Chapter-17
The pain he carried
|×~The Tale Of Tragedy-I~×|
The air was filled with tension. No one was laughing or drinking as they usually did. Actually the guild was barren. Each and every member was in the infirmary, worried for their friends.
Only a few members, including Lucy, were inside the room of infirmary to avoid it from getting overcrowded. Reedus, Warren, Max, Alzack and Bisca were the ones who went on a search for herbs prescribed by Porlyusica.
"Please..." Mira breaks into tears after looking at her friends in the near death condition. "Why is this happening...?" Her hands were joined, as if she was praying to god for forgiveness. Lucy goes to her side to comfort her.
But the hard part was that Mira was not alone. Everyone was broken. In most of the guilds, friendship existed only between the weak and weak & between strong and strong. But in Fairytail, these stereotypes were meaningless.
Each member was a precious part for another.
All the members who left for this missions were injured heavily. Some of them were even missing! Negativity was lurking behind the subconscious, making the while scene gloomy.
Losing any one meant a lot to the others.
There was no way anyone could start a talk with another. Each and every single one of them were lost in the memories of their friends they have cherished. Why... why was this happening to them? Where did they go wrong?
•••
Time passed slowly.
It was mid night now. But still every single member was at the guild, weeping in the silence of sorrow. The team that went to search for herbs arrived a little while ago. Porlyusica was running around hectically, tired and anxious more than anyone else, but still keeping a record of all the mages who were injured.
Everyone else watched Porlyusica her, feeling pathetic. They wanted to become useful by some method, but no one dared to ask her about it. Her facial expression was just this tense.
The silence continued. The only voices those could be heard were of Porlyusica mumbling all sorts of remedies to herself and the wind that was breaking through the window.
Finally a sound was made by another individual other than Porlyusica.
Sadly it was not the voice of any injured mage...
"Mister Makarov. I am a messenger from the council. I came all the way here because the second emperor of Ishgar seeks your presence right now. Please show haste and leave for the headquarters." It was a frog. A humanoid frog, wearing a cape that covered it's whole body and a bag that ran across his waist.
Many papers were stick in out of it. Without a doubt, it really was a messenger of council.
The frog had delivered many summons to Fairytail earlier too. He was expexting them to freak out and run wild. He actually was rooting for a good entertainment after a long day of work, but he recieved a result he was not expecting.
There was no response. Not even a single one acknowledged his presence... or so he thought.
In his monotone voice, he added, "I repeat, show haste-"
He stopped.
The whole guild, literally the whole guild, gave him a blood curdling glare. The aura of these Fairytail wizards chilled him to his bone.
"Uhh..." His giant lips shuddered a bit as he asked, putting up a confident voice. "D-did I arrive at a... w-wrong time?" He hoped to ease the anger but this made the situation worst...
Makarov was sitting near the last bed of the infirmary, beside the injured blond man that Lucy failed to recognize earlier. He extends his hand using his giant magic and grabs the poor frog by his thick throat, lifting him up.
"I don't give a damn about your council. Makarov says with a low voice, tightening his grip. The killing intent was reflecting in his eyes...he was not playing around. "Get the hell off my guild before I...-"
The messenger tries to escape the grip of Makarov by squeezing his monstrous hand with his padded hands. This makes the matter worse. Master's grip tightens drastically. His glum took the form of rage. At this moment, no one tried to stop Makarov, none of them wanted him to stop.
"You... will... pay for this... the council-" The toad starts to choke now. He spitted out these words somehow. He seriously believed that these would be his last words.
Makarov's voice grows deeper and heavier... just like a giant. "Didn't you listen? I don't give-"
"That's enough... old man." Someone says these words before Makarov could complete. These words... were familiar.
A sense of embarrasment suddenly overwhelms Makarov. With urgency, he released the messenger and jerks his head down. The frog falls on the ground and starts gasping for air violently.
"Laxus..." Tears roll down Makarov's eyes. It eventually turns into a joyful cry. The so-called Laxus smiles at the reaction of his old man.
"So that man was Laxus..." Lucy mumbles looking at Laxus. He was the first one to gain consciousness after being shifted to the infirmary. Makarov obviously wanted to talk with him. It was only expected. But he was stopped.
"Fool! Don't make him talk just yet!" Porlyusica yells at Makarov while examining Laxus. Makarov backs down knowing that she was right.
The guild cheers up too. Mira was no longer crying. Seeing the newfound co didence in the stiff no movements of Prolyusica brought hope in them. The words "Some of them might not make it." were now vanishing from the minds of the wizards.
Makarov gives a final glance to Laxus. Laxus's eyes were closed. He really had the worst wounds of all. Of course he needed rest.
After giving a final glance, he walks towards the door and looks at the messenger who was lying on the ground, traumatized. Makarov sighs and lends a hand, helping him to get up.
"I am sorry." The toad bows instantly after getting up, not wanting to make the cheerful situation gloomy again. More like not wanting to almost die again.
Makarov apologizes for his violent actions too, regretting what he did.
After a little talk, master agrees to visit the council. The toad happily agrees to stay shut about what master did to him too.
The mages were a little shocked. He should have stayed here and waited until everyone gained consciousness or atleast wait until they were out of danger.
Makarov aware of the thoughts running in the minds of his children turns around and faces them,
"If they were awake right now... they would not want us to stand here, worried for them. They would not want us to stop our lives for them. I know, you all haven't eaten, drank or slept for hours. It will be best if you all come back again tomorrow. I know Porlyusica will take good care of them."
Porlyusica gives a annoyed grimace but then sighs and nods. "You owe me this backbreaking night."
Makarov grins and walks out of the of the door and raises his hand, his index finger sticking out of his fist. "Leaving them to rest for now will be for the best. After all, we have to greet them at our best once they wake up."
They all smiled and raised their hands the way Makarov did. The environment lightens and the sadness lowers down. Porlyusica smiles for once too.
After saying this, after hearing the cheerful voices of the mages, Makarov finally leaves the infirmary with the messenger.
The toad gasps at the reaction of wizards on the speech of Makarov. "...these vagabonds are pretty obedient to their master..."
...
And so, the night goes on. The infirmary starts to get less crowded. Wizards start to leave slowly.
In the end, the only people left were Mira, Lucy, Happy, Warren and Max.
Once it was past 2 a.m, Mira looks at Lucy and finally says, "Lucy... I think that you should rest for a bit. You must be the one most tired since you were the one who found them."
"No... I mean... I am fine! I can stay here all night! This is nothing." Lucy lies. Mira sighs and keeps her hand on her shoulder.
"Listen. I will stay here with Porlyusica in case she needs any assistance. Warren can help to communicate with all the members of something comes up. Max and Happy are here too if needed. We can switch our roles in the morning."
Max and Warren insisted Lucy to get some rest too. Happy even offered to drop her back. Lucy could not resist because of this and also... she was too tired to resist. A tsunami, a long journey in train and a traumatic event. She was done with this day.
Lucy hesitantly accept to leave but denies the offer of Happy. It was obvious that he was just as tired. After waving goodbye, she leaves. The way back to her apartment seemed faster than usual.
"Will all of them be OK? Should I return back? What if anyone attacks them? No...Warren can use his telepathy. Are the missing ones alright? Mest, Carla and Cana were missing. Will they return back by morning? Should I search for them?"
All these thoughts were running in Lucy's mind. Lucy sighs and relaxes her thoughts. She takes a good view of her surroundings. She was already standing in front of her apartment, surprisingly.
"That was quick..." Lucy mumbles to herself as she enters the house. She goes directly to the second floor and removes her boots. Then she fetches for the keys in her pockets. It was still there. She opens the door and enters her apartment.
It was silent. She always lived alone... this was nothing new. It was only expected. But for some reason, she felt insecure... alone and lonely in her own room... it was the first time.
...
Trying not to overthink, Lucy walks in closing the door behind her. As she was walking towards the bedroom, the door for the bathroom catches her eye, reminding her that she hadn't taken a nice soak for 3 days.
Lucy smiles and walks towards the door clumsily. She removed her clothes, not caring to wrap a towel. "This is best." She whispers imagining her relaxed body bathing peacefully.
She walks towards the door, fully naked by now and opens it. It really was like before she left. She switches the lights on and looks towards the tub.
"Finally." Lucy stretches her arms. As she does it, a bubbling sound came. It was from... the bathroom... the bathtub. "That sound..." She mumbles walking towards the tub. Only now did she realize that she was not alone.
Natsu was in the bathtub. Half of his body was submerged in the water.
Natsu looks at Lucy with his gloomy eyes and then turns them to his reflection in the water. "Welcome back, Luce." He greets halfheartedly.
Lucy's smile did not last. He face was smoking. He cheeks were burning. She wanted to cover her body but there was nothing.
"Huh? Are you just gonna stand there-" Before Natsu could complete, he gets a heavy slap from Lucy. "THIS DOES IT!" She yells.
The gloominess in his eyes disappears instantly. He looked again at water in the bathtub, not with a look of gloominess but regret. It pained Natsu for real this time...
Lucy grabs the towel that was meant to used by Natsu and wraps it around quickly. It was hanging above the door. "Now listen next time you-"
Natsu doesn't listen. He gets up from the tub, naked. Lucy almost fainted out of embarrassment from this sudden action of Natsu. "Lucy..." Natsu walks past Lucy, towards the door, mumbling her name.
Lucy was surprised by the lack of reaction. Before she could say anything more, the past events suddenly flashes in her mind. Natsu and Gray were talking about something... and Natsu left.
Without caring for clothes anymore, Lucy looks at Natsu and ask in a concerned voice, "Are you fine...?"
Natsu was about to open the door to leave. He doesn't turn back or face Lucy to reply to this question. "I won't lie, I am not."
...
He opens the door, exits and closes it. Only Lucy stood in the bathroom, alone again. She was really done with today. Her best friend... was now behaving like this. And moreover she just... slapped him...
But it was his fault!... But... but.. Arggghhhh... WHY ARE YOU LIKE THIS?!
Lucy hurried towards the door. She had to apologize to him... quick. She keeps her hand on the door knob and rotates it. It doesn't open.
"Did he..." Lucy tries to open the door, harder this time but still it was no good. She now starts to bang the door, "Natsu!! Natsu!! I know you are there!"
Natsu was actually there, sitting on the bed in the bedroom. He ignores Lucy for about a minute but then finally replies, "You called...Lucy?"
"I did! Now open this door!!" Lucy shouts from inside. Natsu first wears his clothes to avoid getting slapped again and then walks towards the door.
Lucy, still unaware of the fact that Natsu was about to open the door, was leaning on the door in hopelessness. When the door opened suddenly, she fell directly on Natsu.
Fortunately, Natsu prevented her from falling by hugging her.
"Natsu..." Lucy tries to escape the grip of Natsu but Natsu doesn't let her go.
"Can't we just... stay like this." He says hugging Lucy tighter. It was the same as what happened when Natsu defeated the beast.
Lucy smiled and tried to tease Natsu yet again with the same old trick, "Oh so the baby wants to cry huh?" She says hugging Natsu back.
She was expecting Natsu to back down, and become embarrassed like it always have been. But today was not a normal day from it's start...
Tears roll down Natsu's eyes as Lucy says this. "Yes...If only babies cry then I am a baby. A weak baby. A baby who should have just died in the womb."
|•.° Regrets °.•|
Lucy was frozen from what Natsu said. Was he... really the same Natsu? She could feel his weight leaning on her. Natsu's leg were not able to support him anymore.
His mind was too heavy for his body.
Lucy knew that it was getting worse. She tried to calm him by rubbing his back, "There is nothing wrong with crying... in fact crying proves that we have a heart... we are still humans..."
The tears of Natsu did not stop but they did slowed down. He nods faintly, resting his chin on Lucy's shoulder.
Lucy doesn't resist. She slowly kneels down along with Natsu and sits on the ground, lowering Natsu's head on her laps.
"I have been telling you for years now. You don't have to put up a brave man act in front of me." She says leaning her face closer to Natsu's, closer to the point where some of her hair strands touched his face.
Natsu did not reply. It was clear that he was a bit calmed now. He wasn't crying anymore. Lucy smiles and gently kisses Natsu's forehead.
"That's your punishment for crying."
Natsu looks at Lucy and then sighs, followed by a grin. "Thank you... Lucy. You are the only one I can always rely on."
Lucy grins too, slapping Natsu gently, "That scared me for a second!" This is followed by silence. Both of them enjoying each other's company silently. Lucy started ruffling Natsu's hair.
After a few minutes, Natsu opens his mouth, "Say Lucy... can you help me?"
Lucy gives a stare for Natsu. Why would he ask such an obvious question. "Of course, duh."
"Can you make up a story for me?"
Lucy looks at Natsu. She stops ruffling his hair and thinks for a moment then replies, "Yes...?"
"Thank you again Luce..."
"Lucy." Lucy corrects while playfully pulling his ear.
"Yeah right... LUCY" Natsu tries to tickle Lucy but Lucy backs down, making Natsu's head slide to the ground from her lap.
"Listen here Natsu. I am completely naked inside this towel. No tricks for now."
Natsu sighs in disappointment and gets up. He rubs his head to sooth the little pain.
"Okay okay... what's up with you girls." Natsu says as Lucy goes back into the bathroom.
"What's up with you girls" Lucy repeats mockingly, closing the door behind her.
Natsu wanted to argue but if he just barged in by breaking the door, even he wasn't sure what would happen. He decided it was best to wait for Lucy to come back from her bath.
•••
30 minutes passed. Natsu was bored of waiting and eventually fell asleep on the bed.
When Lucy opened the door, he was sleeping. She quickly wore fresh clothes and walked into the bedroom.
"Natsu!" She says, fainter than a yell but louder than normal.
Natsu blinks his eyes and gets up mechanically. He was sitting on the bed. He turns his head towards Lucy.
"Lucy...?"
"Yeah... LUCY." Lucy sighs at the innocence of her silver gate spirit.
As Lucy sighs, Natsu suddenly remebers something and leaps across the bed, towards Lucy. He grabs Lucy by her shoulders and leans forward towards her face. It looked lewd...
It felt lewd... Wait... It was lewd.
"Hwaaaaaa" Lucy screams from a sudden sense of embarrassment and tries to back down. But as usual, Natsu's grip was not something that you can get rid of easily.
-SNIFF SNIFF SNIFF-
After a short inspection, Natsu lets Lucy go. Lucy stood on her place in confusion. What the heck...
"Your fever seems to have dropped now. Wow, you recover fast." Natsu says with a toothy grim.
"That's what your remember..." Lucy sighs. But she was relieved too. Atleast now Natsu was not the sad panda he was some time ago.
"Well then see ya." Natsu was about to disappear but Lucy grabbed his arm, stopping him from doing so.
"What the heck?"
"What?"
"Are you seriously telling me that you just forgot what happened today." Lucy asks in a annoyed voice. She was really worried for him.
"Huh? No way I am gonna forget today's date. You caught cold tod-"
Before Natsu could finish, Lucy stops him by squeezing his wrist. She then says in a low voice,
"You... don't trust me do you?"
|•.° Doubts °.•|
Natsu looks at the ground not knowing what to say. He actually regretted trying to drag Lucy in his mess and wanted to avoid that completely, but Lucy instantly realized his motives.
"Hey Lucy... can you just forget what I said earlier?"
"No." She replied boldly.
Natsu sighs. He nods his head and Lucy releases his wrist. They both sit on the bed, side by side. Lucy patiently waited for Natsu to start his story.
"I really think you shouldn't-"
"You don't get to decide." Lucy cuts out Natsu. Her voice was dominating. "I am your master. Speak."
"..." Natsu nods. "Sorry... I lied in one of the story I told you... I thought... never mind...just sorry." He says joining his hands in apology.
"I knew... you don't trust me." Lucy says, crossing her arms.
"NO! It just that..."
"I was wrong...I thought that you were my best friend. But to think that you have lied to me more than once...and you don't even have guts to spit out the reason!" Lucy shouts.
She had to provoke Natsu to say it all, everything he is suppressing. Her rhetorical sense guided her to jackpot.
"I just didn't want you to hate me! But it seems that you hate me already!" Natsu says as fast as he could. His voice cracked in between as he said so. Lucy sighs and puts her hand on Natsu's hand.
"For real?" She asks. "Anything more?"
"...no?" Natsu replies.
Lucy furrows her eyebrows and looks down. She whispers slowly, "You really thought that I can ever bring myself to hate you?"
"I told you... I am sorry." Natsu mumbles looking away from her.
"It's alright. It's really alright until you tell me what happened." Lucy says tightening her grip.
Natsu took a moment to consider. He sighed and looked away.
|•.° Truth °.•|
"It... is about Lisanna... About how she really died..."
•••
In the infirmary, things were going great. One of the injured members just gained consciousness!!
"Hurry!! Bring me that jar!" Porlyusica commands Mira. Mira brings a white jar at which Porlyusica pointed.
Porlyusica was standing near a man whose bed was in the center of the right row. She was asking him some brief questions about his health.
Porlyusica looks at the jar and gives Mira a nod. She opens it and gives two pills to the person who just gained consciousness.
As she does, Mira managed to get a good glance to that person. It was a good looking man of almost her age. He was not in Fairytail, nor was his guildmark visible. He was having a fatal wound because of a stab near his gut, that was obviously patched up now. His face was covered in bandages too.
"Are you feeling alright now?" Mira asks to that man as he swallows the medicine. The man winks at her, even in that condition, and says, "A young women like you shouldn't stress up on things like this. It might affect your beauty."
Mira sighs.
Yeah... of course. She now exactly knew who this man was. It was Hundred Nights Hibiki of Blue Pegasus. His real name was Hibiki Lates and he was a popular model for sorcerer weekly. Girls were crazy for him, but personally, Mira was not.
"Well at least I am in a good shape." Mira says sarcastically. Hibiki smiles back awkwardly.
"Now now. A good bed rest and you should be fine. It must be a miracle that the attacker missed all the vitals." Porlyusica says after closing the jar. Hibiki nods.
"I know that this is not exactly the right time to ask... but what went down there?" Mira asks hesitantly, lending Hibiki another glass of water.
Hibiki takes the glass of water and stares at his own reflection in it. Mira realized that she shouldn't have asked this question and decided to leave him be for some time. But as she was about to leave, Hibiki starts talking.
"It... was a hell. A free-for-all hellscape. There was no winner of this war. Only survivors."
Mira turns back immediately. Why would he say this?
"What... do you mean?" She asks.
"I will tell you everything from the start." Hibiki says struggling to sit up even with the support of the bed's pillow. Porlyusica's interest was also drawn by this, but she continues to check other patients thoroughly.
Mira nods. She sits down on the edge of the bed of Jet, who was beside Hibiki. Hibiki, now finally had his back leaned against the pillow.
He cleared his throat and began, "It all started after all the guilds assembled at Master Bob's house. Four guilds. We were four guilds.
From Blue Peagasus, there were 4 members, me, Ren, Eve, Karen and Ichiya sensei.
From Lamia scale, there were 3, Leon, Sherry and wizard saint Jura's replacement, Cheria.
From Fairytail there were many. I don't even know the names of all! Contradictorily, from Sabertooth, there were only 2 of them...
But these two had an extreme amount of magic. If I recall properly, the name of the boy was Dobengal. He was nothing less than a ninja. His spells and power was incredible. But the other one was just on another level. Her name was... Minerva.
There was no doubt about it. She was on the par with Erza, the queen of fairies, if not greater. Both Dobengal and Minerva used spatial magic magic... but it was nothing like we have ever seen.
After discussing about the magics of all new faces, we were reassured.
With these many skilled wizards we thought that the victory was in our grasp. But reality didn't work out like that.
We got information that the Grimoire Heart guild is located in the Worth Woodseas, the place where Nirvana operation commenced. It is actually a good location for dark guilds to assemble. There was another location, the Galuna Island too but since Woodseas was closer, we decided to check it first.
It was a short journey. We soon arrived to the forest by foot. There, we decided to split up. The team blue Pegasus, The team Lamia Scale along with Mest from Fairytail, Fairytail's rest of the members were divided into two teams and at last, team Sabertooth still comprising of those two. We insisted to take at least two more members but they arrogantly ignored us.
We divided ourselves into 5 teams headed in 5 different directions. According to the research, the members of Grimoire Heart were using this forest as their operational base, trying to achieve their goal of reviving Zeref and taking revenge on Fairytail.
The reports said that there were only four members, comprising of Rustyrose, Zancrow, Kain Hikaru and their ace, Bluenote Stinger. Rest of the guild members were missing or killed during the Tenrou incident.
In the best case scenario, each team fought one of them and two teams, preferably the team containing Erza and Sabertooth's team fought the ace of the guild, Blue note.
But there was a grave miscalculation..." Hibiki looks at Mira. She was curiously listening to him. Hibiki takes a brief break and asks her, "Do you remember the time when magic council was disbanded and a new council of wizard saints were formed?"
Mira nods and says,"Yes. Year X784. In the previous year, due to many diplomatic issues, the council was forced to disband and a new council system with ten wizard saints as the leaders was enforced. However, it is mostly managed by top 5 of them."
"Yes. It is precisely what happened last year. But this is also where I made my miscalculation." Hibiki keeps his hand on his forehead as he says this. He takes another short break and then continues to speak.
"The chairman of the council fell to the dark side. He teamed up with Tartaros for some reason. He uses super archive magic, much more superior than mine. From the moment we arrived in the woods, we were under his radar. Our every little movement, our every plan was already being monitored...
...
As we proceeded to raid the Grimoire heart's hideout, we found Grimoire Heart's members all scattered. It was really fortunate. The matchups went like this-
The Fairytail team comprising of Erza, Gray, Juvia and Cana fought Kain.
Another Fairytail team comprising Gajeel, Levy, two other people sticking close to Levy, Wendy, The Thunder Legion and Elfman fought Zancrow.
Blue Pegasus fought Rustyrose.
Lamia scale and Mest faced off against the ace, Blue Note. The Sabertooth guild went unrivaled.
The battles were not one sided. Even though we had numbers, the Grimoire Heart kept us up for a really long fight. It took a lot from my guild's side atleast. When we were done defeating Rustyrose, Karen and Ren were out of magic. Eve and I were slightly injured and Ichiya boss was unharmed. He really carried the fight...
As soon as we captured Rustyrose, I contacted the others with my telepathy magic. It was a huge success on others side too. Both teams of Fairytail had already defeated their foes. Mest even helped in assembling elite mages from other teams to fight Blue Note. But aside from this, unfortunately, I still was able to make no contact with Sabertooth."
"So you were the last and most injured team of all the five." Mira asks with her evergreen smile on her face. Hibiki tries to smile but couldn't. It was maybe the first time it happened to him. He decided to ignore Mira and went on,
"The fight with Blue Note was a tough one but Lamia scale with the help of Erza, Gajeel and Cana emerged victorious. We captured Blue Note too. Now the whole Grimoire Heart guild was in our custody. I transmitted a mini-map in everyone's mind that led to the place we would rendezvous.
Actually, Blue Peagasus was the brain behind this operation." Hibiki insists on the word 'BLUE PEAGASUS'.
"We all assembled near the exit of the forest. Everyone arrived shortly after I sent a map in their head, except Sabertooth. For some reason, I was not able to contact the most powerful ones in the whole mission."
Mira frowned. But her emotions were barely visible over her smile. Hibiki did not notice it.
"So... here comes the important part. Listen well. I don't even want to remember it... Everything that went on from here was pure blood, sweat and betrayal."
Mira bites her lips. She was getting anxious. The way Hibiki was narrating this story was making her wanting to kill the culprit right now. The one who did this to her friends, her brother, her family, to her guild will pay with every last whit of his soul...
.
Yay! 300 views in 1 month. Is it great?
• And also, don't count the chapters >:(