Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.

Chapter 6: Fierce Celestial Magic & Fiery Motivations

Narrator POV

Lucy had been training with the magic from her Celestial Mage Ring for the past two days, working quite hard to be great at celestial spells that didn't involve her keys, and she was currently standing at the top of a mountain path that overlooked the town of Kogane. As Lucy stood on the mountain trail, a brown book on Celestial Spirit Magic was on the ground behind her while Lucy had opened it up to a section that featured some interesting spells on the left and right sides of the page. She started off her training routine with these two spells for two straight days, and Lucy would continue with trying to get better at Celestial Spirit Magic.

The green-haired mage stretched out her left hand while closing her eyes, silently building up some magical power, and a golden aura began to surround Lucy's body. In a few seconds, a golden sphere began to form in her left hand. It grew to be as big as her palm, before Lucy threw it into the air, and the attack created an average-sized golden blast. She smiled at the power of the attack known as Celestial Ball, since it looked strong enough to knock airborne enemies out of the sky, and Lucy thought about how she could build a strategy off of that tactic.

Lucy looked down at the right page to see the second spell that she wanted to have in her arsenal, and it simply required her to stretch out both of her hands towards her target. She decided to aim this spell at a nearby alcove, which was a large and hollow indentation in the mountain, so Lucy felt glad that no innocent people would possibly get hurt. She concentrated on her magical power and the spell, before firing a golden beam that had two rings of golden stars surrounding it, and Lucy watched the spell create a golden explosion. It destroyed part of the alcove's brown rock wall, which made Lucy have a happy smile on her face.

The golden smoke faded away to reveal that part of the wall was now a pile of rubble while all of the rocks were surrounded by the golden aura, and Lucy slowly stepped forward as she was cautious about those rocks possibly detonating. They simply stayed still like statues, however, and Lucy walked up to all of the rocks. The feeling of curiosity was in her orange eyes as she picked up one of them with her left hand, and the fact that Lucy pushed the rock upward for a moment caused the aura to counter that by going down from the small rock to go into her palm. After a few seconds, Lucy felt herself have some more strength.

"Well, it looks like the spell known as Celestial Star Beam is an attack that can also be useful for enhancing my own strength. This will also be useful for fighting, if I ever run into Akai again." Lucy said aloud to herself with a nice smile on her face, as she turned to see the book.

Lucy heard a certain white dragon slayer respond in a confident tone, as he walked towards her, "Yeah, and you'll just need to focus on using those spells in strategic ways."

That comment prompted Lucy to ask in a calm manner, as she turned to face him, "Sting, what are you doing here?"

Sting explained to Lucy with a calm smile on his face, as he unfolded a red poster that was in his right hand, "It may be early in the morning, but it looks like Akai's concert is tonight. If we go there, then maybe you can fight her after that traditional battle is over."

Sting unfolded the poster for Lucy to see an image of Akai in a strapless red dress that showed off some cleavage, winking with her right eye and blowing a kiss as she held a pink microphone in one hand, and Akai stood in front of a background that seemed to be red like the color of her hot flames. The sight of the poster featuring Akai as an idol with fiery passion caused Lucy to clench her fists while she began to narrow her eyes in a serious manner, and Lucy was not going to lose against that snobby princess who viewed her as a loser with no fashion sense.

Lucy definitely had a good sense of style, since she wore her strapless red tank top with red Capri pants to match, and she also wore some red high-heeled shoes that had flames on the front of them. Lucy continued to clench her fists, before fiercely picking up the brown book, and she turned a few pages until reaching two particular sections of spells that seemed great for her while the spells would probably not be difficult for her to handle. Lucy had been trying to learn several spells from this book for the past two days, training for most of the mornings while she also spent five hours of the previous night on this mountain, and she just had to keep practicing.

The third spell that Lucy would unleash required her to stretch out both of her arms in opposite directions, and she had to spin around in a circle. Lucy followed those instructions while getting dropping the book on the ground, and trying to unleash her magical power caused a large star-shaped projectile to suddenly appear in front of Lucy. The gold-colored star circled around Lucy in the clockwise direction while it began to rapidly spin like a boomerang that was going through the air, and the moment Lucy stomped on the spell to stop it was the moment that it started to shine in a gold color. Lucy put both of her feet on the spell to hold it down, ignoring the copious amount of thin gold beams of celestial energy that shined from it, and the moment she jumped out of curiosity was the moment that the spell detonated in a large golden blast!

"Whoa! That's totally surprising!" Lucy exclaimed in a shocked manner while she was sent spinning high up into the air at a fast pace.

Sting asked in a stunned manner, as he saw the rocks surrounded by a golden aura start flying towards the blast, "What's going on?"

The rocks headed straight for the blast, before they were obliterated by its power, and the golden aura jumped straight up from the blast to touch Lucy's body. As Lucy was in midair, she looked down at the fading blast in a surprised manner while wondering if it somehow attracted other objects to it. If that was the case, though, then it only left more of a question bout why Sting and the book weren't pulled into the blast or even slightly damaged by its power. Lucy simply descended to the ground, and observed how the blast left a large crater on the mountain while part of the cliff was destroyed.

Lucy really did like the level of power in that attack, and she smiled while thinking about ways to cleverly use that spell known as Celestial Cosmic Blast. Lucy picked up the book that had closed because of the blast's winds, before reopening it to find the next spell that she wanted to try out, and Lucy hoped that she could be clever with all of her new abilities that pertained to Celestial Spirit Magic. Lucy wanted to have enough strength from her celestial magic to not only defeat Akai, but she also wanted to earn a good amount of respect.

She found the fourth spell that would probably be used in their fight, and Lucy channeled her magical power while closing her eyes. She aimed both of her hands up at the sky, before slamming her palms together, and the high amount of energy that she sent into the Celestial Mage Ring caused it to start shining while it became brighter from the rays of the morning sun gently hitting it. In a few moments, Lucy and Sting watched a golden star-shaped projectile descend from the heavens to strike the spot where Lucy was standing. The star soon broke into seven smaller stars, which all began to circle around Lucy, and she simply watched them circle around her while she could calmly walk on the mountain trail. The seven stars made Sting look very curious about their effect, and he had confidence in his eyes while unleashing his White Dragon's Roar at Lucy. She watched one of the stars break away from the circle to get hit by Sting's attack, before sending the attack back at him in the form of a golden beam of celestial energy, and that spell was called Celestial Shield for how it defended the caster of the spell against attacks before reflecting them back at the enemy. As Lucy smiled at her first four spells being quite useful, she giggled at how Sting dodged the beam to let its golden explosion hit a tree on the mountain. Sting chuckled a bit while thinking that he could also help Lucy with physical combat, and he believed that she would make a fight against Akai be a quick one-hit wonder for the pop idol's career.

Meanwhile, in Cramoisi Town... (Akai's POV)

The day of the concert had finally arrived, and I woke up in the comfortable cherry red bed of my room while smiling at how the scarlet red comforter was making me feel kind of warm on a morning where the air of Cramoisi Town didn't feel as hot as it should've been. I slowly sat up in my bed as the morning sun's rays came through the arched windows that had red frames, and the brightness of the morning sun seemed to be displaying how I would continue to shine brightly as a pop idol. A black microphone was on the small red nightstand next to me, and I merely smiled in a confident manner.

I got out of bed to see the candy apple red walls with dark red carpeting covering the wooden floor of my room, and I just assumed that this day would start off with a nice photo shoot after breakfast. My schedule tended to be different on days where concerts were occurring, since I couldn't just casually go out and get cupcakes today, so I had to anticipate that some freelance photographers would want pictures of me on this nice morning. If they wanted to see my best poses, then I would be happy to display my beauty for their cameras.

The thoughts about my beauty caused me to walk towards the window, before acting as if I was blowing a kiss to fans who were outside, and I turned around to see the gold-framed portrait of me that was above my bed's red heart-shaped headboard. As the portrait displayed the image of me blowing a kiss and winking as I posed on a runway, that made me giggle softly from liking how I actually sang at a fashion two months ago. The crowd probably enjoyed seeing me more than the models, since the beautiful displays of my fiery spells made me view myself as more of a highlight in that fashion show than any model could ever hope to be.

As I turned back around and walked towards the nearby large black wardrobe where my assistants had put all my clothes from yesterday, my raspberry red eyes took notice of the red dress that caught my attention two days ago. I walked into my neatly organized closet and saw the dress on a yellow hanger, liking how this particular dress was strapless while it had some cute red ruffles at the bottom, and this dress would be perfect for when the concert would be taking place. However, I wanted to find a decent T-shirt with a cute-looking miniskirt for a photo session. As I was in my red bra and red panties while bending over to pick up those folded clothes, I gasped in a stunned manner from hearing the brown bedroom door suddenly open.

"Good morning, Princess Akai! I decided to get some breakfast for you, and you have a big-" Kaen announced to me in a happy tone, before gasping in shock at how he walked in at a bad time.

I exclaimed with a shocked facial expression, as I didn't expect Kaen to barge in like that, "Knock next time, you servant! Kaen, just put the breakfast on the bed and leave!"

Kaen responded in a playful manner as I heard his footsteps go towards my bed, "All right, princess. Anyway, you've got an upcoming photo session in an hour! Eat your breakfast, and bring that curvy ass of yours to the fiery volcano's entrance! Also, you've got to fight someone in front of the Fire Goddess after the concert!"

I politely asked him while turning around to face him with sternness in my eyes, wanting to shut his mouth for a moment, "Kaen, is that the only aspect that you like about me?"

I set the clothes down on the bed, before slowly walking towards him while putting my hands together, and I made a small fireball form in between my hands. It started to grow bigger, before I split my power in half to make the fireballs be half of the original one's size, and I watched Kaen start to tremble as he stood near the white tray that had my breakfast on it. I threw a fireball at him, only for him to catch it in his hand before he had to conjure up his own Fire Magic to nullify the effects of fire, and Kaen simply slammed his other hand down on the fire to eliminate it.

He quickly looked up at me to see my fierce glare that was a warning about how the next fireball would have more magical power added to it, and Kaen took some steps back towards the doorway. He was simply trying to smile in an apologetic manner, but the pink blush that started appearing on his face merely showed me that he wasn't just focused on saving himself from being burnt down into ashes. I glanced down at my current attire to see that he was obviously staring at my bra and my chest, which made me turn to my attention to my delicious breakfast.

Kaen seemed like he was about to leave, but the smoke that came from his hand after stamping out my fire caused him to slightly smile at me. I decided to sit on the bed and pick up the hot plate of delicious red dragon sushi rolls that smelled extremely spicy, and I quickly used the red chopsticks that were near the plate to eat five of them while Kaen's smile began to make me curious. What exactly did he feel the need to smile about? If he wanted to be my opponent and lose on purpose to make me happy, then he must've stupidly forgotten my important goal.

"If I'm the type of pop idol who can also be a mage that gives the crowd an entertaining fight, then Sorcerer Magazine will no longer overlook me." I stated aloud in a stern manner, after swallowing some of my breakfast.

Kaen replied with a confident smile on his face, giving me assurance, "You'll give the crowd a fantastic battle to remember, Princess Akai! After all, no one's ever beaten you and people will acknowledge your strength."

I responded kindly while liking Kaen's words, as he was probably right, "Thanks, Kaen. When this day ends, I'll not only be a splendid pop idol. I'll probably be known as the sorceress of fire. We could turn that label into a single's title, if it seems like the crowds will love it."

As Kaen nodded in agreement at my response, I proceeded to eat more of my sushi breakfast while thinking about how this was a day where my flames and passion needed to burn with the highest amount of hotness for my fans. Not only would people from Cramoisi Town and other towns be watching my performance, but the crucial people watching me would all be from Sorcerer Magazine. Putting me in the next issue of the magazine would increase my fame even more, allowing no one to ever claim that they didn't know me, and I would not look like a forgettable chump.

Last year's concert went well to where the crowd cheered my name with so much love and admiration, which was only like a moment of happiness that came before the worst moment of my entire life. Despite how I easily defeated a mage in the battle that took place in front of the Fire Goddess, my fiery success in that battle was met with the rejection from Sorcerer Magazine and not getting the fame I deserved. Those punks who won the Grand Magic Games became famous while they got to be in Sorcerer Magazine, so what was wrong with me?

There was nothing wrong with my looks, my personality, or my magic. Therefore, how could Sorcerer Magazine overlook my beauty and my fiery image that allowed me to be such a successful pop idol? Honestly, it could never be surprising for anyone to think that I'm far above my servants or any trash-level mage who wanted to fight me. My level of power and level of singing ability were both fantastic, but I tightly clenched my fists and the chopsticks as I felt like more self-motivation could come from remembering that humiliation that made me feel like a tall building that explosively collapsed to go down in flames.

-Akai's Flashback- (Narrator POV)

After Akai struck her black-haired opponent with a large beam of fire and burned the other girl quite badly to where she could barely move, the judge of the battle declared that Akai Hinotama was the winner. Akai smiled happily while she stood at the top of a light brown staircase that led to the area of the volcano where the battle had taken place, and Akai turned around for a moment to shoot out some flames from her mouth. They ended up hitting a large red orb that was bordered by two torches, and Akai's flames lit up the orb to where it burned quite brightly with red flames. Akai's fans seemed very impressed with her display of power, as well as how she was a fantastic pop idol.

However, leaving the battle area to later go into the concert's building and go backstage was where Akai unfortunately received harsh criticisms instead of critiques. After Akai had changed her clothes to wear a red tight-fitting dress, she exited that backstage room to be out in a white tiled hallway that had cherry red walls to match. Akai initially seemed happy to be running out of the concert hall, especially when there appeared to be two female reporters from Sorcerer Magazine waiting at the backstage entrance to hopefully tell her that she would finally be in an issue of the magazine.

Akai noticed that the main journalist of the duo was a woman who had long black hair that fell to her hips while she wore a purple dress shirt with black dress pants and white dress shoes to match, so Akai simply stopped running for a moment. She casually walked up to that journalist, who seemed to just give Akai Hinotama a very calm smile, and Akai hoped that the two journalists would give the publishers of Sorcerer Magazine some bits of information that featured many nice things about Akai. The pop idol continued to smile, since her success with making the crowd love her and even greater success in the traditional fight made her feel like there was no doubt in Sorcerer Magazine accepting her.

Akai approached the two journalists while having a smile of confidence on her face, wanting to hear those great words of how Sorcerer Magazine would feature her on two pages or even put her on the cover of Sorcerer Magazine while she would hold flames in her hands to display her beauty and fierceness, and she watched the more experienced journalist gently place the notepad in her other hand. If she was going to write some nice things about how Akai even had nice attire when she fought against an enemy, then the pop idol would be happy to start discussing that fight.

"Wasn't my fight spectacular to see, journalists from Sorcerer Magazine? Don't my flames blaze with passion to show how I deserve respect?" Akai asked the journalists with an egotistical smile on her face, before laughing in a snobby manner.

The main journalist calmly replied while starting to frown, "Akai Hinotama, your fight ended so fast to where it ended only a few minutes after it started. That fight was pitiful, and even our boss named Jason wouldn't think it was cool."

Akai exclaimed with a shocked facial expression, astounded to hear that critique, "Wait, what?! Are you serious?!"

The woman told her while sounding stern, disapproval in her eyes, "You're a great pop idol, and no one would deny that. However, your abilities as a mage make you be too typical for Sorcerer Magazine. Your flames are hot, but have nothing thrilling about them whatsoever."

Akai told her while clenching her fists tightly, her eyes becoming filled with anger, "I cannot believe that you're rejecting me! Trash like you has surely underestimated my abilities to even refer to me as not being thrilling!"

The less experienced journalist was a woman with short orange hair in a ponytail, and she actually smiled at Akai while making some sizzling sounds and hand motions towards the pop idol. She made the gesture of placing her hand on a stove's red-hot burner, removing it as she playfully smiled at Akai, and the rookie journalist was mainly evaluating Akai's concert performance. Even though Akai would not be featured in Sorcerer Magazine, the woman who wore a yellow dress shirt with khaki pants and yellow galoshes still thought that the flames in her concert really made the stage be quite hot while the fire also created some fantastic explosions in the air.

Despite how Akai had powerful flames that could burn quite hot for her concerts, her fire just didn't make that traditional battle have any excitement to it. Akai glared at the main journalist, who merely started to walk away with her rookie partner, and Akai clenched her teeth while she tried her best to deny the fact that she wouldn' get into Sorcerer Magazine. From the perspective of Akai, an idol who always made the crowd happy with her music and skills displayed with fire on the stage should've automatically been in the next issue of the magazine.

Instead, Akai was met with a very frosty and blunt rejection that made her feel sick to her stomach like someone just fed her a spoonful of bitter-tasting medicine. Akai's eyes widened in shock from seeing those journalists casually walk away from her, not even giving her an interview while they seemed to ignore her fame, and the princess of Cramoisi Town viewed this kind of treatment a being very disgusting. The journalists were treating Akai as if she was a commoner with no special qualities that made her stand out enough to be in Sorcerer Magazine, and Akai hated that.

"I'm the princess of Cramoisi Town, you bitch!" Akai exclaimed with an enraged look on her face, before making a fireball appear in her left hand and throwing it at the journalists.

"Ouch, these flames are so hot!" The main journalist exclaimed with a pained facial expression, shielding her rookie as she took the attack directly.

Akai replied in a menacing tone, as she slowly walked towards the main journalist, "I am not a stupid commoner, you imbecile! You will give me the respect that I deserve, or I'll send you back to Sorcerer Magazine and have you literally be on fire for what you've reported about me!"

The woman fell to the ground, before crawling away on her hands and knees to try and get away, but Akai ended up hitting her with a powerful fireball. It created an average-sized explosion, which got the attention of some nearby band members, and Akai watched the journalist's clothes begin to burn while the hot flames left red burn marks on her skin. Akai shot out a beam of fire from her mouth, setting the journalist on fire while refusing to control her rage, and the woman screamed in pain from Akai's fiery attacks.

Akai followed that up by harshly kicking the journalist in her left side, sending her flying towards a backstage door, and the younger journalist slowly stepped back to avoid Akai's wrath. The heated princess did not plan to cease with her attacks, unless she got the respect that she deserved. She slowly walked towards that journalist, who now had charred skin while she could barely move, and Akai thought that this woman was lucky to have survived the weakest explosion that occurred when Akai let herself be enraged.

As Akai focused on her magical power and created a large red fireball in her hands while some flames swirled around it, she was suddenly watching the flames around the journalist be dispelled. Akai did not cancel out that spell, as she wanted the fire to badly burn that journalist, but she turned around to see Kaen clapping his hands loudly while a red aura of Fire Magic surrounded them. Akai may have been a powerful princess, but Kaen couldn't just let her harm an innocent person. The flames went away, causing both of the journalists to run out the door to flee, and Akai groaned in anger and frustration at the criticism while silently to get into Sorcerer Magazine and even crush other girls who wanted to stand in her way.

Later that night, at the concert...

Lucy went back to Cramoisi Town with Risa by her side while Sting and Rogue walked behind them with Yukino tagging along to see Akai Hinotama's concert, and the group of mages from Sabertooth entered the cherry red building that was shaped like a dome. Lucy walked into the building to see that the interior area for the concert had light pink walls with dark red carpeting to match while the area was darkened by the main lights being off, and the only bright things that Lucy could see right now were the pink chairs. Lucy and her friends made their way up to the fifth row of chairs, which positioned them to be near the front part of the crowd.

Risa and other crowd members gasped in happiness from seeing the black stage lights send large amounts of white light down to the rectangular stage, illuminating it for everyone to see the fancy red instruments, but the lights suddenly turned off. After a few seconds, Lucy and her friends became startled while the rest of the crowd cheered wildly from seeing flames rise up from four different parts of stage, and Akai emerged from the flame that was right in front of the mic stand. Akai started to strum her electric guitar to create several good notes that flowed together while she was smiling confidently, before Kaen added to her music by playing some notes on his keyboard. Kiki Hono, the female bass player who had her long red hair tied back into two cute pigtails and wore a red sundress with some cherry red stilettos, added on to that harmony. Yuuji Fukushige, the male drummer who wore the red tuxedo with the red dress pants, started to hit the drums and strike the cymbals. The harmony of the band was now created for Akai to sing her first song, and she felt quite happy.

As Akai put her mouth directly in front of the mic and beautifully sang some notes to make her crowd of fans cheer even more, Lucy noticed that Akai wore a strapless red dress with red ruffles at the bottom. Akai also wore her signature scarlet red bow above her forehead, and she even made a red aura of Fire Magic surround her hands. Akai continued to play her cherry red guitar that was shaped like her signature bow while the guitar had also been designed to seemingly have scarlet red flames coming off of it, and she raised her right hand upward as she kept singing.

Akai shot out two fireballs from her right hand, and the audience got to see those fireballs almost hit the stage lights. The two spheres of fire came down to create two bursts of fire that went upward, being on both sides of Akai while she moved her hand in a clockwise direction to make the flames circle around her. The flames remained on opposite sides of each other, and Akai added two more fireballs to her fiery concert. They created two more flames that circled around Akai while she remained in the center of them, and that variation of a certain spell definitely reflected the song.

"Watashi no kokoro wa anata no tame ni moemasu! Watashi no kokoro no Pinwheeled kanjō!" Akai beautifully sang into the mic with a confident facial expression, playing the notes on her electric guitar for the song known as Pinwheeled Emotions of My Heart.

Kaen and the other band members added to the chorus while smiling confidently, playing their instruments quite well, "Blazing fire in her heart! Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!"

Risa told Lucy with a happy smile on her face, liking the music, "Lucy, they're a pretty awesome band!"

That prompted Lucy to calmly reply, as she wasn't ecstatic about hearing Akai's music, "They're alright, I guess."

Lucy simply watched Akai perform on stage while the band's first song came to an end, even seeing Akai dispel the four flames, and the wielder of the Celestial Mage Ring got to see Akai shoot out another fireball from her hand. This one surprised most of the people in the crowd by how it began to spin in midair while making little red flames fall on to the stage, Those flames all landed in between Akai and her band members, before Akai sent more magical power into her spinning fireball, and that made the small flames start to rise up while they roared with fierceness. Akai began to play her next song, which was Rising Fire of The Princess, and everyone other than Lucy didn't seem to mind the heat.

She wiped some sweat off of her forehead while thinking about how the battle in front of the Fire Goddess would probably be an extremely hot fight, and Lucy took the time to just observe Akai's flames. If her powerful flames could rise up from the ground to burn foes in the air, then Lucy would just have to make a little strategy for trying to counter them. Doing that would probably not be easy, however, and Lucy closed her eyes in a frustrated manner from how Akai's loud music prevented her from having some quietness to think.

If Lucy wasn't able to think out her moves for a fight, then she would have to improvise. She looked down at the gold Celestial Mage Ring while believing that she could win, and Lucy also looked over at Sting for a moment. Whether Lucy had been training in the early hours of the morning or training during the night, Sting always left the Sabertooth guild to go and check on her. He even watched her train hard while having a confident smile on his face, which always gave Lucy some determination to win, and the fact that he believed in her so much made Lucy start to smile with optimism.

"Thanks for believing in me, Sting. I'll be happy to show you the results of the training." Lucy thought to herself while maintaining her positive smile.

Sting thought to himself as he noticed that Lucy smiled at him, prompting the blue-eyed dragon slayer to confidently smile back, "Lucy, I hope you're enjoying the concert. After all, you'll get even more enjoyment after taking down Akai. Plus, you can take down flames that merely seem intimidating"

Just because Akai's flames looked intimidating, that didn't mean Lucy had the lesser chance of winning. There was more to a battle than just the power of spells, since the best mages would have to be clever in their fights for them to get through any disadvantages, and Lucy's eyes started to become filled with determination. She was definitely not going to lose, and Lucy shifted her attention away from Sting. She looked up at Akai, who finished her second song of the set, and Lucy silently promised herself that she would be delivering the harsh burns to the rude pop idol.

As Akai threw three fireballs up into the air for them to simply create red fireworks, Lucy wondered if the crowd would be standing around for the traditional fight that would be coming up. If people were going to be nearby, then Lucy would have to make sure that her magic did not injure any innocent individuals. Even though Lucy wanted to harshly hit Akai with some powerful spells of Celestial Spirit Magic, she wouldn't harm anyone who hadn't done anything to make her get angry. Therefore, she would see if she had to be very careful with her spells.

Lucy heard Akai and the band play their third song of the concert, which seemed to start off slow with the drummer and the bass guitar playing some awesome beats before Akai beautifully sang the song's lyrics, and Lucy hoped that Akai's thrilled fans would not start hate campaigns against her after the fight. As Akai started to play her electric guitar while Kaen excitedly played some notes on the keyboard for the group to fully harmonize in this song. Akai's guitar and the other instruments got louder as the song known as Flambe For The Beautiful Flame of Love got closer to its chorus, and Lucy wondered if Akai's band would set fire to the stage when they reached the bridge. The only people who probably wanted to see that were Yukino and Risa, since Lucy could hear the two girls starting to sing along while Akai loudly sang the lyrics like she was a fiery rock star.

One hour later, in Cramoisi Town...

After Akai's concert came to an end, Lucy and her friends from the Sabertooth guild walked down one of the red cobblestone streets to just see the other parts of Cramoisi Town. They ended up being in front of Akai's residence, which was the largest building in Cramoisi Town, and the light red building had a dark red trapezoid-shaped roof on it. The large building seemed to have many rooms, almost as if it was an amazing palace for a fire-wielding princess, and Lucy was simply surprised while Risa was glad to have finally seen a famous person's residence close-up.

Rogue and Yukino both smiled softly at the house, thinking that Akai Hinotama must've spent tons of money to purchase that nice house for herself, but everyone was soon surprised by the sound of a microphone letting out a loud squeak. The protagonists walked away from Akai's house and went back to the concert hall's building to see Akai standing on a black stage that was similar to the one in the concert hall, but Akai was not the person standing in front of the microphone. Instead, a woman who wore a red blouse and a long dark red skirt would be speaking. She had long red hair that fell to her waist, and she wore glasses with orange frames while a flame-shaped hair clip was on the left side of her head.

This young woman was the mayor of Cramoisi Town, and her lips formed a happy smile from how the ending of the concert could now allow the fight in front of the Fire Goddess to begin. She watched several of the townspeople and tourists gather in front of the stage, as she calmly exhaled a breath into the microphone, and the mayor would be glad to announce this annual event. However, there was the issue of Akai having to choose her opponent before the two participants could even be taken to the battlefield for the fight.

The mayor turned to Akai Hinotama, who felt quite confident after the crowd cheered her name after each song during her fiery concert, and Akai simply cleared her throat as she walked towards the microphone. The mayor stepped away from the microphone while Akai decided to keep her eyes on Kaen and her other assistants, since they were in the crowd with confident smiles on their faces, and Akai chose to ignore how the blond-haired reporter known as Jason from Sorcerer Magazine was right next to them in the crowd. She would be glad to explain the rules, since she was quite the expert at this event.

"Welcome, everyone! As the festivities of enjoying delicious food and getting souvenirs in great sales come to an end, we end it all with the yearly tradition in Cramoisi Town. I shall fight against one of you, and the winner's attacks that can explode will be offered up as flames to satisfy the Fire Goddess who helps the flames of our town thrive. I'd ask for volunteers, but I think that I'll pick-" Akai explained with a nice smile on her face while faintly smiling arrogantly, before a certain girl in the crowd interrupted her.

Lucy exclaimed with fierceness in her voice, as she sternly narrowed her eyes, "Hey, fashion reject! Your opponent is me!"

Akai spoke into the microphone with her voice expressing the feeling of surprise while her face showed a mix of shock and taking offense to Lucy sending that comment back at her, "What?! You?! You dare choose to challenge Cramoisi Town's princess like that, you green-haired loser?!"

Yukino told Lucy with a serious facial expression, recalling how Akai initiated the conflict, "Good luck, Lucy-sama."

Upon hearing Lucy volunteer to face off against Akai in the fight, the mayor simply adjusted her glasses while she looked surprised for a few minutes. She simply watched Akai frown at Lucy, before seeing her walk up the light brown staircase that led to a high area of the volcano, and Lucy left her teammates to go follow Akai. She was definitely pushed even harder to win now, since Akai referred to her as a loser in front of a crowd of people, and Lucy simply clenched her fists as she walked up the stairs for the battle.

Risa glanced at the staircase that was near the concert hall, and she looked down at her pink T-shirt and white skirt for a moment. Even though Lucy could do well with fashion, could she do well in her first fight with new magic and a new body? Risa looked back up at the stairs to see Lucy quickly get to the top of the staircase, as she was not intending to waste any time, and Risa simply smiled in a calm way while silently hoping that Lucy would have great luck with winning. Risa also hoped that her newest friend wouldn't get humiliated, too.

The mayor watched Lucy walk up the stairs, before also going up the staircase while pulling out a blue orb from one of her skirt's pockets, and she was followed by Ryuko. Ryuko casually took the microphone off of its stand, but she wouldn't be hosting the battle like an emcee or a referee. The female assistant wouldn't be aiding Akai in the battle, either, but she did have some blue orbs that could create Lacrima Vision screens. Ryuko went up the staircase for the purpose of setting those up, and Sting watched Kaen get on stage with the other band members while it appeared that one of the assistants would be replacing Akai as the singer.

"Hello, everyone. My name is Kasai Hino, and we're just going to be providing extra entertainment for you as the fight is happening." The female assistant who wore the red T-shirt and dark red shorts explained with a calm smile on her face, as she held Akai's guitar while the other band members set up their instruments on the stage before getting ready to perform.

Sting asked from the crowd while narrowing his eyes, thinking that something was weird, "Will you guys play some new music that we haven't heard today?"

Risa replied to Sting in a snarky manner, as she smiled at him, "Wow, Sting. You only attended their concert once, but you're suddenly a big fan and already waiting for new singles to be released."

Kasai, Kaen, Kiki, and Yuuji all began to smirk deviously as they would gladly play a new song for the audience to enjoy. In fact, this particular song was one that Akai wanted them to play during her traditional battle. Not only would this song probably be well-received by the audience for Akai to get even more praise, but it would be good for Akai to hear an awesome melody as she would be fighting against an opponent who seemed pretty fierce.

Sting looked up at the top of the staircase to see Lucy going to one side of an area while Akai went to the other side, and he heard Risa let out a gasp of shock. She got to see rectangular screens appear in midair, being quite large for many people to view what was happening, and Risa got to see the screens feature Akai walking on to the left side of a wooden platform. Lucy walked on to the right side of it while maintaining her fierce facial expression, and Ryuko merely smiled as she blocked the girls from view for a moment. She walked down the staircase, quickly making it down to be in front of the lowest step, and Ryuko softly smiled.

Her smile didn't convince Sting that something weird would be happening, though, and he simply watched the platform for the battle be situated close to a red orb that was bordered by two lit torches. As Sting maintained his confidence that Lucy would do well, he heard the male drummer start the song off with a simple rhythm involving three or four beats while Kasai made some light riffs on the guitar. The two assistants played those particular patterns of notes, which strangely made Akai tap her feet lightly as she smiled at the music. As she enjoyed the music, however, Lucy used that as an opportunity to charge at her and start off this fight.

How was Chapter 6? Feel free to tell me your thoughts on it. Lucy has been training with the Celestial Mage Ring, and it looks like she acquired some good spells. Also, she's learning how to cleverly use them in this arc. Speaking of this arc, I gave Akai a flashback scene to really make her motivation for wanting to get into Sorcerer Magazine finally be touched upon. As for her assistants, the others will be named soon. However, they seem to have a weird plan that involves the use of music. Hopefully, Lucy can notice it in her fight against Akai. Also.. this is the third chapter of the Crimson Fire Arc in this StiCy story! The next chapter is where it concludes! I'll update soon. :)

THE SONGS AND THEIR REAL LIFE COUNTERPARTS!

Pinwheeled Emotions of My Heart sounds similar to "575" by the J-Pop group known as Perfume.

Extra note: "Watashi no kokoro wa anata no tame ni moemasu! Watashi no kokoro no Pinwheeled kanjō!" means "My heart burns for you! Pinwheeled emotions of my heart!"

Rising Fire of The Princess sounds similar to "Gee" by the K-Pop group known as Girls' Generation.

Flambe For The Beautiful Flame of Love sounds similar to "Mochi Girl" by the J-Pop group known as Gesu No Kiwami Otome.

REVIEWS!

KillerFrost07: Thanks! I like the interactions between Lucy and Sting, too!

FireBlitz: Thank you so much!

OrangeDetermination: Thank you!

YellowThunder5: Here it is!

GreenGrass4: Thank you!

BlueWater234: Thanks!

PurpleReis155: Thank you!

Matt: Thank you so much!

jennie: Thanks!

Kiri-chan: Here you go!

Sena: Thank you so much! When tons of effort is put into making an arc be good for readers, the arc can seem awesome. :)