(Announcement!)

Hey guys! I'm excited to tell you that next week's chapter will come with a bonus Q and A. Where I will answer any question you may have about the story, any of the characters, relationships, backstories, magic powers or whatever. You can address questions to myself as the writer or any of the characters like Mason, Brosnan, or whoever you want.

I'll provide an example.

From Drake-

Q: Can i ask you a question ? About a couple .. Mason with who?

A: This is a tough one, at this point Mason is single but I think I've made it clear that Brosnan has feelings for the Phantom Dragon Slayer. Whether the feelings are mutual or not or if there are any future plans for this couple I can't say just yet. But there may also be some inklings to a relationship with Erza or maybe even Jellal. Nothing is set in stone from a relationship standpoint yet.

So please favorite, follow, and leave a review with any question you may have, thanks :)

Chapter 15

(Fairy Tail Guild infirmary)

"Ughhh…." Mason groaned as he slowly opened his eyes, before he sat up in the unfamiliar white bed sheets. "An infirmary?..." Mason looked around but when he moved his head it began to throb. "AAAHHHH!" Mason grabbed the side of his head, and in doing so discovered his forehead was bandaged on further examination most of his body was covered in bandages. "Guhhhggg… What's going on? My head is killing me…."

"Yesterday you took blows from Mystogan, Laxus, Erza and even Natsu.." A sweet voice answered back as Mirajane entered the infirmary carrying some medicine and a glass of water on a tray. "It's a miracle that your only complaining about a headache."

"That's nothing." Mason joked as he took the the tray of medicine from the smiling girl. "Last week I exploded, but its okay. I got better. So i've been unconscious for a whole day, I'm guessing Natsu took care of Laxus."

"Well actually it's only been 18 hours you completely depleted the magic in your body after destroying the remaining Lacrima's, the only thing your body can do to replenish that magic is to rest, and yes Natsu defeated Laxus with the help of Gajeel." Mirajane explained as Mason choked down his medicine. "It's too bad you slept through the Fantasia Parade but you should be good to walk now."

Mason slowly stood up from the bed. He was too sore to put his shirt on normally so his wristband changed shape once again this time to a hooded black jacket that fitted itself around Mason with the hood worn down. "Thanks for your help…" Mason turned and bowed thankfully to Mirajane.

"Don't mention it." Mirajane said with massive grin on her face. "Now go on, the master would like to see you."

"Uh...OK…" Mason answered slowly. "I'm not in trouble am I?"


(Later, in the main guild hall)

"OH-HO! GOOD TO SEE YOU MY BOY!" Master Makarov cried out with a drink raised in his hand. The old master sat on top of the guild halls main bar wearing a blue and yellow jesters hat.

"Yeah… Good to see you too." Mason smiled, amused at the antics of the drunken old man. "So I heard you wanted to see me?"

"Yes…" Makarov quickly went from an upbeat drunken smile to a stern and serious face. "Listen, I placed that guild mark on you in a time of great need for me and my guild. From what I heard you fought valiantly to protect my family and I greatly appreciate that. After yesterday's events I was forced to expel my grandson from the guild so it seems that fairy tail finds itself down a powerful Dragon Slayer so needless to say I'd like you to stay but I won't force you to."

"NO!" Erza, who had been quietly eavesdropping the entire time jumped out from behind a the bar and quickly got the attention of the rest of the guild hall. "Uhhhh…." She became flustered for a second before recovering her composure and rejoining her guild mates.

"Heheheh.." Mason chuckled softly before answering. "I'm not going anywhere so don't worry. I find myself discharged from roll as a Rune Knight, so before arriving here yesterday I was unemployed and at the very least being part of guild means work." Mason said with smile, before his eyes drifted over to Natsu who was covered in bandages. 'How do you do it Natsu? Not only Jellal but Laxus too, where do you get that power from?'

Natsu noticed Mason starring his way and for some reason this irritated him. "What are you looking at?" Natsu said with a vicious glare. "You lookin for a fight! We never did settle things from yesterday did we? Fine by me!" Natsu's hands suddenly burst into flames as he lept through the air.

"Seriously Natsu." Gray said with a roll of his eyes as his clothes seemed to have disappeared without a trace.

"C'mon Natsu!" Lucy spoke up trying to be the voice of reason. "Hasn't there been enough fighting already?" Lucy's words did little dissuade the Dragon slayer as he landed right in front of his foe.

"Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!" Natsu thrusted his fist forward at Mason's face but his blow simply passed through Mason as if he weren't even there. "Uh oh.." Natsu quickly realized his error.

"High spirited as always, huh?" Mason smiled as his fist began to glow purple "I think I'm going to like it here…"

WHAM!


(later)

"Hmmmm…." Mason scratched his chin as he perused the job board in the middle of the guild hall. "Party tricks, dog walking, house sitting, a date to the prom?" Mason's face went sour as he continued to look over the job selections. "You guild wizards really will do anything huh?"

"Us guild wizards you mean." Erza commented as she peered over the dragon slayers shoulder. "You're one of us now you know? Looking to take a job already?"

"Yeah. A dragon slayers gotta eat you know." Mason pulled a flyer off the board and smiled. "Ha! This one's perfect for me!" Mason showed of the flyer that read "Help! My house is haunted!" Mason's stomach growled as he licked his lips. "Looks like I get to kill two birds with one stone."

"Good for you." Erza said with a motherly smile as she studied the flyer. "Wow, the reward is pretty high. Mind if I tag along?"

"I don't mind, but I'm not sharing any of the ghosts." Mason said dismissively as he shoved the flyer in his pocket and continued to daydream about tasty phantoms.

"Erza's going on a job?" Gray's stood up to see what was going on, still absent of clothing.

"A spooky haunted house." Natsu made an exaggerated voice before he began to chuckle. "Sounds like a good time to me."

"Oh yeah, and I still need help paying my rent." Lucy joined in too and soon there was a crowd gathered around the job board. "What do you say Erza, Mason mind if we tag along."

"Hmmm. No I don't mind, but like I said don't expect me to share my dinner." Mason replied as he was already halfway out the door.

Mason was open to the idea of making this a team effort, but Erza on the other hand. "..." Didn't even need to say anything a simple glare was enough.

"Uh… Nevermind I need to work on my book!" Lucy quickly came up with an excuse as Natsu and Gray huddled together in fear.

"Well looks like its just the two of us." Erza turned to Mason sounding a bit more excited than earlier. "So where does our job take place?"

Mason fished the paper and took a look. "Cymbal Town. Oh, I've been there it's a little town a few miles south of Era. It shouldn't take us too long to get there."

"You're right if I remember correctly there's a station in Cymbal Town it shouldn't take us more than 3 hours to get there." Erza began to rush out the door when she grabbed Mason by the hand. "C'mon lets get going!"

"Wait station? Are we taking the train!?" Mason's face suddenly went pale as he was drug through city streets. "I think I changed my mind! I'm not hungry anymore! NOOO!"


(Later in Cymbal Town)

"Ughh…. I think I'm gonna be sick…" Mason looked completely green in the face as he and Erza walked down the streets of Cymbol town.

"Quit complaining." Erza elbowed Mason in the side and this nearly knocked him to the ground. "Look at this little town, it's absolutely adorable. Ooo look at this." Erza rushed over to the window of one of a clothing store and began to ogle the different outfits and dresses they had on display."Incredible… Look at all these cute clothes. I have to shop here." Erza began fogging up the glass with her breath.

"Hehehe…" Mason chuckled as he began to recover from his Motion sickness. "We can come back later but first we gotta finish this job." Mason smiled at the way his partner was acting.

"Really! You mean it!" Erza's eyes sparkled with excitement at the prospect of being able to shop.

"Of course. By then we'll have our reward, but first we have to find this house." Mason pulled a map out of his pocket and attempted to decipher it. "Mmmm… Did a dog draw this? If we're on main street then the house should be… Nope, that's not right…. Ughhhh…"

"Uh.. Mason…" Erza tapped the white haired boys shoulder getting him to look up from the map. "I think I found." She pointed to a massive old house sitting in a near empty lot with a dark and menacing aura looming over it.

"Yeah I think you're right…" The Fairy Tail wizards slowly made their way over to the ominous mansion, it was as if they had entered another dimension once they stepped on the property. All the grass was dead and brown and the sky was completely grey.

"The mayor of this town once to eliminate the spirit of a witch who owned this house but died in their less than a year ago. Her ghost has been haunting the building ever since and scarying away any potential buyers." Erza recalled the job parameters as they stood outside the front entrance to the home. "It'd be unprofessional to refuse this job but it seems wrong to destroy a spirit who just wants to protect her home."

"Don't feel too bad for any ghost." Mason looked ahead with cold eyes. "Ghosts are criminals but their crime is breaking the laws of the universe. As my father, Buruut would always say your either alive or your dead anything in between is unnatural. A ghost only exists when a wizard uses the magic power in their body at the time of death to keep their souls in this world. This could be for a variety of reasons be it that they have remaining requests are murdered or die prematurely or simply refuse to die when their time is called. Whatever it may be it's a crime against nature."

"Okay…." Erza looked kinda shocked by how serious Mason was acting. "You lead the way then."

Mason flipped up his hood concealing his face in shadow his blood red eyes the only thing shining through the darkness. "My pleasure." Mason slammed open the door, nearly shattering the old wood into splinters.

The two made there way inside the house. The inside of mansion was in utter ruin the carpeting was ripped to shreds and the wall was decorated with shattered picture frames and rotten paintings. The two walked deeper into the house before they heard the CREAK! CREAK! Of an old rocking chair. "Geeetttt oouuuutttt….." An old woman's moan rang through the house.

Down a dark hallway appeared the shade like figure of a distorted old woman dressed in black holding a cup of tea and sitting in a rocking chair. "GET OUT!" The phantom screamed louder before she hurled the porcelain cup at the intruders.

The cup shattered on the way into sharp arrow like shards that nearly slammed into Erza's face but Mason stopped them just in time with his telekinesis. "See, this is why you shouldn't feel bad for ghosts they're a bunch of jerks. Now it's time to evict this old lady."

"I SAID OUT!" The ghost got up from her chair and began to fly at the intruders. Her hair began to fly out sparatically off of her head and her eyes flashed red.

"Step back." Mason pushed Erza back away slightly as the ghost rushed them.

The old spirit stopped right in front of the Dragon Slayer. "YYAAAAAHHHHGGGGG!" The ghost screeche right in Mason's face but he didn't even flinch. "Ehhhh?" The ghost looked confused as Mason red eyes stared back at her. The ghost began to shrink back away from the frightening boy, but it was too late. "Gah!" Mason grabbed the ghost by her wrinkle neck so that she could no longer escape.

"Unfortunately for you I haven't eaten all day, so I'm gonna make this quick. Enjoy the afterlife." Mason stuffed the ghost into the opening of his hood and it was quickly sucked up and disappeared into nothing leaving nothing but a small BELCH! "Oh. Excuse me."

"Well… That was fast." Erza just blinked slowly. She decided it would be better not to question things and just except what happened. "Lets go collect our reward."


(Later)

BELCH! "Ugh sorry, she's not sitting well with me at all." Mason apologized as he tried to fan away the smell.

"Okay, something is bothering me." Erza who looked uncomfortable with something finally spoke up. "So did you just eat that soul, like wipe it from existence? she's gone forever? That's pretty unsettling."

"Hmmm." Mason paused for a second as he analyzed the question. "No, thats not really how it works. When I consume a ghost or any soul like that my body cleans it of any lingering negative energy and magic power and lets the soul pass on to the after life I take the energy and magic power and add it to my own but the soul does help make it taste better."

"Oh…" Erza let out a sigh of relief. "That's good to hear. Now I'll be able to rest a little easier."

GRUMBLE! "Ugh speaking of things that taste good that old witches magic power wasn't nearly enough for me. I hate to be burden but do you mind if we stop to grab a bite real quick then we can do as much shopping as you want." Mason pleaded.

"Really!" Erza's face quickly brightened up. "Oh I can't wait!" She grabbed Mason and began to drag him once again. "C'mon! I saw the cutest little dessert shop over here! Oh and it's right across the street from that cute boutique from before! This is gonna be so much fun!"

"Wait a second I'm pretty sure we forgot something!" Mason tried to get the excited redhead to cool off, but it was as if she couldn't even here him. "Erza! Erza wait! Erza! What about our reward!"

"Huh?" She finally stopped in her tracks. "Oh yes, I completely forgot we still need to finish the job!"


(Even Later)

"Hmmmm Hmmm Hmmm Hmmm…" Erza hummed an upbeat melody as she carried nearly ten shopping bags full of newly purchased clothing along with her. She looked back at Mason who was following close behind her with a cool smile on his ace. She began to grin and a small rosey blush formed on her cheeks. 'Alright! I did it! We ate cakes went shopping and walked all around town together all alone! Almost like a date! Haha!'

"You know I seriously can't believe you spent the entirety of that massive reward in a single afternoon. Hehehe ya know you sure are something aren't you. We should do this again sometime I had a lot of fun today" Mason chuckled before he looked down at a the check written out for his reward and all the zeros attached to the end of it. 'Plus the monaney ain't bad either. First thing I'm doing when I get back to magnolia is hitting up the market. Fresh Fish, meat fruits and vegetables here I come.'

'Woah! Did he just ask me on a second date?' Erza's face went completely red and it was almost as if she was steaming. "S-Sure anything for you…"

"What was that?" Mason said, not quite catching Erza's answer.

"Ahem! I mean whenever is good with you! Heheheehhh." Erza's face went from embarassed to depressed in a matter of seconds, but she recovered almost just as quickly. "Alright! Lets hurry back to the guild I think the next train leaves in 20 minutes."

"Wait.." Mason called back in a voice so serious that it sent a shiver down Erza's back. "There's something important I need to ask you." Erza's heart started pounding in her chest before Mason took a deep bow in front of her. "Please! I beg you! Don't make me ride that train again! I'll do anything!"

"Haaaahhhhhhh…" Erza let out a depressed sigh, before anger began to take over. "GET ON THE TRAIN!"

"WHYYYHYYYY!" Mason cried back his face was already turning green.


(End)