It was twilight. The sun was just peaking over the vast sea. Sunlight was just settling down past the vast ocean. It was a beautiful sight..the orange light cast long shadows behind the cozy seaside house that was sitting on the shore. This island was known as Soul Island. None of it's residents knew why it was called that...nor did they even know why the only town on the island was called Yugami Town. In fact...all of the residents were amnesiacs that had just turned up...washed up on the beach one day...no memories.
The 3 residents of the only seaside house in the entire town were no different. They had been some of the more recent arrivals. And granted, they were probably the oddest group yet. They knew their names of course..every resident of Yugami Town still remembered their names at least. These three youths were a pink haired well fit boy named Natsu Dragneel, a blonde girl by the name of Lucy Heartfilia, and the third, who looked rather younger then the other two, a girl with medium length chestnut collored hair, Mikoto Misaka.
When they had washed up on the shore of that little town, the residents had been shocked to find them injured, bruised, and their clothes were almost torn to complete shreds. They also had two cats with them..a blue tomcat..and another cat which for some reason, had unnaturally pink fur.
"Those kids must have been involved in something horrid." said one woman who had been in Yugami town for 12 years."
"Maybe they washed up on the beach earlier and then ran into that horrid serial killer Night Reveler?" said a man who had been in Yugami Town for about 11 years.
"No.." said a spikey blonde haired man named Elliot Dreyar, a man who had been in Yugami Town longer then anybody, and ran the school for any children or youths who washed up on Soul Island. "Night Reveler has never left anyboy he attacks alive...this isn't his M O...whatever did this, did this to them before they arrived."
But of course nobody ever found out what happened. They didn't remember..those kids never would. So they estimated their ages, registered Mikoto in Elliot's high school, and put Natsu and Lucy in charge of her as guardians. The cats were allowed to live with them, as far as anyone could see, unless you counted the unusually pink one...they were pretty ordinary cats. (Though Natsu once swore he had seen one of them walking and talking.)2
Eventually after 6 months, the threesome were just another ordinary family in Yugami Town. Of course barely anybody was ever related by blood in Yugami Town. You just lived with those you washed up with, or if you washed up alone, you were designated someone to live with unless you were old enough to live alone. So an ordinary family in Yugami Town, was just someone you lived with.
Those three were probably the easiest family to identify in that town. Natsu, with his loud and enthusiastic personality quickly endeared him to many of the townspeople. Lucy was known as quite a kind hearted girl, however she tended to make a big deal whenever people spoke about her weight. Mikoto was a top student at the high school. A quick learner, not to mention athletic. However, she was known to have a quick temper with the boys who flirted with her, and more then once, the high school nurse would have to deal with the broken noses and black eyes of her many suiters.
Another ordinary family, with their own interesting quirks.
As it so happened, that family was heading down the street of Yugami town, back towards that house on the beach that was currently casting shadows in the beautiful sunset.
Natsu and Lucy were wearing the clothes they had washed ashore with, just for the nostalgia of it all, as their clothes had been repaired by the local tailor months ago. Mikoto, on the other hand, was weariing a black t shirt with three yellow hears and some blue shorts. She held a black and white cap in her hand and wore a backpack that seemed to be filled with some textbooks.
Natsu yawned. "Man..it's getting late...ya think if we stay up long enough we might see them?"
"Them?" Mikoto asked. "What in the world are you talking about this time Natsu?"
"Aww..ya know." said Natsu getting a mischievious glint in his eye. "The Kimono Ghosts!!"
Natsu put a flashlight under his face for dramatic effect as he put on a gruesome smile.
Mikoto sighed. "Come on Natsu, not that stupid legend again."
Yugami Town didn't have many myths or legends...since everyone who lived there was an amnesiac and Soul Island was the only part of the world they knew or remembered, it was hard to pick up any folklore.
But it did have one campfire story..a story which all the young children in town told..and of course the ones that looked like children..cause one of the odd things about Yugami Town was that nobody aged..
The legend told of phantoms wearing black kimonos with swords which would somtimes come in the night and kill a resident. However, it would be because the resident found out a horrible truth about the island and the town...a horrible truth that not only would reveal the true nature of this place, but also let them remember who they were.
It was said that the Kimono Ghosts called themselves Shinigami...meaning death gods...of course it was an absurd legend. Only the old serial killer clown known as Night Reveler believed the legend from where he was locked up in the town prison. But who would trust a psychotic killer dressed as a masked harlequin?
"I'm telling ya!" Natsu said, continuing his gruesome grin. "They're all around us...if we stay up lay enough..they might just run us through with their swords! MUAHAHAHAHAHA!"
Lucy laughed. "Natsu, you tried to scare Mikoto with the same tactic last Tuesday, and all that earned you was a punch in the nose for laughing loudly in the town library."
"Shinigami, Kimono Ghosts, Soul Reapers.." Mikoto said shaking her head. "What a bunch of phoney fooey. If only people actually remembered where they came from around here, we might actually have some good ghost stories."
"But it isn't just a ghost story Mikoto." said Natsu adding more spooky air to his voice. "It's totally true!! They even say there's a really big Shinigami who cuts all before him to nothing!! He has an eyepatch and a scarred face, spikey hair with bells on the end of each spike of hair. They say that the moment you hear those bells coming....SLICE!!!"
Natsu imitated a slicing movement with his arm.
"And if you happened to meet this uber Shinigami," said Lucy. "What would you do?"
"Easy! I'd beat him to a pulp!!" Natsu exclaimed. "Natsu style!!"
"How did I know you'd say that?" Mikoto said with a chuckle. Mikoto stared up at the buildings passing them by as they walked. Yugami Town had beautiful houses, their round windows with intricate stainglass designs and their smoking oddly shaped twisted chimneys, matched the twilight setting perfectly. The cobblestone roads were the color of a ripe peach. And there were vendors all around that sold homemade baked bread and delicious scones.
"So how was school today?" Lucy asked. "Did you beat up another guy?"
"Yeah..of course." said Mikoto with an irritated voice. "He told me that if I became his girlfriend, he'd let me have his most precious possesion...his beautiful self. Like I was going to go out with a self absorbed doof like him."
"Ya should've gone out with him!" Natsu exclaimed. "Ya could've made him your slave or something!! Like, 'get me a free icecream sandwhich or I'll break your beautiful face!' "1
"Harsh.." said Mikoto thoughtfully. "But he deserves it..hmmm.."
"Natsu!" Lucy said slapping him on the shoulder. "Stop being a bad influence!"
Lucy looked at Mikoto, this time, a look of concern on her face. "Mikoto? Are you alright? You look kind of more pensive then usual."
Mikoto nodded. "It's alright...it's just that...I had that dream again.."
"You mean the dream about the 100 ft Happy?" Natsu asked. "It's weird enough already that you dreamed Happy could walk upright and talk..but destroying a city with laser eyes?" (it seems like Mikoto has had this dream a lot throughout the previous series XD )
"Not that dream you idiot." said Mikoto. "The one with that gigantic dragon..and us walking through a dark room..and those name I keep hearing...Fairy Tail...Touma Kamijou...every time I say those names...I feel like.."
"Crying." Lucy finished. "Yeah..wow, it's been 2 months since you had those dreams though..so they're coming back again?"
Mikoto nodded.
"Do you wanna sleep with me again tonight?"
Mikoto went pink. "Don't be ridiculous..it's not like a nightmare or anything...okay, that huge black dragon with the purple eyes was scary...but it kinda blew up in a shower of sparks in my dream..so it's not scary for very long..."
"Ya gotta admit." said Natsu. "It's a pretty weird dream. Kinda like your dream about the 100 ft Happy."
"That dream was different!" Mikoto said haughtilly. "I had something weird to eat that night!"
"Eh? What?"
"Your cooking!!"
"Oh.." said Natsu sheepishly rubbing the back of his head. "Yeah..sorry. Lucy's better at that stuff."
It was then that Mikoto noticed somebody standing in their path, strange considering many should've already gone home by now..especially since this man just seemed to be doing nothing, standing in the middle of the street.
He looked muscular with a black sleeveless shirt and light brown pants, and a spikey feathery black structure on his shoulder. He hand long black wild hair and metal pearcings over his eyes and along the sides of his nose. But what shocked Mikoto to her core about the man was that on his arm, there was a strange black tattoo. It was shaped to resemble a prancing fairy.
The man turned to look at the threesome, and his eyes went wide with recognition...no it can't have been recognition...they had never met...had they?
"Y-you.." the man said. "It's really you!!"
Mikoto felt a little frightened. "I'm sorry. Umm do we know you?"
The man looked completely shocked by Mikoto's words, then he shook his head and composed himself. "Ya don't remember...of course, that Ichigo guy said you wouldn't remember."
"Hey guy!" said Natsu. "I don't have any idea what the heck you're babbling on about..but if ya wanna fight, I'll take ya on right here!"
The man grinned. "Geeheehee! Glad to see memory loss hasn't changed ya Natsu!"
There was a shocked silence..
Natsu walked over to the man and grabbed his shirt collar. "How the heck do ya know my name!?"
The man stayed silent, not answering Natsu's question. Natsu's eyes went over to the guy's tattoo. "That, how did you get it?"
"The same way you got yours." said the man nodding at the same mark on Natsu's arm.
Mikoto reached her hand over to her right shoulderblade, where a red mark of the exact same shape was imprinted on her skin...a mark that she, Natsu, and Lucy had been wondering about ever since they washed ashore Soul Island.
"I'll be sure to explain more to ya later." said the man. "I'll be in touch...for now..keep your eyes peeled..and don't trust anyone."
The man wrenched himself out of Natsu's grip and jumped into the air at superhuman heights before landing on the roof of a nearby house and dashing off.
Lucy stared. "Whoah..he's been taking his vitamins."
"RRRAAAARRRGGGHH!!" Natsu yelled. "COME BACK AND FIGHT ME YA BIG SCAREDY CAT!!"
Mikoto however, clutched her hands together, trembling, as a new name came to her lips, as if beckoned by the man's leaving. "G...Ga...Gajeel?"
Later that night, after a dinner of spaghetti and sausage served by Lucy, Mikoto sat in her small bedroom, awake. In her lap, was curled up the small pink cat, who was purring as Mikoto stroked her fur.
"Who was he Elli?" Mikoto murmured. "Got any ideas?"
"Meow..."
Mikoo picked Elli up and looked at her. "How awesome it would be if you could talk...then we'd really get some ideas...but of course that'll never happen."
Elli just meowed again in response and began licking her paw.
Mikoto sighed and set Elli back in her lap before looking out her bedside window and wide full moon. That's when a black cat jumped onto her windowsill. The black cat was much larger then Elli, with it's yellow lamp-like eyes.
Mikoto smiled at the cat. It was a well known cat around Yugami town, mainly because a little boy once swore the cat spoke, introducing itself as Yoruichi, and asking if it could have some of the boy's lunch. It never did talk to anybody else..but name Yoruichi sounded nice, and so the black cat was known as such.
Yoruichi stared at Mikoto for a moment.
"Hey there Yoruichi.." Said Mikoto. "Sorry, but we're all trying to get to sleep..maybe I'll feed you some fish in the morning.."
That's when the black cat opened it's mouth...and spoke. "Brace yourself...things are not as they seem."
Mikoto stared at Yoruichi as her heart did several loopdeloops and crashlanded in her small intestines. "Wh-what!?"
But Yoruichi didn't say anything more. She simply walked along the window ledge and a leapt out into the night like a phantom...leaving Mikoto thinking that maybe there was something weird in Lucy's cooking too...