Chapter 2: Adjustments
(A/N: Now then, where were we?
If you are familiar with Fullmetal Alchemist, then the scenery won't be so hard to imagine for you. So with that, sit back and enjoy.)
I do not own Bleach or Fairy Tail. HAS YET TO BE BETA-READ.
A dream…
Or maybe . . . it was reality. He wasn't sure.
A tower… Blue crystals… A flaming dragon… Scarlet hair…
A woman, held close to him in a warm embrace.
Why?
Why did he feel comforted when he was close to her? Who was she? What was her role in all of this; why was she here?
Who was he?
"Wake up."
He did. The first thought to enter his mind was, I hurt Erza…
The first words to escape his lips were, "Where am I?"
The roof above him was made entirely of bricks. Very old bricks, he noted. The damp smell in the room filled his nostrils. If the sight of bricks didn't convince him he was in an old building, the smell would've. And this lighting… It looked like it was sunset outside, seeing as how the light in the room was a certain tint of orange.
His body felt sore. That dragon slayer really could hit hard. His stomach and his left cheek in particular hurt like hell. He was probably going to stay bruised for a few days…
He noticed now that he was lying on some sort of mattress. This was strange, because old buildings didn't have functional and clean mattresses. Unless someone living here decided to renovate…
He sat up. Directly in front of him and the bed was a large pot, with a fern inside it. He scanned the room until his eyes settled on the figure sitting on a stool in the middle of the setting sunlight, which came from a large glassless window in the middle of the wall behind him. The strange presence reminded him of the grim reaper, what with the hooded cloak coloured a charcoal black and covered their entire body. "Who are you?" he asked, cautious.
"I'll tell you later," the grim reaper look-a-like replied, its voice distorted and jumbled; he couldn't tell if it was male or female. "How are you feeling? Do you still remember who you are?"
Doing a quick mental evaluation of himself, he said, "My name is Jellal. And I don't feel very different. Except . . ."
"Hmm?"
". . . I feel like I wasn't in control of everything I did for the last eight years. Like someone manipulated my actions from behind the scene." He whispered to himself, "Someone I know must've done this to me…"
"I wouldn't know," said the cloaked figure. "I took you with me not knowing what your background was prior to the crystal tower's destruction."
Crystal tower…? "You mean . . . the Tower of Heaven . . . is gone?"
"If that's what you call that blue tower in the middle of the ocean, then yes. The Tower of Heaven exploded."
His voice escaped him. He was too shocked to say anything. How could he?
"Listen to me, Jellal: The tower's explosion was actually necessary."
Necessary? But what about…
"…What about Erza?"
"Who?"
Oh, right. This person mightn't have known about who else was in the tower.
"Are you perhaps referring to that scarlet-haired woman with that boy?"
Never mind. It looked like this person already knew, somehow.
"Yes… her."
"As far as I can tell, the both of them are fine."
Interesting... "How can you tell?"
"I'll tell you another time."
He sighed. How many secrets was this person going to keep from him? Oh well… it wasn't like it mattered. "So where am I?" He never did get an answer earlier.
"You're in Bosco."
Well that was unexpected. "You're kidding…"
"I am not."
"…Why?"
"It's a plan. To kill two birds with one stone."
"What did you have in mind exactly?"
The figure said, "Bosco is currently dealing with a certain . . . crisis."
"Crisis?"
"Someone is altering the memories of the people in the country, making them forget everything they know about magic and the world around them."
Jellal almost couldn't comprehend that last statement. How was it even remotely possible for someone (or something) to alter the memories of everyone in an entire country? As far as he knew, no spell could be that powerful. Not unless the wizard was as strong as Zeref, maybe, but it still would've required a lot of power. At least, that was the reasonable assumption.
Or perhaps . . . what's causing this isn't from our world, he deduced. But was it true? He had to ask to find out. "This situation isn't something Earthland is capable of producing on its own, is it? This phenomenon is from another world."
The only other world he knew of was Edolas, although that was a little hard to prove existed, let alone cause a catastrophe as big as this. Sure, the evidence was there, but no-one had reported actually going to Edolas and coming back to tell of what happened and what it was like. No-one even knew how to get there in the first place.
As far as Jellal Fernandes knew, anyway.
"You're very perceptive," the 'grim reaper' complimented. "I made the right choice to bring you along after all."
"What do you mean by 'the right choice'?"
"I chose to take you away from the Tower of Heaven not just because I felt it was necessary to keep you alive." It folded its arms over its chest. "I chose you . . . so that you can become my apprentice."
Last night, at the hotel…
"What the hell…?"
That was all he could say before the Hollow opened its large mouth–
"Ice Make: Hammer!"
Gray…?
In one instant, the Hollow was smashed by a giant hammer of ice, the creature now flying through the air and over to the other end of the hall.
"Natsu, are you alright?!"
"Uh…" He was sort of in a daze right now. He couldn't believe he was almost killed right then and there.
Well, at least the ice pick saved me, I guess…
"Lucy, go over there and take Natsu outta here! I'm gonna handle the punk who broke in here!"
"Wait, Gray!"
But he ignored Lucy. He ran past Natsu and down to the end of the hall.
Damn… Looks like he's gonna take the spotlight this time…
"Natsu, are you still alive?"
He turned his head left and saw Lucy crouching down by him.
"Come on, let's go. We got to find Erza and the others."
"Lucy's right," said Happy, flying over to them. "We don't know if everyone else is okay or not."
They had a point. After all, he was almost caught completely off-guard by that Hollow just now. Erza and the others might not have been as lucky as he was.
…But still, what was that just before the attack? What was that sensation he felt? He could never sense when something was coming after him as extensively as just then, if at all. So how did he do that?
Did it have to do with this 'soul reaper' business?
"Natsu, we have to go, now," urged Lucy.
Right. He forgot for a moment there. "Sorry." He slowly got up to his feet. "Let's go."
"Ice Make: Lance!"
The attack pierced into the strange creature, sending it through the wall and out into the open. Strangely, it regained its balance and stood on the air. Gray hadn't seen anything like that before.
"Well that's a pretty neat trick you got there," he said, walking toward his target casually. "Mind telling me your secret; or would you rather get hurt instead?"
The thing shrieked, and Gray finally took his time to take a look at what he was dealing with.
Its body was lacking so much muscle that Gray could see its humanoid bones. Its skin was purple, its hands were large claws, and the mask was bigger than its torso; a white shark's head was what the mask looked like to Gray. But the strangest thing about it was the hole in its chest. What was the meaning of it?
Whatever. I'll worry about it later.
"Okay then…" After stripping off his shirt, he smacked the side of his left fist into his right palm and pulled back. "You're gonna pay for trying to kill Natsu earlier! I'll see to it myself!"
It charged at him, shrieking.
"Ice Make: Hammer!" When it neared, Gray swung his mighty hammer into the skinny creature, and it ended up slamming into the wall to Gray's left. "Well? You gonna try hit me or what?" he taunted.
Suddenly, a pressure swept across Gray, catching him off-guard and forcing him to bend his knees and release the ice hammer. The next thing he knew, the purple creature charged a blue ball of light in its mouth, directly facing him.
Ah crap! "Ice Make: Shie–"
The attack blasted through several hotel rooms.
Jellal was laughing in the sunset. He couldn't help it. Was he just asked to be someone's apprentice? More specifically, an apprentice to someone he didn't know? Now that was just hilarious.
"What's so funny?"
Settling down before talking, he answered, "You wanting me to be your apprentice is what's funny. Honestly, do you have any idea what you're asking of me – of who you're asking?"
"Let me guess: You were the one who built the Tower of Heaven, weren't you?"
He didn't say anything.
"Deep down you're probably telling yourself that you're a horrible human being; you think that no-one can trust you anymore because of all the atrocious acts you committed, and because of all of the friends you betrayed. Tell me: Do you seek redemption?"
This person was a little too smart for its own good. "How do you know this?"
"Answer my question."
What was this person's deal? He still didn't understand why he was chosen to be this stranger's apprentice. What grounds did this person have to make him give his full cooperation and consent?
He had a feeling he was going to get his answer after asking, "Why should I trust you?"
He wasn't expecting the person to stand up and take off the hood.
He was stunned; shocked. "You're a . . . !"
Gray found out that his opponent was a bit tougher than he thought.
Gray had been fighting this purple son-of-a-bitch for about ten minutes now. To be honest, it was kind of bugging him. A lot.
But what else could he do? This punk was a lot tougher than he thought for something so goddamn skinny and with a head that was bigger than even his own torso. He had got it in a few good spots; its right arm was completely broken, its ribs were pretty much destroyed, and its legs were so badly beaten up that it was a miracle it could still walk, let alone jump around like it had too much coffee.
And yet, despite all of these injuries, how was it still moving?
He was sort of tired as well. Sure, he was still able to fight for maybe another fifteen minutes, but longer than that? Forget it.
What should he do now? How was he going to beat this thing?
"Aim for its head, Gray!"
"Natsu?" He glanced around to see where Natsu was. Now that he was in a completely different room – the main lobby by the looks of it – he wasn't sure where Natsu's voice was amongst the dust surrounding the upper floor.
But he did find him eventually. He was standing by the staircase with Lucy and Happy. It looked like Erza still wasn't with them.
He shouted, after dodging another blue beam of light from the annoying shark-face, "Where's Erza?!"
"She's with Juvia!" Lucy answered while Gray made another ice shield, blocking Shark-Face's claw.
"Is she alright?!"
"She's fine, but never mind that! Gray, you gotta smash that Hollow's mask open!" shouted Natsu.
So that's what this thing's called… Hollow, huh? "I'm listening!"
"Once you smash that mask open, that Hollow will disappear for good! Use your best attack or somethin' to smash it to pieces!"
Well, it isn't like I can't do that. But I've been avoiding that option on purpose. "Why would I do that?! Ain't this thing alive?!" he replied, sending ice lances toward the Hollow.
"Why should that matter?! This thing isn't from Earthland! Just do it Gray!"
"I'm not gonna kill something now just because it's not from Earthland! I'll need a better reason than that!" He did a forward roll, barely avoiding the Hollow's claw as it broke through the tiles.
"But haven't you noticed something strange about it?! It doesn't feel alive, does it?!"
Now that I think about it… Instead of wasting his magic, Gray decked the Hollow in the face when it got close to him, making it reel back from the blow. His hand started to hurt like a bitch. That bastard's head was harder than a rock. He shook his hand a little. …he's right. This guy's presence . . . feels like it's from another world entirely.
He moved his upper body left, moved it right, doing anything he could to avoid getting hit by those claws. Is this guy . . . dead? He jumped back. But that's not possible; dead people don't come back to life just like that. Unless this has something to do with it not coming from here…
Did he have a choice in the matter? Probably not anymore. Not unless he wanted this thing to run around freely and probably kill innocent people.
It was for this reason that Gray got close, made a blade of ice on his elbow, and stabbed it in the middle of the Hollow's mask.
"Probably gonna get some bad karma for that one…" Not that he ever really believed in that stuff, but things like karma always seemed to come back and bite you on the arse during certain situations, like it was trying to prove its existence.
The Hollow became a shower of light, gone. Gray's magic disappeared as well, seeing as how he wasn't going to use it again anytime soon.
Natsu, Lucy and Happy climbed down the stairs from the upper floor down to Gray's level. "You okay, Gray?" Lucy asked.
"Yeah… I'm fine." Was he? He didn't feel comfortable with the idea of killing something, even if it wasn't from their world. But there was nothing he could do about it now. He had to live with it. "Let's gather all our stuff and get out of here. I'm getting the feeling that we should go to Bosco right now."
"Bosco? What for?"
"Because that's where my body is," said Natsu, more fired up than ever. "Let's do this."
"Natsu, Gray, Lucy, Happy!"
The four of them looked up. It was Erza, along with Juvia. But where was everyone else?
"Where're your friends, Erza?" Gray asked.
"They left already," she said as she and Juvia walked down the stairs. "I already explained the situation to them."
"How did they take it?"
"…It was hard at first, but they understood it after it settled in." By this time she was already up to the group.
"So now what are we going to do?" Juvia asked everyone.
"We're going to Bosco," answered Natsu. "We have to get my body back."
"Your body back…?"
Gray said, "We'll explain later. Right now we need to get our things and leave Fiore as soon as possible."
"Gray's right," said Erza. "There are a few things we need to ask the person with the hood."
"Uh…"
"Yeah, I'm gonna teach that cloaked sucker a lesson for stealing my body!"
"I have no idea what you're saying…" Thud.
"Hey um, guys…"
Natsu, Gray and Erza turned to Lucy.
"Juvia's not looking too good."
When they turned to look at her, Juvia was collapsed on the ground, eyes like spirals.
"You reckon she had trouble understanding us?" Gray asked.
"More like she couldn't comprehend how Natsu's body is missing when he's standing right here," Erza replied.
"Yeah that would be confusing," Happy said.
"Are we going to help her or not!?" Lucy exclaimed. Sometimes she didn't understand how these guys worked.
Gray's words became reality two days later. Natsu, Gray, Erza, Lucy, Happy and Juvia all recuperated as best as they could and headed off to Bosco, with enough food to hopefully last them the trip. It would take the group a while to get there, but they didn't mind as long as their goal was clear. They were going to get Natsu's body back.
And maybe, just maybe, they would get some answers to the questions they had about all of this madness.
Hundreds, nearly thousands, of people filled the streets in one of the many cities in Bosco, going about their daily lives as if the world had no problems outside its own boundaries. People were chatting, laughing, walking, window-shopping, partying, mingling, kissing, hugging, laughing again, talking about magic and what they were able to do, maybe even challenge some guilds in Fiore…
But that all changed a while ago now; that was the recent past. Unbeknownst to them all, a strange other-worldly phenomenon happened. A tear – black, void, unable to be seen through – opened up a fraction of the sky above. But only a fraction – what was coming out wasn't going to need a whole lot of room to exit through.
It was by this point that a little purple creature with a red sickle for a tail and a white mask appeared through the tear in the vast blue sky. It looked like an exotic snake. But anyone with half a brain would be able to tell that it wasn't an ordinary snake.
It flew down towards the city streets, and one by one, it slashed its sickle across the throats of anyone who came near it. Hardly anyone was able to see it, since only a small amount of wizards were in the vicinity. Anyone without magic power would be unable to see this creature.
But the strangest thing about this event was that instead of slitting everyone's throats like a normal blade would do, the sickle went right through them in a purplish-black, haze-like streak. And even stranger still, everyone who was 'attacked' by this thing had no memories whatsoever of the world outside of their own city's borders. And what was probably the worst-case scenario: no-one remembered anything about magic, including the wizards.
Their memories just disappeared, one by one.
By the time a certain hooded figure arrived on one of its casual strolls around the continent, investigating the world and seeing what had changed from long ago, everyone in the entire city had forgotten that there was a world out there to investigate at all. This person knew exactly what had caused this. However, the hard part was finding the source in a big city like this one.
Perhaps if this hooded person went to another country where a powerful wizard resided, then it should be possible to recruit an apprentice of some sort. After all, this wasn't something the hooded figure could handle alone. The reason? Further investigation of this city showed that there was a whole lot more behind everyone's behaviour than just the Hollow wiping their memories.
But besides that, the bigger picture of obtaining an apprentice was much more important than this. Sure, it would be a big help to have two people looking for something – sure does beat one person – but there was a whole lot more to it than that. But that could wait.
Perhaps Fiore would be a good idea, this mysterious person thought. With this in mind, it moved to set up a sort of camp. The old clock tower was ideal, since it was the highest point in the city and no-one really used it anymore. But first, supplies were needed.
It took them a while, but Natsu and his crew finally reached Bosco after a week of virtually non-stop walking. Just about everyone had something to complain about along the way. Lucy complained about her sore feet, Gray complained about it being too hot (and as a result, stripped a lot), Juvia complained, to herself, that Gray wasn't paying enough attention to her, and Happy complained about how hungry he was, and how he wanted food, and that everyone was ignoring him, where was his food. Everyone had to keep telling the cat that they ate all the food they could afford to buy before leaving Fiore, and that he would have to just deal with it.
The only ones who didn't complain were Erza and Natsu.
Erza didn't complain because . . . well, it was Erza. When did she complain about the same things everyone else did? Natsu, however…
Natsu was a strange case. He didn't complain about anything – on the contrary, he felt pretty good. His muscles were loose; he could see clearly; he wasn't hungry, despite having to give half of his food to Happy the other day just to stop his complaining (which, in the long run, didn't help for very long). Unbeknownst to everyone in the group, including the dragon slayer himself, Natsu was currently living off his new found spirit energy, which was keeping him functional for the time being. The longer he went without food, the weaker he would get, yes, but the benefit was that everything else he did that didn't involve fighting were taken care of because of the borrowed power of a soul reaper lieutenant: hunger, fatigue, etcetera.
If he didn't eat something soon, however, things weren't going to be looking good for him.
Lucy was about to ask Natsu about this very thing – why wasn't he complaining about anything – before Erza spoke for the first time in a few hours.
"We've arrived."
Everyone in the group looked straight ahead.
What they saw was a large crowd of people walking through the streets, strolling by rather modern-looking buildings – modern by Fiore's standards. The buildings went up high into the air, and in the distance was an old-fashioned clock tower. It looked like it hadn't been used in years.
There were a lot of shops, all of which were different and unique in some way. There was one called John's King Rat Café. There was a clothes shop with an ad on the window saying, Sephiroth's Home-Brand Clothing Warehouse: Buy the best clothing in all of Bosco for cheap prices! A third shop, the Fairy Tail wizards (and Juvia) saw, was Vince's Shinki – the meaning of it was completely lost on them, but it was a bookstore.
But what they didn't find was a magic shop.
And that called for suspicion on their part.
Erza brought it up first while they all trekked along the sidewalk. "Something's not right here. I haven't seen a magic shop yet. Usually there's at least one these days in every city."
"Maybe Bosco doesn't have any magic shops at all," Gray suggested, wearing no shirt (again). "This isn't Fiore."
Erza countered, "But wizards from Fiore and every other country sometimes come to Bosco because of their thriving wizardry culture."
"Well maybe we're in the wrong city for that kind of stuff."
Lucy asked, "But why this city in particular? Shouldn't every city have at least one magic shop these days?"
Happy was whining. "Can we eat something yet? I'm straving…"
While the rest of the group discussed things, Natsu saw a scuffle going underway on the other side of the road. "Hey, everyone," he said while pointing, "look over there."
They stopped and looked. It looked like it was four guys against one. No-one else in the street even batted an eye for some reason.
They could hear the outnumbered guy crying while he pleaded on his knees, "Please, let me go! I swear I didn't know what happened to me!"
"Silence you heretic!"
They kicked him in the jaw, and he collapsed, writhing in pain.
The guy who kicked him kept going. "If you're seen using that witchcraft in public, you're gonna have to get beaten until you're unconscious or you're dead! That's the law here, buddy. None of that creepy voodoo crap or whatever you do, ya got that!?" He kicked the injured man in the stomach. And then he kicked him again. And again. And again…
"What's going on?" Lucy asked, appalled by this public display of violence.
Erza was able to catch onto something the man said. "He mentioned 'witchcraft'. Do you think he's talking about magic? Natsu, what do you think–" But when she turned to ask him the question, Natsu was already over at the group of thugs. "Natsu, come back!"
But he ignored her. He placed a hand on the shoulder of the thug who was assaulting the 'heretic'. "Hey, you."
The thug turned his head. "What–"
Natsu decked him with a solid right hook to the face, sending him spiralling into the ground. Immediately, he noticed that something felt . . . different. When he punched that guy just now, there seemed to be a bit more force behind it than he intended. Sure, he intended to hit pretty hard, but not too hard. Where did this sudden increase in strength come from?
"Hey, what the hell do you think you're doing, you bastard!?" One of the guys pulled out a knife and charged. "You're going down!"
A knife? Seriously? Like that was going to hurt him. He didn't even need to use his sword for this.
Natsu dodged left, grabbed the arm with the knife, and threw him up and over, making him do a front-flip before smacking his back against the ground. The other two punks who were still standing charged at him, pulling their fists back, thinking what they were about to do was going to do some damage.
People started to notice the quarrel going on, mostly because someone was breaking the law: Don't help heretics.
But Natsu could give two shits about that if he knew of it. If someone was being assaulted and outnumbered, he wasn't going to just stand by and twiddle his thumbs doing nothing.
The two guys advanced, but when they threw their punches, aiming for his head, Natsu caught their fists in his palms and gripped them tightly. Tighter than usual, too. And he didn't know if he was imagining this, but . . . were his hands glowing . . . blue? He thought he saw a light glow in between his fingers. What was it?
Never mind that now. He had two fists in his hands, and it was about time he sent them on their merry way. He glared at them. "Get lost, or else I'll fling you across the street."
He let their hands go, and they went scurrying off as fast as possible. One of them tripped along the way, but he got up and kept running for his life.
Natsu stared at his hands. What was going on with him? Was it his new powers or something? But how did that work? This didn't make any sense to him…
The others jogged over to Natsu. Everyone was still staring.
"Natsu, what the hell were you thinking!?" Erza whacked him over the head when she emphasised the last word. Ouch…
He held his head, groaning in pain. "What was that for?" he mumbled.
"Have you ever considered that if someone was being assaulted on the street, someone would've stopped it before you did?"
Good point actually. But then, why? "Why wasn't someone helping him then?" Natsu asked, looking up, still holding his sore head. Erza's strike was probably going to leave a bruise at this point.
When he said that, everyone stopped looking, and walked along as if nothing had happened, like they were trying their best to forget what they saw.
Erza took note of this strange behaviour. Something was definitely not right with this place. As far as she knew, everyone in Bosco was well aware that other countries had wizards. Hell, Bosco had its own wizards, born and raised here. But when did they start to ridicule them and call them heretics? And more importantly, why were they doing it in the first place?
She never had time to ponder this, because someone the Fairy Tail wizards and Juvia never expected to see for a while approached them.
The male that walked up to them had extremely long, scraggy black hair, with iron bolts in his nose, eyebrows, chin and ears. His irises were red, and unbelievably, he had a guild mark on his left shoulder that looked exactly like Fairy Tail's, opposite of Natsu's. It was black.
Natsu was both shocked and angry at this sight. But when the name of the wizard in front of him escaped his lips, it sounded like he was merely surprised.
"Gajeel…"
The iron dragon slayer grinned. "Gee-hee…"
Unacceptable. Unbelievable. Unfathomable. Unforgivable.
How dare that soul reaper go around and talk nonsense about her captain; how dare that arrogant person talk so informally of Captain Aizen? How dare that–
Stop.
Momo was getting too worked up over this. It was possible that that person was doing this on purpose; trying to provoke her into doing something, or revealing something about the Thirteen Court Guard Squads. Ha, well that failed, didn't it?
But then why did Momo get the feeling that she was hearing the truth earlier? The argument she had was about two hours ago now, soon after she found out who was under the hood and then taken to a city in Bosco. And she couldn't help but feel that maybe – just maybe – her captain wasn't the man she thought he was. But where was the proof?
Captain Aizen was one of the kindest people in the Soul Society Momo knew of. He was loyal, friendly, highly intelligent, and an overall gentleman. How could he be plotting against the Soul Society on such a large scale (according to what she heard not too long ago), or possibly plot anything that involved overthrowing the Soul King? Even she knew overthrowing the Soul King was impossible, and she was certain Captain Aizen knew that as well. How could her captain possibly be so evil? No! She wouldn't stand for it! So she left the clock tower, full of frustration.
But she was starting to regret doing that.
It was dark in the streets of Bosco. It was cold, and Momo felt more threatened now than she ever had in all her years as a soul reaper. Her powers were just about non-existent, and the boy who received her powers was lacking a body and was back in Fiore, probably dead or recovering from the injuries he sustained during the fight she and he had against that Hollow. How could she defend herself against random wizards? She couldn't use Kido, and she couldn't draw Tobiume out for support, and she certainly couldn't escape danger using Flash Step. All she had was her training in close-combat and self-defence. What was going to happen to her?
What was her captain going to think?
Oh, that thought scared her to the core of her being. Not once had she failed to do as he asked, whether it was an order or a favour. What made this worse was that it was the first mission her captain had asked her to go on where she went to a world aside from the World of the Living, or Hueco Mundo. She could be demoted for this, or discharged, or even–
Stop.
Worrying wasn't going to do her any favours. She had to think about the future ahead of her. She needed to somehow survive in this new world by herself, and wait until the Soul Society sent someone over to retrieve her. Yes, that was the best course of action. But where was she going to start? Taking up residence was out of the question, because she looked too suspicious – not to mention over half the people here wouldn't be able to see her anyway, if any at all could. Living on the streets was more ridiculous than the first option she came up with.
The more Momo thought about her next course of action, the closer she came to the conclusion that sticking with the blue-haired man and the hooded soul reaper was the safest option. What else could she do? She honestly could not think of anything else that seemed remotely helpful to remedy the situation she was in. Besides, the soul reaper would be able to sense any spiritual presence approaching without a soul pager, unlike Momo.
Oh of course! Her soul pager!
She pulled it out of her Shihakusho while hiding in a random alley and checked her signal. Oh, good, it could still send a message. This was her chance to call for help. She started fiddling with it, preparing to send a 'text message', as it was called. Once she finished typing, she read it to herself to see if she stuffed it up anywhere.
This is Squad 5 Lieutenant Momo Hinamori. I'm in trouble – my powers are gone, I'm all alone, and I can't complete my mission in my current state. Please send someone to Earthland through the Dangai to retrieve me.
This would do. She held it up in the air, and clicked the Send button–
Her battery died.
For the first time ever, Momo was extremely annoyed at technology. So much so that she stood up and smashed her pager down into the ground, spraying scraps of metal all over the ground.
At least that was what she felt like doing, but she resisted the urge and sighed heavily instead. It seemed that her only hope to get out of this alive was to go back to the clock tower. Accepting that fact, Momo got up and headed out.
But not before she was attacked in the dark.
"What the hell are you doing here, Gajeel?" Natsu got up in the iron dragon slayer's face, glaring, trying to intimidate one of Phantom Lord's former top wizards. He hated this guy's guts, no doubt about it. And why the hell did Gajeel have a Fairy Tail tattoo like everyone else (well… except Juvia)?
"What am I doing here? I should be asking you the same thing, Salamander. And what's with the get-up? I didn't know you were into cosplaying."
"Shut up, Rusty!" Gajeel's insult was met with a punch to the back of the head, courtesy of Natsu.
Holding his head, Gajeel yelled back, "Who're you calling 'Rusty' you stupid cosplayer?!" And then he hit Natsu back.
But without either of them seeing her coming, Erza whacked both dragon slayers' heads so hard that they fell over. "Will you two stop acting like children?"
Juvia asked, "Gajeel, what are you doing here? And when did you become a member of Fairy Tail?"
Rubbing his head, Gajeel got back up and told the whole group, "I'll explain later. Right now we all need to go somewhere where we won't attract attention." He nodded his head towards the crowd, and once he did that, some of them stopped staring and continued walking again.
Natsu didn't like to admit it, but Gajeel was right. All of these nosy bastards were starting to get on his nerves anyway.
"Where do you plan on taking us?" Gray asked.
Gajeel turned around and began walking. "Follow me."
After about twenty minutes of walking around the city they were in, everyone had finally arrived at Gajeel's secret hiding spot.
But surprisingly, he wasn't alone.
In the underground hideout they were in, deep below the city's ground and out of society's prejudicial watch, there were about twenty or so people, most of them looking quite frightened, save for one person whose face was concealed by the shadows in the darkest corner of the room. They were all sitting around several tables, the only comfort for them coming from the candles. Everyone in Fairy Tail's group was able to see the gloominess in their eyes. They looked quite sad, and scared.
"What is this?" Lucy asked, glancing around a couple of times.
Gajeel said, "Do you remember hearing those four guys earlier talking about heretics and all that crap?"
"Wait, you were there when they said that?" Natsu asked, a little annoyed that Gajeel didn't bother stepping in.
"So what if I was? Anyway, that isn't important." Gajeel raised his hand in front of him, almost like he was presenting a display to the rest of his guild members. "These are the 'heretics'. They hide here because they're scared of what will happen to them if they use their magic without realising it. They're all wizards like the rest of us."
"But they don't know that themselves," Gray stated, fully clothed again.
"Yup, that pretty much sums up their situation." Gajeel walked over to the nearest table, pulled out a chair, and sat down while facing his guild members, folding his arms. "Alright, you can throw questions at me for as long as you like."
Erza decided to speak up first. "Why are you a member of our guild? When did this happen?"
"Makarov found me and asked me to join. Simple as that."
Erza wasn't convinced. "You're lying. Why would Makarov want the person who destroyed our guild to join up with us?"
"You tell me. I can't read the old man's mind."
Erza continued to glare, but after a moment, she let it go. There wasn't any use in getting angry here.
Gray asked, "So what exactly are you doing here in Bosco instead of staying at the guild?"
"The guild master asked me to come here."
"What for?"
"Gajeel, I have a favour I need to ask you."
Leaning against a pillar, hiding from the rest of the guild members in the building, Gajeel spoke. "Yeah, what do ya want?"
"I need you to go to Bosco and investigate something for me," answered Guild Master Makarov.
"Why, did someone blow it up?" he asked tastelessly, in good humour of course.
"No; nothing like that. It's more got to do with my lack of contact from someone I know who's in one of the cities there."
"I don't follow."
"One of my youngest friends from the guild moved to Bosco about twenty-two years ago, and he and I decided to stay in touch despite the great distance between us. However, for some reason I haven't got a letter from him in a while."
"Maybe he's sick or somethin'," the iron dragon slayer suggested.
"No, he told me himself once that he could be in the hospital with the worst disease in existence and he would still write to me."
That's some dedication, Gajeel noted silently.
"I get the feeling that my friend isn't the only concern I should be worried about," said Makarov.
"Why's that?"
"In the last meeting with the other guild masters, I've heard a few of us talking about how we can't contact any of our friends over in the same city my friend is in. We have no idea what's going on over there."
So one part of Bosco has gone dark and the guild masters have no idea what to do about it? Things just got interesting… "When should I get going?" he asked, smirking.
"By tonight would be preferable. Don't worry – you shouldn't miss the Harvest Festival if you finish this within two weeks or so."
"Got it."
"…And that's pretty much what went down," Gajeel finished.
"So no-one's able to get in touch with anyone here," Lucy said to herself, deep in thought.
Happy spoke up for the first time since they arrived. "So what can we do about it?"
"It's easy! We bash everyone's heads together and see if they remember something!" Natsu proclaimed.
His outburst was met with Erza's fist to the back of the head again, nearly sending him through the floorboards. "Don't be an idiot."
"I might have an idea," said Lucy.
"What did you have in mind?" Juvia asked.
"We need to find out what exactly is doing all of this. I'm not sure what, but I have a feeling that it's here in the city right now."
"What're you saying?" Natsu – standing up and perfectly fine again – didn't get it.
"Basically," Erza began explaining, "we need to go around and figure out who or what is making everyone forget."
"That's what I was thinking," said Gajeel. "Thing is, what on Earthland is able to make everyone forget about highly specific topics?"
"Maybe this thing isn't from Earthland."
Everyone turned to look at Natsu, shocked.
"Think about it," he continued. "I'm apparently a 'soul reaper' now, and none of us have heard of that before. And we never heard of 'Hollows' before, either."
Some of Natsu's terminology was lost on Gajeel. "A what now?"
"Just a minute," Erza said.
Natsu spoke again. "So maybe it's possible that what happened here came from somewhere else too."
Silence fell upon them. When did Natsu get smart all of a sudden? Then again, he had small moments like this once in a while.
"Then let's get going," said Gray, walking outside without a shirt on again.
"Um, Gray, your clothes…" Lucy ran after him, carrying his shirt with her and walked back outside.
"No-one can hold Gray's clothes but me!" Juvia ran after them.
"Hey, wait for me!" Natsu followed suit. "Let's go Happy!"
"Aye sir!" Happy flew after him, and Erza followed their lead.
Gajeel was baffled. They left him without realising he had no idea what they were talking about. Bastards…
Sighing, Gajeel got up and followed them outside.
The figure in the shadows of the underground hideout Fairy Tail just exited from sat at the table closest to the corner, the darkest part of the room. There was a little puppet on the table: brown, head out of proportion compared to the rest of its humanoid body, with little wings on its back and a red hat on its head. A hand rested on the table. Somehow, the puppet started to move, without the hand moving at all.
It got up from lying on its back, and then it began walking. Trotting along, walking like it didn't have a care in the world. It fell over, and then began doing barrel rolls.
It would've been quite comical, if the hand didn't suddenly slam down on the puppet like squashing a bug, killing any notion of a cheerful mood. The hand curled into a fist, squeezing the life out of the doll.
"So then, it looks like some outsiders are planning to meddle with my plan," said a cold, relatively young voice. "I'll just have to pull some strings to get rid of them." He chuckled lightly, before he pulled the puppet deep into the shadows he lurked in.
End of Chapter 2
(A/N: If I were to assign a voice to that new character, think Johnny Yong Bosch as Sasori from Naruto.
So yeah, um… Quite the cliff-hanger. You mad? *troll face*
Hopefully those of you who really like Gajeel will get a lot out of this chapter. I'm quite happy with what I did here, and will really look forward to developing the setup from here on out.
See you guys later. Make sure to leave a review, please.)
