"I never thought Natsu would end up with a fangirl of his own."
Mirajane's eyes lit up with gossip as she immediately started looking around for the supposed hero of this little romance.
Erza, unfortunately, ruined the mood. "Lucy has a guest staying at her place, so she went home first. Natsu is probably with her."
"Those two are certainly spending more and more time together…"
Ankh was a little speechless himself.
These days, the odds of seeing Natsu and Lucy together seemed to rise by the week.
Cana wandered over with the unmistakable grin of someone hoping to watch a disaster unfold.
"What do you think this girl's face will look like when she meets Lucy?"
Juvia nodded solemnly.
"They will definitely fight."
Everyone immediately turned toward her.
"That's what you would do!"
Still, despite saying that, quite a few people were now genuinely curious to see what would happen if dense-as-a-brick Natsu somehow found himself caught in a love triangle.
"Who do you think Natsu would choose?" Mirajane whispered into Ankh's ear, still brimming with enthusiasm as she glanced at the silver-haired girl dreamily holding her cheeks.
"Lucy."
Ankh answered without the slightest hesitation.
Natsu's luck with girls had actually always been pretty good.
Lisanna had once been the girl closest to him, and the two childhood friends had been nearly inseparable when they were younger.
Unfortunately for the childhood friend, Lucy had arrived later and somehow become the person constantly at Natsu's side.
Whatever anyone called their relationship, it was obvious the two had grown much closer.
Ankh, however, was currently more interested in something else.
The girl's name.
"Touka, how did you meet Natsu?"
Erza casually called out the silver-haired girl's name.
The moment Ankh heard it again, the vigilance hidden deep in his eyes sharpened.
'The founder of the White Magic Cult…'
Information Crime Sorcière had uncovered during its investigation surfaced in his mind.
According to the reports, the cult had supposedly been founded by an ancient and dangerous mage known as the White Wizard, a woman said to have existed around the same era as the Black Wizard Zeref.
And her name was Touka.
Ankh's attention immediately focused on the girl.
Touka, completely unaware of his suspicions, clasped her hands together and launched enthusiastically into her story.
"It happened one beautiful afternoon while I was traveling through a village. Out of nowhere, I ran into a vicious band of robbers!"
Her eyes practically sparkled.
"Then Natsu-sama appeared, riding a fire dragon like a hero descending from the heavens! He rescued me in an instant and completely destroyed those terrible bandits!"
Touka folded her hands reverently and gazed toward the spot where Natsu usually sat as though worshipping at a shrine.
"From that day onward, I simply couldn't stop myself from falling in love with Natsu-sama!"
Everyone fell silent for a moment.
Then came the inevitable comments.
"Natsu was riding a fire dragon? Was he riding himself?"
"And from everything you just said, this sounds completely one-sided…"
The guild members who had been eagerly expecting some juicy story about Natsu secretly charming a beautiful girl immediately lost interest.
Ankh remained quiet.
While everyone else teased Touka, he released an almost imperceptible thread of Magic Power and began probing her condition.
Then his expression shifted slightly.
'Hm?'
Something about the structure of Touka's body felt strangely familiar.
Ankh glanced toward Panther Lily and Carla.
'Interesting.'
'She doesn't feel human.'
More importantly, there was another power sleeping deep inside the girl, one completely different from the Magic Power Touka herself appeared to possess.
And it was much stronger.
The sensation reminded Ankh of something he had encountered only recently.
Sonya and Animus.
Two consciousnesses inhabiting a single body.
Whether this was a case of dual personalities or two distinct minds coexisting together, the feeling was remarkably similar.
Given everything they already knew, Ankh quickly formed a theory.
Perhaps the legendary White Wizard known as "Touka" wasn't actually this girl at all.
Perhaps that identity belonged to the other consciousness hidden inside her.
After spending quite some time enthusiastically telling Fairy Tail about her beloved Natsu-sama, Touka finally remembered the most important question.
"By the way, does anyone know where Natsu-sama is?"
Erza answered seriously, "If you want to meet him, we can take you there. But you should probably prepare yourself—he may not remember you."
"That's alright!"
Touka smiled brightly.
"As long as I remember Natsu-sama, that's enough. I just want to see him again with my own eyes."
It was a tiny request from a new guild member who simply wanted to meet the person she admired. Naturally, Erza and the others had no reason to refuse.
So the group began heading toward Lucy's apartment.
Ankh followed while keeping a close eye on Touka, already planning to call Jellal and the other members of Crime Sorcière currently stationed nearby.
Touka herself might genuinely mean no harm.
The other "Touka" inside her was another matter entirely.
And if this opportunity allowed them to capture the leader of the White Magic Cult in one move, the chaos spreading throughout Ishgar would become considerably easier to contain.
...
Meanwhile, Lucy had no idea that half the guild was currently on its way to her apartment.
She was still desperately trying to reason with her unexpected houseguest.
"Bran… couldn't you just rent your own place? My apartment is already tiny."
Lucy looked at her pitifully.
Brandish ignored the complaint and casually examined the books on Lucy's shelf, several of which had Lucy's own name printed on the cover.
"Don't pretend you're broke. Your novels are selling extremely well. You should have plenty of money by now."
Lucy laughed awkwardly and scratched her head.
"Well… it's not that much…"
Perhaps years of worrying about rent had left permanent scars on her soul.
Or maybe she had simply grown too attached to the cozy little apartment she had called home for so long.
Either way, Lucy still hadn't moved.
Natsu and Happy had certainly never seen any reason for her to.
Both of them were currently sprawled across her bed as though they owned it.
"Man, nothing beats sleeping in the old spot…"
Natsu sighed contentedly.
"YOU TWO! STOP CLIMBING INTO MY BED WITHOUT PERMISSION!"
Lucy's furious scream shook the apartment.
Brandish sat at the table and ignored the familiar chaos, her attention instead caught by a newspaper lying in front of her.
The headline concerned one of Ishgar's two largest cult organizations.
The White Magic Cult.
Lucy eventually noticed that Brandish's expression had grown unusually distant.
"What's wrong, Bran?"
Brandish came back to herself and tapped the words White Magic Cult on the page.
"The person behind this cult is one of my former colleagues."
"What?"
Lucy snatched up the newspaper.
The revelation drove home just how deeply the Alvarez Empire had infiltrated the unrest inside Ishgar.
"Another member of the Spriggan 12? Like Mard Geer?"
Brandish nodded, her expression becoming serious.
"There are five members of the Spriggan 12 secretly operating inside Ishgar under the Emperor's orders."
"I refused my assignment. Mard Geer was responsible for manipulating the Black Magic Cult, while Jacob handles the infiltration and control of the mercenary guilds."
She paused.
"As for Dimaria… I don't know what she was assigned to do."
Brandish gave a small, self-deprecating smile.
"If Dimaria hears what happened with me, she'll probably ignore every order she's been given and come running over here to kill me herself."
After muttering that, her expression became much more solemn.
"I don't know which member of the Spriggan 12 is controlling the White Magic Cult."
Brandish stared at the newspaper for several seconds.
"But if I had to guess…"
Her eyes narrowed.
"It's probably that obnoxious bastard."