Chapter Nine : Dark Fairies
Erza's P.O.V. -
"Levy!" I reached for her, but it was too late.
The girl had random clumps of hair around her scalp, writing all over her body like the doll. She pulled Levy back, her long nails dancing along her throat, threatening to cut.
"A. . . r," she said each letter individually. "My favorite type of prey."
"Give her back!" I growled.
Well...she's basically dead. Might as well leave and move on.
No! She's out friend. We're saving her.
"Mommy," she whispered into Levy's ear. "They're trying to kill me."
"M-Mavis?" Levy whispered.
"If you don't kill them, then they'll kill me," she stroked Levy's face gently. "You don't want that do you?"
Levy shook her head slowly, "B-But they're my friends."
"Levy-san! Don't listen to her!" Hikari shouted. "Don't fall for it!"
The psychotic woman chuckled, "Now to make this more interesting...you see that doll over there? That's what's controlling her. Break it, and the curse is broken."
Though it seemed to easy, I requipped a sword and chucked it at the doll, but it disappeared. I looked around and saw it in Levy's arms.
"Levy…" Mira slowly walked towards her. "Hand over the doll."
"Mira-san," Levy took a step away from Mira, "this is my child!"
Hikari smiled warmly at Levy, "Aww Mavis-chan is so adorable!"
We all froze, but then understood her tactic.
"Isn't she?" Levy rocked the doll back and forth slowly.
"Can I hold her, Levy-san?" Hikari asked slyly. "I'm really good with kids!"
"Oh mommy," the crazy woman spoke softly. "She's trying to hurt me."
"Get back," Levy held out her hand angrily. "I don't want to hurt you, Hikari, but for Mave, I will."
Hikari tried to move her puppet towards Levy, who curled herself around the doll protectively. Levy scribbled something into the air, which we soon found to be lightning. It struck the floor right in front of Hikari, who yelped and retreated back.
"Are you okay?" I asked.
She nodded, "What are we going to do?"
"Kill the doll," Nakina hesitated for a moment before grabbing the hilt of her sword. "Or kill the magic wielder."
"Under no circumstance will we kill anyone other than the doll," Mira said sternly.
Oh Titania, so naive. Do you feel that? That magic crawling from Nakina's sword and Hikari's sword?
Well, what is it?
Must I do all the thinking for you? Feel it. You should be able to recognize it.
I concentrated of the magic ripples flowing through the air. Mira...Levy...and then there was something different. I could feel the enemy's magic flowing through the air. It was dark, evil, and cold. But...it was similar to Nakina and Hikari's.
Do you know what that means?
They use dark magic in their swords.
Bingo.
"Don't you dare use that sword!" I yelled to them.
Startled, Nakina dropped her hand, "Why?"
"You use dark magic in that sword. You could end up killing them!" I explained.
Mira turned to them, "You use dark magic?"
"Don't you?" Nakina asked Mira.
I bit my lip. Though that was true, I know Mira wouldn't kill them. They, on the other hand, were capable of many things.
"Well, yes…" Mira awkwardly agreed. "But I am against killing!"
"Just trust me," Nakina got into a low stance, her hand just barely touching the sword.
In a flash, she was in front of Levy, her sword leaving the sheath. In that moment, a chill moved through the air. It was even darker and colder than our opponent's.
"My my that's one dark fairy," the creeper cackled. "Let's see what you're willing to do for the mission!"
Levy had no time to summon anything, but instead turned to take the hit. Nakina had stopped the sword centimeters from her back. Frustrated, Nakina jumped back.
Hikari turned to me and smiled reassuringly, "Nakina won't go back on her promise."
"O-Okay," I tried to believe her.
"I like you. You're willing to do what's necessary," the woman hissed. "My name is XYZ."
"Release her!" Nakina flew towards XYZ.
She twirled away, "Amazing powers!"
"Levy! Look at me!" Nakina screamed.
Levy turned in her direction, but her eyes were closed.
"Oh darling," XYZ scoffed. "I already know your little trick."
"Why doesn't it-"
XYZ smiled, "You can't harm a blind woman with your magic, silly!"
"That doesn't mean my sword can't find its way into your heart," Nakina glaced in out direction.
All of us were inside of the small house she had taken me to before.
"Do we have your permission to unleash our power?" Nakina asked quickly. "If I do, we can finish this quickly."
"You know, we could help," Mira said. "We're not useless."
"I know," Nakina said apologetically, "but you're emotions are involved. The difference between you guys and us is that you walk in the light. Your emotions are mixed into everything you do. We on the other hand, were trained mercilessly to separate emotion and magic to control it for the better. Plus, this mission was for you guys to see us in action, right? So do I have your permission?"
"You can't hurt Levy," I said. "You can't lay one finger on her."
"I know," she repeated.
I thought about what she said, "And you owe us an explanation later about what you mean by 'merciless training,' okay?"
"Yes yes," she promised.
The next thing I saw was Nakina standing, her back turned to us. Her hands were low, holding the sword perfectly straight. The fingertips of her right hand slowly began to turn pitch black. The spikes of black slowly crawled up her hand until it stopped at her wrist. There was a dark aura flowing from her body.
"What is that?" Mira asked to no one in particular.
"Let's just say, before we became fairies, we were kages (translation : shadows). It's the darkest form of magic," Hikari whispered. "But quite possibly the strongest type."
"Where did you guys learn such magic?" Mira asked.
Hikari kept here eyes on Nakina, "I think it's best to save that for the conversation we are going to have later."
In a blast, Nakina had her normal hand on Levy's shoulder, pushing her aside. Her hand consumed by black magic gripped the baby's face.
"NOO!" Levy screamed and grabbed Nakina's hand, clawing at it.
Nakina didn't respond and yanked the child from her hands.
"Please," Levy was sobbing. "Please give her back! Please please please!"
Nakina set the doll on the floor and raised her sword above it.
"You're a monster!" Levy yelled as she sent a huge block of stone towards Nakina, who merely crushed it with her right hand.
Mira turned away from the pitiful sight, unable to watch. Levy send numerous magical spells, but it was all useless. Finally, she rose from the floor and ran towards Nakina.
"I HATE YOU!" Levy bit at Nakina, clawed at her, and repeatedly hit her. Keeping her promise, Nakina did not lay a single hand on her.
You should kill Levy, Erza.
Shut up.
Look at her. She's a lunatic. Mind as well leave her with the doll.
We won't do that.
And why are you guys just standing here? You must hate her.
No, I am merely trusting in my other teammate and analyzing her problem solving skills.
At the cost of Levy?
I didn't respond.
You're more evil than you think. Leaving Levy to suffer like this and embarrass herself to this point. I mean she's acting like an animal.
That's when Hikari's puppet snuck up behind Nakina and tackled her.
"I'm so sorry, Levy-san," Hikari tried to sooth her. "I'm sorry, but it's just a doll. It's a doll, Levy-san. Don't you trust us?"
Levy attempted to burn Hikari's puppet, but was unsuccessful.
"The ones I take out for missions are made of metal," Hikari explained. "She won't be able to break it in time."
Nakina sent the blade into the doll's head.
XYZ spoke, "Doo do doo my oh my how heartless are you to just kill it like that~"
"It's not real," Nakina twisted the blade until the head ripped off.
"Oh?" the woman chuckled.
The doll that had been there suddenly turned into a real baby. We all froze. Mira gripped her stomach and whirl around from the sight. I averted my eyes to XYZ.
"What-" I began to yell.
She shook her finger at me, "How brutal to murder a real baby~."
Nakina stood over the mangled body, unfazed. She simply yanked out her sword and flicked off some of the blood. She looked up at the woman.
"Your magic spell is broken now. Give up,"
XYZ chuckled creepily, "Oh?"
She pulled out five more dolls, "Are you willing to kill five more children for the sake of your teammate? If you can kill them all, then I'll leave you and your friend. Well they are just the body's of dead babies, but still. That would take a certain type of evil for someone to be able to do this."
"Very well," she walked over to the woman.
Levy was still fighting to break free, screaming hysterically.
Oh? Looks like you got an evil fairy on your team.
"Nakina! Don't do it!" I began to run towards them with Mira.
Before we could make it, Nakina had already sliced her blade through all of their necks. I refused to look down as the thunk of bodies echoed. It was far too loud to have been made by the body of a doll.
XYZ smiled, "I like you. I do hope we meet again."
XYZ disappeared. Levy suddenly stopped fighting Hikari's puppet. Hikari rushed over to Levy.
"Levy-san?" Hikari carefully lifted her puppet off of Levy.
"I-I'm so sorry," Levy was shaking. "I don't know what went over me. What happened?"
Hikari hugged Levy tightly, pressing Levy's face into her shoulder.
"Levy-san," Hikari whispered sadly, "don't look."
"What happened?"
"Just...please don't look," Hikari repeated.
Levy relaxed in Hikari's arms, "O-Okay."
I reached Nakina and shoved her onto the floor, "What did you do!"
"I did everything I promised," she said with a monotone voice.
She isn't wrong. After all, Levy is fine, XYZ wasn't killed, and only the dolls were shredded.
"THEY WERE-" I stopped for Levy's sake. "YOU SAW WHAT THEY WERE!"
"Erza-san," Nakina didn't fight me as I pressed her into the floor. "They weren't alive."
"Does that matter?" I screamed. "Even if they are just corpses, how could you just do that to them?"
"She kills babies, turns them into dolls and hypnotizes mothers into thinking that's their children. Once other people are able to kill the doll, it turns back into the original form, meant to faze her opponents," Nakina said quietly.
Mira pulled me off of Nakina.
"This won't solve anything," Mira moved us away from the bodies.
Nakina stood back up, "Isn't this what you wanted? I didn't kill anyone who was alive, I saved our friend, showed mercy to our enemy-"
"No," I sighed. "No. I don't…it's not even what you did to the dead bodies that makes me mad. It's the fact that you didn't even hesitate to do it! You did it like it was nothing. As if this was another one of your many massacres"
"Well what if it was?" she said.
I slapped her.
Mira gasped, "Erza! That's enough. I understand why you're upset, but…"
She failed to make an excuse for Nakina, who didn't seem bothered by my smack.
Erza Erza Erza. This is all your fault. I mean, it was you who told her to kill the dolls.
I didn't know they were babies.
Correction, bodies of babies. They weren't alive so why does it matter?
It's just sick. She's sick for being able to do that without even being bothered by it.
Perhaps. But in the end, you're happy.
No, I'm not.
Don't lie to me. It's pointless. You're happy that Levy is safe. You're happy that Nakina did it so that you didn't have to. You're happy that you can pretend to be all righteous.
Shut up.
Haha. You're only mad because you know I'm right. In the end, you would've made the same decision.
"I'm sorry," I was the first to speak after the moments of silence.
She sheathed her sword, "It's fine. I'm sorry."
"Don't be…" I looked down. "In the end, we would've done the same."
Mira didn't say anything, but merely nodded in silence. We remained like that, Hikari holding Levy in her arms, Nakina and I looking at one another, coming to an agreement of the situation, and Mira, who continued to nod.
At last you've accepted it.
Accepted what?
You're a dark fairy too.
Mystery P.O.V. -
"Well well, won't you look at that. They've only fought one of my children and they're already showing their ugly side. Isn't that right, darling?"
"Mhm~. I'm surprised by that Nakina one."
"She'll make a fine daughter of mine...maybe that Scarlet haired one too. There's something...evil about her."
"Who should be send next?"
"Send my youngest immortal towards the one with the red headed boy. I think they'll have fun."
"As you wish, father."
"Oh! And I don't want any of them to leave this town under any circumstance. But I don't want any of them dead either, so send out my hounds before the sun sets."
"Hehe~ my my father…you really are the psychotic king."
"Yes, yes I am."