Splitting Up in Search of the Clock Pieces
"Wow, you look so cute and adorable!" Mira complimented as she and the others in Fairy Tail are amazes to meet Nymph after Lucy's group came back from the mansion.
"Dang, never thought we meet another Angel girl like Ikaros." Cana surprised.
"So, do you two come from the same place?" Kinana asked curious.
"I think, but I can't really remember for my memory data is all fuzzy." Nymph said.
"Hey Natsu, are you going to make her your servant too?" Happy asked his fire magic friend who is sitting on top of his head.
"Don't be stupid, I'm not going to force that on her!" Natsu yelled.
"I didn't say you have to force her, and it's getting a little uncomfortable with you sitting on my head." Happy stated.
"You sit on my head all the time!" Natsu reminded.
"Yeah, but this is different and doesn't feel right." Happy sighed and Natsu started to see his point.
Meanwhile, Lucy is reading the Key of the Starry Heaven book with Ikaros covering her ears with her hands so that Lucy doesn't get distracted by the noise everyone is making like Gray making fun of Natsu being a life-sizes action figure and they laugh a little.
"Okay, I think I got it." Lucy said closing the book and Ikaros removing her hands from her ears.
"Okay, everyone, listen up, I believe I may have figured something out." Lucy announced getting everyone's attention.
"Figured what out?" Natsu asked curious.
"This book, for instance, my dad followed its story to the letter." Lucy said.
"What do you mean by that?" Erza asked.
"I'm saying there's more fact than fiction in its pages. The "Key of the Starry Heavens" is about a little girl who goes in search for six keys because they are said to bring happiness when they're all collected." Lucy explained how the story goes.
"I know whose key will unlock my happiness." Juvia said, lovey-dovey staring at Gray.
"You certainly got yourself a big admirer?" Nymph teased, playfully tapping her elbow on Gray's arm.
"S-Shut up." Gray grunted while looking away to hide his blushing cheeks.
"Thing is… in finding her happiness the young girl unknowingly brings sorrow and misfortune to everyone around her." Lucy finished reading the story.
"That's no good, what a crappy ending." Happy commented.
"Criticism won't help solve this any faster, tom cat." Carla scolded.
"Sorry. Jeez, lighten up." Happy said.
"Yeah, you need to relax a little, old lady cat." Nymph mocked.
"Old Lady!" Carla angered.
"Because that's what you sound like." Nymph huffed.
"Please don't fight, you two!" Wendy begged.
"How does the girl find the keys exactly?" Ikaros asked.
"Well, according to what it says here, "The first key takes a journey"." Lucy answered.
"What the hell does that mean?" Natsu confused.
"It's a metaphor meaning that the first key was taken somewhere, and from what Ikaros told me it would safe to say that Michelle taking the key here is the first step in finding the others." Nymph explained.
"Impressive insight." Erza complimented.
"That's right. In the story, the little girl decides to go in search of the five remaining keys. One by one, she finds them in a variety of places. Finally, she travels to a cathedral and that's where she finds the sixth key." Lucy said reading the book more.
"A cathedral, you don't think…" Erza hoped that she's wrong, but Lucy pointed out that it's not the church here in town nor anywhere near Magnolia at all.
"Do you know where this specific cathedral is?" Ikaros asked.
"Well, this story was my favorite when I was a little girl, I used to read it over and over again. One day, the places the girl traveled in "The Key to the Starry Heavens" were real." Lucy revealed, recalling coming to that inclusion years ago.
"No way." Natsu surprised.
"Makes me wonder… if my dad came to the same realization, then I'll bet he hid the other five clock pieces in those spots." Lucy said and turns to Michelle.
"Did he ever mentioned any of this, Michelle?" Lucy asked.
"Uh, no, sorry, Mr. Jude was very quiet before he passed away." Michelle sobbed, Ikaros comforts her by petting her head.
"If that's the case, I have a feeling going to the locations mentioned in the book, we should have no trouble finding the rest of the pieces. So, who's with me?" Lucy asked her fellow guildmates though they remain quiet.
"I'm not sure what the Legion Platoon wants with the clock pieces, but I know we have to stop them! Come on, guys, if this 'chaos' thing is for real then we can't let them do whatever they please!" Lucy determined to stop the Legion Platoon and anyone who want to use the clock for evil.
"Yeah, I'm totally with you, Lucy!" Natsu shouted firing flames from his mouth.
"Wherever the master goes, I'll go too and help you with this quest, Lady Lucy." Ikaros joined in.
"I'll go with you too, big sis." Michelle said.
"I'm coming along to keep Thumbelina safe." Happy joked, calling Natsu a fairy tale character.
"What the fuck, man! Just because you got bigger doesn't mean you can keep digging into like that!" Natsu angered.
"Master Natsu, you do recall that you're the one who got smaller." Ikaros reminded.
"Ikaros's right, so you can't blame me for cracking a few jokes." Happy stated as he pats tiny Natsu on the head.
"No time for jokes, we're in a race here and we have to be on the lookout for the Legion Platoon as we know those guys won't give up on the search either." Gray pointed out.
"Yes, we were lucky that Samuel didn't read the book when Nymph showed up." Erza nodded.
"You're welcome, I'll be on Ikaros group for the search." Nymph said.
"Welcome aboard." Happy greeted.
"This mission relies on too much guesswork for my taste because we won't actually know what gathering the pieces will do. That said, we must do what we can to keep this "chaos" at bay." Makarov said as he also got a what point as well.
"I'll take care of assigning teams save for Lucy's group." Erza said.
(Later, with Team Shadow Gear and Pantherlily)
Team Shadow Gear and Lily are walking up a mountain path as Droy is becoming tiresome from all this hiking.
"Excuse me, Lily… I'm pretty sure we're going in the wrong direction to where the piece is." Levy pointed out, but Lily said nothing back as he kept walking ahead.
"Is it just me or is it kinda hard to tell what the little guy is thinking?" Jet asked.
"Yeah, but at least we know he's dependable." Levy said. And then Droy fell over as the others stop for a moment.
"This stupid mountain… and this physique… don't mix… at all." Droy groaned.
"Come on, Patherlily, don't you think we should get back on track? It's obvious the big guy can't take much more of this." Jet pointed out.
"We can't have Droy holding us back, if we really want to succeed, we need a powerful teammate." Patherlily said.
"So, who's this "powerful teammate"?" Levy asked curious.
"A man with an iron will, and an equally iron head." Patherlily hinted as Levy starts to realize who might that be.
(With Gray and Juvia)
Gray and Juvia are seen walking together in the forest, but the ice-wizard was not to fond of the idea knowing how crazy obese Juvia is with him though he doesn't really dislike her, just embarrass of being with her alone.
"(Damn it, why did it have to be Juvia of all people to team up with and why don't my heart slowdown.)" Gray thought with tiny blushes on his cheeks.
"I couldn't ask for a nicer day and the company is so heavenly." Juvia said smiling and beginning to fantasy having a family with Gray and having a cute daughter living in a peaceful house.
"Glad to see I caught up with you two." A man's voice said.
Gray and Juvia turns around are shock to see a familiar face walking up to them.
"Whoa, Lyon!" Gray surprised.
Lyon is a slim young man of average height with a muscular and toned body. He has bluish silver hair, most of which are spiky strands that jut upwards on top of his head, except for some which are kept pointing down and partially cover the upper left part of his face. Lyon's eyes are slanted, with dark round pupils and surrounded by similarly dark lines. He has small, linear, dark eyebrows. He wears a short, high-collared tunic, which is now dark in color and has light edges and cuffs, together with many decorative motifs on the lower part of the chest and sleeves as the collar is slightly open. His shoulders are covered by a dark mantle with a high collar and light, jagged edges matching his tunic. In addition, he appears to wear dark pants with light parts circling his thighs and gray boots.
"What do you want?" Gray asked his old rival and childhood friend.
"I'm here because I heard about your little quest. You shouldn't be going on such a perilous journey by yourselves." Lyon said.
"So, you're just worried about us?" Gray believed that isn't the whole reason why he's here.
"Sure, let's go with that." Lyon said with straight face.
"Thanks, but we're fine." Gray tried to shoo him away.
"I'm not convinced of that, so I'll stick around." Lyon decided.
"(Damn it, Lyon, you better not get in our way and better stay away from MY Juvai! Wait, why did I think that?)" Gray thought gasped of suddenly thinking that Juvia is his girlfriend, which she's not, just a friend, nothing more. Right?
(With Lucy's Group)
Lucy decided they should take a boat heading to the direction of one of the clock pieces is, everyone seems to be relaxing during the trip except for Natsu having his major motion sickness.
"Does this happen to him often?" Nymph asked.
"Apparently, Master's Dragon Slayer Magic enhances his sense much greater than that of a normal human which involves vehicle movements to weaken him." Ikaros explained.
"Seriously, why have a powerful magic if you're just going to end up with that?" Nymph disappointed.
"Shut up…" Natsu groaned.
"Man, this is lame and embarrassing." Romeo sighed.
"I was kinda worry about this team being lame, but I guess it'll work for the most part." Happy said.
"What do you mean?" Romeo asked.
"Well, we got a tiny fire wizard who can't fight like he uses to, a blonde bimbo, a good two-shoes, and a little kid. I was worry that I'll have to do all the fighting like if we ever face those Legion Platoons, but glad we have our powerhouse Ikaros and the smaller but also a powerhouse Nymph, so we should be okay." Happy explained.
"Hey, who are you calling small, you blue furball!" Nymph angered.
"I've gotten stronger these past seven years; I can fight on my own!" Romeo stated.
Meanwhile, Lucy went to the back of the ship wondering would anyone want to go toward chaos which is confusing to her.
"Excuse me, might you be members of Fairy Tail?" A man asked with his three companions.
"Yes, that's correct, sir." Michelle answered as the others wonder who those old guys are.
(With Erza's Group)
Erza, Wendy, Cana, and Carla are walking together through a big grassy field as Wendy compliments on how must've been like for girl in the story to travel all over the world looking for different keys while being carefree though Carla also pointed out that the girl brought misfortune and chaos to the world. Then Erza brought up a crazy idea about having a picnic until weird-looking bandits came and ruin her picnic which resulted Erza to beat the living shit out of them and her group continues their travel.
(With the Strauss Siblings)
Elfman, Mira, and Lisanna are taking a break from their traveling for a while as Elfman is cooking up the stew though Lisanna gets scared that they're having their lunch near the edge of a cliff with the water dozens of feet below them. Mira and Elfman aren't scared about this which makes Lisanna question if they ever did something like this before while she was away from the other world.
(Back with Lucy's Group)
"Actually, we're members of a prestigious archaeological society. I'm Jean-Luc, by the way." The tall man said.
He's a middle-aged man of average height and build. He has a stern look and stout facial features, with a large purple beard accompanied by a mustache of the same color crowning his face, as well as large curvy eyebrows. He sports long purple hair which reaches down to his middle-back and is tied in a loose ponytail at his neck. On the top of his head is a light brownish adventurer's hat. His whole attire mostly consists of garments in this particular light brownish color: he wears a loose-fitting pocket-vest with the sleeves rolled up, held in place at his waist by leather belt, accompanied by baggy pants adorned with the same kinds of pockets as the aforementioned vest, and long black boots. He also sports long red wrist bands and a white scarf tied loosely around his neck.
"(Hmm, the tall seems to be the leader of this group.)" Nymph thought guessed.
"Oh, so you're archaeologists?" Lucy asked.
"What's that?" Natsu asked groaning.
"It's people who studied on old history long before anyone was born." Nymph answered.
"Indeed, and we're here because we've heard that Fairy Tail is searching for a legendary clock. Is that true?" A short, elderly man asked making them shock.
"It looks like our adventure has been spread as rumors." Ikaros said.
"That hardly matters, missy." The second-tall old man said.
"Oh no, there must be traitor from inside the guild since the Legion Platoon is a secret group that nobody heard about and someone must've leak it out!" Michelle panicked.
"No way that would happen." Lucy protested.
"I haven't gotten to know everybody in the guild yet, so I'm not sure what to think of them! So sorry!" Michelle said worry.
"I'm dying here!" Nastu winced.
"Don't worry, Master, the boat ride will be over." Ikaros assured.
"As we were saying, we 'd very much appreciate it if you would put a halt to this little adventure of yours." Jean-Luc revealed as he and his group starts explaining about what Lucy already knows much to a shock to them.
"Listen to me, please! It's imperative you forget about the clock!" Jean-Luc shouted.
"I can't just forget about it, okay?!" Lucy shouted back.
"Yeah, y-you tell them, Lucy." Natsu cheered while wincing in pain.
"I understand the ruins are important to you, but I'm fulfilling my father's dying wish!" Lucy revealed making the archaeologists shock.
"My dad waited, for seven long years… he waited for me. He believed I could keep the world from plunging into chaos! He left the task to me, his daughter, and nobody else! He believed in me to the end! That's why I can't forget because I don't want to let him down!" Lucy touched the men's hearts with her words.
Then suddenly Natsu got carry off by the wind and drop to the sea causing everyone to worry, Ikaros was about to go get him, but the four archaeologists jump off boat after Natsu and throw him back on the ship. Natsu grew back to his big, normal size.
"I'm big again!" Natsu smiled.
"But how?" Happy asked.
"That was us, actually! We happen to know a little magic ourselves!" Jean-Luc answered.
"Lucy Heartfilia's story touched our hearts and inspired us, you see. So, we returned you to normal! Think of it as a thank you from our society." Jean-Luc explained.
"Cool, thanks a lot, old man!" Natsu thanked.
"We wish you luck on your journey! Our hears go with you, stop at nothing, and fulfill your father's last wish!" Jean-Luc said.
"You bet I will!" Luck waved goodbye to them as her group sail off.
"They sure were a strange bunch." Nymph commented.
"I believe Fairy Tail is also strange, in a good way." Ikaros said.
With the four men as the three ask their leader if it was wise to let them go like that.
"What a curious coincidence… quite. However, I'm afraid as things are now, Jude's daughter will find what she's looking for." Jean-Luc said, praying to Jude's soul in Heaven to watch over her daughter on this journey.
KO a new chapter is done and hope you all enjoy it!
Well, now the search for the mysterious clock has begun with Fairy Tail sending different groups to find each pieces on their end and it looks like Lucy has met some interesting men unknowingly that they knew her dad. Let's hope their search won't be too dangerous, but we all know how that will turn out for them.
KO comment, favorite, and follow through of how this story will go!