A/N: Here's the new chapter!
I don't own Fairy Tail!
Please enjoy!
Chapter 35: A Spirit of Wishes
April 16, X792 - Morning
Cordelia moved her way towards the back of the guild where the naval vessel had docked itself. She stood on the co-ed dorm ship, smiling widely up at the man that had been staring her down the entire time his ship had moved in on hers.
"I was beginning to wonder when you'd show up again!" Cordelia called up to him, a few of her mages standing behind her, "Did you come here looking for a fight already, Western Vice Admiral, Bern Eversaw?!"
"Well, you do have that bounty on your head now," he answered, chewing on a blue toothpick.
"I saw that. You sure do know a way to a woman's heart. I framed it and everything."
"I'm glad to hear you liked it so much. It's not often I give gifts out like that," he said, the corners of his lips twitching upwards ever so slightly, "Care to test if you're still worth that bounty?"
"I might just faint from all this attention you're giving me," she answered, "And on any other day, I would normally take you up on your offer, but I have some things I would like to discuss with you."
"You do realize that I have the right to fight you right here and now because of that bounty, right?"
"Come off it, Bern," she said, easily waving off his attempt at pulling her into a fight, "We both know that the only reason my mages and I have those bounties is because you wanted to have a fight with us in the future. Not because we actually did something wrong. I'm sure your boss wasn't too pleased with your decision on sending those out."
"I wouldn't know. I have yet to hear from the Admiral. I'm sure they have better things to do than look over every single bounty sheet that gets sent out."
"Then that wouldn't make them a very good Admiral, would it? They should know about the criminals they're searching for, regardless of how little the bounty is. Besides, you gave me a nice bounty, if I do say so, so I'm sure that had to catch their attention…or at least that fantastic picture of me would," she said, chuckling afterwards.
Bern contemplated her words for a moment before he answered her, "And just what do you want to talk about with me?"
"Well, you could either come aboard my guild and walk to my office with me," she said, glancing back at all her mages that were eyeing the man, "But I can't quite guarantee how my mages would greet you. You on the other hand," she said, looking back up at him, "Have quite the control over your men, I'm sure. And I wouldn't mind checking your own ship out. So long as I'm not arrested when I come on board."
"Cor! What do you think you're doing?!" Eli snapped, "That guy is fucking crazy! You do remember what happened the last time he made an appearance!
"I know what I'm doing," she said, "Besides, you'll be coming on board with me. Both you and Ace."
"Um…what?" Ace asked, quirking an eyebrow at her.
"Well, if you're all so worried about me," she started.
"I never said I was worried!" Ace snapped.
He was quickly silenced by a tight head lock from Cordelia, "Again, if you're all so worried about me, then you'll be coming onto the ship with me. Besides, I like the statement of three wanted mages walking onto that ship filled with naval officers and simply being able to walk off of it when we're finished with our business. It's rather exciting!"
"You need to find new hobbies," Eli and Ace mumbled at her.
"Well, it doesn't seem like you have a choice, do you?" she asked with a sweet smile.
The two men sighed at that look on her face, knowing that they really didn't have a choice of disagreeing with her.
"So!" Cordelia said after releasing her brother and turning back towards Bern, "What's your choice?"
Bern studied her with a straight face for a long moment as he decided on the best choice of action. He was interested in hearing on what she wanted to speak with him about and that curiosity gnawed at him until he finally gave into her request, "Fine. Come on board to my ship," he said as he kicked out a long, wooden board that slammed down onto the deck of the guild to create a path up onto the naval ship.
Cordelia smiled as she began walking up the board, glancing back to make sure Eli and Ace were following her. Once she was on the deck of Bern's ship, she looked up at the tall man, "The only thing I request is that you keep your Captains off of my guild, especially that Desmond guy," she said, narrowing her eyes for a moment to express her seriousness in her request, "If I come back out and see him on my guild, then I'll give you a reason to raise my bounty."
Bern simply nodded in response, his eyes moving over towards his Captains to make sure they understood the request as well. The two nodded at him, keeping their distance from the group walking up onto the ship, but staying close enough in case something went wrong. Bern then turned his attention back towards Cordelia and nodded at her again to follow him. The group began walking across the deck, Cordelia smiling widely at all the officers that watched her walk across the ship freely. Eli and Ace followed her closely, still disliking the fact that they had somehow been dragged along, so they chose to completely ignore all the other men and women around them as the group made their way down into Bern's office.
As the group disappeared below deck, Desmond turned his attention onto the guild they were docked next to. While he had silently promised Bern that he would stay off of the guild, and with how Cordelia had reacted to him the last time he was on the guild still fresh in his mind, something still managed to grab his attention. He saw a flash of red hair first before a familiar face turned slightly to smile at blue haired woman. His eyes widened as they stayed frozen on her, wondering why he hadn't seen her the first time he had been on the guild. Though, he easily chalked that up to being busy fighting Cordelia and her mages. Still, he couldn't believe he had found her on the sailing guild of all places.
A hand landed on his shoulder before he could run down onto the guild, "Whatever you're thinking, don't do it."
Desmond looked back to see Kira standing behind him and gripping his shoulder, "But you do not understand," he said, pushing her hand off of his shoulder, "There is something I must attend to on the guild."
"You're only gonna piss off Bern…and even worse, Cordelia. I don't want to have to clean up your mess again."
"No one asked you to, so just stay up here while I conduct my business," he said, walking down the board that led onto guild while receiving an eye roll from Kira. A few mages eyed him carefully as he boarded the guild, but he paid them no mind as he walked up to the redhead he had spotted earlier. The blue haired woman noticed him first, the small smile dropping from her face as she stared him down. The redhead woman cocked her head to the side when she noticed her friend's sudden silence. She then turned around to see what the woman was staring at, her eyes going wide upon seeing the Captain standing before her, "It has been quite a long time, Zipporah Fieri."
. : + : .
Isaak, Jean and Rin walked into town, doing their best to ignore the thunder rolling across the sky. Isaak had looked over the clue countless times before they finally came across a decent sized town on the island. Once they had come across civilization, he had rolled the map back up and looked around for someone to speak to about possibly finding a spirit of wishes. His eyes lit up when he saw a group of young women talking and giggling together outside of a clothing store. A smile appeared on his face and just as he was about to make his way towards the group of girls, he was quickly pulled backwards.
"What do you think you're doing?" Jean asked him.
"Well, we don't know where a spirit of wishes is in the slightest, so I was going to ask if anyone has heard of one on this island."
"Yes, but why are you the one going up to talk to the ladies?"
Isaak quirked an eyebrow at the blonde man before a smile reappeared, "If you would like to be the one to speak with them, please be my guest," he said, motioning towards the women. He stepped back to relax against a building to watch the scene, knowing already that it would end horribly.
Jean huffed in response before making his way over towards the group of girls with Rin close on his heels. The girls continued talking for a moment longer before they became quiet once they noticed Jean walking up towards them. He came to stand in front of the brunette of the group, closing his eyes as he held her hands. He took a moment before opening his eyes, causing them to sparkle in the morning light as he gazed upon her.
"Excuse me, but do you happen to be a magician? Because when I look at you, everyone else disappears," he said in as elegant of a voice as he could muster.
The entire group of girls blanched at his pick-up line, silence passing through the group for a long moment. Isaak smacked a palm to his head while Rin was holding in his laughter, though he was miserably failing at it. Soon enough, Rin was doubling over in laughter while pointing at Jean.
"What was that?! That was horrible!"
Jean felt his eye twitch in annoyance before he turned around to snap at Rin, "Shut up! Why must you always be behind me like this?! No one asked you to tag along!"
"Cordelia did," Rin smirked, "Now move aside so I can show you how it's really done," he said, pushing Jean aside. He fixed his top hat and bowtie before setting his sights on the women. The girls looked worried for a moment as he stepped up to the blonde of the group, grabbing hold of one of her hands while he bent on one knee. A small moment of silence passed through the group before Rin began speaking, "I may not be a photographer, but I can picture me and you together."
The women quickly fell back into the blanched looks they had been wearing previously as Jean started to shout again.
"Just what the hell was that?! That was no different than what I did!"
"But I bent down to one knee!" Rin retorted, "That is much better than the sparkling eye bit!"
"Well obviously not!"
"Good god," Isaak mumbled, "We'll be here all day if this keeps up," he said, pushing himself off of the building and began making his way over towards the women, passing the still arguing Jean and Rin. He came to stand in front of the girls, all of them looking even more worried about a third bad attempt at flirting. He let an easy, playful smile appear on his lips, the smile instantly seeming to relax the women, "I would like to apologize on behalf of these two men here. They obviously don't know how to entertain such beautiful ladies."
The women all seemed to blush at once before one of them began giggling in embarrassment.
"Now, if you don't mind, I would like to ask you lovely ladies a question if you don't mind. If not, then please at least allow me to take you all out for a drink to make up for the previous two men's behavior. It would be a shame if I let you all walk away with such a terrible start to your morning," he said, watching as all their blushes grew and smiles began to appear on their faces. The woman that had been giggling only continued to laugh, prompting Isaak to step up to her. He slid a hand under her chin to tip it up gently so she would be looking up at him, "You have such a sweet laugh, so I hope you will be the one to answer my question in order to grace me with the sound of your voice."
The woman let out a happy, nervous laugh before she finally answered him, "I'll do my best to answer your question."
"Ah, your voice is even sweeter than your laugh," he smiled at her, causing her to almost lose feeling in her legs, "Now then, I am in search of something that I believe is on this island. Have you heard of a spirit of wishes by chance?"
"Oh, that's an easy one," the girl answered, "On the next street over is an antique shop. That's where you can find the spirit."
"That was rather easy," Isaak said.
"Yes, the spirit has been on our island for quite some time. No one wants to buy his lamp, so he's been stuck here for a long while."
"May I ask why no one would want a spirit that can grant their wishes?"
"You'll have to go see for yourself," she said, nervously glancing down the street, "But, uh, my boyfriend is coming so you should probably get going."
Isaak glanced up to see a couple of men walking down the street towards them, eyeing Isaak with a glare, "Oh my! It does seem like it's time to go!" he said, but looked back towards the woman in front of him one last time, "But if you ever get tired of that boyfriend of yours, come look me up. I'd be more than happy to hear that sweet laugh of yours again."
The woman answered him with another giggle before he ran off with Jean and Rin closely following him.
"Just what was that?!" Jean huffed, "You completely took over."
"That is called successful flirting, but I suppose you wouldn't know what it looks like," Isaak smirked back at the two men, "Honestly, a twelve year old could do a better job than the both of you."
Before the two could say anything in their defense, the group rounded the corner to turn down the next street and suddenly slammed into another group that had been coming around opposite side. The two groups huffed as they were knocked backwards, looking up when they slid to a stop.
"Hey! We found Isaak's group!" Seth said, smiling as he stood back up.
"You were looking for us?" Isaak asked, standing back up himself and dusting himself off.
"Yes," Kasra answered, making sure his turban was on straight, "Miss Murdock asked that we come help you when we were finished with Atlas."
"So you took him out already?" Rin asked.
"Of course we did," Gordon grunted, "No thanks to these two," he said, pointing at Seth and Kasra, "They sat around eating some damn cookies while I did all the hard work!"
"We have already had the discussion as to why that was," Kasra said, "No need to go back and revisit the past."
Gordon glared over at Kasra, but before he could say anything else, Isaak intervened.
"Well then, you can help us with the spirit of wishes. We actually just found out where it was, so let's get moving."
The now six men moved down the street Isaak's group had been running towards, all of them looking for the antique store that the woman had talked about. It was Jean that called out to them about halfway down the street, the group gathering around a shop that was indeed a large antique store. They quickly entered the shop, Isaak taking the lead when the store owner looked over at the group of men curiously.
"May I ask about a spirit of wishes?" Isaak began, "We were told we can find one here."
The store owner began laughing before he answered him, "You're more than welcome to try your hands at getting him to listen to you," he said, turning around to rummage through a few things behind the front counter. He eventually pulled out an object and set it in front of the men, being a rather delicate looking, gold genie lamp, "And if you're able to summon the spirit out of that lamp, I'll let you take it for free. He's been here for about twenty years now and he can get rather annoying."
The group of mages stared between the lamp and the store owner curiously before the owner walked off to help another customer, wishing the group good luck before he did so. The six men gathered around the lamp, all of them looking down at it with quirked eyebrows or their heads cocked to the side.
"So what do we do now?" Seth asked.
"Summon the thing of course!" Jean said, moving forward to grab the lamp and rub the side of it.
"Don't you dare touch the lamp!"
The six men looked around upon hearing a high pitched voice, but not seeing an owner to it. The only other people that were in the store was the owner and the customer he was helping and they had gone off towards the other end of the store.
"Why are men always so stupid?" the high pitched voice continued, "Down here you idiots!"
The group looked down to see the lamp moving every time the voice spoke up.
"Is it possessed?" Gordon asked.
"You really are an idiot!" the voice in the lamp snapped, "I'm not some pathetic ghost! I'm a highly intelligent being filled with great cosmic power!"
"You don't really sound like you have that kind of power," Rin said.
"What do you think happens to a person when they get shrunk down into the size of a shrimp?!"
"Haha, this thing is great!" Seth said, "Can we take it back to the guild to show everyone?"
"Stupid! We have a mission to complete," Gordon growled before he swiped the lamp off the counter, "Now get out of that lamp! We have shit to do!"
"GAH! Get your ugly man hands off of my lamp!" the voice shouted, being able to move the lamp on its own and smack Gordon on the head with it before moving to set back down on the counter, "How dare you! No man is allowed to touch my lamp!"
"Then how are we supposed to summon you?" Isaak asked.
"I refuse to be summoned by anything but the most beautiful women in the world!" the voice announced as stars and flowers began to hang around the lamp, "Girls, women, lovely ladies! Pretty, beautiful, exotic women! I can see them all right now! Those lovely, round backsides! And bosoms ample enough to fit in the palm of your hands! Ahahahaha!" the voice laughed, a thin line of blood beginning to spill out from the spout of the lamp.
The six men stood in a long silence before it was Jean that broke it.
"A pervert genie…" he said lowly before he began shouting, "It's a pervert genie! Of all the spirits we had to find, we had to get the perverted genie!"
"So!" the spirit interrupted them, "If you do not have a lovely lady with you, then I will not be coming out to help you with anything!"
"You've gotta be fucking kidding me!" Gordon snapped, "We can't get anything done if it doesn't come out of there!"
"Maybe he's still stuck here because none of the women wanted his wishes after they summoned him," Rin mentioned, causing the voice in the lamp to go quiet.
Isaak's eyes lit up in realization, "That's it, isn't it?" he said, "You scared off any woman who actually wanted to summon you and now you're stuck here until some unfortunate traveling woman happens to come across you."
"It's none of your business!" the spirit answered, "And besides, that stupid shop owner keeps scaring off any new women before they can touch me! What a horrible life to not even be able to feel the smooth and delicate skin of a woman caress my lamp!" he shouted, another line of blood beginning to drip out of the lamp.
"Stop bleeding!" Jean snapped, bonking the top of the lamp.
"But it no longer matters when that shop owner keeps me hidden away now!"
"It seems like that's your own fault," Isaak smirked, "But you know, there's a possibility that if you help us out with what we need, then you could be freed from the lamp and you could go enjoy all the beautiful women you want, when you want."
"The only way I'm being freed from this lamp is if William Blackstroker does it himself or if someone is hunting his treasure," the spirit said, "That damned pirate placed a spell on me until that obligation is fulfilled! And he even put his nasty man hands all over my lamp when he did it!"
"Well then, you seem to be in luck today," Isaak said, pulling out the map and showing it to the lamp, "We happen to be in search of that treasure."
"Why didn't you say so sooner?!" the spirit said, earning flat stares from the group, "Now! Someone summon me and I will help you!"
The group of men all looked at each other, waiting to see who would do the summoning.
"Well I refuse to touch the pervert genie's lamp!" Jean said, placing a finger to his nose. Isaak and Rin quickly picked up on what he was doing and placed their own fingers on their noses. Kasra smirked once he saw what was happening, touching his own nose as he elbowed Seth in the side. Seth looked around for a moment before he realized what was happening, touching his nose with a smile, "It appears that the nose goes!" Jean said, the group looking over at Gordon.
"What?" the metal mage replied, not fully understanding what was going on for a moment. Though, it soon dawned on him at what had just happened, "What the hell?!" he shouted, "This is some bullshit!"
"Rules are rules, Gordon," Isaak laughed.
"Goddammit," he grumbled as he swiped the lamp off the counter again.
"You picked the worst one!" the spirit shouted.
"Shut up! It's not like I'm enjoying this either!" Gordon snapped as he rubbed the lamp.
"Gross man hands!" the spirit cried before a cloud of red smoke began to fill the area. Once the smoke had cleared, a rather tall figure stood before them. The spirit's skin was bright red while his black hair was styled up into a high ponytail. His gold eyes stared out at the six men and his body was nicely toned. On his wrists were thick, gold bands with runes inscribed into them and he wore baggy, black pants along with simple black sandals. He stretched out his body from being cooped up for so long and cracked his neck as he moved it back and forth a few times, "That's much better," he said, his voice being much lower now, "Bahir, a spirit of wishes at your service," he said, bowing to the men slightly.
"Oh, so you finally managed to get him out of that lamp?" the store owner asked with a smile, "Good, now you can take him out of my shop."
"You're the one that hid me away for years! I could have been long gone before now!"
"I highly doubt that," the shop owner answered, still smiling, "Now please, take him out of here," he said, looking over at Isaak.
Isaak ushered everyone outside before Bahir could start another argument. Once outside of the antique store, Isaak looked over at the spirit, "So the clue mentioned playing your game. Is there something we need to do for you?"
"Something like that," Bahir answered, "Before Blackstroker ever so gently put me in that lamp, he had me place nine puzzle pieces around this island. You will need to find all the pieces and put them together and then I will give you the next clue to the map. And I will give you a hint to the first piece and with every piece you find after that, it will have a clue attached to it for the next one. I will wait here while you complete the puzzle," he explained, "So for the first one, you can find it somewhere filled with lace and frills, but be warned, the woman in charge is quite the pistol."
"What kind of stupid clue is that?!" Gordon shouted.
"Lace and frills…lace and frills," Isaak thought aloud before it hit him, "That clothing store those women were standing outside of earlier! That's the best place to start!"
"Then let's get moving," Jean said, the group turning to run back down the street.
Though, as soon as they started moving, loud and heavy rock music stopped them.
"Not again!" Gordon shouted, "How the hell did he get free from my anchor?!"
At the end of the street, the ring from earlier had reappeared fully built while Atlas was once again making another grand entrance.
"It is time for round two!" Atlas began once he was standing in the middle of the ring, "Who will be man enough to step up to the champion this time?! I will yet again have you marveling over my strength and you will fail right here in this ring! But you should feel honored to lose at the hands of the world champion, Atlas!"
"What the hell is that?" Bahir asked.
"That would be the man trying to take our map," Isaak sighed.
"Haha! This is such a great day!" Seth said before laughing loudly, "I will take this round! You two go help Isaak out and then I'll catch up once I'm finished," he said, looking back at Gordon and Kasra. The group nodded at him before running off down the street and past the large ring. Seth then began walking towards the ring, slowly building up into a run until he came close enough to the ring to jump up towards it and slide under the bottom band around it. He let himself continue sliding, waiting until the last minute to pop back up and stand right in front of Atlas with a wide smile, "I'll be your opponent this time!"
Atlas returned the excited smile, "I feel like this will be a wonderful, glorious battle!" he said as both men began to stare each other down, "And you even have the stare of a champion packed down! The world champion is excited for this fight!"
"Then let's get started!" Seth said.
The two took fighting stances as they waited for the ding of the battle to start. Once one of the many men around the ring hit the bell, the two men took off towards each other.
A/N: And there we are! I hope you all enjoyed it!
Haha! And yes, I just left it off right there! We haven't had a good cliff hanger for a while, so I figured, well why the hell not? But I really had fun with this chapter and Bahir turned out much better than I thought he would, lol.
And sorry for the slight delay in the update. I got a bit distracted last night with some things, so I wasn't able to get it finished. But I had the day off today, so plenty of time to get it all written up. And just a quick note this time around since I have more distractions to return to here soon *coughVideogamescough* so this will be a quick author's note this time around.
But I was really happy to see how many of you really enjoyed Atlas's character last chapter! He is really just so much fun to write, so it's good he turned out as well as I hoped. But all your reviews were just simply amazing! Seriously, I smiled through every single one of them! You all are just so awesome! And we've even hit 500 reviews! GAH! I just don't know how to thank you all and I know you keep hearing this over and over, but honestly you all are just the best! So I hope you all continue to enjoy this story as much as I enjoy writing it!
That should be it for this time around!
See you all next Sunday!
Yours Truly,
MyDearWatson