Failing to find anything adequate from the quest board, I took the stairs to the first floor and plopped onto a seat in the corner of the guild, idly watching everyone. Of course, my isolation was eventually broken when Lucy approached me while slamming a quest onto the table, causing me to raise an eyebrow.
"Let's take this one, big bro." "Eh, it's kind of weak though." "You didn't even read it." "I don't need to; any quest you pick out will naturally be weak." Yawning, I kicked my feet onto the bench while she stared at me with a twitching expression before sighing and grumbling under her breath.
"Well, too bad, as the team leader, I order you to!" With a haughty attitude that reminded me of Evergreen, Lucy stared and pointed at me, and I calmly held her gaze; slowly, her haughty demeanor gave way to that of a nervous little girl. "U-Um, pretty please, big bro?" "Yeah, sure. I'm not doing anything anyway." "Yay! Let's go! Now I just need to bully Cana into agreeing."
Victoriously thrusting her fist into the air, Lucy grabbed the quest, sporting a wicked expression before turning around, skipping towards the bar; however, unfortunately for her, she got dragged into a fight between Gray and Natsu. Watching in amusement as Lucy desperately sought to survive their fight, I leaned my head back, closing my eyes and enjoying a relatively peaceful rest.
I got to enjoy a solid twenty minutes to myself before I sensed someone sitting beside me, prompting me to open a single eye, only to see Erza. "What do you want, Erza? If it's to ask me to join your team on the alliance, I refuse, not much fun." "I wasn't, though how did you know I'd accepted to join the alliance?" "I can hear everything in the guild. That's how I know Bisca and Alzack are currently FLIRTING!"
Tapping my ear, I slowly sat upright while shouting the final few words, turning Bisca and Alzack, who were sitting in the corner of the room, into the center of attention. "Ugh, n-not cool, big bro!" "Yeah!" Seeing their faces flush, I laughed and brushed my hair aside before glancing at Erza. "So what was it then?"
"I wanted to ask about Mystogan." Seeing Erza's hardened expression, I scoffed, partly annoyed that she showed any interest in that fool, and I wasn't referring to Mystogan. "Mystogan and Jellal are two different people; I don't know why they look identical, but they're not the same." Erza was only moderately surprised before softly nodding, accepting the weird situation with ease.
"Do you think Jellal is still alive?" "Tch, I fucking hope not." "Do you think so, though?" Seeing how she wasn't letting up, I grunted in annoyance. "Possible. I was more concerned with you and Natsu's safety, so it's possible he survived. No, it's probably likely; someone as strong as Jellal won't be so easily killed. Unfortunately." It was aggravating to know someone who harmed and wished to kill my siblings was still alive out there, but there wasn't much I could do right now.
"Why do you want to know anyway?" "I. I just want to know." "Hmph, if you don't want to tell me, then don't, I don't want excuses." Stretching slightly, I stood up, heading to the entrance. "Bicklsow, Evergreen, Fried! Get your asses over here!" Scratching my head, by the time I arrived at the entrance, the three of them had heeded my call and arrived.
"Yes, big bro?" "C'mon, I need sparring partners. It's been a while since I've trained with you guys." Holding the door open, I gestured to them to follow, only for them to suddenly dash out of the guild. "Split up! Don't let him catch all of us!" "You don't have to tell me twice, Fried!" "Fuck, go faster, dolls!"
Watching them split and fly in different directions, I grinned, cracking my knuckles; I lowered my stance, setting my focus on Bickslow, the slowest amongst them, before pushing off the ground, launching towards him.
"F-Fuck! Why do I have to be first!?"
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A Few Days Later
While playing darts against Nab, Lucy suddenly entered the guild, causing me to click my tongue as I threw a dart with enough force to crack the bullseye in half. "Oi, where the hell were you yesterday? Cana and I were waiting for you, but you were a no-show." Folding my arms, I stared at Lucy, who sighed before sporting a wry smile.
"I'm sorry, something important came up yesterday."
"Oh, well, I'm all ears." Cana stood beside me while eyeing Lucy, who pointed at her face. "Eh, whose the dumbass that gave you that blackeye, Cana!?" "Oh, that was big bro. Because you were a no-show yesterday, I ended up being his sparring partner." "Umm s-sorry?" "You can apologize after you tell us why we're a no-show; otherwise, I'll give you a blackeye myself."
As Cana forcefully led Lucy to a table, I joined them while Lucy went on to explain how, while heading to the guild yesterday, she overheard someone mention that the merchant company her father wanted to join, Love & Lucky, had been taken over by the dark guild Naked Mummy; fearing for her father's life, she took a train over to the city and defeated the dark guild by herself, only to find out her father wasn't there.
After a confrontation with her father at the merchant company, she returned to Magnolia; she also mentioned the first encounter with her father a few days prior. "... That's what happened." "I want to dig my fist into the man's face." "Please don't, big bro, you'd kill him." Clicking my tongue, Cana heaved a deep sigh. "You're fortunate you had a good reason to be a no-show yesterday, Lucy."
"Hehe, anyway, let's choose another quest!" Chuckling, Lucy energetically stood up and headed to the questboard, leaving Cana and I. "Did you have to punch me that hard, big bro?" "Hmph."
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It was the next day, and currently, Lucy, Cana, and I were on the train, heading to the destination of our next quest, where that was. "Where was the quest at?" "Ugh, I already told you, it's in Gazania Town." "I wasn't listening before." "This is like my fourth time repeating it!" "What did you say?" "I swear he's doing this on purpose, I just can't prove it." While Lucy stared intensely at me for some reason, I leaned against the window, letting the hours bleed on until we arrived.
"The train is slowing down, finally." Hearing Cana's voice, I opened my eyes, stretching slightly while I gently shook Lucy, waking her up. "Huh, where is my sexy boy band?" "Seems like you were having a good dream." At my words, Lucy faintly blushed before sheepishly chuckling.
When the train came to a stop, we stood and disembarked, stepping onto the platform. "Oh yeah, wasn't there a guild in this town? Cat tooth? Pussy tooth?" Scratching my chin, trying to remember the name of the guild, Cana helped me. "You mean Sabertooth?" "Yeah, that one." "Oh, what about them?" "Nothing. I just remember after beating up the guild Master several months ago, a new one took his place." "Heh, then he'd better be careful not to piss you off."
Faintly chuckling at Cana's comment, we followed Lucy, the 'leader', as she led us through the city, taking us to our quest. 'Hmm, why are they sending a different guild a quest rather than asking Sabertooth?' Rubbing my head, I eventually shrugged, following my motto: less thinking, less stress.
"Okay, so the quest was sent by an owner of the Rainbow Theater. Apparently, he believes his theater has become haunted, and they want us to deal with it." "A Ghost? Now that's interesting." While I highly doubted it was an actual ghost, I nodded in agreement with Cana; at least the summary of the quest sounded interesting. "I'm surprised you chose that quest. Knowing you, I figured you'd be too scared." "Hey, I'm not the scaredy cat I was a year ago. I've grown much stronger since then; I could probably beat Cana."
When Lucy made her claim, I instantly looked at Cana, who was staring at her with a twitching expression. "Oh, is that so? I'm interested to see you try. You can't use Loke, though; he's a Fairy Tail member, so that counts as 2vs1." "What, that's not fair!" "Hehe, c'mon, fight you two! Fight!"
Unfortunately, Lucy and Cana weren't anywhere near as hot-headed as the men. "We can spar another time, we're on a quest." "Yeah, show some professionalism, big bro, aren't you a veteran mage?" My eyebrow twitched in annoyance at Cana's mocking words, though I did heed her advice and focused back onto the quest.
'Tch, stupid, Cana, I'll spar with her after we return to the guild.' Folding my arms, I glared at Cana from behind while we walked down the street of Gazania, searching for the Rainbow Theater.