14 Chapter 14 - Irene

A/N: Hey all, just wanted to say that I spent a long time trying to make this a thoroughly good chapter without being too cringe since it's important moving forward, character-wise at least. Hopefully it came out okay. Thanks for reading, and let me know if there are things you think could have gone better.

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Upon discovering the large tent after searching for a few hours, Irene Belserion, the Scarlet Despair of Alvarez, confidently approached the entrance flap with her squad. Intent on discovering and potentially tortur- interrogating the people inside for information on what caused the giant crater, she confidently waltzed inside. Now, however, she found herself face down on the tent floor. Two words repeatedly echoed inside her head.

'Pretty dragon… pretty dragon… pretty dragon… pretty dragon… pretty dragon…'

Which sane person in this world would call a dragon pretty? Definitely not the man who turned his back on her during the worst moments of her life. She could count on one hand the number of things that could break through her tough exterior and stir her emotions, yet somehow, a random drunkard inside this random tent during a random inspection struck her down with two simple words which pierced directly into one of her deepest traumas.

* * *

"Miss Irene!"

The girl with pigtails jumped to the Scarlet Despair's side with a worried expression. Her blue-haired companion joined her. Neither of them could figure out what kind of attack was hidden within the seemingly random words of their opponent. This was the first time they saw the legendary Scarlet Despair in such a predicament.

While attending to their leader, they maintained a fearful vigilance toward the man who also ended up on the ground. Despite the relatively low magic power he exuded, they worried he could also defeat them with only a few words.

"Are you alright, m'lady?" The blue-haired girl worriedly asked while trying to flip over her leader.

Suddenly, the Scarlet Despair bolted upright onto her knees, her face blank and unreadable. Her eyes glared lifelessly at the man sprawled out on the floor. In monotone, she asked, "Who is he?"

Stepping between Jin and the strongest female member of the Spriggan 12, Jellal carefully answered, "Do you need something from our comrade? Because of his injuries, we gave him alcohol to dull the pain when we performed first aid on him, so he is not currently sober. I will apologize in his stead if his words offended you."

A bit of light returned to the woman's reddish-purple eyes, which then squinted as she asked, "He is drunk?"

Sensing a hint of danger, Jellal prepared to sacrifice himself so that the others could escape before answering, "He is. We don't wish to cause strife, so I do apologize if you found his remarks to be rude."

"Stop with the pointless apologies," The woman glumly replied. Then, she refocused on Jin, who somehow started snoring, with a cold glare. She pointed at him, and a light green magic circle appeared at her fingertip.

In response, all sober parties prepared for a fight.

"Stop. I'm removing his drunkenness," Irene commanded.

The two members of her party instantly halted their movements, though they looked at her with confused glances.

Despite their wariness, Jellal, Ultear, and Meredy recognized the structure of the magic and allowed it to work. Behind them, Jin's body glowed for a few moments. When the glow disappeared, he stirred and raised his head. Taken aback by the unexpected visitors, Jin entered fight or flight mode and activated his geass on instinct.

Irene saw the change in Jin's eye and started to cast a counter spell, but because of how eyes perceive light, it was already too late. The moment she could perceive the symbol in his eye was the moment the geass pulled her mind away.

Finding herself in a white landscape, she looked around with wide eyes until finding Jin only a few meters away. For some reason, she felt a similar feeling of betrayal to the time her husband turned his back on her and tried to have her executed. In a way, the fact that he complimented her dragon form planted a seed of hope within her, and she recognized it despite not wanting to. Eyes ablaze with fury, she decided to incinerate the man into ashes and then forget the interaction ever occurred, yet nothing happened. Her large pool of magic refused to answer her call. Briefly, she panicked, at least until hearing him speak.

"So even you can't use magic here, huh?"

"What have you done?" Irene asked, hatred oozing from her voice.

Raising a brow, Jin wondered why she was looking at him like he just murdered all the people she cared about. Even so, he patiently answered, "I accidentally panicked and activated my power since I didn't expect to see you of all people in front of me after waking up."

Surprised by his casual honesty, Irene forced herself to calm down. Then, she gathered her strength and rushed forward to kick him between the legs. Even if she couldn't access her magic, she still had the strength of a dragon.

*Wham!*

"...Eh?"

"Huh."

Jin's hand firmly gripped the woman's ankle and held it in place without much effort. Both of them looked at where his hand gripped her leg for a moment with similar surprised expressions and then looked at each other.

"Let go of me," Irene coldly commanded him.

"Hmm. Only if you don't try to damage my family jewels again," Jin grumbled while trying to keep his gaze off of her mostly exposed legs.

"..."

Just when she planned to use his own weight as an anchor to roundhouse kick him with her free leg, she noticed a change in scenery. After a few moments, she forgot about Jin's grip on her ankle and frowned.

"What are you planning to do here?"

'Oh boy. If she gets out of here as is, she'll probably kill me right away. Hopefully I can silver tongue my way out of this. You've got this, Jin. It's just a super powerful sadist. No biggie.'

"I'll warn you ahead of time since I actually care about your well-being to some extent. This power of mine will force us to see all of your past memories up until this point."

Irene turned back toward him. Blood drained from her face, and her eyes quivered anxiously.

"You're lying, right?"

Despite the comfortable feeling of holding her ankle, Jin released it and answered, "It's not a lie, though most of this won't be new to me anyway."

Frowning, Irene returned to a standing position and watched an early scene from her childhood. Nobody alive should know anything about this part of her past. Even Zeref. However, the latter part of Jin's statement made her freeze in place. It cemented in her mind that this guy wasn't lying about his magic… or whatever it was. She couldn't sense any magic or structure that might allow her to break free.

Reluctantly giving up on breaking free for now, she asked, "...What do you mean you already know?"

"It means what it means," Jin casually answered while watching the woman's childhood memories. He felt a weird sense of relief upon seeing a few happy memories despite the dangerous time period she grew up in.

"...Who are you?"

Sporting a friendly smile, he answered, "Name's Hideyoshi Jin, but just call me Jin. Nice to make your acquaintance in person for the first time, Miss Irene Belserion."

"..."

"What?"

"That isn't what I meant."

"This is where you say 'nice to meet you too'," Jin retorted.

The scarlet-haired woman glared at him from under the rim of her witch hat.

"Huh. Didn't know you could have such a pure smile," Jin mentioned while watching a memory of her interacting with a friend. He leaned back and dodged a weak punch.

"Stop watching somebody's memories like a stage play."

Jin scratched his temple and sighed.

Eventually, Irene's memories about interacting with the dragons during the war showed up. The real Irene at Jin's side showed a complicated expression when he checked on her again.

"What are you looking at?"

"...Nothing."

Ignoring the guy, Irene tried to close her eyes, yet the memories paused instead of skipping, only to resume whenever she opened her eyes. The unusual circumstances surprised Jin. Normally, he saw memories skipping forward whenever somebody blinked or walked away. He theorized a few reasons why this case might be different and made a mental note to do more tests later using people with varying degrees of trauma.

Once the memories reached the part where she started creating dragon slayer magic, Irene's eyes started to glaze over. Her body trembled and tears formed in the corners of her eyes. Upon noticing that, Jin anxiously grabbed her shoulder. Due to a lack of response, he jostled her a little.

The woman shook out of her daze and glared at the hand on her shoulder. She wanted to chain the young man up and whip him for his insolence, yet she bit her lip and held back the desire to do so… at least for now. Although she hated to admit it, she recognized her inability to combat him within this space.

"What do you think you're doing?"

"Try not to lose yourself in the memories. You might get stuck watching all of this on a loop for a very long time if you do."

Meeting Jin's concerned gaze, Irene's brow wrinkled slightly. Her heart rate sped up ever so slightly seeing the way he looked at her, but she forced it to calm down upon remembering all the people who once showed similar expressions toward her in the past only to turn on her in the end.

"I don't require your warning or concern."

"Believe it or not, I'd rather not see you suffer that. You've already been through more than enough pain for one person," Jin offhandedly replied while slightly distracted by the usage of dragon slayer magic.

Irene frowned and ignored his comment. Due to the fact he had pulled her into this space despite calling her with an affectionate tone while drunk, she refused to believe the honesty in his tone. At least, she tried to. The lack of hostility in his gaze and tone made it hard to distrust him.

Eventually, the memories of her morphing into a dragon surfaced. Again, her eyes started to glaze over, but Jin's voice and hand distracted her again.

"Is it hard to watch this?" Jin asked. Not hearing a reply, he said, "Sorry I accidentally pulled you in here."

This time, Irene frowned and looked at him without saying anything. She even ignored the hand on her shoulder until he removed it. For a few moments, she studied his expression. Then, she looked at herself in the memories. Even now, she clearly recalled the rage and sadness she felt during that time, yet the man next to her only showed a mixture of melancholy and compassion when seeing these memories of hers.

Deep down, she couldn't comprehend it. How could this man who barely held any magic power when she first laid eyes on him look at her in such a way? Zeref was Zeref, so she understood his dispassionate reaction towards her after returning her to human form. Perhaps Acnologia might also not look at her the way her people once did. Yet, this random man she never met witnessed her in her worst state with such an understanding expression? Part of her wondered if he was acting, yet she knew that couldn't be the case after four hundred years of life experience, albeit a good chunk of that was spent as a dragon.

Turning her head away from Jin, she hesitantly asked, "Did you mean what you said before you pulled me into this spell?"

For the first time since her youth, she anxiously awaited somebody's reply, though she maintained a stoic appearance on the outside.

"Which part?"

Irene sternly answered, "You called me… pretty dragon."

Only hearing a grunt in response, she frowned and turned her head. Then, she froze upon seeing Jin on his hands and knees. For good measure, he also smacked his head on the ground a few times.

"What are you doing?" She asked.

"Ugh. This is why I don't drink. I always say super cringy and embarrassing things."

Irene blinked. Her heart raced for a few moments, though she quickly calmed down again. For some reason, her previous anger toward him diminished almost entirely. Instead, her lips curled upward and formed a mocking smirk.

"It will be quite enjoyable to punish you for your insolent words once I escape from here."

Sighing, Jin got up as if nothing happened and grumbled, "No thanks. Not into that kind of thing. Just because I appreciate what you've gone through doesn't mean I'll let you bully me.

"Fufu~. Bold words for such a weakling."

"Even if you're stronger than me," Jin added with a sideways glance. Seeing an impish smirk on her face, he raised a brow. It caught him off guard since he expected to see an angry expression of some sort.

Irene found his challenging retorts entertaining. Unfortunately, her bad memories in the background ruined the moment for her. Since they paused whenever she tried to ignore them, she reluctantly gave up bantering with Jin and watched the scenes in front of her in silence for a while. However, when the her in the memories morphed into a dragon and slaughtered the people who betrayed her, she couldn't resist feeling the same anger and sadness of her past self. The only thing that prevented her from falling too deep into it was a strange curiosity at the back of her mind. Following it, she checked Jin's expression.

"What do you actually think about it?"

"What?"

"That," Irene said, pointing at the monster she knew to be herself.

"You? Hmm… Well, honestly, pity."

"You pity me?"

"It's the best word I've got for it. I just find it sad how things turned out."

While Jin watched the ongoing slaughter with a multitude of changing expressions, Irene stared at him with quivering eyes.

"Your actions after were still heinous, though."

Eye twitching, Irene's lips curled up into a frightening smile as she said, "You… are very blunt and lacking in delicacy."

"I'm just being honest," Jin solemnly replied. Almost as though recalling some of his own memories, he added, "No actions can be taken back, whether justified or otherwise, and there are always consequences. No matter what you do, though, it's nice to have somebody there for you when you're at your lowest point. Things would have been fine if they stood by you no matter what."

"...You sound like you're speaking from experience despite looking so young."

Jin shrugged, but didn't say anything else.

The two watched more memories in silence. They watched her slaughter countless people. They watched Zeref return her to human form. They watched her serve the empire. Neither spoke until reaching the point where Irene dropped off Erza at the church in Rosemary Village.

"You don't have to answer, but do you regret not raising her?"

"...No. It was better this way."

"Maybe. Love is an incredibly powerful thing in this world. If you didn't have that desire to return to a human body so badly, I'm sure you would've been a great mother."

Irene lowered her eyes in silence.

"Ah, sorry. It's not really my place as a stranger to say that. Forget I said anything."

Giving him a strange look, Irene retorted, "Hard to call somebody who watched my entire life a stranger."

"..."

Awkwardly scratching his head, Jin decided not to dig any deeper holes and sat down to rest his legs. Irene followed suit since it seemed like they would be stuck here for a while.

During the subsequent memories, Jin couldn't help but ask, "Do you still want to be human again?"

Feigning indifference, Irene quipped, "What does it matter now? I've gotten used to being a monster."

"Well, it might be a bit nosy-"

"That's a big understatement."

Ignoring the interruption, Jin continued, "-but are you able to turn into a dragon here?"

"...No."

Raising a brow, Jin rubbed his chin and said, "I asked because this power of mine seems to reduce a person to their base state, or if I'm being facetious, it brings out the very soul of who somebody is. So, your body might be that of a dragon, but your soul and essence is still very much human. If you ask me, you're fine as is, but that's just my opinion."

Eyes wide as saucers, Irene blinked a few times as though processing his words.

'It might be a bit of a white lie, but hopefully this is enough for her to not kill me once my geass ends.'

A moment later, a crack similar to glass breaking echoed in the distance. The memories halted, shattered, and faded away. Only an open white field remained.

Unsure what was happening, Jin furrowed his brows. In contrast, Irene mostly ignored it and smiled at him. Jin noticed her gaze and turned his head toward her, only to lay eyes upon one of the most beautiful smiles he had ever seen. His mind practically stopped functioning for a few moments. Before he knew it, a hand ruffling his hair brought him back to reality.

"You're a funny young man. You should be frightened by me, yet here you are trying to get close to me and say nice things to me."

Raising his eyes, Jin looked at the arm reaching out toward his head, then he glanced down and made firm eye contact with the woman's reddish-purple eyes for the first time. Somehow, he thought they looked softer than before.

"What are you doing?" Jin asked.

"Playing with your hair, obviously. Are you blind?" Irene jested.

"I got that. It's just unexpected."

"...Is that so?"

Hearing another crack in the distance, they broke eye contact and looked into the distance. Fractures spread across the horizon and into the sky from every direction until connecting directly above them.

'Why is this happening?'

"Is your spell stopping?"

"...Seems like it."

Lips curled into a mischievous smile, Irene said, "I'll see you outside, then."

A few beads of sweat formed on Jin's brow, but he sighed and said, "Yeah. I'd appreciate it if you don't attack me, please."

All he got in response was a frightening giggle.