A/N: Nearly 2/3 of this chapter is a recap and is sort of an omake/extra; so I am demarcating it with double breaks with an x in the mididle. Fresh content starts after the second double-break with a scene with Cheria. You can word-search 'Cheria' if you want to skip the recap. Hope you enjoy reading!
Chapter Twenty-Three
Happy stood in front of a chalkboard resplendent in a three-piece suit. The blue of his satin tie glistened, bringing out the blueness of his fur. "It's time for Happy-sensei's Fairy Tail lectures!" He pulled out a pointer and tapped on the chalkboard. "Today I'll be giving you a recap of the story so far!"
Natsu raised his hand. "Sensei, is this what they call a 'filler chapter?'"
Happy turned to the other side of the room. "I think you have the answer to that question, Student Council President."
Erza pushed her glasses up her nose. "All good filler chapters are at least 10% new content. It is the only way to keep the audience – pardon the pun, sensei – happy. Of course, some creators choose instead to have meaningless flashbacks in the filler chapter, thus boring audiences with information that they already have."
"Very good answer, Student Council President!"
"But she didn't answer anything," Natsu muttered in an aside.
"Moving on! The 100 Years Quest was embarked upon on the 7th of July. Note the date."
"Why is that Happy-sensei?" asked Wendy.
Happy stroked his chin. "A lot of things seem to happen on this date. It's the day the dragon-slayers came through the Eclipse Gate, it's the day the Grand Magic Games ended and the Eclipse-2 was destroyed, it's also um… other things. It's a very magical day, OK? Now, where was I? First, this angry fish called Vega-"
"She wasn't a fish," Charle butted in.
"Next one to interrupt me gets a punishment from the Student Council President! First, this angry fish called Vega came down from the sky and told us to collect 12 Keys from 12 Guardian Animals. She gave us these glowing things," Happy held out the vial containing his Potion of Abdication, "and said to drink them if we wanted to quit the Quest. Don't tell anyone but one time Gray mistook it for mouthwash and almost drank his."
"Don't tell everyone that story, you incompetent sensei!"
"Then she told us there were two Rules. One, that we can't tell anyone about the Quest and two, that we can't have outside help while we're on the Quest. But it turned out," he gasped theatrically, "that she was lying!"
"Don't jump the gun, Happy-sensei!" Lucy said.
"Aye. The fish-lady also gave us two clues. The first clue led to this big statue of a three-headed dog. They came to life and attacked us! Of course, I was super brave and faced them down bare-handed and protected everyone else."
Wendy sweatdropped. "Was that what happened?"
"There was a really easy riddle to solve too. Lucy took a long time trying to figure out the answer, but luckily Natsu and I were there to help her with our superior brain power! After we solved the riddle, we got the first Key!"
Happy jumped up and caught the toggle of a map hanging above the chalkboard. He pulled it down with a flourish and pointed to the eastern coast of the continent. "After that we went to a forest and met the second Guardian, the Pig. He told us that you have to perform a Task to get the Key. There were lots of giant and yummy fish near his house. I ate so many fish that day. How many fish did I eat? Let me count, one, two, three, four…"
"Sensei, you're veering off track."
"Ah, thank you Student Council President! Anyway, we were attacked by these three baddies from a Hunter's Guild who wanted to take down the Guardian Pig! We beat them and got the Key, but Erza's eye got injured in that fight and Wendy had to turn it into a lacrima to save her life. That wasn't enough, though, and a few days later Erza got sick coz of the lacrima. We took her to this town called Tekka where Wendy and a lacrima specialist popped it out. Now Erza wears an eyepatch all the time because she decided not to get another artificial eye. In Tekka we also ran into some people who looked just like us! They belonged to a guild called Fairy Nail, and the Happy of that guild was very, very cool!"
"He was a cat," muttered Natsu.
Gray raised his hand. "Are all these details necessary? Why don't we just focus on the important stuff?"
Happy smirked. "Does the important stuff include how you and Erza were growing closer throughout all this?"
"H-h-hey! Wait a minute!"
Crash! A desk and chair at the front of the classroom lay in smithereens. Erza sat one desk over, blushing scarlet but trying to look nonchalant.
"Anyway," drawled Happy, "Turns out someone was following us all this time!"
"Wait a minute," Lucy interjected, "how do you know that?"
"For the purpose of this lecture, let's assume I'm deficient."
"What?"
"I think he means 'omniscient,'" whispered Wendy.
Happy tapped another corner of the map and continued. "After that we went to the south-western part of the continent where we ran into the third Guardian Spirit. The Tiger was very cool, she wanted us to make her a celebrity, so we took her back to Fairy Nail in Tekka. But then, we were kidnapped! OK, time for an intermission!"
"How is it time for an intermission? We're not even halfway through the story!" Charle objected.
"Union rules!" Happy jumped off the desk and left the room.
"What union? You're not even really a teacher!" Lucy yelled.
Happy walked back into the classroom, a coffee-mug in his hand. He fluttered back onto the desk, took a long gulp of milk and continued.
"Should we tell him he has a milk moustache?" Lucy murmured to Gray.
"Nah, we don't need anything that'll make this chapter drag on for longer than necessary."
"…we met the Snake Guardian! He offered us all Deals in exchange for us quitting the Quest. He offered me a lifetime's supply of fish; Charle, enhanced clairvoyance; and Lucy, Aquarius' Key. But we all turned him down. Then he offered Gray a chance to save Ultear, but Gray said 'nah.'"
"You don't have to put it so harshly!"
"But that was OK because Jellal saved Ultear anyway. Speaking of Jellal, The Snake Guardian also offered Erza a second chance with Jellal, but she said no and then she broke up with him. I wonder why." Happy shot Gray a sideways glance.
"W-we were never dating!" Erza protested, blushing.
"The Snake seemed to really hate Natsu and Wendy. He beat them both up, but still offered them Deals. He told Wendy he would restore Cheria's magic, but I guess Wendy turned him down. She and Cheria are girlfriends now, but the long-distance relationship is taking a toll on them. Still, I think they'll make it coz they have the power of love!"
"Sensei!" It was Wendy's turn to blush.
"Finally, the Snake Guardian injected Natsu with a poison and told him his Deal was to quit the Quest or die," Happy continued sombrely, "that didn't make a lot of sense as compared to the other Deals. I wonder what the author was thinking?"
"I'm sure she had something in mind," piped up Lucy, always ready to defend a fellow writer.
"Anyway, we got back to Tekka and the Tiger helped us to subdue Natsu's poison, but she warned us that if Natsu went overboard with his powers again it would flare up and kill him. Which hasn't been easy for Natsu."
"Hey, I'm still here, aren't I?"
"Wendy later put a suppression enchantment on Natsu to keep his powers in check. We went back to Fiore after that, coz Warrod-san told us he was marrying." Happy flipped through the book on his desk. "After that it's just character development, character development." Flip. Flip. "Oh yeah, here we followed a map Jellal gave us and bumped into Jiemma. Gray fought him and gave up his Devil Slayer powers to solve his daddy issu- for more character development." Flip. "Then Natsu and Lucy got together. Big surprise." Flip.
Natsu and Lucy blushed and looked off in opposite directions.
"Then we found a Key in Aconologia's old lair. None of us knew why it was there though. Oh!" Happy stopped, clapping a paw to his forehead, "I forgot to mention! The angry fish lady told us Aconologia had completed the 100 Years Quest before, but he didn't do it right and was cursed by the Emperor Penguin."
"Heavenly Emperor," corrected Charle.
"That's what I said! Anyway, then there was more character development." Flip. "Gray and Juvia broke u- wait a minute, when did they get together?" Happy flipped back a couple of pages, "Oh yeah there. Then Lucy solved the second clue Vega gave us and we found the Rat Guardian. They gave us another key. Then Gajeel and Levy got married." Flip. Flip. Flip. "And we came back to Giltena! Phew. I'm hungry now. Time for another intermission!"
"But you just got here!" Natsu said.
"Take it up with management!" Happy waved an arm in farewell and left the room.
"Now where did I leave off?" Happy mumbled, flicking through his book, "We came to this seaside town for Christmas-"
"Hold on! You skipped out a huge bit in the middle!" Charle interrupted.
"Oh, don't worry about that. It won't be on the exam."
"But it's an important part of the story!" Gray said.
"There's going to be an exam?!" Lucy cried.
"Oh no, I haven't taken any notes!" Wendy hurriedly rummaged through her bag for a notepad.
"Sensei." Erza rose to her feet and skewered Happy with a glare. "If you would be so kind as to narrate the whole story, exactly as it happened, I am sure we would be much obliged."
"A-aye Sir!" Happy stuttered, his knees knocking together. He cleared his throat and continued. "Let's go back a bit. After Gajeel and Levy's wedding we returned to Giltena, but we snuck off the boat in case the ports were being watched. Lucy drew a bunch of lines on the map-"
"They're magical supernal lines," Lucy said under her breath.
"And said that the Aquarius key was at an effluence-"
"Confluence."
"-of these lines. So we went to this glacier up in the north. We got caught in an avalanche but made it out OK." A sly expression came over Happy's face. "Gray and Erza got separated from the rest of the group though, so they spent the night together and hud-"
"Bastard!"
"Sensei, is this portion not irrelevant to the exam?"
Happy sniggered. "Right. Just when the group was about to be reunited, the glacier swallowed us up! Turns out it was the Ox Guardian's doing. She was kind of surprised that we knew all these other Rules to the Quest. Oh, did I mention that part? Lucy dug up a bunch of additional Rules to the Quest that Vega hadn't mentioned. The Deals were a part of them. There was also this Rule that the Guardian Spirits can't kill Questers the first time they meet them and that they have to issue their Task at the first meeting too. Also, we have to do Quest related activities every 8 weeks, or we forfeit the Quest. What else? Oh yeah, the Snake won't find out if we accept the Deal or not, so he kind of has no idea that we're still on the Quest.
"The Ox beat us up pretty badly, but just when all hope was lost, Wendy removed the suppression enchantment from Natsu and Erza tricked the Ox Guardian into setting some stuff on fire so Natsu could eat the flames. He got fired up, but he still wasn't strong enough to take down the Ox. Wendy, with my help naturally-"
"Uh huh," said Lucy.
"-then cast a suppression enchantment on the Ox, and that was enough to take her down! The Ox was super mad that we got the sixth Key though and tried to bury us alive. But that fish lady from before came and stopped her. That's something Lucy's worried about, coz her Celestial Spirit Lyra is Vega's daughter and she helped us get our own copy of the Rules!
"We were saved from the collapsing cavern by a group of people from the town we stayed at before we went up to the glacier. They had really cool healers and stuff, so we didn't have to do much."
"Um, I did contribute a little," Wendy murmured sheepishly.
"Natsu was unconscious coz the poison flared up, but the magic from the Ox's fire prevented the poison from killing him. He got better once his powers were suppressed again. We also met this really cool girl called Zitel. She and Natsu got along really well-"
Lucy's pencil cracked in half.
"-so she travelled with us on the same train, but she got off way before us. Then the rest of us came here to the beach! It was too cold to play in the water, but we still had a good time. A couple of locals started acting weirdly when they found out Natsu and Wendy were Dragon Slayers though." Happy flipped through the book again. "Ah, I forgot to mention. When we took down the Ox, a ripple of magic went through the land. There was this person who felt it and was looking at some letters and stuff. They decided it was time for them to enter the game."
"What?!" the others chorused.
"And this girl Hebiko, the one who was following us at the start of the story. You know, the one who kidnapped us for the Snake Guardian, she felt it too, but she didn't tell the Snake as yet. But she did ask her sister to go visit their aunt, the General in the Northwest."
"WHAT?!"
"That's all for today's lecture." Happy flung the book away. "Until next time! Stand. Bow. Aye!"
He leapt off the desk and left the classroom before anyone could blink. The rest of the group looked at each other, concern etched across their faces. "What?!" they repeated, before grabbing their books and running out of the room. Maybe Happy-sensei would have office hours.
x
"Cheria!" Wendy smiled, adjusting the angle of the communications lacrima. "Merry Christmas!"
Her girlfriend grinned back at her. "Merry Christmas!"
It had been almost a month since they had spoken. It felt good to see her face again. Wendy slid the screen door shut behind her and walked towards the garden for a modicum of privacy. "How are you? What have you been upto?"
"I'm good. Even better now that I'm talking to you." Cheria paused to tilt the communications lacrima at the guild behind her. "Just regular Christmas stuff." Wendy saw a stone Christmas tree rising up to the second storey of the guild hall, beautifully festooned in ice and paper dolls. The members of Lamia Scale were bustling about, dressed in cheerful Christmas sweaters. She saw Toby yelling at Yuka, asking where his Christmas stocking was.
"How long, do you think, until Toby realises its stuck to the front of his jumper?" Cheria smirked as she came back into view.
Wendy sweatdropped. "A long time."
Cheria chuckled. "How's Christmas where you are?"
"They actually don't celebrate Christmas here."
"What! That's not love!"
Wendy laughed. Cheria was so cute when she was outraged. She took a moment to wipe the early morning dew off the wooden flooring outside their room and sat down. "I still had a good time. I wanted to call you yesterday, but it would have been too late for you."
Cheria pouted. "Yeah. Time difference is not love. I'm glad we could talk today! Booking a slot at the communications lacrima isn't easy."
"About that Cheria," Wendy said, a small smile tugging at her lips.
"Merry Christmas, Cheria!" Lyon suddenly appeared onscreen and plonked a tastefully decorated package in front of Cheria. He winked at the screen. "Did I time that right, Wendy?"
"Precise as always, Lyon-san!"
"What's this?" Cheria asked, tearing the wrapping paper into shreds. Wendy flinched as hours of her most careful work was decimated in a matter of seconds. Cheria pulled a box out of the debris, crowing with happiness. "No way! You got me my own Rockophone! That's love, that is!" Cheria turned to Lyon, "Isn't this love? Sherry! Yuka! Toby! Oobababa-sama! Look at what my girlfriend got me for Christmas!"
Wendy blinked in surprise as her girlfriend disappeared offscreen, leaving her to stare awkwardly at Lyon. "Erm," she began.
"Was that Lyon's voice I heard?" Gray said sleepily, pushing open the screen door. "Yo Lyon! Merry Christmas!"
"Merry Christmas, Gray."
"Oh, are you talking to Lamia Scale?" came Lucy's voice from indoors. "I should say hi to Sherry."
"I should pay my respects to Jura."
"Erza-dono, a very merry Christmas to you."
"Ooh! Is that Jura? Jura, fight me!"
"Your eyebrows are nowhere near bushy enough to challenge someone of Jura's calibre."
"Is that Fairy Tail on the line? Be quiet everyone, or I'll spin you! Merry Christmas Fairies."
"That's right. A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU! And there'll be no other way about it!"
"Still having trouble with anger management, I see, Toby."
"Charle! Merry Christmas!"
"You clod, Happy. We're in the same location, you don't have to shout!"
A haze of stress descended upon Wendy. How had her video call been hijacked so quickly? She searched for Cheria in the swarm onscreen while trying to avoid being jostled by the wizards who had crowded around her. Finally, she spotted her girlfriend and her lips spread into an embarrassed smile. She held up her own Rockophone and tilted her head. Cheria winked in response and mouthed 'That would be love.'
No one even noticed Wendy slip away, her phone already pressed to her ear, a tiny blush spreading across her face.
Makarov gazed gravely into the communications lacrima that sat on his desk. Erza had asked to speak to him privately after her team had finished talking to the other members in the guild. Makarov knew it was serious because Erza had not been distracted by the inevitable hijinks.
"Master," Erza said, her lips tightening, "How is it possible that a mission as treacherous as the 100 Years Quest has only been issued to one guild?"
He flinched. Trust Erza to get straight to the point. Gildarts had been on the 100 Years Quest for three years and had not thought to ask him that question. "I always thought that something in our guild's history connects us to the 100 Year Quest."
Onscreen, Erza's eyes narrowed, recognising prevarication. "If that is so, then surely you would not mind sharing with me the details of who requested the job."
Makarov stroked his beard as he contemplated how to answer that.
"Every job that passes to a guild has to be requested by someone, is that not so? It is in the charter for official guilds."
Makarov sighed. "The details of who requested the job are a bit unclear." It was a half-truth, but Erza would have to forgive him for that. There was no point in getting her hopes up.
"I see. Then can you at least share the address from which the job was posted?"
Makarov cracked a smile. "I don't see why that should be a problem."
Lucy was doing the breakfast dishes and grumbling about how she had, once again, got stuck with the job, when inspiration struck. She hurriedly pulled off her gloves and switched the faucet off. It was so obvious, how had she not seen it before? She rummaged in her backpack and pulled out the map she had been working with in Silestina.
She moved Charle's cup of tea off the kotatsu and spread open the folded sheet of paper.
"Hey! I was drinking that!"
Lucy ignored her, her mind already working feverishly. She circled a location on the map, followed by three others. "I knew it!" she exclaimed.
"Knew what?" asked Gray, looking up from the book he was reading.
Lucy grabbed a different colour marker, pulling the cap off with her teeth. "Remember how I said the Aquarius key was probably at the intersection of several supernal lines? And we ended up finding the Ox instead? The other three Keys we found in Giltena were also at similar intersections. See!"
She pointed at the map, indicating spots in the Valerian region in the south, the mangrove forests to the west and the Conturbatus forest in the east. "There are eleven other locations on this map where there are confluences of supernal lines. The other Guardians have to be there!"
"That's our Lucy!" Happy held up his paw for a high five.
Wendy frowned. "These three are very close to Tekka," she said, tapping a finger on the map. "The Snake Guardian took us from Tekka and put us back there within a day. Maybe he is at one of these three."
"That just means we'll have to start at the other eight," Lucy replied, shooting down Natsu's idea even before he had a chance to voice it.
"That's still a lot of ground to cover," Charle said. Giltena was enormous. They had been lucky that the first three Keys they had collected had been pretty close together. The other locations on the map were scattered, some of them weeks away even with the superfast Giltenese trains. "Where do we begin?"
Erza walked into the room and tossed down a slip of paper. Her conversation with Master Makarov had perturbed her. It was unlike Master to be so cagey and evasive. "Interesting," she murmured, poring over the map, "Very interesting." She pulled the marker out of Lucy's hand and circled the address Master Makarov had given her, unsurprised to find it overlapping with a place Lucy had marked.
"Everything we have done so far," she said, a steely glint entering into her eyes, "Everything has been under the illusion of control. We have merely been pawns in someone else's game. But not anymore. The time has come for us to make some moves of our own."
A week later they were walking into a darkened mansion, weapons at the ready. A cool breeze whispered through the silence of the room, stirring the hairs at the nape of Erza's neck. The lights flickered on, revealing a single occupant stranded amidst the opulence. Erza stabbed her sword into the floor, rested her hands on the pommel and fixed the person with her most severe look.
"We have come to make a Deal."
A/N 2: This was done last week but I wanted to make a start on the next chapter before I posted it. I am 250 words into chapter 24 so technically this has been achieved haha. I hope the recap helps you to keep track of what's been going on in the story so far! This chapter also marks an end to this part of the story. The next part of the story will be focused on providing answers to the mysteries that have been established, bringing Grayza together, progressing Nalu's relationship and providing Wendy with some chardev. Idk what to do with the Exceeds tbh, I'm already kind of overwhelmed with the other 5 characters. But let's see. Maybe I will be able to devote half a chapter somewhere to some growth for them. Haha!
A/N 3: I've been thinking of updating the description for this story, and its picture but I can't find any other image that speaks to me (I want one with all seven of them in it, but without Gray and Erza being on opposite ends T_T). Who knows, you might soon be subjected to a picture made using my excellent editing skills on Microsoft Paint. Think Erza's drawing skills and you'll be on the right track ;).
Thanks to the folks who faved/followed! Please leave a review if you are enjoying the story! Trust me, an author appreciates every single review they get, even if they are bad ones, or even if they are one word reviews. You can also ask me for clarifications on any plot points so far that may have confused you! I promise to answer without spoiling future chapters ;).
Hope you enjoyed this chapter. Until next time!
