I return with the next chapter! Had this finished for a week or more now, but I just couldn't find time to edit and post until now. Plus the FFXV muses are slowly eating me alive... Anyway! On to Gray's shenanigans and future Fairy Tail Ice Mages punching bad guys in the face!
Review Response: Dear Keiolsha, hello! Well, technically he doesn't, because he just met her and doesn't understand the full extent of Fairy Tail Durability yet. Read on to find out what happened!
Dear Smile4the-World, greetings! Of course they are, what ELSE could have happened when Gray showed up in town for the first time? Well, Wren's being lenient because A. she's still in awe at meeting one of the MC and B. Gray isn't a member yet, so technically he's out of her jurisdiction. The first time he loses his boxers in her presence will no doubt lead to proper discipline. Hope you enjoy the next chapter!
Dear RedWolf Lover, hi there! I do too, which is one of the reasons I included him in the story instead of making up my own entrance for Gray. You'll see... glad to be here and I hope you enjoy!
Dear Lightsbane1905, heya! Yep, she does. Ironically, though she got the look from Erza and Mira, in this timeline, Erza and Mira will probably learn it from HER. (cackles), boys beware, the she-demons are multiplying. It doesn't have punching bad guys in the face though, a lack that this chapter will remedy.
Dear aoi588, hello there! Ummm, nothing I can say to that without giving away spoilers. Aw, you're welcome! It's wonderful to know that you like my characters and think I've captured at least some of the charm of the original story!
Dear YourFriendBob, greetings! Cool! I hope that by now you have read Ice Trail and enjoyed it, because the author did a really good job (in my opinion) on detailing Chibi-Gray's adventures!
Dear Squishy4953, hello! Glad to hear! SI-OCs do get repetitive don't they? I'm glad you find mine interesting (even if she technically isn't an SI, all she has is my sense of sarcasm, love of pantherlily, taste in music-, you know what, let's just go with SI-OC...) Sorry this took so long, I have a lot of projects that are all screaming for attention. Hope it's worth the wait!
Dear kalmaegi, greetings! It's Gray, of course it escalated quickly (the bandit chase at the beginning of Phoenix Priestess anyone?). (dies laughing at Doronbo's) How did I not get the pun before? HOW? I mean, I knew it was a pun, but I never connected it to "thief" for some reason. That is priceless.
Dear Dragon Lord Draco, hello! Read on to both find out the answer to your questions and see Fairy Tail vengeance unleashed!
Dear KEZZ 1, hiya! Glad you liked it, hope you enjoy the newest one!
Dear poukie-scrapbook, hi there! Thank you for your patience! I try to update when I can but, well, Real Life and all that. The meeting is based off of the manga Ice Trail, which I highly recommend for a light read and a peek into mini-Gray's adventures prior to Fairy Tail. I suppose I can see what you mean, but remember that most of his flashback interaction in the anime is him facing down either his rival Natsu or Erza, the girl he fears/has a crush on, so of course he would act more prideful and aggressive around them. Wren is neither, physically younger, and polite to him despite his stripping habit, thus, he doesn't need to put on such an aggressive front. I hope that makes sense? Yeah, I had fun with the outsider perspective moment. Enjoy the update!
Dear Gerbilfriend, heya! Well, tension is what I was going for, so yay for success! They do actually, it'll be interesting to see them interact as they grow up (not pairing them up romantically though, I'm a big Gruvia shipper).
Dear EmberFlame03, greetings! (grins) Which is exactly why Wren should never, ever admit to boredom, because then something like this will happen.
Dear Sweets and Tarts, hello! I should probably be more sympathetic to that, but it's so nice to know I can make an effective cliffhanger even when you have a semi-spoiler alert already. Still, this will hopefully solve the cliffhanger issues for you. Enjoy!
Dear AnerianJames, hi there! 1. I know you do, I do to, but my muses love them and what they say goes. 2. Hope you enjoy the newest chapter! It's got bad guys getting punched in the face!
Dear Captain343Spark, greetings! (sighs heavily and shakes head with a smile) I'm not even going to try to start a pun war, because I know I will lose. Have fun thinking up puns for the next chapter!
Dear IShipItHard13, hi! I'm so pleased you like the story so much! After seeing how Freed acts in the anime around Laxus, I couldn't resist slipping that description in, it's just so appropriate. Everything will work out for Wren and the others in the end, though this is really only going to add to Laxus and Bickslow's overprotective helicopter sibling habits, no matter how BAMF Wren becomes. Enjoy the newest chapter!
Dear leah2221998, hello! ksldfhoagnirtdfjbgwf! (translation: Thank you for reading and enjoy the update!)
Dear WolfGirl01, greetings! Hmm, maybe not, we'll have to see what kind of magical burn salves Porlyusica has. Gray and Wakaba's interactions were mostly paraphrased from the Ice Trail manga, with some adaption to fit in Wren, but I'm glad you enjoyed them and I'm glad to hear that you thought his reaction believable.
Dear 4everreader3, hello there! Well, hopefully this is soon enough because this was the soonest time I had. Enjoy!
Author's Note: Almost finished with the Gray Introduction Arc! Hope you all enjoy it! Also for my transformers and Ballad readers: still working on it. The AMOSC chapter has evolved into a sixty-page juggernaut that still refuses to let me finish and post it and I am so close to finishing the Ballad one-shot I can almost taste it. Of course, the taste is bitter and depressing because of course it's a serious chapter I'm stuck on and not a light-hearted prankster chapter like what I want to move on to... anyway, hopefully I'll have those done and up sometime within the reasonable near future. Hopefully.
Copyright Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail, Ice Trail, or any references made in this story. The only things I own are my OCs who have skulked off with my plot.
Chapter Thirty-Five: Ice Trail - True Identity
(Ten months, three weeks, three days since joining the Guild)
.
Wren woke up to the not-unfamiliar sensation of her entire body throbbing like one big bruise. Her head especially felt like she had just gone several rounds with one of Fairy Tail's guild hall tables and lost spectacularly. Ugh… what? Where? Laxus? Bickslow? She focused on breathing through her nose, not daring to open her eyes until her equilibrium stopped spinning and her short-term memory —assuming it hadn't been destroyed by the latest bout of Fairy Tail Luck— came back.
Her last memories trickled in with agonizing slowness. Meeting Gray and his two friends. Taking them to Fairy Tail. Taking them to The Secret Ingredient. Pauz going missing. Searching for Pauz. Inviting Gray and Doronbo to stay in the Lighthouse for the night despite Wakaba's protests…
Ambush.
Her eyes snapped open against her better judgement and Wren hissed at the newest wave of pain it caused. She feebly raised a hand to her forehead, swallowing back the bile that tried to come up her throat and trying to convince herself that the light wasn't really that bright, it was just the concussion talking. The concussion won the argument, so Wren closed her eyes again as she tried to get her thoughts in order.
They'd been ambushed by three members of Circus Night, one of whom had some kind of Balloon Magic that he had used to trap them and that exploded upon being punctured. They had punctured Wakaba's balloon to knock him out and take him hostage and had been debating doing the same to her when she had tried to teleport out of her balloon to the shadow of the nearest dumpster.
Apparently the pulse of magic that came from jumping through shadows counted as a breach, because the balloon had exploded in mid-teleportation, throwing off her aim and causing her to slam head-first into the alley wall. The blow had knocked her out cold, but she didn't know for how long. Minutes? Hours? More? Wren kept her breathing deep and even as she strained her hearing for any sign of the three attackers. There was a lot of murmuring, chatter, and footsteps just outside her location, but none of them sounded like the balloon mage or his two comrades.
Instead, Wren was able to pick out the familiar voices and complaints of Magnolia citizens, muttering about the scorch marks on the road and buildings —again— and how one would think that this wouldn't happen with only two Fairy Tail members in town. There was no mention of the attack, or anything akin to someone ordering someone else around aside from the occasional concerned parent to their child as they passed by.
So, she was still in the area of the attack, probably still in the same place she'd tried to teleport to and ended up knocking herself out in. Which meant either the Circus Night mages hadn't been able to find her or had lost interest. Probably because they had found two other hostages instead and hadn't bothered looking for her.
Pantherlily in a tutu. She had known that Gray showing up in town was going to trigger a bout of Fairy Tail Luck, but if he'd ended up getting semi-exploded and taken hostage just because she'd offered to let him and his friend stay in the Lighthouse…
Wren forced her eyes to open again and refused to close them when the dim light of the alleyway stabbed at her pupils. Swallowing back her latest bout of nausea, she rolled onto her hands and knees and from there cautiously stood up. She ended up having to brace against the wall —that had dried but recent bloodstains on it, probably from her throbbing head— while she waited for the world to stop its rollercoaster act.
Once the world had mostly stabilized, Wren pushed herself away from the wall and stumbled out of the alley, trying to get her bearings and come up with a plan. She was alone, concussed —though that would wear off soon, she hoped, her healing factor was much faster these days because of magic—, and up against at least three enemy guild members who had hostages. Wakaba, Gray, and Doronbo couldn't afford to wait for the rest of Fairy Tail to come back from vacation —and probably get ambushed like Wren had— but they also couldn't afford Wren rushing in recklessly to help. She also had to figure out where they'd been taken before she thought of any methods or plans to free them.
A hand coming to rest gently on her shoulder interrupted Wren's thoughts, "Wren-chan! What happened to you? Are you alright? Do you need a hospital?" Wren looked up, startled, but relaxed a moment later when she recognized Laurel-san, a mother of six who frequently hired Fairy Tail mages to do either housework, shopping, or babysitting for her. The Raijinshū had done several jobs for her in the past, though they were banned from the babysitting missions after an incident with Cana, boredom, and impressionable kids who were curious about the ins and outs of a certain adult-orientated card game.
Wren shifted around to face Laurel-san and tried to smile reassuringly, but this only seemed to distress her further, "That's lot of blood, you definitely need a hospital, I'm taking you there right now!" Wren wiggled out of Laurel-san's grip and shook her head, ignoring how it made the world tilt dangerously. She didn't have time to go to a hospital. She needed to figure out where the others had been taken and how to free them.
Laurel-san followed her persistently, hand outstretched to catch her, "Wren-chan! I know Fairy Tail treat their children differently and that you think you can handle anything yourself, but you're hurt! I must insist-!" Her shouting was drawing attention from the other citizens, who began to cluster in concern around Wren.
One older man whom Wren dimly recognized as a night-shift hospital worker murmured, "You look like you were attacked! Did someone try to hurt you last night like they did those poor boys?"
All thoughts of trying to escape were roughly shoved to the side as Wren latched onto that last sentence. Whirling to face the man, she scribbled frantically, "Boys? Who? Where?"
He shifted nervously under the intensity of her stare, "Two boys, a nine-year-old and a young teen were admitted to the hospital last night. Someone called in anonymously and said they'd just been attacked on this street and needed immediate medical assistance. They're alright, just have a few nasty burns and bruises- Hey wait!" Wren didn't even bother waving goodbye as she ducked under Laurel-san's reaching hand, slid between the surprised legs of another citizen, and took off running for the hospital. That has to be Gray and Doronbo! But why didn't they take those two hostage as well? Did they know that they weren't members of Fairy Tail? Does that mean they've been watching us? Who called in their injuries?
There was no place to get answers save the hospital itself, so Wren gamely pushed aside the woozy feeling caused by her rapid pace and kept running.
It didn't take much work to find the correct room once she arrived at the hospital, though several of the nurses and doctors who saw her put up a huge fuss over her head. Apparently it looked pretty bad, but Wren knew it was because scalps bled so much over even minor cuts and so she tried to refuse treatment. In the end, the nurses won the fight to clean and bandage her head on the condition that they do so in the room in which Gray and Doronbo were staying. Doronbo was the only one of the two currently awake, and they both looked fairly roughed up.
The look on Doronbo's face and the shrill scream of surprise he emitted when he saw her come in would have been hilarious in any other circumstance. As it was, Wren just clapped her hands over her aching ears and sent him a dirty look while a nurse tried to talk Doronbo back down from the ceiling —something about him not aggravating his injuries further—. Once her head injury was cleaned and bandaged, Doronbo coaxed back onto his bed, and the nurses talked into leaving, Wren set about getting answers. Doronbo told her everything, about Pauz being one of the three Circus Night ambushers, about them thinking she had died in the explosion, then finally about Pauz ordered their balloons blown up and them left behind in the street. He looked guilty and subdued after he finished relaying what little he knew that she didn't, "I just don't know why Pauz would do something like that though…"
Wren fidgeted with the bandage across her forehead with a frown. She could understand Doronbo's confusion. She hadn't known Pauz very long at all, but he hadn't seemed the type to willingly ambush and attack people, especially when one of them was Gray. He was just a kid and, as hypocritical it might seem for her to think it, kids didn't usually come up with elaborate stuff like this on their own. If a kid wanted revenge for something, they just went out and punched someone, or yelled at them, or —if you were a mage kid— used their magic on the subject of their aggression.
Hostage taking, an ambush in the dead of night, waiting until almost the entire guild was out of town where they wouldn't be able to help or retaliate until Circus Night had solidified their power play? All of that reeked of an adult's more vindictive and strategic mind. Someone like Ivan, cold and calculating and practiced rather than the raw childish cunning of, say, Bickslow or Cana or Laxus.
No. However Pauz was involved, Wren was willing to bet that he wasn't behind the attack, possibly not even in favor of it. This was an attack from Circus Night itself, which meant that it was more than likely on the order of Circus Night's Master.
A guild master who already had a problem with Fairy Tail and who's guild had recently been thrown out of their hometown and no doubt needed a new base of operations. A base of operations that already got lots of traffic both civilian and magical, that was well known and popular and had a large guild building already in place to save on building costs.
Wren felt her lips curl into a feral expression that barely mimicked a smile as fury build in her blood. So that was probably what they were after. This entire thing was a ploy to gather resources with a little revenge on the side. With most of Fairy Tail gone on vacation —had the unexpected need to reschedule been orchestrated by Circus Night too or had it just been lucky coincidence?— there was no one around to guard against a war party of mages from another guild moving in and taking over. By making hostages of the members who had stayed behind, Fairy Tail's usual response of beating up any threats would be forcibly put on hold, at least for a short time. Enough time to launch another power play or negotiate for, if not a good location, then enough money to start again.
Against any other guild, it would actually be a brilliant strategy.
But Fairy Tail was not any other guild and —either by incompetence or arrogance— Wren was still free.
She looked up from her thoughts to see that Doronbo had discreetly plastered himself against the head of his bed and was watching her with wide eyes. She rolled her eyes at him —why did everyone find her so scary?— but ignored his antics for the moment as she wrote, "Wait here a minute, I'll be right back."
The hospital was fairly close to the lighthouse side of town —Fairy Tail was one of the biggest sources of their income after all—, so Wren managed to teleport straight out of the room and to the lighthouse. The act might not have been her best idea considering her fading concussion, but she was in a hurry and so ignored the brief dizzy spell it caused. Despite how sore her body was, her magic reserves were surprisingly intact, so she was able to teleport straight back to Doronbo's and Gray's room after retrieving what she needed.
Doronbo jumped a bit at her arrival and looked wary as she held out a magical card to him, "Um…"
Wren pressed the card into his hand, "This is a Calling Card. You can call people with it if they have a card from a matching set. I need you to call Fairy Tail and tell them what's going on. Tell them that Wren gave you this card."
Doronbo held the card gingerly, as if afraid it might explode, "Why don't you do that? You're an actual member!"
Wren hissed between her teeth, "Can't. Anything other than an SOS signal requires a voice. They need to know exactly what is going on here, so you need to tell them." It was one of Cana's biggest frustrations that she had yet to find or enchant a card that successfully transmitted written messages that were good for more than a single use. The one-time use writing card Wren did have was far too small to write down a full explanation of the situation and Fairy Tail would need to know what was going on. For all of Fairy Tail's power and Luck, walking in blind when there was a hostage in play would give Circus Night an advantage. One that Wren was determined not to give them.
Doronbo still looked frightened —for a supposed teenage thief he was such a coward— and Wren forced her expression to soften, "It's okay. Just press that rune there to make the call. Tell whoever answers that Wren told you to contact Master Makarov. Insist on talking to Master Makarov. Once you are talking to Master Makarov, tell him that Circus Night is in town and has taken Wakaba hostage. Tell him about the balloon man and answer any questions he has as best you can. It will be fine. Got that?"
Doronbo was squinting at her writing in the way everyone did when she had accidentally written in Yoda-speak, but after several seconds he nodded nervously, "O-okay. Okay." Wren smiled at him and gave him a quick pat on the arm before she headed for the door. "Wait! Where are you going?"
Wren paused in the doorway and shot Doronbo another smile over her shoulder, this one intentionally scary and predatory as she wrote, "Hunting."
She left before Doronbo could ask any other questions. Dodging the nurses and doctors with practiced ease —they weren't nearly as observant as bandits—, Wren left the hospital and took to the rooftops despite her protesting muscles. She wasn't an idiot, she would wait for Fairy Tail to return before doing anything if that was possible, but Circus Night's war party had to have a base of operations somewhere in Magnolia to pull off this kind of attack and Wren was going to find it.
And when she did, with or without the rest of the guild, she was going to teach them a lesson on why no one attacked Fairy Tail and got away with it.
.
.
Magnolia was a big town, and Wren was just one —semi-injured— almost-seven-year-old. So it wasn't until early evening that she finally narrowed down the location of Circus Night's newest hideaway. When she did finally locate the rundown, below-ground bar they had taken over and got a good look inside, she started cursing mentally. It wasn't just a war party they had sent into Magnolia like she'd assumed. The entire blasted guild of Circus Night was crammed in there. Most of them were dozing off or drinking whatever had been stocked in the bar, but there were still somewhere around twenty or thirty mages in there. Far too many for Wren to take on by herself, especially not when she had no idea what kinds of magic they used.
She scanned the bar through a grungy gutter-level window, trying to spot Wakaba. It took several minutes of scanning before one of the Circus Night members shifted position and she spotted her fellow Fairy, tied up and looking worse for the wear against the wall farthest from the door. Wren grit her teeth and stamped down on the urge to rush in, but it was surprisingly hard to squash the impulse. Wakaba looked like he needed medical attention and the thought of leaving him there until the rest of Fairy Tail got their act together and made the day-long train-ride back was physically painful.
She sat back on her heels and debated with herself. She couldn't possibly fight that many mages on her own, not when one of them was no doubt the guild Master himself. But the thought of leaving Wakaba there for at least another day or more rankled too much to easily accept. So what could she do?
She peeked inside the window again and observed. Wakaba was slumped in —ironically— one of the most well-lit sections of the bar. If she tried to teleport in and then teleport him back out, she was almost guaranteed to be noticed —living black spots appearing out of nowhere were hardly subtle— and she was not in the mood to find out if Balloon Man's magic traps could catch her while in her shadow form. Considering that the balloon had registered her shadow teleportation as a breach, she didn't feel too good about her chances of remaining uncaught if anyone noticed a shadow spontaneously come to life and move across the floor.
She could try to teleport directly into Wakaba's shadow, but it was pressed up between the wall and his back, which was not an angle or type of shadow she had ever tried to teleport into before. In all honesty she had yet to figure out if a shadow mage could actually go 2-D like a genuine shadow when that shadow was pressed between two objects. She had never had the particular urge to try until now, because while her shadow form apparently looked 2-D to everyone else, it certainly didn't feel that way to Wren. She really didn't want to find out the hard way whether a shadow mage could suffer from squashed organs from trying to fit into too small of a shadow or something. Especially not while trying to infiltrate the hideout of a hostile guild.
A Circus Night member shuffled back toward the bar with a low grumble and Wren eyed him as he moved, an idea slowly coming to her. A shadow moving on its own was sure to be spotted, but a shadow that was moving and overlapping with other shadows because its owner was moving? That was just nature at work.
If she could teleport directly into the shadow of a Circus Night member, then she could just slip from shadow to shadow when they rubbed against each other without anyone noticing. Once she got into a shadow close enough to Wakaba, or when a shadow she was in passed over Wakaba, she could grab him, teleport out as far away as she could, and smuggle him out to Porlyusica-san's place until backup arrived.
Assuming of course, Fairy Tail Luck decided to play nice for once and didn't trigger one of the literal thousands of ways she could already see that plan going wrong. What if one of the mages somehow had a keen enough magical sense to detect her entering their shadow? What if she ended up in the wrong shadow that nobody else crossed over with and got stuck? What if someone spotted her transferring from shadow to shadow? What if there was some kind of trap specifically for her magic? Okay, the last one was unlikely even for Fairy Tail Luck, but still. What if, what if, what if?
Wren sat back on her heels and had a long, hard argument with herself. It was her —increasingly faulty— sense of logic and sanity versus her desire to help Wakaba and her confidence that she could pull something like that off and survive.
Logic and sanity pointed out her status as an almost-seven-year-old and touted the values of backup from a very large, very protective guild. Reckless confidence pointed out that it would take at least a day, possibly a day and a half or even two before Fairy Tail got back to Magnolia. Circus Night could do anything in that timeframe. Launch another assault, change Wakaba's location, beat up Wakaba even more… Right now, they would be confident and relaxed after their victory, self-assured that nothing could touch them yet. Wren could capitalize on that weakness.
Logic and sanity pointed out that if something went wrong —which it would—, Wren would become a hostage too and that would just make things worse for Fairy Tail. Circus Night wouldn't actually kill Wakaba, not until Fairy Tail gave them what they wanted, so to a certain extent, his safety was guaranteed. Her jumping in recklessly wouldn't be necessary.
Logic and sanity were actually winning for once when Wren heard the clatter of two pairs of feet pelting her way and she hurriedly hid.
A few seconds later a tiny paper dog —why was she not even surprised anymore— darted by with —who else?— Gray and Doronbo following on its little paper heels. The paper dog stopped in front of the door to the bar and circled several times, like a real dog that had just finished tracking a scent. Gray and Doronbo —panting noisily like twin elephants— came to a stop in front of the door, "So he's here?" Wren winced at Gray's loud tone, had the boy no concept of stealth? No, wait, this was a child version of Gray, or course he didn't.
Doronbo looked, somehow, even more winded than Gray did as he rubbed sweat off his chin, "It must be."
Gray scowled at the door, "There were two guys with Pauz, so if he's in there, they might be too…"
Doronbo shuffled, "I really, really think we should wait for Fairy Tail-"
Gray shot him a dark look and bristled, "I'm not waiting for someone else to get answers! I'm going to go in there and see what's what!" He took a half-step toward the door and Wren prepared to intervene when Doronbo caught Gray's sleeve and pointed at the window Wren had just been looking through, "W-why don't we look through that window instead? A-at least find out what it looks like in there first?"
Gray eyed the window, then nodded and the two boys —with no concept for keeping watch or subtly— lay flat on their stomachs and pressed their noses against the glass to look inside. Wren took a deep breath and released it slowly as she stood up and padded over to them. She had a distinct feeling that logic and sanity had just lost the argument by default of Gray's arrival.
The two boys didn't notice her standing over them, too busy staring inside the window and stage-whispering. Doronbo released a whimper, "L-look at all those people…" He seemed to tuck in on himself despite his prone position, "Maybe we were wrong after all, this can't be where Pauz went-"
"There! It's the old man!" Wren winced at the shout —but nobody inside reacted, were the people inside deaf or were the walls just so thick that nobody heard him?—. Gray immediately scrambled to his feet, turned as if to run for the door, caught sight of Wren, and fell over with a startled —loud— yelp.
Her opinion of Gray's intelligence and of Circus Night's collective hearing fell by the second as she raised an eyebrow at him, "Where are you going?"
Gray jabbed a finger at the window, "In there! The old man is-"
Wren used a shadow to cover his mouth and she gave a low hiss as she wrote, "Be quiet, idiot! Or do you want all thirty of those mages to come outside and kill us?"
Doronbo squeaked at the thought and Gray grudgingly lowered his voice to a stage-whisper as he swatted her shadow aside, "The old man is in there, we need to get him out! He's one of your comrades isn't he? Why aren't you doing something?"
"Because there are around thirty of them, including their guild Master and I. Am. Six. You are nine. If we try an open fight, we will die or worse." She saw Gray's stubborn look, the look of any Fairy who knew something was stupid but was going to do it anyway and she raised her eyes pleadingly to the sky. Someone save me from the reckless idiots before they assimilate me. Please. She lowered her gaze, "I was trying to make a plan before you showed up. But they will notice if I go in there and I can't t- t-" she didn't know how to spell teleport in Japanese, "reach Wakaba's shadow from this angle. I would need to go up and touch him to get him out and I'm not fast enough to get in there without them noticing first."
She half-expected Gray to either declare that they would fight anyway or that he would serve as a distraction —which were both bad plans but the second might be salvageable— when instead Gray actually stopped to think. A few seconds —and the removal of his coat— later, his eyes lit up and he snapped his fingers. He turned to Doronbo excitedly, "That's it! Doronbo, you still have that medicine, don't you? You know, the stuff you used when you were stealing things?"
Doronbo looked like he really didn't like where this was going even as he pulled out a small bottle of pills, "Well, I do, but…"
Gray snatched the bottle from Doronbo's hand, "I can move, like, thirty times my normal speed if I take one of these right? Then I can just take this, run in, grab Wakaba and get out!"
Doronbo was already shaking his head, "The effects only last thirty seconds. I don't think you could get back with someone so much bigger than you before the time ran out."
Wren stepped in, her shadows plucking the bottle from Gray's hands before he could take the unknown medicine anyway. Ignoring Gray's protest, she examined the bottle and debated with herself. Was she really going to do something this stupid? Considering it was either that or let the kid who did not have teleportation powers —because there was no way Gray was going to wait another day or so for action— do it then yes. Yes she was. She raised her eyes to the two boys, "But I could. I can-" still didn't know the word for teleport, so what would work in its place? "Jump. I can jump from shadow to shadow, you've seen me do it. I'll take this, run in, grab Wakaba, and jump to safety. Then we wait for Fairy Tail to come back and kick their butts."
Gray hesitated, "I wanna talk to Pauz, I need…"
His voice trailed off and Wren patted his arm sympathetically, "You will. But Wakaba first. You two…" how to convince them to stay out of the way without insulting their budding man-prides? Oh, "You two stay here by the window and keep watch, if something goes wrong, come in and back me up, okay?"
Doronbo blanched at the thought of fighting but Gray nodded determinedly, "…Okay. We'll do it your way, but only 'cause Wakaba's your comrade."
Wren gave Gray a tight smile, turned to Doronbo, and held up the bottle, "What do I do with these?"
One quick stammered explanation of the pills and their function later, Wren took a deep breath, selected one pill, and teleported to the shadow beneath a bar table. Only once she was in the shadow did Wren pop the pill in her mouth and swallow —and pray that she wouldn't have an allergic reaction to the thing—. She only had thirty seconds, so it was best to get as close as possible to her goal before taking it.
The effect of the pill was instant and noticeable. Everything froze. All of the Circus Night members became statues in mid-motion, the air stilled, it was like time had stopped. Wren didn't have any time to waste marveling —or freaking out— over it, she dropped out of the shadows and sprinted across the room to Wakaba's side, weaving between legs, tables, and chairs while her heart pounded down the seconds she had left before the pill wore off.
She grabbed Wakaba's shoulders tight through his battered clothes and reached for the nearest safe shadow. She found one in the house of a regular Fairy Tail costumer, a cranky old man named Bartholomew who lived several streets down from her current location, on the floor above his ancient and semi-rundown antique store.
Bartholomew-san had always been too stubborn to move, even though his current area didn't get much traffic because of its increasingly unsavory reputation. He didn't take insolence or sass from anyone and was very pushy, but he had proven to have a good heart under his prickly exterior the few times the Raijinshū had done jobs for him. It was the nearest, safest choice and Wren had no time to waste dithering, so she wrapped her mental fingers tight around the shadow of Bartholomew's dining table and pulled.
Teleporting while under the effects of the pill was weird, Wren somehow ended up pulling either too hard or for too long, overshooting her point of exit and tumbling out of the dining table shadow with Wakaba as dead weight. They both crashed into one of the chairs with enough noise to attract Bartholomew-san's attention and he came stomping in with a speed and volume that let Wren know that the pill had just worn off.
His curses stopped abruptly as he took in the sight of Wakaba, beaten and tied up and unconscious and Wren, panting on the floor, also beaten up, and sporting a large head-bandage. He hurried over and crouched next to Wakaba with creaking knees, "I'll call the police station-"
Wren was already shaking her head and writing out clumsily, "No. Mages. Police will just get hurt. Hide Wakaba. Don't let anyone see him until Fairy Tail get's back. Don't let anyone but Fairy Tail know where he is. Please, Bartholomew-san."
Bartholomew-san's lips thinned into a line as he pulled out his pocket knife and set to work on the rope imprisoning Wakaba, "Alright, missy. But you be careful, don't go getting yourself killed 'cause you didn't wait for your family." Wren gave a breathless nod before she wrapped her mental fingers around the shadow outside the bar and teleported back to tell the boys that she'd been successful and to get out of there.
But only one of the boys was there, panicking as he stared at the door that had not been flung wide open when Wren left. Of all the-! She didn't bother waiting for Doronbo to spot her and explain, she could hear the sounds from inside the bar well enough to realize that, for whatever reason, Gray had gone barging in and ruined the entire point of a stealth operation.
None of the Circus Night members noticed her as she darted inside, all of their attention was focused on the center of the room. Wren used her shadows to pull herself up to the rafters for a better view —and attack angle— and stilled as she spotted what everyone else was looking at. Gray stood in the center of the unfriendly circle, righteous fury burning in his eyes as he stood over the crumpled form of another boy and screamed, "How could you do this to Pauz? Aren't you his friends? His guild?"
Oh. The boy was Pauz. Somehow, in her focus to find a way to Wakaba and the crowd blocking just the right of the window, she had somehow missed his small, beaten form huddled on the floor near the center of the room. He looked like someone had just hit him repeatedly with a bat, turned him over to a pack of angry dogs, and then set him on fire for good measure.
Her fury came back, hot and thick as the Balloon Man laughed at Gray, "He wouldn't be like that if it wasn't for you~, boy!"
Gray stiffened, his fist in his palm in a familiar ice-make stance, "What do you mean?"
Balloon Man waved his hands with a sickening amount of glee, "After we left you two in tatters, we heard him trying to call the hospital behind our backs~. We don't need any weaklings like that! Isn't that right, Master~?"
Wren's attention zeroed in on the figure —how had she not noticed him before— that ambled forward. Everyone else in the room made way for him, and an oily sort of magical aura swelled in the room for a moment before settling. The man was … breathtakingly ugly.
With bushy black hair and a face painted with bone-white makeup and stylized cheshire-smile stitches on either side of red-coated lips, he already looked like a psychotic failure of a clown. And that was before Wren fully registered his … could she call it an outfit when it was an honest-to-Pantherlily egg the size of a table with bright red spots on it? The only parts of the outfit that were actually clothes were the elbow-length black gloves and the polkadot stockings that ended in black duck-bill-shaped shoes.
A low laugh echoed through the room before the Master of Circus Night smiled benignly at Gray and replied, "Why yes, indeed… You see, boys who act without permission in my guild get punished."
Her breath froze, another voice whispering in her mind, "You do not understand that to properly prepare a child for the world, a parent must sometimes discipline them rather … harshly."
Her teeth bared and she felt her fingers dig painfully into the wood of the rafters. She watched through narrowed eyes as Pauz finally stirred, whimpering softly as he sat up and caught sight of Gray, "Gray-kun? Why … why are you here?"
Gray, wisely, kept his eyes on the Circus Night Master, "I'm here to find you, why else? What are you doing here with guys like these?"
Pauz's breath hitched and for a moment, she could have sworn his eyes flickered up to lock with hers before falling to the floor, "I'm sorry. I came to Magnolia … to destroy Fairy Tail…"
Gray risked a glance at Pauz, "You … to destroy Fairy Tail?"
Circus Night's Master laughed. The sound grated on Wren's ears and made her itch to hit him for it even as she tried to figure out how to get Gray and Pauz out of there without being mobbed or caught by Balloon Man, "We've been at odds with Fairy Tail for a long time you see. They get in the way of every little thing we do… so we're going to destroy them once and for all."
Wren began carefully coaxing the shadows amid the feet of the crowd, thickening them with her magic in preparation to take as many guild members down as possible in one go when the fight started. Because with Gray there, it was going to become a fight and Wren was now too angry to try to stop him —guild Master or no guild Master, she was going to find a way to break the egg-wearing man's nose—.
Gray grit his teeth, "Why would you team up with guys like these, Pauz?"
Pauz whimpered again as he shifted into a standing position, "I … I lost my parents when I was young," Wren stiffened, oh no, "it was this guild that picked me up when I was about to die on the streets." A spilled bowl of ramen danced before Wren's eyes, a voice pleading to let him help her echoing in her ears as she briefly closed her eyes in despair.
Pauz continued talking, unaware of the deja vu he was provoking inside her, "It's thanks to this guild that I'm still alive. So … that means-" his voice choked a bit as he straightened as much as his battered body would allow it, "That means my Master's orders are absolute!"
Wren bowed her head, because she knew, she knew what it was like to be picked up off the streets and offered shelter, a purpose, a home. She knew how it felt to go from half-starved to always fed and clothed and sheltered by something bigger than herself. If she had really been a child, if Master Makarov had been anyone other than himself, if he had added even a tiny bit of manipulation, a hint of "you get all of this only if you obey me"…
The Master of Circus Night sounded disgustingly pleased as he chuckled, "That's right. So, let me give you another order, Pauz." Wren opened her eyes in time to see his cruel smile as he pointed at Gray, "Kill this little brat."
Everyone stilled, even the soft jeering of the Circus Night members fell silent in the wake of that order. Wren's muscles went tight and she made to spring down —because this had just officially gone too far, she wasn't going to let a child be forced to choose between a friend and all he'd ever known— when a hand silently clamped down on her shoulder and held her back. Wren twisted around in a mix of fear and fury to see who had snuck up on her and then froze in surprise at the solemn edge in Marco's half-lidded eyes as he watched the scene below them. Marco? Wren looked down and around, only now seeing the silent crowd watching the drama unfold from the narrow second floor walkways.
How…? A gentle tap on her other side had Wren look over sharply at Bickslow, whose eyes glowed faintly from behind his visor as he alternated from watching the silent standoff below and Wren. Before Wren could figure out how to react to this —because how had they gotten here? Fairy Tail wasn't quiet, not like this, not quiet enough that Newgate-san was crouched in the too-small doorway unnoticed by an entire enemy guild— Bickslow signed to her, "What's going on?"
Wren took a deep breath and quickly flashed a few shorthand signs to explain what was going on between Gray and Pauz and how Gray was a potential Fairy Tail member. She pointed down at the standoff and bared her teeth silently, "I need to get down there!"
Marco noticed her gestures and seemed to understand despite his inexperience with her hand-signs. His grip on her shoulder tightened and he leaned over to breathe in her ear, "No, yoi. This is between them. We can't step in yet."
Wren scowled, but any protest was cut off by the voice of Circus Night's Master, "Well, Pauz? I gave you an order. 'Kill the brat'. Now do it!"
Pauz was shaking and it did not seem to be because of his injuries anymore. She could see the emotions and thoughts flashing behind his eyes —indecision, emotional agony, choice— before his head bowed and tears slid down his cheeks. When he spoke, even though it was barely above a whisper, it might as well have been as loud as a dragon's roar, "I … I can't … because Gray-kun … is the first friend I've ever had."
"Pauz…" Gray breathed, he looked as if he didn't know how to take that information.
Circus Night's Master just sneered, "What's that now? So you were lying just a moment ago about my orders being absolute?" He scoffed, "And I went through all that trouble to raise you. But perhaps its time… yes. I suppose I'll just have to finish you both." His voice was flippant, like a man debating whether or not to throw out his old tv at long last and Wren hissed through clenched teeth, wishing that Marco would let go of her so she could hit someone.
Pauz looked devastated and beside Wren, Bickslow growled deep in his throat, his body shaking with tension. Wren didn't understand why they were waiting. Fairy Tail had never been patient in ambushing and trashing an enemy before, so why-?
Then Gray threw his shirt off and away and put himself between Pauz and Circus Night's Master with a snarl. Faint wisps of blue magic aura lashed around him as he screamed, "I'll never-! This is no guild! I'll never call it a guild! You're all just spineless scum!"
The Master of Circus Night's face twisted into an expression of fury and he lunged for the boys, "Die y-"
The pressure of Master Makarov's magic —of the entire guild's magic— flooded the building to the overflowing, suffocating and furious and dangerous. Predators whose territory had been invaded and whose pack had been threatened. Despite the sheer weight of angry magic pressing down on the Circus Night guild, freezing even their Master in place with surprise, Master Makarov's voice was deceptively quiet and calm, "I think that's quite enough."
All eyes twisted up and around to stare at Fairy Tail, shocked and nervous murmurs flooding the ground floor as the air shimmered faintly in front of Fairy Tail's members and Wren realized that someone —probably Master Makarov— had been holding a very mild illusion spell over the guild to keep them from being noticed until now. Master Makarov took a deep breath and when he spoke next, it was with the terrible power of a giant, "You think you can put your hands on my family and get away with it? You think you can try to take my children hostage and WIN AGAINST US, KAFUCHI?"
Circus Night's Master —Kafuchi?— looked rattled, "You-! How did you figure out where we-?"
Laxus —standing next to his grandfather on top of the railing— snorted and his eyes held a dangerous golden glow as he growled, "Magnolia is our town. We know everything that happens here."
Master Makarov smiled grimly at his grandson's words, "Naturally. And now, my children," he flung his arms out and roared, "It's time for you to run wild!"
In an instant, Fairy Tail had flooded down into the main room of the bar, magic flaring and war cries deafening the air as they clashed with the off-guard and panicking members of Circus Night. Marco hurtled down from the ceiling with a wild, inhuman trill. His arms morphed into brilliant wings of fire that suspended him just above the fight while flaming talons raked at unsuspecting enemies. Laxus was already in the thick of it, thunder shaking the building as his lightning sent grown men flying. Bickslow and his tikis paused on the rafters just long enough to hiss, "We'll be talking about this later, Wren. Just stay here and use your shadows from long range." Before he too flung himself into the fray with a whoop and green blasts of his tikis.
Wren rolled her eyes —the Raijinshū were never going to let her live this down— but obediently stayed on the rafters above the fight, using her shadows to trip and fling and cut without anyone knowing to look up in order to find their source. Circus Night fought with the desperation of the mean and the cornered, Fairy Tail numbered double —maybe even triple with Newgate and his children inexplicably there— what Circus Night did and fought with the fury of a guild wronged and a family threatened. In the end, it wasn't even a contest.
There was a flash of cold ice and a wild yell from Gray that somehow rose above the cacophony of the fight, "I got their Master!" The shout attracted Wren's attention and as such she was just in time to see when everything went wrong.
Kafuchi gave Gray's incoming form a contemptuous look as he hissed, "Snake Snake Charms," and the egg he was wearing shattered in multiple places as several long, inky, snake-like … things, each about as thick as a full-grown person exploded out. One of them swatted Gray aside like a stuffed toy while the others launched out … and began devouring the defeated, retreating members of Circus Night. Wren stared, sickened and disbelieving as the members of Kafuchi's own guild disappeared —screaming and begging the entire time— down the throats of the magic ink snakes.
Kafuchi just laughed, "You really think I'm that easy to take down?" He threw a contemptuous glance at the begging members of his own guild as the ink snakes swallowed them whole, "I don't have any need for sniveling cowards."
Wren saw his gaze settle on something near the center of the room and felt time slow down almost as if she'd taken another one of Doronbo's pills. An ink snake lashed out, its maw wide and hungry as it lunged for its newest target and Wren saw, in her mind's eye, a Gray who went on missions alone, a Gray who never seemed to hang out with anyone other than Team Natsu after Erza formed it.
A Gray who never once mentioned anyone named Pauz.
NO!
The door in her mind lurched angrily against her control even as she lunged for Pauz's shadow. Cold and blackness exploded centimeters to one side of the ink snake, dragging it off course for the few milliseconds her black hole was open as she bodily tackled Pauz into his own shadow. Momentum rolled the two of them several feet and as soon as they'd stopped, Wren flattened her small body on top of his. She hugged him tight to the monochrome floor, flinching as she felt the ink snake —which had somehow survived even brief contact with her black hole— slam into the ground where Pauz had just been.
Pauz was gasping underneath her, his limbs shaking with pain and shock even as Gray screamed a shrill note of disbelief and grief, "Pauz!"
Wren slowly rolled off of Pauz and sat up, making sure to keep a firm hold on him so that they would stay in the shadows. Pauz sat up sluggishly, still gasping and eyes wide with disbelief as Gray lunged for Kafuchi. Gray's fist sailed for Kafuchi's face only to be blocked by a frost-covered ink snake —blasted thing had already regenerated it's lost matter, her momentary black hole had only slowed it down for a second—.
Kafuchi didn't look well. He looked … insane. He was giving off a magic aura now, but it was … wrong, unpredictable. Wren rarely saw any colors when in shadow form, but for a moment she thought she saw a sickly pulsing green-black color pump from the snakes into their master as he laughed softly. Gray tried to push past the ink snake, "Monster! You spit Pauz back up, right now!" Wren blinked and Pauz made a soft noise. Oh. Gray thinks that ink snake swallowed Pauz whole… She thought about revealing that Pauz was fine, but then reconsidered a moment later as the last Circus Night member disappeared down the throat of an ink snake. For whatever reason, those things were only targeting Kafuchi's guild members and Wren really didn't want to risk attracting the insane man's attention back to Pauz, even to ease Gray's grief. She'd tell him later, once this was over.
Kafuchi's ink snake curled around Gray like a boa, "I don't have time for weaklings." The snake flung Gray into the wall with a loud crack of stone, "Now stay out of my way."
Wren grabbed Pauz's wrist and dragged him back away from the center of the room —who knew if those snakes could sense shadow-magic— as the rest of Fairy Tail finished up their own fights and wordlessly backed away too. Only once she had dragged Pauz into the protective circle of the Raijinshū did she allow them to slip out of the shadow world. Pauz was shaking in her grip, heedless to the startled looks of the Raijinshū as everyone watched Gray launch himself at Kafuchi again and again only to be flung aside or bashed into walls, "W-why is he doing this? Why won't you help him?"
Laxus eyed Pauz sidelong and murmured low, "You're his friend aren't you? Kafuchi tried to eat you, so he's going to kick his butt. It's not our place to step into a fight like this. This is the kid's fight on your behalf. We won't let him die or anything, but … this is his fight for now."
Pauz looked stunned, off-balance, and despite his earlier heartfelt declaration, Wren got the impression that Pauz hadn't understood until now what being Gray's friend really entailed. What being anyone's friend entailed, really. Wren tapped Pauz's wrist to get his attention and gave a rapid-fire flurry of signs. Laxus's gaze sharpened knowingly even as he translated softly for her, "Wren says that people like Gray can be hard to befriend and slow to trust. But once you have it, they will destroy mountains for you. There is only one condition to that loyalty. Only one thing Gray will ever ask of you in return for his friendship."
They were interrupted when Gray finally broke past the guard of the ink snakes only to be grabbed by Kafuchi himself and held in the air by his hair. Kafuchi snarled and punched Gray hard enough that the noise echoed painfully across the silent room. Instead of freezing, Gray reacted in an instant and punched back, using his close, captive proximity to finally, finally, slam his fist hard into Kafuchi's face.
The clown Master's head snapped violently to one side and Wren thought she saw something white and bloody fly from his mouth. Kafuchi's face twisted and he flung Gray to the far wall with a scream, "You stupid child!" Gray hit the wall hard enough to dent it before Kafuchi's ink snake caught him and slammed him brutally into the floor. For a long moment everything went still and Wren seethed quietly, because Laxus had an iron grip on her arm, keeping her from going in and punching the man's face herself on Gray's behalf and no one else was doing anything. Stupid mages and their stupid magic debt/honor/pride traditions.
Kafuchi visibly dismissed Gray's still form and his eyes slid up to Master Makarov instead. Kafuchi smiled sickeningly, revealing that he was missing a tooth in the process, "Now then, it looks like our fight for supremacy was interrupted-"
Master Makarov cut him off dryly, "I believe it would be best if you do not turn your back on an opponent in the middle of a fight." Kafuchi froze, then whirled in time to see what Fairy Tail —all watching from the rafters and the second story walkway— had already spotted.
Gray on his feet, bloody and beaten and proud, his aura flaring around him and a light in his one open eye that any Fairy knew by heart, "Pauz is my friend. So give him back, you piece of slime or I'll-!" The light suddenly flickered out of his eye and Gray slumped forward, his child body too small to obey the strength of his spirit just yet. Mest teleported forward without prompting, gently catching Gray before he could hit the floor while Master Makarov jumped down protectively between Mest and Kafuchi.
Master Makarov gestured imperiously to the watching guild members, "Leave now. Mest, you and the Raijinshū will take those two boys to Porlyusica for treatment. Kafuchi…" His golden aura formed and swept through the ruined building like a harsh wind, giving his eyes a bright yellow glow as his body began to grow in size, "This is the end of the road for you."
Fairy Tail filed out hurriedly, knowing better than to get in the way of their Master on the warpath. The Raijinshū —with a shaky Doronbo trailing behind like a lost puppy— obediently carted a dazed Pauz and an unconscious Gray to Porlyusica, who threw a fit over them both —and Wren—. After Pauz had been bandaged, Wren re-bandaged, and Gray placed on the bed for more extensive treatment, the Raijinshū, Pauz, and Doronbo were banished from her treehouse with orders to not wage any more wars for the next few days.
The Raijinshū wordlessly allowed Pauz and Doronbo to stay just on the outskirts of Porlyusica's property, fussing over Wren —much to her exasperation— while Mest teleported to Magnolia and back to bring them food and news of Kafuchi's absolute beat-down via angry Makarov fist —which finally soothed Wren's seething need to punch the man herself, Makarov punched harder than she ever could—.
Pauz tentatively interrupted the fussing after the news of Kafuchi's defeat and how Master Makarov had forced the ink snakes to vomit out the devoured guild members —who were shockingly still alive, if hospitalized—, "Wren-san?"
Everyone looked at him and Wren moved to sit next to the boy who looked so very lost, so very like Bickslow when he couldn't believe that Fairy Tail would take them in and help them, love them. He glanced at her shyly, "What is the one condition?"
Wren blinked at him and Pauz elaborated quietly, "You said there was one condition to Gray-kun's friendship, to … to his loyalty. What is it?"
Wren's expression softened but she was surprised when it was Bickslow who answered instead of waiting to translate her words, "The same thing that any member of Fairy Tail asks of their comrades. That you stay by their side."
Pauz stared at Bickslow in confusion, "Stay … after all the trouble I've caused him? After I- after I hurt him? Attacked all of you, the guild he wants to join? Why would he want that? Why would he…? Wouldn't he want me to leave after all this? Shouldn't I leave?"
Freed opened his mouth, but Laxus held up a hand to silence him, "Wren?" There was a knowing gleam in his eyes and Wren did her best not to be nervous as she realized that Laxus had figured out that Wren knew about Gray. As in, knew about him in a way that went beyond meeting him a day ago.
Still, Wren carefully pulled her thoughts together and organized them in a way that would not sound creepy or all-knowing, "Gray … acts like someone who has lost a lot, Pauz-kun. He acts like someone who has been alone for a long time. When someone like that finally finds a friend, then, it doesn't matter how much they have to go through, or what demons they have to fight, they will do anything to keep that friend safe."
Wren fixed Pauz with a serious look, "What your old Master made you do was not your fault, Pauz. Not any of it. And when it really counted, you chose to stand by Gray and disobey the man who thought he could own you. I think that … for Gray, that was more than enough reason to fight as he did. It was worth it to him, risking his life for yours, because … because after you've lost enough, been alone long enough, you will do anything not to lose your precious people again. You want to keep them close and never let go, because if you do," her mother's laugh and her fingers on a violin, a careless goodbye, never knowing it would be her last, unaware of the man with the knife who would steal Wren's voice and change her life forever, "if you do, you're afraid that they will fade away."
She gave Pauz a sad smile, "Everyone in Fairy Tail is like that to some extent, and we all understand why you obeyed Kafuchi for as long as you did. We won't blame you, and neither will Gray. We will even understand if you don't want to stay, if you want to leave and be free. But Pauz…"
She had no idea how badly she might have messed up canon by saving Pauz, or how badly she might be messing it up now. But seeing Gray fight so hard for this one boy … it was enough for her to keep going, "Whether you choose to stay or not, I think … you should at least talk to Gray first, tell him where you're going, maybe write letters to each other if you go your separate ways. That way, even if you are far away, you will still have each other. In some way, you will still be by each other's side."
She glanced at him, saw the tears trickling slowly down his face, and wrapped him in a gentle hug, a silent assurance that it would be okay. Doronbo shuffled over and, after an awkward moment of indecision, sat down on Pauz's other side and hugged him too. Wren smiled at Doronbo over Pauz's head and signed with one hand. Laxus softly translated as the Raijinshū clustered loosely around in a show of quiet support, "Wren says that the same thing applies to you Doronbo-kun. You'd be welcome in Fairy Tail," Laxus's lips twitched in amusement as Wren added, "even if you are a coward."
Doronbo blushed and muttered excuses —apparently Doronbo had very little magic beyond the pills he carried in his giant onesie— but after his revelation was just met with easy shrugs and no bias from the Raijinshū, his tension eased into a sort of tentative, awed silence.
Wren rocked the silently crying Pauz back and forth, smiling despite herself as she did so.
She could be wrong, but she had the distinct impression that there would be not one, but three more members joining Fairy Tail when Gray woke up.
.
.
For anyone wondering: Kafuchi, Circus Night, and Kafuchi's appearance are not mine. They are the villains of the final arc of the Ice Trail spin-off manga, which I recommend to anyone who has not read it yet. But seriously, I did not make up Kafuchi's appearance, I literally spent ten minutes squinting at his picture in my copy of the manga trying to figure out how to describe an outfit that looks to me like the love child between the Joker and a giant psychotic chicken. Just ... why would anyone wear...? Nevermind, moving on, have a great day and I'll see you guys next time!