In reply to the guest reviewer, which I decided not to green-light. Don't take it personally, I just believe that everything you asked about was already covered in various forms in previous chapters, as you had said in your review, you probably missed it:
Natsu has actually used his magic on multiple occasions, but he does so in a subtle manner, like extending his magical aura, channelling his magic into the lacrimas, adjusting his body temperature, shooting short jets of flames from his feet to slow his descent. On a side note, what would be faster, his Fire Dragon's Roar attack or a super-sonic 14.5mm anti-material round fired from a big rifle? It would be the bullet, and there would be less collateral damage too, less potential civilian casualties, less charred corpses. So, he prefers using weapons over magic where possible for both his safety and the safety of others.
Flashy spells and shouting attack names are a good way to end up on the receiving end of a hail of bullets. That's why you don't see overly massive spectacles in this or The Agency, there is magic but it is used in a way that is hard for your opponents to identify. Remember, Natsu was a special forces shock trooper who had been at war, you don't live all that long if you go about bombastically flinging flames here, there, and everywhere. You need to be smart about it.
As for reuniting him with his 'family' as you put it; I've covered this in a previous review question from Kriim-Sauce786 (aka Thicc-Chungs as they go by at the time of writing) at the beginning of chapter 5. But in summary, he will eventually find his way back to that group, however, things can't ever be the same. He doesn't have the same long relationships that he had with the ones from his world, and to them, he is just some random bloke, so he needs to work his way back into their lives in an organic manner.
I'm just going to reiterate my warning from the end of the last chapter; this will not be a pleasant chapter once the bandits come into play. So, if you're easily triggered, then prepare yourself, because you're in for a dark chapter.
"Knock, knock~." Sang a woman of unparalleled beauty as she appeared from a burst of white divine light. She sat down on the edge of the queen bed and gazed around the room, only spotting the pink-haired former soldier. "Where's Lelyanna, I could have sworn I sensed her with you?"
"You just missed her." Natsu informed the woman. He took his eyes off his diary for a moment and pointed to the bathroom door with his thumb. "Just hopped on the can." The man returned his attention to his entry and continued to fill out the most recent events. "Give her a few minutes."
"That's fine, probably for the better really. I wanted you to inspect the gear I grabbed for you." Ceres placed the duffle bag she had slung over her thin shoulders onto the bed and unzipped it. "I grabbed boots that would fit her foot size, and found some clothes that seemed to belong to a woman of a similar body type to her."
"And those little charms of yours?"
"Already on them. I also took the liberty of removing the patches that had been sown onto the top; name, rank, affiliation, stuff like that." A gentle, melodic hum flittered throughout the room as the goddess laid out the garments on the bed. She also placed down the two cowls, before straightening up and admiring her handiwork. "I've made the necessary changes too, so they'll hug her body as if they were made for her. Just like your own pair."
Natsu finished up writing and closed the book, and as usual, he sent it away for safe keeping before he rose from the chair and stood beside the deity. His eyes roamed the gear she had laid out, checking for imperfections. "Seems to be in proper order. And thanks for getting those cowls, they'll come in handy for concealment."
"I had found some kind of harness that looked like it would strap around your torso, and was thinking of grabbing it for you…"
"Combat Webbings. I don't particularly need it right now, I won't be using my fatigues very often, special cases require special equipment. The coat you got me has enough storage along the inner lining for me to carry what I need inside it, and if I wanted the Contact Mount system built into the back of the harness for the coat, I could easily replicate it. But I don't plan on carrying those weapons openly, they'd draw way too much attention, more than my pistol would."
"And it would get in the way of those swords you commissioned too, right?" Ceres looked up at the man and crossed her arms under her bust, her head tilting ever so slightly. "I was watching your training of my little priestess, and saw that you went to check on that weaponsmith. I still can't believe that you stuck your head inside a running furnace…"
"I mean, it's not like I can catch fire, you know."
"I know, but it was still shocking."
The gentle click of a door being open drew their attention to the priestess, clad only in her white dress. She gazed blankly at the pure-white woman before smiling brightly and trotted over, her small feet pattering on the hardwood floor. "Good evening, Lady Ceres." When she reached them, she spun on the ball of her foot and leaned over the bed, smiling brightly at the camouflage clothing. "It looks so tiny compared to yours…"
"Yeah, well, you're a woman who is on the smaller side. At least it would make it easier for you to slip between objects without getting stuck. Get dressed, we're running low on time." Natsu grabbed the larger of the two cowls and put his back to the women, putting it on as he walked back to the desk, and at the same time, his body flashed and his clothing switched from his more formal attire to his military fatigues. Once he sat down, he brought out his DMR and began checking if it was ready for action. The air shifted, and he felt a prickle run across the back of his neck. He raised his eyes from his rifle and looked at the wall in front of him. "Whatever you're planning, don't."
"Wha…?"
Ceres gasped softly from behind him, and since he hadn't heard any rustling of clothing, he half-turned to the two women and stared at them out of the corner of his left eye. "Don't try and prank someone who has enhanced senses and the ability to passively perceive the emotions of those all around him. I sensed that little spike of mischievousness coming from the two of you."
"Hmph, Hard-ass." The goddess grumbled, but the slight curl of her lips and the twinkle in her eye were too plain to see. She wasn't about to let this go just yet, and the sly glance she shared with the priestess showed that neither would the young woman. Ceres smiled freely as she turned to the bed and admired her work. "Well, Lelyanna, might as well do as he said. The gear should fit you just fine, but I'll stick around just in case I need to make adjustments. And you…" She quickly pivoted her hips and to face the man. "Eyes forward, Mister."
"Yeah, yeah." Natsu shrugged and turned his attention back to his rifle. While he worked, the rustling of clothing tickled his ears but he tuned it out. "Lelyanna."
"Yes?"
"Remember how I was telling you about my eyes, how I can see into the Infrared part of the light spectrum?"
"Yeah, it helps you see in the dark. Right?"
"I feel obliged to tell you a quirk of Infrared light; unlike visible light, Infrared light can pass through some fabrics, especially when they are thin, and it will reflect off the skin underneath and come back. I'm sure you understand that how everything that has the ability to see does it by having light reflect off objects and bounce into our eyes."
The young woman was silent for a moment, the only sound coming from her was the rustling of the slightly coarse fabric belonging to the fatigues followed by a clinking of a belt. "So, if light passes through the fabric, like it would with glass, you can see under the clothing?" Natsu felt her gaze rest upon his back for a moment before it drifted away slowly. "So… can you see under my gown?"
"Under the right circumstances, I can, and clearly. But these lights don't emit enough infrared for me to get a clear view; I only a slight illumination of your body, no real detail beyond how it is shaped. I figured I'd warn you before you exposed that gown to a stronger light source, like open sunlight coming in from the parted blinds." Natsu paused his check for a moment and gazed up at the ceiling. "Oh, and you're probably wondering about those clothes you wore during training. The material does a better job at blocking light, I can't see through those even with full sunlight."
"I know!" Ceres chirped playfully. "Let's paint a message on your stomach, if his eyes go to it then you'd know he's been perving on you."
"But his vision is so good… he could probably read it in his peripheral vision."
"I could."
"Ok, so you've gone from perv to show-off?" The deity chuckled and smirked at the man's back.
"Said the woman who wanted to write some potentially perverse message on her follower's stomach. You've been hanging out with Io too much I think, that closet perv of a goddess. Who knows what ideas she's been putting into that head of yours."
"Say, Natsu. Your eyes… were the others like that?" Lelyanna asked softly as she padded over to him and pushed herself up onto the desk. She was halfway through dressing, though she had slipped into a matching fitted singlet which she tucked into the pants to cover up her chest. She leaned back and looked down into his dark onyx-green eyes with an almost childlike curiosity.
Natsu's eyes drifted up from his weapon, slowly rising up the woman's body until he reached her pale-turquoise eyes. "Hm. You kinda seem like you'd fit in back there…" He murmured before fully addressing the question. "Yes, they could see into the IR range like I can. But their vision wasn't as sharp as mine, save for Wendy's, Gajeel's too." The pinkette's eyes darted down as Lelyanna reached forward, but he offered no resistance as she carefully withdrew his tags from under his clothing.
"Oh. I didn't realise you took them off… May I?" She asked tentatively as she brought her hands around to the back of his neck.
"Fine. Just don't lose them."
As Natsu tilted his head forward, the priestess carefully unfastened the chain and pulled back. She dangled it in front of her eyes for a few seconds, watching it slowly rotate, before she turned it around and fastened it around her own neck, letting it fall against her chest. "Does it fit…?"
"Heh." He couldn't prevent the amused smirk from tugging at his lips and he shook his head gently at the bashful woman. "With that outfit? Kinda, except that you're far too innocent of a person. Even the most innocent woman among my group felt different than you." He reached up and wrapped his fingers around his tags, causing them to flash and disappear from her neck. "Finish up. With you having lustrous light skin, if you get caught in light, you'll end up glowing. And in truth, while you do look good like that, I'd prefer you cover-up, for your own safety."
"Plus, I still need to check the fitment." Ceres reminded the mortal. The mattress groaned ever so slightly as the deity sat down on the end and held the shirt open for the woman to slip her arms into.
Lelyanna pushed off the desk and started to re-join her goddess when she was stopped by a hand wrapping around her wrist. She met Natsu's gaze and tilted her head. "Yes?"
"Once you've found it fits, or have the adjustments made, think about how you want to carry your weapons. Will you openly carry the pistol I gave you, or continue to keep it hidden?"
"Hmm… would it be worth carrying it under the shirt? I do have this singlet on after all, and it has the same complex pattern that the overshirt and pants have… I could leave it open like a jacket?"
"I'd advise that you try that first instead of potentially emulating me. You're used to carrying the weapon that way and can fluidly draw with little thought." He let her wrist go and grabbed the magazine from the desk, slotting it into the mag well housed in the bullpup rifle's stock then pulled the charging handle to chamber the first round. "Whereas I'm used to having mine set up on my thighs, due to years of having them located there."
Ceres helped her priestess into the multi-coloured shirt and showed her how to fasten it properly. She tugged here and there around her body and used her divine powers to make slight adjustments so the garments fitted her body perfectly, as if they were made for her. "There you go! All set."
Natsu rested the rifle on its bipod atop the desk as he rose to his feet. His gaze roamed the young woman, inspecting her state of dress with a critical eye. "Looks good to me. Grab the cowl and see how it fits. It has elastic fibres so it'll stay put when you pull up the inner portion to cover the lower half of your face."
"Since I'm all done here, I'm heading back home. Good luck with the job."
"Thank you for helping us, Lady Ceres." Lelyanna gave the goddess a radiant smile as she grabbed the hooded cowl off the bed and slipped her head through it. "Oh, it's very snug."
"It's not the only thing that'd be a snug fit." Ceres grinned playfully before vanishing with a flash of divine light.
"Huh?" The woman stared blankly at the space that the deity just vacated before turning to Natsu for an answer. But as she opened her mouth, she blinked rapidly as she came to a stark realisation.
"She's talking about sex, Lelyanna."
"Y-yeah, I realised that." The woman yanked the inner portion of the cowl up, masking her darkening cheeks. "I-I'm innocent, not naïve…" She took a few deep breaths to calm her heated cheeks, only then did she pull the mask back down and open up the shirt. "I'll have the pistol and knife how I normally have them. Could you… help me with the knife?"
"Ok." Natsu grabbed her weapons off the desk and walked to her. He handed the holstered pistol to her and knelt down in front of her. "Just don't get so excited this time." He murmured with a shadow of a smirk as he began to buckle the sheath to her right thigh.
"Try not to feel me up so much then and I won't." Lelyanna shot back playfully, she slipped her camouflage shirt off then placed her harness over her singlet. She looked down at herself and blushed softly, not in embarrassment but because she found herself loving the way she looked; she looked powerful, and it gave her great pride in herself. "You know…" She whispered down at the man. "I think I take it back, maybe I could do away with the innocent young priestess look…" Once the man was finished with her leg, she hurried to the standing mirror and checked herself out. She turned back to the man and gave him a stunning smile. "I look good like this. What do you think?"
"I have a thing for military girls, so yeah, I think it looks good on you."
The bluish-silver-haired woman giggled cutely as she glanced at the shirt she had discarded onto the bed and the corner of her mouth tugged back as she thought things over. "Could you teach me that requip magic? Just so I can do what you do with your clothes and weapons, you know, store them for when I need them?"
"Sure, I can do it when we have some downtime during the day. But don't expect to be able to pick it up immediately, magic can be very fickle and some people just aren't compatible with some magics, and there are some types that you can't learn."
"Like how you were gifted dragon magic." Lelyanna returned to the bed and slipped on the shirt, but left it open so she could access her pistol. "About requip magic; how does it work?"
"It's a bit harder to explain in this world since you don't have computers or computer games… I used to explain it like a character's inventory space; they have their equipped gear – what you and I are currently wearing – then they have their inventory which sometimes wouldn't match with their physical appearance… Come here." Natsu waved her over and once she was right in front of him, he held out his hands like he had something held between them. "So, between my hands is an invisible chest. This chest is a sub-dimension of our dimension, one which I create with Spatial Magic, and within this chest is my inventory. Hold out your hands with your palms up."
"Ok?" Lelyanna did as she was instructed, and watched as Natsu placed the invisible box onto her hands. "So, I have your chest, now what?"
"Now, this chest isn't physical, as I said; it doesn't exist in the same dimension as you and I. But through magic, this chest exists and I can prove that by doing this." The man pointed to his left and a holographic window was projected with his Requip Magic, and contained categories like 'Armour', 'Weapons', 'Ammo', 'Medical', along with many more. "What you're seeing are the contents of that chest you are 'holding', this is my Inventory. You can see how each category is laid out. So, say if I go into armour," He tapped on the screen and the folder dropped down to reveal the contents. "You can see that my old armour is there, with each part listed under ST-x, so ST-Helmet for example." He tapped the armour piece while subconsciously dictating the destination, causing the helmet to appear on top of the woman's hands. "Now that helmet is out of the non-physical inventory and is in the physical world and can be equipped, or I can directly equip it onto my body. The same is true for putting it away; with my magic, I dictate the object I want to put into inventory providing it is within close proximity, then trigger the spell." The helmet flashed away and the listing reappeared in the armour folder. "And boom, it's back in my magic chest. That's the best way I can explain it off-the-cuff like this, in the morning or whenever it is we wake up, I'll write up the theory for it so you can read and hopefully fully understand and begin to practice. The added bonus of keeping things stored this way is that their state doesn't change, so gunpowder doesn't begin to deteriorate, batteries don't go flat, and any rations you have will not go bad."
"I suppose it comes down to whether I'm capable of using any other magic or just what Lady Ceres blessed me with…" The woman dropped her hands to her hips and cocked them slightly with a soft sigh as she gazed up at the man. "You remember that I wasn't capable of using magic without her, right?"
"I believe you would be able to, since you can do everything that a normal mage can do. Take in Ethernano, convert it to 'mana' as she calls it, then use that to fuel your magic in the shape of your spells. All you need to do is alter the last one or two steps to get it tuned to Spatial Magic and you should be good to go." Natsu turned and held his hand out to his rifle, sending it away so it would be away from curious gazes, but he did bring out his binoculars with their pouch and attached it to his belt. "I believe what she had done was gift you with the ability to do the conversion process, and gave you your healing magic as your natural magical affinity. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if you're the best healer in the world due to being granted your powers by a deity."
"Eh-heh…" Lelyanna blushed and hid her cheeks in the cluster of fabric around her neck, turning her gaze away from the man. "I'm certain there are people who are far better than me."
"Currently, that may be true. But don't forget that you are learning medicine and medical practices from a civilisation that is far more advanced than your own. And that you've been adapting that knowledge to work in this world. You could easily outshine those currently better than you in very little time. Speaking of which…" Natsu pulled back his sleeve and checked his watch. "Since we're all done, let's get out of here."
"Alright." Lelyanna smiled and followed the man to the door, but she glanced back at the window above the bedhead. "Should we open the window, just in case we can't get into the Inn?"
"Yeah, but just take it off the latch and crack it open barely." He watched the young woman hurry to the bed and climb onto it, crawling along on her hands and knees until she reached the top and began to fiddle with the latch. She must have felt his eyes lingering on her as she glanced back at him and gave him a little playful smirk and wiggled her hips.
"Staring at my butt, are you?"
"Lelyanna, you are bending over which is sticking your ass out while you're unlocking the window, so of course I'm going to be looking at it while watching you. And shaking it will just draw my attention to it even more."
Lelyanna giggled quietly and slipped the window open just half-a-centimetre before hurrying to his side. She followed the man out into the hallway and waited for him to lock the door. Her hands went up to the cowl around her neck as she toyed with the idea of keeping it down or putting up the hood and mask.
"Something on your mind? I can feel you're troubled."
"You know how it's not really a thing of my sisterhood to show our faces…? We have veiled hoods to cover our faces but leave our mouths visible for those are hard of hearing. But, I mean, you're changing to fit into your new role, so I feel I should do the same and have two versions of myself; your supporter who wears gear that's good for dirty work, and the archbishop who dresses to suit her role."
"I understand wanting to hide a face like yours, you always draw a lot of attention due to having a really cute appearance."
"Yes." Lelyanna cheeks tinted a faint red as she fell in-step next to the man and made their way down the hallway. "And while I don't mind revealing my face, and more, to you. I'm not the biggest fan of having everyone lusting after me."
"I'm pretty sure that little scuffle we had when we arrived would have sorted out that issue. They know you're armed and will pull it if someone tries something with you."
"Hmm, maybe you're right. And since they know about the pistol, do I really need to conceal it?" The woman trailed off as she pondered her question. She hummed and hawed and glanced at her shirt before finally deciding to slide it off and tie it around her slim waist. "It'll be good if I can learn that magic… then I can just send it away like you do."
"Put it to the back of your mind for now, use that desire later for your study."
Lelyanna glanced at the man but her eyes lingered on his shirt. "You know, you could probably get away with not wearing that shirt. You've got that slight tan going on, so you won't have the same issue as me, plus you also have your markings which would break up your form even more."
Natsu looked down at his uniform and frowned. "You're probably right, I'm just used to wearing all of it. But my training is telling me not to remove any of it." He replied and just unfastened his shirt, revealing his own form-fitted camouflage singlet which had a slight ridge at the sternum section due to his dog tags. He glanced down at his clothing and then at Lelyanna's, letting out a small chuckle. "I bet everyone down below are going to have a different opinion about us now, since we're dressed completely differently to how we were when we arrived."
"We'll see if that'll be a good thing, or a bad one." The priestess giggle behind her hand then slipped them into her pants pockets and let out a relaxed sigh. "I understand why you change so much when going from your normal clothes to these, I feel like a completely different person." As they descended the flight of stairs leading to the front-of-house, eyes began to turn their way, one after another. Lelyanna couldn't help but feel a little self-conscious about the stares and murmurs but she kept a passive expression, ignoring the gazes that ran their way up and down her body. Once they were outside, she let out a sigh and ran her hands down her body trying to brush the residual unwelcome feeling. "Could you ogle me for a bit? I want to wash off this unwanted feeling."
"You want me to ogle you…?"
"Yes, because I prefer having your eyes on me rather than some slimy bugger that I don't know. You saw how I reacted when that guy tried coming onto me…" She stepped in close and held her arms to her chest as she pressed herself against the man's warm chest, using his radiant heat to cleanse herself. "I know that you know I hate it…"
Natsu sighed softly and pulled the woman out of the streetlight, bathing them in darkness as he put an arm around her waist and ran his hand through her hair to sooth her. "Don't take too long to shake it off, we need to get a move on. If you still feel put-off once we're back in the room, just let me know."
"Natsu…?" Lelyanna murmured into his chest before lifting her pale-turquoise eyes and gazing up at the man's shadowy outline. "Is it ok if I carry one of your weapons, one of the bigger ones. I know you haven't trained me on any of them yet… But I just want to give off the 'don't eff with me' feeling."
"And you think that carrying a rifle that this much more advanced than anything in this world would satisfy that need?" Natsu asked quietly, his hand coming to a stop in her silky hair as he carefully studied her face. When she nodded slowly, he let out a deep sigh and gently moved her back. "Ok, I'll conceded just for tonight and let you carry my battle rifle." He placed a few magazine pouches on her belt by her left hip filled with a pair of mags in all three. "Same deal with your pistol mags, each one is brass to the grass with the tips to your right. When swapping to a new mag, put the empty mag in backwards so you don't confuse it." He brought out his M7 Battle Rifle and slung it over her shoulder, letting it rest against her back while he gave her the quick rundown on how to use it safely. "Your safety is the selector that'll be by your thumb. The white X is safe, it will not allow the trigger to be pulled in that mode, the single bullet is single shot, three is a quick burst of three, and six bullets means fully automatic fire; hold the trigger to fill your target with lead until the gun clicks empty. But since you have no training on that gun, only put it in single and treat it like the pistol. I'll properly train you on a carbine variant once we get back to my home and I can go scavenging."
Lelyanna smiled softly and wrapped her arms around the man, murmuring a quick thanks into his chest before she stepped back and brought the rifle around to her chest. She checked it over and held it in a way that seemed most plausible then glanced up at the man for confirmation. "How bad is the kick?"
"It's a large, powerful round, but the recoil dampener should soak it up. Just don't hold the trigger down in full auto without me training you, it'll kick the muzzle up and you could put rounds into the second floor of a building and into a civilian." Natsu pulled the rifle out from her shoulder then turned it to a greater downward slope and moved it back along the slope so it was in a proper relaxed position. His lips tugged up into a slight smile as he noticed she was keeping her finger out of the housing. "It'll be good if I could find some paint-filled training rounds while I'm back there, it means I can properly run you through drills without putting holes in walls. You're looking good, let's hurry."
The priestess giggled cutely as she followed the man out of the shadows, she watched his body flash with light and his DMR instantly appeared, slung across his back. She couldn't completely see from her spot behind him, but the flash at his hips probably meant he added something to his belt. Her assumption was confirmed when they passed under a street lamp; he had moved his pistol mags to his left hip, and most likely placed the DMR's magazines to the front-left of his hips. "Did you walk like this often, and in full armour?"
"In the war? Yeah. Full kit - which included the weapons, grenades, ammo, armour, etcetera – could run between half the weight of someone, to almost the same amount as them depending on their size. And that's not including what we stored away. We had a certain amount of gear carried physically, just in case we walked into a Magic Suppression Field and couldn't access the reserves until we neutralised the generator."
"Wasn't it tiring? We're barely halfway to the station but I can already feel this rifle becoming dead weight."
"You get used to it, though I'm not saying it wasn't daunting even for people like me. Even Shock Troopers had their limits."
"And I know that big rifle of yours is weighty, even with all of your advanced materials."
"Yes, now add the weight of the ammunition, those aren't tiny cartridges." Natsu chuckled softly and glanced back at the woman, something like a memory flashed across his vision, but it was as if he had placed the priestess into his old world. It was probably due to what she was wearing and carrying. His voice softened as he gave her a gentle smile. "I'm a little surprised… Doing this, it's making me feel at ease."
"You're in your comfort zone, Natsu. I understand that you want to hide your past life from people here, but such a drastic change can't be good for your mental state… and well, I've seen the state you fall into when confronted with your past." Lelyanna quietly replied as she jogged up to his side and fell into step with him. "If you ask me, you need to find a healthy bridge between the two. Things like your old family and friends aren't a healthy thing to hold onto, but little bits of your old routine or carrying notable things would most likely help you mentally transition to your new life."
"You're telling me to carry one of my larger weapons around?"
"Not specifically, since you already carry your pistol and knife, I'm sure that they'd help anchor you. But I was more leaning towards a routine than equipment, though I believe you should more freely use your weapons otherwise you might not be able to prevent a catastrophe."
"I'll… think it over." Natsu conceded quietly then took a deep breath and restructured his face into his usual hardened expression before he pushed open the door to the station and was met with a different man behind the reception desk. "Is Remick still up? Wanted to let him know that we'll be beginning our overwatch."
"He was having a nap right after dinner, said to wake him near midnight so he ought to be out the back or upstairs still. Want me to grab him?"
"Yes." Once the man had disappeared out the door, Natsu turned to the silver-haired woman just off to his left. "I know you're enjoying carrying that around like you are, but put it back onto your back so you aren't tiring out your arms." Once she had moved it behind, she crossed her arms under her bust and waited by his side for the head guard. Though, they didn't have to wait long as the door by the waiting room opened and Remick stepped through.
"Is it time?" The man asked the pinkette but he noticed the unusual firearm resting across his back; it wasn't furnished with wood like his own rifle, and what's more was that the strangely familiar woman with him had a similar but smaller rifle. "Is this the specialised equipment you were talking about? Also, is that who I think it is…?"
"Yes, it is, to both of those questions." Natsu sighed internally, he knew this was a bad idea, going along with Lelyanna's idea when she wasn't in the best state of mind. "What better way to kill something as weak as a human than with a bullet, even more so when you can do it at a great range."
"Aren't you a mage though?"
Natsu sighed and held out his hand, emitting rich orange flames from the tip of each digit. "Yes, but do you really think any spell you can think of can outstrip a bullet? Say that I was set up on a hill with my Marksman's Rifle." He slipped his rifle from his back and held it side-on to the man. "That tube on top is a magnifying optical sight, first of all. Now, with that little bit of information, if you were a mage and you didn't know I was there but knew there were hostiles somewhere in the area. Do you think your magic will stop me from turning your entire head into a fine red mist? And take a look at my clothing, it's designed to blend in with my surroundings, you can't see me, you can't sense me, you can't attack me, but I can see you, and I can attack you without giving off a magical signature and giving away my position, from over a kilometre away." He returned his rifle to his back and placed his hands on his hips, baring his fangs in a wry snarl. "And mind you, that rifle isn't even the biggest one I have. I have one that'd blow you apart with a hit to the chest while saying 'fuck you and your armour' and will say that to the four or five people behind you as it rips them to bits and pieces too."
Lelyanna's lips tweaked up in a shadow of a smirk as she cocked her hips. "I agree with him, I've seen enough duels between nobles to know that firearms have caused a need for more cautious mages. And they just use ornate single shot pistols, not like the ones he and I carry or the revolver pistols you guards use."
"Do you even know how to use that thing, your Grace?" Remick narrowed his eyes at the woman, specifically the holster by her left breast before his gaze flicked up to the pale-turquoise orbs that twinkled slightly. "You may look the part…"
"I'm going to stop you right there." Natsu grunted and gave the man a cold stare. "Do you really think I'd put someone of her stature in harm's way without giving her proper training? Yes, she does know how to use it."
"Regardless." Lelyanna turned to leave, but glanced back over her shoulder. "Be prepared, they may not come tonight, but I don't want you all to slack off. Lives are at stake here."
"That's all we came here to say." Natsu added as he followed the woman to the door. "Just to let you know that we're going on overwatch." Without another word, they left for the church so they could take up a position in the bell tower.
Natsu scanned the horizon with his binoculars, but he was still to find any sign of unusual activity. It was getting into the early hours of the morning; this was the third night they had stayed up in the tower. He was beginning to think that they had heard that there had been a Jaeger dispatched to the area to investigate and probably moved on to avoid detection.
"Natsu, what time is it?" Lelyanna moaned tiredly with a bleary glance up at the shadowy figure towering over her, she was curled up in a ball under a blanket she borrowed from Natsu. "I don't know if I'm cut out for these long nights."
"Almost half-three." He replied quietly after a quick glance at his watch. "Do you want to head back to the room?"
"No, I can tough it out… I wish it was a bit warmer though."
"Yeah, I noticed that you were shivering slightly. That and your body is behaving in the usual fashion that it would when you get cold."
"Yes… I know my nipples are hard." Lelyanna blushed lightly and sighed. She rubbed her breasts to get some heat into them and try and get the little nubs to go down. "Don't worry about skirting around the subject of my body, I'm fine with you saying whatever you want about it, remember?" She rose to her feet and pressed herself against the man's back, wrapping her arms around his waist in an effort to warm back up. "Stay put for a moment, please."
"If I voiced everything I picked up on, you probably would die of either shame or embarrassment. Like knowing the kind of mood you've been in while we've been sharing the bed, and the state you're in when you wake up."
"Okay, I can't help those ones..." Lelyanna buried her face into the square of his back as her cheeks turned into an inferno. "It's a natural reaction…"
"Told you so."
"And you're saying that you are any different? I swear that I've felt something poking my butt during the night. That's probably why I keep getting…. excited." The priestess trailed off to a murmur that was muffled by the man's back and she began to wonder what was hotter; his back or her face. She decided to change the subject before she dug the hole any deeper. "See anything?"
Natsu hummed softly as he gazed through the binoculars at the southern side of the town, he felt the woman slide up his back to look over his shoulder, most likely standing on her toes since she wasn't overly tall. At his insistence, neither of them were carrying the rifles, not since the first night as he still wanted to keep the comparatively alien firearms a secret, leaving them only with the pistols and knives like he had originally planned. "Still nothing, no foot-traffic nor vehicles. Anything around this time would be cause for alarm."
"I wish it wasn't so dark…" Lelyanna muttered as she gazed up at the moonless sky that could only just be seen in the small gaps between large, thick clouds. She stepped back from the man and sat down on the low wall near the front of the man. "Even when my eyes have adjusted to the darkness, I can barely see anything." She noticed movement in front of her and realised the shadowy figure was holding out the binoculars for her. Lelyanna murmured a quick word of thanks before bringing them up to her eyes and grinning widely as the world around her came into view, albeit just in various shades of black and white. She wandered around the tower, gazing out at the four cardinal points; the church was build facing north. "Hey, I can see something not far from the town. Two vehicles coming from the north-east, down the paved through-road. Can you sense anything?"
"Hm." Natsu crossed to her side in only a few strides and gazed out across the town to the road leading in. He focused his senses and cut through the background noise of the sleeping town to focus on the occupants. "Seven, split three and four between the lead and rear vehicles. They've got a sense of malicious calmness about them. Looks like our guys, keep your eyes on them."
"They both look like cheap long-body cars… a pair of station wagons?" Lelyanna glanced up at the man, looking for confirmation.
"Probably to keep their captives concealed in the back." The salmon-haired man kept his eyes fixed on the vehicles as they rolled quietly into town; road noise being the only thing that accompanied the faint magical hum given off by their power-plants. "They're entering the northern part of town, right on the fringe. We better get a move on; I can track them from here on out." He let the woman slip the binoculars into their pouch on his belt while he shot a small fireball from his fingertip down to the guards' parking lot behind their building, it hung in the air just a metre off the ground and served as an alarm. After he collected Lelyanna up in his arms, he leapt from the tower and shot fire from the soles of his boots, controlling his descent and extending it into a glide as he drifted down to the station in time for sixteen fully armoured guards armed with bolt-action and lever-action rifles to line up in sets of four before him. "Load up. We've got hostiles in the North-western edge of town; seven, split between two vehicles."
"I'm riding with you, Station Sergeant." Lelyanna informed the man as she was set down on her feet. She placed her hands on her hips and leaned in, her eyes twinkling softly in the flare's light. "We should hurry; the more we dawdle, the more likely it is that they get away and without a trace."
"You heard 'em! Move it!" Remick ordered his men as he hurried past the pink-haired Jaeger. "Lead the way."
"Try to keep up. Oh, and make sure to keep the lights off, don't want to give them any warning." Natsu smirked as he waited for each group to file into their waiting vehicle before making his way down the driveway and out onto the road, with Remick and Lelyanna leading the convoy of cars. He took off at a run, accelerating quickly beyond the sign posted speed limit. The man could feel the magic pulses of the vehicles almost on his heels, so he sped up more as he came out onto the main road.
Once they hit the road where the bandits had turned off onto, Natsu narrowed his eyes; spotting the cars haphazardly parked on the front driveway and lawn with a pair of bandits guarding them just a little over three hundred metres from the intersection, the rest must have been inside. His Reflex mutation automatically activated as he leaned into his next step, putting in enough power to crack the road underfoot as he surged forward in the blink of an eye. In an instant, he was between the two bandits armed with rifles, his hands already twisting the firearms out of their grip. He used his momentum to rotate around, bringing his right boot whipping around and colliding with the stomach of one of the bandits, sending him skidding along the ground before spun into an axe kick which snapped down and smashed right through the second man's right shoulder. Before the second man could shout out in agony and alert his partners inside the building, he was silenced by a pair of bullets; one to the heart, and one between the eyes.
"Holy crap…" Remick muttered as he exited his vehicle, he and the rest of the guards had just pulled in around the cars and jumped out to assist, rifles at the ready. But they could only gaze in horrified awe at the man with glowing red eyes.
"Secure that one. Make sure he doesn't make a sound, but keep him alive, I need at least one that would be able to answer my questions." Natsu hissed quietly, pointing to the bandit he had sent flying before turning to the silver-haired woman dressed in camouflage fatigues. "Come with me, we'll handle the ones inside."
"Right." Lelyanna whispered. She drew her pistol and turned on the green laser so she could aim quickly. The priestess followed the man to the door and watched as he tested the doorknob. "Unlocked?"
"No sign of damage, probably picked the lock. We've got two at the far end, three up this end, positioning suggests that they are in a bedroom belonging to one of the children, and the master bedroom."
"I'm ready." She quietly notified the man while tightening her grip on the pistol. "I'll follow you in."
"They are currently occupied; yes, it's what it sounds like. So, check your target before you fire." He nodded over to the dead body on the grass but kept his menacing red eyes on the young woman. "Do it like that; two shots, one to the heart, one to the head and right between the eyes, or if from behind, go for the base of the skull, right where the spine goes in." He reached forward and tapped the back of her skull, right where he mentioned. "Angle the shot up slightly so it goes up through the brain stem, you'll kill instantly doing that; there will be no suffering." When the woman nodded softly, he quietly pushed open the door and made his way into the house. Right as he entered the building, he was hit with the scent of fresh blood and gunpowder; shots had already been fired, and the victim was a few metres into the room.
"I-is that?" Lelyanna whispered as she looked down at the headless body.
"Family dog, head was blown apart by a shotgun going by the holes in the wood." Natsu murmured back, but didn't linger as he quickened his pace. He quietly stalked through the house and reached the hallway; to his left were a group of four, and to the right was a group of five. With a quick gesture, he instructed Lelyanna to move down the left so they could save the two girls first. "We'll take these two out quietly; hand over the mouth and a shot to the back of the head. Keep the muzzle on an incline so you don't shoot your hand."
Lelyanna nodded and followed the man into the bedroom, she was doing her best to put the whimpers out of her mind as the two men forced the barely teenaged girls to give them fellatio. They had their hair gathered in one fist and the other holding a revolver to the sister's head so if one didn't preform the sick act, then the other sister would be killed. The woman gulped quietly and stalked up to the man on the left, her body had gone cold but her heart was racing. She forced all unnecessary thought from her mind and focused on the task she needed to do. In the corner of her eye, Natsu was counting down on his left hand; three, two, one. Lelyanna launched forward, jamming the end of her suppressor against base of the man's skull and placing her free hand over his mouth. The hammer snapped forward and the slide reciprocated, the only noise was the metallic thunk of the next rounds begin pushed into battery as the spent cartridges vanished in mid-air.
As the two bodies slumped lifelessly to the wooden floor, Natsu knelt down in front of the two girls. They had been stripped bare, smacked about, and forced to preform sexual acts, something that would no doubt leave a scar on the two young children. "Grab something to wear and cover yourselves up." He whispered quietly, his red eyes flicking between them. "We brought the town's guards with us; they are out the front. You can either wait for your parents out there or wait in the lounge room, but it will be safest outside. I don't want anyone to be hit by stray bullets. But above all else, do it as quietly as possible, otherwise your mum and dad may become victims of murder as well as molestation, rape, and potential kidnapping."
Lelyanna watched as the two girls hurriedly padded around the bedroom, gathering a full set of clothes each and donning them. "Should I escort them?"
"Do it quickly and quietly. I'd at least like to take two of them alive to corroborate their story, I've already got one, so I just need one more from this group. Sounds like the leader of this group is occupied with the woman. One bandit is by the door, and the other by the bed with the man." Natsu quietly walked to the door then glanced back. "I'll be waiting by the door if I can, but if I need to step in, I will."
"Don't wait on me if you can't. I know you're more than capable of taking down three people."
Natsu turned his cold red eyes back down the hall and slowly crept towards the master bedroom, and with a peek into the room, he confirmed the positions of the hostiles. They were where he had sensed them. None of them were watching the door, one had the woman pinned face-down on the bed with her head against the pillow to muffle her sobs and screams as he fucked her ass, the second had stuffed some garment into the man's mouth to stop him from making noise but had his eyes on the show, and the third one who was stood by the door, had his back to it instead as he watched the group leader ravage the woman. Something shifted in the air, and his eyes snapped to the captive man who was being forced to watch his wife be raped, and would probably have to watch her suffer through the other two men too while knowing his daughters were going to face the same treatment, but the man was no longer watching the woman, instead he had noticed the pair of glowing red eyes peeking around the door and silently begged the floating orbs to intervene.
Behind him, he could hear Lelyanna's boots creek past accompanied by two pairs of pattering feet. He clicked his tongue, there no reason to let the woman suffer more than she already has. So, he drew his knife from his left thigh as he slipped into the room. The black metal blade quickly found a home in the chest of the bandit by the door as Natsu levelled his M12 with the one holding the man hostage, he pulled the trigger twice in rapid succession, delivering a lethal dose of lead to the hostile's heart and head before bringing the muzzle around and administering a shot to the first one, right between the eyes. Natsu yanked the knife from the man's heart and stalked over the last bandit who had begun to turn around to the door.
"Who the fuck are…"
"Shut the fuck up." Natsu cut the bandit off, coldly, while burying the knife into the man's right lung. Now that his hand was free, he grabbed him by the neck and dragged him out of the woman then he threw him across the room like a child discarding a toy. "You're going to answer my questions with the whole truth, and you better do it right away. Otherwise, I'm going to drag your death out for as long as I can, and believe me, it's going to be a fucking long time; I brought a healer along with me, after all."
"W-wait, aren't you…?" The husband stuttered at the Jaeger's back while he comforted his wife, but before he could finish the question, a woman with bluish-silver hair entered the bedroom.
"Hmm. Hello, Lawrence." Lelyanna spared the man a quick glance before coming to a stop beside Natsu and gazing down at the stabbed man. "The children are safe. I didn't have time to check them over as I heard a crash and hurried back inside."
"Deal with the woman first." Natsu ordered, softly. "She was being fucked in the arse, dry. Can't have been pleasant. Looks like she has taken a few hard slaps too. The man is in a comparatively better condition, but probably has blunt-force trauma, he is holding in the pain to not worry her." He heard the young woman squeak softly and cover her ass with her hands, but he ignored her as he knelt down in front of the bandit. "That knife in your back is the only thing standing between you, and a collapsed lung. Believe me, it isn't a pleasant thing to deal with. You slowly begin to feel like you can't breathe, and the more blood that fills the chest cavity, the harder it'll be to breathe. Not to mention, if I pull that knife out, you'll have a sucking chest wound, and you won't be able to fill that lung with air until it is repaired."
A cool turquoise light filled the room, emitted from Lelyanna's hands as she began to tend to the woman. She glanced up at the shaken man and gave him a reassuring smile. "Don't worry, your two girls are safe. They may need their parents though, both of them were forced to take a penis into their mouth, at gunpoint. They looked a little battered about too, I'll take you to them once I've helped your wife."
While the priestess was dealing with the victims, Natsu grabbed the bandit by the throat and lifted him into the air, effortlessly dangling him half a metre off the ground with his arm fully outstretched. "Now, tell me; where are you keeping the women you've kidnapped?"
"Why the fuck should I…"
Before the man could finish his non-answer, Natsu had pulled the knife from his back and drove it into his left thigh but was careful to not hit any of the major veins or arteries that ran through it. His voice stayed cold and level as he issued a warning. "Don't try and be a smart-arse."
"Aah fuck!"
"Now answer the question or the next thing that I'll target is your damn cock." He gave the bleeding bandit a few seconds before he wrenched the knife from his thigh and tossed him to the ground between himself and the bed. He flicked the blood from his knife and slipped it into the sheath, then redrew his pistol and took aim at the man's crotch. "Five… Four… Three…"
"Alright, alright!" The man shouted and covered his exposed penis with his hands. His eyes were wide with terror as they stared down the barrel of the strange handgun that didn't go bang, it just clacked and popped softly and a hole appeared in whatever it had been aimed at.
"Two… One…" Natsu had still been waiting for an answer, but as the final warning, he fired a round between the man's legs which skimmed the man's testicles down the centre line. He knelt down and jammed the end of the suppresser between the man's hands and right against the base of his now flaccid penis. "Answer. Now."
"FIFTEEN MINUTES NORTHEAST!" The trembling man bellowed. "T-there is a dirt road off the Sprig Creek Highway after fifteen minutes, called Margret Road! T-turn left onto it and you should reach the camp after five minutes! It's an old farmstead that we took over…"
"How many of you should I expect to find there?"
"Thirty, split between the buildings."
"And the captives?"
"We hold them in the barn."
"Good." Natsu slowly stood up and holstered his pistol. "But now you've outlived your usefulness." He growled quietly and pressed the sole of his boot to the man's fear ridden face, pushing him down onto his back and firmly holding him in place despite the intense struggle. With one great downward thrust, the man's head splattered across the wooden floor, crushed underfoot like a large, juicy grape. "Lelyanna?"
"The woman is back to full health, aside from some damage to her rectum and anus and a few hard slaps, she was still in good physical condition. Lawrence is almost finished; had some broken ribs so it has taken me a little bit longer to mend him than I originally thought." Lelyanna glanced over at Natsu as he pulled his boot from the mess he made. After a quick pulse of magic, he had cleaned his clothing and footwear and walked to the couple. "Was he telling the truth?"
"Yes. Sometimes interrogation doesn't work due to the subject just telling you want you want to hear, which is why I go for the shock tactics. Quick and easy, it puts them off balance from the beginning and they are more likely to spill their secrets when compared to the drawn-out, beat-a-man-down process. But in this case, yeah, he was telling the truth. We can expect them to be not far out of town."
"Alright." The glow faded from the priestess' hands as she rose to her feet. Though the man noticed something strange about her; while she was using her healing magic that Ceres had bestowed on her, her eyes emitted a gentle glow that matched the aura around her hands. "I'm all done here. What do you plan on doing with the one outside?"
"No point keeping him alive since we have what we needed to know, and I'd rather not let him walk and cause more suffering." Natsu turned to the now dressed woman and her husband, Lawrence. "Your kids are outside, waiting for you. They'll be needing their parents after what they went through."
"T-thank you. And I sorry for my actions the other night…" Lawrence had tears in his eyes as he bowed his head to both of them before both he and his wife raced out of the bedroom while avoiding the pools of blood.
"I didn't realise he was married. Must be a rough relationship." Lelyanna murmured as she stared at the door. But she quickly turned her eyes up to the glowing red orbs above her. "Did you know?"
"I could smell someone else's scent on him, but I figured it was just some easy woman." Natsu lead the way out of the room, leaving the bodies where they lie. When they exited the house, they saw the family of four embracing in one big hug. He heard Lelyanna quietly fawn over the sight but quickly rush over to finish tending to the children, leaving him striding across the front lawn to where the last bandit sat with his hands bound behind him and a pair of rifles ready to take his life. The man glanced up at Remick, who stood not far from the captive. "I've got the location of hideout. It's not far from town, in an old farmstead."
"I take it that you aren't planning on taking us along?"
"No, I will bring you and your guards along. But I'm going to be assaulting them alone, with Lelyanna hiding nearby so she can quickly tend to the kidnapped women and girls. You lot will hang back and wait for my signal, my weapons are much quieter than yours so I can go about eliminating the hostiles without alerting the entire compound."
"Alright. I'm leaving one group behind to tend to the family and remove the bodies." Remick turned to a group of four that were stationed near the house's front door, letting them know that they can proceed into the building. When he returned his attention back to the salmon-haired man, he jerked his head to their bandit captive. "What about this one?"
Natsu quickly drew his pistol and put two quick rounds into the bandit – to the chest and head – without taking his eyes off the head guard. Like with the shots fired inside, the ejected casings vanished after travelling thirty centimetres from the handgun. "Problem solved. I'm commandeering one of their vehicles, it shouldn't put them on guard if I come close in that. Once Lelyanna is done, we'll be moving out, so have your guys be ready. I'll probably have you guys wait halfway up the road. I'll shoot up a flare when I get the kidnapped people to safety."
"Hopefully, they'll be all in the one spot and not spread across the buildings."
"I hope so too, but I doubt it. They'd probably want to test the merchandise for themselves, including the younger ones, though they would get less money if they deflower them, but even then, they'd probably just lie and say they are as fresh as the day they were born." Natsu sighed and snarled with disgust, baring his inhuman fangs. He turned to Lelyanna just as she rose to her feet, so he called out to her. "You all set?"
"Yeah." Lelyanna dusted her hands off on her pants and began walking to the man as she untied the shirt from her waist and put it on, covering up her pale arms. "The family is back to full health, but I can't do anything for the mental trauma they've been through."
"That isn't so easily fixed, I'm afraid." Natsu looked past her, his red eyes settling on the family of four who had their eyes glued to the priestess' back. "We've done all we can for them. Now, we just need to find the other victims and treat them." He turned back to Remick and jerked his head to one of the bandit cars. "We're heading out and I don't want to be waiting around. To find the farmstead, head down the Sprig Creek Highway until you find a dirt road labelled Margret Road and turn left, don't come in all the way until I send up the signal."
"We won't be far behind."
Let's go then, Lelyanna." Natsu threw over his shoulder before getting into the nearby station wagon. It seemed that the cheaper cars didn't have the same primer and power setup that his does, but had a brass key card that was inserted into the centre of the dash and turned, just like a vintage key start system from his world. It was probably encoded with runes and paired with the vehicle. He turned the card to prime and a light came on, and when it when out, he switched it to start and felt the familiar magic pulses of this world's magic fuelled engines. The front left door shut and Lelyanna sighed from the passenger seat, drawing his attention. "Holding up alright?"
"I just killed someone… I had my hand over his mouth and shot him in the back of the head…"
"I wish I could say it gets easier to deal with, but all that happens is that you become numb to the act of killing. Just… think of it this way, you killed that man to save two young girls. You killed, because you had to, not because you derive some sick pleasure from it."
"But you crushed that man's head under your foot, and then killed the man out here?"
"Simply for the sake of ridding the world of vermin. Those men were a plague on this world and had to be eliminated so they wouldn't commit any further atrocities." Natsu dropped the clutch and spun the car around on the driveway before rocketing off onto the road and racing away from the guards. "I may have been saved by a goddess, but I'm no saint. I'm just some despicable demon who has lost everything that kept him human. I mean, just look at me, losing control of myself and letting my demon side come to the surface." He pushed back his sleeve to reveal maroon demonic markings, the same demonic dark red as his eyes, complete with the faint glow. "Just you wait until I start to grow claws and rip people to shreds, then we'll see who the real monster is; those goblins and orcs or me?"
"You may be a demon from another world, but I don't think Lady Ceres would have saved you if she thought you were a monster, or would become one." Lelyanna smiled softly, placing a hand on his left arm and running her thumb along the markings. "Those eyes of her see everything, after all. So, she would've decided that any action you took, no matter how violent or 'demonic', would be justified. And anyway, I doubt you would go around raping and pillaging like those bandits and monsters do."
"But you think murder and torture is a good thing?"
"If it is needed, yes. If a man is sent to war for Queen and Country, and is ordered to kill his enemy, to murder them, is it considered necessary? As said man who was sent to war for his Queen and Country, what do you think?"
"We killed to survive, to ensure a better world for our families back home, and to stop atrocities from being committed, on both sides. No one wins a war, both sides suffer hardship, heartbreak, death and despair. It changes those who participate, and never for the better." Natsu shook his head and sighed. "We're just talking in circles now, so let's just leave it at this: Death is a matter of life, for some it comes to early, and for others, not early enough. We'll just say that the people we have killed tonight had run out of time, and now are no longer able to harm anyone anymore. When we die, the gods and goddesses can judge us however they see fit."
"Agreed." Lelyanna giggled softly, the confliction she felt ever since ending someone's life slowly faded and gave way to a peacefully clear conscious. She yawned softly and shifted in her seat; she didn't let herself get too comfortable otherwise she might fall asleep. "How do you function so well after many long hours on the job?"
"You just get used to the fatigue and catch up on sleep whenever and where ever you can. Though, I don't suggest taking a nap just yet, we're going twice as fast as we're supposed to be, so we've got probably ten minutes or less on this trip." Natsu's eyes flicked about the scenery as the raced along the asphalt highway. The Country must invest a decent sum into road network infrastructure as the asphalt had no bumps or pot-holes, it seemed to be very well maintained. He'd have to slow down once they hit the compacted dirt, both so he wouldn't alert the bandits through noise and dust, and so he didn't end up in the ditches along the sides of the road.
"I'm still amazed at how well your eyes work in the dark; you don't even need to use the motor car's lights."
"I admit, being the only person with these eyes does make things easier. Though, when it comes to monsters, all it does is level the playing field." The man spotted a small street sign in the distance; Margret Road. So, he quickly began slowing down, keeping it nice and smooth so he wouldn't send Lelyanna through the windshield. "I'm going to be parking about half a klick from the perimeter of the farm. I wish I had more intel about what it looked like, but we'll work with what we have. Once there, we'll push up through either the ditch or through the fields, assess the compound and see where the individual buildings sit, from there we'll deduce the location of the patrols and the captives; whether they are all in the barn or if they are spread around the compound." He checked his watch and looked out at the horizon as he turned onto the dirt road. "Dawn is approaching rapidly; we don't have much time."
"Will we need the rifles?" Lelyanna asked curiously as a box appeared between them and Natsu placed his pistol down next to it.
"I'll carry the M7, but I won't use it unless I have to; don't have sub-sonics for it yet. Top up your mag, do my too, please."
"Alright." The priestess dropped the mags from both pistols and quickly loaded his with deft hands, her training was paying off spectacularly. She slid the magazine back into his pistol and held it out to him; grip first. "Done."
"Well done." He murmured as he slipped it back into his holster. Once she had replaced the one round she had used, he sent the box away for safe keeping. "We're here." Natsu announced as he pulled off the dirt road and slowly eased the car into the ditch so it would be hidden. "I should have had her get me some webbings while she was at it…"
Lelyanna glanced over at the man when she heard his mutter but chose to ignore it and got out of the car. She kept her pistol in her hand and walked to the front of the vehicle while pulling her mask up over her mouth and nose and the hood over her head, a move Natsu copied as he brought his rifle out from his storage and placed a few extra mags on his belt. "The crops should cover our approach, and they'll allow me to hide nice and close."
"Looks like wheat; nice and tall, green too. We'll blend in nicely." Natsu moved the rifle to his back then drew his pistol as he vaulted the wooden fence. He glanced back and held out his free hand, helping the priestess over before they disappeared into the thick slab of green.
They stayed silent on their approach, keeping low among the crops and passing through it with as little disturbance as they could muster while they covered the final five hundred metres to the farmstead. The lights were out in all the buildings, from their position at the edge of the field they could see the barn, as well as the main farmhouse, two satellite houses, a large water tower, a shed for farm equipment, and a small building which faintly pulsed with magic; most likely a generator ran by a Magic Pulse Engine, which powered the entire farm.
"What are your senses picking up?" Lelyanna whispered softly, glancing at the man before turning her gaze back to the shadowy shapes looming in front of her.
"Four hostiles in the barn's old hayloft, two in the main section of the barn in a patrol pattern, eight walking in pairs around the grounds, four in each satellite house, and the final eight are in the main house, with only three of them currently awake." Natsu pointed to each building as he listed them, but he paused for a moment and grunted softly. "The majority of the captives are in the barn, but there are two in each satellite house and four in the main house… I'm sure you already understand why."
"What's your plan?"
"I'll secure the barn first, the captives are all asleep so if I can do it without alerting anyone, then I should be able to move on the houses and secure them without an issue. Stay low and out of sight, if I'm able to, I'll bring them here and you can take them further into the fields, until it's safe to come out."
"Good luck."
"Don't connect with me, at any point during this assault…" Natsu handed her his binoculars and took in a deep breath before he let it slowly vent from his nose, falling back into the familiar flow of this deadly dance. He shot forth from the wheat field and darted along the compacted dirt, his footsteps light as a prowling predator. He had timed his push for the gap in the patrols, allowing him to dash through the darkness unhindered. His eyes darted up to an open door at the front of the hayloft, from which a wood beam protruded; an old mounting point for a block-and-tackle. He leapt up the side of the building, putting a little rotation into the jump so that when he reached the beam, he wrapped his legs around it with his pistol aimed through the open door, its IR Floodlight illuminating everything inside to his eyes only.
Four bodies laid sprawled out on futons, some silent and other snoring but their noise was mixing in with the lot from below, becoming an indistinguishable mess to the standard ear. from the ground floor, footsteps echoed faintly among the sound of sleeping women and children, with the occasional pained grunt and groan slipping in. The sickening smell of urine and faeces wafted up and out the window, mixed in with the scent of blood both fresh and dry. Even without seeing it, the conditions were horrific.
Natsu brought a hand up and grabbed onto the beam, freeing his legs. He swung into the room and landed on the wood with a gentle creak before he crept towards the first bandit. It was too dangerous to kill him with a bullet as it would go down into the pens below, or would create a loud crack as it split the wood, even if he shot from the bottom of the head, it would it the wall and make a noise. So he switched to his knife and knelt down by his first target, placing a hand over his mouth and quickly driving the knife up through the bottom of the mouth and into the back of the skull, stabbing through the brain stem and killing him instantly. One by one, the three other bandits met the same fate, dying in their sleep. Now he had to dispatch the two guards below without waking the captives, a taller task than killing people in their sleep. He wiped the blood onto the clothes of the last corpse then returned the knife to his left thigh as he walked to the wooden railing and peered down to the pens below.
It was as he thought, the females were treated like animals, with some bound to wooden saddle stands – lying face down with their wrists and ankles bound by tight rope to the stand's legs – while others were tied to tables. But all of them had been stripped of their clothing, no matter the age. And each one sported multiple dark bruises and lacerations across their bodies, though thankfully, it seemed that none of them had any broken bones. It looked like they were getting fed, at least, though he didn't know with what exactly, but they didn't look too malnourished.
Natsu's eyes were drawn to the pair of bandits lazily patrolling below him. He could tell that they must have been near the end of their shift, they were tired, not paying all that much attention. He glanced around the upper floor, searching for something he could use. His eyes settled on a length of rope that hung from a nearby hook, so he grabbed it and quickly tied it into a hangman's knot. He waited patiently for the opportunity to eliminate one of the guards, which thankfully came quickly.
"I need to take a piss…" One of the guards grumbled to himself before he wandered over to one of the pens, putting his back to the other bandit.
The rope slid through Natsu's hands, the noose descending until it reached the bandit who was about to pass under him. He hoped it would be dark enough for the rope to go unnoticed. And he got his wish, the bandit practically walked into it, and with a quick yank on the rope, his neck was snapped cleanly and he was quickly pulled up. This left the bandit who was emptying his bladder all over a poor young girl who had been sleeping up until that point. He discarded the body – still with the rope around the neck – and drew his knife, his faintly glowing red eyes glued on the man below. Before the man could finish his urination, Natsu leapt down and landed behind him, a hand covering his mouth as he turned and forced the bandit face down on the ground, slitting his throat with a deep stroke of his combat knife. He heard a gasp behind him and he turned his head, spotting the young girl staring at him with large yellow eyes. "Shh. This'll be all over soon." He whispered softly. "I'll bring the ones in the other buildings to here, and then take you all somewhere safe where a priestess is waiting to heal you all. Just don't wake anyone, it'll be safer that way."
"Okay." The girl's eyes lit up and she nodded rapidly as she whispered back, she took a few steps back from the pen's fence and curled up on the ground, closing her eyes once more.
Natsu grabbed the two discarded rifles and the slowly dying bandit who was quietly gurgling as air escaped his lungs from the deep bloody slit and carried them up the nearby ladder to the hayloft, laying them down with the rest of the bodies. A glance at his watch caused him to let out an irritated grunt, it was getting too close to dawn and the risk of the bandits waking up was becoming greater by the second, and the lightening sky would allow those patrolling to see him. He needed to either eliminate those bandits first or extract the captives.
However, it seemed that Lady Luck was on his side as the tired bandits began to congregate in the middle of the farmstead. Their shift must have been coming to an end or was close enough that they'd shirk their duties. They seemed to be talking quietly among themselves, though he didn't care to listen in, but since they were grouped up and slowly walking to the main building, he had the perfect opportunity to attack while their awareness was at a minimum.
Natsu dropped down to the ground as quietly as he could and shot forth, drawing his pistol and knife as he raced up behind the group. At the halfway point, he threw the combat knife into the back of head of the nearest bandit before surging forward and pivoting on the ball of his foot, whipping his heel around and driving the knife through the skull with enough force to launch it into the man who was leading the group, killing both in less than half a second. With two down, he flipped over the falling bodies as the other bandits tried to turn to the source of the initial attack, but he was already behind their heads and lining up his pistol with the back his next target's head; one shot, two shot, and another bandit began to fall. Natsu snatched his knife from the falling second bandit and drove it through the neck of the fourth hostile, decapitating him and using the momentum to bring his pistol around to deliver two more lethal shots of lead into the next man. He drove the knife into the chest of the sixth bandit and pressed the suppressed pistol flush with the bottom of the man's jaw, sending a round up through his head before flicking the gun to the seventh and putting two bullets into him; to the heart and between the eyes. With one final movement, he dragged the knife through the body of the sixth bandit and whipped it through the air into the eighth's man's temple while finishing him off with a shot to the heart. The first body slumped to the ground as Natsu flicked the blood off his knife and returned it to his sheath, he slid the mag from his pistol and checked how many bullets were left, he was halfway through the magazine, it was enough for now so he slid it back into place.
He stepped out from the middle of the pile of bodies and made his way to the main house, he needed to deal with the only bandits who were currently awake before he moved onto the two smaller houses. Since he no longer needed to blend in, he lowered the mask and hood, revealing his calm and indifferent demeanour as he quietly opened the front door. The immediate threat was a man seated on a couch to his left, a soft slurping and occasional gag coming from in front of him. It was one of the three awake bandits who had one of the captives sucking him off. Deciding to not let the act continue, Natsu walked up to the back of the couch and shot the man through the head. He glanced down at the naked teenager and brought a finger to his lips. "Hide somewhere."
The wide-eyed blood-spattered girl nodded silently and hurried into the hall, slipping into a cupboard underneath the stairs as quietly as she could.
Grunting and the squeaking of bedsprings drifted down through the ceiling of the two-storey building, drawing Natsu's red eyes up to the wooden surface. It felt like two bandits were ganging up on one of the captives in one of the bedrooms. He slowly ascended the stairs, keeping his steps light as he stalked through the house. The door to the bedroom was open and the light was on, so he kept to the side and showed as little of himself as he could as he peeked around the doorframe. There was a woman who looked to be in her mid-twenties lying limply on the bed, covered in semen and being spit-roasted by the two bandits with one forcing her to deepthroat him while the other was buried into the woman's vagina. Both were too occupied with their plaything to notice the third man who raised his suppressed pistol and delivered a pair of shots into both bandits, causing them to slump over and a little spark of life to return to the woman. His eyes lingered on the woman's bruised green eyes before he broke eye contact and continued down the hall. An uneven patter raced out into the hall behind him but kept their distance, he allowed the woman to follow him as he could tell that she was probably searching for someone.
All that were left in this building were five bandits and three more captives, all spread out through the last three bedrooms. Each room had one captive; no doubt kept there as permanent entertainment for the bandits. He entered the room where he could sense one sleeping bandit and he walked up the side of the bed. Beside the man was a girl who looked to be in her early teens, she was curled into a ball and whimpered softly in her sleep. Natsu levelled his pistol with the bandit and put a bullet between his eyes. This left him with only one round left in his gun, so he quietly switched out the empty magazine for a fresh one as the woman who had been tailing him walked up to the girl and carefully shook her awake, whispering a few hushed words into her ear before the young girl slipped out of the bed and took the woman's hand.
Natsu spared them a glance before he left the room, crossing the hall and entering the bedroom directly opposite. Two men were sharing a bed with the captive being a young woman who was nestled between them, he couldn't avoid getting her covered in blood and bits of skull and brain matter, so he didn't bother trying. He just lined up his pistol and administered two doses of lead to the heart and brain of each man, ensuring that they never woke up from whatever filthy dreams they were no doubt having. This just left two bandits remaining in the main house and then the four that were in the satellite houses.
As Natsu entered the final bedroom, he was met with the bleary eyes of one of the bandits. He seemed to have just woken up and was blankly staring into the cold, emotionless face of the man in the doorway, illuminated by the rising sun's rays coming in through the window. As the bandit was about to shout in panic and wake the other man in the bed, he felt the kiss of a pair of hot bullets, one to the chest and then one to the head, and then it was lights out. Natsu's aim snapped across to the second man and he put two bullets into him before he could even begin to wake from his slumber.
"What happened to Mary?" The semen-covered woman asked quietly as she let the young woman wake the last captive. "She's a sixteen-year-old blonde girl."
"I found her first, she was in the lounge room being made to blow a bandit's cock. You'll find her hiding under the stairs." Natsu replied quietly as he turned and made his way back down the hall and the stairs. He heard multiple soft footsteps race after him and a door creak open from under the stairs. The girl called Mary quickly slipped out and hugged her fellow captives. "I need you all to stay in here until I shoot a flare into the sky. You can use the time to clean yourselves up and find something to wear, be it clothes or a sheet that can be wrapped around you. As for your injuries, I have a priestess waiting nearby who can heal all of the physical trauma once it's safe."
"Thank yo…"
"Don't thank me yet." Natsu cut the woman off, giving her an impassive glance before he opened the front door. "I still haven't secured the area. Stay low and keep away from the outer walls and windows, if bullets start flying, I'd rather no captives get hit." He pointed to the rifle slung on his back with his thumb. "If I need to resort to that, I can tell you now that just a simple wooden wall or one body won't be able to stop it." With nothing more to say, he closed the door behind him and glanced at the horizon. The rising sun made sneaking around more difficult but he hoped that the bandits would be too preoccupied with their playthings to notice him enter the buildings, or look outside at the pile of bodies he had left in the middle of the compound. He needed to finish up quickly, otherwise they might hold the captives at gunpoint and make things difficult for him.
He picked up the pace, running to the closest satellite house and slipping inside. It was only a single-storey house, so he wouldn't have to travel far to reach the hostiles. It seemed to be a standard setup, one captive for two bandits, and it seemed that they were split between two bedrooms, though it seemed that the lightening sky was causing them to stir, he would need to act quickly before he faced any resistance. As he moved to the first bedroom, he had to quickly shift to the other side of the doorframe, as mere moments later, a haggard woman slinked out and was murmuring something about breakfast and coffee. He placed his hand on the door as it began to swing closed, pushing it back open slowly and bringing his pistol around the corner. After four quick shots, he slowly closed the door and twisted the knob so it would close without a sound.
"Wake up, Bitch." A heavy smack echoed from the other bedroom, followed by a soft thump. "It's morning, go work on breakfast."
The door flew open and a young woman limped out, hurriedly, a hand on her hip as a red mark bloomed on her cheek. Tears leaked from her eyes as she took two steps down the hall and froze in her tracks, coming face-to-face with the steadily approaching pinkette. A jerk of his head instructed her to move aside. She watched on in stunned silence as the expressionless man came to a stop in front of the closed door. He raised his boot and sent it careening into the door, kicking it deep into the room before he raised his handgun and let loose four bullets into the room.
"Find the other woman, in fact, she's coming to check in on you. Lay low for a little bit until you spot a flare shoot up into the sky. When you do, it's safe to come out." Natsu instructed quietly as he passed by her once more. "Find something to cover yourself and the other woman."
"A-alright."
Natsu passed by the first woman who spared him a glance but hurried past him, finding it not worth her concern. He heard them whisper to each other but took no interest in it, he still had a job to do. He left the small house and crossed to the other side of the compound where the final bandits were up and moving about. It seemed that the women were made to cook breakfast, though it was an odd thing to do since one could easily poison the bandits. Maybe they were made to eat the part of the food first like a royal taste tester, to ensure they hadn't poisoned it. But if one of them was hellbent on taking out some bandits with herself, it wouldn't have stopped her. Regardless of his passing thoughts, he would have to eliminate the bandits quickly as they could already be armed and could kill one of the captives on their way to the grave. He kept a firm grip on his pistol as he smoothly opened the door as if he was one of the bandits. He knew one was in the kitchen, two in the lounge room, and one using the toilet
"Oi, good timing! Yumiko is about done with the breakfast…?" A bandit called out from the open-plan kitchen as he turned towards the front door, but his voice trailed off when he was met with a pair of cold, glowing red eyes, and a strange handgun pointed right at him. "Who The Fuck…?"
The reply to the man's loud question was a pair of bullets, cutting off the last part of the question. Natsu blurred forward, a flash of black whistled through the air and passed through the neck of the second bandit. Natsu continued the arc and brought the knife near his chest before thrusting the blade back towards the couch, stabbing into the third man's skull and severing his brain stem. A fountain of blood was the only thing left behind as he surged through the house to the hallway and levelled his pistol with the closed bathroom door. There was only one occupant, the thirtieth bandit, the final one in the farmstead. And after two quick pulls of the trigger, the last bandit fell and the captives were now free from their torment. He slowly lowered the pistol and took a deep breath, releasing it slowly through his nose. "It's over." He slowly walked back through the house, sparing a glance at the two women in the kitchen. "Find something to wear and meet me outside. Grab as many sheets as you can, so we can cover up the ones in the barn."
"Right!" They both chimed in unison, they looked to be a pair of identical twins in their mid-twenties, though they had non-identical bruises littering their bodies.
Natsu stepped outside and looked over at the sunrise, letting out a tired sigh as he raised his hand to the sky, shooting a ball of fire from his forefinger and letting the guards and Lelyanna know they can move in. He turned to the barn and set out to free those contained within, however a pair of light footsteps racing up behind him caught his attention. "It's all over, Lelyanna."
"Y-yes." There was a slight amount of fear emanating from the woman, but she stuffed it away as she stepped around to the front of the man and lowered her hood and mask. Her usually pale skin was a few shades lighter and she had shadows under her eyes. "I-I could barely believe my eyes, seeing you in the full swing of things. One moment you were here, an instant later you were metres away, and then to another spot… It was a little disconcerting how ruthlessly efficient you were…"
"It was needed to ensure the safety of the women." He sighed softly and placed a hand on the large wooden door of the barn. "I must warn you, the ones in here weren't kept in the best condition…" He pushed open the door and Lelyanna immediately covered her mouth, going from pale to green as she held back the bile that was creeping up her throat. "I'll leave you to look after them while I go and set up a wash bay so they can be properly sanitised. I've got the ones from the houses bringing whatever they can find to help the others cover up."
"O-okay. I'll get to work." Lelyanna squashed her ill feelings and slipped into the barn, pushing the door almost all the way shut. One of her pale eyes peaked out through the gap, twinkling softly. "I'll connect to you once I've got them all free of their bindings."
"I'll make that wash bay against the side of the barn, on the other side of the side door. They should be able to come and go into it as they please."
"Right. Let me know when it's done." Lelyanna blinked and her pale eyes pulled away from the gap.
As Natsu turned away from the barn, he was met by both the women stood before him, an assortment of makeshift garments in their arms, and the guards in their cars as the skidded to a halt in the middle of the compound. "Head in, the priestess has just started. Her name is Lelyanna." Natsu walked past the women and made his way to the equipment shed, while watching the guards hurry over out of the corner of his eye. "Party's over, Remick. It was too dangerous to call you in, I found that they were spread out around the compound. If I put this place on alert then we would have lost some of the captives."
"Yeah, I figured something like this would have happened." The armoured man muttered but didn't argue the point. He glanced over to a group of guards stood by the eight bandits. "What happened there?"
"They ran out of luck. Grouped together and barely awake, perfect target of opportunity. I was able to eliminate the patrols all in one go."
"But they look like they hardly resisted."
"They didn't have time to resist. They were all dead before the first could even hit the ground." Natsu stopped in front of the shed's doors, finding them locked shut by a metal chain, but he just grabbed the offending piece of metal and ripped it apart with little effort, allowing him to slide the doors apart. In the middle of the room sat a lone chair, with flecks of dried blood here and there, no doubt used to torture the women, break their minds so they were more receptive to commands. He heard a gulp from the man behind him but it went ignored as he walked past the chair and started collecting up tarps, hoses, and metal posts.
"You seem used to seeing stuff like this?"
"I've seen my fair share of atrocities. Executed those responsible, too. This is no different." He replied, blandly, as he glanced at the green-faced guard before leaving him behind once more as he headed to the side of the barn. "I expected there would be something like that in there. The girls in the barn were tied to saddle racks, tables, bottomless chairs, and many other things. When I was dealing with the bandits in there, one was busy pissing all over a poor young girl. And all of them seemed to have been on the receiving end of many fists." He dumped the pile of building supplies on the ground then turned to the man. "Have your men create a perimeter, task some with taking the bodies out of the houses too. I'll deal with the ones in the hayloft once I've built a shower booth for the women. And above all else…" The man stepped forward, baring his fangs as his menacing red eyes bored into the guard. "No man is to enter the barn without my or Lelyanna's permission, understood?"
"Yes, I'll make sure they steer clear of them."
"Good." The red-eyed man pulled back and turned back to his work. He slowly pieced together the metal framework, welding the corners together with his own fire. He felt the familiar small presence of Lelyanna's conscious enter his mind but it just lingered for a moment before vanishing. He lifted his eyes to the door in front of him as it slowly creaked open and the bluish-silver-haired woman stepped out. "How's things?"
"They're all in bad shape. I'm going to have to mend the worst of their injuries and let the better injuries heal on their own, otherwise I'm going to burn myself out." Lelyanna replied quietly as she sat down on her knees in front of the man, watching him work while she took in the fresh air. "I've decided to not cleanse them through magical means, instead I'll wait for you to finish and have them wash themselves while I clean their wounds by hand."
"Sounds like a good idea." Natsu murmured. He glanced to a spot beside the camouflaged woman and a large camouflaged bag with a red plus on it appeared beside her. "That should contain everything you'll need to treat them through non-magical means. Use it alongside your magic to reduce the strain on your body. I'll place a bag with blocks of soap in here once I'm done, so you ought to be able to get the wounds nice and clean. Since you're here, mind giving a hand for a second?"
"What do you need?" Lelyanna smiled brightly as she rose to her feet. She placed the bag onto her back and dusted the dirt and grass off of her knees.
Natsu stabbed the ends of the frame into the ground then held up a long metal rod. "Grab the other end of this and hold it up to the top outside corner, and keep it steady. I'm going to weld it in place." He watched the woman grab the rod and stretch her arms out, closing her hands around the corner to hold it firmly in place.
"Why does it have to be so tall?" She complained softly with a quick glance at the man, she was on her toes just to reach the corner.
"Privacy." He said, simply as he ignited his fingertip and began melting the two pieces of metal together. "You may be a short-arse, but some of those women are as tall as me, and a few are even a tad taller." He felt the woman's glare but into the back of his head and it brought a small grin to his lips. "You know I'm right."
"I know that you are a…" Lelyanna paused and grumbled softly, she hated cursing and outright refused to do so, though it didn't bother her when others did it. "Butthead."
"Heh." Natsu finished up his corner and moved over to the woman, he was thankful that she was being feisty after seeing her looking very put out by witnessing him eliminating the eight bandits right in her line of sight, followed by finding out the exact state the women were in. "Well, at least you haven't picked up my bad habit of vulgar language. Not yet, at least." He felt the woman turn into his chest when he took a hold of her end of the rod and hide her eyes in it so they won't be damage by the bright light caused by his welding. "Can you grab those tarps and start laying them out on the ground, I'll grab some fencing wire and tie them to the frame. If you're done before I am back, just hook up that hose to the tap beside the door you came out of."
"Alright." Lelyanna ducked out from under his arms and quickly began unfolding the densely woven material. Since she no longer needed to have her entire body obscured, she slipped off her shirt and tied it around her waist, freeing up her pale arms and letting the sweat evaporate off her body. "I think it's going to rain again… I can feel the humidity in the air."
"I want to get these girls out of here before the clouds decide to dump their guts on us…" Natsu muttered while walking past her and fetching the wire from the shed. Once he was back, he erected the shower booth's curtains and made sure there were no gaps that people could peep through. He handed the bag of soaps to the woman and allowed her to get back to tending to the women. Natsu looked over his shoulder as he sensed someone approaching, finding Remick coming over once more. "Yes?"
"We've accounted for twenty-four of the reported thirty bandits, I assume the last six are inside the barn?"
"Mhm." The pink-haired man walked to the front of the building and looked up at the open door on the second floor. "I'll go get them." He effortlessly leapt the short distance up to the ledge and walked to the pile of bodies he had left behind, their blood staining the futons a saturated dark red.
"Natsu? Is that you up there?"
"Yep." He leant over the wooden rail and gazed down at the priestess below him, seeing that she was currently tending to the girl who had seen him slit the bandit's throat. "Just taking the dead bodies out from up here. Remick was doing a count and complained to me about missing six of them."
"So, I assume the puddle of blood in the middle of the barn was because of you?"
"Yep. I'll get out of your hair once these bodies are out of here." Natsu pulled back from the railing and grabbed the ankles of two of the bandits he had killed in their sleep. He dragged them to the opening and tossed them unceremoniously to the dirt below. He made the trip two more times, dumping all six bodies before the head guard before he leapt down to the ground. "Don't mind the rope, I had to kill that one and pull him up out of sight of the one with the slit throat." He walked past the stunned man and crossed to the other side of the compound, sitting down against the wooden fence that bordered the wheat field. He unslung his rifle and gazed at it silently for close to a minute before he sent it away along with the magazines that went with the gun. His eyes drifted up to the cloudy sky that grew ever lighter, and after a few minutes, he closed his eyes and let his head fall forward.
After an unknown amount of time, the sun's warmth was blocked and a familiar scent washed over him. "I'm all done, Natsu." Lelyanna whispered as she leant over the man. She smiled softly as he lifted his head, his eyes had gone from demonic red back to an abyssal dark-green. "Let's head back to the Inn, I'm completely spent."
True to her words, Natsu sensed her intense fatigue, and see it too thanks to the shadows under her eyes. They had been up for over twenty-four hours at this point, and had only around five hours of sleep for each previous night. To compound that, she had just tended to somewhere in the ballpark of forty kidnapped females with varying degrees of physical trauma, utilising both her medical magic and the kit that he had provided. "Alright." He pushed himself up off the ground and dusted himself off. "The guards can deal with the clean-up, it's their job to anyway."
Lelyanna yawned and stretched her out her slender body, her pale eyes sparkling softly with their usual strange mystical power. "I feel like I could fall asleep on my feet." She murmured tiredly as they left the farm without a single glance back, heading down the road to the car they had hidden in the ditch. "Do you think they'll be okay?"
"I doubt it. This isn't the kind of thing that goes away, all they can do is move past it as best as they can. They don't have any family to return to, well, some do but others don't." Natsu rubbed his face softly, massaging away the fatigue the best he could. "Mental trauma requires the help of someone you trust. Take my own case; I lost everything I ever knew or loved, I came here with no friends, and yet you've stuck by my side, choosing to be my friend no matter how far you fall down the gory rabbit hole. That in itself is helping me. I only hope that they can find someone like that for themselves."
"Maybe they'll find help in each other?" Lelyanna mused softly. She stepped in front of the man and turned so she walked backwards, albeit with an unsteady gate. "And… as frightened as I was when I saw what you could do… I also felt a little bit more reassured in your words, when you said that you'd protect me, save me if anything happens to me. I feel sorry for whatever poor sod gets this big bad demon sic'd on them for trying their luck with me."
"Heh. They wouldn't get the chance to regret their actions." Natsu gave her a small grin and lifted his gaze from her mysterious eyes as they reached the vehicle. "I'm going to have to pull this bitch free." He sighed softly and jerked his head at the car. "Hop in the driver's seat and stick it in reverse. I'll push it out."
"Alright."
Once the woman was inside the vehicle, he trudged down into the ditch and planted his feet as he pushed firmly against the car. It began to edge back slowly while Lelyanna pedalled the clutch and accelerator, and didn't take long to find purchase and she was able to back the car up out of the ditch and onto the dirt road. "There we go." Natsu murmured to himself as he plodded back up the embankment and opened the driver's door. "Shift over, I'll drive. You're too fatigued."
"Mm." Lelyanna slowly slid along the bench seat and settled down on the other side, slumped against the door. "Hard to tell what's more comfortable, this door or your thigh."
"Smart-arse." He chuckled softly and lightly slapped her thigh, getting a giggle from the young woman. As they took off back down the road, he heard Lelyanna murmur incoherently before turning to him.
"What about Lawrence and his family? They must have had some issues for him to be acting like that at the Inn."
"As bad as it sounds, they only had to suffer through maybe ten to fifteen minutes worth of rape and molestation at most. It'll leave scars, but nothing on the level of what it could have been had we not intervened. And hopefully, he'll be there for his family from know on, instead of trying to pick up random women at a bar."
"B-but… in the butt? How can that even feel good?"
"Some women enjoy it, and in same-sex relationships for men, it's the only hole they have. But, technically speaking, there isn't much distance between the rectal wall and the nerves responsible for sexual pleasure, so it can be stimulated from penetrating the arse. Some women do it over vaginal sex as to prevent pregnancy if they don't trust the man to pull his cock out in time, others consider it a religious loophole which allows them to have sex and keep their virginity for marriage, and like I said; some just plain outright love it."
"Have you done it?"
"Fucked a chick in the arse?" Natsu glanced at the woman, noticing the deep blush coming from the heavily embarrassed priestess. "Hmm… only three times. Three different women at different times in my life. Each one asked for it and, in the end, they decided it wasn't worth the pain and told me to stick with fucking them in the pussy. Plus, fucking some chick's arsehole just doesn't do it for me, I'd rather not have my dick covered in or smell like shit. The thought of it is already making me feel disgusted."
"Y-yeah…" Lelyanna murmured and looked at the man out of the corner of her eye. "When you told me what had happened to his wife, I instantly felt sick to my stomach. And it got worse when I was healing her. I don't think I could ever have someone stick something into there… It just looked so painful for her." She slowly leaned away from the door and plopped her head down onto his thigh. "That man got what he deserved for doing that to her, they all did."
"Are you doing alright?"
"No." The priestess replied simply, shaking her head lightly against his leg. "I killed someone, watched two girls be forced to preform oral sex, watched you slaughter almost a dozen men with my own eyes and saw the remains of the ones I didn't witness, saw and smelt the results of the cruelty of those men, personally had to treat each and every one of them…" She rolled onto her back and looked up at the man, bringing her hand up to rest on his left arm as she let out a faint whisper. "No… I'm not doing alright…"
"Humans like to see themselves as the higher being, but they are no better than the monsters we are sent to kill. They all rape, pillage, murder, enslave, commit atrocity after atrocity in the name of whatever they believe in, or even just for their own greed and sense of satisfaction brought on by abusing those they see as below them. Or, it could just be out of spite, 'I may kill myself, but I'll take you all with me', something like that."
"'Cruelty is a matter of life', right?"
"No matter where you go, there will always be some motherfucker who is like that. And that motherfucker will attract people of like mind, and form gangs." Natsu sighed softly and lowered his left hand from the gear stick, slowly running his fingers through the woman's hair in an effort to soothe her. "We'll have the rest of this day off and night off. If it's what we think it is, and we're facing goblins and or orcs, then it would be better if we act during the day due to them being mainly nocturnal monsters."
"I…" Lelyanna murmured softly, not taking her eyes off the man for a second even though they were becoming heavier by the second. "I just want to be held, to keep it all at bay. And hopefully, after a decent amount of sleep, I may feel better."
"Maybe." Natsu sighed and ran his hand down her cheek and habitually brushing his thumb back and forth. "This was your first time, so the horrors haven't had time to build up. But what a first time it was… and here I was hoping to take you on an easy job."
"Maybe my second time will be more pleasant." The woman giggled softly and started to relax under the heat of his hand.
Well, I think that topped the list of most disturbing things I've written. The previous leader was Natsu and Lisanna being captured with Natsu being waking up chained to the ceiling and Lisanna in a different part of the complex being sexually abused. And this is technically part two of three/four, the next one has to do with the non-human monsters, how fun.
As grim as it sounds, I hope you liked this chapter. Since it's on the longer end of things, really long, I'm going to keep this short. Don't forget to follow and or favourite, and if you would be so kind to leave a review with your thoughts; as long as it's not something along the lines of X shouldn't have been written about as it detracts from your story. I had that kind of review about the above-mentioned scene with Natsu and Lisanna, the point was to drive home the reason why Lisanna was afraid of and didn't trust men besides her brother, Makarov, and Natsu. Anyway, you probably realised this was going to be a pretty dark story when I nuked an entire world in the first chapter, with Natsu's friends and family dying right before his eyes, and then he suffered a mental breakdown and extreme emotional shock when met with the very much alive face of his dead friend in the fourth chapter. Again, I hope you liked this chapter, and I'll see you all in the next one.
