3,182~On the last day of Chanukah, Narnia gave to me
another chapter to read!~
I made it!
Chapter One Hundred and Twenty Seven – The Festival
"Requip!" Erza shouted, changing her armor.
The group of people watching the Heart Kruez booth 'ooooooh'ed.
I sighed. "Sometimes I wish I had a magical girl transformation."
Laxus frowned. "We can get someone to help you with Transformation magic if you want."
I gave him a small smile and squeezed his hand. "You're so sweet, honey, but that wasn't what I was talking about."
The fair had only been open for about an hour, and it was already crowded. I spotted several other people I recognized from the Games, including other Guild Masters (Goldmine had already contacted Makarov previously to find out if Lucy would be doing anything with her spirits (he's really excited).)
Laxus was obviously confused on what I was talking about. "I'll explain at a later time," I said, leaning my head into his shoulder.
"Okay," he said, still somewhat dubious, as we turned back to the showing.
As the organizer of the show, I didn't have a specific booth, though I was helping out the other Stellar Siblings and Dragon Slayers. Besides, I'd be showing off my powers plenty during the concert. For now, Laxus was taking a break on the Laser Tag to walk around with me.
"Hey, have you ever actually fought against Erza with your sword?" he asked, as we watched Erza change her armor again and attack an empty armor set for demonstration. The other armor held up well against her sword.
"Oh, yeah, but I can't hold a handle to her," I admitted. "Since my sword is manifested with my own magic, I can manipulate it, which helps, but she always kicks my ass. She's just a natural swordswoman."
I remember seeing a post online, in my original universe, that pointed out that when Erza gets really serious in a fight, she drops all of her magic. You know, when she binds her chest and just uses the flame pants and a sword. Her skills in swordsmanship are entirely unrelated to her magical strength.
Even when I extended Venus Sword and would use it to swipe at her, or try to tickle or freeze her into submission, she always broke through it. Much like she kept fighting without her senses against Kyoka in Tartaros in the other timeline.
Me, her, Irene, and Zeref are still trying to figure out just how it works. For now, we think that her strange ability when faced with pain is related to the fact that Irene couldn't feel anything when she was a dragon and Erza was in the womb the whole time.
Erza had requipped out blocks of steel and other materials, and requipped to a new armor that she had been gifted for the fair. With one gauntleted hand clenched in a fist, she slammed it down on the steel and left a deep gouge mark in it.
"Ooooooh!" The audience applauded. They were allowed to walk up to the steel and touch it, trying to dent it to see how strong it was.
Nothing funnier than watching a gigantic monster of a man (a la' Armstrong from FMA) try to dent something with no results, after a small twelve-and-a-half-year-old had dented it with one punch.
Laxus and I laughed and carried on, wandering around the Festival. We passed Reedus's face painting booth, where Kinana, Levy, and Juvia were currently helping. Next was the Design Booth, which was actually more like a Design Tent, with a small Booth where Gajeel was currently reassuring a little girl who wanted her ears pierced (aww).
"Ah! Elle-dono! Laxus-dono!"
We turned to see Jura, who approached us, smiling.
"Hey, Jura! It's good to see you!" I said.
"It's my pleasure," he said. "This is a wonderful festival you've put together! It seems very interesting so far, though I'm planning on coming back later." He looked down to his hands which held a wrapped up piece of cloth. "I'm very excited for everything you have but I'm planning on stopping at your 'Restoration Booth'? I think it's called. I'm not sure if it will work, but I have a treasured family manuscript I'd like to see fixed, though I'm not sure I have all of the pages."
Ah. Ultear had put in a disclaimer that her magic might not work properly if there weren't enough pieces or too many things were missing in what might need to be restored, so I could tell why he's worried.
"I'm sure Ultear will try her best," I said, smiling at him. "I wish you luck, and hope you enjoy the fair!"
Laxus nodded at him with a small smile. "Have fun!"
"Thank you, my friends!" Jura said hopefully, before moving on towards Ultear's booth.
We continued to explore a fair, passing several groups of giggling children followed by hurried mothers, and some teenagers who were dragging each other around excitedly. I heard several 'Oh my words!' from an elder crowd who were watching Brandish shrink down her next group for their adventure, and some enthusiastic clapping from some older wizards as Ultear restored Jura's old family manuscript.
Laxus smiled at my smile and tucked me into his arm. "You did good," he said.
"I feel good," I admitted.
And then someone ran into me. Not hard; they were small, barely came up to my knees, but it was enough to direct my attention to see what had happened.
To my surprise, I recognized the small child that had bumped into me.
"Meredy?" I asked, astonished.
She looked up at me, equally shocked. "Elle Rigby knows my name? That's so cool!"
This was not the Meredy who hid in Crime Sorciere, or was brainwashed by Grimoire Heart. This was not even the Meredy that had lost her parents.
This was a child.
"How old are you right now?" I asked.
She gave me a big toothy smile, and held up her fingers. "I just turned seven!"
I nodded. "Right, and where are your parents?"
She frowned and turned her head around, her body eventually following it until she spun around completely. "I don't know, but they were right here…"
Before she could panic, I put a hand on her shoulder. "Hey, it's okay. How about you describe them to us, so we can help you find them?"
According to her, her mom had pink hair (like her) and her dad had black hair.
"Right," I said, nodding and exchanging a look with Laxus. "Now, are you afraid of heights?"
She shook her head.
"Then in order to look for them, I'm going to use my magic to lift you high in the sky," I told her. "That way we should be able to find them."
Magic really is useful. If we didn't have it, I'd probably have Laxus put me on his shoulders and put Meredy on mine. He could do it. Maybe.
But since I do have magic, I can just make a small mini-tornado to lift Meredy up instead.
She shrieked with glee as she rose into the air, hovering on the wind I gave her, and I called up to her to remind her. "Now that you're up there, you're looking for your parents, remember!"
"Oh yeah!" she said. Peeking over the edges, she scanned the crowd until she pointed. "There!"
The helpful thing about flinging a child into the air is that the parents are also very likely to see the child, apparently, because before we could even move in that direction, a couple which fit Meredy's description ran up. "Meredy!" they shouted, and I lowered the tornado until she fell into their embrace.
"Thank you!" they said enthusiastically, and I hadn't realized how big of a scene we made until we heard a lot of thunderous clapping, and I realized everyone was staring at us.
Blushing furiously, I scratched the back of my head. "It was no trouble, honestly. We're happy to help."
Laxus gave me a little kiss on the forehead. "Like I did anything to really help. It was all you."
I was going to turn into a tomato, I swear.
"I'm just glad you're safe now," I told Meredy. "And I hope you're having fun!"
"The best!" she said excitedly, still huddled between her parents. "One day, I'm going to have magic and join Fairy Tail, too!"
I smiled at her. "Then we'll have a spot open waiting for you," I said. "Why don't you stop by next week after the festival is over and we'll try to find your magic, okay?"
And hopefully Zeref will help me get her Maguility Sense kickstarted. Or maybe he could just demand to Master Hades to give him the book they used in the last timeline or something, I dunno.
The crowd dispersed and we waved off Meredy and her parents, who planned to come back the weekend after this one.
Laxus and I continued to wander and talk to the others we recognized and check in on how each booth was doing.
Eventually, we finished our rounds, ate some food from one of the restaurants that Jude cut a deal with for the festival, and returned to the Lazer Tag booth, where Erik was going to take his own break and meet up with Kinana.
Simon was also taking his own break, with a time written for when COMPLETE DARKNESS Lazer Tag would resume, and meeting up with Ultear, who was also going to be recharging her power for an hour or so. If someone came to her booth and she wasn't there, there was an area Runed-Off for them to place their damaged items and for them to pull a ticket so they could enjoy the fair until Ultear returned.
The next few days went past very quickly, and very busy. The Ice Family and Lucy and her spirits did multiple performances each, all to wowed crowds and excited children. Some of the ice structures and puppets that Ur and Silver pulled out were really incredible, and Lucy used her spirits magic to tell a completely engrossing tale of the origin of Celestial Spirits, Stellar Magic, and the Bloodlines.
The different versions of the race were really popular, though the Parkour Version was undoubtedly the most widely visited. Most people didn't finish it, or even get very far, but they had a lot of fun trying, and there were sessions when some members of our guild would run it so others could see it run in full. Several wizards from other guilds managed to finish it and liked it a lot.
Activities like Brandish's Miniature Adventure Game and the Raijinshu's flying booth was also very popular, with many people coming back to them more than once to try different stories or new techniques.
We underestimated the amount of merchandise we would also sell, and had to break out some of our provisions for the rest of the year on Thursday. Luckily it would be at least a week before we opened our merchandise booth again after everything, so it would give us time to make more.
Cana's fortune telling was also immensely popular, and she decided she'd probably pick a few hours once a week to read fortunes if people wanted them, even after the Festival was over.
On Friday I was starting to get very nervous. It didn't hit me until then, but I had, for some forsaken reason, agreed to sing in front of strangers. What was I thinking?
But I persevered throughout the day when the first strange thing happened.
Elle, you have a message, Warren sent to me telepathically.
It always jolts me a bit, but I'm getting better at receiving messages and Thought Projections. Luckily, I wasn't holding something this time so nothing ended up broken.
What is it? I sent back.
Freed says there's something wrong with the wards.
I frowned. Freed had, unfortunately, spent most of his time monitoring the ward scheme for all of his runes around the Festival. He seemed to think that Dark Guilds might want to attack us during this time.
Most of us thought they wouldn't dare, since there's so many mages here. Not just Fairy Tail, but mages and guild masters from other guilds, too.
I wasn't so sure. Ivan had proved his stupidity to me over and over when he had held me captive, so I wasn't about to dismiss Freed's…paranoia? Suspicion? I'm not sure what to call it, but his hearing and eyesight have been…off since he created Dark Ecriture. I had to wonder if it was maybe something else altogether.
Freed had, luckily, relented a bit and actually enjoyed the Festival himself a few times, when Zeref and Jellal (together, since Freed is a worrywart) stood watch over the wards for him. But he'd mostly been holed up with the wards in a portion of the basement one level above the Lumen Histoire.
"Freed!" I called as I entered the basement. "What's wrong?"
"Ella-sama!" he cried, immediately relaxing. "The outermost runes detected several groups of people wearing guild marks of dark guilds. If they cross the next layer of runes, they'll be transported to the Holding Cells of Magnolia's Rune Knight Division, but with the amount of people the runes recognized, I don't think there are enough cells to hold them."
I paused. "Okay, then start doubling cells. Can you write in a rune sequence where if all the cells are full, it'll add another person to a cell with only one?"
He nodded. "Easily."
The more I spend time learning about Rune Magic, the more it seems like programming, like you're setting up computer sequences. Unfortunately, I never really looked into that stuff in my past life, so I don't really know how similar they are. But it's one reason why I suggested Freed learn Archive Magic next (what Hibiki from Blue Pegasus uses). It just seems like it might be really useful since it's basically a giant computer.
"So, just keep adding them to the cells once they're occupied by one?" he asked. "What if all cell has double occupants, but there are still more?"
"Then triple them," I said, shrugging. "It's the Rune Knights job, this is for them to deal with."
Freed shrugged and kept writing. The runes, once activated, would teleport the dark mages into the holding cells and also remove anything from them that could store magic or be used as weapon. The cells are also magic dampening, so they shouldn't be able to escape from there. I doubt I'd be able to, since the cells also make accessing Requip Space impossible, so I couldn't even pull out a drill or anything to escape if I somehow got ahold of one.
"I'll go alert the Rune Knights," I said, giving Freed a quick hug. "You did great, Freed! We'll visit them and try to figure out their plan later, but for now…"
I checked the time. Around an hour to the concert. I had to check that everything was set up, that people were in places, and that everyone was dressed and ready.
"It's almost showtime."