The Blue Pheasant Flies On

Chapter 3: Daughters

Ur led Gray and Lyon into the latest town on their way to the train station. Their journey had led them west across the northern continent and they planned to catch a train at their earliest convenience. Unfortunately, Ur's hut had been located far out of the way of any major or minor train tracks and most methods of travel other than walking were useless in the deep snow. There were still at least three inches of snow covering everything, but it was better than the six-inch minimum they were used to. As the trio made their way through town, Ur noticed an inn on the main road and led her students over to it.

They opened the door and were instantly blasted with a wave of heat that began to melt the snow stuck to their heavy clothes. A cry of "Welcome!" greeted them. A quick look around showed that the inn was apparently a popular gathering place for the town. People were gathered over by the bar and placed by the fire to keep warm. They all glanced up when they noticed people walk in and gave them a once over. Seemingly finding nothing of interest, the patrons turned back to their drinks and groups.

Ur walked over to the woman that had greeted them, a plump and older lady that was behind the bar. She gave her a smile before speaking, "Hello, we're travelers passing through and are looking for a place to stay. Do you have any rooms available?"

The woman nodded and Ur paid her for two rooms. She gave the woman her first name and she seemed to perk up, "You wouldn't happen to be Ur Milkovich, would you?"

"Yes," Ur answered. She gestured to Gray and Lyon, "I'm on a trip with my students to see more of the world."

The woman grabbed her hand, "Wait right here," she told her before signaling to one of the servers. After relaying some instructions, the server nodded and left the inn. The woman turned back to Ur, "I'm sorry, but there's a couple that would like to speak to a mage of your reputation about a very important matter. Could you wait for them?"

"Sure," The trio was led over to a relatively private table and given drinks while they waited. Ur sat with her back to the wall and a clear view of the door. It seemed like a quiet town, but she wasn't willing to trust appearances after hearing that someone was looking for her. She turned to Gray, "Go and get Kuzan. Tell him what's going on."

Gray nodded and slipped out of the inn to grab their tall companion. He was waiting on the outskirts of town to avoid drawing attention. His height and scars tended to unnerve people and he had started hanging back until after they had already paid for their rooms after a particularly frightened innkeeper had refused their patronage.

A few minutes later the server came back and led a young couple over to Ur's table. The man had spiky dark hair and equally dark eyes with stubble across his face. The woman had short light brown hair and blue eyes. Both of them looked ragged and had noticeable bags under their eyes. At the sight of Ur their faces brightened, and the man leaned across the table to grab her hands, "Please help us find our daughter!" he begged before she had a chance to react.

Ur was startled by his outburst and looked around to see if anyone had noticed. The inn patrons had glanced up from their spots briefly, but then went back to what they were doing with some mumbled words. From what she could tell this wasn't a new development. She reached out and removed his hands from hers. "Calm down, then tell me what happened to your daughter," she told him calmly. The second she discovered that they needed help to find their daughter she was committed to the job. Memories of Ultear and her overabundant magical power that had led to her death flashed through her mind. She would do whatever was in her power to prevent someone else from going through that pain.

Before the man could speak, the inn doors opened to announce Gray's return with Kuzan. The tall man ducked so that he could fit through the door and gave the room a customary once over. Everything seemed normal. People were gawking, but no one had made any hostile movements or tried to blend into their seats. He quickly located Ur's table and the two people he didn't recognize. Ur gave him a nearly unnoticeable shake of her head and he relaxed slightly. They weren't a threat. It seemed like he hadn't needed to use Soru after all.

Kuzan sat down at Ur's table uncomfortably and she introduced him, "This is Kuzan, my traveling companion. He'll be helping me find your daughter." The couple didn't lose their wary looks but were now much more open to the man's presence. A quick look from Ur told Kuzan that she would fill him in later before she turned back to the pair. "Now, about your daughter?"

They looked back to her and the man coughed in embarrassment at being caught staring. "Right. My name is Popo Leaf and this is my wife, Nana. Our daughter Nano was kidnapped by the mage guild Chrono Noise several days ago. We tried to go to the authorities, but they threatened to hurt her if we did," Popo's hands clenched until his knuckles went white. "Even if we did, Chrono Noise is a legal guild and it would take days for a representative from the Council to reach here and investigate." Nana reached across to grab his hand and he composed himself before continuing, "You're supposed to be a really strong mage, on par with the Ten Wizard Saints, right?" Popo bowed his head, "Please save our daughter. We're begging you."

Ur put her hand on his shoulder and got him to look at her, "Of course we'll save your daughter. Do you have a picture of her?"

Nana nodded and reached into her pocket before bringing out a photo. It showed her and her husband with a young girl that had light brown hair and dark eyes. "This is the most recent picture we have."

The four mages studied the picture while Kuzan asked more questions, "Why would a mage guild kidnap your daughter?" It didn't make much sense to just snatch a random child off the streets unless it was for a ransom. Even then, the pair in front of him didn't look like they were rich and neither of them had said anything about a ransom.

"Nano is a natural magic user. We looked it up and her magic is called Egg Knock. It lets her speed up the time inside an egg and we use it to raise some chickens," Nana said. "That's why Chrono Noise took her."

The tall man hummed in thought. They must have found one hell of an egg if they were willing to kidnap a little girl just to hatch it. But it seemed foolish to go as far as kidnapping if one of their members could have just learned the magic themselves. Either they had already known about Nano when they found the egg, or it was just easier to hunt down a user of Egg Knock Magic than to find a way to learn how to use it. It didn't sound very useful for combat, which seemed to be what the mage guilds specialized in.

"Do you have any idea where their guild is?" Ur asked after returning the picture.

Popo nodded, "Their guild is set up about a two-day journey into the forest to the east of here. I can point it out on a map," Ur gave him their map and he circled a portion of the forest. "There. That's where they've taken Nano."

Ur rolled up the map. "Okay. It's too late to start out now, but tomorrow morning we'll set out to bring back your daughter," she declared.

Popo and Nana began to tear up as they grabbed Ur's hands again, "We can't thank you enough. If there's anything we can do to repay you, please tell us."

Ur gave them a soft smile, "It's my pleasure to reunite a family. If you want to repay me just give Nano a big hug when you see her." The couple continued to thank Ur and her associates and insisted on paying for their food for the night. Ur eventually relented and they left after dinner.

Later that night, after Gray and Lyon had fallen asleep, Ur knocked on Kuzan's door. He told her to come in and didn't give any sign of surprise that it was her. Ur just chocked it up to the Sensing Magic he had mentioned earlier.

"You're up late," Kuzan remarked.

"There was something that I wanted to talk to you about," she admitted.

"About the job?"

Ur nodded, "I hope I didn't offend you by taking it without asking if you wanted to help."

Kuzan shook his head, "I agree with your decision," his eyes hardened. "For someone to kidnap a child like that is inhuman."

"There's something else. I want you to let me take care of Chrono Noise by myself," Ur requested. Kuzan raised an eyebrow in surprise and she elaborated, "I want to use this chance to prove myself to Lyon again. Show that I'm still strong and get him to stop hounding you about training."

Kuzan hummed in acknowledgement. Even after he had told the kid off, Lyon continued to badger him for training. He wasn't obvious about it, only approaching Kuzan when Ur wasn't around and asking for things like tips on how to make his ice stronger or cast faster. Kuzan had taken to parroting the things he heard Ur tell Lyon and Gray during their regular training or just ignoring the kid, but all it did was make him frustrated. It would be good for him to see his master in action again. From what Ur told him, Deliora was the first major fight that Lyon or Gray had seen Ur in and it didn't exactly create a glowing review for the Ice-Make master.

"It's also about your daughter, isn't it?" Kuzan softly asked. Ur stiffened and pursed her lips until they looked like a line on her face but nodded. Kuzan sighed softly, he had suspected as much when he heard about the job. Ur had talked about her daughter, Urtear, exactly once and it had been when he asked about the clothes in the chest she had insisted on bringing along. He had accidently walked in on her holding one of the shirts and she had heard him before he could back out. All she had told him was that she had died young and that she didn't want to talk about it. He had gotten the rest of the details about Urtear's death from Gray.

"I know that it's foolish, but I want to help make up for my mistakes. This time I want to be able to save that little girl from death and those parents from the pain of losing their child," Ur said in a whisper. Her hands were shaking. "At the very least, I want them to have the closure of burying the body."

Kuzan's hand landed on her shoulder, startling her out of the depression she was entering. "I don't think that that's foolish at all. Everyone makes mistakes, it's how you deal with those mistakes that's important," he smiled at her. "What happened to Urtear was beyond your control, but I can't think of a better way to make up for it than preventing it from happening to others." Kuzan didn't really know where Ur was coming from. He had never had kids nor an apprentice or student he got close enough to that he had been able to see as a surrogate. But he had known plenty of marines that had and lost their children. It was always hard on them and it had ended up changing more than a few of them radically. Either they left the Marines or found a way to distract themselves from the pain. There were very few that were ever able to bounce back from it and move on like Ur had. Even Vice-Admiral Garp, one of Kuzan's personal heroes, hadn't taken the death of his adopted grandson, Ace, easily and ended up retiring after his death.

"Thank you, Kuzan," Ur said while giving him a crooked smile. Talking about Urtear was always hard for her and it didn't help that she made it a point to avoid the problem instead of trying to find a better way to deal with it. Gray and Lyon were great kids, but they couldn't fill that hole in her heart. Talking about it with Kuzan had helped a little. She hadn't known him for long, but the older man had a confidence about him that spoke of wisdom and life experience that made her feel more at ease. Ur shook her head slightly, "I'll be going back to my room. Thank you again and I'm sorry if I disturbed you."

"Anytime, Ur. It's the least I can do to repay you for helping me."

"I think that debt has been cleared already," she replied with a tap against her prosthetic leg. "Good night, Kuzan."

"Good night, Ur."

It had taken them two days, but the four ice mages had managed to find their way to the Chrono Noise Guild thanks to Popo's directions. They were currently scouting out the area to see if there was a way in other than just kicking in the front door. It wouldn't do if Nano was taken hostage or they were surprised and the guild turned out to be filled with a bunch of mages that only used Fire Magic.

The guild was made of three different layers and seemed to be armed with cannons on the second layer. They couldn't see any guards by them, but it would be foolish to assume that they were unmanned. Other than that, there was only one entrance into the guild that also appeared to be unguarded. Either the master of Chrono Noise was an overconfident idiot or he had some hidden traps around the entrance. Kuzan was going to lean to the latter option.

They ducked back behind the hill they were using for cover and Ur outlined her plan, "Kuzan will freeze the outer cannons and I'll take care of any traps by the entrance. Gray, Lyon, you two are to stay back—no arguing. We aren't sure how strong these guys are and I'm not going to let you two risk your lives until I'm sure that you'll be fine."

The two boys grumbled but appeared to be listening to their master. Kuzan nodded his acceptance of the plan and disappeared with a burst of Soru. He wasn't sure how strong his powers were now that they had been converted to magic, but he was still confident that he could have flash frozen the entire guild at once. However, it was Ur's show and she wanted to impress her wayward student. Also, it would be pretty embarrassing to attempt to freeze the guild and find out that he couldn't do it without draining all of his magic like with Deliora.

Ur waited until Kuzan began to freeze the cannons before heading down towards the guild's entrance. She cautiously approached and confirmed that there were no guards on lookout. With a wave of her hands the entrance tunnel was swiftly coated in a layer of ice. Any traps that had been set were now neutralized. Ur gave the signal and Gray and Lyon followed her down. They lined up behind her and the trio entered the guild.

They quickly learned that the guild itself was a maze of hallways that seemed to go on forever. Surprisingly, they didn't encounter any guild members while they were wandering. Ur would have preferred them to run into someone by now so they could figure out how to get around this labyrinth they called a guild. Eventually they made their way to a large center chamber that had a giant black sphere in the middle of it. "Holy shit," Gray swore in awe. Ur absently smacked his head for his language even though she agreed with him. That thing was enormous.

Suddenly the sphere began to bulge and the three mages dropped into ready stances. Nothing happened and they slowly inched around the sphere to see a large group of men standing on the other side and Nano kneeling in front of the sphere with a beam of white magic shooting out of her hands. Ur quickly made the connection between Nano's magic and the large black egg and prepped her magic. "Gray, Lyon, get Nano out of here!" she ordered before sending out a wave of ice that froze the Chrono Noise members to the floor and covered them up to their necks.

One mage managed to avoid Ur's attack. He jumped out of the way and landed outside of her attack's range. He was an extremely short man who was balanced on top of two stilts and dressed in a strange jumpsuit that had a target in the middle of it, a large disc around his neck, and a tall hat that covered his entire head. The man seemed to be divided down the middle with black hair and a black eye on the right side and white hair and a light blue eye on the left side.

"You bitch! Do you have any idea who you're challenging?!" the short man yelled. "I am the master of this guild, Nez Booms. We've spent so much time hatching this devil's egg and you're wasting more of it!" He punctuated his words by a barrage of orbs that surrounded Ur, "Full Panorama Bombs!"

The orbs exploded simultaneously and engulfed Ur in a cloud of smoke and flames. Nez smirked at the sight, but the smile was wiped from his face when the smoke cleared and revealed Ur standing unharmed behind her flower-shaped shield. His eyes narrowed in anger and he sent forth another wave of bombs that Ur jumped over this time. Nez took the chance to launch himself at Ur stilt-ends first.

Ur caught the end of the stilt with a raised brow and then froze the stilts. Nez jumped off the stilts before he froze as well and smiled at Ur, "Bomb Stamp."

A mark on Ur's hand went "tick, tock" before exploding. Nez's smile was once again premature as the smoke cleared again and he saw Ur shaking her hand in irritation. "Damn, that stings," Ur cursed. Little bastard had a mean magic. Actually, now that she saw him without the stilts she sniggered at him. "I think you're shorter than my youngest student," she told him.

Her words had the desired effect. Nez began to scream and curse at her and gathered up his magic to unleash another wave of bombs. Before he got the chance, Ur grabbed him by the head and froze him solid. All of the mages stared at her in shock. Their master had just been taken down as if he was a child by this random woman that had just waltzed in like she owned the place. Ur looked down at Nez in confusion and disappointment, "Is that really it? Aren't you supposed to be a guild master?" She knew that she was stronger than the average mage, but, damn, that was just pathetic. She'd be willing to bet that Gray or Lyon could have handled him single handily.

With a shrug of her shoulders she dropped the frozen mage and called out to her students, "Lyon, Gray, never mind. I took care of them all."

The students and child they were supposed to rescue stuck their heads out from behind the egg. They hadn't actually managed to get to one of the doorways yet, Ur had taken Nez and his guild members down too quickly. Gray and Nano were looking at Ur with stars in their eyes. "Wow, you're so strong and cool, Mage-sama," Nano gushed at Ur.

"That was amazing, Sensei!" Gray agreed.

Ur smiled at both of them and looked over at Lyon. The boy squirmed under her gaze. "I guess that was pretty great," he eventually mumbled.

Ur smiled at him as well. It wasn't much, but it was better than nothing. Lyon was still going to be a work in progress it seemed.

"So, what are we going to do about this?" Kuzan's voice called out. They looked over and found him standing in front of the egg. "What could even lay an egg this big?"

"Um, Nez called it a devil's egg," Nano hesitantly offered. The new guy was huge and slightly scary, but her saviors seemed to know and trust him.

"Arara, is that so?" he muttered before stretching his hand out to touch the egg. "We can't have it hatching then, can we?" Ice quickly spread out from Kuzan's hand and covered the entire egg. With his other hand he punched the egg and shattered it into a jumbled bunch of ice shards.

"Well that's one way to do it," Ur muttered to herself before going over to Nano and crouching down. "Hello, Nano-chan. My name's Ur. Are you hurt?"

"No. How do you know my name?" she suspiciously asked. They might have saved her, but that didn't mean that they were there to rescue her. The last week as a prisoner hadn't exactly inclined her to believe the best in random strangers.

"Your mom and dad sent us to save you. Nana and Popo from the nearby Cyclamen Town," Ur told her.

A smile broke across Nano's face and she gave Ur a big hug. "Thank you, thank you, thank you," the little girl sobbed into Ur's shirt.

The ice mage was shocked at first, then relaxed and returned her hug, "It's okay now. You're going back home."

Around her, the three males shuffled awkwardly. Kuzan grabbed Lyon and Gray and they went around to free the mages from the ground so they could take them back into town. Gray made a large prison cart out of ice and they threw all the mages into it. Lyon made a pair of horses and the ice users began the trek back into town.

They made quite the sight walking back into town. Four strangers that had been in the town for less than a day bringing in the local guild in a horse drawn prison cart that was an ice sculpture brought to life. At the front of their group was Nano riding on one of the horses. As soon as they reached the town she scrambled down and ran into town and made her way to her house. Ur followed her while the others went to inquire where to put the defeated Chrono Noise.

In her rush to get to her house, Nano tripped over something hidden under the snow and face planted into the ground. Before Ur could help her up, the little girl jumped to her feet and continued running. She reached her front door and started pounding on it while calling for her parents. The door was quickly opened and Nana and Popo gasped at the sight of their little girl. Strong arms enveloped Nano and she was pulled into the familiar and comforting warmth of her parents' embrace. The reunited family cried in happiness while Ur watched, unwilling to interrupt their moment. When they had finally calmed down some, Popo turned to Ur. "Thank you. Thank you so much. You brought back our little girl," he told her with tears in his eyes, which was soon echoed by his wife and daughter.

Ur just smiled. "It was a pleasure," she replied. She knelt down before Nano, "Now, be a good girl for mommy and daddy, okay? Don't let any more bad men take you away or I'll have to come back and beat them up again."

Nano nodded vigorously, "Yeah. Thanks again, Ur-san."

Ur smiled at the little girl and walked away with a wave over her shoulder. Once they were out of sight she found a bench to sit down on. The tears she had held back throughout the reunion began to trickle out. Images of a little girl with dark purple hair the same shade of her own that looked so much like her. That little girl catching a fever that doctors couldn't cure. The people that told her that they could save her daughter telling her that they had failed and the body was too horrible to look at, no matter how much she begged or threatened them. The tears began to flow faster and her back heaved with silent sobs. The world wasn't a fair place, yet she couldn't help but to hate that it wasn't and wish that fate or luck or whatever the hell was in charge of the world would have made it so a stranger with just what she needed to save her daughter had appeared like she had for the Leaf family.

That was how Kuzan found her over an hour later. Tear-stained and red-eyed on a bench in the middle of the snow-filled town. "Ur," She didn't respond. "Ur, we've been looking for you," Still nothing. Kuzan sighed and reached a hand down to her, "Come on, Ur. Your kids are starting to worry about where you went."

They weren't her kids, not really. For all that she would say to anyone that said otherwise, inside she knew that they were a poor replacement for Urtear. But at the same time, they were all she had and she was all they had, brought together by tragedy and loss. No one had appeared to save her, but maybe that was so she could appear to save others. Ur wiped the back of her hand over her face to rid herself of any remaining tears and grabbed Kuzan's hand. The large man hauled her to her feet with an easy motion and she straightened her back. She motioned to Kuzan, "Lead the way."

The older man rolled his eyes at her before he began walking. While following him, she looked down at his legs and watched the footprints he left. The ones left by his left foot being different from his right. Ur then compared it to her own footprints, with the ones left by her right foot matching the ones left by his left. If she timed her steps right and walked between his tracks, then the two different set of footprints lined up to match each other. One set of normal prints and one set of stiff prints. She remembered how she got that fake leg and gave a small smile.

Maybe the world had sent her a stranger with just what she needed after all.

A/N: Hey, I updated this story again and it only took five months! Jesus, I'm bad at that. So, we're moving on through with Ice Trail. It'll be shorter than the actual manga since some things can be skipped due to traveling with powerful mages like Ur and Kuzan. I'm thinking that it would only be two more chapters at the most until we reach Fairy Tail and get into their stuff. Then I'll be able to focus more on Kuzan. Surprisingly, this chapter spent a lot of time on Ur instead of him. Also, before I get a bunch of pms and reviews about how I misspelled Ultear's name, Ultear's name was originally Urtear, but she changed it after thinking Ur abandoned her. Well, until next time (hopefully next month at the latest) later.