A.N. (6/9/21) - After this, I'm taking a break from this for a few days.
Chapter 3 - Spirit Revelation
Part 1
Romeo and Vale stared at each other in silence, their fists held in the air. Suddenly, both of them shouted at once.
"One, two, three, shoot!"
Holding out their hands, Romeo's hand was held flat with his palm showing while Vale's hand formed a fist.
"Dammit!"
"Yes," Romeo pumped his fist in the air. "I win!"
"Forget that, I wasn't using my full power. If I were, you'd never be able to beat me!"
"Oh yeah?" Romeo gave Vale a cocky grin. "Show me your best, I'll still win in the end."
"Fine! Enchant Type - Boost Luck Attribute!"
"Hey, that's not fair!"
"All's fair in love in war."
From one table away, Macao gave the two boys a strange look. Turning to face Wakaba next to him, he raised a questioning eyebrow before jerking a thumb in their direction.
"What's their deal?"
Wakaba shrugged his shoulders.
"They're bored," he answered. "Since there aren't any good jobs today, they decided to stay indoors and play together."
A sudden hidden trauma broke out when he heard those words. The Fairy Tail members of the past would never have been this quiet if they ever succumbed to the rare condition of 'being bored'. Past cases usually ended with results involving copious amounts of property damage and fighting.
It said something about Macao that he could casually think about the old Fairy Tail members now without feeling sad or depressed anymore.
"So, should we give them something to do?"
"Like what?"
Macao grinned before standing up and walking over to the children's table.
"Hey, boys."
"Hi, Dad!" "Hey, Master!"
"How would you like to take a job with this old man here?"
Both of them gave him curious looks.
}-{
"Evil spirits?"
The two of them stood in front of a place that Vale has never been to before, even if the said couldn't be said for his two companions.
"I got a call from the real estate agent, and they told me that the neighboring citizens have been complaining about hearing some strange noises coming from here starting about a year ago."
Macao gave a bitter smile.
"Which is a good thing for us, since that was the only reason Twilight Ogre never decided to just buy out our old guild building."
That was right. Right now, all three of them stood in front of Fairy Tail's former guild headquarters.
"They sent people to investigate, but no one's been able to find out the source of the noise. Even other Mages haven't been able to figure out what was causing them. It's to the point that this building's been abandoned since nobody wanted to use it."
Romeo looked down at the floor, a sad look covering his face.
"To think our home would be like this after we left."
"So what's our job?" Vale asked as he turned to Macao. "Do you want us to see if we can exorcise the spirits?"
"Nope," Macao grinned. "We're here to do some cleaning!"
"...pardon?"
"Since nobody wants to come here anymore while it's haunted," Macao began. "Nobody's been bothering to send anyone to clean the place. After months of abandonment, the place is bound to have gathered quite the amount of dust."
Macao paused to give them a sad smile.
"Plus… this is our old home, it's sad to think that nobody's taking good care of it. Even if it's not ours anymore. A while back, I made a deal with the real estate agent to borrow the keys to the place to clean the place every now and then."
Vale didn't know what to say to that.
"Don't worry about any evil spirits," Macao continued. "I've been here several times already, and I've never seen anything like that. The noises only seem to occur at night for some reason, so there's nothing to worry about now since it's still afternoon. And if they do show up, we can use our magic to defend ourselves."
Two Purple Flare Mages and an Enchanter, that didn't exactly fill Vale with confidence. Especially since Vale had no idea if evil spirits could even catch fire or not.
"Alright, let's get to work."
Macao led them inside where the interior was dark and dusty. Taking them to a small room, they found several cleaning supplies already inside the room. Each of them took something and made their way around the place.
"You know," Vale began. "I've been in Fairy Tail for almost two months now. This is the first time I've actually seen what the former Fairy Tail guild building looked like."
"It's been a while since I've been back here too," Romeo responded. "Ever since our guild went into debt, we didn't really have much reason to return. I never knew Dad kept coming back here to clean the place."
His voice sounded sad at that, making Vale paused as he turned to his friend concerned.
"Hey, are you alright?"
"Yeah," Romeo said. "I'm just feeling a bit of nostalgia. Good memories here, you know?"
Not really, but Vale understood that Romeo was in a weird state at the moment.
A few moments later, Romeo broke out of his thoughts.
"Let's finish this area quickly so that we can head on to the next room."
"Alright then."
As they began wiping down the windows, the sound of something shattering caused them to look to their left. Both of their eyes widened as they saw a hole in one of the windows.
"What?" Romeo exclaimed. "But nobody touched it."
"I'll clean it up," Vale said. Turning around, his head tilted. "Wait, where's the mop? I know for sure I left it right here."
Both of them stared at each other.
"Do you think this is the work of evil spirits?"
"Maybe," Vale said. His eyes widened as he realized something. "Wait, I didn't question it before since it wasn't important. But when your dad mentioned evil spirits, was he actually talking about ghosts?"
"Huh?" Romeo gave him a strange look. "Well, duh? What did you think Dad meant when he said evil spirits."
"I thought he was talking about some kind of monster species, not actual ghosts!"
Vale suddenly began quivering, and Romeo gave his friend a weird look.
"Wait… are you scared of ghosts?"
"What?" Vale gave a strangled cry at that. "T-That's crazy! If you think about it, I'm technically a type of spirit piloting a meat puppet since that's how I was born. So w-why should I be afraid of other spirits?! That's basically what ghosts are, right?"
"You're rambling."
"O-Oh, I guess I am." Vale began laughing nervously. "S-Sorry, I guess it's a bit of a stupid fear of mine. I'm not good with things like scary stories or haunted stuff."
"You're not afraid of fighting giant monsters or acting as bait against other Mages, but you're afraid of ghosts?"
"I can't help the things I'm afraid of," Vale muttered. "Besides, I can kill monsters on my own. But I have no idea how I'm supposed to defeat a ghost."
"Don't worry," Romeo said as he pounded his chest. "If any ghosts appear, I'll protect you."
While it was kind of sweet that he said that, Vale had mixed feelings about hearing an eight-year-old kid saying that they'll protect him.
"Geez, I'm practically falling in love with you," Vale said sarcastically. "My knight in shining armor proclaiming that he'll protect me."
Romeo rolled his eyes.
"Stop messing around, let's finish cleaning up."
"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!"
Both kids were startled as they realized who that was.
"Dad!"
Immediately, the two began running in the direction they heard Macao scream. Slamming the door open, they found Macao's body on the ground.
"Dad, are you alright?!"
Both of them quickly ran over to where he was and checked to see if he was okay.
"Ow… my back."
"What?"
Macao winced as he began rubbing his back with one of his arms.
"Wait, you're telling me you just screamed because your back hurt!"
"That's not it," Macao replied. "Something just slammed into me when I turned around."
Looking to the side, Vale noticed a small statue-like object on the ground next to him.
"Do you think this place really is haunted?"
"I dunno," Romeo replied. "But if that's the case, this ghost is making trouble for us."
"Ugh… my back…"
Romeo sighed as his father continued to complain.
"Come on, Dad. Let's take you to Porlyusica."
"I'll come with you."
"Actually," Romeo began. "Can you please clean up our cleaning supplies first? We left them behind in a hurry, and it looks like Dad's done for the day."
Vale gave Romeo a nervous look.
"W-Wait, you want me to go back alone…?"
"Don't worry," Romeo said. "As long as you finish cleaning everything up quickly, you don't have to worry about the ghost. So far, it looks like all it does is pull small tricks. Nothing really dangerous."
"Are we just assuming that the ghost is real at this point?!"
Romeo rolled his eyes even as he lifted his dad over his shoulders.
"Alright then, take care."
"Wait, what?"
But Romeo was already leaving.
"H-Hold on, how about we switch? I can take your dad to Porlyusica!" Vale paused as he thought about what he just said. "Wait… no, I don't actually know where Porlyusica is. Shoot!"
"Stop complaining," Romeo yelled. "Just finish quickly and go home once you're done!"
"Romeo, don't leave me on my own! What about what you said about protecting me earlier?! Romeo!"
The sound of the guild doors slamming shut echoed through the building. Vale just stared at where Romeo left before he slowly turned around.
"Alright, just quickly clean up our supplies. I can do this."
He gulped nervously and began making his way back.
"I swear, if I end up dead from getting attacked by ghosts, I'm going to haunt Romeo."
"Heheheheh…"
The sound of someone laughing caused him to shriek.
"W-Whose there?!" he yelled. "Show yourselves!"
Cold sweat kept breaking out as Vale looked around nervously. With a start, he realized that there was a sound coming down the corridor he was in.
Clank.
Clank.
Clank.
"W-What's that?"
Turning around, he didn't see anything at first. But as he continued to listen, he noticed that the sound was getting louder.
Clank. Clank. Clank. Clank. Clank.
Vale whimpered as he hurried out of there and made his way back to where he and Romeo were before.
"Just clean everything up and you can go home," he muttered to himself. "Keep remembering that. Once I'm done, I can go home."
ClankClankClankClankClankClankClankClankClank!
The sound was practically echoing through the place now.
"NOOOOO~!"
Unable to handle another second of it, Vale ran off without thinking as he tried to run away from whatever the sound was coming from.
"Forget this, I'm leaving now!"
Making his way back to the entrance, he rattled the doors only for his eyes to widen as he realized that they were locked.
"I'm trapped!"
"Heheheheh…"
The sound of someone giggling echoed around him, not in a cute way but in a manner that was normally heard only in horror movies.
And it was at that moment that Vale realized that the sound came from behind him.
Turning around, he found himself face to face with a floating being.
"Hello there!"
"HYAAAAAA!"
Needless to say, that was when Vale broke down in tears.
Part 2
"HYAAAAAA!"
"KYAAAAAA!"
The sound of two people screaming echoed throughout the building.
Vale opened his eyes once more only to blink in surprise as he took in the sight before him.
The floating figure from before, a girl with brown hair tied up in twin tails, was currently cowering behind a wooden bar counter with her back facing him. Her head turned around a few seconds later to stare at him, only to turn away once more.
"Ah, I can't do it. I'm still nervous when meeting new people!"
The girl was wearing an orange dress with bare shoulders and long sleeves. Her dress covered dark tights and she wore long, brown boots. She seemed to be around the age of a teenage girl, but taking into account that she was floating like some kind of spirit, it was unclear whether or not she truly was as old as she looked.
Somewhat confused now, Vale spoke up.
"Who are you?"
She turned around and poke the top of her head over the bar counter.
"You… are you talking to me, by any chance?"
"Of course," Vale gave her a confused look. "You're the only one here!"
She winced and hid once more behind the counter.
"I'm sorry, it's just that ever since I came to this place a few years ago, I haven't talked to anyone. So that's why I'm not used to someone actually talking to me other than Mavis. Oh, Mavis is my best friend and I guess the reason I'm alive. Oh, but that doesn't make sense when I explain it like that, but…"
"Alright, alright." Vale interrupted. "I think I get the point."
His initial fear of meeting a ghost was almost gone by that point. The girl across from him didn't really match his initial impressions of what a ghost was like.
"So… who are you?"
"I'm Zera," the girl replied, her voice muffled from where she spoke. "One of the first fairies."
All he did was give her a confused look at the name.
"What?"
"Did Mavis not mention me…" she muttered to herself. "Then again, I did learn that the main Fairy Tail members are gone. Maybe that's why he doesn't know me."
His eyes widened as he finally recognized the name.
From what he was able to recall in his last life, Zera was supposedly the imaginary best friend to the founder of Fairy Tail, Mavis Vermillion. But according to his memories, Zera wasn't supposed to exist since Mavis acknowledged that Zera was an illusion, making her existence fade away.
So how was she here?
"Just to make sure," he slowly began. "You're not some kind of evil spirit, are you?"
"Hm?" She finally floated away from the bar counter to face him. "No, just a sentient illusion."
"But was it you who messed with us earlier?"
"Erm… yeah, sorry about that." Her face flushed in embarrassment. "Sorry, I didn't realize that you were Fairy Tail Mages at first. I thought that you were just another group of kids who wanted to explore the 'creepy, haunted building'. You have no idea how many I had to chase off in the last few months."
"Months?" Vale took a seat at a small wooden chair. "How long have you been here?"
"Ever since the main members of Fairy Tail disappeared." She sighed as she began spinning through the air. "It's weird since I'm usually on Tenrou Island. But as far as I could figure, ever since that black dragon attacked the island and Mavis did her thing with her magic, I was suddenly sent over here instead. I think it's because since Tenrou Island technically doesn't exist while Mavis is protecting it with her magic, I had no other place to go but where Fairy Tail was."
Wow… that was a lot to unpack.
"So, to summarize. The first guild master of Fairy Tail, Mavis Vermillion, used some kind of powerful magic on Tenrou Island. And because of that, you were sent here?"
"Yup," she replied. "But my existence is only temporary. Once Mavis's magic is over, she'll return and I'll vanish once more when her consciousness returns. Since I only exist now since she's currently too busy protecting the other Fairy Tail members on Tenrou."
Vale didn't know what to say to that.
"Even so, that means that I've somehow been revived." Zera flew through the air once more. "So I decided to spend that time protecting this place until Mavis returned with the rest of the guild members."
"Protecting this place?"
"I've been acting as a nuisance to everyone who came here that wasn't Fairy Tail," she answered. "I've scared off real estate agents, cleaners who poked in places they didn't belong, brats who wanted to play here and mess around. That's how the rumors about evil spirits started, with me making a bunch of noise to scare everyone off. Although, I've never met anyone who was able to see and hear me before."
She suddenly flew towards him and gave Vale a strange look.
"Why is that?" she asked. "Is it because Mavis's magic is getting stronger? Or maybe it's because of something with you?"
"How should I know?"
Zera gazed at him intently before shrugging her shoulders.
"Well, I guess it doesn't matter. At least I have someone to talk to now."
Vale sighed at how the other girl was acting. To think he was scared of her until now.
"But really, did you have to mess around with me earlier? The sounds and clanking scared me, you know."
"Huh?" She gave him a confused look. "Clanking? What are you talking about?"
"From before? The broken glass, the missing mop, the locked doors? Are you telling me that wasn't you?"
"Um, hello?" She gestured towards herself. "What part of 'sentient illusion' did you not get? Even if I wanted to do something, I wouldn't be able to. I can't actually physically touch anything. All I could do until now was make noise and scare away others."
He was silent at that.
"Hey, are you okay?"
She looked shocked when he suddenly began to cry and his body began to shake.
"Oh god, there really is an evil spirit here."
"W-Wait, just calm down!" She seemed flustered by how he was acting. "Don't cry, there's nothing to be worried about."
"Of course there is," he retorted. "I'm stuck inside the former Fairy Tail headquarters with some kind of friendly ghost haunting the place while another evil spirit is going around scaring the living daylights out of me!"
"Aren't you supposed to be some kind of Mage?" She gave him a confused look. "If you're locked in here, can't you just break down the door?"
...ah.
"Why didn't I think of that?!"
For some reason, his response only made her facepalm.
"Great, the first person I've talked to other than Mavis is an idiot."
Vale ignored her words as he quickly ran towards the doors leading outside, a chant already forming on his lips.
"Enchant Type - Boost Attack Attribute!"
A fist flew towards the doors, causing them to fly off their hinges as the force behind Vale's punch blew them away.
"I'm free!"
From behind him, Vale heard Zera grumbling to herself.
"Yeah, yeah. Good for you. Can't believe you didn't think of something so obvious."
He turned around and gave Zera a bright smile.
"Thanks for helping me out."
"You're welcome."
As he was about to make his way back to the current Fairy Tail headquarters, he paused as he looked back to where Zera was.
"So… what are your plans now? Are you just going to stay here?"
Zera shrugged from where she floated.
"I can't leave this place. I'm only allowed to go to places connected to Fairy Tail."
He gave her a confused look.
"But how does that make sense? This is just the old guild building of Fairy Tail, there's no one here?"
"What do you mean?"
Vale turned to face her.
"Fairy Tail isn't a building, it's the group of people that make it up." He held up his left hand to show off his guild mark. "We take our home with us, so there's nothing that says you can't go with me back to our current headquarters."
Zera gave him a curious look at that.
"What are you saying?"
"I'm asking you to follow me," he answered. "Try and see if you can leave. Maybe whatever's keeping you here will let you go with me, since I'm a part of Fairy Tail."
She hesitated as she looked between his guild mark and back behind her where the main guild room was. Slowly, she hovered forward until she was only a small distance away from him.
He slowly backed away until he was outside of the main building. The entire time, Zera continued to follow him with trepidation as she tried to see if what he said was true.
Finally, she looked up and noticed that she was already outside the guild building's gates.
Tears started to roll down her eyes.
"I'm… free?"
"You are."
She slowly flew around him, floating a small distance in a radius around him.
"It looks like I can only move a little bit around you," she said. "Or rather, a small distance around your guild mark."
"That's because my mark represents my connection to Fairy Tail."
She didn't respond to that, but Vale noticed the smile forming on her face. Gesturing her to follow him, he beamed at her.
"Now, let's not stop here. I'll show you the rest of Fairy Tail."
}-{
Back at Fairy Tail Guild Headquarters…
"He's not back yet."
Max looked over to where Wakaba was and sighed.
"Romeo said that Vale would come back once he's done cleaning up."
"That was half an hour ago. Shouldn't he have been back by now?"
"Maybe he's just taking his time."
Since there weren't that many job requests today, most of the members of Fairy Tail were gathered in the same room.
"How come Macao didn't invite us to help anyway?" Alzack asked. "More hands would probably be more useful."
"Don't be an idiot," his wife Bisca said. "He obviously wanted to spend some quality time together with his kid. A little father-son bonding moment."
"And Vale?"
"Please, he's basically Romeo's brother now. Macao knows better to separate the two."
"We could have watched over him," Nab interjected. "I mean, there isn't really much to do here. But we could have told him stories about the good old days while the other two left."
"Hm, I guess that's true."
The sound of the doors opening caused everyone to look at the entrance. Everyone saw Vale coming in with a strange look on his face.
"Hey, what's up? You look like you've seen a ghost."
Vale gave Max a strange look at that before turning behind him.
"There literally isn't a better way for you to respond to that."
"Shut up, I want to hear their reactions when they notice me."
Max gave a confused look when he heard an unfamiliar voice.
"What?"
Everyone's eyes widened when they saw a girl float through the doors and into the room.
"So yeah," Vale gave a nervous laugh. "I found one of the spirits haunting the old headquarters… and I invited them back to meet everyone."
"Hi, my name is Zera." The floating girl gave a small wave. "Nice to meet you all."
There was silence for a moment.
"HAAAAAHHHHHH!"
Everyone had questions after that.
Part 3
Zera wasn't sure what to think at the moment.
"... and so because of that, I decided to introduce her to the rest of you."
Vale finished explaining everything about how he met Zera, allowing everyone to turn towards where she was. Hovering behind Vale, she gave a small bow.
"I'll be in your care, everyone."
All of the guild members began to crowd around her.
"She's so cute!"
"Finally, we have another cute girl again!"
"Hey, how old are you supposed to be?"
"So you're from before Fairy Tail was even a thing?"
Zera shrank back at all the attention she was receiving. Turning around, she quickly flew and hid behind one of the wooden tables.
"Ugh… sorry, I'm not good at meeting too many people at once."
That was an understatement. Having been isolated from talking to others for most of her life, Zera had no idea how she was supposed to talk to anyone other than Mavis. Most people barely acknowledged her existence, and the only reason she specified 'most' was that the number suddenly grew from one to several dozen in just the past day.
Ahhhh, how was she supposed to deal with this?
Forced to deal with her new surroundings, a new guild building different from the one she's been living in for the past two years. Not to mention all the new people that she was now meeting for the first time. Zera didn't count two years ago, since nobody had been able to see her at the time for some reason.
Everyone chattered amongst themselves while she slowly got over her fear from where she hid. While she was happy that they were no longer pestering her with questions, Zera had no idea what to do now that she was here. She had accepted Vale's offer to follow him when he offered, but since that was between the choice of that or staying behind the empty guild building, it was an obvious pick.
Zera looked around and tilted her head.
Speaking of which, where is he?
"Hey, Zera?" A woman suddenly spoke to her. "Since you've been stuck in our old guild building all this time, how about one of us takes you around town to show you the sights?"
"O-Oh," she stammered. "T-That would be great."
"Awesome."
"Hey, I'll go with you guys."
"Don't forget me. Heck, why not make this a Fairy Tail outing while we're at it?"
"Count me in!"
"Alright, let's do this!"
Staring at everyone laughing together in front of her, a smile formed on her face.
Mavis, this was your dream, wasn't it? The memory of her best friend came to her. Bonds between guildmates, spirit enduring within their hearts. This is the guild you've always dreamt of.
This was the first time she's truly seen what Fairy Tail had become ever since she left Mavis and the other Treasure Hunters. The first time she actually witnessed the best of what Mavis had created.
This… was Fairy Tail.
}-{
"As Fairy Tail's advising pharmacist," the old woman slowly began. "I can say without a doubt that you're all idiots."
Romeo ignored her words.
"Porlyusica, is my dad okay?"
"Next time, don't carry someone with back problems if you don't know how to carry them properly." She gave out a heavy sigh. "But the potions should be working to fix him at the moment. He'll feel drowsy for the next hour, but he'll be fine."
The door suddenly opened at that moment.
"So this is where Porlyusica lives."
"Hey Vale," Romeo waved to his friend. "How'd you find this place?"
"I used my magic," he said. Vale held up the compass in his hand, the arrow spinning wildly around. "I just followed where it told me where Macao and you were."
"What's another brat doing in my home," Porlyusica said with a glare. "And who are you? I don't recognize you from the guild."
"Vale Endoyle," he said with a small bow. "I joined about two months ago, it's nice to meet you."
"Hm…" she ignored him as she began to make her way out, Vale scooting out of her way to allow her to pass. "I'm leaving to gather some more herbs. Keep watch over the place, don't touch anything, and definitely don't break anything while I'm gone. I'll be back in ten minutes."
The door slammed behind her.
"Nice woman," Vale commented. Turning to Romeo, he gave a concerned look. "How's your dad?"
"Okay," he answered. "Honestly, it was just the unexpectedness of the whole thing that got to us."
"He never had back problems before?"
"No, but maybe that's just old age catching up to him."
Both of them were silent after that.
"...hey," Romeo broke the silence first. "Sorry for just leaving you behind like that. That wasn't nice of me."
"It's alright," Vale replied. "I get it, you were just worried about your dad."
"So was everything okay after we left?"
"Actually…"
Vale spent the next few minutes explaining the appearance of Zera and how he decided to take her back to the guild. Romeo's eyes widened as he told the story.
"Wow, so there really was a ghost."
"She's actually an illusion," Vale corrected. "And according to her, she wasn't the one who did those other things that caused us to freak out. Since she's only an illusion, she wasn't the one who broke the glass or attacked your dad from behind."
"Hm," Romeo looked deep in thought at that. "Guess there might be some other evil spirits then after all."
"Should we ask the rest of the guild to help us investigate?"
"Yeah," Romeo nodded at that. "I'm sure the others will know how to handle them if we can't solve it ourselves."
From the bed next to them, a low groan could be heard as Macao stirred awake.
"Dad?!"
Romeo moved over to his father's side while Vale watched from behind him.
"Dad, are you okay?"
"Mmn... I'm in blankets…"
It seemed that he was still half asleep.
Romeo sighed at that.
"He's fine. Looks like he'll be out of it for a while though."
"Guess all we can do is wait." Vale sat down at a nearby chair as he said that. "Not sure what else to do."
Something flashed by Romeo's eyes.
"Well… we could investigate and see if we can get rid of those evil spirits ourselves.?
Vale's face paled at that.
"No way, absolutely not. I am not going back there until we at least call an exorcist."
"Aw, come on! You're still scared of ghosts? You seem okay with Zera."
"Zera's a sentient illusion," Vale said. "Not a ghost, there's a difference."
"Yeah," Romeo muttered. "As much of a difference between my Purple Flare and regular Fire Magic."
"Aren't those two completely different?"
"They both burn things, that's all that matters!"
The two just stared at each other before suddenly breaking out into laughter. It wasn't as if they said anything funny, but the both of them somehow found themselves relaxing in the situation.
"You know what," Romeo said. "I'll invite everyone to see if we can get rid of those evil spirits. I'm guessing that you're planning on sitting out?"
"Yeah," Vale answered. "I'll just watch out for your dad instead. Maybe ask for some lessons on medicine from Porlyusica."
"It would be nice to have someone else we can fix our injuries."
Romeo stood up and began making his way out.
"Alright then, I'll leave my dad in your hands. See ya later."
"Bye, Romeo."
}-{
Macao slowly opened his eyes and groaned as he took in his surroundings.
His head felt funny for some reason. Was he drunk from one too many beers? Or maybe he was still a little sleepy. Either way, his mind wasn't fully awake yet.
"Are you alright?"
Turning to face the side, his eyes narrowed as he tried to make out who was talking to him. A dumb smile came to his face.
"Masshtar~" he mumbled funnily. "Youur back~"
The person he believed to be Master Makarov blinked in surprise.
"Wait, what? No, it's me, Vale."
"You're looking well," he mumbled sleepily. The drowsiness was making him light-headed again. "It's good to have you back, Master Makarov. The last few years without you have been rough."
Something pricked at the corner of his eye.
"I'm sorry that I didn't turn out like the guild master you were…" he mumbled. "I've tried my best to keep everyone together, even if I made some mistakes on the way."
He closed his eyes and gave a stuttered exhale.
"I don't think I'm a good master," he admitted. "I don't know what I'm doing most of the time, I wish you were back. You would have probably known what to do with everyone gone."
Master Makarov was silent at that.
"Everyone misses you," he said. "You and everyone else on Tenrou. You know, everyone thinks you're all dead. And it hurts to admit it because I don't want you to be dead."
He laughed as he felt some sweat rolling down his face.
Oh, no wait. Those were tears.
"You know, I'm the Fourth Master of Fairy Tail. Some people would say that it's an honor to be called that."
He gave a strangled laugh at that.
"But you know… I've always heard it differently. Sometimes, in my nightmares, I hear them calling me Macao, the last Master of Fairy Tail. Because I'm scared that Fairy Tail will die with me."
The drowsiness slowly began to make him sleepy again.
"Tell me, Master. Did I do alright? Can you still tell me I did my best even after everything that's happened to our guild?"
He finally heard him respond.
"Of course you did," Master Makarov told him. "You did the best you could."
Before unconsciousness took him, he mumbled his last words.
"Thank you, Master."
}-{
Vale watched as Macao went to sleep, a worried look on his face. Slowly standing up, he made his way towards the exit.
The doors opened and Porlyusica saw him.
"You're leaving brat?"
"Yeah," Vale said in a quiet voice. "I think I am."
She noted the downcasted look on his face and sighed.
"You Fairy Tail brats are always in a mood. Go on and talk with the rest of your guildmates, I'll take care of the old man."
"Thanks."
Vale walked past her and began making his way back into town.
I feel like I shouldn't have seen that, he told himself. That pain wasn't something that I should have witnessed.
It was uncomfortable, seeing someone he knew acting like that. The pain of Fairy Tail's main members disappearing was something that Vale had no idea about. But just for a moment there, he was able to witness a small fraction of it.
Five more years, he told himself. They just need to wait five more years until they're back.
But they didn't know that.
He paused as a stray thought suddenly filled his mind.
But what if they did?
Part 4
He found Zera back at the guild with everyone.
"Did something happen?" he asked. "Everyone seems happy for some reason."
"We explored town together," she answered. "Everyone took me to see the sights around Magnolia. I got to see how the town changed in the past century."
Seeing the happy look on everyone's faces, Vale felt something stirring in his chest.
Guilt.
With everything he knew about Fairy Tail's future, Vale felt guilty about withholding all the information he knew about the series.
When Vale was first born into this world, he had admittingly good reasons why he couldn't tell anyone about his knowledge from his previous life. Even after he migrated to Fiore, he still kept up that habit of keeping secrets to himself.
"Hey, Zera. Can we talk?"
Seeing her confused look, he gestured for her to follow him to the small storage room and away from everyone else. Closing the door behind him, the noise from the guild members grew quiet and the two of them were alone.
"So, what's up?"
Vale gave Zera a serious look before he unexpectedly bowed towards her.
"Please, help me."
}-{
One hour later...
Romeo came back to the guild smelling like smoke.
"Hey everyone, I found all the evil spirits in the guild building. Managed to beat up most of them."
Macao entered the doors behind him, finally recovered from his previous injury.
"We should send some people to do a routine extermination so that they don't settle in afterward," Macao said. "I'll have a couple of us keep watch this weekend to see if any of them come back later."
Romeo looked around the room.
"Where's Vale?"
The sound of a door opening made Romeo turn his head, where he noticed Vale and a floating girl exit with him. He connected the dots and realized that the girl was probably Zera.
"Everyone, may I please have your attention."
All of the guild members paused as they turned towards Vale.
Vale looked uncharacteristically serious, something that Romeo found surprising. The past two months had told him that Vale was usually a cheerful guy who took things in life a little less seriously than most people. Normally, that meant that he usually had a goofy smile on his face.
There was no smile on Vale's face now.
"Is something wrong?" Romeo's dad asked. "What's with the long face?"
Zera floated in front of Vale.
"There's something the guild needs to know."
Everyone was paying attention to them now. Vale cleared his throat, a small drop of sweat rolling down his forehead.
"Erm… so Zera and I talked a bit about this already," he began. "And we only went over the basic points before. But we've been talking together about how she came to the old guild building. And there's something that I think everyone should hear."
He gestured towards the other girl.
"I'm not a real person," she started. "And most of you are aware of that. Specifically, I'm an illusion that was created by Mavis Vermillion, the First Master of Fairy Tail. However, for the past hundred years, I only existed in a half state with no true form on Tenrou Island. That is, until two years ago."
Everyone winced at that. Zera gave them apologetic looks before continuing to explain.
"I was born, or rather, reformed two years ago. My awareness began in the first guild headquarters, and it didn't take me long to discover that everyone had learned of Tenrou Island's attack. I'm still not sure why, but back then, the magic that was keeping me in existence wasn't strong enough for me to interact with everyone like today. Maybe if it was, things would have been different."
Her words trailed off at that, and Vale spoke up.
"There was something Zera said to me when we first met," he said. "When she first introduced herself to me, she said that her existence was only dependant on the basis that the First was too busy protecting the other Fairy Tail members on Tenrou."
Everyone's eyes widened at that.
"Wait," Max began. "So you're saying…"
"I've heard rumors about the Three Great Fairy Magics," Vale continued. "One of the spells, Fairy Sphere, was supposedly an absolute defense Magic, powerful enough to defend against even time. And according to Zera, the First was capable of granting the spells of the Three Great Fairy Magics sealed within her grave."
"A-Are you serious," Macao said with a hitch. "A-Are you trying to tell us…"
"I shouldn't exist here," Zera interrupted. "As far as I'm aware, my existence was tied to Tenrou Island. So when I woke up in the former Fairy Tail headquarters, that was because I realized that there was no Tenrou Island for me to go to. My connection to the place was blocked off… but that doesn't mean that it was destroyed."
Zera held a hand over her chest.
"I can still feel it," she said with her eyes closed. "Tenrou Island still exists, I can still feel a connection to my former home."
It was Romeo who realized it first.
"Y-You mean t-that…"
"Which means Tenrou Island was not destroyed by Acnologia," Vale concluded. "And that means everyone is still alive."
All of the guild members of Fairy Tail were holding their breaths now. Vale gave them all a sad smile.
"They're alive… somehow. Somewhere, they're alive."
It was like a dam broke at that moment, and tears began to roll down the faces of everyone in that room.
"H-How can you be sure…?" Macao asked. "How do we know that we're not just getting our hopes up?"
Slowly, Vale brought out a familiar compass from his bag and set it on a nearby table.
"I'm sure some of you are aware," he began. "My magic allows me to find anything as long as I have some part of them for to track. I've never met any of the Fairy Tail members before, so I can't track them that way. And if Fairy Sphere is supposedly hiding and protecting them from all harm, my magic wouldn't be able to find them anyway."
That was when he gestured to his side.
"But with Zera's help, I can instead enhance her connection to Tenrou Island to tell us if it still exists."
He turned to face Zera and pointed his hands towards her.
"Enchant Type - Boost Seeker Element."
Zera's presence seemed to change somehow as Vale's magic began to affect her. Turning to the rest of their guildmates, Zera spoke.
"I'll connect you all through my Telepathy Magic to show you my connection to Tenrou."
Suddenly, everyone felt a strange feeling connecting to their thoughts. No longer were they inside the headquarters of Fairy Tail, but instead, they were on an island that most of them never been to before. Looking up at the skies, everyone could see that there was some kind of barrier protecting the place. Even though almost none of them had been here before, all of the Fairy Tail members could instantly tell that this was Tenrou.
The connection faded a few seconds later, and everyone was back in the tavern.
"T-That was…"
"That is the current state of Tenrou Island," Vale explained. "As you can see, it still exists. Acnologia did not destroy it."
He finally smiled.
"The Tenrou Fairy Tail members aren't dead..."
And that was the last straw. That was when everyone finally began crying out loud. If you had asked them there and then why they cried, they would have given you multiple answers.
For their long-lost comrades.
For finally knowing the truth.
For the pain that they endured all these years.
For realizing that the hope within their hearts was finally alive once again.
But above all else, it was for the simple fact that they knew…
"...they're still alive."
Honestly, I was sort of planning for this chapter to end differently. I did plan for Zera to join initially, which is why I decided to call it Illusion of Flames. But midway through, I decided to change things from fighting evil spirits to having Zera join the guild and revealing that the Tenrou Island members were still alive.
So this has been the most I've ever written in such a short period of time. Because of that, my mind has officially shut down from all the words I churned out. I realized that this meant that some parts of my writing suffered in quality because of that, so I decided to take a break for a few days to relax and recover.
This means that a new chapter will probably come out later than just a few days.
