CHAPTER 1

The Kingdom of Flowers

It was a very hot and sunny morning in the city of Magnolia, the kind of morning that make people dressed in black melt in the streets, just like the four young exorcists that had just arrived in the city's train station. The only one not dressed in black was the Inspector traveling with them, but he couldn't care less for the weather.

"Why is so hot in here…?" Lavi moaned in agony.

"We should head to the inn now, so we all can change into some fresher clothes." Lenalee stated, already walking down the train station. Allen and Link were right behind her, the first too tired to comment anything or even shoo away the golden golem sitting on his head. "You should be happy that we aren't going to stay too long in here, Lavi."

"Yeah… I hope tomorrow this weather gets more reasonable…" he commented. "Or else I will burn in this clothes."

"Don't be so dramatic, Lavi." Allen finally said, Timcanpy had gently started to flap his wings and tail to refresh him.

"Beansprout, I'm ginger, the sun hates ginger people, it tries to fry them alive!" Lavi said catching Allen's hand and putting in his own head. "Do you feel it? My head is on fire, Beansprout!"

"It's Allen! And you know what?" Allen said taking his hand away from the other boy's head. "I used to be ginger before my hair turned white, and the sun is not trying to kill me for this."

The stunned silence that followed that comment was only broken by the sound of Inspector Link scribbling furiously in his notebook. When he finally stopped, and put down his notebook, Lenalee decided to break the ice:

"My brother told me that dark colors tend to absorb more sunlight rays, considering our uniforms, that's probably why we are feeling so hot now…"

"Baby, I'm always hot." Lavi said. "And these uniforms have nothing to do with it."

"Don't make me shut you up." Kanda groaned.

"And how do you plan on doing that, Yuu-chan." Lavi teased.

Kanda instantly grabbed the hilt of his sword and advanced on Lavi who hid behind Allen, giggling, to avoid a slow and painful death.

"Move, Beansprout!"

"Don't know who you are talking to, BaKanda, sorry." Allen said smirking.

"Do you want to die too?"

"Oh, my bad." Allen started. "I forgot you don't have enough brain cells to actually remember someone's name. Were you talking to me?"

"Listen here you…"

"Boys, please…" Lenalee interrupted, sighing and rolling her eyes. "Let's just go, ok? If we stay in the sun for more time we will end up with sunburns."

"Walker, you, especially, should listen to Miss Lee." Link reprimanded.

"Okay, mom." Allen and Lavi said.

Kanda gave one last glare to both before proceeding to walk alone ahead of the group.

"Were you really ginger, Beansprout?" Lavi whispered to Allen after some seconds

"It's Allen!" Allen whispered back. "And yes, I was."

Later that day, when the five of them had already arrived at the inn and had all taken a nice bath and changed their clothes, they reunited in the room they were going to share to discuss the mission and make plans to the days that would follow. Lavi was sprawled on the bottom of one of the two bunk beds in the room, with Lenalee and Allen seated together on the top beds, their legs swinging in the air distracting Timcanpy, while Allen tried teaching her some card tricks. Link was seated on an armchair by the side and Kanda had opted to stay standing near the only window in the room. There was no need for a bed for Link in the moment, so they just left the spare mattress leaned on one of the walls.

"So… Apparently, we are supposed to investigate under cover." Lavi started. "The Finders weren't able to get much information by themselves in this case. The people of this kingdom are very used to magic, so it was especially hard for the Finders to separate common magic occurrences from Innocence influence."

"And the undercover part…?" Allen asked confused.

"Oh, this kingdom and the Vatican do not have the best of the relationships, so is better for us to not attract much attention for ourselves." Lenalee stated. "We are supposed to pass for common mages from a foreign guild."

"This time we are not looking for a specific Innocence, but more concrete information about their presence in Fiore, so we will need to ask permission to a local guild to search their archives and collect information about possible Innocence related occurrences in this kingdom. It will be far easier than ask the villages." Lavi added. "Proper mages will have better information, since they study and use magic as a common base, they will know when something is abnormal, hence Innocence."

"This, of course, doesn't mean we can ignore akuma that may appear along the way." Link remembered. "Exorcists don't come to Fiore very often, so we also have a side mission to clean the border cities of any akuma living there."

"I guess we will need to slip into groups then..." Allen commented. "With my eye, it will be easier to go hunting akuma in the cities, Lavi and Lenalee are better fitted to collect information, and Kanda…"

"What?"

"It would be best if you go alone to other cities to hunt akuma too." Lenalee complemented. "This way, you and Allen will be able to cover a larger area and in less time."

"If we finish this fast, it's ok for me." Kanda informed her. "Being away from the Rabbit and the Beansprout is just a benefit."

"My name is Allen."

"Love you too, Yuu." Lavi said sarcastically.

"Now that everything is settled, we have the rest of the day to go sightseeing!" Lenalee suggested excitedly.

"I saw a bookstore near here so I'm going there to get some maps for us and search more about the local mage guilds." Lavi said, getting up from his bed and heading to the door with his coat in hands. "Besides, I have some work Bookman passed me to finish…"

"I'll grab something to eat… I'm starving!" Allen said, or jumping out of the upper bunk bed and joining Link, who was already standing by the door. "I saw a nice cakeshop down the street, if you guys need me, I will be there."

"I'll go with you, I'm hungry too." Lenalee said. "Kanda?"
"Patrolling."

With this, the group split up and parted to explore the city of Magnolia, each in their own ways.

Lavi found a good bookstore quickly.

The place wasn't one of the best he had seen as a Bookman, it didn't even get near the amazing libraries he had visited before, but it would serve his purposes just fine for the time being. He hadn't been kidding about the hot weather and he really didn't want to spend more time than strictly necessary in the sun, and just being able to accomplish that already made him feel satisfied. Besides, there was a cute blue-haired girl searching through the history books in the same aisle as he, so things were actually looking up for him.

He could ask for informations from the owner, who was comfortably sitting in the counter reading a large book, but the girl was right there, and he thought this was the perfect opportunity to approach her without sounding dumb or weird. He noticed she was reading a book in german, and rapidly though of an excuse to talk to her.

"[Excuse me…]" He said in his best german.

The girl, who was really engrossed in her book, looked startled for a second before realizing who had talked to her.

"[Uh, I'm kind of new in the country and was having some difficulties in looking for some good maps here…]" He proceeds. "[ I saw you reading this book and thought that maybe you could help me. I'm very lost here and my friend who knows english ditched me for some cakes…]"

"[Oh, I'm sorry for that. But I guess I can actually help.]" She wasn't as good as he, but good nonetheless. "[ You said you needed some maps, right?]"

"[Yes, thank you!]" Lavi said. "[ You don't know the help you are giving me!]"

"[Here, come with me.]"

Suddenly, this city didn't look so bad to him anymore.

Not even an hour had passed, and Kanda had already decided that he hated Magnolia. The city just didn't click with him. It was unnecessary hot, and his long Exorcist coat was only making it worse. He was seriously regretting not having left it in the inn like the Beansprout and Lenalee, who were probably stuffing themselves with cakes right now. Not that he liked cake, he hated sweet thing as much as he hated the Beansprout, but the two of them probably weren't walking in the sun right now.

One of the things that bothered him the most in the city was the fact that besides the hellish weather, the people here seemed weirder than he was used to. From weird hair colors to strange and inappropriate clothes, like the woman wearing blue winter clothes following a naked(?) guy. And a woman with a hair as white as snow, just like the Beansprout. Anything even remotely associated with that guy was disgusting for him.

He would not even mention the flying cats. That was… Too much for him. Honestly speaking, Kanda just wanted to get out of this weird country as fast as possible. Speaking about weird things, just then entering the city, he saw a woman with scarlet hair pushing a large hand wagon with the biggest amount of luggage he had ever seen.

He didn't even get impressed this time.

No wonder the Vatican didn't keep a good relationship with that country. They didn't like things out of the "normal". Exorcists were only approved because they were a necessity, but the weird things he saw in this first day here... Thinking liking this, being hated by the Vatican was a very good attribute for Kanda.

Erza Scarlet looked at her money bag and couldn't help the grin that emerged on her face. What was a seven years old debt of 4.200.000 Jewels for a S Class Mage like her? In less than a week she had already earned more than enough to cover that and live comfortably for at least a month. She wasn't called The Fairies' Queen for nothing.

Pulling her usual large amount of luggage, she headed back to Fairy Hills, back to her 5-in-1 apartment. Now that she had a good amount of money, it was time to buy her strawberry cake, the best kind of food ever created.

How could she have lived seven years without a slice of a sweet and perfect strawberry cake? She asked herself.

After half an hour, she was back on the streets, happily walking towards the city's best cake shop, dreaming about that sweet and wonderful taste and almost drooling in anticipation.

As soon as she opened the door, a wave of nostalgia washed over her. Seven years had passed, and the cake shop had changed with time. Not only it had expanded a little, but it had also more kinds of cake in the showcase. But the only one that mattered, the strawberry one, wasn't there, weirdly. There were also booths by the both sides of the shop and some of them were occupied by happy people eating all kinds of cake and enjoying the chilly temperature that mystically enveloped the shop.

When the shopkeeper, who now had gray hairs in his head, noticed her walking in, his eyes went wide with shock and a big smile appeared on his face. He rapidly passed a big slice of chocolate cake to a blonde man and gave his full attention to her.

"Miss Erza!" He happily exclaimed. She had always been one of his best clients after all. "You... You are really back! I heard people talking in the streets, but-"

"Yeah, we're all back for good." She smiled. "You know why I'm here, don't you?!"

"After all this years, I would never forget." He said.

"Great! I want your best strawberry cake, just like old times."

The man got back to the showcase and went for an empty space between the cakes. Surprise sparkled on his eyes, and then horror covered his face. Erza didn't want to think on what that would mean.

"Oh… Miss Erza, I'm afraid to say that..." The man started, fear had begun to grow in his eyes. "But I'm out of Fantasia Cakes for now. I forgot I sold the last slice just before you entered. And I won't have one until the end of the week, since the city market is out of strawberries."

The smile vanished from Erza's lips in an instant and her face suddenly went dark. She took a deep breath trying to calm herself and leaned on the showcase, her hands gripping the edges of it.

"What did you say?" She said in a low and steady tone.

The poor man squirmed behind the counter, curling into a ball on the ground.

"I-I'm sorry." He squeaked. "I thought you wouldn't come back today!"

"You have known me for years now. I'm the woman who once ordered 49 cakes just for myself, and yet, you dare say to me that you sell the last strawberry cake knowing I was coming back from a mission…" She stated dangerously "Who did you sell it for, you fool man!?"

"T-to the ones o-on that booth o-over there." He pointed to a booth occupied by three people, being one the blonde man from before. "T-the blonde man… h-he buyed tons and tons of my ca-cakes and lots of the other sweets too! The kids with him wanted to try them all…"

She looked in the direction the man pointed and saw a girl with pitch black hair and a boy with silver hair, their table filled with several different slices of cakes. The blonde man the shopkeeper had mentioned, was adding more sweets to their already giant pile of pastries, before sitting down next to the boy. And then, she saw the last slice of her precious strawberry cake one on one their plates in front of the boy.

She didn't think twice before fully turning around, ready to kill:

"Kansou. Heaven's Wheel Armor." Erza chanted with a dark aura emerging from her.

Her clothes changed from white blouse, blue skirt and black boots to an armor that consisted on a top and a pair of boots made of steel, a skirt made of white fabric and more steel and wings with shining feather-shaped blades. She walked toward their targets with two swords in hand and a hundred more floating on a circle in the air.

She saw people flinching and hiding under their tables, squeaking like terrified squirrels, but ignored all of them to focus on those three fucking bastards.

"HEY!" She called them.

The blonde man was the first to look, frowning at her and her 102 swords. Then the kids looked, with shining innocence-filled eyes and forks inside their mouths, tilting their heads slightly. Her swords quickly disappeared and her normal clothes come back and she couldn't do anything for some seconds besides stare at the three.

"Huh… Do you need something… Lady?" The blonde man asked, still frowning.

She opened her mouth to say something, but couldn't find the words. The kids… Why… WHY WERE THEY SO CUTE?!

By the time Lavi finally was satisfied with his purchases, night was already falling in the city and the evening heat was almost completely gone. The girl - who he discovered was called Levy - had already found at least five good maps, being two of them in german for him. He could have found them all alone, but he would never refuse a pretty girl help. Sadly, he was so distracted talking to her while exiting the store, that he walked right into a guy that was passing, dropping all these things in the ground in the process.

"[I'm sorry!]" Lavi said, remembering he shouldn't know english. "[My fault]"

"Can't you look where are you going, dumbass?" Asked a very familiar and irritated voice.

"Don't be rude!" Levy interfered. "He said he was sorry"

"I know what he said!" Kanda retorted. "I was just reaffirming his normal stupidness."

Well, Lav thought, this isn't going to end well.

"Oh, you must be the friend that was traveling with him." Levy said. "You shouldn't leave him alone in the city with no knowledge of english."

"What?"

At least I had fun, Lavi though, it was a very pleasant evening.

"You leave your german friend alone in the city, to fend for himself." Levy explained to Kanda "You should never leave your friends alone in places where they can't even speak the local language. It's rule number one of traveling!"

The few seconds of silence that followed made Lavi pray that Levy wasn't a violent person. He just braced all his papers and prepared to run, while a devilish smirk started to appear on Kanda's face. And then:

"Did he say he was german or french this time?"

"What?" Poor girl, he was starting to feel really bad now.

"First: He isn't my friend." Kanda stated. "Second: he speaks english perfectly well for a retard."

"Wait, what?" She was getting angry. "You lied to me the whole evening?"

"I'm sorry..." Lavi said dejected. "I just really wanted to talk to you…"

"Oh! Now you know english!?" She was starting to turn red from anger "Look, I don't lie to people, It's not cool, ok."

"I'm sorry." Lavi said again with a sheepish smile. "Not doing again."

"I don't- why- I can't believe it…" She muttered.

Without saying more, Levy just turned and walked away from them. Kanda seeming very pleased with himself.

"I guess now we just head back to the inn…"

"Serves you right, stupid rabbit."

"Vengeful, aren't you, Yuu-chan." Lavi said cheerfully, already leaving the girl rejection behind.

"Just… shut up." Kanda said walking ahead. "Next time you stumble on me I will flail you alive."

"Eh…"