Author's Note
Here's chapter 8 hope you enjoy it.
The Greyhound Chapter 8
"You just had to bring the damn dark mage didn't you." Anger burning in his eyes. But Gray was unable to respond, honestly, none of the light mages were moving. They just stared off into the distance as the thief put more and more ground between them.
Oh he was pissed, twice, twice now it was within arms reach but someone would snatch it away. He needed that damn flute. Information on Grimoire's inner circle was worth more than its weight in gold but without that item, the employer would never give it up.
Choosing to push the thought of this whole trip being a waste to the back of his mind, he instead focused on how to salvage this mess.
"The dark mage is traveling by four-wheeler, but he was injured so his speed shouldn't be crazy fast. Clover town isn't much farther either, maybe 2 miles. Guess I'll just have to huff it."
As he prepared to start sprinting the remaining distance he saw the Fairy Tail mages, still 'trapped in time'. Normally he wouldn't want them around considering the trouble they'd brought him in just the last couple hours; however, he had no idea where the dark mage was going. 'Somewhere in Clover town' was his only hint, and while it wasn't exactly a large city that was still a lot of ground to cover. But these guys know exactly where the guild masters are meeting.
Deciding in his mind to use them once more and mentally preparing for the potential issues it may cause later, he spoke. "You can all keep wasting your time here if you want, but I don't feel like carrying the weight of your guild master's death on my conscience." That seemed to rile them up and seconds later all were ready to move.
They were really annoying, but at least he could always count on light mages for one thing. They were easily manipulated.
He'd made it to Clover town. Truly he'd never thought things would play out like this. Lullaby was totally out of reach. He'd lost, but then those legal mages started fighting amongst themselves. Once they were distracted and tired, he struck. Stealing the four-wheeler and the flute in one go.
Now he was marching through the woods surrounding the guild master meeting hall, with Zeref's artifact in hand, and the building insight.
"Haha, finally made it, now this world will pay for looking down on me." Thoughts of infamy and recognition filled his mind. Finally the chance to strike back against a world that shamed dark mages like him.
The Glee-filled thought was interrupted by the sound of someone heavily inhaling close by. Looking to his left a short man wearing… an orange and blue mess came into view. Dressed like a clown and smoking a pipe as he lounged on a tree stump. The man seemed to take notice of him soon after, raising an eyebrow.
"What's a young man like you doing all the way out here?"
"Crap, I wasn't expecting to run into anyone out in the woods. I need to think of something fast… wait, a midget wearing solid orange and a t-shirt with Fairy Tail's emblem. This is Makarov Dreyar isn't it?" A smile formed as he registered his first target. He needed to do a test run anyway.
"Oh hello sir, I was just hoping to find a nice quiet place to practice playing my flute. Actually, would you mind listening for a bit?"
Contemplation appeared on the old man's face. "Hmm, my meeting is about to start but I suppose I could spare a few minutes."
Perfect, Makarov would be the first to die. Bringing the flute to his lips he readied himself to use lethal magic. In mere moments one of the strongest mages in the country would be dead at his feet, unable to stop him. These light mages had kept him down for long enough, they'd treated him like garbage one too many times. Finally, after months of planning and years of hiding from the council, he would be free. He'd enjoy his time in the limelight with the only people who understood, the only people he could trust, his guildmates!
"Oh, you mean the guildmates that stabbed you in the back, and left us for dead?"
"That's not… they didn't mean to-"
... He didn't wanna think about that, didn't want to give the cynical voice in his head any chance to speak. But, what it said was true.
"Are you really gonna kill this man? What has he done to you? What have any of them done?"
"Really now, NOW of all times my conscience decides to act up? Piss off, I'm so close to my goal!"
"Your goal? When was this ever YOUR goal? Last I checked Erigor was the one to throw this homicidal plan together, and he was gonna be the one to really benefit. He didn't care about you. He tried to have you killed off once your usefulness ran out, and the others went along with it!"
He couldn't keep his body from shivering at the harsh reality. "It doesn't matter at this point, I'm in too deep now, I don't have a choice anymore."
"Don't lie to yourself. That's not true, that's never been true."
"...you don't deserve our help, but I'm offering.
How you respond is on you, but you'll live knowing you had a choice."
The ice mage's words ringing in his ears. Him and that Salamander, they'd stuck up for him, while his partners in crime were busy running away. Or sticking a knife in his back.
Why? He'd been with them for years. Fought alongside them, ran from the council with them, was willing to go through with this fucked up plan for them. So why, why had it been light mages to help him? Why had his 'friends' turned their backs and abandoned him?
"Young one, are you planning on playing soon?"
"!"
How long had he just been standing here? "Ah, um ya I just..."
Taking another breath from his pipe the elder asked "... boy why are you here?"
"Uh, I'm just here to play my flute sir," he said with a shaky voice.
Makarov could only shake his head. "Haaah come now child, I think we both know that's not true and we both know that's no normal flute."
his heart nearly stopped beating at the Drayer's words. He knew about Lullaby.
"But since you want to carry on with this charade, let me ask you another question. Why are you doing this? ... playing your flute I mean."
Why was he doing this? It was just a simple question, but the dark mage was seriously contemplating why he was here right now.
"This world has hated me for doing what I'm good at, and the people around me act like I'm something to be thrown away. I guess... I guess I'm here to change all that." he replied in a somewhat vague manner.
"Nothing will change." was the harsh response.
"Wha-What?" wide eyes and gaping mouth. Trying to wrap his mind around those words.
"You're angry, angry at the world for rejecting you. And in return, you lash out. This world has hurt you and you wish to hurt it back, but what will that change? All you'll have done is give this cruel world an excuse to hate you more." The small man told him.
Doing this would change nothing? But this was it, this was his only option. If this didn't work he had nothing else to try!
"You have an important choice to make here, so let this old man give you some advice. Let it go."
Let it go, just let it go.
His knees crumpled, and tears started to form in his eyes. "just let it go" he whispered to himself over and over again. Still clutching Lullaby close to his face. Until his ears were prompted to listen once again.
"Young one, what is your name?"
"... Ka-Kageyama, it's Kageyama sir." he cried through grit teeth, the weight of what he'd almost done finally hitting him. But he hadn't, this man had stopped him, and without throwing a single punch at that.
"Well Kageyama, I've traveled the face of Earthland for a few decades now so let me leave you with one last bit of wisdom. This world is harsh and often forces on people things they don't deserve, yet at the same time it will give back what it is given. You seem to have been dealt a bad hand, and your desire is to hate this world, but I promise you that by retaliating you will only bring more hardship on yourself. If you strike a man, he will strike back and so the cycle repeats."
"So what is a man to do, how do you break this cycle? In a word, forgive. Forgive those who have wronged you and perhaps they will forgive you as well."
Forgive? He could do that, what did he have left to lose anyway? And with someone like Makarov leading the way maybe things could be different from here on out. Maybe he could start over, maybe this old man could help hi- BANG!
His senses were overloaded.
Makarov had moved him, he'd grabbed his shoulder and yanked him backward a few inches. Next, his hearing was assaulted by a thundering bang. Something had just broken the sound barrier he was confident of that. Finally, his sight pieced it all together when he noticed a small hole in the ground where he had been kneeling just seconds before.
Someone had shot at him, and if the old man hadn't stepped in he'd likely be dead right now.
Looking to his right, deep in the brush, he saw a man dressed in black staring back at him, as he held a beastly-looking revolver. Surrounding him were the other mages he'd encountered, as well as a bald man with wings. All of them were sporting looks of shock or outrage as they stared at the boy holding the gun.
Next to Kageyama, Makarov himself had a somber look as he made eye contact with the would-be killer.
"And who might you be?"
They'd made good time. Even in their exhausted state, two miles had barely taken 10 minutes to cover. The sun had set while they ran but even with reduced visibility they could see it. An abandoned magic four-wheeler was in sight.
It was empty, and the woods before them were dark so tracking footprints would be difficult. Thankfully Kinzo had more than just good eyesight. Lightly sniffing the air he caught wind of the dark mages sent and started walking.
After a short pause, he could hear the others follow, though no one seemed to say a word. Until- "You can smell him too?"
He paused mid-step, turning to face the man who spoke. Salamander "What?"
"You can smell him, right? I mean you're walking straight through the brush instead of on the trail and I can smell him that way so I figured you could probably smell him too, right?"
Shit, this was bad. Knowledge was power. The reason he won so many fights was because he stayed out of sight and kept his abilities under wraps. But now not only had they all seen his metal in action (though they may not know how it works), Natsu had even guessed that he had enhanced senses. He hadn't even told Gray about that when they were kids. At this rate, Fairy Tail would be able to work around the way he fought completely.
Attempting to play it cool he responded "I don't know what you're talking about, and we don't have time to be wasting here."
The Pinkett seemed to agree as all he said was "huh could a swore you were following his scent." before continuing into the forest.
After pushing through the brush for another minute Kinzo started to hear something, a conversation in the distance. And after turning his head in its direction he saw them. In a clearing roughly 30 meters away illuminated by moonlight, the dark mage and an old man dressed like a clown.
Before he could come up with any kind of plan to separate from the group and swipe the artifact still in the man's hand, someone else spoke up for the second time that day.
"Hey, there they are!" Natsu once again was causing him problems.
"Ya he's right/ Master is right there we have to warn him!"
As the four Fairy Tail mages prepared to charge in, everyone heard a loud "SHHH!"
From the dark woods to their left a plump man with wings sticking out of his back presented himself.
Weird as it sounds his features only got stranger as he approached. On top of the wings, he was also bald and wearing a dress. Not to mention the lipstick and jewelry, combined with facial hair. Arguably the most normal thing about the man was a guild mark resting on his right shoulder, a blue pegasus. "Oh all of you hush, Maki is dealing with that nice young man right now so don't interrupt!"
Everyone was dumbstruck at hearing that, but instead of arguing they all just turned back to the clearing before them deciding to listen in.
Kinzo was all too willing to use the opportunity to distance himself from these annoying mages... and Gray. Setting himself up for the chance to swipe the flute and disappear into the night. At least he was until he heard what his two targets were talking about.
"You're angry, angry at the world for rejecting you. And in return, you lash out…"
"Hmm let's see where this little conversation goes. Besides, if this old fool wants to play around with criminals it's none of my concern." So for one reason or another, he decided to sit back for a moment and pick apart every word that came out of the old guild master's mouth.
"...let this old man give you some advice. Let it go."
That didn't sit right with him, just 'letting things go' sounded like a good way to change nothing in his opinion. But for some reason, the dark mage dropped to his knees after listening.
The rest of their conversation was a snooze fest (though he did learn the dark mages name was Kageyama, not that it mattered) and he considered leaving to set up a proper ambush once more, but for the second time, he heard the old man say something that gave him pause. And made his blood run cold.
"So what is a man to do, how do you break this cycle? In a word, forgive. Forgive those who have wronged you and perhaps they will forgive you as well."
The next second was a blur but he knew what he was doing.
"Forgive, forgive a man that threatened to kill an entire city back at the train station, forgive the man who's here to kill you now. No, I won't forgive them, I will never forgive demons like them. They took everything, Dark mages like them. No, Grimore dies, and so does that sorry excuse for a human being in front of you!"
His hand moved like lightning, drawing his revolver. He took aim in milliseconds. Gray and the bald man seemed to just register what was about to happen, but they were too slow. Kageyama would die.
A squeeze of the trigger and the bullet soared.
Talionis gave him the ability to follow the round as it left, watching as it grew ever closer to its target mere feet away. All he could picture was the hole that would be punched through the criminal's head, until he saw the old man move. He was practically a blur, jumping from his place in front of the target and moving behind him. Dragging the man's kneeling body along the ground just out of the bullet's reach.
He'd missed... no, Makarov had dodged.
They wasted no time making eye contact, one glaring one neutral.
"And who might you be?" the elder finally asked
"Someone who's tired of hearing about the 'power of forgiveness'" the boy answered back.
It was a strange reply but it intrigued the old man.
"You have something against mercy?" Makarov probed.
"Forgiveness and Mercy are just excuses the weak use when they aren't strong enough to fight back," Kinzo bit.
"Come now young one, do you view me as weak?" The guild master of the nation's strongest guild asked.
"No, when someone as strong as you offers mercy all you're doing is letting monsters roam free. That man for example threatened to murder hundreds not 2 hours ago. Not to mention all the other crimes he's committed! The people he's hurt!"
"He's earned his death, but you would overlook all of that, you care more about him than the people he's wronged."
Kageyama sank closer to the ground at the words, knowing the extent of his own sins.
"You light mages love to go on and on about justice and fairness, but where is justice when you forgive what he's done, how is any of that fair?"
"'Forgive those who have wronged you', what a joke. You just don't care about the people wronged, you're too much of a coward to do what needs to be done. Don't pretend otherwise." As he continued to speak the assassin made a point of shredding the man's words. He refused to sit here and listen to an old fool spout nonsense about overlooking crimes.
"Boy, who are you angry at, who has wronged you?"
... That gave him pause, and why did this clown care anyway?
"It doesn't matter." By now he'd gathered his thoughts once more and was berating himself for acting out and giving away his location over the words of a fool. But maybe he could still salvage this.
Charging a small circle under his feet and forming a dagger in his hand he pushed forward at breakneck speed right for Makarov. Taking a swipe at his neck he knew would be dodged.
The elder took a step back, distancing himself from his assailant. At the same time also having to distance himself from Kageyama who was still clutching Lullaby in his hands.
Kinzo knew that the old man would have guessed his game by now but chose to press on, firing three more rounds at the orange-clad wizard, with the gun that had never left his hand.
Forced to dodge once more Makarov put even more distance between himself and the rogue mage.
Finally, the spacing was enough that Kinzo felt confident using a flashbang round to stun his opponent. Doing just that he rotated the cylinder and the gun hummed with yellow before he unleashed a round into the dirt and a blinding light erupted from it.
Using his momentary advantage to race back to the still whimpering dark mage he ripped the flute from his grasp and started charging for the tree line. Firing a final flashbang round behind him as he made his escape.
Talionis was the only reason he knew something was about to go wrong. A flash of white passed him on his right and in mere moments he was wrapped in a massive fist.
Makarov was standing just to his left, his tiny body still there but one of his arms was massive. "Giant Magic, shit."
"Oh so you know this magic," the aged wizard said while tearing Lullaby from Kinzo's hand.
Facing the elder once more he saw a playful smirk on his face as he tossed the instrument of death up and down in his free hand.
"Come now boy, is that the best you have?"
For a moment he was stumped, it had been a long time since anyone had blitzed him like that. This man was strong. With his eye, he'd seen just how large the guild master's magic reserves were, but that didn't mean much, he'd met and fought people with more. No, the terrifying thing was that Makarov had handled him so quickly, in one move no less.
But now wasn't the time to be thinking about that, escaping should be the priority. He could stab the hand holding him in place and absorb the Giant Magic forcing him back to normal size but in the time it took he could be crushed in the man's hand.
when he managed to get out of this he would have to seriously rethink how to engage him. If Makarov took him seriously it wouldn't be pretty.
"And if it is?" he finally asked.
"Then I would say you should pick your battles more carefully."
"I didn't need to, you're big on letting criminals go after all." He bit back.
"Boy, I don't know what has happened in your li-!" Makarov was cut off by a new voice emanating from his hand.
"That's it I can't wait any longer! If none of you mages have the conviction to use me, I'll just CRUSH YOU MYSELF!" Malice and horrid sounds came from the flute.
On Kinzo's end, the Eye of Talionis was going crazy. Forcing rancid green and dull purple into his vision. Soon after a concerning build-up of ethernano inside the flute presented itself, and he knew the kind of magic that would come from it.
"Transformation Magic" he said to himself, but The aged wizard heard it too.
"What?" he asked, having his own concerns about the now glowing flute in his grasp.
"It's Transformation Magic! Throw it NOW!" he screamed.
Deciding to listen to the boy still in his hand, he lobbed the dark artifact a few dozen meters away. And just in time as the sky was filled with a massive magic circle and the instrument exploded in a large blast of light blinding the onlookers, as well as giving Kinzo the distraction he needed to slip from Makarov's hand.
Once the light had died down and the mages could see once more, the sight that greeted them was something out of a horror movie.
6 stories tall with three glowing eyes. Made entirely of wood, twisting branches pushing out across its body. And staring down at them with murderous intent.
Lullaby was awake.
Author's note
Another one down.
Obviously, this chapter was much less combat-focused and more centered around showing off Fairy Tail's views vs Kinzo's outlook on people who do immoral things. The next chapter will be more combat and the end of the Lullaby arc. After that, there will be a few chapters to introduce some new cast members (Mainly the MC interacting with Fairy Tail members/other notable people for the story.)
For this fic, I'm going to make Makarov a little OOC. I'm mainly just pulling back on the pervy stuff and sticking with the wise old man role for him.
As always if you see something that needs fixed or have a suggestion that could better the story as a whole feel free to let me know.
Until next time.
