The boat ride to Galuna Island was spent in awkward silence, Natsu vomiting off the side being ignored. Lucy and the cat sat at the front, each of them hugging their knees to their chests as they stared with wide, anxious eyes. Their gazes were focused on Zangetsu and Gray sitting opposite each other, the demon looking out at nothing while the ice wizard glared unceasingly, seemingly only not attempting to attack due to being tied with rope. The captain, at the back, was nearly as concerned as Lucy and the cat, his eyes finding the zanpakuto often before straying to focus on maintaining their course.
"…Do you honestly believe you are capable of lifting the curse?" The captain asked, hesitantly. Hopefully.
"W-well, we've…got a decent variety of magic here, I'd say." Lucy offered, in an attempt to break the tension. "I've got my Celestial Spirit Magic, Natsu is a Fire Dragon Slayer, and Gray uses Ice Make Magic. I…don't think we've seen Zangetsu use his Magic, but he's really strong."
"Are you strong enough to break it? The curse that has plagued that island?" He narrowed his eyes, looking off into the distance. "My name is Bobo, and I used to be a villager there. But because of that curse, I was forced to flee from Galuna, from my people." Lucy and Gray turned downcast at his words, sympathy covering their features.
"What is the curse, anyway?" The cat tilted his head. Bobo refocused, gaze going towards the feline.
"It is," he paused to dramatically throw back his cloak, "The Demon Curse." The wizards (who were not heaving into the water) stared in abject horror at witnessing the left arm of the captain. It was insectoid in nature, segmented and covered in hard shell, flesh tone bleeding to purple from the shoulder down. There was a clear, grotesque transition from skin to the texture of the arm, visible warping and distortion that screamed of an agonizing change. While the Ice Mage couldn't help but gawk in terror, emanating a sense of shock, disbelief, and even slight disgust, the Celestial Spirit Mage gasped.
"Is that why you were staring at him so hard, Zangetsu? You could tell he was a demon, too?" The horned beast snapped his head to the blonde, a short snarl coming from his throat that brought her to retreat slightly. At her reaction, his shoulders hunched minutely as his head shrunk down, something Gray caught out the corner of his eye.
"…Diff…rent." The blade attempted to explain with his broken speech. He pointed at himself with his left hand, then to Bobo. "…Not…same." To that explanation, the tied-up mage rolled his eyes with unhidden irritation.
"Of course you're different!" He hissed. "He and his village were cursed. They clearly don't want to be demons." A deep growl reverberated from the throat of the zanpakuto as he stood, shoulders now hunched in threat and the points of his horns aimed directly at Gray. The same pressure Lucy experienced when Zangetsu first arrived returned, flattening everyone else to the wooden floor. The boat itself sunk noticeably, water sloshing over the sides before the current was disrupted by the same mysterious force. Weighted ripples coursed outward from their position, the natural churn of the ocean being overwhelmed by the immense pressure. It was dark and malevolent in nature, a menacing presence filled with hatred and bloodlust that bore down on them all, but most especially the ice wizard. Underneath its oppressive might, the dark-haired man turned nauseous, his skin growing pale and clammy with sweat. He was only able to be certain the demon's blade had not speared through his chest because he saw its position in his hand.
"Gray…!" The key-bearer begged, barely capable of breathing due to the fury of their companion. "Apologize…please…!"
'Hollow-'
'Fuck off.' He snarled back immediately. 'I'm getting real fucking tired, real fucking fast, of this grudge-having asshole constantly coming at me, especially for shit I couldn't be involved with.'
'Are you truly that irritated by his antagonizing?'
'That's not the fucking point! He's an annoying goddamn gnat that won't stop buzzing in my ear!' Silence followed for a moment in the wake of his words, and so the Hollow tightened his grip on his weapon.
'You would alienate yourself from Lucy if you killed him.' Before his eyes, the blade saw Gray's mouth move, struggling to form words that the spirit didn't bother to listen to. A tense quiet filled the space of the boat after that, the others all waiting with dread over Zangetsu's response. After what felt like eternity, the pressure finally lifted. The wizards all sighed with relief, only an instant before the zanpakuto slammed his right foot atop the chest of the ice mage, ripping all the air out from his lungs and violently shaking the boat.
"Wait!" The girl cried as she reached out, her body still trembling. However, to the unanimous surprise of the wizards, the horned beast slapped his open hand against his chest, directly above the hole between his pectorals.
"Zangetsu…!" He practically roared, leaning close to Gray's face. "…Hollow! …Not! …Demon!" His point was emphasized by moving his hand to point at the mutated captain. The eyes of Gray, Lucy, and the cat automatically followed his gesture, and all three of them blinked after a moment of blank staring. Irritated, the zanpakuto turned to look, before finding himself joining in their staring.
Bobo was gone.
'What the fuck?' The sheer shock and confusion separated the Hollow from his rage. 'Where'd he go?' As much as both halves of the blade desired the answer to that question, something stole their attention away from that intent. Perhaps due to Zangetsu's actions just a moment ago, or perhaps for unrelated reasons, a large wave was rising up, and heading straight towards them. The gravity of this was punctuated by Lucy and the cat wailing in terror whilst hugging each other, tears erupting from their eyes. Gray began desperately wiggling around, also screaming at the top of his lungs, while Natsu remained completely at the mercy of his motion sickness.
'Fucking useless dumbasses.' The Hollow sighed, the action manifesting physically as a heavy snort. Turning to the blonde, the blade reached out with his left hand and grabbed her by the back of her shirt. A low pound of sound not unlike the crack of thunder marked the use of Sonido, the speed technique taking Zangetsu and the pair in his hold directly to the sandy beach of the island they were in the direct line of. Lucy hadn't even gotten the chance to register the change in scenery by the time two more bursts brought Natsu's limp form to be lying next to her.
After depositing the dragon slayer onto the ground, the beast stood still for a moment, gazing out at nothing as though in the midst of contemplation. Just as the Celestial Spirit Mage blinked in dumbfounded realization, another dense punch of thunder signified the zanpakuto's disappearance once more.
"Wh-" The key-bearer was cut off by one final crack of sound. The horned monster stood on the beach once more, Gray being held in his grip by the ropes still tying his limbs together. Lifting the ice wizard, Zangetsu turned him slightly so that the dark-haired man could clearly see the glower in his empty eye sockets, before opening his fist and allowing the man to fall to the ground.
"Zangetsu!" At Lucy's call, the spirit calmly turned to face her. "What was that?!"
"…So…ni…do." He stated simply. Natsu sat up, seemingly already back up to full strength.
"Could you have used that this entire time?!" He demanded to know.
"…Yes."
"YOU'RE SAYING WE COULD'VE AVOIDED THE BOAT?!" He screamed, flames curling out from his lips in anger. "WHY DIDN'T YOU JUST DO THAT?!"
"…First…time…here." The fire died immediately, as even he found the clear logic of 'Zangetsu did not know how to get there' impossible to argue with.
"Fine." The dragon slayer accepted, before aggressively pointing at the zanpakuto. "But once we're back, I'm gonna make sure you study some maps so that I don't have to go on trains anymore!"
"Natsu! Zangetsu isn't a mode of transportation!" Lucy admonished.
"But then we save jewels on train tickets!" He countered. Nearly instantly, her face shifted to a look of overwhelming sweetness as she turned towards the horned beast. Before she could get a single word out, he already had lifted his left hand with his middle finger raised, his opinion on the matter indisputably clear. "Hey, it's hard to keep all my bills paid, you know!" She defended.
"Can you stop arguing about exploitation and untie me?!" Gray interrupted, wiggling along the ground indignantly.
"Why should we, when you've been trying to stop us this entire time?" The pink-haired man argued.
"We're already on the island, you idiot!" His rival reasoned. "There's no point in fighting it by now!"
"I dunno, sounds fishy." The cat stroked his chin in faux thought, to which the Ice Mage rolled his eyes in annoyance.
"It's gonna leave a bad taste in my mouth if Natsu ends up being able to go up to the second floor before I can. I'd rather join the quest that will get us both to be S-Class rather than sit on the sidelines and take the chance that he actually can do this quest on his own." He huffed. The dragon slayer and his feline companion adopted shark-like grins.
"Now that sounds like the truth." Natsu teased, kneeling by the other man to untie the ropes.
After they left the beach, it did not take long to scour through the forest to find what they assumed to be the village that put out the request. It was fortified by a large wooden wall, signs warding off intrusion abundant and obvious. The front gate even had a large wooden plank going across, boldly ordering for others to 'KEEP OUT'.
"How do we even get in to do the quest?" Gray grumbled, peering at the wall for any potential openings.
"Eh, let's just bust the door down." Natsu did not even attempt to consider an alternative, raising his fist as he went to step forward. Lucy slapped his shoulder immediately to stop him, before cupping her hands over her mouth.
"Excuse me?! We're wizards from Fairy Tail! Can we be let inside?!" She called as loudly as she could. After a few moments, in which Lucy had to once more slap Natsu from attempting to casually continue with his plan, a pair of silhouettes appeared at the top of the gate.
"Who goes there?!" One of them demanded.
"We're wizards from Fairy Tail!" She repeated herself. "We're here for the request you put out!"
"We haven't received word that-" The presumed guard was cut off by their companion bringing up an arm in front of their chest to get them to shuffle back half a step.
"You have a demon amongst you!" The other caught, a mild tremor to his voice. The Fairy Tail mages all grew anxious, their awareness of the nature of the curse plaguing the village rising to the forefront of their minds. There was no doubt that there would be added difficulties navigating the mission while Zangetsu was with them, considering the valid reason the villagers possessed to persecute those demonic in nature.
"What?! They-" The original guard stumbled over his words as he took a second look at their group. "They do! I don't care why you're here, as long as you're affiliated with that demon, you won't be allowed into our village!" He spat before both guards went back to their previous positions and disappeared from their sight.
"Dammit!" Natsu grit his teeth. "They didn't even give us a chance to explain that Zangetsu isn't a demon!"
"I don't think they'd believe us anyway, or possibly even care…" The Celestial Spirit Mage turned downtrodden. "How are we going to complete the quest now?" Gray joined them in discussing plans to convince the villagers to let them past the door, while the blade cast his gaze at the gate. Or more specifically, what lay beyond it.
'Reiatsu of those two guards are flanking the top corners of that gate, and what I'm figuring is everyone else is a ways away from the walls.' He mused, before he began walking towards the fortifications. The cat was the one to notice him, though it was far too late to do anything about it.
"Hey, what's Zangetsu doing?" He voiced, getting the three mages to snap to the zanpakuto, right as he brought his blade arm back and swung. The force of his strike blew the main gate apart, the wood instantly shattering into miniscule splinters which scattered in the air.
"ZANGETSU!" The key-bearer screamed, equal amounts of fury and fear in her tone. The mages ran up to the spirit as he stared at the black blade in his right hand, the inflexibility of his mask making it so that none of them could decipher the thoughts going through his mind.
'…Oi, what just happened there?' Confusion dressed the Hollow's tone, almost completely hiding the undercurrent of worry.
'…I don't know.' The Quincy sharing in his emotions did not soothe him in the slightest. Outwardly, the zanpakuto shook his head to clear away the thoughts before refocusing on the environment around him, and the chaos that resulted from his actions. The first things he caught was that the two guards from the top of the gate were directly in front of him, failing disastrously at piercing his Hierro with their spears. Peering past them, he saw the villagers falling over themselves with panic, screaming and crying, begging for them to be spared. Natsu rushed in from the right, righteous anger distorting his features as a blast of fire blew away the guards who had been blunting their weapons on his skin.
An annoyed snort left the spirit, the only precursor to him unleashing his reiatsu once more. Nothing was spared, though if one were to ask, the Hollow would admit that was in part due to him not possessing the necessary control to focus his reiatsu upon individuals. What he did have the control for was to not have it be particularly strong. The wizards with him, mostly due to being caught off guard, merely stumbled slightly. The villagers, far weaker and with children amongst their number, hardly needed more than a taste of his power to collapse and be brought to their knees. Casting his gaze and senses out, it did not appear that any were struggling to breathe, leading to the blade nodding in satisfaction. Flipping his blade so that it was in reverse grip, he brought the end of his hilt to Natsu's spine and gently pushed the other man forward, the best explanation he could give without struggling with words. Thankfully, the dragon slayer did indeed take the hint.
"Zangetsu's on our side, assholes!" He shouted immediately. "We're here to help you out, and he's here to lend an extra hand if we happen to need it! He's not even related to the curse you guys are dealing with, this is the first time he's even been to this island! He agreed to join this quest just like all of us did, so if you have a problem with him trying to help, then you might as well have a problem with all of us trying to help!"
"Aye!" The cat supported.
"A-Are…you all truly here t-to lift the curse?" A cloaked man with a staff on the ground next to him asked.
"We are!" Lucy affirmed.
"Th-then we…won't turn you down. I-if you c-could please, release us." The man begged. Natsu turned to the horned beast and nodded, who mutely ceased pressing his power onto the village. Once the force had lifted, the villagers began helping each other to their feet, whispering words of comfort to each other. The blade spotted flashes of abnormal colors, claws, and tails amidst the sea of cloaks. "Before any more can be said between us, there is something you must see. Everyone, take off your cloaks!" The man with the staff ordered, the others all following promptly. To the shock of the wizards, and the unsurprise of the zanpakuto, they were greeted by the sight of all the villagers being similarly mutated as Bobo.
"Holy shit, those are some serious sideburns!" Natsu amazed. He was immediately smacked in the back of the head by Lucy.
"…Every living being on this island, even the animals among us, have all been afflicted by this curse of ours." Who they assumed by now was the village leader gravely informed.
"I don't want to seem insulting," Gray tenderly began, "but are you certain this is a curse, and not some sort of disease?" The leader nodded.
"We have been examined by dozens of doctors, they all agree it is nothing they have ever witnessed before. But we know that it is a curse for we know its source: the Magic of the Moon." The wizards of Fairy Tail all closer to the crowd than the spirit was, none of them noticed the slight tilt of Zangetsu's head at the leader's words.
"The…Magic of the Moon?" Lucy breathed.
"Originally, it was this island's defining feature to draw in the moonlight, until the island itself glowed with the same beauty as the moon itself. But, many years back, the moon suddenly turned purple."
"Purple?" The cat voiced in disbelief.
"The moon's never been purple." Natsu immediately retorted, his obvious confusion shared by most of their group.
"That is what every outsider has stated, but you cannot argue with the facts. From anywhere on this island, the moon clearly appears purple, and when it comes out, we are all forced to undergo a transformation."
"Wait, guys, look! The moon is purple!" The cat pointed out, causing them to turn to the sky. The clouds parted, revealing a full moon in all its glory. To the surprise of the newcomers, its shade was indeed a sickening violet. Before any of them could comment, a gasp of pain came from the village leader.
"Witness, now!" He declared, his voice wracked with agony as he clutched at his chest. "The Curse the Moon has imposed upon us!" As though that was the marker for a dam breaking, the villagers erupted into shouts of pain, their bodies all morphing before the eyes of those who had come to save them. Lucy held her hands over her mouth in horror, Natsu and Gray each seething as they realized they could not do anything to stop the changes occurring in front of them. The zanpakuto, however, couldn't help but notice a certain fact about the energy signatures of the villagers while they transformed into demons.
"I apologize for scaring you all so, but we have no control over these changes. When the purple moon comes out, we take these forms." The village leader announced, horns now protruding from his forehead. "Do you understand why we call this a curse, now?" The wizards looked out at the crowd, seeing parents attempt to comfort their children in their new skin. "Once the morning comes, we return to our human forms, but…a little more of these demonic mutations remain every time we change back."
"Oh, no…" Tears beaded in the corners of Lucy's eyes.
"We have put out a law, for those who have been completely consumed by the curse, in body and in soul. To kill them all, for the safety of those who remain."
"But what if you can change back, even after you're completely transformed?!" Natsu roared.
"You think we find any pleasure in killing our neighbors, our parents, or our children?!" The village leader screamed back with equal intensity. "If we do not put them down, we open ourselves to the possibility of them killing us first! We attempted to first lock them away, but they just broke apart our prisons!" The dragon slayer shrank before the misery in the man's words. The man took out a photograph, as his own tears started crawling down his face. "I've had to put down my own son, when he was consumed by the curse!" The eyes of the wizards once more widened at finding the photograph depicted a man they had seen before.
"Bobo?" The Celestial Spirit Mage whispered under her breath.
"So that's how he disappeared…" Gray muttered. "He must've not been able to find peace…"
"Please, if you are all here to save our island from this despicable curse, I pray for your success." The village leader bowed. "If this goes on much longer, I fear we'll soon all become demons."
"We promise you, on our honor as Fairy Tail wizards, that we will save you from your curse!" Natsu declared fiercely.
"There is only one method that we have concluded which would dispel the curse." Natsu and Gray steeled themselves as they waited for the answer. "You must destroy the Moon!"
Their group had been escorted to a hut for them to stay in while they completed the mission, none of them missing that the hut was at the furthest edge of the village itself, and more of a shed than anything else. Or how the woman who had taken them there left in a rush as soon as they reached the door.
"Even after everything I said, they're still being assholes to Zangetsu." Natsu grumbled, sitting atop the basket found inside the shed. It was clearly a space used for storage, the walls covered in tools for harvesting crops and hunting for food. From his position sitting against one of the walls, Gray swiveled his head to respond. However, he paused as he spotted the spirit in question sitting against the wall next to the fire breather.
"They're being transformed against their will by something they have no control over." He instead chose to say. "You heard their story, too. It makes sense that they'd have a grudge against things that remind them of it." After he finished speaking, the Ice Mage stole a glance at the blade, breathing a sigh of relief when the horned beast displayed no reaction to his words.
"Doesn't mean I have to like it…" The pink-haired mage complained, crossing his arms over his chest. "By the way, how do they expect us to destroy the moon? Happy can't fly that high." The zanpakuto's head lifted at the latter sentence, tilting in wordless confusion.
"The problem is not my ability to fly to the moon, Natsu." The cat announced, bringing the blade to grunt softly in acknowledgement.
"But we have to!" He argued. "It would drag Fairy Tail's name through the mud if we failed to complete a quest!"
"It would drag Fairy Tail's name through the mud if we actually destroyed the moon!" Lucy shrieked, annoyed that she even had to explain such a thing to the man. "They said it themselves, that was the only thing the villagers could come up with as a solution! There has to be a better, more easily achievable method of fixing this." A small motion drew the key-bearer's eyes, a noise of surprise leaving her as she focused on it.
"Zangetsu? You had something to say?" She questioned, seeing him with his left hand raised slightly. The other three turned to the spirit, curious as to what his input was going to be.
"…Some…thing…off." He rasped, pausing to think for a moment before pointing at the blonde. "…Ex…plain…Magic." Already invested in what his point might be, she nodded.
"Magic is energy that-"
"That." He pointed at her more aggressively, which prompted both her and Gray to furrow their eyebrows in confusion before she caught on.
"Something about energy?" She asked. The blade nodded.
"…Theirs…weird." He stated. "…When…Moon…" He pointed upwards to ensure his words were being understood. "…That…not…change." Gray, surprisingly, was the one to piece it together first.
"You're saying that when the moon came out and caused them to change, their magical energy remained the same?" The horned beast nodded affirmatively.
"…Same…As…Son." He furthered.
"So their magical energy is just like Bobo's, despite that he fully succumbed to the curse and they haven't." Lucy mused. "That is weird. …Wait, how can you tell all of this?"
"…Can…sense…soul."
"Oh, is that part of your Magic?" She wondered. He stared at her…for an uncomfortably long time, before he finally silently nodded.
"Oi!" Natsu interrupted, a yawn in his voice. "We're getting into the territory of questions we can ask tomorrow, it's time for some shut-eye."
"Aye!" Happy agreed, flopping onto the floor, seemingly having no complaints with sleeping on bare mat. His companion joined him nigh-immediately.
"Yeah, I'm feeling real sleepy, too." The Ice Mage groaned as he, too, slumped over onto the floor. With their shelter being as small as it was, and the two wizards taking up the majority of that small space, Lucy chose to settle herself into a space she already knew she was comfortable with. It was a wordless interaction, of Zangetsu shifting his legs so that the blonde could slot herself in place with her back against his chest and his left arm loosely circling around her. Adjusting herself slightly, she leaned her head back against his left shoulder, her arms weaving around his forearm as she quickly slipped into dreamland.
The zanpakuto sat in silence for a long moment, attempting to join them in rest but finding himself incapable. Something had invaded his mind earlier, a particular thing that pervaded most all of his thoughts and refused to leave. A deep concern that caused a pit to form in the gut of both the Hollow and the Quincy, an icy dread stabbing into their consciousness. Once more bringing up the ebony sword that symbolized their very existence, Zangetsu stared intensely at the metal. After several moments, flickers of red-lined black energy danced along the edge, akin to embers. The embers soon died, before the beast allowed the blade to fall to his side. He then glanced around to the sleeping forms of those sharing the hut with him, confirming their states before tilting his head upwards slightly. Almost instantly, a furious red orb of reiatsu manifested in front of the points of his horns, the light disappearing just as quickly as the technique was canceled. Their head falling, Zangetsu couldn't help but worry over the revelation they just discovered.
'…Why is it so hard to call a Getsuga Tensho?' The Hollow's question, filled with anxiety and despair, echoed across their mindscape.
As stated before, this IS supposed to be low on my priority list, at least until To Undo it All is finished. As such, once I finish the Galuna Island Arc, I will return to focusing as much as I can on finishing To Undo it All. I'm not going to completely throw this off to the wayside until my other story is done, so don't worry about that, but definitely expect something closer to five or so chapters for TUiA for every chapter you get of this.