Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.
Chapter 13: Fiery Fierceness and Psychic Power! The Burning Explosive Earth! Kimono Girls & Coronations! Lucy & Risa vs. Shinichi!
After meeting back up with Sting at the Bell Tower and informing him of their shocking discoveries, Lucy and Risa went through the pair of orange doors that were directly across the entrance. Sting also went through the doors with the girls for all three of the Sabertooth mages to see a brown dirt path that was bordered on both sides by autumn-colored trees, and the protagonists quickly ran down that path to see how it branched off into two small sections. The section on the left would take the team to a small bridge that was over a small ravine, and they would reach an area where gravestones resided in the autumn-colored woods outside of Kuchiba Town. However, the trees in different shades of orange were also near the other path that was leading to the Relic Ruins.
Lucy and her friends took the path that led to the ruins, quickly entering the cave to see that its entrance was smaller than the single large room that was inside the cavern, and the brown had ancient brown tiled walls with an ancient-looking brown tiled floor to match. Lucy and her friends ran into this room with smiles on their faces while they assumed that this was the room where the treasure was kept, but there was weirdly nothing amazing in this room. Lucy and Risa looked around at all the parts of the floor, hoping that a crack would be like a great hint for them to find the treasure, but the floor was hardly damaged.
The only items that were standing out in this room were two hollow orange pedestals that were circular while they were both hollow in the center, and they were positioned against some tiled walls that seemed to have been damaged by someone making a curved horizontal line be above them. There were also some strange hieroglyphics and writing in a different language on that part of the wall, too. Lucy put a finger to her lips while thinking that the secret to this room had something to do with those two pedestals, but she couldn't figure it out. She walked towards the pedestals to see if anything was extremely odd about them, and the hollow spots seemed weird. Risa noticed the oddities of those pedestals, too, and she also wanted to check them out.
Lucy attempted to put her fists in the indentations, only to see the pedestals push themselves upward to harshly push against her fists, and Lucy got them out of the hollow spots. Risa fired thin pink beams from her mouth at Lucy's fists, and a pink aura engulfed her sore fists for a few seconds. Risa watched white clouds of smoke sizzle up from Lucy's sore hands, glad to heal them up, and she proceeded to look at the pedestal on the right. The hole seemed like something could perfectly fit in it, almost like a ball, and Risa fired a pink sphere of energy from her hands. It landed in the pedestal, before creating an average-sized pink blast, and Risa quickly stepped back with Lucy as the blast occurred. Lucy decided to take a chance with Risa's curiosity, and she activated the first spell of her Fire Magic.
"First spell, I call upon thee! Flame Ember!" Lucy exclaimed with a serious look on her face, creating a red flame in her right hand as the pink blast started to fade away.
Risa told Lucy with a smile on her face, as she noticed some good results from her attack, "Take a look at that, Lucy!"
Lucy shouted while looking surprised, before accidentally creating another red flame in her right hand, "Wow!"
Lucy looked at the pedestal on the right to see that it remained intact while the only different thing was a pink flame sitting in the hollow spot of the pedestal, and that prompted Lucy to throw the two flames that had merged into a larger fireball. Upon hitting the pedestal on the left, Lucy's attack created a fiery explosion. The winds from her explosion nearly blew her pink skirt upward, as well as nearly blowing off the red open blazer that was in front of her scarlet red midriff shirt that matched her red flat shoes, and Lucy kept her hands on her skirt for neither of her friends to see her panties.
As Lucy tightly grabbed on to her skirt, the fiery explosion started fading away for Lucy to see all of the small red flames converging into the hollow spot for them to create a larger red flame. The two flames that were in different colors lit up the room with their brightness, looking quite nice to where Sting smiled at Lucy for how her red flame looked beautiful as it complimented Risa's pink flame, and those pedestals seemed to gather explosive energy from magic. Even though the way that they solved the problem was exciting, Risa folded her arms while looking slightly confused about why this place would have no inscriptions anywhere that provided instructions.
She fired another pink orb, and Risa fired it at the area between the two flames. That pink orb wrecked the space that looked like a door, before levitating the chunks of earth up high to where they were in the air for a few seconds, and Risa watched them come back down in another room with an ancient brown tiled floor. As Lucy slowly walked into that room, Risa comically hoped that she had a good appearance before possibly opening a treasure chest. She wore a pink vest top that didn't expose any part of her breasts while it left her stomach exposed, and she wore a light pink belt around her waist with a white miniskirt that complimented her hot pink high-heeled shoes.
"Fashion is always essential for making a fabulous entrance into a treasure room." Risa said aloud with a happy smile on her face, before giggling and following Lucy.
Lucy told her in an amazed tone, as she got to see the orange treasure chest sit on a grey pedestal with other treasures surrounding it, "This treasure room is pretty fabulous, and I'd be glad to take some of these treasures home after the mission."
Risa replied nicely, as her eyes noticed the orange and valuable treasure chest that stood out among the gold items that were on long shelves made by the ancients, "Speaking of treasures, it looks like we beat Shinichi to this one. Amazing how a longtime resident of Kuchiba Town can't figure out an interesting puzzle that's nearby, but two mages from Sabertooth who are on their first serious mission have better investigation and exploration skills."
As Lucy simply chuckled about that, Sting smiled confidently from seeing the amazing fact firsthand of how Risa figured out how to solve this puzzle in the Relic Ruins. She didn't even need to struggle with interpreting the strange hieroglyphics that had featured illustrations of orange-haired people and explosions that created flames, so Sting began to grin in a cocky manner from how it really seemed like the true rookie of the group was able to learn some great things from her experience of investigating the amusement park by herself.
Sting chose to stand against the back wall while folding his arms, glad that Risa seemed to be getting smarter, but he soon saw Lucy run out of the room with four golden treasures that looked like round bells. She held them in her hands while lightly swinging them, causing them to softly ring as they moved back and forth, and those bells started to glow with thin gold beams of light emanating from them. The bells only did that for about ten seconds, though, and the magical energy in them seemed to fade. Lucy began to look somewhat disappointed from that happening, but Sting simply chuckled as he guessed that ancient treasures that had very little power in the current time must've had a major amount of their power used up long ago.
He continued to smile at Lucy, which made her start to smile as she looked up to see his eyes that were as blue as the lovely blue kimonos that some girls wore in the photos that were in the Bell Tower, Lucy quickly ran back into the treasure room to put the bells back on the spot that they occupied on one of the shelves. As Lucy ran into this room of the ruins, Sting loudly walked out of the Relic Ruins to go all the way back to Kuchiba Town's train station. He could hear Lucy and Risa starting to follow him while they also ran from the ruins, and the fated day of taking down Shinichi would arrive soon.
The next morning, at the Relic Ruins...
Shinichi arrived at the Relic Ruins with Nozomi, looking quite surprised that the hidden room to the treasure was finally discovered, and he was even more surprised to see that Lucy and Risa stood in front of the doorway. He began to smirk in a somewhat delighted manner from how it was very unexpected that another team of wizards would be after the treasure, and Shinichi would be glad to take on both of the fashionable girls. He glanced at Lucy's red T-shirt that went well with her scarlet red skirt and pink flat shoes, and Shinchi simply wanted to laugh from how he thought that a girl who liked fashion so much wouldn't be the type of person who could fight well.
Nozomi had a different reaction to seeing Lucy, though, and she gasped in shock from seeing that the green-haired girl was the same tourist who got her foot stuck in a crack two days ago. Lucy clearly recognized her while continuing to have a stern facial expression, as she was more ready to fight Nozomi's partner, and the sight of Lucy being here made Nozomi take a step back. She started to look a bit hesitant about fighting against somebody who she aided when they were in trouble, since she would now have to harm them.
Shinichi noticed how his partner stepped back, prompting his right hand to harshly grab the sleeve of her orange kimono, and he simply pulled her back towards him. Even if Nozomi was feeling a little scared about how the goal of getting the treasure would be somewhat more difficult that she and Shinichi thought it would be, he refused to let her run away from this fight like a coward. Shinichi wasn't going to let Nozomi make him look bad in front of some girls who he perceived to just be weaklings, and he would be glad to fight them with all of his strength.
He would need Nozomi to be able to fight these girls at full strength, too, and he would gladly allow her to officially be in this fight by starting things off for her. As Lucy and Risa moved to be directly across from their opponents with their fists clenched, Risa looked down at her light pink top that was short-sleeved while she also wore frilly miniskirt that was in the normal shade of pink, and she wore a cherry red halter neck top with zigzag straps at the bottom over her light pink top. Risa also wore light pink high heel wedges, along with a scarlet red headband in her hair while the headband was sitting behind her sunglasses, and she would be glad to show this abusive crime boss how girls who were very fashionable could still be quite fierce. As Risa glared at Shinichi, the fact that her body slightly trembled only caused him to look quite arrogant.
"Are you shaking? Wow, isn't this another fine surprise? You two are rookies, aren't you?" Shinichi asked in a rude manner, as he began to chuckle from how victory seemed easy.
Risa responded with a fierce look on her face, as she started a build up magical power to where a pink aura surrounded her body, "I'm Risa Ryusei from Sabertooth, and taking you down is my first mission where I'm battling a criminal! I'm a rookie, but I'm going to defeat you with all my expertise in my magic!"
Lucy added with a serious facial expression, as she glared at Shinichi, "I'm Lucy Heartfilia, and I'm going to tear through all your spells of Earth Magic and burn them with my own fiery spells!"
Shinichi responded to them with an extremely cocky look on his face, as he roughly slammed his hands down on the ground with an orange aura engulfing them, "Well, this is certainly laughable. Let's see if you two can even handle this!"
He activated a spell called Terra Smash, which caused two large slabs of the brown ground to quickly rise up from opposite sides of the Sabertooth wizards, and Shinichi simply clapped his hands for the walls to loudly crash into each other. Upon seeing brown clouds of smoke emerge from the walls, he merely smirked evilly from how his opponents seemed to be far too weak to even think of taking him on. Nozomi simply wondered if the girls were truly crushed to death, since the walls left a thin amount of space available for them to move, but the two dark mages were too quick with underestimating their opponents.
Risa stood on Lucy's shoulders while focusing the magical power into her hands, pushing them against both of the walls to stop them from trying to crush her and Lucy, and this would give Lucy time to attack. Lucy created a red flame in her right hand, and she immediately used the spell again to create a second flame in that same hand. The flames combined to form a fireball that Lucy threw at the frontal opening between the walls, and they managed to create a fiery explosion that broke the walls of earth apart! That definitely shook up Nozomi and Shinichi, who were both viewing that particular spell of Earth Magic to be quite a strong attack.
The red smoke from Lucy's fireball provided the perfect cover for the girls, as they both charged towards Shinichi and Nozomi at high speeds, and the mages from Vermilion Sunset were stunned to see two people having enough boldness to charge at them directly like they wanted to now have a close-range fight. Shinichi quickly made the orange aura of Earth Magic engulf his fists, only to see Lucy and Risa respectively veer off to the left and right sides, but he seemed a little shaken from what to do now. However, Nozomi kept looking at Lucy and Risa while seeming very unsure of who to fight first.
"Who are we supposed to attack, Master?! Who?!" Nozomi asked Shinichi in a panicked manner, as she saw Lucy charge up a flame in her hand again.
Shinichi exclaimed fiercely while turning to look at Lucy, his eyes showing sternness, "Attack the girl who's using the flames! She's away from her partner, so she can't defend herself against multiple attacks!"
"Yeah, this totally wasn't a good trick to use against you." Risa sarcastically replied to his statement, before firing a pink sphere from her left hand.
Shinichi told Nozomi in a concerned tone, looking impatient, "Nozomi, we need a defense spell right now!"
That prompted the nervous girl to slam her hands down on the ground while starting to stand on her hands, and she looked straight at Risa while sending her magic in that direction. Risa's sphere that was within another sphere ended up striking a shield of brown sand that rose up from the ground to protect Shinichi, and a large pink blast occurred! It destroyed some parts of the floor while the magic made Risa and Lucy be engulfed in a pink aura. The blast blinded Shinichi and Nozomi for a few seconds while the guild master opened his eyes, seeming curious about why someone would try such a reckless sneak attack, but the blast fading away only made Shinichi have to deal with something else that was unpredictable.
Lucy and Risa both charged at him from straight ahead, their fists looking quite tightened as if they wanted to punch him in the face, and that prompted Shinichi to slam his hands against the ground. He activated one of his favorite attacks, which was known as Explosive Quake, and Shinichi watched the cracks form in the ground. Lucy and Risa were caught in an orange blast of Earth Magic that caused them both to scream while they were pushed back to the other side of the room, and Shinichi smiled in happiness from thinking that the battle was over.
The orange clouds of smoke quickly cleared up to reveal that Lucy and Risa were only bruised slightly with minor amounts of blood on their bodies while they softly panted, and seeing the girls look like they were far from being defeated only made Nozomi's body start to tremble while her eyes showed pure disbelief at the situation. Nozomi wondered why Lucy and Risa weren't even seeming slightly terrified of Shinichi's power after dealing with that attack, and she couldn't believe how the girls seemed so strong to where they weren't worried about facing Shinichi's attacks.
"Let's see how you handle this attack, bitch! Earth Stone Wrath!" Shinichi told Lucy with a fierce facial expression, as he wasn't determined to lose.
Lucy responded with a confident facial expression, as she made a second flame be in her hand to form a fireball again, "This isn't my only attack, so I'll be glad to handle whatever you throw at me!"
Risa exclaimed while looking serious, before charging towards Shinichi, "Don't give your enemy an opening, unless you're truly that arrogant!"
Shinichi watched several brown stones of Earth Magic be fired from the palms of his hands to strike Lucy, but she threw her fireball on the ground to create another fiery explosion. Lucy hastily built up more magical power to where a red aura surrounded her body, and she activated the spell that was known as Fiery Blazing Twister. She aimed her right hand down at one of the red flames that came from the explosion, and the red aura left her body for the purpose of going into the flame. That flame became a spiraling twister of flames that rotated in the counterclockwise direction, and Lucy pushed her hand towards the twister for it to go straight towards Shinichi!
As the twister went straight towards her enemy, Lucy noticed how its high amount of heat caused the other flames from the explosion to start melting down into puddles of lava. They began to try burning through the ancient ground, which made Lucy softly smile, and she got to see Shinichi's stones collide with her fiery twister to create a red blast of Fire Magic. The fire from the explosion was beneficial to Lucy, since the past few days of training hard in Cramoisi Town's volcano for a few hours allowed her to use some spells more than once, and Lucy aimed her hand down at five flames. The red aura that slowly engulfed her went to the flames instead, creating five twisters, and Lucy fiercely sent them all towards Shinichi!
He was quickly struck by all of them, screaming in pain from all of the fiery explosions that burned his body, but Shinichi was not going to give up so easily. Right after the explosions occurred to damage him, Shinichi ran through the flames with an enraged facial expression. He wasted no time with punching Risa in the abdomen with one hand, before punching her in the face with his other hand, and Risa was sent flying into the air from how his punches were infused with Earth Magic. She quickly fell to the ground, before roughly sliding towards Lucy, and Risa got to see how Lucy looked very concerned for her because of how she had to endure those harsh punches. Risa herself looked more concerned from seeing Shinichi, however, and he gently had his right foot on top of her sunglasses. He chose to not put any pressure or Earth Magic into his foot, since his action was like viewing the rookies to be beneath him.
"When you've had to do so many S-Class missions to where you aren't fazed from possibly getting killed, then you may be called a mage. When you've become so deadly to where the Magic Council creates high-paying jobs to have people try and assassinate you, then you may have earned the title of being a mage. However, rookies such as you... are nothing more than jokes when compared to me." Shinichi told Risa and Lucy in a stern tone, before he rudely chuckled at them.
Lucy shouted to him with an offended look on her face, "That's not true at all! We'll gladly show you how wrong you are, and we're mages from Sabertooth!"
Risa thought to herself with her eyes narrowed, as she slowly stood up, "That's right. I'm a wizard of Sabertooth now, and I have to always look for a way to handle missions without anything bad happening! I won't run away! I won't be weak, and I'm certainly going to protect everything that matters to me!"
As Lucy activated her fourth spell that made a red fireball engulf her left fist, she couldn't even carry out a strategy because of how Risa hastily ran towards Shinichi. She wasn't even charging at him with a spell in her hands or a spell that would come from her mouth, which made Lucy worry more from how Shinichi looked like he was getting ready to harshly punch Risa again, and Lucy watched her friend try to hit Shinichi with a leg sweep that would knock him off balance. He immediately stepped back, though, and the antagonist aggressively kicked Risa away like she was trash while ignoring her hands tightly clutching something near her chest.
Risa was sent rolling towards Lucy, who looked quite shocked that Risa would recklessly charge at an enemy on her first serious mission of taking down a dark mage, but Lucy began to get just as curious as Shinichi from seeing Risa slowly stand up with something that seemed to be in her hands now. Risa moved her right hand down to her side to reveal that she had retrieved the sunglasses, surprising Lucy and Shinichi from how she made a reckless decision for the sole purpose of getting the nice accessory that belonged on her forehead instead of being on the ground, and Nozomi simply trembled from how someone had such strong willpower to do something like that. Risa even began to smile in a confident manner, almost like she was hoping that Shinichi would evade her attack, and she must've only done that on purpose to make him dodge that leg sweep for her to get her sunglasses back.
The moment that Risa put the sunglasses back on her forehead was the moment that Lucy charged at Shinichi, and she struck him in the face with her fire-engulfed fist. An explosion occurred as soon as Lucy hit Shinichi, and Lucy's speed drastically increased. She was able to hit him three more times, which caused her to move even faster while more explosions occurred around Shinichi, and Lucy would be glad to try confounding him with speed. She ran around the room at high speeds, the old floor of the ruins making her footsteps be echoed loudly for several minutes, but Shinichi wasn't going to fall for that.
"If you think that speed by itself will defeat me, then you're very wrong! The Earthy Spike Rock spell will crush you!" Shinichi shouted sternly to Lucy, before angrily slamming both of his fists against the ground.
Lucy asked with a worried look on her face, as she stopped running to be in front of Risa while the ground began to violently shake, "What's going on?"
Risa replied to her while seeming concerned, quickly managing to step back, "I think we're about to find out!"
In a few seconds, giant brown spikes emerged from underground to strike Lucy and Risa. One of the brown spikes that came out from under Lucy's feet sent her upward, but that only made her hastily climb down the brown spike while heading towards Shinichi. He slammed his right fist against the ground to make brown mud rise from the ground while the spell was appropriately named Muddy Earth's Entrap for how the brown muddy ground wrapped itself around Lucy to trap her in the ball of mud, and it even aggressively squeezed her body to restrain her. However, Risa fired her pink orb at the spell to make all that mud be destroyed in a pink blast of energy!
Lucy was lifted up into the air by the spell's aftereffect, but that only made her start to smile confidently. Lucy built up some magical power while activating her first new spell of Fire Magic that she decided to learn during the time that she spent training, This spell was known as Volcanic Magma Flame Chain, and a red aura surrounded Lucy's left hand. She made it touch the ground, causing fire to emerge from a part of the ground that was cracked, and a line of flames headed straight for Shinichi! The first few flames struck him to create small explosions while a red aura engulfed his body, and the remaining flames struck Shinichi to do high amounts of damage!
The antagonist let out an agonizing scream of pain while these flames seemed as hot as magma that was found in a volcano, and the fire even made contact with some of the red puddles of lava to heat them up more. The hot flames melted some of Shinichi's brown spikes to where they became brown goop with parts of the other spikes breaking apart from how the explosions left more fire behind them to damage those spikes, and Shinichi was forced to activate the simple spell that was known as Earthy Tunneling Fang. As Shinichi spun like a drill and broke through the ground to go in a deep hole and possibly attack from underground, seeing Lucy and Risa both look very intense as they lightly panted was terrifying to Nozomi. She couldn't even build up enough power to cast a spell with a high amount of strength, and the feeling of anxiety was entirely on her face.
"Why aren't they afraid like me? How in the world can these rookies be so strong?" Nozomi thought to herself while looking scared of Lucy, before gasping in shock from how Lucy started running towards her.
Shinichi exclaimed fiercely, as he jumped out of the spot in front of Lucy with an angry facial expression, "I won't lose to scum like you, you fiery bitch!"
Lucy told him in a serious tone, as she leaped backwards and narrowed her feet, "If you were trying to hit me, then you'll have to try much harder than that!"
As Shinichi flew down towards Lucy to harshly punch her in the face, Nozomi could only gasp in a surprised manner from how Shinichi stepped into one of the pools of lava. He quickly caught on fire while Lucy stumbled backwards, and stepping into the lava distracted Shinichi enough to where Lucy picked up some nearby flames to throw them at his brown jacket. Shinichi's jacket lightly caught on fire, though, and he decided to retaliate against Lucy by making an orange aura surround his body for a new spell to be activated. This spell was known as Earthy Seismic Wrath, and Shinichi merely smirked in a cocky manner from recalling how anyone who pushed him this far had never survived this attack. He placed his right hand several inches over his left hand while an orange sphere formed in between his hands, and Shinichi watched some chunks of earth rise upward to touch the sphere.
Lucy watched the sphere grow three times larger in size while it started to have a center that was in a darker shade of orange, and Shinichi aggressively threw the spell at her. Lucy wondered if she could counter this spell with some flames, prompting her to throw a nearby flame at Shinichi's projectile, but the collision from both of the attacks only somewhat slowed down Shinichi's spell. Lucy took more steps back while she didn't want to get hit by this attack, and Risa built up a high amount of magical power while she jumped over a puddle of lava to be near Lucy. Risa made a pink aura surround both of her hands, and she aggressively slashed at the air.
A pink crescent-shaped projectile of psychic energy appeared in front of Risa, before she pushed it forward at high speeds with the Stellar Psi spell, and Risa even picked up a large red flame to throw it at her own attack. Her attack was now covered in fire that engulfed it, causing the attack to be fiery while a good amount of psychic power was thrown into the mix, and Risa giggled as she felt like calling that move Psychotic Flame Cutter instead of its standard name of Psychotic Slicer when her move was used on its own. This was technically a fusion spell, since it created a red explosion that was followed by a larger pink explosion from striking Shinichi's attack, and the immense power of the spell didn't keep the slightly weakened pink projectile from disappearing. It hastily came through the smoke to push Shinichi back towards Nozomi, before they were both engulfed in a pink blast, and Nozomi screamed in an agonizing amount of pain. She harshly fell to the ground while becoming badly bruised with cuts forming on her body and tearing through her kimono, feeling like Risa's attack must've had the effect of absorbing the power of Shinichi's sphere to power itself up even more before doing a massive amount of damage. That psychic energy forced Nozomi down on the ground with a high amount of pressure while Shinichi was only groaning in anger from the harsh cuts and bloody bruises that appeared alongside the burns on his body, and being down on the ground again like a submissive person because of this psychic spell made Nozomi start to have important questions in her mind.
"Why? Why am I so weak in this fight? I wanted to become stronger, especially to become the kind of girl who my mother wouldn't have to worry about in heaven, but why can't I be a powerful mage?" Nozomi thought to herself as she laid on her back and struggled to stand, groaning in pain.
Nozomi heard Lucy tell her in an authoritative tone, after Lucy ran over to her side and knelt down with Risa choosing to watch the situation from a few feet away, "Hey, wake up!"
Lucy asked Nozomi with a serious look on her face, "Do you really think that destroying the dance theater will make your mom happy!? Do you know that some innocent people are still in there, Nozomi!? Should they be forced to die, even though they did nothing wrong!?"
Nozomi replied timidly, as she started to look worried about the bullies still being around, "You... you don't understand! That dance theater is a horrible place... I have to destroy it!"
Lucy asked her in a stern manner, hoping that this question would change Nozomi's mind, "Is that really what you think is the right thing to do, or is that what Shinichi wants?"
Upon hearing that question, Nozomi remained timid as she couldn't truly make a decision. On one hand, destroying the dance theater would eliminate all of the bullies while Shinichi would be giving Nozomi some respect instead of physically harming her. However, the other consequence of her actions would be that her mother would probably hate to watch from heaven as Nozomi committed the crime of killing people who did nothing wrong to her. Nozomi trembled more while struggling on figuring out what to do, and she just kept looking at Lucy.
Seeing the seriousness and strength in Lucy's eyes made Nozomi think about everything that had happened in this battle, and she also turned her head to look at Risa's eyes that were filled with determination. Despite the fact that the girls were going up against an elite guild master who had at least eight spells in his arsenal, neither Lucy or Risa had any fear in their eyes. Even after having to endure several of Shinichi's attacks, they just kept getting back up to retaliate with their own spells while not even being worried about Shinichi's fierce amount of power.
The fact that these mages were so strong-willed really made Nozomi be puzzled, as she had always been thinking that she was truly strong with Shinichi suggesting some things that would help Nozomi be a strong person who could make her mother happy, but her mind went back to that earlier moment when Risa boldly charged at Shinichi to get her sunglasses back. She was seeming so confident and powerful while Lucy hadn't even instructed her to go get them back, and that type of person definitely wasn't fearful or ever submissive. Nozomi started to see how these mages were good people, but Shinichi was certainly being bad by getting up and putting Lucy in a strong headlock from behind to make her stop talking.
"Nozomi, you bitch! Don't tell me that you'll cease with the one idea you've ever decided on! That flip-flopping attitude is the reason why you were bullied so much! I'm the only person who you listen to, Nozomi, and that will make your mother be happy! You'll fucking listen to me because I'm smarter than you, and a submissive bitch like you has no good ideas! You're just a tool to me while you help me get rich, and there's no need for weak people like you to ever think of anything!" Shinichi viciously shouted to Nozomi her while looking enraged and baffled as to why she was even listening to Lucy.
Nozomi sadly replied with tears welling up in her eyes, as she sat up and cried with those tears quickly streaming down her face from how Shinichi spoke to her, "Mama, I'm so tired of being a weakling! I want all the bullying to stop!"
Risa angrily said as she got behind Shinichi to hit him with a strong punch to the face, looking furious and disgusted by what he said to his own partner, "You shut your mouth already, you abusive piece of crap!"
Risa's harsh punch not only helped Lucy get free, but it sent Shinichi crashing into a wall to where a small crater was formed. Lucy slowly looked up to see how Risa was quite angry from everything that she had seen and heard, seeming very displeased that Shinichi used the advice that Nozomi got from her dead mother to manipulate her into doing horrible things for his own selfish reasons, and Lucy sternly glared at Shinichi for his horrible actions. If Risa's punch wasn't enough to defeat him, then Lucy would gladly knock him out.
Still, Lucy did turn to give Risa a small smile from how she was becoming quite fierce on this mission. Lucy was very glad that she wasn't the only person who wanted to knock out the guild master, and she built up some more magical power while being ready to finish this fight. She watched Shinichi slide down the wall while coughing up some blood, and he slowly got up while narrowing her eyes at Risa. The rookie who had been trembling at the beginning of this fight and even made her kick miss on purpose as a deception to retrieve her sunglasses had now punched him so hard with just her willpower, not even needing Earth Magic, and the crime boss growled angrily.
He charged up an immense amount of magical power into the palm of his right hand while quickly running towards Risa, and this last technique of Shinichi's was named Earthy Crushing Palm. As he ran towards Risa, though, Shinichi saw Lucy quickly get in front of him. She activated the spell that was known as Cherished Crimson Fire, which prompted her to hit Shinichi at point-blank range with a crimson red stream of fire from her mouth while flames in the normal shade of red swirled around it, and Shinichi's body began to glow in a normal shade of red like he was red-hot from being badly burned. The ring of crimson red flames appeared around Shinichi while Lucy stepped back, causing everyone to wonder what would happen, and Lucy watched the crimson red flames firmly attach on to the antagonist's body like they were glued to him. Three of them even latched on to his orange sneaker that was still on fire while two of them were on his orange jeans, and seeing this spell have an effect instead of doing nothing really made Risa be as perplexed as Lucy.
"The flames stick to things like glue, Lucy? How come that didn't happen during the first time you used the spell?" Risa asked aloud with a puzzled expression, as she watched them burn Shinichi.
Lucy replied with a look of realization on her face from seeing those crimson flames grow, as Shinichi stepped into more lava while being unable to get the flames off of his body, "Wait... Risa, the spell doesn't just attack and restrain an enemy. It's attracted to fire, and the lava on Shinichi's feet must've been as hot as his burns for the fire to be latching on to him."
Shinichi exclaimed to Lucy with a furious look on his face, as he felt more heat from the flames, "As soon as I get these flames off of me, bitch, you're going to be dead!"
Lucy responded sternly while his words prompted her to summon up more magical power, "That might not be as easy as you think it is, you jerk! It's time for Volcanic Lava Blitz, my ultimate spell of Fire Magic!"
She put her hands together while the red aura engulfing her body absorbed the nearby flames and even took in the pools of lava, causing the aura and the level of heat around Lucy to grow to a much higher level, and Lucy's body soon became surrounded by red fire. That aura changed into a massive burst of flames that engulfed Lucy, and she jumped up into the air. She started spinning down towards Shinichi at extremely high speeds while the red flames started to be spiraling around her body, and Lucy would be glad to end this fight with her strongest attack.
Shinichi attempted to strike her with the Earthy Crushing Palm spell, only to see the orange blast from his attack suddenly turn red while the amount of flames around Lucy's body doubled in quantity, and a massive red blast of Fire Magic occurred! Shinichi screamed in immense pain from the impact made several fiery explosions occur around his body while the crimson flames also detonated with a fierce amount of power to burn him even more, and the moment that he hit a wall behind Nozomi was when a fiery explosion in the normal shade of red occurred. It was quickly followed by a fiery explosion from the last crimson flame, and Shinichi let out one final scream. The red clouds of smoke faded away quickly to reveal that Shinichi's skin was charred while his body was heavily damaged with bloody wounds and bruises from that spell, and his clothes were even being badly torn. Severe burns were on his body, and he couldn't even stand up without feeling tremendous pain.
As Lucy was sent sliding backwards and also felt a high amount of pain from using that spell, she winced from accidentally overlooking how the spell would make the user suffer recoil damage. Lucy tried her best to stay on her feet, and she looked at the situation to see that Shinichi was trying his best to stand up. Her eyes looked over at Nozomi for a moment to see her happily smile and start crying tears of happiness, almost like she finally realized the truth of what it really meant to be a strong person, so Lucy nicely smiled back at her.
"From that look on her face, I can tell that you finally see how you don't need to follow Shinichi's schemes anymore. We've finished our job, but I think that we can all get the treasure away from him and see what's in it. Nozomi, you're a good person and I like how you got my foot unstuck in the Bell Tower." Lucy told her with a nice smile on her face, before starting to pant from exhaustion.
Nozomi replied calmly, before her expression suddenly turned serious as she narrowed her eyes, "Thank you. However, I can't hand the treasure over to you or let you win this fight!"
Risa asked with a stunned look on her face, "What!? Why!?"
Nozomi explained to them while clenching her fists and building up a high amount of magical power to where an orange aura engulfed her body, "After watching you and your friend fight Shinichi, I finally know what my mother was talking about when she wanted me to have a powerful will that was strong like the earth. You two are tough, and... that's why I want to try to defeat you! If I don't do this, I'll never be able to change into being a stronger person!"
Nozomi decided to release all of her power into one attack, and she activated the spell known as Earthy Boulder of The Sunset. Nozomi slammed her hands on to the damaged ground for a massive orange boulder of earth to rise up, and she aggressively aimed her hands at the Sabertooth mages to send it flying towards them. Risa wasted no time with activating the spell with the pink orb inside of a larger pink sphere, and the Cosmic Psi spell was thrown at the boulder. Risa followed that up with the Psychotic Slicer spell, and her pink projectile that was shaped like a crescent would immediately land after her previous spell.
Risa's first spell broke through the boulder to make a gaping hole in it, before creating a large pink blast, and her second attack gained power from the blast's energy. It smashed Nozomi's spell to pieces while the large chunks of earth simply landed on the floor, and the pink explosion from technically fusing her two attacks together made Risa quite surprised. She started to smile happily at her own strength, only to see Nozomi fiercely run through the smoke with an aggressive look on her face, and using up so much energy made Risa pant heavily.
She and Lucy both looked worried from seeing Nozomi give them a very intimidating glare, only to see her start to smile softly while picking up a large chunk of earth in her hand, and Nozomi simply crushed the chunk of earth down into sand. She let it all fall from the palm of her hand to where it landed at Lucy's feet, and that had been an old custom in Kuchiba of a mage saying how they were deciding to surrender. She calmly smiled at Lucy and Risa with respect, proud to see how Risa took on her ultimate spell without wavering while Lucy also fought so hard, and Nozomi felt that a strong mage knew when to stop a battle.
Nozomi also felt glad that she would lose against good human beings, people who relied on their own strength to help them overcome difficulties instead of just relying on other people to guide them on how to solve problems, and Nozomi was very glad that they were able to teach her how to be a strong person. She would no longer need someone else to make decisions for her, since people who had strong wills were able to decide things for themselves on their own without any influence, and Nozomi chose to give her job's reward to Lucy and Risa for demonstrating such great strength that was as strong as the rocky earth.
"Since you beat my most powerful spell and I'm almost out of magical power, you two can get the treasure. It's yours. Plus, you found the way into that room." Nozomi explained to them with a kind smile on her face.
Shinichi yelled to Nozomi while looking irritated, before trying to stand up, "Nozomi, you idiot! Your mother's not gong to be happy with you if you disobey me, so just-"
Nozomi quickly turned around to loudly tell Shinichi with an angry and serious facial expression, "Shut up! You're not my mother! You're an evil person who manipulated me, Shinichi, but I have to stand on my own now! You can't manipulate me to hurt people anymore, and my will is too strong! In fact, I should order you to hand over some money to the mages who had to take you down!"
Upon seeing Nozomi disobey him and truly have a strong will to where she would no longer help him while he was badly injured, Shinichi used his remaining amount of strength to try running out of the ruins. However, he was quickly met with the sight of Sting jumping out from behind a nearby tree to knock him out with a powerful punch to the face. He started to drag Shinichi away to the client in Kuchiba who wanted the evil guild master to be taken down, and Sting was very glad that his teammates managed to complete their mission.
Lucy decided to go into the treasure room with Risa, and she ran towards the orange treasure chest. Lucy lifted up the top part of it to see the light from several gold objects that were in the chest, but one thing that made her gasp in amazed manner was definitely not gold. Lucy got to see a ring in the normal shade of orange resting on top of a small pile of golden coins, and seeing the ring have an orange six-pointed gemstone that was shaped like the sun in the center made Lucy wonder if this ring was going to be like the Crimson Ring.
As Lucy picked up the ring with her left hand, Nozomi walked into the room to surprisingly see Lucy holding the treasure that she needed to retrieve for her own job. Nozomi wouldn't take the ring away from Lucy, but she was quite surprised to see that the ring was no longer just a myth of Kuchiba Town. That particular ring was rumored to be one of the legendary rings that allowed its wielder to have a great amount of power while they would supposedly be able to always stand firm like a wall of earth that wouldn't break apart easily.
"That is the Sherbet Ring, Lucy. Judging by how Shinichi wanted the ring so badly, I can guess that it will allow you to use Earth Magic and enhance any spells of Earth Magic that you're already wielding. If that's true, then make sure that you can shake the ground with your Earth Magic." Nozomi explained to her with a happy smile on her face, before loudly cracking her knuckles as a way to make Lucy remember that Earth Magic pertained to strength.
Lucy announced with a pleased look on her face, as she appropriately put the ring on the ring finger of her right hand, "All right! I have the Sherbet Ring! Only five rings are left!"
Risa added nicely while looking cheerful, "That's right, Lucy! You're a step closer to getting your body back, and we'll surely find the rest of the rings! Anyway, let's go report our success to Master Sting!"
As Risa hurriedly grabbed the treasure chest and ran out of the ruins with Lucy, she started to look psyched up from how that battle was very awesome. Risa felt glad that she technically landed the finishing blow in the fight, since her spell being superior to Nozomi's is what caused the brown-haired girl to surrender, and Risa ran all the way back to the Bell Tower while she would gladly tell Sting about every single moment of the fight. Not only did she take down her first outlaw, but the battle against a user of Earth Magic truly was quite shaky.
Shinichi could wreck the ground, as well as digging through it while having extremely powerful punches, and that last move could've killed Lucy if Risa hadn't intervened quickly. From the perspective of a mage who still needed to learn things other than training with her spells, Risa softly smiled a bit from wondering if it would be okay to just thank Shinichi for personally giving her some experience with fighting against strong wizards. After all, she was glad to see from this battle that she could get punched and possibly punch the enemy twice as hard.
Risa ran to the Bell Tower with Lucy to see Sting dragging Shinichi through the orange sliding doors, and she also caught sight of the blonde-haired girl who wore a gold kimono being on the ground floor of the tower. Risa would be glad to inform her about how the dance theater wasn't going to be destroyed today, and the residents of Kuchiba would gladly be avoiding danger. The thought of danger also made Risa believe that she needed to publicly expose Shinichi's dirty and secretive actions that went down at sunset in the amusement park to everyone in Kuchiba Town, but she would save that for later when the team got rewarded by the client.
Five minutes later, in the Bell Tower...
After getting into the Bell Tower, Risa watched Lucy be approached by the woman who had the job of healing injured people in the dance theater. The woman who had connected Lucy's crimson flames to wise words on a scroll started to grab Lucy's right hand with her left hand while she led Lucy out of the Bell Tower's entrance, and this lady had actually been behind Sting for a good duration of that battle. She got to see all of Lucy's fiery spells, including her crimson flames that showed their true effect, and this woman quickly took Lucy all the way to Kuchiba Town's dance theater.
When they went into the building, the woman calmly walked up a small brown set of stair steps with Lucy to reach what appeared to be the back of the dance theater. The woman opened two gold sliding doors that were painted quite well to blend in with the wall, and she went through them with Lucy to let her see the backstage area of the dance theater. The gold tatami flooring had gold walls to match in this hallway that seemed to end at a staircase, and this woman took Lucy into the first room that was on her right side.
Lucy got to see that she was now in a simple dressing room, smiling nicely at how kimonos in different colors were on a grey rack, and there was a gold vanity with a simple gold chair in front of it. There was a brown eight-screen room divider with oriental designs for changing clothes that stood next to the grey rack, and two women who respectively wore blue and green kimonos happily smiled while leading Lucy behind the screen. They brought the rack closer to Lucy for her to pick out the kimono that she wanted to wear, and she simply pointed at the light green kimono. The woman who had long blue hair and scarlet red eyes simply giggled in a pleased manner while her partner with short orange hair and violet eyes merely smiled nicely at Lucy, and both of the women motioned for her to get her clothes off.
Lucy proceeded to remove all of her clothes while blushing light pink at how she was now nude with three other people in the room who got to see with no clothes on, and the blue-haired dancer got the kimono off of the rack. She went around to the other side of the screen and lightly tossed the light green kimono over the screen room divider, which made Lucy smile a bit. Lucy caught the kimono, before easily putting it on, and she liked how this particular kimono had a pattern of pink roses on it. Lucy smiled nicely at how the kimono fit her new body nicely, and the blonde-haired woman who led her into the dance theater smiled as she directed her to the vanity.
"What's going on, and why did you take me here? Also, do you have any idea on where can I find the client who wanted our team to take down Shinichi?" Lucy asked the girl with a curious facial expression, as she sat down in the chair to look into the mirror.
The woman explained to Lucy in a calm tone, as she grabbed a hairbrush that was next to a gold bell, "I brought you here because of how you defeated Shinichi, Miss. According to the ancient and upheld tradition in Kuchiba, we must celebrate when the strongest mage is defeated by an even stronger one. I saw your entire battle, and I'll be happy to reward you soon for your job being completed."
Lucy replied with a shocked look on her face, as she recalled the policy on holidays, "Wait, you can't invite me to a coronation or anything like that! Today would be a holiday, so mages from Kogane Town shouldn't even be honored!"
The employee simply refuted that comment while smiling, as she brushed Lucy's hair in a gentle manner, "Well, you're technically part of the celebration because of how Shinichi has been defeated. Your friend who boasted to me about being a powerful dragon slayer claimed that he would be sure to tell everyone that you damaged Shinichi so badly with your flames."
Upon hearing that Sting would be telling everyone in Kuchiba Town about how Lucy took down the crime boss, her cheeks lightly blushed pink from how Sting would be exaggerating the story to possibly say that she burnt Shinichi very badly to where his body would soon become a pile of ashes. If Sting went around spreading that false news, then Shinichi's underlings who were still part of the Vermilion Sunset guild would probably be out for revenge. Lucy wasn't in the mood to take on an entire guild of people, especially since she still needed to regain all of her magical power.
Lucy hoped that some of those people would at least be decent towards her for proving that she was strong enough to beat Shinichi, and she clenched her fists softly from expecting to be booed by the crowd. After all, Shinichi was a guild master with a high amount of influence. Even if Sting dragged his unconscious body all the way to Vermilion Sunset, Lucy doubted that those dark mages would start bowing down to her or even want Kuchiba Town to have a great celebration for someone who wasn't even a resident or a proficient wielder of Earth Magic.
Lucy glanced down at the Sherbet Ring that was on her finger, but seeing it be next to the Crimson Ring made Lucy recall how the wizards who were in Akai Hinotama's crew had been so scared of her after seeing her take down their snobby leader while she had the legendary ring on her hand. If the rings were popular items in this town that seemed to majorly value its traditions and a few modern activities, then Lucy would probably not face the bad results that she initially expected from the people of Kuchiba. After all, important days seemed to have immense value here.
"What is today going to be labeled, anyway?" Lucy curiously asked, before the blue-haired woman walked up to the vanity and started to heavily powder Lucy's face with compact translucent powder.
The employee who was brushing her hair and lifting it up to gently style it simply replied nicely, "We'll have to let the earth and the autumn leaves decide, since the guardian of this town will descend at the top of the tower when the coronation and the dance ritual are complete."
Lucy asked with a surprised look on her face, as how her hair became styled in a high ponytail with chin-length strands framing her face, "I have to dance?!"
The hair stylist merely giggled at that question, since she would gladly teach the short dance to Lucy, and she wouldn't expect Lucy to be part of a tradition without being aware of all the customs. Otherwise, it would seem embarrassing for her to be the person who was being praised for beating Shinichi Keikoku. Lucy began to think about how Sting would react to her new appearance for this tradition, especially since the other two girls who wore kimonos started doing things such as using a light green pencil to define Lucy's eyebrows and put white eye shadow under her eyebrows. Lucy closed her eyes while feeling one of the girls gently apply pink eye shadow to her eyelids, and she kept her eyes closed as the girls appeared to be applying eye shadow to the outer corners of her eyes.
Lucy started to sigh nicely from feeling her high ponytail be brushed softly, almost feeling like a princess who was getting treated royally, and the girl who wore the blue kimono gently applied some cherry red lipstick to Lucy's lips. She slowly opened her eyes to look at herself in the mirror, and she ignored her predicament of not being in her own body for a moment. Lucy was surprised at how she truly looked like one of the Kimono Girls who was getting ready to dance, and the girl who styled her hair simply giggled softly as she put a small orange scrunchy in Lucy's hair.
She turned the chair around for Lucy to face her, before moving to the right for Lucy to see a brown shoe rack that was against the wall, and Lucy got out of the chair to get some brown sandals off of the shoe rack. She put them on her feet to see that they fit perfectly, and Lucy sat back down in the chair. The hair stylist soon turned her chair back around to face the vanity, and she moved around to be near Lucy's face. She brushed the strands of hair near Lucy's face for them to be flat, and she didn't mind how Lucy grabbed the gold bell and a green paper fan off of the vanity from how she thought they would look like great accessories to have during her dance. Lucy seemed like she would look very beautiful during this holiday, and she watched the stylish finish with brushing her hair. Now that Lucy was finished getting ready, the other Kimono Girls slowly went out of the dressing room to go prepare the event before preparing the dance rehearsal.
Three hours later, at the Bell Tower...
After they finished telling the mayor of Kuchiba Town about today's celebration, the Kimono girls put Lucy through three hours of practicing the dance. Lucy had thankfully gotten more instructions on how to move properly during the fifth dance practice from a red-haired employee who had shown up for her morning shift at dancing on stage with the others while she slightly resembled Erza. After all ten of the dance practices were done to where Lucy was able to perfectly perform the dance, she headed to the Bell Tower with the Kimono Girls. All of them were beautifully dressed while wearing eye shadow and makeup, even carrying fans like Lucy chose to do, and the girls would quickly ascend to the top of the tower. As Lucy was walking through Kuchiba Town, she could only smile in a somewhat shy manner from how Sting and Risa would get to see her look quite beautiful.
As Lucy walked in the middle of the group while the Kimono girls formed a square around her, Sting and Risa stood in front of the Bell Tower with curious looks on their faces. They watched the mayor walk out of the Bell Tower after he finished setting up four lacrima crystals that would send the Lacrima Vision Screens down to the ground, and Sting could see them shining in a light blue color at the top of the tower. He started to stare up at the top of the tower while more residents of Kuchiba Town appeared to gather around the Bell Tower, but Sting was suddenly pulled back by a resident who placed him next to Risa for them to both be on the sidelines right now.
Sting wondered why Lucy was taking such a long time with handling whatever that woman wanted her to do, but seeing the Kimono Girls walk towards the Bell Tower only made Sting start to drop his jaw as his eyes widened in amazement from seeing Lucy's appearance. He blushed in admiration from how she looked, viewing Lucy to be incredibly beautiful, and Sting tried his best to close his mouth. However, seeing Lucy shyly smile at him while unfolding the green fan for it to slightly cover her mouth only made her seem more attractive.
Sting had previously seen Lucy be quite startled and nervous from when she was in the hot springs, but seeing her seem so shy after dressing up in that kimono made him view Lucy as a cute girl who he would probably ask out on a date someday. The pink blush on her face and her red lipstick were just as nice as her powdered face, and seeing her high ponytail gently sway as a breeze came through Kuchiba Town only made Sting blush more. He tried to suppress that blush by focusing on sniffing the air, but making cute sniffs towards Lucy as she walked only made Sting smell the perfume that one of the other girls sprayed on her. She seemed to smell like oranges and honey, which was an interesting mix, and Sting simply smiled as Lucy was about to enter the Bell Tower. Risa was glad to see Lucy be so fashionable, but a teasing smile made its way on to her face from seeing Sting blush so much.
"Master, is Lucy looking that attractive to you or did you catch an extremely high fever right now?" Risa teasingly and playfully asked him.
Sting responded in a soft whisper as he comically looked defensive and kept blushing, "I don't find Lucy attractive, Risa! It's just... hot in Kuchiba, that's all."
Risa replied in a snarky and playful whisper, as she winked at Sting, "Yeah, it's so hot to where I can also feel the imaginary heat waves."
Lucy started to look curious about why her friends were whispering, but her cheeks blushed more pink from how Sting appeared to be blushing. Lucy wondered if he was blushing at her or one of the other girls, but she would have to ask him about that later. She entered the Bell Tower with the other girls while their walking speed increased, and Lucy kept up with them as she went up to the first floor with them. The girls quickly went up the next few floors in an urgent manner, and Lucy was really glad that these dancers were experienced enough to ascend to the Bell Tower's upper floors.
They even made their way up the floors that had dimly lit flames slightly bright, which allowed Lucy to safely be in a temporary single-file line with them on bridges without any uncertainty about where the group was going, and Lucy soon arrived at the highest floor that was before the roof. The pillar holding the tower together swayed back and forth quite fast, and the girls carefully walked on some boards that led to the final staircase. Getting to the stairs allowed Lucy to ascend to an area where rays of sunlight were coming down to shine into the room, and she made it up to the rooftop with the other girls.
Lucy smiled in a delighted manner from being able to have a magnificent view of Kuchiba Town while she walked towards one of the corners that faced the town instead of the branching path, and seeing her step towards the grey barrier like a princess who stood above her people only made the residents start to loudly cheer. Some of them even clapped their hands to applaud Lucy for now having the title of being the strongest mage in Kuchiba Town, and Lucy even got to hear Sting cheer for her. She briefly waved to him, before the blonde-haired healing mage tapped her left shoulder, and Lucy would now shift her attention to performing the dance that would be done on top of the tower. She looked up at the six gold hexagon-shaped rungs that had a gold perching spot above them for a bird, and the rungs with the pointed perching spot resembled a small gold tower that was on the silver platform. Four statues of pointed stones were on the corners of this platform while they were next to the blue orbs, and the five girls got into a formation where they were all positioned at five different points that formed a pentagon.
"Attention, everyone! We will now be performing the Dance of the Sunset Guardian for the princess' coronation!" The blonde-haired leader happily announced to the residents of the town who still gathered in front of the Bell Tower.
The red-haired dancer added with a confident look on her face, as she appeared in one of the Lacrima Vision screens, "Since the princess has the golden bell of strength, she shall throw it upward to start off the dance!"
Lucy replied while smiling shyly, as she began to look out at Kuchiba Town, "All right... I'll do my best!"
She turned back to face the golden rungs, before throwing the golden bell upward with magic infused into her hand, and the gold bell flew up high to where it was mere inches above the perch. The bell began to float in midair, and the moment that it moved on its own to create a small chime was the moment that the girls began to dance. Each of the girls stretched out their right arms forward with the palms of their hands showing, before walking to a different corner of their formation, and quickly going to a different corner of their formation gave the girls enough time to spin around simultaneously. They spun at the same moment that the bell chimed, before continuing to rotate their positions in this dance, and Lucy started softly smiling as the bell continued to chime.
As the bell kept ringing, it started to shine with thin golden beams of light emanating from it. The light was so bright while it continued to shine and ring in rhythm with the women who spun around in their nice dance, but something nice began to occur around the Bell Tower. Four golden bells that were tied to the ends of the curved protrusions of the highest tower reacted to the ringing by also glowing in a golden color with beams of light emanating from them, and they began to ring in unison with the first bell. The gold light from the bells was quite amazing for the townspeople and Risa to witness, but Sting simply smiled as his attention was on the Lacrima Vision screens.
He watched Lucy spin around one last time, before going back into her original spot, and the ringing of the bells worked in conjunction with the golden light for the main bell to shine directly in her face. Lucy started to close her eyes while ignoring how the ritual and the light made a large bird come from the sky to land on top of the Bell Tower. Lucy opened her eyes to see the large bird that looked like a phoenix and a peacock mixed together, and its feathers were predominantly in the normal shade of orange. It had dark orange feathers at the tips of its wings, along with sherbet orange tail-feathers, and it had a white underside with a pumpkin orange stripe around its neck. The bird also had a yellow beak, and black rings were around its vermilion eyes. The bird also had black feet and black legs while it had four toes, and the bird's talons appeared to be quite long. It perched itself on top of the tower while looking down at Lucy, and she comically looked surprised as it got closer to her.
"The guardian of Kuchiba Town has come back to us, everyone! The guardian shall now judge the princess to officially complete her coronation!" The blonde-haired woman exclaimed to the crowd with a satisfied smile on her face, as she looked quite pleased to see the majestic bird again.
Lucy replied nicely while smiling shyly, as she decided to just pet the large bird with Earth Magic accidentally infused in her hands, "Hello, powerful guardian bird of Kuchiba Town. My name is Lucy Heartfilia, it's nice to meet you."
The orange-haired employee whispered to herself with an awestruck look on her face, as she watched from behind the perch, "Wow, Princess Lucy Heartfilia is petting the guardian and she's not getting pushed back by the gusts of wind from its wings."
Lucy simply petted the bird and smiled happily while the strength of her Earth Magic caused the bird to look down at the town, and its triumphant roar signaled to the residents how it recognized Lucy's strength. The bird got off of the perch while leaving a large orange feather in Lucy's right hand, before slowly flying away, and the residents cheered for Lucy. Some of them even brought up the myth of how anyone who came face-to-face with the guardian was guaranteed to find success and happiness, so Lucy should've been glad to be part of a momentous event. Risa cheered for her friend while admiring Lucy's dancing, ignoring how Nozomi quietly came from the woods to get a glimpse of the event, and Sting simply clapped his hands from seeing Lucy happily giggle as she appeared on the Lacrima Vision screens again. As Lucy continued to giggle, the woman who had been healing the injured people walked over to Lucy and pulled out a cute-looking gold crown from the left pocket of her kimono.
"The guardian has viewed this woman to be quite a powerful warrior, and our guardian even left her a feather! Kuchiba Town, cheer for your new princess! The beautiful woman who has the immense strength of the earth, Princess Lucy Heartfilia!" The healing mage exclaimed to the crowd with a joyous smile on her face, before she gently placed the crown on Lucy's head.
As the crowd cheered Lucy's name in happiness, Nozomi joined Sting and Risa with applauding for Lucy. Her coronation as Kuchiba Town's princess was now complete, and Lucy was now a mage who could even be respected by the members of Vermilion Sunset. Nozomi turned her head to see the rude orange-haired mage from before proceed to bow her head in a respectful manner, followed by the other dark mages, and they wouldn't be rude to Lucy ever again. Lucy smiled at the four Kimono Girls, before quietly mouthing words about the money, and the Kimono Girls quickly went downstairs to go get Lucy her reward for defeating Shinichi. Lucy not only needed that money to officially complete that job, but the fight against Shinichi and Nozomi reminded her about a fashionable promise of motivation that she made to Risa. Lucy briefly saw Sting and Risa standing next to Nozomi, and everyone in Kuchiba Town truly seemed happy now.
One hour later, in the autumn-colored woods...
Nozomi decided to go back through the Bell Tower with Lucy and her teammates to take them to the part of the woods where a bridge had been over a ravine, feeling like the protagonists needed to see one last feature of Kuchiba Town, and she led them to the grey gravestones that were evenly spaced out from each other. Nozomi walked past a few graves to lead the group to a specific gravestone that had two orange leaves sitting on top of it, and Nozomi proceeded to just kneel down in front of the gravestone to just pay her respects to her dead mother.
Nozomi closed her eyes for a moment while thinking about everything that had happened for the past few months, and she felt like her days as a mage of Vermilion Sunset would finally come to an end. The dark guild wouldn't be able to operate without a guild master to lead it, and Nozomi didn't want to work for a guild that was part of the Balam Alliance. If she would be forced to take orders from the leaders of the highest dark guilds, then that would just contradict the strong will the she now possessed. Nozomi would probably have to just work at a better place that was far away while she resided in Kuchiba Town, but at least she would get to keep all of the money for herself.
Nozomi turned around to see how Risa brought the orange treasure chest to these woods with her, but seeing how the pink-haired girl placed her new outfit on the chest only made Nozomi smile in a kind manner. She would let the money and items in that treasure chest all be for Risa as her reward for being a rookie who demonstrated that she had the willpower to take on a powerful mage's final spell without even flinching, and Nozomi hoped that Risa and Lucy would continue to keep on being powerful mages who could be strong-willed.
Risa watched Nozomi slowly stand up to turn around and look at her mother's grave, the earth-wielding wizard seeming so happy about how she finally became a much stronger person who her mother wouldn't have to worry about from heaven, and Nozomi smiled at the fact that she probably managed to make her mother be happy. Nozomi proved that she was a kind adult by showing mercy to her opponents when they were exhausted, and she would no longer do any evil things. Nozomi felt good to be strong-willed, and she wanted to share the news about this great day with her mother.
"Mom, I'm finally a strong person now and I'm going to be like the people who taught me how to truly have inner strength. I'm very sorry if you had to see me do horrible things in the past, but now I'm going to turn my life around by using my magic solely for good purposes." Nozomi told her mother's spirit in a calm tone, before bowing and apologizing with a look on her face that showed a mix of regret and ambition.
Lucy told Nozomi with a kind smile on her face, as she walked towards her to gently put a hand on her shoulder, "Any guild that you join will probably be happy to have you as a mage, Nozomi. You know, I don't think that your mom will have to worry about you anymore."
Nozomi turned around to tell Lucy while softly smiling, before extending her hand out for a handshake, "Thank you, Lucy Heartfilia. You and your teammates are good people, and I hope you'll also continue to be strong."
Lucy gently shook hands with Nozomi, promising her that she would become much stronger than she currently was, and the two girls shared a brief hug. Risa put down the chest to gently hug Nozomi, and their hug was slightly longer. Nozomi started to have thoughts about how these past few days were so interesting, since she never expected anyone like Risa to ever enter the town of Kuchiba, and Nozomi would never forget the moment when Risa punched Shinichi in the face without even hesitating for a single second.
Nozomi broke the brief hug for a moment to just smile at Risa, before seeing that Shinichi was no longer next to Sting or unconscious, and she simply blinked her eyes in a curious manner from how he probably sneaked away during the moment where he regained consciousness. Since everyone in the town was distracted by Lucy's coronation in the town, that gave Shinichi the opportunity to leave the Bell Tower and probably go somewhere else. He wouldn't be able to live in Kuchiba Town anymore, however, and that was because of Risa.
Risa had made Lucy absorb some Earth Magic from some of the rides in the amusement park, allowing the mayor and other residents of Kuchiba to be just as stunned as the tourists from seeing the rides become brown with rust while they started to fall apart, and the tourists were quite upset at how the amusement park was an un safe place. The mayor and other people became more upset from discovering that Shinichi was running a big business selling oil at sunset, since they found some oil barrels that he decided to leave behind, and Risa was glad to make everyone stay away from the barrels. She attacked the barrels full of oil for them to explode, and sealing the train's entrances while extracting Earth Magic from the ground meant that the new leaders of the amusement park had plenty of work to do. However, Lucy wouldn't be around to see it.
"Well, Nozomi, my teammates and I should get back to Sabertooth now. I may have briefly told you this after changing out of the kimono to wear my original clothes, but I have to get back into my original body. In order to do that, I have to find the other five legendary rings." Lucy explained to her with a soft smile, as she turned to walk away.
Nozomi told Lucy with a genuine smile of happiness on her face, as optimism started to majorly be in her eyes, "You'll be able to find them, Lucy. I'm sure that you can do it."
Risa said to Lucy in a snarky manner, as she smiled nicely, "Let's go look for the next one right now, Lucy, and it'll hopefully be in a truly fun place.
Lucy simply nodded in agreement to Risa's words, prompting her to lead her team out of the woods, and the mages from Sabertooth began to leave. Risa made sure to not forget the treasure chest, but Lucy ran pick to easily hold it in her hands while Sting held her bag of jewels with one hand. Risa held on to her outfit while it wouldn't distract her from completing a job this time, and all of the mages were glad to have finally finished a great job. Risa smiled happily from how her first major job of defeating a criminal went well, and she couldn't have completed it without her friends by her side.
Lucy looked quite happy as she saw the bridge up ahead, prompting her to hastily run over to it, and this job was definitely a major adventure that she enjoyed. Lucy kept her hands on the treasure chest while all of the strength in her hands made me feel like she was stronger, and she even giggled at how having Earth Magic from the Sherbet Ring allowed her to go down the highest floors of the Bell Tower without her legs being incredibly shaky. She was able to balance on the wooden paths, and Lucy could even smash the ground if her foot got stuck in a crack. She was definitely gaining strength, which made her feel quite happy.
As Lucy hurriedly ran across the bridge and made it to the other side, she turned around to kindly smile at Sting. She really liked seeing him blush today, even if he was blushing at one of the other girls who wore a kimono, but something made a warm feeling enter Lucy's heart as she thought about how the question of who he was blushing at hadn't come up yet. She would probably ask the white dragon slayer about that later, but Lucy herself began to faintly blush from recalling how Sting seemed very attracted to her when she unfolded the green fan. That specific moment made Lucy blush more from thinking about it, and she hoped that the strength that she gained on this mission would strengthen their bond.
How was Chapter 13? Feel free to tell me your thoughts on it. Lucy and Risa managed to complete their mission! They finally got their money, along with some treasure, and Lucy got the Sherbet Ring! She now has two rings, and only five rings with different types of magic remain. In case you're wondering, though, Lucy WILL get her Celestial Spirit Magic back. That's later on in the story, though. Also, Risa's unexpected snarky comment is tied to her unexpected move of trying to kick Shinichi with a leg sweep and purposely missing to retrieve her sunglasses. For a rookie, she's definitely learning how to think quickly during tense moments. Also, we got some StiCy moments in this chapter! Lucy and Sting are starting to blush more at each other, and they'll definitely talk about their feelings in the next chapter. Speaking of chapters, this ends the Sherbet Earth Arc! The next few chapters will be part of the post-Sherbet Earth Arc, and those chapters will probably show what Kotomi and Team Natsu have been doing. I'll update soon. :)
REVIEWS!
FireBlitz: Thank you so much!
OrangeDetermination: Thank you! To answer your question, just know that Risa's arc is coming later in the story.
YellowThunder5: Thank you!
GreenGrass4: Thank you so much!
BlueWater234: Thank you!
PurpleReis155: Well, this chapter thankfully had more StiCy moments.
Matt: Thanks!
jennie: Thank you!
Kiri-chan: Thank you!
Sena: Thank you very much!