Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.
Chapter 9: Training With Fire Magic! Lucy's Flaming Spells! Kotomi's Art of Scheming!
Lucy sat down at a table in the guildhall with Sting, Lector, and Risa while she smiled down at a red book that was from Sabertooth's library. This particular book focused on spells of Fire Magic, which could be quite hot while Lucy could severely burn her enemies, and Lucy was trying to find some offensive and defensive spells that would be very beneficial to her. Lucy hoped that these fiery spells would be able to help her out in many battles, including situations where her enemies would be wielding Water Magic, and Lucy turned a few pages to check out certain spells.
She ended up finding a spell of Fire Magic that seemed like a good one for her to start with, since it involved the simple act of creating a fireball in her hand, and Lucy closed her eyes for a moment. She stretched out her right hand towards Sting, which made him look a bit worried, and Lucy built up a small amount of magical power. Risa and Lector watched Lucy create a small red flame in her hand, only to see it quickly grow to being the same size as her palm while the flame slowly swayed back and forth, and Sting really hoped that the attack wouldn't explode or burn anyone in the guildhall right now.
Since Lucy was still quite new to using Fire Magic, she was very surprised that the flame wasn't burning her hand right now. Lucy placed her left hand near the flame to feel its high amount of heat, and she smiled nicely at how the heat emanating from the flame seemed nearly as hot as the heat from the hot magma in a volcano. That reminded Lucy of how there was a volcano back in Cramoisi Town, and that made her smile a bit while thinking about training there with her new magic instead of going to the mountain trail. Even if her flames could be powerful on the mountain trail, Lucy didn't want to accidentally make a spell's extremely hot flames melt the mountain.
She got her hot flame away from Sting's face, before placing her other hand on top of the flame in an attempt to snuff it out, but Lucy and her friends all widened their eyes in a stunned manner from seeing red fire now be in both of her hands. Lucy put the flames near each other to see that they were both half of the original flame's size, and Lucy simply slammed her hands together. She thought that would make the flame return to its original size, but that particular action made both of the flames be snuffed out with small grey clouds of smoke rising up from Lucy's palms.
"Well, that hot flame ended up being kind of a burnout. In a fight, it may be a red-hot risk. Don't act like a hotshot when you have to use that move for something, Lucy." Risa told her with a snarky smile on her face, as she chose to make some fire-based puns.
Lucy responded to her friend while comically looking irked at her jokes, "Risa, I'm not betting on this spell being great right now! Since I'm just getting used to this Fire Magic, training in a good place with it later would be a smart idea."
Sting told Lucy in a calm tone, before recalling how she and Risa would handle a job soon, "Yeah, training in an environment where you can strengthen those spells of Fire Magic is a very good idea. Lucy, you and Risa do have to be prepared for a tough job that you want to handle by yourselves. As you can see from how they left the guildhall to handle a job, Rogue and Yukino won't always be around to possibly assist you with taking down snobby wizards or people who manage dark guilds."
Risa asked Sting with a curious facial expression, "Master, would it be difficult to take down the leader of a dark guild?"
Sting put a finger to his lower lip while starting to think about Risa's question, since there was no obvious answer, and he thought about how that really varied due to several factors. The dark guild that Lucy and Risa would be taking on was actually one of the lesser known dark guilds, and Sting wondered about the abilities of the mages who were in Vermilion Sunset. He had attempted to look up their files in the guild master's office, since the Magic Council usually informed guild masters of prominent people who needed to be kept under surveillance, but nothing came up for Vermilion Sunset.
The guild must've been established recently or found some way to keep itself from arousing any suspicion, but it would be wise for Lucy and Risa to check out that guild while also checking out Kuchiba Town. Sting had never been there, since he didn't care to handle small jobs that pertained to that town in the past, but he would gladly let Lucy take Risa there for a job that was somewhat difficult. The fact that they'd have to do a tough job there made Sting start smiling softly at Risa, since the white dragon slayer believed that it would be very good for the rookie to experience actual combat.
He thought about how Risa didn't fight Ryuko after being hit by her magic in Cramoisi Town, which made him personally feel a bit miffed that he hadn't taught her about retaliating against mages when they were clearly carrying out some devious schemes, and Sting started to wonder if he needed to just keep an eye on Risa during such a major mission. She noticed that his smile shifted to a look of concern, which made Risa start to blink her cherry red eyes at him in a surprised manner, and Risa hoped that Sting wouldn't lecture her about getting distracted by fashion sales again.
"Risa, I think that I'll join you and Lucy tomorrow as backup. I'd hate for you to end up in any danger, especially if the enemy decides to intimidate you by making a powerful attack deliberately hit the area behind you." Sting told Risa in a calm tone, as he anticipated that an enemy would try to scare her away.
That prompted Risa to reply with a confident facial expression, as she remembered her first battle, "Master, you can come along. However, don't worry! Before Lucy crashed into me on that fateful day, her situation taught me to wait for a chance to quickly attack after all the sharp-edged leaves don't hit you. You know, it's like waiting for another girl to turn her head away from a fabulous dress at a sale for you to make the opportunistic move of taking the dress for yourself!"
Lucy replied to Risa in a sarcastic tone, as her orange eyes gently twitched in a comical manner with slight annoyance from remembering that day, "Yeah, I'm so glad that my negative experience on that day somehow had a bright side that you clearly noticed."
Risa simply put her hands behind her head while smiling at how she was glad to provide a new perspective for that situation, and she definitely wasn't scared about taking on this new job of getting rid of a dark guild's leader. In fact, the pink-haired girl believed that this situation would be as easy as unleashing a low-level spell. Risa got to see Sting and Lector both smile at her with confidence, as her relaxed attitude really showed them that she wasn't worried, and Sting would gladly give Risa more advice if she needed it.
He also felt glad that no fashion sales seemed to be occurring in Kuchiba Town, so there was no chance of Risa easily getting distracted by cute clothes that she could buy. Sting glanced at Risa's pink T-shirt and her cherry red jeans that matched her pink flat shoes, and she seemed fashionable enough to where she could completely focus on the mission without anything getting in her way. This job in Kuchiba Town may have seemed like a major mission for Risa and Lucy to handle, but Sting continued to smile at Risa while hoping that she would at least have fun with her tasks.
Speaking of tasks, Sting watched Lucy get up from the chair while she picked up the book and smiled at him. He hoped that Lucy could do well with her training in the volcano, and that part of Cramoisi Town would probably be as hot as the water from the hot springs that were enjoyed by the Sabertooth mages yesterday. Lucy quickly walked towards the guild's entrance doors while Sting chose to walk beside her, and he got to see that she looked very confident about strengthening her Fire Magic. As Risa got up from her chair to follow them, Sting and Lucy nicely smiled at each other. Lucy wondered if the volcano's heat would help her new spells get stronger, and she also wondered if the Crimson Ring would boost the power of her fire. The feeling of determination entered her eyes while she thought that the idea of making her flames create fiery twisters or infernos would be quite nice, especially since having the Crimson Ring made Lucy start to look determined about burning her impostor very badly to where she'd probably make Kotomi be burnt down into a pile of ashes after they switched back.
Meanwhile, at the Fairy Tail guild...
Kotomi stood in front of the request board with a joyous smile on her face while she stood next to Erza, quite glad that yesterday's job of taking down a giant monster had been successful without any issues, and it was now her turn to pick out a job for Team Natsu. Kotomi felt glad that the job Erza picked out yesterday had a reward of 300,000 jewels, since that gave Kotomi a nice share of 75,000 jewels, and pretending that she was broke after recently paying rent for the apartment belonging to the real Lucy Heartfilia made Kotomi very happy. The members of Team Natsu totally fell for her impersonation of Lucy, and they would gladly handle tough jobs for her to get high amounts of money.
The fact that the team was willing to handle difficult jobs prompted the wind-wielding thief to unpin a light green flyer from the request board, and Kotomi got to see that this task would require the mages to simply guard a young princess who wanted to do some sightseeing around a town that had an amusement park. Apparently, this princess stated in the job description that she would also be giving away a small artifact that was worth more than the reward on the flyer. Even though Erza and the others would perceive that as a nice gesture, Kotomi resisted the urge to laugh at that interesting bit of info.
From Kotomi's perspective, the only thing that was better than stealing valuable artifacts from museums or guilds had to be when a person would stupidly hand over a precious artifact. Kotomi held the flyer in her hands while thinking that a person who wanted to give away their jewelry or art had to really be the biggest moron in Fiore, so her lips formed a faint smirk of deviousness. Protecting a princess who wanted to have a fun day would certainly be a nice task, but purposely making her hand over a valuable item that could be sold for cash would make Kotomi feel that she achieved a greater victory.
Kotomi simply showed the flyer to Erza, who had a happy look in her brown eyes from seeing the task that her teammate picked out, and the scarlet-haired woman took the flyer from her. Kotomi feigned a friendly smile, before turning her attention to the request board, but she soon had a look of genuine shock in front of her face. Upon seeing a blue flyer with the picture of the Emerald Star on it be pinned to the bottom-left corner of the board, Kotomi slightly slid to her left to where she could be directly in front of the flyer. As Erza turned around to walk towards the bar's counter for Mira to put Fairy Tail's stamp on the light green flyer, Kotomi glanced at the other job's description about another theft before she quietly unpinned the blue flyer and put it in one pocket of her dark green miniskirt. With that secret kept to herself, Kotomi had a small smile of relief on her face while no one else in the guildhall seemed to pay much attention to it earlier in the morning. Therefore, there seemed to be nothing for people to gossip about.
Mirajane told Erza with a calm smile on her face, after stamping the flyer and placing a pink magazine on the counter, "The job is now officially taken, Erza. Also, the newest issue of Sorcerer Magazine arrived at the guild today."
Erza replied nicely while taking both items off of the counter, before hastily turning around to shove the magazine into Kotomi's hands, "Thanks, Mira. As for the magazine, Lucy can read about it first to give me her usual advice on certain fashion trends that need to be followed."
Kotomi exclaimed as she faked a delighted smile, her eyes twinkling in joy, "Thank you, Erza! My favorite magazine is here, so let's see what's new in Fiore!"
The blonde-haired impostor opened up the magazine to two pages that focused on the newest orange shades of lipstick that were popular with women in the town of Kuchiba, but Kotomi flipped to the next two pages as her eyes shifted to having boredom in them. That feeling of being bored was comically replaced with a look of pure shock as Erza went back to the table where Natsu and Gray were sitting, but Kotomi had a very good reason to be stunned at what she was seeing. In fact, she almost dropped the magazine on to the floor from technically seeing herself get some unneeded publicity.
The page on the right showed the green-haired Lucy Heartfilia fiercely glaring at Akai Hinotama, the crimson-haired pop idol who occupied most of the page on the left, and the article talked about how a fierce battle recently took place in the town of Cramoisi. Kotomi widened her eyes in shock while walking to the table where Team Natsu was located, thinking that Lucy still being alive without magic had to be some kind of joke, and reading about how Lucy allegedly proved to be a powerful mage who could rock out harder than a pop idol made Kotomi start to clench the magazine tightly with her hand.
Kotomi's eyes glanced at the details of the battle that the magazine talked about, before she gasped in an astounded manner at how Lucy supposedly made the crowd get excited with her spells of Celestial Spirit Magic prevailing over Akai's fearsome Fire Magic, and Kotomi couldn't believe what she was seeing. Not only did this little article show two small pictures of the girls using their spells while the third picture showed the Celestial Mage Ring on Lucy's finger, but turning to the next page allowed Kotomi to see Akai being unconscious for Lucy Heartfilia to be the winner. As she quickly walked back to her chair that was across from Erza, Kotomi dropped the magazine in a frustrated manner to where Natsu nearly spilled his cup of hot chocolate. He got to see the magazine flip back to the previous section with the two mages, but Natsu was shocked for a very different reason.
"Akai Hinotama's fiery flames and fame as a pop idol get overshadowed by a new creative artist and wizard from Sabertooth who specializes in wielding celestial stars! Whoa, they're referring to that famous chick who has good songs!" Natsu read in a surprised manner, before remembering how he comically danced in the Fairy Tail guild to one of Akai's songs that Mira played on a Music Lacrima Crystal.
Erza asked him with a curious facial expression, as she moved the magazine close to her, "Sabertooth has a new prominent mage? Is she related to Yukino?"
Gray told his friends in an astounded manner with the feeling of shock in his dark blue eyes, easily recognizing the green-haired individual, "No way! That chick is Kotomi Takeuchi, the evil bitch who nearly killed us with her Wind Magic! Sting must've been crazy to fall for her stupid stunt of pretending that she was actually Lucy! She's such a manipulative little witch, and now she wants to be a complete showoff!"
Kotomi responded while looking somewhat timid, pretending to be worried, "I really hope she doesn't come back to kill us with her new magic, Gray. She attracted so much attention with trying to steal that Emerald Star, and now she probably wants to regain her notoriety after we stopped her from stealing it."
The ice-wielding wizard simply looked at his friend and nodded in approval, as Gray thought that Lucy's assumption was true, and he would gladly protect Lucy if Kotomi returned to make her be harmed again. Gray turned his attention to the magazine while sliding it back towards the girl who he perceived to actually be Lucy, and neither he or Erza really cared to read Akai's statement about how the woman who defeated her was a determined mage who had the guts to challenge Akai from the crowd. Akai had gone on to say that they likely wouldn't be having drinks together as tourists who watched next year's Grand Magic Games, and the members of Team Natsu would also probably avoid having drinks with anyone who looked like a vicious thief.
Erza clapped her hands once for her to now have the team's attention, and she showed the light green flyer to the two males. Gray started to calm down while softly smiling at the idea of guarding a princess who wanted to have a very fun day, and the only issue for him about having fun in an amusement park was the fact that they had to keep track of the princess if she wanted to go on many different rides or play some fun games to win some prizes. Gray and Erza would definitely watch the princess, but Natsu comically felt sick from thinking about how his eyes needed to avoid even seeing the rides. Otherwise, he'd get motion sickness again. If any thieves showed up while Natsu was motion sick again, then Gray would probably formulate a plan for taking them down.
Kotomi calmly looked at Gray's yellow plaid shirt and brown pants, before glancing down at the orange T-shirt that she wore while her hair was down, and she felt very glad to have at least changed her attire from yesterday. Kotomi watched her teammates start to focus on planning out some ideas that could help them on this new job, prompting her to just pat her pocket gently before pushing the blue flyer far down to the bottom of her skirt's pocket, and Kotomi was glad that she made Erza accept a flyer that was light green. After all, that took her mind off of even thinking about checking out the flyer that featured the emerald green stone. Kotomi faintly smirked at how her friendly act of picking out a great job was a great distraction for Erza, and she lightly chuckled. That was definitely as fun as how she hadn't been so friendly yesterday to guards in the Tokiwa Museum, and Kotomi smirked a bit more from how she became quite wealthy from another act of thievery.
-Kotomi's Flashback-
Kotomi walked into the Tokiwa Museum to see that the light brown walls and the brown checkered tile of the entrance area still looked as dull as before, and there was a brown sign that could guide patrons to the different exhibits while it stood against the wall that was directly across from the museum's entrance. There were no guards in this part of the museum, prompting Kotomi to smirk in a delighted manner as she walked up to the northernmost hallway on the left side of the museum, and Kotomi went down that hallway to see its carpet be in a shade of emerald green while the other exhibits had light green carpets.
The fact that the carpeting was different must've meant that this area had special importance, and Kotomi turned around for a moment while building up magical power. She stretched out her hands for them to make the motion of pushing something away while her eyes glanced up towards a grey surveillance camera, and Kotomi fired a small mint green tornado at the camera. She quickly turned around while the camera was caught in a mint green blast, hearing it shatter into many pieces for the tape containing the footage to also be destroyed, and Kotomi looked quite innocent as two male guards with green hair and green dress shirts that matched their green khaki pants glanced away from the art exhibits to look confused about the noise.
She returned to smirking evilly while walking into the art gallery, seeing its lovely paintings be displayed on the walls while several artifacts rested on white podiums, and Kotomi looked quite curious from seeing how all of the artifacts were now in glass containers. That was likely done to prevent thieves from easily stealing the artifacts, but the antagonist who stole Lucy Heartfilia's body merely walked past all of the displays while her facial expression changed to having no interest in them. She walked past all of the exhibits in this room, even ignoring a beautiful painting of some powerful Wind Magic, and the Emerald Star wasn't in this room.
That prompted Kotomi to look straight ahead at a doorway where she could see the back room, and she merely glanced at that room to see some paintings on the light brown walls while her eyes widened a bit from seeing three female guards stand around the glass container. There were some plants in that room, which was a new and strange addition to the art exhibit, but those plants were likely there for the guards to use Plant Magic on any thieves who tried to steal from the museum again. Kotomi closed her eyes while building up some magical power, and she quietly activated a certain spell while large mint green bird wings fell down to lightly touch her feet before they faded away. As Kotomi softly cheered at carrying out the first step of her plan, she soon found herself having to adapt to the unexpected presence of a certain orange-haired Celestial Spirit who summoned himself to stand next to her while he noticed that they were in front of a painting that featured Wendy Marvell using her Sky Dragon's Roar.
"Isn't art nice when you get to see it with a beautiful person, Lucy?" Loke asked her with a smile on his face, before using his fingers to push his glasses upward.
Kotomi responded with a startled facial expression, before whispering and narrowing her eyes as she recalled his name, "I didn't summon you! Go back to the Celestial Spirit World, Loke, unless you're here to give me a book on Celestial Spirit Magic!"
"I'll take care of that easy task for you right now, Lucy!" Loke replied with a confident look on his face, as he watched his master start to glance at his black tuxedo and black dress pants that matched his black dress shoes.
Loke added while giving Kotomi a kind smile of assurance, before disappearing "I'll get you the best book, Lucy!"
Kotomi nodded in a seemingly kind manner, before using her high speed to run into the back room, and the feeling of satisfaction entered her eyes from seeing the glittery Emerald Star be on a dark green podium. The beautiful artifact seemed brighter from how the skylight above this particular room brightened up the atmosphere with some sunlight, which only made Kotomi want it more for her job to be completed. She moved around the room at extremely high speeds for a few seconds, confounding the three guards, and Kotomi went back to the original spot where she had been standing.
She watched the guards start to look perplexed, as they all thought that they were still very tired, and Kotomi giggled as Kaze's Feather Dance allowed her to jump up quite high. She inhaled a large amount of air, before exhaling it down at the ground to create a mint green tornado that was known as Zephyros Twister, and Kotomi continued to arrogantly giggle. She moved her right hand in a clockwise manner, causing the tornado to spin in the same direction while it started to circle around the room at fast speeds with more air increasing its speed and power during every single full circle that it created.
Kotomi raised her right hand upward, which made the tornado ascend up into the air at high speeds, and she fell to the ground while her windy attack tore through the skylight to create a powerful mint green blast against the museum's ceiling. Kotomi used her high speed to evade some of the falling shards of glass, and she saw her winds reveal some red lasers that served as a wall of security between herself and the guards. However, those lasers couldn't protect the guards against some large shards of glass that came down at high speeds like meteorites. Kotomi watched the oldest female guard jump towards the youngest guard who looked like a rookie who was too frozen with fear to move, only to end up getting stabbed through the back by large and long shards of glass, and Kotomi also got to see the skylight's glass reflect some of the lasers at each other for the entire security system to be shut off.
"For a museum that has an impressive art gallery, you pieces of garbage definitely don't have state-of-the-art security." Kotomi told the female guards with a ridiculing smirk on her face, before she heard the male guards run into the room.
Loke told Kotomi with a happy smile on his face as he came back with a yellow book, before shockingly seeing her land near him in what looked like a violent battle, "I'm back with your book, Lucy! Whoa, what's going on here?"
Kotomi responded to him in a kind tone, as she grabbed the book with a worried facial expression, "Thank you, Loke! I need to complete this job, but these people are trying to be nuisances. At least one of them has been taken down."
Loke's hazel eyes widened with some shock from seeing the oldest guard in a dark green uniform and dark green hat be unconscious on the ground, blood seeping out of her wounds as she was dead with her eyes open, and the second-oldest guard slowly got up with cuts on her arms and face. She angrily glared at Kotomi, who used her magical power to send Loke back to the Celestial Spirit World, and the guard built up some magical power as she aimed her right hand at a nearby potted plant with green roses in it. A dark green aura surrounded the guard's body while the roses shot out some dark green thorns, but Kotomi simply jumped upward to evade them. She fell down towards that guard while building up a high amount of magical power, and Kotomi unleashed the Whirlwind Cannon spell.
She shot out a mint green vortex of wind at the guard, hitting her at point-blank range, and the guard screamed in agonizing pain before being caught in a vicious explosion! The mint green clouds of smoke filled the room while all the guards decided that they had to find some way to fight back against this criminal, but Kotomi jumped up high to unleash the Whirlwind Cannon spell again. As all the guards walked through the smoke to get near the Emerald Star's podium, one of them screamed in pain from getting caught in the Whirlwind Cannon's explosion. He became badly bruised and covered in blood, before slowly falling forward as he died from that attack striking his body, and the other two guards couldn't scream or see his blood because of all the new smoke that was created. The new smoke also obscured the guards' eyes from seeing what Kotomi would do next, too.
Kotomi came down to the ground with a scheming grin on her face while she could hear the other two guards taking more steps towards the Emerald Star, and she was glad that the sounds of glass cracking from under their feet gave away their locations in the smoke-filled room. She bounced up into the air again while her left hand opened the yellow book to one of its first pages, and seeing a spell called Celestial Starfall only made Kotomi smile in a pleased manner from how getting the Emerald Star wouldn't be a task that took up too much time.
"Enjoy my final attack, you pieces of trash! Celestial Starfall!" Kotomi fiercely told them in the voice of Lucy Heartfilia, before giggling evilly and shooting out two gold rings from her right hand.
The male guard exclaimed to his co-worker, as he firmly touched the star with one hand while adjusting his green hat with the each other, "I'll try to protect the star, so you just need to wait for your chance to strike her down! That's an order!"
The young guard replied with a shocked look on her face, as she was assigned to protect the star, "This artifact was mine to guard, so you should try to attack her instead!"
However, neither one of them would be able to carry out either of their plans. The clouds of smoke cleared up at the same moment where the gold rings struck them both in their chests, and both of the guards watched the rings shine with thin beams of gold light emanating from them while two large star-shaped projectiles fell from the sky to specifically target them. The guards couldn't get those rings off of their bodies, and even making a strong vine of Plant Magic emerge from a nearby plant to pull on the ring wouldn't work. The two guards simply looked up to see Kotomi evilly grinning at them, before they looked quite scared at the projectiles that struck them directly, and two massive blasts of Celestial Spirit Magic occurred! The guards screamed in excruciating pain while the aftereffect of the spell giving off a massive amount of bright light couldn't allow them to keep their eyes open, and the intense damage from that spell made two large craters be in the ground.
Kotomi liked how the Emerald Star was sent flying up into the air to where she could grab its top part with her left hand, and she descended to the ground to see the smoke clearing up. Kotomi wondered if she'd have to keep fighting before reuniting with Team Natsu, but the gold clouds of smoke revealed that all of the guards were now dead. Blood leaked out of the bodies of the last two guards while the female guard appeared to have fallen back on glass that deeply cut her hand, and the male guard wasn't moving at all.
The destruction in this back room made Kotomi let out a happy laugh, before turning around to see a security camera in between one of the paintings, and Kotomi put down the Emerald Star for a moment. She shot out a small mint green tornado from her hand, and the sight of it exploding the destroy the camera's tape was very pleasing to Kotomi. She picked up the Emerald Star again, and Kotomi started to smirk in a proud manner from the simple fact of how she made the curator think that a sweet girl such as Lucy Heartfilia could retrieve the Emerald Star on the same day that it had been stolen last time. That was probably enough to make the curator not see any point in boosting the museum's amount of security for the Emerald Star to a sufficient amount, and neither he or Team Natsu could ever realize that Lucy Heartfilia of Fairy Tail stole the star to handle Kotomi Takeuchi's job. In fact, Kotomi giggled at the thought of the real Lucy freaking out from somehow hearing that the Emerald Star was stolen again while she would have no magic to even try doing anything about the theft.
Three hours later, in Cramoisi Town's volcano...
Lucy arrived at the entrance to the volcano with Sting and Risa, tightly holding the red book in her hands as she felt ready to start training with her new Fire Magic, and she exhaled a deep breath to calm herself down. Lucy proceeded to walk into the volcano with a confident look on her face, not minding the intense amount of heat that was coming from the hot red-orange magma that bubbled throughout most of the room, and Lucy stood on the rocky red ground of the volcano while noticing the rocky walls that were in a normal shade of red. The ground also had a natural path leading into the next room where mages liked to train quite hard with Fire Magic, but going past the entrance to be deeper in the volcano would only make Lucy have to put up with more heat.
She decided to stay at the volcano's entrance while taking some steps on to the path, and Lucy opened her book up to where she could find the spell from earlier. She turned a few pages, before finding the spell known as Flame Burst, and Lucy proceeded to hold the book in her right hand. She built up a small amount of magical power while stretching out her left hand, and Lucy created a flame in the palm of that hand. The flame started growing to where it was the same size as her palm while it slowly swayed back and forth, but the book's instructions shockingly informed Lucy in small print at the bottom of the page that this particular flame would go out after a limited time if she did nothing.
Lucy felt curious about this spell to where she got down on her knees to lightly dip the flame into the magma, and the fiery liquid caused the flame to change into a fireball that spun on Lucy's hand in a clockwise direction. She chose to throw the fireball upward, which resulted in a fiery explosion occurring while red smoke filled the top of the volcano, and seeing the aftereffect of some red flames coming down to melt into red puddles of lava made Lucy smile nicely at how that spell could either damage airborne foes or seep into the ground to burn subterranean enemies.
As Lucy glanced down at her book, she took notice of the next spell that was on the adjacent page. That spell was known as Fiery Blazing Twister, and Lucy had to aim her right hand down at the magma. She did that while building up more magical power, and a red aura began to surround Lucy's body. The aura that was in the normal shade of red went into the magma, before a spiraling twister of red flames rose up from the bubbling liquid while it spun in the counterclockwise direction. Lucy pushed her hand towards the twister, causing it to go straight towards the wall, and she watched a red blast of Fire Magic occur! Some rocks fell from the wall to hit twister, only to get struck by some of the flames from the explosion, and the flames detonated to make those rocks explode! As Lucy smiled at how she seemed to have some awesome spells, Risa smiled in amazement at how those attacks seemed powerful while she noticed that Sting look impressed.
"Master, are you amazed by Lucy's strength or do you think she's very heated up with fiery determination for our mission in Kuchiba Town?" Risa asked him with a nice smile on her face, before looking at Lucy.
Sting responded with a little snarky comeback of his own, as he thought that the rookie was impressed too easily, "Relax, Risa. Lucy's just getting warmed up, and her spells will get much hotter. After all, she's specializing in hotness right now."
That prompted Lucy to exclaim with a surprised facial expression, her cheeks blushing pink from how she interpreted Sting's comment, "My spells will definitely get hotter, Sting! Although, you calling me hot in this volcano might throw off my concentration!"
The white dragon slayer replied in a teasing manner while he calmly smiled, "Okay, Lucy. Don't get hotheaded."
Lucy's cheeks blushed pink as she looked slightly annoyed by Sting's playful teasing, and she turned a few pages in the book to find her third spell. Lucy's next attack was known as Cherished Crimson Fire, and this spell simply made Lucy shoot out a crimson red stream of fire from her mouth while flames in a normal shade of red swirled around it. She watched the fiery stream strike some loose rocks that were breaking away from the wall, and those rocks began to glow in a normal shade of red. The redness was from the fire harshly burning them, but then the rocks began to melt from the high amount of heat. They fell into the magma to make a small splash, before crimson-colored flames stood on the magma's surface in a small ring, and them just being there made the protagonists be a bit perplexed.
Lucy used that spell again to shoot out another crimson-colored stream of flames, aiming it at the ring of crimson flames that stood on the magma, and everyone got to see the ring of flames merely grow much larger while they swayed back at forth at a fast rate. Lucy noticed how they still wouldn't explode or even disperse to melt multiple targets at once, so she smiled a bit while deciding to see if they weren't just used for harming enemies. Lucy used the spell one more time with the only difference being that she swallowed the stream of flames, and the aura around Lucy's body began to engulf her while it was in the beautiful color of crimson. The red Crimson Ring on Lucy's right hand began to have red beams of light shining from it, before those thin beams of light became a crimson color that even altered the red ruby to temporarily be in that same color, and Lucy soon felt herself have much more energy. She playfully punched the air in happiness, only to feel that punch seem like it was much stronger than before, so this spell seemed like it was useful for enhancing her body.
That prompted Lucy to turn another page, and she noticed that the fourth spell of Fire Magic seemed just as exciting. This move was known as Flare Bomb Barrage, and the spell made Lucy have a red fireball engulfing her left fist. Lucy surprised Sting and Risa by attempting a long jump towards the rock wall that had been damaged, and she ended up slamming into the middle part of the volcano's large wall. Sting widened his eyes in shock from seeing some rocks break away from an upper part of the wall to where they would fall and knock Lucy into the magma, and Risa thought about using her magic to bring Lucy back to the entrance. However, Lucy smiled in a confident manner while her left fist swiftly struck each of the rocks with some fiery punches. Lucy's fire created some explosions, which made her speed drastically increase, and Lucy swiftly punched the last rock with an intense amount of speed to where it looked like her punches were part of a barrage involving three fists.
"That spell was amazing, and I can't wait to see what the others do! Let me just get back to the path to test them out, and having at least six moves at my disposal won't make me fall in any battles that occur later on the job where-" Lucy exclaimed with a happy facial expression while scaling the side of the volcano's wall to get back to the entrance, before she got interrupted by the shocking sight of her feet and hands touching parts of the rock wall that came loose.
Risa shouted with a concerned facial expression, as she stretched out her right hand to use the Stellar Psi spell, "Oh, no! If Lucy falls from that height, she might die!"
"I've got this, Risa! Just back me up!" Sting told her with a confident facial expression as he ran towards Lucy, before weirdly feeling himself run much faster with a greater push of strength.
"Help me! Ahhhhh!" Lucy exclaimed while closing her eyes, screaming to take away the pain from possibly hitting the ground quite hard.
Sting told her in a calm tone, as he immediately caught Lucy to gently hold her in his arms, "It looks like your flames are too strong for this old volcano to handle, Lucy. At least you didn't have to depend on that weird ring of flames with the great Sting Eucliffe around."
Lucy was about to reply with a nice explanation about how she just didn't have time to create an explosion that could propel her through the air for her to land back on the rocky path where she had been training, but the sight of her being in Sting's arms like a bride being carried by a groom caused the crimson aura around Lucy's body to fade away while the flame around her fist also started to vanish. Lucy's face became filled with a pink blush while her face got quite hot, and looking up at Sting also caused Lucy to slightly sweat.
He looked somewhat flustered at the sight of Lucy blushing, which made Sting blush as he gently put one hand on her forehead to see if that strange crimson aura left her with an intensely hot fever, and Sting was quick to just get a glimpse of the pink midriff shirt that matched her scarlet red skirt. Sting's eyes also noticed the brown sandals on her feet as he put Lucy down on the ground, too. She quickly stood up to give Sting an appreciative smile while blushing, feeling very glad that he was able to catch her, and Sting widened his eyes in a surprised manner from how Lucy hugged him tightly. He took some steps towards the volcano's entrance with her, before gently hugging Lucy, and Sting was really glad that he got to see her try to get creative with her new magic.
Sting ended the hug with Lucy, before giving her a thumbs-up to show her that she did great with her training, and he honestly thought that it would be good for Lucy to choose her last two spells at a later time. After all, she could just train with them during the night if she returned to Cramoisi Town at late hours. Sting decided to walk out of the volcano with Lucy, ignoring how the crimson aura fading away also made that ring of flames fade away, and seeing Lucy giggle at how Sting seemed proud of her progress only caused Risa to lightly chuckle as she followed her friends out of the volcano. She thought that Lucy was doing very well to where their new job would go smoothly, and Risa was glad that the pink aura around her hand pushed Sting several feet forward to where he and Lucy literally got to have some more closeness together while Risa's eyes showed some playful curiosity at how Lucy's slip-up would make her probably be falling for an awesome guild master such as Sting.
How was Chapter 9? Feel free to tell me your thoughts on it. Lucy and Sting will keep having more nice moments in this story, especially when those moments show their chemistry. As for Lucy's last two spells, those shall be saved for the next arc. Also, Kotomi is doing really good at impersonating Lucy in the Fairy Tail guild. Although, she'll have to get rid of the job that she took off of the request board. Speaking of jobs, Lucy and Risa will be handling their newest job in the next chapter with assistance from Sting! That will be important, since it will be where the next arc of the story begins! This was the last aftermath chapter of the post-Crimson Fire Arc. I'm excited for this next arc, and the new OCs. I'll update soon. :)
REVIEWS!
KillerFrost07: Thank you! Yeah, Sting praising Lucy when she's in Kotomi's body. However, that shall be a plot point for later in the story.
FireBlitz: Thank you!
OrangeDetermination: Thank you! Those points are actually going to be addressed in a later arc.
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Sena: Thank you so much! I'm glad you enjoyed it!