At the palace, King Makarov sat at his throne, messing with the flower Juvia had put in his hair. He laughed to himself and thought out loud, "Alright, let's see now. Oh, who could the lucky merman be? Is he a prince from a faraway undersea kingdom? I do hope he's a prince…" Just then, he noticed Natsu standing in the doorway, looking nervous. Makarov straightened up and cleared his throat, "Oh, hello, Natsu. Just the crab I was waiting for. Come on in."

Natsu inhaled sharply and mumbled to himself, "Okay, Natsu… don't overreact. Just remain calm." He quickly scurried over to Makarov and asked in a high-pitched squeaky voice, "YES?" He leared his throat and tried again, "Yes, Your Majesty?"

"Um, Natsu, I'm concerned about Juvia," Makarov said. "Have you noticed she's been acting peculiar lately?"

"Peculiar?" Natsu questioned, sweating nervously.

"You know, moaning about, daydreaming, singing to herself..." Makarov looked at Natsu curiously. "You haven't noticed?"

Natsu could tell where this was going. Makarov would ask who Juvia was in love with, and he would have no other option but to tell the sea king that she was in love with a human. He stuttered, "Oh, well, I..."

"Natsu..." Makarov smirked, beckoning him to come closer with his hand.

"Hmm?" Natsu asked anxiously.

Makarov replied, "I know you've been keeping something from me."

Hovering in front of Makarov, Natsu gulped, "Keeping… something?"

Makarov continued with a sly smile, "About Juvia?"

"Juvia…?" Natsu squeaked.

"In love? Hmm?" Makarov grinned widely.

Natsu started hyperventilating, and finally, he can't take it anymore. He screamed, "IT'S ALL MY FAULT!" He pulled Makarov by the beard, "IT WAS ME! I'M TO BLAME!"

Makarov asked incredulously, "What? What are you talking about?"

"I tried to stop her, Your Majesty!" Natsu confessed. "I tried to stop Juvia! But she wouldn't listen! I told her to stay away from humans! They are bad! They are trouble!"

Makarov looked at Natsu in shock. "Humans?" He then yelled with rage, "WHAT ABOUT HUMANS?!"

Realizing what he had let out, Natsu slowly tried to inch away from Makarov. "Humans?" he chuckled nervously. "Who said anything about humans?" He then yelped as Makarov grabbed him in one hand.

Meanwhile, Juvia followed Lucy into the entrance to her grotto. She asked, "Lucy, why can't you just tell me what this is all about?"

"I told you, Juvia, it's a surprise," Lucy smiled, and she gestured towards the middle of the grotto. "Ta-da!"

Juvia's eyes widened at her friend's surprise. In the middle of the grotto was the statue of her precious Prince Gray which had sunk a few days after his birthday ship was wrecked by the storm. There is not a single scratch or crack on it.

"Oh, Lucy…" Juvia breathed, and gave her best friend a hug. "Lucy, you're the best!" She swam up to the statue and asked the yellow blonde-haired fish, "How on Earth did you find this?"

Lucy explained, "I knew you'd like it. I went to a place where the ship sank and found this big statue there. I asked a few friends to bring it here in your grotto. I have a feeling it looks exactly the same as the real one."

Juvia looked over the statue and blushed, "Wow… this is so amazing! Finally, I have something that belonged to him!" She wrapped her arms around the statue's neck and giggled, pretending that it was the real Gray, "Oh, my beloved Gray! Can I run away with you? This is all so... so sudden." She laughed and spun around, but her fun was short lived when she saw Makarov appearing in the doorway, his trident in hand.

"Daddy?" Juvia gasped, surprised to see her father emerging from the shadows, looking angrier then he was before. Lucy fearfully swam off and stopped outside the cave entrance where Natsu, wrought with guilt over confessing his secret, lingered with concerns about what the sea king could do to Juvia.

"I consider myself a reasonable merman," Makarov began. "I set certain rules, and I expect those rules to be obeyed."

Juvia looked nervously at Makarov, "But Daddy, I—"

Makarov interrupted, "Is it true that you rescued a human from drowning?"

Realizing that Natsu ratted her out, Juvia tried to defend herself, "Daddy, I had to—"

Makarov interrupted again, "Contact between the human world and the merworld is strictly forbidden under any circumstance. You know that, Juvia! Everyone knows that!"

"He would've died," Juvia protested.

"One less human to worry about!" Makarov scoffed.

"You don't even know him!" Juvia cried angrily.

"Know him? I don't have to know him!" Makarov yelled. "They're all the same! The same monsters who took your mother away from us! Spineless, savage, harpooning fish-eaters incapable of any feeling..."

Juvia decided she had enough of the way her father was talking about her prince. She shouted at the top of her voice, "DADDY, I LOVE HIM!" She suddenly covered her mouth, realizing what she had just said.

"No!" Makarov gasped in horror at his daughter's outburst. "Have you lost your senses completely?! He's a human! You're a mermaid!"

"I don't care," Juvia said defiantly.

Makarov snapped, "I've done everything I could to keep you safe and away from that wretched surface world, and yet you continue to disobey me! So help me, Juvia, I am going to get through to you. And if THIS is the only way… so be it!"

Raising his magical golden trident, he knew the time had come to take drastic measures to keep Juvia away from the surface world. The trident glowed, and he pointed it towards one of the shelves. A glowing beam of light flew towards the shelf, destroying the treasures in that spot.

"Daddy! No! No, please! DADDY, STOP IT!" Juvia screamed, her eyes wet with tears upon seeing her treasures shattered. But Makarov didn't stop and continued firing bolts of lightning from his trident. All of the objects inside the grotto, everything on every shelf, ended up destroyed. Juvia swam forward to stop Makarov, and her eyes widened when she saw her father's livid gaze on the statue of Gray. "DADDY, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

But Makarov's anger made him deaf to his daughter's desperate pleas, and he sent a glowing beam towards the statue, shattering it into pieces.

Once the bubbles cleared, Juvia stared wordlessly at the empty walls of her grotto. She leaned over a rock on the grotto's floor and began sobbing. Taking only a brief moment to look at his daughter, Makarov's face softened at the sound of her tears, and he sadly turned and swam out of the grotto.

Once he had left, Natsu and Lucy re-entered the grotto and stopped a short distance from Juvia, who kept on crying. Natsu slowly approached the mermaid and said, "Juvia, I—"

"Just go away," Juvia whimpered. Natsu and Lucy silently respected her wishes and left Juvia alone in the cavern.

Now all alone, Juvia continued to cry among what remained of the treasures she collected from the surface world, the sounds of her sobs echoing around the grotto. She had never felt so miserable in her life; her own father destroyed her entire collection simply because she fell in love with a human. At that moment, Juvia wanted nothing more than to just swim away and never look back.

Just then, the evil eels Jackal and Franmalth appeared near the grotto's entrance, having observed the scene from above. Seeing Juvia in distress, they knew now was the time to put their grand scheme in motion.

"Oh, joy," Jackal sighed, catching Juvia's attention. "The poor child suffers such deep sorrow."

"I'll have to agree with you, Jackal," Franmalth nodded. "It's obvious she has a very serious problem. I wonder how much that problem costs?"

"If only there was something we could do to make it up to her," Jackal added.

Franmalth smiled, "Oh, wait! There is something we could do! Maybe she could be of some help."

"Who... who are you?" Juvia stammered, wiping her tears.

"Don't be scared, honey," Jackal assured. "The name's Jackal, and this is my pal, Franmalth."

Franmalth told Juvia, "We represent someone who can help you. Someone who can make all your dreams come true."

Jackal added, "Just imagine…"

Franmalth added, "You and your prince…"

"Together forever," the two eels chorused.

"I don't understand," Juvia said, confused.

Franmalth hissed, "Mistress Kyôka has great powers."

Jackal added, "Who will ease all of your woes and worries? More importantly, who will help you get your man? That's right, Mistress Kyôka can!"

Juvia gasped at the very mention of the woman, "Kyôka? The Sea Witch? Daddy told me she got banished a long time ago… He told me her magic is evil… This doesn't feel right… I couldn't possibly… No! Get out of here! Leave me alone!" She angrily turned away from the eels.

"Oh, well. Suit yourself, sweetheart," Jackal replied with a shrug, as he and Franmalth turned to exit the cavern.

"It was only a suggestion. Without costs, anyway," Franmalth added, using his tail to flick what was left of Gray's statue towards her. Juvia picked up the fragment of the statue; the face. No matter how badly the statue maker had shaped Gray's nose, they captured his eyes perfectly.

"Wait!" Juvia called to the eels.

They both turned and smiled at her, "Yes?"