Lucy - POV
I was beginning to seriously suspect that this tower had been designed by a sadist with a very particular sense of humour. Or, at worst, by someone who really, deeply, hated architecture. Because, honestly? The number of absolutely identical corridors in this place was ridiculous. It was like walking inside a Rubik's Cube assembled by a drunkard. Grey stone walls, damp and smelling of ancient sadness. Torches that, instead of illuminating, seemed to be sucking up the ambient light and emitting a faint, depressive gloom. And that smell, that persistent smell of mould, moss, and despair, which was doing terrible and probably permanent things to my hair. My poor, and normally fabulous, hair.
"Juvia thinks we should go left," said my… travelling companion? Love Rival? Temporary rescue colleague? I honestly still didn't know how to classify Juvia Lockser. Our relationship was… complex. And, for the most part, unilaterally hostile on her part.
"You said that exactly three corridors ago, Juvia," I replied, with a Herculean effort to keep my voice calm and not sound as irritated as I actually felt."And, if you recall, we ended up in a dead end with a skeleton wearing a funny hat."
"Juvia was following the unmistakable presence of her beloved Gray-sama." She said this with such a profound seriousness, as if she were reciting a universal truth.
I stopped, incredulous. "Juvia, your heart is not a magical tracking lacrima!"
She turned to me, those large blue eyes of hers, normally so melancholic, now shining with a genuine offence.
"Juvia's heart is much, much better than any tracking lacrima. Juvia's heart is connected to Gray-sama's heart by invisible and unbreakable threads of fate. Juvia always knows where her beloved is."
(Brilliant. On top of being lost, I was trapped with a delusional romantic fanatic. We weren't even looking for Gray, but Natsu…) I rubbed my temples with my fingers, feeling the unmistakable pang of a headache forming right behind my eyes.
"Right. If you always know where he is… why have we been walking in circles for at least twenty minutes?"
Juvia seemed to think for a moment, her expression confused.
"…The invisible threads of fate must be a bit tangled at the moment."
Fantastic. Simply fantastic. We were relying on the celestial wiring of obsessive love to guide us. What could go wrong? We kept walking. Or rather, we continued to get lost in increasingly creative and frustrating ways. I swear we passed by the same corridor with a damp patch that looked like a sad rabbit at least four times.
At some point of pure desperation and rationality, I had the brilliant idea, if I do say so myself, of scratching a large and clear X on the wall with a stone I found on the floor. At least that way we would have concrete and irrefutable proof that we were, in fact, repeating the path and not just going mad.
"What is the love rival doing now?" Juvia asked, watching me with a palpable suspicion, as if I were performing some kind of dark magic ritual to steal Gray's affection.
"Don't call me the love rival, for all that is celestial," I sighed, the sound echoing through the silent corridor. "I'm marking our path. It's a basic technique, you know? Navigation for beginners."
"Juvia also knows navigation techniques," she said with a surprising pride. "Juvia navigated the seas of Fiore during her missions in Phantom Lord."
"Brilliant! Marvellous! So you know it's important to have landmarks so as not
to—"
"Juvia always followed the direction her heart told her."
A heavy silence settled between us.
"…And did that… usually work?" I asked, almost afraid of the answer.
"Juvia got lost several times. But she always found her way back… eventually."
Eventually. What a comforting word.
We marched down another corridor that looked identical to all the others. I turned right, into a corridor that seemed new. Then left, up a flight of stairs that I could have sworn by Plue wasn't there before. And then…
I stopped. With a dull thud of my feet on the stone floor.
I looked at the wall.
There was an X. Scrat-ched. On. It.
My X.
"You have got to be kidding me," I muttered, my voice a whisper of pure and absolute disbelief.
"Oh! Look! Someone else is marking the path too!" Juvia exclaimed, with a tone of genuine and childish impression. "What an interesting and fun coincidence!"
"Juvia. That mark. It was ME. I made it. Exactly ten minutes ago."
The silence that followed was almost deafening. You could hear the sound of the torches crackling and, probably, of my sanity slipping away.
"…Perhaps," she said finally, with a thoughtful and serious tone, crossing her arms over her chest, "Juvia's invisible threads of fate are, in fact, leading the love rival in circles on purpose."
"WHAT?!"
"It makes perfect sense, if we stop to think about it. The love rival, obviously, wants Gray-sama all to herself. That's why she's making us walk in circles! To sabotage Juvia's search and keep her away from the warmth of her beloved Gray-sama's arms!" Her logic was so twisted it was almost impressive.
"I DON'T WANT GRAY! I JUST WANT TO GET OUT OF THIS BLOODY CORRIDOR!"
"That is exactly what a cunning and deceitful love rival would say to trick
Juvia."
I wanted to scream. I wanted to cry. I wanted very, very much to have the power of teleportation to be anywhere else in the universe that wasn't this mad tower, with this obsessive girl with serious problems of perception of reality.
(Okay, Lucy. Calm down.) I took a deep breath. I counted to ten. I reminded myself that Juvia was, technically, an ally. That we were, theoretically, on the same side. That I was a proud mage, a future member of Fairy Tail (I hope!) and that I needed to maintain my composure, even in the face of the purest and most crystalline insanity.
"Juvia," I said, with all the calm, patience, and serenity I could muster, which wasn't much, "I swear by my celestial spirits, by my life, and by my future shoe collection: I do not have the slightest romantic interest in Gray. Zero. Nil. Nothing. He takes his clothes off in public for no reason and thinks it's completely normal. That, to me, is not at all attractive."
Juvia narrowed her eyes, sceptical.
"Juvia thinks that Gray-sama's shirtless body is the most glorious and perfect sight in the entire universe. And a proof of his purity of spirit."
(Of course she does.) "You know what? Brilliant. Marvellous. He's all yours. You can get married, have thirty ice children with exhibitionist problems, and live happily ever after in an igloo on top of a mountain. I, literally, with every letter, do not care."
For a moment, Juvia's eyes shone with something that looked dangerously like…hope?
"Is the love rival… yielding the way for Juvia?"
"THERE IS NOTHING TO YIELD! THERE WAS NEVER A COMPETITION IN THE FIRST PLACE!"
"Juvia does not know if she should believe the rival's words…"
"FOR THE LOVE OF…"
And it was then, to the relief of my eardrums and my blood pressure, that we heard it.
The sound came from somewhere ahead of us. Distant and muffled at first, but getting louder and clearer with every passing second.
It was guitar chords. Distorted. Aggressive. The kind of heavy, noisy sound that made my ears hurt just thinking about it and that would probably frighten small animals.
"What is that absolutely horrible sound?" I asked, instinctively covering my ears.
"Juvia… Juvia does not know." And, for the first time since we had separated from the group, Juvia seemed genuinely disturbed by something that didn't involve Gray. That was worrying. "But Juvia thinks it is coming from that direction."
She pointed, with a trembling finger, to a corridor wider than all the others we had seen, with a strange, pulsating light shining at its end, like the heart of a sick creature.
(Okay, Lucy, let's analyse the situation rationally.) On the one hand, going towards mysterious and frightening sounds in a tower full of deadly enemies was, objectively, a terrible idea. Like, the worst possible idea. The kind of thing that happened in cheesy horror films a second before the secondary character died a horrible and predictable death.
On the other hand, walking in circles forever, listening to Juvia's conspiracy theories about the threads of fate and my supposed secret love for Gray, wasn't working either. And, honestly, that might be a fate worse than death.
"Let's check it out," I said, hating every syllable that left my mouth. "But very, very carefully."
"Juvia agrees." She paused for a moment, as if making an important decision. "But Juvia will go first. To protect the love rival from any danger."
I blinked, taken by surprise. "I… uh… thank you?"
"Juvia is not doing this for the rival, let that be clear," she added quickly, her face flushed. "Juvia is doing this because her beloved Gray-sama would be very, very sad if something bad happened to one of his friends. Juvia is doing
this for Gray-sama."
It was the cutest and, at the same time, completely mad declaration I had ever heard in my life. But, given the circumstances, I would take it.
We advanced cautiously down the wider corridor, the sound of the distorted guitar growing louder and more unbearable with every step. The pulsating light at the end of the corridor revealed itself to be, in fact, a circular room, much larger and more imposing than any other room we had seen so far. Huge, crackling torches were attached to the stone walls. A ceiling so high it was lost in darkness. It looked like the set for some kind of rock show by a god of the underworld.
And in the centre of the room…
"Is that…" I began, my voice a shocked whisper.
"…deeply disturbing," Juvia completed, with a frightening precision.
There was a man. If that pale, slender creature could be called a man.
He had his back to us, completely absorbed and lost in his own world, playing an imaginary guitar with a fervour that bordered on insanity. His head was bobbing back and forth in a frantic, almost violent headbang. And his hair… by the Gods, his hair was a black, thick, and impossibly long mass that not only fell to the floor but spread out across it, in all directions, like a living, oily creature, writhing subtly with his movements.
His skin was as pale as paper, almost translucent under the torchlight. Heavy, smeared black makeup covered his eyes. And on his bare chest, visible because, obviously, he was also not wearing a shirt (why do I only know men who hate shirts?! Is it a curse?!), was tattooed, in coarse, gothic letters, a single and suggestive word:
SKELETON
"YEAH! YEAH! YEEAAAH!" he shouted, his voice a high-pitched shriek, still not noticing our presence, completely lost in his moment. "ROCK'N'ROLL NEVER DIES, BABY! NEVER!"
Juvia and I exchanged a look of pure and absolute "what-the-devil-is-that?!".
"Should we… maybe… go back quietly?" I whispered, my initial courage completely evaporating.
"Juvia thinks so. With absolute certainty," she whispered back, already taking a careful step backwards.
And it was then, to our absolute horror, that the stone floor creaked under my foot.
The man stopped playing. Suddenly. The silence that followed was almost more frightening than the noise.
He turned around. Slowly. Dramatically.
And he smiled.
It was the kind of wide, toothy, and utterly joyless smile that made you want to run desperately in the opposite direction and never, ever look back.
"Well, well, well…" he said, his voice drawling, melodic, and terribly amused. "It seems we finally have an audience for the glorious and thunderous show of Vidaldus Taka!"
My first instinct, of course, was to run.
My second instinct, equally rational, was also to run.
In fact, all my instincts, from the most primitive to the most civilised, were, at that moment, screaming in a perfect and deafening unison: RUN, LUCY, YOU IDIOT, RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!
But my legs, treacherous as they were, did not obey. Perhaps it was the paralysing fear. Perhaps it was the adrenaline freezing my muscles. Or perhaps, just perhaps, it was the fact that that ridiculously, absurdly long hair was now moving on its own, like the tentacles of a nightmarish squid, and blocking our only exit. Yes. That was probably it.
"Two adorable little girls lost in the labyrinth of rock!" Vidaldus advanced towards us, his hair undulating and dragging across the floor like a black tide. "Do you, by any chance, know who I am?"
"A madman with very, very serious hair problems?" I answered before my brain, in an act of self-preservation, could stop my mouth from speaking.
(Why did I say that? WHY, IN THE NAME OF ALL THE CELESTIAL SPIRITS, DID I SAY THAT?!)
Vidaldus stopped. Blinked. His manic expression changed to one of surprise. And then…
He laughed.
It was a high, shrill, almost hysterical laugh that echoed through the entire room, making the torches tremble.
"HA! I LIKE you, blonde girl! You've got attitude! Rock'n'roll attitude!" He pointed at me with his long, skull-ring-covered fingers. "The name is Vidaldus Taka, lead guitarist of the legendary and deadly band Death's Head Caucus! Elite assassin of the Trinity Raven! And, without a shadow of a doubt, the most ROCK'N'ROLL man you, in your short and probably boring life, have ever had the privilege of meeting!"
"Death's Head Caucus?" Juvia murmured beside me, her voice a thread of concern. "They are one of the assassin guilds that Simon-san mentioned…"
"So he's from the Trinity Raven," I completed, the penny finally dropping and the dread settling in my stomach for good, remembering that mad, possessed Jellal's announcement. "He's one of the three strongest warriors in the tower."
"BINGO, BABY!" Vidaldus struck a dramatic, almost ridiculous pose, one leg in front of the other, his hands in the air as if he were in the middle of an epic and invisible guitar solo. "And you two are the lucky girls who will have the honour of participating in my private and exclusive show! A show of rock, pain,
and despair!"
My hand, in a conditioned reflex, automatically went to my celestial keys on my belt. (Taurus. Taurus would definitely be a good option for a direct, brute-force combat. Perhaps Cancer, with his scissors, could do something about that disgusting hair. Or maybe…)
"Juvia will take care of him," the water mage said, with a cold determination, taking a step forward and placing me behind her. "The colleague… I mean… the Love Rival can stay back and not get hurt."
(She… she almost called me a colleague. Is that… progress? Maybe?)
"Ohoho! The little blue girl wants to dance with me first?" Vidaldus licked his lips in a slow, predatory way that made me feel a wave of nausea. "Perfect! You look… quite… juicy."
Okay. That was disgusting. Repulsive. Utterly and completely disgusting.
"Water Slicer!" Juvia, clearly not liking the comment, attacked first, blades of water as sharp as razors cutting through the air at high speed towards the foul
rocker.
But, to our astonishment, Vidaldus didn't even move.
His impossible hair rose from the floor like a living, pulsating shield, absorbing every drop of water, every liquid blade, like a giant, thirsty sponge. And, to my horror, the black strands even seemed to… grow? To become more lustrous?
"My hair completely absorbs any kind of liquid, baby! It's my secret weapon!" he cackled, triumphant. "The more you attack me with water, the stronger, more hydrated, and more fabulous I become! IT'S THE POWER OF CONDITIONER! I mean, OF ROCK!"
This… was not good. This was definitely not good at all. Juvia's main weapon was useless against him.
"Juvia does not only need her water attacks!" she declared, advancing with an impressive speed, her small fists clenched and ready for hand-to-hand combat. "Juvia also knows how to fight up close!"
She was fast. I had to admit, with a twinge of envy, that she was much faster than I had ever expected. Her blows were precise, fluid, her body moving like… well, like water.
But, unfortunately, Vidaldus was even faster.
He dodged every punch, every kick, as if he were dancing a rehearsed choreography, that manic, irritating smile never leaving his pale face.
"You're really good, little blue girl!" he admitted, jumping back to create distance. "Very good indeed! But do you know what you'd be even better at?"
"At what?" Juvia asked, panting, preparing for the next attack.
"AS MY LITTLE, OBEDIENT, AND SEXY SUCCUBUS!"
What happened next was so fast, so bizarre, that I could barely process what my eyes were seeing.
Vidaldus began to "sing." If that could be called singing. It was more of a high, strangely tuned scream, a distorted, heavy, and dissonant melody that made my ears ache and my soul want to curl up in a corner. He began to play his imaginary guitar again, but this time, the sound seemed real.
🎵 "Girlie, girlie, who will I choose? Close your little eyes and we'll all see!"
🎵
(Hang on… is he singing a… a nursery rhyme? What kind of elite assassin sings nursery rhymes in the middle of a deadly battle?!)
🎵 "Here comes the little ball of sound, to and fro… It stopped on the little
blue one, and now you will dance, you know!" 🎵
The sound waves from that horrible song seemed to take a physical form in the air, vibrating with a sick, purple energy towards Juvia. She tried to move, tried to escape, but the sound completely enveloped her, like invisible, sticky chains.
"What… what is happening to Juvia's body…?" she stammered, gripping her own head with her hands, staggering as if she were dizzy. "Juvia can't move… the music… the horrible music… is inside Juvia's head…"
"JUVIA!" I shouted, finally snapping out of my stupor, and started to run towards her.
But before I could even reach her, Juvia threw her head back and let out a high-pitched scream, a scream of pain that abruptly turned into a total silence.
And when she lowered her head again…
The person, the creature, that was in front of me was no longer the Juvia I knew.
Her hair, once blue and gently wavy, was now a wild mane of spiky blue strands spread out in all directions, defying gravity. Her clothes had changed, as if by magic: a ripped black top, a short leather skirt with chains, high-heeled boots with numerous metal buckles. A distorted, gothic version of herself.
And her eyes…
Her large and expressive blue eyes, once so full of melancholy and an almost sick devotion to Gray, were now… empty. Dead. Opaque. Like those of a broken porcelain doll. As if the person, the soul, that had existed behind them had simply… disappeared. Evaporated.
"Juvia…?" I called, my voice trembling with an uncertainty I detested.
She turned her head in my direction. Slowly. Mechanically.
And she smiled.
It wasn't the shy, slightly strange smile from before. It wasn't even the jealous, almost predatory smile she made when she talked about me and Gray. It was something cruel. Something empty. Something… predatory.
"Hello, love rival," she said, and her voice, though still hers, had a strange echo, as if two people were speaking at the same time, in a dissonant harmony. "Ready to die?"
"YEAH, BABY! THAT'S MY NEW AND IMPROVED SUCCUBUS!" Vidaldus guffawed, doing an air guitar solo so ridiculous it was offensive. "When a woman surrenders and becomes my humble servant, she only hears my voice, she only obeys my will! It is the supreme power of the Rock of Succubus, baby! The rock that rules souls!"
No. No, no, no. This could not be happening.
"Juvia, listen! It's me, Lucy!" I tried, taking a cautious step back as she, with that empty, frightening smile, advanced towards me. "You're not like this! You're a water mage! You're going to be a member of Fairy Tail! You're… you're our friend! Our nakama!"
(Wait. Did I say that? Did I really and genuinely say that?)
But, to my horror, I realised it was true. At some completely undetermined point, between all the "love rival" accusations, the delusions about Gray, and our disastrous walk through these corridors, I had, somehow, inexplicably and entirely illogically, begun to like her. In the strange, intense, and utterly unique way she saw the world. In the fierce and almost frightening loyalty she showed to those she cared about. And in her courage to protect me, even while considering me a rival.
Juvia, the possessed Juvia, did not answer. Her eyes remained empty.
"Oh, she can't hear you, you fool," Vidaldus explained with the patience of a sadistic teacher, seeming genuinely entertained by my desperation. "The Rock of Succubus spell completely replaces the victim's will with my own. All she hears now is my sweet voice in her head. And all she wants now, more than anything in the universe, is to obey me. In everything."
He snapped his fingers, a sharp, wicked sound that echoed through the room.
"Succubus… ATTACK! Show this little blonde the true power of our duet!"
Juvia came at me like a storm.
"Water Slicer!"
With a scream of panic, I threw myself to the side, feeling the sharp blades of water pass so close to my face that they cut, with a surgical precision, a few strands of my precious hair.
MY HAIR! THAT MONSTER, THROUGH HER, CUT MY HAIR!
"JUVIA, WHEN YOU GET BACK TO NORMAL, I SWEAR YOU WILL PAY FOR THIS!"
But the possessed Juvia did not answer. She just attacked again, with a coldness and an efficiency that the real Juvia did not possess.
"Water Nebula!"
A massive wave of water, in the shape of two intertwined spirals, came towards me. I ran, to where I didn't know, I just ran away, but I felt the impact catch me from behind, throwing me with the force of a bull against the stone wall.
Pain. A lot of pain. And the feeling of having swallowed about two litres of undrinkable water.
(Okay, no more messing about, Lucy. It's time to fight seriously!)
"Open, Gate of the Golden Bull! Taurus!"
The familiar golden light shone in the middle of the dark room, and my strongest and, unfortunately, most perverted celestial spirit appeared in all his muscular glory, with his huge axe in hand.
"Luuuuucy! Your body is as beautiful and well-shaped as everrr! What a celestial
sight!"
"TAURUS, FOCUS! NOW IS NOT THE TIME FOR THAT! We need to immobilise Juvia without really hurting her!"
"Immobilise the adorable little blue girl?" He looked at the possessed Juvia, who was already preparing another attack with a cold and murderous expression. "Verrrry well! It will be a pleasure! Leave it to me, Lucy!"
Taurus advanced with a roar, his axe spinning like a propeller. But, to our astonishment, Juvia simply… let the blow pass through her. Her body, in an instant, turned into pure water, and the huge axe cut only the liquid, splashing
everywhere.
"She… she's made of water!" Taurus exclaimed, confused. "How do I attack water?! With a glass?!"
"Water Lock!"
And before Taurus could even think of a joke about it, a large sphere of water completely enveloped him. I saw his bull's eyes widen in panic, air bubbles starting to escape from his mouth.
"TAURUS!"
With an effort of will, I forced the gate to close, pulling my spirit back to the celestial world before he truly drowned. The sphere of water collapsed, splashing noisily on the stone floor.
"Not bad, blondie! Not bad!" Vidaldus applauded from his corner, clearly enjoying himself as if he were watching his favourite show. "But you can't win! Your little blue friend is an S-Class water mage, a true force of nature! And now, to your misfortune, she is all MINE!"
He was right. Damn it. He was right. Juvia was strong. Much, much stronger than me in a direct, brute-force combat. And with her being literally made of water, my physical combat spirits, like Taurus or Leo, couldn't even touch her.
(Think, Lucy. Think! There has to be a way!)
Which spirit could help me in this situation? Cancer? No, his scissors wouldn't cut water, unless he wanted to give her a new haircut. Virgo? She could dig holes, which would be useful if I wanted to run away, but not to fight. Sagittarius? His arrows would probably also pass right through her liquid body.
"Water Jigsaw!"
With a frightening movement, Juvia's body split into dozens of sharp, spinning blades of water, all coming towards me like the pieces of a giant, deadly circular saw.
With a scream of pure terror, I threw myself to the floor, feeling the blades pass mere inches above my head, the high, terrifying sound of the air being cut filling my ears and making my hair stand on end.
This was completely and utterly insane. I was going to die. I was definitely going to die here, in this mad and badly designed tower, at the hands of a girl obsessed with a bloke who loved to take his clothes off in public.
What a pathetic and embarrassing way to die. What would they write on my gravestone? "Here lies Lucy Heartfilia. She loved books, her friends, and was drowned by a jealous rival possessed by a goth rocker."
"GIVE UP, BLONDIE! NO ONE CAN RESIST MY POWER!" Vidaldus shouted, with a triumphant tone. "JUST ACCEPT THE POWER OF ROCK!"
"NEVER!" I shouted back, with a fury born of desperation, getting up with difficulty, my whole body aching from the impact against the wall. "I will save Juvia! I will bring her back! Because she is my nakama!"
The words, once again, came out before I could really think about them. But, deep down, I knew they were true. Juvia, somehow, in her strange, obsessive, and slightly frightening way, had become my nakama. My comrade. My mad and jealous friend who, for some reason, thought I wanted to steal her imaginary boyfriend.
And I was definitely not going to abandon her to be the puppet of a fifth-rate rocker with disgusting hair.
"Water Cane!"
A whip of water as sharp as a blade came towards me. I managed to dodge, barely, but I felt the tearing impact on my arm. It burned like liquid fire.
"Juvia, I know you're in there!" I shouted, ignoring the sharp pain in my arm. "I know you can hear me! Fight him!"
No answer. Just more attacks, each one faster and more precise than the last.
"HAHAHA! I'VE ALREADY TOLD YOU, YOU STUPID GIRL, SHE CAN'T—"
"SHUT YOUR BLOODY MOUTH, YOU FIFTH-RATE ROCKER WITH SELF-ESTEEM ISSUES!"
Vidaldus, for the first time, stopped mid-sentence, looking genuinely and deeply
shocked by my insult.
"…Fifth-rate… rocker?" his voice was a whisper of pure and offended disbelief.
"THAT'S RIGHT! FIFTH-RATE!" I continued, now driven by adrenaline and pure and simple irritation. "YOUR HAIR IS RIDICULOUS AND NEEDS A DEEP CONDITIONING, YOUR MUSIC IS HORRIBLE AND SOUNDS LIKE A CAT BEING STRANGLED, AND THAT 'SKELETON' TATTOO OF YOURS IS THE TACKIEST, MOST TAWDRY, AND MOST ADOLESCENT THING I HAVE EVER SEEN IN MY ENTIRE LIFE!"
(Okay, maybe I went a little too far. Provoking the sadistic villain who controls my murderous friend was perhaps not my smartest decision.)
"YOU… YOU… YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND ROCK'N'ROLL!" he shouted, his pale face now red with pure fury. He seemed more offended by my insult to his music than by anything else. "SUCCUBUS! FINISH HER! NOW! MAKE HER SWALLOW THOSE BLASPHEMOUS WORDS!"
And Juvia, with a speed I hadn't seen before, advanced.
And this time, she didn't use a long-range attack.
Her entire body, in an instant, transformed into a mass of water, a massive, suffocating wave that completely enveloped me. I tried to swim, I tried to fight, I tried to escape, but it was useless. It was like being trapped inside a liquid bubble, in a cold and endless darkness. There was nowhere to go.
And, worst of all, there was no air.
(This is it. I'm going to drown. I'm going to drown inside Juvia's body. This is even more pathetic than I had imagined.)
But then…
In the middle of the aquatic darkness, in the middle of the overwhelming panic and the growing fear, I heard something.
A voice. Faint. Distant. Muffled by the water. But it was definitely there.
"…s-sorry…"
(Juvia?)
"…Juvia doesn't want to do this… Juvia doesn't want to… doesn't want to hurt… Juvia's friend…"
She was crying. I couldn't see, of course, but somehow, I knew. The real Juvia, trapped inside that liquid prison, was crying.
"…Juvia loves Fairy Tail… Juvia has finally found a place… found people who care… Juvia doesn't want to lose this… doesn't want to…"
My heart, which had been beating wildly with panic, clenched in a different way now. With pity. With empathy.
She was there. The real, sensitive Juvia was still in there, trapped inside her own body, watching helplessly as she was forced to hurt, to try to kill, someone whom she, in her confused and jealous heart, had finally begun to consider a friend.
And she, without a shadow of a doubt, was suffering more than I was.
"…help me… please… please, Lucy… someone… help me…"
My lungs were burning. My vision was darkening at the edges.
But in that moment of near-unconsciousness, an idea came to my mind.
A completely, totally, and absolutely mad idea.
With the hand that was still free, I desperately fumbled at my belt. My fingers were trembling, my body was growing weak from lack of air, my vision was getting blurrier, but I found it.
The key. The golden key of the Gate of the Water Bearer. Aquarius's key.
Aquarius, the most powerful and the most bad-tempered of all my spirits. And she, to be summoned, always needed a large amount of water. And at that moment, I was literally surrounded by water. Juvia's entire body WAS water.
It was madness. It was risky. It was brilliant.
And it was our only, only and desperate chance.
With the last of my strength, I gripped the key firmly.
And even without air to speak, even with my lungs desperately begging for a single gulp of oxygen, I forced the words out in a torrent of desperate and silent bubbles:
"O-open… the Gate… of the Water Bearer…"
And the key, responding to my call, began to shine brightly in the aquatic darkness.
"AQUARIUS!"
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Author's Note
---------
I absolutely love writing from Lucy's point of view, seriously, it's almost therapeutic 😂. After dealing with heavier chapters or characters like Azra'il or Morgana from my Runeterra fic (who basically breathes internal conflict), jumping into Lucy's head feels like opening a window and letting chaos in… but in a light and funny way.
The way she narrates everything, complaining, being dramatic over the most random things, while still managing to have genuinely emotional moments, is just incredibly fun to write. I really enjoy that contrast.
And just a quick serious note: I've noticed the number of comments on the chapters has been going down a bit 🥲. I genuinely love reading what you all think, whether it's reactions, wild theories, suggestions, or even chaotic fangirling/fanboying. It really motivates me to keep writing, and sometimes it even inspires new ideas.
So if you can, please leave a comment! I'd love to know what you think about this whole Lucy, Juvia, and possessed rockstar chaos 🤘
See you in the next chapter!