Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.
Chapter 32: Buried Knowledge On Magenta Magic & Wise Thoughts on Psychic Power! Treasure In The Dark! Kotomi's Dark Side Enlightens Erza!
Lucy stood in front of the request board in the Sabertooth guild with a newspaper gently in her hand, looking curious about today's jobs, but all that she managed to find was that the flyers on the board didn't have any interesting missions occurring right now. There was a job involving the task of helping out people who worked in a perfume shop, but Lucy felt that an easy mission with the reward of thirty-thousand jewels wasn't really anything exciting for her or her teammates to handle. After all, Sting would probably want to handle an interesting job that was occurring on the day after helping Risa make Parmanie Town be a better place.
The news of what happened in Parmanie Town even reached faraway places such as Kogane Town, due to Sabertooth's wizards and guild master be involved while Lucy being Kuchiba Town's princess was also majorly contributing to the news being quite prominent right now. Lucy recalled how several of the townspeople were friendly to her and Risa on this fine morning, even being friendly enough to give them fashionable clothes for free from the fashion store, and the fact that her name had so much more notoriety now made her feel like she needed to get used to it.
Although, there was still something that Lucy couldn't get accustomed to. She looked down at her hands and legs to see that she was still in Kotomi's body, continuing to be in this predicament, and she found it to be quite weird how people in other towns could perceive her so differently than just being a girl who was a mage in a guild. The people of Tokiwa Town viewed her as a criminal, but the people in places such as Cramoisi Town and Kuchiba Town were glad when Sabertooth's mages triumphed over rude and evil individuals. When the villains in Yamabuki Town and Parmanie Town were defeated, it seemed like Lucy wasn't being viewed as a criminal by many people.
Lucy was being viewed in a positive way by several people, especially since her skills with different types of magic were very impressive. However, glancing up from her hands and turning back around to face Risa made Lucy start thinking about how she really needed to learn some powerful spells of Psychic Magic. Lucy walked over to Risa, who was sitting at a table with Rogue, and Lucy felt like it would be a great idea to use spells that would be similar to Risa's while her pink-haired friend could teach her about mastering psychic energy to effectively utilize Psychic Magic.
"If you don't mind, Risa, would you mind helping me learn some spells of Psychic Magic that are similar to yours?" Lucy asked her friend with a kind smile on her face.
That prompted Risa to reply with a soft and apologetic smile on her face, nodding in a manner that displayed her refusal, "Sorry, Lucy, but some of my spells may be too dangerous for you to unleash in a training session. If we had some of Sara's books on the magenta Psychic Magic, then I could at least help you find some suitable attacks for a psychic wizard who's just starting to wield psychic spells."
Lucy asked Risa in a calm tone, recalling a certain incident where she punched the ground, "Well, wouldn't it be a good idea to go see if I can retrieve them after making cracks in the ground of the wreckage?"
Risa asked Lucy with a surprised look on her face, thinking that the books were taken away, "Lucy, you thought that Sara's books could still be buried underground after all these years?"
Lucy simply nodded in a confident manner, beginning to smile at how Risa never mentioned anything in her flashbacks about how the psychic wizards took Sara's books away before Kyoko's attack set Sara's house on fire, and the fact that her books weren't even in the tower or handed to Risa on her way out of there only meant that the books were still possibly under all the rubble. If they were still there, then the books could be salvaged and taken to Risa's house. She was Sara's adopted daughter, which made Lucy feel that it would be right for Risa to have them all in her possession.
By making that happen, Lucy could have access to the books on Psychic Magic for her to gain crucial information on certain spells. That info would help Lucy become stronger, and she started to narrow her orange eyes at the fact of how the members of this team in Sabertooth would have to get stronger. Lucy didn't perceive anyone in the group to be weak, but the fact that three of their fights against mages in Parmanie Town ended in ties wasn't exactly displaying that they could easily defeat their opponents to get the legendary rings. In fact, the only reason that Lucy got the chance to battle for the fourth ring was mainly due to how Risa defeated Kyoko with Rogue lending her some much-needed assistance.
If they couldn't start winning even one battle without assistance, then the mages in this Sabertooth team would probably get decimated in fights where they'd have to battle foes one-on-one for any chance of success. Lucy didn't want that to happen, which was why she felt like Sara's important books on the magenta-colored Psychic magic could help herself and Risa get stronger. Even though Risa learned to read the ancient language of those books at a young age, Lucy felt like there was nothing wrong with enhancing her spells. Lucy simply started to smile at Risa, before smiling nicely at Sting to see if he'd grant her permission to carry out the task of trying to find the books.
"Sting, can we please go see if Sara's books on Psychic Magic are still in Parmanie Town?" Lucy asked him with ambition starting to be in her eyes, feeling like she could truly get stronger by finding all those books.
The blue-eyed dragon slayer replied while smiling with confidence, remembering how Lucy's Lightning Magic was used on the wreckage before the group walked to the tower, "Even if the area has a large pile of rubble that we'd have to dig through, the books might still be there. Lucy, I can tell that you're possibly thinking of getting much stronger to not make that fourth ring's powers go to waste. For that purpose, we can definitely go see if anything is left in the wreckage."
"Thank you, Sting!" Lucy happily responded to him, feeling glad that he'd let her see if this task would truly benefit the group today.
Sting giving her permission for that task was something that made Lucy proceed to tightly hug him, glad that Sting could understand that she felt like getting stronger was a necessary task, and Lucy started to smile more from how Sting hugged back. Her cheeks started to blush light pink from feeling his arms wrap around her waist, and looking into Sting's calm eyes made some feelings of happiness be in her heart. Sting was someone who once told her that he liked her personality, liking it more than the outer body Lucy had from being in Kotomi's body.
Lucy started to think back to their first date, really glad that Sting wasn't the type of guy who only liked her physical appearance, and the fact that Sting was so nice to her on their first date really reminded Lucy of how she enjoyed doing things such as eating food or simply sightseeing with him. They even spent a good amount of time battling alongside each other, which made Lucy feel like their chemistry was definitely growing to where she seemed really glad to be his teammate, and Lucy began to think about how their chemistry could truly lead to them being more than friends.
By this point in her time of being a Sabertooth mage, Lucy felt like it would be possible for her to end up having a relationship with Sting. However, she ended the hug from realizing that it would be weird for her to have a relationship with him while she wasn't in her own body. Lucy started to let the blush fade from her face, thinking that she would have to probably wait for a better chance to date Sting, and Lucy slowly took some steps back to look down at her own hands. Even though Lucy desired to go get some crucial books from Parmanie Town, Sting simply narrowed his eyes in a stern manner from guessing that Lucy was thinking about the unfortunate fact of how Kotomi still had her actual body while she wouldn't willingly undo her forbidden spell to make things any easier for Lucy.
Meanwhile, at the Fairy Tail guild...
Kotomi definitely wasn't planning to undo the forbidden spell, as she currently looked down at today's newspaper with the feeling of displeasure in her cocoa brown eyes, and she sat down at a table with the other members of Team Natsu while the events in the newspaper mostly seemed distasteful to her. Reading about how a certain green-haired girl battled against Risa Ryusei to get the pink legendary ring made Kotomi be quite irked, as this meant that Lucy was now one step closer to taking back her body, and Kotomi felt like she needed to prevent Lucy from getting the other rings.
That plan would be easier to say than to actually do, since the legendary rings weren't exactly easy for people to find, and Kotomi wanted Lucy to continue with having a life where she suffered. If Lucy was trying to make the best out of being in a new body while also intending to get her body back, then Kotomi would just have to make the name of Lucy Heartfilia be even more infamous. She had already stolen treasure from some places in Fiore, and that thievery was bound to generate some wanted posters. Kotomi began to softly smile from thinking that she could just take down any bounty hunters who came after her, since she had improved with her Celestial Spirit Magic to where it seemed quite fearsome.
Kotomi's Celestial Spirit Magic was definitely helpful to Team Natsu yesterday on the mission that took place in a place called Gunjou Town, as she managed to help them take down some bandits who were trying to steal three swords that had crescent-shaped edges on the purple blades that were residing in the Gunjou Tower, and the fact that Kotomi took down the bandits with some destructive spells really made Natsu seemed impressed. The fire dragon slayer had happily hugged the girl who he believed to be his friend, not minding that a golden blast of celestial energy struck one of the swords that had fallen on the ground.
The third sword was seemingly lost forever, causing the owner of the armory shop to gripe about how he'd have to forge a new sword of dark magic from some gemstones that were in one of the town's underground paths, but finding gemstones would only be a waste of the shopkeeper's time. Kotomi began to slightly frown at how she was very lucky to have used her Wind Magic in a well-timed manner to blow the sword away from the blast that blinded everyone else's eyes, before taking it for herself, and the fact that the town wasn't too far away from the Moon Rainbow guild allowed her to leave it for a certain woman who wanted treasure for her. Even though the blonde-haired thief was smiling, Natsu got her attention by clearing his throat and looking very curious.
"Why are you feeling so upset, Lucy? Is it because Sting and his friends are helping Kotomi have all those fun jobs?" Natsu asked Lucy in a calm tone, his grey eyes having curiosity in them while getting taking the newspaper away from her.
Kotomi responded to him with a nice smile quickly appearing on her face, needing a good explanation, "Yeah, I'm just disappointed that a criminal such as her is somehow being praised like a hero now. She may have done nothing bad to Sting and his friends, but the way how she hurt us back then was so horrible."
"At least she didn't interfere with our job of retrieving those swords, Lucy. We were paid a little less money for getting only two of them back, but at least we weren't brutally defeated." Gray told Kotomi in a calm tone, trying to view the situation from a more positive perspective.
Erza told the group with a nice smile on her face, as she gently took the newspaper from Natsu to read its other articles, "Anyway, we'll definitely get more cash from completing the next mission. Lucy, it's your turn to choose the next job. It's just a suggestion, but good rewards come from the jobs that are somewhat difficult."
Kotomi merely nodded with understanding to Erza while smiling, and she got up from the table to walk over to the request board. When she was in front of the request board, Kotomi got to see many flyers be pinned to the request board while she noticed that some jobs looked tougher than others. Kotomi noticed a flyer pertaining to how the museum curator from Tokiwa Town was still begging for the Emerald Star to be back in the museum's possession, but Kotomi wasted no time with unpinning that job from the board to just put it in the left pocket of her orchid purple skirt that matched her violet midriff shirt that had ruffles at the bottom.
With that information now kept away from her teammates who were reading the newspaper, Kotomi looked back at the board to surprisingly see that a new flyer pertaining to Gunjou Town was pinned the board. She removed the purple pin from the flyer that was in a royal shade of purple, and Kotomi took the flyer off of the board. She read the job description to see that a client in a bar simply wanted to get some new dancers on their stage while they also added an extra job where they were wanting proof of a sacred treasure in the town truly existing. They were offering a reward of 600,000 jewels, and Kotomi thought that was a sufficient amount of money. However, she faintly smirked evilly from thinking that all the cash would be good for herself to have without sharing any.
Kotomi glanced at her teammates for a moment to see Natsu getting into an argument with Gray about something petty in the newspaper, before Erza glared at them to break up their little fight, and seeing them be oblivious to her smirk right now made Kotomi feel even better about carrying out previous thefts at night to make treasures be in the hands of people who paid her high amounts of money. She wouldn't share that info with Team Natsu, though, and Kotomi simply walked back to the table while feigning a genuine smile of joy on her face.
"Here's our next job, everyone!" Kotomi happily told the group, before sitting down in the chair across from Erza.
Erza told her with a kind smile on her face from seeing the job's description, before being a bit puzzled, "Lucy, you picked out an interesting S-Class job for the team. It's almost like doing two jobs on one mission, but it's weird that you'd want to dance for people at the bar."
The girl impersonating Lucy was quick to respond with a soft smile on her face, "If you and I are the dancers, then we can get info in the bar on how to find the treasure. Besides, I doubt any guys in that town will give us that info if Gray's dancing in a bunny girl costume or just dancing in his underwear."
Natsu commented with a disgusted look that was comically now on his face, "It would be gross to see Gray dancing at all, no matter what the job involves."
As Gray started to counter that statement with words on how Natsu couldn't do any style of dance in any situation, Kotomi got out of her chair and she went up to the bar. She placed it on the counter for Mirajane to quickly stamp the flyer, which made the job officially be taken, and Kotomi felt like she needed to move fast before the real Lucy Heartfilia got her hands on all seven rings that were capable of granting someone immense power while the rings could supposedly reverse any spell. If Lucy got all seven rings at a fast pace, then Kotomi wouldn't be able to carry out her plan of eliminating Team Natsu under the guise of Lucy Heartfilia.
Getting rid of them while looking like their kind friend would definitely make Team Natsu's members definitely deal with tragic experiences, and seeing Erza break up Gray's fight with Natsu again caused Kotomi to faintly have a scheming smirk on her face. She felt that it would be very smart to start breaking up that trio by getting rid of the person who was the stern mediator in fights, since not having Erza to keep Natsu from fighting with Gray would leave both of the males feeling reactive or guilty if Erza were to die without them being able to save her.
If Natsu and Gray felt very upset over not being able to save Erza, then Kotomi could just manipulate them into strengthening their friendships with her before she'd end their lives later. That seemed like a good plan to prevent any of them from stopping Kotomi's scheme to later decimate the Fairy Tail guild, and Kotomi would also be preventing Team Natsu from stopping her personal search for the remaining legendary rings. Due to how Erza seemed to notice an odd little shift in Lucy's character, Kotomi decided to eliminate the person who slightly critiqued her choice of a job before Erza could possibly later make critiques associated with any suspicions over Lucy acting a bit too weird for nothing to seem wrong. As Kotomi went back to the table with her stamped flyer, she started to wonder if Kirika would applaud her for coming up with some great schemes.
Elsewhere, in the Gudai Desert...
Kirika probably would approve of Kotomi's scheming, but she'd probably have to be in a better mood to like her apprentice's devious scheme. Kirika ran through the desert in a light brown and dark brown plaid bikini, sweating as she looked quite annoyed at some thoughts about how her new sword clashed with some of the other items of treasure that were in her possession, and the only thing she felt happy about was that she at least had the beautiful weapon in her possession. However, that beautiful weapon needed to be accompanied by other accessories.
Therefore, Kirika sent many of Moon Rainbow's mages out on missions where they'd have to steal r gather as much info as possible on certain artifact. It seemed like a good plan to order them to quickly move through the towns in their various searches, since hastily getting artifacts for Kirika while also quickly completing jobs in those towns would allow the guild mistress to have beautiful items that were just as pleasing to her eyes as money had always been. Of course, the amount of money and items that she'd get was dependent on the success of her mages.
Since Kotomi was kind enough to deliver that sword to her last night, Kirika gladly rewarded her with a hot bath and a massage to relax the tired muscles of her body. Kirika felt glad to have such a beautiful apprentice, liking how Kotomi had such beautiful skin that made her beauty truly compliment her level of power. Thinking about how Kotomi relaxed with her in a hot bath only made Kirika start to run faster, feeling her cheeks blush hot pink from recalling how Kotomi moaned her name after receiving a soft kiss on the cheek from Kirika for being so successful with getting herself a better body while also loving how she completed many tough jobs with her high speed.
Thinking about Kotomi running fast only made Kirika continue to run faster, quickly going down from the middle of the hot desert while kicking up sand and dust clouds. Kirika didn't mind the heat, feeling like it only made her grow stronger while sweat gently went down from her face to lightly touch her breasts, and the harsh sunlight shined down on Kirika to make her have a workout under its heat waves. She kept running towards the beach, seeing it start to be within sight, but the blue Lacrima Communications Crystal that she accidentally left too far away from the beach began to ring loudly. Kirika stopped running to hear the orb loudly ring from within a bed of sand that had been created from a sandstorm that ravaged the desert earlier, and the guild mistress got down on her knees to dig through the sand. She moved some piles of hot and golden sand aside, smiling nicely as she saw the orb shining, and Kirika lightly tapped it for her to see a red-haired mage looking quite anxious.
"Miss K-Kirika? H-Hello, Miss K-Kirika? W-Would you like to... hear my report?" The red-haired mage asked in a very timid tone, as she appeared to be entering a train station on a dirt path.
Kirika asked her while panting softly and sweating more, looking quite irritated with this mage's timid personality, "What do... you want? If you have... something to say, then can't you just say it?"
"You wanted me to... see if I could find the pink ring that was rumored to be in Parmanie Town, but... it's already gone! The green-haired wizard from before now has it, and... the newspapers are even talking about everything that recently occurred here! Apparently, the wizard has now been identified as Lucy Heartfilia!" The girl timidly explained to Kirika, before bowing her head in an ashamed manner and closing her eyes at how she was too late to meet that wizard again.
She proceeded to hold her blue orb in one hand, before putting a newspaper article from her other hand near the Lacrima Communications Crystal, and the mage let Kirika see the newspaper feature images of Lucy Heartfilia's face being on Lacrima Vision screens. Upon seeing her green hair and orange eyes, Kirika looked quite shocked. The girl who was stated in the paper to have at least four legendary rings was the girl who had her body stolen by Kotomi, and it seemed like she was fighting hard to find a way to get back in her own body.
The fact that Lucy was presumably working towards that goal of getting back in her own body caused Kirika to slam one of her fists against the ground, but she wasn't just dissatisfied with this piece of news. Kirika also seemed dissatisfied with the fact that Kotomi didn't kill Lucy when the body-switching spell was first used, not caring about Kotomi's actual body while she thought that a good schemer would've killed Lucy to make that plan thoroughly be successful without letting anything go wrong. However, looking at the paper again to see that Lucy was a mage in the Sabertooth guild made Kirika sigh in frustration.
Lucy was probably resourceful enough to join up with the wizards from Sabertooth to not only allow herself to have a chance at getting her body back, but going away from where Kotomi left her simply meant that the green-haired wizard couldn't easily just go back to kill Lucy Heartfilia. That unexpected turn of events probably did put some unforeseen obstacles into Kotomi's schemes, and Kirika assumed that the wind-wielding mage was trying her best to adapt to the situation that was shifting like winds that continuously changed their directions. The sudden thought about wind made Kirika have curiosity in her eyes, and she turned her attention back to the mage who still looked quite timid.
"What about... the locations of the other rings? In fact, is there... unfortunately one involving Wind Magic?" Kirika asked the mage with the sternness in her eyes, as she panted softly from her workout.
The mage nervously replied to Kirika, letting her eyes slightly look away from the orb, "W-well, that's just s-something we... don't really know. People started searching for them after the one in Cramoisi Town was found, but the rings aren't easy to find."
"If they're so hard to find, then look much harder for them. In fact, I've heard of a windy town where I could send you to search for-" Kirika responded in a serious tone, before being interrupted by the mage quickly going through the newspaper to show Kirika something else.
She soon saw a news article on how that particular town was one where people could enter it without being harassed, but going through the town wasn't going to be easy with people not keeping to themselves. The mage looked quite worried while pointing to a part of the newspaper that claimed how several people in that town had symptoms of some type of illness, which made Kirika look very puzzled. She had been in that town several years ago, even going there for a significant moment that occurred in the year X784, and nothing about people being sick ever came up in that town until recently. It almost seemed like something strange recently happened there, which was weird to Kirika.
The only strange thing she had seen in that town was a very quiet research facility, since Kirika noticed that the seemingly abandoned building wasn't torn down, and the door to that place had been sealed with a strange lock. Kirika didn't feel the need to use her magic to get rid of that lock, as it wasn't her place to barge into a research facility for no reason, but she still felt like there would be no harm in sending a mage to check out the town. After all, it didn't seem like anything bad could happen to mages who were smart enough to heal themselves in a place where a deadly sickness was supposedly prominent.
Kirika simply nodded in a stern manner while giving that order to the timid mage, absolutely wanting her to get that possible ring before Lucy Heartfilia could get to it, and she gently tapped the orb with one of her thumbs to turn it off. Kirika proceeded to lay down on her back, and she looked over at some sand on the shore while looking annoyed at Lucy Heartfilia's progress. She seemingly had four rings in her possession, and Kirika had none. Therefore, the guild mistress felt like sending one of her mages to a town where a ring could possibly be would be a good plan for Lucy to be robbed of all her rings. Kirika evilly smirked at the thought of that happening, and she imagined Lucy also becoming ill enough to let out several sickly coughs before dying.
Four hours later, in Parmanie Town...
Lucy lightly coughed from the clouds of dust that occurred after she used the Lightning Voltage spell on the cracked ground of the wreckage that was formerly Sara's house, but she wouldn't get sick from only breathing in a slight bit of dust. The dust quickly settled, since the explosive yellow orb was weak enough to simply break through the cracks in the ground without decimating the wreckage, and the crater that was left behind soon broke apart to leave behind a large hole in the ground. Lucy proceeded to look down into the hole, and her eyes widened in a surprised manner from seeing something be down underground in the cavern.
She looked past some pieces of rubble to see magenta-colored objects, which were presumably the books that Lucy was trying to find, and she jumped down into the cavern. Lucy quickly landed on some soft dirt while Sting also jumped down into the cavern, and Lucy started to pick up several rocks. She threw them all towards a small pile of burnt wood, before getting the objects out of the dirt, and Lucy wiped off some clumps of dirt to see that these buried objects were definitely some of Sara's books on Psychic Magic. Lucy kindly smiled at the books while silently promising Sara's spirit that she would do her best to learn some great spells, and she started to stack them all on a slab of rubble that Risa and the others could see from above the hole.
Upon seeing the precious books of her kind mentor, Risa used the Stellar Psi spell to levitate that stack of books up to the surface. Risa made a pink aura surround her right hand while watching the books land on the ground to be in front of her, and the first book on the magenta-colored magic that she picked up was one that made her gasp in shock. Risa gasped with the feeling of being astounded in her voice from how this was the very first book that she read in Sara's basement. This was the book that introduced Risa to the magenta magic, and it definitely helped her with reading about the spells from the more advanced books.
Those advanced books had spells on Psychic Magic that were complex, as they required a mage to learn enhanced versions of certain spells or learn fusion spells. Risa didn't typically try fusing her spells together, as she simply assumed that those powerful spells couldn't always be used in strategic ways, but she suddenly thought back to how Miru and Shizue worked well together while they even fused their spells together to create stronger attacks. The fact that they could fuse their separate attacks together made Risa wonder if the team would encounter stronger enemies who could fuse much more powerful spells together, even if the enemies were fusing their own spells together before merging those fusion spells together, and she started to slightly narrow her eyes.
"I need to get stronger than how I fight at my current level of strength, or I may not survive in the next tag-team battle. I can't let myself or Rogue die, but defeating an enemy by myself without someone intervening will make me feel like I can be strong enough to protect everyone in Parmanie later on." Risa thought to herself with a fierce facial expression, as she clenched her fists.
Risa added to that thought, as she looked down at Lucy for a moment, "Lucy. Yesterday, you taught me that a princess can be strong without anyone assisting them. I want to be a strong princess like you, and I'll be just as strategic as you to not be perceived Sabertooth's weak rookie."
Lucy thought to herself while smiling happily, as she and Sting dug through the rubble to find more of the intact books in piles, "By learning some powerful spells of Psychic Magic from these books and training hard, I'll eventually be as proficient as Risa with my psychic power. Of course, strength has to be backed up by creating some good strategies."
Lucy wondered if any of Sara's books on Psychic Magic had strategies for how certain spells should be used, and she also wondered if Sara made any notes in the books to leave behind for Risa or any other mage who would discover the books. If notes were left behind, then Lucy would give them to Risa for her to explain them while also reading the ancient language that was said to be written in the books by the people who created this type of Psychic Magic that had been part of ancient history. Since Risa could read the language, Lucy would be happy to learn about spells of Psychic Magic from her friend.
It would be interesting for Risa to be Lucy's mentor on Psychic Magic, since Risa learned to wield that type of magic from Sara mentoring her, and Risa would probably be glad to continue a nice trend of how Psychic Magic was something that had to be taught to people for them to have the info of certain spells in their minds. By teaching Lucy about how some spells worked, that would allow Lucy to create new strategies that wouldn't just focus around using chain power to set off explosive spells or create massive blasts solely for displaying a spell's immense strength.
As Lucy thought about how she couldn't just rely on her spells being very powerful, Risa continued to think about how she couldn't just rely on Rogue enhancing her magic with his Shadow Dragon Slayer Magic. Instead, Risa would need to enhance her own magic with psychic energy. Increasing the power of her spells would help Risa create awesome strategies with powerful attacks, and fusing those spells together to create new spells would probably make Risa be a princess who could even defeat Miru Itsuki or Shizue Momoiro in a one-on-one fight. As Risa got up to just look at the pink tiled battlefield that was in the distance, she started to look surprised at the sight of those two girls walking towards her.
"Miru? Shizue? What do you two want?" Risa asked them in a startled tone, as she quickly moved to be near Rogue.
Shizue explained with a relaxed facial expression, viewing Risa's protective attitude towards Rogue, "Relax, princess. We're not here to fight you. In fact, Miru just has something to say for both of us."
Miru told Risa in a nervous manner with thoughts going through her mind, as her eyes glanced across the ground before looking up at Risa, "I'm not... very good at this sort of thing, but I'm... sorry for how we attacked you and the shadow dragon slayer. That's all I wanted to say, Risa Ryusei."
That prompted Risa to calmly reply, as she looked into Miru's eyes to see feelings of sincerity, "I forgive you, Miru. I forgive you, too, Shizue."
Upon hearing Risa's words of forgiveness, Miru simply smiled and turned around to walk away. Risa took notice of her hot pink strapless dress that went well with her bubblegum pink skirt while her rosewood pink shoes had two large light pink orbs on them. Miru seemed to care more about fashion than anything else right now, which is why she probably wanted to apologize in a way that would relieve her of any guilt that she'd probably experience right now, and Risa could forgive her if Miru seemed like she wouldn't cause anymore problems to the Sabertooth mages.
As Miru walked away from her and Rogue to leave them in peace, Risa watched Shizue start to also walk away. Shizue wore a fuchsia pink furred jacket over her light pink midriff shirt that matched her plaid pink shorts, and she wore some bubblegum pink stockings that matched her hot pink high heels. Even though Shizue was fashionable and could be as snobby as Miru, seeing her turn around to give a genuine smile of respect was something that made Risa really understand that the bounty hunters only attacked her back then because of how Kyoko gave them permission to do that.
With Kyoko temporarily replaced by Cordelia, that meant Miru and Shizue would probably go hunt for other criminals to make themselves be capable of earning money again. That would make them happy, and Risa started to smile at how everyone seemed to now be happy in the town of Parmanie. She could soon leave this place with Lucy and the others, along with taking all of Sara's books back to the Sabertooth guild, and Risa would be glad to start training with her friends. Even though they couldn't handle exciting missions right now, Risa was glad that her friends would all be training to get stronger.
Meanwhile...
Even though the wizards in Sabertooth were aspiring to get stronger, Fairy Tail's mages saw no point in doing that. Erza felt like it would be a great idea to go on the mission only with Lucy seeming to be by her side, since her blonde-haired friend made a convincing argument for why they would be the wizards who were best suited to handle the jobs in Gunjou Town. The two girls were now on their second job, which involved the retrieval of a sacred treasure, and getting that treasure required them to enter the Gunjou Cave.
The cave contained some gemstones that were in the dark hue of grape purple, along with violet crystals that were either on the ground or firmly wedged in between some rocks to where they probably wouldn't come out, and the beautiful gems faintly illuminated the cave. Erza and Kotomi went deep into the cave, taking several obvious paths while also discovering hidden routes that led to secret areas of the cave, and Erza even had to requip into her Heaven Wheel's Armor to make her swords slice through dense rocks that had been blocking their paths.
After slicing through a third boulder, the sight of the large rock crumbling to pieces allowed Erza and Kotomi to enter a room where there was a six-layered staircase that appeared to be part of orchid purple ruins. Upon noticing the ruins, Erza's brown eyes were filled with sternness from seeing that there were elegant-looking purple torches attached to the walls of the ruins, only one torch weirdly having a flame that burned quite intensely with the fire being quite large, and the fact that the torch's flame was purple signified to Erza that there was Darkness Magic involved with the creation of that fire.
The flame was also burning brightly in a regular shade of purple, almost as if someone had been here recently, and Erza turned away from the ruins to investigate for clues about where the treasure could be located. She looked at the walls to see that there were no other doorways around, along with no walkways that led directly to the treasure, and flying upward to get a good look at the top of the ruins only made Erza see that nothing was there. There were no obvious switches to push, and nothing even seemed like it could trigger a booby trap. As Erza continued to observe this room, Kotomi decided to use her spells as a way to search for the treasure.
"Celestial Radiance!" Kotomi shouted fiercely while narrowing her brown eyes, before stretching her right hand forward.
Erza asked her teammate with a surprised look on her face, seeing a large golden ball of energy form in the center of her palm, "Lucy, when did you learn how to do that?!"
"Celestial Berserker Beam!" Kotomi yelled in a serious manner while a golden beam of energy appeared in her left hand.
Kotomi slammed the beam against the sphere, before seeing the sphere increase in size from receiving that boost in power, and she threw it at a wall that had several violet crystals on it. When the projectile made contact with the sharp crystals, it immediately ended up bursting to create a golden blast of Celestial Spirit Magic that was quite large. The energy of the large blast soon became several golden beams that spread outward, some of them shooting outward to hit other walls while some of them even struck the crystals to simply have their energy be completely absorbed, but some of the beams even struck Erza's armor.
She was engulfed in a small golden blast, but Erza started falling to the ground from how the energy in that attack was at a high level. She watched the other attacks create golden blasts, and Erza got to see three of those beams strike a nearby wall to make it crumble down into smaller rocks. That wall had some purple crystals on it, which absorbed all of the energy before shattering apart in three purple blasts that were massive, but the purple smoke soon faded away to reveal that there was treasure behind the destroyed wall.
The wrecked wall revealed to Kotomi and Erza that they found a purple treasure chest with a lavender lock on it, the treasure chest even being surrounded by six flames in a hexagonal formation. Erza attempted to requip into her Flame Empress Armor, only to see her teammate run straight towards the treasure chest, and she watched the other Fairy Tail wizard strike the ground with her right fist. Kotomi had quietly activated a spell known as Celestial Arrow, and this spell made her wield a golden arrow with a large bow that had a star in its center. Kotomi's bow soon had the arrow balanced on it, before both weapons were pulled back with a strong amount of force, and Kotomi's arrow struck the ground to create a golden flash of light. The light didn't create any explosions, but this spell had the effect of nullifying any spells that were within its range. The flames were now gone, which made the lock come off like it had been part of that barrier's spell, and Kotomi walked towards the treasure chest while Erza was still surprised by her teammate's power.
"Lucy, how have you gotten so strong?" Erza silently asked in a thought, blinking her eyes in amazement at how Lucy's spells even left small cracks in the walls.
Kotomi told Erza in a calm tone, as she dragged the treasure chest out of the hidden room, "Now that this mission is done, I can go show this treasure to the bartender and get the reward money."
"Yeah, I may need some of the money to repair my armor and that will help us on our next-" Erza replied with a nice smile on her face, before she was interrupted by Kotomi firing the Celestial Berserker Beam spell at her.
Kotomi told Erza with a stern facial expression, seeing Erza be engulfed by the small blast, "I didn't remember asking you to provide any suggestions, you fool."
Before Erza could scream in pain at how the unarmored part of her body was getting wounded, Kotomi decided to strike her with a spell known as Celestial Chaos. The spell caused a golden aura to surround Kotomi's body while several golden stars emerged from her hands, and she soon stretched her hands outward in opposite directions. That caused the stars to circle around her in the directions of clockwise and counterclockwise, but different halves of the projectiles went in those specific directions. Kotomi aimed both of her hands at Erza, before suddenly raising them upward, and the stars curved upward right before they would've hit Erza.
The blast's light began to fade away from engulfing aura, only for her to suddenly be attacked by falling stars when Kotomi lowered her hands down to her sides. Kotomi watched the stars be surrounded by golden auras while they descended, before the auras started spiraling around them, and her projectiles slammed down against Erza's body to create a copious amount of golden explosions that were quite large. Erza let out a pained scream from that attack, feeling some projectiles be stronger than the ones that exploded before them, and the chain power of this attack made barrages of golden blasts surround Erza while her armor could be heard shattering into pieces.
Erza attempted to requip into her Clear Heart Clothing, only to feel her amount of magical power sharply drop after enduring all of those attacks. It seemed like dealing with Kotomi's spell had weakened Erza, which was true because of how Celestial Chaos was a powerful spell of Celestial Spirit Magic that struck enemies while also draining their strength. As Erza started to use all of her remaining strength to stand up, she got to see the woman who was supposedly her teammate suddenly appear in front of her at very high speeds. That high speed made some wind blow past Erza's body, but she started to look confused about why Lucy was now smirking evilly with viciousness in her eyes.
"Lucy, what's gotten into you? Has the Darkness Magic in this place made you go insane?" Erza asked her teammate in a somewhat startled manner, resisting the urge to point her sword at the woman who she perceived to truly be Lucy.
Kotomi explained to Erza in a sadistic tone of voice, before finding herself unable to resist the urge of laughing evilly, "My behavior has nothing to do with Darkness Magic, you idiot. In fact, it has nothing to do with this mission. Perhaps you should try to remember a certain job that you had to handle back in the town of Tokiwa."
"Are you referring to the day where that thief defeated our entire team, Lucy? What does that have to do with anything?" Erza asked Lucy with a stern facial expression appearing on her face, as she made her swords disappear.
Kotomi responded to Erza with a malicious smile on her face, before mimicking Lucy Heartfilia's happy smile, "Well, that thief is me. My name is Kotomi Takeuchi, in case you forgot. Although, I guess that I can feel happy about telling you that I switched bodies with your weak friend on that day. After all, knowing that truth won't do you any good when you're dead."
Upon hearing that shocking revelation, Erza's brown eyes widened in a stunned manner. The person who she believed to be Lucy had really been Kotomi the entire time, the thief copying Lucy's voice and personality pretty well to where even Erza couldn't detect that anything seemed wrong, and Erza remembered how she agreed with the other members of Team Natsu on how a certain green-haired girl's claims of her body being stolen were supposedly outlandish. Erza started thinking about how it was even more outlandish that she let one of her good friends now have the life of a criminal who was taken in by Sabertooth, and she charged at Kotomi with anger in her eyes.
Erza requipped a sword with a light green blade into her right hand, gripping it by the dark green handle that had mint green feathers on it, and she slashed the air with her Sky Blade to create large winds that were in the shape of sickle blades. Kotomi jumped up quite high, before gently touching the projectiles with her feet. Kotomi's feet were quickly surrounded by Wind Magic, allowing her to absorb Erza's attacks, and she proceeded to start using magical power while making her feet push off of the air. That made Kotomi jump up quite high, treating the air like it was a solid floor, and Erza started to groan in frustration at how her wind blades were ineffective.
Kotomi absorbing them wasn't their only way of being ineffective, since being weakened earlier also made Erza's attacks severely decrease in power. She started spinning the Sky Blade around at rapidly high speeds to conjure up a mint green cyclone that was aimed at Kotomi, but Erza soon saw Kotomi fire the Whirlwind Cannon spell from her mouth. The mint green vortex looked very familiar to Erza, as she finally started to recall the fight where it hit her and Natsu at point-blank range, but she hoped that the cyclone from her Sky Blade could withstand the vortex that was growing more powerful from Kotomi exhaled bursts of wind from her mouth to amplify the attack's power and speed. The powerful spell easily tore right through Erza's cyclone, its winds dissipating in only two or three seconds, and Kotomi's spell came down upon Erza to create a massive mint green blast of Wind Magic!
"LUCY!" Erza exclaimed from within the blast, as the explosive energy severely harmed her body.
Kotomi quietly told Erza in a calm tone while smiling in an arrogant manner, waiting for the smoke to clear, "Well, it looks like that spell wasn't strong enough to kill you."
The antagonist proceeded to use a new spell of Wind Magic, and it was known as Windy Steel Wing. Kotomi watched her right arm be transformed into a mint green blade that resembled a large bird's wing, and she purposely fell down from the air with her winged arm moving in a circle to make her wing gain more air while feeling it become denser. Kotomi proceeded to curve towards Erza while sending Wind Magic into her wing, weirdly making the feathers start molting, and Kotomi started to feel spiraling bursts of air being created behind her.
The strong winds made Kotomi begin to move just as fast as when she would use the spell called Kaze's Feather Dance, which was still active, and Kotomi applied Wind Magic to her feet to make herself move even faster. She proceeded to confound Erza with her high speed while slashing at her with the spinning wing blade. the cuts getting progressively smaller as Kotomi kept running, but the fact that she could see Erza's body bruised and bleeding from many areas caused Kotomi to smirk evilly. She jumped up into the air to do a triple flip while continuing to rotate her winged arm at high speeds, before striking Erza in the chest with that winged blade to knock her down, and the blade soon lost all of its feathers to leave Kotomi with her arm being back to normal.
She got her arm away from Erza, who struggled to stand up, and Kotomi pushed her hands forward to make all of the spiraling currents of mint green air rush towards Erza. They all cornered her, before creating a large tornado of mint green winds that rapidly spun with enough power to lift Erza into the air, and the tornado of air currents ended up bursting to unleash many slashing blades of wind that made deep cuts on Erza's body. She couldn't even try to requip, due to how numerous cuts were being dealt to her body at high speeds with immense power, and the slashes that tore at Erza's chest caused her to cough up blood. She was now bleeding from several areas, her clothes torn to shreds, and the final slash created a mint green blast that had at least five layers of power to it to represent the different levels pertaining to Kotomi's slashes. She watched some of Erza's blood splash to be on her feet while hearing her scream in immense pain from that attack, and the heavy winds going in different directions with so much pressure made Erza feel like she'd get torn apart. She soon fell over from the air pressure that came down on her, and the smoke cleared up to reveal a large crater.
"Well, that took longer than I expected. At least I've killed one member of that pathetic team, and the others will soon have to deal with suffering the same fate." Kotomi thought to herself while looking at Erza's unconscious body that had been sliced in many places and badly burned from all of the explosions.
Still, going back to the Fairy Tail guild with Erza's lifeless body would be just as bad as coming back without her. That would only make Natsu and Gray ask questions pertaining to Erza's whereabouts, so Kotomi began to have a scheming look on her face from how she would have to come up with a convincing story to make them believe that she had no way of being aware that the mission would result in Erza's death. The fact that one of her teammates died also meant that Kotomi would have to feign real emotions of sadness and despair about Erza's life ending, too.
She walked towards Erza's lifeless body, and Kotomi simply picked her up to carry Erza on her back. Since Kotomi could still run quite fast, she ran to one of the nearest hidden paths and stuffed Erza in between a crevice. Kotomi pushed some rocks into the crevice, obscuring Erza's body from being seen by anyone who would come down that path, and the last thing that Kotomi got to see from Erza was her facial expression showing a mix of exhaustion and regret as her body became concealed by Kotomi. Kotomi even used her Wind Magic to push Erza and the rocks further into the crevice, effectively keeping Erza's lifeless body out of obvious sight.
With the task of hiding Erza now completed, Kotomi hastily ran back to the room containing the purple treasure chest. She opened the treasure chest to see that there were several bags of jewels inside of it, along with piles of jewels that weren't in bags, and Kotomi moved her hands around in the treasure chest to even see a violet book with an interesting design on it. Kotomi merely took that book out of the chest to put it on the ground, not thinking that it would have any importance to anyone, and she closed the treasure chest. As the chest slammed shut, Kotomi's eyes widened in shock from hearing the voice of a man and a woman seeming to be coming into this room. Kotomi wasted no time with avoiding them by using the Kaze's Feather Dance spell to softly jump all the way up to the ceiling, making herself go forward to be several feet above the doorway, and the moment they entered the room to quickly ran towards the damaged ruins was the opportunity for Kotomi to quietly jump down to lower levels of the air before she hastily ran out of the cave at high speeds to finish a job that even involved leaving those dark mages in the dark with no info on what happened in the seemingly deepest part of Gunjou Cave.
How was Chapter 32? Feel free to tell me your thoughts on it. Well, I'm finally back after an unannounced hiatus that occurred due to responsibilities related to my job. Updates will hopefully get back to how they were before the beginning of January. Anyway, Risa and the other protagonists from Sabertooth found Sara's books and Risa wants to get stronger with fusion spells! Lucy wants to get stronger by learning some Psychic Magic from Risa, but don't worry about them having the same spells. They'll have different sets of spells, due to Risa needing to fuse her spells together while Lucy has to learn to use standard spells more creatively without just enhancing them. Sting and Rogue will get stronger, and Yukino will also be improving her skills. In fact, the next arc will make them be glad to have gone through a little time-skip. Speaking of the current time, this is currently the first part of the post-Fuchsia Psychic Arc! The next chapter will have some fun surprises, especially in relation to the arc after this one. I'll update soon. :)
REVIEWS!
Summer Nickels: Speaking as a reader, there was no explicitly-stated number of times that the Celestial Mage Ring could be used before permanently breaking. Even when Lucy was practicing all of her spells during training, that ring's durability decreased in small amounts. That's how Lucy was able to train hard enough to even be capable of fighting Akai Hinotama. Speaking of that pop idol who had been undefeated until Chapter 8, did you not notice how she either defeated weak opponents in the past and also cheated her way to victories with her band members helping her fight in perfect rhythm with the music? If Lucy truly was "so strong" or "made to be stronger than what she actually is", then she should've seen no reason to rely on her brainpower or realize a benefit of being in Kotomi's body (exhaling wind) to give her an advantage against Akai in their fight. Also, kindly keep in mind that Akai is the WEAKEST of the seven antagonists who had to be battled for Lucy to earn a magic ring. Akai had to pick weak opponents and cheat to keep her title as the princess, so Lucy rightfully deserved to win this fight. Even if the Celestial Mage Ring broke, she still deserved to be the winner.
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