Greetings my readers, I am still kicking. The second part took longer than I thought, my editor is currently indisposed and I have been working on other things. I was only able to go back and fully edit the second part and part of the third. The third part is about halfway down but I'm probably going to make some major changes to it so it might take a bit longer to finish. But I shall continue!
MrtheratedG: I will being most of the OVAs and a majority of the episodes. The ones I will leave him out of are the ones he couldn't really play a part in. One example that comes to mind is when Erza meets Bisca in Moulin Rouge. Also, Ryu might miss others episodes due to his own little arcs like currenly he is missing the Galuna Island arc. Fairy Academy:Yankee-kun and Yankee-chan OVA is off the list, sorry but that episode just . . . meh, I don't like it, so sorry if you were hoping to see that one. The body switching one WILL be there, I have a idea for that one.
Alright, lets get to some story!
Chapter 10:
Out in the Open Sea
2 days later . . .
2:45PM, Mermaid's Cove town edge
Ryu disembarked from the carriage and was immediately slammed with the smell of fish and ocean salt. It took him a second or two to get use to the smell, he guessed it wouldn't have been as bad if the wind hadn't been blowing in his direction. He stood atop a hill looking down at the crystal blue water, it seemed like a nice day to walk down the beach if he so chose. The sound of chatter was carried to him by the wind, Ryu adjusted his gaze and to see a port town perhaps a fifth the size of Hargeon built inside an alcove that was protected by a large natural rock sea wall that shielded the small town during storms and high winds that blew in from the sea. The town itself had a variety of buildings, although none seemed to be more than three stories tall. The roofs were all made with the same type of roofing material yet each house seemed to have a different color atop it. Small ships rested near the docks, bobbing slowly with the waves. Ryu covered his nose when the wind brought the smell of fish to his senses, he wasn't a fan of seafood ever since he had some bad fish one night.
After Ryu bid farewell to the carriage driver, the silver haired mage proceeded down a narrow gravel trail that led into the town. As Ryu grew closer to the town, the sound of voices started to steadily drown out the sound of the gravel crunching under his boots. The town itself seemed like any other small port town you would come across. Kids could be seen running around, playing tag or hide and seek. Teenage boys would most likely be out helping their fathers fish while the girls who would probably be helping their mothers around the house or out shopping. Or that was just Ryu's impression of small port towns, but there was two things he was sure about. Small port towns like these are tight knit groups, everyone looked out for eachother like everyone in this town was one big family. That and towns like this usually shunned outsiders like himself.
True to his hypothesis, Ryu could see a couple glares shot his way as he made his way through town. Ryu's first course of action was to find an inn, even if they didn't like outsiders they brought money with them. A inn usually doubles as a tavern and taverns were the favorites of the working man after a hard work day. Most men would be fishing which means the tavern would most likely be near the docks so the men wouldn't have to travel far before getting a drink. So Ryu started to make his way toward the docks in hopes that is where he would find an inn. However, this hypothesis was proven false when he happened upon a building named 'The Mermaid's Fin Inn and Tavern' which happened to be near the middle of town. The fact that it was in the middle of town seemed reasonable as well, equal distance from the edges of the town for the benefit of everyone living here.
It was obvious that the hinges needed to be oiled by how loudly the door creaked as Ryu opened it. The tavern was mostly empty which the exception of four people, himself, an old man drinking at the bar, the bartender and a man that sat in a secluded corner of the tavern who stuck out like a sore thumb. Just by staring at him for a second, anyone could tell that the man was a noble of some sort, he wore royal purple outfit with gold trim with a cape of the exact same colors, various rings were placed on seven out his ten fingers, multiple necklaces of varying precious metals and gems hung from his neck. And the way he sat made him give off an aura of arrogance. As Ryu approached, he looked to the man's face to see that he was young, in his early twenties if Ryu had to guess. He also had matching purple hair and eyes that were a couple shades darker than his clothes. Ryu formed two hypotheses as he stopped in front of the man, either he was the mayor who had used the town's riches to buy him all this fancy wear or he was Ryu's client.
A frown shown across the man's face as he looked up at Ryu and asked in an irritated voice, "What business you have with me?"
"Inner peace, inner peace, I know you've just met this guy and already want shove his face in all the shredded glass you could find, but that won't solve anything."
Ryu decided to listen to his common sense and responded with holding up his arm. The duster's sleeve slid down revealing Ryu's Mandalorian gauntlet with the Fairy Tail symbol upon it. The man looked at the symbol for a second before brushing his cape out of the to reach into a pocket and pulled out and unfolded a piece of white paper. It was blank but Ryu knew what it was before the message even started. A hologram of Mira popped up and began going through the niceties of when the guild takes on a request. Mira must have sent a letter ahead of him via some kind of rapid delivery mail system, these kind of letters always seemed to beat him to the client. How, Ryu didn't care, saved him the trouble of having to explain who he was and why he was here.
After the hologram vanished, the man looked back up to Ryu, "So, what's your name mage?"
So much for not having to explain who he was, "Ryu, Ryu Darkson."
The man seemed to jerk slightly at the mention at his name, however the man seemed to try to cover up the fact that he did. Ryu guess that the man had heard of his infamous exploits, it wasn't an uncommon thing to do when you realize the man standing in front of you has caused enough destruction to get himself on the Magic Council's watch list, even for someone of Fairy Tail.
"And you are?" Ryu asked in order to move things along.
The man cleared his throat before responding, "Anton, and that's all you need to know."
A small vein bulged on Ryu's forehead, "Inner peace, do not smash the noble's face though the picture right next to him on the wall."
Ryu breathed deeply in order to calm his nerves before proceeding, "So are we just going to sit here or are we going are your item from the shipwreck?"
Anton scoffed, "Well, it's too late now. The docks in this grovel weren't big enough for my ship so I had it drop me off here while it went west to find a place to dock at in the next town over."
"Uh, can't ships just drop anchor off shore and stay there for a couple of nights?"
Anton seemed dumbfounded at Ryu's question, "What? Are you stupid? This part of the ocean is known for its sudden freak storms, and I will not have my ship caught in that."
"Oh my god! You now have my permission to send him sailing straight through the sea wall on the edge of town.
Ryu sighed quietly, relieving some anger, "So what time are we leaving tomorrow?"
"Hmph, you have some hope yet. The skiff for my ship leaves from the docks tomorrow at nine sharp." Without another word, Anton stood up, brushed past Ryu and walked up the stairs to the second floor where Ryu presumed the rooms for rent were.
Ryu made his way over to the bar, a woman with green hair was manning the bar but had her back to him as he approached, "Um, excuse me?"
The woman launched herself off the ground with and 'eep' and the sound of glass shattering filled the bar. Ryu looked over the bar to see a shattered glass mug laying at the feet of the woman. The woman sighed as she bent down, "Oh no, not again."
"Uh, you need any help?" Ryu asked.
The woman jumped again as well as let another 'eep' slip out. She whirled around, almost causing her spectacles to come off but managed to hold on and dangle off one ear, "Oh, I'm s-sorry, I g-get easily startle. C-can I h-help you?"
Ryu rose an eyebrow, "Are you okay?"
The old man who at been sitting a little ways down the bar chuckled, "Emilia here doesn't do well with strangers. Especially Lord Snotty Brat." The aging man nodded his head toward the stairs where Anton had disappeared.
Ryu's gaze shifted back to the woman behind the counter. He was a little confused when he saw the woman quivering slightly as if she just experienced something traumatic, "Uuuhhh . . . do I really have that much of an intimidating presence?"
The woman quickly rose her hands in defense, "No, it's not that, I j-just saw you t-talking to the noble from before a-and . . ." She trailed off.
The elder man spoke up again, "Emi thinks if she makes you angry, she'll incur the wrath of the noble since she saw you two talking together."
Ryu chuckled slightly as he waved the notion off, "Ah, don't worry about that. I'm just here on a guild request. I have no connection to that guy, in fact if I wasn't on a job and I met him, I would have shoved his face through the nearest glass window."
Emi seemed to loosen up a bit as she let out a short giggle. The old man at the end of the bar took another sip of his drink before letting out a laugh of his own. Ryu swung his leg over a bar stool and sat down on the wooden seat, "So how much for a room and some food?"
"A room is twenty-five hundred Jewel and the cost of food depends on what you want." Emi replied with a cheerful smile.
Ryu couldn't help but mirror her smile since she now seemed comfortable talking with him, "What do you recommend?"
The smile across Emi's face widened, "We have a special going on today, a large pork sandwich, a slice of warm buttered bread with a piece of pumpkin pie. And to wash it all down, freshly squeezed orange juice. All for fifteen hundred Jewel! "
Ryu quickly wiped some drool that had started to spill down the side of his face, "That sounds great. But isn't this a fishing town, I would've thought there would have been some fish somewhere in there?"
"That's why it's a special silly." And with that, Emi left the room via a door behind the bar which Ryu assumed was the kitchen.
Ryu had to admit, Emi seemed like a completely different person when she wasn't nervous around somebody. A groan escaped his lips as he stretched his arms, neck, and legs. He turned to see the elder looking at him with a small grin, "What's up? Do I have something on my face." Ryu asked as he began brushing away any possible crumbs. As his hand moved over his face, he felt the beginning of facial hair poking into his hand. Ryu made a mental note to shave when he got back to Magnolia.
"So you said you were in a guild, that most likely means that you are a mage of some type."
Ryu nodded, "Yep, proud Earth Mage of Fairy Tail."
The man seemed to perk up even more, "Fairy Tail you say? That's a rowdy crowd if there ever was one."
"Yeah, but most of them are good people at heart."
"Most?"
Ryu hesitated a little before deciding to continue, "There are always those people that just don't mix well with others."
He was referring to Laxus whom he feuded with every now and then. When Ryu had first approached Laxus when he was younger, he had originally tried to friendly with the lighting mage, however Laxus's rude personality immediately made Ryu dislike the guy. And it had only gotten worse from then on.
"Ah, yes." A silence hung between them for a brief moment before the old man continued, "Been in Fairy Tail for long?"
"Yeah, about-" Ryu paused for a second to double check he had the amount of years correct, "About seven years now."
The old man jumped slightly as if he had been startled, "Where are my manners?" The man thrust a hand toward Ryu, "Charles Braveshield." It was then Ryu took in the physical features of the man named Charles. Thinning grey hair, seemed to favor his right leg since his left had a limp, but despite the man's age you could tell that Charles was once a fighting man.
An eyebrow as Ryu shook the firm handshake, "Braveshield?"
Charles waved him off with a grin, "Old family name, one of my ancestors was an important knight that fought during the Dragon Civil War."
"You're shitting me." Charles looked at Ryu with an amused face. The Jedi turned his gaze back the bar, "Er, sorry. Old habits."
Ryu jumped slightly as Charles broke out into a loud fit of laughter, "You have no right to use the word old with me."
Emi emerged from the kitchen with a hand under a large plate of food and the other with a glass of orange juice in the other. Ryu leaned down the bar and managed to tink glasses with Charles. A quick glance out the nearby window showed that it was starting to get dark. A couple of seconds after glancing out the window, a group of at least twelve men came into the bar, their voices bellowing as they talked about the days events. It wasn't long after the first group came, a small trickle of people turned into a small flood. The tavern itself was quite large and seemed to be the only one in town. Charles moved seats closer to Ryu so their conversation could continue. More employees of the tavern started to show up which would allow Emi to join their conversation every now and then.
Emi's story was quite simple, she had grown up all her life in this town, the farthest away she had ever been was a mile outside town in the forest when her parents would take her on walks with them. The tavern itself had been here ever since the town popped up but there had been modifications to it since then to allow for more patrons to visit at once. Once her parents had passed away, Emi had taken over membership of it and with the help of Charles she had been running it for five years without any problems.
Charles on the hand was once a high ranking knight in the army but after a bad fall down a cliff, the bones in his left leg shattered into a million pieces. With the help of magic, he was able to walk again but the limp he had was clear as a sunny day. However, old habits are die hard and Charles found himself in multiple situations where he hurt his leg again because he stepped in to defend an innocent from some thug or another. Although from what Charles told him, the thugs usually were hospitalized after he was done with them. Five years ago, while he was traveling he came across Mermaid's Cove. Looking for a place to stay, he came to the inn but what he found was a fifthteen year old girl trying to run the place on her own. He couldn't but pity the girl and decided to help her out for a couple days. Those couple days turned into a couple weeks, then months and then years.
Ryu also got to have a look at some of Charles old knight gear that had been handed down through his family ever since his ancestor fought in the Dragon Civil War. A ornate Bastard sword and shield, both with white and gold trip. The symbol on the shield's front ironically was another shield, most likely the symbol of the now long gone noble family. The sword had a golden dragon that wrapped across the crossguard with its head head sticking out one way and the tail the opposite. What had Ryu interested the most was the power he could feel emanating not only from the sword, but the shield as well. When he inquired about it, Charles merely smiled and told him it was a family secret.
After Ryu's question had been shot down, his golden pocket watch from his mother appeared in his hand with a flash of gray light. It was nine fifty-seven and Ryu had a potential life threatening job to handle to tomorrow so he decided to hit the sack. After withdrawing the appropriate amount of cash from his pocket dimension and paying Emi, he went up to his room to sleep. Only to find the door was locked and Emi hadn't given him the key for it, so instead of being a sensible person and going down to pick up the key, Ryu merely pick locked his way into the room.
()()()()
8:25 AM, Mermaid Cove docks
The morning sea breeze flooded throughout the entire town, Ryu could smell it as soon as he woke up an hour ago. He had ordered some breakfast before heading out, there was something Ryu needed to do before he got on Anton's ship. The beach near the city was deserted except for himself. The sounds of the waves splashing against the shore along with the squawks of gulls filled Ryu's ears as he walked the sandy beach. The object Ryu was looking for was plentiful but he was looking for one that suited his purposes. It took a twenty minutes before he found the object which meet all of his needs. And with a flash of gray light, the object disappeared into his handy-dandy pocket dimension. Although, it was certainly getting full with all the objects he was storing, so Ryu made a note to himself to make sure that he cleaned it out soon.
The Jedi check his pocket watch to find it was eight forty-two and he wasn't even a quarter of a mile outside town so he had some time to kill. He removed his boots and sat by the water's edge to the waves could wash over his feet. Seven years ago, he woke up on a beach much like this one after Mavis had transported using magic that was not in her 'forte'. It could have been a lot worse than waking up on beach if something had gone wrong, he could have been teleported a mile above the beach in his sleep or inside some active volcano. It was strange though, he had gone back to Tenrou island several times for his S-Class trials yet he hadn't seen hide nor hair of the long dead guild master. During breaks in between the trails he would actively seek her out so as to call out her name but not in the presence of others, especially Makarov. Ryu still wasn't sure how everyone would react about him meeting the First Guild Master, let alone the fact that he came to this world through a portal that torn open inside a black hole using the Force.
Ryu laidback in the sand, staring up into the clear blue sky. Seagulls flew up and down the beach and over the water, letting out their annoying cries as they communicated with each other. His mind couldn't help but drift back to his old master Etro, she wasn't so much as a mentor or even a mother figure. If he had to chose, to Ryu, Etro was more like a elder sister figure to him. Would a mentor or a mother figure really wear clothes that seemed a size too small or pull their apprentice into their breasts, repeatedly and seemingly without end. At the end of the day, Ryu loved Etro like family or what his idea of family love was. Before he left, he was at least able to tell her thank for everything she had done for him. Ryu knew he was difficult to work with, then and now. He was a rebel among the Jedi and yet she took him under her wing, knowing all the trouble he was going to bring. She had once told him that she took him as an apprentice because he was interesting but had never told him why he was. Etro was a confusing person, but she was family. Ryu could only hope she was getting along without him.
When he sat up, something was different with the scenery over the ocean when Ryu had last looked at it before laying back. The difference was quite easy to point out, that fact that a incredibly large and decorated ship was now blocking your view of the ocean isn't really that hard to see. The ship was big to say the least, twice as long as any of the Magic Council combat ships and had about 1.5 times the height of one as well. The ship had to at least have four decks with a maximum of six, cannons lined each deck from end to end with what looked like several bow cannons to fire on any ships they were pursuing, no doubt there were some on the rear as well. The sails were currently drawn up but with what he could see, the ship could set a decent speed. The hull of the ship was painted purple with gold trim with a gold statue on the front depicting some kind of bird. Ryu was 99.8% sure that the ship belonged to Anton with the other .2 belonging to the possibility being that someone in this town pissed off the wrong noble.
The docks were filled with people, mostly males ages ranging from early teens to men in their late forties. A couple women could be seen on the docks, saying goodbye to their families as they went to work out on the ocean. On the very end of the dock, Ryu spotted a rather annoyed looking Anton with a large row boat tied to the end of the dock with four other men sitting waiting in the boat, talking amongst themselves. Anton could see Ryu moving through the crowd of people toward him well before he was halfway across the boardwalk, one of the downsides of being tall is that it's quite hard to blend into crowds.
Anton looked down at his watch as Ryu approached, "Wow, here at nine on the dot. I'm impressed."
"What, do you think all of us mages to be irresponsible?" Ryu asked as he rolled his eyes.
Anton's trademark irritated face didn't waver, it looked more irritated than before it seemed, if that was even possible, "Get in the skiff."
Ryu did as he was told and hopped down into the small boat. As he hit the bottom, the sudden impact and weight increase caused the boat to sink a little further into the water as it bobbed from side to side causing Ryu to lose balance for a moment. While Ryu hit the skiff like a brick, Anton crouched down from the dock and fell gently into the boat and sat on a bench within the boat in one fluid motion, the skiff didn't seem to react to the added weight like it did Ryu. Either Anton has had his sea legs for quite a long time or . . . Ryu couldn't think of another explanation so he took a seat from across Anton.
The young noble had his eyes transfixed on the vast ocean, as if was waiting for something like a whale to breach out of the water or something along those lines, "How long have you been sailing on the ocean?" Ryu asked.
Anton never broke his gaze from the ocean as he responded, "Nearly all my life, while most nobles spend their days locked up in their fancy mansions, I prefer to live out my days on a ship. It's more . . . peaceful. And it's nice that . . ." The nobleman couldn't seem to find the words he was looking for.
Ryu was honestly surprised that he managed to get a response, talking about ocean must have been an easy subject to talk about with him. Ryu decided to try to fill in a answer, "Nice that you can wake up with a different scenery then you went to sleep with? If your near a landmass that is."
Anton turned his gaze toward Ryu, "Yeah, there's that . . . but what I was going to say is that it's nice to be rocked to sleep each night."
Ryu could only stare back in amazement as Anton began to chuckle as he looked back out over the ocean. The stuck up young nobleman had made an actual bad joke, most nobles wouldn't be caught dead making a joke like that. The jokes nobles mostly told is about how some of the servants tried to get a pay raise or they were able to raise taxes in their area of influence without the government interfering. Ryu couldn't help but see Anton in a slightly different light, maybe he wasn't a complete asshat as Ryu thought he was.
The ride to the ship didn't take that long. As they pulled up alongside it, one of the oarsman shouted up to the deck and a wooden ladder uncoiled itself as it fell toward them. Anton was the first up the ladder followed shortly by Ryu. As the Jedi was climbing up several ropes were thrown over the side and fell into the boat he had arrived on, the ropes were tied through loops. Ryu hoisted his legs over the railing and sat there for a moment as he scanned the deck. Sailors were rushing around all the deck, some were climbing higher to unfurl the sails while others still with their feet on the deck were loosening some ropes while tightening others. Ryu had no clue what they were doing and didn't want to get in their way so his objective was to find Anton among the moving bodies.
It wasn't hard to pick himself out of the crowd with all the purple he was wearing. Currently, he was standing and talking with a woman who stood out just about as much as he did. The woman from Ryu could tell from his enhanced Force Sight was that the woman seemed to be a little older than Anton but not by much. Her hair was long and red like Erza's but a couple shades darker and tied up into a ponytail, her height seemed to be a couple inches taller than Anton. Her outfit consisted of a navy blue vest with a white button undershirt, white somewhat puffy pants, with a large black with a white feather sticking out of it, one you would expect to see on a swashbuckler. As Ryu approached the two, he could see the woman's hand resting on the hilt of what seemed to be a rapier. The reason why Ryu couldn't see it earlier was that the sword ran parallel with the woman's leg.
"Is this the one?" the woman asked as Ryu stepped up to the two.
Anton merely nodded as he turned to the helmsman, "We're leaving now, head to the area we know which the shipwreck is."
The amount of foot traffic on the deck increased as sailors from below deck rushed up to help make the ship ready. Ryu followed the Anton and the woman up the stairs to where the helm was built. As soon as the ship was under way, Ryu cleared some items off of a nearby box to make a sitting place for himself. Once he was comfortable as he could be on his crate, a small flash of light erupted from his hands and a book that he had gotten from Levy for his birthday fell into his hands. The book in question, Demi-Humans, Human-like Monsters, and Monsters with Human Characteristics and Looks, was so far a nine book series with rumors of a tenth book. The first three books were uncommon but could be found in multiple libraries if you cared to look. However, from book 4 and on, the number of copies of each book declined sharply. From a list Ryu had requested in the Grand Library which was built in Crocus, he had found out that about only seven copies of book nine existed were ever printed officially and no one bothered to make anymore.
The book itself was basically described what the title was. The book was full of mythical creatures such as Cockatrices, Were-creatures, Wyverns, Homunculi, Onis, various other types of demons, Angels, Fallen angels, Flame Salamanders, Slimes and the list continued on forever. But regardless of what creature they may be, the pictures that depicted them was always humanoid. There were wyverns who were related somewhat to dragons, everyone has a general idea of what a wyvern looks like, two legs, two wings where another of legs would be for dragons and a long body like a snake. The books depicted a wyvern in humanoid form, general human body but had a set of wings were the arms would be, a long tail, and a pair of horns. Not only that, but each creature had a lengthy bio to it such as its habits which would be similar to the real thing with human tendencies as well, where it would live which was once a again similar to the real thing, and bit of various other information. That's were the monster with human characteristics and looks came in Ryu guessed.
Then you had other creatures such as Angels, various Demon which had the same type of bios and descriptions as creatures like the wyvern. But you would expect Angels and Demons to look humanoid, thats only natural. These had to be the Human-like Monsters, however Ryu guessed the Church wouldn't really like angels being called monsters.
Finally, you had creatures like Centaurs, Lamias, Satyrs and Harpies. These types of creatures could be found in old mythology and had been given the name Demi-Human since they literally looked half human. But the difference for why a Lamia was a demi-human and a human looking wyvern was not was mainly because of two things, Lamias were classified as their own species while the Wyvern humanoid is still called a Wyvern. Also the fact that creatures like Wyvern and Cockatrices humanoids usually had about the same intelligence as a normal monster while a Lamia could have a varying degree of intelligence like humans.
However, despite how descriptive the books were, the literary community was quick to classify the book as fiction. Ryu himself was convinced that all the books were fiction, he just read them for the interesting bits and for his own amusement. However, his opinion changed on book six. A section of that book had information on vampires. Normally, Ryu would just shrug it off since a lot of other novels have vampires in them. But after some cross-referencing with his own notes on vampires, he found the information was nearly an exact match to his notes. After that, Ryu began to take the book slightly more seriously and began to keep his eyes open for any sightings on these strange creatures. The main question that floated around Ryu's mind was if all this information was true, who was getting all the information and how. The author of the book remained unnamed throughout the entire series, without so much as a penname.
Ryu heard footsteps walking up to him so he lowered his book to see the red haired woman swashbuckler staring him down. Her eyes flickered every which way over him, as she seemed to be taking in every detail about him as she could. It was only fair for Ryu to do the same, so with a little extension of his senses, he could feel a certain aura about the her. This woman was a mage.
"You don't look like much." She finally said as she stopped her examination of him.
Ryu merely cocked his head to the side, "Is that sword just for show, or do you use it with your magic?"
The woman - for lack of a better word - seemed impressed, "Not many people peg me that quickly, how'd you do it?"
"Extended my own senses a little bit to see if it would react with anything, and unless you swallowed a magical item recently, you're a mage. If you don't know how to mask your own magic energy, certain people can pick you out of a crowd." Ryu responded as his book disappeared in flash of gray light.
"And you're of those people?"
Ryu shook his head, "Not really, no. One on one, yes and only if they aren't trying to hide it but most people aren't. A crowd, no. So what should I call you before I make up a name."
"Miranda. We're almost there, get ready." She responded before turning around and returning to Anton's side.
The two of them seemed close, while their stuck up and serious personalities remained as they talked, there was a connection between them if you observed close enough. And whose knows, while they may be serious in front of others, there's no telling what happened behind closed doors for those two. Ryu had to admit that Miranda was certainly attractive, the question is did Anton find that so as well. While Anton was the owner of the ship, it seemed Miranda was the captain. Anton merely stood leaning against a rail while Miranda barked out a bunch of nautical terms that made no sense to Ryu but was crystal clear to the sailors who began to run around to various places with each different order. Miranda could have been the first mate but the way she held herself gave a type of commanding aura that you would see on an experienced captain.
With one final loud bark of an order from Miranda, the sails were completely withdrawn and secured tightly to their masts. As the ship slowed to a stop, members of the crew began to relax, now having a break from the . . . Ryu had to guess they had been sailing for about two or three hours straight. Ryu looked back to the coast, it was but a thin strip of land to him but at least he could still see it. If things went awry for some reason, he could at least find his way back home easily enough. Even with the ship speed reduced to nothing, the waves continued to rock the ship back and forth. It made traveling from one side of the ship to the other a little more difficult for Ryu since he wasn't a man of the sea.
Miranda and Anton had made their way over to a table with another sailor explaining something to them as he pointed down at the map several times. The two higher ups were concentrating on the man's story hard enough that neither of them either didn't notice Ryu's presence or did and didn't acknowledge it.
Anton clapped and rubbed his hands together, "So according to your testimonies and some cross referencing with the map, we should be within a mile of the shipwreck. Can you remember anything else before you abandoned ship?"
The seemingly only sailor to have survive the ship sinking brought a hand to his grizzled chin as he began to think once again, "Hmm . . . not about location. But the storm that sank the ship moved in awfully quick. One minute, clear blue cloudless sky, then dark clouds seemed to appear out of thin air just before the waves started getting rocky really quickly."
"That sounds an awful lot like something a magic user could do." Ryu commented.
"If so, then I fear we may already be too late", Anton turned back to the sailor, "You're no longer needed, begone from my sight."
The man nodded quickly before running off below deck. Anton walked over to the side of the ship with Miranda in tow, Ryu remained behind to have a look at the map. It was your average sea chart that you could buy at almost any port town, except this had a large circled area labelled 'shipwreck'. He must have been somewhere in that area, although Mermaid's Cove wasn't on the map so either this one was outdated by quite a few decades or Mermaid's Cove didn't really like visitors of any sort.
With a quick glance over to the two fancy dressed people, Ryu could see they were speaking in hushed tones. Wasn't a problem for him though, with the slight tilt of the head and a little Force energy to enhance his hearing, the conversation sounded like it was being whispered directly in his ear.
"-blem if they have recovered the item. We need to move fast in case they haven't found it yet. Luckily, the box that contains the item is magically reinforced to ridiculous levels. I had several high level mages enchant the thing before the original ship set out. There is no way for them to destroy the box short of the moon being dropped on it. Can't open it magically either with the other enchantments it has." Anton whispered confidently to his right hand ma- er, woman.
"So, the only way to get it is physically with the key?"
The nobleman nodded, "Uh huh, which I have hidden away. Now we just need the idiot mage over there to fetch it for us, pay him, and then be on our merry way. I'm still surprised that he showed up of all things. But now that I see him, I can't help but wonder what she sees in him. I thought he would be more . . . refined."
The swashbuckler noticeably swallowed harder than usual, "When you mean she, you mean her don't you?" Anton only nodded as Miranda continued, "I wonder what she wants with it though. She probably powerful enough to get it herself, so why have you spend resources to steal it?"
Anton's tone became a little more firm, "Bitch is just exerting her control over me. If I had my way, she would've been dead a long time ago but . . ." Ryu could see Anton look up into Miranda's eyes and heard his voice soften, "If I was to fail, I fear what would happen to the people close to me."
A silence hung in the air between them, even without looking Ryu could tell that there was probably some minor blushing going on between them. The moment passed when Anton turned toward Ryu, "You mage, get over here now."
To everyone on deck, Anton was speaking at a reasonable level of noise, however to Ryu who had basically magnified any sound coming from that direction felt like a thermal detonator went off next to his head. Ryu flinched and grabbed his ear as the ringing continued for a couple moments, a look of pain laid across his face. After about half a minute, Ryu regained his composure, he made his way over to the two as he stuck his pinkie in his ear to try and alleviate any remaining ringing noise.
Anton raised an eyebrow at him questioningly, "And what's with you?"
Ryu didn't have any good excuse so he played by his gut, "My ear just started ringing like an explosion went off next to my head."
"Could be Tinnitus, I used to have it myself." Miranda commented.
"Ya, I've heard about it, the ringing comes and goes every now and then, I should probably go talk to a doctor about it soon." Is Ryu said externally, inside his head, "Note to self, look up Tinnitus and use it for future instances."
"I don't care about your ears. What I require are your skills and your skills alone. What you are looking for underwater is a ships. Inside the cargo hold of that wrecked ship, you will find a metal chest with a lock. Here's the key to that chest, don't you dare lose it."
Ryu took the small bronze key and it disappeared in a flash as Anton continued, "Inside that chest, you will find a small red box. You are to retrieve that box and bring it back to the ship. Once we have made it back to shore, I will pay you and then you can be on your merry way. If there are no questions, then get going."
Ryu sighed irritably as he moved to the ship's railing. Peering over the edge down into the water, he found it to be rather clear. Various bits of sea life floated through his vision with varying colors and sizes. With a clap of his hands, gray light engulfed Ryu's entire body, obscuring his body from sight. When the light dissipated, his usual clothes had been replaced only with a pair of black and red swim trunks, his Mandalorian gauntlets had remained. With another flash of light, two more objects fell from his own small pocket dimension. A small cylindrical device fell into his left hand without so much as a sound. However the second object splintered the deck of the ship slightly as it landed. A massive brown stone which Ryu had found on the beach earlier that was a crucial part of his plan to get down to the shipwreck.
Anton's rage flared up, "What the hell?! You scratched my ship you imbecile! Why do you even need a lump of rock?! Was that your brain before you had it removed?!"
"That was a bit unnecessary.", Ryu rolled the stone over to the side of the ship with his bare foot. When it was next to the edge, a brown magic circle appeared in front of his fist a moment before it sunk into the rock and remained.
"Ever heard the term 'sink like a rock'?" Ryu popped part of the small cylindrical device into his mouth and breathed through a couple of times before he threw himself overboard.
()()()()
Cool water enveloped Ryu as he descended down in the crystal clear water. The Jedi was a bit surprised that the water was actually a lot warmer than he was expecting but it was still a bit chilly. Ryu gave a couple more testing breaths through his rebreather and found it still functioning. He hadn't used the thing in a couple years so he wasn't sure that the thing still worked. But it hadn't been subject to any abuse and these rebreathers were quite tough and durable. The only problem was that he had very few filters left for the rebreather so he would need to be quick on this part. Having the rock to help him descend was going to speed things up slightly.
Ryu began to scan the area around him looking for any signs of a wrecked ship. It didn't take him long, the ship rested in the dead center of a coral reef, its dark brown color of the ship offsetted the natural bright colors of the reef making it easier to see. Thankfully the reef wasn't too far away but still a bit of a swim.
Ryu placed his free hand on the stone that engulfed his right hand and concentrated his thoughts, "Stone Make: Trident."
A long stone trident was seemingly pulled out of the rock as Ryu continued floating down. When the weapon had fully formed, Ryu removed his hand from the stone and started kicking his legs in the opposite direction of the ship. While Ryu was a immense fan of his lightsabers, being submerged in any large body of water prevented him from using it. The lightsaber would probably short circuit and give him a nasty shock, and if he was lucky, it would explode as well. Ryu didn't have much practice with weapons like spears or tridents well but he had some practice in case situations like the one he was in.
Zhuses had told Ryu about a fighting style named 'Force Warrior', in which the Jedi or Force user would use their Force powers with unarmed strikes. Though Force Warriors were few in number since most Jedi see the lightsaber as a symbol and are fond of its multiple uses, they were terrifying. Taking a Force enhanced knife hand to the neck had the possibility of slicing through it much like a lightsaber, depending on the level of skill from the combatant. Ryu knew quite a bit of martial arts himself but . . . it was more self taught from books he had read from books and what he picked up in the guild, it was more a of a small time hobby than a skill. He was certainly interested in the style, just never found the time to really get into it.
He couldn't help but think back to what Anton was talking about on the ship. It was obvious that Anton had heard his name from someone before. If anything, he had probably heard it from whoever she was. And on that note, just who was she? From what he heard, the person seemed to know in him some fashion. Although he had met many females in his journey, and without any extra details Ryu had no idea who they could be talking about. The only extra detail Ryu had is that somehow the person in question had Anton on the reins. But he didn't have time for this right now.
As Ryu approached the ship, it was apparent the ship was had been ripped to shreds in the storm. Considering the state of the ship, Ryu was surprised that there had been a single survivor. The ship looked like it had almost been ripped apart by something much larger, a few large chunks of the ship had remained but overall, everything just looked like some child had thrown it down the toilet, flushed and broke up the bigger pieces with a stick before flushing the remainder down.
The bigger problem was, with the ship ripped apart like it was, that meant the metal chest he was looking for could be anywhere. For all he knew the chest could be miles away from the ship in any direction. But it was either search for the chest or swim back shore because he knew without the chest, he wasn't going to get a ride back.
Ryu stopped on the edge wreck and scanned it over couple of times trying to figure out where to start. It seemed to make the most sense by starting with the large chunks of ship first, perhaps the chest was caught up in a large chunk if he was lucky. If he was unlucky, the chest would be buried underneath some ship remains, really unlucky and it would be somewhere he would never find it.
But as Ryu approached the first large piece, something sank in his gut. Various claw marks could be found along the sides of the boat. It would have worried him less if he hadn't found claw marks on the inside as well. Something came had come through after the ship had been destroyed, and it could have been looking for something.
"-blem if they have recovered the item. We need to move fast in case they haven't found it yet.", these words rang through Ryu's head as he continued swimming through the wreckage. Something or someone else could be down with, even with his ability to sense with the Force, it was practically useless with all the sea life that was around him. He would need to really on only his sight since all his other senses were reduced in usefulness while under water.
Unfortunately, good luck was not on Ryu's side this day since he couldn't find the metal chest he had been sent down to find. Ryu would need to start looking among the smaller debris, lifting up smaller debris and searching under the smaller pieces of wrecked wood for any sign of the chest.
Something strange caught his eye as lifted up another piece of debris to look underneath it. A pile of debris sat a couple of yards away from him, it was just another pile of debris except this pile didn't seem that random. With a little closer observation, Ryu could tell that the pile of wood seem deliberate, as if someone had stacked it over something. Ryu swam over to it and stabbed his stone trident into the loose sand in order to start throwing off the debris whatever was underneath. The more debris Ryu pulled off debris, the more Ryu knew that these debris were deliberately placed here. Deciding that pulling each piece of ship was taking too long, Ryu took a step back before lifting all the debris at once with Telekinesis and settling it a little ways away from where it originally was settled.
A gray metal chest sat what where the bottom of the pile was. Ryu crouched down and examined the chest closer, there were scratches all over the chest but the scratches didn't look like the claw marks he had found earlier. While the marks on the ship remains were jagged, the marks on the chest were more clean cut almost like someone had been trying to cut their way in with some kind of blade. Ryu looked all around the surrounding area, but didn't find signs of life save for the fishes going about their daily fish activities. He didn't think that someone would try this hard to open a chest and then leave it here, perhaps someone was waiting in ambush for someone with the key to come along and open it.
Ryu didn't waste any time as he summoned the little bronze key from his little dimension. Ryu looked over the lock the chest to find more clean slices there as well, he hoped that whoever or whatever did this didn't damage the inside of the lock or Ryu was going have to haul the entire chest to the surface and that wasn't going to be pleasant.
Luck decided to give Ryu a give as he heard a muffled clicking noise when he had fully turned the key. The Jedi threw the lid open and peered inside to find a smaller red chest that would seem to fit in his hand. Ryu picked it up and scanned it over, unlike almost everything else from the ship, this small wooden box didn't have any marks anywhere on it. Now that he had the box, all he had to do now was make it back to the surface.
Ryu lunged for his trident and swung it in a wide arc behind as he brought the chest closer to his chest. Something was down here with him, and it wasn't no normal sea creature. While he couldn't sense the creature in question, the Force had basically sent a shiver up his spine which Ryu associated with something dangerous close by. Ryu let the red box float to the sandy bottom and brought his foot down on it to keep it in place so he could use both hands for the trident.
Even after scanning the surrounding carefully, Ryu couldn't find any sign of whatever triggered his sixth sense. However, that feeling of danger hadn't left his mind which kept him on his toes. Whatever was watching him had him stuck, here on the ocean floor he had a slight advantage with all the sand which he could turn into stone with some effort. However, he couldn't stay down here forever with the limited amount oxygen he had. However, if he tried making a break for it, he didn't have the sand around him but he needed to get to the surface. He needed to bait it out, and he had the perfect worm.
Ryu started slowly swimming away from the box as he kept constantly scanning the area for any sign of whatever was watching him. He made it a good ten yards away when his eye caught a flash of movement to his right. Ryu spun around and quickly pulled the box to him with the Force just before a figure flew out from the surrounding reef and slammed into where the box was just a moment ago causing a cloud of sand to erupt and hide the attacker from sight. As the cloud started to settle, Ryu quickly shoved the red box under some debris, hopefully hiding it until the fight was over. Ryu readied himself for whatever came out of the cloud of sand. However, he truly wasn't ready for appeared before him. What he saw was a creature with the upper body of a human and the lower body of a fish.
What he saw, was a Mermaid.
The mermaid had her long green hair done up into into ponytail. A light blue cloth was tied around her chest, which managed to hide her breast somewhat well. If Ryu had to make a quick guess, he would have to say her age would have to be a year or two younger than himself. Her tail which started at her waist was covered in sea-foam green scales that sparkled with whatever light hit her that came from the surface. A pair of fins sat on each side of her head where you would expect the ears to be. A golden necklace hung around her neck with some sort of crest he didn't recognize hanging off the end of the chain. Scales ran along her forearms as well, however with closer observation Ryu could tell that they were actually gauntlets made of scales. A large leather pouch rested on her right hip.
Currently the mermaid wasn't taking any action against him, what she was doing was rubbing her eyes furiously. A metaphorical sweat bead appeared on Ryu's head, "Did she dive face first for the box?"
When the creature finished rubbing the sand out of her eyes, her purple eyes shot directly toward him. Ryu felt like she was staring daggers at him, her glare didn't go well with the pouty face she was making as well. His grip tightened slightly on his trident, he needed to stay on his toes, with the speed she could move, she could be right next to him in the blink of an eye.
His grip tightened on his weapon as the mermaid held out her hand as her lips began to move. At the distance he was at, he couldn't even hear her muffled voice but it soon became apparent that she was casting a spell when a blue magic circle appeared under her tail. Water flowed around her extended hand quickly enough that Ryu could see it. After a few moments, the shape of the currents became clear as well, the water was circling around her hand in the shape of a massive claw. Her gaze hardened slightly right before she lunged at him.
Ryu barely had enough time to raise his weapon in defense. The result was her claw slicing clean through his stone. If he didn't speed up his own reflexes, he would be next. A split second later his own movement increased as the Force Surge started to take effect. But due to the water, his speed seem to only increase to as if he was merely out of water. Ryu managed to roll backwards a second after the strike. As he was rolling backwards, Ryu planted his hands into the sand and concentrated his earth magic into causing a portion of the sand to solidify back into stone.
When he was back back on his feet, Ryu planted the palm of his hand on the ground again be began to 'pull' another trident out of the stone. However, just he had it pulled out half way, the mermaid struck at him again severing the handle again. Ryu only had enough time to throw up a Force Barrier as the mermaid continued her assault. Her attacks were strong enough physically on his shield to push him back through the loose sand. A smile crossed her face as she delivered another powerful slash.
Ryu found himself without any ground underneath him as he was pushed out into open water. With another powerful strike on his shield, Ryu found himself rocketing through the water until he slammed into a large chunk of the broken ship, splintering it as he impacted. His hand quickly flew to his mouth, a small sense of relief coursed through him as he found his rebreather still in his mouth and working.
The relief was cut short as the mermaid suddenly slammed him back into the wood as he started to get up. She kept him pin with one hand as she raised the clawed one above his head in order to finish him. Ryu braced himself on the onslaught as he threw his arms up, hoping his gauntlets would would protect him until he could figure something out.
However, the flurry of blows never came. Ryu looked up at the mermaid's face and saw something that gave him a chance, hesitation.
After grabbing piece of splintered wood, Ryu rammed the jagged edge straight into the waist of the mermaid. Her claw spell dissipated as she grabbed her side when Ryu ripped the piece of wood out of her. Still moving quickly, Ryu grabbed the grabbed the arms of the creature, spun her around and slammed her into the chunk of ship he had flown into. The already weakened bit of ship finally gave into the pressure. Ryu managed to push push off of the broken part of ship as it began to come down on top of the two them. When he was a good distance away, he turned around to see that his attacker was pinned under the large amount of debris with only her head and an arm sticking out, she was unconscious. Before Ryu turned away, he started to see her blood flow out between the cracks of the wood.
He shrugged it off, the wound he gave her wasn't that deep. Without time she would be able to claw her way out. Ryu followed the marks he made when he was pushed through the sand to find the section sand he turned to stone. Shortly after, he found the small bit of debris he shoved the red box into. It took some wiggling, but he managed to pull the box out from under it. Before heading back to the surface, he had to get one more look at the mermaid before he left. A mermaid was a prime example of a demi-human monster, Ryu had read about them from book two if he remembered correctly. Ryu started to think what if these creatures were just incredibly rare that running into one was next to nothing. That doesn't explain how the writer of the books managed to find so many so easily.
As Ryu approached the edge of the hill he was pushed off of, he saw a problem developing around the mermaid.
Sharks.
Sharks were circling around the mermaid who was now awake, most likely drawn there by the blood that had seeped out of her wound. Ryu could feel a knot form in his gut when he looked to the mermaid face. Fear, fear at its purest form was stretched across her face as she tried desperately she claw her way out of the wreckage. Her movement became more panicky as the sharks drew closer, bit by bit. If she wasn't under water, Ryu figured that there would be tears streaming down her face out of fear. If he didn't intervene, those sharks would probably rip her apart. But if he did, he could be injured while saving her and there was the possibility that she would back stab him the first chance she got. He couldn't risk it, he had the item in question, all he had to do now was get it back to Anton.
But just as he started to turn around, something felt wrong. Not with his surroundings but something internal. It didn't take him long to identify just what this feeling was. It was the beginning of regret. He turned back around and looked toward the mermaid as the sharks continued to grow closer to the helpless girl.
Ryu sighed to himself, he was a member of Fairy Tail, and being a member meant doing stupid things. After another inward sigh, Ryu reached down and solidified some sand beneath him just before he pulled out another stone trident. This mermaid wasn't out to kill him, all she wanted was the box. She was given the chance to kill him and she hesitated, if she hadn't there was a good chance that all he would be right now is a clawed mess. In a way, he owed her one. Also, almost everyone at the guild would kick his ass if they ever found out about him leaving someone to die, especially one as horrible to sharks.
His hand touched the ground once again as he crouched down, "Soil of the Winds."
Two flat pieces of rock broke out of the stone under his feet and propelled him forward toward the mermaid. Just as one of the three sharks was about to charge her, Ryu the forward momentum and his own strength increased by Force Surge and drove the trident through the head of the shark into its brain, or at least where he thought the brain of a shark was. The beast gave one last jerk before it went limp. The corpse continued forward toward the mermaid causing her to cover her face with her free arm, Ryu could have sworn he heard some muffled screaming as he drew closer to the mermaid. With a slight push using his telekinesis power, Ryu redirected the corpse which floated into some debris, harmlessly.
Ryu felt about a million little daggers stabbed into his left leg and then jerked from side to side. Even worse, Ryu had let out a yelp of pain causing the rebreather to fly from his mouth and the box slipped from his hand. He needed to finish this quickly or his situation was going to get a lot worse. Ryu brought his other foot down on the shark's nose, trying to get it to release him as he maneuvered his trident into position. As luck would have it, hitting the shark in the nose just so happened to stun it. Using this chance, Ryu rammed his weapon through the shark's eye and hopefully struck it brain once again. He didn't know if he did or not but the beast stopped moving altogether which was a pretty good sign. Using the trident, the Jedi tried to lever the jaws of the shark open and started to make some progress when he felt the teeth starting to exit his caught leg.
With a quick look toward the mermaid, his stomach sank. The third shark apparently had ignored him and continued to go for the original target. Ryu removed the trident from the second shark's mouth and brought back as he used his free hand's thumb as a target ridicule. His thumb followed the final shark's path a few inches in front, leading his target. Ryu waited until the shark swam straight toward the mermaid before he threw the trident with some assistance from the Force for a little extra power for the throw and some extra precision. However, his throw was a little slow and the trident slammed into what Ryu would guess what was the rib cage for a shark would be. Thankfully, it was enough to cause the shark to veer off course and miss the mermaid. When the shark slammed into the debris near the mermaid, it must have jostled something since the mermaid was able to free her other hand and started to use it to pull her out. The shark recovered from its crash and swam a little ways away before it started to circle back around.
Ryu returned to his own problem, getting his leg out of the second dead shark's mouth. Since his trident on in the side of the third shark, Ryu resorted to using his telekinesis powers again in order to pry open the jaws of the beast. It felt like several million needles were shooting through his leg as he continued to open the shark's jaw, but after half a minute, the jaws finally opened and released his. Sadly, Ryu would have to address his wounds later since the mermaid was still in trouble. He was able to make it back over the girl just in time to throw up another Force Barrier in which the shark ran straight into, disorienting it. Ryu looked around quickly for some sort of weapon to strike the shark and found what he needed in the shark's side.
All he needed to do was put the final nail in the coffin, figuratively and literally. Ryu hammered the end of the trident with a enough telekinetic energy have it slice the rest of its way through the tough skin and straight into the sharks innards, killing it instantly. Ryu turned around to smile at the mermaid still stuck under the debris. The look of terror had left her face but he could tell she was frightened despite his rescuing of her and his friendly smile. He thought for a moment trying to figure out the best way on how to get her out. Once he had a good idea, he bent down and place both hands in the sand before a large area turned to stone, including the area underneath the mermaid.
Now he just need one more magic command, "Multi Stone Pillar."
Six stone pillars erupted from the stone ground and slammed into the debris that was holding down the tailed human. All the debris around the mermaid lifted all at once allowing her to slip out. Ryu grabbed her wrist and pulled her up since he couldn't really pull her to her feet. He could still see doubt in her eyes, all he did was show the friendliest smile he could.
It was then he realized how badly he had screwed up, he had forgotten to retrieve his rebreather.
Panic spread rapidly across his face as he began to frantically scan the area for the small metal cylinder. His lungs started to burn as Ryu started upturning every piece of debris in the area. Every second that went by, Ryu's lungs descended another level into hell as he searched for his salvation. It seemed luck was on his side when he overturned a random piece of debris to find his rebreather that slipped through the cracks. Ryu grabbed it weakly and placed his mouth, then took a breath . . . only to be met with more water.
The rebreather floated out of his mouth as he choked on water which only resulted in more water flooding his mouth. As his vision began to darken, he identified what had been his end, the filter to the rebreather had become dislodged and fell out, making the rebreather just a small metal tube. Ryu couldn't even think straight due the pain his lungs, and his vision had all but gone completely black, but the last thing he felt was something grab his wrist and pull.
And here ends our hero's tale . . . nah. Part three still requires quite a bit of work as I said so it will take some time. But after the next chapter, I can start work on something I have been inching my way towards. Fun times to be had . . . by me and you guys if you like what I am going to write.
Anyway, join me next time on
Chapter 11:
Wrapping Things Up
Until next time, Stay Classy, RoguePizza out