Rethinking Objectives

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.”

Verity wondered if being called a b**** in their first meeting counted. She shrugged her inner brain. Again, she did not know. "It probably would be but no, I don't think so." she replied with a slight sigh. She was pretty clueless when it came to what was considered as right or not. Her social grace was seriously lacking and even though she loved reading, she did take quite a while actually finishing books due to her dyslexia. Even then she tended to read non-fiction. Kotone fell silent for a while and Verity kept silent too. She glanced behind at the two captives. The teleportation girl was waking up. Or at least she would soon. She considered whacking her in the head again. It would make sure she was knocked out for a while. She was about to raise her blade and knock her with the flat side when Kotone begun talking again and her attention changed.

"Not too long. I joined a few months before the tournament started." She responded before viewing the other girl curiously. "Are you in a guild? I've never heard of you before," She thought it was a fair question. If Kotone had visited Fairy Tail a few times before then perhaps she had been sent to help out from other guilds? She guessed she could also be from the Magic Council or Guildless and just liked being around guilds.

“I’m not in a guild, no,” Kotone shook her head once as wind shot from her hand and plonked the teleporter in the head hard enough to knock her out again. Kotone acted like she hadn’t even noticed her own attack, continuing the conversation like normal as her magical aura died down. “I’m more of a loner… more or less anyway. Though I’m surprised you haven’t herd of me,” she admitted. “It’s no secret that I’m the Ice dragon slayer or that I have several good friends in Fairy Tail.” She shrugged, supposing it really didn’t matter.

The dragon slayer couldn’t help but think how she would rather have Kade notice her than being a loner like she always had been, but she also chided herself for being stupid, not voicing a bit of it. “I actually remember seeing you in the tournament. I was busy watching my Lamia Scale friends though, so I didn’t see a lot. I heard you did pretty well after a while. Admittedly I’m not sure how they even judged the thing.” Kotone kind of wished she would have gone with the Lamia Scale team. She liked camping and her two best friends, even if friends were a very recent thing to her. Maybe she was becoming more social than she cared to admit…

Kotone appeared to have the same idea as her in terms of head bonking and Verity smiled a little, finding it amusing when she kept on talking as if it were normal. "I guess not. Your name probably would be mentioned here and there but things usually go in one ear and out the other so I wouldn't have noticed." She responded. The blonde took a moment to study the other girl when she finished talking about the tournament. Her mood appeared to have changed slightly. Not in a bad way. It was pretty subtle, the change that is, but she seemed to grow a little.... thoughtful? Verity was observant but she still wasn't very good at picking up what non-verbal communications meant. "I like Lamia Scale. I've only ever met two people from there though. A Kade?" Her memory wasn't up to scratch. When did she meet him again? Like ages. "And Zahn. He was guildless though and then I guess he changed to Lamia," She smiled when she mentioned Zahn. They had a good time at the Akane Amusement Park... also some time ago.

They were getting close to her guild and Verity increased her pace slightly. "We're just delivering these two back to my guild right? After that I guess you'll be going again?" She said it without a second's hesitation before processing her words right after. She felt a bit depressed upon realising that what she said was more than likely true - Kotone was good company in her opinion - but guessed it wasn't practical for Verity since she had made up her mind about things she needed to do after they got the job done.

“A Kade…” Yukari’s cheeks went red at Kade’s name. Kade had met Verity? For a short moment she was jealous, but she quickly shoved it aside. “Yeah, Kade’s my… friend,” she admitted. She didn’t admit to the obvious crush she had, but it was definitely there. “I never met Zahn though. I’m told he and Kade are roommates and stuff…” She didn’t care if she met Zahn, truth be told. Kotone didn’t mind people, but at the same time she was still a people person.

Kotone nodded to Verity’s question about delivering the unconscious duo to Fairy Tail. “Yeah, Taiga can decide what to do with them,” she figured aloud. “Since the Magic Council isn’t a group Fairy Tail is on good terms with anymore and all,” she shrugged. “In the meantime I’ll… probably get going, yeah,” she nodded. “I’ve got… places to be.” In truth, Kotone wasn’t sure what she should be doing at the moment. She’d been beating up members of the council and Shadow Heart, but it was more to vent stress than anything.

“Honestly though,” Kotone started up again before she turned around to start walking again, “It’s been pretty great working with you. I guess even I get tired of doing things by myself all the time.”

Verity wondered why Kotone blushed at the mention of Kade's name. Was it because she had a crush on him or something? If that was the case she could be rest assured that she actually hadn't seen him since... some time. She couldn't even remember when which proved her point. But she didn't in particular want to bring a topic about romantic interest up. It could get a little awkward and well, romance wasn't exactly her strong point... and Zahn was roommates with Kade? Good for him.

Now that she was thinking about it she remembered the guy had blushed around her a few times too... hmmm. Nevermind. She shook her head, love just wasn't her thing at the moment. It occurred to her that even sibling love for her dead sister was slowly being forgotten. Her whole life as of late seemed to have been revolving around... Tatsuma. Sad to say but really if she was honest with herself, the truth. She sighed. At least he was had been good for one thing - reminding herself that her original motivation in life was her sister even though it had been by accident in a way that he somewhat insulted Kuroha by saying she would understand his motives... like she would. She wouldn't. She brushed off her thoughts again and listened to Kotone once more.

She nodded when the other girl said her thoughts out loud. Sad, but also true. But then again... "It's not like the other guilds are on particularly good terms with the Magic Council either," She said meaningfully. They continued walking again and it wasn't long till Kotone spoke again. Verity broke out into a beaming smile. "Yeah, I usually go solo too." It seemed today was a day of realising the truths and realities in her life, be they ugly or not. She wasn't sure if that was a good thing but it was definitely giving her something to think about. She breathed out slowly and looked at the girl beside her. "Have you ever had a moment of revelation?"

Kotone chuckled at Verity’s question. “I’ve had several, most of them this year,” she told the girl with a shrug. “Believe it or not I was a pretty big jerk not six months ago, but I figured out I needed people around, so I stopped,” she admitted, trying to sound far more nonchalant about it than she actually felt. It had been months of trying to adjust and figure herself out. She’d spent time being a jerk and being extra nice and everything in between before she’d settled on being who she was, and just trying not to be mean about it. It wasn’t exactly easy to figure out one’s life again.

“Why, did you have something?” Kotone asked her, glancing over. If she did, Kotone would gladly try and talk to her about it the rest of the way back, otherwise, she would just make small talk with her new friend. Verity was an interesting girl, and honestly, probably one of the only reasons she wasn’t still playing hide and seek with that idiot woman tied behind them.

Eventually, the pair arrived at Fairy Tail, and Kotone handed over the captives to Verity to take in, or at least to report were tied outside. She had no intention of visiting Taiga right now. Instead, she reached out her hand for Verity to shake. “Verity, it’s been fun,” she admitted with a grin. “I hope you feel better now that you’ve helped your guild, and I’m glad we got to work together,” She wasn’t usually one for little speeches, but she supposed this might warrant it. She gave Verity a small wave as she turned to leave. “In the meantime, I suppose I shouldn’t take up too much more of anyone’s time. See you around,” she told Verity with a wink.

-Exit-