"You have to go...please." Tears streamed down her face as she looked at the man across from her. She had long given up the fight that she had began and insisted upon. With bleeding and hollow heart, life began to slip away from her. "Please…
.
.
.
.
. Just end this."
"Look who's back!" Someone shouted as they pointed at the gate. Team Natsu were busy carrying wooden planks to their destination, on Erza's orders, and had been tired. They gladly took this chance to slack off and looked at the direction of the wide open gates of the Fairy Tail guild. A cloaked figure peeped through the door, with her cloak hiding her face, bowed then asked. "Do you know where the guild of Fairy Tail is? For some odd reason, I cannot find-"
"Leila!" Gray whistled and waved at the newcomer who looked up and squinted. She had tried denying the reality of the guild being completely destroyed but seeing a half naked Gray on top of the construction site made her groan in disappointment.
"What on earth happened here?" She asked Makarov, who was simply enjoying his pineapple star fruit punch. The old man sipped for a while before shrugging and replying carelessly: "The usual."
"Master has decided to escape reality so I will explain instead. But before that, welcome back, Leila." Mirajane hugged the figure before gently pulling down the hood, to reveal a pale skinned brown haired girl. An odd symbol consisting of a red diamond, swirls, and curves was located in the center of her forehead.
"It's been awhile." Leila nodded politely as Mirajane stroked her head like a pet. Mirajane nodded as tears brimmed her eyes before she clutched the ravenette. "Leila...I missed you so much! No one was here to stop the idiots...everything would have been more efficient and helpful if you were here…"
Leila sighed as she patted the girl's back before commenting: "You just missed my manpower, didn't you?" Mirajane wiped her tears away and smiled brightly. "Of course not! Welcome back!" She then genuinely gave the girl a warm hug. Leila glanced up with her maroon eyes at the building that was currently being reconstructed before she pulled off her cloak and held it out. Noticing this, both Gray and Erza began to shout orders, telling the guild members to move. Erza walked next to Leila while Gray watched from afar, whistling as the colour of Leila's black cloak slowly seeps down into the ground, leaving their container a brilliant white. Like a snake, the black blob began to slither into other item that were black before removing them from their holders. Slowly, the blob grew bigger and bigger until it began to spike it three dimensionally and wrap itself around wooden planks and lifting them onto the building.
Gray jumped off from where he was perched and reached out his hand, taking the cloak from Leila. The girl murmured a thanks and continued to hold her other hand out, making small motions. Though it was barely visible due to how thin it was stretched out, Leila's once black gloves now only had a small dot of black on it and it attached itself to the black shapeless two dimensional figure. It moved due to Leila's control and the girl walked closer to maneuver it better. As she had speedily structured and got rid of a pile of logs, she dropped her hand and the "black" slithered back to their original containers. Mirajane walked up to her and handed her an iced cup of cranberry juice.
"How was your trip this time? I heard this was supposed to be more of a relaxation vacation?" Erza asked the girl who sipped the juice and nodded. She took her sweet time to enjoy the refreshing mix of sour and sweet flavours before replying:
"I would have taken or asked you guys to come with me. But Natsu and Happy disappeared without a word and I thought perhaps it was a good time for me to achieve freed- isolation and independence." Leila stopped herself from saying she was a captive to the rowdy bunch and then fixed her wording. Gray caught on and rolled his eyes before smirking and giving her a fist bump. "Well you seem more excited to go on vacation by yourself."
"Mmm...souvenirs?" The girl asked as she handed Erza a pink package with different, small strawberry centered Ezra's eyes sparkled and her mouth drooled, Leila handed her a small pamphlet that contained the cake's recipes as well as the names for each one.
Leila then stared into Gray's eyes, as if contemplating about something before she was ready to pull out his gift. The boy was waiting expectantly until the pair were interrupted by an exceed and a dragonslayer. The ravenette leaned back to avoid being seared and burnt alive by the pink haired boy who offered a bone crushing hug.
"Welcome back!" Leila's already pale complexion, began to look chalky white and her line of sight placed themselves on Gray, pleading for him to help her. The boy then grabbed the dragonslayer by the head and ripped him away.
"Wha-? You wanna go Ice Princess?" Natsu pounded his fist, which lit themselves on fire. Gray stripped off his jacket and a chilly breeze escaped from him.
"Bring it on, Fire Breath."
"So, what happened? I'm sure it is not one of Natsu's and Gray's small brawls, right?" Leila watched the two roll over onto each other on the dirt, attempting to fight. As she just merely observed their fight, something she had not seen in a while and missed, Mirajane shamelessly brought up another topic.
"Ah, I see you haven't changed your love for gay love-" Mirajane was interrupted by Erza who blushed a deep shade of red and accused the white haired woman instead. "If you had not shown Leila your stash of yaoi, I do not think she would be as amused as she is now." Leila merely blinked and looked away from the men and gave Mirajane a disapproving shake of her head.
"You're wrong to think I would enjoy watching the two idiots roll around together, though I do admire the homosexual relationships as it demonstrates their courage to declare their love and sexuality. But watching those two is as disturbing as watching Elfman singing 'Let it Go'-"
"Welcome back Leila and hey! I have a talent in singing!" Elfman roared across the construction sight as Leila rolled her eyes. Mirajane laughed and apologized to her younger brother. "Sorry Elfman, even I cannot defend you." This caused the male to whine in protest.
"Erza! Stop them!" A blonde girl, one that Leila did not recognize, appeared. She whined as she barely avoided all of their aggressive magic spells and ran towards them. Tears were brimming in her eyes as a desperate look hung in her eyes. She had large and pretty brown orbs, Leila noted, as well as a pretty face. Leila glanced back at Mirajane, quizzically while Erza stepped forward and knocked Gray and Natsu hard on the head.
"Ah! Well you see, our new member here, Lucy Heartfilia, had drawn attention to herself as she ran away from home. Let us just say her father was not very pleased and demanded for her to come home with extreme methods." Mirajane introduced the blonde, who seemed rather embarrassed by the unflattering introduction. She shyly dipped her head as she greeted Leila and apologized.
"Sometimes, children need to leave their home in order to grow as a person. If it was what made you a strong person, and if Fairy Tail is a home to you. I don't see why you should apologize for arriving at such a fine place." Leila glanced at the construction site. She was slightly peeved to find her guild in such a disastrous state, who wouldn't? But she did not blame the girl because after all, Leila had problems of her own so who is she to judge another person's choice of actions. Besides, Lucy seemed to be ashamed herself and there was really no point to be mad at the newcomer. She stood up and removed her glove on her left hand and offered to shake her hand. Lucy looked surprised at first to see the girl's scar covered hand before she smiled warmly and the acceptance and acknowledgement she was receiving. Shaking her hand firmly Leila then gave Lucy a silver bracelet, with a blue gemstone that was incredibly small, but definitely noticeable.
"It isn't much since I did not anticipate a new member but count this as a souvenir. Charles has a keen eye for these treasures and I'm glad he picked it up. It would have looked bad on my part not to have anything for the new member." Leila motioned her now gloved left hand, and a raven appeared, perching on her fingertip. Lucy gratefully accepted her present and Charles merely tilted his head.
"Charles did not find it. Charles took it from a rich lady-" Immediately Leila flicked the bird in the head and shooed him off. Everyone silently stared at Leila who was seemingly having a migraine and writing ways to kill off her bird in her head. Gray finally spoke up, his voice cracked momentarily in amusement: "Did your little birdie just confess his crimes? But then again, that little rascal is often known to be a thief-"
"Here's your present." Leila threw several pairs of boxers at him and he cried out in surprise. He looked down at his present before a ticked off vein mark appeared on his head. "What? These are my presents?!" Lucy covered her eyes from embarrassment while Natsu laughed at his rival.
"A best friend is always looking out for their daily needs. You've stripped so many times that I'm sure the quantity of your boxer have been reduced in half. Do you remember that time where Natsu and I had to wait for you for half an hour just so you could find your boxers in the lake?" She then pulled out a box of rare, fire noodles from her bag and gave it to Natsu. "Limited edition fire noodles. I managed to get one before they ran out of stock." The pink haired dragonslayer's eyes lit up like a small universe as he held his bowl of noodles up, like Simba.
"Lastly for Mira, you get a new lacrima. I heard this one helps you choose what to wear and some new clothes stored in it." Leila bowled out a small globe and the white haired girl grinned brightly at her present. She stroked in, carefully and murmured "My precious~". The girl then noticed Leila staring at her expectantly and she smiled, a little sadly, as she realized what quiet mage wanted. Mirajane pulled out a newspaper, from yesterday and showed it to Leila.
"Fortunately, you were out of town while the murder happened, though it may be unfortunate for you. Yesterday, one of the Phantom Lord's members were assassinated in a hospital and well...there were no leads." Leila looked at it cooly before asking Mirajane: "Do you mind if I take it with me?"
"No...but I do prefer if you didn't. I don't want you to go finding the murderer yourself and-" Leila cutted her off and pulled up her hood. She waved goodbye to her fellow guild members as she pointed at her luggage. "I'm going back first to unpack. It was nice meeting you Lucy." As she left behind her friends and the conversation in a whir of moment, Lucy looked at her friends in slight confusion.
"Is something wrong?" She asked as she nervously fidgeted. She heard everything that flitted between Leila and Mirajane but she was unsure of what to make out of the word murderer. It's usually pretty easy to find a murderer but it seems that this was not an ordinary one.
"Ah, since you've just recently joined...you wouldn't know about Magnolia's serial killer." Mirajane glanced at where Leila left and then faced Lucy with a serious look. "We're fortunate that Fairy Tail has not had any casualties from the Mage Hunter, but we don't know who will be next."
"And Leila is always searching for the bastard. Even though guilds are prohibited from sending members out to search. But for now, we're safe since the serial killer seems to only kill once a month." Erza sighed as she leaned against the pillar with crossed arms.
"Why is Leila so adamant on finding him? Even if she finds him, isn't he too dangerous to face?" Lucy bit her lip, worried for the returned Fairy Tail member.
"You're probably expecting some sort of sob story or revenge filled background. But Leila simply loathes the idea of taking away someone's life, when you have no right to judge them. It also doesn't sit right with her because she detests those who run away from their responsibilities and commit the same faults. I'm not quite sure if that's all there is to it…" Erza replied and she shook her head. "Though I don't blame her for thinking that way. Everyone here feels the same but we don't want to lose someone when we know for sure that they won't survive the danger they face."
"I know that isn't all there is to her reasoning. To be honest, I'm expecting a sob story. I mean, isn't that most of Fairy Tail's youngest generation's life?" Natsu sniffed and rubbed his nose as he commented, being serious. Gray sighed before grunting in agreement. "I agree with flame breath for once." Everyone was quiet before Mirajane brightly asked:
"So...are we going to play detectives?"