At 7:00 AM, Makoto, Lucy, Natsu, Grey, and Happy were already at the station waiting for Erza's arrival.
"Where is Erza!? First, she calls us to gather and then she is nowhere to be found!" The dragon slayer frowned, fire surging out of his mouth.
"Stop whining, will you?"It's not like you will die from waiting in here."
"Hoh? Since when did I ask you to comment on my actions, bastard?"
"Since forever, you lizard!"
Their foreheads were pushing each other; it was a normal thing for both of them to do.
"Speaking of which..." Makoto commented. "What kind of magic does Erza-san possess?"
Happy suddenly had a big grin on his face.
"Erza's magic is actually really beautiful! It goes swoosh and then goes bam with skdush and boom!" Happy energetically exclaimed, gaining a frown from both Luckster and Lucy.
"What kind of explanation is that?" Lucy frowned.
"Eh? Lucy, you are also here."
"You just noticed me!?" Celestial Spirit Mage almost fell from Natsu's unawareness. "Well, yesterday Mira-san told me to come along in order to look after both of you and Grey in case of some accidents happening, so that's why I am here."
"You are lying, aren't you, aye?"
"What!? No way!"
People would have believed Lucy if not for her giant grin. It was mostly because, according to Mirajane's words, Makoto, Natsu, and Grey, along with Erza, can pretty much be considered the strongest fairy tail party, which was super interesting to Lucy!
Speaking of Makoto, Luckster himself was interested in his own capabilities, and since his meeting with the scarlet-haired mage, he had an idea in his mind.
'Maybe I can ask Erza-san to teach me combat skills after we are done with her mission?'
Makoto couldn't understand why, but he wanted to get stronger, strong enough to help his current friends and not be a pushover to them. He had despised his weakness more than normal during this time. Even though his magic was absurd, it wasn't cut for combat at all, so he was forced to create his own magic attack, which would give him at least a small chance against strong enemies.
"OH!" Suddenly, Happy yelled, surprising even Grey and Natsu.
"What happened, Happy?" Makoto asked, getting out of his thoughts.
"I need to give something to Lucy…" Blue cat said. "But I can't remember what!"
"Than what is the point of screaming like that? And now I myself am interested in what you wanted to give me."
"Lucy is right; don't make such a ruckus out of nowhere; it is strange." Grey lectured while standing clad naked, only wearing his underwear.
"Grey, I think you are not one to talk about that, and why are you already naked?" Luckster frowned. Really, how did he manage to get naked so fast while arguing with Natsu?
"Gah! Since when did I get naked, dammit?"
"Gyahahaha! Ice-magic user? Maybe nudist is appropriate!" Salamander mocked.
But still, as time went on, Erza still didn't appear. It was 7:30 a.m. by the time she actually arrived.
"I am sorry I am a bit late, everyone!" A scarlet-haired girl waved, approaching the group she invited.
"No worr—WHAT WHELL IS ALL THAT LUGGAGE!?"
Seeing Erza from afar, the group noticed that she was carrying a mountain of luggage with her.
"You are strange; that is just my clothes."
Makoto's eyes were wide, and this girl somehow actually managed to carry so much load with her, using one hand. Maybe rumors were right, and she can actually break mountains with her legs!
"Wait Wait! We are not done yet, Erza!" Natsu screamed, getting everyone's attention.
"Hm? What is it that you want from me?"
"Heh, obviously a duel!"
At that, Grey's face paled.
"O-Oi, are you serious about this!?"
"Damn right, I am! I want a duel with you, Erza!"
Erza placed a hand over her chin, seemingly thinking this over her head.
"I have no reason to decline that."
"Than…"
"But upon further thought, I heard you can't win Makoto in a duel, so I have my own rules. If you will manage to win Makoto, then you can have a duel with me."
The hell? Makoto's mind turned off in an instant. What the hell does she mean by duel? Luckster can barely cast spells and control his own magic, so how does she want him to fight against Natsu in a fair battle!?
He worriedly looked towards her with a worry in his tone.
"E-E-Erza-san! I don't think I will be able to defeat Natsu!" Luckster exclaimed anxiously.
"Nonsense! You are far better than you think! With fire in your soul, you will be able to defeat even me, so don't cut yourself short, newbie."
No, he wasn't cutting himself short; he would literally become a crisp after a duel with the dragon slayer!
"Fight with Makoto? Hell yeah, now I am even more pumped!"
'Don't be! I will die!'
Nobody listened to the poor luckster, who only cursed his bad luck.
"Tough to be Makoto, aye."
.
.
.
Already on the train, our group was sitting in pairs of three. Happy, Natsu, and Grey are on one side, while Erza, Makoto, and Lucy are facing them on the other parallel side, with Makoto sitting in the middle of two girls.
'G-Great. My luck again.' He nervously cursed in his mind.
"Why are you so stiff, Makoto?" Erza asked, looking towards all the red lucksters.
"Th-Th-That's just…"
"Isn't it obvious, Erza?" Ice-Mage turned toward the group. "Because he is sitting totally cramped with two beautiful girls."
To this, Makoto just nodded with a heavy blush. Something that was cute to both Erza and Lucy.
"Haha! So that was the case? To be shy around women your age is normal, but...» Suddenly, she pulled the luckster towards her laps. "You need to overcome this shyness by indulging yourself in the opposite gender."
"WH-WH-WHAT!?" All red Makoto tried to stand up from her lap, but she was too strong for him to even move. "I don't think it is the solution, Erza-san!"
"Nay, it is! Now sit still and try to overcome your shyness."
Unable to do anything, he looked with pleading eyes towards Grey and Lucy, who just averted their gazes.
'Traitors!' He internally screamed, now really trying to overcome this shyness of his.
The ride continued for a while with Erza knocking out nauseous Natsu, who wanted just to breathe air, and still Red Makoto trying to get out of Erza's lap—not that it wasn't pleasurable, soft, and relaxing, but because he was too embarrassed, dammit! Regardless, the luckster knew that it was futile to free himself at this point and eventually gave up.
"So, what kind of mission are we going on?" Luckster asked, deciding to change the topic.
The scarlet mage had a concerned look, and not too long after she started to explain what was going on,.
"Several days ago, I happened to overhear a rather suspicious conversation between mages in the bar."
"Huh?" Grey confusedly looked toward Erza. "You mean we are going god knows where just because you happened to overhear a conversation between people?"
"Yes, I did. It might seem pretty absurd, but in their conversation they discussed something about a flute, surely nothing to be suspicious of, but then I heard a particular name, which made me realize that something was wrong. "
"Name?" Lucy confusedly asked.
"Erigor. They discussed that this flute must be delivered to Erigor as fast as possible, and that's when I remembered that this name to belongs to the strongest member of the Dark Guild in Eisenwald."
Upon hearing that everybody in the room beside him tensed out, Natsu and clueless Makoto were an exception.
"If the dark guilds are involved, that is surely not a good sign."
"Aye, now that's actually sounding concerning."
At this point, Makoto was too timid to ask what those dark guilds were, but he needed that information to be of at least a little help, which was possible at the moment.
"Umm, what are those dark guilds you all are talking about?"
Silence.
Everybody looked towards Makoto as if towards the zoo animal.
"Well, you are new to the whole guild stuff, so I would explain." Grey smirked while again being naked with only his underwear on. "As we all know, the ruling body of the world of magic, run by a combination of regular people and mages with different hierarchical branch systems dependent on the continent, is called the Magic Council, and they keep every specific legal guild on check, checking whether mages in the said guild aren't doing anything illegal. But among legal guilds, there are also some guilds with questionable incomes and money-making processes; they are called Dark Guilds. Long story short, they are a bunch of bad guys from illegal guilds."
Now, that was really concerning. If this Eisenwald was really a dark guild, then it is obvious that something illegal is going to happen soon.
"Grey is right, you can call them villains! Nasty people with nasty personalities—that's who they are, so that's why I need help from strong people like you all to wipe off Eisenwald from the face of this world!" Suddenly her hand reached towards Makoto's head, starting to press it as hard as she could onto her laps; they were surprisingly masculine enough to make him flinch from pain.
Feeling that it was going nowhere, Makoto finally managed to stand up, excusing himself to go to the bathroom, to which Erza nodded and finally let go of the poor boy.
The said boy, finally managing to stand up, ran to the toilet, huffing from the exhausting lap pillow on which he lay. If Leon had been with him, he would have definitely cursed at Makoto out of jealousy—something that Makoto wished was true. He missed his friends. He missed Sayaka and even those friends who betrayed him. Deep in his heart, he wasn't blaming them for this kind of treatment; after all, everybody wanted to live.
Swaying all those thoughts away, he washed his face, trying to regain his composure. While being pretty optimistic and strong-willed, Makoto was still a kid, a scared kid who was dragged onto something unbelievable and cruel. One reminder of all those executions made his body shiver; it was something super painful.
"Ahhh! No help crying over it! I should not lose hope!" He forced a smile onto his face and started to approach the exit, only for the door knob to be broken.
He paused, sweat rolling all over his face.
"Don't tell me that."
Yup, his luck caused the door knob to break due to rust on it, making him stuck in the toilet.
"I really do hate my rotten luck sometimes."
.
.
.
The train arrives at the destined location, aka Port Town, Hargeon.
Lucy stretched her body upward with a smile.
"It has been a while since we last were here!" The blonde happily exclaimed, jumping on her place.
"But it was something like a month or even lower, aye."
"Shut it! I am having nostalgia, ok!?"
"You are strange, Luigi."
"I am Lucy!"
Meanwhile, Erza had a thoughtful look on her face.
"What is the matter, Erza?" Grey decided to ask.
"I think I forgot something, but I don't know what."
"Forgo...WAIT! Where are Natsu and Makoto?"
At this point, everyone finally remembered that they had forgotten two key people in their group.
Erza immediately wanted to run toward the train, only for it to finally deport towards another place, thus leaving Erza and others behind.
Meanwhile in the toilet:
Makoto was practically punching the door, but it wasn't even moving in the first place.
He sighed, leaning against the door.
"I feel like something will definitely happen!"
and he was quite right—something bad would happen sooner or later.