"An enemy of literature? Me? With my massive collection of books and arts proves I am culture's best friend." the Duke refuted. "Now, what secret does this book hold? I know! He probably hid his fortune somewhere and there's a map to it inside. Tell me or I'll snap your arm like a toothpick." he threatened, putting more pressure on the girl's limb.
Lucy answered him by sticking her tongue out in defiance. This enraged the rich man who pinned her to the ground and was about to say something but received a violent blow to the jaw when Happy rammed into him and sent him skidding to the floor, freeing the blonde girl in the process.
"Way to go Happy!" the Celestial Spirit wizard complimented, only for the cat's magic to run out, making his wings disappear right when he was above the sewer water into which he fell.
Seeing her chance to turn the tide, Lucy took out one of her golden keys and pointed it threateningly at Everlue with a confident expression. "Looks like the tables have turned, but if you let us go with the book, I'll go easy on you. Although, that is not to say I won't give you a good smack."
"For an active reader as you claim to be, you seem to lack turns of phrase. To state that the tables have turned would imply that you now hold the advantage but you still don't. No matter which spirits you possess, there is no way you and that cat could ever stand a chance against me and my Diver Magic." Everlue countered with an evil smirk and a dark look before diving into the soil.
After a short pause, he erupted next to Lucy and tried to hit her but she dodged the attack. As a result, the short man returned into the sewer structure and then emerged from another side to launch a similar attack. This scenario repeated itself in a loop for some time.
And that was exactly the sight Natsu was greeted with when he made his way through the sewer which made him narrow his eyes in confusion.
When Happy climbed out of the water, he noticed his partner and ran to his side. "Natsu!" he called out.
The pinkette didn't bother to look the blue cat's way but acknowledged him by speaking up. "What's going on here? Why do you stink?" he asked, turning his gaze towards his son at the second question.
"Lucy figured out the secret inside Daybreak and Everlue wants to make her tell him." Happy exclaimed, purposely ignoring the last part of his friend's interrogation and decided to try to change the subject. "Are you going to interfere?"
"Lucy looks like she is handling it just fine so I'd say no. The problem is that if this goes on too long, this place will become too fragile because of all the holes this guy us making and the entire mansion will fall on us. So I guess I kind of have to."
Stepping forward a little, Natsu waited for the rich man to come out of a hole close enough to him. When he did, the pinkette grabbed his ankle and swung him around, slamming him into the ground.
Capitalizing on this, Lucy grabbed her whip and used it to tie Everlue up. "Try to dig yourself out of this!" she exclaimed, anger and disgust evident in her voice. "I know the whole story now!"
"Then would you mind filling us in?" Natsu questioned with his arms crossed.
"O-Oh, sure, of course." the girl stuttered, having forgotten about her teammate for a second. "See, it's a horrible adventure novel about a trashy little character being none other than Duke Everlue. But what is really disgusting is that he forced Kemu Zaleon to write it."
"How so?" Happy wondered.
"He blackmailed him into it." Lucy clarified, spitting the word "blackmail".
"Well, he had it coming!" Everlue exclaimed, bringing the attention back to him. "Any fool would have jumped at the chance to have me as their muse but he had the audacity to say "no". So I motivated him with an ultimatum: either he wrote the novel or his family would be stripped of their citizenship." This shocked Happy and Lucy and made Natsu's eyes narrow.
"But then none of them would be able to join a guild and make a living!" Happy exclaimed.
'I don't think neither you nor I have any citizenship, Happy.' Natsu thought while sweat dropping.
"Precisely." the Duke confirmed with a sick smile. "He agreed but I still didn't like his attitude so I decided he'd do best writing from a prison cell. He went on and on about being a brilliant novelist who would not give in to threats. But in the end, I got what I wanted!"
"I can't believe you'd do all that just to sooth your own stupid ego! You put him in solitary confinement for three years! Don't you have any notion of how hard it must've been!" Lucy screamed, furious at the man.
"He's the one who took this long to write the book. Perhaps it took him that much time to appreciated me." the short man snickered.
"He never did! In fact, he couldn't bring himself to spread your lies! But he knew that for his family's sake he had to satisfy your vanity by writing your character as a heroic champion of justice!"
"How do you know all that?" Natsu asked.
"It's all written in the book." she replied, holding up the previously mentioned object.
"What? I read that book in its entirety and there is no mention of Kemu Zaleon inside." Everlue denied.
"Well, if you read it normally it's true. But you have forgotten something: before being an author he was a wizard. After he finished the book, he cast a spell on it with all the strength he could muster." Lucy explained.
"What spell?" Natsu questioned.
"One that changes the story written in the book. A small part of the hidden story focuses on the pain and torture he went through in writing it, but its true secret has nothing to do with Everlue." the blonde responded, paying so much attention to her pink-haired teammate that she didn't notice the Duke wiggling out of her whip.
'What can she possibly mean by that? What is that secret? What if that jerk has written about all of my illegal business deals? I can't have that! I can't let the Magic Council get wind of how I actually made my fortune or I would be done for.' he thought as he slowly put his hand in his pocket and pulled out a golden key, similar to Lucy's.
"Open Gate of the Maiden! Virgo!" he yelled and the giant pink-haired maid from before appeared, bringing the Fairy Tail members' attention back to him. "Virgo, fetch me that book!"
"He's using your trick Lucy!" Happy exclaimed.
"Wha-You again?!" Natsu rhetorically asked.
"What's wrong Natsu?" his blue-furred companion questioned.
"While I was looking for you guys, she attacked me like three times. No matter how I knocked her out, she just kept getting back up."
"Don't worry. I've got this!" Lucy said confidently, hanging up the book behind her and taking her key back out. "Open Gate of the Giant Crab! Cancer!" she yelled, summoning a new Celestial Spirit.
This one had black hair braided in red cornrows that end in a shape that resembled crab's pincers, as well as thick lips. Cancer dressed in a way reminiscent of a hairdresser with a blue striped shirt and dark trousers with two aquamarine stripes each side, also wearing boots. In his pants there was a ring chain in the right pocket and a hairdresser tools' bag in the left side of his belt. He wore a golden necklace seen with his two main weapons: scissors. The color of his eyes was unknown because he sported sunglasses with green lens. Cancer also had six crab legs that appear from his back.
"Hey Lucy. How would you like your hair done today, baby?" the spirit asked which made Happy yell in shock.
"I didn't call you for styling, I need help with these two." Lucy corrected, pointing at the maid and her key owner.
"As you wish, baby." the crab spirit acknowledged.
"Ah. So he just gives the bad guys a makeover before they kill us. That's really nice and all but you might as well send him back Lucy." the blue feline commented, clearly not impressed.
"Enough of this! Virgo! Clean up this rubbish!" Everlue ordered.
"Yes, master." the maid complied, raising her fist high in the air, getting ready to strike.
"Argh, screw this! I'm done with you getting in my way all the time." Natsu declared while pointing at Virgo, exceeded by the number of times he had had to get rid of the spirit.
As a result, he propelled himself at her at tremendous speed and yelled "Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!" while punching her, sending her backwards. When the two flew past Everlue, Natsu took the opportunity to kick the shorter man towards Cancer.
Seeing this, the crab spirit jumped high in the air to intercept the flying egomaniac who he then attacked with his scissors. Cancer then landed gracefully on the ground while Everlue's unconscious fell limply with a thud.
"Okay, I'm done. Does this satisfy you or what, baby?" he said, referring to the Duke's new appearance, his attack having left him completely hairless and bald.
"I mean, you did knock him out so it's good enough. I guess." Natsu complimented, returning to the group, leaving an unconscious maid behind.
As it turned out, the hole Virgo created when she was summoned was one too many and the vibrations and shaking from the fight pushed the structure over the edge and the whole building started collapsing on them.
Upon noticing this, Natsu reacted quickly and ignited both hands in purple energy and brought them to the ground. "Gravity Dragon's Elevation Field." And the collapsing stopped, the building being kept together by the same purple energy as before.
As the trio made their way out of the Duke's residence, Natsu noted. "Well, one thing is certain: you are definitely going to fit into Fairy Tail, having almost destroyed that huge house."
"But Natsu, Lucy almost ruined your reputation by doing so." Happy countered.
"Well, this is a private property. Not only that, but also the private property of one of the most dishonest men in the country. So I very much doubt the Magic Council would complain about its destruction. And even if they did, I'd just need to explain the circumstances and my name would be cleared." he argued and marked a short pause before turning around. "Which makes me think…you know what?" he snapped his fingers and the mansion resumed falling apart.
"I hope I won't get in trouble for this." Lucy muttered.
Later in the day, around dusk, the Fairy Tail mages were back at their employer's house. And much to said client surprise and displeasure, the wizards hadn't brought a pile of ashes back but the book he had tasked them to burn, intact.
And he was hell bent on voicing his discontent. "What is the meaning of this? I requested for this book to be destroyed, not stolen!"
"Well, if you really want to burn it, I'd rather you do it yourself." Lucy indicated while handing him the book, which he took.
"Alright then, I most certainly will. I never want to see it again." Melon complied, taking matches out and igniting one.
But before he could set the book on fire, the match's flame was sucked out by the pink-haired mage of the group who then spoke while gesturing towards Lucy. "Before you do that, I suggest you listen to what she has to say."
The middle-aged man reluctantly nodded and turned his head to the buxom blonde girl.
"When I first read Daybreak, I had a hard time believing it was written by Kemu Zaleon, it was way too bad. This made me understand that there was a spell on it. And I must say I completely see why you feel the way you do about this book. You want to protect your father's legacy. Because you are actually Zaleon's son, aren't you?" she said.
"Yes, that's correct." he admitted after staring thoughtfully at the book for a short while.
"Have you ever read it for yourself?" Lucy asked.
"No, I…I never found the courage to. My father told it was trash." Melon answered.
"And, knowing all that, you were just going to burn it without ever reading it?" Natsu questioned with a raised eyebrow.
"I was." the aging man confirmed which made the pinkette sigh and cross his arms.
"That would have been one of the biggest mistakes of your entire life, maybe even the biggest." he told the mustached man while slowly strolling towards him. "It's the last thing you've got from your father, the last book he wrote, so no matter how terrible it might be, you should at least try to see what's inside. Some people would kill for that kind of memory."
"You might be right but that book just caused my family so much pain and shame." Melon explained, looking off into the distance. "When my father came back, 31 years ago, he was so traumatized and broken by all he had gone through for three years that he decided he would never write again. What's worse is that, in order to make sure he would never even be able to write again, he made a tourniquet around his right arm and used a butcher's axe to cut his arm off. He passed away a few days later but the anger and betrayal I felt towards him for three years didn't diminish, especially since he seemed to be satisfied, if not proud of what he had accomplished. But as time went by, my anger turned into remorse. And since it is too late for me to get forgiven, I decided to make amends by destroying the object of all his suffering. This is the only way for me to preserve his legacy. I'm sure this is what he'd want."
"Well, you're wrong." Lucy contested. "Kaby, look at the book."
When he did as he was told, the gray-haired man was startled to witness that the book he was holding was glowing of a soft purple light. "What is this?!"
"This is the spell that was cast on this book, activating. A spell cast by no other than Kemu Zaleon, or rather Zekua Melon." Lucy explained and when she did, the letters in the title of the book switched places, changing from "Daybreak" to "Dear Kaby". "This book is his letter to you, protected by a spell that rearranges all of its words so that no one else could read it. He didn't decide to stop writing because he was traumatized. He stopped because he didn't have anything left to write." she developed while the book opened and all of its letters started doing the same thing as the title's had.
Once the process was complete, Melon grabbed it and held it tightly in his arms as tears started forming in his eyes. "Thank you, father. I promise I will always protect this book."
"Well, I guess that's 2,000,000 jewels we won't be collecting." Natsu said, changing the mood.
"Aye." Happy agreed, the only one not surprised by his partner's statement.
"Uh?!" Lucy exclaimed.
"The job request was to burn the book and we didn't." the pinkette explained.
"Even so, there must be something I can do to thank you." their client insisted.
"Yeah! He's the one who chose not to destroy it in the end!" the female mage argued.
"Lucy, remember what Natsu said about working on your flaws? Try not to be so greedy." Happy advised.
"But I need the money to pay rent." she whined.
"They need it more than we do and I don't know about you but I would feel bad about accepting money from you. Tell you what, if you really want to express your gratitude, try never to lie or deceive us again. We should all go home now, including you two Mr. and Mrs. Melon." Natsu said, shocking the married couple and confusing/surprising his blonde teammate.
During the night, as the trio was walking home, Lucy felt disappointed that she did not receive the money she had hoped for. But she was even more confused and intrigued by the explanation her pink-haired guildmate gave for turning it down.
"Natsu, can you tell me why you wouldn't accept their money again?" she requested.
"Well, for one thing, taking the money without completing the mission would have damaged Fairy Tail's reputation. And for another, they weren't rich nor even wealthy." he answered.
"And how do you know that?" the blonde asked.
"The house wasn't theirs. And before you ask, I knew it because their smells weren't the same as that in the house." the pinkette supplied.
"Argh. I would have noticed something too if I hadn't been so engrossed in the book." Lucy stated in frustration.
"By the way, that reminds me, the stack of paper I saw on the desk at your place is your first attempt at writing a novel, isn't it?" Natsu asked in pure curiosity but it didn't prevent the girl from blushing madly with embarrassment.
"Promise you won't tell anybody about that, okay?" the girl all but begged.
"Why not?" Happy asked.
"Because I'm such a horrible writer, I'd die of embarrassment if anyone read my stuff." she explained while hiding behind her hands.
"What's the point of writing something if you don't want people to read it?" Natsu asked, sweat dropping. "Besides, I'm sure you're just underestimating yourself." he reassured with a kind smile.
"Y-You really mean that?" the blonde-haired woman asked hesitantly, taking her fave out of her hands.
"I do. You have many talents Lucy. If you could get past your flaws, you could accomplish a lot. I mean, in a single day, we put an end to the horrible man that was Everlue and returned Zekua Melon's last creation to his son, probably changing his life for the better by doing so and you still find a way to complain about not getting paid. It's a shame, but what are we gonna do about it?" the pinkette explained and, unbeknownst to him, this caused the teenage girl to reflect deeply on herself.
The next day, the new team was approaching Magnolia when Natsu felt something, or rather someone, standing in a bush near the road.
"Gray, if you think I don't know you're in there, you're wrong. Come out." he instructed and indeed their dark-haired guildmate, wearing nothing but his boxers, came out of the bush a few seconds later.
"What are you doing in your underwear?" Lucy asked.
"Trying to find a bathroom." he responded.
"In the middle of the woods? And why would you undress before finding one?" Natsu wondered with a raised eyebrow.
"I wanted some privacy. I didn't expect you to barge in." the ice mage argued.
"Whatever. Since you're here, you might as well make the way back with us." the pinkette offered, choosing to ignore that Gray's explanation didn't even make any sense.
"Fine. But if we don't want trouble, we should hurry." the black-haired mage accepted.
"Why do you say that?" the only female asked.
"Because Erza is due back any time now." he answered, looking dejected.
"The Erza? As in the most powerful woman in Fairy Tail?"
"Herself." Happy confirmed.
"I can't wait to meet her! But now that I think about it, I've never seen a picture of her in Sorcerer Weekly or anything. What is she like?" Lucy questioned.
"Scary. Like a wild animal, a beast or a full on monster." Gray explained.
"Come on now Gray, I can see why she would scare you but she isn't anything like that." Natsu defended the red-haired knight.
"Easy for you to say, Erza can't beat you up to a pulp whenever you do something she doesn't like or even agree with." the ice mage countered.
"She actually does that?!" Lucy asked, becoming really frightened by the woman in question.
"Aye! But she never even tries to do it to Natsu because he's way stronger than her." Happy explained with his usual energetic attitude.
His oldest friend was about to comment on it but was cut off when a voice he new all too well rang in his head in an amused and happy tone. 'He sure is.'
Natsu stopped in his tracks, his eyes wide with shock. '…Mavis?!'