Chapter 21
Secrets Unfold
Recommded story idea from a good friend of mine! So enjoy. I like it so I decided why not take it :D
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Monday, October 16th, 2017
Fairy tail Highschool Academy
9:30am
...
She was already pretty late for her first class in the morning, the period must be just ending. The sky blue haired student took a deep breath of the chilly breeze into her lungs then exhaled out. She didn't wanna get out of bed in the morning, she just didn't have the motivation to do anything anymore.
Why sleep?
Why eat?
Why go to school?
Why... Exist?
With her eyes blank and walking so slowly towards the school gate, she was halted by The Principal that was standing outside of the school. He usually waits in front of the School gate after eight thirty to confront the students who arrive late. The old man sighed as he looked up at Crystal, a sad frown grazing his lips.
"Why are late again, Miss President...?"
Crystal slightly narrowed her eyes, "Do I look like the President?"
"You can't just disband the Council like that, Erza told me-"
"Well I did. I gave up my position to Scarlet and I am no longer part of the Student Council, Principal Makarov," Crystal looked down at herself, she wore a white plain blouse with the school's emblem on the shirt pocket along with her black skirt and knee high socks.
"Just tell me why you're late..."
"I did not have the motivation to get out of bed this morning."
"What do you mean by that-"
"I answered your question, now let me through."
Makarov shook his head, "Alright, Crystal... I will not pursue you any further. You may hurry along to your class."
Only asking her any further questions would lead to nowhere, it always happened.
What's the point of trying when you're just going to end up right where you started?
...
9:40am
...
The sky blue haired student slowly made her way up the second flight of stairs from the first floor with a half-eaten, cheese and lettuce sandwich in her hand. She had stopped at the Cafeteria for a bottle of water but since the people that work there rarely see her, they gave her something to eat in addition to why she was late. Might as well be more late and grab herself some breakfast.
She passed one of the windows that shined light on the flight of stairs.
Then...
Out of nowhere, the window was shattered into little pieces and the glass collided with the floor, some of the pieces getting on Crystal. The bluenette was caught by surprise when a foot came in contact with her jaw, knocking her unto the stairs with a loud thud, dropping her bag and sandwich in the process. The student rubbed her head and looked up, adjusting her glasses to take a good look at her attacker.
It was a figure in a black cloak wearing the mask of a Fox.
'Why did you return here, Crystala Dragnela...? It was going so well without your worthless piece of crap being here,' The figure spoke like it had two voices, a high pitched one along with a deeper sounding one.
"Why you..." Crystal slowly rose up but winced in pain, she held the side of her waist and glared daggers at the mysterious figure.
The figure chuckled deeply before looking up, seeing all the teachers and students running out from their classes. The figure cursed silently, staring at Crystal one last time before going back out through the broken window.
Crystal managed to get up, still holding her side. The students stood at the flight of the stairs as the teachers came down to investigate, some went to go find the Principal and one stayed with Crystal to make sure she was alright.
"Miss President, are you alright?" The blonde haired teacher tapped her lightly on her shoulder with a look of concern on her face, worry laced in her words.
"F-Fine..." She grunted out, clearing her throat. The bluenette looked out the broken window, the air from the outside now gushing in. Mumbles and whispers were passed around by the students, muttering about if Crystal had did it or if someone else did.
"Who was that...?" Crystal questioned herself.
The teacher responded, "Some harasser that's been causing trouble around the school. We are yet to catch the person, all we have on them is that they wear black and have a Fox mask. You weren't here during the week, that's when the attacks started-"
"Is Dragneel here?" Crystal cut her off shortly, "Natsu Dragneel, is he present in school today?"
"U-Uh, I haven't seen him all day so I'm afraid he's absent... Why?"
"He was here during the week, correct?"
"Y-Yes, he has."
Crystal nodded to herself, 'He's the only person that would be willing to talk to me... I should pay him a visit to question him from what happened during the week.'
The sky blue haired student looked at the teacher, "Can you tell me what happened during this week? How was Natsu?"
"Well... Mister Dragneel seemed depressed or down about something," The blonde woman placed her index finger on her cherry red lips, "The teachers said that he's always sleeping in their classes or always looking tired. His hair is growing longer too, he's also developing dark circles under his eyes. He seems exhausted these days, strange, not the active and enthusiastic Natsu Dragneel anymore. He even stopped talking to his friends as well!"
Crystal couldn't help but feel a tinge of guilt surge and spread through her heart, she felt like she was she was to blame for him being like this.
Enough was enough.
She had to talk to him.
After School; 3:40pm
...
Due to all the days she missed school, she had to stay back and get all her notes from her Class teachers. Crystal sighed, placing the pen down while rubbing her sore wrist from writing so much, The bluenette placed her books and pen in her bag then zipped it up, getting up from her seat and going out of the Classroom door where familiar faces greeted her.
"Well, well, if it isn't the former Student Council President!" The high pitched voice snickered along with her friends. Crystal gave a sigh of frustration, keeping her head low.
It was Minami and her friends again.
"What, too scared to say anything? You don't have the balls to stand up to me!" Minami laughed, her friends agreeing with her, "No wonder you're the laughing stock of the school! Natsu must be so embarrassed that he stopped talking to you!"
Crystal flinched at that remark, her eye twitched with irritation.
"You slut, you're the reason Lisanna is all depressed, y'know!"
"Go back to some preppy school, bitch."
"You stuck up whore!"
Crystal balled her palms into fists.
"Worthless crap like you don't belong here..."
Suddenly, the sky blue haired student's first collided with the wall next to her, cracking it as pieces of concrete fell from it. Minami and her friends gasp in surprise, her friends shrinking down.
"M-Minami... I think we should go..."
Minami tisked, "Is that all you could d-"
Crystal looked up at the brown haired girl with a menacing glare, hate and anger surging through her dark blue pupils. In a low voice, the bluenette muttered, "Leave..."
With that, Minami and her friends scurried away.
Natsu Dragneel's House
4:10pm
...
"Hello?" Crystal raised her voice as she entered through the open door. Natsu was always so careless when it came to locking doors, it was a sign he was most likely home. The bluenette looked around and saw the place was trashed and dark, the sound of water dripping into the sink from the Kitchen made the atmosphere more eerie.
The bluenette opened her mouth again, "Natsu!? Igneel?! Apologies for just dropping by like this without calling! If you're there, say something, please!"
No response. If the door was open... Someone must've just been here, right?
She checked up in Natsu's bedroom, she found no sign of him. She checked Igneel's bedroom yet found no signs of him either. She checked all the rooms in the House and found no sign of Natsu nor Igneel, but she did find something.
A door that was hidden behind a bookshelf in the living room. Whoever was through the door, they didn't do a good job on hiding the door since the doorknob was still showing. The bluenette used her strength and pushed the heavy bookshelf to the side to reveal a dark brown door with a golden doorknob, scratch marks on the wood.
Maybe one of them was down here?
With shaky hands, she slowly opened the door to find a flight of stairs leading downwards. The sky blue haired student gulped loudly, going down the dark steps to find another door with the words "Keep Out" carved into the wood. That door was slightly open, all she could see was darkness. Crystal kept her guard up and was cautious of her surroundings, slowly pushing the door wider open.
"Natsu...?" She called, stepping into the dimly lit room, the light coming from a single lightbulb hanging from the ceiling. Crystal gasped at what she saw.
It was pictures of everyone from their school sticked up all over the walls of the room with red X's on their faces. There was a desk with paper scattered about with a in-progress graph chart along with a small journal. Cardboard boxes were around the room with old tool supplies and a metal locker, aged with rust.
"Why... Is this here..?" She took cautious steps forward towards the desk and took up the small book, opening to a random page.
It was Natsu's handwriting, it had read;
'I don't care if I have to go tear apart the Heavens and run my way through Hell, I won't stop until I find out what's going on with Crystal.'
She flipped to another page and it read;
'Still no leads yet, I haven't found any suspects for this person that's been harassing people. I have a feeling that he might be behind Crystal's depression or something. I questioned Akise and Yukiko, still no leads. I've been getting less and less sleep but I don't care, I want to see her smile again. I'll do anything just to see her beautiful smile once again..'
She flipped to the last page where there was a supposed stick-figure drawing of Crystal in her glasses, smiling with her wavy hair shaded in pencil. It was blurred, though, as if water had gotten unto the page.
She felt tears coming to her eyes, he's been loosing sleep just to find out what was wrong with her...
That was Natsu, alright.
The bluenette's ears twitched at the sound of someone's footsteps coming down the stairs, heavy footsteps... She panicked silently, quickly placing the book back on the desk and scurried to the empty, rusted locker and hid inside it, peaking through the blinds of it.
Someone came into the room, plastic bags ruffling and slippers dragging across the concrete floor. Crystal's dark blue eyes squinted, trying to make out who the person was.
A sigh was heard, "Not Riya either..." That voice...
Was Natsu's!
The pink haired male took up a red marker that was on the table and X-ed out a girl's face who had dark purple hair with white going through it and sky blue eyes. Natsu sighed, putting down the marker and collapsing in the chair behind him, his hands to his face.
"I need to find out who... I need to find out who's been harassing... My Crystal..."
Crystal gasped inwardly.
"She hasn't been coming to school... And I can't go to her house..." Natsu frowned, "I just wanna see her happy and smile again... Is that so much to ask for? All I want... Is for her to be happy again, just like she use to... Her dark blue eyes lighting up, her red cheeks, all of it... I just wanna see it again..."
The bluenette covered her mouth, furrow burrows itself deep within her eyebrows as she tried to listen in to what he was saying.
"Dammit!" He got up from his chair and threw everything off the desk in anger, "I'm not getting anywhere with this! Time's running out... Exams are soon... I can't... I don't want to study School right now! I only want to study Crystal! I can't even get the balls to talk to the woman I love without making a complete fool of myself!"
Loud sobs racked through his body as he fell to his knees, "I was so fucking foolish that day! Why did I do that?! All of this could've been avoided if I had just waited. Why Natsu?! Why didn't you just wait?! You idiot! Now she'll never love you! She'll... Never love... Someone like me..."
Tears overflowed from her eyes and trickled down her palms that was covering her mouth. She squinted her eyes shut, 'Don't say that! I will always love you, Natsu... Please don't beat yourself up just because I can't talk to you!'
"I'm such an idiot..."
'You're not...'
"What's the point of living if I have nothing to live for anymore... She was the one that saved me... But now, she's gone..."
'I'm still here...'
"I miss you so much..."
'I feel the same way...'
"Please come back to me..."
'I never left...'
Natsu sniffled, "I can't be alone again... Crystal... Don't leave me... Don't leave just like my parents did... Don't leave like Igneel did... He's been missing for weeks and just everything's falling apart without you here at my side..."
She couldn't believe what she was hearing.
Igneel... Went missing?
Natsu must've been having such a hard time by himself, now that Zeref and Mavis left Japan to go back home and how Crystal hasn't been talking to him either...
He just be in such a dark place...
All she wanted to do now was just hug him, let him cry it all out in her arms.
But she couldn't... She didn't have the courage to...
"I love you, Crystal... I love you so much that it physically hurts me... You had a choice, you had to choose! Why didn't you choose me!? Why did you choose to go after Lisanna... I thought you loved me too... I just... Want us... To be together, like a Family..."
Her sobs went muffled into her palms.
Natsu forced a smile, "Y-Yeah... A family... Something I didn't really have... Nor did you... A family with us and children... We'll all be so happy together, I always wanted to hear you say that to me... I always wanted to hear you tell me you loved me... Because nobody else does... Not anymore..."
The tears came overflowing.
The pinkette got up from the floor, wiping away his tears and the mucus from his nose. Natsu gave another sigh, walking groggily up the stairs, leaving the door open.
Once Crystal heard his footsteps disappear up the stairs, she slowly opened the locker door and came out, guilt and sadness in her heart.
"I love you..." She whispered.