Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Tatsumi Port Island.
June 21, x788.
Watching Alfonzo, Elicia, Alzack, Bisca, Mitsuru, Akihiko, and Yukari leave the gates of Gekkokan High School after the Dark Hour ended from a top a tall building, the usual friendly smile on Shuji Ikutsuki's face was nowhere to be seen. Instead, he wore an extremely solemn expression.
"Those fools from the Kirijo Group." Shuji said coldly. "Just because their experiment failed, they want to wipe out all the wonders that were brought into this world. They truly lack ambition."
In fact, the experiment Shuji was referring to was the cause of the Dark Hour's appearance in this world. And the only reason it only seemed to affect Tatsumi Port Island was that the experiment was done on this island.
It all started when Mitsuru's grandfather, the former head of the Kirijo Group, as well as a power-hungry man, first encountered Shadows. However, back then, there weren't so many. Instead, there were only twelve. Yet, they were exceptionally powerful. Though, they did not seem to be hostile to humans.
However, when the former head of the Kirijo Group saw these powerful, yet seemingly docile, creatures, he wanted to subjugate them and use them for his own purposes. So, he put together a team of scientists, most of whom he poached from the Bureau of Magical Development. Even Mayuri Kurotsuchi collaborated with them for the first year.
Unfortunately, the experiment ended in failure. On top of that, all those who took part in the experiment ended up dead and a large part of Tatsumi Port Island was destroyed when an unexpected power surge caused a huge explosion. As a result, all the twelve Shadows, which had previously been captured, ran in all directions, never to be seen again.
Thousands of lives were lost in that explosion. Many families were destroyed in an instant. And that included Yukari's family, as her father was one of the researchers during the experiment. There was even one boy, who despite living within the blast radius, survived. And he was the only survivor.
Though the result of that experiment and the reason for the explosion were kept under wraps, there were a few people who knew the truth. And Shuji was one of them. Unfortunately, he was not one of the kind-hearted people who wish to clean up the mistakes of the past. Instead, he wants to resume the research to gain power, just like the former head of the Kirijo Group.
"Still, I can't believe the quest was accepted by such strong wizards from the mainland." Shuji said with a frown on his face while he watched the group of seven return to their lodgings. "Because of them, much of my activities have had to be put on hold. Otherwise, I have no doubt they would sense something was wrong. Even if they had no idea what it was. And that would cause them to start snooping round where their noses don't belong."
When Shuji thought about how much his plans were pushed back just because those four from Fairy Tail showed up, he could not help but grit his teeth.
"But at least they did something good, bringing that Leviathan Corpse and selling it to the Kirijo Group." Shuji continued after shaking his head. "Though some of the materials would be used to make equipment for those brats who will be playing hero, the rest can be used for my plans. Hehehe!"
After releasing that creepy little chuckle, Shuji turned around to return to the interior of the building. However, just as he did so, he somehow lost his balance. Then, after taking a few steps backwards to stabilize his footing, he realized that his right foot did not land on a solid surface.
Immediately, Shuji's face paled, as he realized he was going to fall from the top of the building. Then, he watched as his life and the side of the building flashed past his eyes as he fell.
"Ahh~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~!" Shuji screamed while flailing his arms as he plummeted to his death.
AT the same time, a few long threads vanished as the magic power sustaining them was dispelled.
*Boom!*
A few seconds later, Shuji's body slammed into the street below, splattering his blood, organs, bones, and limbs all over the side of the street. However, since it was so late at night, no one would notice his death until the morning.
Meanwhile, the culprit, Elicia, smiled brightly once she noticed that her plan had succeeded. Alfonzo smiled, as well. Alzack and Bisca, however, looked at them with somewhat aghast and confused expressions on their faces.
"Lici... you...?" Bisca asked in a slightly horrified tone.
"We'll tell you about it when we get back to the hotel." Alfonzo said, cutting off Bisca before she could finish asking her question. "Just trust us for now."
While they were still shaken up by what they sensed through their [Magic Power Detections], Alzack and Bisca trusted Alfonzo and Elicia implicitly. So, they simply nodded in response. Though, their pale expressions did not go away so quickly.
Meanwhile, Mitsuru, Akihiko, and Yukari were confused. There was no context to the Fairy Tail wizards' conversation. So, they had no way of making sense of it. Though, they would find out soon enough. On top of that, there would be new information to go along with it.
"What's up?" Alfonzo asked after noticing the questioning gazes he and the others were getting from the three teens.
"Nothing." Mitsuru replied after a few moments of silence. "It's not our business to dig into your secrets."
In response, Alfonzo and Elicia only smiled. Then, the two groups said their goodbyes and went their separate ways. Then after about ten minutes, Alfonzo, Elicia, Alzack, and Bisca arrived in Alfonzo and Elicia's hotel room.
"So, what was that all about?" Alzack asked in a sterner tone than usual. "Fairy Tail wizards don't kill civilians. And that's exactly what you just did."
Seeing Alzack and Bisca's serious expressions made Alfonzo and Elicia smile. For as long as they could remember, Alzack basically followed their words as if they were gospel. But seeing him put his foot down when he thought they were in the wrong made them both feel gratified.
"You'll understand once you take a look at this." Elicia said as she opened a pocket on her luggage that Alfonzo had expanded with space expansion sigils.
A moment later, Elicia pulled out a stack of documents before handing them over to Alzack and Bisca.
In those documents, there was information about the previously mentioned experiment that killed so many people on Tatsumi Port Island in the past. There was also proof that Shuji intended to continue the research for his personal gain. Even worse, there was proof that Shuji had been embezzling funds and resources from the Kirijo Group for exactly that.
There were even notes that explained a kidnapping and assassination plan Shuji was readying to get rid of Takeharu, Mitsuru, and any future members of S.E.E.S.
"Is this real?" Bisca asked with her eyes open wide in shock. "But he seemed like such a nice man. It's hard to believe he would do anything like this."
"It's all true." Elicia said with a nod. "I got it after sneaking into his house and several hideouts he visited over the last few days."
"But why?" Bisca asked. "What made you suspect him?"
"Like you said, Bisca, he seemed like such a nice man." Alfonzo said in a solemn tone. "Too nice. So nice, in fact, that it seemed unreal."
"But that's not---" Bisca started to argue back.
However, before she could finish voicing her opinion, Alzack's hand landed on her shoulder. And when she looked back, she saw Alzack smiling at her.
"Bisca, I know it doesn't seem reasonable to you." Alzack said with a smile. "But Alfonzo and Lici have scary good intuitions. Remember the Tenrou Island Incident from a few years ago? With nothing other than a hunch, Alfonzo set up surveillance instruments and the [Fairy Sphere] spell. And if he hadn't, we would have lost a lot of our friends."
Hearing that, Bisca slowly calmed down. However, she was still a little unsettled. Then, she realized it was not because of the fact that Elicia killed Shuji. Instead, it was because they did not tell her about it before hand. Instead, they did their investigations without telling anyone, then things just happened out of nowhere.
"*Sigh* It wouldn't have killed you to tell us about your suspicions beforehand, though." Alzack said as he turned his gaze to his longtime friends.
"Yeah, You're probably right." Alfonzo replied with a solemn nod.
"We actually considered it." Elicia replied. "But until today, Bisca wasn't dealing with the fatigue from the Dark Hour very well. So, we didn't want to burden either of you with anything else."
"I guess I can understand that." Alzack replied with a nod of his own. "But now I understand why Ur got so upset when you had prepared before the Acnologia attack. Just having things sprung on you like this..."
"Well, that situation was totally different, though." Alfonzo said with a wry smile. "I mean, that was me preparing for a what if scenario after having the Etherion fired at us. But we're definitely in the wrong for not telling you guys, our teammates about this when we started working on it."
With that the room fell into silence. A few moments later, Alzack was the one to break the silence.
"Well, we understand why the two of you did things the way you did." Alzack said. "I mean, you were just looking out for Bisca, making sure she only had to focus on getting used to the pressure from the Dark Hour."
In response, Alfonzo and Elicia nodded their heads once again.
"But now that we know, let us know what you plan to do next." Alzack continued.
Alfonzo and Elicia exchanged glances. Then, they both smiled. After that, they explained their plan to Alzack and Bisca, who opened their eyes in surprise before smiling, thinking this was something that Alfonzo and Elicia would do.
Several hours later, as the people of Tatsumi Port Island started their days, Shuji's body was discovered by a man heading to the shop he owned to open it up.
Quickly, the news of a man dying overnight spread through the town. And that naturally led to the local authorities, a branch of the kingdom's knights, getting the information, as well. However, the knights did not act the way most people thought they would.
Instead of looking for suspects, they actually treated Shuji like a criminal that committed suicide because his evil deeds were exposed. And the reason for that was simple, a copy of the information Alzack and Bisca read through last night was found on the captain's desk when he entered his office this morning.
However, the captain of the knights was not the only one who received that information packet, as there was an identical information package on Takeharu Kirijo's desk as well. And needless to say, he was both furious and in disbelief when he read it. However, with the information being so clear, he could only investigate before making any decisions.
Unfortunately, because the information made it onto the desk of the knight captain, which meant the secret about the Shadows and the Dark Hour spread to the higher-ups in the kingdom. So, the Kirijo Group would have quite a few questions to answer from not only the kingdom, but the Magic Council, as well.
On the other hand, because of that, they would more than likely get more support to investigate Tartarus from both organizations in the future. Meaning, although there still would not be many people who could operate during the Dark Hour, those who could, would receive all the resources they needed to do something about it.
The only real issue was if the people in power would try to weaponize the Shadows like the former Head of the Kirijo Group had done in the past. Even so, the kingdom sent over a squad of knights to do what they could to help with the investigation as quickly as they could. Meanwhile, Takeharu requested that Alfonzo, Elicia, Alzack, and Bisca meet him in his office for a discussion that afternoon.