Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.

Chapter 23: Parmanie Town Tour! Emotions & Reminiscing! Risa & Rogue Targeted! Miru & Shizue, The Dangerous Pair of Psychics!

Lucy's POV

After taking the train to the town of Parmanie, I walked away from the train station with Yukino to see that we were definitely in an interesting place. This part of the town had large towers that were made from pink bricks with strange designs on them, such as how some of these towers were at least seven stories high with hot pink circular windows on different sides of them, and there were even bubblegum pink stone walkways that connected some of these towers to each other. Even though the towers were all in different shades of pink while some of them were larger than the others, they still looked pretty.

In fact, the towers were as pretty as the pink streets that had bricks in different shades of pink forming the top halves of circles that interestingly obscured the lower halves of the others while those circles had hot pink circles in the middle of them. I walked on to one of the streets with Yukino to see that there was a fashion store nearby, and I smiled happily while turning around to start sightseeing with Sting. He was unfortunately looking very pale with motion sickness, as was Rogue, so I definitely had to help Sting with walking to certain places until the motion sickness went away.

I calmly looked at Rogue, who was standing near Risa, and I hope that he would also recover soon. There was a possibility that we could quickly find the person who was in possession of the ring, so having both of the dragon slayers being ill right now wasn't exactly good. I didn't want to be in a battle where Risa and I could possibly be at an overwhelming disadvantage without our friends backing us up, so we would just have to have patience with finding the ring as we waited for Sting and Rogue to recover. Since Sting also wanted us to do some sightseeing, I turned my attention back to the cute fashion store that was a light pink building with a fuchsia pink pitched roof.

I giggled cheerfully from seeing a cute fashion store, prompting me to see if Risa would be interested in purchasing anything from here, but the smile of feeling encouraged that she seemed to have on the train began to be replaced with an intense stare of shock while her eyes started to display some sadness. Risa was only looking at a fashion store, but the fact that she felt so sad about it made me wonder if that was the same fashion store that Risa visited as a child with her mentor. After all these years, the store was still in business. I had to at least check out the clothes, so I gently grabbed Sting's hand to pull him into the street with me. As I quickly walked up to the store's front door, though, Yukino seemed concerned.

"Lucy-sama, shouldn't we make a meetup point if we're all sightseeing? Let's all be sure to meet back at this spot, okay?" Yukino politely asked me with a kind smile on her face.

I turned around to happily reply to her, as I liked that idea, "Yeah, that's a great idea! See you later, Yukino!"

Risa calmly told us while her lips formed a frown, her hair covering her eyes, "I'll be going to get some food with Rogue. If anything happens, just be sure to shout as loud as you can or something."

Frosch added to Risa's statement while walking next to her and smiling, "Fro thinks it would be a good idea to get food, too!"

Getting food was something that I could definitely do later, but I wanted to see the clothes in Parmanie. I entered the fashion store with Sting to just see the light pink walls and the fuchsia pink carpet that both looked nice, and there were dresses in several shades of pink near the entrance. I walked away from Sting to check out the dresses, seeing five pink ones that I wanted to buy, and I quickly took the hangers off the racks to carry the dresses to the counter. After placing them on the counter, I turned my head to cutely smile at how the dark pink shoe rack caught my attention.

There were so many beautiful shoes on the rack, all of them being in different shades of pink, and I picked up some light pink wedges that were in my size. They looked as stylish as the strawberry pink boots that were next to them, and I definitely needed to buy those. Not only would that give a bit more variety to the clothes that I currently had in my wardrobe, but the shoes were so cute. I even saw some shoes in a regular shade of pink with pink roses on the front of them, but what made these stylish shoes stand out from others was the fact that the roses appeared to have a sweet aroma. Those shoes would fit my feet perfectly, too, so I had to buy them.

I carried all three pairs of the shoes to the counter, only to see a girl with long light pink hair move them aside to pay for three fuchsia pink T-shirts that only cost her a total three-thousand jewels, and seeing some pink sunglasses cover her eyes made me realize that I wasn't done shopping yet. I went over to a low bubblegum pink table that had three pairs of sunglasses on them, and I decided to buy a pair of sunglasses that had fuchsia pink frames on them. There was a pink-framed mirror near the fitting room, and I smiled from putting on the sunglasses to see that I looked cool from wearing them. Therefore, I'd definitely buy them. I walked back to the counter while taking off the sunglasses, my orange eyes seeing the cashier who had her hair in a pink ponytail attempt to organize my items, and I added the sunglasses to my purchases.

The cashier told me with a very satisfied smile on her face, as she looked at me with delight in her dark pink eyes, "Thanks for shopping at Parmanie Fashions, Miss. That'll be 54,000 jewels, if you don't mind."

That prompted me to reply with an astounded look on my face, "What?! Why are the clothes expensive for me, yet the girl who just left got her clothes at such a low price?"

The cashier explained to me while maintaining the look of satisfaction on her face, "The queen of Parmanie's new rule is in effect. All tourists are charged triple the original price for clothes, and residents get them at half-off. Sorry, but that's what happens when the privileged need to be distanced from the poor."

"If that's the case, then I'll let my privilege of being a guild master take care of this." Sting told the shop owner, as he recovered enough to casually walk over to me.

Sting pulled out his wallet from the left pocket of his black pants, and I gasped in shock from seeing him calmly hand sixty-thousand jewels to the cashier. Sting appeared to not be afraid to spend money on me, even though I could've hopefully paid for the clothes with the remaining money that I had from when Sting gave me my portion of cash from dealing with that tough mission in Yamabuki, but I couldn't stop him. The cashier accepted his money, before getting out three pink grab bags in different sizes from behind the pink counter, and I simply twiddled my thumbs from how Sting was very caring.

It may not have just been that I was possibly lacking enough money, but Sting seemed to have made his frown shift into a confident smile. Why had he been frowning? Did he not like the cashier's comment about the privileged people needing to be distanced from the poor, since that was a rude way to explain the new rule about the prices of fashionable clothes for tourists? He probably wanted to show her that Sabertooth wasn't a poor guild, since all of its mages were part of the second-best guild in Fiore, and he wouldn't allow anyone to indirectly try badmouthing Sabertooth.

As Sting quickly grabbed the bags, I kept twiddling my thumbs and felt my cheeks blush pink. Sting wasn't just confident and caring, but he also stood up for me to make that cashier see that the rude words in her statement needed to be distanced from good mages who just now found about that special rule without having any way to plan ahead. I walked out of the store with Sting, happily smiling at how I managed to get all of those cute clothes, and I stayed next to him while he began to smile at me. I started to blush light pink from seeing his nice smile, and Sting started to walk down the right side of the street. I followed him while hoping that we could get some food soon, and there hopefully wouldn't be any rules that charged tons of money for what we wanted to eat. I started to walk a little closer to Sting, blushing more at how we'd enjoy eating some delicious food, and we'd definitely have a good time exploring Parmanie in our search for the ring. As Sting and I smiled at each other and walked down the path like we were a couple, my eyes were filled with a bit of curiosity about what Rogue and Risa were doing right now.

Ten minutes later, in a different part of Parmanie Town... (Risa's POV)

Since Frosch also wanted some food, I guided him and Rogue down the left path near the train station before going up another pink street that led to place where food was being sold at concession stands. I purchased two bowls of spicy tuna sushi rolls for Rogue and I to eat while getting a small-size bowl of mildly spicy squid sushi rolls for Frosch to eat, and I walked next to Rogue while technically giving him a grand tour of the place that was my hometown. The street that we were on had several concession stands, as well as some businesses lowering their metal garage doors to show that they operated at nighttime, and I smiled down at Frosch from seeing him cheer happily at the smells of the different foods.

Rogue had recovered enough of his strength to where he could walk beside me, and we went all the way down the street while using our chopsticks to eat the sushi. As I walked past a familiar restaurant that sold rice balls with extra spiciness to where my eyes nearly watered from the intense heat of that spice, I tried to just keep my mind focused on letting my friends have a wonderful time in Parmanie. Rogue quickly ate all his sushi rolls, before seeming full, and I just ate two more of mine. Frosch finished his small bowl and handed it to Rogue, but Rogue's green Exceed soon ran off in a carefree manner.

Rogue ran after him while throwing the empty pink bowls in a pink trash can, and I just continued to walk down the street. As I ate my sushi rolls and kept my eyes on Rogue to not lose sight of him, I glanced up for a split second to just see all the pink towers where many people were living. The towers were so tall, and they definitely weren't around when I had been living here. The concession stands being in front of some small buildings were only a few remnants of this town's old history that the royals chose to keep, and I was surprised that they didn't just kick all of the poor people out of this town.

The royals weren't exactly the nicest people who had been in my life, and seeing Rogue run past a certain business that had its grey garage door lowered caused me to stop in my tracks. That exact spot was where a turning point in my childhood occurred, and I stood still while looking at the spot outside that shop with a saddened expression on my face. That was where the best day of my life began, and I started to envision my childhood self standing there crying in the heavily-falling rain on the day after my parents who were wizards of a distant guild had sadly been reported as officially being pronounced dead on their three-year S-Class quest. The news had been given to me by a kind resident named Cordelia, who gave me money when I needed it to buy food during those three long years of missing my parents, and not taking that news well at only eight years old was natural. Being forced out of my home by the rules of the new royals only two weeks after my parents died wasn't natural for me, since paying rent wasn't a child's task, and I had been crying in front of that shop for many months afterwards because of how my life had been going horribly without a family or a home to be in. As I continued to look over at the shop and remember how life was so tough for my childhood self with each passing day, I softly smiled from remembering how a certain person eventually came along to make things be better. The sadness of that memory made me start to walk over there, but Rogue's voice suddenly got me out of my thoughts.

"Help me catch up with Frosch, or he'll get lost in Parmanie!" Rogue shouted to me with a concerned look on his face, before going all the way down the street and turning right.

I replied to him with a worried facial expression, not wanting Frosch to possibly get hurt, "I'm coming, Rogue!"

The thought of Froch getting lost in this town was very concerning to me, as the residents here were mostly only kind to tourists who had money, and I built up a high amount of magical power to apply Psychic Magic to my feet. The pink aura engulfed my feet, and I hastily ran down the street while eating my sushi rolls. Eating three of them at once for the spicy taste to build up in my mouth was not as painful as the thought of another important person getting hurt, and I quickly reached the end of the street. I went straight up on to a new path that was the entrance to a different part of Parmanie, and my eyes widened in shock from seeing this area.

This part of Parmanie Town had houses in different shades of pink with different types of roofs that were all in a brown color, and some of the paint was coming off of the houses. I got to see Frosch stand in front of a house while smiling happily, the green Exceed sniffing the air because of how something supposedly smelled really great, but I took a few steps forward and stopped again to look shocked at a particular house that was only about fifty feet away from a certain residence that had been burned down. I tried to avert my eyes from that residence, even ignoring how my old house had been on a nearby street, and I decided to check out the house where Frosch had been smelling something nice. Rogue walked beside me while I walked up to the front door, and my heart palpitated with some nervousness. I would hate to be asking for someone who was probably dead, but the anxiety in my eyes was contrasting with some small feelings of determination. I planned to knock, only to be anxious enough to punch the door twice instead.

Rogue sighed in a somewhat appalled manner at my discourteous move, as it would've been better to knock, but I even tightly held his hand from how I was nervous. I began to shut my eyes from hearing footsteps come towards the door, before hearing the door be unlocked, and it slowly opened for me to see a woman who appeared to be a few years over forty. She wore a pink sundress while her long pink hair fell to her hips, and I recalled seeing her blue eyes when I was a child. This woman was Cordelia Isshin, a woman who had been kind to me when I was a child, but I still smiled nervously. After all, would she remember me?

"Risa? Little Risa, is that you? You survived after all these years, dear?" She asked me with a kind smile on her face, leaning in to get a closer look at me.

I responded happily to her, as I gave her a little hug, "Yes, it's me! Miss Cordelia, it's good to see you. Although, I'm only here because my friend's partner smelled something sweet."

"Oh, my. Your friend was smelling the strawberry pie that I had baked for myself, dear. I can go get a slice of it for you, Little Risa. Judging by that smile on your face, you must be doing well with Sara's magic. Although, I'd advise you to take the pie and leave quickly if you used magic already. You see, that new queen's guards can sense locations of magic fairly accurately. Even healing yourself can make them check up on you, dear." Miss Cordelia explained to me, after ending the hug and smiling as she playfully pinched my cheeks.

Rogue spoke for me while smiling in a kind manner, creating his black aura of Shadow Dragon Slayer Magic, "Well, don't worry. If Risa has to use magic, I'll let them sense mine first before they do anything to her."

I blushed light pink from hearing Rogue say that, as he would even go that far for me to where he was probably making those patrolling mages sense unusual magic right now, but my light pink blush caused Miss Cordelia to calmly ask in a whisper if Rogue was my boyfriend. I merely blushed more pink from that, causing her to just laugh, and she used the Stellar Psi spell to make a pie and its tin crust come floating off of the pink kitchen counter. The pie even went towards her with oven mitts under it, too. The pie floated in midair to where her psychic power broke easily cut three small pieces of the pie away from the whole dessert, and the slices of pie landed in my hands. I watched Rogue take two of them, handing one to Frosch, and I kept the bottom one on the stack. I gave Miss Cordelia one final hug and waved goodbye, happy to see that at least one good person from Parmanie was still caring about me.

I walked away with Rogue and Frosch while we all held our slices of pie, and Frosch walked over to the area where that house had been destroyed by flames. Frosch must've felt curious from seeing something odd on a street where people had their houses, and Rogue also began to look curious about it. He and Frosch walked up to the burned down remnants of the residence to only see that the pink mailbox still stood like someone was still living here to get mail, but I could only approach the house with slow footsteps. This house wasn't where I had been born, but I remembered how Master Sara raised me in that house during all the time that we had together.

Despite all the memories, I couldn't even walk up to the area that was supposed to be the doorstep. Even taking one step towards the house and seeing where each room had been made the memories come flooding back into my mind like tons of water coming into a dam, and tears began to well up in my eyes. I couldn't handle all the memories rushing back, especially the tragic ones that were mixed in with the happy ones, and I started crying. Tears streamed down my face while Rogue made the shadowy magic around his hand start to fade away, and I placed one hand over my eyes. I ran away from this street while all the emotional memories of my master made my body tremble with several emotions, especially guilt about how I should've been able to save her, and there had been a nice place in Parmanie that I went to as a child for when I needed to cry in private.

15 minutes later, in a grassy area... (Risa's POV)

I sat down on a brown wooden bench that was near a large tree with pink leaves, wiping away the tears as my body still trembled from how those memories made me feel very emotional, and I simply looked up from the bench to see that this grassy park from my days as a young child was now just a grassy place with a forest behind the bench. In front of the bench, however, there appeared to be some pink tiled remnants of some ancient ruins with some small pink rocks and four pink pillars that were all somewhat broken while they formed a square around that area. I remembered going into those ruins with my master when they weren't part of Parmanie Town, and most of the ancient ruins were now lost forever.

I looked at the ruins with my puffy red eyes to just see Frosch happily walking on to them while Rogue proceeded to sit down next to me, and Rogue had come out of my shadow to be near me. I had been so overwhelmed with nostalgic and other emotional feelings pertaining to negative and positive experiences in Parmanie, so I didn't even pay attention to Rogue going after me when I ran away crying. That was definitely a horrible move on my part, since Master assigned me with the task of protecting him, and I couldn't just run off for Rogue to end up getting hurt without me by his side.

As soon as I faced him and felt the pain in my eyes start to decrease, I felt like apologizing. However, Rogue pulled me into a tight hug and patted my back. He was probably trying to show me how it was fine for me to feel my emotions rushing into my heart from seeing places that reminded me of my past, since Rogue didn't call me a weakling for crying, and I simply hugged him back. Rogue's arms felt comforting around me, pulling me close to him to where he would be like my shadow that would stand near me when I needed a shoulder to cry on, and letting out all my tears earlier caused me to just look into his eyes.

Rogue's eyes may have been red, but they seemed to be relaxed while being almost emotionless. He seemed relaxed, which caused me to close my eyes for a moment, and breathing out through my nose for a moment helped my body start to also relax. Rogue was a great friend for comforting me, as well as trying to help me calm down. He had encouraged me to try and visit Parmanie when we were at the fountain in Kogane Town, and the way that he hugged me back then felt just as nice as our hug now. I found myself starting to blush light pink from looking at him, as Rogue was such a great guy, and I had to reciprocate in our friendship by doing something for him. If I couldn't spend every moment protecting him, then I could at least show my gratitude for how he was so sweet to me. I slightly moved away from him on the bench, before leaning forward and lightly closing my eyes to where this little gesture would be great for both of us, and I was about to kiss Rogue's cheek. However, the sudden sound of slow applause made me open my eyes at look towards the remnants of the ruins to see what made that sound. Since Frosch was running back to Rogue, he definitely wasn't one of the two people who came out from behind the broken pillars that were on the other side of the ruins' remnants.

"Well, well. What a very ridiculous sight to see, Shizue. Risa Ryusei shows her face back in Parmanie Town after so many years, and the crying little coward is being comforted by her boyfriend. I'm surprised at how that earlier vibration of Psychic Magic came from her, though." A pink-haired female wearing a white headband said aloud with an unimpressed look on her face, as her hands ceased with clapping.

Her partner replied with a pleased facial expression, as she proceeded to stand next to her and look directly at me, "It's been a long time, Risa. I personally thought you had died along with that woman, but you must've been pretty lucky to survive. Still, the queen permitted us to take you down if we ever saw you anywhere in Fiore. Get ready for some suffering, Risa. You know, it's easy to foretell that you couldn't run from your past forever."

Rogue asked the girls in a stern tone, as I widened my eyes in shock from remembering their faces, "Who exactly are you people, and are you that stupid to pick a fight with Sabertooth?"

I replied to him in a slightly startled tone while we got up from the bench, my eyes slightly being narrowed, "The girl with the pink hair in soft curls... is Miru Itsuki, and people called her Mir-chan when we were kids. The other girl with long pink hair is Shizue Momoiro, and I... I remember these two girls as being bullies. Maybe they'll let us move the fight to where we can find Lucy, Sting, or Yukino nearby! That would be preferable!"

Miru rudely responded to me while pulling down her right eyelid with her middle finger and sticking out her tongue, as I could see sadism in her rosewood pink eyes, "What ridiculous requests! The answer is no! Wow, a pathetic loser like you was actually Sara's disciple! Risa Ryusei, I hate trashy losers like her and you!"

At that moment, I narrowed my cherry red eyes and walked on to the pink tiled ruins with my fists clenched. Miru was calling my former master a loser?! She definitely wasn't a loser, and I would prove it by walking out of this fight as the winner. I wasted no time with firing a pink orb from my right hand, and I put a decent amount of magical power into it. Miru simply smirked at me, before leaping back, and Shizue was quick to leap several feet backwards. My attack created an average-sized pink blast, but something odd began to happen.

I watched Miru shoot out a hot pink ball of Psychic Magic from her right hand, saying it was called Psychic Spatial Twist, and her attack went towards the blast. Her sphere began to twist my dome-shaped pink blast, before shattering it into dust right before my eyes, and a large hot pink blast of energy occurred! The blast's power was larger than my own, and I shockingly saw a pink aura surround my body. I turned to Shizue, who made her fuchsia pink eyes glow light pink, and she pulled her right hand back for me to forcibly be pulled towards the blast. I smiled nicely as the blast faded away, only for Miru to fire another hot pink sphere that was directly aimed at me, and I instantly screamed in pain from being harmed by the blast. I could also feel its psychic power dislocate my shoulders while pushing against my body with energy that was twisting itself like drills to make me become bruised and bloodied, so I could only let out another scream of excruciating pain.

My loud screams prompted Rogue to hastily run on to the pink tiled floor, and I got to loudly hear him activate his Shadow Dragon's Roar. He fired a black vortex of shadows from his mouth, and I winced in pain while seeing him aim straight at Shizue. She merely used that spell called Psi Gravity to shift the spell's gravity back towards Rogue, which made him jump as he looked shocked, and I was soon freed from that blast. As I fell down to the ground, I widened my eyes in shock from seeing Rogue's attack land next to me. It created a black explosion, but I saw that as the perfect opportunity for another spell.

"Cosmic Psi!" I shouted fiercely, before getting up and firing another pink sphere from my right hand.

Miru replied to me in a stern manner, as she recited a powerful spell, "Psychic Meteor!"

Rogue exclaimed fiercely while the smoke cleared up for me to see him running towards Miru, "Slash of The Shadow Dragon!"

Rogue's attack was unfortunately too late, and Miru's spell made her eyes glow bubblegum pink as Cosmic Psi was suddenly teleported to be high above me! Its energy was changed into being several thin pink beams of Psychic Magic that all came towards me, creating many large pink blasts as I let out more screams of pain, and my spell couldn't enhance my power or reduce the damage I'd take like how it normally did. After all, the spell wasn't supposed to damage me. I screamed from feeling the last blast hit me, ignoring how it became bubblegum pink like more energy was sent into it through psychic commands.

Rogue didn't have much luck against Miru, either, and covering his arms with black shadows to strike her proved to be a fatal mistake. Shizue activated her second attack, which was known as Psychic Zen Bursts, and she shot out eight bullet-shaped blasts of psychic energy from her mouth! Four of them managed to hit Rogue while Miru used psychic energy to push herself several feet back, and Rogue screamed in pain as he was caught in those fuchsia pink blasts! Seeing him in pain made me waste no time with getting up, and I activated Stellar Psi to push the other four bullet-shaped projectiles back towards Shizue! That only prompted Shizue to jump up in the air and fire a pink beam of Psychic Magic from her mouth. This technique was known as Mind's Malice, and I didn't want to think about its effects.

Shizue evilly grinned down at me while moving her left hand upward to make her four projectiles rise upward, and she shot out a fuchsia pink beam from her mouth! It hit all four bullets in a chain line, engulfing them to where the beam was quite large, but Shizue moved her right hand from side to side four times for the beam to split into four smaller beams! They were all faster now, and the beams viciously struck me with their power! As I was engulfed in the fuchsia pink blasts and coughed up some blood, I felt quite surprised at how my spells were getting torn through so easily.

"Wow, Risa Ryusei! As a user of Psychic Magic, it must be disgraceful to not have focused that magic into your mind for you to at least foresee your enemy's attacks! In fact, we'll just destroy the next one!" Miru told me with a taunting look on her face, as a pink aura started to engulf her body.

I replied to her with an annoyed look on my face, as I fell to the ground and slowly stood up, "I won't let that happen, Miru! Take this! Psychic Cosmic Rings!"

"Risa, you're combining orbs of magic together! We'll totally lose! Wait... I'm just kidding!" Miru exclaimed with a worried facial expression, before smiling with arrogance all over her face.

I stretched out my arms while building up a high amount of magical power, and I created two pink orbs in my hands. I placed my left hand behind my right hand for the orb in front to absorb the power of the other one, and a pink aura surrounded my body as the orb in my left hand quickly got absorbed by the other one. Three pink rings of psychic energy surrounded the orb while they floated around it in a triangular formation, and I threw my attack towards Miru. She didn't seem worried, however, and Miru merely shot out a bubblegum pink spiraling beam at the sky! To make matters worse, she claimed how that move was called Psychic Future Flare. Shooting out that attack made a bubblegum pink aura engulf her body, and she sadistically smiled at me while jumping high into the air with psychic power allowing her float above my spell.

I could only watch those three pink blasts occur consecutively, before the first side effect pulled me towards the blasts, and the second effect was supposed to push the target down against the ground. Since there was no one on the ground in front of me, though, the psychic energy only pushed down on a few tiles to make some large craters be in them. Psychic Cosmic Rings was now another spell that failed to help me out, but Miru giggled down at me while her spiraling beam from earlier exploded to leave behind some pink flames in midair. Miru quickly threw those three average-sized flames down at me, and even getting up to run didn't help because of how she could manipulate those flames with her psychic powers. The pink flames quickly slid across the ground to strike me from three directions at once as they burned the tiled battlefield to create more pink fire, which made this level of Psychic Magic be quite high, and the powerful burns on my body made me scream in immense pain as tears fell from my eyes.

The pink clouds of smoke faded away quickly for me to see Miru rudely laughing at me, her eyes being opened as she smiled at her alleged victory, but I felt like there had to be some way to win. I had to risk it all on the Psychotic Slicer spell, and I activated that attack by making a pink aura engulf my hands. I slashed at the air to create a pink crescent-shaped projectile of Psychic Magic, and I aimed my hands straight at Miru. The attack went straight up towards her, only for me to see her eyes glow bubblegum pink again, and she simply fired a swirling beam in different bright shades of pink from her right hand. That move was one that I remembered as Psychic Pink Psi Sight, and Miru closed her eyes for two seconds. She quickly opened them, her eyes changing to be fuchsia pink and regular pink in alternating colors, and the psychic energy that she added to her spell started to double its power. Miru's spell ended up clashing with mine to create fuchsia pink and rosewood pink explosions in midair, but I soon felt psychic pressure suddenly press down on me as fuchsia pink flames from the explosions formed a circle around my body. Rogue got up to run towards me, only for us both to see Shizue quickly appear in front of him with a vicious smile on her face from how she'd be his opponent.

"Sorry, dragon slayer, but you'll have to spend your time trying to avoid dying against me instead of helping her survive a beating from Miru." Shizue arrogantly told him, before a pink aura began to engulf her body.

Miru added with a rude smirk on her face, as she aimed her hand towards me with a pink aura heavily engulfing it, "With our various spells in Psychic Magic, we're probably the strongest tag-team. We haven't even used half of our power yet, and you're overwhelmed by how our magic's psychic abilities have been messing with your spells. Compared to us, you two are just meager bugs that will either be unconscious or die here if this battle goes on too long."

"They've twisted our spells, manipulated our attacks against us while their own attacks are very strong, and this psychic combination with their good timing definitely has Rogue and I in a very dangerous situation. They're a powerful combination, unfortunately." I thought to myself with a frustrated facial expression, as I felt pain from the bruises and bloody wounds that were hurting right now.

I said to myself out loud with a curious facial expression, having a little idea, "Wait.. Combining strengths! That just might work!"

Despite how the psychic pressure from Miru's spell forced me down to the ground, I sent magical power into my right hand for me to move that hand to be under my chest. I surprised everyone by using the Stellar Psi spell on myself, propelling myself high into the air to where I broke free from the immense psychic pressure that had been harshly pushing down on my body, and I stayed focused on using the spell to where I hastily sent all of Miru's fuchsia pink flames towards Shizue. Those flames surprised her to where Rogue unleashed his Shadow Dragon's Roar attack again, but I looked curious from seeing Shizue stretch out both of her hands in opposite directions.

She fired three light pink rings from both of her hands, which made both of the attacks start to become light pink in color while they suddenly teleported through the space around us to land behind Shizue, and Shizue claimed how that move was called Psychotic Fuchsia Warp. The seven light pink blasts of Psychic Magic were large enough for Shizue to lightly place her hand against one of them to possibly absorb its energy, and she jumped up high into the air for a moment. The blasts faded away to reveal that several fuchsia pink flames were now on this battlefield, some of them even floating in midair, and I widened my eyes in shock from seeing them start to warp behind the damaged ruins or warp near Miru for a few seconds. I looked down at Miru, who pulled down her eyelid and stuck her tongue out at me again from how even my attempt at combining spells with Rogue, and her hand that had the aura surrounding it was now engulfed in the flames. She threw them up into the air while using psychic power to send them towards me, and I widened my eyes in shock at how there was still one idea for me to save myself while also protecting Rogue. He narrowed his eyes at Shizue, who came down to the ground, and Rogue seemed like he had to increase his power in this fight.

I glanced down at Rogue to see him having to activate a spell called Shadow Drive as a way to avoid the Psychic Zen Bursts spell that Shizue fired from her mouth again, and he was surrounded by a black aura of shadows. He quickly dodged her projectiles while eerily moving around like a shadow to appear around Shizue, and he turned into a black shadow right before Shizue could actually grab him. Rogue appeared behind her to activate a spell called Shadow Dragon's Raven Arrows, and he aimed his hands at Shizue's projectiles. Eight black bullets with spearheads rose up from the shadows, and Rogue moved his hands around in a quick manner to make the black bullets collide with all of Shizue's projectiles. Every fuchsia pink blast was followed by a somewhat larger black blast, and that gave me the opportunity to use one of my favorite spells.

"Extrasensory Psychic Soul Destruction!" I exclaimed fiercely, as I fired the spell straight up from my left hand while thinking about surprising Miru with the attack.

Miru asked me with a rude smirk on her face, before giggling rudely, "What in the world are you aiming at, Risa? Has all the pain driven you to now think with insanity?"

"Please let this work! She's torn through all my spells already to where this is all I've got left!" I thought to myself with a worried look on my face, before groaning in frustration.

My spell instantly exploded high above the battlefield in a light pink blast that was large, and I smiled at how the blast was bright to where people in Parmanie could see it. The blast also absorbed more power from Miru's pink flames, which exploded in fiery blazes from being so close to the initial explosion, and I stretched my right hand up towards the blast while my other hand was aimed downward. I used my right hand to absorb most of the psychic energy that was in the air, before using Extrasensory Psychic Soul Destruction's side effect to push myself down to the ground in conjunction with the remaining power of Stellar Psi, and I was able to make that fall be much lighter from nearly just entirely floating down to the battlefield. I went down to the pink tiles that began to be covered in several pink flames that resulted from the fiery blazes falling down to set fire to different areas of the battlefield, and I could now see why Miru's earlier spell was called Psychic Future Flare. Even if someone survived her initial attack, Miru's later flames in a future moment could still set people ablaze.

Once I could feel my feet safely touch the floor of these ruins, I ran towards Rogue to see him panting heavily while he was only mildly injured from his attacks colliding with Shizue's. The black smoke started being levitated up into the air, which made Rogue and I see that Shizue's eyes were glowing light as a way to show that she was using the Psi Gravity spell again, and I thought this would be the perfect chance to at least hit her instead of Miru. I fired the Esper Ball, which was just a playful name for my first spell, and I put all of my magical power into it. Instead of using Psi Gravity to avoid it, though, Shizue used that spell to send my attack straight towards Miru. Miru merely grinned in a rude manner, before pulling on both ends of her face to mock me with her rude smile, and she activated the Psychic Spatial Twist spell again. Despite how my spell was larger than before, the hot pink sphere that Miru fired from her right hand was also larger while it started to twist my attack again. I started to have a hopeless look in my eyes from my last attack gent bent in many directions before it shattered into dust, and even pushing through the pain to make my shoulders no longer be dislocated wouldn't change how this fight was going.

Rogue attempted to use the Shadow Dragon's Raven Arrows attack again, only to see his ten arrows coming from underneath the sphere start to get twisted by just being near it, and Shizue used her Psi Gravity spell to redirect his arrows back at him. Rogue couldn't eat his own shadows, and disappearing with Shadow Drive would just lead Shizue to attack me with those projectiles. Shizue fired the Mind's Malice spell from her mouth, shooting out that pink beam of Psychic Magic, and she made the explosion land behind Miru's sphere for the energy to increase its power and speed. I could only narrow my eyes and clench my teeth while bruised and bloodied, seeing Rogue also have some bruises from fighting, and I was too pained and tired to move out of the way quickly. Miru's spell was getting closer to where it would possibly kill us, and tears started to well up in my eyes from not wanting to see my former master in heaven. As my facial expression showed sadness, Miru closed her eyes for a moment and cheerfully giggled.

"Risa, you were just as pathetic as Sara all the way to the very end when you caused her death by being weak! We use Psychic Magic better than you, and we'll soon have you arrested! Unlike you and your stupid mentor who committed a serious crime here, we've always had the brains to foresee when it's best to not fight amazingly strong opponents!" Miru rudely told me while opening her eyes, before arrogantly smiling and wagging her finger at me like it was a mistake for me to come back to Parmanie Town.

A certain guild master's voice replied to Miru in a calm manner from behind Rogue, as he activated a spell, "If that's the case, then I guess your psychic prediction didn't tell you everything about this fight. Let's see how you handle White Drive."

I also got to hear a good friend confidently add to his statement, before she used an attack, "In fact, you girls seemed to not predict getting your butts kicked by us now. First spell of Lightning Magic, I call upon thee! Lightning Voltage!"

Miru asked with a stern look on her face, as Shizue asked the same question with an astounded facial expression, "Who are you?!"

I turned around to just say with a relieved smile on my face, tears still falling from my eyes, "Sting... Lucy..."

Sting activated White Drive to where a white aura of light surrounded his body, and he put his hands together to create a circle while activating the spell called Holy Ray. Sting fired several thin beams of white light that curved to strike the shadowy arrows, white blasts occurring in midair while they blinded everyone's eyes, and I could hear Rogue taking some steps back. I also walked backwards with him, and I soon opened my eyes to see Sting's powerful light colliding with Rogue's shadowy arrows to where the white blasts ended up having more power in their explosions.

The sight of Miru's spell heading straight for us still worried me, though, but Lucy's spell called Lightning Voltage made her shoot out a yellow orb of lightning from her left hand. She followed that up with a second orb being fired from her hand, but I softly gasped from realizing how any spell or blast touching the hot pink sphere would get twisted. However, Lucy was confidently smiling. The first orb created an average-sized yellow blast that simply got twisted while Miru's sphere got electrified, but the second orb created a much stronger blast that obliterated Miru's sphere while also restoring the first electric explosion to its original state.

I softly gasped and widened my eyes in admiration at how my friends were handling these two mages with no worries, especially with how Lucy took on a spell that I couldn't destroy with my own Psychic Magic. She had always trained so very hard with her spells, and I felt curious about how she would use her other spells against a mage who could foresee her attacks. Even if I felt anxious about being in Parmanie Town and fighting against two vicious girls from my past, Lucy probably viewed this fight as a different situation for her. Upon seeing her and Sting here with Yukino running up to the group, though, my eyes were filled with curiosity again.

"Since you and Sting went to go have fun in Parmanie, how did you even know that Rogue and I were in trouble?" I asked Lucy in a calm tone, before walking over to a nearby tree.

Lucy explained to me with a happy smile on her face, before winking with her right eye, "Well, Sting and I kept hearing explosions that sounded like fireworks. As we went to go check them out, I remembered your spell and I saw it explode in midair while you were also floating in the sky. Sting and I thought that a battle was going on, so leave this to us."

"You two did well with killing time for us to arrive. However, Rogue. you need to get Risa away from here and let her rest until she can heal herself." Sting told Rogue with a nice smile on his face, before sternly giving him an order.

As Rogue walked towards me and picked me up to carry me over his shoulder, seeing Miru and Shizue start to respectively have calmness in their rosewood pink and fuchsia pink eyes made me start to look concerned. They would probably use some of their most destructive spells against Sting and Lucy while displaying their great teamwork, and this fight showed me how other wielders of Psychic Magic specialized in reading minds. Even though I had thought about hurting Miru with the Extrasensory Psychic Soul Destruction as a misdirect to keep her from realizing that explosive attack was my way of signaling to my friends for urgent assistance, that type of strategy wouldn't work twice on psychics who spent plenty of time thinking as they strengthened their magic. In fact, I slightly trembled from how Miru's eyes particularly gave me a bad feeling that I didn't want to experience ever again.

How was Chapter 23? Feel free to tell me your thoughts on it. First off, I'd like to say that there will be more StiCy later on in the arc. Lucy and Sting may have gotten one section of this chapter to further develop their romance, but things will be different for them later. As for Risa, she and Rogue do have some chemistry. On that note, Risa and Rogue weren't being weak in this chapter. They just weren't used to fighting against Psychic Magic, especially against two experienced wizards from Risa's past while she was still dealing with her trauma. Just because Risa can use Psychic Magic, that's not the same thing as how she fares when fighting AGAINST it. Anyway, the next part of the fight is coming up and will definitely have more development. Also, the flashback chapters will come soon to let the readers really see Risa's past with more detail. This chapter is the second part of the Fuchsia Psychic Arc! I'll update soon. :)

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