102 The Three Reports

Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Magnolia.

September, x781.

A few moments later, Alfonzo, with Elicia hanging off of him like a cloak, and Sun, with Gozaburo clinging to her as if he would never let her go, approached the small group gathered by the bar. However, before either of them could greet the others, a blue blur flew toward Alfonzo.

"Alfonzo's back!" happy shouted as he landed on Alfonzo's left shoulder and began hugging his head. "I missed you so~~ much."

While Sun and Gozaburo slowly started inching away from Alfonzo, Elicia smiled at the cute creature that is Happy. Meanwhile, Alfonzo narrowed his eyes, feeling that Happy wanted something from him.

"What's up, Happy?" Alfonzo asked. "You need something?"

"Can't I just be happy to see you?" Happy asked with an innocent expression on his face.

A moment later, Natsu, who was also in the guild hall, approached quickly.

"Hey, Alfonzo, since you're back, can you cook this fish I caught?" Natsu asked with a smile while carrying a large fish.

"No way, Natsu!" Happy shouted from atop Alfonzo's shoulder. "Fishies are best eaten raw!"

"No way, Happy… Fish is bet however Alfonzo cooks it." Natsu disagreed.

As the two best friends argued about the best way to eat a fish, Alfonzo narrowed his eyes even further.

"So, you only came to greet me because you wanted me to agree to make the fish into sushi or sashimi before Natsu could say anything, huh?" Alfonzo asked as he turned his head and stared into Happy's eyes.

"N-No, of course not." Happy sputtered. "I was just glad you came back safely."

After speaking, Happy broke eye contact by turning his head to the side. Then, he tried, and failed, to whistle innocently, resulting in the side of Alfonzo's face being showered in his saliva.

Greatly annoyed by Happy's antics, Alfonzo raised his right hand and wiped off the saliva. Then, he looked at Natsu.

"Got any ideas on how you want the fish cooked, Natsu?" Alfonzo asked.

Hearing that, Natsu's eyes lit up. At the same time, Happy's expression fell, feeling betrayed.

"Alfonzo, you're so mean~~~!" Happy cried as he spread his [Aero Magic], and flew away from Alfonzo's shoulder.

Seeing the tears in Happy's eyes, Natsu was snapped back to reality. Then, he quickly turned around and chased after Happy.

"You can cook it in whatever way you think is best, Alfonzo!" Natsu shouted as he ran toward the back entrance of the guild hall. "Hey, Happy, wait up! I promise to share it with you."

"Fonzie, wasn't that a bit too much?" Elicia asked in a slightly reprimanding tone.

"Hell no." Alfonzo said, still wiping cat saliva out of his face. "That cat spit all over my face. He's lucky I didn't turn him into a delicacy."

Meanwhile, Sun and, for the first time, Gozaburo looked at Alfonzo with admiration in their gazes. They were quite impressed at how easily he drove their arch-nemesis, a cat, away without resorting to violence.

Not paying attention to the gazes of admiration, Alfonzo greeted the gathered people. Then, he glanced at Meredy, who he recognized immediately.

'With Ultear and Meredy here, two of the Seven Kin of Purgatory are members of Fairy Tail.' Alfonzo thought to himself. 'I wonder if Hades will recruit people to fill their spots. Or maybe those two… I can't remember their names… the ones who fought Levy and Gajeel, will be part of the seven.'

"Anyway, I assume the five of you were able to complete your quests." Makarov said once their was a break in the conversation. "Why don't you give your reports."

With that, Ultear, the first to arrive, was the first to give her report.

"Well, as you know, I took a quest to investigate the cause of a polluted hot spring." Ultear said, starting her report. "It wasn't a tourist spot, or anything. Just a hot spring used by a village for relaxation. Anyway, when I arrived, the spring was a murky brown color. So, I froze the entire spring and had the villagers help me remove the block of ice."

*Smack!*

When Ultear got to that point, Makarov face palmed hard enough to leave a red handprint on his face.

"What's the matter, Master?" Ultear asked in confusion.

"We don't have to compensate for the frozen spring, do we?" Makarov asked, a pleading expression on his face.

"*Cough* Anyway, like I was saying…" Ultear continued. "After removing the ice from the pond, we found a corrosive slime frozen solid in the ice."

"Why can't you kids do anything without destroying whatever it is you touch?" Makarov asked with tears in his eyes.

"Anyway, after I shattered the ice into dust, the slime shattered along with it." Ultear said, acting as if she could not see Makarov's tears. "So, they gave me the completion letter and the promised bonus for taking care of the cause of the hot spring's state.."

Ultear then reached into her traveling bag, that was still on her back, and pulled out an envelope filled with money and the completion letter.

"Then, while I was on my way back to the nearest town with a train station, I came across Meredy's village being attacked and I saved her from the members of Grimoire Heart."

"*Sigh* Good job, Ultear." Makarov said while shaking his head. "But try not to destroy anything on your next quest."

"I'll try." Ultear said while averting her gaze.

"What about you two?" Makarov asked, now looking at Elicia and Marin. "You two didn't destroy anything, right?"

"No, we didn't." Elicia said proudly. "Come on Gramps, have I ever done that?"

"*Sigh* And that's why you're one of my favorites." Makarov replied with a smile. "Anyway, let's hear your report."

"Okay!" Elicia said happily. "Marin and I took a B-Class quest to retrieve a stolen book. But the key was that we couldn't be seen while doing so. And that's where Marin's magic really came in handy."

Hearing Elicia praise her excitedly, Marin could not help but blush a little. Even so, she wore a happy smile the whole time.

"So, after scoping out the place, you know like ninjas, we found out that there was a freshly recruited group of guards." Elicia said, continuing her report. "Oh, by the way, the stolen book was in the private library of someone in the capital. So, we were in Crocus."

"The client was in Crocus, too." Marin added.

"That's right." Elicia said with a nod. "If we had to run around from place to place, this job would have been a pain. Anyway, after we identified the guard who was the least familiar with everyone else, I knocked him out. Then, Marin [Transformed] into him."

"Then, I spent the next few days trying to gain access to the library." Marin continued where Elicia left off. "Eventually, I was asked to go in and find a book for the mistress of the house. And that's when I got the chance."

"Still, you were lucky." Elicia said with a smile. "To think, when you got frustrated after not being able to find the book and kicked a bookshelf, it would just fall on your head."

"Lici, you dint' have to tell them that part." Marin said with a pout.

"Hold on, why do you know all that?" Ur asked curiously. "It almost sounds like you were right there with her."

"Oh, that's because I was." Elicia said, puffing out her chest in pride.

"So, you used your [Hiding in Plain Sight] spell to follow Marin around the whole time?" Alfonzo asked.

"Yup!" Elicia said as she tightened her hug on Alfonzo. "You know me so well."

"If you could do that, why didn't you just go in and steal the book yourself?" Ren asked.

"Because… I took this quest with Marin so she could gain some experience." Elicia said, her playful expression disappearing for a moment. A moment later, however, she was back to smiling brightly. "And watching Marin was awesome. She's like a spy master!"

"Come on Elicia, you're exaggerating." Marin said with a blush.

"Anyway, so what did you do after finding the book?" Makarov asked, reminding the duo that they were supposed to be giving a report.

"Oh, right." Marin replied, her blush deepening with her embarrassment. "After making sure it was the right book, I took a book that I had been carrying with me and [Transformed its outer appearance into the book we were looking for, charging it with enough magic power to last for three days. Then, I put it in the place our book fell from."

"After that, we waited until nighttime, then when it was time for the guy Marin [Transformed] into to go to bed, we put him in his bed and snuck out of the mansion." Elicia said with a smile. "Then, we brought the book to the client and got the quest completion letter."

"Wait, you said you spent a few days in the mansion, right, Marin?" Ur asked.

"Yeah, that's right." Marin replied in a slightly confused tone.

"Then what did you do with the guard during that time?" Ur asked another question. "I mean, while you took his place.

"Oh, I took care of that." Elicia said, raising her hand above her head. "After knocking him out, I would wake him up when it was time to eat. Then, I would give him a meal and something to drink. After that, I would knock him out again. And he never saw me the whole time. I bet he thought he was having a nightmare when he went back to his normal schedule."

While Elicia giggled at the way she handled the situation, everyone, other than Alfonzo and Marin, felt a chill go down their backs. Then, they all had the same thought at the same time.

'Note to self, don't piss off Elicia.'

"So, what kind of book was it?" Alfonzo asked curiously.

"*Sigh* It was a limited-edition erotic novel." Marin said in a tone of regret. "Oh, how I wanted to fail the quest and keep it for myself. It would have looked so glorious sitting at the top of my collection."

"Bad, Marin." Elicia scolded jokingly. "As Fairy Tail wizards, we don't fail quests."

"Yeah, I know…." Marin replied with her shoulders slumping.

"What's an erotic novel?" Meredy asked in an innocent tone filled with curiosity.

Immediately, Ultear's head snapped in Marin's direction as she glared at the guild's source of corruption.

"Come on, Ultear, don't look at me like that." Marin said with a sheepish smile on her face. "You forgot she was here, too."

While Marin's statement was not enough to stop Ultear's glare, it did manage to cause a light dusting of red to climb onto her cheeks. Meanwhile, Ur pulled Meredy into a hug to avert her attention.

"What kind of magic do you wanna learn?" Ur asked with a smile. "We have a whole library filled with magic books to pick from."

"Really?" Meredy asked, completely forgetting the conversation about erotic novels. "Can I learn any kind I want? How many can I learn? How many can you use? What kind is your favorite?"

While Meredy bombarded Ur with questions about magic, everyone else sighed in relief after the crisis of a little girl learning about erotic novels too early was averted.

"And what about you two?" Makarov asked, turning his attention to Alfonzo and Sun.

At that moment, Alfonzo and Sun exchanged glances.

"Alright, I'll give the report." Alfonzo said with a nod after breaking eye contact with Sun. "The first thing we did after arriving in Resenbool was ask someone for directions to the Rockbell residence, where the client lived."

As Alfonzo spoke to that point, he glanced at Elicia, whose eyes were shining in recognition. Then, Alfonzo went on to explain everything that went on during their stay in Resenbool, including his recovery from magic power exhaustion. On top of that, he did not skimp on praise for Sun and how well she handled herself in the mine.

"Come on, Alfonzo, I wasn't that great, ya see." Sun said with a bashful expression on her face. "In the end, you still had to save me."

Meanwhile, Gozaburo wore a conflicted expression. After seeing the expression on Sun's face and hearing that Alfonzo kept her from being hurt, he didn't know what to think. While on the one hand, he would never think that Alfonzo was good enough for his darling, perfect Sun. He understood that Alfonzo was strong enough to keep her save.

Seeing Gozaburo's conflicted expression, Ren approached him and whispered in his ear.

"Why don't you try judging him by his actions." Ren said in a whisper. "You might see that he's much better than you expected."

'Besides, if you don't get your act together, I'll end up leaving you. I might even try to get in his bed.' Ren thought to herself. 'I've heard Cana brag about how good he is in bed when she's had too much to drink. And Mama has needs, after all.'

Not long later, Alfonzo finished the report.

"Well, all of you did a great job." Makarov said with a smile. "Why don't you all head home and take the rest of the day off. You've earned it."

"Sounds good to me." Alfonzo replied with a smile. "Ultear, Marin, why don't you drop by at our house and have dinner with us."

"That sounds great." Ultear replied with a slight blush on her face.

"Hell yeah!" Marin cheered. "Delicious food, get!"

At that moment, Meredy separated from Ur. Then, she tugged on the hem of Ultear's shirt.

"Ultear, can I come, too?" Meredy asked, clearly not wanting to separate from Ultear.

Instead of answering, Ultear looked at Alfonzo and Elicia. It was their house, after all.

"Of course you can come." Elicia said with a smile. "That's not a problem, is it?"

"Nope." Alfonzo replied. "Anyway, let's get going."

With that, Alfonzo turned toward the rest of the guild hall.

"Hey, Natsu!" Alfonzo shouted, not sue if Natsu had returned with Happy yet. "If you want me to cook that fish for you today, come to my house!"

Then, Alfonzo and the girls left the guild hall and got in the cars before heading toward the mansion, with Ultear and Meredy riding with Elicia, in her Z3. Meanwhile, Marin climbed in the back seat of Alfonzo's Vanquish with Sun riding in the passenger seat.