A New Life in Fairy Tail

Chapter 360: Magic Mimicry

Those who placed and won prize money were naturally wearing brilliant smiles, while those who missed out on the rankings weren't nearly as pleased."I really am as beautiful as a flower! Securing fourth place in my very first competition means almost six months' worth of rent is officially in the bag."

Having locked down fourth place and the 400,000 J prize money that came with it, Lucy beamed with joy. For the time being, she wouldn't have to stress over her monthly housing costs.

"To think I actually lost to my love rival, Lucy... curse you..."

Juvia directed a wave of intense, dark resentment right at Lucy, causing the latter to shiver violently from head to toe.

"No, Juvia! In my heart, you will always be the most beautiful woman in the world!" Lyon declared, his eyes filled with profound passion as he looked at her.

"Ah! That's... Gray-sama!"

Stunned by Lyon's direct gaze, Juvia froze for a fraction of a second before suddenly pivoting and lunging toward Gray, neatly tucking herself completely behind his back.

"Ah, Gray-sama's back is so warm..."

Hiding securely behind Gray, Juvia felt the radiant body heat emanating from him. Unable to help herself, she placed her hands against his back, her face melting into an expression of pure bliss.

"Hey, hey... stop using me as a human shield... wait, whoa!"

Before Gray could even finish his sentence, the sudden sensation of Juvia's hands sliding across his bare back sent an involuntary jolt right up his spine.

"Curse you! Let's duel, Gray! Only the victor has the right to pursue Juvia!"

Seeing Juvia and Gray locked in such close proximity, Lyon grew incredibly worked up, shouting fiercely at his rival.

"Huh? What kind of absolute nonsense are you spouting now?" Gray shot back in disbelief.

"Hmph, let us settle this once and for all!" Lyon declared with a dead-serious look.

"No way," Gray rejected the challenge without a single shred of hesitation.

"What's wrong? Are you scared?" Lyon taunted, trying to goad him into a fight.

"Scared? In your dreams. If you're that eager to lose, just say the word, but we are absolutely not using Juvia as a betting chip," Gray said, his tone turning very firm.

"Fine. Let's just have a straight match then, and see which of us is truly superior," Lyon conceded, dropping the subject of Juvia but keeping his intense focus fixed on Gray.

"Fine by me. You want a fight, you got one," Gray replied, matching his serious expression.

"Wait a moment! Gray-sama, are you choosing me or are you choosing Lyon?!"

Juvia suddenly spun out from behind Gray, inserting herself right into the narrow space between the two men as she posed the question at the top of her lungs.

The thick, volatile tension that had been building between Gray and Lyon instantly evaporated into thin air.

"You didn't listen to a single word we just said, did you..." Gray sighed, casting a completely helpless look at Juvia.

With that, the trio dissolved right back into their usual circular bickering.

Now that Juvia's intense gaze was no longer locked onto her, Lucy let out a massive sigh of relief.

As the rest of the guild continued to loudly debate the pageant results, Noah and his group—who had already known the final outcome beforehand—simply glanced at the board before turning to head over to the training grounds. Seeing them move, Lucy quickly scurried along to join them.

By the following morning, Natsu rushed up to Lucy with an incredible amount of energy, bellowing right into her face, "Lucy! Let's go take a job!"

"Let's work!" Happy chimed in enthusiastically from his shoulder.

"Huh? Oh, sure."

Lucy nodded in agreement. While they had spent the last two days training, and her prize money had temporarily alleviated her financial stress, she knew it was always better to earn whenever possible. Accumulating a healthy savings cushion was the only way to safeguard her wallet against the inevitable drought that followed whenever Natsu collateral-damaged a town and wiped out their rewards.

"But still, what brought on this sudden urge to take a request? Weren't you taking things easy and avoiding jobs for a while before this?" Lucy asked, a hint of suspicion entering her voice.

"That's... hey, I'm always working! Just... odd jobs here and there, you know?" Natsu stammered, an uncharacteristic look of embarrassment crossing his face.

"Aye!" Happy agreed, a little too quickly.

"Wait a minute. If you've been working all this time, why did you suddenly come running to find me today? Don't tell me... you guys are completely broke, aren't you?"

Lucy finally caught on to the anomaly. If Natsu had been earning consistently, there was absolutely no reason for him to seek her out so desperately out of the blue. Something was definitely fishy.

"Oh no, Natsu! Lucy read us like an open book! What do we do?" Happy cried out, turning his panicked gaze toward his partner.

"Lucy, you've gotta save us! We're completely flat broke! We can't even afford the train fare for our next meal!"

Natsu dropped squarely onto both knees right in front of Lucy, huge comedic tears welling up in his eyes as he begged.

"Please help us, Lucy!" Happy duplicated the exact pose right beside Natsu, his eyes equally watery.

"Okay, okay! Just get up, both of you! Everyone in the guildhall is staring at us!"

Completely flustered by their dramatic display, Lucy hurriedly grabbed them by their shoulders and hauled them back to their feet.

"Natsu! Lucy said yes!" Happy cheered, his tears instantly vanishing as he turned to Natsu.

"Happy, she agreed! Lucy really is the greatest angel ever!" Natsu cried out with equal excitement, grabbing Happy's paws.

"Honestly, you two..." Lucy pinched the bridge of her nose, letting out a long, exhausted sigh. "Have you even picked out a request yet?"

"So... what job are we doing?" Happy asked, turning his head to look at Natsu.

"Haven't looked at the board yet!" Natsu declared with absolute pride.

"Are you serious?! If you wanted to drag me along on a job, you could have at least looked for one first!" Lucy complained, shaking her head in sheer disbelief.

"Well, we were waiting for you to make the final executive decision, Lucy!" Natsu said, flashing a toothy grin.

"Aye!" Happy chimed in.

"If that's the case, why don't you guys take a look at this one?"

Gray stepped up to their table, holding a printed flyer in his hand, and slid the request slip right into the center of the table between Natsu and Lucy.

"What's this?"

Lucy picked up the sheet to examine it. Printed near the top was a photograph of a middle-aged man with a stern countenance, a half-lit cigarette clamped firmly between his teeth. Her eyes drifted down to the bottom of the page, where the listed reward amount made her freeze.

"Wait... two million J?! Are you kidding me? This much?!" Lucy gasped, her eyes widening.

Standard requests usually hovered around a few hundred thousand J at best, with rewards only crossing the million mark once a job qualified for S-Class status. This particular flyer clearly didn't feature an S-Class rank, yet the bounty was listed at a staggering two million J. It was no wonder Lucy was taken aback.

"This request is for the apprehension of a fugitive. The initial bounty issued by the authorities wasn't anywhere near this high, but a massive bonus was personally appended to the total by a local Count," Noah explained, walking over to join their group.

"A Count personally jacked up the reward money? It sounds like this fugitive must have deeply offended a nobleman," Lucy surmised after hearing the details.

If it weren't a personal vendetta, why would a noble go out of their way to bleed their own funds onto an active arrest warrant? It was glaringly obvious that the Count wanted this specific criminal hunted down and brought to justice as rapidly as humanly possible.

"So who exactly is this guy?" Lucy asked, her curiosity fully piqued.

"Velveno. The escaped convict, Velveno," Gray revealed.

"Velveno?! You mean Velveno from the Hunter Guild? They've finally traced his location?!" Happy gasped, his jaw dropping in surprise.

"Ohhh! I remember hearing about him! He's a guy who uses some incredibly wild magic! I'm fired up now!" Natsu roared, banging his fists together as excitement overtook him.

"Huh? Is he really that dangerous?" Lucy asked, looking back and forth between them.

"Yes, he's a highly capable Mage. Even if you strip away the Count's personal bonus, his baseline bounty set by the Council sits at a hefty 800,000 J. And that's entirely due to the nature of his primary magic," Noah clarified from the side.

"His magic?" Lucy echoed, tilting her head.

"Mmm. The guy is a master of a specific caster-type Transformation Magic known as Magic Mimicry," Noah answered.

"Magic Mimicry? What does that do?"

"It's a highly troublesome spell that allows the user, upon making physical contact, to temporarily copy and replicate the exact magic profiles of multiple Mages simultaneously," Noah explained.

"Sounds like he's got some real skill! Man, I seriously can't wait to trade blows with him!" Natsu yelled, throwing a rapid succession of punches into the empty air.

"Wait, what?! That sounds completely broken! Doesn't that mean he can just copy any magic thrown at him?!" Lucy cried out, a wave of panic returning to her face.

"Not quite. While he can indeed replicate another Mage's spellcasting properties, the mimicry clearly suffers from inherent limitations and flaws. If it didn't, he wouldn't have been captured and locked away in the first place," Noah reassured her.

Hearing that, Lucy finally managed to settle her spiking heart rate. It made sense; if the magic was truly flawless and invincible, the authorities would never have managed to put him behind bars to begin with.

"The baseline payout splits cleanly to roughly 330,000 J per person, with any surplus to be divided evenly once the job is finalized. With this secured, your rent for the foreseeable future will be completely taken care of, Lucy."

Erza stepped up to their table, already clad in her traveling gear with her massive luggage carts stacked neatly behind her.

"Mm!" Lucy nodded, a massive smile gracing her face. Between her 400,000 J pageant prize and this projected 330,000 J payout, she would have over 700,000 J in her possession. That was more than enough to cover ten full months of rent. The immense weight that had been pressing down on her shoulders vanished instantly.

"If we're set on accepting this commission, we need to move out immediately. Fugitive intelligence has a incredibly short shelf life. If we tarry and allow him the window to slip away, tracking him down a second time will be a nightmare," Noah reminded the group.

"Then let's not waste another second! Let's move!" Lucy urged, suddenly the most motivated of them all.

"Hell yeah! Let's go crush Velveno!" Natsu shouted, his eyes ablaze.

"Aye!" Happy cheered right on cue.

Since the majority of their heavy gear and personal belongings were stored safely inside their respective Requip pockets and spatial dimensions, there was no need for extensive packing. After a few brief checks, the group filed out of the guildhall doors, heading briskly toward the local vehicle rental shop to secure a Magic Four-Wheeler.

"Wait, hold on a minute... we're taking a vehicle? Noah..."

Natsu skidded to a halt right in front of the rental shop, his face turning pale as he slowly turned his head to look at Noah with pleading eyes.

"No exceptions, Natsu. You need the conditioning. The more exposure you have to transportation, the faster your body will adapt, and eventually, the motion sickness will stop triggering," Noah refused with a calm, pleasant smile.

"Adapt?! What are you, a demon?! Forget it, I'm just gonna run to the destination!" Natsu shrieked in terror, spinning on his heel to sprint down the road.

BAM!

Before he could even take two steps, Erza caught up to him instantly, burying a swift fist straight into his midsection. The air rushed out of Natsu's lungs, and his entire body went completely limp.

Without missing a beat, Erza hoisted the unconscious Dragon Slayer up by his vest and tossed him effortlessly into the back seat of the rented Magic vehicle.

Standing off to the side, Gray, Lucy, and Happy shook like leaves at the display of casual violence.

"Since we accepted this request as a cohesive team, we travel as a cohesive team. I will not tolerate you separating from the group to run cross-country," Erza lectured, addressing the thoroughly passed-out Natsu in the back seat. "Furthermore, our adversary possesses a highly formidable magic attribute. He is an opponent that cannot be underestimated, which means every single one of us needs to maintain peak physical condition. Expending your stamina on a cross-country run is out of the question."

"I'm pretty sure his physical condition is significantly worse off right now..." Lucy whispered under her breath, sweating profusely.

"Aye..." Happy agreed in an equally hushed, terrified squeak.

Gray simply stood by, a cold sweat breaking across his brow as he nodded his head in silent agreement.

"Alright, the paperwork is finalized and the rental fees are settled. Let's get moving," Noah said, stepping up to the group after wrapping up his conversation with the shopkeeper.

"Excellent. Let's set off immediately," Erza nodded firmly.

The group piled into the vehicle. With Noah channeling his magic reserves to power the engine and Erza taking the wheel, they accelerated smoothly down the road, roaring toward their destination.

~~~

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