Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail. Hiro Mashima does. This story was made for fun, and not for cash. (How unfortunate.)
Chapter 30: Suspicions, Part two
After they had finished eating breakfast at the cafe, Sting had pulled out a flyer from the left pocket of his blue vest. He had gotten this flyer from the Sabertooth guild's golden request board before anybody else could try and take away all the good jobs, and Sting was lucky that nobody else had been watching him while he had gone over to the request board. After he had gotten this particularly exciting job, Sting had ran out of the guild as fast as he could to meet his girlfriend at the cafe for their morning date.
While this job would certainly be fun, Sting really hoped that it would improve his relationship with Lucy. There wasn't anything dramatic going on to come between the two blondes, but Sting just felt like his relationship with Lucy had been missing the great spark that had ignited their love in the first place. The white dragon slayer still remembered how Lucy had given him his first kiss by accident, having clumsily tripped while falling on top of him, but Sting had really been thinking more about that kiss than how his girlfriend had tripped.
He had remembered how they had unlocked the auras for the mysterious spell book, and how Sting's missions had helped Lucy gain different types of magic. He knew that helping her was something that a good boyfriend was supposed to do for a girl, but Sting wanted to do something that was really romantic for a beautiful and kind girl like Lucy. He really wanted to give her a nice surprise, something that would make her blush in amazement like when she had first kissed him to show her feelings for him, and this mission would definitely help Sting out with that.
The mission was surprisingly simple, and it would be taking place in Gateau Town. This was the place where great cakes could be made and bought by many people, the various shops giving off such delicious aromas, and all that Sting and Lucy would have to do is just order a cake for the town to get its business back on track. It wasn't like any of the cakes had lost their sweet taste, but it was more like how the attraction of tourists had really faded away from the town. This was most likely due to the tourists being in Crocus for the Grand Magic Games, and the tourism there had made the capital of Fiore rake in tons of cash.
The people of Gateau Town did not want to end up closing their shops, nor did they want customers to just buy something once and never come back. People had been passing through this town, but the thrill of the Grand Magic Games had really drained many people of their money from buying so much merchandise from various places. The client had just wanted any advertising of any kind to be done, having informed the volunteering mages that the advertisement would be filmed live in for everyone in Fiore to see, and Sting knew that Lucy would love to do something like this.
He knew that she loved to show off her stylish outfits in things like contests, and Lucy was also pretty beautiful on camera. She was never even shy about being filmed, especially since the Grand Magic Games had been filmed and put on DVDs for anyone to relive the excitement all over again through the power of their television screens. Sting also liked to show off his handsome looks to people, and being filmed was certainly a great way to give some much needed publicity to the guild of Sabertooth.
While this was certainly going to be a job that was fun, Sting was still concerned with the day that Lucy had been left in shock by what Karen had told her about Thorn. He could tell that Lucy had been doing her best to hide away this utter feeling of shock, probably not even wanting to believe that it was the truth about who her ancestors had been, and Sting had wanted her to at least tell him if something was going on with her. He had definitely encouraged her to believe that Thorn's power could be controlled, but he did not want her to think that bottling up her feelings about all of this was actually the right thing to do.
Ever since the day that Sting had seen Lucy feel so shocked like how she had felt in the park, he could easily tell that all of this was Karen's fault. She was the one to blame for giving the book to Lucy in the first place, probably using Lucy's feelings about Natsu to persuade her into having that spell book, and everything had been sailing smoothly without any complications until Thorn had been brought into this. Lucy had already been keeping quiet about her Darkness Magic, but now the matter Thorn's Shadow Demon Magic had to go unspoken.
Lucy was waiting by the northern route to Nimbasa Town, smiling while she had waited for Sting to finally get there while he had been walking with his blue eyes focused down on the flyer, and Sting looked for a moment while nervously smiling back at her. He did not want to end up being the overprotective boyfriend who would get into every single one of Lucy's little troubles, but he felt like the dark parts of the book were only being investigated by Lucy alone. After all, she was the only one who could actually read the spells.
Lucy asked Sting nicely while walking towards him with the orange spell book in her hands, "What are we going to do today, Sting? Are we going to go on another cool adventure to an island or something, or will today be a little less tense?"
The white dragon slayer replied in a calm manner, not wanting to get Lucy worried about anything while trying to also rekindle the flame in their relationship, "Well, I got us a sweet job in Gateau Town. All that we have to do is advertise the town on television to get more tourists passing through there. I like publicity, but they could have advertised their town by having someone from there set up a concession stand during the Grand Magic Games. Anyway, let's go get some people talking about the awesome commercial that we'll be in."
As Lucy looked really satisfied about the job that Sting had picked for her, she wondered about the stage that their relationship was in. Could they develop into something more, or would their relationship stay to just being boyfriend and girlfriend? Lucy had wanted to know if Sting would ever go to the next stage with her, even wondering if he would go near that level with her, but the blonde mage also knew that Sting might not want to anything more with her. They had only been training like partners, but two partners with such great chemistry did need a bit of romance.
Meanwhile...
Lisanna had taken a job that had to be done in the Desert Resort, the same place where Lucy had beaten down Suna in a fight where the Earth Magic had joined forces with the spell book, and the white-haired mage had the task of collecting some of the sand for a client who wanted to see if it would be useful for learning Sand Magic. This was quite a strange request, but the client was offering up 700,000 jewels as a reward for the sand. It was certainly not useless, since the sand could be used in explosive ways.
The muddy ground from before had been changed back into sand, courtesy of someone who probably had the same abilities as Suna, and Lisanna wondered how she was going to collect sand. She did not have a vacuum or a plastic bag to put it in, and even holding some sand in her hands would just cause it to fall back down on to the ground. Having a grain of sand was not the same as having a whole lot of it, so how in the world could Lisanna bring a few pounds of sand to this weird client who needed it?
While she was walking around the sandy area below the hill where the Relic Castle stood, Lisanna could still sense something like energy that had been used a while ago. It seemed like a fight of some kind actually did happen here, since this place had no tourists like how it usually had some archaeologists digging in the sand for some ancient treasure to be found by them. The things that were buried in the Desert Resort ranged from old fossils to spheres of gold that were being taken away by the quicksand, so it really was a resort for getting wealthy.
Lisanna looked pretty miffed while she had to wonder how in the world she was going to collect a bunch of sand to complete the job request, and she also knew that collecting quicksand would also be impossible. Touching that stuff would just cause her to sink into it, and the quicksand was noticeably darker than the normal sand in the Desert Resort. This was by far one of the hardest tasks that anyone could ever give, and it was also a very strange request. Really, why not just learn Sand Magic from a book of spells?
She groaned loudly in a frustrated manner, finding this task to really be a difficult one, and Lisanna had also thought about just going to back to Fairy Tail for a different job. After all, it really would just be a waste of her time to try and accomplish a task that could not be done without something that would greatly assist her. As the white-haired mage continued to look pretty mad about her current circumstances, walking towards the entrance of the Desert Resort to go back to the guild, a large twister of sand suddenly formed around her.
"Well, look at what we have here. It looks like there is an intruder in my Desert Resort, and I seem to remember seeing her on one of the Fairy Tail teams in the Grand Magic Games. From the info that I received a few days ago, that Lucy girl was also in your guild. Well, this will be the perfect way to show how much stronger I've gotten ever since I lost to her. I have no quarrel with you, but I'm really in the mood for a fight. Besides, this would be the perfect way for me to get some indirect payback." A female voice told Lisanna in a harsh tone, as the twister of sand suddenly began to subside.
The white-haired mage gasped in shock from hearing the voice of someone who seemed like they had encountered Lucy Heartfilia before, and it seemed like this woman had lost to the blonde mage. Since this was the Desert Resort, having never had any criminals in the record books of Fairy Tail being in this location, Lisanna had no idea who she would be facing in this hot and sandy area. However, she was definitely wishing that Lucy was here to handle whatever business this woman wanted. The idea of indirect payback didn't seem fun to Lisanna, honestly.
She looked up at the hill where the Relic Castle had resided, and Lisanna narrowed her blue eyes from seeing who her opponent would be. She was going to end up facing off against Suna Shiro, the woman who had orange eyes and green hair that reached all the way down to her waist. She wore a simple orange T-shirt with a black skirt, and she also wore some knee-high black leather boots. Suna also now had painted her fingernails and toenails orange, to represent the fact that she was the Earth Dragon Slayer.
Deciding to take this seriously, thinking that this woman of the sand was able to fight equally with Lucy at a very high level, Lisanna quickly went into her Animal Soul: Tigress Take-Over. In this form, she had sharp claws that could slice through metal and her speed had also increased. She ran towards Suna, attempting to start things off with a few quick slashes that would leave her opponent screaming in pure pain, and Lisanna also ran in a zigzag path to try and confuse her opponent by swerving like this.
However, her plan was far too simple. Suna smirked evilly while slamming her palms against the ground, causing a large wall of earth to rise up from underground like a large shield, but this somehow felt different than the shield that Suna had put up to cancel out Sting's White Dragon's Roar. She giggled a bit, before snapping her fingers twice, almost like she was giving a signal to her Earth Dragon Slayer Magic, and the wall of earth exploded in an orange blast of energy when Lisanna had gotten close to it.
Several boulders floated high in the air, most likely being an aftereffect of Suna's spell, and that was quite a clever move. It was almost like she had taken a few notes from fighting against Lucy in the battle that left her and Aisu screaming in excruciating pain. He had parted ways with Suna, not wanting to be around her anymore, and the green-haired woman could tell that she was better off on her own. After all, now she was able to battle people without anyone getting in her way or telling her what she should do.
Suna made some sand rise up from the ground, changing its properties with her unique ability, and all of the sand fused into one large boulder before splitting into eight boulders that were an eighth of the original's size. This move was known as Sand Roll, and it simply allowed Suna to send rolling boulders at her opponent. The boulders would move at slow speeds with not much power behind them, but their side effect would certainly be a bit troubling for Lisanna. Suna could even make the boulders bounce while they rolled, making things even more difficult for Lisanna.
She sent four of the boulders towards Lisanna, having them roll at incredibly slow speeds, and Lisanna simply dodged them with ease. However, the white-haired mage looked stunned to see the boulders suddenly change direction and start to move slightly faster. She kept on dodging them all, something that really amused Suna, and the green-haired woman had a plan forming in her orange eyes. Suna made her four boulders miss on purpose, having them simply roll around the area for a few seconds, and she waited until they were moving much faster.
Feeling pretty confident about winning this fight, Suna made her four boulders roll up and down the hills in the Desert Resort to give them the high acceleration that they needed. When the boulders were now surrounded by an orange aura, moving at incredibly fast speeds, Lisanna knew that she had to take emergency action and evade them. However, as she dodged one of them, Lisanna did not notice that Suna made one of her boulders target Lisanna from behind while gaining air after it had jumped off a hill.
Before she could even react to it, the blue-eyed girl was struck hard in the back by the boulder and she was sent crashing into a sandy hill. A large orange blast of Earth Magic transpired, making the hill of sand fly into the air, and Lisanna was sent flying into the air with the sand. She winced in pain from taking so much damage in those few seconds, feeling the immense power of Suna's blast, but that was nothing when it would be compared to Suna's next attack. This would certainly make Lisanna get some sand to complete her mission, interestingly enough.
Suna had a devious look in her orange eyes while she manipulated all of the sand that was in the air above Lisanna, making it form a large Sand Fist, and the large fist slammed down on Lisanna's chest! The white-haired mage screamed in agony from the intense pressure of the sand that had slammed down on her chest, and it was making her descend towards the ground at a rapid pace! Lisanna also knew that there was no way for her to even break a frightening fall like this, and all that she could do was wish that she had only reconciled with Natsu.
This was probably her bad karma for blackmailing Natsu, making him cheat in the Grand Magic Games, and turning her back on him to gain sympathy while not feeling bad about she had been using him just to make him return to his old self. Manipulation was a pretty powerful thing, and using it to try and fix something was a very risky way to go. In Lisanna's case, her attempts to get Natsu back to normal had utterly failed and she would now be paying the price for not trying to help him when he needed her help to be happy.
When Lisanna and Suna's large fist of sand had hit the ground, an enormous blast of Earth Magic had transpired! Its force was powerful enough to make sand blow everywhere, making waves of quicksand rise up for a few moments, and Suna smiled wickedly while seeing her waves of sand be like a sea that no one could escape from. On top of that, Suna had made all of the sand have immense pressure to crush anyone who was going to be under it. This move also made the floating rocks from earlier be brought down around one area, indicating where the opponent was located, and this move was known as Rocky Sand Tomb Burial.
"Well, that wasn't much of a fight. Those stupid fairies need much more experience, if they want to challenge someone as powerful as me. That Lucy girl was clever, though, but little miss Tigress just couldn't catch on to my quick strategies. I hope that Lucy felt the blast waves of my spells because that was only a little taste of how strong I am now. She will go down. Speaking of going down, I wonder how far down that white-haired girl is. Having her suffocate from a lack of air would be too easy, so I'll-" Suna spoke aloud with an evil smirk on her face, giggling evilly before feeling something sharp stab her in the back and come out through her stomach.
She stopped talking for a moment, coughing up blood from feeling something impale her through the back, and the green-haired woman turned around to see Karen and Thorn standing behind her. Thorn had changed into her adult form, wearing the red dress while having red highlights in her black hair, and she had a malicious look in her blood red eyes while devilishly smirking. She had followed Lisanna here, mainly just to meet up with Karen, and Thorn knew that Suna would be here to guard her treasures in the Relic Castle.
The black-haired woman had made a spinning drill out of sand cover her left hand, and she had stabbed Suna with it. Since the earth dragon slayer had claimed to be such an elite, Thorn had taught three of her fusion spells to the green-haired woman. She had mastered them easily, greatly impressing both Thorn and Karen, but the latter had only seen Suna as a mere test subject to make Lucy Heartfilia improve her skills and work towards the completion of the mysterious spell book. Karen was giggling evilly, having found that one-sided battle to surprisingly be funny.
"You think that you're so elite, but you were only a mere pawn in our plans. In our lovely game of chess, pieces must be sacrificed for us to accomplish our goal. Having you fight against Lucy Heartfilia was a major part of the strategy, and this was really your final victory. You have reached the end of your life, Suna Shiro." Thorn explained evilly while maintaining her devilish smirk, before proceeding to use her fourth and final fusion spell of Earth Magic to take Suna's life and make sure that her plans were kept in the dark.
Thorn's final fusion spell of Earth Magic was known as Sand Silence, and it caused the sand to swirl around Suna's body while she continued to cough up what appeared to be blood. The sand simply began to constrict the body of the green-haired woman, even constricting her neck to prevent her from breathing, and Thorn also made the sand have enough pressure to break Suna's legs with its intensity. She did not even care that Suna had snapped her fingers before this happened, knowing that any attack spell that came from the desert would be useless against her.
As the sand finished crushing Suna's limbs and pounding down on her body, Thorn laughed evilly at the fact that she had killed another person to make her plans go a step forward. The death of Lisanna was certainly important, now having no one to get in her way of manipulating Natsu like a puppet, and cutting Suna loose was what chess was all about. If a pawn had no more use, why should it be allowed to stick around? Karen also continued to giggle evilly, knowing that the plan was only six steps near its activation.
"Three pawns are down, and only five more to go." Thorn thought to herself, before disappearing into the shadows of the Relic Castle with Karen to plan out her next move.
While the demonic woman had left the scene, the body of Suna lay motionless on the desert sand. Her orange eyes were open, having supposedly lost consciousness from Thorn breaking all of the bones in her body, but the face of the green-haired woman began to have cracks in it. The rest of her body began to have cracks in it as well, breaking apart as if Suna had made a shell of herself take her place at some point, and the red liquid on the ground was not blood. It surprisingly made a hole of quicksand appear on the ground, and Suna had emerged from it while looking utterly angered by technically being defeated once again.
As she used her powers to change the sand in the Desert Resort to mushy mud, Suna could faintly sense Lisanna's magical power. The ten rocks making a tomb had now floated away from each other, and Lisanna's body rose to the surface. She had tiny movements in her fingers, showing that she had definitely still been alive, and it was mainly because Suna had snapped her fingers to heal the sandy desert and everything buried within it as well. After all, how else would she keep her buried treasures from rotting into ancient dust?
In Gateau Town...
When Sting and Lucy had arrived in Gateau Town to take care of the tourism problem, both of the mages were very surprised to see that Hibiki Lates and Jenny Realight from the guild known as Blue Pegasus had beat them to it. Hibiki and Jenny had both been posing for the cameras, having done this for an hour before Lucy and Sting had reached the town, making the brown-eyed girl and the white dragon slayer feel like they had come all the way here for nothing. The spotlight had been off of them, that's for sure.
Hibiki's charms and Jenny's looks had caused tons of men and women to come flocking to Gateau Town to not only buy many sweets, but they also wanted autographs from the famous duo. After all, they were on the front cover of the newest issue of Sorcerer Magazine. It wasn't very shocking that people paid attention to the people who were on a team that placed fifth overall in the Grand Magic Games, since that team still had attractive people on it. Brains and brawn were clearly not matching up to beauty here, huh?
Lucy was about to cheer up Sting, who looked pretty frustrated about not getting to be in the commercial because of the klutzy client presumably sending copies of their job request to many guilds in Fiore, but the blonde mage looked pretty surprised to see her orange spell book begin to glow. She opened up the book to the fifth section of magic, where the Earth Magic was located, and Lucy smiled happily to see that the fusion spells of Thorn and Suna had been written into the book. This was most likely Thorn's doing, however.
Sting told his girlfriend in a nice manner, after closing her orange book and softly kissing her on the lips for a moment, "To make up for Hibiki and Jenny stealing our spotlight, we'll have a practice battle tomorrow. You may only use one type of magic, and we'll also be going on a romantic date. You also have to tell me everything about Karen and the book, and you have to give me a pretty good kiss. Let's make sure that our fun day will be filled with all kinds of excitement, especially when we figure out why the book was given to you. I'm sorry for wanting to know so much about it, but it's just weird how you once said that a merchant was happy to see you open a sealed book."
Lucy replied happily while remembering Karen's words and having joy in her brown eyes, "I would love to have a battle and a date with you, Sting. You're the best boyfriend ever, and I guess that we do need to discuss the book more. It was the thing that helped us complete our first job together in the sewers of Castelia Town, you know. Karen told me how the book would open with a person who had a soul that was pure as silver, and my heart had to be filled with brightness like the light of gold."
Upon hearing those words, Sting smiled a bit. Not only was he going to have a battle and a date with his beautiful blonde girlfriend, but now he had also uncovered a pretty important clue about Lucy and the book. If it opened up because of her heart and soul being made of light, then the darkness that occurred on the fourth day of the Grand Magic Games had been sealed away. If the first seven types of magic reacted to the positive feelings of Lucy, then why did the dark magic react in such a negative way? Either way, Sting could now tell that Karen was no ordinary mage in the Grand Magic Games. She knew that Lucy had some kind of major role for the book, but what was it?
How was Chapter 30? Did you like it? The StiCy has improved a bit, and I apologize for the Fairy Tail side having more development in the past few chapters. I changed up from my original plot once again, since there is still something for Lisanna to be involved in when it comes around. Thorn won't try to manipulate or kill off anyone else in the next chapter, so all your favorites are safe. Standby for the update!