EDOLAS ARC, START
XxChapter 10: To the Parallel WorldxX
Yamato looked at the site of what used to be the village. There was nothing, just a snow-like substance that coated the ground in heaps. The council mages around him had similar expressions, and all fighting had stopped.
Konohagakure was gone. Again.
"What… What the hell is this?!" He yelled to no one in particular.
Torune had similar thoughts. "Danzo-sama!" He screamed in worry, uncharacteristic for a ROOT operative.
Yamato turned to a bound Mest, tied down by wood. "Is this a tool of the council?! Is this your doing?!"
Mest didn't answer; he just stared at the now empty plot of white land. "What's going on?"
The man was brought out of his musings by a hard punch to the face from his captor.
"I'm talking to you! Did you all do this?!" Yamato asked in anger.
"Us?" Mest started. "No way in hell, buddy. Damn near the entirety of the Fairy Tail guild was in there. Even if we did have something like this, we couldn't get away with doing it while they were in the vicinity, despite the urgency. I'm just as confused as you are."
Yamato just "tsk'd" and turned to Torune. "Round up the remaining council members that still live. They're our bargaining chip until we figure out just what the hell happened." He instructed.
Torune merely nodded and used a Shunshin (Body Flicker) to leave the area.
"Not again…" Yamato said to himself in a defeated tone.
XxBreakxX
The village was no more. Rolling hills of white dust saturated the ground, and not a single human being was in sight. Until a certain moment, that is. In a random clump of the white stuff, a bulge made itself known. It got larger and larger until a figure burst from underneath it.
"*GASP*" The figure cried, trying to find breath and shaking off the white substance at the same time. Eventually, the figure was revealed to be Natsu.
He quickly surveyed his surroundings, and didn't like what he saw. "Nani?! Where is everybody!" He yelled in surprise. He slowly stood up and started walking around, desperately looking for any sign of life. He yelled and yelled, but to no avail.
"Gazille! Wendy! Gray! Where are you guys?!"
"*Cough* Shut up, you're hurting my ears." A gruff voice spoke up.
Natsu turned and saw Gazille, who was trying to rid his body of the dust. He also took a look around after gaining his bearings. "What the hell?!"
"Gazille! You're okay! I was afraid nobody was here!" Natsu exclaimed in satisfaction.
Gazille look at him. "You mean it's just us? Where'd everybody else go?" He said, standing up, before slipping in the white stuff. "And what the hell is THIS shit?!"
Natsu laughed a bit before finally answering. "I don't know what happened really. The masked asshole was talking, then a guy who looked just like Jellal did something, and then there was this bright light. I blacked out for a bit, then woke up under all of this stuff." He explained.
"Masked asshole? Who're you talking about?"
"Oh yeah! After that octobull thing knocked you out, I kicked its ass with Dragon Force, then this weird dude wearing a mask came out and started making a speech I couldn't understand. All of a sudden, Jellal appeared, and there was yelling, and then FLASH!"
Gazille sweatdropped. "That explained nothing. Please tell me somebody more intelligent is awake here…"
"Um, I might sound a little rude, but… Ano… I'm here!" Wendy's nervous voice sounded out.
Natsu, while happy to see her, couldn't help but cry anime tears at the subtle blow to his intelligence.
"Wendy!" Gazille started. "You're alright. Did you see anybody else?" He asked.
She shook her head. "No, not from Konoha either. I think it's just us Dragon Slayers. I have no clue where everybody else went!"
Gazille finally stood up, albeit with great effort due to his injuries. "Okay, let's look around a bit more before we do anything else. I refuse to believe we're the only ones who made it out."
All three Dragon Slayers nodded and moved out. Along the way, they managed to actually find something.
"It's a foot." Natsu said, stared at the sandaled foot that stuck out from the dust.
"But look at the shoe!" Wendy said, pointing. "This person's from Konoha… Do we help him up?" She asked hesitantly.
Gazille stroked his chin. "I don't know… Konoha might be able to tell us what happened, though. Maybe we should give it a shot."
Meanwhile, Natsu was already tugging at the foot. "Erza said to trust them, so I do." He said before pulling.
Natsu uprooted none other than Naruto himself, who immediately started spitting out the white stuff. Surprised at seeing "Maelstrom", Natsu abruptly dropped him back to the ground, face first.
"Gah!" Naruto sputtered, getting another mouthful of the strange dust.
"It's Maelstrom!" Wendy announced in surprise.
Naruto looked up and glared at her. "Stop saying it that way! It's NARUTO. Na-ru-to, got it?"
"Who cares?!" Gazille yelled. "Tell us what the hell is going on here! Where did everybody go!" He demanded.
"Where did who go?" Naruto asked, only to finally realize where he was. "NANI! WHERE IS EVERYBODY!"
"So you don't know either…" Natsu muttered lowly.
Suddenly, a loud voice sounded out in the distance, getting closer by the second.
"nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA—"
A blue blur suddenly slammed right into the pink haired Dragon Slayer. "TSUUUUUUUUU!"
Catching his breath, Natsu looked down and saw his favorite blue cat. "Happy! Why are you here? We told you and Charle to stay at the guild!"
"A lot of good that did. Everybody's gone." A lower, female voice said.
"Charle!" Wendy called, excited to see her cat present as well.
Naruto slowly stood up, facing both cats.
"Be thankful we weren't allowed here for the battle." Charle said mockingly, Happy floating right next to her.
Naruto dusted off his clothes. "Do you know where they went?"
"Edolas. Our homeworld."
Natsu slammed his fists together. "Then that's where we go! To get them all back!"
"Hold on a second!" Naruto started. "What the heck are you things? Homeworld? What are you talking about?! And how do you know about it?!"
Happy gave Charle a sad look. "This is the first I've heard of it… Homeworld?"
"That's nonsense!" Natsu started. "Lisanna and I raised you from an egg we found! You were born here!"
Wendy stepped forward. "That's right! You came from an egg too, Charle!"
"You are correct." Charle said. "But the eggs came from Edolas. We were sent here through a device called the "Anima" with a mission subconsciously installed in our minds, but you!" She yelled, pointing at Happy accusingly. "You don't know anything! Not about your homeworld, and not about your mission!"
The blue haired cat just looked down sadly, not sure what to say to her.
"So, we're off to fight some evil cat warlord?!" Naruto exclaimed.
"Don't be ridiculous!" Charle scolded. "Edolas has more humans than any other species there, there will be no 'cat warlords' ready for combat, fool." She mocked.
Gazille finally decided to speak up. "That's all well and good, but why? Why were they taken, and better yet, why WEREN'T we?"
"I can't speak for the blonde buffoon, but Dragon Slayer magic holds special powers in Edolas. You see, Edolas is a world that actually has a fixed amount of magic for everybody to use, so it's heavily regulated. The 'Anima', is a project to bring magic from other worlds into Edolas so the people can use it. Our friends are actually Lacrima right now, ready to be broken down and extracted for their magic power."
"The hell's a Lacrima?" Naruto asked.
Gazille looked at the blonde strangly. "You guys don't have any Lacrima in your village? It's a crystal of condensed magic that can do lots of things."
"But how does Dragon Slayer magic make us immune to the anima?" Wendy asked.
Her white haired companion shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know the specifics, but it just does. I'm a cat, not a scientist."
"Wait, you guys said you had a mission, right?" Natsu asked. "What was it?"
Charle was eerily silent for a moment. "It doesn't matter…"
"So then, how do we get to this place?" The resident shinobi inquired.
"That's the problem." Charle answered. "Mine and the male cat's magic is called Aera. If we fly at max speed through the remnants of the Anima in the sky, we should make it into Edolas, but…"
"There's four of us and two of you…" Gazille finished.
Suddenly, a new voice spoke up. "That won't be a problem."
Everybody looked, and were surprised to see none other than the battered form of Mystogan.
(AN: Mystogan scoured the remnants of Magnolia city and gave Lucy and Gazille both the medicine and the way to Edolas. In this, he was still in the area after sending the rest to Edolas, so he can help.)
"You're…"Natsu started.
"Jellal!" Wendy finished excitedly, jumping into said man for a hug.
He managed to form a grin despite the pain his ribs were in. "Sorry, Wendy, but I'm not the Jellal you're thinking of."
"That's right! I saw you at the cathedral! You're Mystogan!" Natsu said, slamming his fist into his palm.
Gazille was surprised at the information. " Mystogan? You're like the only mage in Fairy Tail I've never met."
The blue haired man nodded. "I'm actually from Edolas. The life I saved that day… was yours, Wendy." He revealed, looking at her fondly.
Starting to tear up, Wendy tackled him for another hug, causing him to cough in pain once again. "I've… always wanted to see you again…" She said with a shaky voice.
"It's good to see you again as well, Wendy."
Naruto finally stepped in. "You said you can help us, right? How?"
Mystogan sighed sadly. "I'm the one who sent everybody to Edolas. That masked man was intending to take them somewhere else, so I did all I could… I couldn't stop the Anima in time, so I just… redirected it." He explained.
"Don't be sad. It's better than nothing, that's for sure. He was taking us all back to MY homeworld."
The three Dragon Slayers looked at Naruto in surprise. "You guys aren't from Earthland?!" The Fire Dragon Slayer exclaimed.
The shinobi in question just shook his head. "We were taken from our world by this Anima thing, too. It happened just over a year ago, and we've had nothing but trouble since." He explained.
"I had assumed as much." Mystogan started. "I didn't witness the transferal, but I sensed a very large Anima incident around this area back then. It really WAS you people."
"So you're telling me Konoha's from another world?" Gazille questioned.
Naruto just nodded. "Where we come from, things are a lot different. When those magic council scouts came to check us out really soon after we arrived, one of our more… liberal members acted out and killed them. You have to understand, we were taken in the middle of a war, and then these people we don't know start trying to sneak into the village? We retaliated. Yamato-taicho then put up the forest to keep us hidden. We had some shinobi here and there go out to make some money, but for the most part we kept to ourselves."
"So it was all just a big misunderstanding?!" Wendy asked in surprise.
"We tried telling you guys like eighty different times, but then Tobi ruined everything by attacking that one guild! The minute that happened, you guys were on us like a dog to raw meat! Do you have any idea how many people died because you all just flew off the handle!" The Jinchuriki complained, getting everything out of his system.
"Then why did you kidnap Erza?!" Natsu asked, pointing rudely.
Naruto just gave him a dry look. "I was TRYING to use a teleportation jutsu to leave the fight, but she got in my space right before I left. She accidently went with me. I would NEVER hurt Erza-chan like that, okay?"
"So then it really was just one big mess…" Natsu finally responded.
"All those people…" Wendy spoke lowly.
Mystogan spoke up. "That masked man… You called him Tobi, correct?"
Naruto nodded. "Well, his real name is supposed to be Uchiha Madara, but he just goes by Tobi. He's… dangerous."
The blue haired man grunted in affirmation. "I've gathered as much."
"Who is he?" The Iron Dragon Slayer asks.
The shinobi looked at him seriously. "He's an evil man, and almost unrivaled in combat."
"He has strange abilities." Mystogan added. "I couldn't even touch him. Then there was his eye…"
"The Sharingan." Naruto clarified. "He said you knew how to use the Anima, right? He probably used his eye to hypnotize you into telling him. There was nothing you could do."
"It's no excuse." The illusionist said. "I specialize in illusions myself, and he was STILL far out of my league. I managed to circumvent the light constriction spell he had on me in time to break my binding, but I barely had enough of an opportunity to send the others to Edolas. It was a desperation tactic on my part, and I regret not having done more for them all…"
Naruto patted the man on the back. "I'd probably say that almost nobody in the entirety of Konoha could defeat that man in one on one combat. The fact that you helped them to this extent is awesome, and I'm sure everybody's thankful."
Mystogan manage a small smile as the three Dragon Slayers shared in Naruto's thanks. "I'm thankful to you all, as well, but… Things are far from over. We all need to head into Edolas and restore the others from their Lacrima form before it's too late. Fa—the king will eventually start to slowly drain their magic through the Lacrima… I'm not sure how long it would take for them to die through the process, but they most definitely would. I also don't know at what rate some would die. If we interrupted the process and released them, I'm not certain that ALL of them would come back out. It's a race against time to be sure." He explained.
"Then we need to get moving." Gazille pointed out. "We don't have much time."
"There IS an issue we must address, though." Mystogan announced. "We in Earthland take in the Eternano in the air to use magic. Earthland also has an immense amount of Eternano in the atmosphere, and the reasons that Edolas doesn't are still in debate. Now, in Edolas, he mages cannot actually take in Eternano directly into their bodies, myself included. We're just built differently. We have to use items to draw in the Eternano for us, so all magic in Edolas is done through weapons, such as my staffs." He explained, pausing to verify everyone followed.
"But after coming to Earthland, I've come to understand that as false. I don't know any spells that involve taking Eternano directly into my body, but I've found that I can do it. That leads me to believe that it's the Eternano that's different, not our bodies. Because of this, you probably won't be able to draw in the Eternano in Edolas. In simple terms, you won't be able to use magic."
Everyone except Naruto was startled by the revelation. "Then how are we supposed to fight the kingdom?!" The pink haired Dragon Slayer exclaimed.
"Well, I was working on a pill that was made of condensed Eternano that you could eat, forcing it into your body even though you can't take it out of the air. That DOES mean that you could only use as much magic as your body can hold at one time, you capacity, so to speak. Our bodies can only hold so much Eternano, so when we run out we get exhausted, and have to wait a while before we can start drawing in more. Since you can't draw in the Eternano in Edolas, you can only fight as long as your capacity lasted once you eat the pill."
Gazille just grinned. "I can work with that just fine."
Mystogan gave him a tense look. "Well, it's not exactly with me right now. It's at Porlyusica's hut, and that's a good ways away. I'm going to send you all to Edolas, and then head straight to her house as fast as I can. Once I get the pills, I'll enter Edolas myself and try to find you. This means that you'll be playing recon for a few days, no combat if you can help it."
"Is there anything else we should know about this place?" Naruto asked.
"Edolas is a parallel world to this one. They act as two sides to the same coin. Because of this, even the existence of people is mirrored. There's a Natsu in Edolas as well, most likely completely different from you."
At that point Wendy had figured it out. "So that's why you look like Jellal! You're the Jellal from Edolas, and the evil one here is the Earthland Jellal!"
"Ah! I see!" Natsu said, finally getting it as well.
Mystogan then turned his attention to Naruto. "Your existence is something I can't account for. The Anima shouldn't be able to access worlds other than Earthland. It's like one side of the coin trying to meld into a completely separate coin. It shouldn't work. Now that you're here, though, the coin has to adjust for your existence. The coin can't have three sides, so it will most likely just merge the new coin into each normal side. You could very well find Edolas counterparts of your group there as well. I would be prepared."
Naruto nodded. He would be ready. They didn't know he could still fight when they got there, since the only time he ever accessed Eternano was through Sage Mode. If he couldn't do that, then maybe he could try out what Bee-ossan had taught him.
It was then that Naruto's mood dropped considerably, but he didn't say anything. He knew what they all had to do.
The Anima expert lifted one of the staffs on his back. "Are you all ready?" He asked. After a round of resolute nods, the clouds opened up.
They were going to save everyone, and failure was not an option.
XxChapter EndxX
Now, this chapter is really short because it's just an interlude/info dump. My chapters will start averaging 10,000 words, so be ready for some quality work!