Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.
Chapter 43: Food At The Festival! Surprises At Bitter Tastes! Lucy's New Book of Spells & Sabertooth's Interview! Surprising News & Vicious Truths!
Sting and Lucy had taken the train back to the town of Ryokufū, seeing its streets continue to be in varying shades of green while the cobblestones formed the designs of clouds. Those clouds looked just as cute as the Sky Garden Clouds that flew high above the town, some of them being a bit small to the people who were down on the ground while the clouds were at very high altitudes for giving fun rides to tourists or townspeople, but Lucy wouldn't want to ride on one of those clouds again anytime soon. Instead, she would want to just enjoy the festival with Sting.
He also wanted to have fun at this festival with Lucy, and Sting felt like their first attraction to see in the festival would involve the food. Sting took Lucy to a mint green wooden concession stand that was near the perfume shop, smiling at how the sweet scents of Haruna's perfumes weren't overshadowing the delicious aromas of some pale green kabobs that had dark green toothpicks impaling them. Those kabobs were actually Vegetable Squid Balls, which were a delicacy of Ryokufū Town that involved mixing fresh green veggies with the meat of squids that were brought in from the people who were brave enough to retrieve them from the waters near Seigan Town.
The waters near that town were full of the delicious squids, but Sting would gladly eat another town's personal delicacy containing squids. He paid for the Vegetable Squid Balls with three-thousand jewels that he pulled out of his blue vest, handing the cash to a female vendor who had long mint green hair tied back into four small ponytails, and Sting got to purchase six of those sticks with the balls of food on them. He was quickly handed all of the kabobs that had finished cooking on the black grate grill that was on the counter in front of the vendor, and Sting smiled happily while giving two of the kabobs to Lucy.
He watched Lucy take a small bite of one Vegetable Squid Ball, before Sting himself decided to just pull a squid ball off of the toothpick. He ate it quickly, liking the bitter taste of the herbs going well with the flavorful and spicy taste of the squid meat, and Sting lightly chuckled with the feeling of delight. Lucy also chuckled with a happy feeling in her voice, before her eyes twinkled with the feeling of joy appearing in them. Lucy found herself really enjoying these appetizers of the festival, but she soon became curious about her desire to eat bitter foods.
"Does this taste for bitter vegetables possibly come from me being in Kotomi's body to where I also sometimes adapt to her food choices?" Lucy thought to herself with a somewhat puzzled facial expression, before remembering that she spent past months only eating foods she liked without really tasting different things.
Lucy stated aloud to Sting with a soft smile on her face, ready to share this news with him, "Well, this is very interesting."
"What's interesting, Lucy? The scents of all our squid kabobs, or are you smelling more food?" Sting asked her in a calm manner, as his mind was focused on the festival.
Even though Lucy's nose was getting whiffs of more foods that were sending their scents into the air, she started to look a bit disappointed at how she couldn't just tell her boyfriend about this new little development. Not only would something like a body-switching spell be a bit weird to discuss in front of a vendor who wasn't even involved in the quest to help Lucy get her body back from the thieving antagonist who had stolen her identity, but she felt like it would also be weird to mention the topic to Sting during their date while they were attending the festival.
This was their date at the festival, which made Lucy feel like she couldn't afford to make it be awkward for Sting in any way. She proceeded to gently take her boyfriend over to a nearby dark green concession stand where mint green cupcakes topped with moss green icing were being sold to customers, and seeing the groups of five cupcakes on each plain green plate made Lucy pull out a high amount of jewels from the left pocket of her plaid pink skirt that went well with her light pink T-shirt. Lucy gently pulled her shirt down while handing the money to the vendor, who simply counted the seven-thousand jewels before gently picking up the plates to lightly put the cupcakes into two rectangular green boxes.
Lucy picked up the small boxes to hold them in one hand while continuing to eat the Vegetable Squid Balls, but she could smell the sweet minty aroma of the cupcakes while their matcha green icing balanced out the desserts with a slightly bitter smell. Lucy ignored their aroma in favor of eating the food that Sting purchased for her, quickly eating the balls of squid meat and vegetables because of how their taste was so enjoyable to her, and eating the food at a fast pace allowed Lucy to only see the toothpicks that remained. She threw them into a nearby green trash can, allowing herself to hold more items that she'd want to buy for herself or for Sting.
"Wow, these look very cute! Sting, you might like getting these!" Lucy stated with a happy smile on her face, as she noticed that they were near a moss green concession stand where sunglasses with frames made from dark green leaves were being sold.
Sting responded in a calm manner, frowning slightly, "They're alright, but I wouldn't wear them all the time. At least you and other people can know that Fiore's best dragon slayer is wearing one of Ryokufū Town's festive accessories for this special occasion."
"Well, you're definitely not wrong about being the best dragon slayer in the eyes of some people." Lucy replied to him with a playful smile on her face, as she took out two-thousand jewels from her skirt after glancing at the price for one pair of sunglasses.
To Lucy, Sting was definitely a great dragon slayer. Not only could he fight very well and help her be strategic in several important or lesser battles, but Sting also knew how to always have fun. He put his pair of sunglasses over his eyes, before playfully putting them on his forehead to comically mimic Risa by looking so pleased at his own fashion sense supposedly being superior to anyone else's, and Sting got to see Lucy giggle in a very cute way with happiness starting to overshadow the other emotions in her eyes. She was definitely beginning to get into the fun of the festival, which made Sting feel pretty happy.
He felt very pleased that they were both having fun right now, prompting him to also pick up the sunglasses that Lucy bought for herself, and Sting softly placed them on her eyes. He placed them there, due to how he proceeded to give a gentle kiss to Lucy's forehead, and that made the green-haired girl's cheeks start to blush in a cerise shade of pink to show that she really liked that little kiss. The kiss was soft and small, but it seemed sweet while being filled with the loving passion that Lucy could only receive from someone who would keep being an awesome boyfriend.
Sting was definitely going to continue being a great boyfriend to Lucy, and he ended the kiss to take Lucy down a different street where balloons in various shades of green were being released into the air. They were quickly popped by people who wielded spells of Wind Magic that were all in the form of green slicing blades, the explosions being weak enough to not make heavy winds blow anything away, and the attacks left behind glitter in different shades of green. The glitter looked quite beautiful to Lucy and Sting, who watched it all fall to the ground, but the beauty of the glitter made Lucy glance down at her outfit for a moment to wonder if any of her friends found out which side of town had the fashion store on it.
Meanwhile, at Ryokufū Town's fashion store...
The person who ended up finding out that the fashion store was on the eastern side of Ryokufū Town had appropriately been Risa, who wasted no time with running into the fashion store while Rogue was by her side. He watched her go over to the rack that had some beautiful green outfits on it, seeing Risa decide to pick out a matcha green halter top that was strapless while it left her stomach exposed, and Risa also chose to pick out a dark green miniskirt from an adjacent rack. That rack was close to one of the light green walls that had moss green rose petals painted on to it, and there was even a wooden shelf that rested against the wall that had been across from the entrance.
Rogue stood near the entrance while watching Risa pick out some bras that were situated in different cubby holes of the shelves, but the shadow dragon slayer felt his cheeks blush light pink from seeing his girlfriend mostly pick out some lacy bras. The bras that had frilly lace were in lighter shades of green while they seemed to be perfect for keeping Risa's large breasts behind some constraints, but th thought of her nipples possibly being somewhat visible through the bras made Rogue blush more. He turned his head to the side, trying to avoid having those thoughts persist from looking at Risa.
Rogue didn't want Risa to perceive him as being a perverted person, as he had always been very calm around her, but this was their very first time shopping for clothes together. This was also their first time shopping for clothes together as a couple, which made Rogue feel a bit awkward with seeing his girlfriend pick out stylish clothes that were too revealing or risque. He soon widened his eyes from noticing how he had comically been glancing at several green pairs of underwear that were hung on a nearby rack, and Rogue soon made himself glance down at some light green wedges that an uncouth customer had placed on the moss green carpet.
The store's carpet was designed to resemble a daisy meadow, the grassy design of the carpeting even having small white flowers blooming among the moss green grass in the carpet, and Rogue smiled a bit before raising his head back up for a moment. When he stared straight ahead, he blushed again from seeing Risa stare back at him with a pleased smile on her face. Risa's smile was much more noticeable than the high amount of clothes that she was comically picking out for herself, since Rogue viewed Risa's happy expression as a sign that she was really enjoying the festival. In fact, that cute sign was even accompanied by a literal green wooden sign located to the left of Risa.
"Due to today's festival, all of our clothes are being sold at fifty percent off! They're only being sold at half-price like half-grown plants, so buy them as quickly as the town's winds that move quite fast." Rogue silently read to himself with a somewhat calmer facial expression, his blush starting to lessen.
Risa asked Rogue with her expression now becoming a playful and teasing smile, after her eyes noticed the green sign, "Rogue are you happy to just find out that the best days for buying clothes involve fashion sales or do you want me to buy as many outfits as possible?"
"Risa, you can definitely buy some beautiful outfits. I mean, you would look beautiful in several outfits!" Rogue replied in a kind manner, before looking flustered as his eyes briefly shifted to the rack of the panties during the moment where he wasn't trying to make the clothes seem more beautiful than his girlfriend.
After walking over to Rogue with an average-sized stack of green clothes in her right hand, Risa cutely asked him in a soft whisper from noticing their nearby surroundings, "Would I even look beautiful in green panties, Rogue?"
That question prompted Rogue to comically look flustered again, unsure of how to answer that question without even the slightest bit of perversion being interpreted from his response, and Risa just smiled softly at her boyfriend's blushing face. His flustered facial expression actually gave Risa a very cute answer, and she walked over to the rack where the panties were on some green hangers. She removed five of the hangers, all of them keeping the lacy panties from falling off of the rack, and Risa looked at their white tags.
Those tags informed her of the panty sizes, causing her to boldly still want to try on the ones that were one size too small for her, and Risa added the panties to her stack of clothes. She set the stack down near the rack for a moment to pick up the pair of shoes that had been near Rogue, and Risa placed them at the very top of the stack. Those shoes weren't at the stack's pinnacle for very long, though, and that was because of how Risa managed to make some moss green wedges be perfectly balanced on top of them while she even made shamrock green high-heeled shoes with straps be positioned on top of those particular shoes.
As Risa felt like her stack of clothes was complete and would need accessories added later, she easily picked up the stack with both of her hands. Risa carried her stack over to the emerald green doors of some nearby fitting rooms, which were near a wall that had jeans neatly folded on neon green platforms to make them stand out with the bright shade of green contrasting against the rich green color of the stalls. Risa gently pushed open one of the empty stalls, before dragging her stack of clothes into the fitting room, and Risa closed the door. Despite shutting the door and locking it, Risa felt like she would still need assistance from a certain dragon slayer.
"Rogue, could you help me with something?" Risa calmly asked him in a sweet tone, as she loudly unzipped the zipper on the front of her light pink shorts.
The shadow dragon slayer asked her in a more flustered manner, comically looking nervous as his face blushed more red, "Risa, well... what do you need help with? Do I... have to come in, and-"
"Not really, Rogue! I just need you to please guard these clothes from anyone who may want more pink outfits for their wardrobe." Risa playfully responded, interrupting Rogue mid-sentence as she hung her pants over the top of the fitting room's door.
As the pants gently fell to the floor for them to be in front of Rogue, he noticed how Risa's magenta pink panties were also in the pants. He averted his eyes elsewhere while not wanting to touch his girlfriend's clothes, but Rogue's eyes briefly glanced back at the fitting room to see her plain pink bra with straps also be tossed over the door. It ended up landing on Rogue's foot, before he was surprisingly having his vision be obscured by Risa's T-shirt that was horizontally striped with its colors being in different shades of pink.
Rogue slowly removed the shirt from covering his eyes, only to slightly see Risa's bare toes slightly poking out of the bottom part of the fitting room, and Rogue blushed much more. He was having more of a pink blush bring the romantic feeling of warmth to his face from realizing that Risa was now naked, and Rogue even felt some warmth from holding his girlfriend's shirt. She was now trying on new shirts and tops that would cover her breasts, as well as covering her nipples, but Rogue tried to remove those thoughts from his mind.
He started to wonder if these thoughts were stemming from how he was dating a psychic wizard who could use her Psychic Magic to influence ideas in his mind, but Rogue also felt like his feelings were emerging from his soul. Rogue usually had an emotionless spirit, often being kind and reserved with how he felt in several situations, but it seemed like being in a relationship with an emotional mage such as Risa was now making those suppressed feelings come up like several shadows stretching upward from a burst of light. The store's light even shined down on some of the green clothes that Risa proceeded to put on, especially the dark green lacy panties, and hearing her begin to groan in a soft manner with groans of struggling made Rogue smile in a calmer way from thinking that Sting was in a similar situation with Lucy.
Two hours later, at Ryokufū Town's library...
Sting was actually watching Lucy pick out books that were in different shades of green while they had been on a light green bookcase pertaining to ancient legends, ancient histories, and ancient spells. Lucy was currently reading a book on ancient spells of Wind Magic that were created in the X400s era of Fiore's history, but she soon became quite disappointed from how the body-switching spell wasn't in this book. The book in Lucy's hands had been the tenth book of spells that she skimmed through, hoping to quickly find the spell, but she could only put it back in its original spot like a treasure hunter who found an item that was worthless.
The unhelpful books that Lucy had been reading only informed her about spells for attacking and defending, nothing about swapping bodies with an opponent, and not finding what she wanted from some of the books made Lucy start to look a bit frustrated. She looked stern while taking another book out of its spot from the bookcase, opening it up to see that it mostly focused on ancient advanced spells of Wind Magic that could be fused with ancient spells of Plant Magic, but flipping through several of the pages and reading their information made Lucy see that this book was also not going to be helpful.
She put that book back in its proper place, before starting to look more aggravated, but being in a library with many green books made Lucy start to remember something important. She remembered that Haruna spoke of how someone would send over the necessary book to the Sabertooth guild, possibly sending it as a little package, but Lucy wasn't the person who usually picked up the packages that were delivered to the guild. The task of picking up the packages was actually Sting's job, but he had been incredibly busy with paperwork during the past five days that passed by before the festival.
The fact that Sting was so busy with paperwork while Rogue and Yukino also had to help him simply meant that the easy job of getting a package now fell on the shoulders of Lector, who was Sting's red Exceed. The confident cat actually came flying into the library with a happy smile on his face, coming in through a window to not disrupt the quietness while he held a small item covered in dark green packaging that had a light green stamp featuring a wind tornado, and Lector had gotten a package, Of course, the fact that he had come along with Sting on the date to simply have fun made this situation be a bit weird.
"Sting-kun, someone... had this addressed to our guild. I saw it and asked for it, but I had to get it away from that mage..." Lector told Sting with a happy smile on his face after seeing him, before placing the package in his hands and seeming a bit exhausted.
That prompted Sting to ask his friend in a curious manner, "Mage? Was someone from another guild trying to steal our package, Lector?"
"Yeah, this girl knocked down the messenger and tried to steal it after that messenger was leaving the town leader's house !I've heard that the leader named Haruna-kun is grateful to our guild, but the fans must be crazy!" Lector explained to Sting with a concerned facial expression, thinking that the guild's admirers were taking things a bit too far.
Sting did feel a bit freaked out that one of Sabertooth's adoring fans had loved the guild enough to attempt the act of stealing Sabertooth's mail, which was a serious criminal act that the Magic Council strictly prohibited because of guilds needing to keep their secrets very private, and he hoped that this package was something important. Sting slowly opened the rectangular package, trying to make a small amount of noise around people who sat down at the dark green square tables on this first floor of the library, and he ended up opening it quite easily.
After opening the package, Sting noticed that it was a dark green book with the cute decoration of five mint green tornadoes forming a pentagon around a circle of pale green rose petals. Sting gently touched one of the rose petals, before seeing Lucy turn around to give him a curious look, and showing the book to his girlfriend made Sting feel glad about how she started running towards him. Lucy quickly reached Sting to hug him in a very thankful manner, before picking up Lector to also happily hug him, and she soon retrieved the book from Sting's hands.
Now that she had the book, Lucy opened it up to see that this particular book was discussing ancient spells from the X500s. The ancient spells were split into different chapters, which divided the Wind Magic from the Plant Magic, and one of the ancient spells in the first chapter's list of spells was known as Mint Green Shifting Winds of Life. That spell was on a different page, causing Lucy to turn to it with her right hand moving past some pages, and she came across a picture of two green tornadoes. One tornado featured a person having their soul removed first, before the other person's soul was removed, and the two souls went into different tornadoes. That was the body-switching spell from the book that Haruna appropriately retrieved for Lucy, but the sight of the spell's illustration made her remember something disturbing.
"Sting, do I not remember Kotomi using that spell because of how I was weak and nearly dead?" Lucy asked him in a calm tone, as she started to think back to how Team Natsu's fight against Kotomi had disastrous results.
That made Sting loudly reply to Lucy with assurance in his voice, his eyes noticing the amount of self-blame starting to well up in her slightly teary eyes, "Lucy, you weren't weak! You merely lost to a smart enemy who you hardly had info on, and you can't blame yourself! You experienced failure, but you didn't expect Kotomi to make you now be in her body while she's stealing your whole life! Even though she won that battle and she's hurt you so much, I know that you learning Kaze's Feather Dance proves that you can bounce back while you're learning everything that you need to learn after experiencing failure! You've been doing that throughout this whole quest, and you're very strong!"
"Sting..." Lucy replied to him with tears continuing to form in her eyes, starting to cry from hearing that passionate speech.
Hearing those words of assurance from Sting caused Lucy to feel like she had to not perceive herself as being weaker than Kotomi, and the fact that she couldn't fight well against her in the past really did mean nothing now. Lucy had been working quite hard to get stronger, always attempting to get much stronger than each time her current level of power would surpass an opponent's strength, and she never wanted to be inferior to anyone. Even if Kotomi wasn't the next mage who she'd fight against like a furious rival, Lucy still felt like she had to greatly surpass her current level of skill.
Moving up quite far from her current level of skill and magical power wouldn't be an extremely easy task, since Lucy still had to learn some powerful spells of Wind Magic that would be accompanied by strong spells of Plant Magic, and Lucy also had to push herself quite hard to get the Kaze's Feather Dance spell up to a higher level. By getting her speed up to a very high level, Lucy felt like that would greatly assist her other spells with being much stronger. After all, a strong attack that was launched with high-speed movement would logically seem quite strong.
That made Lucy start to look through the other pages of the book, seeing other advanced ancient spells, and she even came across some fusion spells. Lucy felt like she couldn't just bombard enemies with fusion spells, though, and that was solely because of the fact that they made high amounts of magical power be expended. Using up high amounts of magical power early on or during the middle portion of a fight would probably leave Lucy vulnerable to getting defeated, so she started walking out of the library with her friends while reading and also deciding to think about creating several new strategies.
30 minutes later...
As Lucy walked down the street with her friends and walked past many people who were having fun at the festival, she continued to think about making strategies with the spells from the book that she was still reading. Lucy's eyes were focused on the page pertaining to her first spell of Wind Magic, which would be known as Wind Altitude Aerial Burst, and Lucy read the instructions for the spell. She would have to make her hands and fingers form the shape of a fanged mouth, before swinging the fanged mouth towards her opponent, and that would send a high amount of wind at them. The person would be sent up into the air while the wind surrounding them would detonate, and Lucy could use that spell from short-range or long-range during combat.
That contrasted with her next spell, which was on the adjacent page, and that attack was known as Zephyr Punch. The spell required Lucy to make an emerald green aura surround her right fist, and she would have to charge towards her opponent. During the moments where Lucy would be running up to her opponent, she could either exhale air down on her arm or let her hand absorb the air for the winds to strengthen the amount of power in her fist. Increasing the amount of strength in her aura-engulfed fist could also allow Lucy to strike her opponent with an intense and focused burst of wind, but the spell also had an aftereffect that it refused to mention for Lucy to figure it out on her own.
Lucy wondered about what that aftereffect could be, but turning a few pages to look at her third possible spell made Lucy become more confident instead of curious about this particular attack's aftereffect. She would be able to manipulate the high winds that came from the immense amount of wind that resulted from using this particular spell, which was known as Tempest Tornado Bounce, and the spell required Lucy to fire five emerald green tornadoes from her left hand. The tornadoes would circle around her enemy, gaining more wind before they sprang up very high into the air to gain much more wind from their hasty ascension in altitude, and the tornadoes would quickly come down to gain more wind right before they would explode to create powerful blasts.
The thought of some large emerald green blasts damaging Kotomi caused Lucy to smile happily, as she began to imagine the attacks having enough power to make that antagonist scream in pain. Even though Kotomi would be screaming with the actual voice of Lucy Heartfilia emerging from her mouth, Lucy wouldn't mind getting payback on the antagonist. She had already gotten some payback by making the actual Kotomi have a very noble reputation, which contrasted with how Kotomi Takeuchi seemed to like being a scheming and evil thief. Lucy was glad that her own methods of scheming were making the antagonist also have to deal with the fact that Lucy Heartfilia was collecting the legendary rings to eventually reverse the body-switching spell, and this plan seemed like it couldn't go wrong. Well, it wouldn't go wrong if Lucy chose to glance up from her book to see that she would end up colliding with a girl who had red hair that complimented her dark red eyes.
"Ouch! That hurt! Sorry for not looking straight ahead." Lucy told the stranger in a somewhat pained tone, looking a bit annoyed from falling on her ass after the book was knocked out of her hands for it to also hit the ground.
The girl softly replied in a somewhat timid voice, before widening her eyes in shock at who she was speaking to, "N-no, it's... fine. I wasn't looking directly at... who I would end up crossing paths with. It's... y-you."
Lucy asked the girl in a calmer tone of voice, looking apologetic and curious as she picked up the book with one hand in the same moment where she stretched out her other hand to help the red-haired female stand up, "Do I know you from somewhere?"
"N-no, you don't. W-we haven't actually met before, but... I know that you're Lucy Heartfilia. You're the... mage from Sorcerer Magazine, and... you're the girl that's been collecting the legendary rings. I'd like to... write about them, if you don't mind me doing that as a writer. I... write for Sorcerer Magazine, and my name is Tifanī Akagitsune." The girl timidly responded to Lucy with anxiety in her voice while standing back up again, making herself blush pink with nervousness from being in the presence of a famous individual.
Lucy gladly shook hands with her, feeling glad that she seemingly ran into someone who worked at Sorcerer Magazine, and that made her think back to when Jason from Sorcerer Magazine had interviewed her after she defeated Akai Hinotama. Tifanī appeared to be a reporter who was attending the festival for the purpose of getting interviews, due to how she held a black microphone in her left hand while she wore a red jean jacket with a long crimson red skirt that matched her cherry red high heels, and she put the microphone back into the left pocket of the jean jacket that covered up her brown T-shirt with a houndstooth pattern on it.
She interestingly pulled out a houndstooth notepad in cherry red and scarlet red from the left pocket of her jean jacket, before pulling out a juniper green orb from the right pocket of her jean jacket, and roughly rubbing the orb with enough strength in her fingers caused it to turn on. The activated orb had thin beams of juniper green energy emanating from it right before they faded away, and Tifanī was actually recording Lucy with her Surveillance Lacrima Crystal. The orb was now capturing footage of Lucy, even being able to record info that she would tell Tifanī.
Lucy merely told Tifanī some quick summaries of all the important battles that she fought in up until this point in her life, even going as far to talk about which types of magic pertained to the different rings, and Lucy even placed her hands a few feet away from the orb for it to get clear footage of her five rings. The sight of her five rings made Tifanī slowly put the notepad back into her jean jacket's pocket, having only used that as bait to lure Lucy into talking about her secrets, but the sudden sounds of footsteps approaching the group from behind was more surprising to Tifanī than the shock of Lector suddenly recognizing her to where he had an alarmed facial expression.
"What's going on here? Lucy-sama, is this an interview for Sabertooth?" Yukino curiously asked with a calm facial expression while walking up to Tifanī, before Kūkiatsu ran up to her with Kusabue by his side.
Kusabue happily exclaimed with a delighted look on her face, after seeing the juniper green orb that Tifanī was holding, "Wow, an interview! Kūkiatsu, this would let people in other parts of Fiore hear about the new perfume that we managed to create!"
"Kusabue, you shouldn't blatantly share a secret formula in a public interview!" Kūkiatsu told his sister in a concerned tone, before looking worried and pushing Lucy's hand away as he got in front of the Surveillance Lacrima Crystal.
Despite how Kūkiatsu started to show off his own Wind Magic in the form of a small tornado appearing in midair to the camera instead of letting Lucy display her spells, Tifanī felt like she had to keep the Surveillance Lacrima Crystal on to avoid suddenly looking very suspicious. She was already perceived as a crazed fan of Sabertooth who tried stealing a package that they needed to receive, and stopping the interview after mainly getting footage of Lucy that was secretly for Kirika would make Tifanī seem like a weird reporter. She had to maintain her fake occupation, since this encounter with Lucy and her friends was quite rare.
It was also quite rare to see Kūkiatsu now wear something fancy, due to how he was now wearing a light green tuxedo jacket with some mint green dress pants that matched his dark green dress shoes, and the wind-wielding mage had purchased those clothes with the money that he and Kusabue earned from completing jobs. The money from jobs also allowed Kusabue to dress somewhat fancier, as she was now wearing a sleeveless and frilly mint green dress that had a dark green stripe in the middle of it while that stripe was bordered by two plain green stripes that were thinner. Those thin stripes had olive green bows on them while they matched Kusabue's olive green shoes, which matched the cute jungle green bow that was in her hair.
The jungle green bow interestingly had its color be part of a halter top that was now worn by Risa, who came running towards Lucy's side of the group with Rogue running right beside her, and Risa's halter top had a pentagonal emerald brooch right above her chest. Risa's chest had a dark green bra covering her large breasts while it matched her lacy forest green panties, and she was glad that the color of her panties complimented the neon green Capri pants that she wore. Those pants went well with her high-heeled shoes that had straps on the fronts of them while they were in the basil shade of green, too. That basil shade of green went well with her plain green earrings, and Risa also wore a juniper green headband.
After seeing that her headband matched the color of Tifanī's orb, Risa got in front of the Surveillance Lacrima Crystal to say with a proud smile on her face, "Hello, Sabertooth fans! We're the guild's best mages, and that's a great fact that you should never forget!"
Rogue told Risa with a kind smile on his face while holding all of her green shopping bags in his hands, "People also won't forget how you're wearing that great outfit, which you chose after two hours of trying on clothes."
"Well, it takes time to look great. After all, I have to strategize with being fashionable instead of being a creative tactician like Lucy when it comes to style." Risa nicely responded to her boyfriend, before turning around to cutely smile at him.
Risa's comment prompted Tifanī to comically aim her juniper green orb over at Lucy's hot pink shoes that had the design of light pink swirling orbs on their fronts, as she felt like that was the best way to get some visual evidence of Lucy being a creative tactician when being stylish was an important task, and Tifanī certainly wouldn't have improvised with that choice of shoes for a simple T-shirt complimenting a plaid skirt that had multiple shades of pink. Lucy's fashion choice was the best physical piece of info that Tifanī felt like she could receive from the green-haired girl as proof of her intelligence, since she felt like it would be too risky to ask to see Lucy's spells with all of her friends around.
She even turned around to look at Yukino, noticing her focused expression towards the situation while also noticing that she wore a light blue blouse with a turquoise blue mid-length skirt to match, and the skirt even went well with her sapphire blue flat shoes. Tifanī briefly glanced down at Yukino's shoes, before wondering if the next ring would be in a place pertaining to the color blue, but the fact that her glance made Lucy groan in a confused manner made Tifanī realize that she could no longer continue with the alleged interview. She decided to hastily run away, comically behind a large amount of brown dust clouds that obscured some of the concession stands, and she started to frown in a somewhat disappointed manner at how she would have to report this news to Kirika later.
Three hours later, in Ryokufū Town...
After getting to Haruna's house where the princess was currently getting ready to help some mages with unveiling an important emerald green statue of Lucy in the center of the town, Tifanī decided to go through a hollow spot that was in the left grassy hedge bordering the house. The hedge's hole led to a nearby hot spring that had been filled with dark green herbal leaves, the steamy water looking pale green from the herbs touching it, and the temperature of the water made Tifanī feel hot enough to where she could start taking off her clothes.
She removed most of her clothes to now be in a red bikini top that had straps, along with two cherry red bows in the center of the bikini top, and Tifanī also wore a cherry red bikini bottom that had five scarlet red bows being on the front of the bikini bottom. Tifanī proceeded to start bending over, wanting to stretch while her eyes took notice of the water in front of her, but someone soon took notice of her. The person who had their eyes on Tifanī was Kirika, who crawled in through an adjacent hedge's hole while not minding that the horn bush was tearing away at her clothes, and the guild mistress of Moon Rainbow kept watching the rookie.
She got to see Tifanī have her back towards her, before she bent over to unintentionally show Kirika that her ass had gotten bigger, and Kirika also liked seeing the mage's breasts bounce a bit. Tifanī's breasts were quite large while she seemed to have also been getting herself to have a better figure over the past five months, wanting to look as beautiful as some of the girls who had been in Sorcerer Magazine, but Tifanī always felt like she had to work hard to impress Kirika. If she couldn't satisfy the leader of Moon Rainbow, then Tifanī would get treated like a forgettable mage who couldn't even do her act of espionage properly.
Tifanī started to smile in a somewhat calmer manner at how she at least tried to do her best today without getting caught, and the fact that she wasn't found out as a member of Kotomi's guild made her feel better. She felt good enough to sigh happily, before turning around to look at the water, but she soon looked up at the sight of Kirika walking on the green cobblestones surrounding the hot spring. This was the place where Kirika had wanted to meet up with Tifanī, instead of just making her report in through a Communications Lacrima Crystal to possibly deliver bad news, and being near a hot spring made Kirika appropriately remove her white dress shirt right before she removed her lavender Capri pants. She was now left in a houndstooth bikini that had the pattern of mocha brown with regular brown, and Kirika lightly dipped her feet into the water. That prompted Tifanī to also get in the water, slowly swimming up to her master, and they quickly locked eyes with each other.
"Well, do you have what I want?" Kirika asked Tifanī with a sultry smirk on her face, as she put one hand under the younger woman's chin.
Tifanī replied with her cheeks blushing pink, looking a bit nervous, "I... I got as much as I could for you, Mistress Kirika. You'll find that Lucy Heartfilia is still keeping Kotomi's body beautiful, and she's very strategic without showing off her spells. She may be smarter than me, but-"
"That's some good information, my dear Tifanī. You've finally done something very beneficial to your guild mistress, so you deserve a nice reward. You'll receive it, after you close your eyes." Kirika told her in a soft whisper, before giggling a bit in a satisfied manner at her efforts not going to waste.
Tifanī obeyed Kirika's order of closing her eyes, and she soon felt the lips of her mistress come into contact with hers. Their lips gently pressed together, before Kirika kissed Tifanī more romantically to increase the amount of passion that the red-haired girl could feel from the kiss, and being kissed like this was causing Tifanī to blush even more. Her cheeks became hot pink, almost like they were blushing with just as much heat as the hot water she was currently bathing in, and Tifanī could only let herself return the kiss.
She kissed back with just as much emotion, really loving that Kirika was so proud of her, and receiving a nice comment from the pink-haired woman was something that had been one of Tifanī's goals. She had wanted recognition from Kirika, who only wanted to use her for her own goals, and being a pawn made Tifanī not want to get disposed of so easily like how a pawn typically would. She wanted to be valued more and more by Kirika after this, causing Tifanī to give in to her heart's feelings of liking how she was physically close to Kirika right now.
Kirika was glad to be in the water with Tifanī right now, their bodies close together to where their breasts were lightly pressing against each other, and she soon broke the kiss. Ending the kiss allowed Kirika to make one hand go around to Tifanī's back to gently pull down Tifanī's bikini bottom, and she slowly pulled it down. She let it drop all the way down to where it would no longer be around her legs, and Kirika quickly pulled it out of the water to throw it towards Tifanī's other clothes. Her other clothes were soon having her bikini top next to them, due to how Tifanī let Kirika unclasp the bikini top for Tifanī's back to now be bare, and the bikini top was thrown over to her small pile of clothes. That pile of clothes wasn't the only one that would get a bit bigger, due to Kirika unclasping her own bikini top with one hand while pulling down the bikini bottom with the other, and both women were now nude.
(Note: This part contains lemon.)
Now that they were both naked, Kirika turned around and leaned forward to let Tifanī see her large ass. Kirika's ass cheeks were beautiful and round, even being shiny to where Tifanī could slightly see her reflection in them, and she playfully wiggled her butt at Tifanī. That made the timid girl blush more while her heart was beating with slight feelings of lust that were beginning to build up inside of her heart, a nd she walked over to her mistress. Tifanī wasted no time with placing her hands on Tifanī's huge ass, before giving soft kisses to her cheeks, and she started to let her tongue lick Kirika's ass.
That caused Kirika to elicit a few soft moans of pleasure, her body feeling warmer from how Tifanī was pleasuring her ass, and Tifanī even let her head rest down on Kirika's ass for her wet hair to just stroke it in a slow manner. Those slow strokes made Kirika clench her teeth, before she felt Tifanī lick her ass in a fast and circular manner. Tifanī was trying to lick up some of the water that was on Kirika's ass, only making it more wet, and she even planted very soft kisses on Kirika's ass. Kirika felt her ass become warm with a blush from how Tifanī's tongue rubbed against it so much, and that made her feel like slamming her ass against Tifanī's face.
Tifanī fell down into the water, before Kirika turned around to pick her up by her legs, and the younger wizard started to just raise her legs. She also raised her feet up high to where she let her toes wiggle against Kirika's breasts, trying to tickle her mistress while even getting one of Kirika's nipples to be between her toes. Tifanī's toes gently squeezed one of Kirika's nipples, causing her to let out a satisfied moan of pleasure, and this type of feet-play even involved the soles of Tifanī's feet rubbing against the undersides of Kirika's breasts.
Kirika felt herself blush cherry pink from how Tifanī's feet were brushing against her large breasts, but she wouldn't let Tifanī have all of the fun in this situation. Kirika pleasured Tifanī by putting one of her wet fingers into the mage's pussy, letting it slip into her vagina while it went past Tifanī's field of red hair. That field of hair around her vagina was already wet from the water, but slowly stroking it with one hand while pumping a finger from her adjacent hand into Tifanī's pussy was definitely a good way for Kirika to pleasure her subordinate. She noticed that Tifanī was now trying to look up at her, smiling a bit while her eyes were pleading with feelings of submission in them.
"Ahhh... Mistress... Kirika, I want... you to love me." Tifanī told her in an aroused manner after letting out a soft moan, her face displaying a loving smile.
Kirika responded to Tifanī in a cam manner, as the feeling of lust made its way into her eyes, "I definitely love you, Tifanī. I certainly love how you made yourself get such a sexy body for you to become one of my sexiest slaves."
"Y-yes, Mistress Kirika. I... want... you to... dominate me." Tifanī softly whispered to her mistress, the pleasure in her mind growing from how Kirika made another pump into her vagina at a fast pace.
Tifanī's desire to be dominated prompted Kirika to remove her fingers from Tifanī's pussy for the purpose of holding her in a bridal-style manner like a groom holding the beautiful bride before walking away to where their lovemaking would truly occur, and Kirika pulled her fingers out of Tifanī's pussy. She used both of her hands to carry Tifanī out of the water, before placing her on the cobblestone ground. Once Tifanī was on the ground, Kirika knelt down by her side before getting on top of her. After getting on top of Tifanī and letting their legs brush against each other, Kirika gave a soft kiss to Tifanī's lips.
The soft kiss was very brief, but it was quickly followed by Kirika making her tongue go down into Tifanī's mouth. Tifanī let her own tongue start to lightly rub against Kirika's tongue, gently rubbing in a slow and gentle manner that contrasted with Kirika roughly rubbing her tongue down on hers as a way to seduce Tifanī even more, and she was letting herself give in to the older woman's lustful feelings that were overpowering her own smaller feelings. Tifanī ended up stroking Kirika's face with her hands, causing Kirika to do the same to her.
Although, Kirika's strokes against Tifanī's face were much faster while she even rubbed her cheeks to make them feel more warmth. That feeling of warmth aroused Tifanī to where she didn't even mind it when Kirika began to grope her breasts, only letting more loving moans of pleasure at how Kirika chose to shift between gently rubbing her breasts or roughly squeezing them. When Kirika squeezed one of Tifanī's breasts, she felt the younger girl's hands come up from the cobblestone floor to start groping her large breasts.
"Ooooh... You've got... a gentle touch." Kirika told Tifanī with an aroused smile on her face, before moaning.
Tifanī replied sweetly, before moaning softly as her face became more pink, "I'm so... glad... Ahhhh..."
"Although, my... touch is... more satisfying... Ohhhh..." Kirika told her with a smirk of superiority forming on her face, before moaning and positioning herself to where her pussy was directly above Tifanī's vagina.
Kirika proceeded to let Tifanī feel how her touch could be quite satisfying, due to how she pinched both of the mage's nipples with her hands to make them become erect while she gently rubbed her pussy against Tifanī's pussy. The intense amount of sexual pleasure caused Kirika to blush more pink, enjoying how this situation felt wonderful to her, and she even flicked Tifanī's nipples after pinching them. She watched Tifanī clench her teeth in a pleasured manner, blushing more as she fondled Kirika's breasts in response to the pleasure, and Kirika continued to smirk at her.
She even maintained her smirk while planting an affectionate kiss on Tifanī's cheek, making the kiss have feelings of love in it to where Tifanī let out a happy sigh while her body shook with warm feelings of arousal from how Kirika gently rubbed her pussy against hers. Kirika stayed down on her convulsing body, before kissing her other cheek two more times, but she soon felt Tifanī hastily thrust her pussy up against hers several times in a somewhat rough manner. That roughness was followed by Tifanī gently rubbing her vagina up and down slowly, sliding her wet pussy against Kirika's as if her tongue had been licking her pussy, and both women moaned while biting their lips.
They were trying to hold in their orgasms, which were building up from the pleasure, but Tifanī felt like she couldn't hold hers in for very long. That was because of how Kirika moved her hands away from her nipples to rub her pussy, rubbing it with her wet fingers before teasing Tifanī by briefly putting all the fingers of one hand into it, and briefly tickling one of Tifanī's walls made Kirika sweat from the pleasure. Sweat rapidly perspired from her body, just like how Tifanī was also beginning to perspire, but the feeling of Tifanī putting two fingers into her pussy made Kirika feel like she could no longer stop herself from having her orgasm.
"MISTRESS KIRIKA!" Tifanī shouted in a loving manner with her eyes closed, blushing as she released her orgasm.
"TIFANIE!" Kirika loudly responded in an aroused manner, blushing before moaning loudly.
Both women ended up having their orgasms at the exact same time, getting covered in each other's juices, and Kirika liked how Tifanī's juices felt quite warm. They weren't as warm as the juices that landed on Tifanī's lips, however, and she used the last bits of her strength to lick them up with her tongue. Kirika's juices tasted quite good, making Tifanī feel satisfied that Kirika chose to give her this type of reward. Kirika smiled down at Tifanī in an appreciative manner, glad that she could have sexual pleasure with another beautiful mage.
However, Kirika felt like she would've been much more pleasured if she had sex with Kotomi Takeuchi. The fact that the thief was in a very beautiful body right now only made Kirika wonder if Kotomi had also been taking care of her body over the past five months. That amount of time didn't involve Kirika paying much attention to Kotomi's figure, due to her success on stealing valuable items always seeming to overshadow that, but Kirika would love to just gaze at Kotomi's body for a good amount of time. That thought caused her to look up at Tifanī's clothes, remembering that she gave her a Surveillance Lacrima Crystal for spying on Lucy Heartfilia, and Kirika used her remaining strength to walk towards the orb. She felt like it would be necessary to see if Lucy Heartfilia made Kotomi have a sexy body that matched her alleged high intelligence, and Kirika also started to smirk in a seductive manner from wondering if the real Kotomi was being quite sexy right now.
Concurrently, in Magnolia Town...
Kotomi smiled in a slightly sultry and manipulative manner from watching Gray and Natsu argue about different jobs that they were going to handle, watching them have another argument during the past five months where Erza hadn't been around to stop either of them from expressing how they heavily disliked each other, and she refused to stop them from arguing. They would even argue on missions while both males complaining how things would've been better if the other one had gone out to Gunjou Town with Lucy and Erza on the fateful day where the scarlet-haired mage had died, and Gray had heard enough of Natsu blaming him for his friend's death.
Even though he had been doing that exact same thing to Natsu, Gray felt like he couldn't stay around the fire dragon slayer anymore. Natsu had been arguing with him about things such as how they couldn't even find Erza's scent in Gunjou Cave, not even finding her scent to still be in the air whenever they chose to handle any job that would make the trio go to the town of Gunjou, and Gray felt like his inability to specifically sense Erza's magic wasn't as bad as how Natsu's strong sense of smell couldn't find her. Since Natsu's superior way of a tracking a mage was just as ineffective as his own skills, Gray finally felt like the team members needed space from each other instead of always arguing.
He wanted some space away from Natsu for the chance of being able to quietly think, and Gray chose to divert away from Natsu by taking a different route that would lead him out of Magnolia Town. He would end up heading to the town of Seigan, which was an icy town that he previously visited with his teammates, and the black-haired male who wore a mint green shirt with black pants to match his brown shoes would be accompanied by his most fashionable friend. The girl who he perceived to be Lucy simply wore an orange T-shirt that went well with her brown plaid skirt, and her black leggings went well with her dark orange high-heeled wedges. She also wore a dark orange ribbon in her hair, having it tied in a side ponytail, and Gray began to think about how his friend looked a bit cute.
She didn't look cute to where he had any romantic feelings for her, but Gray just liked how his friend cared about her sense of fashion. He thought that Lucy dressed better than Juvia, who tended to now wear blue clothing, and Gray was glad that Juvia had been called away from the Fairy Tail guild by a surprising group of mages who seemed to only need her as the only Fairy Tail mage who would be a necessary wizard. Gray wouldn't have to deal with her flirting with him or seeing Lucy as a rival, since both things were troublesome to deal with, and he gave a friendly smile to Lucy.
"Even though you have to help out me and flame-brain on different jobs, Lucy, I'm still glad that you're not upset enough to officially get rid of the idea of working in teams. By working well together, that's how we'll be successful on missions." Gray told his friend with a kind facial expression, glad that they were still a good team of mages.
Kotomi responded with a very happy smile on her face, giggling a bit as she walked alongside him, "I'm very glad that you and I have always done excellent work on our missions, Gray!"
"You're the one who's more excellent, though. After all, you've been helping me out with devising good strategies and we've come a very long way from when we lost to that wind-wielding wizard in Tokiwa Town." Gray replied to her with a calm facial expression, his dark blue eyes showing Kotomi that he was incredibly grateful that Lucy Heartfilia had been extremely intelligent.
The last part of his final sentence made Kotomi feel like she had to resist the strong urge of laughing right now, since she started to think about how jobs that were handled with Gray involved her coming up with more of the interesting strategies while he only supported her with simple spells. Their previous job of showing off beautiful spells to a client who lived in Kuchiba Town required Gray to create spiky chunks of ice with his Ice-Make Magic while Kotomi used explosive spells of her Celestial Spirit Magic to make the blasts' golden radiance be reflected off of the ice, and Gray even boosted the power of the ice for it to shine intensely. That luminous brightness made Kotomi's celestial spells look much brighter, and the crowd was definitely impressed.
They had been just as impressed as Gray, who was glad that Lucy had been training herself quite hard for the past five months, and he liked how Lucy had gotten so strong. She was probably tough enough to defeat past opponents who she had faced in the Grand Magic Games, such as Minerva Orland, and Gray would be glad to cheer for his friend. He wanted to support Lucy in competitions and jobs, especially since she didn't even get to compete for the rest of the Grand Magic Games after the fourth day's event ended, and Gray always encouraged her to fight very hard.
The fact that Lucy always fought very hard like a strategic and merciless mage against bandits or people who worked in dark guilds was something that caused Gray to feel like his friend was really striving to improve from when she suffered in that fight against Kotomi Takeuchi, and Gray gave Lucy a smile of confidence from thinking that she could defeat Kotomi if they ever crossed paths again for a fight. Gray himself would soon cross paths with a certain pink-haired girl who helped Juvia defeat in a fight against Lamia Scale, though, and Gray watched her walk down the red cobblestone street with a dark blue flyer in her hands. She glanced up from the flyer to see him and Lucy, before her blue eyes showed a friendly feeling of happiness.
"Hi, Lucy Heartfilia and Gray Fullbuster! It's great to see you again!" Sherria Blendy told the mages with a kind smile on her face, before clumsily tripping over her own feet and falling forward.
Gray responded with a relaxed look on his face, as he saw her quickly get back on her feet, "Hey, Sherria."
Kotomi added while smiling kindly, hoping that her impersonation of Lucy could fool someone who she perceived to be a stranger, "Hello, Sherria! If you're handling a job here in Magnolia, then I hope it'll be fun for you!"
"Actually, Lucy, it may be something that you love more than I would. The client told me that I have to get an answer from you about if you'll participate in the upcoming Grand Reverie Icy Frigid Tour, since they have the event exclusively for beautiful female mages who would want to be in Seigan Town. Aside from that condition, this person also wants to see people who have strong rivals." Sherria explained to Kotomi with a soft smile on her face, before giggling at how she herself was invited to the event.
That last sentence made Kotomi start to look at Sherria with a perplexed facial expression, as she didn't perceive herself to have any rivals who were at her level of skill, and that only made Sherria blink her eyes in a confused manner. Kotomi was more confused to where she simply looked at Sherria's pink sleeveless top that had a dark blue center, which went well with her pale blue miniskirt that complimented her black stockings. The stockings were above her white leg-warmers that were on top of her black shoes, and the black shoes went well with Sherria's new black gloves.
She wore those gloves in preparation for the Grand Reverie Icy Frigid Tour, since her Sky God Slayer Magic had coated the gloves earlier in the day in the sunlight to warm them up for when the Grand Reverie Icy Frigid Tour, would take place. Sherria would definitely attend the event, but she wondered if Lucy had forgotten about her alleged rival. Sherria remembered Juvia being rivals with Lucy during the Naval Battle, as the blue-haired woman fought quite hard against Lucy to impress Gray, but the fact that the pink-haired girl could recall that detail only made her frown with a slight bit of sadness at how Lucy forgot about that small detail.
Sherria watched Kotomi's perplexed facial expression change to a calmer frown, her cocoa brown eyes showing a look of refusal to attend something she deemed to be unimportant, and the fact that Kotomi's eyes became focused on Gray folding up his flyer to put it in the left pocket of his pants made Sherria interpret the blonde-haired girl's actions to be a nonverbal way of communicating that she wouldn't be at the Grand Reverie Icy Frigid Tour in Seigan Town. Sherria would have to go back there and report the news to the client, who only wanted her to personally invite certain mages who were in legal guilds and some dark guilds, and she started to look apologetic at how she couldn't get Lucy Heartfilia to attend the Grand Reverie Icy Frigid Tour.
"Well, I'll just tell Hiyasu that you aren't interested. Hopefully, she won't be too displeased." Sherria told Kotomi with a slight frown on her face, recalling how she even retrieved the flyer from a room that quickly became frozen with ice after another mage failed to be of any use to that group.
Kotomi replied calmly while walking away with Gray, before her eyes showed distate towards Sherria, "If that person gets upset, than that's their problem. Gray and I have our own problems to handle, Sherria. Focus on your own issues, too."
"Lucy, isn't that a bit rude? Hey, Lucy!" Gray asked her with a concerned look on his face, before he started to look startled at how she quickly grabbed one of his hands to run away with him.
Kotomi merely said nothing while they left Sherria behind, only focusing on the important job that had to be completed, and she ran through Magnolia Town with Gray while smiling. He assumed that she really wanted to get this job done while no other events would be given higher priority, and the ice-creating mage watched Kotomi run down a nearby street with him. They soon swerved to the left, going in the direction of the train station, and Gray was trying his best to keep up with his friend's running speed. Kotomi had gotten much faster over the past five months, and her grip on Gray's hand was also stronger now.
He soon felt like she was pulling him in her direction, causing Gray to apply Ice-Make Magic to his feet for him to boost his own speed by sliding forward, and he unintentionally made the ice cover the rest of the street. The street became slippery, causing several civilians to fall after slipping, but Gray's concern for the civilians was overshadowed by how Kotomi seemed to be skilled at moving forward on the ice while also running at high speeds. She didn't stop running in the direction of the train station while quietly activating the Kaze's Feather Dance spell for two mint green feathers to fall on to her feet to make herself run even faster with Gray behind her.
He continued to go down the street with his friend, sliding incredibly fast while also feeling high winds blow against his face, but Gray's choice of sliding on the ice was soon met with how Kotomi accidentally released her strong grip on his hand. She also ended up pushing him forward by thrusting her arm forward at the very last second before letting go, causing Gray to be sliding very far towards an upcoming bridge at very high speeds, but his feet quickly began to be unsteady when the cobblestone street changed to a minor path of brown dirt that was in front of the red wooden bridge. Gray couldn't make himself grab the bridge's nearest red pillar or the top plain red railing fast enough to stop himself, making him stumble very fast when he couldn't keep his balance very stable during the transition of going from slippery ice to hard dirt, and Gray seemed like he would either fall hard on the bridge's wood or stumble too far to where he might fall off the bridge. Before he leaned too far over the railing after harshly crashing into it, Gray felt himself be saved by the very quick arrival of a helpful teammate who seemed to quietly save him.
After looking surprised enough to turn around and see that Lucy was right behind him, Gray told her with a relieved smile on his face before suddenly looking anxious as he was feeling something strange about the situation, "Thanks, Lucy. It's amazing that you got here so... quickly in that short amount of time... without me even hearing your footsteps on that hard dirt or the bridge's wood."
"Gray, you know that I've trained myself to be much stronger and move much faster. There's no need to act like it's something you haven't seen from me before." Lucy's impostor replied to him with a feigned smile of assurance on her face, hiding a very faint smirk as she tried to act as if her immensely high speed was a typical thing.
Gray fearfully responded with words of denial to the girl who he thought was Lucy, backing away from her in utter shock after looking down at her fast feet to notice where the sound of sizzling was coming from while the black skid marks near her feet made him feel very uncomfortable, "Lucy, you don't... usually move so fast to where I can't see you. You definitely don't run so fast to leave behind... marks that I've only seen one other time. That girl who beat you so long ago could do that, but.. you never told us one word about trying to copy her spell. Lucy, please say that this anxiety... is coming from you suddenly copying her spell without telling me."
"Copying her spell without telling you is... what I would say if you weren't so observant to look down at my feet. I'm surprised that you still remember my movements from that fight, Gray Fullbuster, so I can't continue with deceiving you. You were fooled for so long to believe that I was your friend named Lucy Heartfilia, but I've... always been Kotomi Takeuchi because of an ancient spell that I used on that fateful day." Kotomi explained to Gray with a dark expression on her face, as she started to evilly smirk at Gray's panicking face.
The black-haired male widened his eyes in utter shock at hearing that this girl was never actually Lucy, only being an impostor the entire time, and Gray had many thoughts running through his mind right now. He wondered if the real Lucy was even safe right now, hoping that she wasn't dead somewhere while this girl had her body and voice. The fact that Kotomi even had Lucy's voice made Gray recall when the real Lucy called him from Sabertooth, and he clenched his fists with immense feelings of regret at how he didn't believe her over an emotional impostor.
The fact that Kotomi even copied Lucy's attitude made Gray feel so disgusted, perceiving himself as stupid for even believing her without getting much more information, but more feelings of shock and regret came from how Gray felt responsible for this mess. He was the person who picked out Team Natsu's job at Tokiwa Town on that unfortunate day, resulting in the team nearly dying while the theft of Lucy's body was insult to injury, and Gray couldn't even protect Lucy. He couldn't help his friend at that time, being so overconfident and weaker than Kotomi, and Gray had his hair cover his eyes at the thought of how he probably couldn't do much to help out the real Lucy now. That wouldn't stop him from trying, and he tightly clenched his fists while activating his Ice-Make Magic.
Gray proceeded to use the Ice-Make: Hammer spell, creating a large hammer made of ice in his hands, but running towards Kotomi only made him be hurt by a spell that she activated after placing her right hand against his chest. The spell was called Celestial Star Implosion, and it made a gold sphere of Celestial Spirit Magic surround Gray. He looked quite shocked at how his spell was also nullified, before quickly hearing the sphere tick like a clock counting down, and hearing the ticking speed up made Gray be too shocked to where he couldn't try to defend himself against the spell that made an extremely strong explosion occur inside of itself.
Kotomi quickly moved away from the explosion to see Gray fall down on to the bridge, but she watched him slowly stand up again. He made sharp icicles be created in his hands, but that only prompted Kotomi to unleash a spell known as Celestial Luminous Aura. The spell made seven golden beams float around in a counterclockwise-moving circle in front of her right hand, and the beams were quite radiant with pastel gold beams of light emanating from them. The radiant spell was fired at Gray, who put more magical power into enlarging his icicles for them to glow brighter with more strength, but throwing them at the beams only made the icicles easily get shattered while the beams seemed to grow in size. They all immediately struck Gray to create seven golden blasts that were quite large, before the blasts became pastel gold, and the strength of the attack also destroyed the bridge. Kotomi quickly jumped above the wrecked bridge, and she watched Gray be sent skidding to the other side of the canal. He managed to get up, but Gray was heavily bruised and bloodied while he winced in an extreme amount of pain from his wounds. Gray had never felt that pain because of high durability, but there were spells for circumventing around his advantage.
"Celestial Luminous Aura not only gets stronger from absorbing any kind of light that's hitting it, but it can come down on you like light. Of course, it can come down and break through your durability before softening you up for the rest of a battle." Kotomi explained to Gray with a vicious smile on her face, feeling proud that her tendency to make schemes in a battle always worked out nicely.
Gray shouted sternly, not letting her words discourage him from helping Lucy, "Shut your mouth, bitch!"
"I really don't think I have to, especially against trash such as you. Let's see if you can withstand my Celestial Golden Stars of Astra." Kotomi replied to him with a scheming look on her face, doubting that Gray could win.
Gray was goaded into jumping up from the ground to come down towards Kotomi with spiky chunks of ice now surrounding his fists for him to have drill-like ice shards on his hands while sending magical power into them made his attacks spin like drills, but that didn't faze Kotomi. She merely charged up a pastel gold sphere in her right hand while five stars in the regular shade of gold floated around it, and Kotomi stepped back right before slamming the spell down on the ground. She ended up creating a massive pastel golden blast that quickly engulfed Gray, its power being strong enough to shatter his ice with ease, and the five gold blasts that occurred afterwards all had the power of their blasts focused on destroying him.
He soon fell down to the ground while being on his knees in front of Kotomi, who evaded the blast at the last second with her high speed, and Gray's shirt had been completely torn off while his body sustained a major amount of damage. He couldn't even stand up anymore, not even able to move his legs, and Kotomi felt like she needed to end this little fight. She activated a spell called Starry Celestial Explosion, and it required Kotomi to move around at high speeds. She moved to five different points around Gray, before those areas she stopped at were now becoming pastel gold circles that brightly glowed, and Kotomi watched five beams of celestial energy emerge up from those points. They went high into the sky, gaining more power from the beams of sunlight that made gold stars start to surround them in the form of circular rings, and the beams all came down at high speeds to strike Gray! They created five massive explosions in a pastel gold color, all of their energy pinpointed on Gray to severely damage him, and the strong amount of power in the five consecutive blasts sent him high into the air.
He loudly crashed down into the canal's water, blood dripping more from his severe wounds while his clothes were severely torn to where the blasts even burned away the flyer, and Gray felt himself start to lose consciousness. He could no longer hear anything while water filled his lungs, blood coming out of his wounds at a much faster rate to where the canal's blue water started to become red, and the last images that Gray could actually see were Kotomi fleeing very quickly with Kaze's Feather Dance to practically teleport away from the scene only a few minutes before he began to think back to that day when the real Lucy smiled happily at how he supposedly picked out a great job.
"I'm sorry, Lucy... I'm.. so... sorry that... I let this all... happen to you. Lucy,... goodbye." Gray thought to himself during his last seconds of life, before floating down the canal and letting his eyes close at the very last thought of his blonde-haired friend having a genuine smile on her face again someday.
How was Chapter 43? Feel free to tell me your thoughts on it. Lucy has a bit of trouble with dating Sting while being in Kotomi's body, but they will talk more about that issue in the upcoming arc. This arc was merely the beginning of that plot point being expanded upon. Speaking of expanding points, Kirika and Lucy are starting to have their plots intersect, as they're both after treasures while being on opposite sides, and Kirika now has some more info on Lucy. Also, Sherria will eventually get more info on the real Lucy in the next arc. That certainly contrasts with how Gray let himself have very little info on Kotomi switching bodies with Lucy, and he didn't fight intensely because of how he was dealing with the sudden shock and guilt of letting something horrible happen to his friend. Also, this is the final chapter of the post-Emerald Wind Arc. The next chapter will be where a new arc begins. I'll update soon. :)
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