Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.
Chapter 4: Fashionably Hot Sales! Risa's Determination Ablaze! Akai Hinotama, The Pop Idol of Crimson Beauty!
Lucy woke up to see that she had been resting on a bed that was in the shade of red belonging to delicious red apples, and her orange eyes looked up at the wooden brown ceiling to see that she was in someone's house. Lucy had been incredibly tired from all of the crazy events that occurred yesterday, but she did start to remember how Risa desired to help her be in a house with a friend instead of being on the street after Team Natsu believed that her impostor was the real Lucy Heartfilia. Lucy's hands tightly grabbed the red comforter while her head was on the comfy white pillow, her eyes starting to be filled with the feeling of anger at how Kotomi stole her nice life while Lucy was forced to start over with making herself have a happy life in Kogane Town.
Lucy's head turned to the right for a moment, and she frowned at the sunlight that came through the glass windows to hit the brown wooden floor. Lucy wasn't exactly in the happiest mood to enjoy how Kogane Town looked nice in the morning, and her eyes shifted from the window to a plain red bureau that had five drawers to store certain things. The bureau stood next to a wooden red wardrobe that contained some of Risa's outfits from the winter line of fashion, such as the comfy red pajamas that Lucy was currently wearing, and Lucy glanced at the space next to the wardrobe to see a simple red bookcase with different types of books on the two shelves.
She proceeded to sit up and look straight ahead, seeing a red vanity with a circular mirror against that wall while a heart-shaped red chair sat in front of it, and all of these red items only made Lucy think about how Natsu would probably be making the team take many jobs with that impostor. Even if Kotomi imitated Lucy to where she could even pay her rent with ease, Lucy had some sadness enter her eyes from the fact that she wouldn't be able to do jobs with Team Natsu anymore. Lucy could try to find a new team in Sabertooth, but getting over the shock of yesterday's events would be difficult.
Lucy looked down at her hands for a moment to try building up some magical power, only to see that she couldn't manipulate wind like Kotomi or even make a mint green aura appear around her hands, and Lucy sighed in a manner that sounded like anger mixed with depression. She wondered how her life could ever get back to normal, especially when she didn't even have her golden keys to help her fight against Kotomi with Celestial Spirit Magic. Lucy began to wonder about how she'd get her keys back, but the white bedroom door suddenly swinging open to reveal a grey tray of pancakes quickly being sent flying on to the bed got Lucy out of her thoughts.
"How in the world did that just happen?" Lucy asked in a stunned manner, looking slightly curious before she showed a facial expression of surprise.
Risa exclaimed with a happy smile on her face, as she walked in to see how the pink plate of pancakes landed, "Good morning, Lucy! It looks like one of my new and simpler spells is a success! Stellar Psi just involves levitation, but don't expect that your strawberry pancakes will float into your mouth or think the utensils will float to cut the breakfast for you."
Lucy asked her new friend while comically looking a bit irritated, "Risa, as much as I appreciate that you made pancakes, isn't it very early right now?!"
Risa responded in a sarcastic manner, smiling a bit, "Yeah, it's totally not the best time to get the best deals on fashion."
As Lucy picked up the fork to grab one of the seven pink pancakes and start eating, she seemed quite surprised at how Risa had difficulties as a mage while she contrasted that with immense expertise on fashion. Lucy couldn't usually keep up with which sales were even happening in which towns, making jobs sometimes be taken a day too early to where she could never get anything at a reduced price, but Risa definitely kept her appointments with fashion memorized. In fact, she even pulled out a red magazine from the left pocket of her orange skirt to show Lucy that pictures of some outfits were marked with pencil drawings of the Sabertooth insignia over them in pink.
Lucy quickly ate two more of the pancakes, finding them to be delicious as her eyes looked at the fashion magazine, and Risa walked closer to her while turning a few pages to show Lucy some particular outfits that had really piqued her interest in the sale. Lucy began to smile a bit from seeing images of some red outfits that looked very cute and stylish, even seeing a pair of high-heeled shoes with red flames on the front of them to really make the shoes look hot, and Lucy took notice of how the top of the page claimed that the clothes were in a town called Cramoisi.
That was a place that Lucy had only heard about, due to how Magnolia wasn't close to that location, and she ate two more pancakes while watching Risa hug the magazine close to the bubblegum pink midriff shirt that she wore. Lucy liked how her friend's shirt had ruffles on the top and bottom part of it, and she wondered if Cramoisi Town's fashion store would have that shirt in a red color. Lucy smiled at how she would finally get to have a new sense of fashion, and her feelings of sadness from earlier began to subside. Not only could Lucy give herself better fashion sense, but she smiled at the possibility of getting new magic while also making Kotomi's body wear clothes that didn't match her sense of style.
"Risa, maybe we should go check out that sale." Lucy told her friend in a calmer tone, before swallowing her breakfast.
That prompted Risa to reply with a kind facial expression, as she put the magazine back in her skirt's pocket, "This will be great, Lucy. We can go shopping for clothes, get you some new magic, and there may even be a job there for us to handle."
Lucy asked Risa in a stern manner, hoping she wasn't too distracted by fashion when it came to jobs, "Risa, what job are you hoping might be there?"
The green-haired girl got to just hear her friend comically smile and mutter some words about how she told Sting's red Exceed to reserve a particular job for her in the far-off town of Cramoisi, and Lucy widened her eyes in shock from how a rookie like Risa wanted a reward to greatly coincide with a fashion sale. That would explain how she was pretty distracted yesterday, but Lucy slowly started to smile again from how she found Risa's antics hilarious. Instead of trying to fight other people for the best jobs, this snarky girl was clearly more interested in the fashion than her work as a wizard.
Lucy started to wonder if the job would humorously involve visiting a fashion industry to get pictures with a famous fashion designer, since clients who loved fashion would want to cherish that forever, and Lucy hoped that they wouldn't have to act as bodyguards for a fashionable person. Even in her own body, Lucy didn't seem intimidating enough for that kind of work. She wondered if Risa's job was related to buying clothes in a fashion store, since the client would probably want to see how they looked on someone else before buying those outfits with their own money.
As Lucy ate her last two pancakes to satisfy her desire to have a good breakfast every morning, Risa's eyes suddenly widened in amazement from just recalling how she took the red flyer from the request board without getting Sting, Rogue, or Lector to stamp it for the job to officially be taken by her. Risa decided that they could go get the flyer stamped after Lucy took a shower and changed into some better clothes, so Risa would just wait. She continued to let Lucy eat her pancakes, before turning around for a moment, and Risa wondered if Sting would approve of her desire to visit Cramoisi Town.
55 minutes later, at the Sabertooth guild...
After taking a shower and changing into some of Risa's clothes that were her favorites from the last autumn season of fashion, Lucy walked into the Sabertooth guild with her friend to see that the large red carpet was accompanied by the walls of the guildhall being in a saffron shade of yellow while the brown tables in the guildhall were simply brown. Several of the guild members were chatting among themselves at the tables, some of them even eating breakfast that they purchased from nearby restaurants, and Lucy even saw people talking on a staircase.
The saffron yellow stairs led up to the guild's second floor that contained other areas, and the staircase was accompanied by a white railing that looked quite elegant. Lucy could see Sting and Lector happily talking at the bottom of the staircase while Rogue was squatting down to have a little conversation with his green Exceed named Frosch, which made Lucy giggle with happiness from seeing both of the dragon slayers look like they were both ready to have an awesome day, but Lucy's attention soon shifted back to Risa after seeing the new mage run all the way to the guild's request board.
Lucy followed Risa to see her pull out a red flyer from one of her skirt's pockets, smiling at how the flyer was folded very neatly, and Risa showed Lucy how they would be handling a job of fulfilling a demand for someone who simply signed the flyer in the type of penmanship that famous pop idols would use for fans to hastily have their autographs. Lucy nicely giggled at the idea of Risa being the bodyguard for a pop idol, as she would probably try to make any crazed fans levitate off the ground before hitting the stage pretty hard, and she saw Risa start to look determined about succeeding.
Lucy liked how her friend seemed to have some good motivation for money, as it would be really good to make a famous person be impressed with her skills, and Lucy decided that she could just run after any criminals who tried to steal any shopping bags or satchels from the client. Yesterday's events made Lucy see that her running abilities in Kotomi's body were truly put to the test, and Lucy could run for a longer amount of time than usual. Even though that changed, Lucy was still surprised by a certain black-haired dragon slayer who decided to emerge from her shadow and lightly sigh.
"Good morning, Lucy. Good morning, Risa." Rogue told her in a calm tone while his facial expression wasn't showing any emotion whatsoever.
Sting added with a happy smile on his face, as he walked over to the request board, "Morning, girls! You two are new to Sabertooth, but the awesome Sting Eucliffe will be happy to help you out with another job today!"
That prompted Risa to immediately ask with a smile on her face, feeling delighted about her job, "Master, can we handle this task in Cramoisi Town? You don't mind helping me out with handling whatever a famous person wants from us, right? Wouldn't it give Sabertooth more recognition to have some autographed T-shirts or other merchandise as souvenirs, especially since that adds to the excitement of a sale going on?"
Sting responded comically while his smile became a look of shock, seeming amazed that a celebrity needed help from Sabertooth, "Risa, you seriously want us to handle a rich person's problem?! Wow, they must love having others do their dirty work. I guess we can ask them for autographs, but just know that the autograph makes that person look better by posing with someone as great as me! As for the sale, just handle it quick this time!"
Hearing Sting technically give his approval for the sale made Risa cheer in happiness, which made her tightly hug him, and Risa hugged the guild master tightly to where he nearly lost his breath. Risa was really excited about the job and this sale, her eyes starting to be filled with some fire that represented her determination to really get the best outfits before any other women could snatch them away, and she broke the hug for a moment. She took a few steps back to let Sting see the red flyer for him to stamp it, and Risa felt glad that this task would soon be official for her to handle it.
Lector noticed the red flyer while he stood next to Sting, prompting him to fly into the guild master's office to get the stamp, and he simply smiled in a confident manner at how Sting could beat down any robbers who would try to steal jewels from a famous person. Sting seemed happy about the job, especially since he and Rogue would be accompanying Risa and Lucy as backup to ensure that this job was taken care of without any bad issues occurring, but the smile that returned to his face was slowly replaced by a little frown as he looked at Lucy.
She may have been wearing a nice outfit that consisted of a plain red T-shirt with a candy apple red jean jacket to match, along with some khaki shorts with some red suede boots that were knee-high, but Sting recalled how Lucy didn't have Sabertooth's guild mark officially stamped on to her body. She wasn't an official Sabertooth wizard without that mark, and any people in Fiore who would think that Lucy was truly Kotomi could perceive that guild insignia as possible proof of Kotomi being a spy from Moon Rainbow who would wreck Sabertooth from within. Sting wanted his new friend to have a new start, but erasing that mark would require him to make a risky move.
"Lucy, do you mind... lifting up your shirt?" Sting asked in a calm manner, trying not to blush at the thought of that insignia be in an inappropriate place.
Lucy replied with a shocked facial expression, the stellar mage punching Sting's arm while Lector came back with the stamp and the color kit, "Sting, don't ask me to do that! I am not intending on letting people see me being indecent!"
Sting asked nicely while seeming a little annoyed by Lucy's yelling, "Let me just rephrase that. Lift up your shirt for us to see if the guild mark is there, Lucy."
Lucy closed her eyes as she lifted up her shirt for Sting to see her belly, only letting him slightly see her red bra, and the white dragon slayer got to see that the guild insignia for Moon Rainbow was just below her bellybutton. The insignia was a light green crescent moon turned over on its side, which made it oddly resemble the arched rainbows that normally appeared in the sky, and Sting charged up some white light in his hands. He placed one hand on that guild mark, before making the light brightly shine against it to where thin white beams of energy touched Lucy's skin while they felt warm, and Sting put some magical power into that hand. He made the insignia of Moon Rainbow be burnt away by the light, which was seen by how tiny clouds of smoke came from Lucy's stomach, and Sting pulled his hand away to nicely smile at the fact that the mark was erased. Now that the insignia of a dark guild was erased, Lucy could now have the insignia of a legal guild. Lucy opened her eyes to see Sting smiling at her, and her eyes slightly twinkled as she smiled back at him while noticing the great look of satisfaction in his blue eyes that seemed to be a little beautiful to her.
Lector happily smiled from seeing Sting get rid of that guild mark, which made him slowly fly up to Lucy while opening the purple color kit for Lucy to see an assortment of colors, and Lucy giggled cutely at how she was going to receive her new insignia. Since Lucy viewed her situation as one where she truly had to start over in her new life, she decided to pull down the left side of her shirt for the right side of her waist to still be seen. She pointed to the dark green color in the kit, seeing that as a nice contrast to her worst enemy's bright winds, and Lector gave Lucy a happy smile as he dipped the stamp into that color. He stamped Sabertooth's insignia on the right side of her waist in a dark shade of green, and Lucy didn't just giggle from how the stamp tickled her. From her perspective, dark green was a color that represented how this new situation technically started when she woke up in the Tokiwa Forest. Lucy viewed herself to be like the newest plant in a forest, since she was the newest member of the guild while she had no magic.
As Lector stamped Risa's flyer for it to become official, Lucy turned around to notice that Yukino was standing there quietly with a kind smile on her face. Yukino simply wore a light blue T-shirt with some dark blue jean shorts, and Lucy watched her friend's gaze shift towards Risa's flyer. Lucy felt like there would be no harm in letting Yukino come along, since it would be good to have one more wizard in the team if the job ended up being dangerous, and she hoped that Sting would be okay with that. She looked at Rogue, who simply wore his usual grey shirt with black pants and black dress shoes, and he just smiled at Yukino while not minding her presence. Sting also noticed Yukino, and seeing her standing with the other wizards in this caused Sting to confidently smile at his little plan.
"Lector, you and Frosch need to take care of the guild while Rogue and I help the ladies handle this task." Sting told his best friend with a confident grin on his face, before high-fiving Lector.
Lector responded with an equally confident smile on his face, as Sting started to walk away, "Good luck, Sting-kun!"
Lucy asked Risa while she kindly smiled at her, allowing her to lead the team out of the guild, "How do we get to Cramoisi Town, Risa? By taking the train?"
"Oh, god..." Sting said while comically looking sick, making Risa sigh sadly at the thought of Sting's head on her lap while she also began to wonder if every other girl in Cramoisi Town was enjoying the sale.
Meanwhile, in Cramoisi Town...
Even though only five girls were in the clothing store of Cramoisi Town to purchase some of the nice-looking clothes and shoes while other females were missing out on the sale, they heard the shop's musical little jingle occur from the front door suddenly opening. The customers and the shopkeeper got to see a fair-skinned girl suddenly walk into the store with six people walking behind her in a single-file line formation. Everyone took notice of how the girl had long crimson red hair that reached slightly below her waist with two cute bangs framing her face, and she wore a scarlet red bow above her forehead while the bow had a ruby red brooch in its center. Some customers gasped at that girl's signature bow that went well with her raspberry red eyes, before noticing how she wore a black choker with a ruby red jewel attached to it. In addition to that little detail, this girl also wore a scarlet red dress that slightly showed off some cleavage while the top part of the strapless dress had a black sash in the middle with a rectangular red ruby attached to the sash. The top part of the scarlet red dress interestingly had little flame-shaped tails on its lowest point, and the bottom part of the dress was in a candy apple shade of red while all sides of that part of the dress had the design of little red flames going downward. This girl also wore some white stockings, and she wore cherry red high-heeled shoes with flames in the regular shade of red on the front of them.
This girl had a black microphone in one of her hands, and she walked towards the section of the clothing store that had the nicest-looking dresses. Before checking out the dresses, this person smiled at a red poster on the store's pink wall that featured her winking cutely as she appeared to be singing while the background of the poster was in different shades of pink that flowed close to each other like physical aromas from perfume going through the air. This girl was known as Akai Hinotama, the fiery pop idol with a burning passion in her songs, and she didn't come to Cramoisi Town solely for the cute clothes.
Aside from the clothing store, Cramoisi Town also had a red building at the foot of what was rumored to be a volcano. That building was a venue for musicians and other performers to have concerts that would mostly be attended by the locals who lived in the town of Cramoisi, but many of Akai's fans would probably be attending her concert that was happening in a few days. Akai began to move some dresses around while looking somewhat snobby, believing that she would truly make that night be a great show for everyone to see, and she hoped that many members of the paparazzi from Sorcerer Magazine would see how she was quite talented.
From the perspective of her fans, Akai's specialties seemed like they were just dancing and singing masterfully for an audience. However, being from Cramoisi Town allowed Akai to spend years with developing a good talent for Fire Magic. Akai only used her flames in situations where the crowd could cheer from seeing the power of her fire, believing that it really fitted a girl who could also play the guitar, but Akai would also have to perform on the town's holiday where a tradition would be involved. Her lips formed somewhat of a frown from thinking about that, but Akai quickly tried to smile with passion as she thought that an adoring fan was walking up to her.
"Well, well. Princess Akai gets to come back to her hometown for festivities, as well as the offering of sacred flames to the Fire Goddess after an exciting battle." A man's voice said in a happy tone with calmness, before nicely reminding Akai of a certain duty.
Akai replied with a stern facial expression as she looked at the man, not having enjoyment in her eyes, "Don't act like I should be joyful, Kaen. I'm working hard to finally be in Sorcerer Magazine, and the Fire Goddess will see me burn this year's opponent so badly to where they'll be ashes in the end. After all, I am the master of beauty and flair that both burn at an extremely fiery level."
"Keep displaying that confidence, Princess Akai! Anyway, we'll have your usual choices for clothes ready soon." Kaen replied nicely, before walking off to where the shoes were located.
Akai watched all of her assistants purchase clothes from different areas of the store, such as how a woman with cherry red hair wore a long scarlet red jacket with three white buttons on it and some black flat shoes while she purchased the most stylish-looking red jackets for Akai to wear later, and another female assistant who had short red hair was wearing a red T-shirt with a white miniskirt and cherry red sandals as she was tasked with the job of buying the T-shirts and miniskirts that Akai could wear in other towns as part of her disguise to not be swarmed by fans.
As Akai watched that female assistant get in line for the cash register and stand behind a male assistant who wore a dark red tuxedo with dress pants, she smiled in a very pleased manner from having little thoughts about how her assistants could make her look dazzling or ordinary while they were also some good bodyguards who wielded fiery magic. They would only use it on the store's customers that tried to inappropriately touch Akai or strike her with magic from a distance, and those two assistants were slightly stronger than the others.
The male assistant began to pay for Akai's bows and ribbons, taking out at least twenty-thousand jewels from one of his tuxedo's pockets, and Akai was really glad that he stole jobs from guilds for different assistants to handle. Akai was not only a pop idol, but she had a building in this town that only looked like an official guild when the Magic Council inspected it last year. In reality, that building wasn't a guild at all and Akai would briefly meet her assistants there sometimes for them to split high profits with her. In fact, some of the assistants even stole S-Class jobs. As Akai looked at the cash register to see one of her other assistants getting in line while her hands touched a red dress, Kaen came towards her with three pairs of shoes in his hands. His orange eyes watched Akai move her hands up the dress to get the yellow wire hanger off of the grey rack, and Kaen placed the shoes on the floor before giving Akai a teasing smile.
"Princess Akai, I noticed yesterday that your schedule mentioned something about wizards getting you your favorite coffee drink. You thankfully don't overload us with work, but you might want to not give random people such small jobs. They might think you're a high-maintenance person who needs all types of attention, but I wonder if you're wanting them to have that image of you." Kaen told her in a calm tone while now smiling with his eyes closed, before putting his hand on her head to rub it in a playful manner.
That caused Akai to respond with an offended facial expression, harshly slapping Kaen across the face, "You watch your mouth, Kaen! You and the other assistants are only mere servants to the Hinotama household, and there is nothing wrong with someone as beautiful as me viewing myself as important or superior to others! In fact, I'm above the lowborn mages who can't possibly screw up a coffee order! Now, let me try on these red stilettos first and you can put back the green plaid high-heeled shoes! They look like a commoner's shoes!"
"Yes, Princess Akai! I'll put them back so fast to where you'll never even think they were suggested to someone as amazing as you!" Kaen stated quickly while looking a bit scared, before picking up the shoes to dash back to where the shoes were located.
Akai's opinionated assistant placed the green shoes back in their proper spot on the shoe rack, and he sighed softly while getting away fast enough to avoid Akai's wrath. This man was known as Kaen Yaketsuku, and he was one of the assistants who doubled as a keyboardist in the band to help Akai's beautiful singing as a pop idol be backed up by great-sounding music. Kaen had black hair with crimson red bangs in the front that were parted to both sides with a few strands of hair falling on to his face, and the bangs went well with his crimson red eyes. Kaen wore a dark red jacket with white trim on it, the jacket only slightly hiding his T-shirt that was in a candy apple shade of red, and Kaen wore some black jeans with dress shoes in the normal shade of red.
He turned away from the brown shoe rack to see a red-haired female assistant who wore a simple red sundress while she held a stack of neatly folded dresses in her hands, and Kaen watched Akai walk towards that particular assistant with a smile of arrogance on her face. Akai removed the hanger from the dress that she wanted to purchase, before neatly folding the dress, and she placed it on the woman's stack of nine dresses. Kaen watched the stack now be a little higher while the assistant made a red aura of Fire Magic engulf her hands to make herself have much more strength to carry all the dresses, and she was able to easily balance the stack.
Kaen smiled at that, before watching Akai try on the pairs of shoes that were in the colors of pink and red, and he watched the pop idol simply hold those shoes in her hands. He felt so glad that the princess of Cramoisi Town was satisfied with her new shoes, since she seemed to have a smiled that showed true happiness, but Kaen began to frown from how mages would probably show up here soon to take care of Akai's request. He wondered if they would be capable of satisfying her demands, since working for a famous person could be tough for some individuals, and Kaen hoped that they would make Akai have a very happy morning by following her orders. Kaen started to look at the shop's front door, and he wondered if the mages would be nice people who could deal with Akai's attitude making her be such a handful.
How was Chapter 4? Feel free to tell me your thoughts on it. I decided to make Risa be a little more quirky to where she would comically take a job without initially getting it stamped. Furthermore, here's something else. Lucy may have looked into Sting's eyes, but Lucy blushing will probably occur later on. Also, Akai and Kaen are two more OCs of mine. Those other assistants will be named later, but Kaen seems like the closest person to Akai right now. Also... This chapter officially starts the Crimson Fire Arc in this StiCy story! Cramoisi (Cram-oh-zee) is French for "Crimson". I'll update soon. :)
REVIEWS!
KillerFrost07: Yeah, Risa does seem to like the idea of Sting and Lucy being together! :)
FireBlitz: Thank you! Yes, Sabertooth will have some important characters. Also, I may give Erza more dialogue when Team Natsu appears later on.
OrangeDetermination: Thanks! Well, Risa and Lucy are now going to do a job together as Sabertooth's newest wizards. As for the job and its results, you may be surprised.
YellowThunder5: Here it is!
GreenGrass4: Thank you! I'm glad you noticed the buildup. Lol.
BlueWater234: Thank you so much!
PurpleReis155: I'm glad you're enjoying the StiCy.
Matt: Thanks!
jennie: Thank you!
Kiri-chan: Here you go!
Sena: Thank you! Here's the beginning of the arc.