"Aww, and no one invited me?" Gildarts asked, over the magic lacrima. "I drop in for my once-a-blue-moon contact only to find out you guys left me out of the fun? I feel betrayed."
"We're not trying to commit murder here, Gildarts," said the Masters at once.
-
The previous joint S-class tournament had been a huge success.
People were fueled by Eir and Jura's performance to become stronger, and the standard of mages in Fiore rose. It still wasn't enough for guilds to accurately assess their S-class mages on their own, but it was enough to consider that, a few more years down the line, they could.
"What a shame! We're not going to have an excuse to come to Crocus for tournaments soon," Karen rested her head on Pappa, hand interlocked under her chin. "I wonder if we can continue having these tournaments, just, not necessarily as S-class exams. Just as like, a Fiore bonding thing."
"I'd love to come watch next year too," Ren said. "But I wanna participate, even more!"
"It'd be weird, though," Gray mulled, holding onto Pippi, who was tied to a rope and functioning as a leash. (Nevermind the feral gnawing noises from Natsu, who's on the other end.) "Eir's going to pass this year, so he won't be fighting anymore."
It's unanimous, that no matter how well Eir performed this year, he would be S-class by the end of it, simply because he'd surpassed the standards last year in that match with Jura. The King Fiore was really going to have some words with them if they repeated last year's damage to their nation's cultural heritage.
But then again, losing Eir wasn't too big a hit on the popularity of these contests. The upcoming lineup of S-class prospects had all ears and eyes in the country glued to the screen, and magazine tabloids just never stopped talking.
"Natsu, could you stop that already!" Erza snapped, whacking the flat of her sword over the boy's head if it would stop his attempt to hurl himself over the balcony to where he could smell the participants getting ready to enter.
Jellal, and Kagura, both of which had been holding one of Erza's hands— yelped at that, though, when Erza turned to them confused they both covered their faces embarrassed by the noise they made. They weren't the ones getting hit, but somehow, the violence just utterly baffled them. They really weren't used to any of it at all.
Peppe giggles, floating around his head.
"I AM A WARRIOR TOO!" Natsu declares. And Puppu, the utter menace, echoed every last syllable in its waily shriek. "I am the Son of Igneel! I refuse to remain complacent whilst the child of raging storms adorns the masses!"
"Adorns the— how do you wear the masses?" Gray asked.
"He means 'getting the attention', I think," Karen contributed, because one does not become a Celestial Mage without knowing some fancy-smancy folktale speak.
"Child of..." Kagura repeated, in awe, "child of raging storms..."
Jellal toyed with his fingers nervously, "I want a cool nickname like that too..."
"He wants to grace the masses with his presence, I'd say," Bickslow said, offering his theory. Because he, too, is mildly fluent in this after trying to interpret some of his less coherent and modern spirits for a few years.
"So, simply put, what he's saying is?" Erza prompted.
And Bickslow mimed the most annoying shrilly voice he could into the distance, "it's not fair Laxus gets to have fun! I want attention too!"
Natsu screamed and bit him. No one stopped him.
The kids have become used to Natsu's speech patterns, though the words often flew right over their heads. It's usually Levy or Cana that helped get the trickier words through, but alas, today in the stands they're not around.
Which is why Jura is in charge of the kids today, and he's doing a marvellous job of doing absolutely nothing but laugh at their antics.
"Yuka and Toby went to get drinks for everyone..." Jura counted off the children in his care and nodded approvingly. They were given a special section this year just so they could all be contained, and it was working well. "Alright, all here otherwise."
"Hey, Jura, aren't there a lot more participants this year compared to the last?" Gray asked. "I mean, we have more candidates this year, but I don't recognize some of the ones that just came out."
Jura chuckled, "that's because we've allowed freelancers to join this year too. They deserve to have some sort of national certification of strength too, after all."
"I heard they were planning on adapting this tournament next year to be free-for-all," Erza brought up, "so any of us can join and fight, and if we do well, we can make an appeal to become S-class!"
"For real?! Then next year even we can join?!" Natsu and Gray went all up in her face now, absolutely enthused.
"Oh, forget it, kids," Bickslow laughed, "you sure you want to fight for the position when Cana and Laxus are out for blood?"
-
"Where did they go this time... they're supposed to be here..."
Mest groaned into his hands in utter misery. He knew he should have fought harder for Levy and Sherry to be stationed near a screen they could watch the preliminaries in, but still, they didn't even wait for the event to start before they ran off.
"Oh, Mest-kun!" someone hollered, "if you're looking for your little tykes, they're with Eve at the resting hall down this way."
"I knew it!" Mest groaned, "I'm so sorry about them!"
The man laughed.
Mest faced the man with a groan. "Mister Ran, if you saw them, why didn't you tell them to get back to their stations? Anyone could slip in..."
Ran laughed, heartily. "It's fine, isn't it? That's what we adults are here for. Let the kids enjoy themselves." He rested his glaive on a shoulder and grinned. "It's their first big-scale guard assignment outside of campus. It's supposed to go disastrously."
Mest grimaced. "I don't like that insinuation."
"When do you ever?" he waved him off, dismissively. "Did you not come knowing we would have to do most of the work?"
Mest grimaced, his face scrunching up further until he couldn't see.
"Why did I sign up for this job..." he sighed deeply, before letting his shoulders sink in with resignation. "Alright. See you around, Sir Ran."
He turned around, but Sir Ran strode his way down the hall without looking back.
The were similarly new to the force, so they were slotted together as roommates from the beginning. They were both remarkable soldiers— honestly, Mest would say Ran is superior, especially with the way Ran used his spear perfectly, his height and physique never affecting just how powerful and quick he could be. Sometimes, Mest wondered if Ran could go toe to toe with Eir, if even in just spear usage alone.
But Mest had prominence as one with Eir's backing, while not many knew much about Ran at all— and this led to many situations were the same job led to promotions for Mest and nothing at all for Ran. Ran never held a grudge, though.
Mest supposed that's how the world would be, from now and moving forward. Your reputation, your performance, and society's opinion of you— it would all eventually be swayed by the name of Eir Macmillan.
It's not ideal, definitely, but there was little anyone could do about it.
The country loved Eir Macmillan, because all guilds were held together on the shoulders of this one mans' efforts. No one could hate him.
Though, this probably divided the country, ever so slightly.
(Maybe one day, they'll have to find a way to fix it.)
(But for now... they just have to focus on one thing at a time.)
"LEVY! SHERRY!! And most of all, EVE! What are you doing in the resting hall?!" Mest barked at them, loud and booming, and he received three terrified squawks in response as three children scrambled and ran and hid behind the couch like that would ever work.
Seriously. Eve's been in the school just as long as them, but he could swear that Eve was so much better behaved before Levy found him and corrupted him.
And then, fingers went pointing.
"It was Sherry's idea!" Eve tattled. Immediately. "I was properly facing the completely empty hallway for the hour before they snatched me off my post! Promise!"
Oh. So you were bored.
"I regret nothing! It is LOVE!" she declared.
"It's not fair Eve gets to guard here, where the screen is!" Levy whined. "I want to watch Eir in the preliminaries, too!"
"Yeah, you expect us to stare at empty walls while the entire stadium shakes from the crowd's cheering??" Eve gave in and joined in on the complaining. "You're bullying us!"
"You get to walk around!" Sherry added. "In the name of LOVE we must watch Eir excel!"
"It'll be good reference for the future when we become S-class!" Levy pleaded.
"Stop making these extremely good points, you know I failed debating class!" Mest snapped, very loudly. "Get back to your stations or I'll make you forget Eir ever existed!"
"YOU WOULDN'T!" dramatic gasps.
-
"Missus Layla! You made it!"
Karen brightened right up even more when the mature blonde lady stepped up to the balcony, a shawl around her shoulders and a little girl in her likeness clinging to her leg.
Someone— a tall, anthropomorphic goat man— led her in as an escort would, fixing his sunglasses as he scrutinized everyone.
Jura smiled politely. "We've been expecting you. Please, we saved you a seat."
Layla chuckled, "I'm really honoured that Eir thought of me. Please, don't mind me... this here is my daughter, Lucy," she introduced, "I hope you would take care of her as we all watch the tournament today together."
"Of course, the honour is ours."
It's jarring, to be in the presence of an undercover noble lady. Everything about her– her aura, her apparently most humble dress, it all just exuded luxury. A rose brooch pinned at her breast, the way her hands curled around the shawl— there just wasn't a place to rest any eyes, because everything about her was filled with grace.
Erza was completely and utterly charmed. Jellal's eyes shone, too, under his mask. Their little royal-esque dressup had nothing on the real deal.
"I am Capricorn, who serves Lady Layla," said the goatman. "Do not be concerned by meh. But I expect better conduct, this disorderly behaviour is unsightly."
Bickslow turned to where Capricorn was glaring.
Gray's topless. Natsu is still trying to throw himself over the balcony, though Yuka had a hand on him to make sure he wasn't burning anything. Toby was desperately trying to drag him back to the ground by the waist.
Kagura was the only one behaving, sipping on her juice and smiling as Lucy shyly came up to her, and they sat down next to each other, drinks in hand, talking about the two totems floating around them.
Jura nodded. "I understand your concerns, but believe me or not, this is a better day."
Bickslow nodded twice. "Our usual troublemakers aren't around."
Capricorn looked absolutely disgusted by that revelation.
"Aries, come out!"
Karen summonedthe girl, who was absolutely flustered to appear. She squeaked, still midway buckling her workbelt, and she hastily tidied her hair before straightening.
"Y- Yes! Ku- Karen– !" she bit her tongue and held her hands before her in some semblance of elegance, "What did you n-need me for today...?"
Karen blinked in surprise. "Did I catch you at a bad time, Aries? You're not usually this jumpy..."
Aries made a soft whimpering noise, a tear escaping from her eye in shame. "No... I'm okay, it's just... I am ashamed to say this, but one of my honoured seniors are in the area and I was dearly hoping I would not be used in battle tod—KYAAA!!!"
Aries caught sight of Capricorn at her last word and shrieked.
Capricorn stared at her, unimpressed.
"C-Capricorn! Capricorn!" she wailed, running to Karen's side immediately. With her shaking baby lamb limbs she nervously held herself out before Karen and turned to face him, tears still building up in her eyes. "Uhm! Capricorn! Sir. Are we. Are we uh fighting? I won't let you hurt Karen. Yeah. No. Please don't. I will fight. My best. I hope."
She was clinging desperately to Karen by the end of it, pleading near a sob, hugging her close.
"We aren't fighting, Aries," Karen assured. What on earth is going on here?
Aries deflated immediately. "Oh thank the kiiiiiing," she sobbed, "there's no way I can win against Capricorn in the human world... he's so scary..."
To this pathetic display, Capricorn's voice is cold and his eyes are a glower.
"Cease that miserable display this instant."
Aries squeaked, jumping a foot in the air and ducking behind Karen, hugging her fully from the back.
"No! You can't be mean to me out here!" she insisted. "Karen won't let you!"
Capricorn growled under his breath, "Aries, how many times have I told you. A presentable spirit protects their owner, they are not protected by their owner!"
"I know, but I'm not made for battle, what am I supposed to do??"
"Everyone else spoils you rotten, Aries! Especially Leo and Taurus! I told you from the start that I will not be coddling you just because you are the youngest—"
This entire back and forth is mutedly witnessed by everyone present. Flabbergasted gazes switched from Aries to Capricorn and back, and by the third sentence Layla was visibly trying to hold back a very unladylike bout of laughter.
Karen, hearing that, straightened immediately into a scowl, looking up at the tall goat and pointing fiercely.
"YOU!" she demanded. "Have you been bullying Aries?!"
Karen was so short, she only reached Capricorn's knees. Granted, Capricorn was abnormally tall, but still.
But Capricorn immediately crumbled.
"N- No, of course not, dear Aries' Owner..." he got on a knee, "I apologize for meh's unacceptable behavior, I have forgotten myself. In the Celestial Realm, we, meh and Aries... we are like siblings, I could never bear to hurt her in any way."
Karen's skeptical squint didn't let up.
"Then what was that angry commanding just now, huh?" she snarled. "Sure didn't sound kind and brotherly to me!"
Capricorn cringed at himself. "Well..."
He hesitated, as if he was wondering upon details, as if he weren't sure if this was any of a human's right to know.
"Well," Aries cut in, pouting into Karen's back, "in the Celestial Realm, Capricorn is my mentor. He's supposed to show me the ropes of being a spirit."
"Mentor?" Karen raised a brow. "Why'd you need one of that?"
"Aries is still young," Capricorn said. "I am to oversee her until she is considered a mature spirit of her own right. It is how the spirits ensure relations with humans maintain, and traditions are upheld. An average of five hundred years of apprenticeship is natural."
"Five hu–"
"FIVE WHAT?"
"I'm already four hundred fifty nine! I can handle myself!" Aries wailed.
Somehow, the screaming quadrupled in volume, "FOUR—?!?"
Layla broke down in hysterical laughter as utter chaos ensued.
-
"Keep your eyes peeled, citizens of Fiore, because this year's preliminaries are filled with LOTS of up and coming! Will Eir Macmillan take the crown as expected, or will an unexpected dark horse usurp his throne?"
So dramatic.
Eir sighed.
He wasn't sure how they managed to create a huge jungle in the middle of Domus Flau stadium— probably a mixture of plant magic and space magic, because darn this place seemed endless— but he hated being in the center of it.
The Lacrima camera hovered overhead, patrolling the entire area. He'd already come across so many broken ones, the budget of this stournament is really steep, they should devise some sort of barrier magic or something that can protect these little camera things.
(Alas, barrier and defensive magic don't really exist...)
(Huh? Didn't Sherry have some research about barrier magic tucked away? It was from her father or something... he wondered if she'd come any closer to decoding it.)
"I found him!"
"Eir Macmillan, we're taking you down!"
Honestly, Eir barely recognized his fellow competitors, Maybe they were in the prelims last year too, but he didn't put in any effort to remember them.
Three figures leapt out of the bushes, and his weapon gleamed, switching from sword to staff in a moment, air gathering around his hand in a magic circle. He swept them right away, and surged forward, undeterred.
"And OF COURSE, Eir takes them right out! We expected no less!"
Just like last year, the announcer really was having a lot of fun.
Eir knew he was deliberately put into a largely different section from Bacchus. They wanted to set them up as the final two, for an explosive final match, so there was no chance they would meet in the preliminaries. It was a shame, honestly.
"Does Eir have this in the bag after all? Oh–!! Not so fast, because here comes—"
Eir lifted his head just in time.
"Lightning Dragons—" Laxus dove down from the skies, taking a sharp breath, "ROAR!"
Ah crap, he can't avoid it. "Gale Burst!" He threw up a spiral of wind, cutting through the storm that descended upon him spur by spur.
He came out of it unscathed, grinning proudly when he noticed Laxus hadn't stopped there.
Laxus gauntlets— a gift from Eir, that powered through his lightning magic and gave him the ability to tear the earth asunder— he fueled it through and descended upon the earth without mercy.
"Thunder Beast Claw!"
It shattered the ground into sparks, a crater like lightning encavements.
Eir had leapt, and flew, and danced upon the air on steps of his wind magic.
"LAXUS DREYARRR!!!" the announcer screamed. "Fairy Tail's second candidate this year is none other than the famed grandson of their Master himself! There's no one here that knows Eir's fighting style better than him! Can the student finally surpass the master?"
Eir could've laughed, honestly.
"When did they get the idea that you're my disciple?" he wondered out loud.
"I'm not even going to try," Laxus groaned, standing up from his spot and huffing in effort. The gauntlet slowly eased from its lightning charge, the musical note emblem at the back of his palm slowly dimming away.
"Glad to see you like it," Eir said.
Laxus grinned. "Chatting it up in the middle of a fight? Don't underestimate us, we're not kids anymore, Eir!"
Eir blinked in surprise.
"Us?"
Cana stood behind him, holding up two cards.
"Strength, Ace of Wands reversed—"
Eir spun around in alarm, but Laxus charged forward, and his steps stalled.
Laxus held another card, the card gleamed.
"Emperor!" he declared, and turquoise tendrils pulled from the card's magic, shooting forward to surround Eir in a ring of light. It locked his arms to his sides.
"WOOOOAHH!!" the announcer, ever the terrible mood reader, squalled through the microphone. "They did it! There's the third of Fairy Tail's S-class candidate's this year, and the winning choice in this competition's 'most unsuspecting dark horse possibility' crowd voting— CANA ALBERONA! Eir's in trouble now! Might we be in for a major upset after all??"
Laxus charged forward, his gauntlet fueling gold through once more.
"You're not going anywhere!" Cana grinned. "This is my most powerful binding magic! Overloading this with magic only makes me stronger!"
"You can't avoid this one!" Laxus winded up a fist. "Lightning Dragon's—"
Eir scoffed.
Jumping at the last second, he somersaulted where he stood, and Laxus' fist embarrassingly swings to hit absolutely nothing.
A twist in the air slammed Eir's heel into the back of Laxus' skull, and the loosed one of the cards enough for Eir to free his spear, morph it into a staff, and use it as a vault to swing a loop over, his feet rounding right into Cana and sending her flying into the woods.
He landed calmly.
Laxus groaned, face planted into the ground in shame. Cana was in a similar state, sprawled over the bushes and stuck between the branches.
Eir nodded. "Yeah. Not working on me."
-
And so, preliminaries ended.
The preliminaries were a free-for-all survival field. Anyone hit once in a clean and incapacitating way were immediately eliminated. (Being briefly captured didn't count.) And once the contestants were down to eight for the tournament bracket, the bell would ring as the signal for the end.
Which was why Eir was now escorting his very upset children back to the loser's tent.
Eir had no problems lasting to the end, of course, but it was quite a shame Cana and Laxus made it all the way to top fifteen only to try their luck with Eir and get eliminated right before the bell.
"Oh! We've got an announcement to make... unfortunately, one of our top eight, Mikagura Nalshe from Titan Nose— she will be resigning due to personal circumstances."
The announcement came at a surprise. But that wasn't surprising, maybe she just tried too hard at the preliminaries, or she got injured, or an emergency happened back at home, there were a variety of reasons one would pull out of the competition. Just winning prelims were enough to get her considered for S-class, so it was fair.
Though, Eir couldn't help but feel as if something was strange. Nalshe had made it to the top ten last year, too, so he knew that she was really strong.
"We will continue toward the bracket with seven candidates. We may have to make some different arrangement, but we'll keep you all updated!"
Eir chuckled.
"Since Nalshe just quit, it means that if you'd just been a little more patient, one of you might have made it into the bracket."
"Stop rubbing it in!" Laxus snapped.
"We hate you, Eir!" Cana added. "Damn it, even tag teaming him was useless!"
"Heyy come on now, you did really well, you know," Eir patted them on the head. "I'll buy you anything you want from the market. The tournament starts two days later, we'll have time to tour Crocus again."
"We're definitely using your wallet," Cana threatened.
"Do you think the house will look good with a pheasant?" Laxus wondered.
"Nothing alive," Eir said. "We have ten thousand bunnies. Is that not enough?"
"Ten thousand and one," Cana hissed. "I'm going to find the biggest ugliest bunny in the pet shelter."
Eir sighed in defeat.
"Alright, alright..."
He really couldn't win against them, could he?
"Wow. You've really gone soft."
For a moment, Eir really thought his world was complete. In the next, it crumbled to ash, so abruptly, he could still see the flashes of black as it slipped from his grasp and through his fingers.
His breath didn't come.
The music of the world stopped playing to his tune.
And the cacophony around him screeched to a halt.
"Eir?" Maybe that was Cana.
"What's wrong?" Laxus had turned around to look at him. "Hey..."
Suddenly, his step felt too heavy, and he couldn't take another. Suddenly, his touch on Laxus and Cana were cold, so cold, it burned him.
And his blood, it froze where he stood.
And when he finally turned around, he couldn't hide the way his eyes widen, his lips trembled, and every nerve within him shriveled up and pleaded,
It's not him, is it?
And it was.
"Ah, they're calling you Eir, now, aren't they?"
The man smirked, his lips pulling wide, dark skin tugging against white patches, teeth tapping against a cigarette.
His eyes didn't match. Eir knew why. Once upon a time, Eir had tried his best to gouge them out and failed. And because he filled, those eyes that see and never lie, they expose everything Eir wanted to hide.
And that tongue. A piercing through the center. That tongue that spoke and tattled and never shut up, it continued to doom him, it continued to make life hell for him.
The man with black hair bowed in greeting.
"Pyr Obrecht," he gestured toward himself. And then, his hand rested upon the sword at his hip, resting well in its holster. He smiled, head tilting aside. "You've got some nerve using a sword, you punk. Haven't you outgrown imitating your big brothers yet?"
-
Laxus and Cana were saying something. A surprised question. A demand for an explanation. But Eir heard none of it, taking them by the shoulders so roughly he knew he may have bruised them but it didn't matter.
They had to get away.
They're still in the jungle. The cameras around them, the space infinite, and the loser's tent is just around. The Masters are at the audience stands. There is no security detail. Eir is here to prove himself the strongest, why would there be security? The council guards only come in during the finals.
There is nowhere to escape to.
"Eir, what's wrong?! Where are you—"
"Is that guy bad news?!"
"Run if you want," Pyr said. "You won't get far."
And those words thrum so deeply into Eir it sent pure fear through his veins.
"I told you, didn't I?" he laughed, low and haunting, his eyes a gaze of mockery. "We'll be back for you. And Earth will be so happy to hear that I've found you."
Pyr's hand erupts with fire, and his grin widened, sardonically.
"Ah, my bad. He liked 'Ran' better. Make sure to call him by the right name, so he doesn't get mad, alright?" he sang. "By the way, you wouldn't happen to know where Water ran off to? And what is he calling himself now?"
He set his hand upon a tree, and it exploded into a plume of fire in an instant.
"Don't worry! I'm just here to confirm you're alive. And we needed to check something, under this place... though, that's not your business," he said. "Try to survive, okay? Ran didn't tell me to kill you, so I don't wanna make him mad."
Eir turned around. Pyr's hand fueled with fire, from hand to shoulder, searing through his coat and yet he smiled confidently. It crawled up to his sword, coating it with fire thoroughly, the blade curling red with inscriptions in runic text, and it left chars upon the ground, the air around it warping from the heat that emanated from its blade.
Pyr raised his hand. Pointed his sword forward.
"Enchant: Fire."
Laxus cursed. Cana gasped. A card flew to her hand, and Laxus spun around, gauntlet forward—
—but Eir knew, neither would stand a chance.
"Blaze Bullet."
The cannon of fire bursts forth in a vortex of sheer heat. It rippled through the very atmosphere, a force so large and overwhelming, there was nowhere to run. It had a larger field of attack than Laxus' roars, and the radiation could surely be lethal even if they ran as far as they could at a right angle.
The only way to survive this was to spear through the very center.
And Eir didn't know if it was possible. He shifted his spear into a sword, and it quickly fueled through with magic.
"Enchant Wind—"
His Wind Bullet wouldn't be strong enough. He didn't have time to use it.
That was why the second he thrust his sword forward, it shattered into pieces in his hands.
His eyes blew wide as metal shards sprayed back toward him, slicing his cheek open along with his palm, and— and he didn't know what to do.
Maybe being so hailed in this country had made him lose sight of just what he truly was.
It made him lose sight of the fact that he wasn't some all-powerful protagonist. It made him forget just how weak he was.
He didn't know what he could do.
"E—"
Laxus and Cana's faces, he couldn't bear to turn to them. Cana was on her knees, horrified, and Laxus knew that he stood no chance. This was pure defeat staring them in their eyes, and fear seized their very souls. None of them knew how to fight against this. Eir didn't blame them.
(If they get consumed by this attack, will they die?)
(Yes. Yes they would.)
"Stay behind me," he ordered. "And Cana, keep your protection card up."
It would do nothing against something so overwhelming and strong, but it was better than nothing.
Eir stood before them, terror reverberating through his entire being— and he knew, deep inside, that this was inevitable.
Wind surged through his arms, and he could only throw it forward in a spiral, dragging aside the liquid heat that sprayed that acid toward him, melting through each layer of wind with no abate. The embers ate through his skin, his clothes, his bones, but he powered on, wind cutting through each and every loose flare.
He always had way too much magic to spare.
If that wasn't made for now, then when?
(He couldn't help but laugh, miserably, as the wind proved useless as defense. He cut through the magma over and over, but the fire slipped in through the gaps of his infinite blades and peppered his skin with burns, eating through his skin little by little.)
(It hurt. Did it? It was agony. But Laxus hugged Cana close behind him and they were covered in a coat and a spell for protection and that isn't enough.)
(The arena has by now noticed what was going on. But what could they do? There were many more injured stuck in the now aflame forest, and no one could enter this surging inferno. They didn't even know who caused this fire, for what.)
(Ah, Eir grimly thought, as he stopped being able to feel his hands.)
(If only my powers were made to protect, rather than kill.)
(Maybe then, none of this would have happened.)