Chapter 241

A Fresh Parfum

After leaving the shop and Mira behind, I flew around the city searching for any sign of any person who wasn't an Ichiya. I also kept an eye out for any shops that weren't destroyed for any deodorant lacrimas. But every single person was an Ichiya zombie while the shops I checked out were overrun with them.

"Damn it, this isn't good! Magnolia seems to be filled to the brim with Ichiyas now! And all the shops are teeming with them! Did they figure out that deodorant lacrima was their weakness, too? Just when I thought things couldn't get any worse."

However, despite how unsettling this was and how slim the odds were of undoing this chaos, considering that it seemed that I was all alone, I refused to give up.

"There's got to be something I can do!" I said to myself. "And there's always a chance that someone hasn't been infected yet!"

I then stopped to hover for a second while thinking.

"The only thing I can do for now is to keep searching for any shops that haven't been destroyed for any deodorant lacrima. I've also got to try and search for anyone that hasn't been infected. I should be able to use my Aqua Sense, but it can't do much while in the air, and it's too risky to be on the ground. I'll have to find a safe place to use it where the Ichiyas can't find me."

But just as I was about to start searching, a loud explosion came in the distance. As I jumped and looked in the direction it came from, a massive cloud of smoke and debris appeared. Then, I saw a comet shoot up into the sky with a tail of familiar-looking flames trailing behind it.

When I did, I couldn't help but smile, my hope anew. "Only one person I know can make an explosion that big!"

I then flew towards the direction of the comet, and sure enough, as I got closer, the comet turned out to be Natsu, who had just used his breath attack while he had Lucy on his back, and Happy struggled to stay airborne as he carried them both.

"Natsu! Happy! Lucy!" I yelled out.

"Willy! You're not an Ichiya!" Natsu spoke happily. "Good to see you, man!"

"Not as good it is to see you guys," I said. "I'm glad you guys are safe."

Just then, a pair of familiar voices called out.

"Hey, you guys!"

"Thank goodness you're all OK!"

The voices turned out to be Wendy and Carla, who were also unharmed.

"Wendy! Carla! You're both OK, too!" Lucy cried out in relief. "I was afraid that we were the only ones left!"

"Listen! Carla and I just ran into Romeo earlier!" said Wendy. "He said that he may have found a way to beat the Ichiyas!"

"For real?" I gasped. "So did me and Mira!"

"Well, don't keep us in suspense! Hurry up and tell us!" urged Lucy.

"Unfortunately, before he could tell us, the Ichiyas got to him," Carla said regretfully. "But he managed to tell us something before he turned."

"He said that we had to find you, Natsu," said Wendy.

"Find me?" puzzled Natsu. "But why would Romeo say that?"

"Not sure," said Lucy. "That doesn't really help us much." She looked at me. "Willy, tell us what you found out."

I answered with a nod as I began explaining.

"See, Mira and I were hiding out in a boutique store after we split up from Wendy and Carla. While we hid out, Erza and a group of Ichiyas came searching for us. But as they did, one of the Ichiyas happened to find a bottle of deodorant lacrima and sprayed some on itself. When he did, and it was only for just a brief moment, he returned to normal."

Everyone gasped.

"Are you serious?!" Lucy asked incredulously.

"Yes, I saw it with my own eyes," I confirmed. "Therefore, I have reason to believe that everyone can be cured using deodorant. But…"

As I recalled the memory of Mira being turned flashed in my mind, I couldn't help but feel a little sick as I shuddered from the thought. But I swallowed bravely as I resumed.

"Before we could test out the theory, we got ambushed again, and Mira sacrificed herself to save me. I… couldn't do anything to save her."

"You did what you could, Willy," Carla spoke kindly. "But thanks to you and Mira, we might have a chance of beating the Ichiyas once and for all!"

"I'm afraid it won't be so simple," I said grimly as I looked at the city below. "I also have reason to believe that the Ichiyas know this too and have been taking over every store and destroying all of the deodorizing lacrimas they could find."

"Then how are we supposed to beat them and save everyone?" asked Wendy worriedly.

At that moment, Natsu suddenly made a noise, having made a realization. "Wait a second! I just remembered! I think I have one of those!" he cried out.

Everyone looked at the fire dragon slayer.

"You do?! Then why didn't you say something?!" demanded Lucy.

"Because I'm just now remembering," said Natsu. "Erza was complaining about my stink a while back, and she gave me a deodorizing lacrima to use."

"I remember now!" Happy spoke while straining to carry them both. "You, me, and Romeo were trying it out!"

"So then, where is it?" I asked. "Do you have it on you?"

Natsu shook his head. "Nope. It's back at the guildhall," he said. "Last I checked, I left it at the counter of the bar after I finished using it."

"You got to be kidding!" Lucy barked indignantly. "You mean to tell me that you might have the only possible cure to this madness, and it's right smack in the middle of it?!"

I looked over at the guildhall. "We'll have to get inside and use that lacrima to cure everybody," I said. "I am worried about running into those from our guild, who are Ichiyas, but we'll just have to deal with whatever. It's as good a plan as any." I returned my gaze to the others. "The rest of you stay up in the air where it's safe while Natsu and I head for the guildhall."

"Hold on, you sure?" asked Wendy.

"Don't worry. We'll be fine. Just leave it to us," reassured Natsu. "Lucy, let me go! And Willy, make sure to keep up!"

"Roger that," I told him.

Lucy was silent before she let go, and as Nastu fell towards the city below, I followed him closely.

"We're counting on you two!" Lucy called to us. "Don't make me regret this!"

"Just leave it to us!" Natsu shouted back.

"We won't let you down!" I also called.

As Nastu plummeted toward the ground, I swooped down to him, managed to grab hold of his arms, and carried him toward the guildhall while the Ichiyas looked up at us as we flew by them.

"All right! Now, this is the way to fly!" Natsu said eagerly. "You'd make a good stand-in for Happy, Willy!"

"Don't get used to it," I told him. "Knowing you, you would have charged straight through the Ichiyas without a second thought. I'm just making things more efficient, so you won't do anything reckless, is all."

We soon touched down at the outside gates and rushed towards the main gates.

"It's a good thing that the Ichiyas are pretty slow," Natsu said. "They'll definitely have a hard time catching up, which should give us some time."

"Then, let's hurry," I urged. "Let's not give them a chance to catch us by surprise."

The two of us then went inside.

When we entered, we were welcomed to the sight of all of our Ichiya'd friends, every single one of them looking up in our direction. As soon as they did, they slowly lumbered towards us, sniffing while moaning out that same strange sound.

"Meeenn…. Meeeennn…. Meeeeennn…"

But as they did, Natsu and I hopped on one table after another, managing to avoid and keep away from them. Then, as I looked towards the bar, I saw a long teal bottle sitting at the counter, just as Natsu said it would be.

"Hey, Natsu! There it is!" I shouted while pointing.

"I know!" said Natsu.

We then made for the counter, attempting to grab it, but before he could, there was a brilliant clap of thunder that shook the whole building as lightning began raining down from above, cutting off our path. The two of them managed to avoid being struck, while some of the Ichiyas were shocked but didn't appear to be fazed.

The source of them came from Laxus, who, like everyone else, sported an Ichiya face while his body cracked and sparked with lightning.

"Oh, crap! I should have known we'd run into Laxus!" I cursed.

"Man… You two of you have some powerful parfum," the Ichiya'd Laxus spoke with a flirty smile. "How's about you two let me take a sniff?"

More lightning bolts came showering from above, forcing us to jump from table to table to dodge them. However, Natsu, undaunted, headed straight for the counter.

"Sorry, but we ain't got time to play with you!" Natsu shouted.

He was about to reach it when Laxus swung his fist and fired a bolt of lightning from it. But as it shot towards him, I quickly jumped in the line of fire while clapping my hands together.

"WATER DRAGON: TORTOISE SHELL BALL!"

At my call, a sphere of water surrounded me and blocked the incoming lightning bolt just before it struck Natsu, which gave him enough time to grab the bottle.

"Thanks for the assist, Willy!" grinned Natsu. "I'll take it from here!"

I answered back with a hum and a nod, smiling back as I dispelled the barrier. But just as I did, Laxus, not giving up, came charging at us from above, bringing back his fist to punch. However, Natsu bravely jumped towards him and, when he was close enough, pointed the spray bottle right in his face.

"Here, Laxus! Get a sniff of this!"

With a squeeze of the trigger, Natsu sprayed Laxus right in the face, engulfing him in a cloud of deodorant spray. Then, as it cleared away, Laxus' face had reverted back to its usual visage, much to my delight.

"All right! It worked!" I cheered. "The deodorant lacrima worked!"

Laxus looked at the two of us and then at the Ichiyas, and he couldn't help but be surprised.

"N-Natsu! Willy! What's going on here?" he asked. "And why the hell does everyone look so ugly?"

"We'll explain everything later," I told him. "All you need to know for now is don't get too close! Otherwise, you'll end up as an Ichiya again! Natsu, hurry up and keep spraying!"

"No need to tell me that!" said Natsu as he held the deodorizing lacrima up high. "All right, everybody! Time for your wake-up call!"

He then set to work spraying everyone in the guildhall left and right and returning them to normal.

A little while later, everyone was resting in the guildhall brooding over the day's events.

Thanks to everyone's efforts, Magnolia and all of its people were returned to normal. Not only that, but we also found out the cause of the outbreak of Ichiyas, thanks to some investigation by the Magical Council.

As it turned out, and to no one's surprise, Ichiya was the main culprit, albeit accidentally. Apparently, he was developing a new kind of scent to add to his collection of perfumes, something he called his "Handsome Perfume." But just as he completed it, he accidentally spilled it, causing it to pour down the drain, which traveled all the way to Magnolia and resulted in the chaos we experienced.

Naturally, everyone couldn't help but be annoyed by this revelation when we found out.

"Damn it. That felt like the apocalypse rather than a virus infection," huffed Gray. "If I ever see Ichiya, he's dead meat."

"Preaching to the choir on that one," I agreed with disgust.

"Well, I have a feeling you two will have to get in line for that," Juvia said while smiling wryly.

"I still can't believe that little troll caused such a calamity!" Carla sniffed crossly. "The least he could have done was keep it as far from Magnolia as possible!"

"Well… I guess you can say men like him have no boundaries," said Wendy. "It could've been worse."

"Well, we wouldn't be here if it wasn't for Willy and Natsu," said Lucy. "Willy was the one who passed along the message after he figured it out, and Natsu was the one who kept that lacrima handy."

"Well, you know, it was nothing," Natsu spoke humbly.

"We just did what he had to," I said. "Glad to be of help."

Erza then took Natsu by the head and pressed it against her chest in a hug, his head hitting her chest with a metallic clang.

"It just goes to show that you don't need to be a hot man," the armored redhead said with affection. "It's what's on the inside that matters."

Natsu frowned. "Geez. Backhand comment much?" he huffed, sounding insulted.

"At least you don't have to worry about it anymore," said Yajima. "The Magic Council's slapped that sucker with a forbidden magic label, and Ichiya's serving hard time as punishment."

"If you ask me, he got off easy," I huffed. "I mean, if it wasn't for us finding out that deodorizing lacrima worked, it would have been much worse."

"Don't forget about the many scars this incident left behind," Erza said with empathy. "Especially for the poor souls that were turned into Ichiyas."

At the mention of that, I couldn't help but remember seeing everyone as Ichiyas, especially Mira, which made me feel sick to my stomach.

"And the ones having to witness all that horror," I bemoaned sickily.

"Doesn't that include you, Erza?" Lucy asked teasingly.

Erza immediately went pale as she slumped in shame. "Don't remind me…"

"I need therapy," Pantherlily also cringed.

"And a hot bath and a shower," Levy lamented.

"Come on, ain't you guys exaggerating?" Gajeel asked. "I didn't think it was that bad."

At that moment, I felt something inside of me snap as I slammed my hands on the table while glaring dangerously at the Iron Dragon Slayer.

"You're not the one that had to witness your girlfriend get turned into a lousy ugly troll, Gajeel!" I snapped fiercely. "And I don't know if you've noticed, but it was a pretty traumatizing experience for me!"

Gajeel jumped as he recoiled back in surprise. "Wh-Whoa! Take it easy, Water Boy!"

"How do you expect me to take it easy?!" I continued to rant as I cursed toward the ceiling. "No thanks to that lousy little bastard; I'm going to have nightmares for weeks on end about him! The next time I see his face, I'm going to skewer him with so many swords he'll be a walking pincushion! Then I'm going to take my time pulling out each and every one of them, slice him into ribbons, and feed him to the sharks!"

Then, a prompt slap on my head snapped me out of my rage, which came from Mira, who gave me a stern look.

"Willy! You'll be doing no such thing!" she admonished. "You're scaring everyone half to death, so knock it off!"

I then noticed everyone staring at me with slightly pale faces while cringing.

"S-Sorry about that," I apologized. "But still, don't expect me to forgive that little troll! I won't be able to get the image of everyone as Ichiyas out of my head! And I don't think there's anything that can get rid of that horrible memory!"

Mira's expression softened as he raised a brow. "Is that so?" she said. "I'm not so sure about that."

She then took my hand and started leading me towards the bar.

"H-Hey, Mira. Wh-What are you…?" I started to ask.

"Just come with me," said Mira.

And she led me behind the bar and into the backroom, shutting the door behind her.

NO POV

As Mira and Willy went into the backroom of the bar, everyone couldn't help but wonder what was going to happen. A pregnant pause passed, and Willy and Mira soon came out from the backroom. But as they did, Willy now wore a blank expression as he stared at the ground.

"H-Hey, Willy. Are you OK?" asked Lucy.

Then, Willy's entire face went a deep shade of crimson as his water wings spread out from his back, and his head exploded in a cloud of steam before collapsing to the ground, fainting.

Everyone became alarmed.

"Willy! Are you OK?!" exclaimed Wendy. "What happened?!"

Willy didn't respond, answering with only a small groan.

"Oh, dear, perhaps that was a bit too much for him," said Mira. "I've never seen a reaction like that one before."

"What do you mean by that, Mira?!" demanded Lucy. "What the heck did you do to him?!"

Mira smiled sweetly as she winked. "Sorry, Lucy, but that's a secret," she said. "Let's just say that I've managed to cure Willy's little trauma by getting rid of the memory of me being an Ichiya."

At first, everyone was puzzled. But then, all the girls turned a bright shade of red while the boys, excluding Natsu, looked away, pretending not to notice.

"Hey. What's the matter with you guys?" wondered Natsu. "Did something happen?"

"Natsu, just do yourself a favor and drop it," said Gray. "It's too much for someone like you to understand."

Everyone else stayed silent in agreement, while Natsu could only be all the more puzzled.

Thank you very much for reading! I hope you liked this latest chapter, and I'll be seeing you in the next one!

Dragomaster, signing off!