The Knight and The Strawberry

chapter 8

May X781

Ichigo Kurosaki-17

Erza Scarlet-16

Gray Fullbuster/Cana Alberona-15

Lissana Strauss-14

Natsu Dragneel-?

It was a wonderfully pleasant day in Magnolia. The sun was quickly rising high into the cloudless sky promising a hot afternoon. With it came a gentle breeze carrying the voices of the population of the town who had decided it would be a perfect day to spend walking the streets, perusing the wares of the multitude of shops. Children played in the local park as their parents watched on nearby.

Indeed it was shaping up to be a beautiful day for everyone. Especially for the six teens currently exiting a small deli with handfuls of picnic supplies and beach towels.

"Alright! Beach day!" Natsu shouted enthusiastically, causing Lissana to giggle while the rest of their group could only roll their eyes at the dragon slayers energy.

Natsu was quickly followed down the road by Lissana, Erza, Cana, Ichigo, and Gray. The group of teenagers had decided that since it was the first truly nice day of the coming summer, they would celebrate by spending the day with a picnic at the beach. Well less decided and more got kicked out and told to enjoy the nice day by Master Makarov. Not that they had really needed much of an excuse.

"Come on you guys let's go already." Natsu continued to chant as he bounced on his toes.

Gray strolled up with a large beach umbrella hung over his shoulder. "Calm down spaz. It's not like the beach is gonna get up and leave."

Stopping in his excitement, Natsu turned to the ice make wizard In confusion. "They can do that?"

Ichigo pinched his brow and sighed. "No Natsu. Beaches don't move."

"Well if we don't hurry it won't matter if the beach is still there. Come on I'd like to get some sun today." Erza ordered as she walked past the group.

Cana walked up next to the older female and quickly matched her pace. "I'm with Erza. C'mon Lissana, let's let the boys handle the heavy lifting."

"Hey!" All three males called out as they realized that the girls had no intention of helping to carry any of the supplies. Groaning, they hefted up what they had brought and fell in line behind the girls as they made their way through the crowded streets to the beach.

As the group headed to the section of beach behind the guild, Cana looked back over her shoulder and gave Gray a strange look. The boy seemed to take the hint and turned to speak with the orange haired young man on his right. "So Ichigo, any luck on that lead you and Erza were looking into?"

Ichigo didn't break stride but he couldn't help notice Erza glance back at him. Shaking his head he looked back to Gray. "No it turned out to just be a rumor, nothing more."

It had been a year and a half since Luca Rausven and Teran Wholtor disappeared during the S class trials of X779, and since then Ichigo and Erza had been tracking down the occasional rumor of their whereabouts. So far they had been just that, rumors.

"With as long as it's been since they vanished it's not surprising that we are just getting wild goose chases now." Erza commented from the front of the group.

Ichigo nodded his head and thought back to the time when these wild searches all got started.

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Flashback: December X779

Ichigo, Erza, Makarov, Gildarts, Laxus, and the Strauss siblings stood in the clearing where the former two had gone through their battle with Luca and Teran. Currently there were no signs of the Earth make and Shadow wizard. The scene before them however was not how Ichigo and Erza had left it.