Several people sat crowded around the coffee table in Chase’s living room.
“I see.
Let’s set aside the fact that Natsu’s a brainless idiot for a second.” Chase looked at Lucy, considering.
“Lucy, is that really your excuse for showing up at someone’s house wearing nothing but a bath towel?” He’d listened to the whole story by now, and gave her a careful once-over before saying, entirely seriously, “I didn’t realize you had a strange hobby like Gray’s.
Joining Fairy Tail really was the right call for you.” “Aye!” Happy raised a paw in agreement.
Lucy pulled the towel tighter around her neck, lips twitching hard.
Chase has some nerve comparing me to Gray.
He’s the one who asked for my measurements the second we met, and now here he is, sitting shirtless in a room with some unbelievably cute girl.
It’s infuriating just thinking about it.
…Wait.
A cute girl?
It was only then Lucy actually looked at the girl sitting beside Chase, and found herself staring, brow furrowed, at a face that felt strangely, oddly familiar.
This girl looks about my age.
She’s definitely not a Fairy Tail mage, though.
Where have I seen her before?
Lucy racked her brain, chasing the memory, until her eyes landed on the girl’s distinctive cone-shaped hat, and everything clicked into place.
“Wait, are you…
the Dark Magician Girl?
From Sorcerer Weekly?!” The memory sharpened as she said it.
A year or so back, already a big fan of Fairy Tail, Lucy had followed Mirajane closely through every issue of Sorcerer Weekly, back when Mira was still one of its biggest stars.
Somewhere along the way, Dark Magician Girl had left just as strong an impression, popular enough in her own right to have a whole shelf of photobooks.
I never in a million years expected to run into her like this.
And apparently, she and Mr.
Chase are close.
Very close.
“Sorcerer Weekly, huh?
Now that takes me back.” Dark Magician Girl let out a laugh, then glanced at the guild mark on the back of Lucy’s hand.
“New face.
You must be a recent addition to the guild?” “Mm-hm!
Nice to meet you.
I’m Lucy Heartfilia, I only joined a couple days ago!” Lucy said, practically vibrating with excitement.
Dark Magician Girl smiled and shook her hand.
Once the introductions were done, she puffed her cheeks out and muttered, mostly to herself, “What a cute girl.
Master’s probably thrilled about this, secretly.” “Master?
Whose master?” Lucy felt like she’d just heard something enormous, her eyes darting back and forth between Chase and Dark Magician Girl.
Aside from her and Natsu, the only other person in the room was Chase.
Which left exactly one possible answer for who she meant.
So Mr.
Chase isn’t just a hardcore chuunibyou case, he’s secretly a pervert too?
There is definitely something going on between those two.
Lucy’s face went bright red, several images flashing through her head that she really hadn’t asked for.
“Hey, Lucy, wanna do a little business?
I’ll even give you a twenty percent discount.” Happy popped up out of nowhere, and having already tasted success once, wasn’t about to pass on a second shot at Lucy’s wallet.
Lucy’s train of thought derailed instantly, and she fixed him with a deeply suspicious look.
A twenty percent discount.
So I’m still paying eighty percent for information that should’ve been free in the first place.
I’d love to break every bone in your body.
She was still furious about the money she’d already wasted on him earlier that day.
“Business?
What kind of business?” Chase asked, curious.
If I remember the story right, this isn’t something that was supposed to happen between Lucy and Happy.
Not at this point, anyway.
Just as Happy opened his mouth to answer, a pale arm shot out and locked around his neck.
“No, no!
Happy’s drunk, that’s all, nothing to see here!” Lucy forced a smile, pinning Happy firmly against her chest before he could get a word out.
If Mr.
Chase finds out I’ve been paying to dig up his “scandals,” that’s going to leave a terrible impression.
“Can you even get drunk on tea?” Dark Magician Girl glanced skeptically at the cups on the table, then over at Happy, who was steadily being crushed into a new shape somewhere against Lucy’s chest.
“I guess it’s possible, if it’s just Happy being an idiot.” A muffled wail rose up from the general vicinity of Lucy’s chest, something that might have translated to I’m innocent, this is slander, if anyone could have made out the actual words.
“Whatever, who cares about all that!
More importantly—” Natsu shot up to his feet, flames already curling around his right fist.
“Hey!
Dark Magician Girl!
Long time no see!
Fight me!” “You sure about that, Natsu?
I’ve gotten stronger too, right alongside my master.” Dark Magician Girl, who’d apparently settled into Fairy Tail’s chaos without missing a beat, didn’t look remotely intimidated.
She rubbed her palms together, her wand already glowing.
The two of them, just about to throw down right there, each caught a solid punch from Chase before either could throw the first strike.
In perfect, unsettling unison, they clutched their heads, dropped to the floor, and howled.
“Watch yourselves!
Look around you!
This is my house!” Chase scolded, sharp.
Lucy, still recovering from her own recent brush with misfortune, nodded along hard enough that she nearly gave him a thumbs up.
“If you want to fight, go fight at Lucy’s place instead!” Lucy quietly lowered the thumbs up she’d been about to give.
Under Chase’s tyranny, Natsu and Dark Magician Girl eventually abandoned the whole idea of fighting and slunk back to their seats, chastened.
The chaos finally settled.
Once things calmed down, Chase walked Lucy through the whole picture: Dark Magician Girl was a card monster who’d formed a contract with him.
The bond between them was apparently a lot like the one Lucy had with her own spirits, Aquarius, Taurus, and the rest.
Along the way, Lucy came away with a full understanding of the magic Chase used: Duelist’s Soul.
Thank goodness I didn’t fall for that stupid cat’s little scheme after all.
If she was being honest with herself, there’d been a moment, brief as it was, where she’d actually considered paying up just to watch the drama unfold.
“A magic I’ve never even heard of, huh?
Duelist’s Soul.” Lucy surfaced from her own thoughts long enough to say it out loud.
“There are more trap and spell cards than anything else, but the way they work isn’t so different from your Celestial Spirit Magic.
The card monsters are partners.
Ones I care about a lot,” Chase said, and he meant it.
Their steady company, honestly, was a real part of how he’d made it this far.
Physically.
Mentally.
Both.
“Yeah, that makes sense!” Lucy nodded, understanding written all over her bright smile.
The moment she finished, a strange little poof-poof-hmm sound drifted up from somewhere behind her.
“Lucy, did you fart?” Chase, with zero regard for tact, asked the obvious question right out loud, right in front of everyone.
Lucy went speechless for a second, then let out a sharp, indignant denial.
She spun around and scooped up the source of the noise: something small and white and trembling, with a round head and a nose like a little point.
“That sound was from him!
This is Plue, the Canis Minor Celestial Spirit.
I only just signed a contract with him.” Plue raised one shaky hand.
“Pfft.
Pfft.” His goofy little wobble caught Dark Magician Girl’s attention instantly.
“What an adorable little snowman!” She had zero resistance to anything cute.
None whatsoever.
“…He’s not a snowman, actually, he’s Canis Minor.” Lucy explained patiently, then carefully handed Plue over to Dark Magician Girl, whose eyes had gone bright with delight.
Dark Magician Girl took him and pulled him into a hug, petting and squeezing him without mercy.
Plue’s face went completely, utterly despairing.
“Plue!
I feel like the two of us are going to get along great.” Chase nodded thoughtfully at the scene, then drew a card from thin air with two fingers, and the monster inside answered the call.
A small chestnut-colored ball floated up into the air, blinking a pair of huge, adorable eyes.