Chapter 4 - Red as Scarlet
The ten forgotten black necklaces that thought to be lost forever. Each of the necklaces contain black magic and has a certain amount of power and different effect as the wearer desires.
The person who wears one of the necklaces would become evil even if he or she is evil to begin with. The necklace would grant the person's wish and desires, but as the greed of the bearer grow, the necklace would start taking control over the holder.
When the holder is defeated, the necklace would absorb the bearer, dead or alive and would wait patiently for their next victim.
"…by the time I got there, the beast disappeared," Natsu explained.
The team delivered the berries to the requester's manor and collected their rewards first. Now they're back at the inn in Erza and Lucy's share room, talking about what had happen earlier that day.
"Aye," Happy agreed and nodded, "but she did pick something up from the ground."
"What was it?" Lucy asked.
"Not sure," Salamander replied. He paused for a second, staring away, then looking back at his friends, "but I heard her mumbling something like beast's tooth, before she flew away."
"Do you think it's a tooth from the beast?" asked Gray.
"If so, where did the entire beast go, ice fore brains?" retorted the Fire Dragon Slayer and stood up, towering over the ice mage.
"I'm just making a suggestion, flame brain!" rebutted the raven haired and stood up, not letting his long time rival to beat him.
"Pipe down!" Erza growled and punched them in the gut to separate them, but not enough force to take them out, "go to bed and we'll talk to the master about it when we return to the guild."
The two rivals retired to their room, which was just a sliding door away, so if they fight, Erza could quickly separate them without causing much damage.
"Erza, do you think?" Lucy asked, trailing off near the end.
"I think it may be one of the ten black necklaces," Erza agreed with Lucy, "but the question is, why did Hotaru collect it and does she even know about those necklaces."
"Erza, do you think she is a…" Lucy paused and took a hollow breath, staring into Erza's serious ones.
"We can't be hasty. We'll ask her about it when we see her," Erza declared, "now, let's just get some sleep."
Lucy nodded and laid in her bed, pulling the blanket just under her chin. She closed her eyes and try not to worry about what had happened earlier. Erza on the other hand, thought hard about the mysterious new guild member. Does she have any connections with the ten lost black necklaces? Did she even know about them? How did she know the name? Or did Natsu heard wrong or imagined it, which might not be true, since Natsu's dragon senses are strong as ever.
Erza shook her head and tucked herself in bed. 'It's best not to think about it,' she told herself.
It's almost midnight, the moon shone brightly in the night sky, not much people are out, but rebels, people that work a night shift and dark guild members finally coming out from the shadows to have fun.
The whistle of the steam train blew loudly, getting ready to start running. The doors of the train started to shut as a young woman in black slept on a bench with a rolled up carpet next to her. Chatter was heard from five men as they walked through the empty rows of seats. The five have very different hair colour: one with purple and black hair, a blonde, a brunette, a bubblegum hair and lastly, one with bright blue hair. They then stopped in front of the lady in black and smirked when they saw the black Fairy Tail mark on her upper arm.
"Look at this, it's a Fairy," the buff looking purple and black hair mocked.
"Looks like princess over here is having her beauty sleep," snickered the bubblegum coloured hair, making his friends laugh.
"I hate flies, even if they're just sitting here," the blonde snarled wickedly and through his fist to the sleeping girl.
However, before his fist met with girl's stomach, she mumbled, "Technique number 6: Iron Body."
The blonde groaned in pain as he withdrew in hand. "What the hell? It's like her body is made out of iron," he groaned as he nursed his hand.
The purple and black haired grabbed her by the collar and pulled her up. Her head bobbed up and down, still remained asleep, well at least appears to be. The buff man lifted his arm and proceed to punch the sleeping girl in the face, but before he could hit her he heard a murmur, 'Technique number 4: Finger Pistol' and felt a great amount of pain piercing his left chest. He looked down, seeing the girl's finger pierce through his chest, blood dripped from his wound, staining onto his clothes and her hand.
She pulled her finger out of his body and pushed him back, making him stumble to his friends and groan in pain.
"You little fly, we'll make you pay for messing with a dark guild," the brunette growled, "we're not nice like you official guilds."
"Knuckle shadow," he casted and many shadow arms rushed towards the swaying girl. However, none of the punches hit her, they all went past her, smashing the benches instead. "What the hell?" the brunet cursed.
"Let me deal with her," the bright blue haired declared and pushed his comrade aside, "Poison Blast!" Streams of dark purple poison shot out of his hands, directed to the girl in black.
The poison rushed to the girl in full speed, but the girl didn't move an inch. The five men smirked, knowing for sure the spell will injure her. However, when the blast was a couple of centimetres from just hitting her, the blast of poison dodged around her body, then going back to course, hitting the back door of the train, blowing up.
"What in the world? It just went around her!" the bubblegum hair male exclaimed.
"Let's hit her together," the brunette suggested and his friends agreed.
The five men pounced at the girl in black at once, already casting spells. The analog clock in the train ticked, the five men getting closer by the second and as soon as the clock ticked exactly at midnight, the girl shot her eyes opened, her scarlet eyes shone bright as a large amount of magical power shot through her body.
"Midnight Illusion," she croaked out, staring at all of the five men.
Their bodies immediately froze, heartbeat becoming louder and slightly faster and breath caught at their throats. They dropped to the floor, eyes widen in horror as darkness devoured them.
It's a peaceful and bright day in Magnolia. The birds chirped happily and the citizens of Magnolia went on with their daily lives, that is when a certain dragon slayer broke the peace in the train station.
"I'm alive!" he roared and breathed out fire, with full of energy.
"Shut up," Erza growled and knocked the dragon slayer on the top of his head, making him whimper in pain.
The team walked back to the guild, with a couple of fights between Gray and Natsu along the way, but all in all, peaceful. When they reached the front gate of Fairy Tail, they saw a similar back of a girl sitting on her carpet, flying to the double doors of Fairy Tail. The large wooden doors flew open, revealing a silent and still guild hall. Hotaru flew in and headed straight to Mirajane to notify her that she had completed her mission, but she didn't say anything.
"Hey Mira, we came back from out mission," Lucy declared brightly as the rest of the team said their hello's.
"Welcome back guys," Mira smiled cheerfully, "You too, Hotaru-san."
"Mira, is the Master back yet?" Erza asked urgently.
"No, he'll be back later in the day," replied Mirajane.
Tatania sighed and then turned her heard to the girl sleeping on her carpet close to the bar. The carped turned, now facing Erza. The girl slowly lifted her head up, eyes slowly fluttered open. Her scarlet eyes lazily stared at Erza's brown ones.
"Dark Pearl of the Second Moon," the raven haired girl mumbled.
The S class wizard's eyes widen as he breath hitched to her throat. 'What is she talking about? Can she know about the necklace? But how would she know about it? How would she know I have it next to me?' she thought at people around the guild started to murmur. The air was thick as everyone anticipated what will happen next - even Natsu stayed still, not uttering a word.
Then suddenly the small sack tied to Erza's waist, which contained the frozen necklace, floated away from the scarlet haired, to the girl in black. The sack was a couple of centimetres away from the mysterious woman as she examined the purple writing on the seal of the bag. She drew her arm out a bit, palm facing upwards, as the sac fell into her palm. Hotaru pulled back her arm, resting it on her thigh, still holding the sac. She flew closer to Erza, staring at the scarlet head with her uninterested dull scarlet eyes.
What happened next was very surprising, no one had expected it to happen. Hotaru Ozachi asked Erza Scarlet to form a team together.
If the guild could get anymore quieter, it just did. No one said a word, no one moved a muscle or even took a breath, anticipating for Erza's reply, while shock flickered through Erza's body. The words from the mysterious guild member slowly sunk in her brain, slowly processing every word and every syllable. Once that was done, questions started to whizzed though her mind. It is so out of character for the mysterious mage. It is true that no one know much about the mysterious girl and it is not right to make assumptions, but it's just the way she acts, her behaviour, her hardly or no interaction with the guild and guild members and just that aura indicates this girl, Hotaru Ozachi, works alone. Then why is she asking Erza to form a team with her and no other the less after taking the sac. Does she even know what is contained in that small brown bag?
Erza took a deep breath, finally made up her decision, "I'm sorry, but I'm already part of a team." Sure, Erza wanted to find out more about the mysterious newcomer, but the aura she gives out makes the fearless Erza feel uncomfortable.
People started to murmur about Erza's decision, wondering what will happen next from Hotaru and even in the near future.
The girl in black blinked and stared dully at Erza, before drawing her hand out to give back the sac. Erza cautiously took the small brown bag from Hotaru, any listing her every move. Once the sac is out of the mysterious girl's hand, her whole body relaxed and slouched, falling back to sleep. Her carpet swiftly flew her out of the guild as everyone talked softly, while watching her leave. Erza watched as the girl's body becoming smaller and smaller as unanswered questions ran through her mind.
Author's Note: Forth chapters up! Woo! I'm on a roll! I finally leaked a bit about Hotaru, well her abilities. You might recognise her powers, maybe not, but all will be revealed tomorrow.
Please give me a lot of feedback to help me!
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ShiawaseLuv: Thank you for reviewing and I will keep on writing! There is a reason why I have her the name 'Hotaru', but I'm glad you like it! ^^