Lucy was spinning in circles, totally freaking out, when Erza tapped her chin, thought for a second, and pulled the last two slices of cake from a nearby basket. She held them out to Mirajane.
"I don't have any gold coins right now, but I've got two slices of the best cake in the whole kingdom right here!"
"Trade you these perfect cakes for that box of matches. That's gotta be enough, right?"
"Meow?" Mirajane froze.
This isn't in the script! her brain screamed. There's nothing about trading cake! What do I do next?
She racked her brain and finally figured: If it's the "best cake in the kingdom," it's probably worth about three gold coins… right?
Decision made, Mirajane forced a touched expression, took the cakes, and handed the matches to Erza with dramatic flair:
"Oh! You—you're willing to trade three—er, I mean, two of these precious cakes for my humble little box of matches!"
"You're just too kind! You must be the noble princess from the prophecy!"
Lucy's eye twitched hard from the sidelines:
"=_= Trading cake? Suddenly this feels super cheap!!"
"And wait, the quest is done just like that?! This is way too easy!"
Erza smiled, satisfied. "So, can you tell us how to get to the Sky City now?"
Mirajane pulled off her tattered hood and pointed toward the center of town. "Since we have to watch out for the evil dragon pretending to be the princess, there's one more tiny test. Then I'll tell you how to reach the Sky City."
"Follow me, please."
They trailed Mirajane deeper into town.
A few minutes later, Lucy's eyes nearly popped out when she saw the insanely fancy shop in front of them.
"This—this is your shop?!"
"You're supposed to be a poor match-girl!"
Mirajane nodded like it was obvious. "Yup! This place sells matches. The whole town gets theirs from us."
Lucy looked like she'd given up on life. "If your business is this big, why are you dressed in rags, squatting at the town gate selling matches?!"
"Family tradition, duh!" Mirajane said proudly. "The rules say the real princess is kind and gentle."
"Only someone who'd spend three gold coins to buy matches from a ragged little girl is the true princess."
Lucy muttered weakly, "Or… maybe just a rich idiot passing by."
Mirajane grinned. "That's why we need the second test! Why else do you think I brought you here?"
Lucy facepalmed and sighed. How much random stuff did Cana sneak into this script? Also, Mirajane's holding back her usual "meow" habit just to stay in character. Impressive.
They stepped inside. Wally approached, hands morphed into gun barrels, and bowed. "Welcome home, Young Mistress."
Lucy took a deep breath, vision swimming. "Do I even bother complaining? What's his deal?"
Mirajane shrugged like it was normal. "He's my hired bodyguard. Gotta stay safe until I meet the princess. If I get taken out halfway, the world's doomed, right?"
She carefully pulled a tiny box from her pocket, opened it, and revealed… a single pea.
"This is the 'Pea of Truth,' used to verify the real princess."
"Only the true princess can see it. And only the true princess can make it grow."
Lucy stared at the pea, eyelid twitching. "Then why can I see it?"
"And if you carry this thing everywhere, why didn't you just show it at the gate? Why drag us all the way here?"
Mirajane tilted her head, thinking, then answered innocently:
"Because the script says so. I'm not really sure why, meow."
Lucy slapped her forehead and collapsed to her knees with a wail:
"I regret entering this script! Where's Happy? Can I trade roles with him?!"
Erza ignored the chaos, stepped forward, and examined the pea.
"Just plant it in the ground?"
"One more step," Mirajane said, clapping. "Bodyguard, bring the mattress."
"Yes, Young Mistress." Wally hauled out a thick, plush mattress from the back.
Following instructions, Erza buried the pea in the soft soil of the shop's backyard, then covered it snugly with the mattress.
Finally, she lay perfectly centered on top, hands folded serenely over her stomach.
The next second, the ground rumbled violently.
The mattress shot upward, lifted by a massive force from below!
The shaking stopped as fast as it started.
Mirajane stared at the thick, emerald-green vine now firmly propping up the mattress, eyes sparkling. "Whoa, meow! It grew that tall in a second!"
Lucy, exhausted, reminded her: "== Uh… your character just broke. The 'meow' slipped out."
"So what now?"
Mirajane cleared her throat and switched back to her dramatic tone: "The noble princess just has to command the vine to 'rise,' and it'll carry you straight to the Sky City."
Lucy: "←_← It's voice-activated?!"
She and Happy (in dog form, "Little White") carefully climbed onto the mattress.
Erza gave the command. The vine surged with life, rocketing upward through layers of fluffy white clouds, mattress and all.
Soon, a massive castle made of clouds and light loomed ahead.
Giant plants towed everywhere—one blade of grass was taller than they were.
They hid behind a huge flower, scanning the area cautiously.
Lucy pointed at a stone house the size of a mountain in the distance and whispered:
"Every legendary weapon has a powerful guardian and a protector."
"We have to beat the guardian and earn the protector's approval to fully wield the weapon."
Right on cue, the stone house let out a BOOM BOOM rumble.
The doors creaked open. A colossal figure stepped out: Elfman, playing the guardian.
He threw his head back and roared, nearly blowing the clouds away:
"A real man guards the weapon as a GIANT!!"
Lucy covered her ears and groaned: "That has nothing to do with being a man—"
Once the ringing stopped, she turned to Erza:
"Princess, the giant's body is super tough. Brute force won't work. We need to find a plant called 'Sleep Grass' and—"
"No need for that," Erza interrupted with a smirk. "I can take him alone."
"Huh?" Lucy blinked, worried Erza hadn't adjusted to her nerfed power. "But you don't have your usual weapons or armor! And we're only the size of his palm! You can't beat him solo!"
Erza smiled. "Of course I can."
"Come to think of it, Lucy… you've barely seen me fight with Requip: The Knight's other specialty—Enchantment Magic, have you?"
She casually yanked up a blade of grass taller than half her body.
A crimson magic circle flared above it.
[Enchant: Sharpness · Hardness · Sleep · Poison · Gravity]
The grass rapidly reshaped into a gleaming sword, edges razor-sharp, color deepening to inky green.
[Enchant: Lightweight · Strength · Speed]
Pale green, crimson, and blue light swirled around Erza, boosting her body.
She aimed her left hand at the ground beneath Elfman's feet.
[Enchant: Explosion]
A blinding red blast erupted beneath the giant. BOOM! Dust and smoke swallowed his vision.
"That magic! Erza's enchantment?!" Elfman boomed.
He swung his massive arms, trying to clear the smoke.
In that split second, a scarlet streak blurred past his face, too fast to track.
[Hundred Flower Frenzy · Revised]
Tiny whistling sounds filled the air. Elfman felt a storm of pinprick stings all over.
He swung a fist the size of a boulder, but Erza was a ghost—only crimson light trails danced in the smoke.
"Dang it! Can't see a thing!!"
"The script said to put me to sleep! Why are we fighting for real?!"
Elfman spun his arms like windmills, blasting the smoke away.
A tiny scarlet dot appeared in his vision.
"There! My role is to stop the princess—so let's do this!!"
"A real man gives every scene his all!!"
He roared and slammed his fist toward the tiny figure mid-air.
Erza snorted, twisting like a feather on his fist's wind current to gain height.
"Trying to out-act me, Elfman? You're not even close."
[Enchant: Shockwave]
A cyan blast slammed into the side of Elfman's knee.
His massive frame staggered, nearly toppling.
Erza landed on his arm and sprinted upward, blinking from spot to spot higher each time.
The ink-green sword in her hand morphed—widening, lengthening, green energy coiling into a giant blade.
[Enchant: Weight · Durability · Spread · Sleep]
With every added spell, the blade's glow intensified, pressure crushing the air.
Muscles tensing, Erza leapt level with Elfman's head, gripped the sword two-handed, and slashed down with the force of gravity and every enchantment combined.
[Musō Issatsu: Rakshasa]
Elfman raised an arm to block, but his giant body was too slow.
His pupils reflected the ink-green slash nearly half his size.
CRACK! Fabric tore. Skin split. The blade bit deep.
Light faded. Elfman stared at the gashing wound across his chest and grinned.
"Nice one. Not bad, Erza—cutting a giant like me."
"But your power's still nerfed. Beating me alone won't be easy."
Erza raised an eyebrow and held up three fingers.
"3."
Elfman suddenly swayed, clutching his head and blinking hard.
"What the—?! Did she sneak sleep magic into that last hit?"
"No way—my body's huge, resistance is high. It shouldn't kick in this fast."
"2."
The world spun. Elfman grunted, dropping to one knee with a thud that shook the ground.
Only then did he notice the faint green glow around every tiny cut from earlier.
"Poison?! Every single fast slash had sleep and poison enchanted?!"
"She used my own movements to spread the toxins—then that final heavy hit shoved a flood of it straight into my bloodstream?!"
"1."
"Such fast thinking… as expected of Erza—"
His eyes rolled back. The giant crashed to the ground, kicking up a dust storm.
Lucy's pupils shrank to pinpricks, jaw dropped wide enough to fit an egg.
A mountain of a giant lay defeated. In front of him, the palm-sized scarlet figure stood unshaken.
Crimson hair flared like fire, dazzling under the light.
"This is… Titania the Fairy Queen—she's insane! She really took down a giant with a body that small!!"
"Most of her fights are instant wins—I've never seen her battle like this up close."
"It's like she's dancing through the sky, commanding the entire battlefield like a queen."
Erza glanced at Lucy's stunned face, chuckled, and flicked her finger. The enchantments on the grass sword dissolved—it fluttered back to a normal blade of grass and drifted down.
She waved at the still-dazed Lucy and tail-wagging Little White.
"Let's go. One more test—the protector—and the first weapon is ours."
"Woof!" Little White yipped excitedly, bouncing to Erza's feet.
Lucy snapped out of it, jogging after them, buzzing with awe.
"Princess! You were so cool! How come I've never seen you fight with enchantment magic before?"
Erza crossed her arms, smiling. "Most enemies are handled with Requip swaps."
"But planning and executing a fight with limited resources and power like that? It's thrilling."
"Been a while since I had to go all-out and calculate every move."
As they spoke, they crept toward the giant stone house.
Lucy's eyes darted over the comically oversized furniture—chairs like skyscrapers, a table like a plaza, even a cup taller than they were.
She explained while scanning:
"We need the token inside the giant's house."
"Only with it can we break the barrier around the protector's castle."
"We beat the guardian, so the token should be activated now."
"It'll glow with a special light to show where it is. Not sure what it looks like, though—we might need to search a bit—"
"Is that the token up there?" Erza cut in, pointing upward.
"Huh?" Lucy followed her finger.
High above, dangling from a massive drawer handle, was the Fairy Tail guild emblem, pulsing with rainbow light.
The colors shimmered brightly in the dim stone house.
"=_= Yeah, that's definitely it," Lucy's mouth twitched.
Way to be subtle.
"Perfect," Erza nodded, then looked down at Little White.
"Little White, go grab it."
Little White & Lucy: "!!!"
"No no no! Even if Little White's a spirit—" Lucy flailed to stop her, but Little White's face scrunched up in a very human "I'm trying real hard" expression.
"No way… he can actually…?" Lucy muttered, half-convinced.
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