn’t bad."
"Erza, you’re not very good at picking!" Levy looked and started going through the gems. "What about this?"
She tried to take out a jewel, but it wouldn’t budge. “Eh? That’s strange.”
"Let me." Even though Erza used all her strength to try to pry out the jewel stuck at the bottom of the chest, it still wouldn’t move. "What’s going on?"
Everyone moved in to take a look.
It appeared that there was a magical seal on it.
"Then, let’s just leave it like this?" Lucy said.
(I think Grandmother Hilda definitely had a reason to prevent us from taking it out.)
"Just cover it up and treat it as a relic. The one that Erza picked is quite beautiful."
"That’s true." Everyone nodded their heads at Lucy’s suggestion.
The jewel buried inside the the chest would definitely continue to keep watch over the dormitory residents.
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