Ever get a headache ache that came out of nowhere? Annoying right. Well, that was what Lucy was getting right now. With a groan and a small tumble, the young woman swayed for a moment as she put her hand on her forehead as someone caught her.
"Wow there? You ok?"
"Y-yeah." Lucy muttered as she stared downward at the street for a moment before taking a few breaths as the person patted her back like one would when another was throwing up. "Thanks, I'm fine." She told him as she looked up and gave a weak smile as her head slightly throbbed. "You don't look fine." Her counterpart muttered before staring at the young woman. "You should probably sit down somewhere."
She didn't argue with him about that, and let him help her leave the street to somewhere she could gather her bearings. At the same time though couldn''t help glancing back, her attention drifting to the crowd of women gathering around the famous mage she couldn't set her eyes on.
Despite the headache… she was getting this strange sense of deja vu.
"Where do you want to go?"
She directed him towards a small restaurant, ordered some water as she nursed the fading headache.
"Feeling a bit better?" Taking a drink of water Lucy eventually nodded her head and gave her counterpart another nod.
"Um huh, thanks again Natsu." Her counterpart blinked in confusion as she smiled.
"Who?" Lucy's smile disappeared, and with it so did the image of a pink haired young man stuffing his face. Instead she found herself staring at a well built redhead with part of his face despite the scar he was kind of attractive. He wore a jacket and a muscle shirt underneath.
"Sorry sorry! I didn't mean to…" Lucy waved her arms animatedly as she started to babble for a her counterpart just released a light smile as he raised an arm to stop her.
"Don't worry it's ok." He told her. "Probably thinking of someone else right?"
"I-I guess." Lucy just released a nervous laugh before looking down in embarrassment. 'Who was I thinking about though?' Lucy shook her head, watching the waiter bring her counterpart a cup of coffee as he gave his thanks before taking a drink. Still he made this face after taking his drink that brought a smile to her face.
"Not a fan of coffee?"
"No." He confessed. "But they wouldn't let us just get you collect yourself and take some water without buying something so~"
"Good point." Lucy watched her counterpart dump a bit of milk into his cup before adding spoonful after spoonful of sugar and honey to it. "Still thank you." She told him. "If you hadn't shown up I think something bad might have happened." Her counterpart lowered his cup, stopping himself from taking another drink before looking at Lucy in concern.
"What do you mean?"
"I…" Lucy paused. "I don't really know. I just feel like you stopped something." She shook her head. "Maybe I'm imagining things."
"Maybe, but hey you never know." He muttered as he seemed to look down, think back and grow a bit lost.
He looked so tired at that moment…
"Are… are you ok?"
"Huh?" He muttered as he shook his head coming out of his thoughts. "Yeah sorry, just dealing with some recent stuff." He waved it off, but that exhaustion on his face remained for a moment. "So, you from around her ms…"
"Lucy." She gave him a smile. "And I'm from out of town."
"I guess you could say I'm the same." He told her. "So what brings you here?"
"I came to do a bit of shopping." She smiled reaching for her belt and seemed to pull something off. "I finally lucked out, I was looking everywhere for this and I finally found it." She held it up to show it to him.
"A key?" He stared in confusion.
"This isn't just any key, it's one of the Celestial Spirit Silver Gate Keys! She pointed at the picture present on the key." This ones called Canis Minor, the shop owner said it wasn't very strong but that's ok, it's one I've been looking for for a while." She admitted. "There's two types of Gate Keys, Silver and Gold. The silver ones are kinda common, but the Gold ones that allow you to sum throughout the world."
"And you're searching for them."
"Mh hm." Lucy beamed as she took another drink from her water. "I may not look it but I'm a mage, though I'm not part of any guild yet." Lucy paused as she seemed to realize something. "Oh, a guild is…"
"This girl sure loves to talk, doesn't she?"
Stray just released a light smile as he listened to her explanation on what a guild was. Granted he kind of already had an idea; even if Hades hadn't already taken a minute to explain things to him a bit, he had played plenty of videogames and read enough manga to already get an idea of what they were. Still, he listened, nodding along as he did so and continued drinking his coffee. 'She knows her stuff, that should be a good trait for an aspiring mage.'
"We'll we're entirely self taught and we do pretty good."
"We also never wanted this." Stray thought as Lucy seemed to drift away for a moment.
'Weird…" Lucy thought as she finished her explanation about guilds and thought of one in particular. 'It feels like I've given this explanation before.' Just… to someone else; That pink haired young man she accidentally called out to. 'Who are you… and why do I get the feeling somethings missing?" She glanced at the back of her right hand for a moment before shaking her head. Her counterpart took a minute grabbing his wrist and He popped the joint before rolling it. "So what brings you to Hargeon? Are you looking for someone?"
"Yeah I guess you could say that. Just don't know how to go about finding them." Her counterpart finished his coffee and sighed in relief. "Anyway I should probably go, I gotta try figuring out how to find someone who I don't have a clue where they are." He grabbed an old worn backpack and reached inside. "Good luck in joining that Guild your dreaming of."
"Thanks." Luck smiled as she watched him set a few jewels down before starting to walk off. She stared at the amount he set down and blinked. Forget the coffee, he left enough for a whole meal. Either he was leaving one heck of a tip, or he was expecting her to order something to eat too. Perking up as she turned back to see the redhead at the door. "Wait!" He stopped turning back to look at her as he shot her a look of confusion. "I never got your name."
He gave her this smile, not too handsome but not really mischievous in the slightest. "You can call me Stray."
"Stray?"
"It's a name as good as any." He turned back towards the door. "Catch you later Lucy."
"So if you see her later you gonna end up hitting that?"
"Hm~ no."
"Shame… damn shame."
"Not really." Stray muttered as he continued walking through Hardeon. "Sure she's cute and all, but she looks, what, 16-17 at most?"
"I don't know, you didn't ask her age."
"You never ask a lady her age." Was Strays response as he adjusted his bag and started looking around. "Anyway, we gotta figure out how to either find Hades, Fairy Tail, or Zeref." Stray seemed to drift away in thought as he crossed his arms again. "Who do we look for first…"
"Lucy told us about the guilds, maybe there's like a hub or something where we can find where they're all located."
Stray stopped walking and seemed to think. "That sounds pretty good actually." I mean there's gotta be a hub that authorizes their creation right, and it should keep records of where every ones located."
"Alright then let's look for that."
A decision made Stray turned towards the buildings and started looking around.
"Ah~ I'm so glad my headache is gone!" Lucy beamed as she continued walking down the streets as she stretched. "If I see him again I'll have to thank him properly." She paused for a moment as she started to think back. "Stray huh…" She hummed as she put her hands behind her back. "He seems like a nice guy, though I am curious about what his real name is." She sighed airily as she started to think. "I bet it's something cool like Knight or Heero." She started to chuckle slightly as she continued down the street. "Ah~ it doesn't matter what his name is, he might just be my type." She thought back to his expression for a moment before stopping. "But… Why did he seem so lost for a moment?" She ended up muttering as she started to think. "He didn't look sad just… tired, almost empty." She frowned for a second before looking at her hand for a minute.
She walked around the city for a moment, ended up grabbing a magazine before heading to the park to take a minute to rest her feet and read.
She browsed the pages again before seeming to drift away.
Fairy Tail, her dream guild had caused trouble again. Took out the Devon Thief Family but also destroyed several other houses belonging to the townspeople.
Hearing about the latest news related to Fairy Tail made Lucy want to smile, laugh a bit too but… instead she frowned. "Why do I… feel like I've read this before?" Haring about Fairy Tail's recklessness wasn't too uncommon, there probably wasn't a week that went by without the guild stirring up some kind of trouble. But getting this magazine, reading it in this exact spot finding these pictures of Fairy Tail's Mirajane…
Ever get a sense of deja vu?
That was what Lucy was experiencing right now.
"What is going on?" She lowered her Sorcerer magazine and crossed her arms, leaning back against the bench before pouting. "This is so weird~ it feels like I lived through this day already." She rocked from side to side in thought. "I know I haven't, so what's going on and…" She looked back at the picture of Mirajane in a swimsuit. "Why do I feel like… somethings missing from my life."
"Excuse me." Pausing Lucy looked up, her attention turned to see a figure walking up to her. And that weird sense of deja vu was popping up again. Her heart started to flutter as she stared at the man, but with a random thought she seemed to calm for a moment. Still her counterpart gave her this "cool guy" smile as he approached her.
"Uh yes can I help you?" He seemed to drift away for a moment, his hands disappearing under his cape as his smile faltered for a moment. Like all the swag and charisma he had prepped just drained away.
"I'm sorry to bother you but…" he paused again as he looked at her. "Have we met before?"
That was hands down the oldest and worst pick up line in the book, and Lucy got ready to blow her counterpart off as politely as she could before pausing and stared at his face for a moment.
"I… think so." That deja vu was kicking in again. She asked as she seemed to stare at the man as a pit started to grow in her stomach for some reason. "Do I know you?"
"I believe so…" He muttered. "At least it feels like I know you." He fell silent. "My name is Bora, but you might know me by my title; Salamander."
Nighttime
"Well, that was a bust."
"Yeah." Stray muttered as waked through the streets, his attention not really staring at anything in particular. "Forget a hub station, there's only one magic related place in this town, and that's for buying stuff." Stray muttered as he looked outward to the bay. "Still we learned something."
"Yeah only 10% of the population can use magic in this time period."
Stray nodded his head.
"That means when Hades changed the world, then he must have ended up wiping out the other 90%."
"No wonder he was so exhausted… he committed the largest genocide I've ever read about." He muttered as he leaned against the stone railing of the upper levels of Hargeon. "Still, we'd need to find a more magic populated town if we want to find where Hades or Fairy Tail are…"
"Yeah."
"Natsu. Natsu." Turning his attention elsewhere Stray caught sight of a small talking cat holding its belly as it looked at its owner. "Natsu, I'm hungry."
"Me too Happy." This figure Natsu grumbled as he looked ready to collapse. "I wanna eat something."
"We don't have any money."
"Yeah."
"Did that cat just talk?"
"Yep." Stray put his hand over his own belly as he started to think back. He remembered days in another time, early days when he and the others didn't know how to cook or what was safe to cook. With a whimsical look he approached the pair and drew their attention as he greeted them. "Hey."
"Who are you."
"No one important." He crouched down as he addressed the two. "Two two are hungry right? There's a restaurant I know about not too far from here, I could treat you if you'd like." Well technically Hades would be treating; gave the world-hopping time-traveler what jewels he had since he wasn't going to be needing them anymore.
"Really?" The talking cat beamed, as did the young man as he stared at him like he had just given him the divine blessing.
"THANK YOU!" The younger figure tackled him as Stray yelped as his personal space was invaded.
"H-hey, calm down will ya?" Stray muttered as he lightly patted the younger man's head as the cat hugged his leg.
"Food. Food. Food. Food."
"Least the cat isn't humping our leg like a dog."
"Yeah." Stray muttered as Natsu let go and started shaking his hand with so much enthusiasm it was amazing his arm hadn't come off.
"Thank you thank you, thank you!"
"Don't mention it… I know what its like to go hungry." A squeal caught the trio's attention as they looked elsewhere.
"Look, look! That's the ship! Salamander's ship." A woman exclaimed as her counterpart looked at her.
"Salamander?"
"You don't know about him? He's that great mage that's currently in town."
"That guy again…"
"I heard he's a mage from that famous Fairy Tail guild."
Happy's ears perked, natsu flinched, his eyes shrinking to pins as Stray froze.
"Did she just say…"
"Fairy Tail?" Stray tuned out Natsu, snapping his head towards his attention turned to the pair of women and stepped towards.
"Hey." He didn't mean to sound rude as he stared down the two women. "Did you just say fairy Tail?"
"Ah- yeah? Why?"
"Fairy Tail as in the guild, the one run by Mava… Maca...fuck it that Dreyar guy?"
"Y-yes~?" The woman stepped back as Stray stared down at her before turning his attention to the pier.
"We just got a lead on where to start."
Stray nodded his head slightly.
"We get to that ship we can get someone associated with Fairy Tail, we get to Fairy Tail, we talk to that Dreyar guy, we - hopefully - change the future."
"Hey." He turned to Natsu who seemed to stare at the boat himself. "Sorry but I gotta go catch that boat." He reached for the jewels that Hades had given him. "If you still want some food I'll leave you with some money to-
"No…" Natsu had this look in his eyes as he turned to Happy. "Happy I need to get over there."
"On it!" The cat grew wings, the fucking cat grew wings before hopping on Natsu's back and took to the air.
"Hey!" Natsu looked back as he say Stray staring at him. "You're going after that boat too?"
"Yeah, sorry but Happy can only carry one person at a time."
"Don't worry about it." Stray muttered as he started to float off the ground and took to the air n after Natsu.
"You can fly!?"
"That's cool, Natsu!"
"Yeah that's really cool…"
Stray fought back a smile at the praise. Using telekinesis to perform self-levitation wasn't easy to pull off, but after four years he got the hang of it. "Come on." Stray muttered as he looked out to the bay. "We got a boat to catch."
"Yeah."