Magical Heartstrings - Bleach X Fairy Tail Fanfic

Chapter 31 - Unbalanced Spirit World

Airi pov:

"What is this place?" I mumbled out as I looked around.

Following the reiastu, we had climbed up a mountain. It was a dry rocky place made up of gray metamorphic rock. As we reached the top of the mountain, it had become really foggy. We could barely see anything even five feet in front of us.

"Hanataro, Sting, Lector! We have to stay together. We can't get split up in this fog so lets hold hands, okay?" I held out both my hands with a smile.

Lector was on my shoulder so he was already in a safe place. As for Sting and Hanataro, they walked closer to me and took a hold of my hands with no hesitance. But unlike Hanataro who just held my hand, Sting entwined his fingers with mine.

Slightly surprised by his gesture, I looked at him. He only grinned with a slight blush and I couldn't help but chuckle amused.

The fog continued to stay thick and blinding for another ten minutes of our walking. We were still climbing in altitude and the weather was starting to get a little chilly. When we finally reached the top, I narrowed my eyes at the place in front of us.

"Nee san, what is this?" Hanataro looked around curiously too.

"Hey, that symbol looks like the one that Yukino has on one of her Celestial Spirit keys!" Sting pointed at one of the huge doors in front of us.

I let go of their hands and stepped forward into the central circular space. Twelve doors, twelve Celestial doors to be more specific, surrounded the circular space. They were the doors of the zodiac. All of them were open and I could sense their respective energies radiating from the space beyond.

"Ai chan, did you come here sensing the twelve Celestial Spirits?" Lector asked.

"No....I mean, I did sense the Celestial Spirits but that's not the reason why we came here." I mumbled before looking behind the doors on front of me to spot a thirteenth door.

"Another door?" I mumbled mostly to myself.

I didn't recognize the symbol on the door. I knew about the twelve zodiacs but I wasn't familiar with any other constellation. So it was difficult for me to figure out what the thirteenth gate indicated. However, it was from within that gate that the reiatsu we had followed pulsed.

"We're going through that gate. That's where I'm sensing the power. C'mon!" I called out and we all walked through the blinding light of the thirteenth gate.

We had to go through a strange place before reaching an open area. It looked like we were on a small island floating in the middle of nowhere. But besides that, I was able to feel the clashing powers of several people just a little away from where we stood.

"Huh? I'm getting Natsu san's scent. Even Wendy san...." Sting had his head tilted up slightly as he took in the scents in the air.

"It looks like a fight. Let's have a look to make sure they're okay before we get back to looking for the source of the reiastu." I suggested and we ran towards Natsu and Wendy.

I don't know if you could call this a friendly spar of sorts because I could clearly sense Loke and Natsu fighting against each other. They were fighting at full power, possibly even pushing past their limits. And unlike the usual feeling I got from Loke, his maryoku was dark and unfriendly.

Another thing that I observed was a strange object floating in the air with beams of red light going out in all directions. Nine out of the twelve constellations in the zodiac were shining brightly in red too. Why were there only nine? Where were the other three? Loke's wasn't there so it meant that only the Celestial Spirits that weren't in the Spirit world were being seen in the sky above us.