Outsiders (Fairy Tail - Gruvia, Gale)

6. Revelations

 "Snooping for Fairy Tail probably," Tiger muttered. Gajeel smirked. 

"We didn't say anything," Gajeel said. "I don't really care," he muttered, then carried on eating.  

Meanwhile, in their inn on the outskirts of town, while eating dinner together, the four other members of Phantom Lord were sat together watching a lacrima. Their master's doctor was filling them in on Jose's condition.

"He's getting slightly better, yes" the doctor frowned. "But, well, he's still not great. He's eating at least. But there's still no sign of his magic energy." 

Juvia sighed. "Well, thank you anyway. Please tell us if anything else happens." 

The lacrima disappeared and the four looked at each other.  

"Do you think he'll be alright?" Juvia asked Aria. 

"Don't worry, Juvia," Totomaru said, rubbing her back. She stared at him and he let go awkwardly. 

"I'm going to bed," she muttered, then stood up and left. "Goodnight everyone." 

Sol bit his lip as he watched her go. 

A while later Sol was pacing up and down the corridor outside Juvia's bedroom. 

He knocked gently when he heard her move inside from her balcony.  

"Hello?" her soft voice called from inside. 

"Juvia, it's me," he said. She opened the door. 

"Sol? What's wrong?" 

"I want to talk to you about something, but in private s'il vous plait."

"Oh, okay," she said, opening it fully in order to let him in. 

She sat down at a little table. He sat opposite her. She smiled nervously at him. "I do hope everything is okay," she said to her friend. He frowned. 

"I need to talk to you about Gray Fullbuster"

"Gray Fullbuster. Is that the Fairy Tail member?" 

"Yes, that's the one, yes" he started. "This morning during Hidden I scanned his memories, and there was something I think you'd like to know." 

"Yes? Do tell. This is all very mysterious."

"I saw his childhood. You were mentioned a few times."

"What?" she laughed. "But, I don't know who he is..." she started, but looked away as she remembered something and sighed. 

"Yes, I saw a memory in which some members of the Magic Council knock on a door, and he answers it and they ask to see a women named Ur. Then later he finds a photograph of you on her bed. It was an old one, you were just a baby, but it had your name underneath."

Juvia nodded. "Anything else?"

"He asks the woman named Ur who is it that's in the photograph, she grabs your photograph from him and tells him it isn't anything to worry about."

"Oh..." Juvia started, but sighed. "Thank you. I'm afraid I don't know anything about that man or that family."

"I was just letting you know what I saw, in case it was important to you. I know you struggle to piece together your past..."

Juvia stared at the floor. "That's certainly interesting to know that I was somehow associated with him when I was young," she said. "That probably explains the strange look I was getting from him today. Thank you Sol."

Sol stood up and bowed politely, then kissed her hand. "Good night, Juvia. I shall see you tomorrow."

"Yes, thank you," Juvia replied. Then as soon as Sol left, she rushed over to a small shelf next to her bed. On it was a diary she had been keeping ever since she joined Phantom Lord over ten years ago, from when she was eight years old until now. The diary had a spell which produced infinite amounts of paper even though it looked regular-sized. All of the pages from when she was a little girl were there. She opened the book and turned to the page towards the beginning of the diary which was folded down. 

The page dated back to eight years ago, when she had been a member for almost two years. This was a time before Fairy Tail disappeared for seven years. It felt like a lifetime ago. 

Something about that conversation had bothered her immensely. For as long as she could remember Juvia couldn't remember her past, or her parents. She only knew that Jose had accepted her into the guild at a very young age and that before then she had lived in an orphanage. She didn't know anything about her life before joining Phantom, and this was why. 

In the diary she wrote:

'Today Master finally accepted my request and took away my memories. He said he had to travel far to get it and I am very grateful for it. I can now feel at peace knowing that the memories and thoughts of my past life do not consume me. I no longer feel hatred towards my past - it is no longer an issue for me. Master is the only one who knows of my life before now. I no longer know what happened in my past, and it will stay like that for the rest of my life. He has warned me that the spell can be broken by ___ saying my name, however Jose has assured me that this will never happen. I am happy. Now I can move on and work on my magic and my place within Phantom Lord.'

Juvia read these words often, because every time she tried to remember her past she saw nothing but darkness. Jose didn't know she kept the diary, but the diary doesn't hold anything of value anymore. When he cast the spell all of the people from her past were cleared from her diary, and are now only blank gaps on the page.

'I have joined Phantom Lord to get my revenge on _______' reads the page before.

'______ betrayed me. I will never forgive ____'

The spell was a powerful form of dark magic, and has proven extremely effective. Mages like Sol can't read her mind, and anything written about her or photographs of her before she joined Phantom Lord were completely blank. 

Juvia doesn't know anything at all about her past, and has no idea who it is that forced her to erase her memories of it. Conversations like what she had just had with Sol were common for her, with people asking her what her past was like. Anybody could have been a part of her past at some point, and all that was to be seen in Gray Fullbuster's memory was a simple picture of her. Maybe he was a relative or something. She simply will never know. 

As the city began to fall asleep, Juvia frowned, and wrote in her diary of the long day, and at the bottom of the page wrote a note to herself to ask Jose, when they got home and he was well again, about the spell.