The Magic Council, formed by Albus D. Merlin was then created in X5, five years after the Great Magic Gathering, a cataclysmal and horrible war that was due to the lack of regulations, caused the land of Fiore to be caught up in a five-year civil war between various kingdoms and clans. Almost seven hundred years later, in X686, Mavis Vermillion, the first Fairy Tail Guild master, formed Fairy Tail.
Whoa X686? According to the calendars I've been studying, it's now X784. Fairy Tail is about to have its 100th anniversary soon. I wonder what we're going to do for it? Having a guild last that long must mean something good.
"Uuuuhhhh! Kain, please stop moving around so much, I'm getting dizzy just watching you!" I momentarily closed the history book with my pen inside it as I heard Happy whining on another nearby table. The poor cat was staring at me this whole time? I was just walking around and studying more about the laws and history of Fiore.
"I'm glad to have another book worm in the guild." I followed the voice back to the table where Levy Mcgarden was speaking.
When I had first asked around for the library, Mirajane pointed me over to the blue-haired mage in the first place. She was the one who not only directed me to the library but helped me pick out which books I could use to study Magnolia and Fiore history. She was nice.
"Though I have to ask," She caught my attention as she pointed towards one corner of the table I had littered with books, pens, and papers. "What are those?"
It took me a second to realize after she pointed out that she was not pointing to Natsu and Gray. She was pointing at the origami animals I had made which Natsu, Gray, and Lucy were all playing or observing with.
"Oh right, you weren't here when I started making these. Those are called Origami. When I was a kid, I always felt jittery when I was told to sit still, but a classmate name Wu taught me something called Origami where you could fold the paper to look like animals. Whenever I sit down and start studying, I sometimes turn the notes I'm trying to memorize into animals to help me remember them better."
Levi seemed to absorb that knowledge as she looked back at the table with paper animals. "I've never seen such a way to study before."
I responded, "To be fair Levy, do you want to go to other people and watch them study?"
She laughed at the thought. "Point taken."
I turned back when Natsu called me out and brought a rather elaborate origami up. "Hey, Kain, what's this one?"
"That one was hard to master: it's a Chinese Dragon."
Natsu seemed confused as he looked at the snake-like creature. "This looks nothing like a dragon." It made sense for him to say that since he had lived with one most of his childhood.
"Well in my world, and in that country, dragons are depicted without wings and look more snake-like. It's kind of like how some mystical creatures are found only in mountains and some in forests, they have different ecologies and different biology to adapt to their home."
Natsu looked at me with a blank stare. I knew immediately what to say. "Different place equals different looking people and dragons."
"Ooh!" Natsu put his hands together as he got that.
Levy gave another small laugh. "You've been here less than a week, and you already know how to handle our resident Dragon Slayer?"
"I'm the kind of guy who rolls with the punches, so I do try to adapt quickly."
Lucy caught my attention as she pointed to an elephant origami. "How did you do this? I didn't know you could make a piece of paper look like an elephant."
"I can teach you later about that one," I told her simply. It wouldn't be too hard, and maybe I could teach Levy if she wanted to.
Then it was Gray's turn as he held up a sea turtle. "I don't recognize this one." It took me a second to explain what it was.
"Ha! You didn't know it was a sea turtle!" To be fair, I didn't put a lot of effort into that one, so Gray wasn't all at fault in that one.
"What was that, pinky!?" Of course, the two wasted no time butting heads both metaphorically and literally as they both stood up and traded glares at each other.
Wait a second.
"HEY!" I yelled, stopping both of them as I pointed down. Their combined energy was affecting the poor paper animals by lighting them on fire or freezing them over. "I worked all night on those! Will you two cut it out!?"
However, rather than stop, the two only seemed to intensify in their fight.
"Look what you did, lizard!"
"What I did!?"
I slammed my hand on the table to catch both of their attention. I can manage those two fighting since it's their thing, but I will not tolerate them destroying my work for something so small. "Stop it. Now."
The two looked nervous but begrudgingly looked away from each other.
I heard a small gasp as I turned over to Mirajane. "I've never seen anyone but Erza stop the two of them from fighting."
"Erza? Erza Scarlet?" I heard Lucy repeat before claiming that she heard of her, but never saw any pictures of her.
I've seen her name a few times in the cases I went over. She's an S-Class mage, isn't she?
"She's the strongest female mage in Fairy Tail," Mirajane seemed to correct me as if she knew what I was thinking. However, I noticed that she was the only one smiling while everyone else except her, and Lucy, seemed to have the life drained out of them by just hearing her name.
Yet I later remembered an old saying: speak of the devil and he will appear.
The reason why I recalled this was because a few seconds later, one of the guild members came through the door with a loud bang and gasping for breath, Loke if I recall?
"She's back! Erza's back!"
If everyone was drained by just mentioning her name, the knowledge of her being here suddenly put everyone into a frozen panic.
Curiously, I then heard loud footsteps in the distance as a large figure was obscured by the sunlight. As the figure walked in, I noticed a beautiful woman with red hair carrying a large horn or tooth of some kind that was decorated with jewels.
This woman was Erza Scarlet? After silently agreeing with Lucy's comment about her being pretty, she placed the object on the ground revealing that it was indeed heavy.
"I have returned. Where is Master Makarov?" The scarlet haired wizard asked.
Mirajane was the only one who stepped forward without any change to her character. "Welcome back, Erza. The master is at a conference at Clover Town right now."
"I see." A sand mage, Max, asked about the giant horn. "This is the horn of a monster I defeated. The locals were so thankful they decorated it and gave it to me as a souvenir. Do you have a problem with it?" She asked that last question a little more defensively before everyone, not only Max, screamed out that they wouldn't have a problem at all.
"Now listen up!" It wasn't long before she got everyone's attention only to scold everyone for their misbehavior in recent events.
"Man, she's tearing people a new one. It's like she's a disciplinarian." Lucy whispered over to me.
"That's Erza for ya!" Happy somehow heard Lucy's comment even though she spoke to me. Maybe it was because he was a cat.
Soon the red-haired woman's gaze turned elsewhere. "Are Natsu and Gray here?"
"Aye!" Happy flew and pointed over to the—what the? Why are they hugging like that?
"Oh hey there, Erza! We're just hanging out like good friends do!" The hell?
"Aye!" The double hell?
Why was Gray saying nice things about Natsu? And why was Natsu acting like Happy?
Lucy had the same idea as she repeated, "What's with Natsu?"
Even though she just asked that I looked over to see Mirajane already finishing a cartoon picture of Natsu getting beat up by who I assumed was Erza. "Natsu challenged Erza when they were young and lost pretty badly to her."
While that did explain one question, it brought up another. "How did you draw that so quickly?"
I was ignored as Erza turned back to Gray and Natsu before asking them for help. Considering how everyone was murmuring, I'm assuming something big is going on if an S-Class mage is asking for help.
On the side, I heard Mirajane gasp and claim that this was potentially the forming of Fairy Tail's best team.
Erza soon left, explaining she was going to prepare. As she did, she brought the large horn with ease.
Eventually, everyone went back to how they were, Gray and Natsu leaving to do their thing with Happy following after Natsu.
When I was going to clean up my notes, Mirajane walked up to me and Lucy. "Lucy, Kain? Can I ask you two to follow them?"
Lucy was just as surprised as me. Technically speaking neither of us were all that strong by ourselves. What could we do to contribute to them and not get in their way?
I could decline since I know I might get in the way, but…
"Please come, Kain! I don't think I can handle them by myself!" Lucy begged after agreeing with Mirajane.
As much as I would have liked to say no, I did have a soft spot for people who asked me for help. I eventually agreed with her as she then had to worry about what to prepare for tomorrow.
However, this now meant that I needed to somehow do anything to prevent a repeat of the last mission where I was captured by our opponents. I only came out unscathed because our enemies were nice.
"What's wrong Kain? You look worried."
I answered my manager. "I need to go shopping. I need things that will make me less useless if—when a fight breaks out." With Natsu, a fight was bound to break out.
"How about you go to the Magnolia Shoppe Center? They have a large number of magical items there than can help." Levy answered for me.
"Really?" A shop that sells magic? Weird, why didn't I think something like that could come up in this world? "Where is it? I still don't know Magnolia all that well."
"If you need help, it's only a man's job to get on it!"
My attention was caught by that new voice as I looked back to see Elfman in high spirits as he usually was. The tall and bulky man slammed a fist into his chest as he declared, "I'll help lead you like a real man!"
The screams were a bit much, but I appreciated the sentiment. "Thanks, Elfman, but are you sure I'm not bothering you?"
"A real man never gets bothered by anything!" Okay, I take that back, that man thing is getting very old very quickly.
"Ah, Elfman, please buy groceries on your way there too? We're low." Mirajane said to her younger brother—yeah, I still don't see it—as a reminder.
"Groceries are manly!" I'm going to assume that Mirajane was going to take that as a yes.
"Alright, Elfman, give me fifteen minutes to put everything away."
"Sure thing!" Oh thank goodness, he didn't say man. "Patience is a man's virtue!" Dammit.
I am so tuning him out whenever he says man now.
After a little travel, Elfman brought me to the Magnolia Plaza Mall. It was much grander than I had anticipated; almost looking like any major mall back on earth besides the fact that it didn't have any parking lots. As I entered, I was greeted by salespeople selling magical objects of all shapes in sizes. Some were lacrima objects that worked like television; clowns were using magic to change their face colors and look more cartoonish, and there was one corner where there was a giant line of little girls waiting to ride a unicorn.
I felt a large hand on my shoulder, making me look up at Elfman. "First time huh? It surprised me when I first came here a long time ago."
"I've never thought it would be possible to buy magic in my wildest dreams," I admitted to him as I watched a large number of paper airplanes pass us by and turn into animals running on the ground.
This started to feel more and more like something out of Harry Potter.
"Do they," the words I was speaking made me recall why I was here in the first place. "have a place that can sell magical gear that comes with magic already?"
Elfman was eager to point me in the right direction, a place that sold magic shoes. These shoes made someone jump three times higher and run four times faster while feeling light as a feather. After working for a while as a waiter and a lawyer for Fairy Tail, I had been given a kind bonus by Makarov for my hard work in making money less of an issue for him. So, paying around seventy percent of my savings, I bought the best shoes they had available which allowed me to run at sixty miles per hour for ten minutes straight and that could recharge over time by itself. These would be more than helpful if I got into another sticky situation.
However, other than those magical shoes, I couldn't find much else that could help. Things I saw in other stores were either too expensive or not good enough to catch my attention.
The shoes were great, but they weren't enough for this mission.
Just when I thought about going back to see if I missed anything, I was distracted by a loud sound catching my attention and I turned to look over towards it.
I couldn't contain myself as a wide and surprised smile spread across my face. "No way! That's here too!?"
Elfman probably followed my gaze as he also spoke up. "Huh? You know that place? But it's mostly for just kids though."
Despite his obvious hesitance, I blazed right to the store in question. The bright colors, the sound of things whizzing past my head, and the overall chaos… it was just as I saw it so long ago as a kid.
What could only make this would be the people if they were—
"Now don't you think this one is a bit old, George?" I froze. Even though all the noise, all the screaming of both parents and children running around, all through the chaotic magic around us, I heard that voice.
"I don't know, Fred, if he's old that makes our mum ancient." The other voice sounded similar but at the same time different. It only confirmed my suspicion and made me as giddy as that one kid I saw faint just a second ago from smelling something at the do-not-smell sign.
"Oi, let's not talk about our dear old dinosaur like that! Bless her scales!"
It was then I noticed the shelves were where the voices were coming from. The voices didn't come from behind the shelves, from the shelves themselves! Soon said shelves started to transform into two familiar redheads.
They threw their hands out and welcomed me to a place, I've only seen once in movies.
"Welcome to Weasely's Wizard Wheezers! Where we manage mischief."
Ohmygodohmygodohmygod! It's them! Maybe a version of them, but none the less it's my favorite movie twins, Fred and George Weasely!
I loved Harry Potter! Their movies are one of the major reasons I got into magic tricks in the first place! These two in particular were my favorite characters!
In front of some of my childhood heroes, I could only manage a single word. "Wow."
"Funny, we usually have that effect on toddlers. Geroge, you didn't accidentally give one of these tykes an aging potion did you?"
In response to his identical brother, the other one replied without missing a beat. "I seem to recall you giving them to these little buggers so they could get into the 18 and above stores."
"I was proud of them for coming up with that."
"Aye, it put a tear in me eye."
I was distracted when I heard Elfman behind me. In the narrow corridors of the store, Elfman seemed stuck because some animated bookshelves were bullying him. Well, that was something you don't see every day even with magic.
One of the twins—I could never differentiate between them—circled an arm around me as he pointed to Elfman. "Ah, we see the problem: you're looking for a body swap potion to get this balooka's body for yourself eh? Not a bad plan if you think girls are into muscle brains."
"You might want to shave his hair though. He looks like our Aunt Dende that one."
Elfman was more than a little defensive at hearing that as he pushed the animated bookshelves to yell, "You are not shaving my hair!"
I said I wasn't going to, but I did get out of who I was assuming Fred's arm and turned to the two twins.
"I'm here to buy some specific gear," I swear my smile could unnerve even the Grinch at that moment. "What do you have here that costs the least but can cause the most amount of mayhem to a large number of people in a very little amount of time?"
Ever since I entered into the store, the twins were finally silenced. They looked at me, seemingly trying to process what they just heard until they both gave a smile that slowly formed as if they were one in two bodies.
They then spoke some of my favorite words,
"We solemnly swear we're up to no good."
A day had passed and I had just arrived a little late to the Magnolia Train Station. I was carrying a bag pack and wearing my new running shoes when I spotted Lucy sitting down on a bench watching Natsu and Gray fight while holding Plue in her arms.
"Hey guys, sorry I'm late. I just wanted to be prepared in case things went south." I decided not to mention the chance of that happening might have been one hundred percent.
I was only greeted by Lucy. "Kain, stop them!" Okay, that wasn't a greeting, but I suppose I could pretend it as one.
"You shouldn't be pushing the responsibilities to Kain, Lucy." Happy noted.
I just chose to look at the blonde and respond accordingly. "Lucy, I only stopped Gray and Natsu the first time because I didn't want them destroying my stuff. I doubt I can tell them both to stop now."
A few seconds later, we heard Erza's voice coming behind us. "I'm sorry I'm late. Did I take too long?"
"No, of course not." Lucy seemed to answer Erza and not me, but then I noticed she looked surprised. I finally turned after spotting Natsu and Gray act buddy-buddy to see Erza carrying a large amount of gear with her. I mean large as in, there is enough to fit a small storage room.
After Erza commented towards Gray and Natsu, she turned over towards us and asked who we were since she hadn't met us yet.
After saying our names and introducing ourselves, Erza seemed to recognize us. "I believe I've heard rumors of both of you fending off the wanted magi assassin, Fero, The Hangman. It's an honor to have both of you aboard."
Fend off? We were almost killed by that guy if it wasn't for stupid luck. I opened my mouth to say that there was some kind of mistake. However, Lucy quickly closed my mouth.
"Oh no, it's a pleasure to meet you!" I gave Lucy a look. Why not admit how screwed we might be if she asks something impossible off us?
"Erza!" Natsu walked up to her, no longer pretending to be Happy 2.0. "I want a condition for coming along this trip!"
After ignoring Gray's warning, he pointed to her.
"I want a rematch when we get to Fairy Tail!" It was pretty ballsy of Natsu to declare that.
Erza accepted the challenge after admitting Natsu's growth. This prompted the dragon slayer to get fired up—until we got on the train. Motion sickness was the weakness of this poor thing.
Erza offered up a way to help him. Though I wouldn't use the word help to describe her punching him so hard, he gets knocked out.
Thanks to Gray's insistence, Erza explained her circumstances for this call in that she had accidentally stumbled upon a dark guild and did not recognize them until later. She overheard their plans about forbidden magic called Lullaby. She assumed that a dark guild consisting of criminal mages would no doubt use forbidden magic for their nefarious magic.
It's one of the reasons why she asked for Natsu and Gray's help: in order to fend them all off.
Which meant Lucy and I were fodder or potential meat shields… I mean I've heard of caught between a rock and hard place, but in this case, the rock was a guild of evil mages and the hard place was my friends who could pretty much level a town if they wanted to.
Can someone say overkill?
Eventually, we did reach our stop. However, while we made our way out, I noticed that I had forgotten to pick up Natsu's bag when I dragged him out of the train.
"I forgot Natsu's bag on the train!" I quickly handed Lucy the incapacitated dragon slayer for her to carry. "I'll go and get his stuff."
"The train is going to leave soon."
I nodded in appreciation to Gray's warning before I ran back to the train. "I'll try to be quick. If I'm not going to make it, I'll buy a ticket back!"
Unfortunately for me, after getting into the train, the doors closed behind me and started to move. I sighed and started to walk back to our cart which should have been three carts up ahead.
As I went through the second one, I heard a rather loud voice speak out. "Why is this thing so damn slow!?"
There were only seven people in this tram, and it was easy to tell even without magic that the air around those seven people didn't feel good. One of them was like some kind of chicken man, one looked like a gray gremlin, one was holding a crystal ball of some kind, two were a pair of twins, and the last one looked awfully like Shikamaru from Naruto.
The one holding a crystal ball spoke out. "Beware what lurks within. The option you loathe shall be your salvation."
Okay. That sounded ominous as hell. I should just walk passed them and…
*SLAM!*
… Why was the door locked?
"Hey, you!" I turned back with all the speed of a turtle with weights. The Shikamaru Lookalike was heading his way towards me. "You're from Fairy Tail, aren't you?"
I glanced at the back of my left hand. I had recently just got this purple stamp after the Daybreak quest. I never knew something so small would bite me in the butt right now.
"Well yes?" I nervously answered, but why did they want to know about that?
"Ha! You, official guild members, make me sick!" Official? Why did he say official guilds? What are they? Unofficial like dark gu… aawwww shiiiiittttt.
I heard a sound coming from behind me that sounded a lot like a magical hum. Before I could even turn, I suddenly found myself kissing the floor a second time.
Excuse me, Ms. Floor, We've got to stop meeting like this.
Jokes aside, I fought through the pain to look back up. But I only saw the sole of a boot stamping on my face.
"Ha! Remember this: just because you're in an official guild doesn't mean you're hot stuff!" Either he was putting more pressure into my face than I thought, or he sounded like something straight out of a kid bully's mouth.
I tried to move to somehow lessen the pain. But as I glanced up, I saw something that caught my interest: a glowing flute that had a skull on it which was given three eyes.
The one who was planting his boot into my face seemed to stop his smug smile as he noticed the look of confusion on his face. As he did, he looked down and saw the flute he was carrying.
I suddenly felt the pressure from the boot lift from my face. However, I later found a greater pain soon followed as I was kicked into the door that made my body scream out it was in pain to my brain.
"You saw it! You saw Lullaby!" Wait, Lullaby? Isn't that the forbidden magic—god I'm slow. These guys are Eisenwald members, aren't they? And we were on the same train as them!?
"Now we can't let you live!" The raven-haired man darkly said as the cart suddenly became darker and colder by what I assumed was his magic.
It wasn't just him; the others also got their fists ready filled with magic to incinerate me into dust. I could have sworn my life flashed before my eyes at that moment if the Shikamaru lookalike didn't say these next few words,
"Any last words, fly?"
It was then that even though it wasn't much, I did buy things in case of an emergency.
I quickly reached for my pocket behind my back. "Yeah. I solemnly swear I'm up to no good."
At that moment, I threw something at them and closed my eyes instantly. I knew what would happen next: I made the mistake of not listening to the twins when they first used it as a demonstration.
Cracker Spheres.
They were miniature fireworks. Small in size, but not in sound and light, effectively making them flashbangs that last far less and have much less impact. Minus the one I just used, I had two left. But this was all I needed to distract them from their magic and allow me to bolt out of the cart.
Activating the running shoes I had, I blazed through two carts down before reaching for Natsu's bag on top of our previous seat. I then figured it wouldn't be long before those guys would catch up with me, but if a fight broke out here, others would be in danger.
I eyed the room, looking for anything until I spotted something this train still had: an emergency stop switch.
There was an explosion two carts down, meaning they were already trying to go after me. Wasting no time, I pulled the lever down hard.
I held on as the train came to an abrupt stop. But I heard voices coming from the cart in front of me. With haste, I ran ahead into the door and shouted, "Everyone, get out! There's a dark guild on the train!"
Another explosion. One cart closer. Time was running short, but everyone was still in a panic. I couldn't let them go through here. I went back into our cart and closed the door behind me. Thinking rapidly, I got ready to jump out of a window, but as I was about to get off the door blasted open.
Needless to say, I wasn't glad to see an angry shadow mage staring at me with likeness to the devil.
I slipped out and started to run. Thankfully, the shoes gave me decent speed even if they wouldn't last that long. However, it wasn't enough as I saw several blats of magic whizzing past me.
"Get him! Kill him! We can't let him live for seeing it!" I was just going to assume that was the Shikamaru lookalike barking like a dog as I bolted towards the forest and farther away from the civilians.
Hopefully, the forest would help cover me from—okay no it did nothing to slow them down with how frequently increasing the blasts coming at me were.
"Get back here!" Oddly enough the magical hum came from beneath me this time. I looked down, realizing there was a magical circle right below me. Cursing my breath, I stuck out a right hand and jumped, making me grab onto a tree and making a hard right turn to avoid the magic circle from entrapping me with sand.
At this rate, they all would reach me. Thankfully, I still had some other party tricks the Weasely twins gave me.
This one was going to be a godsend, so of course, I dropped it to the ground.
"Nausea Marbles." These devilish small spheres create a magical field of imbalance. Anyone who steps or passes by or over them will automatically trip if they are caught in their range. And I just dropped an open bag full of them while my pursuers were after me.
There was an obvious smile on my face as I heard the sounds of panicking and screaming in the distance and growing fainter.
I wish that could have been just it, but it seemed like today was not my lucky day as I noticed a shadow chasing after me. I guess you can't trip while moving in a shadow. Though I don't know how that works exactly.
I quickly fished my pockets. The crackers or the marbles wouldn't help here, which left the last trinket I bought from the Weasely brothers as my last way to defend myself.
A few seconds later, I was tackled from behind.
It was the Shikamaru lookalike as shadows formed behind him while pinned me down to the ground. "You're going to pay for that kid. But don't worry, we'll make sure you won't be going alone… huh?" he paused as he seemed to take a closer look at me. "Are you eating something?"
"Wanna see?" I blow—revealing another item I had bought: Trouble Gone Bubble Gum.
The gum bubble quickly expanded as I blew air into it. It hit my would-be assailant before exploding with a pop. Suddenly all the pink go wrapped around his face and constricted it tight to the point it looked like a second layer of skin.
With the weight of him lifted off me, I pushed him down and stole something from him before running like hell again.
I ran and ran until the magic in my shoes became low putting me back to normal speed, but by then I had already done what I needed to do.
I gasped for breath as adrenaline died down, but I threw my hands in the air. "I did it! I did it! I survived my first encounter with evil mages! Take that Universe! Who's the man? Kain's the man! You can't handle all this Kain!"
I may have been tooting my own horn a bit. In my defense, I was proud and didn't realize that I had just tempted the universe in my hubris.
"Kain!" "Kain!" The sound of several voices screaming to me caught my attention. At first, I thought it was Eisenwald, but then I remembered none of them knew my name.
I turned to see Erza driving some kind of horseless carriage to a sudden stop. Soon everyone I was with, except Natsu, got out of the carriage with worry as they ran up to me while I removed Natsu's bag off my shoulders.
"Guys! H-How did you get here? I thought you'd all be on your way towards the hotel by now."
Erza stepped forward, clenching her fists. "Please forgive me, Kain! While we were on our way out of the station, we had found out that the emergency brakes were pulled on the train! Suddenly, we overheard one of the attendants claimed that a Fairy Tail guild member had called out an evacuation because of an appearance of dark guild wizards!"
"We put two and two together," Gray picked up from where Erza left off. "You were the only left in that train who had our emblem, but that also meant that you had met with Eisenwald already."
Lucy worryingly put a hand on my shoulder. "We all knew you didn't have any magic whatsoever, so we feared the worse. Natsu was one of the first to try to get you back, but well he…" I followed Lucy trailing off and looking back into the car with Natsu slumped out of the vehicle. The poor guy looks like he had it worse than me.
"I am so sorry for not seeing this from happening! Please, feel free to punch me for my mistake!" Erza, I appreciate that, but let's be honest: I'd be hurting myself more than you if I touched or attempted to punch you.
But that's not the point here. "No, no! It's fine! In fact, it's better than fine!" I declared proudly. "Guess what? Those guys I ran away from? They were the ones who had Lullaby with them!"
Everyone's reactions were what I expected them to be. Erza especially seemed to tense at the thought. "Lullaby was that close to us!? Tell us where you last saw them so we may pursue them posthaste!"
I smiled while feeling proud of myself for this next part. "There's no need—"
"What do you mean there's no need!" Screamed the demon that instantly killed all joy I had in that one moment. "May I remind you of the dangers that they can perform with forbidden magic at their fingertips!?" Erza's voice was calm, but the area around her along with her hair floating up scared the crap out of me.
However, even with this traumatic scene in front of me, I remained cool, calm, and collected.
"Waitnoplease! Don't hurt me! Don't hurt me! I can explain! Please don't let me die a loser!"
… as cool, calm, and collected as a scared little boy was anyway.
I didn't hesitate to reach for my jacket. "They were carrying Lullaby, but during my escape," I took the scary flute out and revealed it to everyone, making them all—but Natsu— gasp. "I was able to steal it from them before I lost them! Ladies, Gentlemen, and Happy, I give to you… Lullaby in all its spooky, dark magic goodness! Now with glowing ominous eyes! And it's yours for free if you call this number! "
I grabbed the thing just a second before I pushed the shadow mage off me. I wasn't going to return empty-handed if I knew I could end it all that easily here and now.
"You stole Lullaby from them!?" I've heard of knocking the socks off people, but I wasn't expecting to knock almost all the clothes off Gray with that revelation. Though to be fair, I'm just going to assume he stripped at that time.
Lucy seemed especially happy. "Great job, Kain! Now we don't have to fight an entire guild for it!" Oh yeah, we didn't have to anymore. Did we? I mean, I did run away from them, but...
Happy also seemed to be in high spirits. "Aye! I'm sorry, Kain, I thought for sure you were going to die."
"To be fair, Happy, so did I on several occasions." Not even Happy's comment could bring me down.
"This is stupendous." Erza nodded at me with respect and admiration which felt great. "With Lullaby in our hands, all we have to worry about is Eisenwald. But half the danger is already gone. Excellent work, Kain!"
I instinctively put my free hand behind my head and closed my eyes with a smile. "A-Aww, come on, guys, you're making me blush."
"For someone without magic, you did well," Gray admitted. "The praise is worth it for now."
"That is true, but let us not get complacent. Our next step is to find Eisenwald before they go back into hiding. Kain, please hand the Lullaby to me."
"Sure thing!" I was all too eager to get rid of this freaky, glowing thing. Wait huh?
Erza pulled.
…
But the flute was still in my hand.
She pulled again.
It was still in my hand.
"Kain, let go." Her voice sounded with confusion and a bit of rising anger that I did not want to see again.
"I-I'm trying! My fingers aren't listening to me!" No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get my left hand to release Lullaby!
"What?" Gray and the others gasped.
Now Erza was pulling with enough force to tear my arm but she was still pulling even through my pained cries.
"Oh no! Had Lullaby cursed Kain!?" Lucy gasped in shock.
Erza stopped pulling and summoned a sword out of thin air. "Then there is no choice! Apologizes, Kain, but I must cut your arm off before the curse spreads!"
"CAN WE CALM DOWN FOR A SECOND!?" I may or may not have shrieked in pure horror at that point.
Erza stepped closer while I jumped back away. "We must cut off your hand!"
"But I need it!" I desperately cried as I tried to pry the cursed flute off with my other hand… only to later find out that both of my hands were now stuck to it.
"It's getting worse! I must cut both arms off!"
Needless to say, the thought of losing both of my arms was not only horrifying but making me start to tear up in fear. "I'll die if you do!"
"We'll have Natsu cauterize your wounds!" I even saw Gray, Lucy, and Happy flinch at how hardcore that sounded.
"That in no way makes me feel better!" Cut and burned!? Goddammit all!
"I shall apologize later!" Erza screamed as she ran up to me, making me scream in horror which may or may not have sounded like a little girl.
Suddenly, the flute started glowing in a blinding purple light, distracting Erza and saving my life…. I think.
"(Stop.)" A dark voice came from the glowing flute. "(I will not have it end like this.)"
"T-The flute talked!" Happy cried out in fear despite the fact he should be more focused that I'm in a hostage situation by a flute—how the hell are my adventures topping each other in how weird they're getting?
"Could this be the magic of Zeref, the Black Sorcerer?" Erza then tensed as she pointed the sword at the flute… which meant she was pointing that sharp blade at me. "I demand you release our comrade this instant!"
"(I refuse.)" Suddenly, large arms burst out of the flute. "(Attempt to follow me, and I shall end this pathetic, small, weak, skinny, maggot-like, unassuming, not at all charming—)"
"Why are you listing all those insults at me?" I can't believe I'm being insulted by a demon flute. That's a new low for the week.
"(Attempt to follow me, and he dies.)" He slammed the hands dooooOOOOWWWWNN!?
What the heck!? Did he just jump with large wooden hands!?
OW! OW! Why was he jumping like some super frog!? I can't handle this!
I knew I shouldn't have—ow—tempted the universe.
{Author Notes}
No seriously, if you guys look back at the episode where Erza first appears, Mirajane somehow draws a picture of Natsu getting beaten by Erza in almost a second after Lucy asks why Natsu is acting like that.
Like, how did she do that? Is it like putting all her magical power in her hand to draw something cute so fast?
But I'm actually excited for my take on the Eisenwald Arc. It's where things really start to get fun and things start to diverge!
I also noticed a lot of OC stories don't really do much around this arc, which is a shame because there is a lot of cool potential in here that I can't wait to show you guys.
Just a little note: I've change Lullaby by adding some things to it. Who knew adding just a few things could change the story so dramatically?
Thanks for everyone for supporting this story. It's honestly amazing how much support this is getting by the like and favorites.