The moment we set foot off the train at Onibus station, a breath of fresh air hit my face, and for an instant, I thought: Maybe this mission won't be so chaotic.
…Of course, I was wrong.
"Right, let's split up and investigate Eisenwald's whereabouts," Erza began, already in full apocalypse-commander mode. "Remember, they're a dark guild. We cannot underestimate them."
I was nodding with the face of an exemplary student, while Azra'il was staring at the sky as if trying to calculate whether the weather would cooperate or if she'd have to burn calories today. Gray was grumbling something about 'idiots from clandestine guilds', and Happy was devouring his third little fish. Everything perfectly normal.
Until Happy stopped. His eyes widened.
"Hang on… where's Natsu?"
We all turned slowly.
The absence of flaming chaos, constant complaining, and exaggerated shouting was… deafening.
"No..." I whispered, already sensing tragedy approaching like a runaway train. "Did we... did we leave Natsu on the train?!"
"THE TRAIN'S ALREADY GONE!!" Happy yelled, flying in circles.
Erza went white. Then red. Then… blue? I swear it was a chromatic sequence of pure despair.
"HOW DID I LET THIS HAPPEN?!" she screamed, slapping her own forehead. "I WAS SO FOCUSED ON THE MISSION I FORGOT THE SEASICK DRAGON!!"
"Ah, how thrilling. A true portrait of modern leadership," commented Azra'il, leaning against a post with the tranquillity of someone watching the world burn with a cup of tea in hand. "I bet if he dies of motion sickness, they'll have to blame it on the buffet car."
Erza ignored Azra'il with the fury of a war goddess. She ran through the station like a thunderclap in armour, and before I knew it, she was in the train's driver's cabin, pulling levers, opening panels, and meddling with the gears with an almost illegal determination.
"This is the… emergency brake!" she yelled, pulling it hard.
A metallic sound echoed. An alarm went off. Nothing happened.
"The train's already too far away," Gray commented, crossing his arms.
"Thank you, Captain Obvious," said Azra'il.
Erza huffed and left the cabin, her eyes blazing with frustration. She marched into the street and grabbed the first magic car she saw, a model that looked like a mix between a golf cart, a rocket, and a jalopy. She stuck her hand into the dashboard and activated the magic ignition with her own magic.
"GET IN!!"
I swear, I've never seen anyone obey so quickly. We were all on board in seconds, clinging to the seats and praying to the gods of balance.
The car shot down the railway, a high-speed silver blur. The wind almost ripped my soul from my eyes. Azra'il seemed to be the only one enjoying the adrenaline, smiling as if it were her own private amusement park.
"I like it when she takes the wheel," she commented, her hair whipping violently. "Brings a certain thrill to the concept of 'premature death'."
At last, we spotted the train up ahead… and then BOOM!
An explosion burst from one of the carriage windows.
"WHAT IN THE—?!"
And then, like a human rocket with destructive tendencies, Natsu flew out of the window, hitting Gray square on, who had half his body out trying to see what was going on.
THWACK!
Both of them rolled on the ground, tangled up like a nervous cat's nest.
"NATSU!!" we yelled.
"OH MY GOD, HE'S ALIVE!!" Happy flew down to him.
Erza practically had a heart attack right there.
"NATSU?!" she screamed, her eyes wide, running towards the body sprawled on the ground with an expression I had never seen before. It was pure panic and worry.
She knelt beside him, taking Natsu's face in her hands.
"Are you alright?! Are you hurt?! Natsu, answer me!"
"Ugh... hi, Erza..." he murmured with a daft smile, visibly dizzy. "You were worried about me? Hehe…"
I almost replied with a "Of course she was, you thickhead," but I kept quiet. Erza looked torn between crying and killing.
She took a deep breath. Calmed down.
For five seconds.
"There was a bloke in there..." Natsu began, still a bit dazed. "A dark mage. He had this bizarre flute... with a skull, three eyes... looked cursed…"
CRACK!
The sound that followed was that of Erza's fist sinking with brutal affection into the top of Natsu's head. He sank into the ground like a mole kicked out of its home.
"DID YOU NOT LISTEN TO A WORD I SAID ON THE TRAIN?!" she roared. "I EXPLAINED THE ENTIRE SITUATION! I TOLD YOU ABOUT THE FLUTE! I TOLD YOU ABOUT THE DARK GUILD!"
"We were talking about a flute...?" Natsu moaned, his eyes spiralling. "I thought it was a type of magic snack…"
Happy put his paws over his mouth trying not to laugh, Gray rolled his eyes, and me? I just wondered how that boy still had a functioning brain after a lifetime of blows from Erza.
I swallowed hard. Natsu spoke of a flute. A three-eyed one. Shaped like a skull.
That… reminded me of something.
"Wait..." I said, pulling a page I'd read late one night from a hidden library in the mansion from my memory. "I think I read something about this. A cursed flute… with the power to kill just by being played… but it was all rather vague, with no concrete details."
Erza turned to me.
"Do you remember anything else?"
"Not much. Even the books didn't explain it properly…"
"Lullaby," said a voice from the side, soft, lazy… and sharp as a honey-coated razor.
It was Azra'il, of course. Leaning against the car, arms crossed and with that look of 'you people are too slow'.
"It's probably the Lullaby created by Zeref. A flute with two forms: that of an instrument and that of a monster."
"Zeref?!" everyone said in unison.
I shivered. Just hearing the name seemed to make the world colder.
"When in its flute form, it is inert. But if the seal is broken, it transforms into a creature. A giant, bipedal demon, with three eyes and a very specific taste for mass destruction," said Azra'il, as if describing an exotic pet.
"And how do you know all this?" I asked, trying not to sound as terrified as I felt.
She shrugged, smiling with a strange glint in her eyes.
"Hobbies. I collect knowledge about demonic relics. Some people like cute stamps and chamomile tea. I prefer cursed assassins enchanted by necromancers dead for centuries. A matter of taste, isn't it?"
The group fell silent.
Even Happy was quiet.
And I thought: Who, in the name of the stars, is this woman?
And why do I get the feeling we're all just scratching the surface of what she's capable of?
With silence swallowing everyone like a heavy cloak, only the sound of the wind cutting between the rails and the faint hiss of the magic engine filled the space.
Azra'il stretched her arms as if she'd just woken up from a post-apocalyptic nap.
"Well, now that we know we have a ticking demonic musical time bomb about to go off somewhere..." she cracked her neck with a dry, uncomfortably loud sound. "...I think we'd best get a move on before it turns into a collective funeral symphony."
"Is… is this serious?" asked Gray, frowning. "I mean, you're talking as if this thing is just another ordinary Tuesday for you."
Azra'il turned her face slowly towards him, and for the first time, the smile vanished. Not completely, but it transformed into something more… glacial. Lethal.
"Gray… if you knew a third of the things that have woken me up in the morning, that flute would seem like a toy harmonica with an asthma attack."
He swallowed hard.
Erza, on the other hand, crossed her arms, serious.
"If this really is the work of Zeref… we cannot let them use it. Under any circumstances."
"Ah, so now it's serious," murmured Azra'il, shaking her head slowly. "I thought the fact it was a genocidal sonic curse was already enough to sound concerning, but hey… everyone has their triggers."
Happy still hadn't said a word. He was clinging to Lucy's bag as if the world were about to end right there, at the side of the tracks. Lucy felt the weight of the moment, the information still boiling in her head.
Azra'il was still looking at the sky as if it hid answers no one else knew how to ask for. Her eyes, that hypnotic, deep blue, were distant, as if seeing through time.
"It's always him…" she murmured again, lower this time. Almost as if she were talking to herself. Almost like a bitter memory escaping without permission.
No one seemed to notice. No one but me.
I stared at Azra'il, feeling a shiver run up my spine. It wasn't just what she said… it was how she said it. With that tone of one who had already seen too much. Lost too much. Known… too much.
A thought formed in my head before I even realised it.
(Him who?)
But the question died right there, trapped between the group's silence and the sound of the wind.
Azra'il didn't answer. She didn't even look at me. But for an instant, just one, I got the impression she knew what I was thinking. And she smiled.
A small. Sad. Infinitely old smile.