Chapter 12: The Harvest Festival
"Okay, Grace. Let's see what you've got," Pierce encouraged her.
He (with Kit), Grace, Boomer, Sarph and Tyria were grouped in the fields outside the guild hall, and they had decided that since Grace was reluctant to leave Pierce, she would probably be going on jobs with him and Tyria. And for that, they needed to know what her magic could do, because all they had to go on was the fact that Klimt had described it as 'Reality Dragon Slayer' magic, a fusion of two kinds of Lost magic; the Arc of Space, and Dragon Slayer. This didn't give them much to go on, because no one - not even the well-read Solid Script mage Ferdinand - had ever heard of the Arc of Space.
However, during the events at the testing station, she had used attacks strong enough to send Sarph, an S-Class wizard, flying. So it was decided that he was to be the target dummy.
"Don't worry. I can take it," Sarph encouraged her.
"Alright," Grace breathed, nervous. "Uh . . what am I supposed to do?"
"Just feel for your magic and force it out. Whatever attack you end up using will probably have a name, so just shout out whatever comes into your head," Tyria reiterated the advice her teacher had given her when she was learning magic.
"Okay," Grace nodded, trying to convince herself. She breathed in, feeling for the warm energy within her.
Unseen, inside her body, the lacrima nestled next to her heart began to glow.
She inhaled. "Reality Dragon's . . Roar!" A typhoon-like blast of energy emanated from her mouth, streaking towards Sarph . . . and barely fazing him.
When he realised that that was it, he frowned. "That can't be right. The attacks you were using yesterday were at least three times stronger than that,"
Grace shivered, and Pierce cast Sarph a reproachful look. Grace's memories of her time at the hands of Crypt's Spawn had been clouded, as though they were nothing more than an indistinct dream, but enough prodding would bring them back. And he didn't intend to let that happen.
"If I may," a semi-familiar voice interrupted. "I believe I can help," Totomaru walked up, swinging his sword idly. "The situation you describe sounds to me like Grace was using more power because she felt that her life was at risk. In a safe environment, she will of course not feel the same sense of danger and thus will not use the same level of power,"
"That makes sense," Boomer agreed.
"What are you suggesting?" Pierce frowned.
"Oh, just -" Totomaru dashed forwards, suddenly gripping his sword in both hands and bringing it back for a strike. Flames licked at the edge of his blade as he charged towards Grace, whose orange eyes widened in fear. "Reality Dragon's Spatial Wing!" she shrieked on instinct, bringing her arms up and crossing them to cover her face. A magic circle appeared in front of them, and Totomaru's eyes widened as the air in front of him rippled. Suddenly, he vanished.
Grace, lowering her arms and reopening her eyes, gasped. "Oh no!"
The four spectators' eyes widened. "Did she just . ." Tyria trailed off in horror.
"Not possible," Pierce gasped.
"Did you just kill him?" Kit demanded.
"Not exactly!" Totomaru's voice came from somewhere above them, and the five looked up.
The man was hanging, by his coat, from the extended spurs of the guild hall's roof. At least thirty metres above them.
"Teleportation magic?" Boomer gasped.
"No, not quite," Sarph shook his head. "She actually didn't touch him at all. But her magic, for just a second, bent the fabric of space so that the roof of the guild hall was directly between them, and he ran into the bent space. But when Totomaru was inside it, it went back to where it was supposed to be, on top of the guild hall, and took him with it. Which is how he ended up dangling from the roof. Understand?"
Pierce and Tyria nodded, as did Kit. Boomer, though, just stared in confusion. "Uh . ."
"It fundamentally is teleportation," Sarph nodded, sighing.
"Oh, okay,"
"This is all good and well, but would you terribly mind getting me down from here?" Totomaru shouted.
The S-Class wizard activated his Aera and went to rescue him. Totomaru returned to the ground with as much dignity as a man could muster while being carried in the arms of a much taller and more muscular man, keeping his haughty glare about him at all times. Pierce protectively stood between him and Grace. After that stunt, he wasn't letting the fire wizard near her.
"Where's your friend? That Fleur girl?" Tyria asked, also trying to distract Totomaru from Grace.
The black/white-haired man looked around in confusion. "Her name's Fleuressca, and she was with me before . . I have known her to hide in the bushes, but there aren't any of those around here," he frowned.
It was around then that a certain dark-haired, green-clad woman walked up to the group, out of the guild hall. "And what are you squirts all doing, milling around . . ." Hare trailed off as she caught sight of Totomaru.
'That sultry, holier-than-thou glare, the haughty way he keeps his arms folded, the slight twitch of his eyebrow beneath that rugged, mismatched hair,' she thought, drinking in every second of looking at him. 'Who is this man? Why have I never seen him before? What is he doing with these brats? And IS HE SINGLE?'
In a flash, she dashed over to Pierce. "Who's your friend?" she asked.
"Oh, him? That's Totomaru. He used to be with Phantom Lord before they disbanded," Pierce told her.
"Friend of yours?" the man asked, looking at Hare.
"Oh, no, not really, I mean I suppose you could call him a friend, but why would you when I could have much better friends, friends like you for example, say are you doing anything tomorrow night?"
Totomaru arced an inquisitive eyebrow. "No?"
"Oh, good, then I suppose . . ."
"What are they talking about?" Grace asked Pierce, inching closer to him.
"Don't worry, they're both just a little bit crazy. Let's go over to the sane people, like Boomer and Tyria and to a lesser extent Sarph," Pierce suggested, sheparding her towards his closer friends.
"Say, you wouldn't happen to have seen Fleuressca around, would you? I just can't figure out where she's gone off to," Totomaru asked Hare, looking around. Suddenly, his eyes widened and he smiled. "Oh, there you are. Come on over," he beckoned.
Hare, as soon as she spotted the silver-haired lady running towards them, almost growled. 'No . . surely that can't be his . . . no! I won't let that skank charm him! Totomaru is mine, you - you Love Rival!' she thought, furious.
"There you are. Where'd you go? You shouldn't just vanish like that," Totomaru reproached Fleur. She shrugged, cocking her head awkwardly, before turning and gesturing to a tanned, black-haired figure who was trailing behind her. "Gajeel," the fire wizard's eyes lit up in greeting.
"Hey, sparky. Princess over here," Fleur bristled at the annoying nickname, "was pretty insistent that I had to trek across town over to this dump for some reason," Gajeel explained, waving.
Pierce frowned in recognition. "Hey. You're Black Steel Gajeel. The Iron Dragon Slayer of Phantom Lord," he realised.
"The one and only. What, are you guys fans or something?" he asked with a smirk, a second before Tyria declared with a smile; "Another Dragon Slayer? That's perfect!"
"Wait, 'another'?" Gajeel blinked.
"This is Grace, a Reality Dragon Slayer," Pierce introduced the guild's new recruit.
Gajeel's jaw fell open. "That kid was raised by a dragon too?" Suddenly, he was shoving Pierce aside and staring down at Grace. "Do you know where your dragon is right now?"
"Uh . ." Grace shivered, and Pierce pulled her away, interspersing himself between the two. "Whoa. It's not like that. Grace isn't a 'real' Dragon Slayer like you and Natsu. She wasn't taught Dragon Slayer magic by a dragon, she's kind of . ." The Tamer paused, searching for the right word. "Artificial," he settled on.
"Oh," Gajeel looked disappointed. "How's that, then?"
Pushing Grace away for a moment, Pierce leant into Gajeel's ear and whispered a quick summary of the events surrounding her existence, culminating with, "She can use Dragon Slayer magic, though, and we were kind of hoping you could give her some tips,"
"A-oh, gotcha. So that's what the princess over there was trying to say," Gajeel's face cleared in understanding, before he turned to Grace. "Alright, half-pint, ready to learn?"
"This is Gajeel. He's an Iron Dragon Slayer, so he's the best person we have to teach you," Pierce explained, and Grace nodded.
"Alright, so Dragon Slayers have two universal basic attacks; one melee, a Dragon's Fist attack, and one ranged, a Dragon's Roar attack. Beyond that, attacks get more individualised depending on the element of the wizard in question," the older Dragon Slayer began. "For example, I can do this; Iron Dragon's Club!" His hand turned into a five-foot iron bar. The green-haired Dragon Slayer gasped. "You probably can't, but you'll have other attacks that I can't do. Now, what's the deal with this 'Reality Dragon' stuff? Show me what ya got," he challenged, folding his arms over his chest.
"It isn't that simple. Grace currently can't use her full power unless she subconsciously believes her life is in danger," Pierce frowned, and, seeing Gajeel's eyes light up with an idea, he glared a him in warning. "I know what you're thinking, and it is not happening. Your friend Totomaru already tried it, anyway,"
"She somehow teleported me onto the roof," the fire wizard explained, noticing Gajeel's inquisitive stare and doing his best to ignore the fact that Hare, for some reason, was staring daggers at Fleur, who looked very uncomfortable. "Not teleportation," Sarph irritably muttered to himself.
"Fine. Well, half-pint, show me what ya got," the senior Slayer suggested.
"Go on, give him a demonstration," Pierce gently coaxed her.
"Okay," The air around Grace's hand began to ripple, and she threw a held-hearted punch at Gajeel. "Reality Dragon's Transcending Fist!"
Gajeel raised a skeptical eyebrow and held up a fist to block, but the girl's arm from the elbow down rippled and vanished.
The Iron Dragon Slayer felt something hit him in the back of his head, and he turned to see Grace's arm, floating in mid-air, being retracted through the invisible distortion in space. "Cute trick. But it won't fool me twice," he shook his head.
"You think so?" the orange-eyed girl grinned.
"It has potential. You could catch most of your opponents off-guard like that," Gajeel nodded. "Problem is, it was weak. You need to build up some strength if you want people to feel it when you hit them. And there's only one way to do that,"
"Uh, what's that?" Grace paused.
"Practise,"
~P's E~
It became regular practice over the following couple of weeks for Grace and Gajeel to meet up to train and learn. The girl was still less than eager to be away from Pierce, so Pierce bought a spare mattress and set her up in his living room. He also bought her several sets of clothes, and a couple of little treasures, but told her that she would need to go on jobs to raise more money - with other wizards, of course. She was nowhere near ready to do a job by herself.
"Hey, Tyria! Did you hear the news?" Blanca shouted as she ran up to where the TechType wizard was having lunch with Pierce and Grace. Hare was seated with Totomaru and Fleur at the neighbouring table.
"What news?" the dark-skinned wizard raised an eyebrow.
"This!" Blanca declared, shoving a leaflet under her nose. Tyria looked at it, and slowly her eyebrow crept higher. "The Miss Fairy Tail contest? Isn't that only open to members of Fairy Tail?"
"Well, yeah, but that's the fun part," Blanca grinned.
"See, the Harvest Festival is -" Pierce started, but their pink-eyed guildmate snapped. "I'm the best at explaining, so I'll explain!" With that, Blanca launched into her explanation. "See, the Harvest Festival is a Fairy Tail tradition. And you know what Phoenix's Eye does whenever Fairy Tail holds a party," she darkly grinned.
"Uh, I've only been here for a bit under two months," Tyria pointed out. "So no, I don't,"
"We do everything we can to crash it," Pierce grinned. "It's all in good fun, of course, but-"
"But!" Blanca interrupted again, "it's something that the entire guild pitches in to help with, and so is taken pretty seriously. And it's always a lot of fun,"
"Oh, okay. So, what are we planning?" Tyria frowned.
"The guild usually breaks up into sub-groups, each of which is focused on making trouble in a certain way," Pierce informed her. "There aren't -"
"Aren't any written instructions, it's all passed along by word of mouth, to make sure that Fairy Tail can't get their hands on anything that might give them forewarning," Blanca finished with a pointed look at Pierce, who rolled his eyes.
"Okay, so, who should I talk to?"
"Me!" Boomer's voice came from behind her, and Tyria turned to see the chubby Sound wizard, boombox in tow as always, standing behind her and Pierce. Grace cheerfully waved, her mouth full of sausage sandwich.
"Master's put the four of us, plus a couple of others, on a special mission," Boomer grinned. "We get to fly the Garuda!"
"Mwhafda Garewdah?" Grace asked through a meaty mouthful.
"Right, I suppose you wouldn't know. About a month ago -" Pierce started.
"About a month ago, Pierce and Tyria, while on a job -" That was as far as Blanca got before Pierce requipped his flute and, with a quick two-note sequence, shot a blast of Inky's ink at Blanca, which covered her face in a black, sticky mess. The Plastic wizard fumed as she left to go wash off.
"While on a job, me and Tyria fought a dark guild named Plagued Vulture, and managed to steal a magic airship from them," Pierce testily explained. "We brought it home to the guild as a donation, and the Master's hired Astro, the guild's top mechanic wizard, to repaint it and upgrade it,"
"That's so cool!" Grace grinned after swallowing.
"It gets better. You know the Fantasia parade that Fairy Tail always holds at the end of the Festival?" Boomer ecstatically grinned. "No," Tyria deadpanned.
Pierce's eyes widened. "Don't tell me . . ."
"She wants us to blow the fairies right off their floats!" Boomer crowed. "It'll be awesome!"
"That sounds a little scary," Grace gulped.
"Don't worry, I'm sure it'll be fine. We'll be way up in the sky where the fairies can't reach us," Pierce reassuringly grinned, but for some reason, this didn't seem to make Grace feel any better.
"So, that's the plan! See you then!" Boomer grinned, dashing away.
"This is gonna be cool," Pierce grinned.
Grace looked markedly less enthusiastic.
~P's E~
"So, you wanted to see us?" Jashie asked. She and her brother Eishaj were standing - well, Eishaj was standing, Jashie was comfortably leaning on a trash can - in an alley outside Erza's favourite cake shop, and a tall, muscular figure was facing them.
"Yes, I did," Laxus confirmed. "I'm sure you've noticed the state of decadence that Fairy Tail has fallen into. Me and my team are planning to do something about that," he explained.
"And why should we care?" Jashie asked, as she and Eishaj revealed their guild marks on their left and right firearms respectively. "We aren't Fairy Tail, remember?"
"Because I know you're dissatisfied with your current situation as well. Help me clean up, and I can promise the two of you a spot in the new Fairy Tail,"
Jashie and Eishaj looked at each other, exchanging an entire conversation in a few seconds of eye contact. "This 'new Fairy Tail' . . . what would it be like?" Jashie finally spoke.
"No more weaklings, no more pansies. Under my rule, Fairy Tail will be a guild for the strong," the lightning mage declared, clenching his fists.
Once again, Jashie and Eishaj exchanged a silent conversation, before they looked back at Laxus and nodded. "Sounds good. We're in, and I think we might know a few others who would be interested," Jashie nodded, smirking..
"The more the merrier," Lexus smiled, before regarding Eishaj with curiosity. "Your brother doesn't talk much, does he?"
"He talks when he has to,"
~P's E~
The dim light of the crescent moon shone through Boomer's window, as the portly Sound wizard set about preparing for bed. His curly black hair fell about his head as he looked around the small apartment he rented. It wasn't part of the Nest - not that he couldn't afford to live there. No, he lived by himself for reasons completely unrelated to his financial status.
He told everyone it was because he liked his music loud. That, on the outskirts of town like this, he could play his music as loud as he wanted without bothering anyone. But that wasn't the real reason he lived alone. The real reason was currently lying, collecting dust, on an old bookshelf opposite his bed.
On an impulse, he crossed the room and picked up the book, bound in crimson leather and embroidered with arcane symbols. Even now, they faintly glowed in response to his touch, as he caressed the only words written in common Earthlish on the cover.
'The Darkened Book: Regykraon'.
No one knew he had it. Hell, just owning it was probably grounds for expulsion from the guild - no, forget expulsion. If word got out that he owned something like this, he would be arrested.
After all, that was the consequence of dabbling in dark magic. Especially dark magic of Zeref's caliber.
But that wasn't why the book worried Boomer. No, the book worried him because right now, as of that moment, it was empty. And had been for the last four years.
Realising that he was letting the vestiges of dark magic from within the book overpower him, Boomer snapped his fingers and the boombox lying on the floor burst to life, pumping a steady beat of heavy metal music throughout his little house and into the surrounding night. He smiled, feeling the vibrations in the air pull him back down to earth and released the book, letting it fall back onto the shelf.
The Sound wizard's mouth moved, but his words were lost in the music. Luckily, subtitles were provided to the viewing audience once again.
Someday . . when I'm strong enough.
~P's E~
"Welcome once again, to DK's Ds! Which I am proud to declare is now, and forever, NOT DG's Ds!" Kit declared.
"Today, we're discussing the topic of festivals in Magnolia," he declared, pointing at a sketch of a carnival's big top tent.
"Fairy Tail and Phoenix's Eye both have their own festivals, and each gets in on the fun of the other's by, you guessed it, ruining it for the other group!" the yokai grinned, flipping the board to reveal another image of the same tent, but in a state of collapse, with a stick figure with a big grin running away.
"Fairy Tail has things like the Harvest Festival and Cherry Blossom viewing, while Phoenix's Eye celebrates Nesting Day, the anniversary of when the guild moved to Magnolia from Diamauros, and the annual fireworks show in July!"
"These are all things to look forward to, but the one event that's considered 'sacred' and 'not to be interfered with' is the S-Class promotion trials, held annually in January by both guilds. The trials are the biggest event of the year for both guilds, and unlike the others, they aren't all fun and games. So neither guild would dare to mess with the other during the S-Class trials, it's too high-profile. And definitely unrelated to the fact that the fairies always hold their trials on a tiny island in the middle of nowhere and refuse to tell us where it is, and we change the venue every year so by the time Fairy Tail hears about where our trials are being held it's already too late for them to do anything about it,"
"That's all for today! See you next time on DK's Ds on P's E!"
A/N
A/N
And here we go, the first teasing for the Sonic Boom arc, which is going to follow after the Battle of Fairy Tail (and Phoenix's Eye).
I'm not sold on the name, but I don't have anything better. -.- Plus, at least it's appropriate. ^^
Anyways, peace!
