Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail

"What's the reason for wanting more time this Harvest Festival?" Hisui asked Makarov, writing down his request on a notepad. They were sitting in Makarov's office. Though it has been several months since Hisui has sat inside, not much has changed, the books were still dusty and plentiful, his desk was messy as opposed to Hiusi's desk, and the smell of booze hung in the air. The guild master shuffled in his seat while looking at Hisui with a pained expression.

"Well, you see, we received more members than we expected compared to last year so, the parade has to be longer than before if I were to give them all a chance to shine."

"I understand but, you need to keep in mind that I need to plan the schedule for everyone, putting too much time for Fairy Tail wouldn't be fair, even if you attract the most people to the festival." Hisui handed a piece of paper to the trouble man. "That's the current schedule planned, as you can see, I don't have much leeway."

"Perhaps we can extend to festival by another two hours or so."

"The festival already ends at midnight, factoring in that people will stick around for at least another hour, cleaning the streets once people disperse, I'm afraid that I can't do it."

"Then how about we start earlier?"

"That is possible…then I have to talk with the performers, merchants…" Hisui sighed. "it's good thing we didn't sign any contracts yet."

"I'm sorry."

"It's fine, to make sure that everyone has a good time at the festival, that's my job after all. Do you have anything else to ask?"

"This is something that my children have been asking me, I refused them many times but, since they were so insistent…" Makarov grumbled and shifted in his seat.

"What is it? If it's anything I can help with, I'll be glad to listen to it."

"The thing is, this concerns you."

"That's not much of a surprise, I'm mostly in-charge with organising the festival, hurry up and tell me, I won't mind."

"The brats ask if you would join in the 'Miss Fairy Tail' contest, they wanted me to convince you."

"Oh that, I already refused it."

"Then why did they ask me to!?"

"I'm not sure, but I told them that I don't have time for it. Besides, my body is nothing that glamorous. In the first place, I'm not a part of your guild, as much as I don't want to admit it."

"On papers you're not. In reality, we all think that you're a part of Fairy Tail." Hisui smiled warmly at the Makarov's claims and took a few more notes.

"I'll see what I can do for the parade, is there anything else?"

"No, thank you for going along with my selfish actions."

"Don't worry about it, it's only natural to want your guild member to succeed. Again, it's my job to make sure that everyone enjoys themselves." Hisui walked out the office with light steps, closing the door behind without leaving a sound.

Hisui noticed the guild was tamer compared to her previous visits, nothing was broken, and the cheers was loud enough for Hisui to know that she didn't enter the wrong place. Looking carefully, she spotted her friend looking at her with a cheery face.

"Hisui! Want to grab lunch with us?" Natsu waved his hand. He was sitting with his team that was smiling invitingly to Hisui.

"Yeah, join us." Lucy added. "It'll be fun." Hisui responded with an apologetic look.

"Sorry, I did to plan for the Harvest Festival."

"But that's more than a month away!" Natsu said. "Having one day of fun won't hurt."

"Natsu, you have no idea how much planning goes into these."

"Aww come on, it can be that ba—" Natus bit his tongue from a punch to his head. "What was that for!" Natsu glared at Erza with an annoyed look that quickly withered into a pale face seeing her glinting gauntlet and fiery gaze.

"She already said that she's busy, don't bother her more than you already have!"

"Fine," Natsu sulked. "…so when are you free?"

"I don't know, Karie knows more about my schedule, lately there's been so many things I lost track of them all."

"Well," The man recovered his energetic self. "don't overdo it!"

"I won't, thanks for your concern. Karie, we're leaving." Hisui called out to her friend that was standing behind a bar, serving drinks to guild members. Seeing Karie move away from the counter, Hisui opened the door and smiled at the gentle breeze.

Hisui was back in her office shuffling a pile of forms. Facing her was a well-fed man, sweating slightly in his black suit, clutching his fists to a ball to the point where it seems that his thighs are shaking. He fixed his nutty hair and wiped the sweat from his broad forehead.

"Mr. Jackson, you are applying for a sales permit for the festival correct?" Hisui pulled out a form from the pile and studied it intently.

"Yes…is there something wrong?"

"You didn't list what kind of wares are you going to sell."

"My mistake…I was in a hurry."

"No matter, just tell me what you are selling for the festival." Hisui's hands hovered over several pens waving from her container, ultimately picking one already lying on her desk.

"It's food."

"Then you'll have to pass the food regulations before I can do anything."

"M—my bad, it's magic tools." Hisui looked up from her note taking and into Jackson's dark brown eyes. "They're toys designed for children to practise their magic powers."

"I see…do you need a bigger stall?"

"No, the tools are around the size of a fist."

"Thank you, that's all I need, I'll send someone to examine your goods, after that, you just need to pay the fee."

"Of course." Jackson rose from his seat and made his way out.

"Goodbye."

"G—goodbye." Following the man's exit, Karie entered with a serious look that made Hisui focus more on Karie's words than the words she's writing.

"We found something wrong with Roland's food, they said that there's a hint of a strange drug."

"Drug?" Hisui frowned and stopped her writing. A chill ran down her back, yet lighting her imagination a blaze, Hisui ran through different reasons and outcomes—each presenting no clear answer, save that someone was aiming to ruin the festival. Collecting herself, Hisui faced her servant with no compassion in her vacant green eyes. "Can you summon him here right now?"

"I was waiting for you permission."

"Then he's already here?"

"Just out the door."

"Bring him in." Two men entered the room after Karie received Hisui's permission; a man wearing an officer's uniform was staring at the other with cautious eyes, with a firm grip on the shoulders; the other was took interest to the floor, each step shaky and contrary to his clean suit that looked new, his hair was sticking to his forehead and showed signs of scratching. The nervous man looked at Hisui that appeared to be his trigger. The man lost his docile nature, escaping from the officer's grip and prostrated to the floor, further destroying his image.

"P—Princess! I didn't do it! I had no idea that my food was drugged, please believe—" The officer got hold of the man again, this time, eliminating all chances of escape.

"First off, how about we release him? I don't think he can give me the answers I need when he's this…excited."

"Are you sure?" The officer loosened his hold slightly. "What if he attacks you?"

"Then Karie will take care of it, I doubt that he can do much," Hisui eyed the tearing eyes and moist nose of the restrained man. "so please let him go." The merchant massaged his arm that was twisted while muttering his gratitude over and over. "I can't trust your claims of being innocent however, I do need some answers, you can choose to answer my questions or not, just know that your livelihood is on the line."

"I…understand, please go ahead."

"You said that you didn't drug the food, then that means you didn't check the ingredients beforehand?"

"We—well, the ingredients I got before I applied were all clean before, so I didn't bother to check this time."

"Quite a huge mistake to make, who is your supplier then?"

"It's a local business around my area, I get all my ingredients there, with the exception of the seasonings."

"What's the name of your supplier?"

"C—Carl and Jones Produce." Hisui motioned Karie to take notes.

"And I suppose that they are a reputable source?"

"In the years we worked together, yes."

"Karie, what kind of drug was it?"

"A team of people is analysing it right now, so I can't say."

"I see…well, until I get more information about the matter, I'm afraid that you'll be on watch and the ingredients will be taken. Even if you find a different partner, until the situation is made clear, I can't approve of anything."

"I understand."

"We'll also have you goes through your possessions, with your permission of course."

"Of course I'll allow it! Anything to clear my name." Hisui turned to the officer.

"Can I leave that to you Daniel?"

"You can count on me."

"Have him go with you, in case you need to ask him something, take anything that seems suspicious."

"Roger!" Daniel grabbed the merchant's shoulders and pushed him out the room, leaving it quiet for Hisui's mind to consider her options. Karie stood and watched her friend in deep thought with furrowed brows and darting eyes that left their focus in seconds.

"Shall I investigate the supplier?" Met with nothing, Karie measured some tea leaves and turned on a water cooker.

"Who else do you think is involved with this?" Hisui spoke at last, just after the kettle sang.

"It's hard to say," Karie poured the water in a pot and covered it with a cloth. "I can list a couple of political enemies, some can easily be swayed so, around three people I can think of that will do this."

"Most likely there wouldn't be any traces even if I sent someone to investigate…whatever the case, I can't let this stop me from planning the festival."

"I think it's wise to prepare some means to prevent sabotage."

"So you want me to think of how would I mess up a festival?"

"And then prevent it."

"Easier said than done, people can be crafty, for now, tell quality assurance to be more strict. That being said, I don't think we'll get anything useful, if they are trying to sell faulty goods they'll use legitimate ones for the test and swap it for something malicious on the day of the festival, we were lucky that we even managed to find anything in the way that we did."

"Maybe you can use the dragon slayers? I'm sure they can smell out any narcotics on that day."

"And interfere with them enjoying the festival? I told you, it's my job to ensure that everyone can have fun, dragging Natsu and the others in this would beat the point. I must solve this without them."

"I believe that you should depend on others when you need to."

"If there isn't any other way, I'll ask them for help, in the meantime, have all applicants goes through an interview by me."

"That's too many!"

"You'll have to help me, there isn't any other way, I'm not confident about the other's ability to see through lies."

"If that's the case, let's include Master Makarov, it's before the festival so he can still enjoy it on the day, and I don't need to mention his judging capability."

"Isn't he busy?"

"If he is, he wouldn't be spending most of his time drinking at the guild." Karie said with a wry smile, delivering a cup of tea to Hisui's desk

"I suppose," Hisui mused, mixing in some milk. "he does owe me favour for re-arranging the schedule."

"I'll ask him tomorrow."

"Please do." Hisui went back to her papers and the sound of pen guiding ruled, the only difference was that the slightly annoyed look on Hisui's face as she read and signed documents, handing them to Karie once she was done with them. Hisui reached for her tea, sighing once the warm drink ran down her throat; the letters didn't swim around the pages anymore, and her headache cleared to the point where Hisui stopped her pen and went into another train of thought, Hisui's brows furrowed further. Her hand moved to a blank piece of paper and scribbled incoherent sentences, throwing ideas and theories together and hoping for a solution.

Thanks for reading! I finally posted something! God this past week has been a nightmare for writing, hopefully it'll get better.

Here we are, a new 'arc' I think it'll take like three chapters for me to knock this down, do let me know of some ideas I can use for this, because the ones in my head right now, aren't so great.

Regardless, I took so long was due to school starting and everything is a pain now and it's messing with my drive to write—and playing Breath of The Wild isn't helping.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed, have a nice day!