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Chapter Seven
Not Again
"Where's Minerva?"
Lucy was busy clearing her desk with tremendous amount of paperwork before dumping the pile to supposedly work station of her boss.
"Oh, she got fired." she nonchalantly said.
"What? Then who took over?"
"You did. You're our team leader now, Erza. After you caught Minerva stealing the game in development and proved she was selling it to another company, the President replaced her with you."
The first session with Ultear had just ended and to her disappointment, there wasn't much progress at all. Apart from a slight deviation from Dr. Fernandes' usual routine, nothing was coming back to her. It seemed like she's stuck. Work however, wasn't helping her like she thought it would. The familiar faces that greeted her up to now were strangers and to make matters worse, she didn't know how to act around them.
"Relax," Lucy's soothing voice instructed her. "Just like I told you before, you don't have to do anything but give out orders."
Erza managed a slight nod and opened the files, skimming and scanning through the whole thing at once.
"This is a new project." she observed.
"Yes, it's the second installment to the previous game."
As the redhead had guessed, the plot continued on to where the first game had left off. This time she abruptly went through the details of the story line and the designs for the new characters.
"Is Levy still the one writing the story?" she asked.
"Yes, why?"
"It's good. Though I have a question or two I need to address. And there's something off with the proportions of the new characters."
Lucy smiled.
"What?" Erza asked, generally curious as to what the blonde was thinking.
"Nothing. It's just that, I'm glad you're back and it's good to know some things don't change."
Somehow, Erza felt the need to smile. Her mind might be a mess right now, but there was no denying her feelings that no matter how hard it was to adjust, there's no place else she'd rather be.
"Me too."
The rest of the day went by without any problems. Erza was just about finished with the report and even though she was tired, she couldn't help but feel a sense of accomplishment washing over her. She had survived her first day at work.
"Are you going home now?" Lucy asked.
"Yes." But she was unsure. Normally, she'd find herself immediately retiring after an exhausting day, but her gut somehow told her to stay longer. Her blonde assistant seemed to have noticed this.
"Are you okay?"
"Hmm? Ah, yes...I just...does the former me go home early?"
"Well, you always leave the office late. Like late late. But the company doesn't allow sleeping in the office so you come home at some point." she giggled, as if remembering a funny moment she shared with her boss.
Erza managed a small smile. The internal battle between staying and leaving became clear to her. And then the scenario got her thinking. Does that mean her previous behavior was somehow being overwritten by the current her? She remembered having the same struggle before. Back when Simon visited her, he told her he brought her breakfast favorites and she was sure that time, that she didn't want a heavy meal but then again, it could be just easily blamed to her metabolism.
Whatever it was, she refused to think and go deeper into context. She can't afford to waste time on worrying whether her thoughts and feelings were the same or acceptable to te people around her. She just has to go with the flow and argue with herself later on if something comes back to her. For now, she'll follow what her heart tells her to.
"I don't want to go home yet." she blurted out.
Lucy stared at her for a moment before breaking into a huge grin. Then she yelled out something to the rest of the creative team before the whole horde of her staff came bustling in her office. Something told her she never went out much if their reaction was as absurd as this.
The place was nice. Just from the ambiance and the people around them, she could sense the good vibe emanating from them. Apart from the location being remotely far from her place, the redhead had no trouble blending in and admiring the place.
"Do you guys go here often?" she asked, shocked at first that her team didn't bring her to a noisy club or a loud pub. The drnking establishment had more finesse and mellowness to it. Kind of like the opposite from how she thought the guys would be. Especially Natsu and Gray. She recalled the first day they were assigned, and the office was an absolute hellhole with their whining and bickering. Did they change to fine young men in the past three years?
Lucy let out a nervous laugh. "No. We kind of picked this place to be considerate. You're still recovering and I don't think loud music and cramped spaces would do you good."
God, what did I do to deserve them?
"You just admitted to me you guys belong on the wilder side." she smirked.
"Just a moderate wild." Lucy agreed.
After a series of short conversations, Lucy was dragged by co-workers to chug on a ridiculous amount of alcohol. Though some had thoughtfully asked the redhead to join in on the fun, she settle for politely refusing saying that she still couldn't handle alcohol that much. Which was true. She didn't like it when she wasn't sober. The last time she got wasted she literally went berserk. Erza didn't want her colleagues to know that side of her.
Unfortunately for her, like all sober people at parties, she had to be the responsible one. That she didn't mind, but taking the WHOLE team under her supervision and look out for them, THAT worried her a little.
"Alright, Levy that's enough." Erza tried to control the unfit bursts of laughter from the young writer but was immediately hauled by another drunk person.
"Erzaaaa," Juvia drawled. "Gray doesn't want me anymooooore."
"Who are you?" Erza quickly turned to said man. "Who is she?"
"She's a write-hic-ter. Same as...Lev-hic-yyyyy." Gray then started to unbutton the top of his shirt.
"H-Hey!" Erza removed her jacket as she soon as she saw Gray swiftly undoing the rest. She roughly wrapped her jacket around him and zipped it to prevent him from stripping any further.
"Damn you guys are a mess!" Erza started to do a headcount. The sooner she assembled everyone in the room, the sooner they can leave. But the problem was, she didn't even know half of the team. Without anyone helping her out, leaving was impossible.
"Everyone's here except for Lisanna." Natsu slurred. Although Erza could see he was clearly tipsy, she guessed that he was still in the right state of mind to engage in a conversation.
"Okay, Natsu. I don't know who Lisanna is. Could you go and describe her for me? I'll go and look for her."
"Let's both look together." he offered.
"No, you stay here and take care of everyone. I'll go and look for her."
"But you don't even know how she looks. I think I should go and look for her while you stay here with everyone."
Erza stilled.
"That's...a pretty good suggestion."
Erza escorted the rest to the vehicle and waited until Natsu and the girl named Lisanna came back.
They never did.
Erza checked her watch for the fifth time. It was half past midnight and Natsu was gone for half an hour now. Getting impatient from the workers still running amok the vehicle, she ordered them to pipe down. She drew in a long breath before deciding to go look for the missing two. Erza instructed the remaining workers to stay put until she comes back, slowly elongating and pronouncing the words in hopes that their brains could at least understand.
Erza's first hunch was to check on the women's restroom where she found no trace of Natsu or Lisanna.
"Where could they be...?" Then she heard a noise coming from the other side. The men's room. Her ears picked up unintelligible noises then a grunt, followed by a thud. A sob then came. The high-pitched voice alarmed her. Not only did the voice sound feminine, but it also sounded like it was in trouble. Instinct drove her to sprint towards the other room.
She blasted open the door and found Natsu lying on the wet and dirty floor.
A whistle caught her attention after.
"Well, what do we have here? Looks like someone volunteered to join the fun boys!"
A disgusting sound of cackles erupted from the men who had Lisanna surrounded.
There were four men and the logical thing to do was run or call for help, but she did the insane thing. She lunged forward, planting the heel of her palm to the jaw of a still laughing goon before she heard a cracking noise. The first man fell to the floor. The three, astounded, chose to get to her as a group. Erza panicked, there was no way she could take out these guys, but her body moved otherwise. It seemed like even though her head was a mess, her body was like a well oiled machine with a mind of its own.
She sweeped their feet and all fell hard. The first one to recover threw himself at her, but she dodged sharply to the side before her foot connected at the apex of the poor man's thighs. Crumpled on the ground, the next one to assault her tried a different strategy. He attacked her from below to which she simply returned the favor by countering with the heel of her office shoe, crushing the bones that snapped under the force. The third man joined the pile of helpless bodies on the floor and the fourth man hesistated. Erza was panting, but she wasn't feeling tired at all. The last guy pulled out a knife and was about to slice his way through when Natsu tackled the offender and sent him to the floor. He punched once at the side of the man's temple and the receiver immediately went unconscious.
Erza reached for the trembling woman and wished she hadn't given her jacket to Gray. She settled for hugging her instead to comfort her.
"Damn fuckers," Natsu wiped the blood off of his nape and winced. "They caught me by surprise. Are you guys okay?"
Lisanna nodded once.
"Let's just get..."
Erza felt her knees cave in. Her strength flushing out of her system and the air being drained out of her lungs. With one last attempt to gather herself, she fell to the floor, her head hitting the tile hard. Natsu came to her rescue a bit late and Lisanna immediately cushioned the redhead's hurt hed on her lap. Erza's vision blurred and for whatever derranged humor that overtook her, she thought maybe, just maybe that impact she felt would bring her memories back.
