Difficult Questions
One day, not long after the Harvest Festival and the Battle of Fairy Tail, a reporter from Sorcerer Weekly came in to interview us. He spoke with all of the mages in turn, even if not everyone could make it. Some were out on jobs. Others, like Mystogan and Gildarts, hardly ever showed their faces around the guild. And, of course, there was Laxus, who had recently gotten expelled. Twenty-nine members, myself included, ended up having to answer his questions.
Eventually, my turn came, and Jason walked up to me with a goofy grin on his face. Just looking at him pissed me off, so I wasn't thrilled with the prospect of being interviewed.
"Gajeel, right?" Jason said. "Weren't you with Phantom Lord until recently?"
"I was," I said. Phantom Lord being disbanded was well known, so I was glad I didn't have to fill him in here.
"Cool!" Jason said. "I've got four quick questions for you, so this won't take long."
"Shoot," I said, slightly impatiently. I didn't know much about being a reporter, but I figured that if he had this few questions- possibly because he had so many people to interview- it wouldn't take long.
"What's the best thing about Fairy Tail?" Jason said.
This one was difficult for me to answer, because I had to think about why I was here. Essentially, it's because a friend of mine asked the master on my behalf- without my asking her- and he took me in because while I had done terrible things to his guild, he couldn't simply abandon me as I walked a dark path. When I put it that way, it sounds kind of pathetic.
Of course, an Iron Dragon Slayer like me isn't necessarily hard up for mage work, so why would I settle for a guild that hated me? At times, I still didn't fully understand, but I believed that I had a place there, since the Master had invited me. Then again, given how many people were in there and the kinds of people they were, that wasn't really saying much.
But I didn't think that would necessarily pass muster with this guy, and I felt embarrassed saying it out loud, so I didn't say it. Rather than make something up, I decided to see whether a non-answer was an answer he'd accept.
"None," I said.
"What is your dream for the future?" Jason said, without missing a beat, as he wrote down my previous answer.
I had to admit that question caught me off guard, since it's one I'd never truly asked myself. Back when the master approached me in the ruins of our guild hall, I didn't have any ideas of what to do apart from finding some metal to eat. By contrast, Juvia found a new hobby- stalking Gray- while Master Jose was stripped of his status and I lost touch with everyone else.
So where do I go from here? I don't have any specific ambition as far as the guild goes. I always figured Metallicana's disappearing act seven years ago was characteristic of him, so I wasn't as intent on finding him as Salamander was on finding Igneel. Perhaps I might see him again, but without any leads, I didn't have anywhere to start as far as looking for him went.
I had to wonder whether this path was one that the old lady I knew, who used to be on the council, would approve of, but she disapproved of Fairy Tail almost as much as Phantom Lord, so I suppose not. Besides, with the old council disbanded, and all but one of its members in retirement or other lines of work, I suspected that I'd probably never see her again, either. These thoughts were unexpectedly depressing, so I decided to put them out of my mind.
To be honest, I did feel a bit at a loss for what to do, whenever I stopped to think about it, but I found that hard to admit. I was pretty much going with the flow, compared to other members, who came to Fairy Tail to achieve their goals, or whose dreams might cause them to part ways with the guild someday. Big or small, at least they had something to aim for, which was more than I could say for myself. At the very least, they could give this guy better answers.
"Nothing," I said tersely, feigning surety.
Jason simply nodded as he wrote down my one-word answer. Perhaps I was doing him a favor by cutting to the chase, since he had over two dozen other people to interview, but it hardly seemed like much to write about.
"Who are you close with?" Jason said.
I had to take a moment to think about this ones. I had several possible answers, but none that I felt especially confident giving. Some of Fairy Tail's mages had given the names of their best friends, while others listed those with whom they were on good terms, but whose names did I have to give?
Levy? She was cute, and she was smart enough to find a workaround for the jutsu-shiki. She might not be a match for me, but she's not completely useless. But while I had protected her from Laxus' attack, I wasn't sure if she'd forgiven me for what I did to her friends, and our personalities were too different. The only thing preventing me from beating the crap out of Jet and Droy again was my desire to atone for my wrongs and prove that I could be trusted, while she couldn't even bring herself to hurt a guy who hurt her. That kind of puts me to shame, but I've got no intention of changing my ways. She probably thinks of me as nothing but a violent idiot, which isn't too far from the truth.
Salamander? We had something in common as Dragon Slayers who'd been abandoned by our parents, but our lives took us in different directions until now. We worked well as a team against Laxus, but neither of us particularly enjoyed it. Pretty much every conversation we had involved us butting heads over something, although, judging from Salamander's relationships with Laxus and Gray, it seems pretty common with the guy. Of course, he has a lot of enemies, too, and his memory's good enough that he won't easily forget the time when he and I were on opposite sides of a bitter guild war.
Juvia? We came from the same guild, but weren't all that close back then. She, like me, didn't have many friends, so she probably thought of me as the closest thing she had to one from before Fairy Tail. Still, I felt somewhat grateful that she thought of me enough to put in a good word for me, something she didn't do for the others. As such, she's probably the only one from Phantom Lord whom I'm glad ended up in the same guild as I did.
There were some people I cared about, but I couldn't say with any amount of confidence that they cared about me. It felt a little lonely being a relative outsider to the guild, and the knowledge that it was my fault was shameful, so I decided not to talk about that.
"...nobody," I mumbled, hoping to drop the subject as quickly as the one before it.
"What was that?" Jason said.
"I said, nobody."
Jason simply nodded and wrote down my answer. It was clear that he wasn't as exuberant as he first seemed, and I have to wonder if I was a bit too much of a downer. The guy was a pain, but I wasn't exactly making things easy for him.
"Last question," Jason said. "What was the most difficult job you've done so far?"
This one was both the easiest and the hardest- I knew what answer I wanted to give, but couldn't tell him.
Some time ago
The Master called me into his room in the afternoon. Most of the guild was out on jobs, with only a few exceptions, like Mira, who was tending bar, and that guy who keeps looking at the job request board but never actually takes one. Once I was inside, the Master had me take a seat, then looked out into the hallway before shutting the door behind him.
"So, Gajeel, how are you getting along with the rest of the guild?" the Master said.
"I'm not," I said bluntly. "You sure as hell weren't kidding when you said that I wouldn't be very popular after what I pulled."
Oddly enough, Juvia was relatively well-liked apart from Laxus and his Raijin tribe, who seemed to believe that the majority of the guild besides them needed to go. She even got along with Lucy, in spite of thinking of her as a rival in love, privately mentioning to me that Lucy was her first female friend. It's probably partly due to her not having hurt as many people, and partly due to her being somewhat more pleasant to others.
"That can't be helped," the Master said, "as some people, myself included, will not forgive or forget what you did to us as part of Phantom Lord. But I suppose this works out in some ways."
"Why?" I said, hoping that the Master wasn't using this as some sick test of my commitment. Some guilds hazed newer members, but Fairy Tail didn't seem like that kind of place.
"I need someone to infiltrate Raven Tail," the master said. "Their master, my estranged son Ivan, took some sensitive information with him after leaving the guild, and I need to make sure he doesn't use it against us."
I wondered what tore the Dreyar family apart, pitting father against son and grandfather against grandson, but I suspected that he'd tell me that it was none of my business. As such, I decided to only ask questions related to my job.
"What kind of information?" I said.
"I can't tell just anyone," the Master said. "The reason this is such a huge problem is that somehow, Ivan got wind of this before I expelled him. The guild's better off without him, but he's still a threat with the information he has."
I let off a sigh. Clearly, the problem was much bigger than I heard, but I hadn't earned the right to know more about it. At this point, though, I didn't seem to have the right to refuse, either, and since Ivan was clearly up to no good, I figured something had to be done about him.
"So where do I come in?" I said.
"To be honest, you have a perfect cover story," the Master said. "After Phantom Lord disbanded, you, desperate for a new guild, turned to us, but were rejected. Your hatred of us only grew, and now you want to stab us in the back as revenge... or so you'll say if anyone asks why you're helping them."
I nodded in understanding, but inwardly, my stomach churned. Betraying Fairy Tail didn't sit well with me, even if it was a lie, and while I was the most likely person to get fed up and do so, it hurt a bit that people would think of me that way.
"Got it," I said. "What am I here for?"
"Quite simply, information about Ivan's plans and location," the Master said. "The secret he has is... something he wouldn't use lightly, so he's not likely to use it for blackmail or sell it to our other enemies. He won't just give up, though, so he's most likely brewing some other plan, which is what you need to find out."
"I suppose I can do that," I said. "But how would I get him to fess up his secrets?"
Master Jose had kept his plans relatively secret from the rest of us. Except for Juvia and Monsieur Sol, who were tasked with the kidnapping, all most of us knew about Lucy was that we were not to kill her under any circumstances. It had taken me a long time to become Master Jose's best mage- an accomplishment I used to be proud of- so even if Master Ivan didn't smell a rat, he wouldn't so easily divulge his plans.
"You need to get him to trust you," the Master said. "You should also feed him misinformation about us when you can, in order to hinder his efforts. However, make sure that he doesn't catch you in a lie."
I nodded. Evidently, things between Fairy Tail and Raven Tail were pretty bad if the Master was going this far. Even Master Jose wasn't this proactive against Fairy Tail until he learned that the missing Heartfilia heiress had joined them. In having Juvia abduct Lucy, and having me attack the guild and its members, Master Jose had started a battle he couldn't win, and I suppose that Master Makarov had no desire to make the same mistake, regardless of whether he attacked Raven Tail or they attacked us.
"One more thing," the Master said. "Under no circumstances are you to discuss this with anyone besides me. Loose lips sink ships, as they say, and besides that, I'd rather not have anyone who doesn't have to be involved get involved in guild espionage."
It wasn't hard to see where the Master was coming from. While the rumors regarding Master Ivan and Raven Tail were unpleasant, they were, at least on paper, a legal guild, and warfare against them was strictly illegal. Phantom Lord's open aggression against Fairy Tail was the final nail in its coffin in the Council's eyes, and with one wrong move, Fairy Tail might suffer the same fate without Raven Tail having to do anything. I had no desire for that to happen, so I agreed.
"Got it," I said.
It took a while before Ivan was willing to speak with me in person- I had to pass along the juicy tidbit that his son had been expelled from Fairy Tail, thus leaving him open for Ivan to manipulate. All this time, I had to make excuses for going out to meet with Raven Tail's contacts, on top of my work for the guild. I was certainly busy enough to stay out of trouble, and I wondered if that was the point.
But while the process was long and arduous, I understood what its significance was. I had to get Master Ivan to trust me so that he'd let slip his secrets, and I had to get Master Makarov to trust me if I wanted to be a part of the guild. It would take a while to make up for what I'd done, but I was determined to keep at it, even if most of my new guildmates had a few screws loose.
Eventually, my hard work paid off, and I was able to get invited to Master Ivan's place, learning that he wanted a crapload of money so that he could wage war on Fairy Tail. He sent me back to there as a spy, not knowing that I intended to deliver the information to the Master, the only one who truly knew where my loyalties lay.
I wasn't up for getting all sentimental, and I was paranoid enough to think that Jason might be one of Master Ivan's spies, who was asking about "hard jobs" to get information on Fairy Tail's secret missions. But I figured I'd give Jason something a bit more detailed than a fourth variation on "No," so he'd have something to give to his editor.
"The master's requests are a pain, dammit," I said, exasperated.
"Coooool!" Jason said, evidently having heard but not understood me. "Thanks for the interview."
Jason then moved on to Juvia, who enthusiastically called the guild "a warm place," eagerly talked about her feelings for "Gray-sama," and even listed me as the person she got along best with, making me feel bad for leaving her out. It felt oddly nice to see her settling in quite well. Perhaps Gray didn't return her feelings, but she saw it as a "work in progress."
Maybe I should think of this guild the same way, and act in a trustworthy way even if few trust me right now. When Juvia turned herself into water and threw herself against one of the floating lacrimas, resulting in her getting a strong electric shock and falling from a great height, she wasn't obsessed with whether anyone liked her, but was determined to ensure that she and Cana would not have to fight each other. Similarly, when I took Laxus' last bolt of lightning for Salamander, I was counting on him to finish the bastard off, and I made the right choice, even if my arm ended up in a sling for weeks. As much as I find myself wondering why I ended up in Fairy Tail, and my guildmates ask me the same question, I generally think it was a good decision, and at times, feel glad that I did so.
Just don't tell anyone I said this.
Author's Notes
Thank you for reading this fic.
This was inspired by the extra containing Gajeel's interview in Sorcerer Weekly, in which he's unwilling to answer most of the questions, save for complaining about Makarov's requests (he clearly has the Raven Tail infiltration in mind, but can't say it). It's to show how, in spite of the fact that he's warming up to the guild, he still doesn't get along with most people, isn't completely sure about it, and is a bit of a "tough-guy" at heart.
It's also fun to write Gajeel, and to try to imitate his style of writing.
Incidentally, I'm curious as to why Ivan turned bad in the first place, or what the incident was that caused him to get kicked out of the guild. Apparently, Gildarts hates Ivan for some reason, as we see in his likes and dislikes, but it hasn't been explained why.
Edited to fix some minor typos.