A/N: Heya guys. wiErD here and I have the next theme for you all.
Just a quick headsup about something. I updated the first chapter since I realized there were some parts that I haven't included so more like a I posted the early version of it so go back and read it again since I missed some parts that would be connected to this chapter.
Oh, before I forget to announce, all these themes will be connected to each other so kinda like a short story but only fleshing out between characters and to their possible romance so there will be a lot of skipped scenes here and there but I promise to make sure for you all not to get lost in the reading.
And with that, let's get to the next theme.
Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail or any of its elements. All belong to its respective owner. Support the official release.
- Neglect -
Wendy thought about how many times she felt like this before. She never had this feeling and it only caused her nothing but problems and suffering. If she had the chance to avoid it all, she could've done it but she was powerless to do so. Even until now, she couldn't take a chance of relieving herself from this pain. It just wouldn't leave her alone.
―The feeling of riding a transportation.
The blue-haired teen struggled to compose herself as she sat uncomfortably in the near seats of the carriage that she's currently riding.
A trip to their client had taken for about an hour so she's stuck here having to deal with her own motion sickness. Of course, it's not her alone who also share the same state. Beside her was Natsu who had seen worse of his condition in which he couldn't help but bear with it like her.
One of the most painful things to experience in her growing years was this sickness. It's not entirely hereditary since this only applies to dragonslayers who are bestowed by their dragon parents with immeasurable power to slay dragons.
Because of this development, Wendy could no longer handle herself in riding transportation as much as she can from before. She really did like riding in coaches since it provides a good rest during long trips but now...
―Her peaceful moments have been replaced by excruciating hours of pain over her head.
"Just hold it in for now, we're almost there at the destination." Lucy worried over the two despite how many times they've seen them like this. Although her concern is much more focused on the bluenette rather than the other since Wendy hadn't gone used to it yet.
Beside her was Erza and Gray whom for the latter by the way had the urge to come along despite having to spend some time with Juvia back in the guild. He thought coming along for the sake of the team since he and the water mage pretty much don't have the lack of time of being together.
Yup, Gray and Juvia finally got together after a few years. It looks like both had something to realize each other during those times and the rest of them could only congratulate the man for finally accepting her feelings of love.
Even so, his usual beefing with the fire dragonslayer doesn't change but he definitely matured enough to prioritize his relationship with Juvia since he, too wanted to nourish this relationship with her.
"Really, it's been years since then and you can't even get used to it. Wendy's doing a far better job that you are, Flame-brain." There he goes with the usual banter towards his rival.
"S-Shut up, stripper. When I get out of this, I swear―Guuhwweeee―!"
Poor Natsu wanted to answer back but it seems like his motion sickness got the better of him, leading him to halt his insult towards the raven-haired mage who now had his clothes mysteriously disappearing in front of him.
"Kyaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! Your clothes! YOUR CLOTHES!" Lucy being next to him could only shout out in panic as Gray slowly realized himself semi-naked again.
"AH GODDAMMIT! WHEN DID THEY DISAPPEAR?!"
"DON'T ASK ME, YOU PERVERT!"
Earning a smack from the blonde-haired mage, the group's usual antics continued on for quite awhile until they finally reached their destination.
...
After stopping their ride near their destination, they followed a small path leading to an abandoned town where rumors of monster infestation took place. The request that the two took requires a simple extermination of monsters that invaded the town which chased out the people in fear of their lives.
The group arrived and saw the town crawling with a lot of giant monsters, ranging at least the height of two humans in scale. Some of them have characteristics resembling an ant while some have grotesque features that are far too gruesome to describe.
From how it looks, it seems like some monster nest infestation took place and led these things in the town. Moreover, the stench of the air is not appalling at very least. If anything, the town could not be saved due to it slowly becoming part of the nest itself.
"Waaaaaaaaah... This looks bad. Just how long did it become like this?" Lucy looked at the town's appearance by which Erza, on the other hand, began pondering thoughts about its condition.
"Judging from the looks of those monsters, it seemed like they came from underground. Something must've happened and forced them to seek refuge in the surface and accidentally chose this spot as their new nest."
As expected of the Titania, her quick mind easily builds up several possibilities of every situation just by looking at concrete details. Added to that, her seamless skill of using Requip makes all the more of a powerful mage. Even until now, she still has that edge of her that makes her a solid candidate for the next successor of the guild.
"And the sheer number of them... It almost looked like the ones you seen in horror stories, right?" Lucy shuddered.
"Well, the more of them, the better, am I right?" Natsu answered confidently.
"Well, the request did say about exterminating them so we should just push through them and kill anything that moves." Gray crossed his arms.
"It seems so... Plus, we didn't get any additional information about the location of an underground passage where these monsters originate from. So far, we should just focus on eliminating all of them before focusing on that part." Erza suggested.
"Sounds like a good idea for me." Gray nodded in agreement.
"Yosh! Time to get some beating on these monsters!" Natsu immediately burst up in flames as he could feel his spirit powered up as ever when it comes to fighting.
"Remind you not to destroy the landscape, okay? The town also mustn't be destroyed. This is just a small mission so try not to lay waste of the place." Erza warned, looking at the two boys who had forgotten about how their magic can literally change a landscape into either a barren frozen land or a hellish landscape.
Since the request is merely a B-Class, there's no need of overdoing things a bit.
Despite all the growing confidence between them, Wendy had remained silent for awhile, seemingly lost in thought. She merely stared in open space without anyone noticing and it only made her snap out of her daze after noticing her friends jumping off to fight the monsters.
Since she's acting support for the whole team, she stood last in the group's formation, providing only enchantments to the rest of the team. She didn't have the stomach to fight despite her capability so she merely supported the team from behind as they get rid of the monsters around the small town.
She could see a wave of fire and ice blasting off the roofs alongside with the monsters as Natsu and Gray began competing for the number of kills they can count for their recently formed competition.
Even their shouts of insult can hear from the distance.
Wendy felt a cold sweat running down her head as she watched them in the distance.
"You're in the way, stripper!"
"This is my spot! Find yourself another place, dumbass!"
It seems like the two of them is enjoying this kind of work. Erza and Lucy did their work normally with their own respective magics as they slowly thin out the monsters' numbers.
...
Meanwhile, Natsu continued to punch monsters left and right, incinerating them with the use of his dragonslayer magic. The monsters didn't put up much of a fight but their numbers are starting to get to him.
Just where all these monsters are coming from?
More monsters appeared right in front of him as soon as he managed to eliminate those behind him.
"Ah, come on!" He groaned.
Blazing one of his fists on fire, he swung his arm forward as a massive swirl of flames engulfed the entire horde, leaving nothing but ashes and smoking trails from the aftermath of destruction. However, his eyes narrowed once again as he saw more monsters emerging from the ground at the far distance.
Thanks to his heightened senses, he was able to zoom in and eventually spotted a hole where they recently emerged at.
It looks to be the tunnel that leads all the way to the underground where they usually came from, prompting him to realize it.
"Hey! I found their entrance!" He shouted back to the group who also finished eliminating all the monsters around the town.
The three ran towards him as he pointed to the direction where the monsters are continually spawning from underground.
"Looks like you can use your brain after all." Gray mocked.
"Shut up, stripper! I killed more monsters than you just so you know."
"Hah! I counted way more kills than you!"
"Yeah?! Or you didn't just count just to feel better yourself!"
"Look who's talking! Even counting makes it difficult for you, idiot!"
"You wanna go, huh?!"
Ah, here they go again.
In the midst of the fight, Erza seemed to be pondering for some reason as her expression suddenly changed grim as if finding some off with their current situation. Wendy noticed this which prompted her to ask as Lucy was left with the two bickering each other off the background.
"Is something wrong, Erza-san?"
"Iyaa... It's just that I recognized some of these monsters and they're co-habiting together despite them living in different places underground."
"What do you mean?"
"You see, some monsters live underground through cold areas while some live by in near places where magma is close to them. Some of these monsters we fought have lived on both but I'm confused to what forced them to come up to the surface altogether." She thought out loud which brought her to thinking as well.
"Could it be some kind of a natural occurrence? Like an earthquake or some sort?"
"Not really... But it could be a possibility of a cave in on both areas that forced them up together and made this town their new home. Since the surface holds both day and night with having the correct temperatures to live in by, the monsters are able to coexist with each other."
"So what is the problem?"
"The problem is what forced them to go up here..."
Wendy soon got the gist of what she's talking about. Aside from the sudden appearance of these monsters, no one had the idea of what made them crawl up to the surface. It's like one of those mysterious cases when a certain mission had to be investigated in order to find out what made these unnatural occurrences appear so suddenly.
Since the request only requested an extermination, there's not even a single opportunity to investigate the source of the problem which is the sudden appearance of these monsters from underground.
She only looked back at the redhead once again, seeing her expression which would coordinate their next move.
"We're going underground... We need to find what's making these monsters go up." As she said that, the other three finally stopped and looked at her in disbelief.
"E-Eh?! You want to go down there?" Lucy asked, seemingly terrified for some reason.
"Well, these monsters are not gonna thin themselves out unless we find the reason down there."
"We could just, you know... Burn the whole passage and destroy whatever's down there." Natsu suggested. As expected of someone who prefers brawns over brains.
"That would be risky since the tunnel might collapse along the town standing on top of it. We can't just destroy this place until we find something." Erza answered with a reason which only puts them all in realization.
"Alright, then what's the plan?" Gray asked.
"We'll go down to investigate. If anything else happens, we should be able to deal with it ourselves." She smiled in response.
"Yosh, let's get going then!"
...
It didn't take long as the group ventured through the tunnel after clearing out the monsters which are coming from below. The tunnel is pretty short so the group had to walk in individually with Natsu leading the way since he was their lighting source after entering this seemingly dark tunnel.
The light from the outside barely penetrated the bottom and the stench of rotting carcasses of monsters dying was slowly incinerated by the trail of flames left behind by the pinkette after clearing the tunnel out.
"It's so quiet in here... I can't hear a single monster close by." Lucy began speaking.
"No, I can hear 'em everywhere but it doesn't seem like they're attacking us," Natsu added with a face full of caution all of a sudden.
"Yeah... For some reason, they're just waiting as if something's preventing them." Wendy replied, having the same heightened senses due to her nature as a dragonslayer.
"Well, whatever it is, we better prepare ourselves." Gray finished as the whole group felt something wrong about the place.
They can't help but feel anxious. As if something's waiting further down there.
Soon afterward, they arrived in a seemingly large cavern as the group stared wide-eyed at the huge space surrounding them. The light from Natsu's flame revealed the ceiling of the dark chamber but they saw nothing else. Located in front of the chamber was a huge abyss in which the light cannot penetrate through as the darkness occupied the very bottom.
Judging from how it looks like, it somehow related to where the monsters are coming from.
"Woah... It looks to be high from up here. Where do you think this leads into?" Gray looked in curiosity as the group began examining the massive hole.
"Probably to where the nests are. The monsters have probably burrowed through the tunnel towards the surface and happen to be located in the village." Natsu guessed.
"I think so too..." Lucy somehow agreed.
On the other hand, Erza walked herself around and tried finding some clues as she inspected the ground at the near edge separating her and the hole. Because of the lighting being far away from her, she took out a small torch on her own and lit up the area around her.
The vision improved but her eyes narrowed immediately after finding something.
Some of the ground was found to be scratched by something, seemingly in a large scale. The size doesn't even compare to a big sword scratching the ground as well which means this has to be done by something even larger.
―Then, her thoughts went cold.
A disturbing sound echoed from the bottomless abyss right in front of her as she looked down towards it. Even the rest of the gang seemed to have heard it as well as they both looked at each other with unsettled looks.
"O-Oi... Just now, what was that?" Gray looked ahead to the rest of the team which then Erza began seeing multiple red orbs glowing down from the bottom pit.
At that moment, the scarlet knight felt the killing intent as she shouted across to warn the group.
"EVERYONE! MOVE AWAY!"
Seeing how they're close to the pit, she realized that they were sitting right in the middle of a bigger nest.
At that moment, a sudden blur launched its way up from the dark hole as the group looked in disbelief at the appearance of another monster glaring right down on them with multiple red eyes. Its body closely resembled that of a spider, only to be it being larger and dark as night. Several large limbs have struck down at the edge of the hole using it to support its weight and two giant fangs contained with venom bore down from its mouth, ready to snatch its prey with bloodlust.
"Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek! What kind of monster is that?!" Lucy looked terrified of its large form.
"I don't care what it is but I'm all getting fired up!" Natsu proceeded to attack it recklessly as he leaped through the air to punch it―
"Stop!"
Erza wanted to shout but it was too late before she could even tell the group as the giant monster swung around its giant body with such speed, slamming the pinkette back as he crashed into a wall.
"What the?!"
Gray and Lucy looked in dismay after noticing its speed of retaliation against the pinkette who was thought to be able to anticipate any counterattack towards him at the last second. Moreover, the size of the monster's body could've weighed a lot and swinging that fast is enough to send a great deal of pain even with someone with high endurance.
"Just what the hell is this monster?!"
"It's a Burrowing BroodMother! An SSS Class monster! We have to regroup back at the surface! Get Natsu out of there and make your way to the tunnel, hurry!"
The scarlet knight quickly ran around as she threw several blades to catch the monster's attention. The monster easily deflected the sword due to its hard skin as it turned towards her, seemingly bursting with hunger. At the same time, Natsu emerged from the crash just as the three were about to regroup at him.
"That stings..." The pinkette knuckled his head just after receiving a blow. Even with that kind of attack, he still manages to stand almost unscathed.
Wendy worried about him for a moment but it quickly dissolved as soon as he stood seemingly fine after that crash.
"Done with your little exercise? Then let's get the hell out of here. That thing has an advantage in this type of terrain so we should head back to the surface." Gray spoke.
"No way! That thing made a big deal on me! I ain't coming back without returning it a favor."
"Listen here. That thing is an SSS monster. Fighting it here would be more dangerous than it is!"
"Hey, don't tell me you're scared of that thing. If fighting it here would be that hard, then I'll just punch a hole to push it up to the surface."
Without even taking a single response from him, Natsu already jumped in back to fight, leaving the others in disbelief.
"That idiot!"
Natsu quickly made his way down due to the monster focusing on its attack on Erza. He grabbed by near the walls as he blazed his right fist in flames lighting up the darkness around him. A surge of power welled up in the atmosphere as Erza looked down to see him using his spell. His eyes locked on the monster's belly as he proceeded to swing it forward before shouting.
"Fire Dragon King's Demolition Fist!"
Using one of his strongest spells, the fist slammed right into the monster belly, greatly sending it crashing to the ceiling with enough force to be thrown ferociously upward and destroy the ground beneath it. A huge impact occurred followed by a massive shockwave as the group braced themselves looking at the monster engulfed in the might of the dragon's flames.
Around that time, the ground had collapsed as the monster was pushed up to the surface, creating a huge hole as the light from the surface shone down beneath them with rock debris falling from the edges.
The group stared wide-eyed as they looked at the sky then back at the pinkette who had a smug grin all over his face.
However, they didn't notice the ground located above them happens to be the town itself and looking at how massive the hole was created, it looks like the whole town was obliterated from underneath.
"Heh, how's that for a size?"
The others planted their faces with their hands as they looked at the pinkette in disappointment. It is interesting to note that Lucy had a lifeless look on her face, seeing how the compensation would turn out after this whole ordeal.
"Aaaaaah, Master's not gonna like this."
A huge sound of crash resounded from the above as the group makes way to the surface only to the find the monster having a huge hole in its huge body to where Natsu had punched his fist right into.
"Some SSS Class monster... I thought it would be more challenging but it looks like it's not that good." Natsu felt unsatisfied but the rest could only look at him in blank looks as they stared right back to the hole where the town was supposed to be.
It doesn't seem like they're gonna weasel their way out of this since this is getting to one of the complaints that'll be sent to the guild later on.
The other four sighed in depression, seeing how their simple job turned out to be a huge waste of money. Natsu laughed proudly in the distance but it seemed like he doesn't even care about the consequences.
...
The day ended smoothly for the rest of the team. With Erza explaining the existence of the monster, the townspeople pardoned them for the loss of their home. It isn't exactly a good result but they were content nonetheless. The reward is still given despite the group's persistence to deny it.
It doesn't really feel right when you're responsible for destroying their homes no matter how much reward you can get.
In the end, they merely started settling on a much safer place and thanked them as they return back to Fairy Tail.
The group had already walked their way back as they eventually reached back in town just as in time before sundown. The reward was shared as usual per member and the group is just about to finish things up midway.
"I'll head back to the guild to confirm the request's success with Mira. You four can go on your own, alright?" Erza walked ahead, carrying the paper in her hand as she soon left the other three to wander on their own.
"Well, it looks like we'll part from here. This is my direction so I'll see you tomorrow." It didn't take long as Gray eventually parted halfway as well, having to divert his path from the main street, leaving the three to walk together as the sun slowly sets off from the horizon.
Now with only Lucy, Wendy and Natsu comprising the remaining group, they trudged along the street as they make way back to their homes. Since Natsu and Wendy had the same route, Lucy would probably part from them soon.
"Iyaaaaaaaa... I'm really glad we didn't have to pay for the damages. But it seems like the townspeople were kinda expecting the possibility of abandoning their town since it was infested long enough."
"Well, I kinda feel bad for taking the reward. Even if we did everything, I still think we should compensate for it." Wendy spoke otherwise.
"But they insisted on it so we don't pretty much have any choice but to accept it."
"You're right."
"Oh, I almost forgot! We're going for a solo job tomorrow. Don't forget to bring Happy, alright Natsu?" Lucy then turned towards the pinkette who snapped into attention as soon as he heard his name from her.
"Oh, about that..."
"Come on! It's been awhile since we went on a job together! Maybe this time, we might find Aquarius if we're lucky, right?" Lucy beamed but Natsu felt shaken to answer as he stole a glance to the bluenette whom he made a promise to go out with her on a job tomorrow.
Wendy saw through his troubles and decided to smile in return, assuring that it's fine even without the job with her.
It's not like they had anything planned for it and Wendy thought it would be preferable to let the two of them go together.
"That's great! You shouldn't keep her waiting, Natsu-san."
"A-Ah... S-Sure, I guess..."
"Great! It's been awhile since we went on a job together." Lucy smiled wholeheartedly as they walked down the road.
Wendy looked between them in thought but mainly to the pinkette who had a worried look on his face as soon as stared back at her.
She tried to keep it all to herself but it was too late when Lucy noticed it, having to her point of view capture her expression as she asked her.
"Are you okay, Wendy?!"
Not wanting to let it show, Wendy, suppressed her hidden feelings as she forced up a smile in reassurance towards her alongside with the pinkette.
Around that same time, she quickly retracted the paper she was secretly holding from one of her hands and hid it back from her bag which was supposed to be a job request she took awhile ago together with the pinkette.
"I-It's nothing wrong. Don't worry about me. I just hope you find Aquarius' key soon. I know how she means to you so..."
"Thank you, Wendy. I promise I'll find her and we can all go on a job together!"
The rest went on as Lucy eventually parted from them as she waved from the far distance where her apartment was located at. Natsu and Wendy had to venture a little bit further down the road, leading to another road to Fairy Hills just a couple of meters ahead of them. Since Natsu's home is located on the outskirts, he's the furthest to walk by in the group after arriving from the station.
The sun painted the sky in auburn color and the skies above displayed numerous obnoxious clouds that hovered long over the horizon and a multitude of shadows reflected from tall structures as they face away from the glowing orb whilst greeting the creeping darkness that's appearing from the other side.
Natsu and Wendy are finally left alone as neither had anything to say to each other. The former felt uncomfortable of the silence and eventually stole a gaze from the bluenette who had her face somewhat staring into open space as if having a complicated expression.
This also prompted him to speak towards her.
"Wendy. A-About the job tomorrow, I―"
"It's okay, Natsu-san... You made a promise to her to find Aquarius so I think it would be good if you kept that promise..." She paused.
"...but if only...
Seeing how they're the only ones around, she tried voicing out her honest thoughts about him but she realized that she didn't want him to be bothered with her own problems so she quickly reverted her words back as if dismissing the entire subject.
"...It's nothing."
At that moment, Natsu noticed something wrong as he recognizes that kind of face entirely. He knew that face all too well. He tried to talk to her but was cut off when she suddenly turned her gaze on him with a beaming smile.
"More importantly, you were cool defeating that monster, you know. Even Erza had a hard time dealing with it from what I tell."
Normally, he would've bragged about it proudly to himself, showing how he usually shows off when others praise him for that kind of feat but―
―For some reason, he didn't feel right celebrating. Not when he saw that earlier expression she had on her face as if she was hiding something from him.
He tried to help but no words came out, leaving only a stuttered response.
"I-I guess so..."
Silence assailed in the air once again but it wasn't till long as Wendy had found the separate road leading back to her dorm.
"I'll see you tomorrow, Natsu-san!" She skipped ahead, twirling her body gracefully as she left him with a smile which he couldn't help but worry on the inside.
He still didn't find out what's bothering her and why she's trying so hard to keep it from him―to everyone else, replacing it with that bitter smile.
With nothing else to say, she started walking away from him until―
"Wendy! Do you want to come along with me tomorrow?" He raised his voice as he called out in the distance. The young woman stopped, seemingly heard his voice which prompted her to glance back as he spoke.
"I'll be waiting for you tomorrow, okay?!"
Instead of replying, what he saw was only but a sad smile before turning her back again and disappeared from the distance.
Natsu couldn't say it made him feel any better by just forcibly inviting her. Rather, it only an impulse to just make her avoid making that hurtful smile. And it seemed like it didn't go well.
In the next morning, she didn't arrive...
A/N: And here you have it. Not my best take on all the themes I wrote on for the week, to be honest. I did try to make it fit on their characterization while not being fairly similar to a conflict-kind of thing.
Anyways, did you like this theme? Share your thoughts with me on reviews or in PMs if you want to talk about it. Next theme would be Confession which would come eventually as how both of them will realize what they're feeling. I wanted to bend the rules a bit by replacing the original theme into a Realization since both of them will realize that they love each other or something like that but anyways...
And also, I kinda wanted to use Lucy to be some sort of an icebreaker through the next theme as well. Not bashing if that's what you're thinking. There's a difference between using and bashing characters.
I'll see you guys again in the next theme.
- The wiErDos send their regards...
