Fairy Tail: My Magic is a Yu-Gi-Oh! Deck — Chapter 109

Chapter 109: The Missing Chase and Lucy

Just as Natsu and Gray squared off, their foreheads pressed together and fists raised to teach each other a brutal lesson, a massive wooden plank swung down from the side. The heavy timber smashed into the crowns of their heads with a resounding crack, driving both Mages straight into the loose dirt of the construction site until only their faces remained exposed above ground.

“I told you two, we are rebuilding the guild right now! Can you not take this seriously for five minutes?”

Erza stood over them, her face pulled tight with stern authority as she slowly hoisted the wooden plank back over her shoulder. She was fully outfitted for the occasion, sporting a bright yellow safety helmet and heavy-duty work clothes meant for hauling bricks.

“Yes, ma’am!” Natsu and Gray shouted in unison, their eyes instantly clearing of any fighting spirit.

“Aye. I always feel like we are playing a weird game of whack-a-mole when she does that.” Happy sat on a nearby barrel, seizing the perfect opportunity to complain while chewing on a fish.

Seeing the two troublemakers finally settle down, Erza turned her attention away from the dirt mounds. She looked toward Makarov, who had expanded his body using Giant Magic and was currently hoisting a massive wooden crossbeam into place a short distance away.

“Foreman, where should this batch of planks be placed?”

The giant Makarov turned his head, a wide, good-natured smile stretching across his oversized face. “Oh, Team Leader Erza! Just pile them up with the rest of the roofing materials over there.”

The bizarre new titles the two used drew quiet, amused whispers from Macao, Wakaba, and the rest of the guild members hauling supplies. In the blink of an eye, the rowdy Mage guild had completely transformed into a highly organized construction crew.

At the exact same time, hiding behind a towering stack of lumber in the distance, a pair of intensely obsessive eyes remained locked onto the small patch of Gray’s forehead visible above the dirt.

‘Ah, Juvia wants to be buried in the dirt with Gray too! That way, we can stay close together and I can have his children!’Juvia twisted her waist back and forth behind the woodpile, her face flushed with extreme excitement. Deep within her mind, a heavily filtered, sparkling image of Gray appeared, followed immediately by a rapid sequence of domestic daydreams that were entirely unsuitable for a public workspace.’We do not need too many children. Thirty should be enough for a start!’ The sheer magnitude of her mental leaps was nothing short of astonishing.

Following the massive battle, the Mages of Phantom Lord had been released late last night, much like the members of Fairy Tail, after paying a hefty sum in penalty fees to the Magic Council. Only Guild Master Jose, the man who had actively incited the guild war, remained in custody. He had been forcibly dragged back to the Council headquarters by the surveillance unit to await a formal trial.

In reality, the core nature of a Mage guild was merely a centralized hub for Mages to conveniently offer and accept jobs. When the members caused catastrophic property damage or started brawls, the Guild Master responsible for their management and instruction naturally bore the full weight of the blame. Makarov, for instance, spent half his life writing apology letters to clean up after the destructive antics of Chase and Natsu. From that perspective, the Council’s control over ordinary, rank-and-file Mages remained quite lenient.

Gray, who had finally managed to claw his way out of the compacted soil, dusted off his trousers. He paused, a sudden chill running down his spine, and looked up toward the lumber piles where Juvia was hiding.

He saw nothing but stacked wood and shadows.

“Strange. Why do I feel like someone is staring a hole through the back of my head?” he muttered softly, rubbing the back of his neck with a frown.

Considering there were dozens of construction workers and guildmates bustling around the site, Gray decided not to pay it any special attention. Under Erza’s strict supervision, he went right back to his fierce rivalry with Natsu, competing to see who could haul the most cement for the new guild foundation.

Time passed in a blur of sweat and shouting, and the sun soon climbed to its highest point.

During the break, Natsu and Happy discovered a mysterious heart-shaped bento box resting on a stone block. They shared it with Erza, all three giving the delicious food high praise. Gray, on the other hand, sat nearby with a deeply unsettled expression, his stomach rumbling. He absolutely refused to take a single bite. He had no idea which jerk was playing a prank on him, but someone had carefully molded the white rice balls to look exactly like his own face.

“Natsu, Gray, have either of you seen Chase today?”

Cutting through the noise of the lunch break, Mira walked over from the makeshift planning tent. She wore a beautiful wine-red dress that stood out against the dust of the site, and she held a stack of colorful, hand-drawn blueprints against her chest.

“I want him to be the first one to evaluate the interior design I just rushed to finish,” she said, the depths of her sparkling blue eyes filled with bright anticipation.

Gray cast a wary glance at the top blueprint, which was covered in a highly adorable, overly cute art style. He kept his mouth tightly shut, deciding it was safer not to offer any architectural opinions.

“No clue. I have not seen that guy around all day,” Natsu replied through a mouthful of food.

“Aye. It is a bit strange. Chase is usually the fastest one to show up when we have a big project like this!” Happy scratched his head in confusion, his tail swishing behind him.

“Now that you mention it, his absence is quite noticeable.” Erza casually speared the rice-ball eyeball of Gray’s face with her metal fork, popped it into her mouth, and chewed it thoughtfully.

Gray remained entirely silent, though he suddenly raised a hand to rub his own eye, feeling a phantom sting of pain.

“I see. Well, if any of you spot him, please let me know right away, okay? Please!” Seeing that her friends were just as clueless, Mira turned and walked away, her shoulders dropping in slight disappointment as she went to ask the rest of the crew.

Erza swallowed her food and scanned the bustling construction site. “Speaking of missing people, it is not just Chase. I do not believe I have seen Lucy at all today either.”

Gray rubbed his eyes again, his expression souring further.

“Aye. Lucy is probably still sleeping at her house right now!” Happy raised a paw to answer.

“That is seriously completely unfair! She kicked us out of her place first thing in the morning, and now she gets to sleep in while we do all the heavy lifting!” Natsu grumbled, crossing his arms as he recalled the terrifying scene of Lucy booting them out the door before the sun was even fully up.

“If that is the case, we can just go over to her place and drag her out here to help,” Gray suggested, cracking his knuckles. Even though Magnolia was his home, he kept feeling a lingering, unclean presence watching him at the construction site today, and he wanted an excuse to leave.

“Very well. The foreman mentioned it will be time for our official lunch break soon anyway,” Erza agreed, wiping her hands on a cloth. Dragging a lazy guildmate out of bed was one thing, but she was genuinely a little worried about Lucy. The terrifying ordeal with Phantom Lord had just ended, and leaving her alone so soon did not sit right with her.

As for Chase, Erza completely dismissed him from her mind. If that overpowered guy was missing, the only people who needed to be anxious were the unlucky enemies who crossed his path and the Guild Master who would have to pay for the collateral damage.

After shouting a quick notification to Makarov, the group left the construction site, completely ignoring Juvia’s reluctant, teary gaze burning into Gray’s back from the dark corner.

They handled the familiar streets of Magnolia and soon arrived at Lucy’s riverside rental house. True to their usual habits, Natsu and Happy scaled the brick wall and climbed in through the second-story window. Gray hoisted himself onto the roof and slid straight down the fireplace chimney. Erza simply appeared inside the living room out of thin air, using some unknown, highly efficient method of entry.

One thing was absolutely certain: not a single one of them used the front door.

The entire apartment was dead silent. The usual frantic screaming and complaints from Lucy about them breaking in were completely absent, making the empty air feel heavy and uncomfortable.

They searched the rooms thoroughly but found no sign of the blonde Mage. However, Happy did find a thick stack of letters resting on the bedside table. They were all addressed to Lucy’s mother, written but never sent to the mailbox.

“You can stop searching. Lucy left a message saying she was going home for a trip.”

Erza stood by the wooden writing desk near the window. She held up a small piece of parchment that had been pressed flat beneath a heavy glass ink bottle.

“What? Home?!” Natsu, Gray, and Happy shouted in unison, the realization hitting them all at the exact same second.

The guild had just been completely destroyed by a rival faction hired by her father. They were currently hauling bricks to rebuild it. So the ‘home’ Lucy was returning to right now…

“That is correct. The note clearly states that she has returned to the Heartfilia Estate,” Erza said, her expression turning incredibly solemn.

“How could she do that? Lucy hates that place! She does not want to be there at all!” Natsu’s voice echoed loudly off the apartment walls, carrying a clear, rising panic.

“She is probably doing it because she does not want the Heartfilia Consortium to launch another attack on the guild,” Gray muttered, his fists clenching at his sides.

“Who cares about that! Let’s go get her back right now! Lucy is our companion!” Natsu roared, already turning toward the window.

When it came to the safety and freedom of a guildmate, no one in the room hesitated for a single second. They immediately scrambled out of the apartment and sprinted toward Magnolia Station to catch the next train.

At that very moment, miles away from the city, Lucy sat quietly in a private train cabin. She had changed out of her usual bright attire into a simple, subdued casual dress. She rested her chin on her hand, looking out the glass window at the rapidly flashing scenery of the countryside, her brown eyes clouded with a heavy, complicated sadness.

She was moving fast, but Chase was moving much faster.

Riding on the back of the Winged Dragon, Guardian of the Fortress, he tore through the sky at breakneck speeds, the massive blue dragon cutting through the clouds like a blade. He had already arrived at the sprawling grounds of the Heartfilia Estate.

Inside the luxurious, excessively spacious study of the main mansion, Jude Heartfilia sat behind a massive mahogany desk. His face was a mask of gloomy fury as he read over the official intelligence report detailing Phantom Lord’s total defeat.

“What an absolute bunch of useless trash. They could not even take down a single guild like Fairy Tail, and they still have the nerve to call themselves the strongest Mages in Fiore!”

The more Jude thought about the wasted money and the ruined plan, the angrier he became. He slammed his fist heavily onto the sturdy desk, the impact rattling the expensive wood and knocking a stack of financial documents onto the carpeted floor.

He gritted his teeth, his mind rapidly calculating the costs of hiring multiple dark guilds simultaneously to drag his daughter back by force.

Suddenly, the air in the study shifted. The ambient noise of the estate vanished, replaced by an inexplicably heavy, suffocating quiet. Jude’s instincts flared, and his head snapped up.

“Who is there?!” he barked, his hand reaching for the drawer.

In the far corner of the room, where the sunlight failed to reach, the shadows seemed to detach from the wall. A dark blue cloak swayed gently in the stagnant air, and Chase stepped slowly out of the darkness, his boots making no sound on the floorboards.

He looked around the opulent room with a calm, unbothered expression before his gaze finally settled on the man behind the desk.

“Good afternoon, Mr. Jude Heartfilia.”