The clock at Magnolia's train station was still yawning, marking a time that civilised people consider indecent to be awake, and there we were: me, Lucy Heartfilia, celestial mage on the rise, professional dreamer, and, apparently, the official babysitter for two louts with the emotional capacity of stroppy toddlers. The platform was surrounded by shouts, creative insults, and glares of pure hatred... which, to the surprise of absolutely no one, were coming exclusively from Gray and Natsu.
Gray had his arms crossed, and by some miracle, was fully clothed, with a look of 'I'm perfectly calm, but if you breathe in my direction I'll kick your arse'. Natsu, on the other hand, was puffing smoke from his nose (literally, it was disgusting and fascinating at the same time) and kept his fists clenched, as if he were one nervous twitch away from leaping at the other's throat and starting a brawl that would probably delay every train in Fiore.
The tension between them was so thick you could cut it with one of my Celestial Keys. And I was right in the middle, serving as a human force field.
"Are you two really going to continue with this low-budget melodrama?" I asked, trying to keep my voice firm, despite already wondering where, exactly, my social life and peace of mind had died and been buried. "We have a mission, remember? M-I-S-S-I-O-N."
The two of them glanced at each other, a low growl vibrating in Natsu's throat. They were in that pre-battle phase, like two fighting dogs staring each other down, just waiting for someone to drop a broom for the chaos to begin.
"By the way..." Gray arched an eyebrow, without taking his eyes off Natsu, which seemed to require an impressive level of coordination. "...why are you even here, Lucy?"
"Yeah..." Natsu added, cracking his neck as if preparing for an interrogation. "Are you really coming on this mission with us? Don't you have, I don't know, rent to pay or a book to write?"
I sighed, looking up at the station's ornate ceiling and wondering if deliberately falling onto the train tracks was a valid option to escape this conversation. "Mirajane asked me to come with you," I replied, crossing my arms and trying to project the best authoritative face I could manage at seven in the morning without a hefty dose of coffee. "She said it would be good for me to get experience... and also to keep an eye on you two and make sure you don't set fire to or destroy any towns along the way."
"Ha!" Gray laughed, a mocking, irritating sound. "Good luck with that. Not even Mira can control this walking fire-starter."
"What?! Say that again, you exhibitionist ice lolly!" Natsu shot back, already taking a step forward.
They moved closer, their foreheads almost touching. I raised my hands, stepping between them before one of them decided to use magic and we were all arrested for vandalism. "Stop it! Calm down! We haven't even got on the train yet!"
"This is only temporary," Happy commented, flying to my shoulder with the wisdom of someone who has seen this scene a million times. He had a dried fish in his mouth. "Once they're in the carriage, Natsu will turn into a puddle of despair and Gray, for some inexplicable reason, will take his clothes off again. Then the universe's energy will balance out."
I blinked slowly, absorbing this utterly absurd and, what was more frightening, terribly plausible prediction. My life was a circus.
I had barely managed to convince Gray and Natsu to maintain a safe distance of at least one metre from each other when I heard a sound coming from the station entrance. A... peculiar sound. Squeaking wooden wheels. Lightly rattling chains. And the unmistakable metallic sound of armour in motion.
I turned my head and saw something that made me question my morning sanity: a cart. Yes, a wooden cart, piled high with luggage to a dangerously unstable height.
And it was being pulled by a woman. Alone.
Or rather, it was being pulled by Erza.
She advanced through the station crowd with the tranquility of someone on their morning walk, as if pulling a four-hundred-kilo cart was the new cardio for magical warriors. The wooden frame groaned under the weight of several giant suitcases, a trunk that looked enchanted, a leather bag with runic clasps, and what appeared to be a dismantled bookshelf. Oh, and there was a pink, frilly pillow on top of everything, which only made the scene more surreal. And, by some cosmic miracle, she still had a faint smile on her face. Serene. Powerful. And absolutely unperturbed.
Natsu and Gray, who a second before had been on the verge of starting World War Three, Fiore edition, suddenly... froze. And then, in a coordinated and entirely fake movement, they smiled and hugged each other. Yes. HUGGED. Complete with pats on the back and tears of false friendship in their eyes.
"Natsu, my best friend!"
"Gray, my brother!"
"How nice to see you two so close," Erza said, her voice calm and melodious, but with a subtext that said 'I know you were trying to kill each other'. And only then did she let go of the cart's handles. The THUD that followed nearly broke the station's tracks. A pigeon that had been pecking at something on the ground fell backwards, probably from a fatal heart attack.
She then noticed me. Her overwhelming presence turned in my direction, and I felt like a little mouse under the gaze of an eagle. "And you are?"
I took a timid step forward, trying to appear braver than I actually felt. "Lucy Heartfilia. I'm a celestial mage. Mirajane asked me to come with you... I hope that's not a problem."
Erza analysed me for a second that seemed to last a lifetime. Her brown eyes were intense, almost piercing my soul. Then, she nodded firmly. "No problem at all. The more hands to carry the luggage and stop these two from destroying something, the better."
Gray looked around the station, frowning as if he had noticed the absence of an expected disaster. "Right... and where's the lazy one?"
"The who?" I asked, a bit lost, still trying to get over the fact that the woman with the face of a medieval general was pulling a cart as if it were a handbag.
"Azra'il," he replied, with the tone of someone saying 'the meteor that will one day kill us all'. "Did you manage to find her, Erza? Or did she pull that famous trick of hers of 'vanishing into nature' and is now hibernating in some cave?"
Erza crossed her arms, with the air of someone who had dealt with this question a thousand times and was running out of patience. "I did find her, yes. Late yesterday afternoon," she said calmly.
Natsu and Gray looked at each other as if she had just said 'I found a dragon braiding a unicorn's hair'.
"And... did you manage to convince her to come?" Gray insisted, clearly expecting the worst.
Erza nodded, an almost imperceptible smile on her lips. "Let's just say I was... persuasive."
Happy, who had drawn closer, whispered theatrically to me, covering his mouth with his paw: "Translation: she probably had to drag Azra'il back by her feet while the other one played dead and screamed 'let me rot in peace in the forest!'"
Erza pretended not to hear. No one dared to confirm the story.
"Anyway," she continued, with an enviable naturalness, "she said she would come. She should be arriving."
At that moment, Gray crossed his arms, shaking his head with a scornful little smile. "Oh, I bet. I'm going to laugh when she shows up in the cart, asleep inside one of those suitcases."
"You're almost right, snow stripper..."
The voice came out of nowhere. Drawn-out, with the hoarseness of someone who considers the simple act of waking up an unnecessary physical effort.
We all turned our heads at the same time. I nearly tripped over my own feet in surprise.
There she was.
Lying as if the world were her private spa and the train station her personal red carpet. On top of Erza's mountain of luggage. A white-haired mage, using Erza's ridiculous pink, frilly pillow, which had 'Nap Queen' embroidered in one corner, as if the universe needed visual confirmation.
"Technically, I'm not inside the suitcases," she said, yawning, without even opening her eyes. "I'm on top. It's a position of superiority. Indifference and unwillingness require a certain elevation."
I blinked. Twice. "I-I swear on Plue there was no one there a second ago!" I exclaimed, stunned.
"It's an ancient technique. It involves the subtle manipulation of shadows, spiritual camouflage, and, most importantly, the absolute power of existential laziness. It works best if you have no dignity to maintain," she explained, her voice still muffled by the pillow.
"You just covered yourself with Erza's cloak and pretended to be a pile of sweaty rags!" accused Gray, with a mix of disgust and reluctant admiration.
"And you've pretended you have a sense of fashion for the last five years and no one stopped you. We all have our survival tricks," she retorted, still without opening her eyes.
Natsu was already roaring with laughter, bent over. "Hahahaha! That was a good one!"
"Oh, Natsu… don't laugh at her laziness," said Erza, with an impassive tone, as if this were an everyday scene.
"Sorry…" Natsu stammered, and suddenly grabbed Gray in another awkward hug. "We're best mates, aren't we, Gray? Great friends!"
"A bit too much. Get off me, you git!" Gray snarled, trying to break free.
Happy flew above everyone's heads, spinning in the air. "This isn't just any mage, she's the laziest mage in Fairy Tail! Aye, Sir!"
"Oh, what an exaggeration," Azra'il finally stretched, sitting up on the luggage. "I'm perfectly functional. It's just that my primary functions involve sleeping, making cruel jokes, and avoiding responsibilities as if they were contagious diseases. Like... friendship with Gray."
"Oh, go to hell!" he snarled.
"Been there. Terrible decor, the ambient music was awful, and guess who was playing the banjo and singing out of tune? Your inflated ego."
Erza let out a heavy sigh, but it was a different kind of sigh. The kind that comes not from irritation, but from a very specific acceptance. One that involves recurring headaches and an inexplicable affection.
"At least she came."
"Against my express will, with no guarantee of collaboration, and under threat of physical violence. Like every healthy relationship, based on emotional terror and a two-metre sword," Azra'il replied, smiling.
"Was that a declaration of war or of love?" Natsu muttered to me.
"The best ones are those that confuse the two," Azra'il replied.
Equally confused, I approached Erza and whispered, "Is she always like this?"
Erza glanced at me out of the corner of her eye, her face slightly flushed. And with a half-smile, she replied, "You either get used to it… or you go mad. I still haven't decided which it was in my case."
Before I could process this barrage of taunts, the so-called Azra'il, still sprawled out like a lazy cat, finally moved. With a yawn that seemed to last a decade, she jumped down from the luggage and landed softly right beside me and Erza. I took an instinctive step back.
"Hello, wide-eyed blonde newbie," she said with a vaguely mischievous smile. "Azra'il Weiss. Charmed, or at least... functionally aware of your existence."
She extended her hand as if offering me an infernal contract disguised as courtesy. And I, like a defenceless civilian in the middle of a storm of bonkers mages, accepted it.
Only now, up close... I could see. Up close, she was even more... impressive. Her wolf ears, white as snow, twitched subtly, catching sounds I couldn't even hear. Her tail swayed behind her, slow and hypnotic. Her clothes, a royal blue hanfu that looked as if it had been woven from the night sky itself, contrasted with her leather trousers and practical boots. And her eyes...
Ah, her eyes.
For an instant, the sound of the station disappeared. They were a deep blue, but not an ordinary blue. They were blues that seemed to contain galaxies. Layers of living magic, with designs of stars and runes floating in the irises. They were eyes that saw too much. That seemed to pierce my soul, search my secrets, judge my haircut, and come back with a sarcastic report in hand.
"You're staring," she said matter-of-factly, while scratching one of her ears with a finger.
"I-I... y-your eye… your eyes are…" I stammered, feeling my IQ plummet.
"Ah, yes. A little aesthetic thing," she replied, as if talking about painting her nails. "I activated my 'pretty mode' today. Just to match the sunny day and the alarming level of incompetence I'll probably have to witness."
"Are you from a different race? A Beastman?" I ventured, trying to reorganise my brain.
"I'm a hybrid disgrace, according to reports from the church, the magic council, and a few girls I flirted with and then ghosted," she said with the utmost calm. "But you can call me Azra'il. Or 'that one over there', when you want to curse under your breath."
"I prefer Azra'il, thank you," I murmured, trying not to look completely star-struck.
She turned to Erza, opening her arms in a theatrical gesture. "See? I'm here. On time. Lucid enough not to kill anyone... yet. Do you think that's worth a gold star on my good-behaviour report?"
"It's worth a seat on the train, if you're a good girl," replied Erza, unable to suppress a small smile.
"A good girl? When Azra'il makes those eyes of hers sparkle, it's never a good sign," muttered Gray, rolling his.
"Oh, relax, my dear stripper," Azra'il said, patting his shoulder as she passed. "I only use them to detect high-level stupidity. Which means… you're in constant danger."
Natsu laughed, pointing at Gray. "She got you again!"
"And you'll be next, matchstick-head," she retorted, already boarding the carriage as if on her way to a karmic judgement.
And me? I just stood there, staring at this mystical creature that was Azra'il and wondering if Fairy Tail was really a guild… or a social experiment with problematic and very, very dangerous mages.
------------
AUTHOR'S NOTES
------------
Finally, our lazy wolf mage has appeared! You've been missing her for a while, haven't you? 🐺