Chapter 7: The Puppeteer
After the encounter in Oak Town, the unlikely companions made their way to Freesia City, the city known for its diverse marketplace. People from different lands come to sell or trade their merchandise. Any type of items could be seen here whether it had to do with magic or just your ordinary everyday items there are also some unique relics that people claim they found in ancient ruins
The two were heading back to Magnolia, well, only Mystogan, nevertheless Mina tried her best not to have any more contac.t with the guild. It was too risky since the Council was still keeping an eye on him. Once they find out that Blue Pegasus is helping Fairy Tail; things could get ugly. The only time she would go there was to brief her about the mission, and that was over and done with.
"Would you like to come and see my guild?" Mystogan asks breaking Mina's train of thoughts as they pass by countless stalls
Catching her off guard she racks her brain for an excuse, "Uhh... I'll just meet you somewhere in a new town." She says as she speed walks her way out of the busy streets of the city.
Mystogan easily catches up to her and eyes her questioningly, "You can always stop by my guild to make it easier to look for you. Come to think of it, you never said which guild you were in."
Finally realizing that since the first time they met, she had never mentioned about her having any guild, nor confirmed if she had any magical abilities.
Nearing the gates to Magnolia Mina stops dead in her tracks not knowing if she should answer truthfully or not, "Well, that's not important right now." She replies, not choosing neither of the choices and starts to speed walk again.
Once again he easily caught up to her, "Oh, look, here's where we part." She says as she continued down the road to which there were two paths. One leading to Magnolia and the other is a town where she could take a shortcut back to her guild.
"If you don't want to answer, it's fine." He replies in a solemn voice as he takes a right turn into the direction of Magnolia.
Not able to grasp what had happened, she just stared at his back that grew smaller and smaller as he got further. She didn't stop him to explain why she couldn't tell him. Why hadn't she just told the truth? What bad could it do? What difference does it make? She could just say that she's from Blue Pegasus and just leave the part about her being sent by their master. And of all things, why is she so aggravated by what just happened, he's not one to hold a grudge, right?
Mystogan walked in silence, as always, who was he going to talk to anyway? He was getting used to the silence he had with that peculiar girl, how troublesome for him. Intrigued by her actions at times, it was always so unexpected. She never talked about herself and always tried to run away from trouble, where trouble seems to keep running towards her.
But, why was she so hesitant to answer his questions? Was she really a mage? It was hard to tell, since there were no signs that she was but who's to say she isn't? Confusing, that's one way to describe her.
A giggling sound came from behind as he reached his destination and he stood in front of the double doors of his guild. He turned to see where it came from but found that no one was there. Still not letting his guard down he turned back and opened the door, only to find out that no one was there.
The bar was empty, sits were empty and everything is eerily quiet.
The same giggling emanated throughout the room, looking everywhere still, he couldn't see anyone.
A gust of wind came followed by a huge fireball aimed straight at him which he dodged in easily but here comes another attack but this time much faster, ice shaped like sharp daggers caught him off guard.
He let out a loud grunt as the ice pierced his shoulder as he flew across the room and his back landed hard against the wall.
Removing the ice from his pierced skin he bit his lower lip to subside the pain, he leaned into the wall for support, "Who are you? Show yourself!" he shouts with all his strength
Natsu and Gray emerged out of nowhere, followed by all of his guild members, everyone looking as if they were zombies, not able to control themselves but having someone pull the strings for them.
"I'm just making this interesting." A voice looms over the room, still no signs as to that mysterious voice of a woman is, "I know you can still fight even with an injury. Now show me what you got!" with that everyone starts to attack him simultaneously with different types of magic.
Taking all of their strikes freely, Mystogan sat in silence. Not wanting to hurt his friends but willing to take all of the beatings. In an instant he could end this but, he didn't want to risk losing any of his fellow guild members, so he just stayed there and let her have her way. Erza's viscous attack, followed by Natsu's fire with Gray's ice, everyone's magical abilities combined together, he was taking it all in.
"I see you don't want to fight. You can easily end their lives, you know that." The voice laughs, "Yet, here you are just sitting there, letting them have their way." Silence followed as they all stopped attack, "How weak!" she continues to laugh
Although, she was silenced by Mystogan's laughter, "W-what's so funny?"
He looks at her with his black eyes void of emotion, "You don't honestly believe, that they will easily let you take over them?"
"What are you talking about? I'm already controlling them!" the voice shouts even louder, Mystogan only smiled.
Remorse filled the hearts of Natsu, Erza, Gray, Lucy and Happy. Seeing their fellow guild member willingly taking the beating just so he could save them broke the evil woman's strings on them, followed by Mirajane, Elfman, Wakaba, and Cana as they saw how Mystogan would die just for their sake. Anger freed the rest of them, seeing what they did to him, even to the point of turning the guild against him.
"You're going to pay for this!" Shouts Erza as she throws her blade across the room almost hitting a figure as its camoflouge was broken, but dodged it, instead the blade split the pillar in half.
A girl with short pink hair who wore a white kimono down to her knees stood above the second floor gazing down at them, "This is only just the beginning." She sneers
"I don't know what you're talking about, but I'm pretty pissed for making us turn against Mystogan!" Natsu shouts as he jumps into the second floor and attacks.
Midway into the air he abruptly stops and falls face flat onto the floor.
Gray snickers, "You're as stupid as always, Natsu." And he imitates Natsu by jumping in the air towards the second floor to attack, but just like what happened he falls midway into the air and falls flat on the floor.
The girls laughs, "Fairy Tail Guild sure has dim-wits as members."
"What did you just say?" Elfman shouts as he makes his way to the second floor but is stopped by Erza, "Don't go near her, I don't know how she's doing it but, she can easily manipulate our body and make it obey her every command."
"What?" Mirajane asks in disbelief, "Aren't there mage's who can do the same?"
Erza shook her head, "This one, is different."
"She's too dangerous to fight up close." Mystogan speaks in a hoarse voice
"Then long-ranged it is." Bisca speaks as she exquips her gun and starts firing at their enemy, to their surprise she came out without even a scratch even if she did not move from her place.
"H-how?" Bisca asks in surprise as everyone stares in disbelief.
The girl just laughs at their awestruck faces as strings comes out from the tip of her fingers and randomly points at any guild member. Next thing they know they a few were once again in her control and starts attacking their fellow comrades.
Erza tried to detroy the strings but found that it was impossible. Natsu and Gray tried attacking her but when they tried to come near her they were sent flying across the room. Lucy and the others who can attack at a long ranged point tried to take her down but their attacks where only repelled back to them.
Mystogan tried standing up but his feet gave out from beneath him, his whole body took a whole lot of damage, it was impossible for him at this point to move. Though, he was filled with determination and wouldn't just give up, so he tried again. Using the wall as a support he hoisted himself up and slowly stood up, too weak to hold on he fell back to the floor.
It was the guild versus a single person, how come they were losing? Everyone was now aggravated as they haven't had any success at hurting their foe much less scratching her. A few were now injured from the battle with their own, sometimes it was hard for them to determine who was being controlled, the strings where now concealed, which made it hard for them to know the difference so they just attacked anyone randomly.
Mystogan knew it was part of her plan though, to confuse them, to make them battle each other, a few noticed too, but what could they do when they can't decipher which is on their side from being the one possessed.
The girl just watched at her work as things went according to her plan, smiling in satisfaction, she was about to deliver one final blow that could wipe all them into oblivion. A massive amount of power raises her awareness. Recognizing whose it was she quickly cuts the strings and disappears out of thin air.
"She's gone." Mystogan speaks up as he stares at the spot that girl used to stand.
"But, why?" Erza asks in confusion
In the entrance of the guild a small man appears, their Master Makarov.
"My, my, seems like you had quite a party while I was gone." He says as he rubs his chin and eyes the whole place that was in total wreck.
"Is this how hardcore Fairy Tail members party?" someone emerges beside Makarov.
"Master?" a few shouts in unison.
"Master, it wasn't a party. We were currently under attack while you were gone. Oddly enough when she sensed your presence, our attacker suddenly left." Erza explains
Makarov nods and asks for the details later, "Right now, we have to tend to the wound."
Mina notices Mystogan sitting across the room leaning back against the wall with all kinds of different injuries all over his body. His mask was slightly torn that barely covered his face, a few spikes of blue hair is seen.
"I leave you for how many hours and this is what happens?" she states as she walks over to him
"I'm even more surprised no one is chasing after you." he retorts in a weak voice
Noticing his blood stained shoulder she stops her sarcasm and looks at him with concern, "You look like crap." Well, almost stops her sarcasm.
"Thanks." He replies sarcastically
More blood continues to seep outside of his shirt, "You're losing too much blood." She says as she examines his injury.
"That's an understatement, but thanks for pointing that out." He retorts as he tries to get up but was pushed down by Mina.
"Don't move." She orders him
"Mirajane, we need bandages over here." Erza announces as she saw what happened to Mystogan.
"Mystogan's injuries are the worst of all aside from the others who just had minor ones. I can't believe he's still alive after taking all of that attack from all the guild members who had different types of magic." Lucy analyzes as she helps tends to the wounds of the others.
"He got those injuries from all of you?" Mina asks as she eyed the man in front of him, "What the hell? Are you even normal?"
"Why didn't you defend yourself? You can easily do that; at least you would have gotten away with minor injuries." Mina lectures him for not being careful as she watched Mirajane tend to his wounds.
"What were you doing with Master Makarov anyway?" he asks
"I met him along the way." She replied, taking over to wrap bandages around his wounds because Mirajane had to take care of a few more people.
"Along the way to -?"
"Magnolia, obviously."
He looks at her in confusion, "Why?"
Noticing that he had a few injuries on his face she removes his mask, flawless skin, with a strong jaw line, he was handsome indeed. A red tattoo on his right eye, complete with a messy blue hair.
She laughs, "I can't believe you would want to hide this."
He raised his eyebrow, "What are you talking about?"
She shrugged and put a band aid below his left eye after cleansing it, "You didn't answer my question earlier." He points out
She stares back at him wondering what he was talking about but realizes what he meant, "I came for you of course." She flicks his nose, "I wanted to apologize for earlier." She says as she looked down not able to take the guilt.
Her guilt took over after Mystogan had left as she just stood there to contemplate. When all he did was be help her in times of trouble and when she was injured, she could at least answer his questions and maybe even accepted his offer to go with him. So she set out to go to Magnolia and apologize for her actions. Along the way she encountered the Guild Master of Fairy Tail who was more than happy he had a companion for the road.
"You came all the way here just for that?" he asks, clearly not even fazed that she came all this way just so she could apologize to him. Her blood boiled at his reaction.
Mina blushes in anger and punches his wounded shoulder where Mystogan grunts in pain and storms off to Mirajane and helps the others.
"What just happened?" he asks as he looks at the girl who was happy and smiling at him few minutes ago and now who looked like she could destroy an entire town.
Freid shook his head, "I've known you since the day you came here, since then it was clear you lack people skills."
"What?" Mystogan asks as he looks at the man with long green hair
"See what I mean?" he replied, "What an unbelievably dense man."
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Thank you again ^^
Didn't notice it was this long though and it's 3:22 am, haven't the time to proof read.
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