Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail.
Evening is a time that Hisui looks forward to everyday, discarding her duties for the day to recover from her fatigue, enjoying a meal with her friends, laughing over jokes and gossips while sitting around an oval table. Following that is when they enter the bath, the white tiles and Fairy Tail fountain were covered by a comforting hazy veil. Watching the inviting water slosh about made Hisui clean herself faster than she would. She sunk in the water without testing the temperature, a blissful sigh escaped Hisui's mouth.
"Sounds like today was rough." A petite girl with blue hair sat next to Hisui, closing her eyes in content. "What happened?"
"It really was exhausting Levy, I never would have thought that interviewing people all day could be so draining, it's just sitting in a room and asking questions, so I thought, and this is the result." Hisui stretched with a forced smile. "Battered and exhausted. I think that I'll get used to it by tomorrow."
"That's not something you should be getting used to! You need to take it easy, or at the very least, have more people to help you."
"I don't trust anyone else to do this job well."
"We're not good enough?"
"Just listen and you'll understand why." Hisui looked behind her to see that the rest of her friends were stilling washing their bodies. "Don't tell this to anyone." Receiving a nod from Levy, Hisui leaned into to her friend's ear. "You see, when we were doing quality assurance, a team found a strange drug in some food."
"That terrible!" Levy exclaimed in a hushed tone.
"To make sure that we keep the trouble to a minimum, we're interviewing every person that wants to sell goods during the festival."
"I still don't get it, we should be able to help you just fine."
"If this was a normal situation then yes, but since most likely that there's a mastermind behind it, I need people that can spot lies well, simply put, you can't trust anyone you meet and read into every single detail, even the choice of words can be a huge hint. If you're not used to dealing with these kinds of people, you'll get tricked.
"Fortunately, Magnolia doesn't have people like that, at the same time, that means you're not well-equipped to do a good job. I'm sorry but, please understand, I want more help, if it increases the risk, then I rather work harder."
"Sorry, I didn't think that it'll be this tough for you…"
"It's fine, as long as you understand."
"But…"
"That's enough of this topic," Hisui gave Levy a playful smile, splashing some water to Levy's crestfallen face. "I came in to loosen-up, talking about this subject would just make it worse."
"I got it." Levy smiled. "If there's anything we can help with, just ask us okay?"
"I'll keep that in mind."
"Help with what?" A concerned voice interjected. The two turned around and a ribbon of crimson along with an imposing figure towered over them. "I can help if you need it."
"Erza! How much did you hear?"
"Not much, only that Levy reminded you we'll always help a friend."
"I see…" Erza sung down in the water while massaging her shoulders. "It's tough for you as well huh?"
"The previous job was annoying to deal with."
"Natsu?"
"And Gray, they destroyed the village elder's house when they were fighting."
"That does sound annoying…how much of the reward turned to compensation?"
"A quarter of it."
"That doesn't sound bad, usually, you lose more money when you go out for jobs."
"That's why my shoulders feel stiff, those two are getting stronger."
"Everyone is having their own problems isn't it?"
"It's not bad, if they get stronger, it'll push me to work harder to get them under control."
"But still, there are times I wish I didn't have as much things to do, I suppose with the festival getting closer, I can't really do anything about it."
"All you need to do is tell us how can we help, you need to stop being stubborn."
"After this, I swear," Hisui's voice turned serious. "this isn't something you guys can handle, it's my battlefield."
Hisui was wrapping up her fifth interview of the day, eyes looking intently at a middle-aged woman whose honey hair was bundled up to a bun behind her head. Hisui scrutinised the woman's dark blue eyes, using all her experience to look for any malice or levels of nervousness that is abnormal.
"Thank you for your time, we'll give you further notice if you were accepted for the festival."
"Thank you very much." The woman bowed. "Goodbye."
"Goodbye." Hisui wasn't given time to rest as Karie walked in the room not long after the woman left. "What happened? It's not like you to come in without knocking"
"They identified the drug!"
"Is that true!? What is it then?"
"It's something that only affects wizards, normal people can take it without any problems. But for wizards, they'll temporarily lose their magic powers." Hisui cradled her head when Karie finished. Her head ran through her options while she rubbed her temples in a circle pattern. A constant, subtle groan filled the room.
"I guess I'll have to ask the dragon slayers" Hisui spoke in a defeated tone. "…Karie, please bring them here and tell someone to bring a sample of the drug to my office." Throwing a sympathetic look, Karie poured a cup of hot water for Hisui and left the room. "Thank You." Pulling the cup towards her, Hisui stared at herself, watching it distort to a mess as she blew it gently.
By the time Hisui was finished with her seventh interview, she decided to stop for a while seeing that the drug was delivered to her desk. They were held together in piece of thin paper, folded to squares, five in total.
Placing down a report of the drug, Hisui picked one of them up. With her free hand, she reached for her belt, only to wander back to her pen, a pen that she always had with her—it gave her a sense of security. It was a fountain pen that screamed of luxury, a golden tip that traced up to the handle, with the map of Fiore engraved. At the end of the clip was Fiore's symbol, inlayed with emerald. Hisui pulled on the barrel of the pen, revealing a key that made her look at the packages with distaste.
"Hisui, they're here." Karie's voice snapped Hisui out of her trance, she quickly placed the barrel back on.
"Please come in." Hisui's heart sank seeing her three friends that she didn't want to ask help for. "Thank you for coming, did Karie tell you anything?"
"Nope," Natsu threw his arms behind his head. "only that it's something urgent."
"I guess I'll start from the top, have a seat." Hisui placed down her pen. "When people want to sell at the festival, they have to apply for a permit before they can do so. To get a permit, we would check their wares to make sure that they are safe and have good enough quality to sell to the people.
"However, at a test, we found a drug." Hisui gestured to the five wraps. She took a report next to the them and read off the contents. "It's called Hecto's Mixture, if a normal person took the drug, nothing would happen, it's a different matter entirely if a wizard took it however. You lose your magic." The three made a similar expression, but different enough to reflect on their personalities. "Most likely, the same drug will come at the time of the festival, that's where I want your help, please track down the drugs on the day of the festival."
"Why would someone want to do something this terrible?" Wendy asked.
"Most likely, it's because I'm involved."
"What do you mean?"
"I made some enemies back when I was in the palace, some of them because of our political interests being different, the other is because of petty grudges. I suppose that I left it unattended for too long."
"Who cares about that kind of stuff?" Gajeel said while picking his ear.
"For once, we agree with each other," Natsu slammed his fists together. "whoever tries to harm the city will have to go through us! Let's go!" He turned for the door and Gajeel followed, leaving Wendy to look at the two in confusion.
"You two," Karie started. "do you know where to find these people?" They stopped in their tracks, sweating profusely.
"We'll figure it out later!"
"You don't have a plan…"
"How about this," Hisui said. "I'll try to track down the culprit, for now, I want you three to get a good impression on the drug here, on the day of the festival, please go around the city stalls to find the drugs and report it to us or close the stall. To make sure that no one gets affected, you need to arrive early to inspect the merchandise before the festival starts."
"Why don't we just find the culprit right now, we're still ways away from the festival." Natsu suggested.
"Because we have no leads whatsoever, perhaps we can find some on site."
"Fine." Natsu grabbed the paper bags and handed one to each of his companions. "This stuff stinks." Natsu pinched his nose.
"What's wrong Salamander? Can't handle a litt—" Gajeel threw his head backwards, leaving a shaking Wendy that was slowly delivering the bag to her nose. "Hurry up!" Following Gajeel's demands, Wendy took a deep breath and brought the paper to her nose. She dropped the bag immediately in disgust, holding her nose.
"I don't think we'll forget this stench for as long as we live." Natsu commented.
"I suppose that's a good thing." Hisui said, picking up the lonely bag from the ground. "You should have no problems in picking it out. This is a serious matter, imagine, if everyone in the city can't use magic and suddenly an attack rampages through the city, we'll be defenceless, lives are at risk, I'm counting on you."
"We'll take care of it! Just leave it to us!"
"If there's nothing else that you want to know, you can leave, I'm sorry for calling you out here."
"Don't worry about it, we should be thanking you for telling us of an enemy."
"Also, can you not tell the others? I don't want to cause unnecessary worry."
"You got it! We won't tell a soul!"
"I'm not sure about the Salamander but, we'll be fine." Gajeel snickered.
"What did you say!?"
"I said that you're a blabber-mouth!"
"Before you two start fighting," Karie interrupted. "please go outside, you're disturbing Hisui from working."
"Fine…I'll kick your ass outside." Natsu and Gajeel stormed out the room while exchanging murderous eyes.
"Umm…is it okay if I leave?" Wendy looked at Hisui for permission. Hisui responded with a wry smile.
"You don't have to be so stiff just because I'm working, just treat me like you normally would. Anyway, I do have one more thing to ask of you, do you think that you could keep those two in check? No doubt, once they find some drugs in the store, I'm afraid that they might going around destroying the stalls or start threatening people to talking about where they got the drugs from, do you think, that you can try to control them?"
"I…don't know…I'm not as strong as them, I can't stop them even if I want to…" Wendy looked down to her sandals in shame.
"No, you don't need to fight them to submission, just reason with them. I don't want to ask Erza because her reasoning abilities isn't as good as her fighting capabilities, there's a chance that she might cause more damage in trying to control those two. So, can I count on you?"
"I'll…I'll try my best!"
"Thank you, that's all, if you don't have anything else to ask, you can go back."
"Then, I'll see you later. Good luck with the festival!"
"See you." The girl hurried out the door while Hisui reclined on her chair, picking up her cup and taking a quick sip. She picked up her pen again, toying with it, watching the light bounce to her eyes. Her finger wrapped around the barrel, then to the cap. "Any news about the search?" Pulling off the cap, Hisui asked with her eyes focused to the gold writing tip.
"No, his house had nothing that could be used."
"Karie, do you think, I'm ready to use this one?" Hisui pressed on the grip of the pen and poured in some of her magic. Like casing off a shell, the barrel split into three, equal pieces before falling to the desk. Where the cartridge was supposed to be, was a silver key with a pair of gold wings folded to the side. Connecting the wings to the body were a set of gears, the shaft ran unblemished down to the pins of the key. Of course, the head has Fiore's symbol engraved, only that it was sporting the old symbol—from the time when the kingdom was first established. A circle was at the centre of the flower, and two strips flared out from the bottom, kissing at the top.
"Perhaps, I can't say for sure, I'm not a Celestial Spirit Mage, even back when your mother was here, I wasn't able to see her use this key too often, so I can't gauge whether you can use it or not."
"She has high standards for her master after all." Hisui mused. "But still, I might need to borrow her powers for this one." The Princess place the key back in the pen and the three pieces of barrel found their spots in a bright yellow glow. "That's enough of that, I need to give another interview, you get back to work as well."
"As you wish."
Even as Hisui was interviewing her potential business partners, she found herself eying her pen—never losing her concentration in discerning her opponent at the same time. At times, when she was taking another peek, she questioned her own sanity. After a blink, the blue glow from the pen was gone.
"Perhaps I do need a break."
Thanks for reading! I apologies if the story seems to be going really slow, I want to speed things up but, I don't write daily anymore so I lose track of some of my ideas when I pick back up the story.
Anyway, for Hisui's key, I don't really have a category already existing to put it, however, the idea of the key is that each kingdom has their own celestial key and Hisui has Fiore's key. Hope you guys are fine with this idea, I've taken bigger liberties before and no on really complained so I'm basically hoping that nothing happens this time.
So I'm pretty sure that you guys have a pretty good idea on how this story is going to progress, the problem is that I have no idea what to do after the festival arc, as always, I hope that you guys can give me a few ideas.
So, that's all I've got to say, I hope that you enjoyed the chapter, have a great day!