Rethinking Objectives

Verity stood back and let Kotone do the talking. She seemed a lot more confident in that area than her in any case. She noticed that the cold appeared to dissipate as the girl put her hands in her pocket and wondered if that was where her source of power came from. Her hands. Of course that was a ridiculous idea because who wanted to be limited. It was probably just where she was channeling her power at the moment. And so while the blonde was figuring out how the ice dragon slayer worked, the woman narrowed her eyes.

"Mind you manners dear, you should care who the hell I am. I am not a part of that, that spineless guild you call Shadow Heart running around declaring war on the Magic Council but not actually doing anything about it. And I haven't done anything to your precious guild. I've heard stories about both of you...trust me, they aren't pleasant," If the ice in her tone wasn't enough to show her anger, the dangerous light in her bright violet eyes and the way her body trembled with fury would have caught the attention of even the most dim-witted person in the room...which meant Vera noticed.

Vera narrowed her eyes at the woman. "So you do admit having a part to play in Fairy Tail's...disaster," It was more of a statement rather than a question. She didn't know what else to call it so for lack of better word, used 'disaster'.

The woman laughed haughtily and lifted her chin. "No, that wasn't me, I wasn't here. Destroying the guilds is a fool's move. If anything, they should have gained the trust of the guilds but alas, no."

The blonde was no more impressed by the strange woman's answer than she was upon initially thinking that bad guys could have beautiful houses. "Well you're still evil at the very least," She pointed out bluntly.

This gained her no favours with the woman. She sent the girl a withering gaze before focusing on Kotone, who in her opinion, was worth more of her time. She could tell by the magical energy she was barely exerting. "You tell me that you'll make me pay tenfold? Tell them-" She waved to the men straggling around with blank expressions on their faces "-to. They were there. As for me, as I said before, leave me alone. Don't anger me," She turned around and started walking to the supposed back of the house, leaving the remaining gang of 10 to snigger or cower in fear.

2699/5000

Kotone’s confident grin didn’t falter as the woman spoke. If anything, she seemed to not give a crap whether or not she was still with Shadow Heart. “They wouldn’t be pleasant,” Kotone told the woman in response to her mentioning of stories being told. “See, I make a living destroying cows like you, who think they can do what they want. I don’t give two craps whether you’re still in Shadow Heart or not. You’re still here, outside my friends’ town and causing trouble.” Kotone’s hands left her pockets and she cracked her knuckles as her grin widened. “And that’s more than enough reason for me to cut loose.”

“Don’t think I’ll let these idiots off the hook just because you’re controlling them right now. In fact…” Kotone lifted an arm as she took a combat stance as wind energy quickly gathered around her. She let loose, making a tossing motion as a blade made of focused wind sliced into one of the ten lackies without hesitation. He slammed into the wall and fell to the ground bleeding. It had worked so easily because she hadn’t even been looking at him. She glanced at Verity, her face all business. “Shall we take care of them quickly? I’d hate to keep the lady waiting for her beating.”

MP 290/325:

Kotone was cool, both metaphorically and literally. Awesome things were just spilling out of her mouth, no effort necessary. Verity wished she could do that sometimes. Her idiocy was fine but sometimes it came out in really bad situations like that time in Kunugi Village. She didn’t mind the fact she had made a rather stupid comment but she couldn’t deny the slight inconvenience it caused. Well perhaps it wasn’t an inconvenience because she managed to punch the living daylights of the robbers while they sniggered at her. Anyways, it didn’t matter right at the moment because they were about to fight. To be more specific, Kotone just jumped right in there with some powerful wind attack that sent one of the guys flying. Vera was caught by surprise and by instinct, summoned Fiera Ignis mainly because that was the weapon she was able to use best. Possibly not her best choice ever because it was fire and Kotone used ice…oh well she could also use wind apparently. Like that Hermit too she thought at random.

She nodded once at the ice dragon slayer once she mentioned taking care of them quickly and turned back to look at the enemies. She allowed herself to grin, almost feral in appearance. She was kind of looking forward to bashing in these people’s skulls. A bit of much needed stress relief?

The girl swung the broomstick fluidly in the direction of the nearest guy next to her and caught him square in the stomach. He grunted as the wind was knocked from him and crashed into the other guy near him. She didn’t waste a moment and leaped towards them, making a sweeping motion with her broomstick. This caught them both and while not particularly hard in terms of blows, was enough to make them sink into the water hole nearby. She took the opportunity to decapitate both of them by requipping Hauskor and sparking her electrical surge attack while chucking Fiera Ignis to one side because she couldn’t hold it at the same time and she didn’t want to bother requipping into it again. The water only served to enhance her attack due to its conductivity and she pulled her dagger out of the water, rolling to dodge some guy’s attack before stabbing him in the leg causing some bleeding.  She pushed him into the water to and it was safe to say, he didn’t miss out on any of the electrocuted water.

With three down in one shot, she stood up again to see what Kotone done in the not very long time she took to handicap the three goons chosen by her.

6/10 guys left

3141/5000

160/200 MP:

Kotone didn’t waste time either as Verity swiftly took out three more enemies, throwing them into the strange pool that sat in the center of the room. The pool was bugging Kotone. It seemed far more familiar than the house itself, but she couldn’t place why. She’d never paid that close of attention to the area, truth be told. Oh well, no time to worry about it. A ringing of steel could be heard as Kotone’s katana came free of its scabbard, and with a couple of quick slashes, two more of the thugs went down. That left four more. “Vera, go after the boss lady,” she ordered, casting a glance in Verity’s direction. “I’ve got the rest of these guys.”

With that, she slammed a palm into the ground, causing spikes of ice to erupt from the ground and knock one of the men off of his feet, falling into another woman who was serving as another one of the big boss lady’s lackies. She didn’t waste any time, spinning around and kicking another guy in the face and sending him spinning . she took a moment to wipe some sweat off of her brow, ducking someone’s metal pipe they’d thrown at her. “Now that’s a lackie weapon if I’ve ever seen one,” she commented as she spun around and flung a set of ice shuriken at  the guy who’d thrown the pipe, pinning him to the wall. Verity could take the woman for now. Kotone had a bit of fun to have before she interrogated the lucky winner of this encounter for information on Shadow Heart.


704/1500 Gale Winds

She nodded at Kotone and waited for a good opportunity so that she dash off in the direction she had last seen boss lady as the other called her. She trusted that Kotone would be able to finish the rest of the thugs with ease. They weren't that difficult to fend off after all, she defeated three in one shot. For her to do that she thought it was pretty freakin' amazing. The opportunity came no less than a second later and Verity was off. She still had on her Hauskor and she had no clue where Fiera was. Well that wasn't the best plan ever was it. She'd probably have to lead boss lady back since Hauskor was admittedly, not that great compared to Fiera.

As she ran, the interior of the building flashed past her. She wasn't heeding any attention to any of it. Bad mistake. It wasn't her fault; she was more intent on the chase but suddenly she ended up skidding to a halt. Where was she? The room didn't look familiar at all. In fact it was completely different to the front of the house. It looked like the wilderness had exploded quite terribly within. Gnarled roots clung to the mossy underfoot and if she wasn't wrong, there was not one, but several, big trees reached the top of the room. The canopy covered the expanse of the ceiling and she couldn't see anything. Something told her this was where the crazy boss lady was though.

She was tempted to call out but she'd grown enough to realise the stupidity of her actions if she did so. She frowned. In times like this, it'd be really handy to have a dragon slayer around. She had a feeling they'd be able to sniff out the enemy with ease.

3443/5000

The remaining thugs didn't last long against Kotone. She sheathed her sword from a crouching position as a combination of ice-encrusted and windblasted enemies fell around her with a groan. Kotone slowly stood up as the last man concious crawled backwards into a wall, continuing to try to back up as if he could just break through the wall through sheer terror. Kotone allowed a cocky grin as she slowly walked towards him, picking him up. "What are you doing here?" Kotone asked them. "If you aren't with Shadow Heart anymore, what's the point?" her questioning was in vain though, because these lackies seemed to be suffering from whatever the other woman had done to them.

With a frown, she dropped the man, kicking him in the head and knocking him out cold before walking towards the direction Verity had gone, keeping her eyes out for anything Verity might have missed. Something wasn’t right about this place. The pool in the middle of the house looked strangely like a pond of some sort, complete with lilly pads that were dislodged when the men fell into the well, and some scared-looking frogs. “Alright, Sid,” Kotone asked her cat as he poked his head out of her bag she’d sat down in the entrance. He loved sleeping in her bag and was rather used to her making a ruckus. “Where’d Verity go? This place is too strange and open-feeling for me to pinpoint her scent.” Sid only meowed in response.


954/1500 Gale Winds

((I'm not in the point of view of Verity although you can probably see that))

While the blonde girl wandered around, the woman herself was no where to be seen. In fact, she was currently stalking Kotone. Not stalking her as in being creepy but making it hard for the girl to pin point things using a range of illusions. The actions weren't about having fun or sadistic in tone. They were about separation. Blonde girl would be easy to deal with so brunette had to be occupied and incapacitated first. She was thinking a little bit of-

"HAH! I FOUND YOU!" An annoying voice behind her declared.

The woman jumped, breaking out of her usual icy disposure. She dashed a look behind her shoulder and rolled her eyes. "Oh it's just you," Her tone held her obvious contempt. "Would you mind not being so loud and annoying? I'm trying to get rid of someone," She said, focusing her eyes back front again.

"Fine then. Whatdya want me to do?" The woman didn't respond directly to that and instead flicked her hand in the general direction of the girl all the while staying focused on Kotone. "Oh I see," the voice replied.

------------------------------------((And a back to Verity we go))----------------------------------------------

Verity finally deduced that the room was just strange. No other explanation. The woman couldn't be in this room, she had to be somewhere else. She felt uncomfortable with just Hauskor as a form of protection. Hauskor was ridiculously breakable, suitable seeing how hauskor the word meant fragile. She hoped Fiera was still in tact. It should be. She was almost tempted to go back just to retrieve the staff again. It was a terrible feeling to be separated from that weapon that was so obviously a part of her. She shook her head and continued on looking. No, she told herself, she still had to find the woman.

So instead of retrieving Fiera, she retrieved her new free to summon weapon, Relica. Relica at the moment was some useless piece of junk she had no way of knowing what kind of magic it used. It was a sword though and swords were handy. She could wield both Hauskor and Relica at the same time so she guessed that was a benefit of not having Fiera on hand.

She continued walking when suddenly, she saw Kotone...well she thought she saw Kotone. 'Kotone' was doing a lot of shimmering and shaking. She didn't Kotone could do that with her magic. She was suspicious. She went up to the supposed girl who was a fair distance away and poked her with a sword. That wouldn't have been the best thing to do if it actually was Kotone. However, it past right through, no gasp of pain or anything. Okay, so 'Kotone' was an illusion. She had to be drawing close to where the woman was. Unbeknownst to the blonde, the walls behind her closed into one another as she walked further away - or at least they seemed to close. All of a sudden, she was out of the house. What?

3939/5000

"Why do you people have to go around and ruin our fun?" a hyper-sounding voice went off behind Kotone as she was trying to orient herself. Was it just her or was the entire house shifting subtly to get her lost? Her sense of smell didn’t help much when everything smelled like… woods… and looked like a house. She turned around, her eyes widening only slightly at the sight of the newest person to appear. She didn’t’ recognize her or anything… it was because she hadn’t been able to smell her. Was the illusion changing? Was this girl an illusion? No, Kotone could smell her now.

“Because it looks like you’re having too much and the rest of us are jealous,” Kotone replied dryly, sighing as if this girl was a bother and not a threat. She slowly turned to the girl, only to get a heavy object to the face and fly back into the wall. As she hit the wall, bark splinters flew off, revealing that the wall wasn’t a wall at all. This thing is one massive illusion?! Just who was the person in charge of this place?

Kotone was jerked from her slightly distracted thought and cheek rubbing as she stood up and heard the voice again. “Now, now, no one likes it when you don’t take them seriously~” the girl taunted as she seemed to shimmer out of existence and appear somewhere else with astounding speed. A teleporter?

“Crap…” Kotone whispered under her breath as she stood back up. She was going to have to pay attention if she didn’t want the girl’s unpredictability to be her downfall. She could deal with high-speed spells. She had next to no experience with teleportation though. Kotone pulled out her katana with a ringing of steel, charging the girl. The girl only teleported, touching Kotone’s sword and causing it to teleport across the room. Kotone twisted to see where her sword landed only to get hit again, twice. Suddenly, her jacket teleported and landed on her face before she felt another kick to the back, which caused her to fall forward onto the floor next to the pool again.

“I could make this even more embarrassing than I am, you know,” the girl taunted with a cat-like grin on her face. “You’re fortunate I’m here to beat the crap out of you and not play pranks like I looooove to do~” she told Kotone, wiggling hyperly as she talked. “We’ll see how long I can hold back.”

1372

Verity blinked around in confusion. She wasn't in the house. In fact there wasn't even a house. Where the house would have been instead stood a clump of trees, a patch of open grass...and a water hole. Hmmm. A water hole. That was suspicious indeed. Very suspicious actually. She frowned. This was too weird of a situation. Even if she wasn't a dragon slayer, she could tell the water hole looked alarmingly similar to the one in the house. There had to be an explanation. An illusion? She narrowed her eyes. First she had to be sure. She had dumped three guys in the water right? Therefore as logic said, they had to still be in the pool. She moved closer to the water source until she was peering over the edge. The water was all but clear. She stood back that wasn't right. Upon closer examination she could tell it was definitely the same one...but if that was so, where were the bad guys whom she electrocuted?

The blonde seeing no other choice hoped into the water. And promptly yelped as the electricity racing through the waves zapped her. Okay, okay. Her experiment worked. Luckily for her, the effects of her previous attack on the water were fading so she managed to have enough sense to exit the pool. So the water hole was actually the one and only water hole. What if...? She frowned. She pulled out her sword and poked around in the water. Where she saw nothing, her sword definitely felt something. It was like poking a solid wall of air or water, depending on how she saw it. The girl sat up in triumph. So she was right in thinking it was an illusion. A broad grin spread upon her face. Now she just had to find a way to break it. Or walk around till she smashed into Kotone! She could smash into the lady too but smashing into Kotone would let her tell the other girl what she just discovered.

4276/5000

Kotone couldn’t help but grin as the teleporter ‘s leg slammed against her arm. The dragon slayer was starting to get the hang of the whole fighting the teleporter thing. She was less random than she could have been, and that made her predictable. “No fair! Stop it!” the girl screeched as she tried a second time to hit Kotone and failed. It didn’t seem like she could teleport Kotone, so that was good. It could make this a lot harder if she could.

“It’s not my fault you’re predictable,” Kotone told the girl. “Should I give you pointers on how to attack someone effectively? Or do you want a first-hand lesson?” Kotone formed a sword of ice in her hand, since her katana was off further away where it had been teleported previously. Activating her wind magic again, Kotone sent a blade of air at the teleporter, who once again tried to teleport ‘unpredictably’ to Kotone’s side. Unfortunately, Kotone was already swiping where she’d predicted the girl would be, and the sword cut into the girl’s arm.

Kotone didn’t hurt her ‘too’ badly, but she certainly didn’t mind teaching the girl a lesson. Immediately, she kicked the girl in the stomach while she recoiled in pain and dragon roared into her face, sending her flying back this time. The girl hit another wall, where bark from a tree flew out of where the wooden wall should have been. She didn’t move this time though, causing the dragon slayer to smirk. “Alright, now to find Verity,” she mumbled as she took off down the illusory hallways.

1638/2000

Verity was thinking about how she'd look like to the general public just walking around in a field of nothingness. Or forests. Maybe she didn't even appear. She had no idea how the illusory house worked. One minute she was there, the next, Kabam! And she was out, wondering how on earth she'd get back in. Although at this stage, she was more keen on staying out. It'd help more. Or so she thought. She wandered around a bit more before deciding she needed a better plan. Walking around was taking too long. The blonde shook her head and placed one hand against a tre-

Bam and the dirt was gone. Literally. She was in the house again. Verity looked around, confused. She looked at her hand and saw she was leaning against a broken wall. Realisation dawned. The tree WAS where the wall was. But that didn't explain... She looked down at her feet where some random girl was lying dazed on the floor. She was knocked out cold. She bit her lip in thought. Judging by the way she was, Verity could assume Kotone's handiwork was the one that made the girl like that. Either the tree was some special trigger or the girl had done something. She couldn't tell yet. Verity raised her head to look at the surroundings. Where formerly was trees and grass, there was ground and walls. Well at least she knew it definitely was an illusion. Possibly another dimension that was merged into the forest but she couldn't tell. She saw what she thought was Kotone's katana on the floor and decided to pick it up, storing her own sword away. Hauskor was still in her hands.

She didn't think the dragon slayer girl could have gotten too far away and so she decided she'd take a peek around. She decided following the hallway would be the best idea. And then she had a brain wave. Why not just call out her name?

"Kotone?" She yelled fairly loudly (and with ease). The house seemed to shudder in response. Verity frowned. It was so strange. She decided they needed to find the woman and find her fast. That way they could be out in the actual forest again. And then there was the mysterious factor that she had been outside and suddenly reappeared. She didn't understand. Finding Kotone was probably the best thing she could do at the moment.

4679/5000

Kotone was busy coming to a realization about the place, herself. Her sense of smell was off, because she was still smelling the forest despite being in the house. While Verity was getting sneak peeks about whatever weirdness was going on, the dragon slayer was still only treated to the… no… what was that flickering? Kotone’s eyes widened as she looked around, realizing the house was flickering in and out as the forest she knew they were in replaced it. Looking around, she wasn’t sure what was going on. The trees were roughly in alignment with the walls, but not entirely. She didn’t have long to take it in though, because the house reappeared fully after a moment.

“Kotone?” she heard Verity call. Kotone felt a wave of relief. Something weird was going on here, and it had her worried, more for Verity than herself. Kotone had faced some pretty bad stuff before and come out in one piece, and she rarely stopped to think of what might happen if she didn’t succeed. Succeeding was her only option in any situation, after all. “I’m here,” she said equally loudly, stopping her movement for now. Sid meowed behind her, having followed her out of the room. She turned and let the cat jump into her arms. The illusion was unsettling him. “Poor kitty,” she nuzzled him with her own nose before looking back up. “I’m tired of this place…” she mumbled to her cat quietly.

After a few more seconds of that walking everyone usually did to get places, she heard Kotone's reply. Verity smiled and hurried after in the direction she heard her voice. "Cool!" She replied mostly to notify the older girl she had heard her, the rest because she just said it on an impulse. When she arrived where Kotone was, the first thing Verity noticed was the cat. "Nice cat," She said, nodding to it. And then she was all business. "So this house is an illusion. I was walking and somehow I ended up in a forest. I then figured out some of the nature aspects were in the house like the water hole. And again, I ended up back here by some unknown reason. There was a knocked out girl." Hopefully Kotone would be able to tell her about that girl. If she had been the one teleporting her in and out of the house then perhaps they could use her to teleport back out again since she wasn't a big fan of illusory places.

Then again, that wouldn't be able to happen any time soon with Miss I'm A Shadow Heart Defect Not An Actual Member Lady wandering around the house causing all kinds of trouble for them and for the people outside. Besides, it was their job to stop her. "We should find the lady. I think we shouldn't split up again unless we really have to." In a very strange way she thought she was giving Kotone a choice by letting her have the chance to voice out whether she agreed or didn't.

4946/5000

“Not that nice,” Kotone corrected Verity with a slight grin when she complimented her cat. “He’s a big baby.” Sidney meowed, though it was impossible to say if he was agreeing or disagreeing with her statement. Either way, he seemed far more content than the two girls who were aware they were stuck in an illusion.

“Yeah, I hit a wall and bark flew out. I knew things weren’t exactly normal before, but I caught on then,” Kotone nodded to the blond girl. “Then some brat decided to pick a fight and teleport everywhere, and I had to put a stop to it. That’s about all I’ve got other than beating up the idiots at the entrance to the house…”

Kotone cracked her knuckles, a look on her face that made it hard to tell if she was excited or upset. “And yeah, we should find the lady. I have a bone to pick with ‘Not Shadow Heart’ at this point, and I’m most certainly not going to pick it gently.”

With that, Kotone took off at a determined pace, knowing full well they’d probably have to draw the woman out if she could hide behind her illusions. How to do that exactly… well she’d figure it out if the woman didn’t have plans to show up before then.

(didn't count the post before but I'm sure I have the word count now yay!)

How could a cat be a big-oh. She really needed to start getting these metaphor things. She nodded along to Kotone's observations of walls and bark which really led her to wonder what would happen if she hit a wall where there was air present in actuality. The stuff she said about the teleportation girl also made some sense, if not total sense. It explained why Verity suddenly found herself out of the illusion and then when Kotone smashed her in the wall, that must have been when Verity was leaning against the tree. The girl then must have also been using her magic which was why Verity was suddenly sucked back in.

As soon as Kotone walked off, Verity joined, a bit behind her. She didn't whe- Poof. Psycho Lady, say hi! The woman looked disdainfully at both her and Kotone. "Well it seems you have disposed of my... friend. She was useless anyway. I guess I'll have to deal with-" Verity didn't want to hear this lady yap so she decided to stab her with Hauskor. Or try anyways. Unfortunately, it went right through her. Not in the way that made someone bleed. The woman rolled her eyes. "Oh, cutting me off I see," She laughed at her own pun before regaining her icy calm. "I see you've figured out my illusion by now but that doesn't mean anything else. I guess it's time to mix things up," Verity opened her mouth for a retort but suddenly, she was warped away to the outside again. She growled in frustration. What? They were practically ignoring her! (Well, they were)

Back inside, 'Not Shadow Heart' observed Kotone coolly. "Well... now that I've gotten rid of your annoying friend I can deal with you properly." And then her image disappeared, leaving Kotone to explore the newly changed house.

(Aaand I'm not gonna bother with the word count anymore since there's no point)

Kotone’s gaze intensified as the woman seemed to send Verity away, disappearing as she claimed she could deal with Kotone now. “If you want to deal with me so badly, come face me,” she exclaimed as her temper flared up a bit. “I’m tired of your stupid games. They’re just delaying the inevitable.” Unfortunately, there was no response, save for Sid meowing his response. She just pretended he agreed, holding onto the cat as she walked down the newly formed hallway she was standing in. Things weren’t the same, and as far as her senses could tell, she was alone.

“Crap…” she told herself as she passed some dark rooms. She had no idea where to start now, or if she was even in the same place. It was illlusions… logically she was, but if her senses told her she was touching a wall instead of going through it… well, there wasn’t a lot she could do. Except… go through the wall anyway.

Clenching her fist, a gauntlet of ice formed around Kotone’s hand, which she used to smash through the wall. This illusion must have been stronger, because it actually seemed like she hit the wall. “Come out you coward!” she told the woman. “You won’t hold me in some stupid illusion!”

The woman watched Kotone's attempts with an icy gaze. She wasn't worried about being caught up with. She'd toy with the little dragon slayer till she got bored. Only then she guessed she'd finish her off. Or something. At least the pesky blonde was no longer in her way. She laughed at Kotone's exclamation of her being a coward and decided to let her voice sink through the walls of the illusion.

"Oh but dear, aren't you still stuck in it?" Gods this was entertaining.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Verity grumbled. She didn't like being left out anymore than she liked being trapped in magical illusions. There must be something she could do to help Kotone. As far as the blonde was concerned if the illusion was still up than Kotone was in trouble and needed help. From what Vera could tell the ice dragon slayer didn't like staying useless in a magical illusion and wouldn't want to stay in it for longer than necessary. Of course she could be wrong but right now, she had to stick to her guns. Vera wasn't an expert in illusions but she could think. Could similarities within an illusory world and the real world be the key to destroying the illusion? She didn't know but she had to try. Which ultimately meant going to the water hole.

Vera made her way to the water hole with massive reserves of ease. How on earth would she have any difficulty when they were fighting inside the house? It was almost like the illusion was on a different dimension from earth. Perhaps the lady had both illusion and some kind of dimension warping magic. It would explain why she wasn't bumping into any Kotone or- oof. Okay, she made a mistake, she bumped into something. So it either was Kotone or the Lady. She was betting the Lady. So for better or for worse, the girl summoned Relica and sliced whatever was in front of her. Well.... she definitely felt the impact of something.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

'Not Shadow Heart''s plan was going good, too good for Kotone's liking probably. That was until she was nearly killed by an invisible force. She sensed it the second before the impact came. She couldn't stop it though until it had made a small gash in her side. She reacted by instinct. She had to see her attacker. She let down the illusion around her and drew up another illusion to make the attacker think they had sliced cleanly through her. She saw who it was an narrowed her eyes, screaming in fury (albeit not noticeably due to illusion) She smiled through her disguise at the idiot blonde's shocked reaction. In that moment she forgot that she had let down the illusion house's guard down. Kotone was now free to see the real world.

Ice blasted through the illusory walls as Kotone began to really lose her temper. The woman was taunting her like she’d already won, but she hadn’t! The dragon slayer slashed through the walls, bringing them and probably a couple of trees down. It was actually rather hard to tell from inside the illusion. As she attacked the scenery though, she let out a scream of frustration, baring her dragon-like canines as she did. She was going to figure out this illusion, and when she did, screw her plan to help Verity feel like the hero .This woman was getting beaten to a bloody pulp.

Out of nowhere though, the woman seemed to scream in a fit of rage and pain, causing Kotone to snap out of her own rage and blink in confusion as she stood up straight again, looking around. All around her the scenery melted away, melting into a forest exactly like the one they’d been in before the dragon slayer had kicked in the door. That was when she realized… the woman had concentrated the entire mansion into some sort of new illusion. She looked bloodied, but Kotone distinctly smelled no blood from where she noticed the woman and Verity standing. Grinning, Kotone looked to Verity and the woman who thought she still had the upper hand. She was going to get it. Kotone inhaled then, releasing her Ice Dragon Roar at the woman who wasn’t from Shadow Heart anymore.

Considering that 'Not Shadow Heart' had been reasonably intelligent thus far it was almost a shame she was nearly put out of commission by a very particularly angry wizard literally breathing ice from a dragon due to a stupid mistake. In hindsight she would have hit her head several times over. After being half frozen to death, Miss Imma Rebel also decided losing her temper would be a great way to deal with two opponents even if her rage was only directed at the aforementioned very particularly angry wizard literally breathing ice from a dragon. The other opponent there, a decently lucky blonde haired girl with a nasty sword realised it was her opportunity while the lady decided spinning her illusion to purely defeating Kotone was the best idea to ever grace the universe. This decently lucky blonde haired girl with a nasty sword decided to use that nasty sword to slash 'Not Shadow Heart', also known as Miss Imma Rebel, while creating the rune 'Laguz' to activate some lovely water explosion spell on her. Usually it would take a while before spontaneously combusting on her and drenching her but this time, Verity recognised it'd be good to hit her while it lasted. After that, it was all a matter of 'Not Shadow Heart'/Miss Imma Totes Rebel losing it temporarily in the head cause obviously all that previous house magic was taking its toll. She screamed once again before falling against a tree and dealing the final self KO to herself.

Verity looked surprised as the formerly fearsome lady did this before looking at Kotone. "Well... I guess we defeated her," She said, stating the obvious, still dumbstruck by the way it had happened. Even with her list of stupid things, this topped it. It was very admirable to be standing after furious ice rage and exploding water runes. What wasn't admirable was knocking yourself out on a tree afterwards. Oh well. She wasn't complaining... too much. In fact yay! She beat a dark wizard!

... Ha ha. She probably was the only person laughing internally.

"What now?" The girl question Kotone, looking at her curiously. She assumed the older and more experienced girl would know what to do now.

Kotone couldn’t help but let out a laugh when the stupid woman hit her head on the tree. It was like all the tension she’d been feeling was just let out at the almost comical defeat of the woman that had frustrated her for… well it felt like hours. “Nice job, Verity,” Kotone nodded to her, giving her a genuine grin. Her mood had improved greatly at the sight of the last few seconds. “I’m pretty sure that wouldn’t have happened if you hadn’t acted when you did.” She walked to Verity, raising a hand for a high five. She didn’t normally do such things, but Verity had actually done something that ended in Kotone laughing. Kotone only really laughed very rarely.

“Hmm… what now…” Kotone scratched her chin, looking up at the trees. “I guess now we take these bozos back to Fairy Tail. Taiga is going to want to have a chat with them, or at least turn them over for someone to do something with.” She walked over and picked up Not Shadow Heart with one arm, slinging her over her shoulder. “Now, let’s find and gather the others so we can head back,” she told verity with the first real smile she’d given the girl. She was feeling more comfortable around her now, and she’d worked out her frustrations. It was turning into a decent day.

Verity was surprised about the hands-up-for-a-high-five thing because no one had given her a high five before. Or maybe they had but as far as she was concerned, she didn't remember anything like that every occurring. But first time for everything right? She grinned back and attempted to high five a hand. Remarkably, high fiving someone was actually pretty hard. She had to gauge distance and everything. She managed to kind of hit her hand. Verity decided that high fives were a hit and miss. There was no way someone could be good at that. "You did awesome too!" She exclaimed firmly back as a compliment.

She bobbed her head up and down when Kotone told her roughly what they'd be doing. Verity saw no faults in it (like she usually did) "Sounds good," The blonde watched as the other girl picked up the lady and slung her over her shoulder. She noticed the smile she gave her was a bit different than any others she might have given her but didn't put too much thought in it. "Sure," She responded and begun looking for any other person that might be hanging around. It was doubtful she'd see anyone seeing as the two of them had knocked out most of the hooligans in the first part of the house... goodness knows where that was. Verity's photographic memory had yet to make its appearance so all she knew was to look for water. What she did find was that girl she had seen upon getting back into the weird illusion house. She was still decently knocked out although she would probably be regaining her consciousness soon.

Verity decided the safest thing would be to knock her out again. She did it with a quick knock in the side of her head not enough to do major damage though. The girl wondered how ethical it would be to store a human away in another dimension. It probably wasn't possible though. She'd need to have the girl attuned to her and that wasn't going to happen anytime soon (or ever). Also, she probably needed to have more magical energy at her disposal than the girl which, also, was not happening anytime soon since Verity had a sneaking suspicion she was much stronger than her. "Two down, ten to go?" Her voice raised in pitch as standard of a question. Much like her photographic memory, Verity didn't pay attention to the number of enemies she fought.

“…” Kotone wasn’t actually sure how many enemies she’d punched, truth be told. Or where they were now. They didn’t exactly have the luxury of time before their charges started to regain consciousness either. It was hard to say what they should do, but Kotone was starting to think that perhaps they should worry about the big fish and let the little ones fend for themselves. It would be hard for even a girl of Kotone’s unnatural strength to carry… more than eight people at once, after all – even if she was dragging them behind her or something.

“Actually, let’s worry about these two big fish,” Kotone decided. “If these two had them under their control or something, I doubt they’re strong-willed enough to come looking for trouble after waking up in the woods injured… even if they do remember what happened.” Some magic allowed people their memories of events, other magic didn’t. It was a toss-up, really. Kotone sat Ms. Not Shadow Heart on the ground semi-roughly, hooking her finger around the woman’s collar and grabbing Verity’s unconscious ‘friend’ as well. She used her ice to bind them, since she didn’t have rope, and started dragging them through the forest. “Alright, let’s go,” she told Verity with an amused chuckle. “Kotone Hoshino… delivery girl…” she mumbled, clearly amused now that the frustrating part was over.

Kotone changed her mind and Verity shrugged. It didn't concern her whether they took the whole lot back or not. "Makes sense," She followed after Kotone as they begun to walk back and let her mind drift. Even though their fight had been kind of intense, Verity guessed she enjoyed it. She could even begin to understand slightly how it may not be suicidal to go fight someone as powerful as the Shadow Lord. That woman was more powerful than both of them yet they still beat her. On the other hand though, she wasn't alone and Tatsu would be going alone. It still bothered her though, the fact he was going to fight some dude and didn't tell anybody. Wouldn't he achieve exactly the same thing by bringing a whole other bunch of people with him except he'd also have more of a chance? She guessed she could have tried spying on him and then just tag along when he actually did it but she didn't know where he was currently and if she was perfectly honest with herself, she was still mad at him. She didn't know why though. She decided to replay their conversation in her head from the part she started getting really angry.

He had been saying something about a Koton- Verity's memory tape screeched to flying halt. Wait. Kotone? Was it the same Kotone. The blonde gave a curious sidelong glance at the girl next to her. Were they the same person? And who was she to run his apology errands anyway? For a second she wanted to ignore her curiosity in favour of pride. Curiosity won though. She turned to face Kotone and looked at her curiously, trying to figure out if there was a better way of just saying 'Do you know someone called Tatsuma,' just straight up. She probably did. If memory served she had mentioned him soo oh screw it. It didn't matter how she said it did it?

"Do you know Tatsuma?" She asked curiously.

Kotone and Verity walked for a while in silence. Kotone was feeling more friendly towards Verity after the ordeal, but that didn’t mean she minded the silence that much. Kotone was a loner by nature, after all, so she didn’t particularly mind the quiet. It gave her time to think. Why had this woman left Shadow Heart? To her knowledge, most people thought they were amazing with the claims they’d made after appearing for the whole world to see. She was jerked out of her thoughts though, when the quieter-than-before Verity asked her a question. “Do you know Tatsuma?”

Kotone looked over at Verity curiously, blinking a few times as she came to a halt and faced Verity. “Yeah, I know Tatsuma,” Kotone nodded seriously. She searched Verity’s face for a moment before sighing. "You want to know about how I know Tatsuma? I... don't want to talk badly about him needlessly," she decided, knowing the two were guildmates. "But I'll give you the short version of my relationship with him." Kotone looked serious.“We used to be friends,” she decided. “Sort of, anyway. We worked together once, fought a couple of times… I guess we were sort of rivals.” Kotone shrugged. She rubbed the back of her head. “Last time I saw him though, we kind of fought again. I beat him, but then we had an argument over… ideals,” she told Verity vaguely. “I was too angry to remember everything properly, but I remember yelling at him, him being an idiot and groping me, and then me pinning him to a tree and resisting the urge to hurt him.”

The dragon slayer let out a sigh. “I don’t really know what else to tell you. I hope he’s not still acting like that with you,” she told Verity. “I want him to be better than that.” It was true. Kotone disliked Tatsuma at this point, but she would rather Tatsuma become a more ideal dragon slayer (in her eyes at least) than the cocky womanizing kid he’d acted like on their third meeting.

Apparently Kotone didn't like Tatsuma. Correction. Kotone didn't like Tatsuma, not just apparently. Of course Verity didn't know the time line of when all the events the dragon slayer were mentioning happened but she was guessing it was some time ago. Otherwise she'd probably be more mad. Him doing that was also something she'd imagine he'd have done not recently, but around the time she'd first met him. He seemed (and probably had been) a total idiot (and a few other words). At least it explained why he would want to say sorry to her. She still felt no obligation to be his messenger but if they used to friends (or kinda), then she guessed it'd be better for them to have less antagonism towards one another. The girl shrugged after the other's explanation and pseudo-question.

"Nope, but he's still an idiot." She replied "And he said sorry." She probably wasn't being very clear about the sorry but she assumed Kotone would assume the sorry was to her since she purposely brought up the topic of Tatsuma out of curiosity and therefore, connecting to sorry to herself was pretty clear. But still, it wasn't very clear and saying 'he said sorry' could apply to other things such as perhaps he said sorry to Verity and that was why he wasn't like before in her eyes.

Kotone blinked a few times when Verity told Kotone that Tatsuma was sorry. She looked speechless for a moment, but then her grin started to return, her dragon-like fangs visible just before she started laughing. That went on for a good thirty seconds before she calmed down, grinning a more normal grin at Verity. “That idiot actually listened to me then?” she hadn’t realized the amount of weight on her shoulders still lingered from her encounter with him. “And here I was worried he was still running around treating girls like his playthings. I’d have had to track him down and deck him quite hard if he was, especially if he’s the kind of idiot you like.”

Kotone let out a sigh, tugging on the rope tied to the two women Verity and Kotone had fought earlier. “It doesn’t count until he says it to my face though, so you and eventually he knows. It’s not like I’m impossible to track down,” she chuckled despite her words. It didn’t count until he found and apologized to her, but until then it was nice to know she didn’t have to worry about him so much. “So, what’re your thoughts on the kid then, since you know the new and improved idiot better than me?”

Verity was just staring at Kotone waiting to see how she'd respond. For a second the girl seemed speechless. Or confused. Verity wouldn't know. And then she started laughing. She smiled warily. What? Now Verity was confused. Was somehow passing on the message of 'sorry' triggering a psychotic response from the other girl? Or was she just overcome with the relief of having 'sorry' said to her? 30 seconds later she finally received a somewhat making sense explanation. The blonde's smile changed from a wary one to a genuine one. So it hadn't been an entire waste of time to act as message delivery girl. Kotone seemed to appreciate the saying sorry so it was worth it. She was about to say it was highly unlikely that she was going to tell Tatsuma he had to say sorry to Kotone's face when the girl asked her what her thoughts on him were.

"I don't know," She replied truthfully. She didn't know what she thought about him and she wasn't going to bother figure out her thoughts about him any time soon. She didn't know what else to say so she stayed quiet, resuming walking again. She roughly calculated the distance back to the guild and figured they were still some distance away. Didn't bother her.

“You don’t know?” Kotone grinned at Verity. “How sorry can he be if you don’t know? I mean, he hasn’t treated you like that has he?” Kotone tilted her head, not paying too much attention to the two unconscious women being dragged behind the more conscious, less evil women. “I can seriously go thwack him for it if I need to. It might actually be fun…” Kotone shrugged. She still couldn’t see Magnolia from the woods, but she knew they still had a ways to go. She’d taken this path more than once. Kotone spent a lot of time outside.

She fell silent after her offer. She wasn’t sure she actually wanted to fight Tatsuma again. She neither liked the anger afterword (Fights usually helped vent her anger), nor his hands anywhere near her. She couldn’t really know if he’d actually changed. She wanted him to though. Kotone let out a sigh. She was probably going the wrong direction with that. Maybe Verity had better experiences with Tatsuma than Kotone did.

“So anyway, have you been with Fairy Tail long?” Kotone asked Verity, putting her hands up behind her head in a semi-relaxed position. It would have been more relaxed if not for holding on to her captives. “I don’t remember seeing you around, and I’ve gone there occasionally over the last few years.”