19: demon slaying.
Natsu slowly opened the front double doors of Gray's penthouse. "I'm back...!" He whispered.
Lucy looked at Natsu with a lost expression. "What's up with you?"
Natsu thought back to the last conversation he had with Gray.
"You're obviously not human so...what are you?" was what Gray had asked him. This man is a demon slayer. The last time he's heard of demon slayers was back when magic and demons and other mythical beings were common knowledge. He wasn't expecting there to be demon slayers still roaming in the current era. Still. It didn't matter. A demon slayer is onto him.
He shivered. He's not home which means I should find his weaknesses and get rid of anything that could hurt me. I won't let some exhibitionist demon slayer kill me!
Lucy glanced at Natsu before entering the penthouse. "You hungry? What do you guys have here?"
She casually strolled into the kitchen. "I'm in the mood for ramen. You?"
"Yeah, check the pantry. I'll be down in a sec," Natsu said before running upstairs. The minute he entered Gray's room, he felt a gust of cold air. If I were Gray...where would I keep my demon slayer shit...?
He checked under Gray's bed and found there were a few shoe boxes. Bingo!
Triumphantly, he pulled one of the boxes from under the bed and took off the cover. The box was filled with unopened envelopes. Smiling mischievously, he opened one of the envelopes and read the letter that was hidden inside.
Dear My Beloved Gray,
What is love? Love is a dandelion field. It was during that fateful rainy day when I entered this vast dandelion field with you, my beloved. I, cursed at birth to be a rainwoman, has always made everywhere rain but it was you who made the gloomy rain go away. I will never forget that. Alas, we are of two different worlds. You are on the path of justice while I am on the path on injustice, me being a gangster. We must be living in a Romeo and Juliet story. But please, let's not let our story have us killing ourselves like fools, for I wish to live a long life with you and have 101 babies with you. I am water. You are ice. We were meant to be. But you are too far away. I call out your name but you cannot hear me. Why can't you hear my voice? I'm yelling at the top of my lungs but you still can't hear me. So, I take a dandelion and make a wish on it, hoping that you can hear me. But if a dandelion gets lost in the wind, will it reach you? So I made more wishes on dandelions and watched them all get lost in the wind. Eventually, I hear you. "Keep making wishes on dandelions," you told me. I will never let go of my love for you so I shall continue making wishes on dandelions until they reach you.
Always and Forever, Juvia
PS: I still love you!
Natsu blinked. "Who's Juvia? His girlfriend?"
He reached into the box and pulled out another letter. He opened it and saw it was from Juvia. After reading that one, he laid on his back and started to read the rest of the letters that were in the box like it were some book.
"Damn...this relationship's intense..." he mumbled as he read.
When he finished all of the letters, he quickly remembered his mission. He sprung onto his feet and lifted Gray's pillow off of the bed. "This guy sleeps with a gun under his pillow?"
Dropping the pillow, he opened Gray's drawers and took every article of clothing out. After checking every drawer, he found that there were no demon slaying stuff in them.
He opened Gray's walk-in closet. "His shit better be in here!"
"What are you doing?" He heard Lucy ask.
He turned around and saw Lucy standing in the doorway. Her arms were crossed and her eyebrow was raised. It was obvious that she was not impressed.
"Yo, you gotta help me!" Natsu cried.
"Um, I'm not about to help you mess up Gray's room," Lucy answered. "I get it. Y'all don't like each other, even though I don't get it...actually...is it because you're fire and he's ice?"
"Nah, I just hate his guts," Natsu answered before remembering that he was asking Lucy to help him. "Gray's not here, right? Which means we should find his demon slayer shit!"
"Is that even necessary?" Lucy asked.
Natsu looked at her in disbelief. "Uh, yeah! He's a demon slayer! Key word: demon slayer! We should get rid of his weapons while we still can!"
"You're right. He's a demon slayer and he'll use his weapons against a demon," Lucy agreed.
"Yeah!" Natsu cried.
Lucy still didn't move from her spot.
"So...you gonna help me?" Natsu asked.
"No," Lucy answered.
"Why?" Natsu asked.
"Because it's pointless. There's no need for you to worry about him using his demon slayer weapons on you because he doesn't know that you're a demon," Lucy answered.
Natsu scoffed. "I knew that!"
"Yeah...so why are you so hell bent on looking for them anyway?" Lucy asked, slowly entering the room.
"Better safe than sorry," he answered, rubbing the back of his neck.
Lucy noticed that he was looking everywhere but at her. Her eyes grew wide and she sat down on the bed. "He knows."
"Who knows? Knows what?" Natsu asked, deciding to look up at the ceiling.
"How did Gray find out that you're a demon!?" Lucy cried.
"The night you went to your ex's place. I kinda used my super hearing to listen to the phone call he was having with that Erza girl and now...he...don't...think...I'm...human..." Natsu trailed off.
"Wait. So that's all the info he has?" Lucy asked.
"What do you mean?" Natsu asked as he walked away from the closet.
"Did he straight up ask if you were a demon or anything?" Lucy asked.
"No. He just told me that he knows that I'm not human," Natsu answered, sitting down next to Lucy. "So technically, he still doesn't know that I'm a demon, but I'm not taking any chances."
"My job is to worry, not you. So if I'm not worrying, that means you shouldn't worry either," Lucy said before standing up. "I made ramen so you should come down and have some," she said as she left the room.
Natsu still didn't feel comfortable with leaving the demon slaying items. Sure, he's the all-powerful END, but he's still a demon. Any demon slaying item used by a legit demon slayer could kill him like it's nothing.
That droopy-eyed exhibitionist used ice magic, he thought as he glanced at Juvia's letters. Most of the letters mentioned personal things about Gray that she had learned from obviously stalking him for years. He could use the things he learned from the letters to find Gray's weakness and use it against him.
He laid on the ground and took all of the shoe boxes from under the bed. "Treat me well," he told one of the shoe boxes before he proceeded to take them to his room and hid them underneath his bed. He can learn Gray's weaknesses later.
"Yo! is the ramen good!?" He cried as he ran down the stairs.
Lucy was sitting on one of the couches as a drama played on TV. She was holding a bowl of ramen and had looked up when she heard Natsu's voice. "Of course it's good. I made it!"
Natsu entered the kitchen and put some ramen in a bowl for himself. Then he sat next to Lucy on the couch. "What show is this?"
"The Christina. This drama is hella popular. Tonight's actually the finale. I was scared that I was gonna miss it but I'm glad I caught it!" Lucy answered.
Natsu stared at the TV. "What's this even about?"
Lucy smiled as she rambled about the show. "This show stars the popular boy group called Trimen! You know who the Trimen are? Of course you don't! But they're the hottest guys around! Oh, and the supermodel Jenny Raelight's in it too! Mirajane used to be a supermodel and she's model with Jenny but rumor has it that the two got into a big ass fight over Hibiki who's one of the Trimen which is why Mirajane quit modeling, but Mirajane told me that she left because the entertainment industry is toxic. Anyway, this drama's directed by Ichiya Vandalay Kotobuki and it's all about Jenny's character who's a princess running away with Hibiki's character who's a pirate."
Lucy took a break to eat some of her ramen before continuing. "Okay. So see it like this. Jenny's forced to take over her twin sister's identity since her twin sister was murdered but then an attack by pirates happened and Hibiki, the leader of the pirates, kidnapped Jenny to use as a sacrifice and held her hostage on his pirate ship call the Christina. The sacrifice was so Hibiki and his crew can gain immortality and what they needed was the blood of the royal family since they're special and shit. The thing is, Jenny's not actually related to them by blood since she was actually adopted but she pretends they are since she wants to escape the royal life so they sail around the world looking for special items for the sacrifice. Jenny and Hibiki fall in love...what else? Oh yeah! Jenny's twin sister was alive the whole time, Eve, one of the Trimen, is actually a member of the royal family so they sacrifice him instead, there's just so many twists and turns which makes this drama awesome!"
Natsu decided to give the drama a try after seeing Lucy hype up the drama.
10 minutes into the drama, they were both balling their eyes out.
"They were meant to be together!" Lucy sobbed.
"Ima go in there and fucking kill her!" Natsu sobbed.
"I don't like the twin but she and Ren's character made a good couple! Why did the twin kill Ren like that!? I don't get it! She's so evil!" Lucy sobbed.
"Yo! Yoyoyoyo! Shhh! She's about to do something to the main couple!" Natsu cried.
Lucy gasped. "What!? Really!?"
The both of them got up from the couch and moved closer to the huge, expensive flat screen TV. Just when they were about to find out what happened next, it went on commercial break.
"Nooooooooooo!" Natsu yelled.
Lucy sighed and grabbed their bowls that were sitting on the coffee table. "Do you guys have some beer?"
"Check the fridge," Natsu answered, flopping down on the couch.
Lucy quickly washed the bowls and the pot of ramen in the sink before taking 2 cans of beer from the fridge. By the time Lucy was back in the living room, the commercials were over.
"What'd I miss?" She asked.
"It just came on," Natsu answered, grabbing one of the beer cans.
They simultaneously opened their cans and did cheers together without looking away from the TV.
The drama had ended an hour later. Once it was over, Natsu and Lucy started to play an intense game of Uno.
Natsu put down a yellow 5 card on the stack. Snickering, he looked back at his cards. I got myself a wild card. Any card she puts down is worthless cuz I can change the game to my favor with this card! Mwahahah! First time playing yet I'm about to win!
Lucy put down 4 colorful +4 cards. "Take 36 cards and the color is blue. Uno, by the way," she said, triumphantly showing off the single card in her hands.
Natsu dropped his cards and pointed an accusing finger at Lucy. "You can't do that!"
"I told you in the beginning that we can stack the same cards. I just happened to have 4 of those cards," Lucy answered with a shrug.
"What!? That ain't right!" Natsu cried.
"Yes it is," Lucy answered, smirking
"Rematch! I wanna rematch!" Natsu demanded.
"The game isn't over yet," Lucy said.
"Put down the card you're holding," Natsu said.
"Why?" Lucy asked.
"Just do it," Natsu pushed.
Lucy put a blue 1 card on top of Natsu's yellow 7 card. "I win!"
Natsu flipped over the table that had the cards on it. All of the cards went flying. "I wanna rematch!"
Lucy laughed. "It's not my fault that you suck!"
A bunch of rematches later, Lucy was still the winner while Natsu was the loser.
"You ready to admit defeat?" Lucy sleepily asked.
"We're not sleeping until I win," Natsu answered.
"Keep on dreaming," Lucy said, grabbing her phone.
An hour ago, she had texted Levy and the others in the group chat to see if they could bring some of her stuff. She had even included a list of things she needed. Unfortunately, they said they couldn't. There were still so many reporters around the place reporting on their every move as they waited for her to return.
She sighed when she saw there were no responses from them saying that they can bring her stuff over. "Can we do this in the morning? I'm tireddddddd," Lucy asked Natsu.
"Nope," Natsu answered, shuffling the cards.
Lucy yawned and leaned against Natsu's arm. "I don't wanna sleep on the floor or the couch. Take me to a bed or something. We can play in the morning."
Natsu looked down at Lucy and watched as she struggled to keep herself awake. "Fine, but ima win next time!"
"Mmhm..." Lucy responded, closing her eyes.
Natsu lifted her up bridal style and walked upstairs to his room. Then, he tucked Lucy into his bed. Immediately, she passed out.
He reached under his bed and pulled out a shoe box. He had time so he decided to start looking for Gray's weaknesses. He glanced at Lucy and saw that she was shivering. He put the shoe box on the nearby desk and adjusted the blankets to warm her up. Why does Gray like to put the temperature at negative 100 degrees? He wondered.
Lucy was still shivering. He frowned. I don't know how to change the temperature in this place...
He then had an idea. He just wasn't sure if it was a good one.
Deciding that it was whatever, he laid next to Lucy and pulled her into his arm. The minute her face touched his chest, she stopped shivering.
He held her delicately as if she were a fragile china doll and made sure not to make any sudden movements in order to not wake her up. Lucy, who was still fast asleep, moved closer to Natsu.
Natsu felt flustered. Even in the past, he and Lucy have never shared a bed before. He quickly told himself that all he's doing is warming Lucy up. When Lucy moaned in her sleep, his face turned redder than a tomato.
This was a bad idea! I gotta get outta here! He franticly thought.
Lucy tightly grabbed onto the shirt he was still wearing. "Don't leave me..."
Natsu, who was still blushing, decided not to leave. Awkwardly, he rubbed her back. "I'm not leaving," he said softly, glancing at the shoe box that was still sitting on the desk. Looking for Gray's weaknesses can wait.
Slowly, he closed his eyes and drifted off to dreamland.
In another city, Gray entered a restaurant he was told to meet at. When he entered, he found the familiar blue haired men he had traveled just to meet.
"Today's the anniversary of Silver Fullbuster's death," the man said with a sigh.
"It came so fast," Gray said as he sat down.
"He was a good man. The best of the best," the man said before his eyes softened. "You're the last member of the Fullbuster Clan. How sad."
Gray cleared his throat. "I asked to meet up with you to discuss about END."
"END? What about the mythical demon from the storybook legends?" The man asked.
"That demon is not fake. That demon is real. The Fullbuster Clan was created just to destroy the fire and pain eating demon said to bring the end of the world. That demon is END and according to the prophecy, the last Fullbuster is the one who must slay END," Gray explained.
"I thought you didn't believe in the prophecy?" The man asked.
"I didn't...but now I'm starting to. A while back I was exorcising a demon and that demon told me that END has been released," Gray answered.
"So END is wondering around," the man said.
"Yes," Gray responded.
"I'm curious. What's made you suddenly believe that old prophecy?" The man asked.
"The coincidences...can't be just coincidences. Me being the last Fullbuster, then a demon telling me that END is out. You know how I don't believe that things just happen because they are coincidences," Gray answered.
"You're right. You don't believe in coincidences. Okay, so why are you here? To ask for more exorcism jobs? Oh yeah. Your friend Lyon's worried about you. He also wants you to watch his movie," the man asked.
"I'm not watching his movie," Gray sharply said.
The man crossed his arms. "Why are you here?"
"I'm ready to bare my destiny. Give me my father's seal so I can fully take on my family's demon slayer technique," Gray answered.
"Why do you think I have the legendary Ice Devil Slayer seal?" The man asked.
"I saw you literally rip it out from him in front of me when he was killed by Deliora. Then you ran off and my master Ur found me. Then when Ur disappeared, you reappeared and raised me. I knew that you had the seal on you but I wasn't sure since I was young. Now that I'm all grown up, I know now," Gray explained.
"Yes, I did rip it out. But the technique Ur taught you has proven effective against demons," the man said.
"If I'm going to fulfil my family's purpose for existing, I must use my family's power," Gray said.
"That makes sense," the man said.
Gray sighed. "I hate leaving that crackhead Natsu at my home for a long time but I have no choice. I'm gonna have to stay here for a while to master or at least get used to the technique."
"Did you know that END had a human lover that he had brought back to life?" The man asked.
Gray blinked. "An evil demon such as himself?"
"Shocking, right? Anyway, I'll allow you to kill END but that human girl is mine. I'm telling you this in advance so you don't yell at me and say that I told you nothing," the man said.
Fair enough, Invel," Gray said.
The man sitting with Gray, named Invel Yura the Winter General, nodded.
Random Fact: When I was younger, one of my cousins had this china doll. I was so jealous of her so I broke the china doll's feet. When I did, though, the china cut my finger. Those things hurt!
Wassup!? It's ya gurl sugarsugarrush!
Bruh! I love all y'all so fucking much! I for real gotta think of something special to thank y'all with! Valentine's Day is in like 2 weeks and I would love to do something special. I just don't got any ideas yet but if you do, let me know in a PM or a review!
Be my Valentine!
Moving on.
Reviews:
Amanny- Thank you very much! And Sting is kinda mad at Natsu right now since it's kinda Natsu's fault but not that Wall came in and shot up Sabretooth so he feels that killing Lucy is the only way to get her keys to help Yukino and the Oracion Seis and for no more innocent people getting hurt
Copperrein12- Thank you so much!
Juvia's letter is based on a number of things. 1st of all, my Star vs. the Forces of Evil story had letters similar to that except that they were inner monologues and they were the 5 stages of grief. Then, the letters and the monologues were based on the scene in the Chinese drama Youth that had one of the characters Chen Chen having inner monologues in the bathroom. I don't remember if the original Korean version of the drama had the same thing since it's been years since I've seen it. Third, when I had decided it was time to move on from this one guy, my friends and I decided to put together a "funeral" for my feelings for him so I wrote a eulogy about how love is a dandelion field and I read it out loud during the funeral. Lastly, I put the title of the last 2 books from To All The Boys book trilogy by Jenny Han as the ending and the PS thing on Juvia's letter
The drama The Christina is based off of the movie series Pirates of the Caribbean and this manga called Shounen Oujo
So, an arc has officially ended. I guess the arc that had just ended should be called "Moral Compass Battle" or something. I don't know. Anyway, it's time for more shit to go down! Woooo!
I gotta get my work done before I have to go to my job (ya gurl is employed now) so ima end this! Don't forget to PM me or leave me a review! Later, yo!
