Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.

Chilling in Eisetsu Town

Lucy and Kira were now in the clothing store of Eisetsu Town, liking how the shop had light blue walls with dark blue carpeting to match, and the two girls were planning on buying some new clothes. Lucy felt like she would need a new winter jacket, since her pink one got torn to shreds, but she was also curious about some other clothes that were in this store. Even though it snowed outside while the mages of Winter Snowflake would dress warm to practice their abilities for winter sports, why were there some clothes that didn't suit the cold weather at all?

There were some schoolgirl skirts and tutus in neon shades of colors, but the weirdest thing was the fact that this store was selling black platform shoes. Those weren't exactly the best footwear for skiing or snowboarding, as snow boots were the wisest choice for anyone who was learning to ski, and it didn't seem like anyone was very interested in buying those articles of clothing. There were even top hats that appeared to be in different colors, some of those hats even having large logos of dark guilds on them, and this was very interesting to Lucy.

The blue price tags on the hats informed Lucy that they cost 60,000 jewels, and that made her cocoa brown eyes widen in amazement. The neon-colored tutus were priced at 80,000 jewels, and the schoolgirl plaid skirts were priced at 70,000 jewels. Everything else in the store was cheaper than these items, though. Kira watched Lucy think about if she wanted to buy any of these items, even seeing blue glow sticks on a shelf, and the merchant with red hair felt like she'd also buy something from this store. After all, the red winter hats looked pretty cute while they'd keep snow from getting in Kira's hair.

Lucy walked over to the store owner who appeared to be a woman with short blonde hair and violet eyes, and the Celestial Spirit Wizard took notice of how this woman wore a black ski jumpsuit with black ski pants to match while she also wore black snow boots. It would be kind of weird to ask an owner of a store about why they were selling clothes that really had no relevance whatsoever to the frosty winter, but one question wouldn't be anything troubling. In fact, Lucy and Kira might like the answer that would be given. Would it be quite interesting?

"Excuse me, but why are you selling those items? Aren't tutus bad to wear in the wintertime?" Lucy asked the shop owner in a calm tone while kindly smiling.

The shop owner explained in a somewhat annoyed manner, "Tutus are bad to wear in this snowy town with cold weather, but the famous fashion designer known as Samantha Kalos is requiring all clothing stores in Fiore to advertise the attire of a certain town for one week as a promotion of some sort."

Kira asked the shop owner in a calm manner, knowing that Rainbow Crystals were still a factor in purchases, "What's the requirement for purchasing any of those items?"

Lucy and Kira were unfortunately informed by the shopkeeper that the promotional items could only be purchased by wizards who showed six Rainbow Crystals to her, making Lucy feel a bit bummed that she only had five, but winter scarves and ski jumpsuits could be purchased by her because five crystals only needed to be shown to the shopkeeper for her to be permitted to buy those things. Deciding that she wouldn't want Kira to waste her money on anything that didn't seem to be needed right now, Lucy headed for the shop's front door while Kira followed her.

The two girls walked out of the shop to feel the chill in the air, Lucy really disliking how a passing breeze made her feel very cold, and Kira created a red flame in her left hand while putting that hand near Lucy's right arm to make her feel the heat of her Fire Magic. Kira and Lucy walked beside each other while they were headed back to inn, after spending three hours running around the small town for things that they could buy, but it was a shame that nothing also seemed appealing to them. They wouldn't even buy desserts that were being sold at a popular bakery, since the innkeeper guided them to a nice restaurant where Princess Clair would get her morning breakfast.

Lucy hoped that Sting wouldn't be too annoyed at them for taking so long with shopping, as he stayed behind at the inn to act as a receptionist when the black-haired girl left two hours earlier to handle something, but the light dragon slayer probably wouldn't mind that Lucy would be walking around the town of Eisetsu with Kira. In fact, he wouldn't share their excitement in seeing that an old-fashioned Japanese mansion was where the powerful princess lived with her father and her butler. Lucy wouldn't go into the palace, however, since she didn't wish to see Clair again soon.

Entry into the palace was only allowed to the princess, the butler, the mayor, and anyone who they would be guiding around the palace. Getting a tour did cost a hefty amount of money, but it always managed to bring in some great profits to the town of Eisetsu. After all, there were tourists who would simply want to take a tour for the sake of taking a photo with Clair. Pictures with her could sell for quite a lot of money, as she was quite a strong mage who had a fearsome reputation, so the tourists would just try using the tours to their personal advantage.

"Let's not make Sting wait, Kira. After we leave this town, then we can all focus on getting stronger for the Grand Magic Games. Hopefully, this year's tournament won't have anything like the Eclipse Project involved in it." Lucy explained to her friend while smiling softly, before running off to the inn.

Kira replied with a happy look on her face, before giggling, "I just hope that you don't lose any battles like how you did last year, Lucy. After all, there were millions of people watching the Grand Magic Games. It must've been upsetting to know that all those people in the stands called you a loser on the first day, so don't get yourself get humiliated."

Lucy seemed comically irked by how Kira brought up her loss against Flare Corona last year, as that battle actually had a big page in the newspapers for being the wildest battle on the tournament's first day, and Lucy hadn't exactly forgotten that loss. She still wondered how Flare canceled out the Urano Metria spell without even using a single spell of magic to defend herself from it, and Lucy could only hope that her past failures would not come back to haunt her. Well, at least Raven Tail's disqualification in the last tournament would keep them from competing this year.

As the girls walked towards the inn, Lucy's brown eyes glanced at the palace for a moment. She looked at Clair's home with a determined facial expression, feeling the utmost determination to become stronger than that blue-haired woman, and their fight made Lucy truly realize something. If she didn't become stronger than Clair or be powerful enough to defeat whoever was involved with the next Rainbow Crystal, then she wouldn't be able to save her teammates in deadly situations. Lucy gently clenched her fists as she walked to the inn with Kira, wanting to make her new magic roar like a raging sea, but would Lucy's magic become as strong as what her old friends had to experience?

Meanwhile, at the Fairy Tail guild...

Natsu and Erza sat down at a table with Gray and Lisanna, all of the mages pretty happy that they recently finished defeating some bandits that were causing some trouble in the nearby town of Hargeon, and the four wizards simply looked at the bag of money that was on the table. It would be split evenly between them, keeping things fair, but Erza felt like saying that she did the most work by defeating nine of the bandits with ease. The other two managed to get away from Gray and Lisanna, but Natsu burnt them to a crisp with his Fire Dragon's Roar.

Erza wouldn't care if Lisanna would say something about her bragging, as it was true, and the two females still had tension between them. Natsu remembered how the team got a strawberry cake as a reward yesterday, really liking how it was so large and sweet, but the mighty Erza Scarlet did not get the utmost satisfaction of getting to eat the final piece of the cake. Lisanna ate it before she could grab it, which made Gray and Natsu quite terrified. but what happened afterwards was very surprising. Erza had said nothing about it, and that was strange.

The two women were still disagreeing about what happened in the snowy forest near Eisetsu Town, Lisanna still thinking that Erza was reckless for trying to stop an aggressive woman from doing what she felt was right, and Erza had wanted to let a weak bandit just get tied up because the job of capturing outlaws was different than an assassination that involved their deaths. Erza and Lisanna still disagreed over that, making the team still feel some tension, and Natsu sighed while hoping that it would someday end.

As Erza was about to open the bag of money, however, Fairy Tail's entrance doors were opened by a breeze of wind. Team Natsu and the other guild members saw Lyon Vastia and Takuya Kūchū from the Lamia Scale guild standing in the doorway, noticing how Takuya wore a green sweater vest with dark green jeans to match, and Gray wondered why his rival would show up here. If Lyon was only here to brag about Lamia Scale planning to obtain victory in the Grand Magic Games, then he would have no interest in dealing with that man's arrogance.

"It's quite a shame that we have to intrude into Fairy Tail, but Lamia Scale needs some flyers. This guy and his friend Hizuki have been cleaning us out every day, and they take most of the money." Lyon explained to the Fairy Tail mages in an annoyed manner, before tuning to Gray and giving him a smirk of confidence.

Takuya replied while looking psyched about taking more jobs with Hizuki, "We'll be taking down more outlaws soon! Don't be mad at the fact that I beat you in a fight, icy dude. I had an epic fight once, and it ended in a draw."

The two men walked into the guild while Takuya held his green skateboard in his left hand, the guy wit violet eyes giving some flirty grins to the beautiful girls who were in this guild, and Takuya felt like it would be fun to take some S-Class jobs from the request board. He was not an S-Class wizard in the guild of Lamia Scale, however, and Lyon would not allow him to do that. After all, he wouldn't want their guild master to use her magic on them to make them spin around for ten minutes. That experience would surely make them dizzy, would it not?

As Takuya was walking past Team Natsu's table, however, he suddenly remembered the day that he met Lucy. When he was in the woods with Hizuki, prior to that epic battle of wind versus lightning, the girl with jungle green hair informed him about how a newspaper article told her that Lucy was from Fairy Tail. This must've been her old guild, and she was now in Sabertooth. Erza may have wanted to brag about defeating bandits, but the woman with scarlet red hair was about to meet someone who could truly brag about himself.

In fact, people in Lamia Scale had to listen to Takuya brag about every single job that he completed. The wielder of Wind Magic took at least seven jobs per day with Hizuki, collecting at least 900,000 jewels every day, and most of that money was taken to the cafe in the town of Kazehana. The town elder had been watching over the building, but Takuya still needed to find some people who would run the cafe with him. Lyon certainly refused his offer, but Hizuki did manage to form a nice friendship with Chelia. That also helped Hizuki become friends with Sherry, so it would be good for the cafe to have two more employees.

Lyon kept walking to the request board with a confident look on his face, prepared to take some jobs that he could handle, but he was certainly not prepared for Takuya stopping to look at Natsu for a moment. These two guys seemed to sense each other's strength, making them grin at each other for a moment, and Erza could see Takuya start to smile like he had something important to say. Lyon could see that Juvia wasn't in the guild right now, and that was a shame. After all, he could've tried flirting with her to avoid listening to whatever Takuya would say.

"Hey, fairies. Your friend Lucy stopped by Kazehana Town several days ago, and we had a battle during the festival. I'm still psyched at how that blonde babe ended it in a draw, and she was pretty strong. I can't believe you losers let that babe leave." Takuya told Natsu's group in an arrogant tone, before directing his smirk to the whole guild.

Natsu replied while getting up out of his chair, remembering that it was her decision, "We'll beat your guild at the Grand Magic Games, buddy! I don't know your name, but I care about Lucy! Besides, Lisanna helped me understand that the stuff with Lucy in the beginning was Erza's fault."

That only made Erza comically slam her head on the table, wondering if Lisanna would ever let her catch a break, but she was surprised to hear Takuya say that he didn't have much interest in the Grand Magic Games. He felt like Lyon and Toby wouldn't allow him to participate, since he and Hizuki were still the guild's newest members, and Takuya rudely stated that Lyon was just mad that he got beaten in a fight where Takuya used the speed of his Wind Magic to give himself a great advantage. In fact, he wanted to tell everyone about that battle.

Gray seemed interested in hearing it, but Lyon came back to Takuya's side with three flyers. He'd take one while Takuya would also get one, and Hizuki would get the last one. As Takuya took a flyer from Lyon's hand, however, the man with silver hair comically grabbed his right ear while proceeding to walk out of the guild with him. He wouldn't want Gray to hear about that fatal loss, since Gray would probably tell Juvia all about it, and the wizards in Fairy Tail just watched Takuya wave goodbye to them as he griped about how Lyon made him take a flyer as bait for this to happen.

10 minutes later, back at the inn...

Lucy and Kira had arrived at the inn to see Sting standing behind the desk, watching him look pretty pleased that they came back, and all three mages were ready to leave the town of Eisetsu. Kira was focused on getting back home to change her clothes and make profits while Lucy was going to train with her new magic, but Sting would hope that everything was going fine in Sabertooth while he had been absent from the guild. If Rogue was also out on a job, then that would leave Rufus as the person in charge until Sting's return.

The light dragon slayer also wanted to leave this frosty town, as he was starting to get bored of the constant coldness, and Sting would be very happy to see Lector again. Telling the red Exceed about how the fight against Clair ended in a loss would be disappointing for Sting to do, but Lector would still be proud of him. Even when someone thought that they were incredibly great and unbeatable, there would always be someone who would prove them wrong. A loss was quite saddening, but Sting would have to move on.

He smiled at Lucy while watching her read the words in the mint green spell book, seeing that she was currently looking at a page that featured a picture of the Verdant Crystal with instructions on a pose that had to be done for the eighth spell of Wind Magic to appear, and Sting felt like it would be quite exciting to see what this spell could do. The excitement that came with the spell would probably make Lucy feel like she was incredibly strong, as this spell would be pretty cool, and Sting watched Kira take a peek at the book while she looked over Lucy's shoulder. Lucy also took the Verdant Crystal out of her ski pants' left pocket, and its V-Power would be unleashed.

Whatever this new spell would be, it would probably be fun to witness. After taking a few more moments to memorize what had to be done, Lucy closed the book and got up from the couch. She stretched her arms forward while her palms were face-down, and the blonde-haired girl moved her arms up and down like a bird that was flapping its wings. Lucy also exhaled a breath of air, fully following the instructions, and two small tornadoes of mint green wind began to surround her feet! She started to float up into the air, taking flight, and Lucy focused on her magical power at the same time she turned around to see the innkeeper come in.

"I'm back! I hope you enjoyed your stay at the inn, and please do come again someday!" The black-haired girl told the protagonists, before looking startled at the sight of Lucy starting to fly around the inn at a fast pace.

Lucy responded while looking quite shocked, before heading towards the innkeeper and seeing her step aside to let her leave, "Don't just stand there! It's my first time flying, and this could get crazy!"

Kira happily said aloud to herself while watching Lucy look upward to begin flying straight up, "Wow, Lucy's confidence is definitely soaring like how she's soaring now! She's definitely not afraid to take on the air's coldness."

Lucy thrusted her palms forward, creating two mint green tornadoes that started to circle around her at high speeds, and Lucy shifted her left palm's aim towards the nearby snowy mountains. That caused some icy air to come up from the town to engulf Lucy's left palm, and the cold air soon removed itself from her hand to form a mint green tornado that was close to it. Lucy aimed her right palm at some snowflakes that were falling down towards the town of Eisetsu, causing air to come up to her palm once again, and another tornado was formed.

The townspeople who were curiously looking up at Lucy got to see the four tornadoes start to rotate around her at high speeds while they moved in a perfect circle. Every time a tornado passed her, its speed would increase. Lucy watched the tornadoes gain more speed as they spun, creating some high winds that blew down towards Eisetsu Town, and Lucy closed her eyes as she began to focus on the icy. Even though Lucy couldn't inhale icy wind to take in any Ice Magic that was infused with it, she could still focus the cold wind itself into her tornadoes.

Lucy opened her eyes while moving her hands in a slow manner, directing the currents of cold air into her projectiles to make the coldness give them some density, but Lucy accidentally created another tornado by focusing magical power into her left palm again. There were now five tornadoes spinning at the same time, each one moving at incredible speeds, but Lucy remembered that she could raise her arms upward. She did that, resulting in the projectiles quickly flying upward, and Lucy fell down to the ground.

The tornadoes soon detonated simultaneously in five massive explosions that were mint green while they were filled with Wind Magic, and Lucy soon landed in some heavy snow. Her shape could comically be seen in the snow by the people who ran towards the spot where she fell, and the noise even made Clair come running out of the palace. She was not only concerned with the explosions, but loud noises and this area with large mountains of snow nearby did not go hand in hand. The mountains could soon be heard rumbling, almost like heavy snow was about to fall, and Clair ran towards the mountains while hoping to prevent an avalanche from harming the town.

Lucy said to herself while getting out of the spot she landed in, wiping some snow out of her hair, "Wow, that was an insane spell of Wind Magic. I hope it didn't harm any birds."

Sting exclaimed as he ran towards Lucy with the spell book in his hands, seeing mint green sparkles fall from the sky, "Wow, that spell left behind a pretty nice finale! Lucy, you just keep getting stronger!"

Lucy replied while smiling softly, glad that no one was laughing at her flying skills, "Thanks, Sting. I'm still surprised by how its flight effect was erratic."

Sting had seen the spell initially allowed Lucy to just fly around while the tornadoes of wind were on her feet, but looking in a certain direction while focusing her magical power into the spell had caused the tornadoes to soon act like rockets that were on the bottoms of her boots. Lucy could change her flight direction by looking somewhere else, and any tornadoes used with this spell would force Lucy to stay flying in midair. She couldn't fly in any directions as a side effect of this spell, but she could aim her attacks in any direction to either attack or defend herself from multiple foes. This spell was quite interesting, was it not?

Lucy stood up and smiled while Sting handed the book to her, but she wouldn't accept it immediately. Lucy bent down for a moment to pick up the Rainbow Crystals that fell out of the left pocket of her pink ski pants, grabbing them all to put them back in the pocket, but she took out the Cerulean Crystal to make the spell book change colors once again. Lucy smiled cutely as she placed the blue crystal on to the book, resulting in it changing from being mint green to being a regular shade of blue, and she watched blue beams of light go down into the book. Hopefully, Lucy would enjoy using these new spells.

Since there was now nothing left for the team to do in Eisetsu Town, they decided to just head towards the train station to take the next train back to the warm town of Shioru. The three protagonists were going to keep moving forward with their goals, even looking forward to the new jobs that they'd have to handle later, and a certain Eastern-looking woman who came out of the bar to see Lucy's attacks explode would plan on making Sabertooth have the skills that would take them all the way to the top of the Grand Magic Games. It seemed like everyone was looking towards the future. Well, it would be nice if everyone in Fiore didn't dwell on the past.

Elsewhere, at a cemetery...

Two men put some purple flowers on a grave while they stood in front of it, both of them frowning as they wiped some dirt off of the grey tombstone that had a woman's name on it, and one of these men wore a purple mask that covered the upper part of his face while he wore a purple top hat as well. He wore a violet tuxedo that had three lavender buttons on the bottom, and he wore some amethyst purple pants with blood red shoes to complete his outfit. This man's brown eyes could be seen while he glared at the grave, his fists clenched at how the situation never should've happened.

The other man appeared to be a teenager who was around Natsu's age, having lilac hair that fell over his left eye while a bang framed his right eye, and this man wore a black sleeveless tailcoat-like vest with a lavender tuxedo top underneath it. The vest two sported rows of double brass buttons with gold lines between them, and this man wore black pants with black derby shoes for this day. His eyes were violet while they were full of disappointment, as this was the sixth anniversary of someone's death, but that wasn't the only thing disappointing him.

"Kyouji, listen. That was six years ago, and she would want us to live with happiness." The teenager said to his older brother in a calm manner, before folding his arms.

The man known as Kyouji harshly responded to his younger sibling who was known as Kenji, giving him a stern glare, "Don't talk nonsense, Kenji! You were too young to understand it all back then, but we were very happy before this town made her die. She must be smiling down on us, seeing what we've done to make her proud!"

Kenji frowned while stepping back, knowing that he was six years younger than Kyouji, but even being younger didn't stop him from feeling uncomfortable about what was happening in their town. His brother had no problem with it, as tourists seemed very happy to come here, but anyone who did have a problem with the brothers would be executed by Kyouji himself. Some people were able to survive and speak of the town, but others wouldn't be so lucky. Kyouji wanted to rule with an iron fist, and he would just laugh about it.

The person who had died, however, was his reason for studying up on magic and doing what he did. Kenji had never forgotten the sight of the explosions, even though he wanted everyone to get out and avoid being hurt, and Kyouji was starting to frighten him with his moments of vengeful laughter. The residents of this town would listen to Kyouji while some people even felt sorry for what had been done in the past, but that was not enough to make him feel happy. In fact, he wanted to send all the pain back to the people who caused it.

Even though these brothers got to live in the town's mansion where the previous guild master had lived, people would actually be afraid of them because of Kyouji's strength. He got rid of those fears with his magic that made the people obedient to him, following his every command, but some people who weren't in need of being hit with his magic were free to have wills of their own. As long as they stayed loyal to him, then he would not harm them. Just like the woman who was deceased and in her grave, Kyouji had a moral compass.

Kenji was glad that his brother let some of the maids live freely in this town, as they were very compassionate women who cared for the two brothers, and the maids were actually fellow wizards who were in the same guild as the brothers. Kenji didn't mind that they were in a dark guild, but no one could've predicted what his brother would do on that fateful day. Things had changed when their family was ripped apart by poisonous tragedy, but the lives of these brothers greatly changed when Kyouji took fate into his own hands. Getting money to make the mansion better and seeing the other members give him looks of fear was quite great, but Kyouji wanted the whole town to treat him better.

"You always seem so down, Kenji. It's like you don't enjoy being a wealthy wizard who makes the same people who laughed at you start to kneel and grovel for your praise. I wish you could see how revenge solves problems. It's a good thing to have people kissing our feet for five years." Kyouji told his brother in a calm manner, as he saw him walk away towards the town.

Kenji responded in an annoyed manner, knowing that Kyouji wasn't normally getting respect, "At least I don't use force to make friends, Kyouji. Look, I'm just going to take a job and not hear you stroke your ego again. Just have some actual amusement tonight in a town that contains it."

Kyouji simply watched his younger brother walk off while thinking that he was just too young to understand, and the masked man felt like the deceased woman would enjoy seeing that he could use his magic to create greatness. Not only that, but he was even nice enough to use some of the previous guild master's funds to build a fancy carnival for some civilians who would come here with their kids. The carnival was only open at nighttime, however, and that was when Kyouji would use his magic to make children or wizards in this town be under his command. His motives and practices for manipulation and execution were questionable, however.

How was Chapter 21? Did you like it? I'd like to thank everyone who has reviewed, followed, and favorited this story. I appreciate your suggestions immensely, and you help the story stay exciting. :)