Found & Forgotten

Chapter 18

Erza, Gray, Levy, Gajeel and Panther Lily were sat at the bar, engaged in conversation with Mirajane and Master Makarov, when the door to the guild creaked open and a familiar trio entered.

"Ohaiyo!" Natsu greeted the room cheerily, towing Lucy behind him.

The guild fell silent.

"Uh...minna?" Natsu asked, confused. He hadn't done anything bad had he? He couldn't remember doing anything...

"Baka." Gray interjected, to break the silence. "What took you so long?"

"Do you want to fight, Ice Princess?" Natsu retorted, flames flickering to life around his fist.

"Bring it on, Flame Brain," Gray stood up, subconsciously whipping off his coat.

"I'm all fired up," Natsu grinned, running towards him.

There was a huge crashing and thumping sound as the pair of them ran into Erza's outstretched hands.

"Natsu, calm down, Gray, put your clothes back on, both of you, stop fighting." She said demurely and sat down again.

"Ah! My clothes!" Gray exclaimed.

At that point, Lucy, having recovered from the shock of walking straight into a fight, walked over to the others.

"So why did we get called back here?" She asked.

"We may have a way to prevent the SunSphere from being used." Erza told her. "And we also know the people who are behind this whole thing. They call themselves Shin Uchu."

"While you were recovering, Lucy," Mirajane explained, "these five went to the Tosho Sekai to follow up the lead Natsu overheard."

"You were right, Lu-chan, it is the most amazing library I've ever seen!" Levy gushed.

"I don't think I ever said that..." Lucy muttered.

Levy, who either hadn't heard her or was pretending she hadn't, continued speaking. "Anyway, Shin Uchu might have stolen the SunSphere, but they forgot to take the manual that comes with it!" She exclaimed triumphantly, holding up a fat book with a golden cover.

"That's great," Lucy said, "but how do Natsu and I come into this?"

"I need you to help me translate the manual. It's a difficult language, and there's several references to celestial magic that I don't recognise." Levy told her.

"Well, I can certainly try to help," Lucy answered.

"What about me?" Natsu asked.

Eight pairs of eyes turned to stare incredulously at him. Lucy blinked at the sudden unanimity of the expressions of everyone around her.

"What?" Natsu asked.

Everyone promptly ignored him and turned back to the previous conversation.

"I have texts on this language at my apartment," Levy explained to Lucy.

"Hai, let's go then, Levy-chan!" Lucy answered, excited at the prospect of actually being to help whilst doing things she loved.

"Off you go then, brats!" Makarov said. "Hurry and interpret this manual."

Levy and Lucy nodded and hurried off together.

"Other brats, you should figure out an attack plan." Makarov turned to them. "Erza and Mirajane, you two can talk tactics. Natsu, Gray, Gajeel, you can see if there's any reference to Shin Uchu in the council's records." With that he turned to walk off.