Happy flew us to the top of the mansion one by one.

"Your wings aren't disappearing yet, right?" Lucy asked as she and Happy flew closer.

"Aye." I stood behind Natsu as Happy dropped Lucy onto the roof and Natsu stared inside. "Now landing."

"Thank you Happy!"

"I don't get why we have to sneak in like this!" Natsu complained.

"Why else?" Lucy asked him. "This may be a paid mission, but we're pretty much acting like thieves."

"The "C" from Plan C was for charge! We're supposed to storm the gate and blast anybody who tries to get in our way!"

"NO!" Lucy denied.

"Then burn the book."

"Like I said, we're not doing it that way!" Lucy reminded him. "I don't know what kind of bandit-fighting or monster-hunting jobs you've taken on in the past, but this time, our target is the authority in this town! He may be an annoying, tasteless, dirty old man with no eye for beauty, but he isn't a villain!"

"Everyone's a villain in someone's story, Lucy," I told her. "And in this one he is."

"One slip, and we'll bring an army down on our heads!" Lucy reminded us.

"What's with you?!" Natsu asked her. "I heard the words "he did something unforgivable" come out of your own mouth!"

"Yes! I'll never forgive him! Not for that word he used!" Lucy said holding up her fist. "So I won't stop with just burning the book! I'll do something to make him regret it! I'll hide his shoes or something!" She chuckled and I sighed.

"Whoa! That's smallscale..." Natsu said with Happy and I agreeing with him.

"Anyway, we're not here to go n a rampage, got it? No violence!" Lucy told us. Natsu made a face but didn't answer.

"Does it matter?" I asked. "Even if we sneak in do you really think he won't have guards or something inside that will stop us?" I asked her.

"It doesn't mean we have to hurt them to get what we want! And what's with that face!?" Lucy asked karate chopping Natsu's head.

"You realize that your words and actions don't match up, right?" he asked her. He turned and melted the glass so he could unlock the window. "Got it."

"That's a salamander for you," Lucy said. We crawled inside the room and looked around.

"So this is a storage room?" Lucy asked.

"Look like."

"I wonder what all this is?"

"Natsu, look!" I laughed at Happy as he placed his head in a skull.

"Ooh! That looks great on you, Happy!" Natsu looked at other things before looking at some of the things in the room.

"I think we can get out through that door. Let's go. Carefully, okay?" Lucy asked.

"Hey, Lucy! Look!" Happy said looking up at her in his new mask.

"Shut up, cat!" We opened the door and Happy glanced out to make sure the coast was clear.

"Nobody's there."

"Take that thing off!" Lucy ordered. "It's creepy!"


We snuck through the mansion as quietly and as close to the ground as we could following Lucy's example. This wasn't our usual method of completing a mission.

"Say, Lucy, you don't plan on searching one room at a time through the whole mansion like this, do you?" Natsu whispered to her.

"Naturally!"

"This is going to take forever then!" I complained.

"Wouldn't it be faster to just grab somebody and find out where the book is from them?" Natsu suggested.

"Aye."

"I have to agree, Lucy," I told her. "There's a million room in this place."

"We're trying to accomplish the mission without being seen. You know, like ninjas. Cool, huh?" Lucy asked him.

"N-Ninjas...?" Natsu asked.

"Now you've done it," I sighed before the maids from earlier came out from the ground.

"We've found the intruders!" The largest one shouted. Natsu, Happy and I screamed.

"They've found us!" Lucy shouted.

"They will be exterminated!" Natsu wrapped his scarf around his head before kicking the smaller four maids with fire surrounding his foot.

"Ninja!"

"Huh?!"

"You're the one who mentioned ninjas," I reminded her.

"We ninja must never be seen! Nin, nin!" Natsu said.

"Nin, nin!" Happy agreed.

"You guys make the same amount of noise as ninjas as you always do. Geez!" Lucy complained. "We'd better move! They're going to send somebody else next! We have to get inside a room!"

"Let 'em come!" Natsu told her as she dragged him down the hall. "Just let me at 'em!"

"Nevermind, just hide!" Lucy led us to the closest room and slammed the door shut behind us. "Phew! That was close! We blew it, huh?"

"Well, your way we did," I said and she glared at me. "Searching every room individually would have taken much longer than it would have otherwise."

"Whoa! This place sure has a lot of books!" Natsu exclaimed.

"Aye! Ninja master, sir!"

"Guess we'd better start looking through these," I sighed.

"Duke Everlue may look like a total idiot, but this is quite a private library," Lucy complimented.

"Let's search!"

"Aye, sir!"

"If he's read all of them, I'd be very impressed."

"Oh, ho! I found a dirty one!"

"And a picture guide to fish!"

"I'm exhausted just thinking of trying to find a single book in all this," Lucy sighed.

"What's the matter with these?! They only have words!"

"Natsu... that's normal for books."

"Ohhh! I found a golden book!" Natsu shouted.

"Uppaah!"

"Will you guys please get serious about this search?!" I turned to see a golden book in Natsu's hand with the title Daybreak on it. We all stared at it in awe.

"Daybreak!"

"We found it!"

"It hardly seems fair to find it so quickly without really looking..." Lucy said.

"So long as the mission is complete does it matter how we do it?" I asked her.

"I suppose not."

"Now for the burning!" Natsu said lighting his hand on fire.

"This is so easy!" Happy cheered.

"W-wait a second!" Lucy snatched the book and stared at it. "Th-this author... it's Kemu Zaleon!"

"Kemu?" Natsu and I asked confused.

"He was an author, but also a practicing wizard!" She told us. "I'm his biggest fan! This can't be true! I thought I'd read all of Kemu Zaleon's books! This is an unpublished work?! Amazing!"

"Who cares? Let's just burn it quickly!" Natsu told him.

"What are you saying? This is a cultural legacy! There's no way we can burn it!

"You mean abandon the job?" Happy asked her.

"We don't do the job we don't get paid," I reminded her.

"Didn't I say that I'm a fan?!" She asked raising her fists to our heads.

"Now you're attacking us?"

"Then let's just say we burnt it, and let me keep it!"

"I don't want to lie," Natsu told her.

"Didn't you hear? There's only one of these in the world! If we burn it, nobody will ever be able to read it again!"

"Isn't that the point?" I asked.

"Of course not!" Lucy shouted at me.

"I see. I see." We saw cracks in the ground close by where the voice was coming from. "Bo yo yo yo yo yo... So, it's Daybreak you were after?! I was right to let you run free for a while! Oh, how smart am I?! Bo yo yo yo yo!"

"Look! You delayed, and this happened!" Natsu complained to Lucy.

"I-I'm sorry!"

"Hm... Now I know what you wizards are all frantic to find... So it was that worthless book, huh?!"

"Worthless book?" Natsu asked. Could a book that someone's willing to pay so much to destroy really be called worthless?

"Th-then you wouldn't mind if I kept it?" Lucy asked staring at her desired object.

"No! I don't care how worthless it is, what's mine is mine!"

"Stingy!"

"Shut up, ugly!"

"It doesn't matter whose it is if we burn it," Natsu pointed out.

"No! Don't you dare!" Lucy shouted at him.

"Lucy this is our job!" Natsu reminded her. She stared at us for a second.

"Then at least let me read it first!" She dropped to the ground.

"You mean here?!" We all shouted at her.

"Err! Now you've made me angry! I will not allow you to touch the book of one so very, very, very, very important as I!" Everlue shouted. "Come out, Vanish Brothers!" The bookcases parted and we waited as the "Vanish Brothers" appeared.

"So it's finally time for business?"

"Mama would scold us for receiving money without working for it."

"Good afternoon."

"These kids are supposed to be Fairy Tail wizards? Mama would be shocked."

"That symbol! That's the mark of the Southern Wolf bodyguard guild!" Happy told us.

"So you hired these guys?" Natsu asked Everlue.

"Bo yo yo yo! The Southern Wolf is hungry! Prepare to die!" We all glared at each other before noticing one person missing.

"HEY!" We all shouted at Lucy who was still happily reading Daybreak.

"These people are pathetic!"

"So these are Fairy Tail wizards."

"Vanish Brothers, I want that book back!" Everlue ordered. "Kill them, and get it back!" I prepared for a fight before Lucy ran off.

"Natsu! Az! Buy me some time! It looks like there's some secret behind this book!" She told us.

"Huh?"

"Secret?!"

"Lucy where are you going?!" Natsu asked her.

"I need a quiet place to read!"

"Are you kidding me?!" I shouted before she slammed the door on us.

"Change of plans!" Everlue flipped onto his head and started spinning quickly. "I will find that girl myself!"

"Bur Lucy went that way," Natsu reminded him pointing at the door.

"You vanish Brothers will make sure those brats vanish!"

"I hat it when the client changes plans on a whim!"

"You said it!"

"This looks like it's going to be a huge pain!"

"Happy, Az, go after Lucy," Natsu told us.

"That will leave you alone with the Vanish Brothers," I pointed out.

"You're facing off against two members of the Southern Wolf guild! One of us has to help out here!" Happy told him.

"I can handle them alone," Natsu told us.

"Huh?! You jerk! I'm telling Mama!"

"Calm down and cool off."

"Let's go, Happy!" I said smiling down at the cat.

"Right!" Happy made his wings appear and picked me up so we could fly out of there. "Natsu, take care of yourself!"

"You better come find us after you win this fight!" I shouted down to him.

"Yeah! Keep an eye on Lucy, okay?!" And with that, Happy and I turned task to the task at hand. Find and protect Lucy!