TRISTFUL. GRUVIA

XX. DEAR ERZA SCARLET

ONE MONTH TIME SKIP..

Dear Erza Scarlet,

It is to my concern that I have to inform you of the happenings that have occurred during the past month, and of what you should do to help the situation. I have no other choice but to put this heavily weighted task into your hands, as I can ensure that you will not fail to get the deed done. So I please urge you to carefully read the words that are written.. It is critically important that you do as asked in the following, since I will not be able to make another time jump into the present until another year has flown by, and by then, it would be too late.

I would first like to discuss about two particular guild members from Fairy Tail in which I would believe with most utter certainty you would know very well, and then I will explain the issue that revolves around them later in this letter.

The first mage is Gray Fullbuster. The poor man has been quite shattered ever since that incident involving Juvia Lockser losing her memory, his life basically in the depths of the ice cold. Through his eyes, all he can do is long for the past as he sinks deeper into his own depression, regret of his faults clouding his mind with everything he does, revulsion eating at him in an everlasting spiral of hopeless dreams at the sight of Lyon and Juvia - yes, he has finally caught onto his feelings for the water mage.

And then there is Juvia Lockser, who as you can see, I had slightly acknowledged in the last paragraph. She lurks in the gloomy rain, with no trace of her past, her life nothing but a life full of lies. If you hadn't realized already, she has fallen into the wrong hands consisting of a man (Lyon) who is the downright definition of fake. Little does she know that he is toying with her as if she were a doll with no emotions, who could just simply be played with, her carelessness slowly coming back to bite at her, her mind still clueless of his true identity.

And in the midst of this already catastrophic mess, Gray's limited time to protect himself from the destiny that he is bound to face (the one he got from the curse) has now run out, his chance of having a future on the verge of demise. Makarov and Wendy had tried to drag out the fatal death until later, but he had done nothing whatsoever within those weeks to get that one shot of living, as he sees it as pointless because of mixed confusion made by Lyon.

I am very aware that he hasn't mentioned this to anyone at all, but I have seen the suffering that he has kept to himself as I watch over him from above, and it is very painful to witness the state that he has put himself in, believe me.

This is exactly why I need to you step in...to give Gray a subtle ounce of encouragement that will convince him to go on a mission with Juvia, in order to help the blunette in the process of retrieving her memory back. However, when proceeding into enforcing this wish I ask you, under no circumstance may you tell either of them the information that I have given you, the consequence of doing so severely damaging our bets in ever achieving this goal.

I have the best of luck in you, and I know that you are very capable of doing this favor for me. Good luck!

- Ultear Milkovich.

-

Erza Scarlet's eyes furrowed as she closely studied the letter, her keen mind searching for a possible solution to this growing matter. She sighed in frustration, her hands rubbing against her forehead as each resolve she came up with led to a dead end. After several minutes of being lost within her own concentrated thoughts about the master plan she was gathering, her lips suddenly curved into a form of a smirk, an idea now brewing.

The paper in her hands started to become folded as she silently whispered to herself, "I got it."