Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail nor do I want to
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Inside a cave some distance away from the port town Hargeon, two figures could be seen peacefully resting, well peacefully is kind of a stretch as the larger of the two was mumbling about something or another with an occasional twitch, while the smaller was quite content as they were curled into a small ball. All was quiet until...
"Take this!" yelled the larger figure as they suddenly shot up to reveal the silhouette of a male's body around 6 ft tall and slightly built. The figure then leaned back as if to dodge a blow, before performing a sweeping motion and following with an uppercut. The figure then quickly performed a roundhouse kick that seemingly won the 'fight'. They then placed their right leg on the lower half of the smaller figure's face - effectively squishing it - and started bragging about defeating "Salamander". The smaller figure's eyes then shot open to reveal themselves to be of feline nature - bluish grey irises and slitted pupils. In one swift movement, the smaller figure was up and a rope like appendage was wrapped around the larger figure's ankle. There was a brief flash of light and the smaller figure seemed to grow wings and was off to the cave's entrance - with the larger figure in tow - in a blur of movement. Upon exiting the cave the smaller figure took to the air and flipped, releasing the larger figure into a nearby stream - headfirst.
As the smaller figure descended, it was revealed to be a small male cat with bluish grey fur with silver paws and underside. He turned to leave revealing a large patch of silver fur roughly the shape of a lightning bolt. He started walking as if to enter the cave before suddenly freezing mid step with beads of sweat running down his entire body. Almost mechanically, he turned his head to see the male slowly breaking the surface of the now steaming stream which created a haze around him making him seem more menacing than he actually was. The cat then sweated even more profusely than before.
"Cat..." just one word was enough to send the cat's sense of danger into overdrive. He turned and sprouted his wings before attempting to make a speedy escape. Key word - attempting. A golden orange chain of flames quickly wrapped around his waist keeping him suspended midair. A quick and weak jolt of lightning magic from the human male had the cat screeching in mild pain. The human male then stopped sending lightning magic through his chain and cancelled his illusion before yanking the cat into the freezing stream of water.
"Eeek!" yelped the cat as he was submerged into the water before breaking the water's surface as a bluish grey blur and speeding to dry land. He turned to glare at the human male who was snickering at his expense.
"That wasn't nice, Joshi!" the cat yelled at the human male who doubled over clutching his belly and guffawing. "Nor was it funny!"
"Can't argue that it wasn't fair, though." Joshi said between snickers. "But thanks for waking me up, I'm feeling a bit hungry, though." he said while rubbing his belly. He waded around in the stream for a bit before yanking out two decent sized fish and tossing them to Khyd who caught them and whacked their heads against the ground effectively knocking them out. Joshi waded around some more catching a few more fish before exiting the stream. He used his magic to dry himself before leaving to gather firewood. He returned a few minutes later with enough for a decent sized fire pit and and lit it with some fire magic. They made small talk while they waited on the fish to roast.
"Today's gonna be a good day." Joshi said as he rotated the stick the fish was on.
"What makes you so sure?" asked Khyd as he floated above the pit to enjoy the aroma of the roasting fish.
"I dunno, I guess you can say I smell it."
Half a dozen fish and a small training session later, they were heading to the nearest village.
~Hargeon~
"Um, sir?" asked the train's conductor as they pulled up at the train station in Hargeon. Splayed out on the train's floor was a pink haired teen that appeared to be suffering from motion sickness.
"Aye! It's fine, he always gets like this." a small blue cat that seemed to walk on his hind legs answered the conductor's unasked question.
'Just how is that fine?' the conductor thought as he sweat dropped. "Anyway, both of you should get off soon, especially your friend, we're leaving for the next town shortly."
"Just give me a few minutes and I'll be off this stupid thing. Never gonna ride another one of these things." groused the teen who was now hanging out the window. The cat walked out of the train mumbling to himself before turning to address the teen.
"Say Natsu, Igneel should be-"
"Happy! Save meee!" yelled the teen now identified as Natsu.
"It departed." was all Happy could say as he watched the train pull out of the station.
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"I ended up riding that stupid contraption twice," complained Natsu as they roamed the streets of Hargeon searching for clues relating to Igneel's whereabouts, "and I'm hungry!" On que his stomach rumbled quite loudly scaring the shit out of a passing woman who appeared to be scared of thunder. Natsu rubbed the back of his head as he smiled sheepishly and apologise. They walked around some more but failed to find any clues. They were about to pass a magic store when it happened. 'It' being Natsu stopping to look inside just as the store's customers looked outside and at Natsu. They remained like that for a few moments before snapping out of whatever it was and resumed what they were previously doing.
"What was that Natsu?" Happy questioned as he felt something but didn't know what it was.
"Hmm? Oh, that? Dunno." he replied with a shrug as they continued their search.
~Inside the store
Lucy snapped out of whatever it was and resumed looking around the store. She saw another customer when she entered but paid no attention to them as they were absorbed in looking through what appeared to be some books on magic. She looked at they wares on display before something caught her attention; a key. Her squeal of joy had the other customer looking over at her but she ignored them in favour of asking the old man the price.
"How much did you say it was?"
"20,000J"
Lucy felt her brow twitch as she she heard the ridiculous price. She decided to use her feminine wiles to get a discount. She vaguely registered to other customer mumbling something under their breath.
'Huh, so it was a male... Kind of hard to tell with the hood and all... Then again, their height and form should've been a dead give away. But... There are females that are pretty - why am I thinking about this at a time like this!? Ugh! Gotta focus!' Lucy mentally reprimanded herself for getting sidetracked so easily. She hopped up to take a seat atop the counter and crossed her legs while slightly leaning forward showing some cleavage.
"Now how much is it really, you wonderful old man~" she said with a wink added as an afterthought. The old man appeared unaffected as he opened his mouth to answer.
"..."
Outside the store Lucy was practically skipping down the street, happy to receive such a nice discount. She was unaware of the nosebleeds knocking out males - and a few females - around her as they watched her boobs trying to escape the confines of her blouse. She felt a tap on her shoulder and turned to see the customer from before with one hand in his pocket and the other extended.
"You owe me." that threw Lucy for a loop.
"Huh?" Was her highly intellectual response. Was he stalking her? What if he was one of those creeps!? She was about to scream when he held up a finger.
"Don't you think it's weird you got such a huge discount?"
Now that she thought about it, she practically got the key for free! I mean, where the hell does someone get a 99% discount? Seeing the question forming, he held up a hand to silence her question.
"Walk and talk." was all he said before walking off. Lucy stood there for a moment before scrambling to catch up to him. The rational part of her was reprimanding her for walking with a stranger that was being all mysterious. She ignored it as she waited for him to continue.
"I cast a spell that sort of charmed him."
"Huh?"
The stranger proceeded to sigh and remove the hood and ran a hand through his jet black hair.
"There was a spell I saw in one of the books that I wanted to try, it basically drastically increases how appealing someone appears," he said then paused as if to think, "Siren's Charm I think it's called."
"Oh, I see you're a mage," upon seeing his nod she continued "Charm Magic?"
"Nah, I'm an illusionist, among others." was his reply.
"Wait, you use multiple different forms of magic?"
"Yup."
"Could-"
"Nope."
"Darn."
The stranger snickered at her expression.
"By the way, I didn't get your name, I'm Joshimomaru Kaji, illusionist - among others - and bounty hunter."
"Bounty hunter? Never met one before, anyway, I'm Lucy, my magic's a secret-"
"Celestial mage."
"-Damn it, and I hope to be a powerful mage of Fairy Tail one day." she finished.
The stranger now identified as Joshimomaru raised an eyebrow at receiving only her first name but didn't comment. He thought about his dreams for a while then shrugged.
"Since you put your dream out there, I guess it's only fair that I put mine out there as well," seeing that he had her attention he continued, "I'd say my dreams are to one day defeat Salamander and to find my dad." If he wasn't looking up as he said this, he would've caught her flinch at the mention of his dad.
Lucy quickly shook off her discomfort and hummed to get Joshi's attention. "When you said you wanted to one day defeat Salamander, were you referring to the mage that uses Fire Magicthat you can't buy in a store?" Seeing him nod she continued. "I heard he's in town to-" She was cut off as Joshi grabbed her arm and took off in a random direction. After running around like headless chickens for a while, they came to a rail had a nice view of the ocean. Lucy looked below them and spotted a small crowd of women surrounding a man yelling things about 'Salamander-sama'. She turned to Joshi to get his attention and found him crouched on rail as if to prepared to jump.
"You've got to be kidding me." Lucy sighed exasperatedly as she grabbed Joshi's hood just as he jumped and yanked him back to land awkwardly on his butt next to her. She then smacked the back of his head ignoring the small stinging in her hand and Joshi's grunt of pain. She pointed off to her right at the staircase that led to the lower level. "Use the damn stairs!"
Joshi looked like the very thought of taking the stairs made him sick. He crossed his arms and pouted. "But jumping down would be so much cooler..." he whined as he looked longingly at the rails. Lucy approached him ticked off by his behavior.
"LUCY KICK!"
And promptly punted him over the rails - that he wanted to jump off so much - and into the side of a building behind the crowd. She then huffed and took the stairs - ignoring the people that were sweat dropping at the sight of her punting the bigger Joshi that far. Upon reaching the crowd, she shoved her way to the front and became entrapped. Her heart felt like it was trying to beat its way out of her chest. Said beating multiplied tenfold as Salamander turned and winked at her. With hearts in her eyes, she started to inch closer only to have the spell broken at the simultaneous shouts of 'Igneel!' and 'Salamander!'. From her left, Natsu emerged from the crowd with a massive smile that fell when all he saw was a puny human that was lobbed over the crowd and into a wall behind the crowd by a fist covered in a glove that appeared to be made of flames. The spell that kept all the women entrapped promptly broke as its caster lost consciousness. The women looked around not sure what to make of the scene. As they stood there, Natsu, Lucy and Joshi recognized each other.
"You!" they all yelled as Natsu pointed at Lucy and Joshi with them pointing at him. Happy that was floating above the crowd sweat dropped at the scene along with the crowd. As they all stood there like a bunch of idiots, Joshi felt something land on his shoulder and looked to see Khyd there who stretched his wings before cancelling the Aera magic. Upon seeing the crowd looking at him weirdly, he decided to mess with them. Tilting his head to the side, he looked long and hard a those in front of him before asking 'what?' which had the crowd scattering like someone had a bomb about to go off. Khyd snickered a bit before spotting Bora off to the side completely out cold. He looked at him for a bit before using his tail to retrieve a small book from Joshi's... chest? Upon closer inspection, four identical pockets were on the chest of the coat; two on either side.
"I think we found a bounty." Khyd stated as he handed the book to Joshi. Joshi flipped through the pages before finding what he was looking for. The book had a picture of Bora but no text. Natsu and Happy who came closer to look at the 'cool talking, flying cat' looked over Joshi's shoulder and wondered where the words were. Khyd sensed their curiosity and explained.
"This book can only be read by Joshi. Anyone can open it but they'll only see pictures. The book has been programmed to respond only to Joshi's magic. All he has to do is channel a little magic into the book - or the page he's on if he wants to be specific - and the description(s) will become visible."
Natsu had stars in his eyes at the end of the explanation. His comment about it being cool earned him a smile and nod from Joshi who finished reading Bora's description. Joshi then had Khyd slap some magic sealing cuffs on Bora's wrists and went about looking for Lucy - who ran with the crowd when Khyd messed with them. His and Natsu's stomachs then rumbled causing them to laugh sheepishly. Joshi's nose then picked up Lucy's scent and told Khyd to drop of Bora at one of the Magic Council's many branches that was located in Hargeon to collect his bounty and find him in a restaurant further up the street.
Lucy sat in a restaurant looking at the key she bought - got - earlier today wondering when she was going to make the contract. She was so out of it that she didn't notice she had company until she the waitresses came and filled her table with food. Lucy sweat dropped upon seeing the amount of food placed on her table. Thinking the waitresses 'wait, waitresses? I only ordered a sandwich and a milkshake! Is this some kind of joke?' Casting her thoughts aside, she lightly tapped the elbow of one of the waitresses. "Um, I didn't order... all this."
"You didn't, we did." came a voice she recognized almost instantly. She looked across the table to see Joshi 'and that pinked haired teen from earlier.'
"Why'd you run off like that?" Joshi questioned, effectively derailing her train of thoughts, "anyway, this is Natsu, the actual Salamander, and a mage of Fairy Tail." Seeing her open her mouth to comment, he quickly cut her off and mentally snickered at her pout.
"Found out when I came across his bounty when looking for Bora's."
"He's got a bounty!?" Lucy shrieked as she looked over at Natsu who was devouring the food like a starved animal.
"Mhm," Joshi hummed absentmindedly as he ate some of his portion. He swallowed before continuing "pretty much all the Fairy Tail mages from our age group has a bounty... Though some are inactive." He finished as Natsu and Happy finished their portions.
"Thanks for the meal." all three chorused as they got up leaving Lucy wondering what they were talking about. Her brain finally caught up with the situation when the waitress came with the bill. With shaky fingers, Lucy took the bill and almost had her eyes jump out of her head.
"This is almost half of my money!" she shrieked. The waitress smiled sympathetically at Lucy as she took the jewels and watch Lucy stomp out of the restaurant. Upon reaching outside, Lucy looked about for the trio that almost ate out her savings. She heard snickering from the space between the restaurant and a neighbouring café. She rounded the corner and saw the trio leaning against the wall and covering their mouths. She crept up to them and quickly grabbed Natsu and Joshi's ears before yanking on them. Hard. Happy who thought he was spared then laughed harder before yelping as he felt his tail being stepped on. They were scared shitless as Lucy glared at the cowering trio. She opened her mouth to chew them out but was cut off when Khyd zipped up to them.
"Got it and a little toy." Khyd said as he summoned a small sack of jewels and what appeared to be a watch with a lacrima for the face. Joshi nodded in appreciation as he tested the weight of the sack before looking at the thing in Khyd's paws and waited for an explanation.
"This is... is... um, forgot what they called it," he smiled sheepishly then continued, "but it's basically used to make calls like the normal communication lacrima but only to and from whoever registered it, the Magic Council in this case. Said they're for emergencies. You'll know when you're getting a call when it-"
I'm a barbie girl...
"-sounds like that, took time out to get a custom ringtone." Everyone gathered openly laughed at the expression on Joshi's face.
"Please tell me it can be changed..." he pleaded as he looked at the... thing now in his palm.
"Yes it can, just find a Magic Council branch and theyll do it for ya, now hurry and answer, they probably want to test to make sure it works."
Quickly schooling his expression, Joshi sent a little magic to the thing in his hand and watched as an image of a rune knight - probably a captain based on his clothes - appeared. Poor bastard seemed stressed.
"Is this thing even working?" seeing Joshi's face appear over the lacrima in the desk, he sighed in relief. "The bounty you just turned in escaped! Bastard charmed his way out of here - literally! He should still be in the area. Bring him in and we'll double what you got" and with that the line(?) went dead.
"And here I was hoping to hang out with you guys some more." Joshi said as he sighed.
"We'll help," Natsu said as he tapped his nose, "nothing escapes a dragonslayer's nose." he grinned as finished.
"Aye! I'll search from the air." Happy said as he floated up from the ground.
"And I'll go with you." stated Lucy while giving a thumbs up. A warm and genuine smile spread across Joshi's face at this.
"Thanks guys, let's head to where we met and split up. We'll meet back there in an hour if we don't find anything. And if you do find him, either get the one closest to you or flare your to magic to act as a beacon," seeing them nod he turned to head out of the alley, "now let's go find this - shit!" he shouted as he leapt back to avoid being run over by a magically powered motorcycle.
"You fucking imbecile! You're lucky I dodged!" Lucy stood there blushing as she listened to his rather colourful and creative swearing. It was a few seconds later that the wind carried Bora's scent pass that Natsu caught.
"That was Michael!" he yelled as he pointed down the street frantically waving the hand that was pointing. Upon seeing the flat stares he was receiving he stopped to ask 'what?'
"Who the hell is Michael!?" yelled the already irritated Joshi.
"Ya know, that dude we're supposed to be looking for, Michael." Natsu replied while making it look like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"You mean Bora."
"That's what I said."
"He just passed."
"Yup."
Everyone stood there for a while just staring at each other then uttered as one.
"Fuck."
Happy quickly grabbed Natsu's vest and took off in the direction that Bora went while Khyd was instructed to take Lucy and Joshi took to the roof of the café and the surrounding ones. Some time later they all met where a crowd was gathered and found an abandoned structure that was aflame along with the wreckage of what was the MP motorcycle. Natsu quickly ate the flames and they caught sight of Bora leaving through the rear door of the building.
As they surrounded him, Natsu with his fists ablaze, Lucy with her whip out and Joshi with what appeared to be a sword on fire - no wait, the sword was made of fire - Bora assessed the situation. Seeing that he was screwed either way, he quickly attempted to summon his flames.
The crowd that was dispersing heard some screams of terror - and pain - coming from the back of the previously burning building. Everyone started to sweat as they imagined what was happening. With quick and jerky steps, the area was quickly vacated.
Back to the one sided beat down, Bora was an unrecognisable mess with more bumps and bruises than untouched skin. Joshi quickly sent some magic to the... thing now on his wrist (really need a name for that shit) and called the Magic Council to send some rune knights to pick their escaped bounty. About ten or so minutes later, the rune knights arrive with the necessary payment for recapturing Bora. When all was said and done, everyone was exhausted and wanted nothing more than to head home. Joshi was the one that vocalised everyone's thoughts.
"To Fairy Tail!"
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~see ya