It's pretty much official: Gruvia has become my OTP. And while I hide from all the rotten fruit my loyal NaLu readers are throwing my way, I assure you I still like NaLu and Gajevy and Jerza and all that fun stuff, but Gruvia has usurped them all for the position of Mrs. H's OTP. GASP.
But after the newest manga chapter, 423, I'm not sure what to think. I'll have to wait until next week, I guess.
Anyway, I don't claim anything but the storyline; the characters belong to the troll we all know and love that goes by the name of Mashima Hiro.
Introducing Perpetual Rain, chapter ten.
Juvia stared blankly at the necklace dangling from the master's hand, hardly even noticing him there anymore. The hands in front of her mouth slowly fell, and she didn't even try to decipher the maelstrom of emotions building up inside her. The obvious ones were impossible to ignore: she felt the dread and despair in a particularly acute fashion, the strong pull of regret insisting that she could have done something if only she'd been there, and then the numbness that encroached upon everything. And the cycle was repeating. She couldn't tell up from down or even whether or not she was thankful that Master Makarov had thought to tell her about the situation.
"..via?"
She blinked a few times, and then listened.
"Juvia?"
Her name sounded as though it was coming through water—and she would know, since water was her element. But she had seen Master Makarov's mouth move that time, so it had clearly been him speaking. Her brow knit in confusion, and then a rumble drew her attention.
Juvia's rain is back, she realized belatedly. So late, in fact, that she could tell the couch cushions she perched on were already saturated, as were her clothes and hair. Her earlier shower was thus rendered useless, and the worse part was that now she didn't know how to make the rain stop.
For the last few years, all she had to do was think of Fairy Tail and her beloved Gray-sama, and the rain would slacken and eventually disappear. She had family for what felt like the first time in her life and she was well and truly happy with them. Every day was a blessing, and she knew what it felt like to get through rough spots and land on her feet. The entire guild had done that day in and day out since she had joined, and even before, so it became second nature. And it became her happiness.
But now…?
Thinking of Fairy Tail made her think of the dire circumstances that they all were in, and thinking of the dire circumstances drew her eyes to the shining silver necklace that her guild master had lowered to the table, almost out of her line of sight—almost—and she couldn't help but wonder if she would ever see Gray again. That thought alone made the rain worse, and she was powerless against it.
She was powerless against the rain because Gray was her power against it.
Fighting back the sudden tears that wanted to break free, Juvia cleared her throat and said, rather thickly, "Juvia is sorry for spacing out, Master. Is…is there any more information from the scene? Any news on G—his condition? Or an idea of where the enemy went afterwards?"
Solemnly, examining her closely with sad, tired eyes, the Master informed her, "There is little information so far, other than the fact that he was vastly outnumbered. Blue Pegasus is investigating the scene for us, so hopefully we will know more before too long. But as of right now, we don't have any information about exactly how many he fought, his condition, or even where he was taken after the battle ended. I'm sorry, Juvia."
She had expected no less than that, and it didn't help her rain. She tried to ignore the fact that she had probably ruined the furniture in the room, and the villagers that ran this inn had been nothing but kind to her since she had checked in the previous day.
"Juvia understands," her words were stiffly spoken, her brain working overtime to find a solution. The rain…first, she wanted to stop the rain. If a raincloud was constantly following her around, it would be obvious to any enemy that knew Fairy Tail well that she wasn't actually Erza or whoever else she transformed into. "It isn't your fault, Master, and Juvia knows that."
"But it is," he grimaced. "If I had gone with your plan, just as we had laid it out, this wouldn't have happened to him. If I had just waited another fifteen minutes, or told them to go just a little farther in another direction, they may have been out of harm's way. But instead of doing that, and following the plan, I put one of my children right in the path of danger. It was me who put his life in jeopardy, and he may have paid the ultimate price for my folly."
It hurt. She had believed that her heart was done hurting like this, but she should have known that she could never escape it forever. This emptiness inside is what caused the rain, and now she knew that the rain was truly never-ending. She would never fully escape.
"We don't know that," she tried, but her voice was barely above a whisper and nearly masked by the rumbling above her head and now outside, too.
She knew it was hard to convince people that tragedies weren't their fault, but when she couldn't even put that conviction into her voice, it had to weigh even heavier on the old man's mind. She really didn't blame him, it was true, but saying it in a convincing way was so much harder now that she was toying with the idea that she really might never see Gray again—and not because of something that had happened to her, as she had originally supposed. Now that it was his life in the balance, something in her was crumbling so fast that she couldn't put it back together.
"We have to assume the worst, Juvia," the tears in his eyes nearly killed her, "but always hope for the best, whatever the best might be. And if the worst comes to be, it will rest on my shoulders."
The way his shoulders were slumped, she didn't feel like he could take anything else upon them.
"You know he would have gone, anyway," Juvia spoke before she had even realized what she was thinking, but seized on the subject with a reckless abandon. "Gray has always been like that. He would do anything for Natsu, even if he'd never admit it out loud, and he would have gone in the direction that no one else had gone. If Juvia is correct, you chose to send them because it was in a direction we hadn't assigned another group to, yes?"
He nodded, "Yes. But that still leaves it all up to timing. He may have waited until all the other groups were gone, and demanded to be sent—"
"He wouldn't have waited until everyone was gone," Juvia cut him off, a wistful smile spreading across her features without her knowledge. "He is far too impatient for that. He would have waited until no one was looking and he would have tried to sneak out when he did leave so that you couldn't tell him to stay. It could have been before you sent him, it might have been after, but if we assume that the enemy is staking out certain areas, then he would have encountered them anyway."
Master Makarov closed his mouth and then sighed. She could tell that he still blamed himself for what he undoubtedly believed was the death of one of his beloved children, but she had said what she needed to. It was for Mirajane and those left at the guild to placate the old man now, and it was for she and all the others to proceed with the plan. They would continue to serve as decoys while the enemy, whose number remained unknown, searched for the real Natsu and Lucy. And should the doppelgangers fall into trouble, it was for a good cause. It was to protect their family, and Juvia knew all of them were fine with that.
And Juvia…she knew what she had to do. Now, more than ever.
"Juvia will continue with the plan," she stated boldly, in a voice much stronger than before, even though the life of the man she loved was in question. She now had a plan of action, and she would follow through. Eventually, her path would lead to where his had taken him, one way or another, and she said just that when she told Master Makarov, "Juvia will continue, and when she finds Gray and everyone else, she'll send them straight back to you."
The rain was a gentle shower, lessening by the second, as the blue-haired woman stood from the couch with her hands on her hips. Makarov looked like he wanted to say something, but after a few moments of opening and closing his mouth without finding the words, he finally settled for, "I would tell you to come back, but I know you would refuse," he offered a wry smile, "so good luck and Godspeed, Juvia. Come back safely."
"Understood," she nodded, reaching forward to sever the lachrima connection. Once that was done, she looked around at the puddles she had made and frowned before slipping across the room to open the bathroom door.
With a crease between her brows, she concentrated on pulling the water out of the furniture and off the floor, manipulating it into the bathtub. She listened as it drained while she worked, a continuous stream of water flowing at about shoulder height between the two rooms as she silently worked. It may have been a foolish thing to worry about, this water everywhere, but these kind innkeepers had been a nice relief from enemy mages trying to kill her, and if she could save them trouble with just a few minutes of her time, she'd risk running into some of the enemy.
When that was done, she rummaged in her pack and realized that, at least for now, her only option was to transform into Lucy when she left the town. As a preemptive strike, she pulled on the set of her blonde friend's clothes that had survived her tumble off the cliff, the boots she had just purchased the previous afternoon, and slid the knapsack over her shoulders. Juvia couldn't afford to waste any more time here, she knew, so she headed downstairs.
"Why, hello there!" the kindly man at the front desk greeted her with a smile lacking a few teeth, "I hope you slept well, miss?"
"Juvia slept very well, thank you," she responded in kind, offering him a small grin. "She is afraid she can't stay any longer, though. Here is the key to the room," she handed him the aforementioned object, "and the lachrima Juvia borrowed is sitting on the coffee table in the room. There was a small accident with water magic, but Juvia believes she's prevented any damage. If something does pop up, please contact Fairy Tail and they will be sure to reimburse you."
She bowed her head apologetically, and the man just laughed.
"It's no problem at all! We've had accidents with fire magic a time or two, and scorch marks are much harder to deal with than a little bit of wet furniture!"
"Thank you," Juvia was a bit flustered at his disregard for possible damage to his property, but she decided not to comment on it. "Juvia had a good stay, but she must be going now. Goodbye, sir."
"Goodbye, miss! Come again some other time!" he cheerfully waved her out, and she found herself once more in the center of the tiny riverside village.
With a breath, she turned to exit the village in the opposite direction from where she had entered it yesterday, and somewhere out of sight of the town she would change her appearance to one slightly more blonde. Until then, she would walk as if she was comfortable in Lucy's normal clothes—which was far from the truth, because she wasn't used to skirts so short—and practice the use of the word I some more so that she didn't slip up and call herself Juvia while she appeared like someone else.
"I can do this," she told herself firmly. "I am a Fairy Tail mage, and I will do whatever it takes."
She had already done it for a while when she had masqueraded as Erza, so she could do it as Lucy, too. It wasn't as if she had to call herself different names for either of them. She just had to remember to call herself by the proper pronoun. It would be easy, because she was doing it for Gray.
Juvia still wasn't sure whether her new plan would bring her the utmost despair or utter joy, but she knew she had to go through with it until the bitter end. And in one way or another, she would find Gray. She had to believe he was still alive somewhere, because it hurt too much to believe otherwise. The blue-haired woman had given thought to the possibility that he had actually been killed in action, because although she was infamous for daydreaming she was still firmly rooted in reality when it counted. And even though considering his fate was the most painful thing she had done since she had joined Fairy Tail, she had to face it.
She was strong enough to get through, and since she was strong enough to get through, she would definitely find him. And if, or rather when, she found him alive, she would do just as she had promised Master Makarov and send him back to the guild as soon as she could.
The master couldn't hold all of this sorrow on his shoulders forever.
No…she would take some of the responsibility for herself.
It's a short update, and I apologize, but I wanted to end it here. This is mostly a filler chapter to progress the story and Juvia's thoughts on the situation at hand. And after reading chapter 423, as I said in the beginning, I just didn't know how to keep writing. I won't say anything more about it, but if you've read it and are interested, I am about to head over to my tumblr, which is panda013, and write a wordy post for possible theories concerning next week's chapter.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and thanks for still being there!