Hi friends! Here's to another Jerza! Long form this time. ;)
Inspired by Erza's love for strawberry shortcakes and Jellal, respectively. Lightly AU. Same world, same characters, same relationships, but people will have slightly altered roles and histories. You'll see what I mean when you get there.
Enjoy!
the quest
The Fiore Kingdom.
A neutral country with a population of 17 million.
It is a world of magic. Magic is bought and sold there like anything else and is deeply ingrained in the people's lives. There are even some who make a living using magic.
These people are referred to as wizards.
These wizards belong to many different guilds and accept jobs brought to them. There are many guilds in this kingdom, and there's a certain wizard guild in a certain town…a guild from which countless legends were once born—
Like Erza Scarlet.
Many of us know that Erza is a badass, or at the very least, one of Fairy Tail's strongest members. No matter where you go, the sound of her name rings across the land of Fiore, often accompanied with a gasp of awe and a tribute to her successes. She has fought one thousand demons and one thousand monsters without a single scratch on her stylish armor, without a chip off of any one of her hundreds of blades.
She is someone you want on your side. She is someone you want to call your nakama.
Erza has achieved many great things, but very few people know that there is indeed one mission that she hasn't completed.
And when Erza is not packing her weapons, armor, and mountain of stuff to go to fight off the evils of the world or beating up Natsu and Gray so that they get along, she is on a personal mission, one that even she, the great Erza, has not been able to complete since the day of her birth.
And that mission was to find the most perfect strawberry shortcake.
we first find Erza here
The town villagers watched as the scarlet-haired woman slowly chewed the last morsel of the sweet cake, closing her eyes and concentrating on the balance of taste and flavors encapsulated in the little bite. They gasped when she finally swallowed the piece and gently placed the spoon down next to the plate.
She opened her eyes and gave a small smile to everyone that kneeled around her at the low dining table. It was very clear that she was the guest of honor—the owner of the sweet shop had invited her to his private dining area and seated her at the kamiza.
"Gochisosame deshita," she said, bowing to the owner, who had been standing properly with his hands clasped together on the other side of the room. "Thank you."
The acclaimed Fairy Tail warrioress then slowly stood up from her kneeling position, and all the villagers' eyes followed her ascent, their mouths gaping open at her grace.
She slowly made her way to the exit of the dining room, but before she was completely off the tatami mat, the sweet shop owner called her name.
"Erza-sama!" he shouted, and then performed a full-length bow to her. "What did you think of my strawberry shortcake?"
There was a moment of silence before the S-Class Mage turned around, with a brilliant and strong smile across her face. "Hmph," she said, with an approving tone. "Your strawberry shortcake is indeed wonderful."
"Thank you very much for your kind words, Erza-sama!" the shop owner cried again, giving her another full-length bow.
"However," she said, "I am still in search for the most perfect strawberry shortcake."
"Of course," the shop owner said. "I understand. Please come again! I will without doubt make your strawberry shortcake with only the finest ingredients under supervision of me and my finest bakers!"
She nodded. "Hmph," she said, with a smile worthy of her nickname Titania. "I will indeed will come again."
As she left the village, a warm gust of wind wrapped around the small town, which immediately celebrated the compliments of the very well-known strawberry shortcake critic. Almost without a delay, a sticker was slapped onto the sweet shop's window—
"Our strawberry shortcake is 'wonderful,' according to Erza! She will come again for another slice!"
back in Magnolia
"You're back," Mirajane simply said, when Erza sat down on the barstool. "How was Chrysanthemum town's strawberry shortcake?"
"Delicious," Erza replied. "I always appreciate a good strawberry shortcake."
Mirajane gently put down the beer glass that she was cleaning, before bending down and producing a magazine from the other side of the bar table. She handed it to Erza, opening to a specific page—a spread that featured the sweet shop that Erza had just come from and a full-length body profile picture of Titania herself.
"Your critique of their shortcake are already all over the news," Mirajane said, with a small laugh. She read off the white bolded title. "Titania declares Chrysanthemum shortcake 'wonderful!'"
"Well it was wonderful," Erza defended.
Mirajane leaned over the table. "But it wasn't the one was it?"
Erza stared her long-time friend straight into the eye. "No," she said, finally.
The eldest Strauss sister folded her arms, giving Erza a petty wry smile. "You're never going to find the one," she declared, jokingly.
Erza put down her cup of tea. "I will find it," she repeated, containing an angry eyebrow twitch. "I will find the most perfect strawberry shortcake. I just need to find the sweet shop that sells it."
Mira sighed and uncrossed her arms. "Erza," she said, softly. "You've been looking for this most perfect strawberry shortcake since before I even met you in Fairy Tail. You've trekked weeklong journeys to try the strawberry shortcake of every new sweet shop that you discover on the map! Remember the old map of Fiore Kingdom that you used to carry around with you all the time?—"
"I still carry it around with me," Erza corrected.
"—Exactly! You must have every square centimeter marked off on that map," the Satan Soul-queen continued. "I don't think you're looking for something that exists! You'd have better luck trying to find a boyfriend. Like who is that boy you used to talk about a lot when you were young? What was his name…? It sounded something like—"
Erza stood up, suddenly, flustered. "D-d-don't compare a strawberry shortcake to a boyfriend!"
The noise in the guild suddenly simmered down, and Erza realized that everyone was suddenly looking at her weirdly because of her outburst. She lowered her voice and sat back down timidly in the bar stool.
Mira gave her a small giggle and leaned over the table again to face Erza. "How about you make the shortcake?"
"Make it?"
The silver-haired beauty queen nodded, with a light twinkle in her eye. "Yes. Find a recipe and make it yourself!"
Erza took Mira's suggestion into consideration, holding her chin in her hand and thinking hard for a long minute. Eventually she stood up from the bar chair—suddenly—and declared, "Naruhodo. I will make the most perfect strawberry shortcake and then I will eat the most perfect strawberry shortcake!"
Silence overtook the guild again upon hearing Erza's outburst, but Erza was already on her way to the library to consult the recipe books.
"You can't have your cake and eat it, too, Erza!" someone jokingly yelled at her.
This made Erza freeze and ponder for a moment. But she didn't spend too much time thinking about it.
She never understood the expression anyway.
at the library
"I am making the most perfect strawberry shortcake!" Erza passionately declared to Levy—who didn't know how Erza had arrived to this conclusion.
The blue-haired bookworm tucked away her reading glasses and marked her place in her book with a quick Solid Script: Bookmark spell. "So, you must need a recipe book," Levy concluded.
"That," Erza said, glad that Levy was quick to pick up Erza's intentions, "is exactly what I need."
Levy nodded. "The food-related books are that wing of the library," she said, pointing off to the distance.
The determined warrioress set her sights on the distance that Levy referred to.
"We must not waste any time," Erza said, her strong will leaking out into the air around her. "Koi, Levy! Come here! We must hurry!" The armored-mage broke into a sprint, picking up her small-figured comrade along the way.
"P-p-put me down, Erza!" Levy demanded. "I can get there on my own!"
"Nonsense," Erza said. "This is the least I can do for you since you are helping me on my quest."
A split second later and at Levy's strong request to put her down, the two Fairy Tail mages arrived to the bookshelf that Levy had previously been referring to. Levy took a quick glance at the titles at the shelf—and without a hesitation—she went up on her tiptoes to pick out a book. She enchanted the pages with a quick spell and held her hands over the book, which turned by itself to a page that had "STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE" scrawled across the top.
"There are many version of strawberry shortcake recipes," Levy explained. "But I think this is the most traditional one…I think this might be what you are looking for." She handed the book over to Erza, who quickly skimmed the ingredient list.
"Strawberries, sugar, flour, butter, heavy cream…" the scarlet-haired woman muttered to herself, in deep concentration.
"Eto…" Levy said, with hesitation, not wanting to disturb her very focused nakama. "So why are you making a strawberry shortcake, Erza?"
"The most perfect strawberry shortcake," Erza corrected, without even looking up from the page. "…milk, salt, egg, vanilla…"
Levy smiled to herself. She could ask again, but when it came to strawberry shortcake, there was quite literally nothing that could get in Erza's way.
Except of course, him.
But Levy knew well enough to not bring him up in a conversation with Erza.
"I will take this with me," Erza declared, closing the book carefully and holding the recipe book against her chest.
Levy knew to trust the book with Erza—the S-Class Mage would never let anything happen to something that would bring her closer to shortcake shortcake. "Okay," Levy agreed.
"First I must find strawberries—but I must have only the finest and sweetest strawberries," Erza told Levy. "Do you know where I might be able to find such strawberries?"
Levy thought for a moment. "I remember reading about Goddess Strawberries. They're located on a single strawberry bush on the highest point of the Lavender Mountain Range—on the southwestern-most tip of Fiore…"
Levy cast some magic, and a book from a nearby shelf landed gently into her hands. She flipped it to an entry page and putting on her reading glasses, reading the text back to Erza.
"Lavender Mountain Range is the passage of mountains that consists of Fiore's highest mountains," Levy read. "The sheer slope and height of the mountains do not allow many things to live comfortably on the mountains—except for evergreen trees. The mountain range is cold and deserted and mostly full of Vulcans. The highest mountain of Lavender Mountain Range is Mt. Jasmine, which is the most reportedly the most dangerous mountain on the planet. At least 100 people have died climbing the mountain, and only 157 have successfully summited it—a ratio of 64 percent—which is the worst ratio known to mankind."
Levy's enthusiasm started to turn to worry as she skimmed ahead of where she read. Unfortunately by now, she couldn't possibly convince Erza that she shouldn't go to Mt. Jasmine just to get Goddess Strawberries. Erza already had her mind set on doing just that—staring death and danger right in the face and grabbing the strawberries at its feet to put on her most perfect strawberry shortcake.
As Levy predicted, Erza's smile didn't falter, despite the text's subtle warnings. "Thank you, Levy. I'll be on my way now." And Erza fixed her sword's halter, resting it comfortably on her hip, ready for the start of a new adventure.
"Stay safe!" Levy reminded, waving the warrioress a goodbye, knowing that Erza often over-achieved.
"Of course," Erza assured. "Shin pai shi nai de. I will be fine."
However, as the scarlet-haired warrior trekked this highest and most treacherous mountain range to obtain the most luscious strawberries known to mages and humans alike, she didn't quite expect to run into a certain navy-haired man of her past.
To be honest, I never understand why you 'can't have your cake and eat it too.' Mainly it never made sense to me that one or the other would be bad—and if anything, you should eat the cake anyway since it's going to spoil if you hold onto it any longer…as a native English speaker, I get it what it's supposed to mean, but it still doesn't make sense to me. If anyone cares to explain, feel free.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this first chapter! Please review to let me know what you think! Fluffy times coming up!
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