A/N
Finally I get to update! It's been a while.. thanks for sticking around :)
Okay, Natasha-chan, disclaimer!
Natasha-chan: Konnichiwa minna-san~
Me: Disclaimer, disclaimer!
Natasha: Author does not own Fairy Tail (but she has a HUGE crush on-)
Me: Okay please enjoy the story! (go away natasha)
Chapter 4 - ブラックローズ
The Burakkurōzu - Black Rose. The criminal organization, majoring in assassination and serial killing. They turned up two years ago and have been prowling the streets. They have never been caught, but always leave a strange marking on their victims, in the shape of a black rose with thorns, which gives them their name. They are notorious for killing all who get in their way, and those who don't, for good measure. Rumor has it their boss is actually an evil sorcerer from outer space. Although there was about as much chance of that happening as Natsu going on a diet.
"Yeah, Levy, it's definitely the mysterious Black Rose organization," Lucy muttered, fear lighting her eyes.
"Seriously? No wonder that mark looked familiar. I keep seeing it in the news, stories of another death. From what I've heard," Levy said, shuddering. "Black Rose is infamous for assassinating or kidnapping countless people in Fiore and leaving silhouettes of roses on their victims' clothes, purses, faces - anything."
Levy felt sick. She knew what it felt like to be a victim of violence, thanks to Gajeel. Thankfully that had all ended once Gajeel joined Fairy Tail. He was actually sort of interesting when Levy thought about it. Anyway, the Black Rose and its violent ways... It was horrible for anyone to have to go through that.
"I can't believe they're here..." Lucy whispered.
"I can't believe they have the nerve to do those kinds of things," Levy added bitterly, "Serial killing is a first degree crime!"
Lucy nodded sympathetically. "It's tough to stand by and let these things happen, isn't it?"
"Mm-hm."
Lucy smiled slightly and walked across the cabin to shake the boys awake. "Get up, you two, there's something fishy going on in this train and we've got to do something about it."
"Fish..." Natsu mumbled and rolled over.
"NATSU!"
"Fine! I'm awake!" Natsu rubbed the sore spot on his head where Lucy had hit him. "Jeez, Luce, you don't have to be so violent!"
"You wake up too," Lucy said, kicking Gajeel in the stomach.
"Hey!" Gajeel shouted, jerking. "I'm already awake, bunnygirl!" he muttered, glaring at the celestial mage.
Levy giggled, then took a deep breath. "Have you two ever heard of the Black Rose organization?"
"You mean the Burakkurōzu? Yeah, they interfered with one of my missions. They were going to kill me but I paid them off," Gajeel snickered.
"How much didjya have to pay them?" Natsu asked.
"Two thousand and eighteen," Gajeel answered.
"WOW! Where'd ya get that kinda stuff?!" Natsu yelled.
"TWO THOUSAND AND EIGHTEEN JEWELS?!" Lucy shouted, pained.
"No, two thousand smores and eighteen hamburgers, idiot," Gajeel snorted.
"Isn't it obvious?" added Natsu.
"You guys speak a whole different language than we do," Lucy muttered.
"Yeah, the language of food," giggled Levy.
"Hey, wait, wait, wait. You just let them go?" Lucy asked in disbelief.
"Yes! They were hungry!"
"Male?" Levy said, giving Lucy a grin while directing the question toward the black-haired dragonslayer.
"That's a stereotype!" Gajeel growled.
Levy poked him. "And?"
"And what?"
"Were they guys?" Levy asked, poking him again.
Gajeel scowled at her. "...Fine. Yes, they were guys. What, you interested or something?"
Levy giggled and poked Gajeel a third time. "No, you jealous or something?"
"As if!" Gajeel said, getting up so hastily that he knocked over the refreshments tray. Levy's heart jumped at his sudden bruteness. Gajeel stopped himself and calmed down. "...And quit poking me, shrimp," he muttered angrily.
"Don't call me shrimp!" pouted Levy.
"Shrimp... seafood... Hey, ya think they serve fish n' chips as refreshments here?" Natsu perked up.
"Stu-pid Salamander, of course not. This isn't some fancy fish diner," Gajeel muttered, whacking him on the head.
"HEY!"
Gajeel ignored him. "Speaking of fish, where's that blue Exceed?"
"Oh. Happy stayed behind, said he wants to be there when the new shipment of fresh fish arrives. Something about Carla, I think," laughed Lucy.
Gajeel nodded. "I see. Crazy lovesick cat."
"Happy's not a crazy lovesick cat!" Natsu retorted. Then he thought for a moment. "Okay, maybe the crazy lovesick part. And he's a cat, I guess. Sort of."
"Like I said, stu-pid," Gajeel yawned.
"Hey! ...But where's Pantherlily, anyway?" Natsu said.
"He's doing a smaller-class mission on his own," Gajeel said proudly. "While your exceed's prancing around his senorita."
"Shut the fudge up!" Natsu shouted. "And Spanish doesn't suit you."
"Is that a decafio?" Gajeel smirked.
Natsu grinned. "I'm all encidido-"
"Wait, wait," Levy broke into the conversation. "About the Black Rose members Gajeel met..." She turned to the iron dragonslayer. "Why the heck would you let them go like that? They're notorious criminals, for Fiore's sake!" she huffed.
Gajeel just shrugged. "Cool down, bookworm, it's not like they were high-class or anything. They looked like they were low-rank guys." He patted Levy on the head.
"But still-!" Levy protested, flapping her arms in a cute way.
"Wait, guys. Who cares about those guys Gajeel met? We have Natasha!" Lucy said excitedly.
"Who's Natasha?" chorused both dragonslayers in unison.
Gajeel glared at the pinkette. "Don't copy me!"
"You're the one who copied me!" Natsu shot back.
"You wanna fight for it?"
"Natasha's a member of the Black Rose," Lucy said hastily, stepping between them. "She came while you guys were snoozing."
Quickly she and Levy filled them in on the suspiciously sweet waitress.
"I see," Gajeel said to himself. "How odd."
"I know, right? So what do we do?" Lucy asked.
"Kidnap her and pound her til she tells!" Natsu laughed, punching his hand with his fist.
Lucy rolled her eyes. "No way, flamebrain," she scolded him, borrowing a word from Gray's dictionary. "We can't do that."
Levy started to think. "What if we cornered her and just interrogated her? Maybe that would be okay..." she whispered, reaching for a piece of Turkish delight.
"But then again, this has nothing to do with our mission. Should we ignore the Black Rose and do our job?" she wondered, lifting the candy to her mouth.
SLAP!
"Ow!" Levy dropped the Turkish Delight and stared at her red hand. She looked up. "Gajeel, what the heck are you-" She stopped short, eyes wide.
Gajeel was fuming. His eyes were dark and angry. "What do you think you're doing?!"
"W-what do I think I'm doing?" Levy repeated, suddenly scared by the fury in his eyes.
"Who knows what was in that food? You could have been killed!" Gajeel shouted.
Levy noticed that his hands were shaking.
"I-"
But it was too late. The iron dragonslayer had stomped out of their train cabin, cursing so ferociously and using words Levy hadn't even known were cuss words, and slammed the door behind him.
The room was still. Levy was in shock. What was he talking about?
"...He's right," Natsu said softly. "You could have been killed." He clenched his fists. "Dammit, you're nakama!"
"How...?" Levy trailed off, her heart thumping a mile a minute.
"Natasha gave us that food. Anything could have been in it. I'm so stupid! What was I thinking?!" Lucy groaned, and flopped on a seat.
"Me, too. I was too focused on us beating her up than her beating us up. Gajeel was the only one who thought clearly," Natsu added with grudging admiration for his fellow dragonslayer.
Levy suddenly understood with a sick feeling in her stomach. Gajeel had saved her right when she'd been about to put the Turkish Delight in her mouth. She glanced at the fallen piece of candy with a new sense of disgust. Whether it was from Natasha's wicked ways or from her own stupidness, she didn't know.
The wall of the train's storage compartment shook violently for the umpteenth time, a slowly deepening spiderweb scattered across its cracked side. Gajeel's bleeding fist trembled against the broken wall.
"What are you going to do with me...?" asked a small, frightened voice.
Gajeel glanced at the wide-eyed fake maid, sinking back into the wall of the compartment.
She... was almost killed by this fiend.
Turning on his heel, he walked away.
"So, why exactly does the Black Rose do all this crazy stuff? And why in Fiore are was Natasha targeting us?!" Lucy wondered aloud.
Natsu's eyes narrowed. "Whatever she's working for, she's definitely deadly. We'll all have to watch our steps if we're going to survive this mission."
"Speaking of this mission..." Levy said slowly.
Lucy grinned. "It's worth two hundred thousand jewels!"
"I say beat up Natasha!" Natsu said, rolling up his sleeves. "She was about to kill a nakama!"
Lucy thought quickly. "Two hundred thousand. That's fifty thousand each! If we're going to do something about them, we need to get money first in order to stay awhile in Clover Town."
"But-"
"It's logical," Lucy said. "We need the money. Levy has a few gift cards, but otherwise we're all out of jewels because two certain dragonslayers forgot their train money."
"HEY!" Natsu yelled.
Lucy ignored him. "We don't have a place to stay at, or even enough food. Just a few crackers."
"And one of Happy's fish!" Natsu added, jabbing a finger at his travel bag.
"It's moldy, genius," Lucy muttered.
"It's still edible, see?"
CHOMP.
"Don't eat it!" the girls cried.
Natsu swallowed. "Not bad."
"Seriously, Gray is right, you're a total weirdo," Lucy sighed.
"So are you. We could make a club!"
"Anyway, as we were saying. Mission first, revenge later," Levy said, eyeing Natsu.
The pinkette crossed his arms. "No way! We'll get food somehow, but we need to get rid of the guys who nearly killed you!" I'd never give up a nakama.
"Natsu, let's think reasonably. We are not going to get food just by beating up Natasha and co," Lucy said.
"How about-"
"No."
"Then maybe-"
"No."
"Perhaps we could just-"
"No!"
"But what if we-"
"Don't even think about it!" Lucy exclaimed, exasperated.
"..." Levy watched them spar. How does she know what he's going to say?
"But we could beat up some restaurant guys and make them give us food!" Natsu was protesting.
"We're supposed to be the good guys," Lucy said, sweating.
"Hey, calm down, you guys. Personally I think Lu-chan's right. So please don't argue, Natsu," Levy sighed.
"Fine." Natsu slouched in his chair. "Are we there yet?"
"Where's Gajeel?" Lucy said suddenly, looking around. "We can't get off without him."
"I don't know. He just stomped out," Levy said worriedly.
"I'll go find him," Natsu said, heading for the door.
"NO WAY. You - We - are all staying right here," Lucy interjected. "If there's something out there, Gajeel will have to deal with it himself. With any luck, he'll find his way back here; but for now we have to stay here."
"We should just jump off the train. He can't have gone far! If we go on top of the train and-"
"We need the money if we're going to last this far! Leave him for now!"
"He stood up for Levy," Natsu defended. He felt his guard going up. The better part of his conscience told him not to keep talking, but... "The guy's got to have a good side! We can't leave him when-"
"If you trust him, you won't go looking for him," Levy commented wisely.
"Look, you crazy dragonslayer, Levy is right! Give it up, Natsu!" Lucy exclaimed.
"No!" He turned to Levy with fire in his eyes. "Levy, look, what if something actually happened to him? He saved you, Lev-"
Lucy interrupted.
"Gajeel's independent enough to-"
"No, Gajeel's stupid enough to-"
"JUST SHUT UP ALREADY!" Lucy screamed. The instant the words came out, she regretted them.
Natsu slunk back into his seat, eyes wide. "Lush.."
"Sorry." Lucy whispered. "Never mind. Let's see what Levy thinks. We're both out of our minds - me especially - to think properly."
Natsu nodded and they turned to look at the blunette.
Levy took a deep breath before voicing her thoughts.
"Well.. You're both right," she addressed Natsu and Lucy. "Staying on this train is dangerous, but we can't leave Gajeel behind. However, knowing he has never, ever failed a mission, we have to believe he is reliable. So..." Levy hesitated, then made up her mind. "we'll have to leave him behind."
"Levy-"
"I'm sorry but we can't just go and look for him when we have a mission to do." Levy watched for Natsu's reaction - a flinch or a signal of disagreement - but he just sat there. She continued warily. "Anyway, I'm sure Gajeel is safe."
"How do you know?"
"Well, if the train ride goes on as it should, then nothing must have happened. That proves either of two things - one, they found what they need, and don't bother with us anymore; or two, they have decided not to make a move and will leave us alone. Either way, we know Gajeel is safe because if they've done something with him, they will likely want a ransom or at least let us know - we're not complete enemies or idiots."
"Umm. So we exit through the train exit... right?" Lucy asked.
"Nope. Window. This cabin," Levy said, gesturing toward the whole room. "is the only part of the train we know at all. There might be traps anywhere else.
"Good point," Lucy said.
Natsu perked up at the thought of jumping out the window. "Yess!"
"Whatever," Lucy said, smiling.
Levy sighed contentedly. Natsu was normal again. Not that he was ever actually normal. "Okay, pack your stuff, we're almost at Clover Town!"
The trio quickly packed up all their luggage and handbags, leaving behind Natasha's suspicious refreshments. Then Levy paused, and grabbed some without knowing why.
Her eyes scanned the cabin for anything she had missed. Oh, yeah, he's not here. Levy grabbed Gajeel's backpack.
The train started slowing down.
"Alriiiight!" Natsu grinned, swinging a backpack over his shoulder. He pushed open all the windows and climbed onto one of the windowsills. Lucy and Levy mimicked his actions.
"Ready?" Levy whispered.
"Yup."
"Nin-nin!"
Levy smiled to herself. "Okay, then. Three... two... one..."
They jumped.
Thud.
Thud.
Thud.
"Oww!" Natsu sat up, rubbing his head.
"Natsu, could you, uh..." Lucy mumbled, blushing.
The pinkette blinked, looked down, and quickly scrambled off.
Levy had landed beside them. She got up and stretched.
"N-now what?" Lucy asked.
Levy rummaged through her pack and pulled out the job request form. She stared at it intently. "Let's go... that way," Levy said, turning on her heel and pointing with her finger. She lowered the paper. "Come on, guys-"
She was pointing right at a stern-looking, adult with a smart dark blue uniform.
"Uh, hi?" Levy said meekly.
"What the heck are you three doing? Did I seriously see you jump out the window?!" Police Guy roared.
"I apologize, our, um, cabin door was stuck so we had to get out using the window. I..." Levy gazed up at him, eyes round and innocent. "I'm sorry if we caused an inconvenience. We'd be willing to pay for it..."
Police Guy blushed. "No, that's fine. Run along now and don't do it again, alright?"
"Yes, sir!" Levy answered cheerfully, giving him her brightest smile.
He blushed even more.
"Bye!" Levy sang. She, Lucy, and Natsu hurried away.
They turned a corner and rested in a one-way alley.
"Whew, that was close," Lucy said, panting.
"That was awesome!" howled Natsu, grinning like a maniac. "Cute can kill!"
"Natsu, please don't be an idiot," Lucy said, concealing a smile.
"Agreed." A laugh.
"See? Two against-wait a second!" Lucy exclaimed, turning around. Natsu hadn't said it, and it was not a female voice.
Levy's eyes widened. "There's someone else here...!"
A/N Yeah, somewhat cheesy too.. but hey, cheese makes the world go round! (if you haven't heard of that song I feel sorry for you...) :) soo R&R?