"Ace has really improved a lot, hasn't he?" Lucy asked herself as she watched Ace jump high into the air, dodging the stream of fire being shot by Natsu. He smiled as he began to float in the air, keeping his gaze focused on Natsu. For the past couple of days: Ace had been more focused on his training with Natsu, leaving early the morning and returning late in the afternoon. So she took advantage and began to do more jobs while the two focused on Ace's training. And today was the day she decided to take a break and see what his training was looking like...except the two had no idea she was watching them.
"You're better at levitating now than you were the other day!" Natsu called out and Ace nodded as he began to move around in the air, acting as if he was walking around. "Okay now you're just showing off."
"You think so? Sorry, just letting it get to my head." Ace said as he sat down in mid-air. He chuckled and flipped upside down, still keeping his attention on Natsu.
"Alright, you've had your fun. Back to training." Natsu took a deep breath and shot a Fire Dragon's Roar at Ace. Ace's eyes widened at the speed of the attack and stopped floating, using gravity to dodge the attack. Natsu appeared in front of him and smirked as he grabbed Ace by the shirt, throwing him to the ground as hard as he could.
"Nice try." Ace chuckled as he created a whirlwind underneath him to break his fall. Natsu couldn't help but laugh, amazed what the Dragon Lacrima had done to Ace's magic.
The first few days after Porlyusica placed the Lacrima in Ace's body: he wasn't able to use his magic properly and he was struggling to even create a gust of wind. But then after five days: he was able to use his magic again, and even Natsu could tell that Ace's magic power had grown by a lot since his procedure. Although the strange thing Natsu had to warn Ace about was that his scent had changed, which was something he would have to warn Wendy and Gajeel about when they noticed.
"Alright, Natsu. I've been on the defensive, but now it's my turn." Ace and Natsu landed on the ground, crouching as they got ready to charge at each other. Natsu ran at Ace first, throwing a fist forward to try to hit the man, but Ace dodged by flipping over him. Ace then kicked the air, creating a burst of wind that hit Natsu directly in the middle of his back. Natsu growled as the attack knocking him to the floor, turning around to see Ace levitating over him again. "I'm sorry, was that supposed to hit me?"
"Lucky shot. Fire Dragon's Talon!" Natsu leapt into the air, igniting his foot as he got ready to kick Ace. Ace blocked the attack by swiping his arm through the air, creating a wall of wind that made Natsu spin in the air away from him. "Hey!"
"Natsu, you can stop taking it so easy on me." Ace surrounded his fist with a ball of wind as he kept his gaze focused on Natsu, feeling his sight begin to change as the far away Natsu looked as if he was close by. He threw the first forward, firing a stream of wind from it that hit Natsu square in the chest and sent him into the ground.
"Okay okay, time out." Natsu called out as he picked himself up from the floor. Ace floated over, helping Natsu brush the dirt off of his clothes. "What the heck was that, man? It's like you're someone totally different now."
"I'm sorry I just-" Natsu raised an eyebrow as Ace began to wave his hands in the air. Sighing as he realized his friend misunderstood him, Natsu placed a hand on his shoulder and shook his head.
"I don't mean it in a bad way. I mean you were barely able to use your magic beyond a beginner's level not too long ago, now you're so different: it's like you're someone else." Natsu explained as the two sat down, taking the opportunity to catch their breath.
"I don't know. I guess I had a hard time really tapping into my magic before. But when I was struggling to use my magic after I put that Lacrima inside of me: Lucy asked Capricorn to help me meditate to see if that would fix things." Ace admitted, scratching his arm as even he had to admit he was beginning to feel different like Porlyusica told him.
"So she helped you without knowing you've got that rock in you?" Natsu whispered as he caught wind of Lucy's perfume, realizing the woman in question was definitely nearby. He snapped his head in her direction, making her realize he knew she was there and took it as her cue to leave.
"Yeah. She thought I was just sick or overused my magic, so she did her best to nurse me back to health."
"Man...you've gotta tell her soon. Otherwise you're going to have a hard time explaining stuff to her." Ace sighed, hanging his head in defeat as he knew Natsu was right.
"You're right, teach." Ace said before both of them heard loud growling coming from both of their stomachs. "I didn't even realize it was lunchtime." Ace laughed sheepishly as they stood up.
"Me either." Natsu said as they began to make their way back to town. "We should really go on a job again soon."
"You think so?"
"Well why not? Unless you wanna be like Nab and spend all day in front of the request board, doing absolutely nothing." Natsu joked and Ace couldn't help but laugh in agreement.
"You have a point." The two stopped when Natsu saw a familiar tall man wearing a dark cloak walking in front of them towards Manolia.
"Is that...?"
"Hm?" The man turned around, seeing Natsu behind him and smiled. "Oh. Hello Natsu."
"Jellal! What are you doing here?" Natsu yelled as he ran up to the man, raising a hand to greet him.
"Just traveling around for a bit, everyone else from Crime Sorciere is taking a small vacation so I figured I'd take one as well." Jellal said before noticing Ace walking up behind Natsu. "Who's your friend?"
"Huh? Oh! Jellal, this is my new buddy and my student: Ace. Ace, this is Jellal. He's an old buddy of Erza's and a good friend of ours too." Natsu said as he introduced the two men. Ace smiled and extended a hand to him which Jellal happily shook.
"Nice to meet you." Ace nodded at him and Jellal nodded in return.
"Likewise."
"So what brings you to Magnolia of all places? I heard from Sting that that Angel chick is a member of Sabertooth now too." Natsu said as the three men began to walk towards Magnolia together.
"Sorano? Yes she asked if she could join to be with her little sister and I agreed. I came to Magnolia to see my friends, and especially to see if Erza was around."
"Erza? Nah she's been out of the country for like a month now." Natsu's blunt response surprised Jellal, while Ace facepalmed as the name Jellal finally clicked in his head.
"Oh, is she on an S-Class mission at the moment?"
"She's actually-"
"She's doing a favor for me and helping protect my brother while he's visiting our family in Caelum." Ace cut Natsu off, realizing that letting him talk would make things worse.
"Oh really?" Jellal turned to face Natsu who nodded to confirm what he was saying.
"My brother is in charge of our family's company and he can't really use magic, so Erza is helping escort him in case anyone tries to do some funny business or he just runs into trouble." Ace explained and Jellal nodded as he understood. "I wouldn't have asked her if I could've gone with him myself, I'm really sorry Jellal."
"Don't be sorry. I just wanted to speak with her, but I'll do it after she returns." Jellal asked before clearing his throat to change topics. "So you're Natsu's student?"
"Yeah he is!" Natsu yelled, happily raising a fist.
"He's helping me because I don't really know how to use my magic offensively, so Natsu is helping me do that."
"Well I hope he's as good at teaching as he is at breaking things." Jellal laughed and Ace laughed as well, nodding in agreement.
"Hey!"
"So you think something is wrong with Ace?" Lisanna asked as she and Lucy sat together in the guild hall. Lucy had just arrived and told her about Ace and Natsu's training session, but confided that the didn't feel comfortable with Ace's sudden improvement.
"I mean...maybe? He just feels different than he did the other day." Lucy sighed before seeing the amused smile on Lisanna's face. Her face became a deep shade of red and she shook her head, embarrassed by Lisanna's insinuation. "N-Not like that!"
"I know. But what do you think is wrong with him?"
"I wish I knew. Honestly, it reminds me of when Ultear unlocked our Second Origins." Lucy admitted as she remembered how drastically her magic had improved when Ultear helped them before the Grand Magic Games. "But I can't imagine that he had something like that happen to him."
"Well there were those few days he couldn't use magic, remember? Maybe that had something to do with this." Lisanna suggested, and Lucy thought for a moment. Ace WAS unable to properly use his magic those couple of days, and then when he felt better was when he was when his magic suddenly became a lot better.
"Maybe...but he still won't say what caused that."
"He's been training a lot and he never really used magic before. It could've just been some sort of magic exhaustion." Lisanna raised a finger and Lucy agreed with her, but she was still going to try to get the truth from Ace sooner or later. "You know, you could always go on a job with him. Actually I think I know just the one." Lisanna stood up and ran over to the request board, swiftly removing one of the requests from it and ran back to Lucy. She looked over the request and thought that it seemed simple enough. It was a simple transport job, just accompanying a convoy carrying some relics on their way to a museum in Crocus. The reward itself was quite generous at 600,000 Jewels, but of course the money didn't matter since now she had the chance to be with her fiancé.
"This is a great idea! How are you this genius?" Lucy put the request down and grabbed Lisanna's hands, making the younger Strauss sibling laugh sheepishly and shrug. Then the doors to the guild opened and Natsu and Ace walked inside with both men laughing intensely. "Ace, come here!"
"I'll talk to you later, man." Ace said as he patted Natsu's shoulder before running over to Lucy. Once he arrived beside her, he leaned down and kissed his fiancée to greet her. "Hey, I thought you were busy today."
"Nope, just been here all day with Lisanna." Lucy said and Ace laughed awkwardly for their little moment of PDA in front of Lisanna.
"Sorry."
"It's alright, you two are my third favorite couple after all."
"Oh really? Only third?" Both of them asked, making Lisanna smile and stand up.
"I'll leave you two to it."
"Gajeel and Levy better be one of the other two at least." Lucy called out and Lisanna waved her off, going to go mess with Natsu who stood at the job board.
"So what's up?" Ace asked as he sat down next to her.
"This." Lucy handed him the job flier and Ace read it over quickly, nodding as it caught his interest. "What do you think?"
"It sounds good. A bodyguard job is a first for me." Ace's reply made Lucy's eyes widen from excitement. "Do you want to bring Natsu and Wendy or...?"
"I was thinking about it being just the both of us." Lucy said, suggesting Lisanna's idea to him. Without hesitation, Ace patted her back and nodded.
"Okay."
"Really?!" Lucy excitedly yelled, and Ace couldn't help but laugh at her reaction.
"Well if you're not happy with that-" Lucy cut him off by leaping out of her seat, snatching the paper from his hand, and running over to Mirajane to get their request approved. "Never mind."
"Damn it." Ryu grumbled as walked into his room, throwing a broken sword made of wood in his hands to the far corner of the room. He had spent all day training under his uncle and grandfather, and if he knew that agreeing to their request would've been so exhausting: he would've turned them down and been on his way back to Fiore by now. His legs were shaking, his arms had no strength left in them, he didn't even know how he made it back to his room in one piece. And not only that: now his left arm had to be wrapped in bandages while he got used to the magic his family made him learn. He threw off his blood and sweat soaked shirt by the foot of his bed and groaned as he flopped onto his bed, keeping his focus on the ceiling.
"Oh, you're done?" He turned his head and saw Erza standing in the doorway holding a glass of water in her hands. "Sorry it's not cold, I filled it up hours ago." Erza smiled at the man and he rolled his eyes, knowing exactly what she was doing.
"Ha ha. Very funny." Ryu said as he rolled on his side away from her. Erza hummed to herself and sat down next to him, beginning to drink the cold water inside of the glass.
"It actually was cold, by the way." Ryu snapped up and turned around only for Erza to quickly drink the remaining contents of the glass. "If you want some then go to the kitchen and serve yourself some."
"Do you hate me? You know you could leave whenever you want." Ryu said as he laid back down. Erza chuckled and patted his head, catching him off guard. "What are you-"
"Are you too tired?" Erza asked as she looked at the broken sword on the floor.
"What do you think?"
"It's just a question, no need to be so testy."
"Yes, Erza. You've seen what I've been going through. They don't call that man General for nothing...although Dictator would've been more fitting." Ryu muttered and Erza smiled as she got up from the bed. She grabbed his arm and stood him up as well, making the man groan as he just wanted to stay in bed. "What?"
"Come with me." Erza said as she led the man out of the room by his hand. She led him back to the front of the house and finally turned around to face him. "I'm here to help."
"Help what?" Ryu asked before seeing Erza extend a hand forward. A bright gold light appeared from her hand and it took the shape of one of her Katanas, keeping the blade pointed down at the ground. "What are you doing, Erza?"
"Grab it." Erza motioned with the sword towards Ryu and he reached out for it, rolling his eyes as he grabbed it.
"Now what?" Ryu asked and Erza replied by walking behind him. She placed her hands over his, tightening his grip on the blade.
"Your form has been wrong, you need to keep a firm grip on the sword so you can properly apply force along the blade." Erza said as she moved his arms around, swinging the blade for him to understand what she meant. "The blade's direction and the direction you apply the force in have to be the same. Especially with these blades that are only strong vertically and extremely brittle horizontally."
"I appreciate the advice, but why are you doing this?" Ryu asked before Erza placed her hand on his bandaged arm, keeping her smile hidden from him.
"Because I've seen the work you've been putting in. As angry and as frustrated as you seem, I know you're trying your hardest. Even when it's the middle of the night and you think no one's watching: I know you're out here putting in practice by yourself." Erza said making Ryu gulp as he didn't realize she had known about his late night training. "Yeah I knew. But I didn't want to say anything because I didn't want to interrupt you."
"Okay but...why are you helping me now?"
"Because you shouldn't overwork yourself either." Erza said as she walked to his side and summoned another Katana in her hand. "Just follow my movements, these are going to be the absolute basics." Ryu nodded as he looked at how Erza was holding the sword and copied her. "Ready?"
"Ready." Erza and Ryu smiled at each other before beginning to swing their swords together. Meanwhile inside the house: Tsukasa watched his grandson proudly as he began to copy Erza's movements exactly, earning praises from the woman.
"Just like that. Just remember to keep apply force in the same direction that you swing."
'Lyle...you truly did a good job with him.' Tsukasa thought as he closed his eyes and began to walk towards the kitchen.
"Hey, did Lucy and Ace leave already?" Gray asked as he walked up to Natsu who sat down in the guild hall having lunch.
"Yeah, not that long ago actually." Natsu replied as he took a large bite of the piece of meat in his hands. "Why? You need them for something?"
"I actually wanted to talk to you and him." Gray said as he sat down across from Natsu. "What was that guy's name from that job you went on with him?" Gray asked as he began to fish into his coat.
"Guy? You mean the mean old dude or the guy who lied to us about the bandits?"
"The old guy."
"Like Raisin or something." Natsu said as he struggled to remember the name. But luckily Happy flew over and decided to answer it for him.
"That guy's name was Rayzen. And Ace didn't really like him all that much." Happy said as he sat down on the table next to Natsu's plate.
"I thought so. Look at this." Gray said as he fished out a rolled up newspaper from his coat and placed it on the table in front of them. Natsu and Happy looked down at the headline and their eyes widened as they read it: Renowned business man found dead in his office.
"What the...?" Natsu muttered as they saw the photo under the headline: an office destroyed with blood splattered over the walls.
"It says here Rayzen was found dead in his office yesterday morning...his entire office was torn apart and the safe he kept inside of it was broken into, so they're assuming it was a robbery." Happy summarized the report written on the newspaper while Natsu shook his head.
"A robbery? That looks more like a wild animal attacked him."
"That's why I wanted to talk to you and Ace about it. It doesn't take a genius to tell that he wasn't just robbed by some small town crook. Someone was after something, and I feel like it has something to do with that mission you did for him." Gray said as he crossed his arms. "You guys said it was a dungeon you went into for him and got a Lacrima for him, right?"
"Yeah. We gave him one." Natsu replied and Gray raised an eyebrow as the last part caught his attention.
"What do you mean one?"
"There were two. We gave him one and Ace kept the other." Happy said as he used his paw to count for Gray. Gray's eyes widened and he facepalmed as he began to think.
"So you go on a job for this guy and almost a month later: he's found dead and his safe was broken into. His safe that could've held the Lacrima you guys found for him."
"You don't think...?" Natsu muttered as he began to understand what Gray was trying to say.
"Maybe I'm wrong. But if Ace has the other one, then we better hope they don't know he has it." Gray said and Natsu and Happy nodded in agreement.
"Ace...are you okay?" Lucy asked as she sat down next to Ace. They had just boarded a train to go to where they were going to meet up with the convoy for their job, but Ace had suddenly began to look uncomfortable once the train started moving.
"I'm fine." Ace said as he took a deep breath, finally beginning to understand Natsu's motion sickness.
"You sure?"
"Positive." Ace groaned before feeling his stomach grumble. Lucy sighed and rested her head on his shoulder, looking forward to the job ahead. "You excited?"
"Of course I am. It's my first ever job with you where it's just the two of us." Lucy said before reaching into her purse, taking out the gift she had bought for him the day he joined Fairy Tail. "I've been waiting for the right time to give you this, and now is as good a time as any." Lucy said as she handed the small paper bag to Ace. He chuckled quietly and looked into the bag, seeing a silver ring inside of it.
"A ring?"
"Yeah. I didn't think it was fair that you were the only one with a ring, so I got you one." Lucy giggled as Ace put the ring on his left ring finger. Both of them began to smile as Ace reached for Lucy's left hand and both of them saw the rings now adorning their fingers. "It almost makes us look married now."
"Almost?" Ace asked turning his head to look at Lucy. She took her head off of his shoulder and looked at Ace confused, but he gave her a toothy grin and began to chuckle. "I mean Lu, I basically see you like my wife already."
"Y-You do?"
"Of course I do. It's kind of hard not to when we live together and do basically everything together." Ace said as he squeezed Lucy's hand.
"I guess you're right. Then I should scold you for spending more time with your friends than your wife." Lucy said as she playfully swatted his arm.
"Ouch, you got me there." Ace winced playfully before resting his head on the chair, feeling his motion sickness begin to get worse. "I'll make it up to you with a date night in Crocus, deal?"
"Hmmmm." Lucy put her finger on her chin and looked up, pretending to think about his suggestion while Ace shook his head in disbelief.
"Wow. Okay, then I'll just go see my big brother instead." Ace said crossing his arms and Lucy began to laugh.
"Oh don't be so sensitive! Yes, I'll gladly accept a date night when we're there."
"Hate to break it to ya, boss. But this isn't the Lacrima you wanted." A bald man with a large scar going across his face said as he entered a dark room, throwing a green crystal ball in his hands. "This is just a big chunk of Peridot made to look like it."
"I see. So the old man didn't have it." A voice called out from the far side of the room and the man nodded.
"Looks like it. So you think it wasn't there?"
"Oh it was there alright. The old man just got tricked that day, that's what happened."
"What do you mean? And why is it so dark in here?" The man said before the voice let out a loud groan.
"I have a hangover, so the light is giving me a headache."
"Take it easy on the drinking, boss. You're gonna kill that liver of yours."
"Yeah yeah. Anyways, I mean that the Lacrima we wanted was found that day: but it wasn't given to Rayzen." The man began to walk around the nearby wall, hearing his boss speak while he looked for the light switch. When he found it, he flipped the light on and turned around to see Rudy sitting at the other side of the room with his hand covering his eyes. "Give a guy a heads up next time. Anyways, those Fairy Tail wizards he hired that day must've found it and kept it for themselves. Lucky for us, I know their names and how to find them."
"Is it a smart idea to pick a fight with wizards? Especially from a place as infamous as Fairy Tail?"
"Don't worry, I won't have to do much to get them to trust me." Rudy said as he raised his hand slightly from his eyes and gave his subordinate an evil grin.