章 164: Juvia Lockser

Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Magnolia.

August, x784.

Shortly after Makarov closed the vehicle storage building behind the guild, he addressed the wizards of his guild. After commending them on a job well done dealing with Phantom Lord, he dismissed them for the day.

A few hours after dismissing the wizards, Makarov, sitting outside the storage building heard knocking on one of the walls. Apparently, the prisoners had woken up. Cautiously, Makarov opened the wall to see Juvia standing right in front of him while Sol was sitting against one of the walls and watching him from a distance.

"Just to let you know, I don't plan on keeping you in captivity for long." Makarov said. "In fact, if you tell me what I want to know, you can leave immediately."

Hearing that, both Juvia and Sol frowned slightly. Telling Makarov anything would be the same as betraying Phantom Lord. Recognizing the young wizards' thoughts, Makarov smiled lightly as he continued.

"All I want to know is why you attacked our guild and tried to kidnap Lucy." Makarov said.

Although he spoke casually, Makarov secretly activated a recording lacrima. Like he told Ur, he wanted proof that Fairy Tail was not the side that started the war.

Unsure as to why Makarov would ask a question he already should have known the answer to, Juvia glanced at Sol without saying a word. At the same time, Sol stood from his spot against the wall, feeling uncomfortable with the way his pants and underwear felt against his body.

After standing up, Sol went to wipe the dust off the back of his pants. however, before doing so, his hands froze. Then, he remembered the fact that he had urinated on himself not too long ago and gave up on the idea. After that, he made his way over to Makarov and told him everything that he had told Gray, Ultear, and Lucy earlier in the day.

Makarov asked a few more questions that made it clear that Fairy Tail were the victims in this incident before letting the Phantom Lord wizards go without issue.

Surprised, the two left and made their way off of the guild's property before leaving the town. Not long after they left, however, Juvia suggested that she stay behind and watch for another chance to abduct Lucy. This time, she would do it without drawing attention to herself.

Agreeing with the idea, Sol left Juvia behind and rushed back to Oak Town.

Unbeknownst to Sol, however, Juvia was not really all that interested in kidnapping Lucy this time around. In fact, her whole mindset had changed after meeting Gray and Ultear. Especially after getting the chance to see the blue sky for the first time in her life.

Juvia Lockser, for as long as she could remember, had only ever seen rain clouds in the sky. Due to her extreme affinity with [Water Magic], that had awakened at a very young age, and lack of control, she unconsciously summoned rain clouds wherever she went.

With the rain following her at all times, she found herself isolated as a child. The other children in the village where she was born found her presence gloomy because of it. And as they often are, the other children were cruel to Juvia, constantly avoiding her and bullying her for something she did not have the training to control.

Eventually, after reaching her teenage years, Juvia was found by Jose Porla. With a promise to teach her how to control her magic, he gained himself a future S-Class wizard.

Keeping his promise, Jose did teach Juvia how to control her magic. However, due to her childhood, she often carried negative emotions with her. And as it has been stated, magic is heavily influenced by the user's emotions, resulting in the rain continuing to follow her despite her exceptional control.

But when Juvia was no longer able to access her magic due to being frozen solid, she finally saw it… The sky. Just seeing the beautiful azure hue seemingly opened a door to Juvia's more positive emotions. So, her only desire as of now was to be near the two people who gave her that gift.

"Now that Juvia has found her soul mates, Juvia will not let them go." Juvia said to herself in a resolute tone. "but Juvia does not want to betray Master Jose. What should Juvia do?"

While mulling over that question, Juvia made her way back into the town of Magnolia, unaware that her location was constantly being tracked by several [Magic Power Detections] ever since the main force of Fairy Tail returned from Oak Town.

For the next few hours, Juvia search Magnolia. She asked as many people as she could about the two ice users in Fairy Tail. Surprisingly, it was not hard to find information about them. And to her surprise, there were not two but three ice wizards in Fairy Tail.

Gray Fullbuster and Ultear Milkovich, she had already met on the battlefield. Then there was Ur Milkovich, who Juvia suspected was related to the woman she had met before.

'Is she older or younger than Ultear?' Juvia thought after getting the information. 'A sister? Or maybe her mother? Juvia is curious.'

Even though no one would have found it strange if Juvia had already known the information about Ur and Ultear at the very least due to them being S-Class wizards from Phantom Lor's rival, Juvia rarely showed interest in anything other than the quests she took. She was simply too used to being alone and uninterested in others due to her childhood.

Eventually, around sunset, Juvia finally found Ur's home. Expecting to find all three of her targets Inside, she was surprised when only Gray and an Older woman she surmised was Ur were present. Even so, she did her best to observe the two without being noticed.

Meanwhile, in the house.

"That water girl is outside." Gray said while digging into the dinner Ur had prepared. "I wonder what she wants."

"From what I can tell after watching her all day, she's probably collecting intel." Ur replied, seemingly unbothered by Juvia's presence outside her house. "And if I had to guess, she's probably most interested in intel about you and Tear. Especially you.""

"Because we beat her earlier today?" Gray asked while cutting a piece of meat. "Do you think she wants revenge?"

Before answering Gray, Ur picked up her wine glass. Then, she tilted her head back and took a gulp from the glass.

"That could be it." Ur said as she placed her glass back on the table. "but I wouldn't be surprised if it were because of that."

As she spoke the second sentence, Ur pointed at Gray with her fork. Looking down to see what Ur was pointing at, Gray was both surprised and confused.

"When did I…?" Gray asked in a dumbfounded tone.

"Who knows." Ur replied, completely unbothered. "Still, I'd like to know how you were able to take your clothes off in the short time it took for me to take a drink from my glass."

At the same time, outside of the house, Juvia flopped onto her back on the ground with a sloppy smile on her face. Once again, seeing Gray half naked was a bit too stimulating to her immature emotions.

"Yup, definitely because of that." Ur muttered as she continued to eat her dinner while Gray gathered his clothes. "Oh, I can even smell a hint of blood in the air."

Meanwhile, back at Alfonzo and Elicia's mansion, Alfonzo was sitting alone in the living room. Actually, Alfonzo was currently the only one in the house. The girls, on the other hand, had all gone to help Mirajane move out of the house she shared with her siblings and into the mansion.

While everyone was gone, Alfonzo was seated on the couch in the living room with several sheets of paper sprawled on the coffee table in front of it. On those papers were several designs for the guild hall that would have to be rebuilt in place of the destroyed one.

"*Sigh* I don't know if I should go with the same design as the second guild hall in the anime or just make something totally new from scratch." Alfonzo muttered aloud in a conflicted tone.

After finishing the design he was working on, Alfonzo laid his pencil down next to it. Then, he leaned back and rested the back of his head on the top of the couch's backrest.

"Decisions, decisions…" Alfonzo muttered while staring up at the ceiling. "Well, it's not like we're gonna start rebuilding tomorrow. I'm sure I have a few days to decide. On top of that, if things go like they did in the canon, Phantom Lord will attack us again. Though they'll probably be more focused on revenge after getting fucked up in their own guild hall."

While he continued his musings, Alfonzo felt several presences and the Escalade enter the barrier surrounding the property. A few moments later, he felt those same presences enter the house.

Getting up to offer his assistance getting Mirajane's belongings into a room on the second floor, Alfonzo made his way to the front door where all the girls should be gathered. To his surprise, however, he saw a few more people than he expected.

Besides Elicia, Cana, Ultear, Erza, Mirajane, and Sun, Levy, Elfman, Lisanna, Marin, And Lucy were also with them.

"Not that I'm against all of you being here, but I wasn't expecting to see so many people." Alfonzo said as he walked toward the group.

"Lici said we should all crash here tonight." Marin replied with a smile. "I mean, there's no guarantee that Phantom Lord won't come back for revenge, right?"

"Besides, it will feel a little lonely now that Mira is gone." Lisanna said in a slightly teary tone. "We just wanted to stay here for a night so that we could spend a little more time with her."

"That's right." Elfman nodded, tears and snot covering his face. "I'm gonna miss my big sis. A real man isn't afraid to admit that."

"Well, if you all wanna stay here for the night, you're more than welcome." Alfonzo said with a wry smile. "But I don't know if we have enough rooms."

'Should I consider having a guest wing added?' Alfonzo wondered.

"You don't have to worry about that." Elicia replied with a smile. "On our way here, we decided on room assignments."

"That's right." Mirajane added with a smile. "Lisanna will share a room with me."

"And I'll share a room with Lu." Levy continued.

"And Erza and I will stay together and talk about the latest novel that came out." Marin said, adding to the explanation.

"Lastly, Elfman will get a room to himself." Elicia said, ending the explanation. "And that will leave one of the rooms upstairs free."

"If you say so." Alfonzo replied with a shrug and a smile. "Anyway, let's get you guys situated. Then, after everything is moved into your rooms, I'll start on dinner."

"Ooh! I can help." Lisanna offered.

"I would like to offer my assistance as well." Erza said, stepping forward with her right fist clenched in front of her chest.

"Absolutely not!" Alfonzo said, pointing his right index finger at Erza, causing her to slump her shoulders. Then, he turned to Lisanna. "Do you cook like Mira?"

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?" Mirajane protested with her hands on her hips. "I'm getting better."

Ignoring Mirajane's protests, Alfonzo kept his gaze locked on Lisanna.

"Nope, I did all the cooking in our house before Mira decided she wanted to learn how to cook." Lisanna replied with a wry smile. "In fact, I was the one trying to teach her how to cook at first."

Nodding in response, Alfonzo did not miss the shudders from Elfman and Sun when they thought that Mirajane would want to prove that she had improved her cooking skill.

"Alright, you can be my assistant for dinner." Alfonzo replied.

"Yay! I've always wanted to watch you cook." Lisanna cheered happily. "I should be able to get some good inspiration out of this."

With that, the whole group started taking things upstairs. Naturally, most of the things the group moved were Mirajane's since she would be living in the mansion from now on. Still, everyone who was coming to spend at least tonight in the mansion , had a bag or two with them, as well.

After a while, everything was moved into the rooms upstairs. Although Mirajane's things were not organized yet, her new life in a new home would start from now on.

Then, after all the moving was done, Alfonzo and Lisanna entered the kitchen and prepared a satisfying meal before everyone went to bed for the night. They had all had a long couple of days, after all.