Chapter 3: A kidnapping

"If it's not one thing its another," Mystogan grumbled, pulling back from the bush they were peaking through.

Riku gave him a sideways glance. "Honestly, you should see this as ideal. Last time we had to fight a monster. This time it's just a bunch of beach-goers." He nodded to the entry to the public beach.

"Excellent point," Mystogan conceded. "Go tell them to leave."

"Me?" Riku gasped looking back at the crowd. "And ruin their vacation? Put them to sleep, then we won't have to deal with them."

"You always want to put everyone to sleep," Mystogan scolded. "You're never going to meet anyone that way."

"Thanks, mom," Riku said rolling his eyes. "We have to do something, the anima could appear any moment and then we're all in more trouble."

"I've got it," Mystogan said, snapping his finger. "We'll do it the Fairy Tail way!"

Riku was about to ask Mystogan what that meant, but was cut off by Mystogan hoisting him up with surprising ease and throwing him in a long arch through the air and into the center of the crowded beach area, leading Riku's question to turn from its intended "what do you mean" into "what do you me- AAAAHHHH!"

The beach goers circled around him concerned, but Riku jumped up glaring at the bushes. "You asshole! What's the big idea?"

"Are you alright, son," an elderly man asked, looking from Riku to the bushes and back to Riku as if he thought the fall might have injured his head as well as his back.

Mystogan didn't reply. Instead purple waves began to appear on the ground beneath the bush, rushing towards Riku and attempting to swallow him. For the love of the guild, Riku thought annoyed. He tossed his cloak to the side. If Mystogan wanted to fight then he was gonna get a fight. First of all, Riku was determined to get the coward out of the bushes.

Riku leaped away from the purple waves surrounding him and called "dark dragon roar," sending the dark flames directly at the bush-line where the purple waves were coming from. Mystogan moved from the bush, using one staff to pause the roar in the air. It hovered there spiraling dark flames until it disappeared entirely with a popping sound.

"Poor form," Mystogan observed.

The people on the beach gasped. One woman called, "What's going on?"

"What's wrong is he's pissing me off," snapped Riku through gritted teeth. With a wave of his second staff, the dark energy appeared just above Mystogan and shot right back towards Riku.

"Run, they're crazy," called another beach-goer, this time a man. The beach goers rushed around, gathering their things and disappearing from the shores.

"Dark claw," Riku yelled, slashing his hand through the air. A claw of magic appeared before him, imitating his movement and slashing the dark energy in half. Riku could hear his heart pumping in his ears. He could tell the beach was clear now, which meant he could stop this fight, but the pounding in his ears pushed him onward. He reached for the sword on his back "Dark dragon slash!"

A twister made of dark energy released from the sword, rushing towards Mystogan, whose eyes widened with surprise. That was a new trick. He reached for his third staff, moving it into three rapid rune figures, but it had no effect. The twister was still headed his way. He leaped out of the way just in time and charged at Riku, tackling him as Riku moved his sword up to slash again. They both landed on the sand, Mystogan on top of Riku, one hand pinning Riku's to the sand, the other knocked Riku hard on the forehead.

"What's the big idea bringing a sword to a magic fight," Mystogan snapped. "You almost hit me with a twister!"

"Get off of me you-" Riku said, releasing a string of creative curse word combinations. Mystogan flicked Riku in the forehead.

"We were just trying to clear the beach by being rowdy, not kill each other, you idiot," Mystogan said, moving off of Riku, still eyeing the sword.

Riku sat up, narrowing his eyes at his partner. "You could have just told me the plan, you know."

Mystogan shrugged. "You're a bad actor. It was better if you didn't know. I knew I could handle you, but that sword twister surprised me."

Riku couldn't help but smirk with pride.

"Don't look so smug," Mystogan chuckled, standing and stretching. He looked at the sky, scanning for the sign he always found when an anima was suppose to appear. A change in energy. A suspicious quiet. There was always a sign. He nodded, though Riku didn't know the exact sign he'd received. He placed each staff in a large circle, then nodded to Riku. Riku stood and tucked his sword back in its place before moving to the staff with a large eye on it. Mystogan wrapped his hand around the staff topped by a fan.

Riku closed his eyes and focused his energy into the staff, which lit faintly with a dark glow. After gathering in strength, the glow shot to the next staff connecting it, then the next, until it had created a circle across the staffs. Mystogan did the same, sending a purple glow of energy from on staff to the next until two magic circles were formed, one on top of the other. Riku could feel the staff vibrating beneath his hand, but he stayed focused. The circles rotated once- twice- before releasing a stream of purple and black energy straight into the sky. It seemed to hit something invisible there, spreading out into new energy circles and the staves shuddered in response. A few minutes more, and the shudders ceased entirely. Mystogan pulled his staff from the ground, cutting both of the circles off as Riku fell back onto the sand with a tired release of breath.

"It always takes a lot out of me," Riku yawned. "No matter how many times we do it."

"Agreed. Let's stay the night in town. There should be some affordable places near by. Let's split up to investigate and meet back here in one hour with the result."

It didn't take Riku that long to find an affordable inn and put their names on a room. He used his extra time to wander around the town, peering in at the assortment of food as his belly gave him talkative responses. After settling on some street food, he walked about casually window shopping, chewing his food in thought.

He touched the hilt of his own sword absentmindedly. She commissioned a whole sword with the thought to make it complement his powers, the least he could do was find something half as special. But the problem was, Riku wasn't really sure what Erza, or really any girl, would like the most. Cake or some kind of sweet was usually his go to, but he didn't want to go for the usual gift.

"What to get, what to get," he mumbled to himself, peering into an armor shop. Sure, armor was nice, but Erza had lots of that and sizing would be an issue without her there to try it on. Riku felt heat rush to his face and he shook his head quickly before any dirty thoughts might attempt to form. Besides, he considered, armor wasn't nice enough for a guild day gift.

A display window of jewelry caught his eye. She didn't wear jewelry much, but Riku had seen Erza dress up once or twice. She liked to do it. Riku considered a small necklace with a long gold chain, pearls spaced across its chain. In the center was a teardrop shaped green jewel. A contender, for sure.

The door rang as he entered the shop.

"Afternoon! How can I help you?"

"Oh,uh," Riku looked around the sparkling shop, suddenly very aware that he hadn't showered since Magnolia and that he was still covered in sand from his fight with Mystogan earlier. "How much is this necklace in the window? With the pearls?"

"Seventy-thousand jewels."

Riku nearly choked on the air he inhaled. "S-s-seventy-thousand," he spluttered. "Is that normal?"

The shopkeeper nodded, obviously not surprised by his reaction. "Its a rare jewel we don't get often here, but, if you'd like to look around I'm sure you could find something just as pretty for less."

Riku nodded moving over to the far wall of sparkling necklaces and earrings, his heart still recovering from the shock. Well, I guess these are a bit more manageable, he assured himself looking over the newer prices. He moved down an aisle. The door rang as a new customer entered, obviously a regular from the greeting the clerk gave them, though Riku couldn't see them from his new position.

"What are we looking for today," asked the shopkeeper.

"Did you get in those money clips we were discussing last week," asked the gruff customer's voice. "I'm thinking of heading to the casino tonight with our new clients and would love to show off a bit. Show them their money is in good hands and make them hungry to invest with us."

Riku peered closer at a silver chained necklace with a blue jewel in the center. It was a smaller jewel, but it almost seemed to glow and the price was far more reasonable at one thousand jewel. Still pretty steep, but, I'll just have to dip into my savings a bit. Not like I buy much anyway.

"Ah, yes they came in this morning," the clerk responded. There was the sound of opening drawers. "But I'm not sure you'd want to go to the casino or any area of the resort after what happened last night. You alright back there?"

Riku peaked around the aisle. "Erm, yes," he responded. "Can I get this blue one?"

"Of course," the clerk said cheerfully. The clerk moved around the counter, leaving the heavyset customer to look over the money clips. Riku followed the clerk to the counter, noticing that the other customer had a large bushy mustache.

"What happened last night," the gruff customer asked as if Riku hadn't interrupted them at all.

"I'm not completely sure but apparently there was some kind of fight between mages. The whole place has been crawling with magic council officers all day."

"You don't say," the man replied putting down one money clip and picking up another, this one diamond studded and in the shape of a heart.

"Marge stopped by earlier and said the officers were trying to get all the people out. Apparently they were trapped inside playing cards. Some guild issues, I suppose," the clerk said. Then they turned to Riku suddenly and said, "one thousand jewel. Would you like me to wrap it up?"

Riku jumped in surprise. He'd been listening intently to the conversation. "Yes please." The clerk turned to begin wrapping it and Riku chewed the inside of his cheek.

"Say," he said as casually as he could, "did they say what guilds the issue was with?"

"Well, it takes two to tango," the clerk said double knotting the bow on the box and putting it carefully in a small bag. "But I only know that that guild from Magnolia, Fairy Tail, was involved."

"Thanks," Riku said taking the bag and putting it into his cloak pocket. He turned hurriedly and rushed from the store, barely even hearing the clerk call after him to have a good day as he rushed towards the Akane resort.

Mystogan was already there when Riku arrived out of breath, just far enough to be out of sight from the busy magic council, but close enough to get a good look at the movement in and out of the casino doors.

"Honestly, I figured you were already here after you didn't show up at our meeting place," Mystogan said as Riku caught his breath. Riku shook his head.

"What have you heard?"

"Not much," Mystogan said crossing his arms. "Two sets of mages, four on their side, five on ours. Not much of a fight, seems more like a surprise attack. No casualties to speak of, unless you count the people trapped in cards, but I'm sure they'll figure it out."

"You can cancel that magic, can't you?"

Mystogan gave him a sideways, knowing look. "I figure you'd want to get some information first. People are more friendly when you can offer them help." He held out one of his staffs and Riku took it. "I think the lead of the investigation is at the entry way, I'll wait here until you've finished."

Sure enough as Riku approached the entrance hen saw an official looking figure surveying the action. The tall blue-haired figure stood dressed in all white except for the black trim of his coat, his arms were crossed. Riku slowed and came to a stop. Something about this man was eerily familiar. It tickled Riku's brain uncomfortably, but he shook it away. He had to focus.

"Excuse me, I think I can help," Riku began, but he came to a full stop, mouth dropping open as the official turned completely to face him, revealing a young man with a familiar red tattoo above and under his right eye. "J-Jellal?"

The official smiled kindly at Riku. "No, I'm Siegrain of the magic council. Do you know my brother?"

Riku stared at the man and beyond his face Riku could see that little blue haired boy from the island, leading his friends and Erza to be brave in the face of the slave drivers and cult members. Jellal had never mentioned a brother. Then again, no one had talked much about their lives before they had been kidnapped and taken to the island. Only Simon ever mentioned anything- a sister he hoped to see again one day. Riku had almost forgotten that.

"My apologies for startling you," Siegrain said. "Let's not discuss the past. You said you could assist us? You're with Fairy Tail, I suppose."

"Y-yes," Riku said. "Can you tell me what we know?"

Siegrain gave Riku a once-over, before glancing over his shoulder, as if to make sure no other officials were nearby. Then his face broke into a slight smile. "Well, if anyone could get these people out of the cards I'm sure it's someone from Fairy Tail. When we arrived this morning we found every person on the premise stuck in cards and unable to be released. We also found evidence of a fight, though witnesses said it was short and no one was harmed. Apparently the attackers were there for Erza Scarlet to take her to, what they referred to, as the Tower of Heaven. I believe it is an R-system thought to be destroyed by the Council."

Riku felt as if his heart had stopped. "They took her there?"

Siegrain nodded. "I'm afraid so. You can see my frustration with dawdling here, since time is of the essence. I would appreciate it if you would assist us in releasing these innocent people so I can report to the council on this urgent issue. The existence of an R-system is obviously of the utmost importance."

"You know where it is?"

"I believe so. It should be just off the coast to the south-west of here," Siegrain replied, "at least that's what the evidence I've collected says."

"I see," Riku said. He lifted the staff and brought it down hard to the ground, making a rune appear beneath it. Behind them there were numerous popping sounds, followed by noises of surprise as the card spell was canceled, releasing the people trapped within. Riku paid no mind to this. He turned quickly, rushing off with his mind moving a mile a minute. People had come from the island to attack Fairy Tail, they had come for Erza, and they had taken her. The rest of her team had gone, Riku assumed, to follow them to the island. The island which was, according to the magic council, south-west of Akane Beach. But why, he thought. Why Erza? Why are there still people on the island? Why is the system still there?

Riku rushed off towards Mystogan, trying to decipher the flood of information he'd just received and what his next plan of action should be. In his haste to move away he missed the sly smirk that pulled on Siegrain's lips, a smile that didn't seem to fully reach his cold eyes which followed Riku's retreat.

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