Zrocker119: As of now, this story has over 100 followers and nearly as many favorites! Words can't describe how happy I am about that.
A Hollow's Fairy Tail
-Start-
The sounds of battle could be heard as steel clashed against steel. What was once a simple grassland had been reduced to a barren flatland riddled with craters. Two figures could be seen soaring through the sky, nearing each other. Once they met, a visible concussive wave could been seen emanating from the point where their blades clashed.
Ryu smiled something fierce as he locked blades with Gin as it had been far too long since he had a real fight. Breaking the stalemate Ryu slashed at his friend's waist, only for it to be parried to the side at the last second.
Gin leapt back several meters and retaliated with a flurry of thrusts, his blade extending to easily cover the distance. Ryu casually kicked, backhanded and parried every thrust that came his way. Unbeknownst to him though, all of these attacks were a simple distraction.
The displacement of air was the only warning Ryu had before a scaled fist connected with his cheek.
"Don't go forgetting about me," Mira smiled sweetly, but the sight of her take over and the sound of her knuckles cracking ruined the image.
"Nice hit," Ryu commented as the bruise from her surprise attack healed, "you've come a long way from back when we first started sparring." Around a year ago, it would've been her knuckles that bruised instead of his cheek. And now, even though it was a marginal amount, she did damage with each attack. Her rate of growth was astounding.
Mira responded with a flurry of attacks that would've left most opponents back peddling in an effort to avoid. But with Ryu being who he was, he decided to go at it blow for blow, sheathing his blade and locking with her in unarmed combat. The pair disappeared from sight, only to reappear several meters away and trade hits, leaving only echos in their wake.
The next time the duo were once more visible their hands were locked together in a stalemate. Wanting to test Mira's limits, Ryu slowly began to force her hands back, only for his eyes to widen at the sight of lightning dancing along her arms.
"A shi-ACH," his muscles clenched as the unknown number of volts coursed through his body.
While Ryu was busy being electrocuted, Gin had already sheathed his sword and began to chant. "Ye lord! Mask of blood and flesh, all creation, flutter of wings, ye who bears the name of Man!"
Back to the sparring couple, Ryu focused his spiritual energy into the palms of his hands, creating a shoddy shield of energy, but did its job at halting Mira's lightning. With a shout, he laced his fingers between hers, spun and threw her back to the ground at frightening speeds.
Before she connected with the unforgiving ground, Mira managed to spread her wings and slow her rapid plummet into a controlled fall. By the time she landed beside Gin, a familiar spiral of energy had already begun to take shape between her hands.
"On the wall of blue flame, inscribe a twin lotus. In the abyss of conflagration, wait at the far heavens." As Mira's attack finished forming, Gin had just finished wrapping up his chant.
With a startling amount of synchronization, the Rune Knight and Mage thrust their hands forward and called out their attacks.
"Evil Explosion/Hado #73 Soren Sokatsui!"
The sky lit up black, blue, white and purple as the attacks closed in on their target. Ryu barely had time to curse before the combo attack hit him dead on, creating an absolutely massive explosion. Gin and Mirajane turned and shielded their eyes as the shock wave reached them, whipping their hair and clothes about.
When the wind died down the two turned back and were greeted by the sight of the whole area now free of any sort of plant life for hundreds of meters in every direction, the land now permanently scared by the potency of their combined attack.
"Do you think we went a little overboard?" Mira asked as she let her take over fade away, now breathing heavily from the large drain on her magic reserves.
"Nah, I've seen him tank worse attacks before," Gin started with a casual wave, not winded in the slightest. Granted the last time he had seen Ryu take an attack of that scale, he had been in his resurreccion, but he chose to keep that little tidbit to himself.
A few more moments pass before the cloud of smoke finally dissipated, allowing them to see Ryu still up and kicking, though Mira grimaced at her boyfriends state or more specifically the state of his arms.
He had managed to get his arms crossed at the last second, letting the hierro of his limbs absorb most of the damage, at the cost of his arms now being charred black. Ryu lowered his arms, hissing as the skin split and began to bleed.
Rather than repair the rock hard skin, Ryu channeled more Reiryoku than usual into the charred limbs and suddenly discharging it, the layers that had been fried seemed to exploded off, freeing space for completely new skin to grow.
"Given the state that little stunt left me in," Ryu spoke as he gently landed before the two, "I'm gonna consider that your win."
Mira waited for the skin on his arms to finish healing before taking his hand into her own, marveling at how fast his wounds had healed. "I'm still not used to seeing you do that."
Ryu smirked as he recalled the memory of her seeing his regeneration in action for the first time. He had been gone on a job for a few weeks and the two had sparred upon his return. He had underestimated how much progress she had made during his time away and had tried to catch a punch she had focused nearly all of her magical energy into.
Long story short his hand had exploded when she expelled said energy, reducing it to a bloody stump and freaking her the hell out. Once he managed to calm her down, Mira had nearly fainted from shock as his regeneration began the process of regrowing the bones, veins, muscles and finally skin. He had actually been the one to apologize for underestimating her power. Mira had still felt bad about the whole thing though, and that night, Ryu was treated to the best apology sex he would ever receive.
"Hopefully," Ryu laced his fingers with hers, "you won't have to see me recover from anything worse." He pulled her close and sealed her lips with his own.
From off to the side, Gin just shook his head slightly at the kissing couple. Having been hanging around the guild and Ryu's place for the last week or so, he had long grown use to the sight of their displays of affection.
"If you two are quite done," he tapped his wrist, "I've got a train to catch."
Ryu rolled his eyes. Hugging Mira to his waist, they headed in the direction towards town. "Please, if you really wanted to we could get there in seconds."
"True," Gin admitted, walking beside them with hands in pockets, "But I like to enjoy the walk there."
"You gonna want to stop by the guild and say goodbye?" questioned Mira. After the shock of his position had worn off, Gin had managed to hit it off with pretty much everyone in the guild.
Gin shook his head at the question, "I get the feeling that I'll be back sooner than I think, so I won't bother with saying goodbye."
"You're still sore about your lost to Cana the other day, aren't you?"
Gin refused to rise to the redhead's obvious taunt. Please, as if he, a former captain, would be sore about losing a friendly drinking contest with the guild's heaviest drinker. Ha, fat chance of that! Nope, not sore at all.
.
.
.
Okay, maybe just a little.
As the duo finally arrived at the guild after seeing Gin off, Ryu felt a multitude of emotions rush through him. Shock, confusion, disbelief and finally rage. All of this was due to the sight that greeted him.
It was normal to see the guild in various states of disarray, but it always stayed within the confines of the guilds walls. Very rarely did it ever find its way to the outside. That's why seeing the place he had come to view as a second home with several large pillars of metal punctured through the walls and roof nearly drove him into a fit of rage.
"Who the fuck did this to our guild," very few things truly pissed Ryu off, but coming into his home, his territory, and desecrating it was a rather strong trigger of his.
He felt Mira slip her hand into his and give it a firm squeeze. At first he thought it was to calm him down, but quickly realized that the action was for her about as much as it was for him if her trembling hand was anything to go on.
The couple took a moment to reel in their emotions before they walked inside where they found several members trying to clean the place up.
Spying Droy amongst the group Ryu approached him and asked, "Where's the master?"
"Downstairs having a drink," was Droy's quick response as he resumed sweeping.
Shooting him a quick thanks the duo headed down to the basement, finding it transformed into a temporary work and dining hall. Makarov could be found seated on a stool near the back of the room, beer in hand. In the seat beside him was Erza, who had her eyes closed and arms crossed.
"Ah, here are the two love birds." From the redness of his cheeks, it was painfully obvious that the short guildmaster was thoroughly drunk. "You seen what happened upstairs? Quite something ain't it?"
"Who did it?" Ryu wasted no time trying to figure out who was responsible.
"Oh, it was just those punks from Phantom Lord," Makarov shouted, gesturing with his drink. "Those cowards didn't even have the balls to do it while someone was here!"
"Where are they?"
That earned him a wag of master's finger in his face. "(Hic)No no," Makarov scolded, "You ain't going to do anything."
"AND WHY NOT!?" Everything seemed to stop at his shout, but Ryu didn't care if everyone's eyes were on him, "IF WE SIT HERE AND DO NOTHING, WHAT'S TO STOP THEM FROM DOING SOMETHING WORSE IN THE FUTURE!"
The aged guildmaster seemed to sober up a bit as he pinned the redhead with a look that would cause even the most strongest of fighters to back down, "You will stand down, Ryu."
"I WON'T TAKE THIS LYING DOWN," Ryu glared defiantly back, "NOT WITHOUT RETURNING THE FAVOR!"
"You can and will," Makarov spoke calmly, but there was an edge to his voice that sent a chill down everyone's spine. "If we retaliate, it could lead to a war between the guilds, and should it come to that, then the council will definitely shut us down. Regardless if you're close friends with a high ranking Rune Knight."
Ryu stood shaking in barely restraint rage. His territorial instincts were absolutely screaming at him to seek out the ones responsible for the desecration of his guild, but Makarov's reasoning ended up winning that bout.
"FUCK!" His hand was a blur as the table closest to him was reduced to little more than splinters. Before anything else could be said, Ryu had already disappeared with the following sound of static.
Mira moved to follow him, but was stopped by a metal clad hand holding her by the shoulder. She turned around to see Erza shaking her head. "Just let him go. He'll calm down eventually. Best give him some space until then."
Mira stared back at the space Ryu had been in for a moment longer and sighed. She trusted him not to do anything rash and would stay at the guild for now.
Taking the stool next to her rival, Mira spoke. "I'm surprised that Natsu isn't here right now, trying to do exactly what Ryu just did."
Erza looked at her quizzically before understanding finally dawned on her. "That's right, you guys don't know." At Mira's confused look she started to explain. "The other day, Natsu stole an S-Class request and dragged along Lucy and your sister. Gray volunteered to bring them back, but when they didn't return the master sent Laxus after them."
Mirajane raised a brow. Laxus actually listened to an order from the master. That sounded very out of character for the guild's lightning mage.
"We got a call from Laxus this morning saying that he ended up helping them finish the job and sent them back by themselves, saying that he had another request to get to," Erza finished with crossed arms. "He even let them keep half the reward money and gave the Celestial Gate Key that came with it to Lucy."
"...Okay, who is this man and what has he done with Laxus?" Mira asked in utter disbelief. The Laxus she knew and loathed would never do the things she was just told. "Are we sure that he hasn't been replaced by a doppelganger or something."
"He's really taken a turn for the better this last year, hasn't he," Erza said as she thought back on Laxus's recent interactions with the guild. The malice and anger he always held before had been receding bit by bit. Now he actually held somewhat decent conversations with the other members, and by that she meant he we would say a few words of greeting before continuing on his way.
Still, it was an improvement, no matter how small of one it was.
"Looks like his loss to Ryu really opened his eyes," the guilds only two female S-Class mages nodded in agreement and spent the rest of the morning in a comfortable silence. Though every so often, Mira would steal a glance in the direction of Ryu's home. She could feel the chaotic state of his power on the edge of her senses. She just hoped that he wouldn't hold a grudge against the guildmaster for his decision.
Ryu sighed for the hundredth something time that day and idly twirled his pencil. Upon returning home he thought about going to his private training grounds, but had settled on picking up his pencil and sketchbook. When that didn't help all that much, he had gone into the kitchen and retrieved several bottles of alcohol. Thankfully a few hours of nothing but drawing and drinking seemed to do the trick as he was now completely calm.
He spared a glance at the dozen or so empty bottles of whisky and wine that he had gone through and groaned as he saw that many of them were ones he had been saving for a special occasion. It looked like he was going to have to go shopping the next chance he got to restock his now drained supplies.
A few minutes later, Ryu had cleaned the place up and had just made a kettle of tea when the door opened. Hearing the familiar clicking of heels, he didn't bother looking to see who it was, until he realized that more footsteps followed after.
Confused as to who else it could be, Ryu took the kettle off and peaked out into the hall. He wasn't surprised to see Mira seeing as she lived here, but following behind her was Cana, Erza, Gray and last but not least Lucy. Blinking a few times to make sure his eyes weren't playing tricks on him, Ryu looked to his girlfriend with a raised brow before smirking.
"If you were looking to spice things up in the bedroom, then why did you bring Gray?"
Five minutes later Ryu was sporting new bump on his head while serving tea to everyone who was now gathered in his living room.
"Thank you," said a blushing Lucy as she took a sip of her tea, his remark still fresh in her mind.
"You're welcome." Finished with handing out the drinks, Ryu took his seat beside Mira who was still shooting him a glare. Geeze, a guy makes one joke and he's in the dog house. "Anyway, now that I've gone and made everyone comfortable and uncomfortable at the same time, mind explaining why you're all here?"
"It was Erza's idea," Mira said with a sigh before relaxing into his side, his arm instinctively wrapping around her. "With what happened to the guild last night, she felt it would be best if we all grouped up for the next few days until this all blows over."
"I see," Ryu said as he rubbed her shoulder, "So who went with who?"
Setting her tea down Erza chipped in, "Well Happy, Lisanna and Natsu went to his place. Levy, Jet and Droy obviously stuck together, but seeing how they aren't really combat specialists Elfman decided to go with them. They're all staying at his house. From there everyone just kind of splintered off into their own groups."
The arrancar nodded as he thought about the groupings. They all seemed to be pretty thought out and as much as he loved to fight, he hoped nothing would happen for the next few days.
He was brought out of his thoughts by Cana's whistling. Looking over at her, he saw her going through his drawings.
"Damn Ryu, I didn't know you could draw." She flipped to a page that showed the depictions of the many different hollows he had killed and consumed. "Though these are a bit freaky."
"I'm with Cana on that one," Gray pitched in, now wearing nothing but his boxers. Ryu sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, but didn't bother pointing it out to the serial stripper, knowing he would just wined up in the same state soon enough.
Lucy let out a squeal of excitement and pulled out the signed copy of his book 'Being Hollow'. "Oh my god, how did you get this!?"
Mira shook her head at the wink he sent her, having learned early on in their relationship about Ryu's status as an author. "I know the author. So you've read that one."
The blonde nodded as she thumbed through the pages. "It's one of my favorites, though the ending saddens me every time."
"Keep it." Ryu said without hesitation.
Lucy looked about ready to feint at this point, "A-are you sure? This couldn't have been easy to get. The author hasn't done book signings or anything."
Ryu waved off her concern, "Don't worry about it. I'd prefer someone who enjoys it to own it. Better than it just sitting and collecting dust on my shelf." With another look of encouragement, Lucy finally nodded and accepted the gift.
"Thank you." She smiled, earning her a smirk from the arrancar.
"Ryu," Erza suddenly spoke up, the serious tone in her voice immediately brought down the mood. "If this doesn't blow over, and it does come to war between the guilds...what are our chances of winning?"
Everyone, even the ever easy going Cana, became serious at her question and looked toward Ryu for his answer. It was no secret that the redhead had fought in some sort of large scale battle before joining the guild and had been in a multitude of life and death situations, and from Mira had told them, was one of the most powerful figures in his homeland.
While Ryu hadn't showcased the extent of his powers, they knew that he was the strongest among them, barring the master and Gildarts. The thought of Ryu fighting the latter of the two brought a chill to everyone's spine, barring Lucy as she had yet to learn of the guild's ace.
Removing his arm from Mira's waist, Ryu leaned forward so that his elbows rested on his knees and had his fingers laced together. "Well let's look at the facts. We have stronger mages but they've got number over us. They also have a group of mages known as the Elemental Four that is rumored to consist of nothing but S-Class level mages. Then there's also their ace, the Iron Dragonslayer Gajeel Redfox."
"D-dragonslayer," Lucy said nervously, "You mean they have a mage that's like Natsu?" She had seen first hand the kind of destructive power the pinkette was capable of dishing out and knew it was nothing to scoff at.
"Well not exactly like him," Ryu clarified, "You see Natsu's the Fire Dragonslayer and is capable of consuming fire to regain his magic energy, so long as it isn't his own flame. Being the Iron Dragonslayer, it's likely that Mr. Redfox can do the same, but with iron."
He leaned back in the couch and crossed one leg over the other, "But while he may be strong, the biggest concern is going to be Jose. On top of being a guildmaster, he too holds the title of Wizard Saint and is said to be on par with the old man when it comes to raw power."
"But we have something that they sorely lack," Ryu took a moment to smirk at their confusion before saying one simple word, a dark gleam in his eyes.
"Me."
Later that night, Mira was wide awake as she lied naked beside her partner in their bed, their coupling from before had barely helped her restlessness. She rolled over so that she was left facing Ryu, who was sound asleep.
She brought a hand to his cheek, her thumb stroking the mask that was ever present. While most no doubt found the skull-like mask frightening and a major turnoff, the porcelain-like texture always felt pleasant to her touch. It was a physical representation of his power and he wore it with pride.
While she stroked the mask, her thoughts lingered back to what he said earlier. Mira was more than aware of how powerful her lover was, having seen and experienced it first hand. But even with all of her knowledge, she felt fear in what could possibly happen should he attempt to fight Jose.
Ryu was powerful, but Jose was a Wizard Saint, a title that the council didn't just hand out on a whim. He himself had admitted that their potential foe was just as powerful as the master.
A heavy feeling of dread settled in her stomach at the image of his bruised and beaten form lying lifelessly on the cold hard ground. She quickly pulled herself into his chest and hugged him tightly.
When sleep finally took hold, another feeling of unease made its way up her spine before Mira finally drifted off.
The next morning
"Get out of the way!"
The townsfolk did well to listen to the redhead's words as Ryu made his way through the crowd that had the park surrounded. Following behind him was everyone that had stayed the night at his place, and they too were followed by the rest of the guild.
"Move!" With a final push, Ryu was able to make it through to the opening in the center. The sight before him caused him to freeze up.
"E-Elfman!" Mirajane cried as she ran to her brother. Said sibling was standing in the center of large splatter of blood that had long since dried up, with multiple lacerations covering the entirety of his body. His eyes were lowered and bloodshot, but he was alive.
"I-I didn't fall." Mira hardly heard him as she tried to get him to lie down. Ryu approached as well, his footsteps slow and with meaning. "I refused to fall."
Looking past the Take Over mage, Ryu saw the unconscious forms of Levy, Jet and Droy lying a few feet behind him. All three were beaten and bruised, but nowhere near to the extent of Elfman.
"Who did it?" Ryu asked as he finally approached, barely reacting as Lisanna ran past him and to her older brother. Wisps of spiritual energy could be seen emanating off his body as he already knew the answer, but he needed to hear it. His knuckles popped audibly as his friend spoke one word.
"Phantom."
Ryu nodded his head solemnly, "Good." With one quick, painless strike to the back of the neck, the arrancar rendered Elfman unconscious and caught him before he could hit the ground. Throwing one of his arms around his neck, Ryu looked toward Mira. Her cheeks were stained with tears, but her eyes were alight with a raging fire.
Hearing the sound of footsteps approaching behind him Ryu spoke, "You know what's gonna happen next."
"I know," Makarov responded as the rest of the guild arrived and began to gather up Levy and the others. "I can forgive them for wrecking our guild hall. Walls and roofs can be easily fixed." The ground beneath him cracked as he spoke through clenched teeth. "I can forgive the harsh words that are thrown our way. BUT A FATHER CAN NOT FORGIVE THE PAIN BROUGHT UPON HIS CHILDREN!"
With a rage that none of them had seen before, Makarov's roar could've been heard from the heavens. "JOSE, YOU WANTED A WAR! YOU'VE GOT IT!"
-End-