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Chapter Text

A deafening, monstrous screech filled the air as what was once Ichigo Kurosaki roared. The sound was an ear-piercing mix of rage and anguish. Desperately, a black blur shot towards the white beast, only for the berserker to turn to face it with its black blade singing through the air. There was a flash of light green, and the blur solidified into an emancipated demon, glowing lance in hand to block the midnight saber before it could remove yet another limb. Scattered around the roof of Las Noches were nearly two dozen severed limbs, all proof of the berserker's superiority over the manifestation of despair. It was only thanks to the nihilistic demons' high speed regeneration that he was alive, let alone capable of continuing to fight. An explosion rocked the battlefield as the beast broke yet another of the bat's lances. All of this was in complete opposite to an earlier point in the fight, before the berserker was released, where the bat had been flawless in his destruction of his opponent. Oddly enough, it was due to the demons' victory over his previous opponent that he was now losing. Had he not ended the life of the teenage protector, Ulquiorra would not now be facing the beast that had resided in the Vizard's soul. Barely refraining from being flung off the roof of the palace from the wind pressure, two of Ichigo Kurosaki's friends were watching in horror. Uryu Ishida, in denial over the death of his friend, was praying that 'Ichigo' would be able to defeat Ulquiorra with his 'newest power boost'. Orihime Inoue, filled with guilt, was screaming, pleading for her orange-haired friend to stop. Neither spectator knew that their cries were only angering the bull-horned creature further.

'YOU BASTARD! YOU KILLED KING! I'LL FUCKING RIP YOU APART!' Many, Ichigo especially, believed that the hollow residing in the orange-haired teen's soul was nothing more than a lecherous, bloodthirsty animal. In actuality, he was one half of the teen's zanpakuto, a fact only known by the other half and himself. Being the hollow half, the spirit didn't know how to correctly express his care for his wielder, and so he displayed it in the only way he could think of. Helping Ichigo whenever he was weak by taking over. His wielder, of course, took it the wrong way, not that the hollow's inability to remain passive helped. However, the hollow was still a zanpakuto, and he wanted only to keep his wielder from harm. It was only due to Ichigo keeping him suppressed that the hollow didn't kill everyone who dared to attack the teen.

When Ichigo's chest had been blasted open from Ulquiorra's point blank Cero Oscuras, Zangetsu turned livid. The hollow took control of the corpse to deal out proper punishment, and the quincy, equally as enraged, permitted it. The quincy was even tempted to release the shackles he had placed upon the hollows' strength, but he chose not to. The bat did not deserve to die from the zanpakuto's true form. Though, the quincy worried for the hollow. The hollow was actually the more emotional of the two halves, and his hate continually was amplified by their wielders' friends endlessly calling out Ichigo's name.

In his grief, the hollow pinned the demon to the ground by stabbing his blade through the bat's stomach into the stone, and began to charge his cero. However, while Ulquiorra began to charge a defensive cero in return, the hollow half of Zangetsu snarled as he drew upon the full power of the blade, causing his crimson cero to melt into white. Only two knew of this, those being a rather powerful Quincy and Zangetsu himself, but the hybrid zanpakuto was arguably the most powerful zanpakuto to exist. The weapon, a dual blade when at its strongest, was one of few to have enough power to affect dimensions. This power, focused into the small orb of a cero, produced a completely different effect than intended when fired. Instead of vaporizing the bat and everything unlucky enough to be inside Las Noches, the orb distorted reality and ejected the hybrid zanpakuto from the realm.

Lucy Heartfillia was happily walking along the edge of a river towards an apartment she rented earlier that day. She couldn't help but giggle to herself as she stared at the back of her hand, a recently-acquired pink mark residing there. The mark represented the magic guild Fairy Tail, and it was one Lucy had fantasized about joining. Today, she encountered one of the wizards of the guild, and he helped her join. It was a dream come true! She was interrupted in her musing by an unseen pressure forcing her to the ground. It lasted little longer than an instant before disappearing, but that instant felt like an eternity under the pressure which emanated hate, rage, and pain. She just barely managed to get to her knees when she suddenly found herself lifted off the ground and having difficulty breathing. She would have shrieked at what she saw if she had enough air to speak, as her eyes focused to decipher a white demon holding her up by the throat with its left hand. In its right, it held a long and thin sword colored entirely black. On its right shoulder, a shredded black strip of cloth was all that covered the beasts' torso, and it wore equally ripped baggy black pants. All of its fingers and toes ended in blackened points, and Lucy found herself on the verge of a heart attack when she saw black tattoos spreading out from the gaping hole where its heart should be. A mane of orange hair reached to its mid-back, and a white helmet-like mask covered its head. Pools of empty blackness made up the monster's eyes, and its bare teeth seemed stuck in some sadistic grin. Stripes of ebony flowed up from its chin, through its eyes, and over the top of its head, which called attention to the menacing pair of bull horns protruding from either side of the creature's head. The monster's shoulders and chest were heaving in what Lucy could tell was rage, and a horrifying echoing hiss crawled out of the demons' throat.

"…Wh…Ul…ra?" The monster forced out. It growled to itself before bringing its head closer to the terrified blonde's. "…Wh…re…Ulqui…rra?" The poor celestial mage was on the verge of tears.

"W-what?" She whimpered. The responsive growl sounded akin to grinding stone.

"…Where…ULQUIORRA!" Now the well-developed woman did break out in tears.

"I-I-I DON'T KN-KNOW W-WHO THAT I-IS!" The beast seemed ready to strike the mage with his blade, but it instead turned inward, as if contemplating something. Suddenly, the bull-horned walking nightmare looked around, as if just noticing its surroundings. A barely restrained roar leaked out of the white skinned monsters' throat as it turned to face Lucy once again, who was again mere moments away from a heart attack.

"…Wh…re…e…" It was panting in rage at this point, and the erratic motions of its sword arm as the demon struggled with something was terrifying to the blonde. "…Wh…are…we?"

Was…was the monster's difficulty with speaking becoming more prominent? Regardless of whether it was or wasn't, Lucy was able to decipher what it was asking.

"K-Kingdom of-of Fiore, c-city of Ma-Magnolia, St-strawberry a-and Bridge!" Once again, the living nightmare turned its gaze inward, still huffing in barely controlled rage. Then, for a long moment, the creature stilled completely. Before Lucy could question anything, the monster practically threw the mage to the ground. She was about to scramble to her feet and make a run for it, but was paralyzed by the demon's next action. It bellowed out a roar full of hate and pain into the city, before tilting its head back and screaming out to the sky so violently its body began to shake halfway through. The newest member of Fairy Tail was sure she was hearing things, but she could've sworn she heard sadness hidden within the second scream.

Sharply, the monster raised its blade with the intent to level the city, but stopped, arm shaking with white hot rage and heavy breaths visible in the cooling night. It remained that way for an agonizingly long time to the teen. So long, in fact, that Lucy jumped in fright upon the demon slowly lowering its blade to its side. Its huffing and the twitching of its arm remained, however. Then, Lucy heard it. The soft, but spine-chillingly deep growls emanating from the sword-wielding monster. She could only watch as it glanced towards an alleyway it then stomped into before resting its back against a wall and sliding into a sitting position with its legs spread out and sword resting in its hand.

Minutes passed by before Lucy realized what had kept her from leaving. The behavior of the demon that had nearly killed her and was still shaking with emotion, was something she was familiar with. It was a reminder of her father, and herself, over the death of her mother, and how they each responded to it. The celestial mage made a decision, and she acted on it before she could psyche herself out. She got to her feet, patted the dirt off herself the best she could, and stood at the entrance of the alley. A slight tilt of the head towards her was the only thing that confirmed the beast having noticed her.

"Would you like to stay at my place for the night?" Slowly, the demon fully turned its head towards Lucy. After a period of time so long the busty blonde nearly began to regret her decision, the bull-horned creature nodded and stood. Despite her new companion being a demon she wasn't completely sure had decided to keep her alive, the celestial mage smiled and began on her way to her apartment, the stomps of the monster behind her confirming it was following her. Most of the walk was spent in silence, except for a single, short interaction.

"…Zangetsu." The girl turned her head to face the demon she was escorting.

"Hm? Is that your name?" Without turning its head to look at her, it nodded.

"Then nice to meet you, I'm Lucy Heartfilia!" At a much later date, Lucy would realize its name was the only word the demon never had trouble speaking, no matter how enraged.

Chapter Text

'Hollow, while I share your rage, you must reign it in. At least, until we find something to release it upon.'

'The only thing I want ta let loose on is that emotionless fuck! And now we can't FUCKING kill 'im!' It was thanks to the Quincy half of the blade that the Hollow's energy did not radiate out of their body.

'I understand your frustration. As I said before, I too wish to see that damnable bat's head on a pike, but we must focus on more pressing matters.'

'LIKE WHAT?! That big-titted bitch that tried ta be nice after ya stopped me from killin' 'er?!'

'Understanding where we are and how to get back. Remember we got here through your using our full power against Ulquiorra. If we find out how exactly that occurs, we can hopefully replicate it.'

'I know how it fucking happened! I charged a cero with our power and we popped up on some random-ass sidewalk! I'll just do it again and we'll pop back in that shits face, ready to rip 'im in half!'

'And if that doesn't happen? If our situation gets worse?'

'IT FUCKING WON'T!'

'You cannot simply rush into a situation like this as you would a fight. If you do not wish to undergo the mental challenge of learning how to return, that is fine. I will. However, whilst I do so, take advantage of the time we have. Both of us must sooth, or at least control, our rage. We will ensure Ulquiorra regrets killing Ichigo, that is a promise, but we must understand what our existence entails without Ichigo for us to focus on.' Ever so slowly, the Hollow began to calm down as the Quincy talked. 'You are to be our body, as I have no interest in acquiring or maintaining control. Thus, you must socialize and find a way to support us and my research.'

'The fuck you mean, 'support us'?' A sigh was released from the elder of the two halves.

'It seems you have been too caught up in your rage to notice, but the air in this place is not as reiatsu-rich as it is in Hueco Mundo. There is not enough energy for us to survive off of that alone.' The Hollow mentally snarled at the information.

'Fine.' The blonde suddenly entered the room, a weird smile on her face. Zangetsu realized they had forgotten to sleep in favor of arguing with each other and the sun was rising into the sky, signifying morning. Sitting up, the zanpakuto shifted so that he was sitting normally on the couch, blade resting on the small table in front of him.

"Good Morning!" The woman greeted. The Hollow raised a hand half-heartedly in greeting. "I'm gonna make some coffee, want some?" The spirit tilted its head in confusion.

'…What's coffee?' The Hollow asked his other half.

'I do not know. Either it's a substance made after I separated from my original, or it is specific to this world. If the woman is making it for herself, it should be safe for consumption.' Deciding to satiate his curiosity, the demon nodded his head. He got up, grabbing his hilt as he passed it, following the blonde towards her kitchen. Zangetsu watched in a combination of curiosity and awe as the blonde tinkered with a black contraption that had an opening large enough for a pot to slip into. The Hollow nearly swung at the machine when it began to softly rumble and a black liquid began pouring from inside the machination into the pot. Lucy, thankfully for her coffee pot, noticed.

"Waitwaitwaitwait! That thing is a coffee maker! Don't break it!" She begged, waving her arms. Zangetsu turned to the mage, and she seemed to understand the unasked question. "Coffee is made when you crush coffee beans and soak it in water, or I think that's how it works. It tastes kinda bitter when you have it by itself, but you can mix it with milk and other stuff to make it taste sweeter. Coffee makers make the coffee for you so that you don't have to do it yourself."

'…Do I like bitter stuff?'

'You've never tasted food. I personally prefer my food sweet.'

'Wha-You've never eaten anything either!'

'I may have not, but Yhwach has.'

'Fuck you, you cheating asshole.' The coffee maker stopped rumbling, and with it, the liquid stopped pouring. Lucy opened an overhead cabinet and pulled out a pair of mugs. She quickly slid the pot out of the machine and poured the liquid into both cups, but she one she only filled to half. She handed that one to Zangetsu. Cautiously, the zanpakuto picked up the cup and raised it to his nose, sniffing it. He took a moment to decide whether or not he liked the smell before tipping his head back and downing the drink in a mere three gulps.

"…Like…" As Lucy beamed, the Hollow brought his focus towards the Quincy.

'Why is it so hard for me to talk?'

'I do not know. If you had issues with moving or other tasks, I would attribute it to you becoming accustomed to the body. I would have also believed that hollows find it more difficult to speak, but neither you nor other sentient hollows have displayed that. I did notice, however, that your ability to speak deteriorated the more enraged you were, so that is at least a factor.'

'Meh.' Lucy walked to the sink and rinsed her glass, so the Hollow followed and placed his empty cup on the counter. Sure, he was a literally heartless demon, but he at least had manners. After the blonde placed the cups to the side to dry, she turned to the white beast.

"Um, last night, I put together that you aren't from here, or you aren't familiar with this place, at least. If so, do you wanna come with me to my guild?"

"…What…gui…ld?"

"Excuse me if I'm understanding you wrong, but do you know what a guild is?" Zangetsu shook his head. "Oh, good, I didn't misunderstand you. How about I explain while we walk over there?" The zanpakuto nodded in acceptance and followed the mage as she excitedly sauntered out of the apartment. The blonde began her explanation once they were walking side-by-side out of the complex.

"Okay, so magic guilds are governmentally funded organizations of wizards wherein people submit quests for help and wizards accept and complete those quests for rewards. People can ask for anything, and can even-" Zangetsu held up a hand for Lucy to stop, and she did, although confused.

"…What…wiz…ard?" Lucy's confusion practically tripled.

"You don't know what a wizard is?" Zangetsu shook his head. "Wow, you really aren't from around here. Um…wizards are…I guess the easiest way to explain it is that wizards are people who have access to special energy, and we can learn how to harness that energy through magic."

'…So it's reiatsu.'

'Essentially.' The mage removed a key ring from her belt and lifted it for the zanpakuto to see. They were oddly designed, and almost all were silver. Three were gold, and had odd symbols on them. 'If I remember correctly, those symbols represent famous constellations. I cannot recall what each symbol represents, however.'

"I use Celestial Spirit Magic, which allows me to make contracts with the physical manifestations of constellations and they help me in combat. The silver keys are the lesser known constellations, while gold keys are of the 12 Zodiac. While there are an unlimited amount of silver keys, there are only the 12 Zodiac keys."

'…So, the silver are like the cannon fodder Shinigami and the gold are like the Captains?'

'If I am not misunderstanding her explanation, that is correct.' The Hollow nodded, both to the Quincy and the blonde. Her smile grew even larger, and she moved so that she was in front of the spirit. Zangetsu saw a large building looming behind the celestial mage, and assumed that was the guild she was talking about.

"It seems we have perfect timing! As I was about to explain, I recently joined the guild of my dreams, the Number 1 Guild in the Kingdom of Fiore! Fairy Tail!"

'Weird name, but okay.' Lucy, with dramatic flair, backed into the double doors, which swung open as her arms waved with grandiose.

'Hell yeah, it's another Squad 11!' The Hollow shouted with excitement.

'Oh no, it's another Squad 11.' The Quincy sighed with long-suffering annoyance.

Chapter Text

Inside the building, there was a massive brawl amongst the patrons, the silver-haired bartender being the only visible person not participating in the chaos. People were fighting, people were drinking, some hot chick in a bikini top was really drinking, and the energy Lucy called 'magic' was being flung everywhere.

'This place'll be awesome.'

'As far as I can sense, only a single person residing within the building is Captain-Class in reiatsu.'

'Oh come on!' Lucy grabbed Zangetsu's arm.

"Come on! I'll introduce you to some of my friends!" The hybrid allowed the blonde to drag him around, and the first stop was surprisingly the chick drinking straight from a barrel whom the Hollow had spotted.

"Hey, Cana!" The bikini-clad brunette tilted her head ever so slightly before placing the barrel on the ground. The woman wiped her mouth as she spun around in her seat to face the celestial mage and the zanpakuto. The brunette stared at the white skinned monster, before turning to her barrel.

"I gotta drink some more. I'm hallucinating that your new buddy is some weird demon." The brunette was mid-chug when Lucy nervously spoke up.

"He is a demon." Immediately, the barrel was dropped, and alcohol was spit out of the brunette's mouth. The liquid hit a smoking blonde with a pompadour in the face. The blonde sharply turned away, accidentally hitting his purple haired friend in the chest, who retaliated by summoning some fire in his palm and throwing it at the smoker.

"YOUR FRIEND IS A WHAT?!" The brunette screamed.

"Cana, this is my friend, Zangetsu. Zangetsu, this is Cana, Fairy Tail's resident alcoholic."

"Hold up! You cannot introduce having a demon for a friend like that. Explain what happened!" After some contemplation, the Hollow decided to be 'helpful'.

"…Tried…kill…her…" After a moment of staring from both women, Lucy turned to Cana and wordlessly nodded.

"Lucy, did-did he try to kill you?!" Another nod. "What the hell?!" Zangetsu was actually curious about the answer, and so turned to the celestial mage expectantly.

"He looked like he lost someone important to him, so I decided to help him out." She explained gently. While Cana's worried expression softened, Zangetsu stilled. Was it that obvious? The newest member of Fairy Tail looked over and saw how her newest acquaintance reacted, so she quickly hugged him. The Hollow had to stop himself from instinctually attacking her.

"Sorry for bringing it up." She mumbled through his hole. The demon, for some reason, could not force himself to do anything other than growl softly. Cana sighed and grabbed her barrel again.

"If I'm gonna befriend a demon, I'm gonna hafta be seeing triple."

"Oh? How much to you need to see triple?" Lucy asked

"Don't know. Never drank that much." Lucy sweat dropped while the hollow laughed. Out loud, it was a broken and spine-chilling cackle. "Nevermind then. After that laugh, I'm gonna need to be seeing quadruple." The busty brunette proceeded to tilt her head back, barrel held firmly in place by her hands and mouth.

"How's about we meet someone who won't need to be drunk to be nice…" The Hollow shrugged once again before being dragged off towards the bar. The celestial mage hopped onto a bar stool, leaving the Hollow no other choice than to sit next to her, holding his blade in a reverse grip as if it were a staff.

"Hey Mira! Come meet my new friend!" The silver-haired bartender that Zangetsu saw upon entering the building turned to the duo and shuffled over, cleaning a beer mug with a washcloth. The unblemished blue eyes of the woman were staring into the empty black pits of the demon with unending cheer.

"Hiya! I'm Mirajane Strauss, but all of my friends call me Mira. Welcome to Fairy Tail!" Although confused by the beautiful woman's lack of fear, the zanpakuto lifted his free hand in introduction.

"Zangetsu."

"Nice to meetcha! Would you like anything to eat or drink?"

'While we drank Lucy's "coffee" earlier, it was not enough to suffice a meal.' With that, the Hollow nodded towards the busty bartender.

"…Both…" It took a moment for the woman to understand what he meant, but once she did, a notepad and pen were in her hands.

"What would you like?" Helpless since he knew no other food other than coffee, the zanpakuto turned to the blonde next to him, who was in a state of shock over Mira's lack of terror. The Hollow nudged the blonde with his elbow, which brought her out of her state.

"Hm?"

"…Food…" Lucy's face willed with realization and she turned to the white-haired woman.

"Sorry, I forgot to mention, but Zangetsu here has problems talking. It's worse when he's angry."

"Gotcha! Here, just write down what you'd like!" Her cheer not waning in the slightest, Mira held out the notepad and pen for the zanpakuto to grab. He stared at it for a second before looking up at the expectant women.

"…Don't…know…" Both women blinked in confusion.

"…How to write?" Mira asked

"…Food?" Lucy asked, her eyes focused on the Hollows'. The bull-horned monster pointed at his blonde acquaintance. The white-haired maiden made a surprised noise.

"How'd you figure that, Lucy?"

"When I made him some, he didn't know what coffee was, or the coffee maker for that matter. He almost broke mine before I stopped him."

"If that's the case, then I'll make him one of my favorite dishes: kuzumochi!" The white-haired woman immediately dashed off to the kitchen, leaving Zangetsu and Lucy waiting at the bar.

'Wait. Old Man, do I know how to write?'

'…I'm…not sure if even I can write. We both should, in theory.' Cana came up from Lucy's right, slamming into the bar and making the celestial mage jump. The brunette lifted herself from the wood and blinked twice.

"Well, you're a…not real thing." Cana shuffled over to the left unsteadily and placed an arm around Lucy's shoulders. "You're not a not real thing. I think I drank too much. I never saw…whaz the word? Whatever the five is. I'm seein fiveoya."

"Cana, you wanted to see quintuple. Well, at least quadruple."

"…Why?"

"You said you needed to be at least that drunk to be friends with Zangetsu."

"Za-what-su?" Lucy silently pointed to the zanpakuto, who waved once again. "Oh. That. Yeah." Without any hesitation, the bikini-clad alcoholic drunkenly sauntered over to the demon and plopped herself into his lap, leaning back against the chest of the extremely confused spirit. The monster turned to Lucy, who was unresponsively red-faced. Although confused, the Hollow wasn't going to reject the woman's actions. The Quincy sighed exhaustingly. The brunette began to snore, which caused the Quincy to release an even heavier sigh.

"Food's-Oh! I see you're getting along with Cana!" Zangetsu looked up to see Mira holding a large plate filled with…white…cubes? They were gelatinous and covered in brown powder. A fork was lying on the side of the plate, like the Hollow would use it. Acting on his instincts like a Hollow should, the demon deemed the cubes to be of no threat and tossed one into his mouth. Immediately after, the plate was upturned into his open maw. The Hollow didn't know what the hell it was that just went into his stomach, or why the texture was so weird, but it was delicious, so he didn't care. He slid the plate towards the beaming bartender.

"…More…" Mira was all too happy to oblige, grabbing the plate and ducking into the kitchen once more. Cana violently jumped, eyes still drunken and movements still sluggish.

"HEART!" Lucy jumped too, finally knocked out of her daze. Upon seeing what was in front of her, the blonde sighed and gently placed a hand on Zangetsu's bicep.

"…I'm gonna see if I can't get Cana to sober up a little with a walk and introduce some of the members to you while at it. You can stay here, I'll just point you out while you eat." Lucy didn't wait for a response, instead helping Cana off of the zanpakuto and tossing one of the brunette's arms over her shoulders before slowly walking away. If the Hollow cared at all, he stopped when Mira came back out of the kitchen, holding two massive plates of the white cubes in each arm. She slid the plates onto the bar, and the bull-horned monster dug in.

"I love cooking and I love kuzumochi, so ask for as much as you'd like!" The blue-eyed model announced before popping one of the cubes-kuzumochi the Hollow reminded himself-into her mouth using a fork. Happily, the Hollow continued to gorge on the…whatever kuzumochi was as Mira disappeared into the kitchen once again. She returned much quicker, holding a large mug. She placed it next to the kuzumochi and the spirit curiously peered into it. An off-white liquid was resting inside the cup.

"It's called yogurt! It's got a sweet flavor, just like kuzumochi, so I thought you'd like it!" Seeing no reason not to, the hollow picked up the mug and downed its contents. Blue tongue licking his teeth clean, the demon nodded in satisfaction and handed the cup to the overjoyed bartender. As she dashed into the kitchen, the white skinned nightmare thought he heard the maiden mumble something about blonde demon children. Both halves agreeing to not pry into whatever the white-haired woman was talking about, Zangetsu continued to feast upon his food.

"GRAY, DON'T!" Something broke against the back of the zanpakuto's head, and ice shards fell onto the bar. Snarling, the Hollow turned to face the source, finding a seething black haired man wearing nothing but boxers and holding whatever remained of his ice weapon in his right hand. Lucy and an apparently sober Cana were right behind the man, fear in their eyes and arms stretched out presumably to stop the ice-wielding man. The Hollow immediately grabbed the hilt of his black blade and ripped it out of the wood it had been stabbed into so he could eat, ready to cleave the annoyance before him in half.

'Hollow. Calm yourself. He isn't strong enough to injure us, and we have faced colder than he has produced. He is not worth the effort to kill.'

'He ISNT going to need effort to kill.'

'Exactly. There is no reason to kill him. The rage you are feeling is not directed at him, you simply want to use him to relieve it, and he is not even strong enough for you to do that.' Growling deeply, the Hollow dropped his sword arm from its ready position, instead choosing to punch a bala into the man's stomach faster than he could follow. The man was sent flying, through the gap between the women behind him, skimming one of the wooden support beams, and breaking a table before being stopped due to his back colliding with a wall. As the man slumped to the ground, Zangetsu rose from his seat, and Lucy immediately dashed forward and placed her hands on the beast's chest to 'stop' him.

"Zangetsu hold on! I know Gray attacked you, and I don't know why he did it, but you already won!" Seeing what the blonde's train of thought was, the hollow shook his head.

"Want…sleep…not…Ice…man." The celestial mage sighed in relief at the Hollow's answer.

"I think I can help with that." Both the sword and the mage turned to Mira, who had a serious look on her face as she walked around the bar. "Just follow me, I'll take you to a quiet corner of the guild for you to nap." The Hollow nodded and flipped the weapon in his hand so he was holding it reverse by the blade.

"I'm gonna go check on Gray and question why he did that." Lucy announced. "Let me know where he is after, Mira?" The pale skinned woman nodded and began walking, Zangetsu following. She led him to a corner of the guild with a table occupied by a single person, a short blue-haired woman wearing an orange dress and reading a book.

"Hey, Levy?" The woman looked up curiously and blinked at Zangetsu. Mira smiled and continued. "This is Zangetsu. He isn't a member of the guild, but he was eating some food I made and Gray attacked him. He ended up punching Gray across the guild, but he wanted to sleep instead of continuing to fight, so I was thinking of bringing him to your little 'reading corner'. Do you mind?"

"So long as he's quiet, not at all."

"No need to worry there! He aint much of a talker!" The cheery bartender turned to the zanpakuto, her smile unending. "Here ya go! No one'll bother you here, and it's really quiet because everyone lets Levy read. We're like a big 'ole family, here in Fairy Tail!" Having done all she could for now, the busty woman returned to her bar. Levy and Zangetsu stared at each other for a moment, before the bluenette attempted to return to her book. Attempted being the key word as she squeaked from the spirit picking her up by the back of her dress. Wordlessly, the demon laid his sword atop the table, sat on the bench with his legs spread out and plopped the startled woman into her new seat, that being between the beast's legs. Before she could begin to reprimand the berserker, he wrapped his arms around her midsection with an unbreakable grip, rested his head in the crook of her neck (horns facing away of course), and contently purred as he cuddled the small woman, whose face was a steaming crimson.

Elsewhere in the guild, images of blue haired demons floated around inside the imagination of a certain bartender as she cooed over the action of the demon.

Chapter Text

It had so far been a month since Ichigo died. In that time, the Quincy and the Hollow began to get a grasp of what it meant to be 'alive'. Wake up, eat, follow Lucy to the Fairy Tail guild, and watch the daily life of the wizards around them before mimicking the behaviors that seemed 'normal'. Wave a hand for food, drink copious amounts of booze, and ignore the public nudity from the black-haired ice-mage who only looked at the Hollow with hate. Neither half of the zanpakuto learned much, the Hollow not wanting to wander the town and the Quincy not having many memories pertaining to daily life from Yhwach. Some of what they learned surprised them, however. For example, Zangetsu couldn't read, despite possessing knowledge of many languages from Yhwach. No matter how long they looked over Levy's shoulder as she read, or how many quest papers they stared at, they simply could not understand the characters. The Quincy theorized that it was due to them being in another world. Neither could bring themselves to search through Ichigo's lingering memories to confirm it.

While not a member of the guild, Zangetsu was treated like one. Once she finally got over the shock of it all, Cana had challenged the Hollow to a drinking contest, which she proceeded to lose. The wizards around them had cheered and hollered about someone finally besting her, while the Hollow drank in the excitement. He saw no reason to explain that his high-speed regeneration allowed him to nullify the effects of the alcohol. Most of the Hollow's time was spent in Levy's reading corner, either dozing the day away with his head in her lap or attempting to understand the written language of the world with her beet red between his legs. Most of the guild had no issue with that, somehow ensuring their brawls never interrupted the duo. The only exceptions were Levy's apparent teammates and Gray. The bluenette's teammates were possessive, despite her clearly seeing them as only friends. The one that could run noticeably faster than any other mage would regularly attempt to glare Zangetsu into submission. In response, Zangetsu would return the glare hundredfold. The Hollow had so far gotten the man to piss his pants four times. The one that could make plants grow would attempt to prevent the zanpakuto from getting close to Levy through use of his magic. Halfhearted swings easily tore apart any walls of vine, and the singular attempt to entangle the spirit in the plants ended in the blade walking through without acknowledging the greenery.

Gray was a topic that the Quincy frequently pondered over in their immense free time. His current theory was that their form reminded the ice mage of someone that harmed him. The accidental nudist would attempt to fight Zangetsu daily, to the point that some guild members would sit down to watch. The Hollow would slowly increase the strength used to down the man every time they 'fought' in his personal way of testing the limits of the people of this world. While he would be knocked out with a single strike every time, Gray had yet to receive anything worse than heavy bruising from a despairingly weak bala. The pink-haired fire-breather began challenging the demon once he saw the ice mage flung across the building by a backhand. The Hollow loved the mage's love of fighting and determination to keep going. Once the spirit learned that Natsu was Gray's rival, and he only started attacking him to prove he was better than the ice mage, he loved the dragon slayer even more.

As for the blonde who took the zanpakuto in, she frequently went on quests in order to afford her rent, spending around half her time away from the guild. She had gotten a key for the spirit to use on the nights where she'd be stuck on a quest, but the Hollow never used it in favor of following Levy to her home. The bluenette never complained, explaining that the demon was good company and a better pillow. Every time Lucy came back from a quest, she would inform the spirit of what happened, which Zangetsu would happily listen to. The Hollow denied seeing the blonde as an older Yuzu, the Quincy always wished to know more about the world, and it always helped that Lucy would stroke the zanpakuto's hair as they laid across her lap.

Lucy's first quest had been in some snowy mountains, to defeat perverted monkeys and rescue a guildmate. The Hollow didn't actually care who the member was, but the Quincy kept a record of every person in the Fairy Tail guild. The member in Lucy's story was apparently one who used fire, and had a boy who was also part of the guild. Her second quest had been to gather a book from some weird rich guy with a backwards sense of beauty. There was much more to the story, but the Hollow didn't pay attention to the small stuff while the Quincy didn't deem the rich man to be a threat and ignored the man's existence. Lucy did manage to get a new golden key from the man, to Zangetsu's great interest. Virgo, who Lucy had been all-too-happy to show off to the zanpakuto. They had spent a few minutes discussing the dynamics of how Virgo changed her appearance to better suit Lucy's preferences, but they found that intrigue couldn't be maintained much longer than that.

…Which was a running theme, Zangetsu found. Their lack of innate ability to read the language of Fiore was unsurprising in hindsight, and nothing more. Their mimicry of the behaviors of the guild members was just that. Whenever the Hollow was not swatting away the mild annoyances that interrupted him only for moments at a time, or listening to Lucy recounting her quests, he was uninterested in anything other than sleeping. The Quincy seemed to find excuse after excuse for why he was not taking greater initiative in discovering a method to return home. They merely followed home whoever was willing to have them under their roof. Meal after meal was made for them by Mirajane, and the Hollow kept to himself that he could not distinguish the flavors.

Eat and Sleep, the pattern became. Brush away the man seething with hatred, and pretend the cold inside was just the ice from the magic. Eat and Sleep. Listen to the stories of a girl determined to thrive, and let her determine the meaning behind their silence. Eat and Sleep. Hold close the girl at the center of a bubble of peace, and don't question why it's so easy to stay. Eat and Sleep.

The days blurred by, neither the Hollow nor the Quincy could make out how long it had been since they arrived. No one at the guild took any issue with them spending all their time there despite not being a member. The blade pretended they could not see the gazes indicating sympathetic understanding. None of them could understand. Not truly. There was a zone of influence, faces and names that appeared often enough that they could be put together, but not much more than that. Lucy, Levy, Mirajane, Natsu, Gray. Cana was very nearly at that point, toeing the line simply due to her closeness with Lucy. Everyone else, everything else, was hardly more than blurs of color and sound, nothing the zanpakuto could bring themself to care about.

But on one particular night, that pattern, and their blurred stream of consciousness, was interrupted.

A hand on the shoulder woke them from their slumber, where they laid upon Lucy's couch. The Hollow tilted his head toward the source, as no one could tell when Zangetsu's eyes were open or not. Lucy was over them, slight concern and anxiety over her features. A little ways behind her, Natsu stood with his hands hanging off the back of his neck and visibly bored. The blue cat nearly always around him was sitting upon the coffee table, idly nibbling at a raw fish.

"Sorry to wake you." The blonde apologized immediately, lifting her hand from their shoulder. "I just-I was really hoping you could please do something for me?" Keeping his gaze on the Celestial Spirit mage, Zangetsu sat up. "I don't want to bother you or anything, I just-well, Natsu and I were about to go on a quest, and I'm a little nervous about it, and I thought to myself that I would probably be less nervous if we had someone else on the quest with us, so I started wondering who I could ask to join, and-" The Hollow lifted his hand for her to stop. She shut her jaw, and stood up straight as she waited for his response.

'Think we should go?'

'It makes no difference to myself whether we do or do not. Though seeing that this is the first time Lucy has felt uncomfortable going on a mission without assistance, I am inclined to believe there is good reasoning behind it.'

'…Yeah, I was thinkin' the same thing. Somethin's gotta be fucky if she wants us to play bodyguard.' Their agreement was quick, prompting the Hollow to stand himself, picking up their blade as he did. The message was easily received by the mages, both Natsu and Lucy smiling.

"Thank you so much, Zangetsu! Let's go, we have to head to the docks!" The blonde announced. While the implication was clear to them that the quest demanded a trip to the docks, it did not actually inform them of what the quest consisted of.

"…We…go…but…explain." He was able to get out. Internally, the Hollow hissed. He spoke frequently, Mirajane and Levy happily engaging in conversation with him to practice. However, it hasn't gotten at all easier to do so despite that. The tic Zangetsu picked up of it becoming even more difficult when unfocused had not lessened in the slightest. Outside of their name, or the one instance where he shouted Ulquiorra's name, the Hollow had not been able to string together more than two syllables at a time.

The blade's internal irritation was obviously not something the mages could pick up on, and thus they merely listened to the words he did say. The three of them and the cat all left Lucy's apartment, the girl locking her door as she began to follow the spirit's request.

"Okay, so the quest we're going on is to free this island from a curse that's been hurting the inhabitants. That's why we're going to the docks, so we can find someone who's willing to take us there." This answer only brought the demon to tilt his head as they left the building. His left hand lifted to point at himself.

"…Why…help?"

"It's 'cuz the quest is S-Class, and Lucy's being a wimp over it!" Natsu announced, a teasing grin on his face.

'S-Class…We've heard that before, ain't we?'

'We've caught it used in idle chatter, nothing express. I'm under the impression it's some sort of indicator for the level of danger.'

"I'm not being a wimp, you're the one who's overestimating your abilities by stealing an S-Class quest in the first place!"

"If you think I'm over-mating or whatever, why did you agree to join?"

"Because the reward is a Zodiac Key! And we got Zangetsu to agree to oversee the mission!"

"But isn't he always asleep?" The cat brought up.

"Doesn't Natsu always get knocked out immediately when he tries to fight him?" She fired back.

"I do!" To Lucy's great confusion, the scarfed man confirmed her words enthusiastically. "I haven't even gotten him to actually use that sword of his yet! I wonder what type of magic sword it is…" The blonde blinked at his musing.

"Aren't magic swords pretty rare? Wouldn't it be more likely that it's just a normal sword?" The dragon-slayer shook his head immediately, a certain expression on his face.

"No, that thing is definitely a magic sword." He announced with utmost seriousness. Zangetsu couldn't help but turn his head to the pink-haired man, interested to discover his reasoning. "Normal swords smell like metal and leather. Magic swords usually have a hint of Lacrima, or whatever magic they've got. Zangetsu's sword…I don't really know how to explain it right. I don't really like to go out of my way to smell it, it makes my nose tingle and buzz. But it smells like it's part of him. When he's holding it, I seriously can't tell where he ends and it begins."

"Well, then what does Zangetsu smell like?" To both Zangetsu's and Lucy's shock, Natsu and the blue cat both frowned at the question, discomfort dressing their features.

"…I don't like to think about it." The fire-breather cryptically answered, the tone in his voice clear that he wanted to veer the conversation away from that topic. "Let's just get to the boat and do the mission, okay?" He rushed out before quickening his pace, wings appearing from the blue cat's back before he joined his partner. The blade stared at the dragon-slayer's back, silent both in body and in their mindscape. They noticed Lucy's glance their way, filled with confusion and trepidation, before she went to keep step with Natsu. From the way the scarfed man was acting, Zangetsu felt they had a good idea of what scent their body possessed.

…If so, they agreed with him. They didn't want to think about it, either.

At the docks, their team encountered a different, more prevalent issue than the mystery behind what Zangetsu smelled like. That being, no one was willing to take them to the island their mission was located on. Every time the group went up to a captain, they would be on board until they discovered where exactly the destination was. Well over a dozen turned them down without any hesitation, only some even bothering to explain that no one ever returned from the island. As they were talking to the last boat captain, something looked down upon them.

"Finally found you!" That something being Gray. Natsu, Lucy, and the blue cat all went wide eyed.

"What are you doing here, Ice Prick?!"

"Stopping all of you from killing yourselves, obviously! I expect this out of Flame Brain, but Lucy? Seriously?" He glanced around over the group again, his face curling in hatred and disgust as he spotted Zangetsu. "And you thought it was a good idea to bring that thing to a cursed island? What, are you trying to get yourselves killed?!" Lucy turned defensive immediately, stepping in front of the spirit.

"He's not a thing, Gray! I don't know what your problem is with him, but he's joining us to protect us." Being the only one facing the demon, only Gray spotted the flinch that tore through the blade's body.

"Yeah? Is that why he's all twitchy? Because he's just so desperate to keep you safe?"

"Hey, Zangetsu won't do anything to us." Natsu declared.

"And what makes you so certain, huh? He's a demon, in case you're as blind as you are stupid." The ice-mage sneered.

"He doesn't smell like blood." The dragon-slayer kept his voice level. "That's not something you can wash off. He hasn't killed anyone."

"Yet, you mean." The surprisingly fully clothed man huffed in irritation, but did not attempt to argue with a dragon-slayer's nose. "It doesn't matter, not when I'm taking all of you back to the guild so you can be punished."

"Punished?!" Lucy's skin paled at the thought.

"Yeah. What did you think would happen if you stole an S-Class quest? If you come back now, there's a chance you won't be removed from the guild."

"REMOVED?!" She cried, looking as though her soul was ready to leave her body.

"If I back out now, then what's the point of stealing it in the first place?! I'm going, and you can't stop me!"

"Too bad, this is a direct order from the Master!" A grin formed upon the ice wizard's face. "But if you're going to fight me so much, it's my obligation to force you to follow." He announced, ice forming in his right hand.

"You're talking like you can get me to listen to you, ya exhibitionist creep!" Natsu shot back, a ball of flame appearing in his left palm.

"Of course I am, you piece of burning trash!"

"Wait, guys, not here!" Lucy tried to step between the two.

"Wizards…?" The boat captain breathed, his eyes widening. "…Are you…trying to rid the island of its curse?"

"Duh!" Natsu declared confidently.

"W-well, yeah." Lucy rubbed at her bicep nervously.

"Hey, you guys aren't leaving!" Gray shouted angrily. Zangetsu remained perfectly silent, his gaze unwavering from the boat captain's form.

"If that's the case, then hop in!" The Captain permitted, a serious expression on his face. The ice wizard attempted to protest, but during his moment of shock from the Captain's permission, Natsu struck. With a quick kick to the back of the raven-haired man's head, the pathological stripper was out cold. The dragon-slayer wasted no time in climbing inside and tying up his rival with rope, a proud gleam upon his face.

"Natsu?!" The Celestial Mage screeched.

"Hey, if he goes back to the guild, they'll send a licensed S-Class mage after us! And the only active ones at the guild are Erza and Laxus, neither are good options for us!" He reasoned. After a moment to consider that logic, Lucy joined Natsu and his cat inside, the three of them then turning towards the zanpakuto.

"You still in, Zangetsu?" The fire breather asked.

The blade remained as still as a statue, empty glare firmly on the captain. The man shifted uncomfortably, his face more…uncertain, than anything else.

'I'm not sensing shit, am I?' The Hollow demanded.

'Not unless we both are.' The Quincy gravely confirmed.

"…Zangetsu?" Lucy sounded afraid, likely of the idea that the spirit was going to back out.

'…Ain't my problem.' With a snort, the zanpakuto broke his stare and stepped into the boat, almost immediately collapsing down into a sitting position. Lucy and the cat did not notice the light sigh of relief from the captain, before he adjusted his grip on his oar and pushed them off from the dock. He looked out towards the horizon as he started them on their journey.

"Off to Galuna Island."

Chapter Text

The boat ride to Galuna Island was spent in awkward silence, Natsu vomiting off the side being ignored. Lucy and the cat sat at the front, each of them hugging their knees to their chests as they stared with wide, anxious eyes. Their gazes were focused on Zangetsu and Gray sitting opposite each other, the demon looking out at nothing while the ice wizard glared unceasingly, seemingly only not attempting to attack due to being tied with rope. The captain, at the back, was nearly as concerned as Lucy and the cat, his eyes finding the zanpakuto often before straying to focus on maintaining their course.

"…Do you honestly believe you are capable of lifting the curse?" The captain asked, hesitantly. Hopefully.

"W-well, we've…got a decent variety of magic here, I'd say." Lucy offered, in an attempt to break the tension. "I've got my Celestial Spirit Magic, Natsu is a Fire Dragon Slayer, and Gray uses Ice Make Magic. I…don't think we've seen Zangetsu use his Magic, but he's really strong."

"Are you strong enough to break it? The curse that has plagued that island?" He narrowed his eyes, looking off into the distance. "My name is Bobo, and I used to be a villager there. But because of that curse, I was forced to flee from Galuna, from my people." Lucy and Gray turned downcast at his words, sympathy covering their features.

"What is the curse, anyway?" The cat tilted his head. Bobo refocused, gaze going towards the feline.

"It is," he paused to dramatically throw back his cloak, "The Demon Curse." The wizards (who were not heaving into the water) stared in abject horror at witnessing the left arm of the captain. It was insectoid in nature, segmented and covered in hard shell, flesh tone bleeding to purple from the shoulder down. There was a clear, grotesque transition from skin to the texture of the arm, visible warping and distortion that screamed of an agonizing change. While the Ice Mage couldn't help but gawk in terror, emanating a sense of shock, disbelief, and even slight disgust, the Celestial Spirit Mage gasped.

"Is that why you were staring at him so hard, Zangetsu? You could tell he was a demon, too?" The horned beast snapped his head to the blonde, a short snarl coming from his throat that brought her to retreat slightly. At her reaction, his shoulders hunched minutely as his head shrunk down, something Gray caught out the corner of his eye.

"…Diff…rent." The blade attempted to explain with his broken speech. He pointed at himself with his left hand, then to Bobo. "…Not…same." To that explanation, the tied-up mage rolled his eyes with unhidden irritation.

"Of course you're different!" He hissed. "He and his village were cursed. They clearly don't want to be demons." A deep growl reverberated from the throat of the zanpakuto as he stood, shoulders now hunched in threat and the points of his horns aimed directly at Gray. The same pressure Lucy experienced when Zangetsu first arrived returned, flattening everyone else to the wooden floor. The boat itself sunk noticeably, water sloshing over the sides before the current was disrupted by the same mysterious force. Weighted ripples coursed outward from their position, the natural churn of the ocean being overwhelmed by the immense pressure. It was dark and malevolent in nature, a menacing presence filled with hatred and bloodlust that bore down on them all, but most especially the ice wizard. Underneath its oppressive might, the dark-haired man turned nauseous, his skin growing pale and clammy with sweat. He was only able to be certain the demon's blade had not speared through his chest because he saw its position in his hand.

"Gray…!" The key-bearer begged, barely capable of breathing due to the fury of their companion. "Apologize…please…!"

'Hollow-'

'Fuck off.' He snarled back immediately. 'I'm getting real fucking tired, real fucking fast, of this grudge-having asshole constantly coming at me, especially for shit I couldn't be involved with.'

'Are you truly that irritated by his antagonizing?'

'That's not the fucking point! He's an annoying goddamn gnat that won't stop buzzing in my ear!' Silence followed for a moment in the wake of his words, and so the Hollow tightened his grip on his weapon.

'You would alienate yourself from Lucy if you killed him.' Before his eyes, the blade saw Gray's mouth move, struggling to form words that the spirit didn't bother to listen to. A tense quiet filled the space of the boat after that, the others all waiting with dread over Zangetsu's response. After what felt like eternity, the pressure finally lifted. The wizards all sighed with relief, only an instant before the zanpakuto slammed his right foot atop the chest of the ice mage, ripping all the air out from his lungs and violently shaking the boat.

"Wait!" The girl cried as she reached out, her body still trembling. However, to the unanimous surprise of the wizards, the horned beast slapped his open hand against his chest, directly above the hole between his pectorals.

"Zangetsu…!" He practically roared, leaning close to Gray's face. "…Hollow! …Not! …Demon!" His point was emphasized by moving his hand to point at the mutated captain. The eyes of Gray, Lucy, and the cat automatically followed his gesture, and all three of them blinked after a moment of blank staring. Irritated, the zanpakuto turned to look, before finding himself joining in their staring.

Bobo was gone.

'What the fuck?' The sheer shock and confusion separated the Hollow from his rage. 'Where'd he go?' As much as both halves of the blade desired the answer to that question, something stole their attention away from that intent. Perhaps due to Zangetsu's actions just a moment ago, or perhaps for unrelated reasons, a large wave was rising up, and heading straight towards them. The gravity of this was punctuated by Lucy and the cat wailing in terror whilst hugging each other, tears erupting from their eyes. Gray began desperately wiggling around, also screaming at the top of his lungs, while Natsu remained completely at the mercy of his motion sickness.

'Fucking useless dumbasses.' The Hollow sighed, the action manifesting physically as a heavy snort. Turning to the blonde, the blade reached out with his left hand and grabbed her by the back of her shirt. A low pound of sound not unlike the crack of thunder marked the use of Sonido, the speed technique taking Zangetsu and the pair in his hold directly to the sandy beach of the island they were in the direct line of. Lucy hadn't even gotten the chance to register the change in scenery by the time two more bursts brought Natsu's limp form to be lying next to her.

After depositing the dragon slayer onto the ground, the beast stood still for a moment, gazing out at nothing as though in the midst of contemplation. Just as the Celestial Spirit Mage blinked in dumbfounded realization, another dense punch of thunder signified the zanpakuto's disappearance once more.

"Wh-" The key-bearer was cut off by one final crack of sound. The horned monster stood on the beach once more, Gray being held in his grip by the ropes still tying his limbs together. Lifting the ice wizard, Zangetsu turned him slightly so that the dark-haired man could clearly see the glower in his empty eye sockets, before opening his fist and allowing the man to fall to the ground.

"Zangetsu!" At Lucy's call, the spirit calmly turned to face her. "What was that?!"

"…So…ni…do." He stated simply. Natsu sat up, seemingly already back up to full strength.

"Could you have used that this entire time?!" He demanded to know.

"…Yes."

"YOU'RE SAYING WE COULD'VE AVOIDED THE BOAT?!" He screamed, flames curling out from his lips in anger. "WHY DIDN'T YOU JUST DO THAT?!"

"…First…time…here." The fire died immediately, as even he found the clear logic of 'Zangetsu did not know how to get there' impossible to argue with.

"Fine." The dragon slayer accepted, before aggressively pointing at the zanpakuto. "But once we're back, I'm gonna make sure you study some maps so that I don't have to go on trains anymore!"

"Natsu! Zangetsu isn't a mode of transportation!" Lucy admonished.

"But then we save jewels on train tickets!" He countered. Nearly instantly, her face shifted to a look of overwhelming sweetness as she turned towards the horned beast. Before she could get a single word out, he already had lifted his left hand with his middle finger raised, his opinion on the matter indisputably clear. "Hey, it's hard to keep all my bills paid, you know!" She defended.

"Can you stop arguing about exploitation and untie me?!" Gray interrupted, wiggling along the ground indignantly.

"Why should we, when you've been trying to stop us this entire time?" The pink-haired man argued.

"We're already on the island, you idiot!" His rival reasoned. "There's no point in fighting it by now!"

"I dunno, sounds fishy." The cat stroked his chin in faux thought, to which the Ice Mage rolled his eyes in annoyance.

"It's gonna leave a bad taste in my mouth if Natsu ends up being able to go up to the second floor before I can. I'd rather join the quest that will get us both to be S-Class rather than sit on the sidelines and take the chance that he actually can do this quest on his own." He huffed. The dragon slayer and his feline companion adopted shark-like grins.

"Now that sounds like the truth." Natsu teased, kneeling by the other man to untie the ropes.

After they left the beach, it did not take long to scour through the forest to find what they assumed to be the village that put out the request. It was fortified by a large wooden wall, signs warding off intrusion abundant and obvious. The front gate even had a large wooden plank going across, boldly ordering for others to 'KEEP OUT'.

"How do we even get in to do the quest?" Gray grumbled, peering at the wall for any potential openings.

"Eh, let's just bust the door down." Natsu did not even attempt to consider an alternative, raising his fist as he went to step forward. Lucy slapped his shoulder immediately to stop him, before cupping her hands over her mouth.

"Excuse me?! We're wizards from Fairy Tail! Can we be let inside?!" She called as loudly as she could. After a few moments, in which Lucy had to once more slap Natsu from attempting to casually continue with his plan, a pair of silhouettes appeared at the top of the gate.

"Who goes there?!" One of them demanded.

"We're wizards from Fairy Tail!" She repeated herself. "We're here for the request you put out!"

"We haven't received word that-" The presumed guard was cut off by their companion bringing up an arm in front of their chest to get them to shuffle back half a step.

"You have a demon amongst you!" The other caught, a mild tremor to his voice. The Fairy Tail mages all grew anxious, their awareness of the nature of the curse plaguing the village rising to the forefront of their minds. There was no doubt that there would be added difficulties navigating the mission while Zangetsu was with them, considering the valid reason the villagers possessed to persecute those demonic in nature.

"What?! They-" The original guard stumbled over his words as he took a second look at their group. "They do! I don't care why you're here, as long as you're affiliated with that demon, you won't be allowed into our village!" He spat before both guards went back to their previous positions and disappeared from their sight.

"Dammit!" Natsu grit his teeth. "They didn't even give us a chance to explain that Zangetsu isn't a demon!"

"I don't think they'd believe us anyway, or possibly even care…" The Celestial Spirit Mage turned downtrodden. "How are we going to complete the quest now?" Gray joined them in discussing plans to convince the villagers to let them past the door, while the blade cast his gaze at the gate. Or more specifically, what lay beyond it.

'Reiatsu of those two guards are flanking the top corners of that gate, and what I'm figuring is everyone else is a ways away from the walls.' He mused, before he began walking towards the fortifications. The cat was the one to notice him, though it was far too late to do anything about it.

"Hey, what's Zangetsu doing?" He voiced, getting the three mages to snap to the zanpakuto, right as he brought his blade arm back and swung. The force of his strike blew the main gate apart, the wood instantly shattering into miniscule splinters which scattered in the air.

"ZANGETSU!" The key-bearer screamed, equal amounts of fury and fear in her tone. The mages ran up to the spirit as he stared at the black blade in his right hand, the inflexibility of his mask making it so that none of them could decipher the thoughts going through his mind.

'…Oi, what just happened there?' Confusion dressed the Hollow's tone, almost completely hiding the undercurrent of worry.

'…I don't know.' The Quincy sharing in his emotions did not soothe him in the slightest. Outwardly, the zanpakuto shook his head to clear away the thoughts before refocusing on the environment around him, and the chaos that resulted from his actions. The first things he caught was that the two guards from the top of the gate were directly in front of him, failing disastrously at piercing his Hierro with their spears. Peering past them, he saw the villagers falling over themselves with panic, screaming and crying, begging for them to be spared. Natsu rushed in from the right, righteous anger distorting his features as a blast of fire blew away the guards who had been blunting their weapons on his skin.

An annoyed snort left the spirit, the only precursor to him unleashing his reiatsu once more. Nothing was spared, though if one were to ask, the Hollow would admit that was in part due to him not possessing the necessary control to focus his reiatsu upon individuals. What he did have the control for was to not have it be particularly strong. The wizards with him, mostly due to being caught off guard, merely stumbled slightly. The villagers, far weaker and with children amongst their number, hardly needed more than a taste of his power to collapse and be brought to their knees. Casting his gaze and senses out, it did not appear that any were struggling to breathe, leading to the blade nodding in satisfaction. Flipping his blade so that it was in reverse grip, he brought the end of his hilt to Natsu's spine and gently pushed the other man forward, the best explanation he could give without struggling with words. Thankfully, the dragon slayer did indeed take the hint.

"Zangetsu's on our side, assholes!" He shouted immediately. "We're here to help you out, and he's here to lend an extra hand if we happen to need it! He's not even related to the curse you guys are dealing with, this is the first time he's even been to this island! He agreed to join this quest just like all of us did, so if you have a problem with him trying to help, then you might as well have a problem with all of us trying to help!"

"Aye!" The cat supported.

"A-Are…you all truly here t-to lift the curse?" A cloaked man with a staff on the ground next to him asked.

"We are!" Lucy affirmed.

"Th-then we…won't turn you down. I-if you c-could please, release us." The man begged. Natsu turned to the horned beast and nodded, who mutely ceased pressing his power onto the village. Once the force had lifted, the villagers began helping each other to their feet, whispering words of comfort to each other. The blade spotted flashes of abnormal colors, claws, and tails amidst the sea of cloaks. "Before any more can be said between us, there is something you must see. Everyone, take off your cloaks!" The man with the staff ordered, the others all following promptly. To the shock of the wizards, and the unsurprise of the zanpakuto, they were greeted by the sight of all the villagers being similarly mutated as Bobo.

"Holy shit, those are some serious sideburns!" Natsu amazed. He was immediately smacked in the back of the head by Lucy.

"…Every living being on this island, even the animals among us, have all been afflicted by this curse of ours." Who they assumed by now was the village leader gravely informed.

"I don't want to seem insulting," Gray tenderly began, "but are you certain this is a curse, and not some sort of disease?" The leader nodded.

"We have been examined by dozens of doctors, they all agree it is nothing they have ever witnessed before. But we know that it is a curse for we know its source: the Magic of the Moon." The wizards of Fairy Tail all closer to the crowd than the spirit was, none of them noticed the slight tilt of Zangetsu's head at the leader's words.

"The…Magic of the Moon?" Lucy breathed.

"Originally, it was this island's defining feature to draw in the moonlight, until the island itself glowed with the same beauty as the moon itself. But, many years back, the moon suddenly turned purple."

"Purple?" The cat voiced in disbelief.

"The moon's never been purple." Natsu immediately retorted, his obvious confusion shared by most of their group.

"That is what every outsider has stated, but you cannot argue with the facts. From anywhere on this island, the moon clearly appears purple, and when it comes out, we are all forced to undergo a transformation."

"Wait, guys, look! The moon is purple!" The cat pointed out, causing them to turn to the sky. The clouds parted, revealing a full moon in all its glory. To the surprise of the newcomers, its shade was indeed a sickening violet. Before any of them could comment, a gasp of pain came from the village leader.

"Witness, now!" He declared, his voice wracked with agony as he clutched at his chest. "The Curse the Moon has imposed upon us!" As though that was the marker for a dam breaking, the villagers erupted into shouts of pain, their bodies all morphing before the eyes of those who had come to save them. Lucy held her hands over her mouth in horror, Natsu and Gray each seething as they realized they could not do anything to stop the changes occurring in front of them. The zanpakuto, however, couldn't help but notice a certain fact about the energy signatures of the villagers while they transformed into demons.

"I apologize for scaring you all so, but we have no control over these changes. When the purple moon comes out, we take these forms." The village leader announced, horns now protruding from his forehead. "Do you understand why we call this a curse, now?" The wizards looked out at the crowd, seeing parents attempt to comfort their children in their new skin. "Once the morning comes, we return to our human forms, but…a little more of these demonic mutations remain every time we change back."

"Oh, no…" Tears beaded in the corners of Lucy's eyes.

"We have put out a law, for those who have been completely consumed by the curse, in body and in soul. To kill them all, for the safety of those who remain."

"But what if you can change back, even after you're completely transformed?!" Natsu roared.

"You think we find any pleasure in killing our neighbors, our parents, or our children?!" The village leader screamed back with equal intensity. "If we do not put them down, we open ourselves to the possibility of them killing us first! We attempted to first lock them away, but they just broke apart our prisons!" The dragon slayer shrank before the misery in the man's words. The man took out a photograph, as his own tears started crawling down his face. "I've had to put down my own son, when he was consumed by the curse!" The eyes of the wizards once more widened at finding the photograph depicted a man they had seen before.

"Bobo?" The Celestial Spirit Mage whispered under her breath.

"So that's how he disappeared…" Gray muttered. "He must've not been able to find peace…"

"Please, if you are all here to save our island from this despicable curse, I pray for your success." The village leader bowed. "If this goes on much longer, I fear we'll soon all become demons."

"We promise you, on our honor as Fairy Tail wizards, that we will save you from your curse!" Natsu declared fiercely.

"There is only one method that we have concluded which would dispel the curse." Natsu and Gray steeled themselves as they waited for the answer. "You must destroy the Moon!"

Their group had been escorted to a hut for them to stay in while they completed the mission, none of them missing that the hut was at the furthest edge of the village itself, and more of a shed than anything else. Or how the woman who had taken them there left in a rush as soon as they reached the door.

"Even after everything I said, they're still being assholes to Zangetsu." Natsu grumbled, sitting atop the basket found inside the shed. It was clearly a space used for storage, the walls covered in tools for harvesting crops and hunting for food. From his position sitting against one of the walls, Gray swiveled his head to respond. However, he paused as he spotted the spirit in question sitting against the wall next to the fire breather.

"They're being transformed against their will by something they have no control over." He instead chose to say. "You heard their story, too. It makes sense that they'd have a grudge against things that remind them of it." After he finished speaking, the Ice Mage stole a glance at the blade, breathing a sigh of relief when the horned beast displayed no reaction to his words.

"Doesn't mean I have to like it…" The pink-haired mage complained, crossing his arms over his chest. "By the way, how do they expect us to destroy the moon? Happy can't fly that high." The zanpakuto's head lifted at the latter sentence, tilting in wordless confusion.

"The problem is not my ability to fly to the moon, Natsu." The cat announced, bringing the blade to grunt softly in acknowledgement.

"But we have to!" He argued. "It would drag Fairy Tail's name through the mud if we failed to complete a quest!"

"It would drag Fairy Tail's name through the mud if we actually destroyed the moon!" Lucy shrieked, annoyed that she even had to explain such a thing to the man. "They said it themselves, that was the only thing the villagers could come up with as a solution! There has to be a better, more easily achievable method of fixing this." A small motion drew the key-bearer's eyes, a noise of surprise leaving her as she focused on it.

"Zangetsu? You had something to say?" She questioned, seeing him with his left hand raised slightly. The other three turned to the spirit, curious as to what his input was going to be.

"…Some…thing…off." He rasped, pausing to think for a moment before pointing at the blonde. "…Ex…plain…Magic." Already invested in what his point might be, she nodded.

"Magic is energy that-"

"That." He pointed at her more aggressively, which prompted both her and Gray to furrow their eyebrows in confusion before she caught on.

"Something about energy?" She asked. The blade nodded.

"…Theirs…weird." He stated. "…When…Moon…" He pointed upwards to ensure his words were being understood. "…That…not…change." Gray, surprisingly, was the one to piece it together first.

"You're saying that when the moon came out and caused them to change, their magical energy remained the same?" The horned beast nodded affirmatively.

"…Same…As…Son." He furthered.

"So their magical energy is just like Bobo's, despite that he fully succumbed to the curse and they haven't." Lucy mused. "That is weird. …Wait, how can you tell all of this?"

"…Can…sense…soul."

"Oh, is that part of your Magic?" She wondered. He stared at her…for an uncomfortably long time, before he finally silently nodded.

"Oi!" Natsu interrupted, a yawn in his voice. "We're getting into the territory of questions we can ask tomorrow, it's time for some shut-eye."

"Aye!" Happy agreed, flopping onto the floor, seemingly having no complaints with sleeping on bare mat. His companion joined him nigh-immediately.

"Yeah, I'm feeling real sleepy, too." The Ice Mage groaned as he, too, slumped over onto the floor. With their shelter being as small as it was, and the two wizards taking up the majority of that small space, Lucy chose to settle herself into a space she already knew she was comfortable with. It was a wordless interaction, of Zangetsu shifting his legs so that the blonde could slot herself in place with her back against his chest and his left arm loosely circling around her. Adjusting herself slightly, she leaned her head back against his left shoulder, her arms weaving around his forearm as she quickly slipped into dreamland.

The zanpakuto sat in silence for a long moment, attempting to join them in rest but finding himself incapable. Something had invaded his mind earlier, a particular thing that pervaded most all of his thoughts and refused to leave. A deep concern that caused a pit to form in the gut of both the Hollow and the Quincy, an icy dread stabbing into their consciousness. Once more bringing up the ebony sword that symbolized their very existence, Zangetsu stared intensely at the metal. After several moments, flickers of red-lined black energy danced along the edge, akin to embers. The embers soon died, before the beast allowed the blade to fall to his side. He then glanced around to the sleeping forms of those sharing the hut with him, confirming their states before tilting his head upwards slightly. Almost instantly, a furious red orb of reiatsu manifested in front of the points of his horns, the light disappearing just as quickly as the technique was canceled. Their head falling, Zangetsu couldn't help but worry over the revelation they just discovered.

'…Why is it so hard to call a Getsuga Tensho?' The Hollow's question, filled with anxiety and despair, echoed across their mindscape.

Chapter Text

Chapter Text

Zangetsu awoke due to the cavern shaking. Moderate tremors shook the floor, and in turn, vibrated through his body to force him into consciousness. His body reacted first, shifting into a hunched stance to acquire as much stability as possible with his blade held up and his claws at the ready. The second part of him to respond was his reiatsu sense, warning him that a geyser of energy was coming down close by from his left side. His eyes opened last, and it allowed him to catch Team Natsu each in their own states of half-conscious panic before him. Lucy was barely awake enough to do anything but hold her hands to her skirt to keep it from riding up as the tremors had her vibrating along the ground. Natsu was scrambling slightly, his body sufficiently trained that he was automatically doing something, but not enough to actually know what it was trying to do. Gray was attempting to stand, but his sneakers were doing him no favors in keeping him up, the man sliding to the floor just as he would get his feet under him.

The zanpakuto turned towards the geyser of energy, finding that the glacier Deliora's corpse was preserved in was being bombarded by a violet ray coming from the sky. It was easy to look at how the beam struck the ice and connect that was the source of its melting.

"It's coming from above!" Gray shouted. The only thing keeping the Hollow from shouting back 'No shit' was how much effort it would have taken to speak it. "We have to find some way back up!" He would have rolled his eyes if he could have. Peering out with his reiatsu sense, the ray seemed to originate from high in the sky…right at the top of the fog of reiatsu which hung over the entire island. Putting that to the side for now, the blade focused on the mass of reiatsu signatures above them. If he were to guess, they were likely at the top of the temple. They were all the same ones he had sensed earlier, the ones that had prompted him to drag Team Natsu here in the first place. His patience even thinner than usual, the Hollow lifted himself just above the ground with reiatsu so that he didn't have to deal with the shaking and grabbed Lucy by the ankle. She just barely started verbalizing her complaints when he tilted his head to the side and threw her over his shoulder. The blonde shrieked and kicked her legs while her hands tried desperately to cover her bottom, which was facing the direction of Natsu and Gray, not that either seemed to care. Carefully slipping his weapon into the sash keeping his tattered hakama around his waist, Zangetsu ignored the struggles of the Celestial Spirit Mage and encroached upon the Fire Dragon Slayer. He gripped the pink-haired man's scaled scarf and nodded appreciatively when Happy latched onto the back of his partner's vest. The horned beast turned to Gray and found the man crawling over on his hands and knees, seemingly having given up on trying to remain standing. They met each other's eyes, and the Hollow shifted so that his back was to the Ice-Make Mage. Seeing the permission for what it was, the raven-haired man crawled over and lunged upwards, his arms weaving around Zangetsu's shoulders and securing a tight grip.

With a burst of Sonido, they were back in the temple proper, specifically the room they had fallen from. Another took them outside the temple, and after checking to ensure the tremors did not carry over there, the spirit allowed his cargo to drop. Happy squealed and writhed as Natsu landed on his back, the cat kicking and clawing until the Dragon Slayer lifted his shoulder, which was enough for the blue ball of fur to shoot out from under him. Lucy instantly went to sitting with her legs under her and her hands protectively over her skirt, a heavy, blushing glare aimed at the other mages. Gray's legs trembled with lingering shakes as he finally managed to stand, and he instantly turned toward the temple, catching how the beam of light emanated from the center and looking for a way to reach it.

"Zangetsu, can you-" The beast's snarl stopped the mage mid-sentence, a clear warning that he was pushing his limits.

"…Your…fight." He explained. After a moment of shock, the shirtless man developed a determined expression, nodded, and began jogging toward the temple, beginning to scale the walls. Yelping at being left behind, Natsu quickly flipped to his feet and rushed after his rival, declaring that he was going to beat the ice mage to the top. Huffing, the zanpakuto took a step after, only for a hand to weave around his bicep. He turned and saw it was Lucy, who was looking at him with a concerned expression.

"Zangetsu, I know that we're the ones who asked you to join us, but can you please help us?" She begged. "Natsu won't admit it, and this is too personal for Gray to realize, but we're in over our heads here. I…I know you have problems with Gray, and that you probably don't care about anything that's going on, so can you do this for me, instead?" Her brown eyes stared into his black pits, and the Hollow found he couldn't tear himself away. He had made it clear that he was capable of defeating the mysterious Eight, but it seemed only Lucy caught onto the fact that he wasn't particularly eager to. His first instinct was to assume it was because they wouldn't be a fight, a needless waste of his time, but the excuse felt weak. Thus far, only rage and irritation had ever prompted him to attack, and he felt neither for any of the targets of the Quest. As of yet, he had hardly been more than a mode of transportation for Team Natsu, and even then only when the situation called for it. He had saved them from drowning in the boat, cursing them all whilst doing so. He had broken down the door to the village, because they couldn't be damned to. He had taken them to the temple, even, doubting they could find it themselves. He had been ready to attack the mages that had nearly found them, but it could hardly be said that they needed to convince him not to.

He just…couldn't bring himself to care, really. Not that any of the mages with him realized, but he could have up and left whenever he wanted. He was aware that the Quest they were on was not one they were allowed to do, so he could have snatched them all up and dumped them into the Guild Hall really whenever he felt like it. Somewhere deep inside the zanpakuto, they both felt that they should have already. But, even though it would be so easy, it was simply easier to just not bother. As he was already aware, all but one of the enemy mages Team Natsu could handle on their own. Sure, even if they all teamed up, he honestly doubted they would win against that exception, but the Fairy Tail mages were smart enough to run when they realized they were outmatched, right? …No, Natsu was probably dumb enough to think the three of them working together meant that they were as strong as a thirteen. As Lucy said, Gray was also too invested to do anything but fight until he was dead. Lucy would run, but only until she realized the other two wouldn't, then stay behind to try talking them out of it. A weak growl left the blade's throat.

"…One…fight." He would remove the Eight, but outside of that, they were to fend for themselves for the rest of the Quest. He just wanted to sleep. Lucy nodded gratefully, and then the two of them followed after the rival duo. Whether it was because Natsu held Gray back or because Gray wanted to confirm what was happening, they found the pair of mages hiding behind some stone watching a ritual taking place. A group of cloaked figures stood around a hole at the top of the temple, the beam of violet light coming down through it as they chanted. Clearly, they were the ones perpetuating the spell. Off to the side, were the group of mages Zangetsu sensed. The armored one with an obnoxious cape was the Five, the whispery tinge, like icy fog, of their reiatsu telling the blade that they used a similar, if not the same, magic as Gray. The two Threes were a man with incredibly thick eyebrows, who felt like a distorted mirror, and a woman in gothic clothes whose reiatsu seemed to want to reach out and grab things around her. The Two was a shirtless man with a dog-like face. His Magic did not seem refined enough to make any significant impact on his reiatsu, like an Academy student with a fledgling zanpakuto.

The Eight, was an old man wearing a tribal mask that covered the top half of his face. A mane of green fur covered the back of his head, and a brown cloak covered the majority of his body. He was floating in the air, crouched atop something hidden by the cloak, but Zangetsu could sense the Magic in whatever he was standing atop. The man smelled of women's perfume, which could've just been a preference of his, the Hollow didn't give a shit, but he felt was important when combined with the feel of the man's reiatsu. It was coating his skin, seeping into it like hourglass sand. It was far too similar to the fur coat of Renji's Hihio Zabimaru, or the tattered remnants covering Zangetsu's own body. Unless the man was some wasteful fool who flaunted being in a constantly transformed state, it was a cover. For his very own allies, surely, but why was the newest question.

"We need to stop this. They're going to free Deliora!" Gray hissed.

"You're still on that sculpture downstairs?" Natsu spat back, angry for some reason Zangetsu did not pay attention to. "That jackass just told his lackeys to kill the villagers!" When did that happen? Oh, it was likely while the zanpakuto was analyzing the Eight.

"We need to come up with a plan!" Lucy grabbed both of their shoulders before they could stand. "Thanks to Zangetsu, we know one of them is way too strong for us to beat, but we don't know which one that is! What if one of us accidentally goes for them and they kill us?!" Gray scowled, his face twisting with rage at being held back.

"If we don't attack them, then the villagers are going to die!" Natsu grit through his teeth.

"This is an S-Class Quest for a reason, guys! We can't just rush into this blindly!" She argued back.

The Hollow had a better plan.

A boom of Sonido, and he was in front of the Eight, his weapon drawn from his hip and swinging for the neck of the masked man. While he hadn't really been trying, having sensed the mage was nothing compared to him, it was still surprising for a crystal orb to fly out from the Eight's cloak and take the hit for him while he jumped back. While the Hollow couldn't make out much of his expression due to the mask, his lips were curled in agitation and mild panic.

"I thought you sent your rat out to deal with the intruders!" The masked man complained.

"I said I was going to deal with the intruders for Angelica!" The only woman of the enemy group shouted back as the rest of them burst into action. A host of ice birds formed in the air between the armored man and Zangetsu, all of them soaring for the horned beast and shattering upon his Hierro. He spared them and the crystalline tiger that followed them a single glance, then simply sent out a pulse of reiatsu to obliterate the constructs. He had seen ice that moved before through Toshiro's Hyorinmaru. The prodigy Captain's dragons were more fluid than the mere jungle creatures that crashed against him now, as well as more stable than Gray's static sculptures. Not even good enough to be called pathetic. Gray came at the armored man screaming with a hammer of ice held above his head, drawing his attention. Seeing as none of the others were unwisely seeking his notice, the blade remained focused on the masked man.

The Quincy wanted to know more about him. Learn what lay behind the masquerade. The Hollow didn't see the point. What was a façade to a spirit that surely knew neither identity? Their blade whipped through the air, cleaving apart the series of crystal balls that flew at them. They broke with laughable ease, not that it was unexpected. What was, however, was seeing the damage unwind before them. And 'unwind' was very much the most accurate term. To the Hollow's keen eyes, it was easy to catch how even the smallest shards flew back into place and how the cracks seemed to fold back into themselves rather than seal shut. Hm, curious.

The masked man made to comment, likely some monologue about the futility of breaking the orbs when he clearly could bring them back to before they were damaged. Only, when the Hollow lazily flicked out a Bala that completely disintegrated one of the orbs, the Eight's mouth merely hung open limply. So there was a limit.

A feminine scream took his attention. Snapping around, the zanpakuto saw Lucy clasped in the paws of a gigantic rat. The rat was flying. By using its tail as a propellor. The woman in gothic clothing was riding the rat. A crystal crashed against his head, taking advantage of the lull in attention, only for it to scatter into pieces harmlessly. After a moment to stare at just how ridiculously stupid the situation Lucy found herself in was, the spirit focused on the rat. Barely between the dog-faced man and the gothic girl in strength. Lucy was an even Three to the gothic girl, a match she was likely to acquire the upper hand in since her strength lied in her Celestial Spirits. Suitably content, Zangetsu allowed themself to shift back to the Eight.

'Isolate them.' The Quincy ordered.

'Why?' The Hollow resisted. The Eight clearly had good practice with their magic, quickly maneuvering the crystal balls so that they would shatter against his Hierro to reform around him. The intent clearly was to enclose the shards around the blade's body, whether to entrap or tear apart was unknown. Either way, it was as effective as shattering the orbs against their body was. Lazy, idle swings splintered orb after orb. There had been ten to start with, though after the Hollow discovered a simple Bala was sufficient to remove one completely, he saw no reason to bore himself further by annihilating any others.

'I do not believe this individual is truly working with the rest of the group.'

'And why the fuck should I care?'

'I doubt you will. This is entirely for my own sake.' The Hollow rolled his eyes. At least the Quincy wasn't going to lie to him.

'Alright, I take it you want 'em alone so that they'll be more willing to reveal themselves?'

'More so that I believe they would be significantly less cooperative if they were outed to the people they are masking themselves for.' The Hollow's outward response was an annoyed snort, which caused the Eight to straighten and tense.

'Fine, but I ain't taking part in this.'

'Then just repeat what I say.' The next Sonido performed was far faster than the one that had started the fight. Their opponent couldn't have possibly reacted to the white arm wrapping around their midsection, tucking them close as the beast brought them deep into the forest and far away from everyone else. The orbs they used as their primary attack were left far behind, though that truly was a mere coincidence. The zanpakuto relinquished their grip on the mage once they stopped, who collapsed to the ground, dizzy from the unexpected burst of ludicrous speed. Before they could recover, not that they could resist even at their best, a clawed hand gripped the mask on the Eight's face and roughly pulled it off their head. For a second, it revealed the face of a shocked man with short dark hair. However, with the glow of Magic leaving them, the Eight's form changed in front of the spirit.

It revealed a fair-skinned young woman, which made sense with the perfume in mind. She wore an odd kimono, missing the right sleeve and ending at her mid-thigh. It was colored white, with a yellow sash around her abdomen to keep it shut. She possessed dark hair that extended just beyond her shoulders, perfectly straight, and a black choker was around her neck. Her eyes were a dark brown, and currently wide with shock. Not bothering to wait, the Hollow repeated the words the Quincy told him as soon as he was given them.

"…Who…you?" The Hollow was regretting this already. Having to speak meant that this was going to be annoying, tedious, and demand far too much of his attention. Why couldn't Natsu have stolen some Quest about deciphering a book or something equally outside of his skillset? Lucy wouldn't have begged him to participate if combat weren't involved.

"You…could tell…?" The woman breathed in shock, looking up at the beast with horror all over her face. The horned beast was very tempted to crush the mask still in his grip but refrained for now.

"…Who…you?" He demanded again, stomping a foot down in front of her, missing one of her hands by an inch. It cracked the ground underneath, spreading out as it dented the dirt. Thankfully, it was sufficient for intimidation, the woman snapping up to sit on her haunches and holding her hands protectively against her chest.

"I-I'm just a spectator!" She cried instantly. "There was word of Lyon's goal to set Deliora free, so I pretended to be some old coot who knew a bit about Moon Drip to see what he'd do." The Hollow leveled the point of his blade at the bridge of her nose in obvious threat as he was fed words by his counterpart.

"…What…Moon…Drip?" With words such a scarce resource for the spirit, neither deemed it important to ask the woman for her name, so the one in control of the body decided she was to be called Sand. It was based off the feel of her Magic and stuck to their inane one-syllable restriction.

"I-it's how Lyon's group is melting the ice around Deliora." Her eyes were crossed as she remained unerringly focused on the point of their blade. "By using a Magic ritual to collect the Moon's magical energy, it can be condensed into a beam that can dissolve any other Magic. The more powerful the spell, the more moonlight is needed." At that provided information, both halves paused. It wasn't the direct information itself, that was something they had already strongly suspected. The magic lingering over the island like a fog, which seemed to funnel into the beam pouring down onto the glacier. The supposed magical energy of the moon, which oddly was not found anywhere outside the island. The next question posed was not one sourced from the Quincy.

"…How…long?" Sand blinked at the query, clear surprise coloring her features.

"It's been…three years, I think?" She muttered. This entire situation was lining up to finally make sense. This 'Lyon' person sought to free Deliora, and so brought it to the island to make use of the Moon Drip. Over the course of three years, the focused magic began to linger, continuously drawn over and over to the temple. The density of the magic causes the Moon to turn purple, at least to the eyes of the villagers who witnessed it through the veil. And, of course, being feeble villagers with little to no magical power, they possessed no resistance to the energy around them. Thus, the Demon Curse was produced. There was only one question left, though. Retracting their weapon, the spirit leaned close to Sand to inspect her closer. Of course, she naturally grew more tense and anxious from his focused analysis. The woman was stricken with fear as he grabbed her right arm to investigate for any signs of demonization. Her reiatsu, of course, displayed no signs of infection, though it might not appear as readily in larger pools. It could coalesce atop her skin before seeping in deeper, akin to a standard transformation.

'What if Sand is not infected? She possesses higher reiatsu, and the reasonable assumption is that she spends as much of her time as possible transformed.'

'You wanna leave her and nab Dog-face, then? He's the weakest of them all.'

'No, he confirmed earlier to the one with the distorted reiatsu that he was unaffected by the Moon Drip. If this group has been present from the start, and as close to the source as could be without showing signs of infection, then it's possible the length of exposure does not change anything.' Both were ignorant of the woman's reaction to their continued inspection as they continued their conversation. Her face was a mess of crimson as they sought to ensure there was no hint of demonization anywhere on her form. The only reason she lacked resistance was due to her awareness of the colossal gap in power between them.

'You think that the villagers were the only ones hit? Because they aren't wizards?'

'I do think that the villagers are the only ones affected, but I do not think innate power levels are a factor. My forming theory stems from the lack of distinction between Bobo's reiatsu and that of the villagers'. My question is thus: What if it is not the body that is infected, but-' The zanpakuto's attention was stolen by sensing Lucy's reiatsu plummet. They had been maintaining an idle lock on it, just for security, with the hope that it would be unneeded. Neither were happy to find that they would be putting it to use. A vicious snarl curling out from their throat, the blade abandoned the woman holding her arms over her most intimate places.

The straightest path took them quite literally through several trees, meager wood doing nothing but turning to splinters as they rocketed forth. In less than the blink of an eye, the spirit was on the other side of the island, at a beach. Without an ounce of hesitation, the being pinning Lucy to the ground was viciously sliced apart. The first swing removed both arms at the elbow, extending even to the creature's thighs entrapping Lucy's legs to relieve the being of all its extremities. The second split the torso in twain, a horizontal strike just beneath the ribs. The third and final took the cow-like creature's head, and the entire assault was done before anyone else present could register. Zangetsu went to kick the torso of the being away before it could land on the blonde but found the hunk of meat burst into magical light just as the hit connected. Lucy gasped, both in obvious shock and due to the cow creature's hands having been around her throat.

"Zan-" The mage coughed roughly, her voice slightly hoarse from the choking. "Zangetsu! How did you-" The enraged growl of the horned beast cut her off, as they leveled a glare at the gothic woman standing to the side with wide, horrified eyes. They stepped over Lucy's body, the girl having not yet moved from her position, to encroach upon the gothic woman. The rat from earlier jumped out from the trees to defend who they supposed was its master. In an instant, and with a single slash, the oversized rodent burst into blood from the vertical cut going through the center of its body. The gothic woman screamed and fell back onto her hands, desperately trying to crawl backward from the blade as they continued their march unimpeded.

"Zangetsu, No!" The Celestial Spirit Mage scrambled to get in front of the spirit, her hands coming up to press against their chest like her feeble strength could even slow them. They did stop, but only to turn their glare down upon her, something she seemed to be all too aware of. "We don't need to kill them! That Reitei guy is someone from Gray's childhood, they learned under the same mentor! They're only here because he wants to defeat Deliora, as a way of honoring their teacher's memory! They're not bad people!" Like they cared in the slightest. The black blade was leveled at the cowering woman, while the hollow gaze remained on Lucy's brown orbs.

"…Hurt! …You!" The Hollow seethed. "…She! …Dies!" At the declaration, their soon-to-be victim burst into sobs.

"S-She only fought me on Lyon's orders! She wouldn't have done that otherwise, I'm sure of it!" Bad choice.

"…Then…him…too!" Oddly, that seemed to mildly invigorate the gothic woman, who stiffened before acquiring a determined expression. Her left hand swung forward, palm out towards him.

"You can't be human!" She declared meaningfully. Lucy turned to glare at her over her shoulder.

"Don't make this worse on yourself! I'm barely getting him to listen as is!" She attempted to warn. However, Zangetsu already sensed reiatsu gathering in the woman's hand, in preparation for some magic spell. In a burst of Sonido, he was directly in front of the woman. The hand she had been charging with magic was not. Her resulting scream was significantly more agonized. "YOU IDIOT!" The sheer tension in the air incited Lucy to forfeit all sympathy, only stress in her voice. She sprinted over and wrapped her arms around Zangetsu's sword arm in some nonsensical attempt to stop them from moving it. "Zangetsu, please! She's-she's not a big deal! I just messed up and gave her an advantage! I was gonna handle it on my own before you came!"

"…Your…Ma…gic…weak." He protested.

"I had to use more magic to force-close Taurus' gate!" She explained desperately. "That's why he disappeared!" Taurus? Was that the name of the cow creature? That retroactively explained the reiatsu signature. But that 'Taurus' was stronger than either of them. He measured slightly below Natsu in strength, easily above Lucy. The gothic woman's reiatsu had been interwoven into his, the Quincy deduced that she likely possessed some sort of controlling magic, and that was why he was attacking Lucy. How would she win against someone who could turn her main means of attacking against her? The blade wrenched their arm out of her grip by turning around to face her. Glowering down at her, they hissed.

"…Prove." They demanded. Her eyes widened, which tested their patience. "…PROVE! " They howled. If she truly possessed a way to win this fight, the zanpakuto needed to see it. They needed to confirm it. Something absolute. Something certain. They would only leave her to it if they knew nothing could go wrong. The hole in their chest ached, and they furiously ignored it.

Trust was for fools who died unprepared for their enemies. Hope was for those who ignored what was in front of them in favor of misguided prayers. Faith was for spectators who watched a man die to a manifestation of nihilism. The only thing certain was strength.

In a mildly relieved panic, Lucy ran over to the water, pulling a golden key from her belt. If they could, Zangetsu would have narrowed their eyes. Did she have a spirit she felt could not be controlled? Was she so stupid to think willpower might overwhelm the magic? Did she think that key specifically might be immune to the girl's magic? Too much trust. Too much hope. Too much faith. The blonde touched the key to the water.

"Open, Gate of the Water Bearer: Aquarius!" She cast. A whirlpool manifested in the water, rising into the air. The blade watched and waited, an intense focus on the gothic girl as she cradled her bleeding stump to her chest. Until they were certain of Lucy's victory, they would track every breath. Out of the water, a mermaid appeared. Her tail was of blue scale, a golden belt around her waist with golden rings pierced into the sides of her tail. Her only piece of clothing was a blue bra lined with silver and a silver crown. Golden cuffs were around her biceps and wrists, and her blue hair reached past her waist. She carried a silver urn between her hands. Her reiatsu marked her as a firm six. And Zangetsu could not sense anything that would mark her as immune to being controlled. Her eyes opened, revealing them to be blue.

"What did I say about-" The woman's voice was filled with clear irritation, the zanpakuto suspected it was aimed entirely at her master. However, as she turned to face Lucy, she caught Zangetsu in her eyesight and instantly locked up. To their mild intrigue, the mermaid quickly moved in front of her master protectively, raising her urn over her shoulder and holding her position. "LUCY, GET BEHIND ME!" They could easily decipher her fear.

"Aquari-?!" Lucy seemed shocked by the spirit's protectiveness before she shook her head to collect herself. "Doesn't matter. Zangetsu wants me to prove that I can beat Sherry, so I need you to attack her!"

"Lucy, do you have any idea what the hell that thing is?!" The mermaid shouted back. "We're lucky it hasn't decided to kill us yet!" The Quincy recalled belatedly that the grandfather clock spirit recognized they were a Vasto Lorde instantly. It must be common knowledge amongst Celestial Spirits.

"I'm trying to convince him to not kill her!" The blonde argued back. "He thought I was in danger and almost attacked Taurus because she was making him attack me!"

"Attacked?! You moron, he nearly killed Taurus!" Aquarius' skin paled even as she spoke. "You didn't close his gate, that Hollow sliced him to pieces! It's only thanks to him being a Zodiac spirit that there's even a chance for recovery!" At the revelation, Lucy paled as well, her eyes widening.

Zangetsu did not currently have the patience for back and forth like this.

"…Prove." They reminded. Everyone present jumped at their voice, Aquarius looking as though the only reason she did not retreat back to the spirit world was out of concern for Lucy's livelihood. Similarly seeing that Aquarius was unwilling to act, Lucy gripped the mermaid's shoulder.

"Sherry can control any of my spirits, so my plan was going to be summoning Aquarius because her attacks have a huge range. Regardless of who she attacked, both Sherry and I were going to be swept up in it, but I would be the only one prepared for that. I was going to finish off Sherry before she could recover from Aquarius' wave." She called out. The girl likely reasoned that there was no point in hiding the gambit. The gothic girl's options were to either lose the battle by Lucy's hand or lose her head by theirs. Unfortunately for both, Lucy's plan was stupid and risky. Hoping that being prepared to be hit meant she could recover faster than her opponent and finish them before they could? Idiotic. Seeping with naïve faith. Not an ounce of certainty from her own strength.

Tightening their grip on their blade, the zanpakuto turned towards the woman sobbing over her missing hand. Seeing the action, Lucy pushed herself forward using her grip on her summons' shoulder, some desperate bid to be fast enough to interrupt them once more. She could never become fast enough.

She did not need to be, however. Not when a yellow bullet of magical energy shot into the ground right before their feet. Irritation reaching its peak, Zangetsu turned in the direction the bullet came from.

A woman in green was sauntering out from the tree line, her hips swaying with the confidence of one who thought there was no one who could challenge them. She wore a shoulderless dress whose skirt was just long enough to remain modest, and thigh-high navy blue stockings tucked inside white heeled sandals. The dress had sleeves, more like long gloves that connected right at her armpits, as well as four extensions protruding from her back which hung down to her knees. In her right hand was a large fan, longer than her forearm. From what they could sense, her magic, sparkly like dreamlike fantasy, channeled through it. Her light brown hair was mostly pulled into a short ponytail, and she wore simple glasses over her dark brown eyes. There was a necklace around her neck, a red gem hanging right above the crest of her cleavage, though neither of those was what the blade's attention locked onto.

Their gaze had focused on the green Fairy Tail symbol gleaming upon her right breast.

"Let's see here," the newcomer purred maliciously as she glanced at Lucy, "blonde Celestial Spirit Mage making up for her weak magic with obnoxiously fat tits, check." She then met the horned beast's gaze. "And a bull-horned demon in rags always holding a black blade because he's too busy sleeping to even find a sheathe, check. Seems I've found the stragglers. Time to take you back home to continue wasting space."

So she had chosen death.

Chapter Text

Annoyance couldn't begin to describe what Laxus was feeling right now. Furious wasn't wrong, but it didn't capture everything. Beleaguered, perhaps? Galuna Island was a Quest that had been collecting dust on the S-Class board for a reason, and it was not due to it being difficult. Any ship captain that would dare sail there needed to be bribed exorbitantly, and rarely were the seas kind on the journey there. The people of Galuna Island had also been a superstitious and paranoid lot, with no one doubting that their entire population being struck by a curse only exacerbated the issue. To even legitimately take the Quest was sure to be an exercise in frustration, the villagers likely to hound your every step. The blonde was half-sure the reason for its S-Class status was the villagers exaggerating how big the problem was.

That belief was only reinforced as he sat in the center of the village, waiting for Evergreen to come back with the bimbo spirit mage and the moocher. Uninterested in wasting any more of his time here than he had to, Laxus had already ordered the Thunder God Tribe to hunt down their targets and bring them to the village so they could get a head count and go home. Natsu was the easiest catch, them having found him in the village amongst some destroyed huts with two unconscious mages at his feet. The pink-haired idiot had been blindsided by Fried, being tied in ropes with the simple enchantment of 'These ropes will not burn in fire'. Gray had been found by Bickslow next, the Seith Mage having called dibs on checking the purple beam of light in the sky as soon as they arrived on the island. According to him, he had found Gray and some snooty ice mage fighting each other in an old temple, and the other ice mage had willfully let Bickslow knock out Gray and drag him off. The stripper was soon forced into a situation similar to Natsu, only his ropes instead being inscribed with 'These ropes will not freeze in ice'.

While it was never a question that Fried would be the first to complete any task Laxus asked of him, it was a certain surprise that Bickslow came back before Evergreen did. The Fairy Mage had high opinions of herself and positively hated to see herself shown up by anyone. She only begrudgingly accepted Fried's superiority, and not for any lack of trying to prove better.

"We can't let Lyon free Deliora! That monster will annihilate this village, this island!" Gray screamed, having not stopped wiggling in his restraints since he woke up.

Laxus turned the volume higher on his headphones. The 'Deliora' the Ice-Make Mage kept screaming about could suck an egg for all the blonde cared. This wasn't his Quest, this wasn't the Thunder God Tribe's Quest and this certainly wasn't supposed to be the Quest of some idiots who thought they could throw themselves at S-Class Quests and retroactively become S-Class mages. If they wanted to kill themselves trying to hit above their weight class, all the better. His Fairy Tail needed idiots as much as it needed weaklings. As the future Guild Master, he didn't need to waste his time keeping his guild members in line. He should be back in the Hall, planning out his Battle of Fairy Tail.

Instead, at the moment, he was sitting on a crate since these villagers had apparently not seen the merit in chairs with one ankle crossed over his opposite knee and an arm holding his head up while he rested his elbow on his leg. Fried and Bickslow stood at either of his sides, Fried as tall and attentive as ever while Bickslow allowed his entire upper torso to flop side to side because he found it funny. The latter honestly only got away with it because he so continuously proved his individual strength and pride for Fairy Tail. Natsu and Gray fumbled on the ground in front of him, the fire dragon slayer seemingly having made it a contest between himself and Gray over who could win while neither had limbs. Laxus truly did appreciate Natsu's constant drive, he just wished it wasn't heavily diminished by how utterly unintelligent the boy was. Put him in a fight, and Natsu could analyze with the best of them, studying his opponent and figuring out their fighting style. Put him in a cage, however, and he was likely to just bash against the walls until something broke. It also couldn't be ignored that his emotional intelligence was similarly amazing. The pink-haired idiot couldn't talk his way out of a paper bag, but his awareness of what others were feeling was pinpoint. Two out of three was better than what most of the guild could say.

They were sitting in the general vicinity of the wreckage brought about by Natsu's fight, the villagers grumblingly cleaning up the destruction. Their negative response was almost entirely because Laxus had firmly declared it was their problem to deal with, but he couldn't be damned about that. They should be grateful in the first place that a member of Fairy Tail fought off their enemies for them, sanctioned Quest or not. They should be happy that fixing up a few huts was all they needed to do.

Without warning, Natsu stiffened and sat up, his gaze focusing on a section of the wooden wall surrounding the village. His nostrils were flared. Frowning, Laxus sniffed the air himself, and instantly straightened his back as he stared at the same spot, his headphones sliding to sit around his neck. While neither Fried nor Bickslow could smell what they were, the two were familiar enough with the occurrence to also tense. The Ecriture Mage drew his sword, while the Seith Mage's dolls began to rotate in a slow vertical circle. The cocktail of womanly products Evergreen reeked of was mixed with the heavy scent of blood, and she-

The section of the wall he and Natsu had been staring at exploded. A body was the cause, rocketing through the air toward them. The villagers screamed and ran, all of the mages ignoring them as they watched the body touch the ground and tumble across it, no hint of struggle to be found as the body simply rag-dolled. It slid to a stop a few meters away from where the wizards were, and each of them felt a pit form in their guts. Evergreen was unconscious, missing her right hand from her thumb forward, and her right thigh possessing a large lump that Laxus' trained eyes told him was a broken bone that did not pierce the skin. Lacerations were found all across her body, mixed with bruises and welts. Her dress was as much a dark red as it was its original green, with all but one of her wings missing and several rips and tears turning it into rags that barely kept her modest. Most of her glasses were nowhere to be found, though there was one sickening shard of a lens stuck in the side of her nose.

The scent of death encroached, and Laxus did not miss how Natsu seemed far more uncertain and anxious. A silhouette appeared in the dust cloud from the wall, and a form silently stepped out. It was the moocher, the blonde recognized. He understood instantly why Natsu seemed so uncomfortable if that was what Zangetsu smelled like. The demon's blade, unerringly clutched in his right hand, dripped with fresh blood. He was hunched forward like a predator on a hunt, stalking with purpose in his steps. Considering the blonde could see Evergreen's chest faintly rising and falling, he felt he could figure out what that purpose was.

Experience and practice had Fried and Bickslow exchange a silent glance, the Seith Mage carefully stepping forward with his dolls angrily floating in the air. Both the dolls and the sword-wielding mage kept an eye on the demon as the blue-haired man gently slid his arms underneath the woman and lifted her with equal care. He retreat slowly until he was behind Laxus, then he turned and ran towards the villagers, his dolls staying behind. Zangetsu stopped and kept the empty hollows of his eyes on the group.

Another silhouette appeared in the dust cloud, quickly revealed to be the blonde girl that had just joined Team Natsu, with another girl hanging off her. The second girl was whimpering to herself and held her left wrist to her chest protectively. The wrist did not have a hand at the end of it, rather tied fabric soaked red with blood. Three guesses how that happened, Laxus snarked in his head. The Celestial Spirit Mage looked up wearily, and her eyes instantly widened at seeing the group.

"N-N-Natsu?" She called across the space, staying behind Zangetsu.

"Looks like Laxus and the Thunder God Tribe were the ones sent to bring us back to the Guild." The dragon slayer gave out a weak smile. "Unlike Erza, I don't think there's a chance of us talking them down." The horned beast silently turned to look over at the girl behind him, piquing Laxus' interest. There was an unspoken question in that look.

"Y-you're saying they're just going to stop us right now?!" She shrieked. "But the villagers are in more danger than ever before! The guys behind this are actively targeting them now! If we leave, they'll all be killed!"

"That's what I've been trying to tell them!" Natsu's face curled into a snarl. "But Fried and Bickslow keep blowing me off and Laxus was just listening to music until just now!" The girl's brown eyes widened with horror and she flinched back, inciting a groan from the girl hanging on her. Those same brown orbs flicked to the demon standing just before her. His own gray eyes narrowed. What was she-

"I refuse to leave these people to die!" She shouted. "Zangetsu, can you please stop them?" The demon returned his gaze to them as he tightened his grip on his sword, bringing both Laxus and Fried to tense. The blonde stood as his green-haired companion's magic flared.

An unnatural boom of sound filled the air, and the beast was in front of Laxus, his blade swinging forward horizontally. To his dread, the blonde almost wasn't fast enough to dodge. Even worse, the air pressure from the strike still hit him, and it flung him back. Fried roared as he stepped in with his own strike, and both experienced mages widened their eyes when a simple backhand broke his rapier. Laxus only saw the demon's right leg blur, before Fried distorted into one himself, crashing through another of the village's huts.

"…Weak." It declared to the open air, before narrowing its attention onto the youngest of the Dreyar line. A beam of magical energy struck the side of its head. While it turned in irritation to discover the source was Bickslow's dolls, the S-Class mage couldn't help but wince at the sheer nothing the direct attack accomplished.

And Gramps was worried about this thing being hurt?! Another burst of sound, and Zangetsu disappeared once more. Snapping his gaze around, he confirmed that two of the dolls were sliced in half from one slash, with the demon turning his wrist to swing at another while the remaining ones flitted about in fear. Taking the opening for what it was, Laxus swiftly threw off his coat and headphones, his own magical energy flooding his body. Lightning coursing over his skin, the next Guild Master of the Strongest Guild in Fiore howled in challenge.

The demon met his gaze and instantly shifted to face the Lightning Dragon Slayer. Something within the empty pits staring into him seemed utterly furious, and the monster responded in kind.

Its jaw opened wide as it stomped forward, cratering the ground with a single step as more magical energy than Laxus had ever felt in his life erupted from the demon. Its responsive roar to his challenge was overwhelming, grating and deep and seeming to strike him with physical force. This was separate from the crushing weight that slammed into his shoulders, visibly bringing the very air to tremble. The wooden walls surrounding the village splintered and ruptured all around them, several structures the villagers had put together collapsed in on themselves, the only one beyond Zangetsu himself who could remain standing was Laxus, and even that was no easy task. The beast physically glowed with energy, a wrathful crimson so powerful it extended past his form and burned the ground around him black. Before his eyes, Laxus saw that the dolls that could not escape the beast's immediate vicinity crumbled, leaving only one left just barely outside of the radius of the hateful aura. Past the walls of the village, the trees all leaned away, pushed outward by the power on display.

Some sort of gravity-related magic? No, that was just raw magical energy. Laxus winced as the demon allowed his roar to end. Shaking away the feeling, lightning coursed through his body. This time, it did not stop at his skin as he transitioned into becoming lightning, flying through the air at Zangetsu. The monster punched at him with its free hand, a small disk of energy flying out from it faster than even Evergreen's Leprechaun. It thankfully passed through his lightning form harmlessly, as he was not quick enough to evade it even in his current state. He changed back when he was right in front of the demon, his right hand pulled back and crackling with magic.

"Lightning Dragon's Breakdown Fist!" He shouted, lightning engulfing his arm as he punched forth. Zangetsu snapped up his left hand, palm out to catch the fist and stopping it dead in its tracks. The built-up force of the attack still washed over him, a torrent of magical lightning battering at the monster, revealing it did nothing more than singe the cloth determinedly covering his right shoulder. Reacting on instinct, he shifted back into lightning at his fastest, a black blur of a blade swiping through the space his heart had just been in. Before the demon could finish his swing, Laxus was behind him, another Breakdown Fist coming for him.

It was only a wall of violet letters appearing without warning between Laxus and Zangetsu that kept the dragon slayer safe from the slash he had not seen coming. An enraged hiss left the demon's throat, while a relieved sigh left the blonde's. Neither lasted long, as the orange-haired beast raised his left fist, red energy glowing over his knuckles, and crashed it against the wall. Laxus had never seen Fried's Scripture tremble before, and it incited a hungry growl to leave the heartless monster. It reared back for another strike, and Laxus bolted out of the way. The Ecriture Mage gasped in shock as the wall shattered, but the lightning mage did not have the time to spare to pay attention to that. He did not dare look back, but he knew Zangetsu would be right behind him. He heard a burst of sound again and the sword beast was in front of his lightning form. He turned at a ninety-degree angle, the demon uselessly attempting to grab onto him while he was in his lightning state. A deep crash echoed behind him, followed by an angered howl. The dragon slayer looked back to see Zangetsu inside a box of Enchantments and already bringing his arm up to break through them. Laxus changed back and charged up his own attack, a spear of lightning forming in his hands. He would need to watch his timing on this, he couldn't let Zangetsu have enough time to dodge after breaking himself out. The two attacks needed to be all but simultaneous. He watched the demon throw his fist forward, and so he unleashed his strike.

"Lightning Dragon's Heavenward Halberd!" The spear of lightning struck true, passing through the space the Enchantment had been in just as it broke under the demon's power. It erupted over him, though the dragon slayer took no chances after witnessing his durability. He lifted an arm up, a magic circle appearing above where Zangetsu stood. "Resounding through the air, the roar of thunder, plunge from the heavens and reap destruction! Lightning Dragon's Raging Bolt!" A pillar of lightning fell upon the demon, but still, Laxus charged up his magic for another spell. This time, however, he held it. Heavenward Halberd and Raging Bolt were two of his strongest spells.

The beast stepped out from the smoke produced from the attacks, and Laxus felt his heart sink. The only difference was that the scrap of cloth over Zangetsu's right shoulder now only covered the shoulder, rather than extending to just above the elbow. Gritting his teeth, the blonde opened his mouth as he leaned forward.

"Lightning Dragon's Roar!" He unleashed, a torrent of lightning eclipsing the demon's form. While still firing the attack, he saw Fried dart close in his Darkness form, his transformed hands filled with dark energy.

"Darkness Breath!" The man cast as he joined in bombarding their opponent with magic. With such an intense onslaught upon Zangetsu, Laxus almost failed to sense the concentration of energy.

"DODGE!" He screamed as he canceled his attack to lunge to the left. Fried immediately did as told, jumping to the right. Thankfully, both managed to get out of the way of the beam of crimson energy that eclipsed both his own and Fried's combined. It carved a deep trench in the ground, deeper than the village's walls stood tall and wider than the largest hut in the village. The beast seemingly did them the mercy of stopping the attack rather than turning even slightly to take out one of his two opponents.

"…Weak." The Lightning Dragon Slayer heard it rasp. "…Slow…An…noy…ing." He and Fried kept their gazes on the sword beast, and they watched as it leveled a glare at…just over Fried's shoulder? Furthering their confusion, they watched its white skin slightly darken to a shade of light grey as it ceased moving entirely.

"I've got him with my Figure Eyes!" Bickslow's voice called as he stepped up from behind them, inciting both to breathe a sigh of relief. Even Laxus would have been helpless if caught by Bickslow's eyes. "He's under my control now!" The blonde and the verdet both allowed their magic to calm, the Ecriture Mage leaving his Darkness form as lightning stopped dancing atop the dragon slayer's skin. They both turned to the Seith Mage, who was lightly patting his chest like he was trying to calm his heart. "Man, that had me for a good minute. Still kinda does. We should really get going, by the way, I don't think the Docs in this place are good enough to fix up Ever."

"Yeah." The blonde nodded. The idiots didn't even have chairs, he doubted they would have the medical supplies to fix her leg. "By the way, I don't think any of your 'babies' made it, Bick. Zangetsu seemed pretty annoyed by them."

"What?! Did he get-" Without any warning, the demon exploded with rage, a geyser of crimson energy bursting out from him. The ocean of pressure from when Zangetsu responded to his challenge returned, only twice as densely powerful and sending even the dragon slayer crashing to his knees. Laxus witnessed only a glimpse of seething yellow eyes deep inside black pits before the monster disappeared in another boom of sound.

"…YOU! …NOT! …KING!" The only reason Bickslow did not die right then and there was a combination of him pitching back to dodge while instinctively using his magic to manipulate Zangetsu's body as much as he could. Instead, the nightmare's black blade only sliced through the bridge of his nose and both of his eyes. Laxus was certain the man's screams would haunt his nightmares for years to come. The flesh of both the dragon slayer and the Ecriture Mage paled in time with Zangetsu's, as they each scrambled to rescue their friend. With his moment of control having swiftly been over, they were certain the demon's retaliation would be horrific.

None of them seemed to be prepared for Lucy lunging from out of nowhere to wrap herself around the creature's head, herself only just barely managing to not be impaled. Her legs swung around to lock her ankles behind his back, her thighs directly underneath his armpits, and her arms wove around the top of his head, pressing his face into her chest. Due to the completely unexpected action, the demon stumbled back several steps, arms flailing slightly as its balance was disturbed. It screamed with limitless rage into her shirt, but to the immense shock of both Laxus and Fried, did not make to do anything else against her.

"ZANGETSU, STOP!" She screamed back at its bellowing. Having regained its footing, the chain hanging from the hilt of its sword rattled as its body shook, the monster screeching in hatred once more. "You-" she gasped as she fought to think of something to convince him. "You said he's not 'King', right?!" The responsive snarl was blood-chillingly low, the topic clearly something closer to a nuclear bomb rather than a simple landmine. "He-he didn't know! He was just trying to get you to stop, he wasn't trying to seriously control you! Right?!" Her voice was shrill as she begged for support. Fried handled Bickslow's injuries as Laxus stood protectively in front of the two.

"Gramps told us to bring all of you back to the guild as fast as we could." He announced, his voice tense. "We only fought back because you attacked first." The Celestial Spirit Mage stiffened anxiously, and her jaw wavered with nervousness. Zangetsu tightened his grip on his sword, having just begun to loosen his hold.

"…Bitch…hit…first." He hissed. The grey-eyed man tilted his head, but Lucy quickly filled them in.

"E-Evergreen didn't try to talk us into it, she just insulted us and threatened us to come with her or she'd attack." The dragon slayer clicked his tongue. I thought she knew better than to threaten people before checking how much magic they had.

"She pushed you, you pushed back. I get it." Honestly, Laxus had no personal issues with the members of his guild proving their strength to each other. It was well and truly part of Fairy Tail's charm that it was a nigh-unending guild brawl. To his relief, the sword beast loosened his grip, seemingly grateful that the two were of the same mind on that matter. "As for just now, everyone's got something they can't stand. I hate Fairy Tail's reputation being tarnished. I take it you hate being controlled?" He wasn't prepared for the demon to visibly sag, its shoulders falling as its horns tilted down slightly.

"…On…ly…King." It practically whispered. Thankfully, Laxus' dragon slayer magic slightly strengthened his hearing. "…No…one…but…King." That…Laxus could sort of understand. A special right reserved for only one person, it had nothing to do with being controlled and everything to do with who was the one doing it.

"Then we won't do it again." The fight they just had was enough. He may not yet have a guild mark, but Zangetsu was bound to be convinced sooner or later, and he had already earned his place in Laxus' Fairy Tail. "Gramps still wants us to bring you back to Fairy Tail as fast as we can, and we now have two members in critical condition." He stated meaningfully.

Since the demon no longer seemed ready to decapitate at least one person, Lucy unlatched herself from his body and stood next to him, her eyes stuck on him. For good reason, Laxus agreed. The beast looked back at her, once more in silent question. This one, however, he could decipher:

What do you want to do?

"I can't in good conscience leave knowing the villagers would only be in danger." She stated. In response, Zangetsu just…stared off into the distance. For several seconds. "He…does that sometimes." The blonde girl nervously explained, rubbing the toe of her shoe into the dirt.

"…Two…for…one." He rasped before he once again disappeared in a burst of sound. With him being gone, Laxus decided to go for the prudent question.

"What the hell is that magic?" He demanded.

"We, uh, don't know." Was the Celestial Spirit Mage's lame answer. "That sound-teleport-thing is something he called 'Sonido', he can fly, he can do that weird pressure thing, and he can apparently sense souls. Until now, he didn't really do more than knock Natsu and Gray out in the Guild, so seeing that magic beam was new for me, too."

"Sense souls? Like Bickslow's Seith Magic?"

"I know a bit about Seith Magic, it's definitely different." She shook her head. "He was able to sense the guys behind this from the other side of the island, and could not only tell how many of them there were, but how strong they each were. He's like a magic bloodhound." That was a ridiculously useful ability.

He was going to inquire about why the demon smelled of death when the crimson beam from earlier overtook the purple ray on the other side of the island. Everyone except the finally unconscious Bickslow stared in awe and slight fear as the beam was visibly wider than the purple ray. That feeling was amplified when the beam continued up until it shattered the sky. Before anyone could begin commenting on it, Zangetsu returned in another burst of the so-called 'Sonido'. He stood in front of Gray, still in Fried's ropes on the ground.

"…De…mon…Dead." He huffed. Gray was only able to widen his eyes, the sword beast turning towards Laxus, Fried, and Lucy. "…Who…smart…est?" He demanded as he stepped toward them. Exchanging a glance, Laxus nudged his head for Fried to step up, who, while uncomfortable with the prospect, did not stall in going over. "…Talk…hard…so…help." The verdet blinked at the command but numbly kept a step behind Zangetsu as he went to stand in front of the villagers.

"I…I don't understand." The village leader was visibly confused. "You destroyed the moon, but you also didn't? And we're still affected by the curse?"

"…Curse…not…trans…form." The villagers instantly began to cry out their complaints, but after his previous displays, Zangetsu needed only to snarl lightly for all of them to snap their jaws shut. "…Ex…plain…Curse." The horned beast ordered the village leader before he grabbed Fried's arm and pulled him up. He pointed with his sword at the leader. "…Lis…ten." Nervously, the verdet took in the man's explanation for the struggle the villagers had been going through. Once he was done, both men shifted back to the heartless monster. His sword was slipped into the sash around his waist so he could gesture with both of his arms, and everyone relaxed slightly at the action.

"…Curse…not…bo…dy." He stated slowly, his hands pressing against his chest. "…Curse…head." He shifted his hands to point at his brain. The Ecriture Mage tilted his own head.

"The Demon Curse does not affect their bodies, but instead changes their minds? But it was just explained to me that they all transform when under the moonlight." The collective intrigue of everyone in hearing distance was centered on the two. Zangetsu took a calming breath, clearly hating having to force his voice so much.

"…Them…not…done." He waved out at the villagers. "…Son…done."

"These villagers…have not completely succumbed to the curse, and you encountered someone's son, who had been consumed by it?" He voiced as a question. The white-skinned creature nodded.

"…Feel…same." The man's blue eyes widened as he started to understand it himself.

"If these villagers were being consumed by a curse that gradually transformed them into demons, their magic would not feel the same as someone who had completely turned, some of their humanity able to be felt within their magic." Zangetsu threw his arms up in gratefulness.

"…Curse…head." He pointed once again to his brain. "…Back…wards." Somehow, Fried completely comprehended the three words.

"The villagers have it backward!" He breathed. "They aren't humans undergoing a curse that transforms them into demons, they are demons with a curse that makes them believe they're human!" The villagers once more cried out their shock, which was furthered by a new demon flying out from the tree line. The village leader proclaimed that the newcomer was his son. It looked like Lucy well and truly wanted to appreciate the reunion, as well as process the revelation. That was unfortunately interrupted by Zangetsu stepping up, wrapping an arm around Fried's waist (which oddly produced a heavy blush on his face), and disappearing in another burst of Sonido. Laxus, Lucy, and the still-tied Natsu and Gray all blinked. The fire dragon slayer's eyes gleamed.

"Wait, did he just-" A boom indicated the beast reappearing, empty-handed, between Natsu and Gray. He grabbed onto the ropes still tying the two rivals, and they were once more gone in a pound of noise. Lucy was the next to seemingly understand whatever was happening.

"HE CAN GO THAT-?!" A pair of booms was both the warning that Zangetsu was between them as well as their only signal before everything blurred. Unprepared for being moved at incomprehensible speeds, Laxus fell to his hands and knees on wooden board.

…Wooden board?

Looking up, the lightning dragon slayer's jaw dropped as he saw they were inside the Fairy Tail Guild Hall.

"HE CAN!" Lucy screamed indignantly once she collected herself next to him. "I'M NEVER BUYING A TRAIN TICKET FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE!"

…Yeah, Zangetsu was going to join Fairy Tail. He wasn't going to let someone who saved him from his motion sickness slip by.

"Lucy?!" Mirajane startled. "Laxus?! How is everyone-" Another Sonido filled the air followed swiftly by the heavy thump of a body dropping onto a table. Glancing up as the demon vanished for presumably one more trip, he saw Bickslow's body on a nearby table. It, thankfully, appeared to have previously been unoccupied. What he suspected was the last boom for a while sounded, and Evergreen's body was uncaringly thrown onto the table next to Bickslow's. The Fairy Mage gasped in pain, but the blonde figured that was likely the most politely Zangetsu could have gotten himself to handle her. "Can someone explain what's going on, please?!" Laxus sighed and climbed to his feet.

"Get me a drink and medical attention for those two, and I'll give you the full report."

"Zangetsu! You're okay!" Levy squealed as she ran over to the being in question, hugging him around the stomach. "Bickslow and Evergreen look like they're barely breathing, that Quest must've been dangerous! I'm so happy you're unhurt!" She innocently awed.

"Make that two drinks." He instantly amended. Gratefully, he saw that Mirajane's eyes were wide, and firmly on the blood that dripped from the edge of the horned beast's blade.

"…The Quest wasn't dangerous at all, was it…" She breathed.

"If he's not a member of Fairy Tail by the time the day is over, I'm going to fill out his application for him."

"Hey, where's Happy?" Natsu's voice echoed through the hall. After a moment's pause, yet another boom of Sonido followed.

"…You know what? Let's just get you a pitcher." Yes, he was very much grateful for the white-haired bartender.

Chapter Text

Zangetsu couldn't help but stare at the back of their right hand. It invoked odd feelings in the zanpakuto, seeing the brand new mark upon their skin. The brand of Fairy Tail, positioned so that the top pointed to their wrist and bottom towards their knuckles. Magic laid it into their flesh, simple and inoffensive. A basic measure so that no guild would have to deal with the annoyance of a member re-applying the marker after every shower they took. It melded so finely that the Quincy could not sense any Magic from it, neither from the mark nor the stamp used to impart it upon them.

It hadn't taken any convincing to have them join Fairy Tail. Both halves of the spirit would readily acknowledge that they likely would have joined the first time anyone asked. Lucy had explained to them this was an occupational deal, no different than working at a company. With it clear that there were neither expectations of staying nor consequences to leaving, Zangetsu didn't see a reason to fight them if they were spending time in the guild anyway. Laxus had made a big showing of how he had filled out their application for them, and his readiness to grab one of their hands to sign for them if they made a fuss. He certainly had been shocked when the Hollow silently held out his right hand. He had collected himself quickly, though, fitting a pen into his grip and writing their name as finely as one could while gripping someone else's hand. Once that was complete, Mirajane had happily appeared with a stamp in hand, asked him where he wanted it, and placed it upon the offered hand.

While everyone gathered for a celebration of a new member joining, sure to be filled with copious amounts of alcohol and fighting, Zangetsu sat on a bench. They were hunched over, both hands in their lap, though notably with their right at the top. Their blade was leaning against the bench they sat at, in easy reach. At this moment, the zanpakuto did not have any particular attachment to the mark. The symbol was nothing more than one shared between those who cared for the spirit. The placement was but convenience. The bartender asked just after they had finished signing their name, and they saw no reason to retract the limb. Their current contemplation had nothing to do with any of those things.

It had everything to do with that the mark was orange.

The scent of strawberries was the first thing to greet him when he awoke. Strawberries and metal. The Hollow was still curled around Levy, the girl sitting between his legs with his arms loosely around her and his head carefully sitting on her shoulder. For a moment, the Hollow wondered why he was awake, then another moment was spent acknowledging that only he was awake. The Quincy remained slumbering. He was drawn from the revelation by the hand petting his cheek, the hand that had woken him in the first place. It was Levy's hand, and a redhead wearing armor stood in front of their shared table. Lucy was also sat, across from the bluenette. And the two fools who fawned over Levy, but the Hollow didn't bother with acknowledging their existence. He liked the feel of Levy petting his cheek, but he was also aware that she had started to wake him. Not wanting her to stop, he grunted to announce his wakefulness.

"Morning, sleepyhead." The girl chirped, all smiles. She went to lower her hand, but one of his instantly wrapped around hers and held it up. Giggling, she continued stroking his cheek, bringing him to return his hand to circling her. A contented purr rumbled his chest. Another giggle, this time echoed by Lucy, met his purr. "Someone wanted to talk to you." He paused in his purring to put forward an acknowledging grunt.

The redhead in armor took a step closer. She held something behind her. She cleared her throat, as though his attention was not already on her.

"Hello, Zangetsu. This is not the first time we've interacted, but Lucy has explained matters to me. I am Erza Scarlet." Right, Team Natsu had acted as though something was wrong because he did not recognize her during the island mission. Erza took a step back and bowed at the waist before him. "I wish to offer you a warm welcome as a new member of Fairy Tail, as well as offer you my gratitude. I was away on a Quest when Master ordered Laxus to return you to the guild, and it has come to my attention that you are the reason my friends returned home safely. …In most cases, at least…" She muttered awkwardly. "Regardless, I know through Lucy that you were a major component in the Quest being completed successfully. As such, I ask that you accept my gratefulness in the form of a gift." The Hollow grunted at the small speech. He didn't really care about gifts. He was provided free food by Mira, comfortable places to sleep by Lucy and Levy, and the guild generally provided him the freedom to leisure around. He might accept it if only to get her off his back, but he doubted it would be anything he-

"Because of my Magic, I use a wide variety of weapons, but that does not mean I neglect any in their maintenance. Neither does it mean I cannot understand the affection one might hold for their chosen weapon. If you would accept it, I offer you a gift in the form of a sheathe to protect your blade." Erza announced while holding out a long black scabbard. A single look was all that was necessary to know it was fitted for his sword. There was no suspicion as to how. He would sense if it was moved further from him and he often had it laid upon the table while he rested, for anyone to measure it properly.

It was an incredible gesture, and he instantly understood it was a true expression of gratefulness. But there was something she could not understand, and not for lack of trying. There was no doubt in his mind that no other zanpakuto could find offense in such a gift, just as all would make the same decision as he. He couldn't be angry at this. Nor hurt. He…

There was no pretending otherwise, he was incomplete. This woman, an obvious experienced swordswoman, understood what the missing piece was. She could not be faulted for trying, nor for not knowing such efforts were fruitless. There was too much meaning behind it for his struggle with words to explain, but it would be a greater insult to not do the best he could. He unwrapped himself from Levy and stood, aware that everyone seated at the table watched his every movement. From the tensing of their bodies, they expected no polite response.

He could imagine their shock- and relief- when he placed his right hand upon her left shoulder and gently pushed her up to a stand. She met the chasms of his eyes when her body was fully straight, the gift still held in front of her. He did not want her to take this wrongly, so he brought his other hand up as well to ensure she could perceive his intention.

"…Sheathe…spe…cial." He formed carefully. "…Cannot…be…gift." The words left him somberly, as he did what he could to impart the message.

He would accept if he could, but he could not.

He could not have been happier to hear her hum of comprehension.

"I believe I understand. Your sheathe cannot be provided to you, it must be of your own making." Glee filled him. So she did understand. "May I ask why?"

"…Must…be…same…as…sword." He breathed slowly. The swordwoman's eyes closed and she nodded politely.

"I see. Then I will come up with another gift for you." She declared. "Do not tell me what you would like, it would not portray my gratitude for you keeping my friends safe if I did not take the time to figure it out myself." If it was anything like this, he would honestly look forward to it.

Levy's hand was stroking their cheek once more, gently pulling them from their slumber. Zangetsu hissed. They were still tired, they needed more sleep. Cracking one eye open, they saw no food or drink on the table. Glancing up and out, it was still mid-afternoon, too early for Levy or Lucy to return home. Snarling, the Hollow hugged the small girl closer to their chest, drawing her warmth into their body. They were much too tired, much too cold. Something was wrong, and the Quincy was useless in fixing it. Damn remnant didn't have the survival traits they needed. Couldn't do anything but move reishi around, worthless for recovery. One of many reasons why the Quincy let the Hollow maintain control, no doubt. The Hollow could consume, could regenerate. He was more instinctive, could more accurately decipher what was wrong.

He knew what was wrong. They both did. Just as they both acted like they didn't. In the face of that, the Hollow could only do the best he could; Preserve. If there was no food to help with that, and if there was no need to move, then they needed to stop interrupting their sleep. Levy's hand switched to patting his cheek. He growled in warning, ignoring that she knew by now he wouldn't actually do anything to her.

"I know you want to keep sleeping, Zangetsu, but Gray wants to say something to you." Gray could chuck himself into a volcano for all the Hollow cared. Piece of shit kept antagonizing him, Lucy and the Quincy wouldn't let him kill the stripper, and now he was interrupting their attempts to recover from saving his life. Why wasn't Natsu getting into another fistfight with the ice mage and taking him away? The blade actually searched for the dragon slayer. He was sitting with Lucy and Erza- Zangetsu actually was trying to commit her name to memory now- with the most positively stupid look on his face. Great. He inclined his head to show that he was, unfortunately, paying attention. The guild was getting better at reading his body language, which was good. Levy and Mira were trying to teach him sign language, but he started putting up resistance when the blade discovered less than ten members of the guild knew it.

"I wanted to say I'm sorry." Gray came right out with it, which saved him from a Bala to the face. "I was taking my issues with Deliora out on you, and that was unfair to you. You had nothing to do with my problems, and I shouldn't have lashed out, especially since you aren't even a demon." So he could learn. "Despite how much I treated you like shit, you still helped us out so much during the Galuna Island Quest, and even destroyed Deliora when you didn't have to. If you'll let me, I'd like to make it up to you." The zanpakuto properly lifted their head to meet the man's eyes. They could see how serious he was in his declaration. Dammit…

The Quincy already forgave him, having not been the recipient of his insults in the first place and having understood there was likely deeper reasoning from the get-go. The Hollow also couldn't pretend to have not seen Gray's demeanor change over the course of the Quest. The sharpest shift had been right after the Hollow explained what a Hollow was. Apparently some part of the description struck a chord with the pathological stripper, made him see them in a new light.

The Hollow hissed, all inward-facing frustration. Lucy was rubbing off on him. The Quincy, too, since an idea appeared in the Hollow's mind.

"…One…chance." Relief colored the Ice Make Mage's features, as his shirt slid off his shoulders. Not even Levy reacted, all too familiar with the unfortunate habit.

"I won't waste it, I promise!" The man smiled. He made to stand, only to pause when the spirit brought their left hand onto the table, palm facing upward.

"…Try…idea." The raven-haired man blinked a couple times in surprise, but sat back down.

"What did you have in mind?" Ah, the Hollow was already regretting this. He was going to have to speak so much now.

"…Hollow…eat…Ma…gic." He explained. "…Like…Scarf." Levy and Gray both stared for a moment, with the girl being the first to understand.

"Oh!" Her eyes gleamed with interest. "He's saying he can eat Magic like Natsu!" Her head tilted toward his to catch the edge of his eye. "Does it recover your Magic like it does him, too?" His nod was all the answer necessary for Gray's mouth to fall open in revelation.

"Ah, you're wanting to see if you can feed off the Magic in my Ice Make, right?" Another wordless nod. "Easy enough." He held his hand over Zangetsu's, his palm down. The Magic coalesced and a small sculpture dropped into the sword beast's hold. "There you go." The Hollow took a moment to look over the creation, seeing that it was an ice replica of kuzumochi. Gray likely thought that was their favorite, since Mirajane made it the most for them. He threw it into his maw, the ice crunching in his mouth.

A dissatisfied noise left his throat after he swallowed.

"Did it not work?" The Ice Make Mage tilted his head.

"…Did." They corrected, a frown audible in their tone. "…Too…small." He was able to consume the reiatsu within, but it was less effective than the full meals Mirajane made them. The food she provided didn't recover reiatsu, but it offered enough reprieve on their body that they could regenerate their own. Like Orihime's Shun Shun Rikka, in that sense. The energy from Gray's Ice Make slipped out with the reiatsu they expended naturally, akin to Nel. They would need something far more significant, nothing Gray could provide with his reiatsu being so miniscule compared to theirs.

"I could make something bigger?" He offered hopefully.

"…So…rry." They shook their head. "…Won't…be…enough." His face fell, but he shook the hurt away.

"I'll be on the lookout on my Quests, then." He announced instead. "I'll find something that'll help you out, I promise as a mage of Fairy Tail."

The guild was hot, a product of the sheer mass of bodies constantly moving within. Fighting, drinking, and laughing filled the building with a wonderful atmosphere, but the heat that joined it could not be ignored. There was a slight damper on the mood due to the iron bars that had been impaled through the Hall, but the familial comradery was a soothing balm over it. At least to Levy, though, the fact that the abundant heat of the guild was sequestered to the basement only made it that much more sweltering.

The bluenette possessed her own balm for that, however. It was found in the body that wrapped around her even now, off in dreamland as he usually was. A curious revelation, it was, to find that such a beast emanated no warmth. Really, it seemed more that he might cling so much as a way to drink in her heat. Especially recently, the Script Mage couldn't help but frown.

Zangetsu was quite physically affectionate and even more welcoming of receiving it. The 'Hollow', as Lucy had told her upon returning from the Galuna Quest, practically hungered for touch, not that he was ever left wanting in Fairy Tail. Herself and Mirajane had discovered that quickly when they helped him practice his speech or taught him how to read. Before the Galuna Quest, however, the sword beast most often laid his head in Levy's lap when he rested. That was a mutual benefit they had arranged, him embracing the plush of her thighs while she took advantage of the curvature of his horns to rest her books on. It was his favored position to sleep in, and when he was not doing that, he generally sat next to her amidst conversation. Rarely taking part, of course, but at least awake for it. It was on his request that they practiced his words, his request that they taught him letters.

And now, he slept. The way his body sagged made it seem like he hung off her, like she was the reason he could even remain upright. His blade sat upon the table, like it usually did, but Levy felt that the lack of sunlight was not the reason the metal lacked its shine. Thanks to how he clung to her, she could decipher that his breaths were shallower than before. Something cold curled in her gut as she realized he was lighter, despite that she knew he ate the same as always. But what concerned her the most was-

"Hey, Levy!" Lucy greeted as she joined them at the table. "You looked kinda down, still beat up over the guild?" The Script Mage glanced at her slumbering friend, just to confirm, before turning back to the blonde.

"It's not that." She whispered, careful to watch her volume. Brown eyes wavered with concern. "I'm worried about Zangetsu." The Celestial Spirit Mage joined in her frown.

"He wasn't hurt during the Quest." The girl thought aloud, before her shoulders rose with anxiety. "Do you think he wants to attack whoever attacked the guild?"

"I almost wish he did." The hazel-eyed girl breathed. "This isn't like before, where he struggled to pay attention. Since you've come back from that Quest, it's like he's barely able to think. He's sleeping all the time now." A concerned hum left her closest friend.

"He slept a lot before." Lucy tried to play it off, but it was clear she had noticed just as Levy had.

"He wakes up to eat, and to follow us to and from the guild." She specified. "He hadn't been this bad when he first came to the guild with you." All the stress left the blonde's body, in excess that she slumped over to rest her cheek on her crossed arms.

"Yeah…" She sighed. "I'm scared that it might be because of me." A quizzical look was sent her way, but no question needed to be verbalized for the girl to continue. "He used a lot of his Magic on the island, and he fought all the strongest Mages there, and he saved me in my fight, and he brought everyone back to the guild straight from the island. He must've exhausted himself, and I never even asked how he was doing. All because I was too weak to do anything on my own."

"Don't be like that, I can tell this is something else." Levy declared. "This is-this is more like an illness. You had nothing to do with it, don't blame yourself."

"How can you be sure? This has all the signs of magical exhaustion. Lethargy, weakness, and irritability. Natsu told me that his sword is magic, and I know you can see just as well as I do that something feels off about it right now."

"He'd have to be awake to be irritable. And anyway, does that explain why his breathing is softer?" The bookworm challenged. "How he's lost weight? How he's colder than usual?" Doe-brown eyes widened.

"What?!" She sat up. "Since when?!"

"Since you all came back from the Galuna Quest." The bluenette tapped the book in front of her. "That's why I think it's an illness. I've been researching the island to see if there's anything that would be the source of his symptoms, but so far nothing lines up. I've never heard of a disease before that makes the patient colder."

"Then it's still my fault that he's sick. He couldn't have caught anything from the island if I never asked him to go to the island." Levy winced at that, though not due to Lucy's reasoning. She also wished Zangetsu had not gone with them, though only because she was nervous about the danger. She had received accounts from all of Team Natsu, but she still grew anxious at the thought of Zangetsu fighting the masked Eight, let alone Laxus and his Thunder God Tribe simultaneously. They could reassure her all they liked that Zangetsu dominated the fight, but her mind couldn't help but whisper that all it would have taken was a moment of inattentiveness for that to have changed. Laxus was an S-Class Mage, and above that, the strongest in the guild save for Gildarts and the Master. It was widely acknowledged that even Erza stood no chance against the Lightning Dragon Slayer. That made it all the more unbelievable to the Script Mage for the sword beast to be so overwhelming.

"How about we stop with the blame game for now and just work on helping him get better?" The bluenette side-stepped. A hum of agreement left the blonde as she nodded.

"I'll do some research on diseases to try to work from outward in." The spirit mage offered. "In the meantime, I'll ask Mira if she can make extra food for Zangetsu for a bit." She finished as she stood up to do just that. Hazel eyes followed the girl as she left, but their attention lay on the body still draped over her. Outside of the soft shifts of his chest and shoulders from his breathing, he was unnaturally unmoving. Not the stiffness of a false sleep, but more a stillness like the dead. Cautiously, she brought her arms to hold one of his, tucked around her abdomen. Wary of waking him, she lifted it up slightly, curling her left arm underneath his forearm to hold it. Her right hand softly slid down from his knuckles past his wrist. Her face twisted in agony when her fingers came out tangled in loose patches of crimson fur.

It was then that a weak groan signaled the Hollow's wake. In an attempt to act naturally, Levy continued stroking his arm, sliding the tips of her fingers down to his elbow before returning to his knuckles. The groan easily shifted to a more pleased hum. Thankfully, Lucy arrived, a full plate in each hand and Mirajane in tow. From the tightness in the white-haired woman's smile, it was clear Lucy informed her of their concerns.

Mira carried a third plate in one hand and three mugs in her other, a simple feat for a woman accustomed to carrying far more at once. The plates were all placed down, mostly in front of Zangetsu, with two mugs of what Levy realized were yogurt. The third appeared to be plain water.

"Lunchtime, Zangetsu!" The blue-eyed woman cheered, a wide smile on her face. "The rest of the guild wants to offer their thanks for you keeping Team Natsu safe, so for the next few days, you're gonna be eating like a ki-" Lucy sharply shook her head, as clear a warning as possible that the model was entering dangerous territory. "Like royalty!" She corrected swiftly. Grunting blankly, the sword beast raised his head just an inch to look over the food.

Blearily, he dragged his right arm up, elbow first. The fur on his wrist caught on the edge of the table for a moment, which he stalled at. Once he seemingly recovered from the pause, he pulled his hand the rest of the way out. The added force caused the limb to snap out once the resistance was gone. It struck the base of the mug in front of him, and pushed it out as the lifeless limb skid along the wood. With the bottom pulled out from underneath it, the cup fell on its side, the yogurt within pouring out onto the table. A moment of shock was shared between the four individuals to witness the action.

"Looks like Zangetsu needs a little more time to wake up!" Mirajane suddenly laughed. Loudly. Forcefully. Lucy caught on first and choked out her own giggle. Levy only realized as the bartender exaggeratedly lifted one hand to her mouth, drawing attention to the motion as her other hand sneakily straightened the cup. The Script Mage was the last to join in, snickering into her own hand as her other one cradled Zangetsu's cheek affectionately.

It was all to pretend they weren't seeing his hand. Weren't watching the way he focused on it. Weren't witnessing how it trembled, shook, and cracked as though it were being forced to move against its will. They acted as though they didn't notice as it twitched and flexed until it was close enough to natural movement that they could pretend nothing had happened.

Chapter Text

Mirajane Strauss was someone Zangetsu was aware of, but did not know deeply. She was unerringly sweet and caring, with seemingly endless patience for them. Though having heard how many Fairy Tail members had needed to be taught how to read and write, they realized it wasn't too surprising. She provided food, drink, and booze, though the zanpakuto hardly ever requested the latter. The white-haired woman was the one to introduce them to Levy, never disturbed their sleep outside of mealtimes, and went out of her way to try cooking food she thought they might like. Thus, the spirit liked her.

She was a staple of the guild, greeting everyone with a beaming smile even when everyone was forced to funnel into the basement. Someone had wrecked the guild hall proper the other night, which had prompted concern in the Quincy, but nothing from the Hollow. If the one to do it didn't have the balls to attack anyone outright, then they were just a coward who didn't even know how to intimidate properly. The culprit knew where the guild hall was, boo hoo, so did everyone in the country. Oh no, they had the perfect excuse to have the Magic Council pay for repairs for once. Most of the guild was angry over it, and the Hollow could only feel the meager respect they had for them shrivel slightly because of it. Mirajane, however, was the one to keep several of the members in line, reminding them time and again that it was only pieces of wood. Because of that, Zangetsu's respect for her never waned.

Despite their affection and respect for the woman, there was always a comfortable gap between them. Neither of them pushed in the friendship they had. He kept Team Natsu and Levy safe, and she rewarded that with food and undisturbed rest. Which was why it had been so surprising, to everyone, when the woman asked if the blade could accompany her home that night. She had posed the question when Lucy and Levy were readying to leave, to the apparent shock of the two girls. After exchanging a glance, they had deferred to Zangetsu, and received a noncommittal shrug for it. With that as their answer, the girls had agreed there was no issue with the beast joining the bartender.

So, they had waited for her to finish her shift. They rested the time away in the corner they claimed for Levy in the basement. Everyone else had complained about the heat in the basement, the tighter space forcing everyone to pack themselves closer together. Not Zangetsu though. The blade longed for it as wizards filtered out. They only realized because so many made their goodbyes known to them as they left. Cana was the last to leave, and the only one the Hollow would forgive for waking them. Mostly by virtue of how she was so egregiously plastered that the zanpakuto was impressed by her ability to climb the stairs out of the basement.

The walk to Mirajane's home was one spent in silence. The spirit could walk on his own, but it was a conscious effort that conversation would only distract from. Meanwhile, the woman he walked with seemed content to stroll along with her hands clasped behind her. She did hum pleasantly, which the Hollow found oddly soothing, but there were no words exchanged between them. She took them to a comfortable-looking house, and let him inside first after unlocking the front door. The spirit entered the abode, though didn't really take in the surroundings. There was comfortable-looking furniture, and the blade wondered where Mirajane would ask them to sleep due to it. However, the majority of their focus was on why the white-haired woman spontaneously sought their company. The bartender locked the door after her, and strode over to what the zanpakuto realized was a kitchen area. With nothing else to do, they lurched over and fell into a chair sat at a table nearby. True to what they figured, Mirajane started pulling out cookery and ingredients for a meal.

"You know…" Her voice was soft as she worked in front of a counter, her back to the spirit. "I've known since you first arrived with Lucy that you weren't a demon." Zangetsu decided to lean forward, rest their crossed arms on the table, and their chin atop that. With the woman more familiar than most with their speaking difficulties, they figured they were to only listen. "You could call me something of an expert when it comes to demon souls, and you definitely didn't fit the bill. So when Lucy came back from the Quest with you and told me you were something called a Hollow, I was just about the only person not surprised." The woman playfully pointed at them with a ladle as she spoke her next words. "In fact, it made me feel like I knew more about you than anyone else in Fairy Tail." She giggled before turning to the stove. "We respect each other's privacy, here in Fairy Tail, but that doesn't mean we don't get curious. You're definitely one of the most unique things to come in through the doors, and just about everyone wants to know more about you." She paused to take a steadying breath, and the blade tilted their head. "But some things are just fine staying in the past." The Quincy wondered what happened in hers that she was content to keep buried, but the zanpakuto certainly agreed with the sentiment.

"No one knows what a Hollow is." The bartender continued, grabbing a bottle from the counter, removing the cork, and pouring all of its contents into the pot before her. "No one's found any mention of it in a book or legend, no one can figure out what the deal is with your sword, and the dragon slayers of the guild clam up whenever we ask about what their senses tell them about you. We wouldn't care all that much about it normally, case in point, everyone's content to assume Happy is just a cat that happens to talk and use magic. But then you came back from the Galuna Island Quest." A more sorrowful note appeared in her tone. "A lot of people in the guild can recognize the behavior of a wounded or sick animal, and everyone's worried about you because of it. Lucy and Levy told me they're even researching diseases to see if you picked something up on the island." White locks swayed as she shook her head. "Then Gray asked me if we had any Quests offering Lacrima as rewards after he apologized to you, and it all clicked for me." Mirajane pulled away from the stove with a bowl in hand, and walked over to the table, sitting opposite Zangetsu as she set it down in front of them. At first, they grasped the bowl and slid it closer mindlessly, but a moment to look it over had them sitting straight up while peering at the faintly glowing noodles within.

"Liquefied Magical Energy isn't the easiest thing to come by, but certain magical items use it to function. I don't think anyone's considered the idea of putting it into food." She leaned forward to rest her elbows on the table. "But then again, not even dragon slayers can eat magical energy outright." They spared a glance her way before tipping the bowl into their mouth. "Team Natsu told me about your little explanation in the cave, too. 'A Hollow is one who has lost their heart'. Combined with all of those soul-related abilities Laxus told me about, I think I realized what's got you so tired." She rested a hand supportively on one of their forearms. "You don't regenerate Magic like we do, do you? The only way for you to stay topped up is to eat more." The Hollow growled mid-slurp. With the extra energy gained from what they've consumed, he felt comfortable providing some explanation for her.

"…Do…come…back." He breathed. Sapphire eyes blinked as the woman sitting opposite them tilted her head cutely. How to explain in a way she would understand… "…Spell…drains…more." She sucked in a breath as she bodily straightened, her eyes pouring over their body. Thankfully, she had long since made her intelligence clear, and there was no immediate demand for if there was any way to stop the 'spell'. Obviously, if there was, they'd have likely done it by now.

They finished the bowl and handed it back to her, the woman automatically standing up to deposit it into the sink. There was a distracted air to her now, surely her scouring her memory for anything that could stop the 'spell'. They liked her too much to leave her to such a fruitless endeavor.

"…You…want…help?" He asked. The bartender jumped at their words, instantly coming up to the table with eager eyes. "…Need…more." He stated.

"More magic-infused meals?" Fell from her lips, though not with any sense of despair. "W-well, I was going to start doing that for all of your meals once I was sure it worked." They shook their head.

"…Not…more." They lifted their hands to pantomime. Their right remained lower, palm up, while their left hovered above it palm down, and lifted slowly. "…Big." It was at that a small flash of anguish went across her face.

"How big?" If her comment about how difficult it was to acquire was any indication, it was no doubt an expensive thing to consider. Unfortunately, Zangetsu had no good answer for her. For multiple reasons. How was he to explain how much reiatsu he would need to outpace what they burned through? The Quincy offered an idea, and he jumped on it without hesitation.

They shifted their hands around once more, this time to poke the first finger of their left hand at the shred of cloth on their right shoulder.

"…Shows…Ma…gic." They attempted to impart. For emphasis, they tugged on it slightly. Confusion dressed the woman's features. "…Less…means…gone." They tried, covering part of the cloth to portray it disappearing.

"…Less…means…" The contemplative look on her face slowly melted into shock and dread. "Your clothes reflect how much magical energy you have?" Whispered from her. They nodded to confirm it, watching as sapphire eyes once again poured over their form, no doubt trying to resolve how much was missing. Eventually, her gaze fell onto the strip of cloth still remaining and ended its journey there.

"Laxus was complaining about how he was barely able to singe your sleeve…" A shudder tore through her voice as she realized the colossal amount of reiatsu he must have. Pools of blue widened further as yet another revelation came to her. "You barely had a sleeve when you first came…" Finally, she stared into the empty pits of their mask, tears beading in the corners of her eyes. "You've been running on fumes since you've been here!" Mirajane lunged forward, grasping their shoulders. "There has to be something I can do beyond those meals! I won't stand here and watch knowing that you're barely keeping yourself standing!" Something desperate filled her words, her voice cracking with raw emotion. It made the zanpakuto sick, and not because there were no other solutions.

It was because there was.

'Hollow…' The Quincy warned.

'I won't.' He firmly declared. 'Not to her. …But, we need it. We need something. We can compromise, though.' He lifted their left hand, and softly grasped her arm with it, maintaining a meaningful stare with the bartender. Their right came up slowly, until the tip of their first finger was pressed against the top of her chest.

"…Ma…gic…in…side." The words were forced out. "…Part…of…you." The woman snapped her gaze between the finger against her chest and the eyeholes of their mask, visibly lost.

"I-I-I don't-are you asking to eat my magic?" She stuttered. "L-like all of my magic?!" He shook his head aggressively, which seemed to calm her somewhat.

"…Sip." He felt the word did more justice, both for helping her understand and for keeping her calm. His right hand moved until his finger traced along the inside of her wrist. "…Blood." Her shoulders sank as a breath left her, her jaw having fallen open and her eyes stuck wide.

A moment later, she shook her head wildly, all traces of shock being thrown away. Far more determined blue eyes met their black pits.

"You're certain my blood can help you?" They nodded without hesitation. They had never bothered to ask why she kept to maintaining the guild, but they could sense that she was comparable in strength to Erza. The Hollow felt he could drink enough to steadily recover without harmful effects to her. "I see. Using my Magic to save someone's life…" She mumbled under her breath with a scoff. "Who'd've thought?" Mirajane stood, pulling them up with her as she turned and began striding through the house. The blade made a noise of confusion.

"If you're going to drink my blood, then I'm going to end up getting tired." She informed, still pulling them along. "So we're going to go to my room first. That way I don't have to try fumbling my way around and worrying my brother." The zanpakuto tilted their head. She had a brother? News to them.

They were brought to a bedroom decorated in impressive amounts of pink and plush. The color was so glaring that they weren't able to disregard it like they did most of the room. Spotting a nightstand next to a large fluffy bed, the spirit went over to rest their weapon against it before sitting down on the mattress. Mirajane had already gone over to her closet for her nightwear, the dress she had worn for the day having already been thrown off and placed into a hamper sitting in a corner. She either had incredible confidence or had already been told by Lucy and Levy that Zangetsu never really cared when they undressed in front of them. The spirit felt the better bet laid in the latter. Even now, the only reason they sat up rather than getting a head start on sleep was due to the task they were about to take part in.

The white-haired woman bounced slightly as she joined them on the bed, and they couldn't help but notice the slight redness on her face. So she was at least somewhat embarrassed.

"So, where are we doing this?" She fiddled with a lock of hair. "I'm pretty sure neither of us want me to bleed out." They nodded readily.

"…Can…sense." The bartender hummed, grasping their words easily.

"I'll lie back then." She shifted back on the mattress and then around, shuffling until her head was upon the silk-wrapped pillow at the head of the bed. Without hesitation, the Hollow crawled over her, sniffing while inspecting her reiatsu as closely as he could. Mirajane watched with mild fascination as he moved his head around her body, stopping at key areas such as her wrists or heart before shaking his head and hunting for a less lethal location. Sniffing his way to her neck, she had to keep herself from giggling at the sensation of his breaths against her skin, until he stopped at the flesh just right of her neck. She realized instantly as he made his decision, and drew in a breath to prepare herself. Her right hand came up to cradle the back of his head as her left wrapped around his shoulders.

He broke her skin with his teeth, not ripping out a chunk but instead nibbling to open a wound just large enough for a proper flow. The pain, even with her readiness for it, caused her to gasp. He lapped at it instantly, collecting the blood in his mouth and swallowing. While he suckled, he adjusted himself, having been in a position where he could easily move up and down her body. It was uncomfortable and his balance was shaky. He was likely to be at her neck for several minutes, so he shifted until he felt comfortable. His final position, with Mira gasping and trembling at every movement, was with his right hand on her pillow, directly to the left of her face. His left was supporting the weight of his torso, just underneath her right armpit. His legs, he had to shuffle the most, it being incredibly stiff to have been straddling her. Now, her legs were around his waist, with his right leg folded up so that his knee was underneath her waist and his left was straight out behind him.

"S-So this is why Erza reads v-vampire stories." The woman's voice wavered slightly. There was…slight euphoria in her tone? He had just started, she shouldn't be lightheaded just yet. The Hollow paused to check on her, but she tightened her grip on his head as soon as his tongue stopped moving. "Don't stop!" She barked instantly. "I-I'm fine! B-better than fine, actually. I'll-I'll let you know when it gets dangerous." Grunting in affirmation, he went back to drinking in her Magic, intentionally ignoring her shuddering sighs now.

Mira was the first to wake up the next morning, which wasn't as much of a surprise as she thought it'd be. Despite the hearty amount of blood that had been sapped from her, she doubted she needed as much rest as Zangetsu did, with the knowledge she had now. Though, to her wince, she did discover that the blood loss caused her to sleep through her alarm to open up the guild. She was neither the only one with a key nor the only one that served food and drink, but her presence would be missed as though she were.

She would need to untangle herself from the Hollow in order to get up. Looking down at how they laid together, she was certain just about anyone would get the wrong idea if they were to see them now. Her sheer white negligee had ridden up to just below her breasts, with his right arm over her stomach to cradle her to him. Their legs were woven with each other, his right knee coming up between her legs high enough that he could surely feel her…heat. Her own right leg was tucked in between his in turn. His left arm was underneath her, his fingers coming up to wrap around her left shoulder from behind. The fingers of her right hand were tangled in his hair, with his head lying next to hers. In her peripheral, she saw one of his horns above her, confirming he had fallen asleep facing her.

Sapphire eyes blinked as a thought went through the woman's mind, and she brought up her left hand. She gently grasped the elbow of the arm over her stomach, and lifted it into her sight. A moment later, a relieved smile beamed across her face. Zangetsu's sleeve extended to just above his bicep, a notable change from last night, where it couldn't completely cover his shoulder.

Yeah, being late to Fairy Tail today would be worth it.

As they glared at the sight before them, Zangetsu could only think of two things: when it had happened, and who had done it. Whose head were they going to take? Could they have prevented this had they gone home with Levy last night? Were they going to go after someone else they cared about? How would they scream as Zangetsu carved them to pieces?

A loose crowd gathered around them, no doubt kept at bay by the barely restrained rage the blade no doubt emanated. Hushed whispers and speculations danced around, spoken as though afraid to be caught by the zanpakuto's ears. Team Natsu fought their way through the crowd, and all gasped at the sight that had the spirit frozen.

Pinned to a large tree, were three unconscious bodies. The bodies were beaten, bloody, bruised, and obviously broken. Their clothes were shredded, there were lumps indicating broken bones under their skin, and Zangetsu couldn't tell how long they had been hanging. What kept them in place were bands of iron bands bolted to the bark via oversized iron nails. Only their arms were bolted in place, each of their bodies sagging painfully. The three pinned were Levy and her two teammates.

It happened again. The thought caused crimson reiatsu to curl out from their body like the vilest poison, causing everyone nearby to flinch back. Once again, someone they cared about got hurt because they didn't. Fucking. Intervene! A seething hiss slipped out from their throat as the diminutive man they recognized as the Captain of the guild stepped up.

"Wrecking our shoddy hall I could ignore…" The man growled, his words dripping with rage. "But no parent could stand by after seeing their children's blood be spilled!" His cane snapped in his grip. "THIS MEANS WAR!" Tightening their grip on their weapon, the zanpakuto agreed.

The only thing Zangetsu cared about was the awareness that the Phantom Lord guild hall was filled with reiatsu signatures. They didn't know where it was located, so they unfortunately had to stick with the rest of Fairy Tail as they journeyed to the rival guild. If there was any saving grace, it was that the forced walk allowed them to realize Lucy remained in the hall with Levy and her team. Everyone also seemed too stuck in their rage to realize the zanpakuto displayed no signs of the utter exhaustion from the day before, or that their sleeve had grown. They had reigned in their reiatsu from leaking out in their rage, the resource currently too precious for such a display. Finding a possible solution in feeding from strong mages did not detract from Zangetsu currently being despairingly low on reiatsu.

Thankfully for their impatience, Phantom Lord had a sign above the front doors to their guild, visible from down the road. The blade was not the only one to lunge forward as soon as that was within sight, but they were the first to reach their destination. For a moment, there was a pair of doors in the way. For a moment.

A swipe of their sword wrung out powerful winds which blew the wood apart, even more viciously than the gate protecting the people of Galuna. As they cleared the entryway, they saw that the force of their swing was so great that even several tables close to the entrance had been sent skidding and tipping over. An unfortunate victim had seemingly been on their way out of the building, their face twisted in shock as the zanpakuto watched in slow motion as wood chips cut into their flesh. The victim had been lifted off their feet, and their arms were snailing up, intent to protect their face clear. Zangetsu's left foot met the victim's face, the Hollow taking distinct pleasure in feeling a nose break and bend underneath their heel. Their right foot slapped onto the floor, and before anyone could react to any of the events the beast caused, they stomped their left foot down. Wood splintered apart underneath their victim's head, and the scent of blood entered the air. There was the faint sound of bone cracking, and it only brought more satisfaction to the beast.

Just as screams of shock began filling the air, the Hollow pitched his head back and howled. They allowed reiatsu to burst from their body then, as their roar of hatred and vengeance overwhelmed everything else in the building. Rather than the response to a challenge, this was a demand for blood to be spilled. The furniture in the building tumbled back, lighter objects being outright tossed into the air to shatter against the walls. The mages closest to the epicenter were thrown off their feet, spiraling back from the sheer force. Strained creaks and groans rumbled as the walls and support beams trembled under the pressure. The rest of Fairy Tail rushed in after, even their collective rage seeming insignificant in the face of their bellow. Their blade was flipped around and stabbed into the wood, terrifyingly close to the skull of their victim.

"…WHO…HURT…LEVY!" They demanded, and the frightened shivers of the Phantom Lord guild could be felt. The faceless enemies all whispered amongst themselves, far too quietly for even the Hollow's hearing to pick up, though their petrified tones were clear. The other members of Fairy Tail seemed more than content to give their enemies a chance to give up the one deserving of the most punishment. After several moments, it became clear that no one would step forward, as well that no one would be sacrificed. Snarling hatefully, the zanpakuto ripped their blade from the floor and took a step forward. The tips of their toes and fingers darkened and sharpened as the Hollow strengthened his Hierro, quickly forming claws and talons. A reiatsu-filled shine flashed along their weapon, and the spirit did not doubt that many in the building were finding it increasingly difficult to breathe or stand.

"…Then…cut…all…down." They growled, the Fairy Tail members behind them shouting in agreement.

Chapter Text

The screams of Phantom Lord members filled the air, usually following some sort of heavy impact. Fairy Tail was doing a bang-up job of annihilating their 'rivals' in retaliation, but none were so successful as Zangetsu. With every movement, another nameless mage discovered the bliss of unconsciousness, whether through the means of being crushed underfoot or experiencing the glee of temporary flight. After Erza got in front of them for cutting one of the mobs, they switched to using the flat of their blade. The feel and sound of bones shifting underneath skin was enough for the Hollow. They had withheld their reiatsu, deeming it too much of a waste. The Hollow normally did not see it that way, believing the best method of intimidation was overwhelming. However, survival instinct superseded the desire for domination, and so he kept to brute strength and speed.

Makarov brawled his way up a flight of stairs, and a pulse of Pesquisa told them that he was on the path to meeting someone with comparable reiatsu. They must be the guild leader. Zangetsu also felt a desire to unleash themself upon the enemy leader, but could content themself with annihilating whoever it was that attacked Levy. Surely, if they simply defeated everyone, the attacker would be amongst the number. It would be less immediately satisfying, but more gratifying overall to treat the attacker so lowly as to never even discover who they were. Plus, the Hollow thought, it would send the far greater message for others. To make it known that there would be a blanket punishment for all affiliated if anyone attacked those the zanpakuto cared about would ensure that people would stop each other rather than leaving idiots to their fates.

Another faceless mob was smacked through one of the overabundant support pillars, and another suffered a clawed foot slamming into their stomach to force them into the floor. A third was pulled up by the throat and thrown, then a fourth was bent over by the back of their weapon smacking into their stomach. Instincts flared, and the ebony blade was whipped around. The edge collided with an iron bar, digging far more shallowly than it should have as the power in their swing dragged the owner of the iron back. Empty pits met crimson eyes filled with arrogance, and orange hair fluttered back in generated winds just as ragged black locks did.

"Would ya look at that?" The man dressed in sleeveless black clothes smirked. "It's the newest member of Fairy Tail, Zangetsu." If his knowledge was supposed to be intimidating, he was soon to find himself disappointed. "Don't worry, I won't beat you too bad. You haven't had all that long to realize how stupid you are yet." Words like that only had meaning if the one speaking them could back them up. If the mage with iron bars for hands truly thought he could beat them, then he was surely as stupid as he was talkative. The man brought back one of his arms, readying to punch at the spirit. "I'll give you the Gajeel Special, just like that blue-haired Script Mage!" He roared.

Immediately, Zangetsu twisted their wrist, wrenching the so-called Gajeel's arm away and leaving his torso open for their left fist to thunder into his chest. Spittle flew out from the man's mouth as he was flung off his feet, his body folding over the fist before being launched into a wooden pillar.

"…You…hurt…Levy." They snarled as they stalked forward, crimson energy leaking from their body. The fool cracked out a laugh, standing up while rubbing the spot he had been punched.

"Oh, yeah." He announced with false recollection. "You've got a thing for the shrimp. To think I'd experience the luck of the chance to beat both of you senseless!" Yes, to think the buffoon would willingly offer himself as sacrifice. They stomped forward and, willfully throwing away Erza's earlier condemnation, swept their blade at Gajeel. The long-haired man brought up his iron-clad arms again to block, fully believing he could stop their strike in its tracks. Black metal met grey iron, bit a good inch into it, and pushed the mage's body back once that slowed. Red eyes widened, then the mage bent back, Zangetsu's blade passing over him before he straightened. He made to attack them again, only for them to simply turn their blade and invert their swing. Metal collided again, carving a deeper gouge into the man's arms but slowing to a stop before they could really sink in.

"That's a nice sword ya got there." Gajeel let out a dark laugh. "I can feel the magic coursing through it, and there's no smell of Lacrima." He shifted his arms so that he could fit his face between his forearms, his mouth splitting into a savage grin. "What a perfect meal for an Iron Dragon Slayer!" The reveal might have been more meaningful had his teeth not proceeded to loudly clang against the spirit metal.

"Rhat?!" The dragon slayer mumbled while his jaw remained clamped on the blade. Now infuriated by the audacity of the attempt, Zangetsu roared as they grasped the hilt of their weapon with both hands and tilted it, forcing both Gajeel's face and forearms to turn downward before they lifted him using it. A muffled shout left his throat as they swung him overhead and into the floor, causing the wood to shatter everywhere. They felt the sword dig deeper into his arms, as well as grate along his teeth to cut into the corners of his lips.

"…Hurt! …Levy!" Twisting their hips, they brought up their left leg while keeping their prey pinned with their blade. Draconic slits inside red irises shrank in fear as the man understood exactly what they were going to do, and how helpless he would against it. Before they could slam their foot into the back of the sword to forcefully drive it through his skull, the beast was struck. A combination attack of a flaming fist, ice-crafted hammer, and a straight sword crashed into their front and flung them off their would-be victim. Thankfully for the dragon slayer, the zanpakuto had let go of their weapon, leaving it driven halfway through his forearms and scraping the tendons in his jaw.

"Zangetsu! No Killing!" Erza shouted, standing with Natsu and Gray just behind her at her sides. An enraged snarl responded back, the Hollow even angrier due to not being able to justify using more reiatsu to push past them and finish him off. Equally as annoyed by having been interrupted, the Quincy wove a thread of reishi from their right hand to the hilt of their weapon, too thin for the eye to catch.

Catching on instantly, the Hollow snapped the arm back, the thread pulling taught. To their great irritation, Gajeel possessed the foresight to have already pushed his arms forward so that his jaw was not at risk of being severed. It meant that the only result of their ripping their blade back to them was an aggrieved cry and the sight of the dragon slayer's arms being wrenched painfully, but not in any serious way.

"Zangetsu!" Erza admonished with even greater heat to her voice. They met her anger with their own, a scratchy hiss shrieking out from their throat as they pointed the tip of their sword at the mage who was purposefully slowly shifting his arms back to flesh.

"…Le…vy!" Dammit, their speech was straining again.

"This is why you Fairies are so pathetic!" Gajeel had the audacity to cackle into the floor beneath him, currently hunched over on his knees as he hugged his arms to his stomach. "That pet demon of yours actually has the balls to do the job right, and here you are bitching and moaning about morals!"

"He's not a demon." Gray huffed immediately. "And if you know what's good for you, you'll save all of your talk about being pathetic for when your life's not on the line."

"Zangetsu, we're here to teach Phantom Lord a lesson about messing with Fairy Tail!" Natsu exclaimed. "Beating them senseless will be more than enough!"

"…Les…son…in…death." The zanpakuto argued. Another cackle leapt out from the iron dragon slayer.

"With a mindset like that, I can't help but wonder why the hell you joined Fairy Tail instead of Phantom Lord!" He shouted gleefully before tilting his head towards the trio of mages debating for his life. "After all, they're about to get that lesson right about now!" Before anyone could comment, there was a heavy crash, and a body plummeted from the ceiling. The chaos paused as everyone present turned to look at the source. To the great dread of every member of Fairy Tail in the building, the body was their Master's. He was alive, contradictory to the red-eyed man's words, but he was sweating and trembling, appearing too weak to even move. Zangetsu was the first to uncover the issue, thanks to their reiatsu sense.

"…No…Ma…gic!" They declared. Panic instantly filled the zanpakuto, as they realized the only way for the short man to be completely out of Magic would be for someone to have artificially drained him. The source must have come from Makarov clashing with the enemy guild leader, and so the blade focused his senses on the room the enemy still stood in. There was a second signature, the Quincy quickly realizing they were some sort of assassin who had successfully attacked the balding man.

"GRAB THE MASTER AND RETREAT!" Erza ordered as soon as she put the pieces together herself. Many of the other guild members made to argue, but she had none of it. "THE MASTER'S HEALTH TAKES PRIORITY! WE HAVE TO BRING HIM TO PORLYUSICA! HEAD BACK TO THE GUILD!" Gray proved to be the flagbearer for the movement, rushing over and forming an ice sled underneath the master before pulling it behind him. Several members automatically congregated around them protectively, to ensure no one could take advantage of the vulnerability. As more filtered out, it became easier for those remaining to understand it was better to leave, until only Erza and Zangetsu remained. She kept only to glare violently at the horned beast, wary of what they would do if left inside Phantom Lord alone. The swordswoman was in luck, for the threat of having the reiatsu which kept them alive being drained from them proved a good motivator to leave. They stepped forward, circled their left arm around her waist, and burst for the guild in Sonido.

Gratefully, the only ailment Makarov appeared to be suffering from was magical energy depletion. He had been taken to the apparent guild medic, who Zangetsu only just then discovered existed. It wrought confusion from them, that Levy was recovering on a bed inside the guild hall, yet both the master and medic were nowhere to be seen.

The basement they all resided in was filled with tension, everyone in a nasty mood. Cana was attempting to use her magic to find the other S-Class Mages of Fairy Tail. Most did not respond, though Laxus had taken only the time to announce he took down a branch of Phantom Lord and that they could do the same 'if they were worthy of being Fairy Tail' before ending the communication. Gray was toying with his Magic to distract himself and many of the nameless members were organizing some sort of battle plan. Mirajane was cooking so many magic-infused meals for Zangetsu that they realized it was her own form of stress-relief, even if they didn't understand why. Erza had attempted to shout the zanpakuto into submission and convince them that killing members of Phantom Lord was not a solution. To her great frustration, arguments with near-mutes were inherently difficult, and the fact that she could not threaten them with force weakened her point. To calm herself down, she left to take a shower.

Then Natsu had returned with Lucy. She had been kidnapped while most of the guild was assaulting Phantom Lord. Natsu had been the only one to notice. Worse, he had found and recovered her before Zangetsu had even begun to suspect. It had left a cold pit in the spirit's stomach. First, Levy had been attacked and pinned to a tree while the beast slept, then Lucy had been stolen while they were busy enacting their revenge. They should've been with Levy, walking home with her as they always did. Lucy should've been with the rest of the guild during the attack, if not been focused on with their reiatsu sense while she was out of sight.

Someone they cared about had been kidnapped before. Scheduled for execution, even. They had torn the perpetrators asunder.

'But we did not succeed the second time it happened, did we? We did not rescue Inoue-san, did we?' One half of the blade whispered mournfully.

'Shut up.' The Hollow seethed.

'Aizen was on his way to destroy Karakura Town when we left, that damn bat still clinging onto his waste of a life.'

'Shut Up!'

'I-' The Quincy was unable to say the name. 'Our wielder was the one who saved Kuchiki-san. He was the one who could protect.'

'I'm warning you, you dirtbag fragment.'

'And what exactly are you warning me of, Hollow? We're far too weak.'

'I was fixing that!'

'It only prolongs the problem, and both of us know it.' The lowly spoken words caused the Hollow's response to catch.

A series of rhythmic encroaching tremors reached their awareness, and the zanpakuto allowed it to consume their attention. They returned to perceiving the world around them, and saw the guild all rushing out the back of the basement, to the rear of the guild hall. Picking up their blade, they followed behind. The variety of bodies making up the guild made it difficult for the spirit to see past them, so they aggressively pushed through them to reach the front. They came upon the sight of a massive castle on legs standing off the coast and stomping its way toward them on its six feet.

Erza, just like them, fought her way through the crowd, ignoring the fact that she was dressed only in a towel. She stood equal to them firmly, her eyes stuck on the moving guild. Murmurs of shock echoed between the Fairy Tail mages, in awe of the mechanical innovation. For them, it was loud and menacing as it approached. For Zangetsu, they could only clench their hands tightly. The building itself did not emanate Magic, though they could sense that those who had not been brought down during Fairy Tail's assault were hiding within the roaming structure.

It stopped after a few more steps, close enough that the zanpakuto felt even the Fairy Tail mages could cross the gap. The quiet murmurs stopped, everyone waiting with baited breath for what would happen next. The eyes of most of the mages widened when a panel moved and a massive barrel extended from the opening, aimed directly at Fairy Tail. Erza moved automatically, darting forward with such panic that she disregarded her towel flying off her. Though, the mild concern was soon abated as a flash of light encompassed her. A moment later, she was revealed wearing a thick and heavy suit of armor, a half-shield on each of her forearms that were clearly meant to connect with each other. The redhead charged up to the cliff face and readied herself, swinging her arms to complete the shield before her. Not a moment too soon, blue and black light manifested inside the cannon's barrel, a powerful concentration of energy building within. Far too much energy for the swordswoman to deal with.

"Fire the Jupiter Cannon!" A voice echoed out across the water, from the standing structure.

"NO!" They screamed as they blurred forth. Their left hand whipped forward and grabbed tightly onto the back of Erza's armor.

"Zangetsu, what-!" The redhead was cut off as they pitched back and threw her behind them, her armor loudly clanking against itself as she tumbled. There was no time for anyone else to respond, the Jupiter cannon's light streaking forward, slow to the zanpakuto's eyes. They wouldn't stand by and risk Erza realizing too late that she could not defend against the blast. Taking the place the Requip Mage had been just a moment prior, the Hollow stomped forward and roared out his refusal. At the same time, their reiatsu funneled through their horns and into the shape of an orb of angry crimson hanging between the points. Just as the beam of magical energy reached the cliff face, the blade fired out their own, the two blasts colliding. Almost instantly, their crimson reiatsu overwhelmed the concentration of black and blue, pushing it back with unrelenting force.

"Zangetsu!" The cry of shock and anxiety came from Mirajane far behind them. They didn't allow it to deter them, their goal more important than her concern. After but three seconds, Zangetsu's Cero pushed the Jupiter Cannon's shot back until it reached the barrel, before pushing forward even more to blow the weapon apart. They cut off the attack once that was achieved.

A moment of stunned silence followed, all the mages present amazed by the display of power. They felt the twinge of Erza's reiatsu as she switched to a different armor, though she did not move from where they had thrown her. Mira, too, was stock still, though they guessed that had more to do with her reasonable concern about their reiatsu reserves. Even Phantom Lord seemed frozen, flabbergasted by the fact their prized weapon had been defeated in such a manner. Finally, to no one's awareness other than Zangetsu themselves, the spirit stood unmoving as well. Though, their reason did not stem from shock, awe, or anything similar to what the mages were feeling.

Noticed only by a highly select few, the sleeve adorning Zangetsu's arm shriveled and flaked slightly. It was only following that where the blade flexed their body, sliding their feet forward and straightening their back. The ears of only one caught the wet cracks and pops that reverberated inside the zanpakuto at each movement. They then began to lurch forward with slow, heavy steps, easily confused as the measured tread of overwhelming rage to anyone watching.

The blade reached out with their reiatsu sense for the walking guild hall. Several dozen signatures greeted them, but they couldn't waste themselves with the fodder. Focusing so intently, they realized the second-strongest signature was eerily similar to Natsu's, though with different variances than between Natsu and Laxus. It would seem the only similarity in reiatsu between dragon slayers was the taste of dragon scale. Here and now wasn't the time to deliberate that, however. They found the most powerful reiatsu, sitting inside the centermost tower toward the top. The Hollow hunched forward as he prepared to launch them directly at their target.

"Zangetsu, Don't!" Mira cried once more, her voice shrill with fear and desperation. She had broken out of her state upon seeing them ready to move, and was now running for them. Before she could reach them, the beast blitzed away in Sonido. The reiatsu of the one sitting in the tower was comparable to Makarov in its density, dizzyingly out of the league of any guild member of Fairy Tail. The dragon slayer with the aftertaste of iron was the second most powerful, and even with Natsu. Erza or any of Laxus' lackeys were stronger based off reiatsu, leaving the rest of Phantom Lord to easily be stormed by Fairy Tail. Their strength was certain, but so was the power of the enemy guild leader. Zangetsu had to be the one to fight them, anyone else was either despairingly outmatched or far too even for the blade's comfort.

Worse, even they had to be careful when they fought, if for a different reason than a difficult opponent. They could see it clearly in how the Phantom Lord guild hall still stood in the face of a Cero. In how the Jupiter Cannon even put forth resistance. In what happened after. Mirajane's magic outpaced their passive reiatsu consumption, but it was still laughable compared to their strongest. They had burned through most of it with that blast. Not enough for them to be concerned about if they would lose to the enemy guild master, but enough that they couldn't be reckless about it.

The Quincy thought about bursting through the brick. Surprise the enemy, then use a Sonido to kill them while they're still stunned to overall minimize reiatsu use. The Hollow rejected it. The guild master might be the paranoid sort, with magic protecting them. When they had more reiatsu, they couldn't simply burst through the runes from Laxus' lackey on the Island. Without a guarantee, they couldn't be wasteful with their reiatsu. It would burn them out quicker, and if their enemy was an endurance fighter, then that was a woeful mistake.

They crashed through the window instead, the glass shattering easily without the need to strengthen their Hierro. The room they found themselves in was akin to a throne room, complete with an ornate golden throne with red furnishing. It sat in the center of a large raised platform, with a carpet going from the throne and down the platform. A banner hung from the ceiling behind the throne, the symbol of Phantom Lord proudly proclaimed upon it.

Who could only be the guild master sat in it, his hands clutching the arms of the chair as he leaned forward with an infuriated look on his face. His green eyes were wide, and his dark red hair was strained back into a ponytail. A thin mustache went down past the corners of his lips, which were pulled back to reveal grit teeth. The man was dressed in a blue and gold militant outfit, a red cloak thrown over his left shoulder, but Zangetsu ceased paying close attention to that when they realized there were no weapons on his body.

"It's you again!" The man shouted. "First, you annihilate most of my guild on your lonesome, now you destroy my Jupiter Cannon?! Do you Fairies have any understanding of how much of an irritation you are?!" They focused only on the ethereal feel of his magic, dark like sludge yet still whispery and cold. What did that mean? What kind of Magic was that? Would their sword strikes faze through his body as though he were mist? Could he impart curses upon them? As much as it was a boon that their reiatsu sense gave them hints of what Magic wizards possessed, they were only hints. "My information told me you were nothing but a slumbering waste of space! The only notable thing I was told about you was that you spent all your time with that team I ordered Gajeel to attack!"

Oh, both halves of the zanpakuto agreed, so he's ABSOLUTELY dying today.

"How fortunate of me, then, that you were such an idiot to charge directly into my throne room! Die the same way your precious Makarov did!" Unfortunately for the guild master, Zangetsu was not Makarov. The zanpakuto whipped around, a flash of Pesquisa having informed them every detail of the assassin's positioning. A mage, especially an experienced one, would attempt to step out of the range of the attacker, learn their magic and how to counter it. The beast was no mage, and far more importantly, had a sword. Before the man standing behind them could even concentrate his Magic, his head had been removed from his shoulders. The zanpakuto continued their motion, the blood already sliding off due to the sheer speed, and cleaved the newly empty throne in two.

"So," the master purred, "Gajeel's report was right. You actually don't have problems with killing." They snapped back, finding the mustached man standing over his subordinate's corpse with his back to them. He turned to glance at the spirit from over his right shoulder, a grin dripping with hatred on his face. "Do you know how annoying it was to get an S-Class worthy mage for each of the four elements to create my Element Four? Air, especially!" Growling, the blade dashed forward, keeping their reiatsu burn at an absolute minimum while attempting to slaughter the green-eyed man. He kept up with them with far too much ease, retreating in equal measure to keep them at distance. "Air is such a weak element! Even Aira was only as strong as he was because of his Metsu spell!" The man continued to rant as he dodged the beast's attacks. Their basic speed was unfortunately matched by their opponent, and he was experienced enough to know how to evade properly. They would need to boost themself with Sonido or by amplifying their body with reiatsu, neither of which they could afford to do recklessly.

But, the Hollow did know some techniques they could use that were light on reiatsu use. A bala fired out from their left fist, shooting out and catching their enemy off-guard. It struck him dead in the center of his chest, and got him to stumble. The moment was all that was necessary for the blade to reach him and strike. The first slash ripped his coat, though he managed to use raw magical energy to strengthen his body and only suffer a light cut on his skin. Gathering himself quickly, he leaned out of the way of the second, third, and fourth slashes before he raised one hand and unleashed a dense violet concentration of energy from his palm at them. They ducked under the attack with ease, stabbing even as they shifted downward to force the master of Phantom Lord to twist out of the way. Without hesitation, they leaned forward and swiped horizontally, the dark red-haired man retreating just out of the range of the slash. Following that, the Hollow clenched his left fist and punched out, their opponent mirroring them so that their fists collided against each other. The resulting force brought both of them skidding back on their heels. Some form of respect appeared in his eyes as he shook out his left hand, Zangetsu standing cautious.

"You know, you'd be a good addition to Phantom Lord's ranks." The man announced. "I, Jose Porla, swear on my status as a Wizard Saint that if you agree to leave Fairy Tail and join my guild, I'll spare that girl Gajeel pinned to a tree." Wrong choice of words. The zanpakuto released a short roar of rejection. Jose's mouth curled into a sick smile.

"Good. I was hoping you'd say no." His magic flared, and his eyes changed, switching so that his sclera turned black with only his now-white irises visible. "I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I actually let one of you shitty little Fairies into my guild." The false joy on his face dissipated, a full sadistic grin ripping across his visage as he held his open hands out to his sides. Magic congregated in his palms, colored a dark, sickening violet.

"I do have to thank you for one thing, though!" The man shouted with glee. "Since you killed Aria, the Magic Council won't be able to give me shit about killing you!" His roar was the only warning before he thrust out his hands. Zangetsu instantly darted out to the side, but they found the reaction meant nothing as what burst out from the man was not a straightforward attack. A horde of wraiths erupted from his hands, energy shaping itself into countless incarnations of a cloaked form with long-clawed hands and glowing eyes peering out from shadowed hoods. A thousand shrieks filled the air as the phantoms flew out, locking onto the zanpakuto's form and following them relentlessly. In no time at all, they took up more space in the room than the very air, and the blade found themself unable to defend in every direction. The strengthening of their Hierro was an outright necessity to protect at all angles from energy-formed claws. A heavy horizontal swing took out half a dozen of the wraiths, but they were replaced just as quickly as they were cut down. Zangetsu was being swarmed, steadily being nicked to death and helpless to do anything about it. The Hollow was infusing their Hierro with as much reiatsu as he dared, but with so little of it remaining, the technique was only so effective. Constructions of Magic were slain with every blind swing, but this was the exact situation the zanpakuto knew they could not afford to be caught in. To do nothing was to have their Hierro be worn down to uselessness. To attack was to waste their stamina. To run was only an exercise in futility, Jose sure to chase after them. Killing the guild master was surely the solution, but it was meaningless to use their reiatsu sense with so much energy flooding around them.

A blast of magical energy fired into their back, and the spirit was blown forward. Before they even landed on the ground, High-Speed Regeneration took effect, the blade landing on their feet in physically the same condition as before the attack.

'Hollow!' The Quincy admonished.

'Our spine got hit in that, you dumbass!' Was hissed back. 'If I hadn't regenerated it, we wouldn't be able to evade anymore.' As they argued, another blast was fired, though they faced it this time. It was the same violet shade as before, and with a lightning-fast flash of crimson, the Hollow diverted it to the side with a bala. Immediately after it passed, the beast lunged while there was still a gap in the wraith swarm. Jose's toothy grin shone through the opening, and his right arm raised in an uppercut with his magic maliciously glowing over. In an attempt to defend, the Hollow's left hand wrapped over the rising fist, stopping the limb in its tracks but not the spell. Sick violet burst over the zanpakuto's arm, cracking the bone inside in several places as well as annihilating the muscle and causing the Hierro to break apart. Left in a situation where he was damned no matter what he did, the Hollow regenerated. To their dismay, Jose was overjoyed upon witnessing the repairs occur in front of him.

"A regenerator?" He chuckled with dark glee. "Oh, I can draw out so much from you now." The Hollow stabbed for the guild leader's head. The attack was evaded, the wizard's other fist crashed into the blade's right flank, and then another blast of magic blew the spirit away. Before they could get up, the phantoms had already congregated into a thick mass too dense to see through. "You're already missing a heart, clearly! I wonder what other organs you don't need!"

Zangetsu panted. They didn't have the reiatsu for this. Too much of the embers they clung onto was being spent keeping them in one piece. Jose was fresh and perfectly ready for the fight. It was getting harder to force their body to move. Snarling and forcing their rage to empower them, they stomped into a stand, swinging out viciously. By the time a dozen shades perished, so had the burst of energy. Regenerating had ripped too much of their reiatsu away, but it was wounds they wouldn't have been able to fight with.

A phantom rammed into their stomach, and they were only kept on their feet because their back collided with another wraith. So difficult to move, the Hollow desperately unleashed a Cero, uncaring of the consequences. Far too few shades were taken out, and the number meant nothing seconds later as all were replaced. With an ear-piercing wail, one of the constructs flew straight at Zangetsu. Especially after the utter failure that was the second Cero, it was all they could to do lean forward with their blade held straight out in front of them. The phantom was so lacking in intelligence it unflinchingly flew straight into it, the point impaling it directly in the stomach. They were so low on energy, running the wraith through took them with it. Their right leg buckled and they pitched forward, their weapon driving itself into the wood until it perfectly pinned the phantom by its stomach. Their own body was barely an instant after, crashing roughly onto the mass of magic. To their horror and dread, they couldn't effectively move anymore, their limbs hardly doing more than twitching in response to their commands.

"So," Jose sadistically smirked, "any last words?" The zanpakuto wanted to growl, to get up, to assault the guild leader and put him down. Unfortunately, it was a struggle just to breathe. Their body was so stiff and heavy, their reiatsu so low. They could barely hold their head up, let alone climb to their feet. The Hollow crept his right hand forward, not as an attempt to hide the movement, but because of how much effort it took to push it out. He managed to bring their head up, through using a combination of his horns and his left shoulder to wedge it up. It was not helped by the phantom slowly writhing beneath them, helpless to do anything about the sword impaled through its stomach.

Fighting his way to keeping his head aloft using his horns to brace, the Hollow found his hatred for Jose increasing. The guild leader watched the struggle with a sadistic open toothed smile, content to keep his hands behind his back and observe. It infuriated the spirit, to be mocked so openly and viewed as nonthreatening. The beast forced its jaw open, heaving through the haze of delirium and energy deprivation. They panted as they collected the last bits of their energy, forcing their left hand to shift under them to help support their body.

They wracked their minds for a solution, something to ensure Jose could not go after the rest of Fairy Tail. Makarov, the only other who could conceivably fight Jose, was still recovering from having all of his magic vacuumed from him. Only Natsu was idiotic enough to think that working together would make them stronger than the enemy guild leader. In a hypothetical best-case scenario, even Laxus was not likely to overcome the Phantom Mage.

An idea finally came to the Hollow as he considered that, and with it came a new, already fading burst of energy. Thankfully, that half-lit ember would be more than enough. Their hands slid along the floor until the zanpakuto had dropped onto their elbows, barely keeping themself from falling completely. That was fine. Panting one more time, Zangetsu spread their mouth open even wider as their horns loudly scraped along the wood with their following motion.

Crunch.

Chapter Text

Rrrrrrrrrip.

White eyes surrounded by black were wide, staring unblinkingly at the sight before them. All of Jose's sadistic confidence from earlier had been ripped away along with the front half of the phantom's skull. Plenty of grotesque snaps and crunches sounded along with it, but all of it paled in comparison to the sheer impact the rubbery rip. The Fairy Jose had been easily overwhelming was atop one of his Shades, the white-skinned beast having been visibly exhausted in every way. The arrogant thing had speed and power, the Phantom Lord master could admit to that, but it burned through that power too quick. It must've been riding the high of being able to overwhelm the Jupiter Cannon, though no proper mage would be stupid enough to seek out a fight after something so magically exhausting. He had thought he'd have the full freedom to smack the foolish Fairy until it could defend itself no more before finishing it off.

He never would have thought it would have decided to eat one of his Shades, yet that was what burned into his eyes and brain now. With a sickening twist, the beast wrenched its head upwards, taking over half of the Shade's skull with it. Thick strings of magical energy were pulled out of the wound following it, each of them snapping when the tension became too much. The strings, looking far too similar to muscles and tendons to the horrified guild master, were slurped up, the monster snapping its head down in between slurps to hasten the process. Thankfully for Jose's psyche, the concentration of magic possessed no true body, so he was not exposed to the sight of any blood dripping from Zangetsu's jaw. After an audible gulp, though, that thought died as the beast leaned down for another bite. Its jaws enclosed around the lower quarter of the Shade's head, tearing into the upper portion of its throat as well. Once again, the monster bit only halfway before pulling up, the positioning of his bite taking the rest of the wraith's head with it.

Rrrrrrrrrrrrip.

Sounds that Jose should never hear in a battle filled the suddenly quiet space, crunching and snapping with every chew. The Shade finally faded, though that thought was horrifying on its own. His Shades didn't fade. His Shades couldn't even get hurt. Someone who delved into Spirit Magic likely could find a way, but his Shades were phantoms, incorporeal. The magical energy making them up could be disturbed, but they could only be truly stopped when he recalled them. Jose hadn't thought anything of it before, Zangetsu slashing away at the Shades. He was certainly thinking of it now as he realized Zangetsu actually had pinned the phantom underneath him, with it being unable to faze away. To further disturb him, the guild master watched as the heartless demon began to slowly push itself to its feet. Its body was obviously weak, and it was leaning on its sword as a brace, but he had seen only moments ago that it had been too tired to even hold its head up. Realization, horrific but certain, filled him, and he found his left foot sliding back.

"You're a dragon slayer." He breathed. "I didn't know demons could learn magic, but you must be some sort of…Phantom Dragon Slayer! It's the only explanation!" Panic began to flood him, though he did everything in his power to hide it. It explained perfectly now why the beast was so 'foolish' to attack him just after exhausting its magic. He was practically a walking battery to the thing! The way it grabbed at and attacked his Shades, it was far too similar to how Gajeel could bite through iron to fuel his magic!

A warbling, breathy hiss greeted his ears, and he saw the still hunched-over form of the beast shake slightly. The hiss paused, only to resume a second or so later before stopping again. The rhythm repeated as he watched its shoulders and chest continue to shake while it lifted its head up. Only then, as he saw its mouth was slightly open, did he realize that was the creature's laughter. With a creak of wood and a gentle ring of metal, it pulled its sword out from the floor.

"…No." The distortion in its voice was not enough to hide the malicious glee in its tone. It sent shivers down Jose's spine. "…Zangetsu…Hollow." As though it were some horrid means to emphasize its point, the monster snapped an arm out and tightened its fingers around the throat of a Shade floating near it. The Phantom Mage could neither force himself to turn away nor interrupt as the wraith wailed in obvious fear. Its claws battered uselessly upon the beast's skin and its body flailed desperately as it was pulled in toward the monster's mouth. The attempts were in vain as bone-white teeth enclosed around its head.

Crunch. Rip.

Zangetsu was far more efficient in tearing off the chunk in its mouth, clearly being invigorated with every mouthful. In opposition, the Shade in its hold instantly went limp as soon as the crunch rang out. One noisy chew filled the throne room, then a second, before a hearty gulp completed the display once again. A pair of empty black pits kept Jose's eyes locked on them as the creature lifted the body again. Just like the first, the second bite took position at the base of the head and upper part of the throat. Jose's right foot slid back behind his left as he realized there was no coincidence in the repetition. The beast which had nearly killed Gajeel and unflinchingly decapitated Aria had experience with consuming its prey.

Rip.

Once again, the first bite killed, and the second consumed entirely. With the guild master staring so numbly at the monster before him, he picked out a detail that had been missed with the first Shade. Each of the two bites had not just taken the head of the phantoms, but had caused the phantoms' bodies to fade inwards. The first had their arms evaporate to the elbow and their cloaks to shrivel up to their abdomen. The second had what remained to be seemingly sucked into the portion in Zangetsu's mouth. A blue tongue flicked out and made a show of licking at unblemished teeth. There was no mistaking how the beast stood straight now, its grip on its weapon firm.

"…Hollows…Eat…Souls." There was intention to the pauses between words, the demon clearly savoring each syllable as it left its mouth. They stared at each other for a long moment, the monster blatantly allowing the statement to seep into his brain. And seep it did. A shuddering breath escaped the guild master as his left foot once again dragged itself behind his right against his will. His heart hammered so powerfully that it crushed his lungs. All the blood in his body seemed to drain away as his stomach roiled painfully, a familiar burning sensation attempting to crawl up his throat. Slowly, meticulously, its right arm lifted and its wrist angled the sword outward. The beast did not move any other portion of its body, only purposefully aiming its arm at Jose. The black metal of its sword gleamed unnaturally, and the point of it was directed at the center of his chest. Its following word carried with it so much hunger, and every ounce of it caused an ice-cold pit to form in the Phantom Mage's stomach. "…Food."

That was the straw that broke the camel's back, and Jose screamed with every fiber of his being. He thrust out a hand and unleashed the densest wave of phantoms he could, a desperate attempt to blind his would-be killer so that he could run. Just after he turned, however, something speared through the back of his left knee. It was a vertical cut, he could far too clearly feel as his kneecap split in two and he was forced downward into a kneel. An agonized scream tore from his throat as he snapped his head down, the quickness of the action whipping several drops of cold sweat from his face. Zangetsu's black blade ran through his knee and into the floor underneath, a grotesque amount of blood already pouring from the wound. His palms slammed into the floor after his eyes found the sight, painful heaves rocking through his body.

Crunch. Rip.

The sound registered far too clearly despite how wracked with fear the guild master was. He found he possessed the strength to keep his eyes on the space between where his hands pressed against the floor. It did not stop the sounds, or how his brain stuck on the sharp sounds of his Shades' wails cutting off.

Crunch. Rip.

Another wail cut off. Some part of Jose considered recalling the Shades, to prevent the monster from eating even more, but then he realized that was its only distraction from preying on him. Absolute fear numbing the pain, he sucked in a desperate breath and reached behind him to grab the hilt of the sword. His fingers found the oddly rope-like texture of the hilt, and he shakily managed to circle his hand around it to grip it tightly. A shock of pain tore through him as the pieces of his kneecap shifted from his weight bearing down on it. So great was its impact that he could not even make sound, his jaw hanging tremblingly as his body spasmed. His mind found certainty in declaring that he would not look down to mark the seriousness of the wound, and his hand tightened once more on the hilt.

Crunch. Rip.

Sucking in another breath, Jose tensed his arm and pulled with all his might, hysterical strength permitting him to rip the muscles in his arm apart to succeed. To his ever-increasing dread, he failed, the weapon not so much as budging despite being stabbed into mere planks of wood and human flesh. A cry of fused pain and despair left him as he tugged a second time, only to meet the same result. His hands, slick with sweat, slid off the end of the hilt. The Phantom Mage gasped and made for one more attempt, only to find his arm did not respond. His black eyes fixed back to green, and he swallowed the burning hot lump in his throat. The cloth of his coat covered it, but the man knew that the skin of his left arm surely was covered in red and purple welts from all of the muscles he tore. There would be no other attempts. There had to be some way to escape while the demon feasted, though! A wedge! He would need some sort of wedge to push it up rather than pull it out! Worst case scenario, he could last for a while with a sword in-

The sword was wrenched out from his knee without any care for how it left. It was so forceful of an action that it pulled his left leg up along with it before his leg could not curl back anymore and he felt the metal scrape the inside of his bones as it removed itself. Once it was out completely, Jose's entire body flopped to the floor, too shaken with pain to care about how his own blood now soaked the entire front of his body. Too soon, the tip of the blade stabbed a good two inches into his right side, cleanly entering between two of his ribs. Before he could even react to the fresh agony, it shifted inside of him, moving horizontally without regard for the damage dealt. Then, it pulled up. The back of the blade caught on one of his ribs, and it was used as the most painful method Jose had ever experienced to flip him onto his back. Like with his knee, it ripped out without consideration for his well-being, not that it was any sort of surprise.

The guild master was left whimpering in pain and fear, staring up at the demon which would prove to be the harbinger for his death. No signs of any of the phantoms it had consumed could be found, though a hysterical part of the mage acknowledged that its ripped-up sleeve now covered half of its bicep where it didn't before. The monster stepped forward, over the dark-red-haired man until its feet were planted on either side of his hips. Slowly, it lowered itself, sinking into a kneel before fixing its other leg and straddling the guild master's hips. Black metal glinted as the creature moved its right arm about, holding out the limb before casually flipping the blade into a reverse hold. The chain at the end of the hilt rattled for only a second, before doing so again when the tip of the weapon sunk a good six inches into the wood above Jose's head. He was helpless to do anything but stare into hollow pits as the demon leaned forward, maintaining their locked gaze the entire time until it hung over him. Its orange hair slid from its shoulders and fell, creating a curtain that closed off the Phantom Mage from the rest of the world. His eyes removed themselves from the pits as it moved its left hand, the tips of its claws turning black as it lightly scraped one of said claws along his torso. It stopped right above where one of his kidneys might be, and he snapped his gaze back up to the beast's.

Its next words were hauntingly mocking.

"…How…ma…ny…do…you…need?" Green eyes widened in realization and absolute terror before he bellowed out a scream that tore apart his throat.

Porlyusica would kill him, but Makarov couldn't afford to drag his feet. She had begrudgingly permitted his return to the guild, and that was while escorted under the promise of taking it slow. Naturally, both knew he was going to confront Jose about attacking his guild, though they also knew he wouldn't take unnecessary risks. He had been caught off guard by the Magic-draining spell, that was all. It had been horrifying to see the walking Phantom Lord guild hall standing off the coast when he came back. Thankfully, one of his children had quickly informed him that Zangetsu had not only defended them from a powerful attack, but ensured that no more could be made. Of course, immediately following that was Mirajane's tearful plea for him to help the horned beast. Too grieved to watch herself, the entire guild heard her explain her concern.

They had all listened to her newfound knowledge of the swordbeast, of how he was suffering the effects of some unknown spell that drained his magical energy. Worse, he had been desperately low on magical energy since before he arrived, with the mission to Galuna Island only making matters worse. Apparently, Zangetsu had made an agreement with Mirajane where he could feed off her magical energy to regenerate his own, but he had likely burned through that defending against the Jupiter Cannon. That was right before he charged off to fight Jose by himself.

There had been no hesitation after that. A few of his children had followed him to the enemy guild, but each had thankfully split off to deal with the Phantom Lord elite mages. Thankfully, for that meant he wouldn't have to turn them away when he reached Jose. Makarov wouldn't risk them getting hurt for attempting to take part in a fight they were sure to lose. It would be easier without having to worry about keeping them safe during the inevitable fight. The Master of Fairy Tail rushed directly to Jose's throne room, knowing the Phantom Mage was bound to be smugly sitting and watching.

Bursting through the doors, the scent of blood flooded the balding man's nostrils and he instantly was filled with dread. The throne itself was destroyed, as well as one of the windows broken into. The floor was damaged in several places, as well as a few of the walls, all clear signs of a fight. What was an even clearer sign was all the blood on the ground. Terror crept into Makarov as he saw the body of the one who drained his magic from him off to the side of the room. It was clear that it was a body, for the poor soul's head was several feet from the rest of him. Blood pooled underneath both parts, but he was certain that was not the main source of the blood scent. Oh, if only it were. No, there was no confusing that the main source of the scent was a completely different body.

The other one dead was not Zangetsu, and Makarov didn't know what to think of that. He didn't know what to think of Zangetsu killing at least Jose, and he certainly did not know what to think about the sight describing how. The blood from Jose's body did not pool underneath him. It had been thrown about, messily splashed, and it covered the Hollow's body in far too many places. It caked nauseatingly over his teeth, and the diminutive man truly wished he wasn't able to figure out why. Such a thing was difficult to not resolve when the horned beast was still draped over the corpse. That the sword beast's skin was so white only made the blood covering so much of it stand out more. His hands were covered up to the elbow, his chest had splatters that dripped down, and the lower half of his face was nearly painted crimson.

Jose was best described as a carcass. Far too much of him was missing to call him a corpse, and Makarov grew nauseous at the thought of why that must be. His lower body was largely undisturbed, though that could hardly be called a mercy. His spine might as well be the only thing completely intact of his upper body, though the fact that he could see that gave it less weight. The Phantom Mage's arms were gone, most of his skull was gone, and the front of his ribcage was torn apart to get at what lay beneath. That there were no bone fragments anywhere on the floor was disturbingly telling. In a desperate bid to focus on something that wasn't one of his children killing and eating someone, the living guild master registered the state of Zangetsu's sleeve. Mirajane had informed Fairy Tail of how it was actually a marker for the sword beast's magical energy level, and that was clear now. The sleeve was complete, tucking perfectly under the fur at his wrist, and a significant amount of cloth hung off the shoulder. It left him disturbed for several reasons, not the least of which was the method of recovery.

"Zangetsu." The short man gathered the nerve to speak. Instantly, the Hollow snapped his head up to look at him, something Makarov did not want to understand hanging from his mouth. As much as he could, he ignored the beast quickly snapping up what hung from his teeth. "Did you…do this to these two?" A silent nod, if one ignored the blue tongue licking at the blood over white teeth, was the answer. The guild master could only release a weary sigh.

"Mirajane has told us what she has learned about you." He announced, to gauge the Hollow's reaction. There was none. From that, he gathered that Zangetsu did not mind the information being known, if not that he expected her to reveal it. "Fairy Tail is content to not ask you for information you would rather not divulge, so long as it does not put anyone in danger. You are no exception."

The horned beast sat up, though remained straddling the carcass.

"I will not tell anyone if you don't want me to, but I will ask that you tell me more about yourself. What is a Hollow? What spell drains your magic so much? Who did you lose?" The final question brought the creature to tense, and a downturn of their head. A sigh left the beast, before he lifted his head. Yet another silent nod was given to him, one carrying a resigned air.

"…Hollow." Zangetsu began. "…Spirit." The balding man tilted his head back slightly.

"Hollows are spirits." He showed that he understood. The nod this time from the spirit was far more reciprocative.

"…Spirit…lose…heart…becomes…Hollow." The hole in his chest. With how impossible it was to find anything on Hollows, Makarov trusted that was not a physical reaction. If physically removing a spirit's heart turned them into a Hollow, it would be a more widely known phenomenon. A spiritual heart, then.

"I see. And what makes a Hollow, a Hollow?" The spirit lifted his right hand.

"…Hole." He announced while pointing at the void in question. "…Mask." His hand moved to point at the appropriate feature. "…Size…mean…strength. Human…strong…est."

"…And how do Hollows grow stronger?"

"…Hole…means…emp…ty." The creature elaborated instead. "…Need…fill."

"And you fill it by devouring magical energy?" There was a slow, cautious shake of the head.

"…Hollows…eat…souls." Well, that was a horrifying thought. Though, as Makarov glanced at the mostly eaten carcass, it made some form of sense.

"I think I understand, if I'm not happy about it. You assimilate a portion of the magical energy you consume into yourself."

"…No." The spirit corrected calmly. "…All." Black eyes widened, before another glance was sent toward the sleeve-plus-more that covered the spirit's right arm. It clearly was still far from incomplete, but if that was how it looked after consuming all of the power of a Wizard Saint? How strong was Zangetsu at his most powerful? Before arriving in the throne room, Makarov had rushed so much out of the belief that Zangetsu was comparable to Erza, if not closer to Laxus in strength than he was to her. But this hinted at a level of magical power that would put even the balding man's to shame. He decided to persevere through the questions for now.

"That spell you told Mira about, the one that drains your magical energy. What is it?"

"…Keeps…alive." The two words haunted him. There was no questioning who it kept alive, and it explained perfectly why Zangetsu had been in such a disastrous state after the Galuna Island quest. But how did it- Ah, right. Zangetsu was a spirit. The spell likely conjured a body to allow him to interact with the world. He understood why the beast had no inclination to remove or stop powering the spell. The man wouldn't push the matter further.

"And the one you lost? Care to tell me about them?" He watched as the spirit's head fell and hands clenched.

"…Owner." There was no contempt in the title. Respect. Love. Mourning. Misery. He didn't think Zangetsu was in a place to explain more now.

"In all of your time here, you've never once made a move to eat one of my children, despite being so low on magical energy. Why?" The sword beast's head lifted. For the first time that Makarov had ever seen him, he appeared meek.

"…Don't…want." His voice was soft. "…Cared…for."

A smile finally rose onto the short man's face.

"I'm pleased to hear that." He truly was. "Mira helped you before, yes?" A nod was his answer. "Go to her home. I'll let her know to meet you there so you can wash off. We stop before killing if we can help it, but that's not always possible." Another nod, and then the spirit disappeared in a pound of sound.

Mira was panting and sweating by the time she reached her home, quietly admonishing herself for having allowed her stamina to fall to the state it was now. As soon as Master had let her know about Zangetsu, she had instantly ran off. Stepping up to the front door, she hastily unlocked it and went inside, looking around for the Hollow. Panic set in for a moment when she did not find him, then she heard a metallic knock from the back door. Rushing over, she flung it open and found Zangetsu, standing tall. Just like Master warned, he was covered in blood, none of it his. She shouldn't be relieved by that, as she figured on her own why that might be despite Master not explaining that to her. His sleeve was whole, cloth even extending over his torso to reach his collarbone with a long strip hanging off his back. That combined with the blood told the story for her.

And she found that the only part of it she cared about was that he was doing better. She reached out to grab his right bicep as a wide smile curled onto her face.

"Come on in, let's get you cleaned up." A warm hum left him as he allowed himself to be pulled inside.

Chapter Text

Since the Phantom Lord attack, Zangetsu had been doing much better, and it seemed to brighten the moods of everyone in Fairy Tail. There were some exceptions to the nigh universal joy from the spirit's health improving, though Lucy found it hard to deem it unreasonable. The glares Evergreen sent at the swordbeast whenever she struggled with her new prosthetic hand were difficult to wave off, considering. Though, those glares weren't nearly as scathing as Bickslow's, who Lucy had learned had lost an entire aspect of his magic due to Zangetsu cutting his eyes. The man had been forced to go without his standard headwear while he was recovering, and he ended up forfeiting it altogether in an attempt to make a point. The blonde had to keep herself from feeling sorry about it, because the man was trying to instill guilt into a spirit that did not care in the slightest. Lucy fully believed it possible for Zangetsu to have forgotten what he did to the Seith Mage entirely.

The swordbeast himself was practically glowing compared to the state he had been in before, and in hindsight, it was obvious how terrible of a state he had been in. Thanks to Mira infusing his food with liquefied magic and allowing him to feed off her magic (for some reason, the bartender blushed anytime Lucy asked her how), he was improving by the day. Not only was his right sleeve complete, but almost half his coat had been restored. He was more active than ever before, though still avoiding speaking if he could help it for obvious reason. To Lucy's dismay, he wasn't branching out to get to know the other guild members like she hoped, but he wouldn't shut himself out of the conversation if someone he didn't know got involved. She was content with the progress for now. After all, it produced sights like the one in front of her right now.

"So, what does liquefied magic taste like?" Natsu asked, sitting across from Zangetsu. The spirit looked up at the dragon slayer, teeth enclosed on the meat of a steak. A fork and knife were untouched on the plate, though the food itself had been scarfed down indiscriminately. Lucy and Levy had agreed that they found it a relief, that Zangetsu would devour whatever was put in front of him without regard. Unlike Natsu, who complained about vegetables. The horned beast ripped off the chunk he had been biting on, chewed on it a bit, then swallowed. He licked his teeth to cleanse them of the juices, and tilted his head in thought. After a moment of thinking about it, the spirit looked around, before leaning over and grabbing the plate in front of Cana, who was sitting at the same table. The brunette was startled by the action, having been half-chug of a beer barrel, but did not voice any complaints. Holding the plate with one hand, Zangetsu fingered around its contents before pulling out a diced red pepper.

"Oh! It's spicy?! I love spicy!" The dragon slayer grinned. "Can I try some?"

With a lackadaisical shrug, the blade ripped a small piece of his steak before holding it out for the dragon slayer to try. The pink haired man happily accepted it and tossed it into his mouth, chewing on it with glee before gulping it down. Just as Lucy was about to ask him what he thought of the taste, the dragon slayer coughed powerfully. Another followed, then another, and the man started beating his chest with one hand while the other held onto the table. Brown eyes widening, Lucy made to get up, only for Natsu to hold up the hand that had been hanging onto the table.

"It's-" He paused to cough again. "It's fine, but I'm never gonna do that again if I can help it." The dragon slayer rasped. "It was probably only because it was a small piece and it was mostly meat that I was even able to get it down."

"I guess that confirms that Zangetsu really is special for being able to eat raw magic." The blonde sweatdropped. "But you're sure you're alright?"

"Yeah." Natsu nodded, sitting up straight once more. "My Magic lets me eat fire, it just doesn't discriminate with where it's coming from. Eating Magic is pushing it. I felt a small boost, but that hurt my throat going down and I feel a little nauseous. I might do it if it were life or death, but that'd be about it." Upon the pink-haired man's confirmation, Zangetsu returned to gouging upon his steak. While Lucy sighed in defeat at the spirit's lack of care, Natsu instead laughed joyously. "That's just like you, Zangetsu!"

"As much as the guy is growing on me, he still gives me the heebie-jeebies." Wakaba shuddered, sitting on the other side of Natsu. The smoker made no move to leave, however. "While I'm happy ya found him, Lucy, I won't pretend that I wouldn't've left him be had I seen him."

"A lot of people would have left him be, Wakaba." The blonde in question acknowledged, brushing her fingers through the zanpakuto's hair. "I'm not going to fault anyone that would have, and I don't think he would care either. He's a really chill guy, though. I'm sure all any of you need is just to sit down with him for a bit, and maybe forgive a few things."

"Like the fact that Master looked spooked outta his boots after coming back from helping Zangetsu against Jose?" The smoker raised an eyebrow.

"Like the fact that it takes a while for him to remember names." The Spirit Mage corrected firmly. "He still gets Erza's name wrong sometimes, and she's been making an effort to talk to him every day since Galuna. It would also be easier to communicate with him if the rest of the guild learned sign language, since the only reason he's been resisting is because he doesn't see the point."

"Who even knows sign language in the guild?" Wakaba complained.

"Well, me, for starters." Lucy rolled her eyes. "Mira also knows, along with Levy. Plus there's Reedus, Fried, Master, and as much as I hate why, I heard a rumor that Loke does too."

"He does? I get the others, but that doesn't seem like a skill that playboy would pick up."

"That's why he picked it up. Rumor said he learned to wow girls." She glared, though it didn't last for very long. "Actually, I see him by the bar, so now might be a good time to check if it's true. Be right back, Zangetsu!" The spirit didn't appear to hear her, in the midst of licking his plate clean.

Rolling her eyes, though this time with affection, the Celestial Spirit Mage stood up and walked over to the bar, where Loke was having a quiet conversation with Mira. Lucy tapped him on the shoulder to get his attention.

"Lucy? Did you need me for something?" He asked, raw surprise in his tone. It was odd, since every other time they've talked, he's shamelessly hit on her. She was left honestly shocked that he hadn't immediately asked if she was finally coming around to his advances. Shaking the thought away, she collected herself.

"Hey, I was just talking to Wakaba about the guild learning sign language so that it's easier to communicate with Zangetsu. In the middle of it, I remembered that there was a rumor you knew it. Is that true?"

"Oh, yeah." The playboy confirmed, his skin paling slightly as he started inching away from the bar. "Sorry, but not really interested in teaching classes or anything like that. Don't have the time, you see." The Key Bearer's features hardened and she tightly wove her fingers around the man's arm.

"I'm sure you'd have the time if you stopped hitting on every woman in sight. Come on, it's just teaching the guild sign language, and it's not like you'd be the only teacher. There's a few others in the guild that know it. I think it'd be a great bonding exercise with Zangetsu." Loke's face paled further.

"You said there's a few others that know it, right? Then you really don't need my help. And I know Levy's one of the people that know it, too, so she can help everybody with bonding with Zangetsu and all that." At his excuses, Lucy pouted.

"One of the people I was hoping would become friends with him is you, Loke. As much as I don't like how much of a skirt-chaser you are, you're still a decent-enough guy to be accepted in Fairy Tail." Panic filled the man's eyes, and he stiffened.

"Ah, sorry, sorry, you guys say he's all friendly, but Vasto Lorde is a really scary name and I can't pretend I'm not a superficial guy!" Loke smiled abashedly. "Then you add on the fact that he's like super strong and cut up Evergreen and Bickslow, and I kinda don't really feel comfortable around him, so I'm just gonna go if you don't mind!" The man announced, finally slipping free from Lucy's grip. The blonde girl stared at him as he all but ran out the front doors of the guild, brown eyes wide.

"Huh, never seen Loke run off like that." Mira blinked. "Didn't think Zangetsu spooked him that much."

"…Neither did I." Lucy brought up a hand to her chin in contemplation. "Mira, I'll be back, I have something I need to check out!"

"Okay, I'll tell Zangetsu!"

Mirajane's announcement of Lucy's departure was rather redundant to Zangetsu. The blonde hadn't appeared to realize that they now perpetually kept track of her reiatsu, helped significantly by the constant excess of reiatsu being given to them. They had watched her as she went up to talk to that one guy with the hoodie, and as soon as she made to chase after him, the zanpakuto switched to focusing on her reiatsu. The man she was chasing after was weak, anyway, not that either half of the blade was willing to take any more chances. All that weakness really meant was that it would be all the easier to slaughter him if the man attempted to do anything. While both the Hollow and the Quincy were prepared to sit in silent wait for Lucy's return, they were saved by a call for their attention.

"Come on over, Zanny!" Cana encouraged, the nickname causing the spirit to tilt their head. They were…uncertain about what they felt about that nickname, but they found the alcoholic tolerable, so they refrained from attacking. The blade wandered up to the brunette and sat down opposite her. She dramatically shuffled the deck, tossing cards into the air and catching them in her opposite hand. Clapping her hands together with the deck between her palms, she smirked at the zanpakuto. "Do ya wanna have your fortune read?" Uncaring, the spirit shrugged. They felt that their continued presence would be enough of an answer, so they did not bother to speak.

"Great!" She smiled and flashily flipped her cards from one hand to the other. "So, in case you didn't know, my fortune readings are a bit more trustworthy. My Card Magic adds a bit of spice that affects the cards themselves, all I need is a teensy little bit of your essence to tie the cards to you and we get a 100% accurate fortune telling!" Cana explained. The added information was indeed helpful to the spirit, as it told them that it wouldn't simply be nonsense that would be fed to them to make them overthink themselves. The brunette leaned forward and held her free hand over their right wrist. "You mind if I snag a couple strands for the fortune reading?" They shook their head and lifted their wrist for her to pull some of the fur. Smiling, the woman used the edge of one of her cards to snip away a tuft of crimson fur. Straightening in her seat, she held the fur over her cards, which began to glow with golden light. The fur in her hand glowed the Hollow's signature crimson, and a strand of their reiatsu pulled from the fur down to connect with the cards, which then shifted colors to match the shade of red. Cana blinked in surprise when the fur in her hold suddenly broke apart and dissolved, but shrugged it off.

"Okay! Now that the cards are tied to your magic signature, we can start with the fortune-telling!" The alcoholic grinned as her cards maintained their glow. Without warning, they began to float into the air and spin about, forming circles of cards spinning in a column. After a moment where both watched the cars spin, they shifted into a spiral and circled down onto the table, arranging themselves into a circle upon the table with three cards sitting side by side in the center. They met each other's eyes, and then Cana reached forward to flip the card on her right. "Okay, so, first card represents your past, and yours happens to be the-" The busty woman faltered as she laid the card face-up on the table. Her skin paled and her eyes widened. Her next words whispered out from her. "It's the Nine of Swords, upright."

They lifted their head to watch her. The brunette trembled slightly as she brought her hands back, clutching the edge of the table. She was clearly nervous because of the card, obviously by what it meant.

"…Ex…plain." They demanded. The Card Magic user was blatantly wary to follow it, but eventually proved to be more wary of not answering them.

"The Nine of Swords represents internal pain." She gravely stated. The zanpakuto stiffened. "Upright, it's indicative of suffering, violence, and loss. To draw it as your past, refers to a history filled with anger, betrayal, and grief. It…it means that you've lost everything."

"…Next." The woman's brown eyes widened, before she hesitantly reached out to touch the middle card.

"The second card represents your present." She made sure to inform before she flipped it. Another gasp left her. "…The Death, reversed." They looked at her once more. She did not need the command to continue. "…Stagnation. Resistance to change. It-it means that there is something you have to do that you're refusing." The zanpakuto stood, not even allowing the words to filter through their mind.

"Next." They demanded. She quickly moved her hand to the final card, on her left.

"The third card represents the future. Yours is…" The card was flipped, and brown eyes widened. Her free hand came up to her chest as she breathed a sigh of relief. "The King of Cups, upright." She proceeded to answer the unspoken question, pleasantness in her tone. "You will find balance in your future, and understanding. Generally, the King of Cups represents that some sort of mentor or leader role will appear, whether someone becoming one to you or you becoming one to others."

There was no hesitation as the Hollow picked up their blade and left the table, heading straight for Levy. That one useless bastard that stood by the request board all day long like an indecisive child was pushed into the board from the Hollow knocking him out of their path. The whelp who treated his ability to run slower than a car as impressive and was desperate for Levy's attention was grabbed by the shoulder and thrown to the other side of the guild. To her credit, she hardly blinked, idly glancing over in concern. His groan filled the air, which prompted a nod of acceptance from her as Zangetsu sat down where the whelp once sat. He leaned down, the blunette automatically lifting her arms so his horns did not knock against her, and he rested his head in her lap. Wordlessly, she lowered her arms onto his horns, resting the book she was holding on the curve.

'Hollow-'

'Shut. The Fuck. Up.'

'The fortune-'

'We are not fucking talking about it.'

'The mention of a leader-'

'Do you want to replace King?' The Hollow snarled. That quieted his counterpart, and the conversation ended there.

Lucy quietly followed Loke until he stopped at a grave, sitting before a waterfall. He stood dejectedly, staring at the gravestone with a heavy expression. Tentatively, she stepped closer.

"Who was that?" She asked gently. Loke startled, visibly caught off guard by her presence and staring back at her with wide eyes. The playboy relaxed after a moment, seemingly seeing no harm in her being there. He turned back to the gravestone before answering.

"…A friend." Had it been even an hour ago, she'd have believed him. Now, not so much.

"You mean your previous wielder?" Her soft probing hung in the air for a long moment, with no visible reaction from the man. Just when doubt started to seed its way into her mind, Loke sighed, his shoulders falling.

"How did you figure it out?" He asked, resignation in his tone.

"You called him a 'Vasto Lorde.'" Lucy answered. "The only one who has ever referred to Zangetsu by that name is Horoligium. When I summoned him on Galuna Island, he looked at Zangetsu, said 'That's a Vasto Lorde-class Hollow' and retreated back through the gate. He refused my summons after that." The man spat out a spiteful laugh.

"Ah, of course. That tracks." Loke sighed. "I assume the next thing you're going to bring up is that only Celestial Spirits have ever instantly reacted with fear to him."

"Well, a fear response is actually standard for Zangetsu." The Spirit Mage sweatdropped. "But Aquarius had a pretty memorable reaction when I summoned her in front of him. I didn't pay much attention to it at the time because he had just attacked Taurus- long story, don't ask- and I thought it was just her panicking because of what he did to another Zodiac Spirit."

"Is Taurus okay?" The man peered over his shoulder, concern on his face.

"Virgo told me that he's recovering nicely, but to not summon him until someone gives me the okay." Lucy informed. "Are you friends with him?" An amused snort left the man.

"Hard not to when we're both Zodiac Spirits." That filled her with shock.

"You're also a Zodiac?" She gasped.

"Pleasure to be acquainted, Leo of the Lion Palace." Leo introduced as he turned to fully face her.

"Leo?! But…" Recognition finally flowed through her, and the blonde took a single step back in shock. "The last person to claim being contracted with Leo, was Karen Lilica! She reportedly died three years ago! You've been summoned since then?!"

"I have." He gravely nodded.

"Why haven't you gone back through your gate?! Celestial Spirits aren't meant to stay in the Human World, it drains their life force! I can't even imagine the toll it's been taking on you!"

"I couldn't, even if I wanted to." The spirit made sure to look her in the eyes. "I've been banished from the Celestial World. This is my penance for my crime. I will die here, in the Human World, and I am content to do so."

"What crime could you have possibly commit to warrant banishment?! You're one of the Zodiac Spirits!"

"I killed my wielder. I am the reason Karen Lilica died."

"You killed…?" Lucy brought up a hand over her mouth, before she aggressively shook her head. "No! I refuse to believe that! You're a member of Fairy Tail, Master would have never let you join if you truly were a murderer! Tell me what happened!" At her demand, Leo closed his eyes in shame.

"Karen Lilica was, as you know, a famous Celestial Spirit Mage. She was renowned for being one of the few to collect not just one, but two Zodiac Spirit Keys: Aries, and myself. She, however, formed a reputation in the Celestial World, for abusing her spirits. Aries, in particular. I couldn't stand it, and so I didn't. Knowing how difficult it was to summon another spirit while a mage already had a Zodiac Spirit out, I forcefully opened my gate and told Karen my conditions. I would only return through my gate once she nullified the contracts she had with Aries and myself." The Zodiac Spirit let out a heavy, regretful breath, and paused in his retelling. Drawing in another breath, he resumed. "I had thought that effectively preventing her from using her magic would force her hand. At the very least, my hope was that she would get angry enough to drop our contracts out of spite. Unfortunately, as you can guess, after a month of keeping myself summoned, Karen had enough. She went on a quest, without the ability to summon any Celestial Spirits, and died for it."

"But that's not you killing her! She didn't take care of her Spirits, and when told they wouldn't accept that abuse, she tried to prove she was better than that! Those are all the marks of a terrible wielder!"

"I kept myself summoned knowing it would basically prevent her from using her magic. I might as well have done the job myself. It's a fitting punishment that I die for that." Lucy didn't want to hear those words. They invoked an image in her head, one that did not center around the spirit before her. Is this how you feel?

"No! There's no punishment you're deserving of for standing up for a friend!" She shouted. "Her death was her mistake to make, not yours to be at fault for!" A somber smile fell upon Leo's face.

"I appreciate that you're trying, Lucy, but you can stop." He announced. "I can feel it, today's going to be my last. Let it happen." She wildly shook her head as she stomped forth, grabbing his arms.

"No! I refuse! How can anybody watch a friend vanish before their eyes and do nothing?! If more magic will help, we can give you some just like Mira's been giving Zangetsu! Whatever needs to be done, I'll do it!"

"Lucy, it's the rules of the Celestial World. There is nothing that can be done."

"THEN I'LL CHANGE THE RULES OF THE CELESTIAL WORLD!" The Spirit Mage screamed.

The low roar of the waterfall cut out. Lucy and Leo both froze, then turned toward the direction of the water. Its flow had stopped, as though frozen in time. Before either could question what was happening, all of the water in the vicinity rose up, as though no longer bound by gravity. They watched, astounded, as the moist rocks of the cliff and the dirt below were exposed, the water swirling through the sky in a spiral. Lucy stared in awe, while Leo, with dread, as the water coalesced into a shape.

An armored man formed, standing in the air, and the size of the cliff itself. Four tassels sprouted from the top of his helmet, and a pair of large horns curled out from the back, spreading out to the sides. An upside-down star covered the forehead of the helmet, but the man's frowning face was exposed, a gigantic mustache that extended past his arms coming from under his nose.

"The Celestial Spirit King?!" Leo breathed in horror. The blonde snapped to the Zodiac Spirit with wide eyes.

"Old friend." The apparent Spirit King's voice boomed, powerful enough that Lucy felt it could shake the heavens. "You have broken your pact with mankind and murdered a Key Bearer. It was not a direct action, but your lack of action still produced that result. You are not to be permitted to return."

"How is that fair?!" Lucy screamed without hesitation. Leo balked at the audacity of the Spirit Mage.

"I cannot change that rule for him alone."

"He's been suffering for three years! All for the sake of Aries!"

"It may pain me to witness an old friend's suffering, but-" To the Zodiac Spirit's continued shock, Lucy cut the Spirit King off.

"Then don't! You know he's in pain, and you know why! It's not his fault his wielder died! He shouldn't have to be punished for something he already feels so much guilt for!" Both present spirits were stunned by the sheer emotion in her voice. "There is nothing wrong with looking out for your friends!"

Both Leo's and the Celestial Spirit King's eyes widened when light shimmered around Lucy, solidifying into the collection of Zodiac Spirits she was contracted to. Aquarius stood with a firm expression, Cancer had a deep frown, and Sagittarius and Virgo stood at each of Taurus' sides, holding him up. The bull spirit was covered in bandages, only his head being exposed, though one of his horns was cut off. It did not last, the spirits disappearing almost immediately, but the point was more than made. As soon as they disappeared, she fell onto her hands and knees, panting with sweat pouring off her face.

"If you're a celestial spirit too, then you should understand what they felt! You would know neither of them would have ever wanted for Karen to die!" Leo rushed over to her side, helping her sit up. As he watched the display, the Spirit King remained silent.

"…If that is truly what you think, perhaps the law is too strict." He announced, surprising the remaining Zodiac Spirit. Lucy, in turn, smiled shakily. "Leo committed a crime for the sake of his fellow Zodiac, Aries. Now, a new friend of his attempts to save his life. In recognition of these bonds of loyalty, I shall judge this instance as an exception. Leo…you are permitted to return to the Celestial World. Give your thanks to your friends." The gargantuan spirit granted, turning away with the edges of his form starting to dissolve into water. The sight invoked a deep panic in the Spirit Mage. Hearing Leo's past, learning of his feelings, and finally arguing for his life to the King of the Celestial World had formed an ugly pit in her gut. It all hit too close, all sounded too similar. It all wrought far too much dread.

"WAIT!" She couldn't hold in the feeling any longer. Her desperate shout caused the Zodiac Spirit to flinch.

"Please! Before you go!" Lucy begged. "I just want to help my friend, but he's so hurt! If you know, please tell me: who was Zangetsu's previous owner?! What happened to them?!" The Spirit King stopped.

"Did you just say…Zangetsu?" The being asked.

"Yes! He's a Spirit who's currently a member of Fairy Tail, and my friend! A few Celestial Spirits recognized him as a Vasto Lorde-class Hollow! Please, I just want to help him, if there's anything you can tell me!"

"…So that is what happened." The Spirit King hummed gravely. "There are many in the Soul Society who would appreciate this information. I do not mind telling you of what I know, but be aware that I do not know much."

"Thank you so much! It doesn't matter what it is, absolutely anything would be helpful!"

"I don't believe you will maintain that belief after what I tell you." Rumbled mournfully through the air. "Zangetsu is not simply a Hollow. They are far more than that, though their true nature is not for me to say. Take heed to understand that my next words are not spoken out of malice, but out of concern for Zangetsu." Lucy nodded seriously, her eyes hard. "Their wielder, Ichigo Kurosaki, is dead. And they should have died with him." Brown orbs immediately widened. "I have nothing more on this matter that I should say. I will be pleased to see you in the Spirit World again, Leo. And I wish for your success, Lucy Heartphilia." This time, his body dissolving into water was uninterrupted. With an apologetic look, Leo dissipated into golden light, leaving behind his golden key.

Lucy was left kneeling on the floor, mere feet away from a grave. Her shuddering breath filled the suddenly far-too-empty space. The Spirit King was correct in his belief that she wouldn't take the information well. How could she have, after all? Why should Zangetsu have died? Why didn't they? With so many new questions swirling dreadfully in her mind, one thought managed to slip out from her throat.

"Well, I guess I should tell the guild that Zangetsu's apparently a they…"

Chapter Text

The announcement of Zangetsu's status as 'they' invoked a significant amount of confusion amongst the guild. Of course, everyone respected it, but that didn't stop most of them from being curious about it. In the couple days following, Lucy, Levy, and Mira got very used to Fairy Tail members coming up with inane schemes to find out what sat between Zangetsu's legs, if anything. Said schemes were usually met with violence from the spirit. It was difficult to tell if there was any genuine irritation from Zangetsu, as they did not increase how violent their responses were, which the girls felt would be the most obvious clue of any annoyance.

An opinion shared between Lucy, Levy, and Mira was the confidence that Zangetsu would give them an answer if they simply asked, but none of them felt any desire to. It made no difference to any of them why Zangetsu identified as 'they', though Mira did quietly conclude that it was something along the lines of Hollows lacking any concept of gender. Between those who were curious about Zangetsu and those content, one thing was unanimous: what Fairy Tail cared about the most was that Zangetsu was getting better.

The spirit's top was most of the way complete, missing only the left sleeve by this point. Because of that, they were all able to reevaluate what their top was, as the members of Fairy Tail realized it wasn't a simple jacket. They wore a black tailcoat, the top conforming to their body while the skirt flared out with a ragged bottom edge. The ends of the coat were lined with white, and the interior was a crimson that matched their fur. The neck of the coat was a v-neck, dipping down far enough to flaunt the top of the hole in their chest.

The implications of the power Zangetsu wielded were understood only by those of the guild who were S-Class, and the Master. Lucy also understood the gravity of what it meant, along with Levy, though Levy was hesitant to accept it. The blue-haired girl had more than enough evidence by now to be confident in Zangetsu's strength, but it was that ever-present awareness of how much their life was tied to that strength which made her worry. For all that they had clearly demonstrated that their power was comparable to a wizard saint, they had similarly demonstrated that their power was quick to drain in the right circumstances.

Master Makarov had not said a word to anyone about what he found when he went to help Zangetsu with Jose, but the context clues were easy to put together for anyone looking. Zangetsu walked into a fight against the Master of Phantom Lord and one of his Element Four, and was the only one to walk out. It had been clear to everyone that the spirit carried no qualms with killing, and there had been…a body and a half which were picked up by the Magic Council after the battle. Makarov had spent a good few days after in heavy debate with the Council over something he did not explain to the rest of the Guild, but it wasn't hard to figure out what it was about. Most importantly, to those aware that they consumed magical energy, the connection of half of one of the bodies being missing and a significant amount of Zangetsu's coat returning was not a tenuous one.

It left Levy in a situation where she knew that Zangetsu could clearly win such a fight, but not without being at heavy risk. Unlike other mages, Zangetsu's risk was more innately dangerous. Wizards could only lose their lives if their opponents were actively seeking it. Meanwhile, Zangetsu could very easily be killed without enemies intending to kill them. Exhausting your opponent's magical energy so that they couldn't fight back anymore was a common strategy after all, and it wasn't like they went through theirs slowly.

Zangetsu seemed to be aware of her concern, if their making sure she was close by whenever they ate was any indicator. They had also at one point dragged her with them to Mirajane's home to show her how they siphoned magical energy from the barmaid. The blue-haired woman had returned to the guild the next day unable to look at Mirajane without blushing. It prompted many questions and theories, with Levy's only answer to any of the questions being that she wished she had the magical energy Mirajane did.

Wanting to lighten the mood and distract everyone from the concern and curiosities, Lucy came up with an idea (that absolutely wasn't her taking advantage of a gift from her newest Zodiac spirt). She had five tickets to a resort and casino for a small vacation, and was more than happy to share them with her friends. Outside of herself, Zangetsu was given the first, something the blonde was firm on. Natsu was given the next, which made the fire user cheer. Naturally, seeing that Natsu was going to a casino, Gray immediately demanded to join in, so that he could prove he was better at gambling than the dragon slayer. With only one ticket left, Lucy offered it to Levy, only for the girl to turn the blonde down since there weren't enough tickets for her to bring the rest of Team Shadow Gear with her. She wanted to do something with her team so that they didn't feel disregarded, like they were worrying about. In light of that, she offered the final ticket to Erza, who demonstrated how eager she was to join by already having a cart full of luggage packed.

Although she wasn't happy to have Zangetsu leave her sight, Levy was content that it was a vacation resort they were going to, and that Erza would be present. While the resort was heavily unlikely to have liquefied magic on hand, and even more unlikely for them to willfully allow a patron to consume it, Erza had sufficient magical power that she could sustain Zangetsu just like Mira did. It's not like a fight would break out.

Their biggest concern would be the reaction of the owners to Zangetsu.

Their biggest concern was not, in fact, the reaction of the owners to Zangetsu. That honor would go to Natsu. With all but their left sleeve covering their body, the owners actually assumed Zangetsu was simply a particularly quirky wizard. A frightening one, sure, but it appeared that since the back of Zangetsu's coat was covering up the fact that the hole in their chest was very much real, the owners thought they were just very dedicated to their image. They had politely asked that Zangetsu keep their blade in the hotel room, and when the spirit slipped the blade through the sash around their waist, the owners accepted that was the best they would likely get out from them and offered no argument.

Zangetsu already liked the owners. Unlike Zangetsu, however, Natsu was an excitable brat who couldn't go five minutes without breaking something. The Hollow almost found it admirable how the fire mage could set something on fire by accident so consistently. The Quincy found it annoying that they could not have a moment of peace. The owners were very close to banning the dragon slayer, and only staved off from doing so because Lucy unintentionally seduced them. Lucy had been in a bathing suit when she begged the owners to not ban her friend, flailing about in genuine panic, and the owners had been weak to the display. Naturally, as this occurred, Gray was off to the side in nothing but boxers, and Erza was in her armor, reading through a catalogue called Blacksmith's Weekly.

While the mages of Fairy Tail all enjoyed themselves at the beach, playing in the water, Zangetsu was on the sand, utterly amazed at how many women were hitting on them. They truly expected themselves to be the last in the group to be hit on, if at all. But the sheer amount who had talked about wanting to handle their 'sword' or implied how they would use Zangetsu's horns was baffling. The only person who was hit on more frequently than them was Lucy. Well, a fair amount of women attempted to get close to Gray, intentions obvious, but were all quickly culled when a lady with blue hair appeared to stop them with an utterly murderous expression on her face. The zanpakuto had no idea who the woman was, having never seen her before, but she wasn't expressly bothering anyone from Fairy Tail, so they paid her no mind.

After the sun came down, however, the group agreed to visit the casino. Lucy, and Erza especially, chose to dress up for the occasion. Technically, Gray did as well, but none of them counted it when they knew the fancy wear wouldn't stay on him. They all journeyed to the basement as a group, but split off quickly. Gray announced that he wouldn't let his luck be ruined by the scams ran by the dealers and promptly went over to a slot machine. Erza explained that she had spent time in casinos before while on quests, and that she was particularly good at poker, before striding confidently toward a table. Lucy was going to explain what she was going to do, only for Natsu to sprint off, screaming that he wasn't going to let a scam stop him.

Dread instantly washed over Lucy's face, she glanced around in a panic, and then she shoved Zangetsu into a seat at a table shaped like a half circle, with the dealer standing at the flat side.

"I have to go make sure Natsu doesn't get us permanently banned, have some fun!" Lucy paused for a moment to turn to the dealer. "Zangetsu is mute, so please keep that in mind!" Moments like these reaffirmed that Lucy was Zangetsu's favorite. The dealer nodded to confirm that they understood, and so the blonde ran off to keep Natsu in check.

"So," the dealer spoke up while facing the spirit, "are you familiar with Blackjack?" The zanpakuto shook their head. "Alright, then. The goal is to try to get as close to 21 without going over…"

The patrons in the casino were amazed by them, in utter awe at their 'skill' in Blackjack. The Hollow wouldn't call it skill. He called it 'the dealer was shit at hiding when he was manipulating the deck'. The Quincy hummed that it was called 'they could perceive the minute movements which indicated that the dealer was going to switch cards'. What they agreed on was that they were going to take advantage and win as much money as they could because Lucy constantly had money problems. As the Hollow had caught with his hearing, the dealer had confirmed to someone through an earpiece that Zangetsu wasn't cheating, so they felt comfortable that nothing would go wrong. Granted, the Hollow did want to punch the dealer because he seemed to think they weren't smart enough to card count, but he was content to wait until after they had earned all the money they possibly could to do so.

'Hey, what's Tit's rent again?'

'70,000 of this world's currency, if I am not remembering incorrectly.' The Hollow looked at the moderate pile of chips that they had earned so far. Despite his irritation at Zangetsu's success, the dealer had done them the service of exchanging their chips at regular intervals so that their pile did not take up too much space. It was a pleasant convenience, but it also meant that the zanpakuto was utterly lost as to how much they had won so far. No one had informed them of what any of the chips represented, so all they understood was that they were earning more than they were losing. Hopefully, they had earned enough for at least one month of rent by now.

There was a loud crash from a far corner of the casino, startling the others at the table. Sending out a pulse of Pesquisa, the zanpakuto sensed that Natsu was the source. There was another mage close by to him, but he was notably weaker than the fire mage. As far as they could decipher, the dragon slayer seemed fine, so they trusted that it was just him being excited, like normal. They looked at their cards, seeing that they were currently at 18. They looked over at the dealer, seeing his visible cards added up to 6. After a moment of thought, they waved their hand over their cards and stared at the dealer.

The man stared at them in shock, utterly aghast at their indifference to what was going on elsewhere. His gaze went around, as though silently asking others for help, before locking onto something past Zangetsu's shoulder.

"Hey, can you swap with me? I need a break from this guy!"

"Hm?" A male voice hummed from behind the spirit. "Oh, this guy's a Fairy Tail mage. Yeah, I think I can help." A hand rested on their left shoulder, and before they could respond, their vision distorted.

Lucy was running around in a panic, trying to find her friends in the crowd. There had been a loud crash in the direction Natsu mentioned he wanted to go, which at first incited irritation in the Celestial Mage, but the lack of flames made concern grow inside her. Then screams started ringing out from that same direction, and that brought her to now, where she was trying to find everyone. She spotted Erza sitting at a poker table, staring in shock at a dealer, and that was the last thing she saw before everything turned pitch black.

"What's going on?!" The blonde shouted, a moment before she heard a gunshot echo inside the building, followed by Happy's screaming of Natsu's name. "Natsu!?" Thankfully, the darkness did not linger, as the lights were already returning. However, she instantly realized that, once all of her sight returned, she and Erza were the only people she could see. "Wha-?!"

"Over here, Sis." A voice announced. She and Erza turned to see the dealer that the redhead had been staring at. He was average height, with tanned skin and wild yellow hair, and a small tattoo under his lip. What drew the focus of Lucy's attention, though, was how he was tossing cards from his hands into the air. None of the cards were normal, lacking their normal faces to instead display moving people on them.

"Are there- did you put people inside those cards?!" Lucy gasped.

"Isn't it amazing?" The card dealer wondered, his eyes locked on Erza. "How we're able to use magic now, too?"

The redhead's eyes widened. "We? How?" Before anyone else could react, Lucy heard a sound from behind her, and a robe snapped around her body, weaving around her wrists and tying them behind her head.

"Wha-!" The rope pulled her in, and her back slammed against the edge of a table, making her grunt at the impact. A hand grabbed her wrists, and she was forced to bend backward, looking up at a woman who was sitting atop the table. The woman had orange hair with two tufts stuck up like cat ears. She had red marks painted on her cheeks to mimic whiskers, and wore a brown jacket over a black dress.

"Millianna?!" Erza gasped.

"Hi Er-chan! It's been a long time, hasn't it?" The cat-themed woman purred, waving her fingers in Erza's direction.

"Let Lucy go! She's a friend of mine!" The redhead demanded.

"Didn't we used to be your friends, Sis?" The card dealer emphasized. His eyes shifted to a glare. "Until you betrayed us, that is."

"Now, hold on now, Sho." Everyone turned to the new voice, seeing it was a series of floating blocks which coalesced into a suited man wearing a fedora and smoking a cigar. "It ain't dandy to let your emotions out on a dame. And she really has become one heckuva dame since the last time we saw her."

"That voice…" Erza muttered. "Wally?" The man let out a bark of laughter.

"Can't even recognize me right away? Guess I can't blame you. Compared to when I was 'Mad Dog Wally', I'm a bit more well-rounded."

"You all…are using magic?" The redheaded swordswoman breathed.

"Why are you so surprised?!" A voice came from above, before a figure crashed down. It was a large man, wearing a turban that covered his left eye, and a robe that only covered the left side of his torso. A metal jaw was bolted over the lower half of his face. "Magic isn't that difficult to get accustomed to. You would know that, Erza."

"Simon?!" Erza covered her mouth with a hand. Lucy wiggled in the ropes she was being held in.

"What's going on?" The blonde demanded. "Who are you people?"

"Of course, it figures that she'd never tell you about us." The card dealer scoffed. "I'm her little brother, and all of us were once her close friends!"

"But Erza's been at Fairy Tail since she was a little girl, hasn't she?" Lucy asked as she continued to struggle in her bonds. The cat woman, Milliana, let go of her and let her fall to the floor, more rope coming around to bind the blonde's ankles.

"They're…talking about before that." Erza mournfully explained. "What are you all doing here? Could you please let Lucy go?"

"What are we doing here?" Sho asked. "Isn't it obvious? We're here to take you back home."

"And if you decide to make it difficult…" The so-called Wally pulled out a revolver and walked over to Lucy, aiming it at the back of the celestial mage's head. A chill went down her spine at the threat, but she swiftly steeled her expression, turning her head to glare at the man.

"That's a big mistake you're making, pal." She declared. "Zangetsu will wreak havoc on all of you if you hurt me."

"Zangetsu?" The card dealer mockingly tilted his head. "You mean that guy with the horns and the sword? I dealt with him already. He's not coming to help."

Panic flooded her body. "What did you do to him?!" A gunshot rang through the building, and while Lucy flinched in preparation to be shot, it was Erza who gasped and fell forward, revealing that Wally's blocky hand had appeared behind her back. "Erza!"

"Relax, relax, it ain't dandy to kill someone who's unarmed. Just a sleep bullet, understand?" Wally announced, allowing his arm to return to him. Simon stomped over and picked up Erza's limp body.

"Mission accomplished. Time to go."

"Wait! Where are you taking her?! What did you do to Zangetsu?!" Lucy demanded. She wiggled more in her restraints, only for the cat woman to wave a finger and have the ropes tighten further.

"Oh yeah, Millianna!" Wally called out, holding his hands in front of him as blue blocks manifested in them. "I found a gift for you." Once the blocks fully formed, it revealed an unconscious Happy in his hands.

"It's a kitty!" The cat woman instantly cheered, cradling Happy in her arms. "You shouldn't have!" As they all began walking away, Sho looked up at the ceiling.

"Sis…" He sounded delighted. "You're finally coming back, to the Tower of Heaven."

Lucy gasped in pain as the ropes tightened once more around her body. Whatever the cat woman did before leaving, was making the ropes slowly tighten as time went on. They were magical ropes, so she wasn't able to loosen them to balance out the tightening. At this rate, they were going to crush her ribs. She bit her lip and continued wiggling, trying to get her key ring to fall out from her pouch. If she could just summon one of her spirits, they could free her and they could check on the others.

There was a clink and Lucy realized she had successfully gotten her key ring out. Blindly shuffling her body, she managed to get one of her fingers to touch the cold metal of the ring, and she swiftly pulled it into her hold. Clutching all of the keys in her grip, she called out:

"Open, Gate of the Crab, Cancer!" She waited for the familiar glow and draw on her magic, but nothing happened. "Gate of the Maiden, Virgo! Saggitarius! Leo!" No matter who she called, none of them responded. Wait, they were magical ropes, what if they blocked her magic power as well?

A pained wheeze left the mage as the restraints tightened once more, preventing her from drawing full breaths. Just as her mind began reeling for a solution to the situation, a sharp pain appeared in her side. She cried out and turned away from the pain.

"Sorry, Sorry!" A small voice apologized. "I was trying to see if I could cut my way out of this card, I didn't mean to nick you!"

Brown eyes widened. She turned her head back around, and saw that there was a card on the floor right under where she had just been lying, face up and with a man inside of it. The man was wearing tropical holiday clothes, holding a pocket knife.

"Wait, that's it! If your knife can reach through the card, you can cut me free!" Lucy shuffled around until her upper back was atop the card, so that the man inside had access to the ropes around her ribs. Just as they positioned themselves correctly, Lucy felt the ropes tighten again, making her grit her teeth in pain. "Hurry!" She felt the ropes wiggle slightly as the man's knife drew across them, severing fiber after fiber as quickly as the shrunken object could. It made to tighten once more, but this time, enough of the robe had been severed that it split apart, popping open and making the celestial mage draw in a deep, grateful breath. She instantly climbed onto her hands and knees, pulling the rope away from her limbs.

"Thank you so much, Mister!" She expressed. "I promise I'll get you out of there, I just need to find my guildmates!"

"Yeah, yeah! Go do that! Make sure those weirdos that did this get their just desserts!" The man in the card encouraged. Smiling at him, Lucy stood up and ran off, trying to recall where the others went. She stumbled upon a torn apart bar, with bottles scattered everywhere and the tables and chairs blown to pieces.

"What- GRAY!" She shrieked as she saw Gray's body sitting up against a broken table, a metal pole penetrating through the center of his chest. The celestial mage ran over and kneeled down beside him. Lucy placed her hands on his body and nearly flinched back, finding that he was ice cold. "Gray are you-!" She touched his face to see if he would be responsive, only for his face to crack where she touched. She shrieked in horror as the cracks grew along his face and body, and then fell apart, revealing it was an ice sculpture.

"What…?" The blonde breathed, looking around in confused before seeing a puddle spill out from under some debris. It stopped in place, and then a head peered out from inside the puddle. She blinked in confusion, recognizing the head of blue hair. "Juvia?!"

The rain woman peeked around, checking that Lucy was the only one around, and then rose up, forming her body from the puddle. Then, without any preamble, Gray fell out from Juvia's body. He turned over onto his hands and knees instantly, hacking and coughing as he fought to regain his breath.

"Juvia hid Gray-sama inside of her body to keep him save from the enemy." The rain woman announced. "Aren't you proud of Juvia, Gray-sama?"

Seemingly ignoring the woman, the Ice Make mage turned his head up at Lucy. "There was this big guy who turned out all the lights. While they were off, I thought it would be useful to make an ice clone to confuse him. Juvia grabbed me right after."

"It's good to hear that you're okay, but what about-" Lucy was cut off by an eruption. The three of them snapped around to see a massive gout of flame bursting out from under some debris, and then Natsu leapt out from under the debris, pawing at his mouth.

"Owowowow!" He hissed. "That guy doesn't know how to shoot at all! He almost got the bullet inside my throat! It burned my tongue!"

"You idiot!" Lucy shouted. "Erza got kidnapped and Zangetsu is missing!" Instantly, both the dragon slayer and the ice mage stiffened. Natsu's head instantly lifted and he sniffed the air.

"I've got her scent! We'll follow it and kick those guys' asses!" He declared.

"But first, that card guy did something to Zangetsu! We have to find him!" Lucy cried, standing up and starting to seriously look around. Sho's words had flooded her with anxiety, deepened by his lack of answer as to what he did to the spirit. Natsu and Gray both immediately shared in her concern, just as quickly understanding what the source of her worry was.

"Where did you last see him?!" Gray asked, already starting to pick up some of the debris to look for their friend.

"I left him at a Blackjack table!" She called back, searching for anything that looked like a card table.

"Zangetsu!" Natsu began calling out, cupping his hands around his mouth as he hunted across the casino floor. "I can't smell you, so if you can hear me, do something to let us know where you are!"

Without warning, there was an eruption from one of the corners of the casino, a massive crimson blast that blew everything near it away. The mages all covered their eyes as the blast sent a gust of wind out. Once it was past them, they all looked in the direction of the blast, and saw Zangetsu lying on their back.

"Zangetsu!" Lucy breathed in relief as she ran over, seeing the spirit push themselves up into a sitting position, looking mildly out of sorts. "Are you okay? What happened?"

"…Card?" They voiced confusedly. That brought further relief out of the celestial mage.

"That's good, so that Sho guy can only put people into cards. Makes sense that you'd be able to bust out of it if a normal guy's knife can poke through."

"…What…happened?"

"Erza got kidnapped!" Natsu roared. "And we're going to go rescue her!" The spirit stared at the dragon slayer for a moment, before swiftly climbing to their feet. Their sword shined threateningly in the light.

"Go."

Chapter Text

The air was tense as the group sailed forth in a small boat they managed to procure. Currently, they consisted of Zangetsu themself, Natsu, Gray, Lucy, and the blue-haired woman that the blade had tolerated earlier. She was demonstrating her worth by pushing the boat forward at a pace it wouldn't naturally be able to achieve, showcasing her Water Magic to propel them along the water. She was incessantly determined to receive Gray's approval and praise for her actions, but the Ice Make Mage was too tense at the thought of Erza being in danger. Initially, they all had turned to Zangetsu for help in locating Erza, actually remembering the zanpakuto's reiatsu sense this time. However, when they sent out a ping of Pesquisa, they realized she was already outside of their range. The group then defaulted to Natsu, whose nose was so powerful that he could track a scent days after the owner had left. The dragon slayer managed to point them in the direction Erza's scent went in before he was rendered immobile by his motion sickness. They had been sailing for over an hour, an impressive time considering their dramatically increased speed.

"You still can't sense Erza, Zangetsu?" Lucy asked, fiddling with her keys. The blade had realized a while back that it was a nervous tick of hers, to hold them close and trace their shapes with her fingers.

"…No." They sadly informed. They had been using their Pesquisa every ten minutes as they continued on their journey, and had come up empty every time. They sensed only the miniscule reiatsu of the creatures in the ocean.

"Dammit." Gray grit his teeth. "Those bastards ambushed all of us and took Erza and Happy while we were out cold. How pathetic."

"They said something about being friends of Erza's." Lucy mournfully informed. Gray and the blue-haired woman both turned to the Celestial Mage, but the zanpakuto did not care about the information. If they still were friends, they would have felt no need to ambush and kidnap her. As far as the blade was concerned, it was as simple as that. They would watch out for the one who trapped them inside of a playing card, but they all were going to feel the zanpakuto's retaliation. It was thanks to the fact that they did not glance back at Lucy that allowed them to be the first to see it.

"…Land." The group all turned at their announcement, and several gasps rang out from behind the spirit. It was a large, sprawling tower sitting alone on an island, easily the tallest structure Zangetsu had yet seen in this world. It looked to be of similar design and structure to the architecture of this world, and as they sailed closer, there appeared to be a small congregation of buildings at the base of the tower. The island itself was small, barely large enough to house the collection of buildings.

"That has to be where they're keeping Erza." Gray declared. "Zangetsu, can you tell where she is in there?" Without a moment's hesitation, the spirit sent out another wave of Pesquisa, but this time, they swiftly regretted it. An overwhelming amount of information returned to the blade's senses, enough that a flash of pain went through their mind and they drew a foot back instinctively. They cradled their head in their free hand and let out a pained breath.

"…Too…much." They answered. "…Every…thing…Magic." Gray and Lucy both narrowed their eyes at the declaration.

"You think they knew about Zangetsu's Magic?" The Ice Make Mage asked.

"It feels off. Something is telling me that this is just coincidence." The blonde shook her head. "Zangetsu, what did you mean by, 'Everything is Magic'?"

The zanpakuto gestured to the tower. "…Tower…filled…Magic." They rasped. "…Can't…tell."

"What, like the walls are filled with Magic?" Gray pushed. The horned beast nodded in confirmation. "Yeah, that would be too much of a waste of energy just to circumvent Zangetsu's Magic, that has to be tied to something else." The shirtless man agreed. They docked the boat at the base of the island, behind some rocks so that they would be hidden. Zangetsu grabbed Natsu's arm and tossed him onto the rocks, the dragon slayer swiftly recovering from his motion sickness as everyone else climbed onto the rocks. There was a pathway of stairs leading from a proper dock where a ship was moored at to the tower itself, with a pair of guards standing at attention every ten steps. Zangetsu took notice that once the blue-haired woman saw the guards, she gained a determined expression before diving into the water. The others did not appear to have caught her action, all focused on the guards.

"Come on, Lucy." Natsu whispered. "Especially with Zangetsu's help, we can tear through these guys."

"We don't know how many guards there will be throughout the tower." Lucy admonished. "We don't want to exhaust ourselves before we even reach her!" That was a good point, the spirit tensed. They were not willing to risk another situation like the one with Jose, especially since it was pure luck that led to them regaining the advantage halfway through. It was severely unlikely that whoever was behind this would similarly have a power they could use to restore their reiatsu, the blade couldn't afford to be reckless with their power use. Just as they all began speculating on how to sneak past the guards and enter the tower without having to do too much fighting, Zangetsu sensed the blue-haired woman pop up from the water behind them.

"Juvia has found an underwater passageway that leads to the lower levels of the tower." She revealed. So her name was Juvia, then? The group all turned to her in various degrees of shock and excitement.

"Seriously? Great job, Juvia!" Gray smiled. The Water Mage instantly beamed, utterly delighted by the praise. She turned toward Lucy to level a superior smirk at the blonde.

"Hear that? He praised me, not you!" She lauded, to the Celestial Mage's confusion

"Congratulations?" Lucy offered. Maintaining her smile, Juvia refocused on the group as a whole.

"By my estimate, we would need to swim for approximately ten minutes to make it through the passageway." The blue-haired woman informed.

"Easy." Natsu answered promptly.

"No problem." Gray responded similarly.

"Don't listen to them!" Lucy instantly jumped in. "None of us can do that!" The Water Mage then lifted a hand out of the water, a sphere of water manifesting in her palm.

"Then place these over your heads." She announced. "It's oxygen surrounded by a water shell. It should allow you to breathe for a few minutes." The first person she offered it to, naturally, was Gray, who took it without a word and pushed it onto his head. Natsu was next, shoving it on while also blankly asking Juvia who she was. At least Zangetsu wasn't the only one who was unfamiliar with someone this time. Lucy then took the next, and seemingly only the blade spotted that it was slightly smaller than the other two spheres. They slightly reevaluated the blue-haired woman, now cautious of how she interacted with the blonde. The Water Mage offered a sphere to the zanpakuto, but they denied it. It wouldn't benefit them, breathing was lingering muscle memory rather than necessity. The group of four followed after Juvia into the water, Zangetsu slipping their blade into their sash around their waist to better maneuver in the water. Thankfully, swimming was not a skill they had needed to learn. Juvia moved through the water as though she was part of it, likely a benefit of being a water mage. She made sure to not move too far ahead of them, thankfully, so that was not a concern. After around eight or nine minutes, Juvia floated up and surfaced, which inspired the rest of them to follow suit. When they broke past the surface, they realized they were in the location she had informed them about, an underground cavern with wooden walkways crossing overhead.

Juvia drifted over to some rocks, where there was a slope leading up to the walkways, and they all swam after her, climbing up and doing their best to dry off. Juvia seemed to have such fine control over her magic that she could just choose when to be wet, instantly drying off, and Natsu coated himself in fire to dry his clothes. Gray stood next to him, lifting his legs one at a time to be closer to the heat, while Lucy called upon one of her spirits to give her a change of clothes from the Celestial Spirit World. As for Zangetsu, they merely ignored it. Wet clothes did not affect them, nor were the dangers that came with it a threat. Instead, they turned their attention to the reiatsu signatures moving above them. They were all small, using the metric Team Natsu had used before, they were all 1's. But there were many of them, which was the real concern. Physical exertion did not deplete their reiatsu storage nearly as much as reiatsu attacks did, but they did have to constantly maintain their body while in a fight. Just as Zangetsu was about to warn the group to be quiet so that they might sneak past the group, there was a shout from above.

"INTRUDERS!" A man shouted, and the group all snapped around to see they had been caught. Dozens of guards instantly began running around, traversing the walkways to reach the wizards and the blade. The zanpakuto instantly drew their blade in readiness, as Lucy called upon another spirit. Natsu rushed forward, flames wreathing his arms as he shouted for the guards to get out of his way. There was the splintering of wood behind the zanpakuto, and they glanced back to see Gray had created an ice hammer that he used to destroy one of the walkways. Juvia looked resigned for just a moment before rushing forth, swiping blades of water at the guards approaching them. Zangetsu kept a close track of Lucy and stomped forward, cutting down every guard that came within their reach. Thankfully, Natsu was doing the lion's share of the work, followed closely by Gray. The sheer area covered by the dragon slayers flames meant that the weak guards were taken out in droves, and Gray cut off reinforcements by destroying their means of reaching the cavern. By the time they were done, Zangetsu had only needed to take out about a dozen or so of the men.

Creak…

The sound echoed throughout the cavern only once all the men were dealt with, and Zangetsu and Natsu were able to pinpoint that it came from a ladder leading to an opening in the ceiling. Since all other means of breaching the tower had been destroyed by Gray, they had no choice but to use it, and they quickly found themselves in what looked like a dining room, a long table with many high-backed chairs surrounding it encompassing the length of the room. Juvia was the first to look back at the opening they had used to climb up into the room, frowning as she did so.

"The mechanisms here…this was moved by remote control." She spotted. "Juvia and her companions are likely being watched if that is the case, but why are they allowing us to progress?"

The zanpakuto similarly found the information disconcerting. The only advantage the Quincy could come up with was to direct their group into areas to give them the most difficulty, but it would have taken them quite a bit of time to naturally find this opening. Overall, it was only riskier to allow them to progress. The Hollow suspected it was the owner of the tower playing with them, treating them like prey and entertaining themselves by giving the mages a chance. Before they could ponder the thought further, there was another shout coming from the entryway into the room, and the group all shifted into ready positions as they saw even more guards rushing at them. The blade was grateful for their caution this time. Weak as these guards were, having to tear through potentially hundreds of them was going to make an impact on their reiatsu storage, at least if they could only take them on a dozen at a time in separate encounters. Sticking with Team Natsu was going to allow them to save their energy for a real danger.

Just as flames curled out from Natsu's hands, something rushed the guards from behind, knocking them aside one by one until the entire group had been torn through. Once the dust had settled, several of the Fairy Tail members gasped at who it revealed itself to be.

"Erza?!" Gray gawked.

"You're okay!" Lucy cheered. The redheaded swordswoman's eyes widened at the calls, and she nearly dropped the swords in her hands.

"What are all of you doing here?" She breathed in horror.

"What are you talking about?!" Natsu shouted back, disregarding her reaction entirely. "Those guys made fools of us and took off! We have to get them back for making Fairy Tail look like idiots!"

"You don't understand." Erza announced gravely. "This isn't any place for you to be."

"Yeah? Well, I ain't leaving until I get Happy back from that Boxy guy!" The dragon slayer declared.

"Boxy…?" The redhead wondered. "That sounds more like something Milliana would do, but even then, she wouldn't just take someone's cat…"

"Milliana?!" The pink-haired man asked. "Do you know where he is?!"

"I-No…"

"Then I'm gonna go looking for Happy, and you can't stop me!" Natsu declared as he rushed off before anyone could stop him.

"That idiot!" Gray hissed as he made to run after his rival, only to be stopped by Erza holding out her blade in his path, her back to him.

"No!" Erza declared. "You all are going to go home. Zangetsu, can you take them back?"

"Erza?!" Gray gaped disbelievingly.

"Happy's in no danger, Milliana loves cats to the extreme." She announced. "I'll see to it that Natsu and Happy head back after you swiftly."

"…But…You." The spirit pointed out. The redhead flinched, but did not lower her sword.

"…This is my problem to solve. None of you were supposed to get involved."

"We're already involved!" Gray reminded. "Or did you not just see Natsu?" Erza's head dropped slightly, but still, she held her blade out.

"Erza, what is this place?" Lucy asked. "Why did those people calling themselves your friends kidnap you?" The swordswoman's head dipped further. "We're your friend now, Erza! If you need help, then we'll be right behind you!"

"…Please…" Her voice was quiet. "…Just go home."

"Erza…" Gray breathed. "Come on. I know even someone like you must have moments where you're scared. Isn't that part of being Fairy Tail, that we'll help you out in those moments?"

Finally, the woman lowered the sword and turned halfway to them, revealing that her right eye was dripping with tears. Her face was a pained sort of stoic, the woman doing her best to preserve herself but clearly struggling with it. The sight stunned the mages, but made something dark and heavy form in Zangetsu's stomach. That expression…it reminded them of things. Of a castle in a desert, a loathsome bat, and a quest to save someone who had made an expression far too close to that.

"Forgive me." Erza's voice was weak as she wiped the tears from her eye. "…This battle…win or lose…" She spoke heavily. "…It will mean that the outside world will never hear from me again." While both the mages and the blade tensed at her words, it was for different reasons. The mages all became flooded with concern. The zanpakuto had to reign themself in from reacting too strongly.

"What?" Gray's voice shook.

"It's a fate I cannot hope to avoid." Erza smiled depressively.

"…Fuck…Fate." Zangetsu seethed with their barely functional voice. The sheer hatred in their tone threw off everyone in the room. Fate had decided that their wielder would get into a fight he couldn't possibly win. Fate had sent them against a person who lied about their strength, making them relax in the belief their wielder could win and leaving them unprepared for an ocean of reiatsu to pour down upon them. Fate had torn the blade from their revenge, leaving that damn bat alive. They existed to shatter fate, and they were more determined than ever to ensure that Fate would be torn asunder by their hands.

Erza smiled upon them mournfully, as though she was already dead and the blade had simply not realized it. "…While I'm still here, I'll at least do you the service of informing you of everything that's going on." The redhead drew in a calming breath, then began.

"The tower we are inside of now is known as the Tower of Heaven. It is also referred to as the R-System. Just over a decade ago, a religious cult that practiced Black Magic tried to build towers that use magic to resurrect the dead." The room turned cold, everyone present stunned in their own ways as they processed the information. But there were two standouts to this revelation. One of them being Lucy, whose first reaction was to instantly turn to Zangetsu with a face full of concern, knowing just how fresh the spirit's wound was. Tentatively, she stepped closer to the blade and rested a hand on their left arm, peering around them to try to get a feel for what was going on in their mind.

The zanpakuto's unmoving mask betrayed nothing, but the way their entire body stilled was evidence enough. Their mind was likely reeling at the prospect of resurrecting their owner. Worried for her friend, Lucy went with her instincts and lowered her hand to intertwine her fingers with theirs, securing a tight grip to act as a reminder that she was there.

Inside the zanpakuto's mind was deathly silent. The Quincy was stunned, helplessly gazing out with a glazed expression as his mind stalled repeatedly every time the thought that bringing their wielder back was possible went through it. The Hollow was wide-eyed, so astonished by the information that he wasn't even breathing. His fist clenched around their hilt, making the chain rattle slightly.

In the background, Erza continued with her story, explaining how the cult captured slaves to build the towers and that she had been one of those slaves, but the zanpakuto was perceiving none of it. No, what instead took over their minds was the idea that bounced around with increasing volume:

They could bring Ichigo back.

She talked about her treatment as a slave, but they heard bring Ichigo back. She talked about someone she cared about turning evil, but they heard the echoes of their wielder's laughter. She talked about how they revolted against their captors, but they heard his bickering with a certain height-deficient Shinigami. They conversed about the person the tower was intending to resurrect, some legendary black mage, and all they heard was the sound of Ichigo's voice as he was returned to them. Two of the people who had attacked them in the casino appeared in the room, talking about having never been on the enemy's side to begin with, and the zanpakuto didn't care.

"…How…use." They demanded to know. Everyone in the room stiffened, most particularly the two who had attacked them before.

"Zangetsu…" Lucy mournfully whispered.

"Sis…" The one in the suit looked horrifically conflicted. "Are you partnered up with someone who wants to resurrect Zeref?"

"No!" Erza defended immediately. "Zangetsu just…has lost someone recently…" The big one with the metal jaw over his mouth softened his expression.

"I'm sorry to hear that." He responded. "But we cannot allow the R-System to be activated." A flash of rage went through the zanpakuto, and they took a step forward as they clenched their blade tighter.

"…How…use!" They repeated. Knowing the spirit far better than the two newcomers did, Erza stepped forward in turn, pressing a hand to the big one's chest to keep him back.

"I don't know, Zangetsu." She breathed. "We were only forced to build it, and I wasn't even there for the entire process. I don't know how it functions." After a moment of staring at the swordswoman, an irritated snort left the spirit. They then looked up at the big one, who seemed far more informed on the matter. "Tell them you don't know how to work it, Simon." The redhead pleaded. The big one, apparently named Simon, glanced down at her with concern, before locking eyes with the spirit.

"I honestly do not know how to operate it." He announced. "But it is a grotesque machine. While I understand your desire to resurrect someone you have lost, I must warn you that I do not know if it was specifically made to only be able to resurrect Zeref or if it is able to bring back anyone." The horned beast remained staring at the turban-wearing man for a long and uncomfortable moment.

Then their blade sagged in their grip. Their head sank slowly, drifting down until they were listlessly gazing at the ground. Lucy stepped closer and hugged the blade's side, something they did not respond to.

"I'd like to welcome you all to the Tower of Heaven." A voice resonated through the room. While Zangetsu remained unmoving, everyone else looked around to see that dozens of mouths had appeared over the ceiling and walls of the building. "I am Jellal, the keeper of this tower. The game board is now set, so I'd say it's time to begin. Welcome to the Paradise Game."

As everyone around them began chatting amongst themselves, Zangetsu ignored them all. If 'Jellal' was the one who ruled the tower, then he was the one most likely to know how to use it.

"The rules are simple: I intend to sacrifice Erza to resurrect Zeref. In other words, if the R-System is activated, I win. But if you manage to stop me, then you win. Though, if it were that straightforward, then it wouldn't be that fun. So, I have equipped myself with three knights. You are only able to reach me if you successfully defeat all three of them. Which makes this a three-vs-eight battle royale!"

…Three, he said?

Is that all?

They were nearly at full strength, though they had to expend a noticeable amount to escape the boundaries of the card. Still, even if each of them were on the level of Jose, three of them were no issue.

"Finally, allow me to add a bit of spice to the mix. I am almost certain that the Magic Council will fire their Satellite Square upon this building. That is their extremely effective wide-range destruction magic, known as the Etherion Cannon." The wizards around them gasped in horror.

"I have no way of knowing when it will fire, but the moment it does, we will all die. A game over, with no victors. Now, let's all enjoy this game!" And with that, the mouths all disappeared.

Immediately, there was intense commotion when the one in the suit touched Erza, distorting the air and shrinking her down to be trapped inside of a card. So that was the one who trapped them. He made some declaration about how he wasn't going to let Eza get hurt and then ran off. The big one panicked and ran after him, shouting back at them all, but the blade ignored it. Gray then chased after the big one, and the spirit ignored even that.

They tightened their grip on their sword once more, and began to march forward.

"Zangetsu?" Lucy worried. "Where are you going?"

"…Three." They simply stated. The zanpakuto would scale the tower in search of the 'three knights' and their master. They could not navigate the tower using their reiatsu sense, but that was a moot point. If they failed to encounter one of the knights, they would find the master. Either way, it drew them closer to their newfound goal.

Bring Ichigo back.

They continued their march through the hallways of the Tower of Heaven, steadfastly focused on what was ahead of them, while also keeping a lock on Lucy's reiatsu. The blonde and the blue-haired woman were following behind them, calling out for Natsu. It likely had something to do with the instructions Gray had given them. It did not matter to Zangetsu.

They would reach the top of the tower, holding the heads of the three knights, or simply to stand before the master of the tower. The spirit was aware that, in between their calls for Natsu, Lucy and Juvia were chatting amongst each other. The conversation was irrelevant, so long as the women did not turn to blows against each other. If they did, Juvia would meet a swift end.

The spirit perked up when they saw someone step into the hallway ahead of them. A tall and lanky man, whose skin was a stark white with white makeup around his eyes and mouth. Across his chest, the word 'Skeleton' was written in red. Spiked shoulder pads were strapped to him, as well as spiked bracers. He wore blue form-fitting pants, with white greaves covering his shins. Very prominently, the man's black hair was incredibly long, going down past his feet to drag along the floor. He also held a guitar in his hands, idly strumming along its skull-shaped surface as he turned toward them and scatting about as he did. The moment his eyes caught the trio, his lips tore into a wild grin.

"WASSUP DEMONS AND HOES!" The man shouted at the top of his lungs.

"Who the hell are you!?" Lucy screamed back, fully enraged at the name she had been called.

"…Se…ven." The zanpakuto was able to analyze, which made the Celestial Spirit Mage squeal in fear and shuffle behind the spirit.

"Seven?" Juvia tilted her head. "Juvia does not understand the relevance of the number seven?"

"Zangetsu can sense people's magic!" Lucy explained. "We made up a system for him to tell us how strong someone is, we've only met one person who is stronger than this guy!" The Water Mage instantly narrowed her eyes and got into a ready stance.

It was unnecessary. After all, Jose had been a ten, and the only reason there had been any struggle there was because Zangetsu had been out of reiatsu.

They readied their blade and dashed forth, slashing horizontally. The man was just fast enough to bring up the guitar to block the strike. They cleaved through the guitar easily enough, but the man was able to step back out of the way and avoid the strike.

"Holy hell! Ain't that the unholy power of a Demon straight outta Hell!" The man looked to be in ecstasy. "What kinda rocker would I be if I didn't try to strike a deal?!" Lucy understood the implication first, and she instantly grew terrified.

"WAIT NO!" She screamed out in warning. "THEY'LL KILL YOU!" Her warning made both Zangetsu and the Seven still for a moment. The Seven clearly was thrown off by the warning, while the spirit had to take a moment to understand what the threat was for. Then it clicked, and Zangetsu understood that the man had been about to try controlling them.

Absolute hatred took hold of their body, and they roared out their anger as they swung again. A deep gash cut across the rocker's chest from his right hip to his left shoulder. It instantly began spurting blood, soaking his entire front as he collapsed onto his back.

"NO!" Lucy shouted as she rushed forward, wrapping herself around the spirit from behind. "Juvia, do you have any medical knowledge?!" Unfortunately, the Water Mage was too horrified to see someone dealt such a mortal wound to do anything but stand there in shock. "Dammit, why is it that we keep meeting the exact type of mage that sets Zangetsu off?!"

"Goddamn!" The rocker managed to get out before coughing up enough blood to douse the entire lower half of his face. "Metal as hell to have a demon you can barely control. Don't worry about me, babe. Dyin' to a demon's about the most metal way to go, and I know I ain't goin' up."

They raised their blade arm with the intent to swipe his head off, only for Lucy to snap her leg around and hook her knee around their arm, making it so that they couldn't move their arm forward without hurting her. A cold shock went through her body at the thought, but Lucy was thinking only of trying to stop the spirit.

"Zangetsu, he just said he's already dead, you don't need to mutilate him!" For reasons she didn't understand, that caused a violent twitch to go through Zangetsu's entire body, before they let out an even angrier scream than a moment ago. The way they thrashed their body made Lucy dizzy, and she was barely able to hang on. Just as her vision began to swim from how she was thrown around, she felt a pair of arms slip under her arms and pull her off Zangetsu. Her vision cleared and she realized she had been pulled off by Juvia, who had finally come out of her shock. Immediately looking out toward the bull-horned beast, the blonde spotted that they were standing over the dying body of the rocker with their sword raised and a vicious hiss coming from their throat. She didn't even think.

"I know about Ichigo!" The Celestial Spirit Mage shouted. It worked instantly. Zangetsu fully locked up, stopped completely by the mention of their wielder's name.

Slowly, terrifyingly slowly, the beast turned back to Lucy, their hollow gaze feeling so much more empty than before. "…How?" Their voice seemed to shake, even past the echo that constantly plagued their words. Acting on instinct, Lucy stood up and slowly began to step forward, keeping her hands in front of her cautiously.

"I had a small chat with someone known as the Celestial Spirit King." She answered. "He told me about your wielder." Slowly, their sword arm drooped down, inching lower and lower.

"…What?" Having spent so much time around them, she was able to understand the nature of their question.

"Not much." She admitted. "He told me your wielder's name, that he was your wielder, and…" brown eyes flicked to the watching Juvia, "…and that you were supposed to die with him."

At that, their sword arm fully fell, all strength in their arms gone.

"Zangetsu," she made sure to keep her voice gentle as she approached their side, "can you tell me why you were supposed to die with him?" She tentatively grasped their right bicep, and they allowed her to tug them away from the rocker's body. They stared at her emptily, and then dropped. In a mild panic, Lucy dropped with them, bringing them both onto their knees.

"…Part…of…him." They breathed quietly. The Celestial Mage slowly wove her arms around the spirit's shoulders and drew their body into hers, and they let go of their blade to hold her in turn.

"You don't mean that metaphorically, do you?" She muttered into their ear. She felt them shake their head. Brown eyes moistened, and she swiftly shut her eyes as she verbalized her revelation. "He was your heart."

They nodded into her shoulder.

"You're…you're the power he left behind." She felt a tear go down her cheek.

"…Pro…tect." Their voice was nearly inaudible, despite being right into her ear. A second tear fell from her face.

"You were meant to protect him." She understood, her voice just as soft as theirs. That explained their misery. Their reluctance to do anything most of the time. Their obsessive need to keep Lucy safe.

They nodded, body shaking.

"That's why you want to bring him back." Lucy continued. "You want to make sure he's safe this time." Their fists clenched into the fabric of the clothes she was wearing, and their shaking increased.

"…Just…want…back." They corrected. "…Don't…care…how."

"What would you do if, in order to get him back, you had to lose me?" The spirit stiffened in her arms. "You heard Jellal. Even if you can bring back anyone, someone has to be sacrificed for it. Would you be willing to trade any of us to bring him back? Would he be okay knowing that's what you did to bring him back?" The blade began shaking once more, and they tightened their grip on her clothes.

"…No." They almost whined.

"I know it hurts." Another tear fell from the blonde's face. "But I'm here, okay? And so is Natsu, and Gray, and Erza, and Levy. We're all here for you, okay, Zangetsu? I know that it's not the same. I really honestly do understand that it's not the same. But we can make it hurt less as long as you let us, okay?" For a long moment, they just held onto her, unresponsive. Thinking about the words she said, and letting them sink into their mind.

"…Okay."