Chapter 5
There he stood, Death, the Grim Reaper himself, a being from myth and legend, just a few feet away. While they overcame their initial shock Kid had moved them closer to his father. He wore a black cloak that covered everything from the top of his head to the bottom of his feet, and a white, rounded, skull shaped mask that did have eye holes, yet no eyes were visible. Then, something they weren't expecting happened, a large, white and extremely square hand popped out of Death's cloak. He raised it as if waving and said "Hiya gang, nice to meet 'cha." All the former Fairy Tailers face planted the floor with their legs in the air twitching. They had been expecting a dark, scary possibly even evil sounding voice, but what they actually got was a high pitch almost clownish voice and it caught them completely off guard.
"Bwahahahahaha!" laughed Natsu and Happy, both of whom had gotten so close to Death they were practically nose to nose. "This guy is meant to be Death?! Yeah right, I bet he's a fake!" Natsu declared, "aye!" agreed Happy "he's just a guy in a wierd mask, I'd bet my next fish on it!" The two carried on, inches away from Death, who already had an anger vain appearing on his mask, until he'd had enough.
Reaper Chop
Natsu and Happy were now face down on the ground, each with a large square indent from where Death had chopped them (A/N think karate chop). "That's enough Natsu" said Erza who had regained her composure. "Ha" said Natsu, "we...got...the...clown...angry...proves...us...right" "Aye...sir" Happy wearily replied. Hearing their defiance, Death hit them with the palm of his hand, effectively slapping them, causing them to go flying across the room towards one of the thin black crosses. Natsu missed it and face planted the dirt again, Happy however smashed into the cross face first. For a few seconds time seemed to stand still with happy at a perfectly perpendicular angle to the floor. Eventually the cross gave way and fell over backwards, uprooting the bottom in the process. Happy flipped over and ended up on his back, completely dazed and probably with a concussion.
"NATSU! HAPPY! ENOUGH!" shouted Erza threateningly. Lucy stepped forward and said in a very apologetic voice; "Lord Death please let me apologise for the horrendous behaviour of those two" "Oh don't worry about it" Death Replied, "they remind me a lot of Spirit, one of my staff, they're both a bit...odd. Now then, I know why your all here, you have an immunity to the corruption and are wishing to start a guild here on the advice of the Celestial blade Excalibur." All their mouths hit the floor, it was almost like he knew everything. "No need to look so shocked" Death started, "this mirror behind me lets me see any of my people in the field. I was watching when my son mistakenly attacked you," he shot Kid a disapproving look, "I must say I was very impressed with your skills Lucy, having the ability to use such advanced and powerful celestial magic at such a young age is incredibly impressive." Lucy blushed slightly at Death's comment, "thank you lord Death, but if you don't mind my asking, what do you think to us building a guild in Death City? And what is this corruption everyone keeps talking about?" "Corruption is kinda like a sickness" replied Death, "It infects a host and begins to alter their perceptions, their beliefs even their personalities to a darker version of them. This much I know you've all seen within your former guild, but what you haven't seen is the final effect of it. When it has sufficiently altered the personality of its host, it begins to act on their souls and physical forms. They become effectively demons with a never ending hunger for human souls, the more they consume the stronger they become. I set up this academy to train special wizards to eliminate these demons." The wizards all nodded, trying to take in the flood of information, when Erza asked; "do these people have to be eliminated? Is there no way to reverse the change?" "Unfortunately no" a voice answered from behind the wizards.
Hearing footsteps behind them they turned to see who this new addition was, but they soon realised there was a second noise mixed in with the footsteps, it was a sort of ticking or clicking sound, kind of like a handle being turned slowly. That's when they saw him, a fairly tall man in his 30s, with white hair, a white lab coat and glasses. The coat appeared to have been sown together in strange places, giving the appearance of being different pieces of material attached together. This trend also continued on his face as he had a large scar going diagonally from the top to the bottom of his face, that appeared to have been sowed if not stapled together. What really surprised them was the source of the clicking sound. It was a large screw like object sticking out of his head, which he was turning using his hand. "We are able to reverse the corruption's negative effects on the body up to a certain point" he continued, "but once it manifests physically, it means the persons soul has been irreversibly corrupted and transformed into an evil soul, which we call a 'keyshin egg' (A/N sorry if i spelt that wrong). At that stage they become demons and must be destroyed and their souls dealt with before harm innocents." "Erm..." started Lucy, "I know I'm gonna regret asking this, but how are these 'Keyshin eggs' dealt with? Oh and who are you by the way?" Death spoke first, "ah yes, this is professor Frank Stien, one of my teachers and a very powerful wizard, I asked him to attend today for two reasons; he's a brilliant scientist and I believe he'd be an excellent addition to your new guild." "Thank you Lord Death" Stein began, "as for your other question, the evil souls are dealt with by being consumed by our weapons, or should I say the people able to use the weapon transformation ability to become our weapons." Seeing the disgusted and horrified looks on everyone's faces he added "There's no need to be alarmed, these people are special, by consuming an evil soul they are able to break it down and convert it into power, kind of like a dragon slayer eating their element, allowing them to heal, restore their power and even increase their power further permanently." With all this new information, Lucy found herself thinking of the Fairy Tail guild and all her former friends and comrades, hoping that none of them would fall far enough that their souls would have to be eaten.
Natsu and Happy were sat at their impact site trying to listen to what was being said by Stein, well Natsu was even though he didn't really understand and it was starting to hurt his brain, Happy however had long since given up trying as he didn't understand a word. He was sat there looking around the room, amazed at how large it was. Then he noticed something out of the corner of his eye, it was like something was twitching and wriggling just inside the hole that once was filled by the now rather deformed black cross. He looked closer and became increasingly happy as whatever it was looked rather like the tail of some kind of red fish. Grabbing it with both hand he exclaimed "Natsu! Look! I found a fish!" before pulling with all his might, pulling the unknown thing from its hole. Natsu turned around to look at the strange object Happy had found, it was roughly the size of a clenched fist, circular, a red colour and had several square 'scales' on it, "wow!" he said with a great deal of surprise, "that's the strangest fish I have ever seen! HAY GUYS! CHECK THIS FISH THING OUT!" he shouted the last part to get as many people's attention as possible, they all turned, most with a look of confusion or surprise at what Happy had found. "That" Kid said with a hint of worry in his voice, "is a keyshin egg, these markers house the evil souls of opponents my father was destroyed, but feared to allow to be consumed." Happy's eyes were the size of dinner plates and were gleaming like diamonds, "this looks so tasty!" and without another word he ate the soul hole. "HAPPY NO!" shouted Grey and Erza in unison but it was too late, he had already swallowed it. "So how did it taste little buddy?" asked Natsu, "erm.." Happy replied with a slightly sad look on his face "...it didn't really taste of anything". Everyone in the room besides Natsu and Happy were stood there staring at them with their mouths wide open and their eyes wide and blank, even Lord Death was stood there bemused by what just happened. Suddenly Happy began to hold his stomach and his cheeks turned a little green. "Ugh Natsu" he weakly started "I feel really strange", all the others noticed this, worry and fear steadily rising within them as to what might happen to Happy. "Don't worry little buddy, you'll be okay, come here" Natsu worriedly said with his arms wide open waiting for Happy to hug him, Happy wobbled his way to Natsu and cuddled up to him, clearly scared by whatever was happening. Then he felt a huge surge of power within himself, it was so far beyond anything he had ever felt before but before he had a chance to react, his entire body began to glow a light blue colour, the same colour in fact as his fur but it was as bright as a spot light and was getting brighter by the second. Before anyone knew it the light was so bright that both Natsu and Happy were completely engulfed by it blocking them completely from the view of their now terrified friends.