Sweet Starry Shadows

Just the Beginning

Sweet Starry Shadows

Chapter 4: Just the Beginning

Holding a small lacrima crystal to her chest, she walked out of the office with a small smile on her face after Master Makarov had excused her. Thanks to Sakura's support, he was able to accept the fact straight away even without having to listen to Lisanna's lies.

With that, she was thankful for the two. Without them, it would've been hard to deal with what the guild now thinks of her. Having to think about giving fake smiles to the people who've accused her would have been hard.

Shivering as she walked down the staircase, she ignored everyone's curious glances. For a guild about family, talk about support.

"So, what did the old man have to say about what you've done to Lisanna?" Natsu called out, making Mirajane, Erza, Wendy, Levy and a few others of her close friends, look over to her direction in curiosity.

The sounds of footsteps catching their attention, they all looked up. "He said that she should reflect on her actions by going on a vacation," Sakura answered, lying smoothly as she walked down the staircase with a large folder tucked underneath her arm. Standing next to the blonde, she forced herself to smile at the boy over at the bar. "Actually, not on vacation but on a special task assigned by Master. Like what I'm doing, Lucy will now be collaborating with us for this task," she explained before handing over the folder.

Lucy looking through it, she pretended to know what she was doing. Nodding as she slipped the papers back into the folder, she looked over to Sakura and smiled. "Thank you for gathering the notes for me," she replied before the rattling of the seats at the bar was heard.

"Wait, he allowed her to do that secret mission that you're doing?!" Lisanna cried out as she stood in front of Natsu with a rigid stance. Her body stiff, she pointed over to her older sister and then over to Erza. "Even they haven't been assigned to it, and they've been here longer than you have! Isn't that unfair to give the mission to someone that had just bullied someone within the guild?!" she argued where the crimson held up a hand to shut her up.

The girl staring blankly to the white-haired mage, her eyes began to flash a hue of red. "We don't do things that aren't supposed to be done, Lisanna. If you have a problem with this, go to Master and yap away there," she deadpanned before turning back to Lucy. "You're all set to go. Have a nice vacation and be sure to report everything to either Master or me," she said without even bothering herself to listen to Lisanna.

Nodding, Lucy held onto the folder tightly and smiled. "Thank you... For everything," she said where the girl smiled back. "No worries, Lucy. We're family, and I'll be there for every step of the way," she replied.

She pivoted on her heel and began to head out towards the door where Team Natsu stopped in front of her. "Aren't we going together as a team?" Gray, the raven, questioned as he slipped his hands into his pockets.

Having not seeing him since a while, she sadly smiled and shook her head. "Sorry, but Master said that it's important and is to be kept private to everyone other than the people who have been assigned to join this mission," she answered before Erza frowned.

"You know, we're certainly sure that you didn't do those things to her," she whispered, glancing over to Natsu who was preoccupied with Lisanna to even hear her whisper.

Forcing herself to smile, she nodded her head to the scarlet, too unsure of what she's supposed to think about those certain words. Distrusting. Since the scarlet wasn't too confident on whose side to be on once it all began, the only thing she could do was nod in reply to what she had said. "Thanks..." she said before Lisanna came into the conversation with a nervous expression on her face.

"You're going to stop what you've been doing to me right? You've done far too many things that no one wants to hear your reasons to hurt me," she asked, fiddling with her fingers as she stood wrapped in Natsu's arms.

The blonde widening her eyes, she heard a loud exaggerated fake cough upstairs and looked up to see Sakura watching her with Laxus standing behind her to the side. With suggestive actions and eyebrow movement, she realized what the girl had planned out for her.

It seems that Loke had already told her what she's been planning...

"Oh, I don't know," she replied, making everyone around them turn to look at their direction in bewilderment.

Lisanna pushing herself into Natsu, she visibly shivered as she bit the bottom of her lip. "What do you mean by that?" she questioned before the blonde shrugged her shoulders, glancing up to see Sakura resting her chin on her palms while she leaned on the railings.

Feeling a surge of confidence and arrogance entering and flowing through her system, she crossed her arms and smirked. "I just wanted to confirm if you're truly Lisanna from our world and not from Edolas," she replied.

"I'm from this world! You're just jealous that in both worlds, I'm the one that's the closest to Natsu. You're just weak and bullying others to make you feel better!" she screamed out where the blonde flinched from the words that she was spewing.

It was like she was delusional to what had happened in Edolas. It seemed like she was trying to tell herself that she was the one that was the closest to Natsu even though it was Lucy.

"Enough!" Sakura boomed where Mavis appeared right beside her but hovering in the air to witness the situation.

Lisanna not knowing when to shut her mouth, she continued after looking over to Sakura to only give her the finger. Turning back, she got out of Natsu's hold and took a step closer to Lucy's face. "You're just weak enough to only know how to use spirits and nothing else! Just using a bloody whip and forcing yourself to act strong when you're nothing but crying!" she yelled. "You don't know how to fight! The people who are causing the most damage during a fight are your spirits and not you!" she continued as she balled her fists.

"Just because you see me as a love rival... Just because he chose me and not you... That doesn't mean that you can pick on me and physically abuse me!"

With one strong shove, Lucy fell onto her bottom with Sakura and Laxus narrowing their eyes and burning everything that they were seeing into their minds for later reports. Them wanting to say something, to being only stopped by the one and only Master of Fairy Tail, all they could do was watch the outcome unfold right in front of their eyes.

"Everyone can stand up for themselves when it comes to defending. If it gets out of hand then I'll stop them myself," he said to the two of them where they slackened their tension in their body.

"Stop hurting me when no one's around me! You're just a jealous, heartbroken blonde!" Lisanna cried out before taking a step back as the blonde got up on her feet.

Lucy's hair covering her eyes as she stood there still, she said what she had wanted to say out loud. "You're the one that's jealous of me. I was here when you weren't, and I was the one that was given the special mission that neither your sister nor you have been assigned to. Get over it," she said before pushing through the crowd that happened to swarm around them during the argument.

The Dragon Slayers all rising their heads up into the air, they could all smell one thing that stood out from the rest. With Sakura's face saddened and depressed, Makarov could tell what was going on from the looks of what Natsu and Wendy were giving as they watched the blonde leave the building.

Quietly, Mavis, Sakura, Laxus and Makarov held their arms up and pointed to the sky. With Lucy glancing back, she bit her lip knowing that there were people that cared for her existence here within the guild. Even though she had a place here, it was sadly demolished and would soon to be forgotten by everyone standing within it.

Turning her head back to walk down the hill, two wolves appeared on either side with their heads looking down to the ground. "Don't worry about me you two... Just go back to Sakura and continue being happy with her," she whispered, knowing that the two wolves were Sakura's familiars and no monster wolves that would chew her to the bones.

One of the wolves opening their mouths, their words flowed through her mind like a melody. "She said that you're leaving this place... We're sure that you're in need of people to carry some of your belongings?" he said where she looked down to him. 

On her right, the wolf tried to smile only showing her a ferocious snarl where she shivered. "I'm sending my belongings to the Celestial World, don't you two worry about me. I'll be fine with my friends," she said.

Both wolves looking at each other in question, they had no other choice but agree to Lucy's words of returning to their master. Stopping at the far end of the street, they dipped their heads in respect. "We all hope that you'll have a safe journey," the other wolf said before they both vanished into thin air.

With a sigh, Lucy looked over her shoulder to see the guild building and slowly turned to look down to her insignia resting on the back of her hand. She thought that this place was the one, but it wasn't. 

Now that it wasn't the place for her, it was now time to find another one that would accept her - This one hopefully with no other conflicts waiting in the future.

Her heart torn into pieces as she began to walk past her old apartment, she couldn't find the strength to force herself to have one final glance at the place that she once called home. She didn't need to go up there to check on anything, because she knew that her spirits would handle everything even without having to ask a single question.

Where could she go?

What should she do now?

There were questions needed to be answered. All she could do now was walk aimlessly through the streets of her soon-to-be old city with a fake smile plastered on her face. 

She could no longer think properly as she passed by the people that she once spoke to when the streets were alive and busy. With the cold biting  her skin as she took heavy breaths to only look down to the small puffs of condensed air with no amusement in her mind, all she could do was walk and listen to the ghostly sounds of the people that once stood on the busy streets trying to attract her attention since she was the Lucy of Fairy Tail.

Ah. It was now time to leave this place and throw herself into the deep end of the pool.

Her mind beginning to process things properly, she began losing the voices of the cheerful people residing in Magnolia. The colours that were once there were losing its radiance. The lights that seem so bright before were now dimmed and ready to be replaced.

This place was no longer the city that she had once remembered it to be like. Finding herself standing in an alienated world, she turned around to find Magnolia dead and bare.

"This is no longer my home," she whispered, turning around again to walk to the station.

It was now midnight.

On that new day, Lucy left what she had thought to be a dark, lonesome Magnolia city. That was what she had thought - Behind her stood Gray, Sakura, Wendy, Laxus and his team all watching her grow further away from their reach.

With a tear rolling down her cheeks, she and Sakura said one final thing together. "Goodbye Lucy of Fairy Tail..."

Sakura sliding down to her knees, she hauled her arm up and faced her palm to Lucy's back. With one whisper escaping through her lips, she began to tremble before she dropped to her bottom as tears fell to the brick path. Her arm still raised, she felt someone pushing it down where she slowly turned her head to look at Laxus.

"You did it, didn't you?" he asked.

Giving out a sniffle, she walked to his chest and rested her forehead against him before she began to cry where no sound was coming out. Releasing out all her sadness from her body, all she could do now was to wait for Lucy to come back with a smile on her face. "She wished for this to happen... And I don't want her to look back to what the guild has done to her..." she whispered before pushing the boy away to try to find Lucy's back.

Not being able to find the blonde within the night, she hugged herself to calm herself down. "Why didn't they give her a chance to explain her side of the story?" she whispered before Laxus began to lead her back to her hotel room so she could get her stuff and leave the city as well.