Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Shirotsume.
March 11, x792.
"This should be the last one." Elicia said while crouching down next to a patch of ground that was clearly disturbed not too long ago.
Just as they planned, the wizards from Fairy Tail, Blue Pegasus, Quatro Cerberus, and the squad of knights led by Darkness split into three groups to investigate the attacks on Kaby Melon's caravans around Shirotsume Town. And for the last two days, they have been traveling to all the attack sites to find anything they could use against the attacker, who was suspected to be the former Duke, Everlue.
"I don't even know why we're wasting all this time." Karen said while standing next to Elicia with her arms crossed. "With the firepower our group has, all we need to do is guard the three shipments and take down whoever attacks."
"*Sigh* Although you're not wrong, it's never a bad thing to be thorough." Elicia replied as she stood up while dusting off her hands.
"Whatever, our time could have been spent doing something more productive." Karen said huffily. Then, her eyes lit up, and she produced a length of rope from her coat before holding it out towards Elicia. "For example, you could have been disciplining your pet."
"Alright, let's head back to the town." Elicia said while completely ignoring Karen's suggestion. "We need to share what we found with the other teams."
"Hmph!" Karen snorted in response. "One day, you're going to accept me as your property, Lici. Just you wait."
"Not likely." Elicia replied in a flat tone. "But I'm sure there's someone out there who would be happy to indulge in your fantasies with you. In fact, I'm pretty sure Hibiki would do anything you asked him to if you gave him a chance."
Then, without giving Karen a chance to retort, Elicia started walking back towards the town, leaving Karen to stew in her displeasure.
["Why did you agree to go with just the two of you if you knew things would be this annoying?"] Scylla asked from Elicia's inner world.
'Honestly, I was hoping to bait out the attacker.' Elicia replied internally while scanning the area with both her [Magic Power Detection] and [Thread Detection]. "I thought someone would be watching to see if any powerful wizards came to the town. And I was hoping when they saw such a dysfunctional team working, they would attack, thinking they could catch us off-guard.'
["Oh, not a bad plan."] Scylla said, a note of approval in her voice. ["but I think you forgot about something."]
'What's that?' Elicia asked curiously.
["Your fame."] Scylla replied. ["Even if you're not as well known to the masses as people like Erza or Mira, you're still pretty famous. On top of that, you're known to be quite strong. On top of that, Karen is an S-Class Wizard from Blue Pegasus. So, unless they have an overwhelming number of attackers, there was no way they would attack the two of you."]
Hearing that, Elicia's eyes shot wide open as she came to a complete and sudden stop.
"Lici, is everything okay?" Karen, after seeing Elicia's sudden halt, asked in a concerned tone.
"Uh… Yeah…" Elicia replied in a somewhat listless tone. "I just… kinda overlooked something."
"Why don't you talk to me about it." Karen said in a sweet tone. "Maybe I can help you think of something. And if that doesn't work, tying me up should make you feel better."
In response, Elicia only turned her head to look at Karen, whose eyes were sparkling as if she just had the world's greatest idea, with a dry stare.
"Nice try, but no." Elicia said in a dry tone.
Karen's reply was to put a vicious pout on her face while stomping her foot like she was about to throw a tantrum. However, before things could go any further, Elicia snapped her head in a particular direction.
"So, they're going after Lucy instead, huh?" Elicia muttered. She then started running in the direction Lucy, Darkness, her two subordinate knights, and Virgo were investigating. "Come on, Karen, Lucy's team is about to get attacked."
Once again huffing in annoyance, Karen quickly sprinted after Elicia.
Meanwhile, Lucy, after detecting movement underground, went on high alert as she unraveled Zodiac from around her leg and drew Cancer's [Celestial key].
"Everyone be careful." Lucy shouted while looking at a spot on the ground. "We've got incoming from underground."
Quickly, Virgo's eyes narrowed while Darkness and her knights drew their weapons. Yet, no one could see or feel any of the enemies Lucy mentioned. Only Virgo, whose magic was earth-based, felt the vibrations in the ground that signified something drawing near.
"Boyoyoyoyo!" A muffled voice from underground laughed in a strange, yet familiar way. "I never expected you to notice my presence. Not that it matters. I shall have my revenge on you wizards from Fairy Tail and that scoundrel who hired you to steal from me, and I will take back what belongs to me! Boyoyoyoyo!"
A moment later, everyone heard a sound similar to a jackhammer. Then, five holes opened up in the ground. And from those holes, five people jumped out. And when they saw the five people, four women led by a short, stocky man, everyone, other than Virgo, balked for a moment. Because not a single one of the people who just showed themselves could be considered good-looking. In fact, it would be more accurate to call them all ugly by normal standards.
"I see you still have the same taste, Everlue." Lucy said sharply after seeing the five figures that jumped out of the holes. "You still wouldn't know beauty even if it bit you on the butt."
"Shut up, Ugly." The man leading the group, the former Duke, Everlue, said disdainfully while looking at Lucy with hatred. "You were ugly back then, and you're even uglier now. And that jealousy is making you even uglier. But what should I expect? You'll never compare to my lovely maidens."
When the four ugly women behind Everlue heard him, they all rushed to hug, kiss, and gush over him, leaving Lucy and her group dumbfounded. Darkness even looked seriously offended.
"Is this seriously this man's standard for beauty?" Darkness asked while tightening her grip around her sword.
"Yeah, he's an oddball, for sure." Lucy replied, sounding rather tired. "But you really shouldn't---"
"Unforgiveable!" Darkness shouted with righteous fury. "If this is what he calls beautiful, then he wouldn't even torture me or try to break my mind so that I'll give up state secrets if he were to capture me!"
"Huh?" Lucy exclaimed, her eyes wide with both confusion and a bit of revulsion.
Yet, before Lucy could ask for some sort of clarification, Darkness, with her sword drawn and her shield raised, dashed forward with a battle cry. In fact, she moved so fast that none of Everlue's group could even react.
"We need to go after her." One of the knights standing behind the group said.
"Yeah, the captain couldn't hit the broadside of a barn." The second knight added.
"If we don't help her, she'll be---"
*Swish!* *Bang!* *Bang!* *Swish!* *Swish!* Bang!*
Before the first knight could finish, Darkness following actions silenced him immediately.
Rushing into the midst of Everlue's group, Darkness started by slashing her sword from Everlue's left shoulder to his right hip. Then, before he could cry out in pain, she raised her leg and kicked him away. She then followed up by bashing the closest woman on her left in the face with her shield, sending her flying, as well.
Then, with two quick flashes of her blade, Darkness cut down the two women to her right, the two women screaming in anguish as they fell to the ground. And finally, Darkness planted her left foot before using it as a pivot point, lashing out with her right leg, and kicking the last woman in the side of the head, sending her spinning as she lost consciousness.
Meanwhile, Lucy and the two knights could only watch Darkness vicious attacks with their jaws practically touching the ground. Virgo, on the other hand, was nodding her head in appreciation.
"How… How is this possible?" The first night stammered, sheer disbelief coloring his tone. "The captain… she…"
"She actually landed her attacks." The second knight said, just as much disbelief in his tone. "But how? We've been in the same squad as the captain for years… yet, not once, not even in training, have we seen her sword make contact with a target."
"What?" Lucy asked in shock. "What are you two talking about? How is it possible that Darkness has never landed an attack before? If that's true, then what in the world was that?'
"I… I don't know." The first knight said, his tone making it clear that he was having trouble accepting reality.
"This… This shouldn't be possible." The second knight said, going straight past having trouble accepting reality to denying it completely.
"She has her priorities straight." Virgo said as if that was enough to answer everyone's questions. "If there's no chance that an enemy won't capture, torture you, and violate you, what's the point of that enemy existing? My bestie did the right thing."
When they heard that explanation, Lucy and the two knights turned their disbelieving, dumbfounded gazes towards the Celestial spirit. Such an explanation was so utterly foreign to their sensibilities that they did not have the faintest idea how to respond. Meanwhile, Virgo nodded her head again as if the reaction she was getting was all the validation she needed.
"Pant* *Pant* *Pant* Huh?" Darkness, after regulating her breathing, finally registered what she just did. "What did I just do?"
Luckily, the ones she attacked had enough magic power to shield them from receiving any serious injuries. Otherwise, Darkness, who had never taken a life, would be panicking, rather than just being confused.
Unfortunately, neither Lucy nor the two knights were in the right state of mind to answer her question. Virgo, on the other hand, saw nothing wrong with what Darkness did. So, instead of explaining anything, she simply skipped over to Darkness, took her by the hand, and started talking about their shared favorite topic.
And when Darkness heard that, she decided to push her confusion to the back of her mind and join the conversation, leaving Lucy and the knights thoroughly confused.
Not long later, Elicia and Karen arrived at the site. Looking around, they saw Everlue and his women sprawled out all over the area. Then, they noticed Lucy, Darkness, Virgo, and the knights, and breathed a sigh of relief when they saw that no one was hurt. Even so, the confusion in Lucy's and the knights' eyes left them confused, as well.
"So, what happened here?" Elicia asked in an awkward tone.
"Honestly, I'm not completely sure." Lucy replied blankly while staring at Darkness and Virgo. "According to the knights, what we just saw shouldn't have even been possible."
"What the hell are you talking about?" Karen barked in annoyance. "Explain it properly to us."
Lucy, completely unphased by Karen's poor attitude, explained the situation in an absent-minded tone. Meanwhile, Elicia was looking at Darkness with the same level of confusion as her subordinate knights. Because like the knights, she knew that Darkness should have been incapable of landing any of her attacks, even on an unmoving foe.
Karen, on the other hand, was finding it hard to compute what she just heard. A knight who couldn't hit anything with her sword should not have existed in her world. But when she saw the dumbfounded expression on Elicia's face, she figured that it must have, at least, been mostly true.
Not long later, Marin, who also noticed the unfamiliar magic power signatures, led her team consisting of herself, Bacchus, Ikkaku, and Yumichika to join the rest of the group. However, like Karen, no one on Marin's team could understand how there could be a knight captain who was unable to hit their foe. So, they all fell into confusion, as well.
In the end, Everlue and his accomplices were cuffed with anti-magic cuffs and dragged back to Shirotsume to be processed. Then, after that was done, the whole group checked out of their hotels, hopped back into their magic vehicles, and returned to Crocus to report the completion of their quest to the client, Kaby Melon.
{BGM: "Snow Fairy" – FUNKIST}
However, on the way back to Crocus, an lPhone rang in the magic vehicle carrying the Fairy Tail wizards. After a quick check, it was clear that he lPhone in question belonged to Elicia. So, with Lucy driving, she wasted no time picking up her lPhone and answered the call.
"Yello!" Elicia said cheerfully while driving back to Crocus with Marin and Lucy. "What's up, Yoruichi?"
{"Not much."} Yoruichi replied from the other side of the call. {"I just completed a quest near Magnolia. So, I wanted to stop by to see you and Alfonzo. But Alfonzo didn't answer the phone. So, I called you to see if you guys were at home."}
"Fonzie didn't answer?" Elicia asked in a confused tone. Then, she realized that it made perfect sense. {"He must be working with Irene. They have a pretty big project. A commission from the kingdom itself. So, he probably couldn't answer right away."
{"Interesting."} Yoruichi said, sounding rather intrigued. {"Now, I'm curious to know what kind of project those two could be working on… But more importantly, would it be a problem if I stopped by on my way back from my quest? I have Bumble Bee and Rangiku with me, by the way."}
"I don't' see a problem with that." Elicia replied with a smile. "As long as Sui-Feng doesn't cause any trouble, you're always welcome at our house. You'll have to wait fa while for me to get back, though. I'm rapping up a quest with Lucy and Marin right now. But we should be back by sun set."
{"Nice."} Yoruichi replied cheerfully. {"We should only beat you there by an hour. Until you get back, I'll show the girls the grotto. I'm sure they'll love it."}
"Sounds good to me." Elicia said with a giggle. "But if they don't wanna leave after experiencing it, it's on you."
{"Whatever."} Yoruichi replied, Elicia could imagine her rolling her eyes. {"anyway, I'll see you when you get there. Bye~."}
"Bye." Elicia replied before hanging up.
With the end of the call, Elicia went back to chatting with Marin and Lucy while plotting the punishment she never exacted for the incident from years ago. Though, when you consider both hers and Yoruichi's sex drive, it might not be that much of a punishment. The only question would be if Alfonzo would be okay with it.