Chapter Text
Kageyama jolted away by something falling outside his window. Delirious, it took a few moments for him to recognize where he was. When he did, he scrambled up and pulled his pant leg up to see–thank god–a Fairy Tail mark right where it was yesterday. He relaxed and let out a breath of relief. “To think I’m relieved seeing that damn symbol,” He mumbled.
Turning towards the open window he forgot to close last night, he squinted at the sun. It was just rising above the horizon, taunting him with its disgustingly blinding rays. He groaned and flopped back onto the bed, turning away from the light. Even facing away from the window, the light pierced his eyes and the small hum of the magic ankle monitor rubbed uncomfortably against his own magic, which made him annoyed even before he got out of bed.
Silently casting a magic circle, Kageyama used his shadow hands to close the blinds. He closed his eyes, trying to fall asleep even though he knew he wouldn’t be able to fall asleep again after being woken up. He probably should show his face in the guild hall but the sun was far too bright and he honestly didn’t want to get out of bed. An indefinite time later, loud banging was heard from the front door. Kageyama shoved the pillow over his ears; he never did manage to fall asleep after being woken up by the sun, straddling the line between unconsciousness and wakefulness.
The banging got louder and then it suddenly stopped, a few seconds later, a loud crash was heard and a voice soon came after. Kageyama debated if he should sink into the shadows to avoid whatever was coming but before he could make a decision someone, Erza he absentmindedly identified, opened the door to his bedroom with a bit too much force. She spoke after seeing him, “Kageyama, there you are! We’re heading out for our new job, the others are already at the train station.”
Kageyama didn’t move, it was far too early to be heading out to work, never mind the fact he’s already been awake for a good few hours already. When he didn’t move, Ezra stepped closer to the bed and yanked the blanket off him, “Come on, let’s go, we’re burning daylight.” He yelped a little when he was dragged off the bed.
“Waitwaitwait, I can walk! I can walk!” He rubbed his head after Erza dropped him and mumbled, “When I do it it’s called “breaking and entering” and “illegal” but when you do it it’s fine. This is bullshit.” He got up and looked around for his bag for a few moments before remembering that all of his stuff was either destroyed, confiscated, or still in Eisenwald. At least he had his emergency supplies on him. He sighed, “I need to buy so much stuff.” Leaving his room and stepping over his destroyed front door.
The walk to the train station was made in silence. Erza seemed happy to walk in silence as the crowd parted to make way for the mountain of luggage she was bringing and Kageyama was still in a bad mood so he was more than happy to not hold a conversation. They finally arrived at the station and boarded the train to where their next job would be with greetings being dealt in between Kageyama and Team Natsu.
When everyone was settled, and the train started off to wherever they were going, Erza finally started introducing the job they were heading to, “It’s a high priority job,” she held the job listing out so everyone could see it, “The daughter of a merchant has gone missing in the forests near Amberstill. The town guards have been searching for her but to no avail so the father has requested wizards to be immediately sent out and to search for his daughter.” On the job listing was a smiling girl with freckles and long wavy hair no older than 10 with the word MISSING in bold underneath.
Lucy frowned, “Why haven't any other guilds closer taken this job? We’re a few hours away from Amberstill.”
Erza shrugged, “I’m not sure, we’ll see when we get there.”
~~(^∇^)~~
They met up with the merchant who posted the job listing. He looked as good as a parent who lost their kid, which is to say not good at all. Apparently, the reason he requested help from guilds further away was because he didn’t trust the local guilds. Something about them being “no good wizards who would not have been a use to society if not for their ability to use magic” or something. Kageyama was distracted by the amount of rings the merchant had on; he didn’t even know it was possible to wear that many rings and still be able to bend your fingers. Anyway, they arrived at the forest when the sun was at its peak.
As Kageyama got closer to the forest, the feeling that something was off got stronger and stronger. He did feel something different when he stepped off the train but he had just brushed it off as nerves but now he realized that there was something foul about this forest, it seemed like the rest also found something off judging by their faces. The natural magic permeating from the forest was different, he couldn’t place his finger on it but whatever it was spelled trouble and he wanted far away from here.
Natsu sniffed at the air and then scrunched his nose, “This forest smells weird, it’s like something’s rotting.”
Erza pressed her lips into a thin line at that and commanded, “We’ll split up to cover more ground. Happy, Natsu will be in one, Grey and Lucy in another, and I will be with Kageyama.”
Kageyama was still studying the forest when he heard his name, his eye twitched as he glanced back, “...Kage please, Kageyama is a mouthful.” He then turned back to the treeline, still trying to figure out the twisted magic in the forest. If only he had his glasses, he'd be able to see the Ethernano from the trees but it just had to be confiscated. It wasn’t even a dangerous magic item, it just allowed the user to see how magic flowed. But nooo, they took it for the “safety of the public.” Fuck, he’s not getting any of his magic tools back, it’s going to take forever to replace all of them again.
“Oh, I apologize, Kage and I will be on one team.” Erza amended. When no one objected, she nodded and raised her voice even though she didn’t need to, “If you find anything of importance, shoot some magic into the sky, we will meet back here in an hour if nothing is found! We need to find Chei (the missing girl) as soon as possible but make sure to be cautious!"
They split up into groups and ran into the forest with Kageyama and Erza being assigned the left portion of the forest. Following Erza, he sank into the shadows and the visible world disappeared leaving only the shadows and the idea of objects left to “see”. In this form, he could tell that the magic in the forest was being slowly drawn towards the center which was not how Ethernano typically functions.
The deeper they went into the forest, the more uncomfortable the two felt. Birds were still chirping, insects still chittering, animals still scrambled to get out of the way as they ran through the forest, and yet the magic in the air felt heavier and heavier. There was something more to Chei’s missing case. Soon, Erza stopped running and had her lips drawn into a tight line as Kageyama rose up out of the shadows, tense, “Do you feel it?” She asked. They were a few miles somewhere inside the forest.
Kageyama hummed in response, silently scanning the trees around him. He was practically 100% sure there was some sort of illusion being cast over the entire forest and the nearby town of Amberstill. That was probably what he felt when stepping off the train. “This is some shoddy ass illusion work if we can feel it.”
She nodded, “You broke Lullaby’s seal. Are you able to break this illusion?”
“Eh, it’s not worth the effort,” He waved it off, “a sustained illusion this big usually has some sort of medium keeping it up. Break it and the illusion will disappear.”
She unsheathed her sword, “Then we have a new goal, find and break the medium. Once we break it the others will-” She was cut off by a loud explosion much deeper into the forest. Narrowing her eyes, she shot off into the same direction the explosion came from while yelling, “Kage, go ahead and keep yourself hidden! Look for the medium, I will keep whoever they are off you once I catch up!” He sighed as he sank into the shadows and started running in the same direction, quickly passing Erza as his speed doubled while in his shadow form.
The further in he got the closer the sounds of fighting got. Soon, he reached a clearing that was destroyed by Natsu and an unknown group of people. The group of cloaked people was standing in a circle around a stone hole chanting some language while Natsu was in the air with Happy fighting something invisible. Fighting was a stretch, getting beaten up was a better word.
Please don’t let it be ghosts.
Kageyama shook his head and focused on the unknown group near the hole. His best guess? Cultists. Fun. And this was supposed to be a simple search and rescue job. He stayed in the shadows, observing everything for a moment. A large area around that stone hole was charred and destroyed from both Natsu and whatever invisible thing he was fighting so there was nothing to hide behind if Kageyama wanted to get to the hole undetected. Although the bursts of fire are casting some shadows so if he can time this properly he won’t get caught by the invisible enemy.
Kageyama took a deep breath and focused, this was his first official job in years he couldn’t mess this up. Flashes of fire lit up the darkening sky allowing brief moments of time where the shadows would stretch and connect with each other. In a moment of carelessness, Happy and Natsu didn’t dodge in time and were smashed into the ground while Kageyama was now in the shadows of a random cultist.
He barely managed to get there but had no time to catch his breath and climbed into the cloak of a cultist and wrapped around them. Carefully making sure to not move or rustle the cloak as he wiggled the guy into the subspace inside his shadow and replaced him in the circle. There should be enough air in there for at least half an hour give or take before the guy suffocates. While he can’t turn another person into a shadow, he can put them into the little pocket of space inside his own shadow. The problem with this is there’s only room for one and a half of an average sized person (don’t ask how he knows) and he can’t activate his shadow form while he has someone inside his own shadow so that’s why he had to secretly replace a cultist, until the invisible thing was defeated he needed to be careful.
Natsu yelled, pinned to the ground by the invisible attacker, “Ugh! You bastards! Stop hiding yourself and fight me like a man!!” He roared, fire shooting out in a stream of fire towards the stone hole. It got halfway there before running into an invisible wall.
Erza launched herself towards Natsu’s prone body and in one quick motion, sliced whatever was holding him down. Grey and Lucy quickly appeared as Erza helped Natsu up.
Kageyama judged that they had the ghost thing handled and focused on the group of chanting cultists. This is where he ran into another problem. Inside the hole was Chei sleeping peacefully on the ground, tied up by some magic script which would need to be broken in order to wake her. He doesn’t know where the medium keeping the illusion up is but first things first, he needs to free Chei. He could do this. No one has noticed him not chanting yet. He’s within stabbing range but it’s fine. He just needs to not mess this up.
Dispelling magic and breaking seals are similar but not the same. Sure you use the same type of magic but your technique is different given the differing nature of spells and seals. Magic spells are simpler and usually have no traps in them whereas seals are much more complicated and usually have traps every other line. This means Kageyama needs to take his time while breaking the script around Chei. Luckily the seal was very simple so all he needs is at least one minute. One minute of no interruptions…
With Team Natsu around? Yeah, that’s not going to happen.
By luck or something else an Ice Lance slipped through the invisible thing and stabbed into the ground too close to where the ritual was that one of the cultists (most likely the leader based on the fact that their robe had more embellishments on it) cursed angrily and stopped chanting.
The leader spat, “You vermin are such a hindrance! You want the girl? You’ll get her plus a little extra!” They stepped closer to the Fairy Tail wizards and activated a magic mechanism by clapping their hands. The hole where Chei was in slowly raised up until it was level with the ground. Lucy and the others gasped in various levels of surprise and concern when they saw the girl they were looking for.
At this point, all the other cultists stopped chanting and stepped away from Chei. Kageyama was too focused on breaking the seal that he didn’t react in time to move away with the others so the leader pointed at him and barked harshly, “You! Bring the offering to me!”
Kageyama froze when he was pointed to but slowly bent down and lifted Chei up in a princess carry. He unhurriedly walked towards the leader, trying to waste as much time as possible. 20 more seconds, he needed just 20 more seconds. Fairy Tail, sensing danger, broke out of their daze and tried to break through the invisible thing with renewed vigor. He couldn’t do anything out of the ordinary either, he sensed if he revealed any abnormalities that invisible enemy would turn its attention to him.
Kageyama stopped next to the leader as they threw their arms towards the sky and started laughing maniacally. The air wavered by the massive amounts of Ethernano being moved towards Chei. Kageyama wavered at being so close to her but forced himself to focus.
The leader screamed in reverence, “Hear me Lord Omo! Your humble servant brings before you a physical form to descend into! By the breath taken, by the blood spilled, by your will-”
“-break.” The leader’s chanting, which was the only thing you could hear as even the world seemed to hold its breath listening, was broken by the person holding Chei muttering a single word. The leader stopped talking, seemingly shocked by the fact that this follower had the gall to interrupt them in the middle of their lord’s descent.
Then, all of a sudden, the magic words wrapping around Chei shattered and flashed brightly, the Ethernano that was gathering in her was propelled out with enough force that it knocked Kageyama’s hood off. He stumbled slightly, blinking rapidly as he was temporarily blinded by the light. Someone yelled his name in delight as his vision slowly came back.
“You.” A voice full of venom spoke next to him, “What did you do.”
Kageyama had no time to respond even if he wanted to as he heard the air whiz closer. Reacting on instinct, he dropped down, cradling Chei closer to his chest as a transparent vine whipped over his head. The leader on the other hand wasn’t so lucky and was flung away as the vine slammed into them. A piercing roar sliced through the air. He looked up to see a giant, grotesque, half rotted plant monster appear in front of him. The rotting plant matter that made up its body melded together randomly, creating what was basically a blob with vague ideas of limbs.
Ew. That’s so gross.
Thank whoever’s out there that it wasn’t ghosts.
…
It’s looking at me isn’t it?
Ah,
Fuck.
The arm(?) of the monster swung at Kageyama again but this time he wasn’t able to dodge in time and was hurled towards the treeline. He and Chei got an impressive amount of air time before hitting the ground, the fall thankfully didn’t hurt her too much and the impact from the ground seemed to wake her. Kageyama on the other hand, tanked the hit and unfortunately hit his head against the ground hard and was knocked unconscious.
When he came too, a headache pounded against his skull and the light from the setting sun seemed to pierce his eyes. He groaned and tried to move but just managed to send pain coursing through his entire body. Breathing slowly through his nose, he carefully pushed himself up. The monster was laying motionless on the ground alongside the other cult members.
Good. Good.
The problem was that at least a mile past the bodies was the absence of trees. If Kageyama remembered correctly, they were inside a forest. Two times he’s seen them work together and two times he's seen them obliterate a forest. At least the other half was fine-
-he turned towards the direction they came from and noted that most of the trees and plants in the area were dead or half dead. Is that what the illusion was for? To cover up the dying forest?
…welp, not his problem.
Lucy was the first to notice him wake up and waved, “Kage, you’re awake!” She and the others were gathered around Chei who seemed to be telling them something. He pushed himself to a sitting position as they came closer to him.
Natsu laughed, “Too bad, you missed out on me completely destroying the plant monster.” And Grey immediately snarked back, “You mean getting your ass handed to you and me saving you?”
A fight automatically ensued but everyone else ignored them. Lucy held out her hand as she asked, “Are you alright? That was a nasty fall. Nothing broken?”
Kageyama blinked at the hand until his mind finally caught up to his eyes, he ignored the hand and stood up on his own, wincing from the sudden movement. “How kind of you to care about me, princess.” Sarcasm was heavy in his tone, and Lucy clicked her tongue on that but didn’t respond to it. His eyes fell on Chei, she flinched a little when they made eye contact. She looked relatively unharmed, just a few strands of hair out of place and dirt smears over her dress. Pretty good given that she was launched five feet into the air.
“Good job there, breaking the illusion! It was a bit close at the end but you got it in time.” Erza walked up next to Kageyama and roughly patted him on the back, sending him back down onto the ground with a grunt of pain. “Oh, sorry about that. Was that too hard?” He gave a shaky thumbs up as he breathed through the pain.
“Wait,” Grey interrupted, “Where did you even get one of the cultists' cloaks?”
Kageyama stood back up, still a little breathless, “It was from one of the believers.” He reached up to pull the cloak off, throwing it onto the ground.
Happy questioned from Chei’s arms, “Huh? But all of them still have their own cloaks?”
“You might’ve missed one, I definitely took…one…” Kageyama paused, a neuron suddenly firing. “OH SHIT!” He quickly pulled the cultist he trapped within his shadow and checked for a pulse. It would not be a good look if he killed someone on his first job.
“DID YOU KILL HIM?!”
“NO? I DON’T THINK SO??”