Poor Gray, I feel almost sorry for the poor sap…
Anyway, greetings, everyone. This is Erza again. We're finally back to my story! I certainly hope you all enjoy it, because this is one of my favorite moments, though it was a little trying in some spots. You might recognize some other old faces here, too. Please do enjoy, and let me, Chiasa, and Elodie all know what you think by leaving a review!
Chia: *Bows low* Gomen'nasai, mina-san! I made a miscalculation when Elodie left and left me in charge, so this is the last chapter you'll be getting from me. Elodie gets done at the end of June and will return home mid-July, but it's anybody's guess on when there'll be an update. Hope you all are enjoying this as much as I am, and make sure to leave a review on the next chapter to show how much you guys missed her (because I know I did!)! Can we do that, mina-san? I know it would mean a lot to her!
Chapter 26 – I'll Make a Man out of You
Erza's plan was simple. After a stiff, rather unpleasant dinner with her 'family', she walked out of the house and waited for nightfall in the garden. It had started raining during dinner, and even known a full-on thunderstorm was blowing through, but Erza didn't care. Sitting beneath the dragon statue she had seen earlier, soaked to the skin, she watched the candlelight in the house flicker out, one by one, until the last one in Grandpa Rob's and Porlyusica's window had gone out. Then she snuck back into the house, dried herself off as best as she could, and went to her parents' room, where she found the scroll the soldier had given Grandpa Rob lying on the bedside table. She carefully picked it up and replaced it was a red flower she had picked out of the garden, so they would know what she had done. She paused before leaving the room, gazing painfully at the sleeping faces of Porlyusica and Grandpa Rob, the latter in particular.
They're not real, she had to remind herself. The Grimm just made them look this way to get in my head. I have to focus on my real mission. Despite this, Erza stepped closer to the bed and lightly brushed Grandpa Rob's hair off his forehead with her fingertips.
"Thank you, Grandpa Rob," she whispered, choking on the lump in her throat. "And I'm sorry."
Erza lightly kissed the top of the old man's head before quickly turning and sweeping out of the room, only pausing at the door to look one last time before forcing herself to press on.
Erza's bare feet made barely a sound as she walked on her toes across the wooden floor of the house, her still damp dress whispering around her ankles. She entered the room where Grandpa Rob kept his armor and stopped in front of the wardrobe, pulling it open with a flourish. Her brown eyes were dark with determination as they landed on the armor held within, but she skipped over the suit and first drew the sword, sitting in the middle of the floor and taking the blade out of its scabbard.
She didn't necessarily want to cut her hair – in fact, she hadn't cut it since the day Jellal had named her after its bright scarlet color. She rather took pride in its uniqueness, and it greatly personified her who she was. But she knew if she was going to be convincing in what she was about to do, she couldn't wear hair like this. And so, carefully gathering her hair together in one hand, Erza took the sword and held it to the locks at about shoulder length.
Erza took one careful, bracing breath, and held it, trying not to cringe as she jerk her sword arm and sliced the blade through her hair. She released the breath she had been holding as the scarlet locks fell to the floor. She very dearly hoped this would be fictional like everything else was in this world.
Everything except Jellal, that is.
Sheathing the sword and getting to her feet, Erza flipped her hair back, taking a second to revel in how lightweight it now was, and tied it up in a small bun on top of her head with a green ribbon, the same way she'd seen many men in the village wear their hair. After doing this, she quickly changed out of the kimono dress she was wearing and bound her chest down with some white wrapping she had taken out of a supply closet. Since she was still rather big, she also tied a bundle of clothe around her stomach to better hide her gender before putting on the pants and the long, v-neck shirt she had stolen from her father's laundry earlier that day. After tucking the ends of her pants into her long white socks and putting on a pair of plain black shoes, she began putting on the black and green armor, which included shin guards, metal plates over her hips, a chest and back plate, shoulder plates, and gauntlets that covered her forearms down to the backs of her hands. She tied a black belt around her waist and added to it the summoning scroll and Grandpa Rob's sword in its scabbard. As she picked up the helmet and gazed at her face reflecting back at her in the shiny metal, Erza felt a sigh of relief tumble out of her. This wasn't quite as quick as requipping, but she definitely felt a bit more secure with some form of armor on.
Glancing once outside to see how far the night had progressed, Erza put her helmet underneath her arm and walked out of the room, leaving the wardrobe open and her cut hair scattered on the floor. She wanted what she had done to be clear and obvious to whoever came across it – as long as it wasn't anyone at the Moo-Shung training camp. Erza had a feeling that impersonating a soldier would mean a death sentence, but as long as she kept her usual demeanor and didn't let that pale haired messenger, if he was even going to be around, see her hair, she didn't see any reason to worry. Most everyone back at the guild hall occasionally teased her about being a bit more masculine than most women, anyway. That thought gave her a smile; the first one she'd worn all day.
Erza found a horse in a stable just off the property. It was a chestnut mare that, strangely enough, kind of reminded Erza of Millianna, which gave her another reminiscent smile. The horse panicked upon seeing Erza, but the disguised woman quickly quieted her down, rubbing her nose and talking to her softly. After that, the horse seemed to recognize her, allowing her to saddle and bridle her without another fuss. Even though Erza had never put tack on a horse before, her hands seemed to automatically know what to do, and she assumed it was the magic of the book guiding her through the task. Once that was done, Erza led the horse to the gate, put on her helmet, and mounted. Though she had never before ridden, her body once again seemed to act of its own accord, squeezing the mare's side with her calves. The horse reared up, kicking the gate open, and was off at an immediate gallop, and Erza gasped at the sudden speed and the rush of adrenaline that went through her. Even though she had only spent half a day in this village, she still felt a sense of escaping from somewhere she'd long been trapped in her set her nerves on a live wire. She recognized the sensation from when she escaped the Tower of Heaven, though this time there was not as much grief, loss, and hopeless despair added to it. This time, she was going toward something, and not just something, but to someone she loved. Unlike the Tower of Heaven, where she had left Jellal to sink into darkness and insanity, she was now riding toward him to save him from his fate. And that made all the difference.
Erza arrived at the camp the next morning, exhilarated from her ride and feeling confident in what she was about to do. It really wasn't all that impressive; just a bunch of tents full of a bunch of men settled in a small valley in the mountains. At the edge of the camp, Erza dismounted and tied her horse to a post beside several others, then picked up her small sack of supplies and headed off toward the center of the camp. Some of the men had gathered in groups, either cooking breakfast around smoldering campfires, playing games with cards, practicing their swordsmanship, or rough housing. All in all, it wasn't much different from how things were back in the guild hall. Just picturing Natsu, Gray, Gajeel, and Elfman in this position brought another smile to her face. Even though she was disguised as a man, she felt much more comfortable being herself here than she had been back in the village.
Erza assumed there would be a place where she would need to report to the leading officer, and when she spotted a long line of soldiers leading up to a desk, she realized she had assumed right. She couldn't clearly see whoever was sitting behind the desk, but she did see a certain someone she had very much hoped to never see again: the messenger who had humiliated her in the village. Erza felt her stomach drop.
I'm just going to have to hope my cut hair and armor disguises me well enough, she decided reluctantly. If worse comes to worse, I know several different methods of silencing a man without drawing attention.
"What do you think you're lookin' at, string bean?"
Erza blinked and looked in front of her, thinking she was the one being addressed, only to see that the man in front of her talking to someone in front of him. She couldn't tell who the first man was from behind him, though she thought his spikey burgundy hair looked slightly familiar, but as she leaned around him to see who she was addressing…
Her heart practically stopped. Shou.
"N-n-nothing!" Shou stammered nervously, though his dark eyes flickered from his face down to something on the larger man's neck. "It's just… is that-is that a snake, or…?"
"Hmph," the large man huffed with an almost audible smirk, raising a hand to his neck. Following his finger, Erza noticed what looked like the head of a purple snake sticking out from the collar of his armor.
No way, Erza thought in shock. Cobra?!
"Yeah, it's a snake," Cobra replied proudly. "Her name's Cubellios. She's my lucky charm and lifelong friend. You got a problem with her?"
"N-no! Of course not!" Shou replied quickly, waving his hands in front of his chest. "I was just c-curious… I just didn't think pets were allowed, I don't know if the captain would-"
Shou gasped as Cobra suddenly grabbed him around the collar and pulled him up so they were nose to nose. "You don't think he would what?" Cobra demanded in a low, threatening voice. "You don't think he'd approve? And what are you gonna do, kid? Tell on me? Do that and I'll hit you so hard it'll make your ancestors dizzy!"
Instinctively, Erza put her hand to her sword and was about to draw it to protect Shou, but at that moment, a large shadow moved over her, and she turned to see a very large man with familiar orange hair and a box-like face walk past her toward the pair. It was Richard, also known as Hot-Eye, from the Oracion Seis!
Erza watched in utter amazement as Hot-Eye pulled Cobra away from Shou and grabbed the former from behind, picking him up and hugging him against his chest. "Eric," he said as Cobra made a dead-pan, disgruntled expression, "that is not how we make new friends. We must treat people with love! Now, relax and chant with me."
Hot-Eye began to rock Cobra, who was as straight and stiff as a board, back and forth, and he began to chant, "Yaaaaaaa Moouuuu Ahhhhhh Doooou Fuuuu Daaaaa."
"Ya," Cobra repeated dully back in a monotone voice. "Mo, Ah, Do, Fu, Da."
Hot-Eye smiled at him. "Feel better?"
"Yeah."
Erza had to turn away with her hand pressed to her mouth to keep from laughing out loud. A snigger must have escaped her lips, unfortunately, as she suddenly felt a hand on her shoulder and was forcibly turned around.
"I can hear you. Just who do you think you're laughin' at, hot head?" Cobra demanded of her, glancing up at her hair. "Really, what kind of hair gets that color?"
Erza decided it was best to approach the situation calmly, rather than starting a fight. "Your hair is only a few shades darker than mine," she pointed out, careful to keep her voice low like a man's as she firmly pushed his hand away. "Your name was Eric, wasn't it?"
"That's Cobra to you," Cobra snapped, jabbing a finger against her chest as Cubellios hissed from somewhere beneath his collar. "Only my friends call me Eric."
"Eric," Hot-Eye said warningly, though his smile was as sweet and caring as ever. "Didn't we just go over this? Here, let me show you how to make friends." Hot-Eye gently pushed Cobra back and stepped forward, bending down to about Erza's height and extending a friendly, cubic hand. "Good morning! My name is Richard. Most people call me Hot-Eye, but since you're now my friend, you can just call me Richard."
Erza smiled at the man and shook his hand. "It is a pleasure to meet you, Richard." Erza looked back behind Hot-Eye, or Richard now, and Cobra to see Shou looking both relieved and dejected. Erza felt her heart melt at the sight.
"And what about you? What's your name?"
Shou jumped and looked around to see who Erza was addressing, but then he realized she was talking to him. He glanced once at Cobra, who was glaring at him intimidatingly, and quickly looked back down at the ground.
"My name's Shou," he mumbled without looking at anyone. He flinched when a hand appeared in front of him, expecting to get hit, but then he looked up and noticed Erza holding out her hand to him.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Shou," she told him warmly. "We're glad to have you here."
"Speak for yourself," Cobra huffed, but Shou ignored him, a hopeful smile on his dark-skinned face as he shook Erza's hand. Erza turned to face Cobra again and pulled Shou into the group, looping an arm around the blonde's shoulder.
"Cobra," Erza said in a stern voice, "you mustn't treat Shou the way you just did just because he's smaller than you. He was merely expressing concern that you might get in trouble if you're caught with that pet of yours. I think you owe him an apology."
"I beg your pardon?" Cobra asked in a slow, dangerous voice, but Erza did not waver, looking him straight on determinedly. He took a threatening step toward her. "Who the heck do you think you are, bossing me around? I can knock both of you into next week with my hand tied behind my back!"
"D-Don't you dare!" Shou suddenly stammered, stepping slightly in front of Erza in a brave attempt to protect her. "I-I mean, I'd like to see you try!"
Cobra sneered and rolled his shoulders. "Oh would you, now? Well, since you asked for-"
Shou launched himself at Cobra and punched him before he could even finish his sentence. "Shou, no!" Erza attempted, but it was already too late. Cobra fell back into Richard, who fell back into the guy behind him, who dodged just in time and ran to hit Richard, thinking it was the bigger guy's fault he almost got squashed. Cobra picked himself up with a growl and threw himself at Shou, who dodged, causing Cobra to accidently hit the man who'd been standing behind Shou, and that man quickly returned the punch. Before Erza knew it, there was an all-out brawl between her three new comrades and several of the other soldiers waiting in line.
The scene was so familiar, Erza acted instinctively.
"ENOUGH!" she roared, and with several loud clangs she punched the fighters on top of their heads with her armored fist, causing them all to collapse with groans of pain. The spectators of the fight watched in awe and fear as Erza stood in the middle what had just become the shortest fight many of them had ever seen, holding Cobra up by the collar in one hand and Shou's arm in the other.
"There will be no more of this childish squabbling!" Erza insisted, glaring at both of them. "As equal members of the Emperor's army, we should treat each other with the upmost expect and act the way our positions demand it! We are soldiers, not children!"
"Who is that guy?" several people in the crowd murmured.
"He's a monster!" someone else said.
"You don't wanna mess with him!" said another. There was one voice, however, that spoke much louder and more clearly than the rest, addressing Erza and commenting on what she had said to the fighters.
"I couldn't have said it better myself."
The sound of that voice made Erza instantly freeze. There was no way. Sure, Grandpa Rob and Hilda had been in here, but there was no way the Grimm could possibly know about him, there was no way it would be this cruel. Slowly raising her head and gazing at the man who was now walking toward her, however, proved her to be wrong.
Simon.
"What's your name, soldier?"
Erza could only gape at him. It was Simon. Simon. He was without the eye patch, head wrap, and jaw guard she had last seen him with, but there was no mistaking him. He was just as large as he'd been before, tall and muscular and strong, dressed in the clothes all of the soldiers wore beneath their armor. At his elbow stood the pale messenger from the village, who was holding up a piece of parchment and a quill. When Erza did not immediately answer, he stepped forward.
"Your commanding officer just asked you a question!" he said, flicking his quill in front of Erza's nose. Commanding officer? So Simon was her captain, now?
No, she reminded herself. No, that's not the real Simon. It's not really him!
"At ease, Drake," Simon said, pushing the messenger back slightly. "Well? Do you have a name?"
Swallowing the tears that had formed a lump in her throat, Erza released Cobra and Shou, who both fells with loud huffs, and straightened herself. "Yes, sir. My name is Er-"
Crap! I can't say my real name!
"-ren!" Erza came up with on the spot. "Eren. My name is Eren, sir."
"Eren, huh?" Simon said, his expression giving nothing away. "Let me see your conscription notice."
Erza took the scroll from her belt and placed it in Simon's hand, discovering that her own was shaking. It's not really Simon, she scolded herself as Simon unrolled the scroll and read through it. It's not him! The real one is dead! Get a grip!
"Rob Scarlet?" Simon repeated, exchanging a wide eyed looked with Drake before turning back to Erza. "The Rob Scarlet?"
Drake was now glaring suspiciously at Erza. "I didn't know Rob Scarlet had a son," he said slowly.
Erza kept her face carefully neutral. "He doesn't talk about me much," she said in a low voice, making up a story on the spot. "I was weak as a child, and he feared I wouldn't be up for military duty if the need ever arose. I've come to serve the Emperor in his place."
Drake still looked uncertain, but Simon looked back at the still groaning group of fighters with an impressed nod. "Well, you certainly seem to have overcome his expectations. Let's leave the enforcing to me, from now on, however."
Erza felt a blush crawling over her face and humbly nodded. "Yes, sir."
Simon gave an approved nod and moved away from her, finally allowing Erza to breathe. She felt an old ache returning to her chest, an ache that never completely went away since the deaths of her friends, but an ache that was now thrown in sharper relief at the sight of Simon and the rest. It was the kind of ache that brought her little girl self back to the surface, the girl she had been before she'd joined Fairy Tail and grown stronger and learned from her pain. But she could not show such weakness before these men. She could not afford to have them see the little girl crying within her.
"Soldiers!" Simon cried, and Erza returned her attention to him as the soldiers around her lined up before their commander. She stepped back into the line in between Cobra, who was glaring at her reproachfully, and Shou, who looked a little disgruntled but still cast her admiring looks from the corner of his eye. Simon untied the belt around his waist and took off his shirt, tossing it at Drake and picking up a bow and arrow before turning to face his men.
"I am Captain Simon Li, and I will be training you to join in the fight to defeat the Hun army." Simon walked down the silent line of men, glancing over them with a critical eye as they stood at attention. "You will assemble swiftly and silently just like this every morning. Anyone who acts otherwise will answer to me."
"Ooh, tough guy," Cobra muttered through the corner of his mouth as Simon passed him.
Without a word, Simon turned, knocked his arrow and aimed it at Cobra in one fluid movement. "Cobra," he said. Several people near Cobra back up as his eyes widened, looking almost scared for a moment, but then Simon pointed the arrow skyward and fired. Erza followed it with her eyes as it soared in a high arc over them and landed at the top of a pole. Simon smiled. "Thank you for volunteering." The smile disappeared and Simon pointed a the pole. "Retrieve the arrow."
Cobra glanced up at the pole, then looked back at Simon with dislike. Erza thought she heard Cubellios give a low his somewhere around his sternum.
"I'll get that arrow, Captain," he said with a sarcastic bow before walking over to the pole, taking off his armor and setting it in the grass at the base. Cubellios must have somehow known to stay inside it, because no one say her once as. "And I'll do it with my shirt on."
"One moment," Simon said, picking up a large, heavy looking satchel and walking over to Cobra. "You seem to be missing something."
Simon grabbed something inside the bag and let the bag drop, revealing two large bronze plates, each with a leather strap on it. He addressed the men. "This," he says, holding up one of the plates, "stands for discipline." He dropped the plate into Cobra's hand, and Cobra staggered and grunted beneath the weight. "And this represents strength." Simon gave Cobra the other weight.
"Oof!" Cobra groaned, the weights dragging his arms to the ground. Snarling, he hefted them up so he was carrying them by the straps, his biceps bulging through his shirt.
"You will need both to reach the arrow," continued Simon, stepping back and gesturing to Cobra, "as Cobra here will demonstrate."
Cobra did try, for his record. Wrapping the straps around his wrists, he jumped and grabbed onto the pole and tried to slowly slide his hands up first, followed thereafter by his feet, but the weight became too much and he fell to the ground. When Simon was convinced Cobra had been rightly humbled, he passed the disks on to another soldier. As several of the men had tried and failed to retrieve the arrow, including Richard and Shou, Simon pressed his palm to his forehead and sighed heaveily.
"We have a long way to go," he murmured. "I thought I asked for sons, not daughters…"
Erza had to work hard to keep back the smirk trying to crawl onto her face. For a moment, she thought she might have slipped up, because Simon suddenly glanced at her from between his fingers and then lowered his hand, frowning at her.
"Eren," he said, addressing her by her chosen boy name.
"Yes, sir," Erza responded.
Simon took the disks from a disappointed Shou and held them out to her. "Why don't you give it a shot."
Every eye in the field turned to Erza as she stepped toward Simon and the pillar. Some of the men's gazes were full of excitement, like Shou's and Richard's, though others were more disgruntled and cynical like Cobra's. Erza took the disks from Simon, trying not to look him in the eye, and weighed them in her hand. She almost dropped them upon taking them – they were really heavy – but she quickly got accustomed to the weight and was able to hold them up as she stared at the arrow that was her goal.
Erza bit her lip. All the men had tried to climb the pole while carrying the weights in their hands, and that had proven to be their folly. So maybe she had to think outside the box a little bit. Ignoring the fact that she was still wearing the armor – she was so used to such attire, it made no difference to her either way – she slid her arms through the straps and tried to carry them on her shoulders. She had barely made it a few feet up the pole, however, when the weight threw her off balance and she fell back to the ground with a thud.
Her face burning red, Erza got back up again, ignoring the sniggers of the men, the sneers Cobra and Drake were giving her, and the rather disappointed look on Simon's face. Determined to get it right, she pulled the weights off her arms and frowned at the pole. How was she supposed to get up there with Strength and Discipline weighing her down?
That's when she realized: Strength and Discipline weren't supposed to weigh her down. Simon had said he would need both of them – not just the weights, but the attributes the represented – in order to retrieve the arrow. Erza looked down at the weights, swinging them from her hands on their straps. She got an idea.
Bracing one foot against the pole, Erza swung the weights forward and around the pole so that the bases of the straps wrapped around each other, creating an anchor. Simon began to grin as Cobra's and Drake's mouths fell open and several murmurs rang through the crowd. Gritting her teeth, Erza restarted the climb, this time using the disks as leverage rather than carrying them like a burden. She got past the few feet that she had gone on her first attempt. Then she went higher than Shou, Richard, and Cobra, and soon she had gone higher than any of the other men had gone before. She didn't have time to look down and see how far she was, because all of her attention was focused shifting the weights up, then stepping, shifting up, step forward, shifting up. The sun beat through her dark armor and sweat beaded her brow and neck. Her arms trembled with the effort. But soon, she was at a point where the arrow was within arms' reach. Shifting both straps into one hand, Erza grabbed the arrow and threw it down so it stuck in the ground at Simon's feet.
There was a second of awed silence before the cheers began, rising up toward Erza as she wiped her brown with the back of her hand and smiled, still breathing heavily. With one final tug, Erza hoisted herself up to the top of the pole and sat down, letting the weights fall from her hands and plummet to the earth as she shook them, sighing in relief.
"Well done, Eren Scarlet!" she heard Simon call up to her. Richard was whistling through his fingers and Shou was cheering loudly as he clapped and jumped up and down. Cobra could hardly have looked more displeased. After a moment's rest, Erza pushed herself from the top of the pillar and dropped down to the ground, landing lightly on her feet and bending her knees to absorb the impact.
"Strength and Discipline," Simon said to the men as Erza rejoined the lineup. "As you have witnessed them. With those two attributes, I will make men out of all you little girls your fathers have sent me. So, let's get down to business!"
Let's get down to business
To defeat the Huns.
Did they send me daughters
When I asked for sons?
You're the saddest bunch I've ever met,
But you can bet before we're through,
Mister, I'll make a man out of you.
~ "I'll Make a Man Out of You" by Donny Osmond and the Cast from Disney's Mulan
You must be swift as the coursing river, with all the force of a great typhoon, with all the strength of a raging fire, mysterious as the dark side of the moooooo~
Oh, are you done? Ahem, my apologies. Thank you for waiting. I hope Elfman doesn't hear this song, we'll never get him to shut up again…
You know, I should probably try using Richard's chant on Natsu whenever he gets too fired up. It could come in handy.
You ladies out there reading this can take a lot of heart in this chapter. We women can be just as strong as men can if we work hard enough! It just takes Strength and Discipline. I should put that on a plaque. Maybe I could etch it into my swords…
Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed reading this as always! Please leave a review and let us know what you thought. We greatly appreciate your feedback.
(Chia: And definitely don't forget to review on the next chapter when Elodie gets back! *salutes* Chia, over and out! *sprints out of the room*)