3rd POV
It's been a few days since Cooper had raided the Magic Council, and as of now, his location remains a mystery, not just to the Magic Council but even to his own family.
Sitting in her usual spot at the bar with a cup of beer in hand, Cana raised her head, taking a sip, yet nothing but a single drop of beer spilled out. "A-Another cup, Mira." Slurring her words, Cana weakly waved her arm, causing Mira to sigh while taking her cup away. "No, you need to take a rest, Cana." Grumbling under her breath, Cana pulled herself onto the bar, attempting to pour her own cup.
"Cana, do you want me to be mean?" Using take-over magic on her arm, Mira grabbed Cana's head with a harmless smile, causing her to wryly chuckle as she dropped the cup in her hand. "N-No, Mira." "Good." Pushing Cana back into her seat, Mira returned to her duty, attending to Macao, Wakaba, and a few others.
Lucy sat at a corner table, sipping tea as she spoke with Laki, who was enthusiastically discussing her latest project. Elfman was armwrestling Nab. Natsu was, surprisingly, having a conversation with Erza, who was calmly eating a strawberry cake with a satisfied smile. Gray was lying on the table, receiving a massage from Juvia, who had a perverted expression. Happy was playing cards with Max, Vijector, Jet, and Droy. Alzack and Bisca were quietly flirting with each other, and Gajeel was in a corner of the room, observing everyone.
Sitting on the railing of the second floor was Makarov, the Master of Fairy Tail, though he was unprepared for the shock of his life that was about to come. Minutes passed as Fairy Tail, in a rare moment, enjoyed the calm, peaceful, yet lively atmosphere, only for it to be broken as Levy suddenly burst through the front door with a panicked expression.
"M-Master! Y-You need to see this!" Gasping for breath, clearly having run here urgently, Levy leaned against the door frame while holding a piece of paper, prompting everyone to curiously look at her. "What's the problem, Levy?" Furrowing his brows, Makarov leaped down from the second floor, landing atop a table, stirring awake a few drunken members.
"Y-You just need to look at this, Master." Seemingly unable to explain the gravity of the situation, Levy quickly approached Makarov and handed him the aper before plopping onto the nearby seat in exhaustion.
As Makarov read the paper, everyone watched his rapidly changing expression; first it was surprise and shock, then pride, next anger, and finally horror. Unable to contain their curiosity from Makarov's aghast face, everyone huddled around the table while Happy stood atop Makarov's head.
"Quickly, what does it say, Happy?" With Elfman's urging voice, Happy cleared his throat before relaying the contents to everyone, his expression following in a similar footstep as Makarov's.
"Wanted! Cooper 'The Beast'! Crimes: Attacking Magic Knights, breaking into the Magic Council vault, stealing criminals' items, resisting arrest, defeating two Wizard Saints. Warning! Extremely Dangerous! 20,000 Jewels for information! 20,000,000 Jewels for arresting!"
Once Happy finishes speaking, the Guild was engulfed in silence for a solid minute, the gravity of the situation hitting everyone… Well, most at least.
"Defeating two Wizard Saints? Haha, that's our big bro!" Natsu, ignoring everything else, happily praised Cooper's achievement of strength, only for Gray to hit his head with an irritated expression. "You freaking dumbass."
With Natsu having broken the delicate atmosphere, everyone turned and glanced at Makarov, who looked to have just aged another decade. "Master?" Erza's soft yet firm voice finally snapped Makarov out of his daze as he tightly clenched the paper with a furious expression.
"T-This freaking bastard!" Erupting in fury, Makarov's giant magic activated subconsciously, growing him to a height that towered over everyone. "Cana, can you track Cooper!?" Snapping his head at the half-drunk Cana with eyes that looked as if they could spew fire, she nodded while grabbing a card from her pouch.
"Good! Fairy Tail! We will hunt Cooper! I order you to beat that brat black and blue and drag his body back home!" Hearing Makarov's furious command, whether they wished to or not, every Fairy Tail Member ran out of the guild.
"Haha, time to finally beat big bro!" "Cana, lead the way!" "Urgh, this terrifies me. We were nearly beaten up a decade ago. Now we've got to face him again?" "Haa, at least we're not alone, Macao. Everyone else will also get beaten up along with us." "C'mon, don't sound so pessimistic. It's all of us vs big bro." "How is that anything to be optimistic about, Jet?" "Haa, I know. I'm just trying to raise morale, Max."
Fairy Tail surged through the streets of Magnolia, following Cana, the only one who could lead them to Cooper.
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Cooper POV
Leaning against a tree, I looked up at the night sky, feeling a mix of frustration, anger, and tiredness. It's been around five days since I left Corcus, and during this time, I've been doing nothing but searching for traces of Jasmine Hady. I used the items I collected from the vault, and after I memorized her scent, I headed through popular cities, searching for just the faintest clue of her.
"This is starting to piss me off." I've already gone through most of the major cities, along with several smaller cities and even more villages along the way between each major city, yet despite my efforts, I've never found anything. 'I wish I had some sort of tracking magic.'
It's entirely possible she's no longer in Fiore, and searching through Ishgar would take forever, and if she were also no longer in Ishgar…
'Let me not get ahead of myself.' Rubbing my head, I lightly yawned, itching to sleep, but considering I had a target on my back, I didn't exactly have the luxury, especially since I hadn't been trying to conceal my tracks.
Enhancing my senses, I faintly heard numerous footsteps and someone barking orders, along with a few other sounds belonging to much smaller groups, probably mercenaries or guilds. 'Tsk, they really aren't giving me a break.' They were still quite a distance away, so I used this chance to take a ten-minute break before once again dashing away, sprinting through the forest towards the next city.
The next few days are a boring waste of time and energy, as I've gone a week with minimal rest and food, along with finding no trace of Jasmine Hady. Just as I woke up from my sixth thirty-minute nap this week, I headed to the next city, pushing through open plains and dense forests. However, while dashing through my umpteenth forest, I noticed the lack of beasts.
Furrowing my brows, I took a detour to explore a bit of the forest. As I did, I felt a faint presence, though only for a brief moment. 'Am I being followed?' I was about to check behind me, but my attention was grabbed by a path of destruction through the forest, full of tracks.
Coming to a stop, my eyes widen as I quickly recognize this type of destructive path. 'A beast horde.' Enhancing my senses to their limit, I deeply sniffed the air, inhaling a plethora of beastly scents, yet through all those scents, there existed one, a faint smell of an old woman.
However, because I was solely focused on that one singular scent, I overlooked the large number of mages closing around me until I was trapped. 'When did they get here? Tsk, I don't want to fight right now.' Growling in annoyance, I was about to quickly deal with this group of mages, only for me to suddenly be sneak-attacked from behind as I was put into a chokehold.
"Eh? Nab, is that you?" Feeling that familiar chokehold, I raised my head and glanced at Nab, who had an ethereal bear enveloping him. "Haa, yeah, it's me, big bro. You couldn't at least pretend I was hurting you?" Realizing his choke hold wasn't that effective, Nab let go, prompting me to glance at him curiously.
"What are you doing here?" "Ah, sorry about this, big bro, but Master said to bring you in." Furrowing my brows, I was about to dismiss Nab, but the ethereal animal around him changed to a snake; next thing I knew, he wrapped himself around my ankles.
"Now!" "Sorry, big bro, Master's orders." "Don't hate me, big bro." Glancing to my left and right, I eye Erza in her Armadura Fairy Armor and Mira in Satan Soul. Crossing my arms, I stopped Mira's claws and Erza's sword, causing me to bleed as I didn't use my magic.
"Can you guys just wait a few hours? I've got something to do." Eyeing the two women, I saw their expression twitch before they suddenly grabbed my arms, holding me in place. "It's either we incur your wrath, or Master's wrath, big bro." "Besides, you also look rather exhausted… You must not have much magic power remaining; even for you, staying on the run for one week is quite straining."
Frowning at Erza's correct assumption, I suddenly sensed a collection of several different magic powers from behind me, prompting me to glance at Natsu, Gray, Gajeel, Juvia, Lucy, Cana, Macao, Wakaba, Jet, Droy, Levy, Elfman, Laki, Warren, Reedus, Vijector, Bisca, Alzack, Laki, Max, several others, and even Happy.
'Haa, you've got to be freaking kidding me.'