"The new girl uses water-flow magic—she's amazing! She can actually change the weather! She can make it rain out of nowhere even when it's sunny!"
Natsu shouted inside the guild, excitedly talking about the spectacle he had witnessed.
It had been clear and cloudless outside, but the moment Juvia stepped out, the sky immediately darkened, and a light drizzle began to fall.
"Natsu, you idiot, keep your voice down! Don't you know Juvia has always been deeply troubled by this? She came to our guild specifically to treat this problem. Stop talking about it everywhere!"
Mira scolded Natsu, telling him not to talk nonsense. Juvia didn't think this was cool at all, she had suffered greatly because of it.
"Why?! It's obviously super cool!"
Natsu stuck his neck out stubbornly. Mira didn't usually beat him up, so he wasn't afraid of her scolding. If it were Moen or Erza instead, Natsu definitely wouldn't dare talk back, unless he was once again overflowing with confidence and believed he could defeat Moen and Erza.
With Natsu, it was hard to say whether he should be described as indomitable and resilient, or just thick-skinned and asking for a beating.
Every so often, his confidence would skyrocket and he'd challenge Moen and Erza. After getting beaten up, he'd behave himself for a while. Then, after some time passed, his confidence would spike again—over and over in a repeating cycle.
Crack!
Natsu's attitude completely angered Mira. With a furious expression, she brought her palm down and split the table in front of Natsu cleanly in half.
Gulp.
Natsu swallowed hard and took a step back.
Happy stared with his mouth wide open and immediately hid behind Natsu, looking at Mira as if she were some kind of humanoid Tyrannosaurus Rex.
"I told you not to say it, so don't say it!"
Mira glared at Natsu, suppressing him with sheer presence.
"O-okay."
Natsu immediately gave in, stammering. He was genuinely crushed by Mira's aura, this woman was terrifyingly violent too!
"Hmph!"
Mira stopped paying attention to Natsu. She was going to find Juvia. Juvia was in the library, and both Moen and Guild Master Makarov were there as well.
Mira deeply empathized with Juvia's experience and felt great sympathy for her. Compared to Mira's family, Juvia was lucky in that she had met Moen early, before suffering even more misfortune.
However, the problem Juvia carried was even more severe than Mira's own. Juvia's emotional influence over the weather was far harder to resolve than Mira's demon arm.
"Erza, Mira, Moen, Laxus—one day I'll defeat all of you! I'm the strongest one!"
Only after Mira left did Natsu dare mutter quietly.
"What about me? You haven't beaten me yet."
Gray suddenly popped out from behind Natsu and added casually.
"Bastard Gray! I'll beat you right now!"
Gray's words instantly enraged Natsu. Natsu roared and lunged at Gray, and the two immediately started wrestling the moment they met. Happy stood to the side, constantly cheering Natsu on.
Soon, a group of boys gathered around—Elfman, Troy, Jet, and the others all watched with great interest.
These boys didn't care at all about the new girl. All they did every day was eat, drink, sleep, train, and fight. They weren't allowed to travel far yet, so aside from fighting, there wasn't much else to do.
The girls' side was completely different. The girls surrounded Juvia, comforting and soothing her. Juvia's experiences and situation made them deeply worried and sympathetic toward her.
"Alright, alright, don't all crowd around here. I know you're worried about Juvia, but Grandpa and I will think of a solution for her problem. Standing around here won't help."
Moen was irritated by the constant chatter and couldn't focus on his book at all, so he directly started sending people away.
"Who says we can't help?! We have Levy!"
One of the girls argued back. Moen looked over at her, she had healthy wheat-colored skin and wore a small cat-shaped hat.
"Chico? You're here too?"
Moen froze for a moment. He genuinely hadn't noticed earlier, even though Chico was the tallest among the children and should have stood out.
"What do you mean 'you're here too'?! I've been here the whole time!"
Chico complained, momentarily speechless. Was her presence really that weak?! No wonder Laxus always failed to notice her.
"Ahem, don't mind the details."
Moen coughed awkwardly. Chico's presence really was strangely faint—she could be standing right there, yet people would completely fail to notice her.
Thinking carefully, Chico really did seem to always be around. She was the daughter of the girls' dormitory landlady and often helped arrange things when new members arrived, yet in Moen's memory, it was as if she had never existed.
Moen felt that this situation was probably related to Chico's magic, just like Juvia's—it was clearly abnormal.
Chico's magic was Legend of City, allowing her to gather wandering spirits from all over Magnolia to fight. However, once she left Magnolia, the magic would fail and she'd have to gather them again. She was practically a Magnolia-bound spirit herself. She rarely went outside to take jobs and spent most of her time staying in the guild.
"Chico, you should really think about solving your problem too."
Moen looked at Chico and spoke seriously.
"…Let's solve Juvia's problem first."
Chico sighed and didn't respond to Moen's words, instead turning her gaze toward Juvia.
"That's true. Juvia's situation is more serious, we need to deal with it as soon as possible."
Moen nodded, but silently reminded himself that he needed to think about Chico's situation as well. Being constantly unnoticed was powerful, but it also had a significant impact on everyday life.
"…"
Chico shook her head. She didn't place much hope in it. In fact, Moen had mentioned this issue once before, but clearly, after some time passed, Moen would forget again. The next time he noticed her, he still wouldn't remember it.
She was already sixteen years old and had been in Fairy Tail for many years. It wasn't that Guild Master Makarov had never thought about helping her solve the problem, but after a while, he would forget as well.
So many years had already passed, she had grown used to it.
The only thing that truly troubled Chico was probably not being noticed by the person she liked.
Back when they were children and she hadn't awakened her magic yet, they often played together. But now, even he rarely noticed her anymore.
Moen's gaze quickly moved away from Chico and landed on Levy. Levy wore a serious expression—she was also determined to work hard on Juvia's problem. Although she was young, she had read a great many books. Maybe she really could find a solution.
"My fault. Then let's all work together."
Moen smiled and decisively admitted his slip of the tongue. Since everyone was willing to help, they could search together. With so many books in the library, searching together would be faster, but he still felt that hope was slim. Juvia's situation was simply too special.
"Let's all do our best!"
The girls cheered and immediately began helping search through the books. This scene made Juvia's nose sting. She felt her limbs go numb, completely unsure how to respond to everyone's sincere concern. She hadn't felt such genuine warmth in a very long time.
Juvia looked at Moen. He had already picked up a book again and was reading seriously. Moen wasn't lying to her, Fairy Tail really was a place like a big family.
Bang.
Makarov tossed the book aside and couldn't help scratching his head. He also felt helpless. Juvia's situation was something he was seeing for the first time as well. There were no records in his memory on how to deal with such a case. Continuing to search was pointless.
"We need to think of another way!"
Looking at Moen, who was still flipping through books, Makarov said decisively.
"I think so too."
Moen put the book down, took a sip of tea, and agreed.
A week had passed.
They had almost turned the library upside down.
The facts proved that Juvia was the first case Fairy Tail had ever encountered—possibly even the first case in history.
"Actually… I feel that Juvia's condition has clearly improved recently."
Moen spoke while drinking tea.
In order to complete the task, Moen's attention had been focused almost entirely on Juvia recently, so he had a very accurate grasp of her condition. After coming to Fairy Tail for a week and gradually adapting to the big family, Juvia's state was visibly improving.
"Moen, is there a possibility that… we don't actually need to work this hard? Maybe Juvia will adjust herself naturally?"
Makarov spoke with a strange expression. He could clearly see that whether it rained around Juvia mainly depended on her mood. As long as the atmosphere of Fairy Tail could stabilize her emotions and clear the gloom in her heart—
"It's possible."
Moen nodded. That was certainly possible.
"But that's not a reason for us not to try. And maybe it's precisely because of everyone's efforts that her condition is improving."
Moen smiled. No matter what, their efforts over this period hadn't been in vain. Juvia had at least become more normal. Although it was still often cloudy, sometimes it no longer rained. For Juvia, that was already a huge improvement!
"You kid…"
After hearing Moen's words, Makarov smiled with satisfaction. Moen always managed to please him, always able to grasp the essence of Fairy Tail, and understand what forged the spirit and soul of this guild.
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