Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.
Chapter 22: Encouragement & Emotions! Face Your Past, Risa!
Lucy's POV
I sat down at a table in the guildhall with Rogue, Frosch, and Risa while smiling happily about how today would be fantastic. In fact, this would be a great day because of how my friends were going to help me out with getting the fourth legendary ring. Having another one of these amazing rings would lead me a step closer to reversing the body-switching spell that Kotomi used on me to steal my life as a Fairy Tail mage, and I started to have a determined look on my face from thinking that this mission would go smoothly. After all, our team seemed to be getting stronger.
In fact, I trained more with my Lightning Magic yesterday at the nearby mountains for hours to make myself be capable of dealing with powerful enemies. Having three more spells of Lightning Magic was great, especially since I made sure to put sufficient amounts of magical power into those particular spells for them to be quite strong. I definitely took Risa's advice from two days ago very seriously, since the thought of dealing with any dark mages who used Psychic Magic made me hope that they couldn't levitate or immobilize my spells to make them useless, and unleashing strong spells to overpower that Psychic Magic would be a good idea.
I began to calmly look at Risa, who came home late last night from what seemed like hours of training somewhere, and I wondered if she had any advice to give on what to expect in Parmanie Town. Even though the woman who ran the bakery in Yamabuki Town provided our team with some useful advice, Risa still wouldn't tell me any crucial information on things about Parmanie. It would be nice for my friend to at least tell me about Parmanie Town's landmarks or the delicacies that pertained to Parmanie, but Risa always seemed like she needed to bottle up her thoughts about Parmanie instead of sharing them with me or any of our friends.
As I kept looking at Risa and noticed how she wore a mini dress that was in a halter neck style while the dress was light pink with regular pink lining, I started to wonder if she was always being so fashionable as a way to prevent herself from talking about what had given her so much trauma. Risa did genuinely like fashion, but mentioning the possibility of cute clothes in Parmanie Town wouldn't be a good idea. The first time that I had mentioned Parmanie Town to her was something that caused her to leave her bedroom in a hurry, almost like she didn't want to talk about that place because of what happened to her mentor, and I started to slight narrow my eyes at my friend.
"Listen, Risa. If you're very hurt by whatever happened in the past to where don't want to come with us to Parmanie Town, then you don't have to. In fact, you could go shop for clothes in another town while Yukino and Rogue help Sting and I with getting the fourth ring." I calmly told Risa, as I didn't want her to possibly become very fearful on this mission.
Rogue interrupted the conversation with an emotionless response, as he sternly looked at me, "Letting Risa run away from her problems doesn't make them go away, Lucy. In fact, us doing all the work while she does nothing but go shopping would only make her be a weak coward who can't face up to her own issues."
"Rogue, that's a little harsh!" I nicely replied to the shadow dragon slayer, thinking that he could've been less harsh with his logic.
Risa responded with a determined facial expression, as she fiercely looked at Rogue, "I'm not going to be a cowardly weakling, Rogue! I'm... I'm going with you and the others to Parmanie Town!"
As much as I didn't like how Rogue used some harsh words to motivate Risa into joining us on this task of going to Parmanie Town, I sighed in a calm manner at how facts had to be faced. He actually did make sense by pointing out that it wouldn't be fair for most of the mages in a team to do all the hard work while one of the team members could just leisurely be shopping without anything to worry about, and Risa would really just be a coward if she couldn't even deal with problems that pertained to her trauma. The only ways for Risa to get over her trauma were to either see that Parmanie Town wasn't so dangerous, or she would need to talk about the trauma and her feelings to let all her emotions finally come out for her to be relieved of that stress.
Since Risa was refusing to talk about what exactly happened to make her feel so upset about losing her mentor, that only left our team with the choice of going to Parmanie Town with Risa as a way to make her see that there would be nothing dangerous about that place. She wouldn't even have to worry, since Rogue and I would be by her side, and Sting would also be there. Even though Yukino was over at the request board right now, she would probably agree with Rogue about something had to be done for Risa to get through the trauma that seemed to resurface after she had to see someone die while giving her sunglasses back to her.
I glanced at the sunglasses that were once again on Risa's forehead, and I simply watched her start to take a few sips of hazelnut coffee from her white coffee cup that had been on the table. As Risa drank her coffee, my orange eyes widened with some realization from how that particular pair of sunglasses hadn't been in sold in Cramoisi Town's fashion store or any other fashion store that I had seen so far in Fiore. Those were probably sold in a limited supply at one point to where I must not have cared about them in Magnolia's clothing stores, but it hopefully wouldn't hurt to ask Risa about them.
"If you don't mind me asking, Risa, where can I buy a pair of those sunglasses?" I asked her with the feeling of curiosity entering my eyes while I softly smiled.
Risa responded to me with a puzzled look on her face, before giving me a calm smile as she gave me a snarky remark, "Lucy, you want to own a pair of these sunglasses? Yeah, I can totally go back in time to join my mentor and my child self on that day for me to get you a pair of them."
"Did you and your old master enjoy shopping together?" I asked her with a kind smile on my face.
Risa responded to me nicely, as her eyes showed a bit of sadness, "Yeah, we did. In fact, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that it was the best activity that we did together."
I watched Risa look down at her cup of hazelnut coffee for a moment while she let out a soft sigh, and I began to think about Risa's sense of fashion. She was into immediately knowing about fashion trends while always having that habit of shopping, so at least I could see where she got her fashion habits from. She and her old master must've been really close like a mother and a daughter for Risa to have an attachment to her, so going back to Parmanie Town would logically be something that Risa would struggle to do.
Despite how Risa was trying to look happy for me and Rogue to not have concerns about her, the moment that she looked up at us was when we could see the sadness in her cherry red eyes while that sadness overshadowed her fierceness from earlier. Risa was definitely upset about the loss of her mentor, but Rogue and I couldn't let Risa's trauma prevent her from possibly finding the way to get through it. The fact that Risa had to deal with pain from her past was already a tough dilemma for her, but I had to wonder. Was Risa feeling like she needed to entirely deal with that trauma by herself?
The fact that we would all be going to Parmanie Town together made me narrow my eyes in a determined manner, as everyone on the team would gladly help Risa get through her issues, and I firmly placed my left hand on Risa's right hand. She was surprised by that, and my firm pressure on her hand was simply my way of showing her that someone else on the team would be willing to share the pain of that trauma with her. Frosch comically got off of Rogue's shoulder to gently touch Risa's hand, and that prompted Rogue to calmly smile as he also put his hand in to show support for helping Risa. Yukino turned around from hearing my hand loudly land on Risa's hand, and I looked up for a moment to see her kindly smile. She had heard everything while lightly pulling down her teal tank top that went well with her blue jeans, and seeing us support Risa caused Yukino to walk away from the request board with a flyer in one hand. She came to the table gently put her hand in, which happened at the same moment where Sting and Lector came out of the office, and I started to smile happily from how we were all showing Risa that she didn't have to deal with her issues all by herself.
One hour later... (Sting's POV)
Risa still sat down at the table with Rogue while she didn't instantly seem ready for today's mission, which was definitely different from how she felt eager to handle missions in the past, and I decided to just let her sit there with Rogue until she felt ready to leave for Parmanie Town. I may have been the guild master of Sabertooth, but I couldn't threaten Risa into visiting Parmanie Town or drag her all the way to that place. I just had to make the rookie mage feel like there was no pressure involved with this job, which was the case with her first missions as a Sabertooth mage.
Even though Risa had proven herself to be a decent mage in combat, I still viewed her as a rookie who still had many important things to learn. One thing that she needed to learn was the fact of how talking about emotional things such as trauma or failures could really strengthen the bonds that she had with her friends, since there were guild members in Sabertooth who either dealt with the deaths of close people or failed to win at something. In my case, failing to defeat Natsu on the fourth day of the Grand Magic Games caused my bond with Lector to get stronger because of how he helped me realize that people can become stronger from experiencing defeat.
I couldn't tell Risa that she needed to learn things from being defeated, but I merely frowned at her while standing against the request board with my arms folded. Despite how Lucy told me that Risa had painful memories from losing her former master, I personally felt like Risa couldn't view any traumatic experiences as excuses for her to not visit Parmanie Town. She had to at least try to get through the pain, as that was how things would get better for her, and I felt like Risa could truly manage to do that. She could overcome her trauma, and we couldn't all just convince her that she could do it. Risa needed to convince herself of that, really.
If she was having thoughts about possibly dying in Parmanie Town, then I would rightfully tell her to erase those horrible thoughts from her mind. Even if powerful mages were in that town, Risa couldn't forget that she didn't face strong mages before. She even took down a mob of hostile wizards in her first battle as a mage of Sabertooth, so I personally considered that to be a good victory for her. Risa had also helped Lucy succeed in a few important fights to get those legendary rings, and I started to feel very confident as I walked over to her table with an idea forming in my mind.
"You know, Risa, it would be a shame for you to not join Rogue and Frosch with sightseeing in Parmanie Town. It would be cool for Rogue to have you by his side, since any psychic mages in your town wouldn't expect you to stop them from messing with any shadows that Rogue has to create." I told Risa with a happy smile on my face, grinning confidently at the thought of Risa predicting what a malicious mind reader could do.
That prompted Risa to reply to me with an astounded facial expression, "Master, you know I can't read minds! My Psychic Magic isn't at that level, unlike how my mentor had hers at a higher level. Anyway, I never saw anyone messing with shadows when I was younger."
"You can't read minds, Risa, but you're aware that Psychic Magic could easily levitate people or redirect their spells elsewhere. Just imagine if Rogue and Frosch are sightseeing in Parmanie, only to get levitated by some delinquents who make Rogue's shadowy attacks all go off-course. Rogue will need you to show them how cool you are by levitating those jerks even higher to instantly slam them down into the ground afterwards, Risa." I responded to her with a cocky smile on my face, as I sounded pretty persuasive.
Rogue shouted to me with a shocked facial expression, as he got up from his chair while inadvertently grabbing Risa's hand, "Sting, don't try to play mind games with me and Risa! She already told me earlier that she'll accompany us to Parmanie Town, and I doubt that anyone who's smart enough to read minds in Parmanie would personally want to get themselves killed by messing with wizards from Sabertooth!"
He continued to frown at me, before I jokingly pointed at how Rogue was holding hands with Risa, and the fact that Rogue looked surprised from holding hands with Risa like they were a couple only caused me to laugh. Risa started to giggle from how Rogue still held her hand, prompting her to run out of the guild with him like they were going on a date, and that made me look a bit frustrated at how that pink-haired rookie just ran off with Rogue. Frosch simply flew on to the table while looking very carefree, and he probably thought Rogue was busy with Risa.
I could hear Rogue shouting to Risa that he wouldn't need her to show anyone how she was cool, but giving Risa that little motive of protecting Rogue was like giving her a very good reason to go to Parmanie Town. Since Risa had to heal Rogue after he initially came back from Yamabuki with severe injuries, I simply persuaded her that she needed to also protect him instead of just healing his wounds. Even though Rogue could handle himself in a fight, he and Frosch wouldn't mind having Risa around as they saw the nice sights in Parmanie.
Since the three of them would hopefully get to have fun together, that would leave Lector and I with Lucy by our side while Yukino would probably want to go off on her own to see some things. If Lucy was by my side, then we could definitely have our second date in Parmanie Town while trying to figure out who had the legendary ring. I would gladly buy Lucy some things from Parmanie, and I'd be glad to get that ring off of a royal person's finger for Lucy to smile from how she would soon have it. I looked up from the table to see Lucy that was now drinking a glass of cola at the bar with Yukino, and I smiled nicely while walking over there.
"Hey, Lucy! I hope you're ready to have an awesome time in Parmanie soon with Fiore's best dragon slayer!" I told Lucy with a happy smile on my face, as I gave her a thumbs-up.
Lucy kindly replied to me with a nice facial expression, before giggling, "Hi, Sting. Yeah, we'll hopefully have fun in this quest to find the fourth ring."
"Speaking of that ring in Parmanie, don't worry about Risa being fearful during this mission. She just went out with Rogue, and Risa will be keeping him from getting harmed." I told Lucy with a confident facial expression, as my blue eyes were filled with assurance about how everything would be okay.
Lucy simply chuckled at me in a playful way, as she could probably tell that I was making Risa protect Rogue as a nice way to boost her self-confidence about how she could do well in Parmanie Town with her Psychic Magic, and that prompted me to also chuckle at how I was being pretty helpful towards Risa. Not only would she have to think about Rogue instead of focusing all of her thoughts on the incident that made her not want to talk about the past, but Risa probably wouldn't bottle up her emotions if she could truly have some enjoyment in Parmanie with Rogue.
She would probably want to at least shop at the fashion store, and I would be happy with Risa buying two or three outfits before meeting back up with the group. Rogue would hopefully not let her take all day with shopping, so they could probably be responsible for each other if it was necessary. As for me, I would be helping Lucy search for the fourth ring. How hard could that be, though? The first three rings were all associated with being some type of treasure that the enemies didn't even have on their hands, so finding a treasure chest would lead us straight to the ring while also letting us get some riches.
Getting some more money would be awesome, and finding a treasure chest would probably let me see Lucy smile happily from how we'd have another cool reward. A town filled with royals probably meant that large treasure chests were containing money that they could afford to give away to mages who saved Parmanie, and all that we would probably have to do was take down a mage who was causing trouble. I proceeded to show off my muscles while looking at Lucy, before smiling nicely at her red tube top and light pink flat shoes that went well with her long red skirt, and the fact that she giggled at me seemed like a sign that we'd have a nice date. I hoped that Rogue would have fun touring around Parmanie with Risa on what would technically be like a date for them, too.
Five minutes later, near the fountain... (Risa's POV)
I stood in over the fountain's water with the reflection showing the smile on my face being quite calm, and Rogue still stood next to me. He had been telling me for the past few minutes that he didn't need me to protect him on this quest, but I perceived Master to be giving me an order about how I had to keep Rogue safe. Even if Rogue truly didn't need my help, disobeying my master would be extremely disrespectful to him. He would probably scold me for not guarding Rogue with my life, so this new task that was added to my friends desiring to go to Parmanie Town really made this mission be very important.
As I thought about how the fourth ring was in Parmanie Town, I started to firmly place my hands on the bricks that surrounded the fountain with a bit of frustration in my eyes. I wasn't exactly psyched up to go to Parmanie, as the people who lived there the longest would probably recognize me as the quirky student of my former master to where they'd still be harsh to me, and the royals who ruled over the town didn't exactly change to having better individuals in charge during the incident where my mentor died.
They probably wanted to make Parmanie seem like the most peaceful place in Fiore, but what the royals did to my mentor back then for sadistic reasons was just horrible. My mentor's death was tragic, and I could've prevented it if I had been stronger back then. Even though she wanted me to live on, I wish that I could've been able to save her from the people who had been wanting her to be killed. My hands started changing into clenched fists while thinking about how it was my fault that she died, and the fact that she died for me to be safe made me feel guilty. She was such an awesome person, so why did she have to die?
If I had been able to keep her from getting killed, then I would've have had to deal with that horrible day where she placed the sunglasses on my head while rain had been heavily pouring down. I decided to shut my eyes while trembling, feeling pain from just remembering my horrified scream at how my master was dead, and the fact that she died right in front of me was something that still stuck with me. Her death was one of the most traumatic things that I had to see, especially since I had only been just a child, and remembering the horrible image of seeing her body fall to the ground with the sound of her hitting the ground accompanying that image in my mind only made me tremble more as I couldn't relax my fists. In fact, seeing my master fall in that past memory made me open my eyes in shock at how I was about to fall forward into the fountain's water while my sunglasses began to fall from my forehead. I didn't want to fall in, and I was scared from falling to where I only caught a glimpse of Frosch's reflection quickly appearing in the water.
"Risa!" Rogue exclaimed to me in a concerned tone, before I could feel his arms wrap around my waist.
I replied to him with a worried facial expression, as my face was mere inches away from the water, "Pull me back, Rogue!"
He calmly asked me after pulling me back towards him, his arms still being around my waist, "Are you okay, Risa?"
Frosch added with a cute smile on his face while flying towards me with his hands lightly holding my sunglasses, "Risa, your sunglasses came close to sinking in the fountain! Fro thinks they'd look better on you than on the fish."
As Frosch lightly placed the sunglasses on my forehead, I felt my cheeks faintly blush pink from how Rogue's arms were tightly holding me. He just protected me from getting my cute outfit ruined, as well as keeping me from possibly getting sick with a cold, and Rogue gently held me against his chest. He proceeded to release his tight grip on me, which made me slowly turn around to frown in a saddened manner at how I'd been thinking so much about my mentor's death and all of my worries. I had been worrying so much for my friends, not wanting to feel guilty over them dying like how my mentor had a horrible death.
However, worrying so much about my friends and thinking they were foolish for going to Parmanie Town made me realize something. As tears slowly started to well up in my eyes, I realized that I wasn't alone anymore in having to deal with my trauma. I had always thought about my past in the sense that all of my friends wouldn't ever be willing to face people who were so horrible, especially after how we all had to deal with Kirie dying, and I couldn't handle watching anymore people lose their lives as they were protecting me. Upon seeing Rogue kindly smile at me while Frosch flew near him to give me a friendly smile, all I could do was hug Rogue while the tears fell from my eyes.
I cried and trembled from how I had to deal with all the years of loneliness and pain from losing my former master, and the trauma of that horrible day was immense on its own. There was also the fact of how life had definitely not been easy for me after that tragic event, and the thoughts about the bad experiences that happened afterwards had accumulated to where dealing with all of the stress pertaining to Parmanie Town was like trying to hold up a stack of heavy bricks. I had been trying to always focus on my fashion, cheerfulness, and snarky attitude as a way to keep my mind off of the trauma, but nearly losing my life against Kanata and the way Kirie died were things that made me feel the heaviness of this trauma and guilt once again. However, it seemed like my friends in Sabertooth were now trying to get the weight of the grief off of me.
"I may have sounded harsh to you earlier, Risa, but just know that you aren't all by yourself. Whatever is there in Parmanie Town, we'll all be fighting alongside you." Rogue told me in a calm manner, as he smiled softly.
That prompted me to ask him in a worried tone, as I ended the hug to wipe away some tears, "Thanks, Rogue, but what if you all get into any bad situations while looking for the ring? What if the enemies are stronger than that priestess to where our efforts in trying to get the ring would just be pointless?"
"The effort won't be pointless, if you believe in yourself and prove to yourself that you can win. Believe that you can win, Risa. Believe in yourself and believe in your strength, just like how we all believe that you can overcome the pain you experienced in Parmanie Town." Rogue told me with a stoic look on his face, as he seemed to have a bit of determination in his eyes.
I responded to Rogue in a calm voice, after closing my eyes and letting out a deep breath, "Rogue... Thank you."
I had felt so worried about the possibility of suffering in the town of Parmanie, but Rogue wanted to have confidence in myself about how everything would be okay. He was definitely feeling ready to take on any challenges in Parmanie, even when he hadn't seen Psychic Magic ever used against him by an enemy. Even if I had told him in detail about what happened to my mentor, Rogue was probably still going to have the courage to fight against whoever would be standing in our way. I personally thought fighting was similar to fashion sales in how having all that crucial information beforehand was important for getting the outcome that you wanted.
However, Rogue and the others were wanting to go to Parmanie Town while they'd be happy to face all of the possible risks. In fact, getting that ring meant so much to Lucy to where she would join Sting and Rogue in telling the enemies that our team wasn't going to be scared of anyone's magic. No matter what disadvantage Lucy had faced in the battles where I saw her fight, she always seemed to believe that there was always a way for her to win. If Rogue and the others had that mentality, then I needed to at least encourage them and have some confidence.
Even if I was still traumatized over the death of my former master, I couldn't just keep refusing to visit Parmanie Town. She probably wouldn't want me to go through life feeling so traumatized and broken to where I couldn't ever face the people who were horrible to both of us, and I had to look at the town from a different perspective. Rogue and I were joining our teammates in going to Parmanie to see the sights and retrieve that ring, so assisting Sting by carrying out my job of protecting Rogue in Parmanie would be much easier than having to fight in a tense battle against people from my past.
Meanwhile, outside of a cafe... (Narrator POV)
Despite how the mages from Sabertooth would be going into Parmanie Town with the intent to have some enjoyment as they searched for the ring, not everyone seemed to be thrilled from hearing about tourists. A woman with long light pink hair sat down at a round white table with a pink newspaper resting near her dark brown cup of mocha coffee, and she angrily turned a few pages to read some news about how Parmanie Town attracted more tourists these days because of some revelations that ruined the reputation of Kuchiba Town's amusement park for Parmanie to thrive as a place of enjoyment for everyone.
This woman was reading the Parmanie Newspaper, which was Parmanie Town's counterpart to Sorcerer Magazine that kept the residents informed of every daily event that went on in the town that had fuchsia pink streets. The streets were nearly the same color as this woman's hair, which complimented her fuchsia pink eyes, and she wore a pink low-cut tank top that exposed her cleavage and her midriff. She also wore a pair of bubblegum pink and fire red striped buckle shorts with long suspenders that were brown, and this female wore stockings that were in the shades of magenta pink and crimson red with regular pink sun-like decorative designs on them. She also wore some rose pink high-heeled boots that reached up to her calves, and this lady who had light pink lipstick on her lips also wore a cerise pink furred jacket.
She smiled nicely from turning to the fashion page, as it talked about how tourists would be charged three times as much money for clothes while all residents of Parmanie would receive the privilege of buying clothes at half-price. In addition to that, any mages who took tours through the town and proved to be weaklings in Parmanie's more serious activities would be beaten up at a place in Parmanie Town for hours. This woman giggled with joy at these new bits of news, as that would make the tourists have some respect for Parmanie Town to where they wouldn't even think of littering, and she had tried to bring happiness the queen of the town by using her Psychic Magic to take down any tourists who littered or tried to steal from stores.
This woman was named Shizue Momoiro, and she was one of the psychics who had the job of guarding the current queen because of her proficiency with Psychic Magic. She was the partner of a woman who sat across from her while having her pink hair in a short bob style with soft curls, and Shizue looked up from the newspaper for a moment to see her partner lightly adjust the white headband that supported a white rose with pink edges on her partner's head. Shizue's partner used to have the job of guarding the grounds of the royal castle with her superior abilities of Psychic Magic, but things had been mostly quiet in Parmanie Town for many years to where nothing notorious even happened here anymore.
"My, my. It's been such a long time since we ever came across any fun opponents or dummies for testing the combinations of our spells, and even the thieves who somehow break into the castle have all just been a bunch of weaklings. They go down so easily to where it's almost hardly any fun." Shizue told her partner with a calm smile on her face, as she tried to stay optimistic about the possibility of having a good fight.
Shizue's partner responded with a sadistic smile on her face, as smugness was in her rosewood pink eyes, "I didn't expect thieves to be so weak, and they're almost as laughable as some of the mages who think they're great enough to take us on or even take on the queen! They must be idiots to not think we're part of the highest royal family every time that a queen gets chosen to rule over Parmanie, and that's why they always die from underestimating us."
"The perks of being involved with the royals definitely keep us above the poor trash that sadly still minimally exists in some parts of Parmanie, Miru. At least we're not average or poor anymore, ever since we sided with the royal family who was in charge eleven years ago to where they held a special festival to see who could truly be considered to be royalty with their Psychic Magic. The people who they appointed later as queens have all been upholding those rules, which keeps everything good for us privileged citizens." Shizue responded to her with a pleased smile on her face, before joyously laughing at their current situation.
That prompted Miru to reply with a serious look on her face, as boredom was in her voice, "It's not exactly a privilege to still hear blasts in that nearby forest, you moron. If you really are hoping for a fun fight, Shizue, just know that I sensed strong vibrations yesterday and the day before that. It wasn't the freaks from Yamabuki, but the magical power felt similar to theirs. Right now, though, I hardly feel it at all. That's as weird as how I sensed some Psychic Magic two days ago from Yamabuki, but none of us would visit that dump."
The woman who had sensed a certain mage's magic from the pink forest was named Miru Itsuki, and she wore a dark pink button-down strapless dress with a white ruffled skirt to match while she wore some hot pink flat shoes that had bubblegum pink orbs on the fronts of the shoes. The orbs were most likely representing the eerie nature of Psychic Magic, which involved orbs as base spells, and Miru was one of the most fashionable people in her town. She even wore a rose pink brooch right above her cleavage, too. Miru was quite fashionable to where being one of the queen's subordinates caused her to get recognition and praise throughout Parmanie from residents, as well as tourists, and no one dared to talk bad about her fashion sense.
If they were bold enough to do that, then Miru could just use her psychic abilities to surprise those people by openly revealing some of their thoughts. Not only did she make her Psychic Magic seem like it was on a level where she and Shizue were slightly below the queen, but that psychic power seemed to make Miru be perceived as scary with her intelligence by how she could detect magic during the very moment where it was being used. That would allow her to go see who was using that magic, whether the magic power's vibrations were weak or strong.
As Miru took three sips of her hot hazelnut coffee and smiled a bit at how this would be another fine day of protecting the queen, she was interrupted from enjoying her coffee by Shizue gasping in pure shock at something in the newspaper. Shizue turned more pages to see if there was more to the story, but she only saw one page talking about a recent event. The news itself didn't leave her in disbelief, but her fuchsia pink eyes widened in a surprised manner from the mage that was featured in photos accompanying the news. Shizue couldn't believe that this person was still alive, possibly thinking they had been dead, and glancing up at Miru made her feel like this news had to be shared.
"The heroes who saved Yamabuki Town asked about Parmanie, and an unknown girl with pink hair saved a boy's life. Miru, you have to read this. It's... it's... her. After all these years, she's alive. Well, she definitely looks similar to the Risa Ryusei that we knew from eleven years ago." Shizue read to Miru with a shocked facial expression, before sliding the newspaper to Miru and thinking that the news was unbelievable.
Miru responded with amazement in her eyes for a moment from seeing the article, before speaking calmly to not stir up anything, "What?! Risa Ryusei is still alive?! Well, I'd love to know how that's possible. After Sara's death and the queen's absolute order to have Risa also be sentenced to death for knowing that magic from Parmanie's history, I thought that the execution was done in private to not let Parmanie have news reaching other areas of Fiore."
"What do we do now, Miru? You know we're not the only ones reading the newspaper, right?" Shizue asked her friend with a curious facial expression.
Miru responded nicely while her lips formed a scheming smirk, deviousness in her eyes, "Shizue, we can gladly inform the queen of this news soon. She'll love it, and give us a reward. As for Risa Ryusei, we could make her suffer dearly for those eleven years of fleeing from Parmanie like a wuss before she joins Sara in the afterlife. In fact, we could make her be the one to blame for why Parmanie's people had to spend years rebuilding our town after the fateful incident. She not only had a high bounty on her head for years, before something big happened on Tenrou Island to get everyone's attention on that place, but that little bitch probably doesn't think Sara's death was all her fault."
As Miru giggled in a cheerful and sadistic manner at how this was definitely quite shocking to see, she thought about how Risa was just as young as her and Shizue when she somehow ran away from the royals to not be executed for her crime. Miru recalled how Risa dug her own grave by admitting that she could read a certain type of magic that the royals truly disliked, but she had the audacity to not be dead. If she had truly cared about her precious master so much, then she would've been strong enough to save someone who she cared about.
Instead, Miru found herself having to chuckle at how Risa was trying to have a new life as a mage in a guild. From Miru's perspective, she really needed to not hold back her laughter at how Risa was thinking that her past would never ever catch back up with her. Miru hoped to see Risa at some point in time to just heckle her for being the weakling who would get arrested when she wouldn't even see it coming in her life as a mage, and she would gladly take down someone who wasn't liked by the privileged royals of Parmanie Town.
Miru took more sips of her coffee while keeping her eyes on Parmanie's newspaper, and she started to look a little curious about the mages who were in the photo with Risa. Miru had heard something about twin dragon slayers being in a guild where one of them was blond, but the other one with light green hair didn't seem like she could somehow be that guy's other half in the duo of twin dragons. Still, seeing the news article talk about how Risa or her friends asked about Parmanie Town meant that they were interested in coming here. That only made Miru be interested in possibly beating Risa down in front of an audience, though, and she smiled with sheer pleasure at her plans for when Risa finally came back to Parmanie Town. In fact, Miru's eyes began twinkling with delight from how she began to foresee her victory.
How was Chapter 22? Feel free to tell me your thoughts on it. Just a heads-up. This arc is going to be longer than the others, since some chapters will be told mostly in flashbacks to give readers a clearer picture of what exactly happened to make Risa's mentor die while also letting readers see what Risa's life was like before the incident. Also, different POVs are going to be brought back for some parts of this arc that don't involve fights. Anyway, what a major revelation in that last part. Risa's mentor was named Sara, and Risa was supposedly needing to be killed for a crime that led to Parmanie experiencing a fateful incident. This is the first part of the Fuchsia Psychic Arc, or you can call it the Risa Arc if that makes it better for you. I'll update soon. :)
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