Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Magnolia.
May 8, x785.
"Fine!" Cana shouted after the staring contest between her, Ultear, and Mirajane went on for a few minutes. "I'll go next."
As she spoke, Cana pulled out a card from her normal card pouch. Then, she injected her magic power into the card. As a result, two gift wrapped bottles appeared in her hands.
"Here." Cana said as she extended her hands towards Alfonzo and Elicia. "Happy birthday."
Simultaneously, Alfonzo and Elicia, with smiles on their faces, reached for the bottles. Then, they unwrapped them. And just like before, Elicia unwrapped hers messily, like a child, while Alfonzo used his small knife to open his carefully.
"Ooh!" Elicia exclaimed happily. "It's a five gallon bottle of Himbeere liqueur."
Himbeere, a liquor company that specializes in raspberry flavored alcohol, ranging from whiskey to vodka. And the bottle of liqueur in Elicia's hands is its best seller. And despite the fact that Elicia rarely drinks, she enjoys soaking raspberries in this liqueur, putting the soaked raspberries on top of vanilla ice cream, then setting the liqueur on fire. This causes the alcohol in the mixture to be burned away while leaving the flavor and slightly melting the ice cream as well, making for quite the delicious dessert.
"And this is a hundred thirty year old bottle of cognac." Alfonzo said shortly afterwards. "This must have cost a pretty Jewel, Cana."
"Yeah, it did." Cana replied with a smile. "But you're worth it."
"Look at Cana and all her smooth talk." Marin said in a teasing tone.
"I'm actually more surprised that she didn't drink it all herself." Lucy said before ducking her head because of Cana's subsequent glare.
"Based on Cana's reaction to Lucy's statement, she came really close to doing just that." Ultear analyzed.
"Probably more than once, too." Mirajane said.
"Still, she should be commended for her stead-fast determination." Erza said in a stern tone.
As she spoke, Erza moved towards Cana with her arms spread. And when Cana saw that, she paled slightly as she scooted backwards on the couch.
Unfortunately, because Sun was sitting next to her, she could only move back so far.
"Hey, Erza, there's no need for a hug." Cana said while waving her hands in front of her.
Unfortunately for Cana, Erza decided to ignore her protests. Then, she was pulled into a hug and her head was pressed into Erza's rather large bosom.
"Huh?" Cana exclaimed in confusion. "It didn't hurt?"
"You panicked for nothing, Cana." Elicia said while stifling a giggle. "She's not wearing her armor today."
"Oh…. Right…" Cana said in a relieved tone.
Naturally, Cana's fear of hugging Erza had a reason. And that reason was simple, When Erza praised someone, she often gave over enthusiastic hugs while wearing her armor. Meaning, she would slam whoever she hugged head first into her chest plate. And after Cana saw Erza do that to Natsu while he was feeling motion sickness during the mission to eliminate Eisenwald, she vowed to never let Erza hug her again.
"I guess I'll go next." Mirajane said as she reached into her cleavage.
A moment later, Mirajane pulled out what appeared to be a pair of tickets.
"Hold on, are those what I think they are?" Lucy asked with a horrified expression on her face.
"That's right." Mirajane replied with a smile. "These are tickets to see a play at the theater run by Rabian in Onibus. I thought you two would enjoy a little date. For just the two of you."
"Thanks, Mira." Alfonzo replied with a smile as he reached for the tickets.
"When is the play, Fonzie?" Elicia asked, leaning over to look at the date on the tickets in Alfonzo's hand. "Oh, it's on the tenth."
"Two days before Crawford Seam and Org are executed." Alfonzo added quietly.
"The tenth you say?" Erza asked. "That's quite the coincidence."
"What do you mean?" Ultear asked curiously.
"Well, I believe I told you about the play we did when we took the quest to attract customers to the theater in Onibus, right?" Erza replied with a question of her own.
"Yeah, it was something like Freddy and the Yandere." Cana replied.
"It was Frederick and Yanderica." Ultear corrected. "But yea, I remember."
"Well, the play was so popular that Rabian requested that we come back to perform it for another week." Erza replied. "And I accepted his request on behalf of Team Natsu."
"You did what!?" Lucy shouted in atone filled with disbelief and anger. "Are you serious? You're going to make me suffer through that disaster again?"
"Why would you say that, Lucy?" Erza asked in confusion. "The show was so popular last time. It's obvious the audience was in awe of our superb acting skills."
"Superb acting skills my butt!" Lucy shouted. "You froze up every time you got on stage, Gray somehow messed up his character's name despite the fact that I would say it before he came on stage, and Natsu… Where do I even start with that pyro-maniac and the damage he caused the theater during every show."
"Surely it wasn't as bad as you remember.' Sun said while trying not to laugh.
"Oh, I'm sure it was worse." Lucy said in an exasperated tone. "And she signed us up for that again, without even asking if we wanted to."
"Well, Gramps and Mira said the play was great." Alfonzo said with a smile. "So, I'm looking forward to seeing the two of you perform."
In response, Erza nodded proudly. Meanwhile, Lucy glanced at Alfonzo's smile and could not help but look away with a slight flush on her face.
'That's, so, not fair.' Lucy thought to herself.
"Fine, I'll do it." Lucy muttered.
"Well, now that that's been settled, I guess it's my turn." Ultear said with a smile. Then, she picked up a box from the floor next to her.
On a side note, Ultear was sitting on the floor due to the lack of seats.
Standing up, Ultear stepped forward before handing over the box to Alfonzo.
"This is for both of you." Ultear said with a smile. "Though, I'm sure the rest of us will use it just as much as you do."
Hearing that, Alfonzo and Elicia looked down at the box in Alfonzo's hand with curiosity.
"Come on, Fonzie. Open it." Elicia said while shaking Alfonzo's arm. "Hurry, I wanna see what's inside."
Smiling at Elicia's eagerness, Alfonzo opened the box. And what he found inside was a pair of keys.
"Keys?" Elicia said, tilting her head in confusion as she did so.
"There's something underneath them.' Alfonzo said as he reached into the box to pull out both the keys and a small piece of paper from the box. "An address? On Akane Beach?"
"That's right." Ultear replied. "I bought the two of you a beach side villa on the beach."
"Seriously?" Cana asked in a disbelieving tone. "But isn't the real estate in Akane Beach ridiculously expensive?"
"Yeah." Ultear replied with a nod. "But remember when we went there after the guild hall was built? And remember how I had hit a big payout before we got attacked by Erza's friends? Well, the casino saved it for me. Or rather, I coer… *Cough* convinced them to save it for me after we saved the hotel from Dark Wizards."
"And you used that money to buy Fonzie and Lici a house?" Marin asked with her eyes wide open.
"That's right." Ultear replied smugly.
"Does that mean we'll be neighbors twice?" Sun asked while tilting her head cutely.
"I guess it does." Alfonzo replied with a smile. Then, he looked down at the details about the villa. "Oh, it even has a peer where I can dock Sixth sense. That's good. The dock fees in Hargeon are ridiculous."
"Say, that reminds me." Elicia said. "Sixth sense was docked at Hargeon's port when we took the quest on Galuna Island, wasn't it? So, why did we take Moka's little boat?"
"Because I didn't want those disgusting centipedes anywhere near my ship." Alfonzo replied with frosty resolve.
After that, the group, minus Yoruichi and Sui-Feng discussed taking a vacation to the new villa during the summer for the next few minutes before Alfonzo eventually remembered their guests, who had remained silent the whole time.
"Well, I guess that only leaves the gifts from Yoruichi." Alfonzo said.
Hearing that, the girls' enthusiasm cooled off immediately. As a result, both Alfonzo and Yoruichi could only smile wryly.
"Just get it over with." Cana spat. "Then, we can go back to planning our vacation."
Shrugging his shoulders, Alfonzo picked up the package at his feet while Elicia did the same. Though, her package was placed between her and the couch's armrest. Then, they both opened their gifts at the same time. Though, Elicia was a lot less enthusiastic about opening this one.
"Hmm… It's a metal ingot." Alfonzo said, not immediately recognizing the metal in his hand.
"And I got a roll of… silk thread?" Elicia asked curiously.
"Those are exclusive to the continent I came from originally." Yoruichi said as Alfonzo and Elicia inspected her gifts. "They come from a spider that lives in the forest near my clan's home. And this spider spins a special kind of web."
While Yoruichi spoke, Alfonzo was letting his magic power integrate with the metal in his hands so that he could add it to his arsenal. Meanwhile, Elicia glanced at Yoruichi to hear the rest of the explanation.
Even the other girls were interested to hear what made the metal and thread special.
"The threads that spider produces have a strange ability." Yoruichi continued. "When something slams into them, they store the kinetic energy and redirect it back at whatever ran into it. And that ingot you're holding, Alfonzo, is the result of melting down a large amount of the threads and letting them cool. Also, the metal retains the same ability."
'It's Vibranium.' Alfonzo and Elicia thought at the same time.
"Holy crap!" Marin exclaimed after hearing Yoruichi's explanation. "That's crazy."
"Yeah, armors and shields made of that stuff would be almost unbeatable." Mirajane added.
"Unfortunately, that's not the case." Yoruichi replied while shaking her head. "It works just fine against physical attacks. But purely magic based attacks would still affect it like any other slightly stronger and more durable metal."
"So, if I hit it with a lightning bolt, it would just be a conductor, huh?" Alfonzo asked.
"Exactly." Yoruichi replied. "But it would redirect the kinetic energy back at the source. Unfortunately, the heat and electricity would still be an issue."
"Still, this stuff is pretty amazing." Elicia said. "It's too bad there's only so much thread. Fonzie can recreate the metal with his magic, but I can only use what I have... I wonder if I can get a contract with the people from that continent."
Although Elicia started muttering towards the end, Yoruichi was able to hear her perfectly.
"That shouldn't be a problem." Yoruichi replied with a smile. "Since my clan is the one that sells it, I should be able to get you a pretty good deal."
At the same time, in Elicia's inner world, Scylla was also inspecting the thread Elicia was holding.
["Actually, I don't think you'll have to worry about that., Elicia"] Scylla said with a smile.
'What do you mean?' Elicia asked internally.
["Just release me and follow my instructions."] Scylla replied.
In response, Elicia glanced at Yoruichi and Sui-Feng for a moment. Then, she exhaled a sigh.
'Okay, I'll do it.' Elicia replied.
"[Mend the Seams of Reality, Scylla.]" Elicia chanted, surprising everyone in the room.
With that, the wristband full of golden dragon motif sewing needles began to glow. A moment later, the glow covered Elicia's hands. Then, when the glow retracted, Elicia's hands were covered in golden dragon scales.
After that, a single dragon scale was ejected from Elicia's right hand before it transformed into a needle. Then, Elicia used her [Thread Magic] to manipulate the silk thread and thread the needle.
"Lici, what are you---" Alfonzo began to ask.
Before he could finish his question, however, the golden needle, with the thread attached to it plunged into Elicia's chest, surprising all those watching. And as the group watched in horror, the entire roll of silk was drawn into Elicia's chest along with the needle.
"That felt weird." Elicia said while rubbing her chest where the needle pierced her.
"What the hell was that, Lici?" Cana asked in a slightly panicked tone.
"Yeah, sorry about that." Elicia said with a sheepish smile. "Scylla told me to do it. Apparently with her powers, I could add the properties of that thread to my magic power container. So, now I can produce that kind of thread."
With that, Elicia dispelled her [Soul Armament's] released state. Then, after her hands turned back to normal and her wristband was back on her left wrist, she produced a thread of the spider silk from her right index finger.
"And you didn't think to explain it first?" Alfonzo asked while glaring at Elicia. "Do you have any idea how fucking worried I was when I saw you stab that needle into your chest?"
"Sorry…" Elicia said while she lowered her head. "I was just listening to Scylla. I didn't think about the rest."
["Hey, don't blame this on me!"] Scylla shouted in Elicia's inner world. ["I told you to tell them first. In fact, that was the first thing I said before I told you what to do."]
'Oops." Elicia replied in an embarrassed tone. 'I was just so excited. Now I can do with threads what Fonzie does with metals. We match even more now.'
["*Sigh* And I hate the fact that hearing that made me happy, too."] Scylla replied.
Meanwhile, Yoruichi and Sui-Feng were surprised to see Elicia do something that was the equivalent of a Shikai release.
'It hasn't even been a year since they got those weapons from Alfonzo.' Yoruichi mused as she stared at Elicia's wristband. 'She's definitely a genius to unlock that state so quickly. I wonder if Alfonzo and the redhead have unlocked theirs as well.'
At the same time, Sui-Feng clenched her fists in frustration. She had already lost to Elicia in the past. And back then, Elicia's [Soul Armament] was still sealed. Now, she was wondering just how big the gap between her and Elicia was after she released her first seal.