Under Dark Magician Girl’s expectant gaze, Mira used a magical communication tool to reach the print editor at Sorcerer Weekly.
“Did I hear that right, Miss Mirajane?
Dark Magician Girl wants to shoot a photobook with you, and you actually said yes?” came an excited voice from the other end.
“Mm, I don’t know, would it work?” Mira asked, gentle about it, nodding along as she spoke.
“That’s incredible!
Is this really happening?” After a burst of barely contained joy, the voice came back fast.
“There’s absolutely no problem with that!” “A playful, adorable magical girl paired with a sexy, striking white-haired beauty: just picturing that combination gets my blood pumping!” “Could you make it to the port city of Hargeon today?
The shoot’s on Emon Ruins, an island off the coast of Fiore.
We’ll send a magic ship to bring you both over.” Mira didn’t answer right away.
Instead, she smiled and said, “In that case, shouldn’t the fee go up a little?” “Of course, of course.” “What do you think, fifty million Jewels?” Back at Sorcerer Weekly’s headquarters in the capital, the editor on the other end, some ahoge-haired man Mira had dealt with before, went quiet for a beat too long, the kind of silence that suggested “a little” hadn’t meant what he thought it meant.
“Speaking of which, I believe I’ve had invitations from a few other weekly magazines about Dark Magician Girl too.” Mira propped her chin on one hand and shot a playful wink at Dark Magician Girl, a clear signal to stay quiet.
Mira usually played gentle and easygoing around the guild, but she had a cunning, scheming side too, when it suited her.
If it weren’t for what happened all those years ago, her real personality might have made even Natsu and Gray look tame by comparison.
“Fine!
I’ll take it up with the company.
Just, please, don’t let those low-rent little workshop magazines get their hands on this.” The voice on the other end made the promise, clearly reluctant.
The Mirajane and Dark Magician Girl combination really was too good to pass up, after all, a perfect fit for the shoot’s whole theme, the kind of pairing that could boost a magazine’s numbers across the board.
That alone should have been more than enough to justify the raise.
And just like that, Mira had talked her way into the job.
“Mira’s amazing!
Not only did she get them to change the whole shape of the commission, she got the fee bumped up to seventy million Jewels!” Dark Magician Girl gazed at Mira with pure adoration, eyes sparkling.
Dark Magician Girl had spent her whole existence steeped in the study of dark magic, and negotiation skills like the ones Mira wielded so effortlessly just weren’t part of her training.
“Ha, that was all pretty simple, really.” Mira beamed, clearly pleased with herself, and reached out to pat Dark Magician Girl’s head.
“More money means more pretty clothes for you!” “It must be exhausting, following that hothead Chase around all the time.
You deserve a little something for yourself.” The whole reason she’d bothered negotiating so hard with Sorcerer Weekly wasn’t for her own sake at all.
It was so she could hand every last Jewel of it over to Dark Magician Girl.
“Hey now, that’s starting to sound like an accusation against evil, exploitative capitalists, and I can’t just let that slide…” Chase, dragged unwillingly into the conversation, stood up in mock offense.
“Oh dear, did we get caught?” Mira tilted her head, a charming little smile playing on her lips.
This woman really is cunning.
When Loke came slinking back from his hasty escape, Mira gave him a quick rundown of what he’d be covering.
Once everything was confirmed with Sorcerer Weekly, she and Dark Magician Girl packed up fast and headed for Magnolia Station to catch the steam train to Hargeon.
“Chase, Elfman, I’m leaving the dates in your hands.
Try to get along with Loke, okay?” Mira’s smiling parting words very nearly broke both of them on the spot.
This is absolutely not the kind of peace of mind I wanted, Mira…
Elfman turned away and quietly sank into a corner of the guild, wiping at his eyes like he’d just suffered some grave injustice.
The other “victim” here, obviously, was Loke, stuck with actual paperwork.
Not Chase.
Thick-skinned as ever, Chase hadn’t taken the date thing to heart at all, and had already let Cana pull him over to her table.
Cana hefted the barrel, took a long pull straight from it, and wiped the excess off the corner of her mouth without a trace of shame.
“Keeping a card’s magic active for that long, over that kind of distance, how do you even manage that, Chase?” Her face was creased with confusion, clearly still thinking about Dark Magician Girl heading off with Mira.
As a card mage herself, most of what Cana could do ran on elemental attacks: fire, lightning, that kind of thing.
She had ways to summon something to fight alongside her, sure, but the duration on those summons was nothing to brag about, let alone holding one steady across the distance of several towns.
If I could just get some real training advice out of Chase, I might actually have a shot at this year’s S-Class exam.
“Cana, I already told you this once.” Chase picked up his beer and drained it in one go.
He looked at her, at the naked hunger in her eyes for more strength, and said, low, “Our magic works on completely different principles.
My training method won’t do a thing for you.” “Please.
I’ll do anything to get stronger!” Cana slammed the empty barrel down on the table, worked up now.
“Careful how that sounds.
Gossipy Lucy hears you say something like that, we’ll never hear the end of it.” Chase watched her ignore him completely and let out a helpless sigh.
“It’s been over a year and you’re still stuck on S-Class…” In the last S-Class qualification exam Fairy Tail had run, Cana had gone up against Chase directly and lost, missing her shot at the rank.
“I’m not like you or Erza.
If I don’t make S-Class, I can’t stay in this guild.” Cana’s eyes dimmed, and her voice cracked with something close to tears by the end of the sentence.
With less than six months left until this year’s exam, she’d already made up her mind, quietly, to herself.
If I fail again this year, I’m leaving Fairy Tail.
Giving up on ever having my father acknowledge me as his daughter.
“Don’t worry about it so much.
Macao’s a veteran of this guild and he’s about as weak as they come, and he’s doing just fine.” Chase gestured toward Macao, sitting nearby chatting with Wakaba, the old guy who never put his pipe down.
Macao seemed to sense something and glanced over with a suspicious scowl.
Is that bastard talking trash about me again?
“Chase, someone like you could never understand how this feels.” Cana shook her head, dejected, and grabbed a fresh barrel, drinking like it owed her money.
“That’s not necessarily true.
Unless I’m wrong, this has something to do with family, doesn’t it?” Chase held up a finger, chuckling, and dropped his voice low.
“Like some guy in this guild who might just be your long-lost father.” “How did you know that?!” Cana’s whole expression changed.
She stood up on the table and shoved her face right into his.
She was completely certain nobody in the guild knew that she and Gildarts were father and daughter.
Even blackout drunk, she’d never once let it slip.
Where did Chase even get information like that?
The smell of alcohol rolling off her hit Chase square in the face, and his nose wrinkled in protest.
He put a hand on her shoulder and eased her back.
A flash of light gathered at his fingertips, and a card took shape.
“Don’t forget, I’m also a card mage who dabbles in divination.” Which was, obviously, a complete lie.
Cana didn’t doubt it for a second, and sat back down in her seat, deflated.
Even a mage as weak as her could pull some information out of the cards if she tried.
It stood to reason someone as strong as Chase could do a whole lot more.
“Can you keep this between us?” she asked.
“Of course.
I’m not the type to go sticking my nose in other people’s business.” With that, Chase flipped the card face-up between his fingers and slid it across the table toward her.
Cana looked at the image on it, some kind of magic book, confused.
“Book of Secret Arts.
A card I picked up by chance on the continent of Guiltina.
It raises a mage’s maximum magic capacity while it’s active.” Chase went on, “The effect only kicks in while it’s actually running, but getting a preview of what a stronger version of yourself feels like should still help you right now.” As a personal, built-in cheat, in theory nobody else could use Chase’s deck at all.
Cana’s situation was a little different, though.
As a card mage in her own right, someone who could trap a person inside a card-space entirely separate from reality, activating someone else’s magic card wasn’t nearly as hard for her as it would be for most people.
That was assuming, of course, she actually had Chase’s permission to use it.
Hearing what it did, Cana’s eyes went wide, fixed on the Book of Secret Arts in something like astonishment.
“Raise my magic limit?!
I couldn’t possibly take something this valuable!” She shook her head, over and over.
“Don’t get ahead of yourself.
I’m just lending it to you for a few days.” “…Sorry.
Thank you.” In the end, Cana took the Book of Secret Arts from him.
She wasn’t the type to dance around things once her mind was made up.
“Chase, why are you doing this for me?” Cana cradled the card carefully against her chest, head down, staring blankly at the wine barrel in front of her.
“Isn’t it obvious?” Chase picked up the barrel without asking, tipped his head back, and finished off the last of it in one go, laughing.
“We’re family!” Cana blinked, caught off guard for a second, and then a bright smile broke across her face, cheeks already flushed from the drink.
“I really can’t do anything with you.
I’m buying you drinks one of these days, and we’re not stopping until we’re both wasted.” “Ha!
The kind that leaves you owing the Council even more than you already do?” Cana pursed her lips, dodging the question entirely.
After a few seconds of hesitation, she looked back up at him, sincere.
“Thank you.” “Save that for after you actually make S-Class.” As if remembering something, Chase’s expression suddenly turned mischievous, something close to malice creeping into it.
“Oh, right.
Didn’t you just say you’d do anything to get stronger?” “What…
what exactly are you planning?” Cana crossed her arms, more than a little unsettled by the look on his face.
My heart’s beating a little faster than it should be, for some reason.
“Then let’s fight.” Cana, who had clearly braced herself for something else entirely, blinked.
“…Huh?” “Get stronger and fight me!
I’m genuinely looking forward to a real card mage duel!” Chase said it again, dead serious.
The stronger Cana got, the better his odds of a card drop out of Duelist’s Soul when they finally threw down.
This made her the first mark in an entirely new lineup of “sparring partners” he had lined up now that he was back at the guild.
Cana, clearly having misread the whole situation, went red.
“…Go to hell!” Damn fighting idiots, damn destruction maniacs.
Give me back that touching moment from thirty seconds ago!
Fortunately, a sudden commotion from over by the request board broke the tension before it could get any more awkward.
The noise was coming from Team Shadow Gear: Levy, speedy Jet, and Droy, whose magic ran on plants.
Jet and Droy, it turned out, had a real disagreement over something and were going at it hard.
Chase pricked up his ears and listened in for a while, until he’d pieced together the whole story.
Turned out, the two of them were fighting over which one got to carry Levy’s luggage.
Only those two would fight over something like that.
If it had been Natsu and Gray instead, it would’ve been a miracle if Lucy’s luggage came out the other side without getting torched and frozen solid, both at once.
“Shut up, you two!
Can’t you see I’m trying to pick a commission here?!” Natsu, sprawled in front of the request board, twisted around to shout at them.
Where he got the nerve to say that, given his own track record, was anyone’s guess.
Jet and Droy, mid-argument, had no intention of listening to him either, and all three of them rolled up their sleeves and went at it right there.
In the end, Natsu came out on top, standing over both of them, laughing loud and looking thoroughly pleased with himself.
Somewhere in the chaos, a commission form got caught in the shockwave, drifted up, then floated slowly back down and landed square on Natsu’s head.
Natsu grabbed it, skimmed the contents, and his eyes lit up instantly.
“Natsu, what’d you get?” Happy leaned in, curious.
“What?!
Twenty million Jewels to destroy a novel?!” “That’s not the point, Happy.
Look, Duke Everlue, the guy who owns this novel, is recruiting blonde maids right now!” Natsu jabbed a finger at the fine print on the commission.
Happy caught his meaning instantly.
“A blonde maid?
But Dark Magician Girl already left for Hargeon with Mira.” “You forgot?
There’s another blonde right here in the guild.” “Oh, right, right!” Natsu and Happy traded a look, and Natsu’s grin turned properly wicked.
“Heh heh heh.” “Let’s go, Happy!” Cana watched the two of them vanish in an instant and sighed.
“Looks like someone’s about to get tricked.” “You can drop the ‘looks like,'” Chase said, standing up with a smile.
“It’s happening.” And that was how, entirely by accident, Natsu and Happy ended up officially teaming up with Lucy for the first time.
In the story as Chase remembered it, this was the commission where Lucy unlocked a novel some famous author had left behind for his son, and came away with Virgo, one of the twelve Zodiac Celestial Spirits and a genuinely powerful one at that.
Chase had zero interest in something he already knew the ending to, and turned to head for the stairs up to the second floor.
“Hey, Chase, where are you off to?” Cana called after him.
“Bored.
Gonna go find myself an S-Class commission to play with.” Chase waved a hand without looking back.
“Find an S-Class commission to play with,” he says…
Cana’s lips twitched, fists clenching tight.
What an infuriating thing to say!
Whatever I felt a minute ago about him saying “we’re family” just evaporated completely.
Only once Chase had fully disappeared around the bend of the stairs did Cana let her anger settle, carefully tuck the Book of Secret Arts away, and stand to leave the guild.
I’m going to get strong enough to wipe that smug look right off his face.
Maybe not even Cana herself had quite noticed yet, but somewhere in the middle of all of it, her goal of making S-Class had quietly picked up a second reason behind it, one she hadn’t exactly signed up for.