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

X - A Trip Down Memory Lane

The seaweed in the harbor appears to be waving at the ship's passengers as as they leave port. With the contrast of the water, it looks beautiful- and coincidentally, it is the same color as Natsu and Wendy's faces.

"Are you okay?" A concerned Zeref stands by the two dragonslayers. "Is there something wrong with them?!"

Mirajane walks over. "It's just motion sickness. They'll be fine when we get to Hargeon."

"Just motion sickness? I think I'm gonna die..." Natsu vomits over the side of the ship.

"Do you want me to knock you out?" Since when was Erza there? Zeref didn't even notice her arrival.

"Wow, Erza, you're actually asking instead of just doing it! Good for you!" Mirajane laughs.

"What's that supposed to mean?!"

"Oh, nothing..."

Erza sighs and leaves to get some cake. Mirajane turns to Zeref, who is still watching over the miserable dragonslayers. "So you're Zeref, huh? From the stories, I thought you'd be a lot more imposing."

"Yeah, well... I've never wanted to hurt a single living thing in my life. The magic I started with was similar to some of Wendy's, in fact." Zeref looks away into the distance, absently tracing a knot on the ship's railing with one finger.

"Really?" Wendy looks up at the mention of her name.

"Well, you're a Sky Dragon Slayer, and that includes air-based attacks, healing, and enchanting, if I remember correctly?" She nods. "I started out using enchantment magic. It's slightly different than what you can do, but it's the same idea."

"That's... really interesting..." She then throws up over the side of the boat. Zeref decides to talk to her another time.

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"FINALLY! HARGEOOOOOON!" Natsu and Wendy are the first ones off the ship once it reaches port. The poor dragonslayers dance around in circles.

Erza checks her pocketwatch (since when did she have one?) and frowns. "We just barely missed the train to Magnolia, but the next one should be coming in an hour."

Wendy looks like she's about to cry. "Erza-san, I know it takes longer, but can we please walk?"

The armored wizard considers it for a moment. "Fine," she agrees eventually. Natsu has a sneaking suspicion that if he was the one who asked, Erza would have said no.

About half an hour later, the group sets out on the road to Magnolia. Zeref keeps wondering how Erza can pull that mountain of luggage without even breaking a sweat. When he asks Natsu, he just laughs. "If you knew Erza, you'd know that's basically nothing. She's the strongest female wizard in Fairy Tail!" He tilts her head. "Actually, she might be tied with Mira."

"Mirajane? Seriously?" Zeref splutters. "But she looks so harmless!"

Natsu lowers his voice. "She uses take-over magic. You know that flying cube monster Tartaros had?" Zeref nods. "She managed to take over that- after Lucy basically destroyed it, anyway."

Gray, walking ahead of them, calls back, "Natsu, you shouldn't be talking with that creep! You yourself said you wouldn't trust him, remember?"

"Trusting someone is different from being nice, ice princess!"

"Hmph."

Zeref keeps a low pitch when talking to Natsu. "I know Lucy, Juvia, and Charle don't like me, and I can't blame them, but it seems like Erza and Gray have some sort of personal vendetta against me... do you know why?"

"You probably should ask them yourself... wait no, they would just get mad at you. Gray's entire family and almost all of his village was slaughtered by Deliora-"

The dark wizard swears under his breath. "I knew I should have destroyed that one... I would have, if it wasn't for the curse clouding my thoughts..."

"And when Erza was a little kid she was kidnapped by a cult trying to build the R-System, and they made her and her friends work as slaves."

"The R-System?!" Zeref appears startled. "Who were they trying to revive?! Did it work?!"

Natsu scowls at him. "You dummy, why do you sound so interested about such an awful thing?"

The dark wizard raises his hands in mock surrender. "C'mon, please just tell me? I can't help but be curious, since I never thought it would work."

"First of all- it could have worked if we didn't blow it up. But actually no, because they thought you were dead, so they were trying to revive you."

Zeref sighs. "Figures, from the way Grimoire Heart acted eight years ago, I'm not surprised something like that happened. But you said it could have worked? Then how on earth did they get that much energy? That was the main flaw with the R-System."

"The Magic Council hit the tower with an Etherion blast, and it absorbed the energy! Erza and I were still in the tower, too; we thought we were goners for sure."

"Oh! That's pretty clever, actually. You know, the R-System was my first attempt to bring you back."

Natsu blinks. "Really?"

"Yeah. Then I designed the Eclipse, but there was still too much magic power needed... And that's when I got cursed..." Zeref sniffles a couple times, trying to hold in tears, but it's no use. Here come the waterworks...

"Don't cry!" Natsu panics. What do I do? "It's okay!"

"You remember who he is, right? It's obviously not okay." At Gray's comment, Zeref starts to cry even more.

"Shut up, stripper! Trying to cheer up someone who's sad is what any decent hu- any decent person would do!" Natsu was about to say any decent human being, but upon remembering that didn't apply to him, he quickly changed it. The others notice the change, but only Zeref and Erza know the reason why.

"Anyway- ooh, look! I can see Magnolia in the distance!" Natsu points to the town in the distance, and he and Happy run (or fly) ahead.

"Hey! Wait for us, flame-brain!"

"Yeah!"