In the dream I had, a new world was awaiting for me. In that show white scenery of my mind, the blurry silhouette of a man stood up before me, only his smile being vivid enough for me to see.

It was as if it was a memory…

In my daze, unknown if it's fantasy or reality, I looked at the man without saying anything, listening only to the faraway sound of the blowing wind. I was contempt with the silence, having a strange feeling of joy and love fill my soul from inside. It was pure and warm but deep into the light, a seed of darkness was planted.

"Akira…" He whispered, his voice resounding like an echo from the depths of my mind and heart. The wind suddenly started blowing violently and sounds of bells accompanied ceaselessly.

"Who…" I asked back in a similar manner, my lips parting to make way to this little and confused word. I could see a grin on his face being formed and a hint of green flashed like lighting from his eyes.

"It's time for you to stop playing pretend with the fairies. I'll be waiting for you, Akira. I know you will find me," he said, letting himself be eaten away by a tornado of darkness, despite me trying to reach out to him. For some reason, I felt despair while seeing him leave my sight and emptiness filled me from inside again.

And then, I had awoken, realizing it was all but a dream…

"Akira…" This sole word was all that came out from my lips, being the sole reminder of my dream. I could no longer remember what I had dreamt about, even though I was aware it must have been important. My heart ached with pain and so, I wondered if I had dreamt an important memory…

"Lucy, are you awake yet?" My roommate, Erza Scarlet, asked as she came out of the bathroom, dressed up in her armor as usual.

I was lying in bed, sweating, maybe due to the hot weather of the summer, or maybe due to my now forgotten treasured dream.

"Is everything alright? Do you not feel well?" She asked further, seeing that I did not give a reply. But I shook my head, aware that I was fine, except the little state of daze I was still finding myself into.

"I'm fine. What about the others? Had they woken up yet?" I asked, throwing the blanket off me. She flashed me a smile, obviously amused.

"Oh, they had woken up. I've made sure of that."

I couldn't help but giggle after hearing that.

"You never change, do you?"

It didn't take me too long afterwards to get ready for the new day of training ahead of us and soon enough, the two of us arrived in the breakfast room where all our comrades were laughing and stuffing themselves with food.

"You're late, Luce, Erza! I couldn't help myself any longer!" Natsu Dragneel, my best friend and teammate shouted instead of a greeting, presenting us with all the food on the table as being his by now.

"Good morning to you too, Natsu," Erza said, amused.

"Gray-sama, please try this dish too!" Juvia exclaimed, trying to force-fed Gray, my other male teammate.

"I think I'm fine by now…" Gray slowly mumbled, hesitating.

"Charla, would you like some more tea?" Wendy, the child of our group asked her exceed, already with a teapot in hand.

"Charla, would you like some fish?" The other exceed asked, already with fish in pawns.

"Hehe, come on, Lu-tan, sit down and eat something!" My female best friend, Levy, said, patting the spot near her for me to sit onto.

"Actually… I think I'll skip breakfast. I am not so hungry anyways," I mumbled as an excuse, giggling nervously, knowing that they would argue.

"What are you saying? A hard day is ahead of us so fuel up, Lucy," Erza said, raising an eyebrow in confusion towards me.

"That's right, Luce! Here, have some bacon! It's delicious!" Natsu exclaimed, offering me his plate of bacon, which made me giggle even more.

"It's fine. I'll just eat more during lunch. I'll head out now!" I said and waving, made my way outside.

It was the Fairy Tail magical training camp, designed especially for us, the members stuck for 7 years on Tenroujima, frozen in time. It was meant for us to properly train in order to win the Grand Magic Games of Fiore, our country. But since it was held in no less than 4 months, we were all leisurely doing different activities, at least in the last few days since we've arrived here, at the beach.

The scenery was superb, with the sapphire blue sea on the right side and with the emerald green forest on the left side. It was the best of both worlds, a perfect paradise.

Following the path to the forest, I decided to explore a little before doing my actual training, which consisted mostly of building up magical strength, since me, as a Celestial Spirits Mage had a great need for magical strength in order to summon spirits.

This morning felt different in every sense. Only the breakfast with my teammates, which I had now skipped, was unchanged. It was lively, as usual, but I felt as if something would be wrong about it, so I decided to skip it altogether. And yet, the forest and the sky were so different than what I had known a day before.

It was as if they were singing a different song and I, suddenly more tuned to them, was now able to differentiate between the changing tunes.

The crickets were singing, the wind was blowing through the branches of the trees, frogs were jumping and singing a song of their own all around the place, the river was slowly flowing, carrying away darkness and even the steps I've made against the earth… They all seemed to harmonise and created a lovely symphony.

And yet, the feelings of emptiness had not disappeared, no matter how much I walked and listened to this song.

I wandered aimlessly, confused and perplexed by these empty feelings. It was as if nothing could help me now. It was as if someone very precious, or something, was missing, but who?

I had not known.

I had only gotten lost, while thinking about this cursed feelings that brought me pain. Never did I notice until now the sky darkening and then, I realized just how late it must have been.

"And I had done not a single thing for my training either…" I sighed, but the realized that I had no idea where I was. Nothing around this place was familiar to me. But then, just how far did I stray off to?

Without any choice, I've taken out a silver key from my belt, deciding to get the help of my spirits. But then, as if to stop me, bells resounded all around me, making my eyes widen in recognition.

Again and again, they resounded, awakening the memory of the dream I've had.

"Akira…" I whispered, remembering the name that man said.

Instantly, as if the air itself caught fire, two balls of light quickly danced around me, making me drop my key on the ground in shock.

"Akira-sama!" The voices of children echoed through the forest, like a chant.

Nobody would be able to understand the shiver that run down my back and the urge to scream which I've somehow surpassed. But I was so frozen in fear that not even my hand was able to reach for my keys and call for help.

I felt as if the darkness that ate that man with the kind smile from my dream was swallowing me too.

And yet, it was not darkness trapping me, but light.

The single black raven feather that fluttered down from the sky stopped in front of me and as if enchanted by it, I extended my hand to touch it.

As soon as my finger touched the feather true darkness surrounded me but I was not afraid. Instead, in the pitch black darkness around me, I saw a revelation and the walls of black shattered, allowing me to see the unseen.

Now, instead of two balls of fire, two children were standing before me. Young girls with silver hair and silver eyes, with white bunny ears and fluffy tail behind them… One had her hair flowing and showed a more serious expression while the other looked more shyly and had pigtails, showing a childish way of expressing herself, but both had the same attire: white kimono with leaves pattern and pure black obi tied with giant ribbons at their back.

"Akira-sama…" The girl with pigtails murmured with teary eyes, as if she was seeing someone dear to her after a long time.

"Akira-sama, do you… Remember us?" The other asked, bearing a more composed but still sad expression, full of worry.

"Who…" I mumbled, shocked by what I could see, finally thinking rationally. Their appearances were so much different than what I had seen until now.

"Then… You don't…" The mature girl said in frustration, biting her lower lip and looking down in despair.

"Please, Akira-sama! You have to remember! Shun-sama and Eiji-sama depend on you!" The pigtailed girl shouted and stepped forward to me, but seemed to stop herself before touching me.

"I'm sorry but… I have no idea who you confuse me with or what are you talking about…" I said with a weak smile and picked my silver key from the ground.

"I cannot believe this… To think that our fates would turn this way… Akira-sama, come to your senses at once! You are a wise Celestial Fox, a Guardian of the Youkai World!" The girl shouted, as if scolding me, or this Akira they kept on calling.

"We are the Will-O-The-Wisps of the Fujin Shrine, the shrine of your master, the deity of the wind, Shun Fujin-sama. Do you really intend to forget about all of these, even if we, Shirin and Anekiri, stand before you!?" Even the pigtailed girl, Shirin, shouted, unable to deal with the frustration.

But these names really clicked something inside of me, something terrible and frightening for me as I was.

I stepped backwards, hesitating.

"What are you talking about… I am only a mage. Lucy Heartfilia, that's my name… Things like Youkai and gods don't exist, anyway, so what could you be talking about? Haha…"

But I wasn't sure. My heart was arguing with my mind and it seemed that I needed only a push to fall down and begin believing their story, even if I tried fighting against the urge to jump myself into this unknown non sense.

"That's wrong…"

"You are not human…"

And the looks they both gave me were even more frightening, for they were full of sympathy.

""You're Akira-sama, the Golden Celestial Fox.""

And with their words, standing somewhere far between the two of them, staring at me with the same fervor, the illusion of a fox was conjured. And it was a beautiful fox with golden fur and red eyes and behind her, framing that gracious creature, seven tails were swaying proudly.

I was speechless and just then noticed that this fox was of no normal dimensions. It was big enough to be rode if wished and as it stood on its four paws, it made graceful moves ahead, towards me. I stepped backwards once, frightened, but the glare it shot me with froze me in the place.

And now, it stood right before me, and after inspecting me for what seemed an eternity, it bowed down and touched my foot with the tip of its wet nose, before disappearing in petals of light.

And I fell on my knees, tears rolling down my cheeks as images of another me came up from the deepest parts of my spirit. It was me, but not me. I saw the Will-O-The-Wisps, a beautiful shrine, my shrine, a lot of people gathering, an era of glory for that person, my contract being sealed by a single kiss, the one true teammate of mine, the summit of gods and everything else stored inside me. All my memories returned to me once more.

"I…" I mumbled, looking full of shame to the ground and seeing how my tears were continuing to fall without chasing.

"Akira-sama… You came back…" Shirin said and finally, she dared to touch me and embrace my neck.

"Shirin… Anekiri… I'm sorry…" I mumbled but I was aware that not even a thousand apologies would make up for this disgrace. I was that weak as to be rendered a human… Just what was my title for!?

"You're really back… At least," Anekiri said, forcing a smile.

I stood up, nodding as I've shed my tears. Only then did I notice that I turned back to the real me, to the one untainted by humanity. My seven tails, my fox ears, my long hair, more beautiful than any fox's, my claws and sharp canines, they all returned back to me, together with the pearl like jewels hanging now at my neck, my Hoshi no Tama.

"I'm really not human," I said, throwing a leaf from the ground up into the hair, awaiting for it to fall on my head until the pajamas I was wearing changed into a beautiful large kimono, enabling me to restore myself at least in appearance. But only I knew just how much despair I was feeling, torn between two different existences…