At The Top Of The Tower

Erza's On The Box?!

{LUCY'S POV}
After work, I go to a video game store with Erza, Juvia, Mira, and Levy-chan. They choose the right headgear for me. It's in a multicolored box with gold lettering that says Fairy Tail.

On the front of the box, there's a picture of two people holding out their hands, as if beckoning me to join them.

One is a guy wearing a big black cloak with a white sash that completely hides his face in a shadow, aside from a somewhat familiar toothy grin. The other is...

"Erza?!" I gasp, whipping my head back and forth between my boss and the picture. She's wearing revealing armor, wings made of feather-shaped links of silver metal, and has dozens of swords flying around her, but it's definitely Erza.

"Erza's character name is Titania. She's the queen of the mages, and the boss of the final floor of the Tower of Hope." Levy-chan starts laughing at my bewildered expression.

"Who's that?" I wonder, pointing to the other person. I can't shake the feeling that I know him. Mira and Juvia suddenly start fidgeting, like they're hiding something important.

"His character name is E.N.D. No one really knows much beside that, since he's pretty secretive and real life identities are kept secret." Erza explains vaguely. I nod, still insanely curious.

After that, we look around and shop for a little bit. It's beginning to get dark out when I finally get back to the company building. I groan and almost turn around when I enter my apartment.

"How do you keep getting in my room? I swear I've changed the locks like five times!" I yell at my nosy next-door neighbor.

"And I have the master key. Yo Luce, what's up?" Natsu grins at me, propping his feet up on the coffee table like he's supposed to be here.

I kick him out, literally.

Now standing in the hallway, rubbing his behind where my foot made contact, Natsu finally notices the Fairy Tail game box I'm holding. His face lights up like a child on Christmas day, causing my traitorous heart to skip a beat and start pounding.

"You're gonna play Fairy Tail?" He asks excitedly, bringing his face very close to mine. I force myself to face him without blushing.

"Yeah. Prepare yourself, because a little birdie told me you're a demon. I'm becoming a mage so I finally have an excuse beat you up!" I smirk.

"You can try." Natsu returns my smirk confidently. I slam the door in his face and sink to the floor, right there beside the door. My face feels like it's burning from the outside in. I'm supposed to hate Natsu! I do hate him. Right?

Yup. Totally. My face is flushed in anger, and that's all. Before I can think deeper about it, I grab the rainbow box, pull out the headgear, and carefully the instructions for setting it up.

After half an hour, I sit back, breathing heavily, and admire my handiwork. All that's left is to get in a comfortable resting position, lying in a space that will cause no damage to my body if I'm there for an extended period, and put on the headgear.

I lie down on my bed and suck in a nervous breath. Time to see what all the fuss is about. When I put on the headgear, to my surprise it doesn't ask me for information like my gender.

I recall that during set up, I had to put on the headgear, answer some questions, and pat different places on my body. It must have gotten my physical data then. No wonder Erza's character looks so similar to Erza in real life.

First it asks me what I want my character name to be. I think Lu_Heart and that is immediately what pops up before my eyes.

I confirm with a blink of my eyes. Next the game asks me if I want to become a demon or a mage, to which I immediately select mage without even reading the summary of the different races.

It goes on to ask me what I want to specialize in. I scroll through the list, eventually spotting one that catches my interest. Celestial spirit magic. I select it, and the next time I blink, I'm standing in what looks like a busy marketplace.

I expect players to stare at me curiously, but it's apparently not an uncommon occurrence for people to appear out of thin air. While I'm standing here dumbfounded, two other people also appear in a flash and run off to do whatever.

"Lu-chan!" I hear Levy-chan, and turn to see her coming towards me. She's wearing a bright orange dress and carrying a book. I look down to see that I'm wearing a standard white dress.

"Hey Lev—err, Shrimp?" I begin to greet her before reading her character name. I try to hold back my laugh and fail. Levy-chan blushes.

"Just call me Levy-chan! Gajeel hacked my account and now I have no idea how to change it back!" Levy-chan cries.

"Gajeel? As in, Gajeel Redfox from the sales department?" Although his idea of selling something is scaring customers into compliance (or else). Levy-chan nods in confirmation.

"I knew you two were a thing!" I elbow her playfully.

In my peripheral vision, a small screen appears, asking me if I want to accept Shrimp's friend request. I quickly choose yes.

"We aren't a thing!" Levy-chan denies hotly. "Enough about my boy troubles. Come on, I'll show you around the spawn area, then we can take some side quests and level you up so you can test your luck against Juvia in the Tower of Despair."

Levy-chan grabs my hand and runs off, dragging me along behind her.