「Trouble Makers」|| 「A Nalu, Gale, Rowen, Jerza & Gruvia Fanfiction」 ❄️ ON HOLD

Chapter 30 ~

I apologize, I'm slacking. I just have no inspiration anymore ;/ This one's a bit shorter, but I hope it's good...

Lucy was happy to see some of her friends again, but a few things still didn't add up. If they had gotten in, then surely, there was another way out.

Levy looked up at where she came from and thought the same thing, but when seeing the rocks moving again, she was quite surprised. Could Alisa manipulate the area?

The bluenette crawled to Wendy and Carla and kept her voice down, not wanting the others to overhear her words. "I need to study the pale girl for a bit. Keep me covered, okay?"

The two females nodded determinedly as they got ready to help Natsu and Virgo out in battle, to which Levy gave them a last warning. "If you don't think you can deal a blow, step back and investigate."

~•~

Erza wasn't satisfied with the situation. She had been in one like this countless times before, but there was always someone helping her out of it. The cuffs would be controlled by their enemy, who would always be knocked out by someone else.

She hated relying on others.

She was one of the strongest wizards in Fairy Tail – then why couldn't she get herself out if this? The growing floorboards had her concerned too, but there wasn't much she could do about that. Not now that she was tied up.

"There has to be a way outta these things," Gajeel stated, "They're startin' to cut into my wrists."

Juvia had been staring at the cuffs for as long as she could remember, trying to find some sort of detail on it. There had to be a way to get out of here.

"You're not the only one," Gray told Gajeel, before moving his gaze towards the table of plants in front of him. "But don't you think it's odd that these flowers are just, sort of... There?"

Jellal looked at the plants and had to admit that Gray was right. It was kind of weird that these had been here. Surely they'd hold a clue, right?

"Uh, guys? My cuffs have letters carved into them!"

All attention shot to Romeo, as he continued to speak. "I have an E and an H."

Juvia nodded, "Juvia knew there was a clue in these cuffs." She inspected hers even more thoroughly before continuing, "Juvia has a T and an M."

Soon all wizards were scanning their cuffs, and it wasn't long before Jellal sighed. "So we have an E, an H, a T, an M, two O's, a D, an A, an L and a B... That spells what?"

Erza gritted her teeth as she stared at the table in front of her, before muttering a few words. "... Deathbloom."

Jellal looked at her without understanding what she meant, until she repeated herself. "It spells deathbloom. There's seven plants on the table, aren't there? One's gotta be it!"

Juvia cheered at the idea Erza had and inspected them, soon frowning a little. "But which one is the deathbloom?"

Gajeel scrunched his nose, "Shrimp would've known. Shrimp loves flowers."

"Maybe you should get her some in the future." Gray muttered, before inspecting the flowers as well. "Any clues as to how we can figure this out without Levy?"

Romeo nodded, "Synonyms maybe? What's the most used synonym for death?"

Gajeel snorted, "End?"

And that's when it hit them.

"END! There's a connection here, I'm sensing it!"

"Do we even know anything about END?"

Juvia shook her head, "No information on END whatsoever."

"Maybe that's the point," Romeo added, "We know nothing about END, which means it could be hidden in plain sight, right?"

Jellal smiled, "Yeah, you're right. So, you're saying that by finding the flower we know least about..."

"We could knock it over and have it set us free."

Gajeel smirked, "Not bad for a young and small one like you."

"I'm sure most of us know at least one flower, right?" Erza asked, to which she earned some hums. Everyone seemed to know flower one and four, Gajeel recognized number three, Gray and Juvia were all over number seven and Jellal had heard about six and two before.

"That leaves number five out of the picture. Let's find a way to knock it over."

Everybody sweatdropped at realizing they were cuffed, realizing there was no way to knock it over.

"Great," Gaheel huffed, "If only something with a tail could knock it down."

Panther-Lily rolled his eyes, "Thanks for noticing me this entire time."

Everybody turned their head towards the cat, whose tail was the only one that was free. He had been here this entire time, how did they miss him?

His tail made its way to the flower pot as he knocked it over, feeling the cuffs tighten around his paws. Was it not the right one?

"Th-This isn't any better!" Romeo called out, before feeling his body drop to the ground. Was if the right one after all?

"That was odd... But now that we're free, we know END is involved. Time to find Natsu and the others."