14

0.0

This was different, Wendy surmised.

Flying aboard The Christina wasn't like she expected. The magical airship was excruciatingly slow; it paled in comparison unlike flying with Carla. Compared to that, this was just like a regular sailboat out in the ocean with the small exception that a 'man overboard' in this case would be extremely terrifying.

That was why she found herself next to Naruto, whose gleefulness was apparent as he tried to lean over the waist-level bulwark to peer over the edge. If it was anyone else, she would fretted over their recklessness in doing so, but then again, this was Naruto...

"Must you keep doing that?"

The blond tore his eyes away from vast forested backdrop below and towards the surly voice, but Carla herself was distracted by the blue tomcat who was plainly trying to get her attention from way across the starboard side of the airship.

"Well, I've never been on something like this before," he said with a small smile. "But who knows, there's a million to one chance that I'll just happen to spot their base." He snorted. "If I'm that lucky."

Carla stood up from the wooden crate and mirrored his actions, but refrained from stepping too close to the edge. "To be honest, this wasn't entirely what I expected when I heard we were doing this mission. It is rather... anti-climatic."

"Ano, we have been in the air for almost ten minutes." Wendy turned to look at Ichiya and the rest of the Trimens who were busy manning the ship in the cockpit. "Maybe we're going in the wrong direction?"

"It is possible," Carla said slowly. "But we don't have a definitive location of their base, so it is hard to argue where the right direction is."

"Or if they even have a base in the first place." Naruto was noticeably irked about something. "For all we know they could have already found Nirvana," he said, frowning as he did.

"You seem... upset at that prospect."

Naruto looked at Carla oddly; his eyes half-lidded in mock exasperation in an attempt to copy her signature scowl. "Well, that is our mission, you know; stopping them before they get their hands on Nirvana," he grumbled. "Whatever that is..."

The Exceed looked away. "I suppose."

While arguments were fairly common in their team dynamics, it was always either Naruto being a bit too petty or Carla, whose nature found it unreasonable to compromise, which caused one in the first place. These things weren't really arguments in that sense, mainly a way for two completely different personalities to communicate.

Or so, Wendy tried to reason to herself.

Then again, it was only those select moments where they didn't see eye to eye on a particularly important subject, causing things to get a little uncomfortable, where she had to act as a buffer to mend the tense atmosphere. Yet, they were always mindful not to carry out their heated discussion in her presence. It ate at her a little; the act of not being included. It was a bitter pill she found hard to swallow, especially when she knew it was ultimately about her.

Thankfully, this wasn't one of those situations.

As Naruto returned to his vigil over the Worth Woodsea, he made a small, confused noise in the back of his throat. His eyes were narrowed and focused as if noticing something amiss beyond the sunny horizon. He turned to observe the cockpit that separated the enclosed space from the open-air deck and frowned. Their team leader pushed himself off the bulwark before heading over to the starboard side, evidently intent on talking to Erza.

"I'll be right back."

Wendy peered at his back strangely, her attention switching between the forest and his retreating form.

What had he seen?

She contemplated rushing over to his side to listen in, but when he dragged Erza and the towering form of Jura inside the cockpit, she naturally assumed it was another strategy discussion between the leaders.

It didn't mean that her curiosity wasn't piqued. Even the two Lamia Scale mages, Lyon and Sherry—whom generally kept to themselves at the bow of the airship near the large conspicuous unicorn ornament—had shown a healthy interest regarding Naruto's sudden actions.

Wendy made her way toward the rest of the Fairy Tail delegates. Incidentally, it just happened to be closer to the cockpit, where Carla was hesitant to approach considering the overbearing presence of her male suitor.

"Hi," the blonde before her chirped pleasantly, hunkered down beside the prone and groaning form of Natsu. "Wendy, right?"

"Yes," Wendy said, equalling the older girl's smile. "Ah, and you're Lucy-san."

She positioned herself carefully, making sure that she had a direct line of sight at the translucent glass barrier separating the cockpit. It allowed her to focus on the conversation without being too obvious that she was spying on her team leader.

"Hey, you don't have to be so formal with me. It gets old after a while."

Just as Wendy was about to reply, she felt a tug at her wrist. Looking down, she was momentarily taken aback by the blue tomcat's eagerness as his eyes glistened like saucers. "I'm Happy," he introduced, holding a paw up before bringing it back down under his chin shyly. "Could you help uh-murglegurgle—"

Happy was interrupted when Lucy nudged him with two fingers, each poking his cheeks together to prevent him from talking.

"Dumb cat," she groused affectionately. "Can't you see I was talking to her first?"

Happy's reply wasn't anything audible, but he struggled against her hold on his cheeks. Suddenly, he stopped, once again lifting his paw at the newcomer trailing just behind Wendy. His greeting vaguely came out as a muffled 'Hello Kitty'.

Or maybe it was 'Carla'.

That would have made more sense.

Carla ignored his plight despite blushing. Her presence went mostly unnoticed considering that most of the group's attention had been directed to the impromptu meeting. The figureheads of each of the four delegations were huddled close, with Naruto being the most expressive.

He looked frustrated.

"So what do you think they're talking about?" Carla asked, raising her voice over the tomcat's muffled murmurs.

It was the black-haired man who spoke, "It's probably nothing." Gray folded his arms into his chest. "Man, you'd think after everything in the forest, they'd just suddenly pop out and ambush us or something. It would have made everything a lot easier."

That was true.

It had taken some time to wrangle up the rest of the Light Alliance after their little jaunt in the forest. Even with the significant distance the magical transport could cover, the rest had quite a head start over them. In the end, it was reasonably simple to pinpoint their location going by Natsu's aggravated howls that constantly rang out in the forest. His surly temper had only worsened when the Fire Dragon Slayer realised that they had to board the airship. Luckily, his grievances ended when Erza incapacitated him with a swift thump to the back of his head.

It was disquieting, to say the least.

Once aboard, they, with the exception of Erza, had left Natsu unattended the moment they dumped him on deck. No one seemed to pay the pink-haired boy any mind though as they milled around his prone form. Even Happy, Natsu's ever loyal friend, had fixed his short attention span elsewhere.

Realising that the others weren't that invested in sussing out the reason for the impromptu meeting as her, Wendy dragged her attention away from the cockpit lest she was found staring, and glanced at Natsu's downed state.

Lying flat on his back, her fellow Dragon Slayer's face was devoid of colour as his weak groans punctuated the lingering silence.

"Ah, Lucy," Wendy called out, to which the older girl returned with a bright smile. "Is there something wrong with him?"

Lucy's brief lapse in concentration as she turned to Natsu allowed Happy a momentary reprieve to escape from her clutches. "Oh, Natsu?" She pointed at him with her now free hand, her features noticeably dearth. "It's a—" the older girl paused, struggling with her words, "—really exaggerated pre-existing condition."

"Natsu doesn't like ships all that much," Happy pointed out as a matter-of-factly, not wasting the small window of opportunity to sidle up next to Carla once free from Lucy's hold.

"—d trains, boats and carriages. Oh, and cars... Let's not forget—"

Happy remained oblivious to Lucy's quiet murmurs. "He gets sick a lot," the tomcat proclaimed with a raised paw.

Lucy heaved a reluctant sigh.

"And 'a lot' really is an understatement."

Wendy furrowed her brows as she knelt by Natsu's head, taking off the unassuming elastic scrunchie around her wrist and tying up her hair in a loose bun. She touched his temples, as she continued muttering softly to herself.

"Wendy." Lucy reached out to tap her shoulder. "What are you doing?"

"I-It's just that, I might be able to help with his problem."

"You could?" two voices, Gray's and Lucy's, parroted at once.

"I think so," Wendy said, feeling unsettled with the way they were staring at her. "I never had a chance to heal something like this before, but if something were to counteract the imbalance of his sensory system, maybe—"

"Wait," Gray stopped her with a hand. "I didn't really catch what you were trying to say, and I'm pretty sure I never will," he said, looking unflappably calm as he did. "But what you're telling us is that you could cure this idiot right here?"

"Honestly," Carla groused, taking a step forward to address Gray. The feline looked peeved when Gray interrupted Wendy, as she settled into her familiar stance; her eyes half-lidded and a paw tucked to her hip as the other fell loosely at her side. "Must you be so rude?"

"Carla!"

Wendy didn't want to mention that the feline herself was being quite rude. She fretted nervously when Carla refused to yield even as she tried to tug her teammate closer to her.

Carla proved to be quite resilient at this point.

The tense atmosphere was suffocating. A breeze wafted in as the silence dredged on for what felt like an eternity. Gray, who still remained unflappably calm, was the first to break the silence.

"Right," he said, his hands reaching to slide down the zipper to his orange hooded sweatshirt. "Sorry about that."

Despite the audible gasps that escaped the female audience around him, he remained undeterred as the article of clothing was shrugged from his shoulders. His now unoccupied hand trailed at the hem of his white t-shirt, as if ready to yank it over his head, but a startled blonde finally found the ability to intervene.

Lucy shot up, and unlike Wendy and Carla, she proved to be quite desensitized to his vagrant displays of inappropriateness to blush and avert her eyes, like what Wendy was currently doing.

"Watch. Where. You're," she punctuated each word. "Stripping!"

One of her hands was clamped over his offending wrist and the other pulled back in mid-swing, connecting against Gray's chin forcefully. A modest spray of blood spurted from his lips before Gray fell sideways in an undignified heap.

"Don't mind him," Lucy said, hiding the reddish-tinged hand behind her back to explain to dumbfounded pair. "Gray—" she grimaced, "—also has a really exaggerated pre-existing condition."

"I... you—he! How dare—"

To Wendy, it looked like Carla's brain had shut down as her mouth dropped open and shut in indignation. Even Naruto was rarely able to put the feline in such a frenzied tizzy. Fortunately, Wendy was able to smoulder Carla's anger when she tugged the feline into her arms.

"I-Is that so?"

Wendy's reply was vaguely audible. She pointedly kept her gaze away from the others, a maddening blush heating her cheeks.

"Yeah." Lucy masked a poor crack at trying to defuse the awkwardness with a less than convincing giggle. "So!" she added hurriedly. "You mentioned something about healing? I've never heard of Dragon Slayers having an ability like that before." She glanced down at Natsu. "Or at least, he's never told me."

Wendy hazarded a small guess. The idea of what other Dragon Slayers studied had never really crossed her mind before.

"Maybe we were just taught different things. Although," she said, looking sheepish. "I've never been able to use it all that much."

It wasn't to say that she wasn't practising, but there was hardly a need for her healing ability during or after their missions. Her and Carla's duty acting as support kept them from harm's way, and even Naruto—who took the brunt of the assault—had always emerged victorious unscathed. The occasional bruise or two which he accrued over the years had always miraculous healed when she wasn't looking.

When she finally voiced her suspicions about his supposed healing ability, their team leader had remained the usual evasive and patronising self by citing his unnatural constitution as the reason behind it.

"I'm surprised," Gray said from his position, lying on his side. "I had you pegged purely for combat." Seeing her surprised look, he continued, "I saw a bit at the end of that fight back at the guild, and you were holding your own out there."

In that brief instance, Wendy consciously stopped her hand from snaking up to the back of her head, just like she had seen a certain someone do countless of times. Instead, she ducked her head down at the praise.

"Ah, but Naruto's the one who does most of the fighting in our team. I just help out a bit."

"Hmm, I heard that guy's on a whole other level, but you—I mean, stopping Juvia's attack like that? That girl's no slouch when it comes down to a fight. So don't try to sell yourself short."

"Aye! You're a lot more powerful than Lucy." Happy remained oblivious to his callous remark. Then, he tilted his head to the side. "But then again, that's not saying much."

For a minute, Lucy looked like she was about to argue with the air-headed animal, but she sighed, her shoulders hunched as she bowed her head. The older girl was emitting an aura of doom and gloom as her body wavered listlessly.

Wendy looked mortified.

"I-I'm sure Lucy is a very... capable... mage...?"

"No," Lucy said, her voice tinged with bitterness. "He's right, I am kind of useless." She then perked up. "But my Celestial Spirits are really strong, so it balances me out." The heiress turned away, intermittent bursts of cynical laughter leaking over her strained smile. "Yeah, that sounds about right."

The sudden emergence of Hibiki as he stepped out of the cockpit stalled their conversation once again. The suave and collected host was unusually serious as he marched over to the port side of the airship with binoculars firmly in hand. He fiddled with the dials on top before he swept his gaze over the forest.

As the figures of Lyon and Sherry moved over to him, Gray got to his feet. "I'm going to see what's bugging him."

Lucy stood to accompany the Ice-Make mage. However, Wendy remained seated, prompting Lucy to call out to her back:

"Wendy, aren't you coming?"

Wendy looked over her shoulder. "It's all right," she replied, waving Lucy away with a small smile. "I'll just stay here with Natsu-san."

Lucy raised a sceptical brow. "If that's what you want," she said slowly. "But he's pretty out of it. You won't get much out of him." For a moment, Happy looked like he was about to renege on his decision so that he could stay by Carla's side, but Lucy pulled him along by the ear. "Okay, I'll tell you about it later."

As Lucy walked away, Wendy glanced down at the weak grip that had caught hold of her wrist. Her fellow Dragon Slayer had apparently regained consciousness somewhere in the middle of their conversation and was able to glean a bit of her healing ability.

"Ugh, please," he pleaded, his boyish voice raspy and weak. "Help me..."

Wendy could never say no to someone in need, but that alone didn't explain why Carla had remained by her side. Shooting a fleeting look at the feline, Carla nodded half-heartedly as if giving her the go-ahead.

"Natsu-san, I've never actually healed something like this before, but I'm sure it could work," Wendy said, feeling her conviction set in with each passing second. "The effects might only be temporary. Do you still want me to do it?"

Natsu lolled his head from side to side in what seemed to be his approval. It was either that or he could just be following the motions of the ship.

Wendy let out a small breath as she started her preparations.

The unconscious boost of being closer to her element allowed her to manipulate the qualities in the air much easier, taking the shape of a translucent blue sphere. The warm, caressing glow of the magic washed over her features as she held it in between her hands. Slowly, she lowered the sphere down on Natsu's forehead before it faded into his skin.

It took all but a few seconds for the magic to take effect as Natsu blearily opened his eyes, his gaze no longer unfocused. He blinked once, then twice to clear the grogginess, before adjusting it to greet hers. His giddy smile was infectious as his lips parted to show off his pronounced canines, causing Wendy to smile back in reply.

Wendy then felt Natsu grasp her by the arms, lifting her off her feet as well as eliciting a small squeak out of her. Just as she was to be twirled around in the air, the sudden intrusion of Hibiki's panicked voice ringing out in their minds caused him to still. Her features were frozen in disbelief, matched equally by Natsu's.

Similar expressions were mirrored throughout the airship.

:We have a situation. There's an imposter aboard The Christina...:

0.0

"Okay, I'll tell you about it later."

Lucy dragged Happy along by his ear as they made their way towards Hibiki. As she neared the group surrounding the charismatic host, the blonde realised that she had missed a bit of the conversation, and was unable to stop herself from asking the obvious.

"What's going on?"

Sherry, who stood just off to her right beside Lyon, twitched her cheeks in thinly-concealed contempt.

"Nothing you should be too bothered about, Lucy."

There was something to her words which Lucy couldn't quite place, but she didn't want to openly retaliate. Sherry had already made it clear that there was lingering resentment between the two after their fight in Galuna Island.

Fortunately, Hibiki stepped back, shielding his body to oppose their view of each other.

"Here." Hibiki held out his binoculars to her. "Why don't you tell me what you see over there?" With a gentle squeeze and a disarming smile, Hibiki reached around her other shoulder to guide her towards the bulwark.

Lucy made a conscious effort to track the placement of his hand—which had drifted to the small of her back—just in case he started to wander further downwards. She peered through the scope of the binoculars just as the distinctive view of black smoke started to billow above the forest in the distance. It was faint even with the enhanced sight, but it was clear that the area had been disturbed.

"Naruto-san said he heard an explosion," Hibiki explained, scoffing. There was something to it. After all, the smoke was quite far from their current position, so it stands to reason how exactly he had heard something no one else had. "He's recommending that we go ahead and check it out." At this, he frowned. "But Ichiya-aniki is not all that convinced."

Lyon raised a questionable brow. "And you think otherwise?"

"I do," Hibiki said, holding out hand as he waited for Lucy to return the binoculars. "At first, I thought it was just the sun playing trick on my eyes, but if you look carefully near the areas around the smoke, that whole section of the forest looks like it's been burnt down. Naruto-san is right. We've never really had a bearing of where we're supposed to go, and this is the most telling evidence we have so far. The only thing I don't understand is why aniki doesn't want to listen." A weary sigh escaped him. "He's been acting really odd."

"Odd? Like how?" Gray asked.

"Well, for one thing, he's pretty adamant that Naruto-san is wrong, even when the others agree with him. And maybe it's just me, but it's the subtle things about his behaviour lately that stick out." Hibiki clucked his tongue. "Or it could just be because of Erza-san's presence. No one wants to look bad in front of their lover, after all."

Lucy couldn't help but feel her jaw loosen at the casual way Hibiki touched upon the topic.

"W-Wait, what was that about Erza?"

The way he looked at her could only be described as playful condescension. "Can't you tell?" His lips twitched upwards into a knowing smile. "Those two are absolutely smitten with each other," he said, ignoring the incredulous wide-eyed looks the others were shooting him. Even Lyon looked surprised. "It takes a certain kind of woman to tie down aniki like this, and I must say, Erza-san is a very lucky one at that."

Lucy shuddered. "Yeah, just make sure you don't tell her that."

Hibiki laughed, "Why?" He looked through the scope of his binoculars again. "It's meant to be a compli—" He then swallowed a nervous gulp.

It didn't go unnoticed by Sherry.

"Hibiki, is everything all right?" she asked, tapping his shoulder. "You look like you've seen a ghost?"

The tightening of his features and the worried grimace was all it took to silence her. Exchanging wary glances with those around him, the handsome host reached up to press two fingers against his temple.

Lucy had to bite back a sharp gasp as his voice intruded into her mind.

:We have a situation. There's an imposter aboard The Christina...:

Lucy could scarcely believe the domino-effect the statement brought upon the previous calm of the airship, as the sound of shattered glass and pained screams reached her ears. She turned, just in time to see the hulking form of Jura crash through the barrier separating the cockpit and land roughly on the deck, clutching at his midsection as blood poured from the wound he tried to contain.

There was a momentary lull as the rest struggled to react to the sudden turn of events, but when a strong gust of wind gushed from the now destroyed opening not a scant few seconds later, Gray instinctively tackled her down, shielding her with his body as he piled on top of her.

She remained dazed as a gentle woody scent invaded her senses, disorienting her as a quickly mounting headache throbbed in her temples. Stuck in a haze of jumbled thoughts, Lucy moaned as she lifted her hands to rub at her forehead to ease away the piercing pain. Distantly, she heard distressed screams—one, a familiar boyish tone, and the other, that of a young girl.

A muffled groan from the body atop hers showed that Gray had been afflicted with whatever was in that attack too, but the Ice-Make mage was a lot sturdier as he pushed himself off of her, propping his hands up to have a bleary look around. He leaned heavily against it as he struggled not to plop back down on Lucy.

The moment a part of her senses returned, she tried to shake out of her stupor, knowing that she wasn't the one in dire need of help. Incidentally, that was when Naruto's voice, loud and commanding, rang throughout the deck.

"Go! Get off the—"

0.0

"I'll be right back," Naruto said distractedly as he replayed the fresh memory of his fellow clone's experience up until the point of the explosion.

He pushed himself off the bulwark as the sporadic real-time updates were relayed to him throughout the original's skirmish with the unknown assailants. The clone quickly made his way towards the other side of the airship, exchanging a brief nod with Jura in a silent gesture to follow him. He stopped short before Erza and the rest of the Fairy Tail mages, greeting the group with a brief smile.

"We need to talk," he said to Erza.

He glanced down upon hearing a strangled moan. Head firmly rested upon Erza's lap, the prone and groaning form of Natsu proved to be quite a sight.

Erza inclined her head in agreement as she stopped the not-so gentle ministration of her armoured gauntlet, which served a lot more harm than good to the young man in her care.

"Of course." Erza turned back to look at the Celestial Spirit mage. "Lucy, take over."

Lucy looked confused for a second before Erza pointed down at Natsu. "W-What? I—" Just as the redhead was about to frown, she quickly spoke up, "Y-Yeah, okay." Her cheeks were tinged with a pale red flush, but Lucy hunkered down next to her teammate and rigidly stroked his head in a futile attempt to quell his chronic motion sickness and not to anger their team leader.

Once Jura stepped up beside them, the clone led the duo into the cockpit to find the final party of their impromptu meeting.

The interior of the cockpit was spacious. A large, translucent lacrima orb rested at the centre of the room as Ichiya diligently went through the process of keeping the ship on course. The rest of the Trimens were hard at work around similar workstations that covered the walls of the cockpit; there were rapidly blinking buttons, large dials, and strange black and green hue monitors that Naruto wasn't sure what its purposes were.

Airships were rarely owned by private entities or individuals, so it was uncommon to find one that took to the skies without the official bearing of the kingdom's Magic Council that commissioned their use.

Still, from what Naruto had been told, The Christina was a powerful aircraft.

It was a retired magical bomber series (barring the unicorn ornament) frequently used in the Cabria War when conflict was rife between the Kingdom of Desierto, which was famed mostly for its arid and scorching temperatures, and the Kingdom of Bellum, an up-and-coming prosperous sovereignty that proved to have a limitless potential for growth despite being sandwiched by two of the largest kingdoms in Earthland.

Despite its obvious advantages, airship fleets never commanded a large presence in an atypical military force of a kingdom. Due to the ridiculously high maintenance and the highly-proficient manpower required, a generous portion of its military expenditure went towards something that could be done without, especially during peace-time.

In reality, most neutral kingdoms like Fiore had their attention fixed on much more pressing matters. Internal security proved to be a much more hot-button issue than external threats from other kingdoms. Such an excessive show of force, like a whole fleet of airships to counter the rampant menace that both legal and dark guilds posed, would not endear them to its citizens due to the unwanted destruction such saturated bombings would cause.

The fact that the master of Blue Pegasus had an airship showed the clout and stature the cross-dressing man possessed. With the Trimens' added ability to manoeuvre the ship so efficiently, their guild proved why it deserved its status as one of the premier guilds in Fiore. Back when they first met, Naruto had unwittingly marked the Trimens as a gaggle of womanising hosts, but bias aside, he should have known better and stuck by Kakashi-sensei's words to 'look underneath the underneath'.

A subtle cough from the redhead, who had firmly placed herself behind him, made the Trimens acknowledge their presence in the cockpit.

"Yes?" the orange-haired man asked as he pulled his hands away from the lacrima orb. "Is there a need of my assistance or is this more of a casual visit?"

"Yeah, there is a reason why I called you all here," Naruto said, not wasting a breath so that Ichiya couldn't possibly find a time to interrupt. "I—uh, heard an explosion coming from the north-west." It was to his credit that the clone was able to think on his feet and come up with a semi-believable excuse, but from the sceptical looks directed his way, the lie didn't really fool anyone.

"You heard an explosion?" Hibiki drawled, looking up from his position at his workstation. "An explosion no one else could hear but you?"

Hibiki's tone riled him up.

"I'm not lying," Naruto said heatedly. Even as he spoke, irregular memories came to him, of the boss' progress in the fight against the armoured assassins. "It's pretty far away, and I have—" inadvertently, his eyes narrowed at Hibiki, "—really good hearing."

"Naruto-dono, are you absolutely sure about this information?"

The blond nodded at Jura. "I am. It's over there. Just take a look." He pointed towards the translucent barrier at the starboard side of the ship. "See that smoke rising over there, that's where the explosion happened."

They did so, most in equal shades of disbelief and surprise as they edged closer to the plexi-glass barrier. To the naked eye, the smoke was faint, but discernible.

"There would have been other signs," Erza murmured softly. "How could we have missed this?"

"It is possible that they used runes to muffle the detonation," Hibiki said, having abandoned his post to stand by her side. "But Eve should know more about it." Hibiki regarded his fellow, albeit shorter, host. "Didn't they teach this stuff in the Rune Knights?"

"In the right hands, runes can be extremely effective, but with a little bit of training, I can see an average mage doing something to this extent. Though it didn't fully absorb the blast, seeing that Naruto-san could still hear it."

"But could it be a trap?" Ren asked, from his workstation. "Maybe Oración Seis is trying to draw us in and take out the ship and us in one fell swoop."

Naruto wasn't sure who else noticed it, but Ichiya noticeably tensed at Ren's words. He found it odd, but raked it up to the man's nerves at the possibility of being attacked.

"It's not a trap," Naruto said, before the clone realised his mistake and faked a cough. "At least, I think it's not a trap."

"And how would you know?" Erza asked, frowning.

"I trust my... gut?"

Ichiya whirled around to level a disparaging glare at him. "And you expect us to head into a possible ambush and put our lives in jeopardy because you trust your gut?"

"It's rarely wrong," Naruto groused. "Anyway, if it is an ambush and we plan accordingly, we could just turn the tables back on them."

Naruto wasn't sure why he was going so far as to prepare a contingency plan for something he knew wasn't going to happen, but pointing them towards the blackened forest could clue them in to Nirvana's location.

All he needed to do now was to convince them.

"Shouldn't we should go and investigate it? There might be clues to help us find Nirvana or Oración Seis. I mean, we've been flying towards some random direction ever since we set off. How's that going to help our mission?"

"Preposterous," Ichiya said. "That would be akin to suicide mission, and if it isn't an ambush as you say, we'd just be wasting our precious time. Who knows, it might just be an accidental forest fire or a stray bandits' camp. Besides, I have it on good authority that we are on course to discover the location of our enemy's main base." Ichiya tapped his fingers against his stomach. "Call it my gut instincts."

"No, Naruto-san does have a point," Erza said. "We simply cannot ignore this. Even if it is something trivial, we should at least confirm the situation first just to be sure. What do you think, Jura-san?"

The towering mage frowned before nodding his assent. "Every possible avenue should be covered to ascertain their location."

"W-Wait, you can't be considering this!" Ichiya said, glaring at the others before resting it solely on Naruto. Naruto frowned at that. "I can assure you that—"

"Aniki!" Hibiki interrupted as he stepped up to his mentor and clasped him by the shoulder. "Why don't I go outside and document the fire with the view-recorder?" He swept an unreadable gaze at the others in the cockpit. "I believe a better perspective would help with the final decision."

Naruto was relieved at the host's intervention, silently thanking the man for the save. The atmosphere had taken a turn for the worst, and Naruto didn't want to it to devolve into the two of them locked in a heated exchange.

Ichiya seemed more than just opposed to his idea. He didn't know why though.

Erza smiled faintly. "I think it would. Thank you, Hibiki-san."

"Just give me a moment to record the findings. I'm sure it won't take too long," Hibiki reassured to the room in general. As he left, carrying with him what looked to be an ordinary binoculars, Naruto regarded the orange-haired man beside Jura with displeased look.

"So, how should we do this?"

"Hmm..." Jura rubbed his chin in quiet contemplation. "For one thing, I would not advice endangering the ship by moving in too close to the area since the chances of it being an ambush is considerably high. A small party would be sufficient to investigate the cause of the explosion."

"Agreed," Erza said. "I think it would be prudent for Naruto-san to lead the outing, and I suppose I should come along as well." She must have noticed his puzzled expression, as she continued, "For support. Just in case it is an ambush."

"Then, might I suggest Lyon as well?" Jura chimed in. "He is a very dependable mage and his prowess is second to none in our guild." The bald man coughed into a closed fist. "Of course, barring our Guild Mistress and I."

"Great!" the clone said. "I think we've got this covered."

It was at this point when Jura finally voiced out, "Is something wrong, Ichiya-dono? You are unusually quiet."

Ichiya had his back towards them. He mumbled inaudibly under his breath, "Yes, I'm afraid there is. But then again, that's the thing about plans, it never goes how you want it to."

Jura frowned as he leaned in closer. "Could you repeat that? I am afraid I didn't quite—"

The sudden spike of killing intent was brief and unexpected.

Due to the proximity between the two, Jura was caught by surprise. Ichiya's smaller frame allowed the man to easily slip into his guard. By the time the Saint glimpsed the glint of steel in his hand, Ichiya had thrust the razor sharp blade deep into his abdomen, up to its hilt. Ichiya's grip remained steadfast as he tried to twist the knife in the wound.

Fortunately, the whistle of a projectile slicing through the air forced the imposter to back away. The kunai missed its intended target by mere millimetres, embedding itself in the wall behind the assailant.

"Ichiya-aniki! What are you doing?"

Neither Naruto nor the imposter paid heed to Ren's words. As the clone rushed forward to neutralise the threat, his opponent scuttled backwards towards the other end, throwing a test tube teeming with an unknown red substance to the ground.

A familiar voice reverberated in the confines of his mind.

:We have a situation. There's an imposter aboard—:

He ignored and dismissed the mental probe without hesitation. Despite whatever magic Hibiki used to get inside his head, he didn't need to be told twice.

"Stop!" Erza roared.

Had it not been for Erza who pulled him back at the last second, he would have charged recklessly at diminutive figure hidden in the gradually growing red mist. For whatever reason, Ichiya seemed content with the cover he was afforded as the man refused to budge from his position.

Erza backed away, dragging him along as they inched back as far as they could from the smog. The redhead held a gauntlet against the lower half of her face, and even if it was obstructed, Naruto could still see her grimace.

"Do whatever you can to not inhale the perfume," her reply came out slightly muffled. "It's a lot more dangerous than you think." Her grip on the sword she had just requipped tightened to the point that her hand was trembling in barely-concealed rage.

At first, he had merely brushed it off as a smokescreen for an escape, but when he heard Ren's—who had been unable to pull away from his workstation in time—pained screams coming from within the cloud of debilitation, he realised otherwise. He could only assume that Ichiya was immune to his own attack, but bearing in mind that the cockpit was closed off, they really had to act fast before they too fell to the scent.

"There's no mistaking it. This is Ichiya-san's pain perfume," Erza told him. "I've seen fully grown monsters succumb to this attack in mere seconds."

Naruto cursed lowly.

He knew that inhaling a breath of the toxic fumes would be enough to cause him to disperse. He couldn't afford to make a mistake—not now.

"No! Ren?!" Eve's eyes widened as the horror of hearing his friend suffer sent the host into a mild catatonic state. "Ren!" For a moment, it looked like Eve was about to dive into the rapidly-encroaching mist.

"Don't!" Jura barked, warning Eve off his reckless charge.

Jura's deep, heavy pants were coming in at short, uneven intervals. The Saint had been able to stagger back towards the plexi-glass barrier separating the cockpit and the deck. He was using it as purchase to lean most of his body weight on it, all the while, pressing a large hand against the wound to stop the flow of blood.

"D-Do not be foolish! The three of you need to escape while you can! Let me handle this!" Jura stopped when Naruto levelled an uneasy glance at him, prompting him to ask, "W-What are you thinking?"

The clone shook his head reluctantly. "Sorry, but it's the fastest way." Quickly focusing chakra into his arm, he slammed a balled fist against the translucent barrier, shattering it.

Jura was helpless to stop himself as he tripped backwards, tumbling onto the deck in an undignified heap. It was crude and reckless, seeing that the Wizard Saint was gravely wounded, but it really was the fastest way he could think of to save both Jura and Ren.

Still, Erza looked none too pleased with him.

"All right, you two better hold your breath." His hands blurred into seals. "You guys know what to do, right?" Seeing their faces set into grim determination, he nodded. "Great, because we might only get one chance at this.

"Fūton: Daitoppa!"

Holding his breath, he scaled down the intensity behind the widespread gust of wind that burst forth from his hands. It surged outwards and buffeted the room, crashing into the cockpit door with such force that it was slammed open as it swung wildly off its hinges. Similarly, bits and pieces of the fragile components that were once part of the workstations were chipped away, shooting sparks of loose magical energy. However, the large lacrima orb—perhaps the only sturdy construct in the room—remained unaffected by the wind from the squall.

The manifolds of current swept up the dangerous red mist in a flurry of directions. It bounced around the interior of the cockpit, and eventually escaped through the side door and the now broken plexi-glass barrier. The wooden structure supporting the openings creaked and groaned, and like a dam of water trying to force its way through a small breach, the pressure proved to be too great, battering into at the structure until it was torn apart.

Naruto shielded his face with his arms, trying his best not to inhale as the perfume-induced blast of wind whooshed past his ears and out to the surroundings.

His attack was able to diffuse the concentration of noxious particles in the smog, lessening the lethality of Ichiya's perfume, but not totally dissipating into the atmosphere as it swept through the deck.

No longer hidden in the blanketing shadows of the mist, Ichiya stood at the other end, having been blown back into the far end of the room. He was crouched, shielded partly by one of the larger workstations, as the man waited for the gust of wind to die down. In his hand, he held an odd cylinder-like device, his thumb repeatedly mashing onto the gleaming red button in desperation.

Whatever the imposter was trying to do, it didn't look like it was working.

Sensing the opportunity gifted by his attack, the clone pitched forward. He remained cautious not to breathe in any lingering scent as his lips thinned into a small line, unseen as a calloused palm covered the lower half of his face. With the other, he relieved a spare kunai from his weapons pouch.

Ichiya's button mashing got increasingly frantic as Naruto eased in the distance to barely five steps away. His unoccupied hand grasped one of his other test tubes attached to his lop-sided utility belt, but when the sudden whir of the device jolted into life, Ichiya smiled.

A magical seal sprung from underneath his feet as the sinister red glow washed over his features, giving the imposter a more devilish guise. It died down as runes started to form in the air before him. It was just jumbled gibberish of unknown characters at first, but it quickly interlocked, giving an outline of the words:

'Sequence Initiated: Beginning Self-Destruct Protocol'.

It vanished as a countdown appeared in its stead, a fleeting ninety-second timer to evacuate the magical bomber before its imminent explosion.

'Eighty nine...'

The clone remained undaunted despite the certainty of its end. Right now, the only thing he could do was to disable the imposter and make damn well sure that everyone else got off this ship. As a second ticked down, his arm had already snapped out at his target, just as the kunai was centimetres from slicing his opponent's suddenly wispy neck.

'Eighty eight...'

A plume of smoke obstructed his vision, as his weapon met no resistance. Instinctively, he looked down. Whatever remained of the fake Ichiya was now gone, replaced with two almost identical alien-ish creatures that only reached up to just above his knees.

Their perfectly round head, coupled with their eerily, beady black eyes and the two feeler-like strands of hair made the duo look more peculiar than anything cute. Its pale blue skin did them no favours. Where their similarities ended, the minute differences became even more pronounced. It was kind of like looking into a fun-house mirror.

One wore skimpy orange shorts whereas the other wore black.

One had a perpetual frown on its face while the other was stuck in a strange, twisted smile.

One wore its sash diagonally slanted to the left whereas the other had his running to the right.

One held a test tube filled to the brim with noxious gas in its stubby hands while the other was clinging onto the self-destruct device. Both creatures took a good, long look at the test tube before they blinked owlishly.

...And promptly tried to drop it.

'Eighty four...'

The kunai that slipped from his hand had already found its target at one of the creature's pliable belly even before Naruto realised it. The Celestial Spirit was jerked back with such force that it could do nothing but be dragged like a ragdoll as it was pinned to the wall at the far end, hanging a few centimetres off the ground.

"Gemi!" the other one squeaked.

It tried to rush over to its lifeless counterpart as a small dribble of blood trickled down Gemi's lips, but before it could reach another step, Naruto was upon it, sending the thing flying after its twin with a low-footed sweep. It crashed head first into the wall and slid to ground, unmoving. Their forms were enveloped in soft, yellow glow before promptly disappearing.

If not for the small droplets of blood that dotted the wooden panels and the blood smeared kunai embedded in the wall, one could hardly believe that they were just here.

'Eighty...'

Naruto watched helplessly as the red mist start to seep out from the broken test tube, let loose when the creature was yanked back by the projectile. The faintest whiff of the woody fragrance started to invade his senses as the toxic vapours rose up around his person.

"I-I, the boss—" Naruto fumbled with his words. "Help... Help is going to come. Just hang on until then." The clone swallowed thickly, not from the fear of dying but leaving his teammates without his protection. "I'm counting on you." When Erza remained unmoving, he gripped his hands tight, his face grim. "Well, what are you waiting for?!

"Go! Get off the—"

The clone disappeared in a cloud of smoke.