A Jedi in Fairy cloth

by Rogue Pizza

This story has been suspended. I may continue it at some point down the line or I may take it down and start from scratch.

9. Chapter 9

Author's Note: I LIVE! Hello to the people who are still reading my story, I know I've been gone for quite a while. I don't really have an excuse except that I tend to right really long chapters sometimes, like really long for me. This current chapter I was writing was intended to be only one chapter, but since I hit seventy pages the other day, it's most likely going to be split into two or three chapters. I'm still working on the chapter, but I keep being distracted by new video games, anime, sleep, school, food, more sleep, D&D games and sometimes just being lazy.

Another reason why I have been taking so long is that I am now 18 and have to start thinking about my future. A little late but better late than never. Also, I have been thinking a lot on just where I want to take this story and while I'm still uncertain about a couple of parts, I have a good idea on which path to take. Although it's a long and windy path filled with many obstacles like responsibilities and stuff like that.

Soon, I will be able to get to a chapter I have been waiting on for quite a while. SOON. Anyway, I've decided to address some reviews in the first part instead of the end, I honestly don't know if you people read the very end so . . . meh :/. In case I haven't made it clear, while Ryu has it pretty good in the Alter and Sense aspects, he mainly struggles with affecting others minds and regulating how much he uses at a time, like whenever he uses Force Heal, he doesn't know how to regulate it very well. Ryu tends to use short bursts like telekinetically blasting his enemies. For Force Surge, he tends to just dump his power into but since he has been using it for so long, he can pretty much regulate that one ability

(Guest1): The Force is a tricky thing, even the person who I consult with (who is a complete fanatic to the Star Wars franchise) has trouble explaining the Force sometimes. Alter could control the mind, with enough precision, you could alter someone's brain chemicals which could permanently affect them. Meanwhile, Control has more of an effect on the . . . how do I say it . . . spirit I would have to say. I consult multiple sources, I go to the Force Powers wiki page and then I consult my star wars expert with them. For example, while Force Jump was under Alter, Force Speed (Prefer the name Force Surge) was under Control. Again, these can be argued with, you use Alter to push your body past its normal limits while you can regulate the Force through your body enhancing your muscles and give you an extra boost to your jump.

(generic name, hvnsfury): That reason for that will come along way way waaaaayyyyyyyy down the line, this is going to be a long ass series so bear with me.

(Guest2(one with the Star Killer comment)): Well this is a bit embarrassing, current path is to make Ryu more like Star Killer. However, at a certain point, Ryu is going to gravitate away from that. A couple hints to come in the coming chapters on what exactly (not this one though)

Any questions, I'll be glad to answer them.

Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail, Star Wars, or any other references I make, knowingly or not

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Side Note: I've decided to take a slightly different path so Chapter name change

Chapter 9:

Winding Down

12:21 PM, Outskirts of Clover Town

"You guys cannot be serious."

Makarov squinted his eyes, "I don't see what's wrong Ryu."

Ryu sighed, "You guys want to go through Clover Canyon, which legend says no one who has gone it has come out. This is just after we defeated an ancient evil flute?"

Lucy smiled mischievously, "What, are you scared Ryu?"

The Jedi scoffed at that comment, "I took down a scorpion that was the size of a small village, a stinking legend like this doesn't scare me. I'm just wondering why don't we just take the tracks back, sure it's a bit of walk but I hear the train is currently out so we wouldn't have to worry about dodging a train. Not to mention, we won't get lost."

"But Ryu," Happy started, "I can easily find the way through and it will be much faster than the tracks."

"Come on Ryu, Happy can easily lead the way. He's got a great sense of smell." Natsu added.

Ryu let out an irritated groan, "Screw it, I have the ability to travel by air, I'll see you all back at the guild. Soil of the Winds!"

A chunk of earth separated from the ground and lifted into the air. Ryu gave a slight nod to the group before crouching down on the chunk of earth and speeding of at a decent pace. Everyone in the group looked to each other, Gray was the first to speak up, "I don't suppose he's still mad at us for making him do this on his birthday, right?"

Erza looked at the ground, "I will admit, if I known it was his birthday yesterday, I wouldn't have asked him to come with us."

"And Ryu definitely seems like the kind of guy to hold a grudge. Wait, how could you not know it was his birthday? How long has he been in the guild with you guys? It's the same day every year." Lucy sighed.

Makarov chipped in, "Ryu has never been one to celebrate his birthday with us. I heard he does with his family but he doesn't seem to care if we don't throw a party for him."

Everyone stood in silence for a bit, regretting somewhat that they unknowingly made Ryu work on his birthday. Soon, they all moved in the direction of Clover Canyon entrance in silence. Lucy took one more look at the wizard as he flew away on his chunk of earth, he was but a spec in the distance, getting smaller and smaller with every second. She couldn't help but think back to all the unanswered questions about Ryu and the fact that the chances of him answering any of them was close to nothing. She had to jog to catch up to her guildmates since they didn't bother to stop when she did.

()()()()

1:41 PM, Oshibana

In reality, Ryu couldn't care less about having to work on his birthday. He just knew it was expected of him. Plus, now he had a favor from Erza for helping her with Lullaby. He had some fun on the quest and got to launch a vehicle into a giant monster, the chances of him being able to do that again was extremely slim if nothing. Ryu wasn't planning on flying all the way back to Magnolia, he would stop off in Oshibana and catch a carriage ride back to town and probably arrive sometime at night. Once he was on the outskirts of town, Ryu settled back down on the ground and dispelled his Soil of Winds.

The town was lively to say the least despite what happened yesterday at the train station. People went around their business quickly, occasionally chatting with people they know. Ryu went completely unnoticed as he made his way through town. Out of boredom, Ryu drew Zhuses from his pocket dimension to strike up a conversation.

The holocron flickered to life with Zhuses bowing slightly as he appeared, "Anything you require Ryu?"

A couple people shot weird glances at him as he walked through town with a glowing blue hologram next to him but as always, he never paid them any heed. After the bow, Zhuses proceeded to walk side by side with Ryu, it helped him feel more alive. Ryu didn't mind, as long as Zhuses helped him improve his own abilities, and agreed to chat with him from time to time. Zhuses in a way was Ryu's only known relative.

"So, Shatterpoint went well all things considering. I'm starting to get the hang of it." Ryu stated confidently.

Zhuses chuckled slightly, "Don't get too far ahead of yourself. While you did successfully use Shatterpoint, it was an easy thing to do when the creature had fault lines about the size of your ego."

Ryu raised his eyebrows, "Still ever so witty Zhuses, be careful though, without me there is no one else who could power you. Might just stick you in my pocket dimension and never pull you out again."

"I dare ya, who else is going to teach you advanced Force techniques?" Zhuses had Ryu right where he wanted him.

Or so he thought, "You know, I've been thinking of developing my Earth magic more till its on par with my Force abilities. Might take a couple years."

Zhuses hesitated, then sighed, "You're bluffing."

"Yeah, but you believed it for a second." Ryu quipped.

"You know, if you focus on honing your Control skills, you could use Force Heal more effectively."

"Don't see much point, Control won't help me in the long run. Plus it's more fun to fight enemies then to mind control them."

Zhuses smiled, "You know, there is a rather advanced technique you might be interested in learning . . . if you can hone your Control skills."

"Oh, and what is that?" Ryu asked uninterestedly.

"Cloak of Shadows."

Ryu stopped dead in his tracks, his gaze staring into Zhuses's transparent eyes, "You're shitting me."

Zhuses shook his head, "No, I am not 'shitting you'."

Anger rose slightly in Ryu's voice, "You told me Cloak of Shadows was a myth, that it wasn't real."

"You weren't ready for it, and you still aren't ready for it. I believed I could convince you to hone your Control skill without it but now I see that I was wrong. I promise to teach it to you, if you will start honing your Control skills."

Ryu crossed his arms and turned away from Zhuses, he had heard about some Jedi having the ability to turn completely invisible with immense focus. Zhuses convinced Ryu at a young age that it was only myth, and it had never been done before but it had all been a lie. Ryu wasn't sure how to feel, now that he knew it was possible to learn Cloak of Shadows was exhilarating, but the fact Zhuses had lied to him made Ryu just as angry.

"Ryu, if you tried learning Cloak of Shadows up until your S-Class exam, it would have literally been impossible for you. But now I see how strong you've gotten, the amount of Force energy coursing through you is staggering. If you learn some intermediate Control skills, you could possibly learn Cloak of Shadows on sheer amounts of power alone. You just need to how to regulate it better, if your Force abilities had the control of your Earth magic, you'd be able to learn it no problem."

Ryu rolled his eyes as he turned around, "You're still an asshole. But . . . I can trust you when you said I wasn't ready."

"I have something that'll cheer you right up." Zhuses smiled.

"And what per say is that?"

The hologram pointed a little ways down the street. Ryu followed the trajectory of the finger on he found him staring a building. It was a red brick building that was two stories, much like the buildings around it. But this building was a cafe, although it was not just any regular cafe. It was a maid cafe.

Zhuses could see Ryu's mood change drastically in a instant, and could only shake his head, "You're nothing but a freaking S-Class pervert. I can't even imagine your reaction to seeing Levy dress up like one of those girls."

When the hologram looked back up, he could see a small trickle of blood coming from Ryu's nose. Ryu jogged on ahead leaving a chuckling Zhuses behind, the hologram vanished for a second then reappeared next to the door as the silver haired Jedi approached, "I can only imagine how your mother would react to you going to this place. But from what she told me, your father was into this kind of stuff as well."

Ryu didn't any attention to the hologram as he opened the door and stepped inside. A small bell above the door rung as he opened the door. His nose was quickly assaulted by all kinds of sweet smells. Various girls in their mid to late teens could be seen moving all around the cafe, taking orders, chatting with customers or bringing food from the kitchen. The place was somewhat crowded but Ryu was positive that he would be able to get a table without waiting.

About half a minute later, a girl with blonde pigtails that fell to her waist approached Ryu, "Welcome home masters, table for two?"

Ryu was confused for a second till he looked next to him, Zhuses gave a casual wave, "Yo, still here."

"Yes please."

The girl smiled, "Right this way masters."

The two of them were lead to a table in the corner of the room with two seats. Zhuses merely appeared in the sitting position while Ryu had to pull out the chair and scoot in. The maid placed down two menus, "Your server will be with you soon. She's new here so please forgive her if she screws up."

Ryu smiled warm heartedly, "Oh no problem, but we only need one menu. My friend here isn't exactly . . . alive."

The maid didn't seem to mind that Zhuses 'wasn't alive' as she picked up the spare menu and walked off humming some tune unknown to Ryu. Zhuses deadpanned at Ryu, "'Not exactly 'alive?' What the hell kind of statement is that?"

Ryu paid no heed as he opened the menu and began to scan the list of available sweets and drinks. Zhuses continued, "You know, in all the years you've had me, you haven't asked me once about your parents. I talked to both of them you know, hell you could ask me about any generation of your ancestors. I've talked with more people than the number of people in Fiore, that tends to happen when you stick around for a couple thousand years."

"I don't ask questions I don't want to know the answers about." Ryu responded without looking up from the menu.

"Why don't you want to learn about your parents, without them fooling around you wouldn't be here." Zhuses chuckled.

Ryu rolled his eyes, "Why do you look like a sixty year old? It's kind of sad of a man of your age to hang around a teenager like me."

"Well, I'm kind of stuck with you. And you never seem bothered by my age before."

Ryu finally looked up from the menu, "It might be time for a change of pace, you had to look somewhat different when you were my age. Try that."

Zhuses glanced around the cafe for a moment, "I'll be back in a couple moments." The projection flickered before vanishing and reappeared for another brief second, "Don't think I didn't notice you change the subject." .

After he was gone, Ryu brought the menu up to eye level and continued to scan it for something to buy. He wanted something light since he wanted to be back in Magnolia before dawn of the next day. After a minute of searching, Ryu could heard someone walk up to him.

"Have you decided on what you wanted to order, master?" The menu fell from his hand, and his mouth hung agape as he recognized the voice of the maid.

Levy was just as surprised to see Ryu sitting in the seat. The both of them stayed in silence for a minute, each of them trying to figure out something to say. But Ryu had to say, Levy looked amazing in a maid outfit. This sight would stay in Ryu's mind until the day he passed on to the next life. Levy was just stunned by the fact that she would meet Ryu here of all places while she was on a job.

Zhuses fizzled back into existence, "So that's the face you make when you think of Levy in a maid outfit."

Levy was the first to recover, "W-what would you like to order?"

Ryu smirked slightly, "You mean, 'What would you like to order, master?'."

Levy let out a low growl, "Damn it, just come with me."

Ryu felt a tight grip on his wrist before he was yanked out of his chair and dragged off by Levy. Zhuses lazily waved after Ryu as he was dragged off, "Don't do anything you'll regret Ryu, you only have one life."

As the two disappeared, Zhuses looked at himself in a nearby mirror. He was wearing his Jedi robes that he wore when he was inducted into the Jedi Order over three thousand years ago. He looked very similar to Ryu except his hair dropped to his shoulders, was straight, and had no braid on the side like Ryu's did. His eyes had been light brown or amber depending on who you asked. His height was shorter of that then Ryu's, he peaked out about 5' 9" so he wasn't short nor tall.

"Been so long since I have seen myself this young, ah the stuff I got into at a young age. Murdering my father and rescuing Jedi prisoners before joining the Republic. Then deciding to fall in love and marry one of the Jedi I rescued and hide it from the council." Zhuses chuckled a couple more times before he winked out of existence.

()()()()

Ryu was pulled into the changing room before Levy slammed the door shut and turned to Ryu with angry look. Levy sighed slightly before lightly knocking her head against the wall, "It's just my luck that you'd show up while I was on this job. I was going to try and stay in character but I should have known better with you."

"What, all the other maids said 'master' at the end of their sentences most of the time. You did it once before you knew it was me. I was just wanting equal treatment." Ryu replied.

"Will you just shut it for now?"

He did as he was told, seeing Levy angry like this meant she was serious. She said she was on a job which meant that she was on an official job request. The least he could do was to hear what her job was before going back to making fun of her.

A minute of silence hung between them before the pigtailed maid from before came into the room, "Oh hey Levy, I was wond-" Her eyes widened when she saw Ryu, "You know your not suppose to bring customers back here!"

"He's from my guild." Levy said simply.

Ryu made a split second and held up his gauntlet which bore his guild symbol, "I'm here to help."

Levy was surprised to say the least, she was expecting him to make some remark about she interrupted the two of them in the middle of something "important". The pigtailed girl on the other hand started to smile, "That's wonderful. I was scared at first but when Levy showed up I was somewhat relieved but I still have worries."

Levy became a little suspicious, "Are you doing this for a portion of the reward or to earn a favor from me?"

Ryu raised his eyebrows, "I'm not completely evil Levy, I've done pro bono jobs before. Besides, Fairy Tail is my family, and family means we help each other out, even if I have nothing to gain from it."

Levy was once again surprised, Ryu hardly ever showed this side of himself. It could have been an apology for annoying her earlier, then again it could have been for any number of reasons. Ryu was a very . . . strange person to say the least.

"Are you sure? You don't even know what the job is." Levy asked.

"I already agreed, so just tell me what job you're on."

Levy looked to the other maid who was in the room for a second, if something was to happen, Levy wasn't sure if she could handle it on her own. There were a lot of unknowns and she didn't want anyone getting hurt in case she messed up, "Alright, here's what's going on. Currently, there is a group of people going on robberies around town. They rob at least one place each day but they always manage to escape. Strangely, they only seem to rob cafes, but what type of cafe doesn't matter. It could be a book cafe, a kitten cafe, or a-"

"Maid Cafe?" Ryu interjected.

The other girl in the room nodded, "Correct, the type of cafe doesn't matter. Oshibana is somewhat known for all the cafes it has around town, so the mayor sent out a job request for assistance. Team Shadow Gear was the group that took the job. The other two have been placed in other cafes around the city that haven't been robbed yet in hopes of maximizing the chances of catching them."

Ryu nodded toward the pigtailed girl, "And who might you be? You seem to know a lot."

Levy answered, "This is Lillian, she is the daughter of the owner of this cafe. Although the owner is currently away on business so she is currently the boss around here."

Lillian gave a deep bow, "Please help us, I'm scared to have anything happen to the other girls or our customers."

Ryu casually waved his hand, "I already said I'll help so no need for begging. So, what's the plan?"

"What we were doing before you arrived." Levy responded.

Ryu motioned for her to continue, "What I mean is that we wait."

"You mean we just sit here and hope that they rob one of the three places we are placed at?"

Levy raised her eyebrow, "If you got a better idea, lets hear it."

"Nope, sitting around just really isn't my style. But I'll follow your lead." Ryu responded.

Her eyebrows rose a little higher, "You will follow my lead? That I can't believe."

"Uh . . ." Lillian started, "Is there bad blood between you two?"

"Well, not so much as bad blood than just being good friends." Levy answered.

Ryu's heart sunk ever so slightly at the words 'friend'. He wanted to be more than friends for years, but something was holding him back, something that told him if he confessed, it would be all over for him. It might have been fear, it could be he was too weak to tell her, or it could have been the Force keeping him from doing it. The Force was a powerful and unknown . . . force . . . and steering a person away from something or someone was hardly a challenge.

Lillian could see the slight look of sadness on Ryu's face. She had seen this look on many men's faces when they would look at a girl they liked but knew that they would never be together. Ryu managed to do a good job of hiding but not good enough to slip past Lillian.

After a brief silence, Lillian continued the conversation, "So where should we put Ryu, it's possible if he hangs out all day in the dining area the robbers might get a little suspicious."

"Dishboy." Levy answered without hesitation, "We're always running dangerously close to using dirty dishes because we don't have enough people washing considering all the people that come here."

Lillian turned her eyes toward Ryu, "Is that alright Ryu?"

"Hmm . . . One condition." He waited a second in case objected, "I'm the only dish washer, I tend to work better the less people doing the same job as me."

"Are you sure? There are going to be a lot of dishes coming your way." Lillian questioned.

Ryu smiled at the challenge, "You want a demonstration?"

Lillian looked suspiciously at the Jedi for a moment before leading them out of the changing room and into the kitchen. Half of the kitchen was devoted to cleaning dishes and silverware while the other half was only for the preparation of food. Ryu spotted a few males within the kitchen staff, most likely part timers.

Lillian clapped her hands and received the cleaning staff's attention, "Everybody cleaning dishes and silverware take ten."

The cleaners smiled and bowed slightly before leaving the kitchen, Lillian started pointing to various areas of the cleaning area, "Dirty dishes and utensils are brought there by the maids. Sinks for washing the remaining bits off. Dishwashers here have twenty minute cycles, cost a lot to buy these. Hand drying area for when there is no time for dishwashers. And finally, clean stuff goes on the shelfs dividing the cleaning and cooking area. Can you handle it?"

Ryu cracked his knuckles just before he did the same with his neck, "You might want to stand back."

A large portion of the dirty dishes rose as Ryu extended his arms, all the sinks suddenly started running water when Ryu delivered a single flick of his finger in their direction. The dirty dishes floated over and gently fell into the sinks. Ryu jogged over to sinks before he lifted his hands toward the dishes once more. A smaller portion of the dishes once again were lifted along with a sponge for each sink, using one hand to keep the dishes under the running water suspended Ryu moved his other hand in a circular motion, the sponges copying his movements. After a couple seconds of scrubbing, those dishes were stacked off to the side of the sinks. Then another small portion of dishes rose out of the sinks and Ryu continued to rinse and repeat. Once the dishes and silver in the sinks had all been rinsed, all the rinsed dishes rose simultaneously. The dishes washers opened with another flick of his fingers, the dishes then all flew into the sanitizer neatly without breaking a single piece of ceramic wear. Once the sanitizer clicked closed, it only took one more flick of his finger to start each cycle.

Lillian stood her mouth agape, stunned at the spectacle that just happened. Levy merely smiled a Ryu, "Your power certainly has improved last I saw it in action. To manage so many little things at once, that has to require a lot of focus doesn't it?"

Ryu shook his head, "Not really, I've always had a natural affinity for moving stuff."

Lillian finally managed to find the words speak, "What do I have to do to get you to work here full time?"

Ryu laughed, "Sorry, but no can do." Then the rest of the dirty dishes floated over to the sinks with another simple movement of his hand, "You two better get back to work, and I'm pretty sure you can find other tasks for the washers to deal with."

Lillian smiled before she left the kitchen, Levy started for the door as well but after a step. She turned to Ryu, "I just want to say thank you. You know for doing this. You said that you'd do this for nothing but . . . it wouldn't feel right to me."

"You're too kind Levy, how bout this, you have to come over sometime, at my choosing, and have tea with me?"

Levy thought for a second, "I do that already from time to time."

"Fine, you also have to bring me hmm . . . how about some clothing fabrics, I've been thinking of creating a new set of clothes, and patching up others."

"Okay, that shouldn't a problem. I need to get back to work. Behave yourself, don't break anything, and if people start screaming, well you know what to do." Levy smiled before she left to go back to her job.

Ryu nodded as he continued with the dishes, after the cycle was over, the dishes floated from washers and settled themselves on the shelves in their respectives places. Soon the backed up amount of dishes became less than five dishes at a time before they were lifted away to be clean. The day continued like this without incident, well till around closing time anyway.

()()()()

6:47 PM, the Maid Cafe

"It's almost closing time, last call for orders." Ryu heard Lillian shout from the dining area. The day went off without a hitch and normally Ryu would have been relieved of his duty but since they heard no reports of any cafe being robbed, they all had to stay on their toes.

Lillian came into the kitchen and waved Ryu over. The Jedi finished up the current batch of dishes before he sauntered over to the head maid, "Thank you the help you gave us today,. I also want to thank you for staying here to help in case anything went wrong."

"No problem, I don't mind doing a Levy a favor for free. She has helped me a lot since I've been in Fairy Tail. Least I could do to repay her." Ryu replied with a shy smile.

"Oh, I just remembered, I got something I need to ask you about the robbings. Could you come to the changing room in a bit?"

Ryu was a bit confused, "If it's about the robbings, then shouldn't you ask Levy?"

"No, what I mean is I want to talk about you helping us tomorrow, they haven't been caught yet so we still need help. Is that okay?"

"Yeah sure, I don't have anything else I need to do so I don't mind staying a couple more days."

Lillian clapped her hands, "Great, I see you in the changing room in 5 minutes, we can work out the details. I have to pay you something if you keep helping us."

"Alright then, I'll see you after I finish up in here." Ryu said as he turned to finish up the last bit was dishes. What he didn't see was the devilish smile make its way across her face.

Ryu finished up washing the latest batch of dishes before starting the dish washers on their final cycle of the day. Members of the kitchen staff thanked him for his hard work as he walked past toward the door. He hung his apron that he was provided with up next to the door where other aprons were located before leaving the kitchen. As he walked through the hall, a couple maids greeted him as he passed by to the changing room. Once he arrived to the changing room, he opened the door to find it dark in the room.

He took a couple steps inside and called out, "Hey, are you in here Lillian?"

The door slammed shut, making the room pitch black. Ryu was then slammed against the wall and pinned. His hands were still free but before he could get off a jab, the lights flicked on. Lillian currently was pinning him to the wall, her hands on her shoulders and one leg linked with his. A seductive smile shone brightly on her face, her bright green eyes staring into his dark irises .

Lillian's face moved closer to Ryu's, "Hi there Ryu, fancy meeting you here."

"Ha ha, enough joking around." He started to push her off.

Her response was pressing her body harder against his, her breasts pressing tightly on his chest, "Who says this is a joke?"

Ryu became a little more stern, "Please get off me . . . or I will make you."

Lillian leaned in her mouth closer to Ryu's ear and brought her voice down to a whisper, "What situation is more likely to develop from other people's mind: The maid forcing herself on a strange man, or a stranger using his strength to take advantage of a poor helpless maid?"

She had Ryu cornered, with her leg wrapped around his own he couldn't push her down without landing on top of her. And very well couldn't hit her because that could be used against him as well. He doubted anyone would listen to his side of the story and even if they did, what were the chances they would believe him."

Ryu grinded his teeth, "What do you want?"

"You're going to answer a question for me truthfully, and if you don't . . . well prison." Lillian said in a seductive voice.

Ryu closed his eyes and braced himself for the question, it could be anything from a weakness in Fairy Tail to his true origins, "What?"

"What do you honestly think of Levy?"

Ryu's eyes shot open, Lillian face was no longer close to his and her regular friendly smile was back. Her leg was still wrapped around his although, "What do you mean?"

"What do you think of Levy, do you like her or what?" There was a brief pause before she added, "And if you don't tell the truth I'll scream."

" . . . Well . . . she's my friend." Ryu replied, hesitation dripping from her voice like water from a soaked sponge.

Lillian smiled cheerfully, "Wrong answer, you get one more try or I scream."

Ryu remained silent, Lillian took this as his answer and began a deep breath of air. But before anything else could happen Ryu spoke, "I like her."

"Go on." Lillian urged while silently letting out the breath of air.

"I like her, I really like her. Hell, might as well be love."

Lillian shifted her leg so it was no longer hooked behind Ryu's leg but kept him pushed against the wall, "What do you love about her?"

Ryu didn't need to think before he answered, "What don't I love is a better question. She's smart, kind hearted, hard working, loyal, beautiful . . . and a bookworm."

Lillian's smile faded a bit as they stood there in silence. After about a minute Lillian pushed off his shoulders, "Pooh, and here I was hoping you wouldn't think anything of her other than a friend."

"What are you talking about?"

Lillian pressed her breasts up against Ryu again, but this time she was just leaning on Ryu, "Well, I have a crush on a certain man called 'Fairy Tail's Dancing Swordsman'."

A loud groan erupted from Ryu, "I've already have had enough of that stupid name. So you like me, big deal. Is that all you wanted to talk about?"
She threw on a pouting face, "You're mean, a girl confesses to you and this is how you treat her?"

"Yeah . . . look, your pretty, I'll admit that to anyone. " Ryu reassured her.

Lillian remained silent for a couple moments before her bright smiled returned, "Alright then, but if it doesn't work out between you and Levy, be sure to give me a chance, alright?"

"I'll be sure t-" A loud scream erupted from the dining followed shortly by the sound or either glass or ceramic wear breaking. It sounded like chaos from just beyond the door. The both of them knew exactly what was going on.

"Robbers." They both said in unison.

Ryu moved quickly to the door, "Stay here Lillian, I'll handle the si-"

Before Ryu could finish his sentence, the door swung open and the corner slammed into his forehead. He stumbled backwards and tripped over some object that had been left of the floor, he couldn't tell since he was dazed. As his vision came back into focus, he saw the assailant step into the room and start yelling something at him. Something flashed in his hand which Ryu assumed was a knife but before he could react, someone reached from behind the attacker and smacked the knife out of their hand. The attacker quickly turned around only to have a foot slammed into their face. While clutching their nose, the attacker threw a wild punch only to have their wrist gripped and having their own momentum used against them as they toppled to the ground. Before they could get up, their arm was pinned behind their back just before a quick jab was delivered to their neck, causing them to go limp.

Ryu's savior stood up, as his vision finally came back into complete focus. Lillian stood in front of him with a helping hand in front of him. He brushed it to the side as flipped to his feet, Ryu eyed Lillian for a moment. All she gave him was her regular friendly smile. Ryu scoffed, "Harmless maid my ass."

Lillian chuckled slightly before becoming serious, "So what's the plan?"

"You sweep and clear the areas off limit to the public, I'll handle the kitchen and dining area." Lillian nodded and ran out of the room followed closely by Ryu.

There was another robber in the hall but before Ryu even registered them, Lillian was already all over them and took them out quickly with a series of a couple quick jabs and kicks. Her fighting style seemed flawless and he wondered where she received her training. He pushed it past his mind as he quickly made his way to the kitchen, Levy would have to be on her own for now. Quickly but quietly, Ryu opened the door to see a man with a club grouping the kitchen staff and a couple maids in a corner, threatening them with his club if they seemed the least bit rebellious.

"Hey, dumbass!" Ryu called out.

The man turned around with his club raised. Now that his attention was no longer on the staff, one of the members took advantage of this and grabbed a nearby pan before denting it with the mans head. The robber fell to the ground without a word, Ryu was impressed to say the least.

"Alright then . . . I'll just secure the dining area then." Ryu lent the door slide close before speaking, "Why is everyone stealing my thunder?"

After that thought passed his mind, he ran to the dining area only to hear the words, "Solid Script: Wind!" Followed very shortly by what sounded like a tornado inside the cafe. Ryu peaked around the corner to see Levy still adorable in her maid outfit . . . and protecting a bunch of maids and customers but that wasn't as important to Ryu.

Ryu smiled softly, "She sure has grown up, she's able to handle herself quite well these days. I'm glad." His gaze shifted to the half dozen unconscious robbers that laid strewn everywhere on the opposite side of the room from everyone else.

"You mage bitch!"

Ryu's gaze rocketed back toward Levy in time to see one of the members of the crowd deliver a right hook across her face. Levy was tough but the sudden attack from the crowd caught her by surprise, causing her to get knocked to the ground. She was down but far from out, as she started to get up, she was yanked upward by her hair causing her to let out a yelp of pain. Shortly after a knife was pressed up against her throat. Three of members of the crowd stepped out with their concealed weapons now drawn and turned to face the crowd they were apart of moments ago.

"If anyone here moves, then this girls dress is going to be soaked in red!" He pressed the slightly harder against her throat causing a small trickle of blood to flow down her chest. The man nodded to another in his group, "Go get the money from the crash register and the others, they probably found their fair share by now."

It was at this point Ryu's memory became a little hazy, he had apparently stepped out from around the corner in plain sight of the man who turned around for the cash register. But before he could say anything, a chair flew at the man and shattered on impact, sending shards over the crowd. Ryu hadn't even raised a finger to send that chair flying, at least he thought is was him that did it. The other two men sprinted at Ryu but before they could get three steps in, a chair was flung at the both of them with similar effects to the first. The two sprinters slumped to the ground with a minor concussion and a couple slivers.

The last man yanked Levy around and placed her in front of him as a shield, a look of pure rage shown on his face, "Now listen buddy, if even one piece of silverware floats off the table, the bitch here gets it."

Ryu stood there for a second, his mind still in a somewhat haze. Then all he did was raise his fingers toward the man. The robber growled and ducked further behind Levy, "What did I just s-"

The attacker stopped speaking when he realized that the knife was no longer on the girls throat as it had been a couple seconds ago. He tried placing the knife back but no matter how hard he tried, his arm refused to move. Then slowly his other arm was pried from the girl he was holding. Once the grip was loose enough, Levy managed to squirm out and away from her captor. But it didn't stop there, the man gained control of his free arm once again but the one holding the knife was still immoveable. Then to his horror, the knife started slowly making its way closer to his face. He tried dropping the knife but his fingers wouldn't respond to him either. His attempts were still fruitless when he attempted in using his free hand in order to stop his arm. The knife drew ever closer, inching slowly toward his eye.

"Please stop!" The man begged.

Levy turned around to see Ryu with a serious look on his face, it didn't take long before she realized if she didn't do anything, Ryu was possibly going to kill this man, "That's enough Ryu, I'm fine now."

He didn't so much as glance at her as he continued to move the knife closer to Levy's attacker. Levy quickly moved over to Ryu, "That's enough Ryu, stop whatever you're doing!"

His gaze was still fixed on the man who had hurt Levy, she started to get desperate. It was then something caught her eyes, it could have been a trick of the light but Ryu's eyes weren't the usual dark green they were, they looked more . . . yellow, a sicking yellow at that.

She shot a quick glance back at the man, the knife had to have been less than an inch from the man's eye. She looked back to Ryu and screamed, "Ryu, please stop!"

Ryu jolted sightly as if he just came out of a daydream, his hand came to his head as he started to rapidly blink as he tried to bring himself back into focus. Levy noticed at some point during the rapid blinking, Ryu's natural eye color had returned to his irises. The man who had been a few seconds away from loosing an eye was panting heavily with the knife still in his hand. His fear soon turned to rage as he gripped the knife tighter as he charged the still disoriented Jedi. The sudden screaming brought Ryu back to realm of reality in time to see the man charging him and Levy who was next to him. Acting out of pure instinct, Ryu shoved Levy out of the way with one hand and directed his other toward the man a second before the blade sunk into his gut. Unharmed by whatever Ryu had sent at him, the man took this chance to make a break out the door.

Levy let out a cry as she saw Ryu keel over onto the ground and she quickly got to her knees as the man who stabbed him ran out of the cafe. She quickly rolled Ryu over to his back to see a pained expression on Ryu's face, but it wasn't what she expected , "Damn that guy can hit hard."

Levy looked at the point where the knife should have run Ryu through. The handle of the knife lay disconnected with the rest of the blade, while the blade itself was broken into several pieces. Levy looked in disbelief, "H-how?"

"Guess I have a better grasp on Shatterpoint than I thought. Only as big as my ego, bite me." Ryu chuckled as a slight grin crossed his face.

The moment was broken up when that same man who had tried stabbed Ryu came flying back into the cafe, quite literally. He landed on and broke some chairs and a table. At the velocity he was going, he had to have been shot out of a cannon, or someone with enough throwing power of a cannon. Turns out it was the latter of the two as a huge man bent down in order to fit through the door. When he stood to his full height he was easily as tall as elfman, probably even tallen if that was even possible, it was then Ryu noticed just high high the ceiling was. The man scanned the room and his eyes fell on Ryu.

"Are you alright young man?" His voice was deep to say the least.

Ryu nodded as he began to stand up, still clutching where that man had hit him, "And who might I owe thanks to?"

What happened next left Ryu and Levy speechless, "Daddy!"

Lillian came running out from the back area without so much as a hair out of place on her head. She leapt through the air and wrapped her arms around the large man's neck as they both began to laugh happily and spin in circles.

The regular staff walked over and began welcoming their boss back from his trip. The tense situation beforehand had all been forgotten as people started chatting among themselves as if there hadn't been an attempted robbery.

Levy looked to Ryu, "Are you sure you're alright?"

He nodded as he smiled back at her, it was then he noticed that there was a nasty bruise and some swelling with a little blood where the man had hit Levy. Something stirred inside Ryu that wanted him to hurt the man even more but he pushed it past him, this was his chance to take care of Levy. He took her by the hand and lead her over to a chair and told her to sit down.

Ryu pulled up a chair next to her and started reaching toward her but stopped midway, "I'm going to help you with that nasty looking bruise, alright?"

"You're not going to draw something on face last time you did something like this, right?" Levy smirked.

"You couldn't get those whiskers off for a week." Ryu chuckled at the memory but then became more serious, "No, I promise."

Levy eyed Ryu suspiciously before she closed her eyes. Ryu placed his hand on her cheek causing her to wince slightly. He then calmed his thoughts, if he was going to do this on Levy, he was going to do it right . . . or at least try to. Ryu had a very minute grasp on Control skills. His mind was now clear except for the thought of Levy's injury. When he thought he was ready, he began to channel the Force through his arm, out his fingers and palm, and onto Levy's cheek. He continued this process until he wore himself out. As he opened his eyes, he made sure to control his breathing as to not to alarm Levy from making her think there was something wrong with him.

Her skin was soft to the touch, and he had a hard time removing his hand from her cheek. The once nasty bruise had been reduced to slight skin discoloration which should clear up in about a day. She opened her eyes and smiled, "How do I look?"

"Beau-" He quickly stopped himself and then resorted to something else, "Befitting someone like you."

Levy's brow furrowed slightly, "What's that suppose to mean?"

Ryu shrugged innocently, "I don't know, what do you think it means?"

Levy punched him in the shoulder as a smile broke across her face. It wasn't long after that when they both heard two familiar voices come shouting through the door, "Levy!"

Jet and Droy came barging through the door and frantically looked around until their eyes fell on Levy. They started to run over but slowed their pace when they saw who was standing next to her. After they both acknowledged his presence, their attention turned back to Levy as they both started to ask in unison about 'was she hurt' or 'what happened here' and the oh so obvious question, 'what is Ryu doing here'.

Ryu moved away from the trio to give them some space. The three of them were a team, Ryu was just a temporary add on. He sat back in a chair and kicked his feet up on another a couple feet away from him. While it looked like he was relaxing and calm, his thoughts were worried and confused.

"What the hell happened to me? I was in control but . . . I was going to kill that man. If Levy hadn't stopped me then he would have had a knife through his eye. At the same time, I wanted to drive that blade through his skull like nothing else. Hmm . . . I should probably ask Zhuses about this, he seems to know more about me than I do sometimes." Ryu began to pull his holocron out his pocket when the large man who was apparently Lillian's father approached him.

The man bowed slightly, "I want to thank for being here to protect my daughter, my staff, and my dream. My name is Alex Winterglade"

"Pleasure Mr. Winterglade. Ryu Darkson at your service. And to be fair, your daughter didn't need any saving, in fact she saved me actually. And what do you mean about saving your dream?"

The large man chuckled, "It had always been my dream at a young age to open my own maid cafe. I'd dream about it almost every night and I would go to a maid cafe whenever I could. But parents kept pushing to inherit the family business but I kept refusing so when I was old enough, I moved out and started working anywhere I could to earn money for my dream."

Ryu mulled some thoughts around in his head, "Not the strangest dream I've heard about, besides maids are pretty freaking fantastic. What did your parents want you to do instead?"

"Inherit the family dojo."

"Wait, you mean like a martial arts dojo?" Ryu asked with curiosity.

"Not like, it is a martial arts dojo. Been around for about five hundred years. Trained there almost everyday till I was eighteen and then I left."

"I'm assuming you taught your daughter some martial art techniques?"

"Of course! What kind of father wouldn't train their daughters to defend themselves?!" He exclaimed.

Ryu chuckled slightly, "Of course. Now if you don't mind good sir, I must find a place to stay the night."

As Ryu stood up, Alex wrapped an arm around Ryu's shoulders. Had he been any shorter, it would have been around his neck, "Nonsense, we have a room you can stay the night in. My daughter set Levy up in a room that she has been staying in the past couple nights."

"A room for me and Levy?" Ryu gulped. Alexis nodded cheerfully, "I-I guess I'll take you up on your offer then."

"Terrific! I'll show you to your room." Alexis said as he began to basically drag Ryu off.

As they neared the stairs, Levy caught up with them, "Hey Ryu, Jet, Droy, and I are going to go talk to our employer now so we can leave first thing in the morning."

Ryu waved after her as he was dragged up the stairs by Alexis. Much to Ryu's dismay, he was set up in a different room than Levy. But on the plus side, Ryu would be able to wake up and have breakfast served by beautiful maids. His daydreams went wild as he laid there on his bed. It wasn't long after the day's fatigue caught up with him, whisking him off to sleep.

()()()()

Next Day, 8:34 AM, Road to Magnolia

"So let me get this straight", Ryu started, "The only reason those guys were robbing cafes was because they thought they wouldn't meet anyone tough in there because it's a cafe?"

Droy nodded, "Yeah I know right, the leader started talking pretty quickly once he was in custody from what I heard. Was it true they had guys blending in with the crowd?"

"Yeah, pretty smart if you ask me. Not only could they be secret backup if needed, they could feed the police false information that could've thrown them off." Ryu replied.

Jet let out a small chuckle, "I was seriously not expecting Lillian's father to be as tall as Elfman, did you see how buff that guy was?"

"He could probably bench press all four of us and probably a full grown cow as well." Ryu chuckled as well before a look of excitement crossed his face, "You guys will never guess what I did the other day."

Both them didn't even bother trying to guess, "What?" They asked in unison.

"I drove a magic-mobile and ramped it off straight into a giant ass monster." Ryu said, voice full of pride.

Jet scoffed, "Bull."

Droy agreed with his friend, "Yeah, nice try Ryu but we don't buy it."

"No, I'm serious, ask Gray, Erza, Natsu, Happy, or the newbie about it. They saw the whole thing, the six of us were on a mission to take down a guild, one thing led to another and we fought some ancient flute monster bigger than the guildhouse. Anyway, I saw the opportunity and I took it."

Jet and Droy stopped in their tracks, their faces plastered with a horrified look. Jet was the first to speak up, "You, Erza, Gray, and Natsu formed a team together?"

Ryu and Levy who had been quiet this entire trip stopped as well. The Jedi shrugged his shoulders, "Yeah, and? I learned it's actually quite fun to sometimes join up with people who can destroy a lot stuff with minimal effort."

"Are to trying to wipe Fiore off the map?!" Droy screamed at him

"Oh please" Ryu began, "If we really wanted to wipe Fiore off the map we would just arrange a free for all between the four us with all of Fiore as our battleground."

A sweat bead appeared on Levy's head, "And thus, the country of Fiore was made into a vast wasteland consisting of craters, burning plains, large ice formations and stone pillars."

Ryu smiled contently as he resumed walking with everyone "Yeah, that would be a great fight. Oh guys, I've been thinking and this is a completely random thought I had while I was reading the other day. If a writer was to introduce you into a book, how would they describe you? Not only how you are physically described but also personality wise and how you hold yourself around others."

They all walked on in silence, each one trying to think of how they would be described. As they walked on in silence, a carriage made its way past them, kicking up dust behind it as it went. The sky was as blue as could be, the dusty road they all walked on had been well beaten down by the number of people that traveled it. The four of them decided against a carriage seeing how nice it was outside. Even though it would probably take them all day to reach their destination, the walk was certainly pleasurable as they were all able to catch up with each other.

Jet was the first to break the silence by snapping his fingers, "I got it. His speed was unmatched across the land, as were his dashing looks. Men and women were honored by his presence and his enemies would quake in fear as he approached. While putting up a serious front, it turned out that this man had a heart full of kindness that indiscriminate to anyone. He is a noble warrior of Fairy Tail, he is . . . Jet!"

The other three in group were laughing throughout the entire description. Jet seemed a little irritated from the response he got so he turned to Droy, "Fine then, you do better!"

Droy continued to chuckle for a couple seconds before he was able to speak, "Oh I will. His kindness was known by all, not only living creatures but the flowers he cared fir. In a way, the flowers he had represented him. Their bright cheerful colors reflect his sunny disposition, the stems were sturdy and strong that mirrored his resolve that never seem to break, and just as their roots went deep into the soil so did the roots of friendship he shared with all he met."

"Not bad, Droy," Levy started before a smirk crossed her face, "But mine is definitely is the best. Her beauty was infinite as well as her intelligence. Her wisdom was sought by all and her heart of gold was loved by all. Her magic power was strong as was her will to fight on whenever the odds were stacked against her. She would never let justice be undone, she was a noble knight of Fairy Tail."

Ryu was the only one laughing this time, "Ha ha, for crying out Levy. Out of the four of us, I expected you to be the modest one but now I have to be it."

Levy raised an eyebrow, "You? Modest? This I have to see."

Jet and Droy nodded in agreement, matching smirks on their faces. Ryu chuckled a couple times as he thought up a new description of himself, one that was modest. It was difficult to think of a modest description of himself since modesty was almost . . . okay, completely foreign to him. But he then thought of the perfect description for himself that was modest as he could be. And it was five simple words.

Ryu grinned widely as he gestured to himself, "And then there's this asshole."

()()()()

6:43 PM, Mongolia

It had taken them most of the day to make it all the way back to Magnolia. They had stopped at a village that was on the way back and grabbed some lunch before hoofing it the rest of the way home. The sun had already began its descent in the west but some light was still shining. The life bustling through the town had decreased as well with most people returning to their homes after a long day while others went out partying or drinking together.

Jet and Droy had to split off from Levy and Ryu which made them uncomfortable leaving her alone with him. But it had been a long walk from Oshibana and they wanted nothing more than to collapse in their beds to sleep. Ryu's house was a little out of the way from Fairy Hills but Levy decided to talk to Ryu for a bit longer.

"So, what are you going to be doing the next few days?"

Ryu sighed, "Well, since whenever I try to take a small vacation for myself something big pops so I might as just take a easier job. I have an engagement with some people tomorrow so I'll probably pick something up in two or three days. And what about Team Shadow Gear?"

"Probably going to pick another one up tomorrow since we really didn't do anything on this last job." Levy replied, stretching her arms as she did.

"Yeah", Ryu scoffed, "I did most of the work and didn't get anything out of it."

Levy glared at him, "You said that you were fine with it."

Ryu held his hands up in defense, "I know what I said, just ragging on you a bit. Besides, you owe me a bunch of clothing materials. Try and pick strong durable ones that don't tear easily, I can work with what you bring me."

The two of them came up to Ryu's house, the lights inside were off as he had left when he left for the train station a few days prior. He would need to tend to the flower garden soon, some of the flowers were starting to wilt while some others had no hope to rescuing. There seemed to be no order to the flower patches that ran alongside the dirt path that led up to his front porch. While most people would have planted flowers in rows, Ryu had just scattered seeds to the wind and let them fall wherever and tossed dirt over them.. Although, the variety of colors with no seeming order had its own sort of beauty.

"Well I guess this is it . . . unless you want some tea before you head back?" Ryu jerked his thumb toward his house. He offered it out of courtesy, he knew she would most likely decline him since she probably wanted to she her own bed.

"Sure, why not."

Ryu certainly wasn't expecting Levy to say yes, not that he wasn't happy that she did. He liked talking with her over tea . . . he like talking with her period. Ryu slid the lock open with the Force, he wasn't a big fan of keys since he usually seemed to lose them at every possible opportunity which why he liked keeping his keys in his pocket dimension where he knew he wouldn't lose them. The lights flickered on with a flick of the switch and Ryu's duster disappeared in a subtle gray light that surrounded his body. His white t-shirt clung loosely to his body as he made his way to a back room which housed most of his cleaning supplies along with his washer and dryer.

With another subtle flash of gray light, Ryu's clothes that he had switched between for the past two weeks fell into a large basket to be washed later. When Ryu walked back out into the living room, Levy was next to his bathroom with a finger pointing to it, "Mind if I use your shower again? I'm not sure if the ones at Fairy Hills aren't fixed yet and I rather not sleep in my bed without having one."

Ryu casually waved his hand, "Go ahead, you might as well take a bath as well while I prepare some food with the tea."

Levy's eyes lit up at the thought of taking a nice hot relaxing bath after a long day, "I'll take you up on that offer." She closed the behind her only to reappear a couple seconds later, "And don't you dare try to peek." She added with a threatening tone.

"My house, I'll do what I want." Levy scowled at him for a second before disappearing behind the door once again. A couple seconds after it closed, he could hear the defining click of the door letting him know the lock was engaged. Again, after a couple of seconds, he heard thuds against the bathroom door. Ryu assumed it was Levy barring up the door since she knew that simple locks wouldn't stop him.

Ryu was tempted to step up to the challenge to try and sneak into the bathroom quietly but decided against it. He was once tempted again when he realized that he had never seen Levy fully naked and his imagination started to fly wild from there but he was pulled out of his day dream when the whistle on his kettle letting him know the water was ready. Ryu decided to make Brinner, breakfast for dinner. He shoved two pieces of bread into his toaster and started to scramble some eggs and fry some bacon on his stove.

It was probably a half an hour when Ryu heard some things being moved away from the bathroom door just before Levy reemerged fully dressed with his towel wrapped around her head. Some steam traveled out the bathroom out behind her but disappeared shortly after.

Levy ran the towel over head a couple times, "Something smells good out here. I'll take the crispy bacon if you don't like it."

Ryu stuck out his tongue, "Bleh, I don't get people who like crispy bacon. I prefer juicy, getting all that deliciousness into my mouth."

"I like the crunch." Levy said with a mere shrug of her shoulders.

The two of them enjoyed their food, they chatted about various things which encompassed what had happened over the past couple of weeks for the both of them. Ryu talked more in depth in his fight against the Earth mage Eugene, and more about his experience teaming up with Erza, Natsu, and Gray. She had read about Lullaby in quite a few books but she had thought it to be only a myth like everyone else.

"Well at least it was destroyed, still can't believe that you crashed a vehicle into it." Levy sighed.

"Well it was my birthday so I like to think of that as my birthday wish. I mean, how likely is it that I will have another chance like that? You don't come across giant monsters while driving magic-mobiles every so often, do you?"

She sighed again before perking up, "Oh yeah, speaking of your birthday." Levy began digging around in her bag until she pulled out a wrapped rectangular package that looked a lot like a wrapped book, "This is your gift from Team Shadow Gear."

Ryu took the package and said in a sarcastic tone, "I hope it's a puppy."

The wrapping was torn away in seconds, he wasn't wrong in assuming it was a book. In fact it was a book he had been looking for awhile, "Demi-Humans, Human-like Monsters, and Monsters with Human Characteristics and Looks. Book Nine. Where in the hell did you find this? There is like only seven copies of this book in existence. I had almost given up on ever finding one."

Levy smiled at Ryu's reaction, "You can owe that to Jet and Droy. Back in Oshibana before we set ourselves up in the cafes we went around to a couple of bookstores. I try and go to the old and slightly run down bookstores because they seem to always have the good old books that you really can't find anywhere else. So as I was looking around, Jet and Droy randomly pull a book off the shelf and start flipping through it. And much to my surprise, they took interest in it. They don't read many books so I was curious in what they found and once I found out it was a book that you'd been looking for, I bought it without a second thought."

The book disappeared in a swarm of gray light, Ryu remained silent for a time before he looked Levy straight in the eyes, "Thank you, I really mean it. This gift means a lot to me."

"No problem Ryu. Isn't there a tenth book in that series?"

"Well, I really don't know. I looked up the author and he is unnamed but I managed to find the list of books he's written. There are books one through nine but the rest of the page is torn off. I haven't been able to find any other lists with the books he has written but there has to be a tenth if the bottom one was torn off."

"So it's possible that there might not even be a tenth book?" Levy asked.

Ryu shrugged, "Well yeah but I like to think that there was someone trying to hide so there must be at least one more, perhaps more."

Levy giggled slightly, "There's that optimistic personality I like. That's the thing with you Ryu, you seem to never give up. You always fight on for just long enough, you keep fighting until help arrives no matter how bad you're hurt or how harsh the circumstances are. You want to protect your friends even if you don't want to admit it, you put up a cold front but you have a warm heart inside you. That's why . . ."

Her head dropped down slightly as a thin blush ran across her face. Ryu's own face had a faint blush on it as well, all these compliments coming from Levy like this was unexpected, catching him off guard. He couldn't even form a witty response and he usually had a witty response for almost anything.

Levy nervously fiddled with her hands before she looked back up to Ryu with a serious yet embarrassed look, "And that's why I love you."

The cup that Ryu was holding at the time slipped from his hand and shattered on the floor, spilling tea that quickly spread over the wood floor. They both in silence for what seemed like an eternity, Ryu merely stared at her with wide eyes with his hand still in the position while holding the now broken teacup while Levy's gaze had returned to the floor with an even greater red tint across her face.

Levy was the first to break the silence when she started to shake her head, "What am I saying, how can a guy like you love me back?" Her blush had faded away and was replaced by a saddened look, "I'm weak, I have no redeeming qualities, I proba-"

Ryu let her say no more as he swiftly moved from his chair to Levy's side on the couch before he planted his lips on hers. His arms wrapped around her to bring her closer to him and much to his surprise, Levy did the same. Ryu was quite shocked to find just how soft Levy's lips were, he knew they were soft but it almost felt like he was kissing a pillow. The two of them did nothing for quite awhile as they kissed, as if they were trying to catch they could have been doing up until then.

This time, Ryu was the first to break away, "Don't you ever say that again, ever. You have an endless amount of redeeming qualities. You're beautiful, smart, courageous, kind hearted and plenty more. I've loved you ever since I saw you all those years ago when I rescued you from that runaway cart. Just seeing you is enough to brighten up my day, and seeing your beautiful smile is more than enough to make my entire week seem better."

Levy was certainly shocked by Ryu's confession and all she could do is expand on her's, "When I fell in that freezing water, I thought I was a goner, that my life was going to over in the next moment and that scared me. But when I saw that you had saved me yet again and carried me all the way to the guild, I started to feel different around you, I wanted to spend more time with you which is why I invited you to join Team Shadow Gear multiple times. I know that Jet and Droy like me a lot as well but I just don't see them that way."

"So you're telling me that all throughout these years we have been spending together, we were just too nervous to admit our feelings to each other?" Ryu deadpanned.

Levy nodded slowly before Ryu continued with blatant nervousness through his voice, "W-well . . . do you want to c-catch up on lost time?"

A heavy blush seemed to engulf all of Levy's face as she became extremely nervous when she understood what exactly Ryu meant by his question. Ryu could see Levy was nervous so he decided to add something to help her relax, "Only if you want to, I won't force you. It was just an idea."

Levy nervously fiddled with her fingers for a good bit while Ryu just sat next to her awaiting her answer. Ryu began to nervously to look around his house, it seemed like this conversation was going no where so he desperately looked around his home in order to try and change the subject. He stopped looking around and returned his gaze to Levy when she placed her hand on his. A couple more seconds passed by before Levy nodded, she stood up and started to gently pull on Ryu's hand. He stood up and followed her, a nervous sweat broke out over him when he soon realized that she was leading him to his bedroom.

The only light source in his room was the moonlight that filtered in through the window giving the whole room a faint white glow. Levy lead him next to his bed before stopping, "P-please turn around."

Ryu did so without another word, he quickly decided to wipe the sweat off from his forehead and dispose of it by discreetly wiping it off on his shirt. Ryu couldn't believe that the situation he was in was actually happening, he was just minutes away from going all the way with Levy, at least that's what he was thinking. There wasn't many other situations that could happen with the current one he was in. The question is was Ryu really ready for what they were going to do? He did truly love Levy but what he had proposed to her was meant for couples who had been dating for years and trusted each other completely. Ryu couldn't say he trusted Levy completely because he had withheld the fact that he had come from a completely different universe.

He needed to tell her before this continued this any further, Ryu quickly turned around and froze solid at what he saw. Levy was laying nervously on his behind, wearing only a orange bra and matching panties. A thick red blush remained across her face as she practically presented herself to Ryu.

Silence once hung between them for a minute until Levy finally found the courage to speak, "D-don't just s-s-stare at me. Take o-off yours as well."

Ryu didn't hesitate to strip off his clothes all the way down to his boxers. He crawled onto the bed and sat nervously on his knees next to Levy as if awaiting further instructions. Levy merely grabbed his hand until he rested on his hands and knees over her.

"Please b-be gentle." Her voice quivered before she voice her eyes.

Ryu swallowed hard as he began to inch his face closer to hers, this was it. This was the time Ryu could show just how much he loved her with his actions. But for once in a blue moon, he was utterly terrified. This was his first sexual experience, he could very do something wrong that could ruin the whole experience. But then again, this was probably Levy's first time as well. She was probably just as terrified as he was and worried about the mistakes she could make as well. There was no backing down now, he would just have to do his best.

()()()()

10:43 AM, Ryu's bedroom

Ryu opened his to find himself staring at his pillow that lay clenched in his arms, wet spots dotting it letting him know where he had kissed it. The pillow flew across the room in a bout of rage from Ryu. He laid back in his bed to stare at the ceiling, recounting what had really happened last night as opposed what he wished for in his dreams.

Levy had indeed walked with him to his house but had politely declined his invitation saying that she just wanted to get home and get to sleep. Before they had parted, Levy had given him his birthday present and explained that Jet and Droy that were the ones to find it. Buts that as far as Ryu had gotten that night with Levy. After that, they said their goodbyes and parted ways. Ryu went into his house, deposited his clothes in the laundry, taken a quick shower, made some tea and then went straight to bed.

Ryu groaned as he wished that, even though it was a dream, continued only for a couple of more minutes. The Jedi continued to lay in his bed for a couple more minutes before finally deciding to get up. He had other plans and people to meet today and he wasn't going to cancel those just because he almost had a wet dream. Ryu moaned as he sat in bed and stretched his arms and neck, and according to the sunlight filtering in through his window, it was going to be a good day.

At least that is what he thought until he grabbed some fresh clothes and walked out into the living to find a certain pointy eared man sitting on his couch, sipping some tea. Zeke raised his tea cup as a greeting, "Look who is finally awake, I was beginning to think that you were going to sleep throughout the whole day. May I also say that those boxers you're wearing would go great with some pants?"

Ryu said nothing to the elf as he walked passed him into the bathroom where he practically slammed the door shut. Right now, today wasn't going great, Ryu could normally deal with Zeke but after that major disappointment of dream, he would most likely telekinetically slap the elf with enough force to crack a wall at the guildhall and that took some effort to accomplish. Ryu stripped off his boxers - the only article of clothing he had on him and tossed them to the side and placed his clothes in a nearby basket. It was when he tossed his clean clothes that he realized that he forgot to grab a pair of fresh boxers.

Zeke turned his gaze to the bathroom door as it opened, "Did you forg- OH, dear lord man!" The elf recoiled as Ryu stepped out of the bathroom naked, "My eyes! Seeing you like that was not on my list of things to do today! Nor would it ever be! Could you please cover up with something?!"

"Fuck you, my house, my rules." Ryu replied, still angered by the dream and Zeke's sudden appearance at his house. The Jedi would have liked to at least have his morning tea before dealing with almost anyone. If it had been Levy or a member of his family, he would have gratefully welcomed them. Right now, all Ryu wanted to do was take a nice, hot shower or he would like to acquaint Zeke's face with an fundamental item used in building materials, or more commonly known as a brick, repeatedly. But seeing as the latter would require more effort and would be accompanied by complaints as well as resistance from Zeke, Ryu decided on the shower.

Zeke, for his part, pressed his palms against his eyes, muttering an incantation as if it would burn the memory from his mind. His gaze fell upon Ryu's bedroom door, thinking that Ryu went ahead and decided to put on some underwear. While he had underwear in his hand, there was still not a single piece of clothing on him. After having a similar reaction to the first as Ryu walked back into his bathroom, Zeke made a note to try and find an incantation that could burn those two memories away.

Ryu's shower was a long drawn hot one, he wasn't going to take a bath but he did like the hot water that coursed over his body. The water helped him relax any stiff muscles that had been with him since he woke up. He thought about what he was going to do again, seeing as whenever he tried to take a break something always popped up so he might as well seek out some trouble and get paid for it. Perhaps two or three more days of relaxation and recovering and then he would choose a job to do. He had plan to take at least half a month off and spend his money how he wanted but something always seemed to make him re-think his plans.

Once Ryu had shut off the water he just sat in his bathroom as the water dripped off him. He started to think about where he would be if he had never come to Earthland. If his behavior had improved he might would have probably completed all his trials by now and became a Jedi Knight. And if the war with the Separatist was still happening, he would most likely be on the front lines with a squad of clone troopers under his command or if the war was over, he would most likely be furthering his understanding of the Force in the Core Worlds, keeping the peace in the Mid Rim or perhaps exploring some planet in Wild Space. Although if his behavior hadn't improved, he didn't know where he would be but he would have most likely found a home in the Colonies or even went so far to travel out into the Outer Rim where the Republic's influence was next to nothing. Perhaps would have become a Vigilante to stand up for the common people.

"Ha, I would probably be dead within the week I showed up." The Jedi exited the showering area and stopped in front of his bathroom mirror. He looked into his own eyes, the dark green color reminded him of a forest's foliage. But soon a scowl crossed over his face, "What the fuck happened to me back in the cafe?"

Levy had told him about when his eyes had changed colors shortly before he almost killed someone. His memory at the time was hazy, almost as if he was having a dream. But it wasn't the fact that it felt like he was dreaming that bothered him, the fact that his eyes turned a sickly yellow not only bothered him but worried him as well. There was only one other person in existence he knew had yellow irises, and the answer made him worry all the more.

"Terentatek . . . did you have anything to do with this?" Silence filled Ryu's head. It was possible that Levy could have seen only a trick of the light making his eyes look yellow. But Ryu knew better, he knew that the Force was like a coin, heads and tails, light and dark, one cannot exist without the other. But then what was Shield? He was Ryu's good side but Ryu was good himself or he like to think so at least. Could Ryu be his own sort of coin, Shield and Terentatek being each side of the coin?

Ryu shook himself out of that train of thought as he grabbed a nearby towel and began to dry off the remaining water that had yet to drip off him. Once he donned his fresh clothes, Derek opened the door to find Zeke still sitting on his couch. Although this time he could see Zeke was hesitant to look in his direction, no doubt from seeing his naked body twice in the same day.

"I'm dressed now, you don't have to be so shy little Zekey." Ryu mocked him while pulling out the necessary implements to make his morning tea. He was about to reach into his cabinets for the tea bags when a small box hit him in the back of the head. Ryu whirled around only to have a second box sail straight into his face.

Zeke sat on the couch in his usual tea drinking pose that made Ryu want to break his pinky that he pointed away from the tea cup, "I believe that you ordered those the day before you left on your last mission. I would have a present for you as well but it requires a bit of fine tuning before it's finished, so I hope you can wait."

Ryu was about to say something back but merely sighed instead as he picked the small boxes off the floor and opened on as he threw the other one in the cabinet. As soon as the kettle was heating up on the stove, Ryu moved over and sat down in his arm chair across from Zeke who seemed to only be attention to the tea in front of him. Ryu stretched his arms and legs as he began to yawn loudly. Over and over.

The noise finally made Zeke look up from his tea, "Yawn any louder why don't you."

"Don't tempt me." Ryu retorted with a small laugh. He finished stretching before letting his arms fall back down onto the armchair, "So don't keep me waiting, how did it go?"

"The highlight of the journey would have to be when several vampires asked if they could drink my blood to see if tasted different from human blood." Zeke deadpanned.

Ryu burst out laughing, "Oh dear f-ing lord, that's freaking funny as hell."

Zeke raised an eyebrow, "F-ing? Just a little while ago you said, and I quote 'fuck you' to me."

Ryu waved him off, "The master wanted me to try and cut back on swearing a bit, doesn't want the little ones to pick up my vulgar speech. So what else happened?"

The elf took a sip from his tea before setting the cup down on the table in front of him and relaxing a bit more on the couch, "Vania's a lot tougher than she looks, that hike through the mountains to the village didn't seem to have any effect on her, while I wished for nothing more than a shower. When we reached the village, the people there were a little hesitant to greet me but as soon as I said I was a friend of yours, seemed like the whole village came out to greet me. I explained that I was told to bring Vania there, it only took them one look at her to understand the situation. A few people left the village a couple of minutes later to go inform the one they called 'The Elder'. As we were waiting . . . let's just say I was asked a lot of questions about my heritage. None of which I could answer. About ten minutes later, about a dozen red eyes sh-"

Ryu held up his hand to silence him, "Please do not refer to them as red eyes, that is considered an insult to them."

Zeke held his hands in defence, "Well now I know. Anyway, bunch more vampires ranging from ages maybe fourteen to somewhere in their seventies showed up and started talking with Vania. At first she's really shy of them but after maybe five or ten minutes, she starts opening up to them. Telling them her name and where she came from and what she had been doing to survive up until then. While she was talking with the older ones, one of the younger ones asked me the thing about my blood. They were very kind and understanding. So after a couple hours of talking, they start taking Vania to her new home but before she left, she gave me this to return to you."

Ryu caught the item that was tossed at him, it was a spoon, the very same spoon that she had been using to eat ice cream at his place before she left. Zeke continued, "She told me that once she gets settled in that she would come and visit you and return the bag you let her borrow."

"Did you bur-" Ryu started.

"Yes I burned the damn map. I'm not a idiot like some people." Zeke motioned to Ryu. He took another sip of tea before continuing, "So what's gonna happen to her while she's there?"

Ryu stood up and moved to the kitchen as the kettle began to whistle letting him know the water was ready, "Well, she's gonna settle in there. They have a school in the village where she will attend. She will be taught like any other individual who had a correct upbringing. Although, she will also be taught how to control her urges to feed as well as to better control her powers."

"Do vampires have their own type of magic they use?" Zeke questioned.

After the tea bag sat in the cup of hot water, Ryu made his way back over to the armchair and sat down before he continued, "Well . . . yes and no really. The type of magic they use is called 'Blood Magic', but Blood Magic is just like any other magic. For example, they could have vampire earth mages, vampire water mages, fire, wind, plant, anything actually. The only difference is that while mages like us draw from a magic pool inside us, vampires call upon their magic power from their blood. Hence the name, Blood magic. Their magic can recover over time like ours but they can drain blood from other people to gain large portions of their power back."

"So why exactly do they have to drink blood?"

Ryu shrugged, "The actually answer isn't known, but the most common idea is 'to every good thing, there is something bad'."

Ryu saw the confused look on Zeke's face so he continued to elaborate, "Vampires get eternal youth, immunity from disease, nightvision, have strength and speed that far outclass a human's and more. With all that benefit, there has to be something bad, sort of like a balance. They have the little things like getting sunburns easier, having sensitive noses to garlic and little stuff like that. But the thing that makes the gain and consequences equal is The Hunger."

Before Zeke managed to say a word, Ryu continued but with a grim look, "The Hunger is what all vampires feel from not drinking blood for long enough. The longer the vampire goes without drinking blood, the worse their condition becomes. Blood is not only used to regain their power, it's also used to keep their sanity. If a vampire goes too long without drinking blood, they go feral, animalistic instincts take them over and they become little more than a wild beast with magic powers. Most sane vampires take only what they need from a human, perhaps more if they are greedy but they keep them alive. A living body can keep producing blood, a dead one can't."

Ryu took a deep breath, "But feral vampires, they drain every single drop till nothing is left, like an unquenchable thirst. There is a point of no return if a vampire does not get any blood, and once they become feral, there is no hope for them. It's a mercy to put them down."

Zeke could see the grim look take ahold of Ryu, the Jedi's eyes never left the tea that sat in his cup but he didn't drink it either. He just stared at it. Zeke couldn't help his curiosity, "Was it anyone you knew?"

Ryu took a deep breath before taking a sip of his tea, then he shook his head, "No. I was with them though in the mountains. The Elder had asked for my help in tracking down one of his flock. They had been gone for way too long and afraid that they had gotten lost in the mountains. Me and four other vampires went out to look for them. They had sent many search parties out before but they never had me. I went into a meditation and reached out into the surrounding mountainous area to try and find signs of life. We found them but . . ." Ryu shook his head sadly, "We were far too late. They had fallen through some rock into a massive cave. We roped down into the cave to try and find them, as soon as my feet touched the cave floor, I was tackled into the darkness. I couldn't see a bloody thing, but something was on top of me lashing out at me. Luckily one of the vampires came to my rescue and knocked it off me. I pulled out my lightsabers to give me a little more light so I could see and . . ."

Ryu placed his tea on the table before his face fell into his hands, "She was only fucking twelve years old. That was her actual age . . .I just sat there as the others had to tear her apart, literally. Taking down a feral vampire isn't easy, and they don't usually die unless you make them into a bloody mess. I will never forget that face, her face was pale as a ghost's, her teeth were chipped and broken as she bared them at me, her blonde hair was dirty and torn, and her eyes, oh god her eyes, those red eyes, it was like-"

Zeke had heard enough as he stood up from his chair, walked over to Ryu, and kneeled down by his side as he placed a hand on his shoulder. Ryu quieted down and just sat there with his head in his hands. He wasn't crying but you didn't have to cry to be as grief stricken as Ryu was.

"It wasn't your fault." Zeke said simply.

Ryu raised his head, "I know that but that doesn't make it any easier."

The two of them sat in silence until the cup in front of Ryu was empty. At that moment, Ryu got up from his seat as a subtle gray light engulfed his torso just before his black duster fell into place, "Alright asswipe." Ryu said with his usual tone, "Out of my house, I have plans with some people."

Zeke was a little surprised at how quickly Ryu changed moods, but then he remembered that's just how Ryu was. He was able to push past the painful memories and lock them away in his mind. While it was a good thing that he could do it, at the same time it wasn't a good thing, leaving issues unresolved, "I don't have anything to do today, I'll join you in whatever you're doing."

Ryu held up his hands, "Sorry, but this engagement is only between me and the people I'm meeting."

"Fine then, I'll just watch."

"Alright, but don't blame me if you get shot." Ryu told the Elf as he opened the front door.

()()()()

12:11 PM, Outside Magnolia

With the simple flick of his wrist, Ryu managed to deflect several more magic bullets that sailed into nearby trees. Ryu's attacker shifted a couple feet to the side before taking aim and firing a couple more shots at him again. Again, Ryu shifted and managed to deflected the bullets although this time Ryu managed to redirect the a few of the shots back at the shooter. But Ryu wasn't the only nimble one, the shooter seem to dance out of the way of the returning shots before leaping back a good distance and started to reload.

Ryu saw his opportunity and enhanced his body with Force Surge before charging the attacker with his enhance speed. However Ryu wasn't able to get anywhere near him as he had to deflect several more bullets fired at him. Unlike the revolver rounds fired at him by the initial attacker, Ryu had devote more strength to deflecting the sniper rounds. When the rounds slammed into his Flame and White saber, the force was enough to push him back several feet with repeated hits.

As Ryu recovered from the impacts, he was getting ready to charge after the first attacker once again. But as soon as he started sprinting again he was met with another barrage from the first attacker. Ryu deflected and dodged the hail of bullets as he slowly started moving toward the gunmen. Progress was slow as he moved through the barrage but he inching forward. As soon as the gunmen lept back again to start reloading, Ryu waited for the first sniper round to be fired off. This time, instead of coming from the direction of the gunmen, the sniper rounds came from behind Ryu.

Without another thought, Ryu summoned his stone armor and covered the entire back of his body in reinforced magic stone. Several more bullets slammed into his back and cracked the armor but it managed to hold together as Ryu continued his way forward toward the reloading gunmen. Ryu was only a few feet away when the gunmen finished reloading his revolvers. Ryu began to swing his two sabers at him but the man just seemed dance around the strikes.

Irritated at this, Ryu used Force Surge again. This time instead of increase in his movement, his attacks doubled in their speed. Ryu couldn't help but smile when the gunmen finally found himself on the defensive. The man was getting tired quickly while Ryu kept pumping the Force through his body. Ryu found the chance he was looking for when the man tripped over himself, causing him to stumble. It was all he needed as he started to move his sabers on a intercept path of the man.

A sniper round slammed into the side of Ryu's head, avoiding the rocky protection he covered his entire back in. The Jedi's body was picked up off the ground slightly as the bullet impacted him and carried him a couple feet before his body slammed back into the ground. The gunmen breathed a sigh of relief as his partner jumped down from a tree further into the forest that surround the grove they were in. The two shooters high-fived each other before turning their attention back to Ryu who was still on the ground.

Slowly, the Jedi sat up as he rubbed the part of his head that took the impact from the thankfully non-lethal magic round. Not to say that it didn't hurt, Ryu turned his sights on the sniper from the trees, "What the fuck Bisca?! I told you, no goddamn headshots! Do you want me to develop further brain damage?!"

Bisca's triumphed face was replaced by one that showed she was clearly ashamed. Her gaze left Ryu and fell to the ground where she began to toe the ground, "I-I'm sorry, but when you were about to hit Al-"

"But nothing!" Ryu shouted, waving his arm as emphasis, "You were using a high caliber sniper rifle within a hundred meters of me at maximum! Non-lethal rounds or not, that has the potential to kill some people!"

"I-I . . ." She began.

"Now hold on!" Alzack interrupted, "I'm sure Bisca didn't mean to hit you in the head. Me and you were awfully close to each other and not to mention that we were shifting around quite a bit when I was avoiding your blades. She had a slight mistake, we learn from our mistakes so we can get better."

He looked to Bisca who just nodded slightly, still ashamed for being called out by Ryu. On the other hand, Ryu was still not happy for taking a lot of force to the side of his head. Had his body not been trained by the bruises and scrapes he had received during his time at Fairy Tail, that could have most likely gave him a severe concussion if not worse. He might have had a concussion right now for all he knew but he didn't fell like he had one. Ryu rubbed the part of his head the took the hit once again, he could already feel a large bump on the side of his head. He could see that Bisca felt ashamed at what she did, but that didn't stop the encroaching headache Ryu could feel slowly coming on.

Ryu pushed himself to his feet before letting out a drawn out sigh, "Let's just move on."

"Maybe if you had been more aware of your surroundings, you might not have been shot in the side of the head. Your projectile deflection could use some work as well."

The group of three turned toward the elf who sat cross-legged on a large flat rock drinking some tea he had prepared at a nearby fire that now sat smoldering. When the gunfire had started, Zeke had erected a force field around himself. The shield itself was similar to Ryu's own Force Shield but used Zeke's Glyph magic. Zeke's magic was a curious thing, it was closest related to Levy's Solid Script magic but focused on seemingly random symbols rather than words. Another curious thing was that Zeke's personalized Glyph magic seemed only to work for him like Ryu's Force abilities.

Right now though, the shield had dissipated seeing as there was no longer a fight. That is when Ryu got an idea, "Deflection needs practice eh? Hey Alzack, fire another bullet at me."

The black haired man looked at Ryu in confusion, then to Bisca who merely shrugged her shoulders, then back to Ryu who nodded in confirmation. Alzack raised one of his guns and fired off a single off toward Ryu's gut. Ryu reacted immediately and knocked the bullet skyward as he began to to spin and jump slightly into the air. While in mid-air-spin, Ryu's second saber slammed into the back of the bullet, rocketing it toward Zeke.

The elf was caught by surprise and didn't have any time to react to the bullet coming at him. However, the bullet flew by him without so much as a scratch. Zeke was about to start laughing when his lap suddenly felt wet, a quick look down and he realized that the bottom of his tea cup had been shattered by the bullet letting the tea spill onto his pants. A annoyed look crossed over Zeke's face as he stared at Ryu, the Jedi merely snickered at his friend's reaction.

Ryu let out a triumphant laugh as Zeke didn't have anything to say, "Yeah, I think my deflection technique is just fine."

Zeke began muttering some arcane words as his fingers moved in the motion of an incantation. Ryu braced himself for the attack but it never came, instead the once broken tea cup slowly melded back together piece by piece. Once that was done, Zeke poured himself some more tea before he pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and cast a second spell to dry the tea in his lap. Seeing as no aggression was going to come from the elf - for now at least - Ryu turned his attention back to his practice buddies.

"Alright, time to use the big guns. Bisca, get your shotgun but get your machine guns and bazooka ready well. Alzack, step aside for the time being, you have a later part." The two gunmen and moved to their respective positions. Bisca moved a couple dozen meters away from Ryu with shotgun in hand while Alzack moved over to Zeke who poured him a cup of tea as he approached.

Ryu thrust out his hands and a moment later, a dome of faint blue light rested around him, "Alright, lets see just how much punishment this shield can take."

At those words, Bisca raised her weapon and began to fire endlessly at Ryu's shield. Ryu could see where the bullets were impacting by the slight distortion of ripples that moved across his shield. The distortions slowly increased in size as she approached until she stood five feet away. Force Shield was holding easily against the onslaught of magic pellets and Ryu showed no hint of effort. Ryu nodded to signal Bisca to end the shots. She quickly moved back to her original spot except this time in her hands was her twin magic machine guns. She continuously fired as she moved closer but the shield still showed hint of breaking or Ryu showing any signs of stress.

When Bisca lowered her weapons, Ryu decided it was time for a real test, "Time for the big one, go all out with it."

She nodded once again before once again returned to her original spot. Although, this time she had pulled out her bazooka and trained it on Ryu . The Jedi's body seemed to tense up ever so slightly and was not unnoticed except by Zeke, who watched Ryu like a hawk. Three shots rang out through the air, three balls of blue fire flew at Ryu causing him to tense up slightly more. But his stance remained unchanged as the balls of fire slammed into the shield. Black smoke engulfed the blue dome shield, hiding Ryu from their sight. The smoke disappeared in seconds revealing that the shield was intact to the common eye. But to Bisca's, Alzack's, and Zeke's they could see part of shield was cracked much like glass. But in the blink of an eye, the faint cracks in the shield were mended, making the shield look before the rocket impacts.

Ryu smiled slightly at Bisca, "Now lets see just how much my shield can really take. I want you guys to go all out, try and break through my shield like your life depends on it."

Without any more warning, Alzack started pounding Ryu's shield while Bisca wailed on the opposite side. However, unlike before, they both pulling out all of their spells along with their bullets. Several beams of light shot out of Alzack's revolvers which slammed mercilessly into Ryu's Force Shield, causing major rippling effects in the shield along with cracking it several times. Bisca pulled out her twin machine guns once again and opened fire, although, using a spell with the guns increased their rate of fire to such speed that it would put several versions of rapid fire defense guns seen commonly on Republic cruisers to shame . The amount of bullets pouring into the shield was staggering, in some places the shield started crack. However, with each crack that was made, it was repaired as quickly as it came as Ryu directed a little more Force energy to that part of shield to mend it. About half a minute into the barrage, the two gunmen decided to fire on the move, circling around the dome of blue, or hitting it from above when they would leap over it. This sudden burst of movement took Ryu off guard and pushed his abilities further since he had to repair the previous damage done to the barrier as he was keeping other parts of the shield strong as it was being hit.

Cracks in the blue barrier took longer took mend as Ryu had to devote more energy to the structural integrity as a whole. Ryu now was clearly showing signs of stress as the two gunner wailed on his shield, but his challenge was about to go to a new level.

"Calys Shar!"

A beam of black and purple light slammed into the back of Ryu's barrier, causing deep cracks to form along a quarter of the shield. The cracks were quickly mended with a swipe of his hand, though this was the first time Ryu had to physically direct Force with his appendages in this test of strength. Ryu whipped his head around toward Zeke, the elf was on his feet with his palm extended as a black and purple magic circle with strange symbols and writing Ryu didn't understand was suspended in the air a couple inches from the elf's palm. He did however, recognize the incantation as Zeke's 'blow everything up' spell of choice: Havoc Blast. A smug grin crossed the elf's as the magic circle charged up again for another blast.

"So thats how it's gonna be, huh? Fine then, I'll take all of you weaklings on!" Ryu exclaimed with his own smug grin mirroring Zeke's.

The assault against Ryu was merciless, Bisca rotated through her weapons quickly as she switched positions, aiming as what seemed to be weakened parts of the barrier. Alzack mirrored Bisca's action by aiming at weakened parts of the shield but struck them with a variety of magic bullet blasts. Zeke continued attacking Ryu with Havoc blast, sometimes there would be a large singular beam that hit Ryu like a Force fueled magic-mobile or would split into several beams and hit the dome of blue in several locations that only felt like a solid block of iron hitting him at terminal velocity. As the onslaught continued, the dome slowly decreased in size, allowing Ryu to spend more energy to repair and less energy to sustain. After about five minutes of fighting, Alzack and Bisca decided to step off to the side out of the name after having a couple close encounters with one of Zeke's beams of light.

At this point, Zeke had thrown up another Havoc Blast magic circle with his other hand, one circle what devoted to splitting the beams and hitting Ryu from all sides while the second was devoted to hit Ryu head on with the full blast. Both Zeke and Ryu could be seen sweating quite a bit, Zeke because he hadn't use offensive magic that often and Ryu because he had been maintaining his protective dome from never ending fire for about seven minutes.

Zeke finally dropped his hands to his knees as he doubled over, breathing deep breaths and sweating profusely. Ryu's barrier dissipated as he slightly slouched over, his face drenched in sweat as well, his breathing rate matching Zeke's, "Well . . . you may have . . . gotten better pointy ears . . . but you still have a long way to go if . . . you want to beat me."

The elf was silent for a couple seconds before he started laughing. Ryu tilted his head slightly as the elf continued to laugh at the ground. It wasn't the deranged laughter of a crazed man but more like the laughter of confidence. When Zeke looked up at the Jedi, the smuggest of all smug smiles shown clearly on the elf's face.

A second later, both of Zeke's arms shot skyward, "You honestly think that I've used my entire arsenal?"

Ryu took a step back, "B-but you said that you hadn't been able to perfect it yet!"

"That was a month ago, this is now."

Ryu gulped as he looked skyward, seven yellow magic circles appearing aligned high above him. With each passing second, the magic circles glowed brighter and brighter. Zeke quickly turned his attention his attention to Alzack and Bisca as the magic circles continued gaining power, "You two might want to get out of here just in case."

Without another thought, the two of them started running to avoid being caught in the blast radius. Ryu was considering to do the same, his energy wasn't at its best right now and he wasn't sure he could take the blast. But just before he took his first step, a thought crossed his mind, There is no way I'm gonna let a pacifist kid get the best of me. I am Ryu Krayt Darkson, a S-Class mage!

The Jedi directed his gaze skyward and to the heavens, "Bring it on you son of a bitch!" as if he was defying a god.

After the magic in the circles reached its peak, Zeke shouted the words, "Mylas Vae Talyl!"

As the beam of white light descended on him as if god was trying to smite him, Ryu threw everything he had into his Force Shield above him. Instead of a dome of faint blue light, a wall of almost solid blue light appeared above the Jedi as he crossed his arms over his head. The beam struck Ryu with tremendous impact, obscuring him completely from sight. The white light continued for several seconds before it ended, the only thing left where Ryu was standing was a crater. Zeke fell to his hands and knees, completely exhausted from all the energy he had spent. He managed to make his way over to the crater as Bisca and Alzack appeared by his side.

At the bottom of the crater was Ryu, buried up to his waist in solid stone. The impact had been so great that it nailed him into the ground. Ryu's clothes were slightly torn but nothing beyond repair. His arms were still crossed above his head and his blue shield remained over his head as well, completely uncracked. That was, until the barrier exploded like glass, the pieces flying out every which way. But since the pieces was no longer being maintained by Ryu, each fragment slowly faded out of existence.

"Well then . . ." Started Bisca.

Alzack continued, "Yeah . . ."

"I'm impressed, I actually kinda felt that one." Ryu joked as he used a minor bit of Earth magic to get himself out of the stone.

Zeke managed to push himself back off his hands so he could sit down with an eloquent, "Shut up."

When the two of them finally had a lengthy rest, the four of them slowly made their way down to the guild hall. Zeke and Ryu poked fun at each other while Alzack and Bisca seemed to be in their own little world together. However, before they reached the guild, the two gunmen said their goodbyes to the two strange ones. They had a mission given by Mirajane to go find Natsu and the others since they had not returned yet from Clover Town. The two black sheep continued their way toward the guild house where they were greeted with warm smiles and the occasional hearty hello. While Zeke wasn't officially a member of the guild, everyone still treated him as a close friend. He was an oddball in a guild full of oddballs, he fit right in with them. The day continued uneventfully which ended when the two friends left the guild and parted ways toward their respective homes. Ryu merely took a quick shower and went straight to bed, exhausted yet satisfied with the new potential he had unlocked with his Force Shield ability.

()()()()

Four days later . . .

12:35 PM, Fairy Tail guild hall

Against his better judgement, Ryu had decided to stay and relax and do some things around his house for a couple more days before getting back into the swing of things. Surprisingly, fate decided to take a vacation, leaving Ryu with his peaceful time. Although, calling it a peaceful time would stretch it quite a bit. Alzack and Bisca had returned with Makarov and party in tow and the rest of that day was peaceful enough. But on the next day, the whole guild had gathered for the fight between Erza and Natsu. Ryu was curious to see how the fight would go, but it was still an easy choice to bet on Erza winning. Sadly, he never got to see the end result as the Magic Council had to shove their foot through the fun and games. Ryu was surprised when Erza was arrested instead of himself, considering all the slandering he had done to their name. Of course Natsu went off to try and save Erza and had yet to return for the rest of the day.

The issue was ended when the two of them returned the next day around noon. Natsu was ecstatic to be out and about while Erza decided to take it easy and enjoy some coffee. Natsu on the other hand wanted to continue where they left off.

"I wouldn't mess with her, yo-" Ryu looked at the defeated Natsu who now laid on the ground in defeat, "Too late."

Ryu turned back toward Levy and the rest of Team Shadow Gear to resume the conversation he was having with the three. But as he tried to restart the conversation, he felt something slowly creeping up in his mind. He almost instantly recognized it as a spell, and it was a spell he had felt before. Around him, people were dropping like flies into an unconscious state, some falling onto the floor or resting their heads at the tables they sat at. Ryu himself had to strain his mind in order to stay awake, he desperately just wanted to fall to sleep but his own will persevered through the spell. The fact that his mind was trained to resist effects like this one made it much easier.

Mystogan strode through the doors of the guild, his cape flowing gently behind him as he walked through the sea of sleeping bodies. Ryu managed to turn himself in his seat and look at Mystogan as he walked by, paying Ryu no mind even though he was clearly still awake. The cloaked man walked over to the request board and stared at it for about a minute before finally ripping one off and taking it to Makarov. The headmaster was still awake and seemed to be having an easier time of staying awake than Ryu which made him slightly jealous. After a few words were exchanged between the two, Mystogan began to move toward the door, passing Ryu as he did.

Ryu tried to get a look at his covered face, but the Jedi just couldn't find the energy to raise his head. But as Mystogan walked by, he stopped in front of Ryu surprising the Jedi slightly. All Ryu could see were the mysterious man's sandals, wrapped legs and obnoxiously large pant legs. Mystogan seemed to mumble something to himself before walking off toward the door.

"Hey, just who are you?" Ryu asked as he tried to turn his head.

"5"

"I have the feeling I've met you somewhere before."

"4"

"But no matter how much I think about it, I just can't figure it out."

"3"

"Why did you stop in front of me? Why did you start mumbling to yourself?" He asked as minute amounts of his strength started to returning, making the turning of his head slightly easier.

"2"

"Who are you?!" Ryu managed to shout.

"1"

Mystogan stepped outside the guildhall, the doors closing behind him automatically. As soon as the door shut, all of Ryu's strength returned giving him the ability to sprint toward the guild entrance. But when he flung the doors open, Mystogan was no where in sight and Ryu could no longer sense the man. The fact that Ryu could never figure out Mystogan's identity bothered him, he felt like he had met him somewhere before but no matter how much time he doted on the thought, it never lead him to any logical conclusions.

Ryu turned around to see everyone starting to rise from their magic slumber now that the caster was no longer present. Defeated, Ryu turned around and walked back to his table and sat back down with an annoyed look on his face. Judging by the voices he was hearing around the guild, people were quickly coming to the conclusion that Mystogan had been the cause of the hypnosis.

It wasn't long before before Lucy heard the name, "Mystogan?"

"He's in the running for Fairy Tail's strongest man." The Jedi answered as he took another sip, "Always been trying to get a look at the bastard's face but I never seem to have enough strength to lift my head."

"You mean you were able to resist that?" Lucy asked as she was still waking up.

"Yeah, learning to be able to resist it was a pain in the ass. Took me nearly a year before I could even start to understand let alone use the technique." Ryu clenched his glass slightly, "Just who is he?"

Lucy was curious about the mysterious man, "Has anybody actually seen him?"

Gray pointed to Makarov and Ryu, "The master and Ryu have, but Ryu only seems to see his feet every time though."

"Not true, I've also seen him."

The voice made Ryu grind his teeth as he looked to the second floor with an irritated look, "I know that annoying voice anywhere."

Everyone's gaze shifted to the second floor to see someone who wasn't seen around the guild very often, someone that irritated Ryu just by being in his presence, "To what do we owe this annoying visit, Laxus?"

The yellow haired man merely smiled at his irregular greeting, but before he could say anything Natsu spoke up, "Laxus, fight me!"

Gray sighed, "You just got beat down by Erza you idiot."

"Exactly, how could you hope to beat me if you can't beat mere Erza?" Laxus goaded.

Even without looking at Erza, he could tell she was more than annoyed with Laxus's comment. He was right when he heard Erza reply with, "What does that mean?" in an irritated voice.

"I mean that I am the strongest in the guild!" Laxus rose his arm slightly above his head to provide emphasis to his statement.

"Come down here, you jerk!" Natsu challenged.

"You come up." Laxus retorted.

Ryu began to speak, "Don't do it Natsu, he's just tr-"

He wasn't able to finish as the hot headed fire mage made a break for the stairs to the second floor behind the bar. He wasn't able to reach the first step as Makarov enlarged his arm just he slammed Natsu into the ground, "You are not allowed on the second floor. Not yet."

A grin broke out across Laxus's face as he leaned more against the banister, "Got yourself in trouble."

Ryu expanded his Force senses over the railing, trying to find a weakness in the railing he could exploit with Shatterpoint with. Sadly, this railing was part of the guild, which meant it was made of extremely durable wood and was still replaced at least once a month.

Instead Ryu glared up at Laxus, "He might not be able to go to the second floor, but I can."

Laxus raised an eyebrow, "Is that a challenge?" He asked with interest.

Honestly, Ryu wasn't sure he could beat Laxus. Ryu could beat Erza - on occasion - but Laxus had been an S-Class mage for quite a bit longer. But even if Ryu couldn't beat Laxus, he had enough confidence in his own abilities that he would at least be able to give him a somewhat good thrashing as well as wipe that narcissistic smile off his face.

"Laxus, Ryu, enough out of both of you!" Makarov shouted at both of them.

"Hmph, I won't let anyone take the take the title of Fairy Tail's strongest! Not Erza, not Mystogan, and definitely not you, Ryu." Laxus proclaimed throughout the entire guild hall.

Ryu gritted his teeth as his hand started moving toward the belt on his waist which held two lightsabers. A hand on his shoulder gave him pause, he looked around to see Levy shaking her head. Ryu clenched his hand tightly, his nails digging far enough into his skin, causing it to to break and allow a small trickle of blood to flow out. No one else in the guild could annoy Ryu to this length, his desire to punch Laxus straight in the face had been a longtime dream on his. But here he was about to get down and dirty with Laxus, even against the Makarov's orders. But if there was one person that could stop Ryu from doing anything, it was Levy.

The Jedi turned on his heel and shot toward the guild hall doors. It felt like everyone was watching as he seem to retreat with his tail between his legs. As he walked through the doorway, he heard Laxus say one last thing, "Ha, I knew you were weak."

"Laxus!" He heard Makarov shout.

Ryu stopped in the doorway, unmoving. Everyone in the guild didn't so much as blink as to not miss anything from this high tension situation. Without turning around, the chairs and tables nearest the door began to levitate, people sitting quickly stood up as not to be caught in the lift. Expanding outward from the door, more chairs and tables began to rise into the air, it wasn't long before the bottles positioned behind Mira began to defy gravity as well. It took about a minute before every single piece of furniture was lifted from the ground, yet no person was suspended.

Everything piece of furniture thudded back to the floor as the glass bottles settled back on their respective shelves, save for one. A wine bottle was flung toward Ryu who caught it with a single hand. Ryu smashed the top of it against the guild door before he started walking away as he poured the wine into his mouth. Even with the high tension gone, it still took everyone a minute or two to settle down and resume their daily activities. That night could have ended in shambles, but Ryu decided it would be better to show a display of his 'weak' power and then get slightly drunk rather than cause a ruckus and ruin everyone else's fun.

()()()()

6:13 PM, Magnolia

Ryu spent the following time by wandering around the town doing much of nothing. He just really needed to walk off some steam as he drenched the rest of it in wine. It was about five minutes into his walk that he realized that he had spilt most of the wine out of the bottle as he walked, leaving only enough for him to get slightly tipsy. After a few hours of wandering around, Ryu found himself standing in front of a familiar building, the Blooming Fairie.

It was a florist shop, as such, it had a variety of assorted flowers of varying species and colors out front that would most likely catch the eyes of anyone that walked by. The Blooming Fairie was the only florist shop in all of Magnolia, meaning that it had plenty of business. A bell rung above the door as Ryu stepped inside, his nose was assailed by all sorts of sweet fragrances and aromas that were trapped within the store. Inside the store were even more flowers of varying degrees along with a section devoted to gardening tools as well as a small fertilizer section.

"Be with you in just a moment." Came a female voice from the back of the store.

A couple seconds went by before the person known as Inari Droverson stepped out from a behind a curtain that led to the back of the shop. Inari was in her early thirties, she had brown hair that fell to her shoulders with crisp green eyes that seemed to match the color of the stems of the plants. Her height topped out at 5' 8" so she was neither short or tall, compared to Ryu and her adopted son Zeke, she seemed small. She worn a dirtied apron with dirt stains everywhere with a long sleeve crisp green shirt that matched her eye color under the apron. Her lower wear consisted of blue jeans with worn out knees and covered with dirt from the knee down.

"Welcome to th- Oh Ryu, how good to see you." A smile broke out across her face as she recognized who had entered her store.

"Zeke isn't here right now, I sent him on a couple errands a while ago but you're welcome to wait here." She said as she began to do what Ryu assumed was taking inventory.

Ryu waved his hand dismissively, "Nah, I just came here because I needed it. The aroma helps calms me down a bit. Also, here's a payment for my plants for the next month."

A stack of Jewels equaling up to 10,000 appeared in a flash that settled into his hand. Inari brushed off her hands before taking the money, rolling it up, and depositing in a pants pocket, "Always appreciated. So how are you and Zeke getting along?"

"Oh you know, I poke his ears, he brings a sunbeam down from the heavens to smite me, the usual."

The two of them talked for awhile, catching up on what they had missed with each other. During that time, Ryu had raided Zeke's stash and pilfered a couple more boxes of tea by shoving them into pocket dimension. He took two out and prepared some tea for himself and Inari as they talked. Ryu talked about all the missions he had gone through in the recent months why Inari talked how her business was going well. She had been worried that business was going to drop during the late night attacks last week but was glad they were dealt with before anything too serious happened. Ryu happened to not say anything about that he had not only dealt with the problem, he also helped the perpetrator escape.

After the two had conversed for awhile, Ryu decided to ditch the place before Zeke returned. He had to deal with Laxus today and that never left Ryu in a pleasant mood. Ryu took some side alleys as to not to accidentally run in the elf which seemed to work. As the sky grew darker, Ryu started his walk slowly back to his house. The temperature started to drop but Ryu's duster kept him warm.

"Hey Ryu!"

The silver haired mage turned to see a familiar figure running toward him, "What is it Natsu?"

A piece of paper was thrusted toward him, "Come with us on this mission!"

Ryu's jaw dropped as he identified the most prominent mark on the paper, "You did not steal an S-Class mission from the second floor!"

"I didn't, Happy did." Natsu smiled as he rubbed the ridge of his nose.

"Aye, Natsu said if we complete an S-Class mission, then Makarov will have to recognize us as S-Class rank!"

Nastu clenched his hand into a fist, "And once we're S-Class, I'm going to beat Laxus senseless!"

Ryu sighed as he rubbed his eyelids, "As much as I would like to see that happen Natsu, do you have any idea how much trouble I would get in for taking a non-S-Class wizard on a S-Class ranked mission? I could have my S-Class rank revoked!"

"If we come back successful, then you won't have to worry about that. And since when have you cared about the rules?" The pink haired mage encouraged.

"Since there is literally no benefit for me to do so, except the money which I have no problem with right now, sorry, but no. In fact, if that paper isn't back on the second floor by tomorrow morning, I will tell the master and have him deal with you." Ryu warned Natsu as turned back toward the route to his house.

"Fine." Ryu heard Natsu reply in an irritated tone, "We'll take it back."

Ryu knew that was way too easy convincing Natsu, and because of that he knew Natsu most likely wouldn't be taken the job request back to the guild. It didn't matter to him anyway, Ryu had decided during his walk that he needed to go on another job tomorrow. He would pick it up from the normal request board he could have more variety, but what he really wanted to do was to punch some kind of monster in the face really, really hard.

()()()()

The next day . . .

10:21 AM, Guild Hall

Once again, Ryu had made his way into the Fairy Tail guild, the high tension situation from yesterday seemed to be all but forgotten. Before he settled down in his usual spot at the bar, a glass of orange liquid awaited him that was placed there only seconds ago. Mira sat leaning on the counter with a piece of paper in front of her. Ryu sipped from his drink as he sat down on the rotating stool.

"What'cha looking at there Mira?" Ryu asked as he laid his head down on the cool counter.

Mira took out a stamp and pressed it up against the paper, "Just giving this request S-Class difficulty. Just got it in today."

Ryu had planned on grabbing a easier job but he decided to take a small risk, "Here, let me take a look at it."

The job to him seemed simple enough, some people needed someone to go down into this shipwreck that was lost to a recent storm and retrieve an item that was on the ship. It didn't seem that difficult although the job reward was nine million Jewels which caught Ryu's eyes.

"What the hell? This seems way too easy to be an S-Rank mission." Ryu said bluntly after re-reading the request a couple of times.

"Well," Mira began, "There wasn't a lot of details given for the job other than what you read and where to meet them. The reward is rather high as well so . . ."

"You're thinking it's rather shady." Ryu finished her sentence.

Mira merely nodded in response, Ryu looked over the paper again. The job didn't have many details which made him suspicious, the job just seemed so simple for such a large reward. Whoever took the job could be walking into a trap, so Ryu decided to do what any other Fairy Tail guild member would do.

"I'll take it."

Mira shot a somewhat surprised glance at him, "Are you sure? I could send a message to the people who sent the request and see if I could get some more info."

Ryu shook his head in response, "No, it's fine. This job seems fishy to me and I don't want them to turn tail and run in case they get scared when requested for more information. If this job leads to something else, I want to be the one to who solves it. Although, I could just be really paranoid."

"If you're sure." Mira took out another stamp from under the counter and held it above the request. She looked to Ryu once more who gave a nod of approval. The stamp came down with a solid thud, when it was lifted away, the word 'Accepted' shown across the paper in bright blue lettering.

Ryu finished off his orange juice before asking, "Where do I need to go?"

"The town was called . . ." Mira reached under the counter against and shuffled some things around before pulling out another piece of paper which Ryu assumed had the rest of the details of the request as little info as there was, "Ah, a small port town called Mermaid's Cove."

The Jedi couldn't help but raise an eyebrow, "Mermaid's Cove, what kind of name is that?"

"I believe I can answer that."

Ryu turned the stool to see Levy standing next to him, warmth started to course through Ryu just by seeing her, "Morning Levy, and what do you know?"

"It has to do with a book I read a while back, it was a book full of fairy tales from all around Fiore, one of them is on that town. I'll give you the quick version, a group of travellers were making their way up the coast looking for a place they could set up a town. They happened upon a small cove that they thought to be a place that they could set up a small fishing town. However they soon discovered that they weren't the only people that found the cove favorable. Mermaids used the cove as shelter when the currents were too tough to navigate during storms."

Ryu looked at her questioningly, this in turn caused her to shoot her own confused glance at him, "What?"

"No love story between a human and mermaid, no conflict whatsoever, nothing more to the story?" Ryu asked.

Levy shrugged, "That's pretty much all that happened, just in a summarized version."

Mira had laid out a map of Fiore in front of Ryu during his conversation with Levy. She decided to trace the route Ryu would have to take to get to the town, there wasn't a railroad route near there so it would be best for Ryu to jump from town to town using carriages. Although, Mira was pretty sure Ryu wouldn't mind.

Ryu memorized the route and the towns he would be going through to get to Mermaid's Cove. Just in case, he decided to write down the town names in order just in case he forgot. It would take at least two days to reach the town if there wasn't any complications to deal with along the way. Before leaving, Ryu managed to talk with Levy a bit more which made him happy as always. Levy went to the request board and picked out a mission for her and the rest of Team Shadow Gear to handle. The two of them left the guild together and talked with each other as they made their way toward where a group of carriages awaited to carry someone off to their chosen destination. Ryu told the driver his destination and learned that he would arrive at the third town in a list of five to Mermaid's Cove. He would have to spend the night at the inn and then hire another carriage to take him the rest of the way. Before he left, he said his goodbyes to Levy and wished her luck on her job. Once the carriage was moving, Ryu closed his eyes and wandered through the endless abyss which was his mind.

---

Another chapter will be along shortly. However the next one will be quite a bit shorter than this one. i'm still working on it but I haven't abondaned you guys. Thanks again for reading my story, I'll see all of you on the flip side.

Chapter 10:

Out in the Open Sea

Until next time, Stay Classy, RoguePizza out