Chapter 37: Arc 1 – Now or Never: Chapter 37

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Cross-over from various games, books, anime, manga, and movies.

The familiar characters you see here belong to their respected authors and owners.

"Speech"

Time*

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Arc 1 - Now or Never: Chapter 37

A few days later*

Not going to lie; I was already expecting Karen to absorb Lucy into our team. Even to see Juvia putting pressure on Lucy to make sure she doesn't have any bright ideas in pursuing me in a romantic relationship or even sexual ones. The only relationship between us allowed, in Juvia's eyes, is being friends with no side benefits whatsoever.

Instead, it was Juvia who, after some time chatted with Lucy and often dragged her into our team to do jobs.

Something about Juvia seeing her past self in Lucy? No idea where or I'm just looking at it from the wrong angle. Either way, Juvia pretty much adopted Lucy like a sister with the amount of advice and tips she gave over the few days since Lucy joined the Blue Pegasus Guild.

If anything, I thought Karen would be the one that bonded with Lucy faster due to them being both Celestial Spirit Mages.

I guess the two get along so well due to both being from wealthy families and having a lonely childhood. Well, without the whole conjuring rain on Lucy's part.

Anyway, we're on the job and I'm the driver as the girls talk among themselves in the back.

I don't know why, but I feel like I'm some playboy while driving a fancy car with girls in the back.

"Hey, is it really fine for me to join an S-Class Job?" Lucy asks everyone. "I feel like I'd be a burden to everyone here."

"Trust me. You won't be a burden." Karen pulls Lucy into a hug. "If anything, we don't even need to be part of this team. Since Miss Juvia and her boyfriend here could complete the job without any difficulty, either one of them could single-handedly do S-Class Jobs. We're tagging along for the experience."

"Besides, I was the one that invited you and Karen to tag along." Juvia smiled at Lucy. "You need to get some air and experience life as a Mage instead of sulking for days."

I resume ignoring the conversation going on behind me and focus on driving. I nearly ran over a rabbit a few seconds ago.

I need to create a Magic Card and use it on the car so it can drive independently. But that would defeat the purpose of being able to drive a very nice car personally.

"So, Renato-sama. On the recap of our job. We're searching for the whereabouts of a local noble's children that has gone missing for a week now." Juvia said as she leaned in between the two front seats with the job flyer. "We must bring them back to their parents alive or dead with their remains after exterminating whoever killed the children. If the children are still alive, we'll capture the culprits alive to be brought back for questioning."

Right, cheating time. 100% failure of the children being dead, with them obtaining physical and mental trauma from the whole thing.

"Do we got any clues on who might be the culprits? Or a lead to help us search, other than the last place they were seen?" I ask Juvia as I take a turn and see a village up ahead, which is our destination. "Also, any idea of potential Mages from other guilds taking this job at the same time we did?"

"Guild Master Bob didn't say anything, so chances are there are none." Juvia reported.

Yeah, better make that 100% failure of any other Mages from other guilds joining on this job.

"Guild Master Bob did mention how there might be many Dark Mages involved, which is one of the reasons why this is an S-Class Job." Karen spoke up next.

"Shouldn't be that hard unless they use some sort of rare magic that we never come across." Juvia moves back to sit on the left side of the backseats with Lucy between her and Karen. "Plus, if we are in a hopeless situation, Renato-sama can use one of his Magic Cards to find the children straight away."

"How come we're not doing that?" Lucy looked at Karen and Juvia, confused. "Wouldn't this S-Class Job be done right away?"

"We're here to gain experience mostly. Miss Juvia and Renato, here is to make sure we don't end up dead while we'll be the ones to complete the S-Class Job." Karen answered Lucy's questions.

"Isn't that a bit extreme to gain experience as a Mage?" Lucy looks like she is about to have a heart attack. "I don't think I'm ready for this."

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"Weren't you at the island of Galuna, though? That was where the S-Class Job took place." I said to Lucy as I gently pressed the brake to slow down, then turned to a nearby open area outside the village.

"I was forced against my will to go there." Lucy said in bitterness.

"Well, don't worry. You have us for protection. We'll do the heavy lifting. You and Karen just do the talking and searching." I park the car, then turn my head to smile at Lucy. "Trust us; we will make sure no harm comes to you."

"Plus, we're Celestial Spirit Mages. So we have more people with us." Karen grinned, showing off her Celestial Spirit Keys.

This made Lucy smile equally with Karen, "Yeah, you're right."

"Great, so let's get this show on the road." I got out of the car, making the girls do the same. Afterward, I placed down multiple Sleep Induction Cards around the vehicle, so anyone coming near the car would trigger the Magic Cards. Trapping them in place and awaits for our return to deal with them for daring to try to steal the car.

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30 minutes later*

"And you said you were a burden." I shake my head in disbelief at how Lucy manages. Not only did she talk to the right people, but she also found one of the Dark Mages involved in kidnapping the local noble's children.

"I mean, it's not that hard to find someone acting so suspicious." Lucy replied, trying to stay humble.

"Right..." I glance at the unconscious Dark Mage, foam to the mouth after having his ball kicked by Lucy. "Nonetheless, you did get the information of the whereabouts of the headquarter of the main group of Dark Mages." After seeing the infamous Lucy Kick, I tried to act like I didn't feel phantom pain in the balls.

"So, should we head over or devise a plan to extract the children safely?" Karen asks me since; technically, I'm the leader of this team.

"I'll leave the planning to you and Lucy. Juvia and I will make sure that the worst things are about to happen. We will stop it before it does happen." I answered. "For now, we will leave this Dark Mage with one of the guardsmen stationed here. It should be easy since the Dark Mage will be under the effect of the Binding Card to make it impossible for him to escape. By then, we should have taken care of the other Dark Mages and rescued the children."

"Alright, any idea, Lucy?" Karen asks Lucy, causing the latter to look back in surprise to be the one to come up with the plan. "What? I'm not good at coming up with plans, and most of my strategy is just to call out Leo and Aries to deal with the problems."

"Any advice you could give us?" Lucy looks at Juvia hoping that she doesn't have to devise a plan.

"You could always summon your Celestial Spirits to see if they have skills in stealth operations. I've heard the Celestial Spirits live for a long time. So they should have developed other skills over the years in their lifetime. Why not check? If anything, you could also use this time to learn more about the Celestial Spirits and develop plans to work with them. Instead of letting each Celestial Spirit fight by going with the flow." Juvia started lecturing Lucy once more, just as she did before.

"I recall Leo mentioned being great at making plans on the spot, but he doesn't do them that often due to many Mages discovering and rediscovering magic that put lots of his old plans to ruin." Karen said to everyone, not noticing me looking at her in disbelief.

"Oh!" Lucy begins to summon one of her Celestial Spirits to see what new things she will learn about them.

I, on the other hand, take this chance to choose which decks to use to support both Karen and Lucy.

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An hour later*

"So, I got to say. The Fairy Tail Guild either has lots of monster-like Mages with various skills other than magic, or they really brainless for letting someone like Lucy leave the guild." I said to Juvia, where we watched Lucy and Karen take down so many Dark Mages together—supporting each other to take down one Dark Mage at a time by teaming up on them. At the same time, their Celestial Spirits make sure to cause enough problems that most of the Dark Mages have to focus on them than on Karen and Lucy.

"Well, they are infamous for causing problems everywhere they go." Juvia replied, "There are many reasons why the Magic Council hasn't disbanded the Fairy Tail Guild because most of their members are powerful Mages and take care of many dangerous jobs that most other legal guilds can't do. Sadly, they often cause much damage to their surroundings, and some even outright assault their clients."

I open my mouth to say something before closing it, remembering this is like in the canon. Especially that last part, where a Fairy Tail Mage attacked the client, and I think it was Elfman that did that one.

"I think there is a rumor about how Fairy Tail's Guild Master had to pay a secret fee to make sure his guild doesn't get shut down with all the damage his members have caused over the years." Juvia continues without leaving her eyes on the battle, sometimes throwing a spell or two of her own at some Dark Mages trying to escape at the edge of the battlefield. The fight is nearly over.

"I won't be surprised if that's the case." I said dryly, knowing how things are different in this world. So even without having to use my cheat to make it happen. Unless Makarov is doing what I am by showing off that I'm a powerful Mage, and it's best not to mess with each other too often. Otherwise, I can see him bribing the Magic Council to look in the other direction or not go too hard on most of the Fairy Tail Mages on the jobs.

"Oh, the fight ended. Let's regroup-" Juvia was cut off when heavy pressure appeared out of nowhere, making almost everyone freeze in their spots.

I quickly use my cheat to make it, so Juvia and I are not affected by this heavy pressure before moving on to doing the same with the others.

Up in the sky is a vortex that seems to try to draw everything in the surrounding into it. By the appearance alone and it's happening in this world. I can only think of Anima, which is the gateway to Edolas. Something that should be impossible if anything remotely close to the canon of the Edolas Arc was to go by.

Unless this vortex leads somewhere else?

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