These Blood-Soaked Pages (Fairy Tail) [Book 1 of Reaper's Scythe]

III - Discovered

"Hiya, Lucy!" At the guild hall the next afternoon, Happy spirals around and lands on the table where the celestial wizard is sitting. He produces a fish from seemingly out of nowhere. Seriously, though, where does he get all those fish?

Lucy swirls around the water in her glass absently. "Oh, hi, Happy. Do you know where Natsu is?"

"Aye! Some guy fell off a cliff in front of our house yesterday, so he stayed with us overnight. Natsu is watching over him."

"Some guy? Do you know what his name is?"

"Nah, and he was wearing a hooded cloak so haven't even seen his face!"

Lucy makes a face at the Exceed, now ignoring the water glass. "That sounds pretty sketchy. You two really are idiots!"

"Aye!"

"Don't aye me, you stupid cat!"

Gray walks over to them, wearing only his boxers. "Did someone say Natsu was an idiot?"

Rolling her eyes, Lucy coughs, "Gray, your clothes."

"Not again!"

Happy flies over to where Gray's clothes are, left abandoned in a corner, and brings them back to him. "Someone really should glue your clothes to your body."

"Um, no."

The sound of clanking armor heralds Erza's approach. "Hey, Erza!" Lucy waves at her.

"Hello, Lucy." The armored wizard sits down next to her, gently placing a plate with a slice of strawberry cake on the table.

"I've been thinking about the book-" Lucy begins, but is interrupted by Gray.

"What book?"

"Oh, yeah..." Lucy looks at Erza, who nods, and looks back to Gray. "Natsu found the Book of E.N.D. randomly left outside his house. He gave it to Master."

"Wait, really?" Gray slams his hands on the table, nearly knocking over Erza's cake. Fortunately for him, it's fine.

"Yeah. Well, I've been thinking... after Tartaros, Zeref took the book, didn't he?" The ice wizard nods. "Then don't you think that means Zeref is somewhere in the area?"

Erza taps her fork against her chin, deep in thought. "Either that or someone managed to steal it from him, which I find unlikely. Still, losing something that valuable is pretty unlikely too..."

"But why would Zeref be outside Natsu and Happy's house? Something smells fishy here, and not just Happy."

"Lushy, that's mean! I don't smell!" The Exceed exclaims, gnawing on a raw fish.

"That fish you're eating does."

"Oh..."

Erza clears her throat. "How Happy smells doesn't matter right now. If Makarov has the Book of E.N.D., Zeref will probably stay in the area to try and get it back. Since Jellal claims he can sense Zeref's magic, I will contact him asking if he can find Zeref. Then we can capture him."

"You liiiiiike Jellal," Happy snickers. Erza swiftly punches him and he goes flying across the guild hall as Lucy and Gray sweat-drop.

"Anyway." Erza brushes herself off as if nothing happened and stabs the strawberry cake with a fork. "Do either of you know where Natsu is?"

Gray shakes his head no. "Apparently someone fell down the cliff by Natsu and Happy's house, so Natsu is helping him," Lucy informs her.

Now with a swollen left eye, Happy flies back over to the group. "Aye! The poor guy broke his ankle, but for some reason Wendy couldn't heal it. She said it was healing unusually fast by itself, too."

"Do you know this person's name?" Erza asks.

"Nope, and we haven't even seen his face!"

"That's why I called them idiots," mutters an annoyed Lucy.

"A stranger by Natsu and Happy's house who is impervious to Wendy's healing magic at the same time Zeref is suspected to be in the area? It can't be a coincidence..."

Lucy gasps. "You don't think..."

Erza nods, savoring a bite of cake before she continues. "If this man isn't Zeref himself, he's probably connected. Either way, Natsu could be in danger."

"Then let's go check on him now!" Lucy, Happy and Gray head out to the guild's doors. The celestial mage looks back at Erza, who hasn't moved. "Are you coming?"

"Just a minute." Erza stuffs the remainder of the strawberry cake in her mouth and follows them.

"Um... okay."

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A knocking on the door disturbs Zeref from his thoughts. Natsu is sleeping on the floor in a pile of dirty laundry next to the couch on which the dark wizard is sitting. The dragonslayer wakes up, blinking groggily. "Who's there?"

"It's Erza. Open the door now!"

That's all it takes for Natsu to leap up and open the door hastily. Erza immediately marches over to Zeref. She summons a sword and points it at him. "Now, who are you?"

Zeref trembles. "Please stop pointing that sword at me!"

Gray walks over to Erza and Zeref, frowning. "I know that voice..." In one quick motion he pulls back Zeref's hood. He and Natsu gasp.

"WHAAAAAT!?" Natsu yells. "I thought you smelled and sounded familiar!"

"I assume this is Zeref then."

Everyone is taken aback when Zeref begins to cry. Despite this, Gray changes into his devil-slayer form and begins to cast a spell, but Natsu stops him. "Not inside the house, stripper! Do you know how long it takes to get this place clean?!"

Gray looks around at the piles of dirty laundry. "It doesn't look clean to me..."

"Trust me, it used to be much worse," Lucy mutters. "At least there aren't any used dishes on the floor."

Zeref tries to take advantage of their distraction to cast an immobilization spell, but Erza notices and holds her sword up to his throat. "If you try to kill us again, this blade is going right into you, understand?"

"I wasn't trying to kill you, honest," Zeref pleads. "I was only trying to cast an immobilization spell, I wouldn't hurt any of Natsu's friends on purpose..."

"Aww, that's nice of you!" Natsu says, and then falls to the floor when Gray punches him in the face.

A bit of blood oozes out of the dragonslayer's mouth. "What? A punch of that strength usually wouldn't do more than annoy him!" Gray crouches down and shakes Natsu. "Come on, pyro, you OK?" Natsu doesn't answer- he's out cold.

Lucy and Happy run (or fly, in Happy's case) over to Natsu and Gray. "What did you do to him!?" The celestial wizard yells.

"I didn't hit him any harder than normal..." Gray looks down at his hands, covered in devil-slayer markings.

When Erza looks back out of concern, Zeref takes the opportunity to escape. "How dare you hurt my little brother!" The dark wizard yells before casting an immobilization spell. Erza, Gray, Lucy, and Happy are helplessly frozen in place as Zeref drags Natsu off into the forest.