Following Gray's lead, Nora found herself in the seaside settlement of Hargeon, which reminded her a bit of Argus.

It was warmer and much more rustic, which helped distance the town enough for it to be comfortable.

"So, you're our second-newest recruit," Gray noted as he and Nora made their way through the streets, and she looked at him and nodded. "You've been lingering around for weeks, but you only just got your mark yesterday."

"Had to wait a bit." Nora gestured to the scars on her skin. "Had a bit of a rough fight just before I joined up."

Gray nodded in understanding. "Looks pretty rough. Some sort of lightning-based magic got you real bad, huh?"

"Trapped door," Nora said, frowning. "Some friends and I were running an assignment to try and… get a message out so that a settlement under attack could call for help. We ended up trapped, the door got electrified."

"You got caught?"

"Hm." Nora looked at him, grinning. "I got us uncaught." She gestured to her neck. "Believe it or not, this is what a successful escape looks like." She looked down at herself and rested a hand on her right arm. "I really don't remember much after I broke the door down."

"Huh." Gray seemed surprised when Nora looked back at him and lowered her hand. "So, you're a strength-based fighter?"

"I know I don't look it, but yeah." Nora rested her hands on her hips. "I can bench five of me." Gray raised an eyebrow, blinking. "That's what I'm good at, y'know? I've always just sorta… been strong, and hit stuff." She chuckled, shrugging her shoulders. "Fun, right?"

"Yeah." Gray quickly dropped his surprise and grinned. "I can see why you were eager to get back out into the world."

"Oh, yeah." Nora folded her arms behind her head and looked up at the sky. "I was going crazy, cooped up in that guild-hall all the time. It's so loud and crowded and cramped, and it smells like smoke and booze."

Gray snorted. "It's not all bad."

"No, it's not." Nora closed her eyes. "I guess I just miss home." She opened her eyes and looked up at the sky. "Problems and all." At that point, they had reached the docks, and Nora noticed three familiar figures speaking to a man sitting in a small boat, so she dropped her arms in order to point. "Idiots, ho."

"Good job." Gray nodded, then he smirked before creeping up behind the runaway wizards and raising his hands into the air… before grabbing their shoulders. "Found you!"

Lucy, Natsu, and Happy shrieked and turned back, and Nora raised a hand to her mouth to conceal a grin. "Hm!"

'Didn't know Gray had that in him.'

Lucy's eyes widened in disbelief. "Gray!"

"What are you doing here?!" Natsu demanded, his fists clenched.

"Orders from Gramps to bring you back," Gray replied, grinning.

"The jig's up already?!" Natsu demanded, his eyes practically bugging out of his head.

Nora walked up and crossed her arms. "Just be glad it's us. You get to walk back to the guild-hall with your dignity instead of being hog-tied and dragged through the streets."

"If you go back now, you might even escape being expelled," Gray added, smirking.

"Expelled?!" Lucy asked in dismay, like she had never considered that option.

"As if!" Natsu protested. "I'm goin' on an S-Class quest!"

Gray's smirk fell as the ice-mage scoffed. "You ain't got the skills to handle it!" His expression grew grim. "And really, Nora ain't kidding! If Erza finds out about this, she'll-..!"

Lucy and Natsu's expressions filled with dread, and Happy actually flew over and hid behind Gray. "Gray, save me! These two forced me to come with them!"

"You traitor!" Lucy snapped.

"I'm gonna face Erza!" Natsu decided, clenching his fist and baring his teeth. "I'm not gonna back down from this!"

"This is a direct order from the master!" Gray insisted. "I'm gonna bring you back by force if I have to!" He suddenly conjured an ice-crystal around his right hand. "Don't complain if you get hurt!"

Natsu conjured a flaming glyph around his left fist. "You're on!"

"Oh, brother." Nora sighed, placing her hand on her bag. "Guys, come on. Don't-"

"Magic?" The man in the boat stood up, his eyes wide. "Are you wizards?" Natsu and Gray looked over at him, halting their preparations for their impromptu brawl. "Could you be here to lift the curse from the island?"

"Yeah!" Natsu replied, grinning.

Lucy was more hesitant. "Well, we were…"

"I won't let you go!" Gray insisted, his teeth bared.

"Get onboard," the man said, gesturing to his boat urgently.

Lucy seemed surprised by the offer, and Natsu's eyes lit up. "Seriously?"

"Hey!" Gray protested, but—with a devious laugh—Natsu kicked the ice-mage with enough force to leave him in a daze.

"Gray!" Nora shouted, her eyes wide, then her eyes narrowed as Natsu picked the dark-haired boy up and slung him over his shoulder.

'Okay, so… they were going easy on each other in the guild-hall,' she realized. 'A one-hit knock-out when he didn't even go near Gray's head? This kid has to be crazy-strong, and that's coming from me…'

"Oh, well. Guess we're riding this boat," the pink-haired boy proclaimed.

Lucy seemed concerned. "We're taking Gray with us?"

"If this guy goes back to the guild, Erza'll be coming next!" Natsu reminded his teammate fearfully, and Lucy whimpered.

Then, the blonde gestured to Nora. "What about her?"

"Huh?" Natsu looked at Nora, blinking, then he tilted his head. "Right, you're here. It was… Nore Valky?"

"Nora Valkyrie," Nora corrected him, crossing her arms again and frowning uneasily at the fire-mage. "And... I'm the one who volunteered to get you back. Gray was my backup."

'More like I was his,' Nora's mind whispered. 'Was it really smart to base everything you believe about magic and people without aura off of Remnant when you're on a different world? Real ditzy move, Nora. You should've asked more questions.' She glanced at the man on the boat, frowning. '… He's really scared, isn't he?' She blinked, then she looked at Natsu and Lucy, as well as Gray's unconscious form. 'I can't leave Gray, and this would be a good chance to try and find out more about their magic... or yet another ditzy move, but what else could anyone expect from you?' She looked back at the man on the boat. 'And since when could you ignore something like this?'

"... There's something really wrong, isn't there?" Nora asked quietly. "You don't have time to wait for more help." The man shook his head, and Nora sighed, closing her eyes. "Gods, how do I keep finding myself in these situations?"

'Because you don't turn your back and run away when things get hard.'

Nora opened her eyes and frowned. "... Oh, no. Gray got knocked out. Alone and with my only just-healed injuries, there was no way I was a match for Natsu and Lucy together." The Huntress stepped onto the boat and looked back at the two younger teens, raising an eyebrow and putting on a grin. "So, I guess that I got dragged along on the death-quest, too."

Lucy gasped as Happy laughed, and Natsu looked absolutely elated. "Welcome to the team, Valky!"


Night had fallen, and Nora patted the back of an exceptionally seasick Natsu as he hung over the side of the boat.

'Just like Jaune,' she thought, then she tried to ignore the ache in her chest.

"Great," Lucy murmured, gazing around at the open ocean warily. "You had to call it a death-quest, didn't you? Now, I'm scared!"

"You're one to talk, after getting Nora and I mixed-up in this!" Gray complained from where he was tied-up, then he looked at their boatman in accusation. "And you, too! Why'd you launch the boat?!"

"My name is Bobo." The man looked back, his expression grave. "I was once a citizen of that island." The members of Fairy Tail regarded him in surprise. "I ran away from that cursed isle. If you go to that island, grave misfortune will befall you."

"I'm not afraid of bad luck," Nora said quietly, and Bobo looked at her.

"... Perhaps," he decided after a moment. "But can you undo the curse?" He moved his cloak aside to reveal his arm, which was dark and branch-like and reminded Nora of Cinder's just a bit too much. "The demon curse?"

Nora tensed, but she did not move away. "Hm."

"Mister, your arm-..." Gray could not find the words.

"The curse…" Lucy stared at him. "You don't mean-..."

'I've seen and done way too much weird and scary stuff,' Nora decided as she heard the mages' reactions and compared them to her own. 'But then again, I have ridden Grimm for fun. Maybe I'm weird and scary.'

Bobo's eyes were locked on Nora, the only one who had not shied away, then he looked up. "You can see it, now." Nora looked back, and she could see a shadowy shape in the distance with a beacon lit at its highest point. "That's Galuna Island."

"What's that?" Lucy asked, and Nora felt one of the five presences with her departing with her aura. "There's something shining on the peak of the mountain." There was no response, so she looked back. "Huh?! Where'd he go?!"

Nora looked back, and Bobo was gone.

"Did he fall overboard?!" Gray looked around at the water.

Nora shook her head. "There wasn't a splash."

"He disappeared when we weren't looking," Happy realized, and—after glancing at the winged cat—Nora turned her gaze up.

It was really the only place left to look.

Nora was just barely able to catch sight of a large, dark shape soaring away in the night, and she blinked. 'Wings?'

"Huh." The Huntress raised an eyebrow, confused, then she gasped as she noticed a large wave forming behind the boat.

"What's that sound?" Lucy asked, her back to the wave, then Gray let out an exclamation of surprise and she finally looked back. "It's a giant wave!"

"Down, down!" Nora shouted, drawing Ren's knife from her bag and cutting Gray free before grabbing Natsu and pulling him into the boat. "Brace yourselves at the bottom! Gray, hold on to Lucy!"

"We're being engulfed!" Gray exclaimed as he and Lucy obeyed, Happy holding onto Natsu's stomach as Nora held onto the pink-haired boy and Gray held onto Lucy to make sure they were not lost to the water. "Hold on!"

"Hold your breath!" Nora advised them, then they were underwater.


/\/\/\/\


The next Nora knew, sunlight was directly on her face and her head was killing her.

The Huntress groaned, opening her eyes, and she found Natsu grinning down at her. "Hey, you're still alive! Awesome!"

"Ugh." Nora sat up, cringing, then she looked up at the boy wearily. "Did we all make it?"

"Yep!" He gestured, and Nora glanced around and saw Lucy, Gray, and Happy milling around a beach to collect what supplies they could from the washed-up remains of Bobo's boat. "Welcome to Galuna Island!"

"We lucked out." Gray looked back at Nora, frowning. "Bracing ourselves like you said was smart. The boat didn't survive our arrival, but no one got hurt."

"Huh?" Nora blinked, then she took a closer look at the mages, confused. None of them had so much as a scratch after being washed ashore without a boat or any protective aura. "What the-..?"

'Elfman was always tough in our fights, but he's built like a Paladin…' Her brow furrowed. 'What the heck is up with these kids?' She blinked, surprised. 'Is it… people from Earthland who have different rules?'

Nora was suddenly getting a very bad feeling about having joined a wizard guild.

With only the vaguest explanations swapped back and forth, neither side really understood how the other worked—culture, weaponry, knowledge, power-balances.

Nora was constantly confused by what was going on around her, and Makarov seemed to think she could-...

Oh, no.

Nora was in trouble.

Lucy nodded in agreement. "That giant wave washed us here." Her eyes narrowed as Nora shook her head, snapped from her thoughts. "But what was with that guy? He said something about a demon curse?"

"I've only seen something like that once in my life," Nora admitted, standing up and brushing herself off before stretching. "The circumstances were different, though."

"Different how?" Gray asked, raising an eyebrow as he looked at Nora.

'Great. Why'd I have to go and open my big mouth?' Nora wondered as she looked back at Gray, her eyes wide as she realized her slip. 'Oh, you know—she sold her body and soul to Salem, the immortal witch leading armies of monsters to destroy my planet. It happens!'

"The, uh…" Nora swallowed. "The woman whose arm was like that? I'm pretty sure it happened after her real arm was blasted off—so it was like a living, parasitic prosthetic." She shook her head. "I think this is some sort of forced change, the way he spoke about it." She took a deep breath, calming herself, then she looked back at the others. "He said that he ran away. He distanced himself… Maybe he did that to stop whatever that was from spreading, and we could see more-progressed stages if we see other people on this island."

"More-progressed?" Lucy asked warily. "Like… more-demonic?"

"Just stay calm, okay?" Nora looked at the blonde with a frown. "They're still people, and they need help."

"Whoa." Lucy blinked, then she nodded and drew the request card, and Natsu walked over to her with Happy hanging off of his backpack. "There seems to be only one village on this island. The chieftain there is the one who made this request, so we should search for him first."

"Wait," Gray protested, turning to face the troublemakers.

"What?" Natsu looked at him. "The boat's destroyed, so you can't bring us back."

"No, I'm coming," Gray explained, and they regarded him in surprise. "It'd be annoying if you got up to the second floor before me—and if you got expelled, that wouldn't be any fun. We do this job right, and Gramps has nothing to complain about. Right?" All three of them started smirking, and Gray looked at Nora. "You in?" The redhead rolled her eyes and smiled, nodding, and he chuckled. "Then, let's go!"

'It's a learning experience, Nora,' the Huntress told herself as the group made their way off of the beach and into the trees. 'If you learn more about magic and Earthland in general, great. If you die, then-... Well, you won't have to worry about any more misunderstandings. Win-win!'


As the group hiked through the tropical island, Nora felt eyes on her and glanced to the side, an eyebrow raised, to find Lucy looking at her intently.

The blonde blinked, then she flushed and looked away, embarrassed. "Sorry!"

"Uh…" Nora tilted her head. "If you've got something to say or ask, you can just do it. I guarantee I've heard it before."

Lucy hesitated, then she looked back at Nora sheepishly. "That symbol, on your arm." She pointed to Nora's emblem. "What does it mean? Is it your former guild?"

"Oh." Nora blinked, surprised, then she shook her head. "No, it's my emblem. Where I'm from, a lot of people—mainly H- warriors—have their own emblems."

"Really?" Lucy lowered her hand and tilted her head. "Why's that?"

"... A long time ago, there was a war," Nora began, frowning. "There were a lot of reasons behind the war, but one of them was that one side wanted to -well- suppress people's creativity and self-expression."

"Why would they want to do that?" Natsu glanced over at Nora, confused. "Sounds dumb."

"I know, right?" Nora agreed, nodding. "But... it was thought it would help keep people in-line, and maybe even keep them safe." She shook her head. "Anyway, the other side opposed that idea—as did most people in the regime of the oppressive side." Nora raised a hand to her emblem. "A lot of traditions rose up in protest. One of them was always naming your kids after colors, and another was designing your own personal emblem and always making sure you had it on you. That way, your color and creativity could never be taken away."

"Whoa. That's amazing." Lucy gazed at Nora in awe, and the redhead looked at the blonde with a small smile. "So, your emblem is a hammer with lightning?" Nora nodded, giving a small smile. "What about a color name? Did your family not do it?"

"No, they did it," Nora said, giving a sheepish grin. "Mine's just a bit vague. Aquilegia nora barlow, it's... a pink and white flower."

Lucy's eyes lit up. "Oh!"

"And then, there's Gray," Natsu commented dryly, and the ice-mage rolled his eyes.

"Some people could get really creative," Nora went on, smiling. "But for every Pyrrha Nikos or Neptune Vasilias, there was a Ruby Rose or…"

"Gray," Happy chimed in.

"Hey!" Gray complained, but the orange-haired girl burst-out laughing and he was taken-aback, then he could not help but smile. "Heh."

None of the other Fairy Tail members had ever heard Nora laugh before.

It surprised Nora when she realized what she had done, and she looked away awkwardly. "Sorry."

"It was pretty funny," Lucy said, smiling.

"Hm." Nora looked down at the ground with a rueful grin. "Yeah."


/\


By nightfall, the group had arrived at a wall of vertical logs with a sign that read 'keep out'.

Nora tilted her head, gazing at the structure warily, then she noticed how Gray was looking at her. "... Either the people who set this up weren't very good at it, or they're not trying to keep others out. They're trying to keep something in." She gestured to the structure. "It's tall, but there's no real protection—no spikes or trenches. It's not really effective to protect them past serving as a tall, heavy fence. I mean, maybe they could throw weapons down…" She glanced up to the top of the structure. "But anyone up there could look down and count people, but they wouldn't be able to make out details… and we couldn't see them." She tilted her head. "This wall is a mask, not a shield."

"The demon curse," Lucy murmured, and Nora nodded.

"But now what?" Gray asked, stuffing his hands into his pockets. "We can't help them if we have to 'keep out'."

"Excuse us!" Lucy suddenly called. "Please, open the gate!"

After a moment with no response, Natsu smirked and raised a fist. "Should I bust it down?"

"No!" Lucy looked back at him, aggravated.

"Who goes there?!" A shadowy figure demanded from the top of the ramparts.

Lucy looked up, smiling. "We're from the wizards guild, Fairy Tail!"

"We didn't hear that anyone accepted the request!"

"Uh, well…"

"There must have been a mix-up!" Gray quickly stepped in to cover for Lucy. "And the message was late!"

"Show us your marks, all of you!" One of the guards still insisted, and the group obeyed. "Oh! They're for real!"

"They actually came!"

The wooden gate raised, and Happy frowned as he saw the spikes. "It's like we're entering the mouth of a giant monster."

"Please, don't say things like that," Lucy insisted, shooting a light glare at him.

Several cloaked figures stood waiting for the group, and one—who had intricate designs on his clothes and a staff with a moon-shaped bauble in his hand—spoke: "I am the chief of this village, Moka! Firstly, I have something to show you!" He looked back. "Villagers!"

All around, the other cloaked figures dropped their cloaks to reveal grim-faced villagers and how their limbs had been changed or how they had grown horns or otherwise been changed from normal humans.

"The same as the man on the boat," Gray noted quietly.

Lucy clasped her hands before her chest, looking afraid to move. "Yeah." The blonde suddenly blinked, then she took a deep breath and righted herself. "Hm."

'Atta'girl,' Nora thought, looking at Lucy with a small smile, then she looked back at the villagers with a frown. All of them were showing their full bodies, but most of them only had one limb or one trait which had been demonified even though they had stayed on the island—and even if they had multiple traits, they were all small and none of them had wings. 'Weird…'

"Those sideburns are incredible!" Natsu told the chieftain, his eyes wide.

"No, no!" Moka waved his arm. "This is what I wanted to show you! Every living thing on the island has been cursed like this—dogs and birds, without exception!"

"Not that I doubt you, but what basis do you have for calling it a curse?" Gray asked him. "Have you considered it might be an epidemic?"

"We've consulted countless doctors, but they say there is no disease like this," Moka assured the ice-mage, frowning. "And this appearance of ours is linked to the moon's evil spell."

"The moon's spell?" Lucy questioned him.

"This place has absorbed moonlight since ancient times, and the island once sparkled beautifully like the moon," Moka said. "But some years ago, the moon started changing to a purple color."

Natsu's brow furrowed. "A purple moon?"

"The moon is coming out!" Happy exclaimed, and everyone looked up.

"What..?" Nora murmured, raising a hand to form a visor over her eyes as purple light shone down over the village.

That was new.

"He's right!" Lucy gasped. "The moon is purple!"

"That really gives me the creeps," Gray decided, uncomfortable.

"But the moon isn't purple away from the island," Nora spoke up, and everyone looked at her. She looked at them, frowning as she lowered her hand. "That means there's something here, on this island—in the air or something."

"That makes sense," Lucy told her, raising a hand to her chin. "But how do we-?"

"It's the curse," Moka murmured. "This is the evil spell of the moon."

All around, the villagers suddenly began to scream and convulse in pain, and the other members of Fairy Tail stepped back while Nora stayed rooted in place, her eyes widening as she heard the creaking and cracking of shifting bodies.

It reminded her of an encounter with a small group of Apathy she and Ren had when they were younger, or worse: the Nuckelavee.

Gray's eyes widened. "They're-..."

"What's going on?!" Lucy demanded.

Natsu had frozen-up. "The heck?"

"... Moonlight speeds-up the change," Nora realized quietly, blinking. "Huh."

"I apologize for startling you," Moka said once the change was complete, and a village of demons stood before the group.

"What in the world is this?" Gray asked, still at a loss.

Lucy had a hand raised to her chin. "How awful…"

"How-..." Natsu's eyes suddenly lit up. "How cool!" Jaws dropped as the pink-haired boy looked around excitedly. "Awesome! You got horns and spines and stuff! How can I get some?!"

"He thinks this is cool?" One of the male villagers asked, shocked.

A younger villager shook his head. "No one's ever said that before…"

"Hey, it's a real problem for them to look like this!" Lucy told Natsu, frustrated.

"Really?" Natsu asked, like it had never occurred to him that appearances would matter. "Oh, my bad!" He rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, looking at the villagers apologetically. "Guess we'd better do something about it."

"He finally gets it," Happy noted.

Gray looked away, his arms crossed. "Get a clue, seriously!"

"Hey," Nora chided gently. "Give the poor guy a break, okay?" She gave a small smile. "In any other situation, it would be great. His first thought when he saw someone different was 'cool' instead of 'let's change them to be more like how we look'." She looked at Moka. "But you need our help, so… what can we do? Do you have any leads?"

Moka nodded. "Returning to the matter at hand… When the purple moon appears, we all change to these demonic forms. If this cannot be called a curse, then what is?" Nora looked around and saw tears in the eyes of the villagers and parents comforting their children, and she saw Natsu looking upon this as well, his eyes wide and a devastated expression on his face. "When morning comes, most of us return to our previous forms—however, some never change back! Their very minds are stolen from them!"

"That's-..." Lucy could not find her words.

Penny looked up, her eyes glowing red.

Nora stepped forward, frowning.

"What do you mean?"

"The ones who have been turned into demons, who have lost their minds…" Moka cast his gaze down, his expression grim. "We have no choice but to kill them."

The reaction was instantaneous, and Natsu was the first to speak: "But there might be a way to return them to normal!"

"If we leave them be, then everyone would be killed by the demon!" Moka protested. "Even when we lock them up, they destroy the jail. So…" He drew a photograph from within his cloak. "I killed my own son." His hand shook as his eyes teared-up. "My son, whose mind was turned into that of a demon."

When he bowed his head and closed his eyes, the picture tilted down, and the members of Fairy Tail were able to see the man in the photograph clearly. Their eyes widened.

"That's-..." Lucy shook her head. "But yesterday, we-..!"

"Shh!" Gray looked at her warningly. "I know why that guy disappeared." He looked down. "He couldn't rest in peace, could he?"

Nora looked at the ice-mage, then she looked down thoughtfully. "Hm."

'They said they killed him, but-... Something's not right, unless ghosts are actually a thing on Earthland.' She glanced at Gray, her eyes wide. 'Oh, come on. Ghosts? Really? This planet has ghosts, on top of everything else?!'

"Please, save this island!" Moka bowed to the members of Fairy Tail, near-sobbing. "If things stay like this, all of us will lose our minds and then into demons!"

"We won't let that happen!" Natsu insisted, his eyes narrowed as he stepped forward. "We'll do something about it."

"There is only one way to get rid of the curse," Moka said softly. "The moon… Please, destroy the moon."

Nora blinked, then her expression dropped as her shoulders slumped. 'Oh, you have got to be kidding me.'


/\


Nora sighed, crossing her arms as she leaned against a wall and gazed out of the window of the hut the wizards had been given, her eyes lingering on the moon.

Strange as it was, she was missing the shattered phases of her own moon.

Did that mean she would let anyone destroy this moon?

No. No, it did not.

Did that mean she would have any say in the matter?

At that point, Nora was beyond lost—so she had no idea.

It had occurred to Nora that she had overreacted earlier.

Just because Gray got knocked out with one punch to the stomach and a couple of kids were lucky enough to not get bruised in a capsizing boat did not mean that she was in any real trouble.

Nora was a Huntress!

She might not have made the wisest decisions, but Nora felt she could rely upon her strength at the very least—especially after surviving what she did with the door in Atlas. That stunt REALLY should have killed her!

And it had gotten close.

And it had killed her team, hadn't it..?

Anyway, Nora tried to think about what she had seen of magic up to that point.

She had seen Makarov fire that beam at the glass holding Macao in his lizard-Natsu transformation—and occasionally, the old man would grow to a massive size in order to gain everyone's attention in the guild-hall. Okay, that was neat. He could probably crush a lot of things at that size, do a lot of damage. It was something that Nora could respect, but she had taken down large enemies before. Of course, Nora was suddenly having second-thoughts because of how durable even young wizards seemed, and that was just what she had seen of the Fairy Tail guild-master in his guild-hall with the people he considered to be family...

Okay, okay! Focus!

Elfman had shown Nora some of his beast-arms during their sparring matches. Each arm seemed to have unique properties alongside offering an increase in his strength, and he showed Nora how each worked before they would spar—a move, Nora now realized, might have been a sign of his continued reluctance to fight her completely seriously in spite of the comradery they had found. Elfman had been worried about hurting her, and... looking back at how she had gotten dirt and grass-stains on him, tiring him out at the worst but never inflicting more than a few bruises on the man without aura after a long day of sparring... while she had to use their breaks to replenish her aura so that she could keep going-

Elfman always called the breaks, right before Nora might have given out.

Elfman, who insisted he would always make sure she was never hurt.

Oh, gods—this was bad. This was really, really-!

Okay... Calm down...

Cana showed her card-magic. That was scary at first, but it was eventually pretty neat! Nora could see why the card-mage was a repeated S-Class candidate... whatever that meant...

Right, S-Class—that's what this whole thing was about. And wasn't that what Erza, Laxus, and Mystogan were called?

Erza, the drill-sergeant who terrified everyone into submission?

Laxus, the jerk-wad everyone else was scared-stiff of?

Mystogan, the shy guy who knocked-out everyone else in the guild just to drop in and say 'hi'?

Oh, no.

But looking back on the interrupted match she saw between Erza and Natsu, she saw Erza's ability to change into armor which possessed special properties and she saw Natsu's head-first approach, but the combat had been halted before Nora saw anything too concerning.

Maybe there was nothing to be concerned about!

Especially since Erza said that she would fight Nora.

Natsu, too.

And Nora had gone and upset Laxus as well, though she still did not regret that... even as she looked down at her arms and imagined glowing-pink lines crawling across her skin as her insides sparked and burned...

"Hey, are you okay?" A voice asked, and Nora blinked before looking down. Lucy was sorting through a bag of the luggage the group had managed to retrieve after going back to the beach, and she was looking at Nora worriedly. "You've been really quiet, and you look a little pale. You feeling alright?"

"Yeah." Nora quickly put on a grin, nodding. "Just... thinking."

'Having a crisis, really—but you don't need to know that!'

"The moon just keeps getting creepier the more you look at it," Happy decided, frowning as he looked out the window.

Lucy looked back at the blue cat with narrowed eyes. "Hurry up and close the window. The chief explained, remember?" She went back to trying to sort through the luggage. "If we get exposed to too much moonlight, we'll turn into demons ourselves."

"Anyway, I dunno…" Natsu cringed from a chair he was sitting in.

Gray crossed his arms. "Do they seriously expect us to destroy the moon?"

"I can think of two-dozen reasons why it's a bad idea right off the top of my head," Nora agreed, frowning. "Assuming it's even possible... I wouldn't know..."

Natsu hummed, raising a fist. "I know, right? Who knows how many punches it'll take?"

"You're planning on destroying it?!" Gray asked, his eyes wide. "What are you thinking?!"

Lucy stood and crossed her arms. "I don't think there's a wizard that could actually do that."

'Oh, thank the gods.' Nora sighed in relief, closing her eyes, then she opened her eyes and blinked. '... Why am I relieved that they can at least draw the power-line at 'can destroy the moon'? Okay, the wizards of Earthland aren't as powerful as THE GODS. That's comforting!'

"But 'destroy the moon' is the request," Natsu said, frowning. "If we accept a request and can't complete it, it'll look bad for Fairy Tail."

"And destroying the moon will look good?" Nora asked him, raising an eyebrow as she shifted uncomfortably and tried to settle herself. "Think of... the tides?"

"We can't do the impossible," Gray added, his eyes narrowed. "And how do you plan on getting to the moon, anyway?"

Natsu gestured. "Happy."

"Uh, not happening," the cat said, cringing.

"Well, he said to destroy the moon because that's the solution he came up with," Lucy said, raising a hand to her chin. "But if we poke around, maybe we can find another way to lift the curse." She looked at Nora. "You said that you think it's in the air around the island, right? That means we just have to find what's putting it into the air and stop it."

"It's just an idea…" Nora blinked as Lucy was hit in the face with a shirt. "Wait, what the-?"

Gray was getting undressed. "Walking all day after the shipwreck… I'm beat!"

Lucy pulled the shirt off of her face and squinted. "Why are you stripping?"

"Honestly, we probably don't wanna know," Nora said, shaking her head.

"Right! So, tomorrow, we go exploring the island." Natsu grinned, resting his hands on his hips as he looked at the girls, then he dove onto his mat. "Now, to bed!"

Happy landed next to him. "Aye, sir!"

"We'll think about it tomorrow." Gray smiled as he fell onto his mat.

"Yeah, I'm tired too." Lucy rubbed her eyes, sighing. "Let's get to sleep."

"Hm." Nora sat down on her mat, removing Magnhild from her back and setting it down on the floor with a loud THUNK. She noticed the wizards looking at her and blinked. "What?"

"... How strong are you?" Lucy asked, gesturing to the hammer as she sat down.

Nora gave an awkward grin. "Oh, you know…"

"You said you can bench five of you," Gray remarked, raising an eyebrow. "What's that hammer you're always carrying around, two of you?"

Nora made a so-so gesture.

"Meh, that's nothing." Natsu waved it off. "I mean, Lucy and Gray might think that it's impressive-" This got a loud 'hey' from the two addressed mages. "And I know you and Elfman have been sparring for a bit. But I was trained to fight dragons, break their scales." He looked at Nora with a devious smile. "It takes a lot to impress me, as far as strength—physical or magical—goes."

'And that's exactly why I'm in trouble,' Nora thought to herself even as she snorted and grinned at the pink-haired boy. 'I am so, so out of my league that it's not even funny. What was I thinking..?'


Nora slept relatively soundly on her mat thanks to the snoring from Natsu and Gray, though Lucy shouting did wake her up at one point.

"How am I supposed to sleep between a beast and an exhibitionist?!"

"A pillow over your head and willpower," Nora muttered, curling up a bit.

"Nora," Lucy spoke, sounding surprised, and the Huntress heard movement. "Hey?" Nora opened an eye and looked up to see the blonde kneeling near her, her brown eyes wide. "I know you're still new to the team, but I can tell you're a bit nervous, so I just wanted to say I'm glad you're here." The celestial-mage gave a soft smile. "And that I hope we can be friends."

Team.

Friends.

Team.

Nora closed her eye again. "Just get some sleep, okay? We have no idea what we're up against, tomorrow." She gave a weak grin. "We might have to bodily restrain Natsu to keep him from trying to fight the moon."

"Hm!" Lucy hummed happily, and Nora heard her move away.

Once it sounded like Lucy had gone back to her bed, the Huntress opened her eyes and sighed, gazing at the wall with a frown.

Team.

'I'm not even supposed to be here,' the Huntress thought. 'No wonder why Master Mak tried to stop me, even if he does somehow think I might be as strong as a wizard. This is insane…' She closed her eyes. 'You really have to stop getting yourself into these situations, Nora… if you live to learn your lesson…'


/\/\/\/\


In the early morning, despite the grumblings of Natsu and Gray, Lucy got everyone up and ready to begin exploring the island.

"It's early," Natsu whined after they had passed through the gate.

Gray slumped. "Really damn early…"

"It's your fault I couldn't sleep!" Lucy insisted, then she glanced at Nora. "How you did it is a miracle."

Nora gave a light grin. "Heh."

The Huntress had barely slept a wink after her conversation with the blonde the night before. She fell asleep for about two hours to make a total of four before nightmares drove her awake, and she just had to rely on bedrest to restore her energy.

It would be fine... probably.

"Anyway!" Lucy looked forward. "Let's get motivated and get going!" As the boys and Happy grumbled out an 'aye', Lucy drew a silver key from the ring she kept at her belt. "Gate of the Clock, I open thee! Horologium!"

Nora blinked as Lucy swiped the key and conjured a massive blue glyph, and a clock suddenly fell from the sky and sprouted arms, legs, and a head. "The time is 7:48!"

"... It's 7:48, and you're complaining?" Nora glanced at the boys. "Weak." She then looked at the clock, frowning. "What... is he?"

"A Celestial Spirit!" Lucy explained, smiling as her eyes lit up. "It's my magic! I make contracts with Celestial Spirits and summon them from their world to ours, either to fight or provide some other sort of help."

Nora slowly blinked. "... You summon beings from another world?" She glanced at Natsu, an eyebrow raised. "And you think she's not strong? Really?!" Nora looked at Lucy, her eyes wide as she raised her hands to the side of her face. "Oh, my gods!" She used both hands to gesture to the blonde. "That's incredible!"

"You think so?" Lucy asked, her eyes shining even as Natsu and Happy groaned in mutual exasperation and Gray just shook his head.

Nora placed her hands on the top of her head, astonished. "I would have to be crazy not to! I mean, I am crazy—but seriously, Lucy: that's amazing!" She lowered her hands and clasped them before her chest. "How do the contracts work? How many do you have? What are their names? How many spirits can you summon at once? What's the strongest spirit? How do you get more spirits? Are they nice?" She looked up at Horologium. "Are you nice?!" She blinked, then she looked at Lucy with wide eyes. "What are the rules? Can I talk to your spirits, or is that rude? If so, I'm sorry and I-"

"Nora!" Lucy laughed, putting her key away. "It's okay! You can talk to my spirits as long as they want to talk to you." She opened her eyes and looked at Nora, beaming. "My spirits are my friends, like family—people, who help me in battle but have their own minds and can make their own decisions. If they want to talk to you, it's perfectly fine."

Nora nodded, then she looked up at Horologium and waved. "Hi!"

"Hello!" The spirit waved back, smiling down at the Huntress. "The time is 7:52!"

Nora held a thumb up. "Cool."

"You weirdos can talk more about this stuff later," Natsu insisted, though he was grinning as he watched the girls. "You made us get up, so we should get going."

"Alright." Lucy sighed, then she returned her gaze to Nora and smiled. "I'll tell you everything you want to know later, okay?"

Nora nodded, smiling. 'I know that Loke was scared of Lucy, but... Natsu really doesn't think she's strong when she can summon spirits from another world? Oh, my gods—I am a dead Huntress walking.'


The trek through the jungle began, with Nora keeping a careful eye out as she scouted a little ways ahead on the path.

That much, she figured she could trust herself with.

"You think we can really lift the curse without destroying the moon?" Natsu asked from behind the Huntress.

Gray huffed at this question. "Well, what other choice do we have? Even if we could destroy it, it's a bad idea!"

"Horrible, really," Nora agreed, glancing back at the boys.

Gray nodded eagerly. "We wouldn't have the Moon-Viewing Festival anymore!"

"That's true!" Natsu gasped. "We'd never eat the limited-time-only Fairy Tail's Moon-View Steak, again?!"

"... A bit confused, but they've got the spirit," Nora said, looking forward and shaking her head as Happy added more about a 'Moon View Salted Fish' he would miss.

"Hey, you guys! I don't know what you're blabbing about—but keep it down, will you?, she says," Horologium spoke, speaking on behalf of Lucy—who was riding inside his body.

Natsu scoffed. "Walk on your own."

"Hey, can you really use Celestial Spirits like that?" Gray asked, frowning.

"We're up against a curse here, you know. It's scary, she says," Horologium reported as Lucy looked down inside of the clock, her face flushed.

"That's what I call an S-Class quest!" Natsu cheered, throwing his hands up and laughing. "I'm fired-up!"

"I'll freeze that curse, no problem," Gray agreed causally. "Nothing to be scared of."

"You guys are really idiots, she says," Horologium reported.

Happy nodded. "Aye!"

"Hm." Nora frowned. "I think we need to take this seriously, guys. I mean... all of the curses I've come across were nothing to be joked about. We need to be careful."

"You've dealt with curses?" Gray asked her, and Nora blinked before looking back.

'Great. More word-vomit,' she thought, internally cringing. 'Go ahead, Nora—tell him about Salem and Ozpin. He'll get it!'

The Huntress shook her head. "No... I've just seen the people under them." Nora blinked as her aura prickled, quickly snapping from funk. "Huh?"

Suddenly, there was a loud crashing sound, and everyone looked back.

"What's that?" Natsu asked, then he and Gray both screamed at the giant beast looming over them with glowing eyes.

"... It's a huge... blue... rat in a... maid costume?" Nora realized, squinting as Natsu and Gray gave their own panicked reactions. "What the heck..?"

"Hurry up and get it, guys, she says," Horologium said as Lucy visibly panicked.

Gray slammed one fist onto the opposite palm as icy mist swirled around his body. "Ice-Make: Shield!"

A wall of ice formed between the group and the rat, and Nora blinked. 'Okay, that's the first bit of elemental magic I've seen. A bit bigger and faster than anything I ever saw Penny do…'

Nora had a bad feeling about this.

A fog closed in and Nora gagged, plugging her nose and closing her mouth to avoid the smell until the fog dissipated. Once it had, Horologium was gone and Natsu was laying face-down on the ground.

"A mouse?!" Lucy shrieked, scrambling to her feet.

Gray clenched his fists. "Natsu's down!"

"He's got a strong sense of smell," Happy explained as the beast drew near.

"Okay, it's just a giant monster," Nora reminded herself, then she reached back to grasp Magnhild. "This is something I can work with, so-"

"Screw that!" Lucy grabbed Nora's wrist.

"RUN AWAY!" Natsu shrieked, gripping his nose, and Nora blinked as she suddenly found herself being dragged along as the younger fighters ran for it.

The Huntress was so taken aback that she did not even think to try and wrestle free.

This was... new.

"Uh, guys?!" Nora shouted as they evaded more blasts of fog from the rat's mouth. "I can really deal with this, if you just-!"

"Ice-Make: FLOOR!" Gray slammed his hands onto the ground and sent ice crawling across the earth, causing the rat to slip and fall.

Natsu looked at Gray with a smirk. "Next time, do that from the start."

"No complaining!" Gray retorted, annoyed.

"No complaints here," Nora said meekly, looking around at the massive stretch of ground now covered in ice.

It was like that had been nothing to Gray, and Nora was gradually getting a better idea of what this magic could do in comparison to the magic of her world—at least, she hoped she was? She probably wasn't!

Oh, this was a mess…

Lucy pointed. "Look! There's some kind of building!" Nora followed the gesture and saw a building covered in crescent moon shapes. "Let's go in there while we have the chance!"

"BEAT IT UP WHILE WE HAVE THE CHANCE!" Natsu and Gray shouted, kicking at the unconscious rat's head.

Suddenly, Nora had a massive amount of sympathy for anyone who ever knew her—especially in her younger days. "Guys!" The boys looked at her, and Nora pointed to the temple. "If it's someone causing this curse, they might be in there and you can beat them up!"

Gray and Natsu blinked, then they turned and sprinted towards the temple.

"That's a helpful trick," Lucy remarked as Happy shook his head, and Nora snickered.


Once inside the building, Nora, Natsu, Gray, Lucy, and Happy walked around and look about.

It seemed to be some sort of ruined temple, not that Nora was an expert... in anything, as she was being constantly reminded by the universe.

"Quite large!" Lucy wondered aloud.

Natsu frowned. "It's falling apart."

"What era is this thing from?" Gray asked, his eyes narrowed.

"What?" Natsu had noticed something, and Nora walked over to stand beside him and looked up as well.

"A purple moon," she remarked, gazing at the mural with a frown. "I guess we're in the right place?"

"The island was originally called 'The Island of the Moon'," Gray said, reading text off of the wall.

"Island of the Moon, the moon's curse, moon symbols," Lucy murmured. "These ruins are very suspicious."

"But they're in horrible shape," Natsu reminded them, walking some distance away and stomping with one foot. "Is this floor even safe?"

"Maybe don't compromise it," Nora advised him, turning to the boy.

Lucy's eyes widened. "Yeah, stop that!"

Just like that, the floor crumbled, and the five cried out as they fell into the darkness.

"Natsu, you idiot!" Gray shouted on the way down. "Look what you did!"

"Ah!" Nora hit the ground, her aura crackling around her body, then she gasped and looked up at the falling stones as the others landed around her. "Move!"

Gray, Happy, and Lucy managed to escape, but Natsu was buried; fortunately, this did not seem to faze the boy, as he popped out of the stones shortly after. "Hey, is everyone okay?!"

"No," Lucy replied wearily as she, Gray, and Happy collapsed atop some of the fallen rocks. "Not at all, thanks to you."

Gray looked up, annoyed. "Why can't you think before destroying things, you idiot?!"

"Hey, it was an accident," Nora chided the ice-mage, standing up. "Is anyone hurt?"

"My chest hurts a bit, but I'm okay," Gray told her, and Nora raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms. "Really, I'm fine." Nora made an 'I'm watching you' gesture, pointing to her eyes with her index and middle fingers before using both fingers to point at the ice-mage. "Stop..!"

'He's really okay,' Nora decided as everyone else stood up, glancing around at each of the mages. 'All of them are, without aura... I can't believe it. This is incredible…' She took a deep breath. 'And terrifying.'

"Happy, can you fly everyone up?" Lucy asked the cat, shaking Nora from her thoughts.

Happy frowned. "I can't…"

"Underground ruins, huh?" Gray murmured.

Natsu raised his hands. "It's a secret cave!" He started running down a tunnel. "We're here and all, so let's go exploring!"

"That's enough running amok out of you!" Gray yelled after the boy, but the Fire Dragon-Slayer kept running.

Nora blinked. "... I'm suddenly realizing that Natsu might be my punishment."

"Tch." Gray looked at her, smirking. "What? You were like him in a past life?"

"Worse," Nora said, smirking and winking, then she followed Lucy and Happy to retrieve their companion.

Gray watched her go for a moment. "... That's a joke, right?"

"Gods, you wish," Nora told the ice-mage as he caught up. "Just wait until you see me with any amount of sugar or caffeine in me."

Gray shook his head. "No, not happening. I will watch, and I freeze any danger-substances."

"Heh." The Huntress shook her head. "He said this, truly believing that he could prevent the inevitable..."

"Natsu?" Lucy was asking at the end of the tunnel, having stopped in some kind of cavern with Happy clinging to her shoulder.

Nora arrived and poked her head out, and she saw that Natsu was frozen in place, his eyes wide as he stared at something. Her aura prickled again…

"What's the matter?" Gray asked as he arrived, frowning at the other boy.

"There's something here," Nora murmured, walking over to Natsu and following his gaze, then her eyes widened and she gasped and raised a hand to her mouth. "Oh, my gods!"

"What is this?" Natsu asked, and Nora reached back and gripped Magnhild on instinct.

Before them was some sort of massive creature. It was built in an almost-humanoid way, though it possessed long claws and paws and a huge tail which extended behind it.

Nora would have been shaking rather than frozen in place if not for the fact that the being was literally frozen in place, seemingly held captive within a massive glacier.

"This is…" Gray whispered, then he stepped forward. "Deliora!" He strode forward to face the glacier, looking absolutely livid. "You're joking. Why is Deliora here?!" He was practically shaking with rage. "There's no way it'd be in a place like this!"

"You know this thing?" Natsu asked as he, Lucy, Nora, and Happy ran up.

Nora saw the look on Gray's face, and she was suddenly back in Kuroyuri. The amount of hate, rage, pain, and grief there…

"Oh, no," the Huntress said softly, then she looked back at the creature.

Suddenly, Earthland did not seem so safe.

There were no Grimm, but there were creatures like this out there.

Maybe they were just as bad.

Maybe they were worse.

"That's-..." Gray looked down at his hands, seeming to only just realize that they were shaking.

"Gray." Lucy rested her hand on his shoulder, growing worried. "Calm down." Gray took a deep breath, then he looked up at the creature in the ice. "So… what is it?"

"It's Deliora," Gray replied, his expression darkening even as his body continued to shake like a leaf. "Demon of Disaster."

"Demon of the Ashtray?" Natsu asked, and Nora thumped his arm with her fist. "Hey!"

"Disaster," Happy corrected his friend.

"It's just like it was back then," Gray said quietly, still glaring up at the demon. "What the Hell happened?"

Nora's aura prickled again, and she looked back with narrowed eyes. "Something's coming."

"Footsteps," Lucy confirmed, and the group quickly hid behind some rocks.

"You heard footsteps around here?" A blue-haired man dressed in green asked.

Beside this person, a shirtless man with canine ears as well as a split upper-lip and a canine nose growled while gripping his stomach.

Nora blinked, then her eyes narrowed slightly in confusion. "Wait, what?"

"It's noon," the blue-haired man went on. "I'm sleepy." He glanced at his companion. "Toby, you got exposed to the Moon Drip?

"No, dude!" The canine-like man snapped, annoyed. "They're -like- fashion, yo!"

"Just teasing, you dolt," the blue-haired man said, chuckling quietly.

Toby huffed. "Yuka, you're so mean."

"Moon Drip?" Lucy asked softly. "Are they talking about the curse?"

Nora frowned. 'Taking on animal traits… for fashion. Oh, Blake would have a field-day with these clowns.' Her eyes narrowed. 'Heck, I want to have a field-day with these clowns...' The Huntress blinked, then she groaned and shook her head. 'Different planet, Nora! Different planet!'

"Yuka-san, Toby-san," a voice spoke, and a girl with pink hair who seemed to have insect wings emerging from her choker approached. "I bring sad news."

As Toby waved and let out a howl sound, Yuka blinked. "It's you, Sherry."

"Angelica has been bullied by someone," the girl—Sherry—said forlornly.

"It's a mouse, dude!" Toby scoffed. "Don't give it no fancy name!"

"She is not a mouse!" Sherry protested, clasping her hands before her chest. "Angelica is a hunter that runs through the darkness… and love!"

Nora raised an eyebrow. "... Okay, what?"

Nora was unfortunate enough to be learning about Earthland as she went along—and not afraid to admit it, even if she could only do so to herself—but all of this was really confusing and not helping her at all.

"We've got some serious weirdos, here," Lucy agreed, her eyes wide even as her brow furrowed in focus. "Especially that last one."

To each their own.

"They're not from this island," Natsu noted, frowning. "They smell different."

"And they don't seem like they're cursed, either," Happy said, skeptical.

Nora's eyes narrowed. "Even though they usually sleep during the day." She noticed how her friends looked at her. "He said he was tired because it's noon. They're either lazy or nocturnal."

"Nocturnal?" Lucy wondered. "But if they're constantly in the moonlight, how are they not being changed into demons?"

Nora nodded. "Exactly. Something's not right."

"Intruders," Yuka suddenly said, breaking their conversation. Luckily, he was only explaining things to Sherry.

"But we haven't collected all the moonlight we need yet," the pink-haired girl protested. "How vexing!" She grew serious. "Let us exterminate these intruders before Reitei-sama hears of them… Yes, before the moon's true form appears."

Toby growled in agreement, and Yuka merely nodded. "Yeah."

Nora noticed Happy glancing at a rock and blinked, then she picked it up and offered it to the cat, pointing down a tunnel and nodding in encouragement.

Happy blinked, then he nodded and sprouted wings, taking off and flying down the corridor.

"We can't let them survive if they've seen Deliora," Sherry went on. "We must put intruders to sleep for eternity. In other words… love!"

Toby cringed. "You mean… death?"

A clatter from the tunnel drew their attention, and the three strange adversaries turned and ran off to investigate.

After a moment, Happy returned with a smile on his face.

"Good job," Lucy told him, and the blonde looked at Nora with a grin. "That was a good idea, Nora."

"Wasn't mine," Nora said, looking at Happy with a smile and a wink.

"Aye," Happy agreed, beaming.

"What?" Natsu looked frustrated. "Why don't we just catch them and make them answer our questions?"

"Not yet," Lucy told him. "Let's look around a bit more."

"Especially since we don't know what they're capable of," Nora told the Fire Dragon-Slayer, frowning. "We have to be careful."

Natsu sighed. "This has gotten a bit complicated."

"Who is this 'Reitei-sama'?" Happy wondered as he flew about. Nora offered an arm, and the cat perched on her shoulder and wrapped his tail around her neck. "Thanks!"

"Why the heck did they bring Deliora here?" Gray demanded, still seething. "And how did they find the place it was sealed, anyway?"

"The place it was sealed?" Lucy questioned the ice-mage.

"This thing was sealed in a glacier on the northern continent," Gray explained. "It's an immortal demon that ran rampant ten years ago in the land of Isvan… The demon who Ur, the wizard who taught me magic, gave her life to seal away!"

And there it was.

The loss.

However, there was something else about what Gray said that caught Nora's attention.

His teacher?

"Here, anyone can learn to use magic. It takes time and training, but it is possible."

Nora glanced at the glacier, her eyes wide as several things hit her at once.

Gray would have been a small child ten years before that moment—the same age or only a little older than she had been at the fall of Kuroyuri. If his teacher died back then, the magic he used because of her had been taught to a little kid. The skill in its use might have grown, but it had been a child with this magic.

And even though it had killed her, a wizard had done this—created that massive glacier to seal that enormous monster in place mid-rampage. Magic in Earthland held that incredible power, a power that could seal away immortals the size of buildings.

That was stronger than any Maiden, probably stronger than all four of them combined. That was stronger than Salem.

That was Gray's teacher, Ur—just a normal human woman who worked to learn magic and taught it to others.

It took Nora's breath away.

"I don't know what connection it has to the curse on this island, but this thing should not be here!" Gray shouted as icy mist began to rise from his fists, and Nora blinked before looking over at him. "Who the Hell is this Reitei person? I ain't gonna let him get away with throwing dirt on Ur's name!"

"Gray." Nora grabbed his wrist, and the ice-mage looked down at the Huntress with a glare that swiftly scared Happy off. Nora just frowned up at him. "We're going to figure this out, but we're going to need you to keep your head and tell us everything you know about this demon and who might want something with it. Okay?" Gray blinked, then he looked back at the demon, and Nora sighed. "... Nuckelavee."

"What?" Gray looked down at her.

"... That's the name of the monster that led a horde to destroy my best friend's village," Nora told him quietly, keeping her voice low to hopefully keep what she had to say between herself and the ice-mage, and Gray blinked. "It was called the Nuckelavee… I only survived because Ren found me and we hid, after his father died to hold the thing off so that he could escape." She squeezed the ice-mage's wrist. "I know that look, Gray… We won't let that thing come out of the ice, okay?"

Gray looked down at Nora blankly, then he closed his eyes and bowed his head.

"Maybe the island's curse has to do with this demon?" Lucy murmured, frowning.

"Seems like the obvious conclusion," Gray said, keeping his eyes closed. "This demon is still alive, after all."

"Right." Nora nodded in understanding. "You said it was immortal."

"Alrighty, then!" Natsu began stretching his arm, his eyes narrowed. "All we gotta do is bust-up this demon!"

Lucy sighed. "Is force your only solution to every problem?"

"Touch the ice, and I break your legs," Nora told the fire-mage, glancing at him with narrowed eyes, and Natsu blinked before looking over at her in surprise. "That thing is immortal. Right now, it's trapped. If we let it out, we're screwed." She looked at Gray, then she looked at Natsu with a frown. "It'll kill the villagers."

"What?" Natsu's eyes widened. "But… how do we break the curse, then?" His eyes narrowed in frustration. "There has to be a way to beat it! We won't let it near the village, we'll-!"

Gray suddenly lashed out and punched Natsu in the face with enough force to make the other boy hit the ground, and Nora looked back at the ice-mage with wide eyes as he took on a stance like he was ready to use magic.

"Gray hit him!" Happy cried.

Lucy raised a hand to her mouth. "That's not really uncommon, but-..."

"Hey!" Natsu sat up, gripping his face. "What's the big idea?!"

"He's scared, Natsu!" Nora snapped, and the Fire Dragon-Slayer went still as his eyes widened in disbelief. "Can't you see that?!"

"Gray… scared?" Natsu wondered, like the idea was beyond him.

"Don't you get near it, you fiery bastard," Gray hissed. "If that ice melts and it's freed, no one would be able to stop it!"

"What?" Natsu stood up. "Would that ice really melt that easily?"

Gray blinked, then he looked down. "... No."

"Are you okay?" Lucy asked, resting a hand on Gray's shoulder.

"Hey, I'm the one who got punched," Natsu complained, though his tone lacked bite as he gazed at Gray worriedly. "Gray, what the Hell is going on?"

"My master, Ur, trapped the demon using the Iced Shell spell," Gray said quietly. "That's ice that can't melt. No matter what kind of magical fire you use, you couldn't melt that ice…" He looked back at the demon. "If they knew they couldn't melt it, why bring it here?"

"It could break," Nora offered, raising an eyebrow. "Maybe? And there are other things to melt ice aside from fire: warm water, hot air, light exposure, stuff like that."

"None of that would work," Gray informed her. "Not with this spell."

Nora took a deep breath. "Okay... But someone went through a lot of trouble to get this ice here, so they may have found a way to try and attack it."

"But why?!" Gray demanded.

Nora shook her head. "I dunno. Weaponize the demon?"

"... What?" Gray's eyes widened. "What are you talking about?"

"Huh?" Nora looked up, blinking, then she reached up and rubbed the back of her neck awkwardly. "I just-... Back home, there were some attacks where-..." She took a deep breath, then she crossed her arms. "I dunno. I don't know. I just think that… maybe… they might want to drop this thing on an enemy like some sort of... demon-bomb, if it's immortal and destructive and all."

"Weaponize Deliora?" Gray whispered, then he shook his head. "They would never be able to control it."

"... If it's anything like what happened back home, it's not about controlling it," Nora said softly, frowning as she looked up at the demon again. "It's about aiming it, and then... getting to a safe place with a good view."

Gray stared at Nora, then he looked up at the demon and took a shuddering breath. "This is all so wrong… Who is responsible for this?"

"Well, it sounds pretty simple," Natsu decided, gesturing with his thumb. "We just chase after those guys from before."

Lucy nodded. "Yeah!"

"No," Gray refused immediately. "We wait here."

"For what?" Happy asked, frowning.

Gray had seemingly calmed down. "For the moon to come out."

"The moon?!" Natsu darted over, his eyes wide as he gazed at Gray. "But it's still noon! I'm not waiting—no way, no how! I'd be bored to death!"

"Natsu." Nora shot a look at the pink-haired boy, and he blinked before quieting.

"Gray." Lucy looked at the ice-mage. "What are you talking about?"

"I think that this island's curse and Deliora are both connected somehow with the moon," Gray explained. "And those guys were talking about collecting moonlight."

"I see." Lucy nodded. "I am curious about what'll happen and what they're up to…"

"I can't stand it..! I'm going after them!" Natsu protested, only for Nora to shoot one more look at him and cause him to groan before falling back on the ground and passing out.

"That was fast," Lucy noted.

Happy nodded. "Aye."


Nora picked a rock and sat down on it, sitting between the place where Happy and Lucy sat to watch over Natsu and the place where Gray sat down to be alone with his thoughts. It was closer to Gray, but only because she wanted to keep an eye on the ice-mage.

As they waited for the moon, Nora found herself drawing Ren's father's knife from her bag and staring down at it with a sigh. She remembered how he clutched it for months after the fall of Kuroyuri, never letting it out of his sight, and how he eventually chose to hide it in his boots even though he modeled Stormflower's blades off of the weapon.

She remembered how, in Atlas, he finally chose to wear the knife visible on his arm. She had made a comment about his heart finally being on his sleeve, and he had just rolled his eyes and smiled down at her. How wrong she was…

"Whose is that?" A voice asked, and Nora looked up to see Gray glancing at her with a weariness in his eyes.

"... It belonged to Li Ren, one of the guards of Kuroyuri," Nora replied softly. "He gave it to his son, Lie Ren, before he died… and Ren didn't exactly give it to me, but it just kinda… fell into my hands, when he-..."

Gray blinked, then he sighed. "Kuroyuri… Was that the village's name?" Nora nodded, and Gray closed his eyes. "You said it was your friend's village, but you were there."

"I was sorta visiting." Nora gave a bitter smile. "I wasn't gonna be there for long, but… wrong place, wrong time. I got caught in the attack, and Ren had to get me out of it." She glanced down at the knife. "It was thirteen years ago, but I can still remember the screaming… but Ren, who had just lost everything, just smiled and hugged me and calmed me down." Nora closed her eyes. "He was stronger than I could ever hope to be… but it wasn't right at the same time, y'know? He didn't let himself deal with it, not for years."

"And what did he do, then?"

"... He nearly killed himself, throwing himself at the Nuckelavee in a blind rage," Nora admitted, opening her eyes and looking up at Gray with a weak grin. "So, I grabbed him, pulled him out of the thing's range, and slapped him in the face to knock the sense back into him. Then, we went back out to face it with our friends, and we managed to defeat it together."

Gray blinked, then he gave a weak grin. "That's a better ending than I expected. Can't imagine you slapping anyone, though."

"I've only done it the one time," Nora said, shrugging. "I didn't want to do it, but it was what needed to be done."

"Heh." Gray shook his head. "You're a strange one."

"Hey, no one ever said that doing the right thing would be easy." Nora gave another small, frail smile as Gray looked back at her. "I think that everyone would do it if it was."

"Hm." Gray managed to smile back. "I think you made some kind of sense, there."

"It can happen," Nora joked, and they both gave quiet laughs.

"That's it!" Lucy suddenly shouted, standing and drawing a silver key. "Gate of the Harp, I open thee! Lyra!"

A white glyph formed in the air before exploding into pink, and a girl in a white and pink dress with a harp on her back was standing there and waving excitedly. "Heya, Lucy! Long time, no see!"

"Hi, Lyra," Lucy greeted, smiling.

"Why don't you call me more often?" The spirit pouted. "I want to be lots and lots more helpful to you! Lucy, you're such a meanie!"

Lucy sighed, exasperated. "A meanie? I can only call you three days a month."

"Oh." The spirit's eyes widened. "Really?"

"We got another weirdo, here," Happy muttered, unimpressed.

As Gray went back to sulking, Lyra's smile returned. "So, what kind of song would you like me to sing today?"

"Whatever you want," Lucy told the spirit. "You pick."

Happy perked up. "I'd like a song about fish!"

"I'll play whatever comes to mind!" Lyra decided, holding a thumb up.

Lucy looked around with a smile. "Lyra is a very good singer."

"Mira is also a good singer," Happy said with a frown. "She sings me songs about fish."

Nora raised an eyebrow, grinning. For some reason, that was something she wanted to see.

Lyra sat down on a rock with her harp, and she began to play. "

Words giving birth,

Words dying out,

Words living on inside of you…

Time seems to freeze

As you change to find your courage…

Now, step out—

You'll become stronger than you were…

Be lost no longer,

Believe in those words from back then…

Oooh…

Oooh…

Oooh…"

"We have to be brave."

"You have to be brave."

Nora found her hands shaking, and she quickly put her knife away as she took a sharp breath and closed her eyes.

A soft sob rang out, and Nora opened her eyes and looked back to see that Gray was in tears.

"Huh?" Lucy had noticed as well. "Gray?"

Gray sniffled. "What?"

"You're crying," Happy noted.

Lucy blinked, then she raised a hand to her mouth. "Lyra has the power to sing songs that reflect what's in people's hearts…"

'And I thought Cana's magic could freak me out,' Nora thought, alternating between glancing at Gray and looking at Lucy and her spirit warily. 'A clock that serves as a shield, a harp-player that can read hearts... I haven't even seen the cow and the crab, yet!'

"Gray's crying," Happy said again, like he could not believe it.

Gray gritted his teeth. "No, I'm not!"

"Sing a happier song, Lyra!" Lucy commanded, her eyes wide.

"Oh!" Lyra blinked. "Why didn't you tell me that before?!"

"Now that I think about it, what if someone comes along?" Gray quickly cut it all off. "Be quiet."

"Oh, thank the gods." Nora sighed, closing her eyes as she became relieved.

The last thing she needed was a spirit digging around in her heart for lyrics. Hearing the song for Gray had already shaken her enough.


/\


Lucy and Happy fell asleep as Natsu had, but Nora chose to stay up with Gray.

The boy kept his eyes on the frozen demon, his hands folded as he gazed at it.

"... You knew my look because of your friend, Ren," Gray said at last. "I'm guessing you have an idea of why I hate this thing, then. You know I lost more than my teacher." Nora said nothing. "You're more observant than I thought. My mistake." He gave a weak smirk. "You spent weeks just watching over the guild-hall while you were recovering. Who knows what you've noticed?"

"Hm." Nora closed her eyes. "Honestly, I've lost track. There's... a lot to unpack." She opened her eyes and glanced at Gray. "Not that I'm in any place to say anything. You guys have probably seen plenty of weird stuff on my end."

"Heh." Gray closed his eyes, grinning. "What do you mean, probably? You sassed Laxus. That puts you in Natsu-territory for weird."

"Hey, he sassed me first!" Nora complained, and Gray looked at her in amusement.

The cavern suddenly began to shake, rousing the other three members of the group as Nora and Gray looked up in alarm.

Above Deliora, a purple glyph formed and purple light began to shine down on the glacier.

"Purple light," Gray realized. "It's light from the moon!"

"What the heck?!" Happy demanded. "What's going on?!"

"It's landing on Deliora," Gray decided.

Natsu's eyes narrowed. "That ain't no coincidence."

"Let's go!" Gray gestured. "We'll search for where the light is coming from!"

Happy nodded. "Aye!"

The group turned and ran down a tunnel, eventually arriving at a set of stone stairs which they quickly ascended.

They found that they were back in the temple, and Nora blinked as she saw another glyph on the floor.

"A magic circle is spread over the center of the ruin," Gray noted.

"It's further above!" Natsu decided, and the group began to run again, finding another set of stairs and quickly climbing up.

They neared what had to be the top of the temple, which was overgrown by brush, and Nora held out an arm to stop the others' running. When they looked at her questioningly, she raised a finger to her lips.

"If there's magic, someone's gotta be casting it… right?" She whispered, and they blinked before nodding in understanding. They finished climbing the stairs and slowly approached the top, and Nora blinked before her eyes narrowed. "Oh, you have got to be kidding."

A group of figures in masks stood in a circle around a purple glyph, which was taking in a channeled beam of moonlight which was being directed through several more of those strange, purple magic circles. They had their arms raised, and they were chanting.

"What's that?" Natsu whispered.

Nora sighed. "I hate to say it, but... it's looking a lot like cultists."

"The moon," Gray murmured, glancing up at the magic circles and the beam.

"They're really collecting the light from the moon," Natsu decided, taking notice as well.

Lucy's eyes narrowed. "What are they trying to do by shining it on Deliora?"

"It's it obvious?" Nora raised an eyebrow. "These idiots are trying to get him out."

"It's a spell in Belianese," a voice spoke, and everyone looked to see that Lyra was still there and kneeling with them. "Moon Drip."

Lucy blinked. "You're still here?"

"I see," Lyra muttered. "So, that's it."

"What?" Lucy pressed. "What is it?"

"Your friend is right." Lyra gestured to Nora, frowning. "They're using Moon Drip to resurrect that demon."

"What?!" Gray's eyes narrowed as he looked at the spirit. "You're kidding! Iced Shell is ice that can't be melted!"

"Moon Drip can do it," Lyra told him. "The collected magic of the moon has the power to undo any magic."

Nora blinked. 'Well, the more you know.'

Happy's eyes widened. "Oh, no!"

"These guys don't know the horror of Deliora!" Gray snarled.

Lyra frowned. "I think the curse that the people believe is on this island is a side-effect of the Moon Drip. The collected magic from the moon is contaminating their bodies. That's just how powerful a magic it is."

Nora glanced at Lyra, confused. 'Okay, a few contradictions there... And why would a spell to undo magic turn people into demons, regardless of how powerful it is? Am I missing something here?' The Huntress sighed, looking down. 'You don't know anything about this world's magic, Nora. Heck, you were barely even beginning to understand Remnant's. Stop trying to make sense of this.'

"Damn them!" Natsu cursed, preparing to lunge at the cult.

Lucy elbowed him in the face. "Hold it!" As Natsu fell back, the blonde's eyes narrowed in focus. "Someone's coming."

Lucy was right.

As the group watched, a figure in silver armor with a horned, fanged helmet approached to observe the cult, a white cloak billowing around him. Purple feathers trailed behind his helmet in a long plume, and the only unhidden part of his face was his mouth, which was curled into a satisfied smirk.

Behind him were Yuka, Toby, and Sherry; Yuka with his eyes averted, Toby with his eyes wide in what might have been fear, and Cherry with her hands clasped.

"Damn it," Yuka muttered. "I'm still sleepy, and for what? We never did find the intruders."

Toby huffed. "If they even existed!"

"It is saddening, Reitei-sama," Sherry noted softly, seeing that the cloaked man had started to frown. "There seemed to be intruders around noon, but we failed to catch them. I cannot express my love like this."

"Intruders," the cloaked man mused, and Gray let out a soft gasp.

Natsu's eyes narrowed. "So, that's Reitei."

"What a big shot," Lucy mocked him. "Just look at the funky mask he's wearing."

"Funky?" Happy blinked. "I think it's cool."

"Has Deliora been revived yet?" The cloaked man asked.

Sherry frowned. "At this rate, either today or tomorrow."

"Which one is it?!" Toby demanded.

"Finally," Reitei murmured. "As for the intruders, I will brook no interference."

"Yes." Sherry nodded. "The only other people here should be the villagers on the far side of the island."

Reitei gestured idly. "Then, destroy the village."

Nora's eyes widened, her breath catching. "No."

"Yes," Sherry agreed.

Toby growled, and Yuka nodded. "Understood."

"What?!" Natsu hissed, and Nora looked over at the seething fire-mage as he gripped the wall they were hiding behind.

Lucy's eyes widened. "But the people in the village had nothing to do with it!"

"That's messed-up," Natsu decided, his anger growing.

Nora grabbed his arm. "So, stay calm. You won't be able to help the village if you waste your energy here." She glanced back at the enemies, frowning. "We wait for them to separate from the group, then-"

"That voice," Gray whispered, and everyone glanced at him. "It couldn't be…"

"Gray?" Nora asked, releasing Natsu as she looked at the ice-mage. "You know-?"

"I CAN'T STAND SNEAKING AROUND ANYMORE!" Natsu leapt up onto the wall that the group was hiding behind and released a powerful blast of fire from his mouth. "YOUR INTERFERERS ARE RIGHT HERE!"

Reitei and his followers looked back, and Lucy sighed. "Well, I guess we have to do this now—don't we?"

"Couldn't do things the easy way," Nora remarked, drawing Magnhild and shifting it into its hammer form. "I guess it's a good thing that easy's no fun anyway."

"How can I help?!" Lyra asked, grinning. "Can I sing again?!"

Lucy sighed, closing her eyes and hanging her head. "You, go back."

"Aw." Lyra smirked. "You're no fun."

With that, Lucy deadpanned and dispelled her Celestial Spirit.

Nora snorted. "Ouch."

"Shut up!" Lucy fumed, her face flushed.

"That mark," Sherry spoke, focusing on Natsu's arm. "They're from Fairy Tail."

"I see," Yuka mused. "So, the people from the village asked a guild to save them."

"What are you doing?" Reitei asked his followers, completely unfazed. "Eliminate the village, now."

Reitei's followers actually gasped and looked at him in alarm, and Natsu's eyes widened in disbelief. "Why?!"

"Anyone who interferes or plots against me is my enemy," Reitei explained.

"WHY?!" Natsu demanded, charging towards the cloaked man.

Gray was suddenly charging out as well, looking furious. "Why, you-!" He brought one fist against his palm, mist flying from the contact. "I'll stop this crazy ritual of yours!"

Gray slammed his hands against the ground, sending out a wall of icy spikes which Reitei's followers had to dodge.

Reitei himself leapt high into the air to evade the ice before landing and bringing one of his hands against the ground, sending out a wall of wider, pointier icy spikes which carried a greenish hue in an odd contrast to Gray's blue.

The walls collided and shattered, and Happy's eyes widened. "He also uses ice?!"

"Yeah, he does." Nora gripped Magnhild to steady her shaking hands.

That was the first human-versus-human use of magic she had seen in a serious encounter since coming to Fiore, and it was just an opener.

'Oh, gods—yeah, I'm screwed,' she thought, then she shook her head. 'Wait, two ice-mages focused on the same demon and using the same magic? Gray seemed to recognize this guy… Don't tell me-'

"Lyon." Gray growled, and Natsu and Lucy gasped as they regarded their teammate. "You bastard. Do you have any idea what you're doing?!"

Reitei—or rather, Lyon—chuckled. "How long has it been, Gray?"

"What's the meaning of this?!" Gray asked, scowling at the other ice-mage.

Lyon shook his head. "I can't believe you were the wizard the villagers called here. Did you come knowingly, or is this just a coincidence?"

"Are you actually trying to act like the Demon of Disaster you're melting free by wiping that village out, or is it just a coincidence?" Nora cut in immediately, word-vomit striking yet again, and the helmeted man tensed. Nora blinked, realizing what she had said, then she looked away and cleared her throat. "... Just wanna clear the air."

Everyone looked at Lyon expectantly, but the enemy ice-mage seemed to be at a loss.

"... Damn, Valky," Natsu eventually remarked, looking at the young Huntress with a devious grin. "That was brutal!"

"It's a fair question!" Nora defended herself, looking at the fire-mage. "He's even wearing a monster helmet, okay? This whole thing is giving off some serious cultist, embodiment-type vibes and it's freaking me out!"

'EVERYTHING is freaking me out,' Nora wanted to add, but she managed to internalize that much.

Internalizing her panic always had been easier than trying to internalize anything else.

Yuka cleared his throat awkwardly, his eyes wide as he folded his arms behind his back. "You, uh… You will want us to take out that village, Reitei Lyon, or-..?"

"Go, now," Lyon ordered, re-composing himself. "I can handle things here myself."

Sherry, Yuka, and Toby darted off into the trees, and Natsu moved to chase after them. "You think we'll let you go so easily?!"

"Stop, Natsu!" Gray shouted, his eyes widening as he became frantic. "Don't move!"

Lyon stretched out a hand, and Natsu cried out as his body was suddenly encased in a rapidly growing sphere of ice.

"Natsu!" Lucy cried out.

'Yeah, I'm just gonna call it now: I underestimated EVERYTHING. This is a world full of people who could give the Maidens and Ozpin and Salem and the Branwens combined and on steroids a run for their money,' Nora thought, her eyes widening. 'I could have died, I could have died at any second.

Elfman was totally going easy on me even after I told him not to. Erza is absolutely going to murder me, when we get back—if we get back…' She swallowed thickly, thinking back to how she spoke to Laxus. 'I still don't regret that—in fact, it's probably in my top ten proudest moments—but…

Could I have survived that, or was Master Mak bluffing for me just to make the jerk-wad back down? Oh, geez—could Master Mak really think I'm crazy-powerful or something because of how vague I was about aura and semblances? Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap! I'm not powerful, I'm just an idiot with a hammer!'

Gray looked back, his eyes narrowing. "Happy, take care of Lucy!" He glanced at Nora as the blue cat shouted 'aye' before he grabbed the celestial-mage and took off, the ice-mage's fists clenching. "You need to run, now!"

"Not happening!" Nora insisted as she snapped out of her thoughts, her eyes narrowing as well as she steadied herself in spite of her shocking realization. "I-... I'm not going anywhere!" She looked at Natsu as ice continued to spread across the pink-haired boy's body, then she looked back at Gray as she collapsed Magnhild and placed it on her back. "But I am gonna see what I can do for him, alright?!"

"Damn it, Nora! Why can't you just listen to me?!" Gray snapped, but he began his battle with Lyon as the Huntress ran over to Natsu.

"I-I can't move!" Natsu complained, frustrated, and Nora shivered a bit as the icy-mist hit her skin and made her pink aura crackle. She noticed frost forming on her clothes due to her proximity to Natsu and blinked, then she frowned as she examined the growing chunk of ice. "Get me out of this thing! Smash it!"

"I could accidentally smash you with it," Nora said, raising a hand to her chin and frowning.

Even if Natsu was tough, Nora was still way too new to all of this and trying to learn and adjust to everything much too quickly. Natsu could survive a capsizing boat and a fall through a temple, but Nora still did not trust her hammer anywhere near anyone without aura—especially if she was being expected to strike magical ice with enough force to break it.

"Then, what are you gonna do?!" Natsu demanded, frustrated.

"I'm working on it!" Nora shot back, just as frustrated, then she blinked before glancing down at her bag. "Hang on, I could-"

"So, you bought enough time for the blonde and the cat to get away?" Lyon asked, and Nora looked back to see that Gray and Lyon's battle had paused. "No matter. Sherry and the rest should have no problems against them."

Natsu growled. "Don't underestimate Fairy Tail wizards, you-..!"

Gray suddenly kicked Natsu's ice sphere and sent him bouncing down the side of the overgrown temple, then the ice-mage looked at Nora. "You better go get him."

"Ugh." Nora huffed, then she placed her hands on her hips. "I thought we were supposed to be the rational ones on this mission."

'Mission,' Nora repeated the word in her head and cringed. 'Easy on the Huntress terms, Miss Wizard.'

"Lyon could have magically exploded that ice-ball whenever he felt like it," Gray explained, and she blinked. Magic in Fiore just kept getting more and more out of her league, didn't it? "I sent Natsu out of range." He gestured with his head, frowning. "Go free him, then help Lucy save the village. I can handle this."

"... Hmph." Nora punched the ice-mage's arm, her eyes narrowed. "Idiot… Stay alive, okay? We'll be back, soon."

With that, Nora ran over to the edge of the temple roof and leapt down into the brush to go and find Natsu.


Once Nora was in the brush, on her own and away from the fight, she found that she had to take a minute to brace herself against a tree and collect her thoughts.

The Huntress's world was spinning, her wide eyes on the ground and her breath shaking as she tried to collect everything she had learned over the course of two days in one place and process them in the span of a minute.

It was time to face facts.

The wizards of Earthland were not only faster than any magic she had seen on Remnant, but they were also much more devastating when it came to their power. In the time it took Penny to work up one of her cyclones or for Cinder to produce a blade, Gray could have a massive shield, a floor of ice, or a wall of jagged spikes that could shatter and send debris flying out everywhere.

Furthermore, Nora could call her faith in semblances, aura, and even her own strength into doubt.

The Schnee family semblance's summoning ability, one of the most-powerful abilities ever found in a semblance and something unique to that bloodline, would likely be considered weak when compared to Lucy's ability to summon celestial spirits from a whole other world. Weiss had to focus and maintain her summons, but Lucy's spirits had minds and personalities of their own, and she probably did not have to slay them first to win their allegiance. Yet Gray, Natsu, and Happy had treated that magical type as if it was a waste of time.

Natsu, Gray, Lucy, and even Happy had been tossed about in the sea and dropped through the ruins of a temple, and while Nora had aura to take the brunt of these events, they did not—and yet, they all came out perfectly unharmed.

All her life, Nora's semblance-free physical strength had been something that people had marveled at or even fretted over—and while Elfman commended Nora for it and seemingly considered her an equal for it even when using a beast-arm (though Nora now had to call that into doubt), Natsu had acted as if the Huntress's strength was nothing of note.

Earthland magic was stronger.

Earthland people were stronger.

Nora was so, so incredibly out of place and out of her league… It was even worse than being Miss 'Be Strong and Hit Stuff' on Remnant.

And really, what should she have expected?

If Nora Valkyrie was questioning what she was good for on her own world, what could she possibly be good for on this one?


Well, that was a thing!

I saw a few comments and honestly kinda laughed, knowing that this chapter was coming.

I decided to speed things along, just to clear a few things up.

I know a few folks were kinda worried about my power-balancing between RWBY and Fairy Tail, and I wrote this chapter with the (heavy) theme of having Nora address that issueat least, to herself.

Nora went from regaining some certainty about herself during her recovery to losing all of it within two days of entering the real world of Earthland, and she's completely uncertain of where she stands in terms of power and what she is capable of doing against magic she now recognizes as stronger than what she witnessed back on Remnant.

There's definitely some fear there and a lot of confusion, uncertainty, and panic.

What do you do when you don't know what to expect or where you stand?

Well, we're only on the Galuna Island Arc! Nora had better figure it out, and quickly! XD

I own nothing. Please read, review, check out my other stories, etc. :)