7 Chapter 6

Mirajane Strauss silently watched over her siblings from afar.

A month ago, they stumbled into the Fairy Tail guild hall, looking for a cure for her arm. Little did they know that they would find a home instead. The energy and excitement of the guild members have brought a smile to her siblings' faces and kept it there ever since. That's enough for her to stay here. They've experienced too much pain in their lives. As long as she can protect the smiles of the family she has left, that will be enough.

Seeing Lisanna parading around the guild with a little pink-haired spitfire and watching Elfman timidly approach that vain girl, Evergreen, Mirajane can't help but wonder if her youngest sibling is living a life that allows for smiles right now. Cyrus' disappearance has left a shadow over the hearts of all three members of the Strauss family, but it rests heaviest on the eldest sister.

She was supposed to protect him. It's the job of the eldest child to keep those who come after her safe. A job that Mirajane failed to do.

She thinks about that day, 3 years ago, every night. She knew that mage was there. She knew that her sword-obsessed little brother would approach him.

Why didn't she warn him not to run off with strangers?

Why didn't she go with them to keep an eye on him?

Why did she just assume that everything would be okay?

She left everything to her dad, and that got him killed. His dismembered corpse wasn't even fit for an open-casket funeral. They say he most likely fought against the dark mage to save Cyrus. He was fighting for his life while she sat at home thinking about what kind of dress he would bring her.

Every night her mind keeps her awake, thinking about every way in which she failed her little brother. Thinking about what may have happened to him, about what sort of life he is probably living. Killed, violated, experimented on, sold into slavery, every horrible possibility imaginable runs through her mind on repeat when she thinks of what fate she left her little brother to face alone.

Now though, Mirajane is a Fairy Tail mage. Now she can grow strong enough to hunt down the dark mages who stole away her family. She already knows who abducted her brother and killed her father. She just needs to grow strong enough to follow the trail.

Last week, Makarov, the guild master of Fairy Tail, had shown her a news article about an incident in Hargeon. The corpse of a man matching the description of the mage believed to be responsible for the incident 3 years ago was found in an old inn named The Mermaid's Cove. The scene was horribly graphic: his arms had been cut off and his skull was carved open. Blood and brain matter were strewn about the room, and his killer had taken a portion of his brain with him, along with his left eye.

The condition of the crime scene aside, the discovery was huge. The man was identified as Crowley Rouge, a known high-ranking member of the dark guild Dancing Coffin. Even more convincing is that Dancing Coffin is known to specialize in the kidnapping of children throughout Fiore. Mirajane is convinced that they are the ones who stole Cyrus from her.

She wanted to rush out to hunt them down right away, but Makarov wouldn't let her. She's not strong enough to fight a dark guild yet and they both know it. Makarov assured her that he had sent Gildarts, the strongest mage in Fairy Tail, after them. He said that he would bring her brother back.

Makarov and Gildarts are the only ones in the guild who know about Cyrus. She asked for nobody else to be made aware so that her siblings don't need to be reminded of it.

Mirajane has faith that her little brother is still alive. She can feel it.

Where are you, Cyrus? Wait for me, I promise I will save you know matter what!

Her vow is interrupted when a red-haired girl waves a sword in her face.

"Mira quit lazing around and properly train your magic. Don't you have any desire to grow stronger, you She-Devil?" The self-righteous honor student asks.

Seeing the sword gives a pang of pain in her heart before it's overcome with anger and her fist knocks the redhead flat on her backside. The guild erupts into brawls and laughter and Mirajane has one last thought before Erza tackles into her and her mind is enraptured in the fight.

I wonder what you're doing right now, Cyrus.

....

Screams of fear and pain turn to incoherent gurgles as blood begins to fill my target's throat. My blade carves around her eye socket and into the brain matter behind. Now that I've done this before, it's a lot less messy than last time.

Finally, the convulsions cease, and her lovely purple eyeball slides up my blade and into place, a few inches below the other. It's connected to a thin trail of brain matter that bunches up and sinks into the blade beneath it. A year after acquiring Crowley's magic, I've finally found another that suits my interests.

The purple eye blinks open and I teleport to the edge of the treeline, outside the recently emptied dark guild.

A year ago, after the Crowley incident, Hades gave me an offer.

"How would you like to make this your permanent position in the guild?" he asked.

"What do you mean?"

"The Balam Alliance requires secrecy, we can't allow too much information to enter the ears of the council." He explains. "For this, an executioner is necessary. Someone to eliminate any possible information leaks before they happen. It would be his job to see nobody as an ally and to kill whenever and whoever his assignment tells him to. I think you would fit this role nicely."

"Why me? Why not someone who has been in the guild longer?" I inquire.

"Because you are loyal only to your own life." He pointed out. "Something which I have complete power over. You would not hesitate to kill someone you lived with for years if it meant you would survive. That's the type of person you are."

"I understand." I can't afford to oppose Hades right now, he's far too much stronger than I am.

"So, you accept? Good!" The old fox claps me on the shoulder. "With your abilities, this is a really good deal for you. You will have plenty of chances to add more magic to your sword on your assignments. Every time I give you a target, I will make sure to tell you about their magic so you can decide if it's worth taking. You are dismissed, I'll call on you when I have a target prepared. Make sure you are ready."

Since then, I've killed dozens. Oftentimes my targets have been entire guilds because they had been sniffed out by the council and we wanted to make sure that they didn't get the chance to interrogate any of them.

My first assignment was just like that. Gildarts of all people was on the trail of Dancing Coffin, so I had to kill them all before he could find them. Luckily, I completed it without running into him, but I was terrified and rushing the entire time. I won't lie and say that I didn't have any thoughts of meeting him and asking for refuge, but I squashed those thoughts as soon as they came.

I don't have any right to stand with a light guild after what I've done. Besides, even if I did, there's no guarantee that they would accept me. I think it's more likely that the council would find out about me and demand that I be locked away. Even if my current life is a dangerous and sinful existence, at least I have a secure place where I can survive.

Anyway, that brings me to my most recent activity.

The purple eye blinks open again and I teleport once more.

The target this time was a dark guild called The Red Fang. When I looked through their members and abilities, one stood out to me. Salia Ferz is a weak and unremarkable mage with very little power. Her magic let her teleport anywhere in her line of sight. While the ability is remarkable, her magic power is so small that she can only use it a laughable 3 times a day. Otherwise, I would have never caught her.

However, with my mana pool, it's a different story. After a year of experimentation, I've found out both good and bad news about my ability to "steal" magic.

The bad thing is that attack magic doesn't work well with it. I can only force them to use their magic in its most basic application, so if I were to take Natsu's super-powerful Dragon Slayer Magic, all I would be able to do would be make a flame. I wouldn't be able to control it. This means I can only really utilize support magic with it. Like creating a bubble of silence around me, I can control the size, but nothing else. With this new addition, I can teleport anywhere I look. No manipulation or control is involved.

The upside is that keeping them alive to use their magic takes almost no drain on my mana pool. I will be able to collect up to five different magic types on it before the burden on my mana outweighs my passive regeneration. I have to be selective in my choices, but this is already a huge boon for me.

That teleport coin only had a limited amount of uses and broke after I returned to the base from the Crowley assignment. Hades was furious when he learned that Brain had scammed him, but I was more inconvenienced that I lost the ability to teleport. Even though this new magic is of a much smaller scale in terms of teleport distance, It's much more reliable than a magic item.

I continue to chain together teleports in the sky, giggling with childish delight at the feeling, all the way until I return to the airship.

The next day the Rune Knights' raid on The Red Fang's base is met with the sight of 30 headless corpses. Sat against the wall in front of the guildhall is a black-haired woman. All four of her limbs are lying on the ground around her and she only has one, purple eye. The other eye socket is a bloody cavity, with brain matter leaking out.

....

In a dim, candle-lit room 10 people rest around a table. Year x781 in Earthland is coming to a close and the Seven Kin of Purgatory has been fully established.

Zancrow, the psychopathic fire-god slayer, sits with his arms crossed and his feet on the table. Only he knows what he's thinking about. He doesn't like me because we had a spar last year where I nearly killed him. He still has a thin scar across his throat to prove it, I had to use my magic to close it up to stop him from bleeding out.

Azuma, the battle-crazed mammoth of a man, is seated next to him. I don't mind him, don't like him either though. We haven't interacted much. I think he can't look past the fact that I'm a kid and refuses to see me as strong. I'm not complaining though, the more people who underestimate me, the higher my survival rate goes.

Rustyrose is sitting between myself and Azuma. I thoroughly despise this man. He uses flowery language and acts upright, but underneath it is a lunatic just as bad as Zancrow. The only difference is that he hides it behind his theatrics.

I am officially ten years old, but my size is extraordinarily large for that age. I don't think it has to do with my magic so much as it is related to Elfman. Luckily, I'm tall and my frame matches my height, but I'm not ridiculously broad like my elder brother. I'm still dressed in my Upper Moon One cosplay (though I will never admit that out loud) and my sword rests at my hip, now a full-length katana.

Across from me sits Ultear Milkovich, she's ridiculously hot. I never would have believed that someone could be this hot in real life. It almost makes me scared to encounter a lot of the characters from the series because Ultear was never even close to the most attractive character. That said, she's a deluded and manipulative bitch who I can't stand either.

Next to her is Meredy, who is the same age as me, though she has been in the guild for a year longer than I have. Meredy is the member of the Kin with whom I've interacted the most. Being of the same age, she seeks me out to talk a lot. She's childish and naive, but I don't dislike her. She's difficult to deal with though.

Speaking of dislike, next along the table is Caprico, aka Zoldeo. I hate that rat. Enough said.

Last among the Kin, playing with a doll (a regular one) at the end of the table, is Kain Hikaru. I honestly don't know what to make of him. He's an idiot, a clumsy fool who doesn't know how to act properly. Don't get me wrong, he's just as much of a scumbag as the rest of us, just a dumb one.

At the end of the table sits the old bastard responsible for gathering all of us scumbags into one place. Hades looks over us as he listens to each of our reports on our recent activities. Ultear is currently updating us on the state of the Tower of Heaven and the Magic Council.

Standing in the shadows behind Hades is someone of particular interest to me. Bluenote Stinger is undoubtedly stronger than any of the Seven Kin of Purgatory. That goes without question. I believe that I can also make that claim for myself, but I'm well aware that he is stronger than me right now. Still, I can't help but think that his silver eyes would look good along my blade.

"... and so, with my recommendation, it shouldn't be very difficult to get Jellal accepted into the council as a wizard saint within the next year or two." Ultear begins to wrap up her report. "The Tower of Heaven should be ready for completion in 3 years."

"Good. Well done Ultear, you've gone beyond my expectations once again." Hades praises.

"If we're done here, can I leave already?" Zancrow drawls out before pointing his finger down the table at me. "It gives me the creeps being in the same room as this brat."

"Very well, you all may leave." Hades concedes. "White, stay here."

I remain silently seated while the seven Kin file out of the room. Zancrow shoves my shoulder as he passes.

"What do you need from me, Master Hades?" I only speak up once it's just the three of us remaining.

"A new guild has recently popped up, one that walks a fine line between being a dark guild and a light guild. It's called Raven Tail."

"You wish for them to be eliminated?" I inquire with an even voice. I'm a bit surprised, but I had expected my presence to cause some events to deviate from canon.

"Not exactly. Truth be told, I am unsure what to make of them yet." Hades confesses. "Their founder is the son of Makarov Dreyar of Fairy Tail, Ivan Dreyar, though he is currently going by the name Alexei. He seems to be a man ruled by greed, but I am undecided on how to deal with him."

"Then, what do you wish for me to do?"

"You are the only member of Grimoire Heart who is strong enough to deal with him, while also being unknown to the public." He states. "You will investigate Raven Tail. If you feel that they would be beneficial to us, you will make contact with Ivan Dreyar. If you feel otherwise, I leave it up to your discretion."

"Understood," I respond. "When do I begin?"

"You will head out tomorrow."

....

From high above in the air, I look down upon a rocky wasteland. My hawk eyes pick up a warped and sinister-looking castle sitting alone in the distance.

Seriously, how did they ever get approved as a light guild?

As I beat the wings that have sprouted from my neck to stay hovering in place, my mind contemplates how I should approach this.

Hades said to observe them and make a decision, but that's not my style. Hades is well aware that I don't care about whether they are an asset or not. All I care about is my own life and growing stronger to better protect it, and he knows this. In which case, why would he give me this job?

I can only assume that he wants me to kill them, while still being able to claim that he didn't order it. That it was my own decision. Why though? Is there someone backing Ivan, or is it just a whim? If it's the former, killing him could endanger my life. However, I have no choice. Opposing Hades' wishes will get me killed. I choose uncertainty over certain death. Hopefully, it's just a whim.

Besides, Ivan uses very high-level illusion magic, something that I have been searching for for a long time. Perhaps Hades knew this and merely wished to strengthen his pawn. The more I think about it the more I feel that this is the most probable option. His magic is very appealing after all.

I lick my lips with a twisted grin on my face before I partially draw my sword and the second eye blinks open. I appear directly in front of the Raven Tail guildhall's front doors and my fleshy wings retract back into my neck. I don't waste any time pushing the doors open and walking in. The wide hall is filled with about 50 people, but only 3 feel somewhat strong.

The first eye on my sword opens up as the second closes and a bubble encases the room, separating it from the outside world in a cage of silence.

"Narukami Flash" I whisper out the name of my spell.

My sword flies out of its sheath and a sickle of dark magic follows its path, many times faster than when used by Yomazu. Only I am capable of tracking its path and the thin black-haired teen of the trio falls to the ground. Head cleanly separated from his shoulders.

"Kurohebi!" The purple butt-chin shouts and swings a spiked fist at me, which I side-step and detach from his body with another flash of my sword.

The tall blue man approaches me, but I remember that he's just a puppet, even though it wasn't in my intelligence report. I dodge past it and draw my blade in the direction of the wooden puppet-looking creature. It doesn't make any move after it sees that I didn't cast Narukami. It believes itself to be out of range.

"Extend." Halfway through my slash, I whisper out another spell and my blade extends to almost reach the opposite wall.

The creature's head is freed from its body and 13 mob mages who were close to exiting the range of my silence magic were cleaved in half. With the purple man still huddled on the floor cradling his new stump for a wrist, I get to work on the rest of the mob mages.

Head after head falls to the floor and the stench of death pervades the area. I'm a little overly excited at the thought of getting another type of magic, so I can't help the grin on my face. I don't enjoy killing, but it's necessary. You all understand, right? It's all for the sake of my survival. No hard feelings.

"Oops!" I dodge to the side after beheading the last of the mob mages. A purple spike passes by where I was previously standing. "Be careful with that! What would you do if someone got hurt?" I caution the silly man.

"You bastard!" He growls out. "What have you done to Master Alexei?! Why hasn't he come to help us?"

"Hmmm, why I haven't done anything to him," My sword passes through the last neck in the room and the first eye closes once his body hits the floor. "Yet."