"Urrutia…?"
Uru froze for a second, and then her expression shifted from confusion to overwhelming emotion. Her eyes widened as she rushed forward, clutching Chase's arms.
"Are you sure that's her name?!"
"Urrutia is... my daughter! My daughter who died so many years ago!"
Her voice trembled with disbelief and fragile hope.
Lucy, Natsu, and Happy stood rooted in place, completely stunned.
"Wait, that's Gray's master's daughter?" Lucy's jaw dropped. "She's the one from the Council?!"
She exchanged a look with Happy, still trying to wrap her head around it.
"Our direct superior?" she muttered, still half in denial.
Given how the Council had treated Fairy Tail especially Erza, who once took the fall for the guild Lucy had long held the belief that anyone in the Council was shady by default.
"That's right," Chase said calmly. "She's one of the Nine Members of the Magic Council now."
"That's... that's wonderful... Urrutia is alive... she's still alive!"
The confirmation hit Uru like a wave. Tears spilled down her cheeks uncontrollably, and she pressed a hand to her mouth as she began to cry.
After waking up from being sealed in ice, reunited with Gray and Leon, and now hearing that the daughter she thought dead was still in this world it was too much to take in all at once.
The famously brave and steadfast mage, who once gave her to freeze a demon, now stood trembling, overcome with emotion.
Chase tilted his head slightly, narrowing his eyes. "But you just said Urrutia was dead. I've seen her myself, not long ago. What exactly happened?"
Uru wiped at her tears, but her expression suddenly hardened.
"If that's true... then those bastards at the research institute lied to me!"
She clenched her fists, magic faintly pulsing from her body in a flare of cold fury.
Chase raised an eyebrow, amused. "I like how you say that," he muttered under his breath.
"Research institute?" Natsu echoed, tilting his head.
Guided by Chase's calm question, Uru took a deep breath and steadied herself before beginning the story.
"Back then, Urrutia showed powerful magic potential at a very young age... so powerful that her small body couldn't handle it. I was desperate to save her, so I searched far and wide and eventually entrusted her to the Magic Development Institute."
She paused for a moment, voice heavy with guilt.
"I didn't want to… but I had no other choice. The man in charge, Director Brian, was famous back then. I thought she'd be safe."
Uru's face twisted with regret.
"I visited often. But every time, they turned me away. They kept saying the treatment wasn't done, that she couldn't be disturbed. And then, one day... they told me she died."
Her voice cracked.
"Brian himself gave the news. I begged, pleaded to see her one last time but he wouldn't even let me into the building."
There was a heavy silence.
Of course, the truth was far more sinister.
In reality, Brian had been lying all along. Urrutia had shown such immense magical promise that he wanted to claim her talents for himself. So he faked her death and raised her in secret under the institute's shadow.
"…That bastard," Chase muttered, scowling. "To use a mother's love like that…"
"I have to see her," Uru said, raising her head suddenly. Her eyes locked on Chase, fierce with resolve. "Wherever she is now I need to see her."
Tears still glittered on her face, but her voice was clear.
"Please… help me find my daughter."
No matter where you are whether near or far sometimes fate simply finds a way.
Chase stood silently, gazing toward a boulder near the edge of the collapsed chamber. His voice was barely audible as he muttered, "The atmosphere's already this thick. Are you really not going to come out?"
As if in response, a soft clack rang out.
A mask hit the ground.
Everyone's attention snapped to the sound echoing through the quiet cave.
From behind the rocks stepped a tall woman with flowing straight black hair. She wore a white corset that accentuated her flawless figure, and her features so eerily familiar were like a mirror image of Ulu herself.
Urrutia.
She had heard it all. And now, with the truth laid bare, her body trembled as tears streamed freely down her face.
"W-Wait… two… two Gray's masters?!" Natsu's voice broke the tension like a hammer.
While Gray and Leon stood stunned, trying to process what they were seeing, it was Natsu predictably who spoke first, pointing back and forth between the two nearly identical women.
His face turned dead serious.
"She really is the legendary master of perverts… She even mastered transformation magic to such an extent that she can split into a second body!"
"…You mean a thought projection?" Lucy deadpanned beside him.
"Also, can you not use your rare moments of seriousness to spout complete nonsense?" she snapped.
"Yeah, Natsu," Happy added, arms folded. "That's clearly not some illusion. You totally messed up."
"Exactly!" Lucy huffed, glaring. "Can you please use your head for once?"
Happy puffed out his chest, smugly preparing to reveal the grand "truth" he'd pieced together.
"Listen well, Natsu! There's only one answer to this mystery Gray's master…"
He paused for dramatic effect.
"…had a twin!"
Lucy collapsed face-first into the stone floor.
Seriously? she thought, too tired to argue anymore. Why did I even expect intelligence from a flying blue cat?
"I don't know what brought her here," Lucy finally groaned, dragging herself upright, "but this woman is clearly Urrutia! The daughter Ulu mentioned!"
"Ah?!" Natsu and Happy gasped in perfect unison, their jaws hitting the floor as the truth finally landed.
While the three of them spiraled into another round of chaos, Chase calmly walked past them.
"That's enough. Let's not stick around and interrupt what might be the most important moment of their lives."
With that, he scooped Natsu under one arm, Lucy under the other, and casually tucked Happy beneath one elbow like a loaf of bread.
"Hey! I can walk by myself, you know!" Lucy yelped.
"Put me down! I want to see how it ends!" Natsu flailed.
But Chase said nothing, only continued walking as the muffled sounds of reunion slowly faded behind them.
Then, a soft breeze swept through the corridor, carrying the scent of saltwater and the open sea.
Moonlight spilled through the cracks above, illuminating the temple ruins in a serene glow.
And as they stepped out onto the uppermost level, the veil of darkness lifted revealing the full view of Karuna Island beneath the watchful gaze of the glowing purple moon.
Natsu and Happy were still sulking on the ground, whispering back and forth like misbehaving kids punished after a festival. You could practically see the steam coming out of Natsu's ears.
Lucy, meanwhile, quietly walked over to Chase, who stood on the edge of the ruins' top floor, letting the cool breeze lift his coat as he gazed up at the glowing sky.
She laced her fingers behind her back, looking up beside him. In her wide, amber eyes shimmered a light not from the moon or the stars, but from something deeper.
A light called longing.
After a long silence, the girl finally asked the question that had been weighing on her heart ever since witnessing the reunion between Gray and his master.
"Brother Chase… can your magic really bring someone back from the dead?"
Chase didn't answer right away. He could already guess who she was thinking of her mother, Layla Heartfilia.
"Technically speaking," he said at last, voice calm but firm, "I didn't truly bring Ulu back from the dead. I just melted her frozen form and restored her body. It's not what you'd call resurrection."
He shook his head, the breeze catching in his hair as he continued flatly, "So in your case… no, I don't think it's possible."
Chase wasn't just trying to protect himself from unwanted attention for using forbidden magic. What he said was true.
Resurrection magic came with harsh limits. Two conditions were non-negotiable: the time since death, and the power of the soul being restored.
The longer someone had been dead, the more powerful they were in … the more magic it would take.
Even reviving Ulu whose soul was still bound to the ice had nearly drained every drop of his energy. Now, every breath he took felt like a lead weight pressing on his lungs.
Layla, by contrast, had been gone for years and she was a celestial wizard powerful enough to open the Eclipse Gate.
That kind of resurrection… was far beyond what even he could manage.
"I understand…" Lucy looked down, voice soft with disappointment. Her shoulders slumped just slightly.
But Chase smirked suddenly.
"Still," he said, cracking his knuckles ominously, "if you want to know what it feels like to be broken into pieces and reassembled, I could give you a demonstration."
He loomed over her with a mock-evil grin, fists raised as if ready to unleash his magic. "Don't worry. It won't hurt… much."
"Who in their right mind would want to go through that kind of nightmare?!"
Lucy snapped out of her melancholy with a yell, fire flashing in her eyes as she took a step back and shook her fist at him.
"Princess, I would gladly bear that pain for you."
Baluge appeared out of thin air like a lovesick phantom, sparkling with dramatic flair.
"It's real?!"
Lucy almost fell over.
Looking at Baluge's radiant face full of enthusiasm, she groaned and facepalmed. "You're just saying that because you think it'll be fun…"
Before anyone could respond, the sound of approaching footsteps echoed from the staircase.
The four figures emerged: Ulu, Gray, Leon… and Urrutia.
Each of them had calmed down, their faces now composed but heavy with the weight of everything they'd just gone through.
Lucy turned, and the moment her eyes landed on them on Urrutia walking alongside Ulu her whole body stiffened like she'd been struck by lightning.
She stood frozen in place, eyes wide in disbelief.
The reunion was complete. But this wasn't just a reunion of mentor and disciples anymore.
This… was a reunion of mother and daughter.
...
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