Okay, here's the tenth chapter. Hello, summer vacation! And the solstice is tomorrow! Yay!
So, in this one, I made up a dark guild because it's been a while since I've added a chapter with action in it. Also, due to Erza's crazy plan involving two-piece swimwear, I'm bumping the rating up to "T" just to be safe. Enjoy!
Chapter 10: Team Natsu vs. Cursed Fang
"A new dark guild has risen?" Gray asked, reading a job poster.
"Yeah," Mirajane nodded. "Rumor has it that they could have rivaled Grimoire Heart if this guild was around seven years ago."
"Whoa! That's insane!" Gray gasped at the description. "A dark guild as strong as Grimoire Heart?!" Then, he noticed something new at the bar. "Why is there a coffee maker here?"
"Juvia," Mirajane simply said.
"Ah, I see. She really wants to be a barista for some reason," Gray nodded. Juvia popped up from behind the counter, startling him.
"Would you like a coffee, my beloved Gray?" Juvia asked excitedly.
"…Can it be an iced coffee?" Gray asked, disregarding how spontaneous her appearance was.
"Coming right up!" Juvia saluted and started loading coffee grinds into the paper filter.
Macao wrapped an arm around Gray, saying, "She makes the best coffee around!"
"It's only been a week, and people have wanted to join the guild just to drink the coffee!" Wakaba added.
"Why haven't I noticed this?" Gray asked, having never seen Juvia make coffee until then and there.
"Because you're brain is frozen!" Natsu ran into the guild hall at break-neck speed just to make that wise-crack answer.
"At least I have a brain," Gray countered.
"Hey, I've got a brain! Better yet, I've got two!" Natsu boasted.
"You're a bad liar," Gray sighed.
"Am not!" Natsu growled.
"Break it up, you two," Macao broke up the argument before they could start a brawl and tear the guild apart again.
"Here you go!" Juvia gave Gray an iced coffee.
"Thanks, Juvia," Gray graciously accepted the coffee.
"What's the point of iced coffee anyway?" Natsu crossed his arms and pouted. "Iced tea, I can get, but iced coffee?"
"Shut it, pyro," Gray told him before taking a sip of the coffee. The taste was pleasantly astonishing. "Wow! Not bad! Not bad at all!"
"Do you really think so?" Juvia asked excitedly.
"Heck yeah," Gray nodded. "You'd better be careful, though. At this rate, you'll never be able to leave the guild because everyone will want your coffee."
"…I need to schedule barista hours, then," Juvia decided. After all, never leaving the guild meant she could never follow Gray home or on missions.
"Anyways, about this dark guild, they're called Cursed Fang, and they're supposed to be really dangerous. Apparently, they're isolated in a forest somewhere, but send their assassins across the country to get high-paying mercenary jobs done. If your team is going after them, you have to be careful," Mirajane advised.
"I don't think they could even match the Oración Seis, let alone Grimoire Heart," Gray smirked. "I'll tell the others about this."
"About what?" Natsu asked curiously.
"Did you not hear anything Mira just said?" Gray asked, slightly annoyed.
"Was I supposed to?" Natsu asked innocently.
"…" Gray had no response.
A few hours later, Fairy Tail's strongest team was hiking through the woods. Erza was donning armor that repelled pesky insects. Everyone else was not so lucky. Wendy trembled, saying, "I-I'm scared. The idea of a dark guild that strong gives me the creeps."
"Oh, hush, child. I'm sure that those rumors are only rumors, exaggerations of their strength," Carla tried to reason with the Sky Dragon Slayer. She kept swatting at bugs with her tail.
"I don't think they're exactly a weak guild, either," Erza contributed to the conversation. "The reward is a fairly high price."
"I can already smell the rent money!" Lucy pumped her fist triumphantly.
"No, that's just me. Virgo gave me some cologne," Natsu stated. "'Star Stink', she called it."
"…So, Erza, do you have a plan?" Gray asked, ignoring Natsu.
"Yes. A fairly simple one, too," Erza nodded.
"What's that?" Lucy asked. She soon regretted asking that, as she, Erza, Wendy, and Carla were impromptu bikini models.
"I can't believe you had one in my size," Carla grumbled. Happy's heart raced as he gazed at her.
"I always come prepared," Erza smiled and walked into a clearing. "Come along."
"But we don't want to," Lucy and Wendy complained.
"What was that?" Erza asked menacingly.
"Uh, we meant… 'Aye, sir!'" the two girls panicked, coming out.
"Wish me luck?" Carla asked Happy softly.
"Always. Go get them," Happy said, holding her paw. He let go and watched her enter the clearing, hoping she didn't, by chance, feel his rapid pulse.
"Three," Erza started to count down as the three girls and one female cat stood in the clearing. "Two…"
"Why are you counting down?" Lucy asked curiously.
"One," Erza counted down. A herd of wizards wearing tattered dark cloaks stampeded their way. The redhead magically changed into her Flight Armor, wielding the Fairy Katana. "Charge!" She rushed forward with enhanced speed.
"We can't fight in bikinis!" Wendy protested.
"Not everyone has Requip magic, you know!" Lucy exclaimed. Suddenly, one of her silver keys glowed, and she suddenly remembered when Wendy was almost vaporized by Hades on Tenrou Island. "That's it! Open, Gate of the Clock Constellation, Horologium!" Ding dong! Out of thin air came the clock being. "Horologium, I hate to bother you, but…"
"Yes, Lady Lucy?" Horologium asked.
"Can we use you as a changing booth?" Lucy asked with an awkward chuckle.
"Certainly," Horologium obliged, unfazed by the question.
"Really?!" Lucy seemed comically shocked by Horologium's calm answer.
"One at a time, please," Horologium opened his door.
"Wendy, why don't you go first?" Carla suggested.
Wendy stepped inside the Celestial Spirit and closed the door. Horologium repeated Wendy's words verbatim, "'Oh, thank you so much, Horologium!' she thanks graciously." Wendy was out in an instant, wearing a light blue kimono.
"Probably not the best fighting clothes," Carla stepped in next.
"'What was the purpose of putting us in two-piece swimwear anyway?' she demands furiously," Horologium relayed Carla's statement. Carla stepped out, wearing a flowing white robe and a thin headband woven from gold colored thread.
"She's an angel!" Happy swoon.
"And I am the Grim Reaper," Gray said, wearing a dark cloak and holding a scythe made of ice. "You know, they say he's actually not so grim. He's actually supposed to be kind of sociable in his spare time."
"Just do your thing, Ice Reaper," Natsu urged impatiently.
"Okay," Gray nodded and stepped out. Just then, Lucy was stepping out of Horologium. She was donning a wedding dress for some reason. Gray couldn't help but ask, "Who's the groom?"
"Oh, shut it!" Lucy snapped as Horologium departed for the Celestial Spirit World. She yanked out her whip and started dealing out punishment, while Gray defended against advancing Cursed Fang wizards.
A red Exceed with elongated canine teeth and a wicked smile approached Carla from behind. He snarled, "Hey, little fairy. How's it hanging?"
"What?" Carla whirled around, and then recoiled. "Y-you stay away from me now!"
"Why not join Cursed Fang? You'll be treated like a queen there."
"I don't like your tone of voice, mister. Leave me be or face severe consequences."
"Why? What's gonna happen?" the red Exceed asked curiously. "We could really use all the members we can get. You ever kill anyone?"
"No, I have not. I will not be joining you, so go crawl under a rock or whatever it is you call your humble abode," Carla requested.
"Will you marry me?" the Exceed got down on one knee.
"Eh?!" Carla was taken aback by the question.
"I love you!" he said.
"I don't even know your name! The answer is no!" Carla slapped him across the face. "How old are you?!"
"Only as old as you," the red cat answered.
Carla frowned. "You're just a child. What are you doing in a dark guild?"
"No one else would take me," the red Exceed said. "The name's Crimson, after my fur color. I was taken in by that guy." Crimson pointed to a large, well-built man fighting Erza.
"Crimson, have you ever killed anyone? Do you get a thrill out of watching your victims suffer?" Carla asked, trying to hold back screams of disgust and hatred towards the idea of a child in an illegal murderers' guild.
"No. Now about that wedding…" Crimson spoke, changing his tone back to how he came off when he first approached Carla.
"The lady said no!" Happy hit Crimson over the head with a giant fish. At that moment, when Happy rushed to her rescue, that she had a vision. The vision was about Happy, who radiated an aura that made her feel warm and fuzzy inside. He had two—possibly three pairs of enormous, glowing wings. It was hard to tell how many wings he had because they shone so brightly like a star. Was this a daydream? Was it a precognition?
"Where'd he come from?!" Crimson yelled, caught off guard.
"You stay away from this angelic feline, you mangy alley cat!" Happy warned, attacking him for making unwanted advances on Carla.
"I'm sorry! I'll never do it again! Just stop hitting me!" Crimson cried.
"Aye!" Happy suddenly smiled cheerily. He looked at the whimpering red cat on the ground and helped him up. "What are you doing in a guild like that? Dark guilds are scary, you know."
"They're not so bad once you get used to the people," Crimson whimpered.
Carla felt her eye twitch, unable to believe how the mood shifted so drastically in seconds. It was ludicrous.
"I don't know why you're doing this, or what dark guild in your alliance you fall under, but I will not let people like you use magic for wanton murder! Not when I can stop you!" Erza spoke defiantly to the large man.
"Oh, yeah?! I don't give a flying cat about what you have to say, Titania!" the enemy wizard spat back, nearly crushing her. She elegantly and effortlessly dodged.
"I resent that, Master Tiran!" Crimson whined.
"That's a weird name!" Natsu laughed as he punched a guy in the stomach.
"Do not mock me! I can crush mountains! I don't need to put much magic power into my fists to crush your tiny skulls! Crimson, get away from those frilly fairies! You'll go soft. It's impossible for the soft to survive in this world…" Tiran bellowed, and then his eyes darted towards the ground.
"Frilly? 'Frilly' you say?" Erza echoed. Her grip on the Fairy Katana tightened. She used her Requip magic to change into her Armadura Fairy. "Those who underestimate Fairy Tail are to be punished accordingly. Come!"
"As you wish! RAH!" Tiran charged at Erza with a fist supercharged with magic power.
"Great Fairy Slash!" Erza's weapon started to shine brightly. She brought the blade down with a great slash of magic energy. The attack sent Tiran flying back into a tree and knocked him out cold.
"Master!" Crimson shouted.
"Retreat! Grab the master!" a Cursed Fang wizard shouted. The dark guild's forces retreated, taking their wounded master with them.
Carla gazed on, thinking of the little red cat out in the big bad world.
"Is this a completed mission? All we did was send them back," Lucy asked, tilting her head. "It's not like we dissolved their guild."
"A temporary victory is victory enough. The Magic Council sent out for that job request. As long as that dark guild causes less trouble, which it surely will, the Magic Council will be reluctantly pleased with our performance," Erza explained with confidence. "Jellal would be pleased, considering the hunt for Zeref has become his goal."
"I wish I had goals," Natsu sighed, seeming quite relaxed.
"Does anyone need to be healed?" Wendy asked around.
"Nope. Thanks, Wendy," Lucy shook her head.
"I'm fine. Thank you," Erza shook her head.
"I'm game," Natsu reported, shaking Gray's head.
"Will you quit that?!" Gray slapped Natsu.
"Then what was the point of me coming along?" Wendy whimpered. "I know I'm a little better at fighting than I used to be, but I still prefer to use support magic…"
Happy suddenly got an idea. He picked up a small stone and hit himself in the knee with it. "Ow! Wendy? I've got a nasty scrape on my knee."
"Oh, Happy," Wendy smiled at Happy's kind gesture. Carla was amazed. It was as though making people happy came naturally to Happy. Hence the name, she remembered. Carla watched wondrously as Wendy healed Happy's knee.
"Thanks, Wendy!" Happy thanked her gratefully.