Disclaimer: I am not the owner of Fairy Tail
As Gray continued his walk, he eventually arrived at a beach. He gazed out at the ocean for a moment before turning and walking along the shore. Eventually he came across a large wooden wall, surrounding what was likely a town. "Who goes there?"
Gray looked up, seeing little beyond shadows in the watchtower guarding the entrance. "Sorry, I'm a bit late and looking for my teammates. I'm from Fairy Tail." He pointed towards his chest. "Have they already come by?"
"Oh, them! Yes, they're already inside, talking to the Chief. I'll let you in, not a problem." The gate started to open and Gray grimaced. This was likely the place that dark wizard had referenced, the place filled with demons.
When the gates finished opening, someone was on the other side ready to greet him. Yet, she looked strange. For the most part, she looked like a normal girl. She had short black hair, wore a seashell necklace, and had a plain green skirt and orange shirt on. However, her leg was blue and disfigured. "Hello, I'm Lulu. Welcome to our village. Chief Moka just finished explaining our curse to the others, but likely, you can already see a bit of what it does." She nervously brushed her fingers across her skirt, shifting her legs. "I don't mean to startle you, but this happens to us every night."
He frowned at her. "What happens?"
She lowered her gaze. "My…my leg. All of us have something, for me it's my leg, others have an arm, some grow wings. It's just unnatural, really. The moon rises, and under its purple glow we take on these monstrous forms."
"But I heard a rumor that you guys were demons here."
"What? Oh no, please tell me they aren't spreading rumors like that in the mainland! No wonder no one will come save us." She looked devastated, pressing her hands to her chest. "We've been waiting so long for help to come; I just knew something was scaring people away. But I promise you, we're normal people! Just—come quickly, before the moon starts affecting you too."
Uncertain and a bit confused, Gray let her pull him along into the village. She actually seemed concerned. She was acting like a normal person, like she really was cursed to look like a demon. Vaguely, he recalled the man evading answering if he'd cursed them or not, eventually explaining that he was the reason they could even ask wizards for help anyway. Was this the curse? Had he cursed demons to forget what they even were? In a way, it was highly effective. Gray wasn't certain what to believe either way.
He found himself being shoved into a small hut, where he saw Natsu and Lucy sitting down together. They glanced up when he entered, both looking startled. "Gray? What the hell are you doing here?"
Gray nodded at Lulu, who quickly bowed and left them alone again. "Getting your sorry ass back, before Master sends Erza instead." He glared at them both, narrowing his eyes. "What the hell were you even thinking? This job is way beyond you! You could get yourselves killed!"
"Nah, we've got this. Right, Luce?"
"Um…maybe. I don't know if this is really the job for us…" She trailed off, hugging herself tightly. "I don't want to end up like them, not if we don't have to."
Glancing towards the door, Gray frowned. "I don't think we have anything to worry about, at least not like that."
"Wait, what makes you say that?" Natsu frowned, narrowing his eyes. The dragon slayer got up, marching closer and inhaling deeply. "Smells like you've been talking to someone else. Did you find out something about the curse?" Gray hesitated, before nodding. Natsu slowly began to grin. "Then that means we can stop this thing! So, come on, what's the deal with it? Do we gotta destroy the moon, beat up some dark wizards, what?"
"It isn't our problem, Natsu!"
"But come on! We're Fairy Tail wizards and we can't just turn back now that we've accepted the job."
"You accepted a job given out by a village of demons, Natsu," Gray said.
That made the dragon slayer frown. By his side, Lucy narrowed her eyes. "Gray! Just because they're cursed to change forms, doesn't mean you can just call them demons. They don't want to look like that. I thought you were kinder than that."
"This has nothing to do with how they look, Lucy." Gray ran a hand through his hair. "I met a dark wizard, probably the one cursing them—"
"What? And you just let him go?"
"Natsu, I couldn't get near the guy. He's got his own issues. If I tried facing him, I'd have ended up dead." Maybe he could get creative with his ice-make magic, but he wasn't familiar with exactly how far that curse could reach. "And besides, he told me that the village he cursed was a village of demons. These people are confused and cursed, but I don't think this dark wizard was lying. I have a bad feeling, just sitting inside of this town…"
"They've been nothing but kind to us." Lucy frowned, glancing over at Natsu. "Maybe they are different demons? I mean, I know that almost every demon we hear about is blamed on Zeref, but it isn't impossible that someone else created some too, right?"
"Yeah! These guys are pretty neat. I like 'em, and they think I can destroy the moon too! I've been trying to work up a plan with Happy to fly up there and—"
"Natsu, I already said I can't fly that high! My transformation spell would wear off too soon…"
"Well, then we just need to get training with you, right Happy?"
"Aye sir!"
"Would you two knock it off?" Lucy glared at Happy and Natsu, before shaking her head. "Seriously, there's gotta be a better answer than that. The moon isn't exactly harming anyone else."
"Well, then we gotta go beat up the wizard Gray met."
"Natsu, I'd hold off on that for a minute." He met the dragon slayer's gaze, sitting down in the hut with them. "I may have mentioned your name, once. The guy seemed to know you instantly and started acting even weirder once you were mentioned."
"Huh. So who was he?"
"Dunno. He claims to be a wizard unaffiliated with any guild and that some people still consider him a dark wizard."
"Isn't that sorta unusual? I mean, I know I called myself a wizard before joining Fairy Tail, but even I acknowledged that it wasn't an official title since I wasn't in a guild yet," Lucy said.
"I thought the same thing. He didn't seem to care," Gray said.
Lucy frowned while Natsu narrowed his eyes. "Well, what did he look like then? Maybe I do know this guy." Natsu asked.
"Probably close to our age, black hair, black eyes, dressed in weird black robes that I can't even imagine seeing a guy wearing these days." He paused, frowning. "He had a white sash that seemed to hang over his shoulder like a cape and he had a locket on."
"So he was wearing a robe? Like…a dress?" Happy giggled.
Lucy sighed, shaking her head. "Robes used to be rather popular, Happy, and they aren't the same as a dress." She glanced over at Gray. "Actually, I heard they're still popular in other countries. He's probably a foreigner then. Maybe whatever magic he's using here is legal where he's from? He might not realize he's doing anything illegal; we could try talking to him or something."
"And I can't say I've met him either." Natsu frowned, glancing at Gray. "Are you sure you described him right? Because, I mean, it sounds like you in a dress, Gray."
"Yeah, now that you mention it, it kinda does…" Happy stared at Gray, before laughing again. "Oh, I just imagined Gray in one of Lucy's dresses!"
"Hey! What the hell made you put him in my clothes?"
"That's your problem with that statement?" Gray glared at her, before shaking his head and sighing. "You know what? Forget it. I thought I'd come and try to help you out for a change, but clearly, this isn't worth my time. Handle Erza on your own for all I care. I'm gonna go figure this out myself."
"Wait! Gray, I didn't mean to make you mad…" Happy pouted, and Gray paused.
Turning towards them, he saw his comrades watching him closely. They had no clue, he realized. Neither of them knew of his past because he made sure no one at the guild knew about it. It was how he wanted things to be, to avoid the pitying looks of others when they realized how much he had lost at such a young age. "It wasn't you, Happy." He paused, glancing out towards the door again. "I just won't be able to relax here, that's all. And if none of you will take me seriously, I'd rather deal with this problem on my own, where I'm certain I'll be able to handle it faster than either of you will when you're just goofing off with a village of demons cursed to think they're human."
"Gray." Natsu spoke up still, leaving Gray hesitating by the door. "Be careful. This curse seems like some serious business, regardless of if it is hitting demons or not. Whoever created it is gonna be hard to stop."
He was oddly serious for a change. Yet, Natsu had nothing to worry about. Gray nodded, leaving them be and deciding to explore again himself. Maybe he wouldn't be able to track down that wizard from before, but he needed answers. Natsu and Lucy wouldn't move at the pace he wanted to move at, so that left the work to himself.
The village let him leave with little fuss and soon he was exploring again. Gray found himself returning to the forest, trying to search the ground for tracks or signs of people nearby. If he saw a massive patch of death…well, that'd be a clear indication of that wizard at least. Anyone else would leave a trail of some kind, unless they had something that let them fly around.
Even though he couldn't quite find a trail of footprints, Gray was still able to find what looked like a hiking path or road. He didn't know if the island had more inhabitants or not, so he decided to follow the trail for now. It brought him away from the village, deeper into the wilderness. Eventually, Gray was standing in front of what looked like some old temple ruins. There was a crescent moon decorating the entrance and as he looked up, he thought he saw a bright light illuminating the roof. He didn't quite know what was causing it, but he could feel the magic even from here. It was powerful and likely not anything good.
Moving quietly, Gray stepped forward. This was probably a stupid move on his part. Gramps had warned him to be careful and avoid magic use while out here, but this wasn't the sort of problem he could ignore. Deliora had been mentioned, a village of what may or may not have been demons was here—it was all too familiar, too dangerous, to just leave without even trying to figure out what was going on. Even if he completely ignored everything he had heard from the dark wizard…well, he supposed he'd have nothing, actually. All of his info came from a dark wizard. Was he really putting that much trust into a man that he already knew was dangerous?
Shaking his head, Gray kept going forward. It was a bit late to debate his decision now. So, instead, he went deeper into the temple. He didn't quite know its layout, but the first path he found led downwards. While the spell seemed to be active above him, it might be useful to see if it was reaching further down than he could see from the outside. Some spells had a long range like that, after all. So, he kept following that path and decided he'd return later to find the way up.
Eventually, the path led to a hole in the wall which seemed to break free into a cavern or tunnel of some kind. It was a bit too dark to be certain of which. Glancing around, Gray took a slow breath. Going in blind was being reckless, like something Natsu would do. Maybe he should get the idiot to have some back-up, but then he'd have to deal with Natsu insisting he was too weak to handle this on his own. He didn't need help. Gray hadn't needed help in years now, ever since he'd learned from his mistake of taking on too much with Deliora. He'd learned and grown stronger since then. Now, he knew his limits. This wasn't beyond him, even if it was enough to make him tense and wary.
It took some time for his eyes to adjust to the lack of lighting in the tunnels but eventually, he was be able to see shadows of walls at least. He carefully kept his hands held out, trying to avoid walking face-first into rock. Yet, he didn't seem to collide with anything. The area was wide and seemed to be almost carved in a way. Maybe someone made it for some purpose, but based on the hole, it didn't seem like it was meant to be part of the temple.
In the distance, he saw a faint light that made him frown. Was that the spell? Gray was certain this trail had been descending even further, which meant that spell reached at least from the top of the temple to somewhere underground, beneath the building. No wonder it felt like there was strong magic nearby, if it had that kind of a range. Taking another slow breath, Gray cautiously kept going forward. Yet, he froze when he came to the exit into a large cavern. Standing in front of him was exactly what he'd been afraid of from the moment he recognized Deliora's book in that strange wizard's possession. The frozen demon towered over him in the cavern, bathed in an eerie purple light.
Stumbling back, Gray inhaled sharply at the sight. Expecting the creature and seeing it in person were two different things. Much like when he was on the train with Natsu years ago, memories were flashing in his mind. He was a child again, hearing Deliora's roar bellow through the sky. Gray clutched his head, grimacing and shaking off the thoughts. Still, he saw red staining snow as he opened his eyes, the ghost of his parents' collapsed forms lingering even after another slow breath.
Gray turned around, refusing to look for a moment longer. Swallowing and feeling sweat bead on his skin, he began to rush back the way he had come. This temple wasn't holding any mysterious cursed wizard. All it held was a monstrous demon. It was irrelevant to any of them, even Natsu and Lucy who were insisting on completing this stupid S-Class job while they were here. Deliora wasn't something any of them had to get involved with. Gray wouldn't make that mistake again.
As he emerged back out from the temple, Gray paused to try and recall what path he needed to take to get back to town. The trees all seemed to blend together, looking identical no matter where he turned. Letting out a sigh, Gray decided to just pick a direction at random. He'd eventually reach the ocean and then find his way to town using the beach shore.
His feet dragged along the sand and Gray started to calm down as he made his way back. Maybe he had overreacted to a lot of things, really. Natsu and Lucy didn't deserve to be shouted at because of his own issues. It wasn't like they'd personally seen what demons could do, not like him. Even if they had, neither of them had heard what he had. Was he even right to trust in that information? It came from a wizard who was clearly suspicious. Maybe it had all been a lie just to unnerve him and distract him from finding the real cause of the curse on this island.
The sound of footsteps made him pause, stiffening and turning to see who was approaching. In the darkness, he saw the figure of a man with a white cloak approaching. Once he was closer, Gray could see the black mustache on his face along with a frown. "Good evening. You sure seem to be out late today."
Eyeing the man warily, Gray crossed his arms over his chest. "I could say the same about you." Shifting his weight, Gray frowned. "What are you doing all the way out here on Galuna Island? It isn't like this is a prime spot for vacations."
"Checking in." The man sighed. "I offered my services to some wizards a few days back. I was hoping I'd stop by again to find them ready to return home with this whole curse business resolved."
Raising his eyebrows, Gray watched the man. "What, are you a wizard who failed the job once already?" The man didn't seem like he had magic, but Gray supposed he may have just overlooked something.
Shaking his head, the man gave him a weak smile. "Not at all. I am actually a former resident. Once things started going crazy, I thought it would be best to take my leave." The man's brow furrowed. "Turned out to be the right call. Things were much clearer after a week or so on the mainland. I can't say I ever stick around for long, but I do try and stop by when I can to make sure no one's too lost in the curse."
Gray studied the man. He looked completely normal, without even the strange sign of transforming limbs he'd seen in Lulu. Then again, the cloak covered his arms. It was possible he had something hidden. "Everything alright?" the man asked after Gray stared at him for too long. "You're looking at me like you don't know if we should be fighting or talking, you know. Not certain if I feel comfortable sticking around for your decision if that's the case. I've never been much of the sort for fighting - always been more fond of reading, really."
"I'm a member of the guild that sent wizards here to look into the curse." It wasn't like he had anything to lose at this point. This stranger was probably just about as trustworthy as the last one, after all. "Look, you said you managed to escape the curse, right?" The man nodded. "I heard a rumor that I'm not exactly certain I should trust. At this point, I think only a resident of this island could confirm if it was the truth or not."
"A rumor that makes you look at me like that?"
Gray narrowed his eyes. "I hear this is an island of demons." He stepped closer to the former resident. "And you can't honestly expect me to believe that a demon is harmless."
The man stared at him with wide eyes. "You…who told you that?"
"Are you going to at least try and deny the rumor?"
Letting out a sigh, the man turned to face the water. There was a grimace on his face, before he slowly shook his head. A flash of light surrounded his form and when it faded away, his entire appearance had shifted. Gray found himself frozen at the sight, focused on exactly how similar his facial features were to the man he had been before. True, his skin was now red and he had grown horns, but Gray was confident he'd have been able to identify both of them as being one and the same.
"If you've figured that much out, I imagine a confirmation can only help you get closer to an answer." The demon kept staring out at the water. "My name's Bobo. I don't mind if you hate me for what I am - I'm used to all sorts of reactions at this point."
Deliora was on this island along with an entire town of cursed demons. Whoever that wizard from before was, he hadn't lied. Gray watched the creature warily, feeling his magic slowly building. The air around his hands chilled as he closed them into fists by his sides. Yet, the demon didn't even turn as Gray's magic gradually began to activate. His gaze continued to remain focused on the ocean, not even taking a moment to confirm Gray wasn't going to start a fight.
"They all think I'm dead at this point. I'm the only one left that even realizes what any of us truly are - demons cursed to look human rather than humans cursed to look like demons." Bobo sighed. "At the very least, you should know that they aren't intentionally hiding that from you. The only reason I bothered was due to how people on the mainland reacted when I was in this form. It wasn't easy getting people to help unless I could blend in."
Gray was standing right behind him, his brow furrowed. "Why exactly should I react any differently? Why shouldn't I just go back to my guild and tell them about the threat you pose to all of us?"
"Threat?" Bobo turned towards him. "We've been here for centuries. Beyond a few rumors keeping people from visiting, what exactly have you heard us manage? Did we steal from your harbors? Kill your kind without ever even leaving home? Terrorize people and destroy their homes?" Bobo scoffed, shaking his head. "I don't expect you to listen - people like you never do. But I'd at least hope you'd take a moment to consider that the worst story out there is insisting that this place is inhabited by monsters so people should stay away."
"Centuries?" Gray's eyes were wide. It was true that he knew the rumors about Galuna Island. He'd assumed they stemmed from the curse more than anything else, though. As far as rumors of demon attacks go, those were even more scarce these days. Deliora had been the last major threat out of Zeref's demons. Gray hadn't seen a single indication of another one in any wizard job that had come to the guild. "But…what are you even doing then? That's what demons do!"
"Maybe some, but we're a bit different from them." Bobo shook his head. "It'd take too long to explain, but not all demons are made equally. Those of us here just want to live our lives in peace. We enjoy the solitude. My old man insists that it is best for us, all things considered."
"That still doesn't answer my question." Gray narrowed his eyes. His magic was slowly fading away, no longer creating an icy chill around his body. "If my guild were to help you, exactly what are your plans for the future? Why should I trust that you aren't going to be like the other demons I know exist?"
"You can't." Bobo shrugged. "We don't know each other. I don't even fully trust you, but I don't exactly have another option if I want to help my village." Folding his arms over his chest, the demon stepped closer to Gray. "Even knowing that, I will still say that you do have the option to take my word for it. We don't plan on doing much other than research and caring for our own." Holding out his hand, Bobo met Gray's eyes. "You don't have to like me. As I said before, I don't care if you hate me. But please, allow me to help save my family. I'll tell you whatever you think you need to know about this curse - what it does, who cast it, its duration - everything. I'd owe you a favor, if that's what it takes, to get you to help."
Eyeing his hand warily, Gray thought back to what he'd seen. Lucy and Natsu were staying with the village right now and were insistent on helping them. They were unharmed and it wasn't like the villagers seemed to be violent when he'd arrived. Even Bobo was relatively rational. He was nothing like Deliora…the demon also hidden away on this island. Swallowing, he closed his eyes for a moment. Erza was going to kill him for getting involved, but he needed answers somehow. So, he slowly placed his hand against the demon's palm, shaking and cementing their deal.
We're starting to explore more of the Galuna Island arc now! I have plans for the demons there in this arc - there just seems like there's a lot to be explored and this isn't an arc I usually write about. So, I'm rather excited to work through some alterations and further exploration of everyone there. Feel free to review and tell me what you think!