Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.
Chapter 52: Blatant Truths & Brilliant Lies! Lucy Talks To Juvia! Suzuna's Quest For Kusabue & Sherria! Conflicting Thoughts & Chilling Discoveries!
During the following day, Lucy and Sting had been walking around the town of Seigan. The shops in the winter town had been giving free items to Lucy, who was surprised to see some of the wealthier-looking shopkeepers joining in with the commoners to admire her. They were impressed with her rematch against Emiria on the previous day of the Grand Reverie Icy Frigid Tour, especially since Lucy was able to help Risa save all of the citizens who had been encased in dense pillars of ice. Even though Emiria had wanted to raise the stakes for the event's battles on that day, Lucy and the other Sabertooth mages believed that all of the innocent people needed to be safe from harm. Lucy was right to primarily attack Emiria and Hiyasu, who were both probably healing themselves for today's battles.
Those women were going to challenge some mages to fights that were either scheduled for today or pushed back to this day because of yesterday's exhausting fights, and Lucy just hoped that she wouldn't have to run into anymore of the town's attractions to keep the hostesses of Cerulean Frost from doing more damage to the town. Lucy viewed this as her morning date with Sting, since their leisurely enjoyment of seeing all of the ice garden's plants had been interrupted, and the green-haired mage didn't want those women creating anymore chaos.
She began to frown a bit from thinking about how Emiria and Hiyasu started off their chaos in the ice garden by commencing their fight against Juvia, who ended up begging Lucy for help after initially trying to fight by herself. When that proved to be a bad idea, Juvia ended up begging Lucy for help. The frown on Lucy's face became more noticeable as she thought about the fact that Juvia had been hostile towards her, which was hostility stemming from a bad feeling related to Gray not being in the Fairy Tail guild, and Lucy wondered if Juvia would even want herself to believe the truth.
The truth of the matter was that the real Lucy wasn't the person who had injured Gray several months ago, nor was she the person who had been responsible for his recent disappearance from Juvia's life. If the real Kotomi Takeuchi continued to be Lucy Heartfilia's impostor and chose to let Gray get killed, then that possibility wouldn't be something that Lucy could easily explain to Juvia. The blue-haired woman had only seen the orange-eyed mage as a villain who harmed Gray, and letting out a slight sigh of worry made Lucy stop walking down the street with Sting. He glanced over at her to see her frowning as she nearly set down the shopping bags in her hands, and Sting would gladly listen to Lucy's dilemma.
"What's wrong, Lucy?" Sting asked her in a curious manner, his blue eyes expressing some feelings of concern while also being somewhat calm.
Lucy turned to face him with a worried facial expression, feeling anxious, "Sting, do you think I'd be making the right choice by trying to explain to Juvia Lockser that I'm technically not the person who harmed one of my former teammates?"
Upon hearing her question, Sting told Lucy with a confident smile forming on his face, "Considering that you saved her life yesterday and took down two enemies who she couldn't beat in a fight, she should really want to hear the truth from you."
From Sting's perspective, Juvia was indebted to Lucy and at least owed her the chance to have the opportunity of explaining that she was just posing as the antagonistic mage during this event because of the current circumstances. Lucy started to hold her shopping bags somewhat less firmly, realizing that holding on to the worries of telling Juvia about the outlandish situation from that day wouldn't be as important as talking with Juvia if she needed to ask any questions about Lucy's story.
Even if the idea of switching bodies with someone sounded utterly ridiculous to Juvia, Lucy felt like it would ease her mind to at least tell her former guild member some info that was related to a troubling issue. That would have to wait, though, and Lucy glanced over at a nearby concession stand to see that the cobalt blue clock on the top shelf informed everyone about the current time being 7:00 in the morning. The Cerulean Frost guild's infirmary wouldn't allow visitors to see patients until 9 o'clock in the morning, which gave Lucy some time to just think about clearly explaining herself to Juvia.
She would probably want the conversation to be as calm as possible, since they would have to use soft voices inside of a hospital room, and Lucy also didn't want to make herself raise her voice in a defensive tone if Juvia wouldn't listen to what she had to say. If Juvia didn't want to listen, then Lucy would need to make herself not persist with conversing any further. Saying a decent amount of words would be suitable, as opposed to saying too much information that could just leave Juvia with more feelings of rage.
"Sting, this conversation will mainly be between Juvia and myself. If you want to stay in the infirmary, it's up to you. Just don't try to attack her if she acts hostile, since she was badly injured yesterday." Lucy explained to her boyfriend in a somewhat stern tone, not wanting any fighting to occur in the hospital.
That prompted the light dragon to reply in a relaxed manner, folding his arms and briefly closing his eyes, "Lucy, I'm not even intending to fight in an event where only the selected participants are allowed to fight. It's a bummer that I'm not allowed to claim any of the grand prizes, but at least they'll let you win something."
"Now that you mention it, Sting, I wonder what Emiria meant yesterday when she spoke of seals being broken." Lucy responded with a skeptical facial expression, a feeling of nervousness entering her eyes as she thought about what Emiria was alluding to.
Without having all of the necessary components for herself and the Sabertooth mages to know exactly what Emiria and Hiyasu were planning to do, Lucy calmed herself down. She exhaled a soft breath while closing her eyes, before opening her eyes and walking down the street with Sting by her side. She happily smiled at him from liking how they were able to have a small conversation about a problem that had been on her mind, and the fact that Sting was a great listener who also provided her with some thought-provoking words only made Lucy keep falling in love with him.
At the same time, Sting was also loving Lucy more and more. The fact that she showcased high amounts of determination and intelligence as usual had made Sting always be impressed with how Lucy was trying to always think about how problems could be solved. Yesterday's fight left her with the problem of having torn clothes, which caused Lucy to be glad that she later asked Risa to purchase a sapphire blue winter coat with cobalt blue winter pants and azure blue boots from the clothing store.
Risa was still back at the inn with the other Sabertooth mages instead of going to Seigan Town's clothing store before its first hour of business, and today certainly felt like a day of leisure for the Sabertooth mages. At this point in the Grand Reverie Icy Frigid Tour, it just seemed like Lucy and Risa would just need to wait for the other chosen winners to be announced. When that circumstance would eventually occur, the winners needed to help out Emiria and Hiyasu with their plan. Lucy may not have wanted to deal with them anymore, but that didn't prevent other people from expressing their curiosity about this event.
Meanwhile, in a different part of Seigan Town...
Kagura walked all the way to the entrance of the Cerulean Frost guild, waiting for either Emiria or Hiyasu to appear in front of her as a way of signifying that their battle would begin. After hearing about Emiria's harsh battle against Kotomi Takeuchi, Kagura felt very interested in fighting against that ice-wielding hostess. This would also be a way for Kagura to see if her sword known as Archenemy was strong enough to slice through Ice Magic that reportedly had glacial and immense density.
That density could also apply to Water Magic in the circumstance where Hiyasu would be the hostess who arrived at the Cerulean Frost guild, however, and Kagura would have to hope that the densest water was incapable of making her blade become rusted. She quietly surveyed the area, noticing the ice floes hardly moving around in the water, and all that she could feel was a gentle breeze of cold air that blew past her. The cold air surprisingly didn't move the smallest floes of ice, which made Kagura frown in a somewhat confused manner, and even the water hadn't moved whatsoever.
The mage from Mermaid Heel began to notice a dark blue aura rising up from the water, almost as if a different type of Water Magic than Hiyasu's was infused into the lake, and Kagura could sense that this type of Water Magic wasn't typical. It certainly didn't feel like a specific type of Water Magic that belonged to any of the combatants in the ice garden, and Kagura watched the water glow in a dark blue color as if the magic had recently been sent into the lake. Whoever did that certainly got Kagura's mind off of waiting around for Emiria and Hiyasu, so her eyes glanced around this entrance area to the dark guild.
She noticed that the greeter girl who had checked all the invitations wasn't even here, and Kagura felt that it couldn't have been too early in the morning for at least one mage of Cerulean Frost to be awake. That prompted her to turn around and look at the guild's entrance doors, before pushing them open. When Kagura looked inside the guildhall, the only main differences were that the lights were on while only five maids sat down at some of the tables. None of the mages who lost had even stayed around to watch the rest of the event, judging by how the situation appeared to be very quiet with no mages from other guilds around. As Kagura walked into the guildhall, her brown eyes became filled with curiosity from seeing Suzuna go into a back room that was behind the counter of the bar.
"The greeter girl is here, but the hostesses haven't shown up yet?" Kagura thought to herself in a relaxed manner, wondering where she could find either Emiria or Hiyasu.
A maid with long and dark blue hair told Kagura in a kind tone while getting up from her chair, recognizing the mage from the event's first day, "If you're looking for either Hiyasu or Lady Emiria, you could try to find them at some of the local attractions within Seigan. They like to spend several hours hustling, so your search won't be in vain."
"Thank you. I'll keep that information in mind." Kagura calmly replied, before turning around to leave the guildhall.
After Kagura went outside of the Cerulean Frost guild, she decided to go around to the left side of the guild while viewing that as an easier way to get to the street that had the liveliest amount of events during this festival. As she walked past some of the windows, Kagura stopped for a moment to just glance at one of the windows featuring a dark blue curtain that had been moved to the right in a way where it revealed the back room that had been behind the bar. All that Kagura could see was Suzuna walking down into what appeared to be the cellar of the guild, and that seemed a bit interesting.
Things became more interesting by looking into the window that was immediately to the right, and it had surprisingly been a window that was only at a high area of the room behind the back room. There was definitely a cellar beneath the back room, but there was only a secret path with stair steps leading to it. There appeared to be no actual door installed for this room, which only contained light blue kegs that were stacked neatly on shelves, and the dark blue barrels that remained upright appeared to contain several light blue gemstones.
Kagura watched Suzuna pick up some of the gemstones, before making a dark blue aura surround them as if she was infusing magical power into the gems. Suzuna proceeded to put all of the gems into her skirt's pockets, and seeing the window from the corner of her left eye made her start to frown in a slightly paranoid manner. She proceeded to apply the light blue aura of Ice Magic to her feet, before running back upstairs, and that only made Kagura run off to go find either Emiria or Hiyasu. They probably wouldn't battle Suzuna, but the fact that a greeter pocketed jewels like a swindling grifter was certainly a topic worth discussing before a fight.
As Kagura ran off towards the nearest street, the sudden sight of an explosion in the icy amusement park caused her to say in a somewhat interested tone, "It looks like they've already started a fight against someone."
When Kagura ran on to the streets of Seigan Town, Suzuna currently thought to herself while walking out of the guild and frowning in slight annoyance, "Some people are capable of watching me, rather than just me watching them. Perhaps this does call for some drastic measures."
Suzuna proceeded to walk up to the lake, before using the spell known as Ice God's Blizzard Spirit. She stepped on to one of the ice floes as a way of making herself vanish into any icy breeze like a ghost, and being ghostly allowed Suzuna to go into the water without getting wet. She went underwater while easily walking through it, and Suzuna went towards an icy crevice that had light shining out of it. She went through the crevice and landed on the icy ground, before becoming solid again in an icy passageway that was straight.
Suzuna wasted no time with walking down this route, before going to the left when she reached its branching path. This route took her towards an underground curving trail that quickly went downward on an ice-covered slope, and Suzuna maintained her footing on the ice as she slid down into a lower level of the icy cavern. There was nothing but ice in this room, but going through a straight and narrow passageway made her frown in an unbothered manner from the sounds of some icy collars rattling, shackled chains moving, people being refrozen by blizzards at close-range, and people screaming in fear while some icy and explosive spells were being used in close proximity to either scare them or purposely keep the temperature at an extremely cold level.
Suzuna wasn't bothered in the slightest by the frigid temperatures, only wearing a neon blue midriff shirt with a dark blue skirt that had ruffles resembling icicles, and she wore some cobalt blue high-heeled shoes that interestingly had the design of light blue water vortexes as the heels. Suzuna's attire only helped her with hardening her body in the coldest temperatures, but that didn't stop her from using Ice God's Blizzard Spirit again as she made several left and right turns down a twisting path to get to a part of the underground caverns that had been somewhat far from the prisoners. Not only would Suzuna need to make herself reach a quiet and remote part of the frosty caverns, but she was glad to make enough turns to where she could reach a dead end. However, emptying her pockets at a dead end and reactivating Ice God's Blizzard Spirit allowed her to quickly engulf her body in Ice Magic for the purpose of being ghostly enough to jump up very high to Seigan's surface.
Three hours later, near a concession stand...
After getting a small cup of peppermint coffee from a concession stand, Kusabue walked away from the outdoor shop with a small smile on her face. She began to drink the coffee, which tasted very sweet, and Kusabue hoped that this would be a fun day. The Grand Reverie Icy Frigid Tour still had some participants left, causing the young mage to wonder if she could at least watch one of the fights where Sabertooth mages were uninvolved. She thought it would be a great way to gather more info on Emiria and Hiyasu, who were probably still bitter about their losses on the previous day.
Kusabue's Sound Magic allowed her to absorb the sound waves regarding the footsteps and voices of people passing by her, and she managed to pick up on some people wondering how someone as powerful as Emiria could've lost in her own contest that she created. Even if she and Hiyasu did invite wizards from various parts of Fiore to participate in the Grand Reverie Icy Frigid Tour, they would've been very stupid to overestimate their own levels of power. Even so, an earlier sound of an explosion proved that they weren't giving up on showcasing their strength.
That battle recently ended with Emiria's name being cheered as a way of signaling her victory, and the opponent had been Jenny Realight from the Blue Pegasus guild. Despite not being as notable as the mages from Sabertooth, the Blue Pegasus mage managed to keep the battle going for a long duration of time and Jenny Realight's Transformation Magic had allowed her to utilize some durable kinds of armor. Emiria didn't easily break through some of those transformations with her Ice God Slayer Magic, evident by the length of the battle.
As Kusabue walked past a few streets and headed to the amusement park, she stopped for a moment from seeing Suzuna walk out of the clothing store with Sherria Blendy by her side. The two women appeared to be having a somewhat tense conversation, Suzuna looking very worried about a situation that appeared to be a troubling predicament, and Kusabue decided to walk up to them. As she was now within earshot of their conversation, Kusabue would be glad to listen to what this seemingly nice woman had to say.
"Sherria, I know it's a very weird favor for a mage of Cerulean Frost to ask one of the participants if they could go underground to help me search for the missing gemstone. However, Emiria has overloaded me with a tremendous amount of work and she just doesn't have the time to go find her own gemstone." Suzuna explained to the pink-haired girl in a pleading manner, her eyes being filled with feelings of anxiety.
Kusabue asked aloud with a concerned facial expression while looking at Suzuna, "What's going on, Miss Suzuna?"
That question prompted Suzuna to reply in a calm manner, after exhaling a soft breath, "Emiria Hidenka asked me to retrieve a gemstone that she left down in the Seigan Caverns, but I have so much work to do. Plus, I have no idea where Emiria even left it. The only thing she mentioned was a dead end on one side, but there are many dead ends down there."
"If we find all the dead ends that contain nothing, that would just leave one dead end where the gemstone is!" Kusabue happily replied, having the bravery to go look for the gem.
Upon hearing Kusabue offer to help Suzuna with looking for the gem, Suzuna put her hands together in a grateful manner and bowed her head for a moment. She appeared to be quite thankful, which prompted Sherria to stand next to Kusabue as a way of signaling that she was also going to search for the missing gemstone. Sherria may have had a battle against either Emiria or Hiyasu later in the day, but she was not going to fight without Lyon by her side. Lyon was unfortunately occupied with looking at Juvia, rendering Chelia to have to experience leisure until Lyon came out to fight.
Since Sherria had time on her hands, she started walking away from the situation by going down a street that contained different armories. The armories of Seigan Town were luxurious for the elites who owned slaves, as the elites could buy accessories and weapons that were lethal and expensive. Sherria walked down this street for the purpose of going into a tunnel that had been more of a tourist attraction, believing that it would guide her and Kusabue down to where the gemstone was located.
Before Kusabue followed Sherria, she stretched out her hands and made a shamrock green aura engulf her body. Kusabue absorbed more waves of sound, including the sounds of blacksmiths sharpening blades and some mages of Cerulean Frost creating weak blizzards in the air. Kusabue believed that taking in more sound waves would be a clever way of helping Sherria find out where the gemstone was located, due to the caverns not being entirely silent. Before Kusabue ran to catch up with Sherria, Suzuna gently cleared her throat.
"This may be a bit off-topic, but you've just got me curious. Would you mind telling me about the guild that you're in?" Suzuna told Kusabue in a relaxed manner while folding her arms, before sweetly asking Kusabue a question.
The girl with dark green hair responded with a kind look on her face, "I'm in the Sabertooth guild, Miss Suzuna. I'm actually here with my friends who are here to support Miss Risa and Miss Kotomi, especially since Miss Kotomi is in Seigan Town to find something important."
"What might this important item be, if I may ask?" Suzuna asked with her soft smile displaying more feelings of curiosity, as she attempted to extract more information.
Kusabue tried to explain it in the best way that she could, sounding very descriptive, "Well, it's supposed to be a ring. It's not a wedding ring, but it's a beautiful ring that's probably in a place where Kotomi wouldn't initially look for it."
That kind of description didn't exactly tell Suzuna much of anything, as Kusabue sounded like she was referring to a ring of elemental magic that could be crafted by the artisan in Seigan Town. However, there were tons of blue rings that could be forged from the right materials and Kotomi couldn't have possibly missed this specific street. Suzuna assumed that Kotomi and the other mages were so engrossed in the Grand Reverie Icy Frigid Tour with fighting as the main thing on their minds, so looking for a ring was an issue that had lower priority.
Suzuna herself remembered something about a ring allegedly being in Seigan Town, but it was said to be in a place where only a few locals managed to be. Some of those locals included Emiria and Hiyasu, who had been down in that specific cavern before, but Suzuna refused to just believe baseless rumors until the fated day would come. When the time would come for an attempt at unsealing the godly power, Suzuna hoped to be one of the people who would get to see if the power came with any legendary accessories.
If it did, then Suzuna's sudden frown of a neutral expression emphasized that she would need to prevent herself from getting caught up in any possible drawbacks that could occur from Emiria and Hiyasu having the opportunity of wielding such power. She quietly walked away from Kusabue, who chose to go after Sherria, and Suzuna felt that she needed to devise a little plan for the final day of this festival. It had been approaching with every passing second, along with each passing day, and using some of that recent time to at least talk with Kusabue would hopefully help Suzuna create some interesting information about Emiria.
30 minutes later, in an icy cavern...
Kusabue and Sherria walked through the icy cavern that had been a tourist attraction, seeing people admire the sculptures of ice that featured Emiria and Hiyasu alongside their various spells, and this cavern was like a museum dedicated to the hostesses. That was certainly narcissistic of them, especially since the blue plaques in front of the sculptures displayed how Seigan Town's most powerful wizards were unleashing each specific attack that had its own unique way of expressing the awesomeness of Ice God Slayer Magic or Water God Slayer Magic.
As Sherria looked fascinated by some of the statues, Kusabue absorbed more of the sound waves that came from the tourists who had been exciting about sightseeing in Seigan Town. By increasing the power of her magic in this town, Kusabue was able to faintly pick up on the strange sound of a whip hitting something. That kind of sound seemed off to her, prompting her to run across the pale blue floor of the icy cavern. Sherria nearly slipped while running after her, managing to grab on to a light blue wall of ice to keep herself from hitting the ground.
Kusabue ran off quite quickly, prompting Sherria to look puzzled at how the younger mage was able to have such a high amount of stamina. That prompted Sherria to inhale air as if she was eating it, since she was a Sky God Slayer. By inhaling air, Sherria would be able to increase the power of her own attacks. When Sherria ran after Kusabue and saw her go to the right side of a branching path, Sherria looked very surprised at the sight of light blue stalactites being surrounded by a light blue aura as they remained above a small doorway leading to an unlisted area.
None of the locals or tourists had gone past this area, due to the restrictive doorway also having a light blue ice field of stalagmites behind it. However, Sherria used the spell called Sky God's Bellow to unleash a spiraling vortex of black wind from her mouth. She watched the attack create a black blast when it hit the stalactites, the blast being quite large, and Sherria got to see Kusabue's hands become engulfed in a shamrock green aura. She absorbed the loud sounds of the explosion, along with the sounds of the ice breaking apart, and the young girl confidently smiled at Sherria.
"It looks like your strong winds can create some explosions and loud sound waves, so that benefits me." Kusabue told Sherria with a happy look in her eyes, before jumping forward to land on the ice field.
Sherria commented with a kind facial expression, "Your Sound Magic will probably be very useful, too."
Sherria wasted no time with following Kusabue on to the ice field, only to immediately trip over her own feet in a comical manner, and both of the girls noticed that they were sliding in different directions solely from touching this ice. Kusabue could sense that a strong amount of Ice Magic had been wielded by someone for them to create ice that had such an abnormally low level of traction, and landing against one of the stalagmites caused it to instantly detonate in a light blue blast! Kusabue screamed in pain from enduring that powerful attack, ignoring how the explosion came with the side effect of creating frost on her entire body.
Kusabue decided to immediately start spinning around on one foot like a professional ice skater, sending the aura of Sound Magic down into her right leg as a way of helping herself spin much faster. The loud sound of Kusabue's fast spinning resulted in the Sound Magic around her foot creeping down through some tiny cracks in the ice, and she soon saw some shamrock green waves of sound briefly bounce up against the ice. That prompted Kusabue to take some steps backwards, before seeing the ice in front of her detonate from below!
Several chunks of ice were sent flying high into the air, before they came back down at high speeds, and some ice chunks touched the stalagmites! Even when the smallest piece of ice made contact with a stalagmite, a light blue explosion occurred! Many explosions occurred at the same time on this ice field, as several of these large icicles were destroyed, and Kusabue wasted no time with absorbing as many sound waves as she possibly could. From her perspective, having more magical power in a situation was smart and this was also a smart way to replenish some of her magical power that had been expended.
"Well, the ice field is now clear of hazards. Let's cross the ice, and-" Kusabue stated with an optimistic look on her face, before she was interrupted by the sound of more ice loudly breaking apart.
The sound of the ice shattering prompted Sherria to fiercely yell with a stern facial expression, "Sky God's Boreas!"
This specific spell involved Sherria making a spiraling gust of black wind form around her right hand, before she threw it down at the cracking ice field to generate a black whirlwind that was quite massive. The loud sounds of the winds and the shattering ice were taken in by Kusabue, who placed her hands on the ice that was breaking apart, and she watched the entire field violently go crashing down into the underground cavern immediately after Sherria's spell exploded! The black explosion created winds that blew both of the girls down into the abyss, and Sherria screamed as she fell further down than Kusabue.
Kusabue watched Sherria activate the Sky God's Bellow spell while aiming it down at the ground, possibly attempting to cushion her own fall, and that prompted Kusabue to start spinning in midair. She interestingly spun on one foot again while moving at high speeds, and this allowed Kusabue to create a shield of air around herself. She was able to float down to the ground without getting injured, along with the heavy winds providing air for Sherria to eat, and Kusabue proceeded to look at the current situation.
The girls were now down in an underground passageway, which had a path to the right that was close in proximity. When the girls went down that specific path, it only led to a path straight ahead while also having a branching path to the left. That side path led to a new path on the right, which was taken by Sherria and Kusabue. They noticed that the right path led up to a new path that diverted to the left, before it went off to the right in a curving route, and following that curving path allowed the two mages to reach a straight path with a small icy alcove that was next to a dead end.
The dead end had a thin sheet of light blue ice on the ice wall, allowing Kusabue and Sherria to see their reflections in the thin layer of ice. As Sherria thought that this part of the cavern looked extremely beautiful with some small Ice Stones glittering and embedded in the walls, Kusabue thought that there was something strange about the ice. She put her face next to it, which allowed her ears to pick up on the faint sound of an explosion coming from an area behind this side of the wall. If there were other mages down here, then Kusabue would need to be careful.
She aggressively slammed her palms against the ice, resulting in large shamrock green explosions associated with the powerful sound waves. The shamrock green blasts destroyed this particular ice wall, revealing that there was an entirely new section of the icy caverns. When Kusabue and Sherria got past all of the wall's rubble, they noticed that this section of the icy caverns had initially been a dead end. It featured a straight path that had a left turn at its end, and Kusabue began to walk down the path.
As Sherria walked behind her, the older girl let her blue eyes take notice of the sight of some gemstones that had fused together. From how the light blue gemstone was eight times the size of some of the original gems that were nearby, Sherria assumed that the recent explosion moved eight gems to where they touched each other. When Sherria picked up two of the small gems and slammed them into each other, they fused together and formed a somewhat larger gem. However, Sherria looked extremely curious because she had never seen gemstones like these.
The gemstones couldn't be split apart from their fused form, which made Sherria start to look a bit regretful. She and Kusabue were tasked with finding Emiria's gem, and they weren't tasked with putting it back together. Sherria clumsily dropped the smaller gem on to the larger gemstone, causing the larger gem to absorb it while a light blue aura emanated from it. Sherria perceived the aura to be very pretty, and she placed some of the tiny gems against the large one. They were immediately pulled into it, almost like the gemstone was icy quicksand that had extremely cold frost emerging from it. Sherria picked up the huge gemstone, grunting from how heavy it was, and she felt as if some help was needed. Sherria ignored one last small gemstone to add to the fusion, as she needed Kusabue's assistance.
"Hey, do you mind lifting one side of this gem while I lift the other?" Sherria asked with a bit of frustration in her voice, trying to maintain her balance on the icy floor.
That only prompted Kusabue to say in a faint tone, sounding a bit disturbed, "If you've found the gemstone, you... should come see what I just found."
Sherria slid across the ice while following some recent footprints that were presumably left in nearby patches of snow by Kusabue, and she navigated through some paths that branched off in right and left directions. After going through that meager maze, Sherria's jaw dropped in a similar manner to how she dropped the giant gem. She widened her eyes in shock, looking as shocked as Kusabue while they stood in front of an unguarded doorway that led to the frosty ice prison. Kusabue thought that it was terrible to see some of the defeated mages being ice sculptures in cells, and some people were repeatedly being defrosted just to get refrozen instantly thereafter.
One of the people who had been an ice sculpture was the woman who Kusabue and Risa had seen yesterday, the same Flare Corona who had been frozen by Emiria. She was still in the same pose, simply looking shocked as she was encased in ice. Kusabue felt very shocked at how this was the fate of all the mages who were deemed as being useless to Emiria and Hiyasu in the Grand Reverie Icy Frigid Tour, prompting her to look around at the rest of the incidents that she could see. Kusabue even saw some elegant-looking women being escorted down here by locals for the purpose of paying money to the guards, who gave them some female slaves in exchange.
Upon seeing the slaves have icy collars around their necks and being shackled to the point of walking on all fours, the wealthy women who all had their hair in varying shades of blue sat down on the backs of the slaves and let themselves be carried back up to Seigan Town's surface. In the underground cavern, Kusabue's eyes also caught a glimpse of some mages using their magic to destroy icy rocks for the purpose of seeing if they contained any crystals of ice that would later be handed off to the guards that would later give them to Emiria for her daily hustling routines.
"Wait a minute. She looks familiar." Sherria whispered to Kusabue in a concerned manner, pointing down at a prisoner as the girls moved to nearly be in front of the doorway that was elevated above the walkways of this icy prison.
Kusabue replied softly while her eyes widened in shock, seeing the green-haired prisoner hand papers to a wealthy-looking woman who wore a light blue trench coat and some sunglasses to obscure her eyes, "That's... the missing researcher who had been the Head Botanist in Ryokufū Town for years until she suddenly disappeared."
As the green-haired researcher still wore her green lab coat over her clothes and headed back to some doors that would automatically open, Kusabue told Sherria with a serious facial expression, "We've got to save her! That lady is very kind, nice, and research shouldn't just be handed off to rich people who don't even care much about the plants! It's evil that Hiyasu and Emiria are putting someone from my town at risk of being frozen!"
"Well, it's currently just us against all of those guards who probably have powerful Ice Magic. Let's at least be wise enough to come back later." Sherria responded to Kusabue with a soft and disappointed smile on her face, feeling apologetic that they couldn't solve this problem right now.
Before Sherria could turn around to leave, she tripped over her own feet and sent the large gem flying towards the doorway. It surprisingly struck the doorway itself, which turned out to be a dense and clear sheet of ice that had been quite thick, and the impact didn't even dent the ice. That level of Ice Magic was very strong, and looking closely at it made Sherria narrow her eyes at how the ice was actually in a dark shade of blue. That made it appear as if it was coated with Water God Slayer Magic, which was like a barrier in front of the Ice God Slayer Magic.
The gemstone that was light blue like ice ended up bouncing off of the barrier, sending itself flying several feet away from the girls, and the gemstone briefly became engulfed in a dark blue aura. The diamond-shaped gem changed to that shade of blue for a few seconds, before becoming light blue and shining in that color again. Sherria ran to go pick up the gem, before clumsily tripping over her own feet, and Kusabue kept her eyes on the researcher who was being held captive. She ignored the sight of the wealthy-looking woman finishing the action of vanishing into a nearby puddle, and Kusabue was determined to save that researcher.
As she took one last look at the icy prison below the doorway, Kusabue noticed that no one had been alerted to the sound of the giant gemstone striking the ice. On her side of the ice, Kusabue had clearly heard the sound. However, a soundproof barrier of ice prevented the people down in the prison from anything. Kusabue felt that it was a bit strange for some mages to be using Ice Magic for the purpose of concealing sound, almost like somebody didn't want too much noise being made about some of the coldest circumstances that were occurring. Kusabue narrowed her eyes in a stern manner while running after Sherria to give her Emiria's gemstone, but the young mage from Sabertooth felt like it would also be necessary to make a little detour by going to see Lucy.
Concurrently, at the Cerulean Frost guild's infirmary...
Lucy and Sting went into the Cerulean Frost guild, noticing that only a small amount of its dark mages were in the guildhall. All of them chose to just glance at Lucy with expressions that displayed a sense of respect, due to her victory against Emiria. Some of the female dark mages even gave respectful smiles to Risa, who had recently been in Seigan Town's fashion store with Rogue, and the fact that Risa defeated Hiyasu was also noteworthy. However, the dark mages didn't show much respect to Juvia.
They simply viewed Juvia as a weak wizard for getting defeated by Emiria and Hiyasu, especially since her Water Magic paled in comparison to the level of skill that Hiyasu displayed in the ice garden. Although, it could be argued that they both experienced the feeling of defeat yesterday. Since Juvia had been badly injured and nearly froze to death, Lucy was glad that the guildhall's sapphire blue bulletin board was next to a smaller navy blue bulletin board that simply had a cobalt blue map of the guildhall on it.
Lucy's eyes glanced at the map, allowing her to quickly see that the infirmary was on the second floor, and Lucy went over to the staircase with Sting. They quickly went up the blue steps of the stairs, before going two rooms to the left of the guild master's office. When they reached a wooden door that was in the color of baby blue, Lucy softly opened the door to see that the infirmary had plain blue walls and a light blue floor. All of the beds were in a periwinkle shade of blue, and Juvia was currently resting in one of the beds with Lyon sitting in an ocean blue wooden chair that was next to the bed.
His grey eyes glanced up from Juvia to see that Lucy was walking up to the bed with Sting by her side, prompting Lyon to quickly get up with a concerned look on his face. He hoped that Juvia's newest rival hadn't been here to brag about attaining victory, and Juvia herself frowned in an irritated manner from seeing the girl who she perceived to truly be Kotomi Takeuchi. There had no rehearsals for what Lucy planned to say about the situation of Gray being gone, but Juvia certainly remembered what she wanted to tell the green-haired mage.
"If you think that saving Juvia's life is enough for her to forgive you, then you are wrong! Juvia views you as a horrible person, especially for attacking Gray-sama!" Juvia told Lucy with an annoyed facial expression, her blue eyes showing displeasure at Lucy's presence.
Juvia's accusations prompted Lucy to respond in a stern manner while narrowing her orange eyes, "Since you're still thinking that I attacked Gray, let me try to say some things that may make sense."
"Juvia, I'd like for you to tell me what Lucy Heartfilia has been up to. From what I remember, she was in the most recent Grand Magic Games." Lucy calmly told Juvia, wanting some information on her impostor's current skills.
That prompted Juvia to reply in a miffed tone, wondering how that was relevant to the conversation, "Juvia has heard Natsu-sama claim that Juvia's love rival has become stronger with her spirits, almost as if the level of her Celestial Spirit Magic sharply increased."
That answer from Juvia caused Lucy to softly smile in a somewhat confident manner, as she at least had some info on the newest type of magic that the real Kotomi was specializing in. Juvia's response had been important, as she saw the real Lucy start to give her a somewhat puzzled look at how the blonde-haired mage who wielded Celestial Spirit Magic was drastically increasing her level of power. That just didn't seem like something that the actual Lucy Heartfilia would desire to do, as she usually seemed to value the bonds with her Celestial Spirits over gaining power for the sake of having more power.
In addition to hearing that Lucy Heartfilia was having more power, Juvia withheld the info that Lucy made less complaints about finding ways to pay her apartment's monthly rent of seventy-thousand jewels. The fact that she even took A-Class jobs by herself was sometimes strange, but those jobs brought in high amounts of jewels to the point where there were many days where Lucy didn't even need to unpin job fliers from the request board. On those specific days, Lucy would go out of Magnolia Town without telling anyone about where she was headed.
From Juvia's perspective, she had feelings of realization in her blue eyes from noticing small aspects of how Lucy had changed. Even if Lucy didn't change the way that she looked or didn't majorly alter the behavior of her personality, she was more wealthy and very secretive these days. Juvia felt curious as to why Lucy also mainly conversed with the dwindling members of Team Natsu, not even having many conversations with Juvia herself or even talking to Wendy. As Juvia thought about how Lucy herself had gotten very close to Gray, she heard Kotomi Takeuchi inhale a deep breath.
The green-haired wizard told Juvia with a serious facial expression, the truthful look in her eyes unwavering, "Juvia, what I'm about to tell you is the truth. It may seem outlandish that I asked about Lucy Heartfilia, especially since... I am Lucy Heartfilia."
That prompted Juvia to immediately respond in a stern manner, narrowing her eyes in anger, "Do not insult Juvia's intelligence by saying lies to her! Kotomi Takeuchi, Juvia believes that the constant cold blizzards must have driven your mind into madness!"
"Juvia. If I never knew you before, then that just begs the question of why a Sabertooth mage would've wanted to avenge a Fairy Tail mage who had been a stranger. Furthermore, you pleaded for my help and a complete stranger would've been more self-interested in a good fight against the Hidenka sisters." Lucy explained in a stern manner, logically arguing her case to an emotional woman.
Lucy words only made Juvia reply in an aggravated manner, following her own beliefs instead of listening to this woman who was being sensible, "Stop it! Stop lying to Juvia! You... Gray-sama said that it was a green-haired mage who had hurt him! Do not act as if you and her have somehow changed lifestyles!"
"If you truly think I'm a pathological liar who can't be trusted, then look at my eyes!" Lucy responded with honesty in her voice, as the feeling of conviction was firmly in her orange eyes.
Juvia decided to just look into the other woman's eyes, thinking that she would just have to play along with this blatant lie for a few more minutes. However, looking into the eyes of Kotomi Takeuchi allowed Juvia to see that the other wizard had no feelings of malice or intent of trickery in her eyes. She had been speaking with truth in her words, her voice not even being slightly shaky. Juvia couldn't avert her eyes from Kotomi Takeuchi's serious eyes, seeing that she had the unyielding determination of proving that she was actually the real Lucy Heartfilia.
Those eyes of conviction only made Juvia start to look very stunned, seeing the truth right in front of her. Although, she quickly looked reluctant to believe it. There was just no way that something like this could've been possible, but Juvia's mind and her heart were dealing with contradicting beliefs. If this girl was truly Lucy Heartfilia, then the girl in the Fairy Tail guild was really Kotomi Takeuchi. She had allegedly been the last person who was seen with Gray before that fateful day of him not showing up to the guild, and his absence had also surprised Lyon.
Lyon quietly listened in on the conversation, and the mage from Lamia Scale found this revelation about Kotomi Takeuchi quite difficult to believe. He looked at the wind-wielding mage for a few seconds, noticing the five rings on one of her hands. If Lucy truly lost her body to the real Kotomi, then genuinely altering her tools for combat made sense. Still, he did have to wonder if Lucy adapted her fighting style to suit Kotomi's physique. If that was the case, she was definitely proving to be a good wizard. Lyon gently patted Juvia on the shoulder, hoping that Sherria would come here soon to heal her wounds, and Lyon proceeded to walk past Lucy. He wouldn't say anything about this to Emiria or Hiyasu, as he wanted to prove that being a stronger victor than Lucy would make him be the one who was more deserving of whatever the grand prize was going to be.
30 minutes later, in Seigan Town...
Speaking of prizes, Sherria took the light blue gemstone all the way to the part of the town that had a street leading to two branching paths. Suzuna stood in front of those paths with some slight amounts of snow on her celestial blue high-heeled shoes, and the sight of Sherria walking towards her with the gem only made the older woman's lips form a sincere smile. There was a feeling of delight in her eyes from seeing that the gemstone had been found, and Suzuna had been glad that she could give Sherria a reward.
Suzuna wouldn't forget to reward Kusabue, who approached her from a different street. Suzuna was very glad that the girls finished this small quest for her, and their hard work prompted Suzuna to quickly pull out a round stone that was in the regular shade of blue while the stone itself had sapphire blue bubbles floating around inside of it. Suzuna placed this stone into her left hand while her right hand contained a glacier blue stone that had icy winds swirling around inside of it. The winds within the transparent stone were creating frost within this icy stone, and sending her magical power to these stones allowed Suzuna to make them shine in their respective colors.
When Sherria finally reached Suzuna, she placed the giant gemstone in front of the woman's feet and her eyes started to be filled with curiosity from seeing the blue stones. Sherria glanced up at Suzuna to see the friendly smile on her face, and her eyes shifted to the sight of the stones that were in Suzuna's hands. As Sherria was about to chat with Suzuna about the beautiful stones that she was holding, Kusabue got the attention of both women by lightly pushing the gem across the ground. Even though it was important to Suzuna, Kusabue felt that they needed to discuss a matter that was more important.
Kusabue ignored the sounds of footsteps belonging to Yukino, who had been walking out of the nearby theme park with bags containing some cute prizes that she planned on giving to the young mage. Yukino quickly saw Kusabue engaging in a conversation with Suzuna while Sherria was nearby, and the Celestial Spirit Wizard hoped that her light blue snow boots weren't going to make too much noise on the icy streets. She stepped on to a nearby patch of snow as a precaution, before quietly pulling down her light blue winter coat to cover up her stomach, and Yukino decided to just listen in on the conversation.
"Miss Suzuna, why didn't you tell us that an icy prison is under Seigan Town?! Also, why is the Head Botanist from Ryokufū Town down there?!" Kusabue angrily asked with a furious facial expression, as she tightly clenched her fists.
Kusabue's anger caused Suzuna to reply with a shocked look on her face, sounding very alarmed, "With all due respect, I'm sorry to say that even I didn't realize the existence of a prison down there! After I give this gem to Emiria, you need to confront her about that!"
Kusabue responded with some tears forming in her eyes, being tired of her town's residents experiencing despair, "I'm just... so tired of how some of the wealthy people from Seigan dislike people from my town! Even if they're mean to me, that nice researcher did nothing wrong!"
"If you want to save her, then you may need these stones. The one on the left is the Aquatic Blue Stone, capable of amplifying spells of Water Magic if the wielder uses that type of magic. If the stone itself is hit by a spell of Water Magic, it nullifies all damage." Suzuna explained to Kusabue with calmness beginning to enter her eyes, as she handed the stone to the young girl.
Sherria nicely asked while happily smiling, "What about the other stone?"
"Sherria, this is your reward. The Glacial Blue Stone amplifies the power of spells related to Ice Magic, and it also nullifies spells of Ice Magic that are fired at it." Suzuna told her with a kind facial expression, before handing Sherria that specific stone.
Now that she was done with handing the rewards to the two mages, Suzuna easily picked up the giant gemstone and walked towards the theme park with it. She was supposedly going to deliver it to Emiria, and Suzuna would likely get a reward from the hostess for being the person who brought this large treasure to her instead of being the person who initially found it. Kusabue simply watched Suzuna walk down a street that led to the theme park, not minding the thin layer of snow that coated the soles of her shoes, and she felt like the older woman was someone who could be a good ally to Sabertooth.
Kusabue also viewed Sherria as a good ally, and Sherria gently used her right hand to shake Kusabue's left hand while happily smiling. Since their little mission was now over, Sherria and Kusabue parted ways. Sherria began to run past Yukino while sensing Lyon's Ice-Make: Magic during the same moment where an explosion occurred in the nearby forest, and she felt very glad that Lyon would probably have a way to be triumphant in the battle while possibly trouncing Emiria with much more powerful attacks than what Kotomi Takeuchi had in her arsenal.
As Sherria ran off, Yukino wasted no time with walking up to Kusabue and looking very concerned. She was just as angry to find out that a researcher was being held captive in the icy prison, but Yukino was more confused as to why Kusabue had gone to the trouble of getting a giant gem from underneath the town. There was no listed attraction that involved retrieving gigantic gems for any rewards, and Yukino wondered why Suzuna wanted to publicly meet Kusabue and Sherria in a part of Seigan Town where many wealthy individuals and mages had the potential of stealing that gem for themselves.
"Kusabue-chan, where did you even get that giant gemstone?" Yukino asked with a soft smile on her face, leaning down in a comforting manner.
Kusabue replied in a calmer tone, her eyes starting to look a bit relaxed, "Yukino-san, Sherria and I found that gemstone in one of the underground maze's hidden path. That path was concealed by a dead end that had an icy mirror, but we were instructed to get it because Emiria left it there."
That last sentence caused Yukino to respond with a look of skepticism forming on her face, feeling a bit doubtful, "For me, I find it a little strange that someone as evil as Emiria would leave her precious gemstone in a place where you were likely to come across a secret prison."
Also, Yukino started to think about the fact that an undiscovered prison was something that a person would want to conceal as effectively as possible. Since Emiria and Hiyasu had been the hostesses of the Grand Reverie Icy Frigid Tour, that meant they were in charge of organizing the entire event. An organizer wouldn't want tourists or participating wizards to find any downsides about being in a wealthy-looking town such as Seigan, and even giving anyone the slim chance of discovering anvthing horrible would be detrimental for tourism.
Speaking of tourism, Yukino looked away from Kusabue for a moment to see that Risa emerged from the clothing store with several shopping bags in her hands. She smiled happily while wearing a pastel blue winter jacket that replaced her previous jacket, along with some neon blue winter pants that matched her glacial blue flat shoes. Risa was glad to be wearing her new outfit that she had gotten for free, along with all of the other clothes that were freely given to her for saving the lives of several citizens in the botanical garden.
Risa would probably want to save everyone who was trapped down in the underground prison, prompting Yukino to walk away from Kusabue for the purpose of having this conversation with Risa. Risa was followed by Rogue, who let his red eyes wander to a different street while they looked emotionless. The dragon slayer who wielded water and shadows managed to sense an item that appeared to involve Water God Slayer Magic and Ice God Slayer Magic, but the item was alternating between both kinds of magic. He also picked up on Suzuna's scent in the air, but Rogue felt like he needed to join in on the conversation that Yukino was about to have with Risa while he planned on relaying the information back to Lucy and Sting at the inn.
How was Chapter 52? Feel free to tell me your thoughts on it. After a long amount of time where real-life issues got in my way, I've returned to finally write this chapter. Lucy has gone to see Juvia in the infirmary, but it seems like Juvia isn't able to fully believe her story about not actually being Kotomi Takeuchi. In contrast, Kusabue believed Suzuna's story about finding Emiria's missing gemstone. Although, Yukino believes that there is something suspicious about that entire situation and the Sabertooth mages may have to start putting pieces of a mystery together in an attempt to solve it. By the way, this is the ninth parth of the Azure Ice Arc! I'll update soon. :)
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