An extra week of no classes and no school has produced this as a result. Stay safe everyone.
It was a windy autumn day in the canyon city of Clover Town. A neighboring town to Magnolia but an hour away, and only by train, as a grand canyon separated the water level town of Magnolia from the mountainous Clover Town. It was Tuesday, a normal work/school day so there wasn't much traffic in the streets of even the town's busiest district. Lounged on the top of one of the cherry blossom trees that lined the outskirts of town, a certain black haired dragon slayer watched the town from a bird's eye view. The wind picked up and stray, pink cherry blossom petals fluttered all around him, beautifying his scenery in the shade. The air smelt of raw cherries and live plants, the many fluttering petals landed in his face and his hair. His eyes were closed, and his body lay completely still, just as the cherry blossom petals finally did when the wind settled down.
After a moment, the pierced troublemaker picked up a petal from his nose, in between his thumb and his index finger… and crushed it.
"This is bullshit!" he suddenly shouted, his eyes glaring into the distance with animosity.
"Just how long am I supposed to lay low?" He snarked with air quotations. "I was the one who caught the traitor! I'm the one who should be in the middle of the action right now, not some snarky, know-it-all ass stranger!"
Gajeel's mind lingered on the mysterious stranger for a few moments longer. They seemed to have come completely out of nowhere, conveniently saving him and his master from incarceration, now leaving his master indebted to them. He recalled their smug grin and it irritated him.
He didn't trust them, not as far as he could throw them, which would be pretty far. He referred to that person with gender neutral pronouns because at that point in time, he still couldn't tell if they were a man or woman. He thought they kind of looked like a man, but sounded a lot like a woman.
The smooth-talker claimed that they were loyal to Jose and to their cause, but the iron warrior just couldn't see why. But, more importantly than any of that, he was pissed that it was the stranger who decided to sideline him from the action.
Flashback
"What do you want from me?"
Gajeel grinned. "Gi-hi."
Now the boy had strict orders to bring his target back alive, so, for the sake of his cause, the sake of his Master finally achieving his goals, he decided to do as he was told for once. He pointed his right arm in the blunette's direction, and he morphed his lower arm to the shape of a giant staple gun, and before she could blink, he fired four staple-like metal clamps at her, one on her torso and hands, one on her upper body, one at her knees, and one at her mouth. The force caused her to slam into the wall behind her, rattling her bureau and causing some of her toiletries to roll and drop.
He released Brenda's unconscious body, no longer seeing any use for her, letting her slam to the ground with a thud and stalked over to his fallen target. His heavy metal boots clamped the ground with every step he took. Juvia's eyes widened with alarm when he was standing right above her, a bloodthirsty grin adorned on his pierced face. He bent down and picked her up by her hair underneath her tam, which Juvia winced painfully at. As her feet hovered the ground he whispered in her ear.
"Take a good look," he said in a low voice. Juvia managed to open her eyes to see he had her head turned towards Brenda.
"Better say your goodbyes now. Because you'll never be seeing her again."
Juvia's face contorted into one of sadness despite her best efforts to remain calm. Gajeel relished in the look on her face before he licked his lips.
"That's right you traitor," he spat. "Relish in the despair, that it was I, Black Steel Gajeel, who put you and your pathetic little family in danger. The woman, and Fairy Tail."
Juvia's eyes immediately darted to his with a glare.
"That's right Juvia GET ANGRY!" he screamed manically. "I want you to want to rip me to shreds so that when I do end up smushing you like the bug you are; it'll be all the more fun."
Juvia continued to glare. It wasn't taking much for her to want to rip him to shreds in that moment. She could handle whatever consequences Jose and her old guild wanted to dole out to her, but involving innocent people who had nothing to do with their internal conflict was crossing the line.
He stared at the nasty glare she continued to give him, despite still being hoisted by her hair to the point where she felt her scalp was going to bleed, and finally Gajeel busted into laughter.
"Don't worry girlie, you'll soon lose that interesting look on your face." His face darkened again. "And I'll teach you a lesson about what happens to people who ruin my fun too."
After that, Gajeel took the now, knocked out Juvia to the rendezvous point, which was a port in Hargeon, a journey that took him a day and half's time. When he saw his contact, the same mysterious stranger who said they were operating on instructions directly from Jose, he handed off his target to them.
"Good job Gajeel," they praised, looking genuinely impressed. He ignored the compliment.
"I don't know why the master wants to go so easy on her," he started. "After everything that she's done, she deserves to be executed on the spot."
"Well, Master Jose had strict orders for you to bring her back alive. Have you ever considered Gajeel, that there may be worse punishments than death?"
He scoffed. "That's ironic."
They closed their eyes and smiled. "You may just be right," they agreed. "Regardless, this girl is of greater value to us alive than dead."
Gajeel's contact turned to eye Juvia, who was now lying limply on a rocking boat. Gajeel seemed to notice just how invested this person was in Juvia's retrieval. He could tell that they had some ulterior motive however, he didn't care. All Gajeel cared about was reviving Phantom Lord and finally being the strongest once again.
"So where's the new hideout?" he questioned.
"Oh… umm Master Jose wanted you to stay back in Gallows Town."
Gajeel's whole body was racked.
"What?!"
"The Master thinks it would be best for you to hang back and keep watch here. Just in case of any loose ends. Afterall, if his plans were found out, the whole dynasty of Phantom Lord would crumble once again. And you don't want that, now do you?"
Gajeel yanked the cloaked stranger by the collar and pressed his iron dragon sword against their neck. When he did that, the person's hood slid back just a bit too much for their liking, and Gajeel noticed something integral. However, he'd address that later. "I'll hack you into little tiny pieces right here! You dare mistake me for some errand boy?!"
The woman, Gajeel finally realized, not showing and interest in his rage in the least, stared him dead in his eyes blankly. "Are you finished?"
Gajeel growled and roughly shoved her away, baring his fangs.
"I know that you're itching to get into the thick of the action to continue to prove you're the strongest. However, Jose thinks your most needed on the ground right now." She raised an eyebrow in his direction as if daring him to defy the Master.
After her question was answered with a scorned silence, she slowly hoisted herself onto the boat.
"Don't worry Gajeel," she said with a playful smirk. "I have a feeling that you're soon going to come across more powerful foes than you'll know what to do with."
Once she was safely on the boat in the gentle rocking waters, she made a fist with her hands and the captain started the engine, sending ripples into the calm dock waters.
"In the name of Phantom," She said as the boat sped off into the moonlight lit sea.
"In the name of Phantom," Gajeel repeatedly, ultimately unsatisfied.
End of Flashback
"I'm going to thrash that witch the first chance I get," he said looking at his balled fist with his black gloves and metal on the knuckles.
"Now, its such a beautiful day," a voice said from below him. "Why sully it with words like that?"
It was Bora, one of his two henchmen.
"I hope you did what I told you to do in Gallows Town!" he bellowed.
"Yes, Gajeel," his other henchman, Sue said on bended knee.
"If you did what I asked you to do, then why the hell are the two of you maggots here?"
Bora bent down on one knee too. "We were taking care of the lawyer woman, the original Raven Scott, like you asked."
"We held her as our hostage. We tortured her to make sure she wouldn't talk."
Gajeel kissed his teeth under his breath. "And that's where you first went wrong…"
"I left the house to go get some more food and left Sue to watch over her."
"I walked into another room, after she had been waterboarded for a while," Sue started painfully, staring intently at the ground. Her body began to tremble. "But then…"
"When I came back to the house, Raven Scott was dead. Apparently she killed herself when neither of us weren't around."
There was a silence from the trees, until the wind picked up again, scattering the cherry blossoms and the silence.
"Did you get rid of the body?"
"Yes. And we made sure it looked like she killed herself." Bora answered dutifully.
"Look, I don't care what you do, alright?! Just make sure it can't be traced back to Phantom Lord!"
His declaration was met with a miserable silence. Both his henchmen stayed completely still, stewing in an awkward silence, which did nothing to improve Gajeel's mood.
"You miserable chumps still here? Leave, you're dismissed!"
Once they were gone, the wind picked up again, but it was faintly familiar smell wafting his nose. Gajeel sat up, looking over at Clover Town again. "Is that…?"
"No doubt," he said after another breeze perching on top of the tree. Perhaps his day wasn't going to be a total waste after all. A toothy grin overtook his face.
"Gi-hi."
Liberation
"Okay, so let's go over what we know so far," Natsu started, pointing at his drawing of the word 'PRESENTATION' in his notebook. Lucy sat up straight like she was in class, giving him her undivided attention with the most serious face she could muster. Natsu thought it made her look constipated though, but he opted to keep that thought to himself.
"I first clashed with the metal head Gajeel at the end of the third week of school, which was September 20th," he flipped the page over to a poorly drawn stick figure image of Gajeel, with overly sharp teeth and big round eyes.
Lucy gave an excited nod. "Aye!"
"For the next two weeks since then, me, you, Juvia, Gray, Loke and Lisanna have been spending all our homeroom and after school hours together," he then flips to a picture of the six of them cleaning up a classroom.
"Finally, this past Friday, we all went to a bowling alley together, and suddenly Juvia gets kidnapped by Gajeel," he finally turned to a page of the poorly drawn Gajeel making off with stick figure Juvia.
Lucy nodded her head, pumping her fist in the air. "Aye sir!"
Natsu took a rigid pause in the middle of him closing his book. He couldn't believe how unbelievably cute he just found her when she said that. He certainly wasn't about to tell her though.
"Alright so the current situation is… well the current sitch is… I… have no idea where she is…"
Lucy visibly shrunk.
"But hey! I'm sure we can come up with some ideas!"
Just then, the classroom door that the pair ate lunch in sometimes swung open, revealing an angry looking Lisanna, followed by an accusatory Loke, and a displeased Gray.
"I told you they were in here," Loke said, holding the door open for the fuming platinum blonde.
Natsu and Lucy looked like a couple of deer in the highlights.
"Hey Lisanna…" Natsu offered weakly.
"What the hell are you two hiding from us?!" she yelled.
Natsu immediately was taken aback and Lucy got up worriedly. Gray smartly closed the door behind him. He knew that this was going to get loud.
"Loke said he saw you two talking after homeroom about going to Juvia's house to look for clues? Why the fuck wouldn't you tell us?! None of us exactly know where Juvia lives either!"
"Well, um, I-"
"I knew it! Natsu you fucking asshole!"
Natsu was stunned speechless. His slack-jawed dumbfounded expression was very indicative of that.
"We're Juvia's friends too! And sorry to say, the five of us really are the only ones who care about her in this whole school, so… we're all in this together. That's why I'm so hopping mad! And just when I thought we were all getting so close too… me, you and Gray were hanging out again like old times… you even shared this huge secret with us and… and… and I just thought you finally saw all of us as your equals."
Lisanna's voice finally lowered as her temper calmed down. Her fiery blue gaze was trained to the ground while she drew invisible circles on the table with her fingers. Loke stared off at the the front of the classroom with his hands in his pockets, while Gray stared at the ground with his hands in his pockets. The two of them didn't say anything, but Natsu had a feeling that Lisanna's sentiments were also shared amongst them.
Natsu stared at his childhood best friend, his childhood crush, in shock for a few more pregnant moments. Lucy stood with baited breath staring worriedly at Natsu. She really didn't like tension or conflict. She wasn't trained on how to handle those situations.
Natsu dragged out one of the chairs at the desk Lisanna was leaning against.
"Then sit," he commanded with a serious glare in his eyes. Lisanna's eyes panned back to him in surprise. "Lucy and I were just trying to come up with a plan."
He and Lisanna locked eyes for a long moment, Natsu unwavering in his seriousness, while Lisanna quivered in hers. She couldn't help but notice how much more mature Natsu had gotten over the years.
Was he… always this manly? She thought.
Finally, she sat down, thanking the pinkette with her eyes.
Natsu took a deep breath. "Okay… so here's the situation so far…"
While Natsu re-recapped to the others what he had just finished explaining to her, Lucy couldn't help but wonder if Juvia was safe – and most importantly alive – wherever she was. She stared out the classroom window at the blistering sun and bright blue skies.
Once Natsu was done, the faces of their three new guests were visibly trying to connect the dots.
"Woah," Lisanna said in total amazement. "This dragon-slayer stuff… it's pretty serious huh?"
Gray on the other hand was cluing in on more relevant aspects. "So, you're sure this dragon slayer guy isn't the same one from St. Peter's Town?" Gray asked remembering the story Natsu told them in the library.
"I'm very sure."
"Well what if he's working with that person? He might've taken Juvia to St. Peter's Town to his boss."
Natsu paused. He actually hadn't considered that option and it did seem like a possibility.
"Woah, hold on," Loke said holding out his hands for a time out. "So now that we know Juvia's been taken by supernatural shapeshifters… we are all going to the police with this information... right?"
Everyone turned to the dirty blonde as if he had grown a third head.
"No!" Lucy shouted walking closer to soccer player with a finger pointed sternly at him. "Telling anyone else about Gajeel, or the things at St. Peter's will only be putting Natsu and I's secret at risk! Which, in case I have not made absolutely clear already, I can not allow to happen!"
"But this is ridiculous! Natsu, if you couldn't beat him the first time, what makes you think that you can suddenly just waltz back over and beat him this time?"
A look of scorn flashed across Natsu's face at the memory of his overwhelming defeat against the iron dragon slayer.
"And shoot, if you can't beat this guy then the rest of us are all totally fucked, because unlike you guys, we're just normal 15-year-olds, who don't have any special powers to rely on. My point is, this is ridiculous, and we're all screwed if we try to save her by ourselves!"
Natsu stepped forward, taking Loke's concerns seriously and facing them head on.
"Listen. You're right. I may be acting a little reckless about this because I have powers, but the thing is, even if I didn't have these crazy abilities, I'd still be trying to go save her. That's just the kind of stupid I am." He continued.
"However Loke, I know that I can't do this without your help," he turned to back to the others. "Any of you. So… here's the thing, I made a promise to bring a friend home to her adopted mother, a woman who cares for her deeply, and I am going to do that no matter what. But I know I can't do this alone so... will you trust me?"
Loke backed down his objections, being faced head to head with Natsu's steely gaze. The others watched behind him with baited breath.
"I'm not leaving," Loke said bravely. "Just, promise me your bad guy buddy will go easy on the money maker? After all what's this lust-worthy body without this devilishly handsome face? And you know what they say, the devil's in the details."
Natsu rolled his eyes but smiled.
"Then what the heck are we still waiting for?!" Lisanna shouted.
"In the middle of the school day?" Lucy questioned.
"Some things are more important than a day of classes Lucy," Gray chimed in. "And wouldn't you say that this is one of those things?"
Lisanna, followed by Gray, then Loke, then Lucy all climbed out the window into the schoolyard to sneak away discreetly. Natsu followed behind shortly after, hardly believing how readily everyone was to skip classes. No wonder they all ended up in summer school.
"Well yeah …but I'm just saying I probably could've skipped classes today without this excuse." He added quietly.
Later that same day
Black…
Black…
Blurry…
It was so very black and blurry.
Then all at once Juvia's eyes snapped open.
She took a minute to take in her surroundings and for them to snap in place with the last thing she remembered.
She was in a limo.
In the backseat of a limo all to her lonesome, her arms were bound by heavy metal deadlocks that must've weighed two tons. Juvia's mouth was gagged with rope tied around it.
How long was she out for? And damnit where were they taking her?!
That's when she remembered something.
Gajeel.
Was it him who was driving this limo?
She wormed her body a bit only for nothing to happen. Then was strapped in tight by several seatbelts along with her heavy cuffs.
She had to find some way to get of here… but how?
Her eyes quickly shot back to the front seat, when she heard the window separating the front and the back being turned down. In the passenger's side sat a smiling woman. She was as pale as a vampire, with cherry red eyes and jet-black hair, which she let hang slightly past her shoulders except for the two pigtails she had tied on top making her appear childlike, she was an 80's pin-up beauty.
She smiled at Juvia.
"Oh good," she said sweetly. Her voice was certainly womanly sounding, mature and soothing to the ears. Too soothing almost, Juvia thought, already on her guard. "You're finally awake."
Juvia stared blankly at the woman as if she never said a word. It didn't bother the smiling beauty one bit.
"My name… is Akira." She stated, resting her hand against her chest. When she said her name, Juvia could've swore she saw the woman's red eyes flash with a glow. "You may not know me, but I'm actually good friends with your Master Jose. He's been looking forward to seeing you for a long while now."
Hearing the name of that man said aloud sickened Juvia to her core. In fact, she actual started to feel like she was getting nauseous in the car looking out the window. The limo was zooming past tropical scenery. When Juvia looked from the heavily tinted window on the left, there was a dense jungle. On her right, there was a shore. Where was she?
"We're sorry for any inconveniences that our… guard dog might've caused you – although he brought you here in one piece like we instructed him, so maybe I'm assuming wrong. Regardless, we really meant no harm."
While the woman named Akira droned on, Juvia searched around the backseat for ways she could escape.
"Don't bother." It was Akira, staring at her with that same sweet smile. "I made sure that Gajeel reinforced those weighs with titanium and stainless steel. The ones on your hands and legs weigh about a ton each. And there's really no getting out of here without my say-so." She dangled a ring of keys in Juvia's face.
"You may, however, cut the rope around your mouth with that blade I so graciously strapped to the top of the door over there." Juvia looked up at the top of the seatbelt strap and sure enough, there was an army dagger strapped there just as she said. Akira turned back around to face the front. "I'm not too worried about leaving that there either," she said with a nonchalant sigh. "I figured you'd use it to either free yourself to talk or stab yourself in the face and I'm okay with whatever you decide to do."
This time, Juvia was sure of it. The woman's red eyes did let off a bright red glow when she finished her sentence.
The dagger was strapped on tightly to the seat with an airtight leather buckle. It wasn't something Juvia could've possibly shaken out of place, if she hit her seat hard enough, or even pull away with her teeth after she cut the ropes free. Juvia's heart started racing again. It was starting to look like there were really no options for her. The backwards glance Akira shot her at the end was chilling enough to have the hairs on Juvia's arms stand up. The kidnapped teenager didn't know what to make of this woman.
"What?" Akira said sarcastically, noticing the despair on the blunette's face. "You thought I'd just come after you and not take all the necessary precautions? Or better yet, you thought you'd just let Gajeel take you, and once Brenda was safe, you'd just plow past the petty foot soldiers Jose sent your way and be about your business?" Juvia stiffened and it didn't go unnoticed by her captor. Akira smirked at Juvia's reaction. It was like she was reading her mind. Akira let out a howl of laughter into the otherwise quiet limousine.
"I bet you weren't expecting me were you?!" She said after her laughter died down. She wiped a single tear from her eye as she flashed Juvia the toothiest smile she'd ever seen. The woman was oozing bloodlust everywhere, and it was making Juvia feel overwhelmed. "If there's one thing about me you should know Juvia, it's this; I never underestimate my opponent... and you shouldn't have either."
Just as Akira seemed to have finished her tirade, with an air of satisfaction she turned back around to the front, when she heard a loud click from behind her.
Akira's eyes widened in shock, and just as she whipped back around to see what was going on, a solid metal deadlock came flying sharply at her head, shattering the window partitioning the front and back and crashing through the windshield. Only Akira's otherworldly reflexes, saved her from having her skull bashed in.
"What the-?!" She cried as she turned to the backseat to see Juvia pressing her hands sharply forward on the seat, causing an eerie crack from both her wrists. Akira eyes were widened in shock.
Did she just dislocate her wrists to wriggle out of Gajeel's deadlocks?!
Akira's whole body took a hard swerve left as the driver spiraled out of control and the limo whirred dangerously quickly in the direction of the trees. The shattered glass from the windshield got into his eyes, causing the man to let go of the wheel and clamp his eyes shut dealing with the sharp bloody mess. The opened deadlock also slammed into the hood of the car, causing sparks and smoke to fly from the engine underneath.
The ropes around Juvia's mouth slackened and fell around her shoulders after she swiped the dagger that cut them. Before the car started spiraling though, Juvia used the dagger to pick at the weights on her feet, which took a few tries, until eventually they loosened and faster than a blink, Juvia vanished, like she was never in the car in the first place.
This all started shortly after Juvia came to. She noticed the dagger Akira placed behind her seat way before the woman pointed it out to her and had used it to cut the ropes on her from before the start of the conversation. Whilst she was talking, Juvia didn't let it show on her face that she was secretly feeling out the deadlocks to find a way to slip out. The blunette had to hand it to Gajeel... if nothing else, her shackles were tight and heavy. However, Juvia noticed that they were especially tight around the wrists. This meant that there was wriggle room, if but a little, for her fingers. While something as miniscule as that wouldn't have changed the effectiveness of Gajeel's locks on anybody else, on Juvia, it was ultimately his downfall. So, Juvia got to work and she had to move quickly before Akira caught on. She simultaneously dislocated her wrists whilst her kidnapper monologued to her. Juvia wanted Akira to think she was completely helpless, so she didn't let on that the rope on her mouth was already cut in order to lower her guard. It helped that Akira couldn't really tell that Juvia's squirming, in which the teenager was only pretending to be afraid of her, was actually Juvia slipping her hands free. Then, as soon as Akira turned around, Juvia made her move.
Juvia ran deep into the jungle, about as fast as her legs could take her, just to get a breathable distance between herself and Akira. Juvia stopped after a while and looked up. She couldn't even see the sun and the many levels of trees formed a thick canopy shading her from it. She catapulted herself upward, jumping from tree to tree until she finally reached the top. Resting comfortably on a high reaching branch, Juvia took it all in.
She certainly wasn't in Magnolia anymore.
An island, Juvia deduced, that was seemingly uninhabited judging by all the weeds, and wild animals running free. However, one semblance of civilization was glaring uncomfortably at her. Somewhere in the direction the car was driving, was a large pyramid.
There.
That's where they were taking her, and that must've been where he was.
The blunette closed her eyes and cleared her head. When she opened them, determination was dead set in them. She was tired.
Tired of being scared.
Tired of being scared of that man.
Tired of being scared of herself and her past.
Tired of being scared of letting others in.
But most importantly, tired of being scared of who he created her to be.
She resolved within herself that she was going to face her fears head on, which was really what this all boiled down to. She was going to confront him and put a stop to all of this herself.
If the bastard wanted her back, boy was he going to get her.
The blunette began shedding layers of clothing, right there, at the top of the forest canopy. First her long sleeve jacket, then her sweater vest and then she loosened her school tie. With her army dagger, she tore her school pants at the knees, making them look like capris. They weren't very aerodynamic in the state they were in anyways. Finally, she threw off her clunky tennis shoes and threw her tam off of her head, letting her glossy blue mane, fly with the breeze.
There was a feeling that overwhelmed her as the golden hues from the setting sun, bathed her from the east. It was similar to the feeling of a caged animal being released into the wild for the first time.
It was… liberation.
She ran her hands through her long hair for a minute, hardly believing how long it had gotten, before taking her school tie and using it as a makeshift ponytail holder for her hair.
Afterall, she couldn't fight with it hanging down like that.
Somewhere, a ways off, Akira finally stumbled out of the car wreckage, pulling out her phone. The limo and the designated driver inside had combusted into flames. Two trails of blood, originating from her forehead streaked down her face. The phone rang a few times too many, for the currently short-tempered woman. Finally, the ringing stopped.
Very calmly, but with an aftertaste of displeasure, she started to talk. The voice on the other end, squeaky from her phone receiver, argued back and forth with her.
"…well I don't know... hey, I did my part in bringing the girl to this place…"
As the injured woman limped across the shore, she noticed a navy-blue tam flying in the wind. She abruptly ended the call, not taking her eyes off of it. Gently, with the dying breeze, the tam fluttered into her hand. Akira took it and stuffed it into her cloak. In the other pocket, she pulled out a leather, red fingerless glove that had a small gray skull front and center. She slipped it on her left hand, and the skull's black eyes glimmered a ruby red simultaneously with her own, once it was snug in place.
"I guess it's time for me to bring the puppy to its master." She smiled a wicked smile, feeling the power starting to surge through her.
It took a couple of tries, but after Juvia got a tight grip on the silk tie she was able to tie up her hair in a high ponytail. She took the dagger out of her mouth and unsheathed it. Without a word of warning Juvia turned back to the shoreside and found almost a half of the trees in the seemingly endless forest falling to their knees.
"What…?" She started but then she jumped, and her heart stopped beating when the answer came to her.
Akira.
It was sad for Juvia to watch. The native forest critters, the birds, the monkeys even, all started hollering and fleeing as fast as they could as the plethora of falling trees began to crush those who remained. With the array and variety in sizes of the trees, all of them falling at once could easily crush and kill anything living underneath.
What was supposed to be the animals' home, turned into their ultimate death trap.
A cold bead of sweat rolled down Juvia's head. She felt her hands turning clammy.
Could this really be Akira? But then, no machine known to man could've plowed down all those trees faster than the speed of light like Juvia just witnessed.
She had to believe it was Akira.
Her mind flashed back to seeing Natsu's flames in the library and then Gajeel's iron sword sheathed against Brenda.
At this point she had to believe anything was possible.
Was this the new power that her old master had acquired? She wouldn't stand a fighting chance if she had to go toe-to-toe with this someone who could do this. She'd be dead in an instant. And then she remembered.
She had just pissed this woman off.
Her flight instincts kicking in, Juvia began to move swiftly through the remaining canopy, to the direction of the pyramid only just missing Akira's searching eyes.
Akira slowly approached the clearing in which Juvia had narrowly escaped and searched around for more traces of her. She knew Juvia shed a few layers of her clothes because one, it was scorching hot, and two, they couldn't help her move. However, Akira was surprised when she saw nothing. Not even a lint ball, or pencil shaving that dropped from the jacket. Anything that could help Jose's helper in pinpointing her location. Akira couldn't help but laugh. Not only did Juvia escape again in record time, but she didn't sloppily leave anything behind either. Her escape was done, and it was clean. She was in and out, almost as if she was never there at all. There was no trace of the blunette anywhere.
"It's like trying to hunt down myself," Akira said thoughtfully as she pulled out her phone and started dialing again. Even though she had been bested by a 15-year-old, Akira felt that her amusement more than made up for it.
"Hello?... Yes… be on alert… she's headed in your direction."
It's always been a dream of mine to write a badass Juvia, so… here ya go.
Also, super excited for the next one: Phantom Lord. Until next time.
