Chapter 10: Spooky Scary Stuff!

"Wait, what do you mean!?" Lucy yelled. "We're not supposed to go to the second floor, right!?"

"I just took it." Happy stated bluntly.

"You thieving cat!" Lucy facefaulted.

"Anyway, since it's our first job from the second floor, I took the cheapest one." Natsu said. "It's still 7,000,000 Jewels."

"That's still loads." I deadpanned.

"No! We're not qualified to do an S-Class mission!" Lucy argued.

"But if we succeed, Jii-chan will approve of us, right?" Natsu grinned.

"He does have a point." I noted.

"Don't you start!" She yelled before sighing. "You're always so reckless, Natsu. At least try to follow the rules of your own Guild."

"But then we'll never be able to go to the second floor." Natsu argued.

"Whatever, I'm not going." She huffed. "You three can go."

"But it says 'Save our island'." Happy pointed out.

"Let's go!" Natsu persisted.

"Island?" Lucy echoed.

"The cursed Garuna Island." The pair said with creepy faces.

"Cursed!? No way am I going there!" She panicked.

"Will you come if I give you half a fish?" Happy offered.

"That's not gonna convince me!"

"Well then think about it like this." I said. "Those poor, poor people on that island, in desperate need of rescue. Probably children there too. Will you just desert them?"

"...Yes."

"Damn, she's harsh!" I gasped, slumping over.

"At least ya tried." "Aye." The duo said as they shoosh-patted me. "Tch, let's go home." Natsu then climbed out the window and jumped whilst Happy flew.

"Go and cool down a little will ya? And use the door to leave!" She yelled after them.

We both huffed as I glanced at the ground, noticing something and picking it up. "Hey look, they left the paper."

"What!?" Lucy went bug-eyed before curling up into a ball. "Noooo! Now it'll look like we stole it! What are we gonna do!?"

I shrugged as I read it. "Hey, they missed an extra reward."

"Huh?" Lucy looked up.

"Says you get a golden key as well, whatever that i-"

"Gimme that!" She swiped the sheet out of my grasp and read it herself. "You get an Eleptic Zodiac Gate Key as well!?" There was a lengthy paused before she looked at me with a WEIRD smile.

"What's up with that smile!?" I questioned.

"Natsuuuuu! Happyyyyyy! Wait for us!" She cheered.

"You sure changed your mind quick!" I yelled.

The Next Day...

We were back in Harujion today, looking for a way to get to Garuna. I was wearing the same clothes from yesterday, but now also carried a blue backpack, mainly filled with food, because food is important. 'This is the first place I came to when I got unceremoniously dumped in this world.'

'Bit harsh.' Zen said.

'Quiet you.'

"Wow, I haven't been here in a while! This is where we first met, right?" Lucy asked.

"It hasn't been that long." Natsu grumbled. "What made her change her mind again?"

"Extra reward." I said, making him nod.

"Old lady Lucy..." Happy whispered with a giggle.

"Alright, first we need to find a ship to take us to Garuna." Lucy thought aloud.

Natsu gained a look of dread. "A ship!? No! That's impossible! We're swimming there!"

"That's even more impossible." Lucy deadpanned.

"Aaaaa...ah!" He suddenly jumped on me piggyback style. "Okay, Alain! Jet Jump us to Garuna Island!"

"Like hell I will! Get off!" I yelled with shark teeth before tossing him to the ground.

We went around and spoke to every sailor possible, but none would accept, all believing that the island was a taboo and a curse amongst sailors.

"That's decided, swimming it is." "Aye." The duo said (I'm calling them 'the duo' from now on, makes sense).

"Swim?" A passing sailor repeated. "That's suicide, unless you're not afraid of those huge sharks."

"Damn straight! I'm not scared! I'll fry 'em!" Natsu declared with determination.

"You can't use fire in the water." Lucy sighed. "What are we going to do?"

"Like I said, we're swimming." Natsu stated as he and Happy began doing preparation exercises.

Before we could start suicide swimming I felt someone behind us. "Found ya."

We all facefaulted in horror, thinking we were officially screwed and turning around to find-"Gray!?"

"Why are you here!?" Natsu questioned.

"Master ordered me to bring you back." He said with a smile.

"WHAAAT!? HE FOUND OUT ALREADY!?" Natsu shouted with a dropped jaw.

"If you come back now, you might still avoid expulsion." He snickered.

"Expulsion!" Lucy echoed with a cartoonish face of horrified shock.

"No way! I'm gonna do this S-Class Job!" Natsu stubbornly told him.

"It's called S-Class because your skills suck." Gray replied, before gaining a similar look of dread. "If Erza finds out...you know...awawawawa..."

'What did 'awawawawa' mean again?' I thought.

'Basically means they're pretty damn scared.'

'Thank you Zen.' I thought sarcastically.

"If Erza finds out...!" The other three panicked, before Happy leapt to Gray's side.

"Gray, help me, I was forced to come." The cat pleaded.

"Traitor!" Me and Lucy said.

"I'll show Erza what I'm made of! No way I'm leaving now!" Natsu growled as the two literally butt heads again.

"Master's orders! I'm gonna bring you back even if I have to use force!" Gray yelled before forming icicles in his hand. "Don't whine if you get hurt!"

"What, you wanna fight!?" Natsu roared as he ignited his fist.

"W-Wait, you two!" Lucy cried.

"Don't you two ever stop?" I muttered as the two of us held the rivals away from each other.

"You guys...are Mages?" We turned our attention to a sailor. "Are you...here to stop the curse?"

"Yeah!" Natsu grinned.

"Seems so." I chuckled.

"Y-Yeah, kinda...sorta..." Lucy said less confidently.

"I won't let you!" Gray flat out denied.

The sailor paused, almost as if in disbelief. "...Here, hop in."

"Alright!" "Really?" "Woah!" "What!?" We cried with different emotions, before Natsu took the chance an-HE JUST KICKED GRAY IN THE FACE!

"Make him depart!" Natsu said as he dragged the unconscious exhibitionist on board.

"Wait, why are we taking Gray with us!?" Lucy asked.

"If he goes back to the Guild, Erza'll be the next to come."

"And that would be bad." "Aye." Me and Happy said whilst Lucy shrieked.

"To the S-Class Island!" Natsu announced happily.

Unfortunately, as soon as we departed it turned into a look of sickness. hanging over the edge of the little boat. Happy was up front, me in the middle, and Lucy at the back keeping an eye on a conscious, mad, and tied up Gray whilst our sailor talked about his cursed former home.

"What kind of curse is it?" Happy asked.

The man paused before answering. "Misfortune will befall you if you go to that island."

"What? You mean bad luck?" I suggested.

"I think it has to be worse then just 'bad luck.'" Gray grumbled.

"Well exuuuuuuse me." I huffed.

"Can you guys really get rid of this curse?" The sailor asked as he revealed-HOLY FUDGESICLES WHAT WAS WRONG WITH HIS ARM!? It was all black and distorted, like a demons! "This demonic curse."

'Okay, this is serious.' I told myself as we all just looked at his arm in dread.

"Ossan...that arm..." Gray spoke.

"The curse...you mean...um..." Lucy mumbled.

Before they could continue though, he looked forward. "There it is. Garuna Island."

We all looked forward to see a silhouette of a large, dominating island, looking like it was there specifically to be scary.

"Hey, Oji-san..." We all looked back, but he was no longer there, causing our eyes to widen. "H-Huh? Where is he!?"

"Paranormal activity!" I shrieked.

"D-Don't be ridiculous!" Gray said. "He must've fallen overboard!"

Happy dived down into the ocean, only to resurface moments later. "He's not there."

"What is going on!?" Lucy wailed.

"Ghosts!" I emphasised.

"Wh-What's that sound...?" Natsu groaned, and we all looked up to see...

"Kyaaaa! Tidal wave!" Qnd it was HUGE! We were like bugs in the presence of this thing!

"We're getting sucked in!"

"Happy lift this boat up and fly!"

"That's impossible!"

"Bleugh..."

"Hurry up and untie me! I'm gonna die!"

"It's practically on top of us!" I observed as the wave began to fall.

"Kyaaaaaah!" Lucy screamed.

"Damn! Because of you guys-!" Gray cursed.

Natsu was too dizzy to give an opinion.

"We're going down!"...Probably not my best choice of words.

The wave crashed down on us, the force shaking my vision as I was flipped around and around, unaware of which way was up and which way was down. Rational thought left me as I thrashed around, only to bump my head and lose consciousness...

Sometime later...

...Urrrghhh...what happened?...Where was I?...What was this?...Sand? I was on sand...a beach?...Wait...wait, now I remember! We all got washed away by a tidal wave, and now we were on a beach!

I sat up, surprised to find myself dry (most likely due to the sun) and saw some bits and pieces of our wreckage, along with a knocked out Natsu, Happy and Gray.

"Man..." I groaned. "That wasn't pleasant...so now we're on some kinda beach?"

"Alain!" I looked to the right of me to see Lucy run up to me.

"Hey Lucy, looks like we all got out okay." I said before standing up. "Hey guys, wake up."

"Hn? Wha...?" Natsu muttered as he opened his eyes, shortly afterwards sitting up with a huge grin on his face. "Wow! Are we there!? Are we on Garuda Island!?"

"I guess that tidal wave washed us ashore." Lucy guessed. "But what was that anyway? That arm, that demonic curse? And the ossan disappearing..."

"Oh hey, I found my bag." I said, opening it up only to find practically all the stuff I packed ruined. I fell to my knees in despair. "It's no good...the food didn't survive..."

"Don't worry, Alain!" Natsu said as he picked me up. "Let's go explore! Explore!"

"Aye, sir!" Happy cheered.

"Shouldn't we be more concerned about it considering its our job!?" Lucy pointed out. "There's supposed to be a village on this island. The mayor there is the client for our job, we should go there first."

"Wait." We all turned towards an awake Gray.

"What!? We've already come this far, you can't take us back!" Natsu said.

"No. I'm coming with you guys." He replied. "It'd irritate me if you all got to the second floor before me. And if you get expelled, then that'd be boring." We all couldn't help but grin at his statement. "Let's go."

"Yeah!" We all cheered.

We walked around until we came to a giant wooden gate with the words 'KEEP OUT' written above it.

"Keep out? What kind of village is this?" Gray remarked aside.

"Excuse uuuuus! Could you please open the gate?" Lucy called.

"This sucks." Natsu grumbled. "Let's break it."

"No!" Lucy shouted at him with shark teeth.

"Who's there?" We looked up to see two figures on the wood wall.

"We're from the Fairy Tail Guild." Lucy told them. "Er,...we saw your request..."

"Fairy Tail? We know nothing about you guys accepting our request." He called down.

"Eh? Knowing nothing? What, do you have to send out a pre-emptive notice or something?" I asked my fellow Guild members.

"Technically the Guild Master would inform people first hand." Gray whispered.

I turned to Natsu. "And YOU didn't take this into consideration?"

"I was gonna cross that bridge when I came to it." He defended himself.

"Here's the bridge." I gestured to the wall. "How ya gonna cross it."

"I dunno." I facepalmed.

"I think there was some confusion. If we can't get in, we'll leave though." Gray saved us.

"I'm not leaving!" Natsu said with a cartoon face.

"Shut up." Gray hissed.

"Show me your symbols." I showed them my forearm with my blue symbol on it, with everyone else showing theirs. There was some muttering before he spoke again. "Strip the girl."

"Eh!?" I gasped.

"Why!? It has nothing to do with this!" Lucy yelled as Gray grabbed her shirt. "Don't take them off!"

"Uhhmmm...sorry, got carried away." He admitted.

"Perv!" I yelled up.

"Just get in, I'll get the Mayor." The gate slowly rose, and the five of us went in.

The village was very simple, made almost completely out of wood, with small houses and nothing more then a watchtower. It was very...quaint. Quickly a crowd of hooded, cloaked and robed villagers gathered, with their presumed leader having only one eye showing, carrying a wodden staff with a crescent moon carved on the end.

"Thank you for coming here, Mages, hoga hoga." He said.

'Hoga hoga is a new one.' I sweatdropped.

"I'm sorry if this seems sudden, but please take a look at this. Everyone, take off your robes." The crowd through them off, revealing that each of them had at least one limb transformed into that of a beast or some sort of devil.

"I knew it..." Gray said as Lucy gulped.

"These guys look cool." I grinned.

"Don't say that!" Gray yelled.

"Awesome sideburns!" Natsu praised.

"Damn, they are awesome!" I agreed, they were like stretched tribal earlobes, except they were sideburns!

"Well, actually, I wanted to show you this hand, hoga..." He said. "Did it surprise you? Hoga hoga. Everyone on this island, even the dogs and the birds, are affected by this curse."

"It's not like I'm questioning you, but what makes you think there's a 'curse' on this island? Can't it be some kind of disease?" Gray suggested.

"I've shown this to many doctors." The leader said. "But they all said there's no such disease, hoga. Also...the moon's 'magical power' has something to do with how we look."

"The moon's magical power?" Lucy echoed.

"Ever since ancient times, this island has accumulated moonlight, this made the island so beautiful it shone like the moon." He told us. "But a few years ago, the moonlight suddenly started to turn purple."

"Purple?! I've never seen the moon like that." Natsu said.

"Nope." Lucy agreed.

"I think others would have noticed if the moon turned purple." I thought aloud.

"People from the mainland all say that." The leader said. "But in reality, the moon did turn purple on this island. After the purple moon showed up, our bodies started to change."

"The moon is up!" Happy caught our attention, so we looked up to see...a purple moon.

"It's true...it's purple." Lucy breathed in disbelief.

"The moon...is creepy..." Gray said through gritted teeth.

"Just what is going on on this island?" I asked no-one in particular.

"This is the curse of the moon's magical power." The leader said, just before a look of pain overcame his face and he doubled over.

"H-Hey, are you okay!?" I gasped, when suddenly the villagers around us started grunting and roaring in pain, as their monster parts spread throughout their entire bodies and completely transformed them.

"What's going on!? Natsu yelled.

"They're WereMonsters!" I gasped...what? It's true! And we were all there just with facefaults.

"Sorry if we scared you." The now monster leader said. "When the purple moon comes out, our bodies change into these ugly demons. If this isn't a curse, then what is?"

A child began sobbing at his change as an adult comforted him. "It's okay...it's okay..."

The rest of the villagers began to cry as well, disgusted by themselves, it was heart wrenching to watch. 'To be ashamed of yourself because of something out of your control...that's terrible...'

"Once it becomes morning, everyone will turn back to their original forms." The leader continued. "But...there were recently some people who didn't change back and lost their soul."

"It can't be..." Lucy whispered.

"Lost their souls?" I repeated to myself.

"Became pure demons." It seems he heard me. "We decided to kill anyone who lost their souls and became pure evil."

"Even if there was a chance they would change back to their original forms!?" Natsu yelled in anger.

"If we'd let them live, others might get killed by those demons. And even if we'd lock them up, they'd just break out and escape." He said, before he reached into his pocket and took out a picture of...our...sailor. "That's why...I had to kill my son as well." A tear trickled down his face. "My son...whose soul became evil..."

'...Ghost...' I thought with a pale face.

"I acknowledge you as famous Mages. Please save our island." He begged with a lowered head. "If this keeps going on...everyone...will lose their souls...and turn into demons..."

"I won't let that happen!" Natsu declared.

"Sir, we won't make yourselves kill your loved ones any longer!" I said in determination, angered by this cruel fate innocent people had had thrust upon them. "You sent the request so...do you know how to cure the curse?"

"...There is only one way to be rid of it." He said. "Please destroy the moon."

There was a pause.

"WHAT!?" We had our frikkin' work cut out for us!

Alright! A new chapter! After all this time it's finally out!

For those of you who are wondering about OC's, I have deliberately not included, and not made any reference to, any OC's in this chapter. And this is because I have yet to make my decision on them. And only YOUR opinion will decide where I go from here. If your confused, please refer to the previous 'chapter' (a.k.a notice) for details.

Right then, with that out of the way, thank you for reading, and I shall see you next chapter, HOPEFULLY when I've made up my mind about this whole situation.