Exiled

The Job

Natsu POV
I woke up to find Lucy gently shaking me.
"Rise and shine sleepyhead" she cooed in that angelic voice of hers, and I couldn't help but to smile. She blushed suddenly, and I didn't know why.
"Luce, why's your face red?" I asked her, making her go even darker red. Erza's hair was put to shame.
"I-its n-nothing, j-just put a shirt on!" she stuttered, covering her face with her hands.
"You like what you see, don't you Luce?" I teased her, and smirked when she was reduced to nothing but a blushing mess.
"Sh-shut up!" she mumbled, pouting. I couldn't stand how cute she looked, and felt myself blushing.
"Is the mighty Salamander blushing?" she jeered, making me shift uncomfortably. I wasn't going to lose this argument, so I came up with a plan. Taking her hand, I placed it on my rock hard abs and kept it there.
"You know, I don't mind if you touch them. I know you want to," I smirked, before whispering in a much huskier tone,"You can touch every inch of me, if you really want to. There's no need to be shy!"
I was mentally laughing at her flustered appearance, as she tried to get ready for the day.
Sighing, I stretched and got out of bed, and got changed. I was wearing my usual one-sleeved coat, except this time, I had a bandage on my upper arm as well as the one on my forearm. Just then, Mira walked in, and handed me a cloak, with a large hood, that hid my whole face and scarf. It was big enough to conceal Happy, who had draped himself alongside my scarf, the two of them sharing my neck. As both of us were comfortable, I made no attempt to move him. Soon we were at the gates of a mansion, which belonged to the mayor.
He was a tall, lean and middle-aged man, who never drank or smoked, as I could tell by smell. I stood at the door of the study with Happy, Lily, Gajeel, Romeo and Laxus, whilst the girls asked him about the mission.
"I am Ryuzaki, the mayor of this town. I am very grateful for your assistance," he said, bowing slightly.
"It's our pleasure, but what can you tell us of this demon?" Mira asked, refusing to give out her name. However, she still kept her sweet smile on her face.
"Very well. The demon usually attacks at midnight, every night, and comes from the east of town, and only stops when it reaches the town centre," Ryuzaki explained.
"Thank you for your time, we'll handle matters from here." Levy said kindly.
As we made our way back to the inn, we stopped at a park. Sitting down in a circle under a tree in the most secluded corner of the park, I could hear the others talking about the demon, and making plans to defeat it.
"Guys, I have a feeling something's going on," Carla said.
"I agree with Carla. I doubt that there is a demon- in fact, I'm sure this is a lie," I said, causing them to look at me curiously.
"Why do you say that?" Laxus asked me.
"Well for starters, Ryuzaki said the demon attacks every night, at midnight," I said.
"Just because it's cliché, doesn't mean it's impossible!" Levy interrupted.
"That's not what I meant. What I was going to say was, by evening we got here, and settled at our inn. During the night, I couldn't sleep, so I stayed up the night, and didn't see or hear anything at all. Another thing is, our inn is located on the eastern side of the town, and from the smell of everything, it seems pretty old to me!" I finished off.
"So that's why you told us to say we had just arrived when we knocked on his door," Romeo said, cluing in.
"And here I thought you didn't have a brain," Gajeel said smirking.
"Oh my... Does your poor brain hurt?" Lucy teased, whilst I pouted.
"I think Natsu is right," Carla said, " though I can't figure out for the life of me how you managed that!"
"Managed what?" I asked, then immediately regretting I asked.
"Thinking!" She replied smugly, whilst Happy snickered.
'So much for having friends' I thought to myself sarcastically.
"All games aside, Natsu and Carla are right. We must figure out what's going on!" Lucy said enthusiastically.
"Let's take a look through the town centre Laxus!" Mira squealed. Laxus rolled his eyes, but agreed to it.
"Wendy and Romeo, can you spy on Ryuzaki? Take Happy and Carla with you," I said, as they set off.
"We will go and search for information about the Mayor," Levy said, gesturing to her, Lucy and Lily.
"Fine, Tin Head and I will check the forest," I said.
"Gihi, we'll meet tonight at the inn!" Gajeel added.
As we headed towards the forest, I was thinking about Igneel.
"Hey Natsu?" Gajeel called.
"Huh?"
"Well I was wondering, do the forests remind you of, well our parents?"
"Yeah..." I said in a small voice. I suddenly felt a hand on my shoulder.
"I saw Igneel die, and though he had the most gruesome death, it was the most noble," Gajeel said.
"Thanks man," I replied.
"By the way, I asked Laxus this question, but did you smell some weird smell in that mansion earlier?" Gajeel asked.
"Yeah... it smelt very toxic, but there was a trace of another smell," I replied, raising an eyebrow at him.
"Laxus said he couldn't smell it, whilst Wendy managed to smell both smells, but she couldn't differentiate between them," Gajeel explained.
"I wonder, do you think they're using it to mask something?" I asked him.
"Well maybe. I suggest we infiltrate the mansion," Gajeel said smirking.
We entered a clearing in a forest, and saw a cave with large scratch marks.
Looking over to Gajeel, he nodded, so we cautiously walked into the cave. Sniffing, the cave seemed to belong to a magical creature.
"No one's home," Gajeel whispered. Igniting myself in flames, we walked deeper into the cave. There seemed to be a lot of glass strewn around, and the air was scented with chemicals. The smell was familiar, where had I smelt it before? It suddenly same to me!
"Gajeel! This is the faint smell from before!" I exclaimed, and he nodded in shock. He suddenly showed me what he had been looking at, and it showed people being experimented on, and the Mayor, recording and making observations.
Seeing enough, we quickly crept out of the cave, and went back to the inn.
"Well, I wonder what the others found out. I bet Lucy's loaded with info now!" I said, confident in her abilities.
"Of course! She's got Shrimp with her!" Gajeel said, before turning red.
"Oooh, maybe I should tell 'Shrimp' that a certain 'someone' has a crush on her!" I teased.
"I'll tell Lucy about how you mumble her name in your sleep every night!" he yelled, clearly pissed off.
"Relax, I'm not going to tell Levy anything, it's your job, so grow some balls man!" I laughed.
"The same goes for you," he retorted.
"Hehe... I guess you're right," I chuckled, as he guffawed.
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Lucy POV
Me and Levy had gone to the all the towns libraries, trying to find out about the history of the town. I had summoned Gemini, Loke and Virgo to help me, and they had also asked Crux if he could tell them anything about Clover Town. After we had filled our notebooks with as much as we could remember and write, we sat down in the park, enjoying some ice-cream.
"So Lucy, did you have a good night, last night?" Levy asked.
Without thinking I replied.
"Yeah, though Natsu kept me up..." Realising what I had just said, I immediately blushed.
"Did you LOSE IT?" Levy squealed, fangirling.
"No! I don't mean it like that!" I said frantically, waving my arms and shaking my red face.
"Tsk, I was hoping for more juicy details," she said while I pouted.
"So what about you and Gajeel?" I asked.
"It's like he doesn't recognise my feelings for him..." she replied dryly.
"So why was Natsu awake?" she asked.
"He was sad, I guess. He's lost a lot in his life," I replied, feeling a tidal wave of pity for him.
"Where did Lily go?" I asked her.
"Oh, he went to tell Mira and Wendy to meet us at the inn. Speaking of which let's get going!" she said walking off. I sighed, and caught up with her. When we got to the inn, we found the others already there, except for Mira and Laxus.
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MiraJane POV
Laxus and I had seen the town centre, and it appeared to be in ruins. However, Laxus wasn't certain about what we saw, and even though I had told him seeing is believing, but he still seemed suspicious. We found a deserted street, where Laxus punched the air above a ruin, only for a brick to fall out of thin air.
"An illusion..." I mused, studying him carefully.
"How did you know?" I asked him.
"Natsu was right about the smell of this place. Everything smells old, if it really were in ruins, then how would you expect the folk not to rebuild?" he asked.
"Anyway, we found out what we needed," I said, cutting into his thoughts.
"Well Mira as we're done, how about you and I go on a date. I mean I do love you, and well..." he asked, slightly nervous.
"Yes! I'd love to!" I replied before kissing his cheek.
"Can you do that again?" he asked.
"No, until we're done with our date, I won't kiss you!" I replied teasing him.
He crossed his arms and pouted.
"Awww... is big boy gonna cry?" I mocked him in a baby voice before playfully shoving him.
Grabbing my wrists, he smirked suddenly before stealing my first kiss.
"Oh, sorry did we walk into something?" Natsu asked as Gajeel snickered.
"Don't " Gajeel said.
"Tell" Natsu added.
"Me"
"That"
"You"
"Two"
"Are"
"A"
"COUPLE!" both of them shouted in unison.
"You got a problem with that?" I asked, my smile sweet yet sinister.
"Actually, no. Gajeel and I are heading back to the inn anyway, so just meet us at ten sharp, okay?" Natsu said.
"Have fun!" Gajeel remarked, before we parted.
"At least I can confess to the woman I love!" Laxus remarked, clearly annoyed.
The rest of the date was brilliant, and totally enjoyable. Soon it was time we met up with the others at the inn.
As we arrived, we saw everyone huddling over a lacrima speaking with Master. No one had realised our disappearance yet. Only Lucy and Levy were not talking with Master, instead they seemed to be organising some papers. After quickly saying high to Master, we turned to Natsu who we saw as our leader.
"So, Mira and Laxus, tell us what you found," he said.
"There was an illusion placed on the town that made it look as if it was ruined, though I don't see the purpose..." Laxus said in confusion.
Levy and Lucy gasped after a minute, then whispered amongst each other, before blurting out " That makes perfect sense! You see, all the Mayors of this town were experienced in a rare type of magic, called build. It's the opposite of Gildarts's magic."
"Okay, but why use an illusion? Why even fake this from the start?" Natsu asked, furrowing his brows in confusion. Levy and Lucy looked like as if their bubble had been burst.
"Lucy, we must visit Ryuzaki tomorrow. I'm going to need you to..." Natsu said, whilst we agreed on his strategic plan.