Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail.
The Transformation
Chapter 1: Her Obligation
Just another normal day in the town of Freesia, its citizens taking shelter from the fierce rays of the midday sun. Two mages are having a drink outside a café, their bodies taking shade from the big umbrella hovering above their heads. It looked like an average conversation from afar but a closer look would lead to you conclude that it is somehow serious.
Taking a sip from his iced tea and bringing his hand in front of him to allow his head to rest on it, Lyon Vastia ended the formalities and got straight to the point. "I heard you can make people disappear."
"Ah! How straightforward. I like that." The other mage replied lively, as if not feeling the importance of their discussion.
The ice mage strained his patience a little bit more, "Can you?"
"So that's what they all say, huh." Lyon took his reply as a yes.
"Razor the Vanisher, your location isn't as difficult to find as I was led me to believe." Lyon took the smirk on Razors' face as an inviting one. "Retirement huh. It's such a pity that-", his voices was overlapped by the infamous mage's query.
"Why a café? It could have been better if it's a maid café but I mean abandoned buildings are always a given, and there are forests or the graveyard or even the strip club…" Razor wondered aloud, and in the background one can hear the sound of snapping as Lyon's patience ran out. Lyon's hand reached out and grabbed Razor's collar, dragging him forward.
"Feisty, aren't you?" Razor teased and looked around if anyone is witnessing the ice mage's sudden outburst. Luckily, the people were too busy fanning themselves to even give a damn. Reading Razor's action, Lyon released him and tossed him a lacrima.
"That contains all the information you need to know." The bluish-haired mage scoffed while standing from his seat. Razor held the lacrima with both of his hands and stared at it.
"Curious. This is a curious case indeed. I accept it." Lyon's fist clenched at that. He thought that the reason they're meeting right now is because Razor already agreed beforehand but that seems to not be the case.
"Good friends are a rarity nowadays. Is it a woman? A man's determination surely is a frightful enemy." Lyon let that slide. He needs the guy. He wouldn't want to feel his satisfaction after beating him now and regretting he did it later.
Lyon made a move to leave some jewels on the table to pay for both of their drinks; at least he was generous enough even after Razor's annoying behavior. "Meet me in three days time at the forest outskirt of Magnolia at dawn. The pay comes after." Lyon said coolly and left without a backward glace.
"What a pressing client. Fishing me out of retirement. Let's hope the pay is good enough for emigration." Razor said to himself as he settled to the task of finishing his drink, smiling wickedly at the thought he had in mind.
The sun was rapidly approaching; its rays outlining the mountains in the far east. Gray Fullbuster has just finished his early morning exercise. The ice mage looked at Magnolia from the hills located just outside of town. There were a few movements indicating that the town was still asleep.
"Gray!" a familiar voice called, breaking the peaceful morning silence. Gray turned around and faced Lyon with an indifferent expression. He scowled as he saw Lyon preparing to make an attack.
"Ice Make: Ape!" The dynamic ice mage shouted and not a second after, a large ape formed of ice appeared from the ground. Upon seeing Gray, lifted its fist and punched at his direction. His instincts telling him that it's too late to counter-attack, Gray found his body trying to defend itself.
"Ice Make: Shield!" If his magic came a little late, the big hand may have made contact with his chest. Through the ice, he saw Lyon walking towards him.
"Caught you off guard?" Lyon taunted.
Preparing to strike back, he put his right foot backwards, close fist against his open palm and roared an attack, only to find his words muffled by a hand. Gray started to protest but an intoxicating smell filled his nostrils making him dizzy. He struggled to keep his body steady but knew that he has already inhaled too much of the powder. Gray fell to his knees and eventually crashed into the soft grass. His eyelids felt heavy as he lay there watching the figure of Lyon coming into view. His opponent sat in front of him.
"Sorry Gray but I'd really like you to be out of the picture." Lyon said as he leaned close enough for Gray to hear and far enough that Razor strained his ears. "I hate it that whenever I see you, Juvia-chan is all over you and giving you her best smile but you push her away like an annoying pet. You don't deserve her so I'm doing this to stop you before you break her fragile heart." After making his statement, Lyon stood up and took a step backwards. The same hands that clutched his mouth a while ago is now touching Gray's forehead. Inaudible words escaped from the other mage's mouth and just as the contact was ended, he felt a weird tingling that circulated through his entire body. Gray put his last remaining strength into squinting his eyes, the sunlight hitting his face directly, to take a good look at Lyon and promising himself that he'll sure beat the hell of him the next time Gray see him.
A little after that, Lyon walked towards Razor demanding an explanation.
"Well?" Lyon asked impatiently.
"It's gonna take effect soon enough. It'll happen sometime within his tranquil slumber." His accomplice reassured him.
Lyon snorted and said, "That better be the case. I would have stayed here to see to that but since I gave my word to a certain someone, he's all yours." He tossed Razor a pouch and headed for Magnolia, leaving the sleeping Gray into Razor's hands while he looked forward to not seeing anymore of Gray.
Waking up at the field at noon when the suns is high up in the sky, showering the world its hot waves wasn't a particularly good feeling. The sweet smell of grass and silent whisper of the wind against his skin somehow relieved his irritation. He felt light and somehow very small. His white fur danced against the blowing wind. He let himself relax and just let the feeling of peacefulness envelop him. Gray started to close his eyes but suddenly felt a weird sensation in is lower back. Looking behind him, what he saw astonished him beyond words. There he saw his tail shifting from left to right, his white fur standing on end from his surprise. He proceeded to look at his hands, now paws, and drew out his claws. The feeling of protracting and retracting his claws seemed natural albeit a little bit foreign. But that doesn't matter at the moment, he transformed into a cat for God's sake!
Gray's sharp claws dug into the ground as he recalled Lyon's words from the morning. He was enraged that Lyon would betray him just like that and his thoughts was filled of ways on how to torture Lyon before unmercifully killing him. Just as he was getting ready to race to the town, a man came into view in the corner of his eye and appeared to be holding some bottles. The sound of clicking bottles caught Neko Gray's attention and the smell of fresh milk is enough to make his mouth water. The detailed thought of killing Lyon gone, Gray raced towards the farmer and only the anticipation of drinking the milk ran in his mind.
Gray was now in a park somewhere in the middle of town, purring contently after being given some warm milk by the farmer who called him the cutest ball of fur ever. If he had been human, the farmer would have been ice maked to death as the first syllables formed in his tongue. Seeing that it is definitely not the case, he allowed himself to be petted and enthusiastically drank the milk. Neko Gray was gone as soon as he finished the treat, his previous thoughts came rushing back. Gray was annoyed at himself for straying away from his task. He doesn't know his location and needed a high vantage point. Incidentally, just a few paces to his left stood a tree and without a second thought, he climbed.
The way up was done in a second as his claws allowed him to dig through the bark. After some time of watching, his efforts were rewarded. There, conveniently walking in front of him is the famous Titania carrying a box he suspected is cake and looked ready to return to the guild. Gray rushed down to catch up with her. Being a cute cat he is, he used that to his advantage to catch Erza's attention. When he was a little ahead of her, he jumped right in front of Erza and looked the cat that deserves the phrase it's-so-fluffy-I'm-gonna-die. Erza wasn't much of a fan of animals, for her they were tolerable. But the white cat in front of her was the most irresistible thing she'd laid her eyes on (maybe except for some Heart Kruz armor). With sparkling brown eyes, she took Neko Gray in her unoccupied hand and made her way towards Fairy Tail.
The guild was just how it usually is: peaceful, comforting, relaxing, and not anything I mentioned. It started when Natsu entered the place, Happy flying behind him, challenging Gray into a fight. His eyes darted from each face and finding Gray wasn't there, started to walk towards Lucy.
"Hey Happy." He address to the Exceed flying beside him.
"Aye?"
"Wanna make fun of Lucy?"
"Aye!"
They started to proceed towards her seat by the bar but suddenly something tugged at the back of his mind. There was one unusual face in the guild. Natsu abruptly changed his course and headed towards the corner where Juvia and Lyon sat.
"Lyon," Natsu said as he stood before them, only the table keeping them apart. "Fight me!"
Silence fell on the guild.
"Not now, Natsu." Lyon appeared annoyed by the salamander's barrage to his and Juvia's conversation.
"You have the same magic as Gray right? Fight me and then I'll tell who's stronger." He insisted as he started to fire up his hands.
"I'd rather not. You see, we're talking here." Lyon tried to calm himself at the thought of how his time is now spent on Natsu instead of Juvia.
"Is that a no? So ice mages are cowards, huh?" The fire mage taunted Lyon enough to hurt his pride.
Elfman appeared in a second, preaching them, "A man should never back down from a fight. A man is-" his words were drowned by the crowds cheer as Lyon stood up from his seat.
"If that's what you're asking for." With a blink of an eye, Lyon's clothes were flying behind him leaving him nearly naked, no thanks to his boxers. He closed his fist and rested it in his open palm, ready to mold any given second.
Without batting an eyelash, the tables were upturned, a bra flew in the air (I wonder whose?), Makarov nowhere to be seen, Lucy was thrown to the other side of the room, Gajeel sang a song, Scorpio cut everyone's hair, a stray fire toasted Laxus' hair, lightning appeared out of the clear blue sky, a fork got stuck in someone's ass, a box was hit by a flying ice eagle only to be followed by Natsu's punch. A look up would have told Natsu that it was Erza but since he wasn't given that option, all he did was try to defend himself from hell personified. The next thing everyone remember is seeing a demon from the door and started trashing it's way forward towards Natsu and Lyon. The following events were blank in the memory; only a vague feeling of terror, helplessness and bliss as they nearly ascended the heavens remained from that frightful day. Only the master and some S-Class mage survived the storm.
Juvia, because of her rain body, got away from the battlefield unharmed. Just when everything was calm again, everyone has either a bandage in some part of their body not including Natsu and Lyon who are now resting in the infirmary talking to their selves that they won't fight each other again.
There sat Erza in the bar, savoring her newly bought cake with an air of contentment. Juvia started to leave and hide until everyone was moving again.
"Juvia-chan." Erza called without even looking at her direction. A chill ran down Juvia's spine as she reluctantly faced the Titania. Her instincts told her to run for life but her mind knew better than to do that.
"Come here, I wanna give you something."
The water mage slowly walked towards Erza to close the distance between them. Erza reached for something in her lap and Juvia found herself fearing for her life.
"Does Erza want to punish Juvia? G-gray-sama can do that for Erza! Juvia will like it better if it's Gray-sama! Juvia will-" her pleads were cut short as Erza handed over a white cat to Juvia. The water mage took it with a confused face. The animal struggled to be free and looked as if it wants to go back to Erza but Juvia held it firmly in her hands, fearful that she'll be punished if she let it loose.
"I'll be off in a mission later and I need someone to take care of that cat for me." Erza's words was neither requesting nor asking for her permission, it was absolute. "And since everyone in the guild is somehow battered, I would like you to keep it while I'm gone." She added. Juvia was left no choice in the matter and reluctantly agreed, nodding vigorously to show her pseudo enthusiasm. Just after taking one last bite, Erza left and hoped for everyone's fast recovery.
With a sigh, Juvia sat in a stool that Erza just left and held the cat up. It was looking at her malevolently as if saying 'Put me down'. The mage didn't really pay much attention to how it looked at her and just convinced herself that that's how all cats look. Juvia noticed a black spot on its chest and tried to remove it thinking that it's dirt. After a few tries, she decided that it's just the fur and stopped. Putting the cat in the table, she stretched its cheek and said, "Juvia thinks you're a cute cat although you look a little mean." Neko Gray stopped the urge of trying to scratch Juvia's hand to pry it away from his face knowing that it'll do her no harm. Her pulling abruptly stopped and her face lit up as if something amazing has dawned upon her which is what really happened.
"Juvia shall call you Neko Gray-sama!" Juvia beamed while she held the cat high.
"Neko Gray-sama's spot is just where Gray-sama's guild emblem should be! Juvia really knows Gray-sama." Her smiled widened at that realization and proceeded to go home humming to herself, clutching Neko Gray in her chest.
A/N: I just had to make this. I can't resist the thought of Gray as a cat and Juvia, although clueless, taking care of him. Sorry for not really meeting your expectations. . Please review and criticize so I can try to improve. Hope you enjoyed it. :D
