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Hurricane

Chapter Nine

When Juvia went to the guild hall that night for dinner, intent on seeing Gajeel, he was gone. Natsu told her that he, or any of the other male recruits, hadn't seen Gajeel since the whole incident that day. And it annoyed Juvia too no end as she furiously downed her meal. Gajeel wasn't one to avoid her. He didn't run away.

So she assumed that he was still super angry that she let herself get beat up and at the same time give up and that he was off somewhere in the base alone, trying to cool himself down. Maybe he was mad at himself also, for hurting Levy. Juvia decided on both.

Dinner was lively and chaotic. Levy, Juvia, Lucy and Natsu sat together as they ate, talking about their tattoos and everyone else's. Natsu decided on the character for endurance and got it done on his right shoulder and Juvia didn't fail to notice that Lucy lingered her eyes a little longer than everyone else.

Juvia also didn't fail to notice that Gray was sitting pretty far away, almost at the other side of the room. She didn't say anything, after all it would be a bit peculiar if she complained about their trainer not sitting with them, but it made her curious and kind of relieved. He looked back, probably sensing her staring at him, and she didn't look away when their eyes locked. She had already decided to be brave from now on. Then music started playing and everyone cheered and if Juvia hadn't been pulled up from her seat by Levy to dance, she would have noticed the small smirk appear on her trainers face.

So Levy and Juvia, both bruised, battered and harbouring cuts on their cheeks, danced and spun around the guild floor together while others did the same. A blonde with a pink, twirling and almost falling. A cougar with a phoenix, laughing at their aching bodies and pushing them around.


When Juvia heard the bed beside her creek, she snapped her eyes open and gulped. She didn't have to look to know who it was, after all they did choose beds beside each other. The person was muttering and Juvia assumed that he was having trouble taking his shoes off and was getting frustrated. Once she heard him lay completely flat, she turned her head.

"Avoiding people is annoying, Gajeel-kun." She muttered, aware of the fact that every other recruit was currently sleeping, or pretending, and that it was very early in the morning.

He grunted as a reply and Juvia hit him with her hand and she assumed she got his arm but she wasn't sure because it was so dark.

"Oi!" He hissed, trying to conceal his naturally loud voice, "Wanna wake up all these idiots?"

"Where did you go?" Juvia whispered, ignoring his attempt at provoking her.

"For a walk." He muttered and turned in his bed, probably away from her Juvia decided.

"Long walk."

They fell silent and Juvia wondered if Gajeel would just try to ignore her and fall asleep. But that wasn't like him so she waited, for him to be comfortable and for him to open up. She knew they had to talk, but she'd let him pick the subjects.

"How's Levy?" He whispered in a tone that made Juvia's eyebrow rise.

"She's… strong."

"Hm… and you?"

"Juvia's back is killing her. Also, she's a bit upset that Gajeel-kun just left when-"

"Alright, alright. I get it." He mumbled and Juvia smiled to herself, "Sorry."

"Hm." She smiled and he sighed, signalling to her that that was their conversation over and she was content with this. So she turned away from him also and with their backs turned from each other, they fell asleep.


The next morning, before anyone else, Levy woke with a pain in her stomach and a limp at her leg. Probably from worsening her sore ankle from the dancing, she thought. But she knew she wasn't alone on this so she helped Juvia to the bathroom with Lucy so they could all shower. Juvia almost fell over on the way there but the two managed to catch her. She swayed in the shower and had to sit down after getting changed. Levy swallowed in her throat, she felt it too: everything seemed to be burning on her body. But Juvia was in the ring longer than her and her opponent wasn't some weird nice but scary dude who held back, Juvia got a real fight. And overnight, it seemed that they both felt worse, probably because the excitement from the guild hall had left and the real day after pain had set in.

Levy tied her spare shoe lace around her waist to ensure that her pants would stay up throughout the day. With Lucy, she helped dress Juvia in silence. Nothing needed to be said. It didn't feel right.

Juvia placed her head against the wall. Whatever Gray had given her to lessen the pain had really gone away through sleep. Her ribs were aching and her torso felt like it was melting. Her back was the worst of all, she could pinpoint every spot on it that he had kicked her. But she held in a complaint, only crying to herself inside. Here, there wasn't time to whine. Today she would have to face reality and the results from yesterday. She told herself that after a big breakfast, she would feel much better.


Training came straight away and they were back in the room lit by a hole in the roof. Juvia gazed up at the hole, where sunlight poured in and hurt her eyes which were now used to the low light of the base. That was a whole different time, she concluded. A different life where she harboured worries much different to the ones she carried now.

Lucy grabbed her hand and they kept walking to meet the rest of the recruits, who were gathered around the ring where Gray was standing, waiting to give the days instructions.

Gajeel walked ahead of the group. Refusing to look at Levy and Juvia, which annoyed them both.

"Give it time," Juvia offered Levy a smile. She knew that she was also aching and was also curious and slightly offended by Gajeel's actions.

"Mornin'," Gray spoke to the recruits as they clumped together, "Today we're gonna do something similar to yesterday. Strength training and sparring. We'll also incorporate some skills with weaponry later today and throughout the next two weeks. So you can use a variety of things during your test. For the rest of the two weeks, you'll be partnered with someone who has the same letter as you and if no one does, we'll go by the closest numbers. Also, based on yesterday… the scoreboard has ranked you guys and the lowest ten, at this point, will get kicked out of Fairy Tail at the end of your recruitment."

He pointed over to the far side of the room, where the orange lit scoreboard stood on the middle of the wall. Thirty six names were written across the glass, all in categorical order.

"Some of you are only where you are because of your recruit numbers… but because of yesterday… some of you moved." Gray muttered with this kind of annoyance in his voice that made Juvia curiously look at him. He was looking at the scoreboard, with his usual passive eyes.

She looked too and immediately guessed that she would be under the line. And she was right, more like '23O Juvia Lockser' was the last name on the board, number thirty six. Gajeel was one step ahead of her at thirty five and he looked back and actually met Juvia's eyes for the first time that day. He shrugged at her and she smiled back, knowing that that was his way of telling her that it really didn't matter. But she knew it did. To already have such a disadvantage. Juvia was worried enough about her placement and if she hadn't fought yesterday, right now she would be in the twenty third spot. She shook head, it was no use thinking of what could happen if she did something differently. She had to earn her place and she would move up, from thirty six to at least twenty five. For her, for the proles and for the phoenix on her leg.


Juvia was partnered with Natsu and she was glad that she had a friend to spar with for the next two weeks. Natsu was strong, she knew that much, and she could probably learn from him or at least copy what he did. Maybe that would be enough to impress the people at their first test.

She looked over to Levy who was paired with Gajeel and let out a sigh at the sight of them finally talking. Gajeel's eyes were on the ground, but Juvia could see his mouth moving and that was enough.

Lucy was with another girl, the same one who had been walking with yesterday's opponent 16L. Juvia wondered how the two would work together.

"Use the time how you want," Gray spoke from his place at the ring, "I'll tell you do to things now and then and introduce you to weaponry… but, it's your choice what you focus on."

Juvia nodded her head, pleased with the idea of picking what strengths to focus on. Granted, she hadn't exactly found her strength yet.

"You're alright?" Natsu asked, looking her up and down and causing her face to flare up.

"Yeah…" Juvia nodded her head, "Juvia thinks we should work really hard."

Natsu twisted his mouth and narrowed his eyes at her, before nodding and letting out a smile, "Yup! Let's work well together! I think we should start with sparring, since… well ya' know, you're not very good at it."

Juvia chuckled at his bluntness and was glad that it was a trait of his, she wouldn't want him to ignore the fact she wasn't a good fighter. She would rather him say it, so it wasn't awkward when they did fight.

"I think I can help you." He spoke and Juvia smiled at him, nodding her head, "I noticed a few things in your fight yesterday that you could change, wanna work on them first?"

"Yes! Thank you Natsu-kun, Juvia really appreciates it!"

"Sure. Besides I gotta have some competition to fight against for these weeks. I'll train you real good so you can train me real good in return, yeah? There'll be things you're real good at that I'm horse shit at."

Juvia nodded and they walked over to a corner of the training hall to get some privacy.

"Alright you block," Natsu gestured and rose his fists, "Watch your opponent's eyes, they usually look at the spot they'll hit a couple times before they do so they know where to go. So when you notice that, block that spot. Ready?"

Juvia nodded, ignoring the sting in her back. She studied Natsu's eyes and quickly blocked the left side of her stomach.

"Good!" He laughed and Juvia let out a shaky breath, "So you can use that trick against your opponent too. Find out where you'll aim for, then purposefully look at a different spot so they think you'll try for there. They'll block it but you won't hit it, you get me? You'll land your hit on them while they focus on blocking the spot you faked," Juvia nodded and Natsu stood back, "Alright, you try it."

Juvia gulped and clenched her fists, looking at Natsu's chest and thinking of aiming for his lower stomach. She didn't worry too much about hurting him if it actually worked, which it probably would because she knew Natsu would let her. She knew her strength was little and his was anything but. When he motioned to block his chest, she jumped forward and let a clumsy punch hit his stomach. He didn't even blink at it and Juvia was half disappointed, as she tried to put enough strength in to get a reaction.

"Right, that's perfect," He smiled his toothy grin, "I've been using that one for years, even got that Gajeel yesterday with it," At this Juvia laughed, "Right, what you did yesterday in your fight was good. The whole running away and tiring him out. If you know your good at that then use it. Aiming for the back of the leg was good too and when you got his dick I was cheering inside. Use that to your advantage but don't make it the only strength you have. If you battle a guy you can't just rely on hitting his balls and escaping. I mean, that's great for real life fights, but here they probably wouldn't let you protect the whole city if you only had that move. But use it while you train to get better, then you can just punch 'em and it'll have the same effect. Speaking of, your punch is weak as hell. So I think we should focus on strength training for this week, then sparring next week. Whatdya' think?"

Juvia blinked and quickly nodded her head, "Juv- I agree. But I don't want to burden you Natsu-kun."

He shook his head, "Nah, you won't. I was gonna do that with any partner I got, regardless of their strength. You know how to train right?"

"Uhh-"

"Well, you can just follow what I do but feel free to do any training you wanna do- like, I don't know, running or something. But if you got any questions or anything, I'd probably ask that Gray dude, he'd know more than me."

Juvia nodded, feeling as if she could start crying, "Thank you so much, Natsu-kun. Juvia has never-"

"Don't worry about it. Let's not worry on the thanking part of it and let's start the hard stuff. You sure you'll be alright?"

"I have to be." She smiled and thought of Gajeel, she'd make him proud of her.

"Right," Natsu grinned, "You'll take my place on the scoreboard in no time."


They started on practicing punches and kicks on the punching bags that hung across the left corner of the hall. Some other recruits had the same plan and Juvia was kind of intimidated by their powerful punches. Her arms were stinging and she had given up on trying to complain about her back because it was hurting so much that she couldn't think of a way to describe it. Her punches were much lighter than everyone else's and barely moved the bag, but her kicks were alright and Gray had even walked past and called them 'decent'. She didn't know if she was mad or happy about it.

Then the two O's did some laps of the hall and Juvia knew for sure that she needed to focus more on running and endurance as she was wheezing loud enough for the people standing on top of the building to hear. After running, her legs felt like jelly and she knew her body was about to give out. She felt numb, the pain she had felt from her fight yesterday was poking at every corner of her body and it make Juvia wonder how Levy was feeling.

Natsu showed her some exercises to target her abdominal area and her strength. She barely did a quarter of what he did and she knew that she was way too weak for them, so she decided to run some more. She jogged around, avoiding Gray's gaze which seemed to follow her, and stealing glances at Levy, who was throwing a lot of punches at one of the bags next to Gajeel. Her body looked tired and on the little bit of exposed flesh she had showing, Juvia could make out a bruise. But her face harboured a look of determination and Juvia now knew that the cougar on her back was perfect for her.

Lucy and her partner were sparring and when Juvia looked over, the blonde was in the middle of a very fancy looking roundhouse kick. Everyone was doing so well, Juvia thought as her legs got heavier. She gripped her hand on the wall and stopped her slow paced jogging, feeling like her stomach could fall out of her mouth. And she felt so tired, more tired than yesterday and more tired than she could ever remember. It hurt to do anything, even talk and her wheezing breath was making her head feel dizzy. She suspected she was drawing some attention to her and when she felt a hand on her shoulder she shook it off, attempting to run once more.

"23O."

She stopped at the voice and whipper her head around to the owner of the hand. Gray was standing over her, glaring at her and Juvia didn't have the energy to glare back.

"You alright?" He questioned with a hint of annoyance in his tone.

Juvia nodded and turned to keep running but stopped when the hand returned to her shoulder.

"You're swaying. Are you're wounds all alright? You didn't hit one did you?" He spoke, his voice louder than usual and Juvia would have cursed him if she could speak because she knew that everyone was probably watching them.

"You," Gray muttered, turning away from her and looking over at Natsu, who had come over to see if she was alright, "You're alright to train alone for the rest of today?"

Natsu nodded and gave Juvia a worried look. She focused her eyes on the ground, her face was probably the reddest it had ever been.

"Good, I'm gonna take her to the infirmary. I'll be back in a second." Gray said as he grabbed Juvia's shoulders and steered her toward the door before looking back at the recruits, who were all curiously observing them, "You all keep going."

And right before they left the room, Gray nodded at Gajeel, who looked as equally mad as Juvia.


"Take of the jacket." He spoke and Juvia mustered her strength to glare at him for his tone of voice. But she did as he said, slipping her shaking arms out of the sleeves and throwing the material down on the ground, "Pull the top up."

She widened her eyes at him, her face still red as ever and her breath still shaky. He gave her a stern look and she scrunched her eyes closed, turning her head and sliding the black singlet she wore up to her ribcage. The room fell silent enough for her to hear him breathe inward not so silently and she wondered how bad her wounds did look. Her face was burning on equal par with her back.

"That fucker got you pretty bad." He sneered and half pushed her down on one of the seats. Then he turned and opened a cabinet in the room, rummaging through it and returning with a bottle of dark liquid and a small container.

"Here," He passed her the bottle, "It's the same stuff from yesterday and it'll help you walk without feeling pain. And also this," He shoved the container in her hands, "Put that cream on your bruises, it'll help the swelling," He cleared his throat and Juvia rose her eyes to look at his face which one again looked like a schoolgirl. She let a laugh through her nose, "I'll get that blonde girl to put it on your back once we're done for today… But you can put in on where you can reach… Anyway, sleep, drink that and don't get up. You'll feel better when you wake up. This is the smaller infirmary so no-one will come in and I'll lock the door so-"

He stopped as Juvia rose her hand to grip his arm, she looked up at him, her eyes half lidded and filled with the desire to sleep, "Drink…. Lev…."

Gray took a step back by reflex, clearing his throat at the surprise she gave him, "What?"

"Levy," Juvia swallowed, "2C. Give her… a drink."

And once he pieced together her quiet words he nodded and helped her to lay down, "Yeah. I will. Sleep, alright? Don't come to the guild hall tonight and don't dance you idiot. I'll get someone to bring you food, so rest."

Juvia's eyes were closed and her body felt like she was in water with an anchor tied to her torso, but she fought to stay afloat, "Lev…y,"

Gray sighed, "I'll tell her the same and I'll make her come here when she's ready to. You two can sleep here tonight, these beds are better for you but all this is only for today, alright? I can't help you after this or Laxus'll have my head. I'll tell 2C to come after."

"Gray-sa… thank..y…"

Gray frowned at the figure before him, "Yeah. Whatever, Lockser."

He grabbed another bottle out of the cabinet and walked toward the door. Turning the light off and taking one last look at the blue haired girl before closing the door.

And inside, Juvia gave up her struggle to fight the anchor and sunk into the depths of the sea.


When she woke once again, she cursed herself at the familiar situation. There was no light in the room which she was thankful for, but she could see enough to make out the things inside the room. She sat up and looked around, now aware of the other person in the room, who was curled up on her side on the bed next to her and Juvia assumed that she was in a deep sleep.

She then noticed the box next to her, on the table that was next to her bed. She frowned and looked at it, it had no colour in the grey lighting and was around the same size as the cake boxes she always saw when her foster mother's sister came to their house. She reached over to it and opened it. The room was immediately filled with the scent of food and Juvia felt her mouth shamelessly water. She recalled Gray's words and felt her whole face heat up. She was ashamed and she was a burden.

Juvia guessed that it was around midnight as the base looked darker than usual and the food wasn't as hot as it would have been four hours ago when it was made. But it filled her stomach graciously and she enjoyed every bite of it, which she usually did at dinner.

The silence of the room bit at her ears and she wanted to get up to put the empty box in the bin across the room but stopped when she remembered Gray's words. So instead she put it back where she got it and laid back in her bed. The cream container, which she left on the table, was gone and Juvia lifted up her shirt, which had changed from a singlet to her pyjama top, and felt the cotton wrappings which hugged her torso. She bit her lip and turned to look at Levy, who was also in her pyjamas.

Levy was strong. Levy endured. Levy didn't leave the training because she swayed when she ran.

Juvia looked at the roof and she suddenly remembered the day when she discovered the proles existence. A time when everything was different but she felt the same as she did then: scared, weak and little. And for the first time in a long time, Juvia cried.


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