~Ending the Haunt~
Chapter 11
"Last name?"
"Hellbringer," replied Laxus, leaning over slightly to peer over Mr. Emone, the old Archive friend that his grandfather called over a few minutes ago. Mr. Emone was a short, bald man that was once a knight for the Council. He 'hummed' and plugged in the information quickly under the watch of every anxious Fairy Tail member. The floating screen went blank for a moment before a few boxes popped up.
"There doesn't seem to be much about him." Laxus snorted softly.
"Bastard is good at covering things up." And as much as Laxus hates admitting this, Fried's ability to be absolutely precise and careful came from this asshole. His mate even said so himself during an argument between them over something that they couldn't remember by the end of it.
Pressing one of the boxes, Mr. Emone started to read the information in it out loud, even increasing the screen size and putting it over the bar so everyone in the guild can read along. "Birthday unknown. Birth place unknown. Parents unknown. Married to Nicole Justine." A picture was pulled up of Fried's mother, solemn faced in the middle of a bustling sidewalk, her hair pulled back in a messy bun with a dark blue headband on. She was facing off to the side with narrow eyes and a tight frown, her arms crossed tightly over her midsection. From the looks of her swollen belly, he was guessing this was taken sometime before Fried was born.
"She's really beautiful," Mirajane commented, a few heads nodding in silent, visual agreement.
Mr. Emone continued, "The only things left are the report about his arrest and an article about the explosion at Hell's Hunting Ground." After a very brief conservation about the article and deciding to look at it, they scanned the article. Finding nothing new or helpful, most of it just theories and unbaked ideas about what happened, the mages moved on to look at the arrest report. Opening up the report was like opening up a Jack in a Box with confetti shooting out along side it- the report wasn't just one report; it was the actually arrest report and then what appear to be hundreds of reports detailing each of the crimes Hellbringer committed directly or indirectly through being the head of operations.
"Are we supposed to be able to see this?"
"Nope."
Laxus scanned the report intensely, filtering the mild background noise out. He pressed a fist to his mouth, his elbow cradled in his other hand. Murder, leader of multiple drug and fight rings, human tracking, acts of immorality towards other humans… everything he knows about on a very rough, sketchy level. Bits from "helpful" sources and, later, Fried's own confessions, which only came about when Laxus wouldn't let him up from whatever surface he was pinned to- private or public- until he told up. They were still very much tightly under wraps with only a few general details given. As he really study the details of each crime, something about the locations started to nag at his brain like Evergreen when she wanted him to confront Fried about his "unrequited" feelings. "Mr. Emone?"
"Yes, Laxus?"
"Would you bring up a map of Fiore and mark all the places where the crimes occurred?"
"Certainly." A little purple toned map was brought up of the kingdom next to the report. Little red dots started to appear on it, some in clusters and some by themselves. In a general picture, they were too random to form any sort of picture and were too wide spread to say that Hellbringer had a favorite place to do business. But as he looked closer at them, something inside of Laxus's head clicked smoothly, something that paved a yellow brick road towards getting Fried back home. His fist dropped slightly as the idea expanded. Erza, who was standing the closest to him, noticed the light in his eyes that was subconsciously recognized. Recognized as the light that accompanies realization.
"What do you see, Laxus?"
The blonde pointed to one of the red clusters and replied back with a question, "What do you notice about the dots' locations?"
Pantherlily, who was standing up on the bar top with Fro, Lector, Charlie, and Happy around him, said, "They are all out of cities' areas in rural towns or in the middle of nowhere."
"Where this is no police presence and very little to no other residents," Laxus added, watching as light bulbs click on over everyone's head one at a time. The S class mage finished vocalizing his train of thought, "He doesn't want to risk detection so he avoids places where there are a lot of people."
His grandfather stroked his beard thoughtfully, his pipe lying across his knees. "So Fried will stay in and go to cities. And since Hellbringer keeps his business within Fiore, there is no chance that Fried will leave the country with his desire to end this thing one and for all." Laxus nodded.
Members started to shoot off cities where Fried could possibly be, which were either shot down or marked as a possibility. The ones that were shot down were then brought back up if something made it have a good chance of housing Fried. A strange sense of excitement ran down Laxus's spine as he joined the debate. This hunt- while not his ideal version (something without danger and clothes)- was thrilling to his inner dragon, who was still upset about Fried's leaving but was reaction to this chase with primal excitement to one of the oldest relationships in the wild. Predator and prey. A strong dragon hunting down its' prey. Its' little foxy mate prey. A mate who, once back home and by Laxus's will and power, won't ever think about leaving again after Laxus is through with him.