Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.
Chapter 46: Cheering Lucy Up! Seigan Town's Fashion Show Commences! Aoiumi & Kotomi Meet Again! Fubuki's Cold Demeanor & Frosty Distrust!
After getting themselves registered at one of Seigan Town's inns on the previous day, all of the members from Sabertooth's group of wizards simply walked into Lucy's room. As Lucy sat down on the light blue four-poster bed that matched the cerulean blue walls and sapphire blue flooring, she kept looking down at the floor. Her glance stayed focused on the flooring, looking down as she felt quite down about what had happened yesterday, and Lucy felt very depressed. She was upset to have lost that fight, and this was Lucy's first time officially losing instead of winning or settling for a draw while in Kotomi's body.
Lucy had worked so hard to collect five of the legendary rings, along with training intensely to make each type of magic be at a high level, and she even pushed herself to work quite hard with her Wind Magic. She also trained hard to greatly strengthen her spells of Plant Magic, but neither type of magic made Lucy be able to beat Emiria. She could still hear that mage's rude laugh echoing in her mind, recalling her opponent's rude words about how she had been a wizard who had weak skills with her magic, and Lucy looked frustrated while putting her hands against her ears.
She didn't want to hear those thoughts about how she was weak, since they would only make her start to truly feel inferior when comparing herself to all of the other rivaling mages who were part of the Grand Reverie Icy Frigid Tour, and Lucy really needed to block out words of negativity. If she ever told herself that Emiria outclassed her, then Lucy would start to always believe that and another consequence would be that she probably wouldn't make herself be capable of beating anyone who was seemingly stronger than that cold woman.
Emiria's cold demeanor during that fight definitely surprised Lucy, since acting cold as ice while in a fight was definitely contrasting with how previous enemies were either just cocky or angered during battles, and Lucy felt like she would have to learn to be merciless in battles. There had been times where she defeated her enemies out of revenge of determination, but coldness and mercilessness weren't exactly two of Lucy's strongest traits. Still, lacking those traits made Lucy angrily clench her fists in frustration and she couldn't even make the trait of coldness help her with balancing on the ice. If Lucy could've balanced on the ice, then she felt like the fight would've been more of a shifting battle in terms of who could win. However, Lucy had to deal with the reality of losing and she even growled in fierce anger while Kusabue decided to speak.
"Lucy-san, please don't be upset. The mages in this town are strong, but you're strong enough to-" Kusabue told Lucy with a comforting smile on her face, before aggressively getting interrupted by Lucy.
Lucy responded to Kusabue with an irritated facial expression while sounding snappish, "If I'm so strong, then I shouldn't have lost that fight! If they're all as strong as Emiria, then all my training has gone to waste! Don't be so optimistic, Kusabue!"
"Kusabue was actually being realistic towards you, Lucy-san. All of us have seen your skills, and you can bounce back from this loss. When the wind shifts against you, push back at it instead of letting it throw you off your path." Kūkiatsu told Lucy with a stern and encouraging look in his eyes, not wanting his friend to feel so upset.
Kūkiatsu felt like Lucy couldn't let the winds of fate knock her off the path towards achieving her goal, since her determination to win needed to be quite strong or she would never achieve her goals. Kūkiatsu didn't want his friend to just give up on her goal after experiencing one harsh loss, since perseverance was the only way for a mage to overcome difficult situations. Kūkiatsu felt like it would be a terrible time for Lucy to feel like she could never win, especially since she was part of an event involving strong females and other rivals.
The fact that many strong women were in this event caused Kūkiatsu to wonder if Lucy would fight all of them, but he did think about the possibility of Lucy not having to fight every single female in this icy event. Other girls would probably be battling in different fights, as well as dealing with some of the male mages, and Kūkiatsu would probably get to see more of those fights. That would allow him to observe the mages who would possibly become eventual enemies of Lucy, as well as becoming foes of other Sabertooth mages.
The green-haired teenager had heard from Yukino about how Kusabue was nearly attacked by that mage named Kaisui, the young girl only being saved from that petty mage by the arrival of Suzuna Hiyayakana, and the fact that someone had the audacity to try hurting his younger sister was something that caused Kūkiatsu to feel that this event needed to become a free-for-all that would permit any mage to fight in Seigan Town. If this snowy and icy place would let him fight that woman without issuing any serious penalties, then Kūkiatsu would gladly try to get a victory for his little sister today.
"What are today's events, if you all don't mind me asking?" Kūkiatsu curiously asked his teammates, thinking about how this festival didn't have a preplanned schedule listed on any giant billboards or posters.
Risa told him with a nice smile on her face while pulling out a light blue guidebook that she purchased yesterday from one of Seigan Town's concession stands, before opening the book to a certain page and speaking more, "Let's see what the activities are for the second day of the Grand Reverie Icy Frigid Tour, Kūkiatsu. Today's main activities are skiing, ice fishing, attending a fashion show that's being conducted by some of Seigan Town's mages, and battles are being conducted near the frosty river."
"Lucy, would a fashion show make you feel a bit better? It may not involve any battling, but would attending that event for at least an hour be something that could cheer you up?" Sting asked his girlfriend in a calm tone while he softly smiled, thinking that a fashionable event could take her mind off of Emiria.
Sting's question prompted Lucy to have a soft smile on her face while her orange eyes were somewhat relaxed, "Maybe that would be something nice to see, Sting. Yeah, we can just check that out."
The idea of attending a fashion show wasn't something that Lucy expected to see in this frosty town, even with some of the residents seeming to have very stylish outfits, and she wondered if the guild mistresses were trying to display how Seigan Town could have flair that complimented its ruthless wizards. Combining mercilessness with beauty and grace was something that Lucy didn't perceive to be possible, but it would be rude to think that Seigan wasn't going to be more fascinating by adding to how they had a large lake behind the museum.
The icy lake also made Lucy start to wonder if the fashion show would feature mages who wore fashionable clothes pertaining to themes of water and ice, since Suzuna's outfit from yesterday really seemed to show Lucy that water was inspirational for fashionable clothing, and Lucy hoped that the clothing store would be selling some beautiful outfits. That included snow boots, which Risa planned to buy today for Lucy, and getting some snow boots would help Lucy later with her intense training that would involve using Wind Magic on icy surfaces.
By making herself slide across ice while wearing snow boots, Lucy would have a much easier time with using her spells of Wind Magic. She could probably move around easier, which would help Lucy with not slipping during battles, but Lucy also started to feel curious about needing ice skates. She and Risa had seen people skating on their way to the Cerulean Frost guild, and the fact that people could spin around so quickly caused Lucy to wonder if any ice skaters or models could inspire her to create some new techniques. She would have to see them at the fashion show, though, and Lucy got off of her bed to go out of her room with her friends. They could all go check out the fashion show, and Lucy really hoped that she could be cheered up.
30 minutes later, at the fashion show's backstage area...
As Lucy was feeling like she needed to try cheering up, Samui was also feeling like she needed to make herself be in a much happier mood. She attempted to smile in a pleased manner while sitting in front of the vanity, looking somewhat relaxed while she wore a strapless dress that was in the regular shade of blue, and Samui had to get ready for the upcoming fashion show. She would be displaying several winter outfits that could only be purchased in Seigan Town while other fashion models would accompany her, but Samui still felt worried for Aoiumi's safety.
She turned around to see her friend, who would be all by herself while Samui was performing on stage for the audience, and Aoiumi would only be able to defend herself without really being able to damage the enemy. If the enemy showed up at the fashion show, then Aoiumi would have to use several defensive spells to simply block their attacks. The spells would probably be countered by all of the shields, but all of that effort would amount to just making the enemy have less magical power while they wouldn't end up getting hurt.
Since they wouldn't get hurt, the enemy would probably have to deal with Aoiumi making several minutes of time be wasted. The time that they would spend on trying to defeat Aoiumi would involve those same minutes of time that were part of the fashion show's different segments, and Samui could possibly come back at the right time to help Aoiumi fight their enemy. That was entirely contingent on the younger girl's ability to survive in a fight, though, and Samui felt like Aoiumi couldn't last very long by herself.
She would probably end up getting herself badly injured, which made Samui start to have small tears in her eyes from perceiving Aoiumi to be quite brave in this situation, but Samui began to look worried and slightly cried at how bravery was something that had been associated with foolishness. Aoiumi would really be stupid to fight the enemy all by herself, even if she was trying to just waste their time until Samui showed up to provide backup with her powerful attacks, and Samui couldn't rush the fashion show at all. She didn't have the power to discuss that last-minute suggestion with her manager, who opened the sapphire blue door and entered the dressing room.
"Samui, you've got to be on stage in five minutes!" The manager with shoulder-length blue hair told Samui in a kind tone of voice, hoping she'd be ready soon.
Aoiumi told her friend with a confident facial expression, assurance in her lapis blue eyes, "Good luck, Samui! You can succeed on stage!"
After quickly wiping away her tears and making herself start to have a genuine smile of happiness on her face, Samui responded in a calm manner, "Thank you, Aoiumi! I'm ready now."
Samui ran out of the dressing room with a happy smile now being on her face, and her cerulean blue high-heeled shoes gently made soft sounds on the neon blue tiled floor as she ran towards the stage at high speeds. She even ran with the light blue aura of her magic faintly engulfing her feet, which was something that signaled Aoiumi to start getting ready for the situation where she would have to use her magic, and Aoiumi made a cobalt blue aura surround her hands. She noticed that her aura was the same color as the tuxedo and dress pants that were worn by Samui's manager, who had her somewhat long hair framing her face while a coif was over her left eye, and Aoiumi ran past the manager to enact her plan.
She decided to just stay out in the hallway while the manager went towards the backstage area, and Aoiumi decided to keep her eyes on the back door. That door may have been locked, but it wouldn't exactly be impossible for a mage to destroy the back door with a strong spell for them to break into the fashion show's venue. Aoiumi narrowed her eyes at the idea of instantaneously activating a defensive spell like an emergency reaction when an attack would be fired in her direction, and she felt like her plan of stalling the enemy was the best option in this particular situation.
Not only were the enemy and Aoiumi going to be in a backstage hallway where there weren't any people walking around, but battling in this somewhat tight space made Aoiumi think about trying to make the enemy get struck by explosions or blasts from their own spells. If they could get caught in those blasts and make themselves get injured, then the enemy wouldn't be able to move very fast. That would prevent them from quickly running past Aoiumi, who would probably have to infuse her magic into her hands for her punches to greatly be strengthened in a close-combat situation, and she started to smile with optimism at the plan of stalling for time until Samui arrived to help her out.
"That seems like a fantastic idea, if I have to honestly give my opinion about this plan! If anyone comes through that door, I'll just keep them here until Samui shows up!" Aoiumi stated aloud to herself with a confident smile on her face, before playfully spinning around in an optimistic manner.
Aoiumi added aloud in a somewhat nervous manner, as her brain started to have realistic thoughts about the situation, "Although, being in a narrow hallway with only one exit out of the venue from this area makes me wonder if I could last very long against a mage in a fight. That last fight only went on for five minutes before Samui ran away with me."
"The fact that Samui and I have to only rely on each other just makes my job be much more important, since there's no one else who can help us." Aoiumi thought to herself with a stern look on her face, building up her anger for it to increase the strength of her magical power as a way of preparing for the eventual fight.
Aoiumi refused to rely on anyone other than Samui, thinking that they would just end up betraying her instantly or only being helpful out of self-interest, and she couldn't handle dealing with people who were going to stab her in the back. She certainly never expected that the Fiore Fashion Games would lead to her and Samui getting stabbed in the back by the mage who they had to defeat in the end to win the money, since females from different guilds did form bonds with each other while ignoring which guilds they belonged to, and Aoiumi truly viewed that final event in the Fiore Fashion Games as a small scuffle between guilds.
That was very different from a criminal choosing to constantly stalk Samui and Aoiumi for the purpose of getting revenge on them, especially since the Fiore Fashion Games being concluded only meant that no one had to hold back with unleashing the power of their spells, and the criminal who gave Aoiumi and Samui so much trouble had always left them running away while they would be very wounded. Aoiumi never forgot about any of the wounds that she received, especially despising the first instance where she and Samui unfortunately ran into the criminal after the Fiore Fashion Games, and the three girls had bonded like they were a close group of friends during the fashion tournament.
That bond was only schemed up by the enemy for their own self-interest, though, and they had actually thought that Aoiumi and Samui would show them mercy in that final battle of the tournament. They actually thought that Samui would show enough compassion to just hit them with weak attacks out of pity before they'd actually retaliate with much stronger attacks, but Aoiumi's choice of not showing mercy to that selfish schemer is what helped her and Samui obtain a victory in that tournament. Of course, Aoiumi still groaned in frustration at how dealing with a schemer who wielded destructive spells was worse than the idea of having to encounter a schemer who just spent time thinking about their plans like how Kotomi had done.
Concurrently, at the entrance of the fashion show's building...
Lucy would now have to think of a plan for getting herself into the audience of people who would get to see the fashion show, since she and Sting were now standing in front of a guard who wore a dark blue round hand hat with a blue jacket to match while he had told the group that all of the seats were full to where some people would unfortunately have to sit on the floor. Some of those people who had to unfairly sit on the floor felt like they were being treated worse than the elite nobles of Seigan Town, who even let their slaves have their own seats.
The fact that some slaves had their own seats made some people feel uncomfortable, as they thought about how the collars exploding could freeze everyone in wide radiuses, and there were even some people who walked out of the fashion show's building out of fear. They didn't want to end up being frozen by the ice, since that level of Ice Magic could freeze a person to where they'd end up being like an ice statue, and those people didn't want to risk having their lives come to an end at an event that was happening during the festival.
The Grand Reverie Icy Frigid Tour also meant that important mages who were invited to it had been like celebrities, meaning that people did clear the way for Jenny and others who followed Suzuna Hiyayakana into the fashion show's building earlier, and some people did start to recognize Lucy's face from hearing about her in the newspaper. Those people proceeded to move aside while also letting the other Sabertooth mages pass by them, and three girls who recognized Lucy looked very pleased to see the princess of Kuchiba in their town.
They even took out juniper green orbs from the pockets of their winter clothes, the orbs being Surveillance Lacrima Crystals that had the feature of being able to take photos, and the girls who wore dark blue winter jackets with hoods over their heads happily took several pictures of Lucy. That prompted the green-haired girl to start posing while also smiling for the cameras, even winking with one eye for some of the photos, and she even built up magical power in her hands for her adoring fans to see the mint green Wind Magic.
"When your magic is this powerful, you can totally get into the Grand Reverie Icy Frigid Tour!" Lucy stated to her fans with a pleased smile on her face, wanting to be encouraging while statement also gave her a bit of encouragement.
"Speaking of getting into places, are we ever going to go inside the building where they're having the fashion show?" Risa asked her in a somewhat snarky manner with a calm facial expression, not wanting to just be staying outside in the cold weather.
Kusabue added while smiling nicely, seeing other people excitedly walk through the building's front doors, "Yeah, let's go in and see all of the pretty outfits!"
As Kusabue ran ahead of everyone else to go into the large foyer that had dark blue carpeting matching the ocean blue walls, her desire to see pretty outfits caused her to happily giggle. Kusabue herself wore some nice clothes underneath her jacket, wearing a dark green T-shirt with a shamrock green miniskirt that matched her plain green shoes. Her green shoes lightly made sounds as she ran across the carpet, her feet having magical power be applied to them for her to run faster with a shamrock green aura starting to surround her feet, and Kusabue even stretched out her hands to absorb the sound waves of the people around her.
The high amount of sound waves went well with the growing shamrock green aura, and that shade of green was similar to how Kūkiatsu wore forest green pants with a plain green shirt underneath his jacket. His shoes were in the color of emerald green, and Kūkiatsu ran after his sister to make sure that she wouldn't accidentally unleash her Sound Magic on anyone in the fashion show's auditorium. Not only would that make the auditorium get severely wrecked, but passing by people who had icy collars around their necks made Kūkiatsu be wary of how his younger sister had told him about Kaisui having a slave while Risa had informed him of how the collars could explode.
Since the collars could explode, Kūkiatsu didn't want Kusabue to end up unleashing any sound waves that would be powerful enough to send any slaves flying away from their masters or rattle the collars to possibly set off any explosions. Those blasts would make innocent people end up being hurt, and Kūkiatsu didn't want to see that happen. He was slightly interested in seeing the fashion show, only going along with his friends, and Kūkiatsu was more curious about the plants that were in this area. He hoped to see them soon, and Kūkiatsu turned around to see some of his friends walking in.
"We should go find some seats, but let's hurry." Kūkiatsu told Risa and Sting in a calm tone, smiling at his friends while hoping that this event would be fun.
Risa responded with a delighted smile on her face, having thoughts about getting to see the fashionable models, "You're right, Kūkiatsu! If we can get front row seats, then we can see the newest sets of clothes that are stylish right now."
"Seeing the clothes could probably cheer you up after yesterday's loss, Lucy." Sting told his girlfriend while smiling in a kind way, his eyes filled with feelings of optimism.
"You're right, Sting. Let's go sit in some seats, and we'll-" Lucy replied kindly, before being interrupted by how she could sense some magical power.
Lucy stopped speaking for a moment because of how a strong amount of unfamiliar magical power began to get her attention, and she could tell that the magic was quite strong. It may have been even stronger than what Kusabue could produce with her Sound Magic, and Lucy hoped that no slaves ended up having their collars tick down like time bombs again. There was no explosion, which seemed very odd to Lucy, but she started running away to go see what was happening. She could get a general direction of where the energy was coming from, feeling it to seemingly come from the back of the building.
That prompted Lucy to run away from Sting at high speeds, causing him to blink his eyes in a curious manner at why Lucy just ran off, and Sting was about to run after her. He was stopped by Rogue, who remained emotionless while also sensing someone build up a high amount of magical power, and Sting watched the shadow dragon slayer stat to glance at the fashion show's other attendees. No one near the light blue doorways to the auditorium seemed to show any signs of using magical power, meaning that they weren't even activating any spells, so Lucy was sensing the magic to either be outside or near a place with an opened door.
Lucy wasted no time with running out of the building's opened entrance doors, before turning left to go around to the back like a huge fan of fashion who had a backstage pass, and her Wind Magic from using Kaze's Feather Dance in a combo with Wind Magic also surrounding her feet ironically caused a different mage to sense Lucy's presence. Despite how that person widened their ocean blue eyes while detecting a powerful mage in the area, they merely tapped their feet in a soft manner with a bit of happiness. Although, their happiness didn't seem to involve the typical type of joy involving a fashion show.
The person who was smirking had long and wavy neon blue hair with curls at the ends, and they wore a mint blue short dress with ruffles at the bottom that covered their dark blue jean shorts while the dress didn't cover their ankles. Below their ankles, the woman wore some dark blue high-heeled shoes with the designs of snowy mountains on them. The snowy mountains were in a light blue color, and they matched the cerulean blue brooch that she wore at the top of her dress. She gently touched her brooch while glancing up at the large building that had a sapphire blue pitched roof that was made from bricks in that shade of blue, along with having five plain blue marble columns surrounding the arched entranceway that consisted of two stained-glass doors in a cyan blue color.
The individual who walked towards the doors was known as Fubuki Burizādo, a dark mage who belonged to a guild called Frozen Wolves in a nearby snowy town in this cold part of Fiore, and her lips formed an evil smirk at how she managed to track down her notorious prey. She felt quite glad that her enemy was partnered with a fashionable model, since both girls being models for different sets of clothes after the Fiore Fashion Games gave them an immense amount of fame to where tracking them down wasn't exactly a difficult task.
Now that Fubuki had found out where Samui and Aoiumi were currently at, she looked at the high amount of people who were walking into the building. Blending in with the crowd would be a very nice idea, but wreaking havoc in the auditorium when Aoiumi wouldn't be on the stage wouldn't exactly allow Fubuki to get rid of both of the girls who had humiliated her in a public competition. She tightly clenched her fists in a vicious manner at how she could finally pay them back for what they had done to her, and taking on the weaker of the two girls first would be a good way to burn some time.
Since Samui was going to be on stage in front of everyone, that logically meant Aoiumi would be backstage. That prompted Fubuki to have a sinister look in her eyes while merely walking around to the back of the building, and she would be glad to surprise Aoiumi by showing up to fight once again. Fubuki felt like she would truly have an advantage in the fight, due to how Aoiumi mainly specialized in defensive spells while her attacks couldn't do much damage, and she'd be very glad to take down an enemy who was persistent with running away.
"If she and Samui escape from me again, it would definitely be frustrating. I'll be sure to finish this as fast as possible." Fubuki thought to herself with a scheming facial expression, as she walked across the snowy ground.
As Fubuki charged up a mint blue aura of magic in her hands, she aggressively kicked a chunk of ice with her right foot to get it out of the way. She watched it land in the lake of chilly blue water, before exploding in a light blue blast while the blast seemed to destroy some large shards of ice that rose up from the edge of the lake, and Fubuki watched those shards that were made from Ice Magic also start to explode. They made the lake's water roar intensely while the ice floes rapidly shifted around in the water, and Fubuki walked over to the lake for a moment.
When she got to the lake, Fubuki could see something resembling a crevice's entrance in the water. The crevice seemed to come from the damage that was dealt to the lake, but it strangely seemed to start healing itself with a blue aura surrounding it. That simply meant a very high amount of magic was infused into the lake for its rocky walls to heal themselves with ease, meaning that the crevice wasn't easily accessible, but Fubuki felt like she could try to check it out later to possibly steal some of Seigan's hidden riches for herself.
Stealing those riches would be her lesser priority of the day, since Fubuki still needed to hunt down Aoiumi like a wolf who was hunting for a weak sheep to defeat. She even smiled with her fanged teeth shining quite brightly, seeming to also be modified by her magic, and Fubuki closed her eyes for a moment. She stretched her arms out in opposite directions while a mint blue aura engulfed her body, and she seemed to be focusing her magical power on sensing only the energy of her enemy. She soon felt the aura grow larger, almost like she zeroed in on Aoiumi's location, and Fubuki turned around.
"Well, there she is." Fubuki stated in a relaxed tone while turning around to look at the light blue back doors of the fashion show's building.
Fubuki glanced at the arched light blue doors that had a neon blue rectangular light above them, the light being turned off because of how the current time of day was in the morning, and she walked towards them. The doors looked like they just finished closing a few seconds ago, almost like someone had gone inside, and Fubuki didn't want to end up unleashing her magic on a random stranger who had nothing to do with her task of trying to kill Aoiumi. Unless Aoiumi was stupid enough to go out of that door and just go back in, Fubuki couldn't just barge into the backstage area right now.
She would have to wait for her chance, which prompted her to use her magic for the purpose of activating a spell that created a mint blue vortex of snow around her, and the vortex was in an average size. The simple vortex of snow engulfed Fubuki, before she merely fell forward to let herself land on the white snow that had fallen from the grey winter sky, and Fubuki started to let herself be camouflaged in with the snow. More snow was even created by her vortex, which soon faded away, and Fubuki was now concealing herself underneath the snow.
As she kept herself under the snow to avoid detection, Fubuki decided that she could wait for her chance to go in through the back door. She would preferably open the back door when there weren't many people around, allowing herself to be like a smart fan who would find any way to get very close to their idol, and Fubuki just needed some patience. She would be able to surprise Aoiumi by not showing up when people were still going inside to get to the auditorium or go into the lines for merchandise or snacks, so Fubuki would be glad to wait for Aoiumi to drop her guard.
Five minutes later, in the fashion show's backstage area...
Aoiumi slowly walked out of the dressing room to walk out into the hallway, quietly closing the door behind her, and she could hear the fashion show starting to begin. The announcer was clearing her throat before speaking loudly into a microphone while Aoiumi could hear the workers who played music for the event decide to play one of Akai Hinotama's newest songs that known as Flame That Can't Be Burnt Out By Defeat, and the sound of the fans in the front rows starting to cheer made Aoiumi feel like Samui was making the fashion show start off very well.
Now that Samui was making the fashion show go smoothly in the auditorium, Aoiumi would have to make things be peaceful in the backstage hallway. If anyone was going to come in through an unexpected entrance to sabotage the fashion show, then they would come in through the back door. Aoiumi had her back turned to that door, her ears being good for hearing even the softest sound of a doorknob turning, but she smiled very confidently while she had been building up magical power in her hands. She purposely did that to prepare for a possible fight, and Aoiumi would make her magic be stabilized for her to only be expending a medium-level amount of it right now.
That level of magic could be sensed by an enemy, and Aoiumi had happiness in her eyes after realizing how it would obviously lure her enemy directly to her location. By getting the enemy to be backstage and stopping their attacks with her defensive spells, Aoiumi could keep them from even taking a single step towards the stage. That way, Samui could perform in the fashion show without any bad mages interfering. The fashion show would have no problems, but only if every part of Aoiumi's plan precisely occurred in the way that she hoped for things to happen.
The plan did encounter a surprising twist, however, and that occurred from Aoiumi turning around at the sound of a person's soft footsteps making some noise behind her. Turning around caused Aoiumi to widen her eyes in shock while starting to open her mouth and stutter in disbelief, pointing with one finger at a certain green-haired girl who had quietly lowered her own amount of magical power to where neither Aoiumi or her enemy could sense it during these moments. Even though the girl who looked like Kotomi Takeuchi made her power be sensed quite faintly, the sight of her caused Aoiumi to hastily run towards her with an angry look on her face. When she got close enough to the intruder, Aoiumi angrily tackled her down and felt like stopping her from doing anything horrible.
"Kotomi Takeuchi, you're also trying to defeat me?! You're out to hunt me down, too?!" Aoiumi sternly asked the older woman, before she proceeded to put her in a tight headlock.
Lucy responded in a pained manner, before moving back a bit and wiggling her head out of the tight space, "No, I'm... certainly not... out to do that! I don't... even know... who you are! I just sensed some magical power, and thought it was Emiria, her partner, or the person who attacked Kusabue!"
"You crossed paths with Lady Emiria, Kotomi? Also, who's Kusabue?" Aoiumi asked Lucy in a calm tone, getting off of her to just be on her knees while the other mage got up to just sit with her legs near her chest.
Lucy explained in a kind manner, before asking Aoiumi with a puzzled facial expression, "Emiria and I fought yesterday, but I easily lost against her. Kusabue is one of my teammates in the Sabertooth guild, and I want to get back at the slave mistress who attacked her. Wait, who are you and how did you even know my name? The Grand Reverie Icy Frigid Tour gave me that much notoriety?"
"Kotomi, you've got some nerve to not remember a guild member from Moon Rainbow! Back then, you were so arrogant with your schemes and you kept destroying my shields after you had to push yourself so hard to have talent that matched your strategic skills!" Aoiumi sternly stated to Lucy while putting her hands on the collar of her winter coat, before shaking her out of anger.
As Aoiumi made her hands go near Lucy's neck, the green-haired girl made a small gesture that involved her index fingers going past each other. They seemed to be going to each other's positions, almost like they were swapping places, and Lucy was trying to show Aoiumi that her explanation for not remembering her was because of how Kotomi switched bodies with her. She even mouthed her own name to Aoiumi, who started to look confused about what her former guild member was saying, and Aoiumi stopped shaking her.
She let Lucy fall to the floor, before watching her get up to regain her composure, and Aoiumi also stood up. She looked directly into the eyes of the woman who she thought was Kotomi, even moving her face closer to get a closer look at her eyes, and the look in Lucy's eyes was a mixture of honesty with the feeling of confusion at Aoiumi's actions. Aoiumi could see that the person in front of her wasn't Kotomi Takeuchi at all, realizing that they were someone else whose magic felt different than how Kotomi's magic felt very cold and antagonistic in the past.
This different feeling of the girl's magic made Aoiumi wonder if she was trying to gesticulate that Kotomi swapped bodies with her, which was something that could only be done through the most ancient types of spells being used, and Aoiumi quickly got behind Lucy for a moment. She watched the other girl turn around to face her, and Aoiumi watched her make an emerald green aura of Wind Magic engulf her feet right before she slid backwards. The sight of her sliding backwards caused Aoiumi to look quite curious, but the sound of someone clapping their hands in a slow manner and taking slow steps caused Aoiumi to turn her attention away from Lucy to see who else had shown up.
"Well, well, well. Hello, Aoiumi. We meet again." Fubuki stated to her with a calm look on her face, as her eyes looked somewhat sinister.
Aoiumi shouted in response, feeling a bit surprised, "Fubuki! The fashion show just started, and you're already here to be a nuisance!"
"I'll certainly be a nuisance for you, Aoiumi. Your partner's out on stage, and the fashion show isn't ending anytime soon. Therefore, all you can do is defend against my spells without even being able to land a hit on me." Fubuki replied to Aoiumi with a cocky look on her face, feeling like she could win easily.
That prompted Aoiumi to reply with a pleading facial expression, tears slightly welling up in her eyes, "Just promise me this, Fubuki. If you manage to end my life, then you'll leave Samui alone and let her participate in the fashion show without giving her any trouble. All this time, she's fought so hard for me and risked her life for me. Fubuki, I beg you... Please, just... leave her alone."
"You're begging me to not hurt your friend, Aoiumi? Well, isn't that a fine way of requesting a slight change in my plans? After I'm done with taking your life, won't it be fun for me to wreak havoc in that auditorium and damage the rest of the building while killing as many people as possible?" Fubuki asked Aoiumi with a vicious grin on her face, before laughing at the girl's pleas.
Hearing Fubuki's laughter only made Aoiumi scream loudly in an angry manner with more tears in her eyes, screaming loudly at how she was dealing with a very cruel person, and she watched Fubuki shoot out a spinning beam of mint blue water from her hands. That spinning beam of mint blue water was part of a spell called Water Pressure Stream, which was a spell that made Aoiumi only keep screaming while she could see small clouds of frost coming from it, and Aoiumi needed to charge up a high amount of magical power in only a few seconds.
She began to build up magical power, only to not have the proper amount of it readied for one of her weakest shields to block this attack, and Aoiumi tightly shut her eyes. She could feel the coldness being close to her, a very slight bit of the spell's frost starting to touch her skin, but the spell of Water Magic didn't make her be splashed or aggressively pushed back by the water. In fact, it seemed to be prevented from harming Aoiumi right after she felt a breeze of wind hastily pass by her body. The wind was created by Lucy, who was now in front of her.
Aoiumi opened her eyes to see Lucy pushing her hands against the attack, trying to push it back while an emerald green aura surrounded them, and she began to take a step forward. Lucy continued to try pushing the attack back towards Fubuki, only to be slightly pushed back when the antagonist sent more magical power into her attack, and she didn't mind how the spell was beginning to make ice form on her hands. The ice on her hands only reminded Lucy about Emiria's abilities, causing her to push back against Fubuki's spell even more, and Lucy even sent more magic into her hands for them to fuse with the ice. The ice was quickly shattered, but now some icy winds were pushing the spell back quite harshly.
Fubuki watched her spell start to minimize in size, groaning in frustration at how that could've been possible without Aoiumi making the attack collide with a strong shield, but she soon frowned in a somewhat dissatisfied manner from seeing that Lucy was in the way. She looked straight at the green-haired girl, seeing her also frown in response after dealing with that attack, and Fubuki quickly recognized Lucy to be Kotomi Takeuchi. She recalled seeing her in the recent newspapers that detailed her adventure pertaining to the fifth legendary ring, and Fubuki merely sighed in an annoyed manner while putting one hand on her forehead for a moment.
She felt like the heroic girl was being quite unwise for squirming her way into something that didn't concern her whatsoever, and Fubuki decided that she would need to quickly get rid of her newest foe. That wouldn't be possible, since Lucy decided to activate Wind Altitude's Aerial Burst, and she watched Lucy make her hands form the shape of a fanged mouth. The fanged mouth began to absorb most of the air in the hallway, and Lucy swung the attack forward for a large burst of winds to go towards her opponent.
She watched the attack quickly strike Fubuki, who couldn't tear through the spell in a close-range situation, and the emerald green blast that occurred was in an average size! Its power made winds go towards Aoiumi and Lucy, the latter of the two inhaling those winds while preparing to use her next spell, and Aoiumi was stunned to see that this stranger was coming to her defense. The fact that Lucy was saving her life made a part of Aoiumi want to feel grateful, but she started to have despair in her eyes while her body began to tremble.
Aoiumi trembled because of how she had to wonder if she could trust someone who just met her, having anxiety at the thought of the seemingly nice person only helping her out of self-interest right before they would use their Wind Magic to end her life, and she watched Lucy make an emerald green aura surround her right fist to signify that she was getting ready to use Zephyr Punch. She watched Lucy tighten her fist while turning around, even seeing the aura start to engulf her other fist, and Aoiumi felt like she was a lonely warrior in a world of mostly enemies. However, she looked at Lucy's facial expression while noticing that her eyes weren't showing signs of her motives being antagonistic.
"Listen, Aoiumi! There's a girl named Kusabue in the auditorium, and she's with a pink-haired girl named Risa! Risa would be very glad to help us in this situation, and Kusabue's sound waves could blow Fubuki out of the building! See if you can find them, Aoiumi! You're probably distressed right now, but they can sense that if you get near them! Find them, Aoiumi!" Lucy stated to her in a very stern tone with the feeling of urgency in her eyes, feeling like she needed the help of her friends in this type of situation.
Aoiumi responded with hesitation in her voice, looking timid and somewhat distrustful, "I... I'll..."
"Get going already, Aoiumi! I can keep this woman occupied, so just go! The person in the fashion show is your friend, and you want to protect her! You're not the only one who feels that way!" Lucy replied to her in a strict tone, sounding very stern and brave as she lightly pushed Aoiumi away from her.
Aoiumi told her with some concern in her voice, as she turned away and quickly ran, "Thank you, stranger! I'll try to find your allies as fast as I can!"
Aoiumi ran very quickly, running down the hallway to go to a different part of the backstage area, and that left Lucy to deal with Fubuki. The antagonist came out of the blast's emerald green smoke with a somewhat irritated look on her face, upset that someone was willing to try messing up her plans, and she activated a spell called Winter Snow Water. She fired six mint blue snowballs from her mouth, aiming them all at Lucy, and she watched Lucy quickly step back. Lucy got to see the snowballs hit the ground to create six mint blue blasts that were quite large, before they soon changed into six large twisters of water that began to all spin around in counterclockwise directions while they all moved around in that particular direction.
Lucy attempted to run through the crevices where the water wouldn't touch her, only to step back from seeing the twisters start to converge towards each other like the threat of setting off of a much larger explosion of Water Magic if she tried to run through them. That prompted Lucy to activate Kaze's Feather Dance while inhaling more air, making the emerald green aura around her body grow larger, and she watched two mint green feathers appear near her waist. They lightly fell below her waist to touch her feet, causing Lucy to feel like her body was much lighter like a feather, and she inhaled more air to make the spell persist with making her body feel lighter.
When Lucy's body felt relaxed enough, she ran towards Fubuki at high speeds! She ran right through the group of mint blue water twisters, even sliding forward on the water to increase the level of her speed much more, and Lucy managed to hit Fubuki in the chest with an intense burst of Wind Magic that was focused into the center of her right fist. She struck Fubuki with her other fist, before striking her with a barrage of punches that made intense bursts of Wind Magic come from them, and the punches created emerald green blasts around Fubuki! She felt some pain while Lucy was sent sliding backwards, but the winds that headed towards Fubuki caused her to be engulfed in more blasts!
"This fight is just getting started, and I'm ready to handle whatever this person tries to throw at me." Lucy thought to herself with a serious look on her face, focusing on the situation.
"Well, that actually caused me some pain. Not bad, Kotomi Takeuchi." Fubuki replied in a very calm manner while the light from the blasts faded away, wiping dust off of her body.
Lucy asked aloud with a concerned facial expression, taking a step back with some anxiety in her eyes while a mint blue aura began to surround her opponent's body, "What's she going to do now?"
Fubuki activated a new spell that was known as Hailstorm Frenzy, and she proceeded to spin around rapidly on one foot while the mint blue aura coated her body. She was soon surrounded by a large twister of mint blue snow, which quickly ended up bursting outward while that snow became cold and solid like hail, and Lucy ended up getting struck by the chunks of hail! They made average-sized explosions occur while Lucy felt her skin start to get covered in cold frost, and she was being pushed back towards the twisters of water.
Lucy briefly turned her head to see the twisters getting struck by the chunks of ice, causing them to be mint blue ice tornadoes while they even froze their own water that was on the floor, and less traction on the ice made them move around much faster in circles. Lucy nearly got into that circle, her right hand being the closest body part that could be in the circle for the tornadoes to converge on it, but the moment that her feet started sliding on the ice and nearly making her lose their balance was when Lucy remembered what Kotomi had done in Tokiwa Town to avoid Gray's icy trap.
She activated the third spell of Wind Magic, which was known as Tempest Tornado Bounce, and Lucy fired five emerald green tornadoes from her left hand. The tornadoes quickly came from her hand to circle around Fubuki, gaining much more wind before they sprang up high into the air, and the heavy amount of winds that the tornadoes generated ended up lifting Lucy high into the air like she was as light as a small stuffed toy. She weakly moved her left hand backwards to make one of the tornadoes go towards the water twisters, and the moment that the tornado got into the circle was the moment that the twisters converged on it to create a massive mint blue blast! That blast had a smaller emerald green blast within it, and the rest of the tornadoes went down to detonate around Fubuki! As she was caught in the four powerful emerald green blasts, Lucy started to smile confidently. That confidence was followed by some curiosity about why Aoiumi was taking a longer amount of time than expected with finding the other members of Sabertooth in the auditorium, however.
Meanwhile, at the auditorium's side entrance...
Aoiumi stood in front of some sapphire blue doors that had the pattern of icy mountains stacked on top of each other while the doors had elegant-looking light blue handles, and Aoiumi proceeded to pull the handles outward to open the doors. Upon opening the doors, Aoiumi got to see the darkened auditorium room being brightened with lights that were in various shades of blue while people were cheering excitedly for the models who were walking down a dark blue catwalk. One of those models was Samui, who wore a blue plaid thin winter jacket with azure blue winter pants that matched her plain blue knee-high snow boots that had cyan fur on the tops of them, and she confidently posed for the photographers.
The photographers got to capture the images of Samui blowing kisses to them, as well as doing a hair-flip while looking quite confident. She even leaned forward to let one of her hands touch the hands of people who were in the crowd, one of those people being a certain pink-haired girl who felt delighted enough to almost quietly compliment Samui on how her jacket really matched her boots, and Aoiumi only heard that by being emotional enough right now to make her ears only focus on the different sounds in the auditorium.
The various sounds of cheering and clapping from people who were excited to see Samui also turn around to show how her rear looked comfortable in her fashionable winter clothing were starting to overpower any sound that Aoiumi might make as a signal for finding the girl named Kusabue, and she watched Samui go back down the runway. Another model walked down the runway while the loud music from Akai Hinotama's newest album played, and Aoiumi felt like she needed to find Kusabue as fast as she could. She quickly ran past some rows of dark blue leather seats, going all the way up to the front rows to see a girl absorbing magic with a shamrock green aura engulfing her hands while smiling, but Aoiumi felt very anxious about her next decision.
If she was looking at Kusabue, then Aoiumi would be following the orders of the girl who looked just like Kotomi Takeuchi. However, Aoiumi started to frown in a manner of despair with sadness in her eyes from thinking about the possible consequences of getting Kusabue to come with her. Would Kusabue and her friend betray Aoiumi, too? Were they just trying to be nice before they would think about fighting Aoiumi and Samui next for the vicious and exciting thrill of it? Those thoughts ran through Aoiumi's mind, causing her legs to shake while she backed away with anxiousness and panic in her thoughts. She thought about how getting tricked again wouldn't be fun, and Aoiumi didn't want to be betrayed again.
"It's... it's not worth asking Kusabue for help! Kusabue will choose to betray me!" Aoiumi thought to herself with a panicked look on her face quickly becoming a scowl, before she ran away with her hair over her eyes.
Kusabue thought to herself with a curious facial expression, having absorbed enough sound waves to be able to hear some interesting things, "Who's saying that I would betray them? That didn't come from Risa or my other friends, so where did that voice come from?"
Kusabue loudly asked Risa with a worried look on her face, as she tugged on her jacket and just realized something important, "Risa, hasn't Lucy been gone for a long time now? Where's Lucy?"
Risa responded with a concerned facial expression, before widening her eyes in shock, "I'm not sure, Kusabue. Still, I can feel emotional distress and it's very unusual for someone to seem so worried when the crowd is enjoying the show."
The one person who tried to enjoy the show ended up going out of the auditorium, closing the doors behind her while she started to cry, and Aoiumi felt horrible about how she was possibly going to get harmed again if she asked anyone other than Samui for help. Samui seemed like the only person who she could actually trust, causing Aoiumi to tightly clench her fists at the realization of how the fashion show would go on for several more minutes, and she would just have to wait for her friend to finish performing. When she was done with her performance, Aoiumi would tell Samui what was happening.
That would probably help Samui be more ready for taking on Fubuki, which would allow her and Aoiumi to keep fighting as a great team instead of being separated. Even when the girl who had switched bodies had chosen to help out Aoiumi, she still felt like there was no point in shielding her during an event like the Grand Reverie Icy Frigid Tour or in any other situation where someone would be trying to protect her from Fubuki's wrath. Fubuki would probably kill that green-haired girl, anyway, and Aoiumi felt that trusting someone other than Samui for even a moment would lead to her demise.
She certainly didn't want to experience something as horrible as that, and Aoiumi felt like she would have to leave that girl on her own instead of lifting a single finger to be very helpful. Helping out anyone would just make Aoiumi be paranoid about their intentions, since even the seemingly most caring and sincere person could have very dark or malicious thoughts. They would probably harm her purely out of malice, which made Aoiumi's body shudder with fear at how she didn't want to be betrayed again while tears started to go down her face.
"There's no one... who can really help me right now." Aoiumi thought to herself with a look of hopelessness on her face, feeling like she couldn't even stay in this part of the backstage area for much longer.
Helping herself would be a smaller issue to worry about in this current moment, however, and that was because of how Aoiumi could hear some more blasts coming from that backstage hallway where Fubuki was fighting someone who viewed Aoiumi as their ally. Aoiumi didn't even consider them as a friend, especially since the Grand Reverie Icy Frigid Tour meant that they would have to eventually fight if they were ever both chosen to fight against each other in an event, and she thought that they were helping her for selfish reasons. She found it to be disgusting that a selfish person could look right into her eyes and lie, but Aoiumi remembered something important.
When she looked into that person's eyes to see that they weren't Kotomi, they strangely didn't have the eyes of an evil person who would use others like tools until they were deemed as dispensable. That girl didn't seem to want to dispose of Aoiumi at all, only telling her to run away to go find the other Sabertooth mages who could serve as backup wizards to help in what seemed to be a tense fight, and Aoiumi was actually needed like a friend who someone needed to depend on. Aoiumi didn't view that girl as dependable, but she helped Aoiumi without even seeming like she had to think about it.
Instead of thinking, she had acted so impulsively for a good reason while her stern eyes still maintained that look of determination. She had been determined to stall Fubuki long enough for help to arrive, or she would actually be attempting to defeat her. Defeating Fubuki was a task that Aoiumi personally doubted to be possible, since that skilled wizard could even fight against Samui's powerful spells without having much difficulty in doing that, and Aoiumi couldn't even hurt Fubuki back when this issue first occurred after the Fiore Fashion Games.
-Aoiumi's Flashback, six months earlier-
Aoiumi walked down one of the cerulean blue streets that were paved in asphalt while Samui was by her side, both girls in the town of Frigidette to shop for some winter clothes that were exclusively in this town, and they walked past some dark blue buildings that were cafes. Aoiumi thought about going to the café afterwards to get herself some blueberry cake slices, along with a cup of sweet honey tea, but she still kept her mind more focused on finding the clothing store. She would need to get some new clothes, since her favorite light blue dress was starting to be torn in some places.
The dress that had some tears in it looked just as bad as Samui's cyan blue winter jacket that had gaping holes in some parts of it, and Aoiumi took notice of how Samui also wore some periwinkle blue winter pants that were torn. The two girls had been wearing these clothes as their favorite outfits, even during their moments of leisure in the Fiore Fashion Games. The fact that they could enjoy some relaxation time in such a tough competition made Aoiumi and Samui both feel very happy, and they felt even beter about using their cash from winning the tournament to buy some better clothes.
As they could see the clothing store at the very end of the street, Aoiumi's eyes widened in amazement from seeing a person start to walk out of the light blue building. The building had a plain blue awning for the person to be under, a shadow starting to be on their face while they slowly stepped out into the sunlight. When the sunlight brightened their face, Aoiumi could see that the person was Fubuki. She was the final opponent for Aoiumi and Samui to fight against in the tournament, as well as the final opponent in the modeling portion of the competition.
She seemed to be so devastated when Aoiumi and Samui were declared to be the winners of the Fiore Fashion Games, not even offering to shake hands with the girls in a friendly way, but Aoiumi and Samui hoped that they could still be on good terms with the woman who helped them find their inn when they had to come to Frigidette Town. They ran down the street to meet up with Fubuki, who wore a light blue winter midriff jacket that left her stomach exposed while she wore some sapphire blue leather winter pants that matched her mint blue snow boots, and Fubuki's boots lightly made some noise in the snow as her body turned to see some familiar people.
"Well, I certainly haven't seen you two in quite some time." Fubuki told Aoiumi and Samui while closing her eyes, the smirk on her face being quite faint.
Aoiumi asked Fubuki with a kind facial expression while approaching her, wanting to be friendly, "Fubuki, have you been doing well?"
"I unfortunately haven't been doing so well after making my guild look like it's filled with laughingstocks, but you two made my day just get better. In fact, it's about to get very wonderful." Fubuki replied with a somewhat bitter look on her face, anger in her eyes before she began to smirk evilly.
Aoiumi asked her with a somewhat scared facial expression, feeling startled enough to take steps back with Samui, "Fubuki, what's wrong?"
Fubuki said nothing to her, and she simply activated a spell called Icy Chandelier. The spell required Fubuki to stretch out both of her hands while a mint blue aura heavily surrounded them, and she fired a large chandelier from the center of her hands. The chandelier was made out of mint blue shards of ice that were quite small while they were arranged for circles of shards to be surrounding a larger shard in the middle, and it headed straight towards Aoiumi. She closed her eyes in a panicked manner while not being able to create a shield fast enough, but Samui activated a spell called Bubble Forest.
She simply unleashed a large amount of light blue water bubbles from her mouth, shooting out a high amount of bubbles that seemed like they were meant to blind Fubuki like a smokescreen, and Samui made a light blue aura engulf her body. The moment that a small bit of the aura touched some of the bubbles is when they all detonated in light blue blasts that were quite large. The large blasts even smashed through the Icy Chandelier spell, breaking it apart into many small pieces that created mint blue explosions, and the force of the blasts sent both groups sliding backwards.
Samui watched the smoke clear up to simply reveal that Fubuki had no injuries, only standing in front of several craters that were now in front of the clothing store, and Fubuki activated a new spell called Swirling Snow Freeze. The spell made her shoot out a swirling mint blue vortex of snow, and the snow began to freeze the puddles of water that were on the ground while remnants of Fubuki's previous spell were also frozen in a thick amount of ice. Aoiumi and Samui quickly leaped several feet backwards, and Samui was ready to fight from a distance. Even if Fubuki had been a somewhat friendly competitor in the tournament, she wasn't holding back against her opponents.
"This is payback for humiliating me in front of the crowds, you two." Fubuki coldly told her opponents, as she tightly clenched her fists.
Aoiumi asked Fubuki in a scared tone, feeling curious at how someone could be so vengeful, "Fubuki, aren't we all just mages? Can't we be friends?"
"Friends?! Aoiumi, shouldn't you know that the life of being a mage involves killing others by doing whatever is necessary?!" Fubuki asked with ruthlessness in her voice, as her smirk looked quite menacing.
Samui angrily asked in a stern manner, "Is that a fact?!"
Fubuki merely nodded evilly, before shooting out five large mint blue icicles from her hands, and she was using a spell called Frost Spear. The spears struck the ground in front of Samui to explode into mint blue bursts of glitter that were quite large, before they began to detonate in the form of large mint blue blasts, but Aoiumi wasted no time with activating a spell called Cobalt Hydro Shield. The shield spell caused her to have a cobalt blue aura around her hands, and Aoiumi raised them high into the air. The aura on her hands quickly glowed, and Aoiumi was soon engulfed in a cobalt shield with Samui.
Samui watched the dome-shaped shield surround Aoiumi and herself, the young girl putting more magical power into her weakest shield for it to effectively withstand the strong blasts. They were thankfully not strong enough to break through the shield, which made Fubuki frown in a manner that showed her utmost distaste, but Samui used this chance to charge up more magical power for another powerful spell of Water Magic. She decided to activate a spell called Scalding Wave, and the spell made Samui build up a high amount of water in her mouth.
As a light blue aura was also in her mouth to increase the temperature and the density of the water, Samui watched Aoiumi start to make the shield be dispelled. The shield ended up disappearing while a large smokescreen surrounded the girls, but Samui grabbed Aoiumi and jumped up quite high. When she was several feet up in the air, Samui spat out a large amount of water from her mouth. The water came down in the form of a spinning beam that had hot steam clouds coming out of it while they were white, and the attack swamped the street to cover it in scalding hot water. The water slammed down on to the ground, creating light blue explosions that were large while their brightness blinded the eyes of some civilians, and Aoiumi was carried in Samui's arms during these crucial moments where they had to run back to Seigan for their own safety.
50 minutes later, near the fashion show's stage...
Aoiumi's safety was something that weighed on Samui's mind while the red curtains moved to the center of the stage, the music having been quite loud to where she couldn't hear anything that possibly occurred backstage, and Samui was the first model to run off of the plain blue wooden stage. As she was running to go backstage and get ready for the swimsuit portion of Seigan's winter fashion collection that pertained to the hot springs, Samui stopped for a moment from sensing someone's unfamiliar magic in the building. The magic that she sensed was very faint, but it made her start to look puzzled.
The confusion grew from how some of the stage managers who could feel the magic were also very unsure about why they could feel some winds blowing through the backstage area, as they had been in Seigan Town during their entire lives to where they weren't really exposed to any people who could wield Wind Magic. The sheer fact that there was a mage with some Wind Magic in the area caused Samui to close her eyes, and she created a small amount of a light blue aura in her left hand. She used the aura in her hand to give herself more of an idea of where an enemy's magic could be coming from, and Samui quickly had its location pinpointed.
The magic was coming from near the building's back doors, which were left unlocked for employees to get in if they didn't have time to go in through the front side of the building, and Samui could sense that there were two people in that area. Fubuki didn't wield any Wind Magic, and she also didn't work with any partners. She had been hunting Samui and Aoiumi by herself for months, not needing help from anyone, so whoever was using Wind Magic must've been in her way. Samui began to smile at the thought of Aoiumi getting away safely from that situation, but she soon saw her friend standing in the cyan blue doorway leading to the backstage area. Upon seeing Aoiumi look very depressed, Samui's eyes widened with the feeling of confusion for a few moments.
"Aoiumi? She's in this area?" Samui asked aloud, seeing the look of despair in her friend's eyes.
Samui stated aloud with urgency in her voice, as she ran towards her friend and noticed magic engulfing her hands, "She's here, and Aoiumi's got magic ready!"
Samui turned around to tell the staff members with a serious facial expression, not wanting them to freak out, "Make the show have a 45-minute break for people to get merchandise and refreshments for themselves!"
The staff members nodded in approval, which allowed Samui to follow Aoiumi to where the battle was transpiring, and both girls applied high amounts of magic to their feet. They quickly reached the hallway that was now covered with a thick amount of ice while blue flames were bouncing on the ice with coldness emanating from them, and Aoiumi looked just as shocked as Samui to see that Lucy was heavily bruised up from fighting Fubuki while the durable antagonist only had some markings on her clothes without looking very worn down.
The fact that Fubuki wasn't very worn down allowed her to glance past Lucy to see that Aoiumi had returned to this fight, thankfully showing up with Samui for Fubuki to be able to finally be in a situation where she could kill both of them without it seeming like they'd flee again. Aoiumi wasn't going to run away from this battle, but taking a step forward to let her foot unintentionally step on a small piece of ice to shatter it caused Aoiumi to be met with the sight of Lucy hastily turning around. Seeing Aoiumi come back would've been relieving to Lucy, but her new ally earned her ire from making a crucial error.
"Aoiumi, where are Kusabue and the others?! Why didn't you bring them here with you?! Why, Aoiumi?!" Lucy asked her with a stern facial expression, before panting heavily while some blood dripped from her wounds.
Aoiumi merely responded with an ashamed look on her face, "Well, Kotomi, I..."
Aoiumi thought to herself with guilt in her eyes, as her hair began to obscure the emotion of regret that appeared in them, "The life of being a mage involves killing others by doing whatever is necessary, and that includes breaking trust."
Instead of arguing with Aoiumi about her lack of faith in a stranger, Lucy merely pushed past her and Samui to run away. She even used Kaze's Feather Dance to make herself run at much faster speeds, maintaining her footing on the ice while she fled, and that left Aoiumi to stand next to Samui while they began to sternly glare at Fubuki. The antagonist merely twirled a lock of her hair around her middle finger, and she began to look quite smug about finally getting to fight these two particular opponents again. She hoped that they wouldn't keep her waiting any longer, and Fubuki was ready to fight.
Samui was also ready to fight, and she made a light blue aura heavily surround her body. The aura didn't seem to intimidate Fubuki, who made a mint blue aura majorly engulf her body, and she got to see Aoiumi's body be surrounded by a cobalt blue aura. The three blue auras gave off a high amount of magical power that some mages could sense all the way from the auditorium, and the two protagonists glared at their foe. Fubuki glared back at them, hatred and bitterness in her eyes while she clenched her fists. Samui and Aoiumi also clenched their fists, ready to fight, and the sound of an icicle falling from the frost-covered ceiling to hit the ground was like a gong being struck for the battle to now begin.
Samui activated a spell called Water Bomb, which simply involved her firing a large sphere of light blue water from her mouth. The sphere headed straight for Fubuki, who countered with a spell called Snow Wall, and Fubuki slammed her hands down on the ground. That caused a curved wall of mint blue snow to rise up from the ground while Fubuki infused the spell with a high amount of magical power to greatly increase its density, and she watched Samui's spell collide with the wall. A light blue blast occurred while it was quite large, the water bursting to leave behind some large puddles, but the explosion did cause the wall to break apart into small fragments.
The sight of the broken wall only made Fubuki chuckle, surprised that Samui was still wielding that attack as a spell for starting off certain battles, and Fubuki unleashed a spell called Snowy Ferocity. The spell caused Fubuki to shoot out a spinning vortex of mint blue flames from her mouth, The flames gave off coldness, not giving off heat like normal flames, but their temperature didn't prevent Aoiumi from activating a spell called Water Mist Shield. She exhaled a large breath of air, which took the shape of cobalt blue clouds, and the cobalt blue smoke clouds formed the shape of a circular shield in midair.
The flames aggressively slammed into the shield, causing a mint blue explosion to occur while it was quite large, and the flames created fiery bursts. Those bursts merely made many smaller flames be in midair, before they descended to the ground to join the other flames from earlier. Fubuki merely glanced at the flames, frowning at them in a disgusted manner at how they were of no use to her on their own, and that prompted Fubuki to unleash a spell called Snow Hydra. She put her hands together in what seemed like a very tight handshake, and the mint blue aura around her body began to ascend into the air.
The aura took the shape of three thin dragons while it was still linked to Fubuki, and the dragons had fanged teeth. Above their mouths were dark blue gems in the shapes of icicles, three jagged parts on the left and right sides of each gem, and the gems were right above the dragons' plain blue eyes. They all had crazed looks in their eyes while their large heads charged at Fubuki's opponents, the girls still looking fierce while the dragons opened their mouths to viciously roar, but Samui was not going to be intimidated by this spell.
"Snow Hydra is only the weakest of the ice dragons, so I don't need to be scared! However, you should definitely be worried about this next attack! Water Bubble Imprisonment!" Samui shouted with a fierce look on her face, as she aimed her left hand at the three dragons.
Upon seeing a very large bubble of light blue water emerge from Samui's hand to collide with the three dragons, Fubuki exclaimed with a stunned facial expression, "What?! She has a new spell?!"
"Samui's not the only one with a new spell, Fubuki! Come forth, Aquatic Gleam of The Blue Paradise!" Aoiumi responded with a serious look on her face, as the aura surrounding her hands grew much larger.
Aoiumi aimed her hands up at the light blue bubble, and the cobalt blue aura propelled itself off of them to go towards the bubble. When the aura reached the bubble, it quickly went into it before taking the shape of an average-sized twister of water. The aura twister shined brightly right before it quickly exploded inside the bubble, but the cobalt blue explosion's energy spread outward to simply boost the density of Samui's spell. Samui could sense the water getting heavier, almost like any spell from an enemy would be going into heavy iron, and Aoiumi repeatedly used that spell five more times in quick succession. The twisters hastily exploded, and the final one ended up bursting right before the dragons touched the spell.
When Fubuki's dragons made contact with Samui's giant bubble of water, they quickly detonated after entering the water bubble! The dragons were unable to move around very much in the dense water, even being restricted by the density to where getting out of the bubble was impossible, and the bubble's water pushing against them had caused the dragons to explode! That led to Samui's bubble imploding, creating a light blue blast in midair while water went in all directions, but Samui wasn't going to let it go to waste.
She unleashed a new spell called Azure Turret Torrent, and Samui watched five small light blue bubbles emerge from some water drops that had been on her fingers. Samui aimed all of her fingers towards Fubuki, and she pushed them forward to make all of the falling water be at a standstill in midair. All of the water that was at a standstill soon became absorbed into her fingers, before Samui fired it all towards Fubuki in the form of many thin beams, and Aoiumi decided to help out her friend by breaking off several pieces of mint blue ice from the ground to throw them at the beams. Some of Samui's attacks absorbed the ice, strengthening them to where they grew in size while the aura around Aoiumi's hands made any ice she touched become denser for Samui's beams to be heavily coated with Ice Magic, and immediately seeing a copious amount of large blasts in various shades of blue caused Aoiumi to have a small smile of relief on her face. That contrasted with Samui not looking relieved, however.
"I know that a fusion attack with that level of power wouldn't take her down so easily, so let's see what happens next." Samui stated aloud with a tense facial expression, as she looked at the billowing clouds of blue smoke.
Aoiumi thought to herself with a shocked look on her face, seeing the smoke clear up to reveal that Fubuki was still able to get back on her feet, "How can she still stand up?!"
"Well, that was quite a high amount of power in your attack. It's just too bad that all of the ice around us makes your spells not be as effective as they could truly be. However, my spells are still quite strong!" Fubuki stated with a calm look on her face, before smirking in a very cocky manner while the mint blue aura mainly concentrated itself into her hands.
Fubuki activated a spell called Frigid Snowball Effect, and she shot out a large snowball from her left hand. The snowball was aimed at her opponents, who watched it grow in size and speed while the snowball also gained more power from rolling across the icy ground that was being converted into mint blue snow. The snow strengthened Fubuki's attack, which gained more density from rolling over cold flames to absorb their icy energy, and the snowball was soon engulfed in the icy flames. The flames began to freeze the snowball instead of melting it, but their freezing effect only made the ice be like a heavy coating.
That prompted Aoiumi to create a shield of her own, and she activated the spell known as Sea's Scalding Cobalt Shield. This particular shield involved Aoiumi firing a cobalt blue bubble of water from her hands that were placed right next to each other, and the bubble had four large cobalt blue discs floating around it. The discs had plain blue wings aiming up and down in the center of the shield while a small blue sapphire jewel was in between them, and the shields gave off a very bright gleam. Cobalt blue lights emanated from them while they rotated around the bubble, which grew twice its original size after Aoiumi broke off more chunks of ice to throw them at the bubble, and the shields glowed much brighter.
As the shields glowed in accordance with the bubble continuing to grow from Aoiumi throwing several ice chunks at it, Fubuki's large snowball roughly slammed into Aoiumi's shield. She winced in pain from not being able to fully restrain Fubuki's spell, the act of putting more magical power into the shield causing Aoiumi to feel some pain in her hands, and Aoiumi couldn't hold back Fubuki's spell for many more seconds. Time kept ticking down, but hearing a clock would've probably been better than hearing her shield start to crack while the blue bubble was bubbling with enough strength to be scalding hot. Attacking the remnants of the snowball with the hot bubble would be a good idea, but Aoiumi didn't act faster than Samui.
Samui unleashed a spell called Surfing Sea Waves, and she clapped her hands together to summon seven large light blue tidal waves from the puddles. The tidal waves collided with the giant snowball to create several light blue explosions, but that only caused the snowball to violently burst into snowy projectiles that were dense while they gained more power from going through the crashing tidal waves of Water Magic to strike their targets. Aoiumi's shields couldn't handle the projectiles creating powerful explosions when they struck them, the large bubble bursting to send several spinning vortexes of scalding hot water towards Fubuki, and some of Fubuki's projectiles ended up harshly striking Samui! She was engulfed in several mint blue blasts while screaming in pain, even coughing up blood from one of the dense snowballs striking her in the stomach before exploding, and Samui could only scream while Aoiumi was also struck by the attacks! Both girls were caught in explosions before they fell to the ground, groaning in pain from how Fubuki's spell had so much power.
"She's just... too strong for us... to handle. I have... to get away. I have to get... Samui to a safe place." Aoiumi thought to herself in a pained manner, struggling to stand up again as the smoke cleared for her to see that Samui was knocked out on the floor.
Aoiumi stated aloud with pain and desperation in her voice, trying to stand while she had the feeling of worry in her eyes, "Kotomi, please... help me. Help me get... Samui to safety. You're the... only one I... can rely on now."
Upon turning around to see that the green-haired girl was gone, Aoiumi thought to herself with a smile of hopelessness and regret at the predictable circumstances while small tears formed in her eyes, "Kotomi's gone. She made the logical choice of fleeing from a battle where there was no hope for victory, and any other sensible mage would leave other people behind to save themselves."
"That doesn't matter much to me, though. I've always been the one who protects Samui, and I'll just keep protecting her until my life comes to an end." Aoiumi thought to herself with a fierce look forming on her face, as she started to stand up again and face Fubuki.
Upon seeing Aoiumi stretch out her arms in opposite directions while she stood in front of Samui like a human shield, Fubuki merely chuckled in a very amused manner. She felt like there was nothing left that Aoiumi could do to stop her from winning this fight, especially with Samui unconscious for the duo to not be capable of using high-level attacks right now, and Fubuki watched Aoiumi shoot out a small bubble of blue water from her mouth. The spell was simply known as Bubble Detonation, which simply meant that the bubble would explode, and Aoiumi aimed it at Fubuki.
As the bubble headed towards Fubuki, Aoiumi threw mint blue chunks of ice at it to strengthen her spell. She saw the bubble become mint blue for a moment, but Aoiumi let her eyes glance at Fubuki's body for a moment. She seemed to be healing herself, a peaceful-looking mint blue aura surrounding her body while she stood on the mint blue ice, and each instance of the aura glowing around Fubuki was an indication of Fubuki replenishing only half of her current magical power. She seemed to fully heal at this point, allowing her to be much more durable than before, and Fubuki also had a high amount of magical power again for her to cast a high number of spells.
She decided to unleash the Water Pressure Stream spell, which made a spinning beam of mint blue water emerge from her hands, and the attack headed straight for Aoiumi. Aoiumi let tears descend from her eyes while she could see the frost clouds slowly coming out of the attack, but she widened her eyes in shock at the sudden sight of the spell being torn through by a pink ball of Psychic Magic that looked average-sized. The person who fired that sphere must've put a high amount of power into it for a pink blast to occur, the blast being quite large while it shattered the ice, and Aoiumi turned around with a stunned look on her face while Lucy walked up to the situation.
"You all... You came to help me. Kotomi, even you..." Aoiumi stated aloud with a stunned facial expression, as she looked up at Risa right before turning to see Lucy.
Risa explained to her in a calm tone, having some proudness and sternness in her voice while she looked confident and squatted down in front of Aoiumi, "Kotomi told us how you wanted to protect everyone who's here to see the fashion show. Congratulations on doing your job well, kid. Just leave the rest of this fight to us."
"Yeah, we can all take down this villain! Icy enemies shouldn't be that difficult for the members of Team Sabertooth to handle, especially not for me! I'm Kusabue!" The little girl with dark green hair added in an optimistic manner, looking at Aoiumi with the utmost confidence in her eyes.
Upon seeing Kūkiatsu and the other team members stand behind Kusabue and Risa, Aoiumi's look of shock started to become a smile of absolute relief. She was very relieved to have found an ally who had other allies, allowing her to now have a group of people assisting her in taking down Fubuki, and Aoiumi felt like this would be the last time that she or Samui would ever have to deal with this certain enemy. She turned around to see Fubuki merely looking a bit surprised at Lucy for coming back instead of running away like a coward, but Fubuki's arrogant attitude only made Lucy look quite fierce about the thought of taking her down.
How was Chapter 46? Feel free to tell me your thoughts on it. Sorry that this chapter took quite long to write, but writer's block and real life got in the way. As for this story, the inn rooms and the outfits of the protagonists will get more detail later on. This chapter was just setting up several plot points for their payoffs to be good later. Speaking of a payoff, Lucy may be able to get some redemption if she can defeat Fubuki. This rivalry of Fubuki vs. Samui and Aoiumi ties in with the overall theme of rivals in the arc, and it's not a detour from the main plot. In fact, the Sabertooth mages may need to gain the trust of some mages for later events in the arc. By the way, this is the third part of the Azure Ice Arc! I'll update soon. :)
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