"Erza, are you done yet?"

Erza had the urge to tug at her scarlet locks at the ridiculousness of the question, so much so that she could barely abstain from doing it. Of course, she wasn't done yet.

Ever since the catastrophe that took place at the Baker's fest, the crime rate in Magnolia had flown through the roof. Despite being the most skilled police department in the entirety of Fiore, the cases were unresolved. It would not take anyone much time to figure out that the crimes were carefully orchestrated and set to act in a way that would guarantee a perfect execution. If the term 'perfect crime' didn't exist, then they wouldn't know how to describe it.

The execution left no lead, no matter how many times they looked into it. Devastation had knocked at the doors of the Magnolia police force. The once peaceful town now turned to nothing but a city of panic and mystery. The citizens' trust was wavering more and more with each case file that popped up every day.

"Erza, you do realize you have to eat, don't you? It's wayy past your curfew!" Mirajane scolded, her hand shoving the papers away a bit from Erza's sight.

Anyone could hear the tone of urgency and concern in Mirajane's voice as she spoke. Erza had become dysfunctional, working herself to the bone, not caring to do basic self-care unless someone had forced her. That included eating, showering, and even getting out of her office. Everyone knew the depth of seriousness their beloved deputy held when it came to restoring peace and handling cases, even it meant abstaining from doing anything 'unimportant' until she found a shred of evidence that would lead them to the culprit. But unfortunately, they had little to no luck.

"Mira, you know I have so much paperwork to do. I will eat later." She responded, knowing that there was only half-truth in it. She would skip her dinner again while sifting through the massive files of crimes through the quietest hours of the night. The white-haired woman knew better than to believe Erza's halfhearted words. With no hesitation, she slammed a tray of food on the table, a delicious aroma wafting and tickling Erza's senses.

"Eat now!"

"I am NOT hungry!"

A massive grumbling sound erupted from her stomach, her cheeks immediately stained with a tint similar to her hair. Clearing her throat, she let out a defeated sigh.

"Fine, I will since you insist this much." Erza said in a meek voice.

A small relieved smile could be seen on Mira's face. She placed a comforting hand on her friend's shoulder in reassurance.

"Erza, we all are just as stressed as you are about the instances occurring in our town. But even so, we are more concerned about you. Although our job to protect our town is important and it was our oath to forever protect it with everything we have got, you shouldn't indulge in this so much that you lose sight of yourself. You need to take care of yourself if you want to be cracking the case. You surely don't want Chief Makarov to be worried, do you?" Mira said in a very soft tone.

Erza finally saw what worried Mira so much. Her not taking care of herself wasn't only taking a toll on herself but all of her comrades. She would often see Lucy bring up some of her handmade cookies and leave them on her desk or Natsu bringing her favorite strawberry cheesecake only for it to end up being kept in the refrigerator, untouched. It honestly surprised her now, thinking about how she had managed to avoid immersing in her guilty pleasure: strawberry cheesecake. Erza felt the first bit of emotions that she had in weeks: gratitude.

So she went ahead and dug out a spoonful of the spongy cake, which immediately made Mira's face light up. Upon meeting her tongue, the cake dissipated, spreading the moist deliciousness sparking all in her mouth. There was one thing to be noted for sure, Mira was one perfectionist of a cook and a baker.

Mira was just about to head out the door when Erza mumbled, "Thanks for that, Mira." She turned around with a grin and replied, "Just eat the cake. You can express your gratitude to me by taking care of yourself. You are a human, Erza. Not a machine." With that, the silver-haired woman left the room, making Erza ponder on what her priorities stand.

The night air was surprisingly cooler than usual. It was quiet of course, too quiet for her liking though. Ever since the crimes had started, people's paranoia went out the roof. That explains the ghostly empty streets of Magnolia. It seemed as if even the crickets had stopped singing their little melody. But this night wasn't for her to dwell on the case.

Erza had finally decided to take a stroll in nature and connect with herself. Although it was staggeringly hard to not wonder about the case at hand, Erza managed to push those thoughts at the very back of her mind. The cool air caressed her thick long scarlet tresses gently as if Mother Nature herself was comforting the tired woman. She closed her eyes for just a mere second, letting her mind rest. Being completely unaware of the unknown pair of eyes watching her every move intently with a tinge of curiosity, her conscience was finally one with her sensations.

A pair of brown eyes bore into Erza from within the shadows. Mystogan eyed the woman with an interest. Though most of his missions included spying on the target, this was the first time he was intrigued. The redhead was a force to be reckoned with, after all. She was known in Fiore as one of the most fearsome and loyal police officers out there and she did every job just as perfect to live up to that honor. But Mystogan felt that her reputation wasn't the thing to be stressed on as the source of interest. He had a feeling that he had met her before, he just couldn't put his finger on it. Then again he could not harvest any memory of that happening in his mind. His memory of his childhood wasn't anything to count on either. He had little to no memories of it after all. However, he just wasn't going to let his thoughts divert him from the mission at hand.

"Eliminate Erza Scarlet..."

Those words rang in his ears for what seemed like an eternity. He was never the clueless type. Whenever he was told to eliminate someone, he assassinated his target without leaving a single trace of evidence. It was his secret art, his specialty. Though this specific mission was one of the hundreds or even thousands of missions he had gotten, he wasn't instructed to assassinate her. After all, she was the Erza Scarlet, a worthy opponent. She had honed herself to perfection in barehand combat, gunmanship, swordsmanship, Jujutsu, archery, and many more other skills. An attempt of assassinating her would be far too risky for their mission. It was then that a Plan B was set.

"Plan B: Step 1: Set fear in Magnolia. Step 2: Befriend Erza Scarlet. Step 3: Extract secret information from her. Step 4: Eliminate possible threats or witnesses. Step 5: Eliminating Erza Scarlet and then her entire department."

Now that plan would be a real rollercoaster ride to follow through, wouldn't it?

"Who are you exactly, Erza Scarlet?" Mystogan mumbled, his gaze still stuck to her figure standing under the moonlit sky.

One thing was for sure, his curiosity would not go away that easily.

A/N: To all who are wondering why the update was so late, my account ran into some problems. However, have no worries, it is solved. The next update will be as soon as possible and it will hopefully be way bigger in word count too. Signing off - yours truly