In a tub of ice cold water barenaked and shivering uncontrollably was how the young Hero was conditioned to accept the cold as part of her body rather than just a place for her body to be. Hero again was in the all blue tinted scenery, except for the brown, wooden tub and the seven year old girl. Hero looked up to see a giant white dragon with bright blue eyes. The dragon was starving, elderly, and slowly dying. It was amazing how Hero knew all of that just by looking at its appearance for a few moments. The dragon leaned its head down next to the tub of water, whispering quietly to the young dragon slayer-to-be.
"You do not have to push yourself to adapt. Your body will do that on its own." The dragon had a very feminine voice, so Hero would assume it was female. She looked like she was in pain when she spoke, obviously not having much time left before she would meet her end. The young Hero shook her head defiantly, hair frozen in some areas. "If I don't prepare soon, you won't get the chance to pass down your legacy." She stuttered multiple times through her statements. For a young girl, she knew more than she should have ever learned, "Besides, it's been a year now. My body should be used to this."
With a small huff, the frost dragon did not protest and allowed the girl to continue with her conditioning. A bright flash blinded Hero for a moment until the light dimmed and it was a different scene. This time the young Hero was ten years old. Her long hair was up in a high ponytail and all she was wearing was a black wrap around her tiny breasts and a pair of shorts that reached half-way down her thighs. Stood in the snow barefoot, she took a defensive stance and began to kick at an ice dummy. The tops of her feet were bleeding, but not so much that it was an emergency. Had her body been warm, it probably would have been a problem.
Some blood splashed on the dummy, and the dragon demanded that Hero stop before she hurt herself even more. Young Hero clenched her hands into fists, blood dripping from her knuckles as well. "Glashon, I want to keep going." Her voice tried to stay calm, even though it was obvious that she was in agonizing pain. The dragon sighed, again not willing to bicker with the young girl and allowing her to push herself to her limits. Hero walked towards herself, closely examining the fighting pattern and realizing she had never once used it before; at least not from what she could recall. She tried to mimic the image, and she did so flawlessly. Almost like she had been doing it her whole life.
Identically, the two Hero's looked up to Glashon for approval, and the dragon just nodded. Hero had not seen it as a child, but the old dragon was grinning. Glashon, in her own reverse psychology kind of way, was really the reason why Hero was so stubborn and pushed herself all those nights long ago. By telling Hero the story of her life, which was a long and sad story, the frost dragon gained sympathy from the small girl who should have been mourning the loss of her mother at the time. To store away the grief of a losing a loved one and to fulfill the dream of a dying saint, Hero had agreed to train under the tender dragon. It was coming back to her, slowly. The sleepless nights, the conditioning, the loving foster mother. She could remember them now, the three years she spent learning her dragon slayer magic.
Another bright flash of light blinded Hero and she brought up her hand to cover her eyes. When she removed her hand, she was back to when she was seven years old again. Her younger self was crying, curled up at the bottom of a tree a mile outside of the nearest town. Hero knelt down beside herself, "What happened?" She whispered. Anything before this day was still a blur to her, other than those two memories of her parents. A few voices could be heard from the other side of the tree, and the young Hero stopped crying just to stare down at the ground in fear. Hero looked behind the tree to see a group with the same wolf symbol as the one from her other memory. Without concern for her well-being, the young Hero stood up and started sprinting towards the mountains. The group spotted her and began to chase after her, and soon the group faded to black just as the combat from her other memory had. She had not seen them, so in her mind they did not exist, until the loud screams of sheer pain echoed in her head. The group of men swore and threatened an opponent that Hero could not see and with the last thud of noise which she believed to be the last body dropping, everything went silent.
Someone had went out of their way to kill every last one of those men, to keep them away from her. Hero had an idea of who it might have been, but without seeing anyone's face she could not affirm anything. The final flash of light came to Hero by surprise, causing her to rub her eyes and groan at the sensation. She could not see anything, only hear. Even then, she only heard one thing. One very vague thing from a voice that she knew to be hers but could not believe it to be because of how completely hopeless it sounded. "It would be better to just forget."
Hero was sweating underneath all of the warm wet towels and thick blankets that were placed over her in the infirmary. When she finally awoke she sat up quickly and tossed all of the blankets off of her as if they were on fire. "Damn, someone open a window!" She shouted, waving her hand towards her face to create a small breeze. The rest of the team had left a long time ago to get some rest, leaving Hero alone in the room; or at least that's what she believed at first. When she thought that there was no one around to hear her, she sighed and got out of bed to go and open a window herself. The cool winter air quickly filled the warm room and she exhaled, pleased.
Once she was relaxed a voice from the shadows rung out and startled her. "You sure do sleep a lot." It said, a chuckle bouncing all over the room just so Hero could not pinpoint where it was coming from. She knew the voice, it was hard to forget when it was replaying so many times in her head earlier. Releasing a sigh of relief because she knew she was in no danger, she narrowed her eyes up at the air straight in front of her. She did not say anything to the voice, just made her way across the room to the door. The room around her soon turned into the room she had as a toddler, and she stopped walking when she was in the middle of it. Her hands balled into fists and she bowed her head, letting her dark locks cover her eyes. "Let me go, Daddy." She said through grit teeth.
The anger building up inside of her was coming from the memories she could not remember, along with the fact that he stole those sword hilts from her. She knew that she was enraged at her father, it did not matter why. An illusion of her mother stepped through the door, walking up to her and speaking to her in a very worried voice. "Honey, what's wrong? Do you have a fever? You look like you're boiling."
A knot began to form in the back of Hero's throat. Whatever she wanted to forgot obviously had a very strong influence over her because even though she cannot remember it she still feels the need to cry at the thought of her mother. "You cut your beautiful hair…" The illusion said, softening it's gaze on Hero. A strong stench was coming off of the illusion, and Hero raised her head just as a tear fell down her face. Raising her hand, she slapped the person in front of her, and soon the illusion faded to reveal her father.
"You bastard." Hero growled, and the illusion around the room faded as well. Ryo put his hand against his cheek, cringing when it stung to touch it. He stood upright, grinning at Hero, "How'd you know?" He asked. The dragon slayer huffed as she turned her head, crossing her arms. "Illusions don't smell." She said before she spotted the hilts strapped to her father's belt. Blue optics shot up to look at Ryo, fire sparking while wheels in her mind turned. It was hard not to notice this spark, it reminded Ryo so much of Mana. She would get that same spark when she wanted something but knew she could not have it. This time though, Hero's spark was because she knew she would get it.
Uncrossing her arms, Hero improvised a plan. "Why are you here, why now?" She asked, trying to distract him with questions. Ryo shifted his weight to one side as he placed a hand on his hip, just above the hilts. "Because those memory blockers were only meant to last a few years." Ryo poked the side of his forehead to gesture at his brain, "And I needed to see if you're old enough to handle your memories yet or if those blockers need renewed." He raised both of his arms and shrugged his shoulders, "From what I can tell, you're handling it pretty well."
Ryo walked around Hero, headed for the window. "I've also been lookin' for my old hilts. Glad your master was dumb enough to give them to you. You were always easy to fool with my magic." He grinned, chuckling to himself. Hero's ego snapped and she spun around to shout at him, "I was a baby!" Her father's grin turned into a soft smile, one filled with sympathy and sorrow. 'She is truly like her mother...' He thought, stepping up to the window. Ryo was about to say something else, but then there was a knock at the infirmary door and he did not have time to stay. Hero's father vanished, and Hero pulled the two hilts from behind her back. She grinned to herself, and then the door swung open.
Mirajane stepped into the room and saw Hero out of bed. "Ah, are you feeling better?" She paused, looking down at Hero's hand curiously, "Where did you get those sticks?" Stunned, Hero turned to look at her hand once more and saw that the hilts were never actually hilts at all. The illusion faded and she was just holding two wooden chunks of tree branch. Angrily, she threw them against the floor and turned to the window, cursing under her breath. Worried, Mirajane approached her and offered some medicine. Hero promptly refused, informing the white haired woman that she was fine.
The sun began to rise outside, filling the room with bright light. Mirajane allowed Hero to go back home once she checked over her one more time. While she was looking her over, Mirajane giggled. "I was talking to Gray earlier. He really thinks you're a boy. I had to keep myself from laughing." Hero opened one eye and looked at Mirajane with it, smiling because she was glad to see that Natsu and Erza were not the only ones getting a kick out of it. "You can only fool someone for so long though. He'll probably figure it out soon." Hero looked down at the floor, a small smile curving her lips.
Peering at the expression on her friends face, Mirajane smiled. "That looks like the face of a person in love." She teased, expecting to get a laugh from Hero. Instead, a bright blush appeared on Hero's face while she tried to mask a crack in her voice with a nervous chuckle. "What are you talking about? I don't know him well enough to have such feelings. He's just surprisingly nice." She talked more than she wanted to, so she shut her mouth quickly and closed her eyes tight. Obviously it was not love that she was feeling, because love needed time to blossom and flourish. But there was definitely an attraction there that she could not ignore, especially after he gave up his coat to her back on the mountain.
A happy laugh came from Mirajane, and she tapped Hero's shoulder reassuringly. "No worries, I won't tell."
"There's nothing to tell!" Hero retorted while getting even more flustered. Quickly, Hero stood up and spun on her heels to face Mirajane who was still seated on the bed. Mirajane waved her hand dismissively. "Yeah, yeah. You're allowed to leave now. I'm sure you want to get a bath before he sees you anyway." Mirajane continued to tease, finding it absolutely adorable how easily it was to get Hero flustered. To be honest, she would have thought that Hero would have liked Natsu more the way that they would always hung out in the main hall, but in retrospect she could see that it was more like a sibling relationship between the two of them. Hero rolled her eyes, taking a whiff of herself before she decided she would go home to bathe because she wreaked from sweating in her sleep.
Waving at Mirajane before she left to her apartment, Hero closed the door and rubbed the back of her neck nervously. It was hard not talking about her past with her friends. She did not want to say anything until she remembered all of it though, because leaving gaps would only confuse them. Taking a deep breath, Hero started to jog home and tried to get her mind off of the sword hilts, her father, and her memories.
A/N: This was kind of a rushed chapter because I wanted to get it done for the New Year. I hope that you all have had a great year and if not then I'm sure it'll get better and all that encouraging jazz. Feel free to drop ideas for me to use as the next quest for the group in the next chapter, I'd like to get some of your opinions and stuff. Anyways, Happy New Year!