Prologue:
It was a beautiful night. It was a new moon, but the stars gave enough light to see by. There were children crying in the forest and blood was on the air... Wait, what?
A flicker here or a bush rustling there was the only sign that anyone was in the area. Someone with a trained eye would be able to make out two figures running side-by-side, leaping fallen trees with practiced ease. Their bare feet were soaked with blood. The figure on the right side was a woman, about 5'6, with waist-long pink hair and a heart-shaped face, her violet eyes flickering about anxiously. On the left was a man. He was a redhead, with emerald green eyes and a face people noticed, everything in perfect proportion, though both his and the woman's faces were marred with worry. Suddenly, as if it was pre-communicated, both of them leaped into a tree in unison. The woman turned to the man, and ruby red lips parted.
"Koishii (beloved), I think that they have given up on us. Maybe Zeref's scions are happy with only one child."
Her husband let out a sigh. "Yeah, they're gone. Poor Lucians, though. I wish we could have gone back. We should have saved them, I should have-" He was stopped with a hand on his arm. His wife smiled bleakly at him. "As amazing as you are, Engetsu, you can't do everything." A bundle materialized in her arms. "It was either save them and be chased down further, and watch them suffer again as their bodies give out, or run and save Natsu." As if it was his cue, Natsu moved faintly, blinked his green eyes, and yawned. His movement moved back his wrappings and exposed a thin screen of pink hair, just like his mother's locks. "We couldn't save them."
The man, now named Engetsu, shook his head ruefully. "I know, I couldn't do anything else. But they had a child, remember? I think her name was Erza. They took her. What if I failed them, Kasumi? What if she-" He was again interrupted again by Kasumi, with a finger on his lips. "Blade magic is insanely rare, and with the death of Senshamaru and Hitomi, she is the last Blade Magician. They won't kill her. You're right though. Once Natsu-chan is safe, we'll go after her and take her from the Tower of Heaven, okay?"
Engetsu was unresponsive. He was reliving the last day.
There had been a meeting of the Ten Wizard Saints, and since he and Kasumi held a spot together (the first pair ever), they had to sit through it. It was about something useless again, the relationship between the number of gate keys owned and the … questionability of dress choice. In short, he learned that there are some eternano waves emanating from the keys, that, when in great numbers, cause the celestial spirit mage to feel overdressed, hence the skimpy clothing. As the meeting was ending, every lacrima in the room turned off. The room was plunged into complete darkness. Kasumi and Engetsu extended their senses as far as they can.
A whisper of a blade on the air. A breeze from a body moving at high speed. Someone was flitting around the table with a knife, and they were the next people in line. Kasumi and Engetsu immediately braced themselves.
The lights flickered on and Engetsu had to fight the bile that rose in his throat. Eight seats were coated in blood, the Saints in them dead. All of their throats torn out and put on plates in front of them. An insignia was cut into their chests, an almond-shaped eye with a fang shaped pupil. But before Engetsu could hazard more than a quick glance, he was jolted into reality by a grunt of exertion. He looked down along the hand-and-a-half claymore he had unsheathed, and the man at the other end, who had two shiv crossed in his hands to block the heavy sword that he had swung in the dark reflexively. Engetsu smirked. This guy was weak. Yeah, maybe he washed out the other Saints, but either he or Kasumi could take them all on at once. Engetsu flexed his wrist, and the assassin dropped to his knees.
"Who sent you here?" he asked in his most commanding, the one that Kasumi-hime said gave her shivers.
The man wavered for a second, then steeled himself. "Y-you'll n-n-never get anything f-from me!" He looked like he was about to piss himself.
Engetsu smiled a feral grin. "Are you sure?" A dark aura wafted around him like a cloak and a hannya mask appeared over his shoulder. (Yes, I borrowed this from Sekirei's Miya) "I guess that I will have to… persuade you."
From the smell of it, the stone-cold mercenary had skipped straight over pissing and had shat himself. Closing his eyes tightly, secrets spilled over his lips like water. "I'll tell you, just don't hurt me!" Knowing that the silence was a tacit affirmative, he continued. "Medusa sent us to steal your child for Basilisk Gaze. The fact that he turned invisible just after birth is known all through Fiore, and she thinks that she can teach him to be the best assassin ever, and so she wants to… draft him into our guild. However, she knew that you would find her if she let you live, so she sent me in to kill the other Saints, and she'll send our best assassin after you and-" Here his mouth slammed shut, seemingly against his will.
"After us and who else?" Assassin (Engetsu couldn't be bothered with his actual name) jammed his fingers into his mouth and tried to force it open, but his mouth slammed back shut with enough force to break his carpals, and a scream could faintly be heard through the tissue of his throat. As Engetsu looked at him, he saw a faint glimmer on Assassin's forehead. He leaned closer and saw a complicated three-dimensional rune. Suddenly he was gently moved to the side. Kasumi winked at him. "I can do this fairly easily. Stop hogging the spotlight." She gave the rune a once over, and then punched the man in the stomach.
"OW! What was that for, you crazy bitch?" Assassin gasped as he collapsed to his knees. She was stronger than her husband was!
She smiled. "It worked, didn't it? You're lucky this rune sucks, otherwise I would be forced to use more than 20% of my strength."
Oh. That's right. He did talk. "Oh. Thanks then." Wait, ONLY 20%? How strong was she? Tsume might have trouble subjugating these two.
"Instead of thanking me, spill." What was that behind her? It looked like… the Shinigami! He started speaking even faster than he had spoken to Engetsu. "The other living people in this room, the Lucians. They were asleep, so if I hadn't slipped up, I could have gotten them. The actual Saint, the stronger one, Tatsuki Lucian, uses a form of Blade requip magic that is exclusive to women in that family. They also have a child, Erza, and she would also be an amazing assassin, so the same applied there."
"If you were told to kill everyone but us, why did you attempt it?"
"It was dark, and the way you looked around showed that you hadn't sensed me yet, so I thought that, even if I died, if I took one of the Ghost Couple with me, Medusa would let my wife and daughters go."
Kasumi's mask cracked slightly. "She has your family?"
He nodded, tears flowing over his cheeks. "She told me that unless I impress her tonight she'll use her Basurisco Gaisu and turn them into stone forever. Unlike Fairy Tail's Evergreen, Medusa can't turn them back. My little girl, she's the light of my life. I couldn't bear to see that light extinguished, even if it meant that I had to sink into darkness myself."
Kasumi knew what that felt like. She had spent a brief period as an assassin to work off her debt to a mob boss who had her parents as hostages. It probably hadn't been the best decision to train her as an assassin, though. The first person she… practiced on was him.
Suddenly, Assassin stiffened. "Shit! I have to get out of here! If he finds me here, he'll tell Medusa!"
Engetsu's interest was piqued. "Who is he? Is he strong? Can I fight him?" he bounced around like a small child.
The mercenary looked like he was about to shit himself again. "No! Whatever you do, don't fight him! If Tsume gets a drop of blood, it's all over. His Inu no Mahou no Yaiba, Kiba, heals him for every drop of blood it gets, and it will permanently hold your scent in its 'mind'. He will be able to track you forever. He's Basilisk Gaze's Ace."
Engetsu grinned. "So I have to kill him before he can touch me? That handicap will just make it more fun!" He turned to his wife. "Pleasepleasepleasepleaseplease let me fight him?" Assassin coughed, making a whipping motion with his hands and a "wpshh" sound. "What was that?" The hannya made its encore, earning a fervent reply of "nothing!"
Kasumi smiled. "Of course you can! I'll be there if anything happens and you are the fastest person I know…" She winked and Engetsu scratched at his hair, face reddened to the point that it blended with his hair. Assassin held up his finger and mimed wrapping something around it. ("What was that?" "N-nothing!") Kasumi turned to him. "I have one last question." She looked over to the lean blond man snoring against the wall and the voluptuous redhead fast asleep on the table. "How did you know that the so-called Sword Saints, Senshamaru and Hitomi Lucian, would be asleep when you entered. For that matter, why would Medusa pick you to assassinate 8 Wizard Saints?"
Knowing that this was his last chance for freedom, Assassin nodded. "The Lucians were drugged three days prior with a slow-release drug that causes 18 hours of sleep. They have about 12 hours left." A scream in the distance made him jump. "I have the power to jump through lachryma that are a certain distance away from each other. The problem is that if I jump into, say, an active light lachryma, I'll burn myself, so I needed an EMP (Eternano-magical pulse) to shut them all off. Now, if you kill me, please take care of my family and save them from Medusa?" Assassin was resigned to his fate.
DUN DUUUN DUUUUUUUUUUUUN! Much Questions… What will Kasumi decide? How tough, really, is Tsume? Can Engetsu take him? Is Engetsu even more whipped than he lets on (dodges chair). Hint: Yes he is.
So guys, I might not be your most frequent updater, but I have several chapters lined up and ready to go. I'll update every other Sunday unless I state otherwise.
And you will probably later on realize that a couple of my characters will seem a little off. This is because, in my Natsuverse, the females (except Lucy, I can't fix her if I tried) are boss as fuck so they are stronger than canon and the people around them treat them accordingly. They will still have pretty much the same personalities except for one thing (SPOILERS) (SPOILERS) (SPOILERS) (SPOILERS) (SPOILERS) (SPOILERS)
My Natsu will help Elfman completely master his Take Over magic, so Mira will go Satan Soul a bit earlier than canon (yesssssss). Not that big a change, but she will act like she did before we meet her in canon, when she was still a BAMF.
(-)
Another thing… pairings. I was originally planning to make this just a Natza fic, but my muse tells me that I should give you a bit of say in the pairing, so PM me with a vote! Voting ends May 15th.
-GrammarNatza out…2,3,4…..
