I do believe my updates are getting slower. NUUUUUUUUU.
I have just found out how to set up a poll. I think. Vote if you want a pairing!
wingedmercury: Aah! You reminded me that I forgot to include Happy! How could I forget that adorable blue cat? Indeed, homework be damned — that's what comes with being a student. Sigh. Anyway, thanks for reviewing and reminding me about Happy. Glad you enjoyed!
MaJorReader619, thanks for the constructive criticism, I'll go back to Chapter 2 and try to fix it up a bit. Also Footster26, Forbidden-Hanyou, PINKhairedBADDAS, thanks for reviewing. To everyone else: DON'T JUST FAVORITE / ALERT, REVIEWWWWW. Please?
Chapter Four.
Lucy did not appreciate being jostled each time the train bumped along a rock or a hole in the ground, but she chose to blame the jostling to Gray and Natsu's spat in the back corridor of the train. Thanks to Wendy, Natsu acquired a new love for transportation; he was currently running back and forth in the train's interior — they were the only ones on the train, Lucy was glad for that — and waging a fire-and-ice war with Gray.
Lucy wished for the sixteenth time that the boys would quiet down so she could actually concentrate on reading her novel. Beside her, Wendy was giggling at the boys' antics and alternately cheering on Gray and Natsu. Erza was sitting on the window seat, looking at the passing scenery. Levy was engrossed in her own book; Lucy wondered how she could concentrate with the noise.
As the spat reached its climax — Gray and Natsu shouted insults to each other that Lucy didn't want to hear — Erza seemed to snap out of her daydream and hissed, "BEHAVE."
The yelling abruptly ceased as both boys dragged their sorry selves to the compartment. Natsu plopped down next to Lucy as Gray slid next to Erza.
Shooting a final glare at Gray and Natsu, Erza returned to enjoying the scenery.
For a few moments, there was a delicious silence as Lucy was finally able to read a few pages of her novel.
The silence was broken, however, as Natsu's blue backpack started shaking.
Identical squeals broke out from Lucy, Levy and Wendy as they scrambled away from the backpack. Erza's eyes glinted dangerously as she readied for possible combat. The temperature in the compartment dropped before rapidly increasing as Gray and Natsu readied their magic.
"What the hell did you put in your bag, idiot?" Lucy screeched.
"Nothing that should be moving like that, Luce, I swear!" Natsu held his hands up in an 'I'm innocent' gesture.
The shaking intensified, accompanied with scratching sounds from inside the backpack and everyone held their breath —
— as a flying fish burst out, followed by . . . a flying cat.
"MRS. FIIIIIIIIIIISHHH! COME BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACKKK!"
It took about two seconds for Lucy to comprehend the situation.
"Happy!" Natsu exclaimed happily.
Beside her, Lucy felt Wendy and Levy sigh in relief.
"Stupid cat . . ." she heard Gray muttered, and wholeheartedly agreed with him.
Erza promptly speared Happy with her eyes and the blue feline abandoned his chase for the flying fish, which fluttered forlornly out the open train window.
"You're not supposed to be here," Lucy sputtered.
"Indeed. Explain why you disobeyed Master," Erza glowered.
Happy pulled his famous I'm-an-adorable-cat-so-don't-hurt-me look and widened his eyes for good measure. "But Natsu and Lucy and Gray and Levy are going and even Wendy-chan is going and I don't want Natsu and Lucy to go 'cause I'll miss them and Wendy-chan always gives me the best fish and —"
"GO HOME."
"But — but — but . . ."
"We're almost to Hargeon, Erza, can't we let Happy come?" Natsu ventured.
"Yes!" Happy cheered. "Besides, we could get a cool story to tell Charle when we get back!"
Lucy, Wendy, Levy and Gray had the sense to stay silent, as an angry Erza was never good.
After a few seconds of quiet contemplating on Erza's part, she finally growled, "When we get back, Happy, you are not to have any fish from Mira ever. Again."
Happy fluttered happily — after all, they knew Mira wouldn't be able to resist.
Fifteen minutes later, the group arrived at Hargeon Town as their train pulled up at the station.
Lucy, Natsu, Erza, Gray, Wendy, Levy and Happy got down and were rewarded with dirty looks from the Hargeon citizens, directed to Natsu — apparently they hadn't forgotten how he had trashed their harbor.
Needless to say Natsu remained oblivious to all the glares.
"Levy, where does Ryuu Uchida live?" Erza studiously ignored the citizens.
"Ah! Right . . . follow me!" Levy chirped.
They marched single file, Levy leading the way, and failed to notice the pair of eyes that watched their every move.
Lucy and the others arrived in front of Ryuu Uchida's house — a ramshackle thing with peeling paint and window shutters that hung off their hinges.
Her first impression: she did not want to go in.
Erza took charge, however. "Happy, Wendy, Levy, stay outside and guard."
"Aye!" Happy chirped. Wendy and Levy nodded.
"Guard?" Lucy gulped. The word didn't sound good.
Erza's eyes narrowed. "It could very well be a trap or an ambush, Lucy."
". . .Right."
"Enough with the chitchat, let's get some ACTION!" Natsu's fire burst into life in his hands.
"Idiot! Don't be so loud!" Gray hissed.
Natsu opened his mouth to retort, then thought it would be better to shut up with Erza around.
Erza stopped and reconsidered. "Gray. Outside. The sight of you and Natsu together would kill the old man."
Gray muttered something about not wanting to miss the action, but quailed at Erza's glare and stationed himself next to Levy.
"Um, Erza, I could guard outside instead of Gray if you want . . ." Lucy trailed off nervously.
Without a word, Erza shoved Natsu and Lucy inside.
The inside of the house was extremely gloomy, Lucy decided. There were dustings of cobwebs and the carpets were in severe need of vacuuming. There was so much dust on them, in fact, that Lucy couldn't decide what their original color was. There was a teapot and a cup on a table in front of them, layered with dirt, crumbs, and a disgusting green thing that Lucy suspected was a type of plant.
"Uchida-san . . .?" Lucy said uncertainly.
"HEY OLD MAN! COME OUT BEFORE I —"
Erza silenced Natsu by clamping a hand over his mouth. "Uchida-san, we are mages of Fairy Tail and we'd like to ask you a few questions concerning the Staff of Testament."
There was a muffled clinking sound from a room to Erza's right, which Lucy identified as a kitchen.
Wordlessly, the three of them followed the noise into the dark kitchen.
After a few moments, Lucy's eyes adjusted to the darkness and she could make out an old man crouched by the cupboard, muttering inaudible things and rearranging a pile of plates.
"Uchida-san?" Erza questioned.
The old man didn't turn around, and Natsu took it as his liberty to yell, "Oi! Old fart! We're on an important mission here, so — OOMPH."
Erza clamped her hand over his mouth again and spoke loudly, "Uchida-san. Please turn around."
This time the old man turned.
Lucy gasped in surprise as she saw his wrinkled face, yellowed teeth and wispy strands of hair. Most shocking of all, though, were his eyes. They were white, glazed over, and sunken into his face — Lucy shuddered as the hollow orbs of madness fixed themselves to the trio. His body was hunched over and slouched, as if he had lost the will to stand up properly.
"Uchida-san, Uchida-san . . . who is this Uchida-san you speak of? Me? No, not me . . . not me, who am I? I'm not Uchida-san . . . I'm no one . . . no one, I tell you . . ." his voice was scratchy like sandpaper and hoarse at the same time; it made the hairs on the back of Lucy's neck stand up.
She shared a glance with Erza and Natsu. The old man was clearly mad, which could only mean that he was Ryuu Uchida.
Erza cut off his ramblings. "Right. Well, we have some questions to ask you about the Staff of Testament."
Ryuu cocked his head to the side like an inquisitive sparrow, milky white eyes regarding Erza.
"We, um . . . we want to know what happened the last time you tried to use it," Lucy said, while Erza glared at Natsu and silently told him to shut up.
Ryuu shuffled to the kitchen table, his joints creaking with the movement, and started fiddling with a set of silverware. "Used it? No. No, no, no, no, no. You are wrong. Very wrong. You are mistaken, little girl . . . I didn't use it . . . no, don't want to talk about it. The Staff is gone. Gone, gone, gone . . . good riddance . . ."
"Gone? What do you mean, gone?" Erza demanded.
Ryuu gripped the silverware tighter and rearranged them more frantically. "Stolen . . . stolen, but good riddance . . . it killed my Michelle, my Michelle . . . killed my Michelle . . . she's dead, she's dead, it killed her . . . it killed her . . . IT KILLED HER!"
With an animalistic screech, Ryuu launched himself at Erza with a fork in his hand.
Erza jumped out of the way with a shout, instantly re-quipping to her battle-ready armor.
"IT KILLED HER! MY MICHELLE! IT KILLED MY MICHELLE!"
Ryuu gave up on Erza and turned to Lucy instead, knuckles white with his grip on the fork.
Lucy tumbled backwards with a shriek, narrowly avoiding the fork to her eye, and Natsu kicked Ryuu away from the stellar spirit mage.
"Erza! This dude's dangerous, we gotta take him down!" Natsu yelled.
"Understood. It looks like the others aren't coming in, so we'll have to handle this ourselves. Lucy, get ready."
Lucy pushed herself up and shakily summoned Loke, who seemed to sense the serious atmosphere and readied himself by Lucy's side without questions.
Natsu initiated the attack, throwing a fiery punch to the old man, but Ryuu dodged with uncanny swiftness, swiped at Natsu — Lucy stared at his two-inch-long fingernails which surely weren't that long before — and left bleeding scratches on Natsu's shoulder.
"Dammit! Fire Dragon's —"
"No! We can't blow up Hargeon again!" Lucy interrupted.
Ryuu used the distraction to barrel into Natsu. At the same instant, Erza swung her sword and Loke fired his Regulus magic. Ryuu jumped away on all fours like an animal, and Lucy tried to coil her whip around him to hold him in place.
It worked — in a way.
As the whip came sailing towards Ryuu, it wrapped around his arm. He pulled hard, and Lucy flew to his direction with the force of the pull.
Erza intercepted before Ryuu could stab Lucy, aiming a swipe at his head and forcing him to back off. Natsu kicked at the old man, but Ryuu grabbed his foot and twisted.
Lucy's whip wrapped around Ryuu's neck and Loke's magic-infused punch hit him on his stomach. Natsu wrenched free of the old man's grip on his foot and followed suit with a flaming fist to his face.
Ryuu staggered back — what the hell? He should've at least been knocked out with that! Lucy thought — as Erza brought her sword down but missed him by an inch. He growled and crashed into Erza, landing on her back like a monkey, and tried to bite at her neck.
Erza gave a shout a knocked him off, but he managed to leave bloody furrows on her neck. Ryuu scampered away, baring his teeth — no, fangs — at them.
Natsu tackled the old man and they rolled around before Natsu kicked him away and leapt to his feet. Before Ryuu had time to recover, Lucy's whip pinned his arms to his side and effectively immobilized him. Loke fired Regulus to the crazed old man, smashing him back against the kitchen wall. Natsu threw a fiery punch at Ryuu — the solar plexus too, good job, Natsu! Lucy thought happily — and Erza finished with a neat diagonal slash from Ryuu's right shoulder to left hip.
Howling, Ryuu toppled down, twitched once, and stopped moving.
The four of them stared in surprise at Ryuu's body. There was no blood.
Instead, his body melted like a sack of ice cream. Lucy shuddered in disgust as his skin wrinkled up even more and his glazed eyes disappeared inside the folds of skin. After a few seconds he was as flat as a balloon with the air gone out of it.
"I believe we're done here," Erza finally broke the silence.
"Old fart put up a fight though," Natsu remarked.
"Ah! Good job, Loke, you can go back now," Lucy said.
"Anything for you, my pri —"
"BACK!"
Loke disappeared with a puff of smoke.
She sighed and sat down on a wrecked kitchen chair, assessing the damage they had done to the house. After a while Lucy figured that it was so run-down in the first place, no one would notice the additional damage.
"Well, we figured out that the Staff was stolen," Lucy said.
"He wasn't helpful at all!" Natsu huffed indignantly.
Erza had been quiet through the whole conversation, but now she spoke. "No. We did find something useful here."
"What?" Natsu perked up.
Erza held up a dusty black book with the name Ryuu Uchida in front of it. "His journal. We will be able to get some information out of this."
Lucy stared in admiration. Trust Erza to come up with a solution in a situation like this!
"Let's go, then! We have to tell the others!"
Erza, Lucy and Natsu were greeted with surprised exclamations at their disheveled appearance when they stepped out of the house. After they were told the story, Levy alerted the local Hargeon authorities to dispose of Ryuu's body. Wendy got to work healing Erza and Natsu.
The seven of them crowded around the journal while Lucy flicked through the pages, looking for something that was related to the Staff.
"Here!" Lucy exclaimed.
April 23
My little Michelle has been diagnosed with cancer and the hospital says she only has two months left to live. The cancer has progressed too far, they say, and she cannot be saved. Her lifespan can, however, be prolonged with painful treatments — treatments I have denied. Why must she suffer? Why must my little girl go through such pain at such an early age?
I am planning to make those two months the most enjoyable for her. Michelle knows she is sick, as she overheard me talking with the doctor. She knows she's dying. But she doesn't fight it. It's as if my brave little girl has accepted her fate.
The hospital says they understand my pain. They offer me condolences. They offer me money, as if that will help ease Michelle's pain. They say they understand. Ha! They know nothing.
Ryuu.
Lucy felt a tear slip down her eyes. Beside her, Wendy and Levy were sniffling and Happy was wailing in Natsu's shoulder. Gray was mumbling under his breath and Erza had a brooding look in her eyes.
"Michelle must be his little daughter. I think he wrote this before he went mad . . .?" Levy asked uncertainly.
Erza looked at her and nodded in confirmation. "Lucy, go on reading."
May 25
Michelle's health is steadily deteriorating. Still she smiles as if nothing is wrong — my precious girl, I cannot bear to lose that smile.
Ryuu.
May 27
Yesterday a strange woman came knocking on my door. She offered me a way to save Michelle with a magical item that can grant me any wish I desire. I must admit the idea sounds tempting. Michelle's time is ticking away, and what have I to lose?
I have decided. I will take up on her offer.
Ryuu.
There was a silence after they finished reading that passage.
"Any guesses on what this magical item was?" Natsu finally said.
"It's the Staff, isn't it, Lucy-san?" Wendy asked.
"I think so . . ." Lucy whispered. She flicked the pages some more, but the next passages were written in garbled Madman Language and Lucy did not feel up to translating it. "The next entries were written after he went crazy; it's just a bunch of random words in different languages."
"So, let's summarize what we've learned so far," Levy said.
"The old fart had a daughter named Michelle," Natsu plowed on insensitively, earning him a bonk on the head from Lucy.
"His daughter died, you idiot, show some sympathy!"
"Sympathy? He tried to kill us —!"
"The Staff made him crazy, it wasn't his fault!"
Erza overrode their argument. "His daughter was diagnosed with cancer and she only had two months left to live."
"Then a damned lady gave him the Staff and told him it could save Michelle," Gray said.
"Ryuu tried to use the Staff, but he had no idea how it worked . . . so the Staff backfired, killed Michelle, and made him go mad," Levy quipped.
"Then he said the Staff was stolen. I'm guessing the same person who gave it to him stole it back," Lucy said.
"Uchida attacked us though," Erza said thoughtfully. "It's safe to assume that the madness also gave him animal-like instincts."
Lucy banished the thought of his long nails and fangs. "Now the question is: who stole the Staff, and where did he or she take it to?"
"We should ask around. Maybe other citizens can help us," Erza instructed.
As the seven of them walked away, no one noticed the pair of eyes watching their every move.
Whee. It's a long chapter. I don't know how the fighting scene turned out, so let me know what you think? Thanks for reading!
-- TheAliensDidIt