Chapter Twenty
"Well then… That was easy," Raven muttered. Gildarts whacked her on the back of her head.
"Focus," he said. She glared at him from the corner of her eyes.
"Care to explain?" Raven asked the old man, Fredrick, in front of them. He just smirked and began to speak. Of course a prideful man like him would want to brag.
"Our product is going to be world changing! We are providing life lacrimas," Fredrick said.
"Life lacrimas?" Gildarts asked with a frown on his face.
"Life lacrimas! They prolong a person life for an extra year! Of course, it can't bring back people from the dead and give them another year," the old man said. Raven raised an eyebrow.
"How is that possible…?" she asked.
"With Magic! A type of wonderful lost Magic known as life transfer Magic," the man jabbered on.
"Not just a lost Magic but a forbidden one too," Gildarts said seriously.
"Lost, forbidden, same thing. It's a wonderful thing and I don't see what the problem is," Fredrick said.
"The problem is that the world is made in balance," Gildarts started off saying. He trailed off but Raven was able to pick up where he left off.
"Balance…" she murmured confused. Then she figured it out. "You're exchanging the lives of these poor people and the environment around here for your stupid money!?" she shouted angrily.
"Rae, calm down," Gildarts said to her quietly. He was furious too but one slip up could get them killed. This wasn't an S-Class job for nothing. The last mage who came here was apparently killed but no one specified whether it was from the disease… or something else.
"Sorry," she muttered, taking a deep breath to calm herself. She knew he was right and she was quite ashamed of her outburst though she didn't regret it one bit.
The old man in front of them chuckled. "I know I'm a dirty old man but money is money and I'll do anything to make me some good money," he said.
"Shut. Your. Factory. Down," Raven said. She was in control now. No more outbursts.
"Like hell I will," Fredrick stated. Then with a snap of his fingers, they were surrounded by seven people.
"I guess we'll just have to make you," Gildarts said. He couldn't go all out otherwise he might end up hurting Raven but that was ok; he didn't need to use his full strength.
"I'll hold them down, you knock them out?" Raven suggested. If she didn't need to kill anyone, she wouldn't.
"And how are you going to hold them down?" Gildarts asked with a chuckle, not in the least bit worried about his opponents. Gildarts could tell they were low leveled mages.
"Like this," Raven said with a grin. She raised her hands that had begun to glow black. "Bind," she said. Black strips of Magic shot at the seven mages who were too slow to jump out of the way or defend. Immediately, their arms were trapped close to their bodies and a black matter was wrapped tightly around them.
"I'm impressed. Didn't know you can do it on so many people," Gildarts said as he took care of knocking each one of them out.
"I really don't know how many people I can do it on," Raven said with a shrug. They tied the unconscious mages and placed them in a corner before heading off to where they saw Fredrick go.
"What to do? Go after Fredrick or destroy the factory?" Gildarts asked out loud.
"I think we all know you can destroy this factory in less than a second," Raven said with a laugh as they walked through the halls, looking for anything that would reveal where Fredrick had gone.
"I wouldn't dare to try with you here," Gildarts said. Raven laughed airily.
"That's nice to know," she said.
"I've been meaning to ask, how old are you?" Gildarts asked after a moment of comfortable silence.
"I turned thirteen a few months ago," Raven answered. Gildarts hmm'd as they finally found a door that led to a large office.
"This looks like it," Gildarts said, striding right in.
"Wait, at least observe the place first!" Raven tried to say but he just kept walking. She rolled her eyes and followed along behind him.
"Ah, found you," Gildarts said as he pulled the desk away that revealed Fredrick cowering. He lifted the man up by the back of his shirt with one arm.
"Shut down your business," Raven said once more. Fredrick looked at her with fear in his eyes.
"O-ok, just put me down and I'll go push the button. I can't run anyway," he said. Gildarts and Raven made quick eye contact before Gildarts put the man down. The man got up and slowly walked to the wall before he turned around and grinned at them. "Just kidding."
"WH-what!?" Raven said. She ran forward to grab the man but bumped right into an invisible wall. Then runes appeared and the two Fairy Tail wizards saw that they were trapped in a box. They looked away from the runes to look at the old man across the room from them who was laughing hysterically.
"There's only one way to get out. Give me a good fight until one of you can't fight or dies," Fredrick cackled. The duo inside froze. They both didn't want to harm the other. Raven also knew she had no chance of fighting Gildarts while Gildarts knew he could never even try to touch a hair on the little girl he treated like a daughter.
"I… can't Raven," he said. It wasn't a play fight or a fight where Raven was trying to best him and Gildarts was teaching her at the same time. The little girl turned to look at him. Then she did the last thing he expected. She smiled.
"You don't have to," she said. Her hand lifted with a black Magic circle at the palm.
"Raven…" Gildarts started. She was going to attack him but he couldn't bring himself to defend. So he chose to stand there and take the brunt of it.
"I… Win for us, ok? Dark Spears," she said. A dark spear of black shot forward but curved sharply and went right through her head.
"RAVEN!" Gildarts shouted at the girl. In turn, she shrilled in pain. The spear aimed for the nerve and she had sent it right through her head. She normally hit a person in the arm or leg, or occasionally the stomach and they were able to get right back up after a few seconds of intense pain but for her, the pain was too much and she collapsed, unconscious.
. . . . .
When Raven finally woke up, it was dark out. She sat up on the bed she was sitting on and looked around. It appeared she was in a hospital. Throwing off the blanket that lay on her, she stood up and put her shoes on. Luckily they were beside her bed. Her cloak was taken off and she honestly felt both vulnerable yet strong. She always had her cloak on these days but with it off, her power doubled.
"You're finally awake," a voice said from the door of the room.
"Um… I'm sorry but who are you?" Raven asked cautiously. There was a blonde middle aged woman standing there with a tray of food.
"I'm the nurse in charge of taking care of you. My name is Darlene," she said.
"Oh, then thank you for watching over me," Raven said cheerfully.
"It was not a problem. You have no injuries aside from being a little overwhelmed and tired. I've brought some food for you," Darlene said, setting the tray down on the bed.
"Thanks. Right, do you know where my companion is? His name is Gildarts," Raven said, picking up the cup of water that was brought along.
"He's with the rest of the towns' people, currently helping with the cure. I… can't tell you how grateful I am… I arrived here a little less than three weeks ago and I couldn't leave once I heard about the disease. I was so afraid but I decided to help here as a nurse so that I could make people better," Darlene said with a sad smile. "But now, I'm free and safe. Thank you."
"It was really nothing. I'm glad you and everyone else are safe now," Raven said, blushing. Darlene thanked her again before leaving with a wave. Raven sat there and ate while thinking. There's a cure now, that's good. Once she finished eating, she made her way out of the hospital and followed the noise that was quite obvious to anyone. It was cheering.
Raven walked over and saw a crowd surrounding something. Squishing in between the people, she made her way to the very center of the circle. Then her face broke out into a smile.
"Gildarts!" she cheered as she ran over to the man.
"Raven, thank god! I would hug you but I'm a little busy here," he said.
"I can see that," she said with a chuckle.
There were currently two tables set up and shit ton of needles present. On each of the tables, aside from the needles, were two large containers filled with some kind of bright green liquid. Gildarts would take a clean needle, pick up some of the liquid, disinfect the arm, and then inject the liquid into a victims arm. Sitting at the other table was a very young looking man. She walked over to him.
"Hello, you must be Raven, one of the saviours of this town," he said not looking up from the patient he was seeing.
"I wouldn't say saviour… but I am Raven. Who are you?" she asked.
"My name is Nagomu and I'm one of the best doctors around," he said with a bit of pride in his voice. Raven smiled at that.
"Did you make this cure?" she asked.
"Yup, three hours after being handed a sample of a few victims' blood and saliva as well as learning of what the cause was," he said, finally looking at her.
"That's amazing," she said in awe.
"The reason I became a doctor was to help anyone I could," he said with a grin before calling the next patient. Raven sat and watched for the next two hours as everyone received their own cure. Even Gildarts and Raven were injected just in case they were affected.
. . . . .
The two woke up the next morning in the same inn room they had first slept in.
"I can't believe we did it!" Raven said with a grin. Gildarts smiled at the girl before frowning.
"We were too tired to talk about it last night but… I want to now. It's about when you hit yourself," Gildarts said.
"Ok wait. Before we continue let me say this now. I knew my attack would not harm me permanently or physically. And if I hadn't done that and say you lost, I don't think I would've been able to win… Also, what did you do while I was out?" Raven ended up asking. Gildarts just sighed. He knew she was right.
"Just… please don't hurt yourself again. And after you did that, I was freed from the runes which Fredrick was really not expecting. I beat him and then removed everyone from the factory before destroying it. I sent Fredrick and his comrades to the Magic council of Bosco and called in a doctor to help cure everyone. The waters were poisoned with the Magic residue," Gildarts said with a shrug.
"Huh, well I can't promise you anything. If I need to do it again to protect a comrade and win, I will. And, wow you're amazing," Raven said.
"Let's just get ready to go home," Gildarts said, shaking his head. Raven smirked sheepishly at him before packing her things and getting some food ready. The people of Lebar threw a huge party for them last night which had resulted in them being exhausted as well as Gildarts getting exceptionally drunk. They had gotten their reward, which was increased by quite a bit because they essentially saved the town, and a huge amount of food for their travels. When they left the inn, they were once again surrounded by people.
"Thank you so much! I can go see my little girl now," a man cried to them. He was someone who wasn't allowed to leave after stepping foot inside the town.
"I… Thank you, I can't thank you enough," a woman shouted to them. She was someone who lived in Lebar and was close to dying.
"Bless you hearts! You saved my sons' life," another woman praised them. She was someone who had already lost her husband in this chaos but was able to keep her son.
Gildarts and Raven awkwardly laughed and held a hand to the back of their heads; it was a trait Raven had picked up from Gildarts. They walked through the crowd, shaking hands and receiving hugs and gifts.
"I'm glad you're all safe," Raven said to them.
When they finally reached the town gates, they were already tired from all the praise they had gotten.
"Well, at least we got paid a lot," Gildarts said with a grin. Raven rolled her eyes.
"You know, it's not all about the money," she said.
"I know that," he replied with a pout.
"Well, ready for the second half of our training journey?" Raven asked with a grin.
"I'm ready to train you harder than before," Gildarts said with his own evil smirk.
"I can take whatever you throw at me," she replied.
. . . . .
"Ah sweet Magnolia," Raven said, pleased to being home.
"I take it you're going home? Or the guild?" Gildarts asked.
"We can walk to the guild together. It's still early in the day so Erza would probably be at the guild if not on a mission herself," Raven said. Gildarts nodded as the two of them walked to Fairy Tail.
"You did well," Gildarts said, looking at the young girl with fondness in his eyes. Raven blushed and smiled brightly. She never had gotten used to praise.
"Thank you for taking me along," Raven said politely. Gildarts chuckled at the girl.
"I'll be off soon for another job," he said after a while. Raven frowned before sighing.
"It's what makes you happy. I'll only get stronger while you're away! I'll become as strong as you! Come home fast though," Raven said.
"I really do believe you will," he said, ruffling her hair. They had made it to the guild. Raven smiled before she kicked open the guild doors like she always did when she came back from a job.
"I'm back!"