White Eclipse
Chapter 22
As the train comes to a stop, Natsu, Sting and Takeru all fall out of the train into a pile. After taking a few minutes to recover, they all three stand and fix themselves up. "Time to get going." Takeru says, finishing dusting himself off.
"Yeah." Sting replies. "Where's the paper say we should meet the guy?"
"Um." Natsu shuffles around his pockets for the job flyer. He then does it again in a frantic pace. "...I lost my flyer."
Sting laughs. "Oh Natsu-San! Responsibility isn't your strong suit!" As Sting talks, he shuffles through his pockets, realizing he can't find his flyer either. "..."
"You were saying Sting?" Natsu commented with a smirk.
"I don't know what happened I just had it! Well, at least Takeru has his-" Sting looks ahead at the shadow dragon slayer, who was taking off into the city at full speed.
"Takeru! I bet he has our flyers! He wants the job to himself!"
"Oh no he doesn't!" Natsu takes off after Tak. Sting right behind Natsu as they chase Takeru through the city.
.
[FLASBACK]
A near empty guild. The guild was no bigger than a small house meant for two people, yet inside were six boys of different ages and an older man. Towards the right were Sidney and Zalen. Zalen was only a toddler, playing with blocks while his older brother Sidney watched him. Zalen builds up a well constructed tower and begins laughing and clapping. Sidney smiles as he does so.
Over to the left, Waiston and Jack were bothering the significantly older male that wore a fitting white robe. He had black hair and green eyes. Waiston hung from his robe as Jack laughed. The older man's eyes begin glowing both black and white in agitation as he releases some magical pressure, causing a wind of light and shadow mixture to send them both flying through the wall.
In the corner of the guild, was the newest asset to their guild. Kuro Crane. The red haired kid sat at a table alone, holding a picture of him and an older woman, smiling happily. Kuro flipped the picture over to some writing on the back.
{I'll always be around kid. No matter how annoying you are. Thanks for making me smile and you're welcome for the fire make magic.
-Mary}
As he flips the picture back around, tears stream down Kuro's face and pitter-patter against the image. He tries his best to smother his sobbing, but with such a small room and with everyone within hearing range, it doesn't help.
"Hey.." A young Reve Volver walks up to the crying Kuro. He rolled up his sleeves as he approached him. "What's up with you? It's kinda weird to cry on your first day in Fiore's strongest guild." Reve smirks as he places his hands on his hips. The young gunslinger looks on as Kuro looks back at him and sniffles.
"S-sorry. I.. I just can't find my mentor. She was like my mother. And she left me in the mountains..to protect us against some giant winged monster."
"Giant winged monster?"
Reve gave him a puzzled look. "And she never came back?"
The tears slowly start again as Kuro's voice shakily answers. "No..! I... I looked..I looked everywhere! There's like twenty stupid mountains here and I could barely scale one and...! And...!" Kuro begins crying again, unable to hold in his heartbreak.
Reve merely watches. He then picks up the picture from Kuro's hands.
"Hey! That's mine!" Kuro cried out. The last thing he wanted was his only picture to be ruined.
"So this is her huh?" Reve examines the photo of the woman with short, bright blonde hair and orange eyes.
Reve flips the photo over and reads the back of the photo.
"Alright."
"Alright?" Kuro sniffles again, looking at Reve in confusion.
"Hey guys! Come here!"
Sidney and Zalen walks over to Reve, then Jack and Waiston crawl out of the hole in the wall and stand around the teary eyed Kuro as well. "Look at this." Reve hands the picture to Sidney. Everyone else leans in to take a gander as well.
Kuro gets a worried look as he watches. "Please don't tear it!"
"So what? This your mom or something?" Waiston asked.
"Nah, that's his mentor. She taught him his magic. Fire make right? She's missing." Reve replied.
Zalen fixes his oversized glasses as they flip the picture over and reads to himself. "Wow..she must of meant a lot to you huh? Don't feel bad, everyone here has lost someone close to them."
"She's not dead!" Kuro yelled, the tears reforming in his eyes.
"She isn't. That's why," Reve stood up on the table as he held up a W with his right hand. "It's our job to find this Mary! So Kuro has other reasons to cry! Like when we beat him up when we fight for the big piece ls of meat and fruit!"
"I'm in. If she can teach you magic that means she's strong. So she's alive I'm sure."
"We're brothers here!" Waiston shouted. "So that means if she's close to you, she's close to us. Which means we have to save our family!"
Kuro was speechless. He didnt know how to react for a bit. "You guys would really help me find her?"
"We won't stop looking until she's found Kuro!" Waiston yelled out as he pounded his chest.
Reve then holds out his index finger towards Kuro.
"What's this?" Kuro asked, giving Reve a puzzled look.
"This is how we make promises here. Give me you index finger."
Kuro stretches out his finger. Reve then wraps his around Kuro's and smiles. "You see, a pinky promise is weak, because the pinky is the weakest finger. But the index, it's much stronger than any pinky, kind of like us to other guilds, even though they don't know it yet. This is a White Eclipse promise. So we of White Eclipse, promise Kuro, to find his mentor, Mary."
The tears come back again. But this time Kuro smiles and hugs everyone in unison as the flashback starts to fade.
"Hey! None of that!" Reve and Sidney pull away as Jack Zalen and Waiston laugh, keeping them in the circle. [End flashback]
As the flashback completely ends, Reve was standing outside on the steps, looking out to the snow as Jack and Sidney walk up beside him. Zalen and Waiston join from behind.
"He'll be okay. You know Kuro is sensitive." Jack stated. "You said things you didn't mean and he took them to heart, but Kuro could never hate anyone."
"I know... I know..."
They all continue to look out into the snow, until Skye quietly walks out.
"Ahem..uh..Reve?"
"Hm?" Reve holds his head up to know he acknowledged her calling for him.
"Well, I want to be in the games. And in order to do that I need to train hard, so I was wondering...from one requip Mage to another...will you help me train from time to time?"
Skye quietly waits for an answer.
"...Sure why not. I need to get to know you newbies anyways if you're gonna wear my guild mark. We'll start tomorrow, me and Jack already have a spar planned."
So happy and unsure of what to do, Skye hugs Reve quickly. "Thank you, you won't regret it!" She then runs back inside while the others, besides Sidney, laugh at Reve's disposition of being hugged.
.
Erza was walking through a forest outside the town of Stone Heart. She held up a flyer that read the S class job she was focusing on. {Help wanted: twelve giant Wyverns causing chaos around the town of Stone Heart. Nest located just outside of town.}
"Wyverns huh? Giant winged beast. This won't be an easy task alone." She takes a deep breath as she sees a giant nest come into view. "But it'll be a good training stint."
"No way! Erza Scarlet!? Now that's Wild!"
Erza turns her attention upwards as she spots Bacchus on a lone tree branch.
"You're kidding." The scarlet haired mage sighed. "Bacchus, what are you doing here?"
"What's it look like?" Bacchus hops down /right/ in front of Erza. He hiccups as his face was pink in the cheeks. "I'm here for the Wyvern job. Just like you it seems."
"It seems that makes three of us." Out from a plateau, a purple haired mage jumps down and now beside Erza and Bacchus. She nods to Erza. "Erza."
"Kagura? You too?" Erza asks, looking at the Mermaid Heel Mage.
"Now this is a party, heh. I know that no one here is going to leave. So just don't get in my way once the Wyverns show up. I'm taking them all out." Bacchus began laughing but then quickly stops as a dozen dots in the sky began flying towards them. They land on the ground, all in a row. In the back, was a Wyvern twice the size of the others. They all let out a roar at the three mages at the same time, pushing them back.
"I guess they aren't here for negotiation." Kagura commented.
"Kagura? When did you get such a humor?" Erza smirked as her body begins to glow. She reappeared in her flame empress armor.
Kagura crouches with her hands on her sheathed sword as Bacchus takes another chug of his gourd.
"Alright! Lets get WILD!"
"Four!" Erza and Kagura state as all three of the mages run towards the Wyverns. Erza more flying than running.
.
"Are..are you ready?" Kairi blinks in confusion at Sidney, who was just standing there with his eyes closed.
He finally opens them after a few minutes of silence. "I'm ready. I had to lower myself for a minute, but I'm ready now."
"Lower yourself? He can't be that strong.." Kairi shakes off her thoughts as her body begins to glow a white light.
"Angel soul Takeover!"
"Angel soul?" Cygnus and Michio look on as Kairi sprouts white wings from her back. The rest of her appearance changes as well as she is shown as an angelic figure.
Without another word Kairi fires a giant beam of light towards Sidney as she charges. Sidney watches the beam come hurling in, and with perfect timing, a magic circle appears under him and above Kairi. Both magic circles run through their respective mages, causing them to switch places.
"What!?" Kairi realizes where she is, but not in time as her own beam of light slams into her, causing her to go tumbling until she uses her wings to recover and take flight. She then charges at Sidney full speed, looking to engage in hand to hand with the ace of White Eclipse. She rears back a right hook. Sidney throws a jab to counteract, causing a stalemate, which fell right into Sidney's plan as he then throws a quick kick into Kairi's stomach, causing her to go sliding into the ground again. As Kairi recovered and looked up to where Sidney was, all she saw was a white puff of smoke. Another puff of smoke appears behind her as Sidney grabs the back of her collar and throws her to the right. She catches herself though and begins charging a magic circle in front of her. "Meteor blast!" Through the magic circle, a bunch of "meteors" of light go charging at Sidney. Sidney lunges forward while dodging. One of the meteors scraping his shoulder. He then comes to a sliding stop as he swings a high kick to Kairi's head. She ducks, but as she comes back up, looking to throw a punch of her own, Sidney slams a back kick to her chin. Her eyes go completely white as she falls backwards from the blow, landing in a KO. in the snow.
"Oh..." Sidney walks back to the guild, passing Michio and Cygnus. "Someone go pick her up."
.
"Do you see him!?"
"No!"
"Darnit!"
Natsu and Sting ran through the city frantically looking for Takeru, turning every corner and inspecting every crook.
Sting stops. "Okay okay! Do you remember anything that the flyer said!?"
"Um..." Natsu scratches his head. "Something about... Muse memes?"
"Muse meme? What the hell is a... Museum!" Sting was about to take off running to the city's museum but stops and turns to Natsu.
"Natsu... Can you read?"
"I CAN READ JUST FINE!" Natsu screams out. "Lets just get to the museum now before it's too late!"
