Episode 006: Arrival of The Lullaby Reaper
"Ugh… This is the worst…" Natsu grumbled to himself as he leaned against the train window with a large groan. Since Ragna and Lucy had become members of the team for this job, the team had to upgrade their car room they were staying in while they traveled. This meant that they were in a room suitable for eight people instead of four and could allow the sick fire user his space.
"Looks like the medicine isn't working on him, at least not to the degree that you'd hoped," Erza observed. "It was a good effort though."
"Tch, effort doesn't mean results and it doesn't get me back the Jewels I spent," Ragna grumbled to himself. "Soon as we get back, I'm hitting the highest paying job I can find."
"You can try, but many of those would involve hunting monsters," the armored wizard informed him.
"All the more reason; I'd be able to get rid of some of this frustration beating some scum senseless," the one-armed Reaper explained.
"Someone's confident in themself," Erza noted with a smirk. "Though that does remind me, I've yet to hear of your and Lucy's preferred magic styles."
"I'm a Celestial Wizard, so most of my fighting is actually done with the spirits I summon," Lucy informed, petting Plue's head as the spirit sat on her lap. "I can be good with a whip in a pinch, but really my spirits are my best bet."
"Really? I heard that you'd managed to take out a mercenary gorilla with only your pinky finger," Erza questioned leaving Lucy to shudder with fright at just the idea.
"...The hell's been saying that?" Ragna questioned crassly, figuring someone really got the details mixed-up from Lucy's encounters with Vulcans.
"And as for you?" she questioned to Ragna, curious to where the enigma.
"Magic ain't my strongest suit, more of a fighter and less of a mage," he informed. "I got the basics down of a few spells, but most of the magic I use is just Equipping a weapon and going to town from there."
"Ah, a fellow Equip user then," Erza noted with a somewhat interested glance. "Have you found many weapons to use then?"
"Afraid not, for now I just got a sword and that oversized frying pan to use… the latter of which I mainly use for cooking," he admitted, scratching the back of his head with his only functioning hand.
"Still, it sounds like an interesting style and I look forward to seeing it in action," Erza noted before turning serious. "To business then… I have reason to believe that the dark guild of Eisenwald is about to attempt something with a magical item called Lullaby."
'A dark guild?' Ragna questioned internally as he leaned back on his seat. "Doubt they're planning on using whatever this thing is for any charity work."
"Indeed, I overheard them talking while stopping at a pub during one of my jobs. Their conversation was an odd one, only saying that they were searching for Lullaby and couldn't reach it immediately because of a magic seal that had been put in place… If only I had been more suspicious of them or knew the guild they belonged to, I could have stopped them there." Erza looked disappointed and angry at herself, Ragna figured she wasn't always the confident and composed woman like she tried to show the rest of the guild; she too had her occasional weak moment.
"And you want our help to stop them?" Gray questioned. "How strong is their guild supposed to be?"
"I'm not sure; like all dark guilds they keep all of their operations a secret so it's next to impossible to get a clear judgement of their strength. The operations of most guilds seem to have a talent for eliminating their weaker members, but given the importance of this job we could possibly be facing the guild in its entirety. As I said yesterday, I would've gone to the master for help, but sadly he'd already left for the summit in Clover town."
"Hold on! Just the five of us are going to face an entire guild!?" Lucy asked with fright. Sure, she hadn't exactly been on easy jobs since joining Fairy Tail, but the idea of facing an entire guild seemed too much for the little experience she had.
"Six of us…" Natsu groaned from the side. "Ragna's still fighting with us…"
"Aye, you shouldn't ignore your father Lucy, how heartless," Happy chided.
"YOU'RE THE ONE I WAS IGNORING!" she blasted back at the cat.
"Damn, not so loud…" Ragna muttered to himself, though he felt like he should have been used to all of the screaming by now. "So… anything we do know about Eisenwald?"
"That we'll at least be facing one of their strongest members; he's one of the few members that there's public information on even if it's mostly speculation and rumors," Erza told him, though her complexion told him it wasn't a good thing. "He prides himself on ruthlessly killing every person that even gets near near his targets and he only accepts assassination missions to begin with. He's killed mountains of wizards, onlookers, and officials and he seems to have a deep fascination or love for murder… It's lead to him earning the name Erigor the Reaper."
"So… he works on jobs where he has to kill people and looks forward to it? That's terrible," Lucy noted worriedly. "If we run into someone like that-"
"Dibs," Ragna casually shot in.
"DID YOU HEAR NOTHING SHE SAID!?" Lucy screamed again, causing Ragna to grimace as it was right in his ear for the second time.
"Heard, don't care, not impressed: dibs," he repeated, trying to let his ear recover from her shouting.
"Your large hold of confidence and lack of anxiety is an impressive if dangerous mix," Erza noted before as she looked at Natsu. "It seems he's still suffering from his Nausea, should I put him out of his misery?"
"...Isn't that a bit much?" Gray noted, off put by Erza's offer.
"Relax, I was only about to hit him in the gut and knock him unconscious," Erza explained.
"Not much better," Ragna said with a sigh as he looked out the window. "How much longer until we reach Onibas Station?"
"A few hours at the very least, so I'd suggest getting some rest so that we're prepared for the journey ahead," Erza told the group. Giving her a mild shrug, Ragna used a small equip spell and summoned a book to his hands which he began to read. "I see, so that's you magic in action."
"It's more or less my suitcase at this point, but it's still useful enough," he told her. "...Speaking of which, if you tried using your magic like this you wouldn't have had to pay such a damn big luggage fare."
"Ragna…" Erza said to him, her expression turning to a glare harsh as the fires of hell.
'This guy just doesn't learn,' Gray thought to himself, terrified with what she might do to Ragna right in front of them.
"...That's an interesting idea, I hadn't considered doing that before," she told him with a smile, leaving the other wizards in the car shocked at her change of tone.
"Trust me, it'll save you some serious cash in the long run," he told her without looking up from his book.
For the next hour or so the train ride proceeded as normal, giving Ragna the peace and quiet he needed to read his book covering theories and practices of the arcane. While he couldn't try to combine it with his current spellcraft at present given their confining space, it was still a useful way to kill time since he'd never been much for reading books given his restless lifestyle. When he'd finished the first of many books he was about to go for his next one, but that was before he felt a weight hit his shoulder. Glancing over he saw that Lucy had fallen asleep and was resting her head on his shoulder, though given her angle or rest it was clear that she'd fallen onto him by accident. Doing nothing more than giving a small smirk, Ragna summoned the next book and opened it to continue reading. Erza herself seemed to take note of this, but didn't say anything as she began polishing one of her many blades.
Later -Onibas Station-
"Phew… what a long train ride," Gray grumbled to himself as their train slowly pulled into the station, stretching as much as he could given his limited room. "Ugh, I'm feeling sore all over."
"You'll just have to cope I'm afraid," Erza told him seriously. "Time is of the essence here, so we'll all have to move fast if we're to find any leads. Understood?"
"Yeah, yeah, I figured it would be something like that," Ragna muttered as he gently tried to shake Lucy awake. "Hey… we're here…"
"Uh?" she said as she groggily emerged from her sleep. She then realized that she was resting on Ragna's shoulder and blushed slightly. "Um, I…"
"Have a good nap?" the Reaper joked at her expression, not seeming to mind her sleeping arrangements.
"...Thanks," she said, still feeling plenty embarrassed.
"You were drooling all over Ragna's coat," Happy cut in.
"Don't lie you damn cat," Ragna vented as Lucy's blush on seemed to worsen at the claim. He gave a groan as he rose to his feet once the train had finally come to a stop. "Come on, let's get- GUH?"
"Ragna?" Lucy asked as the Reaper harshly winced in pain before doubling over. "Wh-What's wrong!? Are you okay?"
"Does he only suffer from motion sickness once he stops moving?" Happy asked, not exactly the craziest theory to come up with.
It felt like every part of the Reaper's body (his limp arm and eye excluded) was being torn apart for a brief moment, almost like the days before he'd mastered his powerful but costly Blood Kain Distortion. Focusing as hard as he could, he managed to get the painful surge under control after a few minutes but he was breathing heavily by the end of his efforts.
"You alright?" Gray Fullbuster asked, showing some concern for his fellow guild member.
"I… I'll be fine…" Ragna said as he looked his his limp right arm within his coat. 'This thing should be dead to the world without any Seither right now… so what the hell is setting me off?' "I… I probably just need some air. Grab N-"
"Right then, let's get you outside," Lucy said as she pushed Ragna outside, her face clearly showing worry her older teammate as did her actions as she was ready to catch him if he ever fell over.
"You don't need to push me, and grab-"
"I told you we need to hurry on this assignment," Erza reminded him seriously. "We can talk once I've grabbed my things and we're outside."
"I understand that, but-"
"Listen to Erza! She's in charge of this job! Aye!" Happy shouted to interrupt him as Ragna was finally pushed off of the train and onto the station.
"FOR THE LOVE OF GOD LISTEN TO ME!" Ragna shouted, finally stopping the rest of his team cold. Several pairs of eyes from around the station were staring at the one-eyed scowling Reaper, but he didn't care. "Tell me… who grabbed Natsu?"
"He should be right beside...us?" Erza asked as she glanced to her side, not seeing the Fire Wizard. A sudden whistle coming from the train, right before it started to take off from the station.
"We left him on the train… again," Happy noted, though the small cat's expression didn't seem to be that worried.
"Of course Natsu wouldn't be able to leave the train himself! He suffers from severe motion sickness!" Erza exclaimed at the passing of events.
"Which is what I was trying to TELL you!" Ragna shouted, his annoyance starting to boil over into sheer anger.
"I can't believe I was so foolish to leave him behind! I must pay for my oversight!" Erza said, shaking her fist with self loathing. "One of you must strike me for this error!"
"No! That's okay!" Lucy protested, knowing that not only was Erza reacting but it was likely that she'd kill them all if she got hit. "It was a common mistake, we know you-!"
WHACK!
"Ragna!" she and Gray scolded the red coated Reaper, fearful for their own lives.
"What? She was literally asking for it," he told them nonchalantly. "Plus, none of you listened to me." That caused the two to calm down and they guiltily averted their gazes while Erza was still somewhat surprised that someone had actually followed through on her demand. "Now we gotta grab Natsu… Guess I could run after the train if I-"
"Don't be ridiculous, we'll use the emergency switch to stop the train and take a Magic Mobile," Erza instructed, rubbing the sore spot that Ragna had struck her.
"Magic Mobile? The hell is a-?"
Later
'Seriously, what the hell is up with this place?' Ragna thought annoyedly as he latched onto the roof of car driving down the rocky ground at high speeds. He wasn't sure if it was because of Erza's driving, but he was pretty sure car rides weren't supposed to be this bumpy. Making his situation worse was his lack of room to get a proper hold since he was joined by Gray on the roof of their transportation. 'Pretty sure I could try to outrun this if I really wanted to, but at least I can see the train up a-'
Any optimism Ragna might've had was then ruined by the following turn of events; the same painful surge he'd been feeling earlier flared throughout his body and killed his reaction speed, an explosion from inside one of the train cars that blew its roof off, Natsu being sent flying from said train car until he crashed straight into the car and slammed into Gray, Erza coming to a sudden break as the two fell to the ground behind her, the force from the stop launching Ragna from his place on the roof and painfully onto the hard ground as the train continued to speed off.
"Alright, that sucked…" he groaned as he slowly made his way to his feet as he watched the train pass the group by, the painful flare starting to ebb away. 'Something's wrong here, Natsu got blasted off of that train for a reason and I'm pretty sure it wasn't because he was about to hurl…' Shaking himself off, he made his way over to the others. Natsu and Gray were still on the ground in pain from the sudden head on impact (literally) with each other. "You both alright?"
"I'll live," the Ice user groaned. Taking a hand offered to him by the Reaper, he forced himself to his feet albeit with some slight shaking.
"Urgh… you guys had to leave me on the train," Natsu groaned as he too weakly tried to rise.
"Their fault, I remembered you," Ragna said with a small glare at the others, making it clear that he wasn't ready to drop this. "What was with that explosion though; something or someone made you get off that train."
"Right… that's-" Natsu eye's then shot open as he was instantly to his feet. "We need follow after that train! That guy that attacked me said he was from Eisenwald!"
"What? And you let him get away?" Erza asked, her eyes narrowing into a harsh glare and causing Natsu to grow terrified.
"If he was on a train, I don't think Natsu stood much of a chance," Ragna muttered, remembering when the two of them had been stuck on a boat and he'd had to cover for both of them. "At least now we know where they're going…"
"That's the one thing that we gained," Erza agreed seriously before heading back to the magic car.
"Not another ride," Natsu groaned as he got into the car, that was when the fire user seemed to remember something important. "I think I might've gotten a look at whatever Lullaby was… It looked like some sort of instrument, maybe a flute of some kind with a three eyed skull."
"A three eyed skull?" Lucy asked as she appeared to be thinking that information over while taking a seat beside Natsu as Ragna and Gray were forced to take their places up top once more. "Did each of the eyes have a gem inside of them?"
"Yeah, I thin-" Natsu was about to say before the car surged forward and his nausea hit him like a truck. Knowing this information was important, he tried to keep his wits about him in this state. "Some sort of… ruby... I think…"
"What's wrong, Lucy?" Happy asked, the cat remaining oddly serious as the chaos began to developed around them.
"I think I might have read about Lullaby somewhere before," the blond said as she tried her hardest to think back. "If I'm remembering correctly it was a form of… Death Magic."
"And with a name like Lullaby, that almost makes sense," Erza continued as she continued to focus on the road. "Given its flute shape, it seems that they'd have to play the item as an instrument in order to use it."
"Which could mean anyone close enough to hear the damn thing would get hit with the curse and die," Ragna finished as he tried to hold on.
"A dark guild with an item like that could have any number of uses for something like that," Gray continued as he held on beside Ragna. "The question is what they're planning on using it for right now."
"If we move quick enough we won't have to wait and find out," Ragna them all as he held on as best he could with his single good arm.
"Right! Hold on tight!" Erza commanded as she increased the vehicle's already outrageous speed. Ragna had to fight not to swear for her to slow down as he hoped that she'd at least give him a warning before the next time she stopped the car.
Later -The Checkpoint-
"This isn't good," Erza noted as the group's car was parked on a cliffside, overlooking the train station checkpoint. "Seems that the Eisenwald member that Natsu ran into has joined up with the rest of his group… and there's already a fatality." There was a single body covered in a white blanket as the other soldiers tried to question the clearly shaken people.
"Just one though, meaning they haven't used that lullaby thing yet…" Ragna noted as he sat on the top of the Magic Car with Gray, taking a well earned break after holding on for dear life. "Anyone know where the train tracks lead?"
"I do and it's not good," Lucy told them as she sat behind a nausea afflicted Natsu. "This set of tracks will lead them to Oshibana station, and they could take a train who knows where from there."
"Meaning we could lose them if we don't hurry," Erza said as she put the device to control the vehicle back on.
"Hey, should we switch for now?" Gray tried to suggest. "If we keep going at this pace, the effort's going to take up whatever remaining magic powers you have left."
"I'll be fine, for right now catching up to Eisenwald is more important," Erza told him.
"Actually, there's one thing about this that doesn't make sense," Ragna told them as Erza was about to start moving. "Why the hell are they so open about this? I mean they had a group waiting here and judging by that body down below, it looks like they made plans to make a show about it… wouldn't it be better if they moved quiet, used Lullaby, and took the credit for it later? Maybe even use these cars like we're doing?"
"Maybe they're trying to make a big show out of it?" Happy suggested from the back. "If they get everyone's attention before using that flute for something really devastating, it'll just gain that much more attention and make the guild look all the more threatening."
"Meaning unless we can stop them here and now, Eisenwald could turn into a kingdom wide threat if not worse," Erza said before they started spreading off again, giving Grey and Ragna all of a split second to get their hold on the roof.
Later -Oshibaba Station-
"This ain't good…" Ragna mutter as everyone piled out of the car out in front of the train station, while having a still recovering Natsu slung over his shoulder. "Looks like they're already here…"
A large crowd had already gathered in front of the train station which looked like it was blocked off by several soldiers. A few members of the crowd was a little rowdy as they shouted complaints while one of the soldiers in the front tried to keep control.
"Everyone calm down! We have a bit of a situation inside!" a station worker with a sound enhancing magic object (which looked a lot like a microphone) tried to tell the crowd. "We've already dispatched a force to deal with the threat so we should hear back from them soon! With any luck we'll have the station running by tomorrow at the earliest!"
"At the earliest!? I can't wait that long! I've got reservations back in Omnibus!" one voice from the crowd shouted.
"And I can't miss my meeting in Clover Town! My job is on the line here!" a woman shouted.
"And I've already had to stay in this town for almost a week because of a scheduling error! If I have to stay here another night I'm going to go crazy!"
"Please! We've heard your complaints are we're trying to get the situation handled to the best of our ability!" the man in the front promised. "We just ask that you be patient and we'll ensure that you are all compensated for this effort!"
"Are you the man in charge?"
"Huh? Ah!" the worker screamed as he realized that Erza had walked up beside him. "Who are you!?" Erza then... headbutted the man into the ground. The poor worker didn't look like he'd recover from that beating anytime soon any time soon.
"Are you in charge?" she demanded the next work, who was even more startled by the developments.
"Wh-who me?" he asked, only to be blasted away from a kick by Erza. Thus the questioning continued and Erza continued blasting away the workers as everyone watched on in awe.
'I can appreciate someone being strong headed… but this is a bit much,' Ragna thought to himself. "Erza quit wasting your time with them! We've got to get moving if we're going to catch them!"
"Are you sure? I still need my information-"
"LISTEN TO HIM!" screamed the cowering workers that remained conscious. Sighing as he continued to hold Natsu over his shoulder, Ragna started making for the train station with the other Fairy Tail wizards following closely behind him.
'This isn't looking good,' Ragna thought as his team ran through the station. They passed by several soldiers laying on the ground either defeated… or dead. 'Some of those fatal wounds definitely look like they were made by a scythe,' Ragna thought as he knew what to look out for before seeing that Lucy was growing concerned as she saw the bodies. "...Just stay close to Erza, I get the feeling that she knows what she's doing."
"R-Right," Lucy said before the noticing Ragna was starting to wince. "H-Hey, are you alright? You're starting to act up again…"
"Rggh… I'll be fine, it'll take more than whatever the hell this is to kill me," he promised before looking to Natsu who was resting on his shoulder. "Hey, we're about there. Thinking about waking up anytime soon?"
"Just… about…" the fire user groaned, not filling Ragna with any confidence.
The group then managed to make their way into a large central room… with the Eisenwald guild waiting for them. It was a large group of about fifty men, though most of them looked more like mercenaries since they carried weapons. Ragna noticed a few standout from the group that didn't look like your average run of the mill thugs.
"Well, well, well… Looks like we have got company," the group heard a voice call out, though they hadn't seen anyone from the massive enemy force speak out. "And from a team of Fairy Tail wizards no less! This is getting interesting!"
Suddenly, appearing in front of the group through some form of teleportation was a man that the Team knew had to be Erigor the Reaper. He was bare chested at the moment, wore long loose fitting black pant robes and a black torn cape around his neck. He had dark tattoos along his chest and long white hair that wasn't unlike Ragna's. His weapon of choice was a large and curved scythe with a skull on the opposing side of the blade.
'...Mine.'
"I'm a little surprised you all have followed me so far, I was half expecting you to run off with you tails between your legs and wait for the army to save your sorry hides," the Reaper of Eisenwald taunted. "And you're still here, even after you passed by their bodies on your way here."
"Yeah, we saw 'em all right," Ragna said as he set Natsu on the floor, letting the fire user recover as he looked Erigor dead in the eye. "I'm not impressed."
"We know you have the Lullaby flute," Erza said with a deep scowl. "What are you trying to accomplish with it?"
"You really want to know?" Erigor asked with a vile smirk on his face. "This town is a rather well known training hub, you know? There are plenty of important traders and high class businessmen here… so many of which are within hearing distance of the magic broadcasting system."
"You're going to play that thing over the airwaves!?" Gray realized. "Don't you realize how many innocent people that would kill!? They don't have anything to do with this!"
"LIKE I CARE!" Erigor shouted before letting out a maniacal laugh. "Those people feared us and were only too happy when our own guild was denounced! Now I'll show them… I'LL SHOW THEM ALL THAT GUILD AUTHORIZATION DOESN'T MEAN JACK! YOUR GUILD MIGHT BE RECOGNIZED, BUT I'LL TEAR IT TO THE GROUND MYSELF!"
"Not if... we stop you..." Natsu said as he slowly made his way to his feet, growling as he glared at one of the enemy wizard in a white coat with black hair that was glaring back at him. "Anyone that says that they're going to destroyer my guild…" He summoned fire into his right and slammed it into his open palm. "Is getting burned…"
"You're free to try, but I'm not expecting much from any of you…" Erigor told them. "All of you… ALL OF YOU ARE GOING TO DIE! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" All around them, the Fairy Tail group listened as Erigor the Reaper and his cronies laughed insanely at them, ready to put their plan into action after they massacred them.
"Riveting… Bravo…" Ragna told the enemy boredly, abruptly halting their laughter as everyone stared at him. "If my other arm was working, I'd be slow clapping."
"What does one hand clapping sound like?"
"Later Happy, later," Ragna told the cat. "Anyways, just killing an entire city when you've got a tool that powerful just seems… wasteful. I mean if you guys wanted to wipe out an entire city, why wait until you had Lullaby? The army doesn't seem to be much of a match for you."
"...I'm confused. Are you complimenting them or insulting them?" Lucy asked with a deadpan expression.
"Both maybe?" Natsu considered.
"Guys, guys... let dad do his job, okay?" Ragna sighed, giving a rare instance of using his team given title. "No, I've dealt with sickos like you before and your kind wouldn't go after a civilian crowd with something that dangerous; you'd have to go after something big while you've still got the element of surprise… Clover Town, maybe?" Even if Erigor's face remained stoic, the expressions of many of the thugs couldn't be missed as many of the members looked like they'd been caught red handed. "I knew it."
"The Guild Master's meeting?" Erza questioned before glaring at Erigor. "That's been your plan this whole time!?" Erigor slowly allowed his teeth to grit as his plans started to be unraveled by the enemy.
"How'd you figure it out?" Gray asked the Reaper.
"It wasn't hard, I thought it was kind of weird that all of this was all happening when Makarov and the other leaders were gone. If this thing's really that powerful, their first move would have to be to take out anyone that could get in their way… and with all of the Guild masters in one place they'd have the perfect chance."
"...Even so, we're clearly several steps ahead of you," Erigor told him darkly as he readied his wind magic, slowly floating into the air. "Men, keep them busy… I want those old farts dead by the end of the-"
CLANG!
"You've already got me to worry about," Ragna told him smugly, having quickly summoned his giant Gilgamesh XIII Blade and rushed forward at Erigor. The opposing Reaper had barely managed to block the attack with his own weapon as he was sent flying back into the wall. Looking down, he scowled at the man who'd gotten in his way twice now and was starting to annoy him. "You and me; right here, right now."
'He's a cocky one and he's getting on my nerves. He thinks he can fight me with that arm and eye of his like that?' Erigor thought before an idea struck him and he gave a dark smile. "With all of these people here to get in our way? I'd rather fight you somewhere I can really swing this thing around."
"Ragna, we need to-" Erza tried to say, but it was already to late as Erigor used his wind magic to fly off at high speeds.
"HOLD IT!" Ragna shouted as he rushed after him. Erza was about to follow in pursuit, but that's when the rest of Eisenwald threateningly readied their weapons.
"Erigor only invited that old cripple to play, I'm afraid you'll just have to wait your turn, red," one of the thugs said with a dirty smile. "You fairy flies aren't getting off that easily!"
"There are so many of them," Lucy realized nervously. "And we don't have Ragna with us."
"And we don't need him; I can take these guys out all on my own," Natsu said as he started to glow with fire.
"Not if I do it first, flame breath," Grey told his teammate with their usual rivalry on full display. That comment alone was enough for the two of them to literally butt heads as they growled at each other in anger.
"That's enough from both of you!" Erza commanded furiously, giving both of them pause. "Lucy and I will handle them here! I need both of you to go after Erigor and Ragna! Head to Clover town; even if you don't find them on the way there you can at least warn the guild leaders!" Natsu and Gray's silence made it clear their neither of them liked what she was proposing. "DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR!?"
"A-AYE!" the both shouted, mimicking Happy as they ran off.
"You're not getting out of here that easily!" shouted the white jacketed member of the guild that Natsu had been glaring at as he melded into the floor shadows with his magic to chase after them.
"Handle them here men," another of Eisenwald members, one dressed like an Egyptian pharaoh told his thugs as he shadow magic like a set of whips to grapple after them. "I, Rayule, will leave to support Kageyama."
"Yeah yeah, go have fun," one of the thugs said as the remaining members eyed Erza and Lucy with dirty expressions. "We'll have fun with the ladies here and-"
SMASH!
Before the man could finish, he and about a dozen men around him were sent flying. Acting so fast that they hadn't a moment to react, Erza had summoned a large wing hilted sword, closed in on the enemy, and made a mighty swing. The thugs shouted in pain as the flew through the air before falling unconsciously to the ground. The rest of the men watched on in awe as Erza glared at them with haunting eyes.
"...Are we having fun yet?"
Author's Note
Happy: You're late! LATE LATE LATE!
Storm VII: ...I am well aware.
H: You haven't touch this story for almost a year now!
S: ...I am quite clear on that.
H: So why update now of all times?
S: I had… things I needed to work through. Look, this chapter finally got up didn't it? By next chapter hopefully I can finish off the Lullaby arc.
H: Finish it off? But aren't the events going a little different than usual?
S: Hey, do you want 'Just Fairy Tail but Ragna is there' or do you want a story that can show some differing events and dynamics? I think some changes in this fic can be for the better
.H: Liiiiiiike…
S:(slight spoiler for next chapter (even though it's kind of obvious)) For one thing, since Natsu and Grey no longer have to split up and find the intercom room, they'll be forced into a Team fight with Kageyama and Rayule instead of facing them one on one, that's something.
H: I guess, but won't they be teaming up later on anyways?
S: True enough, but I think that having them do so when their tensions are still at their highest, it could make for some great comedy.
(End spoiler)
H: And WHEN is this next chapter going to be up?
S: Good question, but I'll try to not leave you all in the dark this time… promise. End of the year, I'm resolved to finish the Lullaby arc by then.
H: That gives you a month and a half exactly. Better be a good ending.
S: Yeah, yeah… let's take care of the reviews.
Wlyman2009: I have played a few of them. Berseria is my clear favorite though the second Symphonia game was a close second. (A lot of people seem to hate Emile though)
Blazblade: Actually it was because someone named Jet (a Fairy Tail member) had ordered Bell Peppers and Beef. It's a Cowboy Bebop reference I've tried a few times.
Meijin Lightus: Trust me, I'd be lost without spell check. The name's Jotaro, but as stated above that wasn't the reference I was going for.
Lance Eterna: Good, let's keep doing it then.
Medblare: Nice, I showed it to a close friend of mine that watches Fairy Tail and he couldn't stop laughing either.
The Unplanner: Like he said himself, it's the lesser of two evils.
Wowzer: Gilgamesh is actually the titular character in his own epic (which is kind of an ego trip). The XIII part is just something I made as a part of his order for story purposes.
Minicoopa411: When you put it like that… yeah.
Dread Grim Reaper: Noted Madam.
BlitzNuteral69: As per normal, Ragna's going to be the only BB character here, but the Dad thing will be really taking off shortly.
Fire Dragon of Miracles: Wendy won't be around for a while at this rate… Shut up Happy, I know that I need more consistent updates.
Travis Moon: Bloodscythe (or Aramasa as we now know it) was left behind, and as for right now there's only a slight reaction.
Guest: Yep, right after CF.
MechaDragon99: Yeah… yet another dad figure.
Guest (2): Just don't say it to his face.
The 10th wand: ...Well if things go about the same, they might see him impaled on a massive blade similar to what happened with Nu.
Bakuto Masaki: Note to self, handle Jellal's arc with care.
ThePinkJirachi: And I am back… for now.
Bloodedge: It's still possible I guess, and as for a name… Grim Fairies, I dunno.
Guest (3): Possibly down the line.
Sieg Warheidt: I have a plan to take this plan a bit farther, but I'll just have to see where it goes.
Happy: Wow, that's a lot of-
Storm VII: NO MORE FISH! CUTTING YOU OFF!
H: Aw… How about Seafood curry then?
S: ...Dammit, that actually sounds good. Until next time everyone.
S&H: Ciao!