With much excitement from my epiphany, the guild doors burst open as I stepped in, met by the completely dead-panned, silent guild hall.
"Yo! What's up?" I yelled, the only thing that could be heard aside from Erza speaking quietly to Makarov, turning once she heard my voice. I curiously went over to her and Makarov, noticing that she was solo, that Natsu, Gray, Lucy, and Happy were gone. The odd part was, I'd never seen Erza by herself. Putting the pieces together-
Oh no. Whatever this was, it couldn't be good. At all.
"Erza? Makarov? What the heck is going on here?" I questioned.
"Oh no. If you were to know..." began Erza.
"Tell him anyway, Erza. He should know," insisted Makarov. Erza acquired a new look on her face, beyond exasperation or fright.
"Please do not get angry or go on a rampage when I say this..." she said quietly. "While you were gone, Natsu and Happy went up to the second floor, a floor reserved for S-Class Mages such as myself, and stole an S-Rank Quest. They don't know the danger of this, what they're bringing themselves into. Out of all the quests, they stole the most dangerous one. Mind you, they're all dangerous, but this one is far more dangerous than any of the others."
"I know what S-class is, but what the hell were they thinking?" She didn't respond because at that moment, a tall guy with yellow hair, purple button-down shirt and brown coat, and weird spiked headphones or something on his ears leaned over the balcony, smoking a blunt with a nasty grin on his face.
"Huh? Who're you? Why're you up there?" I called. The guy acknowledged me, his grin widening.
"'Why're you up there?' Why do you ask such dumb questions, dumbass?" he mocked, making my teeth grit. I could automatically tell that I didn't like this guy.
"Laxus! Don't be such a jerk! He didn't know you were up there!" defended Mira. She looked over and smiled, causing me to slightly grin in response.
Laxus scoffed. "You ignorant dumbass. Wanna know why I'm up here? Because I'm better and stronger than all of you chumps, all you maggots."
Now it was my turn to scoff. "Self-righteous asshole," I muttered under my breath. Mira shot me a look that told me I shouldn't have said that, that something bad would happen if Laxus heard me. Which he did.
"Sorry, wanna say that again, you mumbling dumbass?" he taunted, cupping his hand around his ear. Now I was starting to get annoyed.
"That's what I thought-"
"I said that you're a goddamn, self-righteous, stupid asshole piece of shit!" I yelled, vibrating the whole guild. It did more than vibrate the guild though, not just make it go silent. Every single person stopped all movement, holding their breaths, covering their mouths, completely paralyzing everyone in fear with looks of complete shock on each of their wide-eyed faces.
Laxus on the other hand, adopted a look far more pissed than Erza. His shitty grin morphed into a similar teeth-barred expression as mine at that moment, eyebrows curled and eyes widened.
"You... little... punk-ass. Know your place." In a bright flash, his fist became enveloped in a ball of sparks, lightning. My weakness.
Uh. Oh.
Hiding my fright, I glared at Laxus realizing that his Magic was my weakness and that he could mess me up or even kill me if we got into a fight.
"Go on. Say something else, smartass. I dare you," he snarled. I was tempted to say something, but Makarov jumped in before anything could happen.
"Laxus! That's quite enough!" he bellowed. Laxus' dumb grin appeared again.
"You dumb old geezer... you think you're the boss, well enjoy it now! When I surpass you, and take over the guild, little pests like him will be crushed under my mighty foot!" As he spoke, he glared at me.
"We'll settle this one day, me and you. Just you wait," he growled.
I rolled and diverted my eyes from his deadly gaze. "Whatever." I wanted to throw a lot of good words at him and his self-righteous ass, but I just bit my lip. Turning around and walking coolly out of sight, I was able to let my breath go which I had been holding ever since I had insulted him, making a shiver run down my arms. The whole entire guild seemed to release their breaths in unison with me, meaning that Laxus had a bad reputation in the guild.
"What the hell is his deal?" I asked Erza, who tried wiping the slightly frightened look on her face.
"It would take too long to tell you right now, but the thing is, he's an S-Class wizard like me, but even more powerful. Makarov volunteered him to go bring back Natsu, Happy and Lucy from the S-Rank quest, but he refused. His power is far above my own, and that's what makes him behave in such a way. He thinks he's above everyone else. What you did right there... well, I'll say no one has ever stood up to Laxus like that before, not even Natsu has insulted him like that. Although I'm not saying what you said was right..." Erza grinned very slightly. "... it takes a lot of guts to do that, to set him right." As she was talking, she slapped her hand to my chest.
"Although me standing up to him is all fine and good, shouldn't we...?" I trailed off, reminding her of the current mission.
"Yes, you're right. Master, we'll be off," she called.
"Be careful! We don't want to lose two more guild members!" he called back. Erza and I started to walk out, but Mira nervously walked up to me and tapped my shoulder.
"Um... well..." she stammered, looking down at her shuffling feet. Without warning, she stepped forward and wrapped her arms around me, resting her head on my shoulder. A second later, I realized what she was doing and returned the hug.
"Be safe out there, okay? Good luck to the both of you, stay strong Vinny. I'm rooting for you, don't ever give up. Whatever lies ahead, I..." she stopped and gave a little peck on my cheek. "I know that you can do it. Now go get em', bad boy." Letting go of me, we realized the whole guild was staring at us. Lots of "aw"s and snickers went around, but I didn't care how embarrassing the situation may be. I knew that Mira cared about me, how she was rooting for me. Thus confirmed my theory as I walked out the door with Erza, how I shouldn't lose sight of other things aside from my training, how there were more important things in life than training and growing stronger.
xxxx
In Hargeon, Erza began searching around for a ship. A fast ship that would take us to wherever Natsu and the others were. I was thinking she'd find a speedboat or something, but no. Instead, she raided a cargo ship and intimidated everyone into submission. Soon, we began sailing out of the harbor, and she began shouting orders on where to go. I was starting to see the bad side of her…
"Vinny!" I jumped. Dammit! Got on her bad side already! What did I do wrong?
"Um… yes…?" I spoke carefully.
Noticing my worriedness, she calmed down a tad. "I need you to look out for land. And inform me immediately once you do."
"O-okay… but, excuse me for asking, but are you alright?" Again, I chose my words carefully.
"Yes… I'm fine. But you must understand, rules are rules and they must be followed. Natsu and the others partook in a dangerous quest, in which they broke the rules. And those who break the rules…" her expression changed to have the sternness of authority, "...must be punished!" Right after, she returned to shouting orders. I made a mental note to never get on Erza's bad side, because what I had just witnessed in her expression wasn't nearly close. I really didn't want to test her patience, so I instantly climbed up to the crow's nest and strained my eyes to search for land.
About 20 minutes later, the faint outline of an island started drifting toward us. The moment I noticed this, I bellowed to Erza, "I see land!" Jumping down to meet her, she gazed into the distance and confirmed the sighting.
"Yes. That's where they went to take on the quest; Galuna Island. It's a cursed island, where the moon turns the inhabitants into monsters. The quest itself was to lift the curse from the island, hence why the request is Rank S."
"But, lifting a curse... wouldn't that take a lot of intellect and energy? I mean, I don't know how to cast a curse, much less break one!"
"We're not going to this island to lift the curse!" Erza raised her voice. "Natsu and the others broke a strict rule of our guild, and now they must face the consequences. So heed this warning, Vinny. If you break the rules, you face the risk of being kicked out of the guild. Worse still, you may get in trouble with the Magic Council."
"Got it. I won't break the rules," I said hastily. Suddenly, the boat began to rock vigorously. "Uh oh. Why do I get the feeling that that wasn't supposed to happen?"
"Hey! Keep the boat steady!" shouted Erza to the crew.
"W-we're not doin' it, miss!" cried a sailor. His reply was not false, as great ocean wall rose up, towering high above the mast, casting the entire ship in a fluid shadow.
"Holy sh- er, crap...!" I caught myself before cussing in front of Erza once again, as the wall slammed down on the boat in an instant, creating a massive collision of wood and water, drowning the entire ship within seconds, along with it the crew. Desperately trying to swim up to the surface of the water to no avail as I was too heavy and started sinking like an anvil, I hastily Summoned Gyarados to carry me up to the surface.
The timing could not have been more perfect, as I began to drown just before my head broke the surface of the water. Frantically, I searched around for Erza among the rushing water, who appeared on the surface shortly after, drawing in deep breaths of fresh air. She swam over to me, but the relentless ocean summoned another wave crashing down, putting both of us under again, and barely giving us a chance once we gained a breath, sent us back under. Immediately, I began to sink very rapidly, losing breath faster than I could regain it. Gyarados swam down to rescue me, just as I was beginning to lose consciousness. Once we reached the surface, I Summoned Fearow, who I helped Erza climb onto, holding on behind me. After returning Gyarados, Fearow took off towards the distant island I commanded him to fly to.
A short time afterwards, we found ourselves on the sandy beach of the cursed isle of Galuna. Everything seemed normal for a while, as I didn't find myself turning into one of the horrific beasts as she had described.
She noticed this and gave me some assurance. "Don't worry. Only the island natives were turned into monsters." With this I breathed a short sigh of relief, but then Erza looked dead serious again. "While they're monsters, they're also people. So don't you dare saying anything about their appearance or killing any of them, as I know you would do."
"Wait, what? I wasn't thinking that at all! That's absurd! I would never kill another human being!" A lie of course, as I was guilty of killing members of evil gangs inconspicuously, but in order to stay on her good side, I would have to keep the truth from her. "Honestly Erza, now don't take this offensively, but you need to chill out. I understand the situation-"
"No! You do not understand the dire situation and the consequences it brings! You wouldn't understand what the others have gotten themselves into! You wouldn't understand how downright dangerous this is, not to mention absurdly dumb!" She stopped, as she saw that in utter surprise that I had backed up so much that I fell flat on my backside, looking very defensive. If she was about to attack me out of anger, I was ready to take a hit. Then all of a sudden, she straightened herself up and visibly relaxed just a bit. "I- ah. I am truly sorry. You must forgive me for lashing out like that. I didn't mean anything I said. I'm just terribly worried about the others and the condition they're in. I do hope they're alright. However! That doesn't mean I'm proud of what they did, because what they did was undeniably stupid. I just hope that they haven't gone into too much trouble. But again, I'm sorry for lashing out at you. I certainly meant nothing by it. I understand you've done nothing wrong here." She held out her hand for me. Hesitantly, I accepted her outstretched hand and stood up, dusting myself off. I realized what lay ahead would be no easy task, but I was ready to face it head on.
xxxx
After wandering what seemed aimlessly for quite some time, although I was inclined to trust that Erza knew where she was going, I started questioning whether she was actually confident in where we were headed because all I had seen for the past half hour was thick forest and vegetation. I felt the sudden urge to burn down the forest and create a clearing, but something told me that Erza wouldn't approve of my decision. However, I did look stop to look at my surroundings at one point to soak in the environment, and appreciated how nice everything looked, which made me feel bad about thinking of burning down the vegetation. While I was taking in my surroundings, though, I realized that I was no longer following Erza, which made me panic a bit. I quickly snapped back to the real world, and began speed walking in the direction I thought Erza had gone. Then, I heard a sharp whistle that didn't sound like it would come from anyone but her, which was in the opposite direction I was running. Facepalming and internally scolding myself, I turned around and rushed off to reunite with her.
"If you hadn't been distracted and had been following me the whole time, focused on the mission, then you would've seen that Lucy is in trouble and needs our help," she reprimanded.
"Yeah, uh, sorry about that. I know, I should've stayed-"
"Now's not the time to apologize. Your apology is accepted, but we must go help Lucy!" she interrupted, making me feel embarrassed. She rushed ahead, equipping her sword, making me hesitate for a second because it seemed like she had it under control due to her being an S-Class Mage and all. After she slashed at a giant blue rat sort of creature and gave Lucy the death glare, I sheepishly stepped into the clearing and avoided being in Erza's line of sight and eye contact as well as I slid up awkwardly behind her as she began scolding Lucy.
"Lucy. You know why we're here. Right?" spoke Erza.
"Oh! You're here to take us back! Is that right?" Lucy answered in a much too jolly attitude for the situation, as her voice was awkwardly echoed as she said so.
"I-I'm...uh…" stammered Lucy. At that moment, Happy flew in out of nowhere.
"Hey there, Lucy! I've been looking all over for you! I was so-" He stopped when he saw me and Erza there. Then we both looked straight at him. Realizing what was going on, he started to fly away, but Erza reacted too quick and rushed to grab him by the tail. Seeing no use in struggling, Happy gave up and let his body hang limp as if he were dead, which he probably wished for right then.
"Lucy. Where's Natsu and Gray?" said Erza.
"Listen, I'm sorry for breaking the rules!" cried Lucy. "But I swear, the island is in big trouble! Someone thought it would be a good idea to bring sealed demons back to life, and all the people in the village are suffering from it! They need our help. We tried vanquishing the spell ourselves, but then-"
"That is not my concern," said Erza.
"Then you can let us help them! Please, let us finish the job-" Lucy stopped mid sentence, because Erza was holding her sword up to Lucy's face.
"E-Erza! What do you think you're doing?" I shouted. Erza gave me a look too.
"I won't hesitate to harm you too, if you decide to get in my way-" I heard Erza say, and then, she raised her sword and sliced Lucy with one fatal blow, making my eyes open wide. Blood leaked out of Lucy's chest as she fell, making time stand still. Without thinking, I dashed at Erza, tackling her to the ground.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" yelled Erza.
"I could ask you the same question! What are you doing? You killed her! That's what! Why did you kill her?!" I roared. Erza looked heavily taken aback.
"W-what? What are you talking about? Have you gone mad? I would never kill any of you! See, she's still standing right there!" She was right, because I glanced over my shoulder, and sure enough, there stood Lucy, shocked, but still alive and intact. No blood dripping from her chest, nothing of the sort.
"... That's strange. Why…?" I muttered as I stood up, helping Erza up as well. 'I'm sorry, Erza. Forgive me for acting in such a way. I don't know what came over me, what I was thinking."
"Are you alright? What gave you the idea that I killed her?" said Erza.
"Okay, I don't want you to think I'm insane, but somehow, while you were holding up that sword to her face, I definitely witnessed before my eyes you slashing her in the chest, killing her. I don't know why I would see that, but that's what I saw before my eyes. I'm not joking," I said.
"I don't believe you are, but why did you think that? All I did was make Lucy be quiet."
"Again, don't think I'm crazy, but I wasn't even thinking of you doing that. I would think nothing of the sort. I even heard you clearly say, 'I won't hesitate to hurt you as well, if you decide to get in my way.' Then you struck her with your sword."
"That is strange. Don't worry, I don't believe you've gone crazy. I understand, you've been under the stress of training, and that may be all you're thinking about; fighting. You should definitely take a break. The body must have time to heal in order to gain. I learned that the hard way. But now," she turned back to Lucy, with her sword still pointed at her. Lucy hadn't moved an inch. "Lucy. If you disobey the rules, you've disobeyed the master, and the guild. I will make sure this does not go unpunished. Let's go." Lucy began to shake, and her legs refused to move. I eventually just picked her up and carried her over my shoulder while Erza held tight onto Happy's tail.
For the next hour or so, we began searching for Natsu, but no avail. Erza had me Summon some rope to use Lucy and Happy to sniff out Natsu, Lucy searching on land, and Happy in the sky. When that failed, Erza had Lucy and Happy look for Gray, and Happy spotted a camp where Gray may be in. In the camp, I realized what Erza meant by the people being half-monster/human. Everyone in the camp had at least one non human body part, whether it be an arm or leg or something else. We had permission to stay in a tent, the largest tent in the camp.
"So what now? I thought we were looking for Gray?" I said.
"Gray will know to find us. I informed one of the village folk to let Gray know that we're waiting right here for him. Now we wait," replied Erza.
"Hey, uh, Erza?" I spoke.
"No."
"Buh- I didn't even-"
"No."
"Should I go look f-"
"No."
"Oh, alright then."
"Are you sure that I shouldn't-"
"No."
"I mean-"
"No."
"Gray."
"What?" She looked around.
"'Should I go look for him?' is what I'm trying to say, because he's making us wait-"
Erza glared at me.
"What? Don't you want this to go quicker? So we can all return to the guild?"
"Fine! Do what you must!" she yelled. Slowly, I stood up, making my way to the entrance of the tent, but at that moment, Gray walked right in and bumped into me.
"Ow! What the hell…? Vinny? Why are you here? How are you here-" Gray then noticed Erza and quickly got up off the floor.
"Gray. You're late."
"What…?! Lucy? Happy? And… Vinny… again, why?" he said.
"I volunteered to go with Erza to bring you guys back. What happened to you bringing them back?"
"How'd you know about that…?" Gray looked over at Erza. "Oh. Right."
"Lucy and Happy filled me in on everything that's been happening. Like Vinny said, what happened to you bringing them back? Disappointment is an understatement in this situation."
"Where even is Natsu?" said Gray.
"That's what I'd like to know."
"Natsu was supposed to be fighting Reitei's minions in the village, but when we went to look, the village had been destroyed. We figured Natsu would be fine on his own, so we went to look for you instead," said Lucy.
"I searched in the air," said Happy. "That's how we found this camp."
"Gray. Once we find Natsu, we're returning to the guild immediately."
"What? What are you saying, Erza? If you know the details of the situation, then you know what's happening to the inhabitants, right?" said Gray.
"What about it? I came here to bring you rule breakers back. Anything besides that is beyond my concern."
"But didn't you see the condition that the people were in?"
"Yes. I did."
"Then are you just gonna let that go?"
"The request was posted in every guild. It'd be better to leave the job to guild mages who accepted the task properly."
"I've misjudged you, Erza," said Gray.
Erza glared over her shoulder. "What did you just say?"
"How could you say that to the great Erz1, Gray?!" Happy cried.
"'Great'?" muttered Lucy.
"Do you want to join your friends too? Do you intend to break the rules as well?" Erza shouted, summoning her sword to hold up to Gray's face. "You will not get away with it." Then, without warning, Gray grabbed the sword, with his bare hand! With a hand of flesh and veins, gripping the sharp, mighty sword as if his arm were like mine, as he stared back at Erza.
"Do what you must. But this is the path I've chosen. I must do this." with that, he went to leave the tent, but stopped in the entrance way. "I'll end this my way. If you must kill me, then do it." He left, leaving Erza embarrassed. That was the wrong move, because then Erza turned in frustration to Lucy and Happy, sword in hand.
"Aaaugh! C-calm down Erza!"
" He's only salty because he lost to his rival! Don't kill us!"
Then, with two slices from her blade, without harming Lucy or Happy, the ropes were cut, freeing them both.
"This current situation is unacceptable. We will return to the guild once this job is completed."
"Yay! Erza!" cried Lucy and Happy.
"Don't get comfortable. You'll all still be punished."
"Right…"
"Aye…"
She turned to leave the tent but muttered to me, "Except you, of course."
"Makes sense," I replied. " Let's go!" I called to Lucy and Happy.
I was ready for some action.
