For the event, Hidden, I listened carefully to who all of the guilds were sending in.
Quatro Cerberus sent in Yeager, a buff guy with tan skin, pale hair, and a spiky red collar. Mermaid Heel sent in Beth Vanderwood, a teenage redhead girl with blue eyes and freckles.
Raven Tail - they gave off a pretty suspicious vibe to me - sent in Nullpudding, a purple-skinned man with highlighter yellow hair. Blue Pegasus sent in one of their Trimen, Eve Tearm. I remember meeting him several times over the past seven years, even dining in fancy restaurants together occasionally.
The Laxus/Freed love child of Sabertooth was chosen by his guild-mates - his name is Rufus Lore. Lamia Scale chose their resident Ice-Make mage, Lyon Vastia.
"Well, well." Gray smirked. "in that case, I'll take this one."
"If Gray is playing, the Juvia will, too!" Juvia exclaimed.
"Um - Juvia - are you sure this is your forte?" I asked nervously. "I mean, you usually really stand out, and I thought—"
"Are you trying to take away my position to get closer to Gray?!" she accused.
"No!" I said. "y'know what? Just go on - go kick some ass, Fairy Tail style!"
"Throw the game and you'll pay for it." Gajeel grumbled.
Let me go over the rules - each guild team has five members. The tournament will last five days, and each day is divided into a contest and a battle. For the contests, each team is allowed to choose who will play, and they will be ranked according to their performance. The sponsors will choose who fights in each battle. For this part, points will be awarded not by rank, but by victory. After five days of repeating this process, the team with the most points wins!
All of the chosen team members were asked to step forwards. We retreated to the stands and, as soon as I was there, I ditched my team for a minute.
"Hey! Where're you going?!" Gajeel called. I ran down the corridors and straight to where the rest of my guild was.
"Kuschel!" I cried out.
"[Y/N]!" she turned around and leapt into my arms. I hugged her close to my chest.
"Where did you go?!" I said. "you made me so worried!"
"I'm sorry, [Y/N]... I-I just wanted to get some pretty flowers for you." she sniffled.
"Heyy, hey! It's okay. That's really thoughtful of you, Kuschel." I smiled gently. "but next time, tell me if you're going to wander off!"
She nodded slowly.
"I promise." she said.
"Okay. Now, come on. Gajeel'll be mad if I don't get back over there." I put her down on the floor and began to walk, making sure she was behind me.
"Actually... if it's okay with [Y/N], I want to go and see the other teams!" Kuschel said suddenly. I turned around, crouching to her height. I contemplated the thought for a minute or two.
"...Alright." I gave in. "but, I'm laying down a few ground rules. I don't want you going near that Raven Tail guild, okay?"
"They were really scary." she shivered. "I don't want to go over there."
I shook my head. "Good. Okay, and, if anything bad happens - if anyone tries to hurt you, or take you away, fly straight back to me. If you can't, then call for me. I'll hear you."
I bopped her on the end of the nose lightly and she giggled.
"Okay! I promise!" she said cheerily, before tottering away. I watched her go until she was out of sight.
'She'll be okay.' I reminded myself. 'She can care for herself... sort of.'
With the slightly reassuring thought in my head, I walked back to Team B's balcony. Gajeel whacked me upside the head.
"Where the hell'd you go?" he demanded.
"To see Kuschel!" I replied, rubbing the crown of my head before elbowing him in the stomach. "I actually care for my partner, after all."
"Oi! I care for Lily more than you could ever care for you damn cat!"
"She's not a cat, she's an Exceed!"
"Oi, you two." Laxus grumbled. "quit it, you're giving me a headache."
Gajeel mumbled something unintelligible before we both turned back to the contest.
A city had formed in the middle of the arena, filled with fake clones of each participant. We could see what each of them were doing, yet they couldn't see each other.
A man hit a gong, and immediately Juvia was on one of the Gray clothes. She was zapped by it and lost a point for a bearhug attack.
"Moron." Gajeel said. Laxus remained silent, but his facial expression said it all - he was astounded by the tomfoolery here.
"Like I said, this isn't Juvia's thing." I sighed. The time limit for this event is thirty minutes. During that thirty minutes, competitors can restart as many times as necessary.
I looked up and saw that Nullpudding had found Gray.
"Is Nullpudding his real name?" I questioned. "seriously, who looks at a child and thinks 'oh, I have the perfect name! Nullpudding!' What the heck?"
"I didn't expect you to come find me." Gray said. "Thanks for saving me the trouble - Ice Hammer!"
He created a hammer using his maker magic and slammed it right down on the Raven Tail mage. I leant forwards, intrigued. This must be the fruit of his training!
"This gets me a point, doesn't it?" Gray said. There was the familiar 'Errrt!' sound, and he lost a point.
"Too bad. That was just a copy." the real Nullpudding emerged. Gray was zapped, and then switched to a different area.
"Wha?!" I gasped. The Ice-Make mage reappeared in a different place and, in less than twenty seconds, Nullpudding had leapt out at him again.
"Found you!" he bellowed, slamming a spiked, enlarged fist down on Gray. The Fairy Tail wizard yelled out, losing yet another point.
I heard Natsu shout his comrade's name. The match was only three minutes in, and both Fairy Tail teams were in the last two spots. Raven Tail had taken the lead (sneaky bastards) with Sabertooth's Rufus in second. Third was Lamia Scale, fourth Blue Pegasus, fifth Mermaid Heel and sixth was Quatro Cerberus.
"Gray! What do you think you're doing?!" Natsu shrieked.
"You're not supposed to let the same guy get you twice!" Elfman roared.
Beth Vanderwood of Mermaid Heel suddenly burst from the ground with the words 'Carrot Missiles!', shooting straight at Gray. They missed. She was suddenly chomped up by a strange, spiky thing that resembled a carnivorous flower. She lost a point.
"Haha! I saw you using magic, yo!" Yeager exclaimed - he had stolen the point from Beth. He lost it again, suddenly, after being shot away by Lyon's ice.
"And I saw you." the white-haired mage said.
"Lyon." Gray said.
"I found you. Gray." the former smirked.
"Gray!!" Juvia's voice called, leaping down from above.
"Juvia?!" Gray yelled.
"Panties?!" Lyon exclaimed. The water user landed down on his head, stealing the point he had earned.
"Come on, I don't need your help." Gray said to the blue-haired woman.
"Juvia knows." she said. "Juvia will defeat you. She made a deal with the master."
"A deal with the Old Man?" Gray questioned.
"Yes." Juvia replied. I smirked at the memory.
"Hey, Old Man!" Gray shrieked. "No one told me anything about this! Your little 'local rules' apply to Team A as well, too!"
"Of... of course." Makarov sighed.
"Yes, so Juvia won't allow you to beat her!" Juvia said.
"Fine by me!" Gray answered. A laugh was elicited from somewhere.
"Juvia!" I yelled. Nullpudding burst out from who-knows-where, smack both of them.
"Watch me get two fairies at once!" he cackled.
"That jerk!" Lucy yelled. "he went after Gray, again!"
"What's his problem?!" Gray exclaimed.
Suddenly... it began to snow. I knew there was only one person who this could be - Eve Tearm, Blue Pegasus's 'Holy Night'.
Able to distinguish clone between reality, Eve wiped out Beth, Yeager and Nullpudding, all in one fell swoop. Lyon gave chase to him, unaffected by the cold.
Nullpudding, meanwhile, was back on Gray's tail.
"Leave me alone, damnit!" Gray yelled.
"Found you!" Nullpudding said.
"Can't you go after anyone else?!" the Ice-Make wizard exclaimed.
"I'm noticing we haven't seen any action from Sabertooth's Rufus!" Chapati Lola's voice narrated. "he has yet to make a move or an attack!"
"This contest lacks flair..." Rufus said.
"What's this?!" Chapati gasped.
The Sabertooth man was on top of a building, as if begging for everyone to find him.
"I remember. Each individual pulse, footstep, magical attribute..." he said, fingers raising to his temples. "I remember. I remember it all... Memory Make!"
"Maker Magic?!" Erza gasped.
"Night of Falling Stars!" Rufus called out. Eight stars shot out, striking seven contestants. Nullpudding whirled out of the way, just in time.
"You stick out like a sore thumb!" he laughed, throwing a fist into Rufus. "No! It was a copy?!"
"Fret not. That was merely your memory of my standing there." Rufus spoke. "I need no decoy."
He whacked Nullpudding.
"T-total annihilation!" Chapati yelled. "In the blink of an eye, he takes the lead! That's the power of Rufus... That's the power of Sabertooth!"
I stared up in shock.
"My dear sponsors, this contest is utterly dull." Rufus spoke with a sly smile. "you see, I have no need to hide. My opponents may find me, but they won't touch me. All they see is a lingering memory."
The crowd screamed and cheered wildly.
'Sabertooth really is a crowd pleaser...' I thought. 'I'll need to learn more about them...'
"Is he... unbeatable?" Panther Lily said.
"He's... he's really powerful." Happy gaped.
"I guess they don't call them Fiore's strongest for nothing." Lisanna said. The two Sabertooth Exceeds began cheering.
"Maker Magic, huh?" Gray said.
"I'd heard the rumours... I see. He'll be a formidable opponent." Lyon agreed.
"Cut the crap and follow the rules!" the former said. "the game's called Hidden for a reason!"
Nullpudding suddenly appeared, bringing his foot down on our Ice-Make wizard.
"You again!" Gray yelled. Nullpudding chortled wildly.
"Oh, come on! There's someone right in front of you, buttface!" I shouted.
"It seems he prefers to go after us..." Erza responded.
"And, time is up!"
The scoreboard showed both Fairy Tail teams in the last place positions... great. The crowd started laughing and jeering. I jumped up on the ledge.
"Like you can laugh! Come down here and fight me, we'll see what happens then!" I roared.
"Yeah! What're you laughing at, jerkwads?!" Natsu bellowed.
Gajeel grabbed me by my collar and pulled me off the ledge.
"Hey! Put me down!" I yelled. He dropped me on the floor.
"Ooh, we got 'em mad!"
"I'm shaking in my boots! Kyahaha!"
"Keep on barking!"
I clenched my jaw.
"I'll show them." I glared.
"Damn straight."