Chapter eight: The mission starts.
The next day, Chrys awoke to a sharp knock on the door.
"H-Hello?" she asked to an already made-up Nova.
"Seriously, you've not even woke up yet?" She asked in frustration as she invited herself in, "Nice room. It used to be Karen's so no wonder she did it up." She complemented, but still with a hint of attitude, "Fudo wants us to meet him down in the main hall now so I suggest you hurry up if you want to get changed." And with that, she slammed the door in her face. The celestial mage ran across her dormitary in a panic and got changed. Her usual outfit of a black halter-neck belly-top and tan baggy trousers were snatched from out of the wardrobe and her green locks were pinned back into place.
After her transformation she scurried downstairs to meet Nova and Fudo in the main hall.
"Finnaly! You took so long to get up! We, well Fudo, has some information!" She shouted up at the small shape-less figure that was coming downstairs.
"Well, I'm sorry!" She shouted back sarcastically, "I don't usually get up at 7:30am!"
"I woke you up half an hour ago, it shouldn't take that long for someone like you to get ready!"
"What makes you say that?"
Before Nova could say her next comment, which he was sure would be a nasty one, Fudo cut in, "Be quiet, you two! Listen, I have some information!" The two fell silent. The green-haired mage strode across the hall and stood next to Fudo.
"It turns out there are infact four of them. Dark guilds have been after them for power, so far none of them have prevailed successful. Some have even vanished. It was the dark mage Zeref that created them and to seal them away, we must find the magic box that sucks away their existance. That part was easy with the first one, because it was inside a building, next time we might not be so lucky. We had an advantage also because Jupiter and Mars aligned. As a dragon slayer, that's how I draw power, this is also the reason to why we need another team member - Nova - to help us."
"Where are we goint to start?" Chrys asked in disbelif.
"This is going to be random because barely anyone knows of their existance, but we're going to scour Fiore's dark guilds and ask."
"That's crazy! If you think I'm coming with you..."
"I knew you were going to say that. But if we even have a hope of finding one of them, that's what we must do."
"Why do we have to take on this specific job when we can always do other things to get the money?"
"This job will give us enough money to pay back the damage and more. The master has 'Okayed' it. Plus, someone needs to defeat them and I know i'm strong enough." He said with a toothy grin.
"Which guild are we starting with?" Nova curiously questioned.
"This is obviously going to end up in a fight! And I don't know about you, But I can't single-handedly defeat an entire guild!" the celestial mage argued.
"It's not just going to be you, idiot. Fudo's far stronger than you think."
Chrys's face grew red with fury as she saw Nova prance around girlishly.
"There's one problem though... Transportation. I'm banned from using the four-wheelers." Fudo blissfully ignored the two girls causing a scene behind him. Chrys and Nova stood, glaring into eachother's cold eyes.
"I have a mode of transportation!" Chrys forgot why they needed it and only said it to get ahead of the girl standing opposite.
"What might that be?" She asked.
"My spirit, Apus. We could use her to fly."
"Great! How many people can you fit on her back?" Fudo cut in.
"About four."
"Have you flew on her before?"
"Once, she's really safe."
"We'll have to trust you, then." Fudo said as Chrys gave Nova a smug look.
"Fudo! I'm scared of heights!" Nova cried out, playing the damsel in distress.
"It's okay, you can sit behind me." he smiled back at her.
"Yay!" She giggled, hugging him.
"Are you sure this is going to be safe? 'Cause if this all goes wrong, I'm blaming you!" Chrys warned.
"I'm sure." He assured.
"I guess we'd better report to master Bob." Fudo stated, with the red-brown haired mage still latched on to him.
The three mages walked up the stairs and along to the boys' dorms. Along the massive corridor they walked, until they reached tall pink double doors with pegasus wings as handles. Nova tapped gently on the polished wood.
"Hey, there!" The doors flung open to reveal a chubby figure standing in their places, "You're late reporting! I could've done my beauty routine fifteen minutes later if I'd known, you cheeky little sausages!" Nova glared at Chrys who was looking at Fudo who was giving Bob an apologetic smile.
"Sorry, master." They chorosed.
"It's okay! I take it you're about to go. Have you worked out transportation yet? Also, I'd like you all to wait here a little longer for the Grand magic tournement announcements. Fairy Tail has back from Tenrou Island, so it's going to be an interesting turn of events if they manage to get through the preliminaries."
"Yeah, we're flying on Chrys's spirit. I was talking to team Natsu on the train here." Fudo replied, putting emphasis on the word 'train'.
"I sent Hibiki and the others to welcome them back, That's why they were gone for so long. Make sure Chrys is prepared to meet them. They'll be down to hear the announcements. After that, slip away round the back. Don't tell anyone about the mission and be careful! That's all. See you soon, My little Dango dumplings!" Bob just managed to grab hold of Fudo's cheek and jiggle it around before the double doors shut. His face dropped dramatically.
"I was supposed to be elected to go into the grand magic tournament! I can't now because of the money! Darn!" He raised his voice as he clutched his redened cheek.
"What does he mean by 'prepared' to meet Hibiki's team?"
"They can be a bit overwhelming sometimes... Let's just leave it at that. I need to pop back to my dorm and get a few things first. Come with me." Nova said, completely skimming over the subject.
Chrys forgot about it after a few seconds anyway.
"Nova, what magic do you use?" She questioned as the three walked back along the corridor.
"Men!" a voice seemed to echo around everywhere. Chrys looked around nervously to find the source. She then revealed that it was coming from a small dumpy figure, exiting his dorm with his team mates. She only recognised one of them as Hibiki. They turned round to see Chrys and Nova, The dumpy figure at the front elegantly sprang up, twirling in mid-air until he landed perfectly infront of the celestial mage.
"I see we have a new member..." He said as sparkles ran through his long ginger hair. He was wearing a white suit and possesed an extremely large nose and jaw bones, "My name is Ichiya!" He said dramatically as he striked another pose. The targeted mage got more and more horrified as he leant forward and smelled her.
"What lovely parfum! It smells like... Karen Lilica's!"
"Wh-hat a-are y-you d-doing? And y-yes, I'm h-her s-sister..." She whimpered, looking over to Nova and realising she wasn't the only one.
"Hey there, gorgeous." Hibiki leant in closer and closer until he was only a few centemetres away.
"Hey, Hibiki!" She said girlishly back. Chrys couldn't help but wonder why a) She was stuck with the fat, ugly, creepy one and Nova had an extremely good looking guy. And b) Was Nova enjoying this?
"Excuse me, Nova, but I'm going to introduce myself to this other girl here." Hibiki then said. Fudo however was just left in between, being completely ignored.
"Okay! I'll speak to Ren and Eve while you do!" She skipped away to the other two team members who started giving her the same treatment. Chrys felt her face heating up as Hibiki stood infront of Ichiya and started talking to her.
"Hey there, my name is Hibiki Laytis. What's yours?" He asked.
"C-C-Chrysanthemum..." She said back nervously. Hibiki turned round to see Ichiya trot up to Nova.
"My Honey..." He said to her as he tried to lean in closer. Before her could even try, Nova shouted,
"Requip! Machine gun!" A dazzling light enveloped her hands as a gun materialized slowly. Ichiya just had time to widen his eyes before bullets came shooting in his direction non-stop.
"ME-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-EN!" He shouted as he was sent flying down the corridor.
"That's my que to leave, princess." Hibiki turned back round to Chrys, who's face was like a tomato. He lifted her hand up and kissed it gently before running along to catch up to his team members.
"We're coming Ichiya-sensei!" The three of them called.
"They really are something." Fudo stated as they continued walking.
"Did that answer your question about what magic I use?" Nova triumphantly asked.
"Yeah." Chrys replied, in slight admiration.
Soon enough they reached Nova's dormatery. The door was the same as Chrys's, but didn't look as new. When the door opened, however, it looked completely different. Loads of different types of gun hung from the walls and ceiling, the wallpaper and flooring were the same, just a bit darker.
"Are all these guns really necissary?" Chrys questioned, amazed that she had the room to fit a glamorous double bed in the corner.
"Requip magic is basically teleportation, so the more weapons you have stored in a certain place, the more flexible your magic is." She replied, attaching a belt made of spare bullets to her short dress and making a bag of things to take on the long journey.
"I'm ready. Let's get down to the hall."
Chrys had never seen the hall so full. It was crowded with mages and guests. The Grand Magic Tournement must be a big thing to them. The three managed to squeeze themselves into a space in the corner. They were literally just in time for the announcements as the guild master skipped over infront of them.
"Hey there, guys and girls! Sorry to keep you waiting! As you all know, the magic tournement is coming up soon. It determines the strongest guild in Fiore, our target this year is to be the best! Although we have some tough competition from guilds such as Sabertooth and Mermaid heel, we can still pull through! Also, as most of you know, Fairy Tail have came back from their seven year abscence at Tenroujuma Island, as much as we need to give them a warm welcome back, they are our main competition this year. Some of our members know of their great power and team work from working with them to defeat Oracion Seis, so I will be electing them this year. Congratulations, Hibiki, Ren, Eve and Ichiya! Now the fourth member is going to be our secret weapon, I'm afraid only S-Class wizards know of it's name and power, so I'll leave it 'till it's appearence in battle to explain it. And the substitute - just incase of severe injuries, will be Jenny Relight! I will be looking forward to seeing you all at the games. From now, until 3 months, I expect the nominated contestants to be training as hard as possible. See you later!"
The crowd of people cheered loudly. The only person that wasn't extatic was the dragon slayer, still disappointed about his disqualification from the tournement this year.
"Let's go." He sulcked as the three mages sneaked around the back.
"Okay, Chrys, summon Apus." Nova ordered.
Chrys stood in the centre of the patch looking out onto the forest. She grasped her set of keys from her belt and outstretched her arm, clutching onto a winged, silver, key.
"Gate of the bird of paradise, I open thee, Apus!" She chanted as she twosted her wrist. A gleaming magic circle appeared before her. A beautiful, white bird flew out from another world and spread it's wings in the open air. It's feathers shimmered like rainbows as the light from the sun hit off them. It's head was that of a dove, but a feather crown of many colours was attached to the top of it's head, symbolizing it's magesty. After it had demonstrated it's flying tequnique, it landed gently infront of it's master, cooing softly. Fudo and Nova looked up in admiration.
"Let's get on board!" Fudo cried.