"So... this is the Town of Songs??" Lucy asked in front of the Town Gate. The gate was grand, with several melody signs on it. Unlike other towns, the gate was full of colours, indicating what kind of town it was.
"Yup. This is it." Vyera replied, the only one besides Gray who had come here before.
The Town of Songs was surrounded by forest and it had two gates, one at the north and another one at the south part of the town; there were two guards stationed at each gate, who would check on everyone that wouldl enter the town. Without any permission, nobody was allowed to go in.
"... Stop. We need to check your identity before you are allowed to enter the town." The guards ordered when the seven of them which included Happy and Ice approached the south town gate.
"We are from Fairy Tail guild and are here on Mayor's request."
"Ah... yes, I have heard from Mayor about that. Could you show your guild mark as ID?"
As asked, all of them showed the guards the fairy tail marks.
"Identified." He said with a polite tone, unlike previously, "Welcome to the Town of Songs."
"Thank you."
The moment they entered the town, the gate was closed again. Lucy was so excited that she couldn't help herself being so hyper. "Hey! This is a great town! Every shop has a melody sign on them!! Ah!!" She pointed at one of the shops, "Stellar spirit key shop!!" and ran there without giving any notice. All of them sighed, couldn't help but followed her there.
After the seven of them were out of the sight from the town gate, which were now fully closed, the guards started a weird conversation, "Hey, Albert..." he called the other one.
"What's wrong, Khan?" replied the other one.
"... Isn't someone from Fairy Tail guild arrived this early morning?" He said, frowning, trying hard to recall.
"... Now that you said about it, I remembered a woman with long brown hair came this morning..."
After thinking hard, both of them looked at each other and, "Hey!! Isn't she-!!"
Going back to Vyera, she was already at the inn with Gray, Loke and Ice. Natsu, Happy, and Lucy were out to the town since they have never been here before.
"... So Vye, when are you going to see the Mayor??"
"Tonight... since those three will probably come back around that time." She answered and slowly yawned, "Didn't have enough sleep last night... I'm going to have a rest for a while." She lied down on one of the bed and fell asleep almost immediately. Gray put on a blanket on her but was pulled out from the room by Loke afterwards.
"Hey, want to get a costume for Vye??" Loke asked while still pulling Gray out from the inn.
"Oh yeah... She will need a costume for her performance..."
"I doubt she still has her old costume... Let's make a surprise for her. I bet they have a nice one in the town."
"Okay... I Ag...ree...?" Gray stopped walking and looked at a crowd of people nearby.
"Hey, Gray??"
"... Aren't those three..." he pointed at Natsu, Lucy and Happy who were trying to get into the crowd by crawling on the ground. Ice just shook his head in defeat and sighed.
"What the hell are they doing??" Gray said. Both of them approached the crowd. But it was difficult to see what's happening with all those people. It seemed that they were surrounding someone famous.
Gray and Loke looked at each other, nodded after agreeing that they had the same thoughts, and crawled into the crowd as well. Ice couldn't be bothered with such a troublesome thing and decided to wait for them nearby.
Finally they managed to reach the centre of the crowd, to see Natsu, Lucy and Happy had their eyes and mouth wide open at that 'someone' and already speechless.
"Hey!" Gray called, making the three of them jumped in surprise. He didn't have a change to look at who they were looking at yet.
"G-Gray!"
"Why did you guys look so scared? Just like seeing... a... ghost..."
Still crawled on the ground, Gray had looked up to see who that person was, which greatly surprised him. Loke had already stunned by that 'someone'. Natsu took the first action to pull the other three with Happy out from the crowds.
"Hey, isn't she..." Lucy started.
"But it is impossible... I saw her just now!! She won't be able to arrive here faster than us!? Is it magic?" Loki argued.
"Hey, anything wrong with this crowd?" Ice asked but was clearly ignored by all of them.
"... Anyway, let's get back to the inn first."
"Hey, answer me!!" Ice wailed, still being ignored. He followed them back sulking. They rushed back to the inn, and pushed the door of theroom open roughly, which made Vyera awake.
"Mmmm... What's wrong?? Why are you in such a hurry??" She got up, still rubbing her sleepy eyes.
"Vye! There is trouble!!" Gray said urgently.
"What's wrong?" She got down from the bed, reading to receive any news. It seemed pretty serious too. Lucy closed the door of the room and the others had sat on the place available.
"... Vyera-san..." Lucy started
"'Vyera' is fine, Lucy... What is the trouble??" Vyera asked, "Why are you all so... surprised?"
They looked at each other, still not sure whether to say or not. However, Gray finally started, "Okay, we saw someone who impersonate you in the town centre just now."
"Huh??" Vyera and Ice said in unison.
"She was exactly like you... Voice, behaviour, everything. She was like an exact copy of you."
"... I bet she was using magic, most likely transformation." Ice said. Everyone nodded in unison, having the same thoughts.
"... ..." Vyera walked to the nearest window and opened it. She then spotted someone, exactly looked like her, walking around the town, with the crowds around her. It was weird to see herself walking around like that.
She sensed her magic power, "Yes, it's transformation type." She said, "Loke, could you-"
However, all of them were already deep in useless conversation, ignoring her.
"Seriously, why didn't we just confront her just now? We all had the same guess of her magic!" Gray said, shaking his head in disappointment.
"Yeah, yeah! We should have use our magic to-" Natsu and Happy argued
"No, no... we should just drag her here or-" Lucy also joined in.
"Oh how I wish I could grab her hands and pull her here..." Loke said, definitely imagining pervert stuffs.
And they kept on and on without stopping. Vyera really got annoyed by that and shouted, "Enough of that! Loke, go and get her alone at the park near the north gate!"
"Y-Yes Vye-chan!!" and he rushed out from the room.
The rest of them kept quiet immediately and went with her quietly to the park to wait for the arrival of another 'Dancing Diva'.
Fast forward to the north side park of the town, which was a peaceful place and not many people would come, it made a perfect place to meet someone without being overheard by others.
Vyera stood there alone, asking Gray and the others for some little help.
"You know what?? You are really a playboy..." Vyear finally heard some laughter. The weird thing was, it was her own voice.
"I have always been wanted to do this with you..." She heard Loke's voice, flirting with a woman, who looked exactly like her.
Now that Vyera could see them clearly, she gave Loke a glare. Even though that was not her, she didn't want to see a sight of herself flirting with Loke. He was stunned and backed off from Vyera's copy.
"... So, this is why you lure me to here..." she said, kind of angry yet happy," Nice to meet you, Vyera the Dancing Diva." She greeted.
"... Mind if I ask what you want to do with my form?" Vyera asked straightforward.
"... Before that let me introduce myself..." she changed back to her original form, "I'm Priscilla Verona. Town of Songs is my hometown."
"... Ah... Priscilla Verona from the Rhythmica dance group..." Vyera said which Priscilla replied with a smile, indicating she was indeed who she just said, "So... for that simple reason, you are here with my form?" Vyera continued her questioning.
"... Glad you realized it... That will make things much easier to settle." she grinned.
Loke, who didn't know anything, looked at both Vyera and Priscilla, with question marks all over his heads. She sighed, "... which means she is not satisfied why the Mayor asked for my help instead of hers even though she is a dancer of this town." Vyera explained.
"I see!!" Loke exclaimed.
"... You really are stupid..." Vyera said to her, directly.
"What do you mean?! It feels like I was thrown out from my own hometown!! You won't understand that!!" she yelled angrily.
"... I understand that perfectly... I was also thrown out from my own ... ... ..." Vyera couldn't finish that sentence, "Anyway, if you would just tell me, I will gladly let you take my place in the performance."
"... No. I won't do that. I want to personally beat you to get back my right as the dancer."
"... Guess it won't be so easy to solve this problem... Gray."
Gray appeared with the town Mayor and Teresa behind one of the trees there. Natsu, Lucy, Happy and Ice were also there with him. They had explained to Mayor and Teresa what happened and seemed to have heard everything Vyera and Priscilla talked about. Teresa approached Priscilla, looking pretty sad and regret, and went to hug her without any warning.
"He-Hey, Teresa!"
"I'm sorry, Pris!!! I'm so sorry!!!" she cried, "I'm truly sorry!!"
While Priscilla was still busy handling Teresa, Vyera approached the Mayor.
"... Mayor, I want you to cancel the request to the guild."
That was a surprise... no, not surprise but a shock to everyone there.
"B-But Vye-chan! Your performance...!"
"I would gladly give it to Priscilla..." She said willingly, "She has the right to be the dancer. I'm sure the town people won't complain."
The Mayor seemed troubled. His reaction was not shock or surprise, but rather anxiety and fear. "Mayor??" Vyera called him.
"... We can't, Ms. Vyera... You HAVE to be the dancer!!"
"... But why Mayor?! Why it is not me?!" Priscilla complained, after getting rid of the crying Teresa to Loki.
"... Because..." it was clearly seen that he was afraid, sweating a lot.
"It's not Mayor's fault!!" Teresa shouted, "I'm the one who made a poll on you and Vyera-san... it ended up with Vyera-san as the choice of the town people!!"
Priscilla was shocked, her own hometown neighbors chose a stranger over her??
"... No... you... I don't believe you..." Priscilla said, trying to deny the fact.
"... I'm sorry, Priscilla... I'm so sorry..."
"No! I've never thought that you were that kind of person, Teresa!!" She immediately walked away from that place.
Something was definitely wrong here. Teresa said it herself that she wanted to see her best friend, Priscilla, dance more than anyone else last time. She wouldn't make a poll on her and Vyera. She would definitely choose Priscilla without second thoughts.
Vyera saw tears flowing down from Priscilla's eyes, full of tears of betrayal. She looked at Gray and Loke, who immediately understood what she meant and went after Priscilla. Teresa cried even harder after Priscilla was out of sight.
"... Teresa..."
"... Sorry Vyera-san... but I-"
"Tell me the truth. You are not that kind of person that will betray your friend."
Mayor stood in front of her, trying to prevent you from asking her any further. She didn't want to force someone to say what they didn't want to say.
"... Fine, forget it. But remember this..." Vyera turned with her back facing them and started to walk away, "Friendship is not something you should treat lightly... Once it is broken, there is always a possibility that everything will never be the same as before... Meanwhile, I'll try my best to do what you want me to do... Let's go." She said to Natsu, Lucy, Happy and Ice.
"... Mori no Uta..." she whispered
Five of them stopped. She was going to say something.
"... Whenever 'Mori no Uta' is played, Lekya always comes to destroy the town!!" she said that out loud, with her tears still flowing.
"... Lekya??"