Lucy regarded Loke in surprise.
"Me? You're sure?" With how close they had seemed, Lucy had assumed that Loke, Leo, would be giving Fae his key.
Loke nodded a soft smile on his face.
"I'm certain." He seemed to spot something of her hesitation in her face and he chuckled.
"Fae's not a Celestial Spirit Mage, Lucy. Even if she did have Carrier Magic, she isn't strong enough." Lucy felt slightly embarrassed that she was so easy to read but...
"I always thought that her magic was flexible enough to change. I'll bet if you asked, she'd find a way for you to stay in the human world without needing to contract to a wizard." Thinking back to the latest thing Fae had devised for her storytelling and how she was connecting that to her magic... "Honestly, I don't think there's anything that girl couldn't do if she put her mind to it." Loke chuckled.
"Agreed. But I want you to be my wizard, Lucy." Hope and happiness fluttered inside Lucy as she extended her hand.
"If that's what you want, then I look forward to working with you!" Loke clasped her hand with a smile before he faded back into magic.
"Same here..." The golden key with a lion's head on the end was left in Lucy's hand.
I've only been a member of Fairy Tail for a few months, but I've already gotten three more Golden Keys! Can you believe it, Mom? Three!
A lot had happened. It was hard to believe that Loke had turned out to be a Celestial Spirit who was trapped in the human world. He'd been there all along! Tough with how his last master had been, no wonder he had avoided her. People like that made Lucy want to scream and cry.
And hit something. Really hard.
That impulse had only shown up after she had been in the guild for a while. Lucy wondered what it said about her that she was starting to think it was a good idea more often than not.
-vVv-
As I'd expected, Loke gave his key to Lucy before returning to the Spirit World. We had a very impressive story to tell and I was forbidden from using stimulative spells on myself casually. Though given that this had ended up saving Loke's life, Makarov let it slide. I then threw myself wholeheartedly into devising a safe method of flying. Once I got a solid matrix down, I'd be able to pull the sequence out willy-nilly. I just had to get that far!
I wanted to fly, but I also wanted to be able to control it properly. Flying wouldn't do me much good if I couldn't keep myself from crashing. I was trying to persuade (read: bribe) Happy into showing me his Aria magic so I could get an idea of what I was after but the insufferable little troll was holding out on me! If I could just get a solid read on his magic circle, it would be great, but since he wasn't showing me, I'd have to go the long way.
"I guess this cut of salmon will be my lunch, then." I said, pulling out the carefully wrapped and stored package. The blue cat froze and his nose twitched.
"A little brine and salt...nothing really fishy..." He jumped up and chased after me, his wings popping out to catch up with me. He shredded the paper package to reveal the orange-pink flesh within. "This is real, fresh salmon!" Happy moaned, eyes shining with greed as he traced the pink fibers. "And wild caught too! Not farmed!" I held my prize out of his reach.
"Hey, you weren't helping so you don't get any."
"Faaaaae!" I had to dodge his thieving paws several times on the way to the kitchen to fry up the mild tasting fish with lemon, butter and herbs. And I got a good look at Happy's wings with my magic along the way.
This should feel more like cheating... But hey, I got the information I wanted and I kept my high quality lunch from a reward from a small job earlier this morning.
I was so close to figuring it out I could almost taste it. I had promised myself that by the time Freed came back, I'd have worked out how to fly. I'd already gotten several requests for my safety bands that I had made to keep myself from getting hurt whenever I fell during testing. According to most, it was something I could easily go commercial with but...
But that's so...limited.
Going into business making magical items was a possibility. In fact, it was something that many wizards did if their magic couldn't stand up to the stresses and demands of active guild life. They'd use their magic to make items for either civilians with no magic, or specialized equipment for wizards with even more magic. I didn't want that though. I didn't want to stop and make due with what I already had. I wanted to learn and discover more. To push my magic right to the very limits of what I could do, and then find a way past them!
I must have gone through an entire forest of paper by now with how much I was writing. I was trying to persuade Master and Mira to get me a whiteboard or something so I could just erase and start over without wasting so much. But apparently the concept wasn't invented yet and the light-pen wasn't going to cut it for me. If you used a magical tool to write a magical rune you ran the risk of the magic getting confused and then no one was happy!
It had to be written without any extra magic. And as fun as making paper airplanes and birds was, (they often flew around the guild hall and roosted in some very odd places,) I wanted something more efficient.
The rune syllabary Mystogan had gotten for me was a big help though! I could already whip out some basic commands quick and easy as pie!
-vVv-
I was practicing some water magic in a secluded spot near the guild hall when I first met Juvia.
Since there were only so many ways you could manipulate water itself, I was trying to...
...Alright, I was trying to break the laws of physics and chemistry and compress water.
Water was one of the basic four elements that shaped the world. Most of the world's surface was covered in it. Human beings were literally mostly made of it. It was such an underestimated force of nature yet it was everywhere!
If I could pull water out of the air and condense it into projectiles that was fine. But if I could compress it, I'd get more oomph out of the limited power I had at the moment. (The magic storage devices were still a no go. My last four designs blew up in various creative ways and Master told me to shelve the idea until Freed came back from his job.)
What about fishman karate?
That was an idea. The story of one Piece and the Grand Line was a gold mine for weird powers to use and a lot of the characters had a ton of backstory to make them really effective for me. Fishman Karate had a fair bit of story available between Jinbe, Koala and the Fishman Island arc, but relatively little was said about the actual mechanics of the art. Luckily, that was far from the only story involving weaponized water.
So if I bastardize it with some waterbending, I might be able to get something out of it!
I looked at the barrels of water I was using and thought for a moment.
Ok...just using a basic water bullet ought to be a good place to start. Or actually, first I should just get the water moving the way I want it to. The force can come later.
Satisfied, I scrolled through my syllabary and selected several runes to string together. Things like articles weren't really necessary right here where my actions would dictate the rest.
Water, force, manipulate. Link to: body movement. The runes, once infused with some magic came to life and settled around my wrists and hands like some strange sort of gauntlet.
I looked at the water, standing there innocently as if it hadn't ever done anything wrong. I reach out and ran my hands through it, feeling how the water interacted with the magic that covered my fingers.
Imagining a half sphere force field, I scooped up a handful of water and had it stay in that imagined shape without dripping. Ok...Progress. Treating the water as if it were clay, I tried to mold it into a roughly spherical shape only for it to slip through my fingers. It was still water, a liquid that couldn't be treated as a solid.
There's gotta be some way...something for me to cop out on, borrow and rework...
For treating water as a solid, I'd probably need to peruse more stuff in One Piece. Definitely fishman karate rather than waterbending. At least for this.
But right now...
I let the water return to the mostly full barrel and with a little focus, pulled out about two gallons worth of water. It hovered before me in the air, shifting and roiling slightly on the inside. Biting my lip, I focused on the manipulation rune and guided it through the air, recalling the story of Avatar in my head. Specifically drawing on Katara in this instance. I could really relate to her right now, trying to muddle her way through something she barely understood but desperately wanted to be able to do.
As I moved around the yard. My motions gradually became more fluid. There wasn't much room to incorporate the martial arts I'd been taught in this. All of my teachers were brawlers and very...forward fighters. They'd be more suited to earth and firebending.
I almost lost control of the water as my thoughts slipped towards the other elements but I persevered. Even if I couldn't fight very well with water, it was still fun and relaxing to move it around like this.
"Ex...Excuse me?" The voice startled me and I lost my focus, the water falling to splash all over my feet, but I was too busy looking, very curiously, at the blue haired woman who was watching me from the edge of the property. "Oh! I'm sorry!" She reached out and the water lifted away from my feet and hovered between us.
Juvia Lockser. Formerly of Phantom Lord. Water Wizard.
She made a valiant attempt to smile.
"I didn't mean to startle you..."
"You..." It hit me then. "You're the one who's always following Gray around! He thinks he's picked up a stalker but it's actually you!" My brain caught up with what I was saying then. "No, wait, you are the stalker. That's it."
"Nothing shall keep me from my beloved's side!" Juvia said, her uncertainty fading to passionate daydreaming which I hastily blotted out.
"Not even the fact that what you're doing is illegal?"
"Love cannot be stopped!"
" Evidently." I cleared my throat. "So, Miss Juvia, right? What can I do for you?"
She looked at me somewhat taken aback.
"Well. I was looking for Gray but then I saw you...Are you a water wizard?" I shook my head, offering my arms and their seals.
"I'm a Rune Wizard, but I'm experimenting with it at the moment just to cover my bases." And because it would be cool. The older woman-no...
I examined her again.
Despite her somber face, Juvia was only about the age of my other friends. Maybe in her late teens. But certainly not that old.
"Well, I am a Water Woman myself, so perhaps, would you like some...help?" She expected me to refuse. But who was I? An idiot?
"Yes please!" I practically shouted, eyes shining. I grabbed her hands and started talking rapidly.
"I've never met a Water Wizard specializing in Elemental Manipulation this is exactly what I need! If I can see you do it I can get ideas of how to describe it with my magic and that will make everything go so much faster thank you so much!" I have never seen someone so surprised and yet so happy.
-vVv-
Juiva was somewhat confused by the energetic little girl.
She knew Jose had remarked that Makarov was getting soft in his old age, taking in orphan foundlings. A 'green haired brat' in particular. But since said brat was responsible for the biggest sensation in entertainment in the last decade, Juvia had thought that Makarov's taking her in had been a clever move instead of one worth deriding. Everyone knew about the young storyteller. But she had formed her own opinion now.
Fae's hair could be called green, if she squinted. But by no means was the little girl a brat. She was sweet, thoughtful and very friendly. Juvia found herself relaxing around the child, who spoke much more like an adult than a child. Fae was eager, always raring to go try something new. And despite the fact that she wasn't a water mage as Juvia had hoped, the Rain Woman thought she could very easily become friends with her. Fae's talents were many and wonderful and she cheered delightedly when she managed to copy some of Juvia's more basic manipulation with her own magic after watching her do it a few times.
"Ne, Miss Juvia?" Juvia fully expected it to be another magic based question and she smiled warmly at the girl.
"Yes, Fae?"
"Why are you lonely?" The direct question caught Juvia very much off guard.
"I- What?" Fae's pale blue eyes were steady.
"Lonely. You. Why? You're really nice."
"My guild was disbanded, Fae." Surely she had heard about this being a ward of Fairy Tail?
"And that means you can't see your friends anymore?" The question hit home hard and Juvia bit her lip and tried her best to keep the rain clouds from forming overhead.
To no avail. The clouds came and it started to rain, just like always.
"I...don't have friends..." The admission seemed to echo in the drops that came down around them. It was not a heavy torrent, but a steady drizzle that already seemed to be washing away the warm happiness Juvia had been feeling for a brief time.
But her company didn't seem to feel the same way. In fact, she looked up at the grey, clouded sky and smiled as the falling water hit her face.
"Rain...Rain is good." Juvia went still, staring at her in disbelief. Fae just spoke on as though she had forgotten that Juvia was there.
"Whenever it rains, it clears the air. Everything is always so fresh and beautiful after a rainstorm... I love the smell that comes afterwards."
"But...it's wet and cold. And it follows me everywhere." Fae giggled, hopping into a forming puddle with a splash.
"That's why I asked why you were sad and lonely before. The rain is part of your magic, that isn't something that should ever make you sad! It's so cool that you have that power! Don't you know how many people would want to have that? Sometimes their livelihood depends on how much rain they have!" Fae continued to gambol through the grassy clearing, heedless of mud and grass that got on her feet and legs. She appeared to be having a good time. Her eyes sparkled as she saw one large puddle and she took a running start to land in it, sending water splashing everywhere with a peal of laughter.
Juvia watched, amazed and dumbfounded as the little girl who had seemed so at home in the sun turned around and accepted the rain just as happily. It didn't seem to matter that the sky was grey and cloudy or that water poured down. Fae's smile lit the air as she splashed gleefully in the puddles.
"What are you doing?" The Rain Woman finally asked the girl.
"Playing. What's it look like?" She gave her a bright, curious look. "You mean that the entire time that you've had rain following you, you've never played in the puddles?"
Juvia said that she hadn't.
Fae grabbed her by the arm and hauled her off.
"Come on! There are always some great puddles down this way!"
-vVv-
Juvia had always despised the grey clouds that followed her. The rain that had driven so many people away from her. But as Fae played with her, happily using the little bit of water magic she had learned to splash the older girl, Juvia found herself enjoying it. For the first time in years, she enjoyed the rain.
"The rain follows you whenever you're lonely. So doesn't that make the rain your friend?" Fae asked as they rested under a tree. "It always came whenever you wanted company." Juvia had never thought of the rain clouds that had accompanied her like that. They had always been troublesome burdens. Something that she wished would go away so other people would want to be around her. A gloomy Rain Woman.
Fae was looking up at the sky before turning and giving Juvia a long, thoughtful look. She reached out and caught a drop in her hands and brought it to her lips...
-vVv-
"Don't worry. We'll take care of her. You don't have to keep following her."
-vVv-
I brought Juvia back to the guild hall for lunch and introduced her to the master. I also dropped a note saying I thought she'd be a good guild member.
Most wizards hoarded their magical knowledge and only shared it with a select few people, if anyone. Instead, Juvia had offered to help me freely. And the history of loneliness and isolation I had read in her past was enough to make me certain that while Fairy Tail might not need a Water Wizard, Juvia definitely needed a home.
-vVv-
Loke came by a few days after I met Juvia.
I bounded up and raced out the door to crash into him. He looked and felt much better after some time spent in the Spirit Realm.
"Shouldn't you be resting?" I asked him after hugging him to pieces for a little bit.
"Ok, that's a mixed message if I ever heard one." He said, ruffling my wavy sea green hair. I'd been keeping it short because it was a bother and it reached my chin now. I swatted at his hands before his rings could get caught in it.
"Shut up, you know I'm glad to see you." Loke grinned and motioned me forward and guided me outside.
"Well, I've got a surprise for you and the others..."
-vVv-
The whole guild heard Fae's delighted cry:
"We're going to Akane!"
"I know that it's normally not really a perk to have a kid along for vacation, but I owe her just as much as the rest of you if not a little more." Loke poked my head gently. "She found me out almost a year ago, I'd probably have been a lot worse off without her."
"I still had to drag you to them." I deadpanned before furry blue paws slapped over my mouth.
"Thank you, Happy. Anyway, these are for you guys." Loke handed Erza five tickets. (Four Adults and one Kids pass. Three day, all expenses paid.) "These'll get you some down time. I know you've all been working a lot lately."
"Hey, thanks man!"
"Akane resort! I haven't been in years!" I nipped Happy's paw to free my mouth and looked at Lucy.
"Oh right, your family was super rich. It's no surprise you've been there!" Lucy laughed, looking slightly awkward at the reminder.
"Yeah, Mom insisted on going every summer. My last time there was when I was about your age, Fae."
"These include passes for the casino? Sweet!" I wrinkled my nose at Gray's comment.
"They let kids into the casino?" That definitely doesn't sound fun...
"They don't let em play for money or drink, but there's other stuff around that kids can play." Loke grinned suddenly. "Actually, that's probably too bad. You'd be killer at poker and other card games with your Retrocognition letting you know what cards are still in the deck."
"Loke, that's cheating." Unfortunately, Erza looked deviously thoughtful at this. I began to pray fervently she'd just leave me alone to do my own thing.
-vVv-
The day spent at the beach was a blast! Gray or Lucy went on the rides with me at the park and I managed to befriend one of the spraywhales that people had on hand for high speed rides through the surf.
When they played volleyball, I went looking for food with Happy.
Apparently I was still cute, since I got a lot of free stuff. I plotted with Happy to eat some of it before we got back to the others so as to not have to share. Since one of the treats that I had been given was a piping hot serving of takoyaki (fried octopus balls), he agreed without protest.
On the way back, I spotted Juvia gazing at Gray with dreamy eyes.
"Aren't you supposed to be doing...adult things like settling your lease and moving to Magnolia?" I asked her. She beamed.
"It's all done, Fae-chan! I'm just waiting for the right moment to tell the good news to my beloved Gray." Poor Gray...he really has no idea what he's in for. I shrugged, knowing that if I told Juvia that I had insight to relationships and things like that because of my magic, she wouldn't rest until I had detailed a foolproof way to win Gray's heart.
When was the last time he went out with someone? It's been a couple months at least... Unlike Natsu, Gray was not mostly oblivious to the attention he got from girls. His problem was finding a girl who didn't take his unfortunate stripping habit as a come hither sign. He had mostly given up on finding a girl he could date who wasn't a wizard. This was, for some reason, filed as shipping evidence for Gruvia by my magic.
"Well don't wait around for too long." I placed the drinks and food I'd gotten down by our collective pile of 'stuff' and fished around for my rune syllabary. I'd gotten a couple good ideas while playing today...
"That's right! Time and Love wait for no woman!"
"That's not how the saying goes- oh never mind..."
-vVv-
I was restlessly pacing about the room I was sharing with Lucy as I tried to pinpoint the strange tension I felt in the air. I tried sitting down and writing in hopes that something might catch my attention, like how I had been able to predict when one of my friends was coming back to the guild hall. But to no avail. Nothing seemed to work.
"Hey Fae, you coming down to play? They've got a huge kids section and they're letting kids play a couple of the adult games too." Lucy had already dolled herself up in a long, sleek dark red dress. And that of course meant someone just couldn't keep quiet...
Natsu's favorite color...~!
Shut up! I smacked the voice down back into it's corner. It looked vaguely as though a variety of pictures of everyone I knew had been pinned to a wall and had various colored strings stretched between them. The only labeled 'ships' there so far were Nalu and Gruvia. But I had the feeling more would come.
While I was distracted, Lucy had also gotten me into something that was vaguely cute. It was a big step up from my usual shorts and ratty t-shirt. Though I had wanted to vehemently protest the school girl skirt, Lucy had treated me like her doll for the evening. I glared at my reflection, with its button up blouse and neatly combed hair briefly before sighing.
"Yeah, I'm coming." I made to get up and put my syllabary away...
"If you can be disarmed, never go anywhere unarmed."
"An unprepared wizard doesn't live long." Mystogan and Freed had told me that. I glanced down at what I held.
Given how anxious I was feeling, I didn't want to leave this behind. And if I did and something happened, I would be kicking myself for years.
A way to take it with me without people noticing...
"Actually...hang on a sec." What was the incantation again...?
The spell I wanted was an Undetectable Expansion Charm. Its use was heavily controlled, but I had two very good story based examples of its use and more mentioned in passing. Newt Scamander used it on his magic animal storage case, and Hermione had used it to smooth over the supply needs for the Golden Trio when they were on the run.
Unless I write out a stable rune pattern, it'll just fade over time but...I don't think I'll need it in the long term...A bag or something would be best, but I'm too young to pull off carrying a purse around... My shirt pocket would do.
"Capacious extremis." Focusing hard on what I wanted, centering the space on the inside of my breast pocket, I fueled the spell. It took a little more than I expected for something I was only intending to be temporary. Well, bigger on the inside effects are ridiculously broken. Once the spell finished casting, I managed to slide my syllabary inside the pocket without it looking or feeling any different.
"Fae, come one we still gotta get Erza!"
"Keep your hair on Lucy, I'm coming."
-vVv-
Erza was dressed in a full on evening gown, with beautiful roses the same deep red as her hair on a dusky purple background, her hair swept up into a smooth knot on the back of her head and an alluring smile on her lips.
Right next to her was Lucy, with bright blonde hair, innocent, girlish eyes and a big bubbly smile providing and receiving contrast from Erza's mature confidence.
Small wonder the guys at their poker table were having trouble focusing on their cards.
Since I could read exactly how much cheating and dishonesty was going on, I didn't really want to play. I'd probably end up trying to find some way to win at everything anyway and I didn't want to do that.
I ended up sitting near a snack bar, feet swinging idly off of my stool as I watched my friends enjoy themselves.
"You look bored." The kindly bartender remarked.
"Kinda am." I admitted. "But it's nice to see so many people having fun."
Natsu was over by some random roulette game with Happy. He had wandered over there after staring in wide eyed surprise at Lucy for a full minute before Happy managed to snap him out of it.
It's the same color as Igneel's Scales, which is why it's his favorite.
Didn't I say to shut up?
Gray was playing some version of magical slots somewhere, thought what the little figurines meant was beyond me. And a flash from Gruvia told me that Juvia was nearby and about to make her move.
Yeah. Definitely good to see them having fun.
Something wicked this way comes.
Is this a subtle hint to lay off the Harry potter stuff and find something new? I asked sarcastically. Cause once I find something else that's as versatile and useful that I can use without burning myself out or blowing anyone up on accident then I will!
I found myself having this kind of argument with the voice in my head more and more often whenever it decided to be funny with a vague...slightly menacing comment. Thing was, it had yet to be wrong about something going down.
Ok, there was something dangerous was here, because of course there was. But what had made my magic warn me? I couldn't tell the future so the only way that would have happened was if there was no way of avoiding it.
My magic also told me that Loke would die, but he's still alive. So, I was gonna run with the idea that while fate could very well exist, it was flexible and could be changed given enough sweat, blood, and tears. And fire. And punching. And swords... You get the idea!
I hopped down from my stool and went over to where Erza smugly pulled in yet another winning hand. Is she sneaking cards out of her gloves?
"I think it's my lucky day." She purred, tapping her cheek mischievously. I tugged on her arm.
"Erza, something's wrong." I whispered for her and Lucy's ears alone. "My magic says something bad's coming. We have to go!" The S-class wizard came out for a split second and gave me a sharp look. Lucy simply looked alarmed. I saw her hand automatically go to her keys, hidden down her dress front. A place only the truly shameless would look, let alone touch.
"Are you sure Fae?" Lucy asked, instantly keeping the same smile on her face in spite of what I was saying. I nodded, feeling a knot of fear and apprehension try to choke me.
"Yeah. I can't tell what it is, but it's here...Or it's going to be here soon." Erza's eyes scanned around for a split second, all sharp business.
"Lucy, take Fae. Protect her, tell the boys." Lucy rose, putting an arm around me.
"I'm sorry, I guess I have to turn in. Can't leave the little one alone." She said aloud with a smile with just the right amount of regret in it.
"C'mon beautiful, just one more game!" One player, a guy I noted, wheedled. Erza leaned forward and caught his attention.
"It's already past time for Faerun to be in bed. I'll take you on, gentlemen."
Lucy and I moved over to Gray and Juvia. It went without saying that subtly warning Natsu about an oncoming fight would be... counterproductive.
That was when I caught sight of a tall man with a literally square jaw made of metal. I heard something hiss through the air and-
"Fae!" Lucy knocked me down and aside as an orange colored rope flew towards us both. Her actions made it so it missed me but wrapped itself securely around her. Her legs were bent up towards her chest and her arms were bent back over her head. Lucy fell hard, unable to stay upright as she reflexively tried to squirm and her bonds only tightened.
"Lucy, stop! It'll only get tighter!" I rolled over to start working at the rope, which appeared to have cat features on the ends. A touch confirmed what I had observed. Living Coil Binding mixed with an Anti-action Binding. The two spells were simple ones. One gave it the ability to react to their captive and grapple them effectively. The Anti-action Binding kept captive from using any active magic such as an attack or defensive spell. The appearance and color was the result of a little personalization.
I grabbed one strand and pulled it away from Lucy, hissing an apology when it reacted to my messing with it as well.
"Diffindo!" The magic in the bindings resisted my attempts to free Lucy, but I was able to make some headway. One more time.
"Oops! I missed one!" I looked up to see a brown haired, cat eared girl readying to cast another spell. The same binding spell if I read the beginnings of the magic circle correctly.
I ducked down, avoiding the first onslaught of the spell. Being so close to Lucy, I didn't dare use another Severing Charm. The angle was too awkward and I could easily end up cutting her as well. But it was the magic on the rope, or tube rather, that was causing trouble.
The cobbled together spell came into my head and I prayed that it would work.
"Totalus Locomotor Mortis Finite!" I hissed, trying to force the binding spell to end. If that was gone, it would be easy for Lucy to free herself.
"Nekosoku Tube!" I could tell even as the spell knocked me back a little ways that my intention had had some effect even if the spell was too unwieldy to eliminate the binding entirely. I went as limp as possible when the orange rope wound around me. I didn't fight it. My lack of resistance meant it simply wound me up like a caterpillar instead of bending me into a pretzel.
Natsu has been eliminated from the fight. Gray and Juvia are eliminated from the fight. Ok, apparently the magic blocking thing doesn't include passive effects. But what about Erza? Erza would never give up!
There was a lot of confused shouting for a little while until there was only silence... I twisted my head slightly and saw that the floor was covered with cards...Cards with people on them that were moving.
Card Dimension. Can trap living beings safely inside a magical card. In spite of their helplessness, they can still interact with the outside world, if only in a limited sense.
"Hello, who brought a kid along?" The brown haired girl trotted over and looked down at me curiously. "And I saw you use magic too. I didn't think guilds were so heartless as to force kids to fight."
Millianna. She likes cats and is a friend of Erza's though she believes that Erza betrayed her.
"Erza wouldn't betray anyone!" I couldn't stay silent in the face of that. "Why in the world would you even think that!?" I dug fiercely for more, feeling my eyes glow slightly as my magic moved. This part was unhindered by the Nekosoku Tube.
"What the-! How can you still use magic!?" I took a moment to glare at her through my pale blue eyes. Ok, seeing the world this blue is kinda weird.
"Read the instructions." I hissed at her, both furious at her misconception that Erza would betray anyone she considered a friend and at how uninformed she was about her own ability.
"Passive magical abilities need a more precise block than a stupid Anti-action Binding!" I broke through a wall that I associated with a secret.
Gotcha!
I had read over time that Erza had once been a slave at the Tower of Heaven alongside several other children. I had read that there had been some trouble and she had escaped, but had been unable to bring any of her friends, or other slaves with her.
This girl, and the others, were part of those friends that Erza had been close to when she was a little girl. Millianna the Cat Girl. Wally, the Block Wizard, Sho the Card Mage, and Simon-
Simon didn't believe Erza had betrayed them!
"But- But you're just a little kid! How could you know that!"
"You were all slaves at the Tower of Heaven. Erza escaped, but she would never in a million years leave anyone she called a friend behind! The only way that would happen is if someone threatened to hurt you if she tried to help!" I yelled, doing my best not to thrash in anger.
"Shut up!" The binding around me moved up and wound around my mouth. I sullenly bit at the binding, glaring at the somewhat unnerved Millianna. Unnerved, heck she looked downright terrified.
Scared of what one little girl could see.
"Stop...stop looking at me!" The cat loving girl cried, stumbling back. "Simon make her stop!" She whined like a frightened child. The tall man, (the man who believes, who knows Erza loves them still), came over and picked me up. With one hand.
Show off. I glared at him, still steaming inside.
"How can you see that?" I heard an unfamiliar man's voice inside my head. It's telepathy.
Well, duh.
"Put her down!" Erza's scream came across the mostly empty hall as a sword flashed into her hands and her eyes blazed with never before seen fury. "Let her go, now!"
"Ain't that interesting." Drawled another man's voice as he materialized beside me. Something metallic pressed against my head. "Alright, Erza. Promise we ain't gonna hurt the brat, just come with us nice and easy and she don't get hurt, see?" A man who looked as though he was made of super large pixelated blocks was pointing a gun-arm at my head.
Wally won't shoot. I shook my head at Erza, trying to convey this thought to her. I was wishing desperately for telepathy of my own so I could tell her that she didn't have to give herself over. I winced as the binding tightened even in response to my tiny movement.
Her hand tightened on her sword, then loosened as she dropped it.
"I...I'm sorry Fae..."
I had never seen Titania look so helpless as she did right then.