Trust

Imaginary | 想像上の

No one else could... see the dungeon?

Lucy can't be seeing things, not with how clear and large it is. There's no way this can be just a hallucination. To confirm it, she took a few hesitant steps towards it and reached her hand out to touch it. Which she could. Very easily. The dungeon is solid, which means it's real. It does exist. She's just... the only one who can see it. For some reason.

"Are you—Are you sure you don't see it? I'm touching it right now." To prove her point, she knocked against it.

"Nope, there's nothing there." To prove his point, Sinbad walked to where Lucy is and walked right through where the dungeon should be.

"No way," she tried doing exactly what Sinbad was but walked right into the wall instead.

"Sinbad, you said there was a dungeon here. I see a dungeon here. How could you have known it was here if no one else saw it." Lucy was beyond confused by now and trying everything she could to explain why she could see it.

"I never said anyone saw it, just that it appeared. Yunan was the one to tell me about it. He isn't sure what happened either."

"But—But, why am I the only one who can see it? Wouldn't it be more understandable if everyone except me was able to see it? Considering you all have more experience with them. Hold on—is this how all dungeons are? Do you all just never see what you go into?"

"No, this is, well, completely different from any dungeon we've ever been to before. Usually, it becomes tricky after we get into it, not before we even try."

"Ah, okay. Let me describe it to you. Maybe... knowing what it looks like will help you figure out why you can't see it but I can."

Back stepping to get far enough to see the entire dungeon as a whole, Lucy looked around it to see where to start.

"Okay. So. It's big. Really, really big. It looks like a fortress and is menacing. There's one, two, three, fifty stairs leading up to its open entrance, which is completely dark inside—I can't see any further in. Then... It looks like it's made of stone. It's like a big cube with a triangular roof and—oh! There's an insignia in the middle of the triangle! Let's see," she squinted trying to focus on the symbol.

"It is..." Lucy trailed off. "Oh," she said softly, eyes widening. "So... that's why." Chewing her lower lip, she tore her eyes away from the dungeon.

"I'm sorry guys but it looks like we won't be able to go into this dungeon."

"What?! Lucy, what are you talking about? We've come this far, you can at least give us a reason."

"I mean... no one else can see it or enter it except me and since I have no experience with these kinds of things, I probably shouldn't go in by myself. So, I guess we should head back now."

"Lucy, you forced your way into coming here and was more excited than anyone else to be going into a dungeon. We should be trying to convince you not to go in yourself, not to not go back already."

"I'm not that rash. I simply see a challenge that would be foolish for me to do alone. This is all new territory for me and I have enough self awareness to know not to do it all by myself."

"I call bullshit." Sinbad added in, joining her and Kouen's disagreement. "Up until you were finishing your description of it were you still ready to face it. Something must've happened."

"Nope. Nothing did, I already told you what happened." She wasn't going to allow herself to seem so vulnerable, so weak in front of all these people, some she barely knows.

"It must be the symbol then."

"I have no idea what you are talking about."

"Lucy." She averted her gaze to the floor. "What did you see?"

"Noth—"

"Don't say 'nothing'. We know something happened. What was the symbol you saw?"

"Fine, it looks... similar to a flying dragon or a flying arrow with its tail burning." She breathed out. "But really, it's a fairy with a tail dancing."

Kouen's eyes narrowed. "That's such a broad description—can't you be a bit more specific?" It reminds him of the weird question she asked so long ago, about whether he thinks fairies have tails. There seems to be a connection of some kind between the two but he can't figure out what.

"Flower Lady," Aladdin shifted all of the attention from her to him, "isn't that the same symbol that was on the flower you appeared in?" He couldn't fully remember what it looked like but he did recall thinking of it the same way Lucy described it.

Tense, Lucy squared her shoulders and nodded. "Yes it is." Through grit teeth she continued. "It's the insignia belonging to a... group. Called Fairy Tail."

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A/N: Holy fuck this chapter has so much dialogue. I'd say it's like a solid 80% dialogue which is so weird. Also, only reason I brought Fairy Tail back is cuz I was looking for something in a chapter from the beginning and realized I did something with them that I should probably... do something about. Eh, idk if they'll even actually show up but if they do, they sure as hell won't stick around for long. Lmao, hope you enjoyed :)