A/N: okay. I know, I really could understand that the recent chaps have been lacking of GrayZa, really. But...I just need these and well, don't cha worry^^ you guys will get what you want before you know it! Haha. 'Twas my fault I had focused on the action plot recently, I'M SO SORRY. And anyway, thanks for sticking up to this story THIIIIIIIIISSSSS LONG. With my lack of updates, now I'm on panic 'coz school is about to start, and at least I wanna leave a good part of the whole story before I focus myself on my studies. Don't worry, Ice is hanging on!~ I promise I'll try my best to make up for this before my 2-weeks of what's left of my vacation ends.
Uhm, SPECIAL THANKS TO THE TWO REVIEWERS WHO GAVE ME LOVE BY REVIEWING, I'M SO GLAD TO KNOW PEOPLE ARE STILL INTERESTED ON THIS STORY. it's been awhile, yeah?
Hello to, pinkkoala213 and FT Forevah(guest). I know this isn't much but I still hope you guys enjoy it.
Chapter 10: Another day towards the unseen future
Earlier:
Dusk came, and Gray had to curse himself for waking at the wrong side of the bed. It was almost time to start. He wasted no time in taking a quick shower, decided he'd fix himself a good meal along the way, pulled his pants out of nowhere and then his white jacket, before covered in his raggedy long, dusty coat to conceal his identity and magic as well.
He found himself trudging along the path leading to the capitol of Nevir. You see, Nevir looks like a pyramid-city, the heart of located at its peak. It's a waste, really that such creative idea of architecture was built but inhabited by disinterested citizens who only care about money that made Nevir a dark, thrashed place. He could see a dark sinister-looking castle from the alley he was walking, and as he went up and closer to the capitol, he can't be anymore disgusted of the growing crowd of people: vendors and consumers of the black magic business that had been kept away from the world all this time miraculously. It bugged him.
After hours of hiding his presence from the risk of suspicion, he finally arrived at the capitol where the castle was, slightly awed of its size. He tightened the hold of his coat and then approaches the tall, smug-looking man waiting for him at the meeting point.
"You're la-wha?! You're not Crow-who are you?!"
Gray summoned his magic and the air around them dropped to several degrees, intimidating his opponent more when a blade materialized in his hand. "Nowhere.. Was that his name, then?"
"You're a spy! Heh. How dare the kingdom send a spy to take us down now. No. That's impossible. So I guess you're from a guild desperate enough to take revenge on us, eh?" the man was oozing out with confidence, no, arrogance. And it disgusted Gray even more.
"What are you babbling about?"
"Aw.. Let me tell you this, brat. Tell your guild members to train more. Heh. Maybe someday, you'll get a chance to prove worthy of the Alliance!" he cackled, and then like the wind he was gone and then he was in front of the ice mage.
"Hn. Not bad for a blabbering idiot, I guess." Gray bore his stare into the other's eyes, earning the slight shiver from his opponent. "W-wha.."
A magic circle appeared in the man's fist and he drove it straight to his face, only to be stopped by stronger, and icy cold hands. He threw the man single-handedly, and then froze his face he hadn't even made his next move.
If there's something in his skills that'd be useful for him at missions like this, is that he learned how to use ice to imitate facial features and make them for disguise. He still needs to improve the time span, though.
"Now, to the castle."
'Now, I wonder what that guy meant...' Gray thought back while passing secretly along the corridors, finding as much good information he can get to finish the mission. He entered a room to his left, careful to hide much of his presence and rarely throwing down enemies in the most minimal sound along the way.
The castle was a maze, and he got lost not once,maybe twice. There were guards, mages and lots of them were almost everywhere. It was a good thing his disguise hasn't come off yet as he used the former's identity as one of the members of the alliance, showing off the tattoo imprinted on his left side of the neck. It's on a black ink, a rough drawing of a large-fanged, vertical shaped-eyes, snake. He had also claimed the other man's clothes, too.
"Oy, it's off limits here." one of the guards said. He was backed up with four more guards wearing the same tattoo on their armors.
Gray heaved a soft sigh, the one that he always does when taking another one's personality as his own, and turned to them. "I was asked to guard this room, for your idiots' information."
"And who are you.. Ah! You're Mito-san right?" one of the guards said excitedly.
Before anyone could say something, though a blast that came from one of the corridors not far from where they were, interrupted them and at once, the soldiers were on alert and panic. "wha-what's that?!"
"Someone blasted the west wing!"
"Must be a bomb! Quick! An enemy has penetrated through the castle!" And then, they were gone like chickens on the loose, that they forgot who they were talking to earlier.
"Tch." Gray scowled. But then, it was replaced by a smirk when he thought how successful his plan went. Now all he had to do is enter the room.
The guild was silent. No, this wasn't supposed to be normal, right?
"Levy? What happened? Why does everyone look sad?" With one sight of her blonde friend, Lucy, Levy finally caught her voice and answered her.
"I-it's Gajeel..Lucy, I-" Yes. Lucy knew Levy planned this day to say 'yes' to the iron dragonslayer. But the simple expression on Levy's face caused Lucy to know something was wrong. And Gajeel...
"Damnit! Who did this!" Natsu threw his fist to the wooden table. He knew that guy was supposed to be as strong as an iron, he wouldn't get hurt that easily. To think that he was this hurt must've meant the situation at hand was serious than he would usually think it was.
"Gajeel came back today from a mission seriously injured.." from the back, they heard the door from the infirmary creak and opened, revealing an exhausted Wendy and Polyusca. Everyone came crowding to them that instant.
"How is he?"
"Is Gajeel alright?"
"Please tell me he's okay!"
Wendy was too tired to speak, so Polyusca took the right to explain by showing one piece of metal bullet to the rest of the Fairy Tail members. "He's stable."
"This thing was lodged on his shoulder. His other injuries weren't that bad, but this bullet.. I sensed this bullet did the greatest damage on him." she continued.
"Huh? What do you mean?" Bisca and Alzack chimed in together. Of course, of all the mages there in Fairy Tail, they were the ones who knew guns too well. Although, they had already admitted that the ones mentioned by Erza and the others were out of their knowledge as gun magic users.
"Unlike normal bullets that you both use, I believe these kind of bullets hold a very strong and forbidden magic intended to be vanished a long time ago. This is a magic that absorbs your opponent's magic and use it against you. In this case, whoever made these bullets were intelligent enough to modify them to match the nature of weapon it is being encased. When lodged into a mage's body it will absorb its magic in a matter of seconds, rendering the body in shock of a sudden loss of magic. And then, the bullet will use every bit of magic absorbed to attack the mage's body. It could be deduced that the stronger the magic one wields, the stronger the effects of the bullets and will lead to death itself."
"Tha-that's crazy.."
"Yes. It's rather shameful to get killed by your own magic.."
"He's lucky that these bullets still aren't completely updated yet, the effects are still considerably lower. But, if this continues I'm sure..." Polyusca added.
"How did you know about this, Polyusca-san?" Erza asked. It seemed that she and the rest of her team might just learn a thing or two from Fairy Tail's medical advisor that would really be a great help for their own mission.
"Hmph. Unlike those wimpy humans, I have already done my own research. Even before you asked me to, Makarov.." she turned to the short man. "Besides, I hate to admit that this ruckus is starting to get on my nerves."
" Look, Jellal, Erza! it has the same mark we found!" The owner of the names stared wide-eyed.
Silence.
"It's all my fault.. I underestimated the enemies unseen." Makarov stared at the floor, hands tightening into fists. Somehow, his bad feelings out of all of this were rising even more.
All the while, Polyusca stared at the old man with questioning eyes. 'What are you up to now, Makarov?'
Gray didn't know how long he was inside that poorly-lit room. He was sweating beads and buckets stuck in a pile of papers and his stomach was rumbling so bad. It even took him longer on reading all of them since the only source of light he relied on was the small space between the windows: from the looks of it, it was already another day that passed by; the night fell without Gray paying attention to.
'If I wasnt here, then I could've been enjoying the night view from that place... What if.. What if she'd come back and I wasn't there?.. Would she look for me?..'
He laughed.
'If she ever comes back.. I know she's happy. Jellal's a good guy. Wait-ahh! What am I thinking! This isn't the time to be distracted!'
Face met desk.
'I'm doing this to protect her..right? Right...'
I'm closer... just a little longer-and i can finally write the GrayZa part. Mouuuuuu... Btw, Review if you want to~ it's my medicine.
oh, by the way.. I was thinking. I got this story( GrayZa) once again. it's an AU but I don't know if you guys prefer to read it as a one-shot, o by chapters.. Hmm... It's kinda long..but I guess it'll still pass as a one-shot, well not a regular one-shot. more like some one long story. And I understand if you guys don't wanna read multi-chapters,coz updates can be a problem to readers. On the other side, multi-chapters could be fun with all the thrill.
hihi. so, tell me if you like to read it as a one-shot or not^^- thanks!