Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.
Pairing(s): Natsu Dragneal x Zeref
WARNINGS: Slight AU , Shounan ai (boy/boy pairing); you have been warned so don't like, don't read
Firelight and Shadows
By V. Shalyr
Scroll XIV: Belonging
Warning
Arex Gryder, wizard and high school history teacher, spotted the two students long before he'd reached the school's front gates. Or at least he knew one of them was a student because he was in his class; he wasn't sure about the other one. He'd come to recognize the bright, more "real" quality that hung about people who were not part of the world of the book, and it made both boys immediately noticeable.
There was something different about them today though. For one thing, the dark-haired one was looking around at everything like he'd never seen any of it before. His companion—Natsu, was it?—looked much more relaxed, whereas the day before, he had been extremely hostile and protective. This change in their behavior was probably related, but Arex didn't know enough about the two to draw any definite conclusions.
"Good morning," he greeted them as he finally came within earshot. "Now, I should warn you beforehand that if Tyson is a wizard—and I'm pretty sure he is—he doesn't remember anything. When I first arrived, neither did I, and it took awhile for things to start coming back to me. It might never have come back except an attempt on my life gave me a rather nasty bump on the head and jarred some memories loose. As far as I can tell, remembering both worlds is quite unusual without help."
"Yeah? Guess I'm an exception then."
Z said nothing, but he looked at Arex with open curiosity before turning to study Natsu and then his own hands. Perhaps he was noting the difference between their own appearances and that of the people around them.
"What about you?" Arex asked, directing the question at Z.
"We got his memories back this morning," Natsu answered for him.
Ah, that explained a lot. The teacher shrugged and led the way down the street. It wasn't that important.
.
Chef
"Hey, Tyson, I brought some people to meet you."
The redhead on the other side of the restaurant counter looked up and smiled. "Hey, it's you again. Arex, right? You must really like our noodles."
"Ah, you could say that."
Natsu knew the moment he saw the chef that this was the man they had been sent to find. Tyson and his brother bore a distinct family resemblance. They even smelled similar.
"We'll each have one of your specials," Natsu told him, appropriating one of the chairs before the counter. "We actually came to see you because of your brother."
Might as well see what the guy remembered.
"My brother?"
"Yeah, by the name of Robert. Ring any bells?"
Tyson set a bowl of ramen on the counter, frowning. "I don't... Huh, I think I have a brother, yes. Haven't seen him in awhile though. I haven't spoken to him since I moved here."
"Why not? He's worried about you. He asked us to check on you."
"He did? Sorry about that. He's always been prone to worrying. I'll call him as soon as I get home."
"So he has a phone?"
"Of course. Most people do these days, right?"
"Do you still practice magic at all?"
The noodle chef gave him a blank stare. "Magic? Oh, you mean like those magicians you see on television sometimes? I'm afraid I've never been good at sleight of hand."
Looked like they had their work cut out for them all right.
.
Fortunate
Zeref sat at one of the desks by the classroom windows, occasionally casting glances out towards the street and the city beyond. Now that he knew what was going on, being here was actually sort of relaxing. For the most part, the other students left him alone. He wasn't particularly well liked, but he wasn't hated either, and he didn't mind the class work.
Although it would have been nice if they didn't have group projects.
The girl he was supposed to be working with today was extremely talkative. She went on at length about everything—her dreams, her parents, her favorite actors, the last movie she watched with her friends—without taking into account the interest of her captive audience. Her topic of choice today was her boyfriend of one month and fourteen days, who also happened to be her fourth boyfriend since entering high school. Why she felt the need to keep count of the number of days they associated with one another, Zeref didn't know. Nor did he quite understand why it mattered that he hadn't called her over the weekend, or why it had been such a tragedy when the previous boy had forgotten the date of her birth. Then there was the basketball player who had "dumped her" in favor of a classmate whom she now despised, and how she hoped the current boy wouldn't be so terribly un-thoughtful.
He listened to her litany of everyday woes with some degree of morbid fascination, which was good because he didn't know how to ask her to stop without being rude. His own troubles had always come about on more of an epic scale, and the normality of her problems made them foreign territory by default.
Zeref had never thought of himself as fortunate before, but it occurred to him as he listened to his classmates chattering around him that yes, in fact, he had been very fortunate in ways he hadn't contemplated before. At least he never had to stress about Natsu leaving him. As Natsu liked to put it, "You're not getting rid of me that easily!" Nor did he care particularly if the Slayer forgot things; his own memory was perfectly good.
"Who is that?"
After his mind had processed this exclamation as something he should probably respond to, Zeref followed the direction of her stare out through the window and down towards the school's front courtyard.
"It looks like he's arguing with the principal," she continued, squinting for a better look. "That can't go well."
"His name is Natsu."
She jumped a little, partly surprised by his answer and partly surprised by the fact that he had spoken at all. They were the first words he had uttered all day. "You know the guy? He doesn't look like a student from our school. I'm sure I'd remember if he were."
"He isn't."
Zeref hoped the principal wouldn't try to make him leave.
"What's he doing here then?"
"He's waiting for school to let out. I told him I would meet him at the gates."
"What, he your boyfriend or something?"
She was joking, having been hung up on this subject all period, but Zeref considered the question seriously nonetheless. He'd never been good with jokes.
"I suppose he is, yes."
The bell rang. A few of his classmates who had overheard shot him somewhat unfriendly looks, but Zeref was used to unfriendly looks and paid them no mind. Although perhaps he should pack more quickly and go meet Natsu before the Dragon Slayer decided to come search for him. If Natsu took offense and decided to pick a fight with these people, school would stop being so relaxing.
.
Vacation
"Turns out my so-called aunt doesn't just sound like Erza, she looks like Erza too. Creepy, huh?"
The corners of the Black Wizard's mouth turned upward in amusement. The scarlet-haired wizard was formidable, no doubt about that, but he had never quite been able to comprehend why everyone else at the guild feared her so.
"She did not enroll you in classes?"
"Nope. I managed to talk her out of it—for another week anyway." Natsu took a bite of his burger and chewed thoughtfully. "Not bad, I guess. Nothing on your cooking though. I still don't see why you insist on going to school when you don't have to. It's not like we're going to settle down here or something."
The Black Wizard shrugged, looking down at his ice tea. "It's not that bad. A little like being on vacation."
"School and vacation do not belong together. But as long as you don't mind, I suppose it's all right."
"Speaking of school," Zeref said, pulling a folded paper from his backpack and sliding it across the table, "Arex gave me this."
The Dragon Slayer skimmed the message inside and raised his eyebrows. "He's holding a meeting for wizards at his house later this evening. Just how many of us are there?"
"It seems to me that we may have been misinformed about this book."
"I'll say."
Passing the note back, Natsu started in on the fries. There sure were a lot of ways to cook potatoes. They finished the rest of the meal in comfortable silence, and Zeref took some time to finish his homework. Through the window, the warm glow of late afternoon bathed the street in shades of sunset.
.
Dozen
Including Natsu and Zeref, there were a dozen people sitting and standing about Arex's living room.
"There may be even more wizards in this city," the history teacher concluded after everyone had introduced themselves. "But the people gathered here tonight are the ones I have found who have managed—like me—to remember our other lives."
"So let me get this straight," Natsu said. "Almost none of the wizards who got pulled into this book are actually dead?"
"As far as we can tell," a woman wearing rectangular spectacles confirmed. "I mean, I've had a couple odd accidents. But mostly, life here is fairly peaceful. If I didn't have family that I really should be getting back to, living here wouldn't be all that bad."
"But you do want to go back," Z spoke up from beside Natsu.
"I certainly do," another man answered from the armchair by the unlit fireplace. "I was enchanting a present for my fiancé when I got trapped in here. I don't even know how long I've been gone. My dear Anna must be worried sick. That is, if she hasn't already given up on me."
A murmur of sympathy ran through the other occupants of the room. Almost all of them had left important people behind, people they cared for—people they wanted to return to even though it was the general consensus that living in this city had its perks.
Arex cleared his throat and looked at the two teenagers. "Can you really get us out of here?"
Everyone fell silent, waiting. Even though Z and Natsu appeared to be the youngest wizards in the lot, they had come from one of the kingdom's most influential guilds. Fairy Tail wizards had a reputation not only for being a bit destructive—okay, so maybe more than a bit—but also for getting things done.
"Well, that's what we're here for," Natsu said, exchanging glances with Zeref. "But we're going to need some time to figure out how."
.
Escape
The sky was dark by the time they made their way back towards the apartment. They glimpsed white uniforms in the crowd once as they were crossing an intersection, but no one approached them.
As they came to a brightly lit supermarket, Zeref tugged on Natsu's sleeve. "We haven't had dinner. I'll make something."
"Aren't you tired? It's been a long day. We could just order something back."
"I don't mind. I need some time to think." And cooking had become something of a calming activity for him. A routine.
Natsu shrugged and grabbed a basket as they stepped through the supermarket's sliding glass doors. Cold air wafted about the various piles of vegetables and meat in neat, plastic-wrapped trays. Colorful packages of sweets and other snacks lined the shelves with such great variety that Natsu had to admit to being impressed. Talk about convenient.
"So what's on your mind?" he asked, keeping his voice low so the other people in the supermarket wouldn't overhear.
Zeref did the same, although his voice naturally didn't carry without effort. "If the creator of this book really did hate wizards as Robert Emishi claimed, why create a story where it seems the anti-wizard organization is the villain?"
"That confused me too. I was kind of expecting to be the bad guys here."
Zeref nodded, sorting through the contents of an open icebox.
"What if, instead of a prison or a death trap, this book was the creator's escape from reality? Perhaps he did not love magic. In the past, many people feared it and what it could do. In some places, this sentiment has continued to today. But he used magic to create a world where he thought he could live in peace."
"But if that's the case, what's up with the crazy anti-magic cult?"
"I don't know."
.
Aunt
A series of sharp knocks rang through the apartment followed by a muffled shout.
"Natsu! I know you're in there. Open the door right now!"
"Sounds like my aunt," Natsu sighed, looking wistfully at his scrambled eggs and bacon before leaving the kitchen table.
Zeref looked on with interest as Natsu opened the door and a woman stormed in past him. She really did look an awful lot like Erza, her rich scarlet hair falling in a loose cascade down her back.
"How did you know I was here?" Natsu asked, scratching the back of his head. He certainly hadn't told her.
Hands on hips, the woman glared at him. "I'm a journalist. I'm good at finding things out. What do you think you're doing, staying out all the time like this?"
"I left you a message, didn't I?"
"Leaving a message isn't the same as talking," she snapped and turned to Zeref. "Where are your parents? I want to speak with them."
"I don't have any." Well, he must have had at some point, but it was so long ago he couldn't even remember their faces.
"Oh."
Some of her irritation drained away at this, and she walked over to the kitchen table to inspect him more closely. Her lips pursed.
"Aren't you a bit young to be living by yourself? Don't you have any relatives you could stay with?"
Zeref shook his head, wondering where she was going with this. If she really was based on Erza Scarlet, then she was likely a more compassionate person than was immediately obvious.
Sure enough, the journalist let out a heavy sigh and clapped a hand on Natsu's shoulder. "Well, in that case, I suppose it's a good thing that my nephew here has been keeping you company. Although it's a mystery to me when he became such a responsible young man—"
"Hey, I'm responsible!"
"—He said on the answering machine that you two have been close friends since before he moved, and something about problems with a gang?"
.
Reporter
Aunt Erika really was good at getting information out of people. She started by inviting herself to join their breakfast. Fortunately, being used to Natsu's appetite, Z had made quite a lot of it. By the time they all finished, she'd learned that they were wizards. Oddly enough, this didn't appear to surprise her.
"You're not the first ones I've met," she explained, rummaging through her purse and spreading a newspaper on the tabletop. "Or the first I've heard about. I've written several stories on that anti-wizard group you mentioned. They're some pretty unpleasant people. The police have been trying to figure out who their leader is for a few years now."
"So they have not always been around?" Zeref asked, interested.
The journalist shook her head. "I think it's been three years, maybe four. About this magic that you two say you have, what kind of stuff are we talking about here?"
"Pretty much anything you can think of. There are all kinds of magic in our world," Natsu said. "I specialize in fire, and Z... Well, he's pretty good at a lot of different kinds of magic."
She nodded slowly then tapped a finger on one of the bolded headlines. "Take a look at this."
The article detailed an accident that had occurred downtown. Several people had been injured in an explosion, but what really had the media buzzing was the report of a statue—moving.
Natsu finished the article and looked at Zeref. "Do you think someone got to the whole "figuring out how to use magic in this world" thing before us?"
"It seems quite likely."
Erika continued talking. "I've actually spoken with several other people like you, people who'd just moved here with strange stories to tell or with histories that don't quite match up with things. Although most of them never said anything about wizards or magic. One thing they did all bring up though. Apparently, all of them have met a man by the name of Arex at some point upon moving to this city."
That... was definitely worth remembering.
"So what are your plans?" she asked, setting down her empty juice cup. "I'm curious."
"Do you have to know?"
"Hey, I'm your aunt. Maybe I can help."
"I think it might be better if you don't," Natsu said, frowning.
Erika narrowed her eyes, but Z spoke up before she could.
"I'd like to take a look at the city's perimeter. I think we may be able to find something useful there. Perhaps learn more about the underlying magical structure of this place."
.
Field Trip
As if he had read their minds, Arex announced the moment all the students had sat down in his classroom that his history class would be going on a field trip the next day. It would last for a whole day and they would be taking a bus to Sunset Bridge, which spanned the river that formed the city's western border. It was an important historical site for the city and he would expect a report on what they had learned when they got back, but other than that, they would be free to explore.
He approached the teacher after class and asked, "Do you mind if I bring Natsu?"
"By all means. The bus will have plenty of space."
Zeref thanked him and went in search of Natsu. He'd given up his work at the library, not wanting to make the Dragon Slayer wait around while he sorted through books. Patience was not one of Natsu's virtues, although he had improved quite a lot.
"A bus ride?" Natsu grimaced at the thought. "That's going to be what? Two hours?"
"Two and a half. This is a big city. Sorry. You don't have to come with me."
"It's not your fault. And no way am I letting you go by yourself."
Natsu looked at the cars whizzing past them on the street and sighed, resigned to spending nearly half of tomorrow feeling terribly ill.
.
Classmate
"Is he all right?"
"He'll be fine. He just has very bad motion sickness."
"Oh."
The girl leaned over the back of the bus seat to look at them. Zeref recognized her as the girl he'd worked with in class, but he couldn't remember her name. She had claimed the seat next to the teacher in the row in front of them, but was now kneeling so she could peer towards the back of the vehicle. Or one row back anyway.
"Next time, we're walking," Natsu grumbled.
"That would take us all day," Zeref pointed out.
"We could get a hotel. It's not like we have a deadline."
"That's true."
"Or we could camp out. I like camping out."
"We can walk back instead of taking the bus later if you want. I don't mind."
"Yeah? I just might insist on that, you know."
"I know."
His classmate shook her head. "You two can be kind of weird."
Beside her, the teacher laughed. He had to agree though.
.
Bridge
"Now that," Natsu said, marveling, "looks pretty amazing."
They stood on the bridge which stretched away from the city and across the bay towards the other shore. Perhaps it reached the other side and perhaps it didn't. A heavy, white mist obscured the far end so it was impossible to say for sure.
What had really captured their attention, however, was the water.
"How come nobody notices?" Natsu wondered. After all, it was so obvious and so unusual.
"Most of these people are part of the book," Zeref said, leaning over the railing for a better look at the waves lapping at the bridge supports. "There's no reason for them to notice."
The seawater was full of writing. Millions upon millions of runes glimmered in its depths like fractured sunlight. "Amazing" was the only word for it.
Natsu frowned. He could smell the ocean on the breeze tinged with car exhaust—but also something else. "There's just something about the way this place smells that bothers me. Normally, everyone and everything has its own unique scent. But here, it's like everything is the same."
"I see."
"That's good because I don't."
Zeref made a thoughtful sound in his throat and looked back down at the ocean. "This world isn't like Edolas. We couldn't use our magic there because the world itself operated on different rules. But this world was created by a wizard. Essentially, that means that everything in this world is made of magic."
"So it all smells the same because it's the same wizard's magic."
"That would be my guess, yes."
"That would explain a lot."
Zeref gave him a curious look at that, but Natsu shrugged.
"Tell you later. I want to check something first. So did you learn what you needed to?"
"I believe so," the dark wizard said. "In fact, altering the rules a little to allow ourselves to access our spells should be a simple matter."
Natsu grinned. "That's great. So are we done here?"
"Yes."
Which meant they had the rest of the day to relax.
.
Bronze
Or not.
Natsu was used to people screaming and paid them no mind as they fled the scene. All his attention was focused on the bronze giant, its sculpted boots cracking the concrete beneath them.
The pedestal where the towering, metal construction had been now stood empty. The artist had designed it to look a little like a knight with heavy armor and a helmet that obscured its face. The sword at its side remained sheathed, however; it had been cast as one thing and couldn't be drawn.
"You okay?" Natsu asked, not taking his eyes off the monster.
Zeref couldn't answer him right away. The statue had caught him in the stomach with one massive fist and thrown him clear across the street into a very solid office building. If he had been a normal person, the impact would have crushed his bones. But as it were, he slid to the ground slightly stunned and with all the wind knocked out of him but otherwise unharmed.
Natsu snarled and launched himself at the statue, fearless as ever.
He had to help him. The Slayer was strong, made even more so by fury, but there was only so much he could do with his bare hands given the circumstances.
Searching the ground around him, Zeref found a fragment of pale rock and began scratching runes across the pavement. It wasn't a great writing implement and the runes were hard to see, but that didn't really matter. This world was literally built on words.
He tried to speak, coughed, and then tried again. "Natsu. Your magic."
With a grunt of effort, Natsu managed to force the statue back through the glass front of a convenience store and landed on the ground next to him. One of his sneakers brushed the edge of the chain of runes and they blazed briefly crimson before vanishing.
"Right, let's give this a try," he said, bracing his feet and taking a deep breath. A second later, fire blasted across the—fortunately—people-less street. It struck the statue which had just risen to its feet, driving it back once more. It staggered, tossing its head soundlessly as it tried to catch itself, the very air around it distorted by heat. Liquid bronze dripped to the pavement, creating pools and rivulets of steaming metal on the concrete.
Natsu watched the statue fall apart with satisfaction. He'd really missed his magic. He hadn't quite realized how much until now.
He helped Zeref to his feet and looked him over. "You all right?"
The Black Wizard straightened his clothes and nodded. "We'd better leave before the police come to see what happened."
No way the authorities would believe that the bronze statue had attacked them on their way to lunch. With their luck, they'd end up being prosecuted for destruction of public property.
"The enemy made a serious mistake, attacking us like that," Natsu said, leading the way down a side alley. "I know her scent now. Tracking her down will be easy, if that's what we decide to do."
"That might not be necessary. If we can find her name, we could simply turn off her ability to do magic. Then the police could deal with her."
"We'll see about that," Natsu muttered. "Right now, I'm not feeling very charitable."
.
Homework
Although lunch did do a lot to improve his temper. The servers working in the restaurant kept casting incredulous looks towards their table, astounded by the amount of food Natsu was putting away. Zeref had opted to sit next to him instead of across from him and had his school notebook open on the table.
"I can't believe you're actually writing that homework assignment," Natsu said, reading his essay over his shoulder. "You aren't even really a student. I wonder if they'll even remember us when we're gone."
"They'll probably just think that we moved away."
Zeref finished the paragraph he was working on and picked up his coffee cup. He'd discovered quite a liking for the bitter drink.
Natsu swallowed a mouthful of toast and said, "You know, you've been a lot more relaxed lately. It's nice."
"I have?"
"Yeah. I was afraid that what happened with Nirvana would affect you badly, but you appear to be okay. You were a bit moody when we got back—more so than usual anyway. I meant to talk to you about it, but you seemed to work things out yourself and I wasn't sure if I should bring it up again."
"I apologize if I worried you. I had a lot on my mind."
"I thought as much. Don't worry about it. I'm just glad you didn't let it bother you for too long."
"I think... I faired better than I expected too. Even if things had gone wrong, I believe you would have been able to pull me back. Knowing that puts me at ease."
"That's good."
Natsu finished the rest of his lunch and then polished off the leftovers of Z's lunch which he hadn't eaten. Companionable silence marked by the scratching of Zeref's pen across notepaper stretched on until everything edible had been disposed of.
"Did you want to visit the museum Arex pointed out on the way here?"
Zeref thought about the stone knights that guarded the museum doors and shook his head. He already had all the information he needed for his paper anyway.
"In that case, we have some time to kill before we're supposed to meet up with the rest of your class. Want to go watch a movie?"
"You want to take the bus back with them?" Zeref asked, surprised. "I thought we would be walking."
"Yeah, well," Natsu sighed and wrapped an arm about his shoulders. "I'll live. And when we get home, we're taking a long, hot shower and going to bed."
.
Truth
"Hey man, Z and I need to talk with you."
The students filing out of the classroom cast glances back at the three of them, but the lure of recess proved stronger than the pull of curiosity. Soon, it was just the three of them in the classroom standing about the teacher's cluttered desk.
"I have half an hour before my next class," he said, gathering up a few of his folders. "We can use my office."
As soon as the door shut and they were sure no one outside would overhear, Natsu cut straight to the chase.
"You're not just another wizard who got pulled into this book by accident, are you? You're the wizard who made this place to begin with."
Seated behind his office desk, Arex went perfectly still for a moment. Then he leaned back and folded his arms.
"What gave me away?"
"A lot of things," Natsu said. "Your scent is all over this city for one thing, and I don't just mean around the places that you've been. It's like it's woven into the foundations of everything, probably because everything was made with your magic. You know more about this place than anyone, and you always find the new arrivals first—even before those bastards in white. And of course, you've just confirmed it. What we want to know is why you don't just fix things so you can use magic and do something about all these problems."
The teacher exhaled and laughed a little, although it wasn't a happy sound. "It took me a lot of time and hard work to make this place, and I based a lot of it on my favorite novels and customs that I read about. I'm no genius when it comes to magic. I didn't think I would need to be once I got here. In fact, as far as my teachers were concerned, I barely had any of what could pass for talent."
"So what you're saying," Zeref said, "is that you don't know how."
"No, unfortunately, I don't. If I could, I would have done something myself already. When you two turned up... Well, you're easily the best wizards I've ever met. It seemed like the perfect opportunity."
"What about the moving statues and the crazy cult?"
"One of the other wizards who came here... Now she was—or rather is—a talented wizard. She figured out how to use her magic here and has acquired a lot of power and influence in this city. Power which I don't think she wants to share." Arex smiled sardonically. "Guess she thought this city was the perfect place for her to start over too."
"Don't suppose you know her name?"
"As a matter of fact, yes, I do."
.
Theory
Not everyone who got the chance to start over chose to do so the right way.
Zeref found the thought sobering. If he hadn't met Natsu all those years ago, what would have happened to him? What would he have ended up doing, alone like that for so long with nothing but his own haunting thoughts for company? The only thing he could be sure of was that it wouldn't have been anything good. His thoughts were not something he wanted to be left alone with.
"So your theory turned out to be true," Natsu said, folding his arms across his chest and looking out across the city from the school roof. "This changes a few things. We still have to get the people who want to leave out of here, but what about this anti-wizard mastermind?"
"She won't agree to leave."
"You sound so sure."
Zeref looked down at his hands, something Natsu knew he was prone to doing when thinking about himself. When he replied, the words came out in a quiet murmur.
"Arex told us that she considers this place her second chance. If that is true... I would expect her to hold onto it with everything she had."
The Dragon Slayer turned to study him. "Let me guess, you're wondering what would have happened to you if we hadn't met when we did."
Zeref looked startled and Natsu snorted.
"You're forgetting how well I know you. I don't need the power to read your mind to know what you're probably thinking. Honestly, Z, we really need to work on the sudden bouts of doom and gloom. What's the point, worrying about how things might have been? The fact is that we did meet and here we are."
"I suppose you're right."
"You think too much sometimes."
Zeref managed a small and slightly rueful smile at that. "You've said."
.
Halloween
The whole concept struck Zeref as incredibly pointless. People had already started festooning their windows with fake spider webs and erecting foam tombstones on their front lawns. He'd even seen a plastic skeleton hanging from one of the park trees.
The entire business disturbed him deeply. He couldn't understand why people went out of their way to create all these fake monsters when there were so many real terrors roaming the world. It didn't seem appropriate to derive entertainment from such horrors.
"I don't think most people take it so seriously," Aunt Erika said. She'd turned up at their door earlier that evening with a pizza and a request. "It's just a fun holiday where people get to dress up and throw parties."
"Z isn't a fan of parties," Natsu informed her. "So why do we have to go to this one with you?"
The journalist replied with a sly smile. "What if I told you that the woman suspected to be behind the anti-wizard commotion will be there?"
"What?" Natsu's gaze sharpened. "When and where did you say this party was again?"
"I thought that would get your attention," she said, pleased. "It's on Halloween, of course, and we'll be going to the River Palace."
"That fancy hotel in the western district?"
"That's the one. I'll pick you two up at five."
.
Costume
Students from one of the lower grades had made black, pointed, wide-brimmed hats for everyone out of paper. Zeref didn't mind wearing it since everyone else was wearing a costume of some kind and he didn't want to be a monster or anything else ghoulish or demonic. It reminded him too sharply of how a lot of people saw him back home.
Natsu laughed when he saw the hat, but otherwise didn't comment. He didn't bother with any sort of costume himself. He didn't care if he stood out. He always stood out. Trying not to was pointless. Besides, he had real fangs. Why would he bother with fake ones?
Everything on the refreshments table was orange from the cake and cookies to the punch. Even the salad was orange, composed predominantly of shredded carrots and cream.
Fangs and fur, wings and horns, streaks of blood and bleached white bone—the party guests were a motley crew of nightmares. Zeref cringed when a zombie traipsed past him to refill its punch glass, wondering why anyone would volunteer to dress as a corpse. He'd seen too many real corpses; they were not meant to amuse and it made him feel a bit sick.
He was probably over thinking things again.
"I found her," Natsu said from beside him, slitted eyes narrowed. "There, by the chocolate fountain."
The woman wore a witch's hat similar to Zeref's, only hers was dark sapphire and decorated with feathers and sequins. Her garments were all in shades of blue as well, and the flowery patterns along the hems glittered in the dim light of the red chandeliers.
The eyes that met theirs over the top of her wine glass were cold as ice. Selfish eyes, Zeref thought, selfish and fever bright.
She set down her glass and made a beeline straight for them as though they were the only ones in the room.
"I saw you through my giant," she said, not taking her eyes off Zeref. "You figured out how the magic in this world works, and it only took you a few days. It took even me two weeks."
The hairs prickled on the back of the Black Wizard's neck and he resisted the urge to step behind Natsu. He didn't like the way she was looking at him. It was the same way wizards from the Dark Guilds looked at him, a mixture of fascination and hunger that made him wish he was somebody else.
Natsu growled and took matters out of his hands by stepping in front of him himself, forcing the woman to look away. "You've got a lot of nerve, not even pretending that you weren't the one who attacked us."
"Why should I?" she asked, raising her eyebrows. "Just a bit of work and no one here will even remember seeing us. This world is made of magic. It makes magic work even better."
"This isn't a game. We're only here to give you a warning."
"You're threatening me?" Incredulity dripped from her every word.
"Yeah, I guess I am." With his fangs and the reddish lighting, Natsu looked more than a bit demonic even without a costume. "We're getting everyone who wants to go out of here. You can choose to come with us and face the authorities in our world, or you can stay here but have your magic locked away."
Her contemptuous smile wavered. "You couldn't do that. I know this place too well."
"Are you sure about that?"
The woman glared at them for a long moment then spun on her high heel and walked away. Natsu let her go. She had a lot to think about after all.
.
Solution
The wizards gathered in Arex's living room looked at the papers in their hands.
"You could say that it's a way to get the book to "reject" us and send us home," Z explained, seated on one of the couches next to Natsu.
"And the wizards who don't remember that they're wizards?" one woman asked.
"As long as they are in the circle we create, they should come with us."
"I can make sure of that," Arex said. "There are about two dozen of them, but if the group of you make it a big enough magic circle, it shouldn't be hard."
"How big are we talking here?" another man asked, sounding doubtful. "I've only ever done small spells."
"All you have to do is draw the runes Z sketched on your piece of paper at the right time," Natsu assured him. "It's not hard. And all the rest of us will be there. I think we can manage to cover most of downtown, easy. Is that a big enough circle for you?"
This last question he directed at the history teacher.
Arex considered for a moment then nodded. "It should be plenty. How about this Saturday? Most of them don't work on Saturday."
That gave them all two days to set their affairs in order and make any last decisions about their immediate futures.
.
Placements
The tip of his pencil traced the last line along the side of the ruler and Zeref sat back with a sigh. "That should do it."
Natsu leaned over his shoulder and surveyed the mesh of lines and circles. "So there are going to be wizards at each of those six star points, huh? Looks like we're all going to be on skyscrapers."
"That was my intention. We won't cause too much commotion that way."
The city map took up almost the entire tabletop. Zeref had drawn a complex magic circle on top of it, overlapping the main downtown plaza and the surrounding area. Tyson's noodle shop fell neatly within the lines as well. The chef didn't have Saturday off.
"All right, planning's done then. Anything you really want to do for our last day here?"
Zeref leaned back in his chair and tilted his head back so he could meet the Dragon Slayer's eyes. "We still have to eat lunch. I'm sure we can find a restaurant around here we haven't tried yet. And I seem to recall that you expressed some interest in visiting an arcade."
"Sounds like as good a plan as any."
And that was what they did.
.
Eyes
"There's something odd about you."
Zeref went still at the voice. He and Natsu had planned to meet on the roof of the skyscraper where Natsu had arrived in this world, but the Dragon Slayer hadn't arrived yet.
Someone else had.
"You look young, but your eyes... Your eyes seem very old."
Zeref looked up at Arex as the teacher came up to stand beside him at the parapet, trying to read his expression. Did he suspect something?
"I won't ask you why that is," Arex continued. "I think deep down, we're all running away from something. The world's a harsh place to be."
"Is that why you created this place?"
"Something like that. I never intended to remember my other life, but I suppose it's all worked out. I didn't intend anyone else to get pulled into this city either, but I was so caught up in the desire to escape that I failed to consider all the consequences. My heartfelt thanks to you and your partner for cleaning up my mess, and my apologies for the trouble."
"You're going to stay here?"
Arex nodded. Resting his hands on the parapet, he let his gaze wander across the glittering city—the city he had designed and built rune by rune. The city he would spend the rest of his life in.
"I am." Turning to face the black-haired wizard, he added, "You can stay if you want. I don't mind. This city has plenty of space. One of the others has decided to remain as well. With your knowledge and mine, we could easily make any changes you want to this place. Think about it. It's up to you. If you do decide to stay, I'll see you in school."
Offer made, he waved and left, leaving the Black Wizard alone on the rooftop once more. At least until Natsu climbed over the parapet.
.
Facing Facts
"He's a weird one," Natsu said, looking at the closed door of the stairwell. "I saw him heading up here and thought I'd take another route. I tried to convince him to go back with everyone else, but he said he's happier here..."
He trailed off and looked sidelong at Zeref.
"You know, this place isn't real. Most of the people in it aren't real, and you can tell if you let yourself. It's been bothering me since we got here. Other than the handful of characters that are drawn from our own memories, the people here are empty."
"That's true."
"You can't really live in a place like this, only survive."
"Natsu?"
"Yeah?"
"You don't have to convince me not to stay. I wasn't planning to."
"Oh." Natsu's shoulders relaxed. "That's good because I wouldn't have agreed to it. Don't forget, you promised me that you'd take living seriously. That includes not running away."
"I remember," Zeref assured him. And besides, Natsu certainly wasn't going to stay, and the only place he wanted to be was with Natsu.
"So everyone's waiting for us to get this spell started," the Dragon Slayer said, pulling him back to the matter at hand. "Shall I give the signal?"
And Zeref thought that Arex was wrong. Maybe people like him spent their lives running away. But people like Natsu spent their lives running forward—towards their goals, their dreams, their futures...
He nodded and Natsu blew a stream of fire straight up towards the clouds. Zeref sketched the first rune in glowing violet lines upon the air in front of him. All around the city atop their own tall buildings, the other wizards were using their magic to draw the rune they had each been assigned. To their trained eyes, the spell took shape as a shining web encompassing the area of the city they had chosen like a giant magic circle. When the second to last rune had been drawn by the wizard atop the skyscraper next to theirs, Natsu stepped in to close the circle with one last rune that blazed like fire from his hands.
And then the world around them faded into white.
.
Library
"I didn't know we had a library this big in the guild," Natsu said, looking around at the many laden bookshelves. Then again, Fairy Tail wasn't exactly renowned for the kinds of wizards who spent much time with books. In this case, that was going to be a good thing.
"It is quite an impressive collection," Zeref agreed. Arex's book weighed heavily in his hands. He'd written quite a few books himself, something he now greatly regretted. Some of the knowledge he had gathered would have been better forgotten.
Natsu eyed the silvery ribbon his partner had wrapped around the book. "And that will keep the book from reacting whenever anyone uses magic near it?"
The Black Wizard nodded.
"Right." The Dragon Slayer cracked his knuckles and held his hand out for the book. "The top shelf should do the trick. There's a lot of dust up there. Must not be browsed much."
Zeref passed him the book and, with a running jump and a brief foot against a shelf about halfway up, the enchanted volume was placed in its new home where it would stay for many years to come.
TBC...
.