Chapter 01

LUCY

"Mira… We're back…"

"Welcome back, Lucy! How was the job?" Mira came aiding as I plopped down in one of the stools, my face colliding with the hard and cold surface of the wooden counter.

I let out an exasperated sigh and ran my fingers through my hair like a mad lady.

"It was chaos!" I whined. "Natsu and Happy wasn't taking any of the mission seriously! They were all over the freaking place!" I ranted continuously, feeling some smoke coming out from my nostrils and ears from all the anger and frustration that I was feeling.

"And none of them even told me that we have to go back to that old Everlue Mansion to look for some particular book for someone, again! Gosh, I don't even know that Mansion still exists up 'til this day! The last time I saw that built up was before Natsu destroyed it on our first mission together!" I exclaimed.

Mira only gave me a soft chuckle and handed me some yogurt.

I took the spoon and aggressively scooped a spoonful of yogurt and shoved it straight to my mouth.

"What did they specifically do this time?" Mira asks while she was seated in front of me, her chin was placed on top of her palm, while she stares at the overly furious me with her usual bright smile.

I gulped the remaining yogurt and sighed.

"Natsu wounded up destroying the mansion again, before we can even look for the book." And I sniffed. "Aside from the fact that I was almost thrown off to jail with them, I can no longer pay for this month's rent! The deadass landlady's probably banging on my door, nonstop, as we speak." And just by the thought of her, entering my place without seeing a single hint of me in my room, it sent shivers all over my skin.

"Oh my." Mira says in an apologetic tone. "Does that mean you're going home to the Heartfilia Konzern?" She asks.

I blinked a few times.

That's right, I managed to take back the my family's own land after we finished the 100 year quest for almost a year.

"That's actually a great idea. But…"

It sure is lonely in there.

Smiling, I shook my head to Mira as a response.

The idea of coming back to that place alone, saddens the hell out of me… It could've been great if I have at least Supetto-san back, but I'm afraid they also passed.

And Erza, she's out on a job with Wendy and Jellal. That goes the same with Juvia, Gray and Meldy.

But as far as I can remember, they should be back by noon, today.

But would it be embarrassing to invite them to come over my place…?

But I also don't want to drag Natsu's ass with me instead!

"Ah, I think, I'd stay here for today, Mira." I announced.

I have no choice.

As much as I want to go on a job, I can't. The remaining jobs that was pinned on the Request Board aren't enough. I also can't take all of them at once since some of them are job requests that came from different places within Earthland.

There's even a job that came from the West!

Ah!

"Ugh…"

"Lu-chan!"

"Oh? Levy-chan! Wah, Lauren!" I excitedly extended my arms to Levy-chan, who came running to my direction with her daughter, Lauren, in her arms.

It's also been a year since she gave birth to her twins, Laurie and Lauren. She also got married to Gajeel earlier this year.

Cute.

"How are you, Lu-chan?" Levy asks.

I gave her a bitter smile, that was gloomy enough to let her know that I wasn't doing well.

And she seems to notice that because she let out an awkward laugh and handed me her daughter instead.

"Aunt Lucy." The one year old, calls out when she was handed over.

"Aunt…" I think being called aunt feels awkward.

"You can just call me Lucy-san."

"Aunt Lucy."

"No… Lucy-san."

"Aunt Lucy."

Hng!

"Hehe, sorry, Lu-chan. She seems to be used to call you that since Gajeel often taught them to address you and the rest of the members of the guild as Aunt and Uncles." Levy explains and gave her daughter a toy version of Lily.

"Laurie even call Natsu, old man." Well, that's tough.

"By the way, I can't see Natsu and Happy anywhere. It sure is unusual not to see them with you." And Levy looked around after she notices the absence of the dumbass.

"They went straight home." I replied in a monotonous way.

"I'm pretty intrigued about what happened but I'd rather not ask, hehe." And she lightly scratched her cheek with her index finger.

I puffed some air off and frowned.

What's taking everyone so long…?

"Lu-chan, we'll get going." Levy bids me goodbye as they marched their way to the entrance of the guild, holding both Laurie and Lauren's hand, while Gajeel was carrying the bags that contains their children's belongings.

"Levy-chan, Gajeel, take care! You too, Laurie and Lauren and Lily!" I bid the five of them farewell too and waved my hand.

The kids also waved their hand and called me Aunt Lucy for the last time, which made their father snicker upon hearing it.

That guy knew damn well that I never liked the idea of being called aunt.

Even Asca don't call me Aunt Lucy!

"We're back!" A familiar, and annoying voice roared all over the silent and peaceful guild hall.

"Lucy~ Where have you been—"

"Don't even dare to come closer, cat."

"Wah! Natsu! She's still angry!" The blue cat flew across the guild hall and landed on Natsu's head.

Natsu looked over and our eyes met.

I glared at him, which made him let out the same sulking face that he have.

"Luce! We're sorry!" He lunged his way to my direction while weeping.

I shrieked and dodged the incoming huge, fire ball.

But that did not escalated well enough.

"Ow…" I winced and held my head after we crashed on the floor.

Goodness

"What the hell are you—"

"Wah! Forgive us, huhu!" He cries out, tears flowing continuously from his eyes.

"Maybe you would like to get off of me first?" I proposed and pushed his head back slightly to at least make myself sit.

Both of him and Happy was bowing while they are on their knees, and I can't help but smile and make them halt, since it starting to make me feel uneasy.

They obliged and sat there with snot dripping from their nose.

Gross.

"It's okay. Maybe we can just go off and get another job by tomorrow, and if not, I'll head home to my homeland. But, tonight, I might just stay here until I can actually—"

"We already paid for your rent…" Happy mumbled, but it wasn't inaudible enough for me to hear it.

"You did?" I gasped.

"Yeah. There was actually another job that we have in our hands, it was enough to pay for your rent and for our food expenses too. But you were so furious that before we can even tell you about it, you're gone."

"We were almost jailed."

"But we fled!" Natsu insisted. I sighed in defeat and stared at the both of them.

"Thank you, and I'm sorry too." I apologised and gave them a pat in the head.

It wasn't too long when they recovered and stood up from slumping down, and started causing rampage inside the guild again.

"Look at this, Lucy!" Happy calls to get my attention. "I'm going to show you the aftermath of my training with Natsu!" And he stood in front of me with his hands on the side.

I stared at him and waited patiently.

And in an instant, a blue smoke was all over the place, and Happy…

"WHO ARE YOU?!" I shrieked while pointing at the blue haired boy in front if me, who was like the same age as Wendy and Charle. But just like Charle, it also had cat ears and tail.

"Aye!"

That completely ruined the human disguise.

"Look, Lucy! I look handsome, aren't I?" And he giggled. "I can finally go out with Charle!" He announced with determination plastered all over his face.

"I can also help you and Natsu in terms of fighting too! Wanna see my magic?" He asks and held his hand out.

I was about to decline, but then, a beam of light came out of his hand, and went straight through the Guild's roof.

"Kya! The Guild!" I squealed, managing to look at the stars, from the hole that he made.

"Fufu… I'm sorry about that." He apologised.

I gave myself a facepalm and shook my head.

"Everyone! We're here!"

"Wendy, Erza, Jellal. Welcome back." Mirajane, who came back from the kitchen, greeted the members who just came back from an exhausting and 3 day-long mission.

I also greeted them when they came near, approaching us from the counter and sat at the stools beside me.

"We're home. Where's master?" Erza asks.

"Upstairs. He'll come down any minute by now. Is there something wrong?" Mira responds with a question too.

"Something urgent. We need to head to Crocus by tomorrow because of an emergency." She informs her.

Before she can continue, Jellal steps up and continued on her behalf.

"There was a report from the Palace, that they detected a huge amount of Ethernano somewhere in Fiore. But no one can determine the exact place, since after someone discovers its existence, the next day, it would vanish, and not a single hint of strong magic can be located on the said places where it was felt." Jellal said.

"What's disturbing me was the fact that it can be a threat. And with that magic power, it could be tough fighting against it…" He finishes off his words with a glum on his face.

I felt all the hair in my body arose from what he said.

"Y-you mean… It's even stronger compared to the foes that we fought against with?" I stuttered because of the thought.

"It's presence…" Wendy suddenly spoke. "It's presence was nothing compared to all the Alvarez' joined alliance, with the Spriggan 12 included… I'm am well assured that it's even stronger than Brandish-san." Her voice was shaking while she started storytelling about this mysterious threat that's going all over Fiore.

"Wait, that means, you guys met that unknown thing?" Natsu suddenly jumps out of nowhere while chomping on some food.

Wendy nodded.

"But it was only an orb. It never shown its true self in front of us. But the amount of magic coming from that small orb… Unbelievable." And Erza gave us a lopsided grin.

"So, what's the plan?"

"Oh? Gray? Since when did you guys arrived?" Charle asked Gray, who also popped out like a mushroom out if nowhere.

"We were literally behind you three." Meldy joins in the conversation and sat at the nearest bench in front of a table.

"Seems like the team's complete."

We all turned our head to the owner of the voice, that came from the center of the stage.

"Master." Erza greets him and waltzes her way to the front. And of course, all of us followed.

"I assume you kids, are aware of the sudden commotion across the continent. And I know, all of you are intrigued about the origin of this massive amount of Magic Power, that is honestly incomparable to the Fairy Heart." And his grip on his staff tightened.

"I never thought that there is someone out there who's born with such tremendous power." And he massaged his temples. "After all the hiding that we did, just to keep the information about the Fairy Heart to remain confidential and out of everyone's knowledge. A much worse scenario came, and none of us are prepared for such thing." And he exhaled some air loudly, that all of us heard that.

"The news about this, came spreading all through out Earthland, like a wildfire. So as you can remember, most of the job requests are all about against a certain group of mages that are unfamiliar." And he paused.

"Those mages came from different guilds across different continents, and it also includes the dark guilds too. Most of them are all over Fiore because of this news. And some of them can't also refrain themselves from causing havocs on each city they arrive to." And he fixed his posture while being indian-seated on the stage.

"Team Natsu, including Jellal, Meldy. All of you are in charge for this mission." And his eyes examined all of us. "I already sent a different team earlier this day too, to start searching for the same person, or whatever that thing is." And he stood up, his legs wobbling, but managed to keep himself from falling off of the stage.

"What?! You already sent some people to look for it too?!" Natsu's irrelevant complain starts as soon as Master finally got the right stance to stand up without shaking.

"I did." The Master replied.

"Who are those?! Ah! I can't let them find it first!" And he sprinted to the entrance of the guild. "Happy! Let's go! We need to pack our things!" He yelled across the guild hall.

"Aye!" Happy, who's still in his human form, made his wings appear and flew his way out of the guild, also dragging Natsu until they are no longer seen.

"Tha… Who's that?" Erza asks while pointing at the blue haired boy with cat ears, tail and wings.

"That's Happy." I responded.

"Happy's human?!" Wendy exclaimed, as her eyes shifted from me to Jellal.

"I thought it was Jellal-san who I was standing next to…" Wendy whispers.

"D-do I look, that tiny?!" Jellal asks, puzzled.

Oh gosh.

Ignoring them, I fell deep in my thoughts while thinking of that unknown source of magic.

Stronger than the Spriggan 12 combined, you say.

Ah! We're doomed!