The Cursed Flute, Lullaby

Earth land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Train Ride from Onibus to Kunugi Station.

June, x784.

Natsu, still feeling weak due to the moving train mustered all his strength and grabbed onto the young man's leg with both of his hands. Then, with all his available strength, he slowly pushed the young man's foot away from his face.

"Originally, I didn't care who you were." Natsu said through gritted teeth. "In fact, I still don't. Whether you're a good guy, bad guy, or just ugly, no one talks about Fairy Tail like that and gets away with it."

"Oh yeah, and what can you do about it?" The young man asked disdainfully as he put more force into the leg Natsu held.

Slowly, the young man's foot drew near to Natsu's face once again.

"Who are you, anyway?" Natsu asked through gritted teeth.

"Ha! The name's Kageyama." The young man, Kageyama, introduced himself smugly. "And a member of Eisenwald, a guild that the world will---"

*Screech~~~~~!*

Just at that moment, however, the trains emergency break was engaged, causing the rest of Kageyama's sentence to get stuck in his throat. On top of that, he lost his balance and leaned backwards. At the same time, Natsu, with Kageyama's leg still in his grasp, pushed both of his arms up with all the force he could.

"Argh! Damned Fairy Fly." Kageyama cursed as he fell backward and landed on his back.

Just as Kageyama hit the ground, however, the shadow he cast elongated in Natsu's direction. Then, just before it reached him, the shadow shot off the ground in the shape of an arm and fist.

'That's the same magic that took those goons away outside of Magnolia.' Natsu thought to himself as the shadow extended.

*Bang!*

Before he could react, Natsu was struck by the shadow hand with enough force to lift him off the floor.

"Gah!" Natsu groaned as he flew through the air.

Before Natsu landed on the floor, however, the train had finally come to a full stop. Then, as soon as he landed…

"Finally!" Natsu shouted happily. "We're not moving!"

Natsu cheered happily. But Kageyama was left confused.

"So what if we've stopped?" Kageyama asked disdainfully. "You're still gonna die today!"

"We'll see about that." Natsu said with a vicious smile on his face.

"Don't look down on me!" Kageyama shouted angrily. "[Shadow Magic: Knuckle Shadow]!"

Like before, Kageyama's shadow stretched toward Natsu. However, instead of only one fist punching at him from it, Natsu was attacked by four this time.

"Ha! Even if there are more of them, it's still the same trick." Natsu said as his hands were set ablaze. "And you'll definitely need more than that to beat me!"

After speaking, Natsu threw four extremely fast punches that intercepted all the incoming shadow fist. And with each impact, a whole was punched in one of the surfaces of the train car. With two breaking through the ceiling and one on each wall.

"Impossible!" Kageyama exclaimed in disbelief. "How could a weak fly like you match me in power?"

"Oh, I'll show you who the weakling is!" Natsu shouted as he dashed forward at Kageyama. "And I'll do much more than just match your strength. [Fire Dragon's Iron Fist]!"

This time, the intensity of the fire on Natsu's right fist skyrocketed while the flame on his left fist fizzled out. Then, Natsu's flaming uppercut landed on Kageyama's gut, sending him flying into the ceiling.

Though Kageyama's momentum was stopped completely when he slammed into the ceiling, the force was transferred to the ceiling in its entirety. As a result, a large portion of the train car's ceiling was blown away.

"Damn!" Natsu shouted in a depressed tone. "I haven't eaten Alfonzo's cooking in weeks. And if he finds out about this, he'll probably get Gramps and Mira to take away all the points I do have."

*Clatter!*

By this point, Kageyama had fallen to the floor. And next to him lay a creepy-looking, brown flute with a grinning skull at the end. However, there was a third eye in the middle of the skull's forehead. On top of that, all three eyes were glowing in an ominous purple color.

'What's up with that creepy flute.' Natsu thought to himself as he turned his attention to Kageyama, thinking of asking him to keep it a secret that he destroyed the train car.

*Rumble!*

At that moment, however, the train started up again. While Natsu's motion sickness kicked in immediately, Kageyama scrambled the grab the flute and hide it in his clothes once again.

Before the train could pick up too much speed, however, a blue blur entered through the hole in the roof of the car, grabbed Natsu, and flew away as quickly as it could.

"This isn't the end, Fairy Tail Fly!" Kageyama shouted as Natsu was carried away by Happy. "Next time we meet, I'm going to kill you!"

"Yeah right!" Natsu shouted back. "If we meet again, I'll kick your butt! Just like last time!"

With a that final exchange of words, Happy flew away with Natsu in the direction opposite the train.

Meanwhile, from the direction of Onibus, an old fashioned Magic vehicle was speeding along the train tracks toward Kunugi. This magic vehicle, however, looked nothing like a modern car. Instead, it looked like a metallic carriage that would normally be pulled by horses. Yet, there were none in front of this carriage.

Seated inside the carriage were Cana, who was once again drinking, Gray, and Lucy. Seated where the coachman would sit was Erza.

"Erza, you need to slow down!" Gray shouted in a concerned tone. "You're using up too much magic power!"

"This is nothing!" Erza shouted back in return as she glanced down at the device wrapped around her right wrist. "The only thing we need to worry about is recovering Natsu from the train."

The device wrapped around Erza's wrist is known as an SE, or Self Energy, plug. Sending her magic power into this SE plug allows Erza to increase or decrease the speed of the magic vehicle based on how much magic power she sends through it.

"I swear, Erza." Cana said before taking a swig from the bottle in her hand. "You're as stubborn as they come."

'It's my fault you were left on the train, Natsu.' Erza said to herself resolutely. 'So, it's my responsibility to get you off of it.'

Driving for a few minutes longer, the group of four spotted Natsu and Happy flying toward them. Immediately, Erza slowed the magic vehicle to a stop. A few moments later, everyone was standing on the ground in front of the magic vehicle.

"Oh man, my butt hurts." Lucy said while rubbing her butt. "I never felt like this when I rode with Alfonzo and Lici."

"Yeah, I didn't really get it back then, but Fonzie mentioned something about 'suspension,' or something like that." Cana said, taking another swig from her bottle. However, when she realized it was empty, she tossed it away with an annoyed expression on her face. "Anyway, whatever it is that Alfonzo did to his magic vehicles makes the ride so much smoother. I never have to worry about spilling my drink when I ride with them."

A moment later, Happy landed in front of the rest of the group with Natsu.

"Hey, guys." Natsu said with a smile. "I'm back."

*Clang!*

Quickly, Erza approached Natsu and pulled his head into her bosom. Unfortunately, she had forgotten that she was wearing armor, resulting in Natsu's head smashing face first into her chest plate again. Luckily, Natsu remained conscious this time. Even if he was rather shaken up.

"Thank goodness." Erza said dramatically. "I'm glad you're okay."

"Aye…" Natsu replied in a daze.

"Hey, Cana." Lucy whispered. "She's one of Alfonzo's girlfriends, like you, right?"

"Yeah, that's right." Cana said while uncorking another bottle of wine.

'Where does she keep pulling these bottles from?' Lucy wondered to herself.

"Then, why is she hugging Natsu like that?" Lucy asked curiously. "Wouldn't Alfonzo get angry?"

"Oh, I can see why you would think that." Cana replied with a giggle. "But you don't have to worry about that. Erza is like that with everyone. She worries a great deal over her friends. So, scene's like this happen a lot."

"I see." Lucy replied in a relieved tone, though she did not notice it herself.

Unfortunately, Cana did notice Lucy's tone.

"Why are you so worried about Alfonzo?" Cana asked playfully. "Don't tell me the new girl has fallen as well."

"Huh? No! Of course not!" Lucy said in a fluster. "But I don't wanna see him get cheated on either… Even if he is a playboy."

"A playboy, you say?" Cana asked with an eyebrow raised. "How can he be considered a playboy when his first girlfriend pushed him into accepting other girls? On top of that, all the girls know about the others and get along. Can a playboy say that about all his girls?"

"huh? I never thought about it like that." Lucy said in wonder.

'Great, now I'm helping him pick up other girls, too.' Cana thought to himself. 'Lici is really rubbing off on me. Actually, that sounds like fun. I'll get her to do that next time Fonzie is fucking her from the back. Hehe.'

*Bang!*

"He was from Eisenwald and you let him get away?" Erza asked angrily after punching Natsu in the head. "We already discussed that was the guild we were chasing after!"

"What are you talking about, Erza?" Natsu asked while rubbing the spot where Erza punched him. "This is the first time I'm hearing about this."

"Maybe if you paid attention when people were talking to you, you would have known about this." Erza scolded.

"She completely forgot that she knocked him out on the train ride to Onibus, didn't she." Lucy asked in a dry tone.

"Yup, she sure did." Gray replied.

"Doesn't surprise me." Cana added before taking a swig from her bottle. "*Burp*"

"That's Erza for ya!" Happy said cheerfully.

Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Kunugi.

"Get everyone and everything off the train!" A tall man with long white hair that covered the right side of his face and tattoos that covered most of his shirtless upper body and carrying a large scythe shouted after the train Natsu was on earlier arrived at Kunugi station.

"Yes, Sir!" The wizards who accompanied the white haired man shouted in reply.

One thing that the white-haired man and all the others had in common, however, was the emblem representing the Eisenwald guild was visible somewhere on their bodies.

For the next twenty minutes or so, the members of Eisenwald rushed through the train and forcefully removed everyone from inside, killing everyone who resisted.

"Hey, Erigor." Kageyama said while approaching the white-haired man. "I finally unsealed it."

The white-haired man, Erigor the Reaper, turned around after hearing his name called. When he saw Kageyama and remembered the words he just heard, Erigor smiled in satisfaction.

"Good work, Kageyama." Erigor praised. "I don't know how you did it, but you somehow managed to make your [Shadow Magic] dispel barriers and seals."

"I don't know how either." Kageyama replied. "It just kinda comes naturally to me."

After turning in Kageyama's direction, Erigor finally noticed the damaged train car.

"Kageyama, what happened to that train car?" Erigor asked curiously.

"Oh, that?" Kageyama asked, looking back at the car where he had his brief fight with Natsu. "I ran into one of those Fairy Tail Flies."

Kageyama then went on to tell Erigor about his encounter with Natsu.

*Shing!*

However, as soon as he mentioned the fac that Natsu mostly saw the flute, Erigor snapped and swung his scythe at Kageyama. Luckily, Kageyama was able to dodge back just enough to not be cut, falling on his backside. At the same time, the blade of the scythe pierced into the ground between Kageyama's legs, inches away from his family jewels.

"He saw the flute and you let him live?" Erigor asked angrily.

"It's not like he knew what the flute was." Kageyama said, defending himself. "And even if he did, there's nothing he or the rest of the flies could do to stop our plan."

Meanwhile, Cana, Gray, Erza, Natsu, Happy, and Lucy were back in the magic vehicle, with Erza driving and Natsu feeling like he would die any moment. Like Kageyama, Natsu had also described his encounter with the dark wizard, mentioning the creepy flute that he saw as well. Surprisingly, Lucy actually knew about the flute that Natsu described, quickly identifying it as Lullaby.

After naming the flute, Lucy briefly explained what she knew about it through books. And according to Lucy, a song played with that flute released a type of [Death Magic] that would lull anyone who heard it into an eternal sleep.

After hearing that, Erza drove even more recklessly to catch up to the members of Eisenwald.