In the library of the Everlue Estate, the Mages and Mercenaries both stood ready for a fight. Both had jobs to complete and weren't going to let the other get in the way of their pay.

"I'm getting out of here, and I won't be stopped by some hired thugs!" Lucy shot back, readying her whip. Inside her mind however, she was worried. They had mentioned another problem, but the only other problem they could be talking about was Lisanna. Had she been found out already?

The taller one scoffed. "You Mages are all the same, thinking your tougher than everyone just because you know a fancy spell or two. The last fool didn't even get a single attack in before I broke their bones in a single punch." He then shot forward at a blinding speed, hoping to catch his opponent off guard.

Lucy wasn't an idiot, however, and already knew how to deal with these two. In a golden flash, the younger Vanish Brother found his punch intercepted by the face of a giant axe. He jumped back next to his sibling again to observe the new threat. In front of Lucy stood what appeared to be a giant bipedal cow, wielding a great axe almost twice the height of the girl itself.

"Gate of the Golden Bull, Taurus!"

"Mooo! Who dares to try harm Lucy's sexy body?!" The giant Bull-man yelled. The two brothers looked at their new opponent like a predator stalking its prey.

"A Celestial Spirit Mage? And a golden key is one of a kind, isn't it?" The younger one said.

"I think I saw 7 keys. Not that it matters. Once their squishy master is dealt with, their all out of commission." The older one said.

"Hey, I take offence to that!" Lucy yelled.

"That right! Lucy's boobs aren't squishy, they're actually quite firm!" Taurus added.

Lucy immediately produced a noise that could be interpreted as squawking as all the males in the room turned their gaze to her, as if to confirm the fact themselves. "W-What the hell are you talking about you oaf! Hurry up and beat these two!"

As if a switch had been flipped, the two Vanish Brothers began to run toward Taurus, fists and pan raised. The older brother reached the Celestial Spirit first, swinging his oversized culinary equipment up as Taurus brought his axe down on the man. The axe and pan bounced off each other with a resounding clang, sending the two wielders stumbling back by the force. However, while the brother was launched back many feet by the blow, Taurus merely was knocked back a step, with the axe flung back up over his head in recoil. He was only open for a second, but that was enough for a seasoned professional, and the younger brother was right behind his elder, aiming right for the Bull's exposed stomach. But right before he made contact, he found his instincts flare up.

*Snap*

He jumped back just in time to avoid the tip of a whip that snapped into the air he had just been occupying. As he regrouped with his older brother, he saw the Celestial Spirit Mage with a whip in her hands, a determined look on her face. "You're not the only one who fights in pairs! You're the one's who are underestimating your opponents!"

"So, you have a bit of martial prowess after all. It's been a while since any opponent had any bark!" The younger brother couldn't keep the excitement out of his voice.

"Calm yourself brother, we have our professional pride to think about." The older brother lectured. "Let's us show these two what a true united attack looks like."

"Right! Time to show you why we are called the Vanish Brothers."

The older brother then held his fighting pan out in front of himself, and the elder brother jumped on top of it. "NOW! Heaven and Earth Extinct Slaying Technique!"

In a feat of ridiculous strength, the younger brother was launched up into the air by his sibling as if the pan he had been standing on was a trampoline. Lucy and Taurus couldn't help but stare at the display. "If you look up to the heavens…"

They both looked down in surprise. There was another clang as the younger brother and Celestial Spirit clashed weapons again. However, Taurus found himself caught off guard this time, barely able to block the blow in time. "We are down here on earth!" the older brother declared.

"Taurus!" Lucy readied her whip to help her friend.

"If you look around on earth…"

'Shit!' Lucy tried reaching for her keys.

"We are up in the heavens!" the younger brother finished as he launched down from the ceiling, launching toward Lucy fists first like a missile.

"LUCY!" Happy yelled as his friend disappeared into the floor with a crash.

"Hmph, no one has ever survived our ultimate technique. Now hand over the book, you imp." The older brother declared. Taurus had vanished, leaving Happy alone with the mercenaries, clutching Daybreak like his life depended on it. The three stood in a rather unequal standoff, until an odd voice was heard.

""That really hurt you jerks." she says."

They all turned toward the strange voice to find it had come from the newly formed hole in the floor. The one which Lucy had just been sent through.

They all moved over to the hole and looked down to see what appeared to be a living grandfather clock looking back up at them from the inside of a rather spacious open bath on the floor below them. The interior of said clock appeared to be hollow, containing within its center Lucy. ""The people in this mansion really don't know how to treat a woman." she complains loudly." The clock says, seemingly mimicking what the girl inside itself was saying.

The two brothers looked at each other in confusion, before shrugging and jumping down the hole to properly finish their target. Happy tried to stealthily float into the room as well. They splashed into the bathing room on the first floor, looking over the giant clock as it attempted to waddle away from them. The younger brother raised his pan back and swung at the living clock. The clock and girl within it went flying to the other end of the rather large room, but both appeared to suffer no damage otherwise.

""Don't bother. The Gate of the Clock, Horologium, is the ultimate defensive magic user!" she says smugly." Lucy's smirk could also be seen from within the Spirit, verifying Horologium's mimicked declaration.

"Maybe, but there's a limit to it, isn't there? Why don't you save everyone the trouble and surrender peacefully? Consider it a reward for surviving our ultimate attack." The younger brother declared.

""You're the one's you should surrender! Now that I have this much water, I can show you my ultimate technique!" she yells." From within the Spirit, Lucy could be seen holding another golden key. Horologium disappeared from around Lucy, and she plunged the key into the water beneath her before either Vanish Brother could react. "Open, Gate of the Water Bearer, Aquarius!"

The water around her shot up and a golden light flashed through it, signalling the summoning of a Celestial Spirit. When the water fell and the light faded, in its place was a beautiful mermaid as blue as the water, holding a vase. Her gaze betrayed her beauty however, as she looked around with a fury. As the Vanish Brothers prepared for a fight, the Zodiac Celestial Spirit raised the vase in her hands menacingly…

"Ow!"

And bonked it on top of her summoners head. Aquarius quickly turned her fury into words. "What the hell is wrong with you, summoning me in the bath?! What are you, five? I told you what would happen if you ever did this again!"

"Oh crap! I'm outta here!" Happy yelled, flying away and bursting through the doors to the main hall.

"This is your ultimate technique? A spirit that doesn't even listen to its own master. How disappointing, Mages truly are all talk." The younger brother shook his head.

"You have something to say about me?" Aquarius sneered.

"Yeah, my brother said your disappointing. What are you going to do, splash us to death?" the older brother mocked.

"…Alright, you two are dead." The mermaid said in a monotone, lifting the vase in her hands and moving the water around her. "Torrent!"

As a giant surge of water shot towards the two Vanish Brothers, they both just smirked. The younger brother laughed. "Finally, you took the bait!"

The older brother laughed and held the giant pan of to his side, with the bottom of it facing the Fairy Tail Mage. "Time for one of my ultimate elemental reversal techniques! Water Cooking!"

The water from Aquarius's attack converged onto the bottom of the pan, and the older brother began to turn himself and the pan around, water flowing with it. "This attack absorbs and multiplies the power of the attack, throwing it right back!"

Lucy's eyes widened at that. If Aquarius's attack was thrown back them twofold, there wouldn't be anything left of her! And there's nowhere to run, as they were between her and the only door. Even Aquarius must have been worried, as she disappeared a second later. Lucy hastily drew back her whip and flicked it forward as she tried desperately to derail the attack.

The younger brother jumped in front of his elder, blocking the blow with his arms as the front of the pan finally turned to face her. "Looks like your outnumbered now!"

"No, she's not!"

"What?!" both brothers turned their heads to see a skull flying straight at them. Happy had burst through the doors to the bath, torpedoing straight for the brothers. In the middle of attacking or defending, they were left completely open from behind. He wasn't aiming for them, however.

*Bang*

Happy's forehead hit the highest point of the pan right before unleashing its attack, tilting its front face down towards the floor instead of Lucy. His skull helmet had cracked, but protected him from the blow, allowing him to continue flying straight into Lucy.

"WHAT THE-"

"OH SHI-"

*BOOM*

Whatever the brothers had said was quickly drowned out by the younger one's own technique finishing, releasing a magically multiplied blast of water directly at their feet. The force of the blast knocked all the water out of the bathes around them and threw Lucy back, who was holding onto Happy for dear life. Blinded by the water, all she could hear was what sounded like waves of water crashing against rock faced canyons. Eventually the sound lowered itself from crashing waves to a steady stream, and Lucy finally opened her eyes.

"Wow! You really should stop summoning that one, huh!" Happy exclaimed happily as the remains of the mask he was wearing finally fell off his head.

Lucy just sighed as she looked around what remained of the bathing room. Many of the tiles on the walls had cracked from the force, and the floor wasn't much better. The room was soaked from head to toe, the bathwater having been blown up and out to everywhere but the bath's themselves. Ground Zero of the attack was entirely gone, having blown a hole into the floor and down into a labyrinthian looking basement. The Vanish Brothers could be seen down there under a pile of rubble and utterly drenched, but thankfully still breathing. She looked down at her own soaked clothes and was now glad she hadn't gotten a chance to change from the maid outfit. Nothing would look good after getting this drenched…

"Oh Crap!" Lucy suddenly remembered. "Happy, where's the book?" If it had gotten caught up in the blast, then she'd never be able to find the truth!

"Don't worry, I left it in the main hall!"

Lucy got up and slowly made her way to the main hall, careful not to slip and fall into the gaping chasm between her and the doors. When she pushed the door open, Lucy flew past her and pointed to a spot in the large hall.

"Aye Sir! It's right… there?!"

Looking to where Happy pointed, Lucy didn't see just Daybreak, but a hole next to it, with a hand reaching out of it, about to grab the book.

"Hey, stop!" Lucy quickly prepped her whip and cracked it forward, but the hand had already grabbed the book, and pulled it into the darkness.

"That had to be the Duke! How do we get him if he's underground?" Happy cried.

"We go underground too!" Lucy quickly turned around and ran back into the bathing room. She jumped down into the newly created rift to the basement and kept running.

'Lisanna should be down here, right? If the two of us join up, we can take that creep no problem!'


Lisanna ducked under another giant swipe, before jumping backwards to avoid being overtaken by the hulking woman chasing her. The two of them had been in a game of cat and mouse for a while now, with them currently jumping around in one of the larger basement rooms. Most of the Duke's helpers had gone down without a fight, as expected of maids, but the pink haired giantess was putting up a fight. She couldn't tell if it was due to any prior combat experience, or simply due to the obvious size difference, but Lisanna found herself constantly on the back foot. Their mastery of Digger Magic was also impressive and using her knowledge of the labyrinthian basement of the Estate to keep catching Lisanna off guard.

It was becoming quite clear during her fight that wherever this book was, it wasn't in the basement. Lisanna would have tried to leave by now if not for the fact that she was serving as a distraction for Lucy and Happy, along with having a gorilla of a woman breathing down her neck.

*BOOM*

"What the hell?!" Lisanna nearly tripped as the entire world around her shook. The sound of a crashing wave could be heard in the distance, and a steady stream of water suddenly began to flow from one of the hall entranceways. "What the hell is going on up there?"

"Probably the Vanish Brothers dealing with your friend. You'll be joining her soon." The maid said.

There was a sound of stone breaking behind Lisanna, and she turned around to see Duke Everlue pop out of a hole in the ceiling right behind her. She jumped back away from him, only to bump her back into a wall of fat. She looked up over her shoulders to see the serious face of the giantess maid. "Um, hi?" She was quickly pushed to the ground by a set of large hands, unable to move under the immense weight.

"Ah Virgo, perfect timing with capturing this scamp." The Duke praised, holding a yellow book under his arm. "Maybe I'll finally be able to get an answer out of you two now!"

Lisanna looked up in confusion. "What are you…?"

Suddenly, the sound of feet could be heard splashing down the hall towards them. A moment later, Lucy ran around the corner, a fierce look in her eyes. Upon seeing her friend however, it changed to panic. "Lisanna!"

"Ah, just in time. Now that I have the attention of you two, we can get down to business." The Duke of Everlue said, in a voice that made it clear that he was in charge. "Clearly this book here is important to somebody, and I want to know who. Tell me, and I might just let you go free."

Lucy just scoffed. "I find that hard to believe. Why do you have a one of a kind book written by Kemu Zaleon in the first place? Is that even real?"

The Duke shot her a disgusted look. "Of course it's real! Do you know how much work it took to get him to write a book all about me?! I eventually had to threaten to withdraw his family's citizenships!" He stopped for a moment to look at the book, before developing a wicked grin. "That got him to think straight! Of course, he'd already tarnished my honor by rejecting such a glorious offer, so I made him write the entire thing from a cell! He didn't see a single person other than yours truly for all those three years!"

"You monster!" Lucy yelled, stepping toward the man.

"Don't move! Unless you want your friend here to get anymore roughed up." He threatened. Understanding her master's implications, Virgo pushed harder down onto Lisanna, producing a gasp from the trapped girl and stopping Lucy in her tracks.

'Damnit! If I could just get out of this grip, then Lucy could take this guy. What do I do?' Lisanna squirmed, trying to find some way out of her predicament. 'Wait, I have just the spell for this! Now I just need a chance to use it without getting crushed…'

"So now, tell me who would be foolish enough to try messing with the great Duke Everlue!" The man yelled, holding Daybreak up in the air.

"…Alright." Lucy sighed, lowering her head. Lisanna looked up in confusion, but when their eyes met, she saw Lucy looked anything but defeated. "The person who hired us is…"

"Your face!" A voice yelled from behind everyone. Suddenly a blue blur shot by from out of view and grabbed Daybreak from the Dukes outstretched hand.

'Happy! Guess he was pretty good at sneaking around after all.' Lisanna thought while looking up at Virgo, who was thoroughly distracted by the ambush. 'Now's my chance! I won't fail this job! Animal Soul: Hedgehog!'

In a flash of light, Lisanna transformed as much of herself as she could. Her back, stomach, arms, and even her hair. In a moment she had turned into a ball of spikes, and without hesitation, flexed, shooting the pointy projectiles up at the unsuspecting maid.

"Wha-?!" Virgo was suddenly knocked back by the attack, taken completely by surprise. When the hulking woman fell back onto the ground, however, she disappeared in a golden light.

"No way, how did you beat Virgo?!" the Duke shrieked.

Lucy looked over shocked at where the maid had just been. "She was a Zodiac Celestial Spirit?!"

The Duke suddenly lunged at Lucy, making a run for the book while Lucy was staring. "You people have broken the last straw! You'll pay for messing with a man as great as me!"

'I don't think so! Sonic Spin!' Lisanna used her Animal Soul Magic to curl into a ball and shoot at the fat man at an incredible speed. She knocked into the Duke, and the spinning quills teared up the man's suit and hair, before knocking him through a wall.

Once the man had cleared the room however, an ominous sound could be heard echoing through the basement. The walls creaked, and the ground rumbled. Lisanna looked around and saw that some of the holes around the room appeared to have grown. "I think we should get outta here!" She exclaimed worried.

They made their way up and out the basement the way Lucy came in, and upon finding the nearest window, flew away with the help of Happy and Animal Soul. As they were flying away, the entire Estate began to sink into the ground. The two girls looked to each other surprised.

"I guess me and those maids dug a few to many holes…"

"I'm sure all of the water damage didn't help any…"

Happy looked at the Estate, which now appeared to be nothing but a roof sticking out of the ground.

"Wow Lucy! You really destroyed this place. First the boat, and now the mansion. You really are a fit for Fairy Tail!"


After flying a few blocks away from the Everlue Estate (and making sure the fuzz wasn't tailing them) the Fairy Tail Mages set down in a secluded and empty park. Lisanna landed and turned her wings back into arms using Animal Soul but felt a pang of pain when she did. 'What the hell was that.' She thought worried.

Happy set Lucy down beside her, right before he flopped onto the ground, wings disappearing. "Ah geez, I'm at my limit. That was exhausting…" Happy moaned face-first into the soft grass.

Lucy bent over, catching her breath as the adrenaline finally faded. "Same here. I don't think I've ever opened so many gates in one day. How about y- Lisanna!"

Lisanna put up a hand. "Don't worry Lucy, just a bit tired, I guess we all went a bit overboard-"

"Not that! You're gravely Injured!"

"What? I don't remember getting hit- Oh…" Lisanna looked herself over and realized that most of her newly acquired maid uniform had been shredded, likely due to using Hedgehog Soul across her entire body. This had the unfortunate effect of exposing much of her body and…

"Are those scars?" Lucy gasped in horror. The scars covered Lisanna's entire body. There were all kind of marks up and down her limbs, but most noticeably however was the one on her stomach, which looked like it had been pierced by something large. "What kind of monster did that?"

"They didn't mean to!" Lisanna yelled angrily, before slamming her mouth shut. "I-I mean, it was an accident. It's not important." She tried to hide the exposed scars, but the state of her clothes made it a rather futile effort, resulting in her just squirming on the spot.

Lucy couldn't help but notice during Lisanna's fit that there were even scars on her face. In fact, there was a noticeable scratch mark across her eyes that was so deep she was surprised the woman could still see. Lucy looked at her friend confused at how she never noticed such obvious wounds.

"Lisanna, calm down!" Lucy snapped out of her analysis to see Happy trying to console an increasingly panicking Lisanna.

Lucy quickly slapped her cheeks. 'Focus Lucy, your friend is uncomfortable. You can think about that stuff later.' She used a bit of Requip Magic to summon the clothes they had been wearing before changing into their maid disguises, while putting the book away with the same magic. While she couldn't hold much, there was enough space for some clothes. "Hey Lisanna, it's okay, just put these on. Everything's fine, I'm just glad you're not hurt."

Lisanna looked up at her with teary eyes and a complicated look, before snatching the clothing out of her hands wordlessly and running off behind some nearby hedges to change. Lucy just sighed before turning around to look for a place to do the same, leaving Happy there alone to wait for the two.

When Lucy returned, she found Happy was still by himself where she left him. "Is she still not back yet?" she asked concerned.

"Lisanna went to that café we saw near the train station, said to meet her there." Happy responded.

"Is she okay though?"

"… Let's just go find her." he said quietly, walking slowly out of the park.


The door to the café opened with a chime as Lucy and Happy walked into the establishment with a sense of trepidation, searching the seats for a particular customer. The place was surprisingly empty for an afternoon outside of a train station, but Lucy supposed that was a positive in this current situation.

'I think that's her…' Lucy thought as she squinted at one of them. In the corner, at a small table, sat a woman in an overly large jacket. The article of clothing completely concealed their face, along with covering their arms and going down to just above her knees. The only things that gave it away is firstly that she knew that Lisanna would probably be concealing her look, so the oversized jacket kinda drew attention instead of turning it away.

Secondly was that she could easily recognize the skinny jeans (and the legs wearing them) that poked out underneath the coat as Lisanna's. Lucy tried not to think about that last one too much.

'So, you can recognize them that easily, huh?'

'Shut up brain.' Lucy shook her head as she walked over and pulled up a seat. "Hey Lisanna." she said gently.

The hooded figure jumped, clearly not having seen Lucy approach. "… Hey guys." Lisanna's voice replied. Lucy sat down across from her, while Happy jumped up onto the hooded girls lap.

"…"

"…"

The two girls sat in silence, neither knowing where to start. Happy eventually got up and summoned his wings. "I'm, uh, going to get a drink. Back in a sec." he said awkwardly, before floating away from the silent duo.

Lucy looked up at Lisanna's hooded face and tried to figure out what to say. "Look, you don't have to talk about any of… all that if you don't want to. I just was worried you were hurt! I don't want to think what Natsu or Mira would do to me if you came back hurt." She said sadly.

The hood of Lisanna's coat dipped down. "I guess that means you don't want to go on missions with me anymore then."

Lucy looked at the other woman confused. "What?! Why in the world would I do that!"

"Because I'm useless! You saw how I look, I'm weak and ugly and can't do anything. I needed you to save me back then with the Duke. You were even the one who found the book, all I did was get in the way." She said, before scoffing. "Besides, like you said. You wouldn't want to have to babysit me like everyone else does. I thought that since you were new, I could get away from that stuff. Guess I was wrong…"

Lucy just sat there in astonishment. Out of all the ways the conversation could have gone, that wasn't one that she predicted. When she finally found the words to say, she said the only thing she could think of.

"That's not true."

"What?" Lisanna's head shot up in surprise so fast it knocked her hood back slightly, finally letting the two see eye to eye for the first time upon entering the café.

"There's no way I even would have gone on this job without your encouragement. You came up with the plans to disguise ourselves, which totally would have worked on any normal person. You also came up with the idea of digging in, and you did beat Virgo by yourself, even if it wasn't entirely clean. As a Celestial Spirit Mage, let me tell you, Zodiac Spirits are no joke." Lucy took a calming breath before continuing. "What I'm trying to say is that you did great during the mission, and I would love to go on more with you. As a team."

"…"

"Uh, Lisanna?"

"Thank You!"

"Ah?!" Lucy nearly fell off her chair as Lisanna practically jumped onto her.

Lisanna let up on her affectionate assault. "I'm sorry, I just… You're right. And thank you." She got up and sat in her own seat again.

"I still don't understand how I never noticed… all that before." Lucy questioned.

"My sister is a master at Transformation Magic. She made a spell that hides what my body looks like. Unfortunately, I'm not experienced enough to cast it myself, and it uses my own magical power to stay active. If I use all my magic or divert the magic keeping the spell running somewhere else, it breaks."

"Like when you defeated Virgo?"

Lisanna nodded. "This job was so important to me. I didn't want to fail, no matter what, so I put everything into that Take Over without realizing it." She suddenly snapped to attention. "Speaking of the job though, I guess we still haven't completed it."

"Oh yeah, kinda forgot about that." Lucy deadpanned, before summoning forth the book. "I don't think we should destroy it yet. Call it a hunch, but I don't think Duke Everlue was the only one who didn't know the truth about this book."


One stop to their 'clients' mansion later and the three Fairy Tail Members were finally and happily on their way back to the train station.

Happy flew around the two girls excitedly. "Wow Lucy, how did you know that guy was really Kemu Zaleon's son?"

"I figured that if Kemu Zaleon had really spent three years writing that book, that he had to be writing it for someone important to him. And it's the only reason "Kaby Melon" would want to destroy the book. He didn't know the truth of the book but knew of it. He was protecting his fathers honor." Lucy said satisfactorily. "I'm more impressed with how you figured out that they didn't actually live there, Lisanna."

Lisanna looked away bashfully, hood hiding her face. "There was just something about the way they acted. Like they were uncomfortable with their own house. Plus, when they increased the price to such a ludicrous degree, I knew there was something wrong about the job."

Lucy turned in shock. "What? But when I asked about it you just blew me off."

Lisanna tried to hide inside her oversized coat even more. "I was embarrassed! I didn't want to admit that it was a bad idea after hyping things up so much. Sorry…"

"Well, let's make sure to pick our next job together then. That way we can share the embarrassment." Lucy chuckled.

"Aye! I doubt we would have been paid if this job was legit anyway, thanks to all the damages." Happy said. "For all you rag on at Natsu, your just as bad as him, huh Lisanna."

The hooded figure looked at the flying feline. "You take that back!"

"Yeah, there's no way Lisanna is as good at breaking stuff as I am!"

"Exactly, thank you Natsu. You see-!" Everyone suddenly turned to see two Dragon Slayers standing behind them, and Carla flying around them. "…How?"

"I took the first train over!" Natsu answered plainly. "I also grabbed Wendy just in case. You guys look fine though."

Wendy walked up to Lisanna carefully. "You are okay, right?"

"I just overdid it a little, that's all."

Happy flew over to Carla, trying to get he attention. "Hey, Carla, you should have seen me! I managed to take out two pro mercs and find the book we were looking for. Pretty cool, huh?"

Carla looked unimpressed. "I'm sure that the other two will be able verify these amazing feats?"

Happy puffed his chest out. "Of course. I bet Reedus will have a portrait of my victory complete by the end of the week!"

"Would you two stop flirting for a minute, we've got jobs to do." Natsu yelled cheekily up at them.

"Aye Sir!"

"W-We weren't flirting you oaf!"

"What jobs?" Lucy asked him confused.

"I figured that you'd need to make some actual money, so when I picked up Wendy, I grabbed as many jobs from this area as we could." Natsu said, reaching into his backpack and pulling out a handful of flyers.

"Actually, you literally dragged me out of the Guild Building without saying a word. We had to double back after you told the two of us what happened."

Natsu got a grumpy look on his face at the interruption, but quickly continued. "Anyway, this might not be enough for your rent Lucy, but between the six of us we should be able to make a decent amount before we head back, alright."

Lucy looked around as the people and cats around her quickly started grabbing at the job flyers and discussing the options. She felt a tug on her arm and turned to see Lisanna holding a particular paper towards her.

"So… What do you think of this job?"

"I think anything here would be incredible compared to our last job."

As Lucy began looking through the pile of requests with her friends, she couldn't help but feel that she could take on anything with them. 'Joining Fairy Tail was probably the best decision I've ever made!"


Elsewhere, in a dead forest just outside of Oshibana Town, sat a dark and ominous building. Inside of the building sat a not-so-merry band of men, drinking and scheming the evening away. Erigor sat alone, drink in hand, trying to plan their next move. Their Guild Master had been imprisoned recently during the crackdowns, leaving him the de-facto leader. 'How is it our fault what jobs we get. People like us need work too.'

This resulted in him finally giving in and deciding contact one of the Balam Alliance. After all, if the Council won't accept their work, they'll just have to find someone who does. He had been careful with his selection though, since while the Council may arrest them for not listening, some of these groups wouldn't hesitate to kill for slighting.

Tartarus was immediately scratched from the list of options. The rumors about them made his skin crawl, and despite being referred to as the death god, he had no interest in selling him and his friends' souls to demons. Besides, they tended to seek out the ones they want, instead of the other way around.

Grimoire Heart was the most likely choice, as the so called strongest Dark Guild, but he had some reservations about them as well. They tended to absorb other guilds and arrange their members in ways that seem fit across many organizations. He was doing this for the Guild, so joining them seemed counterintuitive in that case. He would no doubt be singled out among the rest of them.

That left just one option. While they were newer, their power had been making waves in the underground scene in the last few years. Apparently the other two members officially recognized them recently, going as far as to help supply and support the group. Something about the sudden cooperation between Dark Guilds rang some alarm bells in his head, but he was willing to overlook the sound for now. They were apparently putting entire Dark Guilds to work as contract employers, the perfect work for a guild of thieves and killers like them.

Rumor had it they only had six members in their guild, so he could see why they needed so much hired help. Either way, the choice was obvious for him. Now he just had to hope for a response before the Council came knocking at their doors-

*ROOOAR*

Suddenly, the sound of a roar echoed from outside the doors leading to their hall. All the rogues present turned their heads at the unrecognized and inhumane sound, slowly reaching for their weapons. The sound of old doors creaking open resounded about the room, and two figures casually entered the shady structure as if walking into their favorite bar.

On the right was a beautiful woman with waving green hair and a fancy red dress. On the left was a man with blonde hair and wearing an outfit that had enough leather to be out of a western. He was also carrying a greatsword as large and thick as the man himself. Behind them was the source of the thundering sound, a hulking beast of wings and scales. The being appeared to be a Wyvern, but the aura coming off it made the men inside begin to shake in their seats.

Erigor slowly got up from his seat and walked towards the newcomers, scythe in hand. The two looked unfamiliar, but for all he knew they had been hired to arrest them all by the Council.

"Well this place has certainly seen better times." The man said unimpressed.

"Oh, be fair to them. They haven't had a proper job in ages." The woman said.

This comment drew the ire of many, who's rage blinded them of their fear. Before they could do something they'd all regret, Erigor walked up to greet them. "Welcome strangers. If you're aware of who we are, then I assume you're in need of our services."

The woman pulled out a rolled-up scroll from somewhere on her person and unrolled it to reveal the letter Erigor himself had sent. "My name is Reina, and this gentleman next to me is Jegan. We are your new employers."

Erigor looked at the two in surprise. "You two are members of…"

The woman got a cheeky grin before continuing. "Yep! You all are now official subordinates of the Oracion Seis. And lucky for you, we already have a job for you."

Erigor couldn't help the ear-to-ear grin that stretched across his face. Finally, things were starting to look up for him. "Well then you've come to the right place. What job do you need done by the illustrious Eisenwald?"

Next Chapter: Beginnings of a Song